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CNN Live Today

Crisis in the Middle East; The Fight for Iraq; Gas Saving Scams

Aired August 08, 2006 - 11:30   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 check in, in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. Anthony Mills is there with the latest -- Anthony.
ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, the Lebanese capital here is still reeling from yesterday's attack in the evening on a part of the southern suburbs that was closer than ever before to the center of the city in terms of strikes. It was a part of the suburbs that really, until now, for residents there, it felt fairly safe. They felt that they weren't going to be hit, because they really were so close to the center, and then yesterday evening, a strike on that part on a building.

Of course, there were people around, people in the building, and in the street. They were taken by surprise. At least 15 people dead according to internal security forces here and 65 injured.

Meanwhile, in the south, as you say, these flyers have been distributed. They're actually warning residents of the south, anywhere in the south, further south than the Litani River. That's a river that runs across Lebanon. It's about 20 miles inside the country from the Lebanese/Israeli border. And everyone below that river being told not to move in vehicles of any kind at all. Anyone who does, the leaflets say, could be a target. So a sense of fear down there as well -- Daryn.

KAGAN: That would certainly hinder aid getting to people who really need it in the southern part of the country.

MILLS: Indeed, Daryn. The aid situation here, the humanitarian situation, was already very, very difficult because of the smashed infrastructure, especially in the southwest. Roads had been bombed, bridges as well. Lebanon's transport minister, Mohammad Saffadi (ph), has told us that over 85 percent of Lebanon's bridges have been bombed. So the situation down there, especially in the southwest, many people are still believed to be trapped in villages. For them, very difficult, very difficult to be reached. And of course, if these flyers refer to any moving vehicle, then ambulances as well, any form of assistance also a target, one assumes, based on the leaflets. So making a difficult situation down there even more difficult -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Anthony Mills, live from Beirut, thank you.

Israel's goal in all this is to break Hezbollah. One could argue that is no easy task.

CNN's Tom Foreman takes a closer look at the power behind Hezbollah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hezbollah may seem like many guerrilla armies, but military analysts say Hezbollah is much better prepared than most for open warfare. And its main strengths can be listed. Hezbollah is well trained and supplied by the Iranian military. Much has been made of its rockets, but the fighting has shown that Hezbollah also has plenty of quality rifles, anti-tank rockets, bomb-guidance systems, night-vision and communications gear, and its fighters know how to use them.

DAN BYMAN, CTR. FOR PEACE & SECURITY STUDIES: Hezbollah forces are brave. They know how to find cover. They know how to use their weapons effectively. Most guerrilla groups don't; they fight poorly, they run away in the face of danger.

FOREMAN: Hezbollah is disciplined like an army. Unlike Hamas, which analysts say is only now developing that sort of organization, Hezbollah has a well-established command structure. Intelligence analysts say the 3,000 or so full-time fighters are directed by field commanders who have studied countless attacks on the Israeli military.

(on camera): Another thing Hezbollah has going for it is sheer geography. Their homeland here in Southern Lebanon is full of mountains, and trails and little villages, and they have had almost 25 years to dig in, to build tunnels and weapons caches and secret caves from which they can pop out and strike, and then, once again, disappear.

MIRI EISEN, ISRAELI GOVT. SPOKESPERSON: They've booby-trapped the entire area. They want us to walk into those booby-traps.

FOREMAN (voice-over): And Hezbollah has help. Decades of running social programs, hospitals and schools for Shiite Muslims have produced allies, willing to provide a haven for Hezbollah.

BYMAN: When Israel goes en masse to fight Hezbollah, Hezbollah disappears among the Lebanese, as we seen right now.

FOREMAN: And that is just the kind of tactic, just the kind of fight for which the army of Hezbollah has trained for many years.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And still more looking at Hezbollah here. The group was formed in 1982, in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Hezbollah has close ties to Iran and Syria. It has built support among the Lebanese people by setting up schools, hospitals and other social services. The group controls 23 seats in Lebanon's parliament. The U.S. and Israel consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

A military milestone in Iraq. Iraqi forces take over more security duties from U.S. troops, even as a new round of attacks slam Baghdad.

CNN's Harris Whitbeck has the latest from the capital -- Harris.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, those new attacks once again targeted civilians in the Iraqi capital. The central market in Baghdad was once again hit by a bomb. There were 10 people killed there and 69 were injured. The bomb attack occurred during the morning hours, a time when there were a lot of people shopping and going about their daily routine.

Meanwhile, close to the ministry of the interior, also in Baghdad, three different bombs when the off, killing another nine people and wounding dozens more. In total, nearly 20 Iraqis alone in the Iraqi capital killed this morning. There was also an incident up in Tikrit in which two roadside bombs went off. Those bombs were targeting members of the Iraqi armed forces. That occurred as a handover ceremony took place on a military base in Tikrit.

U.S. military commanders there, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq there, also hand control of the province in which -- of which Tikrit is a part of to the Iraqi army's fourth division. The Iraqi army has 10 divisions; five of them are now taking the lead in their battle spaces throughout Iraq, and the U.S. military says its goal is to have all 10 Iraqi army divisions online, if you will, by the end of the year -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Harris Whitbeck, live from Baghdad, thank you.

We're going to take a look at health news just ahead. You send your kid off to Girl Scout camp, rabies, not what you expect for her to come home with. Why some Girl Scouts face some serious shots, and what is involved in getting rabies shots. Elizabeth Cohen will be along to explain.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Well, that music is a little too happy for the gas prices, wouldn't you say? Gas prices are fueling painful memories from the 1970s for many drivers. According to a new poll from the Opinion Research Corporation, more than a third of Americans are worried about higher gas prices. Interestingly, though, about half say they're more concerned about the long lines and rationing. The same poll asked Americans if the jump in gas prices is causing hardships for their family. Nearly two-thirds say yes; one-third of those polled say no.

Oil is at $76 a gallon; gas, $3.00 a gallon. The lure of a silver bullet, priceless. Our consumer reporter Greg Hunter takes a look at gadgets and gimmicks all promising to boost gas mileage for a price.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GREG HUNTER, CNN CONSUMER CORRESPONDENT: This summer, the traditional American road trip can be a more expensive ordeal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just bought this car and it's a gas guzzler, $50, please, regular. I'm spending a lot more on gas.

HUNTER: With gas prices near record levels some people are desperate to save money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think anything that helps me with the price of gas these days would be something that I'd willing to look into.

HUNTER: It's also a season of promises.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With patented slotted fins.

HUNTER: Lots of gadgets, promising to help consumers save on gas, magnets, cyclones, tornadoes, fuel additives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They call it the little green magic pill.

HUNTER: Liz and Rocky Rothwell, a retired couple from Florida, thought they'd found something revolutionary.

ROCKY ROTHWELL, RETIRED FLORIDA RESIDENT: It is supposed to increase the mileage in your car from anywhere from 25 percent to 30 percent.

HUNTER: The Rothwells had such high hopes for the product, BioPerformance, that they went to a company presentation and signed on as distributors in a multilevel marketing plan.

ROTHWELL: It's supposed to clean all the bad deposits that have gathered in the engine over the years, supposed to clean it out, increase in power, increase in mileage, and it says you'll have like what you consider a brand new car. It was like a magic pill. And...

HUNTER (on camera): Was it?

ROTHWELL: Well, to them, it was, to whoever made the money off it, sure, it was.

HUNTER (voice-over): Was the so-called magic pill too good to be true? And what about other products? We teamed up with "Popular Mechanics" magazine experts and auto mechanics from the Universal Technical Institute in Houston to help us find out. First we set up base line tests and ran our car without any of the products installed.

Mike Allen, an automotive guru and senior writer with "Popular Mechanics" magazine installs a set of magnets that are supposed to align the molecules in the fuel so it burns more efficiently.

MIKE ALLEN, SENIOR WRITER, POPULAR MECHANICS: This is one of the more elaborate fuel line magnets that I've seen. It's got three really powerful bar magnets here. And we're just going to slide this over this fuel line.

HUNTER (on camera): So they claim that this gives you better mileage?

ALLEN: Correct.

HUNTER: We'll see.

ALLEN: We'll see.

HUNTER: We waited until the truck ran out of fuel and measured again. Without the magnets?

ALLEN: About 22.8.

HUNTER: Miles per gallon.

ALLEN: Yes, sir.

HUNTER: What do the magnets get?

ALLEN: 20.6. So about a 10 percent decrease in fuel economy with the magnets installed.

HUNTER: Why is that? Are the magnets so strong they could be interfering?

ALLEN: We're theorizing that the magnetic field is so powerful it's interfering with the wiring in the fuel injectors.

HUNTER: So you actually get worse fuel mileage?

ALLEN: Yes, by about 10 percent with the magnets installed.

HUNTER: With a few hundred and $30 magnets.

ALLEN: Yes. Is this a great country or what?

HUNTER (voice-over): The company that makes the magnets told us their product works. It has been tested, quote, "with positive results. We are dismayed that your mechanics did not have the proper training for placement and testing of our magnetic device."

Next was the Tornado. Its manufacturer also claims it will make gas burn more efficiently.

ALLEN: The theory is that the air past this, as it comes between the air cleaner and the throttle body,turns into a vortex, a little mini tornado, hence the name.

HUNTER (on camera): Let's put it to the test. The Tornado.

ALLEN: The tornado, recently removed from this Lincoln Navigator. This Navigator on our base line run delivered 18.4 miles per gallon.

HUNTER: Nothing on it.

ALLEN: Nothing on it, just the way Lincoln wanted it. We installed this in the intake track and it got 17.5 miles per gallon, not quite one mile per gallon poorer fuel economy than without this.

HUNTER: More power?

ALLEN: Just about the same actually.

HUNTER: About the same.

ALLEN: Of course they claim that it improves power, but it doesn't seem to.

HUNTER (voice-over): The manufacturer stands behind its product and says, "We have more than 100,000 satisfied customers. Our product works." We checked with the Environmental Protection Agency. They never tested our magnets or Tornado, but they've been running tests for decades on products that promise to save gas.

STEPHEN JOHNSON, EPA ADMINISTRATOR: We've tested approximately a hundred over the past 30 years, and of all the ones we've tested, none work.

HUNTER (on camera): You haven't seen one additive or gas saving device that works at the EPA?

JOHNSON: We've not seen one additive or gas saving device that works.

HUNTER: It's a scam?

JOHNSON: It's a scam.

HUNTER: Now remember those BioPerformance magic pills? Our testers didn't even want to try them in our car because they were worried about damaging the engine. But the Texas attorney general did test the magic pill and he says it was just a scam. He shut down BioPerformance and its owners for allegedly running a scam that cost victims like the Rothwells thousands of dollars.

The lawsuit says the owners pocketed millions by making false and misleading claims and recruiting thousands of people to market the magic pill. It turns out the magic pill is basically just naphthalene, the same stuff that used to go into moth balls. BioPerformance wouldn't return our repeated calls so we stopped by their office. A man who first told us he didn't know anything about the company turned out to be Gustavo Romero, one of its cofounders.

(on camera): The Texas attorney general says your product does not work.

GUSTAVO ROMERO, COFOUNDER, BIOPERFORMANCE: I cannot discuss it, I'm sorry. We're in trial in the court.

HUNTER (on camera): The attorney general of Texas says you made millions of dollars with a product -- you made millions of dollars with a product that doesn't work.

ROMERO: We'll discuss it in court. HUNTER (voice-over): Later Gustavo Romero's lawyer sent us a letter saying "it's our expectation that additional scientific testing will answer the issue once and for all."

BioPerformance doesn't say when those additional tests will be done. But its court case is scheduled for September.

So is there any product out there that will help consumers save on gas? The Federal Trade Commission suggests using common sense.

LAURA BEMARTINO, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION: Consumers should be extremely skeptical of dramatic gas saving claims. Remember, your mother's advice is still the best advice. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

HUNTER: Our experts suggest that just making sure your tires are inflated to the right air pressure can do wonders, and it costs a whole lot less.

Greg Hunter, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And if you ever said, "I want a report for CNN," now is your chance. CNN is launching I-Report. You, the viewer, are the eyes and ears on the ground. If you capture a great picture or video on your camera or cell phone, go ahead and send it to us. Log on to CNN.com or punch "ireport@cnn.com" on your cell.

Now, let's take a look at what I-reporter Natalie Semann sent to us from north of Beirut, Lebanon. You're worried about gas lines? Look at these long gas lines in Beirut. They're pictures from Natalie's neighborhood, which usually has very little traffic. But when this station got a new shipment of fuel, Natalie grabbed her camera to show how people came grabbing for gas amidst shortages caused by all the fighting.

Natalie is 23 years old. She moved to Lebanon four years ago. If you have great pictures to show us, go to CNN.com. Send an I- report and join the world's most powerful news team.

On to health news now. Rabies shots for Girl Scouts. Health officials say about 1,000 Girl Scouts who attended a summer camp in Virginia may have been exposed to rabies. It seems bats were found in their sleeping shelters. Officially say there's only a small chance that even a single girl was affected. Sixteen girls. Most at risk had been advised to get a month-long series of proactive vaccinations.

Let's bring in our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, with more on this. Well, this is a bummer. Not what you plan to get when you go off to Girl Scout camp.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, you hope you'll make a few trinkets and make some friends. And you know, not...

KAGAN: Get some patches -- or badges. COHEN: Right, that's what they do. Right. But not actually maybe get rabies. That's definitely a downer for summer camp. Now Daryn mentioned that there's a very small chance that any of these girls has rabies, so why would you then go and vaccinate 16 of them since this is a month-long series of shots? Not something you'd want to do. And the reason why is, you can see in these cabins, these girls were asleep when the bats apparently were flying around in the cabins. And it is not clear if they were bit or not.

Apparently, you can get bit by a bat and not realize it, that they -- that sometimes the teeth are very fine, and there have been cases where people have been bitten and not realized it. So just to be safe, since they couldn't capture all the bats to see if they were -- had rabies or not -- they're erring on the side of caution and giving these girls these shots.

Now these girls will now join some 40,000 Americans every year who get rabies shots. One or two people die of rabies each year in the United States because they were bitten, didn't realize it and didn't get shots. Without shots, rabies is 100 percent fatal, so that's why you have that erring on the side of caution there.

KAGAN: Let's talk about these shots. You hear this idea, ooh, rabies shots, you have to get all these painful shots in your stomach. Is that the way it works?

COHEN: It isn't, and that's what people have in their heads, because that's the way that it used to be. But actually it's not the way that it works. Right now people get usually get six doses over the course of a month of shots that feel like flu shots. And they get them usually in their arms, sometimes in their legs and buttocks, and they want to get these shots to people that...

KAGAN: Never show needles on television, rule No. 1.

COHEN: You have to get these shots before you feel symptoms. Because once you start feeling symptoms, it is too late. So once, for example, people get the fevers, and the chills and the muscle aches, or God forbid, go into seizures or a coma, it's too late.

KAGAN: It's not good.

Why so many shots? Why not just one big one?

COHEN: You know what, it's interesting, I asked a doctor that, and he said that the reason is that you can't give a live vaccine for rabies. And the reason for that is, is that rabies is universally fatal, so you don't want to mess around with live vaccines; you want to give a killed vaccine. Well, a killed vaccine is weaker. You need to give it in five doses. And then on top of that, the folks who might have been exposed to rabies get a dose of human immune globulin, because they really want to give them a punch and get their immune system working.

KAGAN: A boost, a boost against the bats.

Elizabeth, thank you. Elizabeth Cohen.

To get your Daily Dose of health news online, log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. The address, CNN.com/health.

We're back in a moment. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: That's going to wrap up our couple hours together. I'm Daryn Kagan. Keep watching CNN. "YOUR WORLD TODAY" is up next with news happening around the globe and here at home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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