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'Security Watch'; Tracking Offenders
Aired June 06, 2005 - 13:33 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: Could this be the site of the 2012 Summer Olympics? Well, a key vote is planned in New York City this afternoon on whether city officials want to kick in enough money to make the $2 billion dream a reality. An International Olympic Committee out this morning gives positive reviews to the city, but Paris has the best overall review to host the 2012 Games.
A state judge in Washington nixes a do-over in the 2004 governor race. Within just the past hour, the judge rejected a petition brought by the state Republican Party seeking to nullify the results of the hotly contested race, which gave a slim 129-vote victory to Democrat Christine Gregoire over Republican candidate Dino Rossi.
Well, a Utah man who confessed to killing his wife is expected to be sentenced today. You'll remember Mark Hacking. He admitted that he shot his wife, Lori Hacking, then dumped her body in a trash bin last July, after she learned he had been lying to her. Hacking likely will receive a sentence of six years to life in prison.
Opening statements are under way in the case of a former Florida professor charged with aiding terrorists. Samuel Al Arayan (ph) and three co-defendants are accused of raising money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The men deny the charges. Court documents show that the government's case is largely based on years of intercepted phone calls and documents.
PHILLIPS: In today's CNN Security Watch, members of the former 9/11 Commission are gathered in Washington almost a year after releasing its hard-hitting list of recommendations to keep the country safe from terrorism. The panel is trying to assess whether the government is acting on enough of those recommendations.
Jamie Gorelick is a member of the 9/11 Commission, she's moderating today's discussions.
How did they go?
JAMIE S. GORELICK, FORMER 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: I thought they went great.
We had three terrific panelists: former Attorney General Thornburgh, John Gannon, a very senior official from the intelligence community, and a journalist, Chitra Ragavan, who's covered the FBI. So we had lots of very well-informed personnel briefing us.
PHILLIPS: Now, why take this commission and go private? What's the advantage here, Jamie? GORELICK: We spent two and a half years seriously looking at what led to 9/11, why we were unprepared and coming up with recommendations to make us safer.
We thought at the end of that process that we would form ourselves into a private group, the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, to monitor our progress, to educate the public, and to give a report card, which we will do in September.
PHILLIPS: So what has -- I guess some things have been implemented. Do you think that it's moving along with regard to timeliness in a way you think is average? Or are there a lot of things that are being ignored that you think will get caught up in just filibusters and you will never see anything happen?
GORELICK: Well, we did have a tremendous amount of progress in that we had legislation passed barely six months after we made our recommendations.
GORELICK: The president signed it into law. We have a new director of national intelligence.
But there are two big problems. One is that people don't give up their turf willingly and there are even now in Congress proposals to trim back the authority of the director of national intelligence. And he will need the full backing of the president to do what is a very difficult job.
The second problem is just implementation is hard. These are cultures that have been around for a long, long time and changing behaviors is really difficult.
So that's why we wanted to take a look to see how much progress we have made and not.
PHILLIPS: And you are talking about 41 recommendations. I mean, from the bottom of your heart, do you really believe that all 41 recommendations will be acted upon?
GORELICK: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Really?
GORELICK: Yes. Yes, because we -- these are bipartisan recommendations, I think they're very thoughtful. I say with all due modesty, they're the product of a factual inquiry. They didn't just pop out of our heads. The book was very well read. It was embraced by the policy community largely and the American people.
PHILLIPS: Bestseller, we should add.
GORELICK: Yes, bestseller. Thank you very much. Over a million copies sold, God knows how many read.
So we think that the recommendations which we thought very hard about should all be implemented, yes. PHILLIPS: But what should be -- if you were to pick, let's say, the three most important recommendations to be addressed this very -- tomorrow, the next time our leaders meet, what would they be? What needs to be addressed next?
GORELICK: Well, the least sexy one and the most important is that Congress reform itself. It's very good at reforming the executive branch and it did that in the legislation that passed in December.
But the mirror changes that need to be made on Capitol Hill haven't been made.
So there are still multiple committees responsible for overlapping jurisdictions, responsibility for the power of the purse, the money, hasn't followed the oversight responsibilities. And we will be urging Congress -- including the five members of our commission who have served -- will be urging Congress to change.
Second, much more information sharing -- the executive branch and the senior levels, really, the president and his senior advisers, have to make rules for who needs to share what. Former Attorney General Thornburgh said these practices are ad hoc. They are not well- understood rules about sharing.
And finally, talent -- we really need to train and hire and promote analysts who can work together and dig deeply and find out what the threats are that make us less safe.
PHILLIPS: Jamie Gorelick, let's talk the next time the panel meets. Is that a deal?
GORELICK: It is a deal.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks so much.
GORELICK: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Thank you. You, too.
CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.
Straight ahead, coming home early from work? Well, it's no big deal, unless you're a sex offender being monitored by a new probation program. A look at the high-tech methods to keep tabs on these criminals, coming up.
And later, the end of an era. Buckingham Palace guards, (INAUDIBLE) with thumbs up from bears around the world.
We're back right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Well, Beijing's Tiananmen Square is infamous for the events of 1989 when a spark of democracy was brutally extinguished by a hard-line communist government.
As part of CNN's anniversary series, "Then and Now," we look at one of the demonstrators and see where he is today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA ZAHN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tiananmen Square, April 1989. It began peacefully. Beijing University Students mourning the death of a former government leader who supported the student movement for democracy. But the students' memorial turned into a peoples' protest that lasted nearly six weeks. Wang Dan was one of the student leaders.
WANG DAN: I saw the power of the people in that moment, the really big power of the people. This is the first time in the history of the Republic of China that people go to the street without allowance from the government.
ZAHN: The Chinese government imposed martial law at the end of May, but the protests continued until troops moved in on June 4th. It's still isn't known how many people were jailed, injured or killed.
WANG DAN: Those people who died, I really feel deep sorrow for them because I was the leader. I led them to the square.
ZAHN: Wang Dan was imprisoned twice for his actions, and eventually released into exile to the U.S. He's published 17 books, and is studying for his Phd at Harvard.
WANG DAN: If I have a chance to go back to China, of course I still will be involved in political activities or other activities, and try to promote human right and democracy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Michael Jackson's defense team is on deliberation watch in Santa Maria, California today. The jury in the child- molestation trial began its first full day of deliberations just about two hours ago.
CNN will have live coverage of the verdict. You can get more of Jackson news online at CNN.com.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eight women, four men are deliberating the Michael Jackson molestation trial. CNN.com brings you the key issues that may decide his fate. Flip through our interactive timeline for the some of the key moments in the trial and the interruptions, like when the 46-year-old pop star showed up 90 minutes late for court wearing his pajamas, complaining of a back injury, putting his $3 million bail briefly in jeopardy.
Or when a forensic accountant testified that Jackson faces millions of dollars in debt and a looming financial crisis.
CNN.com/jacksontrial looks as the jurors now deliberating. Where they work. Do they have kids? How they feel about Jackson? What's their educational background? Juror number 77 works in social services. The 44-year-old woman calls Michael Jackson a great entertainer. She's also divorced with a son in his 20s. She or someone close to her has been diagnosed with cancer. Why should that matter? Well, Jackson's teen accuser is a cancer survivor. We profiled all 12 jurors, from a 79-year-old retirement woman, to an assistant head cashier who's just 20 years old.
We've also broken down the 10 counts Jackson faces in our online special at CNN.com/jacksontrial.
I'm Christina Park, and that does it from the dot-com desk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Child advocates are calling for more aggressive monitoring of child predators in the wake of several high-profile crimes.
CNN's Kelly Wallace shows us how one state-of-the-art pilot program is working in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW SPANO, WESTCHESTER COUNTY EXECUTIVE: That's where he is right now.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In Westchester County, New York, tracking sex offenders has gone high tech. This yellow dot represents one sex offender and his movements throughout the county in real time. Probation officers can see where he is at any moment.
SPANO: Not only are we watching them, but they know we're watching them. And that's a deterrent.
WALLACE: The green dots represent where the sex offender has been every single minute of the day. It is a 24/7 history of a sex offender's every move.
SPANO: You know, this guy goes home at night, and a day later if something is found in that area that occurred on this day, we can go back and take a look. Was he there? Was he there at that time, et cetera?
WALLACE: Here's how it works. The sex offender wears an ankle bracelet and carries a special cell phone. Any time he goes into a restricted area or deviates from his schedule, a probation officer gets an alert on a handheld device. In fact, during our interview...
SPANO: He's getting it right now.
WALLACE: ... an officer received an alert that a sexual offender came home from work early.
SPANO: I called the guy up and said, 'Why are you home early?' And if it sounds a little fishy, you know, he will follow that up and then we'll follow through.
WALLACE: Right now, the county's pilot program involves only seven sex offenders on probation at a cost of $8 per day per offender. Westchester County executive Andrew Spano hopes one day every sex offender in the area will be tracked.
(on camera): Why is it so important to you?
SPANO: We have 270 people on probation in Westchester County, and I want to know where they are at all times. That's why this is important. It keeps them away from certain places where they may be tempted, where they can hurt people. We want to make sure that they don't hurt anybody.
WALLACE (voice over): But some prison reform activists say 24- hour tracking won't necessarily stop a sex offender from preying on kids, and could be an unwarranted intrusion.
DAVID SINGLETON, PRISON REFORM ADVOCACY CENTER: Requiring them to be subject to global positioning monitoring is a political gimmick that is not going to make our children safer and is actually going to waste taxpayer dollars.
WALLACE: David Singleton argues 24-hour tracking should only be used on a case-by-case basis, taking into account a sex offender's criminal history. But Spano, who is up for re-election in November, says he'd rather be safe than sorry.
SPANO: The average person in Westchester County who is a victim of sex offenders is a 14-year-old girl. Well, we have 14-year-old girls throughout the entire county. So, we have to be concerned where they are.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, a long-standing tradition in Britain may be coming to an end for the sake of animal rights. But can the country's bear to lose one of the most beloved attractions? Here's CNN senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some bear in Canada may be shivering so this member of the queen's guards can have this ceremonial bearskin cap. Indeed, if animal rights activists are to be believed, 10 black bears lose their hides each year for queen, country and British tradition.
ANDREW BUTLER, PETA: There are all sorts of British traditions that I'm glad to see the back of. One is colonialism. The other should be the killing of animals for unnecessary purposes such as this. RODGERS: The organization People for Ethical Treatment of Animals readied this fake bear to dramatize their campaign against bearskin caps and to lobby Queen Elizabeth II on her most recent trip to Canada. But the Mounties outran the bear. Indeed, they may have run it off with these big guns. Still, here in Britain, the bearskins may now only be clinging by their chin straps.
(on camera): The Ministry of Defense, bowing to pressure from animal rights groups, is testing fake bearskins using synthetic fibers, now undergoing military trial.
(voice-over): The real question, however, is, will the tourists want their pictures taken with red coats wearing nylons on their heads or whether anyone will notice.
BUTLER: We hope that people will recognize that these bears value their own lives, they value their young and that mother bears shouldn't be shot from trees simply for a ceremonial hat.
RODGERS: Arguably, the disappearance of the traditional bearskin is no big deal. After all, the British borrowed them from the French, Napoleon's imperial guard, after the Battle of Waterloo. Still, the British have now outlawed fox-hunting, ending yet another timeless tradition. They're getting rid of London's hop-on, hop-off double deck buses.
The British Empire now lives only in tea rooms like this but then, the consumption of tea, the traditional national brew, has fallen off sharply, as well. And when tea goes in Britain, one can only wonder what's next.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Also coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, are you among the millions of Citibank customers whose personal info has been lost? We're going to have more on that coming up next. And we're going to take a look at the Michael Jackson team. Are they planning for the worst as the jury ponders his fate?
LIVE FROM's second hour begins right after this.
(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 June 6, 2005 - 13:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Could this be the site of the 2012 Summer Olympics? Well, a key vote is planned in New York City this afternoon on whether city officials want to kick in enough money to make the $2 billion dream a reality. An International Olympic Committee out this morning gives positive reviews to the city, but Paris has the best overall review to host the 2012 Games.
A state judge in Washington nixes a do-over in the 2004 governor race. Within just the past hour, the judge rejected a petition brought by the state Republican Party seeking to nullify the results of the hotly contested race, which gave a slim 129-vote victory to Democrat Christine Gregoire over Republican candidate Dino Rossi.
Well, a Utah man who confessed to killing his wife is expected to be sentenced today. You'll remember Mark Hacking. He admitted that he shot his wife, Lori Hacking, then dumped her body in a trash bin last July, after she learned he had been lying to her. Hacking likely will receive a sentence of six years to life in prison.
Opening statements are under way in the case of a former Florida professor charged with aiding terrorists. Samuel Al Arayan (ph) and three co-defendants are accused of raising money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The men deny the charges. Court documents show that the government's case is largely based on years of intercepted phone calls and documents.
PHILLIPS: In today's CNN Security Watch, members of the former 9/11 Commission are gathered in Washington almost a year after releasing its hard-hitting list of recommendations to keep the country safe from terrorism. The panel is trying to assess whether the government is acting on enough of those recommendations.
Jamie Gorelick is a member of the 9/11 Commission, she's moderating today's discussions.
How did they go?
JAMIE S. GORELICK, FORMER 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: I thought they went great.
We had three terrific panelists: former Attorney General Thornburgh, John Gannon, a very senior official from the intelligence community, and a journalist, Chitra Ragavan, who's covered the FBI. So we had lots of very well-informed personnel briefing us.
PHILLIPS: Now, why take this commission and go private? What's the advantage here, Jamie? GORELICK: We spent two and a half years seriously looking at what led to 9/11, why we were unprepared and coming up with recommendations to make us safer.
We thought at the end of that process that we would form ourselves into a private group, the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, to monitor our progress, to educate the public, and to give a report card, which we will do in September.
PHILLIPS: So what has -- I guess some things have been implemented. Do you think that it's moving along with regard to timeliness in a way you think is average? Or are there a lot of things that are being ignored that you think will get caught up in just filibusters and you will never see anything happen?
GORELICK: Well, we did have a tremendous amount of progress in that we had legislation passed barely six months after we made our recommendations.
GORELICK: The president signed it into law. We have a new director of national intelligence.
But there are two big problems. One is that people don't give up their turf willingly and there are even now in Congress proposals to trim back the authority of the director of national intelligence. And he will need the full backing of the president to do what is a very difficult job.
The second problem is just implementation is hard. These are cultures that have been around for a long, long time and changing behaviors is really difficult.
So that's why we wanted to take a look to see how much progress we have made and not.
PHILLIPS: And you are talking about 41 recommendations. I mean, from the bottom of your heart, do you really believe that all 41 recommendations will be acted upon?
GORELICK: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Really?
GORELICK: Yes. Yes, because we -- these are bipartisan recommendations, I think they're very thoughtful. I say with all due modesty, they're the product of a factual inquiry. They didn't just pop out of our heads. The book was very well read. It was embraced by the policy community largely and the American people.
PHILLIPS: Bestseller, we should add.
GORELICK: Yes, bestseller. Thank you very much. Over a million copies sold, God knows how many read.
So we think that the recommendations which we thought very hard about should all be implemented, yes. PHILLIPS: But what should be -- if you were to pick, let's say, the three most important recommendations to be addressed this very -- tomorrow, the next time our leaders meet, what would they be? What needs to be addressed next?
GORELICK: Well, the least sexy one and the most important is that Congress reform itself. It's very good at reforming the executive branch and it did that in the legislation that passed in December.
But the mirror changes that need to be made on Capitol Hill haven't been made.
So there are still multiple committees responsible for overlapping jurisdictions, responsibility for the power of the purse, the money, hasn't followed the oversight responsibilities. And we will be urging Congress -- including the five members of our commission who have served -- will be urging Congress to change.
Second, much more information sharing -- the executive branch and the senior levels, really, the president and his senior advisers, have to make rules for who needs to share what. Former Attorney General Thornburgh said these practices are ad hoc. They are not well- understood rules about sharing.
And finally, talent -- we really need to train and hire and promote analysts who can work together and dig deeply and find out what the threats are that make us less safe.
PHILLIPS: Jamie Gorelick, let's talk the next time the panel meets. Is that a deal?
GORELICK: It is a deal.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks so much.
GORELICK: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Thank you. You, too.
CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.
Straight ahead, coming home early from work? Well, it's no big deal, unless you're a sex offender being monitored by a new probation program. A look at the high-tech methods to keep tabs on these criminals, coming up.
And later, the end of an era. Buckingham Palace guards, (INAUDIBLE) with thumbs up from bears around the world.
We're back right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Well, Beijing's Tiananmen Square is infamous for the events of 1989 when a spark of democracy was brutally extinguished by a hard-line communist government.
As part of CNN's anniversary series, "Then and Now," we look at one of the demonstrators and see where he is today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA ZAHN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tiananmen Square, April 1989. It began peacefully. Beijing University Students mourning the death of a former government leader who supported the student movement for democracy. But the students' memorial turned into a peoples' protest that lasted nearly six weeks. Wang Dan was one of the student leaders.
WANG DAN: I saw the power of the people in that moment, the really big power of the people. This is the first time in the history of the Republic of China that people go to the street without allowance from the government.
ZAHN: The Chinese government imposed martial law at the end of May, but the protests continued until troops moved in on June 4th. It's still isn't known how many people were jailed, injured or killed.
WANG DAN: Those people who died, I really feel deep sorrow for them because I was the leader. I led them to the square.
ZAHN: Wang Dan was imprisoned twice for his actions, and eventually released into exile to the U.S. He's published 17 books, and is studying for his Phd at Harvard.
WANG DAN: If I have a chance to go back to China, of course I still will be involved in political activities or other activities, and try to promote human right and democracy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Michael Jackson's defense team is on deliberation watch in Santa Maria, California today. The jury in the child- molestation trial began its first full day of deliberations just about two hours ago.
CNN will have live coverage of the verdict. You can get more of Jackson news online at CNN.com.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eight women, four men are deliberating the Michael Jackson molestation trial. CNN.com brings you the key issues that may decide his fate. Flip through our interactive timeline for the some of the key moments in the trial and the interruptions, like when the 46-year-old pop star showed up 90 minutes late for court wearing his pajamas, complaining of a back injury, putting his $3 million bail briefly in jeopardy.
Or when a forensic accountant testified that Jackson faces millions of dollars in debt and a looming financial crisis.
CNN.com/jacksontrial looks as the jurors now deliberating. Where they work. Do they have kids? How they feel about Jackson? What's their educational background? Juror number 77 works in social services. The 44-year-old woman calls Michael Jackson a great entertainer. She's also divorced with a son in his 20s. She or someone close to her has been diagnosed with cancer. Why should that matter? Well, Jackson's teen accuser is a cancer survivor. We profiled all 12 jurors, from a 79-year-old retirement woman, to an assistant head cashier who's just 20 years old.
We've also broken down the 10 counts Jackson faces in our online special at CNN.com/jacksontrial.
I'm Christina Park, and that does it from the dot-com desk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Child advocates are calling for more aggressive monitoring of child predators in the wake of several high-profile crimes.
CNN's Kelly Wallace shows us how one state-of-the-art pilot program is working in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW SPANO, WESTCHESTER COUNTY EXECUTIVE: That's where he is right now.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In Westchester County, New York, tracking sex offenders has gone high tech. This yellow dot represents one sex offender and his movements throughout the county in real time. Probation officers can see where he is at any moment.
SPANO: Not only are we watching them, but they know we're watching them. And that's a deterrent.
WALLACE: The green dots represent where the sex offender has been every single minute of the day. It is a 24/7 history of a sex offender's every move.
SPANO: You know, this guy goes home at night, and a day later if something is found in that area that occurred on this day, we can go back and take a look. Was he there? Was he there at that time, et cetera?
WALLACE: Here's how it works. The sex offender wears an ankle bracelet and carries a special cell phone. Any time he goes into a restricted area or deviates from his schedule, a probation officer gets an alert on a handheld device. In fact, during our interview...
SPANO: He's getting it right now.
WALLACE: ... an officer received an alert that a sexual offender came home from work early.
SPANO: I called the guy up and said, 'Why are you home early?' And if it sounds a little fishy, you know, he will follow that up and then we'll follow through.
WALLACE: Right now, the county's pilot program involves only seven sex offenders on probation at a cost of $8 per day per offender. Westchester County executive Andrew Spano hopes one day every sex offender in the area will be tracked.
(on camera): Why is it so important to you?
SPANO: We have 270 people on probation in Westchester County, and I want to know where they are at all times. That's why this is important. It keeps them away from certain places where they may be tempted, where they can hurt people. We want to make sure that they don't hurt anybody.
WALLACE (voice over): But some prison reform activists say 24- hour tracking won't necessarily stop a sex offender from preying on kids, and could be an unwarranted intrusion.
DAVID SINGLETON, PRISON REFORM ADVOCACY CENTER: Requiring them to be subject to global positioning monitoring is a political gimmick that is not going to make our children safer and is actually going to waste taxpayer dollars.
WALLACE: David Singleton argues 24-hour tracking should only be used on a case-by-case basis, taking into account a sex offender's criminal history. But Spano, who is up for re-election in November, says he'd rather be safe than sorry.
SPANO: The average person in Westchester County who is a victim of sex offenders is a 14-year-old girl. Well, we have 14-year-old girls throughout the entire county. So, we have to be concerned where they are.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, a long-standing tradition in Britain may be coming to an end for the sake of animal rights. But can the country's bear to lose one of the most beloved attractions? Here's CNN senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some bear in Canada may be shivering so this member of the queen's guards can have this ceremonial bearskin cap. Indeed, if animal rights activists are to be believed, 10 black bears lose their hides each year for queen, country and British tradition.
ANDREW BUTLER, PETA: There are all sorts of British traditions that I'm glad to see the back of. One is colonialism. The other should be the killing of animals for unnecessary purposes such as this. RODGERS: The organization People for Ethical Treatment of Animals readied this fake bear to dramatize their campaign against bearskin caps and to lobby Queen Elizabeth II on her most recent trip to Canada. But the Mounties outran the bear. Indeed, they may have run it off with these big guns. Still, here in Britain, the bearskins may now only be clinging by their chin straps.
(on camera): The Ministry of Defense, bowing to pressure from animal rights groups, is testing fake bearskins using synthetic fibers, now undergoing military trial.
(voice-over): The real question, however, is, will the tourists want their pictures taken with red coats wearing nylons on their heads or whether anyone will notice.
BUTLER: We hope that people will recognize that these bears value their own lives, they value their young and that mother bears shouldn't be shot from trees simply for a ceremonial hat.
RODGERS: Arguably, the disappearance of the traditional bearskin is no big deal. After all, the British borrowed them from the French, Napoleon's imperial guard, after the Battle of Waterloo. Still, the British have now outlawed fox-hunting, ending yet another timeless tradition. They're getting rid of London's hop-on, hop-off double deck buses.
The British Empire now lives only in tea rooms like this but then, the consumption of tea, the traditional national brew, has fallen off sharply, as well. And when tea goes in Britain, one can only wonder what's next.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Also coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, are you among the millions of Citibank customers whose personal info has been lost? We're going to have more on that coming up next. And we're going to take a look at the Michael Jackson team. Are they planning for the worst as the jury ponders his fate?
LIVE FROM's second hour begins right after this.
(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
