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In France, Voters Give Resounding Thumbs Down to Proposed Constitution for European Union

Aired May 30, 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: Live pictures now. KTLA is our affiliate in Southern California. Their helicopter providing what is a scene that is slightly covered by that banner. Maybe we could lose that banner. That would help. There we go. That's A horse stuck in the mud in the Sun Valley portion of Southern California. That's the Burbank area. Obviously, we've been telling you a lot about the big snowfall this past winter, the rains that have been occurring, and the runoff, which is a problem and, of course, along with all that comes a mud problem. These are live pictures now. That was tape. These are live pictures. This is possibly the rider who might have been trapped underneath that horse as it rode and got stuck in the mud there. The effort to remove the horse from the mud continues as rescuers there, quite a team of them, continue their efforts using ladders and so forth. So as not themselves to get stuck in the mud.
Once again, this is the Burbank area, Sun Valley, California. Obviously finding a way to firm ground there to get what appears to be the rider to safety.

Meanwhile, the horse remains stuck in the mud. We'll go back to those pictures fed in just a while ago to show you one more time what we're talking about here. That was a little earlier. Possibly that is the rider. We're not sure. Down lower right part of your screen is the horse. Once again, thanks to our affiliate KTLA. We'll keep you posted as they try to remove that horse stuck in the mud in Southern California.

Other stories now in the news, Iraqi forces are manning checkpoints and conducting searches, all part of Operation Lightning as it is called, a major offensive to put a squeeze on insurgents in Baghdad. Two bombers struck back today, killing 27 in attacks south of the capital city.

On this Memorial Day, President Bush pays tribute to the war dead at Arlington National Cemetery. The president placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in honor of the men and women who gave their lives in service. Mr. Bush said their courage and sacrifice will never be forgotten.

"The health of Saudi Arabia's ailing Kind Fahd is stable and reassuring." That is a quote now. That word coming today from Crown Prince Abdullah, the king's half brother, and the de facto leader of the kingdom. The 82-year-old king has been in the hospital since Friday suffering from a high fever and complications from pneumonia.

Now to France, where voters have given a resounding thumbs down to a proposed constitution for the European Union. In short, if I'm getting the translation correct, E.U. equals PU. In this video, you can tell the French are pretty happy about the results of their vote, but there's a little more to this than tweaking the E.U. Just ask President Jacques Chirac.

CNN's Jim Bittermann in Paris with more on this continental kerfuffle (ph) -- Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly right, Miles. In fact, there's a lot more to this than just tweaking the E.U. The government here is going to fall over this apparently. Jacques Chirac's office making it official just a short while ago, saying that the president would take to the airwaves tomorrow night and announce his plans for a new government here. The government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin apparently resigning en masse and Jean-Pierre Raffarin will be replaced. Chirac spent his day interviewing the various candidates that are involved, talking about the possibilities, the kind of prime ministers they might make.

There are three leading candidates, Nicholas Sarcozi, who is a leading rival of Jacques Chirac, Dominic Devillepin (ph), who came to the fore during his stint as the foreign minister. He was famous for his speaking in the United Nations against the U.S. involvement in Iraq. And Michele Amori (ph), who is the current defense minister. She might present something of a compromise candidate.

In any case, that vote, that stinging rebuke for Chirac, over the European Union's Treaty of Constitution in fact has been severe enough that Chirac now is deciding to get rid of his government, read the handwriting on the wall, taking the action that French presidents, in fact, do always when they run into trouble. That is, they fire the prime minister -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jim, let's talk about the implications are for creating this constitutionally codified European Union. There'll be an additional vote in the Netherlands coming up. Is the E.U. dead?

BITTERMANN: Well, the E.U. is not dead. There's still plenty of treaties that will keep the E.U. going, and keep the currency going and all that sort of thing. But what a lot of people at the E.U. hoped to do with this treaty was move the E.U. forward and to give it a sort of modern governance procedure, a framework for governance. They've added 10 new countries to the E.U. They went from 15 to 25. And At 15, it was barely governable. At 25, without some kind of reform in the way the governmental procedures are handled, it's going to be very, very difficult to proceed.

So that's what this constitution was about. Now that it's been rejected by the French, it takes a unanimous decision by all 25 countries to put this thing into action. Now that it's been rejected by the French, it seems as if that treaty is dead, and so governing the European Union is going to be very, very difficult, indeed -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: The perception is, and I guess that was the message of this vote, is that people in Brussels, Belgium, who are not really directly accountable to voters in the specific countries have, perhaps, too much say-so over what are sovereign nations. How would the E.U. marching forward here? How will they address that?

BITTERMANN: Well, that's something that they plan to be pondering over the next two weeks. They have a big meeting ministerial meeting coming up here in the middle of June. So they're going to be pondering this, because it is going to be a mess. I mean, they've got procedures that were designed in this constitution to handle, to accommodate the 25 countries, but without those procedures, under the old procedures, they have to have, for instance, unanimous voting on some things. Well, to get 15 members to agree on one thing sometimes is a difficult task. It will be even more difficult when you've got 25 countries.

They talked about handling the expansion of the European parliament, for instance, and that now is really -- really a question of how they're going to handle the expansion of the European parliament to accommodate those 10 extra countries.

So those sorts of things are going to be really in question. And one of the big questions here, you're right, is that the French believe that a lot of sovereignty was being handed away to the European Union. They're a lot of people who thought that the European Union was having too much say in what should be French affairs. Of course there was another aspect, too, and that is that the French felt that it was a good chance to give a punch in the nose to Jacques Chirac over some issues, over local issues, by, you know, voting against the treaty which Chirac had backed because of unemployment in France, because the economy in France is not doing so well. So there's a lot of things going on the (INAUDIBLE) side that led to this really overwhelming defeat for the constitutional treaty -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jim Bittermann in Paris, thank you very much.

Other news around the world that we're looking at, some celebrating in the streets of Lebanon as the son of a slain former leader wins big in the first parliamentary election since Syrian troops withdrew from the region. Results show that a slate headed by Saud Al Hariri (ph) claimed all 19 seats of the vote. Hariri's father, the former prime minister Rafik Hariri, died in a February car bombing, as you'll recall.

Bill Clinton headed back from Indonesia today. Staffers insisting he didn't cut his latest tsunami trip short, contrary to a published report. Former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, who's also on the trip says, "The president is not exhausted. I am."

And in London, finding the key to the identity of the mysterious "Piano Man," perhaps? British newspapers say friends of a classically trained pianist from the Czech Republic are convinced that's who the man is. Health officials plan to bring in a Czech interpreter to try communicating with the man who was not spoken since he was found wandering on an English beach seven weeks ago now.

Astute viewers will note that CNN is in the midst of celebrating its 25th anniversary. And while staffers have been toiling to bring you some of what we think are our best moments, we're also getting input from those outside of the CNN circle of excellence.

In this segment, talk master Phil Donahue giving props to our own Larry King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL DONAHUE, FORMER TALK SHOW HOST: The truth be told, I have an enormous respect and admiration, and some jealousy, too, for Larry. I mean, Jacques Chirac, Nelson Mandela, every president, every first lady, and when you consider what all of us did do to try and get the gravitas that went (INAUDIBLE), 20th century political figures and how successful Larry was at doing that, and how his voice reached into nooks and crannies all over, the free and not so free world. So when you look up 20th century TV, I think you've got to put Larry on page one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: All right, thanks, Phil. We agree.

One of the world's great treasure troves. How much has been irretrievably lost? We'll talk with the director of the Iraq museum about the ongoing search for half of the priceless collection stolen by looters after the fall of Baghdad.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: In the early days of the Iraq War, there were many losses and not just the human casualties. Amid the chaos and destruction in Baghdad, thousands of ancient treasures were destroyed or stolen from the Baghdad Museum.

"The Looting of the Iraq Museum" details some of the relics that are, perhaps, forever lost, but since the day the looting began, one man has made it his mission to try to retrieve what he can and protect what's left from the continuing ravages of war.

Donny George, joining us now to talk about rebuilding of priceless collections. He is the director of that museum. Mr. George, good to have you with us.

DONNY GEORGE, DIRECTOR, BAGHDAD MUSEUM: Thank you very much.

O'BRIEN: First of all, let's set the record straight, because there were all kinds of numbers about how devastating that loss was, when we first heard about it, April two years ago. How much was lost of the collection?

GEORGE: I would love to tell you that -- the story of those large numbers you see. At that time, one of the journalists asked me what is the volume? How much material you have in the Iraq Museum? I said over 170,000. And this immediately was taken as a mistake that over 170,000 were lost from the museum. So this was not true. But to tell you the final numbers that we have, we've lost 15,000 objects from the museum.

O'BRIEN: 15,000 objects.

GEORGE: That's right.

O'BRIEN: And over time, some things have come back, have they not? Explain how that has happened and how much has come back.

GEORGE: As for the material coming back, we have almost 50 percent of the material that's back. It's not all back to the museum itself, but we have in Baghdad, in the museum, about 4,000 objects that are numbered and they are back to the museum. But other material is back in other places, and we know about it. We have connections with the authorities there, especially the surrounding countries, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria. And Italy and in the United States.

So in all, it makes about 50 percent of what we have back. And, of course when I say back, it's with the authorities. We know about them, we have -- they are documented, and it just -- we need some more time to have these objects back to the Iraq Museum.

O'BRIEN: And you're in no hurry, in many cases, to bring these back to Baghdad, because you still have an ongoing security issue here, right?

GEORGE: This is true, yes. And even now the museum is threatened, and, in fact, I have padlocked all the storerooms with steel padlocks, and I have sealed the storerooms completely with welding. And I'm not -- I don't want to open these storerooms until everything is quite clear and the security is completely there surrounding the museum.

O'BRIEN: We're seeing some pictures from the book, and I'm not sure of the status of each and every one of these pieces, but if you could give viewers some sense of what these pieces mean and what it means to have potentially lost them?

GEORGE: Of course. There was one of the first pictures -- that was the -- this one. This was the work of -- a vase. This one was stolen and it came back to the museum and it's in the laboratory now. Our people, with the help of the Italians, are working on it. This is a masterpiece in man's history because it goes back to 3,200 B.C. It's a votive vase. It was found in a temple in the city of Worka (ph).

And the beautiful thing about it is, if you start from the bottom going up, it explains the philosophy of the Sumerians about life, and how it started, and how --where it's direction. So at the bottom, you see water, then plants, then animals, then human being going up and praying and serving the gods that are on top of this vase.

The second picture was -- it's very well-known, by the name of Mona Lisa Nimrud This was named actually Mona Lisa Nimrud by the famous writer Agatha Christie, because she was with her husband -- yes, this piece -- because she was with her husband, Professor Max Mallowan, when they found it in Nimrud.

This is a wonderful piece that's made of ivory. It's not that large, it's about 15 centimeters tall. But this was not stolen, but unfortunately, this was one of the pieces in the Central Bank, and it was affected so much by the water coming up there and it really needs a lot of attention to -- by the conservators.

O'BRIEN: All right. Donny George. The proceeds from this book will help do just that, and we wish you well with the book. And we also wish you well with your effort, because it's just a loss for the Iraqi people, it's a loss for humanity. This is, after all, the cradle of civilization we're talking about here.

GEORGE: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: The book is "The looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad." And as we say, a lot of this will help the process of trying to gather up all these wonderful priceless objects and return them to where they belong. Donny George, good luck.

GEORGE: Thank you very much.

O'BRIEN: All right.

She went boldly where very few women had ever gone before and she came out a winner, even though she didn't finish first. I'd like to (INAUDIBLE) win this year. Nobody even knows who won anymore. Well, didn't what's his name? I don't know. The fast times of Danica Patrick, when CNN LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: The fast times of Danica Patrick, when CNN's LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Well, considered both a divisive and uniting force in Israel, Shimon Peres has left an indelible mark on the Jewish state. As part of CNN's anniversary series, "Then and Now," we catch up with Shimon Peres.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Known as a peacemaker, a warrior and perennial statesman, Shimon Peres has held the office of Israeli prime minister two times, and had his hand in building Israel's arsenal. For years, with tongue in cheek, he referred to the country's secret nuclear facility as a textile factory.

SHIMON PERES: The textile is out of business, and people are going for high-tech today. But the textile business achieved its basic aim, as a deterrent.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Then, there is the peaceful side of Shimon Peres. He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, for their roles in the Oslo Peace Accords.

Peres established the Peres Center for Peace, with the hopes of creating a new Middle East.

Father of three and grandfather of seven, he has also written several books. This year, 81-year-old Peres returned to the Israeli government as part of an Ariel Sharon-led coalition.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The checkered flag is out at Indianapolis, and the pumps are open in the U.K. Dan Wheldon has just won the Indianapolis 500!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, yes. Who cares? We care happened to her? Danica Patrick, she's so cute. She's a friend of the show, 100 pounds dripping out, and really, as you're going to find out, really, she is the Tiger Woods for a sport that has been ailing over the past decade.

Steve Overmyer not only a sports guy of great note here at CNN, but, you know, an Indiana native.

STEVE OVERMYER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

O'BRIEN: This your sport.

OVERMYER: This is my sport. I'm from Indiana. I've covered about six, seven races of the Indianapolis 500, and I know a thing or two about what's happening out there on the track. And I'm telling you, this girl has got what it takes to win this race.

O'BRIEN: You better not call her girl to her face. She'll probably deck you. First of all, let's show the tape here of -- this is history right here. That's her leading, right?

OVERMYER: Ten laps to go. Danica Patrick leading the Indianapolis 500. She became the first woman ever to lead the Indianapolis 500. And look at her stretching the lead here, as a matter of fact. She had a great shot of winning this entire race had she not run out of fuel. Her fuel situation really is what cast her this race.

O'BRIEN: Dire situation. All right, it wasn't a perfect race for her, though. What was good about her, I thought, was great, afterwards, she willing admitted -- check out this spinout. What happened here?

OVERMYER: Well, they say that she had cold tires. But maybe somebody might have checked up in front of her. Bottom line is, she kept the car going straight, and all she did was lose a wing. Listen, when you're talking about these open-wheeled cars, anytime you have contact, you're out of the race, more or less. She somehow kept it together. They put a new wing on her car. And she finished in fourth place, which, by the way, was the best finish ever for a woman. And I'm telling you, this little lady could have won the Indianapolis 500. And she's going to have a shot for many years to come.

O'BRIEN: All right, now what's Interesting about it, she's 100 pounds. And Robby Gordon, who's gone over to NASCAR, used to be an open-wheeled racer, and he's about two Danica's, right?

OVERMYER: Doesn't see a whole lot of solid bars.

O'BRIEN: And he's saying, that's not fair. She's too light. I mean, give me a break.

OVERMYER: This is -- first off, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in fact, all Indy cars are weighed by the officials before the driver and the fuel gets put in. They have to be under 1,525 pounds before the driver and the fuel. What the driver weighs doesn't matter. The winner of the race, by the way, Dan Wheldon, only weighs 157 pounds. So it's not like he's a heavyweight either.

But you know what, Robby Gordon, I think this just sounds a lot like sour grapes.

O'BRIEN: You might think.

OVERMYER: Sour grapes.

O'BRIEN: All right, quick final thought here. As he drinks hopefully low-fat milk, because he's going to have to stay on a diet now to stay up with her, the ratings came in, big time up. Is this -- is she the Tiger Woods for this sport? And this sport is in need of a Tiger Woods.

OVERMYER: Undeniably she's Tiger Woods. She's the young upstart with, you know, not a lot experience, but a ton of talent, and she's being -- I don't want to say criticized. She's not exactly not an dominant as Tiger Woods, but I'll tell you this, her performance and the electrifying performance she put on at the Indianapolis 500 makes us watch, and that's why the ratings were up 40 percent.

O'BRIEN: When ratings go up 40 percent, that's tiger country.

OVERMYER: There's a reason.

O'BRIEN: All right, Steve Overmyer, thanks for stopping, a gearhead from way, that Steve is.

Back with more in a moment.

(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 30, 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: Live pictures now. KTLA is our affiliate in Southern California. Their helicopter providing what is a scene that is slightly covered by that banner. Maybe we could lose that banner. That would help. There we go. That's A horse stuck in the mud in the Sun Valley portion of Southern California. That's the Burbank area. Obviously, we've been telling you a lot about the big snowfall this past winter, the rains that have been occurring, and the runoff, which is a problem and, of course, along with all that comes a mud problem. These are live pictures now. That was tape. These are live pictures. This is possibly the rider who might have been trapped underneath that horse as it rode and got stuck in the mud there. The effort to remove the horse from the mud continues as rescuers there, quite a team of them, continue their efforts using ladders and so forth. So as not themselves to get stuck in the mud.
Once again, this is the Burbank area, Sun Valley, California. Obviously finding a way to firm ground there to get what appears to be the rider to safety.

Meanwhile, the horse remains stuck in the mud. We'll go back to those pictures fed in just a while ago to show you one more time what we're talking about here. That was a little earlier. Possibly that is the rider. We're not sure. Down lower right part of your screen is the horse. Once again, thanks to our affiliate KTLA. We'll keep you posted as they try to remove that horse stuck in the mud in Southern California.

Other stories now in the news, Iraqi forces are manning checkpoints and conducting searches, all part of Operation Lightning as it is called, a major offensive to put a squeeze on insurgents in Baghdad. Two bombers struck back today, killing 27 in attacks south of the capital city.

On this Memorial Day, President Bush pays tribute to the war dead at Arlington National Cemetery. The president placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in honor of the men and women who gave their lives in service. Mr. Bush said their courage and sacrifice will never be forgotten.

"The health of Saudi Arabia's ailing Kind Fahd is stable and reassuring." That is a quote now. That word coming today from Crown Prince Abdullah, the king's half brother, and the de facto leader of the kingdom. The 82-year-old king has been in the hospital since Friday suffering from a high fever and complications from pneumonia.

Now to France, where voters have given a resounding thumbs down to a proposed constitution for the European Union. In short, if I'm getting the translation correct, E.U. equals PU. In this video, you can tell the French are pretty happy about the results of their vote, but there's a little more to this than tweaking the E.U. Just ask President Jacques Chirac.

CNN's Jim Bittermann in Paris with more on this continental kerfuffle (ph) -- Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly right, Miles. In fact, there's a lot more to this than just tweaking the E.U. The government here is going to fall over this apparently. Jacques Chirac's office making it official just a short while ago, saying that the president would take to the airwaves tomorrow night and announce his plans for a new government here. The government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin apparently resigning en masse and Jean-Pierre Raffarin will be replaced. Chirac spent his day interviewing the various candidates that are involved, talking about the possibilities, the kind of prime ministers they might make.

There are three leading candidates, Nicholas Sarcozi, who is a leading rival of Jacques Chirac, Dominic Devillepin (ph), who came to the fore during his stint as the foreign minister. He was famous for his speaking in the United Nations against the U.S. involvement in Iraq. And Michele Amori (ph), who is the current defense minister. She might present something of a compromise candidate.

In any case, that vote, that stinging rebuke for Chirac, over the European Union's Treaty of Constitution in fact has been severe enough that Chirac now is deciding to get rid of his government, read the handwriting on the wall, taking the action that French presidents, in fact, do always when they run into trouble. That is, they fire the prime minister -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jim, let's talk about the implications are for creating this constitutionally codified European Union. There'll be an additional vote in the Netherlands coming up. Is the E.U. dead?

BITTERMANN: Well, the E.U. is not dead. There's still plenty of treaties that will keep the E.U. going, and keep the currency going and all that sort of thing. But what a lot of people at the E.U. hoped to do with this treaty was move the E.U. forward and to give it a sort of modern governance procedure, a framework for governance. They've added 10 new countries to the E.U. They went from 15 to 25. And At 15, it was barely governable. At 25, without some kind of reform in the way the governmental procedures are handled, it's going to be very, very difficult to proceed.

So that's what this constitution was about. Now that it's been rejected by the French, it takes a unanimous decision by all 25 countries to put this thing into action. Now that it's been rejected by the French, it seems as if that treaty is dead, and so governing the European Union is going to be very, very difficult, indeed -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: The perception is, and I guess that was the message of this vote, is that people in Brussels, Belgium, who are not really directly accountable to voters in the specific countries have, perhaps, too much say-so over what are sovereign nations. How would the E.U. marching forward here? How will they address that?

BITTERMANN: Well, that's something that they plan to be pondering over the next two weeks. They have a big meeting ministerial meeting coming up here in the middle of June. So they're going to be pondering this, because it is going to be a mess. I mean, they've got procedures that were designed in this constitution to handle, to accommodate the 25 countries, but without those procedures, under the old procedures, they have to have, for instance, unanimous voting on some things. Well, to get 15 members to agree on one thing sometimes is a difficult task. It will be even more difficult when you've got 25 countries.

They talked about handling the expansion of the European parliament, for instance, and that now is really -- really a question of how they're going to handle the expansion of the European parliament to accommodate those 10 extra countries.

So those sorts of things are going to be really in question. And one of the big questions here, you're right, is that the French believe that a lot of sovereignty was being handed away to the European Union. They're a lot of people who thought that the European Union was having too much say in what should be French affairs. Of course there was another aspect, too, and that is that the French felt that it was a good chance to give a punch in the nose to Jacques Chirac over some issues, over local issues, by, you know, voting against the treaty which Chirac had backed because of unemployment in France, because the economy in France is not doing so well. So there's a lot of things going on the (INAUDIBLE) side that led to this really overwhelming defeat for the constitutional treaty -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jim Bittermann in Paris, thank you very much.

Other news around the world that we're looking at, some celebrating in the streets of Lebanon as the son of a slain former leader wins big in the first parliamentary election since Syrian troops withdrew from the region. Results show that a slate headed by Saud Al Hariri (ph) claimed all 19 seats of the vote. Hariri's father, the former prime minister Rafik Hariri, died in a February car bombing, as you'll recall.

Bill Clinton headed back from Indonesia today. Staffers insisting he didn't cut his latest tsunami trip short, contrary to a published report. Former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, who's also on the trip says, "The president is not exhausted. I am."

And in London, finding the key to the identity of the mysterious "Piano Man," perhaps? British newspapers say friends of a classically trained pianist from the Czech Republic are convinced that's who the man is. Health officials plan to bring in a Czech interpreter to try communicating with the man who was not spoken since he was found wandering on an English beach seven weeks ago now.

Astute viewers will note that CNN is in the midst of celebrating its 25th anniversary. And while staffers have been toiling to bring you some of what we think are our best moments, we're also getting input from those outside of the CNN circle of excellence.

In this segment, talk master Phil Donahue giving props to our own Larry King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL DONAHUE, FORMER TALK SHOW HOST: The truth be told, I have an enormous respect and admiration, and some jealousy, too, for Larry. I mean, Jacques Chirac, Nelson Mandela, every president, every first lady, and when you consider what all of us did do to try and get the gravitas that went (INAUDIBLE), 20th century political figures and how successful Larry was at doing that, and how his voice reached into nooks and crannies all over, the free and not so free world. So when you look up 20th century TV, I think you've got to put Larry on page one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: All right, thanks, Phil. We agree.

One of the world's great treasure troves. How much has been irretrievably lost? We'll talk with the director of the Iraq museum about the ongoing search for half of the priceless collection stolen by looters after the fall of Baghdad.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: In the early days of the Iraq War, there were many losses and not just the human casualties. Amid the chaos and destruction in Baghdad, thousands of ancient treasures were destroyed or stolen from the Baghdad Museum.

"The Looting of the Iraq Museum" details some of the relics that are, perhaps, forever lost, but since the day the looting began, one man has made it his mission to try to retrieve what he can and protect what's left from the continuing ravages of war.

Donny George, joining us now to talk about rebuilding of priceless collections. He is the director of that museum. Mr. George, good to have you with us.

DONNY GEORGE, DIRECTOR, BAGHDAD MUSEUM: Thank you very much.

O'BRIEN: First of all, let's set the record straight, because there were all kinds of numbers about how devastating that loss was, when we first heard about it, April two years ago. How much was lost of the collection?

GEORGE: I would love to tell you that -- the story of those large numbers you see. At that time, one of the journalists asked me what is the volume? How much material you have in the Iraq Museum? I said over 170,000. And this immediately was taken as a mistake that over 170,000 were lost from the museum. So this was not true. But to tell you the final numbers that we have, we've lost 15,000 objects from the museum.

O'BRIEN: 15,000 objects.

GEORGE: That's right.

O'BRIEN: And over time, some things have come back, have they not? Explain how that has happened and how much has come back.

GEORGE: As for the material coming back, we have almost 50 percent of the material that's back. It's not all back to the museum itself, but we have in Baghdad, in the museum, about 4,000 objects that are numbered and they are back to the museum. But other material is back in other places, and we know about it. We have connections with the authorities there, especially the surrounding countries, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria. And Italy and in the United States.

So in all, it makes about 50 percent of what we have back. And, of course when I say back, it's with the authorities. We know about them, we have -- they are documented, and it just -- we need some more time to have these objects back to the Iraq Museum.

O'BRIEN: And you're in no hurry, in many cases, to bring these back to Baghdad, because you still have an ongoing security issue here, right?

GEORGE: This is true, yes. And even now the museum is threatened, and, in fact, I have padlocked all the storerooms with steel padlocks, and I have sealed the storerooms completely with welding. And I'm not -- I don't want to open these storerooms until everything is quite clear and the security is completely there surrounding the museum.

O'BRIEN: We're seeing some pictures from the book, and I'm not sure of the status of each and every one of these pieces, but if you could give viewers some sense of what these pieces mean and what it means to have potentially lost them?

GEORGE: Of course. There was one of the first pictures -- that was the -- this one. This was the work of -- a vase. This one was stolen and it came back to the museum and it's in the laboratory now. Our people, with the help of the Italians, are working on it. This is a masterpiece in man's history because it goes back to 3,200 B.C. It's a votive vase. It was found in a temple in the city of Worka (ph).

And the beautiful thing about it is, if you start from the bottom going up, it explains the philosophy of the Sumerians about life, and how it started, and how --where it's direction. So at the bottom, you see water, then plants, then animals, then human being going up and praying and serving the gods that are on top of this vase.

The second picture was -- it's very well-known, by the name of Mona Lisa Nimrud This was named actually Mona Lisa Nimrud by the famous writer Agatha Christie, because she was with her husband -- yes, this piece -- because she was with her husband, Professor Max Mallowan, when they found it in Nimrud.

This is a wonderful piece that's made of ivory. It's not that large, it's about 15 centimeters tall. But this was not stolen, but unfortunately, this was one of the pieces in the Central Bank, and it was affected so much by the water coming up there and it really needs a lot of attention to -- by the conservators.

O'BRIEN: All right. Donny George. The proceeds from this book will help do just that, and we wish you well with the book. And we also wish you well with your effort, because it's just a loss for the Iraqi people, it's a loss for humanity. This is, after all, the cradle of civilization we're talking about here.

GEORGE: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: The book is "The looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad." And as we say, a lot of this will help the process of trying to gather up all these wonderful priceless objects and return them to where they belong. Donny George, good luck.

GEORGE: Thank you very much.

O'BRIEN: All right.

She went boldly where very few women had ever gone before and she came out a winner, even though she didn't finish first. I'd like to (INAUDIBLE) win this year. Nobody even knows who won anymore. Well, didn't what's his name? I don't know. The fast times of Danica Patrick, when CNN LIVE FROM continues.

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O'BRIEN: The fast times of Danica Patrick, when CNN's LIVE FROM continues.

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O'BRIEN: Well, considered both a divisive and uniting force in Israel, Shimon Peres has left an indelible mark on the Jewish state. As part of CNN's anniversary series, "Then and Now," we catch up with Shimon Peres.

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UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Known as a peacemaker, a warrior and perennial statesman, Shimon Peres has held the office of Israeli prime minister two times, and had his hand in building Israel's arsenal. For years, with tongue in cheek, he referred to the country's secret nuclear facility as a textile factory.

SHIMON PERES: The textile is out of business, and people are going for high-tech today. But the textile business achieved its basic aim, as a deterrent.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Then, there is the peaceful side of Shimon Peres. He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, for their roles in the Oslo Peace Accords.

Peres established the Peres Center for Peace, with the hopes of creating a new Middle East.

Father of three and grandfather of seven, he has also written several books. This year, 81-year-old Peres returned to the Israeli government as part of an Ariel Sharon-led coalition.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The checkered flag is out at Indianapolis, and the pumps are open in the U.K. Dan Wheldon has just won the Indianapolis 500!

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O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, yes. Who cares? We care happened to her? Danica Patrick, she's so cute. She's a friend of the show, 100 pounds dripping out, and really, as you're going to find out, really, she is the Tiger Woods for a sport that has been ailing over the past decade.

Steve Overmyer not only a sports guy of great note here at CNN, but, you know, an Indiana native.

STEVE OVERMYER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

O'BRIEN: This your sport.

OVERMYER: This is my sport. I'm from Indiana. I've covered about six, seven races of the Indianapolis 500, and I know a thing or two about what's happening out there on the track. And I'm telling you, this girl has got what it takes to win this race.

O'BRIEN: You better not call her girl to her face. She'll probably deck you. First of all, let's show the tape here of -- this is history right here. That's her leading, right?

OVERMYER: Ten laps to go. Danica Patrick leading the Indianapolis 500. She became the first woman ever to lead the Indianapolis 500. And look at her stretching the lead here, as a matter of fact. She had a great shot of winning this entire race had she not run out of fuel. Her fuel situation really is what cast her this race.

O'BRIEN: Dire situation. All right, it wasn't a perfect race for her, though. What was good about her, I thought, was great, afterwards, she willing admitted -- check out this spinout. What happened here?

OVERMYER: Well, they say that she had cold tires. But maybe somebody might have checked up in front of her. Bottom line is, she kept the car going straight, and all she did was lose a wing. Listen, when you're talking about these open-wheeled cars, anytime you have contact, you're out of the race, more or less. She somehow kept it together. They put a new wing on her car. And she finished in fourth place, which, by the way, was the best finish ever for a woman. And I'm telling you, this little lady could have won the Indianapolis 500. And she's going to have a shot for many years to come.

O'BRIEN: All right, now what's Interesting about it, she's 100 pounds. And Robby Gordon, who's gone over to NASCAR, used to be an open-wheeled racer, and he's about two Danica's, right?

OVERMYER: Doesn't see a whole lot of solid bars.

O'BRIEN: And he's saying, that's not fair. She's too light. I mean, give me a break.

OVERMYER: This is -- first off, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in fact, all Indy cars are weighed by the officials before the driver and the fuel gets put in. They have to be under 1,525 pounds before the driver and the fuel. What the driver weighs doesn't matter. The winner of the race, by the way, Dan Wheldon, only weighs 157 pounds. So it's not like he's a heavyweight either.

But you know what, Robby Gordon, I think this just sounds a lot like sour grapes.

O'BRIEN: You might think.

OVERMYER: Sour grapes.

O'BRIEN: All right, quick final thought here. As he drinks hopefully low-fat milk, because he's going to have to stay on a diet now to stay up with her, the ratings came in, big time up. Is this -- is she the Tiger Woods for this sport? And this sport is in need of a Tiger Woods.

OVERMYER: Undeniably she's Tiger Woods. She's the young upstart with, you know, not a lot experience, but a ton of talent, and she's being -- I don't want to say criticized. She's not exactly not an dominant as Tiger Woods, but I'll tell you this, her performance and the electrifying performance she put on at the Indianapolis 500 makes us watch, and that's why the ratings were up 40 percent.

O'BRIEN: When ratings go up 40 percent, that's tiger country.

OVERMYER: There's a reason.

O'BRIEN: All right, Steve Overmyer, thanks for stopping, a gearhead from way, that Steve is.

Back with more in a moment.

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