Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Oil Problems Spilling Over to Pumps; Lebanese Proposal of Moving Military Forces; Lieberman's Last Stand?

Aired August 08, 2006 - 08:59   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, drivers, it's not looking good. Get ready to pay plenty at the pump. A pipeline problem in Alaska could stretch from coast to coast and hit us all right in the wallet.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: It is primary day. We're watching to see if voters in Connecticut turn on veteran senator Joe Lieberman over his support for the war in Iraq.

Controversy in New Orleans. Not everyone happy with Mayor Ray Nagin's plan to mark the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with a celebration.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: National Hurricane Center ready to update their 2006 hurricane forecast today at 11:00. This could have been something, a number or a name, yesterday, but so far, no development today.

We'll have the latest on what tropical season looks like coming up.

O'BRIEN: And dozens of Girl Scouts in the middle of a rabies scare. We told you about that yesterday. Well, what exactly are they facing now?

We'll take a closer look at the virus and the sometimes very painful treatment all ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris, in for Miles O'Brien.

O'BRIEN: Let's begin this hour with a big problem, a multimillion-dollar hangover, really, in Alaska. Energy giant BP shutting down the largest oilfield in the northern part of the state of Alaska. Because of that, Alaska is saying they are counting the days now until they run out of money.

Here are the hard numbers.

It's costing more than $6 million a day in lost taxes. The governor's office saying they have only two months worth of money to keep the state up and running. Alaska is not going to be alone in paying the bill, though.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho joins us with that part of the story. Hey, Alina. Good morning.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Soledad. Good morning to you.

Yes, drivers will be paying the bill, too. By some estimates, gas prices have started to go up 5 cents a gallon in some cities. And they could go up another 5 cents in the coming days.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I put $75 in this car just this week -- $75.

CHO (voice over): And don't expect relief from those gas pains any time soon. BP is shutting down its Prudhoe Bay oilfield in Alaska. It found corrosion so severe, it's replacing 16 miles of pipeline. That means 400,000 fewer barrels of oil being pumped each day, an 8 percent drop in U.S. oil production, some 2.5 percent of the total U.S. oil supply.

BOB MALONE, CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT, BP AMERICA: On behalf of the BP group, I apologize for the impact this has had on our nation and to the great state of Alaska. BP will commit the necessary human and financial resources to complete this job safely and as quickly as possible.

CHO: The West Coast will take the biggest hit. Some 25 percent of its oil comes from Alaska.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's important that all these companies at all the different levels need to be as accountable as possible. Ultimately, it's affecting all of us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know how long it will take of increasing the prices.

CHO: Just how long will it take to bring the nation's biggest oilfield back on line? Weeks? Months?

MALONE: We will not commit to a date. This is going to be based upon when we can safely restart some of these lines.

CHO: BP is under investigation for a massive oil spill at Prudhoe Bay back in March, and for an explosion and fire at a Texas refinery last year which killed 15 people. As for the 16 miles of corroded pipeline discovered at Prudhoe Bay, federal regulators say it hadn't been cleaned and tested properly since 1992.

AXEL BUSCH, ENERGY ANALYST: It is damaging not just because it's part of a series of incidents, it's not a standalone. A standalone accident, accidents will happen. When you have a number of them, people start asking questions.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHO: Government regulators are said to be overseeing the shutdown of the Prudhoe Bay oilfield, which could take anywhere from three to five days. Now, as for how much of an impact the shutdown will actually have on gas prices, Soledad, the next Lundberg Survey, which is the most reliable gauge, will be out on Sunday. But safe to say we are inching toward that $3.06 record that was set just after Hurricane Katrina.

Right now we're at about 3.03. But as you well know, it is much higher depending on where you live.

O'BRIEN: Yes. I'm going to come out early and say we're going to hit that record, and then some, depending on how long it's going to take to fix this problem.

Alina, thanks -- Tony.

HARRIS: Well, to the Middle East now, where this morning an interesting proposal is on the table. The Lebanese government saying it will move forces into southern Lebanon if the Israelis will take their troops out.

CNN's Matthew Chance is live in northern Israel right now.

Matthew, good morning.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you Tony.

Israel is reacting to that very interesting proposal by Lebanon to deploy 15,000 of the Lebanese army into south Lebanon as part of a deal in which the Israeli forces would withdraw. Israel has welcomed that in principle, saying that's what it wanted all along, Lebanese army fighters, members, to be along that border with Israel instead of Hezbollah guerrillas. But Israel says it is also looking for some assurances that the Lebanese army that's deployed there would be robust enough to actually disarm the Hezbollah and wouldn't be just sitting there allowing Hezbollah to rearm and to strike at Israel once again.

So looking for the mechanisms and the ways in which the Lebanese army could fulfill that obligation, from Israel's point of view. Until that is satisfied, Israel has made it clear it will press ahead with its military campaign, even expand its military campaign, Tony, if a diplomatic solution isn't reached to solve this crisis soon.

Already, there are many thousands of Israeli forces poised on the border of Lebanon to join the 10,000 or more Israeli soldiers there battling Hezbollah fighters. The decision has not been made to deploy them yet, but it could happen soon -- Tony.

HARRIS: And we'll keep an eye on it.

Matthew Chance for us in northern Israel.

Matthew, thank you. To Lebanon now, where attacks are inching closer and closer to central Beirut, hitting a neighborhood once thought to be safe from Israeli attack.

Anthony Mills is live for us in Beirut.

Anthony, why is this -- this latest attack in Beirut so significant?

ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, it does -- the area which was hit does nominally fall within the domain of the southern suburbs, the part of Beirut that is a Hezbollah stronghold and has been pounded repeatedly over the course of this now-weeks-old crisis. But that yesterday was really the closest strike in the southern suburbs to the central part of Beirut.

It was a Shiite Muslim neighborhood. Hezbollah, of course, a Shiite Muslim party. But it really was very close to the central part of Beirut. And residents of that part of the city that was hit, the Shier (ph) part of the city, as it is known, had felt actually fairly safe there.

That explains why there were residents in the building when the building was hit, and also in the street. And the casualty figure, as well, 15 people dead, at least, we're told by internal security forces here, and 65 people injured. So that strike really came as a shock to the residents of that part of the city, and I guess really awakened residents across Beirut to the fact that or the possibility that no matter where they are in this city right now, they could conceivably be a target -- Tony.

HARRIS: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

Anthony Mills for us in Beirut.

Anthony, thank you.

O'BRIEN: The United Nations Security Council is trying to reach a compromise on a cease-fire agreement. Just hours from now, the council begins an open debate with Arab League representatives who want some big changes.

CNN's Richard Roth live at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

Hey, Richard. Good morning.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Soledad.

People wanting changes to U.N. resolutions. What a change.

The two main players, the two negotiators on this proposed draft, the ambassadors from the United States and France, were at it again yesterday for several more hours, trying to see if they could take into consideration the concerns of Lebanon and other Arab groups.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ROTH (voice over): The rush to a resolution inside the U.N. Security Council bogged down again. Lebanon and Arab neighbors reject language that would permit Israel to temporarily keep thousands of troops in Lebanese territory while ordering an immediate halt to Hezbollah attacks.

YAHYA MAHMASSANI, ARAB LEAGUE AMB. TO U.N.: The way it is done now in the present draft, it has a discriminatory tone. And we don't accept it.

ROTH: And some Security Council nations are listening to their case.

VITALY CHURKIN, RUSSIAN AMB. TO U.N.: We are troubled by the fact that the Lebanese government apparently is not satisfied with the draft resolution, and we are trying to see if something can be done.

ROTH: The French, co-authors with the United States of the resolution, were willing to see what could be done.

JEAN-MARC DE LA SABLIERE, FRENCH AMB. TO U.N.: I'm going to work today to improve the text. And we are -- we have to take into account the concerns of all.

ROTH: Lebanon's amendment to the resolution proposes a simultaneous withdrawal by Israel, along with deployment of Lebanese government troops in the south. But the Security Council is not likely to make dramatic adjustments to the resolution. It will hold off on a vote until a special Arab League delegation addresses the Security Council.

JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Let me just say it's not as though we drafted this resolution in a closet somewhere and suddenly sprang the text on any member government. We, the United States and France, were in close touch with both the government of Lebanon and Israel throughout this entire negotiation process.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: Among the delegates coming from the Arab League, the foreign minister of Qatar, who is concerned about the fate of life in Lebanon, worried about a civil war there if this resolution does not go through with the changes he wants and peace comes between Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Thank you for the update. Appreciate it.

Richard Roth for us at the U.N. -- Tony.

HARRIS: Polls are open right now in four states holding primaries today. Voters are weighing in on several U.S. Senate and House races in Michigan, Missouri, Connecticut and Colorado. But in Georgia, several races in last month's primary weren't decided, so voters get to vote again today in the runoffs. But the political world will have its eyes on the Connecticut Senate race.

Democrat Joe Lieberman is facing a tough battle against Ned Lamont. So, will this be Lieberman's last stand?

Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley weighs that question for us, pondering in Hartford, Connecticut, this morning.

Candy, good morning.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.

You know, several weeks ago Senator Lieberman began to make plans to run as an Independent this fall should he lose. But in the past and closing hours of this campaign, Lieberman has talked about nothing but winning the Democratic primary.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: ... winning for them on the things that matter...

CROWLEY (voice over): It may be that the first political casualty of the war will be a Democrat.

LIEBERMAN: This is all about the Iraq war, all about the anger at the war, and all about the anger, almost hatred, among a lot of Democrats toward George Bush.

CROWLEY: Supportive of the war, opposed to leaving before the job's done, Joe Lieberman is watching his career flash before him.

NED LAMONT (D), CONNECTICUT CANDIDATE FOR SENATOR: I think too often Senator Lieberman goes out of his way to undermine the Democratic message.

CROWLEY: Ned Lamont is a political newbie, but his antiwar campaign has caught lightning in a bottle, thunder provided by the fiercely liberal side of the blogosphere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been following your progress on the Web and, you know, reading certain types of stuff. So I...

LAMONT: We started as an asterisk and now we've got a pretty competitive race now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know.

CROWLEY: The latest poll has Lamont winning by six points, narrower than the lead he had last week.

LIEBERMAN: I'm looking forward to be calling Connecticut's "Comeback Kid."

(APPLAUSE)

CROWLEY: It is the political event of the summer, the first race testing the depth and breadth of antiwar sentiment, watched by politicians running in '06 and '08. A Lamont victory would likely also be read as the first scalp for liberal Democrats trying to push the party's center to the left, because as much as this race has been about Iraq, it has been about the definition of the Democrats.

DAVID LIGHTMAN, "HARTFORD, COURANT": People are saying, "Gee, has he been too close to President Bush on other issues? Has he been too eager to cooperate with Republicans on a host of issues?" They want to know, how good a Democrat has Joe Lieberman been?

CROWLEY: This picture has been worth more than a thousand words, and who knows how many votes.

LIEBERMAN: The two big lies of Ned Lamont, Joe Lieberman is a cheerleader for George Bush -- ridiculous. I have opposed most of what this president has asked us to do through Congress. Secondly, that somehow I'm not a real Democrat. Outrageous.

CROWLEY: But it has been effective. Lieberman and colleagues travel the state he has represented for 18 years listing his Democratic bona fides. No time for nuance.

SEN. CHRIS DODD (D), CONNECTICUT: This is a very good Democrat, too. I'll tell you.

MAX CLELAND (D), FMR. U.S. SENATOR: Don't throw out the baby with the bath water.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: There are a number of unknowns that make this race pretty unpredictable, including the fact that the secretary of state in this -- in Connecticut says that 10,000 voters in the past month have switched their affiliation from nonaffiliated to Democrat. The question is whether those are Independents trying to help out Senator Lieberman or antiwar Independents who want to deliver a message -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK. Candy Crowley for us in Hartford, Connecticut.

Candy is part of the best political team on television.

Candy, thanks.

O'BRIEN: Another closely-watched race is taking place in Georgia. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is facing Hank Johnson in today's Democratic Party runoff. Now, she drew less than 50 percent of the vote in last month's primary. You'll recall, of course, McKinney made headlines during that scuffle she had with Capitol Hill Police back in March.

Tom DeLay's name is going to appear on November ballots in Texas unless he withdraws from that race. A federal appeals court had blocked the state GOP's effort to replace him. Yesterday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia rejected a request to block that ruling, and Democrats sued to keep the former House majority leader on the ballot. DeLay faces money laundering and conspiracy charges.

Thirteen minutes past the hour. Let's get a check of the forecast from Chad at the CNN Center.

Good morning again.

MYERS: Good morning, Soledad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.

HARRIS: Still ahead, the country's biggest oilfield could be shut down weeks, maybe months for repairs. But there may have been an easy way to prevent the problems. How about a little maintenance? We'll explain.

O'BRIEN: Also, here are some of the plans for the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans: fireworks, comedy show, a raffle of celebrity jewelry. Yes, all from Mayor Ray Nagin's office. No surprise then that some residents are furious.

We've got that story just ahead.

HARRIS: And we told you yesterday how -- I guess it was almost a thousand Girl Scouts may have been exposed to rabies at summer camp. Should you be worried if your kids are off to camp? How easy is it to contract rabies?

We'll take a look ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Fears of gas prices spiking now that BP has shut down its Alaskan pipeline. Let's check the gas gauge.

AAA says gas prices held steady last night at $3.04. Last month at this time they were $2.96. Last year, $2.34.

"Wall Street Journal" reporter Jim Carlton toured the facilities at Prudhoe Bay refinery just days before it was shut down.

Jim, good morning. Good to see you.

JIM CARLTON, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Good morning, Tony.

HARRIS: I've got to ask you, in that tour, could you have foreseen this coming? Were you surprised at the news? What were folks telling you there at the refinery?

CARLTON: Well, I was up there for a couple of days, and it was kind of a bizarre coincidence, because Lord John Browne, the CEO of BP, was also there at the same time, and he hadn't been there in years. And he was checking up on a spill that happened last March due to corrosion, incidentally. It was a surprise it happened on this particular pipeline, because it contains almost all oil rather than gas, oil and water.

HARRIS: I see. CARLTON: But there's been warnings for years that this sort of thing could happen.

HARRIS: So, corrosion doesn't happen overnight. So what are we talking about here? Is this a case of just neglect?

CARLTON: Well, the workers -- there's a number of workers up there who have been complaining since at least the 1990s that BP has not been putting enough money in for preventative maintenance on corrosion. The problem is, Prudhoe Bay, when they first started out 30 years ago, it was mostly oil. Oil itself doesn't really corrode. But now it's mostly water and gas, and water corrodes really badly. Just imagine what would happen to your car.

So -- and they say that BP has not put enough money in to prevent that.

HARRIS: Well, you mentioned Lord John Browne, who is the CEO of the company. Have we heard from him yet? I don't think we have.

CARLTON: Well, Bob Malone is kind of his right-hand man in North America, and he actually used to run the Alaska pipeline. And they brought Bob Malone back in. They've had a number of problems in the U.S. with the Texas city explosion, there's an energy trading scandal, Alaska has had all kinds of problems. So they are trying to do damage control now.

HARRIS: Let me go back to this whole idea of neglect. Alina Cho has been reporting this morning. Federal regulators are reporting that that pipeline, that particular pipeline that is now shut down, all 16 miles of it hadn't been properly cleaned, tested since 1992.

What is your reaction to that?

CARLTON: Well, this particular pipeline is called a transit line. And this contains mostly processed oil. And they thought, erroneously, as it turns out, that they could kind of just not pay as much attention to these lines as the other feeder and trunk lines that carry most of the oil, gas and water around the Prudhoe Bay. They hadn't put a smart dig (ph) maintenance device through this since 1992, as you said, and that turned out to be a mistake.

HARRIS: Give us a sense and put it in broader context for us. What is going on, do you think, over the last year at BP?

CARLTON: Well, BP, I think -- and when I was up there they made a point to show how much money -- they've ramped up their spending on corrosion. They've got ultrasonic devices, x-ray. They even have guys that repel up to the top of the highest pipelines, and they're swinging from ropes and doing tests. And I think they are really trying to get a handle on the problem now, but the problem is there's many years of what some people call neglect.

HARRIS: Let me have you field this conspiracy theory question. This was timed to keep oil prices artificially high. What do you think? CARLTON: I really -- you know, I don't think so. I think BP is -- I think they are really serious about this problem. They have a whole team up there. And I think they were proud of what efforts they have been doing. And I think that, in fact, coincidentally, they discovered this newest problem the day that Lord John Browne was up there telling the troops, good job for handling the spill last March.

HARRIS: You know BP has these ads on televisions. We've all seen them touting its environmental friendly nature as a company. Do you think a spill, although there wasn't a whole lot of oil that spilled, do you think this accident overall kind of hurts the image?

CARLTON: Oh, absolutely. In fact, I was in Los Angeles last week. Lord John Browne was at a climate change conference with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tony Blair, and I asked him about that. I said, "It's really not that big of a spill." I mean, the spill happened last March and it's only -- I think it's 200,000 gallons. And he said, "Any spill is too much."

HARRIS: So let me follow up on that. So are we in fact making to much? We're talking about 400,000 barrels. Are we making too big a deal of this?

CARLTON: Well, I mean, yes, we're losing 400,000 barrels. That's about 8 percent of U.S. oil production. It's -- you know -- I mean, that -- and I think it imports (ph) about 2 or 3 percent. So the problem is, this happened at a really bad time, because what happens if Iran suddenly stops oil exports or something else happens around the world? So it just happened at a really bad time.

HARRIS: Jim Carlton, reporter for "The Wall Street Journal."

Jim, good to see you. Thank you. Thanks for your time.

CARLTON: OK. Thanks.

HARRIS: Still ahead, your morning "House Call" is coming right up. About a thousand Girl Scouts may have been exposed to rabies at summer camp. So how easy is it to get the disease? We'll take a closer look.

And later, the toll of stress on U.S. troops in Iraq. We'll look at why the problem may be getting not better, but worse.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: In this morning's "House Call," the risk of rabies. News that Girl Scouts at a camp in Virginia may have been exposed to rabies from bats has Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen looking into the rabies virus. She's at the CNN Center in Atlanta now to put things into perspective for us.

Elizabeth, good morning. Good to see you.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.

Tony, if you can imagine you're a mom or dad and you get a letter saying your child might have been bitten by a rabid bat, well, you can imagine the fear that ensues there. Well, that's what happened to about a thousand parents whose girls were at this Girl Scout camp in Virginia. And now, some 18 girls at least are going to be getting these rabies shots.

Here's the problem. The girls were sleeping in cabins, like the cabins that you see here. And they later found that there were bats flying around those cabins.

Now, you can actually get bit by a bat and not feel it while you're sleeping. Their teeth are very, very tiny. And so they're concerned that maybe these girls were bitten, maybe the bats were rabid. They're not sure, because they haven't been able to capture all of them, and that's why some of these girls, the girls who they're most sure got exposed, had to actually get this month-long series of shots. Now, they join many other Americans who every year have to get the month-long series of rabies shots because either doctors are sure they were bit by a bat, or they're not quite sure and they don't want to take chances.

Some 40,000 Americans get this month-long series of rabies shots every year. One or two people die of rabies each year because they don't get shots. Without shots, rabies is 100 percent fatal.

Now, the problem is, once you feel symptoms it is too late to get the shots. So here's what the symptoms are.

They appear 30 to 60 days after the bite, and the bite is usually from a bat, although also other rabid animals can cause rabies. You get a shooting pain from that bite site, fevers, chills, muscle aches, and then seizures, coma and eventually death.

So if you worry that you've been bitten by a rabid bat or another rabid animal, the key is to talk to your doctor. Your doctor can help you decide whether or not you really were bitten and whether or not it's worth getting this month-long series of shots.

HARRIS: Yikes, a month-long series of shots. I remember those shots being pretty nasty.

Right, Soledad?

O'BRIEN: Yes, they hurt. They're very painful in your stomach, right?

HARRIS: And they shoot you in the stomach.

Is that still the case, Elizabeth?

COHEN: No, that is not still the case. Thankfully, that's not the case. They are not given in the stomach anymore.

It's a series usually of six shots over a period of a month. They are given in the arms, the legs or the buttocks. But usually the arms. They are not given in the stomach anymore, which is obviously a good thing, and they feel like a flu shot.

So, you know, according to doctors who do this all the time, they say it's obviously not fun to get six shots in one month, but it's like, if you can imagine, getting six flu shots in the course of one month.

HARRIS: Yes, but, you know, the problem is we're still talking about shots. We're not talking about one shot.

COHEN: Right.

HARRIS: Why so many?

COHEN: You know, it's interesting. The reason why is because most vaccines that we are familiar with are live vaccines. You don't want to give someone a live rabies vaccine because it is so universally fatal.

So you don't want to give a patient a live vaccine. You might actually possibly kill them with the vaccine.

So it's a killed vaccine. The vaccine has been killed. A killed vaccine, like a rabies vaccine, is relatively weak. So they need to give you five of them in order to get your immune system going, plus they give you on top of that a shot of human immune globulin. And what that does is that really revs up your immune system.

Sol, the bottom line is that this disease is so universally fatal they want to give you every shot -- no pun intended -- they can that you'll survive it.

HARRIS: So, these Girl Scouts, some of them may have been bitten and not have known it. And we know that bats fly around homes sometimes. They fly in, they fly out.

So what happens if you think, maybe you don't know, you've been bitten by a bat in your home, in your sleep? What do you do in that situation?

COHEN: Well, it can sometimes a tough call to make. And that's why you have to go to the doctor and tell them your exact circumstances.

For example, there was a woman who was at a church camp in Ohio this summer and she felt something fluttering under her bed sheets. And she picked up her bed sheets and a bat flew out. And maybe she was bitten, maybe she wasn't. But doctors weren't taking chances because, you know, you don't want to -- you don't want to take that chance. You want to err on the side of caution. Even though only one percent of bats are rabid, you still don't want to take the chance.

But if you're out taking a walk in the park and you see some bats overhead, you're OK. You're awake. You know you weren't bitten. You don't need a vaccine probably in that case. So it really depends on the circumstances. If you wake up in the morning and there's a bat sitting on your nightstand peering at you, that might be circumstances where you would want to get the rabies vaccine.

O'BRIEN: We had bats in our old house. Yes, now I take that more seriously.

HARRIS: Just because I want to get the reaction from you again. So, I'm sorry, Elizabeth. The woman, there was a bat under...

O'BRIEN: Ignore him, Elizabeth.

HARRIS: Elizabeth Cohen...

O'BRIEN: Can you imagine?

Thanks, Elizabeth.

HARRIS: Thanks, Elizabeth.

O'BRIEN: Thanks.

O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning as we continue right here on AMERICAN MORNING, we're going to talk about stress, and just how big of a toll stress is taking on U.S. troops in Iraq.

As the war goes on is the problem getting worse? We'll take a look at that.

Plus, a runoff in Georgia is now putting Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney back in the spotlight. We're live in Georgia as the polls open. Those stories ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

HARRIS: Good morning, Soledad. Good to see you.

O'BRIEN: Good morning to you, Tony. Nice to see you as well.

How are you holding up?

HARRIS: It's good.

O'BRIEN: It's only Tuesday. You feeling all right?

HARRIS: It was going so well until that moment, Soledad, thank you.

And good morning, everyone, I'm Tony Harris.

(NEWSBREAK)

O'BRIEN: Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is trying to keep her day job, to become President Bush's worst nightmare. That's her campaign slogan, really it is. The six-term Congresswoman is in a Democratic runoff in her homestate of Georgia, and both she and her opponent are looking to capitalize off her notoriety.

Rusty Dornin has our report this morning.

Good morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, the polls have been open for just about two-and-a-half hours. It's been a slow, but steady stream of voters her at the Ray of Hope Church, which is where Congresswoman's Cynthia McKinney's opponent, Hank Johnson, cast his ballot this morning. Of course, this is a race that has been surrounded by controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. CYNTHIA MCKINNEY (D), GEORGIA: I was not elected to remain silent.

DORNIN (voice-over): Her campaign slogan claim she's President Bush's worst nightmare, but Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is haunted by her own demons. They stem from an incident earlier this year in which she hit a Capitol Hill policeman who had stopped her to check her credentials.

MCKINNEY: The fact of the matter is I was never charged with anything.

DORNIN: Known as defiant and confrontational, the Georgia Democrat sparred with AMERICAN MORNING's Soledad O'Brien a few weeks later.

With all due respect, Congresswoman, forgive me for interrupting you, but I believe we can't have this...

MCKINNEY: You shouldn't interrupt me, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, until you answer my question, I'm not sure we can move on.

DORNIN: Later she said she was sorry for what happened at the Capitol.

MCKINNEY: I apologize.

DORNIN: But she's still defending herself.

MCKINNEY: I have already apologized for that incident even happening.

DORNIN: McKinney's opponent in the Democratic runoff, Hank Johnson, has taken advantage of her notoriety, and admits he's running on the ABC ticket -- anyone but Cynthia.

(on camera): Do you think they are fed up with what happened?

HANK JOHNSON, CANDIDATE IN 4TH DIST. RUNOFF: Well, I think it's just one more controversy that could have been avoided, and it was an embarrassment to the people of the fourth district.

DORNIN: McKinney initially claimed her clash at the Capitol happened because she is African-American.

ALAN ABRAMOWITZ, EMORY UNIV.: Any problem that she has, any criticism that's made of her she immediately tries to turn into a racial issue.

DORNIN: A successful strategy for a most part in a district that's 60 percent African-American. McKinney first won a congressional seat in 1992. But in 2002, she outraged voters when she claimed President Bush might have known in advance about the attacks of September 11th. She was defeated for re-election that year. She won her seat back in 2004.

This time around she's trailing in the polls, battling a candidate who seems to be her opposite.

ABRAMOWITZ: He's campaigning on a promise of less politics, less division, less polarization, and you know, let's work together here. And I think that is something that appeals to a lot of voters in the district, irrespective of party or ideology.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: But many of the voters we've talked to this morning that did vote for McKinney say that's precisely why they like her. She's outspoken. You know exactly where she stands. But as of the most recent poll, she is trailing by 13 percentage points in that poll that was taken on a conservative Web site -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And sometimes those things could be too much of a good thing, if you know what I mean. I guess we'll see by the end of the day, won't we?

Rusty Dornin for us this morning. Thanks, Rusty -- Tony.

HARRIS: Combat stress. That's what a military court is hearing about as those American soldiers accused of raping and killing and Iraqi girl are testifying again today.

CNN's Barbara Starr joins us live from the Pentagon with more on the harsh reality of combat stress.

Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony.

Well, it is one of the most sensitive and critical issues: the mental health of the troops.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): As the war in Iraq grinds on, one question that continues to confront the Army: Is the stress of combat simply too much for the troops?

Former Private First Class Steven Green and other soldiers, charged with the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the murder of her family in Mahmoudiya, sought help for combat stress according to their former commander. The Army wants to know more about the impact of war, months of killing insurgents, and seeing your buddies killed.

Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley, the Army surgeon general, is co- chairing a mental health task force.

LT. GEN. KEVIN KILEY, U.S. ARMY SURGEON GENERAL: We clearly recognize that those soldiers that have been in close combat have experienced IEDs, RPGs, complex attacks, that their stress levels as a group appear to be higher than soldiers that don't experience those.

STARR: The Army has put combat stress teams on the front line to offer assistance. So far, there is no apparent limit to how many combat tours a person can tolerate, the Army says, some troops now on their second and third tours.

But conclusions about mental health are uncertain. The Army says up to five percent of troops take antidepressants, but can't compare it directly to other wars. Army surveys indicate as many as 30 percent of returning soldiers report post-traumatic stress symptoms. Kiley says that may be OK.

KILEY: We don't have an expectation that just because 30 percent answer yes that they're going to land up in long-term therapy.

STARR: A former reporter for the government-backed "Stars and Stripes" newspaper unwittingly may have the clearest insight about how little is known about the stress of war. He met Green just before the Mahmoudiya killings.

ANDREW TILGHMAN, FMR. "STARS AND STRIPES" REPORTER: When I met Steven Green, I have to say, he did not strike me as uniquely troubled relative to all the other guys in his unit that were all just sort of very scared to be where they were.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: You know, Tony, clearly there is a difference between criminal activity if someone is convicted of murder or rape and combat stress. As far as combat stress goes, what the army says -- a very common sense solution -- they want the troops to recognize when they have a problem and get help.

HARRIS: Yes, Barbara, that's an important distinction to make. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us. Barbara, thank you.

O'BRIEN: Forty-two minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Coming up, I think real estate prices can't go any higher. Well, Andy tells us about the entire city. Not just a couple neighborhoods in the city, but an entire city where the average home costs half a million dollars.

O'BRIEN: Wow. That's a lot of dough.

HARRIS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Also, fireworks, talent show, auction celebrity jewelry. Which one would you pick as a way to celebrate Hurricane Katrina's first anniversary? We'll tell you why some folks in New Orleans are furious with city leaders. Those stories are ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Another sign of recovery from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans this week. Eight public schools opened on Monday. Four thousand students getting an early start to the school year. More than 40 other public schools are scheduled to reopen by the middle of September. Thirty thousand students are expected to attend those schools. And this month marks the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Just how would you remember the disaster? New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin thinks his city should mark it with a celebration. Not everybody thinks that's a great idea.

CNN's Susan Roesgen has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT (voice over): You expect fireworks on the Fourth of July, but on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina? That's what city leaders were planning. And that's not all.

(on camera): How about a talent show, an auction of Hollywood celebrity jewelry? Even a comedy night. When the mayor's office released those plans recently, some people were shocked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just can't imagine it. You know, it's too solemn an occasion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are some who have lost everything, and I don't think it's quite that type of thing to celebrate. You know?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of us just don't have the spirit for it, anyway.

MALCOLM SUBER, COMMUNITY ACTIVIST: Not only was it wrong, but he's not man enough to even admit today that it was a wrong conception.

ROESGEN (voice over): Community activist Malcolm Suber says the mayor shouldn't be planning a party, he should be planning a memorial to pay respect to the more than 1,300 people who were killed in New Orleans. And he should be helping those who have come back rebuild their lives.

But when we asked the mayor whether the anniversary would be a memorial or a celebration, he seemed to say it would be a little of both.

MAYOR RAY NAGIN (D), NEW ORLEANS: It's a memorial event celebrating that we survived one year after Katrina.

ROESGEN: Nagin says a city committee is planning the anniversary events with financial support from Harrah's Casino. Now, Harrah's says the festivities have been scaled back for logistical reasons. The fireworks idea has also fizzled.

Other communities are marking the anniversary in other ways. Welder Vincent LaBruzzo (ph) is making a stainless steel cross. This is what officials in St. Bernard Parish have asked for. No talent show, no fireworks, just a cross capable of withstanding 170-mile-an- hour winds, a permanent and solemn reminder of Katrina's wrath.

Susan Roesgen, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: "CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next. To get a preview now, where is that Daryn Kagan? Oh, there she is.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Here I am. Down in Atlanta, y'all.

HARRIS: I'll be back soon.

KAGAN: OK, very good, Tony.

Good morning to you. You'll be able to stay up to the minute on the latest on the Mideast crisis on LIVE TODAY.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Moments ago some intelligence came in that this location may be targeted by Hezbollah. We heard that tanks start opening fire a couple of seconds ago, and now these soldiers have taken a very aggressive defensive posture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: On the front lines our correspondent John Roberts puts you in the boots of an Israeli soldier on the ground in Lebanon.

Plus this from Phoenix, Arizona.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE; I guess I'm just guilty by association, even though I did not shoot anybody or kill anybody. I'd like to see them prove it. They're going to have to prove it, because I didn't do anything wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: A candid 10 minutes with an accused serial killer. He says he's innocent, and he points the finger at someone else.

And Florida politics gone wild. Cable access at its finest. Furniture flies at a debate in Tampa, along with insults and name calling.

Who are you going to vote for? Those stories and a lot more.

HARRIS: I thought we were going to get it in slow motion, instant replay, you know how we do it 50 different times.

KAGAN: And Bobby Knight is not running for office.

HARRIS: That's right!

All right, Daryn, thank you. See you at the top of the hour.

Man, oh, man. Up next, Andy "Minding Your Business."

Good morning, Andy.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Tony.

Some more news from Florida. Which city has the distinction of being named "Bubble City," the most overvalued housing market in the U.S.? Coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

HARRIS: Coming up at the top of the hour. The handover at the halfway point. The Iraqi army takes over more risky real estate from U.S. troops. And forecasters take some of the wind out of hurricane season. Their revised prediction comes out this morning. More AMERICAN MORNING right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: We are out of time. Let's send it right to Daryn Kagan at the CNN center. She's going to be with you for the next couple of hours.

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