Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Iraqi and U.S. Officials Calling Election Successful

Aired December 16, 2005 - 13:35   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a top U.S. commander in Iraq just said he does not expect the insurgency to melt away after yesterday's successful election. However the Iraqi and U.S. officials are calling the election successful after no major attacks and an apparently high turnout.
CNN's Aneesh Raman just filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Iraq's Electoral Commission says that it could take up to two weeks to certify the country's electoral results. That after counting began just after polls closed on Thursday. The commission also said that all polls in Iraq, some 6,000-plus were open, except for 12 that were closed due to a security situation in the western volatile Al-Anbar province.

Now everyone on the ground sees this as a critical first step, not nearly a cure-all, for the issues that Iraq faces, security not the least of which, but also basic services that Iraqis want guaranteed. After the results are certified, a period of political bargaining will ensue. No one list in Iraq is set to get the necessary two-thirds of seats in the national assembly. So a coalition will have to be formed.

Now that process could take weeks, if not a month or two, until a prime minister is chosen. But a prolonged delay of that process is dangerous. Iraqis want immediate action on security and on basic services, and any sizable reduction in foreign troops in Iraq requires a strong government that is built with consensus to take over the country as quickly as possible.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, Iraq's Kurdistan region is embarking on a public-relations campaign to encourage outside investment, and to thank the United States for helping to liberate the Kurds from Saddam Hussein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Saddam's goal was to bury every living Kurd. He failed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, America.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: Thank you!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan just want to say...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: As in other parts of Iraq, Kurds registered strong voter turnout in yesterday's national election, with a wealth of oil reserves and an unhappy history as part of Iraq. The Kurds are seeking as much autonomy as possible from the emerging national government in Baghdad.

Joining us now from London, Bayan Rahman, she chairs the Pakistan Development Corporation, which is sponsoring the ad campaign we showed you from that clip.

Good to see you, Diane.

BAYAN RAHMAN, KURDISH DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: Good to see you.

PHILLIPS: Well, your reaction with regard to the elections and where you stand on the turnout.

RAHMAN: Well, we believe the turnout was quite high, which was very positive for Kurdistan and for Iraq. What we want is for the people of Iraq to take steps to democracy. And voting is the first step for democracy, and the high turnout that we believe has taken place is a very big step for all of Iraq in the process toward peace and democracy and a new chapter in Iraq's history.

PHILLIPS: And, of course, a thriving economy plays a huge part to the success and democracy and stability in this region. You chair the Kurdistan Development Corporation.

How are you convincing businesses and corporations to come over to the region now and invest in your country?

RAHMAN: Well we see Kurdistan as the commercial gateway to Iraq. Kurdistan has had relative peace and the foundations of democracy for well over a decade now. So we're able to run our region in a Democratic and in a secure environment, and that has already attracted many foreign companies to our area. We have British companies, German and American, and of course many companies from the Middle East, already operating in Kurdistan. What we would like, though, is to have more companies come, because as I said, Kurdistan will act, and already acts, as the commercial to the rest of Iraq.

PHILLIPS: Why do you think you're having more success right now than what we're seeing in Baghdad, with regard to the insurgency?

RAHMAN: Well, the reason for that is, as I said, we've had the foundations of democracy laid in Kurdistan for well over a decade when the coalition of Britain and America established a safe haven in the Kurdistan region.

With that, we've had our own elections, and we've been able to govern our own region. As part of that Democraticatization process, the Peshmerga, the Kurdistan forces, have worked hand in hand with the Kurdish public to secure the region, and this is the sort of example, the model, that we think can work for the rest of Iraq, as well as the model for democracy and commerce that we believe Kurdistan can present for the rest of Iraq.

PHILLIPS: Well, and you're promoting this through a number of new ads in this campaign. Let's take a look at this one we that found really interesting with regard to travel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you seen the other Iraq? It's spectacular. It's joyful. It has an experienced security force. Fewer than 200 coalition troops are stationed here. Arabs, Kurds and Westerners all vacation together. Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan. It's been practicing democracy for over a decade. It's not a dream. It's the other Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: It's pretty slick. You look at that, you see these pictures and you do, you think, wow, when you see what's happening in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, Tikrit and Mosul, you don't realize there is this other side to the story.

RAHMAN: Well, exactly and that's why we've called the campaign "The Other Iraq." I think viewers in America may see just from their usual TV channels that everything in Iraq is very gloomy, that all we have are insurgents and terrorist attacks.

But, in fact, there are 18 provinces in Iraq and the fighting is only in four of them. It's very tragic that we have that in Iraq, and we are taking steps to remedy that. But the fact is, the vast majority of Iraq is more safe and particularly, Kurdistan region is very safe, very stable.

And as you saw in those pictures, our region even looks different from the rest of Iraq. We have mountains, we have greenery. We're proud of that, of course. And we want people to come to our region and to see for themselves and to understand that there is this other Iraq, which is thankful for being liberated. And I would like to thank the people of America for giving us the chance to get democracy and invite them to come see for themselves and as the campaign says, to share the dream.

PHILLIPS: Bayan Rahman. Thank you so much for your time today.

Well, you may have never heard of Prader-Willi syndrome, but once you do, you'll never forget it. It's a baffling medical condition where people live with an incurable urge to eat, yet never feel satisfied. Elizabeth Cohen reports when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Imagine spending every moment of your life feeling hungry, eating meal after meal, stuffing yourself but never ever feeling full.

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has the story of two people that live that way, victims of a baffling syndrome. It's a story that aired on CNN's "PAULA ZAHN NOW" last night.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIBEL RIVERA: No! Wait. Wait! Wait!

COHEN (voice-over): The sound of the local ice cream truck makes most children smile, but that sound is torture for Maribel Rivera. She's desperate for ice cream, or anything else to eat, tormented by a constant hunger that never, ever goes away.

And it's not all in her head. Scientists have discovered that people like Maribel are missing a piece of genetic material. They're mentally challenged, and they're always hungry.

Brawny Mauer's (ph) son, Andy, has always lived with that non- stop hunger since he was a child.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you think I have to get something to eat, they're never without that feeling.

COHEN (on camera): What is it like to feel hungry all the time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's terrible. I don't know anything else that's so embarrassing.

COHEN: Some people might think, why can't you just control yourself? If I see a donut, I just don't eat it. Why can't you do that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can't. Because it's there. It's the (INAUDIBLE), the need, the urge to get the food.

COHEN (voice-over): After 46 years, he's finally begun to learn how to live with that urge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of the time, I can control it.

COHEN: But Maribel's long, difficult journey might never reach that point. Her mother, Mercedes Rivera, had two normal pregnancies, gave birth to two healthy children, but the third child was different. When Maribel was born, she didn't cry and she didn't nurse. Doctors struggled with what was wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I said, well, what is wrong with my daughter? And they said, nobody has really said anything to me. He said, well, your daughter is retarded. And that's how she said it, just blunt like that. COHEN: All signs pointed to a genetic disorder called Prader- Willi Syndrome, that affects one in 15,000 people. Dr. Suzanne Cassidy is a medical geneticist and a professor of pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco.

DR. SUZANNE CASSIDY, MEDICAL GENETICIST: Individuals with Prader-Willi Syndrome have a period of what we call failure to thrive. They tend to have very poor growth, first in weight and then in length, for a number of weeks or months in infancy. And some time between 1 and 6 years of age, it seems all of a sudden, one day, the child starts eating whatever they can get their hands on.

COHEN: Maribel was a classic case. She had a low IQ. She was late to walk and even later to talk. She was shorter than average. And from the age of 5, Maribel gained weight fast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was eating more than usual, or asking for more, or she just probably had a meal and she wanted to eat again.

COHEN: The Riveras had to change the way they lived to keep Maribel from eating herself to death.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sometimes we even had to like rush ourselves to eat, because if we just kind of do it slow, she'll start looking at everybody's plate, to make sure that nobody was looking and she'll steal from other family members' plate.

COHEN: Food had to be locked up, and the Riveras had to put a fence around their house to keep Maribel from getting out and finding food on her own. But it didn't always work.

MARIBEL: Will you buy me a hot dog, please?

COHEN: Maribel's older sister made a documentary about her 24- year struggle with Prader-Willi Syndrome. She caught this startling moment.

MARIBEL: Will you buy me a one hot dog, please? I'm so hungry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is your parents?

MARIBEL: I don't have no parents. Please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

MARIBEL: Please? Thank you. Thank you. I want ketchup.

COHEN: By the time Maribel was 23, she stood 4'10" and weighed 235 pounds. She had trouble breathing and was diagnosed with diabetes. Her parents checked her into a hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When she first was admitted into the hospital, she was stealing from patients. She was stealing from even the trash.

COHEN: In the hospital, she gained 20 pounds. Her parents brought her home and put her on a strict diet. That sparked a rage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was something that I couldn't even handle. And in fact, my husband had to actually take over, because of the strength and her tantrums and her -- became really strong and violent that I was not able to handle her. As she got older, it got worse.

COHEN: There's no cure for Prader-Willi Syndrome. The Riveras realized that the only place that could regulate Maribel's disorder was a group home, where she could be watched around the clock.

CASSIDY: When such individuals get put into a group home for adults, especially with Prader-Willi Syndrome, this is when I have seen the most amazing weight loss and increase in fitness.

The food is locked up. It's not available between meals and snacks. Everybody in the home is on a diet, not just that one person.

COHEN: It worked for Andy Mauer (ph). He lost 80 pounds when he moved into this group home. He got a job at a recycling plant, spent a lot of time riding horses, and even started dating.

(on camera): I hear you have a girlfriend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I have maybe a couple. Only way I go on dates is if I give my mom my money so I won't go get -- so I won't go out and get food.

COHEN: Why couldn't you just keep Andy at home?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because who would care for him when we're gone? It was very difficult, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

COHEN: And how is that living with other people with Prader- Willi?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like it. Because I need people around me. Because I need the companionship. It's like -- it's like our house, it's -- we're a -- staff included, we're a family. (INAUDIBLE) have to keep busy so their minds won't be on food all the time.

COHEN: Tell me about what you've done that you're most proud of.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm in horseback riding and I got -- won first places several times, which made me eligible to go to the International World Games in Dublin, Ireland.

COHEN (voice-over): Andy won a Bronze Medal at those special Olympics, but with all of his achievements, Andy still has a desperate urge for food 24 hours a day.

Maribel's family knows that living in a group home won't take away her hunger, but they also know it's the only way to control her behavior. As they go to her new home in Wisconsin, they're full of hope. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you excited, Maribel? What are you going to do there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE : Watch a movie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Swimming, exercise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exercise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Make new friends?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Friends.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lose some weight?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Weight.

COHEN: The adjustment to this new place will be difficult, but the first signs are good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I'm going to stay here.

COHEN: Leaving Maribel behind will be hard for her family, but they know that this decision could save her life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: We've spoken to Maribel's family, and they say she's doing very well at her group home in Wisconsin. She loves the snow, she has made new friends, and indeed, she has lost weight.

PHILLIPS: You fall in love with both of them when you watch that piece.

But you do raise the point in the piece that the possibility that parents have to do something because they could eat themselves to death. I mean, you've found cases of that, right?

COHEN: That's right. In fact, that has happened, there was someone living in the home that Andy Mauer was living in, the home you say where they locked up the food. His family decided it was time for him to come out of the home, and so he entered just the regular world, and in fact, he did eat himself to death. He ate and ate, and his stomach ruptured. He's not the only person that's happened to. They're also a health risk like they get so heavy, they get diabetes. They get other kinds of diseases. So there's some real dangers.

PHILLIPS: And the challenge is not just having this uncontrollable urge to want to eat, but they're also dealing with some other mental challenges as well?

COHEN: Right. These people who have this disease are actually are missing a chunk of a chromosome, of chromosome 15, and that's why they're mentally retarded. That's why you see the short stature. That's why you see the eating problems, because those genes control the hormones that control hunger. So they feel it all the time. They don't have the hormone kind of regulation that you or I have.

PHILLIPS: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.

We want to get you some tape now of the president of the United States with the Iraqi ambassador to the U.N. They met just a while ago. Here's their time together.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's my honor to welcome the ambassador to the United Nations from Iraq. This good man is an Iraqi patriot. He was there in Iraq right after liberation. He helped write the TAL, which is the go-by for the new constitution. He's serving his country in New York now. He was a voter yesterday in the elections.

The reason he came by to say hello is we want to talk about what a glorious day it was yesterday for the Iraqi citizens and what we're going to do to work together to make sure that we complete our mission, and that is to have an Iraqi that can defend itself and sustain itself, an Iraq that will help us defeat the terrorists in this war on terror, and an Iraq that will serve as such a powerful example for other countries in the region.

They share the same desire as the Iraqi citizens, and that is the desire to live in a free world and a free society.

I was so pleased to hear the stories from his Al Anbar province, where his grandfather lived. And he was telling me about the stories from the village where he was from, about how there's no phone service because the terrorists blew up the capacity for people to make phone calls, but they forgot to shut off the Internet. And people were then describing to this good man what it was like to participate in the democratic process.

BUSH: It was a remarkable day yesterday in the history of mankind and in the history of freedom.

And so, Mr. Ambassador, I'm glad you're here. Thank you so much for serving with such dignity. Welcome. And great talking to you.

SAMIR SUMAIDAIE, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Thank you, Mr. President.

I believe that yesterday was a great day for Iraq. It was a great day for freedom. I think it was a turning point and the beginning of the end of terrorism in Iraq.

Iraqis have written with their blood a chapter of their history which will be remembered for decades, with the help of the American troops and with your help, Mr. President, and with the help of the American people, which we will remember and appreciate for generations.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. And I believe that we should keep our eye on the ball and make sure that the mission is accomplished and we build an Iraq which is stable, at peace with itself and with its neighbor, and forever I hope a reliable ally of the United States.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, on the next hour of LIVE FROM, who's spying on Americans. Reports out today have people asking if the U.S. government is going too far, tapping phone calls and intercepting e- mails. Former CIA director Stansfield Turner joins me to talk about the government he says that's giong to far, just ahead on LIVE FROM. Stay with us.

(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