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National Guardsmen Arrested for Smuggling Ecstasy; Hostage's Hometown Awaits News

Aired April 14, 2005 - 15:00   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Here's part of today's announcement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KLOCHAN, FBI: Let's be blunt, the conduct -- conduct of the Bayoil defenders was unconscionable. Motivated by greed, they flouted the law, made a mockery of the stated aimed of the oil-for-food program and willingly conspired with a foreign government with whom our country was on the brink of war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: The federal probe that led to the arrest is one of many related to the oil-for-food program. Other investigations likely to produce additional prosecutions.

Before we go on, a little background on the story. The oil-for- food program was conceived as a way to let Iraq purchase food and medicine during the years of U.N. sanctions.

It was established by a vote of the U.N. Security Council 10 years ago today. The first food arrived in Iraq in 1997 and two years later the focus of the program began to shift toward repairing Iraq's infrastructure. Nine U.N. agencies took part in the program, which was separate from all other U.N. operations.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: It happened last month and now it happened again. Members of the U.S. Military accused of using military transport planes to run drugs. The first time, cocaine, this time Ecstasy.

CNN's Kathleen Koch has the story now from the Pentagon -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, it was just over two weeks ago that five U.S. Army soldiers were arrested for trying to smuggle 35 pounds of cocaine into the United States from Colombia aboard a U.S. military aircraft.

Well, right now behind bars in New York state are an Air National Guard pilot and the load master of his aircraft, and they're charged with trying to smuggle in and distribute more than $11 million worth of the drug Ecstasy.

According to the U.S. attorney's office for the southern district of New York, federal agents found 28 large bags holding some 290,000 pills in the luggage of Captain Franklin Rodriguez and Master Sergeant John Fong when they returned to the U.S. aboard a U.S. cargo plane from an official mission.

Authorities allege that on April 8 the two men flew from Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York to Germany and then on to the Republic of Georgia to deliver supplies.

The U.S. attorney's office says that then, during their return, they stopped in Germany. The men went into a hotel room and loaded the Ecstasy drugs into their bags. The men were then arrested on Tuesday when they landed back in New York and they were taking those bags and putting them into the pilot's car.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER GIOVINO, DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY: They were carrying these drugs with them. They were apprehended by members of our strike force, as well as the Department of Defense.

CAPT. KEVIN KERLEY, NEW YORK POLICE STRIKE FORCE: The investigation is continuing. We believe that there's no other military personnel involved in this ring. The investigation is continuing in Europe and in the continental U.S. at this time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Needless to say, officials here at the Pentagon are not pleased with these recent developments. Spokesman Bryan Whitman saying, quote, "We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to drugs, and they will be dealt with very seriously."

This investigation has been under way for some time, according to a spokesman for the Air National Guard in New York state. He says that officials at the base have been cooperating with federal officials on the investigation.

And an interesting revelation in some of the court papers associated with this. According to the papers, the two suspects told law enforcement that they have made similar runs like this to smuggle drugs, at least three other times, for which the master sergeant said he was paid $10,000 for each run.

Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Wow. All right, Kathleen Koch live at the Pentagon. Thanks -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: News across America now.

More than 10,000 fugitives off the nation's streets. The Justice Department announced today that the fugitives, some wanted for violent crimes, were captured in an unprecedented noisy, weeklong roundup dubbed Operation Falcon. We're told 100 were unregistered sex offenders.

The search intensifies in Florida this -- for a missing girl, 15- year-old Sarah Lunde. She was last seen Saturday night. Police have questioned a convicted sex offender in the case. One of the volunteers joining the search today was Mark Lunsford. Of course, you recall his daughter Jessica was killed, allegedly by a convicted child molester, more than a month ago.

A good kid who made a bad decision. That's how the coach of a youth baseball team describes a 13-year-old pitcher accused of beating to death a 15-year-old friend with a baseball bat. It happened Tuesday night in California after witnesses say the victim began teasing the suspect for losing his first game of the season. The coach says neither boy had a history of problems.

PHILLIPS: Once again, President Bush is urging Congress to get off the dime and pass a comprehensive energy bill. He made those comments today to a group of newspaper editors meeting in Washington.

In the president's view the key to lower energy prices is to make the country less dependent on outside sources of energy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would tell you, with $55 oil we don't need incentives for oil and gas companies to explore. There's plenty of incentive. What we need is to put a strategy in place that will help this country over time become less dependent. It's really important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: House committees have approved key provisions of the president's energy bill. A vote by the full House could come as early as next week.

O'BRIEN: Go ahead.

PHILLIPS: No. Straight ahead, we're pretty excited about our next guest.

O'BRIEN: Can hardly wait.

PHILLIPS: Mickey Hart to the rescue. The former Grateful Dead drummer is our guest with something you really should hear.

O'BRIEN: Now is my turn. Plus, here come the new bride. Charles and Camilla performing their first official duties as England's new power couple.

PHILLIPS: No feathers?

O'BRIEN: And if baseball had a red carpet, they'd be rolling it out in Washington today. I'm sure there will be a little bunting hung. A capital idea, wouldn't you say?

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Violence spiked again today in Iraq with 18 people killed in several separate insurgent attacks. Southern Baghdad, two car bombs explode almost simultaneously on a busy road near Baghdad University. Eleven killed, three times that number wounded. Another suicide bomber, this one carrying a briefcase, killed himself and four Iraqi policemen north of Hilla.

And today also, attackers opened on -- fire on a Kirkuk police station killing three police officers there.

PHILLIPS: Back in this country, anxious residents of an entire Indiana town are breathlessly awaiting word on one of their own. It's been two days since Jeffrey Ake's image was seen at gunpoint, abducted in Iraq.

Keith Oppenheim is in LaPorte, Indiana, today, a town of waiting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In LaPorte, Indiana, if you go to the chamber of commerce, there are photos of Jeffrey Ake. He's the picture of a confident looking businessman, the entrepreneur shaking hands.

What a contrast to these pictures released to the Al Jazeera network. The video shows a man identified as Jeffrey Ake, surrounded by gunmen holding his passport, driver's license and a family photo.

JOHN DIEDRICH, FAMILY FRIEND: These people are just totally animals. You know, they're unreasonable. Jeff has a nice wife, beautiful wife, children.

OPPENHEIM: Jeffrey Ake's wife, Liliana, and other relatives are at home here in LaPorte. Outside, there is an American flag hanging on the garage, a yellow ribbon around a tree. Inside, a close-knit group of friends and family do the only thing they can. Wait, appearing as shadows against the windows, avoiding any contact with the media.

CHIEF DAVID GARIEPY, LAPORTE, INDIANA, POLICE: They're following the advice of the FBI, and they've requested that they not be contacted by the press.

OPPENHEIM: People in LaPorte who know Jeffrey Ake say he is a creative entrepreneur. He's the president of a small company, Equipment Express, that develops systems for packaging liquid products. Since 2003 Ake had been selling equipment to the Iraqis for making bottled water and cooking oil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has the potential to be so helpful to the Iraqi people, to make that a more positive situation. And so people who don't want that to happen, who want things to continue to be bad and get worse, I presume he would be a logical target, which maybe makes it all the more tragic.

OPPENHEIM: Indeed, the possible outcome of this hostage situation is overwhelming for many in LaPorte.

(on camera) The idea that he could die. Is that something that you just don't want to allow yourself to think about?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly, I'm not going to think -- think anything like that. I'm going to think positive, and our community is going to think positive. And we're going to, through positive thinking, we're going to bring him back, I hope.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): They just want him home, alive, and back with his friends and family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have hope and we have faith, and I believe that somehow, Jeff Ake will be spared.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: The U.S. embassy in Baghdad has assembled a hostage working group that's coordinating efforts right now to secure Jeffrey Ake's release.

O'BRIEN: New around the world now.

Home bound after a diplomatic mission overseas. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrapped up a tour in the Middle East and Asia today. It included stops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and today a final stop today in Kyrgyzstan.

Bidding farewell to Europe's longest serving monarch. Mourners paying their respects to Monaco's Prince Rainier today. The 81-year- old ruler died last week after suffering lung, heart and kidney problems. He's to be buried tomorrow alongside his wife, Grace Jelly.

Britain's highest profile newlyweds attend their first royal engagement as husband and wife today. Prince Charles and Camilla, a.k.a. the Duchess of Cornwall, greeted hundreds of well-wishers in stormy Scotland. Is it ever not stormy Scotland?

Camilla later performed her first duty as a royal, opening a playground.

Do you think future generations will be listening to 50 Cent or Kelly Clarkson, perhaps? I don't know.

PHILLIPS: I'm not sure. But just ahead on LIVE FROM, we're joined by former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.

Don't do anything embarrassing, Mickey. You're live on television now. Give everyone a smile and a wave there. Yes, he's looking good. He's putting his laptop down, his notes. Look at that grin.

He's still playing, too. He's in a concert in Minneapolis. He's going to tell you about the sounds he's trying to save for future generations. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So what do Asian elephants, the rock group Nirvana and newsman Edward R. Murrow have in common? Well, the Library of Congress wants to save them, and more precisely, to save the sounds they made. Cultural and historical sounds like Murrow's broadcast from the battle of Britain during World War II.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

EDWARD R. MURROW, FORMER ANCHOR, CBS NEWS: Reasons of national as well as personal security. I'm unable to tell you the exact location from which I'm speaking. Off to my left, far away in the distance I can see just that faint, red, angry snap of antiaircraft bursts against a steel blue sky.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: His writing was like poetry. This is just one of 50 unique audio works that the library has added to the national recording registry this year, and speaking of unique, former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart is on the board that decides what sounds are worth saving. He joins me live from Minneapolis.

Great to see you, Mickey.

MICKEY HART, FORMER GRATEFUL DEAD DRUMMER: Hi, nice to be here.

PHILLIPS: All right. You call these at-risk recordings. Tell me about the challenges about preserving these recordings and why you're doing it?

HART: Well, the sound of our people. This is our sound symbol. This is who we really are. It's a great history.

These mediums on which these recordings have been made are deteriorating at a rapid rate, whether it be wax, tin, acetate, wire, magnetic tape. Each medium on which they've been recorded has its own problems, and they're -- they're disappearing at a rapid rate.

So we at the library and at archives around the world are trying to -- it's a race against time which we'll never win, but the most significant recordings are being digitized and allowed access to.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's get to some of those significant recordings. Your favorite, of course, a man who influenced you. Let's listen to a little bit of Olatunji with "The Drums of Passion" for a second.

HART: Yes.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now this Nigerian drummer, tremendous impact on you, a tremendous impact on all types of musicians.

HART: John Coltrane, Bob -- Bob Dylan, Carlos Santana, Grateful Dead. These are the powerful transfer rhythms of West Africa that came to us by way of the slave trade to New Orleans at the turn of the century, and we turned it into popular music. So Olatunji is a major figure, a towering figure in American popular music, of course. He influenced my life tremendously.

PHILLIPS: I know, and I know how much you love him and his music. Well, let's talk about other musicians that he influenced. Let's take a listen now to James Brown live at the Apollo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: You just can't get enough of James Brown. Why do you want to preserve this, Mickey?

HART: Well, he took gospel music, rock -- R&B, the blues, and brought it together in a new world music, and expressed the sentiment of a people that wasn't being listened to or heard. And he put it to a funky beat and it made us dance. So James brown, major hero.

PHILLIPS: Also, you talked about gaining respect from the critics, how about when we talk about hip-hop, of course, we think of the "Fear of a Black Planet" and Public Enemy. Let's take a quick listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now this took hip-hop to a whole different level, and it sparked a passionate debate over political content, didn't it?

HART: It sure did. But that's what music is supposed to do. It's supposed to say things that you can't normally say but that are important. And he was speaking for a community that was -- was screaming out for recognition and their message.

Not everybody agrees with everybody else, but music and art are one of the places that you can express an opinion without going to jail or getting censored. And it's one of the greatest creations of a people. These are kind of bits of our subconscious that rise to the surface for one reason or another and we turn them into a form, an art that we can share.

PHILLIPS: Well, from screaming to yodeling, we got to listen to "Lovesick Blues" and Hank Williams.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) (MUSIC)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: You got to love it. This demanded six encores of his yodeled closing line of that song.

HART: Well, Hank, you know, he was speaking about the broken heart, you know. And love, and love lost, which is a very important emotion.

PHILLIPS: We can all relate to that, can't we?

HART: We sure can. We sure can.

PHILLIPS: We can also relate, of course, in many ways to the Bible, not just music but the spoken word you are preserving. The King James Version of the bible read by Alexander Scourby, the famous Shakespearean actor.

HART: Yes. Yes.

PHILLIPS: Let's take a listen to this for a second here.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ALEXANDER SCOURBY, SHAKESPEAREAN ACTOR: In the beginning God created heaven and earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the voice of the deep.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: His voice was incredible, and he recorded this for the blind.

HART: That's right.

PHILLIPS: And I was reading that it took -- it took four years.

HART: Four years. Sixty-six books, 4 years. So Scourby was a real voice shaman, and it just sucks you right in. You have to hear this, you know. These are great folk tales, great stories and biblical history. So they have a certain significance, as well.

PHILLIPS: All right. We've got to -- we've got to wrap it up on a funny no. These songs by Tom Lehrer, specifically, "Be Prepared." You were -- you were a Cub Scout, right, Mickey?

HART: Yes, sure.

PHILLIPS: OK. And this is what you lived by, right here.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now this was a man who inspired George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, so many of the great characters that we listen to for humor these days.

HART: Well, he was expressing the human condition, you know, and he was making fun of it, making light of it, that not everything is so serious, and he was a great influence on comedy, so he's an important addition to the registry.

PHILLIPS: Now I know you do this every year, and I'm going to ask you right now. I know we're planning ahead. You're going to come back and talk about the sounds that you're working to preserve for next year, right?

HART: Yes. Well, we're starting right on that now. But hopefully next year we'll have a lot of indigenous musics, archives from America, Spanish-American music and Native American music. And so these collections are being carefully looked at and preserved.

Remember we've been only imprinting sound since 18 -- 1877, and so it's relatively new. And like I said before, the Library of Congress, and the American Folk Life Center and all the archives around the country and around the world are doing an amazing job.

And by the way?

PHILLIPS: Yes?

HART: If there is any music in the archives of -- in your own home, in your basement or your attic. Really, these are important.

PHILLIPS: Send it to you? Send it to you?

HART: Please call up the American Folk Life Center, call your local repository and make these known, because that's where these sounds are.

PHILLIPS: OK, Mickey, I'm not aging Miles or me or Judy Woodruff, but, yes, you are a part of our history. And it's very important that we archive your music, as well.

Mickey Hart, thanks for being with us today.

HART: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right.

O'BRIEN: Let me tell you, archive that interview right away. We'll send it right to him.

PHILLIPS: We should put that in the library of Congress. That's right!

O'BRIEN: We've got this great interview we heard.

All right. Judy Woodruff is coming up with "INSIDE POLITICS."

Hello, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hi, there Miles. Thank you to you and Kyra.

It has been 34 years, but finally baseball is back in Washington. We're just a few hours away from the first pitch and just minutes away from the start of batting practice. We'll go live to RFK Stadium as the excitement continues to mount.

Our action packed edition of "INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a couple of moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Checking some stories now in the news. The federal probe of the oil-for-food program in Iraq moves beyond the U.N. An American oil businessman and his two companies among those charged in a criminal complaint. The case involves bribes and kickbacks. A live report coming up on Wolf Blitzer, 5 Eastern.

Mark Lunsford joins the search for a missing 13-year-old girl in Florida. Lunsford's daughter Jessica abducted and killed in February. Volunteers searching for Sarah Michelle Lunde, who disappeared Saturday after a church trip. Police say that's the same day a convicted sex offender who once dated her mother turned up at family's home. Police are not calling him a suspect, however.

And another girl is missing in Alabama. Authorities issued a missing child media alert for 16-year-old Jade Sophia Padgett. They believe she may be with a man she met online. Authorities say they believe the girl is in danger. She was last seen yesterday outside her school.

I'm Miles O'Brien at the CNN center in Atlanta. Now "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Bush's pitch, on a day that Washingtonians have baseball on the brain, did the president throw any curveballs in a session with newspaper editors?

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Do I go with a fast ball or a slider?

ANNOUNCER: It's a moment political figures have been waiting for, for more than 30 years.

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 14, 2005 - 15:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Here's part of today's announcement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KLOCHAN, FBI: Let's be blunt, the conduct -- conduct of the Bayoil defenders was unconscionable. Motivated by greed, they flouted the law, made a mockery of the stated aimed of the oil-for-food program and willingly conspired with a foreign government with whom our country was on the brink of war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: The federal probe that led to the arrest is one of many related to the oil-for-food program. Other investigations likely to produce additional prosecutions.

Before we go on, a little background on the story. The oil-for- food program was conceived as a way to let Iraq purchase food and medicine during the years of U.N. sanctions.

It was established by a vote of the U.N. Security Council 10 years ago today. The first food arrived in Iraq in 1997 and two years later the focus of the program began to shift toward repairing Iraq's infrastructure. Nine U.N. agencies took part in the program, which was separate from all other U.N. operations.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: It happened last month and now it happened again. Members of the U.S. Military accused of using military transport planes to run drugs. The first time, cocaine, this time Ecstasy.

CNN's Kathleen Koch has the story now from the Pentagon -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, it was just over two weeks ago that five U.S. Army soldiers were arrested for trying to smuggle 35 pounds of cocaine into the United States from Colombia aboard a U.S. military aircraft.

Well, right now behind bars in New York state are an Air National Guard pilot and the load master of his aircraft, and they're charged with trying to smuggle in and distribute more than $11 million worth of the drug Ecstasy.

According to the U.S. attorney's office for the southern district of New York, federal agents found 28 large bags holding some 290,000 pills in the luggage of Captain Franklin Rodriguez and Master Sergeant John Fong when they returned to the U.S. aboard a U.S. cargo plane from an official mission.

Authorities allege that on April 8 the two men flew from Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York to Germany and then on to the Republic of Georgia to deliver supplies.

The U.S. attorney's office says that then, during their return, they stopped in Germany. The men went into a hotel room and loaded the Ecstasy drugs into their bags. The men were then arrested on Tuesday when they landed back in New York and they were taking those bags and putting them into the pilot's car.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER GIOVINO, DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY: They were carrying these drugs with them. They were apprehended by members of our strike force, as well as the Department of Defense.

CAPT. KEVIN KERLEY, NEW YORK POLICE STRIKE FORCE: The investigation is continuing. We believe that there's no other military personnel involved in this ring. The investigation is continuing in Europe and in the continental U.S. at this time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Needless to say, officials here at the Pentagon are not pleased with these recent developments. Spokesman Bryan Whitman saying, quote, "We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to drugs, and they will be dealt with very seriously."

This investigation has been under way for some time, according to a spokesman for the Air National Guard in New York state. He says that officials at the base have been cooperating with federal officials on the investigation.

And an interesting revelation in some of the court papers associated with this. According to the papers, the two suspects told law enforcement that they have made similar runs like this to smuggle drugs, at least three other times, for which the master sergeant said he was paid $10,000 for each run.

Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Wow. All right, Kathleen Koch live at the Pentagon. Thanks -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: News across America now.

More than 10,000 fugitives off the nation's streets. The Justice Department announced today that the fugitives, some wanted for violent crimes, were captured in an unprecedented noisy, weeklong roundup dubbed Operation Falcon. We're told 100 were unregistered sex offenders.

The search intensifies in Florida this -- for a missing girl, 15- year-old Sarah Lunde. She was last seen Saturday night. Police have questioned a convicted sex offender in the case. One of the volunteers joining the search today was Mark Lunsford. Of course, you recall his daughter Jessica was killed, allegedly by a convicted child molester, more than a month ago.

A good kid who made a bad decision. That's how the coach of a youth baseball team describes a 13-year-old pitcher accused of beating to death a 15-year-old friend with a baseball bat. It happened Tuesday night in California after witnesses say the victim began teasing the suspect for losing his first game of the season. The coach says neither boy had a history of problems.

PHILLIPS: Once again, President Bush is urging Congress to get off the dime and pass a comprehensive energy bill. He made those comments today to a group of newspaper editors meeting in Washington.

In the president's view the key to lower energy prices is to make the country less dependent on outside sources of energy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would tell you, with $55 oil we don't need incentives for oil and gas companies to explore. There's plenty of incentive. What we need is to put a strategy in place that will help this country over time become less dependent. It's really important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: House committees have approved key provisions of the president's energy bill. A vote by the full House could come as early as next week.

O'BRIEN: Go ahead.

PHILLIPS: No. Straight ahead, we're pretty excited about our next guest.

O'BRIEN: Can hardly wait.

PHILLIPS: Mickey Hart to the rescue. The former Grateful Dead drummer is our guest with something you really should hear.

O'BRIEN: Now is my turn. Plus, here come the new bride. Charles and Camilla performing their first official duties as England's new power couple.

PHILLIPS: No feathers?

O'BRIEN: And if baseball had a red carpet, they'd be rolling it out in Washington today. I'm sure there will be a little bunting hung. A capital idea, wouldn't you say?

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Violence spiked again today in Iraq with 18 people killed in several separate insurgent attacks. Southern Baghdad, two car bombs explode almost simultaneously on a busy road near Baghdad University. Eleven killed, three times that number wounded. Another suicide bomber, this one carrying a briefcase, killed himself and four Iraqi policemen north of Hilla.

And today also, attackers opened on -- fire on a Kirkuk police station killing three police officers there.

PHILLIPS: Back in this country, anxious residents of an entire Indiana town are breathlessly awaiting word on one of their own. It's been two days since Jeffrey Ake's image was seen at gunpoint, abducted in Iraq.

Keith Oppenheim is in LaPorte, Indiana, today, a town of waiting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In LaPorte, Indiana, if you go to the chamber of commerce, there are photos of Jeffrey Ake. He's the picture of a confident looking businessman, the entrepreneur shaking hands.

What a contrast to these pictures released to the Al Jazeera network. The video shows a man identified as Jeffrey Ake, surrounded by gunmen holding his passport, driver's license and a family photo.

JOHN DIEDRICH, FAMILY FRIEND: These people are just totally animals. You know, they're unreasonable. Jeff has a nice wife, beautiful wife, children.

OPPENHEIM: Jeffrey Ake's wife, Liliana, and other relatives are at home here in LaPorte. Outside, there is an American flag hanging on the garage, a yellow ribbon around a tree. Inside, a close-knit group of friends and family do the only thing they can. Wait, appearing as shadows against the windows, avoiding any contact with the media.

CHIEF DAVID GARIEPY, LAPORTE, INDIANA, POLICE: They're following the advice of the FBI, and they've requested that they not be contacted by the press.

OPPENHEIM: People in LaPorte who know Jeffrey Ake say he is a creative entrepreneur. He's the president of a small company, Equipment Express, that develops systems for packaging liquid products. Since 2003 Ake had been selling equipment to the Iraqis for making bottled water and cooking oil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has the potential to be so helpful to the Iraqi people, to make that a more positive situation. And so people who don't want that to happen, who want things to continue to be bad and get worse, I presume he would be a logical target, which maybe makes it all the more tragic.

OPPENHEIM: Indeed, the possible outcome of this hostage situation is overwhelming for many in LaPorte.

(on camera) The idea that he could die. Is that something that you just don't want to allow yourself to think about?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly, I'm not going to think -- think anything like that. I'm going to think positive, and our community is going to think positive. And we're going to, through positive thinking, we're going to bring him back, I hope.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): They just want him home, alive, and back with his friends and family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have hope and we have faith, and I believe that somehow, Jeff Ake will be spared.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: The U.S. embassy in Baghdad has assembled a hostage working group that's coordinating efforts right now to secure Jeffrey Ake's release.

O'BRIEN: New around the world now.

Home bound after a diplomatic mission overseas. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrapped up a tour in the Middle East and Asia today. It included stops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and today a final stop today in Kyrgyzstan.

Bidding farewell to Europe's longest serving monarch. Mourners paying their respects to Monaco's Prince Rainier today. The 81-year- old ruler died last week after suffering lung, heart and kidney problems. He's to be buried tomorrow alongside his wife, Grace Jelly.

Britain's highest profile newlyweds attend their first royal engagement as husband and wife today. Prince Charles and Camilla, a.k.a. the Duchess of Cornwall, greeted hundreds of well-wishers in stormy Scotland. Is it ever not stormy Scotland?

Camilla later performed her first duty as a royal, opening a playground.

Do you think future generations will be listening to 50 Cent or Kelly Clarkson, perhaps? I don't know.

PHILLIPS: I'm not sure. But just ahead on LIVE FROM, we're joined by former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.

Don't do anything embarrassing, Mickey. You're live on television now. Give everyone a smile and a wave there. Yes, he's looking good. He's putting his laptop down, his notes. Look at that grin.

He's still playing, too. He's in a concert in Minneapolis. He's going to tell you about the sounds he's trying to save for future generations. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So what do Asian elephants, the rock group Nirvana and newsman Edward R. Murrow have in common? Well, the Library of Congress wants to save them, and more precisely, to save the sounds they made. Cultural and historical sounds like Murrow's broadcast from the battle of Britain during World War II.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

EDWARD R. MURROW, FORMER ANCHOR, CBS NEWS: Reasons of national as well as personal security. I'm unable to tell you the exact location from which I'm speaking. Off to my left, far away in the distance I can see just that faint, red, angry snap of antiaircraft bursts against a steel blue sky.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: His writing was like poetry. This is just one of 50 unique audio works that the library has added to the national recording registry this year, and speaking of unique, former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart is on the board that decides what sounds are worth saving. He joins me live from Minneapolis.

Great to see you, Mickey.

MICKEY HART, FORMER GRATEFUL DEAD DRUMMER: Hi, nice to be here.

PHILLIPS: All right. You call these at-risk recordings. Tell me about the challenges about preserving these recordings and why you're doing it?

HART: Well, the sound of our people. This is our sound symbol. This is who we really are. It's a great history.

These mediums on which these recordings have been made are deteriorating at a rapid rate, whether it be wax, tin, acetate, wire, magnetic tape. Each medium on which they've been recorded has its own problems, and they're -- they're disappearing at a rapid rate.

So we at the library and at archives around the world are trying to -- it's a race against time which we'll never win, but the most significant recordings are being digitized and allowed access to.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's get to some of those significant recordings. Your favorite, of course, a man who influenced you. Let's listen to a little bit of Olatunji with "The Drums of Passion" for a second.

HART: Yes.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now this Nigerian drummer, tremendous impact on you, a tremendous impact on all types of musicians.

HART: John Coltrane, Bob -- Bob Dylan, Carlos Santana, Grateful Dead. These are the powerful transfer rhythms of West Africa that came to us by way of the slave trade to New Orleans at the turn of the century, and we turned it into popular music. So Olatunji is a major figure, a towering figure in American popular music, of course. He influenced my life tremendously.

PHILLIPS: I know, and I know how much you love him and his music. Well, let's talk about other musicians that he influenced. Let's take a listen now to James Brown live at the Apollo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: You just can't get enough of James Brown. Why do you want to preserve this, Mickey?

HART: Well, he took gospel music, rock -- R&B, the blues, and brought it together in a new world music, and expressed the sentiment of a people that wasn't being listened to or heard. And he put it to a funky beat and it made us dance. So James brown, major hero.

PHILLIPS: Also, you talked about gaining respect from the critics, how about when we talk about hip-hop, of course, we think of the "Fear of a Black Planet" and Public Enemy. Let's take a quick listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now this took hip-hop to a whole different level, and it sparked a passionate debate over political content, didn't it?

HART: It sure did. But that's what music is supposed to do. It's supposed to say things that you can't normally say but that are important. And he was speaking for a community that was -- was screaming out for recognition and their message.

Not everybody agrees with everybody else, but music and art are one of the places that you can express an opinion without going to jail or getting censored. And it's one of the greatest creations of a people. These are kind of bits of our subconscious that rise to the surface for one reason or another and we turn them into a form, an art that we can share.

PHILLIPS: Well, from screaming to yodeling, we got to listen to "Lovesick Blues" and Hank Williams.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) (MUSIC)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: You got to love it. This demanded six encores of his yodeled closing line of that song.

HART: Well, Hank, you know, he was speaking about the broken heart, you know. And love, and love lost, which is a very important emotion.

PHILLIPS: We can all relate to that, can't we?

HART: We sure can. We sure can.

PHILLIPS: We can also relate, of course, in many ways to the Bible, not just music but the spoken word you are preserving. The King James Version of the bible read by Alexander Scourby, the famous Shakespearean actor.

HART: Yes. Yes.

PHILLIPS: Let's take a listen to this for a second here.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ALEXANDER SCOURBY, SHAKESPEAREAN ACTOR: In the beginning God created heaven and earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the voice of the deep.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: His voice was incredible, and he recorded this for the blind.

HART: That's right.

PHILLIPS: And I was reading that it took -- it took four years.

HART: Four years. Sixty-six books, 4 years. So Scourby was a real voice shaman, and it just sucks you right in. You have to hear this, you know. These are great folk tales, great stories and biblical history. So they have a certain significance, as well.

PHILLIPS: All right. We've got to -- we've got to wrap it up on a funny no. These songs by Tom Lehrer, specifically, "Be Prepared." You were -- you were a Cub Scout, right, Mickey?

HART: Yes, sure.

PHILLIPS: OK. And this is what you lived by, right here.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now this was a man who inspired George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, so many of the great characters that we listen to for humor these days.

HART: Well, he was expressing the human condition, you know, and he was making fun of it, making light of it, that not everything is so serious, and he was a great influence on comedy, so he's an important addition to the registry.

PHILLIPS: Now I know you do this every year, and I'm going to ask you right now. I know we're planning ahead. You're going to come back and talk about the sounds that you're working to preserve for next year, right?

HART: Yes. Well, we're starting right on that now. But hopefully next year we'll have a lot of indigenous musics, archives from America, Spanish-American music and Native American music. And so these collections are being carefully looked at and preserved.

Remember we've been only imprinting sound since 18 -- 1877, and so it's relatively new. And like I said before, the Library of Congress, and the American Folk Life Center and all the archives around the country and around the world are doing an amazing job.

And by the way?

PHILLIPS: Yes?

HART: If there is any music in the archives of -- in your own home, in your basement or your attic. Really, these are important.

PHILLIPS: Send it to you? Send it to you?

HART: Please call up the American Folk Life Center, call your local repository and make these known, because that's where these sounds are.

PHILLIPS: OK, Mickey, I'm not aging Miles or me or Judy Woodruff, but, yes, you are a part of our history. And it's very important that we archive your music, as well.

Mickey Hart, thanks for being with us today.

HART: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right.

O'BRIEN: Let me tell you, archive that interview right away. We'll send it right to him.

PHILLIPS: We should put that in the library of Congress. That's right!

O'BRIEN: We've got this great interview we heard.

All right. Judy Woodruff is coming up with "INSIDE POLITICS."

Hello, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hi, there Miles. Thank you to you and Kyra.

It has been 34 years, but finally baseball is back in Washington. We're just a few hours away from the first pitch and just minutes away from the start of batting practice. We'll go live to RFK Stadium as the excitement continues to mount.

Our action packed edition of "INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a couple of moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Checking some stories now in the news. The federal probe of the oil-for-food program in Iraq moves beyond the U.N. An American oil businessman and his two companies among those charged in a criminal complaint. The case involves bribes and kickbacks. A live report coming up on Wolf Blitzer, 5 Eastern.

Mark Lunsford joins the search for a missing 13-year-old girl in Florida. Lunsford's daughter Jessica abducted and killed in February. Volunteers searching for Sarah Michelle Lunde, who disappeared Saturday after a church trip. Police say that's the same day a convicted sex offender who once dated her mother turned up at family's home. Police are not calling him a suspect, however.

And another girl is missing in Alabama. Authorities issued a missing child media alert for 16-year-old Jade Sophia Padgett. They believe she may be with a man she met online. Authorities say they believe the girl is in danger. She was last seen yesterday outside her school.

I'm Miles O'Brien at the CNN center in Atlanta. Now "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Bush's pitch, on a day that Washingtonians have baseball on the brain, did the president throw any curveballs in a session with newspaper editors?

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Do I go with a fast ball or a slider?

ANNOUNCER: It's a moment political figures have been waiting for, for more than 30 years.

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