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American Morning

Baghdad Clashes; Base Closings; Roberts Nomination

Aired August 24, 2005 - 9:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news in Iraq. As police fight a fierce battle with heavily-armed in Baghdad, numerous casualties to tell you about. We're live in Baghdad for what could be a very dangerous shift in insurgent tactics.
We're following a developing story in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Katrina forms without much warning. It could hit Florida by tomorrow.

And $50, $60, even $70 to fill up on gas. High prices at the pump. Are they a serious threat to the economy? We've got the big picture on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see you.

We are following some breaking news from Iraq as we speak. A dramatic standoff under way between insurgents and Iraqi police in western Baghdad. Police say there are at least three dead, 30 wounded.

Aneesh Raman live in Baghdad.

Aneesh, what's the latest?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, the standoff continues. The area has been cordoned off by Iraqi security forces after what they are calling was a very sophisticated attack by insurgents.

It began with mortar attacks, followed by at least one car bomb detonating. And now insurgents -- reports have the number of insurgents; it's upwards of 40, with a variety of weapons, from RPGs to Kalashnikovs to AK-47s -- are in a standoff with Iraqi police in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Jamia (ph).

This area borders on Maria (ph), it borders Gasaria (ph). These are Sunni stronghold areas, insurgent stronghold areas. We have seen attacks there before. But none of this nature.

A very brazen attack showing, perhaps, not only increased sophistication among the insurgency, but also continued confidence that they can bring this fight to the Iraqi police. We understand that again the area's been cordoned off. There were reports that the U.S. military had been called in to help.

The military telling us they have no information on that at this moment. But again, Miles, it comes at a very sensitive time in Iraq, a political week here as that draft constitution is now hours away from being complete and being ready for the Iraqi people -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: You mentioned the constitution, Aneesh. Of course, the Sunnis are the ones who feel most disenfranchised by what is going on right now with the constitution, feeling left out. And I guess perhaps no coincidence here that the insurgency is predominantly Sunni-fueled.

RAMAN: Exactly. And that is the bind that this government, as well as U.S. officials, find themselves in. We have long heard that any delay in the political process will strengthen the insurgency. That has been the rationale for getting Iraqi leaders to meet their deadlines.

At the same time, though, as you mentioned, if the Sunni politicians feel alienated by that very rush to meet a deadline, it could also strengthen the insurgency, which is, as far as government officials tell us, made up predominantly, domestically of Sunnis. So they are caught between two ends. One trying to keep the political process on track, the other, of course, making Sunnis feel that they are part of this political process and isolating rationale for the insurgency -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman in Baghdad, watching things for us. And we will stay in close contact with him all throughout the morning and day here on CNN.

Let's check other headlines now with Carol Costello.

Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Miles.

Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News," search and recovery efforts resume this morning at the crash site of a Peruvian airliner. The TANS Airline Boeing 737 took off from Lima with 100 people on board, including 11 Americans. Officials say a sudden change in wind speed or direction may have caused the accident. At least 37 people were killed.

Actor Brock Peters has lost his battle with cancer. He was perhaps best known for his performance in "To Kill a Mockingbird" as the accused rapist Tom Robinson. By the mid '60s, Peters was recognized as one of the most versatile and talented black actors in America. He died Tuesday from complications of pancreatic cancer. Brock Peters was 78.

President Bush is wrapping up his visit to Idaho by trying to rally support for U.S. troops. The president is set to address military personnel from the Idaho National Guard and Mountain Home Air Force Base near Boise. He will then meet privately with families who lost loved ones in Iraq.

In the meantime, Cindy Sheehan is set to return to her anti-war protest in Texas near the president's ranch. She left on Thursday to be with her sick mom in California.

And Americans are apparently getting fatter. A new report suggests obesity rates are on the rise in every single state except Oregon.

Mississippi tips the scale. Almost 30 percent of adults there were considered obese last year. The slimmest state, Colorado, with just 16 percent described as obese.

But here's the most important thing: the study found that nearly 25 percent, a quarter of all Americans, are obese. The findings are from the Trust for America's Health Fund.

Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: Those are just shock figures, aren't they? You know, they're going to have sit down and figure out how they're going to turn those numbers around, because obviously the focus on trying to fight obesity and even childhood obesity is just not working.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, there's something about Colorado, though, because that's a state where outdoor activity is really, like, in.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, yes.

COSTELLO: I mean, people do that every day. There are bike trails and hiking trails. And maybe that's the answer, or part of it anyway.

M. O'BRIEN: Get off the couch, folks.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Not now, though. Stay with us for the next hour. OK?

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Carol.

Well, a federal commission voted this morning to close three major military bases in the U.S., try to merge hundreds of smaller facilities, too. The panel continues to decide on the remainder of the Pentagon's plan to streamline domestic bases.

The proposal calls for the closing or consolidation of 62 major military bases and 775 smaller institutions -- installations, rather. The plan would save more than $48 billion over 20 years, and it's the first effort in a decade to reconfigure domestic bases.

It brings us right to CNN's David Ensor. He's at the Pentagon for us this morning.

David, good morning to you. Some high-profile closures already voted upon this morning.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Soledad. This is the largest restructuring of the U.S. military base structure since the end of the Cold War.

The Pentagon has made some fairly dramatic recommendations, and the bases are dropping like flies, to put it bluntly. The votes are going on right now.

There is some debate, some disagreement, but as you mentioned, three bases have been closed. Bases in Georgia, Virginia, and in Michigan.

The largest base to go down so far is the -- is Fort McPherson, which is Atlanta's seventh largest employer, according to the "Atlanta Business Chronicle" -- 2,260 military personnel are affected, and this is a base that was founded in September of 1885. So some of the oldest military bases around the country are -- are not -- not immune from being closed at this time.

Now, as you mentioned, a large number of other bases are being considered. There is debate, there is disagreement among the members of the commission that are considering it. But Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld says politics were not involved in making these selections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: These are all recommendations that they produced. They didn't come out of mid air. And there wasn't an ounce of politics in any aspect of it. I suspect that the commission, when all is said and done, will endorse the overwhelming majority of those recommendations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: In the past, commissions have changed up to about 15 percent of the recommendations, so we could see some bases saved. But it does look like a very, very dramatic change in the base structure around the United States, and this is going to affect a lot of communities around the country -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. A huge change and huge impact. David Ensor for us this morning.

David, thanks.

As confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts draw near, interest groups are sparring and Democrats are trying to settle on a strategy.

Congressional Correspondent Joe Johns is live for us on Capitol Hill this morning.

Joe, good morning to you. Where does the fight stand right now?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Well, we'll be watching today for signs of how Democrats plan to approach this nomination. Of course, thousands and thousands of pages now released into the public domain relating to Roberts, things he said and wrote years ago.

One of the key people we'll be watching now is Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. She, of course, a Democrat, the only woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will hold the confirmation hearings. That's important, because the issue of women's rights, reproductive rights have come up more than once this summer in relation to Judge Roberts.

Feinstein is delivering a speech before the Los Angeles County Bar Association today. We've got some of the excerpts of that speech scheduled to occur later today on reproductive rights. She's expected to say, "It would be very difficult for me to confirm someone to the Supreme Court whom I know would overturn Roe versus Wade and return our country to the day of 1950s."

Also expect tough questioning, of course, from a Republican as well. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, has put out now two letters questioning the way the Supreme Court has handled overturning of certain congressional statutes.

Meanwhile, here in Washington, we do expect the interest groups to weigh in, including People for the American Way, a liberal interest group, very powerful with a lot of money. They're holding a news conference around 10:00 Eastern Time. At that time we do expect to hear a little bit more about how they may approach this nomination.

As well, some people so concerned about that; that they're holding a news conference of their own on the conservative side. A group of conservative women meeting also, we're told, at the National Press Club around 10:00, the pushback, if you will. Two people for The American Way, we're expecting Linda Chavez, among others, also the wife of Judge Bork, whose nomination was shut down years ago.

Back to you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Some dueling news conferences really an indication of how tough this could get. Joe Johns for us at the capital.

Joe, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Much of south Florida under a tropical storm watch this morning. A large storm has been upgraded now to Tropical Storm Katrina. It is moving through the Bahamas right now. It is the 11th named storm, but was the 12th depression, right? Because one of the depression just couldn't get out of their depression.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Lost its identity. They had an identity crisis for a while, right.

M. O'BRIEN: And committed suicide or something. All right. So tell us -- tell us how serious this storm is, Chad. (WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Chad, thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: This is not that storm.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. Well, that is...

M. O'BRIEN: Good point. Good point.

S. O'BRIEN: ... worth reemphasizing.

Still to come this morning, Americans getting pinched at the pump. Now it looks as if retailers are starting to feel their customers' pain, too. We'll tell you who's getting hit the hardest.

M. O'BRIEN: And businesses say location is everything. But should fast-food restaurants be close to schools? A revealing new study is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Is there a cluster of fast-food restaurants near your child's school? A new study found that nearly 80 percent of schools in Chicago had at least one fast-food restaurant within a half-mile.

Bryn Austin is with the Harvard School of Public Health. And she is the study's lead author, and she joins us from Boston this morning.

Nice to see you. Good morning to you.

BRYN AUSTIN, HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

S. O'BRIEN: So, at the end of day, did your study conclude that, yes, in fact, it is intentional that these fast-food restaurants are right near schools intentionally?

AUSTIN: Well, our study was designed to look at the concentration of fast food around school neighborhoods, and what we do know is the fast-food restaurants are three to four times more common in school neighborhoods than we would have expected if they were located around the city in ways unrelated to the school locations.

S. O'BRIEN: But doesn't it follow, OK, schools are in high- population areas, fast-food restaurants want to be in high-population areas, so it just turns out that fast-food restaurants and schools sort of share the same neighborhood?

AUSTIN: Well, from a health perspective, what we're concerned about is this concentration of food that is very high in calories, high in fat, and low with fresh fruits and vegetables in school neighborhoods where children are going to have access to these foods five days a week. We know that on days when children eat fast food they eat more fat, more sugar and fewer fruits and vegetables. In the midst of an obesity epidemic, this is very concerning to us.

S. O'BRIEN: Was there any indication from your study -- and I'm not sure you focused on this -- that said that the kids are eating more fast food when more fast food restaurants are near them? You know, double the number of fast food restaurants you pass on your way to school, you are twice as likely to eat fast food?

AUSTIN: Well, it's an interesting question. We do know that the fast-food industry spends a great deal of effort choosing sites, choosing locations for their restaurants. And from a business perspective, they want to maximize their access to the consumer base. We also know that children and adolescents are very important in the consumer base for the fast-food industry.

S. O'BRIEN: It's no surprise. I mean, I think at this point everybody sort of knows that McDonald's Big Mac and fries has over a thousand calories, has tons of fat grams. No surprise that a Whopper with a large fries has about the same number of calories, 1,200 or so calories, and tons of fat grams as well.

Isn't it my responsibility, Bryn, as a parent to make sure that my child is making healthy choices, not the responsibility of these fast food restaurants who pick location in order to get customers?

AUSTIN: Well, the obesity epidemic in child health is really everyone's responsibility as communities. That includes parents, of course. It also includes policymakers, school leaders, and health professionals and business leaders in the community to take seriously the problem of childhood obesity and the need to promote more healthful diets in our children.

S. O'BRIEN: So when you say...

AUSTIN: This is really about...

S. O'BRIEN: Let me interrupt you there, because when you say they take it more seriously, what would you literally like to see done as a result of your study?

AUSTIN: What we would like to see is that the food offered not only in schools, but also in the school neighborhoods where we send our children five days a week, provide an opportunity for children to have more healthful diets, more fresh fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, and reduce their -- the access of -- to fast food.

Really, our urban centers are saturated with fast food now as it is now. And what our study is showing that school neighborhoods are especially saturated with fast food. That's something that needs to change.

S. O'BRIEN: This was a study that took place in Chicago. Can you confidently translate the results of this study to other cities? Other big cities? AUSTIN: Well, we are going to need to do more research to look at the patterns in other cities, but we wouldn't be surprised if other cities, major urban areas similar to Chicago also found similar results with the fast-food restaurants really concentrated in the school neighborhoods.

S. O'BRIEN: Bryn Austin is from the Harvard School of Public Health, and she's the lead author of this study. It's a pretty remarkable study.

Thanks for talking with us.

AUSTIN: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. True confessions. That made me a little bit hungry for a burger and fries. I'm sorry.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, and that's kind of the problem. Fast food tastes good.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: I mean, I think she's got a good point, which is, when you're 8, 9, 10 years old, walking past, you know, a fast-food restaurant in the morning before school and you're hungry, and it's inexpensive, you're going to eat it. I mean, that's -- and, you know, they put their stores there because there are lots of people who walk by.

M. O'BRIEN: Resist the temptation, if you can.

Still to come, was it murder or self-defense? A look at the bizarre trial of a woman who married her therapist and is now accused of murder.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back. A bizarre story now about a teenager and her therapist. It led to marriage, children and an accusation of murder. The suspect, Susan Polk, claims it was self-defense.

Here's Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): October 2002, in a hillside neighborhood of multimillion-dollar homes, Felix Polk, a prominent San Francisco Bay Area psychologist, was found dead in his poolside cottage.

SUSAN POLK, MURDER SUSPECT: My recollection is that I stabbed him five or six times. I was on my back the entire time. He was aggressing the entire time.

He was biting my hand and wrestling for the knife. And I thought I was going to die. So I did -- I mean, it was horrible, but I did what I had to do to survive.

ROWLANDS: Forty-seven-year-old Susan Polk is in jail facing first-degree murder in a case that pits mother against son and brother against brother. It is a story that began in 1972, when then 15-year- old Susan Bolling (ph) went to see 42-year-old psychologist Felix Polk.

POLK: He was my psychotherapist at the time. What I really needed help with was, like, tutoring, and, you know, getting prepared for school.

ROWLANDS: By 17, Susan says she was a willing participant in what had become a sexual affair with Polk, who was married and still her therapist. Later, at the age of 25, 10 years after she started therapy, Susan married Felix Polk. Together, they had three children: Adam, Eli and Gabriel.

POLK: I had a lot of fun. Being a mom was great.

ROWLANDS: With her two oldest children teenagers, Susan says the reality of a psychologist having sex with a 16-year-old patient finally hit her.

POLK: When I confronted him about it, he got very, very nervous. And he told me I could never leave him because of what I might say, that it would destroy his -- his career.

ROWLANDS: Susan says she did decide to leave Felix, initiating divorce proceedings that soon turned ugly.

ELI POLK, SUSAN POLK'S SON: My dad was enraged, just completely enraged, you know, with the idea of my mom leaving, and said that he would destroy her, and told me that if I, you know, stuck with her, that I'd be destroyed.

ROWLANDS: Prosecutors claim Susan Polk brutally attacked her 70- year-old husband while he was reading a book, first hitting him on the head, then stabbing him. The coroner's report says there were 27 separate wounds. Susan, on the other hand, says she and her husband were arguing and he turned violent, coming after her with a knife.

S. POLK: I was lying there, and just for this instant, I thought of myself as that 15-year-old girl. And I thought, no, I'm not going to die here. I'm going to live.

And I kicked him as hard as I could with the heel of my foot in his groin. And at the very same time, I reached up, and his hand just loosened on the knife. And it was a very small knife. And I just took it out of his hand. And I said, "Stop. I have the knife."

And he wouldn't stop. ROWLANDS: Barry Morris, a criminal attorney and friend of the family, is an expected prosecution witness. He says he had seen signs of instability in Susan for years.

BARRY MORRIS, POLK FAMILY FRIEND: She's delusional. And, I mean, it doesn't make any -- it doesn't make any sense, but people in that state of mind do things that don't make sense.

ROWLAND: The prosecution's strongest witness is expected to be Gabriel Polk, Susan's now 18-year-old son. Gabriel told a grand jury that he actually heard his mother threaten to kill his father a week before he died. He also says that his mother allowed him to find his father's body almost a full day after she killed him.

While one son has turned against Susan, another is standing by her side.

E. POLK: I know it was self-defense, because I know my dad. I knew who he was. And I know my mom. And there's just no way. There's just no way.

ROWLANDS: With one son ready to testify against her, Susan says she knows the odds are against her.

S. POLK: Do I think I'm going to be convicted? Yes. But I'm going to give them a fight.

ROWLANDS: Ted Rowlands, CNN, Orinda, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Susan Polk's trial is expected to get under way this week.

Still to come on the program, the president's approval ratings slide again. How does he plan to rally a little support? We'll go live to the White House for some answers next on AMERICAN MORNING.

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