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CNN Live Saturday

Season't First Tropical Storm Aimed at Cuba; Michael Brown Refuses to be a Scapegoat for Katrina Mishaps; Employers Spying on Employees.

Aired June 10, 2006 - 18:30   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. military says three detainees held at Guantanamo Bay died by hanging, the apparent suicides of two Saudis and one Yemeni happened in the camp's most secure section. The White House says President Bush expressed serious concern and personally notified some U.S. allies of the deaths.
The hurricane season is under way now. The National Hurricane Center is tracking the season's first tropical depression in the Northwest Caribbean. It's expected to move into the Gulf of Mexico possibly as a tropical storm.

And former FEMA chief Michael Brown says the White House was pleased that Brown took the heat over Hurricane Katrina. Brown has produced an e-mail in which a White House official quotes President Bush as saying, "I'd rather they beat up on him than me." Brown appeared on "THE SITUATION ROOM."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BROWN, FMR. FEMA DIRECTOR: I want the White House in general and particularly Michael Chertoff to stop dragging me through the mud every time the issue of FEMA comes up. There's a lot of things that need to be done to fix FEMA and continuing to throw that at me is not going to solve anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: We're going to have more on the Michael Brown story in just a moment.

The United States could finish an autopsy tonight on the body of slain terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi. It's being done to end the confusion over exactly how he died.

And the death toll in Iraq inches closer to 2,500. The military says a U.S. soldier died Friday in a bombing near Kirkuk in the northern section of Iraq. Well, a second soldier was also wounded.

And Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announces a referendum on a two-state solution to the Middle East peace puzzle. The ruling Hamas party still calls for Israel's destruction and does not support two states.

All right. Let's talk more about the flack over the tale of the e-mail. Newly released e-mail suggests President Bush was pleased FEMA's former director took the heat over the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. The documents are from Michael Brown. Our Brian Todd has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Wednesday, August 31, 2005, New Orleans has been submerged for two days. In an interview with Larry King, FEMA director Michael Brown is on the defensive about government failure after Hurricane Katrina.

LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Where's the help?

MICHAEL BROWN, FEMA DIRECTOR: Larry, the help is right there, and it's going to be moving in very, rapidly. I'm going to ask the country to be patient.

TODD: The next day the city still is overwhelmed by chaos and official paralysis. Brown is besieged with criticism. In another CNN interview, he admits he's just finding out about one of the most horrific human catastrophes.

BROWN: The federal government did not even know about the Convention Center people until today.

TODD: The following day the president declares the federal response is "not acceptable," but voices public support for Brown.

BUSH: Again, I want to thank you all for -- and Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. The FEMA director is working 24 ...

TODD: Two days later, Brown's immediate boss, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, is asked by Wolf Blitzer if he still has confidence in his FEMA director.

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Look, I think Michael Brown has had a lot of experience, I think he's done a tremendous job under pressure.

TODD: But CNN has obtained an e-mail from three days after that, September 7, 2005, indicating the Bush administration may have been happy that Brown was taking the heat. A high-level White House official close to the president writes to Brown, "I did hear of one reference to you at the cabinet meeting yesterday. I wasn't there, but I heard someone commented that the press was sure beating up on Mike Brown, to which the president replied, 'I'd rather they beat up on him than me or Chertoff.' Congratulations on doing a great job of diverting hostile fire away from the leader."

Michael Brown, through his attorney, provided this e-mail to CNN on the condition that we redact the name, not revealing the identity of its author. CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the e-mail, but it does have the White House eop.gov designation at the end, signifying Executive Office of the President.

Brown explained why he released the e-mail to Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

BROWN: Well, it could embarrass the president. But frankly, as long as we continue to play this game of every time the administration talks about what worked or didn't work I'm not going to sit back and continue to take those stabs. I was doing everything I could do down there.

TODD: September 9th, 2005, just two days after that e-mail is sent to Brown, Secretary Chertoff changes his tune.

CHERTOFF: I have directed Mike Brown to return to administering FEMA nationally. And I've appointed Vice Admiral Thad Allen of the Coast Guard as the principal federal official overseeing the Hurricane Katrina response.

TODD: Three days later, Monday, September 12th, Michael Brown resigns as FEMA director. The next day President Bush says this ...

BUSH: To the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility.

TODD: Historian Douglas Brinkley, whose recent book chronicles the infighting of state and federal officials after Katrina, says the e-mail is consistent with information he received.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, HISTORIAN: It clearly shows that the Bush White House and the president himself was trying to scapegoat Michael Brown, who became the human pinata of the entire Katrina debacle.

TODD: But another analyst says traditionally it's the job of people like Michael Brown to absorb criticism for the president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what happens. We have an old saying in Washington: All good news comes from the White House and all bad news come from the departments and agencies.

TODD (on camera): We contacted a White House spokeswoman for reaction to our story. She replied in an e-mail, quote, "This is an old rumor that surfaced months ago and we're not commenting on it. This story has already been reported and I have heard nothing at all that would substantiate it.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Brian does some terrific reporting for the CNN's "SITUATION ROOM." You can watch that show weekdays beginning at 4:00 p.m. eastern.

This programming note. Join us tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. eastern for a special "CNN PRESENTS: Sudden Fury: In Katrina's Deadly Wake." CNN is your hurricane headquarters.

Other news across America now, a fire has grown to 15,000 acres in Alaska. A 13 mile stretch of the Alaska highway has been closed since Thursday and several homes are evacuated and train travel in the area is also suspended.

Two 911 operators in Detroit are arraigned on charges of willful neglect of duty. They're accused of not making a call from a five year old boy seriously -- at least not taking that call seriously. He called when his mother collapsed. She was dead by the time the police arrived.

What happened at that party for the Duke University lacrosse team? Newly filed court papers say maybe nothing. The second stripper at the party told police rape allegations were a crock, that's a quote. Three team members are accused of raping another dancer.

Defense lawyers say that first dancer, Kim Roberts, changed her story to get better treatment in another case. Where does the Duke rape case go next? Let's ask law professor and civil rights attorney Avery Friedman. Good to have you.

AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Nice to be with you, Carol.

LIN: That second exotic dancer, if in fact she did say that to responding officers, that the allegation her fellow dancer was making was just a bunch of crock, do you think the judge would have allowed criminal charges to be filed?

FRIEDMAN: I think the judge probably would have. Judge Ron Stephens is taking this matter very seriously. The difficulty was that that information concerning Kim Roberts' statement was not released at the time of the other information about Kim Roberts' statement was not released at the time the other information about Kim Roberts' statements were.

So there's a question of whether or not the defense is getting the entire picture. But that statement is extremely important because, remember, Kim Roberts was the only other person there.

The accuser said that she was -- she spent one half hour with three men, who raped her. And Kim Roberts said she was with her except -- all the time except for five minutes. So this is a riveting development for purposes of both the prosecution and the defense, but very, very important defense piece of evidence.

LIN: Well, and you would think that claim that it was just a crock would be more credible because it was right at the scene. It was right after the complaint was made. So why would she keep changing her story?

FRIEDMAN: Well, you know, the argument is that Kim Roberts made this statement about a week after the incident. Then two days after that, she was caught violating her parole. So in order -- at least the defense is arguing, that in order to make nice with the prosecution so she doesn't get in trouble for her parole violation, all of a sudden she's switching the story --

LIN: Do you think there's a background deal we don't know about? FRIEDMAN: We're going to find out because one of the allegations of the prosecutor is to turn over any information relating to any possible deal. That's one of the two blockbusters that occurred this week in this case.

LIN: You're not necessarily dealing with a blue ribbon eyewitness. She could just be a flake.

FRIEDMAN: It may very well be. She's been all over the map. Remember the standard here, Carol. This is the most important thing to remember in the Duke lacrosse case. The government must prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. We're seeing reasonable doubt flying all over the place. As I say, that along with the other blockbuster that occurred this week -- we learned that there wasn't one or two lineups. We learned, Carol, that there may have been six or more lineups.

LIN: Six separate lineups and only with lacrosse players, right, at Duke?

FRIEDMAN: One of the lineups was limited to Duke lacrosse players. So this is a terrible, terrible development for the prosecution, a huge development for the defense.

LIN: Avery Friedman, interesting time. Thank you very much. Obviously, we'll be following this case very closely.

Just how easy is it for your company to spy on emails you write at work. We're going to show you when CNN continues in three minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: It's not big brother. It's the big boss. More companies are monitoring their workers' e-mails. And not just monitoring, hiring people to read employees' e-mails. What is it about? Company secrets? More than that. CNN's Rusty Dornin has a story that first ran on "PAULA ZAHN NOW."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When nurse Jamie Ray sends an e-mail from her computer at the DeKalb Medical Center where she works to the outside world, she knows her bosses are looking over her shoulder, electronically speaking. If her message contains any company no-no's, the hospital now has software to catch it.

(on camera): You don't mind the idea...

JAMIE RAY, DEKALB MEDICAL CENTER: No.

DORNIN: ... That they can see what you're typing out if it triggers something?

RAY: Exactly, yes. And not a problem at all, because this is a hospital. It is a secure network. DORNIN (voice-over): Hospital officials say they don't care about most personal e-mails about dinner plans, et cetera, but they do worry about confidential information: patient history, Social Security numbers, and the like. Since last year Sharon Finney has been tasked with keeping up with those questionable e-mails.

(on camera): How many things pop up for you in a day that you have to take a look at?

SHARON FINNEY, DEKALB MEDICAL CENTER: Probably, I would say, probably 200 plus.

DORNIN (voice-over): No one has been fired yet for violations, but a few have been counseled, says Finney.

(on camera): Do people still feel like they're being spied upon?

FINNEY: I think that they're -- I think employees do have some concern when they find out that we're monitoring.

DORNIN (voice-over): So while the software alerts on confidential information, it also alerts on other things that are forbidden. Harassment, for one. So we did a test. Finney sent me an e-mail saying "if you don't respond immediately, I will be forced to take physical action against you." Sounds like a threat to me.

(on camera): Let's see, what time is it now? Let's see what time it is.

FINNEY: It's about 10:30 now.

DORNIN (voice-over): Her e-mail reached me right away.

(on camera): I just received your e-mail.

DORNIN (voice-over): Then it doesn't take long for the red flags to pop up.

FINNEY: And so it's about -- it's probably about 10:40 now. So it took about 10 minutes.

DORNIN (on camera): Right.

FINNEY: And then I get a page on my e-mail or on my BlackBerry that basically comes up and I can see that a -- what it says here, and I've got an e-mail that says I can see regarding account on here. And so I know that that is a secure message that has left the facility.

DORNIN (voice-over): Back in her office, Finney can check the exact wording of the message. Then...

FINNEY: At that point what I would do is I would notify human resources that we had an employee that sent a potentially harassing e- mail.

DORNIN: According to the proof-point survey funded by the company that makes security software, more than 40 percent of major U.S. companies have hired people to do what Finney does, read questionable e-mail. But it's tough to get most companies to discuss this publicly.

(on camera): At CNN's request, ePolicy Institute asked 8,000 companies to be interviewed on their e-mail security. Only three were willing to talk about it. So we asked our parent company, Turner Broadcasting. It would neither confirm nor deny that it monitors our outgoing e-mails. So you might say if "Big Brother" is watching, he's not talking about it. Rusty Dornin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: You can see more of Rusty Dornin's reports on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." That's week nights at 8:00 eastern, 5:00 pacific. .

Right now to an expert on the dos and don'ts on e-mail in the workplace. Virginia Shea is the author of "Netiquitte." She joins us from San Jose, California. How are you?

Virginia how are you?

VIRGINIA SHEA, AUTHOR, "NETIQUITTE" : I'm fine. How are you?

LIN: I'm doing fine. I have to think sometimes maybe you crack a joke in an e-mail but it may not be taken so well. How many companies do you know of that actually actively monitor outgoing e- mails?

SHEA: You know, I really don't know. Because, as you just pointed out, most companies don't advertise the fact if they do or not.

LIN: Well, by law, does an employer have to tell you that they monitor your e-mail?

SHEA: I believe the employer is not required to tell employees if their e-mail is being monitored. As far as I know, there is no law requiring the employer to tell their employees that.

LIN: So what about instant messaging or even private e-mail accounts, if you have an account at hotmail or yahoo and you get on your personal account and send an e-mail? Is that something the company can see in.

SHEA: It would depend on the technology they were using.

LIN: But it's possible? I mean, some companies may be very proactive that way.

SHEA: It's possible. They would be able to track it, if nothing else, if they're tracking your key strokes, they could construct anything you typed on your work computer.

LIN: Wow. How do we handle that? What's the language -- I don't know if you have some examples that you can share with us of people who make big, big mistakes. What are some of the phrases or words that we definitely need to avoid, other than the obvious, that might be surprising to the audience?

SHEA: Again, I'm not in the business of monitoring e-mail. And I also would think that it would vary from company to company. My impression is that what companies are most concerned about is confidential information getting out. So whatever your business is, it's your job to know what confidential information you don't want to have get out. The stories that I know of --

LIN: What if you just diss the boss? Does that come back to you to haunt you?

SHEA: You bet. I would definitely not diss my boss on my work e-mail account. If I were to diss my boss I would do it with my Yahoo! account and do it from my home computer.

LIN: Preferably from my home. I'm sorry you were saying some examples.

SHEA: Examples that I know of people getting in trouble of e- mail are of the most outrageous variety.

LIN: Like?

SHEA: There was a story that happened in the Silicon Valley many years ago of two people at a large computer company who were carrying on an affair and accidentally one of them posted a racy e-mail to a list that visible to the entire company. That was really bad. And they did get fired.

Then there was another thing that happened six or seven years ago. There was a dean at Harvard who had a university-owned computer in his home and he asked to get a hard disk upgrade. And he asked the university technicians to transfer the information he had stored to the new hard disk. And they discovered that he had a lot of pornographic images stored on his university owned hard disk. He was forced to resign.

LIN: The bottom line, be careful. Right?

SHEA: Exactly

LIN: Because it's company property, company time. Anything you say could come back to haunt you. I just had no idea companies could hire people to read your e-mails.

SHEA: New to me, too.

LIN: Day and age.

SHEA: But it's -- thank you.

LIN: Appreciate it.

Tracking a tropical depression in the Caribbean. We'll tell you what the storm is doing in four minutes.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Coming up at the top of the hour, "Iraq, A Week at War." Our team of correspondents around the world talks about the killing of the No. 1 target in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi.

Plus, the war on terror from Canada to London. And how the week hit home for the U.S. military and for Iraqis.

"Iraq: A Week at War" at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Coming up at the top of the hour, Wolf Blitzer hosts "Iraq, a Week at War." CNN correspondents around the world bring you an in- depth look at the major events in the war on terror. This week, the death of al Zarqawi and the foiled terror plot in Canada.

(WEATHER REPORT)

LIN:: The death of the most wanted man in Iraq coming up next in a CNN SPECIAL REPORT. Wolf Blitzer takes an in depth look at the week at war. At 8:00 eastern, "CNN PRESENTS" profiles Osama bin Laden and his top deputy and the world's most wanted.

Coming up on "LARRY KING LIVE" at 9:00 eastern, an exclusive look inside one of the nation's toughest prisons, San Quentin. A check of the headlines is next, and then Wolf Blitzer presents "Iraq: A Week at War."

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