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Your World Today

Tokyo Temporarily Suspends Hunt for Humpback Whales; CIA Tapes: Hearing Probes Destruction of Tapes; The Campaign Trail; Giuliani's Health Status, "Charlie Wilson's War"

Aired December 21, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

JIM CLANCY, CNN ANCHOR: The Eid observance not enough to protect a mosque in Pakistan from a horrid blast.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, ANCHOR: Protests over whaling from Japan's allies prompt a halt in the hunt, at least for the humpback.

CLANCY: British authorities tell motorists to hang up and stop text messaging, with tough new penalties for using a cell phone in their car.

MCEDWARDS: Look out for that.

They are the high-stepping symbols of Christmas in New York. We're going to get up close and personal with the Rockettes.

CLANCY: That looks so much like the holiday season. It's noon right now in New York City, 2:00 in the morning in Tokyo.

Hello and welcome to our report seen around the globe. I'm Jim Clancy.

MCEDWARDS: And I'm Colleen McEdwards.

From Lahore to Laos, from Bogota to Berlin, wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: It was a private compound, they thought they would be safe there, but investigators in Pakistan say al Qaeda or Taliban militants are likely behind a deadly bombing at a mosque. At least 50 people now reported killed in a blast there.

It happened in Charsadda, about 45 kilometers northeast of Peshawar. Police there telling CNN the attack targeted the former interior minister who led operations against militants in the tribal areas.

Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpal (ph) was offering prayers with worshipers marking Eid al-Adha, the Muslim holy period marking the end of the Hajj. He wasn't wounded in the attack. Sherpal, it should be noted, has already survived an assassination attempt, at least one of them, last spring.

MCEDWARDS: Well, a Japanese whaling expedition has given up the hunt for the humpback whale, at least temporarily. CLANCY: That's right. Tokyo suspending the hunt for the iconic singing whales after a wave of protests that came from its western allies, especially from Australia.

MCEDWARDS: Yes, that's right. A huge protest there, as well. It was the first time in four decades that the Japanese had planned to hunt the humpback, and the first time ever that the Japanese government has given in to anti-whaling protests.

CLANCY: And following the story for us, Kyung Lah is in Tokyo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In a sharp about-face, Japan bowed to worldwide pressure. The government announced a planned hunt of up to 50 humpback whales in the seas near Antarctica is officially scrapped, at least for now.

The whalers left Japan a month ago, planning to kill the humpbacks in what is believed to be the first large-scale hunt of the protected species in four decades. There is a global moratorium against commercial whale hunting, but there's also a big loophole. It's OK if the whale is called for research.

Japan calls this hunt research and science. But here's the controversy. The whale meat harvested on these expeditions is brought back to fish markets, then packaged and sold in meat departments and grocery stores across the country.

A quick spin through a Tokyo fish market and you can find whale meat on sale. The proceeds say the government paid for research into whale behavior and migration, but that argument was barely heard on the worldwide stage.

Greenpeace protesters set off to confront the whalers, pledging to put themselves between Japanese harpoon guns and the humpbacks. And the Australian government this week called scientific whaling a sham, promising it will launch one of its ships to monitor the hunt and possibly pursue legal action.

KEVIN RUDD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: I am equally aware of the fact that no one seriously believes that this is whaling for scientific purposes. Therefore, we need to embrace a proper, considered, reasonable, balanced course of action.

LAH: The Japanese government says it is backing down from hunting the humpback not because the hunt is wrong but because of international outrage.

TOMOHIKO TANIGUCHI, JAPANESE FOREIGN MINISTER: I have to say to the people in the United States, U.K., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, you are among the most important peoples for the Japanese, so I will ask them to put this activity of whaling into a broader, broader context.

LAH (on camera): The announcement suspends the humpback from the hunt only temporarily. The government did not back down from plans to kill an estimated 900 whale this is winter. For them, the hunt will go on.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well, as Kyung Lah was just telling us there, the hunt for the humpback may be over for now, the whaling expedition though pressing on to Antarctica.

MCEDWARDS: They still plan to conduct what Japan's fisheries agency says is going to be the largest ever what they call a scientific whale hunt.

CLANCY: We should make it clear here, still in the sights of the harpooners, the Minke whale. The mission plans to take as many as 935 Minkes.

MCEDWARDS: They will also be aiming for a close relative of the Minke, and that is the Fin whale. They expect to kill about 50 of those, and as they say, it is in the name of research. Not everyone agrees with that.

CLANCY: No, not at all. It's a huge debate that continues. The whale meat, as we learned from Kyung Lah there, is going to be right back, as soon as it comes back, on the Japanese market.

MCEDWARDS: Whether people will eat it or not, though, is another matter.

CLANCY: It's true, most Japanese do not -- at least anymore. It is still popular though with the older generation.

MCEDWARDS: It is still sometimes served as a delicacy, especially when you're talking about formal occasions. But many Japanese, whether they eat whale meat or not, do think it is part of the culture and say it's no one else's business.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have seen it in sushi restaurants and places like that. I guess they think it's very tasty, so, yes, it's like asking westerners to give up eating something you like very much, maybe veal or something. I guess you could say veal is very cruel, as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCEDWARDS: It's hard to find a comparison. Isn't it?

We want to know what you think about this story.

CLANCY: In our inbox we have seen appreciation towards the Japanese government after they halted hunting the humpback whales, but the majority of the responses we're reading here show they don't -- a lot of people don't think it's enough -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: Yes. That's right.

All right. Well, who did what and why?

A U.S. federal judge is looking into the destruction of those CIA videotapes that show harsh interrogation of al Qaeda suspects. White House lawyers spoke under oath about it for the first time in a hearing in Washington.

Meantime, a former CIA officer who openly discussed the waterboarding of an al Qaeda suspect could be in legal hot water himself.

Kelli Arena joins us now with more on all of this from Washington.

Let's start with that hearing, Kelli. What happened?

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Colleen, what was before the court today was actually a very narrow legal argument. Back in 2005, there was a ruling by this court to preserve all of the evidence that related to any form of torture or mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The petitioner in this court, the lawyer, today represents 11 detainees at Gitmo. The government says, well, yes, we did destroy some interrogation tapes, but those did not pertain to anyone who was at Guantanamo Bay. That the two people that were on those tapes, the two detainees, al Qaeda detainees, were actually at secret locations, and so that court order did not apply.

The government also says, you know, the Department of Justice is conducting an investigation, and we don't feel that it would be wise or prudent for this court to also conduct a parallel investigation out in public. The judge listened to both sides, said, well, I'll take this all under advisement and give you my decision, and tell you whether or not we need to actually proceed with further hearings -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: All right. There is also the former CIA officer, this issue of discussing waterboarding, essentially potentially disclosing classified information, right?

How does that all fit in here?

ARENA: Right. Well, the CIA actually made a referral to the Department of Justice asking it to investigate whether or not a former CIA officer, John Kiriakou, disclosed classified information when he made several media appearances talking about the capture of al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah and what he described as his subsequent waterboarding.

Lots of people at the time watching Mr. Kiriakou make those proclamations in public wondered whether or not he was violating the law. Justice has not commented at all on that referral by the CIA. And Mr. Kiriakou's lawyer says, look, we fully expected this. This is exactly what the CIA, you know, should and could do, but if Justice does pursue the investigation, then they are going to be opening up a Pandora's box.

And Colleen, I know that you're probably wondering what is going on in back of me.

MCEDWARDS: I'm so glad you mentioned that.

ARENA: There are some protesters here. Yes, you know, I can't just, like, ignore this. There are these protesters in back of me, protesters protesting torture and, you know, all that is going on with this administration. They make several appearances outside Washington at most events that have media there, and they are here today. Just so you know.

MCEDWARDS: OK, good. I was going to ask you, but I didn't want to put you on the spot in case they just -- you know, you weren't aware of them.

ARENA: That's OK.

MCEDWARDS: But that makes sense.

Thanks so much for the coverage there.

Kelli Arena, appreciate it -- Jim.

ARENA: You're welcome.

CLANCY: Well, in Mecca, millions, literally millions of Muslim pilgrims, just about to depart to the four corners of the Earth. Their Hajj pilgrimage that may have been a life-changing experience for them is nearing an end. The event culminating with the symbolic Stoning of the Devil at the Jamarat in the town of Mena. A solemn event, but one that can be a logistical nightmare and pose real security risks.

Our Isha Sesay takes us inside the controlled chaos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): While the Day of Arafat is the spiritual climax of The Hajj, the scenes that play out in the Jamarat are considered to be potentially the most dangerous. So we decided to take our camera right into the heart of the action and bring you our experiences inside the Jamarat.

(on camera): Over the years many people have lost their lives. They've been trampled in stampedes as people rushed across (ph) stones, at the stone pillars, all around as people are gathering waiting to be let in to carry out their ritual.

(voice over): On this, the second day of stoning, the ritual is scheduled to begin after midday. So when we get to the Jamarat a few minutes before noon, you can feel the excitement. This pilgrim from Sudan appears unfazed by the crowds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not afraid this year. It's very safe.

SESAY: Inside the complex, the scene of greeters (ph) stop us in our tracks. There are three levels of the Jamarat, and the lower floor where we are already appears to be completely overrun by people. All of them are surging towards the stone pillars.

We push through the crowd and head for a viewing tower just beside one of the stone pillars. From this position we are close enough to feel the pulsating masses. You can see how hard the pilgrims are concentrating as they throw their pebbles in this symbolic act of resisting temptation.

(on camera): People are at great distances from the actual Jamarat pillar, as it were, and they're still throwing their stones. So you can see how people that might be a little way in front of them could get hit by the pebbles.

(voice over): As these scenes of coordinated chaos unfold in front of us, the Saudi security forces calmly look on. There are thousands of troops on standby to step in should something go wrong. Over a hundred cameras monitor the pandemonium.

From where we are, we can hear the pebbles whizzing past our heads.

(on camera): People turning all around us. You feel a little bit like you're under siege. These are the size of the pebbles they're using to throw in the Jamarat, the Jamarat pillars, and we've already been struck by a couple. My cameraman has been hit. I have been hit.

(voice over): Unbelievably, a number of pilgrims bring their children to the Jamarat. This little girl gets a little help from a security official. She joins in with the hundreds of thousands of other pilgrims and cast her stones. The crowds are chanting loudly.

(on camera): As people throw the pebbles, they're shouting, "Allah Akhbar!" "God is Great."

We're hearing a (INAUDIBLE) as well. Some people are throwing not just these pebbles, they're also throwing bottles.

(voice over): For the crew, there is an overwhelming sense of relief when we finally make it out of the Jamarat. We asked other departing pilgrims about what it was like for them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had no problem at all. Excellent arrangements.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a very nice feeling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like just people are in all the world.

SESAY: The first day of stoning passed off without any reports of major incidents. One security official we spoke to seemed confident things will continue to run smoothly. But with more than 200,000 people an hour surging through the Jamarat, nothing is ever guaranteed.

Isha Sesay, CNN, Mena, Saudi Arabia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Hello everyone. A warm welcome back to our viewers from all around the globe including here in the United States. You are with YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Jim Clancy.

MCEDWARDS: I'm Colleen McEdwards.

At least 50 people died after a bomb blast in Pakistan. Police say a former interior minister was the target of the attack. He was with worshippers offering Muslim eve festival prayers. He was not hurt.

CLANCY: The Japanese government temporarily calling off the hunt for humpback whales due to international pressure. What they call a scientific whaling expedition will continue hunting down Minke and Fin whales on the cold waters of Antarctica.

MCEDWARDS: At a hearing that just wrapped up in Washington, White House lawyers asked a federal judge to hold off on investigating destroyed CIA interrogation tapes. They say court involvement could jeopardize a Justice Department investigation. Now the tapes show harsh questioning of al Qaeda suspects. Critics say they could provide evidence of torture.

CLANCY: Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani says he's feeling great after he left a St. Louis hospital. Giuliani was admitted Wednesday night after suffering some flu-like symptoms while he was on his jet flying home to New York turned right around. Went back to Missouri. After running some tests, though, doctors gave Giuliani a clean bill of health and allowed him to return home. Giuliani says he's going to rest up a little bit today. He'll be back on the campaign trail in New Hampshire over the weekend.

MCEDWARDS: A new "USA Today" Gallup poll shows both Barack Obama and John McCain making some big gains with New Hampshire voters. Senators Obama and Hillary Clinton are in a virtual tie. Each of them at about 32% right there. Just last month Clinton had a double digit lead over Obama. That's a significant point there. John Edwards third with 18%, the other candidate still in the single digit.

On the Republican side, Senator John McCain is hoping to repeat the 2000 primary victory in New Hampshire. Mitt Romney, former governor of the neighboring Massachusetts, now leads McCain by just seven percentage points. Not a lot there when you factor in the margin of error. Former New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, is running a distant third at 11% in the state followed by Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.

CLANCY: With the first presidential contest just 13 days away, can you believe it? Our reporters are out there in the cold. In Iowa, Dana Bash is with the Republicans in Des Moines. Jessica Yellin is also there. She's following the Democratic candidates. And let's talk to Dana first.

Dana, we spent the last weeks talking about the candidates and everything. Give us a little bit of the inside of covering a campaign. You've been out there for weeks now. What is our biggest misconception about all the campaign events and what is going on?

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I tell you, Jim, the thing that strikes me the most day in and day out show up to these events where these candidates are remember running to lead a nation of about 300 million people and they are speaking to a room of sometimes 25, sometimes 30 people. And that is what is sort of so priceless about this process. That even in the age of blogs, even in the age of cable TV, international cable TV, still have a process where the candidates are required by Iowa voters to have one on one contact and answer some very tough questions they get from voters in order to help these voters make up their minds. It's something that's part of the process, an age-old scenario here. Even in this age of the Internet and so on, it's still the same. That's what is so fascinating to me about being here and covering these candidates.

CLANCY: What the correspondents can say about somebody at these little tiny events really has an effect. Somebody was writing they thought because Fred Thompson didn't go walking down Main Street in a little town of 9,000 people, somehow he was lazy. Who is the most fun to cover?

BASH: Well, you know, it's always fun to cover, I mean, let's be honest. It's always fun to cover the person who has the most energy and energy around him right now in this state of Iowa is definitely Mike Huckabee. He has the events where he has a lot of people who are his faithful, people who come out just to sort of hear him talk. He's a former preacher and he has the style when he gives his speeches. He likes to interact, joke with the voters and he also is you know as a reporter you'll get this, he's very accessible, Jim, walk up to him. You can talk to him. You can ask him a question pretty much about anything. A lot of the candidates at this point in the game aren't like that. Particularly with him that makes it fun to cover.

On that point about Fred Thompson, this is what is so interesting being a reporter. Go to one event. I was with Fred Thompson as a couple of events. He is trying to shape the image he is lazy, that he doesn't have the fire in the belly. At those first couple of events when I was there, when the TV cameras were there he seemed to be trying very, very hard. I left him and that very next event that he went to here in Iowa; a couple of print reporters, our colleagues, were covering him they said he blew off basically the whole idea of retail politicking. I don't know if it was because the cameras weren't there. Just goes to show you with each event have a very different perspective depending on what is going on in that particular moment. CLANCY: All right. Dana Bash, thanks for giving us a little bit of the inside. We have to do this more often as we run up to this vote and so many others that are ahead. Dana Bash, thank you.

MCEDWARDS: Let's go to Jessica Yellin. Jessica is covering the top street candidates in Iowa where they are in a dead heat. It's cold in Iowa. It gets dark early. I'm sure the average voter is thinking about the holiday not the caucus, dare I say. How do these candidates go out and woo them?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is a struggle because this is sort of unprecedented having to make this decision how to campaign over the Christmas holiday. I will tell you so far they just haven't stopped. I mean as Dana was saying on the republican side, it's the same on the democratic side. They will drive for hours on a bus to get out in a small community center in a local town, talk to about 30 to maybe a hundred people and after they make the speeches that as a reporter you hear over and over, they then make themselves available for questions that can be as detailed or specific as my son has this disease, he was denied this kind of coverage by this health insurance plan, what are you going to do about it? The candidates not only have to answer that. They have often specific answers because they are prepared for it.

As much as you see the big picture media story about the developments about this one is making an attack on that one or this ad has come out, in a day-to-day sense, they are answering questions about people's real lives and how they would like to change their lives.

MCEDWARDS: What about the process itself, Jessica? I saw a local news story where they were doing a practice caucus and they had people practicing the process by voting for reindeer. They had dasher, dancer, prancer, sort of were walking them through the process. Nobody understands this. It's archaic. Convince me that it matters at all.

YELLIN: Well, look, it matters because Iowa is the first and so there's momentum behind whoever wins. But as for archaic, I will tell you. I got the media packet on it how a caucus works is quite thick. We've had people walk us through it. What happens if the number of various scenarios, you need to be a mathematician to figure it out.

MCEDWARDS: Need a PhD in math.

YELLIN: It's amazing. You can come in and vote for one person and change my mind and decide on someone else. And then you have to count how many people have what percentage. I mean deals are cut and now in the era of blackberries and cell phones, you wonder are campaigns going to be e-mailing each other why don't you throw some of our supporters in that precinct to that candidate or this one. Who knows what is going to happen. It's perfectly Byzantine.

MCEDWARDS: Right, Byzantine is a great word. You have seen pictures from the practice vote. I think it was Blitzen who won in the practice. Jessica, thank as lot. Appreciate it. Good luck. CLANCY: Thanks to Dana. We need to do that more often to talk what is going on in behind the scenes.

MCEDWARDS: I am heading out there in a few days. Try to get it all sorted out in our mind. Especially non-Americans people look in the process and you sort of scratch your head. "A" it's to long and the "B" the caucus is so cumbersome than the primaries. You sort of wonder why people just haven't gone to the primaries.

CLANCY: I love the people stories.

Coming up, how did a self-described nice girl from Texas end up fighting the soviets in Afghanistan? Here's a people story.

MCEDWARDS: Quite a story. Joanne Herring herself is going to tell us how she helped win Charlie Wilson's war.

CLANCY: And then a little bit later, taking up Christmas cheer. The Radio City Rockettes lighting up New York in one of America's most beloved holiday traditions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY. The U.S.'s role in Afghanistan during the 1970s when the soviets were in there a matter of historic record. Now it's the subject after Hollywood film, as well. It stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. "Charlie Wilson's War" reveals one version of how the U.S. became so involved in the conflict. Let's get a little bit closer look.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, you get to call me Charlie. Can we get you a drink?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10:00 in the morning. Fair enough, I guess.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What you do for a living.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Charlie Wilson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm standing on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghan are now ready to fight a war against the soviets if they get weapons. They say they will win.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joanne.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have been passionately involved with the cause of the Afghans. Why is congress saying one thing and doing nothing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tradition, mostly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The intersection of the state department, the Pentagon and the CIA. The three agencies you would need to conduct a covert war. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is U.S. strategy in Afghanistan?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Strictly speaking we don't have one. But we're working hard on that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who is that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me and three other guys.

MCEDWARDS: We have one of the key players. Joanne Herring is here to talk to us about her role and the making of the movie, as well. Thank as lot for being here. What did you think of the movie?

JOANNE KING HERRING, POLITICAL ACTIVIST: I loved it. I thought it was great. It's a romp.

MCEDWARDS: It's a romp, great description. Can you take me back to 1979? You smuggle yourself into Afghanistan to try to document what the Russians were doing there. Why you did it? How did you come up with that? Why on earth did you get involved in this way?

HERRING: Well it's obvious nobody believed that there was anything going on in Afghanistan. We tried to tell people and they didn't believe us. They said it was a tribal war. And yet the Russians were landing cargo ships, storage tanks, every 48 minutes. And America didn't want to hear that it was a war. Robin King shot exactly what they were doing, which was piling up bodies and lighting them and burning them, putting cattle prods on pregnant women until milk squirted from their breasts, dropping by the thousands little butterflies to which toys were attached. So that it would blow off children's arms and legs and they would die a horrible death.

And I saw that the United States was threatened because two ships sunk in the straits which you can bomb from Pakistan and the oil to the United States would be cut off. And if the oil to the United States was cut off, it wouldn't be just our air conditioners and our cars that were stopped but our factories and every man and woman in the United States would be impacted.

MCEDWARDS: You felt the direct threat. You're a glamorous socialite. You were rich beyond imagination. You could have done all kinds of things back then. You could have made a few signs. You could have petitioned but you smuggle yourself in. I mean, why?

HERRING: I certainly didn't sell slave girls. I care about my country. And I decided that this was something we had to do and we had to do it fast. I had been watching the spread of soviet communism for a long time and they had been saying that the reason they were spreading was that they were protecting their borders. But it seemed to me that Angola, Cuba and Nicaragua were pretty far from the Soviet Union. So those borders were pretty far out and Afghanistan, of course, was a direct shoot to the straits and that threatened my country and to see these people who were willing to give their lives to fight our war for us, I thought well they needed help.

MCEDWARDS: I read something and I want to ask you about it. I read that in the original screenplay, he was a little harsh about the implications of what you did and that the original screenplay included the movie ending with a scene from the 911 attacks. You sowed the seeds for arming the Mujahadin for what happened on September 11. I read that you protested that. Can you tell me more about that?

HERRING: I think he had a very good point and that's something that everybody is terribly concerned about today. The impact of what has happened since we were in Afghanistan concerns the world. But we have to look at history and we have to ask ourselves why were we in Afghanistan? We were in Afghanistan to fight Russians. Did we beat them? We did.

Can we predict future wars? Alas, we cannot. If we could, we wouldn't have future wars. To look at that historically, who fought with us against Hitler? The Russians. Did we give them arms? We did. Did we give them Marshall Plan aid? We did. Ultimately, we had to fight them.

So if we had known we might have done things differently. And so that's the same thing that is happening today. We didn't know. But we are very grateful that the Afghans fought for us.

But one of the points the movie makes very well is that when we walked out, the bad guys walked in. Now I'm a big Christian, and they bring that out in the movie. It's very important to me but I didn't like what is his name Jones, Jim Jones, and any of the things did he as awful Christians. I certainly wouldn't have followed him. But the Afghans have some very bad leaders. So does the Muslim world. A lot of the Muslims are following bad leaders. They are the ones causing the problems not the Muslim or the Muslim relations.

MCEDWARDS: We have got to leave it there. Joanne King Herring really appreciate your thoughts. It's an interesting movie. I understand you're working on a book, as well, on your fascinating life. Thanks again for your time today. We do appreciate it.

We're going to take a short break here on YOUR WORLD TODAY. We will be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MCEDWARDS: Makes you want to kick up your heels or at least show some leg.

CLANCY: Not necessarily, Colleen, but at least like to watch.

MCEDWARDS: They've had 75 years of kicking their heels up high. The Rockettes say they still have it. They have been performing before some dazzling new numbers. This is in New York.

CLANCY: Hey still have it, tall, fit, fabulous our own Richard Quest had a chance to admire the American treasures. I hope he enjoyed it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A magnificent art deco hall, the largest indoor theater in the world, Radio City Music Hall. Its doors first opened to the public on December 27th, 1932. On the bill that night was a high kicking dance troop that would make their stage their home and never leave. Originally called the Missouri Rockets, they would become the Rockettes. One of America's most cherished institutions. Year after year, the arrival of the long-limbed ladies of the Rockettes has signaled the start of the festive season in New York.

It's not just a high kicks that are staggering. Between the beginning of November and the end of the year, the Rockettes will perform more than 200 times. And over a million people will come to see them.

I'm intimidated. You're a Rockette.

KRISTA SAAB, RADIO CITY ROCKETTE: I am.

QUEST: You're a Rockette. Rockettes are famous.

SAAB: I auditioned five years ago when I moved to New York City up to 500, 600 women audition to be Rockettes every year and I was lucky to make it through.

QUEST: Did you always want to be a Rockette?

SAAB: You know, truthfully when I was a little kid my favorite movie was Annie. And when she goes to Radio City Music Hall, the let's go to the movies part was my favorite scene because the Rockettes did the number before the movie. So when I was old enough to come to New York City we took a tour of Radio City Music Hall. I got on stage and I knew I really wanted to do it.

QUEST: What was it like the first time you danced on stage as a Rockette?

SAAB: It was, I mean, I can get emotional just thinking about it. Lookout and see 6,000 people in the audience and just the view from the stage to the theater is amazing. And I definitely have a tear and more than once. This year opening night, another tear. You know it's such an amazing time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Amazing story, amazing career.

MCEDWARDS: Richard loves it, too. You can tell.

CLANCY: That is our report for right now. I'm Jim Clancy.

MCEDWARDS: I'm Colleen McEdwards. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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