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American Morning
Latest Developments in Controversy Surrounding Phone Records Monitoring by NSA; Four U.S. Marines Killed in Iraq
Aired May 12, 2006 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bob Franken in Washington.
Will the new accusations of telephone surveillance mean trouble for the president's new CIA nominee?
We'll have the story in a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREG TREVOR, 9/11 SURVIVOR: For me, that staircase represents a journey to escape, a journey that began 700 feet in the sky.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Controversy now over the remnants of the World Trade Center. Debate is focusing on those so-called "stairs to nowhere." People want them to stay put at ground zero. We'll explain.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A teenager with autism mistakenly chosen for duty in Iraq. Now he's staying home and that has the Army taking a closer look at its recruiting methods.
S. O'BRIEN: And our summer travel series continues.
Today, taking to the high seas. Is a cruise the right way to go?
We'll raise the anchor, ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
M. O'BRIEN: Put your right foot in, shake it all about.
Good morning to you.
It's Friday.
We're glad you're with us.
I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: The president's pick to head the CIA facing a tough day of questioning on Capitol Hill about domestic spying.
General Michael Hayden facing lawmakers the day after a report the agency Hayden once ran is conducting a massive computer drag search through the phone records of tens of millions of Americans, all in the name of national security. Hayden helped develop that program is a big proponent of warrantless wiretaps of Americans.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken live now from Washington with more -- good morning, Bob.
FRANKEN: Good morning, Miles.
And this is such a fascinating story, because it's really about the instincts to preserve national security versus the fears of Big Brother.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
FRANKEN (voice-over): Another day, another accusation that President Bush is overseeing what many consider an intrusion into the very precious right to privacy. Phone calls are supposed to be prevent, after all.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities. We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans.
FRANKEN: Except that these stories keep popping up and no one really denies that communications are being monitored a lot more closely than many realize.
So add this to the list of the administration's political problems and wind up the sound bites.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Enough is enough.
UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSMAN: Where does this stop?
FRANKEN: The next stop will probably be next week's hearings on General Michael Hayden's nomination to lead the CIA, the same General Hayden who used to head the same National Security Agency that is so much a part of this latest uproar.
GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, CIA DIRECTOR NOMINEE: All I would want to say is that everything that NSA does is lawful and very carefully done and that the appear members of the Congress -- the House and Senate -- are briefed on all NSA activities. And I think I'd just leave it at that.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
FRANKEN: Well, he might want to leave it at that, but this is really much more, Miles, than the war on terror. We're talking about the political war here.
M. O'BRIEN: And let's talk about the politics of all of this. With the president's numbers now low 30s, this could be a big hit. FRANKEN: Well, it could be a very big hit. I mean there's some significant issues here, not the least of which is the accusation that the president may have been lying when, after earlier revelations about wiretaps, or at least accusations, of international calls, the president said this was limited to international.
Now we're finding something slightly different, which involves literally billions of domestic calls.
M. O'BRIEN: Bob Franken in Washington.
Thank you very much.
So the big question on your mind, on my mind, what is the government doing with my phone records?
In just a few minutes we'll ask an expert on espionage.
Stay with CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
S. O'BRIEN: An announced overnight has killed four U.S. Marines just west of Baghdad. That raises the death toll to 254 U.S. troops killed this year. Two thousand four hundred and thirty-four U.S. troops have died in Iraq in the last three years of war.
CNN's Arwa Damon is embedded with U.S. troops in Kirkuk and she has more on this announced.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Four U.S. Marines were killed on Thursday when their tank rolled off a bridge into a canal in the town of Karma in western Iraq's Al-Anbar Province. The U.S. military I said a press statement saying that that was an announced.
Now, there have been over 2,400 American troops killed in Iraq. But if you speak to those who are in country here right now, they say that of course the rising death and casualty numbers do have a profound impact on them.
However, the mission does go on. They say that they joined the U.S. military knowing that there would be sacrifices that would be made. And while they are in country right now, that is going to be their focus -- the mission.
I was speaking to a captain a few days ago with the 101st Airborne, asking him what it was going to be that he was going to remember most about his experience in Iraq. And he said: "I am going to remember the soldiers' faces, those who are standing next to me, and the fact that they go forward in the mission without asking any questions and they do that for the soldier or the Marine who is standing next to them."
For many of those who are in country today, that is the main objective -- getting themselves and their fellow soldiers and Marines home alive.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Kirkuk, Iraq.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Upon further review, the U.S. Army has now decided that a recruit who has autism will not serve in the military. The case is now prompting Army officials to take a closer look at their reporting methods.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
JARED GUINTHER, RECRUIT WITH AUTISM: I just want to get on with my life and get this over with.
S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Eighteen-year-old Jared Guinther in the center of a military recruiting controversy. The Oregon teenager was diagnosed with autism when he was three years old. That apparently didn't stop U.S. Army recruiters in Portland from signing him up as a calvary scout, considered one of the Army's most dangerous jobs.
PAUL GUINTHER, JARED'S FATHER: The main concern is him getting hurt, that -- that is the bottom line right there.
S. O'BRIEN: Jared's parents say combat in Iraq is no place for someone with autism and they claim Army recruiters took advantage of their son.
Jared says he was up front about his condition and that the recruiter left the door open.
J. GUINTHER: He told me I can back out, but which I already knew that, basically, because they realize I'm not stupid.
S. O'BRIEN: Military rules prohibit enlisting anyone with a mental disorder that interferes with school or work. The Army released a statement saying: "Jared Guinther is being released from his military enlistment contract. The Portland recruiting battalion continues to investigate the circumstances leading up to his enlistment."
An Oregon congressman says Jared's case may be symptomatic of widespread abuses by recruiters under pressure to boost enlistment.
REP. EARL BLUMENAUER (D), OREGON: Get back on top of this to make sure they understand why it happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again.
S. O'BRIEN: As for Jared, instead of gearing up for basic training, the high school senior is preparing for college.
J. GUINTHER: I've been studying martial arts for a while and I'm interested in studying Chinese culture.
(END VIDEO TAPE) S. O'BRIEN: Congress Blumenauer, who you saw in that piece, is asking Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to have the Army's inspector general also investigate Jared Guinther's case -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Happening in American right now, a pair of cold- hearted smugglers to face a judge today on charges they spirited 56 illegal immigrants into the U.S. in a refrigerated trailer. Authorities found them huddled together shivering in that trailer, locked and abandoned in Laredo, Texas. Most have already been returned to Mexico.
In the mountains west of Denver, a casino bus and a truck collide on a winding canyon highway. Ten are hurt, two of them critically. The announced shut down Colorado Highway 119. That's the primary highway to the gambling towns of Black Hawk and Central City.
Delicate surgery for a set of conjoined twins in Minnesota. A team of 18 surgeons now working to separate the five-month-old girls. Abbigail and Isabelle Carlsen of Fargo, North Dakota joined at the chest and abdomen. Doctors say there is a 95 percent chance that surgery will be a success. We wish them well. They're cute.
Kinky Friedman one step closer to tossing his cigar into the ring for the race for Texas governor. The author and entertain handed in a ballot petition with more than three times the signatures needed. Someone asked the ever eccentric Kinky how he got all those signatures. His reply: "Thank god for bars and dance halls."
And your bones may feel a little creaky this morning. You feel a little long in the tooth?
Well, consider this milestone and consider this lovely lady. Elizabeth Stefan of Norwalk, Connecticut turned -- drum roll please -- 111 yesterday. One hundred and eleven years old. There was a birthday party. They had a cake at the nursing home where she lives. Elizabeth attributes her longevity to a lifetime of clean living.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIZABETH STEFAN, 111 YEARS OLD: Never any cigarettes. I never drink. I never smoke. I was a good girl all my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: God bless you.
She was born in Hungary in 1895. Think of the things that have happened in her lifetime -- Chad Myers, this is strangely reminiscent of Willard Scott at this moment...
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: She has...
M. O'BRIEN: ... centenarian and weather guy.
MYERS: She has seen all of the "American Idols."
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. That's history, boy.
MYERS: That's history.
M. O'BRIEN: Whoa, way back. Way back.
MYERS: Way back. Five years.
Good morning, Miles.
I know you're trying to fly to Nantucket today. I'm not so sure airplanes -- airports are going to be very good there in the Northeast today.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: So I might be driving to Nantucket this weekend?
MYERS: That's a hard drive, really.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, there's a boat leg to it, but the truth is...
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad, for avoiding that (ph).
M. O'BRIEN: ... I get better mileage in my airplane than in my Yukon XL.
MYERS: Sure.
M. O'BRIEN: So that's why I was hoping to fly.
MYERS: I...
M. O'BRIEN: To save.
MYERS: That's amazing to think that.
S. O'BRIEN: And the plane's smaller than the vehicle.
MYERS: Well, it's only like 90 horsepower, so I mean those little motors in a Cessna are not really that powerful, right?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. I just keep the squirrels all fed.
All right, thank you, Chad.
MYERS: All right.
M. O'BRIEN: See you in a bit.
MYERS: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Chad.
Coming up this morning, much more on that massive government phone record database. The president says privacy is protected.
How do authorities separate your records from those of suspected terrorists? We're going to take a look.
Also ahead, this...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEN LUSTBADER, LOWER MANHATTAN EMERGENCY PRESERVATION FUND: If it's demolished and forgotten about, then I think we should all hang our heads in great shame as a culture and as a society, as New Yorkers and as a country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: A stairway in the center of a new controversy over plans for ground zero. We'll explain.
M. O'BRIEN: And later, Howard Dean taking heat for comments about gays and lesbians. We'll tell you what he said, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: A staircase at ground zero is now on the endangered list. The stairs are due to be demolished to make way for an office tower. But according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, they are an historic spot in dire need of preservation.
CNN special correspondent Frank Sesno went to find out what's just so special about these stairs.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
FRANK SESNO, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At ground zero nearly five years after 9/11, all that remains above ground is this solitary stairway. They call it the survivors' stairway.
TREVOR: For me, that staircase represents a journey to escape, a journey that began 700 feet in the sky.
SESNO: Greg Trevor was in his Port Authority office that day on the 68th floor in the North Tower.
TREVOR: I heard what sounded like an explosion and I felt the building shake.
SESNO: Trevor managed to get out of the building and make his way to these stairs.
TREVOR: So I ran down those steps. Then a quick left and just started heading north.
SESNO: Minutes later, Tower One collapsed. The stairs, now a piece of history, are at the center of yet another controversy at ground zero.
Ken Lustbader works for a coalition of preservation groups. He remembers his reaction when he first learned of the stairs, some two years after 9/11.
LUSTBADER: I thought oh my god, I didn't know that there's something that survived. I thought it was miraculous that that survived the attack and the recovery effort.
SESNO: But the stairway's days may be numbered. It sits squarely in the middle of the proposed new Tower Two.
LUSTBADER: If it's demolished and forgotten about, then I think we should all hang our heads in great shame as a culture and as a society, as New Yorkers and as a country.
SESNO: Many 9/11 family members, like Anthony Gardner, who lost his brother Harvey, have weighed in, as well.
ANTHONY GARDNER, LOST HIS BROTHER ON 9/11: Our position is that the staircase should be maintained where it is. You know, in Rome they built around the catacombs.
SESNO: I visited the stairway with Charles Gargano, vice chairman of the Port Authority, which owns the site.
CHARLES GARGANO, VICE CHAIRMAN, PORT AUTHORITY: It's not always possible to incorporate -- leave everything that has some significance in the way of rebuilding. So we have to find another way.
SESNO: He says fully half the site will be dedicated to memorial functions. As for the stairway, they're studying it.
GARGANO: We should also be able to position it somewhere and incorporate it in the rebuilding of this site, not necessarily where it is, but incorporate it somewhere.
SESNO: But where it is matters.
GARDNER: People in our country make pilgrimages to Gettysburg. They make pilgrimages to Pearl Harbor. That's what will happen here if they do it right. People are not going to make a pilgrimage to a glorified office park which is a sanitized depiction of September 11.
SESNO: The tourists have already arrived. For now, staring at posters and emptiness, unaware of the survivors' stairway and the questions it raises about how we rebuild and remember.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: That was CNN's special correspondent frank Sesno reporting.
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, if you've got little kids, you probably think you need to teach them about sharing, right, Soledad?
S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. We use that word 500 times a day in our house -- share.
M. O'BRIEN: Share, share, share. S. O'BRIEN: Share, don't bite and share.
M. O'BRIEN: Don't bite.
But now, believe it or not, there may be good reason to believe we should give them a lot more credit. There may be some inner altruism in there and -- I know it's hard to believe, but I...
S. O'BRIEN: Not my kids.
M. O'BRIEN: I have the tape to prove this is true and it's causing a small revolution in evolution.
S. O'BRIEN: Huh?
M. O'BRIEN: Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: All right, when you think about toddlers, the last thing that may come into your mind is the word altruism. But you best think again. Your child may not be as selfish as you suspect.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Ah, the joy and wonder of childhood, our little angels.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) no! Oh, no.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, maybe the devil makes them do it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think you're trying to kind of tame a wild beast on some level. I think sharing is not a concept that they just come by naturally.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that was the first word I think he learned -- mine, mine, mine, mine.
M. O'BRIEN: Not so fast, mom. Despite plenty of anecdotal evidence to the contrary, there is now some reason to believe our kids are more selfless than we give them credit for.
Check out this experiment done by a psychologist with a hidden camera. That's the mom sitting in the corner, mostly there for moral support. And the man is a recently introduced stranger.
Watch what happens when he needs some help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ooh.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ah!
M. O'BRIEN: The stranger is the psychologist, Felix Warneken, who wanted to test the conventional wisdom about the me, me, me generation.
FELIX WARNEKEN, MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE, GERMANY: The key thing was that we staged situations in which the experimenter, me, was unable to achieve his goal and needed the help of the child.
M. O'BRIEN: Now, watch closely. Felix didn't ask for help. There were no offers of treats. He didn't even make eye contact with the toddlers. Oh, and the moms were not allowed to say a peep.
Look what happens. This 18-month-old almost immediately comes to the rescue, retrieves the clothespin and hands it over to Felix.
But it goes even deeper than that. When Felix pretends to be unable to open a cabinet door, the toddlers come to the rescue.
WARNEKEN: And he looks and he says, you know, hey, hey, there's...
M. O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
WARNEKEN: ... and he understands what I want and he opens the door for me.
First of all, they seem to understand, oh, this guy cannot put the magazines away. So -- and then they have to understand what's his problem. Oh, the doors are closed.
M. O'BRIEN: Altruistic kids and problem solvers, as well. This is a big insight, a small revolution in the world of evolution.
WARNEKEN: I think, yes, we have to get rid of the belief that children are just selfish and then through education turn into also altruistic beings. Both is there from the beginning -- selfish motivations and altruistic motivations.
M. O'BRIEN (on camera): So it's not just survival of the fittest individually, it is survival collectively, here, we're talking about it?
WARNEKEN: That's right.
M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): It happened time and again. In all, he put 24 toddlers to the test. In all but two cases, when he looked like he needed some help, he got it.
But this is interesting -- it had to be a seemingly genuine need.
WARNEKEN: So when I deliberately threw the clothespin on the floor and didn't reach for it, they would not bring it.
M. O'BRIEN: You would think all of this would be in the realm of the uniquely human. But Felix found even chimpanzees have a natural desire to help just for the sake of being helpful.
WARNEKEN: Therefore it shows that maybe that we, by nature, are predisposed to develop these skills. O'BRIEN (on camera): It's fascinating.
WARNEKEN: It really is.
M. O'BRIEN: Do you have kids?
WARNEKEN: No. Not yet.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
WARNEKEN: But after seeing this...
M. O'BRIEN: Now you want to? They help out.
WARNEKEN: They help out, yes.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: OK, so here's some tips for you now. You know, every mom is what...
S. O'BRIEN: Right. Yes, I was thinking well, don't have kids cause they help out, because they don't help out that much.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, yes, right. I wouldn't bank on it, put it that way. But, if you should have kids and you would like to encourage this behavior, Felix offers us some tips.
First of all, care about them unconditionally.
S. O'BRIEN: Of course.
M. O'BRIEN: You should do that anyway.
You should demonstrate model behavior.
S. O'BRIEN: Of course.
M. O'BRIEN: You should do that anyway.
And explain their actions, how they affect others.
S. O'BRIEN: Of course.
M. O'BRIEN: That's always good.
Yes.
But here's a good one. Practice with pets. That's a good way of...
S. O'BRIEN: Dropping things?
M. O'BRIEN: Dropping things, see if the dog chews on it, I don't know. No, you know, giving the sense of caring...
S. O'BRIEN: Kindness and caring or...
M. O'BRIEN: ... kindness, caring, responsibility.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: All that stuff and...
S. O'BRIEN: That's pretty neat to see the altruistic...
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Here's the other one that I like, too, and we didn't put it on the full screen. Pick a child-sized community project, something to give them, you know, a contribution, something to participate in, a little project.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. Kids love to help.
M. O'BRIEN: They do. They really do.
S. O'BRIEN: Kids love to help.
M. O'BRIEN: But they mean -- that's never been really proven scientifically.
S. O'BRIEN: It's not true about they love to share, but they love to help.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, there is a subtle difference, isn't there?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, there is.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, the massive government database of phone records. Officials say it's only being used to target terrorists and suspects.
But how do authorities separate those records from your records?
We're going to take a look at that next, coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN:
They're lots of fun. Are they safe, though?
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Get the latest news every morning in your e-mail. Sign up for AMERICAN MORNING Quick News at cnn.com/am.
Still to come this morning in our summer travel series, we take a look at the up sides and the down sides of cruises. They're lots of fun.
Are they safe, though?
We're going to talk to a former cruise director and the publisher of "Portal Cruise" magazine just ahead.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning.
Welcome back, everybody.
Happy Friday.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien.
We're glad you're with us.
Betty Nguyen is in today for Carol Costello.
She joins us with a look at some headlines -- hello, Betty.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Miles.
A victory for President Bush. He is expected to sign off on a $70 billion tax cut package next week. The Senate approved the measure Thursday. It extends tax breaks on capital gains and dividends through 2010 and also changes the alternative minimum tax, so it applies to 15 million fewer middle class taxpayers.
Well, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is taking some heat from gay rights advocates about some remarks he made. It happened during an interview on a Christian network. It seems Dean mischaracterized his party's platform on gay rights, saying Democrats define marriage as between a man and a woman. The slip prompting the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to return a $5,000 donation from the Democratic National Committee. Dean later admitted that he misspoke.
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