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Iraqi Prime Minister in Political Trouble?; South Carolina Couple Missing; German Police Watching Suspect in Spy Poisoning; Kofi Annan Bids Good-Bye; Search on for Three Hikers in Oregon

Aired December 11, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: Today the actions of one state can have a decisive effect on the lives of people in other states. So does it not owe some account to those other states and their citizens, as well as to its own? I believe it does.
As things stand, accountability between states is highly skewed. Poor and weak countries are easily held to account because they need foreign assistance; they need help. But large and powerful states whose actions have the greatest impact on others can be constrained only by their own people working through their domestic institutions

KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan giving his farewell speech in Independence, Missouri, today. He's doing it at Truman's Presidential Museum and Library there in independence. You may remember, FDR was the architect of the U.N. President Truman was the master builder of that.

Annan he leaves the United Nations on December 31 after 10 years as secretary-general at a time when he has become an increasingly vocal critic of the war in Iraq.

More from the CNN NEWSROOM right now.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

DON LEMON, CO-HOST: And I'm Don Lemon.

Protests or just being polite? Booing and chanting "death to a dictator." Iran's government downplays students' uprising, but what really happened at Tehran University?

PHILLIPS: Deja vu in dire circumstances. Meet a man who felt James Kim's determination, stranded in the freezing cold for 13 days, but living to tell about it.

LEMON: And from outcast to Oscar talk. Mel Gibson's comeback. The big-time buzz over his new film, "Apocalypto".

We're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Finding a new way forward by looking back at what went wrong, hoping to unveil a new Iraq strategy by Christmas. President Bush has kicked off three days of consultations starting with a trip to the State Department. As you may know, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group is urging the U.S. to talk directly with Syria and Iran. Today the president didn't commit to that, but he did mention the region.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We also talked about the neighborhood, the countries that surround Iraq and the responsibilities that they have to help this young Iraqi democracy survive. We believe that most of the countries understand that a mainstream society, a society that is a functioning democracy is in their interests and it's up to us to help focus their attentions and focus their efforts on helping the Iraqis succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Security, of course, is a paramount issue for Iraq's prime minister. Now, job security may be a worry, as well. Let's get straight to our Baghdad and senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, that's because there are rumors here in Baghdad that Nuri al-Maliki may be ousted from his post. Those are rumors that his office has been very, very office has been very, very keen to put down today, a spokesman saying that's not about to happen.

But what we do know behind the scenes, the political scenes here in Baghdad, there are deep political divisions. The prime minister lost one of his principal backers, Muqtada al-Sadr, a firebrand Shia cleric, about two weeks ago. He's formed an opposition along with some Sunni politicians. They say they have a strong opposition.

The other politicians in the government say they're extremists and are trying to form their own political block, what they call moderates across the sectarian -- across the sectarian divide here. They say they want to accelerate the process of trying to heal some of the divisions in the country.

But what has been clear going on here in the background is there is the potential for a political division. There has been talk about a cabinet shake up. But until now at least the prime minister's office saying he still has the job, and that's the way it is going to be here.

PHILLIPS: Well, over the weekend Iraqi prime minister, Jalal Talabani, rejected the Baker/Hamilton recommendations within the Iraq Study Group. What were his arguments against the suggestions?

ROBERTSON: They were very simple. He said, look, this Baker study group reported. He says it's unfair, it's unjust. He even described it as dangerous.

What he said was at the heart of it, the principal of putting a lot of U.S. military trainers inside the Iraqi army to train the Iraqi army, he said, would undermine the sovereignty of the army and, therefore, undermine the sovereignty of Iraq.

However, the president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, is also a Kurd. And a couple of days before we'd heard from another Kurdish leader, and he'd been complaining about the report, saying that it would take away power from the Kurdish -- from the Kurds in the north, put that power under the central government's control. And principally, he said, take away their ability to spend and direct the oil revenues coming from those oil wells in the north of the country.

So what we've been hearing here is from a very Kurdish point of view, rejecting the Baker study group's report. We have heard from other politicians here, Sunnis and Shias. They have more broad acceptance for it. Again, it just highlights the political divisions at the moment.

PHILLIPS: Nic Robertson, live from Baghdad.

LEMON: Free speech in Tehran? Well, before you say no such thing, check out today's appearance by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Tehran University.

Not only was he heckled, students lit a firecracker and burned his photo, chanting "death to the dictator." They were outnumbered, though, and shouted down by Ahmadinejad supporters.

The president himself responded calmly, calling his opponents a minority, and his government downplayed the reports. Open dissent is still pretty rare in Iran, but many students are furious over the president's purge of secular professors.

PHILLIPS: An odd state of affairs in Chile today after the death of the former dictator, Augusto Pinochet. The body is on display at a military college in Santiago, but no state funeral, no public honors, for the man who seized power in a U.S.-backed coup and later was blamed for the deaths of thousands of opponents.

Riot police clashed with demonstrators on Sunday in scenes of the latter years of Pinochet's rule. A government spokesperson says that 43 police were hurt, 99 demonstrators were arrested during the wild celebrations of Pinochet's death after a heart attack.

LEMON: Well, heading to their hometown for the holidays, but a South Carolina couple never made it. They went missing five days ago during their trip north on busy I-95.

Here's Elise Olson of affiliate WBTW.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEGAN LIENDO, DAUGHTER OF MISSING COUPLE: This is like a nightmare I'm going through. I just want to wake up from it.

ELISE OLSON, WBTW CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Megan Liendo says she hasn't eaten or slept since she realized her parents are missing. She's handing out fliers, hoping someone knows where they might be.

LIENDO: This is a picture of my parents. Their names are Wayne and Dianne Guay, and they've been missing since Wednesday night. OLSON: Liendo says her parents were heading up to Queens, New York, from their home in Myrtle Beach to celebrate her birthday and an early Christmas. They left home at 4 a.m. Wednesday. The last time anyone heard from them was Wednesday evening.

LIENDO: This is very unlikely of them to be missing. They always call and give us updates about where they are. Even when there's no traffic or there's no problems, they always call to let us know that they're on their way.

OLSON: Liendo she tried calling her mother's cell phone, but no one is answering.

LIENDO: When we call my mother's cell phone it goes directly to her voice mail. My mother always leaves her voice -- her cell phone on.

OLSON: Liendo's husband and brother traveled to the Ladysmith Shell gas station in Virginia, where her parents always stop. An employee there said she saw the couple early Wednesday morning.

LIENDO: The lady said that she can bet her children's life on it that she saw my mother.

OLSON: In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, I'm Elise Olson, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Another desperate search under way in Oregon right now just days after the ordeal that ended so horribly for the Kim family. Rescuers are moving up to Mt. Hood to look for three missing climbers. One was able to call his son on his cell phone yesterday to say he was stranded in a snow cave. He said the other two climbers have gone back down to find help.

There's been no contact since and no sign of the two other climbers. We're going to have a live report straight ahead this hour.

LEMON: Another country and four new cases of polonium exposure. Who else may have been tainted along the way to a radioactive hit? The latest fallout on that story taking on a half life of its own. Ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: We're sure there's a lot of love about flying on the space shuttle, but we're not sure NASA's wake-up call falls into that category. For addition on the mission of Discovery. Next from the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: There's yet another twist in the case of that poisoned ex-Russian spy. Police in Germany want to know whether another possible victim of polonium-210 could be the perpetrator.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joins me now from London with the latest -- Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Don.

Well, that's right. This man is Dmitry Kovtun. And investigators in Germany are watching him a little more closely than they have been before. They say that he could possibly be the perpetrator.

Now, what they have found is that in his ex-wife's flat in Hamburg in Germany where he had stayed before coming to London to meet Mr. Litvinenko, the ex-Russian spy who was poisoned, there are a lot of traces of this radioactive material, polonium-210.

And they also believe that he had been contaminated with this material before he arrived in Germany. Now, this was before Litvinenko himself was poisoned. So they're watching this very closely, saying that they are investigating possible illegal handling of this radioactive material.

Now, also, we have heard just in the past few hours that there is a very high possibility that his ex-wife, her partner and their two children, aged 1 and 3, could also be infected with this polonium-210.

Now, the wife of the former Russian spy who was killed back about two and a half weeks ago, Mr. Litvinenko, himself, has broken her silence. She's been talking to one British newspaper, the "Sunday Times". And she said exactly what her husband said on his death bed, that she believes the Russian authorities were behind this.

She did say, though, that she didn't believe President Vladimir Putin himself was behind it, but he did believe that he had created such a situation around him in Russia that it was perfectly possible that they would carry out a murder on a British person on British soil. Now, Mr. Litvinenko just this year had become a British citizen.

Now she also said that -- she was talking about how Mr. Litvinenko himself had come to the realization he had been deliberately poisoned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARINA LITVINENKO, FORMER SPY'S WIDOW: He said, man, I feel like people who was poisoned (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, because this started. They have some symptoms. But, of course, I told him, Sasha, it's unbelievable. I can't -- I can't believe what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Marina Litvinenko also said she put her faith in British investigators but did not think she would be cooperating with Russian detectives, who are likely to becoming to London with their own investigation later this week -- Don.

LEMON: Paula, you know, it's almost been six weeks since that poisoning, but no arrests. How difficult is all this proving to be? HANCOCKS: Well, right at the beginning everyone realized, especially the investigators, that this was an incredibly intriguing and complex case, but the more investigation ongoes, the more it does seem to be even more complex, the fact that just in the last couple of days the have found a third country involved. The fact that Germany has been, has had a radiation scare, as well. The fact that this one man, Kovtun, had gone to Germany.

And, of course, the longer this investigation goes on, then the further back in the timeline the discoveries are becoming.

So, three countries involved, three separate investigations. It's unclear how much cooperation there are between the three themselves, but we know there are British investigators in Germany, in Russia, in London. We know that the Russian investigators are in those three places, as well.

So it really is very complex, and how much cooperation is ongoing is really unsure at this point. Of course, the political implications from relations between Russia and Britain also weighing very heavy on these investigators. They're very aware they have to tread very carefully -- Don.

LEMON: Paula Hancocks in London, thank you, Paula.

PHILLIPS: Was the CIA bugging Princess Diana the night she died in Paris? Due this Thursday, a lengthy probe by Scotland Yard into the circumstances surrounding Diana's death.

According to a London newspaper, the report says that Diana's last phone calls were bugged by U.S. intelligence for reasons unknown.

It also asserts Diana's driver, Henry Paul -- or Henri Paul -- was in the pay of French intelligence.

Those facts aside, Scotland Yard's conclusions are consistent with earlier findings that Paul was severely drunk and crashed at 100 miles an hour while eluding paparazzi with Diana, Dodi Fayed and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones.

LEMON: Two weeks in the wilderness, seven feet of snow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

This is a lot of food. I had some banana chips and some rice cakes left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You had enough for another day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: How did Daryl Jane live to tell the tale? He'll join us with his harrowing tale later on in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: Plus, the devil comes to Tasmania and to mainland Australia, as well. Wildfires down under, up next in the NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A rendezvous in space, and then it gets busy. Space Shuttle Discovery is preparing to dock with the International Space Station just a few hours from now. Onboard, a new crew member and a two-ton addition to the space slab. The astronauts plan to rewire the station in three spacewalks. The first tomorrow.

As for the shuttle, NASA says so far so good. Initial scans show no damage from Saturday's spectacular nighttime launch. A live report on the docking, coming up from the NEWSROOM.

LEMON: Layoff. It's a word workers dread. Everybody dreads it, especially this time of year. But Susan Lisovicz joins us from the New York Stock Exchange with word of job cuts at several big companies.

This is a terrible time for that, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Never a good time.

LEMON: Yes.

LISOVICZ: And especially right now, two weeks before Christmas day. We have some very high profile companies giving workers the big slip -- the pink slip, rather.

Dupont, Ford and Chrysler announcing nearly 20,000 job cuts. Chemical maker Dupont is one of the Dow 30 stocks. It says it's cutting 1,500 jobs as it closes or streamlines 10 plants in its agricultural and nutrition division. The changes will affect workers worldwide. The estimated savings, $100 million annually.

And no big surprise here: the beleaguered auto industry is dropping the ax once again. Ford is planning to offer even more buyouts. This time the packages will be for white-collared workers.

The automaker, as you may recall, has already slashed 4,000 salaried positions this year, but Ford says its goal is 14,000. That's one-third of its white-collared workforce.

Of course, that's in addition to the nearly 40,000 union workers that recently accepted buyouts at Ford.

And rival Daimler-Chrysler may follow suit, as well. The company says it could lay up to 4,000 -- lay off up to 4,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada next year. The reason: slumping demand for gas guzzling trucks and SUVs. Chrysler, like Ford and GM, is working on a major restructuring plan to rein in costs -- Don.

LEMON: Not good. How are investors reacting to all of this, Susan?

(STOCK REPORT)

LISOVICZ: Coming up, the U.S. Army has a budget of $168 billion, but I'll tell you why that may not be enough. Don and Kyra, back it you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Susan.

Well, he's just about to step down as head of the United Nations. So what's Kofi Annan doing in Missouri? Hint: it has a lot to do with America's 33rd president. The information buck stops here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Free speech in Tehran? Before you say no such thing, check out today's appearance by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a Tehran university.

Not only was he heckled, students lit a firecracker and burned his photo, chanting "death to the dictator." They were outnumbered, though, and shouted down by Ahmadinejad supporters.

The president himself responded calmly, calling his opponents a minority. Open dissent is still pretty rare in Iran, but many students are furious over the president's purge of liberal and secular professors.

LEMON: A parting shot from the departing secretary-general of the United Nations. This hour Kofi Annan is in Independence, Missouri, honoring a past U.S. president while dissing the current one.

Let's bring in our senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth.

Richard, what's your take on Annan's farewell?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it wasn't exactly given a la Harry, which is what former President Truman was known as. A little bit of "Give them hell, Kofi." A little bit.

It was a speech that probably reads stronger on paper, but Kofi Annan's speech delivering skills have never been one of his best qualities as secretary-general.

But there are some sharp remarks here directed at Washington, calling on it to engage and to not go it alone, necessarily because of what happened in Iraq and in other international crises that the secretary-general believes need strong American involvement with others.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNAN: No nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over others. We all share responsibility for each other's security, and only by working to make each other secure can we hope to achieve lasting security ourselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: The secretary-general saying that, yes, America has concerns on terrorism, but, regarding human rights, the U.S. must be in the vanguard. That lead can be maintained if America remains true to its principals.

When it appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends are naturally overseas troubled and confused.

This is Annan's last major speech, Don. The setting, of course, is significant. Harry Truman was a key founder of the United Nations, taking over after FDR died in the mid-40s. He was -- Truman was in San Francisco when the U.N. charter was signed.

And he is calling on the Bush administration and others who follow to follow through in the footsteps of Harry Truman.

LEMON: Richard, I guess it's fair to say that Kofi Annan had a somewhat contentious relationship with U.S. leaders. How will the U.N.-U.S. dynamic change with his departure, if at all?

ROTH: Things got a little sticky between Secretary-General Annan and Ambassador John Bolton, who was in his final days here, not being reappointed by President Bush.

Ban Ki-moon, the South Korean former foreign minister, will be the new man starting January 1. I think things may be a little smoother, certainly at the outset. It always starts that way.

Ban Ki-moon met personally with George Bush. He was also a U.S. Chinese appointee. So for now, just as Kofi Annan started off 10 years ago, he has U.S. backing.

LEMON: All right, senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: It's all too familiar. A rugged stretch of Oregon, a desperate search for people missing in rugged weather. It's happening right now in Mt. Hood just days after the ordeal that ended so horribly for the Kim family.

Mark Glyzewski from our affiliate, KPTV, is on the story -- Mark.

MARK GLYZEWSKI, KPTV CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hello, Kyra. And the searchers have been at it for about five and a half hours today so far. Still no sign of these three missing hikers.

There's actually a two-pronged effort going on right now. There's a group of about 18 searchers making their way up the north side of Mt. Hood. Again, this is an 11,000-foot peak with some chains on top of that.

Also, there's another group coming up from Timberline Lodge from the south. They're hoping to intersect at some point, hopefully today, but it is very slow going. You can see the weather conditions here just miserable. They have rain here at the 4,000-foot level. We're told just minutes ago that at least one of the groups have made it up to about the 6,500-foot level.

As for the climbers, again, these three have not been seen or heard from since yesterday afternoon. They were due back on Saturday afternoon, but never showed up on the south side of the mountain. They left here from the north side earlier in the day, never showed up. There was a cell phone call that happened, Kyra, yesterday afternoon from a man who was trapped at about 11,000 feet. He said he was in a snow cave. Again, we're getting information his name is Kelly James from Texas, and he called his wife from that cell phone to report at least one, if not both, of his partners have gone off for help, and that's why we have this double search going on, the north and the south base of Mount Hood this morning, and into the afternoon hours as well today for people on the East Coast, I should say.

But, again, the conditions are not very agreeable, to say the least for the searchers. Needless to say with the rain that we're having here, snow up higher on the mountain, also visibility very poor. They will not be able to use a helicopter, unfortunately, at least for the moment. They're hoping to be able to do that later today, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Mark, how many times has this happened during this time there in the area every year. I know you and others who live in the area know how the situation can get treacherous, but this -- it seems like every year we have a couple of these situations that we're covering.

GLYZEWSKI: Yes, and it does happen around the year, but this time of the year, really, it's not too common because this is really a very challenging time to climb because not only do you have the heavy snowfall that's coming down here in the depths of winter, but also there's very unstable footing, easily could have crevices that are hidden under that snowfall, even some risk of avalanches, as well. So really when you talk to the mountain rescue people, they do not really advise anybody to climb, even if you are experienced. But we're talking, again, about these three missing guys are very experienced. One of them has climbed, we're told, Mount McKinley, even the Andes Mountains. So they have some know-how, but again, showing you even compared to an 11,000-foot peak here, Peak Hood, it can still be a challenge when you have these miserable conditions.

PHILLIPS: All right, Mark Glyzewski, we'll stay in touch with you. We'll stay on top of the search. Thanks so much.

In two weeks in the wilderness, seven feet of snow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the last of my food. I have some banana chips and rice cakes left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: How did Darrel Jane (ph) live to tell the tale? He's going to join us with the harrowing story later in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And tonight, CNN goes behind the headlines and behind the tears for an emotional look at one man's heroic sacrifice to save his family. Tune in 8:00 Eastern for "Stranded: The James Kim Ordeal," a special "PAULA ZAHN NOW" only on CNN. LEMON: He may suffer the slings and arrows of his own outrageous behavior, but Mel knows how to pack them in at the multiplex. His latest one is even generating Oscar buzz. We'll read some Tinseltown tea leaves, next, in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Gruesome violence, a very foreign language, a no-name cast, not your usual formula for box office success, especially at Christmas. But none of that scared audiences away from "Apocalypto." It's Mel Gibson's latest epic. It debuted at No. 1 with more than $14 million this last weekend. That was in ticket sales. It's Gibson's first film since his drunken, anti-Semitic rant over the summer, and though it's No. 1, the movie made only a fraction of the money Gibson's last film, "Passion of the Christ," earned in its debut.

Will the academy look kindly on "Apocalypto." There's talk of possible Oscar nominations for Gibson's new film. Joining me now is Tom O'Neil. He is a columnist for theenvelope.com is Los Angeles, "Time's" award's Web site.

You know what you said, Tom, that I thought, you said that this move was -- I was stunned by the box office success, because it's not a date movie, a family movie; it's an unyielding bloodfest that goes on for two hours.

TOM O'NEIL, COLUMNIST, THEENVELOPE.COM: Yes, it's not a family movie, it's not a date movie. What's strange about this film is, what is the core audience? Because it really is an unrelenting bloodfest, Don. The first scene of this movie is a wild bore being gored by these spikes, and it just -- the blood keeps flowing from there on in.

LEMON: But even with this, are you surprised that it was No. 1?

O'NEIL: I was. I think box office experts were, too. On the financial side, it was only supposed to make between $8 million and $10 million this weekend. In fact, pulling in this 14 million is the action hero himself, Mr. Gibson, coming to his own rescue.

But in the big picture here, it's only break even internationally, if that. It cost $50 million to make. It needs to get about $75 to $80 million internationally to break even. It's not going to do that. So probably will hit that break-even point in DVD sales.

LEMON: And Mel Gibson apologizing to the Jewish community. He's been doing what he can to make amends. But is this movie really his redemption, because we all though, at least most people thought, it was career suicide after that. Is this his redemption?

O'NEIL: In a way it is, because of all the expectations we all had, as you just mentioned. Nobody thought he could pull off a movie with the Mayan language, but it shows that he's still in the game and that people still like him. But a poll just came out last week from Gallup that say he is still the sixth favorite film star in America. He is also, by the way, the third least favorite. LEMON: Yes, we do have that poll. Tom Hanks, number one, Robert De Niro, number two, Julia Roberts, three, Will Smith, Sandra Bullock, and there's Mel Gibson, 26 percent positive rating, and then Reese Witherspoon after that.

And the highest negatives, as you said, Tom Cruise. 34 percent, Angelina Jolie, 18 percent, and Mel Gibson 15 percent. So I guess the thing is you want to be the most liked and the most hated as well, right.

O'NEIL: Right, right. In Mel's case his positive numbers doubled his negative. For Tom Cruise, that's not the case.

LEMON: What does it mean that do you think this movie would had done better had Mel Gibson actually starred in the movie?

O'NEIL: I think so. I think he is still so important on the cultural scene. I think what's fascinating when you look at an award, for an example, like the People's Choice Award, which used to be chosen by the Gallup poll, so that means it's an honest reflection of public opinion. Don, he would win every year even when he didn't have a movie out. He is the biggest winner in that award. And if you measure his status in Hollywood by that, he is, in some regard, the most popular film star in modern movie history.

LEMON: Yes, and we were talking about it this morning in a meeting, everyone, even over the weekend, talking with friends saying, I think the reason that maybe this redemption has come is because he takes on, he's not afraid to take on topics that maybe Hollywood wouldn't do otherwise.

O'NEIL: Yes, I think that is in large part of it. But what's distressing here is this is one more grossly violent movie, excessively. And as some devout Christians can tell you about "Passion of the Christ," he added a lot of violence to that film that you don't find in the Bible. We're starting to wonder, what's going on in the dark mind of Mr. Gibson?

LEMON: Yes, $14.2 million, it was No. 1. That's really not a lot of money when it comes to Hollywood standards. Do you think this trend will continue, because as I remember, if I recall correctly, what is it war of the worlds had a very strong opening weekend, but then really trailed off after that. This is after Tom Cruise's whole thing with the coach and all that.

O'NEIL: Right, right, right. In general now, and it's a fairly recent new trend in box office, is these films drop off 50 percent after the first weekend. It used to be 30 or 40. So as a nation, we all go to see one movie one week, and then another movie the next week. So the numbers will be way down on "Apocalypto" next week.

LEMON: Yes, it certainly seems very interesting. I guess we are a very forgiving bunch. I guess that's kind of what we can take away from all this.

Tom O'Neil, thank you so much for joining us. O'NEIL: OK, thanks.

PHILLIPS: They were bound from South Carolina to New York, but that five days ago. Now a frantic family is doing all they can to track this couple down. An update on the search coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.

It's not even Christmas yet, but the Christmas trees have come down at one busy airport. What is going on here? We'll explain what's happening, straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

The spirit of Christma-Hanu-Kwanzaa-ka lives on, just not at Sea- Tac Airport. It's beginning to look a lot like, well, any other time of year at Seattle-Tacoma international after a complaint about a Christmas tree snowballed.

CNN's Joshua Lez has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSHUA LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN NEWSROOM (voice over): Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Christmas time imagery, but the trees have been taken down. It started with this rabbi's complaint, but this is not what he wanted.

RABBI ELAZAR BOGOMILSKY, HOST, "SHMOOZE RADIO": The Jewish community at-large is offended by the removal of the Christmas trees.

LEVS: What he wanted was for something to be placed alongside one of the trees, a Menorah. He says the Hanukkah symbol, as seen in other public displays, represents triumph of freedom over oppression.

BOGOMILSKY: It's not just a message for Judaism, it's a message of hope for everyone.

LEVS: But he didn't just ask, he threatened a lawsuit. And the commission that oversees the airport says there was not time to reach a resolution.

PATTI DAVIS: Frankly, we are faced with the choice of either spending unknown amounts of the public's dollars and countless hours of litigation, or trying to figure out how to accommodate all these cultures all at once, when we were underway trying to bring half a million people through the SEA-TAC airport, in the busiest possible season.

LEVS: So the trees came down and tempers went up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of sad that we have to do that now, it seems to try to please everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To take away the Christmas tree, to me, is just saying Christmas doesn't count, when it's an aspect of Christmas.

LEVS: Airport employees are angry, too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody has been outraged enough they're going to bring in their own solution tomorrow and to demonstrate, I suppose, and bring their own Christmas trees and we're going to display them at the ticket counters.

LEVS (on camera): And the rabbi says he wants the Christmas trees back up, too. So why doesn't the airport just put the trees back up, add a Menorah, and everybody goes home happy?

Well, the commission that runs the airport says the concern is that if they represent Hanukkah, they will have to be concerned about representing all cultures that may have holidays this time of year. And they say that at this point there just isn't enough time to take care of everybody.

Joshua Levs, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Another desperate search is under way in Oregon, just days after the ordeal that ended so horribly for the Kim family. Rescuers are moving up Mount Hood to look for three missing climbers. One was able to call his son on his cell phone yesterday to say he was stranded in a snow cave. He said the other two climbers had gone back to try to find help. Now there's been no contact since and no sign of the two other climbers.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Australia blaze, dozens of fires burning out of control for a 10th day. Flames have devoured at least 22 homes on the island of Tasmania. Three-hundred miles to the north, more than 600,000 acres burn across the state of Victoria. Bush fire danger is extremely high after Australia's worst drought in more than a century.

Protest or cordial exchange? Some say Iranian students denounced the Iran's president Ahmadinejad as a dictator, but state TV is downplaying the disruption. What's the real story? We're on it in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: Plus, a controversial return to Congress. Bribery allegations fail to derail one Louisiana politician, but will his Democratic counterparts be as supportive as the voters? Find out ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Last month's elections were all about change, right? New blood, new faces, new approaches to old problems, one of which is corruption.

Yes, yes, yes. Except apparently in Louisiana where Democratic Congressman William Jefferson easily won a runoff election Saturday despite his alleged role in a bribery scandal.

CNN's Gary Nurenberg has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): A focus of an ongoing bribery investigation, William Jefferson nonetheless handily won re-election to Congress.

REP. WILLIAM JEFFERSON, (D) LOUISIANA: And we love you. We truly do.

NURENBERG: His election is not being warmly received by his party's leadership.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: I think the Democrats would have preferred probably to have Mr. Jefferson lose re-election. It would make things a lot easier for them.

NURENBERG: Jefferson has been a subject of a very public corruption investigation for more than a year and a half. Federal agents raided his home and said they found $90,000 in cash in the freezer.

KAREN CARTER, JEFFERSON'S OPPONENT: The biggest difference is ethics and honesty and integrity.

NURENBERG: Jefferson's opponent made corruption a central part of her campaign. But the eight-term congressman was able to capitalize on a long history with voters in his district.

JEFFERSON: I love them completely and totally. And it's just a relationship. People wanted to stand up and put their arms around me.

NURENBERG: That is an embrace he is not likely to get from Democratic leaders who made Republican corruption an important part of their campaign to capture control of Congress.

PRESTON: I think what you'll see is Republicans will say, look, it's a two-way street here in Washington, D.C., and they'll try to point to Mr. Jefferson as an example.

NURENBERG: Jefferson has been charged with no wrongdoing. Some Democrats are frustrated with the uncertainty of the lengthy investigation.

SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D) DELAWARE: Get on with it. Federal government, attorney general, make a decision. Charge him or don't charge him. Move on.

NURENBERG: Prosecutors give no indication if charges will be brought.

Gary Nurenberg, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And for the day's first look at the headlines, be sure to join Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien on "AMERICAN MORNING." That's 6:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

LEMON: Barack Star, I guess you can call him that. Barack star treatment for a freshman senator on his maiden trip to New Hampshire. Barak Obama's weekend stops in the Granite State were standing room only, in part because of a media contingent of 150 reporters.

New Hampshire, as you know, is a traditional home of the nation's first presidential primary. Obama, as you may know, as well, says he hasn't yet decided whether to seek the Democratic nomination. He says he will make an announcement early next year.

Now, last month Senator Obama addressed a prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs, afterwards he sat down with me for a one- on-one interview, which included discussions about a possible run for the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Do you think that at this point in our country, this point in time, that a person of color stands a chance to be the president of the United States?

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: Absolutely. I think, I think the American people, at their core, are a decent people. I think that we still have prejudice in our midst, but I think that the vast majority of Americans are willing, are willing to judge people on the basis of their ideas and their character.

And in the case of the presidency, I think what's most important is whether the American people think that you understand their hopes and dreams and struggles and whether they think you can actually help them achieve those hopes and dreams.

LEMON: You talked about in your speech, you said that without, and this is a quote, "without a coherent strategy or better cooperation from the Iraqi people, we will only be putting more of our soldiers in the crossfire of a civil war." You're calling it a civil war, do you believe that?

OBAMA: I think this is a low-grade civil war in addition to an insurgency and in addition to terrorists actively involved in what's taking place in Iraq. What we have is a toxic brew in Iraq.

And what my speech specifically says is that without a phased redeployment where we are sending a strong signal to the Iraqi government that they have to take some responsibility for arriving at a political solution to what's taking place there.

That we are not going to see any significant progress and we will continue to have our young men and women in a line of fire without any demonstrable steps being taken to stabilize the situation.

LEMON: You also talked about in your speech, specific timelines for what we call redeployment, which essentially means withdrawal, getting out of Iraq. It seems exactly the opposite of what the White House says and I'm not sure it's possibly in contrast to what General John Abizaid spoke about last week.

OBAMA: Actually, General Abizaid, it's interesting you brought him up, last week he said it's going to take four to six months to stabilize Baghdad. And what I suggest is that in four to six months having stabilized Baghdad, that it's time for us to start a phased redeployment.

So, the -- what I don't do in the speech is say there are any date certain, in which we have to be out. What I suggest is is that we need to send a strong signal to the Iraqi government that the time for coddling is over, that excuses aren't going to cut it.

That Shia, Sunni and Kurd have to make a determination that they are in fact going to govern their country. If they do not arrive at that political settlement, we cannot force any kind of security militarily on the Iraqi people.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LEMON: And that was Senator Barack Obama in a CNN NEWSROOM interview in Chicago last month.

More from the CNN NEWSROOM right now.

PHILLIPS: Hello, everyone, I'm Kyra Phillips in the CNN World headquarters in Atlanta.

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon.

Lost between a rock and a hard place on Oregon's Mount Hood. Rescuers say there's no easy way down for three missing climbers. We'll update efforts to find and save them.

PHILLIPS: Just days before the nation was riveted by James Kim's ordeal, a Seattle man was rescued from a similar predicament. He joins us live to tell us his survival story.

LEMON: Plus, we'll have this. Madman, maverick, or movie-making maestro. Mel Gibson's the man in Hollywood. He's the one that Hollywood love to hate, but someone forgot to tell the audience this weekend. "Apocalypto" tops the box office and stirs Oscar buzz. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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