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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Interview With Former President Bill Clinton; Unapproved Prescription Drugs on the Market?
Aired September 26, 2007 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: I sat down today with former President Bill Clinton. And I got to tell you, I saw a remarkable side of him the public often doesn't get to see. I sat across from him and watched him get angry.
Listen as he talks about today's Republicans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These are the people that ran a television ad in Georgia with Max Cleland, who lost half his body in Vietnam, in the same ad with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. That's what the Republicans did.
And the person that rode to the Senate on that ad was there voting to condemn the Democrats over the Petraeus ad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Tonight, we will have more of that interview.
Also tonight, a 360 investigation in depth on prescription drugs that you might be taking right now, drugs that were never approved by the FDA. Believe it or not, they are out there, maybe in your medicine cabinet or on your night table, 65 million prescriptions last year never approved by the FDA. Why?
Well, we're "Keeping Them Honest."
We begin, though, with a mystery at sea and an empty boat, four people missing, and a bloody secret that happened somewhere off the coast of Florida. Two men are in custody, one with a shady past believed to be running from the law, the other a teenager with an amazing and authorities say incredible story to tell about piracy and murder on the high seas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): A Coast Guard ship hauls an empty, ghostly fishing boat to shore. The luxury 47-foot vessel is called Joe Cool, and it may hide a bloody secret that left these four people dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sends chills up your spine.
COOPER: The mystery begins Saturday at this Miami Beach marina. Two men chartered the boat for a one-way trip to Bimini in the Bahamas. They allegedly paid the $4,000 price in $100 bills.
As it headed to sea, the boat carried the two men, as well as captain Jake Branam, his wife, Kelley, and crew members Scott Michael (ph) Campbell and Samuel Kairy.
The boat was due back Sunday. It never arrived. Instead, the Coast Guard found it adrift and off course by 160 miles. No one was aboard, but there were ominous clues, a key to a pair of handcuffs and what appeared to be traces of blood.
JAMES JUDGE, U.S. COAST GUARD: Everything that was on board the vessel and inside the cabin was thrown around in complete disarray. And it appeared whoever was on board had left in an extreme hurry.
COOPER: Ten miles away, a Coast Guard helicopter spotted a life raft, inside, the two men who chartered the boat, Kirby Archer and Guillermo Zarabozo. Both had a shocking story to tell.
In a sworn statement, Zarabozo says the captain, his wife and the two crew members are dead, murdered, they said, by pirates who tried to hijack the boat. Zarabozo told the FBI the killers boarded the boat and shot captain Branam. Kelley Branam became hysterical and was shot next.
Zarabozo says the hijackers then executed the two crew members for refusing to dump the bodies overboard. Authorities aren't buying his story, and they're digging into their pasts. Zarabozo is a Cuban immigrant living in Florida. Archer was a military police investigator at Guantanamo Bay before going AWOL in 2003.
Archer is also a fugitive, wanted in connection with the theft of some $90,000 from a Wal-Mart in Arkansas. Both are being held without bail. But, until the truth is revealed, the families of the missing can only wait and wonder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What kind of thoughts are going through your mind?
JON BRANAM, COUSIN OF MISSING CAPTAIN: That, you know, at some point, the crew went overboard. Whether they were forced, whether, you know, something happened, I don't know.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Nick Spangler joins me now. He has been covering the story for "The Miami Herald."
Nick, this story, it just doesn't make much sense. Guillermo Zarabozo, this guy claims that pirates spared his life and Kirby Archer's life, after killing the four crew members. Did he explain to authorities why their lives were spared?
NICK SPANGLER, "THE MIAMI HERALD": That's one of the big questions in his story. He didn't explain why their lives were spared or why these pirates apparently let them take their baggage with them when they left the vessel and... COOPER: They were found with pieces of luggage?
SPANGLER: They were found with some of their luggage in a small life raft about 12 miles south of where the boat was found, which was off of the Cuban coast.
COOPER: Now, they say that, after they were found on the raft, authorities took these two guys -- or at least Zarabozo to the boat, to Joe Cool. Do we know what happened then?
SPANGLER: I'm sorry. Repeat that.
COOPER: After they were found, they took Zarabozo to the boat, to Joe Cool. Do we know what happened then?
SPANGLER: They said -- they -- they asked him several times if he recognized that boat. He said he did not recognize it, that he had never been on that boat. And the authorities are using that as grounds to hold him. They say he made a false statement.
Proof of that is that his Florida identification was found on board Joe Cool.
COOPER: What else did they find on Joe Cool?
SPANGLER: They also found a number of joints, marijuana cigarettes. They found keys to handcuffs. They found what are believed to be blood traces on the stern of the boat. And they found just the general contents of the boat in disarray, as if there had been a struggle.
COOPER: Certainly not a good sign they found keys to handcuffs, but they didn't find any actual handcuffs.
(CROSSTALK)
SPANGLER: They did not find -- they did not find handcuffs...
COOPER: That's certainly ominous.
SPANGLER: ... according, at least, to this affidavit, yes.
COOPER: We heard that Archer is now wanted in connection with a theft of more than $90,000 from an Arkansas Wal-Mart. What do we know about the relationship between these two, between Archer and Zarabozo? Do we know anything?
SPANGLER: We don't know too much.
Investigators aren't saying very much. We believe, having talked with Mr. Archer's ex-wife, his mother and his current wife, that he may have befriended Mr. Zarabozo's family years ago some time in the mid-90s, when he was stationed at Guantanamo Bay, and the Zarabozos, having attempted to flee Cuba, were repatriated and taken to the Guantanamo Bay facility.
We don't know just how close their contacts remained in following years. We don't know if it was just a matter of phone calls or...
COOPER: Bizarre.
SPANGLER: ... if they were actually visiting.
COOPER: Right.
It is a bizarre tale. And, certainly, there's a lot to be figured out in the next couple days.
Nick Spangler, we will keep talking to you. Appreciate it. Keep covering it for "The Miami Herald."
We want to tell you now about an alarming new gap in this country's armor that could leave you and millions more literally in the dark, without power. And we're not just talking about for days. We're talking about for months.
The government recently war-gamed the scenario. And what it found is truly terrifying, as CNN's Jeanne Meserve explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is an electric generator. It is vital because it is the kind that power companies use to bring electricity to your home. It shudders and shakes, then goes up in smoke, destroyed just as effectively as if with a smuggled bomb.
But all it took was a computer, some patient work, and the click of a mouse.
ROBERT JAMISON, NATIONAL PROTECTION AND PROGRAMS ACTING UNDERSECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: What's new here is that, through a cyber-attack, you can actually get in and cause physical damage to equipment. That's the new piece of this.
MESERVE: This previously classified video of a test cyber-attack on a power plant control system has sent shockwaves through the federal government and the power industry.
Could a large-scale simultaneous cyber-attack knock out power to a huge part of the country for months? The nightmare scenario: At first, it would be inconvenient, lights out, businesses shut, no teller machines, no gas pumps.
By day three, stores would be out of food, emergency generators out of gas. After 10 days, with no hope of power being restored, people want to evacuate, but where to, with what fuel? And with no emergency services, medicine, heating or air conditioning, lives could be lost.
Listen to what economist Scott Borg projects if such a nightmare scenario played out, with a loss of power to a third of the country for three months. SCOTT BORG, DIRECTOR AND CHIEF ECONOMIST, U.S. CYBER CONSEQUENCES UNIT: It's equivalent to 40 to 50 large hurricanes striking all at once. It's greater economic damage than any modern economy has ever suffered.
MESERVE (on camera): Even the Great Depression?
BORG: It's greater than the Great Depression.
MESERVE (voice-over): The potential damage is so severe, the Department of Homeland Security asked CNN not to divulge certain technical details about the government experiment, dubbed Aurora. The test was conducted last March at the Idaho National Lab.
We can say that the research involved hacking into a replica of a power plant's control system. Researchers changed the operating cycle of the generator, sending it out of control, until it self-destructed. Since the test, the Department of Homeland Security has been working feverishly with the electric industry to thwart such an attack.
(on camera): Can you say right now that this vulnerability has been eliminated?
JAMISON: No, I can't say it's been eliminated, but I can say that a lot of risk has been taken off the table.
MESERVE (voice-over): But the job of protecting power plants is hard, because control systems that open and close valves and switches, and govern the load are increasingly connected to the Internet for efficiency reasons, making them vulnerable.
Joe Weiss is an expert on power plant control systems and has been sounding the alarm for five years.
(on camera): So, the same systems we're using here are being used in Iran, Pakistan?
JOE WEISS, MANAGING PARTNER, APPLIED CONTROL SOLUTIONS: Very -- very, very possibly.
MESERVE: Which means people there know how to run them?
WEISS: Absolutely.
MESERVE: They know how to bring them down?
WEISS: Absolutely. They have the same training, the same passwords.
MESERVE (voice-over): And security experts say it would be virtually impossible to figure out who attacked.
In 2002, the current director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, and former CIA Director James Woolsey were among more than 50 computer and security experts who begged President Bush for a massive cyber-defense program to avoid a national disaster. Five years later, there is no such program.
JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: We need to get on this and get on it quickly.
MESERVE: "Keeping Them Honest," we looked at how much is being spent on cyber-security. Across the federal government, it is projected there will be a slight increase next year, but Homeland Security's cyber-security budget is expected to decrease, with only $12 million budgeted for protecting control systems.
DHS points out that its own research uncovered the power plant vulnerability, and action it is taking with industry is reducing the risk. But the question remains, can the U.S. close the cyber-security holes before the hackers find them?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And, Jeanne, I just want to repeat something that you yourself just said in this report and your guest also said, that -- that people in Iran and other countries have the same technology and have the -- they know how to operate these systems and they know how to shut them down.
There are those who are going to see this report and say, look, why are you -- why -- why is CNN reporting this? Aren't we giving terrorists a road map? How do you -- how do you respond?
MESERVE: Well, first of all, the vulnerability to control systems has been talked about for years. And, until this video, not much was being done about it.
We have complied with DHS' request that we not report certain details. And experts say this scenario is one that is chatted about all the time on the Internet.
COOPER: And -- and $12 million for cyber-security for the Department of Homeland Security, that seems like a -- I mean, that's nothing.
MESERVE: That's just for control systems, that part of the budget.
The electric industry, I should say, has done more than most sectors of the economy. But we will be talking to them and to DHS, the rest of the administration, and Congress to find out why more isn't being spent.
One expert suggests, until the video, the threat was just too theoretical.
COOPER: Well, it's amazing that you have a guy, James Woolsey, former head of the CIA, saying, we begged the administration years ago to get on this, and it still hasn't happened. We will see if anything happens after this report.
Jeanne, appreciate the reporting. Straight ahead tonight: another kind of threat, the one that might be hiding in your medicine cabinet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Prescription for danger.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you prescribe phenobarbital here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.
TUCHMAN: And did you know that the FDA has not approved phenobarbital? Did you know it's an unapproved drug?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unapproved? Since when?
COOPER: The pharmacist was surprised. And you might be, too, when you see how many prescription drugs, perhaps one you're taking, the government has never checked for safety. We're "Keeping Them Honest."
And President Clinton gets angry.
CLINTON: These are the people that ran a television ad in Georgia with Max Cleland, who lost half his body in Vietnam, in the same ad with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. That's what the Republicans did.
COOPER: See what has Bill Clinton fighting mad. We go one on one with the former president tonight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, tonight, the Food and Drug Administration is just one signature away from a major overhaul.
President Bush is expected to sign a bill that Congress passed last week which is going to give the FDA more power than ever to oversee prescription drugs. Now, it sounds sensible and like a good idea to a lot of people, but we have discovered a dangerous loophole in the system, a loophole which still exists.
We were shocked, frankly, when we heard about it, and we think you're going to be, too. We have been investigating this story for some time now.
Now, the loophole allows doctors to prescribe drugs that have never been approved and that pharmacies can sell them. That means there's a good chance you have drugs in your home right now, drugs in your body, even, that have never been approved.
And get this. The FDA has known about the problem for decades now. We're digging deep on this story tonight. CNN's Gary Tuchman is "Keeping Them Honest."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Jacque Gibson White had her first and only baby in February 1984.
JACQUE GIBSON WHITE, MOTHER OF RACHEL ANN: She was beautiful, of course, perfect in every way, except she was too little.
TUCHMAN (on camera): How much did she weigh?
WHITE: One-fifteen, one pound, 15 ounces.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Tiny Rachel Ann was born 15 weeks early. No one knew why. But Doctors reassured the parents, estimating she had an 85 percent chance of survival.
WHITE: Those are doll clothes. That is one of the garments she wore.
TUCHMAN: But Rachel got sicker. She was hooked up to machines. She turned blue. She had seizures. And, then, in less than a month, she died.
WHITE: We did get to hold her before we left. And I can bring that memory up any time I want. There were no tubes. There were no doctors. She wasn't blue. She was absolutely beautiful.
TUCHMAN: Jacque was told her daughter died of kidney and heart failure for unknown reasons.
(on camera): When they told you she had died, what went through your mind?
WHITE: Well, it was my fault, of course.
TUCHMAN: Why?
(CROSSTALK)
WHITE: Because she was early.
TUCHMAN: Why was it your fault?
WHITE: Because she was a preemie.
TUCHMAN: The guilt must have been amazing.
WHITE: It was -- it was -- it still is. I still have it.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): She lived with her guilt for 13 years, until she heard about a drug that had been used with her daughter. It's called E-Ferol.
WHITE: I was told it was used to help to correct blindness in preemie babies -- or prevent blindness.
TUCHMAN: Given intravenously, E-Ferol had never been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
WHITE: What I learned was that the E-Ferol, she was given it every day she was in there. And that's what caused kidney failure, and that's what ultimately is the reason she died.
TUCHMAN: The FDA says at least 37 more babies died from the blindness-prevention drug before it was taken off the market.
The manufacturer settled more than 130 lawsuits, including Jacque's. Several executives went to prison. But E-Ferol was far from being the only unapproved prescription drug available back then. And, even more incredibly, there are many available today.
DEBORAH AUTOR, DIRECTOR, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF COMPLIANCE: We estimate that as many as 2 percent of the drugs prescribed in this country lack required FDA approval.
TUCHMAN: Two percent. That means about 65 million prescriptions a year written to pharmacies all over the country for drugs never approved by the FDA, many you have likely heard of, like the anti- seizure medication phenobarbital. Even pharmacists are stunned.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Do you prescribe phenobarbital here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.
TUCHMAN: And did you know that the FDA has not approved phenobarbital? Did you know it's an unapproved drug?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unapproved? Since when?
TUCHMAN (voice-over): In fact, one survey shows that more than nine out of 10 retail pharmacists have no idea they may be dispensing drugs that have not been approved by the FDA. And there's a good chance your doctor is also in the dark about some of those 65 million prescriptions.
Just ask the American Medical Association.
DR. RONALD DAVIS, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: I think most doctors, maybe all doctors, just assume that, if a medication is on the market, it's been approved by the FDA and it's been proven to be safe and effective.
TUCHMAN: E-Ferol is one of the several extreme examples of unapproved drugs.
"Keeping Them Honest," we asked the FDA how many more we should be worrying about.
(on camera): Are there dangerous drugs on the market today that are unapproved?
AUTOR: There may be some. And we are working very hard to target those as quickly as we can, to get them off of the market.
TUCHMAN: When you say maybe, you are not sure?
AUTOR: There are some unapproved drugs on the market that pose risks. I do believe that.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): But that just raises the question, why has the FDA allowed unapproved drugs in your pharmacy in the first place?
AUTOR: It's not that simple, to just sweep all these drugs off the market.
For one thing, some of these products -- not -- not the majority of them, but some of them -- are medically necessary. There are a number of historical reasons why there are unapproved on the market. There were successive changes in the law. Some companies claim their products are grandfathered or don't require FDA approval.
TUCHMAN: The feds have known about these unapproved drugs since the 1960s, when the FDA was given enforcement power and was mandated to make sure that drugs are clinically tested and approved.
Yet, only now, more than four-and-a-half decades later, has the FDA started to crack down, eliminating drugs it says are dangerous.
AUTOR: Last year, we took action against quinine, unapproved quinine-containing products. That had been linked to -- quinine itself had been linked to 665 adverse events, at least. That was just the number in our system, including over 90 deaths.
TUCHMAN: But this man thinks the crackdown is blown out of proportion.
MUHAMMED MALIK, PRESIDENT, SYNTHO PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.: At my peak, I was making 18 different product.
TUCHMAN: Muhammed Malik makes prescription drugs. He sold these seven drugs, mainly cold medications and antihistamines, without FDA approval.
(on camera): Good drugs?
MALIK: Of course they are good drugs.
TUCHMAN: Safe drugs?
MALIK: Safe drugs.
TUCHMAN: Approved drugs?
MALIK: They are not approved.
TUCHMAN: Malik makes his drugs in this factory in Long Island, New York, and claims they're just as good as any others. The only difference, he says, is that he hadn't spent millions on the clinical trials required to show they work well and are safe. MALIK: I'm a man of integrity. I'm morally obligated to give you a product which is good and which is -- exactly the way it says on the labels, I have given them.
TUCHMAN: That might be true, but, without FDA approval, how can anyone know for sure that these unapproved drugs made by Malik or anyone else's unapproved drugs are safe?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, that is certainly a good question.
Another question raised by Gary's reporting is this: How could the FDA allow unapproved drugs on your pharmacy shelves at all? And what's been done about it? The answers when we come back.
Also ahead tonight: the latest on Michael Vick. No, he's not back on the field, but he is back in the news and in more trouble. This time, it's for what he's been smoking. That's right, literally -- that story ahead on 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Before the break, we told you about a dangerous loophole that allows unapproved drugs to end up on your local pharmacy shelves. Now, some of those drugs have proven deadly. And the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, has known about the problem for decades.
So, the question tonight is: What is being done about it? We want to dig deeper on the topic.
Once again, "Keeping Them Honest," here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Jacque White kept a diary during the 28 days of her infant daughter's life.
WHITE: "Her kidney reads normal, and the cultures came back negative. That is what is so puzzling. I can't bear to write about the nightmarish events of that last 12 hours. Rachel Ann was born on a Wednesday and died on Tuesday, the first day of spring."
TUCHMAN: Jacque didn't find out why her daughter died until 13 years later. That's when she was told by a lawyer that the hospital had given E-Ferol, an unapproved drug that the FDA later recalled after 37 more infants died.
WHITE: "We will never forget our last moments with her. She was so peaceful and beautiful."
TUCHMAN: The FDA says 2 percent of all prescription drugs sold in the U.S. are for drugs that it has never approved, 65 million prescriptions a year.
(on camera): Did you know the drugs you were manufacturing, did you know they did not have FDA approval when you manufactured them?
MALIK: I did know that it did not require that due process of FDA approval. That, I knew.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Yet, Malik says he still sold his unapproved pills to pharmacies and major drugstores, like Kmart, Rite- Aid, CVS.
MALIK: Pretty much all the big companies, they will have it, because I had a very good distribution system.
TUCHMAN: Walking through his factory, Malik tells us it's too expensive and too bureaucrat for small companies like his to go through clinical trials to get approval. And he's just fine with that.
(on camera): I mean, can you understand how some people, when they find out, consumers, that their drugs aren't approved, they're pretty shocked about it?
MALIK: As a layman, I believe it still becomes the FDA's responsibility to let the consumers know that an unapproved product doesn't mean it is a bad product.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Yet, Malik says he still sold his unapproved generic pills drugs to pharmacies and major drugstores. The FDA went to court to stop Malik from selling these drugs, dropping its lawsuit after he voluntarily recalled the drugs.
MALIK: I could have fought back with that, but that was not worthy.
TUCHMAN: So, how could Malik have sold unapproved drugs at all? How could he get doctors to prescribe them and drugstores to stock them?
(on camera): In your opinion, did the FDA know you were manufacturing these drugs?
MALIK: Absolutely. Absolutely.
TUCHMAN: Unapproved drugs?
MALIK: Unapproved drugs, absolutely.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): It turns out it's the FDA itself that makes it possible for Malik and others to sell unapproved drugs. And it still does, by giving them this little 10-digit number called the NDC number, for national drug code.
The FDA provides this number to any company that says it has a new drug. And here's the catch. It provides the number to track them before the drugs are approved.
AUTOR: An NDC number is not necessarily -- in fact, is not evidence that a drug is approved. We have granted NDC numbers to drugs, regardless of whether they're approved.
TUCHMAN: And, yet, it's that number that lets pharmacies order those drugs, whether they have received FDA approval or not.
Some congressmen are steamed about it.
REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: There is a regulatory black hole that makes it possible for the pharmaceutical companies to be able to get the drugs to the stores that sell them, without the FDA being able to monitor it.
TUCHMAN: Jacque White, the mother of Rachel Ann, says she can't believe this problem hasn't been fixed more than 20 years after her daughter died.
WHITE: I did not realize there were still drugs out there that weren't being monitored or approved. I don't even -- I still to this day do not understand how they get out there.
TUCHMAN: Now, finally, the FDA says it's cracking down, issuing more warnings and even pulling drugs off the market. And now it's also considering changing the way it issues those 10-digit NDC numbers.
AUTOR: It's possible that we will only give NDC numbers to approved drugs.
TUCHMAN: But Congressman Ed Markey says the FDA should do more than that, and do it faster. For starters, he says, the FDA needs to come clean, with a complete list of unapproved drugs.
MARKEY: In a modern era, in an Internet era, it makes no sense that a list cannot be put together in order to determine whether or not a drug has been approved by the FDA.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Do you have a list of the 2 percent of drugs that aren't approved?
AUTOR: There's no one list of the 2 percent. We have a number of sources that we use to generate our understanding of the unapproved drugs that are out there.
TUCHMAN: Do you know what all the unapproved drugs are?
AUTOR: We pretty much know.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): But, for now, the FDA won't release a complete list of unapproved drugs, like these that Malik sold. It won't say how many people have been killed or hurt by unapproved drugs. It won't even say which unapproved drugs or how many of them have killed or injured people.
Why? Partly because it doesn't want to stigmatize drugs that have a good track record. But what about all those unapproved drugs that may be dangerous or deadly? For now, with the FDA still holding out, there is simply no way to know. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: You know, Gary, I guess I'm an idiot, because I -- I sort of believed that every drug in a pharmacy has been approved or checked by the FDA.
What can someone do right now if they want to know whether or not a drug has been approved by the FDA?
TUCHMAN: We're all idiots, by the way, Anderson. My doctor friends and pharmacist friends, they were shocked when I told them that. They just assumed that all drugs are approved.
But what you do if you are curious about the drugs that you take, go on the FDA web site, FDA.gov. And you typed in the name of your drug in a particular section of the web site. It will tell you if it's approved.
But it doesn't always work. That's the problem. Because there are so many drugs. We actually typed in 200 of the most popular drugs that were approved. Not all of them came up.
So if yours doesn't come up, don't assume it's unapproved. What you have to do is call your doctor and then ask. But don't be surprised if your doctor's surprised, when you tell your doctor that some drugs aren't unapproved. But they have the resources to then check.
COOPER: Gary Tuchman, "Keeping Them Honest". Gary, appreciate it.
Michael Vick is in the news again, believe it or not, in trouble again. This time for what he's smoking. We'll explain in a moment.
Erica Hill joins us with a 360 bulletin -- Erica.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Anderson, a mistrial declared today in the Phil Spector murder trial, with the jury unable to reach a verdict after deliberating for nearly two weeks.
The Grammy-winning music producer was charged with murdering former actor Lana Clarkson. The judge has set a hearing now for next week.
And a new development today in the case of Mychal Bell. He is the only member of the so-called Jena 6 still in jail. Governor Kathleen Blanco announcing late today the district attorney will allow the case against Bell to be moved to juvenile court. He was first tried to adult charges.
Earlier this month, though, an appeals court threw out his conviction, saying he should have been tried as a juvenile. Bell and five others are accused of beating a white student back in December. And a young blonde girl photographed in Northern Morocco is not Madeleine McCann. A British journalist who tracked down the girl in the picture has confirmed she is not the missing British child.
Tourists took the photo in August, months after Madeleine disappeared in Portugal, raising hopes that she might still be alive.
Time now, Anderson, for tonight's "What Were They Thinking?" And a lot of people wondering what this gentleman was thinking: Atlanta Falcons' quarterback Michael Vick testing positive for marijuana. That, of course, violates the terms of his pretrial release.
Because of that failed drug test, a judge has now tightened Vick's bail restrictions, which means he is confined to his home from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and has to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. Also ordered to get substance abuse and mental health counseling.
Vick is, of course, awaiting sentencing now after pleading guilty to federal charges related to dog fighting.
And then yesterday he was indicted on state felony charges, two of them in Virginia. If convicted on those charges, Anderson, he could go to jail for ten years there.
COOPER: So what was he thinking? I mean, he's facing a judge: "I think I'll smoke a doobie."
HILL: One would think perhaps...
COOPER: Sure, why not?
HILL: ... you should not fire it up at this point.
COOPER: Why not take a toke? Sure, hey.
HILL: Throw caution to the wind.
COOPER: Fire up the bong. Whatever.
HILL: Yes.
COOPER: I don't know what those things are anyway.
Erica, thanks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Here's Kiran Chetry with what's coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIRAN CHETRY, CO-HOST, "AMERICAN MORNING": Thanks, Anderson.
Tomorrow, we bring you the most news in the morning, including maybe a new idea for your next flight. Should there be kid-friendly sections of the plane, if you don't want your kids to see the racy movie or maybe you're the person that doesn't want to be near the talkative toddler?
Well, you can find out all about it tomorrow. It all begins at 6 a.m. Eastern.
Anderson, back to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: All right. Tonight, coming up, how President Bush, who's been known to mangle a word or two, has been borrowing a trick from my trade to get it right.
Also, my interview with Bill Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (voice-over): President Clinton gets angry.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These are the people that ran a television ad in Georgia with Max Cleland, who lost half his body in Vietnam, in the same ad with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. That's what the Republicans did.
COOPER: See what has Bill Clinton fighting mad. We go one on one on 360 tonight.
Plus, Iran's controversial president and his unusual encounter with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. See what he's up to now, only on 360.
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GRAPHIC: (MoveOn.org's "New York Times" ad about General Petraeus)
COOPER: Well, that's, of course, the MoveOn.org ad that has ignited a political firestorm. As you all know, it ran in "the New York Times" the same day that General David Petraeus testified before Congress about Iraq. The copy in the ad referred to him as General Betray Us.
The ad, and the Republican response to it, has taken on a life of its own.
Today on Capitol Hill, the House overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning the ad and praising the general's patriotism. The Senate did the same last week.
Today I sat down with former president, Bill Clinton, to talk about his global initiative, his fund-raising, but the Republicans' words were not far from his mind. Check it out.
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COOPER (voice-over): We sat down with former President Clinton to discuss his mammoth global charity initiative. But when the topic turned to politics, the former president unleashed his anger on Republicans. The subject, the controversial MoveOn.org ad that's put Democrats on the offensive.
(on camera) This ad with Petraeus. Did that hurt the party or did that help?
CLINTON: Probably mixed. But I think that there was something completely disingenuous about the feigned outrage of the Republicans in the White House and in the Congress about this.
COOPER (voice-over): Last week, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to condemn MoveOn.org, and President Bush and other Republicans went on the attack.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I thought the ad was disgusting. And I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus but on the U.S. military.
RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What I don't think should happen in political discourse is the kind of character assassination that MoveOn.org participated in.
CLINTON: This was classic bait and switch.
COOPER (on camera): Focus on that, as opposed to focus on what really happened?
CLINTON: Oh, yes. This way I don't have to deal with Iraq; I don't have to tell anybody what I'm going to do. Everything in Iraq is obviously right, because they said this about Petraeus. As if it was the only issue in the wide world.
I mean, these Republicans are all upset about Petraeus? This is one newspaper ad. These are the people that ran a television ad in Georgia with Max Cleland, who lost half his body in Vietnam, in the same ad with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. That's what the Republicans did.
And the person that rode to the Senate on that ad was there, voting to condemn the Democrats over the Petraeus ad.
I mean, these are the people that funded the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, but they're really upset about Petraeus. But it was OK to question John Kerry's patriotism.
So it was just bait and switch. It was just, "Oh, thank goodness. I can take this little word here and ignore what we've done in Iraq and what we're going to do and the outrageous way we gained political power by smearing John Kerry."
Same crowd that smeared John McCain, another war hero, saying he had a black baby, because he adopted a child from Bangladesh. COOPER: Do you think this is going to get even dirtier?
CLINTON: I don't know. But I think that the Democrats -- I was proud of Hillary and the others that had the moxie not to take their bait and switch.
COOPER (voice-over): President Clinton rarely erupts like this these days. He's been busy with his various charitable causes, including the Clinton Global Initiative, which says it's raised more than $10 billion for various causes around the world.
(on camera) "The Economist" magazine is calling you the philanthropic version of Donald Trump.
CLINTON: I liked what "The Atlantic" said better. They said we were pioneering a new model. And what we're trying to do is to, first of all, get more people involved in giving, whether they're giving money or time or skills.
COOPER: You said that you're looking for bleeding-heart cheapskates. What are those?
CLINTON: Somebody like me. That is, somebody that, you know, will give you the shirt off their back, but only if you wore it. A bleeding-heart cheapskate means somebody who's smart about philanthropy, smart about investment and realizes that you can save more lives and do more good and get more money if you spend the money that you got affected with.
COOPER: Where do you see philanthropy going? What is the next step? What's the next generation?
CLINTON: I think that what we need to do, where I'm going with it, is to integrate it seamlessly into the life of the nation. That is, I think every country works best if they have a good economy, good government and strong civil society.
And I want people to see giving as an important part of their identity, that you can't really be a good citizen unless you do something in this area. That's where we're going.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLINTON: From a former president to presidential wannabes, a new poll is out tonight on the Republican candidates, and there are some surprises.
Tom Foreman's on the campaign trail and has the "Raw Politics".
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Greetings from New Hampshire, where the leaves are turning colors and the Democrats are turning heads all around the election express.
But the Republicans are making the biggest "Raw Politics" news, as our latest poll shows significant changes in their race.
(on camera) He's alive! John McCain, largely given up for dead, has arisen in the autumn landscape; still behind, but creeping up on Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, who are tied for first, according to the CNN/WMUR/New Hampshire/presidential primary poll conducted by the university of New Hampshire.
This is bad news for Romney, who has been leading, because it shows he's fast losing support from moderates and liberals, and Rudy is picking them up.
The top three Dems have been whacking away at each other for weeks, but now dark horse Bill Richardson has a new ad attacking them all.
MATT STOLLER, FEATURED IN RICHARDSON AD: Clinton, Obama and Edwards all say they want to end the war in Iraq, but they support leaving thousands, even tens of thousands of troops behind. That doesn't make any sense.
FOREMAN: Richardson has been playing the nice guy, but in presidential politics there's a name for guys like that: vice president.
President Bush has suffered many insults over his mastery of language.
BUSH: Nucular (sic).
FOREMAN: This won't help. The White House mistakenly released a copy of the president's address to the United Nations, including pronunciation guides for, among other things, the name of French President Sarkozy.
And a Minnesota judge is deciding if Senator Larry "Watch Your Feet" Craig can withdraw his guilty plea in that airport bathroom incident. It will probably take a week or two.
Craig had indicated that he would be resigning by then, but now he says he'll wait for the ruling and until then, quote, "I will continue my work in the United States Senate for Idaho."
(on camera) In other words, he's still not quite ready to give up his seat. That's "Raw Politics" on the road in New Hampshire -- Anderson.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Tom, thanks.
Up next, she's interviewed countless world leaders, but what happened when Christiane Amanpour sat down today with the president of Iran was not exactly what any of us expected. Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked more controversy yesterday with his remarks at the United Nations. His visit to New York has been full of surprises, and now today we got another one. We'd planned on bringing you an exclusive interview with him tonight. We promoted it last night. We promoted it all day. CNN's Christiane Amanpour was told that she could sit down with Ahmadinejad for a full interview this morning. We thought maybe half an hour at least. That's what we wanted to bring you.
Didn't work out that way. Christiane and I talked about it earlier.
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COOPER: We were anticipating, obviously, a lengthy sit-down interview with President Ahmadinejad. What happened?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're not entirely sure. We thought we would have a long interview, at least 30 minutes. We were promised that. We were told early this morning that, in fact, he had a lot of business to take care of and that he was very tired, because as you know, he's had a very full public schedule here in New York.
COOPER: So as of this morning, they canceled?
AMANPOUR: They did. He had that dramatic confrontation at Columbia University on Monday. Then they said that, OK, maybe he would in a few hours do about 15 minutes with us.
But when it turned out -- when he did arrive, he said he had only time for one question. We managed to ask two questions, one of them about the nature of Iran's activities inside Iraq. This is what he said.
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PRES. MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRAN (through translator): The countries in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region are able to protect themselves to run their own affairs and to establish security themselves, and do not need external forces and their involvement to interfere in their affairs.
American politicians say a lot of things. The same things they said at Columbia. They didn't want Columbia University to turn into a forum for debate. But we all accept that universities are venues for the exchange of diverse opinions. They are free, those politicians, to say what they want to say, but the reality and the truth of the matter is moving in another direction. So we don't really delve into the details of what American politicians here say or think.
What matters to us is move on the right path towards peace, towards the exchange of ideas, and to pave the way to establish friendship and brotherly relations and mutual understanding between nations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And what does that mean? I mean, the U.S. says clearly Iran is, you know, funding not only militias, but also, you know, having explosives shipped in that are killing U.S. troops.
AMANPOUR: As always, they do deny that. They say that in their interest, stable and peaceful Iraq is -- is important because of that shared border. Some analysts are saying that, yes, that is their strategic long-term goal, stability in Iraq, but perhaps it's in conflict with short-term tactical desire to cause trouble for the United States at a time when U.S. is perceived by Iran as being belligerent and sort of beating the drums towards war.
COOPER: When you sat down across from him, I mean, how do you find him? Just -- do you get a sense of him as a person?
AMANPOUR: Yes. And I've sat across from him several times, once before in an interview and several times in a group press conference, at this dinner that we had the other night.
I think that, you know, he is determined to put Iran's case in the public. And I think that's what he tried to do these few days here. And he even said that before he left Iran: We're going to go and put Iran's case to the American people.
I'm not sure it turned out exactly as he would have wished it turned out. Obviously, we would have wished we had had that interview that was -- that was agreed with the Iranians and with the president. I think that he has -- I think that his people also would agree that perhaps they've -- they've done too many events, it's very tiring, and there are just too many events.
COOPER: Interesting. Christiane Amanpour, thanks.
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COOPER: So I've been reading the e-mails we've been getting over the last half hour or so. We've received a lot of e-mails from people saying that we, CNN, canceled this interview with Iran's president.
I don't know where that idea is coming from, if it's a rumor on the Internet. It's absolutely ridiculous. Christiane, myself, everyone at CNN was eager to hear what the Iranian president would have said.
So our question tonight, do you think President Bush should meet face-to-face with the Iranian president? We want to hear from you. Send us an e-mail on the topic, a video mail. All you've got to do is go to CNN.com/360.
Up next, the moment the world has been dreading. Democracy rallies turn bloody as government troops in Burma launch a brutal attack on Buddhist monks.
And what's wrong with this picture? One hint. Take a close look. Yes. This is not in Nazi Germany. We'll show you where it is in America and just what it is, next on 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: "Shot of the Day" coming up. Is that a swastika-shaped building? You'll find out for yourself in just a moment.
First, Erica Hill joins us with the "360 News and Business Bulletin" -- Erica.
HILL: Anderson, a violent crackdown in Myanmar, where tear gas, warning shots and punches being used to break up monks and their supporters, taking part in pro-democracy marches. There are now unconfirmed reports that as many as five monks have been killed.
Here in the states, Utah prosecutors filing a rape charge against the ex-husband of a woman who says she was forced to marry him at the age of 14. Allen Steed is accused of having sex with Elissa Wall, his cousin, against her will.
Those charges come just one day after polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was convicted of rape by accomplice for arranging their marriage.
Idaho Senator Larry Craig will not resign on Sunday. That's according to a source who tells CNN Craig wants to wait to see if a judge will throw out his guilty plea in that men's room sex sting.
Today, the judge said it would be next month before he'll rule on the senator's request.
And 73,000 United Auto Workers going back to work in GM plants after a two-day strike. A tentative contract agreement was reached early today and will be voted on by union members in the next couple of days, Anderson.
COOPER: That story in Burma -- formerly, I guess it's now called Myanmar.
HILL: Myanmar.
COOPER: But you know, really should be called Burma, because the name Myanmar was constructed by this repressive government. It's so sad, because back in '88, they had these pro-democracy demonstrations. Ruthlessly crushed by this government. This is one of the most repressive governments in the world, hardly gets any attention.
HILL: It's awful.
COOPER: And now these monks have finally stood up, for days now. And to hear that they are now being killed is...
HILL: It's frightening, really.
COOPER: Yes. It's just terrible. And a real news lockdown from inside that country. All right. Time for "The Shot". Look closely here, this picture. This is in San Diego. This is a shot from earth -- from space, I should say, on Google Earth. Look closely. You're going to see something that -- check out that building.
HILL: Whoa.
COOPER: What does it remind you of?
HILL: Whoa. Not something I want to be reminded of.
COOPER: It looks like a swastika. Believe it or not, this building is a U.S. Navy barracks complex in Coronado, California. It was actually built in the late 1960s.
The Navy says that officials noticed the shape shortly after the ground-breaking but decided they're going to leave it, since it's not obvious from the ground.
HILL: Right.
COOPER: Well, today, thanks to the Internet, anybody can see the aerial pictures. So now the Navy says they're going to modify the barracks and change the shape. They're going to spend as much as $600,000 to do so.
HILL: Wow.
COOPER: Who knew? You know, they didn't know back then you could be able to see these things.
HILL: Who could have envisioned Google Earth and the wonders that it can bring up?
COOPER: Who knew what the kids are up to? You know?
HILL: They are crazy, those kids.
COOPER: They like the Internets (sic), from what I hear. Same thing with the e-mail.
Erica, thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Up next on 360, a mystery at sea. Four people believed dead and the two who survived have an incredible story to tell. Incredible, almost unbelievable. Is their a tale of pirates, a hijacking, murder, well, frankly, not to be believed? You decide next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: I sat down today with former President Bill Clinton, and I've got tell you, I saw a remarkable side of him the public often doesn't get to see. I sat across from him and watched him get angry. Listen as he talks about today's Republicans.
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