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American Morning

'Morning Buzz'

Aired January 25, 2002 - 07:21   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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Time now to check some of the other stories that are out there this morning. And at the top of the list is an apparent change in the story that we reported yesterday, that skirmish, for want of a better word, between American forces and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in which an American soldier was shot in the ankle.

It turns out apparently to have been something quite a bit larger.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's interesting. There's sort of conflicting reports. Someone told CNN, sources told CNN it was a "all out battle." The "New York Times" characterized it as the most intense fighting of recent weeks whereas the "Washington Post" says it was the largest known U.S. ground combat operation or the whole Afghan war.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And what's odd is it's happening at the same time when the Afghan national army is sprouting up with anywhere from 2,000, reportedly, to 2,500 fighters who are heading to the northern part of the country, taking their orders from local commanders. So there's a great concern with the confusion of all these remaining al Qaeda resistance that you're going to have a real problem on your hands with this emerging national army.

COOPER: On the Web today, this story, it got a lot of play. "The Drudge Report," has a headline which we can put up. It says "Five Thousand Soldiers, 450 Tanks, Taliban Army Rises Again To Face U.S." It's a little bit of an exaggeration. This actually is a report that comes from the "Times of London." And it's basically this group of soldiers, Taliban, possibly Taliban leadership, left Kandahar after the fall of Kandahar and moved north. And basically there was an operation last night, two simultaneous strikes against leadership compounds.

The "Times" is the only one who's reporting these numbers, the only one reporting this number of tanks. They're also reporting that the, this group is actually trying to negotiate their way out, asking for millions of dollars from the special forces and amnesty in order to give up their arms. But again, that's only the "Times of London" which has that report.

ZAHN: And boy, do they love to cut deals over there, don't they? CAFFERTY: Yes, everybody changes sides on a moment's notice. Apparently, according to the reading I was doing, a large number of these Taliban that they've discovered and that belong with these tanks were some of the people who were supposed to surrender at, during the fall of Kandahar and at the last moment, remember, there was some sort of struggle there and a bunch of them escaped.

Well, apparently they think this was, this is a large part of that group that got away from Kandahar and they think there's some high ranking Taliban officials might be, or al Qaeda officials, as well, in this contingent.

COOPER: Yes, 50 Taliban were killed, 27 captured and luckily one on American slightly injured.

ZAHN: The other story that's getting a lot of attention this morning is the follow-up to this independent study yesterday that was done indicating that mammograms may not necessarily prolong lives.

I want to share with you now an e-mail from one of our viewers who was absolutely outraged by the conclusion of this study.

Mary Pervis (ph) writes, "Four years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer in my right breast after I found a lump in the shower through self-exam. I was treated and have been cancer-free for four years. However, exactly four years later to the date, I went for my annual mammogram and my mammogram showed a new cancer in my left breast. There was no lump for me to feel, but the doctor said the cancer was there. Although my prognosis is excellent, my doctors told me I would never have found the cancer except with a mammogram. I broke down and cried and cried and cried this morning after your report. How can early detection not save lives? I am living proof."

CAFFERTY: There is tremendous confusion about this. How could they hurt? I mean...

ZAHN: They don't hurt.

CAFFERTY: ... the woman said that the mammogram found something that she couldn't have found with self-examination. So what's the point of this study? You're not supposed to have a mammogram?

ZAHN: And, well, I'm going to try to clear up some of the confusion, because the National Cancer Institute is still advising women at the age of 40 to have a base line mammogram and then every two years a follow-up mammogram.

CAFFERTY: Sure.

ZAHN: I guess there are some people in the cancer community who felt that mammograms were always perceived as the be all and end all. And because the treatments for cancers have improved so dramatically, it is highly possible now that even though you might not be catching a tumor early, because the treatment is more advanced, that you end up with the same outcome. But the bottom line is this is an incredible disservice to women because at the same time the NCI is telling you, you need to have your mammogram. So Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our in-house resident doctor, is going to help us cut through some of the confusion.

CAFFERTY: Terrific.

ZAHN: But what these women are saying in these, in the e-mails is that they wouldn't be alive if they didn't have this mammogram.

CAFFERTY: Well...

COOPER: And when, Dr. Gupta is coming in later this morning?

ZAHN: Yes. He'll be here in about...

CAFFERTY: Look forward to it.

COOPER: All right.

ZAHN: ... seven and a half minutes, to be exact.

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