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Why is Company in UAE Taking Over Control of Several Major American Ports?; Desperate Search Under Way in Philippines

Aired February 20, 2006 - 06:59   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
Miles has a little vaca. He's off today. And Rob Marciano has been helping us out.

We appreciate that. Nice to have you.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: Nice to be here. And welcome back from your vacation.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

Today we're talking about questionable security. Why is a company in the United Arab Emirates taking over control of several major American ports? We're going to take you live to the White House.

Plus, a desperate search is under way right now. It's happening in the Philippines. They're searching for hundreds of children who are trapped under tons of mud. We're going to take you there live this morning as well.

MARCIANO: And coast-to-coast cold. The temperatures dip again. But is there any relief on the way?

And is there a bull's eye on Bode Miller? The American alpine hope is fading fast. Can he earn redemption in his fourth try at a medal? We're live in Torino.

O'BRIEN: I sure hope so.

Plus, the holder of this single winning ticket is going to claim the largest ever lottery jackpot. Here is the big question, though. Who won? We don't know yet.

MARCIANO: Just one person, that's amazing.

O'BRIEN: We'll take you to the guy who sold the winning ticket to see if he has any good guesses. That's coming up ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning. Welcome back, everybody.

Let's get right to concerns about national security this morning. It is because of a contract that's been awarded to a company based in the United Arab Emirates to run several American seaports. The UAE is the country, of course, that's been connected to terror plots. The Bush administration is defending the contract.

Suzanne Malveaux is live for us at the White House.

Hey, Suzanne, good morning to you.

What's the administration saying about all of this?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Soledad.

Soledad, it's absolutely amazing here, because members of Congress are outraged at this deal. They say it's an issue of national security, that you have this company that's owned by United Arab Emirates that essentially is taking over the operations of six different American ports. Those in those cities of New York City, Newark, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Maryland, Miami, Florida and New Orleans, Louisiana. Now Democratic and Republican Lawmakers say that this is simply national security, that this is not appropriate.

The reason why, they say, is because the 9/11 Commission ties terrorist ties, they say, to this country. But Michael Chertoff, he is Homeland Security secretary, this weekend, defending it, saying there's a number of checks and balances, they've gone through the procedures, and they think that this is appropriate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Why would we give a company and a government that has had a great deal of involvement with terrorism control of our ports?

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECY.: The general process that has to work before this occurs requires a very thorough review and, where appropriate, necessary conditions or safeguards have to be put in place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: That process has been completed. It's been looked by Treasury, by the Pentagon, by the FBI. They believe that this is a deal that is secure. Of course there are many members of Congress object to this, and they're even calling for an investigation -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Yes, one would imagine that's happening.

Question for you, I didn't realize that President's Day is not a federal holiday, that Washington's birthday is actually the official federal holiday. In either way, the president is not taking the day off.

MALVEAUX: Either way, you and I are working! Bottom line is, we have to work!

O'BRIEN: That's true.

MALVEAUX: But He's traveling today. What he's doing is he is talking about trying to wean us off what he likes to say is our addiction to oil, so he's going to be talking about his energy policy initiatives. He's headed to Wisconsin, Michigan and Colorado for the next couple of days to do just that.

O'BRIEN: All right, Suzanne Malveaux at the White House for us. Suzanne, as always, we thank you.

Sorry you're working. Sorry I'm working. Sorry rob Is working.

A reminder, you saw the clip coming to us from CNN's "LATE EDITION" Sunday mornings. That airs 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Wolf Blitzer, of course, is the anchor there. And this morning we're going to talk to former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge about exactly this issue, port security. That's coming up in our next hour. And obviously, you want to stay tuned to CNN day and night. We have the most reliable news about your security -- Rob.

MARCIANO: Soledad, we are following this developing story of the southern Philippines. There's a spark of hope this hour at the site where that village was buried by that massive mudslide. Rescuers report hearing sounds coming from a school buried under several feet of mud.

Joining us now live, from the phone, is our CNN correspondent Hugh Riminton.

Hugh, what can you tell us about the sounds that rescuers are hearing?

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is great confusion over this, I have to say at the moment.

Local television has goes to where it's saying that 50 survivors have been found alive. There is nothing, I must stress, nothing at all that we've been able to find to remotely confirm that.

What we can tell is that they have been focusing on two particular sites. One, the school where 240, 250 children were buried, at another point 200 yards further down the slope where it's calculated the school might have been shifted to.

Now, at both of these sites, in the course of this past day, there have been reports of -- at the highest site. This is where U.S. Marines and Malaysian experts are working. They say they hear a knocking down that sounds louder as they dig.

At the lower site, there has been what has been said to be signs of life movement. Those are the words, signs of life movement.

Somewhere out of this has come a report that survivors have actually been found. A figure of five was initially bandied about, then 50. There is nothing to confirm numbers at the moment. There is some skepticism from a number of reporters about whether this amounts to anything more than just the movement of this massive rubble pile, rocks knocking against rocks in the normal course of events, as opposed to the actual tapping of living human beings.

Nevertheless, the suggestion that those survivors caused in a tropical downpour. The Filipinos workers, in particular, who'd been working on the slopes during the course of the day, to get up, rush to their trucks. Their back on the hill at this very moment, trying to find out anything that they can.

The searching is continuing, but we have to caution the reports of 50 survivors sounds a little bit unlikely from what we've been able to gather. But the possibility that there are signs of life, indeed, signs of life up on that mountain.

MARCIANO: Well, we surely appreciate the caution you're reporting, especially after what happened in West Virginia.

Hugh, the clock is obviously ticking here. What are rescue workers thinking as far as the timeline? How much longer can they really expect to see survivors?

RIMINTON: Well, they have searched, I have to say, with extraordinary dedication and vigor in the hope that they'd find someone alive, knowing, as you say, the clock was always ticking. And the experts, in fact, the more credentialed the experts that we spoke to, the more pessimistic they were about finding anyone alive. Bearing in mind that this school, they've calculated, is under 28 meters, maybe a hundred feet of rubble. A 10-story building of shifting rubble is about where that school once was. You can understand the pessimism.

However, now it seems what they've been looking for possibly, conceivably, with great caution, they may have found something, and hence the excitement here at the moment.

MARCIANO: Hugh, thank you very much for your reporting there. A glimmer of hope in the mudslide in the Philippines. We certainly hope that that report is true, and we'll hope to confirm that later in the day.

Another developing story we're following, a mine disaster in Mexico: 65 miners trapped after a gas explosion on Sunday. It happened in San Juan Decibinas (ph), about 60 miles south of the Texas border. Rescue workers have been tunneling through the debris, but report no contact with the trapped miners. Officials say the trapped miners were carrying only six hours of oxygen.

O'BRIEN: Horrible.

Winter weather, if you are really pretty much anywhere in the U.S., you've probably been feeling it. Arctic blast left much of the nation in a very deep freeze. It's actually been deadly. It has been bitter. It has been practically everywhere. We put CNN's Allan Chernoff right outside here in New York to test it out in person.

Hey, Allan. Good morning. How are you holding up?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

And of course it is bitterly cold out here, 23 degrees according to the thermometers, but add the wind and we're down to 14 degrees here outside of New York City. Very cold. It's part of an Arctic chill around the nation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Reporter: One word comes to mind: Tundra.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's so cold here! Oh, my God!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nature has endowed them with the proper regalia for subzero temperatures!

CHERNOFF: Old Man Winter spending the weekend slapping much of the United States square in the face with a one-two Arctic punch, with freezing temperatures and fierce winds sending wind chills plummeting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last I seen, the temperature said it was 17 below.

CHERNOFF: Winds gusting up to 77 miles an hour in upstate New York knocked over trees and knocked out power to more than 300,000 homes. Shelters like this one in Saratoga Springs providing refuge for those literally stuck out in the cold.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is dangerous and treacherous, and I feel so sorry for so many people, that, you know, possibly don't have a place like this to go to.

CHERNOFF: The situation was much the same in New England, where crews have worked nonstop to cut blown down trees from icy power lines and restore electricity to thousands. Dangerous conditions in Wisconsin where the mercury dropped to 26-degrees-below zero at one point. And two people died in snow mobile accidents.

As far south as Arkansas and Tennessee, snow and ice were cleared from the road, only to have them freeze over again less than an hour later.

In Washington state, the lights are now back on after high winds left thousands in the dark and stuck in subzero temperatures.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They got a nice battery-operated light, and a fireplace and some good old candles from the dollar store. So hopefully, that will be our light until the power comes back on.

CHERNOFF: Maybe this image is the best way to sum up the enormity of this frigid blast. It comes from Tacoma, the water from the fire department's hoses froze over within minutes.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHERNOFF: What makes it shocking to New Yorkers right now is the fact only four days ago the temperature here was in the mid 50s. So certainly another winter shock here in New York City -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Yes, sure is. Allan Chernoff for us this morning. Allan, thank you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MARCIANO: To use a transition, we'll bet the weather is sunny for one person no matter where they are. That person holding the winning Powerball lottery ticket. Here are numbers -- maybe it's you: 15, 17, 43, 44, 48, and the Powerball number is 29.

O'BRIEN: It's me! No, I'm kidding.

MARCIANO: Soledad has left the building. She's not coming back.

O'BRIEN: Like that, man. I got to tell you, so fast.

MARCIANO: Can you imagine, $365 million?

O'BRIEN: Gone.

MARCIANO: I mean, it could be a group of people.

O'BRIEN: One ticket, but 20 people bought in. Who knows?

MARCIANO: So far, we don't know.

Maybe Jonathan Freed knows. He's live in Lincoln, Nebraska, home of the Cornhuskers, where the magic ticket was sold at the U-Stop where that was sold.

Jonathan, what can you tell us? Do we have a winner?

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first I can tell you, I know for a fact that Soledad would definitely not be there if she had won the ticket. Rob, I'm not so sure about you, but, Soledad, I know, out of the building. ' MARCIANO: I appreciate that.

FREED: Absolutely, as would I be as well. What I can show you here, we don't know who won it yet, but I can show you the actual machine. Here we go. There it is right there, that red thing. That's the machine that sold the $365 million ticket. And a few degrees to the right behind the counter there in the red jacket is Chris.

Chris, wave to America. There he is. That's Chris.

A good story about Chris. When Chris showed up for his shift at 11:00 last night, he hadn't watched the news. He saw media trucks out front. He thought the store had been held up. Yes, He had no idea. It's a great story. He had no idea that it was good news. Now, here's the good news for the person that actually is holding this ticket. Could be a person, or persons. Although based on the surveillance camera that they have here, they think it's one of about four people that bought a ticket at just 10 after 3:00 or so on Friday afternoon.

Here are numbers for you: $365 million is the big number. But after taxes, that will come out to about $124 million, and if you take it over time, over the 30 years, that first payment is about $6.5 million dollars. And I could probably learn to live on that.

MARCIANO: Most of us could, yes.

All right, buddy, thanks very much. Keep looking out for that winner. We want them on the air as soon as we find him.

If not the winner, we're going to talk with the owner of that convenience store. They get a little piece of the action as well, and a spokesman for the Nebraska Lottery in about 30 minutes.

O'BRIEN: That's coming up this morning.

Also ahead this morning, skier Bode Miller, we talked about him all morning, really, you know, he was the guy who was going to be just a superstar at the Winter Olympics. So far, he's in three events, he's won no medals. Can he redeem himself today? We're going to take you live to Torino for a preview this morning.

MARCIANO: And if it feels like we're on him a little too much, the guy makes a lot of money, so you know, he has to show up to work.

O'BRIEN: He's a talented guy. It'd be nice if he would win.

MARCIANO: Plus, legal trouble under the golden arches. We'll tell you why McDonald is getting sued over its french fries. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: Jimmie Johnson takes the checkered flag to win the Daytona 500. It's his first title in the Great American Race, but he faced some adversity to get it. Johnson's crew chief was forced to miss the race after being suspended for messing with the car during qualifying. Other notable finishes included defending series Tony Stewart, he came in fifth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. came in eighth. Defending champ, or 500 champ, I should say, Jeff Gordon, he finished, but he came in 26th.

O'BRIEN: He was the defending champ.

(MARKET REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, we're going to take a look this morning. It is a pretty rare and incredibly disturbing look at the inner workings of the Ku Klux Klan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do exist. We've existed ever since. As long as there is white people, the Klan is going to exist no matter what.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we'll take a look at how the hate group is using new methods and new members, too, to try to grow stronger. Plus, we're talking about Hamas getting ready to take control of the Palestinian government. Is it facing, though, a financial crisis? We'll take you live to Jerusalem. Those stories all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Well, they are hated by many people, they're worshipped by other people, and they are secretive with about everybody. This morning, though, we're going to give you a look inside the KKK, as it exists now in the new millennium, something we feel you need to see for yourself.

And AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho has our report today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALES: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): July 24th, 2005: This is the new face of the Ku Klux Klan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALES: ... with liberty and justice for all white men.

CHO: This videotape is a rare look at the inner workings of the KKK. Its members are younger. The movement is growing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: White power!

UNIDENTIFIED MALES: White power!

CHO: Just ask Jared Hensley (ph). At 23, he is the second most powerful Klansman in the state of Ohio, a grand titan the Imperial Klans of America, the largest faction of the KKK. Hensley dreams about an all-white America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All-white neighborhood, all-white cities. Good values.

CHO: He joined the Klan as soon as he turned 18. Like most new members, he was intrigued by what he saw on the Internet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our Web site.

CHO: White supremacist Web sites, which serve as recruiting brochures. The Internet allowed Hensley to connect with other white supremacists at events like Nordic Fest, an annual festival held in Kentucky, dedicated to racist music and ideology.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We stand for a better world. We stand for the white race and all things at all times.

MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: There is a whole subculture that comes with this world.

CHO: Mark Potok, with the Southern Poverty Law Center, says the number of hate groups in America has grown from 600 to 800, a 33 percent jump in the past five years.

POTOK: The fact is these groups continue to grow. We see more and more neo-Nazi type incidents in high schools and even middle schools.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: White power!

POTOK: For me, it's a worrying phenomenon. I don't think the country is doing well in terms of race relations. And in fact, I think a strong argument could be made we're really going backward in many ways.

CHO: At this Klan meeting, members take part in secret handshakes, prayer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God save our race.

CHO: Even fund raising.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's important that none of us forget about the...

CHO: All for the white race.

And the Klan of today is changing. The new Klan is starting to join forces with neo-Nazi skinheads. Now, above all, even blacks, they hate Jews.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hitler inside of the Swastika right here.

CHO: They also worship Adolf Hitler.

(on camera): What about the Holocaust?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Holocaust? It's completely false. I don't believe that six million people died at all.

CHO (voice-over): Hensley believes Jews and other minorities are taking jobs from whites.

(on camera): Are you saying you think I should leave?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you should go and build in your country. You could of been born here, but you're not originally from here. Just like we wasn't, but we built this country.

CHO: He wants to build an all-white America, his land of opportunity, his dream for his 3-year-old daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See, in my eyes, This is what's beautiful, white, just white kids, white values and nice homes, nice land around.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: Now, although the white supremacist movement has been growing steadily the past decade or so, the Southern Poverty Law Center tells us there was a spike in membership after September 11th. The KKK says that if foreigners had never been allowed inside the United States, these attacks, Soledad, would never have happened.

O'BRIEN: You know, it's sort of strange to see his cute little daughter, who is, what, three years old or something. Did he talk to about what his plan is for her? I mea, is he going to raise her so she will be a member of the KKK?

CHO: That's his hope. I mean, his hope is that she becomes a white supremacists, just as he is. He says he has qualms about showing her his hood, his robe. Wants her to watch all-white television, listen to all-white radio. I mean, this is a man, who -- it's interesting, because I think people who live in urban areas sometimes cannot understand these beliefs, but this is a movement that is steadily growing, and I think it's something that we can't ignore.

O'BRIEN: How did you get access to him? I mean, did you just come in and shoot his meetings?

CHO: Well, it was tough. We met him about six months ago. And back then, we realized this was a story, because he was just 23 year old. You're talking about a 23-year-old guy who is the grand titan of the KKK, the number-two man in the Klan in the state of Ohio. We were struck by that. We though, you know, there is something more to this story. We did some research, obviously, and then we asked him, would we be able to attend a Klan meeting? He said absolutely not.

O'BRIEN: The Asian girl wants to go to the Klan meeting. OK!

CHO: We wanted to see what it would be about. I said, listen...

O'BRIEN: Were people -- you were there?

CHO: It was -- no, I was not at the meeting. And I want to be clear about that. He said they do not allow non-Klan members to be inside the meeting. So then we asked him could we send a photographer. No. Would you shoot it for us? And finally he agreed. So that is how we got the videotape.

O'BRIEN: Wow. What a weird story. Interesting.

All right, Alina, thanks. Terrific job, as always -- Rob.

MARCIANO: Soledad, Alina, be careful who you talk to online.

O'BRIEN: I e-mail you a lot online, Rob.

MARCIANO: Well, it's often the e-mails; it's the Instant Messages, those things you thought were actually safe on your computer screen, but they're open to a virus attack as well. We'll tell you why.

And later, we know there is a winner of that $365 million Powerball ticket. We know where it was sold, but we don't know who actually bought it. We'll ask the owner of the store that sold that ticket if he has any ideas. That's coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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