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Iran's Nuclear Defiance; New Orleans Business Owners Set Up Shop Again
Aired March 01, 2006 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: To make headway with Tehran over Iran's nuclear program. Negotiators from both countries met again today in Moscow. It's the third round of talks aimed at meeting Iran's reported nuclear-powered needs, while easing suspicions in the West. The latest proposal is for Iran to run a uranium enrichment plant on Russian soil. The E.U. likes the idea. The U.S. likes the idea. Iran, not so much. Iran insists its nuke program has nothing to do with weapons.
James Walsh joins me now. He's an associate in MIT's securities studies program, and he has just returned from Iran.
Jim, good to see you.
JAMES WALSH, SECURITY STUDIES ASSOCIATION, MIT: Good to see you again, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And welcome back. New good to see you.
Well, we know that Iran doesn't necessarily trust the U.S., and vice versa. But how about when it comes to the U.N. and the IAEA? Will Iran respect their point of view?
WALSH: I think they will. When I was in Iran, I heard a lot of criticism of the agency of IAEA by Iranians saying it's the tool of the West, the U.S. is going to pressure it, that sort of thing. But I reminded my Iranian friends that actually the IAEA has said that Iraq did not have nuclear weapons before the Iraq war, so it took a different position from the United States, and that the U.S. actually tried to replace the head of the IAEA and Mr. Elbaradei on a couple of different occasions.
So I tried to say that they're independent, and really, they need to focus on trying to get this settled with IAEA. And I think that message was received in the end.
WHITFIELD: And that is likely to happen in the next week or so, when the IAEA is expected to offer its recommendations. How receptive do you suppose that might be?
WHITFIELD: Well, I think we're starting a process here, a phase. I think we've had the IAEA report that Elbaradei released, I think, on Monday saying that we have -- there are still these outstanding issues, there are still questions about the Iranian program that the Iranians have not answered yet. And so I think as a result of that report, this will be referred to the Security Council. But I don't think the Security Council is automatically going to impose economic sanctions. I think it's much more likely that they'll go back to the agency, to the International Atomic Energy Agency and say to them we're going to give you an expanded mandate, extra investigatory power. Go and try to resolve these issues. Here's a four-month deadline. Come back and report to us. Now, if Iran does not settle it in that period, then I think we may be moving to a deeper political crisis.
WHITFIELD: So resolve these issues, but does that automatically mean that there are violations or are these merely red flags?
WALSH: It's a great question, Fredricka, and it's a little complicated. The International Atomic Energy Agency says that in the past, Iran has violated its safeguards agreements. They've said that quite straightforwardly. But then, beginning in about 2003, Iran started producing more information about its program.
But the problem the IAEA has is it hasn't produced all the information it thinks that it has. So there are two or three issues the IAEA wants information on, that it hasn't gotten the information on. And that's why there's this controversy now.
WHITFIELD: And at issue, the big picture at issue, is the nuclear weapons and this country's ability or capability of actually putting together some nuclear weapons by what kind of timetable?
WALSH: Well, that's the question to ask, Fredricka. I think too many journalists portray this as a crisis that's going to happen tomorrow, that Iran will have nuclear weapons next month. That is not the case. Even if Iran goes forward with its enrichment program -- which is the heart of the matter right now -- if it goes forward with it, it would still be some number of years, three years, five years, whatever, before they had enough enrichment -- enriched, highly enriched uranium -- to make a nuclear weapon. So there is some time here for cooler heads to prevail, both in the United States, in Iran, and at the agency.
WHITFIELD: And another way of looking at it, if this country has something like 20 centrifuges, they need thousands, right?
WALSH: Exactly. Thousands and thousands of centrifuges.
WHITFIELD: In order to be a threat.
WALSH: Exactly, and they need experience with it. And so we've got some distance to go here.
WHITFIELD: All right. Jim Walsh, now of MIT, thank you so much.
WALSH: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Good to see you, and welcome back.
WALSH: Thank you. WHITFIELD: Well, go back or stay put? It's a question many hurricane survivors are asking themselves these days. For one, it's not just a home that's pulling him back to the Big Easy. That story coming up on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Many New Orleans business people are setting up shop far from the shops or stores or restaurants they lost to Katrina. It's not easy, and some hope it's not permanent.
CNN's Candy Crowley has a case in point.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOMMY MANDINA, OWNER, MANDINA'S RESTAURANT: Come on. This is my daughter. She's the boss. All right. Welcome to Mandina's.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tommy Mandina grew up living over the restaurant Canal Street in New Orleans. Now he walks through what remains, water-ravaged history.
MANDINA: It's been in my family since the turn of the century. It started off as a grocery store. Then in 1932, my daddy and uncle took it over with my mama, and made it a small, neighborhood family restaurant.
CROWLEY: In pre-K New Orleans, before Katrina, as many as 500 to 600 people would come through Mandina's on the weekends for the roast beef or the oyster sandwich, for the Miss Hilda old-fashioned and the conversation.
MANDINA: Jimmy Two Points (ph), the doc, the judge, and a number of other people would all stand around the corner of the bar in the evening and get a cocktail, talk about politics.
CROWLEY: You do not have to go far to see what he remembers. Welcome to Mandina's Baton Rouge, just 80 miles up the road from New Orleans. His partners found the space and talked him into opening up. His employees needed the work. He needed the money, and as Mandina notes, Baton Rouge is where the people are.
He didn't start out planning to stay, but it began to feel familiar, and there is comfort in that.
MANDINA: They order what they used to order in New Orleans, you know, like an old-fashioned -- a Miss Hilda old-fashioned named after my mother, and I got to go make it, otherwise it's not right.
CROWLEY: And with a Miss Hilda or two or even without, there is political talk New Orleans-style.
MANDINA: If five storms come a year to Louisiana, you come back to it every time? Come on, man. They're rebuilding the damn levees, right? We won't have to evacuate. CROWLEY: Baton Rouge has been very, very good to Tommy Mandina. The parking lot is gridlocked. The tables fill as soon as they empty. The people are great. He wants to stay, but he wants to go.
MANDINA: I'm trying. But it's not home. Let me just say that. I want to go home, all right? Make no mistake about that. We belong on Canal Street, but I love this town, and it's been wonderful being here.
CROWLEY: Mandina seems the embodiment of New Orleans, ultimately depressed and determined, somewhere between happy to have survived and furious with what he lived through.
MANDINA: Maybe the government will see this, and that way we can get people down here to fix this damn levee system.
CROWLEY: He is on the road somewhere between what was, what is, and what he wants it to be.
MANDINA: Give me about eight months.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, good.
MANDINA: You'll be back?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We miss those roast beefs.
MANDINA: You miss the roast beef?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, the best roast beef. Best roast beef in the world.
MANDINA: Eight months, baby.
CROWLEY: Tommy Mandina is somewhere between one restaurant and two.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Baton Rouge.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And straight ahead, entertainment news with Brooke Anderson. Brooke, what's on tape?
BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Fred. There is a lot on tap today. TomKat is back in the news. Dave Chappelle parties in the Big Apple, and John Stewart lets me in on some of his secrets as he prepares to host the Oscars. All this when LIVE FROM continues.
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WHITFIELD: It was a pretty big change for Barry Bonds, the San Francisco giant slugger known for his terse relationship with the media. Well, he showed a very different side of himself yesterday. He put on a wig and a dress and he did his best Paula Abdul impression for a charity event patterned after TV's American idol.
Oh, boy, doesn't he lovely? Well, Bonds is baseball's leading home run hitter, and has faced allegations he used performance- enhancing substances. This time the only thing fake, he says, is his wig there, and a few other things -- accessories.
Well, it looks like Tom Cruise may have gotten a bum rap with messing with his wife's new movie. And comedian Dave Chappelle throws a party for friends, neighbors, and total strangers.
Brooke Anderson has a look at all of what's hot. Hey, Brooke.
ANDERSON: And that was pretty hot, Fred, Barry Bonds in a strapless dress. Something you don't see every day right?
WHITFIELD: I'm glad we don't see it every day.
ANDERSON: Me too. OK, I am as well,
OK, we are calling this a projection malfunction. TomKat is making headlines, and this time, it's because of what we are not seeing. When a sex scene from Katie Holmes' latest movie "Thank You for Smoking" mysteriously disappeared at the screening at the Sundance Film Festival in January, it seemed everyone suspected her fiance, Tom Cruise, was behind its disappearance.
But that wasn't the case. The movie's director, Jason Reitman, is saying it was a projection error, meaning the film projector malfunctioned, ending the film a little early and deleting the clip which was at the end of the reel. So, all the rumors about Cruise demanding that the sex scene be cut are just that -- rumors. And by the way, if you have not heard, the future Mrs. Cruise is expecting their first child this spring.
OK, comedian Dave Chappelle, who walked out of his day job on Comedy Central, walking away from a $50 million paycheck -- Dave was in fine spirits at the premiere of his new movie last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE CHAPPELLE, COMEDIAN: That's the kind of thing you really shouldn't incorporate into your self-esteem. You know, you can't just be like, oh, I'm blazing trails, because then I'll start making crazy mistakes or doing something. I'm kind of an intuitive guy, trying to do what feels right, which means sometimes I make incredible mistakes, and sometimes I'm right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: The very humble star has a lot to be proud of as they rolled out the red carpet bling for his new film "Dave Chapelle's Block Party." This big screen picture spotlights the funny man working the room with his all new freestyle stand-up material. "Dave Chapelle's Block Party" opens up nationwide on Friday.
OK, T minus four days until the biggest night in Hollywood. Tinseltown is hard at work sprucing up the place for the 78th Annual Academy Awards. Yesterday, heavy rains in the usually sunny southern California caused a portion of the canopy that's been put up over the block-long entrance into the theater to fall. You can call this tent this year's red carpet security blanket.
Now, it's been years since it's rained at the Oscars, and although there's no rain in the forecast for Sunday, I think the canopy is a pretty good idea. Better to be prepared than not.
All right, you've probably heard Jon Stewart of Comedy Central is hosting the Oscars this Sunday. I had a chance to chat with him yesterday about exactly what he may have up his sleeve for the big show.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: "Brokeback Mountain," one of the biggest contenders this year...
JON STEWART, ACADEMY AWARDS HOST: Yes.
ANDERSON: ... has been fodder for comedians for months now. Are you going to continue on the Brokeback theme?
STEWART: I didn't want to, but I do want to obey the law. And the law is you have to do five to seven gay cowboy jokes. They have to be explicit, and have you to mention the phrase gay cowboy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: He had me laughing throughout the entire interview. As you know, Stewart is popular among young people and one reason is because of his political humor. Fred, he told me, he's not nervous, just very excited, trying not to overthink the Oscars. We will have more on "SHOW BIZ TONIGHT," 7:00 and 11:00 Eastern. More of my interview and what his plans are to actually wow the crowd and wow the world at the Academy Awards.
WHITFIELD: Yes, I wouldn't be surprised that he's not nervous. He's going to be feeding from the crowd there. It's just going to be fueling him to be even funnier and funnier or, you know...
ANDERSON: I think he's trying to convince himself...
WHITFIELD: ... risque.
ANDERSON: ... that he's not nervous, because he has said that this is the biggest stage he's ever performed on. So It would be hard not to be a little bit nervous, wouldn't it?
WHITFIELD: Well, it's going to be interesting to see.
ANDERSON: It will.
WHITFIELD: All right, Brooke, thanks.
ANDERSON: Thanks.
WHITFIELD: Well, civics class takes a back seat to pop culture. A McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum survey shows that 52 percent of Americans can name at least two members of TV's Simpson family, while only 28 percent can name more than one of the five fundamental freedoms granted by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Well, in case you have forgotten, those freedoms are: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances. The Simpsons are Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Oh, and Grandpa.
Outsourcing is a hot issue for American, but what's the feeling in India, where many of the jobs are absorbed? We'll meet an American who moved his company to India, straight ahead on LIVE FROM.
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