Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Selective Intelligence; Week of Giving; Minding Your Business; American Music Awards; American Music Award Highlights
Aired November 23, 2005 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's warm and beautiful in Florida.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Just have to ask the boss. I doubt he'll go along with it.
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's predictable (ph).
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, me too.
O'BRIEN: Travel, travel, travel is a big story today.
COSTELLO: Let's talk about others traveling this morning, shall we?
O'BRIEN: ...bad news, really.
COSTELLO: Well, I'm afraid so.
SANCHEZ: The other 36.9 million?
COSTELLO: Oh, man. AAA is predicting more than 4.5 million people plan to fly to their Thanksgiving destination.
SANCHEZ: Wow.
COSTELLO: And, you know, that would be a record. One airline analyst says Americans just will not stay home even though air fares have gone up about $40 a ticket since February. $40 a ticket they've gone up.
SANCHEZ: Gas.
COSTELLO: But, as we've been telling you, there could be delays later this afternoon because there is some nasty weather in the Midwest. So let's head to Jacqui Jeras now to find out more.
Good morning, Jacqui.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Wouldn't you know it, we've got a huge pre-holiday traffic mess to tell you about right now. This was the scene from earlier this morning. A burning tanker truck that was carrying gasoline, it shut down parts of I-95 near the capital beltway. Of course, fire crews are still on the scene. It's no longer burning. The flames are out. The driver was apparently able to jump out of the truck in time.
You're looking at live pictures right now. OK, let me get more specific. The southbound lanes of I-95 are expected to remain closed for quite some time. No word of any injuries because, as I said, the driver jumped out. And it was very early in the morning when this accident happened, but you can see it's just a mess. I-95 at the capital beltway. So all I can say is, good luck to you this morning.
She is responsible for the seemingly impossible. Stuffing you make on top of the stove in a jiffy and it's pretty good.
O'BRIEN: Amazing!
COSTELLO: Amazing is right. Ruth Siems, the inventor of Stove Top stuffing, has died. She was one of the great minds behind Stove Top stuffing. Siems was a home economist working for General Foods back in 1972 when the company introduced the Stove Top brand. Siems died at her home in Indiana. She was 74-years-old.
A last-minute deal will keep an ex-Florida middle school teacher out of prison even though she had sex with a 14-year-old. Twenty- five-year-old Debra LaFave pleaded guilty on Tuesday to having sex with a young student. She was sentenced to three years of house arrest and she must also register as a sex offender. Prosecutors agree to the plea deal after the boy's parents said they didn't want to put their son through the emotional stress of a trial.
And a bit of a delay for Congressman Tom DeLay's request to have his money laundering case thrown out. A smiling Tom DeLay arrived at a Texas courtroom on Tuesday. He was expecting the judge to rule on dismissing the charges against him, but the judge said after listening to the lawyers on both sides he was "confused" and would not issue a ruling for at least two weeks. Of course, we'll keep you posted on this.
O'BRIEN: All right.
SANCHEZ: Some good stories.
O'BRIEN: What a creepy (ph) story. Well, that's a bizarre story about that teacher.
COSTELLO: It's just amazing that she'll serve no jail time for having sex with a 14-year-old.
O'BRIEN: And her lawyer's argument truly, I'm not making this up, was, she's too hot to be in prison.
COSTELLO: No!
O'BRIEN: Seriously. He said, look at her. She is so attractive it would be a disaster in a woman's prison.
SANCHEZ: Wow!
O'BRIEN: I am not that's a quote. COSTELLO: I thought she had deep emotional problems?
O'BRIEN: Well, that, too.
SANCHEZ: The obvious question is, had she been a man, would she have had more prison time?
COSTELLO: Exactly.
O'BRIEN: Or any, yes, I think clearly.
SANCHEZ: Double standard.
O'BRIEN: Absolutely. I think.
COSTELLO: Interesting story.
O'BRIEN: Carol, thank you.
COSTELLO: Sure.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the death toll in Iraq, U.S. troops, climbing nearly to 2,100. The U.S. military says two task force freedom soldiers were killed in Mosul on Saturday. The soldiers were on patrol when they were attacked by small arms fire. And their deaths now bring the number of U.S. soldiers who have died since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq to 2,097.
The debate over intelligence in the buildup to war in Iraq is still going on strong even as lawmakers go on holiday. Of course, a key person in this whole debate is David Kay. You'll recall he was an arms inspector for the CIA and he was the man who was in charge of looking for those weapons of mass destruction after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He joins us this morning.
David, it's nice to see you. It's been a long time since we've chatted, so thank you.
DAVID KAY, FORMER U.S. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Always good to talk to you.
O'BRIEN: You know, all of this, and I think everybody's come to the conclusion, the intelligence was wrong. It was wrong. So how was it so off?
KAY: Well, it was off for a multiple of reasons. Most of which is sheer incompetence in the intelligence community. The U.S. had no agents inside Iraq. It grew dependent on defectors who told stories that were untrue but served their own purposes. And the analysts just did a very poor job of putting together, as the Silberman-Robb Commission, presidential commission, concluded, it was dead wrong and the intelligence was incompetently analyzed.
O'BRIEN: Some of the arguments that we've certainly heard from the White House have gone like this. The intelligence was wrong, but everybody, meaning other nations, also had bad intelligence. Is that a fair argument?
KAY: I think it's not a I mean, it's an accurate argument and to say the fact. But the fact is, we spend, we can now say openly, $44 billion a year on our intelligence. We're the lead. It was a case of most of the country's drinking from our bath water. If the U.S. said they had them, and they must have evidence, a lot of people just went along in its incompetent analysis based on the belief that nothing had changed in Iraq since 1991.
O'BRIEN: All of the elected officials, the argument goes from the Bush administration, we've heard this several times in this debate, all elected officials, all the lawmakers have had the same access to the intelligence that the administration had when they made the when they voted whether to go to war or not. True or not true?
KAY: Well, I think it's probably not true in detail. But the amazing thing is, if you take the case of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who prior to his security counsel speech went out to the CIA for several days. We now know from Powell's testimony that he was told a series of untruth. Some key things like the biological trailers. He was told that we had multiple sources.
We didn't have multiple sources. He was not told that the one source we had was a declared fabricator by the Germans who controlled him and that no American intelligence officer had ever interviewed him. So I think there was manipulation but it looks like it took place at the level of the collection and analyzing the intelligence, not at the level of the policy makers.
O'BRIEN: You resigned in December of 2003 in part because of a source named Curveball. Give me the background on that. Explain that.
KAY: Curveball is a source I was referring to with reference to the secretary of state. He defected from Iraq in the late '90s. He came to Germany. The Germans picked him up and he told a what seemed on the surface a fanciful but convincing story of mobile biological trailers. The German's refused to let the U.S. talk to him directly. Actually refused to give the U.S. his name. And yet he became a key source and ultimately the only source for the presentation that Colin Powell made at the security counsel on the mobile biological trailers. The Germans for several years had been telling us this guy's got mental problems. We don't believe in him.
O'BRIEN: When you went to Iraq and searched for weapons of mass destruction and did not find any and you came back and said, I'm not finding them, were you pressured into going back and searching again? I mean what was the reaction? Did you feel pressured like you were coming up with the wrong answer here?
KAY: Well, I think there were a lot of people who wished I hadn't come up with that answer. Did I feel direct pressure? No. I think it's known that it's probably not productive to try to pressure me. I'll say what I believe and you have to live with it just like I have to live with it. It was not the answer that everyone and, quite frankly, it was not the answer I expected to come up with either. It was simply the truth.
O'BRIEN: A month after you resigned, the president lauded you at the State of the Union Address in 2004. He said he lauded you finding weapons of mass destruction related program activities. Which, of course, as we all know, is not finding weapons of mass destruction. Do you think that was manipulative?
KAY: No. I think it was an accurate look, Iraq was an extraordinarily dangerous place. Saddam was an individual who had carried out horrendous crimes. He was not able to produce weapons of mass destruction because his system had become so corrupted and 12 years of sanctions had degraded their capability. But he certainly desired to have those weapons and there were illegal activities that were being carried out. He was in violation of UN Security Counsel resolutions. I think the presidential description was actually very accurate. It's true. It's not what we expected to find, however.
O'BRIEN: Former U.S. Weapons Inspector David Kay joining us. Always nice to see you, David. Thanks for talking with us.
KAY: Happy Thanksgiving, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Thank you. And likewise to you, too.
Rick.
SANCHEZ: We're going to get a little softer now. All this week, AMERICAN MORNING is celebrating a "Week of Giving," highlighting stories of hurricane victims and the type of people who have really given a helping hand. Joining us now, AMERICAN MORNING's Kelly Wallace.
Hey, Kelly. What you got for us?
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Rick.
Well, you know, we did our research for this series. We found a woman we thought would be ideal for this series of reports because despite the fact that she, like thousands of others, lost her job after Hurricane Katrina, she keeps on giving and has no plans to stop.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE, (voice over): Spend time with 48-year-old Valerie Ryan, a mother of four in New Orleans, and you quickly learn she doesn't stop moving. There are dogs to save.
VALERIE RYAN: We'll take you home and we'll bathe you and we'll give you some food.
WALLACE: Boxes to pack.
VALERIE RYAN: I want to find every needy family I can to give all this stuff to.
WALLACE: And families to take care of. Families who are now living in her own home. Valerie, who recently injured her arm trying to rescue another dog, has opened her doors to friends and strangers. Twelve in total now make up the Ryan household. At one time, as many as 15 were here. And let's not forget about the animals. Eight in all.
VALERIE RYAN: I felt that God spared our house for a reason and it was to help other people out.
WALLACE: When the hurricane hit, Valerie evacuated to Alabama. After learning her house was OK, she headed back home, invited friends like Greta Joseph and her family and anyone else she met along the way.
GRETA JOSEPH, KATRINA EVACUEE: You're walking out. She's like, hey, I'm Greta (ph). Whatever. You know, it's not like you're surprised when you see a strange face. It's just, oh, you know, you kind of expect it.
WALLACE: And so just about every day, Valerie takes this trip through one devastated neighborhood after another, heading to a donation center to pick up essentials for her growing family.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You folks all set?
VALERIE RYAN: Yes, they loaded us up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, so you don't want any candy, OK?
VALERIE RYAN: Yes, we'll take some candy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One for the ride (ph).
VALERIE RYAN: Yes, right. I think we need all of the sugar rush we can get!
WALLACE: Back at home, everyone pitches in.
SCOTT WILEY, LIVING IN RYAN HOUSEHOLD: We are very much running out of space in here.
WALLACE: Scott Wiley, a television editor, met Valerie and her family when they fled to Alabama.
WILEY: She didn't even know what state her house was in or all of her family and she was already saying, well, hey, I'm going to help you out, too. I mean, she's helping, you know, everyone that crosses her path.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Christ our Lord, Amen.
VALERIE RYAN: Amen. Let's get the food!
WALLACE: There's certainly no shortage of conversation at the dinner table. About the only thing that's in short supply is space in her three bedroom home. Something that Valerie's 18-year-old daughter, Dominique, knows all too well. DOMINIQUE RYAN, VALERIE'S DAUGHTER: I lose it almost every night. I come home from work wondering where I'm going to sleep.
WALLACE: But Valerie says the experience has made her own family much closer.
VALERIE RYAN: Because we understand the loss that these people are going through and the devastation and it's made all of us more thankful of what we had.
WALLACE: Still, it all takes a toll even on Valerie.
VALERIE RYAN: You want to cry, I mean, because you just look at them and you know they don't have a job, you know they lost their homes. That's what it was like when that lady came up to me, all of those kids were crying.
WALLACE: She can't quite get that lady out of her mind. She packed together clothes and the $300 the Ryan household chipped in and headed out to find her.
VALERIE RYAN: I feel bad. I told this lady I would give her stuff and I can't find her.
WALLACE: But after spending time with Valerie, you get the sense she will never give up.
VALERIE RYAN: I'll find her because now we got money collected, I want to give it to her, you know? Or just give them the money, whichever they need, you know, for the kids.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: Certainly, an amazing woman who, get this, will be opening her door to 40 people that's right, 40 people for Thanksgiving. And, Rick, one message she wanted to get out. She said if one or two of the other houses she's seen around town that are up and running take in families, that would be one or two other families that could get back to New Orleans and start getting their lives up and running again. She said, that's what this is all about.
SANCHEZ: You know, it's a pattern, isn't it, where you see the worst of circumstances often bring out the best in people. People who sometimes don't even know who their neighbors are and after a hurricane or a tornado or some event like this, suddenly they're helping everybody.
WALLACE: And you see that in this case because you have people who didn't know each other sort of stepping in together to help. Valerie's case, though, I asked her, I said, are you somebody that was always giving in your community? She said, yeah. She used to do drives during Thanksgiving and Christmas. She even talked about how when she was 16-years-old her mother gave her money to go buy clothes. Well she saw someone who was homeless, gave that person the money and then had to call her mom and say, mom, I need more money. So she is someone who is always a giver but she certainly is bring people from all parts of that community together.
SANCHEZ: Yes, good for her. Good story. Thanks.
WALLACE: Yes, she's great.
SANCHEZ: Thanks, Kelly.
WALLACE: Sure.
SANCHEZ: And tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING in our "Week of Giving," he says Katrina was a blessing in disguise. You're going to meet a young man battling an aggressive form of leukemia and the city that's been there for him at every single turn.
And if you were affected by this season's hurricanes and want to thank someone who helped you, let us know. Send us your story. We're going to help. Just go to cnn.com/am. There you can also read some of the inspiring responses that we posted on the Web site.
Now back to someone who has inspired me, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: I've got to tell you, in all seriously, these people have been so incredibly inspiring. You know, you see just the worst and then the amazing recovery. It's amazing to see, especially this time of year.
Other news now. The face of "Nightline" said good-bye. After 25 years in the anchor chair, Ted Koppel signed off from the late night news program on Tuesday night. He tried to put his departure into a little bit of perspective.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED KOPPEL, HOST, "NIGHTLINE": Trust me, the transition from one anchor to another is not that big a deal. Cronkite beget Rather, Chancellor beget Brokaw, Reynolds beget Jennings. And each of them did a pretty fair job in his own right. You've always been very nice to me, so give this new anchor team for "Nightline" a fair break. If you do don't, I promise you the network will just put another comedy show in this time slot, and then you'll be sorry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: What a way to go out. And he's exactly right. The new team, it's a reformatted "Nightline." It's going to return on Monday with three hosts, Terry Moran, Cynthia McFadden and Martin Bashir. We'll look forward to taking a look at that.
Andy's "Minding Your Business" just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
What's coming up?
ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, we're going to find out whether or not the Federal Reserve's campaign to raise interest rates is finally over. Big news for investors. Stay tuned to AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: The Fed could be moving toward the end of its interest rate hikes. With that and a look at the markets too, Andy's "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
SERWER: Good morning, Soledad.
You know, the language of the Federal Reserve minutes is something that most of us wouldn't really pay much attention to, but it's big stuff on Wall Street. And, in fact, yesterday it helped boost the markets because there's some indications that the Federal Reserve may be ending its campaign to raise interest rates.
You can see how the stock market responded. Look at that, the Dow's really getting towards 11,000, which we last saw in 2001. The NASDAQ getting toward 2,500, which we last saw in 2001. So really a lot of progress being made over the past couple of weeks here.
And here's the little sense, Soledad. Some members caution that the risk of going too far with the tightening process, that would be raising interest rates, could eventually also emerge. Which means that members of the Federal Reserve are concerned that the campaign to raise interest rates has gone on long enough.
Ben Bernanke, of course, will be coming in. It's widely expected he'll be coming in on January 31st to replace Alan Greenspan. And really will be a very critical time because he will have to decide, is it time to prevent the economy from overheating or not by raising the interest rates, where do we stand and should we end the interest rate raising campaign?
SANCHEZ: So if I'm thinking about buying a home, what did you do?
SERWER: Well, if you're thinking about buying a home, you probably should.
SANCHEZ: Do it now?
SERWER: You really shouldn't pay attention to much to the interest rates because if you need a house, you need a house. But people are trying to play the housing markets based on interest rates. You know, it's always a tough thing to do. Interest rates likely to continue to rise a little bit from here I think.
SANCHEZ: A little bit. Yes, OK.
O'BRIEN: There's your answer.
SANCHEZ: Thank you very much.
SERWER: OK. Now all you need is $500,000.
SANCHEZ: Right.
O'BRIEN: That's right.
SANCHEZ: Yes, for a little one!
SERWER: Right.
SANCHEZ: Coming up, the highlights from last night's American Music Awards. Were going to look at why it was ladies night in Los Angeles. OK. Stay with us for that and more on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
So you want to know who won the American Music Awards. Well, we can tell you this. Some top artists didn't show you but you can definitely say at the end of the night that it was probably a ladies night. Here is CNN's Sibila Vargas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): From country, to pop, to rock, to hip-hop. A who's who of who's hot on the music charts came together in Los Angeles for Tuesday night's American Music Awards.
While things were hot outside on the red carpet, all the action was on stage inside the Shrine Auditorium.
Cedric "The Entertainer" may have held center stage.
CEDRIC "THE ENTERTAINER": You saw me come out. This was the first iPod.
VARGAS: But the night really belonged to the ladies.
KELLY ROWLAND, SINGER: I miss my girls Beyonce and Michelle. Wherever you are, I love you so much.
VARGAS: Destiny's Child Kelly Rowland accepted two awards for her girls who received honors for both favorite soul and R&B group and favorite R&B album.
MARIAH CAREY, SINGER: Thank you so much for the warmth and the love!
VARGAS: Mariah Carey, who led the nominations with a total of four, surprisingly only picked up one for favorite female R&B artist.
GWEN STEFANI, SINGER: What did I win?
VARGAS: That would be the award for favorite top female performer from Gwen Stefani and her "Love, Angel, Music, Baby" CD.
Shakira was named favorite Latin music artist. SHAKIRA, SINGER: When people from different countries relate to a song in a language that they don't even speak, you know, that means so much.
VARGAS: But the boys weren't left out in the cold by any means. White hot Tim McGraw great named favorite male country artist. And his "Live Like You Were Dying" was chosen favorite country album.
TIM MCGRAW, SINGER: I'm proud to be a part of an industry, country music industry, that carries itself with character and has respect for other people.
VARGAS: Green Day's "American Idiot" won favorite top rock album and Will Smith was named favorite male top performer.
WILL SMITH, SINGER: I made a commitment a long time ago to my grandmother, the type of person I was going to be, the type of music I was going to make, the type of movies I was going to make. I made a commitment to my grandmother. And y'all supported me in that and I want to thank you for that.
VARGAS: Sibila Vargas, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: And we all agree it's important to keep your commitments to your grandmother or she'll come after you. Artists were nominated, by the way, based on album sales and radio air play. Winners were chosen from a survey of about 20,000 listeners.
Did you know all of them? All the winners?
O'BRIEN: I knew most yes. I mean, not personally, but I knew who they were.
SANCHEZ: Well, I mean you start to feel old after a while when they start giving awards to people you don't know . . .
O'BRIEN: Why, I'm 25, Rick, I don't know what you're talking about. Why, did you feel old?
SANCHEZ: I didn't know a few of them.
O'BRIEN: See, the key is to not admit it.
SANCHEZ: Sorry.
O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, obviously today is get-away day for the millions of travelers. So what can you expect? We're going to come to you live from some of the busiest spots around the country just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Wintry weather is making for tricky travel today as millions of Americans head home for the holiday. The forecast is ahead if you're traveling by plane, by train or by automobile.
Are U.S. troops any closer to coming home from Iraq? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaking out about that possibility.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
