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Chopper Shot Down in Iraq; Inside Anti-Terror Training; Pope Benedict XVI

Aired April 21, 2005 - 14:01   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: A chopper apparently shot down in Iraq. American civilians onboard. We're live from the Pentagon with more on the investigation into the crash.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Blowing up a car to prevent another bombing like Oklahoma City. A CNN "Security Watch" takes you inside anti-terror training.

PHILLIPS: Insights into the pope. What Benedict XVI had to say about the priest sex scandal and personal retirement in a rare television interview back when he was still cardinal.

LIN: And Ryan Seacrest just got one. Can you get one? Find out what it takes to be a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Carol Lin, in for Miles O'Brien.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

LIN: Americans, Bulgarians and Fijians, civilians all, are dead in Iraq this hour after the first apparent downing of a civilian helicopter. Eleven people were onboard a Bulgarian-owned hello for hire that was heading to Tikrit from the Iraqi capital. No one survived.

CNN's Barbara Starr has been working these details from the Pentagon for the last hour or so.

Barbara, anything new here on this?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the investigation is still pending. But officials here still say there is every reason to believe that this helicopter was brought down by hostile fire. And that, of course, would be the first shoot-down of a commercial helicopter in Iraq.

Eleven people killed, three Bulgarian crew members, two from Fiji and six U.S. personnel, six contractors, as passengers on that plane -- on that helicopter, this MI8 helicopter. All of those U.S. personnel from Blackwater USA, a security firm operating in Iraq.

Earlier today, the State Department spokesman talked a bit about what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM ERELI, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: We are deeply saddened by these deaths. The six Americans were employee of Blackwater consulting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you spell it?

ERELI: Blackwater, B-L-A-C-K-W-A-T-E-R, Consulting. They were involved in assisting the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and protecting American diplomats in Iraq. They played a critical role in our effort to bring a better way of life to the people of a country who have not experienced freedom and opportunity for -- for many years.

We mourn their loss. We offer our sympathy to the families. The next of kin are in the process of being notified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: This Blackwater helicopter was actually under contract to the Department of Defense. But as you heard the State Department spokesman there saying, the employees of Blackwater providing security to U.S. diplomatic personnel.

You see the terrible aftermath of this incident here in Iraq as the wreckage continued to smolder for some time. Now, if the investigation bears out -- and this is the first shoot-down of a commercial helicopter -- it will be a matter of great concern about the future of commercial air transport around Iraq at this point.

U.S. officials had tried to move some things, indeed, to commercial air transport, feeling that that would be a safer method of traveling than the roads in Iraq. But clearly, today so far that did not appear to work out -- Carol.

LIN: All right. Investigation continuing. Thanks very much. Barbara Starr, live at the Pentagon.

All right. The man nominated to be the nation's intelligence supremo faces one final hurdle. John Negroponte, the former ambassador to Iraq, was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee last week as the country's first director of national intelligence. And now his nomination is being debated by the full Senate.

The debate began about two hours ago. He is expected to be confirmed.

PHILLIPS: In some parts of the world, car bombings are tragic facts of life. But it's been a decade since we saw a major one on U.S. soil. Kelli Arena of CNN's American Bureau went behind the scenes with folks who want to make sure it doesn't happen again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what's left of a Honda Civic loaded with 25 pounds of ammonium nitrate and blown to pieces. It's the same material used by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City, but this time, the bombing is part of an FBI training exercise.

KEVIN FINNERTY, FBI AGENT: This is where the vehicle was parked, so you can see that that's the back half of the vehicle.

ARENA: Most of these agents are senior employees who lead response teams. But they've learned the hard way that explosions can come in twos, the second going off just as first responders show up.

PAUL GARTNER, FBI AGENT: We're looking for secondary devices that may be in the area, as well as any unexploded explosives.

ARENA: The team carefully goes through the paces.

JIM RICE, FBI SUPERVISOR: The rule of thumb is you find your initial piece of evidence that's the furthest away from the scene, usually a large piece of metal that's been thrown. If that's 100 yards, then you double your crime scene to 200 yards.

ARENA: Agents swab for chemicals and flag evidence. This team knows the clues are there, they're just harder to find after an explosion.

In this instance they get lucky. A calling card has flown out of the car intact.

THOMAS O'CONNOR, FBI AGENT: That's a huge piece of evidence to find something like a credit card, a phone card, anything with numbers on it that you could link back.

ARENA: If a bomb were to go off in the D.C. area, FBI supervisor Jim Rice would head up the response.

RICE: Statistically, the car bomb is the number one weapon of choice of the people that we're facing right now. We have seen it in the embassies. We have seen it overseas. We see it in the Middle East repeated over and over and over again.

ARENA: Especially in Iraq. Both the FBI and the ATF have agents stationed there.

MIKE BOUCHARD, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, ATF: We're using our presence there to gain the knowledge of what these terrorists are doing overseas. In the event they come to the United States, we're prepared for them. In other words, we're fighting tomorrow's war today.

ARENA: The ATF has conducted tests with vehicle bombs using up to 20,000 pounds of explosives, which would impact a 5,000 foot radius.

BOUCHARD: It helps us better design buildings, both federal buildings, as well as private buildings. We've better-educated security guards to recognize what a suspicious vehicle looks like outside of the buildings. ARENA: The ATF has also reached out to the agricultural community, because, as we learned in Oklahoma, the fertilizer ammonium nitrate can be deadly in the wrong hands.

ANDY ACKLEY, ROYSTER CLARK FARM SUPPLY: They come out on a regular basis and actually look through the location, ask very pointed questions about what we've done to secure our supply of ammonium nitrate, ask if we've come in contact with anyone that was suspicious, and again, reiterate what to do if that case were to happen.

ARENA: Both the farming community and law enforcement have certainly learned a lot in the last 10 years. Still, the FBI's Jim Rice says that he's surprised there hasn't been a truck bomb attack in the United States since then.

RICE: And I think if you talk to just about anybody in this business that they will give you a similar answer that they're surprised that it has not happened again.

ARENA: Surprised, but also determined to keep their winning streak alive.

For CNN's America Bureau, Kelli Arena, in Quantico, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: 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.

LIN: In providence, Rhode Island, thousands of police and firefighters bid farewell to a fallen comrade. Detective Sergeant James Allen was killed with his own gun, allegedly by a suspect he was questioning at police headquarters.

Officers traveled from as far as Texas and California for the funeral. They stood at attention, up to 10 rows deep, at the funeral mass for the 27-year-old veteran of the police force. The suspect has been charged with murder.

LIN: Parents who just dropped their children off for a play date watched helplessly while their home burned to the ground. When it was over, six people were dead. Melissa Dunbar of CNN affiliate KTHV report from Humphrey, Arkansas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA DUNBAR, REPORTER, KTHV: State police investigators have just arrived back here on the scene. They will now being picking through what is left of this mobile home.

As you can see behind me, it can only be described as a skeleton. The fire killed five young boys all under the age of five, and a 23- year-old woman who was babysitting them. She was also the mother of two of the boys. The sheriff here in Arkansas County says five of the bodies were found in this front bedroom, the room closest to us here. The sixth body, that of an infant, was found further into the mobile home in what is being described as a living room.

No one knows yet why or how this fire started. Investigators say they plan on determining that this afternoon.

Schools here in Humphrey are canceled today to allow families to deal with this loss.

Reporting for CNN, in Humphrey, Arkansas, I'm Melissa Dunbar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, a couple of years before he became the pope, he gave a television interview in English. Ahead, what Pope Benedict XVI had to say about the church sex scandal and defending the faith back when he was a cardinal.

And strangers meeting for the first time, but they will end up saving each other's lives. We're going to take you inside the operation that brought them together.

And later on LIVE FROM, Governor Schwarzenegger says he need to brush up on his English. We'll tell you what he's talking about.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: No surprises as the new pope makes some key appointments at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI, seen here leaving the papal apartment earlier today, has reconfirmed cardinals in several key posts. His number two, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, says -- stays, rather, as Vatican secretary of state, a position he also held under the late Pope John Paul II. Analyst say that the reappointments are not unusual when a new pope takes over.

LIN: Now here is a little known fact about the man would become pope. Back in 2003, Cardinal Ratzinger, as he was known then, told Catholic Television journalist Raymond Arroyo that he'd actually considered retiring on several occasions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAYMOND ARROYO, CATHOLIC TELEVISION: You've been here for 21 years in this post. And I read in many reports you wanted to retire several times. Why are you still here?

CARDINAL RATZINGER: Yes, I had decided to retire in '91, '96, 2001, because I have said, yes, I could write some books and return to my studies, as Cardinal Martini did.

ARROYO: Right.

RATZINGER: So it was my idea to do the same thing. But from the other hand, seeing the suffering pope, I cannot say to the pope, "I will retire, I will write my books." Seeing him...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Well, that has led some people to believe that maybe, just maybe, Cardinal Ratzinger didn't actually pursue or want the top job in the Catholic Church. So let's bring in the man who actually conducted that interview, Raymond Arroyo. He is news director at the Eternal Word Television Network, or ETWN.

Raymond, very interesting, because this is a rare interview that was conducted actually in English by the then cardinal.

ARROYO: Yes.

LIN: Do you think that he -- why do you think he said that? Why do you think he alluded to retirement then?

ARROYO: Well, I think he tried time and time again to get out of Rome. He is -- this man is more at home in academia than he is, you know, running a parish.

He is a scholar. He's almost a monk. And I think you see bits also of that impish humor that we'll probably see more of in the days ahead.

But he didn't want this job. I'm told by cardinals who elected him earlier this week that he told them privately he didn't want the job. And, indeed, that last homily he gave before the conclave might have been an attempt to scuttle his candidacy, but seem to have backfired on old Benedict here.

LIN: So...

ARROYO: So it's so going to be a fascinating papacy to watch.

LIN: So here he is. And of course we are now analyzing, parsing the words of his past, given to you in this almost exclusive interview at the time.

Let me ask you this. The sex abuse scandal, it was not the focus of your interview, but you asked a really critical question, what he thought was the root cause of the sex abuse scandal. This is what he said to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RATZINGER: Never will we have (INAUDIBLE), but always the temptations of human beings are present also for the priests. So always we have to accept that even in the community of priests and bishops we have to (INAUDIBLE) that these things can happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: All right. Essentially, if one were a victim in the sex abuse scandal, one would look at that remark and maybe interpret it as, hey, you know what? We're all human, including priests. That may not be satisfying to the hundreds of people who endured the pain and the humiliation of waiting for these charges to come to light.

ARROYO: Carol, subsequently, he says that this was a breakdown of faith, a slippage of faith and morals among these priests and, I dare say, some bishops, who allowed this abuse to continue and were parties to it. I think more than anyone in the church, honestly, this man, now Pope Benedict, has the most experience in this area.

He's read 700 case files. He's been intimately involved with the dismissal of priests during this scandal. And he is one of the few people in the world who talked to that lay review board we had in the United States, Justice Ann Burke and some others, who were charged with sort of policing the U.S. bishops.

And when they didn't want the hearing they wanted at home, they came here to the Vatican. And the man who listened to them and was willing to listen to them for most of a day, was Cardinal Ratzinger. So I think of all the clerics in the world, this one is uniquely disposed to handle this problem, and he'll deal with it I think on a spiritual level and a practical level. I think we'll see that in the days ahead.

LIN: A hands-on level. Was he ever involved in any...

ARROYO: Absolutely.

LIN: Was he ever hands-on involved in any decision-making, in any controversial cases that did not go to any form of litigation? Did he ever try to reach out to any of these victims personally?

ARROYO: Well, he wouldn't be able to reach out to them here in Rome. I mean, his job as doctrinal officer was basically to review these cases. And John Paul took that -- this responsibility from other dicasteries here in Rome and gave it to Ratzinger because he trusted his theological insight and his pastoral sense.

He's a very merciful man, but he's also very clear-eyed when it comes to these cases. And I think you're going to see a pope who is fully engaged, whereas John Paul, particularly during his illness at the end, wasn't -- wasn't fully able at that time, or wasn't getting the information up to the papal apartment to deal hands-on in these cases.

I think you're going to see a great movement forward in clearing -- you know, putting this scandal behind the church definitively.

LIN: And interesting in terms of -- you know, when you asked him about the future of the Catholic Church, you know, the problems of declining membership in some parts of the world, you even said that there was a schism in the church. He said something very interesting about not expecting that -- you know, to convert the entire world to Catholicism in the next 10 years, that that wasn't realistic. He referred to, you know, the faith starting with only 12 apostles, let's think small.

ARROYO: Right. LIN: And I want to play this particular sound because I found it very touching about the different people that he has met in St. Peter's Square. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RATZINGER: When I go in St. Peter's Square and so on, I can see everyday people from the different parts of the world knowing me and saying, "Thank you, father." We are thank you that you are doing this difficult job because this is helping us.

Even many Protestant friends say to me, "What you are doing is helpful to us because it's defending also our faith and presence of the faith in Christ. We need an instance (ph) as yours, even if we not appreciating all what you are saying."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Now, given that the previous pope made his position of being against the war in Iraq so clear, and his relationship with the Muslim world, what indication does this give you of whether this pope is going to be reaching out to those, the followers of Islam and during the whole war on terror and the modern world?

ARROYO: I think he will be reaching out to the modern world in a most unique fashion. You know, he is truly one of the greatest theological minds in the church today. And he has absorbed the collapse, if you will, of western culture. He's seen the collapse of the church in his -- in his native Germany.

I think you'll see him take practical steps, very clearly plotted out, to win these people back, if you will, and to convince them that the church has a message they need to hear. You know, this pope, also, he was on the cutting edge of the ecumenical movement in Germany. He was very involved with the Lutheran community, reaching out to them.

I think you'll see that -- that outreach continue. But it will be very different from John Paul.

John Paul was a mystic who had this vision of, you know, the whole world sort of coming together. This man's view, Ratzinger's view, is far different. He sees numbers contracting in Catholicism. But from that fervent base, things will grow.

LIN: That's what he said, that it is springtime for the Catholic Church. Raymond Arroyo, just a pleasure to watch that interview. Thank you very much -- Kyra.

ARROYO: The pleasure is mine. Thank you, Carol.

PHILLIPS: So do you have to be a star to get a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame? We're going to show you what it takes to get star struck.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange. Up next, the Marlboro man heads to China, and others want to follow. I'll tell you why U.S. companies are looking eastward coming up on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, the Marlboro man could be heading to China, and other U.S. icons want to join him.

LIN: That is a tease. To tell us about the party in the east, Susan Lisovicz join us now live from the New York Stock Exchange.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Here's what's happening right "Now in the News."

Bulgarian and U.S. military sources say it appears the...


Aired April 21, 2005 - 14:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A chopper apparently shot down in Iraq. American civilians onboard. We're live from the Pentagon with more on the investigation into the crash.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Blowing up a car to prevent another bombing like Oklahoma City. A CNN "Security Watch" takes you inside anti-terror training.

PHILLIPS: Insights into the pope. What Benedict XVI had to say about the priest sex scandal and personal retirement in a rare television interview back when he was still cardinal.

LIN: And Ryan Seacrest just got one. Can you get one? Find out what it takes to be a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Carol Lin, in for Miles O'Brien.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

LIN: Americans, Bulgarians and Fijians, civilians all, are dead in Iraq this hour after the first apparent downing of a civilian helicopter. Eleven people were onboard a Bulgarian-owned hello for hire that was heading to Tikrit from the Iraqi capital. No one survived.

CNN's Barbara Starr has been working these details from the Pentagon for the last hour or so.

Barbara, anything new here on this?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the investigation is still pending. But officials here still say there is every reason to believe that this helicopter was brought down by hostile fire. And that, of course, would be the first shoot-down of a commercial helicopter in Iraq.

Eleven people killed, three Bulgarian crew members, two from Fiji and six U.S. personnel, six contractors, as passengers on that plane -- on that helicopter, this MI8 helicopter. All of those U.S. personnel from Blackwater USA, a security firm operating in Iraq.

Earlier today, the State Department spokesman talked a bit about what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM ERELI, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: We are deeply saddened by these deaths. The six Americans were employee of Blackwater consulting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you spell it?

ERELI: Blackwater, B-L-A-C-K-W-A-T-E-R, Consulting. They were involved in assisting the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and protecting American diplomats in Iraq. They played a critical role in our effort to bring a better way of life to the people of a country who have not experienced freedom and opportunity for -- for many years.

We mourn their loss. We offer our sympathy to the families. The next of kin are in the process of being notified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: This Blackwater helicopter was actually under contract to the Department of Defense. But as you heard the State Department spokesman there saying, the employees of Blackwater providing security to U.S. diplomatic personnel.

You see the terrible aftermath of this incident here in Iraq as the wreckage continued to smolder for some time. Now, if the investigation bears out -- and this is the first shoot-down of a commercial helicopter -- it will be a matter of great concern about the future of commercial air transport around Iraq at this point.

U.S. officials had tried to move some things, indeed, to commercial air transport, feeling that that would be a safer method of traveling than the roads in Iraq. But clearly, today so far that did not appear to work out -- Carol.

LIN: All right. Investigation continuing. Thanks very much. Barbara Starr, live at the Pentagon.

All right. The man nominated to be the nation's intelligence supremo faces one final hurdle. John Negroponte, the former ambassador to Iraq, was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee last week as the country's first director of national intelligence. And now his nomination is being debated by the full Senate.

The debate began about two hours ago. He is expected to be confirmed.

PHILLIPS: In some parts of the world, car bombings are tragic facts of life. But it's been a decade since we saw a major one on U.S. soil. Kelli Arena of CNN's American Bureau went behind the scenes with folks who want to make sure it doesn't happen again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what's left of a Honda Civic loaded with 25 pounds of ammonium nitrate and blown to pieces. It's the same material used by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City, but this time, the bombing is part of an FBI training exercise.

KEVIN FINNERTY, FBI AGENT: This is where the vehicle was parked, so you can see that that's the back half of the vehicle.

ARENA: Most of these agents are senior employees who lead response teams. But they've learned the hard way that explosions can come in twos, the second going off just as first responders show up.

PAUL GARTNER, FBI AGENT: We're looking for secondary devices that may be in the area, as well as any unexploded explosives.

ARENA: The team carefully goes through the paces.

JIM RICE, FBI SUPERVISOR: The rule of thumb is you find your initial piece of evidence that's the furthest away from the scene, usually a large piece of metal that's been thrown. If that's 100 yards, then you double your crime scene to 200 yards.

ARENA: Agents swab for chemicals and flag evidence. This team knows the clues are there, they're just harder to find after an explosion.

In this instance they get lucky. A calling card has flown out of the car intact.

THOMAS O'CONNOR, FBI AGENT: That's a huge piece of evidence to find something like a credit card, a phone card, anything with numbers on it that you could link back.

ARENA: If a bomb were to go off in the D.C. area, FBI supervisor Jim Rice would head up the response.

RICE: Statistically, the car bomb is the number one weapon of choice of the people that we're facing right now. We have seen it in the embassies. We have seen it overseas. We see it in the Middle East repeated over and over and over again.

ARENA: Especially in Iraq. Both the FBI and the ATF have agents stationed there.

MIKE BOUCHARD, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, ATF: We're using our presence there to gain the knowledge of what these terrorists are doing overseas. In the event they come to the United States, we're prepared for them. In other words, we're fighting tomorrow's war today.

ARENA: The ATF has conducted tests with vehicle bombs using up to 20,000 pounds of explosives, which would impact a 5,000 foot radius.

BOUCHARD: It helps us better design buildings, both federal buildings, as well as private buildings. We've better-educated security guards to recognize what a suspicious vehicle looks like outside of the buildings. ARENA: The ATF has also reached out to the agricultural community, because, as we learned in Oklahoma, the fertilizer ammonium nitrate can be deadly in the wrong hands.

ANDY ACKLEY, ROYSTER CLARK FARM SUPPLY: They come out on a regular basis and actually look through the location, ask very pointed questions about what we've done to secure our supply of ammonium nitrate, ask if we've come in contact with anyone that was suspicious, and again, reiterate what to do if that case were to happen.

ARENA: Both the farming community and law enforcement have certainly learned a lot in the last 10 years. Still, the FBI's Jim Rice says that he's surprised there hasn't been a truck bomb attack in the United States since then.

RICE: And I think if you talk to just about anybody in this business that they will give you a similar answer that they're surprised that it has not happened again.

ARENA: Surprised, but also determined to keep their winning streak alive.

For CNN's America Bureau, Kelli Arena, in Quantico, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: 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.

LIN: In providence, Rhode Island, thousands of police and firefighters bid farewell to a fallen comrade. Detective Sergeant James Allen was killed with his own gun, allegedly by a suspect he was questioning at police headquarters.

Officers traveled from as far as Texas and California for the funeral. They stood at attention, up to 10 rows deep, at the funeral mass for the 27-year-old veteran of the police force. The suspect has been charged with murder.

LIN: Parents who just dropped their children off for a play date watched helplessly while their home burned to the ground. When it was over, six people were dead. Melissa Dunbar of CNN affiliate KTHV report from Humphrey, Arkansas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA DUNBAR, REPORTER, KTHV: State police investigators have just arrived back here on the scene. They will now being picking through what is left of this mobile home.

As you can see behind me, it can only be described as a skeleton. The fire killed five young boys all under the age of five, and a 23- year-old woman who was babysitting them. She was also the mother of two of the boys. The sheriff here in Arkansas County says five of the bodies were found in this front bedroom, the room closest to us here. The sixth body, that of an infant, was found further into the mobile home in what is being described as a living room.

No one knows yet why or how this fire started. Investigators say they plan on determining that this afternoon.

Schools here in Humphrey are canceled today to allow families to deal with this loss.

Reporting for CNN, in Humphrey, Arkansas, I'm Melissa Dunbar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, a couple of years before he became the pope, he gave a television interview in English. Ahead, what Pope Benedict XVI had to say about the church sex scandal and defending the faith back when he was a cardinal.

And strangers meeting for the first time, but they will end up saving each other's lives. We're going to take you inside the operation that brought them together.

And later on LIVE FROM, Governor Schwarzenegger says he need to brush up on his English. We'll tell you what he's talking about.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: No surprises as the new pope makes some key appointments at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI, seen here leaving the papal apartment earlier today, has reconfirmed cardinals in several key posts. His number two, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, says -- stays, rather, as Vatican secretary of state, a position he also held under the late Pope John Paul II. Analyst say that the reappointments are not unusual when a new pope takes over.

LIN: Now here is a little known fact about the man would become pope. Back in 2003, Cardinal Ratzinger, as he was known then, told Catholic Television journalist Raymond Arroyo that he'd actually considered retiring on several occasions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAYMOND ARROYO, CATHOLIC TELEVISION: You've been here for 21 years in this post. And I read in many reports you wanted to retire several times. Why are you still here?

CARDINAL RATZINGER: Yes, I had decided to retire in '91, '96, 2001, because I have said, yes, I could write some books and return to my studies, as Cardinal Martini did.

ARROYO: Right.

RATZINGER: So it was my idea to do the same thing. But from the other hand, seeing the suffering pope, I cannot say to the pope, "I will retire, I will write my books." Seeing him...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Well, that has led some people to believe that maybe, just maybe, Cardinal Ratzinger didn't actually pursue or want the top job in the Catholic Church. So let's bring in the man who actually conducted that interview, Raymond Arroyo. He is news director at the Eternal Word Television Network, or ETWN.

Raymond, very interesting, because this is a rare interview that was conducted actually in English by the then cardinal.

ARROYO: Yes.

LIN: Do you think that he -- why do you think he said that? Why do you think he alluded to retirement then?

ARROYO: Well, I think he tried time and time again to get out of Rome. He is -- this man is more at home in academia than he is, you know, running a parish.

He is a scholar. He's almost a monk. And I think you see bits also of that impish humor that we'll probably see more of in the days ahead.

But he didn't want this job. I'm told by cardinals who elected him earlier this week that he told them privately he didn't want the job. And, indeed, that last homily he gave before the conclave might have been an attempt to scuttle his candidacy, but seem to have backfired on old Benedict here.

LIN: So...

ARROYO: So it's so going to be a fascinating papacy to watch.

LIN: So here he is. And of course we are now analyzing, parsing the words of his past, given to you in this almost exclusive interview at the time.

Let me ask you this. The sex abuse scandal, it was not the focus of your interview, but you asked a really critical question, what he thought was the root cause of the sex abuse scandal. This is what he said to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RATZINGER: Never will we have (INAUDIBLE), but always the temptations of human beings are present also for the priests. So always we have to accept that even in the community of priests and bishops we have to (INAUDIBLE) that these things can happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: All right. Essentially, if one were a victim in the sex abuse scandal, one would look at that remark and maybe interpret it as, hey, you know what? We're all human, including priests. That may not be satisfying to the hundreds of people who endured the pain and the humiliation of waiting for these charges to come to light.

ARROYO: Carol, subsequently, he says that this was a breakdown of faith, a slippage of faith and morals among these priests and, I dare say, some bishops, who allowed this abuse to continue and were parties to it. I think more than anyone in the church, honestly, this man, now Pope Benedict, has the most experience in this area.

He's read 700 case files. He's been intimately involved with the dismissal of priests during this scandal. And he is one of the few people in the world who talked to that lay review board we had in the United States, Justice Ann Burke and some others, who were charged with sort of policing the U.S. bishops.

And when they didn't want the hearing they wanted at home, they came here to the Vatican. And the man who listened to them and was willing to listen to them for most of a day, was Cardinal Ratzinger. So I think of all the clerics in the world, this one is uniquely disposed to handle this problem, and he'll deal with it I think on a spiritual level and a practical level. I think we'll see that in the days ahead.

LIN: A hands-on level. Was he ever involved in any...

ARROYO: Absolutely.

LIN: Was he ever hands-on involved in any decision-making, in any controversial cases that did not go to any form of litigation? Did he ever try to reach out to any of these victims personally?

ARROYO: Well, he wouldn't be able to reach out to them here in Rome. I mean, his job as doctrinal officer was basically to review these cases. And John Paul took that -- this responsibility from other dicasteries here in Rome and gave it to Ratzinger because he trusted his theological insight and his pastoral sense.

He's a very merciful man, but he's also very clear-eyed when it comes to these cases. And I think you're going to see a pope who is fully engaged, whereas John Paul, particularly during his illness at the end, wasn't -- wasn't fully able at that time, or wasn't getting the information up to the papal apartment to deal hands-on in these cases.

I think you're going to see a great movement forward in clearing -- you know, putting this scandal behind the church definitively.

LIN: And interesting in terms of -- you know, when you asked him about the future of the Catholic Church, you know, the problems of declining membership in some parts of the world, you even said that there was a schism in the church. He said something very interesting about not expecting that -- you know, to convert the entire world to Catholicism in the next 10 years, that that wasn't realistic. He referred to, you know, the faith starting with only 12 apostles, let's think small.

ARROYO: Right. LIN: And I want to play this particular sound because I found it very touching about the different people that he has met in St. Peter's Square. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RATZINGER: When I go in St. Peter's Square and so on, I can see everyday people from the different parts of the world knowing me and saying, "Thank you, father." We are thank you that you are doing this difficult job because this is helping us.

Even many Protestant friends say to me, "What you are doing is helpful to us because it's defending also our faith and presence of the faith in Christ. We need an instance (ph) as yours, even if we not appreciating all what you are saying."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Now, given that the previous pope made his position of being against the war in Iraq so clear, and his relationship with the Muslim world, what indication does this give you of whether this pope is going to be reaching out to those, the followers of Islam and during the whole war on terror and the modern world?

ARROYO: I think he will be reaching out to the modern world in a most unique fashion. You know, he is truly one of the greatest theological minds in the church today. And he has absorbed the collapse, if you will, of western culture. He's seen the collapse of the church in his -- in his native Germany.

I think you'll see him take practical steps, very clearly plotted out, to win these people back, if you will, and to convince them that the church has a message they need to hear. You know, this pope, also, he was on the cutting edge of the ecumenical movement in Germany. He was very involved with the Lutheran community, reaching out to them.

I think you'll see that -- that outreach continue. But it will be very different from John Paul.

John Paul was a mystic who had this vision of, you know, the whole world sort of coming together. This man's view, Ratzinger's view, is far different. He sees numbers contracting in Catholicism. But from that fervent base, things will grow.

LIN: That's what he said, that it is springtime for the Catholic Church. Raymond Arroyo, just a pleasure to watch that interview. Thank you very much -- Kyra.

ARROYO: The pleasure is mine. Thank you, Carol.

PHILLIPS: So do you have to be a star to get a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame? We're going to show you what it takes to get star struck.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange. Up next, the Marlboro man heads to China, and others want to follow. I'll tell you why U.S. companies are looking eastward coming up on LIVE FROM.

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PHILLIPS: Well, the Marlboro man could be heading to China, and other U.S. icons want to join him.

LIN: That is a tease. To tell us about the party in the east, Susan Lisovicz join us now live from the New York Stock Exchange.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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LIN: Here's what's happening right "Now in the News."

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