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Experts Skeptical of Reports of Iranian Missile Testing; Firefighters Battle Sierra Nevada Blaze; Bush Signs FISA Bill into Law; Interview with Rev. Jackson
Aired July 10, 2008 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A second newborn is dead, and a Texas hospital is under the microscope over drug overdoses in the neonatal ICU. We're on the story.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Iran sticks to its guns, but a senior U.S. military source -- this is new information -- is now throwing cold water on claims of a second straight day of Iranian missile tests. We're following the new information and the fallout.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips, live in New York.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
The U.S. and Israel are warning Iran it's playing with fire.
This is what Iranian TV describes as a second straight day of missile testing, aimed at warning Israel, in particular, not to even think about attacking Iranian nuclear sites.
Now, just minutes ago, a senior U.S. military source told CNN it appears that Iran did not conduct another day of full-fledged test launches. As a matter of fact, the source says that Iran may have simply just fired off a missile that misfired yesterday.
In any event, the pride of Iran's arsenal is the Shahab-3, supposedly able to carry a one-ton payload up to 1,250 miles. All of Israel falls within that range, by the way.
And here, too, some experts are skeptical. We have no way of actually verifying the Iranian claims or images. But I can tell you Barbara Starr has been working her sources at the Pentagon.
And Barbara, they're saying, look, this just simply didn't happen.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Kyra, for military people, their information is only as good as their intelligence. And right now what a senior U.S. military official is telling CNN, is there was one day of Iranian missile test firings, but not two days. That -- pardon me, that their intelligence does not show at this point that there was a second day of full-fledged test firings. So let's go back. What they say is that U.S. intelligence, U.S. radars picked up on that first day the test firing of the Shahab missile, that longer-range missile, and six additional missiles.
But one missile misfired on that day. It didn't work. And what they believe happened on the second day is that Iran simply fired that errant missile one more time. That the video we're seeing, they say, the U.S. says, it has no intelligence, none of the types of radar signals that it would have picked up to show a second full-fledged day of test firings.
Now, whether Iran may have fired much shorter-range missiles, much smaller items that wouldn't have been picked up by U.S. intelligence, that's still an open question. But so far, they say, maybe the Iranians aren't telling the full story -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: What do you think? Psychological warfare?
STARR: Well, certainly Defense Secretary Robert Gates yesterday at a press conference was -- was talking about the notion that everyone is, in his words, is signaling. Lots of signals being sent.
The Iranians are conducting these tests. They're also conducting naval exercises in the northern Gulf. The U.S. Navy is conducting exercises in the region. The Israelis have been flying their aircraft. Everybody is sending signals about what they're capable of doing.
But at the end of the day, what worries the Pentagon the most is, while everyone's flying around, everyone's sailing around, the possibility of miscalculation. An awful lot of stuff is going on. And if these countries misinterpret what each other is doing, these are tight waters, this is tight air space, not a lot of room to maneuver. And nobody wants to see it accidentally get out of hand -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Barbara Starr from the Pentagon. Thanks.
We'll get more on this story and word from the Pentagon that a second day of testing did not happen, next hour. That'll happen with Wolf Blitzer. He'll have a whole lot more in "THE SITUATION ROOM" at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 Pacific right here on CNN.
LEMON: And we're following a developing story. It is a follow- up now to a story we first broke, we first told you about yesterday, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson is apologizing for some remarks he made about Barack Obama. The comments came after an interview with another news network. And Jackson says he didn't realize the microphone was still on. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. JESSE JACKSON, RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION: See, Barack been talking down to black people on this faith based. I want to cut his (EXPLETIVE DELETED) off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, Jackson calls his comments "crude and hurtful." That's a quote. But he adds they were very private. And he says, if any hurt or harm has been caused to Obama's campaign, he apologizes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACKSON: It's unnecessary, and that's why I was quick to apologize, because Barack and I are friends. I am a passionate supporter of his campaign, long-standing and currently, and will continue to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Jesse Jackson tells me continues to reach out to the Obama campaign. Did so again this morning in a statement.
The Obama campaign spokesman, Bill Burton, says the Illinois senator quote, "of course," accepts Reverend Jackson's apology.
I have to tell you, at the bottom of the hour, the Reverend Jesse Jackson will join us live to talk more about this controversy that he has stirred up with his comments about Barack Obama. We're going to go deeper inside the story and find out exactly why he did it, what this means for him and what this means for the discussion about blacks in America.
Now, we want to hear from you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. This story is garnering lots of attention and response. Tell us what you think about Jackson's comments. Log onto our Web site, CNN.com, and send us your iReports. And you'll see some of them right here on the air today -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And we're waiting right now for Barack Obama's town- hall meeting in Fairfax, Virginia, to get underway. Live pictures. We'll take it when it begins.
And just ahead of that event, an appearance this morning in New York with Hillary Clinton. Obama and his former rival wrapped up a series of fundraisers. Obama raised money for his general election campaign, while Clinton was seeking help just paying off her campaign debt.
Now Republican presidential candidate John McCain is campaigning today in Michigan, a state hit hard by the country's economic downturn. And just a short time ago, the Arizona senator talked about economic issues, including taxes, at a town hall in Belleville.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The last thing we need in an economic downturn, my friends, is raising -- increasing your taxes. Senator Obama wants to raise capital gains tax. He wants to raise small business taxes. He wants to raise the state taxes. He wants to raise a broad variety of taxes.
And, my friends, I just want to establish one fundamental fact with you. If you want a candidate, if you want a president of the United States that's going to raise your taxes, I'm not your candidate. I'm not your candidate. Senator Obama is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Now, before his town hall, McCain shook hands, signed autographs, and met with voters at a diner in Livonia.
LEMON: Our Chad Myers right behind me in the CNN weather center, working this developing story that we have been following about the firefighters -- about the fire-fighting effort out west. Three hundred and twenty-two fires are still out of control, and thousands of residents on the run in California.
That includes the monks who are holed up at their Zen monastery near Big Sur. Now, they got -- they got out when the flames got to within a mile and a half of where they were.
Calmer winds have helped firefighters outside the city of Goleta. The huge fires, more than half contained now.
The state's priority, though, the Sierra Nevada foothills. Firefighters are making a second stand to save the city of Paradise. A state sending even more crews to area of Butte County, and CNN's Reynolds Wolf joins us now from the front lines.
Reynolds, what do you know?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right now we are up on Highway 70, up in the Sierra Nevada. And we're actually at a staging area. Right behind me you see a couple of fire trucks. You see a couple of -- some local guys.
But I'll tell you, Don, it's not just a local operation. You've got people from throughout the state, throughout the region, throughout the U.S. that have come here. Nearly 3,000 firefighters battling this blaze.
And although we have some good news, the good news being that 49 percent of the blaze is contained, they still have a lot of work to do today. And one of the reasons why is because the wind is beginning to pick up a bit. In fact, the forecast holds that we may be seeing winds in excess of 40 miles per hour into the afternoon. Very low humidity. And then temperatures pulling right back up into the '90s.
Now, this staging area was very busy a short time ago. We had trucks; we had bulldozers. They're all gone right after the front lines. And they're trying to stop the blaze.
Now, again, I mentioned 49 percent of the blaze is contained. But we still have some serious issues right over this ridge. We're on top of a ridge. On the other side, if you were to go down, you'd go to the Feather River. Right on the other side of the Feather River, you have the town of Paradise.
Today's objective for these crews would be to get down there and stop the flames, stop the embers from crossing over the river and threatening the community of Paradise. Right now it has been just a gallant effort they've been putting. Again, as I mentioned, you've got nearly half the fire contained. That is a wonderful thing.
But with these winds that are expected to really increase since the afternoon, it's going to get much worse.
We've got some other crews that are pulling up here. Just a few squad vehicles here for the time being. It's kind of interesting: these guys come up here. They confer. They speak to each other. And then they go down to troops that are at staging areas farther down the trail. They give out those orders. And just like a military operation, these troops, these firefighters comb out on the grounds.
And then from the skies above through the thick smoke, you're going to have all kinds of aircraft in this area, namely helicopters that will come through, dropping water and fire retardant on strategic parts of this fire. This fire that at times has temperatures exceeding 1,400 -- 1,400 -- yes, 14 -- sorry, guys. The elevation and the smoke. Fourteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit.
What's interesting is you've got a lot of -- a lot of people here that actually inside Scooter's Cafe. For them, this is usual. We spoke with one resident who lives here. She's been here some 20 years. She says at least 10 to 15 times she's been -- or rather, I'm sorry, 10 to 11 times she's been evacuated. And this is just par for the course.
That's what we've got from here. It's going to be a busy weekend. And this may spill on over into next week.
Let's send it back to you in the studio, Don.
LEMON: Reynolds Wolf, you can better believe we're going to be checking back with you in Butte County. Thank you very much for that, sir. Reynolds Wolf from the ground.
In the CNN severe weather center, Mr. Chad Myers.
Chad, I was reading this: 322 fires still out of control. We talked about the monks out there had to be evacuated. Boy, what in the world's going on?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know, you were up to 1,000 fires. Now we're down to 300. I guess there's some good news there. It's like your batting average is .300, but it was .400.
LEMON: Right.
MYERS: So you're still doing good. Have you seen this video out of Bayou County?
LEMON: No, I haven't.
MYERS: This is some video here, shot this morning, of the sunrise kind of taking off from the west, showing off to the east. And here you go. There was the sun, and this is actually shot from someone's home, from our affiliate there, KCRA.
Wait until the camera pans to the right. And you'll see that there's an infinity edge pool there. Never did they ever -- I have an idea that infinity would be 15 feet when they built that pool because that's all you get today with that smoke just choking from Big Sur down -- all the way down to the south, as well. You can't see anything.
These guys are trying to do everything they can. Men and women out there, risking their lives, trying to get these fires out.
I guess the only thing is, the best part about the fires is they're not manmade. These are lightning-set fires, at least, for the most part.
We will also take a look at Hurricane Bertha, a Category 1 storm, still not past Bermuda yet. And Bermuda, you are in the cone, maybe not the line. But you're certainly still in the cone here. We will keep watching it for you here, because this could certainly be a Category 1 storm as it goes to or very close to Bermuda, which, of course, they don't want. But wouldn't it be nice to get some of that rainfall spread around a little bit?
LEMON: Yes. I'm sure folks would love that, Chad Myers.
All right. We appreciate it, sir.
MYERS: All right, buddy.
LEMON: Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right. Will it be a key milestone for the U.S. mission in Iraq? Iraqi troops taking over from American forces. Now a top general makes a prediction about when that might happen.
LEMON: And their story has captured the nation's attention. Three Americans freed from captivity in Colombia talk about their gripping ordeal, with CNN's Robin Meade. We've got the exclusive interview.
PHILLIPS: And Jesse Jackson says he's sorry for what he said about Barack Obama. Reverend Jackson joining us live at the bottom of the hour.
You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Don Lemon. You may want to carry a good book the next time you travel on U.S. Airways. We'll tell you why.
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LEMON: We're standing by for the president to make comments about FISA being signed into law. As soon as that happens, we'll bring it to you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. You're not going to miss any of it. They're gathering now to talk about that.
When Iraqi troops stand up, U.S. Troops will stand down. That is a corner stone of the Bush administration's policy in Iraq. And now there's a prediction of when that could happen. Next year.
The U.S. general in charge of training Iraqi troops tells Congress there's been significant progress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GEN. JAMES DUBIK, COMMANDER, SECURITY TRANSITION COMMAND: We have made significant progress on the security front in the past 15 months. It's empirically verifiable, and it's a feeling that you get when you travel around; feeling from fellow Iraqis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: General James Dubik says he was reluctant to put an "X" on the calendar, but he predicted that Iraqi troops will be able to handle security without U.S. assistance at some point between April and August of next year.
PHILLIPS: And we're getting about a 60-second warning right now. Live pictures from the White House.
The president of the United States may not have many legislative victories left, but he is about to sign a big one. It updates the rule for government eavesdropping on terrorist suspects. You remember the uproar when "The New York Times" revealed in 2005 that Mr. Bush has secretly authorized warrantless wiretaps after 9/11.
Well, the final sticking point was legal protection for phone companies that went along with those wiretaps. Let's go ahead and listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... legislation that is vital to the security of our people. The bill would allow our intelligence professionals to quickly and effectively monitor the communications of terrorists abroad while respecting the liberties of Americans here at home. The bill I signed today will help us meet our most solemn responsibility to stop new attacks and to protect our people.
Members of my administration have made a vigorous case for this important law. I want to thank them, and I also want to thank the members of the House and the Senate who have worked incredibly hard to get this legislation done.
Mr. Vice president, welcome. I respect the members of the Senate and the House who have joined us. Senator Republican Whip Jon Kyl; John Boehner, House Republican leader; Roy Blunt, House Republican Whip.
I do want to pay special tribute to Congressman Stenny Hoyer, House majority leader, for his hard work on this bill. I thank so much Senator Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Senator Kit Bond, vice chairman, for joining us.
I appreciate the hard work of Congressman Sylvester Reyes, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Congressman Peter Hoekstra, ranking member.
And I also welcome Congressman Lamar Smith, ranking member of the House judiciary. I thank all the other members of the House and Senate who joined us. Appreciate your very good work.
I welcome attorney general Michael Mukasey, as well as Admiral Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence. I appreciate other members of the administration who joined us. I want to thank the congressional staff who are here and all the supporters of this piece of legislation.
Almost seven years have past since that September morning when nearly 3,000 men, women, and children were murdered in our midst. The attack changed our country forever. We realized America was a nation at war against a ruthless and persistent enemy. We realized that these violent extremists would spare no effort to kill again. And in the aftermath of 9/11, few would have imagined that we would be standing here seven years later without another attack on American soil.
The fact that the terrorists have failed to strike our shores again does not mean that our enemies have given up. To the contrary, since 9/11 they've plotted a number of attacks on our homeland. Like members standing up here, I receive briefings on the very real and very dangerous threats that America continues to face.
The most important lessons learned after 9/11 was that America's intelligence professionals lack some of the tools they needed to monitor the communications of terrorists abroad. It's essential that our intelligence committee know who our enemies are talking to, what they're saying, and what they're planning.
Last year, Congress passed temporary legislation that helped our intelligence community monitor these communications. The legislation I'm signing today will ensure that our intelligence community professionals have the tools they need to protect our country in the years to come. The DNI and the attorney general both report that, once enacted, this law will provide vital assistance to our intelligence officials in their work to thwart terrorist plots.
This law will ensure that those companies whose assistance is necessary to protect the country will themselves be protected from lawsuits from past or future cooperation with the government.
This law will protect the liberties of our citizens while maintaining the vital flow of intelligence. This law will play a critical role into helping to prevent another attack on our soil.
Protecting America from another attack is the most important responsibility of the federal government, the most solemn obligation that a president undertakes.
On our first address to Congress after 9/11, I carried a badge by the mother of a police officer who died in the World Trade Center. I pledged to her, to the families of the victims, and to the American people that I would never forget the wound that was inflicted on our country. I've vowed to do everything in my power to prevent another attack on our nation. I believe this legislation is going to help keep that promise, and I thank the members who have joined us.
And now it's my honor to sign the bill.
PHILLIPS: The president of the United States there at the White House getting ready to sign the new bill updating the old FISA bill.
You know, the back story goes back 30 years. It was in 1978 that Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, better known as FISA, as we said. It set up a secret federal court to hear government requests to eavesdrop on international communications involving people within the United States.
Well, the court has turned down very few of those requests over the years. But after 9/11, if you can imagine, the government claimed that it didn't have time to go through the process and ask a judge every time it wanted to intercept suspicious phone calls or e-mail.
A lot of critics coming forward, saying that this interfered with civil rights. Of course, the president and his administration said, "Look, we've got to do what we've got to do to prevent another 9/11. If we think a terrorist is acting within the U.S., we have the right to eavesdrop."
Well, he's now updating that FISA bill because of technology, cell phones, Internet. That wasn't around back in 1978. It's now been signed into law. FISA stands, still, with its updates included -- Don.
LEMON: All right, Kyra. Let's move on now. Lots to talk about today in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Fresh salsa and chips, a staple for some, a treat for others, but federal health officials say what's in the salsa could be making some people sick.
Another infant death at a Texas hospital is being blamed on heparin. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us with more.
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LEMON: Speaking of making salsa? Well, you may want to digest this first. We have some information that you need to know.
Three more ingredients common to most salsa recipes are being considered as a cause of the latest salmonella outbreak. Federal health officials have added raw jalapeno peppers, Serrano peppers and fresh cilantro to their list.
They focused on various tomatoes the past seven weeks, but the number of salmonella cases keeps rising. More than 1,000 so far. Seventy-six or more have been reported in the states that you're looking at, those states in red. You see them right here.
Cheers, hugs, and a standing "O" for Senator Edward Kennedy. The Massachusetts lawmaker was back on Capitol Hill yesterday for the first time since he was diagnosed with brain cancer.
Kennedy returned to cast his vote in support of a Medicare bill that eliminates a 10 percent pay cut for doctors. Advisers to President Bush are advising he veto that bill. But it may not matter. The measure cleared both the House and the Senate by plenty of votes to override any veto.
PHILLIPS: Well, he said it. Now he's apologizing for it. The Reverend Jesse Jackson joins us in the NEWSROOM to talk about his controversial comments about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
And Canadian sand helping to supply America's gasoline needs, but at what cost beyond dollars and cents? We'll explore an environmental argument just north of the border.
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LEMON: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is concerned about Barack Obama's planned visit to her country. And there's one place she doesn't want him to speak. We'll tell you what all the fuss is about. That story straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Hello everyone, I'm Don Lemon live here at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips live in New York.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Its 1:30 right now and here are some of the stories that we're working on for you. A U.S military source is disputing reports that Iran conducted new missile tests today. The source tells CNN that Iran merely fired one missile that failed to launch yesterday.
And California firefighters say they're making progress, a big wildfire near the town of Paradise is about 45 percent contained.
Jury selection is finally beginning in the murder trial of Brian Nichols. His attorney entered a not guilty by reason of insanity plea this morning. Nichols is accused of killing a judge and three other people during a 2005 shooting rampage that began inside an Atlanta courthouse. We're actually going to talk with an Atlanta legal insider in the next hour of NEWSROOM.
LEMON: Every one has been talking about this, so pay attention to this story no matter what you're doing at home or in your office or wherever you are. The Reverend Jesse Jackson says he's sorry for his controversial comments about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Jackson had just finished an interview with FOX News when an open microphone caught him saying Obama had been talking down to black people and he followed the comments with what he called -- and he's been saying this -- crude and hurtful remarks.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson joins us now from Indianapolis.
Reverend Jesse Jackson thank you very much. And full transparency, I spoke with you this morning and asked you to do this interview, and you said you were exhausted. And I said please, we want to put this in context and we want to go behind the story, inside the story. OK? Fair enough, right?
REV. JESSE JACKSON, RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION: Indeed.
LEMON: What's been the response so far?
JACKSON: Well, you know people understand when you are sincere and contrite you gain that response. I really made immediate contact to express my regret, my pain, my apology, and Barack responded graciously and quickly.
LEMON: Have you spoken to him personally?
JACKSON: I talked to his people again last night. We'll talk. We talk often, as a matter of fact.
And so, you know, sometimes you do stuff that's just dumb. And that was dumb and wrong. And I think my pain -- it really goes beyond its offense to the campaign because so many children follow our lead. We work so diligently -- we mobilized -- a million parents on the rules and responsibility to reclaim their children. I urge children them not to use such degrading and vulgar violent language. About the examples, the analogy, I don't have a knife; I've never scratched anyone, so that's just trash talk. We have to get beyond that.
LEMON: We went through that yesterday and we talked about that and we know the comments and we know that you're sorry.
Now let's talk about this whole idea -- I remember being at your 65th birthday party two years ago, two falls ago. And Barack Obama was there, Michelle Obama was there, your children, your family was there, his family. And you guys have a relationship; you live in the same neighborhood.
So on a personal level when it involves you and we heard the response from your son, who is very upset with you. What does this mean for your two families and for that relationship?
JACKSON: Well, we're resilient. I mean this, politics is a contact sport and sometimes you cross your wires. My concern to him privately and to you is that the message at black churches, and talking down was the wrong word really, is that the focus is too limited. The idea of personal responsibility, of course. Blacks, Latinos, whites should all have a since of personal responsibility.
But also government-based initiatives because you can be personally responsible but when plants close and jobs leave, you cannot sustain yourself. Churches may do daycare programs but the parents are losing homes in foreclosure, they can't function. And so, my (INAUDIBLE) is a broader based urban policy commitment to really reinvest in Americans. Put so many people back to work.
LEMON: And you have been talking about this for years. You've been talking about personal responsibility. This isn't something that's new for you. But I think what you said in this is that there's also the government you can't -- you cannot say that the government hasn't let some people down. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but is that what you're saying?
JACKSON: Well, when bridges collapse in Minneapolis and levees collapsed in New Orleans, both ends of the Mississippi River, that's not a faith-based challenge. When you are in the southern Illinois, Iowa and Missouri and levees collapse and towns under water that is government action. You look at our jobs --
LEMON: Are you saying now that Barack Obama is not talking about those things?
JACKSON: Well, he is. But I'll tell you what, you know, sometimes what media prioritizes. In that same speech Father's Day, he talked about jobs and justice as I said in passing. But really had this thing on black ministers and their responsibility and they ought do just that.
LEMON: Ok.
JACKSON: But I tell you, Don, we also need to really revisit the fact that you have record levels of unemployment in urban America. You have a highest mortality rate, shortest life expectancy. Most children taught with schools or teachers with less than three year's experience who contrast urban suburban schools based upon tax based funding. We've got some real, real structural crisis.
LEMON: And you know I want to talk to you about this. I want to get to two more things here but I'm really running out of time. You have talked about this and you wanted to get into it in a discussion we had live on the air before. And personally you have said, you know what, the media is portraying this whole thing with Barack Obama as some new people on the Internet or young people who have just come here. You said this was a culmination of 40 years of struggle after Dr. King and years and years before that of the civil rights movement.
And you don't feel that that's being brought out, especially in the media?
JACKSON: Well absolutely. This is -- he's running the last lap of a 54-year marathon. Meaning, the big blow was in his mother's home state Kansas, May 17th, '54 when we changed the law, we made race supremacy illegal, and then 10 years of test cases, Montgomery, Little Rock 9, sit ins and then the '65 Voting Rights Act, which redesigned the franchise for everybody.
White women couldn't serve on juries, farmers who couldn't pay poll taxes couldn't vote, blacks couldn't vote. By 1970 18-year-olds got the right to vote. By '74 you got residency that if you go to college -- you can vote where you go to school. In '84 and '88 we reduced the threshold and got (INAUDIBLE). This has been 54 years -- this really is a great civil rights victory of which he is now representing the last lap of a great marathon race.
LEMON: But you're giving him his props, you're saying let it be known that this is all a culmination of that. I've got to ask you this, people are saying, you know what, Barack Obama, you're dividing and Barack Obama is uniting.
JACKSON: Well, you know, what's different is now when we reach out there's more receptivity. Dr. King reached out but he got rejected and ultimately got killed. When I ran in '88 we won Vermont, we won Michigan, we won Louisiana, South Carolina. We were reaching out. But we had, you know, we've got 1,200 delegates and $17 million. And so timing and money -- he comes to this agenda with money and manner and message and strength of character -- and the right time.
And so I think when I saw Barack and Hillary in Mississippi, you saw men voting for Hillary and whites voting for Barack. They were the conduits to which a new America's expressing itself. That's what's different. We are 20 years better and better off, I think.
LEMON: And you're saying he got -- he reaped the benefits of all that. You're not upset by that are you?
JACKSON: No, of course. Each of us benefited from the martyrs and murders of yesterday -- make today's events possible. Of course, for me to be a part of that marathon race and to see the winner win, you know what it means August 28th? I cry thinking about it. I was there when Dr. King spoke on August 28th 1965, I was there, I had just came out of jail in Greensboro, North Carolina. When I look at August 28th '55 Emmett Till lynched, August 28th '63 Dr. King speaking in Washington, August 28th, Barack in Denver, Colorado. What a magnificent drama and journey for our civil rights, human rights movement for America and really for the world.
LEMON: OK, is there anything you haven't gotten out there that you want to say about judgment, about language, about people saying maybe this is bittersweet for you? And in some way there is some jealousy there. What haven't you got out, what would you like to say?
JACKSON: That's foolishness, you know. And that's a cheap analysis because we endorsed Barack before he announced and without solicitation and without setting forth any high standard. Because I knew he had the stuff. We never knew he could make all of these hurdles and get to where he is now but it was the right idea, the right man, the right time, the right message, enough money. And some people, the more people know them, the less they like them. And in his case, the more people know him, the more they like him. And so he just kind of grew on people. Now he stands as a world transforming redemptive figure. And that's good news for all of us.
LEMON: The Reverend Jesse Jackson. And I want to -- you know I've got to ask you this. We have to go. So then why do you want to do what you said then if you believe that?
JACKSON: Trash talk, nothing but garbage. And that's why I want to be careful about trash talk because what's private sometimes becomes public. And something we use, words we shouldn't use, the language we shouldn't use and it becomes embarrassing. And we should never be so arrogant as to be embarrass-proof. So when we're embarrassed we're contrite, we seek forgiveness, redemption, grace, mercy, and then we move on.
Because we fall down sometimes, we get back up again because the ground is no place for a champion. And I am a champion of this cause to make the world better and make our nation more secure.
LEMON: Reverend Jesse Jackson. I do have to tell you and we're going to remember 65th birthday Barack Obama was there, Michelle, your family. We're going to run in full length the story that I did on you so people can sort of get some context about the relationship of your family about this. We know you're exhausted and we thank you very much for joining us today in the CNN NEWSROOM.
JACKSON: Thank you, Don.
LEMON: A little bit later on in the NEWSROOM, we'll look back at the Rev. Jesse Jackson's life in the spotlight from his friendship with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to his relationship with Senator Obama.
And we have a reminder for you. We want to hear from you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Tell us what you think about Jackson's comments. Log on to our Web site CNN.com and send us your i-Reports and we'll air some of them right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
PHILLIPS: Harvesting oil from grain to sand, it sounds like star trek science fiction, but its reality right now in Alberta, Canada. Our northern neighbors pump a million and a half barrels of oil into America every day. With more to come over the next decade even. And its boom for the Canadian economy, but at what cost?
CNN senior business correspondent Ali Velshi goes on his energy hunt.
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ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Robert Cree lives on an Indian reserve in Canada. He's worried about the future of his ancestral land. His home sits on top of the oil sands, the world's largest known reserve of oil. This is oil sand. It's basically little grains of sands with a little bit of water in it and (INAUDIBLE). It sort of smells and feels a little like tar but it's not actually tar. Now what you do is you separate the (INAUDIBLE) from the water and the sand and when you purify it, it sort of comes out like this, it looks like molasses. It's very thick and heavy. That heavy stuff is then upgraded into usable light crude oil. One and a half million barrels of it per day and growing, fast, most of it U.S.-bound.
So what's the problem?
Critics say the upgrading process emits three times as much carbon dioxide as drilling for conventional oil and transporting it to market. Shell, one of the major operators in the area disputes that saying it's only twice as polluting. Still, the oil sands are responsible for 3 percent of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions. And then there's the land. The oil sands are under 54,000 square miles, an area the size of Florida. And some of that area woodland has to be clear cut to be surface mined, creating the largest industrial zone on earth. Robert Cree says cutting the forest down could bring environmental disaster.
ROBERT CREE, GREGOIRE LAKE RESERVE: I call the forest the lungs of the earth. And if the forest were depleted to a point, then what's going to happen?
VELSHI: And then there's the water, taken from the local river, used to wash the oil from the sand. The used water is then left to evaporate in huge lined ponds required by law to ensure it doesn't leak back into the earth. After it's gone a fine sand blows across a vast surreal devastated landscape. Locals have reported deformed fish, discolored meat in the wildlife, and a local health board study says there's been a spike in illnesses.
Cree Chief George Poitras wants new oil sands production to stop until the dangers are clearly established.
CHIEF GEORGE POITRAS, MIKISEW CREE FIRST NATION: And like any kind of resource boom, anywhere in the world, people will come and exploit and then they'll leave. And we'll be here with land that is decimated.
VELSHI: The oil companies are required to replant the land that they displace. They show off this former mine, complete with bison as an example of what the land can look like once it's reclaimed. It's a process that can take up to 50 years.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now the Alberta government and the oil companies both dispute, particularly those claims about illness, the higher instance of illness. But the bottom line is you can tell. We do know that it uses more energy, we do know that it pollutes. And this is part of a debate that we're in. At what cost do we want more energy? There's a lot of energy to be had in the world, but you've got to dig deeper and look further. PHILLIPS: So did the hate mail stop from all the environmentalists, because you definitely tackled the environmental concerns?
VELSHI: Right, I think after this has aired we have not had people commenting as briskly and as feverishly as they were about the environmental concerns. By the way, when we're on our energy hunt, when we're talking about energy, it's in our interest to bring you all of the information. You make your own decision as to whether or not it makes sense.
PHILLIPS: You know, you've been out on this energy hunt, looking at all these alternative ways to get oil, not be so dependent on other countries. But across the wires today it said by 2030 that the world energy needs will spike by more than 50 percent.
OK, that sounds big when you hear that. But is that normal?
VELSHI: No, first of all that spike is not going to come from the United States. It's going to come from India, China, and other developing countries. So we're not going to be using more oil necessarily, predictions are we'll use less in the United States. Now OPEC would --
PHILLIPS: Because of these efforts that are going on right now?
VELSHI: Yes, we're generally in a decline. We conserve more, we're getting smarter about this, but new developing countries can't conserve as much. They have got to build plants, they've got to do all of those things. The issue here is that, what is that going to do to the price if we don't start to look at other alternatives? It's not about what we use, it's about what the entire world uses. I think I've told you this before, we are less than 5 percent of the population in the United States, we use 20 percent of the world's oil on a daily basis.
PHILLIPS: Ali Velshi, thanks so much.
The economy, of course, "ISSUE #1." You can join Ali Velshi and Gerri Willis, the entire CNN Money team weekdays at noon eastern right here on CNN.
LEMON: We're going to talk now about the big easy's big rebound. We're talking about New Orleans. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, New Orleans is the fastest growing large city in the United States. And I want you to keep this in mind that thousands of New Orleanians have returned after leaving town because of Hurricane Katrina. They're just going by the numbers. The big easy's population went up almost 14 percent last year. Almost 14 percent, but just under 240,000 current residents, it's still roughly half of what it was before that killer storm.
Another infant death at a Texas hospital. Was a heparin overdose to blame? I'll talk about it with Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
PHILLIPS: And a fast food trip lands one man in the emergency room and another in the pokey. We'll have the details.
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LEMON: In Texas, the Garcia family is mourning a second death. More than a dozen infants at a Corpus Christi hospital received overdoses of the blood thinner heparin. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live now.
The big question Sanjay, why?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's remarkable. Heparin is a blood thinner and it's a medication that's often mixed in the pharmacy and then given to patients, patients who have a lot of IVs and for example need to get these blood thinners to keep those IVs open. In that mixing process, Don, something goes wrong. Sometimes we hear about this dramatic overdose, sometimes hundreds, even thousands of times the dose because they are trying to give an adult dose essentially to a baby, in this case, a premature baby. That's what seems to be happening here.
Two children as you mentioned from the same family, twins, Keith and Kaylin (ph), dying on July 3rd and 4th. They were born on July 1st, about a month early. We know now that probably 14 children overall affected in this one hospital. Just to give you an idea of how many children involved. Three additional children possibly and two children have died now.
Again, this is something that we hear about a lot. Giving this blood thinner in doses and quantities that are just far too high -- Don.
LEMON: We started hearing about this story, we were discussing this I think just last year. We had a similar case with Dennis Quaid and his newborns. They too were given a massive overdose of heparin. How common are errors involving heparin, Sanjay?
GUPTA: Well if you look overall at medication errors, drug errors, about 54 percent of them, more than half involve IV medications. Heparin is one of the big culprits. It's one of the ones that people really pay attention to because it thins your blood and can cause some disastrous side effects and even death, as we know.
But Don, I want to show you something here, you know sometimes it's just a very human error. If you take a look at these vials, for example. The ones on the left look very similar but they're very different dosings. You can imagine someone going to a medicine cabinet, pulling those out, maybe taking the wrong one, the one that had the 100 times dose of the other one. That obviously is a problem.
Don, you may look at that and say look that seems like a pretty simple problem to solve. Don't put the high dose ones in the neonatal ICUs or have more than one person check it before its administered. That's exactly what hospitals are trying to do to try and avoid these types of errors, but as is obvious they are still happening to some extent. LEMON: All right Sanjay, real quickly, we just have a little time here. What's the long or short-term damage caused by a heparin overdose?
GUPTA: What happens is your blood just becomes too thin. And a newborn in particular, that can cause bleeding in several different places in the body, most dramatically in the brain. It can cause bleeding in the brain, that can sometimes require an operation or sometimes require -- may even result in death as we've heard.
LEMON: Sanjay, thank you.
GUPTA: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: The sun is shining but you barely see it in parts of California all because of the smoke. We're on the frontlines.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Warren Jeffs is back in an Arizona jail. The leader of a polygamist sect spent the last night in a Vegas hospital after jailers found him feverish and shaking. No word yet on his exact condition. Jeffs was convicted last year, you may remember, of helping arrange the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin. He faces similar charges in Arizona.
A trip to a fast food drive-through sends one man to the hospital and another one to jail. Police say the two men scuffled in the parking lot of a Burger King restaurant in James Island, South Carolina. That's right near Charleston. Gary Eastwood is accused of ramming his truck into Thomas Easterling's car in the drive-through lane, and then biting off his nose. Eastwood was charged with assault and battery. Doctors at the Medical University of South Carolina performed emergency surgery to reattach part of Easterling's nose.
LEMON: Gees. Quality or quantity? In the field of ballistics missiles, both matter. When it comes to Iranian missiles, both are in dispute. We'll sort out all the claims.
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PHILLIPS: Three years and four months after his rampage, Atlanta's so-called courthouse killer tells a judge he was out of his mind. It's day one of a trial some thought they'd never live to see.
LEMON: We heard last hour live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM from Jesse Jackson. But we want to know what you think about what Jackson thinks about Barack Obama and what Jackson said when he thought his microphone was off.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips, live in New York. You're in the CNN newsroom.
