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American Morning
Senate GOP Meeting; Bickering Allies; The Fight For Iraq; School Shooting in Colorado; Trans Fat Battle; Exploring Mars' Victoria Crater; Zero-Gravity Surgery
Aired September 28, 2006 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: To members of the house. Today his focus is the Senate. And the president will primarily be hitting on, it is certainly expected, his legislation to try and to interrogate suspected terrorists. That measure passed the House yesterday. It is expected to be voted on in the U.S. Senate today. And, therefore, the president is going to be going there and urging senators to do the same thing as the House, to follow through, to give him what is a very important plank in his anti-terrorism agenda.
It's something that he and Republicans hope that they'll be able to use to campaign on. With the midterm elections approaching, certainly security, the fight against the war on terror is normally where both the president and Republicans traditionally pull very highly. So the president is hoping to snag a success on this one today.
Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: How did the dinner with President Bush and President Karzai and President Musharraf, how did that very intense meeting and the dinner go?
KOCH: Well, Soledad, despite all the early indications, what we're hearing from a senior administration official is that the dinner was very productive. That the two men did speak directly to one another and that they did shake hands after the meeting. The officials saying they didn't shake hands initially in the Rose Garden when the president made his remarks because they had already greeted one another. So not to read too much into that.
But the official described the meeting as, again, very productive, cordial, fascinating. Though they really didn't reach any important break-throughs he said.
S. O'BRIEN: Kathleen Koch for us this morning. Thanks, Kathleen.
KOCH: You bet.
S. O'BRIEN: Now let's get the congressional perspective on the president's trip to The Hill. CNN's Andrea Koppel live at the Capitol.
Hey, Andrea, good morning. ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Will arrive here on The Hill this morning, on the verge of scoring one of the two key pieces of anti-terror legislation that he said he wanted on his desk by the end of the month. That, of course, is the military tribunal bill that you heard Kathleen mention. It passed through the House last night and it's expected to pass through the Senate as soon as today. That, of course, after that very public and messy politically damaging dispute between President Bush and three top Senate Republicans was resolved.
But another key piece of anti-terror legislation that topped the president's to-do list, this is the warrantless wiretapping, what they call the terror surveillance program, is unlikely to get through. The same fate likely also awaits not just comprehensive immigration, which we already heard they weren't going to get to, but even that 700-mile border fence we heard the Senate majority leader yesterday signal that they might not be able to get that through also.
Now this rare return visit comes just days before 15 of the Senate's 55 Republicans are set to head out of town. And as his party is facing increasing criticism from Democrats who feel they got a big boost from the leaked report, that National Intelligence estimate, and they have been using it as a bludgeon to hammer away at Republicans ever since.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: Are you going to stand by the non-partisan, non-political intelligence estimates that came out of 16 agencies, or are you going to be a rubber stamp for George Bush, and when he says black is white, you go, indeed it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOPPEL: Now a senior aide to the top Democrat in the House told me, Soledad, that they intend to continue. Big surprise there. They continue to use this issue to go after Republicans between now and November.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Andrea Koppel's on The Hill as we wait for the president's arrival there. Andrea, thanks.
We're going to talk more about the president's trip to The Hill today when Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist joins us right at the bottom of the hour.
Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq, another tough day in what has been a very rough week. Police finding no less than 60 bodies, all showing signs of torture, in just the last 24 hours. The U.S. military now says murders and executions the leading cause of civilian deaths in Baghdad. CNN's Arwa Damon live from Baghdad with more.
Arwa. ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, Miles, they're not just the leading cause of death, but they really are the number one fear on all Iraqis' minds. Be it the reports that they've heard about bodies showing up at the morgue, be it themselves who have actually seen bodies in their neighborhoods or their neighbors being killed, that is the number one fear here and that is why there are so many efforts to try to bring the violence here under control.
Many Iraqis are asking and wanting to know who it is who is actually carrying out these sectarian attacks. But no one really is able to answer that question just yet. It is known that they are militias loyal to certain sects, certain groups. But exactly who is doing it, the one question everyone says in response to, when you ask them, you know, who did this? Who is this in your neighborhood who's doing this? They say, we don't know. It's people coming from the outside.
And it has been a very violent day here in Baghdad. We've had a number of attacks. In the span of just six hours, there were eight attacks in Baghdad alone. At least eight Iraqis killed, over 50 wounded.
The deadliest attack was at about 1:30 in the afternoon on a busy central Baghdad street. A car bomb detonated. Iraqi police responded to the scene. A roadside bomb detonated. At least four Iraqis killed in that attack. Two of them Iraqi police officers. At least 38 wounded.
And this is a tactic that we're seeing commonly used by the insurgency here. They'll set off one form of explosives. And when the Iraqi police or army or coalition forces arrive, set off another one.
Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Arwa Damon in Baghdad, thank you very much.
A pricey U.S. project to rebuild an Iraqi police academy is turning out to be a bit of a debacle, or so it seems. The U.S. military admitting the $75 million Baghdad police academy has become a construction nightmare. Apparently bathroom waste is leaking through ceilings into dorm rooms, floors are heaving and cracking. One room leaked so badly it's been called a rain forest. The report questions the $1 billion in contracts issued to a company called Parsons Corporation, a U.S. construction company. The police academy was supposed to be a centerpiece of the Iraqi reconstruction. Now some of it might have to be torn down.
A large majority of Iraqis are saying they want the U.S. out of Iraq, responding to a University of Maryland poll. Seventy-one percent of Iraqis say American soldiers should be withdrawn from Iraq within a year. Thirty-seven percent say they should go in the next six months. And 78 percent say the U.S. military presence causes more conflict than it prevents.
Of the three major ethnic groups, only a majority of the Kurdish population see the U.S. as a stabilizing force. Ninety-two percent of Sunnis, 62 percent of Shiites approve of attacks on American forces. Overall, 61 percent of Iraqis approve of attacks on U.S. forces, up 14 points since January.
This weekend on CNN, we look at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Watch "Rumsfeld, Man of War," CNN Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani coming to the defense of Bill Clinton over the former president's counterterrorism efforts. The former New York mayor said blaming Mr. Clinton for failing to prevent 9/11 is wrong. Giuliani says Clinton did everything he could. It's just the latest rhetorical echo since that combative interview that Clinton had on Fox in which he defended his efforts to capture or kill bin Laden.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Police in Colorado are still looking for a motive in a high school hostage drama that played out tragically on Wednesday. An unidentified gunmen took six students hostage, killing one and then killing himself as police S.W.A.T. teams moved in to end the standoff. Jim Hooley of our affiliate KMGH is live in Bailey, Colorado. Right across from the high school, in fact.
Good morning, Jim.
JIM BAILY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Police here in Park County, in Bailey, Colorado, they're still holding this school as a crime scene this morning. And we understand the body of the gunman is still in the school. As of yet, as of this morning, we still have not had an identification of the gunman. We're waiting for a press conference a little bit later in the morning here and possibly at that time we will hear something.
But here's what happened yesterday in what turned out to be a very, very long day here at this school. The gunman went into an English classroom, room 206, and took at least six female hostages at around 11:40 in the morning. He said that he had a bomb in his backpack and he also fired several shots inside the classroom at that time.
Deputies were talking to the suspect through the door within minutes of those shots being fired. The gunmen released four students, one by one throughout the afternoon, negotiating with authorities through them by telling the students that he released to tell the deputies of his demands. Negotiators knew they had to do something when all communication stopped with the gunman, which was about four hours after all this started.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF FRED WEGENER, PARK COUNTY, COLORADO: Eventually he gave us a deadline of 4:00, at which time -- this happened about 15:30, somewhere along there, and ceased talking to the negotiators. It was then decided that a tactical solution needed to be done in an effort to save the two hostages that were in the room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOOLEY: The 16-year-old victim, Emily Keys, was shot and killed by the gunman when the S.W.A.T. teams stormed inside. And then the gunman himself turned the gun on himself and killed himself. And as we said, as of yet we have no identification on the gunman. Again, we're waiting for a press conference coming from the Park County sheriffs officials. That should be happening later in the morning. And hopefully at that time we will know a little more about what exactly happened in this classroom here in Bailey, Colorado, yesterday.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Jim, a quick question for you. And I know you said that they haven't released the I.D. of the gunman. But do we know, was it a student? A former student? I mean any sort of detail about -- was it a -- you know, he's been described as a man, which makes me feel like it's someone who's not a student at all. Do you have any idea?
HOOLEY: No. Again, there's some word that he was a man in his 30s. An adult male. That there may be some relationship between him and some of the people here in the community. This is a small community here in Bailey, Colorado, about an hour southwest of Denver. Everybody seems to know everybody else who lives here. But again, no word on any identification or as to who this guy may be. Hopefully we will find that out a little bit later on today.
S. O'BRIEN: Jim Hooley for us. Thanks, Jim. Appreciate the update.
Residents near that stubborn California wildfire are on edge this morning yet again. Some, though, reportedly refusing to evacuate. Authorities say the fire is just about a half mile away from hundreds of homes in Lockwood Valley, just northwest of Los Angeles. The fires burned almost 250 square miles. So far, though, no homes. Look at those pictures. It's just remarkable the damage it's doing.
And take a look at these pictures. But these are beautiful pictures. Beautiful sunrise over New York City. Yes, it is stunning. Thank you. Right over New York City right now. That brings us right to the forecast with Chad.
Lovely, Chad. Lovely.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: The food police could soon be patrolling New York City restaurants. City officials would like to cut unhealthy trans fats from the menu. They're taking aim at your glazed doughnuts and your french fries, folks. We'll tell you about this.
Also, surgeons with an unusual challenge. Working in brief spurts of zero gravity. We'll tell you how the surgery went. Plus, a sex scandal forces an Arkansas mayor to resign. Wait till you hear the proposition he offered women supposedly who wanted to keep the water flowing. We'll let you know about that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: We told you about moves yesterday by New York's Health Department to ban trans fats from the city's restaurants. From warm, yummy doughnuts, to crispy fries, even the pie crust you eat, all that stuff has trans fats in it. That's why it tastes so good. But as CNN's Mary Snow tells us, not everybody wants to be told what's healthy and what's not.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Monitor the macaroni? Curb the cupcakes? Restaurant owner Naidre Miller is questioning whether her comfort food, minus artificial trans fats, should be scrutinized by the city, along with 20,000 plus other restaurants.
NAIDRE MILLER, OWNER, NAIDRE'S: They're going to look in everybody's kitchen and see what fat they're cooking with? That's a little unreasonable.
SNOW: The city's health commissioner says, yes, the city does aim to check what kind of margarines or oils are being used in food from french fries to doughnuts and more. He says artificial trans fats are linked to heart disease.
DR THOMAS FRIEDEN, NYC HEALTH COMMISSIONER: This is an artificial, hazardous chemical. It's got no business being in our food, just as lead has no business being in our paint.
SNOW: Frieden's plan to strictly limit trans fats in restaurants passed the first of several steps towards becoming law and could mean imposing fines if restaurants don't comply. Nutritionists are praising what could be the second big curb on restaurants since the city banned smoking in 2003.
CATHY NONAS, DIETITIAN, NORTH GENERAL HOSPITAL: I think that we're coming off this high of no smoking. I think we really believe that we can make this difference in restaurants. SNOW: But a group representing the city restaurants doesn't want the city making a difference, arguing it will cost more and consumers, not the city, should decide what to eat.
CHARLES HUNT, NEW YORK STATE RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION: Many restaurants, particularly in recent years, have offered considerably more healthy choices on their menus. But we feel that the consumer should have the final decision as to what they eat, not the board of health or not a governmental agency.
SNOW: And in a city where food is viewed as an art form, New Yorkers definitely have an opinion. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like telling an artist what colors they can paint and not paint with.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I think it's awesome. I think people have a hard enough time making choices on their own food choices and things. So for them to ban it, I think it's great. It's bad for your health.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fat is what makes it taste good. Don't take the fat away, for real.
SNOW: Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: He's right, that's what makes it taste good. The city's health agency is going to hold a public hearing on the plan and a vote by the health board is expected come December. And if it's approved, it will be phased in beginning next July. Chicago and Boston are cities that are also considering some more bans.
Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's go to Mars. A big milestone on Mars. Those Opportunity and Spirit rovers still running now. You know, they landed in January of 2004. They were supposed to last 90 days, no more. They've gone about 10 times beyond that.
And look at what Opportunity is after right now. This is the Victoria Crater. Can you back that up, please? I wasn't done with that one. I want to tell people a little bit about this Victoria Crater.
This thing is a half a mile across. It is much deeper. As a matter of fact, it is about five times deeper and wider than the crater, Endurance Crater, which Opportunity has spent about a half year looking at and uncovering all kinds of secrets of Mars, including the fact that at one time it was probably covered with warm, salty water.
Now let's take a look at the shot that Opportunity just got yesterday and sent back from the ground. That would be the shot we saw prematurely just a moment ago. If you can go with that. There we go. Here's the panoramic shot. Let me just sort of orient you to what you're seeing. That's kind of the rim of the crater there.
Why are impact craters like this so interesting? Here's the edge of it right here. Right around there. What's interesting about it is, if you look at the rocks, which are here, that is all bedrock. And bedrock is like opening up a geologic history book of any place and time because the rocks have not moved from another place.
And so by looking at these rocks, and they'll take a panoramic camera and they'll take some pictures. They use some infrared type things. And they'll be able to come up with a sense of what those rocks are made of and really tell a story as to what was there many, many millions of years ago and answer the big question, of course, which is what they're after, was Mars every a cushy birth for life.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, Spirit. What's Spirit up to. Not as good for Spirit. Spirit's right wheel is stuck. Take a look at all these track marks here as they try to get that right wheel to work for Spirit. It's not. And so as a result, it's not moving so well. And it's important that for the wintertime frame it be faced toward the north so that its solar panels can store up energy to make it possible for it to explore again. Unclear right now if they're going to be able to get it into that position. Of course, we're well past the gravy point with both Spirit and Opportunity.
Now the ultimate goal, of course, one day would be to put people on Mars and find out for sure if there ever was any life there. But sending people to Mars has all kinds of risks associated with it. The European Space Agency did an interesting experiment yesterday associated with all of this.
They conducted an experiment in a zero g airplane. That's one of those airplanes that flies like a roller coaster pattern. And on the downswing of that roller coaster pattern, get some brief bouts of weightlessness. About 30 seconds worth.
In those brief weightless periods, about 32 of them, they were able to remove a benign tumor from a 46-year-old volunteer. The operation was a success. The next time they try this, they're going to try to do it completely robotically with the doctors on the ground operating robotically via satellite. Because some day, if there's a crew on Mars and somebody needs surgery there, and they're a long way away, that might be a way to keep them safe and sound. So we'll keep you posted on that one and when they try that as well. I don't know who the volunteer is for that one. That will be interesting.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that's an amazing story, isn't it?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, Miles, a pathologist has finally solved the mystery surrounding the death of Anna Nicole Smith's son, Daniel. We'll tell you what happened.
Also, just how much trouble is Hewlett-Packard in over its corporate leak probe? We could soon find out when HP execs head to Capitol Hill today. Andy's "Minding Your Business" just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: The mystery could be solved in the death of Anna Nicole's son Daniel. Pathologist Cyril Wecht told CNN's "Larry King Live" that private tests show that the young man died of an overdose of three drugs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR CYRIL WECHT, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: He died tragically and I believe quite accidentally as a result of the cumulative effect of three brain depressant drugs -- methadone, which is an analgesic, a painkiller, Zoloft, an anti-depressant, and Lexapro, an anti- depressant. We knew about Lexapro, Larry, as you will recall, from the first battery of tests performed on a specimen submitted taken during resuscitation at doctor's hospital. So that came as no surprise. Methadone and Zoloft come as a big surprise to Anna Nicole, to Howard Stern, to the attorneys, to everybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Twenty-year-old Daniel Smith died on September 10th in a hospital in the Bahamas where Anna Nicole, his mother, was recuperating from childbirth.
You can catch "Larry King Live" every night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, this will be a day to watch what's going on in Washington. Some of the major players in the Hewlett-Packard scandal. They'll raise their right hand and swear to tell the whole truth and all that stuff.
S. O'BRIEN: And take the fifth.
M. O'BRIEN: And maybe take the fifth, or maybe not. Because Patricia Dunn appears to be singing like a canary, as they say.
ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's it, Miles. And we have the testimony right here. Ousted HP chairman, Patricia Dunn, will be testifying, or will at least be submitting testimony. And she says that her decision to embark on the corporate spying campaign was made with the knowledge of others at HP, including CEO Mark Hurd and the board.
Dunn's testimony, which I have right here in my hand, the pre- prepared testimony, is 33 pages. And it really goes through chapter and verse of the entire thing, naming names, naming investigations, dates, and so forth. All here. Now here's Mark Hurd's prepared testimony. Much shorter. Twelve pages. And in it he says, well, I didn't really know about much of what was going on, but I do apologize for what happened at HP.
M. O'BRIEN: Do they contradict each other?
SERWER: It appears they do. Well, maybe perhaps by omission, I should say, because Mark Hurd's is just sort of very general, whereas Dunn's is very specific, including things that she says Hurd knew about. So it's starting to be a little he said/she said going on here.
S. O'BRIEN: We should post that online at cnn.com.
SERWER: Yes, it's great stuff to read. Now the committee has also subpoenaed five private investigators it believes are involved, I should say, in this situation. The five pre-texters, we're calling them, including Brian "The Hammer" Wagner. Remember he was the person we talked about the other day who apparently destroyed a computer with vital information with a hammer. Brian "The Hammer" Wagner. Two of the five pre-texters are women and they had to be because they were calling up Verizon and asking for information about female board members or wives of board members. And you can't call up and say, "I want Soledad O'Brien's" -- you know, if you're a man you'd have -- so that's why there are women involved apparently as well.
M. O'BRIEN: You would have fooled me.
SERWER: Yes, well, thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: I don't call anybody interesting. They don't need to bother doing that.
SERWER: Yes. So the world continues to turn here, as far as HP is concerned.
S. O'BRIEN: Crazy story.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. We'll be watching that.
SERWER: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: What else you got?
SERWER: We are going to be introducing the world to the beer cannon coming up in our next very important business segment.
M. O'BRIEN: Introducing the world to the beer can?
SERWER: The beer cannon is coming up.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, the beer cannon?
SERWER: The beer cannon. Not the beer can.
M. O'BRIEN: Are there Mentos involved in this at all?
SERWER: Well, it's close.
M. O'BRIEN: OK. All right, as long as you try it, that's all right.
SERWER: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Andy.
Global warming becoming really a more bipartisan issue. There's still, however, a major GOP holdout who claims it's really a hoax. We'll look at his lonely fight in a moment. And later, should parents test their kids for drugs? We'll meet a kid who's alive today thanks to a persistent father who saw some warning signs and took some action. Parents, stay tuned for this one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, five car bombings in Baghdad in less than three hours, all aimed at Iraqi police officers. Two officers killed, 18 others wounded.
Bailey, Colorado in mourning for a high school student today. A gunman took six female students hostage yesterday, releasing four of them during the day long standoff. When police decided to storm the room, the gunmen killed one of the last two girls and then killed himself.
Questions in Chicago about the death of a 5-year-old girl. The girl fell into a coma during a visit to the dentist last weekend. She died yesterday in the hospital. Her family says she received a triple dose of sedatives. The dentist is certified to administer anesthesia. He says he is cooperating with investigators.
Good morning. I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien. The Senate is expected today to pass its version of a new detainee bill. The House approved their version of the measure yesterday. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist joins us, he's on Capitol Hill this morning. Good to see you Senator Frist, thanks for talking with us.
SEN. BILL FRIST, (R) MAJORITY LEADER: Good to be with you Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. Looks like congratulations are in order to you because it does look like this bill is going to pass. There are other things, though, that have yet to be moved forward. For example, no budget, no real lobbying, overhaul that was promised at one point. The people were pushing for changes, big changes, significant changes in the immigration policy. That has not happened. Why have you not been able to really get traction and deliver on things that were promised?
FRIST: Well you know the American people right now are watching gas prices fall by about 70 cents in the last six months. You go back to 14 months ago when we began this Congress and we passed a comprehensive energy bill that looked at things like renewables, increased production of things like hybrid cars.
Right now Americans reached out, or our seniors reached out and said we need affordable access to prescription drugs. In this Congress we delivered. Right now, there are about 29 million American seniors today, many of whom are listening right now who did not have affordable access to drugs, who for the first time through Medicare have affordable access to prescription drugs. The border itself, hopefully we'll pass a border security bill tonight unless the Democrats stop it. But even if we were not to pass that through our other bills we pass today, we're going to put an additional 4,000 border security guards, 10,000 detention beds. We have by the end of today or will put $1.2 billion on our border.
S. O'BRIEN: So you say there's a list of accomplishments that out weigh all of the lists that I read, of things that haven't been done. Let's talk about one thing that sort of straddles both lists maybe. Iraq obviously is a very big issue for voters, 140,000 troops or more in Iraq right now. Listen to General Caldwell, the spokesman for the multinational force in Iraq, this is what he said yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE IRAQ: In terms of attacks, this week's suicide attacks were at their highest level in any given week, with half of them targeting security forces.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: The news today that we're reporting is that 60 dead bodies have been found, their arms bound, they'd been killed, they'd been tortured. If the war in Iraq is the central front, as we continually hear the president say, isn't it fair to follow that with, well clearly the central front is not going very well?
FRIST: Well it's not going as well as we would like. But what I think is apparent and one of the good things that came out with the intelligence assessment, which looked at the overall global war on terror last week, and made public this week, is that people understand that, yes, the front is in Iraq.
But what we're seeing here is a metastasizing cancer that is not just in Iraq, it's throughout the Middle East. And indeed as we saw in August, when 10 airplanes could have been on their way here, exploding with American lives, it indeed is global. But it's like any other cancer, you've got to go and you've got to cut it out, and if you don't cut it out, it's going to continue to metastasize, not just in Iraq, Afghanistan, but indeed all over the world.
Now the American people are beginning to understand and that is why we need to listen to our generals on the ground. When they say we need X number of troops or we need to increase our forces we need to respond and that's what this Congress is doing.
S. O'BRIEN: Well let's continue your cancer metaphor, if we will. You know, how is the patient doing? When you look at the number of U.S. troops that have died, when you look at the number of Iraqi civilians that have died, when you look at the troops that are having their tours extended, much to the dismay of course of their family members. What part of the conflict do you think is going well? Where is the patient doing ok?
FRIST: Well it is tough and it shows what we're up against. And again going back to the intelligence assessment, it said, that first of all, we have no choice but to be victorious, because if not, this will spread and continue to spread. You know we may have missed it in 1983 in the bombing of World Trade Center, we may have missed it with the "USS Cole" and the bombing of the African embassies and the Kobar towers.
But 2001, we woke up, and we can't return to that pre-2001, where you just sit back and you just watch this happening. It is the reality today. So, yes, and you do what you do in medicine, to be honest, you may give a little bit of drugs initially, if you have bad heart disease, but if that doesn't work, you go in and do an operation. If the operation doesn't work, you go in and you do a transplant. It doesn't mean you walk away from the patient and desert the patient while they're in the intensive care unit. And that's a good analogy and if not, that disease is going to metastasize all over the world, including right here in this country.
S. O'BRIEN: Well then your comments bring us right to Afghanistan where we have 18,000 troops, and by a lot of accounts there, things are not going well. The Taliban resurgence, the poppy and opium production is up. Suicide attacks there, roadside bomb attacks there on the increase.
FRIST: It is bad.
S. O'BRIEN: Isn't it fair to say though, yeah, it is bad. Isn't it fair to say though --
FRIST: But that doesn't mean you run though, you can't run.
S. O'BRIEN: But my question is not that. My question is, isn't it fair to say that if the focus wasn't on Iraq, that a lot of those troops, a lot of that money, a lot of the effort could actually be put on Afghanistan, which frankly after September 11th was the big focus of the military.
FRIST: It's not that simple. We do have a long way to go. If it were as simple as putting more troops in one country, and al Qaeda and the jihadists now that are all over the world, we could do just that. But it's not that simple. We're talking about a movement, an ideology and that's why I use this analogy of metastasizing. It's not just one enemy itself and it's not just in Afghanistan, it is not just in Iraq. It's a global war on terror.
S. O'BRIEN: But the ideology, and forgive me for interrupting you for a second. But the ideology is alive and well in Afghanistan, in fact the ideology appears to have started in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is appeared, most people say, most experts are saying, is actually hiding somewhere right there. Isn't it fair to say at the end of the day, it's a zero sum game, a certain number of troops --
FRIST: No it's not a zero sum game. And that's the problem. If people think it's a zero sum game, it's over with. That's what the intelligence assessment basically spelled out clearly, it's not just a front in Iraq, it is not just in Afghanistan. And if al Qaeda, which the report said, is being diminished in Iraq, rears its head in Afghanistan, we've got to go and rip that head off. And that's exactly what we need to do. But it doesn't mean leave. It doesn't mean wring our hands and say, we can't do anything. If so, Zawahiri, Zarqawi, and Osama bin Laden have made it very clear, they're coming to the United States.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm sure you've seen this poll that says Iraqis want the U.S. troops out. The most shocking thing that I saw in this poll, maybe we can throw this poll up for folks to take a look at. Is this one, the percentage of Sunnis and Shiites who say they approve of the attacks on U.S. forces.
Listen to these numbers: 92 percent of Sunnis, 62 percent of Shiites say they approve of the daily attacks on U.S. forces. I mean numbers much lower obviously you can see there in the Kurds. This has to be a pretty clear indication that the battle for the hearts and the minds of the Iraqi people is not being won.
FRIST: Again, I refer back to the intelligence assessment report where it pointed out that it is not just the jihad in Iraq today but it's also the entrenched things like injustice, the entrenched things like corruption. There's the fourth component of this anti-U.S. sentiment, and the third component they had there was that the overall Muslim countries had just simply not progressed on an economic and on a political and on a social front.
That's the complexity of the problem and we need to continue, both our government to following the leadership of the president and this Congress, be aggressive on all four fronts, not just one.
S. O'BRIEN: Majority leader Bill Frist joining us this morning. Nice to see you senator. Thanks for talking with us.
FRIST: Good to be with you Soledad. Thank you
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you. Miles?
M. O'BRIEN: In California, they're taking some tough action aimed at stopping global warming. The state imposing a cap on greenhouse gases. In the U.S., politicians have been slow to recognize global warming as a problem. Well, that is changing. An influential skeptic remains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): No question, there is a political climate change inside the Republican Party. Arnold Schwarzenegger in San Francisco announcing with great fanfare, a California law to curb emissions of greenhouse gases at the root of global warming.
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, (R) CALIFORNIA: California leads the way on one of the most important issues that are facing our time, which is the fight against global warming.
M. O'BRIEN: But some Republicans are fighting a different battle. Listen to the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment.
SEN. JAMES INHOFE, (R) CHMN., ENVIRONMENT CMTE.: I am going to speak today about the most media hyped environmental issue of all time and it's the word that gets everybody upset when you say it, and the phrase that many politicians are afraid to say, and that is global warming.
M. O'BRIEN: It's not new ground for Oklahoma's senior senator. Jim Inhofe has repeatedly called global warming a hoax. Despite a steady stream of stark evidence, melting ice caps, rising sea levels, the warmest temperatures in 12,000 years, the senator is not convinced.
INHOFE: During the past year, the American people have been served up an unprecedented parade of environmental alarmism by the media.
M. O'BRIEN: In a 45-minute speech on the Senate floor, he voiced skepticism over this graph called the hockey stick. Despite some flaws, most climate scientists consider it the best depiction of global warming. Inhofe says there's evidence that the Antarctic is actually cooling, even though most scientific findings suggest the contrary and point to the loss of major ice sheets and shelves.
And he says the polar bears of the arctic are thriving, even though the world's two most influential wildlife protection agencies say they're veering toward endangered status. Inhofe is all but alone on Capitol Hill these days. Most Republicans believe the scientific jury is in.
REP. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, (R) CONNECTICUT: We have seen too much documentation to know that the world is getting warmer. We know that the ice shelves are melting. And for him to say otherwise just is like putting a bag over his head and not seeing it.
M. O'BRIEN: Undaunted, Inhofe also took on Al Gore.
INHOFE: In May, our nation was exposed to perhaps one of the thickest science propaganda films of all time, former Vice President Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."
M. O'BRIEN: Inhofe offers a 12-point indictment of Gore's documentary on climate change. He says the list might have been longer if he had actually seen the movie. Gore was just here with us, making the rounds after convincing British billionaire Richard Branson to invest as much as $3 billion to fight climate change.
AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: If your child has a fever, you go to the doctor. It may be a sign that something's wrong. We've gone to the scientific community and they've said, yes, the planet has a fever. It's in trouble.
INHOFE: The American people know when their intelligence is being insulted. They know when they're being used and when they are being duped by the hysterical left.
M. O'BRIEN: Hysterical left, don't tell that to Arnold Schwarzenegger. The middle ground on climate change is shifting. SHAYS: In the last few years, this administration isn't trying to be on both sides of the issue. They are clearly in the camp that said global warming is for real. They are clearly trying to deal with it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Now we should point out in a recent five-year period, Senator Inhofe received more than $850,000 in donations from the oil and gas industries, his leading contributor. Inhofe challenged the media to get this story right, as he put it, but when we asked for an interview several times, we were told he is too busy to speak to us this week. Soledad?
S. O'BRIEN: In America this morning, Terrell Owens says he did not try to kill himself. He expects to practice with his team, the Dallas Cowboys today for the first time since he fractured his hand two weekends ago. Owens got out of the hospital yesterday after being treated for what he says was a bad reaction to some pain pills. A police report indicated that Terrell Owens tried to commit suicide.
An Arkansas mayor resigns amid a big sex scandal. Prosecutors say that Waldron Mayor Troy Anderson asked for sex from women in exchange for a break on their city water bills. The 72-year-old Waldron is working out a plea deal right now. He faces charges of soliciting and paying for sex from two women.
Adult film star Mary Carey is making a second bid for California governor. This time the porn queen is running as independent write in candidate. In her 2003 GOP bid she finished 10th out of 135 candidates.
Several stretches of Honolulu highway dark, because thieves are stealing copper wire that connects all the lights. The latest theft was more than two and a half miles of copper wire. It's worth more than $200,000. Police say the thieves often strike in broad daylight when the power's off and that it's most likely that they're dressed like highway workers so no one knows what's going on.
Frightening moments for an Oakland, California woman and her three children. The brakes on their van failed, take a look at this. Wow. The van then skidded and plunged right into a lake. That's right in the middle of central Oakland there. Some people saw what happened and jumped right into the water, pulled everybody out of the lake. The woman and the children were not seriously injured. She drove right into the Lake Merritt.
Dramatic rescue on the high seas to tell you about. A Coast Guard helicopter crew saved seven men who were stranded on a raft in the waters off of Atlantic City, New Jersey. They say they abandoned their 52-foot fishing boat on Saturday because it started taking on water. Luckily the Coast Guard rescue team spotted what was left of the last signal flare that the fishing party had. That's some good luck there.
Ahead this morning, AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho will be with us with a live look at the latest weapon in the war on drugs. Good morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Soledad. If you're a parent, you won't want to miss this report. It's your chance to help your child if you suspect they may be using drugs. I'll have that story when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: There's a new weapon in the war on drugs, parents doing drug tests. Employers have done it for years, so have schools, but now parents are getting involved and in some cases it's made all the difference. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho has more with a really remarkable profile.
CHO: That's right, the difference between life and death in some cases, Soledad. You know not everyone is for it. In fact, it's actually quite controversial. But we spent some time with one father who says there's no doubt in his mind, drug testing saved his son's life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice-over): At 14, Ben Peterson was playing football and getting good grades, the kind of kid who stands out in a crowd. So when Ben started withdrawing from his family, his father took notice.
MIKE PETERSON, FATHER OF TEENAGER: Gee, he's not near as sweet as he was, and then he's a little less sweet than that, and a little less sweet than that, then he's out and out rude and then he's telling me where to go.
CHO: It wasn't just a phase. Ben had been smoking marijuana almost every day and had even moved on to cocaine. His father, who had no clue what was happening, turned to his computer, typed in his son's symptoms and says everything he saw pointed to drug abuse. So he ordered a home drug testing kit online.
M. PETERSON: I explained to him, I love you very much, I love you with all my heart and my mind and my soul, but I'm worried about you. I'm worried greatly about you.
BEN PETERSON, DRUG-TESTED BY PARENTS: He said, I may be crazy, but, you know, you haven't been right lately. And I just want to find out. So he gave me the drug test and I failed pretty bad.
CHO: His father says at the time of the test there was enough cocaine in Ben's body to kill him. So dad took swift action, putting his son on 30-day lockdown. The first week was the worst. Ben suffered through painful withdrawals.
B. PETERSON: I felt dead to the world. I was constantly biting my fingernails.
CHO: The lockdown worked. In 30 days, Ben, now 16, was clean. And still is. Some of his classmates are subject to random drug testing at school. A 2002 Supreme Court ruling allowed public schools to drug test kids involved in extracurricular activities. At Ben's high school, that means about half the student body is tested every year.
MICHAEL MURPHY, SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: We're providing students with an opportunity to say no and have a reason.
CHO: Reaction among parents over testing has been mixed and the ACLU is staunchly against it.
DAN VIETS, ACLU: It's a degrading and very humiliating procedure for someone who's done nothing, to even suggest they've broken the law.
CHO: For the Petersons, doing their own home drug testing was a life saver. Ben's grades are back up and it's helped his confidence in unimaginable ways.
B. PETERSON: Now I actually know that I'm better than that. Before, you know, I didn't think of myself as much of anything, you know? Just some junkie that headed nowhere in life. But now that I'm off of it, you know, the sky's the limit. I can do anything.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Ben's father continues to test his son randomly. Ben has agreed to the testing and he also knows there are some pretty tough consequences. First positive test, his car is taken away for 30 days. Second positive test, the car goes away for good. And Ben's father says he will turn his son in to authorities. Soledad, in addition to feeling better about himself, these are some consequences that he's concerned about. And that has all kept him clean.
S. O'BRIEN: Which is really what you need when you're dealing with a teenager. You know it's interesting to hear the ACLU talk about degrading and humiliating procedures I think, when any parent would be like, well you know, that's my job, degrading and humiliating, if it's going to help my kid, absolutely.
CHO: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: Why did the father decide to do it on his own? I mean why not enroll him or put him into Horizons or some program like that?
CHO: Well I think privacy issues. Basically he said, listen, I didn't want my son to have the stigma of being called a drug abuser. He went onto the internet, as I mentioned, ordered this drug testing kit. Now they've signed this contract and he said we kept it in the family, this is a family problem. We wanted to keep it in the family.
But he's speaking out now because he essentially said, I have no doubt in my mind that my son would not be alive today had I not done this. I want other parents to know that they can save their child's life as well if they do this if they suspect their child is using drugs.
S. O'BRIEN: How interesting that he really saw the signs and acted.
M. O'BRIEN: But he's still testing him, even though Ben has obviously turned the corner.
CHO: He is.
M. O'BRIEN: That's tough, that's pretty tough.
S. O'BRIEN: Well maybe it takes a long time.
CHO: Well you know he wants to make sure, you know. He saw the signs. He went on the internet and said you know, he's acting strange, all the signs pointed to drug abuse. And so, you know, they say as well, you've got to keep testing them to make sure.
S. O'BRIEN: Also, I think the kid needs to learn that you know what you have to gain everybody's trust back.
CHO: That's right. You're absolutely right.
S. O'BRIEN: We could go on with this topic forever.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, we could. Good job.
Up next, Andy Serwer, "Minding your Business." Andy?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: Hey Miles. It's the latest hot, hot, hot, hot, hot viral marketing campaign. And it involves smashing stuff up. It's a guy thing, Miles. We'll get to that.
M. O'BRIEN: Count me in.
And, of course, this is another guy thing, no, gals can play along, too. It's Milescam day, 10:30 eastern on the pipeline product. I ask answer your questions. Well where would your questions come from you? From you. Milescam@cnn.com is the e-mail location. E operators are standing by, as we say. Stay with us for more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Two words to help you keep watching -- beer canon. Here's Andy Serwer with that.
SERWER: Thank you Miles. Milwaukee's Best light beer has a viral marketing campaign and it's all over You Tube and it's really, really hot. It's the beer canon and they found a guy named Briggs, who's kind of a likable dude, you'll see him here, who shoots stuff out of a canon and they found they could put beer cans filled with sand and smash things up. And they -- what's that, watermelon, somewhere Gallagher's very jealous, very jealous. They're smashing up unmanly things, is the way it's described, 2.2 million viewers on You Tube. Red wine TV (INAUDIBLE).
M. O'BRIEN: The TV is unmanly, what's unmanly about a TV?
SERWER: I don't know. S. O'BRIEN: It's not big enough and it's not a plasma.
M. O'BRIEN: There you go.
SERWER: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: I got that.
SERWER: The china.
M. O'BRIEN: That was right on, that one.
SERWER: And then the salsa, chips and salsa. I don't know, why would you do that? That's not unmanly, but it just looked good. That's right.
S. O'BRIEN: Flower pot?
SERWER: Yeah, oh yeah.
So, you know, that's it. It's the beast, it's affordable beer. It doesn't taste very good I don't think. But, you know, it's one of those campaigns that --
M. O'BRIEN: But it's affordable. Truly we are seeing a revolution in advertising here, right before our very eyes.
SERWER: Yeah absolutely, because this stuff just goes onto You Tube. And it's just interesting the way You Tube is a part of a marketing campaign but it's also a cool-o site, it makes an interesting mix there.
M. O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right, Andy, what's next real quick?
SERWER: We're going to be talking about housing comparisons. One house in Beverly Hills, worth 12 in Topeka. Interesting math we're doing there for you.
S. O'BRIEN: I want to hear that. All right Andy, thank you.
SERWER: You're welcome.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, President Bush is heading to Capitol Hill, going to meet with the party faithful. Can he rally the troops as campaign season swings into high gear? We'll take you live to Washington, D.C. just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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