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Gerald Ford Laid to Rest; Student Killed in High School by Gunman; Controversy Grows Over Saddam Execution; Study Identifies Time Related Costs of Cancer Treatment

Aired January 03, 2007 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips in the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
DON LEMON, CO-HOST: And I'm Don Lemon.

The last good-bye. Let's take a look at live pictures now from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where final ceremonies will honor Gerald R. Ford. Family, friends and admirers, even former rivals, are there, as the 38th U.S. president is laid to rest. We'll take you there today, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Turnout to say farewell to a favorite son. The last stage of Gerald Ford's state funeral is under way in the state where he grew up.

At his presidential museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, more than 50,000 people filed past his casket through the night and into the morning. At 2 p.m. Eastern, a private church service begins at nearby Grace Episcopal Church. Former President Jimmy Carter and former defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, will eulogize, will give eulogies.

Burial will follow 90 minutes later on a hillside overlooking the Ford Museum. You can see special coverage right here in the CNN NEWSROOM from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern.

Now let's check in now with CNN's Jeanne Meserve. She's at the Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids.

Hello, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, good afternoon.

As you can see, the honor corps has moved into place. The military band is also in place now, preparing for the removal of President Ford's casket from the museum where it has lain in repose since yesterday.

Right now, the Ford family is in with the casket. We saw them arrive just a short time ago. They are having their private time right now. It is just the family and the casket, saying their final good-byes privately outside of the public view.

When the casket leaves, they will, too. They will all go to Grace Episcopal Church across town. And there, there will be yet another service honoring the president.

I will say that the turnout here in Grand Rapids has been extraordinary. Approximately 57,000 people filed through this museum to view the president's casket and pay their final respects. Absolutely unprecedented.

And as they were leaving, one of the Ford sons, Michael, was at the doorway to shake the hands of people who came through to say thank you, just as the Ford children had returned at the Capitol Rotunda to thank the people who made an appearance there.

At Grace Episcopal today, you are going to hear those eulogies that you mentioned from Jimmy Carter, the former president, from Donald Rumsfeld, the former secretary of defense.

Then the casket is going to be brought back here. Behind this museum, there's a hillside that has been prepared for the burial. That is where the interment will take place. As you know, there has been a flag draped over this casket since the beginning of these memorials to President Ford. That flag will be folded, and Vice President Dick Cheney will hand that flag to the Ford family when the services are concluded.

Don, back to you.

LEMON: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thank you so much for that.

Just a reminder, CNN NEWSROOM will bring you rolling coverage of former president Gerald Ford's state funeral now in its final stage. The church service starts at 2 p.m. Eastern, followed by the burial service at 3:30. Our special coverage runs from 2 to 4 Eastern.

PHILLIPS: In other news today, a high school student is dead in Tacoma, Washington, and police think another student killed him. Let's get straight to Jeff Dubois from our affiliate there out of Seattle, KIRO Television.

Bring us up to date, Jeff, about what we know about who possibly is responsible for this.

JEFF DUBOIS, REPORTER: Well, we don't know much about the victim in this case yet, just that it was a male student here at Foss High School in Tacoma, Washington.

What we know about the suspect that is just in the last ten or 15 minutes, he has been taken into custody. He also is believed to be a student at Foss High School.

This started early this morning, just before classes were supposed to start on this, the first day back from winter break.

One eyewitness told me he was walking down the hallway and just before the school bell rang, he heard shots ring out. Three shots, to be precise. He turned and looked and saw one of his fellow classmates up against the lockers and then fall to the ground with a lot of blood on the ground. Moments later, he saw his principal running down the hallway, yelling at everyone to get out of the school. There had been a shooting. He said a lot of students ran into classrooms. Other students ran outside of the school.

The school immediately went into lockdown. And that's when Tacoma police quickly got on scene. But before they got here, we were told by police that the suspect was able to slip out before police could put up the barricades at the school entrances.

But again, just in the last 10 or 15 minutes, we understand that they have taken in -- a suspect into custody, believed to be another student at Foss High School.

As for that victim, we do not know the name or age yet, but he was pronounced dead here at the school. Now the school has been shut down.

All the students have been evacuated. And many are waiting for their parents to come pick them up.

And now, a long investigation begins. Police do say they have that suspect in custody. But exactly what led up to that shooting is still under investigation.

That is the latest from Tacoma, Washington.

I'm Jeffrey Dubois, reporting live for CNN.

PHILLIPS: So Jeff, real quickly, we don't know anything about a relationship between these two, the suspect and also the young student that lost his life?

DUBOIS: We don't know anything yet, Kyra, because students, we've been talking to this morning have heard a lot of rumors about who the victim was and the suspect was. But there are a lot of rumors. They heard two people had been shot. But there was only one victim.

And so at this point, we're waiting for police to confirm the identity of both the victim and the suspect.

PHILLIPS: Jeff Dubois from our affiliate there, KIRO there in Seattle. Jeff, thanks.

LEMON: Death by hanging for Saddam Hussein, a black eye for the Iraqi government. One man detained today in Baghdad. More arrests may be pending. Police want to know who recorded that shaky, grainy cell phone video that Iraqi leader -- that Iraqi leaders did not want the world to see.

CNN's Ryan Chilcote live for us in Baghdad -- Ryan.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, Iraq's Sunni Muslims are out on the streets of Iraq again today for the fourth day in a row, expressing their anger at their Shiite-led government, as the controversy over how the government conducted the execution of Saddam Hussein continues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHILCOTE (voice-over): At the heart of the controversy surrounding Saddam Hussein's execution lies the question, who filmed and leaked the cell phone images of Saddam's final moments? So far, it's a mystery.

Iraq's government says it has detained a guard for filming and leaking the debacle. But a prosecutor who was in the execution chamber has pointed the finger at two government officials, telling CNN, quote, "I saw with my own eyes two officials filming the execution. Maybe a guard also filmed it secretly, but I did not see that."

Iraq's national security adviser was one of the officials in the room. He suggests someone outside of the group of officials may be responsible.

MOWAFFAK AL-RUBAIE, IRAQI NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Actually looking at the video of Saddam, I have seen a few people wandering around with their cell phone...

CHILCOTE: The U.S. military, its spokesman says they would have handled it differently. Once they handed Saddam over to the Iraqis, they lost control.

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESWOMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE IN IRAQ: Then we had absolutely nothing to do with any of the procedures or control mechanisms or anything from that point forward.

CHILCOTE: Whatever comes out in the end may not matter much to Iraq's Sunni Muslims. They've already watched the video of Saddam in the final moments of his life being taunted by Shiites chanting Shiite slogans, and there's no doubt who they blame: Iraq's Shiite-led government, the U.S. and the U.K.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): we are denouncing this criminal act of this junior Bush and criminal Blair.

CHILCOTE: There have been demonstrations across the Sunni heartland, perhaps most symbolically at this one, where an angry crowd of Sunni Muslims marched through a Shiite mosque and vowed revenge in the city of Samarra Monday, the same mosque Sunni extremists bombed under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's leadership in February, escalating Iraq's already unprecedented level of sectarian killing to an even higher level.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHILCOTE: The government still has two executions to carry out, those of Saddam's co-defendants, who were also sentenced to death by the Iraqi high tribunal for crimes against humanity.

By law, those executions have to be carried out by the end of the month. The Iraqi government is telling us they won't be carried out this week, but they could come as early as next week. But the government is saying this time they will make sure that they are conducted very carefully.

LEMON: Let's talk about -- more about that video which appears to be a cell phone. It looks like the guy was holding, you know, the phone up. Didn't look like he appeared to be hiding. Were the execution witnesses screened for cameras or cell phones in any of this?

CHILCOTE: All of the witnesses that we spoke with said that they were screened. In fact, some of them say that they were screened twice before they were allowed into the execution chamber.

The guard that has been arrested by the Iraqi government, the Iraqi government says, was already there. He was presumably not screened along with the rest of the party and was somehow able to sneak into the room. At least that's what the Iraqi government is saying. I think it's something that many of Iraq's Sunni Muslims, however, are going to have a hard time buying.

LEMON: Ryan Chilcote in Baghdad, thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: New Congress, same cabinet, with the exception of defense secretary, same priorities for the White House. President Bush presided this morning over his first cabinet meeting of the year, one day before his political opponents took over Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Next month, I will submit a five-year budget proposal that will balance the federal budget by 2012.

The budget will restrain spending while setting priorities. It will address the most urgent needs of our nation. In particular, the need to protect ourselves from radicals and terrorists, the needs to win the war on terror, the need to maintain a strong national defense, and the need to keep this economy growing by making tax relief permanent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The president also used the word "stalemate," cautioning the new Democrat-run Congress against passing bills that are simply political statements.

LEMON: And final day of ceremonies for a former president. Make sure you stay here right in the NEWSROOM for continuing coverage. You're looking at live pictures.

Gerald R. Ford is being laid to rest today in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at the site of the Gerald R. Ford Museum. He's going to be buried right there at that museum.

PHILLIPS: And the museum's lobby was opened to the public Tuesday evening, and it remained open all night so that mourners could view the flag-draped casket. We're told that the viewing has wrapped up. And it's just family now that is with that casket.

We will be taking that private service at 2 p.m. Eastern Time at the Grace Episcopal Church, where the Ford family has worshiped since the 1940s.

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK REPORT)

LEMON: The market on the longest hiatus since 9/11, a four-day hiatus back today and stocks opened soundly, higher for the first session here in 2007. The Dow plus 90, almost 91. And the NASDAQ, 4,453. That's the market today. We'll continue to update you.

PHILLIPS: Take you live once again to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where we're remembering the former president, Gerald Ford.

As you know, the body of the former president nearing the end of its sentimental journey right here in Grand Rapids, where he is going to be buried later this afternoon on a hill right near the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum that you're seeing here, live.

The museum's lobby had been open to the public all throughout the evening yesterday and then had remained open all night so mourners could come through and view the flag-draped casket.

Now as we see the casket leaving the museum, we'll kind of give you a sense for what you're going to see within the next couple of hours as we carry this live for you.

There's going to be a private service scheduled at 2 p.m. at the Grace Episcopal Church, where the Ford family had worshiped since the 1940s.

As you know, we've been talking about the life of the former president and his commitment to the church, his family's commitment to the church, and how they would come here and worship together and pray together. Ford and his three oldest children were actually baptized at the church where the casket is going to be going to.

He and Betty were also married there. And Ford's mother died at the church where that final ceremony is going to be. And his parents' funerals were also held there.

So a lot of history as the casket moves from the museum, where it's been able to be viewed by the public and people that have wanted to pay their respects here, as it gets ready to head to the Grace Episcopal Church.

Now among the speakers at the service will be Donald Rumsfeld. That was Ford's chief of staff and defense secretary. Let's just take a listen for a moment here.

(MUSIC) PHILLIPS: You're watching live coverage as the former president, Gerald Ford, is leaving the museum now, his presidential library and museum. And the motorcade will make its way over to the Grace Episcopal Church, where a special service will be held.

Donald Rumsfeld, Ford's chief of staff and defense secretary, who was defense secretary for President Bush, as you know, until he resigned late last year, will be speaking at that funeral.

Also giving a eulogy will be former president, Jimmy Carter.

Someone also who knows the former president very well, Tom DeFrank, joining us and watching this live coverage with us.

And Tom, I think, as I have listened to your interviews over the past couple of days, you were obviously very blessed as a journalist and also as a human being just to develop the relationship and the stories that you have had and shared with the former president.

You're watching these final moments. You had a chance to go to the ceremony yesterday. What's going through your mind right now?

TOM DEFRANK, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Well, so many different things are going through my mind. But as I'm looking at Grand Rapids here, I'm thinking about an interview I had with him in May, which just turned out to be the last interview he ever gave.

And after the interview, we had lunch with Mrs. Ford. And it was a wonderful lunch and lots of things -- probably even a little too personal to talk about here.

But I remember towards the end of the lunch, he was talking about growing older and he said, "When I wake up at night and can't sleep, I always think about Grand Rapids." And that's really what is going through my mind.

And I must confess to you that whenever I tell that story, the same thing happens to me that is happening right now. The hair on my arms is standing straight up at the memory of a very poignant moment. "When I wake up at night and can't sleep, I always think of Grand Rapids." And here he is, back home, in Grand Rapids, on his last trip.

PHILLIPS: Wow. And you -- I think, too, not only talking to you and listening to your stories, but we've heard from so many of his friends in their 90s still alive and giving interviews and talking about how he was as a friend, as an athlete.

I know that, even when you had that final interview with him back in May, he told you he was outraged because he couldn't swim his laps. He was so frustrated he couldn't keep up with his exercise.

DEFRANK: Yes, I walked in to see him -- and this is, again, this is somebody who was swimming laps twice a day into his 80s. He really was a stickler about his routine. I once had a Secret Service agent tell me, "You wouldn't believe the old man. We got back from Las Vegas last week at 11 p.m. at night, and he went right to the pool." Well, that's the way he was.

But the first thing he said to me as he sat down, he said to me, "Tom, how are you?"

And I said, "How are you, Mr. President?"

And he said, "The doctors won't let me into the pool. They won't let me swim." He was very angry about that. He said it's -- he said, "I don't like being on this leash." And he was very worked up.

He was almost 93 years old at the time. And he was really fighting doctors who obviously were trying their best to save his life and prolong his life but who also were cutting into his exercise routine, and he didn't like that one little bit.

PHILLIPS: Tom DeFrank, stay with us. We've got to take a short break. Tom DeFrank with the "New York Daily News" had a chance to conduct Ford's last interview.

We're going to talk more about his life, his story, as we take the final journey from the museum to his Episcopal church, where he worshipped since the 1940s. We're following the life and legacy of former president, Gerald Ford. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: You're looking at live pictures from the Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is where a memorial service will be held very shortly for the former president.

Some 57,000 people, unprecedented, according to our Jeanne Meserve, showed up at the Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids to pay their respects for the former president.

We saw pictures earlier, very poignant pictures, of the four children, Michael, Steven, Susan Bailes (ph) Ford and Jack Ford. Just seemed very sad. And according to the wires here, the first lady, Betty Ford, wanted this time for some quiet reflection, and she will join the family a little bit later on.

But we will have continuing coverage of this, of the services and then the burial, throughout the day, right here on the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: Well, battling cancer and watching the clock. A new study figures out the high price patients pay in time. Here's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the hidden cost of cancer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know that it's very expensive to treat cancer. There are a lot of direct medical costs involved. But a new study from the National Cancer Institute looking specifically at what cancer costs are in terms of time. Time is money as well. And there are a lot of costs specifically with how long it takes for patients to actually get their care.

What the study looked at specifically was the costs associated with time spent getting to and from appointments, waiting for treatments, waiting during treatments, tests, checkups and other time commitments, as well. They sort of average about $15.23 an hour for all those things. And they came up with some pretty remarkable numbers.

Anybody who spent time waiting in a doctor's waiting room knows specifically what I'm talking about here. Look at some of the numbers. Some of the costs of fighting the cancers, in terms of time spent. In the first 12 month, $5,300 essentially for gastric cancer; $5,600 for ovarian cancer.

And in the last 12 months, look at the numbers go up even more: $1,500 for melanoma; $7,300 for ovarian cancer; $7,400 for lung cancer; almost $7,800 for gastric cancer.

Add it all up, it's about $2.3 billion a year. Again, an indirect cost to treat cancer.

Now, overall, treatment of cancer is about $72 billion a year. It is very expensive. But this certainly makes a difference.

These numbers are important. It's important because it may make the health care system a little bit more seamless in terms of trying to save costs for patient's time, setting up multidisciplinary clinics so when you go to the doctor's office, you can see all your specialists at once.

It's also expensive to take care of cancer, obviously, and while trying to take care of cutting down costs, this may be one area where they can make some of those changes.

We're exploring a lot of these issues. In a documentary called "How to Save Your Life" I teamed up with Lance Armstrong and the Live Strong Foundation. He's been focused on this quite a bit, addressing some of these points, addressing some of these questions. And most importantly, trying to find some answers.

Stay tuned for that as well over the next few weeks.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Sanjay, thank you very much for that.

An unpopular CEO dropped a hammer on Home Depot and nails them with a honking severance package. You won't believe it. The numbers will knock you out. That's next right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: News just in to the CNN NEWSROOM, and Fredricka Whitfield has all the details for us -- Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Don, this is a follow up to this morning's shooting at a high school in Tacoma, Washington. Tacoma police now say that they have a suspect in custody, the person they believe was responsible for opening fire at the high school, killing one other student. That suspect is a student. We don't know anything more about the identity of this person. But the police say that when they took the student into custody about one hour ago it was without a fight, that that suspect cooperated. It is unclear what the motive was, why that student opened fire at the high school. And shortly after that shooting took place, about 1,700 students at that school were taken to a nearby school, while that school was on lockdown, while police looked for the suspect.

So the bottom line now, one suspect in custody, and it turns out to be a student. It's unclear exactly why this student allegedly opened fire, killing another student at the high school, Henry Foss High School in Tacoma, Washington -- Don.

LEMON: Very sad, Fredricka. Thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: Don't knock, he's not at home, not at Home Depot anyway. Just four months after he told a reporter he wasn't going anywhere, Bob Nardelli resigned today as Home Depot's CEO, ending a pretty stormy six-year tenure.

CNN's Ali Velshi standing by with all the details.

Boy, all the things I've been reading and learning about Bob, tough guy to work for, to say the least.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, he came to Home Depot from GE. He was one of the top contenders for the top job after Jack Welch left. Jeff Immelt ended up getting that job. And Nardelli went to Home Depot. Had no experience in the retail world. And you know, came with a lot of good sort of credentials, but the last year's been tough, because Home Depot -- and that's him. He's not right in the middle; he's over to the left on the screen a little bit. Home Depot did a lot of things wrong in the last year. They had an annual meeting in the spring where they knew there would be criticism about Bob Nardelli's pay package, so the board of directors just didn't show up. I mean, that is outrageous. I know a lot of people watching don't attend annual meetings and aren't sure what goes on. But the board directors is actually supposed to show up.

Bob Nardelli didn't take questions from shareholders about his pay package, and his pay package is absolutely out of sync for people in the retail industry. Part of his pay package involved a guaranteed bonus. now in all my years of covering business, Kyra, I don't understand a guaranteed bonus. A bonus is a bonus, and the guarantee part of your pay is your salary.

PHILLIPS: Yes, a guaranteed bonus, I mean, that's the same as a salary, right?

VELSHI: That's my point, same as a salary. So a lot of things, a lot of missteps, a lot of things went wrong. The company really wanted to put this behind them. But in the end, Home Depot is a promising good company. And the missteps were just sort of piling on, and people were kind of unsure about it. And then they had this options investigation, and they declared a couple weeks ago that they've had to restate -- they're going to restate because they've been fiddling around with options for the last 20 years. I mean, it's really kind of outrageous for a big company to be doing all of this stuff. Somebody had to go, and it needed to be Bob Nardelli, and now he's gone. The guy who was the vice chairman of the board is taking over.

And most people are hoping they can put this behind them. In fact The stock is the second most heavily traded stock on the New York Stock Exchange today. It's up over 3 percent. It was up even higher than that even earlier. So investors are pleased with this news.

PHILLIPS: I don't know if you noticed the different feel, but just living here in Atlanta, Georgia, I mean, this is where it started, this is where the headquarters are, the original two that started the company, very involved in the community, do a lot for the community. You felt the customer service. You felt -- you went there for a reason. It has definitely changed.

VELSHI: It has changed. And I will say to Home Depot's credit, there's some areas where they've done well. First of all, they're big, great corporate citizens in Atlanta. But not only that, around Hurricane Katrina time, they've really taken the lead in disaster response and the roll that companies can play. It's a very charitable company. Got a lot of good philanthropy. And one of the areas in which that company has led is in employing senior citizens, giving senior citizens who want to work a second chance.

So here's the conundrum -- it has been a good company; it is a good company. It was slipping on some levels, and it was lacking some accountability. So I think people felt that this company was going to get stuck in a rut if things didn't change, an hopefully this is the change the company need.

PHILLIPS: Ali Velshi, great to see you. Happy New Year.

VELSHI: You, too.

LEMON: Now a final day of ceremonies for a former president. Let's take you live for some live pictures in Grand Rapids, Michigan. You can see the route there that the procession carrying the former president's body will go down that route. That's live pictures of Grace Episcopal Church. Of course the former president dying a day after Christmas. As many as 57,000 people going by to pay their respects in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We'll have continuing coverage in the NEWSROOM of the funeral services for Gerald R. Ford as he is laid to rest in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Don't go away. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

LEMON: You're looking at the services getting under way there for the former president at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The body of the former president expected to arrive very shortly. And of course, we're going to follow it live here on CNN. What I thought was amazing, you see people going into the cathedral there. What I thought was amazing, as we talked to -- as we bring our Jeanne Meserve in, is that 57,000 people showed up in Grand Rapids at the museum to pay their respects. That is unprecedented, Jeanne.

MESERVE: It was quite amazing, last night, especially, when we came out. It was quite cold. Obviously, it was dark. And the line just snaked back and forth across the bridges that span the Grand River here. Some people who we talked to had been waiting 4 and a half hours in the cold to get in to pay their respects.

Many of them who I spoke to from the Grand Rapids area, people who were extraordinarily proud of this man, but people who came in from elsewhere, as well.

Now, of course, this private ceremony about to get under way at Grace Episcopal Church, a church where the Ford family has worshiped since the 1940s. One thing to look for, there are a number of honorary pallbearers in this phase of the memorial. People like the co-founder of Amway who was a friend, also, the chairman ameritus of the Gerald R. Ford organization.

But there was another person designated and that was Bo Schembechler, the coach for the University of Michigan. He of course pre-deceased Mr. Ford and so today in one of the pews in that church there will be a University of Michigan stadium blanket across the pew, a memorial to Bo Schembechler.

So, President Ford, not the only one who is going to be remembered in the services today. There will be eulogies of course. There is an historian speaking, Richard Norton Smith. But people more known to the American public, former President Jimmy Carter and, also, a former chief of staff for President Ford, the former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Vice President Dick Cheney will also be present. He will also come back here to the museum where the interment will take place. Here, there will be a 21-gun salute. Taps will be played. There will be a flyover. And at the conclusion of the graveside services when that flag is folded, it will be handed to Mrs. Ford by the vice president.

Back to you Don.

LEMON: You mentioned -- I think you said it was the Michigan flag. Here's something I thought was interesting, Jeanne, folks went by to say their final good-byes in tribute to the late president, they wore Michigan ties and sweatshirts and hats as well. Did you see any of that?

MESERVE: I did see some of that. I mean, this is a -- a community that's very much into the University of Michigan in any event. But certainly here is a man who had been a star player for the football team back in the 1930s. He was so good that upon graduation he had offers from the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions to play professional football. He turned those down. I think the money then wasn't quite as good as the money today to play pro football and he chose to go to Yale law school.

But, he identified closely with the University of Michigan. Yesterday, the president of that university was here at the service, at the museum, laid a wreath. And in fact, the president is one of those honorary pallbearers here today. So his the ties with that university remain close.

In fact, the Gerald R. Ford library is located at the University in Ann Arbor. It is not here in Grand Rapids, just the museum here. We were speaking with the museum curator a couple of nights ago about why that was done. And he said that when he was a Congressman, Gerald Ford had promised his papers to the University of Michigan. So when he became president, he didn't change that promise. He kept it. And the papers went there.

And he says that actually in some ways it's convenient because that's a better place to be doing the sort of serious research that's done. But, this is the hometown, this is the place that Gerald Ford represented. This is where he grew up, this is where he wanted to be buried, so this is where the museum is located.

LEMON: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thank you so much.

PHILLIPS: CNN NEWSROOM is going to bring you rolling coverage of former President Gerald Ford's state funeral now in its final stage. A church service starts at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time, followed by the burial service at 3:30. Our special coverage runs from 2:00 to 4:00 Eastern. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: One of the other stories we've been following throughout the day has been that cell phone video that you have probably seen that was taken at the execution of Saddam Hussein.

The question is, how was that person able to do that and was it, indeed, legal? We're being told now that a security guard present at Hussein's execution is now being detained for taking that video.

Kathleen Koch just came out of a White House briefing with Tony Snow. He actually talked about it. Has President Bush actually watched the tape?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, Kyra, he hasn't. And there were a lot of questions though certainly to Tony Snow today about what did the U.S., what did the president, what does the administration, think about how the execution devolved into this sort of spectacle with the yelling, giving Saddam Hussein in his final minutes of life, the appearance of being dignified, making one feel sorry for him.

Tony Snow said basically this was an Iraqi process. The U.S. had agreed in advance, you know, once all the preconditions were met, that he would be turned over. And he said there seems to be a lot of concern about the last two minutes of Saddam Hussein's life in comparison to the previous 69 years where he had hundreds of thousands of people executed.

Snow said it's important to be aware of the fact that the Iraqi government is looking into this. They're conducting an investigation. He said, let that go through, let that be completed. He pointed out the U.S. Embassy, Brigadier General William Caldwell, the spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq, they expressed their concerns before and after. But he said there's an investigation under way. Let's let that be completed.

PHILLIPS: So here's the question, is it more -- is the controversy more about somebody who took video of the execution and released it or is it more about what is being heard in those final two minutes in this taunting that was apparently taking place? It seems those are two totally different issues and they're sort of being intertwined.

KOCH: Certainly, Kyra, from the administration's point of view, though they wouldn't elaborate on this, the greater concern is about the taunting and the effect that is having now on this quest for unity in Iraq. The administration has insisted that is so critical to the U.S. forces being able to eventually leave, is Iraqis coming together.

And now this spectacle, the taunting, the fact that the tape is out, that this execution devolved into this spectacle, it's preventing this unity, the two -- the different parts of Iraq, from coming together, the Sunnis, the Shia.

And so, obviously, the administration is concerned about that impact, but they say let this investigation go forward at this point.

PHILLIPS: We'll follow the investigation and if, indeed, it does make an impact. Kathleen Koch, thanks.

LEMON: We're following the entire ceremony happening in Grand Rapids, Michigan, of course, the burial here for the former president, Gerald R. Ford. You're looking now at pictures which I believe is Grace Episcopal Church.

You can see part of the Honor Guard there, preparing. We're hearing that the motorcade should be arriving very shortly. Very shortly. And there's a look at the program, live picture there happening.

What's very interesting about this is that once they get there, which should be very shortly, one of the honorary pallbearers included golfing legend Jack Nicklaus and -- which was amazing. And then just the folks who are going to be doing the eulogies here, Donald Rumsfeld, former defense secretary, was also part of Ford's cabinet and his chief of staff, and as -- later serving as defense secretary.

He will deliver a eulogy, and then also former President Jimmy Carter as well, and that was an agreement they had between them that whoever happened to go first, the other would speak at their funeral, sort of gentlemen's agreement there. And they became friends, even though they were sort of rivals -- not sort of rivals, they were rivals. One defeated the other in a presidential election.

Let's bring in Jeanne Meserve who is standing by to look at all these activities, and looking at the military and all the members of the armed forces there who are going to take part in this.

And, Jeanne, here comes the motorcade, as we are speaking now.

MESERVE: The military playing a key event in all aspects of this funeral, from the first days to this, its last. This is something that they practice on a regular basis so they have it down perfectly.

Hundreds and hundreds of military personnel involved in executing funeral like this, and those are the ceremonial people you see. Hundreds of others behind the scenes also acting in a coordinating function. You're right. There you do see the hearse pulling up to the church.

Mrs. Ford, by the way, did not come over here to the museum earlier where there was an opportunity for the family to have some private time with the casket. As you know, this has been a very public good-bye.

And the thought was that the family would have a little bit of time by itself to say what it wanted to say, perhaps in the presence of the deceased, perhaps to one another, perhaps to their God, before this funeral took place. But Mrs. Ford, we're told, chose, instead, to spend some quiet time in private reflection, so she was not here today.

The Ford children were. And as they emerged from the museum earlier, you could see that some of them were having great trouble keeping their emotions in check, certainly understandable on a day like this -- Don.

LEMON: Hey and, Jeanne, we were talking about the Michigan, Bo Schembechler blanket, which was draped over the pew there. And we've got a picture of that. There it is right there.

And we've been talking about this president's connection, this family's connection, really, to the University of Michigan and to Grand Rapids, the Michigan fight song being played as he got off the plane yesterday at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport. So this whole Michigan theme, this is really his hometown, very important to this family.

MESERVE: Oh, absolutely. And just to explain the Bo Schembechler connection, he was named an honorary pallbearer in the pre-planning for this event but, of course, he predeceased Mr. Ford and so today, that stadium blanket draped in his memory.

But, yes, very tight ties with the University of Michigan because that is where President Ford went to college back in the '30s. He played football there. He was a center, as I've mentioned. He was an extraordinarily good player, was named to the all-big 10 his senior year. Not named an all-American but, nonetheless, a very notable football career there and one that earned him a couple of pro football offers.

And as I mentioned earlier, that is where the Gerald R. Ford Library is located with all of his papers, both congressional and presidential, which are used by scholars researching his presidency and the things about it.

Here we see people starting to emerge from the hearse. Apparently, the casket may be on the verge of being moved into the church now. Grace Episcopal Church, as we've mentioned, the Ford family church since the 1940s. This is where Betty and Gerald Ford were married.

And this is where the funerals were held for both of Gerald Ford's parents. This is where Gerald and Betty Ford's oldest three children were baptized. So a lot of memories contained within these walls for the Ford family. I'm sure they'll be feeling all of them today.

LEMON: Jeanne Meserve, thanks.

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