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American Morning

North Korea Nuke Talks; Gonzales Under Fire: Hearing on Fired Prosecutors; America Votes 2008: Latest Poll Numbers

Aired March 15, 2007 - 08:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Full confession. Transcripts shows Khalid Shaykh Muhammad admits he was behind 9/11 and 30 other attacks. What now for his case and the other detainees who are being held at Guantanamo Bay?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Is it a Republican revolt? A GOP senator joining the outcry against the attorney general. He says Alberto Gonzales must go.

S. O'BRIEN: And Angelina Jolie has a new man in her life. A little man. He's 3 years old. A son that she has adopted from Vietnam just this morning.

We're live this morning from Beijing, from Washington, D.C., from Manchester, New Hampshire. All on this AMERICAN MORNING.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you, Thursday, March 15th.

I'm Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Thanks for being with us.

We begin this morning with Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, being held at Guantanamo Bay and apparently telling a lot. His own words reported in Pentagon transcripts.

He said this: "I was responsible for the 911 operation from A to Z." But there is much more that Muhammad takes credit for.

For example, the 1993 World Trade Center attack. Six people were killed, you will recall, 1,000 others were injured.

The Bali nightclub bombing that killed 200 people. Richard Reid's attempted shoe bombing of an airliner over the Atlantic. Assassination plots against two U.S. presidents and a pope, and dozens of other terror plots and attacks.

We're going to hear more about the legal issues around this confession in just about 15 minutes when we check in with Court TV's Savannah Guthrie.

Chiquita Banana is admitting this morning that the company funneled money to a terror group in Colombia. The company is now agreeing to pay $25 million in fines after it admitted that it paid off a paramilitary group to protect its plantations in Colombia. Chiquita pulled out of Colombia three years ago -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: A couple of important steps in North Korea's nuclear disarmament happening today. Negotiators to the six-party talks arriving in Beijing as we speak, and the U.S. apparently prepared to deal with some cash in hand.

CNN's Becky Anderson live from Beijing now. She is traveling with the U.N. chief nuclear inspector, Mohammed ElBaradei.

Becky, there's a fair amount of optimism right now, isn't there?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There is. There's more optimism than perhaps we thought there would be just a week ago.

Chris Hill, you're right, is in town. He's the U.S.' chief negotiator. And the ball very firmly in his court. Show me the money is effectively what North Korea has said.

This is about some $24 million of assets in a Macau bank account that had been frozen by the U.S. in its dealings with -- with this bank. Now the U.S. says that those assets can be unfrozen. If, indeed, that happens, North Korea says it will go ahead and -- as it says, it's fully committed to the shutdown of its plutonium plant. So it will go ahead and start shutting down that facility and allowing in the nuclear watchdog inspectors at some point in the next 30 days.

Big meeting now coming up on Monday, at which Chris Hill and the rest of those members of the six-party talks will get to grips with exactly where they stand, because, yes, North Korea has said if, indeed, the U.S. shows us the money, we will start shutting down that plant. Will they? Big question -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Becky, the North Koreans are famous for all the dead ends and dark alleys and red herrings that they throw out to the rest of the world. What's to say this time we should take them at their word?

ANDERSON: Notoriously unreliable. It's a question I put to Mohammed ElBaradei, who's the head of the IAEA.

Now, I have been traveling with him over the past week. We've had exclusive access to his planning meetings.

He can't answer that question. He can't tell me whether they will keep to his word. It's been five years since those inspectors from Mohammed ElBaradei's agency were last in North Korea. And this is what he said then in one of the planning meetings that I was in on in Vienna last week. He said that any progress will take time.

He said first we have got to understand what they are ready to do. They being the North Koreans. And we are not going to negotiate with them, he said, other than tell them that at least for now the shutdown of that plutonium plant is a minimum requirement. Sealed, cameras and equipment. So, the answer to your question is, nobody knows at this point. As you say, notoriously unreliable, not easy to deal with. Want their money back now. But if they get it, at least the rest of the members of the six-party talks on Monday can say, right, here's your money, show us your action -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Becky Anderson live from Beijing -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: More aftershocks and more pressure on the attorney general this morning over that mass firing of U.S. attorneys. The Senate Judiciary Committee threatening subpoenas, and a Republican senator is now joining the Democrats who says Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should go.

CNN's Dana Bash live for us on Capitol Hill this morning.

Hey, Dana. Good morning.

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

You know, we have talked to many GOP lawmakers about this. And the frustration with how the Justice Department handled the firings of those prosecutors is really palpable. But no Republican senator has actually taken the step to say the attorney general should be fired until now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): New Hampshire Republican John Sununu says the attorney general has lost all credibility and is now the first Republican lawmaker to say he must go.

In a statement, Sununu said: "The president should fire the attorney general and replace him as soon as possible with someone who can provide strong, aggressive leadership."

In a telephone interview, Sununu told CNN that Alberto Gonzales's "failed supervision over the firing of federal prosecutions was the last straw." Sununu is a Republican who is long tussled with the attorney general over civil liberties concerns in the Patriot Act and said he is still steaming over last week's revelation is that the FBI improperly obtained information about American citizens.

Sununu is up for re-election next year and is one of the Democrats top targets. He is the only Republican so far who has called for the attorney general to be fired. But there is widespread criticism of Gonzales from fellow Republicans who feel misled about why federal prosecutors were dismissed.

REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: The attorney general has gotten himself in deep trouble by having a different story come out of the Justice Department about every second news cycle.

BASH: Many Republican lawmakers reluctant to say Gonzales should go are also careful not to say he should stay. South Dakota Republican John Thune told CNN, "He's going to have to answer some hard questions and politically there are concerns about how things got handled. It doesn't look good."

Even Gonzales's fellow friend and Texan says he's concerned and called to offer advice.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I encouraged the attorney general to make his employees at the Department of Justice available for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And I think it's appropriate for them to answer questions from senators in a public forum.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Now, a few Republican lawmakers we talked to seemed to be thinking about this still and just wouldn't say yet whether they think it's time for Gonzales to be fired. The open question, Soledad, is whether or not John Sununu coming out and saying this now will prompt other Republicans to follow him.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, because that should certainly be the beginning of the end.

Dana Bash for us on Capitol Hill.

Thanks, Dana -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: We have some new presidential poll numbers out this morning, and it appears to be good news for Hillary Clinton. That said, there is a surprisingly strong showing for a name not in the race just yet.

CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider joining us from Manchester, New Hampshire, with more.

Good morning, Bill.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Miles.

Yes, it's not my name, it's Al Gore's name out in the race. But Hillary Clinton is still the front-runner in the Democratic contest.

These are nationwide figures among Democrats across the country. Hillary Clinton has a 37-22 point lead over her closest competitor, Barack Obama. A 15-point lead.

Her supporters turn out to be very strongly committed to her, much more so than Obama's supporters. Sixty percent of her supporters say they are definitely going to vote for her. In Barack Obama's case, it's about half that many. Only 32 percent say they're definitely committed to him.

So she appears to be a pretty solid front-runner.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. So Al Gore says he is not running. Why is he having such an impact, do you think?

SCHNEIDER: Well, he picked up an Oscar, and that gave him a little bit more support over what we last measured just in January. And, you know, he's -- he has a lot of admirers.

Another reason is a lot of people -- more people now say that George Bush was not elected fair and square way back in 2000. There seems to be a certain amount of buyers remorse now that Bush's poll numbers have plummeted.

What if Al Gore sticks with his decision and does not run for president? Then what would happen? Most of his support would go to Hillary Clinton.

Gore was Bill Clinton's vice president. Hillary Clinton, of course, was the first lady. It was Bill -- she is Bill Clinton's wife. So if Gore decides not to run, it would make her an even more solid front-runner.

M. O'BRIEN: Bill Schneider in Manchester.

Thanks -- Soledad.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: It's child number four this morning for Angelina Jolie, who is adopting her third child from overseas. Jolie picked up her 3-year-old son in Vietnam. Jolie and other celebrities have certainly put a spotlight on international adoptions, but actually many more adoptions take place here at home.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho has more on that.

Good morning.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

You know, a lot of people don't know that. Almost everyone has seen those photos of Angelina Jolie and her adopted children. They know they come from far-flung places like Cambodia, Ethiopia, and now Vietnam. So many people believe if they want to adopt they have to go overseas to do it.

That's not the case. You may be surprised to hear most American families are going no further than their own back yard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHO (voice over): Madonna found her son in Malawi. Meg Ryan went to China. And Angelina Jolie, she's in Vietnam picking up her third adopted child.

The stars make it seem easy. Even glamorous. So many mistakenly believe they have to go overseas to adopt. Not true. CYNTHIA DIMICELI, ADOPTIVE PARENT: People just don't realize that, how can there be children available for adoption here in the United States?

CHO: Cynthia and Dominic Dimiceli wanted their biological son Joseph to have a sibling. They had trouble conceiving again, so they turned to adoption. They didn't have go far.

DIMICELI: You guys taking a walk?

CHO: They found their son, 4-year-old Michael, in Michigan, adopted him when he was two days old.

DIMICELI: It's our country, it's our people. Let's help, you know, families here.

CHO: Cynthia, now an adoption consultant, says there are many myths about domestic adoptions, mostly that it costs too much and that children aren't available. The truth is, each year American families adopt more than 50,000 children domestically. Only 20,000 from overseas.

AARON BRITVAN, ADOPTION ATTORNEY: If you want to go there for philanthropic purposes to help these children, I say, God bless, they need you. But if you are going over there thinking that there are no children domestically, or what have you, then you are misinformed.

CHO: Aaron Britvan is a long-time adoption attorney and an adoptive father himself. He says it's actually safer to adopt domestically because the child's medical records are readily available. There's also the issue of shady practices overseas. The State Department recently issued a warning about Guatemalan adoptions. Domestic adoptions are often less expensive than adoptions from overseas.

And who can put a price tag on love?

DIMICELI: Michael knew nothing of me but looked at me when I held him. And I looked at him. That was it. I was his mother, and he was my child. And I was going to protect him the rest of my life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: Now, looking forward, it's possible domestic adoptions will become even more popular. Those experts tell us that many countries overseas are actually getting tougher about sending their children to the United States.

Think about it. Some are developing nations, their economic situations are improving. So they are actually now providing incentives to keep the children in country. And we're talking about places like the Ukraine, Russia, even China.

The truth is, Soledad, as you well know, there are so many children in need all over the world, and everyone we speak to tells us that, you know, listen, you can adopt overseas, you can adopt domestically. It really doesn't matter. These children need homes.

S. O'BRIEN: Are people just not aware of how many kids here need to be adopted?

CHO: Yes, I think that's the case. I mean, you see these celebrities like Angelina Jolie. You see the pictures of her going to Cambodia, Ethiopia, now Vietnam. You think, I've got to go overseas to adopt.

That's not the case. And, in fact, so many children are in need.

Take this example of this family we profiled. This little boy was born in Michigan. His biological mother, in the words of the adoptive parents, loved him enough to have him. She simply couldn't support him. She had other biological children, and so she had to give him up.

S. O'BRIEN: All right.

CHO: A very hard decision.

S. O'BRIEN: Alina, thanks a lot.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: It's about quarter past the hour. Chad Myers at the CNN weather center. He's watching some severe weather for us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: It is remarkable tale of serial terror. Al Qaeda's self-proclaimed operational planner claiming he is the mastermind of 9/11 and so much more.

Khalid Shaykh Muhammad confessing in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying he was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z. But wait, there's more. He also lays claim to more than 30 other terror plots.

Can that really be possible? And what lies ahead for him now?

Court TV's Savannah Guthrie joining us now from Washington with the legal perspective on this.

Savannah, I have the list here in my hand. It's two pages long, 34 -- and some of them are embedded, because it has one line item, but it's actually multiple plots among one. It seems implausible that one individual could be behind all of these plots.

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, COURT TV: Right. It's two pages and it's single spaced, Miles. I mean, here is KSM, Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, taking credit for basically every terrorist plot that has ever been thought of or actually hatched in the last 10, 15 years. I can tell you, my best sources say they have got some healthy skepticism about what he is claiming here. There's no question that there's plenty of corroborative evidence that KSM was the mastermind of 9/11, that he was behind, for example, the plot to blow up airliners in the mid-90s, what's called the Bojinka plot. But as far as other things he takes credit for, like the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, or those -- the nightclub explosion in Bali, people who know about those cases tell me they're pretty skeptical about whether he had any role there.

And you wonder, what's his motivation here? Is he playing games with the system?

M. O'BRIEN: Well, I mean, it sounds like he has delusions of grandeur, in the terror mind, anyhow.

You have to wonder what has been going on in the time since we saw him arrested in Pakistan in that T-shirt, his hair all messed up, until now? Where has he been? Do we know if he's been tortured or in any way put under sort of stress and strain? And where is he headed now?

GUTHRIE: Well, that's really the question, the cloud that hangs over KSM and this case. He was picked up in Afghanistan in 2003. And he claims apparently that he was mistreated in custody.

That was a portion of the release from the Pentagon that got redacted or blacked out. So we don't know.

Now, if this case goes forward, if he accepts military counsel, a lawyer and a military trial, these issues could be litigated. He could say, hey, wait a minute, I was coerced, I was tortured, and therefore, any statements I made are untrustworthy and shouldn't be admitted against me.

But the problem is, Miles, the rest of us are not going to hear about that. Any trial that happens here is not going to be a public airing of whether or not the U.S. government did mistreat him in custody, because it's likely to be done in secret.

M. O'BRIEN: So the idea here at this point -- of course, as we say, this is completely obtuse to us, we won't be able to see it -- the idea, though, is to determine whether he is an enemy combatant. What does that mean if they give him that imprint?

GUTHRIE: Well, this is like the preliminary stage. So as soon as he is determined to be an enemy combatant -- and I think there's almost no suspense that that's exactly what's going to happen -- then that gives the military tribunal jurisdiction over him. They can charge him and they can bring him to trial. And it's clear that's exactly what they intend to do.

M. O'BRIEN: Savannah Guthrie in Washington.

Thank you.

GUTHRIE: You bet.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, trouble brewing in New Orleans. Why did the Army Corps of Engineers install pumps it knew were defective? We're going to ask that question coming up.

And inside the next generation of corporate titans, how a big idea goes from campus to the front office.

Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Build a better mousetrap and -- try it again. Build...

(LAUGHTER)

M. O'BRIEN: Take two. "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." Those are the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson. But do they apply to a generation for whom the name Emerson equates with, an electronics firm?

Ali Velshi is the father of invention this morning.

Ali, bail me out of here, will you?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nice job on that.

There are -- there are fantastic ideas and inventions being developed all the time on college campuses across the country. And these projects earn their creators, who are students, great grades. But some of them -- some of these students want to turn their ideas into businesses, and they've learned that it takes money to make money.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIA GAO, STUDENT ENTREPRENEUR: We're asking for a $6 million investment.

VELSHI (voice over): Tia Gao is a biomedical engineering student at Johns Hopkins University.

GAO: And we expect to grow that to over a $140 million company...

VELSHI: She teamed up with brainiacs from the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia to develop a wireless monitor. It would be worn by patients in the waiting areas of an ER, monitoring their vital signs and sending that information to a nurse's station.

DR. ARJUN CHANMUGAM, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: So while they are in the waiting room we're actually getting information.

VELSHI: Which could save lives. Every year, according to Gao, patients die needlessly in hospitals because they aren't being monitored.

DR. PETER PRONOVOST, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: It was price- prohibitive to do that for every patient because the existing monitors were somewhere around $10,000 a patient.

VELSHI: This device will cost around 2,000 bucks. But $6 million to develop it. So Tia's team headed to Santa Barbara to face other schools at the Spirit of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development competition, or SEED, as in seed capital.

Each team adopts a company name. Their participation at SEED has huge potential upside. That's because judges open their wallets for ideas they like.

DR. DAVID NEWTON, SEED FOUNDER: You have a nice honor roll now of nine companies from the last three years up and running, funded, with revenue. Five of those are profitable.

VELSHI: Over two days teams make their pitches.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our device captures neurological information from the brain.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we can tell you whether our restaurant is better on a Wednesday or a club is hopping on Saturday night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Describe how you actually hook someone up.

VELSHI: Gao's team believes it can turn $6 millions into $140 million. And at least one judge agrees.

RICK IFLAND, ATERA PARTNERS: What I like about this group is that they have a broad range of experiences and talents and aptitudes, and they've collectively made that into a pretty good team.

VELSHI: But is it enough to win?

DR. DAVID NEWTON, WESTMONT COLLEGE: The second best emerging company investment opportunity to come out of SEED this year is from Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, and University of Virginia.

VELSHI: Second place. But the consolation prize was pretty good.

NEWTON: Three investor groups have already contacted me about -- like, Monday morning they want to be in touch with these folks and start talking about some things.

So congratulations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: So the team didn't win, but they were edged out -- get this -- by a team from the University of Illinois, which invented a device that turns brain signals into speech for people who are severely impaired. But they'll get funding. The number one team will get funding, the number two team will get funding.

You are out there meeting people who are prepared to write a check for your business.

M. O'BRIEN: What's your sense of it? Is there a tremendous spirit out there for inventions?

VELSHI: Unbelievable. There's a spirit for it. There's money to be invested in it.

So, for all the bad news we report and scandal, there are people out there inventing the things that we don't even know about that we're going to use in 10 or 15 years from now.

S. O'BRIEN: And if somebody is going to fund your idea, then you won even if you didn't win.

VELSHI: Right. It's not about the certificate. It's about the money.

S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. All right.

M. O'BRIEN: A great economy, isn't it?

VELSHI: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Ali.

A check of the top stories is coming up next. Pentagon transcripts say that one of the world's most dangerous terrorists has confessed to 9/11 and dozens of other terror attacks. We'll have his chilling words.

An outrage over defective pumps that were supposed to protect New Orleans. Why were they installed anyway?

You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Let's begin this morning, though, with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed being held at Guantanamo Bay and apparently telling all. His own words reported in Pentagon transcripts. He says this: "I was responsible for the 9-11 operation from A-to-Z." And he didn't stop there. He claimed he planned 30 other terrorists attacks.

CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon for us.

Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad. It was a lengthy document released by the Pentagon, including almost two pages of attacks that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said he was responsible for planning and financing. They included assassination attempts, he claimed, against former President Clinton, against the late Pope John Paul II, the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, and even the plot by the would-be Shoe Bomber Richard Reid to blow up airliners.

Now, in some corners, there is some skepticism that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed might have had an involvement in this entire list of attacks, but there's no question he is a top al Qaeda operative, a close associate of Osama bin Laden. Here's one of the things he told this hearing panel at Guantanamo Bay that he testified before. Bear with us, his English, of course is not his first language. But he says, quote, "If now we were living in the revolutionary war and George Washington, he being arrested through Britain, for sure he, they would consider him an enemy combatant."

And of course this hearing at Guantanamo Bay was to determine whether Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is classified as an enemy combatant. That could, down the road, lead to the ultimate decision here for President Bush to order him to stand trial. If anybody wants to read all the details of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had to say, it's all on the Pentagon Web site at defenselink.mil -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a question about Afghanistan. Is there a sense that because the administration is pushing for more troops in Afghanistan, that they're hoping to see success there that they're not seeing in Iraq?

STARR: Well, they are putting more troops there for a number of reasons. We hear an awful lot, you know, about this spring offensive against the Taliban, but underneath all of that there's another interesting thing going on. An additional brigade of combat forces that was going to go to Iraq is going to Afghanistan. They are going to head out to that eastern border with Pakistan. That's the area where not only do they think the Taliban are coming across the border, but there are a number of new al Qaeda training camps across the border in Pakistan. There is very definitely a very crucial, key effort going on there, very quietly, out of the public view, to try to put more U.S. combat forces against that situation, against the al Qaeda Taliban initiatives on that border with Pakistan.

(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: In New Orleans this morning the Army Corps of Engineers is scrambling to fix about three dozen crucial and faulty pumps. They are there supposedly to keep the city dry when a big storm comes. The corps installed the pumps before last year's hurricane season, even though they knew in advance that they vibrated excessively. I first heard about this last August when I flew over New Orleans with the district engineer, Colonel Richard Wagenaar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN (on camera): This pumping facility here, you talked about some of the problems you had with it. It's untested, isn't it, this idea?

COL. RICHARD WAGENAAR, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: It is -- well, it's never been done before.

M. O'BRIEN: Do the pumps work there?

WAGENAAR: They work. They are -- the mechanical problem we had with vibrations, but they're getting those replaced.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: So why is it taking so long to replace them? Colonel Jeff Bedey is with the Army Corps of Engineers. He joins us from the 17th Street Levee in New Orleans, site of one of the major breaches during Katrina of course.

Colonel, why is it taking so long?

COL. JEFF BEDEY, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Well, I need to tell you that I'm very pleased with where we've gone so far in improving the reliability the pumps have here at the 17th Street Canal.

It's very important to understand that what we have out here is a system that anywhere else in the country would take three to five years to build and put in operation.

M. O'BRIEN: I understand, but it still seems like a long time. You've known about this for quite awhile. What's been the hold-up?

BEDEY: Well, we've gone through extensive testing to improve the reliability of the system. It's been an (INAUDIBLE) process, and continually over time we've improved that reliability. Just this past Tuesday we operated four of the pumps with all of the necessary modifications, and they in fact achieved their full pumping capacity.

M. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this, why did you take delivery of faulty pumps?

BEDEY: Well, I want to tell you, we didn't take delivery of faulty pumps. What we did is we factory tested the pumps to a certain point, and then made the decision to bring the pumps here, install them, and do the final testing in the field. We made that decision in order to ensure that we had the ability to pump water for the citizens of this great community had there been a storm during the last hurricane season.

M. O'BRIEN: But did you have no other option? Was there no other place to turn to find pumps that would work?

BEDEY: That's an accurate statement, Miles. I would tell you that normally the process to manufacturer and receive delivery of pumps of this size and capacity would take no less than 18 months by industry standards. What should take 18 months, we were able to have delivered on the site in a five to six-month time frame.

M. O'BRIEN: Tell us what's going on right now, what you're doing to try to make New Orleans safe. June 1, we have another storm season upon us.

BEDEY: Absolutely. Not only are we working here at the 17th Street Canal, we're working throughout the greater New Orleans area. To continue to improve the reliability of the system here, and safety is our No. 1 priority for the citizens of this great community. After all, this is about restoring the faith and the confidence of the people of the greater New Orleans area. With faith and confidence such that they want to come back to this great city and that business wants to come back.

M. O'BRIEN: And is it safe to come back? I mean, there's a lot of concern here. Senator Landrieu yesterday said this -- Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana -- "They can't design a building and install a pump that works, then maybe she shouldn't be doing any of the work, referring to Corps." What do you think of that?

BEDEY: I respect Senator Landrieu. She's been a great supporter of the Corps of Engineers. And I would tell you that this system is safer today than it was on August 29, 2005. There will always be risks. But safety is the No. 1 concern of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The administration of the president and the United States, as well as the Congress of the United States. This is about the people and taking care of the people of this great community.

M. O'BRIEN: Colonel Jeff Bedey, with the Army Corps of Engineers, thanks for joining us.

BEDEY: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning on AMERICAN MORNING, campus drug abuse -- college students are turning more and more to prescription drug.

And Angelina Jolie adopts again in Vietnam this morning to bring home a third child from an overseas orphanage, making it No. 4. You're watching you are watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: In Texas a very sad ending to a story we told you about yesterday. The body of 80-year-old Fred List (ph) was found after a heroic effort to rescue him and his wife from rages floods near Austin, Texas. The couple was trapped in their car, and rescuers were able to save his wife, Katherine, but the swift current swept Fred away.

Here's a question for you -- just how difficult is it to save people trapped in flash floods. AMERICAN MORNING's Chris Lawrence went along for a ride with a swift-water rescue team in Portland, Oregon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sergeant Harry Smith is dive team leader in Multnomah County, Oregon. He knows how quickly things can fall apart in a flood. They're not safe until they're out of the water.

SGT. HARRY SMITH, MULTNOMAH CO., SHERIFF'S DEPT.: They're not safe until they're out of the water.

LAWRENCE: Like this incident in Los Angeles. A firefighter was rescuing a mother and her baby when their raft flipped over, tossing all three back into the whirling water. It forced another crew to come save them.

Just last summer, a boy in New Mexico was nearly overwhelmed by a flash flood. He could barely keep his head above water as rescue teams tried to pull him out.

Dive teams practice so they can handle these problems. We followed Sergeant Smith through a simulated rescue in Portland.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help me, help me. I'm being swept away.

LAWRENCE: In real life, people are not so calm. Rescuers have been kicked and punched, their respirators ripped out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all right, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am now.

LT. JASON GATES, MULTNOMAH CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT.: If you aren't being swept down by current, stay put. Stay where you're at. Don't try to fight against it. Don't try to rescue yourself. Wait for rescue.

LAWRENCE (on camera): If somebody is caught in a situation like that, why can't they just ride out the current?

SMITH: Unless you are an expertly trained swift water swimmer, you're going to be hard-pressed to come out of that in one piece.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Smith says even the professionals need a helmet, vest and padding. And no one's safe until everyone is out of the water.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Portland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Guess what? It's child No. 4 for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, too. We keep forgetting Brad.

M. O'BRIEN: Poor Brad.

S. O'BRIEN: There she is, in Vietnam, where she's adopting a little boy. His name is Pax Tien (ph), which means "peace from heaven." He's three years old. Jolie and Pitt have already adopted a little boy, Maddox from Cambodia. Zahara (ph) came from Ethiopia. They've got their own little biological baby, Shiloh, who was born last May. So now, do the math, the family is -- that's a big old family. I've got a family that size. That's a lot of work for that size family.

M. O'BRIEN: Got their hands full, don't they?

"CNN NEWSROOM" just moments away. Heidi Collins at the CNN Center with a look at what is ahead?

Hello, Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Miles.

That's right, we have these stories coming up. On the "NEWSROOM" rundown, he's the suspected mastermind behind 9/11 and other despicable acts of terror.

Now the Pentagon says Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has confessed to the crimes.

Mixing booze and pills, a perilous cocktail -- A report finds binging more extreme and dangerous on college campuses nowadays. We'll tell you about that.

And Ohio Girl Scouts flip out. That's because a merchant flips their cookies for a profit. They are outraged. He's smug. And neither side willing to crumble. Get it?

Tony Harris will be with me in the "NEWSROOM" top of the hour on CNN.

Unbelievable, samoas. Who knew?

M. O'BRIEN: It was a sweet pun, you might say. Thank you.

COLLINS: It was.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you. Excellent. Thank you, Heidi.

COLLINS: You bet.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, a midnight snack, maybe a Girl Scout cookie, and a drive without ever waking up. Careful what pill you pop before you hit the pillow.

And ladies and gentlemen, it is Thursday, and we all know what time and what day that is.

CROWD: Miles cam.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you. Very special edition of Miles-cam today. Our special guest today, producer Rebecca Cutler.

There she is. See her with the headset? She can get in my ear right now and really harass me if she likes, because that's what she does all morning long, and really after the show, too. We'll tell you about how we prepare for the broadcast, in particular interviews like the one you saw yesterday when we did -- with the Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. How do we get prepared? How do we get those tough questions ready? Give us your questions. Send them to milescam@CNN.com. All of that will be dispensed to you, via the Pipeline product, CNN.com@pipeline, 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: There are some new warnings to tell you about, bizarre and potentially dangerous side effects to prescription sleep medications.

Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen at the CNN Center in Atlanta with some details.

Good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. That's right. Sleep medications, which can cause unusual circumstances, the FDA is now asking drug companies to include these unusual side effects in a brochure that you'll get when you go to the drugstore to pick up your prescription.

Let's take a look at what the FDA is warning people about. They're warning people about several possible side effects, including allergic reactions, severe facial swelling and then two that are quite bizarre, sleep driving and sleep eating. There have been cases where people are taking these medications, going to sleep, and then are driving or getting up and making a meal and eating, and then in the morning they don't remember anything. The dangers here are quite obvious.

We talked to one woman who was getting up and who was cooking, who was turning on her oven, turning on her stove. She couldn't figure out why in three months she managed to gain 40 pounds, and a lot of her food was missing. What you just saw was actually a dashboard cam that talks about -- in the story where we talked about sleep driving. The dangers there are quite obvious. These people did not know that they were driving. They simply had no idea, and so that's why the FDA is warning about this. This is for 13 different sleep medications, including some that are quite popular. For example, Ambient, Lunesta and Rosarum, so when people pick up prescriptions for those medications they will see a brochure about those warnings -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Those stories are so bizarre, the ones you've described. How often do they occur? Is it a real rarity?

COHEN: It is very, very unusual. The FDA unfortunately has not come out and said exactly how common they think these are. But they -- many experts have said, look, when people have these things happen to them, they don't call up the FDA and say, oh, guess what, I figured out that I've been eating or I figured out that I've been driving in my sleep. So it's really hard to estimate.

However, one of the makers of one of the medications says that according to their studies, this happens in about less than one out of 1,000 patients. So certainly, that's unusual. When you consider how many tens of thousands of people are taking these medications, it's going to happen to a fair number of people.

S. O'BRIEN: I would imagine your advice is talk to your doctor if you're concerned. Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning. Thanks, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: Here's a quick look at what "CNN NEWSROOM" is working on for the top of the hour.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: See these stories in the "CNN NEWSROOM": The Pentagon says suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed confesses.

Congress threatening subpoenas today in the Justice Department's so-called "prosecutor purge." A Republican senator now calling for the attorney general's resignation.

Speed demons -- will bureaucrats put the brakes on Germany's famed Autobahn?

A suspect takes off with a police officer hanging on for dear life.

You're in the "NEWSROOM" 9:00 a.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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