Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Hurricane Emily; Iraq vs. Saddam; Iraq Violence; Rudolph Sentencing; Cut Your Health Care Costs

Aired July 18, 2005 - 10:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: AMERICAN MORNING. Daryn Kagan joining us from Atlanta with all the news from there.
Daryn, take it away.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You guys have a good day in New York City.

We'll go ahead and get started with a look at what's happening "Now in the News."

Hurricane Emily weakening after smashing into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula at a category four storm. The storm's fury passed directly over the resort town of Cozumel. Thousands of tourists are riding it out in makeshift shelters. A full report from Mexico is just two minutes away here on CNN. We are your hurricane headquarters.

President Bush welcomes India's prime minister to the White House in an elaborate ceremony this morning. India is seeking U.S. support in its effort to gain a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. The two are expected to hold a news conference beginning at 11:15 Eastern. We'll bring that to you live.

Eric Rudolph receives a life sentence today for bombing an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama. A nurse who was maimed in that blast will get a chance to talk to Rudolph when they both appear in federal court. That gets under way in about 30 minutes.

And movie fans ate up "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" this weekend. The Willie Wonka remake took in $55.5 million. "Wedding Crasher" came in a solid second. The comedy about a couple of guys out to have fun with bridesmaids pulled in just over $32 million.

And good morning on this Monday morning. It is July 18th. Good morning from the CNN Center in Atlanta. I'm Daryn Kagan. This is CNN LIVE TODAY. Let's get started.

CNN is your hurricane headquarters. Today, we're following Hurricane Emily, downgraded to a category two. Still a possible threat to the U.S.

Hurricane Emily came ashore on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula early this morning. The category four storm hit the coast with 135 mile- per-hour winds. The northern eye wall, that's the strongest part of the storm, passed directly over the resort island of Cozumel. There are no reports yet from Cozumel, but police near the area of Cancun say there have been no casualties there. The storm has weakened and moved inland, but Emily is expected to strengthen again after crossing into the Gulf of Mexico. And people in Northeast Mexico are being put on alert for Emily's potential second landfall in that area.

Our Karl Penhaul rode out the hurricane in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. He joins us live now.

Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, the winds are dying down substantially now. The hurricane, though, did come over here in the hours of darkness, in the very early hours of this morning. Playa del Carmen is more or less exactly where the eye came across, according to the weather experts.

Now in terms of the damage, the damage that we've seen has mostly been restricted to a lot of trees and a lot of foliage coming down. You might be able to see behind me part of a tree top that has been snapped off here on the beach front down in Playa del Carmen. Elsewhere, along the city's main avenue, many other trees strewn around.

Also some of the power cables are down. The city officials did take the precaution of cutting all power to the city before the hurricane actually struck in order to avoid anybody being electrocuted.

Now, Playa del Carmen, like much of the rest of this coast, a main tourist resort, and authorities say 130,000 tourists were on vacation over this weekend. Half of them Mexican, and the other half either from the United States or from Europe. But according to police in this resort town, there have been no casualties. Neither among the residents, nor among the tourists. Everybody is fine.

And certainly part of that seems due to the evacuation plan, because what we saw yesterday afternoon in the hotels was that almost all the guests were being moved out of their rooms and being put into solid structures inside the hotels. Mostly into the ballrooms and into the convention center. That's really seems to have paid off because the police say that everybody has emerge from this unscathed.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Karl Penhaul live from Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Let's tracking Emily as the storm moves northward. A few precautions are being taken now in South Texas. That's in case Emily makes its second landfall in that area. Our Chris Lawrence is in South Padre Island, Texas, this morning. Right now it looks pretty nice.

Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it certainly does, Daryn. But we are under a hurricane watch here. In the last hour, I've seen more and more businesses start to board up their windows here along the coast.

Now officials are definitely taking this pretty seriously. They are stockpiling sandbags for folks here to use in their homes. They are trying to deepen some of the water drainage points, in case they get a large amount of rainfall here.

But as you said, right now, you know, there's a reason they call it the calm before the storm. Just a beautiful morning here. Not a cloud in the sky. A lot people already out on the beach this morning.

In terms of evacuations, the folks here did pass legislation that would allow them to issue a mandatory evacuation, but that legislation is not in effect just yet. So any evacuations would have to be voluntary. And from what a lot of people here are telling us, they figure this is not going to be a direct hit. They're willing to just ride it out.

KAGAN: Well, things look lovely there on the beach now, Chris, but I know there's a lot of agriculture in the area as well. Are there concerns for those crops?

LAWRENCE: Yes, cotton is a huge industry in this area and a lot of the farmers are really racing the clock now because even if we don't get a direct hit of this hurricane, torrential rains and wind can strip the cotton right off the stocks. And once it's on the ground, it's worthless. A lot of those farmers say they could lose millions of dollars worth of the crop. So they're trying to harvest as fast as possible.

KAGAN: Chris Lawrence, live from South Padre Island, Texas.

Thank you.

Let's see the story the picture of the radar is telling right now. Chad Myers has that for us.

Hi, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Stay with CNN throughout the day for the latest on Emily. We are your hurricane headquarters.

Other news today, controversy continuing to swirl around the president's chief adviser, Karl Rove, and whether or not he leaked the name of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, to reporters. The latest edition of "Time" magazine has Matt Cooper's account of his conversation with Rove in 2003. Last week, Cooper testified about that conversation before a grand jury investigating the source of a leak. Cooper says Rove revealed that the wife of ambassador Joseph Wilson apparently work for the CIA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW COOPER, "TIME" MAGAZINE: After that conversation, I knew that she worked at the CIA and worked on WMD issue. But as I made clear to the grand jury, I'm certain Rove never used her exact name and certainly never indicated she had a covert status.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Cooper also revealed that Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide, Lewis Libby, was a source for this story about the ambassador's wife. He writes, "on background, I asked Libby if he had heard anything about Wilson's wife sending her husband to Niger." Cooper said Libby replied "Yeah, I've heard that too" or words to that affect. The CIA sent Wilson to Niger to investigate the possible sale of uranium to Iraq for nuclear weapons. Wilson found no evidence of that. He subsequently wrote an op-ed column accuse the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence to justify the war.

And on to Iraq.

There has been an upsurge in violence in Iraq that is causing concerns both in the U.S. and Middle East. At least 170 people have been killed by suicide bombings just in this last week alone. The biggest of those suicide attacks was south of Baghdad on Saturday in an area known as the Triangle of Death. At least 90 people were killed and 160 wounded in that attack. Iraqi officials say a suicide bomber detonated himself near a stolen fuel tanker. Right now, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a hearing on how to improve security any Iraq. Retired General Barry McCaffrey and CNN Analyst Ken Pollack are among those testifying.

Amid the violence, though, there is a move for justice. The Iraqi Special Tribunal has brought its first charges against Saddam Hussein. And for that story we're going to go live to Baghdad and CNN's Aneesh Raman.

Aneesh.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, good morning.

Saddam Hussein and other members of his former regime could face trial as early as September. It follows yesterday's referral of charges by this chief investigative judge. There's a 45-day minimum period between that referral and when any trial can begin.

Now this special tribunal is not trying individuals. Instead, Daryn, they're going to try specific cases one by one. So this first trial will be about a 1982 incident that took place north of the capital city in a town called Dujayl. There, in July of that year, Saddam Hussein survived an assassination attempt. In reaction, had allegedly 150 people, mainly Shia residents there, killed.

So Saddam, along with, we understand, three to four other defendants, will face trial on that case first. There could be upwards, Daryn, of 12 trials where we could see Saddam in any or all of them. He could be found guilt in any or all of them and face the death penalty as possible punishment for all of them as well.

But this the first. An important moment for the Iraqi people. It will be televised throughout the country, throughout the world. Many here saying that humanity itself, Daryn, is going to be put on trial.

KAGAN: Aneesh, let's talk more about this upsurge in violence, especially this suicide bomb attack yesterday involving the fuel tanker. Just absolutely horrendous.

RAMAN: A massive attack, Daryn. One of the deadliest we've seen since the war taking place in a town called Musayyib. A small town just about 50 miles south of the capital city. There a suicide bomber detonated next to a fuel tanker. We now understand from Iraqi police that fuel tanker was stolen from the capital city and brought in to that town specifically for this attack. A massive explosion igniting the gas station that was adjacent to the fuel tanker, apartments, homes, some 90 people killed, as you say. Well over 100 wounded.

Daryn, at the same time, mortar attack were launched on the general hospital, as well as the police headquarters. That making rescuing those that were wounded but survived the initial attack nearly impossible. All of it, as you say, comes as we've seen a surge in violence, especially suicide bombings. The key remains, Daryn, for the forces on the ground to seal the border and to get better intelligence to really curve this violence. Both of those thing require as much heftier presence by the Iraqi security forces.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Aneesh Raman live from Baghdad.

Aneesh, thank you.

Still a lot ahead to talk about this morning, including what may be an emotional day in Alabama. Eric Rudolph will hear his sentence and he will here from victims of the Birmingham clinic bombing.

Plus, the ripple effect of transit terror. D.C. officials beef up subway security but one of the measures under consideration is causing some controversy.

And later, a simple method to deliver a simple message. These people aren't afraid. Babies, animals, everyone, giving terrorist as piece of their mind.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Eric Rudolph's victims have their chance to confront the confessed bomber this morning. Rudolph's sentencing hearing begins just minutes from now in Birmingham, Alabama. Reporter Alan Collins is our affiliate WBRC is outside the courtroom.

ALAN COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rudolph's sentencing will take place at 9:30 Central Time here in Birmingham. And for a lot of folks here in this town, they believe it's a long time in coming.

Now Rudolph was convicted of bombing the New Woman, all-women's health clinic, back in 1998. Now we all know at that time that Birmingham Police Officer Sande Sanderson, he was working security at that clinic in his off-duty capacity. Now he was escorting clinic nurse Emily Lyons at that time early that morning to work. That's just when the pipe bomb was detonated. Authorities say that Rudolph was watching the entire scene.

Rudolph went on the run. Was on the run for almost six years. Finally being captured in North Carolina. After pleading guilty earlier this year, Rudolph in a written statement that he release, indicated that he was targeting the clinic because he was vehemently opposed to abortion. He did not target Sanderson or Lyons individually as they were doing their jobs. He was targeting them because they were affiliated with that clinic.

Now Emily Lyons will be at today's sentencing and she has indicated that she will address Rudolph. The bottom line, she's going to tell Rudolph is, that he failed. He failed to silence her and that clinic is open today. Rudolph will be sentenced it life here in Birmingham. Then, in August, he will be taken to Atlanta where he will face more life sentences, eventually serving all of those life sentences in Colorado.

In Birmingham, Alan Collins for CNN.

Back to you, Daryn.

KAGAN: Alan, thank you for that report.

Emily Lyons, who is that nurse who was critically wounded in Eric Rudolph's Birmingham bombing, spoke to AMERICAN MORNING in the last hour. She tells CNN that what exactly she plans to say to Rudolph in court today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMILY LYONS, SURVIVED CLINIC BOMBING: What I plan to tell him is that he failed. He didn't shut the clinic down or the clinic in Atlanta and he didn't silence me. So his efforts that day failed in that respect. However, his efforts have put him in jail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Other news today, Americans pay more for health care than anybody anywhere else in the world. So if your blood pressure is rise along with your premiums, then listen up. Gerri Willis is going to tell you how you can cut the medical costs.

Gerri, good morning.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

We have five tips for cutting your medical costs when CNN LIVE TODAY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's go ahead and check the numbers. Kind of a down day to start the week on Wall Street. You can see the Dow is down 34 points. Markets have been open about 51 minutes. The Nasdaq also in negative territory. It is down 6 points.

So question for you about your healthcare costs. Are they out of control? In today's "Top Five Tip," we have some ideas on reining them in. Our Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis is here from New York City.

Gerri, good morning.

WILLIS: Good to see you, Daryn.

Tip number one, flex your medical spending. I love talking about this flexible spending accounts that your employer may offer you to set aside pre-tax dollars for your medical costs. But there's good news even more on the score today. It used to be that these accounts, if you didn't use them by the end of the year you lost the money. Not anymore. They've extended the deadline to March 15th. So if you just can't get that last visit to the doctor in, in December, you have a little bit more time to do it. Remember, you're saving pre-tax dollars here and that's what's key to lowering your overall bill.

KAGAN: And, Gerri, what about all those wonderful, glossy commercials we see on television advertising these drugs?

WILLIS: You know, would you believe that the industry, the pharmaceutical industry, spends $7 billion every year trying to convince us to part with our money and buy some drug for whatever purpose? You might want to think about the most cost-effective drug in some cases. And one great way to do that is to go to crbestbydrugs.org. Now that's a Web site for "Consumer Reports," as to who's put together compiled a list of drugs that are possible solutions for your problem. Lots of different drugs, lots of different solutions for people out there who are suffering.

Also, to compare pharmacy prices because it's not just the drug you choose, it's also where you buy it. Check out these Web sites. Now some of these are real world, brick and mortar, Costco.com. Others are simply online Web site familymeds, drugstore, where you can see what you can be charged to buy these things. But it is critic to lower your prescription drug costs.

KAGAN: How can early detection be a money saver, especially when a lot of insurance plans don't cover a lot of those tests?

WILLIS: Well, that's a great question. You know, if you screen yourself early, you can prevent a disease, though, that could cost you big time in the long run. And some people do offer free screening. For example, The American Cancer Society, that's cancer.org, offers free or low-cost mammography if you qualify. You can also get low- cost breast and cervical cancer screening from the National Center for Disease Control at cdc.gov/cancer.

KAGAN: What about generic drugs?

WILLIS: Generics are great. Not everybody wants to use them and I understand that. But you can save up to $1,200 to $2,000 each and every year if you just choose the generic. And it's not tough to do. There are lots of places to go out there to get information on generics. One easy place is the American Association of Retired Persons, their Web site, aarp.org. You can learn about the generics that are at least out there so you know that there are cheaper options.

KAGAN: What about deducting your medical costs? Can everybody do it?

WILLIS: No. No. Everybody cannot do it, but there is a tax break if you have a very high bill. If your medical costs in a single year exceed 7.5 percent of your income, your adjusted gross income, for the purposes of the IRS, than you can deduct those costs on your annual taxes. Here's the devil that's in the details, though. You want to make sure you count all of your costs, even down to, Daryn, how much it cost you to get to the hospital or get to the doctor. So add up all those costs. Of course, everybody in your household. Save some money. Irs.gov to get the form to make sure you get the best deal you can.

KAGAN: Yes, the parking lot, which sometimes can be more expensive than the trip to the doctors as well.

Gerri, thank you.

WILLIS: You're welcome.

KAGAN: Ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY, connecting the dots. An important development this morning on the London bombings and new information and new images of the suspects.

Plus, the impact here at home. A ride on the subway could become an entirely different experience for some. We will tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: We are coming up on the half hour. I'm Daryn Kagan. Here's what's happening "Now in the News."

"Time" magazine reported Matt Cooper says he learned about CIA Operative Valerie Plame from White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Vice President's Dick Cheney's top aide helped him confirm that. However, Cooper says neither man ever mentioned her name. The CIA leak investigation continues to simmer. Details ahead at the 11:00 hour.

Two large luxury cars have received high marks in safety tests. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rated the 2005 Audi A6 as a best pick in both front and side impact crash tests. The 2006 Infiniti M35 got a best rating for front and good for side impact. The institute plans more tests on luxury models later this year.

A bill to prevent the deaths of small children and pets is being discussed by a senate sub committee this hour. Under the legislation, a bitter agent would be added to anti-freeze to keep it from being swallowed. One tablespoon of anti-freeze is fatal to an average size pet. Three states currently require that bitter agent. The Senate bill would create a national law.

And Britain is mourning the death of former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath. Heath died Sunday at his home in the south of England. He was 89 years old. He was prime minister from 1970 until 1974. He was a carpenter's son who grew up to lead the conservative party. His major achievement, to broker Britain's entry into what is now the European Union.

We are learning more today about the suspected suicide bombers in the London terror attacks. Pakistani intelligent