Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Baseball Steroids Scandal Takes Center Stage on Capitol Hill; '90-Second Pop'
Aired March 18, 2005 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Also in the news this morning, Congress facing a $2.6 trillion problem. That's the sum of next year's federal budget. The Senate approved a version of the plan. But its priorities differ from what President Bush and the House wanted. They'll try to decipher out an agreement in next two weeks.
President Bush is taking his Social Security reform directly to the voters. The president expected to speak at Pensacola Junior College in Florida. He'll meet with senior citizens in Orlando later today. All part of his 60-day Social Security blitz.
And Janet Jackson officially distancing herself from a man she says has been harassing her for nine years. Court documents claim the man has been sending faxes and letters to the entertainer, trying to arrange in-person meetings. A judge has granted Jackson a restraining order, but the man is appealing because he doesn't want to be considered a stalker. Even though he's been after her for nine years and she has no idea who this man is.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: No, he's not a stalker.
Nine months, maybe.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Carol. Thanks.
The baseball steroids scandal center stage on Capitol Hill yesterday. But few revelations, if any, came from testimony by some of the sports's biggest stars. So just how did Major League Baseball score in Congress?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUD SELIG, MLB COMMISSIONER: I will suspend any player who tests positive for an illegal steroid. There will be no exceptions.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Baseball commissioner Bud Selig on Capitol Hill and under oath, swearing by baseball's new zero-tolerance policy towards steroid use. Committee members weren't buying it.
REP. CHRIS SHAYS (R), CONNECTICUT: Why should someone have five strikes before they're out? I'd like to go right down the list. Why five strikes?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman, let me begin by saying...
SHAYS: I'm not going to have you begin. I'd like the commissioner. Why five strikes, commissioner?
SELIG: Because that's the negotiated policy right now, Congressman. That's the best we could do in collective bargaining.
O'BRIEN: All in all, baseball took a beating in Congress Thursday. The commissioner followed an all-star lineup of players, past and present, who testified before a House committee. They included Jose Canseco, whose tell-all book "Juiced" claims steroid use among Major League players was rampant. He said he couldn't tell all to Congress without immunity.
JOSE CANSECO, FMR. MLB PLAYER: It's unfortunate the committee has made this decision as it will not be able to fully investigate the steroid issue without all testimony, and the issue will continue to plague the sport.
O'BRIEN: One of the players implicated in canseco's book, Rafael Palmeiro, used the occasion to set the record straight.
RAFAEL PALMEIRO, MLB PLAYER: I have never used steroids, period. I do not know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never.
O'BRIEN: Mark McGwire, who broke baseball's single season home run record in 1998, was also a target of canseco's book. There's speculation over whether his baseball record and others were fueled by steroids. McGwire owned up to nothing.
MARK MCGWIRE, FMR. MLB PLAYER: Asking me or any other player to answer questions about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't want to comment? Are you taking the Fifth?
MCGWIRE: I'm not here to discuss the past. I'm here to be positive about this subject.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to be positive too.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Both the players and committee members expressed concern about steroid use by young athletes. Committee chairman Congressman Tom Davis says he hopes that the hearings send a clear message about the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Police say a convicted sex offender is cooperating in the investigation into 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford's disappearance. Forty-six-old John Couey was taken into custody Thursday in Augusta, Georgia for violating his probation in Florida. Couey will face a judge this afternoon. He has not been charged in Jessica's disappearance. She was reported missing more than three weeks ago. I asked her father, Mark Lunsford, how he feels about these new developments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARK LUNSFORD, FATHER OF MISSING GIRL: I'm just taking it like a grain of salt. I'm going to will continue with my search until the sheriff tells me he's found my daughter.
MARCIANO: Have the police told you anything about what John Couey has told them?
LUNSFORD: No, no, they haven't said anything to me. I haven't seen them yet.
MARCIANO: He's got a long list of things in his past, none of which is murder. So that alone should make you a little bit more optimistic if, indeed, he becomes a bigger player in this case, do you think?
LUNSFORD: Well, like I said, because I've gotten excited over some things in the last three weeks and it's been a letdown, this time i've decided I'm just going to continue with my search, and I'm not going to bite into anything until the sheriff tells me exactly himself.
MARCIANO: OK, well, let's talk about your search. Marc Klaas has stepped in. His daughter was abducted and murdered over a decade ago. He's stepped in to help with your search. What has he done and how is that search going?
LUNSFORD: Well, they've given me a lot of information. They'll be here this weekend to help me conduct the search. They're going to come down here and just train me some more, help me out, help me get volunteers.
MARCIANO: Police say Couey is the most promising lead in this case, but they do have other leads.
Let's listen to what Sheriff Jeff Dawsy had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF JEFF DAWSY, CITRUS CO. FLA.: We're not stymied now. We're still following leads. We are aggressively, like I said, we're probably following about 40 really quality leads today. And, you know, one of those leads may be the answer, and then Couey is not even in the game. Right now, Couey is one of the hottest leads, and we need, as I said, we need to take him out of the mix.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: Mark, do you know anything about the other leads they're talking about? They haven't told us anything?
LUNSFORD: No I haven't heard anything about any other leads.
MARCIANO: Well, it's been a long three weeks, as I can imagine as a parent, a gut-wrenching three weeks. How are you holding up?
LUNSFORD: Well, With the support of the community, and my daughter, I don't have any choice but to keep going, you know, I just, I just keep going.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: That was Mark Lunsford, father of missing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford. Stay with CNN throughout the day as this story continues to unfold -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, two years ago this weekend, this was the scene in Iraq. The sights and sounds of shock and awe as the U.S. and its coalition allies launched the war. Today the violence continues. Military commanders say the insurgents are capable of launching as many as 50 attacks each and every day. Toll on American's troops, more than 1500 dead, 11,000 wounded.
CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson was in Baghdad when first bombs fell, and he has been covering this story ever since.
Nic, good morning. Thanks for coming back to talk to us.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: You'd really been kicked out actually before the war started by Saddam Hussein's government. Explain that and how you were able to stick around.
ROBERTSON: Well, we were there for the very beginning phases, the opening salvos of the first missiles coming in. And we were told by the Iraqi government a couple of days into that that we were going to have to leave, and we said, look, no way, it was too late. They were telling us later in the day, it was too dangerous to go at night. That night, that's when the shock and awe really began. And when we had to leave the next night, the bombing was still going on. They didn't want us around they -- for whatever reason, and perhaps we'll never know precisely why they did it. They threw us out of the country, and we took that long drive right across the Iraqi desert, back to Jordan.
O'BRIEN: 2003, I want to talk about specific dates that I think are important, critical dates, April 2003, the statue of Saddam Hussein falls down. What was that moment like?
ROBERTSON: I was watching it from Kuwait. We were waiting to go back to Baghdad, and I had seen that statue inaugurated in May, the year before. It had been put up for Saddam's birthday. A sheep had been slaughtered for it. So it was an incredible moment. This was -- it was put up in the sort of dying part of Saddam Hussein's regime. So to see it come down was a hugely symbolic act. And for the Iraqis who did come out to watch it, the same thing, and it really was that turning moment for Iraqis, they knew this was the end of Saddam, that the regime had gone. And all the government officials who'd been hanging around until the last moments had fled and were gone, and that was it.
O'BRIEN: December 2003, the spider hole. That was a moment that I think every single person thought was a turning point also.
ROBERTSON: From Saddam Hussein, who was a huge leader who lived in these huge palaces, who was untouchable, to find out he spent his last moments of freedom in a tiny hole, a hole I was only just small enough to get into and look around inside. It was almost in sight of one of his huge palaces. That's where he'd wound up, with this big beard, sort of a wild man, if you will, living below ground to stay away from capture, and that he didn't really have the support of the people around him, because somebody knew where he was, and gave that information away.
O'BRIEN: November 2004, you're embedded with U.S. troops who are fighting the insurgents in Falluja. What was that like?
ROBERTSON: That was quite an incredible moment, to be riding in with the Marines, going into -- in to do a resupply mission, and suddenly you're on a resupply and you're winding up in the middle of a firefight, because there are firefights breaking out all over the town. That offensive in Falluja was really what began to break the back of that insurgent stronghold. And although the insurgents went other places in the country, it denied them that particular town, and it was a moment where you felt the insurgents being matched with a firepower that nobody's enabled until that moment. And it was incredible to see it unfold. And of course, you know, a lot of soldiers did lose their lives. It was a very fierce fight, and you know, the fight is still going on against the insurgents.
O'BRIEN: What was it like to be with Kurds when they're voting for their new government? Because you were there.
ROBERTSON: This is a moment they'd all been waiting for. Here they were part of a united Iraq, that they were getting their free voice after so many years of oppression under Saddam Hussein, after the chemical attacks in the 1980s. The words that we were describing it, it was like a feast, a festival, a joyous occasion, and you could really feel that. You were standing there watching people putting on, if you will, their Sunday best, their traditional clothing to come out and vote, and you just feel it from people. You absorb it when you're there, this great feeling, this real sense of liberation of freedom, and of democracy.
O'BRIEN: You use the word "incredible" many, many times. I think it is fair to say over the two years you've been there and the more years that you have as you go back to Baghdad. Thanks for coming in to talk to us. Really remarkable reporting frankly for us. We appreciate it.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, Lil Kim could be headed for the big house. Our "90-Second Pop" crew on just what did she do wrong. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) O'BRIEN: Welcome, everybody. It's time for "90-Second Pop" on a Friday with our all-star pop panel. Amy Barnett is managing editor of "Teen People." B.J. Sigesmund is staff editor for "Us Weekly." Jessica Kline is a comedian from VH1's "Best Week Ever."
Good morning.
B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": Good morning.
JESSI KLEIN, COMEDIAN: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Nice to have you for your very first time. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
AMY BARNETT, MANAGING EDITOR, "TEEN PEOPLE: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Let's start with Lil' Kim.
SIGESMUND: Lil' Kim, big trouble.
O'BRIEN: Big trouble for that little girl. She's a tiny, little thing, but she faces some bid old time in the big house.
SIGESMUND: Yes. No, she was convicted yesterday of both perjury and conspiracy, and she was acquitted of the more serious charge, which was conspiracy -- I'm sorry.
O'BRIEN: Obstruction of justice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right, right.
SIGESMUND: Obstruction of justice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's a bad one.
SIGESMUND: This all stems from the 2000 shootout, where some of her entourage were in battle with another entourage over a rival rapper.
O'BRIEN: She was just trying to protect her folks.
SIGESMUND: Yes. And then...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was trying to be a good person.
SIGESMUND: Right. In 2003 facing...
O'BRIEN: By lying to the hood.
SIGESMUND: So...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's trying to be nice girl.
SIGESMUND: But the core issues that in 2003 when she was talking about what happened in 2001, she apparently lied several times, trying to protect people in her posse. She said that two men weren't there, and then the jury saw on videotape that they were there.
O'BRIEN: Lying when they have it on tape. Just as a rule, bad idea.
BARNETT: Don't you think that she should go to jail? Because now it's like the judge is supposed to be lenient if she show remorse.
O'BRIEN: How much time is she facing?
BARNETT: Well, she could get up to 20 years.
SIGESMUND: Twenty years?
BARNETT: But I'm, like, she should just go to jail. She could make a fortune in jail. I mean, the street cred (ph), it could boost her flagging CD sales. She could do a video game, where you, like, have to bust Lil' Kim out of jail.
SIGESMUND: And what would she wear? What would she wear in jail?
BARNETT: It's what she wears when she comes out. She could, like, wear hand-knit pasties or something, you know, and, like, become a martyr, lose a bunch of weight.
KLEIN: I think that Lil' Kim is too small to go to jail. I mean, she is 4'11". She is very tiny. What if she meets up with some sort of, like, tough, hardened Martha Stewart type of person?
SIGESMUND: Oh, she's already...
(CROSSTALK)
KLEIN: I worry about her.
BARNETT: Oh, please!
KLEIN: She's a delicate flower.
O'BRIEN: You might be the only one who thinks so.
OK. I want to talk about a little bit about "The Ring 2," because I really liked "The Ring," the first one with Naomi Watts, who I thought was terrific. It was really scary. And as a rule I don't like scary movies. But this was a good one. You've seen it. How is No. 2?
BARNETT: I mean, you know, the plotline of having a movie -- watching a movie where you're watching a movie that could possibly kill you was just so incredibly creepy the first time around. But they didn't do anything new and exciting the second time.
O'BRIEN: I don't hear the words, "I loved it, Soledad."
SIGESMUND: Yes, yes. BARNETT: No, it was a classic case of box office greed, where, like, you know, I made five bucks with "Rocky 4," so I'm going to see if I can make three bucks with "Rocky 5," you know?
SIGESMUND: Yes. I agree. I have seen it, too. The first one was all about the notion that this videotape could kill you, right? And the second one is just about this demon child, Semara (ph), who comes back to haunt Naomi Watts Freddy Krueger-style, you know, in dreams, out of dreams. But there is nothing as clever about it as the first one. Still, I think it's going to make more money than the first one.
KLEIN: I can't even -- I'll just put in a vote. It looks scary to me, because I can't even watch the commercial. I'm terrified of it. And literally, in my house when it comes in, I have to turn to something else. CNN usually.
BARNETT: Well, I hope I don't mess up anybody's, you know, sort of movie-watching experience. But the creepiest thing is this, you know, the ring part, is killer reindeer.
SIGESMUND: Absolutely. That's the best scene of all.
O'BRIEN: We're out of time, guys. Thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Soledad, still to come in our "Extra Effort" this week, two lucky people. They each found they had the skills to save the other's life. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Surprising last-minute efforts by the House and the Senate to stop the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, currently scheduled for 1:00 this afternoon. CNN's congressional correspondent Joe Johns live on Capitol Hill this morning. Joe, there is so much confusing information here. Can you sort it out for us?
JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Still getting sorted out, Soledad. What is clear to us right now is that the majority leader of the Senate, Bill Frist, has just released a statement to the media indicating in that statement that Terri Schiavo and her husband are not being subpoenaed to appear here on Capitol Hill March 28th.
Rather, they are being invited to testify on Capitol Hill in an inquiry or an investigation into healthcare of non-ambulatory persons. That statement, issued just a little while ago, also carries with it an implicit threat, if you will. That is the threat of risk for any individual who may in any way harm a person who has been requested to testify.
Here is part of the statement: "Federal criminal law protects witnesses called before official congressional committee proceedings from anyone who may obstruct or impede a witness, attendance or testimony. More specifically, the law protects a witness from anyone who -- by threats, force or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs or impedes an inquiry or investigation by the Congress. Anyone who violates this law is subject to criminal fines and imprisonment."
So on the Senate side, like on the House side, members of Congress attempting to preserve their right of inquiry into this case, Soledad, at the same time by preserving, they hope, the life of Terri Schiavo.
O'BRIEN: Interesting developments. Joe Johns for us this morning. Joe, thanks for clarifying that.
This, of course, is the topic of the "Question of the Day." Good morning again, Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. The federal government: should it be intervening in this case? The answers, some of them we've gotten.
Bob in Ohio: "Jack, isn't it obvious? This is something they can stick their nose in that won't upset the oil companies, the pharmaceutical companies, the environmentalists and won't help the rest of us at all. Sounds like business as usual to me."
Gabrielle in New York: "I'm glad Congress intervened. Terri did not leave a living will and the assertion of her husband that Terri wants to die is dubious at best, considering he stands to inherit money from her death."
Susan in Ohio writes: "I think it's abhorrent that Congress is meddling in this decision. The woman is in a vegetative state and so is Congress."
O'BRIEN: All right, Jack, thanks. A break and we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: When you're in the right place at the right time, even a stranger can become a lifeline. That's what happened to Carol Gamble nearly a year ago at a rotary meeting near Boston. In this week's "Extra Effort," CNN's Dan Lothian explains how Gamble is just returning the favor to the man who saved her life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly a year ago at this hotel near Boston...
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: ... and justice for all.
LOTHIAN: ... during the weekly Rotary Club lunch meeting, two strangers were linked in an unexpected life-saving union. Call it fate or destiny or divine.
CAROL GAMBLE, HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR: If you believe in things that happen for a reason, that's what struck me.
LOTHIAN (on camera): Are you thankful that you met her?
MARCELO BRIONES, WAITER: Yes, yes. I mean, like I say, God put me here.
LOTHIAN (voice-over): 39-year-old Chilean native Marcelo Briones, a banquet captain at the hotel, and Carol Gamble, a healthcare company executive and Rotary member, met when she began choking.
GAMBLE: Unchewed piece of meat gets lodged in your throat, cuts off your wind pipe. And I immediately knew that I was in trouble.
LOTHIAN (on camera): Did you know she was choking?
BRIONES: Yes.
GAMBLE: I felt these arms come around me.
LOTHIAN: What did you do?
BRIONES: Well, I was trying to help her.
GAMBLE: Performed the Heimlich maneuver to relieve the situation.
BRIONES: I was doing my job.
LOTHIAN (voice-over): Well, a little more than his job. Now that extra effort may, in fact, help save his own life.
BRIONES: I have a kidney disease and I need a kidney transplant.
LOTHIAN: It had been his private battle, showing up for work each week, despite difficult dialysis treatments, stuck on a long waiting list to receive a cadaver kidney. But it became a public effort when Gamble returned to officially thank him.
BRIONES: He said, oh, so you work at the hospital. I said, yes, I do. And he said well, I'm a patient at the hospital. I was thinking, I want to do something for him.
LOTHIAN: Gamble says she would have donated one of her own kidneys, but they have incompatible blood types. So she enlisted the help of her Rotary Club members to find a living kidney donor, held a fundraiser, got educated on transplants. Briones was stunned.
BRIONES: I never would have suspected anything.
LOTHIAN: Finally, the gift, a potential donor, a friend willing to give up a kidney. But more testing is needed.
GAMBLE: If that donor is eligible, then we hope to have a transplant this year, which would be a very happy ending to this story and only a new beginning for Marcelo. LOTHIAN: They can now joke about the choke...
BRIONES: London broil. You will have to cut it in little small ones...
GAMBLE: Little small pieces.
LOTHIAN: ... that turned a near-death experience into a life- saving encounter.
Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: A happy ending, that's right. Marcelo Briones is trying to raise funds for his donor testing. You can donate to the fund by contacting the Marcelo Briones Kidney Transplant Fund at Wakefield Rotary, P.O. Box 431, in Wakefield, Massachusetts, 01880.
MARCIANO: It's a good story.
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's a nice story.
MARCIANO: You know, I've always wondered what Jack and Andy do in their spare time when they're not on the set. Now I found out. This is enlightening stuff, Andy. What do you have?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: It is. Well, we have peeps. Of course, Easter's a week from Sunday, and a lot people are getting their Easter baskets ready and of course, peeps are the big part of that. We have some peeps here. 1.2 billion of these babies sold every year. And here is the interesting fact. One-third of them are used for dioramas, arts and crafts, science experiments and rituals, they say.
O'BRIEN: Only a third?
SERWER: And Jack Cafferty and I were downstairs and we put some in the microwave. And here's what happened. They blew up big. It was like they were on steroids, right, Jack?
CAFFERTY: They got huge.
SERWER: And then it kind of shrank back.
CAFFERTY: Now they look like scrambled eggs.
O'BRIEN: I'm glad to see the both of you using your free time so productively.
SERWER: Well, no, we were -- that was reporting. And science!
O'BRIEN: Research. Meaning CNN paid for the peeps.
SERWER: They did, yes.
CAFFERTY: It was either that or watch you and Rob read the news.
MARCIANO: I don't blame you.
O'BRIEN: That's not how you want to start your weekend, Jack, trust me. Rob, thank you very much, by the way, for helping us. We certainly appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired March 18, 2005 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Also in the news this morning, Congress facing a $2.6 trillion problem. That's the sum of next year's federal budget. The Senate approved a version of the plan. But its priorities differ from what President Bush and the House wanted. They'll try to decipher out an agreement in next two weeks.
President Bush is taking his Social Security reform directly to the voters. The president expected to speak at Pensacola Junior College in Florida. He'll meet with senior citizens in Orlando later today. All part of his 60-day Social Security blitz.
And Janet Jackson officially distancing herself from a man she says has been harassing her for nine years. Court documents claim the man has been sending faxes and letters to the entertainer, trying to arrange in-person meetings. A judge has granted Jackson a restraining order, but the man is appealing because he doesn't want to be considered a stalker. Even though he's been after her for nine years and she has no idea who this man is.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: No, he's not a stalker.
Nine months, maybe.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Carol. Thanks.
The baseball steroids scandal center stage on Capitol Hill yesterday. But few revelations, if any, came from testimony by some of the sports's biggest stars. So just how did Major League Baseball score in Congress?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUD SELIG, MLB COMMISSIONER: I will suspend any player who tests positive for an illegal steroid. There will be no exceptions.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Baseball commissioner Bud Selig on Capitol Hill and under oath, swearing by baseball's new zero-tolerance policy towards steroid use. Committee members weren't buying it.
REP. CHRIS SHAYS (R), CONNECTICUT: Why should someone have five strikes before they're out? I'd like to go right down the list. Why five strikes?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman, let me begin by saying...
SHAYS: I'm not going to have you begin. I'd like the commissioner. Why five strikes, commissioner?
SELIG: Because that's the negotiated policy right now, Congressman. That's the best we could do in collective bargaining.
O'BRIEN: All in all, baseball took a beating in Congress Thursday. The commissioner followed an all-star lineup of players, past and present, who testified before a House committee. They included Jose Canseco, whose tell-all book "Juiced" claims steroid use among Major League players was rampant. He said he couldn't tell all to Congress without immunity.
JOSE CANSECO, FMR. MLB PLAYER: It's unfortunate the committee has made this decision as it will not be able to fully investigate the steroid issue without all testimony, and the issue will continue to plague the sport.
O'BRIEN: One of the players implicated in canseco's book, Rafael Palmeiro, used the occasion to set the record straight.
RAFAEL PALMEIRO, MLB PLAYER: I have never used steroids, period. I do not know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never.
O'BRIEN: Mark McGwire, who broke baseball's single season home run record in 1998, was also a target of canseco's book. There's speculation over whether his baseball record and others were fueled by steroids. McGwire owned up to nothing.
MARK MCGWIRE, FMR. MLB PLAYER: Asking me or any other player to answer questions about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't want to comment? Are you taking the Fifth?
MCGWIRE: I'm not here to discuss the past. I'm here to be positive about this subject.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to be positive too.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Both the players and committee members expressed concern about steroid use by young athletes. Committee chairman Congressman Tom Davis says he hopes that the hearings send a clear message about the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Police say a convicted sex offender is cooperating in the investigation into 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford's disappearance. Forty-six-old John Couey was taken into custody Thursday in Augusta, Georgia for violating his probation in Florida. Couey will face a judge this afternoon. He has not been charged in Jessica's disappearance. She was reported missing more than three weeks ago. I asked her father, Mark Lunsford, how he feels about these new developments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARK LUNSFORD, FATHER OF MISSING GIRL: I'm just taking it like a grain of salt. I'm going to will continue with my search until the sheriff tells me he's found my daughter.
MARCIANO: Have the police told you anything about what John Couey has told them?
LUNSFORD: No, no, they haven't said anything to me. I haven't seen them yet.
MARCIANO: He's got a long list of things in his past, none of which is murder. So that alone should make you a little bit more optimistic if, indeed, he becomes a bigger player in this case, do you think?
LUNSFORD: Well, like I said, because I've gotten excited over some things in the last three weeks and it's been a letdown, this time i've decided I'm just going to continue with my search, and I'm not going to bite into anything until the sheriff tells me exactly himself.
MARCIANO: OK, well, let's talk about your search. Marc Klaas has stepped in. His daughter was abducted and murdered over a decade ago. He's stepped in to help with your search. What has he done and how is that search going?
LUNSFORD: Well, they've given me a lot of information. They'll be here this weekend to help me conduct the search. They're going to come down here and just train me some more, help me out, help me get volunteers.
MARCIANO: Police say Couey is the most promising lead in this case, but they do have other leads.
Let's listen to what Sheriff Jeff Dawsy had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF JEFF DAWSY, CITRUS CO. FLA.: We're not stymied now. We're still following leads. We are aggressively, like I said, we're probably following about 40 really quality leads today. And, you know, one of those leads may be the answer, and then Couey is not even in the game. Right now, Couey is one of the hottest leads, and we need, as I said, we need to take him out of the mix.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: Mark, do you know anything about the other leads they're talking about? They haven't told us anything?
LUNSFORD: No I haven't heard anything about any other leads.
MARCIANO: Well, it's been a long three weeks, as I can imagine as a parent, a gut-wrenching three weeks. How are you holding up?
LUNSFORD: Well, With the support of the community, and my daughter, I don't have any choice but to keep going, you know, I just, I just keep going.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: That was Mark Lunsford, father of missing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford. Stay with CNN throughout the day as this story continues to unfold -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, two years ago this weekend, this was the scene in Iraq. The sights and sounds of shock and awe as the U.S. and its coalition allies launched the war. Today the violence continues. Military commanders say the insurgents are capable of launching as many as 50 attacks each and every day. Toll on American's troops, more than 1500 dead, 11,000 wounded.
CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson was in Baghdad when first bombs fell, and he has been covering this story ever since.
Nic, good morning. Thanks for coming back to talk to us.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: You'd really been kicked out actually before the war started by Saddam Hussein's government. Explain that and how you were able to stick around.
ROBERTSON: Well, we were there for the very beginning phases, the opening salvos of the first missiles coming in. And we were told by the Iraqi government a couple of days into that that we were going to have to leave, and we said, look, no way, it was too late. They were telling us later in the day, it was too dangerous to go at night. That night, that's when the shock and awe really began. And when we had to leave the next night, the bombing was still going on. They didn't want us around they -- for whatever reason, and perhaps we'll never know precisely why they did it. They threw us out of the country, and we took that long drive right across the Iraqi desert, back to Jordan.
O'BRIEN: 2003, I want to talk about specific dates that I think are important, critical dates, April 2003, the statue of Saddam Hussein falls down. What was that moment like?
ROBERTSON: I was watching it from Kuwait. We were waiting to go back to Baghdad, and I had seen that statue inaugurated in May, the year before. It had been put up for Saddam's birthday. A sheep had been slaughtered for it. So it was an incredible moment. This was -- it was put up in the sort of dying part of Saddam Hussein's regime. So to see it come down was a hugely symbolic act. And for the Iraqis who did come out to watch it, the same thing, and it really was that turning moment for Iraqis, they knew this was the end of Saddam, that the regime had gone. And all the government officials who'd been hanging around until the last moments had fled and were gone, and that was it.
O'BRIEN: December 2003, the spider hole. That was a moment that I think every single person thought was a turning point also.
ROBERTSON: From Saddam Hussein, who was a huge leader who lived in these huge palaces, who was untouchable, to find out he spent his last moments of freedom in a tiny hole, a hole I was only just small enough to get into and look around inside. It was almost in sight of one of his huge palaces. That's where he'd wound up, with this big beard, sort of a wild man, if you will, living below ground to stay away from capture, and that he didn't really have the support of the people around him, because somebody knew where he was, and gave that information away.
O'BRIEN: November 2004, you're embedded with U.S. troops who are fighting the insurgents in Falluja. What was that like?
ROBERTSON: That was quite an incredible moment, to be riding in with the Marines, going into -- in to do a resupply mission, and suddenly you're on a resupply and you're winding up in the middle of a firefight, because there are firefights breaking out all over the town. That offensive in Falluja was really what began to break the back of that insurgent stronghold. And although the insurgents went other places in the country, it denied them that particular town, and it was a moment where you felt the insurgents being matched with a firepower that nobody's enabled until that moment. And it was incredible to see it unfold. And of course, you know, a lot of soldiers did lose their lives. It was a very fierce fight, and you know, the fight is still going on against the insurgents.
O'BRIEN: What was it like to be with Kurds when they're voting for their new government? Because you were there.
ROBERTSON: This is a moment they'd all been waiting for. Here they were part of a united Iraq, that they were getting their free voice after so many years of oppression under Saddam Hussein, after the chemical attacks in the 1980s. The words that we were describing it, it was like a feast, a festival, a joyous occasion, and you could really feel that. You were standing there watching people putting on, if you will, their Sunday best, their traditional clothing to come out and vote, and you just feel it from people. You absorb it when you're there, this great feeling, this real sense of liberation of freedom, and of democracy.
O'BRIEN: You use the word "incredible" many, many times. I think it is fair to say over the two years you've been there and the more years that you have as you go back to Baghdad. Thanks for coming in to talk to us. Really remarkable reporting frankly for us. We appreciate it.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, Lil Kim could be headed for the big house. Our "90-Second Pop" crew on just what did she do wrong. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) O'BRIEN: Welcome, everybody. It's time for "90-Second Pop" on a Friday with our all-star pop panel. Amy Barnett is managing editor of "Teen People." B.J. Sigesmund is staff editor for "Us Weekly." Jessica Kline is a comedian from VH1's "Best Week Ever."
Good morning.
B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": Good morning.
JESSI KLEIN, COMEDIAN: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Nice to have you for your very first time. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
AMY BARNETT, MANAGING EDITOR, "TEEN PEOPLE: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Let's start with Lil' Kim.
SIGESMUND: Lil' Kim, big trouble.
O'BRIEN: Big trouble for that little girl. She's a tiny, little thing, but she faces some bid old time in the big house.
SIGESMUND: Yes. No, she was convicted yesterday of both perjury and conspiracy, and she was acquitted of the more serious charge, which was conspiracy -- I'm sorry.
O'BRIEN: Obstruction of justice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right, right.
SIGESMUND: Obstruction of justice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's a bad one.
SIGESMUND: This all stems from the 2000 shootout, where some of her entourage were in battle with another entourage over a rival rapper.
O'BRIEN: She was just trying to protect her folks.
SIGESMUND: Yes. And then...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was trying to be a good person.
SIGESMUND: Right. In 2003 facing...
O'BRIEN: By lying to the hood.
SIGESMUND: So...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's trying to be nice girl.
SIGESMUND: But the core issues that in 2003 when she was talking about what happened in 2001, she apparently lied several times, trying to protect people in her posse. She said that two men weren't there, and then the jury saw on videotape that they were there.
O'BRIEN: Lying when they have it on tape. Just as a rule, bad idea.
BARNETT: Don't you think that she should go to jail? Because now it's like the judge is supposed to be lenient if she show remorse.
O'BRIEN: How much time is she facing?
BARNETT: Well, she could get up to 20 years.
SIGESMUND: Twenty years?
BARNETT: But I'm, like, she should just go to jail. She could make a fortune in jail. I mean, the street cred (ph), it could boost her flagging CD sales. She could do a video game, where you, like, have to bust Lil' Kim out of jail.
SIGESMUND: And what would she wear? What would she wear in jail?
BARNETT: It's what she wears when she comes out. She could, like, wear hand-knit pasties or something, you know, and, like, become a martyr, lose a bunch of weight.
KLEIN: I think that Lil' Kim is too small to go to jail. I mean, she is 4'11". She is very tiny. What if she meets up with some sort of, like, tough, hardened Martha Stewart type of person?
SIGESMUND: Oh, she's already...
(CROSSTALK)
KLEIN: I worry about her.
BARNETT: Oh, please!
KLEIN: She's a delicate flower.
O'BRIEN: You might be the only one who thinks so.
OK. I want to talk about a little bit about "The Ring 2," because I really liked "The Ring," the first one with Naomi Watts, who I thought was terrific. It was really scary. And as a rule I don't like scary movies. But this was a good one. You've seen it. How is No. 2?
BARNETT: I mean, you know, the plotline of having a movie -- watching a movie where you're watching a movie that could possibly kill you was just so incredibly creepy the first time around. But they didn't do anything new and exciting the second time.
O'BRIEN: I don't hear the words, "I loved it, Soledad."
SIGESMUND: Yes, yes. BARNETT: No, it was a classic case of box office greed, where, like, you know, I made five bucks with "Rocky 4," so I'm going to see if I can make three bucks with "Rocky 5," you know?
SIGESMUND: Yes. I agree. I have seen it, too. The first one was all about the notion that this videotape could kill you, right? And the second one is just about this demon child, Semara (ph), who comes back to haunt Naomi Watts Freddy Krueger-style, you know, in dreams, out of dreams. But there is nothing as clever about it as the first one. Still, I think it's going to make more money than the first one.
KLEIN: I can't even -- I'll just put in a vote. It looks scary to me, because I can't even watch the commercial. I'm terrified of it. And literally, in my house when it comes in, I have to turn to something else. CNN usually.
BARNETT: Well, I hope I don't mess up anybody's, you know, sort of movie-watching experience. But the creepiest thing is this, you know, the ring part, is killer reindeer.
SIGESMUND: Absolutely. That's the best scene of all.
O'BRIEN: We're out of time, guys. Thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Soledad, still to come in our "Extra Effort" this week, two lucky people. They each found they had the skills to save the other's life. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Surprising last-minute efforts by the House and the Senate to stop the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, currently scheduled for 1:00 this afternoon. CNN's congressional correspondent Joe Johns live on Capitol Hill this morning. Joe, there is so much confusing information here. Can you sort it out for us?
JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Still getting sorted out, Soledad. What is clear to us right now is that the majority leader of the Senate, Bill Frist, has just released a statement to the media indicating in that statement that Terri Schiavo and her husband are not being subpoenaed to appear here on Capitol Hill March 28th.
Rather, they are being invited to testify on Capitol Hill in an inquiry or an investigation into healthcare of non-ambulatory persons. That statement, issued just a little while ago, also carries with it an implicit threat, if you will. That is the threat of risk for any individual who may in any way harm a person who has been requested to testify.
Here is part of the statement: "Federal criminal law protects witnesses called before official congressional committee proceedings from anyone who may obstruct or impede a witness, attendance or testimony. More specifically, the law protects a witness from anyone who -- by threats, force or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs or impedes an inquiry or investigation by the Congress. Anyone who violates this law is subject to criminal fines and imprisonment."
So on the Senate side, like on the House side, members of Congress attempting to preserve their right of inquiry into this case, Soledad, at the same time by preserving, they hope, the life of Terri Schiavo.
O'BRIEN: Interesting developments. Joe Johns for us this morning. Joe, thanks for clarifying that.
This, of course, is the topic of the "Question of the Day." Good morning again, Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. The federal government: should it be intervening in this case? The answers, some of them we've gotten.
Bob in Ohio: "Jack, isn't it obvious? This is something they can stick their nose in that won't upset the oil companies, the pharmaceutical companies, the environmentalists and won't help the rest of us at all. Sounds like business as usual to me."
Gabrielle in New York: "I'm glad Congress intervened. Terri did not leave a living will and the assertion of her husband that Terri wants to die is dubious at best, considering he stands to inherit money from her death."
Susan in Ohio writes: "I think it's abhorrent that Congress is meddling in this decision. The woman is in a vegetative state and so is Congress."
O'BRIEN: All right, Jack, thanks. A break and we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: When you're in the right place at the right time, even a stranger can become a lifeline. That's what happened to Carol Gamble nearly a year ago at a rotary meeting near Boston. In this week's "Extra Effort," CNN's Dan Lothian explains how Gamble is just returning the favor to the man who saved her life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly a year ago at this hotel near Boston...
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: ... and justice for all.
LOTHIAN: ... during the weekly Rotary Club lunch meeting, two strangers were linked in an unexpected life-saving union. Call it fate or destiny or divine.
CAROL GAMBLE, HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR: If you believe in things that happen for a reason, that's what struck me.
LOTHIAN (on camera): Are you thankful that you met her?
MARCELO BRIONES, WAITER: Yes, yes. I mean, like I say, God put me here.
LOTHIAN (voice-over): 39-year-old Chilean native Marcelo Briones, a banquet captain at the hotel, and Carol Gamble, a healthcare company executive and Rotary member, met when she began choking.
GAMBLE: Unchewed piece of meat gets lodged in your throat, cuts off your wind pipe. And I immediately knew that I was in trouble.
LOTHIAN (on camera): Did you know she was choking?
BRIONES: Yes.
GAMBLE: I felt these arms come around me.
LOTHIAN: What did you do?
BRIONES: Well, I was trying to help her.
GAMBLE: Performed the Heimlich maneuver to relieve the situation.
BRIONES: I was doing my job.
LOTHIAN (voice-over): Well, a little more than his job. Now that extra effort may, in fact, help save his own life.
BRIONES: I have a kidney disease and I need a kidney transplant.
LOTHIAN: It had been his private battle, showing up for work each week, despite difficult dialysis treatments, stuck on a long waiting list to receive a cadaver kidney. But it became a public effort when Gamble returned to officially thank him.
BRIONES: He said, oh, so you work at the hospital. I said, yes, I do. And he said well, I'm a patient at the hospital. I was thinking, I want to do something for him.
LOTHIAN: Gamble says she would have donated one of her own kidneys, but they have incompatible blood types. So she enlisted the help of her Rotary Club members to find a living kidney donor, held a fundraiser, got educated on transplants. Briones was stunned.
BRIONES: I never would have suspected anything.
LOTHIAN: Finally, the gift, a potential donor, a friend willing to give up a kidney. But more testing is needed.
GAMBLE: If that donor is eligible, then we hope to have a transplant this year, which would be a very happy ending to this story and only a new beginning for Marcelo. LOTHIAN: They can now joke about the choke...
BRIONES: London broil. You will have to cut it in little small ones...
GAMBLE: Little small pieces.
LOTHIAN: ... that turned a near-death experience into a life- saving encounter.
Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: A happy ending, that's right. Marcelo Briones is trying to raise funds for his donor testing. You can donate to the fund by contacting the Marcelo Briones Kidney Transplant Fund at Wakefield Rotary, P.O. Box 431, in Wakefield, Massachusetts, 01880.
MARCIANO: It's a good story.
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's a nice story.
MARCIANO: You know, I've always wondered what Jack and Andy do in their spare time when they're not on the set. Now I found out. This is enlightening stuff, Andy. What do you have?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: It is. Well, we have peeps. Of course, Easter's a week from Sunday, and a lot people are getting their Easter baskets ready and of course, peeps are the big part of that. We have some peeps here. 1.2 billion of these babies sold every year. And here is the interesting fact. One-third of them are used for dioramas, arts and crafts, science experiments and rituals, they say.
O'BRIEN: Only a third?
SERWER: And Jack Cafferty and I were downstairs and we put some in the microwave. And here's what happened. They blew up big. It was like they were on steroids, right, Jack?
CAFFERTY: They got huge.
SERWER: And then it kind of shrank back.
CAFFERTY: Now they look like scrambled eggs.
O'BRIEN: I'm glad to see the both of you using your free time so productively.
SERWER: Well, no, we were -- that was reporting. And science!
O'BRIEN: Research. Meaning CNN paid for the peeps.
SERWER: They did, yes.
CAFFERTY: It was either that or watch you and Rob read the news.
MARCIANO: I don't blame you.
O'BRIEN: That's not how you want to start your weekend, Jack, trust me. Rob, thank you very much, by the way, for helping us. We certainly appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
