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Reactions Around The Nation to Steinbrenner's Death
Aired July 13, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICHARD LUI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thanks a lot, Tony. I'm Richard Lui, in for Ali Velshi, with you for the next two hours. We're following two major stories dominating the headlines for you today.
Seven hours away from the start of tonight's all-star game, the baseball world reacts to the death of legendary Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.
And the big question in the Gulf of Mexico is our second story: has BP finally contained the gushing oil? That new cap is in place and being put to the test, but how well is it doing/
All right. First story, Major League Baseball loses a titan of the sports world. We're talking about George Steinbrenner. We learned about this, oh, just hours ago. In terms of what is happening very soon, the MLB, all-star game that starts in just hours.
The Yankees owner died this morning from what we hear of a heart attack at the age of 80. Steinbrenner known as the Boss, for a reason that he was powerful; he was controversial. And he was also pioneering.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNNY DAMON, OUTFIELDER: The legacy as an owner you want on your side. You know, the fans love him, because he always goes out and gets the best players.
JASON GIAMBI, INFIELDER: One of the best owners ever in sports. To take an organization from where the Yankees -- I know they were great before he got here, but then he turned it around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: He bought the Yankees back in 1973 for only $8.7 million. He turned that into a sports powerhouse, maybe valued at over $1 billion. Now, his fingerprints are on several World Series championship teams and 11 pennant winners. He did very well, a winning legacy for a formidable owner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILLY MARTIN, YANKEES MANAGER: I'm handling the trades.
GEORGE STEINBRENNER, YANKEES OWNER: That isn't... (CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: That's not what it is.
STEINBRENNER: It is! If you don't like it, you're fired!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: All right. Now, that is the history. That is the culture, the flavor of the way he dealt with his manager, Billy Martin, firing and hiring him five times. Over the decades, his persona just grew larger than life, not just on the cover of sports magazines, where he was just known as George. He arguably became one of the most recognizable sports franchise owners, casting a large shadow on pop culture.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON ALEXANDER, ACTOR: I find it very hard to see the logic behind some of the moves you have made with this fine organization. In the past 20 year, you have caused myself and the city of New York a good deal of distress, as we have watched you take our beloved Yankees and reduce them to a laughingstock, all for the glorification of your massive ego.
LARRY DAVID, ACTOR/WRITER: Hire this man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: OK. So fire [SIC] this man. You heard that. Hiring may be what he's best known for, though. Steinbrenner started a wave of high spending for players in the mid-1970s, one that has not slowed for the Yankees. Last year, for instance, the Yankees' payroll was upward of $265 million, $65 million more than the Mets, which ranked second on this list.
Now, his family reacted. They issued this statement. They're remembering him today. Quote, "He is a visionary and a giant in the world of sports. He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again," end quote.
Well, you know, Steinbrenner reigned over baseball, the empire in the Empire State. But ultimately, was Steinbrenner good for the game or not? That is debatable. Mel Antonen is the baseball writer for "USA Today." He's joining us on the phone from Knoxville, Tennessee. Let me just start by asking very simply, who is George Steinbrenner?
MEL ANTONEN, BASEBALL WRITER, "USA TODAY" (via phone): He's a -- he's a man who was a great businessman who loved community and loved sports and loved to compete. He was known for his bombastic ways, his iron fist, professionalism. But he also had a very soft heart.
If you talk to anybody in Tampa where he lived for more than 30 years, they'll always remember that he was -- he was a bombastic owner in baseball. But in Tampa, he was a soft-hearted community philanthropist. LUI: And you know, Mel, some will call him a member or the leader or the creator of the evil empire. I mentioned earlier the run-up of salaries, the expenses that are now expected when we talk about salaries for major baseball teams, Major League Baseball teams. On the flip side, others who adore him will say he changed the game to make it better.
ANTONEN: Without a doubt he changed the game to make it better. He made the Yankees into a great franchise that people, baseball fans across the world, either loved or hated. He developed passion for winning. And that, you know, how many times have you ever heard with the Yankees, you know, you either love him or hate him?
But he had the money in New York. He built his television deal so that he would have more money. And he just kept making good investments and rebuilding the team. Yes, he spent a lot of money, but he also had a good farm system, and he understood the importance of that, as well.
LUI: And Mel, certainly, that's what you're saying: we all have heard of George Steinbrenner. Even if we grew up on the opposite coast, we can be a fan of the New York Yankees, even though we're so far away, or around the world for that matter. How are these fans reacting today? Whether they loved or learned to love to hate him?
ANTONEN: Well, I think they're reacting with grief, especially Yankees fans. He meant a lot to New York. I don't think -- I don't think that there will ever be another George Steinbrenner in New York. Nobody is going to ever be able to replace what he did, but his legacy fit New York. His desire to win and do anything he could to win, fit New York's perfectly.
So in a lot of ways, even though he grew up in Ohio and lived in Tampa, New York baseball fans related to him well.
LUI: Mel Antonen from "USA Today." He lived sports: basketball, football and baseball. You just outlined it quite well by saying what his legacy will be over time. George Steinbrenner dead at the age of 80 today. Mel Antonen, thank you so much for giving us more background.
OK, of course, we'll be watching that story.
Our other big story today, it is day 85 of the Gulf oil disaster, and we are playing the waiting game. The new cap is now in place over the spewing well. And we should learn, in the next day or so, if it will slow down or maybe stop the constant flow of oil. These are live pictures here on my left side. On the right side, you see some pictures from a little bit earlier today.
BP, what they're doing is they're testing this new cap on my left right now. The government's point man on the disaster says the testing involves closing off vents and measuring the pressure in the well. Take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: In this exercise, high pressure is good. We have a considerable amount of pressure down in the reservoir, forcing the hydrocarbons up through the wellbore. We are looking for somewhere between 8 and 9,000 psi inside the capping stack, which would indicate to us that the hydrocarbons are being forced up and the wellbore's being able to withstand that pressure. And that is good news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI; Eight to 9,000 psi. Just to give you context, coming out of your faucet is about 100. So that is a large amount of pressure that they have to watch in order to find that success benchmark.
The testing process that he was talking about could take anywhere from six to two days. It all depends on BP. And they don't want to rush the process, because the cap could do more damage to the well's casting, meaning the flow of oil would continue.
Now, take a look. Right now, there's already over 3,803,000 barrels of oil at the moment from that ruptured well in the Gulf. Now, the oil collection for the helix producer, the Q-4000, will be stopped while this cap integrity testing goes on. And yesterday the helix producer was able to collect a little over 1,000 barrels, bringing the total oil recovery number to 787,600 barrels so far since this leak started.
So what exactly is this sealing cap? And how is it supposed to work in the end? What are we watching for? We'll give you a crash course on capping this well, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LUI: OK. We are watching the progress a mile underneath the sea surface in the Gulf. This as we're waiting for some answers. They're saying could take anywhere from 6 to 48 hours to conduct this testing of the cap that has been installed underneath the ocean.
We've got Chad Myers, our meteorologist who's been following this end to end.
Chad, why don't we start by, just for our viewers, laying out a very basic foundation with some basic props that are available five and dime.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I feel like I should be, like, Mr. Science or something.
LUI: We're going to try to do that. This -- let's just say, this is the bottom of the sea for our viewers. And I guess what we can say is this is that blowout preventer. It was put on top of that hole in the ground that they had drilled. What this is, is like a giant faucet lever. But it doesn't work right now. Can't turn off. That's the problem they've got.
MYERS: Right. LUI: And what they did is they brought in a cap. Let's just say this is that cap. Now, what this new cap is, is sort of a mini blowout preventer, correct? And now, they're waiting for the test to see can it handle the pressure?
And this is where Chad and I go -- I go to you, Chad, to go through the animation here to understand what is it that they're exactly testing for? What can this new cap do they that put on top this original blowout preventer, this original lever?
MYERS: Well, I don't think there's any problem that this new cap will hold the 8,000 psi that the admiral, retired admiral was talking about.
LUI: Right.
MYERS: Because they just built this.
LUI: Right.
MYERS: People are asking, well, why didn't they do this 80 days ago? Because this didn't exist 80 days ago. They started building this as soon as they knew that they could possibly use it, so this is a brand-new thing. They got it to the ocean floor the day that it was ready to be used.
There's no problem that, I don't think, that this will hold 8,000 psi. What we don't know is what happened to this blowout preventer in the process of the blowout, literally? And of the explosion and of all these other pipes flying around there.
Plus the junk shot that they put in there and whatever else they were trying to do, how compromised is this blowout preventer?
LUI: So they're going to close this down, right?
MYERS: Yes. This is going to stop. This is going to stop the oil from coming out completely. We're going to have to see whether oil comes out here, or here, or here.
LUI: Right.
MYERS: Or maybe all the way down through the borehole itself. Maybe that was compromise, as well. We have no idea.
LUI: Let's talk about that worst-case scenario that you're touching on. As they close this down, what could happen here and underneath the ground?
MYERS: These little pipes that you see sticking out here...
LUI: Right.
MYERS: There are actually -- there are pipes attached to this.
LUI: Right. MYERS: And they are going up to surface ships, sucking oil out of the middle of the blowout preventer before it even comes out -- let's take that off for now -- before it comes out the top. So there's oil coming out the top. Yes, we know. We see that still.
LUI: Right.
MYERS: But a lot of it is still being sucked out of these holes. Those were the holes that, remember, they tried to push the mud in?
LUI: Exactly.
MYERS: They pushed the mud in and in and in.
LUI: And the junk. They went also through the sides there. Didn't work.
MYERS: So could this break up? Is that one of the questions? Absolutely.
LUI: And if that does happen, they're stuck with a worse scenario than they were before?
MYERS: Well, I'm afraid so. And -- and they know that they're very close to getting to the bottom with that second bore.
LUI: Got you.
MYERS: With that second drill that they're going to put it in there anyway, the side drill, the side hole, to be able to cement it.
LUI: Right. Right. They're very, very, very close.
MYERS: Right.
LUI: Let's drill into that new cap that they've got. I know you've got an animation for that.
MYERS: Here's the old cap. We shut the oil off so that you could see it. Here's the old cap. It didn't really work very well, because the oil went around the outside of it. It wasn't really a cap. It was more like a suction device. It was a funnel that they put on top, hoping that a lot of the oil would go into that funnel. That didn't work.
Then there was that part. That part was the part that was still sitting there on top of the blowout preventer. It was where that -- the riser itself had kinked over. It was kind of ugly. It wasn't straight up and down.
LUI: Yes. Right.
MYERS: And that's when the cap went on. It was not a good seal because it wasn't straight.
LUI: Yes. MYERS: They cut it off. It was crooked. It wasn't very good.
LUI: It wasn't meant to bend?
MYERS: It wasn't meant to bend. They took it off...
LUI: Yes.
MYERS: ... with an amazing machine that came down over the top and unscrewed all the bolts. I don't know how they unscrew bolts.
LUI: It was amazing video.
MYERS: I really don't know how they do that. I don't know how you get the torque when you've got an ROV that's going to be in the water.
LUI: These little guys floating around. Right.
MYERS: They're smarter than we are all together.
But now, what they have is a beautiful, symmetric top that they're going to put this bottle, wherever it went. The bottle now goes on top of this new, clean, symmetric top. It slides over the top. There's a gap here. It's going to clamp down around it, and it's going to be a good seal.
LUI: And Chad, that's the difference, a good seal right here, how that cleanliness that you brought out for us.
MYERS: The good seal here. There's a good seal here. And then this blowout preventer now, new blowout preventer. They're not calling it that...
LUI: Right.
MYERS: ... but whatever. It's still allowing the oil to come up and letting the oil go out these perforated holes up here.
LUI: Sure.
MYERS: The top is still allowing the oil to come out.
LUI: Right.
MYERS: For now.
LUI: To relieve pressure, right?
MYERS: Because they want to check this psi thing. You want to -- right now, just checked psi. It's about 300. They're not moving it at all. They will begin -- and you can go to the -- go to BP live video on Google, and you can watch all of these ROVs down there. It's amazing. They're going to begin to shut off these valves, and that's when the pressure is going to come up. Because clearly, when the oil is not going out the top, it's going to be pushed down or going to be held into this old blowout preventer.
LUI: And Thad Allen said the higher the numbers the better here, because they want to see how much it can handle, right?
MYERS: Well, no, it's all relative. The highest pressure is probably going to be about 8,000 psi.
LUI: Right.
MYERS: When they see 8,000, they know there's no other piece of this being compromised somewhere else. If it goes to 8,000 and holds for an hour, then all of a sudden goes to 3,000, that's bad.
LUI: Yes.
MYERS: Something else blew up. Something else blew out somewhere. And all of these old pipes that are down there that could have been compromised, could have been injured, could have been damaged...
LUI: Right.
MYERS: ... when the whole thing blew up in the first place, we don't even know. That was three months ago.
LUI: Right. They'll be looking for leaks in areas down here that will be giving away as they raise that pressure. So that's what we can look for.
MYERS: You'll see pictures live.
LUI: You'll see it live.
MYERS: Pictures of the ROV. You'll see a great shot, and then all of a sudden, if there's a leak down here, it will be completely black. You won't see a thing. And we'll know that that valve and that oil is coming out somewhere else.
LUI: And we're watching that right now. This is what's happening right now. Chad Myers, thank you for filling that in for us. We've got a good sort of sense of what to look out for. Some of the challenges that's happening a mile underneath the sea.
After the break for you, the difficulty of caring for people with HIV gets even tougher in a down economy. How bad has it gotten?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LUI: All right. President Obama is unveiling a new national strategy to fight AIDS today. An estimated 56,000 people in the United States are infected with HIV each and every year. And the White House wants to cut that number by 25 percent, within five years. In the meantime, caring for people already infected is getting tougher than ever, with the economy crippling a government program that provides costly medicine.
Patricia Wu is here with all the details.
Hi, Patricia.
PATRICIA WU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Richard.
Well, you know that losing your job usually means losing your health insurance. So for people with HIV, it means that they need government assistance to pay for the medicine that helps them stay healthier and live longer.
Now, these drugs are really expensive. The government pays an average of $12,000 a year per person. It's even more if you have private insurance. But state budgets are stretched so thin now, that people have to go on waiting lists just to qualify for help.
Currently, 2,100 people in 11 states are on waiting lists for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. And that's not all, cash-strapped states are also limiting eligibility and enrollment while cutting back on which drugs they'll cover. And thousands of people are affected. More than 168,000 people received their medicines through this program last year, Richard.
LUI: And a lot of these medicines are not inexpensive. The treatments are not inexpensive. You underlined that by saying there's a financial challenge here. Does his plan address any of that?
WU: Well, the plan being announced today is not expected to include an increase in federal spending. But last week, the administration did allocate an additional $25 million to help get more people off those wait lists for drug assistance. The problem is, though, that it just may not be enough. Advocacy groups and state officials have been asking for an extra $126 million this fiscal year. So, that's five times as much, Richard.
LUI: OK. So you mentioned the waiting list. What if you get to be one of those names on that waiting list, or even worse, you get kicked off?
WU: Well, you can try contacting the drug maker. Most pharmaceutical companies have programs that provide discounted or even free medicines to people who can't afford the drugs.
Advocates also tell us that relief is coming when provisions of the new health-care law kick in. But that doesn't take effect until 2014. People who don't qualify for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program or Medicaid would be eligible for health care coverage subsidies. But it is a long time to wait if you need these drugs now to survive, Richard.
LUI: Certainly true. The breakdown for us, Patricia Wu, as we wait for the president's new plan to come out some time today, we expect that to happen, something like 40, 45 pages. And you gave us a little bit of a preview right there. Patricia Wu.
And by the way, be sure to watch "YOUR $$$$$" this weekend and every weekend: Saturdays at 1 p.m. Eastern and Sundays at 3 to get news like that.
The baseball world is remembering George Steinbrenner on this all-star day. Top stories are next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LUI: All right. Top stories right now. An icon of the sports world, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, died of a heart attack this morning in Florida. He was known as the Boss for more than 30 years and will be remembered for firing managers and winning championships, as well. The Yankees won seven World Series titles during his reign. He was 80 years old.
A mosque near Ground Zero? Well, in about half an hour, that controversial issue is being talked about in New York. A decision by the city's landmarks preservation commission could pave the way here for the building of a mosque and community center there. But some are saying a mosque at the site would be wrong, because the Twin Towers were destroyed by Islamist hijackers. Others say that view reflects ignorance about the beliefs of Islam.
The Senate moves closer to passing a Wall Street reform bill with a little GOP help here. Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson now saying he'll support that bill. And that should give Democrats the 60 votes that they need to avoid a Republican filibuster on that.
Worlds and views colliding in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel 9/11 very, very much. We belong in this area.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is an insult. This is demeaning. This is humiliating that you would build a shrine to the very ideology that inspired the attacks of 9/11.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: All right. Well, today another hearing on the controversial mosque project just blocks from Ground Zero. We'll have both sides of his story for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LUI: All right. Emotions are running high in Lower Manhattan today and, for that matter, over the recent weeks. Heated hearing is about to get started in New York City. We'll be waiting for that and watching it.
The focus really here is a controversial mosque project that's just blocks from Ground Zero. To get perspective on that, we have two people you'll want to hear from today. First, we've got Tim Brown. He's a retired New York City firefighter and a 9/11 survivor. We've also got Edina Lekovic, who is a communications director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Tim, I want to start with you. If you could tell me, what are some of the objections that you've got on this project? Tim, you can hear me?
It looks like Tim Brown cannot hear us at the moment. So what we'll do is we'll go do Edina, as we try to find out what the issues are, in terms of communications with Tim.
Edina, there have been a lot of criticisms about the location of this proposed project. Why does it need to be so close to the Ground Zero area?
EDINA LEKOVIC, MUSLIM PUBLIC AFFAIRS COUNCIL: Well, I think the intention of the folks behind this mosque, who are Muslims in New York, is to create a place near Ground Zero that stands out boldly on behalf of Muslims to reject the kind of ideology, the sick and twisted version of Islam that led to the horrific acts on 9/11.
This place, this Cordova House Mosque, is intended to be a place of interfaith understanding and respect. It's supposed to be a community center that brings people together, instead of pulling them apart. And that's the intention here. And I think that that's why it's gotten so much support from people like Mayor Bloomberg and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo from the state of New York, in addition to the September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, which is over 200 of the families who had victims on 9/11.
LUI: Edina.
LEKOVIC: Yes.
LUI: Edina, what we're going have to do, because we're still having trouble getting Tim Brown. He's a retired firefighter. And the communication issues that we had a little bit ago. So what we're going to do, because we want to make sure that we get both sides of this discussion. I know you want to do the very same thing. So what we're going to do is we want to go to break. We'll get back to your answer. We'll also get back to Tim Brown. We'll make sure to get the story to our viewers.
So for our viewers, stick around. We'll be right back. As I said, we're going to see if we can get Tim Brown back on the horn here and continue this conversation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LUI: All right. We're going to jump back into that conversation they were having before the break, and that is about a proposed mosque that will be just blocks away from the former site of the Twin Towers at ground zero in lower Manhattan.
Now, there has been some heated debate in recent weeks in New York City about this issue. The controversial project remains to be decided today. Now, we're going to bring in Tim Brown, he's a former New York City police-excuse me firefighter. We were having some technical issues earlier. I think we've go those fixed We also have Edina Lekovic, the communications director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and Edina we're going to pick up where we left, and that is the site.
Why does the proposed mosque need to be so close and right there?
EDINA LEKOVIC, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, MUSLIM PUBLIC AFFAIRS COUNCIL:: Well the Cordoba House mosque is a bold effort by Muslim New Yorkers to reject the kind of extreme violent and sick vision of Islam that drove the 9/11 hijackers.
This place, this center is intended to be a place that promotes inter-religious understanding and respect in direct opposition again to that sick and twisted vision that we're all opposed to. And I think that that's the very reason that-I was mentioning that Mayor Bloomberg, Attorney General Cuomo, and countless others in addition to the September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrow, why they're all in favor of this project because they see the good it can do, in addition to being, alongside other house of worship in New York.
LUI: Edina was saying here, Tim, that this project will actually work against some of the perceptions of the extreme Islamic forces that caused the attack on ground zero. Do you agree with what she said there?
TIM BROWN, NY FIREFIGHTER: Well, you know, I've heard that numerous times from the Imam and other folks. If that were true, we would be on the same page. You know, they're very disingenuous, what she said is very disingenuous, the truth is they might not endorse extremism. But they want the same goal. They what Sharia law brought to America. This Sharia recruitment tower that is in purposely in place --
LEKOVIC: Absolutely not.
BROWN: At the place of ground zero, it's a recruiting tool for Islam to bring people into the Muslim faith.
LUI: Well, Tim - she it sounds .like Edina, hang on one second.
LEKOVIC: Sure.
LUI: Tim, what you're saying, it is a way-- a method of recruiting, yet more of the same that you object to. Now Edina, I could tell during the-- as he was speaking that you absolutely disagree with what he's saying. Fill me in.
LEKOVIC: Yes, absolutely not. Anybody who no knows anything about the USMA (ph) society or the Cordoba initiative, knows that the folks who are behind this project are truly about what they're pushing here which is about inter-religious understanding.
Their track record shows that the place is supposed to be about, again, people getting to know one another. And about being an open and welcoming place that promotes a moderate vision of Islam, rooted in the Koran.
Unfortunately, I think that Mr. Brown is off the mark here. And I think our painful memories of 9/11, you know, they're with all of us, but it's precisely because of those memories that we have hold true to our American values of religious freedom.
BROWN: Edina, that's a lie.
LUI: Hang on one second, Tim. Edina, are you done?
LEKOVIC: Sure.
LUI: Tim, go ahead.
BROWN: The family for - the Peaceful Tomorrows Group is about five family members.
LEKOVIC: It's 200 families.
BROWN: There are families dead set against this. I don't believe you. I want to see their names. We've been lied to so many times by these people.
We don't know which stories to believe. Trust me, the families are against this in large numbers. This is an insult to the families.
And it's an insensitive thing to do to them, for someone who says he's building a bridge. The Imam says he's building a bridge between faiths and peoples. The problem is it's a one-way bridge. It's a bridge to Islam.
LEKOVIC: Absolutely --
LUI: Now Tim, that is one of your objections. You also have other objections to this location. And what are they?
BROWN: Right. Well, Edina, tell me where the money came from? Where did the $4.8 million come from, in cash, where did that come from, if you're being so honest with us.
LEKOVIC: I'm not one of the organizers of the mosque. I don't know the things in front of me.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: You don't know ha ha ha there you go.
I thought you were a spokesperson.
LUI: Tim, to take a step back, the money that you're talking about, why are you asking Edina where that money is coming from? Where do you think it's coming from?
BROWN: I don't know. I know that I've gotten five different answers between Imam Rauf and the Gamal brothers who own Soho properties. They've told me five different things. The last thing they told me is their lawyers won't let us talk about it.
In the London Arabic newspaper, Imam Rauf said this is foreign- funded. He will not say that in English. He will not say that here in the United States. And that is what we suspect. The problem with it is, you know, a lot of these mosques in the United States are funded with Saudi money and with Qatar money from the UAE and we're concerned about that Talk to us about it.
LUI: So Edina, if we look at the project It includes a community center, it includes a gym. It's more than just a mosque. And again, part of the Cordoba initiative according to what you're saying, the objective here to reach out and provide a definition of what Islam is in a broad sense?
LEKOVIC: That's right. And I think that that's precisely what we need today. You know, I think that calling for understanding where this money will come from, I think that will be part of the public records process.
You know, people have a right to know. I don't think there's a problem with that. I think that our core goals here, and, again, I'm not a representative on behalf of the mosque. I'm with the Muslim Public Affairs Council. But this is part of a bigger issue of people looking at mosques as potential threats, when in reality, they're just houses of worship alongside synagogues and churches and they should be treated that way.
You know, these are peaceful people who are looking for a place to worship. And the organizers behind this project have nothing but goodwill to offer and want to be part of the fabric of New York. And I think that's why this project should go forward. And I think that people who were against it, you know should be a part of the process. And should be guests in that mosque, just like everybody else. Because I know this mosque will have its doors open.
BROWN: Edina, we tried to be a part of process. We tried we met with the imam. We met with the Gamal (ph) brothers, and they lied to us. They lied to us more than once. When we questioned them about the mosque, suddenly, the next week, the word mosque was scrubbed off their website.
When we saw that the Imam Rauf was involved with the Perdona Global Peace Organization ,that funded the flotilla $366,000, that funded the flotilla to break the free Gaza movement a week later, his story and his picture came down off the Perdona Global Peace Initiative. He is not forth right. They are not forthright and they have lied to us.
LUI: A little background according to the The New York Times, on who you're talking about, the Imam Faisal, it was said " Those who have worked with him say, if anyone could pull off what many regard to be a delicate project, it would be Imam Faisal". Just to give the opposite side, of what you're saying there, now Tim, I want to ask you is your objection to the location or is your objection really more to mosques?
BROWN: Well certainly, it's the location. He chose this location for a purpose. Depending on when you talk to the Imam, either it's ground zero sore not ground zero. He spins that either way to his advantage.
We, when I say we, I mean the firefighters, the police officer, the family member, the majority by far, the family members, do not want this built 600 feet from ground zero.
Look at the irony of this. The memorial to those who were murdered that day by radical Muslim terrorists is underground. Now, we're saying, okay, build a 13-story tower, towering over our memorial.
What's wrong with this picture? Who is making these decisions? The politically correct need to take off their rose-colored glasses and they need to see reality. They need to ask the hard questions like Rick Lazio is asking, like Pete King is asking and like Rudy Guliani is asking, they are showing leadership and courage by asking the hard questions like we are.
LUI: Tim, is there a compromise? Very quickly we have to go do you see one, yes or no?
BROWN: I didn't hear you, I'm sorry?
LUI: Is there a compromise? Do you see a solution that would be a happy medium between the two sides?
BROWN: Yes, they can build -- yes, they can build it somewhere else, not at ground zero. That's the compromise.
LUI: And of course, Edina, do you see a compromise here in this at all between the two sides? What would you suggest?
LEKOVIC: I think this project should move forward. I think that it's an emblem that rejects-rejects the violent vision of Islam and replaces it with one that's a peaceful one fuelled with co-exist co- existence.
And I think that's precisely the message that can live at near ground zero. And show the world and New Yorkers that Muslims fully and completely reject what took place on 9/11 as a counter to our teachings and core values.
LUI: Edina, thank you so much. Tim we have to go-- I thank you so much for spending time both of you. It's a very important subject for Manhattan absolutely. And what we're going to do, we're going to watch this conversation. We're going to watch this debate. It's going to be happening today in the next bunch of minutes.
And when that does begin, we will get the very latest. If we get some pictures from inside that discussion, we'll have that here on CNN as well. Thank you both for helping us to understand the issues behind what is being decided today. Appreciate it.
All right just days after a deadly terror bombs in Uganda, there's new evidence the attackers may have been planning new strikes. We're going "Globe Trekking" to Uganda's capital for the latest: .
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LUI: Time now go "Globe Trekking" first to Uganda's capital, Kampala the site of terror bombs attacks Sunday, which killed at least 74 people. Police have found a suicide vest. An explosive laced with ball bearings.
Some evidence that more attacks may have been planned in that. CNN's David Mckenzie joins us now from Kampala with the very latest in terms of what was behind the attack. David--
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Richard, what was behind this attack is widely believed to be Al Shabaab that Islamic terrorist group based out of Somalia which has. links to Al Qaeda, and is on the U.S. government's terror watch list.
As you said, police earlier today brought out what they said was evidence. They said it was a suicide vest and other paraphernalia. It points to the fact that this could have been an even more devastating bomb attack.
It occurred late on Sunday night here in Kampala, Uganda's capital, as people were watching the soccer World Cup at a Ethiopian restaurant. And also at a rugby club watching the game.
And the blast happened and killed those scores of people. Richard they showed us this, because they said this could mean possibly this would have been another level of this attack.
We spoke to a bar manager who was at the place where the vest was found, and certainly, it shows that Ugandans are very vigilant right now and it's a worrying sign that Al -Shabaab is spreading its terror beyond the Somalia's border, Richard--.
LUI:: All right. So we talk about Al-Shabaab here David. There's also the issue of African union, objection to their presence and their actions in the area. Talk about that, if you could.
MCKENZIE: Well, African union in fact has forces in Somalia and Uganda has at least two battle groups in Somalia trying to prop up the weak transitional government there. And they are really the Ugandans and other African --
LUI: Okay. Looks like we lost our connection with David Mckenzie who's covering that latest report coming out of Kampala, Uganda. Again those attacks that have now been claimed ; by Al Shabaab, and he was trying to explain to us the presence of the African union there, and the objection to some of the activities that they're undertaking in that space.
And it's believed that may have been a reason behind the attacks there, if we can get David Mckenzie back in Uganda, we'll do that. But we're going to move on to our next story as we "Globe Trek" for you.
We move to a mystery of sorts linking Iran and the United States, and Iranian nuclear scientists who the Iranian government claims was kidnapped by the CIA has turned up in Washington.
Shahram Amiri is holed up in the Pakistani Embassy there. Iran maintains a section of the Pakistani Embassy because Tehran and Washington do not have diplomatic relations at the moment.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Amiri is in the country of his own free will and is free to return to Iran. He disappeared during a trip to Saudi Arabia last year. Washington has denied any involvement in this case.
Okay. That's globe trekking for you. We are going to move now to today's "Big I". We you know kind of go a little retro here. We're going back 25 years at the global musical event that set a trend and helped change the world. You know what it is?
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LUI I want you to go back in your mind and think of a date 25 years ago today was an event of a generation. Live Aid, that music extravaganza that brought superstars together to fight famine in Africa.
Today in the "Big I" you know we're really going to retro, we've got Josh Levs. Because when we think retro we think of this guy. You're not that old. We're going to look back at this groundbreaking concern and Josh what have you got on that? I know cnn.com 's got a bunch of stuff on it?
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a moment of a generation. It was incredible. I'm going o show of these pictures but I remember this specifically 25 years ago. I remember being a kid in Albany, New York, being peeled to the tube all day.
LUI: There you are right there right?
LEVS: Right yes many parents wanted to bring me to the middle of that crowd. And what we have are all these amazing shots. These were all the superstars.
LUI: Look at this I love this shot.
LEVS: Look who else is up here. Some of them do look exactly the same. We got all the stars all the way through here. This was, back in '85, it was a huge deal because it was all the stars coming together. I remember I was peeled to the tube all day.
Then I borrowed my sister's box so I could keep listening to it even when I had to go out. At the time this was a whole new idea. it was the "Big I"
What happened at the time is you had all these stars who for the first time decided, OK we're going to take on this major issue and we did.
LUI: And really Josh it was also a "Big I" because they were working together. After Live Ad, you started to see a lot of these group concerts around the world, in towns and traveling around, different places in those areas. Also raising money along the way.
LEVS: That's tight well two things happened. Let's go to the video. We have a little bit of video from Live Aid itself 25 years ago today. This was July 13th, '85. This was at JFK stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
And also it happened at the same time in Londons' Wembley Stadium. And the goal here was to raise money for the victims of famine in Africa, specifically Ethiopia.
LUI: Queen!
LEVS: Yes Queen, at least Freddie Mercury was there, and it did. It raised more than $200,000 000. And this to this day as Richard's saying is the event that others have tried to copy and learn from. To avoid it's mistakes as well. Because it wasn't as simple as you get lots of money. Some of the money made to it the people who need it but the fact is some of it also did not. And Nile Rogers who was one of the performers, he later said, they didn't understand he said we didn't understand the business or the government structure --
LUI: They just did it.
LEVS: Right. And there was money that they gathered. So what you find ever since then all these decades later is that what these other groups are doing is trying to hold these big events but also learn from the mistakes by being more primarily about education.
In fact look what they did back in 2005. This was a 20 year anniversary basically a few days off came this one, this was 2005 Live 8, remember this?
They helped draw attention to global poverty the G 8 and other world powers after this. They did kind of get the message. They increased after this poverty aid and they also alleviated Africa's debt. But we'll never know how much was due to the concert.
Then in 2007, there was another one, this was Live Earth. That was also designed to bring attention to global warming or climate change. So what you see here is that these things that have happened ever send have been largely about education, bringing attention.
A little bit less focused on the money. Because it was clear that that kind of fund-raising, it can lead to problems and political challenges. LUI: And it's become a force, and that's when it started. I mean MTV was just getting off the ground back then. Everything started coming together. And that is why it is the "Big I" today as we look back 25 years. Certainly a milestone in our history.
LEVS: And is an idea that did it changed the way the music industry operates it changed what superstars try to do with their energy and their time and their status. To this day, we see the results of this "Big I" 25 years ago.
LUI: How old were you when you were watching all this?
LEVS: I'm old enough to remember. I do remember. I really do.
LUI: Thanks a lot, josh.
An important review of the diabetes drug Avandia going on today. We're going to watch that Some studies saying it could be dangerous tough. We'll tell you about that.
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LUI: All right the safety of the popular diabetes drug Avandia is being questioned after some studies suggested it could be linked to major heart problems and even death. Now the FDA is holding hearings today and tomorrow to consider whether to pull Avandia just completely off the shelves.
Here's cardiologist Dr. Steven Nissen commenting just a little while ago on whether the diabetes drug should have been on the market to begin with.
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STEVEN NISSEN, CARDIOLOGIST: The mistake got made, the genie got out of the bottle and we've been trying to put the genie back in ever since.
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OK so there are some big questions about Avandia that the FDA hopes to explore today and tomorrow. Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains and gives us more.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn it on. And let it heat up.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Edward Darden was diagnosed with diabetes 10 years ago. In 2006, he started taking Avandia to control his blood sugar. And then came a study in "The New England Journal of Medicine." The headline: "A 43 Percent Increase in Heart Attacks" for patients on Avandia.
Dr. Steven Nissen wrote that article in 2007, and an update last month. He's giving a presentation to the FDA.
DR. STEVEN NISSEN, CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE, CLEVELAND CLINIC: We've had evidence now for a number of years that Avandia increases the risk of heart attack in diabetic patients.
GUPTA: But, in 2007, this same panel voted, 22 to 1, that the evidence was too weak to take Avandia off the market. One reason, a large clinical trial called Record. It was funded by GlaxoSmithKline, the company that makes Avandia, and shows "no increased risks." But it's taking some heat. On Friday, the FDA posted an analysis by one of its experts who said Record is full of holes. He said that researchers didn't follow up on reports of bad outcomes, even for some patients who died.
NISSEN: I've been following the FDA for 20 years. I've never seen an FDA review as blistering as his review of the Record trial.
GUPTA: This is Dr. Murray Stewart, a top Glaxo scientist. We asked him to come on camera. He didn't want to before the hearing. He did tell us by phone, "Avandia is safe." And he said that "six clinical studies," not just Record, back him up.
It's extremely confusing for diabetes specialists, like Barbara Onumah at Washington Hospital Center.
DR BARBARA ONUMAH, WASHINGTON HOSPITAL CENTER: There is a lot of information out there and we don't know which to believe. And I think this is where we really rely on the government agencies to give us some direction as to whether the medicine is safe or not.
EDWARD DARDEN, DIABETES PATIENT: If there's a better alternative, something that doesn't have as much risk, I'd rather do that. And I think that's what we do.
GUPTA: Edward Darden didn't wait. He switched to another medication. And he's not alone. Prescriptions of Avandia are down by two-thirds in the past three years.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
