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Outbreak Odds; Identity Theft

Aired April 13, 2005 - 13:31   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: Taking a look at stories now in the news, cutting off the money trail. The Treasury Department is freezing the finances of a Jordanian man who, it says, has been financing the terrorist activities of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq.
Former president Bill Clinton makes his first visit to the United Nations as a special envoy. Clinton will spend two years with the U.N., promoting tsunami relief. Clinton says he'll make sure the billions of dollars in aid are well spent.

Some long-awaited testimony today in the Michael Jackson child- molestation trial. The mother of Jackson's accuser is to take to the stand once -- take the stand once her husband, the accuser's stepfather, completes his testimony. The woman has already told the judge that she plans to plead the fifth in asked about welfare payments she allegedly received illegally.

So, confused by the recent outbreak of viral news? Well, you're not alone. Today, the disturbing report of samples of that virus that caused 1957's Asian flu pandemic were mistakenly shipped around the world. Even as federal health officials go to Capitol Hill to warn Congress about the global threat posed by avian virus. Also in the petri dish of public awareness, a frightening outbreak of deadly Marburg virus in the West African nation of Angola.

So what are real and potential risks posed by these bugs? Laurie Garrett, global health expert, and author of "The Coming Plague" joins us live from New York.

Boy, Laurie, is there any way to make sense of these different viruses and how they're all related?

LAURIE GARRETT, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Well, they're not really relate. It's a series of unfortunate circumstances. And at the Council on Foreign Relations, where I'm working, we are really very concerned about all of this. It adds up to a pretty sorry picture. First of all, the 1957 strain, it's inexcusable that a strain that caused somewhere between two million and four million deaths in 1957 and was a live virus, was mailed out to 5,000 labs around the world. That's ridiculous.

PHILLIPS: How does that even happen? How does something like that even happen, when you consider how many people died and how dangerous this was?

GARRETT: It's inexcusable. And even more inexcusable is that they started shipping these strains out in October and nobody of all those laboratories that are supposed to be protecting you and me from influenza pandemic strains noticed that it was the 1957 strain until March 26th. And it wasn't an American lab that picked it up; it was A Canadian lab. Something's really wrong with this picture.

PHILLIPS: So the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here in Atlanta, coming out and saying -- and I quote here -- "that the risk to public health is low." Do you agree with that?

GARRETT: I think that's probably true for this particular strain. It's been pastured through a whole lot of chicken eggs for a whole lot of time, and it's probably not particularly virulent. But I don't feel particularly safe knowing that everybody missed it, that it went through lab after lab without being noticed. That's what worries me. We've invested billions of dollars into alleged bioterrorism preparedness and into alleged preparedness for avian and pandemic influenza. This is a sorry indicator of how well that money has been spent.

PHILLIPS: When you say lab after lab after lab, what kind of checks and balances do these labs go through, and how are they selected when dealing with something this potent?

GARRETT: Well, they weren't supposed to be dealing with something this potent. This was supposed to be a routine test to see if labs that are members of the American College of Pathologists can recertify. They get sent a panel of blinded microbes and they're supposed to figure out what the various microbes are. These are supposed to be the best laboratories for doing this kind of work in the entire world. Well, it went through 5,000 labs. Only one of them picked it up, and it took months. Started sending these things out in October. Nobody picked it up until the end of March.

PHILLIPS: All right, now, aside from that, now you've got this outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in the west African nation of Angola. And I've only had a chance to read a little bit about this. Tell me your concerns, your fears about this. Is it something we need to be paying attention to in the media and as, you know, healthy Americans?

GARRETT: Well, I don't think that you have to be worried that Marburg virus is going to show up in Iowa. It's not. But what I do think we're seeing is, once again, we have an outbreak that's being festered inside of medical facilities in desperately poor countries; and in the case of Angola, in a country that went through 30 years of civil war, with every facility, every hospital, decimated by the war.

We're looking at, once again, as we saw with every single outbreak of the Ebola virus, a very similar virus that kills upwards of 80 percent of those it infects and causes a hemorrhagic bleed-out disease, which is exactly -- Marburg virus in Angola now is a close cousin to that Ebola strain. All of them have found the ability to explode into epidemic form once they got inside these shoddy health care facilities, where desperately poor countries lack, you know, sterile gloves, sterile technique, a safe -- running water, electricity to run their sterilizing equipment, and so on and so forth. And so what we see now is a virus that is up to about 250 cases in Angola, just circulating inside of the medical facilities, as well as in the general community.

PHILLIPS: Laurie Garrett, global health expert and author of "The Coming Plague." We're going to you to stand by just for a few minutes if you don't mind, because we are waiting for a live press conference from the CDC here in Atlanta. Julie Gerberding set to take to the podium there and talk about -- who knows, she might mention the Marburg virus that we've been talking about, Laurie, but definitely they're going to be addressing mistakes made with regard to the Asian flu pandemic and the labs around the world scrambling to destroy these vials containing this H2N2 virus.

Stay with us. We're going to bring it to you live as soon as it happens.

Laurie, thank you so much.

And what's the last thing you would never want stolen? Your jewelry? Your car? Your phone? How about your identity? We've been talking a lot about this, identity theft. And it's a major problem in this country, to the tune of $50 billion in losses each year to consumers and businesses.

CNN's Allan Chernoff talked to one victim about the legal nightmare that she endured to clear her name.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Maureen won't share her last name, won't even permit us to tell you what state she lives in. Why? Because she's been a victim of identity theft.

MAUREEN, IDENTITY THEFT VICTIM: I'm afraid that it's still out there. Somebody's selling my Social Security number.

CHERNOFF (on camera): It all started Christmas Eve five years ago. Maureen was doing some last-minute shopping at a store that had been located here. In the rush to get home, she left her pocketbook in the shopping cart. By the time she realized it the next day, it was too late. The pocketbook, including all of her IDs and Social Security card, was gone, never to be recovered.

(voice-over): Maureen canceled her credit cards. Then, more than two years later, she got a phone call.

MAUREEN: I had an overdue balance on your Wal-Mart card. I never had a Wal-Mart card.

CHERNOFF: Two more calls followed.

MAUREEN: Your Midnight Velvet card and your Newport News card. And these are credit cards that I never had. I never even -- I never even received their catalogues. CHERNOFF: And, Maureen says, none of the retailers had ever sent a bill. When she explained, though, they were quick to help.

MAUREEN: They were terrific. And they completed the investigation, I would say, within 60, maybe 90 days.

CHERNOFF: The bills were cleaned up, but Maureen, mother of four, had already suffered damage to her credit. She and her husband found out when a bank rejected their mortgage refinance application.

MAUREEN: I realized that I had to clean up my credit myself. Even though I wasn't responsible for what had gone on.

CHERNOFF: The unpaid bills had led the three credit bureaus -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- to slash Maureen's credit score.

COLLEEN MARTIN, TRANSUNION: If the identity thief has applied for credit, gotten that credit and has begun to charge in her name and not pay off bills, then that could start to deteriorate the score and the credit report.

CHERNOFF: Maureen's good credit had gone bad. Then her situation got worse. Capital One called, demanding payment for a $1,200 credit card bill. This time, Maureen says, the bank rejected her explanation.

MAUREEN: Their attorneys started calling me. And they basically said, you know, pay up. We don't believe your story. They would send me letters that, you know, pay half of the bill and we'll be satisfied with that. And I said, no.

CHERNOFF: Maureen wrote letters, sent the police report of her ID theft. Even so, Capital One sued Maureen. She appeared in court representing herself, and only then did the bank's lawyers finally back down.

MAUREEN: They just basically said, OK, well, we're just going to drop it. And that was the end of it. They never gave me an apology, nothing. I never heard from them again.

CHERNOFF: In a statement to CNN, Capital One said Maureen, quote, "appears to have been the victim of fraud, and we apologize to her for any inconvenience she's suffered. Capital One is committed to protecting our cardholders from those who commit fraud."

Capital One declined CNN's request for an on-camera interview.

If you fall victim to ID theft, consumer advocates say, follow Maureen's example. Contact the police and get a copy of their report. Notify your credit card issuers, and contact the credit bureaus. They can put a fraud alert on your record to watch for any case of ID theft for up to seven years. That's what Maureen has done, even though she once again has good credit, because she fears her nightmare is not over yet.

Allan Chernoff, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF: Unfortunately, the nightmare affects many Americans. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission estimates that five million Americans were the victims of identity theft in 2003 -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Congress taking action, I understand, and something happening today?

CHERNOFF: Well, the Senate judiciary committee held a hearing this morning on the issue of identity theft and, in fact, executives of the data brokerage firms were grilled. These were companies that actually sell Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, addresses, et cetera. They sell them to employers checking out employees, for example. So they were grilled.

Some of the senators, including Chairman Arlen Specter, said they believe legislation is needed to regulate these data brokers. And among the bills in Congress, would require these companies to reveal to anyone who's been the victim of identity theft, anyone who has had personal information taken from these computerized files -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Allan Chernoff, thank you so much. And CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information, day and night.

Straight ahead, we're waiting for the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, here in Atlanta, to hold a live news conference. It should happen any minute now. We'll take it when it happens. About that deadly flew strain that should have never been distributed and if, indeed, we should be concerned about it.

Also, Condoleezza Rice speaking just moments ago about the American being held hostage in Iraq. You'll hear from her, right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, just moments ago, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was meeting with the Italian foreign minister Gianfranco Fini, reporters asked her about Jeffrey Ake, the civilian contractor in Iraq that we've been reporting has been taken hostage by Islamic extremists. It's been airing on Al Jazeera television. This is what Condi Rice had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: We know that these are always very difficult and tragic circumstances. It is our great hope that, working with those who may have information, that we can resolve this in a way that is successful and that means in protecting the life of the hostage. We are thoroughly engaged with the Iraqis and with others in trying to do this. Obviously, the United States continues to hold to a policy that we do not negotiate with terrorists. It only encourages them. But we are working very, very hard to try and secure the safety of the American there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And, of course, we will continue to follow the fate of that American, Jeffrey Ake, and what is happening between U.S. forces and also those extremists and bring you any updated information that we get concerning that American hostage.

Now, another story that we've been following for you today is the confusing news, I guess you could say, about the recent outbreak of viral news. This is a live picture from the CDC here in Atlanta.

And I want to bring back Laurie Garrett, global health expert and author of "The Coming Plague." She joins us live from New York. And Laurie, we're expecting this news conference to start at any moment, so I thought you and I could talk a little bit more. It's hard to cram in a matter of three minutes what's taking place here with this news today, and then, of course, other viruses that we've been talking about.

Let's talk about initially what came out with the World Health Organization today and the talk of the Asian flu pandemic that we remember killed more than one million people back in 1957. Now, this deadly strain, we have found out, has been distributed, as you said, to lab after lab after lab, nobody noticing.

And now -- you know, this conversation of quality control and of course, our health and the health of others around the world. Kind of put into perspective, where we are right now with this news we received today and what we hope to hear from the CDC.

LAURIE GARRETT, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: I suspect that Dr. Gerberding, the director of the CDC, is going to tell us that the situation is under investigation, that there are many unanswered questions that the CDC is going full-stop to try and answer those questions, and that they think since this has been in circulation around laboratories, 5,000 laboratories around the world, since October, and there have been no identified human cases of what's called the H2 type of influenza, that there's probably not a fear that this is going to spawn a return of the 1957 influenza.

What I would be more interested in, if I were a reporter in that audience, is, what does this tell us about our level of preparedness for the avian flu, which is, indeed, circulating in Asia, which is mutating rapidly, which is having a 75 percent kill rate on human beings that it infects and kills 100 percent of all chickens it infects, and is now spreading among ducks. And we now have identified cases of pigs are infected with it. A grave potential for a global pandemic that would far exceed the death toll seen in 1957.

PHILLIPS: All right, Laurie, let's listen in to Julie Gerberding.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: ... influenza A virus to a number of laboratories around the world. I just really hope that we can put some perspective into this discussion today. We want to leave you with one very important message and that is while the risk of the situation is very low, we're not taking any chances and we are doing everything we can to make sure that there's no threat to human health.

Let me tell you what we know right now and then I'll comment on some things that we don't know but are in the process of finding out. And then we can review the steps that are under way and find out how the virus is distributed, destroyed, and that the appropriate health monitoring is in process. The College of American Pathologist and three or four other organizations that are responsible for testing the proficiency of laboratories around the world inadvertently sent out proficiency testing panels that contain the H2N2 influenza A virus. This virus is the virus that was associated with the Asian flu pandemic in 1957, so it is a very important human virus in its origin. It is a virus that we know can cause human disease, and obviously a virus that we have not seen in this country for a long period of time. In fact, the last known date where this particular strain of virus was circulating was 1968. So anyone born after 1968 would not have had any exposure to this and would presumably be completely susceptible.

So the concern is that our population does not have immunity to this H2N2 isolate, particularly our younger people.

We do know that the virus was distributed to approximately 4,000 or more laboratories. We don't know how many of the proficiency test panels went out. We believe that the earliest date that they were released was September 10th of 2004, but we're verifying that by working with the distributors and making sure that we can account for every single lab.

We know in total these panels were sent to 18 countries, including the United States and Canada, and we are working with officials in all of these country to take the steps necessary to contain the problem.

We also have very good surveillance for influenza in the United States. We have not observed any unusual patterns of influenza this year. And in fact, the flu season is almost over in most parts of the country. We are not finding any H2N2 isolates in our collection of flu strains.

And let me just say a word about how this works. When someone has the flu and a virus test is done, the lab tests to determine whether it's flu A or flu B. And then in most of our labs, there's a further characterization to determine whether it's an H1 or H3 strain. If an H2 strain was included in that testing, that strain would normally not be identifiable by the lab and they would send it to the CDC. Part of what we do is characterize any strain that is unusual. So we have not had any H2 strains come to us this year at all.

In fact, as I said, we haven't seen any of those since 1967 at CDC, so we are not anticipating that there's an occult H2N2 flu circulating in the community, because by now we would have been able to detect it. We know that the proficiency test panels were to be handled in laboratories under safety level-2 precautions. That is the designation of the kind of strategies in a laboratory to protect workers and to protect contamination. We at CDC believe that the best level of protection for these kinds of novel flu viruses would really be level 3. So part of our concern for workers is that the labs would not have taken the extra precautions necessary to be absolutely certain that there was no exposure. As I said, we believe that the level-2 precaution would certainly protect the workers, but we're erring on the side of extra caution, and in the future, we will be urgently recommending that a higher level of precaution be used for any novel flu virus.

We also don't know about the specific strain of H2N2 that was used for these proficiency-test panels, because the strain has been passed in the laboratory many, many times. And our experience with viruses indicates when a virus is used in the lab like this, it very often loses some of its effectivity, so that it can't any longer infect people efficiently. We have no proof of that in this case, but that's what we've seen when other viruses have gone through this kind of process, and various types of challenges have been conducted with them. So it's possible that this strain of virus actually poses a very, very low threat of transmission efficiently and to the public, but we are not, again, taking any chances. And we can't assume that, so we have to err on the side of caution.

Here are some of the steps that are in progress right now to minimize further any risk. First of all, CDC has advised the College of American Pathologists and the other organizations responsible for distributing these proficiency panels to destroy any virus that remains from that process, to completely autoclave so that it's gone, and to do that immediately and to report within 24 hours back to the College of American Pathologists or the other source that these steps have been taken. We are also asking laboratories who have been involved in this kind of testing to monitor their workers, and if the worker has recently had exposure to these proficiency-test panels, to test them for influenza, if they develop any symptoms or signs that are even remotely suggestive of influenza. And of course if such an illness develops, the individual should be tested for influenza, CDC should be notified and the sample should come here.

The World Health Organization is contacting -- or has contacted the ministers of health in the other 17 countries to be sure that similar processes are in place in each and every laboratory that may have received these proficiency-test panels. And we are all collaborating very effectively to be sure we don't miss any labs and that we have a complete understanding of each and every laboratory that may have been participating in the testing with this panel.

It's important to understand that proficiency testing is a good thing. It's the way we assure that labs have the kinds of quality measures in place that would allow them to accurately be able to identify a novel virus. But we are very concerned that this particular strain of virus was used for proficiency testing, and we will be working with the college and with the other organizations to try to make decisions about how we can assure effective laboratory practices, without posing lab workers or the public at any unnecessary risk from exposure to a novel influenza strain like this one.

So those steps are in progress, and the department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Leavitt's direction is reviewing all procedures relating to handling influenza viruses, to be sure that any opportunities for something like this to happen in the future are prevented, and we will be fully cooperating with those efforts as we go forward.

So let me just end one more time with an important perspective here. There is no evidence that any person has acquired H2N2, and most of these laboratories have already destroyed their proficiency test panels. But we are insuring that all steps are being taken to identify every lab that may have the virus and that it is quickly destroyed. We are doing everything we can without taking any chances that this virus could infect an individual or spread to the public at large. And if we learn more about this situation as we go forward, we'll certainly update you.

We expect that we don't have all the information today, because this is still an unfolding story, so as we learn more, we will definitely update you. I want to take this opportunity to introduce my colleague, Dr. Nancy Cox, who's here today. Nancy is the leader of our influenza branch at CDC. She's been a very...

PHILLIPS: Dr. Julie Gerberding there, the director of the CDC, an we get news today about that disturbing report that thousands of samples, test panels, as she calls them, of the virus that caused the 1957 Asian flu pandemic were mistakenly shipped around the world. And now Julie Gerberding saying possibly 4,000 or more labs around the world, within 18 countries, including the U.S. and Canada. And it looks like the biggest concern at this point right now with the workers in those labs, and did somehow they get infected, and what was the condition of those test panels of this deadly virus that had been mistakenly distributed?

Let's bring in Laurie Garrett, our global health expert and author of "The Coming Plague." She been with us throughout the day. She monitored this news conference also. I guess, Laurie, the bad news is the mistake was made. We're talking 4,000-plus labs -- that's pretty frightening -- in 18 countries, including the U.S. and Canada. Still, though, it looks like Gerberding sticking to -- I guess pretty faithful in the fact that there is a low percentage of a massive health risk here.

GARRETT: Well, she's probably right. If mistakes could have been made, they probably were already made. There may have very well have already been workers in some of these labs that were exposed to the virus and it did not harm them. That would be very, very good news if this virus, after all these year and all the work that's been done on it in laboratories, has become less virulent.

But I must say the lesson remains very frightening one, how in the world did this end up in those kits in the first place? And here's another question that if I were in that press conference I would be asking Dr. Gerberding right now: Where are all the samples of the 1957 flu virus? Where are all the samples of the 1968, another great pandemic? And worst of all, 1918, which may have killed at least 50 million people worldwide. And my knowledge is that CDC can not tell us where every single sample is, what laboratories around the world may have them, and therefore can't guarantee something like this might not happen again with a far more dangerous strange.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, and she talked about there a couple of things that she needs to look at, and that is the proficiency of these labs. And also, when it comes to the proficiency testing, it's very important, it still has to happen. But they have to make sure that the test panels that they get are not test panels with this deadly strain.

Am I explaining that properly?

GARRETT: You are. You're absolutely right.

PHILLIPS: OK.

GARRETT: And now here's -- and here's another question for you. How is it that if the whole point of the influenza surveillance system is that you are supposed to plot if there's a different what's called H, or hemoglutin in constellation (ph), in the circulating flu viruses, you're supposed to immediately warn the CDC. She explained that to us.

And this H2 type has not been in the world since 1967, '68. So how is it that all of these labs have had these panels since October and nobody noticed until March 26 of all of those labs that there was an H2 flu in the mix? And why was it that none of the American labs noticed it? It was a Canadian lab.

And we have invested more than $3 billion in prying to improve our public health infrastructure and our laboratory since 9/11. And yet, boom, everybody missed it.

PHILLIPS: It's amazing when you think about it. Well, obviously, Gerberding coming out, Laurie, and talking about what they do know. And now the steps that are in progress to destroy, from what I understand, all of these test panels. And if indeed laboratories come up with a panel with this virus, they are to report immediately to the proper folks.

And also, all the workers in these labs are going to be monitored to see if they get any type of I guess affect from what this virus could bring on. So...

GARRETT: Any flu-like systems ought to get reported immediately. If you work in any of these laboratories -- and it is well over 4,000. It's closer to 5,000 in 18 countries. And if you work in any of those labs, even if you're a janitor, if you're not directly working on the virus, and you develop anything akin to flu-like symptoms, you should report it immediately to your authorities and your supervisors, and tests should be conducted and samples should be sent to the CDC in Atlanta for immediate analysis.

PILGRIM: Laurie Garrett, our global health expert, thank you so much for helping us sort through all this today. We sure appreciate it.

GARRETT: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: Now we're going to move on to Iraq. And he went to bring water to the desert, but on Monday U.S. contractor Jeffrey Ake of northwest Indiana was kidnapped from a work site near Baghdad. Today he appears in a setting we have seen many times before, amid masked men with rifles, pleading for his life on video.

That tape turns up on the day of numerous bombings aimed at U.S. and Iraqi forces. We get the latest on all of it now from CNN's Aneesh Raman in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Arabic language station Al- Jazeera airing a video purportedly showing an American hostage kidnapped on Monday here in Baghdad in broad daylight as he worked on a reconstruction project. U.S. embassy officials here say the man's name is Jeffrey Ake. He's from the state of Indiana.

No word on what company he works for. But we do know that in South Bend, Indiana, a company called Equipment Express is doing work here in Iraq.

Also today, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick arrived for an unannounced visit. He met with leaders of the transitional government, pushing a message we heard yesterday from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that this government needs to form quickly. He also went to the city of Falluja to check in on reconstruction projects there.

Now, both of these visits had violent backdrops. Yesterday, two car bombs in Mosul. Today, north of the capital city in the town of Kirkuk, 12 Iraqi soldiers died while trying to diffuse a roadside bomb.

Also, three bombs going off this morning, all intended to hit American military convoys. The first around 9:00 a.m. in western Baghdad. No U.S. casualties there. A fuel truck did catch on fire, causing some dramatic video.

The second, about an hour later, a suicide car bomb in western Baghdad hit a convoy. Five Iraqi civilians there were wounded.

And another about 11:00 a.m. local, hitting a convoy. Three Iraqi civilians wounded in that incident.

All of this underscoring the need for Iraq's transitional government to take shape and start dealing with the country's security.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: Back now to that American being held hostage, Jeffrey Ake. Well, his company, Equipment Express of suburban LaPorte, Indiana, says it's played an important role in the war in Iraq. Besides water, that company has bottled and distributed cooking oil.

But officials don't want to talk to reporters. And the State Department says Ake's wife feels the same way. Others who don't mind sharing their reactions are understandably aggrieved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So close to home. I feel sorry for all of the people we are losing over there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just know him from coming in. He comes in probably four or five times a week and picks up his mail. And when I wait on him, you know, he's always cordial and nice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes you take notice, huh, when something like that happens? Somebody you know -- and I don't know him, but I have seen him and I know of him, you know. But that's -- it really shakes you up a little bit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Yellow ribbons are already going up in Jeffrey Ake's hometown, where the police chief says Ake's plight devastates all of us.

Ships that pass in the night are comrades in arms forever. Afghanistan apparently is looking for a long-term commitment from the Bush administration. But visiting defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was gun shy today when the question came up in Kabul.

More on that from CNN's Barbara Starr at the Pentagon -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello, Kyra.

As you say, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spending most of the day in Afghanistan conducting a press conference with Afghan president Hamid Karzai. And the question on the table, indeed, was, does the U.S. have plans for a permanent basing relationship in Afghanistan? Hamid Karzai making it very clear he would like some type of arrangement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN PRESIDENT: The conclusion we have drawn is that the Afghan people want a longer-term relationship with the United States. They want this relationship to be a wholesome one, including a sustained economic relationship, a personal relationship, and, most important of all, a strategic security relationship that would enable Afghanistan to defend itself, to continue to be -- to prosper, to stop interferences, the possibility of interferences in Afghanistan, not have the reputation of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: But, of course, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, knowing full well this is a very delicate question, so he wouldn't walk down that road on the question of permanent basis. Very sensitive for a U.S. defense secretary to be talking about any kind of permanent basing in a Muslim country.

Here's what Secretary Rumsfeld had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: What we generally do when we work with another country is what we have been doing. We find ways that we can be helpful. It may be training, it may be equipping, it may be various other types of assistance, such as is the case here. But we think more in terms of what we're doing rather than the question of military bases and that type of thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: And, indeed, Kyra, whether one calls it permanent bases or not, it may be two sides of the same question. Because the U.S. is spending a considerable amount of money upgrading and improving the air bases and other fields that it does use in Afghanistan. And certainly the U.S. and the NATO allies preparing to stay in Afghanistan for some years to come to get Afghan security forces trained up.

So whether it's called a permanent base or not, no indication that the U.S. is leaving -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Barbara Starr. Thanks.

We're going to talk more about the possibility of a permanent base, too, with General David Grange coming up, and how that could play a big part in the war on terror.

Now moving on to searchers again fanning out across Hillsboro County, Florida, looking for yet another missing girl. This time a teenager by the name of Sarah Lunde.

CNN's Susan Candiotti is following the investigation, and she joins us now live by telephone.

Do we believe that it is an abduction, Susan, and if, indeed, a sexual predator is one to blame?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, there is no evidence of that right now. And that is why police have not issued an Amber Alert in this case because there is no evidence of that at this time. They have, however, put out a national missing child alert.

This is day two of the search for 13-year-old Sarah Lunde, who apparently disappeared from her home late Saturday. That's when her brother last saw her. He said she had been at an outing at a church camp and came home early from it. After Sarah's brother saw her late Saturday, when he come home Sunday morning, he said the front door was wide open.

Now, the mother called police to report that her daughter was missing. She did not show up for school. Eighty deputies are out there looking for her. And they've conducted more than 200 interviews with people in the area so far.

The little girl has had a troubled history. Police says she comes from a broken home. Her mother has been in trouble with the law, some fraud arrests in the past. Her father has been arrested in the past -- he lives in another city -- on battery charges.

The sheriff's office says that this little girl has run away before, but she has come back. So they are calling this out of context and, in their words, "extremely suspicious."

Four years ago the youngster was (UNINTELLIGIBLE). She was (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a foster care for a time after her parents divorced. The mother does have custody of the children.

They have been looking at all the registered sex offenders in the area, as they normally do. They located all but one of 24 of them. One was said to have left the area before Sarah went missing.

There are 50 volunteers at least out there helping in the search. Hopefully with all of this publicity they will be able to find her -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Susan Candiotti, real quickly, we have been saying her name is Sarah Lunde. You said Lunde.

CANDIOTTI: That's right.

PHILLIPS: I want to make sure -- I want to make sure we get her name right.

CANDIOTTI: The police say it is pronounced Lunde.

PHILLIPS: Lunde. All right. Once again, we're going to follow the search there for the missing teenager, Sarah Lunde.

Our Susan Candiotti working that story for us. We'll talk more about it later in the hour.

Thanks, Susan.

Meanwhile, straight ahead, the United States has more than 80 military bases overseas. How would putting permanent U.S. bases in Afghanistan affect security there and here at home? We're going to talk about it straight ahead.

And a couple that lived through the nightmare of identity theft fights back. How their strategy could help you straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GEN. DAVID GRANGE, (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: ... some time of a mission.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about the various types of missions.

As we look at this map of the Gulf region, I mean, there's at least a dozen or more bases from Bahrain to Jabuuti. And let's talk about why U.S. bases in these areas and why they pick certain locations.

You and I talked about the fight, save, distribute. Let's talk about fight first, and that's, of course, strategy behind war. You look at the first Gulf War, you look at OIF, Kuwait, for example. It makes sense that there would be a permanent U.S. base there. Let's talk about why.

GRANGE: Well, for fighting, you know, this is a military that fights what I call exterior lines. In other words, we have to usually go somewhere to fight.

And to -- when you force project over seas across the globe, you either fight your way in or you land somewhere at some base to assemble, regroup, reorganize, and then prepare to conduct a fight. Just like they did in Iraq when we went into, let's say, Kuwait to prepare to go into Baghdad.

PHILLIPS: Of course, because you've got to be able to have jets and helos that can come and go and refuel. You want to be able to get foot power in there. You want to be able to get supplies into a location. I mean, you can't fight a war, obviously, all coming straight out of the United States.

GRANGE: That's right. There's a limited number of aircraft to fly to the fight or go by ship across the oceans to the fight.

And so these bases are either already secured by our forces or allies, and/or they have what they call prepositioned stock. They have fighting vehicles, they have ammunition, fuel, those things you need to fight a war. And that takes a lot of bulk capability to move that from the United States. So it's good to have those things propositioned in regions where you may have to go to war.

PHILLIPS: OK. And another reason. Not just war missions, but what you and I have labeled the save tactic. And Sierra Leone, for example, let's talk about having bases overseas and how it helps in the mission when it comes to saving allied forces, civilians, et cetera.

GRANGE: Yes, what we're talking about here is things like humanitarian assistance. In other words, to go into a place like the tsunami countries to provide aid, immediate aid in disaster areas, for peacekeeping operations, for what they call NEO, noncombatant evacuation operations, taking Americans out of a hostile environment if it happened in places like Sierra Leone or in the past in Somalia.

It could be in the future. Let's say a war broke out between Pakistan and India. How do you get all those Americans out or other national citizens from other countries that asked us to help them? You want to be able to do that

PHILLIPS: And General, even, say, something like Falluja. You want to be close to Iraq and have the power to take civilians out of an area if indeed the military knows they're going to go in and try to clear out the terrorists.

GRANGE: Well, that's right. And Iraq is another example where I would suspect even with the continual (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ability of the Iraqi military and police forces that we'll have a base there for some time.

PHILLIPS: And you made a great point about distribution. The third point that we talked about in the humanitarian efforts and why it is important to have bases overseas to bring in supplies when something goes down, say, for example, in Haiti. We saw a lot of military respond, bringing in food and water and helping the people there.

GRANGE: That's right. And these type -- this type of these types of supplies, whether it be water, or whether it be medical supplies and food stuff (ph) in some of these remote areas, you want to have global reach. But once you get into the region, you want to have intra-theater air move those things by helicopter or by C-130 aircraft, or by vehicle shorter distances. But you need the hub and spoke capability, some place to start from that's near this crisis area.

PHILLIPS: So you...

GRANGE: And this is a great example in southwest Asia to have a base.

PHILLIPS: And finally, in Afghanistan, if that base is built there, you said probably the biggest asset would just be the deterrent to al Qaeda and the Taliban and the growth of terrorism in a country that created Operation Enduring Freedom and then leading into other operations to take down terrorists.

GRANGE: Yes. I think President Karzai would like to have U.S. presence there for some time. It does him good; it does us good.

It allows you, if there's a problem with faction leaders in the future, you have big brother United States looking over your shoulder to back you up. If you have more Taliban-al Qaeda problems along the border, or it continues the way it is now, you want to have U.S. presence there.

And then, again, it's a key location for the United States if there was ever trouble in Iran, or if there was trouble with Pakistan, to be in that location. And you may not be able to use the bases you currently have. They may need those for their military. So you may want to build a more capable U.S.-oriented-type base for future operations.

PHILLIPS: General David Grange, if they start building, we'll talk again. Thank you, sir.

GRANGE: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, fight back against identity theft. Today a Senate panel talked about it today. And just ahead on LIVE FROM, you're going to meet a couple who experienced it first hand and turned their fight against it into a way to help all Americans.

And the search for who we are and where we came from. Scientists need 100,000 people from around the world to trace the human family tree. Are you interested?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange. General Motors wants to try something brand new to boost its sales. I'll tell you why you might be in for a surprise if you're planning to buy a GM car in the near future.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Car maker General Motors is hoping that a little branding will give a boost in its weak sales. Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Stories "Now in the News."

A U.S. embassy official identifies an American kidnapped this week from a construction site in Baghdad as Jeffrey Ake. That's the name on an ID card seen in that video that aired on Al-Jazeera. A company in Indiana called Equipment Express lists Jeffrey Ake as its president and CEO.

Detectives south of Tampa are questioning registered sex offenders as a part of the investigation in the search for 13-year-old Sarah Michelle Lunde. She lived in the area and was last seen early Sunday. Volunteers are helping to search a three-mile radius from Lunde's home, just a town called Ruskin.

Eric Rudolph has pleaded guilty to a deadly bombing at a women's clinic in Alabama seven years ago. He's expected to plead guilty in just about 30 minutes to three bombings that took place in Georgia, including the deadly blast in Centennial Olympic Park in 1996. Now, under a plea agreement, Rudolph will be spared the death penalty in exchange for four consecutive life terms in a federal prison.

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 April 13, 2005 - 13:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Taking a look at stories now in the news, cutting off the money trail. The Treasury Department is freezing the finances of a Jordanian man who, it says, has been financing the terrorist activities of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq.
Former president Bill Clinton makes his first visit to the United Nations as a special envoy. Clinton will spend two years with the U.N., promoting tsunami relief. Clinton says he'll make sure the billions of dollars in aid are well spent.

Some long-awaited testimony today in the Michael Jackson child- molestation trial. The mother of Jackson's accuser is to take to the stand once -- take the stand once her husband, the accuser's stepfather, completes his testimony. The woman has already told the judge that she plans to plead the fifth in asked about welfare payments she allegedly received illegally.

So, confused by the recent outbreak of viral news? Well, you're not alone. Today, the disturbing report of samples of that virus that caused 1957's Asian flu pandemic were mistakenly shipped around the world. Even as federal health officials go to Capitol Hill to warn Congress about the global threat posed by avian virus. Also in the petri dish of public awareness, a frightening outbreak of deadly Marburg virus in the West African nation of Angola.

So what are real and potential risks posed by these bugs? Laurie Garrett, global health expert, and author of "The Coming Plague" joins us live from New York.

Boy, Laurie, is there any way to make sense of these different viruses and how they're all related?

LAURIE GARRETT, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Well, they're not really relate. It's a series of unfortunate circumstances. And at the Council on Foreign Relations, where I'm working, we are really very concerned about all of this. It adds up to a pretty sorry picture. First of all, the 1957 strain, it's inexcusable that a strain that caused somewhere between two million and four million deaths in 1957 and was a live virus, was mailed out to 5,000 labs around the world. That's ridiculous.

PHILLIPS: How does that even happen? How does something like that even happen, when you consider how many people died and how dangerous this was?

GARRETT: It's inexcusable. And even more inexcusable is that they started shipping these strains out in October and nobody of all those laboratories that are supposed to be protecting you and me from influenza pandemic strains noticed that it was the 1957 strain until March 26th. And it wasn't an American lab that picked it up; it was A Canadian lab. Something's really wrong with this picture.

PHILLIPS: So the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here in Atlanta, coming out and saying -- and I quote here -- "that the risk to public health is low." Do you agree with that?

GARRETT: I think that's probably true for this particular strain. It's been pastured through a whole lot of chicken eggs for a whole lot of time, and it's probably not particularly virulent. But I don't feel particularly safe knowing that everybody missed it, that it went through lab after lab without being noticed. That's what worries me. We've invested billions of dollars into alleged bioterrorism preparedness and into alleged preparedness for avian and pandemic influenza. This is a sorry indicator of how well that money has been spent.

PHILLIPS: When you say lab after lab after lab, what kind of checks and balances do these labs go through, and how are they selected when dealing with something this potent?

GARRETT: Well, they weren't supposed to be dealing with something this potent. This was supposed to be a routine test to see if labs that are members of the American College of Pathologists can recertify. They get sent a panel of blinded microbes and they're supposed to figure out what the various microbes are. These are supposed to be the best laboratories for doing this kind of work in the entire world. Well, it went through 5,000 labs. Only one of them picked it up, and it took months. Started sending these things out in October. Nobody picked it up until the end of March.

PHILLIPS: All right, now, aside from that, now you've got this outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in the west African nation of Angola. And I've only had a chance to read a little bit about this. Tell me your concerns, your fears about this. Is it something we need to be paying attention to in the media and as, you know, healthy Americans?

GARRETT: Well, I don't think that you have to be worried that Marburg virus is going to show up in Iowa. It's not. But what I do think we're seeing is, once again, we have an outbreak that's being festered inside of medical facilities in desperately poor countries; and in the case of Angola, in a country that went through 30 years of civil war, with every facility, every hospital, decimated by the war.

We're looking at, once again, as we saw with every single outbreak of the Ebola virus, a very similar virus that kills upwards of 80 percent of those it infects and causes a hemorrhagic bleed-out disease, which is exactly -- Marburg virus in Angola now is a close cousin to that Ebola strain. All of them have found the ability to explode into epidemic form once they got inside these shoddy health care facilities, where desperately poor countries lack, you know, sterile gloves, sterile technique, a safe -- running water, electricity to run their sterilizing equipment, and so on and so forth. And so what we see now is a virus that is up to about 250 cases in Angola, just circulating inside of the medical facilities, as well as in the general community.

PHILLIPS: Laurie Garrett, global health expert and author of "The Coming Plague." We're going to you to stand by just for a few minutes if you don't mind, because we are waiting for a live press conference from the CDC here in Atlanta. Julie Gerberding set to take to the podium there and talk about -- who knows, she might mention the Marburg virus that we've been talking about, Laurie, but definitely they're going to be addressing mistakes made with regard to the Asian flu pandemic and the labs around the world scrambling to destroy these vials containing this H2N2 virus.

Stay with us. We're going to bring it to you live as soon as it happens.

Laurie, thank you so much.

And what's the last thing you would never want stolen? Your jewelry? Your car? Your phone? How about your identity? We've been talking a lot about this, identity theft. And it's a major problem in this country, to the tune of $50 billion in losses each year to consumers and businesses.

CNN's Allan Chernoff talked to one victim about the legal nightmare that she endured to clear her name.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Maureen won't share her last name, won't even permit us to tell you what state she lives in. Why? Because she's been a victim of identity theft.

MAUREEN, IDENTITY THEFT VICTIM: I'm afraid that it's still out there. Somebody's selling my Social Security number.

CHERNOFF (on camera): It all started Christmas Eve five years ago. Maureen was doing some last-minute shopping at a store that had been located here. In the rush to get home, she left her pocketbook in the shopping cart. By the time she realized it the next day, it was too late. The pocketbook, including all of her IDs and Social Security card, was gone, never to be recovered.

(voice-over): Maureen canceled her credit cards. Then, more than two years later, she got a phone call.

MAUREEN: I had an overdue balance on your Wal-Mart card. I never had a Wal-Mart card.

CHERNOFF: Two more calls followed.

MAUREEN: Your Midnight Velvet card and your Newport News card. And these are credit cards that I never had. I never even -- I never even received their catalogues. CHERNOFF: And, Maureen says, none of the retailers had ever sent a bill. When she explained, though, they were quick to help.

MAUREEN: They were terrific. And they completed the investigation, I would say, within 60, maybe 90 days.

CHERNOFF: The bills were cleaned up, but Maureen, mother of four, had already suffered damage to her credit. She and her husband found out when a bank rejected their mortgage refinance application.

MAUREEN: I realized that I had to clean up my credit myself. Even though I wasn't responsible for what had gone on.

CHERNOFF: The unpaid bills had led the three credit bureaus -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- to slash Maureen's credit score.

COLLEEN MARTIN, TRANSUNION: If the identity thief has applied for credit, gotten that credit and has begun to charge in her name and not pay off bills, then that could start to deteriorate the score and the credit report.

CHERNOFF: Maureen's good credit had gone bad. Then her situation got worse. Capital One called, demanding payment for a $1,200 credit card bill. This time, Maureen says, the bank rejected her explanation.

MAUREEN: Their attorneys started calling me. And they basically said, you know, pay up. We don't believe your story. They would send me letters that, you know, pay half of the bill and we'll be satisfied with that. And I said, no.

CHERNOFF: Maureen wrote letters, sent the police report of her ID theft. Even so, Capital One sued Maureen. She appeared in court representing herself, and only then did the bank's lawyers finally back down.

MAUREEN: They just basically said, OK, well, we're just going to drop it. And that was the end of it. They never gave me an apology, nothing. I never heard from them again.

CHERNOFF: In a statement to CNN, Capital One said Maureen, quote, "appears to have been the victim of fraud, and we apologize to her for any inconvenience she's suffered. Capital One is committed to protecting our cardholders from those who commit fraud."

Capital One declined CNN's request for an on-camera interview.

If you fall victim to ID theft, consumer advocates say, follow Maureen's example. Contact the police and get a copy of their report. Notify your credit card issuers, and contact the credit bureaus. They can put a fraud alert on your record to watch for any case of ID theft for up to seven years. That's what Maureen has done, even though she once again has good credit, because she fears her nightmare is not over yet.

Allan Chernoff, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF: Unfortunately, the nightmare affects many Americans. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission estimates that five million Americans were the victims of identity theft in 2003 -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Congress taking action, I understand, and something happening today?

CHERNOFF: Well, the Senate judiciary committee held a hearing this morning on the issue of identity theft and, in fact, executives of the data brokerage firms were grilled. These were companies that actually sell Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, addresses, et cetera. They sell them to employers checking out employees, for example. So they were grilled.

Some of the senators, including Chairman Arlen Specter, said they believe legislation is needed to regulate these data brokers. And among the bills in Congress, would require these companies to reveal to anyone who's been the victim of identity theft, anyone who has had personal information taken from these computerized files -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Allan Chernoff, thank you so much. And CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information, day and night.

Straight ahead, we're waiting for the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, here in Atlanta, to hold a live news conference. It should happen any minute now. We'll take it when it happens. About that deadly flew strain that should have never been distributed and if, indeed, we should be concerned about it.

Also, Condoleezza Rice speaking just moments ago about the American being held hostage in Iraq. You'll hear from her, right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, just moments ago, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was meeting with the Italian foreign minister Gianfranco Fini, reporters asked her about Jeffrey Ake, the civilian contractor in Iraq that we've been reporting has been taken hostage by Islamic extremists. It's been airing on Al Jazeera television. This is what Condi Rice had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: We know that these are always very difficult and tragic circumstances. It is our great hope that, working with those who may have information, that we can resolve this in a way that is successful and that means in protecting the life of the hostage. We are thoroughly engaged with the Iraqis and with others in trying to do this. Obviously, the United States continues to hold to a policy that we do not negotiate with terrorists. It only encourages them. But we are working very, very hard to try and secure the safety of the American there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And, of course, we will continue to follow the fate of that American, Jeffrey Ake, and what is happening between U.S. forces and also those extremists and bring you any updated information that we get concerning that American hostage.

Now, another story that we've been following for you today is the confusing news, I guess you could say, about the recent outbreak of viral news. This is a live picture from the CDC here in Atlanta.

And I want to bring back Laurie Garrett, global health expert and author of "The Coming Plague." She joins us live from New York. And Laurie, we're expecting this news conference to start at any moment, so I thought you and I could talk a little bit more. It's hard to cram in a matter of three minutes what's taking place here with this news today, and then, of course, other viruses that we've been talking about.

Let's talk about initially what came out with the World Health Organization today and the talk of the Asian flu pandemic that we remember killed more than one million people back in 1957. Now, this deadly strain, we have found out, has been distributed, as you said, to lab after lab after lab, nobody noticing.

And now -- you know, this conversation of quality control and of course, our health and the health of others around the world. Kind of put into perspective, where we are right now with this news we received today and what we hope to hear from the CDC.

LAURIE GARRETT, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: I suspect that Dr. Gerberding, the director of the CDC, is going to tell us that the situation is under investigation, that there are many unanswered questions that the CDC is going full-stop to try and answer those questions, and that they think since this has been in circulation around laboratories, 5,000 laboratories around the world, since October, and there have been no identified human cases of what's called the H2 type of influenza, that there's probably not a fear that this is going to spawn a return of the 1957 influenza.

What I would be more interested in, if I were a reporter in that audience, is, what does this tell us about our level of preparedness for the avian flu, which is, indeed, circulating in Asia, which is mutating rapidly, which is having a 75 percent kill rate on human beings that it infects and kills 100 percent of all chickens it infects, and is now spreading among ducks. And we now have identified cases of pigs are infected with it. A grave potential for a global pandemic that would far exceed the death toll seen in 1957.

PHILLIPS: All right, Laurie, let's listen in to Julie Gerberding.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: ... influenza A virus to a number of laboratories around the world. I just really hope that we can put some perspective into this discussion today. We want to leave you with one very important message and that is while the risk of the situation is very low, we're not taking any chances and we are doing everything we can to make sure that there's no threat to human health.

Let me tell you what we know right now and then I'll comment on some things that we don't know but are in the process of finding out. And then we can review the steps that are under way and find out how the virus is distributed, destroyed, and that the appropriate health monitoring is in process. The College of American Pathologist and three or four other organizations that are responsible for testing the proficiency of laboratories around the world inadvertently sent out proficiency testing panels that contain the H2N2 influenza A virus. This virus is the virus that was associated with the Asian flu pandemic in 1957, so it is a very important human virus in its origin. It is a virus that we know can cause human disease, and obviously a virus that we have not seen in this country for a long period of time. In fact, the last known date where this particular strain of virus was circulating was 1968. So anyone born after 1968 would not have had any exposure to this and would presumably be completely susceptible.

So the concern is that our population does not have immunity to this H2N2 isolate, particularly our younger people.

We do know that the virus was distributed to approximately 4,000 or more laboratories. We don't know how many of the proficiency test panels went out. We believe that the earliest date that they were released was September 10th of 2004, but we're verifying that by working with the distributors and making sure that we can account for every single lab.

We know in total these panels were sent to 18 countries, including the United States and Canada, and we are working with officials in all of these country to take the steps necessary to contain the problem.

We also have very good surveillance for influenza in the United States. We have not observed any unusual patterns of influenza this year. And in fact, the flu season is almost over in most parts of the country. We are not finding any H2N2 isolates in our collection of flu strains.

And let me just say a word about how this works. When someone has the flu and a virus test is done, the lab tests to determine whether it's flu A or flu B. And then in most of our labs, there's a further characterization to determine whether it's an H1 or H3 strain. If an H2 strain was included in that testing, that strain would normally not be identifiable by the lab and they would send it to the CDC. Part of what we do is characterize any strain that is unusual. So we have not had any H2 strains come to us this year at all.

In fact, as I said, we haven't seen any of those since 1967 at CDC, so we are not anticipating that there's an occult H2N2 flu circulating in the community, because by now we would have been able to detect it. We know that the proficiency test panels were to be handled in laboratories under safety level-2 precautions. That is the designation of the kind of strategies in a laboratory to protect workers and to protect contamination. We at CDC believe that the best level of protection for these kinds of novel flu viruses would really be level 3. So part of our concern for workers is that the labs would not have taken the extra precautions necessary to be absolutely certain that there was no exposure. As I said, we believe that the level-2 precaution would certainly protect the workers, but we're erring on the side of extra caution, and in the future, we will be urgently recommending that a higher level of precaution be used for any novel flu virus.

We also don't know about the specific strain of H2N2 that was used for these proficiency-test panels, because the strain has been passed in the laboratory many, many times. And our experience with viruses indicates when a virus is used in the lab like this, it very often loses some of its effectivity, so that it can't any longer infect people efficiently. We have no proof of that in this case, but that's what we've seen when other viruses have gone through this kind of process, and various types of challenges have been conducted with them. So it's possible that this strain of virus actually poses a very, very low threat of transmission efficiently and to the public, but we are not, again, taking any chances. And we can't assume that, so we have to err on the side of caution.

Here are some of the steps that are in progress right now to minimize further any risk. First of all, CDC has advised the College of American Pathologists and the other organizations responsible for distributing these proficiency panels to destroy any virus that remains from that process, to completely autoclave so that it's gone, and to do that immediately and to report within 24 hours back to the College of American Pathologists or the other source that these steps have been taken. We are also asking laboratories who have been involved in this kind of testing to monitor their workers, and if the worker has recently had exposure to these proficiency-test panels, to test them for influenza, if they develop any symptoms or signs that are even remotely suggestive of influenza. And of course if such an illness develops, the individual should be tested for influenza, CDC should be notified and the sample should come here.

The World Health Organization is contacting -- or has contacted the ministers of health in the other 17 countries to be sure that similar processes are in place in each and every laboratory that may have received these proficiency-test panels. And we are all collaborating very effectively to be sure we don't miss any labs and that we have a complete understanding of each and every laboratory that may have been participating in the testing with this panel.

It's important to understand that proficiency testing is a good thing. It's the way we assure that labs have the kinds of quality measures in place that would allow them to accurately be able to identify a novel virus. But we are very concerned that this particular strain of virus was used for proficiency testing, and we will be working with the college and with the other organizations to try to make decisions about how we can assure effective laboratory practices, without posing lab workers or the public at any unnecessary risk from exposure to a novel influenza strain like this one.

So those steps are in progress, and the department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Leavitt's direction is reviewing all procedures relating to handling influenza viruses, to be sure that any opportunities for something like this to happen in the future are prevented, and we will be fully cooperating with those efforts as we go forward.

So let me just end one more time with an important perspective here. There is no evidence that any person has acquired H2N2, and most of these laboratories have already destroyed their proficiency test panels. But we are insuring that all steps are being taken to identify every lab that may have the virus and that it is quickly destroyed. We are doing everything we can without taking any chances that this virus could infect an individual or spread to the public at large. And if we learn more about this situation as we go forward, we'll certainly update you.

We expect that we don't have all the information today, because this is still an unfolding story, so as we learn more, we will definitely update you. I want to take this opportunity to introduce my colleague, Dr. Nancy Cox, who's here today. Nancy is the leader of our influenza branch at CDC. She's been a very...

PHILLIPS: Dr. Julie Gerberding there, the director of the CDC, an we get news today about that disturbing report that thousands of samples, test panels, as she calls them, of the virus that caused the 1957 Asian flu pandemic were mistakenly shipped around the world. And now Julie Gerberding saying possibly 4,000 or more labs around the world, within 18 countries, including the U.S. and Canada. And it looks like the biggest concern at this point right now with the workers in those labs, and did somehow they get infected, and what was the condition of those test panels of this deadly virus that had been mistakenly distributed?

Let's bring in Laurie Garrett, our global health expert and author of "The Coming Plague." She been with us throughout the day. She monitored this news conference also. I guess, Laurie, the bad news is the mistake was made. We're talking 4,000-plus labs -- that's pretty frightening -- in 18 countries, including the U.S. and Canada. Still, though, it looks like Gerberding sticking to -- I guess pretty faithful in the fact that there is a low percentage of a massive health risk here.

GARRETT: Well, she's probably right. If mistakes could have been made, they probably were already made. There may have very well have already been workers in some of these labs that were exposed to the virus and it did not harm them. That would be very, very good news if this virus, after all these year and all the work that's been done on it in laboratories, has become less virulent.

But I must say the lesson remains very frightening one, how in the world did this end up in those kits in the first place? And here's another question that if I were in that press conference I would be asking Dr. Gerberding right now: Where are all the samples of the 1957 flu virus? Where are all the samples of the 1968, another great pandemic? And worst of all, 1918, which may have killed at least 50 million people worldwide. And my knowledge is that CDC can not tell us where every single sample is, what laboratories around the world may have them, and therefore can't guarantee something like this might not happen again with a far more dangerous strange.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, and she talked about there a couple of things that she needs to look at, and that is the proficiency of these labs. And also, when it comes to the proficiency testing, it's very important, it still has to happen. But they have to make sure that the test panels that they get are not test panels with this deadly strain.

Am I explaining that properly?

GARRETT: You are. You're absolutely right.

PHILLIPS: OK.

GARRETT: And now here's -- and here's another question for you. How is it that if the whole point of the influenza surveillance system is that you are supposed to plot if there's a different what's called H, or hemoglutin in constellation (ph), in the circulating flu viruses, you're supposed to immediately warn the CDC. She explained that to us.

And this H2 type has not been in the world since 1967, '68. So how is it that all of these labs have had these panels since October and nobody noticed until March 26 of all of those labs that there was an H2 flu in the mix? And why was it that none of the American labs noticed it? It was a Canadian lab.

And we have invested more than $3 billion in prying to improve our public health infrastructure and our laboratory since 9/11. And yet, boom, everybody missed it.

PHILLIPS: It's amazing when you think about it. Well, obviously, Gerberding coming out, Laurie, and talking about what they do know. And now the steps that are in progress to destroy, from what I understand, all of these test panels. And if indeed laboratories come up with a panel with this virus, they are to report immediately to the proper folks.

And also, all the workers in these labs are going to be monitored to see if they get any type of I guess affect from what this virus could bring on. So...

GARRETT: Any flu-like systems ought to get reported immediately. If you work in any of these laboratories -- and it is well over 4,000. It's closer to 5,000 in 18 countries. And if you work in any of those labs, even if you're a janitor, if you're not directly working on the virus, and you develop anything akin to flu-like symptoms, you should report it immediately to your authorities and your supervisors, and tests should be conducted and samples should be sent to the CDC in Atlanta for immediate analysis.

PILGRIM: Laurie Garrett, our global health expert, thank you so much for helping us sort through all this today. We sure appreciate it.

GARRETT: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: Now we're going to move on to Iraq. And he went to bring water to the desert, but on Monday U.S. contractor Jeffrey Ake of northwest Indiana was kidnapped from a work site near Baghdad. Today he appears in a setting we have seen many times before, amid masked men with rifles, pleading for his life on video.

That tape turns up on the day of numerous bombings aimed at U.S. and Iraqi forces. We get the latest on all of it now from CNN's Aneesh Raman in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Arabic language station Al- Jazeera airing a video purportedly showing an American hostage kidnapped on Monday here in Baghdad in broad daylight as he worked on a reconstruction project. U.S. embassy officials here say the man's name is Jeffrey Ake. He's from the state of Indiana.

No word on what company he works for. But we do know that in South Bend, Indiana, a company called Equipment Express is doing work here in Iraq.

Also today, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick arrived for an unannounced visit. He met with leaders of the transitional government, pushing a message we heard yesterday from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that this government needs to form quickly. He also went to the city of Falluja to check in on reconstruction projects there.

Now, both of these visits had violent backdrops. Yesterday, two car bombs in Mosul. Today, north of the capital city in the town of Kirkuk, 12 Iraqi soldiers died while trying to diffuse a roadside bomb.

Also, three bombs going off this morning, all intended to hit American military convoys. The first around 9:00 a.m. in western Baghdad. No U.S. casualties there. A fuel truck did catch on fire, causing some dramatic video.

The second, about an hour later, a suicide car bomb in western Baghdad hit a convoy. Five Iraqi civilians there were wounded.

And another about 11:00 a.m. local, hitting a convoy. Three Iraqi civilians wounded in that incident.

All of this underscoring the need for Iraq's transitional government to take shape and start dealing with the country's security.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: Back now to that American being held hostage, Jeffrey Ake. Well, his company, Equipment Express of suburban LaPorte, Indiana, says it's played an important role in the war in Iraq. Besides water, that company has bottled and distributed cooking oil.

But officials don't want to talk to reporters. And the State Department says Ake's wife feels the same way. Others who don't mind sharing their reactions are understandably aggrieved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So close to home. I feel sorry for all of the people we are losing over there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just know him from coming in. He comes in probably four or five times a week and picks up his mail. And when I wait on him, you know, he's always cordial and nice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes you take notice, huh, when something like that happens? Somebody you know -- and I don't know him, but I have seen him and I know of him, you know. But that's -- it really shakes you up a little bit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Yellow ribbons are already going up in Jeffrey Ake's hometown, where the police chief says Ake's plight devastates all of us.

Ships that pass in the night are comrades in arms forever. Afghanistan apparently is looking for a long-term commitment from the Bush administration. But visiting defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was gun shy today when the question came up in Kabul.

More on that from CNN's Barbara Starr at the Pentagon -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello, Kyra.

As you say, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spending most of the day in Afghanistan conducting a press conference with Afghan president Hamid Karzai. And the question on the table, indeed, was, does the U.S. have plans for a permanent basing relationship in Afghanistan? Hamid Karzai making it very clear he would like some type of arrangement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN PRESIDENT: The conclusion we have drawn is that the Afghan people want a longer-term relationship with the United States. They want this relationship to be a wholesome one, including a sustained economic relationship, a personal relationship, and, most important of all, a strategic security relationship that would enable Afghanistan to defend itself, to continue to be -- to prosper, to stop interferences, the possibility of interferences in Afghanistan, not have the reputation of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: But, of course, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, knowing full well this is a very delicate question, so he wouldn't walk down that road on the question of permanent basis. Very sensitive for a U.S. defense secretary to be talking about any kind of permanent basing in a Muslim country.

Here's what Secretary Rumsfeld had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: What we generally do when we work with another country is what we have been doing. We find ways that we can be helpful. It may be training, it may be equipping, it may be various other types of assistance, such as is the case here. But we think more in terms of what we're doing rather than the question of military bases and that type of thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: And, indeed, Kyra, whether one calls it permanent bases or not, it may be two sides of the same question. Because the U.S. is spending a considerable amount of money upgrading and improving the air bases and other fields that it does use in Afghanistan. And certainly the U.S. and the NATO allies preparing to stay in Afghanistan for some years to come to get Afghan security forces trained up.

So whether it's called a permanent base or not, no indication that the U.S. is leaving -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Barbara Starr. Thanks.

We're going to talk more about the possibility of a permanent base, too, with General David Grange coming up, and how that could play a big part in the war on terror.

Now moving on to searchers again fanning out across Hillsboro County, Florida, looking for yet another missing girl. This time a teenager by the name of Sarah Lunde.

CNN's Susan Candiotti is following the investigation, and she joins us now live by telephone.

Do we believe that it is an abduction, Susan, and if, indeed, a sexual predator is one to blame?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, there is no evidence of that right now. And that is why police have not issued an Amber Alert in this case because there is no evidence of that at this time. They have, however, put out a national missing child alert.

This is day two of the search for 13-year-old Sarah Lunde, who apparently disappeared from her home late Saturday. That's when her brother last saw her. He said she had been at an outing at a church camp and came home early from it. After Sarah's brother saw her late Saturday, when he come home Sunday morning, he said the front door was wide open.

Now, the mother called police to report that her daughter was missing. She did not show up for school. Eighty deputies are out there looking for her. And they've conducted more than 200 interviews with people in the area so far.

The little girl has had a troubled history. Police says she comes from a broken home. Her mother has been in trouble with the law, some fraud arrests in the past. Her father has been arrested in the past -- he lives in another city -- on battery charges.

The sheriff's office says that this little girl has run away before, but she has come back. So they are calling this out of context and, in their words, "extremely suspicious."

Four years ago the youngster was (UNINTELLIGIBLE). She was (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a foster care for a time after her parents divorced. The mother does have custody of the children.

They have been looking at all the registered sex offenders in the area, as they normally do. They located all but one of 24 of them. One was said to have left the area before Sarah went missing.

There are 50 volunteers at least out there helping in the search. Hopefully with all of this publicity they will be able to find her -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Susan Candiotti, real quickly, we have been saying her name is Sarah Lunde. You said Lunde.

CANDIOTTI: That's right.

PHILLIPS: I want to make sure -- I want to make sure we get her name right.

CANDIOTTI: The police say it is pronounced Lunde.

PHILLIPS: Lunde. All right. Once again, we're going to follow the search there for the missing teenager, Sarah Lunde.

Our Susan Candiotti working that story for us. We'll talk more about it later in the hour.

Thanks, Susan.

Meanwhile, straight ahead, the United States has more than 80 military bases overseas. How would putting permanent U.S. bases in Afghanistan affect security there and here at home? We're going to talk about it straight ahead.

And a couple that lived through the nightmare of identity theft fights back. How their strategy could help you straight ahead.

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GEN. DAVID GRANGE, (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: ... some time of a mission.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about the various types of missions.

As we look at this map of the Gulf region, I mean, there's at least a dozen or more bases from Bahrain to Jabuuti. And let's talk about why U.S. bases in these areas and why they pick certain locations.

You and I talked about the fight, save, distribute. Let's talk about fight first, and that's, of course, strategy behind war. You look at the first Gulf War, you look at OIF, Kuwait, for example. It makes sense that there would be a permanent U.S. base there. Let's talk about why.

GRANGE: Well, for fighting, you know, this is a military that fights what I call exterior lines. In other words, we have to usually go somewhere to fight.

And to -- when you force project over seas across the globe, you either fight your way in or you land somewhere at some base to assemble, regroup, reorganize, and then prepare to conduct a fight. Just like they did in Iraq when we went into, let's say, Kuwait to prepare to go into Baghdad.

PHILLIPS: Of course, because you've got to be able to have jets and helos that can come and go and refuel. You want to be able to get foot power in there. You want to be able to get supplies into a location. I mean, you can't fight a war, obviously, all coming straight out of the United States.

GRANGE: That's right. There's a limited number of aircraft to fly to the fight or go by ship across the oceans to the fight.

And so these bases are either already secured by our forces or allies, and/or they have what they call prepositioned stock. They have fighting vehicles, they have ammunition, fuel, those things you need to fight a war. And that takes a lot of bulk capability to move that from the United States. So it's good to have those things propositioned in regions where you may have to go to war.

PHILLIPS: OK. And another reason. Not just war missions, but what you and I have labeled the save tactic. And Sierra Leone, for example, let's talk about having bases overseas and how it helps in the mission when it comes to saving allied forces, civilians, et cetera.

GRANGE: Yes, what we're talking about here is things like humanitarian assistance. In other words, to go into a place like the tsunami countries to provide aid, immediate aid in disaster areas, for peacekeeping operations, for what they call NEO, noncombatant evacuation operations, taking Americans out of a hostile environment if it happened in places like Sierra Leone or in the past in Somalia.

It could be in the future. Let's say a war broke out between Pakistan and India. How do you get all those Americans out or other national citizens from other countries that asked us to help them? You want to be able to do that

PHILLIPS: And General, even, say, something like Falluja. You want to be close to Iraq and have the power to take civilians out of an area if indeed the military knows they're going to go in and try to clear out the terrorists.

GRANGE: Well, that's right. And Iraq is another example where I would suspect even with the continual (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ability of the Iraqi military and police forces that we'll have a base there for some time.

PHILLIPS: And you made a great point about distribution. The third point that we talked about in the humanitarian efforts and why it is important to have bases overseas to bring in supplies when something goes down, say, for example, in Haiti. We saw a lot of military respond, bringing in food and water and helping the people there.

GRANGE: That's right. And these type -- this type of these types of supplies, whether it be water, or whether it be medical supplies and food stuff (ph) in some of these remote areas, you want to have global reach. But once you get into the region, you want to have intra-theater air move those things by helicopter or by C-130 aircraft, or by vehicle shorter distances. But you need the hub and spoke capability, some place to start from that's near this crisis area.

PHILLIPS: So you...

GRANGE: And this is a great example in southwest Asia to have a base.

PHILLIPS: And finally, in Afghanistan, if that base is built there, you said probably the biggest asset would just be the deterrent to al Qaeda and the Taliban and the growth of terrorism in a country that created Operation Enduring Freedom and then leading into other operations to take down terrorists.

GRANGE: Yes. I think President Karzai would like to have U.S. presence there for some time. It does him good; it does us good.

It allows you, if there's a problem with faction leaders in the future, you have big brother United States looking over your shoulder to back you up. If you have more Taliban-al Qaeda problems along the border, or it continues the way it is now, you want to have U.S. presence there.

And then, again, it's a key location for the United States if there was ever trouble in Iran, or if there was trouble with Pakistan, to be in that location. And you may not be able to use the bases you currently have. They may need those for their military. So you may want to build a more capable U.S.-oriented-type base for future operations.

PHILLIPS: General David Grange, if they start building, we'll talk again. Thank you, sir.

GRANGE: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, fight back against identity theft. Today a Senate panel talked about it today. And just ahead on LIVE FROM, you're going to meet a couple who experienced it first hand and turned their fight against it into a way to help all Americans.

And the search for who we are and where we came from. Scientists need 100,000 people from around the world to trace the human family tree. Are you interested?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange. General Motors wants to try something brand new to boost its sales. I'll tell you why you might be in for a surprise if you're planning to buy a GM car in the near future.

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PHILLIPS: Car maker General Motors is hoping that a little branding will give a boost in its weak sales. Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Stories "Now in the News."

A U.S. embassy official identifies an American kidnapped this week from a construction site in Baghdad as Jeffrey Ake. That's the name on an ID card seen in that video that aired on Al-Jazeera. A company in Indiana called Equipment Express lists Jeffrey Ake as its president and CEO.

Detectives south of Tampa are questioning registered sex offenders as a part of the investigation in the search for 13-year-old Sarah Michelle Lunde. She lived in the area and was last seen early Sunday. Volunteers are helping to search a three-mile radius from Lunde's home, just a town called Ruskin.

Eric Rudolph has pleaded guilty to a deadly bombing at a women's clinic in Alabama seven years ago. He's expected to plead guilty in just about 30 minutes to three bombings that took place in Georgia, including the deadly blast in Centennial Olympic Park in 1996. Now, under a plea agreement, Rudolph will be spared the death penalty in exchange for four consecutive life terms in a federal prison.

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