Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Election Commission Declares Kremlin-Backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych Winner of Ukraine's Presidential Election

Aired November 24, 2004 - 11:32   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.


RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez, bringing you the latest information that is just now coming in to us. CNN is now reporting that the Election Commission there in the Ukraine has declared that the Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is the winner of Ukraine's presidential election. Now, again, he's the former prime minister. He's the one you see there on the right, as you look at the screen. He's the leader who was backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The other person is the one you're looking at now. This is part of that protest that has been taking place on the streets of Kiev, as many as 200,000 people, saying that the election was not fair. In fact, the opposition leader who went up against him, his name is Yushchenko, who has partial backing from the United States, has been saying that he has found at least 11,000 different violations that occurred during the elections. Many around the world have questioned the election as well.
But once again, the headline here is the following -- the Election Commission has now declared Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner of Ukraine's presidential election. We don't know at this point if that means that it's absolute certification, or if there's any other steps that need to be taken along the way. There had been threats that there might be some violence on the streets or perhaps some form of civil disobedience. That, from all indications, is obviously not too early to report.

Jill Dougherty's been following the story for us in the Ukraine, and we'll try and make contact with Jill as soon as we possibly can.

In fact, I'm told now we can make contact with Jill Dougherty. She's following the story.

Jill, are you there? And if you are, where...

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am. I hope you can hear me and see me.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we're wondering if the news has trickled down to these people yet that, in fact, the Election Commission has given the prime minister the nod in this election.

DOUGHERTY: Yes, in fact, here are the results. And they're pretty much the same results that they had when they came out with the initial vote count, which was three percentage points favor of the government-backed candidate; that is Mr. Yanukovych. And in a raucous session, they found 49.46 percent of the votes going to him, 46.61 percent to Mr. Yushchenko, who is the opposition candidate. Again, the -- almost exactly what they were saying, this is not going to go down well with the opposition. The main thing that the opposition is saying, is that they feel there was falsification of many votes, especially in areas that were controlled and loyal to the government-backed candidate, Mr. Yanukovych. Right now, you have many thousands of people on the streets here in Kiev. And that news, which everyone is following very, very closely, will not be welcome. What are the next steps that the opposition can take? Well, they've been talking about some legal steps, but at this point, if you have -- they were hoping that they would get some people who would -- on the election commission who would go their way. And in fact, they did have 11 people who voted for the report and four people who voted against it. So there were four people who did not agree on that committee with the result. But, obviously, overall, they are saying that the next president of Ukraine is Viktor Yanukovych.

SANCHEZ: The question that a lot of folks here have, Jill, as the follow the situation is the threats, some more overt than others, of possible civil disobedience, civil unrest. There are going to be, like you said, a lot of angry people who had wanted Yushchenko to be chosen. Have you got any feel for what the reaction may be in the hours to come, as this information filters through to those people?

DOUGHERTY: You know, so many of them had their hopes really, really high, and they were intent on staying on the street until they got what they wanted. Now they haven't gotten what they wanted, and the question is, what is Mr. Yushchenko, the opposition candidate, going to tell them? Is he going to tell them, go into the streets? He's told us, an hour or two ago, that he doesn't want that. And I don't think anybody here wants any type of bloody confrontation. But there is certainly going to be a lot of disappointment. Can they take legal steps? Maybe there is something that they have up their sleeves that way. But the threat, or let's say, the possibility of turning to civil disobedience has always been there, and it remains a possibility.

SANCHEZ: Jill Dougherty following that story for us as it develops. You heard it first here that, of course, in fact, there has been a declared winner. What happens now is part of the story we will continue to follow with Jill's help and our resources here at CNN. ' Back to the story we're following here in the states, your travel plans and what you expect might happen here, depending of course on where you live.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: So what is we're going to focus on several areas. One of the worst areas in the country by the way today is in the southeast, and that's Atlanta, Georgia that you're looking at there. Obviously, Hartsfield Jackson Airport, where they are expecting some delays.

Let's put up another picture now. Let's take you to Nashville -- Nashville, Tennessee, where we've got an eye on the highways, and it does look that as roads come together and merge that traffic is, at least for now, flowing quite smoothly.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: We have got a chance now to show you a couple of other places where, well, we have live cameras. And live cameras there to show you what's going on, possibly, in your town. This is Indianapolis. And what is going on in Indianapolis, as you may have heard in Orelon's report, is rain, and an awful lot of it. But as you can tell, the folks there in Indiana are driving carefully thus far. And there are no major problems reported.

Let's take you now to the airport, out in Denver, Denver International, formerly known as Stapleton Airport, where, as you can see, people are heading in and out of that famous security line that we've all come to love so much. They will soon be taking off their belts, their coats, and their shoes as well to get through. But look again. The good news here is, thus far, it is flowing as well.

Well, increased airport security is certainly a fact of life in the post-9/11 world. But are airport screeners going too far? Talking about some of the items that we often need to remove. CNN's Kimberly Osias talks to one woman who says yes, and tells us what she's doing about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's done in the name of security. But New York attorney Rhonda Gaynier says she felt violated on a recent trip through the Tampa Airport. A female screener patted her down under her armpit and touched her with an open hand between her breasts.

RHONDA GAYNIER, AIR TRAVELER: And I was like, whoa, what are you doing? You can't do that. And the supervisor who I had been objecting to was standing right there. And he said, yes, we can.

OSIAS: Gaynier says she felt like a common criminal when she was intimately patted down in full public view.

GAYNIER: I've had the wand thing done before. They, you know, glide it over you. But this time, anytime the wand beeped, they touched me in that spot.

OSIAS: She's hired an attorney and is considering filing a class action lawsuit. She believes the violation is endemic and underreported because women feel intimidated. The American Civil Liberties Union agrees and says they've received a growing number of complaints.

JAY STANLEY, ACLU AVIATION SECURITY: What we have here is a big problem. We have a security measure that's spun out of control because there aren't proper protections being put in place to protect against that human element.

OSIAS: After two Chechen women smuggled explosives on to Russian planes, the TSA put a new policy in place, calling for more frequent patdown searches. Screeners now have more latitude and leverage. Based on their visual observation alone, an individual can be searched, even if a detector never sounds.

TOM WILKINS, TSA, LAGUARDIA AIRPORT: One thing that we try to do is make the process as painless as possible for the traveling public so that -- we try not to be too intrusive into people's personal business. So we have to be very careful in balancing that.

OSIAS (on camera): TSA does have a protocol in place. Screeners are only supposed to use the backs of their hands when conducting searches on sensitive areas. And as far as grievances are concerned, you can lodge a complaint in writing or ask to speak to a supervisor. The problem is, when you're up against the clock in a stressful airport situation, some people don't want to do that.

Kimberly Osias, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: The U.S. secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, strongly denying that he's any type of road block, holding up that intelligence reform bill in Congress. Let's talk now with Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. She's been following this ongoing story and joins us, once again, with the very latest.

Hi, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Rick. Well, as you say, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is saying that he is not the one trying to sink intelligence reform legislation on Capitol Hill. But things are getting very complicated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): The sticking point on intelligence reform was a proposal to move military satellite and communications programs out of the Pentagon to a new national intelligence director. The Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said it might keep troops on the front line from getting crucial information.

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R-CA), ARMED SERVICES CMTE. CHMN.: What the Senate sent over was this plan that would cut that lifeline between our satellites that are giving intelligence all the time to our troops, telling them where the bad guys are, what the targeting should be.

STARR: The entire Joint Chiefs now endorsing the House view, that the Pentagon should run those battlefield intelligence programs. Chiefs chairman, General Richard Myers, emphasized it in a letter last month: "The House bill maintains this vital flow through the secretary of defense. It is my recommendation," he said, "that this critical provision be preserved."

But now Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denying any suggestion he secretly lobbied to scuttle the bill, side-stepping the Chiefs' concerns about the troops. DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I am supporting the president's position. I am a part of his administration.

STARR: Congressional skeptics, saying there is no risk to the troops.

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R-KS), INTELLIGENCE CMTE. CHMN.: There isn't anybody in the Congress that I know of that wants to do anything that would harm that actionable intelligence to the war fighter, especially during this difficult insurgency that we're fighting in Iraq.

STARR: The latest compromise, a national intelligence director, would not technically control military programs, but would control billions in spending. Many in Congress believe that is essential to keeping the Pentagon in line.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: Congress returns to Washington next month to look at this entire matter again. The power struggle will resume. And the question of whether lawmakers and Congress will pay attention to the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: Barbara Starr, following things for us at the Pentagon. Thank you, Barbara.

Do you think that you know a lot about HIV and AIDS? Are you sure? Well, up next, Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at a secret that some say is to blame for the rise in AIDS among heterosexual African-American women.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And welcome back to CNN LIVE TODAY. I'm Rick Sanchez. According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly three quarters of all women in the United States diagnosed with HIV are African- American. In the search for answers, the spotlight is on a phenomenon that's called the "down low." Senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's slowing down.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Forty-six-year-old Vanessa Johnson has already lived twice as long as her doctors told her she would.

In 1990 she was a young law student and the mother of a six-year- old son, when she was diagnosed with HIV and told she had seven years to live.

VANESSA JOHNSON, HIV POSITIVE: That scared me to death. I didn't want to suffer. And I knew that people suffered from this disease.

GUPTA: She suspects that she was infected by her high schools sweetheart. Although they never married, they dated for 18 years and had a child. He died of AIDS in 1994.

She says now, all the signs were there. He did have affairs and she believes that some of them were with men.

JOHNSON: He had a lot of gay friends. He, at the end, would say things to try to let me know, to try to affirm what I already knew. But it was still difficult for him to come right out and say, either my preference or my orientation is to have sex with men.

GUPTA: This situation isn't unique. It is called "the down low". Men who have wives or girlfriends -- and have sex with other men. Although some are claiming the down low is responsible for much of the increase of HIV infection among black straight women, many experts are saying it just isn't so.

RASHAD BURGESS, CDC: When we look at African-American men who have sex with men, that do not disclose their sexual activities or sexual orientation, we actually find that they are less likely to have high-risk behavior and less likely to be HIV positive.

DR. DAVID MALEBRANCHE, EMORY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: We can't really say for sure how much of a contribution this is having to the HIV infection rates among black women.

GUPTA: Experts say the reasons are many. That in the black community AIDS was originally thought of as a gay white man's disease and was not even on the radar screen. Add to that poverty, IV drug use, and the facts that blacks don't have the same access to primary health care. Whatever the reason, the explosion of numbers in the black community, especially straight women is undeniable -- Doctor Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: And do tune in later today for more of Sanjay's special report, "Are You Positive?" He'll have a report on HIV and AIDS among people over 50 today on "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS." Again, that's at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, 2:00 Pacific.

Are you on the White House mailing list? Well, if not, they're going to give you a look at the holiday card that you won't be getting this year. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

SANCHEZ: If you check your mailbox, you might find something. This is a Christmas memento that you'll probably want to hold on to. It's the official White House Christmas card for 2004, and it's going out to about two million people. The front shows an oil painting by artist Cindy Holt (ph) that highlights the White House Red Room, decorated for the holidays. The message is a passage from Psalms, "Let us come before him with Thanksgiving and extol him with and song." That's followed by, "May songs of joy fill your home with warmth and your heart with happiness this holiday season 2004. Good message, one we share with all of you.

I'm Rick Sanchez. Thanks so much for being with us here in New York on this day. Kelli Arena is going to be coming up next. She's going to be filling for Wolf, and she'll be joining you from Washington D.C.

We'll see you tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired November 24, 2004 - 11:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez, bringing you the latest information that is just now coming in to us. CNN is now reporting that the Election Commission there in the Ukraine has declared that the Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is the winner of Ukraine's presidential election. Now, again, he's the former prime minister. He's the one you see there on the right, as you look at the screen. He's the leader who was backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The other person is the one you're looking at now. This is part of that protest that has been taking place on the streets of Kiev, as many as 200,000 people, saying that the election was not fair. In fact, the opposition leader who went up against him, his name is Yushchenko, who has partial backing from the United States, has been saying that he has found at least 11,000 different violations that occurred during the elections. Many around the world have questioned the election as well.
But once again, the headline here is the following -- the Election Commission has now declared Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner of Ukraine's presidential election. We don't know at this point if that means that it's absolute certification, or if there's any other steps that need to be taken along the way. There had been threats that there might be some violence on the streets or perhaps some form of civil disobedience. That, from all indications, is obviously not too early to report.

Jill Dougherty's been following the story for us in the Ukraine, and we'll try and make contact with Jill as soon as we possibly can.

In fact, I'm told now we can make contact with Jill Dougherty. She's following the story.

Jill, are you there? And if you are, where...

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am. I hope you can hear me and see me.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we're wondering if the news has trickled down to these people yet that, in fact, the Election Commission has given the prime minister the nod in this election.

DOUGHERTY: Yes, in fact, here are the results. And they're pretty much the same results that they had when they came out with the initial vote count, which was three percentage points favor of the government-backed candidate; that is Mr. Yanukovych. And in a raucous session, they found 49.46 percent of the votes going to him, 46.61 percent to Mr. Yushchenko, who is the opposition candidate. Again, the -- almost exactly what they were saying, this is not going to go down well with the opposition. The main thing that the opposition is saying, is that they feel there was falsification of many votes, especially in areas that were controlled and loyal to the government-backed candidate, Mr. Yanukovych. Right now, you have many thousands of people on the streets here in Kiev. And that news, which everyone is following very, very closely, will not be welcome. What are the next steps that the opposition can take? Well, they've been talking about some legal steps, but at this point, if you have -- they were hoping that they would get some people who would -- on the election commission who would go their way. And in fact, they did have 11 people who voted for the report and four people who voted against it. So there were four people who did not agree on that committee with the result. But, obviously, overall, they are saying that the next president of Ukraine is Viktor Yanukovych.

SANCHEZ: The question that a lot of folks here have, Jill, as the follow the situation is the threats, some more overt than others, of possible civil disobedience, civil unrest. There are going to be, like you said, a lot of angry people who had wanted Yushchenko to be chosen. Have you got any feel for what the reaction may be in the hours to come, as this information filters through to those people?

DOUGHERTY: You know, so many of them had their hopes really, really high, and they were intent on staying on the street until they got what they wanted. Now they haven't gotten what they wanted, and the question is, what is Mr. Yushchenko, the opposition candidate, going to tell them? Is he going to tell them, go into the streets? He's told us, an hour or two ago, that he doesn't want that. And I don't think anybody here wants any type of bloody confrontation. But there is certainly going to be a lot of disappointment. Can they take legal steps? Maybe there is something that they have up their sleeves that way. But the threat, or let's say, the possibility of turning to civil disobedience has always been there, and it remains a possibility.

SANCHEZ: Jill Dougherty following that story for us as it develops. You heard it first here that, of course, in fact, there has been a declared winner. What happens now is part of the story we will continue to follow with Jill's help and our resources here at CNN. ' Back to the story we're following here in the states, your travel plans and what you expect might happen here, depending of course on where you live.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: So what is we're going to focus on several areas. One of the worst areas in the country by the way today is in the southeast, and that's Atlanta, Georgia that you're looking at there. Obviously, Hartsfield Jackson Airport, where they are expecting some delays.

Let's put up another picture now. Let's take you to Nashville -- Nashville, Tennessee, where we've got an eye on the highways, and it does look that as roads come together and merge that traffic is, at least for now, flowing quite smoothly.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: We have got a chance now to show you a couple of other places where, well, we have live cameras. And live cameras there to show you what's going on, possibly, in your town. This is Indianapolis. And what is going on in Indianapolis, as you may have heard in Orelon's report, is rain, and an awful lot of it. But as you can tell, the folks there in Indiana are driving carefully thus far. And there are no major problems reported.

Let's take you now to the airport, out in Denver, Denver International, formerly known as Stapleton Airport, where, as you can see, people are heading in and out of that famous security line that we've all come to love so much. They will soon be taking off their belts, their coats, and their shoes as well to get through. But look again. The good news here is, thus far, it is flowing as well.

Well, increased airport security is certainly a fact of life in the post-9/11 world. But are airport screeners going too far? Talking about some of the items that we often need to remove. CNN's Kimberly Osias talks to one woman who says yes, and tells us what she's doing about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's done in the name of security. But New York attorney Rhonda Gaynier says she felt violated on a recent trip through the Tampa Airport. A female screener patted her down under her armpit and touched her with an open hand between her breasts.

RHONDA GAYNIER, AIR TRAVELER: And I was like, whoa, what are you doing? You can't do that. And the supervisor who I had been objecting to was standing right there. And he said, yes, we can.

OSIAS: Gaynier says she felt like a common criminal when she was intimately patted down in full public view.

GAYNIER: I've had the wand thing done before. They, you know, glide it over you. But this time, anytime the wand beeped, they touched me in that spot.

OSIAS: She's hired an attorney and is considering filing a class action lawsuit. She believes the violation is endemic and underreported because women feel intimidated. The American Civil Liberties Union agrees and says they've received a growing number of complaints.

JAY STANLEY, ACLU AVIATION SECURITY: What we have here is a big problem. We have a security measure that's spun out of control because there aren't proper protections being put in place to protect against that human element.

OSIAS: After two Chechen women smuggled explosives on to Russian planes, the TSA put a new policy in place, calling for more frequent patdown searches. Screeners now have more latitude and leverage. Based on their visual observation alone, an individual can be searched, even if a detector never sounds.

TOM WILKINS, TSA, LAGUARDIA AIRPORT: One thing that we try to do is make the process as painless as possible for the traveling public so that -- we try not to be too intrusive into people's personal business. So we have to be very careful in balancing that.

OSIAS (on camera): TSA does have a protocol in place. Screeners are only supposed to use the backs of their hands when conducting searches on sensitive areas. And as far as grievances are concerned, you can lodge a complaint in writing or ask to speak to a supervisor. The problem is, when you're up against the clock in a stressful airport situation, some people don't want to do that.

Kimberly Osias, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: The U.S. secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, strongly denying that he's any type of road block, holding up that intelligence reform bill in Congress. Let's talk now with Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. She's been following this ongoing story and joins us, once again, with the very latest.

Hi, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Rick. Well, as you say, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is saying that he is not the one trying to sink intelligence reform legislation on Capitol Hill. But things are getting very complicated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): The sticking point on intelligence reform was a proposal to move military satellite and communications programs out of the Pentagon to a new national intelligence director. The Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said it might keep troops on the front line from getting crucial information.

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R-CA), ARMED SERVICES CMTE. CHMN.: What the Senate sent over was this plan that would cut that lifeline between our satellites that are giving intelligence all the time to our troops, telling them where the bad guys are, what the targeting should be.

STARR: The entire Joint Chiefs now endorsing the House view, that the Pentagon should run those battlefield intelligence programs. Chiefs chairman, General Richard Myers, emphasized it in a letter last month: "The House bill maintains this vital flow through the secretary of defense. It is my recommendation," he said, "that this critical provision be preserved."

But now Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denying any suggestion he secretly lobbied to scuttle the bill, side-stepping the Chiefs' concerns about the troops. DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I am supporting the president's position. I am a part of his administration.

STARR: Congressional skeptics, saying there is no risk to the troops.

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R-KS), INTELLIGENCE CMTE. CHMN.: There isn't anybody in the Congress that I know of that wants to do anything that would harm that actionable intelligence to the war fighter, especially during this difficult insurgency that we're fighting in Iraq.

STARR: The latest compromise, a national intelligence director, would not technically control military programs, but would control billions in spending. Many in Congress believe that is essential to keeping the Pentagon in line.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: Congress returns to Washington next month to look at this entire matter again. The power struggle will resume. And the question of whether lawmakers and Congress will pay attention to the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: Barbara Starr, following things for us at the Pentagon. Thank you, Barbara.

Do you think that you know a lot about HIV and AIDS? Are you sure? Well, up next, Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at a secret that some say is to blame for the rise in AIDS among heterosexual African-American women.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And welcome back to CNN LIVE TODAY. I'm Rick Sanchez. According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly three quarters of all women in the United States diagnosed with HIV are African- American. In the search for answers, the spotlight is on a phenomenon that's called the "down low." Senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's slowing down.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Forty-six-year-old Vanessa Johnson has already lived twice as long as her doctors told her she would.

In 1990 she was a young law student and the mother of a six-year- old son, when she was diagnosed with HIV and told she had seven years to live.

VANESSA JOHNSON, HIV POSITIVE: That scared me to death. I didn't want to suffer. And I knew that people suffered from this disease.

GUPTA: She suspects that she was infected by her high schools sweetheart. Although they never married, they dated for 18 years and had a child. He died of AIDS in 1994.

She says now, all the signs were there. He did have affairs and she believes that some of them were with men.

JOHNSON: He had a lot of gay friends. He, at the end, would say things to try to let me know, to try to affirm what I already knew. But it was still difficult for him to come right out and say, either my preference or my orientation is to have sex with men.

GUPTA: This situation isn't unique. It is called "the down low". Men who have wives or girlfriends -- and have sex with other men. Although some are claiming the down low is responsible for much of the increase of HIV infection among black straight women, many experts are saying it just isn't so.

RASHAD BURGESS, CDC: When we look at African-American men who have sex with men, that do not disclose their sexual activities or sexual orientation, we actually find that they are less likely to have high-risk behavior and less likely to be HIV positive.

DR. DAVID MALEBRANCHE, EMORY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: We can't really say for sure how much of a contribution this is having to the HIV infection rates among black women.

GUPTA: Experts say the reasons are many. That in the black community AIDS was originally thought of as a gay white man's disease and was not even on the radar screen. Add to that poverty, IV drug use, and the facts that blacks don't have the same access to primary health care. Whatever the reason, the explosion of numbers in the black community, especially straight women is undeniable -- Doctor Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: And do tune in later today for more of Sanjay's special report, "Are You Positive?" He'll have a report on HIV and AIDS among people over 50 today on "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS." Again, that's at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, 2:00 Pacific.

Are you on the White House mailing list? Well, if not, they're going to give you a look at the holiday card that you won't be getting this year. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

SANCHEZ: If you check your mailbox, you might find something. This is a Christmas memento that you'll probably want to hold on to. It's the official White House Christmas card for 2004, and it's going out to about two million people. The front shows an oil painting by artist Cindy Holt (ph) that highlights the White House Red Room, decorated for the holidays. The message is a passage from Psalms, "Let us come before him with Thanksgiving and extol him with and song." That's followed by, "May songs of joy fill your home with warmth and your heart with happiness this holiday season 2004. Good message, one we share with all of you.

I'm Rick Sanchez. Thanks so much for being with us here in New York on this day. Kelli Arena is going to be coming up next. She's going to be filling for Wolf, and she'll be joining you from Washington D.C.

We'll see you tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com