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CNN Live Today

Africa's AIDS Crisis; State of the Economy

Aired June 09, 2005 - 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: And in the U.S. Senate, California Justice Janice Rogers Brown has been confirmed to a federal appeals court. Later this afternoon, an up an down vote is expected on Justice William Pryor, nominated to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Senators voted 67-32 last night to end debate on Pryor, clearing the way for today's vote.
You've been hearing a lot about aid to Africa over the last week. Earlier this week, you helped pay for it. President Bush met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and pledged $674 million in U.S. aid to Africa. Well, if that figure sounds really big, consider the numbers that may be behind what may be Africa's most pressing problem, the epidemic of AIDS and HIV that has scuffed the continent. According to the United Nations, there were 3.2 million new infections in Africa in 2003, the last year numbers are available. That same year there were 2.3 million HIV-related deaths in Africa. There are an estimated 12 million African children currently orphaned by HIV, and the United Nations now concedes that the goal of reversing the spread of AIDS by 2015 will not be met.

Politicians may have the power; Celebrities have the stage. Rock star Bono commanded internationally as possibly the best-know activist in Africa's desperate cause.

Earlier today in Brussels, he put on a suit. Well, that's news. He called on the European commission to double the aid to Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO, ACTIVIST FOR AFRICAN AID: A hundred and twenty thousand people lost their lives; 120,000 lose their life every month in Africa. And it's not a natural calamity. These are avoidable catastrophes. So that's my motivation, is the chance that we can do this. It's not wide eyed, misty-eyed Irish nonsense. It's -- these are achievable goals, and I'm excited by that. That's what turns me on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Bono is also the driving force behind next month's star- studded Live Eight charity concert for Africa. He has also enlisted the star power of actors Brad Pitt, and Al Pacino and a number of other Hollywood celebrities.

Well, one celebrity who is launching her own initiative is talk show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey. Among her many contributions, a $1 million donation to create the Oprah South African Leadership Project. It sent nine undergraduates students from historical Morehouse College here in Atlanta to the African nation hardest hit by the AIDS crisis.

Joining me from Johannesburg, one of those students, Jamison Collier, and he is joined by Walter Earl Fluker, the executive director of the Leadership Center at Morehouse College.

Gentlemen, I should say, good afternoon, from where you are in South Africa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And good morning to you.

KAGAN: Thank you so much.

Jamison, I want to start with you. You have seen incredible things on this journey. If you could just share some of your experiences with us, please?

JAMISON COLLIER, MOREHOUSE COLLEGE STUDENT: OK, my experiences here in South Africa has been quite memorable. On the ground level here, actually experiencing the pain and the suffering that those who are infected by HIV and AIDS, and also affected by HIV and AIDS are experiencing is quite life changing. And what I found is that we all have a home here in South Africa. And by us all having a home here in South Africa, we all have a cause, and we all have a mission to support any effort to help prevent HIV and AIDS, to help those who already are infected by HIV and AIDS here in South Africa. We've met with a number of leaders in this country, both nongovernmental organizations and government organizations, who really tend to their work on addressing issues around HIV and AIDS.

So it's been a wonderful opportunity to really get on the ground level here in South Africa and to speak with individuals who are experiencing the pain and suffering that's caused by this pandemic here in South Africa.

KAGAN: Dr. Fluker, let me bring you in here. The object and the point of this trip not just to take these young men over and shock them, you are actually trying to craft and develop tomorrow's leaders, emerging leaders?

DR. WALTER EARL FLUKER, MOREHOUSE LEADERSHIP CENTER: Yes, actually, our major purpose is to create a new generation of leaders, whom we say are globally connected and ethically centered. This South African project sponsored by Ms. Winfrey, who by the way is a very generous contributor to the college. This project is aimed specifically at looking at ethical leadership and HIV AIDS as an issue that concerns us not only here in South Africa, but also locally and nationally in the United States.

KAGAN: And, Jamison, let's talk about that. It's one thing to go thousands and thousands of miles away from home, and to see what you're seeing, but how is this going to motivate you and inspire you to do things when you get back home here to the U.S.?

COLLIER: Right. A group of students who are with me formulated a pact, and we said from the trip we would continue to achieve greatness through serving government, and that would be our theme as we go back to the States, and that's the message that we will carry back to us, that we want to achieve greatness through serving others. How will we serve others? We will serve others who are both infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. As emerging leaders, I think it's important that we all champion ourselves around a single cause, and that cause is to achieve greatness through serving others. So we will implement another program at Morehouse College centered around peer education, to educate those in our community at Morehouse College around the issues of HIV and AIDS that are happening both in South Africa and in our local community in the Atlanta area.

KAGAN: And you'll be interacting with Oprah on this trip?

COLLIER: Yes, we will be interacting with Opera on this trip. We actually went out with her today and we were able to donate some uniforms to a group of children at a school that's primarily centered towards those who have been orphaned, whose parents or guardians have died due to HIV/AIDS-related diseases.

KAGAN: And what was that like? What was that like to -- what was that like, that experience? Not only dealing with Oprah, but passing out uniforms and seeing how much a single uniform can mean to a child in that situation?

COLLIER: Right. The uniforms are great. The uniforms are really symbolic of the equality that should be achieved in the education system. When the child puts on a uniform, he or she is one child, one learner, one student in the school, and everyone is on a level playing field. And I think that issues of equality, and of sharing and of giving were addressed today, and we were able to give every child a uniform, and really empower them to educate themselves and to build their confidence and to build an understanding of who they are as children and as the leaders of tomorrow. So it was a great opportunity today giving the uniforms to the children, great to see the smiles on their faces as we helped them put on the new shoes, and new shirts, and ties and sweaters. It just was overwhelming. And, again, we're trying to just achieve greatness through serving others, and today was another great opportunity to do just that.

KAGAN: Well we can feel your excitement all of these thousands of miles. We wish you a continued good, and safe and meaningful journey.

Jamison Collier, student at Morehouse, and Dr. Walter Fluker, who is there along with him as one of their leaders.

Gentlemen, thank you. Safe travels.

COLLIER: Thank you so much.

FLUKER: Thank you.

KAGAN: Moving from South Africa, we're going really far away. My next guests join me while circling the planet. We're taking you live to the International Space Station coming up next. Things are a little sparse up there. We'll talk about that.

Plus, when he speaks markets move, what Alan Greenspan has to say could affect your future.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's get to some money matters now. Live this hour, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan assesses the U.S. economy in a key address on Capitol Hill. Greenspan is testifying before the Joint Economic Committee on Capitol Hill. What he has to say has already created jitters among investors overseas.

Our economic correspondent Kathleen Hays gives us a closer look or a listen. What's the big concern about?

KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN ECONOMIC CORRESPONDENT: Well you know, Daryn, coming in to this speech, a lot of the concern, would be if Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan would signify that he's more worried about inflation. Maybe he's going to raise interest rates more, or raise them faster. That's the kind of thing that can directly affect your home mortgage. It can directly affect the stock market, and therefore, affect your 401k. Or would he say he's worried about a slowdown in the economy, and maybe less rate hikes? Instead he stuck to the same message, the economy is doing fine, inflation is well contained. We will keep hiking rates at a measured pace.

But what's interesting about his testimony today is that he spends more than half of his opening remarks telling us, well, you know, we don't have a housing bubble. Here's why, but obviously, if he's spending so much time talking about it, he is clearly thinking about it. Let's listen to what Mr. Greenspan said about a possible housing bubble, as some other members of Congress will eagerly listening this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN GREENSPAN, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Although a bubble in home prices for the nation as a hole does not appear likely, there do appear to be at a minimum signs of fraud in some local markets where home prices seem to have risen to unsustainable levels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYS: Now, if prices have risen to unsustainable level, if they can not be sustained, I guess the only way they can go is a bit lower. So there's a warning there for local markets. We can certainly look at places like South Florida, Southern California, parts of the Northeast, where we've seen home prices up 20 percent to 30 percent over the last year or so. But here's why Mr. Greenspan doesn't think there's a bubble. Number one, we don't have a national housing market where people can trade houses back and forth the way they used to trade tech stocks when we had an Internet bubble. It's a lot of local markets. That's one reason.

He also says that home sales have big closing costs. They can average up to 10 percent of the sales price, and so homeowners aren't going to trade their houses back and forth so easily.

Now he does admits that in purchase of second homes and investment homes, he's seeing some signs of speculative activity, and I think very interesting, he says this froth in the housing market may have spilled over into the mortgage markets, he's noting a dramatic increase in interest-only loans, and exotic forms of adjustable-rate mortgages that are of particular concern. So clearly he's worried that in the event of some kind of downturn in the economy, which he does not foresee now, or just individual pockets of weakness, that if people had to start foreclosing on their homes, home prices could fall, feed on itself hurt the economy. He's not forecasting it, he's saying it won't happen, Daryn, but it's clearly something that's on his radar screen.

KAGAN: And the only time in a newscast where we will hear the phrase "signs of froth." Enjoyed that.

HAYS: Well, OK.

KAGAN: Kathleen, thank you.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: Well, a fast-moving connection is just ahead. I'll be talking live with the crew of the International Space Station. There they are, over 100 miles above where we're sitting. We'll be talking to them just ahead -- a break for you right now, then we go out to space.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: NASA hopes to return a shuttle to orbit in mid to late July. That would be best time to rendezvous with the International Space Station. One question mark, however, centers on the risk of ice breaking off the external tanks during the launch. NASA engineers are now conducting tests on the potential of ice debris to damage the orbiter.

So if Discovery were damaged like Columbia was, one contingency is for the crew to take refuge in the International Space Station until a rescue mission could be prepared. It would be a tight fit.

Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer John Phillips have been aboard the space station for about two months now. We have a live hook-up with them this morning to talk about conditions aboard the ISS.

As we do this conversation, I want to explain something to our viewers at home. These men are going over 17,000 miles an hour and they're about 125 miles above Earth. Understandably, there's quite a delay as we talk to each other.

So I will take this opportunity to say good morning to Sergei and to John.

SERGEI KRIKALEV, COMMANDER: Good morning. KAGAN: Let me go ahead with my first question and just ask you, what do you think about this idea being proposed, that if the space shuttle Discovery were to run into trouble, that those astronauts would come aboard and live with you, or the other astronauts that were onboard the International Space Station? That sounds like that could be tight quarters and perhaps even dangerous?

KRIKALEV: That's not -- this idea, this is one of the contingency plan and usually, if you work in (INAUDIBLE) business, you have to have more than one plan to be able to do what you do.

JOHN PHILLIPS, FLIGHT ENGINEER: And Daryn, we know that having a crew (INAUDIBLE) not something that we'd like to do and we know that (INAUDIBLE) could stretch our resources in a lot of things. Food, water, living space, toilet. A lot of different resources. And we also know that our management is not taking this lightly and it really is being used only as resort in the case of damage to the shuttle. It's not something we're going to go into lightly or...

KAGAN: Let's talk about your resources right now, which, as I understand it, are a little scarce onboard the space station, including oxygen? Your oxygen generator is not working so well. Is it true you're getting your oxygen by burning candles?

KRIKALEV: Not the candles in general meaning of this word. We really have a problem with our -- one of our system which supply oxygen splitting -- actually (INAUDIBLE) in oxygen and hydrogen. But we have several other ways to get oxygen on the station. So one of several oxygen supply system is not working properly, but, we have, again, more than one way of doing things.

KAGAN: Sergei, let me ask you. You're about to hit within -- with a little bit of time a huge world record as the total number of days spent in space. What do you think about that achievement?

KRIKALEV: For me, it's the goal, it's probably just the result of what I was doing for many years. I never was trying to break this record, it's just the result of doing my job. And I like this job.

KAGAN: It looks like an interesting job. John, do you think he's being too humble in his accomplishment?

PHILLIPS: Maybe a little. I'm sure that en route to him breaking his record, there is a little bit of luck, but there's an awful lot of strong performance all along the way. He didn't get six flights by not doing a good job on orbit. So he's rewarded for always doing a very good job in orbit and being a true professional cosmonaut all the way.

KAGAN: As we were saying, because of the situation with the space shuttle and supplies, things are scarce onboard the International Space Station. You're a two-man crew instead of a three-person crew. What are you actually able to get done while you're up there, in the six months that you have?

PHILLIPS: Well, Daryn, every day we have a variety of activities on your schedule and some of the activities fall into the -- under the heading of maintenance and repair. But every day also, we have got a couple of hours of science work. So we're not doing nearly the quantity of science that a larger crew would do. But we're not just a caretaker crew, either. We are doing -- meeting some of our science goals, as well as keeping the spaceship in good shape for the augmented crews that we expect to come up in the future and the shuttles that will bring new modules and new laboratory equipment.

KAGAN: Well, more than anything, we wish you a safe and fantastic journey. John Phillips, Sergei Krikalev, thank you so much. And Sergei, we will just say in advance, congratulations on your world record that you are about to set, even if you don't think it's that big of a deal.

Gentlemen, safe travel. Thank you.

And once again, long delay there. They're 125 miles up in the air. That's about the five-second delay in between communication that was there.

56 minutes after the hour. It became law just weeks after September 11th. There has been no shortage of controversy over the USA Patriot Act. President Bush is speaking this morning in an effort to renew and expand certain provisions in that law. We'll bring that to you live. We're going to hear from the other side of the issue, as well -- the one senator who voted against the Patriot Act the first time around -- as the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News." President Bush calls on Congress to renew the Patriot Act. He'll make his case in a speech you'll see live this hour. Mr. Bush says the law passed after 9/11 is an important tool in the war on terror. Critics say it undermines freedom and civil liberties.

We're following developments in the case of an Alabama teenager missing in Aruba. Police this morning arrested three more men in connection with Natalee Holloway's disappearance. They were last seen -- they were the last people seen with Holloway before she vanished. Details and a live report from Aruba, just ahead.

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Aired June 9, 2005 - 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: And in the U.S. Senate, California Justice Janice Rogers Brown has been confirmed to a federal appeals court. Later this afternoon, an up an down vote is expected on Justice William Pryor, nominated to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Senators voted 67-32 last night to end debate on Pryor, clearing the way for today's vote.
You've been hearing a lot about aid to Africa over the last week. Earlier this week, you helped pay for it. President Bush met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and pledged $674 million in U.S. aid to Africa. Well, if that figure sounds really big, consider the numbers that may be behind what may be Africa's most pressing problem, the epidemic of AIDS and HIV that has scuffed the continent. According to the United Nations, there were 3.2 million new infections in Africa in 2003, the last year numbers are available. That same year there were 2.3 million HIV-related deaths in Africa. There are an estimated 12 million African children currently orphaned by HIV, and the United Nations now concedes that the goal of reversing the spread of AIDS by 2015 will not be met.

Politicians may have the power; Celebrities have the stage. Rock star Bono commanded internationally as possibly the best-know activist in Africa's desperate cause.

Earlier today in Brussels, he put on a suit. Well, that's news. He called on the European commission to double the aid to Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO, ACTIVIST FOR AFRICAN AID: A hundred and twenty thousand people lost their lives; 120,000 lose their life every month in Africa. And it's not a natural calamity. These are avoidable catastrophes. So that's my motivation, is the chance that we can do this. It's not wide eyed, misty-eyed Irish nonsense. It's -- these are achievable goals, and I'm excited by that. That's what turns me on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Bono is also the driving force behind next month's star- studded Live Eight charity concert for Africa. He has also enlisted the star power of actors Brad Pitt, and Al Pacino and a number of other Hollywood celebrities.

Well, one celebrity who is launching her own initiative is talk show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey. Among her many contributions, a $1 million donation to create the Oprah South African Leadership Project. It sent nine undergraduates students from historical Morehouse College here in Atlanta to the African nation hardest hit by the AIDS crisis.

Joining me from Johannesburg, one of those students, Jamison Collier, and he is joined by Walter Earl Fluker, the executive director of the Leadership Center at Morehouse College.

Gentlemen, I should say, good afternoon, from where you are in South Africa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And good morning to you.

KAGAN: Thank you so much.

Jamison, I want to start with you. You have seen incredible things on this journey. If you could just share some of your experiences with us, please?

JAMISON COLLIER, MOREHOUSE COLLEGE STUDENT: OK, my experiences here in South Africa has been quite memorable. On the ground level here, actually experiencing the pain and the suffering that those who are infected by HIV and AIDS, and also affected by HIV and AIDS are experiencing is quite life changing. And what I found is that we all have a home here in South Africa. And by us all having a home here in South Africa, we all have a cause, and we all have a mission to support any effort to help prevent HIV and AIDS, to help those who already are infected by HIV and AIDS here in South Africa. We've met with a number of leaders in this country, both nongovernmental organizations and government organizations, who really tend to their work on addressing issues around HIV and AIDS.

So it's been a wonderful opportunity to really get on the ground level here in South Africa and to speak with individuals who are experiencing the pain and suffering that's caused by this pandemic here in South Africa.

KAGAN: Dr. Fluker, let me bring you in here. The object and the point of this trip not just to take these young men over and shock them, you are actually trying to craft and develop tomorrow's leaders, emerging leaders?

DR. WALTER EARL FLUKER, MOREHOUSE LEADERSHIP CENTER: Yes, actually, our major purpose is to create a new generation of leaders, whom we say are globally connected and ethically centered. This South African project sponsored by Ms. Winfrey, who by the way is a very generous contributor to the college. This project is aimed specifically at looking at ethical leadership and HIV AIDS as an issue that concerns us not only here in South Africa, but also locally and nationally in the United States.

KAGAN: And, Jamison, let's talk about that. It's one thing to go thousands and thousands of miles away from home, and to see what you're seeing, but how is this going to motivate you and inspire you to do things when you get back home here to the U.S.?

COLLIER: Right. A group of students who are with me formulated a pact, and we said from the trip we would continue to achieve greatness through serving government, and that would be our theme as we go back to the States, and that's the message that we will carry back to us, that we want to achieve greatness through serving others. How will we serve others? We will serve others who are both infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. As emerging leaders, I think it's important that we all champion ourselves around a single cause, and that cause is to achieve greatness through serving others. So we will implement another program at Morehouse College centered around peer education, to educate those in our community at Morehouse College around the issues of HIV and AIDS that are happening both in South Africa and in our local community in the Atlanta area.

KAGAN: And you'll be interacting with Oprah on this trip?

COLLIER: Yes, we will be interacting with Opera on this trip. We actually went out with her today and we were able to donate some uniforms to a group of children at a school that's primarily centered towards those who have been orphaned, whose parents or guardians have died due to HIV/AIDS-related diseases.

KAGAN: And what was that like? What was that like to -- what was that like, that experience? Not only dealing with Oprah, but passing out uniforms and seeing how much a single uniform can mean to a child in that situation?

COLLIER: Right. The uniforms are great. The uniforms are really symbolic of the equality that should be achieved in the education system. When the child puts on a uniform, he or she is one child, one learner, one student in the school, and everyone is on a level playing field. And I think that issues of equality, and of sharing and of giving were addressed today, and we were able to give every child a uniform, and really empower them to educate themselves and to build their confidence and to build an understanding of who they are as children and as the leaders of tomorrow. So it was a great opportunity today giving the uniforms to the children, great to see the smiles on their faces as we helped them put on the new shoes, and new shirts, and ties and sweaters. It just was overwhelming. And, again, we're trying to just achieve greatness through serving others, and today was another great opportunity to do just that.

KAGAN: Well we can feel your excitement all of these thousands of miles. We wish you a continued good, and safe and meaningful journey.

Jamison Collier, student at Morehouse, and Dr. Walter Fluker, who is there along with him as one of their leaders.

Gentlemen, thank you. Safe travels.

COLLIER: Thank you so much.

FLUKER: Thank you.

KAGAN: Moving from South Africa, we're going really far away. My next guests join me while circling the planet. We're taking you live to the International Space Station coming up next. Things are a little sparse up there. We'll talk about that.

Plus, when he speaks markets move, what Alan Greenspan has to say could affect your future.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's get to some money matters now. Live this hour, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan assesses the U.S. economy in a key address on Capitol Hill. Greenspan is testifying before the Joint Economic Committee on Capitol Hill. What he has to say has already created jitters among investors overseas.

Our economic correspondent Kathleen Hays gives us a closer look or a listen. What's the big concern about?

KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN ECONOMIC CORRESPONDENT: Well you know, Daryn, coming in to this speech, a lot of the concern, would be if Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan would signify that he's more worried about inflation. Maybe he's going to raise interest rates more, or raise them faster. That's the kind of thing that can directly affect your home mortgage. It can directly affect the stock market, and therefore, affect your 401k. Or would he say he's worried about a slowdown in the economy, and maybe less rate hikes? Instead he stuck to the same message, the economy is doing fine, inflation is well contained. We will keep hiking rates at a measured pace.

But what's interesting about his testimony today is that he spends more than half of his opening remarks telling us, well, you know, we don't have a housing bubble. Here's why, but obviously, if he's spending so much time talking about it, he is clearly thinking about it. Let's listen to what Mr. Greenspan said about a possible housing bubble, as some other members of Congress will eagerly listening this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN GREENSPAN, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Although a bubble in home prices for the nation as a hole does not appear likely, there do appear to be at a minimum signs of fraud in some local markets where home prices seem to have risen to unsustainable levels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYS: Now, if prices have risen to unsustainable level, if they can not be sustained, I guess the only way they can go is a bit lower. So there's a warning there for local markets. We can certainly look at places like South Florida, Southern California, parts of the Northeast, where we've seen home prices up 20 percent to 30 percent over the last year or so. But here's why Mr. Greenspan doesn't think there's a bubble. Number one, we don't have a national housing market where people can trade houses back and forth the way they used to trade tech stocks when we had an Internet bubble. It's a lot of local markets. That's one reason.

He also says that home sales have big closing costs. They can average up to 10 percent of the sales price, and so homeowners aren't going to trade their houses back and forth so easily.

Now he does admits that in purchase of second homes and investment homes, he's seeing some signs of speculative activity, and I think very interesting, he says this froth in the housing market may have spilled over into the mortgage markets, he's noting a dramatic increase in interest-only loans, and exotic forms of adjustable-rate mortgages that are of particular concern. So clearly he's worried that in the event of some kind of downturn in the economy, which he does not foresee now, or just individual pockets of weakness, that if people had to start foreclosing on their homes, home prices could fall, feed on itself hurt the economy. He's not forecasting it, he's saying it won't happen, Daryn, but it's clearly something that's on his radar screen.

KAGAN: And the only time in a newscast where we will hear the phrase "signs of froth." Enjoyed that.

HAYS: Well, OK.

KAGAN: Kathleen, thank you.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: Well, a fast-moving connection is just ahead. I'll be talking live with the crew of the International Space Station. There they are, over 100 miles above where we're sitting. We'll be talking to them just ahead -- a break for you right now, then we go out to space.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: NASA hopes to return a shuttle to orbit in mid to late July. That would be best time to rendezvous with the International Space Station. One question mark, however, centers on the risk of ice breaking off the external tanks during the launch. NASA engineers are now conducting tests on the potential of ice debris to damage the orbiter.

So if Discovery were damaged like Columbia was, one contingency is for the crew to take refuge in the International Space Station until a rescue mission could be prepared. It would be a tight fit.

Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer John Phillips have been aboard the space station for about two months now. We have a live hook-up with them this morning to talk about conditions aboard the ISS.

As we do this conversation, I want to explain something to our viewers at home. These men are going over 17,000 miles an hour and they're about 125 miles above Earth. Understandably, there's quite a delay as we talk to each other.

So I will take this opportunity to say good morning to Sergei and to John.

SERGEI KRIKALEV, COMMANDER: Good morning. KAGAN: Let me go ahead with my first question and just ask you, what do you think about this idea being proposed, that if the space shuttle Discovery were to run into trouble, that those astronauts would come aboard and live with you, or the other astronauts that were onboard the International Space Station? That sounds like that could be tight quarters and perhaps even dangerous?

KRIKALEV: That's not -- this idea, this is one of the contingency plan and usually, if you work in (INAUDIBLE) business, you have to have more than one plan to be able to do what you do.

JOHN PHILLIPS, FLIGHT ENGINEER: And Daryn, we know that having a crew (INAUDIBLE) not something that we'd like to do and we know that (INAUDIBLE) could stretch our resources in a lot of things. Food, water, living space, toilet. A lot of different resources. And we also know that our management is not taking this lightly and it really is being used only as resort in the case of damage to the shuttle. It's not something we're going to go into lightly or...

KAGAN: Let's talk about your resources right now, which, as I understand it, are a little scarce onboard the space station, including oxygen? Your oxygen generator is not working so well. Is it true you're getting your oxygen by burning candles?

KRIKALEV: Not the candles in general meaning of this word. We really have a problem with our -- one of our system which supply oxygen splitting -- actually (INAUDIBLE) in oxygen and hydrogen. But we have several other ways to get oxygen on the station. So one of several oxygen supply system is not working properly, but, we have, again, more than one way of doing things.

KAGAN: Sergei, let me ask you. You're about to hit within -- with a little bit of time a huge world record as the total number of days spent in space. What do you think about that achievement?

KRIKALEV: For me, it's the goal, it's probably just the result of what I was doing for many years. I never was trying to break this record, it's just the result of doing my job. And I like this job.

KAGAN: It looks like an interesting job. John, do you think he's being too humble in his accomplishment?

PHILLIPS: Maybe a little. I'm sure that en route to him breaking his record, there is a little bit of luck, but there's an awful lot of strong performance all along the way. He didn't get six flights by not doing a good job on orbit. So he's rewarded for always doing a very good job in orbit and being a true professional cosmonaut all the way.

KAGAN: As we were saying, because of the situation with the space shuttle and supplies, things are scarce onboard the International Space Station. You're a two-man crew instead of a three-person crew. What are you actually able to get done while you're up there, in the six months that you have?

PHILLIPS: Well, Daryn, every day we have a variety of activities on your schedule and some of the activities fall into the -- under the heading of maintenance and repair. But every day also, we have got a couple of hours of science work. So we're not doing nearly the quantity of science that a larger crew would do. But we're not just a caretaker crew, either. We are doing -- meeting some of our science goals, as well as keeping the spaceship in good shape for the augmented crews that we expect to come up in the future and the shuttles that will bring new modules and new laboratory equipment.

KAGAN: Well, more than anything, we wish you a safe and fantastic journey. John Phillips, Sergei Krikalev, thank you so much. And Sergei, we will just say in advance, congratulations on your world record that you are about to set, even if you don't think it's that big of a deal.

Gentlemen, safe travel. Thank you.

And once again, long delay there. They're 125 miles up in the air. That's about the five-second delay in between communication that was there.

56 minutes after the hour. It became law just weeks after September 11th. There has been no shortage of controversy over the USA Patriot Act. President Bush is speaking this morning in an effort to renew and expand certain provisions in that law. We'll bring that to you live. We're going to hear from the other side of the issue, as well -- the one senator who voted against the Patriot Act the first time around -- as the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News." President Bush calls on Congress to renew the Patriot Act. He'll make his case in a speech you'll see live this hour. Mr. Bush says the law passed after 9/11 is an important tool in the war on terror. Critics say it undermines freedom and civil liberties.

We're following developments in the case of an Alabama teenager missing in Aruba. Police this morning arrested three more men in connection with Natalee Holloway's disappearance. They were last seen -- they were the last people seen with Holloway before she vanished. Details and a live report from Aruba, just ahead.

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