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New Security Incident Involving Private Contractors in Iraq; Choosing Leaders in Congress; Deadly Tornado; Training Iraqi Troops

Aired November 17, 2006 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You're with CNN. You're informed.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Heidi Collins.

Developments keep coming in to the NEWSROOM on this Friday, November 17th. Here's what we're looking at.

The new guard looking a lot like the old guard. House Republicans elect their leaders for the upcoming Congress.

HARRIS: A living room view of the killer North Carolina tornado. Life left in splinters by nature today. A small town picking up the pieces.

COLLINS: Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes the toast of Rome. The celebrity super couple bidding arrividercci to their (INAUDIBLE). A wedding preview, just what you're looking for, in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: A desperate search on right now in Iraq for Americans kidnapped by insurgents. And there's word of another security incident this morning.

CNN's Arwa Damon with the latest from Baghdad.

And Arwa, let's start with the most recent incident, and then you can back us up and tell us what the latest is concerning the contractors.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, the most recent incident took place also in the vicinity of Basra. And in that incident, a security convoy, a civilian security convoy, clashed with Iraqi security forces.

The British military responded to that attack, arriving after the firefight took place, found one wounded British contractor and moved him to a field hospital. This happened Friday afternoon.

Now, on Thursday, there was that kidnapping of four U.S. contractors and one Austrian contractor which also took place in the vicinity of Basra. And now we have some new information to update you on regarding that incident.

What we are hearing right now is that it was a 43-vehicle convoy. They approached what a U.S. military source is telling us was a fake checkpoint.

There, local militiamen were masquerading as Iraqi police. Nineteen of those vehicles, according to the U.S. Embassy, were taken, plus 14 security personnel. Of those 14 security personnel, nine were drivers of South Asian origin. They were released.

Still missing and kidnapped are the four U.S. contractors, one of whom has been identified as Minnesotan Paul Reuben, plus one Austrian contractor. There are currently ongoing operations to search for those that are still missing -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK. And Arwa, just -- just clarify this for me. In the most recent incident, are you telling me that coalition forces ended up in some kind of a fight with Iraqi forces? Did I hear that correctly?

DAMON: Well, Tony, in the most -- in the most recent incident it was a private security company, a private -- private contractors that ended up clashing with the Iraqi security forces.

HARRIS: OK. All right. I appreciate that. Thank you for the clarification.

Arwa Damon for us in Baghdad.

Arwa, thank you.

COLLINS: An unfamiliar position for House Republicans, but some familiar faces chosen to lead them as the minority party now.

Congressional Correspondent Andrea Koppel following developments on Capitol Hill.

What's the word, Andrea?

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the word, Heidi, is that despite the push by some in the Republican Party for -- to go into the 110th Congress with a clean slate, you're going to see familiar names at the top. John Boehner from Ohio, who is the party's current majority leader, has been selected by an overwhelming margin to be the next minority leader, 168-27, with one vote going to Texas congressman Joe Barton.

He was challenged by Indiana's Mike Pence, who is a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee and had really made a push that it wasn't personal with John Boehner, but that he felt the party needed a change, considering their loss of the House.

Then you have Congressman Roy Blunt, who for the last four years has been serving as his party's vote-counting whip. He will hold that job in the next Congress.

He also beat his challenger by a vote of 137-57, Arizona's John Shadegg, who like Mike Pence, was a member of the Republican Study Committee, had been a previous chairman in years past. He, too, failed in his bid to unseat Roy Blunt. Now, when you talk to some rank and file members who have come out, obviously there was some support for unseating John Boehner and Blunt. One of them in particular was Congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona, who expressed disappointment, in particular, that John Boehner will remain at the head of his party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: I have no complaints about John Boehner. He's a good man. I just say it's easier to move ahead with reform if you have new faces. And that's -- that's not fair to Mr. Boehner, but sometimes life's not fair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: A little difficult to hear there, but the bottom line, Heidi, is that even though there will be familiar faces, at least as far as the minority position is concerned and the minority whip, you have to remember that there are two big changes that this party has seen.

First of all, the speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, will not be in any leadership position after the last seven years. And you also have, of course, the disgraced failure of Tom DeLay to remain in Congress. So there are some big changes that some do point to.

COLLINS: It's the politics of the politics, really.

Andrea Koppel from Capitol Hill.

Thanks so much for that.

HARRIS: Shattered lives. Homes in splinters in Riegelwood, North Carolina. A powerful tornado killed eight people, hurt dozens. Some 100 people homeless this morning.

Rick Sanchez is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When we talked to the sheriff, he tells us that the homes in this area were disintegrated. And you really don't get a sense of it until you come up real close to what used to be houses in this area.

This is part of that mobile home park that we've been telling you about. This is where one particular couple lived. Both of them died as a result of this tornado.

And let me show you something else. I'm going to step back into the frame and direct you into the area where, unfortunately, the bodies of the folks that lived here were found.

They were found in that wooded area that you see right over there. That is, according to police, 200 yards away, where they were actually found. That's two football fields. They say that's how much effect or how strong the winds were that actually picked up, unfortunately not just the parts of these houses, but some of the people that were in them at the time. They're calling this the absolute worst natural disaster in the history of Columbus County.

And, of course, there's also the issue of the sirens and the fact there wasn't one. Which is not uncommon in a lot of rural areas. But obviously, had there been a siren, at least it would have given the folks a chance who live in homes like this a chance to at least get themselves up and perhaps seek some kind of cover before this killer tornado.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: CNN's Rick Sanchez.

Dazed and confused, the emotional state right now for dozens of tornado victims. Their lives and homes torn to shreds.

Earlier this morning, I talked to a woman who found out her house was demolished over the phone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOMEKA JENKINS, TORNADO SURVIVOR: I went on to work. And as I got to work, I got a phone call saying, "Is anybody home at your house?" I said, "No." And I said, "Why?" They said, "Because your house is gone."

HARRIS: Because your house is gone?

JENKINS: I said, "What do you mean my house is gone?" They said my house is gone. I said, "What do you mean my house is gone?" They said, "It's gone."

I didn't believe them. So I hung the phone up and continued to work.

The second phone call saying, "Well, Tomeka, you need to get home because you don't have a house." So I immediately dropped the phone in tears and left and came here.

But when I got here, I couldn't get through to see actually what happened. So, really, you know, a tornado hitting here, you know, I thought was impossible.

HARRIS: So, Tomeka, let me stop you there for just a moment. So you get this word from a friend that your house is gone. You realize early on that your kids are OK.

JENKINS: Yes.

HARRIS: Which you probably -- you probably make a phone call or so, or a couple, maybe, to find out that your kids are OK. So...

JENKINS: Yes, I called the daycare on my way.

HARRIS: And you found out they were OK.

JENKINS: Yes.

HARRIS: Were you -- what's the feeling of one moment you're driving to work, you get to work, and the next moment you get this call that says your whole life has been rearranged for you by Mother Nature?

JENKINS: In part, I mean, I actually didn't believe it. I mean, I didn't really believe it until I saw it yesterday afternoon.

HARRIS: And what did you see?

JENKINS: I didn't believe it. My life -- I mean, just sitting in front of me in pieces. I mean, my life, just everywhere. I mean...

HARRIS: So Tomeka, where do you go from here?

JENKINS: I don't know. I do not know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Tomeka Jenkins has no immediate family or homeowner's insurance to help her and others like her. Call this number, 1-800- REDCROSS -- 1-800-REDCROSS.

COLLINS: When the walls come tumbling down, they've got to be up to the task. A look at an elite team of rescuers. We'll have their story in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And it's not just training Iraqi troops. It's retraining them and retraining them. Iraq's army shaped by an earlier war. We will talk to a U.S. advisor assigned to get the troops up to date. He's next in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: I can't wait for this next guest. Iraqi forces standing up so U.S. forces can stand down. We've heard it many times from President Bush.

Training Iraqi troops seen as a key to the ultimate withdrawal of American troops. Here's General John Abizaid testifying before Congress this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: Senator, I believe in my heart of hearts that the Iraqis must win this battle with our help. We can put in 20,000 more Americans tomorrow and achieve a temporary effect, but when you look at the overall American force pool that's available out there, the ability to sustain that commitment is simply not something that we have right now with the size of the Army and the Marine Corps. We can, we can win with the Iraqis if we put our effort into the Iraqis as our first priority, and that's what I think we should do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Lieutenant Colonel Carl Grunow served as a senior adviser to an Iraqi armored brigade. He is in Washington with us this morning.

Colonel, good to see you. Thanks for your time.

LT. COL. CARL GRUNOW, U.S. ARMY: Good to see you as well.

HARRIS: General Abizaid remains optimistic that we can stabilize Iraq. What do you think?

GRUNOW: Well, it's smart for me to agree with General Abizaid. And I also sincerely do agree with him. My experience in Iraq for a year is one reason I have confidence in the future of that country, because I saw the growing effectiveness of the Iraqi army firsthand.

HARRIS: I have to ask you, though, how difficult is it to build a new army? Because that's what we're talking about here, a new Iraqi army in the middle of a civil war, whether you call it a low-grade civil war or a full-on civil war. How difficult to train, to build, recruit a new army?

GRUNOW: It's very difficult. And, of course, that's what recommends that we have patience, because you're taking an army that was serving a dictator and that had nothing to do with the people really other than to control them. And now you're going to make an all-volunteer force, stand them up on their own two feet, and work them into a counterinsurgency, a counter-civil war.

It's a huge amount of change that we're demanding of these Iraqi soldiers, but they are stepping up to the plate.

HARRIS: Colonel, patience? It's been almost four years.

GRUNOW: Well, I know early on in the conflict, Secretary Rumsfeld talked about a counterinsurgency being 11 years, 12 years, whatever the case. But if you think about the revolutionary changes in the military and the government, it does suggest a long-term commitment.

HARRIS: Don't you have to secure the country, Anbar, this 35- mile radius around Baghdad where all of the hot war is going on right now? Don't you have to secure that area before you can even think about recruiting, training a new Iraqi army, new Iraqi security forces?

GRUNOW: Well, it would be nice to do that, but we have to have this Iraqi force fight as it trains and grows. And that's what they're doing.

And I tell you, the Iraqi leadership that I worked with were happy and proud of what they were doing. And, of course, they had a long way to go. And there's still work to be done. But these guys are ready to take over security for their country.

HARRIS: Realistically, come on, Colonel, how much training are they actually getting, eight weeks, nine weeks before they're in the war zone? How much?

GRUNOW: First of all, I want to say, when I say they're ready, I say they are willing. They're not ready yet. So I want to make a correction there.

HARRIS: OK. OK.

GRUNOW: But still, yet, what I'm saying -- the training that they're getting, the basic training is short. By the time I left...

HARRIS: What do you mean by short?

GRUNOW: By the time I left Iraq, the average recruit was getting five weeks. I know that the intent was to increase that and lengthen it. That's compared to about eight to 16 weeks, depending on how you count it, for American soldiers.

HARRIS: So the truth of the matter is they're being rushed in and they're not ready. If they're -- if they're fighting an old war, which is something we'll get to in a moment, they can't be ready to fight a counterinsurgency in, what, five weeks, can they?

GRUNOW: Well, you know, that's why we have the different measures of readiness. And the readiness level that my brigade was at when I left was able to take the lead in their area of operations with coalition support. And that's key. We're there as American advisers and also American forces to help these Iraqis stand on their own two feet, and eventually they'll be ready to do it on their own.

HARRIS: OK. What do you mean when you say the Iraqi army is fighting the last war? What does that mean?

GRUNOW: Well, the model for the officers I worked with was Iran- Iraq. Clearly, that struggle in the 1980s where 1.5 million casualties occurred was what they grew up with and what they considered the model for warfare.

HARRIS: What is the Iraqi death blossom? What is that?

GRUNOW: Well, when you're fighting Iran with massed infantry formations, then you can expend ammo in all directions, any direction, and it's no big deal. Well, on a counterinsurgency, these soldiers would take fire at a checkpoint and they would respond as they had done in the previous war by firing in all directions with sort of an inshala attitude.

HARRIS: What does that mean?

GRUNOW: If God wills it, my bullet will find its target.

HARRIS: So when this is going on, as an adviser what are you doing? What are you -- what are you doing?

GRUNOW: We'll telling them to stop. We're getting emphatic with them, getting in their face, and just saying, hey, calm down. This is not productive. Clearly, in a situation where we're worried about civilian casualties, we cannot be firing without having an identified target.

HARRIS: All right. I want you to listen to this bit of sound from General Abizaid. And then I want you to break it down and make some sense of it for us, would you, please?

GRUNOW: Sure.

HARRIS: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABIZAID: In discussions with our commanders and Iraqi leaders, it is clear that they believe Iraqi forces can take more control faster provided we invest more manpower and resources into the coalition military transition teams, speed the delivery of logistics and mobility enablers, and embrace an aggressive Iraqi-led effort to disarm illegal militias.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK. What does all that mean, Colonel?

GRUNOW: Well, when I first came in 2005, I had Iraqi colonels telling me, "Hey, give us six months, we'll have this thing under control." Their overconfidence was based on their previous ability to suppress insurrections and so on.

Well, it's going to take longer. It obviously is taking longer than that. But I agree with General Abizaid. Obviously, as we support the Iraqis in their eagerness to take charge of their own fate, I think that that's the winning strategy.

HARRIS: How long -- once again, how long -- let me come back to that question I asked at the top. I'll ask it again as we wrap here. How long?

General Abizaid asked for patience, don't put time caps on us. You're saying it's going to take some time. What are we talking about here, a couple of years, years?

GRUNOW: Well, the Iraqi 2nd Armored Brigade that I worked with, it's a brigade level unit in which there are many hundreds -- or not many hundreds, but there's a lot of them in Iraq -- that unit is progressing quickly. They were in the lead in their area of operations in the summer of '06.

I certainly think they need adviser support for a long term, five years and beyond. They'll need advisers to help. But they should be able to handle their area of operations short of five years, I would think. HARRIS: Lieutenant Colonel Carl Grunow, thank you for your time. That was fun.

Thank you.

GRUNOW: You're welcome.

COLLINS: More questions about the safety f a popular painkiller. A new study suggests Naproxen, sold under the name of Aleve, may cause cardiac problems, including heart attacks. Some experts are discounting the report. They say the over-the-counter drug has been proven safe, and the researchers caution against reading too much into this one study. But they say their findings should be considered in future safety reviews.

And your nachos will soon come trans fat free at Taco Bell. The fast food chain says it's cutting trans fats from its cooking oils right here in the U.S. Other restaurants have already made the switch, including Wendy's and KFC. It is believed trans fats raise the level of so-called bad cholesterol, which clogs arteries and causes heart disease.

To get your "Daily Dose" of health news online, just log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. The address, cnn.com/health.

HARRIS: The journey from serious study began with a single chuckle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MADAN KATARIA, LAUGHTER CLUB CREATOR: I was a very serious physician practicing medicine in India. I never laughed a lot because I don't have a great sense of humor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Laughter, is it really -- is it really the best medicine? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta happy to share the story next in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: I love this story.

HARRIS: Yes.

COLLINS: It started in India and just a few people caught it.

HARRIS: Now it has spread around the world. Thousands are coming to the epidemic.

What is it? There it is, laughter. Really, no joke.

COLLINS: Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look. It is the final installment of his week long series on happiness. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, big breath in.

(LAUGHTER)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Every morning on Laguna Beach, California, you'll find a group gathered on the sand laughing. There are no jokes. No punch lines. They're laughing for no reason at all.

Before you write this off as just another off-the-wall California fad, you should know laughter yoga was the brainchild of Indian Doctor Madan Kataria. He was doing research for an article called, "Laughter, the Best Medicine," when he got the idea.

KATARIA: I was a very serious physician practicing medicine in India. I never laughed too much because I don't have a great sense of humor. It just came from up and suddenly 4:00 in the morning (INAUDIBLE) wanted to start a laughter club.

GUPTA: What began with five people in a Mumbai park in 1995 has spread to more than 5,000 laughter clubs in 50 countries.

KATARIA: You don't need any sense of humor to laugh. You don't need to be happy in order to laugh. In fact, when you laugh, you develop your sense of humor. You develop the joy within yourself.

GUPTA: More than that, Kataria says the breathing and laughing of laughter yoga will improve your health, even if you have to fake the laughter.

It's a claim backed up by Lee Burke at Loma Linda University. Burke has found laughter decreases stress hormones, improves our immune system and boosts endorphins. Those are the brain chemicals associated with the runner's high.

Dr. Kataria, who began the laughter club movement, says people who laugh are, like the Dalai Lama, living in the moment.

KATARIA: Joyfulness makes you feel good immediately. It's now. And that's what children do. And I want all -- everybody in this world to live like a child now, just now.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: You know, it has become a practice right here on the NEWSROOM...

HARRIS: Yes.

COLLINS: ... that 15 minutes before the show, that's what we do, every day right here.

HARRIS: That's what we do, laugh therapy.

COLLINS: Hey, of you like that, get a load of this. Sunday night, Sanjay has a full hour-long special, "Happiness and Your Health," which takes a closer look at the surprising mind-body connection.

HARRIS: And that's starting at 10:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

In the meantime, you can go to our Web site, cnn.com/happiness.

High pay and high demand. In Iraq, these are the jobs to die for. An inside look at the contractors who try to cheat death, in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Tony Harris and Heidi Collins.

HARRIS: And good Friday to you. We're looking for the weekend. You're in the NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.

COLLINS: And I'm Heidi Collins.

It is massive and it's aggressive, too. Coalition forces searching right now for Americans kidnapped in Iraq. The military says four Americans and one Austrian were grabbed at a phony police checkpoint near the southern city of Basra. The military says they were ambushed by militia masquerading as Iraqi police officers.

And a British military spokesman tells us about a second security incident near the same area this morning. It, too, involved a convoy of private contractors.

The side of Iraq you rarely see -- private armies compete for billions of taxpayer dollars. Americans die protecting gravel. Earlier this year, CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson examined the role of private contractors in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Locking and loading.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Last minute preparations for one of the most dangerous jobs on earth: private military contracting in Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a gun truck commander. Basically, I drive the truck. I set the lead pace for the convoy. My call sign is Gonzo.

ROBERTSON: The moments before the mission are loaded. Bravado.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rambo!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gun. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Mr. GQ. He's our babe magnet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The military doesn't even like to go where we are going.

ROBERTSON: And a sobering dose of reality.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clarkson, Cameron and Cadence (ph) -- those are my three reasons for being. We all got to be over here for a reason, mine is so that I can provide a better life for my wife and kids.

ROBERTSON: Amy Clark (ph) is there when Gonzo leaves. I wanted to find out how this gutsy industry works and Amy will show me. She runs the Baghdad end of a small military contracting business and has agreed to open the door to CNN so long as we agree not to disclose the name of her company.

AMY CLARK, PRIVATE SECURITY CONTRACTOR: The biggest thing I think about is that is my team going to get wiped out tonight.

ROBERTSON: What Clark doesn't know is that in less than three weeks, they will be hit hard in an attack and she will close down operations. When we meet Clark, she's running a tight-knit outfit, struggling to find a niche, competing against the titans of the industry, where contractors fill a void left by U.S. and Iraqi troops.

CLARK: I call it outsourcing conflict and a lot has been outsourced and where you've got a military where the assets and the personnel are strained thin, private contractors have had to step in and fill the void and it's unprecedented like in no other conflict.

ROBERTSON (on camera): He's a Brit, right?

CLARK: Yes, he's British, and he's great.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Industry insiders estimate the total value of logistical and security contracts in the multi-billion dollar range.

CLARK: The frontlines are the logistical supply lines. That's where a lot of the IEDs are being focused. They are focusing on the major supply routes.

ROBERTSON: And that's where Clark has found space in the market, on the frontlines. Her employees put their lives on the line protecting, among other things, drivers and trucks full of gravel destined for U.S. Army bases. In a 150-mile journey, the gravel's value can soar six times its original cost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've lost several friends to IEDs, roadside bombs. I've been hit by an IED twice.

ROBERTSON: This is Gonzo's second tour as a private military contractor in Iraq. He doesn't know if he'll survive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right here is my MP5 automatic weapon, complete with nine round -- or nine, you know, rounds.

ROBERTSON: So when he came back, he started a video diary. And as he shows me his video, he explains exactly why he's prepared to risk his life again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife and I are pretty frugal. My goal is pretty simple. I just want to be able to pay off a house and get some property.

ROBERTSON: He can earn in three months what it would take him a year to earn back home. His motivation is high.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a good insurance policy, you know? Either way it's a win-win situation for my wife and kids. OK, right now they're collecting a paycheck at home. If anything happens to me, God forbid, then they'll be taken care of.

ROBERTSON: A former combat engineer, he served in Gulf War one. Back home, he'd either be driving a truck or working as a carpenter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we get ambushed and cut off, yes, then we're going to fight back. That's what we're paid to do, protect the clients, protect the asset. That's our job. To sound crude, our job, basically is to be a bullet sponge.

ROBERTSON: Gonzo is exactly the sort of guy on which Amy Clark has built her small contracting operation. Ex-military, over 30, married and most critically, won't freeze up if called upon to shoot back.

CLARK: We had an incident Monday where the retaliation was much more complex than anything we've had. And, you know, one of these days I'm going to have to -- instead of going to one family and talking about a funeral, I'll have to go to three or four families.

ROBERTSON: That day almost came. Just three weeks after our first interviews, Amy Clark's teams were hit in multiple IED roadside bomb ambushes. We went back to find out what happened.

CLARK: Two IEDs went off simultaneously, downing one of our security trucks and wounding two of our people. At that point, they took on heavy small arms fire from rooftop positions.

ROBERTSON: Gonzo was out with another team when he got the call his buddies had been hit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The blood in the back seat of the truck, all the bone fragments and flesh had pretty much told the tale. They got hurt pretty bad.

ROBERTSON: But the attacks that night were far from over.

CLARK: They took three IEDs, one in the front and two in the rear. By this point, we were down one security truck.

ROBERTSON: Clark lost two men. Five more were wounded, including Tony, who had given the security briefing only three weeks earlier. But if her situation was bad enough then, Iraqi police, she said, were accusing her team of killing civilians. And then came a devastating blow. The U.S. military withdrew her license to operate near Fallujah. Overnight, she says, she was closed down.

CLARK: I'm the type of person, I like to know exactly what the rules are, what the boundaries are. And if so, where do you violate those?

ROBERTSON: Gonzo and the others were given a week to find other jobs. Amy Clark's margins were so thin, she couldn't afford to keep them on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In 10 years tops, there's going to be five major players and we all know who they are without even having to name them.

ROBERTSON: Clark is bitter. Insiders told her a bigger contractor has already picked up at least one of her jobs.

CLARK: But where's the transparency? I've gone above board to try to be transparent offering myself and any of our contractors open for questioning by anybody in this particular arena and no one has taken me up on it.

ROBERTSON: She's still awaiting an answer she says, but on the question of the future, the company she was working for, she already knows that answer.

CLARK: If you fail here, no matter what the reasons are, it will be very difficult after this.

ROBERTSON: Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: When the walls come tumbling down, they've got to be up to the task. We'll look at an elite team of rescuers. Their story, in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Just 15 minutes from now, YOUR WORLD TODAY will be on our air. You are not going to want to miss it. Michael Holmes will be telling us what you guys will have today.

Hi, Michael.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hi. Good to see you both.

That's right, well, Iraq at the top of the newscast once again. Another brazen kidnapping, this one involved a large convoy, stopped at a fake roadblock, trucks and people seized, four American contractors among them. And Nic Robertson is going to take a look into the dangerous job of being a contractor in Iraq. Also the recent war between Israel and Lebanon, that's led to a rather bizarre shortage. People who like to partake of the old marijuana in Israel are finding they can't get supplies because of tightened security along the border. Their traditional supply is Lebanon. Go figure. Ben Wedeman is going to report on that.

Also, TomKat, wedding of the year, wedding of the decade, wedding of the century. Well, it's certainly becoming a star-studded multimillion dollar Roman holiday. That's for sure. We'll have all your TomKat news.

Back to you guys.

COLLINS: You're so excited about that, aren't you?

HARRIS: Thanks, Michael. Appreciate it.

Exercise just doesn't come as easily as it used to for kids. Videos and video games, powerful distractions.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us a prescription for change.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like most physical education teachers, Todd Sisneros wanted his students to be healthy and fit, but he noticed a disturbing trend.

TODD SISNEROS, PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER: It is a different world. We can't expect kids to put down video games and put away the computers and go outside and play all the time. As much as we'd like that to happen, it's not going to.

GUPTA: Add to that, the energy-sapping 100-plus degree temperatures in Laughlin, the Nevada desert town where he teaches, the high number of low-income single-parent families, and you have the makings of an obesity crisis when you add that to this area.

TIM FRYE, SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: I think we in education always faces the dilemma that we only have the students for the six hours a day. If we try to provide a healthy lunch here at school, but we don't get that opportunity to really monitor what they eat outside of the school setting.

GUPTA: So with the principal's support, Todd set out to level the playing field.

SISNEROS: I was just trying to find a way to get kids to exercise, despite the obstacles that are there.

GUPTA: The result was "Mr. S," DVD workouts for kids, an interactive workout Todd created with just a simple camcorder, a DVD burner and some seed money that he raised with the students in the community. The program has been an overwhelming success with both kids and parents. The only complaint Todd has gotten...

SISNEROS: Mr. S, we're really upset that my child gets up at 6:00 in the morning and puts a DVD on and I hear him stomping around in the house.

GUPTA: Todd's story inspired me and all of us here at CNN so much that we declared him the winner of our 2006 Fit Nation contest. Todd's response when my producer told him he won $5,000?

SISNEROS: To be honest with you, I almost drove off the road. Making a teacher's salary, I might be able to go a week without having to eat Ramen and dollar TV dinners.

GUPTA: Congratulations. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: When the walls come tumbling down, they have to be up to the task. A look at an elite team of rescuers, their story in the NEWSROOM.

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(WEATHER REPORT)

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COLLINS: Want to head straight over to T.J. Holmes right now. He's got some news just in to us here in the CNN NEWSROOM regarding burqas.

T.J., what is the story here?

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, something here certainly to keep an eye on. We're getting this story out of the Netherlands where the government there, the cabinet, is saying that they want to put a ban in place as soon as possible that would ban burqas and veils and other type clothing that would cover the faces of people. And, of course, these veils and these burqas are commonly worn by Muslim women.

Now, the government there is saying they want to do this for security reasons. In their statement, they are actually saying that they find that it's undesirable that face-covering clothing, including the burqa, is worn in public places for reasons of public order, security and protection of citizens.

Now, some are saying that possibly they're going this route and saying it's for security purposes so they could possibly get around breaking any kind of constitutional guarantees that people have against religious discrimination.

Now, in the past, the majority of the Dutch parliament have said they'd go for a ban like this. However, they have national elections coming up next week and public opinion polls have kind of been going the other way on this issue of banning burqas, so an interesting development here.

But, again, the Dutch government saying they would like to impose this and put it in place as soon as possible. That would not allow people to wear burqas or anything else that covered their face like this. So something interesting here. We've seen a couple of these around the world, and another thing to keep an eye on here, guys.

COLLINS: OK. T.J. Holmes, thank you.

HARRIS: They may be your last hope when all hope seems lost. Their specialty? Search and rescue.

CNN senior correspondent Allan Chernoff explains.

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ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Disaster scenario -- an earthquake strikes and these rescue workers search for survivors in a collapsed home, smash through a wall to get to an elevator shaft and work against the clock to save a woman pinned under a car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just slide him out.

CHERNOFF: And another, overcome by toxic fumes in an underground tunnel, but this isn't a real disaster. It's part of an annual exercise conducted by the New York Urban Search and Rescue Team, an elite corps of more than 200 firemen, police officers and medics specifically trained to save people trapped after natural or man-made disasters.

JOE DOWNEY, TASK FORCE LEADER: No, we're dealing with people, we have fake live victims here -- fake live victims -- that are calling out, I need help, I'm in here.

CHERNOFF: Team members have gone on rescue missions outside of New York. They helped in New Orleans after Katrina. This year, the drill took place at what was once New York's famed Concord Resort. Here, digging for victims in a tunnel outside the pool where the movie "Dirty Dancing" was shot.

Rescuing someone trapped underneath a car is delicate work, that, if done correctly, could save a life that might have otherwise been lost, because even if the victim survives, he may suffer what is called crush syndrome where circulation is partly cut off and toxins build up in the limp muscles, potentially proving deadly later. How to save the victim? Start medical treatment immediately.

GLENN ASAEDA, MEDICAL TEAM MANAGER: Providing the treatment right there on the scene, the chance of survival is much greater than in the past.

CHERNOFF: Team managers say the exercise helps sharpen their skills and allows them to make good on their advice to anyone trapped after a disaster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Remain calm and we'll get to you.

CHERNOFF: Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: The latest on the search for kidnapped American contractors in Iraq. We'll have it right here in the NEWSROOM.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Optometry professor Dr. Alan Reichow has designed lenses for sports that have athletes seeing red. Literally.

DR. ALAN REICHOW, MIKE VISION CONSULTANT: MaxSight lenses are a contact lens with a performance-enhancing tint integrated throughout the whole lens. It filters 50 percent of the light. We designed this to make the ball or the object that's moving pop out, stand out against the background.

Unlike a sunglass, we take a tint and put it directly on the eye so the tint is the everywhere. We have no pressure points, no fogging, no sweat buildup on the lens. These lenses were designed specifically for on the field performance. They were not designed or developed for driving a car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The product is a collaboration of Nike and Bausch & Lomb. Nearly 5,000 eye care practitioners in the U.S. carry it, and you do need a prescription.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Cool. CNN NEWSROOM continues just one hour from now.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Were you just singing?

HARRIS: Were you? No, I thought it was you.

LEMON: Me? Oh, oh, oh. Don Lemon is here now.

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: What a preview.

LEMON: Yes, a preview of what's coming up.

Yes, hello, everyone. Here's what we're going to talk about then. An American contractor kidnapped in Iraq. What's being done to free him and what's he going through?

And we'll talk with an American who was held hostage in Iraq. We'll find out about that.

And the TomKat wedding. That's what we're going to talk about. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes set to tie the knot in a Scientology ceremony.

COLLINS: No?

LEMON: Yes! What goes into being Scientology? What happens at a Scientology wedding? We're going to discuss that with a reverend from that church and get the inside scoop on that when you join Kyra Phillips and me today at 1:00 in the NEWSROOM.

I didn't even know what TomKat meant until Kyra explained it to me yesterday. I'm like, why do they call them TomKat?

COLLINS: Really?

LEMON: Yes, I'm a little slow.

COLLINS: You're so out of it.

All right, we'll be watching. Don Lemon, thank you.

As we said, CNN NEWSROOM continues just one hour from now.

HARRIS: "YOUR WORLD TODAY" is next with news happening across the globe and here at home. I'm Tony Harris.

COLLINS: And I'm Heidi Collins. Have a super weekend, everybody.

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