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Iraq: Stay or Go?; North Korea Missile Stand-off; Da Vinci Mystery Draws Crowds in Maine

Aired June 21, 2006 - 14:30   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, get out or stay put. Conflicting visions of the U.S. role in Iraq colliding today in the U.S. Senate. Democrats have introduced a couple of plans to bring the troops home. Republicans warn neither plan would be a green light for terrorists.
Andrea Koppel is on Capitol Hill following that debate. Hey, Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kyra.

One of those amendments is being offered by Senators John Kerry and Russ Feingold. It's calling for the beginning of redeployment of combat troops to begin by the end of this year and to finish by July of 2007.

The other amendment is being offered by Senators Carl Levin and Jack Reed. It also calls for the redeployment of combat troops to begin in Iraq by the end of this year, but it leaves it up to President Bush to decide just how many troops would be redeployed and how long this would last. They also want to get a plan from President Bush on that by the end of this year.

Needless to say, Republicans have been portraying both amendments as cut and run. Here is a little sample of some of the exchanges we've been hearing on the floor from both sides.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JACK REED (D), RHODE ISLAND: Again, there is no specific timetable. There is no deadline. This is based upon the advice of our military officers in the field. This is not cut and run, or cut and jog, or cut and anything else.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Because we cannot pull out and hope for the best, because we cannot withdraw and manage things from afar, because morality and our security compel it, we have to see this mission through to completion. Drawdowns must be based on conditions in country, not an arbitrary deadline rooted in our domestic politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: Now, neither one of these amendments is expected to pass, Kyra. The Kerry/Russ Feingold amendment is only expected to garner a handful of Democratic support, while the Carl Levin amendment is expected to get more, perhaps 38, 39, something like that, and even a couple of Republicans -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So all this back and forth in this debate that we've been talking about, what's the ultimate effect here? I mean, is this -- are we talking about just everybody getting on the record on where they stand and then seeing some sort of development by the end of the year?

KOPPEL: It is. I mean, no surprise, it's an election year, we're five months out from mid-terms. Senator Kerry really got the ire up of a lot of Democrats who felt that he was going far out on a limb when in 2004, they would have liked him to and he didn't. They feel that he's looking more towards his presidential ambitions in '08 rather than anything else.

And so the Democratic leader, Harry Reid, had been huddling behind closed doors with his caucus, trying to get an alternative plan to Senator Kerry. This was one that they could come up with because, Kyra, they are so sensitive to the sound bytes, the cut-and-run sound bytes. They felt that that would really damage the Democratic party. And they also wanted to come up with a plan that they could say the majority of Democrats supported, therefore not be vulnerable to the criticism that Democrats are divided -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Andrea Koppel on the Hill. Thanks, Andrea.

Iran says not so fast. President Bush says, what's the hold up? He was in Vienna today for a European Union summit,where the big focus is Tehran and its nuclear program. And earlier, Iran's president said his country would wait until mid-August to respond 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, PRESIDENT 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 goals. And there's no question that we share the goal of Iran not having the capacity and/or a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The president's next step is Budapest. He's due there at the top of the hour.

North Korea hasn't test fired a missile in eight years, and South Korea, Japan, the United States, want to make it nine. President Bush today admitted the prospect of a new launch makes the world nervous, especially when the missile may be capable of hitting the U.S.

CNN's Barbara Starr is watching from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Okinawa, an Air Force spy plane takes off carrying sensors that can be used to track North Korea's expected launch of its long range Taepo- dong-2 missile. Bush administration officials hope international pressure will keep North Korea from conducting the test launch of a missile that could hit the United States.

ALEXANDER VERSHBOW, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SOUTH KOREA: This missile has a military capability, and we view it, therefore, as a serious matter, particularly in the context of North Korea's illegal development of nuclear weapons.

STARR: If there is a missile launch, the U.S. military will be able to see how well its $11 billion missile defense program works. Several elements of a defensive shield are already in place.

Early warning satellites will detect the exhaust from a launch within seconds. Then upgraded radars in Alaska's Aleutian islands and at Beale Air Force Base in Sacramento, California, will begin tracking the missile's path.

U.S. navy ships in the Pacific with upgraded radars will also track the Taepo-dong missile, which has a reported range of about 3,000 miles. All of this the U.S. quickly determine if Pyongyang is using the missile to simulate an attack.

The U.S. currently has 3 aircraft carriers, hundreds of aircraft, and other military assets in the Pacific participating in a long- planned exercise. The Pentagon has drafted orders for a military response to a North Korean missile launch, but only as a matter of routine.

(on camera): Everyone believes this is nothing more than a test by North Korea, not an attack. But if it were an attack, then the U.S. military could use nine interceptor missiles it has in Alaska, and two in California, to try and shoot the North Korean missile down.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And we'll hear more about the U.S. position on Iran, North Korea and other hot spots on "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT." John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., is Lou's guest at 6:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Well, if you want something done right, you better do it yourself and that includes bird flu tests. A U.S. government review concludes that the Feds are relying too much on the poultry industry to test their own flocks. The audit started before President Bush announced his pandemic flu plan and before the AG department got an extra $91 million to fight avian flu. From now on, the agency plans to do its own checks to back up industry tests. Most of America's chicken producers already test each flock two weeks before slaughter.

A Mona Lisa mystery. Is this painting a version of Da Vinci's masterpiece? The clues, straight ahead. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Fredricka Whitfield, been busy today. Lots of developing stories -- Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Pretty busy. This one taking us to New York. A New York subway train, the L-line, which was on its way to a Brooklyn train yard for repairs, apparently derailed. You're looking at the pictures right now. Derailed, crashing into a gate. Three people were injured and taken to nearby hospitals. A fourth person was injured but refused being taken to a hospital.

The L-line takes you from lower Manhattan to Brooklyn. Still unclear why this derailment took place in the first place. And of course, when we get that information, we'll be able to bring that to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Great, thanks, Fred.

Well, an Amber Alert is called off in Memphis. A young missing person is safe, but her accused kidnapper is still on the run. Police found 16-year-old Thuydung Cao handcuffed to a tree before dawn today. She had been taken the day before, reportedly at gunpoint, from a home where she was baby-sitting.

Another girl or young woman was also taken against her will. She also escaped, but her age and condition aren't known. Memphis Police tracked the suspect's car across the state line. It's unclear how well the three knew one another. Memphis Police, Mississippi Police -- well, there they're all looking for a 23-year-old man they consider is armed and dangerous.

It was a surreal image, armed U.S. troops, National Guardsmen, patrolling the streets of post-Katrina New Orleans. Well, they're back at the request of a mayor facing a spiking murder rate. Many people in New Orleans are happy, but others fear it might prevent displaced residents and tourists from coming back. It's been a busy few years for the Guard and Reserve.

Here's a CNN "Fact Check."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Thousands of National Guard troops along the border with Mexico, supporting the U.S. Border Patrol as it tries to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country.

Just one example of the Guard's domestic mission, right after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush called up thousands of National Guard troops and reserves. Several hundred took part in the recovery operation in New York. Others were charged with protecting airports and other key facilities.

Throughout its long history, the National Guard also has been called out to quell civil unrest. The most recent example, the widespread violence in Los Angeles triggered by the verdict in the Rodney King beating trial in 1991.

One of the Guards' most controversial actions occurred in May, 1970, when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on Vietnam War protesters at Kent State University, killing four students.

Guard troops were mobilized numerous times during the civil rights era. After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, Guard troops hit the streets in that more than a dozen cities engulfed in race riots.

In another controversial mission, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus mobilized the Arkansas National Guard to block the court-ordered integration of Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The students were admitted only after President Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division into the city.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, forget "The Da Vinci Code." Another Da Vinci mystery is drawing record crowds in Maine. If you think this painting looks like Mona Lisa, you're not alone.

CNN's Alina Cho investigated for "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some say the eyes have it. In this case, the key to unlocking the mystery of the two Mona Lisas could be the smile. The original Mona Lisa, which hangs in The Louvre in Paris, is smiling. This Mona Lisa in Portland, Maine definitely is not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I think I like it better without the smile, strangely enough.

CHO: The famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci has had a renaissance of sorts, thanks to the blockbuster film, "The Da Vinci Code."

TOM HANKS, ACTOR: See, she appears larger from the left than on the right.

CHO: Playing on the popularity of the movie, the Portland Museum of Art dusted off and put on display what it believes is an unfinished study of The Mona Lisa painted by the master himself. It bears a striking resemblance to the original and people are flocking to see it, people like Sissy Linderman (ph), who says she believes this is the real deal.

SISSY LINDERMAN: It has that feeling.

CHO: Some experts agree. A Harvard University study concluded the Portland painting is of the same period as the original. Others believe brush strokes show it was done by a left-handed artist like Leonardo. Then there's the smile. Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa for a man who wanted a portrait of his wife. But the director of the Portland Museum says the woman depicted in the original would have disapproved. He says she would have preferred the Mona Lisa minus the smile.

DANIEL O'LEARY, DIR., PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART: It is a sweeter painting. It is a gentler, more feminized celebration of a woman really at the height of her attractiveness. This is the girl you would take home to love. The other woman is a mysterious creature.

CHO: Still, many believe the Portland painting is nothing more than a fourth rate copy.

James Beck is an art history professor at Columbia University and an expert in Italian art.

PROF. JAMES BECK, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Well, I suppose there's a chance that it's an original, as there's a chance that the moon is made of cheese.

CHO: Beck says the slight smile in the original is Leonardo's signature, that the hands, which he says the artist painted so magnificently, are not the same in the Portland version.

Finally, he says, there is no way to analyze when the painting was made. Among the Picassos, Cezannes and Magrittes in Portland, patrons of the arts say copy or not...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is still a very nice painting.

CHO: And worth the price of admission.

Alina Cho, CNN, Portland, Maine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Whether it's fake or for real, the Maine Mona helped the Portland Museum draw a record number of visitors in May. Alina Cho's report is from CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." Start your day off with the news weekdays with Soledad and Miles, 6:00 Eastern on CNN.

A mysterious disease capable of wiping out an entire community -- we're not talking bird flu in 2006. Go back to 1917 and the invasion of the Spanish Flu after World War I. Now some curious college students have unearthed a bit of history. Their story straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, the assignment was simple. Go talk to people, find out who they are, where they come from. Professor Dave Lucas calls it folknography. What happened next changed history as one town knew it when student at Ohio University Southern unearthed some of their community's missing roots.

Reporter Tim Irr of CNN affiliate WSAZ picks up the story from there. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PROF. DAVID LUCAS, OHIO UNIVERSITY SOUTHERN: And then 1918, as the boys came home from the war, they came from the European theater and brought that flu. And 1,700 people died in southern Ohio alone. And some of them that died were those African-American mining families down over the ridge here.

TIM IRR, WSAZ REPORTER (voice-over): It began as a research project and turned into an archaeological dig. Dr. David Lucas, a communications professor at Ohio University Southern in Ironton, asked his students to simply go out and talk to people along Porter Gap Road (ph), gather their stories of life, family and local history, a process known as folknography.

LUCAS: We were finding out about faith in Appalachia, the idea of family, the idea of food and food ways. Those are all the questions that we asked. But as we talk to these folk out there, especially on Porter Gap, they kept talking about this lost cemetery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's that iron spike that Dr. Lucas was talking about where they stopped excavating.

IRR: Over the course of the year, the stories led the students to a remote hillside of Porter Gap, but as their videotaped exploration clearly shows, any signs or evidence of a century-old cemetery were long gone.

LUCAS: We're not real sure where it could be, so it's the proverbial needle in the haystack.

IRR: Finally, last month, after getting a grant to bring in a surveyor and using sonar to test the earth, the burial ground of ten adults and two infants was found. A hand-carved grave marker was the physical evidence above ground that rounded out the discovery.

LUCAS: That's exactly what that is. Look at that. I want to you look.

IRR: Since then, Dr. Lucas and this students invited the community to a memorial service nearly 100 years overdue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hand-etched on this stone is the word "Mills."

REV. DOUGLAS CARTER, BURLINGTON FIRST BAPTIST: And we pray, God, that you might commemorate, that you might bless, the hands that have touched this stone. Thank you for the open hearts that took time to search it out and dig it.

IRR: Stories are now surfacing of other such lost cemeteries. Several people in attendance had testimonials of their own.

JOANN SUDDERTH, IRONTON: It is somewhere near, like Vesuvius (ph). I'm pretty sure that it was in that area. Because we were all over the place. But I do specifically remember that one and that they said that it was miners that had died.

MICHELLE WELLMAN, OHIO UNIV. SOUTHERN STUDENT: I am really excited because so many people came out and said, there's another one. And there's -- I've heard of another one. Just during the question and answers. It's exciting.

LUCAS: It seems like a simple thing to mark this cemetery. It's a shame that it was lost, but I'm glad we found it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, a message of hope, a call for responsibility, the themes of yesterday's World Refugee Day. Here at CNN, we dedicated the day to in-depth stories, interviews and live reports on that issue. More than 15 million refugees around the world, it's a global crisis that can't be forgotten. Our coverage included an exclusive interview with actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie. This is what she told Anderson Cooper about how she became aware of refugee suffering.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELINA JOLIE, ACTRESS: We have so much and we want for other things and we don't realize how grateful we should be about things. I'd been -- done things like most teenagers, you know, like hurting myself or doing things. You know, all those things you take your own life for granted. And then suddenly, you see these people who are really fighting something, who are really surviving, who have so much pain and loss and things that you have no idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Here's what some of you are saying about World Refugee Day and the stories that we brought you.

This first one from Keith in Alpharetta, Georgia: "These reports are so utterly disturbing and unsettling. The scope of suffering and inhumanity is impossible to fathom. I just want to scream out of frustration that more isn't being done."

And this other one comes to us from Deborah from Shasta, California: in: "After reading 'No End in Sight' by Jeff Koinange, the reality set in and the tears flowed. If you help one person, that is one who will not be without food, clothing and shelter. This will make all the difference in the world to help them be human again."

Here are some of the Web sites of some organizations you can contact if you do want to help. The U.N.'s refugee agency is at unhcr.org. And there's unicef.org. Amnesty International at amnesty.org. And the American Refugee Committee is at arcrelief.org.

Well, it was the opportunity of a lifetime, also the beginning of life. Angelina Jolie also talked with Anderson Cooper about the birth of her daughter. That's coming up on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: 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 a wildfire races down Oak Creek Canyon. Firefighters are lighting backfires, trying to stop that. We do expect to hear from Arizona's governor this hour. We'll bring it to you live when we do.

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