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President Bush: More Troop Reductions to Come 'As Conditions Permit'; Senator Ted Stevens Arraigned
Aired July 31, 2008 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: A fixture of the U.S. Senate enters a U.S. district courthouse to enter a not guilty plea to felony corruption.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A right to remain silent? Maybe. But if Congress wants to ask you a question, you at least have to listen, even if you work at the White House.
LEMON: The surge, well, it is over. Tours will be getting shorter and President Bush says things are looking up in Iraq.
We'll check the numbers and the facts for you in the NEWSROOM.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips in New York.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
LEMON: Long awaited news for U.S. troops in Iraq. Combat tours will be getting shorter. President Bush says things have gotten better in Iraq. So much better, that new troops will be there only 12 months instead of 15.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As part of the Return on Success policy, we're also reducing the length of combat tours in Iraq. Beginning tomorrow, troops deploying to Iraq will serve 12-month tours instead of 15-month tours. This will ease the burden on our forces and it will make life easier for our wonderful military families.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, the president also says you can expect the number of troops in Iraq to be reduced as conditions permit.
CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre joins us now with the very latest on that -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, despite the urgent need for additional forces in Afghanistan, sources say that General David Petraeus is not rushing his recommendation on how soon and how far the U.S. can cut troop levels in Iraq. Sources familiar with General Petraeus' thinking say he will make that decision late next month, late August, or early September, just before he departs his command in Iraq to take over the U.S. Central Command.
But he has already indicated he believes he will be able to recommend that some of the troops that would have been sent to Iraq not be sent to replace troops there. That's how the drawdown will be accomplished. In fact, sources say a couple of smaller units that were supposed to be packing up, getting ready to go to Iraq, have already been told to stand down, to wait until General Petraeus makes his decision, because it's highly likely they won't be needed.
In just a few moments, we're expecting to hear here at the Pentagon from the Defense secretary, Robert Gates, and the Joint Chiefs chairman. And perhaps they'll be able to lend a little more clarity to what they believe the timeline will be for the reduction of forces in Iraq, and perhaps from the Pentagon's perspective, more importantly, when those additional forces might be free to be shifted to Afghanistan -- Don.
LEMON: All right, Jamie. We'll try to get back to you once some news comes out of that. Thank you very much.
Meantime, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll on Iraq suggests most Americans still want a timetable for troop withdrawals. Sixty-two percent of those questioned said the U.S. should set a schedule for withdrawing all its troops from Iraq. Only 37 percent were against a timetable.
Thirty-seven percent of those questioned said the U.S. is winning the war in Iraq, six percent said the insurgents are winning. A large majority, 57 percent, said neither side is winning the war.
U.S. military contractors in Iraq are immune from prosecution. Iraqis say that has to end.
We'll tell you why the Pentagon strongly disagrees.
PHILLIPS: They can't make you talk, but members of Congress can make you show up to hear their questions, even if you're a senior White House adviser. A federal judge in Washington has settled, at least for now, a constitutional battle between Congress and the Bush administration.
It started when former White House counsel Harriet Miers and current Chief of Staff Josh Bolten blew off congressional subpoenas in the probe into the firing of U.S. attorneys. The White House claims that aides are immune from lawmakers' questions. The judge says they're not.
But once they appear, they may still try to invoke executive privilege. And of course, this ruling can and probably will be appealed.
Now, two days after his indictment on corruption charges, Senator Ted Stevens has entered a not guilty plea. The Alaska Republican was arraigned a short time ago in Washington. Stevens is accused of lying on financial disclosure forms to conceal thousands of dollars in gifts from an oil services contractor in his home state.
Stevens is the longest-serving Republican in the Senate. He's up for re-election in November.
Appearing before a judge in the Netherlands, the wartime leader of the Bosnian/Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, hears charges of crimes against humanity and genocide leveled against him. Karadzic claims to have made a hands-off deal with the American diplomat who negotiated the peace in Bosnia. Richard Holbrooke says that's nonsense.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD HOLBROOKE, FMR. U.S. DIPLOMAT: That's a flat-out lie. He's been spreading it for 12 years through his friends. Now he's making it personally.
It would have been morally reprehensible and illegal to do such a thing. I've testified on it.
We made no deal with Radovan Karadzic. We forced him out of public life, and we should have captured him 12 years ago. That was a failure of NATO.
I congratulate President Boris Tadic and his government for having captured him finally. A tremendously risky thing for Tadic to do since his best friend and colleague Zoran Djindjic was murdered as prime minister of Serbia for sending Milosevic to The Hague.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Now, Karadzic next appears before the War Crimes Tribunal August 29th. He says he'll represent himself.
LEMON: And we're getting some new details about a plane crash south of Minneapolis. At least seven people are dead, one is in the hospital. And rescuers are searching for two others.
Authorities say 10 people were supposed to be on board that business jet. It crashed in a cornfield near the airport in Owatonna during heavy storms.
Now, federal aviation authorities say the jet was a charter from Atlantic City, New Jersey, and people associated with Viracon. Viracon -- that's a company -- it's a glass company based in Owatonna -- say those on board were customers of that business.
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: We're going to continue to talk about the weather here, really about the fires, because critical gains are being made in the smoldering canyons around Yosemite National Park. Firefighters save they have managed to contain about 40 percent of a wildfire that's been burning for about a week now. And about two-thirds of the evacuees have been told that they can now go home.
Several small communities, including Midpines, are still under an evacuation order. Most of the 20-plus homes that burned are in that area.
OK. And we often hear about people getting hit by lightning. We hear it all the time. Well, in southern Germany -- look at that -- a group of cows was killed the same way, 11 in all. Well, they had huddled under a tree to get out of the rain when a bolt of lightning struck them all.
PHILLIPS: Congress is getting ready for its August recess. President Bush says, not so fast. We're going to tell you what the president wants Congress to do first.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Issue #1 times three. Still more inertia over energy.
Congress can't agree on offshore drilling or much of anything else, despite daily pressure from the White House. It seems the economy got a tiny bounce from those stimulus checks, and last year's slowdown was actually a backslide.
And a budget impasse in California means layoffs for thousands of state workers, minimum wage for tens of thousands more.
And it's looking more and more like Congress will adjourn for the rest of the summer without doing anything about high gas prices. Democrats and Republicans are gridlocked over what to do. Republicans want to allow offshore drilling, and they say Democrats shouldn't stand in the way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), MINORITY LEADER: You know, my 18 years here in Congress, I have never seen a party more out of touch on such an important issue. At the same time, I've never seen an issue that's more galvanized the American people. A solid majority of Americans want us to have more drilling for more American-made energy, and they aren't going to take no for an answer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, Democrats counter that offshore drilling will have no immediate impact on gas prices, and they say the oil companies already have vast areas available for drilling, but have failed to act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: There is nothing that the Republicans are proposing that will have an impact on the price at the pump. Yes, 10 years from now, two cents. But what we're saying is, free our oil. It we'll have an impact in 10 days, not 10 years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, President Bush was back in the bully pulpit today, speaking to the West Virginia Coal Association. He called on Democratic congressional leaders to allow a vote on offshore drilling before Congress adjourns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: There is legislation pending in Congress to lift the restrictions. My call is, before you go home for an extended period of time, you ought to bring these bills to the floor. The leaders ought to be giving these members a vote, a chance to say yes or no as to whether or not we ought to be finding more domestic oil to take the pressure of gasoline prices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So who do Americans blame for high gas prices? A lot of people, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll just out today, say U.S. oil companies are number one on the list, cited by 69 percent of those polled. Close behind, foreign oil producers.
The majority of poll participants also blame oil speculators, demand from other countries, the Bush administration, the war in Iraq, and the congressional ban on offshore drilling.
LEMON: And what will $186 billion in economic stimulus buy you? Apparently, a blip in the GDP.
The government says the nation's gross domestic product, basically the economy, grew 1.9 percent in the second quarter. That's not a lot, but it's much better than the first quarter. And much, much better than the last quarter of 2007, when the economy actually shrank two-tenths of a percent.
Now, the boost is seen as a product of all those economic stimulus checks the government sent out in May and June.
Jobs and pay are on the line in California today. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to follow through on his threat to chop up to 22,000 state jobs, mostly temporary and part-time positions. He's scheduled to sign an executive order to that effect, saying his state will go broke if lawmakers don't pass a budget. Well, the same order calls for whacking 200,000 state workers' pay to minimum wage.
We'll have a live report from California just a little bit later on, here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
PHILLIPS: An overnight bus ride through the prairies turns horrific. It happened on this Greyhound bus, and the details will shock you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BUSINESS REPORT)
LEMON: Long-time Senator Ted Stevens in federal court today, being arraigned on corruption charges.
Our Kelli Arena standing by now live in Washington with the very latest. Kelli, what's going on?
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we just got a trial date set. It looks like it's going to start on September 24th.
Senator Stevens' lawyer had asked for a speedy trial, saying that he wanted to get this all over and done with before the general election on November 3rd. And the judge went back, consulted with his calendar and staff, and so did set a date for September 24th.
As expected, the senator did plead not guilty. He actually just left the courtroom without comment. We obviously will not be hearing from his lawyer either.
The senator didn't say a single word in the courtroom. His lawyer though did ask for a change of venue as well. He says that because 90 percent of the witnesses are in Alaska, because the events that are detailed in the indictment occurred in Alaska, that the trial should be held there, and the judge did set a date for that hearing on August 19th.
The senator was released without any special restrictions. He just had to surrender his passport. It was brought up that he may need to travel overseas on official business, and the judge said that that could be handled on a case-by-case basis.
So there you have it. I mean, it was, you know, very administrative, for the most part. And you know, Senator Stevens preparing for a primary right now, as was noted in the court. And, of course, he is up for re-election.
And so his lawyers argue this is not complicated, we'd like to clear his name beforehand. And the prosecution didn't balk at that.
LEMON: All right. CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena joining us from Washington.
Thank you very much for that, Kelli.
A part-time evangelist accused of a horrific crime. He never reported his wife's disappearance. Now he's in jail on murder charges.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. That is the CNN newsroom here in Atlanta, and it's time to tell you what we're working on right here in this newsroom.
Shorter combat tours for U.S. troops in Iraq. President Bush says the surge has worked so well that troops heading to Iraq after today will be able to come home in 12 months instead of 15. One year instead of 15 months.
The White House loses a court fight. A federal judge says White House aides are not immune to congressional subpoenas and have to appear if they're called.
And Senator Ted Stevens makes his first court appearance. His lawyers enter a not guilty plea to charges the Alaska Republican concealed gifts from an oil services company.
PHILLIPS: Well, after a new John McCain attack ad, more fireworks in the race for the White House. McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, says, "Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong."
Those comments after Obama responded to the McCain ad that calls the Democratic candidate the biggest celebrity in the world. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So what they're saying is, well, we know we're not very good, but you can't risk electing Obama. You know, he's new. He doesn't look like the other presidents on the currency.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: You know, he's got a -- he's got a funny name.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Joining me now, CNN's political analyst, Carl Bernstein. Also, in Washington, CNN Senior Political Analyst Gloria Borger.
Carl, let me ask you, because I had a chance to talk to Gloria a little bit ago. I'm going to get her to weigh in as well. Is this pulling the race card?
CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, race is the big unknown in this election, and it's going to be a factor, and probably a good one. And each candidate is trying to figure out how to not get hurt by it and, if possible, use it to his advantage.
And I think Obama is trying to keep it to the high road. I think there are advisers to McCain, including out of the Bush White House, who want to go low on him.
PHILLIPS: Now Gloria, correct me if I'm wrong -- I haven't seen anything in anything in an interview or in an ad -- and also, Carl, correct me if I'm wrong -- saying anything to the fact that they're trying to scare him or there is something odd about his name or that -- he -- talking about his faith and on the face of the dollar bills or whatever. It's never been mentioned.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Right.
PHILLIPS: So look -- is he assuming? Is he trying to make this something that really isn't there? BORGER: No. I think, in a sense, he's trying to inoculate himself.
But look, the McCain campaign this morning was very upset, calling journalists all around Washington, saying that the reason they took offense to those particular remarks by Barack Obama was they believed it was the first time that it implicated John McCain himself in some sort of a smear campaign against the way Barack Obama looked. Because, they say, and I think rightly so, that they have never talked about that.
They've made fun of his celebrity, for example. But they say that that was below the belt and that Obama should not have said it and that they were going to call him on it.
In response today, I should say, that the Obama campaign put out a statement saying that, "Barack Obama in no way believes that the McCain campaign was using race as an issue."
And I can also tell you that this isn't the first time Obama has raised his race. He talked about it in the primaries. He talked about it as recently as June 20th in Jacksonville, in which he said -- and by the way, I'm black. So he has talked about it.
Their point -- you're raising it specifically with a charge to John McCain. And that's what they object to.
PHILLIPS: Distraction technique, Carl?
BERNSTEIN: No. I think what you've got to look at is that the Republicans know that the real carriers of nasty stuff are not the McCain campaign itself, but people on the Internet. This stuff gets out there. And they want it to be part of the debate, not John McCain himself perhaps, but some of the people who are pushing his candidacy do, because they think it can help it.
PHILLIPS: Let's get to Hillary Clinton. I know you've got some scoop.
What's the deal? Is she going to be on the ticket or not?
BERNSTEIN: Well, it's not about her being on the ticket. But I do know that her name -- she is not going to allow her name to be placed into nomination at the convention. That is a very big deal, because her followers have been wanting to make that a big issue at the convention. They have reached an agreement in principle with the Obama folks. She will not be placed in nomination unless it's very symbolically. There will be no roll call in which her name is up for a vote.
And it means it is going to be a unified convention that is going to really anoint Obama. But the real question still is, he doesn't know yet who his vice presidential nominee is going to be, despite what we hear. He probably is not going to pick that person until a week or 10 days before the convention because he wants to see what the playing field looks like then. And Hillary, even though she might have, in conventional wisdom, gone down in terms of speculation, if he thinks that Hillary Clinton is needed to win him the presidency, she'll still probably be the vice presidential nominee. But that doesn't mean that he's going to need her.
PHILLIPS: Well Gloria, what do you think?
BORGER: Well I think it's unlikely that he would choose Hillary Clinton. If his campaign were in real trouble, he might use her to bail him out. But he's been making advantages with those older women voters and with Hispanic voters that she could certainly help him with.
I think it is not -- he could choose somebody who was a Hillary Clinton supporter, which is much more likely. Somebody like an Evan Bayh. And we'll just have to wait and see.
I'm told that they're getting closer and closer. But we just don't know the timing of it right now.
PHILLIPS: That will be the big news to break.
BORGER: Sure.
PHILLIPS: Gloria Borger, thanks so much.
Carl, thanks.
LEMON: All right. And as part of our effort to help you make an informed choice on the presidential race, we're going to play more of what the candidates are saying on the campaign trail.
Let's listen to what Republican John McCain had to say just a short time ago at a town-hall in Racine, Wisconsin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... We can do this together.
On Iraq, Senator Obama says he wants peace. But even today, he opposes the surge strategy that succeeded in Iraq and will succeed in Afghanistan. His policy of unconditional withdrawal, regardless of the facts on the ground, which our highest ranking military officer, Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, said would be very dangerous, his policy could result in renewed violence and a third Iraq war.
I hate war. I know its costs better than many. I'm going to end this war, but when I bring our troops home, they will come home with victory, leaving Iraq secured as a democratic ally in the Arab heartland.
(APPLAUSE)
The bottom line is that Senator Obama's words, for all their eloquence and passion, don't mean all that much, and that's the problem with Washington. It's not just the Bush administration; it's not just the Democratic Congress; it's that everyone in Washington says whatever it takes to get elected or to secure the political future that they seek.
If Senator Obama doesn't have the strength to speak openly and directly about how he will address the serious challenges confronting America, how will he be strong enough to really change Washington? We don't need another politician in Washington who puts self-interest and political expediency ahead of problem solving. We need to start putting the country's interest first and come together. Come together to keep American families safe. And help them realize their dreams for a better life.
My friends, in war and in peace, I've been an imperfect servant of my country, but I've been her servant, first, last, and always. Whenever I faced an important choice between my country's interests or my own interests, party politics or any special interests, I chose my country. Nothing has ever mattered more to me than the honor of serving America, and nothing ever will.
If you elect me president, I will always, always put our country first.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: What is Barack Obama saying? You'll hear it after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: And to help you make an informed choice for president, we're playing more of what the candidates are saying out on the campaign trail. Let's listen to what Democrat Barack Obama had to say a short time ago as he spoke at a town-hall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Step No. 2 is we've got to redesign our financial regulation. I mean, we -- you know, this is an example of what happens when special interests dominate Washington. I had been talking about cracking down on predatory lending and mortgages for a couple of years now. But every effort was stymied and blocked. So you had nobody watching, overseeing, the financial markets. And the truth of the matter is that so much of our financial system is now outside of the traditional FDIC-insured banks that they pose a huge danger because they're not subject to the same regulations, the same capital requirements and so forth. So we've got to think about how do we redesign that system. That's No. 2.
No. 3, we've got to get some immediate relief to families. We already had one stimulus package. That, I think, helped soften some of the blow with these high -- rising gas prices and helped to keep the economy from going into a complete tailspin. But I think we need a second round of stimulus. I think we need some more energy rebate checks in the pockets of Americans right now to help them, particularly as we go into the winter, when home heating prices are going to be a huge worry for a lot of families.
And some of the stimulus should also come in the form of helping people with -- in the light heat program (ph), the low-income heating assistance program. I think we could still have more work to do in terms of extending unemployment insurance because a lot of people have been laid off. So, an immediate program to provide help to families and also the state and local governments, who are really cash strapped right now. That I think is going to be important.
Now, that's all short term.
Long term, I just mentioned one key component. We've got to get a handle on energy. And it's got to be serious, it's got to be bold, it has to move us in the direction of less dependence on oil. I just want everybody to be clear about that. Again, I'm going to repeat the statistics. We have 3 percent of the world's oil reserves. We use 25 percent of the world's oil. No matter how much we drill, we are not going to change that equation significantly. And that means if we want true independence from these other countries, we've got to redesign how we use energy. And we can do it.
I mean, let me --
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: -- let me just use an example of the auto industry. Everybody here knows how badly the auto industry has been hit. And I've been talking for years now about let's get ahead of the curve, let's increase fuel efficiency standards.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well Obama also took issue with John McCain's new campaign ad, calling the Democratic candidate the biggest celebrity in the world. Obama calls it a predictable political attack.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: It's not easy being Governor of California, but sometimes it's even harder working under him. A budget crisis means layoffs for thousands of state workers, minimum wage for tens of thousands more.
CNN's Dan Simon has the latest now from San Francisco -- Dan.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
It is official. Governor Schwarzenegger just within the past few minutes signed an executive order that will roll back the salaries for state workers to minimum wage -- $8 an hour, the federal minimum wage. This is a very controversial measure, what the governor just signed. But he says the state is facing a cash crisis. The state cannot afford to pay its bills, he says, in the next few weeks, so he felt like he had to do this.
This is going to be very unpopular in Sacramento. Obviously, if you live paycheck-to-paycheck and you're a state worker, this is really going to hurt. But Schwarzenegger saying he has no choice here, the state facing a $15.2 billion budget so the money has to come from somewhere. By signing this executive order, it will save the state of California $1 billion a month.
Now, this is a short-term problem for state workers. But once the legislature comes together and gets a budget in place, the pay will become retroactive so those state workers will recover their entire salaries -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. We'll follow it.
Dan Simon from San Francisco -- appreciate it.
LEMON: It's hard to look at, but it's amateur video. It is taken by a passerby on the Fourth of July. But it just surfaced this week. It shows a New York City policeman beating a man with a baton on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
According to several New York news reports, police say the man was drunk and swung at the officer with an umbrella. The man disputes that and says he hadn't been drinking. The officer, shown wielding the baton, is reportedly on desk duty while the beating is being investigated.
CNN's Josh Levs has a full report on this incident and joins me right here in the CNN NEWSROOM next hour.
Now to a bizarre case out of Alabama. A roving evangelist has been denied bond in the death of his wife, whose body was found Monday in a family freezer. Anthony Hopkins appeared in a Mobile, Alabama courtroom today but he made no comment. Prosecutors believe he killed his wife back in 2004, after she caught him abusing their daughter, and kept her body on ice at their home since then. Boy.
Well police say Hopkins never reported that his wife was missing and he apparently told her family that she didn't want any contact with them. Relatives are making arrangements to care for the couples eight children.
PHILLIPS: Something so horrific happened overnight north of the border that we're having trouble comprehending it. This is a remote section of the Trans-Canada Highway in Manitoba where witnesses say a Greyhound bus passenger viciously and repeatedly stabbed another man to death. And it didn't stop there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARNET CATON, WITNESS: I already got off the bus -- me and a trucker that had stopped and the Greyhound driver ran up to the door to maybe see if the guy was still alive or we could help or something like that. And when we all got up, we seen that the guy was cutting off the guy's head. He was cutting off the guy's head there. Then he saw us. He came back to the front of the bus, told the driver to shut the door. He pressed the button and the door shut. But it doesn't shut in time and the guy was able to get his knife out and take a swipe at us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Wow. Well a Greyhound spokeswoman tells CNN the other 36 bus passengers were taken to the hotel. A police news conference is set for 3:00 Eastern time. We hope to learn more about what happened.
LEMON: Her name was Edie Huggins. She paved the way for minority journalists yet she shied away from the spotlight. She wasn't a national figure, but she was one of the first black women on TV news anywhere. She settled in Philadelphia and that's where I had the pleasure of working with her. She died earlier this week from complications from lung cancer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) ... the runway with the girls (INAUDIBLE).
EDIE HUGGINS, JOURNALIST: President Nixon, meanwhile, is on his way back to Washington.
LEMON (voice-over): It was 1966, not many blacks on TV, period, let alone women. But Edie blazed a trail in what had been the all- white man's club of TV news, becoming a high profile TV personality in Philadelphia.
HUGGINS: I was a trailblazer. And I guess that's where part of the fear came in. Because I was getting mail -- fan mail, some of it good, some of it not so good. Like, why did they have to go to New York to find someone? Why did they have to get a colored woman? We were colored then.
LEMON: One of the founding members of the National Association of Black Journalists, Edie broke barriers not only for blacks -- a role model for journalists both male and female. She worked with them all, from Brian Williams to Matt Lauer to Anthony Mason.
Edie started her career as a nurse, went on to play one in soap operas and was wooed to Philadelphia where she spent 42 years on the air. Those of us in TV news know that's a feat.
She won people over with her personality, including me, who like everyone else, called her, simply, Miss Edie.
We usually end these tributes with the age of the person who passed away. But like Edie used to say to me, you never ask a lady her age. So I'll end by saying this -- that Edie Huggins was timeless.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: There is growing resentment in Iraq over the fact that U.S. military contractors are immune from Iraqi prosecution. Many Iraqis say that has to change. But some Americans say that would be a very bad idea.
CNN's Arwa Damon takes a look from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 9-year-old Ali's (ph) life came to a brutal end. He was shot dead in Baghdad last September when security guards with the U.S. contractor Blackwater opened fire.
"Iraqi life is cheap," Ali's father, Mohammed Abdaraazk (ph) told us then. "He's still waiting for justice."
The incident that left Ali and 16 other Iraqis dead is still being investigated in the United States. An Iraqi investigation found the shooting was unprovoked, which Blackwater denies. The private security companies enjoy blanket immunity from prosecution in Iraq. And that's what the Iraqis want to change.
(on camera): The Iraqi government wants not only accountability, it wants contractors to abide by basic Iraqi laws, like stopping at check points and waiting in traffic. The contractors say this would make them much more vulnerable. And a new U.S. government report agrees, saying lifting immunity would impose significant limitations on reconstruction efforts.
(voice-over): And that rings true for people like Carter Andress, co-founder of the Iraqi-American Solutions Group.
CARTER ANDRESS, AMERICAN IRAQI SOLUTIONS GROUP: So we have welders, mechanics. We have storage area here. This is a big transloading --
DAMON: His company, established in 2004, has won a quarter of a billion dollars in Department of Defense contracts. But 40 percent of Andress' work force is devoted to security.
ANDRESS: You've got still the little remnants of the insurgents out there, plus you've got Ali Baba (ph), the thieves that are there. So -- there is definitely still a requirement for convoy security.
DAMON: Without immunity, he fears that if his men defend themselves, they'll still end up in an Iraqi court. Even though 90 percent of his employees are Iraqi and reconstruction is now picking up steam, Andress says new laws could force him to shut down.
ANDRESS: Yes. You know, I think that this potentially could put us in a situation where we could snatch, you know, defeat from the jaws of victory, as they say. We would undermine the U.S. mission here because it is so reliant on contractors. For better or worse that's the reality.
DAMON: Others say the lure of contracts is simply too great.
PETER SINGER, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: I don't think we should worry about a market collapse, so to speak. There is simply too much money to be made.
DAMON: The Iraqi Foreign Minister says U.S. negotiators have already conceded that immunity for private security teams should be lifted. But when that happens will depend on the success of negotiations between the U.S. and Iraq on a security framework to replace the U.N. mandate that expires in December.
Meantime, families like Ali's feel like justice delayed is justice denied.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Arwa Damon now joins us live from Baghdad.
Well, there is still a lot of dangers that these contractors face, right?
DAMON: There are, Kyra and that's despite the security gains that everyone is pretty much talking about right now.
But here's the reality on the ground. Contractors, when they're going out, they're approaching Iraqi checkpoints, they're getting stopped, potentially by Iraqi security forces on the street -- that is if they lose their immunity. Their fear is that you can actually not really know if these are in fact legitimate Iraqi security forces or if they are insurgents masquerading as Iraqis. Their concerns are also that if they're forced stay caught up in traffic, that makes them a very easy target for the insurgency.
And it's not just Western contractors that are concerned about this, but also the Iraqis that work along side them. Remember, they're still considered a legitimate target because they're working along side a Western company or they're perceived to be working for the Iraqi government. So the contractors are very adamant that they really want to maintain this immunity. They are really hoping that the Pentagon is going to back them up and fight for this.
But the Iraqi government, on the other hand, is adamant that it has to be able to hold these people accountable to try to prevent what we saw happening in that Blackwater incident and the pain that Ali's family went through.
PHILLIPS: Arwa Damon, live from Baghdad. Arwa, thanks.
LEMON: Well it's not a joke. In fact, it is growing in popularity. It is the newest way for dogs and their stressed-out owners to relax.
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LEMON: OK. Take a look at this. Stressed-out dogs and their owners now have a chance to decompress -- and they can do it together. It's called doga. That's right, yoga for dogs. This was the scene in Scottsdale, Arizona, where about 20 dogs and their owners gathered to practice these relaxation techniques. The class is free. The question is, did it work? Forty-five minutes later, some of the owners said, yes, it did, while others said, it might take a while for the dogs to catch on.
PHILLIPS: Carnage on the Trans-Canada Highway. A bus rider decapitates a fellow passenger, while dozens of other passengers watch. We have got the horrifying details.
LEMON: All right, Britney and Paris, founding fathers on dollar bills, McCain and Obama and the so-called race card. We will sort out the latest attacks and counterattacks in the race for the White House.
PHILLIPS: And a summer vacation dilemma, fly or drive? Don and I hit the road and the airport to settle things once and for all. And we didn't go alone. You will see all our ups and downs this hour.
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.
