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America at War Marks Memorial Day
Aired May 31, 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.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking headlines at the half hour.
Indiana's governor plans to assess the damage caused by a swath of violent storms. It will be his second such trip in four days. Over the weekend, tornadoes pummeled the Midwest. Some of the worst damage is in Merengo, Indiana, where at least 50 homes were destroyed and one person was killed.
Possible revenge? At least 16 people are reported dead, several others wounded in a bomb blast inside a Shiite mosque in Karachi, Pakistan. It comes a day after a leading Sunni cleric was killed. Police and troops have been posted at Shiite mosques to prevent any kind of retaliatory strike.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Thousands of people braved light rain today during a ceremony at the tomb of the unknowns. President Bush laid the traditional wreath at the tomb in Arlington National Cemetery. Inside the tomb are the remains of unidentified U.S. servicemen from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
On CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers said the reasons for war back then still exist today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: If we think about it for a minute, if we had not done what was done in World War II, then we would be living in a much different world today. I think you can take that, you can fast forward to today. We have a great threat out there from extremism, from terrorism. If we don't handle this in the right way, I don't think we're going to like the world we'll live in in five or 10 years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: While Americans pause to remember those who served and died for our country on Memorial Day, we must also remember the servicemen who were forced to fight a personal battle within the war - a battle over race.
CNN's Miguel Marquez explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EDWIN N. THOMAS SR., WWII VETERAN: My name is Edwin N. Thomas senior. MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's 85 years old and an avid dancer. Perhaps the most important experience of his life, though, came in 1943, swept up into World War II.
THOMAS: We were drafted. I had no choice. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) World War II broke out, they started calling everybody.
MARQUEZ: Like most African-Americans, Thomas was not called up two years after the U.S. entered the war. Until then, draft boards denied them the right to serve in combat.
THOMAS: People that had brains knew that if we did that, we couldn't demand a thing after the war was over.
MARQUEZ: So African-Americans fought at home for the right to die abroad. Initially, blacks were allowed only menial jobs, no combat. Edwin Thomas was part of a segregated crew loading ships with ammunition.
THOMAS: We were all black. My whole outfit was black, except our officers. All our officers were white.
MARQUEZ: Eventually, African-Americans contributed their blood to the war effort, from the Tuskeegee airmen to hundreds of thousands of infantrymen to African-American nurses.
EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON, AUTHOR AND POLITICAL ANALYST: There was a double fight that went on against Hitler and against Japanese fascism. And the second fight to make democracy a reality within the American military.
MARQUEZ: It was that double fight, says Hutchinson, that was the seed for the civil-rights movement.
HUTCHINSON: It gave them pride. They didn't have to take the rotten conditions. They didn't have to accept that treatment any more.
MARQUEZ: Edwin Thomas says he didn't feel mistreated during the war, but he says if given the chance, he would have gladly done more.
THOMAS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to know that you had the qualifications to do something that you were not allowed to do.
MARQUEZ: Thomas, though, has no regrets. After the service, he went to work for the post office, retiring in 1981. He now looks forward to the next dance.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Here's a look at some stories making news around the world.
These are U.S. troops stationed at Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan, holding a special ceremony today. The flag-raising ceremony follows a weekend in which four (AUDIO GAP) were killed in action in southern Afghanistan. About 20,000 coalition forces are serving there.
In China, the indelible image of one man's standoff against a tank. A reminder of an anniversary the Chinese government would rather forget. It was 15 years ago this week that hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators were killed by Chinese troops in Beijing's Tianemen Square. One Chinese dissident was released from prison today after serving nine years in jail.
Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has a new home in Exile. He received a warm, diplomatic reception from South African President Thabo Mbeki. South Africa says Aristide may stay until it is safe to return to Haiti.
NGUYEN: U.S. interrogation methods in Iraq have been sharply criticized, but officials say it's clear some of the questioning is producing results, including a major new suspect linked to al Qaeda.
Details on that from CNN's Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His was the new face in gallery of wanted terrorist suspects put out by the federal government.
ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: He attended the training camps in Afghanistan. He is known to perform translations for al Qaeda as part of the services he has provided.
KOCH: Now Newsweek magazine reports Adam Gadon (ph) was named by none other than al Qaeda operations chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In its latest issue, the magazine says Mohammed said told interrogators he wanted Gadon to join a plot to blow up fuel stations outside Baltimore. The report says Gadon was willing to help, but would not join in any suicide operations because his wife was pregnant. Government sources say Mohammed had previously told interrogators of al Qaeda plans to attack gas stations in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas.
Known as one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks, Mohammed had already fingered about a dozen al Qaeda operatives. Officials say two of them, Adan al-Shikri Juma (ph) and Afias Sedeiki (ph) were among the seven listed last week with Gadon.
Since his capture in Pakistan in March 2003, Mohammed has been held in U.S. custody at an undisclosed location, where he is being interrogated. Experts say Mohammed has implicated himself and others in numerous terrorist plots.
PETER BERGEN, TERRORISM EXPERT: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has produced useful information in the past, In fact, information that he has produced has led to the arrest and imprisonment of somebody trying to sabotage the Brooklyn Bridge. But more importantly, when people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are arrested, they are usually arrested with computers, cell phones, these kind of things, useful information can be derived from.
KOCH: But that and all information being provided by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is now more than a year old.
(on camera): Experts, though, insist Mohammed can still give valuable insight into the structure and operations of al Qaeda, and could perhaps someday even against other top leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: They came seeking communion and left with a handshake. Why a rainbow-colored sash kept some Catholics from receiving the sacrament this weekend.
GRIFFIN: And on the lighter side, Betty, we're going to listen in on a musical party in the hills of North Carolina. LIVE FROM enjoys a bit of bluegrass after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Church communion becomes a divisive issue in Chicago. Catholic priests are denying the wafer to members of the Rainbow Sash Movement.
WFLD's Darlene Hill gets both side of this dispute.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DARLENE HILL, WLFD CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the 12:30 Sunday sermon at Holy Name Cathedral. Nearly 40 people were confirmed, and a handful of gays and lesbians wearing rainbow-colored sashes in their pews, waiting to find out if they receive holy communion.
LONNIE CHAFIN, DEMONSTRATOR: I think the sacraments come from God, and they shouldn't be used as political instruments by the Catholic Church.
HILL: The Rainbow Sash Committee has been coming to Holy Name on Pentecost Sunday for the past four years. It's the annual celebration of the birth of the Christian church.
In this pew, people prayed for acceptance and then, one by one, they each walked up for communion, Instead, they got a hand shake.
JEFF JOHNSON, DEMONSTRATOR: He asked my name, and he told me that as long as I was wearing the sash, he couldn't give me communion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very disappointed with Cardinal George. There have been several other cardinals, bishops, priests who have supported us. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we saw today in the cathedral was discrimination at the eucharistic table.
HILL: Archbishop Cardinal Francis George was not at the Mass. He was on a flight from Rome, where he spent some time with the pope. He says the church treats gays and lesbians like other Christians, but the church considers the sashes a symbol of protest, and communion is then not allowed.
CARDINAL FRANCIS GEORGE, CHICAGO ARCHDIOESE: Communion is not a time for protest. You don't use worship for something else. It doesn't matter what the cause is.
HILL: At Holy Name, gays and lesbians say they will continue to pray for more understanding and acceptance from the church and from Cardinal Francis George.
CHAFIN : God is certainly part of my life, and to deny communion for me is an attempt to separate me from the God who inspires me and fulfills me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: A different story in St. Paul, Minnesota, where priests served communion to Rainbow Sash members Sunday, even when a group of parishioners tried to block them from the altar.
NGUYEN: In others news "Across America," it shouldn't surprise anyone that a study in Atlanta find people who drive more, weigh more. Researchers found that drivers raise the risk of obesity 3 percent for every extra 30 minutes they spend in the car every day. They say commute time is a bigger factor than income, education, gender or ethnicity.
"Shrek 2" ruled at the box office for a second weekend. The animated sequel held on to the top spot, hauling in more than $73 million since Friday. The new disaster shocker "The Day After Tomorrow" debuted in second place. It brought in about $70 million over the weekend.
GRIFFIN: In Boulder, Colorado, University of Colorado head football coach Gary Barnett is back on the job. But, as CNN's Josie Burke reports, the controversy is far from over there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY BARNETT, COLORADO HEAD FOOTBALL COACH: In my mind, physically, emotionally, I've been fighting a four-month battle, and I'm a little drained. So, I need to get a -- restore my adrenaline a little bit.
JOSIE BURKE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The return of the Head Coach Gary Barnett was greeted with elation by some parents of University of Colorado football players.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He hasn't done anything wrong. He's a good man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a cause for celebration.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely, absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the plan?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Party.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Celebration.
BURKE: The school is still being sued by several women who claim they were raped at a recruiting party in 2001 while Barnett was head coach. This Sociology professor had a different reaction to the news Barnett would not be fired.
PROF. JOANNE BELKNAP, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: It's still devastating and sad. But it's so expected. And I'm not shocked by it. It's enraging.
BURKE: The school president Betsy Hoffman announced major structural changes including the athletic director who used to report to the chancellor now reports to the provost, like every other department head.
BARBARA BINTLIFF, BOULDER FACULTY ASSEMBLY: I think this is a marvelous first step. We will have the opportunity to integrate our athletics into the academic mission of the university. It's a courageous and bold plan.
BURKE: Jean Dubofsky isn't so sure. She was on the independent investigative commission that compiled a report on the football recruiting scandal that was critical of Colorado's top leaders. The chancellor, Richard Binny (ph), Athletics Director Dick Tharpp (ph), Hoffman, and Barnett.
JEAN DUBOFSKY, INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE: I would have been more optimistic if there was someone new coming in to say OK, we're going to do things differently.
BURKE: Hoffman insisted money wasn't a factor when it came to Barnett. It would have cost a university already in financial trouble millions of dollars to buy out his contract.
Critics have doubts.
JANINE D'ANNIBALLE, BOULDER RAPE CRISIS CENTER: I think there was some real hesitancy to make that change and upset the fans and the boosters and the regents. I also think with the lawsuits pending against the university, they didn't want to make themselves more liable there by changing personnel.
BURKE: Besides the lawsuits, a grand jury is looking into whether a former recruiting assistant provided recruits with prostitutes.
But Attorney General Ken Salazar has declined to file criminal charges in any of the nine instances of sexual assault involving CU football players or recruits alleged to have occurred since 1997.
Josie Burke, CNN, Boulder, Colorado.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Well, when it's springtime in the lush hills of England...
NGUYEN: It can only mean one thing, the bizarre thing ritual we're calling the Running of the Cheese. We'll try to explain right after this break.
(LAUGHTER)
(COMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: If Hollywood movies are not your idea of holiday entertainment, how about a music fest in the mountains of North Carolina?
NGUYEN: Oh, yes. CNN's Bruce Burkhardt takes us to a four-day tribute to traditional American music, and one man, in particular.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Go to a festival of traditional music in the mountains of western North Carolina, and what do you expect to hear?
A Russian folk band called Bering Straight playing a blues number? Or maybe something like this:
(SINGING)
BURKHARDT: Eighty-one-year-old legend Doc Watson playing a Bob Dylan tune.
(SINGING)
DOC WATSON: I know what bluegrass is, and I don't play bluegrass. I play a general mixture of traditional American music, plus whatever else I want to play.
BURKHARDT: And he plays it here, at Merlefest, a four-day festival tribute to his late son Merle, who died in a tractor accident 19 years ago. When Merle died, Doc not only lost his son and best friend, but the music world lost one of the best pickers ever.
And, yet, the music never died. Merle's son Richard now sits next to his grandfather. The circle is unbroken.
WATSON: Give me the blues (ph) to think about Richard.
BURKHARDT: Though he loves the blues, Doc is best known for so- called traditional or old-time music.
Blind since the age of 1, Doc got his start in music when his grandmother's cat died.
WATSON: And when dad found it out, he said, if you boys will skin that cat for me, I'll make you a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Joe Rogers (ph) advertisement in Sears Roebuck catalogue for cat-skin banjo heads. And he said, If he can make one, I can.
BURKHARDT: They ought to build a monument to that cat, who gave us a sound that only could have come from these mountains.
WATSON: But the mountains, there's something about these mountains. The joys, the sorrows and the in-betweens. And it seems like the people of the country that are close to the Earth have a way of expressing themselves, even though it's done simply in music.
BURKHARDT: But Doc just makes it look simple. Other musicians performing at Merlefest know that.
TIM O'BRIEN, ENTERTAINER: He is a guy who can draw on all those influences, and he can sell a stone-cold traditional song with his brilliant performance. He can sell that to a young audience, and he just - he kicks ass. I'm sorry.
BURKHARDT: Bruce Burkhardt, Wilkesboro, North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: From great music to something -- well, a little cheesy. If hurling yourself down a steep slope to chase a ball of cheese sounds like your cup of tea, we've got just the thing.
GRIFFIN: The Running of the Cheese they call it. The annual cheese-rolling race, an event steeped in tradition in Britain, took place today.
Sky News' Andrew Moore has all the highlights.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW MOORE, SKY NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If this hill were just a few degrees steeper, it would be called a cliff. Why anyone should want to race down it is a mystery lost in time. Some say it's a pagan mid-summer festival, others say it's an assertion of commoners' rights.
But now, it's an international event, while the race is won by a former (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll tell you what, that doesn't prepare for that, particularly after two guys have been lying down with broken bones sticking out of their socks, and you're sitting at the top and some bugger and sees to it (ph) more people get injured than the running of the bulls.
MOORE: Also competing, a Belgian World Cup footballer. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had to kick a penalty for, I think, about 60, 70,000 people who are in the stadium. And for the first time -- it's now 18 years ago -- and for the first time, I really felt the same. I felt the adrenaline. It was like I had a flashback from 20 years ago.
MOORE: Some say you've got to be mad. Others say you've got to be drunk. It probably helps to be both.
(on camera): It's been called dairy-based carnage. So far already, two people have been stretchered off to hospital. It's a wonder that nobody has ever been killed. At least that's in the recorded history of the event.
(voice-over): And if you wondered whether Superman can really fly, the answer is, yes, sort of.
Andrew Moore, Sky News, Gloucestershire.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Oh, my goodness. Some people have way too much time on their hands.
GRIFFIN: I'll say.
Well, coming up in our second hour of LIVE FROM inside the firefight with U.S. troops in Iraq. Video you will only see on CNN. The battle for Kufa coming up.
NGUYEN: Courting veterans this Memorial Day. We'll talk presidential politics with our own Bill Schneider.
GRIFFIN: And summertime hazards on the homefront. We will check out a way to teach infants as young as six months old how to swim. It could save your child's life.
LIVE FROM's hour of power kicks off after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(GUNFIRE)
GRIFFIN: That's the sound of a cease-fire under fire. A street battle erupts near Najaf and CNN cameras give you an exclusive look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They took buckets of bloods and threw it on the buses at us. You know, I mean, baby killer, all that kind of stuff, you know? These men ain't getting that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: What can soldiers fresh back from Iraq learn from veterans of the Vietnam War? JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. After a weekend of deadly tornadoes, more severe weather on the way for the East. We'll have the latest and your travel forecast coming up.
GRIFFIN: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Drew Griffin.
NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen. Miles and Kyra are off.
This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
A nation at war in Iraq and Afghanistan is pausing to remember those who died serving their country. You're looking at a live picture of the National Mall in Washington, where there's been a steady drizzle for most of this Memorial Day.
Today caps a weekend of events in the nation's capital. Some of the celebrations have been solemn. Some, more festive. Thousands turned out for this morning's parade in Washington. At Arlington National Cemetery, President Bush placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
He had a few words for those now fighting overseas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Since the hour this nation was attacked, we have seen the character of the men and women who wear our country's uniform, in places like Kabul and Kandahar, in Mosul and Baghdad. We have seen their decency and their brave spirit. Because of their fierce courage, America is safer. Two terror regimes are gone forever, and more than 50 million souls now live in freedom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Democratic presidential candidate and veteran of the Vietnam War, John Kerry, is among those marking Memorial Day in Washington.
We're going to go to CNN's Sean Callebs, who's been watching it all on the National Mall.
Goof afternoon, Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Drew.
From the celebratory, the parade this morning, to the more somber - you talked about Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. He was at the wall early this morning with the family of
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 31, 2004 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking headlines at the half hour.
Indiana's governor plans to assess the damage caused by a swath of violent storms. It will be his second such trip in four days. Over the weekend, tornadoes pummeled the Midwest. Some of the worst damage is in Merengo, Indiana, where at least 50 homes were destroyed and one person was killed.
Possible revenge? At least 16 people are reported dead, several others wounded in a bomb blast inside a Shiite mosque in Karachi, Pakistan. It comes a day after a leading Sunni cleric was killed. Police and troops have been posted at Shiite mosques to prevent any kind of retaliatory strike.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Thousands of people braved light rain today during a ceremony at the tomb of the unknowns. President Bush laid the traditional wreath at the tomb in Arlington National Cemetery. Inside the tomb are the remains of unidentified U.S. servicemen from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
On CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers said the reasons for war back then still exist today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: If we think about it for a minute, if we had not done what was done in World War II, then we would be living in a much different world today. I think you can take that, you can fast forward to today. We have a great threat out there from extremism, from terrorism. If we don't handle this in the right way, I don't think we're going to like the world we'll live in in five or 10 years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: While Americans pause to remember those who served and died for our country on Memorial Day, we must also remember the servicemen who were forced to fight a personal battle within the war - a battle over race.
CNN's Miguel Marquez explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EDWIN N. THOMAS SR., WWII VETERAN: My name is Edwin N. Thomas senior. MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's 85 years old and an avid dancer. Perhaps the most important experience of his life, though, came in 1943, swept up into World War II.
THOMAS: We were drafted. I had no choice. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) World War II broke out, they started calling everybody.
MARQUEZ: Like most African-Americans, Thomas was not called up two years after the U.S. entered the war. Until then, draft boards denied them the right to serve in combat.
THOMAS: People that had brains knew that if we did that, we couldn't demand a thing after the war was over.
MARQUEZ: So African-Americans fought at home for the right to die abroad. Initially, blacks were allowed only menial jobs, no combat. Edwin Thomas was part of a segregated crew loading ships with ammunition.
THOMAS: We were all black. My whole outfit was black, except our officers. All our officers were white.
MARQUEZ: Eventually, African-Americans contributed their blood to the war effort, from the Tuskeegee airmen to hundreds of thousands of infantrymen to African-American nurses.
EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON, AUTHOR AND POLITICAL ANALYST: There was a double fight that went on against Hitler and against Japanese fascism. And the second fight to make democracy a reality within the American military.
MARQUEZ: It was that double fight, says Hutchinson, that was the seed for the civil-rights movement.
HUTCHINSON: It gave them pride. They didn't have to take the rotten conditions. They didn't have to accept that treatment any more.
MARQUEZ: Edwin Thomas says he didn't feel mistreated during the war, but he says if given the chance, he would have gladly done more.
THOMAS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to know that you had the qualifications to do something that you were not allowed to do.
MARQUEZ: Thomas, though, has no regrets. After the service, he went to work for the post office, retiring in 1981. He now looks forward to the next dance.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Here's a look at some stories making news around the world.
These are U.S. troops stationed at Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan, holding a special ceremony today. The flag-raising ceremony follows a weekend in which four (AUDIO GAP) were killed in action in southern Afghanistan. About 20,000 coalition forces are serving there.
In China, the indelible image of one man's standoff against a tank. A reminder of an anniversary the Chinese government would rather forget. It was 15 years ago this week that hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators were killed by Chinese troops in Beijing's Tianemen Square. One Chinese dissident was released from prison today after serving nine years in jail.
Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has a new home in Exile. He received a warm, diplomatic reception from South African President Thabo Mbeki. South Africa says Aristide may stay until it is safe to return to Haiti.
NGUYEN: U.S. interrogation methods in Iraq have been sharply criticized, but officials say it's clear some of the questioning is producing results, including a major new suspect linked to al Qaeda.
Details on that from CNN's Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His was the new face in gallery of wanted terrorist suspects put out by the federal government.
ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: He attended the training camps in Afghanistan. He is known to perform translations for al Qaeda as part of the services he has provided.
KOCH: Now Newsweek magazine reports Adam Gadon (ph) was named by none other than al Qaeda operations chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In its latest issue, the magazine says Mohammed said told interrogators he wanted Gadon to join a plot to blow up fuel stations outside Baltimore. The report says Gadon was willing to help, but would not join in any suicide operations because his wife was pregnant. Government sources say Mohammed had previously told interrogators of al Qaeda plans to attack gas stations in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas.
Known as one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks, Mohammed had already fingered about a dozen al Qaeda operatives. Officials say two of them, Adan al-Shikri Juma (ph) and Afias Sedeiki (ph) were among the seven listed last week with Gadon.
Since his capture in Pakistan in March 2003, Mohammed has been held in U.S. custody at an undisclosed location, where he is being interrogated. Experts say Mohammed has implicated himself and others in numerous terrorist plots.
PETER BERGEN, TERRORISM EXPERT: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has produced useful information in the past, In fact, information that he has produced has led to the arrest and imprisonment of somebody trying to sabotage the Brooklyn Bridge. But more importantly, when people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are arrested, they are usually arrested with computers, cell phones, these kind of things, useful information can be derived from.
KOCH: But that and all information being provided by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is now more than a year old.
(on camera): Experts, though, insist Mohammed can still give valuable insight into the structure and operations of al Qaeda, and could perhaps someday even against other top leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: They came seeking communion and left with a handshake. Why a rainbow-colored sash kept some Catholics from receiving the sacrament this weekend.
GRIFFIN: And on the lighter side, Betty, we're going to listen in on a musical party in the hills of North Carolina. LIVE FROM enjoys a bit of bluegrass after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Church communion becomes a divisive issue in Chicago. Catholic priests are denying the wafer to members of the Rainbow Sash Movement.
WFLD's Darlene Hill gets both side of this dispute.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DARLENE HILL, WLFD CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the 12:30 Sunday sermon at Holy Name Cathedral. Nearly 40 people were confirmed, and a handful of gays and lesbians wearing rainbow-colored sashes in their pews, waiting to find out if they receive holy communion.
LONNIE CHAFIN, DEMONSTRATOR: I think the sacraments come from God, and they shouldn't be used as political instruments by the Catholic Church.
HILL: The Rainbow Sash Committee has been coming to Holy Name on Pentecost Sunday for the past four years. It's the annual celebration of the birth of the Christian church.
In this pew, people prayed for acceptance and then, one by one, they each walked up for communion, Instead, they got a hand shake.
JEFF JOHNSON, DEMONSTRATOR: He asked my name, and he told me that as long as I was wearing the sash, he couldn't give me communion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very disappointed with Cardinal George. There have been several other cardinals, bishops, priests who have supported us. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we saw today in the cathedral was discrimination at the eucharistic table.
HILL: Archbishop Cardinal Francis George was not at the Mass. He was on a flight from Rome, where he spent some time with the pope. He says the church treats gays and lesbians like other Christians, but the church considers the sashes a symbol of protest, and communion is then not allowed.
CARDINAL FRANCIS GEORGE, CHICAGO ARCHDIOESE: Communion is not a time for protest. You don't use worship for something else. It doesn't matter what the cause is.
HILL: At Holy Name, gays and lesbians say they will continue to pray for more understanding and acceptance from the church and from Cardinal Francis George.
CHAFIN : God is certainly part of my life, and to deny communion for me is an attempt to separate me from the God who inspires me and fulfills me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: A different story in St. Paul, Minnesota, where priests served communion to Rainbow Sash members Sunday, even when a group of parishioners tried to block them from the altar.
NGUYEN: In others news "Across America," it shouldn't surprise anyone that a study in Atlanta find people who drive more, weigh more. Researchers found that drivers raise the risk of obesity 3 percent for every extra 30 minutes they spend in the car every day. They say commute time is a bigger factor than income, education, gender or ethnicity.
"Shrek 2" ruled at the box office for a second weekend. The animated sequel held on to the top spot, hauling in more than $73 million since Friday. The new disaster shocker "The Day After Tomorrow" debuted in second place. It brought in about $70 million over the weekend.
GRIFFIN: In Boulder, Colorado, University of Colorado head football coach Gary Barnett is back on the job. But, as CNN's Josie Burke reports, the controversy is far from over there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY BARNETT, COLORADO HEAD FOOTBALL COACH: In my mind, physically, emotionally, I've been fighting a four-month battle, and I'm a little drained. So, I need to get a -- restore my adrenaline a little bit.
JOSIE BURKE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The return of the Head Coach Gary Barnett was greeted with elation by some parents of University of Colorado football players.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He hasn't done anything wrong. He's a good man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a cause for celebration.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely, absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the plan?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Party.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Celebration.
BURKE: The school is still being sued by several women who claim they were raped at a recruiting party in 2001 while Barnett was head coach. This Sociology professor had a different reaction to the news Barnett would not be fired.
PROF. JOANNE BELKNAP, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: It's still devastating and sad. But it's so expected. And I'm not shocked by it. It's enraging.
BURKE: The school president Betsy Hoffman announced major structural changes including the athletic director who used to report to the chancellor now reports to the provost, like every other department head.
BARBARA BINTLIFF, BOULDER FACULTY ASSEMBLY: I think this is a marvelous first step. We will have the opportunity to integrate our athletics into the academic mission of the university. It's a courageous and bold plan.
BURKE: Jean Dubofsky isn't so sure. She was on the independent investigative commission that compiled a report on the football recruiting scandal that was critical of Colorado's top leaders. The chancellor, Richard Binny (ph), Athletics Director Dick Tharpp (ph), Hoffman, and Barnett.
JEAN DUBOFSKY, INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE: I would have been more optimistic if there was someone new coming in to say OK, we're going to do things differently.
BURKE: Hoffman insisted money wasn't a factor when it came to Barnett. It would have cost a university already in financial trouble millions of dollars to buy out his contract.
Critics have doubts.
JANINE D'ANNIBALLE, BOULDER RAPE CRISIS CENTER: I think there was some real hesitancy to make that change and upset the fans and the boosters and the regents. I also think with the lawsuits pending against the university, they didn't want to make themselves more liable there by changing personnel.
BURKE: Besides the lawsuits, a grand jury is looking into whether a former recruiting assistant provided recruits with prostitutes.
But Attorney General Ken Salazar has declined to file criminal charges in any of the nine instances of sexual assault involving CU football players or recruits alleged to have occurred since 1997.
Josie Burke, CNN, Boulder, Colorado.
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GRIFFIN: Well, when it's springtime in the lush hills of England...
NGUYEN: It can only mean one thing, the bizarre thing ritual we're calling the Running of the Cheese. We'll try to explain right after this break.
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GRIFFIN: If Hollywood movies are not your idea of holiday entertainment, how about a music fest in the mountains of North Carolina?
NGUYEN: Oh, yes. CNN's Bruce Burkhardt takes us to a four-day tribute to traditional American music, and one man, in particular.
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BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Go to a festival of traditional music in the mountains of western North Carolina, and what do you expect to hear?
A Russian folk band called Bering Straight playing a blues number? Or maybe something like this:
(SINGING)
BURKHARDT: Eighty-one-year-old legend Doc Watson playing a Bob Dylan tune.
(SINGING)
DOC WATSON: I know what bluegrass is, and I don't play bluegrass. I play a general mixture of traditional American music, plus whatever else I want to play.
BURKHARDT: And he plays it here, at Merlefest, a four-day festival tribute to his late son Merle, who died in a tractor accident 19 years ago. When Merle died, Doc not only lost his son and best friend, but the music world lost one of the best pickers ever.
And, yet, the music never died. Merle's son Richard now sits next to his grandfather. The circle is unbroken.
WATSON: Give me the blues (ph) to think about Richard.
BURKHARDT: Though he loves the blues, Doc is best known for so- called traditional or old-time music.
Blind since the age of 1, Doc got his start in music when his grandmother's cat died.
WATSON: And when dad found it out, he said, if you boys will skin that cat for me, I'll make you a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Joe Rogers (ph) advertisement in Sears Roebuck catalogue for cat-skin banjo heads. And he said, If he can make one, I can.
BURKHARDT: They ought to build a monument to that cat, who gave us a sound that only could have come from these mountains.
WATSON: But the mountains, there's something about these mountains. The joys, the sorrows and the in-betweens. And it seems like the people of the country that are close to the Earth have a way of expressing themselves, even though it's done simply in music.
BURKHARDT: But Doc just makes it look simple. Other musicians performing at Merlefest know that.
TIM O'BRIEN, ENTERTAINER: He is a guy who can draw on all those influences, and he can sell a stone-cold traditional song with his brilliant performance. He can sell that to a young audience, and he just - he kicks ass. I'm sorry.
BURKHARDT: Bruce Burkhardt, Wilkesboro, North Carolina.
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NGUYEN: From great music to something -- well, a little cheesy. If hurling yourself down a steep slope to chase a ball of cheese sounds like your cup of tea, we've got just the thing.
GRIFFIN: The Running of the Cheese they call it. The annual cheese-rolling race, an event steeped in tradition in Britain, took place today.
Sky News' Andrew Moore has all the highlights.
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ANDREW MOORE, SKY NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If this hill were just a few degrees steeper, it would be called a cliff. Why anyone should want to race down it is a mystery lost in time. Some say it's a pagan mid-summer festival, others say it's an assertion of commoners' rights.
But now, it's an international event, while the race is won by a former (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll tell you what, that doesn't prepare for that, particularly after two guys have been lying down with broken bones sticking out of their socks, and you're sitting at the top and some bugger and sees to it (ph) more people get injured than the running of the bulls.
MOORE: Also competing, a Belgian World Cup footballer. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had to kick a penalty for, I think, about 60, 70,000 people who are in the stadium. And for the first time -- it's now 18 years ago -- and for the first time, I really felt the same. I felt the adrenaline. It was like I had a flashback from 20 years ago.
MOORE: Some say you've got to be mad. Others say you've got to be drunk. It probably helps to be both.
(on camera): It's been called dairy-based carnage. So far already, two people have been stretchered off to hospital. It's a wonder that nobody has ever been killed. At least that's in the recorded history of the event.
(voice-over): And if you wondered whether Superman can really fly, the answer is, yes, sort of.
Andrew Moore, Sky News, Gloucestershire.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Oh, my goodness. Some people have way too much time on their hands.
GRIFFIN: I'll say.
Well, coming up in our second hour of LIVE FROM inside the firefight with U.S. troops in Iraq. Video you will only see on CNN. The battle for Kufa coming up.
NGUYEN: Courting veterans this Memorial Day. We'll talk presidential politics with our own Bill Schneider.
GRIFFIN: And summertime hazards on the homefront. We will check out a way to teach infants as young as six months old how to swim. It could save your child's life.
LIVE FROM's hour of power kicks off after this.
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(GUNFIRE)
GRIFFIN: That's the sound of a cease-fire under fire. A street battle erupts near Najaf and CNN cameras give you an exclusive look.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They took buckets of bloods and threw it on the buses at us. You know, I mean, baby killer, all that kind of stuff, you know? These men ain't getting that.
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NGUYEN: What can soldiers fresh back from Iraq learn from veterans of the Vietnam War? JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. After a weekend of deadly tornadoes, more severe weather on the way for the East. We'll have the latest and your travel forecast coming up.
GRIFFIN: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Drew Griffin.
NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen. Miles and Kyra are off.
This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
A nation at war in Iraq and Afghanistan is pausing to remember those who died serving their country. You're looking at a live picture of the National Mall in Washington, where there's been a steady drizzle for most of this Memorial Day.
Today caps a weekend of events in the nation's capital. Some of the celebrations have been solemn. Some, more festive. Thousands turned out for this morning's parade in Washington. At Arlington National Cemetery, President Bush placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
He had a few words for those now fighting overseas.
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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Since the hour this nation was attacked, we have seen the character of the men and women who wear our country's uniform, in places like Kabul and Kandahar, in Mosul and Baghdad. We have seen their decency and their brave spirit. Because of their fierce courage, America is safer. Two terror regimes are gone forever, and more than 50 million souls now live in freedom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Democratic presidential candidate and veteran of the Vietnam War, John Kerry, is among those marking Memorial Day in Washington.
We're going to go to CNN's Sean Callebs, who's been watching it all on the National Mall.
Goof afternoon, Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Drew.
From the celebratory, the parade this morning, to the more somber - you talked about Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. He was at the wall early this morning with the family of
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