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Rumsfeld Confirms Iran Weapons Entering Iraq; "American Voices"

Aired August 09, 2005 - 14:31   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And this just into CNN. The man accused of being the Ohio highway shooter has just pled guilty to manslaughter, eliminating the need for a second trial. Charles McCoy, Jr., used an insanity defense during the first trial, which ended in a hung jury. McCoy was accused of 12 shootings between may of 2003 and February of 2004. One person was killed.
In our CNN "Security Watch" today, we're taking a first ever look at the air defense command at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, otherwise known as NORAD. It has a new joint mission with the U.S. Northern Command.

Our Kyra Phillips, anchor of LIVE FROM is at NORAD/NORTHCOM with more of her exclusive look inside, behind-the-scenes. Hi, Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Tony. It's pretty amazing when you think we're going live inside the command center, considering what it takes to even get down here underground in the mountain, to be in the command center. We got a live picture outside Cheyenne Mountain. Of course, it's the famous tunnel you've seen in the movies and a lot of television shows. That is it. It's the outside of the tunnel.

But wait till you get inside the tunnel. And I'm going to try to follow you as we take a look at the videotape. But what's amazing, once you enter the tunnel, they've got -- right now you're looking at the blast doors. There's three blast doors inside the mountain. Twenty-five ton blast doors, two of them; one of them 18 tons. Less than five minutes, they can get those open with two people manually after cranking them about 500 times. But by the push of a button, less than 30 seconds they can open up the blast doors.

Why the blast doors? Well, the hope is there will never be a nuclear blast, but if, indeed, there were to be one, everything inside, all operations inside this mountain, will be safe. And, of course, there is rock bolts that help support all those rock walls inside the mountain here.

Now, I'm going to work my way over the command center to Colonel Mike Connolly, U.S. Army. He is actually the command director in the command center today. And I wanted to talk about the various things that they are monitoring in here, from missile warnings to missile defense if need be, in addition to space, but right now you're actually working three incidents going on in our airspace right now. What's going on?

COL. MIKE CONNOLLY, U.S. ARMY: We're actually working three incidents. We have an unruly passenger that we'll talk about here in just a minute. We have a passenger who's having air sickness, believe it or not, so the airplane is diverting. And then the third incident is -- Leigh Ann (ph) can briefing us on that. She'll bring us up to speed on the third incident.

And the last thing we're doing, the fourth incident we're actually doing, is a gas leak in Little Rock, Arkansas, where a thousand people have been evacuated, so.

PHILLIPS: It never rests in here. All right. Stay with me. I'm going to kind of move over because obviously we have to stay tethered. We can't go remote in here. Leigh Ann, I'm going to -- you are actually the air battle management director today. Tell me what you're working, this third incident.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) the real world. What we've got is Continental 1884 from New York to St. Thomas has an unruly passenger, no FAM on board. The aircraft is complying with FAA guidance. He's due to arrive at St. Thomas at 1506 local. Law enforcement and TSA are going to respond and the cockpit is secure, so that one should be under control and he's up on TSD.

The second one is an aircraft that they have delayed at Dallas/Ft. Worth. It's going to La Guardia. They have the passengers de-planed and they're going to rescreen and they do have FAMs on board. So that one's no problem. And the medical emergency is going into Baltimore, no problem.

PHILLIPS: All right, Leigh Ann, thank you so much. And, of course, FAM, Federal Air Marshal, very important part of -- well, it gives you a big sigh of relief when you know there is a FAM on board, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Big sigh of relief when we have a FAM on board. That's exactly right.

PHILLIPS: Now something right behind your head -- maybe we can get a shot, Kevin, up here. This one monitor, the TSD Leigh Ann was talking about, the Traffic Situation Display. Explain. That is basically all the airspace that you guys are monitoring?

CONNOLLY: That is all the airspace of the Continental United States that we are monitoring. The green is actually weather so we know where the weather is good or bad. When there's better weather, of course we have more aircrafts out there flying. But the -- actually, the white tracks that you see up there are the aircrafts that Leigh Ann just briefed you on. So we can track them under a flight plan and make sure they stay on their flight plan for their intended route.

PHILLIPS: And right next to that, the (INAUDIBLE) map, NORAD/NORTHCOM Command Center. That's all basically the dignitaries, from the president to the sec-def. You know where they are at all time.

CONNOLLY: Yes. We report them as our senior leaders for both military and political side. Those are the individuals I have to interface with when there's incidents. I reached that level so I could talk to them, bring them up to a situation, (INAUDIBLE) level it needs to be so we can get the right action.

PHILLIPS: Colonel Mike Connolly, thank you so much.

And so, Tony, you kind of got a little taste of what happens here in the command center. And, obviously, the mission is so much bigger when you're talking about air defense.

And coming up 3:00 Eastern Time in "THE SITUATION ROOM," we're going to talk with Admiral Timothy Keating again. You actually met him yesterday in "THE SITUATION ROOM." He's the commander of U.S. Northern Command and Norad. He's going to be in here, giving us a little bit more detail about the other screens in this room and what everybody here is keeping a close eye on.

HARRIS: Wow, Kyra. That was wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much.

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.

Well, you may have seen the Pentagon briefing here on CNN in our last hour. The Pentagon is announcing some new concerns today about weapons from Iran flowing into Iraq.

Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now with details -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Tony, it was a contentious briefing here in the Pentagon. A lot of questions for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, of course, about the insurgency in Iraq.

And it was yesterday, actually, that CNN began reporting that weapons were being smuggled from across the Iranian border into Iraq. That came up at the briefing today. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld could not have been more critical of the situation, more critical of Iran. Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: It is true that weapons clearly, unambiguously, from Iran have been found in Iraq. I'm not going to comment on the other aspects of your question.

QUESTION: Do you know how many, sir?

RUMSFELD: Oh, no, goodness. How can you know? You only know what you know. That's a big border and it's notably unhelpful for the Iranians to be allowing weapons of those types to cross the border.

(END VIDEO CLIP) STARR: What Secretary Rumsfeld is indicating is that he cannot say at this point whether these weapons coming in from Iran, these bombs, these explosive devices, were actually sanctioned by the central government in Tehran. But what he is talking about is a shipment of what they are calling manufactured explosives. Not the improvised explosives that we've seen cause so much damage by the insurgency, as we saw in some of this video we showed, but manufactured explosives. These are explosive bombs that are very precise, very lethal, much different than what we have been seeing in Iran.

It is a matter of great concern. Secretary Rumsfeld saying it will be a problem for Iraq, for the coalition partners, for the region; but that ultimately, he said, it would be a problem for Iran. Now, the secretary going on to say he was not implying any threat against Iran, but very clear that he finds this entire situation "not helpful," in his words -- Tony.

HARRIS: Sounded like one, Barbara. It really did. OK, Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us. Barbara, thank you.

STARR: Sure.

HARRIS: The war in Iraq is no doubt causing anxiety for White House pollsters, with a decline in some of the president's ratings. Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport is crunching the numbers on our "American Voices" segment today.

Frank, Mr. Bush's approval rating is holding at an historic low. Read us those numbers for us. Give us the details.

FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: All right. Put it in some context for you -- after all, here at Gallup, we've been measuring job approvals for presidents going back to Franklin Roosevelt. So we got a huge track record to put this in; that is, context to put in.

45 percent, current rating for Bush. 44 percent was the last rating. That's right at the lowest we've seen for the administration; coming down this year. If you look at the graph, he was back up above 50 percent in January, however the 45 percent, Tony, not catastrophic.

Clinton, his father, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, all of them had ratings in the 30 or the 20 percent points at some point range. So, this 45 percent is not as bad as other presidents have seen.

Same time, look at this: We asked those who approve or disapprove to tell us whether they feel strongly about it or not; interesting finding here, not unexpected. Those who disapprove of the president's job performance, much more likely to feel strongly about it. See those bottom numbers, 38-13, the split. Those who approve, much more evenly divided about whether they feel strongly or moderately about their views -- Tony?

HARRIS: Hey, Frank. President Bush's Iraq policy has really come into focus this week as the mother of a soldier slain in Iraq keeps a vigil, protest near his Texas ranch. Is the president losing public support for the war?

NEWPORT: Very important question and I don't believe it's fair to say that he's losing support. I would say based on a lot of our analysis here at Gallup, that he maintains the same level of majority disapproval that we've seen off and on now for a number of weeks.

Key question: Was it worth it to go to war in Iraq? We probably track this as much as any other question. Right now, 44 percent yes. Divide that or subtract that from 100, you see the majority say no. Again, that kind of goes up and down from poll to poll. The majority saying no, but not a record negativity on that part.

Should troops be withdrawn? The Bush administration, at least according to news reports, thinking about doing something by the end of the year into next year. American public would say yes to that. Add up those two numbers right-hand side, that's 56 percent of Americans who action-step wise would tell the president withdraw some or all of the troops starting right now.

HARRIS: Frank, we're now -- what is it? Four weeks away from the start of Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. As more is becoming known about his legal history, does the public like what it sees?

NEWPORT: Well, standard operating procedure here: Robert started out with a virtual clean slate. When we asked the public a couple of weeks ago, 59-22, yes, the Senate should confirm him, 22, no.

By the way, those missing people are those that didn't have an opinion. Now we just asked it, 51-28. So, Tony, the support has come down a little; opposition up, but that's fairly normal, because as a nominee is in the news, naturally there's more negative stuff that comes out and he's losing some support. But still, almost 2-1 ratio the public still says yes to John Roberts.

HARRIS: OK. One last question for you, Frank. Rafael Palmeiro, the slugger for the Baltimore Orioles: His agent is denying reports that they -- that the -- well, the steroids-tainted slugger -- that's what we have to call him -- will retire rather than return from his suspension on Thursday. Do fans believe his hall of fame chances are tainted?

NEWPORT: They do. We put him in the context of some other players who appeared at that hearing last March in Congress and have been talked about in the context of drugs. Should these players be in the hall of fame? Well, look, Tony, McGwire, yes, Sosa, yes, Bonds, yes. Look at Rafael Palmeiro, less than half the fans say yes to him in the hall of fame. We'll see how that plays out if and when he comes back to action. I think it's this Thursday night, hopefully.

HARRIS: It's this Thursday. OK, Frank. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Quitting smoking for good: Tips on how to kick the habit. New methods that may work best for you. That's ahead on LIVE FROM.

And I'm Sibila Vargas in Hollywood. He's half of the hilarious pot-smoking duo, Cheech and Chong, but Cheech Marin has a very colorful secret he's ready to share. We'll take you inside when LIVE FROM returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You may remember Cheech Marin from the Cheech and Chong counterculture comedy team or from his more recent acting work. But you may not know about another side of Cheech Marin, his passion for art. Our entertainment correspondent, Sibila Vargas, has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN HOLLYWOOD CORRESPONDENT: When you picture an art collector with exquisite taste, this is hardly the image that comes to mind.

CHEECH MARIN, ACTOR: I'm been smoking since I was born, man. I can smoke anything, man.

VARGAS: Off screen though, Cheech Marin is nothing like the guy in the Cheech and Chong comedies. An avid art-buff, his collection of contemporary Chicano art is one of the largest in the world.

MARIN: I would like to spread Chicano art into the mainstream and have it recognized as it should be.

VARGAS: Marion's already made some headway on that goal: Paintings from his private collection are currently on a five-year tour to 50 major art museums across America and he's just launched another one: The Chicano Collection, a series of prints by 26 Chicano artists.

MARIN: What I learned from show business and kind of my dealings with corporate America: It's all about shelf space. It's all about getting your name from the public. You can't love or hate Chicano art unless you see it.

VARGAS: Well then, let's have a look.

MARIN: This is Janine (ph) at 39, mother of lying in the agava with a rose and just like ripe lushness. I mean if there was ever a picture of the lusciousness of a woman, this is it.

This particular one kind of chronicles the blending of two neighborhoods, Chino-Latino -- Chinese-Latin. It's a blending of turf, a fighting for turf, trying to say which is more dominant or do they actually get along?

The man who loves women and whether it's the whore or virgin or the girlfriend. You know? It's like, he likes them all with both hands, you know?

The greater thing about this particular painting is just how technically incredible it is. I mean, you know and that the youngest painter in the show decided to depict one of the seminal historical events of Chicano history.

VARGAS: Art snobs not withstanding, Marin hopes the public comes to love this art as much as he does.

MARIN: What we're bringing to America is this wonderful gift for free. Here's the best and the brightest and the culmination of our creativity in pictures and this -- we come bearing gifts. We come in peace and we come to add to the culture.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VARGAS: And I have to say, Tony, I was so impressed with Marin's collection. I wanted to give our CNN viewers another chance to see it up close. So, for more on my information on my interview with Cheech and to look at this collection, head over to CNN.com/Showbiz. I think you're going to be as impressed as I am.

HARRIS: OK.

VARGAS: See, never judge a book by its cover.

HARRIS: There you go. All right. Sibila, thank you very much.

And still ahead: A bold bank heist. Thieves tunnel underground and get away with millions. LIVE FROM is on the story, when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: News around the world now, starting with a dangerous ribbon of flames. Firefighters are battling a string of forest and brush fires across Spain, Portugal and France. Parched conditions have left many parts of Southern Europe on full-scale alert. More than a dozen firefighters have been killed, and thousands of acres destroyed.

In Brazil, a daring bank heist. Listen to this. Police say thieves tunneled nearly 300 feet to get into a Central Bank vault. They made off with $65 million over the weekend. The tunnel is quite elaborate, too, with electric lights and reinforced walls. No word on how the thieves broke into the vault's six-foot-thick concrete walls to get the cash.

And in Japan, residents of Nagasaki marking the grim milestone today. It's the 60th anniversary of the atomic bomb attack on that city. Some 6,000 people, including bombing survivors, attended a ceremony to remember the victims.

How to stop smoking? New tricks to kick the habit for good, next on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: With word today that Dana Reeve is battling lung cancer and Sunday's death of anchorman Peter Jennings from the disease, many smokers may be taking a hard look at their cigarettes. Although Reeve was not a smoker, Jennings was. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer and there are many ways to help you quit.

Here's our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lung cancer is the deadliest form of cancer. It's estimated that it killed 160,000 Americans last year. By now, most everyone knows that for smokers, the key to preventing lung cancer is to stop.

DR. MICHAEL TUHN, AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY: This is a hard thing to do, but it's the best thing a smoker can do for themselves.

COHEN: And quitting at any point can dramatically benefit your health. Many studies have shown you can reap the benefits of quitting just 20 minutes after you put out that last butt, and after 15 years of being a nonsmoker, you cut the health risks associated with smoking by nearly 90 percent.

But the endless onslaught of quit smoking products can be dizzying. So how do you sort through it all? Doctors say they all work, but not necessarily for you.

TUHN: The trick is to find what works for you. Most people still quit cold turkey, but some people profit from using a nicotine patch, which delivers nicotine in a very steady way. Some people combine a patch with gum to get through the hard parts, the cravings. Sort of more sudden way is to get nicotine through either the inhalant or the nasal spray.

COHEN: Nicotine gums, candies, nose sprays, inhalers can all cut cravings by releasing small bursts of nicotine into your system quickly. But there are downsides. A quick burst now may leave you wanting more very shortly in the form of more gum, or even a cigarette.

And how about the patch? It keeps nicotine levels in your bloodstream more constant so the cravings are reduced, but it still releases much lower levels of nicotine than a smoker is used to.

TUHN: The cigarette, within two or three seconds, the nicotine hits your brain, and so the nicotine patch is not satisfying in a way that the cigarette is for someone who is addicted. But it is an effective way of avoiding real troughs in nicotine.

COHEN: Some people choose other methods, like individual or group therapy, antidepressant medications such as Zyban, or alternative treatments like hypnosis or acupuncture. Experts say these can work, too, and that finding the right combination of therapies, getting support from friends and family, and talking with your doctor is important, no matter what you choose to to.

TUHN: The important thing is to, is one, decide to quit; and two, get the help you need. And that help will differ for everyone.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And that wraps up this Tuesday edition of LIVE FROM. I'm Tony Harris at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Now, Wolf Blitzer is live in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

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