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Congressman Mark Foley of Florida Resigns After E-Mails He Sent To Teenage Boy Surface; Search Planes Find Wreckage Of Missing Commercial Airliner in Amazon; Many Iraqis Aren't Happy With U.S. Military Presence; 15-year-old Wisconsin Boy Will Be Tried As Adult In Connection With Shooting Death Of High School Principal; Energy Drink Named Cocaine

Aired September 30, 2006 - 09:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: "Now in the News," inappropriate e- mails a congressman allegedly sent to a teenage boy are now the focus of an investigation. New this morning, the House votes to refer the case of former congressman Mark Foley to the Ethics Committee. The Florida Republican resigned after the story broke.
We're going to have more details from Capitol Hill. That's just ahead.

Search planes have found the wreckage of a missing commercial airliner in Brazil's Amazon Rainforest. The Boeing 737 800 lost radar contact yesterday en route to Brasilia. It is believed as many as 145 people were on board.

We're going to have more details in just five minutes.

And in Atlanta, prosecutors say Brian Nichols, the man charged with killing four people in a courthouse rampage last year, plotted an escape from jail and recently tried to intimidate a witness. That witness, according to prosecutors, is a woman Nichols is accused of raping.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: The FDA has given an all-clear on most fresh spinach. Widespread E. coli outbreak involving spinach was traced the to one company. It's called Natural Selection Foods in California. Other fresh spinach is now safe to eat, we are told.

Now to Reynolds Wolf. He's checking on the weather for you and he's got something for us.

What you got, Reynolds?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Got some rain for you in parts of the Ohio Valley.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: We run down the top stories every 15 minutes right here on CNN NEWSROOM with in-depth coverage all morning long. And your next check of the headlines is scheduled for 10:15 Eastern.

Coming up during this edition of CNN NEWSROOM, your kids can buy cocaine on the Internet. The drink, that is. It's a brewing controversy and it's coming up in the NEWSROOM.

NGUYEN: Plus, a new poll says Iraqi citizens want the U.S. out of their country, and it is overwhelming. We'll show you the numbers. We have a live report from Baghdad coming up.

SANCHEZ: From the CNN Center, this is the CNN NEWSROOM. It is Saturday, the last day of September. It is 10:00 in morning here in Atlanta, 7:00 for the folks out West.

And good morning. I'm Rick Sanchez.

NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen.

We want to thank you for starting your day with us.

Well, a sudden resignation and an apology, now an investigation. The House will look into explicit e-mails Congressman Mark Foley allegedly sent to a teenage boy. That boy, a former House page. Foley has stepped down and Republicans are trying to explain and contain the damage.

Details from Congressional correspondent now Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Congressman Mark Foley's resignation was abrupt. "I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," said Foley in a short written statement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida rise?

BASH: The six-term Republican and member of the GOP leadership made no mention of his e-mails with a former male congressional page or concerns, according to GOP sources close to Foley, that devastating information was about to become public. Hours later, it did.

ABC News reported a number of sexually graphic instant messages between Foley and male congressional pages, using his personal screen name, Maf54.

"What are you wearing?" he asked in one. "T-shirt and shorts," the teen replied. "Love to slip them off you," Foley allegedly said.

And in another, Foley asked, "Do I make you a little horny?" "A little," said the teen. "Cool," replied Foley.

A GOP leadership aide tells CNN as soon as ABC confronted Foley's office with the explicit messages, he knew he had to quit. There was no immediate response from Foley's office to those alleged messages. But a spokesman confirmed to CNN that Foley did have five e-mail exchanges last year with a 16-year-old page, asking him, "How old are you?" in one. And in another, he asks the young man to "send me a pic of you as well." The young man forwarded that e-mail, according to a government watchdog group that posted it online, to a congressional staffer, writing the word "sick" 13 times. The group's director sent it to the House Ethics Committee and the FBI.

MELANIE SLOAN, ETHICS WATCHDOG: Because Representative Foley was using a personal e-mail account to send the page e-mails -- the former page e-mails, and the young man was clearly made very uncomfortable by the e-mails, we thought it was a matter appropriate for the House Ethics Committee to investigate.

BASH: Law enforcement sources won't comment, but there is no indication at this point of any criminal probe. And it is unclear how the House Ethics Committee proceeded.

Foley's resignation sent shock waves through the Capitol. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was visibly angry.

HASTERT: I've asked John Shimkus, who is head of the page board, to look into this issue regarding Congressman Foley. We want to make sure that all our pages are safe and the page system is safe.

QUESTION: How disturbing is this?

HASTERT: Well, none of us are very happy about it.

BASH: Yet at least one member of the GOP leadership and the Congressional Page Board knew almost a year ago about Foley's e-mail asking the teenager for his picture. According to Congressman John Shimkus, the head of the board, they confronted Foley, who insisted that "Nothing inappropriate had occurred."

The board ordered Foley to cease all contact with the former page, then dropped the matter.

(on camera): What makes this all the more troubling that Congressman Foley was co-chair of the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus and was responsible for writing the most recent legislation to crack down on Internet predators.

Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Foley submitted his letter of resignation to Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Now, the governor had little to say when asked about the e-mails Foley allegedly sent to a congressional page. He says he's waiting on more information.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: I don't have any details. I read an AP story that suggests some inappropriate e-mails. Beyond that, I don't have any information. But, you know, my heart goes out to his family, but more importantly, I'm really disappointed if these allegations are true. (END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: We're going the take a closer look at the political fallout from Congressman Foley's resignation. The political editor for National Public Radio joins us. That's coming up at the half hour right here in the NEWSROOM.

SANCHEZ: There's a developing story that we have been following for you all morning. It involves a plane crash in some part of Brazil. The question is, where was the airliner? There was a tough time finding it.

Journalist Tom Hennigan is joining us now by phone from Sao Paolo.

I understand they have, in fact, located the airliner. What can you tell us about that, Tom?

TOM HENNIGAN, JOURNALIST: Rick, they found the airliner in the northern part of Mato Grosso state. This is a very remote state in the Amazon region, and the rescue teams are saying that the plane crashed in a heavily forested area and that they have had to -- are still trying to get teams through to the wreckage

SANCHEZ: Now, obviously the question about survivors comes to mind, but given the angle that the plane hit the ground, it does not sound at this point -- you let us know -- like there are going to be any survivors, right?

HENNIGAN: Well, the latest information we have from the Brazilian airport authorities is they're coordinating their search. Given the visual location of the plane, what the people who have found the plane have seen, that they do not believe that there were any survivors.

We've had conflicting reports about -- that states the plane on the ground, whether there was a fire following impact. But we do know that the Brazilian airport authorities says it is unlikely there will be survivors

SANCHEZ: Yes, it doesn't sound good. That's some of the preliminary information we have received here at CNN as well.

Do you have any information at all -- because there's still a bit of -- we're quite curious about the original report that there may have been some kind of collision with a smaller plane. Do we know anything about what may have caused this at this point?

HENNIGAN: That is still -- you know, from the investigation, whether this collision with a smaller corporate type jet did occur. At first (INAUDIBLE) was the initial reason for the incident given last night. Then, the authorities started to backtrack from that. But today Brazil's defense minister has said that as far as he is aware, the pilot of a corporate jet that was forced into emergency landing said that out of nowhere a large shadow passed his plane, clipped his wing, and forced him to make an emergency landing. We are still waiting for confirmation on that.

SANCHEZ: And finally, let me ask you this: why did it take so long to locate the plane? Don't most airliners have a ping device on them that would let people know where exactly it is? And didn't this airliner have that?

HENNIGAN: Well, that's what they were looking for last night. The airport's planes that were scrambled were looking for a distress signal. But this is a vast area of heavily-forested rainforest, and it was at night that the search was taking place. And that seems to have delayed the location of the wreckage

SANCHEZ: Yes. So, in other words, even though -- even though they heard the signal, they still couldn't get to the exact place because, yes, like you said, it is a Brazilian rainforest, probably one of the most difficult places in the world to find something like that.

Tom, we thank you so much for that report. We thank you for bringing us up to date. And we'll certainly be checking back with you if need be.

Betty, over to you.

NGUYEN: In another part of the world, the streets of Baghdad are virtually empty this morning, except for Iraqi and U.S. troops. They're enforcing a strict curfew, in effect, across the Iraqi capital through tomorrow morning. Vehicle and pedestrian traffic is banned.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military says it has uncovered a possible al Qaeda plot to bomb Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. A guard for a top Sunni politician is in custody and it's suspected he belongs to Al Qaeda in Iraq.

And Osama bin Laden's second in command, well, that person has released a new videotape yesterday. In it, Ayman al-Zawahiri accused President Bush of lying to Americans about Iraq.

Now, many Iraqis apparently aren't happy with the U.S. military presence in Iraq. A new poll by the University of Maryland's international program finds just over 70 percent of Iraqis want U.S. troops to leave Iraq within a year or less, 37 percent want U.S. troops out within six months.

CNN's Arwa Damon joins us now from Baghdad.

Let's go over these numbers, Arwa. Seventy-one percent want U.S. troops out of Iraq. How accurate is this poll?

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, we went out and spoke with Iraqis earlier in the week and there was an overwhelming majority of Iraqis that we spoke to who said that they wanted the U.S. forces out of Iraq. They wanted U.S. troops out.

There is more and more Iraqis that are now blaming U.S. forces for the violence, saying that if none of this had happened, if the U.S. forces weren't here, they wouldn't be living such violence and chaos. So, we are seeing right now a greater percentage of Iraqis that don't want U.S. troops here any longer than we have in the past.

But if we remember a few months ago, at the beginning of the year, at the end of February, where there was the bombing of the holy Shia shrine in Samarra that sparked increased sectarian violence, especially in the capital of Baghdad, at that point in time a lot of Iraqis were actually supporting a U.S. presence here because they felt that the U.S. forces were the only forces in Iraq that could prevent the country from escalating into full-blown sectarian war, civil -- civil war.

What we're seeing right now, eight months later, is more of a shift toward the sentiment and desire for U.S. forces to leave. So, we do often see a different dynamic as people's opinions do shift in one direction or another -- Betty

NGUYEN: Well, let's get some -- if I can only say it -- specifics on this. For those who want U.S. forces out immediately, what are the reasons? And we do want specifics. I mean, more than just, you know, we're not happy with the state of the situation right now.

What are the specific reasons as to why they want U.S. troops out?

DAMON: Well, there's a number of different reasons given for that. One that we're hearing fairly often is placing the blame for the violence squarely on U.S. forces, and this goes back to three -- over three years ago when U.S. forces came in, they toppled Saddam Hussein, they promised the Iraqi people freedom, democracy and a better future. And a lot of Iraqis will tell you right now, "That promise has not been fulfilled, we were lied to." So, part of that -- part of that sentiment is coming from that.

Other people are saying that they want U.S. forces out because they believe that this sectarian violence we're seeing, this rift between the -- that's beginning between the Sunni and Shia community, they are blaming U.S. forces for that as well. Some are blaming the U.S. forces for leaving the borders open, not having adequately secured the borders that are allowing -- now allowing foreign fighters and are allowing the Iranian influence in.

They are saying that it is the fault of the U.S. forces here that al Qaeda now exists here. Al Qaeda in Iraq now exists here as such a strong force that it's creating so much of the terror and the insurgency.

But, Betty, all that being said, there still are some Iraqis out there that are saying that if U.S. forces leave, the situation will escalate into something much, much worse -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Well, quickly, that's my next question. And we do have to get to it very quickly. So, for those who want U.S. troops to leave, does this mean that they believe the Iraqi security forces are ready to take control of the country?

DAMON: Well, actually, a lot of them who you ask that question to who want U.S. forces to leave and leave now say that there will be a period of chaos after they leave. They admit that there will be more chaos, more violence.

But right now, they believe that that is a better option than having U.S. forces here. And, in fact, when you speak with many people about the Iraqi security forces they will tell you that, no, they are not ready quite yet. There is not a lot of faith in Iraqi security forces just yet, nor is there in the Iraqi government -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Well, that puts them in quite a situation.

CNN's Arwa Damon in Baghdad for us today.

Thank you, Arwa.

More on the Iraq war Monday night when author Bob Woodward discusses his new book on the Bush administration's handling of the war. Woodward joins Larry King. That's Monday night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

Also premiering tonight, "Man of War," an extensive look at Donald Rumsfeld. "CNN PRESENTS" goes beyond the defense secretary's tough exterior. "Man of War" premiers tonight, 8:00 Eastern.

SANCHEZ: Unfortunately the situation in Afghanistan is starting to resemble the situation in Iraq. In Kabul, the capital, another suicide bomber. This time detonated explosives strapped to his body in a busy shopping and pedestrian area of the city. At least 13 people killed. Victims include several women and children.

News from Lebanon now. Israel could soon, very soon be heading back over the border. Lebanon says it's been informed by U.N. peacekeepers that Israel will finally complete its promised pullout possibly in time for Yom Kippur, which starts Sunday, sundown evening.

Let me change that around. Sundown, Sunday evening.

NGUYEN: Sunday evening. I got you.

SANCHEZ: Too many S's.

NGUYEN: Well, cries of a smear campaign has already popped up in the Foley resignation case. Coming up in the NEWSROOM, live to Washington for the latest on the political fallout from this growing Republican scandal.

SANCHEZ: Also, drinking Cocaine? The uproar over an energy drink named after the powerful drug. And you can get it on the Internet.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back to the NEWSROOM. And here's what's in the news right now.

A Florida congressman's resignation over explicit e-mails. New this morning, we have learned the House will look into the messages allegedly sent from former congressman Mark Foley to a teenage boy. The revelations prompted Foley to resign last night.

More on the political fallout. In fact, we're going to have some analysis of this in the next half hour.

Also, search planes, as you may have heard in the last couple of minutes, have finally found that wreckage of that missing commercial airliner in Brazil's Amazon Rainforest. It's a Boeing 737 800. It lost radar contact yesterday while heading to Brasilia.

It's believed as many as 155 people were on board this flight. Officials do not think at this point after what they have heard about the actual site of the crash that there are any survivors.

Brian Nichols, the man charged with killing four people in a courthouse rampage in Atlanta last year plotted an escape from jail. That's what prosecutors are telling the judge in an emergency motion. They also say that Nichols recently tried to intimidate a witness, a female witness that he's accused of raping.

The FDA gave the all-clear on most fresh spinach. A widespread E. coli outbreak involving spinach was traced to one company. It's called Natural Selection Foods out of California. Other fresh spinach is now safe to eat, we are told.

We run down the top stories right here every 15 minutes on the CNN NEWSROOM with in-depth coverage all morning long. Next check of the headlines coming up at about 10:30 Eastern.

NGUYEN: Well, it looked like one. Now the National Weather Service confirms it was one. A severe storm that swept through Maryland Thursday spawned a tornado. Several trees were uprooted -- you can see them there -- about two dozen homes were damaged, and many homeowners lost power.

SANCHEZ: Let's go over to Reynolds Wolf now and find out more about the weather patterns all over the country.

Tornado or not tornado, right?

NGUYEN: Well, hopefully no more tornadoes.

WOLF: Absolutely.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: A frustrated employee takes things a little too far in trying the get even with his boss. That story is straight ahead.

Also, this...

NGUYEN: Friends and students gathered to remember a Wisconsin principal called in a school shooting.

You'll want to keep it here. You're in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: A 15-year-old Wisconsin boy will be tried as an adult in connection with a shooting death of his high school principal. The shooting happened Friday, and new information this morning comes from the criminal complaint.

In that document, the teen claims he was teased by students at the school, saying teachers and administrators did nothing about it. The documents also say the principal had given the teen a disciplinary warning the day before the shooting for having tobacco on school grounds.

The principal, John Klang, a father of three, died of his wounds on Friday. He was shot three times in the chest and the head.

Well, the school shooting and death has the tiny Wisconsin town of Cazenovia reeling.

Zac Schultz of our CNN affiliate WMTV reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAC SCHULTZ, REPORTER, WMTV (voice-over): More than 100 people showed up and walked quietly onto the field. They lit candles, hugged each other and listened to a prayer and a poem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If from the experience of death comes nothing good, then death has won.

SCHULTZ: Some people spoke about how to move on or what to take away from this tragedy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The thing that went through my mind was, did I tell my kids I loved them before they got on the bus?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The way that we forge on, the way that we continue to live as a community and to live as students and faculty and friends and neighbors and loved ones is to share that grief.

SCHULTZ: Others stepped forward to talk about Principal John Klang.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew that man and he was the most gentle, wonderful guy in the whole world. He wanted to deal with children. He wanted to make children grow, be prosperous, be anything that they can be in life. And that was the best role model that anybody could have asked for in this school.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SANCHEZ: That was Zac Schultz of our affiliate WMTV reporting from Wisconsin.

Let's check other news "Across America" for you now.

A memorial service will begin for Emily Keyes in less than two hours. She's the 16-year-old student who was killed Wednesday by a gunman who initially took six high school girls hostage.

A Georgia man is arrested after a teenage boy sent a text message to his family in Massachusetts. The teen claims that he was being held against his will on the man's farm. The 58-year-old allegedly met the 17-year-old on MySpace.com and flew the teen to Georgia, and then allegedly began sexually abusing him.

The man who was apparently miffed about being reprimanded by his boss is accused of trying to poison him. Police say the man sprinkled liquid mercury on his boss's cubicle after being written up for cursing.

We'll have more on that story.

Also, going, going, it's gone. Crews leveled a nearly half- century-old office building in Atlanta's Midtown. Builders are making room for the so-called mixed use community. The site is near Atlanta's famed Fox Theater.

Repercussions from the resignation of Representative Foley are just beginning. Next in the NEWSROOM, a live report from Washington on how this Republican could change the look of Congress.

First, though, let's go over to Brenda and find out what's going on from a global perspective -- Brenda.

BRENDA BERNARD, CNN ANCHOR: Disturbing terrorism allegations. Find out who India blames for a series of deadly train bombings in Mumbai.

That's coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Now in the news, shock waves in Washington. Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley resigns over explicit text messages he allegedly sent to a teenage boy. That boy is a former congressional page. Now the House is investigating and overnight, members voted to refer the matter to the Ethics Committee.

Brazilian Air Force planes have located the wreckage of a missing commercial airliner in a remote area of the Amazon rain forest. The Boeing 737-800 vanished from radar screens yesterday. As many as 155 people were on board the Gol flight 1907. Officials believe at this point that there are no survivors.

The U.S. military says it's foiled a suspected al Qaeda plot to bomb Baghdad's fortified green zone. Suspected al Qaeda member who worked as a guard for the leader of Iraq's largest Sunni party is in custody.

And in Atlanta, prosecutors say Brian Nichols, the man charged with killing four people in a courthouse rampage last year, plotted an escape from jail and recently tried to intimidate a witness. That witness, according to prosecutors is a woman Nichols is accused of raping.

Well, the all-clear on most fresh spinach. The FDA tracing widespread e. coli outbreak, the Natural Selection foods in California. Other fresh spinach is now as they say safe to eat.

We do run down the top stories every 15 minutes right here on CNN newsroom with in-depth coverage all morning long. So your next check of the headlines, that's coming up at 10:45 Eastern.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: Let's get back to what will likely be the political story of the week, if not the month, a scandal over the alleged explicit e-mails leading to a congressman's resignation. Florida Republican Mark Foley calls it quits less than six weeks before the November elections.

The messages he allegedly sent to a teenage boy are now the focus of a House investigation. They have been called sick, sick, sick by some of his colleagues. The teen is a former congressional page. House Speaker Dennis Hastert says protecting the integrity of the page program is important. Foley had to step down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), HOUSE SPEAKER: He has to resign to the governor of the state of Florida. He sent that letter and we have a attached copy and we've laid it down and he is for all practical purposes resigned from the House. He's done as of now. He's done the right thing. I have asked John Shimkus, who is the head of the page board, to look into this issue regarding Congressman Foley. We want to make sure that all our pages are safe and the page system is safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Of course, there are going to be political implications. Foley was expected to be a shoo-in for the re-election in November. Not anymore. Republicans now have to find a candidate to replace him.

Joining us by phone to talk about the political fallout is Ken Rudin, political editor for National Public Radio. He's good enough to join us. Let's talk about that part of the story first. We've got a gentleman named Mahoney down there, the Democrat's candidate who probably is one of the luckiest politicians on the planet at this point. Is he going to win this thing?

VOICE OF KEN RUDIN, NPR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, he certainly could, because first of all, Mark Foley, his name has to stay on the ballot. For the Republicans to win the seat, they will come up with a new nominee within seven days, but the slogan -- any vote that goes to Mark Foley will ultimately be transferred to the new Republican nominee.

So what's a Republican to do? A vote for Mark Foley -- they're in an untenable position. And the fact that this happened 38 days before the election, Republicans who are in jeopardy of losing the House anyway, they must be really just shaking their heads, saying why now?

SANCHEZ: This is a seat that wasn't on anybody's column. Let's look at the action itself. I understand, according to reports, that one congressman learned about this exchange last year between Foley and this 16-year-old and just told Foley to be more mindful of his behavior. I imagine there are people watching this newscast right now who are wondering why the GOP leadership didn't go further in either reprimanding him at that point, almost a year ago, or starting an investigation.

RUDIN: That's exactly the question that Nancy Pelosi says. Who in the Republican leadership knew about it? When did they know about it and what did they do about it. The fact is that apparently a member of the Republican leadership went to Foley and said, look, you got to cut this out. And Foley said, no, it's just friendly banter; there's nothing to it and they let it go.

The fact that the Republicans are in charge of the page board and given the fact that these pages are so vulnerable, and given the fact -- the worst part of all is that Foley was a chairman of the House caucus on missing and exploited children which protects kids from predators. When you add all this together, this is just unbelievable, the message that the Republican leadership sends to voters as they're leaving to campaign for Congress.

SANCHEZ: So, judging from what you are saying, it sounds like you think this story could have legs, that there could be even more heat on the GOP leadership as a result of this. After all, we think back to the most recent scandal, the priest scandal and the heat was put not only on the priests who abused children, but those who were their supervisors who failed to call them on it. Correct?

RUDIN: Given the fact that the Democrats only need 15 seats and given the fact that the number of Republican seats already in play are about 25 to 30, any seat could put the Democrats into control, but as you say, given the fact that this is a seat that the Republicans should have won, Foley has always won with like 65, 70 percent of the vote, the fact that this is another seat in play, really jeopardizes their plans.

SANCHEZ: Let me ask you one question a little bit off topic because there's another hot story out there and of course, it's the book written about the Bush administration. Again in the book, Abizaid comes off as criticizing Rumsfeld, something I've never heard of before, also, the incredible feud between Condoleezza Rice and Rumsfeld where apparently Mr. Rumsfeld wasn't taking Condoleezza Rice's phone calls. Will this story, as well, have an effect on the Bush administration and Republicans and if so, how?

RUDIN: Well, look, the Republican party, the Bush White House from day one has tried to make the case that the election is about the war on terrorism. If, if the Democrats can get their way and the question goes back to the inability of the Republican White House to make the case for a sane (ph) Iraqi policy, then this is exactly where Democrats want the issues to be and where the Republicans don't want it to be. If the White House itself can't get its act together on putting together a coherent policy for the war, then how could the Republican party expect to run on that and then win on it?

SANCHEZ: And you think this Woodward book, as opposed to his other two books, will actually have an effect on the administration?

RUDIN: Well, look, I think people's minds are pretty much set up. They know that the issue is terrorism, they will vote that way. If the issue is Iraq, they will vote that way. This certainly doesn't help the White House.

SANCHEZ: Ken Rudin, interesting conversation. Thanks so much for joining us and sharing your perspective on this.

RUDIN: Rick, thank you.

SANCHEZ: Well, the book we talked about, of course, is Bob Woodward's book and there's going to be more on the Iraq war Monday night when Woodward sits down to talk about this and the Bush administration's handling of the war. Woodward's going to join Larry King Monday night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

We're going global now, heading over to our international desk.

NGUYEN: Yes, our Brenda Bernard joins us with a serious allegation between two nuclear neighbors. Tell us about it Brenda.

BERNARD: Well, an important partner in the war on terrorism is now being accused of terrorist acts. Police in India say Pakistan's spy agency masterminded the deadly Mumbai train bombings. More than 200 people were killed and another 700 wounded in the July 7th -- 11th attacks. Mumbai's police commissioner says evidence shows Pakistan's ISI planned it and a Pakistan-based Islamist militant group carried it out. A Pakistani official rejects the allegation and demands that India produce evidence.

Turning to another dispute between neighbors, Russia says it is temporarily suspending a pullout of its troops from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. This comes after they accused four Russian military officers of being spies and sent police to surround the Russian army headquarters at the Georgian capital. Russia has recalled its ambassador to Georgia amid the growing risk.

And Betty and Rick, I've got your picture of the day, some cute, cuddly cubs. China is showing off nine newborn pandas. They range in age from just under a month to 53 days.

NGUYEN: How cute are those.

BERNARD: They are gorgeous. These beautiful babies were born in a giant panda breeding center in Sichuan Province. They will make their public debut tomorrow.

NGUYEN: I would say they're ready for their close-up, that's for sure. All right. Thank you, Brenda.

SANCHEZ: Your children can now legally buy cocaine online. What's interesting about this is it's cocaine, the drink. No, it doesn't have any cocaine in it, but it's an outrage nonetheless that they would use that name on something that teenagers are going to be marketed at.

NGUYEN: We're going to talk to the inventor about that. In the meantime though, good morning, Veronica.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Betty. Hi Rick. We have been asking our viewers as you know to send in their pictures and their video when it comes to breaking news. Take a look at this. This is just one of the many submissions that we have received. We got this in from the Philippines. I will give you all the details next. That's from the dotcom desk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right. A new energy drink with the controversial name of cocaine, that's right, is getting what it wants and that's attention. We are telling you about this product, not only because it's controversial but because it is being marketed on MySpace.com, the Internet gathering place of teens and near-teens.

Visitors to the Web site are being told that they will be able to buy Cocaine online, but the drink contains no narcotics, but it does boast on its Web site of an instant rush with no crash. Jamey Kirby is the brain behind Cocaine, the energy drink and he joins us now from New York. Thanks for being with us.

JAMEY KIRBY, INVENTOR, "COCAINE": Thank you, Betty.

NGUYEN: Let me ask you the main question here. Why in the world would you call it cocaine? There's no narcotics in it. Some people are calling it very misleading and very dangerous, especially for children.

KIRBY: Well, I think misleading might be an overstatement. Cocaine is illegal. There is no way we could possibly put that in our drink and sell it on the market. And I think most people are smart enough to know that. Cocaine is synonymous with energy. It's -- that's the main reason for using the name. I mean, we thought it was absolutely the perfect name for an energy drink.

NGUYEN: You say most people are smart enough, but you are marketing this drink to children. Are you glamorizing drug use?

KIRBY: Well, to children are not our target market. Our target market ...

NGUYEN: 16 to 25, right?

KIRBY: 16 is -- they're young adults but they're not children.

NGUYEN: Teenagers and impressionable, wouldn't you say?

KIRBY: Sure and they're impressionable by songs. What are there, 100 or so songs out there that glamorize and talk about the drug cocaine, that promote the use of it. There's the famous Eric Clapton song. There's "Nirvana" songs, Frank Zappa, they've all done songs about cocaine; the kids listen to it. You know, we're not introducing the kids to anything they don't know about. And, you know, again, our target is from 16 to 25.

Actually, our target is a little bit larger than that. That's the energy drink market targets the 16-year-old to 25-year-old. We are actually trying to expand that market to a little bit of an older group of people with our product. That's why we moved away from the skateboard graphics and the extreme sports and things like that.

NGUYEN: Yes, but you know with a drink called Cocaine, especially among teenagers are going to think, this is cool, it's called cocaine.

KIRBY Sure.

NGUYEN: That's your point, right?

KIRBY: Absolutely.

NGUYEN: All right. Well, let me ask you this. The beverage, let's talk about exactly what's in it. Yes, no narcotics, but it's got a throat numbing effect. Is this true, it's 350, not 3, not 50, but 350 times stronger than Red Bull.

KIRBY: No, it's 350 percent stronger than Red Bull, which is about three-and-a-half times. One can of our drink is the equivalent energy of three-and-a-half Red Bulls.

NGUYEN: All right. And are you worried at all, though, when we were looking at the strength of this drink, that especially young people, children who are going to drink this think it's cool because of its name, it's going to have some dangerous effects on them?

KIRBY: Well, if you look at the other beverages on the market, a Starbucks 20 ounce grande coffee has 500 milligrams of caffeine. We're just slightly over half that. So we're not -- we don't have any pathological levels of caffeine in our drink. And as for the sugar, we use simple sugars, which are a little bit easier on the body than things like high fructose corn syrup and cane sugar.

So if you look at a standard Coca-Cola or a Pepsi-Cola, they have about 40 to 41, 42 grams of sugar in their drink. We have 18 grams of sugar in our drink. I think a lot of the outrage is coming, is to deal with our branding and our marketing. We are not really that much more absurd in our content than a lot of other products on the market.

NGUYEN: If you have children, would you give your children this drink? KIRBY: No, I have a son and before he turned 18, I wouldn't let him drink these types of drinks. And, you know, when I was a young kid I couldn't drink coffee. I think a lot of responsibility has to go back to the parents. When I was young, I could go to the store and buy coffee if I wanted to but I was forbidden to by my parents and I listened to my parents. So I didn't drink those types of drinks.

NGUYEN: But you can understand the outrage from parents, in fact outrage so strong, is it true that you received death threats?

KIRBY: We have received one or two death threats and some hate mail, but the response is far out -- the positive response far outweighs the negative response, even from other parents. We have gotten some positive response from law enforcement. There's a couple law enforcement agencies that have talked to us about doing anti-drug campaign for the kids.

NGUYEN: Really. That's interesting. That's interesting, because your Web site is called www.drinkcocaine.com and you even list a number of alcohol-energy drink combinations.

KIRBY: Well, again, we are also targeting our product to the -- a little bit of an older generation. You know, the FDA doesn't put a regulation on age limits for these types of drinks, so I can't go out as our company, we can't go out and say you have to be 18 years old or 16 years old or older to drink our drink.

If the FDA wants to impose regulations and the beverage industry rallies together and says let's put a regulation on how old people can be before they drink our drink, we will be all for that. We would probably lose some of our market share, but if the people feel that that's the safe and the right thing to do, we would do that. We wouldn't argue. We wouldn't fight against it.

NGUYEN: All right, well, glad to hear it, James Kirby, inventor of Cocaine, the energy drink.

KIRBY: Thank you, Betty.

NGUYEN: We appreciate your time.

SANCHEZ: Let's do a check of the headlines for you once again. Now in the news, a Florida congressman's resignation over explicit e- mails. New this morning, we have learned the House will look into some of the messages allegedly sent from former Congressman Mark Foley to a 16-year-old boy. The boy is a former House page. Foley stepped down yesterday. Some have called the e-mails sick, sick, sick.

Also, Gol Airlines in Brazil confirms wreckage of its missing 737 has been located in the Amazon rain forest. The company said the plane was carrying 149 passengers and six crew. Searchers do not believe that anybody survived. The airline says the plane was new with only 200 hours of flying time so far.

Also this weekend, First Lady Laura Bush is attending an event dear to her heart. The former librarian is hosting the Library of Congress national book festival. It's taking place at the national mall. And interestingly enough, one of the persons, one of the authors who is going to be there with his new book with her husband's administration, Bob Woodward.

We run down the top stories every 15 minutes here on CNN newsroom with in-depth coverage all morning long. Your next check of the headlines is coming up at the top of the hour.

NGUYEN: There is much more to come right here on CNN newsroom, so you want to stick around for that.

SANCHEZ: We'll be back.

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SANCHEZ: And we do welcome you back. And we want to let you know that this is your chance to say, I-report for CNN. Veronica de la Cruz does and she can tell you how you can.

DE LA CRUZ: That's right. You might be a budding journalist. You might just be really good with a camera. If so, we are looking for your pictures and your video. Earlier this morning, I showed you this picture. It was sent to us by Henrik Windrock (ph), absolutely amazing. This is of trees. Take a look at that you guys, bent and flattened by a typhoon that hit the Philippines Thursday. Look at that line of trees.

Also, this one from Manila, you can really hear the force of the wind if you really listen, and this video was sent to us by Toby Wallenberg. He took this from the window of his home. OK.

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NGUYEN: Yes, I was listening for it. It was there before. I heard it.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: That's for sure.

DE LA CRUZ: OK. Last one, if you are a science geek, let's take a look at what I- reporter Mike Davis sent to us. This is Mike's very own creation. It is the world's largest periodic table of elements. Mike's mission, to make the largest possible statement of the importance of science in our daily lives. Mike is a community college teacher at Harold Washington in Chicago. He made the table using vinyl posters to fill the windows of the daily center downtown.

And if you live in Chicago, if are visiting and you want to check it out, the display does end today. And you can always send us your pictures and your video and report to us whenever you do see news happening. You can find it online at CNN.com/exchange. And going back to that periodic table of elements, I don't know about you guys, but that was the one class that I did not do very well at.

SANCHEZ: Yes, chem. 101. NGUYEN: That's why we are journalists.

SANCHEZ: We chose to write for a living rather than analyze things.

NGUYEN: Thank you Veronica.

Well, someone who may know a little bit more about science, I sure hope so, than we do is Reynolds Wolf. Hi, Reynolds.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: All right, thank you, Reynolds.

Here's a question. What prompted a city-wide curfew in Baghdad? We'll have a live report from the Iraqi capital. That's just 10 minutes away.

SANCHEZ: Also, at the top of the hour, more fallout from a shocking Congressional resignation. We will have the details.

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