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National Day of Action; AT&T Reaching Out?; Russia's Reality

Aired April 10, 2006 - 13:59   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: They're calling it a National Day of Action. As you can see, it's not just talk. Thousands of people in dozens of cities speaking with one voice for immigrant rights.
Take a look at the map. Almost 70 major rallies from coast to coast. One of the biggest is just outside Atlanta.

Our Amanda Rosseter is there. Hopefully we'll be able to have better contact. It sounds like it's not as loud as it was about a half an hour ago.

Hi, Amanda.

AMANDA ROSSETER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. How are you?

It's not as loud. It's not as crowded out here.

We had estimated about 40,000 people who were here earlier today. The crowd has thinned out a bit. People, when I spoke with you earlier, had come on their lunch breaks, and they've all returned now.

We told you earlier that there were families out here, many children are still here with their parents, and large groups of friends who are students. A lot of young people here today.

I want to bring in Senator Sam Zamarripa.

And thank you for joining us this afternoon, Senator.

SAM ZAMARRIPA, GEORGIA STATE SENATOR: Glad to be here.

ROSSETER: You are the one who helped fight 529 in the House.

ZAMARRIPA: Yes, 529 in many ways is the reason I think so many people are here. You know, the Latino community didn't come to the United States to do demonstrations. They came here to work and to contribute, to earn a living and to improve their lives. But 529 scared a lot of people.

So, today what you're seeing are people that are coming out from behind the shadows, overcoming their fear to say two things. One, is we're here to work and that's all, and we wanted to be respected as people.

ROSSETER: And to clarify, this is the Georgia bill that was passed by the legislature earlier in the spring...

ZAMARRIPA: That's right.

ROSSETER: .. and is being sent to the governor's desk. Petitions being signed today to encourage the governor not to sign it. A lot of fear for that?

ZAMARRIPA: I think this community is not as informed as everyone is on the day-to-day politics of things like this. But what I would say is that this is a message for the governor to consider. And I think what ultimately he should do is make sure to talk to the members of U.S. Congress to pass reform on a federal level, which is appropriate.

ROSSETER: What is your greatest hope that will come out of this national immigrant demonstrations?

ZAMARRIPA: You know, I think that if these people are willing to come out of the shadows and overcome their fear, then I think the people that hire them should also speak up. I think it's time for American business to step out of the shadows and to step into this debate with a little bit more courage on their part to say these people are providing a very, very important function, we need them. We're going to need them for the foreseeable future, and we need them in a legal way.

So, that would be one.

The second thing that I think will happen is I think you're going to see hundreds and hundreds of more leaders. I've been in the Senate for some time as the only Mexican-American and felt a responsibility to represent this community. But I think more leaders are coming soon.

ROSSETER: Georgia Senator Sam Zamarripa, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon.

ZAMARRIPA: Thank you.

ROSSETER: We appreciate it. And good luck with 529 and the fight against it.

And Kyra, that was a Georgia senator who helped fight the bill that was passed by the Georgia legislature earlier in the spring session. It's going to the governor's desk. They don't want it to be signed. There is a petition signed by tens of thousands of people here today to encourage him not to sign it -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Amanda Rosseter there in -- just outside Atlanta, Georgia.

Thanks, Amanda.

From the Brooklyn Bridge, to Chinatown, to City Hall Park, marchers aimed to fill the streets of Manhattan.

Let's get straight to our senior correspondent, Allan Chernoff. He's there -- Allan. ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the rally here will get under way in about an hour, but already people have been massing here by city hall. Just a moment ago, representatives of the laborers union walked by. They're construction workers.

We also have people here holding flags from Mexico, from the Dominican Republic, and also from Ecuador. So it's very much going to be a broad coalition here. And they will be speaking with one voice. The message: give illegal immigrants a shot at the American dream.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Marabeth Sanchez (ph) is only 12 years old, but she has a message for Washington.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are not criminals. We just follow our dream.

CHERNOFF: Marabeth (ph) is the daughter of Fernando and Anna Sanchez undocumented immigrants who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexican border 15 years ago. Fernando Sanchez works on construction sites says he didn't have the option to come to the U.S. legally and only intended to stay for a few years. But after having four children, all U.S. citizens because they were born here, Fernando wants to remain in America legally and says he wants to live the American dream.

FERNANDO SANCHEZ, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT (through translator): For me, it means to be able to have progress, to have a better life than the one I would have in my country.

CHERNOFF: The entire Sanchez family will march on city hall Monday joining thousands of expected protesters to support the right of illegal immigrants to seek U.S. citizenship. Community activists Ana Maria Archila says illegal immigrants are eager to have their voices heard.

ANA MARIA ARCHILA, LATIN AMERICAN INTEGRATION CENTER: They don't feel like they don't come here to break the law, but they come here to do jobs that are hard jobs, that are low paying -- low paying jobs that are really risky jobs and they feel like there is a lot of lack of gratitude from the members of Congress that are instilling fear and hatred against immigrant communities.

CHERNOFF: Ana Sanchez agrees and says life is hard as an illegal immigrant. She and her husband live in constant fear of deportation and they have not been able to visit their family back in Mexico for 15 years but it's all worth it she says to raise her family in America.

ANA SANCHEZ, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We have to struggle and that you cannot give up for what is good for -- I cannot give up for what is good for myself, for my husband and for my children.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHERNOFF: The Sanchez family is hoping that the rallies around the nation today will spur Congress to eventually create a path that will allow illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Allan Chernoff. We'll talk to you again throughout the next hour. Thanks so much.

President Bush says that reports of a war plan for Iran amount to wild speculation. Mr. Bush hopes to shoot down one report in particular that says that the planning involves -- actually, it was an article from Seymour Hersh. It came out talking about the White House having or insisting on a nuclear option, and that Pentagon generals are concerned.

But we have had a number of people on our program actually saying that they don't agree with that report. But let's look at what Hersh told CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEYMOUR HERSH, "THE NEW YORKER": They gave this option, this menu to the president and the White House a few months ago, and then later the military, the Joint Chiefs tried to walk back the nuclear option, which is, of course, crazy. Nobody in their right mind would use a nuclear weapon in the Muslim world. There's 1.2 billion Muslims that would be out to get us.

And the White House refused to rescind it. They told the planners to keep it in the plan. And that's the issue.

The issue is that the military wants this out, and the White House is keeping it in. Nobody, I think, in the military wants to use a nuclear weapon, but it's still in the plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: All right. Now, on the other side of this, of course, the president saying still that diplomacy is the best policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The doctrine of prevention is to work together to prevent the Iranians from having a nuclear weapon. I know -- I know here in Washington, you know, prevention means force. It doesn't mean force necessarily. In this case, it means diplomacy.

And by the way, I read the articles in the newspapers this weekend and it was just wild speculation, by the way. What you're reading is wild speculation, which is kind of a -- you know, it happens quite frequently here in the nation's capital.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, Seymour Hersh is one of the nation's best-known and most controversial investigative journalists. Here's a quick look at his career.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Seymour Hersh has made a career of shaking up official Washington. Stretching back to the early '60s, Hersh has won more than a dozen journalism prizes for reporting on everything form Vietnam, the CIA and President Bush's war on terror. His subjects have often expressed outrage over his claims.

Two years ago, the Defense Department denounced a Hersh article on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a hysterical piece of journalism malpractice. Former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle has called Hersh "The closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist."

Supporters counter that Hersh is the consummate muckraker. His work has certainly had an impact. Hersh won a 1970 Pulitzer Prize for his first major scoop, the My Lai massacre of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians by American troops.

Two years ago, Hersh had a similar impact with articles in "The New Yorker" on the U.S. mistreatment of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Hersh got his start in journalism in Chicago in the 1960s. Over the years he reported for United Press International, The Associated Press and "The New York Times." In addition to the Pulitzer, Hersh's honors include George Polk awards, a National Magazine award and a national Book Critics Circle award.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, more riveting testimony in Alexandria, Virginia, where Zacarias Moussaoui faces a possible death sentence for his role in the 9/11 conspiracy.

Also today, a warning from the judge for prosecutors not to rely on emotion to sway jurors. She points out overly-prejudicial testimony might be used on appeal to overturn a possible death sentence.

So far, the jury deciding Moussaoui's fate has heard about half a dozen accounts of the human toll of the 9/11 attacks. Today, the father of one victim said that he was talking on the phone with his son when the plane that the son was flying on crashed into the World Trade Center.

Well, it used to urge Americans to reach out and touch someone, and now AT&T is being accused of reaching deep into millions of Americans' Web communications, in cahoots with the U.S. government.

National Security Correspondent David Ensor explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A former employee of AT&T, a 22-year veteran, says that in a San Francisco building owned by the telecom giant is a secret room controlled by the U.S. National Security Agency containing equipment to sort through huge volumes of e-mail and Internet traffic.

The retired technician, Mark Klein (ph), makes the claim, according to his lawyer, in a sealed statement with supporting documents filed in support of a lawsuit brought against AT&T by a civil liberties group called Electronic Freedom Foundation.

KEVIN BANKSTON, ELECTRONIC FREEDOM FOUNDATION: We think based on the evidence we've submitted under seal this week that we have a likelihood of succeeding in this case.

ENSOR: The lawsuit charges AT&T helps the NSA with a massive fishing expedition, searching through communications by Americans as part of the battle against terrorism.

BANKSTON: They are intercepting millions of people's communications and then sifting through those to decide whom to target. That is plainly a violation of the statutes and the Constitution.

ENSOR: Both the NSA and AT&T declined comment, though the company confirms Klein (ph) used to work there. And Bush administration officials have said the surveillance program authorized by the president after the 9/11 attacks only monitors domestic communications when one party is suspected of ties to terror and when one party is outside the country.

Former NSA director, now the nation's number two intelligence officer, General Michael Hayden, has categorically denied that there's any sort of fishing expedition against Americans.

(on camera): This one bears watching because the lawsuit charges broader surveillance than the president's terrorist surveillance program, and now there's a former insider helping the plaintiffs.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's get straight to our Tony Harris in the newsroom.

Tony, unbelievable live pictures all across the country. Seventy, possibly more, protests taking place on immigration reform.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Yes, breaking out all over the country.

We've been sitting here watching these demonstrations all morning, all afternoon long. And they'll continue into the evening as well as we move farther into the West Coast.

And we want to take you to Houston now to get an update on the demonstration there. CNN's Ed Lavandera is on the scene.

And Ed, what's the update? Set the scene from where you are.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Tony.

Well, we're in -- just outside of downtown Houston, where one of these immigration rallies is just now starting. You can hear the chanting in the background. I'm at the front of the march here, and they are just now starting out.

We've been hearing chants of "President Bush, make our family members residents." And, of course, here the push for the legalization of millions of illegal immigrants who are in this country. And mainly these people who have turned out for this rally here today will spend the next couple of hours marching several miles into downtown Houston.

Organizers say they expect at least 10,000 people to show up here this morning, far fewer than the half-million that showed up at a Dallas yesterday afternoon. But considering that this is a Monday and many people working and going to school and that sort of thing, they're very happy, they say, with the turnout they're receiving so far.

They expect at least 10,000 people, perhaps as many as 20,000 to show up here as well. So this rally just now getting under way.

I think you can see live pictures from it. A couple of miles left. It's a hot, muggy day here in Houston.

HARRIS: Yes.

LAVANDERA: So it's a long way to go before they get to downtown.

HARRIS: So, and -- OK, so -- and I think you just answered my question. My question was going to be, is this just a rally sort of centralized in one location, or is this a rally that leads to a march?

LAVANDERA: Well, it started off at a rallying point just of the downtown area, kind of a beginning gathering point. And now it's starting to make its way through the streets.

The streets are lined with police kind of making the way down the march route that had been planned out by organizers. And they'll make their way to another pre -- picked out location in downtown, and that's where we're headed now.

HARRIS: OK.

CNN's Ed Lavandera in Houston.

Ed, thank you.

Want to take you to New York City now and get an update on the demonstration in New York. Chung-Wha Hong is the executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, and she is one of today's rally organizers in New York. And she joins us from the site of that demonstration.

And Chung-Wha, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. And what do you hope to accomplish with today's demonstration?

CHUNG-WHA HONG, NEW YORK IMMIGRATION COALITION: Well, I'm so excited to be here with what is expected to be thousands and thousands of immigrants, because I think this is democracy in action. And I think you will see a lot of immigrants coming and showing support, showing faith in themselves and in America that they're American, they're here to stay, they want to contribute and call on our government to make reforms happen right now, because we're at a critical junctures in the immigration debate.

We could either take one road that Sensenbrenner -- Representative Sensenbrenner has suggested, which is the road of mass deportations, mass criminalization, let's just separate families and just get rid of all immigrants, or the other which we're saying, which is there is a better way. The other way is the real reform that will give immigrants a chance to succeed and to work here legally and to contribute to the economy so that we'll have a stronger community and stronger nation as a whole.

HARRIS: Sure. Sure. Chung-Wha, I have to say to you up until this moment, perhaps, for a lot of folks the demonstrations over the last couple of weeks has looked like an Hispanic event. So to see you -- so to see you reminds us that this is immigration reform with a big "I" and a big "R."

HONG: Definitely. And I think diversity is what this immigration issue is all about. It's not about some, you know, sub- group, ethnic group asking for their rights. It's about a vision of America that involves all the ethnic groups, all the racial groups to be able to participate fully in our democracy.

So here today in New York, we're going to have Asian-American leaders, Caribbean leaders, Africans. We're going to have the Irish, the Eastern Europeans. So you'll really see what -- what a range of diversity we have in our city. And in the end, when you look at all of our diverse communities, you have to ask yourself -- or we have to ask ourselves, look at all the talent and the energy and the hard work that immigrants bring to the table.

It's silly to be telling them, just get out of this country, leave everything. Let's try to make use of those talents and the potential that exists in immigrant communities.

HARRIS: Chung-Wha, I have to ask you, is there some risk? We understand that there are undocumented workers, illegal immigrants who are going to be marching. Is there some risk to these people who have been living in the shadows for so long and coming out of those shadows and participating in these demonstrations today?

HONG: There's always a risk. I believe we're getting good cooperation from the police. The police knows that the city policy is asking them not to ask for immigration status, because their primary role is to keep the march orderly and manageable. And I think that will happen.

But like you said, this is a big coming out for a lot of immigrants who are too afraid to speak up for their rights in the heavy dark, dark, shadows of the post-9/11 environment. But now because immigrants have been attacked on such a fundamental level, that people are taking the risk to join and say very publicly that we really want to come out and stand up for what is right.

We are part of America. And We want to stay, and we want to contribute.

HARRIS: OK. Chung-Wha Hong, thanks for your time. We appreciate that.

Kyra, just a look at the situation in New York, where that city is staging, hosting another one of these huge, massive demonstrations today, all in opposition to a crackdown on immigration.

Chung-Wha Hong, thank you -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll continue to follow it, of course, Tony. Talking a lot more in the next couple of hours.

Also straight ahead, a rise in racism with violence and fear to match. It's become the norm in parts of Russia, and LIVE FROM brings it home.

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PHILLIPS: Anger among Arabs, some aimed at Egypt's outspoken president. Over the weekend, Hosni Mubarak told Al-Arabiya television he believes Shiites in Iraq and across the Middle East are more loyal to Iran then their own countries. In the same breath, he warned that Iraq is on the verge of civil war.

Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, called those comments baseless, insisting that civil war is neither imminent nor inevitable. For months, Iraqis have complained of lack of support from their Arab brothers.

Teenagers terrorizing neighborhoods, committing horrible crimes and often getting away with them. It's happening in Russia everywhere, every week. Many of these young people are skinheads, fans of Adolf Hitler, a tyrant who once tried and failed to take over their country.

CNN's Ryan Chilcote brings us the fear now in the streets of Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The African students had just finished celebrating a school holidays in one of the handful of St. Petersburg nightclubs catering to the young and adventurous. They were 200 yards from this one, headed for the subway, when they came under fire. One student from Senegal was shot dead.

Police say they found a shotgun with the word "skinheads" and a swastika painted on the butt of it near the scene.

ANDREI LAVRENKO, RUSSIAN PROSECUTOR (through translator): Given the lack of any other motive, we are qualifying this murder as racially motivated.

CHILCOTE: The incident is but the latest in a string of attacks targeting the country's ethnic groups and minorities. Police blame skinhead gangs who often film their own crimes.

Just last week a TV producer from Azerbaijan was bludgeoned in the subway. A week before, a crime even more heinous: the stabbing of a 9-year-old Russian girl of African descent just steps away from her apartment.

Part of the problem, human rights workers say, Russia's skinheads are getting away with it.

Just last week, a jury refused to convict a group of teenagers charged with murder in connection with the death of another 9-year-old girl from Tajikistan. Witnesses said the girl was stabbed to death by attackers shouting, "Heil Hitler!" Though acquitted on the murder charge, these teenagers were convicted of the lesser crime of hooliganism, which comes with a lighter jail term.

Human rights watchers say Russia's hate groups grow bolder every time they manage to beat the system. They become more organized, more militant and more secretive.

We asked these gang members to remove their masks. They refused.

Human rights advocates say there were more than 200 racially- motivated attacks reported in Russia last year, at least 50 already this year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Ryan Chilcote, thank you so much.

Straight ahead, it's being called a National Day of Action. These are pictures now from Phoenix, Arizona, as we continue to cover all the rallies across the country. Thousands and thousands of people pushing for immigrant rights.

The news keeps coming, so do the live pictures. We'll bring it all to you.

More LIVE FROM next.

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