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Rumsfeld Visits Iraq as CIA Says Zarqawi May Have Been Berg's Killer

Aired May 13, 2004 - 13:30   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: National security adviser Condoleezza Rice gets a mixed reception at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She got a warm welcome as she addressed the senior class but earlier there were some protests by university alumni and staff who oppose the war in Iraq.
On the campaign trail, the focus is on domestic issues. President Bush visits a high school in West Virginia this afternoon. He's promoting and defending his record on education. Meanwhile Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry focuses on health care as he wraps up a four-day campaign swing with a visit to Arkansas.

In India, a stunning political upset as the ruling party suffers huge losses in parliamentary election and paves the way for the return of a legendary name. Current Prime Minister Vajpayee turned in his resignation after his surprising loss.

The new prime minister could be the head of the Victoria's Congress Party. Sonia Gandhi is the Italian-born window of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the daughter-in-law of the late Indira Gandhi. If she indeed becomes India's next prime minister, she'd be the country's first foreign-born leader.

Now back to our top story -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's unannounced visit to Baghdad and the notorious prison at the center of the abuse scandal. How is his trip planning out? Let's bring in CNN analyst Ken Pollack from the Brookings Institution in Washington. Ken, how are Iraqis reacting to all this?

KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Honestly, Kyra, I don't think we've gotten any sense yet from exactly how Iraqis are going to respond to it. I don't think we should expect too much from this. For the Iraqis, the pictures are important. Unfortunately, they confirmed in many cases some worst fears about the United States. They're certainly not going to help U.S. opinion in Iraq.

That said, this trip was mostly about U.S. politics, not about Iraqi politics.

PHILLIPS: So Donald Rumsfeld needed to make this trip so he could come back to the House and Senate and say, I'm doing something about those pictures, I'm doing something about the controversy.

POLLACK: Absolutely. I think that is one of the most important things that Rumsfeld felt he needed to do. And honestly that is the right answer. That's the textbook solution.

If Rumsfeld is going to keep his job, he has got to show the Senate, the House that he is taking action. That he is on top of this. That he is on the spot. He is involved. He's hands-on. He is really making a concerted effort to get to the bottom of this.

I think another issue that's out there -- I heard David Grange say this in the previous half hour -- is that it's also important to the troops. Rumsfeld needed to go out there and to reassure them that the country hadn't lost faith in them and that the entire brouhaha over the prison pictures are not going to affect their mission or how the country feels about them.

PHILLIPS: All right, Ken. Now the CIA coming forward being saying it definitely believes -- or pretty much close to believes that the voice on this tape, the beheading of Nick Berg is that of Abu al Zarqawi. If, indeed, it is him, what does it mean?

POLLACK: Well, certainly this demonstrates that Zarqawi is trying to stay in the spotlight. He is trying to keep himself as one of the main proponents of violence in Iraq and one of the main forces out there for violence in Iraq.

That certainly is motive. He wants to demonstrate that al Qaeda and his group in particular is one of the leading voices of opposition, one of the groups leading the resistance against the United States of America.

That's why I think it's important for Americans to kind of keep this all in perspective. I think we've had too much of a tendency to blame all of the violence in Iraq on people like Abu Musab al Zarqawi. He's certainly there, contributing to the problems, but he's not the whole problem.

PHILLIPS: If it is, indeed, Zarqawi, why didn't he take the hood off?

POLLACK: Good question. I will be honest with you. I don't have an answer for that just yet. I haven't actually seen the videotape of him doing the kill. And it may be that he has reasons for keeping his identity -- at least maintain plausible deniability.

It may also be -- these masks have become a symbol throughout the Arab world. It is something that you've seen all kinds of different, violent groups imploring -- it's kind of a symbol that knits them all together. It knits groups in Gaza and the West Bank to groups in Iraq, to groups in Saudi Arabia. That may have been part of it also.

PHILLIPS: You would think that if they think this is such a tremendous act of leadership that they would show their face.

POLLACK: Certainly, that is a possibility. But it may be that Moussaoui expected that the people that viewed the tape would know who he is. And as I said, it may be that he wanted to create plausible deniability for one reason or another. Or, as I suggested, it may be trying to link this to other anonymous terrorists throughout the Middle East.

Again, these masks have become kind of a symbol of solidarity among all these different groups who may have different agendas but like to try portray this as kind of a broad uprising against the U.S. and Israel.

PHILLIPS: So, Ken, what do you think about the controversy about these other pictures that exist? Do we -- and when I say we, the rest of America, the rest of the world -- do we need to see the rest of these pictures, or does there come a time where what we need to know -- there just needs to be limits?

POLLACK: I'll be honest with you, Kyra. I don't know what is in the pictures. I haven't seen them yet. I tend to be of the opinion that they ought to be made available to the American public unless there is something that is truly damaging to national security. And I've not heard anyone suggest that the photographs would be damaging to national security.

If it's simply something that is embarrassing, you know what? That's not good enough. In a democracy, the embarrassing needs to come forward so that people can be held accountable and so that the American people can make judgments.

PHILLIPS: CNN analyst Ken Pollack. Always a pleasure, Ken. Thanks so much.

POLLACK: Thank you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: A lack of training and questions about whether military rules were being followed have become central issue in the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal. CNN's Ed Lavandera looks at what the Army is doing to help prepare future interrogators.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is site uniform, our field training exercise.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the dusty hills of southeastern Arizona, the newest Army intelligence interrogators are completing their final training exercise. The Army wants the world to know that when these soldiers leave here, they're not equipped with techniques of torture and humiliation.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES MARKS, U.S. ARMY: We train soldiers to do what's right. Our Army is values based. So if a soldier feels like he or she is moving down a path that they are uncomfortable with, we also have a thing called the chain of command. And you go up through the chain of command and get support from them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I'm asking to find out is your chain of command here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do I know I can trust an American? LAVANDERA: Inside the Fort Wachuka, soldiers are taught the fine points of interrogation; role-playing teaches each soldier how to approach different personalities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How else did you set fire to the garbage cans?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we doused the cans with gasoline and lit a match.

LAVANDERA: The 16-week training course teaches soldiers to get into a prison area's mind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, you're not going to let them finish whatever they're asking. Eventually the person is going to want to be heard.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Army officials here up to 90 percent of useful intelligence in Iraq comes from interrogations. But to get that information from a hardened terrorist or a militant fighter can require a tough approach.

MARKS: We don't strip anybody of their dignity, but I want them to be tired. I want them to be afraid of me. I want them when they breathe, I want them to think that the interrogator gave them the right to expand their lungs...

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Officials here say it's done under strict guidelines. No touching, no humiliation. Chief Warrant Officer Lon Castleton just returned from Iraq. He found a kinder, gentler approach is the most effective way of dealing with Iraqi prisoners.

CWO LON CASTLETON, U.S. ARMY: Yes. The things I saw with these people, they expected to be beaten. and that's the way Saddam Hussein used to treat them. In fact, they figured they'd never be seen again. So when you treat them with kindness, they're a lot more open. In fact, in a lot of cases, they're surprised.

LAVANDERA: The need for interrogators is so great that more than 500 soldiers will be put through this course this year.

SPEC. JASON HICKMAN, INTERROGATION TRAINEE: I have a foundation for what it's going to take to do my real job in the real world. But until I actually get out there and do it in the real world, I'm not going to know what it's going to be like.

LAVANDERA: No matter how real the training might appear, soldiers won't know what it will take to be effective, until they come face-to-face with an enemy prisoner.

Ed Lavandera, Fort Wachuka, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a less invasive way to battle colon cancer. For thousands of people who fight the disease each year, news about a new form of surgery.

Battling tornado season in the Midwest. Some wild weather whips across the plains states.

And Bono gives the neighbors to the north the nod. Details why the rocker's smitten with Canada when LIVE FROM... returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN SEACREST, "AMERICAN IDOL" HOST: Tonight, leaving the competition will be Latoya London.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And then there were three. Latoya London, widely considered to be one of the better "American Idol" singers this go- around, was eliminated last night. Jasmine Tria (ph) sobbed, Fantasia Borrino (ph) sobbed, Diana Degarmo (ph) sobbed, and Paula was so overcome, it looked like they might have to carry her out on a stretcher.

If George Washington were still alive, he might have to be carried out on a stretcher after hearing that Pamela Anderson has become a U.S. citizen. Anderson's chest swelled with pride yesterday in a Los Angeles courtroom as she was sworn in. The former "Baywatch" star says she's not renouncing her Canadian citizenship, but wanted to become a U.S. citizen so she could vote.

Canadians can nurse any hurt feelings over the Anderson matter by knowing that Bono has their back. The U2 singer, who's also an outspoken activist on the global AIDS crisis, visited Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin yesterday to give him kudos for increasing funding to fight aids at home and abroad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO, SINGER: We're here to give applause today because actually Canada has done some extraordinary things this week, dealing with the AIDS emergency, and we're -- I'm proud to sit beside him tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: If you've ever had surgery, our guess is you hoped it would be as minimally invasive as possible. Well until now, that's been a choice for most colon cancer patients. A lot of doctors insist on performing standard surgery, but that could change very soon.

Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with more on an important study.

But real quickly, welcome back, new mom. Great to have you.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you. Thank you. I've become an old mom actually. PHILLIPS: You're not an old mom. We're proud of you. We're glad you're back.

COHEN: Well, thank you, than you.

PHILLIPS: Tell us about this.

COHEN: This is a very interesting story, because people have heard about laparoscopic surgery. You hear about for taking out an appendix or a gall bladder, but doctors, until now have not really wanted to use it for colon cancer. The reason being, that they were actually scared that using laparoscopic surgery for colon cancer could spread the cancer, and of course they don't want to do that.

But what the study shows is that actually laparoscopic surgery works just as well as traditional surgery. Here you see some of the folks from the Mayo Clinic performing laparoscopic surgery, and they are the one who did the study. Nearly 900 patients at 48 different hospitals, so a big study.

And there's a huge difference between laparoscopic surgery and regular surgery for colon cancer. Regular surgery, you've got an eight-inch incision. For laparoscopic, you have three half-inch incisions. You see them right there. The instruments, including a camera, are put in there, and then the doctor looks up at the screen and can then use one of those instruments to cut out the diseased part of the colon, obviously less invasive than an eight-inch cut.

And 100,000 people a year, Kyra, diagnosed with colon cancer. Nearly all of them will need surgery, so this will affect a lot of people.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Less invasive, what are some of the other benefits?

COHEN: Well, there are many benefits. First of all, as we talked about, there's less of an incision, and that means also less pain medication, because there are smaller incisions, and less time spent in the hospital, and patients heal faster. So those are just some of the advantages.

PHILLIPS: Do most doctors know how to do this?

COHEN: Do you know what, not all of them do, because they haven't really done it before. Some of them have been trained. In this study, 66 different doctors did it. And so those folks know how to do it, and there are others as well. It's interesting to note that in this study, the folks who did it say if you want to participate as a surgeon, you need to have done 20 of these surgeries before laparoscopically. So if you're looking for a surgeon to do laparoscopic colon cancer surgery, you can use that as your benchmark. That's what they say. They wanted people to have done it with at least 20 of these before they could participate.

PHILLIPS: All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

COHEN: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: All right.

Well, Thomas Hamill has been getting the movie star treatment since his return from captivity in Iraq. Last night, he got a taste of what it's like to be a Major Leaguer.

He's got a pretty good slow ball there.

And one more check from Wall Street.

RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, Wal-Mart is setting itself up for a doughnut duel. Detail on that story, when LIVE FROM continues right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, a Minnesota city devastated by flooding two years ago hopes disaster doesn't strike twice. The Roseau (ph) River has now risen to more than 19 feet, three feet above official flood stage. Crews and volunteers have been busily sandbagging and building dikes to bring the levy system up to 22 feet. In June of 2002 a flood that crested more than 23 feet caused more than $20 million in damage to Roseau.

Well, how would you like to see this bearing down on your house? People in Attica, Kansas are cleaning up after tornadoes tore through the town yesterday. Nobody was hurt, but at least three homes were damaged.

Now take a really good look here, no cows flying through the air, but there's a house ripped right out of the ground. Unbelievable.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

(BUSINESS UPDATE)

PHILLIPS: All right, Rhonda, thanks so much. We'll see you next hour.

Former Iraqi -- Iraq hostage rather Thomas Hamill came home last weekend. But last night in Houston, he threw to home, as he delivered the ceremonial first pitch at the Marlins-Astros game. He had a pretty good toss there. Even though his throwing arm is still in a cast, due to injuries sustained in Iraq, Hamill's pitch made it across the plate.

The civilian contractor, as you know, was captured April 9 when his convoy was ambushed. He managed to escape and flag down U.S. troops May 2nd. While a lot of people have hailed Thomas Hamill as a hero, he came forward and said the real heroes are the troops.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS HAMILL, FMR. HOSTAGE: I want to make sure that my safe return doesn't distract everyone's commitment to continue praying for our troops and the thousands of civilian contractors who risk their lives every day just like I did to improve the lives of the Iraqi people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld drops in on the troops in Iraq. We'll have more on today's visit, when LIVE FROM continues, right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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 May 13, 2004 - 13:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: National security adviser Condoleezza Rice gets a mixed reception at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She got a warm welcome as she addressed the senior class but earlier there were some protests by university alumni and staff who oppose the war in Iraq.
On the campaign trail, the focus is on domestic issues. President Bush visits a high school in West Virginia this afternoon. He's promoting and defending his record on education. Meanwhile Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry focuses on health care as he wraps up a four-day campaign swing with a visit to Arkansas.

In India, a stunning political upset as the ruling party suffers huge losses in parliamentary election and paves the way for the return of a legendary name. Current Prime Minister Vajpayee turned in his resignation after his surprising loss.

The new prime minister could be the head of the Victoria's Congress Party. Sonia Gandhi is the Italian-born window of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the daughter-in-law of the late Indira Gandhi. If she indeed becomes India's next prime minister, she'd be the country's first foreign-born leader.

Now back to our top story -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's unannounced visit to Baghdad and the notorious prison at the center of the abuse scandal. How is his trip planning out? Let's bring in CNN analyst Ken Pollack from the Brookings Institution in Washington. Ken, how are Iraqis reacting to all this?

KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Honestly, Kyra, I don't think we've gotten any sense yet from exactly how Iraqis are going to respond to it. I don't think we should expect too much from this. For the Iraqis, the pictures are important. Unfortunately, they confirmed in many cases some worst fears about the United States. They're certainly not going to help U.S. opinion in Iraq.

That said, this trip was mostly about U.S. politics, not about Iraqi politics.

PHILLIPS: So Donald Rumsfeld needed to make this trip so he could come back to the House and Senate and say, I'm doing something about those pictures, I'm doing something about the controversy.

POLLACK: Absolutely. I think that is one of the most important things that Rumsfeld felt he needed to do. And honestly that is the right answer. That's the textbook solution.

If Rumsfeld is going to keep his job, he has got to show the Senate, the House that he is taking action. That he is on top of this. That he is on the spot. He is involved. He's hands-on. He is really making a concerted effort to get to the bottom of this.

I think another issue that's out there -- I heard David Grange say this in the previous half hour -- is that it's also important to the troops. Rumsfeld needed to go out there and to reassure them that the country hadn't lost faith in them and that the entire brouhaha over the prison pictures are not going to affect their mission or how the country feels about them.

PHILLIPS: All right, Ken. Now the CIA coming forward being saying it definitely believes -- or pretty much close to believes that the voice on this tape, the beheading of Nick Berg is that of Abu al Zarqawi. If, indeed, it is him, what does it mean?

POLLACK: Well, certainly this demonstrates that Zarqawi is trying to stay in the spotlight. He is trying to keep himself as one of the main proponents of violence in Iraq and one of the main forces out there for violence in Iraq.

That certainly is motive. He wants to demonstrate that al Qaeda and his group in particular is one of the leading voices of opposition, one of the groups leading the resistance against the United States of America.

That's why I think it's important for Americans to kind of keep this all in perspective. I think we've had too much of a tendency to blame all of the violence in Iraq on people like Abu Musab al Zarqawi. He's certainly there, contributing to the problems, but he's not the whole problem.

PHILLIPS: If it is, indeed, Zarqawi, why didn't he take the hood off?

POLLACK: Good question. I will be honest with you. I don't have an answer for that just yet. I haven't actually seen the videotape of him doing the kill. And it may be that he has reasons for keeping his identity -- at least maintain plausible deniability.

It may also be -- these masks have become a symbol throughout the Arab world. It is something that you've seen all kinds of different, violent groups imploring -- it's kind of a symbol that knits them all together. It knits groups in Gaza and the West Bank to groups in Iraq, to groups in Saudi Arabia. That may have been part of it also.

PHILLIPS: You would think that if they think this is such a tremendous act of leadership that they would show their face.

POLLACK: Certainly, that is a possibility. But it may be that Moussaoui expected that the people that viewed the tape would know who he is. And as I said, it may be that he wanted to create plausible deniability for one reason or another. Or, as I suggested, it may be trying to link this to other anonymous terrorists throughout the Middle East.

Again, these masks have become kind of a symbol of solidarity among all these different groups who may have different agendas but like to try portray this as kind of a broad uprising against the U.S. and Israel.

PHILLIPS: So, Ken, what do you think about the controversy about these other pictures that exist? Do we -- and when I say we, the rest of America, the rest of the world -- do we need to see the rest of these pictures, or does there come a time where what we need to know -- there just needs to be limits?

POLLACK: I'll be honest with you, Kyra. I don't know what is in the pictures. I haven't seen them yet. I tend to be of the opinion that they ought to be made available to the American public unless there is something that is truly damaging to national security. And I've not heard anyone suggest that the photographs would be damaging to national security.

If it's simply something that is embarrassing, you know what? That's not good enough. In a democracy, the embarrassing needs to come forward so that people can be held accountable and so that the American people can make judgments.

PHILLIPS: CNN analyst Ken Pollack. Always a pleasure, Ken. Thanks so much.

POLLACK: Thank you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: A lack of training and questions about whether military rules were being followed have become central issue in the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal. CNN's Ed Lavandera looks at what the Army is doing to help prepare future interrogators.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is site uniform, our field training exercise.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the dusty hills of southeastern Arizona, the newest Army intelligence interrogators are completing their final training exercise. The Army wants the world to know that when these soldiers leave here, they're not equipped with techniques of torture and humiliation.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES MARKS, U.S. ARMY: We train soldiers to do what's right. Our Army is values based. So if a soldier feels like he or she is moving down a path that they are uncomfortable with, we also have a thing called the chain of command. And you go up through the chain of command and get support from them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I'm asking to find out is your chain of command here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do I know I can trust an American? LAVANDERA: Inside the Fort Wachuka, soldiers are taught the fine points of interrogation; role-playing teaches each soldier how to approach different personalities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How else did you set fire to the garbage cans?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we doused the cans with gasoline and lit a match.

LAVANDERA: The 16-week training course teaches soldiers to get into a prison area's mind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, you're not going to let them finish whatever they're asking. Eventually the person is going to want to be heard.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Army officials here up to 90 percent of useful intelligence in Iraq comes from interrogations. But to get that information from a hardened terrorist or a militant fighter can require a tough approach.

MARKS: We don't strip anybody of their dignity, but I want them to be tired. I want them to be afraid of me. I want them when they breathe, I want them to think that the interrogator gave them the right to expand their lungs...

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Officials here say it's done under strict guidelines. No touching, no humiliation. Chief Warrant Officer Lon Castleton just returned from Iraq. He found a kinder, gentler approach is the most effective way of dealing with Iraqi prisoners.

CWO LON CASTLETON, U.S. ARMY: Yes. The things I saw with these people, they expected to be beaten. and that's the way Saddam Hussein used to treat them. In fact, they figured they'd never be seen again. So when you treat them with kindness, they're a lot more open. In fact, in a lot of cases, they're surprised.

LAVANDERA: The need for interrogators is so great that more than 500 soldiers will be put through this course this year.

SPEC. JASON HICKMAN, INTERROGATION TRAINEE: I have a foundation for what it's going to take to do my real job in the real world. But until I actually get out there and do it in the real world, I'm not going to know what it's going to be like.

LAVANDERA: No matter how real the training might appear, soldiers won't know what it will take to be effective, until they come face-to-face with an enemy prisoner.

Ed Lavandera, Fort Wachuka, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a less invasive way to battle colon cancer. For thousands of people who fight the disease each year, news about a new form of surgery.

Battling tornado season in the Midwest. Some wild weather whips across the plains states.

And Bono gives the neighbors to the north the nod. Details why the rocker's smitten with Canada when LIVE FROM... returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN SEACREST, "AMERICAN IDOL" HOST: Tonight, leaving the competition will be Latoya London.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And then there were three. Latoya London, widely considered to be one of the better "American Idol" singers this go- around, was eliminated last night. Jasmine Tria (ph) sobbed, Fantasia Borrino (ph) sobbed, Diana Degarmo (ph) sobbed, and Paula was so overcome, it looked like they might have to carry her out on a stretcher.

If George Washington were still alive, he might have to be carried out on a stretcher after hearing that Pamela Anderson has become a U.S. citizen. Anderson's chest swelled with pride yesterday in a Los Angeles courtroom as she was sworn in. The former "Baywatch" star says she's not renouncing her Canadian citizenship, but wanted to become a U.S. citizen so she could vote.

Canadians can nurse any hurt feelings over the Anderson matter by knowing that Bono has their back. The U2 singer, who's also an outspoken activist on the global AIDS crisis, visited Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin yesterday to give him kudos for increasing funding to fight aids at home and abroad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO, SINGER: We're here to give applause today because actually Canada has done some extraordinary things this week, dealing with the AIDS emergency, and we're -- I'm proud to sit beside him tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: If you've ever had surgery, our guess is you hoped it would be as minimally invasive as possible. Well until now, that's been a choice for most colon cancer patients. A lot of doctors insist on performing standard surgery, but that could change very soon.

Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with more on an important study.

But real quickly, welcome back, new mom. Great to have you.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you. Thank you. I've become an old mom actually. PHILLIPS: You're not an old mom. We're proud of you. We're glad you're back.

COHEN: Well, thank you, than you.

PHILLIPS: Tell us about this.

COHEN: This is a very interesting story, because people have heard about laparoscopic surgery. You hear about for taking out an appendix or a gall bladder, but doctors, until now have not really wanted to use it for colon cancer. The reason being, that they were actually scared that using laparoscopic surgery for colon cancer could spread the cancer, and of course they don't want to do that.

But what the study shows is that actually laparoscopic surgery works just as well as traditional surgery. Here you see some of the folks from the Mayo Clinic performing laparoscopic surgery, and they are the one who did the study. Nearly 900 patients at 48 different hospitals, so a big study.

And there's a huge difference between laparoscopic surgery and regular surgery for colon cancer. Regular surgery, you've got an eight-inch incision. For laparoscopic, you have three half-inch incisions. You see them right there. The instruments, including a camera, are put in there, and then the doctor looks up at the screen and can then use one of those instruments to cut out the diseased part of the colon, obviously less invasive than an eight-inch cut.

And 100,000 people a year, Kyra, diagnosed with colon cancer. Nearly all of them will need surgery, so this will affect a lot of people.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Less invasive, what are some of the other benefits?

COHEN: Well, there are many benefits. First of all, as we talked about, there's less of an incision, and that means also less pain medication, because there are smaller incisions, and less time spent in the hospital, and patients heal faster. So those are just some of the advantages.

PHILLIPS: Do most doctors know how to do this?

COHEN: Do you know what, not all of them do, because they haven't really done it before. Some of them have been trained. In this study, 66 different doctors did it. And so those folks know how to do it, and there are others as well. It's interesting to note that in this study, the folks who did it say if you want to participate as a surgeon, you need to have done 20 of these surgeries before laparoscopically. So if you're looking for a surgeon to do laparoscopic colon cancer surgery, you can use that as your benchmark. That's what they say. They wanted people to have done it with at least 20 of these before they could participate.

PHILLIPS: All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

COHEN: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: All right.

Well, Thomas Hamill has been getting the movie star treatment since his return from captivity in Iraq. Last night, he got a taste of what it's like to be a Major Leaguer.

He's got a pretty good slow ball there.

And one more check from Wall Street.

RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, Wal-Mart is setting itself up for a doughnut duel. Detail on that story, when LIVE FROM continues right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, a Minnesota city devastated by flooding two years ago hopes disaster doesn't strike twice. The Roseau (ph) River has now risen to more than 19 feet, three feet above official flood stage. Crews and volunteers have been busily sandbagging and building dikes to bring the levy system up to 22 feet. In June of 2002 a flood that crested more than 23 feet caused more than $20 million in damage to Roseau.

Well, how would you like to see this bearing down on your house? People in Attica, Kansas are cleaning up after tornadoes tore through the town yesterday. Nobody was hurt, but at least three homes were damaged.

Now take a really good look here, no cows flying through the air, but there's a house ripped right out of the ground. Unbelievable.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

(BUSINESS UPDATE)

PHILLIPS: All right, Rhonda, thanks so much. We'll see you next hour.

Former Iraqi -- Iraq hostage rather Thomas Hamill came home last weekend. But last night in Houston, he threw to home, as he delivered the ceremonial first pitch at the Marlins-Astros game. He had a pretty good toss there. Even though his throwing arm is still in a cast, due to injuries sustained in Iraq, Hamill's pitch made it across the plate.

The civilian contractor, as you know, was captured April 9 when his convoy was ambushed. He managed to escape and flag down U.S. troops May 2nd. While a lot of people have hailed Thomas Hamill as a hero, he came forward and said the real heroes are the troops.

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THOMAS HAMILL, FMR. HOSTAGE: I want to make sure that my safe return doesn't distract everyone's commitment to continue praying for our troops and the thousands of civilian contractors who risk their lives every day just like I did to improve the lives of the Iraqi people.

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PHILLIPS: Coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld drops in on the troops in Iraq. We'll have more on today's visit, when LIVE FROM continues, right after a quick break.

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