Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Saddam Hussein On Trial; Iran Nuclear Threat; Kama Sutra Worm; Katrina Response; Minding Your Business

Aired February 02, 2006 - 07:30   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: You're watching AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good to have you with us. Let's get some headlines in. Carol Costello is watching things for us in the news room.

Hello, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am, indeed.

Good morning to you.

Good morning to all of you.

This just in to CNN. There has been a roadside attack south of Baghdad. Three American soldiers have been killed. The U.S. military says their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. The attack took place on Wednesday. A fourth U.S. soldier was killed in a separate incident.

President Bush on a three-state tour to make U.S. workers more competitive. He heads to Minnesota later today. He was in Tennessee on Wednesday. The president will highlight plans to recruit more teachers for advanced math and science courses, but first he'll take part in a national prayer breakfast in Washington. That is set to start in the next half hour.

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan is getting a big I'm sorry. Sheehan was arrested before Tuesday's State of the Union Speech for wearing an anti-war t-shirt. Capitol Police say she was charged with unlawful conduct after refusing to cover an anti-war slogan on said t- shirt. Sheehan spoke to our own Paula Zahn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CINDY SHEEHAN, ANTI-WAR ACTIVIST: They had me in jail for four yesterday, last night, and they charged me with unlawful conduct. It seems like between the time they arrested me, 8:30, and the time they let me go at 12:30, that somebody could have figured out that what I did was not against the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: Sheehan posted a message Wednesday saying she planned to file a suit charging a violation of her right to free speech. "Paula Zahn Now" airs weeknights at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Newly appointed Justice Samuel Alito is splitting with conservatives. He sided with the high court's moderates and liberals in a death penalty case. At issue, a last minute stay of execution for a Missouri inmate.

Wal-Mart is being taken to court over the sale of morning after pills in pharmacies. Three Massachusetts women have filed suit. They claim Wal-Mart's decision to not stock plan b contraception pills breaks state law. They say pharmacies are required to provide all commonly prescribed medication. Wal-Mart says the law is not very clear and they're waiting for clarification. So we'll keep you posted on that.

Back to you. That's a look at the headlines.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Carol, thank you. I like the glasses. They're cute.

COSTELLO: Helps me see.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that, too. That's always an upside.

Let's talk about the Saddam Hussein trial. What if they gave a trial -- held a trial if nobody came? Just when you think it can't get any stranger, empty seats where Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants are supposed to be sitting. They're all absent from the courtroom today. And, in fact, the trial's been adjourned until February 13th. Let's get right to Aneesh Raman. He's in Baghdad this morning, been following all the developments in the courtroom and I guess outside the courtroom, too. He's on the phone for us.

Hey, Aneesh, good morning.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning.

As you say, a trying week for this court. Today no defendants are actually in the courtroom. Eight empty chairs instead. Also absent again, Saddam Hussein's defense team who had walked out of court on Sunday. As they did so, the chief judge barred them from attending any further trial proceedings. Now yesterday Saddam was out of court as well, along with four other co-defendants, but there were three others who were seated there as witnesses testified. Today, empty chairs.

So it does pose a number of questions for this court. Can this trial go forward without the defendants there? The court says they can. Legally it can try them in absentia essentially. They told us in a short time ago in a press briefing that Saddam Hussein was watching the trial proceedings today on closed circuit television. That he had the option of questioning the witnesses by giving notes to his lawyers. But, of course, the image speaks volumes with those empty chairs. Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Can they continue in this way? I mean, at some point, if the defendants and their lawyers don't show up, aren't they going to have to think of some other strategy?

RAMAN: Well, that's what the court, now in recess, might be thinking about. Because they can physically drag Saddam Hussein and these other co-defendants into the courtroom, but then the question becomes, what happens if Saddam Hussein, as he's done before, just stands up, interrupts the proceedings, starts yelling at the judge, that does no good either. So the court is in a bind of sorts. So you leave the defendants out and for how long can you do so, as you asked, or do you bring them in and have them continue to disrupt the proceedings? No clear answer yet but we'll see what the new chief judge decides when the court reconvenes on the 13th.

S. O'BRIEN: Sort of the classic in between a rock and a hard place yet again in this trial. Aneesh, thanks.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Iran is threatening to start building a nuclear bomb right away. They say if the International Atomic Energy Agency refers them for sanctions today, they'll start enriching uranium, the key ingredient in a nuclear weapon. The IAEA meeting is in Vienna, Austria. Matthew Chance is there.

Hello, Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you as well, Miles. Good morning there.

Actually what Iran is saying is that if it's reported to the United Nation's Security Council, as is being threatened now by this, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, it will consider that to be the end of diplomacy. It's still saying that its objective is to create electricity generation to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes. But there are these big international concerns that Iran may have a secret nuclear weapons program. The kind of concerns that the U.N. nuclear agency want cleared up into next month before any security council action is likely.

Well, I have a copy here of the draft resolution, which has been handed out to the various members of the IAEA. It's not meant to be coming to the press but we've managed to secure a copy of it and give us detail of the kind of language that it's talking about as well. It's saying that it's calling on Iran to provide full and prompt cooperation, to help it clarify what it calls possible activities which could have a military and nuclear dimension. That's interesting because there are these very dubious aspects, as we mentioned, of the Iranian nuclear program that have never really been fully explained by the regime in Tehran.

The draft resolution also making clear that the basic problem, when it comes to Iran and its nuclear program, is that the international community lacks confidence in its intentions. Iran says it's, again, creating nuclear power for electricity generation. The rest of the world believes that it is trying to -- or much of the world believes that it is trying to create a nuclear weapon. That's the essence of the discussions that are being had here in Vienna today.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Matthew, isn't there some evidence out there recently which leaked out which seems to indicate that Iran is bent on building some sort of atomic weapon?

CHANCE: Well, there's certainly a lot of blanks that have not been filled out over the several years that the Europeans and the IAEA have been attempting to get as many answers as they can from the Iranian authorities. There is recently, I think you're referring to, a document that was procured by Iran on the black market, giving very technical details. And a lot of these things are very technical about how to actually mold enriched uranium for it to be efficiently used in a nuclear weapon. Iran's position on that was that it never asked for that document but it came as a package of black market good, as it were, that it purchased from the Pakistani nuclear scientist, Aq Khan. It's now handed over those documents to the IAEA for the sake of full disclosure.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Matthew Chance, thank you very much. We'll be watching this story very closely.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thirty-nine minutes past the hour. Time to get another check of the weather and Chad's got that for us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: I guess you could call it a sexually transmitted virus. A new computer worm named for a fabled ancient sex manual is making the rounds and it's expected to climax tomorrow. Daniel Sieberg joins us live from CNN Center in Atlanta.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This story is just ripe for double entendres.

S. O'BRIEN: Hey, stop already.

M. O'BRIEN: I couldn't resist. I'm sorry.

Go ahead, Daniel. Get me out of this, will you?

SIEBERG: Good morning, Miles.

It does hearken back to old school computer worms bent on destruction. That's a contrast to today's financial con artists. This worm will eat through many files on your machine in a big hurry starting tomorrow. We'll have some tips to protect yourself in a minute. But first, here's a look at why a worm dubbed Kama Sutra seems to be spreading so effectively. Hmm.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG, (voice over): It's the oldest trick on the screen., just promise sex, sexy pictures or school girl fantasies gone bad and watch the mouse clicks all over the globe.

MERRICK FURST, GA. TECH COLLEGE OF COMP.: There are a lot of people who are going to be very unhappy on the 3rd of February. This virus will wipe out all their word process documents, all their pictures, all of their work sheets.

SIEBERG: Computer security companies like Internet Security Systems reports the Kama Sutra worm has been spreading since January 16th in e-mails with subject line like "hot movie," "crazy illegal sex," and "give me a kiss." But when users click the attachments on those e-mails, they didn't get any dirty pictures. They did, unknowingly, infected their computers. The malicious code boroughs deep within the Windows operating system and on Friday the worm goes to work. It will overwrite and corrupt spreadsheets, family pictures and financial statements. Just about everything. The good news, there's still time to fix things.

ALAIN SERGILE, INTERNET SECURITY SYSTEMS: From a security standpoint, users should definitely have some type of anti-virus software on there. They should some type of intrusion prevention, which basically protects them from worms, self-propagating worms, which anti-virus can't protect you against. And there are some free applications out there as well that allow to you scan your computer for spyware, for zombie-type of softwares that have been installed on machines.

SIEBERG: And as an important form of insurance, now is a very good time to back up your most valuable computer files on a CD or a DVD.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, the number of infected machines is pegged at between 15,000 to 100,000 in the U.S., with as many as 700,000 infections worldwide. Part of the discrepancy is, well, because many people may be a bit embarrassed about this worm's nature and not be reporting it.

M. O'BRIEN: Ah, I can see that.

SIEBERG: Kind of make you wonder (ph). Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. So how about some safe surfing tips then.

SIEBERG: Yes, this is a very wascally (ph) worm. We have some tips for people on how to protect themselves. Now you may have clicked on this e-mail a while ago and not even be aware that it's infected your computer. Of course we always tell people, don't open unexpected e-mail attachments. This could look like it's from someone you trust, so you really have to be careful. And you can always send someone an e-mail back and say did you send me something.

Keep your anti-virus and anti-spyware software up-to-date. All the security companies know that this is out there and they're trying to protect people from it. And, guess what, Miles, don't fall for sexy subject lines. It's the classic bait and switch.

M. O'BRIEN: Yep, yep, yep. Definitely good advice there. Daniel Sieberg, thank you very much.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, are iPods hazardous to your health? Apple's facing a lawsuit now. Andy's "Minding Your Business." He's got that story for us.

M. O'BRIEN: And next, we'll talk to the New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin. He testified before Congress again yesterday. Should he take the blame for all the chaos after Katrina hit? That is next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, ma'am, I'll have another. The embattled and beleaguered mayor of New Orleans called on the carpet on Capitol Hill again as the Katrina blame game continues. Ray Nagin is back now in New Orleans. Probably happy about that. He joins us now.

Good morning, Mr. Mayor. How are you?

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: Good morning, sir. How are you this morning?

M. O'BRIEN: I'm doing well.

Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, took you to task. She was focused on a lot of the things. There was a lot of talk about the decision to send folks to the convention center. But she also was trying to pin down who asked for what when. Let me just, with our viewers, share just a brief excerpt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R) MAINE: We've gone through roughly 800,000 pages of documents and we can't find any evidence of a request from the city or from the state to FEMA to get supplies to the convention center.

NAGIN: With all due respect to Secretary Chertoff and Mr. Brown, I don't understand how anyone in authority, with this type of crisis, can say that they were not aware that we had a crisis in New Orleans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: We all know there was a crisis there, but there was a sense, and Soledad interviewed Mike Brown of FEMA and he claimed he didn't know there was anybody at the convention center. And this was long after we all knew about that. The question though that she's trying to get at though is, when did you pick up the phone? When did you call and what did you say?

NAGIN: I was on the phone on a daily basis, when the phones worked. But in addition to that, we had FEMA representatives that we talked to in the morning, mid-day, and in the afternoon. They were quite aware of everything that was unfolding in the city of New Orleans. And the convention center opened up out of necessity because the Superdome was overflowing.

M. O'BRIEN: There's no question, you really had no other place to go. The convention center sits on high ground and you had a lot of people who were just out in the street, right?

NAGIN: That's correct. People were coming -- walking out of the water, getting to higher ground along the river, walking downtown. In addition to that, the hotels were starting to run out of diesel fuel, so they couldn't take care of their guests. So they were -- their guests were pouring out on the streets also. So we basically had no choice.

M. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this, mayor. Why wasn't there a cache of supplies somewhere, either in that convention center or particularly in the Superdome, because that was the as-advertised place to retreat to? There wasn't anything there for people there, was there?

NAGIN: Well, we had supplies at the Superdome. That was always the shelter of last resort.

M. O'BRIEN: Did you have enough, though? You didn't have enough, right?

NAGIN: Yes, we had enough. It was basically rationed toward the final days because there were so many people that showed up. But at the convention center, that was a last minute adjustment. Basically we looked around and said, what's high and dry? What can we use to accommodate people until the cavalry comes?

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Looking at it in retrospect, do you wish you had sent another e-mail, made another phone call, made it more clear to federal authorities, state authorities, to the rest of the world one way or another what you needed?

NAGIN: You know, I don't know what else we could have done, you know, to be totally honest with you. The day after the event, we put together a written report, when the electricity was still with us, and we provided that with FEMA. And in that report it basically said that we were looking at the Superdome -- I mean the convention center as an option. So there we put them on notice and they should have been prepared for it.

M. O'BRIEN: Now as you testified, the government accountability office out with a preliminary report which focused, of course, on the federal response. And it was very critical of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff in particular, and FEMA. Do you think that that is accurate? NAGIN: Well, yes, I do. You know, I've always said consistently, and I'm a big boy, so when we want (ph) to start analyzing and evaluating, make sure we're looking at state and the federal government also. And we're doing that now. And it's pointing out the fact that there was some confusion, there was a lack of coordination between the state and the federal government, and there was this big dance that was going on about who had final authority and it hampered the efforts and slowed everything down.

M. O'BRIEN: Now you're facing re-election. You say you're going to run again, correct?

NAGIN: Yes, it's in April, on April 22nd.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Are you prepared to go to voters right now and say, you know, I dropped the ball here and there, I could have done better?

NAGIN: I'm prepared to go to voters and lay out my record. Lay out my record before, during, and after Katrina and basically demonstrate to them that, sure, I made a few mistakes. But for the most part, I made more right calls than I did wrong calls.

M. O'BRIEN: New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, thanks for being with us.

NAGIN: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Andy is "Minding Your Business" just ahead this morning.

What do you have for us.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, we're going to be talking about a product that's as old as the buggy whip or the tube radio and it's about to go the way of both of them. When was the last time you got a telegram? Stay tuned to AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, those little iPods everywhere you go.

SERWER: What?

S. O'BRIEN: They're in the news. Take your ear phones out. Oh, those little iPods everywhere you go.

SERWER: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: But there's a lawsuit now.

SERWER: Yes. And, you know, I have mixed feelings about this. I mean, you know, here you go again. It's a successful product. People making a lot of money on something that people like and a lawsuit is filed.

A Louisiana man claiming that he has suffered hearing loss from his iPod, wants to turn this into a class action. Forty-two million of these babies have been sold since 2001.

Now The iPod goes up to 115 decibels. And it is true that in France, Apple lowered the volume of the iPod to 100 decibels. However, Deanna Meinecke (ph), an audiology professor from the University of Northern Colorado says there is risk there but the risk lies with the user and where they set the volume.

M. O'BRIEN: Hmm.

SERWER: The risk lies with the user and how high you turn it up, right?

S. O'BRIEN: Well, it's not like he has to . . .

SERWER: No.

S. O'BRIEN: I mean, if you work on a hydraulic drill, I could see where the problem could be.

SERWER: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: But that's not -- I don't know.

M. O'BRIEN: A little self-responsibility.

SERWER: Please.

M. O'BRIEN: This is a little bit . . .

SERWER: Please.

M. O'BRIEN: This is a hot coffee lawsuit, there's no question.

SERWER: I sort of see -- careful.

S. O'BRIEN: But, see, that lawsuit went very well, actually, for the plaintiff actually.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes it did, didn't it.

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting.

SERWER: Right. I would be careful about that.

Another Apple story involves the Shuffle, which really hasn't done that well. And my buddy here Owen Thomas (ph) at Business 2.0 reporting the Shuffle may go bye-bye and may be replaced by a lower priced nano.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, because the nano k (ph). Yes, the nano.

SERWER: A one gig nano. The nano's a two gig machine right now. You could lower it and it would cost about $100. So that may be coming.

And speaking of coming and going, how about the telegram? For 145 years, Western Union has been delivering these things. That goes back to like the Pony Express, doesn't it. Quietly, stealthily, Western Union got rid of telegraphs last Friday.

M. O'BRIEN: Didn't say a peep.

SERWER: They didn't announce it. The last telegram . . .

M. O'BRIEN: They didn't send a telegram.

SERWER: No, they didn't. They didn't send us a telegram or Miles a telegram.

S. O'BRIEN: Very funny. That was good.

SERWER: That was. That was very funny. A 100,000 stores still out there. But you know what they do is mostly send money wire transfers. They're in that business now rather than just telegrams. No more telegrams.

S. O'BRIEN: I wonder how many telegrams they've been sending over the last year. Like how many people send telegrams.

M. O'BRIEN: Probably four last year.

SERWER: Yes. Or three.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: It's tough in the e-mail -- with e-mail.

SERWER: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: I would bet. All right, Andy, thank you.

SERWER: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, do you ever just get a hunch you couldn't ignore. Well, there's good reason to trust your gut. We'll look at the science behind intuition ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com