Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Pentagon Investigating Afghan Attack; U.S. May Open Office in Iran; Trial of Osama's Driver to Proceed; Airline, Pilots Union Spar Over Fuel Cuts; FBI Investigating Cold Cases From the Civil Rights Era
Aired July 17, 2008 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GERRI WILLIS, CO-HOST, "ISSUE #1": The economy is issue number one and we here at CNN, we are committed to covering it for you. ISSUE #1 will be back here tomorrow, same time, 12 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
ALI VELSHI, CO-HOST, "ISSUE #1": Time now to get you up to speed with other stories making stories. CNN NEWSROOM with Don Lemon and Kyra Phillips starts right now.
DON LEMON, CO-HOST: New shock waves from the deadliest attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan in three years. The Army unit never saw it coming. Now the top brass wants to know why. Our Jamie McIntyre is at the Pentagon. We'll also hear from Peter Bergen. He is in the Afghan capital.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Conservation at any costs. Long-haul pilots accuse a major airline of skimping on fuel to save money. Does that put you in danger? The airline says the pilots are out of line.
Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live in New York.
LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon, live here at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
And right off the top, could the deaths of nine U.S. troops in Afghanistan have been prevented? The Pentagon is demanding answers, and so are the American people.
Quick background for you right now. The troops were killed on Sunday when their observation point near the Pakistani border was overrun by insurgents.
Straight to the Pentagon now, where that investigation is being headed up. Our senior correspondent there, Jamie McIntyre, is digging for details.
Jamie, what have you found?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, that attack on Sunday was the deadliest firefight of the war, and now the U.S. Central Command has launched a formal investigation into what went wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MCINTYRE (voice-over): Twenty-five U.S. soldiers and 20 Afghan forces were scouting a location to set up a combat outpost, like this one under construction nearby, shown in a U.S. military television report.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The platoon is tasked with constructing one of three new O.P.'s.
MCINTYRE: Among the military's finding so far: one group of soldiers dug in around their vehicles while spotters manned an over- watch position from high ground more than 100 yards away.
An estimated 200 Taliban militants attacked both places simultaneously with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. Eight of the nine American deaths occurred at the observation spot, but the U.S. denies they were defeated by the insurgents.
ADM. MICHAEL MULLEN, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: In the end, the outpost did not get overrun. And, in fact, the -- our forces repelled those who attacked them.
MCINTYRE: The attack ended after Apache helicopters arrived to give U.S. and Afghan forces additional fire power. An estimated 35 to 100 Taliban died, U.S. officials say.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: The formal investigation will now look at whether the U.S. troops were too vulnerable and how U.S. intelligence missed the fact that hundreds of Taliban fighters had infiltrated and gone into the nearby city of Wanat. Now, it's not really a city. It's really a small collection of buildings.
Those fighters, by the way, the ones that weren't killed, appear to have melted back into the hillsides or back across the border into Pakistan -- Don.
LEMON: Interesting information, Jamie. We want you to stand by because we're going to get some information from someone who's on the ground. And you may have some questions for him, as well.
On the phone now from Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen.
Peter, you heard Admiral Mullen saying that the check point or the post was not overrun. Is that to be believed? Because you have been at these posts, and you know about these operations.
PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I mean, you know, I -- Admiral Mullen, I take his word for it. I mean, these posts are -- you know, they're way out in difficult territory. I've been in one of these in 2006. They're places without water or electricity, difficult to operate in.
And, of course, the Taliban hasn't managed this kind of operation for more than two years ago, where they've taken on American soldiers really directly in full-scale assaults. That's the kind of activity we saw back in 2006. And then after that, the Taliban took heavy losses. They moved much into an IED war, a suicide attack war. And so, you know, it's also a testament to the Taliban's changing tactics and the fact that they feel that they are doing pretty well.
I think right now they're feeling optimistic. They're nearer to Kabul than they've been in the past. The violence in the country has gone up 40 percent in recent months in the eastern region, according to the Pentagon's own report. So this is, I think, emblematic of a larger trend, Don.
LEMON: Yes. And is it a case there that the sophistication of the Taliban, at least with regrouping, is much more than the military had expected?
BERGEN: Yes, I mean, I think this surely must have come as a surprise, because the Taliban has been reluctant to engage U.S. forces in direct -- direct assaults because usually it's such a costly endeavor for them.
But, clearly, the Taliban feels that -- that they can put more pressure on NATO and American forces in Afghanistan. It's not just, of course, this attack, but we've seen an assassination attempt on President Karzai, an attack on the Indian embassy, which was the deadliest -- deadliest attack in Kabul, killing 41 people in an attack on an American -- Sarina Hotel, the western hotel, frequented by westerners.
So we're seeing, it's part of a larger pattern, Don.
LEMON: OK, all right, Peter standby.
Jamie, go ahead.
MCINTYRE: Well, Peter, Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon. You know, everybody here at the Pentagon says the real problem is that safe haven in Pakistan. And we all know that the U.S. military has had some cross-border strikes, mostly from the air, when they're either in hot pursuit or they have a target they can hit from Afghanistan.
But what are you hearing there about the prospect of U.S. troops actually operating across the border in Pakistan to try to clean up these so-called safe haven areas?
BERGEN: Well, Jamie, I think it's one of scale. I mean, there's obviously being CIA and Special Forces and very small numbers over the border, I think, for years now. In fact, I've interviewed a CIA officer who is posted in the tribal area there on the Pakistan border, and he was there in 2006. So it would not be a new policy if there was a great -- if there was an American presence in these areas.
The question is one of scale. So if you have a larger Special Forces operations, that would be a big deal, particularly because in Pakistan, this is, you know, they're incredibly sensitive to this. The Pakistani public is extremely opposed to American military incurs into their territory. And as you mentioned, Jamie, these Hellfire strikes are very controversial in Pakistan.
So -- but clearly, you know, I was in Pakistan last week and there's a lot of -- you know, the rumor mill is certainly going pretty high there in terms of concerns that might be greater, U.S. military incursions, and you see the visit of Admiral Mullen to Pakistan.
LEMON: All right. Peter?
BERGEN: Yes.
LEMON: Peter, we appreciate it. We have to move on now. We have some other developing news. Thank you, Peter Bergen joining us from Afghanistan and our Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon. We'll continue to follow. Thank you, both -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: We want to make sure we talk about the United States in Iran. Officially not on speaking terms since the Carter administration. But we may soon see evidence of the diplomatic ice is melting.
Let's get the latest on that and go to the White House where CNN White House correspondent Elaine Quijano is standing by.
Elaine, what do we know?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there was a report in the British newspaper, "The Guardian," saying that the United States within a month would announce that it was opening what's called an interest section in Iran.
I can tell you right now that the White House is not talking about this. They're not commenting on that article, but they're not denying the possibility exists either.
Certainly, this would not be a surprise if this is, in fact, true, because it was weeks ago CNN was reporting U.S. officials acknowledging that the United States was looking into this.
An interest section would essentially be not a full-blown embassy, but an office opened in Tehran. There would be U.S. diplomats there who would help with things like visas, help facility travel for Iranians who would want to come to the United States.
Now the idea being here to get closer to the Iranian people, not necessarily reaching out to the Iranian regime. Here is a State Department spokesman not confirming anything, but commenting on the idea just a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN MCCORMACK, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: It is quite apparent from our efforts over the past several years that we have a real interest in reaching out to the Iranian people. And we're doing that in a lot of different ways.
We have opened up a section in Dubai that is devoted solely to watching Iran, reporting back to the department on Iran what they see there from the gulf. It's a little bit -- it's a little bit like what we did with the Soviet Union prior to a diplomatic presence in -- in the Soviet Union.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: So again, the idea here being to have a way for the United States to get a little bit closer to the Iranian people, keep an ear to the ground, really, as well, in terms of what is happening with the Iranian regime and sort of the state of political affairs there.
And we should tell you, Kyra, this is not unprecedented. In fact, the United States has an interest section in Havana, Cuba, and Iran actually maintains its own interest section here in Washington. It's housed within the embassy of Pakistan.
Back to you.
PHILLIPS: Well, considering how volatile the relationship can be, it'll be interesting to follow-up and see if, indeed, this happens. Elaine Quijano, thank you so much.
And we're just getting news in, actually, from our Kelli Arena out of Washington. She was able to confirm that a U.S. district court in Washington, D.C., a judge there has actually ruled that Guantanamo Bay court, the proceedings there will go forward for Salim Hamdan. You'll remember Salim Hamdan was Osama bin Laden's former driver and body guard for bin Laden.
Let's get straight to our Kelli Arena now.
Kelli, this has sort of been on hold for a while, because lawyers were trying to -- well, the system was getting stalled, let's say. What finally led to the decision?
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, his lawyers had argued that the military tribunal procedures just were not fair. Salim Hamdan was Osama bin Laden's one-time driver and bodyguard, for people who -- who need to be reminded of that.
But they said that this was a violation of his constitutional rights, that this procedure should not be allowed to go forward. It would be the first military commission in -- what is it -- 50 years since World War II, Kyra. And the first one that would actually go through in Guantanamo Bay, that there have been plea deals before, but we have not seen an actual trial there of any of the detainees.
This is a victory for the Bush administration. Very much so. We have not heard yet, Kyra, whether or not his lawyers will appeal this decision. One would expect that they would.
And don't forget, this does not clear up just the broader legal issues that surround Michigan Guantanamo Bay. As you know, the Supreme Court recently ruled that detainees do have a right to challenge their detention in U.S. court. That was very muddy for a long time. We have not seen a civilian trial yet, but we expect a slew of them.
Salim Hamdan is one of the people who does not agree he should have been classified an enemy combatant. He is facing terrorism charges for providing material support to terrorism, again, as a driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.
So while this specific area now seems to be able to go forward -- this trial is scheduled for Monday -- the broader legal issues, Kyra, still remain very much in question.
PHILLIPS: And we'll follow it. Kelli Arena, live out of Washington. Thanks, Kelli.
LEMON: Some U.S. Airways pilots say they're being pressured to fly with too little fuel. Is that putting passengers at risk? We'll hear what the pilots' union and the airline have to say about it.
PHILLIPS: A beautiful and exotic country devastated by a cyclone. Our Betty has been to Myanmar. She's going to show us what's become of the tourist industry.
LEMON: This is a kid on a mission. We'll meet a Louisville boy who's trying to make his neighborhood safer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, is the record price of jet fuel infringing on passenger safety? Serious allegations are being leveled by the union representing pilots for U.S. Airways. Some pilots say the airline is pressuring them to carry less fuel than they feel is safe.
The airline says it's a non-story but has made available Captain Robert Skinner, managing director for flight training and standards. He will talk with us. Also, we have Captain James Ray, a spokesperson for the pilots' union.
Glad to have you both with us.
James, I want to start with you. Your allegations obviously have created quite a stir. Tell me if you -- or why you have come forward with these allegations, why you believe so strongly in these allegations. And do you think passenger safety is being compromised?
JAMES RAY, SPOKESMAN, U.S. AIRLINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION: Well, in fact, the reason that we brought this forward is to ensure that passenger safety is never compromised. The issue at hand is the fact that the FAA grants the final authority for how much fuel is put on board your aircraft today. It's in the hands of the captain of your aircraft. And that's where it remains. That is the law.
And we have -- you know, the world that we're in right now, the airlines are doing their best to reduce the weight of the aircraft. And so they've reduced the fuel loads on our aircraft. The heavier an airplane weighs, the more fuel it burns. So naturally if they can take weight some off, it will burn less fuel. And we're all in agreement that that's a good practice. PHILLIPS: So you're telling me, though, that pilots have the power to say to whomever may be pressuring them, if indeed this is happening, "No, I'm flying this plane. You're putting me in a dangerous situation. I'm not going to decrease fuel at all before I take off."
RAY: That's exactly right, and we want to ensure that the -- that that decision on how much fuel is on board the aircraft today will always rest with the captain.
PHILLIPS: So what you're saying, then, is that some of your pilots feel they are being intimidated to do this when they don't want to do this?
RAY: That is correct. And U.S. Airways and Captain Skinner can speak on this momentarily. They've implemented a new training program. In -- it's all in the interest of conserving fuel. And they've taken action and called in eight of our very senior captains to undergo this training.
They've told us this is non-jeopardy training. However, it is intimidating in the fact that, if the pilot is in the simulator, the training involves not only some ground school, classroom sessions, but also manipulating the controls of the simulator.
If the FAA shows up and observes this training, which they do periodically. It's the FAA's job to police the industry and on a daily basis the FAA does ride in simulators. So if the FAA showed up and that pilot was manipulating the controls, then we're putting him in harm's way unnecessarily.
They've got this training program. We've asked the -- the president of the company. We appealed to him last week. And we said if the training program is that good -- and I'm sure that it is -- then why limit this training to only a select few? Why not put all 5,200 pilots through that training?
PHILLIPS: All right. Bob Skinner, you're also a captain. I want you to respond to this. Is this happening? Do you see other pilots being intimidated to do this? And this training to be intimidating?
ROBERT SKINNER, U.S. AIRWAYS: Absolutely not. First of all, U.S. Airways have never denied a line pilot the ability to add fuel. We ask them to do that wisely, jointly with our dispatchers.
These pilots that have been asked to come in for an interactive demonstration in the full flight simulator have been asked to do so, so we can gather information as to why they're adding fuel at a rate much higher prior to dispatch than our other pilots.
U.S. Airways as a whole, their pilot group adds fuel less than 2 percent of our flights on top of fuel that's way in excess of the FAR minimums. The FAR minimums for flight are 45 minutes. A wide body aircraft are carrying over 100 minutes when they arrive at destination. PHILLIPS: So Captain Skinner, let me ask you, why are they adding fuel? When you're seeing that you're finding that they're adding fuel, why -- what's the response when you ask them why they're doing that?
SKINNER: That's exactly what we're trying to find out here. And that's why we asked them to come in for an interactive demonstration. And I said that, demonstration. They are not required to fly the aircraft. They will not touch the flight controls. The FAA will not be present. We just ask them to come in and share information with us.
There is no classroom. There's a little bit of briefing room time where we -- where we present how we build dispatch releases, how we -- how we dispatch our aircraft. We go into the fuel -- into the full flight simulator and we talk about fuel initiatives.
PHILLIPS: OK. Well, Captain Ray, is this true? Are these pilots adding a little -- are they being too cautious and adding more fuel than they should be adding?
RAY: No. These eight captains are very senior national wide body captains. They've probably, on average, have at least 30 years experience with our airline.
And, you know, the company says that they are -- they're grossly -- they're adding to the amount of fuel at a much higher rate than the average pilot. However, I'd like to mention that these flights are eight- to ten-hour flights across the Atlantic Ocean. And you know, one of the pilots...
PHILLIPS: Well, let me ask you this. If they're senior pilots, why would they feel intimidated? They've been around the company for a number of years. They have proof of performance. They know what they're doing. Why would they feel intimidated?
RAY: Because, what you have to understand is that any time a pilot goes through training and, if the FAA does show up -- and I know Captain Skinner said that they won't be there, but they have the right to be there, and I would suspect that they will be there. There's a lot of attention being drawn to this right now. And I'm sure the FAA would like to know what it's all about.
So yesterday, the first -- first training sessions took place. And the captain, in fact, did manipulate the controls, if that's my understanding. And with the FAA present, then that captain is putting his license on the line. It could possibly be in jeopardy.
Any time a pilot goes through training and manipulates the controls of the simulator with the FAA present, his or her license is always on the line. And we don't feel it's necessary to put our pilots in harm's way. It's not necessary.
PHILLIPS: And just real quickly, I want to say the FAA did send us a statement. They wouldn't give us anything on camera. But they said, "This is an issue between the airline and the union. The FAA is monitoring the situation in case there are any safety issues that have to be addressed."
Captain Skinner, I just have to ask you, and I want to get it on the record. These are senior pilots that have come forward and complained. You know, there is a concern because of all of the layoffs within the industry. And I know pilots that have tried to get back on working for commercial airlines, and they don't get hired because they're older.
Now, is it possible that these captains could lose their jobs? They're older pilots. They're senior. You can get other pilots to come in at a less cost. They could be fearful of their jobs because of all of the layoffs. Would you and your company think about letting older pilots go?
SKINNER: Absolutely not. This is not a disciplinary issue. This is not counseling. This is a fact-finding mission.
In fact, no pilot has been asked to manipulate the controls. If they've manipulated the controls at the end of the session, it's because they ask for landings for currency. There is no requirement for them to do this. This is -- this is not curricula that's in our training curricula. This is a fact-finding mission.
We have over 5,000 pilots. We've asked eight to come in and share information with us.
RAY: I would like to ask...
PHILLIPS: Final thought.
RAY: I'd like to ask Captain Skinner if it's a fact-finding mission. We have 5,200 pilots, why are you just wanting facts from eight pilots? Why not bring us all in, incorporate this in our annual recurrent training program? I'm sure there's...
PHILLIPS: Captain Skinner, go ahead and respond.
SKINNER: Absolutely. As I said before, our average pilots add fuel less than 2 percent of the time. These gentlemen are adding fuel up to 50 percent of the time. So we've asked them to come in so we can learn from it, and we will put this information in our recurring curricula so we can share with all of our pilots.
That's what we're doing here.
PHILLIPS: OK.
SKINNER: We're just trying to figure out, you know, why.
PHILLIPS: We -- and we've got to leave it there, gentlemen. I'm sorry.
RAY: OK.
PHILLIPS: Captain, I know we could talk -- I know, this -- it's tough on our economy right now. We're all paying the price for fuel costs. Captain James Ray, Captain Bob Skinner, I appreciate the discussion. We'll stay on top of it.
SKINNER: Thank you for your time.
RAY: Thank you.
LEMON: A nation beaten black and blue by natural disaster suffers another loss: a lack of tourists. Our Betty Nguyen will give us a rare look inside Myanmar.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A challenge today to America from former vice president, Al Gore. In a speech last hour in Washington, the longtime proponent of renewable power called for a quick transition to clean electricity. A mere ten years, he says. Gore says the notion isn't pie in the sky, not anymore.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To those who say the challenge is not politically viable, I suggest they go before the American people and try to defend the status quo. And then bear witness to the people's appetite for dramatic change. The time is now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, Gore said incremental steps to wean America from oil aren't enough. He says damage caused from burning fossil fuels could be -- could become irreversible in ten years -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, the long arm of the law in Louisville, just 11 years old.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So he goes out there, and people think he's a policeman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: We're going to show you a kid who's a sure-fire thing for a future in law enforcement.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Hello, everyone, I'm Don Lemon live here at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
COLLINS: And I'm Kyra Phillips, live in New York. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
LEMON: All right. Let's get more now on the fueling debate sparked by some U.S. Airways pilots who say the carrier may be putting cost cuts ahead of safety. Cost cuts ahead of safety. CNN chief technology correspondent Miles O'Brien is a licensed pilot. He joins me here to talk to me about all of this. Especially the levels of safety, the issues here. OK. Let's put this into perspective here.
Is this really about cutting costs? Is it really about safety? Or is there some back story here?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CHIEF TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: There is always a back story in aviation.
First of all, let's talk about U.S. Airways. Still hasn't settled a very difficult merger with America West. Seniority issues with the pilots, with the captains, which still have not played out well. Long history of adversary relationship between management and the pilots. And at the root of this, there's a long-term trend in the entire industry. 30 years ago, a captain was god. Whatever he said, people clicked their heels and went about it quickly.
LEMON: That's changing.
O'BRIEN: Big time. And when it comes to this issue, fuel costs, which are just killing the airlines, strangling them. The airlines probably are saying to themselves, if we have to pick a battle, this is one battle worth fighting over.
LEMON: OK. Then I have to ask you this. Explain to us what the rules are when it comes to how much fuel? And what's the big deal? What are we looking at 15 minutes of extra fuel? I mean, what's the big deal?
O'BRIEN: Yes. I mean, they weren't asking for that much. But let's put this in perspective.
First of all, FAA rules. Enough to get to the destination. That's a duh, right? Plus 10 percent, plus enough fuel to get to your alternate airport, in case the weather's not good there or for some other. And another 15 minutes for holding time. That's a lot of extra fuel. But, some captains will say I've got an 8 to 10-hour flight, I'm flying into London's Gatwick. It gets foggy there. And if prediction is for fog, I want a little extra hold time.
LEMON: Is that right for them to ask for that?
O'BRIEN: It is absolutely within their prerogatives to say I need an extra 15 minutes of fuel. But what the airline is saying is, you have to justify this. Now, here's the rule of thumb. It costs you 10 percent of the fuel you carry, to tanker it. So, if you put 8,000 gallons in, it costs you 800 gallons just to carry that fuel. So you start doing the math on this. Now 15 minutes is about 200 pounds of fuel. Pilots like to use pounds. So that amounts to really on average at $4 a gallon, we're talking about $80 per ton. But this over the course of a year, all a huge leap, adds up. You're talking about some real money.
LEMON: So, it's a you-know-what-ing match, as we would call it. O'BRIEN: With a money subtext.
LEMON: Got it. Thank you.
O'BRIEN: You're welcome.
LEMON: Thanks for putting it into perspective for us.
Miles O'Brien, always good to see you here, sir. All right -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, making a play for a battleground state. Republican presidential candidate John McCain took his town hall meetings to Missouri, today. Just a short time ago, McCain spoke to voters in Kansas City. Part of his focus, soaring energy prices and their impact on the American way of life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now let me also point out national security. We are transferring somewhere around $700 billion of American money to countries that don't like us very much. Some of that money ends up in the hands of terrorist organizations. We cannot afford that from a national security standpoint. We have to reduce our -- and eliminate our dependency on foreign oil.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Democratic candidate Barack Obama is off the trail today with no public events announced so far.
And leading our political ticker, a big month for Barack Obama. His campaign raised $252 million in June, more than twice what John McCain raised. It was the second best fundraising month of the year for Obama, and more than double his May toll of $22 million. The presumptive Democratic nominee blames the conservative media for attacks on his wife Michelle. Obama tells "Glamour" magazine, his wife and Cindy McCain are not fair game because essentially, they're civilians. He says his wife is the quintessential American woman who's honest, smart and funny. John Mccain agrees with Obama, recently telling CNN, both spouses should be treated with respect.
LEMON: Former president Bill Clinton is taking on another killer disease that stalks a big part of the world. He announced today that his foundation has signed an agreement with six drug companies to make malaria drugs cheaper and more available. Malaria spread by mosquitoes, affects 500 million people around the world, every year. The agreement is an extension of Clinton's HIV/AIDS initiative, which the former president established six years ago.
PHILLIPS: Friends of Tony Snow, arriving this morning to honor the late White House spokesman. President Bush spoke at the funeral remembering Snow for his professionalism, whit, and love of family. The well known conservative commentator joined the White House staff just two years ago, last May. He served until last September. You remember Tony Snow died of colon cancer last Saturday at the age of 53.
LEMON: Full military honors on a day of mourning in Israel. This is a funeral procession for Sargent Eldad Regev. His remains and those of a fellow soldier, were returned to Israel yesterday from Lebanon, as part of a prisoner swap with hezbollah. Now, the two men were ambushed two years ago this month. And a month long war resulted from that. As part of the swap, Israel released five Lebanese militants and the remains of almost 200 Lebanese fighters.
PHILLIPS: Even before this year's killer cyclone, political tension and social uprisings made for a tough life in Myanmar. Since the storm tourism and everything visitors bring to Myanmar has dried up to near zero.
CNN's Betty Nguyen reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Political sanctions have cut Myanmar off from much of the world. Which is why man locals rely on tourists to make a living. The problem is few are coming here.
(voice-over): Driving through Yangon, you won't find tourists strolling through the streets. In fact, you'll be lucky to find many tourists, at all. Even at the country's main attraction, the Shwedagon Pagoda, today's log shows only eight foreigners have toured this ancient shrine.
More recently it served as a launching site to the September 2007 protest. Many were beaten and killed for rising up against the Myanmar government. Today, apparently fear prevents most from even talking about it. Our guide would rather show us where centuries of well-carved detail was ripped to shreds by the cyclone Nargis.
(on camera): So just about every part of the pavilion here was destroyed, the roof of it.
(voice-over): That storm killed nearly 85,000 people in early May and some 50,000 remain missing. Now, two months later, people are still trying to rebuild their lives and find peace through prayer. And it might take some divine intervention to get foreigners packing into this tourist market on the hunt for gems and jade.
(on camera): So, right now business is no good?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No good, yes.
NGUYEN (voice-over): This jeweler blames the lack of business on the monsoon season. And judging from the downpours he may be right. Though others say, there's more too it than that.
(on camera): Business is not good? Why? The cyclone?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cyclone, yes. NGUYEN (voice-over): While the locals won't say it publicly, many will quietly tell you they blame their oppressive military government.
(on camera): It's hard to really pinpoint what's keeping tourists away from Myanmar. But one thing is certain, there's been a long standing debate over whether tourists should even come here at all.
(voice-over): Back in 1995, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged tourists not to visit Myanmar because their money would fuel the junta government. That same regime ignored elections that would have made her the country's leader. And instead, put her under house arrest, where she remains today.
Still, others argue if tourists don't come, the world will never see the poverty, oppression, and despair. But if tourists are hoping to get a glimpse of the cyclone devastation, don't bother. The government won't allow them in the Irrawaddy delta even if they traveled across the world to help.
(on camera): Myanmar's government isn't making it easy for foreigners who do want to come here. Journalists are strictly prohibited and tourists wanting to get a visa are finding it increasingly difficult, especially if you have an American passport.
Betty Nguyen, CNN, Yangon, Myanmar.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Well, what looks like naval warfare is actually a drug bust. The Mexican navy seized this small, homemade submarine yesterday, 200 miles off the Mexico's pacific coast. Officials say it was apparently packed with cocaine. Four crew members were arrested. They say there were fishermen who were forced on to the sub by drug traffickers who threatened to harm their family.
PHILLIPS: A broken window, then flames, then death. Who killed Frank Morris? We'll investigate a 44-year-old mystery.
LEMON: And surgical slip-ups and how to avoid them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: 1:42 Eastern time. And here's some of the stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.
The Pentagon is trying to determine whether an intelligence failure contributed to the death of nine U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan on Sunday. Sources tell CNN the troops did not know about a build-up of insurgents.
And a top U.S. diplomat is getting ready to attend nuclear talks with an Iranian envoy on Saturday. The State Department says, the presence of Under Secretary William Burns will show Iran that the world is united in its concerns about Iran's nuclear program. And former vice president Al Gore is calling for an overhaul of U.S. power generation within 10 years. He says electricity should be produced from only renewable and carbon-free resources.
LEMON: All right. Anyone who goes to the doctor, and that's just about anybody. We're going to empower you right now, so listen up. It's about mitigating malpractice. With hundreds of botched operations every year, what can you do to make sure your doctors do no harm?
And we get some guidance from CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen on being an empowered patient.
So, what can each of us do? Even if it's just a small operation. We all want to know, right?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, right. Absolutely. You don't want to be a headline. You don't want to be one of those terrible headlines.
Nobody knows how often surgical errors happen because hospitals usually don't have to report them. But I'm going to show you some headlines from just the past year. Just a couple of samples. In Minnesota, doctors removed a healthy kidney from a patient and left the one that had cancer behind. You can imagine what kind of a pickle that patient was in. In another state, an appendix was removed from the wrong patient. And in Boston, doctors operated on the wrong side of a patient. And this was a very prestige hospital and a very prestigious doctor.
Now, if you want to hear more about what kinds of surgical errors are happening out there and how to prevent them, you can go CNN.com/health. And we have several tips for you there, on how to protect yourself.
LEMON: And you know what? You had this -- I've seen it before, and they mark a big X with a marker, this one, do it. But that doesn't always work out.
COHEN: It doesn't always work out. And that actually isn't the best way to do it.
LEMON: It's not? OK.
COHEN: That was sort of what they used to think. So, let's talk about ways to protect yourself. The latest thinking on how to protect yourself against surgical errors.
Here are some tips that we have in our column and then you can go online and find more. Communicate like crazy. When you go in there for your surgery, you say, my name is Elizabeth Cohen, this is my date of birth, I'm in to get arthroscopic surgery on my right knee.
(CROSSTALK)
COHEN: And you'll feel like an idiot. Because you'll say this over and over again, but it's OK. Feeling like an idiot is a lot better than being dead. And confirm the side right before the surgery. Say, I want to see the surgeon right before my surgery as I'm being wheeled in. And I want to confirm with him or her, I'm having it on my right knee. Also make sure you're marked. This is what Don mentioned. Here is what surgeons are supposed to do. Take a look at this. They are supposed to write their initials on the surgical site.
LEMON: They're signing off on it, basically.
COHEN: Exactly, exactly.
LEMON: But, can you do this all the time? I have to ask you this. Because people -- you go under anesthesia. Can you do that before?
COHEN: This is what you do before anesthesia. Because you are right, it is a challenging situation. If you're asleep and they leave a sponge in you.
LEMON: OK. So then, when you talk -- we talked about all these things. What about the people who are, you know, they left stitches, and some of them are dissolvable. Sponges, scalpels, clamps, inside of them. It happens a lot.
COHEN: It does happen. Now, the experts that I talked to said, that doesn't happen nearly as often as operating on the wrong side, but it does happen. You're asleep, there's not much you can do. But, it was interesting. Some experts said, you know what? Some people think that they ought to X-ray everyone when they're done with the surgery. They just ought to haul in an X-ray machine, X-ray the surgical site and make sure nothing got left in there. So, it's an interesting idea.
LEMON: And it is interesting because a lot of people don't find out until they go to the airport and they go through.
COHEN: Ding, ding, ding.
LEMON: Hey, what's going on here? All right, yes.
Good information and you can go to our web site, CNN.com and it's on there.
COHEN: That's right. Slash health.
LEMON: Thank you, Elizabeth Cohen -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: You've heard of the Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet, high carb, low carb, good fats, trans fats. Well, new developments today in the weight loss arena. A new study, a long one too, it lasted two years. And it concludes that a low carb eating plan, much like the so-called Atkins diet, is more effective at helping people lose weight and improve their cholesterol levels than either a low-fat or Mediterranean style diet. 322 people took part in that study. The study is detailed in New England Journal of Medicine. LEMON: All right. Well, they say he got along with everyone. Black and white alike, everyone. But in Louisiana, in the mid-60s, that apparently wasn't enough. Who set the fire that killed Frank Morris? We'll have a new look at an old crime.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Well, it is a 44--year-old mystery. Who killed Louisiana shoemaker Frank Morris? That and many unsolved crimes from the civil rights era, are under new scrutiny.
And as part of our series, "Black in America," CNN's Sean Callebs did some digging.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For half a century, the murder of Frank Morris has been a mystery in Faraday, Louisiana. Morris was 40 years old in 1964. Ran a successful shoe repair shop on the edge of town, in the deeply segregated south. As a youngster, Jay Davis worked for him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the front door, here.
CALLEBS: And he remembers the early December morning in 1964, when the shop window was shattered, gasoline was poured and the building torched. Morris, trapped in the back room, ran through the inferno to escape but emerged so badly burned, his long-time friend the reverend Robert Lee, couldn't believe his eyes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went by the hospital to visit him. I've never seen things so dreadful looking.
CALLEBS: Morris held on for a few days, then died. Never offering a single clue as to who attacked him or why. Jay Davis has grown much older. Old enough to recently tell the FBI something he was too afraid to utter as a child. He saw three white men storm into Morris' shop the morning of the killing.
JAKE DAVIS, WORKED FOR FRANK MORRIS: I was hearing a whole lot of talking, loud talking, cursing. After a while, he came back up and told me and my brother, for us to leave and come back tomorrow. And that's what we done. We didn't ask him questions.
CALLEBS: The FBI was charged with stopping racial violence. It sent a dozen agents to investigate but they came up empty. Now, decades later, the justice department has made it a top priority to close 100 civil rights era cold cases. And the clock is ticking.
DONALD WASHINGTON, U.S. ATTORNEY: The average age, we believe, of those who would have carried out those crimes is probably going to be in his mid '70s today, if he's alive.
CALLEBS: Donald Washington has been given a difficult mission. But even as he hopes old memories can be stirred among witnesses, long-lost facts can be unearthed, it is a mission he gladly accepts. WASHINGTON: I am an African-American, so, yes, I am familiar with what happened in the south. And yes, there is a little part of me that would like to see these cases absolutely aggressively addressed.
CALLEBS: In some ways, Donald Washington has been preparing his whole life for this case. He went to work as a U.S. Attorney the week after 9/11.
WASHINGTON: I remember driving to work that day thinking, boy, somebody is going to have to pay for this. Someone is going to pay. And within a week, I was raising my right hand to take this office.
CALLEBS: A product of public school desegregation in east Texas in the '60s, Washington went on to West Point where he graduated in 1977. Washington says he learned a lesson in the academy that in many ways, serves as a morale compasses today.
WASHINGTON: I learned there that when you think of things like racism, you really need to look inside yourself first and make sure that you're not the racist. And that you're not bringing baggage with you that is unnecessary.
DAVIS: A whole lot of people know more. And they still have that same old idea you know, I'm not going to say anything. I don't want to get involved.
CALLEBS: A lifetime of questions and regret later. Jay Davis hopes this latest investigation will finally bring some answers to this murder. That was like so many others back then, sudden, brutal and unsolved.
Sean Callebs, CNN, Faraday, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: We want to tell you this. The FBI is asking for tips that could help solve any of about 100 civil rights era murder cases. If you have any information, please call the FBI hot line. That number is 202-324-3000. Again, 202-324-3000.
And CNN's Soledad O'Brien, next week for a 2-part special "Black in America." Make sure you join her. It airs at 9 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, July 23rd and Thursday, July 24th only here on CNN.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, you better hit the brakes. This kid's serious when it comes to traffic enforcement.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, he's defaced the law in Stone Lakes Drive in Louisville, Kentucky. A would-be cop on a one kid mission to make his neighborhood safer.
His story now, from Bennett Haeberle, of CNN affiliate, WDRB.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BENNETT HAEBERLE, WDRB REPORTER (voice-over): It started with a yard sale and a trade. A compact disk in exchange for a toy radar gun.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From there it just kind of snowballed.
LANDON WILBURN, 11-YEAR-OLD TRAFFIC ENFORCER: Well, I just like cops. It's really cool to see how fast people are going.
HAEBERLE: 11-year-old Landon Wilburn, dreams of becoming a police officer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) really gets the speeders big time. I mean, it's just a big -- it's been a big problem.
HAEBERLE: So this future cop decided to start his own traffic beat. And when he's on the job, he needs all the essentials. An orange safety vest he got from his father. The helmet is his own. His mode of transportation -- a bicycle equipped with a radar gun.
WILBURN: He was going 18 miles an hour.
HAEBERLE: His work started a month ago.
WILBURN: 19.
HAEBERLE: And so far...
WILBURN: 24.
HAEBERLE: ... he's tracked 200 cars. Sometimes his work serves as a deterrent.
BRYAN WILBURN, LANDON'S FATHER: They saw this toy radar gun out there and I think that they saw that and I think people actually stopped and slowed down, and you know, jolted their car.
HAEBERLE: Some drivers are unphased and others even ask.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How fast am I going?
L. WILBURN: 12.
HAEBERLE: His goal is simple.
L. WILBURN: Just to make cars go a little bit slower because they go faster here. And that's how wrecks happen.
HAEBERLE (on camera): (INAUDIBLE) Lakes is considering adding speed humps like these, in an effort to curb speeders. But ask Landon what he thinks about it.
L. WILBURN: I think we need speed humps but I think I'm still doing good. HAEBERLE (voice-over): A traffic study conducted last year found there were enough speeders in the neighborhood to warrant the speed humps. A petition is now under way to approve the measure. If anything, Landon is drawing attention to himself and a larger issue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So he goes out there, and people think he's a police officer.
HAEBERLE: Perhaps someday he will be.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
That's a story from Louisville, Kentucky, from Bennett Haeberle, of CNN affilliate, WDRB.
The next hour of NEWSROOM speeds through, right now.
