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American Morning

Foley Fallout Hits GOP Leaders; Amish School Shooting Details

Aired October 04, 2006 - 07:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien.

Republicans in Congress are likely to be playing defense once again today. No surprise there. They're trying to overcome the Mark Foley scandal. CNN congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel is live for us on Capitol Hill.

Good morning, Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Well you'll remember this time yesterday we were talking about that editorial in a leading conservative newspaper calling on Speaker Hastert to resign his speakership at once. Well as this scandal drags on and more Republican leaders are becoming at risk of finding themselves as collateral damage, they are pointing the finger of blame at others.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL, (voice over): In Cincinnati, Ohio . . .

MIKE MCCONNELL, MIKE MCCONNELL SHOW: John Boehner, welcome to the program.

KOPPEL: The second-ranking Republican in the House took aim at the chamber's top Republican.

JOHN BOEHNER: I believe I talked to the speaker, and he told me it had been taken care of. And in my position, it's in his corner. It's his responsibility.

KOPPEL: Appearing on a syndicated radio show and in a startling move, Boehner broke ranks with Speaker Dennis Hastert.

BOEHNER: The clerk of the House who runs the page program, The Page Board, all report to the speaker. And I believed that it had been dealt with.

KOPPEL: But at the same time, Boehner said he disagreed Hastert should resign. In a letter to the editor of "The Washington Times," Boehner suggested whoever leaked this sexually explicit instant messages, exchanged between Congressman Foley and underage page, had a political agenda. Speaker Hastert agreed. And in a separate radio interview warned, if he's forced to step aside, the Republican Party could suffer.

REP. DENNIS HASTERT, (R) HOUSE SPEAKER: There's people that try to tear us down. We are the insulation to protect this country. If they get to me, it looks like that, you know, they could affect our election as well.

KOPPEL: In fact, the Foley scandal is now ammunition in at least one Democrat's campaign ad. Minnesota Democrat Patty Wetterling rolled out this ad Tuesday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It shocks the conscience. Congressional leaders have admitted covering up the predatory behavior of a congressman who used the Internet to molest children.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL: Now even though a growing number of House Republicans are increasingly critical of the way their leadership, including Speaker Hastert, has handled this situation, no one within the Republican caucus as yet has called for him to resign. Even so, Speaker Hastert and his allies were in overdrive and are still in overdrive doing damage control. Late yesterday, Soledad, the speaker got a big boost from the number three ranking Republican in the house, Roy Blunt, who says the speaker has the support of the conference.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: And every day we watch and see what else develops to see if that continues. Andrea Koppel for us on Capitol Hill. Thanks, Andrea.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: The Foley scandal could not be timed any worse for Republicans hoping to keep control of Congress now inside five weeks till the election. And Foley's solidly red district in Florida could very well turn Democrat blue. CNN's John Zarrella live in West Palm Beach with more.

John, good morning.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Well, Mark Foley's attorney, David Roth, stood here yesterday afternoon and announced that, in fact, Mark Foley had been abused as a teenager. And all these new revelations about Mark Foley are stealing the spotlight from the two men running for the seat that was once Foley's.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA, (voice over): Out of Congress, out of sight. Mark Foley is still grabbing headlines. His attorney and friend, David Roth, shed new, disturbing details on the former congressman's life, saying Foley was molested as a teenager. DAVID ROTH, MARK FOLEY'S ATTORNEY: Mark does not blame the trauma he sustained as a young adolescent for his totally inappropriate e-mails and IMs. He continues to offer no excuse whatsoever for his conduct. As is so often the case with victims of abuse, Mark advises that he kept his shame to himself for almost 40 years. Specifically, Mark has asked that you be told that between the ages of 13 and 15 he was molested by a clergyman.

ZARRELLA: There was no proof or details and Roth would not disclose the clergyman's faith. Roth did say Foley wanted to publically state "he is gay." But Roth insisted Foley is not a pedophile.

On the campaign trail, the developments overshadowed the two men vying to replace Foley. Joe Negron spent his first full day as the new Republican candidate for the 16th congressional district in court. Negron was an alternate juror in a highly publicized murder case known here in Stuart, Florida, as the "Salerno Strangler." Chosen to replace Mark Foley, Negron says this isn't such a bad way to start his run.

JOE NEGRON, (R) FLORIDA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I think my civic duty to this community is way more important than my campaign.

ZARRELLA: By the lunch break, the judge had released him from that duty. A good thing. Negron needs to start shaking hands pretty quickly. His opponent, Democrat Tim Mahoney, says his front-runner status means people are finally paying attention to him and the issues.

TIM MAHONEY, (D) FLORIDA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I can now come out and talk about port security, which is something that's far more important than a political race and I can get the press to come out and we can talk about issues that really matter to the American people.

ZARRELLA: Mahoney has good reason to be encouraged. A poll over the weekend, before Negron was named his opponent, showed Mahoney leading. He held a three point advantage, 49 to 46 percent. Voters were told a vote for Foley goes to the new Republican candidate. A red district last week leading blue this week.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: Now Negron says he really does like those numbers, the closeness of those numbers, even before his name was ever put out there. But, of course, it is also way too soon to know whether these continuing new revelations about Mark Foley will make it even more difficult for the Republicans to hold on to a seat that they never thought, never dreamt would be in jeopardy. We will, of course, be covering the developments continuously right up through the election and we've got our CNN "Campaign Express" there with us to help us through these next weeks.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: And, John, the ballot will not be reprinted before the election, will it?

ZARRELLA: No, that's exactly right. It will be marked Foley's name on the ballot. And that's one of the challenges for the Republicans to get it across for their voters that, in fact, if they vote for Mark Foley, they are actually voting for Negron.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, John Zarrella in West Palm. Thank you very much.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: The first of the funerals will be held tomorrow for the victims of that horrible shooting at an Amish schoolhouse. Five girls were killed in the attack, five more still in the hospital. Four of them in critical condition this morning. And now we're learning more about the gunmen, Charles Roberts, and his motive. CNN senior correspondent Allan Chernoff is live in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, for us.

Good morning, Allan.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

The crime here is just so horrific. The shooting of ten little girls in a schoolhouse just beyond this cornfield. And police are just wondering what possibly could have been the motive here. Well, they seem to be finding an answer here.

They actually did reveal yesterday that Charles Roberts confessed a secret to his wife just before he began this shooting spree in a phone conversation, on a cell phone, and also in a suicide note that he left to his wife. Roberts claimed that 20 years ago when he was 12 years old he had molested two of his very, very young relatives. They were just preschoolers at that time.

In addition, the police said that Roberts probably was planning to molest these very schoolgirls. And they said that Roberts had a tremendous amount of anger because of a loss of his first-born daughter, Elise, who died after living for only 20 minutes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMM. JEFFREY MILLER, PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE: Roberts was angry with God for taking Elise is outlined in the suicide note, stating that it had changed his life forever and he was not the same since it happened. Roberts expressed hate towards himself and towards God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: Police say there's no evidence that Roberts actually molested the girls in the schoolhouse. In fact, they say they believe that he panicked when the police arrived and simply began shooting.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: How do you think the Amish community is going to be able to use this faith to get through this terrible disaster, really, for the community?

CHERNOFF: Soledad, that's exactly what's happening here. The Amish are absolutely relying on their faith and their very tight-knit community. They have a tremendous social support here. But also the Amish do believe that everything is preordained. That God wills whatever happens. And they also believe very much in forgiveness. And one reverend told me last night, who had been at the home of one of the victims, and he saw the parents preparing the little girl's body for burial. And even as that was occurring, the father, the reverend told me, was actually speaking of the need to forgive.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Allan Chernoff for us this morning in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. Thanks, Allan.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: North Korea's neighbors ready to talk about Kim Jong-il's nuclear bomb test threat. Though they won't be talking to North Korea, Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, will be heading first for China, then to South Korea, to talk to his counterparts there. The meetings previously scheduled but now infused with much more urgency. All three countries approaching these talks with subtle variations on how to respond to North Korea. Japan saying it simply cannot accept such a test. South Korea saying the response should be cool headed and stern. And China now calling for calm and restraint. For more on that we turn to Beijing bureau chief Jaime Florcruz.

Jaime.

JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, you're right, China is urging calm in this very tense situation. In fact, China is in the middle of a week-long national holiday celebrating the founding of the people's republic of China. Just like the July 4th in the U.S. But anyone who may have expected a quiet week here were in for a big surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORCRUZ, (voice over): Beijing in a festive mood. Chinese citizens celebrating a week-long national holiday. But there's nothing to celebrate when it comes to this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, (through translator): The U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the APRK (ph) to conduct a nuclear test.

FLORCRUZ: It's not clear when it will conduct the test, but the report triggered alarm around the world. Japan, which has a newly installed prime minister, says North Korea's plan to conduct a nuclear test is simply not acceptable. The U.S. calls it "a very provocative act." Like South Korea, China prefers to resolve the crisis through diplomacy. China urged North Korea to keep calm and return to negotiations. China is one of the few countries with significant leverage in North Korea.

MARK FITZPATRICK, INTL. INST. FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES: If China were to signal that they would cut off the oil and the trade with North Korea that keeps its economy afloat, then North Korea would have to take that into consideration and wouldn't go through with the test.

FLORCRUZ: Maybe, but maybe not. In July, China's prime minister publicly asked North Korea not to proceed with plans to test fire missiles. But North Korea defied Beijing, prompting the U.N. Security Council to condemn the tests and impose limited sanctions. Still an American scholar who recently spent five days meeting officials of Pyongyang says the North Koreans are willing to negotiate.

SELIG HARRISON, CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY: Suspending their nuclear program, a missile test moratorium and an agreement not to transfer nuclear weapons or (INAUDIBLE) material to any third parties like al Qaeda. They say they're willing to put all that on the table if the Bush administration will put on the table the things they care about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORCRUZ: Miles, countries in the region, including the U.S., do care about one thing. They all do not want a nuclear North Korea. But just how to talk North Korea out of the edge remains a very complex and also very elusive and controversial questions.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: To say the least. Jaime Florcruz in Beijing, thank you.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Other members of the U.N. Security Council may be the next to weigh in when they meet later today. U.S. officials are already talking, though, using words like reckless and unacceptable. CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon this morning for us.

Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

Well, indeed, alarm around the world, including here in Washington where the Bush administration is, of course, very much opposed to any North Korean nuclear test, very much trying to work with the coalition partners to get this not to happen. But the question with North Korea fundamentally is always, what is that country's intentions, what is that county's capabilities? Intentions, no one simply knows whether they will go ahead with it or not. Capabilities, that's the question.

The U.S. intelligence community, the U.S. military now believes their assessment is that, indeed, North Korea absolutely can conduct a nuclear test. There has been signs of movement, of people, technology, vehicles at the suspected weapons test sight and at a number of affiliated sites that are thought to be seismic remote monitoring stations. All of that movement happening in the last several days and weeks. So the belief is that North Korea is moving everything into place to conduct such a test. Whether they will carry out that intention and do it, no one can say at this point.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us. Thanks, Barbara.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's get a check of the forecast. Chad Myers at the CNN Center with that.

Hello, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, a new ID theft alert to tell you about. We'll tell you why millions of Americans on Medicare or Medicaid are at risk on this one.

Plus, a closer look at the investigation into the Mark Foley e- mail scandal. We'll explain why it may be impossible for him to cover his digital tracks. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: ID theft watch now. The millions of people on Medicare and Medicaid are at risk of identity theft. Federal investigates say that they've uncovered nearly 50 flaws in the computer system the government uses to send bills and communicate with doctors. The investigators warn that all personal information in the system could be vulnerable as a result.

Computers clearly going to play a big part in the investigation of the former congressman, Mark Foley. CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg spoke with a cyberspace investigator about just how the FBI might be proceeding. Here's a look at his report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): The FBI won't discuss how they're trying to gather high-tech evidence in the Mark Foley case, but it's likely similar to methods used by law enforcement and businesses all the time. We don't yet know all the details of the Foley situation, but what if anyone wanted to conceal their online missteps.

JOHN MALLERY, COMPUTER FORENSICS EXPERT: The man behind the curtain with the applications and operating system are doing behind the scenes, that's the realm of the computer forensics examiner. SIEBERG: The oldest rule in the book for cyber sleuths is delete doesn't mean gone. As a computer forensics consultant, it's John Mallery's mantra.

MALLERY: You have a library. And then for those of you that remember card catalogs. If you take a card out of the card catalog, the book is still on the shelf. When you delete a file, the pointers go away, the data still stays there. It can stay there for five seconds. It can stay there for years. It stays there until the operating system decides to write over that deleted file with new data.

SIEBERG: Apparently the congressional page saved his e-mails and instant messages, possibly by simply copying or pasting them or they may have been monitored electronically. Regardless, experts say, it's nearly impossible for anyone to cover their virtual footprints. Mallery gives me a rudimentary but effective demonstration of how deleted data can be recovered.

MALLERY: In this case you have a deleted word document. I'm going to scroll down. And what you're looking at here is the contents of this deleted word document. There's additional information added to the file when you create a document. So the user name can often be added to that document, the company name, the computer name, the original location.

SIEBERG: So if I delete something, is it gone?

MALLERY: If you just delete something, no, it is not done.

SIEBERG: If I empty the recycle bin?

MALLERY: It's not gone.

SIEBERG: And if I format the hard drive?

MALLERY: It's not gone.

SIEBERG: More data could be uncovered as cyber sleuths dig deeper into Foley's digital domain. Especially because he could have used numerous computers or different devices.

Any time you turn on a Blackberry or a computer, open a file and type a key or send a message, there's a record. Mallery says anyone who believes otherwise is either arrogant or ignorant.

MALLERY: The only safe computer is one that you never turn on and you bury in the ground six feet underground.

SIEBERG: Daniel Sieberg, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, the Dow Jones closes at an all-time high. What's behind the record surge? It's a three letter word and it begins with "o" and ends with "l". We'll let you guess what it is. We're "Minding Your "Business next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: So did you guess my clue? It begins with "o," it ends with "l"?

S. O'BRIEN: Owl.

M. O'BRIEN: Producer Alex (INAUDIBLE) said owls? Is it owls that are bringing the market up so high? Stephanie Elam is here to tell you why the markets . . .

S. O'BRIEN: Is he cracking you up today, Stephanie?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I don't think that it's really about Halloween just yet. No owls. And we're going to stay away from all the spooky things and focus on the good things, you know, like the Dow record. And it does have to do with oil. That's what we're looking at here. If your mind's not awake yet, that's the word here.

But yesterday we did hit a new record on the Dow, closing at 11,727. A few points better than the close on January 14, 2000, which was a previous record day. But since then the Dow had a huge collapse. We had 9/11, which, obviously, after that, the markets took a big hit but then rebounded. And the Dow has actually done much better than the Nasdaq and the S&P since that January 14, 2000 mark.

Now Nasdaq reached its all-time high a couple of months later and hasn't even gotten halfway back to a new record. So if you look at the Dow 30, the best-performing stock, do you want to guess?

M. O'BRIEN: Not GM, for sure.

ELAM: No.

S. O'BRIEN: It's not Ford.

ELAM: No. It would be Altria. Altria. Which, at the time, you may have known it better as Phillip Morris. Because that's back in 2000 it had multi year lows in 2000 due to those legal concerns and since then they've performed well.

But now he's the big questions. Something we were talking about earlier. Is the market going to continue at this rate? Well, let's take a look at some of the reasons that we have here of why they will continue.

First of all, those falling oil prices. They could continue into the winter, but obviously the thing about oil, it reacts to whatever it going on in the global marketplace. If there's war, if anything happening there, that is an issue there. Also the economy. Many Fed people watching the Feds saying, they found a nice sweet spot. It's not going to fast, not too slow, so therefore we've got a goldilocks economy and that is also good.

M. O'BRIEN: Just right.

ELAM: Just right.

And then the home price declines are also happening slowly enough so that it won't actually crash the markets and that's also good. So all of these things are helping us out to keep the markets where they are.

S. O'BRIEN: So it could for the longish range.

ELAM: It could. It's a good thing.

M. O'BRIEN: And the Nasdaq is a lagered because it's just tech heavy and that . . .

ELAM: That's the main reason. And, you know, after 2000 there was that tech falloff and there we go.

M. O'BRIEN: Right. We heard about that one.

ELAM: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. What's next? What you got going?

ELAM: We're going to talk about some toys. Expensive toys now that we are looking at holiday season.

S. O'BRIEN: Toys for kids or toys for people like Miles?

ELAM: Well, that might be the same. That could be the same.

M. O'BRIEN: The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys, right?

ELAM: I don't know. I don't know how to answer that one.

S. O'BRIEN: She's been on the set for an hour and 26 minutes and she's already giving you a hard time.

M. O'BRIEN: Stephanie's back. Stephanie's back.

All right.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Stephanie.

ELAM: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we're going to have much more on the Mark Foley scandal as well. What are the former pages saying about the congressman?

Then, later, we take a look at the challenges of getting aid to Darfur. It's no easy task. Especially when rivers literally pop out of nowhere. We'll explain ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) S. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning.

At least 12 people are dead, 70 wounded by a series of bombs in Baghdad. The bombs went off in a Christian section of Baghdad. They were aimed at the Iraqi minister of industry and he wasn't there at the time.

President Bush is wrapping up a western campaign swing stumping for Republican candidates. He says he's disgusted by former Congressman Mark Foley's lurid e-mails to teenage pages. Aides say the Foley scandal will not be a campaign distraction.

In California, a hearing today in the child pornography case of one-time JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Karr. Prosecutors want copies of the original child porn photos admitted into evidence. The defense says no way.

Welcome back, everybody, I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm Miles O'Brien. We're glad your with us this morning.

This morning, Republicans all across the country are scrambling to political battle stations, trying to fend off further damage from the Mark Foley page scandal.

Here's the latest for you.

The ex-Congressman's attorney says Foley is gay and was molested by a priest when he was a teenager. The attorney denies Foley ever had any sexual contact with any minor.

Meanwhile, the finger-pointing among Republican leaders continues. The number two man in the House, John Boehner, says it was House Speaker Dennis Hastert's responsibility to deal with Foley. That said, Boehner says Hastert should not resign.

Hastert told the Rush Limbaugh radio audience he is not resigning, just trying to do the right thing.

And another Republican leader, John Shadegg of Arizona, released a letter vouching for the speaker. He says calls for Hastert's resignation are unwarranted and fundamentally unfair.

So what do the pages themselves have to say about Mark Foley?

CNN's Brian Todd with that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The attorney for a disgraced former congressman tells reporters that disturbing incidents in his client's past may have contributed to the behavior that ruined his career.

DAVID ROTH, MARK FOLEY'S ATTORNEY: Mark has asked that you be told that between the ages of 13 and 15, he was molested by a clergyman. Mark will address this issue further upon his release from treatment. He very much wanted to release the name of the individual, the church affiliation and other details, but was advised by civil counsel to delay that decision pending his completion of treatment.

TODD: Along with that, David Roth says Mark Foley accepts responsibility for inappropriate e-mails and instant messages with young men, blaming alcoholism and mental illness, but says Foley denies ever having sexual contact with a minor.

Roth also says Foley is a gay man. This follows other surprises about Mark Foley's alleged conducts with contacts with former pages. According to ABC News, Foley had Internet sex with a former page just before going to vote on the House floor in 2003. ABC says its transcripts of those exchanges were provided by former pages.

A different former house page tells CNN he was warned early on about Foley. Mark Beck-Heymen (ph) didn't want to go on camera. He says the first warnings about Foley were general in nature and he says it wasn't long in that summer of 1995 before Foley introduced himself and got friendly.

Foley asked the page, quote, "Want to go out for some ice cream? Beck-Heymen says he turned that down because he was working and says Foley later told him they should get together in San Diego the following summer. Beck-Heymen says he never did. Beck-Heymen was a Republican then but is now a Democrat. Beck-Heymen says he didn't think much of Foley's approaches to him at the time but they seemed more significant in retrospect.

CNN contacted several other former pages to see if they got warnings about Foley or other congressmen, some said they heard gossip. But ...

SAMUEL BURKE, FORMER CONGRESSIONAL PAGE: They never said stay away from this congressman, never.

KARA FRANK, FORMER CONGRESSIONAL PAGE: He was very nice to us and again, I never got that creepy feeling from him or anything. And I never heard any stories. So to hear this, it's just very shocking.

TODD: Another former page tells CNN, quote, "A supervisor mentioned Foley was a bit odd or flaky and did not connote by tone or otherwise that he should be avoided."

A senior federal law enforcement official tells CNN FBI agents are trying to track down former pages to question them about Foley, and to make sure the electronic communications attributed to him are authentic.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: In our next hour we'll speak with Republican Congressman Ray Lahood, who is calling for the congressional page program to be completely abolished -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel just about 30 minutes ago. She's in the Middle East to meet with the president of the Palestinian Authority, and then with Israel's prime minister. You're looking at pictures of Rice's motorcade, headed to the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem. The secretary of state certainly has her work cut out for her.

Let's get right to CNN's John Vause. He's in Jerusalem.

Good morning, John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

The plan here is for the secretary of state to meet first with the be beleaguered president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, because the U.S. wants to find ways to bolster his leadership, because his political survival is seen as crucial if there's any chance, however distant, of trying to revive the Mideast peace process.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE (voice-over): America's No. 1 diplomat on a mission for peace in the Middle East. Handshakes and smiles as Condoleezza Rice meets, if not a coalition of the willing, then at least Arab leaders who will listen.

From a U.S. point of view, it's all about supporting the good guys, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, while trying to build a united front against Washington's bad guys like Iran's Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and Islamic militants Hamas, now in power in the Palestinian territories, all of this with Israel's support.

ERAN LEHERMAN, DIR., AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEES: Israel is not alone in the region. The United States can help provide a framework where we feel we are standing side by side with like-minded leaders, looking at the Iranian threat, looking at the Iranian proxies and how they should be dealt with.

VAUSE: And building that coalition, once again, might just come down to what seems to be impossible -- peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECY. OF STATE: I was very pleased to hear a broad discussion of the challenges facing the Palestinians and ideas as to how we might support Mahmoud Abbas, because of course tomorrow I will go to Ramallah to talk to President Abbas, and I would hope that he knows how admired he is and how respected he is in this group. There's a great desire to help him to help the Palestinian people.

VAUSE: Secretary Rice has been here six times before. In the eyes of the Palestinians, the best she has to show, a short-lived deal with Israel to open a border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. ZIAD ABU ZIAD, PALESTINIAN ANALYST: We are used to seeing very nice statements from the Bush administration, but no action on the ground.

VAUSE: Secretary Rice arrives amid some of the worst fighting between Palestinian factions in years. President Abbas is locked in a power struggle with his Hamas-led government. The gunmen have been shooting it out on the streets of Gaza, burning offices in the West Bank, and Israel's prime minister's Ehud Olmert popularity is at an all-time low. Polls here show many here believe he bungled the war with Hezbollah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Expectations on restarting the peace process on all sides are low. The best outcome for Secretary Rice could simply bye to get both the Israelis and the Palestinians to start talking -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: John Vause for us this morning in Jerusalem. Thank you, John -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: In Africa, more than two million people do not have a place to call home cause of the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, and they're refugees now, escaping the horrors of genocide, now living in makeshift camps.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Africa and shows us how difficult it is to get humanitarian aid to those in desperate need.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Providing aid to refugees along the war-torn Darfur border sometimes means just getting there. That is often much more difficult than it seems, with crossed fingers, landing on dirt runways.

As far as I can tell this is place civilization has forgotten. On this day the transnational highway, yes, this is the best road in Chad, is suddenly flooded.

(on camera) It is the rainy season here in Chad. You can see rivers like this literally popping up out of nowhere, making it very difficult for cars to pass along this road. This is supposed to be a road right here.

Two things happen. One, it is difficult to get supplies into the refugee camps, but it also cuts down some of the violence since we can't get to the refugees.

(voice-over) Today we think we can make it across and continue to the Daza (ph) camp on the Sudan border. We can't. Bad idea.

LAURA PEREZ, UNICEF: During five months of the year here in Chad, there's a rainy season, which means that all the bodies and the rivers get filled with water. It makes it very difficult for us to cross those rivers and get our supplies to the refugee camps and to the other (ph) camps.

GUPTA: As the UNICEF trucks we are in start to sink, we struggle to stay afloat, climbing higher and higher.

(on camera) It is often very difficult to get to some of these refugee camps. Case in point, I'm standing on top of a car, in a car that has now been stuck in a river bed. We have to cross over this -- what used to be road to actually get to some of eastern Chad's most populated refugee camps.

(voice-over) And here is a clear example of the real daily challenges that aid organizations face. Just getting across the road proves impossible. Finally, we give up. Without a clear idea of just how deep the water is, we wade across. It is only chest deep today, but the rainy season is still upon us.

As the water gets high, the refugee camp supplies get low, cut off. Providing aid in a war-torn area sometimes means just getting there.

PEREZ: If we don't preposition materials ahead of that rainy season, materials such as vaccinations and medical equipment and food, it's very hard for us to have access to the population on the other side of the river.

GUPTA: Today we don't even accomplish that.

(on camera): Eventually we all ended up walking across that river. These rivers, or waddies, can literally spring up out of nowhere.

And it's worth pointing out that while the rainy season is still upon us, it's only going to be here for a couple more weeks. Now many of the refugees that we talked to are worried. They're happy that the supplies are going t be getting in, but they're worried that the rebels might start coming in as well. That's a concerning fact.

Also the types of supplies that we're talking about are things like water, obviously, but not just water, also purification tablets and supplies to sanitize the water. Food, but also things like oral rehydration salts, tarps, latrines and of course medicines.

It's worth pointing out that many of these supplies, for example with UNICEF, come from as far away as Copenhagen. To get an idea of just how hard it is to get those supplies from one location simply to another.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Democratic Republic of Congo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Sanjay will be reporting with Anderson Cooper all this week from Africa.

Here's Anderson with a look at what else he'll have -- Anderson. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, tonight on "360," why the killing fields of the Congo are as close as your cell phone and your laptop. Both contain metals that come from the Congo. The people who are mining those metals, including kids, aren't the ones getting rich. That story and of course the latest breaking details on the unfolding Republican scandal. "360" tonight 10:00 p.m. Eastern -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Anderson.

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S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, much more on the Mark Foley scandal. Foley checked into rehab after he resigned from Congress. But are he and other troubled people using addictions as a copout? We'll take a look ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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S. O'BRIEN: With his career wrecked by scandal, Congressman Mark Foley is taking a familiar road to recovery, he entered a treatment facility for alcoholism. But has rehab become a refuge for famous names in trouble?

Let's get more now from CNN's Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Mark Foley rides out the storm in rehab, a storm he created by allegedly sending sexual messages to teenage boys, his lawyer is blaming alcohol for the former congressman's behavior.

ROTH: He is absolutely, positively not a pedophile.

ROWLANDS: Over the years, it's been a familiar drill. When the going gets tough, politicians and celebrities go to rehab. Just this year, Ohio Congressman Bob Ney checked into rehab for alcoholism after admitting he accepted inappropriate gifts and Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy retreated to a clinic after crashing his car on Capitol Hill.

REP. PATRICK KENNEDY (D), RHODE ISLAND: That's not even excuse for what happened Wednesday evening. But it is a reality of fighting a chronic condition for which I'm taking full responsibility.

ROWLANDS: Mel Gibson blamed the booze after his drunken anti- Semitic tirade and checked in for treatment as did TV personality Pat O'Brien, who went into rehab after his sexual phone messages were leaked to the media.

HARVEY LEVIN, MANAGING EDITOR, TMZ.COM: What rehab does is it creates the safe haven for the celebrity. He basically has this kind of, this past to be able to do what he needs to do to for four or six or eight weeks and hopefully, for him there will be another scandal and people will be off his case. ROWLANDS: Politicians going to rehab after getting in trouble is nothing new. More than 10 years ago, Oregon Senator Bob Packwood apologized for his behavior and checked into rehab after more than a dozen women accused him of sexual harassment.

You can even go back more than 25 years to Arkansas Congressman Wilbur Mills.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was it like when you first had to admit to yourself that you were an alcoholic?

WILBUR MILLS, FMR. U.S. CONGRESSMAN: Oh, it was devastating. I had become the lowest thing that God ever let live.

ROWLANDS: Mills ran into trouble after he was caught with this exotic dancer, Fanny Fox, that caused an uproar on Capitol Hill. Mills checked himself in for treatment and retired two years later.

While skeptics may think that treatment is a copout, experts say alcohol and drugs can truly cause some people to do outrageous things.

DR. DREW PINSKY, ADDICTION SPECIALIST: Things they do when they're intoxicated, when they're in their disease, are shameful. They feel awful about it up. When they sober up, they look at it and can't believe they've done some of those things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mark has been admitted into an alcoholism, substance abuse and mental health facility as an in-patient and we anticipate that he will be there a minimum of 30 days and possibly, if not probably, longer.

ROWLANDS (on camera): Medical experts say rehab should last as long as it takes for somebody to start responding to treatment. But when it comes to politicians, or celebrities in trouble, some people think that rehab lasts as long as it takes for a story to go away.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, you better start shopping now if you want to buy all the hottest gifts this holiday season. We'll tell you why in MINDING YOUR BUSINESS.

Plus, an incredible Nobel Prize-winning discovery by two American scientists.

Find out why Stephen Hawking calls it the greatest discovery of the century, if not of all time. What is that discovery. You'll find out if you stay tuned.

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M. O'BRIEN: The Nobel Prize Committee is doling out honors, just gave the chemistry award to American Roger Kornberg. Kornberg's research focused on how cells use genetic information to produce proteins.

And the physics awards goes to two more Americans John Mather and George Smoot. They won for their discovery of small temperature differences in the cosmic background radiation. The discovery an important missing link in proof the universe began with a Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. Using a NASA satellite, Mathers and Moot essentially captured a baby picture of our universe. Not seen here. Do we have the picture of the cosmic -- well, I guess we don't. We'll try to get for you later.

There's a great shot of him a few years ago. Anyway, it shows clumping, if you can imagine this picture, if shows clumping right after the Big Bang, helping explain how our universe formed into planets and stars.

We'll get that to you.

S. O'BRIEN: How old do you think that picture was of that scientist?

M. O'BRIEN: Mid '80s?

S. O'BRIEN: If hair is like carbon dating, mid-80s yes.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm sure he's thrilled at that that was the subject.

M. O'BRIEN: He just won more than a million bucks for a Nobel Prize. He doesn't care. What does he care? All right.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up in just a moment, we'll take a look at our top stories, including the very latest in the Foley scandal. There's a new twist to tell you about. We've got some shocking details from the fallen congressman's past. And the House Speaker Dennis Hastert now responding to pressure to step down. We'll talk about all that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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