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U.S. Troops in Iraq; Message to Iran; New Hope for Patients With Spinal Cord Damage
Aired June 21, 2006 - 13:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We just heard from Senator McCain just a few minutes ago. Now we want to take you live to the floor. Senator Hillary Clinton with the Democratic response to this debate about U.S. troops in Iraq. Should they stay or should they come home?
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SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: ... from becoming a terrorist refuge and launching pad. I simply do not believe it is a strategy or a solution for the president to continue declaring an open-ended and unconditional commitment, nor do I believe it is a solution or a strategy to set a date certain for withdrawal without regard to the consequences.
Instead, I support this responsible way forward, a road map for success that will more quickly and effectively take advantage of Iraqi oil revenues, build up Iraqi infrastructure, foster Iraqi civil society, challenge Iraq's neighbors to do more to ensure stability in Iraq, and allow our troops to begin coming home.
We all know that our troops are in harm's way right now, in a volatile region of the world for which America has significant interests at stake.
We are at a profound turning point for our nation. We are entrusted by our constituents, both those who serve and those who do not, to do what we think is right for them, for our state and our country. Let's be clear about what this debate is about. My friends on the other side of the aisle believe that the status quo is working in Iraq. They do not believe we need a fundamental change in policy.
PHILLIPS: We'll continue to follow, of course, the debate that's taking place right now on the Hill. Republicans and Democrats talking about Iraq and the debate goes on, whether troops should stay the course, or if there should be a date when U.S. troops should be home. We'll let you know as that develops today.
Now Iran says not so fast. President Bush says, what's the holdup? He was in Vienna today for a European Union Summit where the big focus is Tehran and its nuclear program. Earlier, Iran's president said that his country will wait until mid-August to respond to a package of incentives aimed at getting it to stop enriching uranium. Mr. Bush says Iran has weeks, not months, to reply.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: It's very important for the leadership in Iran to look at the world and say, Europe, and the United States, and Russia and China are united in our common desire to make sure that Iranians do not develop a nuclear weapon. And step one of achieving a diplomatic success is to share a goal. And there's no question we share the goal of Iran not having the capacity and/or a nuclear weapon.
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PHILLIPS: Well, the president's next stop is Budapest. He's due there at the top of the hour.
Now, cooler and calmer in southern Colorado giving firefighters a bit of a break now. They're battling a huge wildfire that broke out Sunday. People in three subdivisions near Fort Garland have been ordered out. Others nearby have been advised to leave. Folks in Sedona, Arizona also have been chased out of their homes, as the wildfire races down Oak Creek Canyon. Firefighters are lighting backfires trying to stop it.
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PHILLIPS: We're going to continue to follow the wildfires out West. Our Rick Sanchez is in Sedona, Arizona. We're going to check in with him straight ahead.
The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM coming up next.
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PHILLIPS: Testing a missile or just testing the Bush administration? What's the deal with North Korea and long-range missiles? Well, Pyongyang is now pushing for direct talks with Washington. The U.S. ambassador to Japan says Washington is ready to respond if the test happens. The North Korean missile is believed to be capable of reaching parts of the U.S. and in Vienna today, Mr. Bush warned the world's most closed and secret society will face further isolation if it goes ahead with the launch.
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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It should make people nervous when non-transparent regimes that have announced they've got nuclear warheads fire missiles. And so we've been working with our partners, particularly in that part of the world, to say to the North Koreans that this not the way you conduct business in the world.
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PHILLIPS: Well, North Korea maintains it's no longer bound by a self-declared moratorium on missile testing.
Just in case, the U.S. and Japan are testing their missile defense systems off Hawaii, but it has nothing to do with North Korea, so says the Missile Defense Agency. Part of the practice scenario: a U.S. Navy ship shoot down a multistage weapon. A Japanese navy ship is practicing tracking the target.
An American idol, felled by a relentless killer.
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LOU GEHRIG, BASEBALL PLAYER: Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.
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PHILLIPS: Baseball great Lou Gehrig didn't survive ALS, a disease forever linked with his name, but is there new hope for people with spinal cord damage from disease or injury?
Neurologist Douglas Kerr says that embryonic stem cells may be the answer. He joins me from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with more on the newsmaking experiment.
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DR. DOUGLAS KERR, NEUROLOGIST, JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL: We set about trying to treat paralysis in rats. And we started with adult rats that were paralyzed. And these were rats that had their hind limbs splayed out behind them. And the reason for that was that there was a disconnect. In other words, the spinal cord was no longer talking to the muscle.
And that really is what paralysis is all about, whether it's in animals or humans. Because normally what happens is if we wish to move, an electrical impulse is started initially in the brain, that travels down the spinal cord, and then the electrical impulse is carried by a second nerve, called a spinal motor neuron, out to muscle. And if that electrical circuit is intact, the muscle moves. And in paralysis, the electrical circuit is broken and so the muscle doesn't move.
PHILLIPS: So what is it that you discovered -- you referred to it as sort of a cookbook recipe, or a cocktail of sorts. Kind of give us a visual for what you discovered and how you made the connection.
KERR: Well, what we did is we set about recreating the lower part of that circuit, so the circuit that starts in the spinal cord and goes out to the skeletal muscle. And we used embryonic stem cells. And the first step was really to get these mouse embryonic stem cells to become spinal motor neurons, which are those specialized cells in the spinal cord that communicate with and send their electrical impulse to muscle.
But what we found is that wasn't sufficient. Because although we could transplant them into the spinal cord of paralyzed rats, they didn't do anything. And so they never made the appropriate connections. And so the cocktail approach was to -- I guess, several levels. One, make sure that these cells, the stem cells that is, when transplanted, survived. Second step was to make sure that the spinal cord itself formed connections on to and with the transplanted embryonic stem cells. Because it's got to fit in as part of this electrical circuit.
The next step is these motor neurons then had to extend their wires out toward muscle and ultimately form these special connections with the muscle. And so each one of those steps, we had to give certain growth factors or chemicals, or even drug treatments to the animal itself. And if we gave all of those treatments, we found that the transplanted cells did, indeed, form functional connections with the muscle, the muscle started moving, and the animal's hind limbs began to move and it ultimately could walk again.
PHILLIPS: I know Christopher Reeve called you all the time to find out how close you were to discovering something. Could this be the answer that he was looking for?
KERR: It is. Christopher Reeve was a special, special man. And he would call me on a regular basis and would ask specifically about this research. And he was so smart and so up on the field. And he was interested not just for himself. Because I think that he saw -- and I agree with him -- that this has potential for traumatic spinal cord injuries. But he was interested because this is a community that he so closely identified with. And he wanted to help this community. And he wanted to drive it along and he wanted to be up with the science.
So I think if you think about what diseases this could ultimately affect -- and I think traumatic spinal cord injury is certainly one of them -- I think there are forms of multiple sclerosis that this might help. There's an auto-immune paralyzing disorder called transverse myelitis. And certainly ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. And finally, there is a pediatric form of neuron disease that is usually fatal, and it's caused by this disconnect. And I think it's our hope that if we can confirm and extend these findings, that it would be potentially applied to all these disease states.
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PHILLIPS: So what's the next step? Well, Dr. Kerr says that his group will try to replicate the findings using a larger model, a pig, and human embryonic stem cells. If that's successful, human clinical trials could be approved within a few years.
Captured. Authorities say this man's fake I.D.s gave him illegal immigrants with a ticket to ride. That story, straight ahead on LIVE FROM.
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PHILLIPS: Well, the Feds call him the "king of the counterfeit documents." Pedro Castorena, a longtime fugitive whose alleged empire grew so big his alleged client base so vast, he sold franchises across the U.S. Actually, Castorena now is now a former longtime fugitive, busted last weekend by U.S. and Mexican agents.
CNN's Peter Viles worked the story for "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT."
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PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Millions of illegal aliens need fake documents. And for a generation, one family has allegedly dominated the business of supplying them. Now finally the alleged kingpin of the Castorena family is in custody.
Pedro Castorena, arrested Saturday night in Mexico by both Mexican and American agents. The charges -- money laundering and document fraud.
JEFF COPP, U.S. IMMIG./CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: This is huge for us. His organization spanned the United States. He was actually running this like you would run any business. He was selling the franchises to these other groups that wanted to manufacture counterfeit documents in what he considered his territory.
VILES: Federal officials say that territory spans the United States, with Castorena franchises in Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Denver, Nebraska, Iowa, Chicago, North Carolina and Atlanta.
ROSEMARY JENKS, NUMBERSUSA: It's definitely a great thing for the United States as a whole. It should take a chunk out of the document fraud business, which we desperately need. There are still family members out there that need to be taken down. And ICE knows who they are and they're operating from within the United States.
VILES: Now 42, Pedro Castorena has been a wanted man for most of his adult life, initially targeted for document fraud in the late '80s in Los Angeles, targeted a second time in 1994 in San Antonio, indicted along with two brothers in 1995, he avoided arrest by fleeing to Mexico, where he appears to have operated with impunity for 11 years.
A third investigation launched in Denver in 2000 leading to his second indictment last July and ultimately his arrest last weekend.
(on camera): If convicted, Castorena faces up to 20 years in federal prison here in the United States, but first U.S. officials have to get him here from Mexico. Extradition can be a drawn-out process, but in this case, the Mexican government participated in the arrest, which is a good sign for a relatively quick extradition.
Peter Viles for CNN, Los Angeles.
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PHILLIPS: And you can see more of Peter's reports on "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT," weeknights at 6:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. Let's get straight to Fredricka Whitfield. She is working a developing story for us in the news room. Hey, Fred.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Kyra, suicide attacks becoming all too familiar in Afghanistan as well. This time, a suicide attacker apparently set off a car bomb in Kandahar near a military convoy.
Right now, it's being reported one killed, nine wounded. The Associated Press is also reporting that among the victims, two Canadian soldiers. That's all we have for right now. We're trying to get more information -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Fred, thanks so much.
We're going to take a quick break. And straight ahead, we're going to talk about CBS. Well, it says anchors away to Dan Rather.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he was treated rather shabbily.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was very ungracious.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not fair. It's not fair.
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PHILLIPS: Jeanne Moos looks at the end of an era for CBS News. Dan Rather's departure, straight ahead on CNN.
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PHILLIPS: Remember courage? Well, quite a few viewers cringed at the classic Dan Rather sign-off from the 1980s. But this week, it's the brass at BlackRock who are cringing, one assumes at Rather's parting shot after 44 years at CBS.
CNN's Jeanne Moos has the quotes.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dan Rather got started back when things were black and white.
DAN RATHER, CBS NEWS: The evacuation should be hastened.
MOOS: Now it's Rather who has been evacuated, blown away by his own network.
JIM LEHRER, PBS/"THE NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER": I think it's outrageous. I think a man deserves better than this.
MOOS: He did get a long, flowery press release, saying, "Of all the famous names associated with CBS News, the biggest and brightest on the marquee are Murrow, Cronkite, and Rather."
But Rather released his own statement: "They have not lived up to their obligation to allow me to do substantive work there. And, as for their offers of a future, with only an office, but no assignments, it just isn't in me to sit around doing nothing, so I will do the work I love elsewhere."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he was treated rather shabbily.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was very ungracious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not fair. It's not fair.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Dalai Lama would have done it differently.
MOOS: One thing Rather would have done differently was that since discredited report on President Bush's military record.
RATHER: I'm sorry.
MOOS: He spent 44 years at CBS, covering the Vietnam War as a younger man.
RATHER: They have opened up on the tank now.
MOOS: Choking up over 9/11 as an older man, with weird events along the way, like the time he was attacked by an assailant saying, "Kenneth, what's the frequency?" a line immortalized in an REM song.
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MOOS: Rather's alleged basher blamed the news media for beaming signals into his head.
This was Rather's last newscast.
RATHER: Courage.
MOOS (on camera): And talk about rather sad -- the former anchorman told the "New York Times" that he went to see a certain movie five times.
DAVID STRATHAIRN, ACTOR: Good night, and good luck.
MOOS (voice-over): Edward R. Murrow up on the screen, Rather alone in the audience. Remember when Connie Chung and Rather co- anchored for two years, then split up? No matter how chilly Dan Rather's final send-off was, at least it didn't rival Connie's swan song from her just-canceled talk show.
CONNIE CHUNG, TALK SHOW HOST: Thanks for the memories. We came to do a show for very little dough. By little, I mean I could make more working on skid row.
MOOS: Rather's career may have hit the skids at CBS, but he didn't leave upside down on a piano.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
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PHILLIPS: Live now in Budapest, the president left Vienna, arriving here in Budapest as past of the E.U. summit, talking trade, but of course, things we want to hear about are the nuclear threats regarding North Korea and these possible missile tests that might be taking place. Is it true, or is North Korea just testing the Bush administration? We'll listen to see. Of course, we have reporters with the president.
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