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American Morning
A Possible Turning Point for Mideast Peace; Was Pope Minutes Away From Death Last Week?
Aired February 08, 2005 - 07:00 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A possible turning point for Mideast peace, Israeli and Palestinian leaders preparing for an important announcement just minutes from now.
Was the pope minutes away from death last week? New information on the pontiff's health and questions about whether he'll retire.
And Southern California's millionaire mansions are crumbling, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING, with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome everybody. Bill Hemmer has the day off today. Rob Marciano, though, is back helping us out this morning.
Nice to have you.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nice to be here one more day.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. A lot to talk about this morning with this Mideast summit going on right now in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt. An Announcement is expected in just about half an hour, pledging a cease-fire between Palestinians and Israelis. We're going to get a live report on that just ahead.
Also, we'll talk a little bit later this morning with Fawaz Gerges about whether this time could be the real deal. Of course, they've had cease-fires before, haven't always worked out.
MARCIANO: We'll see if it works out.
And a closer look inside the president's $2.5 trillion budget. A lot of popular programs will get cut. John King is looking at which cuts are likely to cause the biggest bites. That's coming up.
O'BRIEN: Many of them, 150 programs on the table there.
MARCIANO: And some increases, too.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
Good morning, Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Most of those things are going to require congressional approval, those cuts, and I wouldn't hold my breath betting on Congress to vote to cut any of that stuff, including the farm subsidies. That won't happen.
We've got an interesting story in Arkansas. Brand new development, these new homes being built down there, and a convicted sex offender and his wife buy one of these places, and suddenly sales simply dry up. They can't give these place is a way now. Lawsuits are flying. The whole thing's headed to a courtroom. We'll take a look at it. Could be a test case I guess for down the road.
O'BRIEN: It's a fascinating case, I think.
CAFFERTY: Well, we hope so.
I'll tell you, at quarter to 10 how fascinating it was.
O'BRIEN: It was fascinating to me. If you need me to e-mail in...
CAFFERTY: Yes, write to me.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jack.
Well, a cease-fire agreement between Israelis and Palestinians is expected to be announced this hour at a summit in Egypt.
CNN's John Vause has the very latest from the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh.
John, good morning.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Chances are you won't hear anyone here actually talking about a cease-fire between the Israelis and Palestinians. In about 30 minutes from now, you are likely to hear a statement from the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, where he declares an end to attacks on Israelis everywhere, effectively and end to the Palestinian intifada, the uprising which began more than four years ago.
We're also expecting Mahmoud Abbas to talk about a speedy return to the U.S.-backed road map to peace plan. Then it will be the Israeli Prime Minister's turn, Ariel Sharon. He is then expected to say that if there's quiet, Israel will respond with quiet. If there is calm, there will be no need for Israeli military activity in the occupied Palestinian territories. He'll also speak of the importance of deeds, not words, when it comes to dealing with terrorism. There will be no formal signing ceremony in all of this. Both these sides very much aware, Soledad, that in the last four years, 10 cease-fires have come and gone -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: John Vause for us this morning. Of course, we're going to continue to watch the situation there.
John, thanks a lot -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Heidi Collins now with the headlines.
Good morning, Heidi. What's happening?
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning once again, Tuesday morning, right?
MARCIANO: Tuesday, my Friday.
COLLINS: Your Friday. That was fast.
MARCIANO: So you continue working hard.
COLLINS: All right, thank you.
I want to get straight to the news now, everybody. And good morning to you.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Rome meeting with a representative for the Vatican. Rice is set to leave shortly for Paris, where in four hours she'll deliver her first major policy address. Rice says she chose the location, in part, she says because France was a major credit Iraq of the Iraq war.
CNN will have live coverage of Secretary Rice's address, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.
A deadly attack in Iraq. Insurgents in Baghdad once again targeting Iraqi security forces. Officials say an explosion rocked a national guard base in the central part of the capital city some five hours ago. Early reports from the U.S. military indicate as many as 21 people were killed in the blast, more than two dozen others injured. The attack is believed to have been a suicide bombing.
In Washington, Michael Chertoff could be confirmed as early as today to be the next homeland security secretary. Yesterday, a Senate committee overwhelmingly approved Chertoff's nomination, clearing the way for a full Senate vote. He is expected to win with broad bipartisan support.
And the scientists who cloned Dolly the Sheep is getting the green light to clone human embryos for medical research. A British agency has granted a license for Ian Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly the Sheep back in 1996. Wilmut says he wants to study the stem cells so that he can pinpoint what causes motor neuron disease. This type of work is called therapeutic cloning.
We all remember Dolly.
O'BRIEN: Absolutely.
MARCIANO: The popular sheep.
O'BRIEN: Yes, and we'll see how much controversy that brings up.
COLLINS: Yes. Popular sheep. I've never heard that term before.
O'BRIEN: Probably the best known sheep in the world, I would imagine.
MARCIANO: Yes, you've never had me as an anchor.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary John Snow and White House budget director Josh Bolton are testifying in Congress today about President Bush's budget. It's a plan that includes dozens of politically sensitive spending cuts.
As senior White House correspondent John King reports that's a tough sell on both sides of the aisle.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush confident he can rally public support for a budget he calls lean, and one that proposes the biggest spending cuts since the Reagan administration.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I fully understand that sometimes it's hard to eliminate a program that sounds good.
KING: The budget calls for 2.57 trillion in federal spending, and projects a record $427 billion deficit. Democrats called it reckless.
REP. JOHN SPRATT (D), BANKING COMMITTEE: We do not get out of the deficit. The deficit only gets bigger and deeper.
KING: Winners include home land security and the Pentagon, which gets a nearly 5 percent boost in spending. Bush campaign promises mean more money for Pell Grants and community health clinics. Mandatory programs like Social Security and Medicare will cost more.
Republican leaders label the Bush blueprint a good starting point, a polite but hardly enthusiastic reception that underscores the president's challenge, cutting programs popular in Congress.
Twelve of the 23 major government agencies would get less money because 150 government programs are slated for elimination or significant cuts, including trimming the Medicaid health program for the poor, health benefits for more affluent veterans, more than $8 billion from agriculture programs, including a billion from food stamps, federal subsidies for Amtrak and grants for school literacy and anti-drug programs.
BUSH: The important question that needs to be asked for all constituencies is whether or not the programs achieve a certain result.
KING: Democrats say the president's promise to cut the deficit in half is dishonest because his budget doesn't include cost for the Iraq war next year, money to pay for the Social Security changes Mr. Bush proposes and hides the cost of making the big Bush tax cuts permanent.
SEN. KENT CONRAD (D), FINANCE COMMITTEE: None of this adds up, and it isn't even close. None of this adds up. And the result is, I think, going to be very, very serious damage to the fiscal strength of our country.
KING: The White House insists the president will keep his deficit promise.
(on camera): But while the budget projects a smaller deficit next year, officials here concede in reality, the red ink could even eclipse this year's record, unless spending on the Iraq war drops dramatically in the coming months, which few here expect.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: President Bush will promote his budget before the Detroit Economic Club today. Stay tuned to CNN for live coverage of the speech coming up at noon Eastern Time.
O'BRIEN: Well, it has been a week since Pope John Paul II was rushed to a Rome hospital, suffering from the flu and a severe respiratory infection. And while the 84-year-old pontiff's health continues to improve this morning, we are learning just how close he was to death.
Alessio Vinci is CNN's Rome bureau chief. He's live for us this morning with details.
Alessio, good morning.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.
Well, cardinals rarely talk about papal succession. And so when they do, no matter what they really say makes news. So when the Vatican's top official, the No. 2 in the Catholic Church yesterday when pressed by reporters yesterday about the possibility that the pope would resign, the cardinal said, well, let's leave that hypothesis up to the pope's conscience.
Now, to some observers, this comment was interesting, because the No. 2 man at the Catholic Church did not rule out the possibility that the pope would actually resign or step down. But he did not say that the pope had any intention to step down or even that there was talk inside the Vatican that the pope would resign.
As a matter of fact, we heard from the pope himself only Sunday, and he again from his hospital bed, from the hospital where he is now recovering from the respiratory infection, told pilgrims in St. Peter's Square and around the world that he continues to lead the Catholic Church, and that this pope has said time and again that he has no intention whatsoever to step down.
So this is primarily something that is circulating in the media here, playing out, comments made -- a comment made by a top Vatican official that how, simply said, it's up to the pope to make these kind of decisions. And indeed canon law, which governs the Catholic Church, envisages that it is up to the pope to decide, and no other church official, no other body within the Catholic Church can decide whether or not the pope should step down -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Alessio, quick question for you about Secretary Rice and her scheduled meeting with the pope. She's going to meet with the Cardinal Soldano (ph) instead. What exactly is on their agenda?
VINCI: Well, she's meeting with the same cardinal who actually made those comments, so he's pretty much high up in the church hierarchy.
Usually, when a U.S. official travels to the Vatican, the main issue is the Middle East. And you know there's a lot to talk about there, given the fact that Secretary Rice is just fresh back from there. Usually also talk about Iraq. As you know the Vatican was adamant against the Iraqi invasion, and usually also about freedom of religion. All these issues most likely to be discussed at this time between Secretary Rice and Cardinal Soldano at the Vatican, taking place right now at this time.
O'BRIEN: Alessio Vinci this morning for us. Alessio, thank you very much for all your updates on the pope's health over the last couple days -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Soledad, a posh California estate is close to falling from its hilltop perch. A 6,000 square-foot home in a gated community in Anaheim -- wow. Heavy rains have been threatening to cause the landslide since last month, when the homeowners were forced to flee. The $2.5 million estate had been moving at a rate of an inch per day. And by Saturday, it was moving two feet per day.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: A 28-year-old English woman is back on terra firma this morning after setting a record for sailing solo around the world. Ellen MaCarthur finished her 26,000 mile trek Wednesday. Her final time was 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds, over one day faster over the previous record holder. MaCarthur's team back home broke into cheers at word that she'd broken the record. She began her journey back on November 28th. She slept just an average of 30 minutes at a time, a think a total, they said, of just four hours a day.
MARCIANO: There's no way I could do that. That's amazing.
O'BRIEN: Isn't that great? Good for them. Breaking out the champagne to celebrate.
There's new speculation this week on the biggest mystery in American politics. Who was Woodward and Bernstein's infamous "Deep Throat?" A professor says his students already have the answer.
MARCIANO: Also a big step in the quest for Middle East peace. But will the agreement expected to be announced today really stick? We'll see.
O'BRIEN: And another female teacher is accused of having a sexual affair with a young student. We've got details ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Two U.N. officials have been suspended over the oil for food sandal. Benon Sevan, who headed the program, and Joseph Stephanides, a Security Council officer, both are accused of using their influence or inside knowledge to help firms win contracts with Iraq. The accusations were printed in a preliminary report that was released on Thursday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFFI ANNAN, U.N. SECY.-GENERAL: We acted on the report as soon as it came out. And this is not the end. It's a beginning. And we will act on the other charges of the report as they come out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: The U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is also being questioned about his son's actions, and the allegations against Sevan have tainted the former Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali. Sevan could face criminal charges in this case.
MARCIANO: A female elementary school teacher is accused of having a sexual affair with an underage age boy. Twenty-seven year- old Pamela Rogers Turner is a phys-ed teacher in Warren County, Tennessee. The D.A. says the affair went on from November until last year around January while the boy was still 13 years old.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DALE POTTER, DISTRICT ATTY.: We got 15 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure, based on the position as a teacher and that she had with this student at Centertown Elementary School. There's 13 counts of statutory rape.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: Potter says the acts occurred in the school and at the boy's home, where Turner lived for a short time.
O'BRIEN: That's remarkable.
President Bush's budget plans will have some implications about -- for Amtrak rather. We'll talk to Andy about that in just a moment.
But first, the defrocked Catholic priest Paul Shanley, he could now spend the rest of his life in prison for raping and molesting a young parishioner back in the 1980s. The 74-year-old was convicted yesterday in a case that hinged on the repressed memories of his accuser, who is now 27. Middlesex County D.A. Martha Coakley prosecuted the case. She's in Boston. One tried, we tried to reach Shanley's attorney. Our calls were not returned. We begin with the district attorney.
Nice to see you, Martha. Thanks for coming in to talk to us.
O'BRIEN: Good morning.
MARTHA COAKLEY, MIDDLESEX CO. D.A.: Good morning.
When you're talking about a case that involves repressed and then recovered memories, I have to imagine that that is a very high bar to meet, certainly for the jurors. What were the biggest obstacles to you in this case?
COAKLEY: Well, it was, and it was for the jurors, I believe. We looked at this very closely, even before we indicted. And I think that we realized, regardless of the labels you put on this, what we had were some young men who were abused when they were very small, with no vocabulary to describe what happened to them, no way to process it, no one who would believe it. And so what you do with the memories is put them away. You don't talk about them. You don't deal with them, and particularly when the memories came back to the young boys. And we only went forward on one case, but there was other corroborating evidence that was consistent with outside information with each other and also with was not recovered through months of therapy. We felt that these young boys were credible. And so we sought then to build the case around that, knowing that we believed them.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about some of the specifics, because as you've sort of referenced there, a lot of this case came down to he said, he said, but then there was this corroborating evidence. What do you think was the most critical for the jurors to hear in the evidence that did not rely on the repressed memories?
COAKLEY: I think there were a couple things. He was able to recount, from his memory, about being in that class and how disruptive it was and how Paul Shanley, who was in charge of CCD, would take him out, take him to the bathroom or take him to the confessional, take him across the street to the rectory. And the memories of some of the other students also, although they weren't there for abuse, corroborated that he'd be taken out of class, or that Paul Shanley was always around, or they that would go one on one with Shanley to the confessional. And so that was important.
And I think another factor in this was that although the defense tried to use it against the victim, that he had settled this case for $500,000, ultimately, I think Lynn Rooney, who tried the case, was able to say he didn't have to come in here today. He has no motive to do it. He has his money, he has settled it, and I think that weighed with the jurors.
O'BRIEN: The young man who is a victim put his head down and sobbed when the verdict was read. How is he doing now? Obviously, one has to imagine hugely emotional the last few weeks, and months and years.
COAKLEY: Well, it was a huge emotional roller coaster from the time he recovered the memories through the years really of getting ready for trial, and there were times during the trial when we weren't sure he could come back the next day. He went through what was a brutal cross-examination, and he did come back. And I think yesterday, because we saw him after the verdict, he was feeling pretty relieved and pretty happy.
O'BRIEN: Paul Shanley faces life in prison. He's 74 years old. What kind of punishment would you like to see?
COAKLEY: Well, we haven't decided on a specific sentence, but it will be significant. And as a practical matter, given his age and what we'll look for, I assume it will be the equivalent of a life sentence.
O'BRIEN: Martha Coakley is Middlesex County district attorney, joining us this morning. Thank you very much, Mrs. Coakley. We appreciate your time.
COAKLEY: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Here's a question for you, is Amtrak on the way out? Andy is "Minding Your Business."
Also, we are keeping a close eye on Egypt this morning. A huge announcement in the next few minutes. An agreement expected on the Mideast conflict. We've got that live for you when it happens.
Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARCIANO: President Bush's budget plan cuts, among other things, spending for Amtrak. What does this mean for the future of the railway? Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
Good morning to you. Part of a long list. I think 150 items are up to be cut on this new budget.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, and obviously Congress is hashing it out, gnashing their teeth, and looking over this stuff.
I want to talk about a couple areas of the president's budget that could affect you directly. Also, a couple components where the president is also encountering push-back. Amtrak being No. 1 on that list. The president's $2.5 trillion budget calls for basically the elimination of all subsidies, which amount to about a billion dollars, for Amtrak, which is the nation's railroad passenger corporation. Three-hundred trains a day, 25.1 million passengers rode Amtrak last year, 50 percent of that in the Northeast corridor between Boston and Washington. But it does run in 46 states. The four that it doesn't run in, Hawaii, Alaska, South Dakota, and I've got to peek, Wyoming.
I couldn't memorize that. I tried memorizing all 46, and then realized I only had to memorize four. I'm the math guy here. Interesting, of course, John Corzine, as you might expect Arlen Specter already telling the president no, no, no, we're not going to cut subsidies on that.
Airlines also protesting a possible imposition of fees. These are airline security fees. You already pay a couple bucks a ticket when you fly for airline security. The proposal here would increase the fees from $10 to $16 for a round-trip ticket. The airlines pay this directly, but of course they either absorb the cost or pass it on. Airlines of course in dire shape. Two of them in bankruptcy. One spokesman said this is the only industry in the country where the president sees fit to tax it back to health. I can sort of understand their point there.
CAFFERTY: The farm subsidies they're talking about, these things are a matter of law. They have to go to Congress to repeal the farm subsidies. And anybody who thinks that the Congress people, either Republicans or Democrats, are going to vote against the constituency in their home state, the senators from Kansas are going to vote to repeal the subsidies for wheat farmers, they're smoking something. It's not going to happen.
SERWER: And they come and they go. The cotton crop in Texas this year is a boom, but the subsidy still exists.
CAFFERTY: They've talked every budget for the last hundred years, about we've got to do something about farm subsidies. Well, nothing gets done and nothing will be done. Those things aren't going anywhere. This budget's a joke.
O'BRIEN: There are many elements of the budget that already were up for cuts years past, and...
SERWER: Again and again.
O'BRIEN: They were just sent right -- so sort of perennial favorites that sort of pass, get through every year.
MARCIANO: Even the private farms, some of those private farms get millions of dollars a year. It's crazy. Some of it just doesn't make sense.
CAFFERTY: And the small farmers are the ones who don't come out anyway. It's the big corporate farms that make all the money off the subsidies. They probably need the help less than the small family farms, which are in decline across most of the Midwestern United States.
SERWER: We've talked about reforming that for decades.
CAFFERTY: They're yelling at me to go on.
O'BRIEN: Is this the Question of the Day?
CAFFERTY: No, I've somehow...
SERWER: It's the other Question of the Day.
CAFFERTY: Got two.
In Arkansas developer -- this is actually an interesting story. An Arkansas developer filed a $2 million lawsuit claiming new home sales in his subdivision have come to a halt after a registered sex offender, by the name of Randall Collins, and his wife moved in. Collins is a level three-sex offender, convicted of molesting girls.
According to the lawsuit, the developer, NGI Rental, was not aware of Collins criminal record because the real estate contract for the house was in his wife's name only. The day after the closing, cops started handing out flyers, warning people that lived in the development that there was a level-three sex offender living there now. NGI Rental says sales have come to a standstill because the developer's now required to tell potential buyers about Collins' presence.
Here's the question, Can a real estate developer sue a sex offender for slowing home sales? Am@CNN.com. The whole things headed to a court. It would be an interesting case.
O'BRIEN: It is. Fascinating.
CAFFERTY: Yes, there's the whole double-jeopardy question. I mean, the guy did his time, whatever, he's paid his debt, supposedly. Now, he's being sued by this developer. Is that double jeopardy? I mean, you know...
O'BRIEN: Didn't he also ask for money to go away?
CAFFERTY: Oh yes, at one point, he said if you give me $250,000, I'll move.
O'BRIEN: NO, you did a whole then.
CAFFERTY: But I don't think that's part of the lawsuit.
O'BRIEN: No. It's interesting. All right, Jack, thank you very much.
Well, any minute now, we're expecting the huge announcement out of Egypt. An expected agreement in the Mideast conflict. We're going to have that for you live when it happens.
AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired February 8, 2005 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A possible turning point for Mideast peace, Israeli and Palestinian leaders preparing for an important announcement just minutes from now.
Was the pope minutes away from death last week? New information on the pontiff's health and questions about whether he'll retire.
And Southern California's millionaire mansions are crumbling, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING, with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome everybody. Bill Hemmer has the day off today. Rob Marciano, though, is back helping us out this morning.
Nice to have you.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nice to be here one more day.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. A lot to talk about this morning with this Mideast summit going on right now in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt. An Announcement is expected in just about half an hour, pledging a cease-fire between Palestinians and Israelis. We're going to get a live report on that just ahead.
Also, we'll talk a little bit later this morning with Fawaz Gerges about whether this time could be the real deal. Of course, they've had cease-fires before, haven't always worked out.
MARCIANO: We'll see if it works out.
And a closer look inside the president's $2.5 trillion budget. A lot of popular programs will get cut. John King is looking at which cuts are likely to cause the biggest bites. That's coming up.
O'BRIEN: Many of them, 150 programs on the table there.
MARCIANO: And some increases, too.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
Good morning, Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Most of those things are going to require congressional approval, those cuts, and I wouldn't hold my breath betting on Congress to vote to cut any of that stuff, including the farm subsidies. That won't happen.
We've got an interesting story in Arkansas. Brand new development, these new homes being built down there, and a convicted sex offender and his wife buy one of these places, and suddenly sales simply dry up. They can't give these place is a way now. Lawsuits are flying. The whole thing's headed to a courtroom. We'll take a look at it. Could be a test case I guess for down the road.
O'BRIEN: It's a fascinating case, I think.
CAFFERTY: Well, we hope so.
I'll tell you, at quarter to 10 how fascinating it was.
O'BRIEN: It was fascinating to me. If you need me to e-mail in...
CAFFERTY: Yes, write to me.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jack.
Well, a cease-fire agreement between Israelis and Palestinians is expected to be announced this hour at a summit in Egypt.
CNN's John Vause has the very latest from the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh.
John, good morning.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Chances are you won't hear anyone here actually talking about a cease-fire between the Israelis and Palestinians. In about 30 minutes from now, you are likely to hear a statement from the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, where he declares an end to attacks on Israelis everywhere, effectively and end to the Palestinian intifada, the uprising which began more than four years ago.
We're also expecting Mahmoud Abbas to talk about a speedy return to the U.S.-backed road map to peace plan. Then it will be the Israeli Prime Minister's turn, Ariel Sharon. He is then expected to say that if there's quiet, Israel will respond with quiet. If there is calm, there will be no need for Israeli military activity in the occupied Palestinian territories. He'll also speak of the importance of deeds, not words, when it comes to dealing with terrorism. There will be no formal signing ceremony in all of this. Both these sides very much aware, Soledad, that in the last four years, 10 cease-fires have come and gone -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: John Vause for us this morning. Of course, we're going to continue to watch the situation there.
John, thanks a lot -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Heidi Collins now with the headlines.
Good morning, Heidi. What's happening?
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning once again, Tuesday morning, right?
MARCIANO: Tuesday, my Friday.
COLLINS: Your Friday. That was fast.
MARCIANO: So you continue working hard.
COLLINS: All right, thank you.
I want to get straight to the news now, everybody. And good morning to you.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Rome meeting with a representative for the Vatican. Rice is set to leave shortly for Paris, where in four hours she'll deliver her first major policy address. Rice says she chose the location, in part, she says because France was a major credit Iraq of the Iraq war.
CNN will have live coverage of Secretary Rice's address, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.
A deadly attack in Iraq. Insurgents in Baghdad once again targeting Iraqi security forces. Officials say an explosion rocked a national guard base in the central part of the capital city some five hours ago. Early reports from the U.S. military indicate as many as 21 people were killed in the blast, more than two dozen others injured. The attack is believed to have been a suicide bombing.
In Washington, Michael Chertoff could be confirmed as early as today to be the next homeland security secretary. Yesterday, a Senate committee overwhelmingly approved Chertoff's nomination, clearing the way for a full Senate vote. He is expected to win with broad bipartisan support.
And the scientists who cloned Dolly the Sheep is getting the green light to clone human embryos for medical research. A British agency has granted a license for Ian Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly the Sheep back in 1996. Wilmut says he wants to study the stem cells so that he can pinpoint what causes motor neuron disease. This type of work is called therapeutic cloning.
We all remember Dolly.
O'BRIEN: Absolutely.
MARCIANO: The popular sheep.
O'BRIEN: Yes, and we'll see how much controversy that brings up.
COLLINS: Yes. Popular sheep. I've never heard that term before.
O'BRIEN: Probably the best known sheep in the world, I would imagine.
MARCIANO: Yes, you've never had me as an anchor.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary John Snow and White House budget director Josh Bolton are testifying in Congress today about President Bush's budget. It's a plan that includes dozens of politically sensitive spending cuts.
As senior White House correspondent John King reports that's a tough sell on both sides of the aisle.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush confident he can rally public support for a budget he calls lean, and one that proposes the biggest spending cuts since the Reagan administration.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I fully understand that sometimes it's hard to eliminate a program that sounds good.
KING: The budget calls for 2.57 trillion in federal spending, and projects a record $427 billion deficit. Democrats called it reckless.
REP. JOHN SPRATT (D), BANKING COMMITTEE: We do not get out of the deficit. The deficit only gets bigger and deeper.
KING: Winners include home land security and the Pentagon, which gets a nearly 5 percent boost in spending. Bush campaign promises mean more money for Pell Grants and community health clinics. Mandatory programs like Social Security and Medicare will cost more.
Republican leaders label the Bush blueprint a good starting point, a polite but hardly enthusiastic reception that underscores the president's challenge, cutting programs popular in Congress.
Twelve of the 23 major government agencies would get less money because 150 government programs are slated for elimination or significant cuts, including trimming the Medicaid health program for the poor, health benefits for more affluent veterans, more than $8 billion from agriculture programs, including a billion from food stamps, federal subsidies for Amtrak and grants for school literacy and anti-drug programs.
BUSH: The important question that needs to be asked for all constituencies is whether or not the programs achieve a certain result.
KING: Democrats say the president's promise to cut the deficit in half is dishonest because his budget doesn't include cost for the Iraq war next year, money to pay for the Social Security changes Mr. Bush proposes and hides the cost of making the big Bush tax cuts permanent.
SEN. KENT CONRAD (D), FINANCE COMMITTEE: None of this adds up, and it isn't even close. None of this adds up. And the result is, I think, going to be very, very serious damage to the fiscal strength of our country.
KING: The White House insists the president will keep his deficit promise.
(on camera): But while the budget projects a smaller deficit next year, officials here concede in reality, the red ink could even eclipse this year's record, unless spending on the Iraq war drops dramatically in the coming months, which few here expect.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: President Bush will promote his budget before the Detroit Economic Club today. Stay tuned to CNN for live coverage of the speech coming up at noon Eastern Time.
O'BRIEN: Well, it has been a week since Pope John Paul II was rushed to a Rome hospital, suffering from the flu and a severe respiratory infection. And while the 84-year-old pontiff's health continues to improve this morning, we are learning just how close he was to death.
Alessio Vinci is CNN's Rome bureau chief. He's live for us this morning with details.
Alessio, good morning.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.
Well, cardinals rarely talk about papal succession. And so when they do, no matter what they really say makes news. So when the Vatican's top official, the No. 2 in the Catholic Church yesterday when pressed by reporters yesterday about the possibility that the pope would resign, the cardinal said, well, let's leave that hypothesis up to the pope's conscience.
Now, to some observers, this comment was interesting, because the No. 2 man at the Catholic Church did not rule out the possibility that the pope would actually resign or step down. But he did not say that the pope had any intention to step down or even that there was talk inside the Vatican that the pope would resign.
As a matter of fact, we heard from the pope himself only Sunday, and he again from his hospital bed, from the hospital where he is now recovering from the respiratory infection, told pilgrims in St. Peter's Square and around the world that he continues to lead the Catholic Church, and that this pope has said time and again that he has no intention whatsoever to step down.
So this is primarily something that is circulating in the media here, playing out, comments made -- a comment made by a top Vatican official that how, simply said, it's up to the pope to make these kind of decisions. And indeed canon law, which governs the Catholic Church, envisages that it is up to the pope to decide, and no other church official, no other body within the Catholic Church can decide whether or not the pope should step down -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Alessio, quick question for you about Secretary Rice and her scheduled meeting with the pope. She's going to meet with the Cardinal Soldano (ph) instead. What exactly is on their agenda?
VINCI: Well, she's meeting with the same cardinal who actually made those comments, so he's pretty much high up in the church hierarchy.
Usually, when a U.S. official travels to the Vatican, the main issue is the Middle East. And you know there's a lot to talk about there, given the fact that Secretary Rice is just fresh back from there. Usually also talk about Iraq. As you know the Vatican was adamant against the Iraqi invasion, and usually also about freedom of religion. All these issues most likely to be discussed at this time between Secretary Rice and Cardinal Soldano at the Vatican, taking place right now at this time.
O'BRIEN: Alessio Vinci this morning for us. Alessio, thank you very much for all your updates on the pope's health over the last couple days -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Soledad, a posh California estate is close to falling from its hilltop perch. A 6,000 square-foot home in a gated community in Anaheim -- wow. Heavy rains have been threatening to cause the landslide since last month, when the homeowners were forced to flee. The $2.5 million estate had been moving at a rate of an inch per day. And by Saturday, it was moving two feet per day.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: A 28-year-old English woman is back on terra firma this morning after setting a record for sailing solo around the world. Ellen MaCarthur finished her 26,000 mile trek Wednesday. Her final time was 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds, over one day faster over the previous record holder. MaCarthur's team back home broke into cheers at word that she'd broken the record. She began her journey back on November 28th. She slept just an average of 30 minutes at a time, a think a total, they said, of just four hours a day.
MARCIANO: There's no way I could do that. That's amazing.
O'BRIEN: Isn't that great? Good for them. Breaking out the champagne to celebrate.
There's new speculation this week on the biggest mystery in American politics. Who was Woodward and Bernstein's infamous "Deep Throat?" A professor says his students already have the answer.
MARCIANO: Also a big step in the quest for Middle East peace. But will the agreement expected to be announced today really stick? We'll see.
O'BRIEN: And another female teacher is accused of having a sexual affair with a young student. We've got details ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Two U.N. officials have been suspended over the oil for food sandal. Benon Sevan, who headed the program, and Joseph Stephanides, a Security Council officer, both are accused of using their influence or inside knowledge to help firms win contracts with Iraq. The accusations were printed in a preliminary report that was released on Thursday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFFI ANNAN, U.N. SECY.-GENERAL: We acted on the report as soon as it came out. And this is not the end. It's a beginning. And we will act on the other charges of the report as they come out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: The U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is also being questioned about his son's actions, and the allegations against Sevan have tainted the former Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali. Sevan could face criminal charges in this case.
MARCIANO: A female elementary school teacher is accused of having a sexual affair with an underage age boy. Twenty-seven year- old Pamela Rogers Turner is a phys-ed teacher in Warren County, Tennessee. The D.A. says the affair went on from November until last year around January while the boy was still 13 years old.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DALE POTTER, DISTRICT ATTY.: We got 15 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure, based on the position as a teacher and that she had with this student at Centertown Elementary School. There's 13 counts of statutory rape.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: Potter says the acts occurred in the school and at the boy's home, where Turner lived for a short time.
O'BRIEN: That's remarkable.
President Bush's budget plans will have some implications about -- for Amtrak rather. We'll talk to Andy about that in just a moment.
But first, the defrocked Catholic priest Paul Shanley, he could now spend the rest of his life in prison for raping and molesting a young parishioner back in the 1980s. The 74-year-old was convicted yesterday in a case that hinged on the repressed memories of his accuser, who is now 27. Middlesex County D.A. Martha Coakley prosecuted the case. She's in Boston. One tried, we tried to reach Shanley's attorney. Our calls were not returned. We begin with the district attorney.
Nice to see you, Martha. Thanks for coming in to talk to us.
O'BRIEN: Good morning.
MARTHA COAKLEY, MIDDLESEX CO. D.A.: Good morning.
When you're talking about a case that involves repressed and then recovered memories, I have to imagine that that is a very high bar to meet, certainly for the jurors. What were the biggest obstacles to you in this case?
COAKLEY: Well, it was, and it was for the jurors, I believe. We looked at this very closely, even before we indicted. And I think that we realized, regardless of the labels you put on this, what we had were some young men who were abused when they were very small, with no vocabulary to describe what happened to them, no way to process it, no one who would believe it. And so what you do with the memories is put them away. You don't talk about them. You don't deal with them, and particularly when the memories came back to the young boys. And we only went forward on one case, but there was other corroborating evidence that was consistent with outside information with each other and also with was not recovered through months of therapy. We felt that these young boys were credible. And so we sought then to build the case around that, knowing that we believed them.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about some of the specifics, because as you've sort of referenced there, a lot of this case came down to he said, he said, but then there was this corroborating evidence. What do you think was the most critical for the jurors to hear in the evidence that did not rely on the repressed memories?
COAKLEY: I think there were a couple things. He was able to recount, from his memory, about being in that class and how disruptive it was and how Paul Shanley, who was in charge of CCD, would take him out, take him to the bathroom or take him to the confessional, take him across the street to the rectory. And the memories of some of the other students also, although they weren't there for abuse, corroborated that he'd be taken out of class, or that Paul Shanley was always around, or they that would go one on one with Shanley to the confessional. And so that was important.
And I think another factor in this was that although the defense tried to use it against the victim, that he had settled this case for $500,000, ultimately, I think Lynn Rooney, who tried the case, was able to say he didn't have to come in here today. He has no motive to do it. He has his money, he has settled it, and I think that weighed with the jurors.
O'BRIEN: The young man who is a victim put his head down and sobbed when the verdict was read. How is he doing now? Obviously, one has to imagine hugely emotional the last few weeks, and months and years.
COAKLEY: Well, it was a huge emotional roller coaster from the time he recovered the memories through the years really of getting ready for trial, and there were times during the trial when we weren't sure he could come back the next day. He went through what was a brutal cross-examination, and he did come back. And I think yesterday, because we saw him after the verdict, he was feeling pretty relieved and pretty happy.
O'BRIEN: Paul Shanley faces life in prison. He's 74 years old. What kind of punishment would you like to see?
COAKLEY: Well, we haven't decided on a specific sentence, but it will be significant. And as a practical matter, given his age and what we'll look for, I assume it will be the equivalent of a life sentence.
O'BRIEN: Martha Coakley is Middlesex County district attorney, joining us this morning. Thank you very much, Mrs. Coakley. We appreciate your time.
COAKLEY: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Here's a question for you, is Amtrak on the way out? Andy is "Minding Your Business."
Also, we are keeping a close eye on Egypt this morning. A huge announcement in the next few minutes. An agreement expected on the Mideast conflict. We've got that live for you when it happens.
Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARCIANO: President Bush's budget plan cuts, among other things, spending for Amtrak. What does this mean for the future of the railway? Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
Good morning to you. Part of a long list. I think 150 items are up to be cut on this new budget.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, and obviously Congress is hashing it out, gnashing their teeth, and looking over this stuff.
I want to talk about a couple areas of the president's budget that could affect you directly. Also, a couple components where the president is also encountering push-back. Amtrak being No. 1 on that list. The president's $2.5 trillion budget calls for basically the elimination of all subsidies, which amount to about a billion dollars, for Amtrak, which is the nation's railroad passenger corporation. Three-hundred trains a day, 25.1 million passengers rode Amtrak last year, 50 percent of that in the Northeast corridor between Boston and Washington. But it does run in 46 states. The four that it doesn't run in, Hawaii, Alaska, South Dakota, and I've got to peek, Wyoming.
I couldn't memorize that. I tried memorizing all 46, and then realized I only had to memorize four. I'm the math guy here. Interesting, of course, John Corzine, as you might expect Arlen Specter already telling the president no, no, no, we're not going to cut subsidies on that.
Airlines also protesting a possible imposition of fees. These are airline security fees. You already pay a couple bucks a ticket when you fly for airline security. The proposal here would increase the fees from $10 to $16 for a round-trip ticket. The airlines pay this directly, but of course they either absorb the cost or pass it on. Airlines of course in dire shape. Two of them in bankruptcy. One spokesman said this is the only industry in the country where the president sees fit to tax it back to health. I can sort of understand their point there.
CAFFERTY: The farm subsidies they're talking about, these things are a matter of law. They have to go to Congress to repeal the farm subsidies. And anybody who thinks that the Congress people, either Republicans or Democrats, are going to vote against the constituency in their home state, the senators from Kansas are going to vote to repeal the subsidies for wheat farmers, they're smoking something. It's not going to happen.
SERWER: And they come and they go. The cotton crop in Texas this year is a boom, but the subsidy still exists.
CAFFERTY: They've talked every budget for the last hundred years, about we've got to do something about farm subsidies. Well, nothing gets done and nothing will be done. Those things aren't going anywhere. This budget's a joke.
O'BRIEN: There are many elements of the budget that already were up for cuts years past, and...
SERWER: Again and again.
O'BRIEN: They were just sent right -- so sort of perennial favorites that sort of pass, get through every year.
MARCIANO: Even the private farms, some of those private farms get millions of dollars a year. It's crazy. Some of it just doesn't make sense.
CAFFERTY: And the small farmers are the ones who don't come out anyway. It's the big corporate farms that make all the money off the subsidies. They probably need the help less than the small family farms, which are in decline across most of the Midwestern United States.
SERWER: We've talked about reforming that for decades.
CAFFERTY: They're yelling at me to go on.
O'BRIEN: Is this the Question of the Day?
CAFFERTY: No, I've somehow...
SERWER: It's the other Question of the Day.
CAFFERTY: Got two.
In Arkansas developer -- this is actually an interesting story. An Arkansas developer filed a $2 million lawsuit claiming new home sales in his subdivision have come to a halt after a registered sex offender, by the name of Randall Collins, and his wife moved in. Collins is a level three-sex offender, convicted of molesting girls.
According to the lawsuit, the developer, NGI Rental, was not aware of Collins criminal record because the real estate contract for the house was in his wife's name only. The day after the closing, cops started handing out flyers, warning people that lived in the development that there was a level-three sex offender living there now. NGI Rental says sales have come to a standstill because the developer's now required to tell potential buyers about Collins' presence.
Here's the question, Can a real estate developer sue a sex offender for slowing home sales? Am@CNN.com. The whole things headed to a court. It would be an interesting case.
O'BRIEN: It is. Fascinating.
CAFFERTY: Yes, there's the whole double-jeopardy question. I mean, the guy did his time, whatever, he's paid his debt, supposedly. Now, he's being sued by this developer. Is that double jeopardy? I mean, you know...
O'BRIEN: Didn't he also ask for money to go away?
CAFFERTY: Oh yes, at one point, he said if you give me $250,000, I'll move.
O'BRIEN: NO, you did a whole then.
CAFFERTY: But I don't think that's part of the lawsuit.
O'BRIEN: No. It's interesting. All right, Jack, thank you very much.
Well, any minute now, we're expecting the huge announcement out of Egypt. An expected agreement in the Mideast conflict. We're going to have that for you live when it happens.
AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a moment.
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