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Chalabi Resurfaces in Washington Amid Controversy; Television On Demand; Radio Host Accused of Murdering Wife

Aired November 08, 2005 - 14:30   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now in the news, a top Republican says Social Security reform is probably dead until 2009. Social Security has been one of President Bush's top priorities, but Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley says there are no consensus, even among Republicans. And he now doubts anything will happen until after the next presidential election.
Police in Venezuela say Major League baseball player Ugueth Urbina is in custody pending a formal charge of attempted murder. Urbina played for Detroit and Philadelphia this year. Now, the charge stems from a dispute at Urbina's mother's home, in which police say five workers were attacked with machete. Urbina's lawyer says his client was sleeping at the time of the incident.

More than five months after an Alabama teenager disappeared in Aruba, Governor Bob Riley called for a national travel boycott of that country. Natalee Holloway hasn't been seen since May 30th. Her family claims authorities in Aruba failed to conduct an adequate investigation.

Well, he was once the darling of official Washington. Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi opposition leader who spent years working to topple Saddam Hussein. Today he is the Iraqi politician most associated with the discredited pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Some in Washington say he should be thrown in jail.

The "St. Louis Post Dispatch" editorial calls him a quote,"cockroach." Now Iraq's deputy prime minister, Chalabi arrives in Washington today. He's meeting with Secretary Condoleezza Rice and other officials. Now, a State Department official explains why he's being welcomed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM ERELI, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: Ahmad Chalabi is the deputy prime minister of Iraq. He is an official and a representative of the government of Iraq. That, in that capacity, U.S. government officials regularly meet with Dr. Chalabi. They meet with him when they go to Iraq and they meet with him in -- outside of Iraq in international fora, and they're going to meet with him when he comes here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: So joining us now with his take on Chalabi's visit to Washington is Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution. Let's just run down the list, first of all, who he will be meeting with this week. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, along with the treasury secretary, the national security adviser and possibly even the vice president. Again, this is the same man who was accused of leaking U.S. secrets to Iran. How is he getting in front of all these Washington officials?

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Well, at least there's no state dinner, right? We can be grateful for something. But in reality, I do think we have to maintain contact with Chalabi. And in fact, the fact that -- but the simple fact that we don't get along with him that well at times may even be, in a strange sort of way, an asset. Because in Iraq right now, the United States is not very popular. Chalabi has used his opposition to the U.S. at times to improve his political standing.

And we may need somebody who knows how talk with us, do business with us, but also isn't, frankly, one of our best friends. That could be a good kind of leader in Iraq today. Having said all of that, I think he's getting a little too much of the red carpet treatment, given his past and given his character.

NGUYEN: Well, and given the fact -- isn't he still being investigated by the FBI?

O'HANLON: Yes. I think that we never got to the bottom of the story about what secrets he may have passed on to Iran. You mentioned earlier the way in which he had been in cahoots with those who exaggerated Saddam's WMD threat, although I'm not sure that was a violation of any U.S. law that he could be held accountable for.

But nonetheless, the fact that he passed along security secrets to Iran and may have pilfered Iraqi money -- he may be a thief as well. There have been allegations about that at various times in his career. This is no saint.

Having said that, he may actually be a more powerful figure in Iraq than he already is, and we have to be able to work with him. So I do think some level of contact is necessary.

NGUYEN: It's all very interesting. But I have to tell you, not everyone is throwing out the welcome mat. Senator Dick Durbin had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), MINORITY WHIP: While the Department of Justice is actively investigating this man for wrongdoing that could have endangered American troops and American lives, the Department of State and the Department of the Treasury are hosting him like some dignitary. So don't be surprised if you watch the Chalabi motorcade speed up when they pass the Department of Justice. I guess they're concerned whether an FBI agent will come out and pursue this so-called active investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP) NGUYEN: So are you surprised that more critics aren't standing up and making their voices heard here?

O'HANLON: In a way, I'm surprised. Although, you know, we've been around so many circles already with Chalabi. He's waxed and waned in his popularity, and I think people are probably thinking, we've been through this so many times before, it's not really big news. Having said all of that, I think there's a way to maintain contact with this man and not treat him in such a dignified way. I think the Bush administration's going too far.

NGUYEN: Well, you know, and speaking of the Bush administration, the president, though, of all the people who are meeting with him, the president is not. What does that say?

O'HANLON: Well, it just says there's some limit to what we're doing. And, you know, that's better than having a big meeting with a photo op with the president in the Oval Office. But I still think this is the sort of thing you handle with assistant secretaries or undersecretaries, or, at very most, an unannounced, quiet meeting with Secretary Rice. I would not give this man the status of one of Washington's big dignitaries of the week. And yet that's what we're giving him.

NGUYEN: It sounds like Chalabi is repositioning himself, if you would say. So does he stand the most to gain out of this?

O'HANLON: Well, not necessarily. That's the other thing, is that, you know, again, he is sort of an anti-American politician inside of Iraq. There are times where he's railed against us pretty hard. He's working with a Shia firebrand leader, Al Sadr, who has been opposing American troop presence in Iraq.

And I'm a little surprised as well that Chalabi wants to be seen as cozying up to Washington. He's obviously playing a very careful balancing game in Iraq where he wants to able to criticize us, but also show how powerful his friends are as a way to maximize his political appeal to Iraqi voters.

NGUYEN: It's all so very interesting. Michael O'Hanlon with the Brookings Institution. Thank you.

O'HANLON: Thank you.

NGUYEN: Call it iTunes for your TV. Paying 99 cents to see your favorite show any time you want and commercial-free? Would you do it? We'll talk about this new plan for the networks, and what it means for the future of television. That is next.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Sibila Vargas in Hollywood. Kate Moss is back at work, while Howard Stern gets a forced day off. I'll have that and more, when LIVE FROM returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) NGUYEN: Some people like it, others don't. Well, first it was downloaded music. Now the television industry is hoping to reap big rewards by offering viewers what they want, when they want it.

CBS and NBC will now offer replays of some of the most popular programs for just 99 cents an episode. Will people pay?

Frank Rose, the contributing editor for "Wired" magazine joins me now from New York.

Before I get to that question with you, let's get to a basic question. Why are the networks doing this?

FRANK ROSE, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "WIRED" MAGAZINE: I think networks realize that they have to do something, because they're losing their audience. People are watching less and less network television, and have been for years. So, if they are not watching the shows when they're coming on, the networks have to make them available when people want to watch them.

NGUYEN: And going to what we just mentioned a little bit earlier, looking to the music industry. Can we gauge how the public is going to respond to this as we look to how they responded to downloading music?

ROSE: I think that's sort of a very rough, general way of gauging it. You know, music downloads have gone pretty well, and not coincidentally, the price for the video offering is the same, 99 cents.

NGUYEN: Will this dramatically change the way people watch television? Instead of waiting for their episode of "Law & Order" to come on television, now they can get it when they want it.

Of course, they have to wait until after it airs. But is it really going to dramatically change the way we watch TV?

ROSE: I think, actually, this is just the very beginning of a dramatic change in the way we watch TV. I think you're going to see more and more deals like this. All of the networks are talking to all of the cable operators and the satellite operators.

This is going to become very standard in the next year or so and within a few years, I think we're going to be in a position where, you know, less and less shows are going to be watched when they're actually aired. I think the only thing that will be, you know, watched on any kind of regular schedule is football games and the like.

NGUYEN: You know, I think that's a very good point, because when I read this, I thought, well does that mean that these almighty ratings, which television networks are so keyed on. Are they going to lose those ratings because people simply don't have to tune in when the schedule says you can watch that show?

ROSE: Well, I think the ratings are going to have to be adjusted to reflect this new audience. But, yes. This is very much in response to the falling ratings of the networks in general, and they have to deliver eyeballs to their advertiser. And whatever way they can do that, they're going to try to do it.

NGUYEN: This new way, you can actually fast-forward through those commercials. Here's really the main question here. Are people going to want to pay 99 cents for a show that's already aired, when they could have gotten it for free? I mean, there's DVR, there's VCRs out there. Are people really going to want to pay?

ROSE: Well, that's definitely the big question. We'll just have to see. Obviously, the networks and the cable operators are hoping they will. Comcast, the company that made the deal with CBS, has been offering a great many other shows on demand for free, to a subscriber. And they've had a tremendous pickup rate.

In mid-October, just about a month ago, they announced that over one billion shows had been viewed on demand so far this year. That was way ahead of their projection. So will people pay? We'll just have to wait and see.

NGUYEN: Yes, time is money. I guess now people can actually pay for saving them a little bit of time.

Frank Rose from of "Wired" magazine. Thank you.

Also in entertainment news today, more trouble for Howard Stern. The radio host has been suspended from his show for rubbing his bosses the wrong way.

CNN entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas, who never rubs her bosses the wrong way, is in Los Angeles with those details.

VARGAS: Thankfully.

Well, that's right. Fans of shock jock Howard Stern may have been a little shocked after not hearing a live broadcast of their favorite deejay today.

Infinity Broadcasting suspended the deejay for a day and instead played a compilation of Stern's best shows.

Why, you ask? Well, apparently the gregarious radio host was promoting his upcoming move to Sirius satellite on his radio show.

A spokesperson for Infinity Broadcasting, which carries the show in more than 20 markets, said they expect Stern back on Wednesday. Stern's spokesman, Matt Traub, called it an act of desperation by men who are losing their once in a lifetime franchise.

The shock jock announced his departure last year to Sirius, where he received a $500 million contract to begin in January 2006. Stern boasts an audience of about 12 million and revenues of about $100 million from his morning radio show. His last radio broadcast for Infinity is scheduled for December 16 and I'm sure it will be filled with lots of fireworks. Well, he's an Oscar winner and a Harvard graduate. Now Tommy Lee Jones can add feature film director to his resume. But don't expect any moral lessons from the star. He just wants to make good movies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOMMY LEE JONES, DIRECTOR/ACTOR: We're not didactic moviemakers. We don't have a lesson to teach you. We have a story to tell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VARGAS: At last night's Los Angeles premiere of "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada", Jones made it clear even though his new film confronts the issue of border control, he's not trying to teach any lessons of the matter.

In "The Three Burials," Jones plays a ranch hand who fulfills the promise to his recently deceased best friend by burying him in his hometown of Mexico. It opens in limited release on December 22nd.

Well, you could say she's getting back on the saddle herself. Model Kate Moss is back in front of the camera. The runway regular took her first modeling job since checking out of drug rehab with a photo shoot for Roberto Cavalli. He's a designer.

The photos taken in Ibiza are the first for Moss since she was dropped by several campaigns for alleged cocaine abuse. And according to a London spokesperson, Moss was also accompanied by her 3-year-old daughter on the shoot.

And that's your entertainment report. Back to you, Betty.

NGUYEN: Sibila Vargas. As always, thank you.

Next on LIVE FROM, a Missouri radio personality is accused of killing his wife with listen to this, spiked Gatorade. We have those details when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: A radio talk show host is accused of killing his wife by poisoning her with Gatorade. And, Jim Boyd of CNN affiliate WCVB in Boston has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BOYD, WCVB REPORTER (voice-over): James Keown is a radio talk show host in Jefferson City, Missouri. Police called on him at the radio station and arrested him as fugitive from justice. Authorities here in Massachusetts say he murdered his wife Julie (ph) when the two of them lived here in Waltham. He did it, they say, by systematically poisoning her with a combination of Gatorade and antifreeze.

MARTHA COAKLEY, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: There's some information that this particular substance when mixed with Gatorade will be basically undetectable.

BOYD: Coakley says that substance, ethylene glycol, is a main component of antifreeze. She says James Keown mixed the two and gave it to his wife over several months in 2004, until she was rushed to Newton-Wellesley Hospital on September 7th last year.

COAKLEY: There was a lethal dose of ethylene glycol. And the medical examiner believed that that lethal dose had to be ingested no more than eight to ten hours before her admission to the hospital.

BOYD: Coakley says as Julie Keown lay comatose and dying at Newton-Wellesley, both the hospital and Julie's family went to Waltham police with suspicions that she had been poisoned. A lengthy investigation led police to James Keown, who investigators believed killed his wife to gain the proceeds of a quarter of a million dollar life insurance policy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And that was Jim Boyd of CNN affiliate WCVB in Boston. James Keown does not have a lawyer yet. His sister Shauna (ph) says he's innocent and the truth will come out.

Well, does a clergyman answer to God or the government? The IRS sends a warning to a California church after a controversial sermon. A case raising the question of church, state, and the right to free speech, that's right after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Some churches are more political than others. But just how far can a church go? A Southern California church could lose its tax exempt status because of a sermon delivered before last year's elections. CNN's Chris Lawrence reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Reverend George Regas has been retired for ten years, only occasionally coming back to give sermons at All-Saints Episcopal Church.

REV. GEORGE REGAS, RECTOR EMERITUS: I was here 28 years, and we dealt with hard political issues.

LAWRENCE: He criticized everything from Vietnam to President Clinton. But it's a sermon he gave just before last year's election that has his church in a fight with the IRS.

REGAS: The IRS is charged. It is campaign intervention.

LAWRENCE: During this Sunday service, parishioners learned their church is now under investigation.

REGAS: I did not violate the tax law. I did not explicitly say to vote for Kerry. LAWRENCE: Titled, "If Jesus Debated Senator Kerry and President Bush," Regas' sermon never urged parishioners to vote one way or the other, but did say Jesus would oppose the Iraq war. Some of President Bush's policies would make Jesus sad.

REGAS: I mean, the separation of church and state is important. And it's being threatened today. But it does not mean the church cannot speak to the state, cannot call the state into accountability.

LAWRENCE: IRS agents launched an inquiry and informed the church it may have jeopardized its tax-exempt status. Officials tell us no church can distribute statements that may help or hurt any one candidate.

BOB LONG, CHURCH MEMBER: The implications here could be much, much wider.

LAWRENCE: Bob Long is one of the leaders at All-Saints. He says any denomination should be alarmed by the IRS investigation.

LONG: If the IRS were to basically chill our rights to express our speech and our religious beliefs by threatening our tax-exempt status, that's a threat that not only comes to us, it comes to every church.

LAWRENCE: All-Saints says an IRS audit team offered to drop the matter if the church confessed to the accusation. Church leaders refused, saying they support the IRS rules, but don't believe they broke them.

(on camera): The IRS won't comment on where the case with this church stands, but did tell us last year they created a committee of experts just to investigate cases like this one around election time. So far that team has reviewed more than 60 cases, about one-third of them churches.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Pasadena, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Well, right now in the news, after a dozen nights of destruction, France declares an official state of emergency, and you can see why there, that gives regional officials the power to impose curfews. Prompted by the unrest, the U.S. State Department has issued a public announcement warning American travelers to steer clear of any riot areas, and to be especially cautious at night. We'll have a live report from Paris, just ahead.

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is answering more questions about abortion. He met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill today, including Senate Joe Lieberman. Afterwards, the Democrats said Alito told him the Roe V. Wade decision deserves great respect, but Lieberman said Alito did not assure him that he would not overturn it.

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