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Iraq Gas Crisis; The Last Ride

Aired January 03, 2006 - 13:34   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A U.S. airstrike aimed at Iraqi insurgents may have killed some civilians. Iraqi officials say the attacked flattened a house in the Sunni town of Baiji in northern Iraq and killed six members of the family inside. Reuters News Agency is reporting that at least two of the victims were children. Three more members of the family received serious injuries, but the father and a daughter survived relatively unscathed. U.S. military officials are investigating the incident.
A political shakeup in Iraq. The country's oil minister has resigned amid outrage over a hike in gasoline prices.

CNN's Jennifer Eccleston shows us the tremendous burden the price spike is putting on Iraqis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In central Baghdad, New Year's optimism has already run out of gas. Frustrated motorists in line for hours are told to go home. There's no more fuel.

"I've been waiting for hours," Amir says, "and it's meant to be the fast lane." The station hasn't been resupplied in days, and that's because its main distributor, the Baiji refinery north of the capital, was temporarily closed when tanker truck drivers walked off the job after threats of insurgent attacks.

Even if motorists like Amir could buy, the process would still be ex-aspirating. Fuel prices jumped fivefold in a matter of weeks, from 3 cents a liter to about 16 cents a liter, around 60 cents a gallon. Shockingly low to consumers in Europe and America, but in a country where unemployment hovers around 50 percent, where the average income is roughly $35 a month, to most Iraqis, the price hike is outright extortion.

"More than half of my wages goes to buy gas. What's left to feed the family? Who is going to support me? Isn't the government supposed to support me?"

(on camera): Ironically, it's that expectation of government support that led to the steep increase, introduced as part of a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund. The IMF wants the oil-rich nation to lessen its dependence on subsidized fuel.

(voice-over): Fair enough, says outgoing oil minister Bahir Al Olum, but the increase should be gradual, phased in over time. It wasn't, so he resigned. The spike in prices sparked nationwide protests. And according to some analysts has emboldened the insurgents to capitalize on public discontent and launch attack on Iraq's already beleaguered refineries.

ISMAIL ZAIR, NEWSPAPER EDITOR: It says like you give a gift for this now, give them case that looks like it's from the people by doing that, because people pay the price; poor people pay the price.

ECCLESTON: Just yesterday, another major pipeline attack. Sabotage, a contributing factor in December's record-low oil output. Just 1.1 million barrels a day.

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi will take the oil ministry helm until a new government is formed and a minister is selected. Until then, promises of financial aid to lessen the blow of the price hikes. Just several days into the new year, it's a little too late for these consumers.

Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: There's a bit of a thaw in what some are calling the new Cold War. Russia and Ukraine are trying again to resolve their dispute over natural gas. Moscow cut all deliveries to Kiev on Sunday after the Ukrainian government balked at a quadruple price hike. But some of the pipelines that take Russia's gas to Ukraine also heat homes in Europe. Some countries saw their gas supplies drop by half yesterday. Things are back to normal today after Russia pumped extra gas.

In a move likely to raise concern in the United States and Europe, Iran plans to resume research into nuclear fuel production, perhaps as early as next week. In making the announcement today, the deputy head of the Iran Atomic Energy Organization didn't spell out what kind of research would be resumed. But for now, he said it would not include the enrichment of uranium, a process that can produce fuel for atomic weapons. Iran voluntarily stopped nuclear research two years ago in a bid to defuse international fears that its ultimate aim was to build nuclear weapons.

Well, what do you think of when you hear the word "trojan," well, we think of Chuck O'Donnell and Traveler. What else would you think of? They're joining us live right after a break. We'll tell you why.

Hey, Chuck.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, you may not know his name, but I know you recognize him. He's the one in the armor and helmet riding a white horse around a football field after a touchdown by the home team. That team of course, my college -- I'm a little biased -- the university of Southern California, which battles Texas for the national championship tomorrow. That will also be the last time we're going to see this handsome man, Chuck O'Donnell, as Tommy Trojan, a top traveler, the team mascot. Both are joining me from traveler's home in Burbank. Chuck, great to see you

CHUCK O'DONNELL, A.K.A. TOMMY TROJAN: Good to see you, too, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: I promise I won't make you do the fight song. I know I threatened you with that. I won't do it.

O'DONNELL: All right, thank you.

PHILLIPS: We're going to get to your retirement in just a second. But of course I had the wonderful opportunity to see you as a student a long time ago, right when you were getting your start.

I want to give a little bit of the background, to how you became Tommy Trojan. It's a neat family line here. Let's start with your mom. She loved horses and you hung out with horses a lot as a kid, right?

O'DONNELL: Yes, I did. I started riding when I was nine years old. My mom started taking horseback riding lessons with a girlfriend of hers and discovered that the stable that she was riding at was the home of Traveler at that time. And that's how we got involved with Traveler, when she started dating Richard Sago (ph), and they later married.

PHILLIPS: And of course Richard's your step-dad, a very dedicated salesman. He sold paint. Then he got this interesting job as Tommy Trojan. How did that happen?

O'DONNELL: He had a horse, a white horse named Traveler that was an old movie horse and was actually the stunt double for Silver, the Lone Ranger's horse, and he was spotted riding in the Rose Parade in his white horse group and was approached by a student at USC, asked him if he would put on this, you know, this armor and be the mascot called Tommy Trojan. And asked him if he would do it for one season.

He said, sure, I'll try it. And so he found -- actually borrowed a Trojan armor that Charlton Heston wore in the movie "Ben Hur." Anyway, he rode for one season at the football games. It was a great success. One season ended up being 40 years later with our family doing it.

O'DONNELL: I don't know if you -- I don't know if you've got a monitor there, but we have the two pictures of the outfit that Ben Hur -- or Charlton wore in Ben Hur and then your dad, your step-dad, on the horse, two extremely handsome men, of course.

O'DONNELL: Well, thank you.

PHILLIPS: I'm trying to see, who do you think wore it better, Heston or your step-dad? O'DONNELL: I have to -- that's a tough call. I'll have to say -- you know what? I'm not going to go there. Think they equally looked great in it.

PHILLIPS: We'll be politically correct.

Not only this, but the history behind his horse -- I mean, that's amazing, the connection of the Lone Ranger. Do you have any memories of that or do you have any pictures of your dad on the set? Tell us about that.

O'DONNELL: You know that was of course before my time. The only thing I knew that Richard had was he had Clayton Moore, who was the Lone Ranger, he had his original outfit or one of his outfits and a couple of his hats and also had parts -- like he had his silver gun belt with the silver bullets in it, that he had. I never saw any behind the scenes or anything like that, as far as the Lone Ranger. He definitely was the --

I'm sorry go ahead.

PHILLIPS: No, that's okay, you're right, you reminded me of how young you are, of course, and so that would be before your time, which takes me to your big break. You were 13 years old. Your step-dad actually broke his back. That was a real bummer. We'll have to talk about that in a moment. But he came to you and said Chuck, I need your help.

O'DONNELL: Yes, he was riding in a parade and the horse at that time used to rear and the horse slipped on the pavement and fell over on top of him and unfortunately broke his back and it was a horrific accident. As approaching that football season came along, Kyra, he was in the hospital bed and told me that, you know, you're going to have to ride the first couple of games, because we don't have rider.

And you know the horses and -- I exercised them daily. So while he was in the hospital, he made an outfit that was scaled down to fit me.

PHILLIPS: Oh, wow.

O'DONNELL: The only thing -- yes. The only thing that didn't -- I borrowed his helmet, which his head size was bigger than mine. That was kind of a give-away when I rode out there for the first time, rode about halfway around the track, around the coliseum, and the helmet blew off and, you know, my secret of being 13 years old was out. I was busted. But it was a great experience.

Something I'll always remember.

PHILLIPS: I know you'll never forget that first moment. Tomorrow, it's the last time you're going to charge out on that field and do your thing. Are you -- is it a little bittersweet? I know that it's been, you know, a long and fantastic career, but your heart has to be pinging a little bit. O'DONNELL: You know what, it's been a long, good run for me and I've enjoyed every minute of it and it's certainly been an honor. And this last, you know, time I ride will be -- it will be very sad. It will be -- I'm sure it will be very emotional for me. And -- but, you know, like I say, it's time to pass the reins on to my backup rider, Hector Aguilar (ph) and Joanne Asmant (ph), who owns Traveler Seven here.

They're well on their way and understand how the whole game works and they're very capable of doing it and I will definitely watch from the sidelines or, hopefully, in the stands, watching the football game.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's hope our team wins tomorrow. I'll definitely be watching. Chuck, thank you so much.

O'DONNELL: Oh, of course.

PHILLIPS: Kiss traveler for us.

O'DONNELL: All righty.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Chuck. Thanks, Traveler.

O'DONNELL: All right, you're welcome, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Appreciate it, so much.

Coming up, we're going to go in depth on the subject of cat calls. It's the animal hour, what can I tell you? No, not the kind you're thinking. We're talking about a real cat, a real phone call, and a paw that apparently did the walking. Jeanne Moos is on the case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: CNN Pipeline, a new service from CNN.com, is now available, and we're going to talk about it in just a second and show us -- or we're going to show you the multi-stream broadband news service, a service that you can actually watch rolling video like what you're about to see right now. And that's the president of the United States, talking about the Patriot Act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Earlier today, I spoke to Governor Manchin of West Virginia. I told him that Americans all across our country were praying for the miners who were trapped in the mine there in West Virginia.

I told him that I appreciated the great outpouring of compassion from the West Virginia citizens towards those worried family members. I also assured him that the federal government will help the folks in West Virginia any way we can, to bring those miners out of that mine, and hopefully in good condition. And may God bless those who are trapped below the earth, and may God bless those who are concerned about those trapped below the earth.

I also just met with folks on the front line of fighting the war on terror. U.S. attorneys from around the country have joined us, folks from the FBI whose job it is to protect the American people, are with us as well. We're talking about the Patriot Act and how useful the Patriot Act has been to safeguard America and at the same time safeguard liberties of Americans.

And yet the Patriot Act is going to expire in 30 days. And these good folks whose task it is to do everything they can to protect the American people from a terrorist enemy that wants to hit us again, is asking the United States Congress to give them the tools necessary to do their jobs. And I'm asking the Congress to do so as well.

The American people expect to be protected, and the Patriot Act is a really important tool for them to stay protected. You know, the Congress says to people in the administration, how come you haven't connected the dots? And the Patriot Act is an important way to help connect the dots, to protect the people.

This Patriot Act was passed overwhelmingly by the United States Congress in 2001. Members from both parties came together and said, we will give those on the front line of protecting America the tools necessary to protect American citizens, and at the same time guard the civil liberties of our citizens. For four years, that's what's happened.

Now these good folks have used the Patriot Act to protect America. There's oversight on this important program. And now when it came time to renew the act, for partisan reasons in my mind, people have not stepped up and have agreed that it's still necessary to protect the country.

The enemy has not gone away. They're still there. And I expect Congress to understand that we're still at war and they got to give us the tools necessary to win this war.

And so for the next 30 days, I look forward to working with members of Congress and speaking to the American people as clearly as I can about the importance of renewing the Patriot Act. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: This is actually a perfect segue into what we're about to talk about right now and that's CNN's Pipeline. The president here is talking about, of course, the extension on the Patriot Act and why he is pushing for the Patriot Act, side by side there with the attorney general.

Let's bring in Melissa to talk more about Pipeline -- Melissa Long, the host of our special news service from CNN.com. Explain, Melissa, how this works now. For those that -- you know, say they're watching CNN, they're watching us, and they're seeing this live event going on. Say we come out of it, they can go right to you, click on, and watch the rest of it, right? MELISSA LONG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly. That's one of the best parts of CNN Pipeline. We don't have many time constraints. We really don't have time constraints here. So if you, at domestic television, need to break away from something, we can still stream live video of that event anywhere in the world on CNN Pipeline.

I'll explain about the pipes in just another moment, but first I need to explain one other thing about the way you're seeing me right now. Pipeline is cutting edge technology. It is innovative and high def, HDTV. Therefore, you're seeing an image right now which is a letter box. Therefore, you're seeing the black at the top and bottom.

So that now out of the way, let me explain Pipeline a little bit more. You see President Bush with the Patriot Act just moments ago. We have other pipes, live pipes, that will show you different images. In pipe two, we're getting to the end of a news conference that broadcast earlier today about the mine in West Virginia.

We're showing you this tape segment in advance of a news conference that we are standing by live for that is scheduled to get underway at 3:30. When that begins from West Virginia, we will share that with you as well.

You see pipes three and four bringing you images from the White House. We just wrapped up the daily news briefing with Scott McClellan from the White House. And in pipe four, you can keep on eye on the weather forecast. So those are many of the features with the pipes.

We give you control. You can decide what you want to watch when you want to watch it. So those are some of the options here available to you on Pipeline. So many other features, I can't possibly get into them at all -- all of them right now -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: I know. We're still try to figure it all out ourselves. Melissa Long, thank you so much.

LONG: OK.

PHILLIPS: And we'll continue to check in with you. We're going to take a quick break. More LIVE FROM right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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