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Women in Combat?; Book Buzz

Aired May 19, 2005 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking some stories now in the news, the former leader of Chile, General Augusto Pinochet has been taken to a military hospital in Santiago. A source close to the 90- year-old says he suffered a stroke. Pinochet, who is in the advance stages of diabetes, has reportedly suffered strokes before.
CNN has confirmed immigration charges have been filed against Posada Carriles. He now stands charged with entering the U.S. illegally. He is scheduled to appear in court on June 13th. Posada is an ex-CIA operative, wanted by Venezuelan in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner. His lawyer is seeking asylum for Posada in the United States.

Is Congress ready to rumble against steroid use in pro sports? Virginia Republican Tom Davis says he'll introduce a bill next week to create uniform testing for the NBA, the NFL, the NHL and Major League Baseball. Sources say the bill would call for a two-year ban for a first offense, a lifetime ban for a second offense.

And a king-sized witness will not be called to testify in the Michael Jackson trial after all. Our own Larry King in Santa Maria, California this morning. The jury not present as King recounted a conversation with the lawyer for the family of Jackson's accuser. Afterward, Judge Rodney Melville ruled that King's testimony would not be needed.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The fight for Iraq now, where the almost daily insurgent attacks claim the lives of more than a dozen people today. One of them, an American soldier. Western Baghdad, an official from the Iraqi oil ministry was shot dead. Police say it happened at about 8:00 a.m. outside the official's home.

Also in Baghdad, an aide to the country's top Shiite cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, similarly gunned down today.

And a roadside bomb went off near an American military convoy in a southeastern suburb of the capital. One U.S. soldier killed. The commander of multinational corps in Iraq says the appearance of a large-scale insurgency is deceiving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. JOHN VINES, CMDR., MULTINATIONAL CORPS: What it appears is we're dealing with a fairly small and narrow group of terrorists who are using people who are foreign -- recruited from other countries, brought in to murder other Iraqi citizens, coalition forces and government officials. And so the numbers of these insurgents appear to be relatively small, but they are lethal, there's no question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The number of Shiite leaders targeted lately is raising fears that sectarian tension is worsening and spreading.

Well, could it be a done deal for military women in combat positions? A bill that would bar women in uniform from thousands of front-line jobs breezed through the House today. The Senate votes on a similar measure next week. But don't think the easy vote means this is an easy battle for either side of a very contentious issue.

Here's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is no question U.S. women are in combat. You could ask Army Sergeant Jennifer Greaston (ph) if she wasn't so busy test-firing her machine gun on a helicopter patrol over Afghanistan.

But, at issue is whether the Pentagon, pressed to fill the ranks, is skirting its own policy, barring women from serving in direct ground combat, especially in Iraq where there are no front lines. Take this firefight captured in an insurgent video. One of the heroes of the U.S. M.P. unit that killed 26 enemy fighters was a woman, Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester.

SGT. LEIGH ANN HESTER, U.S. ARMY: And immediately we went to the right side of the convoy and began taking fire and we laid down suppressive fire and pushed up and flanked -- flanked the insurgents and overcame, that day.

MCINTYRE: In fact, there are now some 9,400 female soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and so far 35 have been killed in action.

Some Republicans in the House, led by Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, think too many women have been put in harm's way.

Private Jessica Lynch's unit, for example, was never supposed to be on the front lines when it was ambushed after taking a wrong term. An amendment passed last week in a House subcommittee would bar women from such forward support units, a move the army says could close some 22,000 jobs to women.

The army has been lobbying heavily the full committee to soften the language, and on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld isn't conceding there will be any change.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I'm not just sitting around waiting. I'm having meetings with them and discussing it.

MCINTYRE (on camera): New compromise language worked out after the Army pressed its case with House Republicans aims to keep women out of the most dangerous jobs, while giving the Army enough flexibility to keep most women in the units they're in now.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: A little bit of breaking news for you. This just in to us from Israel, from Jerusalem. Israeli authorities have declared an emergency for an aircraft inbound to Tel Aviv's international airport, Ben Gurion International Airport, 294 passengers aboard. We don't know what sort of emergency it is, but that has occurred. The plane is inbound and we're working on trying to get you more detail. As we said, the plane inbound to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, just shy of 300 people aboard. An emergency has been declared. What that emergency is all about, we're trying to get some more information for you on it. We'll keep you posted.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin is out with a new book. Coming up, I'll talk with Buzz Aldrin about space exploration, the shuttle and his new book aimed at getting kids interested in space.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, keeping you up to date on this emergency situation, Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv. We're told it is a Turkish airliner carrying 294 passengers. The airline SLM. As it is approaching Tel Aviv's international airport, it apparently has some indication of a problem with the landing gear.

So we're tracking that situation for you. Once again, a Turkish airliner on approach to Ben Gurion International Airport. Apparently some kind of indication in the cockpit that there's a problem with landing gear. We are watching it for you. We'll keep you posted -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Well, at the Vatican yesterday, the grieving parents of Terri Schiavo exchanged words with Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter's. Mary and Bob Schindler spoke with CNN's Bill Hemmer this morning about their moment with the pope and how their daughter's legacy lives on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S MOTHER: The meeting with the pope was when I saw him coming up from the side, and I couldn't believe he was going to come all the way up, I had the picture there. And I told him, it was a picture of Terri, and like I said before, he said, "I know. I know it's Terri."

But then he touched his heart and he kept patting his heart, like "It broke my heart." And then I gave him the picture, and he took it, and it was -- it was so beautiful.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also at the Vatican, Mr. Schindler, you met with a cardinal. Renaato Martino is his name. Why this particular cardinal, and what did you talk about?

BOB SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S FATHER: Well, essentially, we were explaining to the cardinal what our ambitions are as we further Terri's Foundation. It started originally for Terri, but we will continue our efforts and literally be crusading against any type of euthanasia, wherever we can help. And essentially, the bottom line is what happened to Terri should never, ever, ever happen to another human being, not only in the United States, but throughout the world.

HEMMER: Terri died -- I apologize for the interruption. I thought you were finished with your thought there. Terri died about seven weeks ago, but the autopsy report still has not been completed or released. Is this taking longer than you thought, Mr. Schindler?

B. SCHINDLER: Well, not really. We haven't given that much thought. So it -- whatever their procedure is, it's the first time we've ever experienced anything like that, so we had no way of putting a time frame on it.

HEMMER: I am told -- well, we know that Michael Schiavo wanted this autopsy done. But I'm told, Mrs. Schindler, that you would like to see it completed as well. What do you hope this autopsy will reveal?

B. SCHINDLER: Well, first of all, the autopsy was mandatory. It wasn't whether we wanted it or Schiavo wanted it. It was something that is a standard procedure. And Terri -- in a situation like Terri's.

And we'll have to just wait and see the results of it. And we haven't really given that much thought, to be frank with you.

HEMMER: Have you, Mrs. Schindler?

M. SCHINDLER: No. No. I'm just waiting, you know, to see what happens. I've never gone through anything like this before, so, you know, I really don't know what to expect.

HEMMER: If you look back as a couple right now, fighting for your daughter, and all the legal battles that we all watched play out publicly on every TV set in this country, is there something would you do differently based on the strategy that you carried out in Florida?

M. SCHINDLER: I think that we had -- our legal representation was, you know, beyond reproach. We were fortunate to be blessed with good attorneys, but it was the mindset of the courts. And we view it as judicial homicide.

So what could you do different? I really don't know. They had a -- they were firmly set to do what they were going to do, and nothing would stop them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: All right. Moving on now. "Reaching for the Moon." It's not just a cool motto to live by. It's the title of a new book aimed at a young audience, or at least the young of heart, or anyone who's ever looked into space, seen the moon and wondered if it could be reached. The book is on shelves now. It follows a young guy fascinated with the seemingly unreachable who made his dreams come true.

Sounds a lot like the life story of the man who wrote "Reaching for the Moon," Apollo 11 astronaut, moonwalker Buzz Aldrin. Joining us from Washington. Buzz, good to see you, as always.

BUZZ ALDRIN, NASA ASTRONAUT: Always good to see you and talk to you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, we're approaching now the 36th anniversary. It's hard to believe, 36 years ago, that you were on moon with Neal Armstrong. Why now? Why did you decide at this point to come up with a children's book?

ALDRIN: Well, I guess I was between other books...

O'BRIEN: Between other books.

ALDRIN: I wrote a neat science fiction story and second story, and neither of them got into movies yet. I'm working right now on another book, so this is sort of a filler for young people. And certainly, I think, young people, and their enthusiasm for any -- anything approaching space flight, is going be very, very helpful to the president's new vision for space exploration.

O'BRIEN: All right. You teamed up with Wendell Minor, who really did a great job, I thought, with the illustrations. The paintings are just vivid and wonderful. Take a lock at this shot. It traces your whole career. Of course, you -- you shot down two migs over Korea, 66 combat sorties, correct?

ALDRIN: Yes. I'll tell you what turned me on, was this picture of -- let's see...

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, we got you.

ALDRIN: Of my house. I'll cover myself up.

O'BRIEN: Well, I'm sorry, that didn't catch our fancy quite as much as your...

ALDRIN: No, but it brings back great memories to me, and I think anyplace where somebody grows up their first 17 year of their life, is going to bring back fond memories. And I think that they'll -- it'll help identify other people, young children, with their young years. And as they get to be my age, a lot of memories are more clear of the first 15, 20 years of their life than maybe the last 15 years.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. Now, a couple other points in your career, which many folks who aren't as plugged into the space program may not be as familiar with. For example, you really made it possible for space walks to exist as they do today. You came up with many of the techniques that are still employed today. Up until your space walk, the space walks that were attempted were pretty much failures.

And in addition to that, you were very much involved in the rendezvous techniques. Those parts of your career are not as mentioned as much as the ultimate goal, seen in this next picture here, actually setting foot on the moon. Of course, I guess everything pales by comparison once you've walked on the moon.

ALDRIN: Well, maybe not for me, because I pride myself in being creative. And I think young people need to look for a creative streak, something that they can develop that may open the door for them to reach for their moon. In my particular case, I was a fighter pilot and I decided to further my education. I was inspired to look at rendezvous in space and that essentially got me into the space program. And now it's helping me help others begin to think about how to get to Mars with cycling orbits that I discovered.

I just happened to be a scuba diver when the time came along to think about how could we train people to do space walks. And I welcomed the idea because I just knew that it would be a great medium of neutral buoyancy to train. The foot restraints were very good, too.

O'BRIEN: All right, you know, Buzz, all right, back up, because that picture with the thumb and the earth there. That was one that stuck out with us. Do you -- if you could back it up. And it shows the earth in the background -- can you get back there? you go. That's a great -- do you remember that moment are when you sort of did that, and you could cover everything you knew up to that moment with your thumb?

ALDRIN: There may be a little artist's and author's license here. There -- I'm not sure who was at -- who you would attribute the phrase -- gee, we were launched by the booster, built by the cheapest bidder. You know, that's kind of a trite phrase and it's also maybe a trite phrase that I could reach out and cover the earth from the moon with my thumb. I'm not sure that I was the one that originated that. Probably someone else did. But it was a great opportunity to put forth that sort of thing in an art form.

O'BRIEN: All right. Final thoughts here. I want to just shift gears for a moment. NASA now getting ready to fly the shuttle again, maybe in July if all goes well. And also talking about, you know, the final chapter for the space shuttle, retiring it in 2010, and then pressing on, back to the moon, and on to Mars. Do you think NASA is doing everything the way it should right now?

ALDRIN: Well, I think the new administrator is attempting to put his stamp of approvals and improvements, perhaps, to avoid another period like after Apollo and (INAUDIBLE) Sky Lab and the Soyuz mission with the Russians, we went almost six years without flying. And the schedule, up until now, looks like we would phase out the Orbiter in 2010 and not fly in crew exploration vehicle until 2014.

Well, Mike Griffin (ph) wants to accelerate that and I sure want to do everything I can to help him do that, so I'm sort of entering the competition, I hope, with a version of how we can do that with a multipurpose spacecraft. In addition, the Air Force has finally realized that maybe we had a pretty good idea, eight, 10 years ago, about a reusable booster for vertical launch. So my team is putting in a good bid for that, too, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, well, Buzz if you had the chance, would you go to Mars if you could, or even back to the moon?

ALDRIN: You want me to really be honest with you?

O'BRIEN: Yes, go ahead.

ALDRIN: I would go back to the moon, probably, because, you know, the training is not that involved. But going to Mars, that's a long duration-type mission and certainly at my age, it's obviously out of the question.

O'BRIEN: I think you'd be great. I'm sure Lois would not like it one bit. Buzz Aldrin, always a pleasure. Thanks for dropping by. Good luck with the book. The book is "Buzz Aldrin: Reaching for the Moon," in a bookstore near you now. We'll see you later, Buzz.

ALDRIN: Thank you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, more now, Miles, on the story we're following out of Israel. A state of emergency has been declared at Ben Gurion Airport. Why? Because of a Turkish airliner, SLM airliner, with about 294 people on board, is having a bit of a problem with its faulty landing gear, apparently. On this plane arriving from Turkey, the pilot reported a problem with the nose wheel. Well, ambulances and rescue teams are on the ground there, are on the air strips, waiting for -- in preparation for an emergency landing.

O'BRIEN: We just got -- the Associated Press is saying, Fred, just as you were talking, that the plane has landed safely.

And just so folks know, a lot of these situations, you get a light in the cockpit that says no nose wheel, and you might very well have a nose wheel and you've just got a faulty light. So I don't know how they did the trouble shooting on this, but there is a way to check it to see if it's a bum indication, as opposed to a real problem with the nose gear. In any case, apparently all's well that ends well.

WHITFIELD: Well, that's great, and apparently they took the chance and landed, even though all the emergency crews were at the ready just in case. So a happy ending now, as far as we know.

O'BRIEN: Happy ending at Ben Gurion. Why don't we move on to other things?

WHITFIELD: How about a break?

O'BRIEN: Let's do a break first, then...

WHITFIELD: yes, let's reassess. O'BRIEN: ... Move on to other matters.

WHITFIELD: OK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, let's button up this little plane kirfuffle, if we could. What we've been telling you about now, just really only been only talking about it for about 15 minutes, SLM Airliner, 294 people aboard, so definitely a wide body. I don't know the type of plane just yet, on its way to Ben Gurion International Airport, Tel Aviv. Cockpit crew noticed a problem, apparent problem, I should say, an indication in the cockpit that there's a problem with the nose wheel, did not come down and lock, according to that indication. So...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: It was an Airbus?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

O'BRIEN: OK, an Airbus with 294 onboard. What happened was in the process of troubleshooting that, they came to the conclusion that that nose wheel was OK to land, apparently. And what frequently happens in these cases is you get a bad indication, a bad light, and in fact, the nose wheel is in fact down. There are also some backup systems in order to bring that landing gear down in a safe manner. So everybody's safe and sound on the ground in Tel Aviv, and the emergency is now just a little...

WHITFIELD: If the passengers had any knowledge of it, you know there were some nervous moments onboard.

O'BRIEN: Yes, there probably were, but you know...

WHITFIELD: They were probably kept in the dark, weren't they? Keep everybody calm, don't tell anybody.

O'BRIEN: We don't need to tell them. Serve them another drink, stewardess. All right, yes.

WHITFIELD: Bottom line, good news, it landed, people are safe.

O'BRIEN: They don't call them stewardess anymore. They're flight attendants. Excuse me. Sorry about that.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Coming up in our second hour of LIVE FROM, there's new information on the tsunami that devastated South Asia last December. The new measurements really give you a sense of the power of nature. We'll share those numbers with you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired May 19, 2005 - 13:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking some stories now in the news, the former leader of Chile, General Augusto Pinochet has been taken to a military hospital in Santiago. A source close to the 90- year-old says he suffered a stroke. Pinochet, who is in the advance stages of diabetes, has reportedly suffered strokes before.
CNN has confirmed immigration charges have been filed against Posada Carriles. He now stands charged with entering the U.S. illegally. He is scheduled to appear in court on June 13th. Posada is an ex-CIA operative, wanted by Venezuelan in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner. His lawyer is seeking asylum for Posada in the United States.

Is Congress ready to rumble against steroid use in pro sports? Virginia Republican Tom Davis says he'll introduce a bill next week to create uniform testing for the NBA, the NFL, the NHL and Major League Baseball. Sources say the bill would call for a two-year ban for a first offense, a lifetime ban for a second offense.

And a king-sized witness will not be called to testify in the Michael Jackson trial after all. Our own Larry King in Santa Maria, California this morning. The jury not present as King recounted a conversation with the lawyer for the family of Jackson's accuser. Afterward, Judge Rodney Melville ruled that King's testimony would not be needed.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The fight for Iraq now, where the almost daily insurgent attacks claim the lives of more than a dozen people today. One of them, an American soldier. Western Baghdad, an official from the Iraqi oil ministry was shot dead. Police say it happened at about 8:00 a.m. outside the official's home.

Also in Baghdad, an aide to the country's top Shiite cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, similarly gunned down today.

And a roadside bomb went off near an American military convoy in a southeastern suburb of the capital. One U.S. soldier killed. The commander of multinational corps in Iraq says the appearance of a large-scale insurgency is deceiving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. JOHN VINES, CMDR., MULTINATIONAL CORPS: What it appears is we're dealing with a fairly small and narrow group of terrorists who are using people who are foreign -- recruited from other countries, brought in to murder other Iraqi citizens, coalition forces and government officials. And so the numbers of these insurgents appear to be relatively small, but they are lethal, there's no question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The number of Shiite leaders targeted lately is raising fears that sectarian tension is worsening and spreading.

Well, could it be a done deal for military women in combat positions? A bill that would bar women in uniform from thousands of front-line jobs breezed through the House today. The Senate votes on a similar measure next week. But don't think the easy vote means this is an easy battle for either side of a very contentious issue.

Here's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is no question U.S. women are in combat. You could ask Army Sergeant Jennifer Greaston (ph) if she wasn't so busy test-firing her machine gun on a helicopter patrol over Afghanistan.

But, at issue is whether the Pentagon, pressed to fill the ranks, is skirting its own policy, barring women from serving in direct ground combat, especially in Iraq where there are no front lines. Take this firefight captured in an insurgent video. One of the heroes of the U.S. M.P. unit that killed 26 enemy fighters was a woman, Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester.

SGT. LEIGH ANN HESTER, U.S. ARMY: And immediately we went to the right side of the convoy and began taking fire and we laid down suppressive fire and pushed up and flanked -- flanked the insurgents and overcame, that day.

MCINTYRE: In fact, there are now some 9,400 female soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and so far 35 have been killed in action.

Some Republicans in the House, led by Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, think too many women have been put in harm's way.

Private Jessica Lynch's unit, for example, was never supposed to be on the front lines when it was ambushed after taking a wrong term. An amendment passed last week in a House subcommittee would bar women from such forward support units, a move the army says could close some 22,000 jobs to women.

The army has been lobbying heavily the full committee to soften the language, and on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld isn't conceding there will be any change.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I'm not just sitting around waiting. I'm having meetings with them and discussing it.

MCINTYRE (on camera): New compromise language worked out after the Army pressed its case with House Republicans aims to keep women out of the most dangerous jobs, while giving the Army enough flexibility to keep most women in the units they're in now.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: A little bit of breaking news for you. This just in to us from Israel, from Jerusalem. Israeli authorities have declared an emergency for an aircraft inbound to Tel Aviv's international airport, Ben Gurion International Airport, 294 passengers aboard. We don't know what sort of emergency it is, but that has occurred. The plane is inbound and we're working on trying to get you more detail. As we said, the plane inbound to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, just shy of 300 people aboard. An emergency has been declared. What that emergency is all about, we're trying to get some more information for you on it. We'll keep you posted.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin is out with a new book. Coming up, I'll talk with Buzz Aldrin about space exploration, the shuttle and his new book aimed at getting kids interested in space.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, keeping you up to date on this emergency situation, Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv. We're told it is a Turkish airliner carrying 294 passengers. The airline SLM. As it is approaching Tel Aviv's international airport, it apparently has some indication of a problem with the landing gear.

So we're tracking that situation for you. Once again, a Turkish airliner on approach to Ben Gurion International Airport. Apparently some kind of indication in the cockpit that there's a problem with landing gear. We are watching it for you. We'll keep you posted -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Well, at the Vatican yesterday, the grieving parents of Terri Schiavo exchanged words with Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter's. Mary and Bob Schindler spoke with CNN's Bill Hemmer this morning about their moment with the pope and how their daughter's legacy lives on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S MOTHER: The meeting with the pope was when I saw him coming up from the side, and I couldn't believe he was going to come all the way up, I had the picture there. And I told him, it was a picture of Terri, and like I said before, he said, "I know. I know it's Terri."

But then he touched his heart and he kept patting his heart, like "It broke my heart." And then I gave him the picture, and he took it, and it was -- it was so beautiful.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also at the Vatican, Mr. Schindler, you met with a cardinal. Renaato Martino is his name. Why this particular cardinal, and what did you talk about?

BOB SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S FATHER: Well, essentially, we were explaining to the cardinal what our ambitions are as we further Terri's Foundation. It started originally for Terri, but we will continue our efforts and literally be crusading against any type of euthanasia, wherever we can help. And essentially, the bottom line is what happened to Terri should never, ever, ever happen to another human being, not only in the United States, but throughout the world.

HEMMER: Terri died -- I apologize for the interruption. I thought you were finished with your thought there. Terri died about seven weeks ago, but the autopsy report still has not been completed or released. Is this taking longer than you thought, Mr. Schindler?

B. SCHINDLER: Well, not really. We haven't given that much thought. So it -- whatever their procedure is, it's the first time we've ever experienced anything like that, so we had no way of putting a time frame on it.

HEMMER: I am told -- well, we know that Michael Schiavo wanted this autopsy done. But I'm told, Mrs. Schindler, that you would like to see it completed as well. What do you hope this autopsy will reveal?

B. SCHINDLER: Well, first of all, the autopsy was mandatory. It wasn't whether we wanted it or Schiavo wanted it. It was something that is a standard procedure. And Terri -- in a situation like Terri's.

And we'll have to just wait and see the results of it. And we haven't really given that much thought, to be frank with you.

HEMMER: Have you, Mrs. Schindler?

M. SCHINDLER: No. No. I'm just waiting, you know, to see what happens. I've never gone through anything like this before, so, you know, I really don't know what to expect.

HEMMER: If you look back as a couple right now, fighting for your daughter, and all the legal battles that we all watched play out publicly on every TV set in this country, is there something would you do differently based on the strategy that you carried out in Florida?

M. SCHINDLER: I think that we had -- our legal representation was, you know, beyond reproach. We were fortunate to be blessed with good attorneys, but it was the mindset of the courts. And we view it as judicial homicide.

So what could you do different? I really don't know. They had a -- they were firmly set to do what they were going to do, and nothing would stop them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: All right. Moving on now. "Reaching for the Moon." It's not just a cool motto to live by. It's the title of a new book aimed at a young audience, or at least the young of heart, or anyone who's ever looked into space, seen the moon and wondered if it could be reached. The book is on shelves now. It follows a young guy fascinated with the seemingly unreachable who made his dreams come true.

Sounds a lot like the life story of the man who wrote "Reaching for the Moon," Apollo 11 astronaut, moonwalker Buzz Aldrin. Joining us from Washington. Buzz, good to see you, as always.

BUZZ ALDRIN, NASA ASTRONAUT: Always good to see you and talk to you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, we're approaching now the 36th anniversary. It's hard to believe, 36 years ago, that you were on moon with Neal Armstrong. Why now? Why did you decide at this point to come up with a children's book?

ALDRIN: Well, I guess I was between other books...

O'BRIEN: Between other books.

ALDRIN: I wrote a neat science fiction story and second story, and neither of them got into movies yet. I'm working right now on another book, so this is sort of a filler for young people. And certainly, I think, young people, and their enthusiasm for any -- anything approaching space flight, is going be very, very helpful to the president's new vision for space exploration.

O'BRIEN: All right. You teamed up with Wendell Minor, who really did a great job, I thought, with the illustrations. The paintings are just vivid and wonderful. Take a lock at this shot. It traces your whole career. Of course, you -- you shot down two migs over Korea, 66 combat sorties, correct?

ALDRIN: Yes. I'll tell you what turned me on, was this picture of -- let's see...

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, we got you.

ALDRIN: Of my house. I'll cover myself up.

O'BRIEN: Well, I'm sorry, that didn't catch our fancy quite as much as your...

ALDRIN: No, but it brings back great memories to me, and I think anyplace where somebody grows up their first 17 year of their life, is going to bring back fond memories. And I think that they'll -- it'll help identify other people, young children, with their young years. And as they get to be my age, a lot of memories are more clear of the first 15, 20 years of their life than maybe the last 15 years.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. Now, a couple other points in your career, which many folks who aren't as plugged into the space program may not be as familiar with. For example, you really made it possible for space walks to exist as they do today. You came up with many of the techniques that are still employed today. Up until your space walk, the space walks that were attempted were pretty much failures.

And in addition to that, you were very much involved in the rendezvous techniques. Those parts of your career are not as mentioned as much as the ultimate goal, seen in this next picture here, actually setting foot on the moon. Of course, I guess everything pales by comparison once you've walked on the moon.

ALDRIN: Well, maybe not for me, because I pride myself in being creative. And I think young people need to look for a creative streak, something that they can develop that may open the door for them to reach for their moon. In my particular case, I was a fighter pilot and I decided to further my education. I was inspired to look at rendezvous in space and that essentially got me into the space program. And now it's helping me help others begin to think about how to get to Mars with cycling orbits that I discovered.

I just happened to be a scuba diver when the time came along to think about how could we train people to do space walks. And I welcomed the idea because I just knew that it would be a great medium of neutral buoyancy to train. The foot restraints were very good, too.

O'BRIEN: All right, you know, Buzz, all right, back up, because that picture with the thumb and the earth there. That was one that stuck out with us. Do you -- if you could back it up. And it shows the earth in the background -- can you get back there? you go. That's a great -- do you remember that moment are when you sort of did that, and you could cover everything you knew up to that moment with your thumb?

ALDRIN: There may be a little artist's and author's license here. There -- I'm not sure who was at -- who you would attribute the phrase -- gee, we were launched by the booster, built by the cheapest bidder. You know, that's kind of a trite phrase and it's also maybe a trite phrase that I could reach out and cover the earth from the moon with my thumb. I'm not sure that I was the one that originated that. Probably someone else did. But it was a great opportunity to put forth that sort of thing in an art form.

O'BRIEN: All right. Final thoughts here. I want to just shift gears for a moment. NASA now getting ready to fly the shuttle again, maybe in July if all goes well. And also talking about, you know, the final chapter for the space shuttle, retiring it in 2010, and then pressing on, back to the moon, and on to Mars. Do you think NASA is doing everything the way it should right now?

ALDRIN: Well, I think the new administrator is attempting to put his stamp of approvals and improvements, perhaps, to avoid another period like after Apollo and (INAUDIBLE) Sky Lab and the Soyuz mission with the Russians, we went almost six years without flying. And the schedule, up until now, looks like we would phase out the Orbiter in 2010 and not fly in crew exploration vehicle until 2014.

Well, Mike Griffin (ph) wants to accelerate that and I sure want to do everything I can to help him do that, so I'm sort of entering the competition, I hope, with a version of how we can do that with a multipurpose spacecraft. In addition, the Air Force has finally realized that maybe we had a pretty good idea, eight, 10 years ago, about a reusable booster for vertical launch. So my team is putting in a good bid for that, too, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, well, Buzz if you had the chance, would you go to Mars if you could, or even back to the moon?

ALDRIN: You want me to really be honest with you?

O'BRIEN: Yes, go ahead.

ALDRIN: I would go back to the moon, probably, because, you know, the training is not that involved. But going to Mars, that's a long duration-type mission and certainly at my age, it's obviously out of the question.

O'BRIEN: I think you'd be great. I'm sure Lois would not like it one bit. Buzz Aldrin, always a pleasure. Thanks for dropping by. Good luck with the book. The book is "Buzz Aldrin: Reaching for the Moon," in a bookstore near you now. We'll see you later, Buzz.

ALDRIN: Thank you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, more now, Miles, on the story we're following out of Israel. A state of emergency has been declared at Ben Gurion Airport. Why? Because of a Turkish airliner, SLM airliner, with about 294 people on board, is having a bit of a problem with its faulty landing gear, apparently. On this plane arriving from Turkey, the pilot reported a problem with the nose wheel. Well, ambulances and rescue teams are on the ground there, are on the air strips, waiting for -- in preparation for an emergency landing.

O'BRIEN: We just got -- the Associated Press is saying, Fred, just as you were talking, that the plane has landed safely.

And just so folks know, a lot of these situations, you get a light in the cockpit that says no nose wheel, and you might very well have a nose wheel and you've just got a faulty light. So I don't know how they did the trouble shooting on this, but there is a way to check it to see if it's a bum indication, as opposed to a real problem with the nose gear. In any case, apparently all's well that ends well.

WHITFIELD: Well, that's great, and apparently they took the chance and landed, even though all the emergency crews were at the ready just in case. So a happy ending now, as far as we know.

O'BRIEN: Happy ending at Ben Gurion. Why don't we move on to other things?

WHITFIELD: How about a break?

O'BRIEN: Let's do a break first, then...

WHITFIELD: yes, let's reassess. O'BRIEN: ... Move on to other matters.

WHITFIELD: OK.

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O'BRIEN: All right, let's button up this little plane kirfuffle, if we could. What we've been telling you about now, just really only been only talking about it for about 15 minutes, SLM Airliner, 294 people aboard, so definitely a wide body. I don't know the type of plane just yet, on its way to Ben Gurion International Airport, Tel Aviv. Cockpit crew noticed a problem, apparent problem, I should say, an indication in the cockpit that there's a problem with the nose wheel, did not come down and lock, according to that indication. So...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: It was an Airbus?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

O'BRIEN: OK, an Airbus with 294 onboard. What happened was in the process of troubleshooting that, they came to the conclusion that that nose wheel was OK to land, apparently. And what frequently happens in these cases is you get a bad indication, a bad light, and in fact, the nose wheel is in fact down. There are also some backup systems in order to bring that landing gear down in a safe manner. So everybody's safe and sound on the ground in Tel Aviv, and the emergency is now just a little...

WHITFIELD: If the passengers had any knowledge of it, you know there were some nervous moments onboard.

O'BRIEN: Yes, there probably were, but you know...

WHITFIELD: They were probably kept in the dark, weren't they? Keep everybody calm, don't tell anybody.

O'BRIEN: We don't need to tell them. Serve them another drink, stewardess. All right, yes.

WHITFIELD: Bottom line, good news, it landed, people are safe.

O'BRIEN: They don't call them stewardess anymore. They're flight attendants. Excuse me. Sorry about that.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Coming up in our second hour of LIVE FROM, there's new information on the tsunami that devastated South Asia last December. The new measurements really give you a sense of the power of nature. We'll share those numbers with you.

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