Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
North Korea Threat; Taliban Resurgence; Mark Foley Investigation; America Votes 2006
Aired October 18, 2006 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Our top story, the North Korean nuclear crisis and the mission of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice trying to head off a nuclear arms race. Secretary Rice arrived in Tokyo several hours ago, immediately assured the Japanese the U.S. would defend them.
Zain Verjee is the only television correspondent traveling with the secretary of state on her trip to Asia. She joins us on the line now from Tokyo -- Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, one of Secretary Rice's goals, essentially, to get regional powers to implement the U.N. Security Council resolution that slapped sanctions against North Korea. Since the North Korean nuclear test, though, Japan has been feeling increasingly threatened.
Secretary Rice said that she had this message to Japan: Don't worry, the U.S. stands with Japan, the security alliance is strong. And she added that the U.S. would "the full range of security commitments."
Now, the reason that that's important, Miles, is essentially because Japan has this pacifist constitution. And that basically means that it can't use any armed force. And it's not really equipped for battle. So Japan relies on the U.S. security umbrella to defend itself from any threat.
M. O'BRIEN: Zain, give us a sense if there's much talk there about possibly developing -- Japan developing its own nuclear weapons.
VERJEE: There are fears in the region that Japan would want to go nuclear. The Japanese foreign minister in a press conference earlier today said, look, Japan is just not going to do that. And that was that. There were fears that that would occur. Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, had also said that that wasn't going to happen.
So, by all accounts, that's not going to be the road that Japan goes under -- or goes down, rather. It's going to be under the U.S.'s security umbrella, and use the U.S. to defend itself from any threat.
M. O'BRIEN: And looking ahead, she's headed to Seoul, South Korea, next -- the secretary of state, that is. And she's going to get a very different kind of response there, isn't she?
VERJEE: Yes, she's going to have a tougher time there, Miles. A much greater challenge in China, in South Korea.
They're both angry that North Korea conducted this nuclear test, but they're in a difficult predicament because they don't want to push North Korea so hard economically that the regime ultimately collapses. If that were the case, there would be millions of refugees that would pour into China, into South Korea. It would destabilize the region, and it would have huge economic consequences for both countries at a time where both China and South Korea really want to focus on economic growth.
M. O'BRIEN: Zain Verjee, who is the only television reporter with the secretary of state.
Thank you very much -- Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The NATO commander in Afghanistan says mistakes were made, and he says it's those mistakes that have helped fuel the resurgence of the Taliban.
CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon for us this morning.
Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.
British NATO general David Richards talking to reporters yesterday said in his view there's about six months left to show the people of Afghanistan real progress or they may lose faith with the coalition. This, of course, as there has been a Taliban resurgence across the country. General Richards saying that in his view, U.S. troops may have moved too quickly in past months and not gained the confidence of the people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
U.K. LT. GEN. DAVID RICHARDS, COMMANDER, NATO FORCE IN AFGHANISTAN: The international community's reconstruction and development efforts were pretty good, but for some reason they didn't -- they didn't appear what was being promised to the people. And there's been a disconnect between expectations and delivery. Both in terms of security, as the Taliban got more confident and realized it wasn't yet over and they had this opportunity, and the same in terms of reconstruction and development.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: But, Soledad, as General Richards went on to say, two of the issues that he felt needed to be addressed may sound a bit familiar to people. He said that Afghan security forces just weren't on the job in those early days and that you can't fight the insurgents just for the sake of fighting them, that that really gets you no progress and gets you nowhere.
Very strongly he feels they need to get a handle on security and start delivering that reconstruction to the people so that they don't turn back to the Taliban -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us this morning.
Thank you, Barbara -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: House Majority Leader John Boehner claims he said all he's going to say about ex-congressman Mark Foley's contacts with teen pages. But that probably won't satisfy the Ethics Committee investigating the scandal. He is scheduled to appear in front of the committee tomorrow.
We get the latest from Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The House Ethics Committee will continue its probe into the "who knew what when" of the Mark Foley scandal later today with an importance witness, and that's Congressman Rodney Alexander. The Louisiana Republican sponsored the page who had an e-mail exchange with Mark Foley last year that made the man so uncomfortable, he sent it to an aide to Congressman Alexander saying it was "Sick, sick, sick."
Now, Congressman Alexander is apparently the first lawmaker to bring this issue to the attention of the speaker's office. That led to a quiet rebuke by the chairman of the Page Board and the former House clerk.
Now, the committee, which meets in secret, has been working at a breakneck pace. They have several key witnesses left to meet with, but it is still unclear whether or not they will be able to conclude their business before Election Day, three weeks from now, and decide whether or not anyone in the GOP leadership should have or could have done more to stop Mark Foley.
Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Both political parties in a tough political battle for control of Congress this fall. You've heard about that a little bit. One very tight race pits Missouri Republican senator Jim Talent against Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill.
CNN Chief National Correspondent John King in Kansas City with the CNN Election Express with more.
Hello, John.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.
You know, Democrats are increasingly confident they will take back the House in next month's midterm elections. It's a steeper challenge to take back the Senate. If they are to achieve that goal, they think it is absolutely essential they take back this Senate seat once held by a guy named Harry Truman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you turn your forms in? If you've filled out a 72-hour form...
KING (voice over): Southwest Missouri is conservative country, the Bible Belt. The stakes of this year's Senate race lost on no one.
GARY NORDLER, MISSOURI STATE SENATOR: This race will be decisive in determining who controls the United States Senate in the next term.
KING: Introduction over, incumbent Republican Jim Talent quickly draws distinctions he thinks will make a difference in these parts.
SEN. JIM TALENT (R), MISSOURI: I believe marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman.
(APPLAUSE)
TALENT: And so I supported the Marriage amendment to the United States Constitution. My opponent didn't. I supported the ban on partial-birth abortions. She's opposed to that.
CLAIRE MCCASKILL, STATE AUDITOR: Go Cardinals.
KING: State auditor Claire McCaskill lost a close race for governor two years ago, but those big margins in St. Louis and Kansas City are not enough to offset a dismal showing in rural communities.
MCCASKILL: Big mistake. I've been to rural Missouri constantly in this race. I've listened. They're frustrated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have a moment I can ask you a couple of questions?
KING: At GOP headquarters in conservative Joplin, calls to Republican voters do turn up evidence some are looking elsewhere this time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you support Senator Jim Talent or auditor Claire McCaskill for the United States Senate? McCaskill? OK.
KING: At Joplin's First Presbyterian Church, Pastor Cliff Mansley predicts talk of major conservative angst will be proven wrong come Election Day.
REV. CLIFF MANSLEY, PASTOR, FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: There are going to be some people who are frustrated with what they see, but I think that's a fairly small percentage of people in terms of how they vote.
KING: But in this race and similar Senate contests in Ohio, Virginia, and Tennessee, just a small shift in rural communities could be enough for Democrats. And Talent's sharpening attacks reflect GOP jitters.
At a debate Monday night in conservative Springfield, he demanded McCaskill release her husband's tax returns.
TALENT: And we have reason to believe that maybe she and her husband haven't paid all of them.
KING: McCaskill called it desperate smear.
Four years ago, Talent and the president campaigned shoulder to shoulder in southwest Missouri. This year, not one mention of Mr. Bush in the senator's 15-minute stump speech.
TALENT: Because I'm -- I'm -- he's not running in the race.
KING: It's one of those little differences that could affect the margins in the Bible Belt and the balance of power in Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: And because of the stakes, this is one of those races where the Republicans are rushing in, hoping their financial advantage in the final weeks help them. That money is coming in for late TV ads, also coming in for a very aggressive "get out the vote" effort, Miles. Republicans do have a financial advantage. One thing we won't give them is the bus.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. That's for sure. We're not doing that. Especially not this early in the game.
Let's talk about what's going on, what voters are think background in rural Missouri, these conservative voters. The presumption is that the Foley scandal might have them upset.
Are you finding that?
KING: That is a worry on the Republican side. And they are saying in their polling in the conservative areas they're not finding that, at least not yet. They might be upset about it, but what they're not finding is the key thing -- they say these voters aren't saying they are going to stay home because of it.
What Democrats are saying, though, is even if a small percentage stay home in southwest Missouri, that will help the Democrats. And Democrats, Miles, are saying they're beginning to see evidence this is not so much an issue with conservatives on the values front, but more an issue with Independents who say it's more evidence to them that the Republicans in Washington will do anything to keep their power.
Democrats are hoping it helps them with Independents. There's quite a few here in Missouri.
M. O'BRIEN: So it becomes more of a power issue than a moral issue, in other words.
KING: That's what Democrats are saying they're seeing in their polling. And we'll find out the answer in just three weeks.
People are mentioning it, and the question is, how long does it stay in the news? And again, three weeks is a long time. Will something else dominate the headlines when we get a little bit closer to the elections?
M. O'BRIEN: A veritable eternity. Yes, it is. All right. We'll have a lot of mileage on the bus before three weeks is over.
Thank you very much.
John King in Kansas City.
A reminder to you. CNN's Lou Dobbs is in Kansas City as well -- 7:00 Eastern tonight he'll host a town hall meeting looking at the war on the middle class right here on CNN tonight.
For more on this or any other political story, we invite you to check out our ticker -- cnn.com/ticker is the place to find that -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: In America this morning, in Kentucky, a social worker is dead. Now the search continues for the baby that she was caring for.
Nine-month-old Saige Terrell was in state custody. He was brought to his mom's house for a supervised visit on Monday. Police say that's where he was abducted and the social worker beaten to death. Authorities now believe that Saige is with his mother, Renee Terrell, and her boyfriend, Christopher Luttrell.
An Indiana man will spend the rest of his life behind bars. He was sentenced to 160 years in prison for murdering his family. Jeffrey Pelley shot his father, his stepmother, his two stepsisters back in 1989. The motive, prosecutors say, he was mad he couldn't attend the prom.
In Texas, a federal judge has tossed the guilty verdict against Enron founder Ken Lay. Lay died of heart disease back in July. He was waiting to be sentenced for convictions stemming from Enron's collapse. Well, the judge said that since Lay is dead he can't appeal, so the guilty verdict is now vacated.
The ruling doesn't apply to the many civil suits that are now against Lay's estate.
And in California, baseball's great past and present gather to remember Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle. His coach, his teammates joined Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson in a memorial service yesterday.
Lidle and his flight instructor died last week in a plane crash into a Manhattan high-rise. It is still not clear just who was flying the plane.
M. O'BRIEN: Some of the stories we continue to follow this morning. Mark Foley is expected to name the priest who he claims abused him as a teen.
And a flood warning in effect until tomorrow for parts of Texas and Louisiana. We'll have a weather update from Chad in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Here's some of the stories we're following this morning.
President Bush declares Hawaii a disaster area after that big quake caused damage over the weekend to the islands.
And early snow sweeping across Colorado, making for a slippery morning commute. And if you listen carefully, you can probably hear the champagne corks popping at ski resorts.
Happy to see that, right, Chad?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Happy to see some natural snow, yes, absolutely, you bet.
Some sunshine today should make it pretty good out there, although 25 right now at Denver. And they are de-icing in Denver. So that may slow you down a few minutes, although they really know how to do it there.
Atlanta, 45-minute delays now. Charlotte and Philadelphia, both with 15 minutes.
New York City today, 75. Enjoy it. It's the warmest day of the rest of the week. Your temperatures are back down into the 60-degree range for the weekend.
A big trough is in the West. It's cold out there. That's why it snowed in Colorado. Well, now that trough is going to move to the East and temperatures are definitely going to be going down for the rest of the week, into the weekend, all the way from the Mississippi Valley, right on down into Atlanta -- 82 today, 68 by Saturday and Sunday -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad. Thank you.
Disgraced former congressman Mark Foley is going to name the priest he says sexually abused him when he was a teenager. Foley's lawyer told the media the abuser's identity could be revealed as early as today.
The scandal is putting an uncomfortable spotlight on the Miami Archdiocese. What's the reaction there? Mary Ross Agosta is the spokeswoman. She's in Miami.
Nice to see you. Thank you for talking with us.
MARY ROSS AGOSTA, SPOKESWOMAN, MIAMI ARCHDIOCESE: Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Have you had any conversations with Mark Foley's lawyer? Mark Foley obviously is in rehab right now.
AGOSTA: No, we haven't. And actually, yesterday the archdiocese was taken by surprise by that second press conference where his attorney announced that -- that they were going to accept our offer of psychological counseling but still not ready to come forward and name the clergyman who allegedly has abused Representative Foley.
S. O'BRIEN: Why were you taken by surprise by that?
AGOSTA: Well, because the Catholic Church certainly has been -- has become almost an expert in how to deal with sexual abuse allegations because of our history of the last four years. And if Representative Foley is in a situation where he's moving forward with his life and trying to become healed, if you will, without full disclosure it's not going to -- it's not going to help him, and it's certainly not helping anybody else out there who might have been a victim of sexual abuse by this alleged abuser.
So I don't understand the reason this clergyman is not being identified. We cannot do -- we cannot do anything if we don't know who it is.
S. O'BRIEN: It sounds as if the identity is going to come soon. And my understanding, as according to Mark Foley's lawyer, the identity is going to go right to the archdiocese.
When you get the name of the priest, the clergyman, will you release it, make it public?
AGOSTA: Well, I would think certainly that the way the scenario has been so far, that perhaps it would not even have to come from us.
S. O'BRIEN: He has said, though, recently in conversations with our correspondents that in fact he's going to give the information solely, I believe, to the archdiocese. So if you have that information, will you in fact make it public?
AGOSTA: At this -- at this time I can't answer that. We have to know who it is. There are circumstances.
Is the priest still alive? Is he still in active ministry? Which they alluded to yesterday that he is. Certainly...
S. O'BRIEN: So if he's still alive and he's still in active ministry, then you would not make his name public, is that what you're saying?
AGOSTA: No, no, no, no, no, no. We would -- it would definitely be public. We would -- we would publicize it.
S. O'BRIEN: If he's dead, you wouldn't publicize it then? Is that what you're saying? AGOSTA: No. I'm saying -- is that we need to know who it is, and then we would release it, of course. But -- because that is part of our policy. You know, the archdiocese follows the charter of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes -- no, I hear you, but there's only sort of two options, either the guy is alive or the guy is dead.
AGOSTA: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: And you've said that now you're going to release it under either of those options. So I guess what you're saying is then you will release the name, you will make it public.
AGOSTA: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's move on for a second.
There's a guy named Willie Romero (ph), who I know you know of. Back in 2003, he -- he was kicked out of the church. He's a priest at the church where Foley went to church years and years ago.
He said this to "The Palm Beach Post" -- he said, "I know who did it, but I can't say. Priests are not allowed to break the sacred seal of confession."
Is that correct, that he wouldn't be allowed to reveal if he did in fact know the abuser?
AGOSTA: If it was told in a confessional, yes, they are -- every priest is under the seal of confession. If he heard about it in a confessional, yes.
S. O'BRIEN: This is a guy who back in 2003, when he was being kicked out, they found 20 photos of naked boys in his -- in his house. Isn't he defrocked now? I mean, is he still under those -- those same rules?
AGOSTA: Well, yes. When he was a priest, if he heard it under the seal of confession, yes, he is bound by that.
S. O'BRIEN: So everything he heard in confession back when he was a priest, even though now he is -- he's out...
AGOSTA: That's correct.
S. O'BRIEN: ... he still would -- wouldn't be anything he could say?
AGOSTA: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: Do you think the church has been unfairly targeted in this whole scandal, particularly the Archdiocese of Miami?
AGOSTA: I would think victims of sexual abuse are being unfairly targeted. S. O'BRIEN: How is that?
AGOSTA: Well, because if this clergyman is a Roman Catholic priest and is still alive, and is in active ministry, are we putting other teenagers, other children at risk because we don't know who it is?
And secondly, I don't understand how Representative Foley's attorneys feel that Mr. Foley can, you know, continue to heal himself with this still hanging out there. This is not closure. And to dangle this information from press conference to press conference is truly unfair, unfair to the church...
S. O'BRIEN: It's more of a PR strategy than a healing process?
AGOSTA: You know, I'm just going to say it's unfair. It's unfair to many -- to many audiences.
S. O'BRIEN: Mary Ross Agosta joining us this morning from the Archdiocese of Miami.
Thank you for talking with us.
AGOSTA: You're welcome, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: And maybe we'll know very soon the name. It could happen today -- thanks.
AGOSTA: OK, thanks.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Some of the stories we're following right now for you.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Tokyo for talks on North Korea.
Chris Rock's mother may end up suing Cracker Barrel. We'll tell you about that.
That and more ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Here's a look at the top stories we're following for you this morning.
An Amber Alert -- the search is on for a missing infant in Kentucky. It's believed that he's been kidnapped by his mother and her boyfriend. The baby's social worker was found murdered in the mother's home.
And veteran CBS newsman Christopher Glenn, the voice of the '70s children's program "In the News," is dead at the age of 68 -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: A voice I won't forget, that's for sure.
Cracker Barrel may face another race-related lawsuit.
Andy Serwer is here with details.
Hello, Andy.
ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": Hello, Miles.
We have a couple briefs from the legal department this morning. And let's start with that Cracker Barrel case.
Chris Rock's mother -- that's the comedian -- Chris Rock's mother, Rose Rock, says she will file a lawsuit against Cracker Barrel, the restaurant chain, because she was refused service because she says she's black. And her and her daughter.
This goes back to an incident in South Carolina, in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, back in May of 2006. And apparently she had appealed to authorities subsequent to that and didn't get any relief. Now her and Al Sharpton plan to file suit against the restaurant chain.
In 2004, Cracker Barrel settled with the Department of Justice over several problems, that they segregated white customers from black customers, that they favored whites and wouldn't allow white servers to serve African-Americans. So this company has seen it before.
Now, Chris Rock has mentioned "crackers" in his comedy routine previously. So it could be interesting to see -- he might have some more...
M. O'BRIEN: Crackers? Does he say it like that? Or does he...
SERWER: Crackers. He's talking about crackers. You know what I'm talking about.
M. O'BRIEN: I got you. I know what you're talking about, yes.
SERWER: And so there could be some interesting fodder in his next routine.
M. O'BRIEN: It's all fodder for Chris, that's for sure.
SERWER: Absolutely.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
SERWER: Let's talk about another one here. This is -- this is amazing.
Emerson Electric is suing NBC over a scene in its new TV show "Heroes". And here's how this works. There is a cheerleader with superhero powers who sticks her hand in the sink and gets it mangled by a garbage disposal. And she takes her hand out and after a few minutes it heals. Well, you guessed it, the garbage disposal is made by Emerson Electric. It's called the Insinkerator. And if you look very, very closely and pause the scene, you can see it says "Insinkerator".
So now they're suing NBC. NBC says, oh, OK, our bad. We're going to edit it out for future release.
Emerson says, well, we still haven't seen the lawsuit -- or we still haven't seen the response from the network, so we're probably going to continue the lawsuit. So the question is, are they really being harmed here or are they just looking for some free pub?
M. O'BRIEN: I think -- because, really, it was probably so difficult to see it that if they had said nothing nobody would have...
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: That's right. And the name is Insinkerator, so this is in the free pub department.
M. O'BRIEN: The Insinkerator.
SERWER: How many brands of garbage disposals do you know?
M. O'BRIEN: Insinkerator is my favorite.
SERWER: Insinkerator.
M. O'BRIEN: It's my favorite right there.
SERWER: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. What do you have coming up next?
SERWER: Coming up next is tomorrow's program.
M. O'BRIEN: Tomorrow's program. You're done?
SERWER: Yes, I am.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Andy. I guess you're done early.
SERWER: I'm done early.
M. O'BRIEN: I've got to get used to this.
SERWER: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: These new hours.
Well, good to have you drop by this morning, as always.
SERWER: Thank you very much.
M. O'BRIEN: Some of the -- oh, to you, Soledad. We'll send it over to you. S. O'BRIEN: Thank you. That's all right.
Some of the stories we're following for you this morning.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice holding talks in Tokyo on North Korea.
Also, a former hacker creates a code to catch sex offenders on MySpace. We'll talk to him just ahead.
First, though, a look at "Welcome to the Future".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every time I turn on the news, there seems to be some unrest somewhere motivated by both religion and politics.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel that religion really has no place in politics.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our government is based off the Ten Commandments. We don't steal. We don't kill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Religion is separate from politics, in my view.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think social issues will continue to divide political parties.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will not be swayed politically by somebody's religious beliefs.
M. O'BRIEN: Americans are pretty evenly divided on the subject of religion and politics. Fifty-one percent of us think churches and other houses of worship should share their views on social and political questions. Forty-six percent think they should stay out of politics.
With the country split on religion's role in politics, what will the future hold?
(voice over): As senior fellow at the nonprofit think tank the Pew Forum, John Green studies faith and politics and how they interact in American society.
JOHN GREEN, PEW FORUM: And over the next several elections we'll see religion become even more important because literally every religious group will be part of the process.
M. O'BRIEN: Green says those groups include rapidly growing populations of Buddhists, Hindus and American-Muslims.
GREEN: The United States is so diverse religiously that both the Democratic and Republican parties have to have bigger religious coalitions in order to win elections. M. O'BRIEN: Green says social issues such as the war in Iraq, same-sex marriage, abortion, and even the environment will continue to divide us, putting the burden on politicians.
GREEN: One of the critical ingredients for bridging that divide is leadership, to have political leaders or perhaps non-political leaders to come forward with solutions and alternatives that everyone can live with.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back. I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien. Let's get right to the news wall for a look at the stories we're following for you this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Tokyo this morning to discuss about the North Korea nuclear threat. Rice is concerned that the explosion of a nuclear bomb in the north could set off an atomic race, arms race, in Asia.
S. O'BRIEN: Ten U.S. service members died in Iraq on Tuesday in various roadside bombings, small arms fires and IED attacks. The October death toll for U.S. troops in Iraq now jumps to 65.
M. O'BRIEN: Houston and parts of Louisiana under flood warnings as the threat of high river waters remains. The death toll from this week's storms in Texas has climbed now to five.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Top story this morning, the North Korean nuclear crisis and the critical mission of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice now. She's in Tokyo. Her mission in Asia is to get all the parties on board with sanctions against North Korea.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux live at the White House for us this morning. Suzanne, good morning.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, of course, that may be a difficult task for the secretary. She really has to bring all these allies together to figure out just what it means to even enforce the sanctions. Each of those countries really has a different idea about that. At the second -- on the other hand, of course, the Bush administration really looking at the possibility that North Korea could conduct yet another test, a second test.
And the thinking at the White House is that this would be an anti-climatic event considering North Korea is already a nuclear state, a nuclear power. But they also hope that if this happens, it really emboldens the Bush administration's case that North Korea's neighbors must get tough on that regime, that is dangerous and an intolerable situation -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: At the same time, there are some very big risks to the U.S. in relying on China as a partner in a situation like this, aren't they?
MALVEAUX: Well, certainly. The United States is depending on China. It can turn off the lights, cut off the food for North Korea. Essentially, it has an incredible amount of influence here. And China really shares a border with North Korea, about 880 miles. They are convinced and quite worried that if they push too hard, the North Koreans, essentially the regime is going to collapse, we'll have a huge refugee problem. And so what the Bush administration is trying to do is to get China to get tough with sanctions, but not to push them too fast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What you've seen already in the case of the first test is that the United States and the Chinese are working more closely together than ever before. And I dare say that they would become even closer as strategic partners in trying to guarantee safety in the Korean peninsula.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, Soledad, really the problem the Bush administration has now is that the Chinese see disabled, dangerous North Korea as being more threatening than a nuclear one -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House for us. Thanks, Suzanne -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Parents who are worried about who their kids might be meeting on the Internet site MySpace now have an unlikely ally: a former hacker known as Dark Dante, who served time in prison for his misdeeds, including commandeering the phone lines of a radio station to guarantee he was the caller who would win a Porsche.
Kevin Poulsen is his real name. He is now a senior editor at Wired News and he created a program to root out pedophiles from MySpace.
Kevin, good to have you with us on the program.
KEVIN POULSEN, SENIOR EDITOR, WIRED NEWS: Thanks for having me.
M. O'BRIEN: You basically took the MySpace client list or user list and matched it against the sex offender list maintained by the Department of Justice. Seems like that would be a fairly simple thing. What did you find?
POULSEN: What I found was I had to go through the data manually to actually make the matches, because there were some very common names that came up and produced MySpace profiles that weren't the same person. When I went through manually, I got through about a third of the data and counted 744 registered sex offenders that had...
M. O'BRIEN: Seven hundred and forty-four, really?
POULSEN: Yes, with confirmable, verifiable MySpace pages. Of those, 497 had committed crimes against children and more than half of that 497 had convictions in the year 2000 or since.
M. O'BRIEN: Did those numbers surprise you?
POULSEN: I'm not sure they surprised me, exactly. MySpace has a huge user base. They top a million users now, so you would expect to find a lot of any kind of category you can think of among those users. What -- it did give me pause, though, just to see how many convicted -- had committed crimes against children. And some of them alluded to their past in their MySpace profiles.
M. O'BRIEN: Really? It's kind of surprising to me that they would use their real names.
POULSEN: I suspect that I only found the ones who are least likely to be doing wrong now, perhaps the ones that joined MySpace not looking to recidivate, just doing what MySpace users do.
M. O'BRIEN: This could be the tip of the iceberg, because many others might be there using assumed names.
POULSEN: I would assume so. For that matter, my program was very focused. If a sex offender registered with the wrong zip code, I wouldn't have picked them up at all.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, I see. Now, let's get a little bit in here from MySpace. They've kind of responded to this. We have a little bit of a statement from their chief security officer, says this: "We are committed to keeping sex offenders off MySpace and are evaluating functional and scalable solutions." And it goes on from there and talks about whether legislation should be created for all this. What do you say, is MySpace doing enough?
POULSEN: MySpace said more or less the same thing last June when they testified before Congress about the safety of their site. What they are lobbying for is a change to the law that would require sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses. Then MySpace says that they just won't let those e-mail addresses register on the site. I think what's clear is that there's enough information out there now in the existing registry that MySpace could be putting to use. If I was able to do it without direct access to their data, just from what's available on a public site, they surely could do much more..
M. O'BRIEN: So they should be, at the very least, be using your software.
POULSEN: They could probably produce better software in-house, using their own talent. M. O'BRIEN: Final thoughts for a lot of parents watching, be horrified to hear these numbers and hear that it's probably the tip of the iceberg. What's your bottom line conclusion about MySpace? Is it a dangerous place for our kids?
POULSEN: I like MySpace. I think it's a good place for kids.
M. O'BRIEN: Really?
POULSEN: Yes. There are going to be predators anywhere that kids congregate, right? Whether it's at the mall. When I was a kid, we were on telephone chatlines and that would just rank with pedophiles. This is an opportunity, though. Myspace, with the access to the data that it has and the resources it has, they could make it safer than these other places. They could make it perhaps the most safe place for kids for kids to hang out.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, and you're putting your coat up out for the public to use. So if anybody wants to use this, they can, right?
POULSEN: Yes, we're going to be releasing it this week.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Kevin Poulsen, formerly Dark Dante. Senior editor for "Wired News." Thanks for your time.
POULSEN: Thanks for having me.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Some of the stories we're following for you this morning.
Police in Kentucky have issued an Amber Alert for a missing baby after his social worker was found dead.
Plus, environmentalist, single mother, new Nobel Prize winner. If you don't know the name Wangari Maathai, you should. Her autobiography is out, and it is fascinating. We talk to her straight ahead.
(NEWSBREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: You may not know the name Wangari Mathai, but you should. She set out to help women who are struggling in her native Kenya. The idea was to plant trees, and it led to a national movement, led to a seat in the government.
And two years ago, it led to the Nobel Peace Prize. She's written all about it in her new book. She joins us this morning.
Wangari Maathai, nice to see you.
WANGARI MAATHAI, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE RECIPIENT: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: The book is called "Unbowed." What does the title mean?
MAATHAI: Well, it means that you have been blown by the winds in all directions and you have not been broken.
S. O'BRIEN: Why did you decide to write an autobiography? And I know that's a metaphor for trees which, of course, has been hugely important in your life and your mission as well.
MAATHAI: Well, it's actually a response to many of the questions that people ask me. Where were you born? Why did you start this movement? How did you work? And all the questions. Where did you go to school? Why did you go there? And it's also for an inspiration, especially for young people, who sometimes need to know that you don't have to start with a great thing, so -- start with a lot of privileges. You -- what is important is to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way, and a lot of them came my way and I took advantage of them.
S. O'BRIEN: It's really a story, I think, of standing alone time and time again, and kind of being OK with that, and being unpopular, being jailed, not being allowed to run for parliament because you're divorced, et cetera, et cetera, and standing alone and sort of overcoming anyway.
Let's talk a little bit about the -- what you did to try to restore the forest in Africa. Tell me about that movement and how it came about.
MAATHAI: Well, initially it was actually a response to a group of women from the countryside who expressed their needs for food, for firewood, which is their main source of energy, for income, for clean drinking water. But when I started, I said to the women, let us plant trees, I was thinking of meeting of these very basic needs, and then one thing led to another, and eventually discovered that, in fact, the problems that the women we are talking about were symptoms of much deeper problems and not only environmental degradation, but also issues of governance, and that's how the movement eventually became a pro-democracy movement as well.
S. O'BRIEN: Kind of your led you eventually into the parliament as well. Because of your work with this movement, you won the Nobel Peace Prize. What was it like? What's it like to get the call that says, I don't know, hold for Oslo. They have something to tell you. What was that moment like?
MAATHAI: It's overwhelming.
S. O'BRIEN: Did it come out of the blue? Were you shocked? Did you sort of know?
MAATHAI: No, absolutely not. I didn't even know that I was nominated. And definitely, as you know, this was the first time that the Norwegian Nobel Committee looked in the area of environment, and decided to emphasize to the world that in order for us to live in peace, we need to manage our resources better, we need to govern ourselves better, so as to preempt causes of conflict in the world. And this was a very important message, to show the linkage between the governance and sustainable management resources, as well as issues of equity.
S. O'BRIEN: Who do you think should pick up this book and get a message from it, about your life?
MAATHAI: Well, everybody can benefit from this, from students who want to know more about Africa, people in the governments, children who want to know how to take care of tadpoles and frog eggs. Everybody can really benefit, because it's my life from childhood to now. And so almost everybody has gone through that.
S. O'BRIEN: And you had a lot happen.
Wangari Maathai, it's a fantastic book. It is a fantastic book. Thanks for talking with us about it.
MAATHAI: Thank you very much.
S. O'BRIEN: We certainly appreciate having you -- Miles.
MAATHAI: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: In Oklahoma City, a nonprofit group has created a special factory, but more important, making some disabled workers productive.
Ed Lavandera visited a place where the employees may not be able to see, but they can sure feel the joy of success.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I enjoy working here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We test these hoses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like my job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We take pride in our quality.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Depression- era brewery in Oklahoma City no longer pours pints of beer; it brews confidence and pride with saw blades and hoses. Mike Dunn makes uses an industrial saw to make wooden wheel chocks for the U.S. military. The chocks keep aircrafts from moving on the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just keep your hands on the way and you don't put your hands where they ain't supposed to, and you know, nothing's going to happen.
LAVANDERA: This is a true job hazard, especially when you consider that Mike Dunn is completely blind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It scares me if it acts up.
LAVANDERA: Finding work has never been easy for him. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you have a disability, you don't think about your disability; you think about how well you can do your job.
LAVANDERA: Dunn is one of 100 blind people who work for a nonprofit agency called the Oklahoma League for the Blind. The group provides a wide range of services for the Defense Department and it assembles hoses for the U.S. Forestry Services, $9 million of business a year. The agency says the unemployment rate among the blind is 75 percent. They want employers to tap into this willing and productive resource.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do a lot of training and modify our equipment to make it safe. There are still very big obstacles to employment for people with disabilities. And so without us, they wouldn't have that opportunity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our inch-and-a-half hose.
LAVANDERA: Rick Gregorson (ph) used to run his own auto repair shop, but four years ago he lost his eyesight and his business.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never thought I'd be making fire hoses for anybody. I'm just glad to have found it. I feel like it's been a blessing to be here, and have a job where I feel like I'm succeeding, and I'm not just rotting away.
LAVANDERA: Success is measured daily. Here California firefighters are using hoses made by the blind, a reminder that sometimes we don't see the little things that make a big difference.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Oklahoma City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: CNN NEWSROOM just minutes away. Tony Harris is at the CNN center with a look at what's ahead.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, good morning.
Here's what's on the rundown this morning in the NEWSROOM. North Korea crisis tour. The U.S. secretary of state pressing Asia to get real about enforcing sanctions.
Heartland voters. What middle America thinks about North Korea, the Iraq war and misbehaving having Congressmen. We have a couple of guests on that.
And tag, you're not it. A principal, Miles, slaps a playground ban on the age-old kids' game, tag. Parents may slap back. Join Heidi Collins and me in the NEWSROOM. We started at the top of the hour right here on CNN -- Miles.
(NEWSBREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: A decades' old marine project off the coast of Florida is finally being scrapped. An artificial reef made from tires seemed at first to be the next best thing to recycling.
CNN's John Zarrella now on what turned out to be a very bad idea.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For decades now, retired ships have been given a second life: not floating on the top; sitting on the bottom as artificial reefs. Some well-intentioned people thought tires, once you got your 40,000 miles on them, could serve the same useful purpose.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were inexpensive, they were durable, easy to handle. The one thing they weren't was stable.
ZARRELLA: But no one knew that 30 plus years ago, when right out there past those boats, about a mile off Ft. Lauderdale, bundles of tires were dumped to create an artificial reef. What they got instead was this: 70 feet down, tires scattered as far as you can see, two million of them. The nylon and steel straps that held them together had long ago disintegrated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tires turned out to be a bad idea. They're mobile. For some reason, things don't like to grow on them very well. Whether it's things leeching out of the rubber, we don't really know. But they don't work, is the bottom line.
ZARRELLA: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says tires didn't work well wherever they were used -- off California, the Gulf of Mexico, North Carolina and New Jersey. But those places don't have coral reefs. The tires off Ft. Lauderdale were dumped between two living reefs, and thousands of the tires moved by storms and currents now rest up against the corals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically the lower slope of that reef is denuded of living things.
ZARRELLA: So, after 30 years, there's an urgency to get the tires up. The plan is to use Navy divers to collect them, put them in cargo nets and load them on U.S. army landing craft. For the Navy divers, it would be a training opportunity. For the state and county, it would be a huge savings over hiring commercial divers.
Six years ago, university professor Robin Sherman led a project to study clean-up options. A team of 80 volunteers removed 1,600 tires and recycled them. But within two months, the area was covered again.
ROBIN SHERMAN, NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: The tires were so mobile, so nearly neutrally buoyant, that they had moved with normal current and wave action and completely recovered the site that we had cleaned.
ZARRELLA: It will be at least a year before full-scale clean-up begins and may take up to three years. And by the way, tires are no longer permitted for use as artificial reefs.
John Zarrella, CNN, Ft. Lauderdale.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: "ANDERSON COOPER 360" airs weeknights 10:00 Eastern. Here is Anderson with a look at what's ahead tonight -- Anderson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, tonight they prowl Iraq hunting for Americans. Unseen killers doing their deadly work at a distance. Enemy sniper teams, a disturbing inside look. Images never seen before. American troops in the cross hairs. "360" tonight, 10:00 p.m. Eastern -- Miles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Anderson.
Coming up at the top of the hour, a candidate and a soldier. Meet a man who's fighting insurgents and Democrats.
And, oops, art collector makes a hole-in-one. A pricey Picasso, that is. We'll explain a little later.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: That's it for AMERICAN MORNING. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins begins right now.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
