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Hurricane Alex Strengthens; Kagan Confirmation Hearings; From Russia, With Love; High Waves Stall Gulf Oil Skimming; BP Fury Online; Alleged Spy Ring Suspects Arrested in United States
Aired June 30, 2010 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everybody. I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what we're working for you this morning.
We are beginning with our vets put in harm's way. And no, I'm not talking about the war but the dental chair. Just imagine opening a letter and learning that dirty tools may have put you at risk of HIV. That's exactly what happened to almost 2,000 of our military vets.
Hurricane Alex grows stronger and closer. We'll tell you where it's headed, when it will hit, what it means to the massive oil cleanup in the Gulf.
And say it isn't so, Larry. CNN's king of talk leaves his audience speechless. The primetime icon announces his retirement.
But we begin with boarding up and counting down. Texans getting ready as Hurricane Alex barrels through the Gulf and takes aim at the U.S./Mexico border. Earlier this morning the storm gained strength and notoriety. It's the first Atlantic hurricane to form in June in 15 years.
The government is already rolling its emergency crews into place along Texas' southern coast. FEMA trucks are now in place for possible evacuees.
Let's begin at the very southern tip of Texas. CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf is on South Padre Island where a state of disaster has been declared as that hurricane approaches -- Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. You know, it's funny how history repeats itself. We were here at least very close to this position roughly two years ago for Hurricane Dolly. Now, of course, a different name, different storm, different day.
We're talking about Alex. And what we've seen here, the wind has been picking up, the rain has been kind of intermittent. And our friends at home, tuning in across America, you might see a raindrop or two crossing the screen.
And our CNN photojournalist Michael Calloway may have to wipe the lens. So just understand.
To get a better view of what's happening, I'm going to do a little bit of climbing here.
Mike, you stay over there, man.
We're going to hop over on this side. And let's take a stroll in this direction. I want you to see as Mike pans off, that is one angry sea. Up and down the shoreline, it's just white caps as far as you can see as this wind has been driving these waves, pounding the shoreline. All the way from parts of Texas southward in Mexico.
The wind has just been awful. And in some location, the wind has been very strong especially close to that center of circulation. But I can tell you here on South Padre Island -- that once that wind begins to pick up to about 39 miles per hour, what they'll do is they'll shut off all the bridges leading back to the mainland. Bridges a lot bigger -- taxes where the mayo is --
PHILLIPS: All right. Obviously, we've got bad weather out there. We apologize for that. We'll try and get back to our Reynolds Wolf, giving us the conditions there of the hurricane.
OK, we've got him back. Reynolds, are you here?
WOLF: I am here. I'm here.
PHILLIPS: OK. The weather --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: I think the weather is affecting so don't move. Stay put.
(LAUGHTER)
WOLF: Absolutely.
PHILLIPS: OK.
WOLF: You know, what we've been seeing here in this particular place, obviously, the wind picks up. We've had, again, many issues farther south towards Mexico. Obviously some power outages. And with that in mind, they've already alerted many utility crews.
Up and down much of the coastline especially here in South Padre Island. Brownsville, basically the same situation.
And Texas Governor Rick Perry has already declared a disaster area in 19 counties. Already activated the Texas National Guard, 2500 troops have been assigned to this particular area.
Mike Calloway and I, as we were driving to get here yesterday, saw them making that (INAUDIBLE) getting ready (INAUDIBLE) about the damage to parts of the Gulf Coast as the storm comes closer, there will be the power outages. There will be some street flooding. It is -- it's going to be a big mess.
The storm comes closer. But people here certainly keeping their fingers crossed and hoping for the best.
PHILLIPS: Yes. And we're keeping our fingers crossed so we can keep our satellite signal with you so we can continue to get reports, Reynolds Wolf, with you throughout the morning. Thanks so much.
Our other top story. As if our veterans don't have enough to deal with, now an outrageous story from CNN affiliate KSDK. Dental assistants at this St. Louis VA hospital may have been exposed or may have exposed, rather, more than 1800 of our vets to HIV or hepatitis.
How did it happen? Contaminated dental instruments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. GINA MICHAEL, ASSOC. CHIEF OF STAFF, JOHN COCHRAN V.A. HOSPITAL: They were actually doing additional work in order to protect their kind of delicate instruments. Sometimes policies don't always get followed because people have very good intentions. But the end result is the policy that was supposed to be followed wasn't followed.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: You think? Well, the hospital has sent certified notification letters to the affected patients. And Missouri Congressman Russ Carnahan is calling for a full investigation into what went wrong.
We're going to talk to him live with this outrageous story, 10:00 -- 10:00 a.m., rather, at the top of the hour.
But we've just received a statement from the VA saying that the VA's primary focus, as always, is, quote, "has been on the safety and care of our veterans. The VA leadership recognized the seriousness of this situation and is taking steps to prevent this from happening again. The VA implemented safeguards to prevent a similar situation from occurring again."
And if a living outrage isn't enough, how about in death? Another smack to the face of our veterans this time to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. A hearing is set to get under way on Capitol Hill next hour into the problems at Arlington National Cemetery.
You may remember the disturbing and heart-wrenching report that we told you about earlier this month. It actually revealed that the graves of our fallen war heroes had been misidentified. And in some cases, remains had even been tossed aside into a massive pile.
We're following that hearing and will bring you updates as they happen.
And you're looking at a live picture from Capitol Hill where things are just getting under way in the third day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash is covering the hearings for us. She's joining us live from Capitol Hill.
So, Dana, what do you think we can expect today?
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Another very, very long day for Elena Kagan doing Q&A with the senators. She is now on her final round of Democrats because they're the only ones left in the first round of 30-minute questioning.
And then she has a second round to go through with all of the senators on the panel. Those will be shorter, about 20 minutes. But this hearing, as you mentioned, just opened up. And what we heard from the ranking Republican was quite telling in terms of where things stand after yesterday.
He said from his perspective after the questioning yesterday he is not sure whether or not she would be more like Chief Justice John Roberts -- of course appointed by a Republican -- or like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, appointed by a Democrat.
And that was the frustration that you definitely sensed among many of the Republicans after Elena Kagan early on in the hearing yesterday, Kyra, made very clear that she would no longer abide by a standard that she set. And that standard was in a writing in 1995 that she said that it is wrong that nominees don't answer questions.
She called it a hollow charade. Well, yesterday she said that basically never mind. She has a new standard and she said that she had to balance off. So what happened yesterday is she really didn't answer a lot of questions on many, many issues that are coming before the court, or could potentially come before the court.
Having said that, she did give a little bit of a window into some issues. For example, on the whole issue of the Second Amendment. She actually said that some of the court's recent rulings are a good precedent. That might not sit very well with some of her fellow Democrats.
PHILLIPS: All right, Dana Bash following the hearings for us. We'll continue to monitor them throughout the day with you. Thanks so much.
Also, more news from Capitol Hill. General David Petraeus one step closer to becoming the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. The Senate Armed Services Committee has voted to send his nomination on to the full Senate.
The confirmation hearing was highlighted by a fierce partisan debate over President Obama's plan to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan -- to Afghanistan next year.
Petraeus was nominated to replace General Stanley McChrystal. McChrystal was relieved of duty last week following the flap over his "Rolling Stone" magazine profile.
It's day 72 of the oil catastrophe in the Gulf and here's the latest. Two wives of workers killed when the BP oil rig exploded will testify on Capitol Hill next hour. They are expected to talk about holding those responsible for the disaster accountable.
And choppy seas forcing BP to alter its cleanup plan in the Gulf. Massive waves of Hurricane Alex have caused officials to send oil skimming ships back to shore from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. BP had hoped to bring in a third vessel to contain the gushing oil. But now that's been delayed about a week due to the rough seas.
Meanwhile researchers estimate that anywhere from 1.5 million gallons to 2.5 million gallons of oil are gushing into the Gulf every day. And now there are more accusations that BP isn't doing everything it can to clean it up.
In about an hour, Fred McCallister, a Dallas investment banker, is scheduled to testify before a Senate committee.
I had a chance to first talk with him on this show about two weeks ago. He's been trying to broker a deal with BP to bring 12 large skimmers from Europe to help with the Gulf cleanup efforts.
He says that the day before our interview BP called and said that his proposal would get expedited consideration. But since then, he's heard nothing.
Just last night McCallister told CNN's Anderson Cooper he's now questioning BP's motives. He's expected to tell the Senate committee that BP is trying to disperse and sink the oil instead of skimming to serve its own financial interests.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRED MCCALLISTER, VP, ALLEGIANCE CAPITAL CORPORATION: I have been working on this project of trying get these skimmers into the Gulf for over a month now. Everybody in Europe where standard practices to raise the oil and to collect it is scratching their heads and quite honestly laughing at what's happening in the Gulf.
This is -- and I have educated myself over the last month, as I have gone through this process of trying to get these skimmers here because it seems self-evident that the skimmers were needed. People like Billy Nungesser down there using makeshift equipment.
And so I began to educate myself. And what I've learned is that everybody is looking at us and wondering why we're allowing this to happen. And as a businessman, the only answer I could come up with is what are the motivations for not dealing with this issue head-on, raising the oil and collecting it with the skimmers? And the only answer is the financial interests of BP.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: All right, worth noting, just last night, McCallister says that BP phoned to say that his proposal was rejected because BP experts don't think the vessels can deal with the heavy oil.
From Russia with love. The alleged faces of spies. Nearly two dozen living among us in suburbia. Ahead, the story of a decade of espionage.
And here's something to grab our attention. Chinese companies renting -- yes, renting -- white people just to hang around.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just have to walk around and give our business cards and pretend to be interested in their oil technologies.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Now listen to this, if it can't get any worse, nearly 15 million gallons of raw sewage has leaked into the Mississippi River because of a pumping station problem. The pumps went down in St. Louis last Thursday after debris got trapped in that system.
Rainwater may have diluted much of that sewage spill. The pumps are now fixed but it still took almost five days to get them running again. Sewer district could face fines for not telling the feds right away about that spill.
A remarkable scene straight out of a 1950s cold war spy novel unfolding this week in the suburbs of New York, New jersey, and Massachusetts; 11 people arrested in an alleged decade-old Russian spy ring. Among those in custody, a 28-year-old woman described by one acquaintance as "James Bond's girlfriend".
CNN's Deborah Feyerick in New York with more on Anna Chapman and the alleged spies among us. Deb -
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Talking on YouTube, accused spy, Anna Chapman, says she is inspired by the quantity and quality of people she has met in New York; many of them successful in business.
ANNA CHAPMAN, ACCUSED RUSSIAN SPY: I am working on a project that will connect two capitols, New York and Moscow; from my point of view, the two major cities for me to look for most talented people.
FEYERICK (voice-over): The striking 28-year-old entrepreneur, seen here on her Facebook page, appears to have started domdot.ru, a search engine for Russian real estate. But Chapman says an acquaintance is not so much James Bond, as she is James Bond's girlfriend; many of her Facebook friends seemingly of Russian origin. The FBI says she is a highly trained intelligence operative; a spy, the headlines read, sophisticated enough to elude detection until now.
FEYERICK (on camera): An FBI agent says Anna Chapman was inside this coffee shop on her computer, when a van known to be driven by a Russian government official passed by. It is at that point that FBI agents detected a wireless network signal. They say Anna Chapman was passing encrypted data from her computer to a computer inside that vehicle.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Whether real estate was Chapman's real career, another woman in Boston accused of being a spy is also in real estate. On her Website, Ann Foley is described as a native of Montreal who "lived and was educated in Switzerland, Canada and France.
According to court papers, her alibi on a trip to Russia was she was working as an international business consultant. Her husband, Donald Howard Heathfield, an international sales consultant for an energy company, is also under arrest. Prosecutors say a birth certificate with his name was found in a safety deposit box. And though it appears genuine, prosecutors say the real Donald Heathfield passed away five years ago.
Of the 11 alleged spies, one worked as a journalist for the New York based Spanish language newspaper, "El Diario". Vicky Pelaez is accused of traveling to South America where she received $76,000, allegedly for recruiting sources. On a wiretap her husband, Juan Lazaro, who claimed to be born in Uruguay, is allegedly heard telling his wife he and his parents moved to Siberia when the war started. Pelaez' son spoke about the charges.
WALDOMAR MARISCAL, SON OF VICKY PELAEZ: They were like most reporters are, like you guys.
Innocent.
It is very scary. It is terrible.
FEYERICK (on camera): And the reason FBI agents stepped in when they did, according to the Justice Department, one of the suspects was getting ready to leave the United States, and so agents had to arrest everyone allegedly connected to this decade-long investigation -- Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Suspected spies, lies, secret identities and clandestine rendezvous. We are getting an inside perspective from a man who lived it. Hear from a former KGB official coming up in about 15 minutes in our "A.M. Extra."
In eastern Afghanistan, Taliban militants attacked an airfield today. The entrance was hit with a car bomb; fired rocket, propelled grenades, and small arms fire. The facility is used by Afghan international forces in Jalabad.
NATO says that several insurgents were killed. Two Joint Security members were injured, but the airfield's perimeter was not breached.
The attack happened at U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as he arrived in Afghanistan on a surprise visit. He is in Kabul, about 75 miles away, meeting with Afghan officials on ways to improve the nation's justice system.
Holder says that fighting corruption and supporting the rule of law are top priorities for the Obama administration. It is the first time any U.S. Attorney General has held official meetings in Afghanistan.
Strong earthquakes rattled Mexico and Fiji today. A magnitude 6.2 quake hit Oaxaca after midnight. The tremors were felt as far away as Mexico City and Acapulco. No reports of any deaths. And a 6.3 earthquake struck south of the Fiji islands. It did not spawn any tsunamis.
And an update this morning on that devastating landslide that happened Monday in southwestern China; rescuers pulled a child's body from that rubble. Apparently 107 more people are still buried under that debris. We are told that they do have a slim chance of survival now.
Why don't we stay in China for just a moment now to tell you about a story that grabbed our attention. White people can be rented in China. Yes. We said rented.
This is how it works: some Chinese companies like to have a few foreigners hanging around to show that they have prestige or money; and, of course, crucial international connections -- for real, or not?
One American actor who lives in Beijing actually told us that he was hired for a day to pose as the Vice President of an Italian jewelry company. Our CNN international anchor asked him if he knew that he was the token white guy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JONATHAN ZATKIN, U.S. ACTOR: The whole point of his creating this phony Italian partner, which I did not realize at the time, I thought it was legitimate, but the reason why he created this Italian partner was to make his jewelry seem more authentic in the eyes of the Chinese.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay, let's go to Valera now. You are a 26- year-old student there in Beijing from Israel, Valera. You got involved in an oil conference in one of the cities. Just tell us about that.
VALERA KOVTUN, ISRAELI STUDENT IN BEIJING: Yes. It was -- we were about 100 students from my university, and from other universities, who were offered to go Xian Dong Provence, where we had to pretend to be foreign investors, millionaires from other different countries.
We were given business cards, and I was an investor from Egypt, by the name of Abella Hamedi (ph). And we just had to walk around and give our business cards and pretend to be interested in their oil technologies. We also had a banquet and a press conference where we had the VIP seats.
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Chinese people refer to these jobs as "white guy in tie" events, or simply a "face job".
A warning about Avandia -- we are going to tell you why the FDA is steering patients away from this popular diabetes drug.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: And checking top stories right now. It is day 72 of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. Oil skimming boats back at shore due to high waves churned out by Hurricane Alex. Two widows of workers killed in the oil rig explosion are testifying at a Congressional hearing today.
And Vice President Biden says agencies will work together to make sure Gulf seafood is safe.
Hurricane Alex bearing down on the Texas/Mexico coastline; the category one storm could make landfall by this evening. Alex is the first June hurricane to form in the Atlantic since 1995.
A V.A. hospital may have exposed more than 1,800 vets to hepatitis and HIV. The St. Louis hospital has sent letters to those vets. The patients may have been exposed to the viruses through contaminated dental instruments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: A warning this morning about Avandia; the drug that is widely used to lower high blood sugar levels. The Food and Drug Administration says people with type two diabetes taking Avandia face a higher risk of having a stroke or heart attack. Researchers advised patients to take other diabetes drugs that are available.
The oil disaster along the Gulf of Mexico, we have all seen the grim images of polluted beaches and dying wildlife. Now there are warning signs of a horrible new toll on humans; suicide among the people whose lives are being ruined. Next hour, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen looks at how people are being pushed to the breaking point and what is being done to pull them back from the brink.
Worries about the pace of our economic recovery slammed stocks yesterday, forcing the Dow below 10,000. Opening bell, just minutes away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Stocks took a beating yesterday. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 tumbled 3 percent each. The culprit, fears that the global recovery grinding to a halt. Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange with the details -- Alison.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra, you know, in a situation like this, it could create a bit of a buying opportunity for investors. This morning, not looking that way. Don't expect too much of rally today. Wall Street is waiting for the government's monthly jobs report which comes out Friday. In the meantime, there is an early indicator that's not too good. Payroll processing firm, ADP, says private sector employers added just 13,000 jobs this month. Wall Street was expecting far more somewhere in the range of 61,000.
This lowers the expectations for Friday and shows that the recovery can be characterized by one word -- slow. All right. Let's check on the early numbers. The Dow Industrials is down about 14, the Nasdaq off about two. And executives from Goldman Sachs and AIG are in Capitol Hill today testifying before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. The topic, derivatives. Those are the complex financial products that are one of the factors that triggered the collapse of Lehman Brothers and led to the recession. The commission's goal is to eventually write up a report of what caused the financial crisis, and of course, Kyra, hopefully, not repeat it -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Hopefully not repeat it exactly. Alison Kosik, thanks.
KOSIK: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Bond here. I've never even heard of Tatiana.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Tatiana Romanova she ain't, but the headlines about suspected Russian spy, Anna Chapman, read like something out of 007 for sure. The spy who loved us says "The New York Post" calling her a redhead and the bombshell fits right in among the fictional bond girls, seductive, sultry, and allegedly searching for Intel from U.S. Power players. John Roberts, who loves sultry redheads, live in New York with our "AM Extra." It's definitely 2010, not 1950. Russian spies, seriously?
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Where do I go from there?
PHILLIPS: Just wanted to work you up a bit.
ROBERTS: Yes. I mean, this Anna Chapman definitely presents a new face to the Russian spy game. Maybe more like an electric king from the world is not enough, and what was her name, Tatiana Romanova?
PHILLIPS: Yes.
ROBERTS: I spoke with Oleg Kalugin earlier this morning, Kyra. He was the former KGB chief here in the United States working under the Soviet embassy in Washington for so long. He also headed up the KGB's counterintelligence services back in Moscow before finally moving here in 1995. He is an old spy. Wrote a book called "Spy Master" that talked about the inner workings of the KGB. I asked him how he was struck by the allegations from the FBI, the Department of Justice that 11 people were here spying on behalf of Russia in this day and age. As you'll see, he was very surprised. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OLEG KALUGIN, FORMER CHIEF, KGB FOREIGN COUNTERINTELLIGENCE: I never thought that at this time when there was a reset of Russian/American relations, the Russian would still conducted the intelligence operations on this scale. I mean, look, almost a dozen people. That's amazing. And they are practically illegals. They are not undercover or diplomat or journalist or -- scientific research. This is, in fact, reminds me of the worst years of the cold war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Yes. So, he couldn't quite figure out why Russia was still spying on the United States if the allegations are true. What's also interesting, Kyra, is that in this day and age of so much open source information or intelligence on the internet, why anyone would need to resort to dead drops and bag swaps and all of this secrecy because it's fairly easy to get the information that you're looking for these days.
PHILLIPS: OK. Oleg really epitomizes the classic image of a Russian spy. So, what did he think of this young woman, Anna Chapman, and that the media has such a fascination with her? Calling her, you know, redhead femme fatale?
ROBERTS: He said, first of all, no wonder the media has such a fascination for her. He also said this represents, you know, the new face of espionage, Russia to the United States. He said that in an area of work where the personal is very important, he can see that it would be an asset, and definitely, he told me, that this -- sultry redhead, quote, "beautifies the organization," if what is alleged by the FBI is true.
PHILLIPS: It's definitely a fascinating story, for sure. John Roberts, thanks.
ROBERTS: And just -- just for the record, there's only one sultry redhead that fascinates me.
PHILLIPS: Thank goodness, and luckily, you're engaged to her. Thanks, JB.
All right. Say it ain't so, Larry. CNN's King of Talk leaves his audience speechless. The prime time icon announcing his retirement.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking top stories. Day 72 of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. Oil skimming boats back at shore due to high waves churned up by hurricane Alex. Two widows of workers killed in the oil rig explosion testify at the congressional hearing today. We're following that. And Vice President Biden says that agencies will work together to make sure that Gulf seafood is safe.
Hurricane Alex bearing down on the Texas/Mexico coastline. Category one storm could make landfall by this evening. Alex is the first June hurricane to form in the Atlantic since 1995.
Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, resume this morning. She opened today's session expressing respect for the notions of judicial restraint and precedent.
A rare moment of levity at the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan. South Carolina's senator, Lindsey Graham, questioned Kagan about her whereabouts on the day of the failed Christmas day airline bombing. Here's their exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: Christmas day bomber, where were you at on Christmas day?
ELENA KAGAN, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: Senator Graham, that is an undecided legal issue which -- well, I suppose I should ask exactly what you mean by that. I'm assuming that the question you mean is whether a person who was apprehended in the United States is --
GRAHAM: No, I just asked you where you were at on Christmas.
KAGAN: You know, like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: OK. Back on Capitol Hill right now for a third day of confirmation hearings.
The world's most grueling cycle race is starting this weekend. We're talking about the Tour de France. And for one legendary winner, that will be his last race.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Lance Armstrong tweet has made waves in the cycling world. Yesterday, the cycling legend announced that this year's Tour de France race will be his last. Armstrong is a cancer survivor and he won the grueling race seven times in a row, beginning in 1999. You might say he's king around here.
And talking about Larry King. After 25 years of some 50,000 interviews, Larry says he's stepping down from the anchor desk at CNN sometime this fall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: I'm incredibly proud that we recently made the "Guinness Book of World Records" for having the longest running show, the same host, in the same time slot on the same network. With that chapter closing, I'm looking forward to the future. What my next chapter will bring. And for now, for here, it's time to hang up the nightly suspenders.
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: But Larry is not done yet, of course. Tonight, he has the prime time exclusive with Elizabeth Edwards. Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING: She said your relationship was dysfunctional, toxic, way before she came along.
ELIZABETH EDWARDS: If that were true, why would John and I have worked so hard under such difficult and public circumstances to make the relationship work? We really -- I mean, I really think we both worked hard in the end to make it work. I did not think -- I suppose there are a lot of women in her position who like to justify their behavior by -- rationalizing it by thinking that this relationship - (INAUDIBLE) wasn't valuable to begin with. It was clearly valuable to both of us and something that we tried very hard to save.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Tune in tonight for more of Elizabeth Edwards. She's going to talk about her dramatic split from John Edwards, her battle with terminal cancer, and how she's learned to deal with heartache and suffering. That's "Larry King Live" tonight at 9:00 eastern.
Hundreds and hundreds of veterans in danger of contracting HIV just because of a visit to the dentist. It's unsettling, it's heartbreaking, but it's not the first time. We're looking at the problem and we're talking to a veteran's advocate about how to fix it.
Flashing back to this day 74 years ago. Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" was published.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): The historical novel chronicled the south during the civil war and reconstruction. It was made into a blockbuster movie three years later, starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. Now, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the book was so popular that it rivaled the sales of the bible in a single month. Its author was an Atlanta native and former reporter at the "Atlanta Journal."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He likes to see a girl with a healthy appetite.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What gentleman says and what he thinks are two different things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: I can't even imagine what it would be like to come back from battle without a limb, with brain damage, with post traumatic stress. Our vets need the best care possible. And now once again, the system has failed our heroes, our war wounded. A Missouri VA hospital is now under fire because it may have exposed more than 1,800 vets to hepatitis and HIV after a sloppy and unclean dental work. The story is heart breaking but, unfortunately, it's not unique.
And do you remember this? Dirty colonoscopy equipment used at a Miami Veterans Administration Hospital. Doctors operated on as many as 3,200 patients over a five year period with the tainted tools, potentially putting them at risk for HIV and hepatitis as well.
Or how about this one? Remember that? Six hundred letters mistakenly sent out to veterans telling them that they had Lou Gehrig's disease. One soldier who got the letter on accident said that he was just floored when he went in to complete shock and total meltdown. Who wouldn't?
And then, mistreatment even in death, hundreds of mismarked graves at Arlington National Cemetery. But our men and women in uniform deserve much better.
Steve Robinson is an advocate for vets and the former Director of Veteran Affairs for the Veterans of America. He is joining us live from D.C.
So Steve, the Veterans Administration issued a statement about this saying, quote, "The VA has implemented safeguards to prevent a similar situation from occurring again."
But it seems these horror stories keep popping up. And of course, I'm going to keep covering them because I can't seem to get an interview with the head of the VA about the situation.
What's going on, Steve?
STEVE ROBINSON, FORMER DIRECTOR OF VET AFFAIRS, VETERANS FOR AMERICA: Well, the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs has stated that he's going to change the culture in the VA and I believe that he really does want to change the culture of the VA.
But those words alone have not filtered down throughout the entire system. The VA is a huge system; has a lot of people involved in it. And especially with the Veterans Health Administration where the hospitals are located, the culture change hasn't occurred.
So besides just saying that we need to create a lot of change, Secretary Shinseki needs to make sure that there's more oversight, more accountability if people aren't following the rules, they need to be fired. And the culture change will only happen if we have watchdogs making sure that the rules are followed and that the veterans are served.
PHILLIPS: Ok, but every time I interview you, Steve, we talk about what needs to be done. And I keep covering flaws in the system like this. I mean, where is the accountability? I mean the VA has got to be doing more auditing to find these mistakes and they've got to make changes immediately.
Do they need to clean house? I mean, where are the firings? Where are the changes that are being made? We have been talking about these mistakes for a number of years now.
ROBINSON: I agree with you 100 percent. I mean, in no other cabinet level agency should it be allowed for someone in a position to serve to not follow the rules and regulations and not be held accountable when they are found out to have been -- having violated rules and regulations.
So we need accountability and we need the Secretary to hold people accountable. But more importantly this particular mistake, this one is particularly egregious in that, you know, there are specific rules for sterilizing equipment. The reason these rules are there and so this kind of things doesn't happen.
The VA has done the right thing by notifying people. But they need to do more than send letters. They need to make sure that each person is contacted via phone or face to face. But, yes, it's time for these kinds of mistakes to stop, Kyra. And the only way you do it is to fire people that don't follow the rules.
PHILLIPS: Well, we'll follow up because that definitely needs to be done and we'll continue to put pressure on the VA.
Steve Robinson, we thank you for all that you do for our vets and I appreciate your time today.
ROBINSON: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: And if you're a veteran who has been treated in a VA hospital, we want to hear your story. Head over to our blog, CNN.com/kyra and share your experience or share the experience of a loved one. We want to hear the good and the bad.
And coming up next hour, we're going to hear from Congressman Russ Carnahan (ph), he's on the Congressional subcommittee looking into the contaminated dental equipment. We'll hear what he has to say about this outrageous story.
Also ahead, tough questions, quick answers; we're going to have more on the senate confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. How is she doing?
We're going to ask CNN's Candy Crowley, the best part of our best political team on television.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: And trending this morning, the iPhone could spread its wings even more. "Business Week" reports that Verizon Wireless will start selling Apple's Smartphone next January. The business move would end AT&T's exclusive hold on the popular iPhone and turn nearly 93 million Verizon Wireless customers into the potential iPhone buyers. One of the biggest outlets in the country for people to express their anger at BP disappeared at least for a little while. A Facebook page called "Boycott BP" was closed. Now it's back up and running. So what happened?
Our Josh Levs is here to talk us through it. And how many times have we wanted to take things down about us Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. That's right.
PHILLIPS: And they say, no, freedom of speech? Now, all of a sudden this is taken down. I'm telling you, I'm ready to get involved in a lawsuit.
LEVS: Yes some people do have fun complaining about pretty much anything including those also in the media. You've got it. But this was, I'll tell you, got a lot of people talking all day yesterday. I was getting so many messages about this.
Just right here is this, which is a sign that's up and moving, again, it's the Facebook page, "Boycott BP". And keep in mind how useful Facebook is. More than 400 million people, this page alone, has about 750,000 fans on it.
And one thing I've been talking to you all about throughout this oil crisis is that there are so many people out there who want to express their outrage. This has become one of the main places on the entire Internet to do it.
Then suddenly it disappeared yesterday which triggered a lot of questions and as you can imagine a lot of conspiracy theories.
Well, we here at CNN has spoken with the folks at Facebook and this is what I can tell you. We've got some information for you here.
First of all, they have given us a statement saying that it was disabled by an automated system. It wasn't like they sat down and decided to take it away. There are automated systems that look out for potential problems that operate purely technically, Facebook says. They shut it down for a while and in their statement they say, "We determined the profile was removed in error and it now has been restored."
Now, what they're not doing is getting really specific and there are some critics out there who say they should get specific including public citizen, one of the groups that's really been tackling BP throughout this crisis.
This is a statement from an attorney there, Greg Beck, "I don't think it's much of an explanation at all."
I have been speaking with Facebook trying to get an explanation as to what happened technically that led to this specific page being removed. They won't say. They say that they can't really give details on how these automated systems work that look out for potential problems. But there is something you probably want to know which is right here. BP itself saying they had nothing to do with it at all. The spokesman Robert Wine that said we had absolutely nothing do with this. So that is as much as we know right now.
The details of how this works and how it could go wrong, could this happen again, we are still looking into it.
We're also hearing from a lot of you at my Facebook page today. I posted a story from CNN.com about this. You can see my address there. Facebook.com/joshlevscnn, go ahead let us know your experience if you've had anything like this happen with Facebook. And Kyra we will continue to chase down answers on this for.
PHILLIPS: Ok.
LEVS: All right.
PHILLIPS: Appreciate it. Thanks Josh.
LEVS: You got it. Thanks.
PHILLIPS: Well, we've all heard the news. Larry King is hanging up his suspenders. We thought we'd take a look back at some of his best moments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY KING, CNN HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": My name is Larry King, and this is the premiere edition of "LARRY KING LIVE." Every night at this time, we will be here for one hour. We're going to meet fascinating people from all walks of life.
Ted Turner called me. "So Larry, do you want to come work for me? You work at 9:00 until 10:00 every night; it's your show.
My agent was the late Bob Wolf. Bob called me up and says, it isn't a bad deal, giving you nice money, same as your radio money. You're doubling your pay. They've given you an option. If at the end of the year, you're unhappy, you can bail out.
So I said I'll try it. I tried it.
The favorite guests are those who can do four things. That would be you have passion, a sense of humor, anger and ability to explain what you do very well.
DONALD TRUMP, HOST, "THE APPRENTICE": Larry, all of the interviews you've done, what's been your favorite?
KING: If I had to pick one -- there's so many. It would probably be Brando. One, because he was so hard to get. He entertained the entire crew. He was sweet, he was funny. At the end of the interview he kissed me. He was responsive. He was an incredible guest.
I like that a lot on TV. And I like unpredictability. You react to unpredictability; you react to the unpredictable. (INAUDIBLE)
CARRIE PREJEAN, FORMER MISS U.S.A.: You are being inappropriate.
KING: All right. INAPPROPRIATE KING LIVE continues.
Ahmadinejad. That was something.
Are you denying that a holocaust existed?
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, PRESIDENT OF IRAN (through translator): You can not violate the rights of the audience.
KING: I understand that. But all I wanted to know is do you agree that there was a holocaust? That's a simple yes or no.
PRISCILLA PRESLEY, ELVIS PRESLEY'S FORMER WIFE: Hello, Larry King.
KING: Hello Priscilla.
Thank you for having us.
PRESLEY: Welcome to Graceland.
KING: That's the most expensive "LARRY KING LIVE" ever done.
The expense of going there, the amount of crew setting up Graceland, renting that Cadillac.
I like doing presidents, of course, because you can't get any higher than that.
Do you still like this job?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is it the best job on earth. I mean, it's an extraordinary privilege.
KING: George Bush the first, one of the regular guys of all time.
Being a former president, seeing your name on buildings; what's that like?
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: when I see these things, it's great.
KING: Is it hard to drive by the Watergate?
RICHARD NIXON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I have never been in the Watergate. So it's kind of hard --
KING: Never been in?
NIXON: No. Other people were in there unfortunately.
KING: I live for 2 things, interviewing people and being on top of the story where I'm in the middle of things. He's on route 5, he's on 405, and I'm following a map to know where he's going. He's driven through two counties and we follow them all the way.
America under attack.
I found myself at Ground Zero.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was the North Tower. That was the South Tower.
KING: I knew that my life had changed, television would change.
MARLON BRANDO, ACTOR: Got an angel beside me, got a date with an angel and I'm on my way to heaven. When the chapel bells ring out going to make him an offer he can't refuse.
Well, good-bye.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
