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President Bush Leaves on Two-Day Campaign Trip to Upper Midwest; 'Hitler's Pawn'

Aired July 13, 2004 - 10:30   ET

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

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


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at the headlines in the news now. A vote on same-sex marriage amendment could come in the Senate tomorrow on whether to proceed with a vote on the issue itself.
A short time ago President Bush signed a trade bill that's aimed at helping the economies of developing African nations. Later today, the president returns to the campaign trail. He'll have rallies in Marquette, in Michigan and Duluth, Minnesota.

Prime minister -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair is getting a first look at a high-level report on that nation's pre-war Iraq intelligence. The investigation was similar to the one issued last week by the Senate Intelligence Committee in this country. The British report will be released tomorrow.

And a Modesto, California police officer takes the stand as the Scott Peterson trial resumes about two hours from now. Prosecutors are questioning witnesses this week about evidence found at the Petersons' home and in San Francisco Bay. Officers testified that say no evidence linked to the case turned up in the Bay after the body's of Laci Peterson and her unborn son washed ashore last year.

President Bush leaves on a two-day campaign trip to the upper Midwest. That is an area that John Kerry trekked through earlier this month.

Our Elaine Quijano has a preview. She is at the White House this morning.

Elaine, good morning.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

President Bush will be taking his Midwest tour through three states over the next couple of days. Those states being Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Now those three states have a total of 37 electoral votes up for grab. Obviously, President Bush very much wants to get those states. He lost them back in 2000.

But at a time when both he and his Democratic opponent John Kerry are trying to campaign on the notion of values, President Bush, particularly in those areas, wants to connect with voters, and try to send a message home to them that he shares their same values and their same priorities.

Now it was on Friday that President Bush took a campaign bus tour through the state of Pennsylvania. There you see the president just a moment ago. But here is the president in Pennsylvania, that he campaigned in that state last week, making stops in some small towns, some unscheduled visits along the way, and Mr. Bush will be doing the same thing on the last leg of this campaign swing. He'll begin with a visit to the largest city in Michigan's upper peninsula, Marquette. The president is scheduled to make remarks at a rally there in the afternoon before moving on to Duluth, Minnesota for another rally in the evening.

And then on Wednesday, the president embarks on a three-city bus tour through Wisconsin, a state that he lost by a razor-thin margin, less than one percentage point back in 2000, although altogether the president has visited these three states a total of 36 times since taking office. Again Daryn, the president lost those states back in 2000. This time around, he wants to put them all in his win column -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Elaine Quijano at the White House. Elaine, thank you.

The issue of steroid abuse and its threat to the young is a topic this hour on Capitol Hill. A college football player from an NAACP -- actually an NCAA Division I school will testify before the Senate caucus on international narcotics control. He will wear a hood to conceal his identity, as he discusses its prevalence among elite college football players. Meanwhile, the dangers of performance- enhancing drugs are being divulged to the world. In a related story, "The Washington Post" said that California will Levy a huge fine, $772,000, against Balco. That is the Bay Area lab at the center of a doping scandal.

Now other stories making news coast to coast. In Florida, the search continues for a pet tiger. It is eluding capture at this hour. The tiger went missing yesterday from the home of Steve Sipek. He is an actor who portrayed Tarzan in the 1960s. People nearby are being advised to stay inside. Deputies and state game officials are combing the area, looking for that tiger.

In the skies over the U.S., a high-flying homecoming from war. An American airlines flight from Atlanta to Chicago had 12 soldiers returning from a two-week visit from duty in Iraq. And they were flying coach, but not for long. One by one, passengers flying first class gave up their seats. The soldiers, dumbfounded by the generosity, signed gifts of Iraqi money in return.

Also home from Iraq, North Carolina family members who chose -- they chose to vacation in Iraq. The father lived in Baghdad for 19 years. He wanted his children to meet their Iraqi relatives and see history in the making. His wife wanted to visit U.S. troops and express her gratitude. So the family, they went. They heard bomb blasts, but say their positive memories outweigh the bad.

A new documentary film takes on Fox News Channel and its slogan "fair and balanced." You'll find out why the film's director says Fox is anything but.

Plus, we're going to look at another documentary. This one is about a Jewish athlete in Nazi Germany and how she became Hitler's pawn. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Former Enron chairman Ken Lay says he'll grieve for the rest of his life over how the company's collapse hurt workers and stockholders. But Lay says he had nothing to do with the criminal conduct that led to the downfall. Lay appeared on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE" last night. He talked about company whistle-blower Sherron Watkins.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN LAY, FORMER ENRON CEO: The outside law firm did interview all the people she had recommended. Also interviewed some people that she did not have on her list. Did meet with Arthur Andersen a time or two, met with her on the front end. As a matter of fact, I advised that they should first -- that the law firm should first meet with Sharon to make sure they really understood what she's saying and what her concerns were. And they went about following her road map to see if in fact there's a problem.

And then even when they came back to me, within about two or three weeks, and reported that indeed, they couldn't find anybody, including the people on her list that supported her position. And they also couldn't find anybody that thought there was a serious problem with those transactions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Lay faces several fraud charges. He is out on bond with his trial possibly starting at the end of the year.

Well even as Michael Moore's big screen movie attacks the Bush administration, a small-screen film is accusing a cable network of shilling for the Republican White House. But those charges of bias and hidden agendas are flying in both directions. Deborah Feyerick has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's called "Out-Foxed," a piercing look at Fox News Channel and it's slogan, "Fair and balanced news."

ROBERT GREENWALD, DIRECTOR: They're not fair, they're not balanced. They have a particular, specific point of view supporting the Bush administration.

FEYERICK: The film's director Robert Greenwald recorded Fox News Channel around the clock for six months. He said there's no one smoking gun, but what he calls a pattern. GREENWALD: They're an opinion station that supports the Republican Party that's in power now. And that's fine. But I'd like them to say that.

FEYERICK: The director whose last film was on the validity of the Iraq war admits he never contacted Fox News Channel, and does not include a response. Instead, the film relies on internal Fox memos and interviews with current and former employees, some whose identities are concealed.

DAVID KROB, FREELANCE WRITER: The instruction from the senior producer to her small group of writers was, "Remember, when you're writing about this, it's all good. It's such a fair and balanced issue. Don't write about the number of dead. Or the troops being under fire or under attack. Not that somebody might have died. You know, keep it positive."

FEYERICK: In a written statement, Fox News Channel dismissed the allegations of those interviewed, saying editorial decisions were never questioned at the time. The network says two of those interviewed never even worked for the network, but for Fox's local station in Washington.

And the network says, quote, "Any news organization that thinks this story is legitimate is opening itself to having its copyrighted material taken out of context for partisan reasons."

"Washington Post" and CNN media critic Howard Kurtz says the film scores points, but has significant flaws.

HOWARD KURTZ, CNN MEDIA CRITIC: But some of the editing is blatantly misleading, giving an impression that people are saying things when they're actually quoting people. And only including some memos from a Fox executive and not the other memos.

FEYERICK: The documentary was funded in part by two liberal groups, the Center for American Progress and MoveOn.org, a group which heavily promoted Michael Moore's movie "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Says the president of Common Cause, a liberal advocacy group that supports the movie, the really big threat is too many TV stations and newspapers owned by too few companies.

CHELLIE PINGREE, PRESIDENT, COMMON CAUSE: This will force all networks and cable news networks to look at them and say, if the finger is going to be pointed and people are going to be saying this is not right, they'll have to look at their own classification of what's going on in their own network.

FEYERICK (voice-over): "Out-Foxed" is not expected to be shown in theaters. Instead, DVDs will be sold on the Internet. And MoveOn.org is sponsoring house parties, some 2,000 of them, to talk about the issues raised in the film.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: We're going to look at taking a look at a totally different type of documentary. HBO will be airing this one this week. It's looks at the 1936 Olympics and women woman in particular, an athlete who became Hitler's pawn. We have a live interview with one of the writer and producers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Batter up, swaggering sluggers. Just sit down. Just hours after being added to the Home Run Derby contest, he just found out on Sunday, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada hammered his way to title. He set a couple of records in the meantime. He nailed 27 homers in three rounds. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a record 15 homers in the semifinal round. The contest is held each year on the eve of the All- Star Game which is, by the way, tonight in Houston.

A track star under scrutiny from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has managed to keep her dreams alive for now. We're talking Marion Jones. She finished a shockingly weak seventh place in the long jump at the U.S. Olympic trials. She's been considered to long jumper in a poor field. She missed the automatic qualifying mark by 1/4 of an inch. She does, though, head into Thursday's finals.

At the U.S. Olympic trials for swimming, Michael Phelps suffered his first defeat. He finished in the wake of fellow American Aaron Peirsol who broke his own world record in the 200-meter backstroke. Phelps is hoping to win seven gold medals next month in Athens.

The Summer Olympics are due to start one month from tomorrow, in fact. And though we're going to take this chance to look back at the 1936 games which, of course, were held in Berlin.

Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, under the threat of losing the game, agreed to allow Jewish athletes only to betray its vow by expelling a star athlete because of her faith. Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARGARET LAMBERT, 1936 OLYMPIC ATHLETE: My name is Margaret Lambert. As a young athlete here in Germany, I was known as Greta Bergman, (speaking in German), the Jewish High Jumper.

Today In America, Lambert is my married name. And Margaret. Let's just say it was the quickest way to forget Nazi Germany.

I remind myself every day, I am one of the lucky ones. I survived. And yet the decades gone by have done little to erase the hurt of what happened to me here.

Seventy years is a lifetime. But I can still hear that voice calling from within.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Well you hear the story in her own voice. The woman is the title character and the tragic heroine of "Hitler's Pawn," an HBO documentary. We're joined now by it's co-producer and co-writer, Steve Stern. Steve, good morning. Thank you for being here with us.

STEVE STERN, "HITLER'S PAWN": Thank you for having me.

KAGAN: Tell us more about Margaret Lambert. This is a woman who isn't -- she's nowhere in a hall of fame. She didn't set any records. And yet you thought it was important enough to tell her story.

STERN: Margaret is really a remarkable person. I mean she is 90 years old, alive today living in Queens. Came over to the United States in 1937, soon after the Olympics.

But her story is a really remarkable story because she was probably the best high jumper in Germany prior to the 1936 Olympics. But of course, she was Jewish. And Adolf Hitler was not going to allow any Jewish athletes to compete for Germany in the Olympic Games.

KAGAN: But at a certain point. But part of the story that you tell that I think a lot of people aren't familiar with, out of fear that he was going to lose the Games altogether, he did allow the appearance at least that some Jewish athletes would be competing, and didn't Margaret Lambert, she looked like she was on her way to be competing, only to be yanked at the last second.

STERN: Well, absolutely. And the reason for that was because the American Olympic Committee had decided that they were not going to go to the Berlin Games unless Germany was going to treat its Jewish athletes the same way they were treating the rest of their athletes, and so they used Margaret as a pawn, really, to allow the Americans to think that she was going to be able to compete in the Games. Margaret will tell you today that, you know, she had really hoped that she was going to be able to compete, so she was going to be able to show the world what a Jew could do, and how a Jew could compete for Germany. But she kind of knew deep down in her heart that she was really never going to be allowed to compete. It wasn't until really she got to the United States that she really understood what went on and how she was used during that period of time prior to the Olympic Games.

KAGAN: And as you point out, she comes to the U.S., she marries, she makes a whole life, a whole generation comes by. How does it come to the point where it's time to tell her story and have your cameras follow her as she goes back to Germany?

STERN: Well, you know, once you meet Margaret, it's pretty simple to understand why you want to tell her story, someone who's that age, who's that spry, who's that with it, who's that understanding of what happened to her, and the most remarkable thing for us was when we took Margaret back to Germany, she gets to meet -- and you'll see this in the film as well -- she gets to meet a woman who she competed against that she has not seen for 67 years, Alfreda Cowan (ph), who won the bronze medal in the '36 games for Germany, who defended Margaret, and they had a pretty solid relationship, right up to the point where Margaret left, and they had written a couple of times, but really lost contact with each other and hadn't seen each other in, I'd say, 67 years. KAGAN: I would imagine that was an emotional reunion.

STERN: It really was. It was emotional for Margaret. It was emotional for Alfreda, and it was emotional for us to be able to see it and to be able to put it together. It was a pretty remarkable day for us in Berlin when they all got together.

KAGAN: Well, her name is Margaret Bergmann Lambert. Her story is told in "Hitler's Pawn." And you can see it for the first time tomorrow on HBO at 10:00 p.m.

Steve Stern, thanks for stopping and by and sharing part of that story. Appreciate it.

STERN: Thank you very much, Daryn.

KAGAN: You can focus your eye on entertainment by pointing your Internet browser to CNN.com/entertainment. Among the highlights: the "Jeopardy" champ, and how one quiet town in Italy has embraced an unassuming neighbor by the name of George Clooney. '

Much more news is ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: All right, a wall of -- I think we have the wrong video. I think we're showing video of New Jersey, but you want to talk about the dust storms. So we probably got to get that straight. So we have -- there we go. We've got water. We've got dust. Here is our dust storm from Arizona. Dust storm seemingly swallowed up Phoenix. This is a common occurrence in the summertime. Forty-five mile-an-hour winds, visibility at times dropped just to just a few hundred feet. Dust storms are common in the dry desert. But after six years of drought, Arizona is dryer than usual. Pretty typical of what that looks like, where just a big wall of sand comes sweeping across the valley.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

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Aired July 13, 2004 - 10:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at the headlines in the news now. A vote on same-sex marriage amendment could come in the Senate tomorrow on whether to proceed with a vote on the issue itself.
A short time ago President Bush signed a trade bill that's aimed at helping the economies of developing African nations. Later today, the president returns to the campaign trail. He'll have rallies in Marquette, in Michigan and Duluth, Minnesota.

Prime minister -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair is getting a first look at a high-level report on that nation's pre-war Iraq intelligence. The investigation was similar to the one issued last week by the Senate Intelligence Committee in this country. The British report will be released tomorrow.

And a Modesto, California police officer takes the stand as the Scott Peterson trial resumes about two hours from now. Prosecutors are questioning witnesses this week about evidence found at the Petersons' home and in San Francisco Bay. Officers testified that say no evidence linked to the case turned up in the Bay after the body's of Laci Peterson and her unborn son washed ashore last year.

President Bush leaves on a two-day campaign trip to the upper Midwest. That is an area that John Kerry trekked through earlier this month.

Our Elaine Quijano has a preview. She is at the White House this morning.

Elaine, good morning.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

President Bush will be taking his Midwest tour through three states over the next couple of days. Those states being Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Now those three states have a total of 37 electoral votes up for grab. Obviously, President Bush very much wants to get those states. He lost them back in 2000.

But at a time when both he and his Democratic opponent John Kerry are trying to campaign on the notion of values, President Bush, particularly in those areas, wants to connect with voters, and try to send a message home to them that he shares their same values and their same priorities.

Now it was on Friday that President Bush took a campaign bus tour through the state of Pennsylvania. There you see the president just a moment ago. But here is the president in Pennsylvania, that he campaigned in that state last week, making stops in some small towns, some unscheduled visits along the way, and Mr. Bush will be doing the same thing on the last leg of this campaign swing. He'll begin with a visit to the largest city in Michigan's upper peninsula, Marquette. The president is scheduled to make remarks at a rally there in the afternoon before moving on to Duluth, Minnesota for another rally in the evening.

And then on Wednesday, the president embarks on a three-city bus tour through Wisconsin, a state that he lost by a razor-thin margin, less than one percentage point back in 2000, although altogether the president has visited these three states a total of 36 times since taking office. Again Daryn, the president lost those states back in 2000. This time around, he wants to put them all in his win column -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Elaine Quijano at the White House. Elaine, thank you.

The issue of steroid abuse and its threat to the young is a topic this hour on Capitol Hill. A college football player from an NAACP -- actually an NCAA Division I school will testify before the Senate caucus on international narcotics control. He will wear a hood to conceal his identity, as he discusses its prevalence among elite college football players. Meanwhile, the dangers of performance- enhancing drugs are being divulged to the world. In a related story, "The Washington Post" said that California will Levy a huge fine, $772,000, against Balco. That is the Bay Area lab at the center of a doping scandal.

Now other stories making news coast to coast. In Florida, the search continues for a pet tiger. It is eluding capture at this hour. The tiger went missing yesterday from the home of Steve Sipek. He is an actor who portrayed Tarzan in the 1960s. People nearby are being advised to stay inside. Deputies and state game officials are combing the area, looking for that tiger.

In the skies over the U.S., a high-flying homecoming from war. An American airlines flight from Atlanta to Chicago had 12 soldiers returning from a two-week visit from duty in Iraq. And they were flying coach, but not for long. One by one, passengers flying first class gave up their seats. The soldiers, dumbfounded by the generosity, signed gifts of Iraqi money in return.

Also home from Iraq, North Carolina family members who chose -- they chose to vacation in Iraq. The father lived in Baghdad for 19 years. He wanted his children to meet their Iraqi relatives and see history in the making. His wife wanted to visit U.S. troops and express her gratitude. So the family, they went. They heard bomb blasts, but say their positive memories outweigh the bad.

A new documentary film takes on Fox News Channel and its slogan "fair and balanced." You'll find out why the film's director says Fox is anything but.

Plus, we're going to look at another documentary. This one is about a Jewish athlete in Nazi Germany and how she became Hitler's pawn. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Former Enron chairman Ken Lay says he'll grieve for the rest of his life over how the company's collapse hurt workers and stockholders. But Lay says he had nothing to do with the criminal conduct that led to the downfall. Lay appeared on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE" last night. He talked about company whistle-blower Sherron Watkins.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN LAY, FORMER ENRON CEO: The outside law firm did interview all the people she had recommended. Also interviewed some people that she did not have on her list. Did meet with Arthur Andersen a time or two, met with her on the front end. As a matter of fact, I advised that they should first -- that the law firm should first meet with Sharon to make sure they really understood what she's saying and what her concerns were. And they went about following her road map to see if in fact there's a problem.

And then even when they came back to me, within about two or three weeks, and reported that indeed, they couldn't find anybody, including the people on her list that supported her position. And they also couldn't find anybody that thought there was a serious problem with those transactions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Lay faces several fraud charges. He is out on bond with his trial possibly starting at the end of the year.

Well even as Michael Moore's big screen movie attacks the Bush administration, a small-screen film is accusing a cable network of shilling for the Republican White House. But those charges of bias and hidden agendas are flying in both directions. Deborah Feyerick has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's called "Out-Foxed," a piercing look at Fox News Channel and it's slogan, "Fair and balanced news."

ROBERT GREENWALD, DIRECTOR: They're not fair, they're not balanced. They have a particular, specific point of view supporting the Bush administration.

FEYERICK: The film's director Robert Greenwald recorded Fox News Channel around the clock for six months. He said there's no one smoking gun, but what he calls a pattern. GREENWALD: They're an opinion station that supports the Republican Party that's in power now. And that's fine. But I'd like them to say that.

FEYERICK: The director whose last film was on the validity of the Iraq war admits he never contacted Fox News Channel, and does not include a response. Instead, the film relies on internal Fox memos and interviews with current and former employees, some whose identities are concealed.

DAVID KROB, FREELANCE WRITER: The instruction from the senior producer to her small group of writers was, "Remember, when you're writing about this, it's all good. It's such a fair and balanced issue. Don't write about the number of dead. Or the troops being under fire or under attack. Not that somebody might have died. You know, keep it positive."

FEYERICK: In a written statement, Fox News Channel dismissed the allegations of those interviewed, saying editorial decisions were never questioned at the time. The network says two of those interviewed never even worked for the network, but for Fox's local station in Washington.

And the network says, quote, "Any news organization that thinks this story is legitimate is opening itself to having its copyrighted material taken out of context for partisan reasons."

"Washington Post" and CNN media critic Howard Kurtz says the film scores points, but has significant flaws.

HOWARD KURTZ, CNN MEDIA CRITIC: But some of the editing is blatantly misleading, giving an impression that people are saying things when they're actually quoting people. And only including some memos from a Fox executive and not the other memos.

FEYERICK: The documentary was funded in part by two liberal groups, the Center for American Progress and MoveOn.org, a group which heavily promoted Michael Moore's movie "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Says the president of Common Cause, a liberal advocacy group that supports the movie, the really big threat is too many TV stations and newspapers owned by too few companies.

CHELLIE PINGREE, PRESIDENT, COMMON CAUSE: This will force all networks and cable news networks to look at them and say, if the finger is going to be pointed and people are going to be saying this is not right, they'll have to look at their own classification of what's going on in their own network.

FEYERICK (voice-over): "Out-Foxed" is not expected to be shown in theaters. Instead, DVDs will be sold on the Internet. And MoveOn.org is sponsoring house parties, some 2,000 of them, to talk about the issues raised in the film.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: We're going to look at taking a look at a totally different type of documentary. HBO will be airing this one this week. It's looks at the 1936 Olympics and women woman in particular, an athlete who became Hitler's pawn. We have a live interview with one of the writer and producers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Batter up, swaggering sluggers. Just sit down. Just hours after being added to the Home Run Derby contest, he just found out on Sunday, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada hammered his way to title. He set a couple of records in the meantime. He nailed 27 homers in three rounds. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a record 15 homers in the semifinal round. The contest is held each year on the eve of the All- Star Game which is, by the way, tonight in Houston.

A track star under scrutiny from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has managed to keep her dreams alive for now. We're talking Marion Jones. She finished a shockingly weak seventh place in the long jump at the U.S. Olympic trials. She's been considered to long jumper in a poor field. She missed the automatic qualifying mark by 1/4 of an inch. She does, though, head into Thursday's finals.

At the U.S. Olympic trials for swimming, Michael Phelps suffered his first defeat. He finished in the wake of fellow American Aaron Peirsol who broke his own world record in the 200-meter backstroke. Phelps is hoping to win seven gold medals next month in Athens.

The Summer Olympics are due to start one month from tomorrow, in fact. And though we're going to take this chance to look back at the 1936 games which, of course, were held in Berlin.

Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, under the threat of losing the game, agreed to allow Jewish athletes only to betray its vow by expelling a star athlete because of her faith. Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARGARET LAMBERT, 1936 OLYMPIC ATHLETE: My name is Margaret Lambert. As a young athlete here in Germany, I was known as Greta Bergman, (speaking in German), the Jewish High Jumper.

Today In America, Lambert is my married name. And Margaret. Let's just say it was the quickest way to forget Nazi Germany.

I remind myself every day, I am one of the lucky ones. I survived. And yet the decades gone by have done little to erase the hurt of what happened to me here.

Seventy years is a lifetime. But I can still hear that voice calling from within.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Well you hear the story in her own voice. The woman is the title character and the tragic heroine of "Hitler's Pawn," an HBO documentary. We're joined now by it's co-producer and co-writer, Steve Stern. Steve, good morning. Thank you for being here with us.

STEVE STERN, "HITLER'S PAWN": Thank you for having me.

KAGAN: Tell us more about Margaret Lambert. This is a woman who isn't -- she's nowhere in a hall of fame. She didn't set any records. And yet you thought it was important enough to tell her story.

STERN: Margaret is really a remarkable person. I mean she is 90 years old, alive today living in Queens. Came over to the United States in 1937, soon after the Olympics.

But her story is a really remarkable story because she was probably the best high jumper in Germany prior to the 1936 Olympics. But of course, she was Jewish. And Adolf Hitler was not going to allow any Jewish athletes to compete for Germany in the Olympic Games.

KAGAN: But at a certain point. But part of the story that you tell that I think a lot of people aren't familiar with, out of fear that he was going to lose the Games altogether, he did allow the appearance at least that some Jewish athletes would be competing, and didn't Margaret Lambert, she looked like she was on her way to be competing, only to be yanked at the last second.

STERN: Well, absolutely. And the reason for that was because the American Olympic Committee had decided that they were not going to go to the Berlin Games unless Germany was going to treat its Jewish athletes the same way they were treating the rest of their athletes, and so they used Margaret as a pawn, really, to allow the Americans to think that she was going to be able to compete in the Games. Margaret will tell you today that, you know, she had really hoped that she was going to be able to compete, so she was going to be able to show the world what a Jew could do, and how a Jew could compete for Germany. But she kind of knew deep down in her heart that she was really never going to be allowed to compete. It wasn't until really she got to the United States that she really understood what went on and how she was used during that period of time prior to the Olympic Games.

KAGAN: And as you point out, she comes to the U.S., she marries, she makes a whole life, a whole generation comes by. How does it come to the point where it's time to tell her story and have your cameras follow her as she goes back to Germany?

STERN: Well, you know, once you meet Margaret, it's pretty simple to understand why you want to tell her story, someone who's that age, who's that spry, who's that with it, who's that understanding of what happened to her, and the most remarkable thing for us was when we took Margaret back to Germany, she gets to meet -- and you'll see this in the film as well -- she gets to meet a woman who she competed against that she has not seen for 67 years, Alfreda Cowan (ph), who won the bronze medal in the '36 games for Germany, who defended Margaret, and they had a pretty solid relationship, right up to the point where Margaret left, and they had written a couple of times, but really lost contact with each other and hadn't seen each other in, I'd say, 67 years. KAGAN: I would imagine that was an emotional reunion.

STERN: It really was. It was emotional for Margaret. It was emotional for Alfreda, and it was emotional for us to be able to see it and to be able to put it together. It was a pretty remarkable day for us in Berlin when they all got together.

KAGAN: Well, her name is Margaret Bergmann Lambert. Her story is told in "Hitler's Pawn." And you can see it for the first time tomorrow on HBO at 10:00 p.m.

Steve Stern, thanks for stopping and by and sharing part of that story. Appreciate it.

STERN: Thank you very much, Daryn.

KAGAN: You can focus your eye on entertainment by pointing your Internet browser to CNN.com/entertainment. Among the highlights: the "Jeopardy" champ, and how one quiet town in Italy has embraced an unassuming neighbor by the name of George Clooney. '

Much more news is ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: All right, a wall of -- I think we have the wrong video. I think we're showing video of New Jersey, but you want to talk about the dust storms. So we probably got to get that straight. So we have -- there we go. We've got water. We've got dust. Here is our dust storm from Arizona. Dust storm seemingly swallowed up Phoenix. This is a common occurrence in the summertime. Forty-five mile-an-hour winds, visibility at times dropped just to just a few hundred feet. Dust storms are common in the dry desert. But after six years of drought, Arizona is dryer than usual. Pretty typical of what that looks like, where just a big wall of sand comes sweeping across the valley.

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