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Preparing for War; Journalists Undergo Combat Training; Navy Puts Sea Lions to Work

Aired February 16, 2003 - 16:00   ET

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

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


SHARON COLLINS, HOST: Coming up on NEXT@CNN, preparing for war. Home owners ponder the value of duct tape. And journalists learn what to do in the combat zone.
Also, emotional testimony from the man who was in charge at mission control when Columbia was lost.

And the Navy puts sea lions to work protecting ships in the Persian Gulf. Those stories and more are just ahead.

Welcome to NEXT@CNN. We are glad you joined us. I'm Sharon Collins at CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

Code orange, possible attacks with ricin, anthrax, suitcase nuclear weapons. It is scary stuff. Maybe even too much for duct tape to handle. CNN's security analyst Kelly McCann joining us from Washington to sort this out. Kelly, all the moms and dads are out there buying duct tape. Does it really do any good?

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: It will only anything for people, Sharon, in the area that the concentration is high. In other words, if you're immediately downwind or if you're in the area of delivery, that's what it's designed to do. It is not designed, or is it believed that an agent released by improvised weapon would go as far as many miles or many counties, et cetera. So it's a little bit of an overreaction but understandably.

COLLINS: And, Kelly, what's the reality of us actually knowing immediately when such an attack has been launched?

MCCANN: Well, that would be the key, wouldn't it? You remember, that in the military, Sharon, men will get into the equipment I've brought in here, like this M40A1 gas mask, and their carbon suits before they go into the attack when they think it might be used, and that's where most of the protection comes from.

COLLINS: What about those gas masks? Do they do any good? I was with a group of Marines on a drill one time and mine fogged all up. I couldn't see a thing. It was pretty much useless to me. Do you have to really know what you're doing to even use that?

MCCANN: You do. It has to be properly fitted. It has to be airtight, obviously. And in fact, there is one cautionary note. There's an element in this filter named Chromium 6, which is a carcinogen. If this filter was damaged because it's improperly stored or it was war surplus, or it had been crushed and then someone puts it on the face and inhales that, it could actually hurt them. So there's more going on with a gas mask than just putting it on your face and thinking that you're protected.

COLLINS: Kelly, let's talk about the psychology of all of this. We've had the code yellow, the code orange. How much times can the government come out with the alerts before we start refusing to pay attention to it? Before we just kind of ignore the whole thing and say, oh, it's just another cry wolf?

MCCANN: Sure. It goes to a buzzword, Sharon, that people using now, called ambient threat, which is the kind of development of a feeling of oppression. I mean, everybody shoulders are kind of slumped. They are walking around. The big thing to remember is that in a war against terror, which you really endure, you don't necessarily win, there will be a lot of times where the threat is raised and then goes away with no significant incident occurring. And people have to understand they have got to okay with not seeing an incident, thank God, and not experiencing that, because many times they have done that -- they could have thwarted an incident. We'll never know.

COLLINS: Kelly, in your estimation, what are the real risks and what can we realistically do to prepare ourselves?

MCCANN: Looking at this from an analytical standpoint, I mean, I think there is two very real risks. One is ricin and one is sarin. Ricin because it is an easily made and stable agent, lethal in all dosages. Ricin does -- has no antidote. It has no prophylaxis. The trouble is in the weaponization of it. It's a persistent agent and it will stay on the ground, but doesn't then turn to vapor and is inhaled. Sarin also is another real problem. It has been used for -- by the Japanese terrorist organization in 1995 in the subway, and it does produce considerable casualties. For instance, in that incident, only a 30 percent solution was used and there were 17 killed and 5,000 sick.

But, if you look at it logically, many of those who were sick were because there was no personal protection equipment used at the hospital. And also, because there was no decontamination. They simply didn't know what they were dealing with initially. And that wouldn't be the case now, so the numbers are a little bit skewed. I think those are two real present problems.

COLLINS: What about these dirty bombs or suitcase nuclear bombs? What kind of threat do they pose and anything to do to prepare ourselves for that?

MCCANN: I'll take the first part of that question up here and what I'll say about that is that the radiation sickness, if you put it into perspective and think of like Chernobyl, in Chernobyl, there were eight tons, or 16,000 pounds, more or less, of radioactive material put into the atmosphere which ultimately ended up with 17 or -- I'm sorry, with 8,000 dead but over time.

Now if you think about that -- 16,000 pounds. How is a terrorist going to organize that? How will he carry it? How will he deliver it when there is so many people looking for that to happen in odd circumstance? So that's one situation.

We might be talking hundreds of pounds. We might even talk about a thousand pounds, but I can't imagine something that big could be replicated with an improvised explosive device. The other one, the suitcase nuclear device, 37 of which or so are unaccounted for, is significantly more problematic. The good news there is that fission material in that construction does degrade over time, and they've been out there for sometime. Very sketchy details on those. However, they could also be comprised of up to a kiloton in strength, which would cause significant damage. So that is another possibility, but not necessarily a probability.

COLLINS: All right. Kelly McCann, our security analyst in Washington. We thank you for joining us.

Now, if nerves are frayed on the home front because of all of this, imagine how it feels to be heading into a war zone. That includes not just troops, but journalists. CNN's Thomas Nybo was part of a group of 60 journalists who spent a week training at a Marine Corps base camp before heading for the Middle East. He is here to show us some of the high-tech gear he will be taking with him. Welcome.

THOMAS NYBO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome. It is nice to be here.

COLLINS: Look at this stuff. How are you going to carry all of this?

NYBO: Well, the catch phrase is 'backpack journalism'. Basically, I have got a large suitcase and a backpack and we can fit it all in there. The clothes, the satellite phones, the laptop, the cameras, the protective gear that Kelly was talking about. Even this high-tech water bottle that you can basically fill with any water and drink it and it's filtered. Basically, this camera here is kind of the heart of it all and sums it all up. It's very mobile, and then you can jump out of planes with this. You can cross rivers. And once you shoot the video, then you dump it into your laptop computer, you edit it and once you finish it, then you send it back to CNN Center through a satellite phone.

COLLINS: How do you do all of this and still cover the news? I mean, as a reporter, I can tell you sometimes it's all you can do to gather the news. How do you do this, too?

NYBO: It is certainly not for everybody. In fact, when we were up training in Quantico, a lot of the old school journalists were complaining. They were like, how can you carry, you know, a 100 pounds worth of gear, and it's certainly not for people who aren't ready to roll. I mean, you have got to be in shape, you have got to be a strong journalist. I mean, it's the $64,000 question.

COLLINS: So does this separate the old from the young, sort to speak? NYBO: I really think this is kind of a way that the new generation is going to be covering war. I mean, it's very mobile. It is very kind of X-Box friendly. So, yes.

COLLINS: Do you have any fears?

NYBO: I have a lot of fears. And especially when you go through and see there's -- that it is a certain unknown factor. I mean, there's the chemical and biological weapons. There is the land mines. There is the missiles. I mean, a lot of things could go wrong. CNN has prepared us to deal with it the best way they can and that's just part of the job.

COLLINS: And lets talk about your little mini satellite dish here. I find that amazing. Now how does this work?

NYBO: Yes, people are most fascinated with this. It's like a traditional satellite phone, only you can send data through it. So you can actually connect to the Internet through it. You can send video if you want. You know, 100 percent resolution. A two-minute story might take as long as an hour or two to transmit, or some of those -- some of the videophone imagery that people have grown accustomed to, you can do this live. Basically put all this stuff in my backpack, get out in the desert. You know, there is something going on. The military gives the green light to go ahead and send it back. We get set up. We are beaming it live. People are seeing it as it happens. It is a little bit fuzzy but it's the immediacy is what is really separate -- you know, if we go to war, that's just going to be different this time around.

COLLINS: A new war, a new reporter. We will be thinking of you. You're going to be our eyes and ears. Watch your back. Thomas Nybo.

NYBO: I certainly will. Thank you.

COLLINS: Thank you very much.

All right, just ahead, we're going to go live to Daniel Sieberg at the elite high-tech conference called "Demo" which starts today in Arizona. Daniel, how you doing and what do you have for us?

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Sharon, that's right. We are going to have some technology that helps different devices talk to each other as well as some video technology that's being used by the military to help train people in the field. Stay with us. That's coming up on NEXT@CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Over the past dozen years, it's often been the launch pad for the next big thing. The Demo Technology Conference is gearing up in Scottsdale, Arizona, and our own tech guru, Daniel Sieberg, is getting a good look at the goods. Daniel, what do you have for us today? What's the new thing? SIEBERG: Yeah, hi, Sharon. That's right. This show goes on every year and we're here just outside Scottsdale, Arizona. It is kind of an elite tech show. There are 61 companies that have invited here. If you can imagine that the buzz about technology kind of starts here. They think of it as kind of an anti-trade show show, where there is not the huge crowds, but there's more of the select types of technology here that are on display. And the first we are going to look at right now, talks about video technology being used by the military. I am joined by Rich Mavrogeanes. He's the co-founder of this company, VBrick. Tell me what we've got set up right here.

RICH MAVROGEANES, FOUNDER, PRESIDENT, CHAIRMAN, VBRICK: Well, We're here at Demo introducing VBX Task (ph) which is the first portable video network appliance. This is an appliance you can just plug it into the network, very simply, that delivers live video over the network to any number of viewers.

SIEBERG: OK, well, let's talk about the military application, because we have got some video loaded up here. Tell me what we're going to be seeing here. These cameras were set up as part of a training exercise.

MAVROGEANES: That's true. The military uses the VBricks to deliver live training throughout battle fields. We are looking at Naval air warfare training. And battlefield commanders, no matter where they are, can view this video on ...

(CROSSTALK)

SIEBERG: In real-time.

MAVROGEANES: In real-time. This is all live.

SIEBERG: OK.

MAVROGEANES: Real time, on laptops, on your TV screen, even on PDAs in the field.

SIEBERG: And previously, this video was often really huge. Right? Like these files were very big, but you are able to compress it in order to stream it across all of these different devices wherever you are?

MAVROGEANES: Yes. And importantly, it's all live, and importantly, it's all coming out of a simple appliance so it can be sent from anywhere. Here we are looking at some cave bombing.

SIEBERG: It's a cave bombing video. OK, now this could be potentially used for Afghanistan?

MAVROGEANES: That's right.

SIEBERG: What's happening in Afghanistan. But also the White House. Now tell me a bit about the White House because they are using this technology. MAVROGEANES: They are. The White House uses this technology to deliver live news and information to staffers within the White House. Corporations use it for training, as well as the government.

SIEBERG: OK. Great. Well, Rich Mavrogeanes, thank you so much for talking about VBricks.

MAVROGEANES: Well, great. Thanks. A pleasure.

SIEBERG: That's one of the technologies on display here, being demonstrated, part of the Demo show. Now we are going to move over to Sprint. I am joined by Ben Parker from Sprint to talk about the technology that allows different devices to talk to each other. This is sort of the key behind it, isn't it?

BEN PARKER, SPRINT: Yes. Absolutely. This technology demonstration that we developed at Sprint labs allows us to unify what has been thought of in the past as separate communication devises. Now we can have telephones, PCS devises, computers, and such as these video terminals all communicating to each other.

SIEBERG: All that can talk to each other. All talking the same language, essentially. Well, let's do a quick demonstration here. You have got a video conferencing software set up. OK.

PARKER: We will establish a video call. That is correct.

SIEBERG: OK.

PARKER: Now this is -- would be a perfect example of where like doctors can provide wide area consultation between a patient and another doctor, or doctor to doctor. We can now conference in another individual. This person will be on a tablet PC. Now what makes this very powerful is a single phone number can follow you through an number of devises.

SIEBERG: OK, so it knows whether you're connected to a -- if you were talking on the phone, maybe you go off you're phone. You turn it off. And now you are walking around with a tablet PC, or something else. It knows that.

PARKER: It knows that, so the devise which is most appropriate at that point and time to communicate on, now becomes your primary device.

SIEBERG: OK.

PARKER: Now let's conference in a completely new device. This will be a PCS phone. So now what we have done is married wireless video and voice communications.

SIEBERG: And previously, this was impossible, right?

PARKER: Previously none of these would talk to each other. They would talk -- a video terminal to another video terminal. Telephone to another telephone. SIEBERG: All right. Well, Ben Parker from Sprint. Thanks so much for joining us. And we were talking to Sprint earlier, they are saying this technology will be available to people in about 12 to 18 months. So that's still the case here with technologies at Demo. They are not on the market yet, but Demo is where they essentially stage them, and then release them to the market. So we're definitely keeping our eye on a lot of the things that going on here, and we will be here for the next couple of days. Sharon, back to you.

COLLINS: And Daniel, thank you for, as always, keeping us ahead of the curve on the cool new things.

Now coming up, a unique look at the shuttle Columbia disaster through the eyes of the man who was running things in Mission Control that day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: The people who work in the Space Shuttle Flight Control Room are trained to handle big problems while maintaining their cool. On the morning of February 1, they would be put to the test in ways they never had before. CNN's space correspondent Miles O'Brien reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Veteran flight director Leroy Cain as sitting at the top of the pyramid in the space shuttle flight control room as Columbia plummeted to earth.

Watching his data, constantly polling his team of specialists, he saw the tragedy unfold around him.

LEROY CAIN, FLIGHT DIRECTOR: When we came in in the morning, it was as things should be on entry day, and everything was setting up to be just as I would want it to be with respect to being able to do everything and land that day.

O'BRIEN: As we now know, the trouble first began as Columbia streaked 237,000 feet above the Pacific at nearly 24 times the speed of sound.

Just after 8:52 eastern, temperatures rose abnormally in three brake lines in the left wheel well. And then, about minute later, several temperature sensors in the hydraulic lines at the back of Columbia's left wing failed in rapid succession.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flight, Max.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead, Max.

O'BRIEN: Max was Jeff Kling, ground controller in charge of maintenance, mechanical and crew systems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: FYI, I've just lost four separate temperature transducers on the left side of the vehicle, the hydraulic return temperatures.

CAIN: From the very first indications that we had of the hydraulic return temperature indications being failed, I -- that gave me pause. There were several of the smaller events leading up to the loss of signal.

So there was some increasing concern. We remained focused and we did the things that we were trained to do.

O'BRIEN: At 8:54, Columbia was streaking over Yosemite. Onboard computers began moving some control flaps to compensate for drag on the left side. At the same time, sensors in Columbia's left fuselage wall detected abnormally high readings.

The, with the drag apparently worsening, Columbia's computers fired rocket thrusters to try and right the craft.

At the same time, left brake line temperatures continued rising, while heat sensors on the upper and lower left wing failed.

Cain new a lot of things were going wrong on Columbia's left side and then at 8:59:13, he heard from Max once again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flight, Max.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just lost tire pressure on left outboard and left inboard, both tires.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Columbia, Houston, we see your tire pressure messages and we did not copy your last.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger...

O'BRIEN: Before the loss of signal, Columbia's computers were still desperately fighting that pull to the left by adjusting flaps and firing rockets.

Two minutes after the signal went silent, 9:01:24, Kane heard from his instrumentation and communications engineer, Laura Hopp (ph). Or INCO.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Flight, INCO. I didn't expect this bad of a hit on com.

O'BRIEN: The astronaut in charge of talking with the flight crew, Charlie Hobard (ph), tried raising Columbia four times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Columbia, Houston, com check.

O'BRIEN: At this point, Cain could only hope Columbia had suffered a drastic communication failure.

But the tension grew at 9:04, when the orbiter should have appeared on a radar screen near Cape Canaveral. Cain to flight dynamics officer Richard Jones, or Fido, at 9:05.

CAIN: Fido, when are you expecting tracking?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One minute ago, flight.

O'BRIEN: Cain paused before acting.

CAIN: What I was doing right at that moment in time is I was saying a prayer.

O'BRIEN: At 9:10, Cain turns to lead flight director, Phil Engola (ph), and astronaut Ellen Achoa (ph), who have more bad news: unconfirmed sightings of the shuttle breaking up over Texas.

CAIN: And after I did that, I knew it was time to go and take the next step. So I began to think about things like ground forces and getting people mobilized and looking for chutes and things of that nature.

And it was difficult to accept, but it wasn't difficult to execute. Again, I would say because of our training.

O'BRIEN: And that is what he did. Thirteen minutes after Columbia fell off the screens, Cain, to Bill Foster, his ground controller, or GC.

CAIN: GC, flight. GC, flight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: GC.

CAIN: Lock the doors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy.

O'BRIEN: Eleven minutes after he ordered the doors locked to ensure crucial data was preserved for the investigation, Cain and his team saw this: footage of Columbia's breakup, shot by WFAA, carried on CNN.

In an instant, they knew there would be no parachutes.

Miles O'Brien, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Coming up in our next half hour, could drilling for oil in this Alaskan wilderness change the environment? Or change the environment for war in Iraq? We'll hear from both sides in just a few minutes. And we'll meet some slippery characters who are helping to keep U.S. sailors safe in the middle east. But first we are going to take a quick break and check the latest headlines. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. I'm Sharon Collins.

With war looming in Iraq, oil imports are a hot topic these days. So is two bucks a gallon for gas. But is drilling in the Arctic wildlife refuge a smart solution?

Joining me now are Representative Jay Inslee in Seattle. He sits on the House Resources Committee, and Charli Coon, a senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Thank you both for joining us this afternoon.

REP. JAY INSLEE (D-WA), RESOURCES COMMITTEE: You bet.

COLLINS: Let me start with you, Representative Inslee.

I covered the Arctic refuge day after day after day. We thought it was pretty much a dead issue. Bring us up to date on what's happening now.

INSLEE: Well, there will be efforts to turn over this beautiful, pristine area. And I've been there. It's just an incredible area. And there will be efforts to turn this national asset of the American people over to the oil industry. And I think that would be like having a national energy policy dependent on drilling in the Arctic is about as effective as having a terrorism policy dependent on duct tape. It's wholly ineffective and it does not use our existing technology.

And the reason it's ineffective is that we only have three percent of the oil reserves in the world. If you include drilling all of our national parks, all of our refuges, you've still only got three percent of the national oil reserves, but we use 25 percent of the oil. Clearly, this drilling in our national areas is a doomed, bankrupt policy. It simply will not work.

Even in our wildest estimates of optimism of how much oil is there, you'll reduce your reliance on international oil imports from 62 percent to 60 percent. It is just a non-starter.

But more importantly, I think, if we drill in the Arctic, we really sort of run up the white flag to not compete for the new technologies, the new kind of technological genius we should be using to solve this problem. You know, if we increase our fuel efficiency in our vehicles using existing technology, things we know how to do today by three miles a gallon, we'll save more oil than you'll ever get out of the Arctic and that's what we should be doing.

COLLINS: Let me go to Charli Coon here.

Given the claims that there is such a limited amount of oil, why do you feel that it's worth it to drill there?

CHARLI COON, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Well, first of all, let me just address the pictures, those panoramic, those beautiful pictures that you were just showing on TV. That's not the area. Those are not the areas where we would be drilling. We're talking about the size of 2,000 acres, about the size of a postage stamp on a football field. And the oil that we could get from Anwar would be the equivalent of 35 years worth of Saudi Arabia oil.

The key here is that it will give us reliability. It will give us a reliable source of energy. Will it make us totally independent? Of course not. And no one is trying to say that the United States will ever be totally independent of oil. But we do have to diversify where we get our resources and the president has said that we should go to Anwar. It has been approved by Congress in 1995 but it was vetoed by the president at that time. Had it not been vetoed by the president, we'd be getting oil from Anwar right now.

We also should look into our offshore drilling and into our federal lands. That will give us energy security, give us much more. It will not make us independent, but it will give us better and better national and energy security.

COLLINS: Let me ask you both this question. Is the oil, any oil that comes out of the Arctic refuge mandated to stay within the United States?

INSLEE: No, it is not, and I think all this will do, it will make some special interests happy that are very powerful in Washington, D.C. But it will not make significant strides. And what we need is we need a new Apollo energy program in this country that will, and we can, as proved by the Department of Energy, significantly reduce our dependence on Mideast oil so that no American has to die for oil. And we can do this by not using 19th century technology.

Oil is a 19th century technology and we're in a 21st century world. We need to use these technologies, the creative genius, to use wind, solar, geothermal and conservation energy technologies to break this dependence on Mideast oil. And that will help us security.

COLLINS: Charli...

INSLEE: And it is capable of doing that.

COLLINS: Charli, jump in here whenever you want to, because I know...

COON: OK. Well, well, first of all, I mean the wind and solar is going to have absolutely nothing to do with our automobiles and with driving. That has to do with electricity. We're talking about oil. Second of all, wind and solar, even if you could use them, they are very unreliable, more unreliable than some of these unstable countries that we're dealing with.

INSLEE: We will be, Jerry...

COON: So, and we are using technology. In fact, in Kudo Bay, which is in Alaska, if we use today's technology in Kudo Bay this day, the footprint, the size that we use for the drilling would be 67 percent smaller. We have 3D drilling. We have horizontal drilling. The technology for drilling oil is equal to the technology in medicine, where we can...

INSLEE: You know, the numbers you hear...

COON: ... fine point where we want to go.

INSLEE: The numbers you're hearing are just ridiculous. They talk about a 2,000 acre footprint, but that's like measuring the surface because you build everything on stilts up there in the Arctic. That's like measuring the footprint in your office of just where your desk touches the floor. This place is going to look more like New Jersey and less like Yellowstone if, in fact, this copout to the special interests occurs. And that's the shame of it, to see this sellout of a precious national asset.

COON: Now, wait a minute...

INSLEE: Now, the fact is...

COON: Wait...

INSLEE: No, let me finish there.

COON: It's not...

INSLEE: Let me finish. You had your say. Let me get something in here. We are building today a wind turbine plant in Stateline, Washington that in a market-based price is going to produce enough electricity for 109,000 homes. And if we can do that, we should certainly be able to increase our fuel efficiency of our cars by three miles a gallon...

COON: And they have been improving.

INSLEE: ... which will eliminate the need for this oil in the Arctic. Now, unfortunately, they have not.

COON: Oh, yes they have.

INSLEE: We stopped making improvements in the mid-1980s. We stopped making improvements in the mid-1980s. If we had continued in the '90s like we did in the '70s, we would have save all of the oil we're getting today from Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

COON: Actually, hybrid vehicles are beginning to sell, are becoming commercialized.

INSLEE: And we need to help them all.

COON: And each new model of automobile is more efficient than the other. Plus, the more fuel efficient you make an automobile, the more miles people are going to drive. We've seen this. The cafe standards...

INSLEE: So you're against fuel efficiency?

COON: The corporate average fuel economy standard has been a failed program. At that particular time, we were only getting about 35 percent of our oil...

COLLINS: All right, Representative Inslee, Charli Coon, obviously a debate that's going to continue.

INSLEE: You bet.

COLLINS: We're running out of time. I hope we can have you both back some day.

INSLEE: Thank you.

COON: Thank you.

COLLINS: I think we're going to be covering this one for some time.

Again, thank both of you for joining us on a Sunday afternoon and taking time out of your weekend.

INSLEE: You bet.

COLLINS: Now, coming up, DJs are getting some new tools that will let them throw out their turntables but keep on scratching.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: OK, now who would want their music CDs to sound like vinyl records? Well, a lot of DJs would. And in Japan, they've come up with technology to achieve just that and a whole lot more.

Kristie Lou Stout reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No musician is more dedicated to the needs of the audience than the disk jockey.

DJ SHUYA OKINO: I'm a DJ. My purpose is to introduce good music to audience.

STOUT: Good music served up on L.P. Even in the so-called digital age, DJs are sticking to vinyl to get what they call that warmer, old school sound.

(on camera): In nightclubs around the world, the analog turntable is still the tool of the trade. But some pretty new technology is making its way to the DJ booth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quit talking and start mixing.

STOUT (voice-over): Like the CDJ-1000, which has the feel of an old turntable. It can loop and scratch CDs, even speed up a song without that strange high pitch. DJ YUTAKA: Like you could be playing "Funky Drama," James Brown, if you want to play faster, James Brown is like hih, huh, you know what I mean? Like going high. So it's losing the song's feel.

STOUT: DJ Yutaka worked with Pioneer to fix that pitch and create the player that's become an essential part of his kit.

MASAKI SATO, DIVISION HEAD, PIONEER: Because there are in the music titles available only by CD maybe, you know, for DJs, their choice became more than before.

STOUT: More choice for DJs and more choice for club hoppers, thanks to the music sommelier, a technology developed by Panasonic.

MITSHUHIKO SERIKAWA, GENERAL MANAGER, PANASONIC: Music sommelier loads music to select music based on the mood or situation of the moment rather than a tighter name or an artist's name and so on.

STOUT: It automatically analyzes stored music files, looking at the speed, rhythm and number of notes in each track. And like a personal DJ, the software then charts what tunes to play at a party. Even with the promise of an automatic music picker, some audio files may never be satisfied, especially in the world of hip hop, where digital has always been second best.

DJ YUTAKA: Some DJs tell me, told me like Yutaka, sir, this is not hip hop, man. This is, you know, like death or, you know, this is not hip hop. But, hey, many 21 century, man. Think about it, man. You know, we have to grow up.

STOUT: Pioneer says the CDJ-1000 has a converter to make CDs sound more like LPs. But DJs still like their old ways, like putting the needle to the record.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Kristie Lou Stout joins us now from the CNN Hong Kong bureau -- welcome, Kristie.

STOUT: Hi, Sharon, and good morning here from Hong Kong.

COLLINS: Yes.

Well, listen, you talked about why DJs are reluctant to drop the vinyl, but what's the advantage of going completely digital?

STOUT: The advantages of going completely digital include, number one, you get to play more music, since, quite frankly, there are more tracks available out there on compact discs than LPs. But on top of that, digital players like the Pioneer device I showed you just now, they have memory card slots so you can actually store the exact cue and loop points for thousands of songs. And that is very important for hip hop DJs, for example, that need a vast library of that constant background dance music beat.

But that being said, however, the DJs who I talked to in Tokyo are very reluctant to part with their vinyl record collection. They said, number one, they love the sound and feel of vinyl records and also, number two, they consider it not only a collection of vinyl records, but also their art collection because of those big covers. They just love them too much.

COLLINS: I have to ask, though, how much consumer demand would there be for a product like, say, the music sommelier?

STOUT: Right now not much consumer demand. But there could be in the future if and when our home stereos turn into devices like our MP3 players, into servers that store hundreds, if not thousands, of CDs. I think if and when that happens, then there would be consumer demand for a device, a technology that can actually go out there and pick the songs that we want to play at a cocktail party versus a bachelor party, for example.

COLLINS: All right, Kristie Lou Stout, thank you for updating us on -- for those of us who might want to aspire to DJ stardom.

Thanks a lot for joining us from Hong Kong on morning.

STOUT: Or scratch a CD.

COLLINS: Thank you.

All right, up next, a baby picture of the early universe that answers some nagging questions about how it all began.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Welcome back.

Let's check environment news for this week. Oil from a barge accident in Long Island Sound has largely dissipated. Early Friday morning, the barge scrapped bottom and leaked about 2,500 gallons of home heating oil just south of Norwalk, Connecticut. Coast Guard officials say the spill broke up yesterday. Now the only task is to move the thousands of gallons left in the barge to another vessel.

NASA has released a portrait of the universe in its infancy and it may be one of the most important scientific achievements in recent years. Now, the picture shows the after glow of the big bang, the patterns of light mark where galaxies would later develop. Information for the image was gathered by a NASA satellite orbiting one million miles from earth. NASA says the image reveals a lot about the makeup, evolution and age of the universe, which it turns out is 13.7 billion years old.

Now, still to come, you've heard about Navy SEALS. But how about Navy sea lions? We'll have a live report from Bahrain on how these guys are helping keep U.S. ships safe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: With tensions high and worldwide anti-war protests continuing today, U.S. forces keep moving into the Persian Gulf region.

Becky Diamond joins us now via video phone with the latest on the Bahrain terror bust and to tell us about some unusual Naval recruits.

There'll be a bit of a delay, so bear with us -- hello, Becky.

BECKY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Sharon.

Well, Bahraini officials say they've arrested five men allegedly part of a terrorist cell and plotting an attack here in Bahrain. And according to Bahrain's "Alayam" newspaper, national security forces found and confiscated videotapes of Osama bin Laden in the home of one of the five men arrested.

Now, Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. It's a key regional ally of the United States. And there are two U.S. aircraft carriers and their battle groups, the USS Constellation and the USS Lincoln, which are currently deployed in the Persian Gulf, and a third battle group and aircraft carrier is on its way -- Sharon.

COLLINS: Now, I understand that it's no longer just the dog is man's best friend. There are some animals helping out in this effort.

DIAMOND: Exactly. To guard all the billions of dollars of Navy assets and to protect the thousands of sailors, officers and Marines currently deployed in the Persian Gulf, the most advanced military in the world is using some very basic animal instincts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (voice-over): There's a new special force protecting America's sailors in the Persian Gulf.

BRENDA BRYAN, WARFARE SYSTEMS TRAINER: Zack is a big teddy bear. He's 19 years old and he weighs 385 pounds.

DIAMOND: Brenda Bryan trains a group of Navy sea lions based out of San Diego and deployed for the first time in the Persian Gulf.

COMMANDER. JOHN WOOD, U.S. NAVY: We brought sea lions out here because they are trained to detect, locate and mark objects underwater. Some of the animals have an enhanced capability to detect swimmers, moving objects. So these animals are out here conducting force protection operations, protecting the sailors, Marines and the ships, the assets of the United States Navy and our coalition.

BRYAN: He's doing what a human diver would be doing, as well. But he's a lot faster and he's adapted, you know, he's using his own personal qualities that they live by every single day and just doing this to protect us, you know? It's just like all of our soldiers are doing. He's performing the same service for our nation.

So we come in the water and they start patrolling and we patrol right along with them. They have very keen directional hearing and excellent eyesight. So they use that while they're in the water. They check the surface and they check underneath and then they will go into piers and scan in the pier for anything and then they'll come back to the boat and let us know, you know, if they have heard or seen anything or if it's clear.

DIAMOND: If the sea lions do find something, they are trained to attach a line leading to a buoy on the surface that allows human divers to swim to the scene and identify the threat.

WOOD: There is a threat level in this region. So whether or not the threat level were to increase, the fact that we have them out here is just a benefit to us. Our sailors are safe, the marines are safe and our ships are safe pier side.

DIAMOND: But how safe is Zack?

BRYAN: He's no more in harm's way than I'm putting myself in. We, we're all in the same situation. He likes to do his job. You can read it in his, on his face every single day that he enjoys what he's doing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND: Now, the sea lions arrived here in Bahrain in early February. They trained for about 18 months for their deployment. They're certainly not the only line of the defense the Navy is using, but they certainly add to the arsenal of options -- Sharon.

COLLINS: Becky Diamond, thank you for joining us and sharing an incredible story.

And we wish the sea lions and the Navy SEALS our best.

Well, that's all the time we have.

Thanks for being with us.

Next week our Saturday show moves to a new time slot, 3:00 p.m. Eastern instead of 2:00 p.m. Now, among the stories we'll bring you next week, the Vatican is trying to decide who should be the patron saint of the Internet. We'll talk live with noted theologian Father Guido Sarducci and get his views on the subject. We hope you can join us then.

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





Navy Puts Sea Lions to Work>


Aired February 16, 2003 - 16:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SHARON COLLINS, HOST: Coming up on NEXT@CNN, preparing for war. Home owners ponder the value of duct tape. And journalists learn what to do in the combat zone.
Also, emotional testimony from the man who was in charge at mission control when Columbia was lost.

And the Navy puts sea lions to work protecting ships in the Persian Gulf. Those stories and more are just ahead.

Welcome to NEXT@CNN. We are glad you joined us. I'm Sharon Collins at CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

Code orange, possible attacks with ricin, anthrax, suitcase nuclear weapons. It is scary stuff. Maybe even too much for duct tape to handle. CNN's security analyst Kelly McCann joining us from Washington to sort this out. Kelly, all the moms and dads are out there buying duct tape. Does it really do any good?

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: It will only anything for people, Sharon, in the area that the concentration is high. In other words, if you're immediately downwind or if you're in the area of delivery, that's what it's designed to do. It is not designed, or is it believed that an agent released by improvised weapon would go as far as many miles or many counties, et cetera. So it's a little bit of an overreaction but understandably.

COLLINS: And, Kelly, what's the reality of us actually knowing immediately when such an attack has been launched?

MCCANN: Well, that would be the key, wouldn't it? You remember, that in the military, Sharon, men will get into the equipment I've brought in here, like this M40A1 gas mask, and their carbon suits before they go into the attack when they think it might be used, and that's where most of the protection comes from.

COLLINS: What about those gas masks? Do they do any good? I was with a group of Marines on a drill one time and mine fogged all up. I couldn't see a thing. It was pretty much useless to me. Do you have to really know what you're doing to even use that?

MCCANN: You do. It has to be properly fitted. It has to be airtight, obviously. And in fact, there is one cautionary note. There's an element in this filter named Chromium 6, which is a carcinogen. If this filter was damaged because it's improperly stored or it was war surplus, or it had been crushed and then someone puts it on the face and inhales that, it could actually hurt them. So there's more going on with a gas mask than just putting it on your face and thinking that you're protected.

COLLINS: Kelly, let's talk about the psychology of all of this. We've had the code yellow, the code orange. How much times can the government come out with the alerts before we start refusing to pay attention to it? Before we just kind of ignore the whole thing and say, oh, it's just another cry wolf?

MCCANN: Sure. It goes to a buzzword, Sharon, that people using now, called ambient threat, which is the kind of development of a feeling of oppression. I mean, everybody shoulders are kind of slumped. They are walking around. The big thing to remember is that in a war against terror, which you really endure, you don't necessarily win, there will be a lot of times where the threat is raised and then goes away with no significant incident occurring. And people have to understand they have got to okay with not seeing an incident, thank God, and not experiencing that, because many times they have done that -- they could have thwarted an incident. We'll never know.

COLLINS: Kelly, in your estimation, what are the real risks and what can we realistically do to prepare ourselves?

MCCANN: Looking at this from an analytical standpoint, I mean, I think there is two very real risks. One is ricin and one is sarin. Ricin because it is an easily made and stable agent, lethal in all dosages. Ricin does -- has no antidote. It has no prophylaxis. The trouble is in the weaponization of it. It's a persistent agent and it will stay on the ground, but doesn't then turn to vapor and is inhaled. Sarin also is another real problem. It has been used for -- by the Japanese terrorist organization in 1995 in the subway, and it does produce considerable casualties. For instance, in that incident, only a 30 percent solution was used and there were 17 killed and 5,000 sick.

But, if you look at it logically, many of those who were sick were because there was no personal protection equipment used at the hospital. And also, because there was no decontamination. They simply didn't know what they were dealing with initially. And that wouldn't be the case now, so the numbers are a little bit skewed. I think those are two real present problems.

COLLINS: What about these dirty bombs or suitcase nuclear bombs? What kind of threat do they pose and anything to do to prepare ourselves for that?

MCCANN: I'll take the first part of that question up here and what I'll say about that is that the radiation sickness, if you put it into perspective and think of like Chernobyl, in Chernobyl, there were eight tons, or 16,000 pounds, more or less, of radioactive material put into the atmosphere which ultimately ended up with 17 or -- I'm sorry, with 8,000 dead but over time.

Now if you think about that -- 16,000 pounds. How is a terrorist going to organize that? How will he carry it? How will he deliver it when there is so many people looking for that to happen in odd circumstance? So that's one situation.

We might be talking hundreds of pounds. We might even talk about a thousand pounds, but I can't imagine something that big could be replicated with an improvised explosive device. The other one, the suitcase nuclear device, 37 of which or so are unaccounted for, is significantly more problematic. The good news there is that fission material in that construction does degrade over time, and they've been out there for sometime. Very sketchy details on those. However, they could also be comprised of up to a kiloton in strength, which would cause significant damage. So that is another possibility, but not necessarily a probability.

COLLINS: All right. Kelly McCann, our security analyst in Washington. We thank you for joining us.

Now, if nerves are frayed on the home front because of all of this, imagine how it feels to be heading into a war zone. That includes not just troops, but journalists. CNN's Thomas Nybo was part of a group of 60 journalists who spent a week training at a Marine Corps base camp before heading for the Middle East. He is here to show us some of the high-tech gear he will be taking with him. Welcome.

THOMAS NYBO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome. It is nice to be here.

COLLINS: Look at this stuff. How are you going to carry all of this?

NYBO: Well, the catch phrase is 'backpack journalism'. Basically, I have got a large suitcase and a backpack and we can fit it all in there. The clothes, the satellite phones, the laptop, the cameras, the protective gear that Kelly was talking about. Even this high-tech water bottle that you can basically fill with any water and drink it and it's filtered. Basically, this camera here is kind of the heart of it all and sums it all up. It's very mobile, and then you can jump out of planes with this. You can cross rivers. And once you shoot the video, then you dump it into your laptop computer, you edit it and once you finish it, then you send it back to CNN Center through a satellite phone.

COLLINS: How do you do all of this and still cover the news? I mean, as a reporter, I can tell you sometimes it's all you can do to gather the news. How do you do this, too?

NYBO: It is certainly not for everybody. In fact, when we were up training in Quantico, a lot of the old school journalists were complaining. They were like, how can you carry, you know, a 100 pounds worth of gear, and it's certainly not for people who aren't ready to roll. I mean, you have got to be in shape, you have got to be a strong journalist. I mean, it's the $64,000 question.

COLLINS: So does this separate the old from the young, sort to speak? NYBO: I really think this is kind of a way that the new generation is going to be covering war. I mean, it's very mobile. It is very kind of X-Box friendly. So, yes.

COLLINS: Do you have any fears?

NYBO: I have a lot of fears. And especially when you go through and see there's -- that it is a certain unknown factor. I mean, there's the chemical and biological weapons. There is the land mines. There is the missiles. I mean, a lot of things could go wrong. CNN has prepared us to deal with it the best way they can and that's just part of the job.

COLLINS: And lets talk about your little mini satellite dish here. I find that amazing. Now how does this work?

NYBO: Yes, people are most fascinated with this. It's like a traditional satellite phone, only you can send data through it. So you can actually connect to the Internet through it. You can send video if you want. You know, 100 percent resolution. A two-minute story might take as long as an hour or two to transmit, or some of those -- some of the videophone imagery that people have grown accustomed to, you can do this live. Basically put all this stuff in my backpack, get out in the desert. You know, there is something going on. The military gives the green light to go ahead and send it back. We get set up. We are beaming it live. People are seeing it as it happens. It is a little bit fuzzy but it's the immediacy is what is really separate -- you know, if we go to war, that's just going to be different this time around.

COLLINS: A new war, a new reporter. We will be thinking of you. You're going to be our eyes and ears. Watch your back. Thomas Nybo.

NYBO: I certainly will. Thank you.

COLLINS: Thank you very much.

All right, just ahead, we're going to go live to Daniel Sieberg at the elite high-tech conference called "Demo" which starts today in Arizona. Daniel, how you doing and what do you have for us?

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Sharon, that's right. We are going to have some technology that helps different devices talk to each other as well as some video technology that's being used by the military to help train people in the field. Stay with us. That's coming up on NEXT@CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Over the past dozen years, it's often been the launch pad for the next big thing. The Demo Technology Conference is gearing up in Scottsdale, Arizona, and our own tech guru, Daniel Sieberg, is getting a good look at the goods. Daniel, what do you have for us today? What's the new thing? SIEBERG: Yeah, hi, Sharon. That's right. This show goes on every year and we're here just outside Scottsdale, Arizona. It is kind of an elite tech show. There are 61 companies that have invited here. If you can imagine that the buzz about technology kind of starts here. They think of it as kind of an anti-trade show show, where there is not the huge crowds, but there's more of the select types of technology here that are on display. And the first we are going to look at right now, talks about video technology being used by the military. I am joined by Rich Mavrogeanes. He's the co-founder of this company, VBrick. Tell me what we've got set up right here.

RICH MAVROGEANES, FOUNDER, PRESIDENT, CHAIRMAN, VBRICK: Well, We're here at Demo introducing VBX Task (ph) which is the first portable video network appliance. This is an appliance you can just plug it into the network, very simply, that delivers live video over the network to any number of viewers.

SIEBERG: OK, well, let's talk about the military application, because we have got some video loaded up here. Tell me what we're going to be seeing here. These cameras were set up as part of a training exercise.

MAVROGEANES: That's true. The military uses the VBricks to deliver live training throughout battle fields. We are looking at Naval air warfare training. And battlefield commanders, no matter where they are, can view this video on ...

(CROSSTALK)

SIEBERG: In real-time.

MAVROGEANES: In real-time. This is all live.

SIEBERG: OK.

MAVROGEANES: Real time, on laptops, on your TV screen, even on PDAs in the field.

SIEBERG: And previously, this video was often really huge. Right? Like these files were very big, but you are able to compress it in order to stream it across all of these different devices wherever you are?

MAVROGEANES: Yes. And importantly, it's all live, and importantly, it's all coming out of a simple appliance so it can be sent from anywhere. Here we are looking at some cave bombing.

SIEBERG: It's a cave bombing video. OK, now this could be potentially used for Afghanistan?

MAVROGEANES: That's right.

SIEBERG: What's happening in Afghanistan. But also the White House. Now tell me a bit about the White House because they are using this technology. MAVROGEANES: They are. The White House uses this technology to deliver live news and information to staffers within the White House. Corporations use it for training, as well as the government.

SIEBERG: OK. Great. Well, Rich Mavrogeanes, thank you so much for talking about VBricks.

MAVROGEANES: Well, great. Thanks. A pleasure.

SIEBERG: That's one of the technologies on display here, being demonstrated, part of the Demo show. Now we are going to move over to Sprint. I am joined by Ben Parker from Sprint to talk about the technology that allows different devices to talk to each other. This is sort of the key behind it, isn't it?

BEN PARKER, SPRINT: Yes. Absolutely. This technology demonstration that we developed at Sprint labs allows us to unify what has been thought of in the past as separate communication devises. Now we can have telephones, PCS devises, computers, and such as these video terminals all communicating to each other.

SIEBERG: All that can talk to each other. All talking the same language, essentially. Well, let's do a quick demonstration here. You have got a video conferencing software set up. OK.

PARKER: We will establish a video call. That is correct.

SIEBERG: OK.

PARKER: Now this is -- would be a perfect example of where like doctors can provide wide area consultation between a patient and another doctor, or doctor to doctor. We can now conference in another individual. This person will be on a tablet PC. Now what makes this very powerful is a single phone number can follow you through an number of devises.

SIEBERG: OK, so it knows whether you're connected to a -- if you were talking on the phone, maybe you go off you're phone. You turn it off. And now you are walking around with a tablet PC, or something else. It knows that.

PARKER: It knows that, so the devise which is most appropriate at that point and time to communicate on, now becomes your primary device.

SIEBERG: OK.

PARKER: Now let's conference in a completely new device. This will be a PCS phone. So now what we have done is married wireless video and voice communications.

SIEBERG: And previously, this was impossible, right?

PARKER: Previously none of these would talk to each other. They would talk -- a video terminal to another video terminal. Telephone to another telephone. SIEBERG: All right. Well, Ben Parker from Sprint. Thanks so much for joining us. And we were talking to Sprint earlier, they are saying this technology will be available to people in about 12 to 18 months. So that's still the case here with technologies at Demo. They are not on the market yet, but Demo is where they essentially stage them, and then release them to the market. So we're definitely keeping our eye on a lot of the things that going on here, and we will be here for the next couple of days. Sharon, back to you.

COLLINS: And Daniel, thank you for, as always, keeping us ahead of the curve on the cool new things.

Now coming up, a unique look at the shuttle Columbia disaster through the eyes of the man who was running things in Mission Control that day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: The people who work in the Space Shuttle Flight Control Room are trained to handle big problems while maintaining their cool. On the morning of February 1, they would be put to the test in ways they never had before. CNN's space correspondent Miles O'Brien reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Veteran flight director Leroy Cain as sitting at the top of the pyramid in the space shuttle flight control room as Columbia plummeted to earth.

Watching his data, constantly polling his team of specialists, he saw the tragedy unfold around him.

LEROY CAIN, FLIGHT DIRECTOR: When we came in in the morning, it was as things should be on entry day, and everything was setting up to be just as I would want it to be with respect to being able to do everything and land that day.

O'BRIEN: As we now know, the trouble first began as Columbia streaked 237,000 feet above the Pacific at nearly 24 times the speed of sound.

Just after 8:52 eastern, temperatures rose abnormally in three brake lines in the left wheel well. And then, about minute later, several temperature sensors in the hydraulic lines at the back of Columbia's left wing failed in rapid succession.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flight, Max.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead, Max.

O'BRIEN: Max was Jeff Kling, ground controller in charge of maintenance, mechanical and crew systems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: FYI, I've just lost four separate temperature transducers on the left side of the vehicle, the hydraulic return temperatures.

CAIN: From the very first indications that we had of the hydraulic return temperature indications being failed, I -- that gave me pause. There were several of the smaller events leading up to the loss of signal.

So there was some increasing concern. We remained focused and we did the things that we were trained to do.

O'BRIEN: At 8:54, Columbia was streaking over Yosemite. Onboard computers began moving some control flaps to compensate for drag on the left side. At the same time, sensors in Columbia's left fuselage wall detected abnormally high readings.

The, with the drag apparently worsening, Columbia's computers fired rocket thrusters to try and right the craft.

At the same time, left brake line temperatures continued rising, while heat sensors on the upper and lower left wing failed.

Cain new a lot of things were going wrong on Columbia's left side and then at 8:59:13, he heard from Max once again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flight, Max.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just lost tire pressure on left outboard and left inboard, both tires.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Columbia, Houston, we see your tire pressure messages and we did not copy your last.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger...

O'BRIEN: Before the loss of signal, Columbia's computers were still desperately fighting that pull to the left by adjusting flaps and firing rockets.

Two minutes after the signal went silent, 9:01:24, Kane heard from his instrumentation and communications engineer, Laura Hopp (ph). Or INCO.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Flight, INCO. I didn't expect this bad of a hit on com.

O'BRIEN: The astronaut in charge of talking with the flight crew, Charlie Hobard (ph), tried raising Columbia four times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Columbia, Houston, com check.

O'BRIEN: At this point, Cain could only hope Columbia had suffered a drastic communication failure.

But the tension grew at 9:04, when the orbiter should have appeared on a radar screen near Cape Canaveral. Cain to flight dynamics officer Richard Jones, or Fido, at 9:05.

CAIN: Fido, when are you expecting tracking?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One minute ago, flight.

O'BRIEN: Cain paused before acting.

CAIN: What I was doing right at that moment in time is I was saying a prayer.

O'BRIEN: At 9:10, Cain turns to lead flight director, Phil Engola (ph), and astronaut Ellen Achoa (ph), who have more bad news: unconfirmed sightings of the shuttle breaking up over Texas.

CAIN: And after I did that, I knew it was time to go and take the next step. So I began to think about things like ground forces and getting people mobilized and looking for chutes and things of that nature.

And it was difficult to accept, but it wasn't difficult to execute. Again, I would say because of our training.

O'BRIEN: And that is what he did. Thirteen minutes after Columbia fell off the screens, Cain, to Bill Foster, his ground controller, or GC.

CAIN: GC, flight. GC, flight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: GC.

CAIN: Lock the doors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy.

O'BRIEN: Eleven minutes after he ordered the doors locked to ensure crucial data was preserved for the investigation, Cain and his team saw this: footage of Columbia's breakup, shot by WFAA, carried on CNN.

In an instant, they knew there would be no parachutes.

Miles O'Brien, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Coming up in our next half hour, could drilling for oil in this Alaskan wilderness change the environment? Or change the environment for war in Iraq? We'll hear from both sides in just a few minutes. And we'll meet some slippery characters who are helping to keep U.S. sailors safe in the middle east. But first we are going to take a quick break and check the latest headlines. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. I'm Sharon Collins.

With war looming in Iraq, oil imports are a hot topic these days. So is two bucks a gallon for gas. But is drilling in the Arctic wildlife refuge a smart solution?

Joining me now are Representative Jay Inslee in Seattle. He sits on the House Resources Committee, and Charli Coon, a senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Thank you both for joining us this afternoon.

REP. JAY INSLEE (D-WA), RESOURCES COMMITTEE: You bet.

COLLINS: Let me start with you, Representative Inslee.

I covered the Arctic refuge day after day after day. We thought it was pretty much a dead issue. Bring us up to date on what's happening now.

INSLEE: Well, there will be efforts to turn over this beautiful, pristine area. And I've been there. It's just an incredible area. And there will be efforts to turn this national asset of the American people over to the oil industry. And I think that would be like having a national energy policy dependent on drilling in the Arctic is about as effective as having a terrorism policy dependent on duct tape. It's wholly ineffective and it does not use our existing technology.

And the reason it's ineffective is that we only have three percent of the oil reserves in the world. If you include drilling all of our national parks, all of our refuges, you've still only got three percent of the national oil reserves, but we use 25 percent of the oil. Clearly, this drilling in our national areas is a doomed, bankrupt policy. It simply will not work.

Even in our wildest estimates of optimism of how much oil is there, you'll reduce your reliance on international oil imports from 62 percent to 60 percent. It is just a non-starter.

But more importantly, I think, if we drill in the Arctic, we really sort of run up the white flag to not compete for the new technologies, the new kind of technological genius we should be using to solve this problem. You know, if we increase our fuel efficiency in our vehicles using existing technology, things we know how to do today by three miles a gallon, we'll save more oil than you'll ever get out of the Arctic and that's what we should be doing.

COLLINS: Let me go to Charli Coon here.

Given the claims that there is such a limited amount of oil, why do you feel that it's worth it to drill there?

CHARLI COON, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Well, first of all, let me just address the pictures, those panoramic, those beautiful pictures that you were just showing on TV. That's not the area. Those are not the areas where we would be drilling. We're talking about the size of 2,000 acres, about the size of a postage stamp on a football field. And the oil that we could get from Anwar would be the equivalent of 35 years worth of Saudi Arabia oil.

The key here is that it will give us reliability. It will give us a reliable source of energy. Will it make us totally independent? Of course not. And no one is trying to say that the United States will ever be totally independent of oil. But we do have to diversify where we get our resources and the president has said that we should go to Anwar. It has been approved by Congress in 1995 but it was vetoed by the president at that time. Had it not been vetoed by the president, we'd be getting oil from Anwar right now.

We also should look into our offshore drilling and into our federal lands. That will give us energy security, give us much more. It will not make us independent, but it will give us better and better national and energy security.

COLLINS: Let me ask you both this question. Is the oil, any oil that comes out of the Arctic refuge mandated to stay within the United States?

INSLEE: No, it is not, and I think all this will do, it will make some special interests happy that are very powerful in Washington, D.C. But it will not make significant strides. And what we need is we need a new Apollo energy program in this country that will, and we can, as proved by the Department of Energy, significantly reduce our dependence on Mideast oil so that no American has to die for oil. And we can do this by not using 19th century technology.

Oil is a 19th century technology and we're in a 21st century world. We need to use these technologies, the creative genius, to use wind, solar, geothermal and conservation energy technologies to break this dependence on Mideast oil. And that will help us security.

COLLINS: Charli...

INSLEE: And it is capable of doing that.

COLLINS: Charli, jump in here whenever you want to, because I know...

COON: OK. Well, well, first of all, I mean the wind and solar is going to have absolutely nothing to do with our automobiles and with driving. That has to do with electricity. We're talking about oil. Second of all, wind and solar, even if you could use them, they are very unreliable, more unreliable than some of these unstable countries that we're dealing with.

INSLEE: We will be, Jerry...

COON: So, and we are using technology. In fact, in Kudo Bay, which is in Alaska, if we use today's technology in Kudo Bay this day, the footprint, the size that we use for the drilling would be 67 percent smaller. We have 3D drilling. We have horizontal drilling. The technology for drilling oil is equal to the technology in medicine, where we can...

INSLEE: You know, the numbers you hear...

COON: ... fine point where we want to go.

INSLEE: The numbers you're hearing are just ridiculous. They talk about a 2,000 acre footprint, but that's like measuring the surface because you build everything on stilts up there in the Arctic. That's like measuring the footprint in your office of just where your desk touches the floor. This place is going to look more like New Jersey and less like Yellowstone if, in fact, this copout to the special interests occurs. And that's the shame of it, to see this sellout of a precious national asset.

COON: Now, wait a minute...

INSLEE: Now, the fact is...

COON: Wait...

INSLEE: No, let me finish there.

COON: It's not...

INSLEE: Let me finish. You had your say. Let me get something in here. We are building today a wind turbine plant in Stateline, Washington that in a market-based price is going to produce enough electricity for 109,000 homes. And if we can do that, we should certainly be able to increase our fuel efficiency of our cars by three miles a gallon...

COON: And they have been improving.

INSLEE: ... which will eliminate the need for this oil in the Arctic. Now, unfortunately, they have not.

COON: Oh, yes they have.

INSLEE: We stopped making improvements in the mid-1980s. We stopped making improvements in the mid-1980s. If we had continued in the '90s like we did in the '70s, we would have save all of the oil we're getting today from Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

COON: Actually, hybrid vehicles are beginning to sell, are becoming commercialized.

INSLEE: And we need to help them all.

COON: And each new model of automobile is more efficient than the other. Plus, the more fuel efficient you make an automobile, the more miles people are going to drive. We've seen this. The cafe standards...

INSLEE: So you're against fuel efficiency?

COON: The corporate average fuel economy standard has been a failed program. At that particular time, we were only getting about 35 percent of our oil...

COLLINS: All right, Representative Inslee, Charli Coon, obviously a debate that's going to continue.

INSLEE: You bet.

COLLINS: We're running out of time. I hope we can have you both back some day.

INSLEE: Thank you.

COON: Thank you.

COLLINS: I think we're going to be covering this one for some time.

Again, thank both of you for joining us on a Sunday afternoon and taking time out of your weekend.

INSLEE: You bet.

COLLINS: Now, coming up, DJs are getting some new tools that will let them throw out their turntables but keep on scratching.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: OK, now who would want their music CDs to sound like vinyl records? Well, a lot of DJs would. And in Japan, they've come up with technology to achieve just that and a whole lot more.

Kristie Lou Stout reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No musician is more dedicated to the needs of the audience than the disk jockey.

DJ SHUYA OKINO: I'm a DJ. My purpose is to introduce good music to audience.

STOUT: Good music served up on L.P. Even in the so-called digital age, DJs are sticking to vinyl to get what they call that warmer, old school sound.

(on camera): In nightclubs around the world, the analog turntable is still the tool of the trade. But some pretty new technology is making its way to the DJ booth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quit talking and start mixing.

STOUT (voice-over): Like the CDJ-1000, which has the feel of an old turntable. It can loop and scratch CDs, even speed up a song without that strange high pitch. DJ YUTAKA: Like you could be playing "Funky Drama," James Brown, if you want to play faster, James Brown is like hih, huh, you know what I mean? Like going high. So it's losing the song's feel.

STOUT: DJ Yutaka worked with Pioneer to fix that pitch and create the player that's become an essential part of his kit.

MASAKI SATO, DIVISION HEAD, PIONEER: Because there are in the music titles available only by CD maybe, you know, for DJs, their choice became more than before.

STOUT: More choice for DJs and more choice for club hoppers, thanks to the music sommelier, a technology developed by Panasonic.

MITSHUHIKO SERIKAWA, GENERAL MANAGER, PANASONIC: Music sommelier loads music to select music based on the mood or situation of the moment rather than a tighter name or an artist's name and so on.

STOUT: It automatically analyzes stored music files, looking at the speed, rhythm and number of notes in each track. And like a personal DJ, the software then charts what tunes to play at a party. Even with the promise of an automatic music picker, some audio files may never be satisfied, especially in the world of hip hop, where digital has always been second best.

DJ YUTAKA: Some DJs tell me, told me like Yutaka, sir, this is not hip hop, man. This is, you know, like death or, you know, this is not hip hop. But, hey, many 21 century, man. Think about it, man. You know, we have to grow up.

STOUT: Pioneer says the CDJ-1000 has a converter to make CDs sound more like LPs. But DJs still like their old ways, like putting the needle to the record.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Kristie Lou Stout joins us now from the CNN Hong Kong bureau -- welcome, Kristie.

STOUT: Hi, Sharon, and good morning here from Hong Kong.

COLLINS: Yes.

Well, listen, you talked about why DJs are reluctant to drop the vinyl, but what's the advantage of going completely digital?

STOUT: The advantages of going completely digital include, number one, you get to play more music, since, quite frankly, there are more tracks available out there on compact discs than LPs. But on top of that, digital players like the Pioneer device I showed you just now, they have memory card slots so you can actually store the exact cue and loop points for thousands of songs. And that is very important for hip hop DJs, for example, that need a vast library of that constant background dance music beat.

But that being said, however, the DJs who I talked to in Tokyo are very reluctant to part with their vinyl record collection. They said, number one, they love the sound and feel of vinyl records and also, number two, they consider it not only a collection of vinyl records, but also their art collection because of those big covers. They just love them too much.

COLLINS: I have to ask, though, how much consumer demand would there be for a product like, say, the music sommelier?

STOUT: Right now not much consumer demand. But there could be in the future if and when our home stereos turn into devices like our MP3 players, into servers that store hundreds, if not thousands, of CDs. I think if and when that happens, then there would be consumer demand for a device, a technology that can actually go out there and pick the songs that we want to play at a cocktail party versus a bachelor party, for example.

COLLINS: All right, Kristie Lou Stout, thank you for updating us on -- for those of us who might want to aspire to DJ stardom.

Thanks a lot for joining us from Hong Kong on morning.

STOUT: Or scratch a CD.

COLLINS: Thank you.

All right, up next, a baby picture of the early universe that answers some nagging questions about how it all began.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Welcome back.

Let's check environment news for this week. Oil from a barge accident in Long Island Sound has largely dissipated. Early Friday morning, the barge scrapped bottom and leaked about 2,500 gallons of home heating oil just south of Norwalk, Connecticut. Coast Guard officials say the spill broke up yesterday. Now the only task is to move the thousands of gallons left in the barge to another vessel.

NASA has released a portrait of the universe in its infancy and it may be one of the most important scientific achievements in recent years. Now, the picture shows the after glow of the big bang, the patterns of light mark where galaxies would later develop. Information for the image was gathered by a NASA satellite orbiting one million miles from earth. NASA says the image reveals a lot about the makeup, evolution and age of the universe, which it turns out is 13.7 billion years old.

Now, still to come, you've heard about Navy SEALS. But how about Navy sea lions? We'll have a live report from Bahrain on how these guys are helping keep U.S. ships safe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: With tensions high and worldwide anti-war protests continuing today, U.S. forces keep moving into the Persian Gulf region.

Becky Diamond joins us now via video phone with the latest on the Bahrain terror bust and to tell us about some unusual Naval recruits.

There'll be a bit of a delay, so bear with us -- hello, Becky.

BECKY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Sharon.

Well, Bahraini officials say they've arrested five men allegedly part of a terrorist cell and plotting an attack here in Bahrain. And according to Bahrain's "Alayam" newspaper, national security forces found and confiscated videotapes of Osama bin Laden in the home of one of the five men arrested.

Now, Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. It's a key regional ally of the United States. And there are two U.S. aircraft carriers and their battle groups, the USS Constellation and the USS Lincoln, which are currently deployed in the Persian Gulf, and a third battle group and aircraft carrier is on its way -- Sharon.

COLLINS: Now, I understand that it's no longer just the dog is man's best friend. There are some animals helping out in this effort.

DIAMOND: Exactly. To guard all the billions of dollars of Navy assets and to protect the thousands of sailors, officers and Marines currently deployed in the Persian Gulf, the most advanced military in the world is using some very basic animal instincts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (voice-over): There's a new special force protecting America's sailors in the Persian Gulf.

BRENDA BRYAN, WARFARE SYSTEMS TRAINER: Zack is a big teddy bear. He's 19 years old and he weighs 385 pounds.

DIAMOND: Brenda Bryan trains a group of Navy sea lions based out of San Diego and deployed for the first time in the Persian Gulf.

COMMANDER. JOHN WOOD, U.S. NAVY: We brought sea lions out here because they are trained to detect, locate and mark objects underwater. Some of the animals have an enhanced capability to detect swimmers, moving objects. So these animals are out here conducting force protection operations, protecting the sailors, Marines and the ships, the assets of the United States Navy and our coalition.

BRYAN: He's doing what a human diver would be doing, as well. But he's a lot faster and he's adapted, you know, he's using his own personal qualities that they live by every single day and just doing this to protect us, you know? It's just like all of our soldiers are doing. He's performing the same service for our nation.

So we come in the water and they start patrolling and we patrol right along with them. They have very keen directional hearing and excellent eyesight. So they use that while they're in the water. They check the surface and they check underneath and then they will go into piers and scan in the pier for anything and then they'll come back to the boat and let us know, you know, if they have heard or seen anything or if it's clear.

DIAMOND: If the sea lions do find something, they are trained to attach a line leading to a buoy on the surface that allows human divers to swim to the scene and identify the threat.

WOOD: There is a threat level in this region. So whether or not the threat level were to increase, the fact that we have them out here is just a benefit to us. Our sailors are safe, the marines are safe and our ships are safe pier side.

DIAMOND: But how safe is Zack?

BRYAN: He's no more in harm's way than I'm putting myself in. We, we're all in the same situation. He likes to do his job. You can read it in his, on his face every single day that he enjoys what he's doing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND: Now, the sea lions arrived here in Bahrain in early February. They trained for about 18 months for their deployment. They're certainly not the only line of the defense the Navy is using, but they certainly add to the arsenal of options -- Sharon.

COLLINS: Becky Diamond, thank you for joining us and sharing an incredible story.

And we wish the sea lions and the Navy SEALS our best.

Well, that's all the time we have.

Thanks for being with us.

Next week our Saturday show moves to a new time slot, 3:00 p.m. Eastern instead of 2:00 p.m. Now, among the stories we'll bring you next week, the Vatican is trying to decide who should be the patron saint of the Internet. We'll talk live with noted theologian Father Guido Sarducci and get his views on the subject. We hope you can join us then.

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Navy Puts Sea Lions to Work>