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Video Leaked of Jessica Lynch Rescue; Saudis Foil Terror Attack; Debate Over Iraq War Heating Up

Aired April 28, 2007 - 10:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. From the CNN Center here in Atlanta, you are in the NEWSROOM. It is Saturday, April 28th.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm T.J. Holmes. It is 10:00 a.m. where we sit here in Atlanta, Georgia, today in the East. And of course, 9:00 right now in Oklahoma where we're following a developing story.

Fire engulfed a refinery. Explosions felt miles away. We are going to have a live report on this one.

NGUYEN: We also have new video this morning from the night American troops rescued Private Jessica Lynch. The mission, as it unfolded before her eyes.

HOLMES: Also, Washington waking up to a resignation. A member of the Bush administration admits ties to the alleged D.C. madam's escort service.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My message to the governor him is stick it up your (expletive deleted)! That's my message to him. Stick it up your (expletive deleted) (expletive deleted)!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Whoa! The ugly side of politics in Montana. We are going to tell you what the verbal fireworks are all about. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

HOLMES: We'll have to back to that ugly shortly. But up first here, extraordinary new images this morning from the daring mission during the early days of the Iraq War. A Web site has posted dramatic video from the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch.

CNN chief national correspondent John King has more on the tape and Lynch's account of what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA LYNCH, FORMER POW: On April 1st, while various units created diversions around Nasiriyah, a group came to the hospital to rescue me. JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That is her testimony, and this is the tape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come right, come right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. You're down left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clear down right.

KING: You are looking at never-before-seen video of that daring nighttime rescue. It was posted by the Web site liveleak.com. On the extraordinary tape, armored vehicles and at least one tank drive up to the hospital Lynch was taken to after she was captured by Iraqi forces.

After U.S. troops enter the building, we see for the first time the young Army private turned prisoner of war, lying on a bed, apparently unguarded. We can only imagine what she is thinking. This week she recalled that moment.

LYNCH: Then a soldier came into the room. He tore the American flag from his uniform, and he handed it to me in my hand, and he told me, we're American soldiers, and we're here to take you home. And I looked at him and I said, yes, I'm an American soldier too.

KING: In that hospital room, Lynch is asked a question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you in any pain?

LYNCH: Just my back, only when you carry me.

KING: The next sequence shows what happened when Lynch heard the sound of gunfire from outside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where does those windows go out to, Aaron (ph)?

(LYNCH SCREAMS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK. It's OK.

KING: Clearly frightened, Lynch, who spent several days in that hospital with multiple injuries, is then stabilized on a stretcher, carried down several flights of stairs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coming down.

KING: And then, rushed into a military helicopter. The first step in her long trip home and an even longer journey for her story to be told.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're going to be so glad to see you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're doing great, Jessica.

KING: John King, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Also new developments in the Pat Tillman investigation to tell you about. The congressional committee is requesting documents from the White House and the Pentagon about the former NFL star's death. Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. But for weeks his family and the public were told he was killed by enemy fire. Lawmakers want documents describing when and how the Bush administration learned the circumstances of Tillman's death.

NGUYEN: The U.S. calls it a blow to international terrorism. Saudi authorities say they've disrupted a major plot targeting oil facilities and public figures. They confiscated huge caches of weapons and millions of dollars. Earlier this morning we spoke with a Saudi official. He says militants were approaching the zero hour for putting their plan into action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. MANSOUR AL-TURKI, SPOKESMAN, SAUDI INTERIOR MINISTRY: They were very close. As you have seen from the pictures that they have already executed some of their plans, and they were just about to (INAUDIBLE) to initiate their attacks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: The Saudi operation sheds troubling light on the threat posed by al Qaeda, and it's an indication that the war in Iraq is spilling over on to Saudi soil. Details now from senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Wrapped in plastic, buried deep below the Saudi desert, these al Qaeda guns were never meant to be captured. Saudi intelligence officials say al Qaeda planned to use them to bring down the Saudi royal family and kill American soldiers in Iraq.

In an unprecedented nine-month operation netting more that 170 al Qaeda suspects, and more than $5 million, Saudi intelligence officials say they thwarted plans to fly aircraft into oil facilities, attack security installations, kill senior officials and send money to al Qaeda in Iraq.

AL-TURKI: The activities that we have dealt with trying to recruit young Saudis to be involved in the terrorist activities outside the Kingdom.

ROBERTSON: But the raids reveal a far more worrying trend for the Saudis, the war in Iraq is spilling over into Saudi Arabia. Saudi al Qaeda fighters train in Iraq and come back to Saudi to fight.

AL-TURKI: They are taking advantage of the terrorism action outside the Kingdom in order to recruit, in order to train... PAUL CRUIKSHANK, FELLOW, NYU LAW SCHOOL: Some of the new blood that has been recruited into the organization partly because of the Iraq War has really had to go across into Iraq to fight the fight. But, now it seems that they're reorganizing in Iraq and starting to launch plans and plots across the border.

ROBERTSON: In the past year, since this botched al Qaeda attack revealed their new tactics to target oil facilities and kill the economy rather than kill Westerners, al Qaeda has largely dropped off the radar. Intelligence gleaned in the botched attack led to many of the recent arrests, but in their success, the Saudis show how tough their coming battle is.

(on camera): The money alone shows just how dangerous al Qaeda may be. The $5 million recovered is 10 times what it costs al Qaeda to execute the 9/11 attacks.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Saudi Arabia is not rolling out the welcome mat for the Iraqi prime minister. A senior intelligence source says King Abdullah has refused a state visit by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The source says the king doesn't think the Iraqi leader is doing enough to stop Shiite attacks against Sunnis.

HOLMES: Former CIA Director George Tenet says he's the scapegoat, blamed, defamed, and hung out to dry for pushing the war in Iraq. Tenet claims a comment he made in 2003, that infamous "slam dunk" on Iraq's purported WMDs, has been taken out of context to wreck his career. He tells "60 Minutes" ahead of a book launch it's the worst thing that ever happened to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE TENET, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: (INAUDIBLE) I said, you know, we believed -- I believed that he had weapons of mass destruction, and now what has happened here is you've gone out and made me look stupid. It's the most despicable thing I've ever heard of in my life. Men of honor don't do this.

SCOTT PELLEY, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Men of honor don't do this?

TENET: You don't do this. You don't throw people overboard. You don't do this -- give them -- you don't call somebody in. You work your heart out, you show up every day. You're going to throw somebody overboard just because it's a deflection? Is that honorable? It's not honorable to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And the former CIA director is Larry King's guest on Monday night. He'll be talking about the search for weapons of mass destruction and the push toward war. That is at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN. NGUYEN: Well, ordinarily the resignation of a deputy secretary of state wouldn't be news, but there's a twist here. Randall Tobias stepped down yesterday. A State Department official telling us Tobias had patronized a local escort service run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the woman known now as the D.C. madam.

Palfrey now faces federal charges and has told ABC News that she plans to call Tobias and other high profile clients to testify at her trial. Secretary Tobias, by the way, had once served as the president's AIDS director and while in that post, Tobias was criticized for emphasizing marital fidelity and abstinence over condom use to prevent the spread of AIDS.

HOLMES: And all this morning we've been following developments in a refinery fire in Oklahoma. You're taking a look at some of the pictures there, really amazing pictures we've been watching all morning. And reporter Jordan Williams of our affiliate KOCO has been watching this thing as well. He joins us live.

Update us on what's happening there.

JORDAN WILLIAMS, KOCO REPORTER: T.J., let me get to the new information right off the top this morning. We have learned that firefighters here inside the Wynnewood refinery are going to let some of the diesel and gasoline that are burning burn off before they try to move in and put more foam on this fire.

You can see how large the plume of smoke still is. This fire has been going for nearly a day. It started around 11:30 yesterday morning with one lightning bolt that hit a storage tank full of a blend of gasoline here at this refinery. We'll show you some of the video that we got up close overnight. You can see just how big these flames really are at times, shooting 70, 80 feet into the air, really a situation that was quite concerning for people here in this town, a town that centers right around this refinery. It employs 200 people here. It's an independent refinery owned by Gary Williams Energy Corporation.

Right now two tanks are still burning. The EPA is here measuring air quality. We're hearing that there's no trouble so far. Winds are staying light and most of the smoke is going straight up. But as I was saying, this community deals with this refinery all the time. Many of the people who live here actually work at the refinery.

But even still, a scary situation for long-time residents here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERYL MANKRES, WITNESSED REFINERY FIRE: I actually walked out of my house and down onto the street, and you can see what looked like big fire balls just coming up and then coming out of it. It was -- there's not a word to describe it. I mean, I don't know. I've never seen a fire that intense and that big before.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WILLIAMS: And she says she's never seen anything like it. And I'll give you another live look at this fire that is still going. As I was saying, it started up yesterday with a lightning strike. Crews thought they had a pretty good handle on it. They even thought they had it contained by yesterday afternoon and into the evening.

But then around 8:30 last night, the first tank collapsed in. Gasoline spilled out, and that is what started the second tank on fire. So now we've got two tanks burning, but the headline here, despite the huge fire, no injuries and no evacuations here from this refinery fire. We'll stay on top of it for you.

For now, reporting live in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, I'm Jordan Williams for CNN.

HOLMES: Jordan, we appreciate you, thank you so much.

NGUYEN: Well, it is not every day that a mugging becomes national news, but when the victims are over 85 years old, people do pay attention, oh, especially when you see this video. There's a new break, though, in the nearly two-month-old case. And we have those details next.

HOLMES: And also coming up in about 10 minutes, the mind-body connection when it comes to losing weight. How you can think yourself thin.

NGUYEN: I'm thinking, I'm thinking.

HOLMES: But -- well, you're going to think about this. That's something for you to think about. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right. Hundreds of firefighters will be back on the fire line in southeast Georgia today. What they're doing is battling a stubborn wildfire that has burned nearly 100 square miles of swampy pine forest over the past two weeks. More than 20 homes have been destroyed because of what you are seeing right here.

That blaze was contained a week ago, but high winds kicked it back up again on Thursday. About 16 miles of Highway 1, which connects Waycross, Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida, remains closed.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: Well, it was an appalling attack, and it was caught on tape. Well, now, the suspect, he's caught. You may remember this surveillance tape here, hard to watch. It shows 101-year-old Rose Morat being brutally mugged. She was hit several times in the face, suffering a fractured cheek bone. All this, and the mugger got $33.

NGUYEN: Goodness.

HOLMES: Now this same mugger is blamed for a similar attack the same day on an 85-year-old woman. Now police have arrested this man, Jack Rhodes, on charges of robbery and assault, among other things. Police began questioning Rhodes after noticing he matched a photo of a person wanted for questioning in robberies of women in Queens.

NGUYEN: Well, when some people try to lose weight, they turn to a personal trainer or a nutritionist. What about a psychologist?

HOLMES: I don't know. Well, coming up, we're going to talk to Judith Beck about her new book that is designed to help you retrain your brain to banish pounds. I'm a little skeptical here, but I'm going to give her chance.

NGUYEN: Well, you have got to think about it. That's what she's asking people to do.

Plus, coming up in 30 minutes, find out why Oregon's governor had to go on food stamps.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Some health stories now concerning weight to tell you about this morning. A major recommendation from a prestigious scientific panel released this week. Get all junk food out of public schools. The Institute of Medicine says even vending machines in schools should offer only healthier snacks. Also recommended in the ban, sports drinks and enhanced waters. The reason for the recommendation, America's growing obesity rate.

Also a new report out this week on breast-feeding. A Harvard study finds while breast-feeding has many benefits, it won't prevent a child from becoming obese as an adult. Earlier studies find breast- feeding helps to fight childhood obesity, but the new study indicates the benefits don't last until adulthood. So who knows what you should do now.

Also another study finds overweight workers cost employers more than their lean counterparts. The Duke University study finds that overweight workers had 13 times more lost workdays due to work-related injuries.

NGUYEN: Really. That's interesting. I want you to take a listen to this, too, because if you're thinking about starting a diet this morning, along with putting together an exercise and meal plan, your diet may depend on changing the way you think. A new book by psychologist Judith Beck claims that you can train your brain to actually think thin. There's something called cognitive therapy. It's called "The Beck Diet Solution." And author Judith Beck joins us now this morning from Philadelphia.

Thanks for being with us.

JUDITH BECK, AUTHOR, "THE BECK DIET SOLUTION": Thank you.

NGUYEN: Well, you know, I want to ask you first of all, how do thin people think? And is it really merely a question of thinking thin? Because a lot of thin people eat all they want and they just have a high metabolism. BECK: Well, there are a few thin people who can eat whatever they want. But most thin people or even people of normal weight do restrict their eating. They think about food and about hunger in a whole different way from people who struggle with dieting.

For example, thin people, if they get hungry say an hour, hour- and-a-half before a meal, will think, oh darn, I'm hungry. Oh, well, I'm going to eat again in another hour or so. I'll just wait until dinner. People who are struggling with dieting though think about hunger a whole different way. They think, oh, I'm hungry. I don't like this. I should not feel hungry. What if this gets worse? You know, I think I had better go have a snack.

NGUYEN: Well, but let me ask you this, too. Because you know, I'm fairly thin, and I do think about food a lot. All the time. I love to eat. It's one of my favorite pastimes, to be quite honest with you. So I do think about it a lot. Yet it's not gaining the pounds on. And it's probably because I'm making better choices and maybe that's the best way to put this because a lot of people eat for many different reasons, whether they're bored, they're lonely or whatever.

So is it a matter of just changing your habits?

BECK: It is, but in order to have really lasting permanent changes in your habits, you have to change your thinking. For example, people who have struggled with losing weight need to plan what they're going to eat and then learn how to stick to the plan.

And they need to learn how to talk back to all those sabotaging thoughts that say, well, it's OK to eat this food that I'm not supposed to because, oh, I'm upset or I'm happy or I'm hungry or it's just a small piece or it won't really matter or everyone else is eating it or it's free. People need to learn how to answer back those kind of sabotaging thoughts so they can stick to their plan.

BECK: Well, and another thing is those cravings, you know those cravings that we have in the middle of the night. That pizza is just calling your name, or that cookie or piece of cake. How do you really ward that off? Because those things, when they come, they come very hard and very fast and you really have little resistance to it.

BECK: That's right. That's why you have to really prepare in advance for cravings. In fact, what I suggest is that people not start the diet until they've gone through the first two weeks of the program that I developed in "The Beck Diet Solution." I want them to learn skills of how to handle the craving.

For example, at the first sign of craving, they need to pull out a card that has written on it every single reason that they want to lose weight. I want to look better, I want to feel better, I want to be healthier, I want to be more attractive, I want to fit into more clothes. Unless you remind yourself of those reasons constantly, you're going to let the craving get the better of you.

NGUYEN: And besides that, what are some other tips that can really help you break those bad habits?

BECK: Well, if you're feeling a sense of craving, you need to not only pull out that card, but another card that says something like, no choice, I'm not going to eat any food that's not on my plan because I'd rather be thinner. You need to pull out a card that says, this craving is uncomfortable but it is not nearly as uncomfortable as that time I had root canal. I can tolerate this. If I just ignore it, if I turn my attention to something else, it will go away.

(LAUGHTER)

NGUYEN: Now are these cards edible?

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: Not unless they're on your plan. But the point of it is that you have to rehearse these ideas over and over and over again until they're really in your mind when you feel that craving.

NGUYEN: All right. Author Judith Beck of "The Beck Diet Solution." Thanks for your time and trying to change the way we think, we appreciate it.

BECK: Thank you.

HOLMES: I'm going to try to help you, Betty. I know it doesn't help.

NGUYEN: Are you? I see the bag of Twizzlers over there.

HOLMES: You were doing good about...

NGUYEN: Look at those things. It's an industrial-sized bag.

HOLMES: I'm going to -- I'm not going to bring them tomorrow.

NGUYEN: Going to put it away? Right.

HOLMES: I'm going to try to help you out. All right?

NGUYEN: I'll give you a dollar if you don't bring them tomorrow.

HOLMES: All right. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Make sure you're all here for that.

Meanwhile, we're going to move on and talk about some tough questions for the top military commander in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: A lot of people I talk to feel that you may have been dealt a losing hand here. Do you feel that way?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, exactly how did General Petraeus answer that question? Jamie McIntyre's interview with the general coming up next.

NGUYEN: Also, the life and death struggle over a terminally ill baby in Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're trying to play God by saying who lives and who dies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Should his mother or the hospital have the final say on baby Emilio's fate? A closer look at this controversy, that is straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are inflicting suffering, we are inflicting, we are inflicting harm on this child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And so a Texas hospital wants to take this 17-month-old off life support, but the child's mother, bound and determined not to let that happen.

NGUYEN: Who has the legal and moral right to make this life or death decision? Well, that controversy is just five minutes away. In the meantime, we want to say good morning to all of you out there. Thanks for joining us.

I'm Betty Nguyen.

HOLMES: And I'm T.J. Holmes.

NGUYEN: Let's start with this breaking news right now in Pakistan. We're just getting this in to CNN. According to the Associated Press, there's very little information, but what we know is a suicide bombing has occurred in northwestern Pakistan, and it has actually injured the interior minister.

There is no word on the additional injuries in this or if there are any deaths as a result of this suicide bombing. Actually, I'm being told right now by our producer that at least seven people have been killed in this. Again, the northwestern Pakistan area is where the suicide bombing occurred and it has injured the interior minister there.

Just as soon as CNN gets more information on this, of course, we will bring it straight to you. HOLMES: We will turn now to the war in Iraq and how to pay for it. President Bush promised to veto the bill passed this week because Democrats included a timetable for troop withdrawals. That now pushing Democrats to reach out to Republicans in an effort to create a new veto-proof legislation. Meanwhile, President Bush has invited both sides to the White House Wednesday discuss their impasse. The president's veto is expected on Tuesday and that just happens to be the fourth anniversary of his speech aboard the "USS Abraham Lincoln" where he said major combat operations were over.

NGUYEN: Well, this doesn't happen very often. An active duty U.S. military officer publicly calling the senior military leadership incompetent and on the brink of losing the war in Iraq. Army Lt. Colonel Paul Yingling wrote an article for "Armed Forces Journal," a civilian publication for military leaders. I want to quote you here out of the article. For the second time in a generation, the United States faces the prospect of defeat at the hands of the insurgency. And he continues saying these debacles are not attributable to individual failures, but rather to a crisis in an entire institution, America's general officer corps. Yingling led troops against Iraq forces both in 1991 and in two combat tours in this war. A Pentagon spokesman says this is Yingling's personal opinion.

I want to get you the view from the top, a top U.S. commander in Iraq, that is. General David Petraeus briefed lawmakers this week on the progress and the setbacks in Iraq. Then he sat down with senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE McINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): General David Petraeus knows he's not the miracle worker some have made him to be.

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, CMDR, MULTINATL FORCES IN IRAQ: This is not about one person. It's not even just about Americans. It's about an entire coalition and it's very much about our Iraqi partners.

McINTYRE: A lot of people I've talked to feel you may have been dealt a losing hand here. Do you feel that way?

PETRAEUS: Well, I certainly am doing everything I can.

McINTYRE: The looming deadline is September when General Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker will pass judgment on whether the surge is working. But is there a realistic prospect of U.S. troops coming home in some number after this assessment in September?

PETRAEUS: Jamie, that really is not something that I even want to hint at. Again, we've had, frankly, disappointments in the past where we've tried to project into the future.

McINTYRE: If, in September, you think the strategy is not working, are you going to be able to tell that to the president and presumably the Congress?

PETRAEUS: Not only will I be able to, Ambassador Crocker and I will do that. We have an obligation to the young men and women who are out there giving their all to do just that.

McINTYRE: Petraeus admits the situation in Iraq today is worst because of past blunders, but insists the cause is not lost.

PETRAEUS: I don't think anyone would say there were not mistakes and there were not a variety of areas in which we could and should have done better. In my submission to the Senate Armed Services Committee, we offered several pages.

McINTYRE: I guess what Americans really want to know is, is the U.S. making a mistake now with its strategy?

PETRAEUS: Well, I think that we are applying what we've learned.

McINTYRE: It was just six months ago that one U.S. Military intelligence officer said Anbar province was lost, but General Petraeus says the situation there has turned around dramatically since tribal leaders have banded together to fight al Qaeda. It's an example he'd like to see followed in Baghdad. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: A rare earthquake shook some in Britain out of their beds this morning, just a mall quake and it was centered off the southeast coast. Some moderate damage seen in Kent County. Thousands are without power. The 4.7 magnitude quake is the strongest actually to hit England in the past five years.

My goodness, unrest in Estonia. Dozens of people were injured during a second straight night of rioting there. Vandalism and looting also spreading outside the capital where the protest began. Protesters are upset with the government's decision to move a Soviet World War IIi memorial and to exhume a number of buried soldiers.

Some new balloting in Nigeria today. Allegations of widespread intimidation and vote tampering followed last week's presidential election. The current ruling party retained the presidency in a landslide. Some areas are rerunning local votes, but there's no plan yet for a completely new election.

NGUYEN: Well, in Texas, the battle over a baby's life support pits a mother against the hospital. Texas law says a hospital can decide when it is time to stop life support, even if it's against the parents' wishes. But the law is now under fire. At the center of this controversy, a 17-month-old. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Emilio Gonzalez doesn't have long to live, maybe a month, maybe two. This hospital wants to pull the plug on his ventilator, in which case Emilio would die much sooner, probably within hours. The hospital says it's the only humane thing to do because the ventilator and other treatments are causing the 17-month-old to be in pain.

MICHAEL REGIER, HOSPITAL'S ATTORNEY: We are inflicting suffering. We are inflicting harm on this child.

COHEN: But the toddler's mother says Emilio is on so much morphine he's not in pain. Catarina Gonzalez says she knows her son only has a month or two to live, but she wants him to have every possible minute of life. Even though a rare genetic disorder has rendered him unable to see or speak or eat on his own, she says his life still has value.

CATARINA GONZALEZ, MOTHER: I put my finger in his hand and I'm talking to him and he'll just squeeze it, open his eyes and turn his head towards you and he'll look at you and look at you for a good while.

COHEN: So the question is, who gets to decide whether Emilio will live or die, his mother or the hospital? In an unusual law, the state of Texas says the hospital. If doctors feel treatment is inappropriate, they can take someone off life support, even if the family disagrees. Doctors say for them, it's a matter of ethics, according to this hospital spokesman.

REGIER: We have to have a point at which it will be permissible for a physician to say I have my sense of professional ethics and I have my moral values and I'm simply not going to do this anymore.

COHEN: Emilio's mother has taken the hospital to court because she says it has overstepped its bounds.

GONZALEZ: They're trying to play God by saying who lives and who dies.

COHEN: A lawyer for Austin Children's hospital says it's not playing God and that as a Catholic hospital, the church's teachings are clear.

REGIER: In the Catholic tradition, we're obligated to use ordinary means to pursue and preserve our lives. We're not required to use extraordinary means.

COHEN: So how did this Texas law come about, giving hospitals the right to decide when it's time for someone to die? President George Bush when he was governor of Texas, signed the law. Many see an irony given his stance six years later that Terry Schiavo should be allowed to live.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The legislative branch, the executive branch, ought to err on the side of life.

COHEN: Dr. Lannie Ross (ph), a pediatrician and bio-ethicist, disagrees with the Texas law.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the mother should absolutely make the final decision. I would definitely not pull the child off the ventilator.

COHEN: Bio-ethicist Art Caplan says the hospital should decide. DR. ART CAPLAN, BIOETHICIST: So there are situations where even though a mother's love would say I don't ever want you to give up, medicine does have to set some limits to the continuation of care.

COHEN: In Texas, the legislature is reconsidering the law giving hospitals the right to make life and death decisions. It's not clear if a decision would be made in time to change the fate of Emilio Gonzalez. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Austin, Texas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: We do want to get you more information on the breaking news out of Pakistan today. We are learning that at least 12 people have been killed in a suicide bombing there. And it occurred at a meeting in northwestern Pakistan. And it actually wounded Pakistan's interior minister. Here's what we know so far. The bomb exploded when the interior minister had just finished his speech at a meeting there and there's no immediate word on his condition. We do know that at least 12 people have been killed in this and others have been taken to the hospital. Don't know who is taking credit for this bombing, but a suicide attacker did detonate a bomb at a public meeting in northwestern Pakistan. Once again, it has wounded Pakistan's interior minister. No idea as of this moment as to his condition. But, of course, we're going to be following this. And as soon as CNN gets more information, we'll bring it straight to you.

HOLMES: Also back here now, the battle over taxes gets a little bit overheated in one state legislature.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My message to the governor is stick it up your [ bleep ]. That's my message to him. Stick it up your [ bleep ].

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Wonder if the governor got the message. The lawmaker, he may be having a change of heart about his choice of words. You think so, Betty?

NGUYEN: Yeah.

HOLMES: That story is coming up next.

NGUYEN: Good guess there TJ. Plus, a public relations stunt or needed reality check? A governor finds out what it's like to live on food stamps for a week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm understanding a lot better how difficult it is for a citizen on food stamps to be able to stretch their budget.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN.COM: We've been taking the time to salute our military men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan through our I-report initiative. Here are a couple of photos that we received this week. Rob Davis from San Antonio, Texas, sent in this picture of his wife, Master Sergeant Edith Davis. (INAUDIBLE) in the U.S. Air Force for 18 years and is stationed at the Balat (ph) air base in Iraq.

Master Sergeant Chris McIntosh from Nevada sits in an armored vehicle in this picture sent in by his wife Marjorie. McIntosh is a procurement agent, buying supplies to be used at the U.S. hospital in Balad. Holly Reno says that she is proud of her sister, Staff Sergeant Buffy Verhagen (ph) seen here in this picture. Verhagen has been in the Air Force for 14 years and is currently serving in Iran. And when he is not fighting a war, he's fishing. Specialist Nathan Gibbs reels in this big catch from a bridge in Baghdad. His wife Sabrina sent us this picture.

And you can see other photos as we salute our troops. You can find them online at cnn.com/exchange. I'm Veronica de la Cruz for the dotcom desk.

HOLMES: And this memorial day weekend, CNN Sunday morning wants to share your stories and tributes to the servicemen and women who have died for their country but we need you help to do that. Actually need you to send your photos and video of the loved ones your family has lost from wars present and past. Two ways here you can reach us. You can log on to cnn.com/ireport or you can e-mail directly at ireport@cnn.com.

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NGUYEN: We have new information on that bombing in Pakistan this morning, which injured the interior minister. Here's what we know. It was a suicide bombing in northwestern Pakistan. So far it has killed 12 people and injured others, including the interior minister. We also understand from our CNN correspondents on the ground that the interior minister's son and others were actually taken to the hospital. As for the interior minimum himself, we understand that he was just slightly wounded. But again, we're staying on top of this, a bombing in Pakistan, northwestern Pakistan, a suicide bombing has killed 12 people and slightly injured the interior minister. We'll keep on top of this story and bring you more.

HOLMES: Well get ready for some major league name dropping. A plea deal with a former New York Mets employee could expose the alleged steroid use of dozens of current and former major league players. At the center of this plea deal, Kirk Radomski (ph). Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to distributing steroids to players for decades. Radomski was arrested in December following an FBI sting operation. Part of the plea deal reached yesterday, Radomski will cooperate with a Federal probe.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... to the governor is stick it up your [ bleep ]. That's my message to him. Stick it up your [ bleep ].

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HOLMES: Say it to his face.

NGUYEN: Right.

HOLMES: That foul-mouthed fellow is the majority leader in the Montana state house. He and his fellow Republicans have been locked in a pretty ugly as you can see, budget debate with Montana's Democratic governor. Michael Lang (ph) later apologized for his tirade, but check this out. Lawmakers still failed to pass a budget by last night's midnight deadline. So now there will be a special session and more bitter and hopefully cleaner arguments ahead.

NGUYEN: We'll see what he has to say.

Could you live on a food budget of just $3 a day? $3 from breakfast, lunch and dinner all combined? The governor of Oregon is trying to see if he can do it. Why? CNN's Dan Simon has the answer.

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GOV. TED KULONGOSKI (D) OREGON: I'll take American.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A cheesy publicity stunt? Far from it insists Oregon's Governor Ted Kulongoski.

KULONGOSKI: Peanut butter. That's what it is. It's peanut butter.

SIMON: This shopping trip is designed to raise awareness about hunger.

KULONGOSKI: There it is.

SIMON: When the governor took office four years ago, Oregon had the nation's highest hunger rate. In other words, more people here than anywhere else in the country were having a hard time putting food on the table. So here at the state capital, the governor and his administration made fighting hunger a top priority and this year came up with a novel PR campaign. That campaign, to eat like someone living on food stamps. People don't think of governors eating peanut butter sandwiches and instant soup, but that's what you're doing.

KOLONGOSKI: I have to tell you that I'm understanding a lot better how difficult it is for a citizen on food stamps to be able to stretch their budget.

SIMON: To qualify for food stamps in Oregon, now in the form of a debit card, a family of four can make up to $38,000 a year. The average food stamp allotment here is $21 a week per person or $3 a day.

CHRISTINA SIGMAN-DAVENPORT, FOOD STAMP RECIPIENT: Can I make a suggestion? KULONGOSKI: Yes.

SIMON: Helping the governor shop is Christina Sigman-Davenport. She works for the state agency that administers the stamps. So it's ironic that Davenport herself is receiving them. With three children and a husband out of work, Davenport felt she had no choice.

SIGMAN-DAVENPORT: You know, your shelter expenses, your utilities, my son has cerebral palsy so he has a higher needs daycare. Once you have all those expenses come out, there's nothing left for groceries. There just isn't.

SIMON: The Bush administration has proposed cutting food stamps from about 185,000 people nationwide because they receive other government aid. Kulongoski, a Democrat, is lobbying the White House and Congress to keep the program as is. The governor's experience made a lot of headlines here in Oregon. A publicity stunt?

KULONGOSKI: If I thought this is what it took to get this issue out to the public and tell them how important it is, I don't care what they call it. I'd do it every week.

SIMON: For the governor, it's just one week of hardship but for the more than 400,000 Oregonians who collect food stamps every month, it's an ongoing struggle. Dan Simon, CNN, Salem, Oregon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: In other money matters, the cash was there in his very own account, so he spent it. Now a Nebraska man is charged with felony theft. George Costa went on an $80,000 spending spree using deposits put in his account by mistake. The prosecutor points out that finder's keepers is not a legal principle. Costa's attorneys are offering to work out a repayment plan in civil, not criminal court. We'll see how that works out.

HOLMES: For real, Betty, what would you do?

NGUYEN: With the money?

HOLMES: Would you have given it back or would you just...

NGUYEN: $80,000. You know someone is going to find out that you have it and they're going to want it. So you might as well just give it up.

HOLMES: That's your way of getting around it.

NGUYEN: No, no, nothing is for free anymore. Someone's going to want that money back And I don't want to go to jail for it, so I'd gladly give it back to you.

HOLMES: All right.

Moving on to spending an eternity in space. That's what he wanted to do. Will the man who played "Star Trek's" Scotty finally get his wish today? That story is next.

NGUYEN: Beam me up Scotty.

And coming up in the next hour of the NEWSROOM, the road runs out for the man dubbed the most hated dad in America.

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NGUYEN: That, my friends, is the sound of history. That's right, Wall Street's historic week. Why did the markets go on a record-breaking run despite a slumping housing market? and how can you benefit from it? That's the big question. A practical guide to the stocks, that's coming up tomorrow at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

HOMES: The late actor James Doohan, best known as Scotty on the original "Star Trek" TV show will head out of this world today.

NGUYEN: At least part of him will. If all goes as planned, a portion of his cremated remains is set to blast off sometime today aboard a private rocket in a New Mexico desert. You're looking at live pictures of where that is set to blast. Boy, that's a really big rocket right there. If that's what we're seeing, right.

HOLMES: I believe that's it.

NGUYEN: And he's not the only one going up on this rocket.

HOLMES: That is the launch pad we're looking at and like you said, it's kind of a large record there for just one guy. Well, actually it's 200 others going to be joining Doohan on this one-way journey, among them, also late Mercury 7 astronaut, L. Gordon Cooper. So a heck of a voyage for them, a final voyage for them today.

NGUYEN: I don't know if I'd want to do that. Let's see if Reynolds Wolf would. When your number is called, do you want to head out to space?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I don't think so. I don't know. That's a little bit weird. The earth is interesting enough for me. I think I'll stick around here for a while, even in the after life.

NGUYEN: We hope you stick around as long as you can.

WOLF: You and me too. That's right. We're going to start a new little feature that we have here called are our lawn and garden forecast. We're going to give you some great tips during springtime, through the summer as well. Here's today's tip. A dull mower blade bruises the grass easily. Therefore, you need to check regularly to make sure your lawn mower blade is always sharp. Doesn't that seem a little weird to you? I mean you're allowed to cut the top of your grass off, but you can't bruise it. Oh well. That's the garden tip for the day, just the thing you need to keep in your coat pocket.

In terms of your garden, you may have a rough time with it in parts of south Georgia and other parts of the southeast. We need some rain. We've got a fire danger in effect for south Georgia, as well as the I-10 corridor. They desperately could use a couple of days of just some steady soaking rain and that's not going to be in the picture until, perhaps, the next work week, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Even then, it's not going to be a given.

One place where they really don't want rain and they should stay fairly dry is in New Orleans for the jazz fest. Today, temperatures are going to be mainly into the '80s, about 82 degrees there. It should be just nice for you. West Texas, a couple of showers possible there. And fog is going to be an issue in the LA basin until about mid-morning and into the afternoon. We're going to give way to mostly cloudy to partly cloudy skies, mostly sunny for San Francisco, plenty of sunshine in the twin cities. Chicago, chance of scattered showers, same story in Detroit with high temperatures in Motown that will rise to 68 degrees, 75 in Atlanta and 81 in Dallas. That's a look at your forecast across the nation. Back to you. Beam me up.

NGUYEN: Yes. Especially over that launch pad site, hopefully they're going to have pretty good weather as old Scotty himself, he needs to be beamed up into space today because in fact this rocket that you're looking at in this live picture is going to be taking part of his remains into outer space.

HOLMES: Along with 200 others, as we said. Yes,, their final voyage and we're expecting this launch to happen at the top of the hour. We're going to keep an eye on this live picture. I believe that's the rocket, kind of a strange-looking rocket. Not what we're used to but we're going to keep an eye on that and hopefully bring you that live launch when it does happen. Something interesting to see there.

Also need to be telling you about, he was temporarily let out of prison, this guy, to help his son who needed a kidney. Instead of sticking around to see if he could be his son's donor, the convict went on the run.

NGUYEN: Are you serious? Well, his taste of freedom is finally over. We're going to show you that coming up next.

Plus, still ahead, the first career casualty in an alleged DC madam scandal.

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