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American Morning
Crash Landing: Indonesia Jet Tragedy; The Cheney Factor: Impact of Libby Trial on Vice President; American Women Feared Poisoned in Moscow
Aired March 07, 2007 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Deadly landing. A plane full of passengers burst into flames. A camera crew on board captures the terrifying scene.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Converted felon. Scooter Libby fights for a new trial today. Plus, what it all means for his former boss, the vice president.
S. O'BRIEN: Is your breakfast safe to eat? There are new concerns about contaminated food and just who is watching out for us.
M. O'BRIEN: Plus, mega mystery. We could learn any minute now if someone hit the $370 million Megamillions jackpot. It's not me.
Live from Moscow, Indonesia, Washington and New York on this AMERICAN MORNING.
S. O'BRIEN: It's not us since we bought our tickets together.
M. O'BRIEN: Collectively. We're all out. We're here, therefore we lose.
S. O'BRIEN: Sad, sad, sad.
Good morning, everybody. It's Wednesday, March 7th. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. We're glad you're with us.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's begin with a nightmare landing. A true tragedy in Indonesia. Twenty-three people killed. More than 100 passengers were able to survive. Now, this morning, investigators are searching for what went wrong. A photographer from Australia's Channel 7 News was onboard the plane, managed to escape and took these pictures. The plane apparently overshot the runway, skidded right into a rice field and caught fire. Passengers jumped out of the emergency exits. Many of those passengers have severe burns. The Garuda Airlines flight, that's Indonesia's national airline, had 140 people on board when it came in for a landing at Yogyakarta in central Java. CNN's Dan Rivers is at the scene for us this morning.
Dan, good morning.
DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad. I'm standing in front of the wreckage of flight GA-200, which as you said, overshot the end of the runway, slammed through a fence and then slammed into this rice field behind me. Shortly afterwards, the whole plane burst into flames, was engulfed in flames. A lot of the passengers did manage to escape before that inferno started. But we're hearing now that the death toll is currently at 23 and may well rise further.
When you see it with your own eyes, it's really pretty shocking seeing this plane. Both of the engines have been ripped off the wings. The whole top of the plane has simply been burnt away. There's nothing left of the top of the fuselage. So clearly that heat, the intensity of that fire quite incredible. But now the Indonesian president has ordered an urgent investigation into what went wrong.
There seem to be two likely possibilities at the moment. One is simply pilot error. That he was coming in way too fast, overshot the end of the runway and slammed into this field behind me. And the pilots say that there is a problem with this airport. It's got a very short runway.
The other possibility is some sort of mechanical fault. One of the officials here is that when the plane touched down, they say that the front tire burst into flames and that then led to the fire that engulfed the entire fuselage of the plane.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Dan, I know it's early in the investigation, but do we know now who exactly what's on this plane?
RIVERS: We know that there were nine Australians aboard. Many of them here preparing for a visit of the Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer, who's in Indonesia this week. They were a mixture of embassy officials, journalists, police officers and a couple of air force guys.
We don't know exactly who have survived and who has perished. Although we are being told only five of those nine Australians have been accounted for and that two are confirmed dead and two are still unaccounted for. They've still got to go through the wreckage behind me. There could well still be bodies in the wreckage behind me. Clearly, this is going to take a long time to pick through the pieces of this plane to find out exactly what went wrong.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, my gosh. What a devastating crash. But remarkable to think that 100 people were able to survive that.
Dan Rivers for us this morning.
Thank you, Dan.
Also in Indonesia this morning, rescue workers on the island of Sumatra are desperately searching for people who are still strapped under the rubble of Tuesday's 6.3magnitude earthquake. This morning, thousands of people leaving their homes, camping out in fields, fearing more tremors. The Associated Press is reporting that at least 52 people were killed, hundreds were injured and thousands, now thousands of buildings were damaged.
M. O'BRIEN: From chief of staff to the vice president to the convicted felon. Scooter Libby facing prison time this morning after that dramatic guilty verdict in Washington. Libby's lawyers say they will ask for a new trial and Washington is abuzz this morning with speculation the president will pardon him. More from CNN's Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff was silent and stoic as he emerged from U.S. district court after a jury convicted him on four out of five counts of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements. Libby's attorney, Ted Wells, said he will disappointed in the verdict.
But Wells says he'll fight on. He says he will file a motion for a new trial. And if that fails, he will appeal this verdict.
Sentencing is set for June. Libby could face up to 25 years in prison. But under federal sentencing guidelines, it's very likely he will get a lot less time than that.
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald says he is satisfied with this verdict. And unless any new evidence comes up in this case, he says his investigation is over.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: The jury may not have bought Libby's defense, but it still had some sympathy for him. One of them told Larry King last night he felt Libby was a fall guy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENIS COLLINS, LIBBY TRIAL JUROR: Some of the people in the jury made comments about, how do we end up, you know, in a trial with Mr. Libby? I thought it was Rove and Armatage that gave the names up to Woodward and various people. But, you know, one of the jurors said, you know, I feel really bad about this, but he, obviously, made some bad decisions and he's, you know, a man in power. He's got to know not to make those decisions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: The prosecutor says the verdict closes the investigation into who leaked the name of former CIA agent Valerie Plame. But Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, told Anderson Cooper others need to be held accountable.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOSEPH WILSON, VALERIE PLAME WILSON'S HUSBAND: Well, clearly more people were involved in it. Mr. Armatage was a leaker to Bob Woodward. And Mr. Rove, who still is employed by the U.S. government, was a leaker to Matt Cooper. So, clearly, there were more people involved in this and Mr. Fitzgerald said again today there remains a cloud over Dick Cheney.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Wilson and his wife are suing Vice President Cheney and others. Wilson says the Libby verdict won't stop their civil suit. In just a few moments we'll speak with Savannah Guthrie of Court TV, who covered this trial from the beginning.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning.
More violence against Shiite pilgrims in Iraq. At least seven people are dead, 14 wounded in a roadside bomb and shootings in Baghdad this morning. The victims were on their way to Karbala to mark a holy day when they were apparently targeted by Sunni insurgents.
Face-to-face talks between the U.S. and North Korea are wrapping up in New York. U.S. diplomats say North Korea must come clean about its nuclear program and destroy nuclear weapons before the U.S. can establish relations with North Korea.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and former Senator Bob Dole will head to the White House today. They've been announced as the leaders of a new committee investigating medical care for veterans. The president formed the committee after reports of neglect and terrible conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Bill is on The Hill. Microsoft founder Bill Gates heads to Capitol Hill this morning, testifying about granting more visas to high tech workers from overseas. Gates says the U.S. needs more skilled labor in order to stay competitive.
And a new study says Atkins is the best and apparently it's safe. According to researchers at Stanford University, the low-carb Atkins diet helped overweight women lose the most weight without any adverse health effects. The study compared Atkins to three other popular diets, including the zone (ph). Many nutritionists argue that Atkins is unhealthy because, of course, all of us who have tried Atkins, you're not supposed to have fruit, you can't have whole grains. Everybody gained back weight, actually. What they just said was, no diets really truly worked in that study.
M. O'BRIEN: I'm trying South Beach, which is a derivative of that. We'll see how it goes. I'll let you know.
S. O'BRIEN: Sorry to bring you down.
M. O'BRIEN: Kind of ruined my day.
S. O'BRIEN: Good luck with that.
M. O'BRIEN: Yet another buzz kill for me. Just by virtue of the fact that you're watching me now, you know, I'm among the legion of losers. Since you're getting ready for another day of work, you, too, are in the l club, aren't you?
We're talking about the mega millions we don't have this morning. $370 million still up for grabs. No word on whether anyone is a winner. A def com one lottery ticket buying frenzy yesterday. They were selling about a million tickets an hour for a spell there. In Ohio, the system crashed about a half hour before the drawing. Here are the winning numbers. 42-39-29-22-16 and the mega ball number is 20.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahh! I won! Oh, no.
M. O'BRIEN: No, you didn't.
So remember all those choice words you had for the boss? All those things you dreamed of buying? Forget about it, until next time, at least.
S. O'BRIEN: Which might be soon.
M. O'BRIEN: It could roll over.
S. O'BRIEN: I could roll over.
M. O'BRIEN: In which case this could get bigger.
S. O'BRIEN: Maybe there's no winner. Could you imagine? Half a billion dollar?
M. O'BRIEN: Not bad. Not bad.
S. O'BRIEN: I'd be in again.
Another day of bitter cold in the Northeast. Oh, it was cold this morning, wasn't it? Chad's going to tell us just how long we can expect it to last.
Plus, inside the courtroom during the Libby trial. All those long days of jury deliberation. We'll tell you what happened inside the court.
And how safe is the food we're eating? There may be no way to tell. And we'll show you why. Special investigation is straight ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN. We've got developing news out of Indonesia this morning. At least 23 people now dead. Dozens more hospitalized after a plane overshoots the runway in the southern part of the country, burst right into flames. CNN is live at the scene of the crash. We're going to have an update for you straight ahead.
M. O'BRIEN: The Scooter Libby trial may be over, but we have not heard the last of this story. His defense team will ask for a new trial. And then failing that, an appeal. And there's always the chance of a presidential pardon. A jury finding the former chief of staff to the vice president guilty of lying to investigators who were trying to learn who leaked the name of a CIA agent to the media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK FITZGERALD, PROSECUTOR: Having someone, a high-level official, do that under oath in a national security investigation is something that can never be acceptable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Savannah Guthrie covered the trial for Court TV. She joins us now from Washington once again.
Savannah, good to have you back on the program.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, COURT TV: Good morning.
M. O'BRIEN: What are the chances of a new trial in this case?
GUTHRIE: I don't think they're good. I don't like the chances of an appeal for Scooter Libby. I don't like the chances of appeal for Scooter Libby. This was a very clean cases that the judge ran. They called some from the prosecution, some from the defense. But having sat through it, I don't see any glaring, legal error that would warrant a new trial, either by the district court judge or by a higher court later down the road.
M. O'BRIEN: Help us understand. We understand appeals. A new trial, is there a different level? Is the bar set in a different place to ask for a whole new trial?
GUTHRIE: Well, the first thing they do is to go back to the district court, so the judge who actually sat there during the trail, and asked for a new trial. That is almost never granted barring some terrible, glaring error that we all would have known about by now. And then it will go up to a higher court, the court of appeals of the D.C. circuit, and then they will look at it.
But they give a lot of deference to the lower court in terms of the fact-finding because, of course, it's the lower court, it's the judge at the trial level who was there and saw all the evidence. It's hard to win an appeal. And even if you get your conviction reversed, all you get is another trial. So it's not great news for Scooter Libby. M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's talk about the real pivotal moments in this trial. Everything I read, you've talked about it as well, the testimony of NBC "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert. That's really what it all hinged on, isn't it?
GUTHRIE: I think that he was a star witness in every sense of the word. Certainly because he's somewhat of a celebrity and we all know him. But also because the prosecutors really built their case around him.
And that was the way it had to be because Scooter Libby's the one who said, hey, I thought I learned about Valerie Wilson for the first time Tim Russert. I thought I heard it from him and I was surprised to hear it. And all the prosecutors did was bring in a host of witnesses, I think eight or so, who said, now wait a minute, I discussed with Scooter Libby way before this Tim Russert conversation about Valerie Wilson.
And so they were able to unravel that Tim Russert story that Scooter Libby had told. And then it culminated with Russert coming in himself, having heard about this Russert conversation all through the trial, there was Russert saying, that conversation never happened and it would have been impossible for it to happen.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. And Tim Russert, getting the Russert treatment. It must have been kind of interesting just to see in court. That would have been worth the price of admission right there.
You're an attorney. Did Scooter Libby's defense serve him poorly? Should they have put him on the trial? Should they have called the vice president? Do you see any glaring errors there?
GUTHRIE: Well, I think that these defense lawyers worked tirelessly. He had great defense lawyers. You know, but they only can do what they have with the facts. The facts weren't great for them.
I don't think it was a mistake not to call Scooter Libby. I don't think it would have made much difference in the end. It could have hurt him a lot. I don't see it helping him a lot.
And, look, in a lot of ways it's interesting here. The jurors seemed to buy into the major defense theme. They were sympathetic to Scooter Libby. They thought he did actually have a bad memory. They even believed he was kind of the fall guy here for Karl Rove and other, more favored people in the White House. And none of that mattered in the end. They still found him guilty. So I'm not sure what the defense could have done differently.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. We're going to talk a little bit more about those points in just a little while. We'll have Savannah back next hour. Court TV's Savannah Guthrie, thanks.
GUTHRIE: Sure.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad. S. O'BRIEN: Quarter past the hour. That means it's time for Chad Myers. He's at the CNN Weather Center watching the cold, cold, cold.
You know, I thought it was cold yesterday, Chad. Wow. Today, ridiculous.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: The worst spill ever in the history in Alaska. Now one company's going to have to pay the price for failures along the pipeline. Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business" with that story, coming up next.
Plus . . .
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not in the meat or poultry that might be undercooked or mishandled, it might be in the salad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Who is inspecting our produce? Is it a recipe for disaster? We take a look straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Well, there is E. Coli in spinach. There's salmonella in peanut butter. There's listeria in chicken. So you've got to wonder, just what's going on with the food supply. And just what is safe to eat. You might be surprised to hear that while we're hearing more and more about contaminations, federal funding for food inspection is actually down. AMERICAN MORNING's Greg Hunter has been doing a little fact checking for us. He's with us this morning.
Good morning.
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Good to see you.
Well, the General Accounting Office says food safety is now designated as, listen to this, high risk because of ineffective and inconsistent oversight by federal agencies. Here is how consumers are left holding the bag.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER, (voice over): The Food and Drug Administration's food safety budget has been cut almost in half in the last three years. Consumer advocates say more people get sick from eating bad produce than seafood, beef and poultry combined. And that's not a coincidence.
CAROLINE SMITH DEWAAL, CSPI: Right now, that agency is more like a fire department, running and responding to emergencies, rather than a public health agency charged with preventing these emergencies. HUNTER: Smith Dewaal says, without more oversight, consumers can expect more large outbreaks nationwide.
Guaranteed?
SMITH DEWAAL: Yes, unless something changes. And that change has to be more money and more inspectors to manage the risk in FDA regulated food.
HUNTER: On top of that, there are no mandatory rules for handling produce. Only voluntary guidelines.
REP. BART STUPAK, (D) OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS COMMITTEE: There should be mandatory guidelines with mandatory fines in the costs. But the plans and costs are then put back into the system to help ensure compliance.
HUNTER: The expert on food safety at one think tank says, the only way to kill bacteria in produce is by irradiating it, zapping it with radiation, and that consumer advocates are wrong to think that more inspections is the answer.
ALEX AVERY, HUDSON INSTITUTE, CENTER FOR GLOBAL FOOD ISSUES: They're not educating people, they're just demonizing the technology and demanding more inspectors, which is completely counterproductive.
HUNTER: Meanwhile, the FDA declined to speak to CNN about the 39 percent decline in inspections since 2003. Smith Dewaal says that's a recipe for future disaster.
SMITH DEWAAL: I think the outbreaks are going to continue to be large and to impact consumers nationwide.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER: The 2008 federal budget calls for just a $10 million increase for FDA's food safety program. Now keep in mind, they oversee 80 percent of the food supply. Compare that to the USDA's increase in the 2008 budget of $148 million. Now the USDA inspects meat and poultry, about 20 percent of the food supply. So 14 to one.
S. O'BRIEN: So does anybody think that, in fact, those numbers, which are pretty dire, and the cutting back of the budget is actually leading to what at least sounds like more reports of infections and contaminations?
HUNTER: The people at the CSPI say, yes. That inspections are down and that these food-born illnesses are up. But, you know, here's the good news, you know. Beef, according to the CSPI, has been trending down food-borne illnesses. In part because they're doing a better job at the meat packing plants, they're keeping things clean. In part because consumers are doing a better job. The beef definitely trending down.
Produce, on the other hand, more illnesses, as we said in the piece, more illnesses in produce than all fish, poultry and meat combined. Bigger outbreaks. That's why.
S. O'BRIEN: That's interesting. All right, Greg Hunter for us. Thank you.
We should mention we're going to be talking later this morning with Dr. Sanjay Gupta a little more about the medical and personal side of this when he talks to a family that's still trying to recover after they ate contaminated spinach and the devastating results it had on their small children. That's ahead.
Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Remember that rusty, leaky, crude oil pipeline in Alaska? Well, the feds say the company that owns it, BP, didn't maintain that pipe properly. It's about 25 minutes past the hour. Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business."
Hello, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Two leaks last year. One big one in March in Alaska. A BP pipeline leaked about 200,000 gallons of oil. And then later in March, it was a much smaller leak. Remember, we went up for that one to see what's the story with BP.
Well, a senior official at the U.S. Department of Transportation says that BP didn't understand the condition of those lines, allowed them to deteriorate and the failures resulted. He says, "the fact that the lines were not being cleaned regularly allowed moisture to get in there and work against the metal." In both of these cases, the corrosion came from inside the pipes and the techniques that BP was using to check the pipes didn't detect this corrosion.
Now BP says that its leak detection standards met or exceeded what Alaskan law required. No charges have been filed in this case yet, but there are a number of investigations.
For those of you keeping score, by the way, another economic report suggests the economy might be slowing down. This is about factory orders. It dropped in January for the -- the biggest drop in six years. It was a bigger drop than expected. Aircraft orders, civilian aircraft orders, down 60 percent. That plays into comments made by Alan Greenspan of a one-third probability of a recession by the end of the year.
And markets today will be considering that. They'll be considering the beige book. Take a look at what happened yesterday. A big jump in the Dow, 157 points. However, it's dropped 736 points over the last nine sessions. S&P was up. The Nasdaq is up. Asian markets are up right now. We're pointing to a positive open on the Dow.
M. O'BRIEN: Are people using the "r" word yet, recession?
VELSHI: Well, now that Greenspan's using it, people are using it.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
VELSHI: I think we should have a little discussion in the next few days about what exactly that means and how that might effect people.
M. O'BRIEN: Get on that, will you?
VELSHI: I will do that.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Ali.
VELSHI: All right.
M. O'BRIEN: Appreciate that.
Top stories of the morning coming up next.
A deadly plane crash and fire in Indonesia. We'll hear from a survivor. More than 100 people somehow made it out alive after that plane landed long there.
And perjury, obstruction of justice, false statements. Scooter Libby waking up today as a convicted felon. Now the possible impact on his old boss, Vice President Cheney.
And yet another Russian journalist dies a mysterious death. Americans treated for poisoning in Moscow. A lot of Cold War intrigue right now. A live report is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. It is Wednesday, March 7th. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks for being with us.
(NEWSBREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Moving on, let's talk a little bit more about this terrible plane crash and then fire that followed on the Garuda Airlines flight. That is Indonesia's national airline. The plane apparently overshot the runway in Yogyakarta, skidded right into a rice field and then caught fire.
CNN's Kathy Quiano has some of the survivors' stories.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHY QUIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Boeing 737 burst into flames within seconds of landing. Witnesses say Garuda Airlines Flight 200 overshot the runway and stopped only after it hit the fence. Some of the 140 people on board walked away unscathed. This video was taken by an Australia television cameraman who was on board of the ill-fated flight.
Passengers and crew, looking shocked and dazed, helped carry the injured away from the burning plane. Many had minor cuts and bruises. But others suffered from serious burns and other injuries.
RUTH BAMGGADAN, CRASH SURVIVOR: I think the flames started when we hit the ground for the first time. So when we stopped, it felt really -- it wasn't a long time, so it's very quick, like a bomb. And then we moved forward a bit and then stopped, and then the fire is outside and we already smelled the smoke.
QUIANO: Firefighters quickly put out the fire as passengers escaped. Most of those on board were Indonesians.
The injured were rushed to local hospitals for treatment as families and friends searched for their loved ones. Garuda Airline officials saying caring for those who survived and for those who were left behind is a top priority, but many questions remain. Indonesia's president ordered an investigation, appointing the country's security minister to head the probe.
Kathy Quiano, CNN, Jakarta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: We're going to take you live in just a few minutes back to the site of that crash in Indonesia -- Miles.
(NEWSBREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: More now on the fallout from the Scooter Libby trial and verdict. That verdict a blow to the Bush administration, and it's now raising new questions about the vice president, Dick Cheney.
CNN's John Roberts explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN SR. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was Libby who was convicted of lying, but when it comes to the issue of who orchestrated White House leaks of prewar intelligence, even the jury felt Libby took the hit for higher-ups.
DENIS COLLINS, JUROR: There was a tremendous amount of sympathy for Mr. Libby. We're not saying that we didn't think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of, but that it seemed like he was, to put in Mr. Wells' point of view, he was the fall guy.
ROBERTS: Who was he the fall guy for? According to Libby's grand jury testimony, Dick Cheney. It was the vice president, Libby says, who ordered the declassification and leak of a national intelligence estimate to beat back claims from former Ambassador Joe Wilson that the president had lied about Iraq trying to buy uranium from Niger.
LEWIS "SCOOTER" LIBBY, FMR. CHENEY AIDE: He gave me instructions as to what I should -- what I should say to reporters.
ROBERTS: And though Libby never said so, Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald even suggested Cheney may have been behind the disclosure that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Wilson still has a civil suit pending against Cheney and other White House officials.
JOSEPH WILSON, FMR. AMBASSADOR: It's very clear that he's a very powerful figure within the White House. And it's also very clear that he was intimately involved in this.
He was obsessed with this. He was writing talking points on the -- on my article after it appeared. And again, rather than deal with the facts, he was concerned about his own image.
ROBERTS: The trial only reinforced the perception of Cheney as the all-seeing vice president, the director of an elaborate kabuki theater to defend the White House against its critics.
Jim Vandehei has covered Cheney for years.
JIM VANDEHEI, "THE POLITICO": He likes to do things behind the curtain, and he obviously is quite a micromanager and likes to pull the strings when he knows that the vice presidency or the presidency could be in trouble.
ROBERTS (on camera): One Republican adviser told me this is bad for Cheney and the administration. One more log on the fire of missteps and corruption that have plagued the Republican Party. So many demons, that they are desperately in need of an exorcism.
John Roberts, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, more on that fiery plane crash in Indonesia. We'll take you live to the scene and we'll get the latest on the investigation. The person who took these pictures was on board.
Plus, another journalist found dead in Russia under mysterious circumstances. Was it suicide or was it murder? We'll go live to Moscow ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
The most news in the morning right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back. The most news in the morning here.
We want to take you right to the scene of the Indonesian jet crash in Yogyakarta. A photographer from Australia's Channel 7 News was on the plane. He managed to take these pictures as he ran to safety. The plane apparently overshot the runway, skidded into a rice field and caught fire. Passengers jumped out the emergency exits, many have severe burns.
CNN's Dan Rivers is at the scene right in front of the wreckage.
Dan, what do we know?
DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, at the moment, Miles, they have sealed off this crash site. You can hear to my left that the airport is open once again, that Garuda jets, the same one that crashed right behind me, are still landing.
Police now investigating what went wrong. All indications are at the moment that it simply looks as if it may just be pilot error, that he was coming in too fast. And this is coming just less than two months after another crash in Indonesia. Now police and investigators here are checking out whether there could be some sort of mechanical fault leading both tragedies -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Dan, what do we know about the weather conditions at the time of the crash?
RIVERS: Well, we understand that it was not severe weather at all. There were a few heavy rain showers around. It was largely overcast.
It must be said, when we came in to land at a different airport, about 50 kilometers, about 30 miles away, there was quite a lot of crosswinds. It was quite -- quite a scary landing, actually. We were being blown all over the place. So I don't know if that may have contributed to the pilot overshooting right here.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Dan Rivers, who's on the scene there in Yogyakarta.
Thank you very much -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Now a follow-up on a story we told you about yesterday out of Moscow. Two American women, a mother and daughter, poisoned by thallium. Well, now they're out of the hospital. They're expected to leave Russia soon.
CNN's Matthew Chance is live for us in Moscow.
Matthew, good morning to you. A really odd story.
What are some of the details? And, of course, what's the latest on these two Americans?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I've just come back from the hospital and, indeed, it's been confirmed that they've been discharged from that medical facility in Moscow. The hospital officials that I spoke to said they were able to walk away, and we understand that they're expected to leave the country as soon as possible. We have sources at the airport in Moscow, and they said they've already boarded a flight, in fact, to Los Angeles, where they're from. They leave behind them, though, a lot of mystery surrounding how it could have been that these two American tourists, originally hailing from the former Soviet Union, emigrating to the United States, could have come into contact with such high doses of this extremely toxic chemical, thallium. Police say they've launched an investigation into that, but they haven't come up with any answers yet. We do know that that they came to Russia as tourists, possibly to attend a wedding, and that they came from the area of California -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: A lot to answer still. The twists and turns go on in this weird story.
All right. Let's talk about another developing story that I know you're following, the death of this Russian journalist. The guy was a big critic of the Kremlin.
What happened there?
CHANCE: Well, a lot of mysterious deaths and illnesses in Russia at the moment. It's the funeral of Ivan Safronov today. He's the latest, very prominent Russian journalist who specialized in military affairs to have met a mysterious end.
Police, again, say they're looking into this incident. He was found outside his Moscow apartment building having apparently jumped from a fifth floor window.
Police say at this stage, they haven't found any evidence of foul play. But the fact that he has died has raised concerns amongst many, many people watching this -- Soledad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE (voice over): He's the latest high-profile Russian journalist to be found dead in mysterious circumstances. Ivan Safronov reported on military affairs and was often critical of Russia's armed forces. Police say they're treating his death as suicide, but among those close to him, there are serious doubts.
(on camera): Well, this is the grim Moscow apartment building where Ivan Safronov lived and died. Investigators say he came here to the fifth floor, climbed out of these windows, and then, from this ledge, one of Russia's most prominent military journalists plunged to his death.
(voice over): A former colonel in Russia's space forces, Safronov had deep contacts in the Russian military. He was the first to report the launch failure of a new Russian intercontinental ballistic missile, the Bulava. It's meant to become the cornerstone of Russia's nuclear forces, and its problems are an official embarrassment.
At the Russian language newspaper where he worked, colleagues say Safronov frequently angered the authorities who accused him of divulging state secrets. His editors says the journalist was investigating sensitive Russian arms deliveries to Iran and Syria when he died.
"He could have been killed for his work," he told me. "In Russia, everything is possible. But as yet, we have no evidence," he says. "I just know he wasn't the suicidal type."
CHANCE (on camera): Do you believe his death was suicide?
ANDREI VASILIEV, EDITOR, "KOMMERSANT": I don't believe.
CHANCE (voice over): Russia has been shaken by a series of high- profile killings in recent months, like of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist fiercely critical of Russia's war in Chechnya. Then there was Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian agent poisoned last year in London.
For critics of the Kremlin in Russia and beyond, the latest mysterious deaths carries a chilling message.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE: Well, there is no, again, established link, Soledad, between any of these killings, but the fact that another prominent journalist, another critic of the Kremlin has been found dead, is ringing alarm bells for many here.
Back to you.
S. O'BRIEN: What a strange, strange story.
All right. Matthew Chance for us this morning.
Appreciate it.
And also, there's this other suspicious attack to tell you about on a critic of the Kremlin, another guy who was a critic of the Kremlin -- a shot in suburban Washington, D.C. The question now, was this simple robbery or something more? We're going to have a report on that at 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: It's about a quarter of the hour. Chad Myers at the CNN weather center watching the cold.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, the best way to lose weight. Three of the most popular diets put to the test. And we're going to tell you which one came out on top. We have the skinny for you, you know.
Pus, Susie in '08. Who is she and why is she running for president? We'll tell you, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back. The most news in the morning right here.
(NEWSBREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: What's the best diet plan if you want to shed some weight? Well, according to a new study, it's the low-carb, high-fat Atkins diet. During the course of the year, overweight women lost an average of 10 pounds on the Atkins diet.
Here's the thing -- the women were pretty heavy. So it wasn't a ton of weigh to lose. Now, Atkins beat out three other diets, including The Zone, and also -- what was the other diet they concluded in that, too? Oh, Ornish's high-carb diet, low-fat diet.
M. O'BRIEN: Did they do the shut your pie hole diet? They didn't do that one?
S. O'BRIEN: No. And I don't do that one, either.
M. O'BRIEN: Nor do I.
S. O'BRIEN: As you well know, many nutritionists say Atkins is not particularly safe. The bottom line for this, they says much ado about nothing.
People didn't lose enough weight to make it matter. And everything (ph) has to be done about obesity.
OK. And look at this. A daily walk may be all that you need to shed that baby weight.
These are pregnant women, so of course they don't want to shed that baby weight yet. They want to have those babies, then shed the baby weight.
M. O'BRIEN: That's right. Do it in the right order.
S. O'BRIEN: This is true, though. This worked for me.
A new study shows that women who walk regularly have an easier time getting back into their shape before the baby. Although, you never really get your body back, frankly. But if you don't walk, it's tougher.
Researchers say it's good news, because it means if you're a busy mom, you don't have to work out for hours to drop the pounds. The study appears in the "American Journal of Preventative Medicine."
M. O'BRIEN: I think we've seen that tape enough times now.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. They're not pregnant anymore. They had the baby.
M. O'BRIEN: The kids are driving.
You better get ready to have your TiVo on speed dial. Coming up, a way to turn your cell phone into a remote control. Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business" next.
Also, new worries about the food we eat and how often it's being checked for contamination.
And FEMA trailers, right where they're needed. So why aren't they being put to good use? We'll find out coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
The most news in the morning right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Are you a TiVo user? One of the things that's cool about TiVo is, you're on the road, you want to record a favorite show, and you can log on and do it remotely. Well, now some of the other companies are in this game of trying to catch up to that.
Ali Velshi is here with that.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Great idea. In fact, I have a TiVo at my home, and I have the Time Warner DVR, one of them.
One of the advantages and one of the reasons I keep the TiVo around is because just this weekend I was out of town, I decided to get online and record some stuff, and there it is on my TiVo. Now, you can't do that with the Comcast or the Time Warner DVRs. So what's happening is the phone companies are getting into this business.
AT&T is partnering with EchoStar, with their DVR. Now, the service is free, except that you have to subscribe to their Homezone thing which costs 10 bucks a month.
M. O'BRIEN: What's that?
VELSHI: I don't know.
M. O'BRIEN: OK.
VELSHI: And that costs 10 bucks a month, so you otherwise got to be on Homezone.
Verizon is partnering with TiVo. The cost of this is $2 a month.
Now, you can do it for free if you go online with TiVo, but it's $2 a month if you subscribe to the Verizon thing, if you do it over your phone. Sprint and Nextel will get something going with Comcast and Time Warner.
Now, according to a 2005 study, of the DVRs out there, only three percent of them are TiVos. About 75 percent are these other cable boxes, like Comcast and Time Warner.
TiVo is under a ton of pressure, obviously. A survey by Jupiter Research said that 10 percent of its respondents said they wouldn't -- only 10 percent said they didn't even use this feature. But then again, I think five years ago, people would have said that about digital music. So...
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, but if get used to it... VELSHI: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: ... yes, it's just like that. Digital music, good example.
VELSHI: Now, I'm not sure, as you mentioned, why people would use their phones to pay for this when the other DVR people can just get a Web site and do it like TiVo.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. All right. We'll see you in a bit.
Thank you, Ali.
S. O'BRIEN: Some other headlines of the morning.
(NEWSBREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Deadly landing. A plane full of passengers bursts into flames, and this morning we've got dramatic pictures of the terrifying scene from a camera crew that was on board.
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