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CNN Live Saturday

Allied, Axis Veterans Share D-Day Stories; Iraqis Trained for New Defense Corps; Scientists Return to Titanic; Punctuation Book Dashes to Top of Best Seller List

Aired June 05, 2004 - 12:30   ET

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

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


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, ANCHOR: More on today's top story, President Bush is in France to commemorate D-Day. But first he's meeting with French president Jacques Chirac, an opponent to the war in Iraq.
There was a touch of royalty among today's occasions marking D- Day. Prince Charles was on hand for several events, including the dedication of a British garden of remembrance in Normandy. It's a tribute to the 15 British and Allied divisions that fought on D-Day.

And the governments of France and Belgium marked the sacrifices of Allied troops at the Canadian cemetery in Doville (ph).

A small French town is recognized as the first stop on what is now called the Way of Liberty. And 60 years after D-Day, former soldiers from both sides, Allied and Axis, returned to share their stories with Jim Bitterman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the 60 years since members of the 82nd Airborne dropped out of the sky to liberate the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, it's become something of a D-Day Disneyland.

But when you get beyond the souvenir stands and dress up soldiers, you can find the real drama that took place here.

HOWARD MANOIAN, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: Three of my other men landed is this pasture.

BITTERMAN: Ask Howard Manoian what it feels like to be a 19- year-old corporal dropped far behind enemy lines and alone. And you begin to get a different feel for what war is like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I was fortunate I landed here on a clear spot. And then when I realized where I was, that was sort of a bad omen. And I said, "I have to get out of here."

BITTERMAN: Still by dawn, the regrouped members of the 82nd had taken control of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Howard's mission was concise and clear...

MANOIAN: All I know is once we get in there, keep going direct east. We're going to be in Berlin, and the war is going to be over. BITTERMAN (on camera): The town was the first to be liberated in France. It is at today, Kilometer Zero, the starting point of what they call here the Way of Liberty.

But shortly after paratroopers raised the American flag at city hall here, the Germans counterattacked.

(voice-over) German Private Rolf De Booser remembers it well. His unit was awakened in order to march 15 miles and retake Sainte- Mere-Eglise from the Allies at any cost.

Eighteen at the time, when he saw the size of the American forces and the way they had taken out German armor, he knew it wasn't possible.

ROLF DE BOOSER, WORLD WAR II GERMAN PRIVATE (through translator): No, no, we had nothing against this army, this force. Among all my comrades we only had rifles, and that's all.

BITTERMAN: Old soldiers and younger ones who visit Sainte-Mere- Eglise today hang out at the Stop Bar (ph). About 15 years ago, Howard began seeing German vets, his old enemies, among them. Some, like Rolf, are now companions.

DE BOOSER (through translator): the bad times are over now. It's better. Fortunately.

BITTERMAN: Still, is there any lingering animosity between a pair who might have killed each other 60 years ago?

MANOIAN: All I know is they're shooting at us, I shoot back. That's it. No feelings, you know?

BITTERMAN (on camera): Nothing personal?

MANOIAN: Nothing personal.

BITTERMAN (voice-over): Today the old soldiers who were on different sides of a world war pose and sign autographs in front of the Stop Bar (ph), answering the questions.

But the one Howard says he'll never answer is how many Germans did you kill?

In the church that was at the center of fighting in Sainte-Mere- Eglise, a choir was almost, exactly six decades later, singing for peace.

D-Day anniversaries bear an obligation to remember. But few, especially not the old soldiers, want to revive memories they've worked hard to reconcile.

Jim Bitterman, CNN, Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: And tomorrow observations from a journalist on hand for the D-Day invasion 60 years ago. Walter Cronkite talks to Wolf Blitzer on "LATE EDITION." That's Sunday at noon Eastern Time.

The CIA leak probe reaches the vice president's doorstep. Administration sources confirm to CNN that federal prosecutors have interviewed Dick Cheney in recent days.

Investigators reportedly asked the vice president if he knew of any White House sanctioned efforts to expose the identity of an undercover CIA operative.

The White House denies involvement, but President Bush has lined up a lawyer just in case prosecutors want to question him.

Donald Rumsfeld is seeking support for Iraq from another Muslim country. The defense secretary is winding up his trip to Asia with a stop in Bangladesh. He had been attending a regional security conference in Singapore.

Rumsfeld says Iraq faces major risks if the U.S. pulls out too soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The alternatives are clear. You could have anarchy, you could have several war, you could have ethnic cleansing. You could have the country broken up into pieces. You could have another Saddam Hussein, junior version, arrive on the scene and take over and reimpose a vicious dictatorship and start filling up mass graves again.

So there is no alternative but pursuing this effort, transferring power to the Iraqi people, being steadfast and determined.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: It is unlikely Bangladesh will send troops to Iraq. Officials there say they would only consider the move under the auspices of the United Nations.

In Iraq, planning for the future. Young men are signing up, eager to join the country's civil defense corps.

Jane Arraf visited the boot camp in Kut.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These men don't look like the solution to Najaf's security problems, but the U.S. is hoping they eventually will be.

They're recruits for the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, being trained by the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Kut, about 80 miles away.

Just over halfway into their two weeks of basic training, they're still trying to learn things like falling into formation.

What they may lack initially in formations, they make up for in courage. Iraqi defense forces and police are a leading target of insurgents. For $140 a month they put themselves at risk just by being associated with the U.S.-led coalition. They don't even have decent boots yet.

They say they are the solution.

"If I don't go and confront them, who will?" asks this recruit, whose two brothers have also joined up.

Right now, there are just two platoons, just about 100 people from Najaf. Still a few are applying, turning up at the U.S. Army base here at Najaf.

(on camera) Although they are required to renounce the Ba'ath party, there's really no way of screening people who might support the Mehdi Army.

When the militia seized Najaf and Karbala in April, thousands of Iraqi police and civil defense forces either stayed home or joined the other side.

(voice-over) They know they need to be from the people of Najaf, says this platoon sergeant.

U.S. forces here are trying to provide an alternative to young men other than the militia. They're offering them paid work.

One of the first tasks will be cleaning up this amusement park.

CAPT. LEONARD KERGOMEN, U.S. ARMY: It keeps their minds occupied, keeps their bodies occupied here. It's tiresome work, so when they're done at the end of the day, instead of going out at night, possibly participating in anti-coalition activity, they're sleeping.

ARRAF: In cities where the Mehdi Army has taken root, whether it's giving Iraqi shovels or a civil defense uniform, part of the battle, the U.S. military says, is putting young men back to work.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Kut, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, after 90 years under water the Titanic still holds mysteries, and explorers are still eager to uncover them. We'll talk to one of them straight ahead.

Plus, it may seem exclusive and maybe even boring, but Martha's Vineyard could be the perfect vacation spot for you. We'll show you why, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Now some stories from across America.

Colorado officials say a man is dead after rampaging through the town of Granby in an armored bulldozer, one that he owned. It demolished a number of buildings in town as the driver exchanged gunfire with police.

It's believed he was reacting to a zoning decision that hurt his business. Authorities think he may have killed himself.

As many as 200 Florida Power and Light customers found a way to cut their bills in half. But guess what? Miami police say the money- saving device they used was illegal.

The creator of the device was arrested. You see him being taken away. Police say that his gizmo allowed about a half -- half of the homeowners' electricity to bypass their electricity meters.

Well, travel is getting a little more expensive as Continental Airlines hikes ticket prices by $10 to $20 each way. The Texas-based carrier blames soaring jet fuel bills. Other major airlines are matching the hikes.

And there's a drop to report. Not prices but tides. The lowest ocean tides in 19 years in the Pacific Northwest. The extra close look at what's often under water has drawn hundreds to the shores for a closer look.

A legend lies at the bottom of the North Atlantic. The Titanic, the luxury ship that spawned countless epic tales, has been 92 years under water now, ravaged, decaying, and still beckoning explorers to probe its secrets.

Now a group of scientists is on a voyage, back to the majestic liner and taking television viewers on a tour of the sunken gravesite.

This morning I spoke with one of the explorers aboard the Ronald H. Brown. I asked captain Craig McLean what they hope to do.

CAPT. CRAIG MCLEAN, "RETURN TO TITANIC": We're here at the wreck site of the RMS Titanic. It's two and a half miles beneath up. We're on the lower research ship Ronald H. Brown. It's a 273-foot ship, very sophisticated.

And we brought the robotics from Doctor Robert Ballard's team, and we brought Dr. Ballard out here. And we also have a team from "National Geographic" to help us broadcast this and share some interesting technology and views of the Titanic with the rest of the world.

We're here for science, though, primarily, and we're trying to measure the rate of change on the Titanic site since its discovery 20 years ago.

WHITFIELD: And what are your expectations?

MCLEAN: Well, I think our expectations are being achieved. We wanted to measure change, and we're seeing some interesting changes in the Titanic. It's helping us to learn how fast do ships of this size and in this depth of water, how fast do they decay.

And knowing that, we'll know how better to guide the conduct of people who might visit the Titanic so that we can help protect the site as a maritime memorial and also as an interesting site of maritime history.

There are changes that we've seen. We're documenting those. Those changes will be able to be seen live in the broadcast that we're going to have with the Geographic Channel on June 7.

And we're very pleased with what we're seeing so far. The technology is working amazingly well.

WHITFIELD: So there is no plan to try to bring up any portions of the Titanic?

MCLEAN: Well, currently, there is a legal salver in possession. As the technical term would apply, there is a company that has legal rights to collect materials from Titanic, conserve them and put them on public display.

We're not touching anything on this mission. We're really engaged in purely a look but don't touch operation.

The vehicles that we're deploying are unmanned vehicles. They have very sophisticated high definition television cameras on them. And we can zoom in with such clarity and such close focus that we don't need to be down there. We can see better with these remotely operated vehicles than we could if we were in a human occupied submersible.

WHITFIELD: Isn't part of the problem, though, that those salvage rights were given about ten years ago, and in the amount of time that's elapsed, there have been scavengers, divers, people who have gone down there, and essentially taken a lot of the valuable properties of the Titanic?

MCLEAN: There have been rumors of unlawful visits, but we don't have any clear documentation to confirm that. We also don't see direct evidence of any intervention.

Clearly, the salvage and recovery efforts from the recovery company are evident, but we don't see any direct evidence of any unlawful intervention.

If we collect materials from this site, we obviously would have an impact on what the site looks like today. We would have to balance that with the opportunity to see these materials in a museum-like setting.

But our interest here scientifically is to assess what the rate of damage is on site from -- from the visits of scientists like ourselves, and of course that's why we are looking but not touching. These are consistent practices with guidelines that we produced in 2001 to try and help protect the Titanic.

WHITFIELD: How exciting is this for you personally and for other researchers and scientists to be a part of this project?

MCLEAN: It's very exciting to be working on this project. We're very pleased with the team we've been able to put together here. We've got Dr. Ballard, his Institute for Exploration, the technology of broadcast from the EDS folks. We also have "National Geographic" out here to document this for us.

And we have some very respected scientists involved right here on the Ronald H. Brown, our NOAA ship, our home. But we also have them back on land bases, and they're joining us by satellite, much as I'm talking to you.

So we have scientists participating in this mission who aren't on this ship. We're using our new satellite telemetry technology to accomplish this.

So it's very exciting for us, and it's always very exciting to visit something as esteemed as the Titanic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: To find out more tune in to National Geographic Channel Monday night at 9 p.m. Eastern for the world premiere of "Return to Titanic."

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, perhaps you're a stickler for spelling or grammar. Well, Beth Nissen met one of the best around.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This one little book's dash to the top of the bestseller lists in two countries has been a surprise, period.

LYNNE TRUSS, AUTHOR, "EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES": When every day they're publishing -- they're reprinting another 60,000 copies today. I just keep thinking, "Well, it's about punctuation. How can this possibly be the case?"

NISSEN: Lynn Truss is a journalist, novelist and self-described stickler whose book is a field guide to what she calls an endangered species, properly placed punctuation marks: colons, semicolons, quotation marks, apostrophes.

She says apostrophes, those airborne commas, are especially endangered.

TRUSS: What is happening with the apostrophe is that it's just dying out, because people don't know how to use it and they think it's probably best to leave it out.

HUGH GRANT, ACTOR: That's just silly.

NISSEN: That's the mistake producers of the Hugh Grant-Sandra Bullock film "Two Weeks Notice" made on the film's title.

TRUSS: The film "Two Weeks Notice" should have had an apostrophe after the "Weeks."

NISSEN: Just as galling to sticklers? Some makers, most of them vendors of fresh produce and groceries, who make the opposite mistake, wrongly putting in an apostrophe to make a word plural.

TRUSS: We actually call it the green grocers' apostrophe, which is where a plural has an apostrophe in it that shouldn't be there.

NISSEN: And another thing that gets sticklers' knickers in a twist -- that's sticklers', apostrophe after the s because "sticklers" is plural. Anyway, another thing that maddens them are signs bearing quotation marks that shouldn't be there.

TRUSS: What you now find really oddly is "pizzas" or something will have an apostrophe. They're also coming with inverted commas (ph). They're also coming with quotation marks, "pizzas," as if to say that they might be pizzas, but we're not sure. You know, we're not promising.

NISSEN: Punctuation can utterly change the meaning of one's writing.

Read this sentence with no internal punctuation: "A woman without her man is nothing."

Read the same sentence punctuated with a colon and a comma: "A woman: without her, man is nothing."

TRUSS: I wrote this book because I really thought how interesting it was that these marks make such a difference in the way we read and write.

NISSEN: Truss blames much of modern day punctuation ignorance and indifference on poor habits developed online.

TRUSS: Because of e-mailing and text messaging and all that, people are writing a great deal and making up their own punctuation as they go along because they don't know that there are rules, let alone what rules there are.

NISSEN: So "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" is a rulebook for all those who, Truss says, don't know their apostrophes from their elbow.

There is guidance here on how to use an exclamation point: sparingly, says Truss. It's the punctuation equivalent of canned laughter.

There's a whole chapter on where to place a comma. There shouldn't be one in the title, which refers to a joke about a gun- toting panda and a badly punctuated wildlife manual.

The goal -- colon -- clear expression. As Truss writes, quote, "All our thoughts can be rendered with absolute clarity if we bother to put the right dots and squiggles between the words in the right places." Period. Close quote.

Beth Nissen -- comma -- CNN -- comma -- New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And in the city that Rocky called home -- exclamation point (sic) -- hopes are riding on another set of legs. Four legs. The story coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Philadelphia sports fans are falling in love with a new local hero: Smarty Jones. A Triple Crown win today would cap a perfect Philadelphia storia -- story, rather.

Bruce Burkhardt has a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two of the largest shirts you have.

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Everyone's snapping up T-shirts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much.

BURKHARDT: A governor declares Saturday Smarty Jones Day in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

GOV. ED RENDELL, PENNSYLVANIA: And encourage all of our citizens to cheer for this courageous and feisty little chestnut horse with the huge heart as he circles the track at Belmont.

BURKHARDT: And on Philadelphia sports talk radio, for weeks it's been topic No. 1, even when their beloved Flyers in the NHL were in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

TRIPP ROGERS, SPORTS TALK RADIO HOST: Everybody wanted to talk about Smarty Jones. Everybody wanted to talk about, you know, winning the Triple Crown.

BURKHARDT (on camera): Even when the Flyers were in the playoffs?

ROGERS: Even though the Flyers were in the playoffs.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): It is just a horse, you might be saying, but -- and this is important -- it is a horse from Philadelphia.

(on camera) But Philadelphia, this isn't horse country.

LARRY BOWA, MANAGER, PHILLIES: It is now.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): Larry Bowa, manager of the Phillies and long-time Philadelphian, is well aware of how this town is thirsting for a champion.

BOWA: Maybe he can break that jinx that's been involved in all of baseball, football, hockey, basketball. Maybe he's just going to break that jinx and let everybody be a champion.

BURKHARDT (on camera): And jump out to the front.

(voice-over) Twenty-one years without a champion, more than any other city with four major sports, but there's more to it than that.

In a town that prides itself on its working class image, Smarty is seen as more blue collar than blue grass.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He looks like the ordinary horse, just coming out and doing it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's pretty happy. But his ears -- You know, his ears when he's running real fast, his ears kind of, like, flap around.

ROGERS: People have made comparisons to Rocky. And I suppose it is, but this is a real-life Rocky story.

BURKHARDT (on camera): Of course, the references to Rocky are irresistible, but Smarty, as far as we know, never ran up these steps for a workout. I think Smarty is smarter than Rocky.

(voice-over) But this is where Smarty does work out, and this, too, is part of the story.

Philadelphia Park is kind of the minor leagues in the horseracing world.

KEITH JONES, PHILADELPHIA PARK: Even to consider here that you would have, A, a horse that would even campaign in the triple crown races, I mean that's kind of unheard of to begin with.

BURKHARDT: So Smarty, the pressure's on. The entire city is counting on you to deliver that Rocky-style knockout punch.

Bruce Burkhardt, CNN, Philadelphia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And race time is later on today. And we apologize. We're unable to bring you Martha's Vineyard as a getaway destination today. So we'll try to bring it back for you next weekend.

So much more ahead on CNN Saturday. In a few moments "IN THE MONEY." At 2 Eastern, "CNN LIVE SATURDAY." At 3 Eastern, "NEXT@CNN," today using high tech for tracking livestock to avoid Mad Cow Disease.

First, here are the headlines.

Worrisome news about former President Ronald Reagan. Sources familiar with his situation say the 93-year-old former president's health is deteriorating.

Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease about a decade ago. Sources say the White House has been told Reagan's death could come soon or it could be in weeks or months.

President Bush is in Paris today, meeting with French President Jacques Chirac. The stop is part of Mr. Bush's three-day European trip, part P.R. tour and part World War II remembrance.

Mr. Bush is trying to rally support for rebuilding efforts in Iraq. He's also commemorating the 60th anniversary of D-Day, which is tomorrow.

Thousands of D-Day veterans already are gathering in Northern France to mark the 60th anniversary...

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired June 5, 2004 - 12:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, ANCHOR: More on today's top story, President Bush is in France to commemorate D-Day. But first he's meeting with French president Jacques Chirac, an opponent to the war in Iraq.
There was a touch of royalty among today's occasions marking D- Day. Prince Charles was on hand for several events, including the dedication of a British garden of remembrance in Normandy. It's a tribute to the 15 British and Allied divisions that fought on D-Day.

And the governments of France and Belgium marked the sacrifices of Allied troops at the Canadian cemetery in Doville (ph).

A small French town is recognized as the first stop on what is now called the Way of Liberty. And 60 years after D-Day, former soldiers from both sides, Allied and Axis, returned to share their stories with Jim Bitterman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the 60 years since members of the 82nd Airborne dropped out of the sky to liberate the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, it's become something of a D-Day Disneyland.

But when you get beyond the souvenir stands and dress up soldiers, you can find the real drama that took place here.

HOWARD MANOIAN, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: Three of my other men landed is this pasture.

BITTERMAN: Ask Howard Manoian what it feels like to be a 19- year-old corporal dropped far behind enemy lines and alone. And you begin to get a different feel for what war is like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I was fortunate I landed here on a clear spot. And then when I realized where I was, that was sort of a bad omen. And I said, "I have to get out of here."

BITTERMAN: Still by dawn, the regrouped members of the 82nd had taken control of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Howard's mission was concise and clear...

MANOIAN: All I know is once we get in there, keep going direct east. We're going to be in Berlin, and the war is going to be over. BITTERMAN (on camera): The town was the first to be liberated in France. It is at today, Kilometer Zero, the starting point of what they call here the Way of Liberty.

But shortly after paratroopers raised the American flag at city hall here, the Germans counterattacked.

(voice-over) German Private Rolf De Booser remembers it well. His unit was awakened in order to march 15 miles and retake Sainte- Mere-Eglise from the Allies at any cost.

Eighteen at the time, when he saw the size of the American forces and the way they had taken out German armor, he knew it wasn't possible.

ROLF DE BOOSER, WORLD WAR II GERMAN PRIVATE (through translator): No, no, we had nothing against this army, this force. Among all my comrades we only had rifles, and that's all.

BITTERMAN: Old soldiers and younger ones who visit Sainte-Mere- Eglise today hang out at the Stop Bar (ph). About 15 years ago, Howard began seeing German vets, his old enemies, among them. Some, like Rolf, are now companions.

DE BOOSER (through translator): the bad times are over now. It's better. Fortunately.

BITTERMAN: Still, is there any lingering animosity between a pair who might have killed each other 60 years ago?

MANOIAN: All I know is they're shooting at us, I shoot back. That's it. No feelings, you know?

BITTERMAN (on camera): Nothing personal?

MANOIAN: Nothing personal.

BITTERMAN (voice-over): Today the old soldiers who were on different sides of a world war pose and sign autographs in front of the Stop Bar (ph), answering the questions.

But the one Howard says he'll never answer is how many Germans did you kill?

In the church that was at the center of fighting in Sainte-Mere- Eglise, a choir was almost, exactly six decades later, singing for peace.

D-Day anniversaries bear an obligation to remember. But few, especially not the old soldiers, want to revive memories they've worked hard to reconcile.

Jim Bitterman, CNN, Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: And tomorrow observations from a journalist on hand for the D-Day invasion 60 years ago. Walter Cronkite talks to Wolf Blitzer on "LATE EDITION." That's Sunday at noon Eastern Time.

The CIA leak probe reaches the vice president's doorstep. Administration sources confirm to CNN that federal prosecutors have interviewed Dick Cheney in recent days.

Investigators reportedly asked the vice president if he knew of any White House sanctioned efforts to expose the identity of an undercover CIA operative.

The White House denies involvement, but President Bush has lined up a lawyer just in case prosecutors want to question him.

Donald Rumsfeld is seeking support for Iraq from another Muslim country. The defense secretary is winding up his trip to Asia with a stop in Bangladesh. He had been attending a regional security conference in Singapore.

Rumsfeld says Iraq faces major risks if the U.S. pulls out too soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The alternatives are clear. You could have anarchy, you could have several war, you could have ethnic cleansing. You could have the country broken up into pieces. You could have another Saddam Hussein, junior version, arrive on the scene and take over and reimpose a vicious dictatorship and start filling up mass graves again.

So there is no alternative but pursuing this effort, transferring power to the Iraqi people, being steadfast and determined.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: It is unlikely Bangladesh will send troops to Iraq. Officials there say they would only consider the move under the auspices of the United Nations.

In Iraq, planning for the future. Young men are signing up, eager to join the country's civil defense corps.

Jane Arraf visited the boot camp in Kut.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These men don't look like the solution to Najaf's security problems, but the U.S. is hoping they eventually will be.

They're recruits for the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, being trained by the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Kut, about 80 miles away.

Just over halfway into their two weeks of basic training, they're still trying to learn things like falling into formation.

What they may lack initially in formations, they make up for in courage. Iraqi defense forces and police are a leading target of insurgents. For $140 a month they put themselves at risk just by being associated with the U.S.-led coalition. They don't even have decent boots yet.

They say they are the solution.

"If I don't go and confront them, who will?" asks this recruit, whose two brothers have also joined up.

Right now, there are just two platoons, just about 100 people from Najaf. Still a few are applying, turning up at the U.S. Army base here at Najaf.

(on camera) Although they are required to renounce the Ba'ath party, there's really no way of screening people who might support the Mehdi Army.

When the militia seized Najaf and Karbala in April, thousands of Iraqi police and civil defense forces either stayed home or joined the other side.

(voice-over) They know they need to be from the people of Najaf, says this platoon sergeant.

U.S. forces here are trying to provide an alternative to young men other than the militia. They're offering them paid work.

One of the first tasks will be cleaning up this amusement park.

CAPT. LEONARD KERGOMEN, U.S. ARMY: It keeps their minds occupied, keeps their bodies occupied here. It's tiresome work, so when they're done at the end of the day, instead of going out at night, possibly participating in anti-coalition activity, they're sleeping.

ARRAF: In cities where the Mehdi Army has taken root, whether it's giving Iraqi shovels or a civil defense uniform, part of the battle, the U.S. military says, is putting young men back to work.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Kut, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, after 90 years under water the Titanic still holds mysteries, and explorers are still eager to uncover them. We'll talk to one of them straight ahead.

Plus, it may seem exclusive and maybe even boring, but Martha's Vineyard could be the perfect vacation spot for you. We'll show you why, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Now some stories from across America.

Colorado officials say a man is dead after rampaging through the town of Granby in an armored bulldozer, one that he owned. It demolished a number of buildings in town as the driver exchanged gunfire with police.

It's believed he was reacting to a zoning decision that hurt his business. Authorities think he may have killed himself.

As many as 200 Florida Power and Light customers found a way to cut their bills in half. But guess what? Miami police say the money- saving device they used was illegal.

The creator of the device was arrested. You see him being taken away. Police say that his gizmo allowed about a half -- half of the homeowners' electricity to bypass their electricity meters.

Well, travel is getting a little more expensive as Continental Airlines hikes ticket prices by $10 to $20 each way. The Texas-based carrier blames soaring jet fuel bills. Other major airlines are matching the hikes.

And there's a drop to report. Not prices but tides. The lowest ocean tides in 19 years in the Pacific Northwest. The extra close look at what's often under water has drawn hundreds to the shores for a closer look.

A legend lies at the bottom of the North Atlantic. The Titanic, the luxury ship that spawned countless epic tales, has been 92 years under water now, ravaged, decaying, and still beckoning explorers to probe its secrets.

Now a group of scientists is on a voyage, back to the majestic liner and taking television viewers on a tour of the sunken gravesite.

This morning I spoke with one of the explorers aboard the Ronald H. Brown. I asked captain Craig McLean what they hope to do.

CAPT. CRAIG MCLEAN, "RETURN TO TITANIC": We're here at the wreck site of the RMS Titanic. It's two and a half miles beneath up. We're on the lower research ship Ronald H. Brown. It's a 273-foot ship, very sophisticated.

And we brought the robotics from Doctor Robert Ballard's team, and we brought Dr. Ballard out here. And we also have a team from "National Geographic" to help us broadcast this and share some interesting technology and views of the Titanic with the rest of the world.

We're here for science, though, primarily, and we're trying to measure the rate of change on the Titanic site since its discovery 20 years ago.

WHITFIELD: And what are your expectations?

MCLEAN: Well, I think our expectations are being achieved. We wanted to measure change, and we're seeing some interesting changes in the Titanic. It's helping us to learn how fast do ships of this size and in this depth of water, how fast do they decay.

And knowing that, we'll know how better to guide the conduct of people who might visit the Titanic so that we can help protect the site as a maritime memorial and also as an interesting site of maritime history.

There are changes that we've seen. We're documenting those. Those changes will be able to be seen live in the broadcast that we're going to have with the Geographic Channel on June 7.

And we're very pleased with what we're seeing so far. The technology is working amazingly well.

WHITFIELD: So there is no plan to try to bring up any portions of the Titanic?

MCLEAN: Well, currently, there is a legal salver in possession. As the technical term would apply, there is a company that has legal rights to collect materials from Titanic, conserve them and put them on public display.

We're not touching anything on this mission. We're really engaged in purely a look but don't touch operation.

The vehicles that we're deploying are unmanned vehicles. They have very sophisticated high definition television cameras on them. And we can zoom in with such clarity and such close focus that we don't need to be down there. We can see better with these remotely operated vehicles than we could if we were in a human occupied submersible.

WHITFIELD: Isn't part of the problem, though, that those salvage rights were given about ten years ago, and in the amount of time that's elapsed, there have been scavengers, divers, people who have gone down there, and essentially taken a lot of the valuable properties of the Titanic?

MCLEAN: There have been rumors of unlawful visits, but we don't have any clear documentation to confirm that. We also don't see direct evidence of any intervention.

Clearly, the salvage and recovery efforts from the recovery company are evident, but we don't see any direct evidence of any unlawful intervention.

If we collect materials from this site, we obviously would have an impact on what the site looks like today. We would have to balance that with the opportunity to see these materials in a museum-like setting.

But our interest here scientifically is to assess what the rate of damage is on site from -- from the visits of scientists like ourselves, and of course that's why we are looking but not touching. These are consistent practices with guidelines that we produced in 2001 to try and help protect the Titanic.

WHITFIELD: How exciting is this for you personally and for other researchers and scientists to be a part of this project?

MCLEAN: It's very exciting to be working on this project. We're very pleased with the team we've been able to put together here. We've got Dr. Ballard, his Institute for Exploration, the technology of broadcast from the EDS folks. We also have "National Geographic" out here to document this for us.

And we have some very respected scientists involved right here on the Ronald H. Brown, our NOAA ship, our home. But we also have them back on land bases, and they're joining us by satellite, much as I'm talking to you.

So we have scientists participating in this mission who aren't on this ship. We're using our new satellite telemetry technology to accomplish this.

So it's very exciting for us, and it's always very exciting to visit something as esteemed as the Titanic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: To find out more tune in to National Geographic Channel Monday night at 9 p.m. Eastern for the world premiere of "Return to Titanic."

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, perhaps you're a stickler for spelling or grammar. Well, Beth Nissen met one of the best around.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This one little book's dash to the top of the bestseller lists in two countries has been a surprise, period.

LYNNE TRUSS, AUTHOR, "EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES": When every day they're publishing -- they're reprinting another 60,000 copies today. I just keep thinking, "Well, it's about punctuation. How can this possibly be the case?"

NISSEN: Lynn Truss is a journalist, novelist and self-described stickler whose book is a field guide to what she calls an endangered species, properly placed punctuation marks: colons, semicolons, quotation marks, apostrophes.

She says apostrophes, those airborne commas, are especially endangered.

TRUSS: What is happening with the apostrophe is that it's just dying out, because people don't know how to use it and they think it's probably best to leave it out.

HUGH GRANT, ACTOR: That's just silly.

NISSEN: That's the mistake producers of the Hugh Grant-Sandra Bullock film "Two Weeks Notice" made on the film's title.

TRUSS: The film "Two Weeks Notice" should have had an apostrophe after the "Weeks."

NISSEN: Just as galling to sticklers? Some makers, most of them vendors of fresh produce and groceries, who make the opposite mistake, wrongly putting in an apostrophe to make a word plural.

TRUSS: We actually call it the green grocers' apostrophe, which is where a plural has an apostrophe in it that shouldn't be there.

NISSEN: And another thing that gets sticklers' knickers in a twist -- that's sticklers', apostrophe after the s because "sticklers" is plural. Anyway, another thing that maddens them are signs bearing quotation marks that shouldn't be there.

TRUSS: What you now find really oddly is "pizzas" or something will have an apostrophe. They're also coming with inverted commas (ph). They're also coming with quotation marks, "pizzas," as if to say that they might be pizzas, but we're not sure. You know, we're not promising.

NISSEN: Punctuation can utterly change the meaning of one's writing.

Read this sentence with no internal punctuation: "A woman without her man is nothing."

Read the same sentence punctuated with a colon and a comma: "A woman: without her, man is nothing."

TRUSS: I wrote this book because I really thought how interesting it was that these marks make such a difference in the way we read and write.

NISSEN: Truss blames much of modern day punctuation ignorance and indifference on poor habits developed online.

TRUSS: Because of e-mailing and text messaging and all that, people are writing a great deal and making up their own punctuation as they go along because they don't know that there are rules, let alone what rules there are.

NISSEN: So "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" is a rulebook for all those who, Truss says, don't know their apostrophes from their elbow.

There is guidance here on how to use an exclamation point: sparingly, says Truss. It's the punctuation equivalent of canned laughter.

There's a whole chapter on where to place a comma. There shouldn't be one in the title, which refers to a joke about a gun- toting panda and a badly punctuated wildlife manual.

The goal -- colon -- clear expression. As Truss writes, quote, "All our thoughts can be rendered with absolute clarity if we bother to put the right dots and squiggles between the words in the right places." Period. Close quote.

Beth Nissen -- comma -- CNN -- comma -- New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And in the city that Rocky called home -- exclamation point (sic) -- hopes are riding on another set of legs. Four legs. The story coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Philadelphia sports fans are falling in love with a new local hero: Smarty Jones. A Triple Crown win today would cap a perfect Philadelphia storia -- story, rather.

Bruce Burkhardt has a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two of the largest shirts you have.

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Everyone's snapping up T-shirts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much.

BURKHARDT: A governor declares Saturday Smarty Jones Day in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

GOV. ED RENDELL, PENNSYLVANIA: And encourage all of our citizens to cheer for this courageous and feisty little chestnut horse with the huge heart as he circles the track at Belmont.

BURKHARDT: And on Philadelphia sports talk radio, for weeks it's been topic No. 1, even when their beloved Flyers in the NHL were in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

TRIPP ROGERS, SPORTS TALK RADIO HOST: Everybody wanted to talk about Smarty Jones. Everybody wanted to talk about, you know, winning the Triple Crown.

BURKHARDT (on camera): Even when the Flyers were in the playoffs?

ROGERS: Even though the Flyers were in the playoffs.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): It is just a horse, you might be saying, but -- and this is important -- it is a horse from Philadelphia.

(on camera) But Philadelphia, this isn't horse country.

LARRY BOWA, MANAGER, PHILLIES: It is now.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): Larry Bowa, manager of the Phillies and long-time Philadelphian, is well aware of how this town is thirsting for a champion.

BOWA: Maybe he can break that jinx that's been involved in all of baseball, football, hockey, basketball. Maybe he's just going to break that jinx and let everybody be a champion.

BURKHARDT (on camera): And jump out to the front.

(voice-over) Twenty-one years without a champion, more than any other city with four major sports, but there's more to it than that.

In a town that prides itself on its working class image, Smarty is seen as more blue collar than blue grass.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He looks like the ordinary horse, just coming out and doing it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's pretty happy. But his ears -- You know, his ears when he's running real fast, his ears kind of, like, flap around.

ROGERS: People have made comparisons to Rocky. And I suppose it is, but this is a real-life Rocky story.

BURKHARDT (on camera): Of course, the references to Rocky are irresistible, but Smarty, as far as we know, never ran up these steps for a workout. I think Smarty is smarter than Rocky.

(voice-over) But this is where Smarty does work out, and this, too, is part of the story.

Philadelphia Park is kind of the minor leagues in the horseracing world.

KEITH JONES, PHILADELPHIA PARK: Even to consider here that you would have, A, a horse that would even campaign in the triple crown races, I mean that's kind of unheard of to begin with.

BURKHARDT: So Smarty, the pressure's on. The entire city is counting on you to deliver that Rocky-style knockout punch.

Bruce Burkhardt, CNN, Philadelphia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And race time is later on today. And we apologize. We're unable to bring you Martha's Vineyard as a getaway destination today. So we'll try to bring it back for you next weekend.

So much more ahead on CNN Saturday. In a few moments "IN THE MONEY." At 2 Eastern, "CNN LIVE SATURDAY." At 3 Eastern, "NEXT@CNN," today using high tech for tracking livestock to avoid Mad Cow Disease.

First, here are the headlines.

Worrisome news about former President Ronald Reagan. Sources familiar with his situation say the 93-year-old former president's health is deteriorating.

Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease about a decade ago. Sources say the White House has been told Reagan's death could come soon or it could be in weeks or months.

President Bush is in Paris today, meeting with French President Jacques Chirac. The stop is part of Mr. Bush's three-day European trip, part P.R. tour and part World War II remembrance.

Mr. Bush is trying to rally support for rebuilding efforts in Iraq. He's also commemorating the 60th anniversary of D-Day, which is tomorrow.

Thousands of D-Day veterans already are gathering in Northern France to mark the 60th anniversary...

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