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Rumsfeld: Should He Stay or Go?; 20 Dead After Attack on U.S. Military Dining Hall in Mosul; Former American GI is St. Nick for Small German Town

Aired December 21, 2004 - 14:30   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, ANCHOR: The latest U.S. casualties in Iraq come as pressure mounts on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign. Gallup poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport joins us now from Princeton, New Jersey.
Secretary Rumsfeld at the center of controversy, Frank. If it were up to the American people, would he stay or go?

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP: Well, if it was a strict vote of the American people, based on our weekend CNN-"USA Today"- Gallup poll, he would go. Here's the numbers.

"Should Donald Rumsfeld resign?" Can't get much more straightforward than that question. Fifty-two percent of Americans say he should resign, 36 percent say no, and another 12 percent no opinion.

Look at Rumsfeld's job approval rating for handling his job as secretary of defense. Look how high it was back in April, 2003. That's not a surprise. 74 percent, but it came down each time we've asked it since then. And now over the weekend, Kyra, just 41 percent of Americans approve. Half of Americans say they disapprove of how he's handling his job.

PHILLIPS: Well, Rumsfeld has been involved, obviously, in this controversy over the way he answers soldiers' question and other personal issues. But is support for the war in Iraq more generally waning?

GALLUP: Well, let's look at this carefully. We've spent quite a bit of time analyzing our weekend results. The basic support for the idea of being in Iraq stays roughly split. Now, some questions been asked by other polls that say is it worth all the casualties? And when you emphasize that, support goes down a little.

But this was a question simply, was it the right decision? Back in March of 2003, can't get much more split than this. About half approve, half disapprove. Look at this number, however. When we say do you approve of the way the U.S. has been handling the war -- not basically whether the U.S. should be there, but how they're handling it, it's 39 percent. So clearly, that's not good at all. Well over half say they disapprove.

And are things better or worse now than a year ago? This doesn't take a lot to interpret, only 20 percent say better, 32 percent say worse. And Kyra, you can see almost half of Americans say things are getting worse. So American -- the public clearly perceive things not going well in Iraq and they remain split kind of right down the middle on the basic logic behind the U.S. involvement to begin with.

PHILLIPS: How is President Bush doing?

NEWPORT: 49 percent. That's the last job approval of the year, as far as we know. At least as Gallup we won't be doing any more polling. And that's where he ends up the year. It was higher since the election, up in the 50s. Kyra, his average for this year was 51 percent. So he leaves 2004 with just a little below average. And by the way, quite a bit below the average for all presidents since Franklin Roosevelt, that average has been about 55 percent over the years.

PHILLIPS: All right, Frank Newport, thank you so much.

Straight ahead, more on LIVE FROM about that attack in Mosul right after break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Here's a quick check of stories "Now in the News." A deadly day for U.S. forces in Iraq. An attack on a U.S. military dining hall in Mosul has left more than 20 people dead and more than 60 wounded. The casualties inside U.S. troops, Iraqi national guard members and Iraqi civilians. More on this story in just a few minutes.

The attack came as President Bush was preparing to visit Walter Read Hospital in Washington. The president and first lady are scheduled to meet with the families of wounded soldiers this hour.

Police say as many as 18 people could have been involved or knew about the Maryland arsons. More arrests were made in that case on Monday. Six people are now being charged. The December 6th fires destroyed ten homes.

The FDA has issued a warning for the pain reliever naproxen. It says that the drug, better known as Aleve, was found to increase the risk of heart attack or stroke by 50 percent for people who use it regularly. We'll have more on that story at the top of the hour.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, remember when video games were a fun diversion? Well not anymore, campers. Video gaming has become serious business, and I'm sorry to tell this to parents of 12- year-olds out there, there are people who actually earn six-figure salaries doing this. So imagine the flack you're going to get the next time you say get off the X-Box. But dad, but dad, I can make 100 grand doing this, right?

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: That's how this next guy got his start.

O'BRIEN: Let's stop this story right now. SIEBERG: Yes, right.

O'BRIEN: Roll the commercial. All right now, go ahead. Let's go ahead.

SIEBERG: Parents everywhere very disappointed that we are doing this story. And maybe you think you're pretty skilled at video games, maybe you know someone who is. Well, you haven't met the subject of our next story. And he may be every parent's worst nightmare. Able to make a living doing what others consider just a hobby.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN WENDEL, PROFESSIONAL GAMER: Fortunately, my job is playing video games.

SIEBERG (voice-over): His name is Jonathan Wendell. He's better known as Fatality. We first caught up with the 23-year-old professional gamer in his makeshift training center at a small hotel. Using a specialized glow-in-the-dark keyboard and a custom made computer, he practices about eight hours a day. At midnight, he's practicing for the next day.

When we came back at 9:00 the next morning, we found Fatality in pretty much in the same place. He says that's what it takes to win more than $100,000 a year in sponsorships and prize money, paid for by the companies that make these games and want to promote their product. Don't be fooled, though. Jonathan gets a full night's sleep. He exercises daily and says he takes care of himself.

WENDEL: I'm actually already been downstairs and had a nice little breakfast, but I'm pretty charged right now and ready to go to my fatality shootout today and kick some more butt.

SIEBERG: Jonathan tells us he played tennis, pool and video games in high school, and he dreamed of becoming a professional in one of those fields. But when he told his parents he was going to be a pro gamer, they were pretty skeptical.

WENDEL: So I made a deal with them. I told them if I don't win any money this first one I go to, I'm done with gaming. Gaming will still be a hobby in the background, but I will not pursue to train, you know, eight plus hours a day to basically win these tournaments. So we made the deal and I went down to the tournament and won $4,500. And I came back and slapped that check right on the table and I go, I won $4,500 playing a video game.

SIEBERG: The rest is history. After practice, Jonathan and I stopped downstairs for a milkshake and from there, we followed his team to the day's event. Jonathan is at a gamers gathering in San Francisco, where he's holding twice daily shootouts.

Fatality is like a 21st century gun slinger. Gamers come from all over to wait in line for a chance for a showdown. If they win or actually even score just one kill, they get $2,000. Needless to say, that doesn't happen very often. The shootout tour has taken Johnathan from London to the Great Wall of China. And though he loves his work and its perk, he hasn't forgotten where he came from.

WENDEL: My goal is basically to give back to the gaming -- give back to the gaming community that I started from. Basically from the roots from where I started and I want to sponsor other gamers, give them the life that I had already, the last five years. And I plan on doing this for another five or ten years, as well. I mean, it's been amazing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Of course, Fatality is also trying to keep the money coming in. He promotes a gamer's mousepad with his name on it, among other products, like a video card and t-shirts and that kind of thing. And he tries to be visible at various gaming tournaments.

But the people we spoke with say, he generally breaks the stereotype of a slacker, overweight gamer with no direction. He's almost considered to be, Miles, the Michael Jordan of video gaming. I know that sounds like a bit of an overstatement, but that really is how he's referred to.

O'BRIEN: Well, somebody's got to be the Michael Jordan of video gaming.

SIEBERG: Well, he doesn't make quite as much money as Michael Jordan, but...

O'BRIEN: He looks like he was in boot camp or something. Not at all what you'd expect, athletic and all the high-end type thing and everything going there. But the truth is, so that I have a retort for the 12-year-old, how many people are making six-figure incomes?

SIEBERG: Not many. Let's be honest. This is a very small percentage of gamers that are out there that are actually making this type of money. There are lots of tournaments where you can make much smaller amounts of money, maybe a few thousand dollars here and there. But Fatality is certainly at the upper echelon of gaming, and he's one of a very small percentage of people out there who can really compete at it and do well.

O'BRIEN: Now, did you get him to share any thoughts with...

SIEBERG: His secrets?

O'BRIEN: Yes, secrets and a free one at that. You're not going to share that part. But as far as kids doing too much of it, does he worry about that or care about that one way or another?

SIEBERG: We talked to him about that and he does say you have to balance this out. He is 23 years old but he has been playing games for quite a while. His advice is for kids to take a step back if you start playing games too much but enjoy them as much as you can. He makes the same argument that a lot of the people do that it's up to the parents like Mr. O'Brien and others.

O'BRIEN: That's right. So I can (UNINTELLIGIBLE) with a boom. Daniel Sieberg, always a pleasure. Glad you got some secrets from him.

Christmas joy is often a casualty of war unless, of course, you lived in Wiltz, Luxembourg in 1944.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were very unhappy because St. Nicholas Day was coming and they had nothing for the children. One of us said why don't we have a Christmas party for these kids? So that sounded like a good idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: U.S. soldiers give the gift of Christmas coming up on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: An unknown number of U.S. troops are among the 24 people killed at the military base in Mosul. It happened when an explosion ripped through a dining hall. Some analysis from retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd. He's in Tucson. General, good to see you.

Let's talk about the threat side of things. Is this a missed threat? You would think with all the surprises and all the tactics that the insurgents are using, that you would think an area where a mass amount of soldiers would be would be protected.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, easy to say, very, very difficult to do. We're in hundreds of locations across Iraq, many of them soft facilities. You don't have facilities hardened for all the troops there, even the mess halls. This type of attack happens daily and most of them you don't hear about because the weapons miss and don't kill people. We're assuming that it's something shot from the outside. There's also a possibility it could have been something from the inside like a suicide bomber. So we're waiting to hear but this type of attack goes on repeatedly and it doesn't surprise me, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, we should probably explain to our viewers, too. I remember this by being inside Iraq. A lot of these missile, rocket attacks. They're a lucky hit.

SHEPPERD: They are indeed. These -- both rockets and mortars are notoriously inaccurate. Artillery is a little more accurate. You're lucky to hit a pinpoint spot. The people that did this probably had good intelligence about where they were after in the way of coordinates. On the other hand it doesn't take a lot of intelligence to know you're going to hit people at meal times. You're going to find them coordinated. So it does not take any type of sophistication to do this. It may be a lucky shot if it came from the outside.

PHILLIPS: Mosul for the most part has been a pretty safe area. There hasn't been any real major incidents that have taken place there. Is this happening because of Falluja? Are the insurgents just moving out of one place to the next?

SHEPPERD: Clearly a lot of them left from Falluja and went other plays. This is most likely as opposed to foreign influence, is most likely the Sunni insurgents, the former Baathists trying to retake power and spread a feeling of insecurity across the population so it will not support the interim government that's trying to pull off these elections and trying to delay or screw up the elections. It's a very, very effective tactic. They're not for the most part attacking U.S. troops directly but from outside like this if indeed that's what took place.

PHILLIPS: There was talk that a mess hall was being built of concrete but concrete can still be shot through considering how big the explosive is.

SHEPPERD: Yes, it can. There's nothing that's so hard. You get a bigger explosive and you can bring something down or even if you hit it in the right place. On the other hand, anything concrete or hardened is going to be better than these tent-like facilities. These facilities -- I've been in Mosul, and I've been over there and I've been under rocket mortar attack and in this type of facility, if a rocket or mortar comes from the outside and you're going to kill a lot of people in there because they're congregated at mealtimes. To kill that many people, it would likely be a rocket from the outside as opposed to a mortar.

PHILLIPS: I've got to ask you a question about Donald Rumsfeld. There's been so much talk about the secretary of defense, should he resign, is he the right one for the post? He wrote an article in "USA Today" defending in many ways his position. The nonpolitically correct answer I'm going to ask you, does he deserve all this criticism when you look at the lack of resources for these soldiers, marines and sailors?

SHEPPERD: Look, he deserves the criticism and he also deserves the praise. Had this gone well, we would be heaping praise on him. Since it's not going well and does not look like there's light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to be getting everything dumped on him. It's deserved. It takes a person with broad shoulders and a tough guy. Just because you change secretary of defenses does not mean things are all of a sudden going to start going well. It is true we don't have enough troops across that country to provide security everywhere, maybe not everywhere for the elections. The key is the Iraqis have to take over responsibility for their own security and if we don't do that, if we keep trying to add U.S. troops, we're going to be a failure. So yes, he deserves some criticism. The decision to disband the Iraqi army was probably one of the big mistakes we made and we're paying for it now -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Major General Don Shepperd, thanks so much.

Sixty years ago, Europe was in turmoil. Allied armies were sweeping across the continent on the way to defeating Hitler and the Nazis.

O'BRIEN: But the war was far from over and the prospect of a merry Christmas for the children of a small Luxembourg town seemed bleak, bleak until an American GI and his unit stepped in to help. CNN's Tom Foreman with that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the little country of Luxembourg on Germany's western border, a big parade rolls along. Candy for the children, switches for the bad parents and a miracle in the middle. For 60 years, American Dick Brookins has been St. Nicholas here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's great. It's really great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My grandparents, they saw the same Santa Claus and now I'm here to see the same Santa again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was the America we loved so much.

FOREMAN: It all started in December, 1944, as allied soldiers pushed the German army toward Berlin and the end of World War II. Dick Brookins' unit liberated the tiny town of Wiltz, Luxembourg.

DICK BROOKINS, HELPED SAVE CHRISTMAS IN WWII: People here were delighted and happy to be free but they very unhappy because St. Nicholas Day was coming and the children -- they had nothing for the children. One of us said, why don't we have a Christmas party for these kids? So that sounded like a good idea.

FOREMAN: The soldiers collected all the candy, gum and cookies sent from home. Dick Brookins went to a local church where nuns dressed him in the bishop's robes to play St. Nick and this film from so long ago shows what happened next.

BROOKINS: I was driven to public school. And they brought children out into the outdoor yard, and then they lined the kids up and gave them some of this candy and cookies. There was no ability to converse because there was no English understood, but somehow we managed to get the feel for what was going on.

And those kids didn't know this was an American soldier. It was St. Nicholas, OK? The youngest kids. Some of those children had not even had a St. Nicholas day because they were like three, four years old and it hadn't occurred for almost five years.

FOREMAN: That joy did not last. Within days, the soldiers were swept into the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive of the war. The Americans suffered 80,000 casualties in the gunfire. Christmas was forgotten. But not in Wiltz. 30 years after the war, Dick Brookins received a call at his home in the States. Was he the man who played St. Nick? Could he come do it again?

BROOKINS: Just as many butterflies now as I had the first time.

FOREMAN: Because in Wiltz, every year since the war's end, the town had marked the day and remembered the long-lost American St. Nick. BROOKINS: Hearing about this after 30 years, I was just dumbfounded.

FOREMAN: Brookins did go back and has returned again and again to lead the parade, to hand out the candy.

BROOKINS: Well, as it has turned out, this was one of the greatest things that happened to them. It represented their freedom, their liberation, the restoration of their life.

FOREMAN: As it was in the war, the celebration is colored with sadness. Some of the soldiers who brought Christmas back to Wiltz are here forever. Dick Brookins comes to the American cemetery every time.

BROOKINS: I think it's the next one.

FOREMAN: To the grave of his best friend, Eddie Stein.

BROOKINS: I come here out of respect and care. And it gets me every time. I'm still alive and he's gone. These are the heroes. 5,000-some in this cemetery.

FOREMAN: But mostly his trips here are happy affairs, time for awards from a grateful town.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I hope we will put this fire in the hearts of our children and so these festivities and St. Nick will come to Wiltz for years and years and years and years.

FOREMAN: Time to meet the children of long ago, grandparents now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I congratulate you.

FOREMAN: And time to greet the children of today.

BROOKINS: What's this one's name?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: That's Sir Robert Zole Abna (ph).

FOREMAN: And it seems there is always time enough. Dick Brookins is in his 80s, but St. Nick is timeless and forever loved in the streets of Wiltz.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm David Haffenreffer in New York with a look at today's business news. The phrase use it or lose it may ring a bell. Each year, employees forfeit millions of dollars because they don't use all the money that they contribute to their health care spending accounts.

Here's how those accounts work. Workers choose an amount each year that they want available for their health care expenditures. Employers then deduct the matching pre-tax amount from each paycheck to gradually build the account to the requested level. Workers can take money from the account as they spend it on health-related expenses throughout the year. But if they don't use it, they lose it. And who gets the money? Your employer.

An estimated 210 million dollars of employees' money is surrendered each year. Experts advise employees to find ways to use all the money they set aside. Many plans allow workers to make claims on everything, from over-the-counter medicines and co-pays at the doctor's office, all the way down to a therapeutic massage.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired December 21, 2004 - 14:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR: The latest U.S. casualties in Iraq come as pressure mounts on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign. Gallup poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport joins us now from Princeton, New Jersey.
Secretary Rumsfeld at the center of controversy, Frank. If it were up to the American people, would he stay or go?

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP: Well, if it was a strict vote of the American people, based on our weekend CNN-"USA Today"- Gallup poll, he would go. Here's the numbers.

"Should Donald Rumsfeld resign?" Can't get much more straightforward than that question. Fifty-two percent of Americans say he should resign, 36 percent say no, and another 12 percent no opinion.

Look at Rumsfeld's job approval rating for handling his job as secretary of defense. Look how high it was back in April, 2003. That's not a surprise. 74 percent, but it came down each time we've asked it since then. And now over the weekend, Kyra, just 41 percent of Americans approve. Half of Americans say they disapprove of how he's handling his job.

PHILLIPS: Well, Rumsfeld has been involved, obviously, in this controversy over the way he answers soldiers' question and other personal issues. But is support for the war in Iraq more generally waning?

GALLUP: Well, let's look at this carefully. We've spent quite a bit of time analyzing our weekend results. The basic support for the idea of being in Iraq stays roughly split. Now, some questions been asked by other polls that say is it worth all the casualties? And when you emphasize that, support goes down a little.

But this was a question simply, was it the right decision? Back in March of 2003, can't get much more split than this. About half approve, half disapprove. Look at this number, however. When we say do you approve of the way the U.S. has been handling the war -- not basically whether the U.S. should be there, but how they're handling it, it's 39 percent. So clearly, that's not good at all. Well over half say they disapprove.

And are things better or worse now than a year ago? This doesn't take a lot to interpret, only 20 percent say better, 32 percent say worse. And Kyra, you can see almost half of Americans say things are getting worse. So American -- the public clearly perceive things not going well in Iraq and they remain split kind of right down the middle on the basic logic behind the U.S. involvement to begin with.

PHILLIPS: How is President Bush doing?

NEWPORT: 49 percent. That's the last job approval of the year, as far as we know. At least as Gallup we won't be doing any more polling. And that's where he ends up the year. It was higher since the election, up in the 50s. Kyra, his average for this year was 51 percent. So he leaves 2004 with just a little below average. And by the way, quite a bit below the average for all presidents since Franklin Roosevelt, that average has been about 55 percent over the years.

PHILLIPS: All right, Frank Newport, thank you so much.

Straight ahead, more on LIVE FROM about that attack in Mosul right after break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Here's a quick check of stories "Now in the News." A deadly day for U.S. forces in Iraq. An attack on a U.S. military dining hall in Mosul has left more than 20 people dead and more than 60 wounded. The casualties inside U.S. troops, Iraqi national guard members and Iraqi civilians. More on this story in just a few minutes.

The attack came as President Bush was preparing to visit Walter Read Hospital in Washington. The president and first lady are scheduled to meet with the families of wounded soldiers this hour.

Police say as many as 18 people could have been involved or knew about the Maryland arsons. More arrests were made in that case on Monday. Six people are now being charged. The December 6th fires destroyed ten homes.

The FDA has issued a warning for the pain reliever naproxen. It says that the drug, better known as Aleve, was found to increase the risk of heart attack or stroke by 50 percent for people who use it regularly. We'll have more on that story at the top of the hour.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, remember when video games were a fun diversion? Well not anymore, campers. Video gaming has become serious business, and I'm sorry to tell this to parents of 12- year-olds out there, there are people who actually earn six-figure salaries doing this. So imagine the flack you're going to get the next time you say get off the X-Box. But dad, but dad, I can make 100 grand doing this, right?

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: That's how this next guy got his start.

O'BRIEN: Let's stop this story right now. SIEBERG: Yes, right.

O'BRIEN: Roll the commercial. All right now, go ahead. Let's go ahead.

SIEBERG: Parents everywhere very disappointed that we are doing this story. And maybe you think you're pretty skilled at video games, maybe you know someone who is. Well, you haven't met the subject of our next story. And he may be every parent's worst nightmare. Able to make a living doing what others consider just a hobby.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN WENDEL, PROFESSIONAL GAMER: Fortunately, my job is playing video games.

SIEBERG (voice-over): His name is Jonathan Wendell. He's better known as Fatality. We first caught up with the 23-year-old professional gamer in his makeshift training center at a small hotel. Using a specialized glow-in-the-dark keyboard and a custom made computer, he practices about eight hours a day. At midnight, he's practicing for the next day.

When we came back at 9:00 the next morning, we found Fatality in pretty much in the same place. He says that's what it takes to win more than $100,000 a year in sponsorships and prize money, paid for by the companies that make these games and want to promote their product. Don't be fooled, though. Jonathan gets a full night's sleep. He exercises daily and says he takes care of himself.

WENDEL: I'm actually already been downstairs and had a nice little breakfast, but I'm pretty charged right now and ready to go to my fatality shootout today and kick some more butt.

SIEBERG: Jonathan tells us he played tennis, pool and video games in high school, and he dreamed of becoming a professional in one of those fields. But when he told his parents he was going to be a pro gamer, they were pretty skeptical.

WENDEL: So I made a deal with them. I told them if I don't win any money this first one I go to, I'm done with gaming. Gaming will still be a hobby in the background, but I will not pursue to train, you know, eight plus hours a day to basically win these tournaments. So we made the deal and I went down to the tournament and won $4,500. And I came back and slapped that check right on the table and I go, I won $4,500 playing a video game.

SIEBERG: The rest is history. After practice, Jonathan and I stopped downstairs for a milkshake and from there, we followed his team to the day's event. Jonathan is at a gamers gathering in San Francisco, where he's holding twice daily shootouts.

Fatality is like a 21st century gun slinger. Gamers come from all over to wait in line for a chance for a showdown. If they win or actually even score just one kill, they get $2,000. Needless to say, that doesn't happen very often. The shootout tour has taken Johnathan from London to the Great Wall of China. And though he loves his work and its perk, he hasn't forgotten where he came from.

WENDEL: My goal is basically to give back to the gaming -- give back to the gaming community that I started from. Basically from the roots from where I started and I want to sponsor other gamers, give them the life that I had already, the last five years. And I plan on doing this for another five or ten years, as well. I mean, it's been amazing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Of course, Fatality is also trying to keep the money coming in. He promotes a gamer's mousepad with his name on it, among other products, like a video card and t-shirts and that kind of thing. And he tries to be visible at various gaming tournaments.

But the people we spoke with say, he generally breaks the stereotype of a slacker, overweight gamer with no direction. He's almost considered to be, Miles, the Michael Jordan of video gaming. I know that sounds like a bit of an overstatement, but that really is how he's referred to.

O'BRIEN: Well, somebody's got to be the Michael Jordan of video gaming.

SIEBERG: Well, he doesn't make quite as much money as Michael Jordan, but...

O'BRIEN: He looks like he was in boot camp or something. Not at all what you'd expect, athletic and all the high-end type thing and everything going there. But the truth is, so that I have a retort for the 12-year-old, how many people are making six-figure incomes?

SIEBERG: Not many. Let's be honest. This is a very small percentage of gamers that are out there that are actually making this type of money. There are lots of tournaments where you can make much smaller amounts of money, maybe a few thousand dollars here and there. But Fatality is certainly at the upper echelon of gaming, and he's one of a very small percentage of people out there who can really compete at it and do well.

O'BRIEN: Now, did you get him to share any thoughts with...

SIEBERG: His secrets?

O'BRIEN: Yes, secrets and a free one at that. You're not going to share that part. But as far as kids doing too much of it, does he worry about that or care about that one way or another?

SIEBERG: We talked to him about that and he does say you have to balance this out. He is 23 years old but he has been playing games for quite a while. His advice is for kids to take a step back if you start playing games too much but enjoy them as much as you can. He makes the same argument that a lot of the people do that it's up to the parents like Mr. O'Brien and others.

O'BRIEN: That's right. So I can (UNINTELLIGIBLE) with a boom. Daniel Sieberg, always a pleasure. Glad you got some secrets from him.

Christmas joy is often a casualty of war unless, of course, you lived in Wiltz, Luxembourg in 1944.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were very unhappy because St. Nicholas Day was coming and they had nothing for the children. One of us said why don't we have a Christmas party for these kids? So that sounded like a good idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: U.S. soldiers give the gift of Christmas coming up on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: An unknown number of U.S. troops are among the 24 people killed at the military base in Mosul. It happened when an explosion ripped through a dining hall. Some analysis from retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd. He's in Tucson. General, good to see you.

Let's talk about the threat side of things. Is this a missed threat? You would think with all the surprises and all the tactics that the insurgents are using, that you would think an area where a mass amount of soldiers would be would be protected.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, easy to say, very, very difficult to do. We're in hundreds of locations across Iraq, many of them soft facilities. You don't have facilities hardened for all the troops there, even the mess halls. This type of attack happens daily and most of them you don't hear about because the weapons miss and don't kill people. We're assuming that it's something shot from the outside. There's also a possibility it could have been something from the inside like a suicide bomber. So we're waiting to hear but this type of attack goes on repeatedly and it doesn't surprise me, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, we should probably explain to our viewers, too. I remember this by being inside Iraq. A lot of these missile, rocket attacks. They're a lucky hit.

SHEPPERD: They are indeed. These -- both rockets and mortars are notoriously inaccurate. Artillery is a little more accurate. You're lucky to hit a pinpoint spot. The people that did this probably had good intelligence about where they were after in the way of coordinates. On the other hand it doesn't take a lot of intelligence to know you're going to hit people at meal times. You're going to find them coordinated. So it does not take any type of sophistication to do this. It may be a lucky shot if it came from the outside.

PHILLIPS: Mosul for the most part has been a pretty safe area. There hasn't been any real major incidents that have taken place there. Is this happening because of Falluja? Are the insurgents just moving out of one place to the next?

SHEPPERD: Clearly a lot of them left from Falluja and went other plays. This is most likely as opposed to foreign influence, is most likely the Sunni insurgents, the former Baathists trying to retake power and spread a feeling of insecurity across the population so it will not support the interim government that's trying to pull off these elections and trying to delay or screw up the elections. It's a very, very effective tactic. They're not for the most part attacking U.S. troops directly but from outside like this if indeed that's what took place.

PHILLIPS: There was talk that a mess hall was being built of concrete but concrete can still be shot through considering how big the explosive is.

SHEPPERD: Yes, it can. There's nothing that's so hard. You get a bigger explosive and you can bring something down or even if you hit it in the right place. On the other hand, anything concrete or hardened is going to be better than these tent-like facilities. These facilities -- I've been in Mosul, and I've been over there and I've been under rocket mortar attack and in this type of facility, if a rocket or mortar comes from the outside and you're going to kill a lot of people in there because they're congregated at mealtimes. To kill that many people, it would likely be a rocket from the outside as opposed to a mortar.

PHILLIPS: I've got to ask you a question about Donald Rumsfeld. There's been so much talk about the secretary of defense, should he resign, is he the right one for the post? He wrote an article in "USA Today" defending in many ways his position. The nonpolitically correct answer I'm going to ask you, does he deserve all this criticism when you look at the lack of resources for these soldiers, marines and sailors?

SHEPPERD: Look, he deserves the criticism and he also deserves the praise. Had this gone well, we would be heaping praise on him. Since it's not going well and does not look like there's light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to be getting everything dumped on him. It's deserved. It takes a person with broad shoulders and a tough guy. Just because you change secretary of defenses does not mean things are all of a sudden going to start going well. It is true we don't have enough troops across that country to provide security everywhere, maybe not everywhere for the elections. The key is the Iraqis have to take over responsibility for their own security and if we don't do that, if we keep trying to add U.S. troops, we're going to be a failure. So yes, he deserves some criticism. The decision to disband the Iraqi army was probably one of the big mistakes we made and we're paying for it now -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Major General Don Shepperd, thanks so much.

Sixty years ago, Europe was in turmoil. Allied armies were sweeping across the continent on the way to defeating Hitler and the Nazis.

O'BRIEN: But the war was far from over and the prospect of a merry Christmas for the children of a small Luxembourg town seemed bleak, bleak until an American GI and his unit stepped in to help. CNN's Tom Foreman with that story.

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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the little country of Luxembourg on Germany's western border, a big parade rolls along. Candy for the children, switches for the bad parents and a miracle in the middle. For 60 years, American Dick Brookins has been St. Nicholas here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's great. It's really great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My grandparents, they saw the same Santa Claus and now I'm here to see the same Santa again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was the America we loved so much.

FOREMAN: It all started in December, 1944, as allied soldiers pushed the German army toward Berlin and the end of World War II. Dick Brookins' unit liberated the tiny town of Wiltz, Luxembourg.

DICK BROOKINS, HELPED SAVE CHRISTMAS IN WWII: People here were delighted and happy to be free but they very unhappy because St. Nicholas Day was coming and the children -- they had nothing for the children. One of us said, why don't we have a Christmas party for these kids? So that sounded like a good idea.

FOREMAN: The soldiers collected all the candy, gum and cookies sent from home. Dick Brookins went to a local church where nuns dressed him in the bishop's robes to play St. Nick and this film from so long ago shows what happened next.

BROOKINS: I was driven to public school. And they brought children out into the outdoor yard, and then they lined the kids up and gave them some of this candy and cookies. There was no ability to converse because there was no English understood, but somehow we managed to get the feel for what was going on.

And those kids didn't know this was an American soldier. It was St. Nicholas, OK? The youngest kids. Some of those children had not even had a St. Nicholas day because they were like three, four years old and it hadn't occurred for almost five years.

FOREMAN: That joy did not last. Within days, the soldiers were swept into the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive of the war. The Americans suffered 80,000 casualties in the gunfire. Christmas was forgotten. But not in Wiltz. 30 years after the war, Dick Brookins received a call at his home in the States. Was he the man who played St. Nick? Could he come do it again?

BROOKINS: Just as many butterflies now as I had the first time.

FOREMAN: Because in Wiltz, every year since the war's end, the town had marked the day and remembered the long-lost American St. Nick. BROOKINS: Hearing about this after 30 years, I was just dumbfounded.

FOREMAN: Brookins did go back and has returned again and again to lead the parade, to hand out the candy.

BROOKINS: Well, as it has turned out, this was one of the greatest things that happened to them. It represented their freedom, their liberation, the restoration of their life.

FOREMAN: As it was in the war, the celebration is colored with sadness. Some of the soldiers who brought Christmas back to Wiltz are here forever. Dick Brookins comes to the American cemetery every time.

BROOKINS: I think it's the next one.

FOREMAN: To the grave of his best friend, Eddie Stein.

BROOKINS: I come here out of respect and care. And it gets me every time. I'm still alive and he's gone. These are the heroes. 5,000-some in this cemetery.

FOREMAN: But mostly his trips here are happy affairs, time for awards from a grateful town.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I hope we will put this fire in the hearts of our children and so these festivities and St. Nick will come to Wiltz for years and years and years and years.

FOREMAN: Time to meet the children of long ago, grandparents now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I congratulate you.

FOREMAN: And time to greet the children of today.

BROOKINS: What's this one's name?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: That's Sir Robert Zole Abna (ph).

FOREMAN: And it seems there is always time enough. Dick Brookins is in his 80s, but St. Nick is timeless and forever loved in the streets of Wiltz.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm David Haffenreffer in New York with a look at today's business news. The phrase use it or lose it may ring a bell. Each year, employees forfeit millions of dollars because they don't use all the money that they contribute to their health care spending accounts.

Here's how those accounts work. Workers choose an amount each year that they want available for their health care expenditures. Employers then deduct the matching pre-tax amount from each paycheck to gradually build the account to the requested level. Workers can take money from the account as they spend it on health-related expenses throughout the year. But if they don't use it, they lose it. And who gets the money? Your employer.

An estimated 210 million dollars of employees' money is surrendered each year. Experts advise employees to find ways to use all the money they set aside. Many plans allow workers to make claims on everything, from over-the-counter medicines and co-pays at the doctor's office, all the way down to a therapeutic massage.

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