Return to Transcripts main page
Next@CNN
Computer Industry Starts Recycling Program. President Bush Faces Criticism After Leaving Africa. Shuttle Investigators Wrap Up Probe on Columbia
Aired July 12, 2003 - 15:00 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.
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to NEXT@CNN for this Saturday, July 12. Coming up this hour, we all know police officers have one of the most dangerous professions, but you may be surprised to find out some of the others. Yours could be one of them.
Got an obsolete computer taking up space somewhere in your closet? We're going to tell you how to get rid of it safely and easily.
And speaking of computers, yours could be part of a network of porno Web sites without you knowing it. You won't want to miss this.
This week, a horrible shooting rampage in Mississippi reminded all of us that workplace violence can be random and deadly. But those types of killings tell just part of a story of the dangers many people face every day just for doing their jobs. On average, 20 people are murdered on the job every week in the United States, 18,000 people are assaulted every week. Joining us now in our Washington bureau is Dr. John Howard, director of NIOSH, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Very good to talk to you. It's an important subject.
DR. JOHN HOWARD, DIRECTOR, NIOSH: It definitely is an important subject, Rhonda. If you look at the numbers this year alone in 2002, the last year which we have numbers, 639 American workers died of homicide in their workplace.
SCHAFFLER: I think those numbers would surprise a lot of people. And perhaps the occupations would, too.
HOWARD: I think so. And, you know, when we look at workplace violence, it's really a multi-faceted problem. It's divided into three types. Type one are those that involve retail stores, convenience stores, taxicabs. This is where criminal intent, robbery usually is the primary motive. Then there's type two, where the perpetrator of the violence is a customer or a client, a patient, an inmate, a prisoner. And here you have service-oriented government services, correctional officers, patient care, physicians, nurses at great risk. And then the story that led the headlines this week, type three violence, where an employee, a former employee comes into the workplace and perpetrates a fatal or non-fatal assault on the workers, the managers, the supervisors of that workplace.
SCHAFFLER: That's the kind of story, of course, that gets the most attention. But I guess the question I have at this point is, you know, what sort of obligation do companies have? Workplace security is a big issue. Why are the numbers as high as they are?
HOWARD: Well, I think we should point out that the numbers have dropped. If you look at the height of the workplace violence problem in the mid-'90s, we've taken the numbers in terms of homicides in the workplace almost down by half. And I think we've done that because we've studied the problem, we've looked at prevention measures.
The first step is to have a security plan for your workplace, to emphasize in your workplace not only the health and safety of your workers, but their security. And that involves looking at environmental design, such as physical control of the workplace in terms of access in and out of the workplace, lighting in terms of convenience stores, the control of cash, and then administrative controls, a workplace violence policy that involves zero tolerance for violence.
And then lastly, behavioral strategies, training your employees that the types of workplace violence that don't make the headlines, non-fatal assaults and verbal harassment, adult bullying in the workplace, inappropriate verbal comments, verbal harassment, that this is intolerable in an American workplace, and those types of training for the employees to make sure that they know to bring those issues to the attention of the employer, so the problem can be addressed at the earliest stage possible, to maximize prevention of these fatal...
SCHAFFLER: I don't mean to interrupt, I just want to make sure we get to a couple of key issues here. Talk to me a little about what we're seeing in the health care profession. This might surprise a lot of people, the amount of violence there.
HOWARD: I think you're right, Rhonda. If you look at psychiatric hospitals, mental health institutions, where patients are -- they're either as outpatients or as inpatients, doctors, nurses, orderlies frequently undergo physical assault from patients. If you look at nursing homes, boarding care homes that may care for an elderly population that may have Alzheimer's or other mental health issues, belligerent behavior, combative behavior even to the point of physical assault. So health care workers are on the front line of workplace violence problems.
SCHAFFLER: And quickly, don't have a lot of time, but let's talk a little about that adult bullying situation. How do you protect yourself if you suspect that somebody might be verbally abusive and something worse could follow?
HOWARD: I think have a low threshold for action. Bring that to the employer's attention. If you're in a large workplace, to the personnel officer's attention, but don't keep it quiet to yourself and stew about it. Bring it to somebody's attention.
SCHAFFLER: Dr. John Howard, you've phrased some very important points. We very much appreciate your time.
HOWARD: Thank you, Rhonda.
SCHAFFLER: In the midst of a political meltdown over President Bush's statements on Iraq's nuclear program, CNN's Chris Plante, hearing new assertions about nuclear weapons in another part of the world. He joins us now from the Pentagon. But first, Chris, I understand we had news of a mishap with a military transport plane.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It's true. A U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules en route from Puerto Rico to Martinsburg, West Virginia, experienced some severe turbulence as it's being described and a number of people aboard the aircraft were injured. It's not clear how severe the injuries were. There are no reports of fatalities at this point. But the airplane was forced to set down, an unscheduled landing at Oceana Naval Air station in southern Virginia. So that's all we know about that at this point. We're waiting for more details.
SCHAFFLER: What do we know about the situation in North Korea here?
PLANTE: Well, we know that the U.S. intelligence services distributed earlier this week a report which said that intelligence had discovered in an air sample taken over or near North Korea some traces of a gas known as krypton 85. Krypton 85 is a gas that might be found in the atmosphere if, for example, a nuclear program were involved in reprocessing spent fuel rods into plutonium, which could be used in nuclear weapons.
This is something that the United States has been watching very closely for a number of years now in North Korea. This has been a major issue between North Korea and the United States, and North Korea and its neighbors in the region, of course, not the least of which, South Korea and also Japan. North Korea listed by President Bush in the axis of evil, one of the axis of evil countries has, according to some in the administration, been attempting effectively to blackmail the United States by going forward with a nuclear program, weapons program, even though they had agreed not to in 1994.
So this is an indication that they are, in fact, going ahead with that. And it's bothersome, obviously, to many in the administration -- Rhonda.
SCHAFFLER: Yes, Chris, how did they detect this stuff?
PLANTE: Well, that's a good question. Normally these sorts of air samples are taken by reconnaissance aircraft that operate in the area. They may operate at very high altitude. Again, they may not. Now, the location where this nuclear facility is in North Korea in Yongbyon is well inland from the sea, and if you are to catch an air sample off the coast, it's going to have to be some distance away. There have been at least a couple of news reports that suggested that this wasn't collected in the conventional fashion by reconnaissance aircraft, that some other means may have been employed. If some other means have been employed, the people that I've been speaking to have not been willing, at least, to make clear what that method is -- Rhonda.
SCHAFFLER: Chris Plante at the Pentagon. Thanks, Chris. When we come back, diamonds in some cases, there's a lot of blood behind all that sparkle. We're going to tell you about a new move to get so-called conflict diamonds off the market.
And later, a really big portrait of a really big thinker.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHAFFLER: Welcome back. As President Bush wrapped up his trip to Africa today, he promised Nigeria's president that the United States would continue to try to bring peace to Liberia, racked by civil war. Liberia's leader, Charles Taylor, is under international indictment accused of smuggling guns for diamonds with rebels in Sierra Leone. This sheds new light on what some call the blood diamond trade. Now, dozens of countries have joined forces with the diamond industry and activists to create a global trade process as transparent as the gems themselves.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCHAFFLER (voice-over): The ads may boast that diamonds are forever, and the song does say...
MARILYN MONROE, ACTRESS (singing): Diamonds are a girl's best friend
SCHAFFLER: But not if you live in countries like Sierra Leone or Angola, where this is ongoing civil war and where people will forever live with the legacy of what is called the blood diamond trade. Indeed, in some other African countries, civil war rebels are suspected of financing their activities by smuggling diamonds into the legitimate diamond market, while imposing their will on the people by brutal force.
Keeping those blood gems out of the global market is the mission of the Kimberly Process, a program to prohibit the export of all diamonds from countries whose governments cannot certify their origin.
But some experts note that the journey of a diamond from the mine to the marketplace could take months, even years. They say that to sort, cut, polish and set a gemstone could send it across several borders, leaving some to question whether this plan will work. But the diamond industry is banking on the hope that the clarity of the Kimberly Process will do its part to remove the cloud from its once brilliant reputation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHAFFLER: Now, joining us to talk about the Kimberly Process and how it's going to work is Eli Izhakoff, chairman and CEO of the World Diamond Council, and Steve Morrison, the director for Africa projects with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Gentlemen, thanks for joining me. We do appreciate it very much.
ELI IZHAKOFF, CEO, WORLD DIAMOND COUNCIL: Good to be here. SCHAFFLER: Mr. Izhakoff, let me start with you, let's explain briefly the Kimberly Process, how is it going to work, nuts and bolts of it?
IZHAKOFF: Well, every stone that being exported must be accompanied by Kimberly Process certificate. Otherwise it cannot be imported to any country that is a participant in the Kimberly Process.
SCHAFFLER: And when is this going to take effect?
IZHAKOFF: As a matter of fact, as we speak, since January 1 this year, the system has been in effect. Some countries, however, were not able to pass legislation in time, and they have to send their shipments with a letter of comfort. That will, of course, end July 31. Any country that will not have its laws with compliance with the Kimberly system will not be able to export diamonds.
SCHAFFLER: Mr. Morrison, a question for you. As we mentioned, a diamond goes from the mine and has several steps are taken before it gets to, say, in a retail store. How is it feasible here that the process is going to effectively monitor the diamond as it goes from point to point?
STEVE MORRISON, DIRECTOR OF AFRICA PROJECTS, CSIS: I think the premise here is that it's in the legitimate industry's best interests. It's in the best interests of the producing countries that -- producing and consuming countries to try to keep the conflict diamonds out of the legitimate channels.
And also it's a very concentrated industry. In the sense that you have one major player, DeBeers, which controls approximately 60 percent of the marketing of rough, uncut gemstones, which gives you a very large force, which has been quite motivated to try and make this work to bring other parties within the industry into line, so I think those are the two main factors. It's in everyone's best interests. No one other than the smugglers of these conflict diamonds really has any interest in concealing this. Their interests, in fact, are preserving consumer confidence in North America, Europe, Japan, the major consuming markets, because if people chose to go from buying diamonds for weddings or for anniversaries to buying some other gemstone, the market could collapse quite suddenly.
SCHAFFLER: Good point. Mr. Izhakoff, a question for you. Of course, we're talking about the president of Liberia, Charles Taylor here, and we have a situation where there are guns for diamonds, a situation we're trying to prevent with this Kimberly Process. What do we need from the governments? How do we know that the government's information is going to be reliable?
IZHAKOFF: Well, the peer pressure. We have industry NGOs and some good governments out there in the world who will be watching every government that's up to no good. And recently, there was a mission sent to the Central African Republic after they had their revolution, and we had the industry and government and NGOs visit there and give them a clean bill of health. So anytime anything looks suspicious or happens that is irregular around the world, there will that be peer pressure.
SCHAFFLER: Mr. Morrison, Liberia, the one singled out by the U.N., should we worry there are others? Why was it just Liberia?
MORRISON: Well, Liberia occupied a special place, because Charles Taylor supported the RUF (ph) resurgence in Sierra Leone, which controlled the diamond fields until very recently, so he was able to stoke wars through the control of insurgencies and conflict diamonds that destabilized that country, the country of Guinea, and eventually Ivory Coast as well, and it was marked by war crimes, atrocities, maiming, raping, dismemberment of civilians and direct defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions and U.N. peacekeeping operations. And it was that that brought this forward.
We had a similar situation in Angola, where Unita was controlling diamonds illicitly in defiance of the U.N. and undermining a U.N. peacekeeping operation. When you have these settings where you have a combination of armed insurgents, illicit diamonds and defiance of U.N. peacekeeping operations and U.N. Security Council actions, that's when the issue has really come to the fore most powerfully.
In the Congo, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, you have lots of diamonds, perhaps 600 million per annum that flow through illicit channels and stoke conflict there. Also, in there you have a U.N. Security council Operation, peacekeeping operation, which has a great difficulty in performing its work. So there are other places.
SCHAFFLER: OK. I want to get the last question to Mr. Izhakoff before we run out of time completely here. We know that diamonds, you know, is the hardest surface there. Is there any way to mark a diamond or somehow track it as we watch it move along?
IZHAKOFF: Well, what we have done in the industry, we have introduced a voluntary chain of warranties. After the first point of import, every dealer that will be selling diamonds will warrant on his invoice that the diamonds he's selling are conflict-free all the way to the retailer. This will be audited by their own independent auditors, subject to government inspection. The retailer, once he gets those warranties, will be able to assure the consumer that the diamonds they're buying are conflict-free.
SCHAFFLER: Eli Izhakoff and Steve Morrison, thanks very much. Appreciate the conversation.
MORRISON: Thank you.
IZHAKOFF: Thank you.
SCHAFFLER: Coming up, a smoking gun and a gaping hole in the search for a cause of the shuttle Columbia disaster.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SLEEPER") WOODY ALLEN, ACTOR: Don't come near me. Don't come near me. I'm warning you, or he gets it right between the eyes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Remember the movie "Sleeper"? Scientists cloned a man out of a nose. Fiction 25 years ago, closer to reality today considering the animals being cloned. And now researchers say someday they'll be able to make carbon copies of that nose, ears, even internal organs like a heart using something as common in just about every office, a printer.
THOMAS BOLAND, CLEMSON UNIVERSITY: A procedure to prove that you could take cells and use them as ink in the copier.
KELLAN: Researchers at Clemson University and the Medical University of South Carolina have developed an inkjet printer that spits out human tissue. The tissue is printed on special gel-like paper. In this sample, the human cells spell out a tiny "CNN."
Researchers say this is just the first step. Eventually, using a more sophisticated 3-D printer, researchers will be able to shape the bio-paper into three-dimensional nodes and print the human tissue on it.
Boland estimates the nodes could be rolling off the presses in five years. Already they're working with NASA to print out a 3-D blood vessel.
BOLAND: We're improving it, and it might be sooner than you think we might be able to actually have this type of blood vessel.
KELLAN: Researchers claim in the not-so-distant future, a plastic surgeon, instead of fashioning a nose will be able to design one on the computer and simply print it out.
Absurd, you say? Almost as much as cloning from a nose.
Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHAFFLER: Shuttle investigators are wrapping up their probe of the Columbia disaster. Their final report is not expected until next month. But you can preview the board's working scenario on the Web at caib.us. It's about 189 pages long. At a news conference yesterday, the board chairman said they aren't trying to single out anyone in a blame game.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. HAL GEHMAN (RET.), COLUMBIA INVESTIGATION BOARD CHAIRMAN: We will not -- we have not -- we did not address or look for any personal accountability here. However, if a reader of our report or the Congress or the administrator of NASA wants to follow up on some process that doesn't look right because they think maybe somebody fell down on the job, it will be pretty easy to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHAFFLER: Another board member said Monday's foam test produced definitive results on the cause of the accident, as Miles O'Brien explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It struck like a thunderbolt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, four, three, two, one, zero.
O'BRIEN: And left behind a gaping hole and some slackened jaws.
SCOTT HUBBARD, COLUMBIA ACCIDENT BOARD MEMBER: What we got was something completely unexpected.
O'BRIEN: In a test that crash investigators say faithfully recreated what happened to the Space Shuttle Columbia 82 seconds after launch, the team looking for the cause of the orbiter's demise hit pay dirt.
HUBBARD: I believe that we have found the smoking gun. I believe that we've established that the foam block that fell off of the external tank was, in fact, the most probable cause, the direct cause of the Columbia accident.
O'BRIEN: The insulating foam fell off Columbia's external fuel tank and struck the leading edge of her left wing at a relative speed of 500 miles an hour. NASA's shuttle team knew about the foam strike shortly after launch, but presumed the light material could not pierce the tough carbon panels that protect the wings.
But take a look at this view captured during the test by a camera mounted inside the wing mockup. It's clear proof Columbia flew more than two weeks with a huge hole in its wing.
HUBBARD: I felt surprised at how it appeared, such a dramatic punch through. But it is the kind of damage, the type of damage that must have occurred to bring down the orbiter.
O'BRIEN: A hole like this, 16 inches across, would have allowed 3,000 degree plasma to blow torch the aluminum structure of the wing during reentry. Investigators believe the hole on Columbia's wing might have been a little smaller, perhaps 10 inches in diameter. But they still say this test leaves little room for doubt Columbia and her crew of seven were doomed one minute and 22 seconds into their mission.
Miles O'Brien, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHAFFLER: A similar but smaller breach in another shuttle tops our "NEXT News" headlines this week. Internal NASA documents show that super-heated gases leaked into the left wing of the shuttle Atlantis as it landed after a mission in May of 2000. NASA says an improperly installed seal in Atlantis' wing was the cause. The breach was in nearly the same location as the breach in Columbia, but did not pose a serious threat to the crew or spacecraft.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Main mission start, zero and liftoff of the Delta rocket with Opportunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHAFFLER: Well, NASA's finally launched its second of two Mars rovers. The Delta rocket lifted off successfully Monday night in its second launch window of the night. The first launch opportunity was scrubbed with just seven seconds left in the countdown. There was a valve problem at the time. The space agency had been trying to launch Opportunity for two weeks, but technical problems and bad weather repeatedly postponed liftoff.
Federal Express and General Motors this week launched the first commercial fuel-cell vehicle. FedEx will use the GM Hydrogen 3 on delivery routes around Tokyo for a one-year free trial period. The car's liquid hydrogen fuel cells last for 250 miles before it needs to be filled up again.
And the mystery behind this painting by Vincent Van Gogh has been solved. Researchers say they figured out exactly what Van Gogh created with the masterpiece called "Moonrise." It was July 13, 1889, 9:08 p.m. local time near a monastery in southern France. Researchers from Southwest Texas State University figured this out from lunar table calculations, trips to France and notes left by Van Gogh himself.
Now, art of a different kind. The portrait you're about to see is truly outstanding in its field. Jeanne Moos explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the next best thing to getting inside the mind of Albert Einstein.
(on camera): What is this?
ROBERT BAKER, ARTIST: Part of Einstein's hair.
MOOS: It's where you mowed him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Albert Einstein, genius.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS (voice-over): Albert Einstein, crop art. BAKER: These protrusions in the grass here are the wrinkles in his forehead.
MOOS: Einstein was tops in many fields and now a hayfield in the Catskill Mountains.
BAKER: We are now in his right eye.
MOOS: A 35 foot eye. But from the ground, you'd never know you'd stumbled on the glint in Albert Einstein's pupil.
Starting from a sketch, artist Roger Baker used lawn mower tractors to carve Einstein's portrait.
BAKER: He's got great hair. It's a great image to do. I've always been fascinated with the guy. His mustache is really cool.
MOOS (on camera): Oh, let's go to his mustache.
BAKER: Let's go to his mustache.
MOOS (voice-over): The crop portrait coincides with an exhibit on Einstein at New York's American Museum of Natural History. But the E in this E equals Mc squared is 120 feet tall.
BAKER: Oh, look at the deer.
MOOS (on camera): Do they eat Einstein?
BAKER: Yes, they've grazed on Albert.
MOOS (voice-over): Nibbled on and landed on.
(on camera): So hang gliders land here?
BAKER: Hang gliders land here.
MOOS (voice-over): Some of these pictures were taken by a parasail pilot as he drifted back to earth. You can even see the shadow of an ultra light plane piloted by another photographer. Sure, there have been other crop portraits, from Larry King to Babe Ruth, but not with the fine lines of Einstein. This is not Roger's first.
(on camera): So Elvis was here and down there?
BAKER: It covered as far as you could see.
MOOS (voice-over): Last year, Elvis was cut into the very same field. The high point was mowing Elvis' sideburns. From a hang glider's point of view...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When -- really see it nice is when you're coming in to land.
MOOS: More than once Albert Einstein has had to take it on the chin, but this is one straw man who never had to say if I only had a brain.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, Ellenville, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHAFFLER: There's lots more to come in our next half hour.
If you have an old, outdated computer, find out how you can get rid of it easily and safely.
Also ahead, research that gives new meaning to the term "urban jungle."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Rhonda Schaffler. "Next @ CNN" continues in just a minute after a check on what's going on at this hour. A senior Bush administration official told CNN's Chris Plant that there are indications North Korea has resumed reprocessing nuclear fuel rods in a possible bid to build nuclear weapons. Sensors have apparently picked up traces of krypton 85, a telltale sign that nuclear repossessing is under way.
CIA director, George Tenet, has taken the wrap for President Bush's assertion that Iraq has sought to obtain nuclear weapons material in Africa. That statement is now acknowledged to be wrong, but Tenet's job may not be in jeopardy.
President Bush says he remains confident in Tenet. A "Newsweek" poll released today says 45 percent believe of the administration misinterpreted or misanalyzed the nuclear information while 38 percent said the Bush administration purposely misled the public.
And just a few hours ago in Norfolk, Virginia, the aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan, became the newest member of the U.S. Navy fleet. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) home in California and suffering from Alzheimer's, former First Lady Nancy Reagan was among the honored guests at the commissioning.
More top stories at the top of the hour. Now back to "Next @ CNN."
After passing through Cancun Mexico, on Friday, tropical storm "Claudette" is headed for the Gulf Coast. Just two weeks after tropical storm "Bill" made landfall in Louisiana. The storm may hit within the next few days, anywhere between Texas and New Orleans. CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras joins us and tracks the storm. Hi, again Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi Ronda. Well, it looks like our greatest likelihood at this time is going to be somewhere along the Texas coast or Northern parts of Mexico. Still a couple of days away before tropical storm Claudette could possibly be make landfall. Right now it's smack dab almost in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, it's packing winds of about 50 miles per hour, some gusts a little bit stronger, around 65 miles per hour at times. Now, this weekend, what you really want to be doing is preparing for the potential of this storm, affecting you along the U.S. Gulf Coast, really best chances, as I mentioned, along the Texas coast line, but still if you live across lower parts of Louisiana here, be on alert for that potential, as changes in the path we know can happen with tropical systems. At this time, our best estimate is that it's going to be moving a little from its Northwesterly track and starting to move on more of a due West track. As it does that, it's going to move in a little bit of a less favorable air flow system, so some weakening is going to be expected for today. However, as it gets closer to the coast line, the waters here are going to be a little bit warmer, so it will likely re-strengthen once again as we head into Sunday and into Monday. Looks like Monday night possibly into the early morning hours of Tuesday is when it could be making landfall, of course, our red cone area here is where we have the greatest likelihood, but really watch out from Galveston on Westward into that area all across that Texas bend area, Claudette not a threat right now, but we'll be watching it over the next couple of days.
We'll have another update from the national hurricane center coming up at 5:00 Eastern Time. All right?
SCHAFFLER: All right, Jacqui. Thanks so much. See you then.
JERAS: OK.
SCHAFFLER: Well, they certainly don't look dangerous, but all those laptops, desktops, printers, and servers in your office and in your bedroom have toxic parts. 250 million computers are expected to become obsolete in the next two years alone. This could be a nightmare for landfills and companies trying to deal with the no longer useful parts. Today some residents, here in the Atlanta area, dropped off computer equipment at Georgia Tech University. Computer giant dell will refurbish some of the machines and donate them to charity. Most will be dismantled and components like glass and plastic recycled. Most folks just didn't realize how much high-tech stuff their families accumulate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We knew we just couldn't throw them away, so -- you know, we kept them. So it was accumulating. This is a real good opportunity. ,
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had them on tables down in the basement. I thought, "gee, I need some more room." And, so finally our -- we have a little website and saw the recycling information and we said, "let's take it down."
PAT NATHAN, DELL COMPUTERS: Awareness is a big part of what we're doing today -- is trying to figure out how to get the message out to people that it isn't something that you should throw in your trash cans and I think most consumers are aware of that, it's pretty bulky to begin with, but they don't know what to do with it. So, building awareness, getting them to go to websites, take a look, we'll take anybody's brands, most of us will, and it is important that they learn to do that and for all of their electronics, not just computer hardware.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHAFFLER: Joining us now, to talk more about computer end-of life issues is Stephanie Busch, she deals with pollution issues for the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Thanks so much for coming in on this Saturday afternoon, appreciate it.
STEPHANIE BUSCH, P2AD: Thank you.
SCHAFFLER: You know what's so interesting about this particular story, for those of us who have old computers and have tried to donate them, many times our out of luck, so you're stuck way computer, you want to get rid of it, you might not be aware that you should be recycling. What's the awareness, do you find, at this point about the necessity to recycle, and if you want to do it, are the options there?
BUSCH: Well, the options are there, but as we learned from the event today here in Atlanta, that many people were not aware until they heard this week on television or radio that they had options, and so we're thankful for Dell to hosting the event to make people more aware. So, I think as consumers, now that they're aware, they can share for with their friends about the options that are available, and there are websites and phone numbers that people across the country can call to find the nearest recycler closest to them.
SCHAFFLER: And it's important to do this because of that toxic material, which you don't normally think of when you're looking at a computer here, but it's a serious issue.
BUSCH: Right. Computers contain between four to five pounds of lead in an average monitor, so it's important that these computers are properly managed, diverted from the land fill and sent to a recycler where they can reclaim that lead and reuse it.
SCHAFFLER: Yeah, how much does get reused, after all?
BUSCH: Only about 11 percent of consumer electronics are recycled in the United States, and we hope to see that number grow in the next couple of years.
SCHAFFLER: We know that Dell did this event here, in Atlanta today. Hewlett-Packard also involved with some projects here that company is in the process of leasing equipment, so when it becomes obsolete it can get upgraded, here. Tell us a little bit what the industry should be doing.
BUSCH: That's a tremendous thing that Hewlett-Packard is doing and many other consumer -- manufacturers also have similar programs where they're taking stewardship and responsibility of their products from cradle to grave and you'll see leasing as an option available from many major manufacturers and that's a great option for consumers to do because they no longer have to manage it, they can send it back to the manufacturer.
SCHAFFLER: We also, of course, many of us have laptops now, so that probably helps the problem, there's less waste there and a lot of people who have laptops aren't in a hurry to upgrade that, I guess.
BUSCH: They -- you're right, they do and it is less waste. That's another option that you can consider, because a monitor and a computer weighs about 50 pounds, so it's a lot less weight if you're purchasing a laptop. Also, consumers should consider buying equipment that's upgradeable.
SCHAFFLER: Yeah, that does seem to be at least a positive way to think about it, here. How are we, as far as educating the public on some of these issues? Where would you rate that process?
BUSCH: I think we're doing a great job. I think events like today really have helped the consumers become more aware of where they can take their computers. I think, obviously, we can improve, and we're looking to manufacturers, as well as, other agencies like our agency, here in Georgia, that are out there educating consumers and citizens in our state about the options available.
SCHAFFLER: And you've done a great service as well, helping to educate. Stephanie Busch, thanks so much for being here.
BUSCH: Thank you.
SCHAFFLER: Appreciate it.
We're going to continue to talk trash when we come back. This time the tons of garbage left behind after baseball games and other big-stadium events. It doesn't all end up in landfills; we're going to tell you where it goes.
Also ahead, why these rabbits are under a death sentence at Miami International Airport.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Looking at the world from the eyes from the eyes of an armadillo, or a scorpion. Animal videographer, Sam Easterson, has made a profession out of putting tiny cameras onto wild animals' heads to see their point of view.
SAM EASTERSON, ANIMAL VIDEOGRAPHER: I think scientists can learn about how these animals move through space. From a behavioral standpoint there's a lot to be learned, too.
KELLAN: Especially when other animals show up. Wolf finds snake or meets another wolf. Getting a camera on a wild animal isn't easy. Since Easterson doesn't anesthetize the animals, he often gets help from professional animal handlers. Even so cameras stay on at most an hour. EASTERSON: This is a camera for an armadillo. I usually study the animal first to figure out what angle I want to have. This camera just quickly wrappes around a buffalo's horn, it's just a bungee cord. And then this last camera, Ann, it's just a little camera that I put on a tarantula that just weighs maybe a half an ounce to an ounce.
KELLAN: From a tarantula to swimming with an alligator, even plants like tumbleweeds get into the role. There's a fee to access the videos, but Easterson hopes someday to assemble a library of all these views for all to study and enjoy.
Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHAFFLER: Time to take a look at some "Next" news headlines, now. An elderly man from Aconi (PH) County, South Carolina is the first human case of West Nile virus this season. The diagnosis was confirmed this week filed the CDC. Last year 284 people died of the disease out of about 4,100 cases. High mosquito populations are predicted this summer due to above-average rainfall and that has local control efforts in full swing. The CDC has good news to report on that front, it's advising that people near areas sprayed with insecticides are at a low risk for adverse health affects. They've monitored nine states for the past four years now, and turned up only 133 cases of sickness due to exposure.
They say everything is bigger in New York City, it is. That's where I'm normally working. And to the surprise of in scientists, even the trees in that urban jungle grow twice as big as genetically identical trees planted in several rural sites on Long Island. Ecologist, Jillian Greg, published this study. She's seen here with the big tough trees of the city and on the right of your screen, those scrawny are country cousins. The culprit is ozone, it seems. Once ozone is blown out of the city to the countryside, it stays in the atmosphere longer and that's what's to blame to the reduced growth.
Black-tailed Jackrabbits at Miami National Airport are now under the gun. A judge has given the OK for sharpshooters to kill the animals. The shooting began Thursday. The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the airport to get rid of the rabbits, seems when they're run over by planes, the carcasses attract turkey vultures, those are a hazard to aircraft.
Well, ballparks and arenas across the U.S. spend millions of dollars to clean up all that trash people leave behind. But, instead of hauling it off to landfills, many facilities have chosen to recycle. Joining me now is Eric Parestuk, director of engineering for Turner Field, home of the Braves, right here in Atlanta, of course. Eric, it's good to have you.
ERIC PERESTUK, DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING TURNER FIELD: Good to be here.
SCHAFFLER: Boy, I'm trying to imagine what the weirdest piece of trash was that's ever been tossed. PERESTUK: Oh, I couldn't even imagine. We find just about everything. You talk about animal carcasses, we've found them. From everything from -- you know, your beer cans, and your coke, and food, and everything else, and of course, Turner Field being a multi-use facility, we have it all. I mean people just think it's paper, and it's not.
SCHAFFLER: And you have too much, right? So, you've got to get rid of it.
PERESTUK: 3,000 tons a year.
SCHAFFLER: 3,000 tons.
PERESTUK: Of total trash.
SCHAFFLER: So where's it going?
PERESTUK: Well, pretty much what we tried to do at Turner Field is reduce the amount of trash we send to landfills every year. Really my goal is, pretty much, one pound out of every three pounds, so about 1,000 tons a year, we try to recycle. That's really our goal, which is everything from cardboard to plastic to paper, the bottles and those types of things. But we also go one step further and try to take everything, even the grass clippings, oil, batteries, carts.
SCHAFFLER: That's pretty inclusive as far as a recycling program goes.
PERESTUK: Oh, it's huge. And you've got to give that to Turner -- our founder, Ted Turner, who started this here, all at CNN center. We just kind of collect everything and anything that we could find and we -- every year we try to come up with something a little bit different. This year Turner Field our really -- goal is to go to plastic, get rid of glass and -- which is a little difficult, as most beer and things are sold in cans, which is fine with aluminum, but we'd like to try to get rid of glass bottles, the designer beers, the imports and if we can get them, the manufacturers of the bottlers to start putting them in plastic, we'd do a little bit better.
SCHAFFLER: We should mention of course, Turner Field, Ted Turner, we're all one big happy family, here at CNN AOL Time Warner, we get all the plugs in there.
PERESTUK: Exactly.
SCHAFFLER: I want to ask you a little bit about the recycling issue itself. For you is it environmental or is it a cost factor?
PERESTUK: Well, you know, a lot of people say it's a way to make money or something, but on for us, we don't look at it that way. We do it -- obviously it's the right thing to do. But for us, it's just more of a -- kind of the right thing to do as to reduce the costs, yes it helps a little bit, but recycling itself, to set it up, at Turner Field I could tell you, just the program itself was about a half a million dollars to set that up. And that's a pretty long payback when you're coming with that, so it's more of a -- just the right thing to do, we like to consider it.
SCHAFFLER: You know, it's so funny, though, because the right thing to do is actually to put this stuff in a trash can before it gets to the floor and we know it's part of the experience, people throw peanuts all over the place, but don't we need some help educating people or perhaps -- you know, saying -- you know, it'd be easier if you guys would just throw this in the trash can?
PERESTUK: I can't even begin to tell you how difficult. We've actually taken it to the point where we try to recycle it from the vendor itself, we will pour it into a can and have the vendors actually place it, signage, it's such a challenge to get people to work with us because the contamination, I don't know if you know this, but if you do throw the wrong kind of glass in a bottle, it would contaminate the whole thing and would end up back at the landfill. We do different things and we will actually have people quality-control our trash, as we like to call it.
SCHAFFLER: I like that, Eric Perestuk, if I go to Turner Field, while I'm here; I'm not going to throw anything, anything on the ground. I can guarantee that.
PERESTUK: Well, we'd really appreciate that.
SCHAFFLER: Good talking to you. Thanks so much.
PERESTUK: Thank you very much. Good to be here.
SCHAFFLER: Still to come, could someone be using your PC to spread pornography over the internet? It's possible. We're going to talk with a man who discovered a porno plot.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHAFFLER: Oh, we've got a new one for you now, your home computer may be running hard-core pornographic websites right now and you would never know it. A plot uncovered this month involves at least 1,000 PCs, criminal hijackers hijack home computers and turn them into part of a sex site network. The twist is that the software is hidden so you wouldn't even know it's happening to you. Computer security consultant Richard Smith uncovered the plot, he joins us from Boston.
Richard, good to talk to you.
RICHARD SMITH, COMPUTER SECURITY EXPERT: Thanks for having me.
SCHAFFLER: You know, it just sounds like such a far-fetched idea. I mean, I can just hear some guy saying, I had no idea this was going on with my computer. I mean, you can understand how it would be a very interesting alibi.
SMITH: Right. But it is happening. These -- this ring is apparently installing software on people's home computers without their knowledge and it's running in the background, providing, you know, pornographic websites, but they're mainly aimed at trying to get people to sign up for other websites.
SCHAFFLER: Yeah, so Richard...
SMITH: And so whoever's running...
SCHAFFLER: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. Just, let's start off by explaining exactly, in sort of simple terms here, how it happens.
SMITH: Well, it's unclear how the server software is being installed on people's computer. That still needs to be worked out. But the idea is that once the software's on your computer, it turns your home PC into, like, a little web server and provides web pages just like a commercial website. And this is...
SCHAFFLER: How'd you find this?
SMITH: Well, I was looking at a different scam, somebody was sending out spam messages to try to get credit card numbers and this was using the PayPal service, where they claimed they -- the scammers claimed they were from the PayPal security department and they may need your credit card again and this information was being sent back to a website, and I started doing some research on this website and what was interesting was, I found it kept, every -- about every ten minutes, changing what computer it was running on and at first I didn't even think this was possible and I was, sort of, amazed and did more research and found it was really indeed, true. I then went up to some news groups and looked around to see if anybody else was researching this and discovered some anti-spam people had noticed the same computers were being used for these pornographic websites. So, the same computers are involved for both PayPal and for the pornographic websites and there was, maybe, a half a dozen people that were monitoring this since early July.
SCHAFFLER: All right, how do we get these people responsible, then?
SMITH: Well, the scam looks like it's probably coming out of Russia. So, it's going to be hard to go after them from a law enforcement standpoint, it's hard to get people in other countries. However, in this particular case there was one sort of home-based computer that was directing all these computers and that computer was discovered on Friday, and it was shut down then and so the scam is over with for now. But, it could be started up again really, at any time.
SCHAFFLER: Is there any way to protect yourself, at all?
SMITH: Well, if you have a firewall installed on your home PC, that would prevent outsiders from getting to this software, so that's one of protection. Another is -- these kinds of programs, many times, get installed through, you know, computer viruses. So, anti-virus software can detect these kind of programs and also shut them down. So, those are two -- you know, two ways to do it. I think one good piece of advice should -- that always should be true, many of these scams get installed on your computer using e-mail messages that have file attachments, so you never want to click on an attachment unless you really know what it's about.
SCHAFFLER: Good advice. Richard Smith, thanks for joining us from Boston. Appreciate that.
SMITH: OK, thank you for having me.
SCHAFFLER: That's all the time we have for today. But, next we'll will be back tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern with another hour of news seen through science and technology. Among the stories we'll be covering, the umpires strike back. We'll speak with famed ump, Ken Kaiser about a heated controversy in Major League Baseball, should cameras be used to check up on Major League umpires behind the plate. That story and more coming up tomorrow. Hope you'll be watching and thanks for joining us, today.
Coming up at the top of the hour, "CNN live Saturday," we'll discuss the political fallout from the snafu involving a nuclear weapons program, or lack thereof, in Iraq. That's followed by "People in the News" at 5:00 Eastern Time, profiling Venus and Serena Williams and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and "CNN live Saturday" at 6:00 Eastern.
Back after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHAFFLER: When it comes to the debate over questionable intelligence reports on Iraq, where exactly does the buck stop?
On the lighter side, the sweet or maybe sour taste of revenge as baseball mascots win one for the sausage.
And what do you do when you suddenly become rich, whether inherited or lottery-won? Big money can be big headaches in our second half hour, we'll tackle this problem, a problem we'd like to have, as our experts answer your questions. Just e-mail us at dollarsigns@CNN.com.
Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY, I'm Rhonda Schaffler at CNN World Headquarters. Here's what's happening at this hour.
The U.S. military in Iraq reports the capture of five Ba'ath party loyalists, one of whom may have been a colonel in Saddam Hussein's regime. And a top coalition civilian official says five other people arrested may include members of Hussein's personal security force and cousins of the former Iraqi leader.
U.S. Central Command confirms it's handing over security responsibilities in the troublesome Iraqi city of Fallujah to the local police department. There have been frequent attacks against U.S. forces in Fallujah, and Iraqi police have complained that high U.S. troop visibility put them in danger.
President Bush is returning from a five-nation tour of Africa. Before leaving Nigeria, he thanked that country's president for his efforts for battling AIDS and bringing peace in Liberia. During the trip, Mr. Bush proposes U.S. funding to combat AIDS and terrorism in Africa.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Faces Criticism After Leaving Africa. Shuttle Investigators Wrap Up Probe on Columbia>
Aired July 12, 2003 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to NEXT@CNN for this Saturday, July 12. Coming up this hour, we all know police officers have one of the most dangerous professions, but you may be surprised to find out some of the others. Yours could be one of them.
Got an obsolete computer taking up space somewhere in your closet? We're going to tell you how to get rid of it safely and easily.
And speaking of computers, yours could be part of a network of porno Web sites without you knowing it. You won't want to miss this.
This week, a horrible shooting rampage in Mississippi reminded all of us that workplace violence can be random and deadly. But those types of killings tell just part of a story of the dangers many people face every day just for doing their jobs. On average, 20 people are murdered on the job every week in the United States, 18,000 people are assaulted every week. Joining us now in our Washington bureau is Dr. John Howard, director of NIOSH, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Very good to talk to you. It's an important subject.
DR. JOHN HOWARD, DIRECTOR, NIOSH: It definitely is an important subject, Rhonda. If you look at the numbers this year alone in 2002, the last year which we have numbers, 639 American workers died of homicide in their workplace.
SCHAFFLER: I think those numbers would surprise a lot of people. And perhaps the occupations would, too.
HOWARD: I think so. And, you know, when we look at workplace violence, it's really a multi-faceted problem. It's divided into three types. Type one are those that involve retail stores, convenience stores, taxicabs. This is where criminal intent, robbery usually is the primary motive. Then there's type two, where the perpetrator of the violence is a customer or a client, a patient, an inmate, a prisoner. And here you have service-oriented government services, correctional officers, patient care, physicians, nurses at great risk. And then the story that led the headlines this week, type three violence, where an employee, a former employee comes into the workplace and perpetrates a fatal or non-fatal assault on the workers, the managers, the supervisors of that workplace.
SCHAFFLER: That's the kind of story, of course, that gets the most attention. But I guess the question I have at this point is, you know, what sort of obligation do companies have? Workplace security is a big issue. Why are the numbers as high as they are?
HOWARD: Well, I think we should point out that the numbers have dropped. If you look at the height of the workplace violence problem in the mid-'90s, we've taken the numbers in terms of homicides in the workplace almost down by half. And I think we've done that because we've studied the problem, we've looked at prevention measures.
The first step is to have a security plan for your workplace, to emphasize in your workplace not only the health and safety of your workers, but their security. And that involves looking at environmental design, such as physical control of the workplace in terms of access in and out of the workplace, lighting in terms of convenience stores, the control of cash, and then administrative controls, a workplace violence policy that involves zero tolerance for violence.
And then lastly, behavioral strategies, training your employees that the types of workplace violence that don't make the headlines, non-fatal assaults and verbal harassment, adult bullying in the workplace, inappropriate verbal comments, verbal harassment, that this is intolerable in an American workplace, and those types of training for the employees to make sure that they know to bring those issues to the attention of the employer, so the problem can be addressed at the earliest stage possible, to maximize prevention of these fatal...
SCHAFFLER: I don't mean to interrupt, I just want to make sure we get to a couple of key issues here. Talk to me a little about what we're seeing in the health care profession. This might surprise a lot of people, the amount of violence there.
HOWARD: I think you're right, Rhonda. If you look at psychiatric hospitals, mental health institutions, where patients are -- they're either as outpatients or as inpatients, doctors, nurses, orderlies frequently undergo physical assault from patients. If you look at nursing homes, boarding care homes that may care for an elderly population that may have Alzheimer's or other mental health issues, belligerent behavior, combative behavior even to the point of physical assault. So health care workers are on the front line of workplace violence problems.
SCHAFFLER: And quickly, don't have a lot of time, but let's talk a little about that adult bullying situation. How do you protect yourself if you suspect that somebody might be verbally abusive and something worse could follow?
HOWARD: I think have a low threshold for action. Bring that to the employer's attention. If you're in a large workplace, to the personnel officer's attention, but don't keep it quiet to yourself and stew about it. Bring it to somebody's attention.
SCHAFFLER: Dr. John Howard, you've phrased some very important points. We very much appreciate your time.
HOWARD: Thank you, Rhonda.
SCHAFFLER: In the midst of a political meltdown over President Bush's statements on Iraq's nuclear program, CNN's Chris Plante, hearing new assertions about nuclear weapons in another part of the world. He joins us now from the Pentagon. But first, Chris, I understand we had news of a mishap with a military transport plane.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It's true. A U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules en route from Puerto Rico to Martinsburg, West Virginia, experienced some severe turbulence as it's being described and a number of people aboard the aircraft were injured. It's not clear how severe the injuries were. There are no reports of fatalities at this point. But the airplane was forced to set down, an unscheduled landing at Oceana Naval Air station in southern Virginia. So that's all we know about that at this point. We're waiting for more details.
SCHAFFLER: What do we know about the situation in North Korea here?
PLANTE: Well, we know that the U.S. intelligence services distributed earlier this week a report which said that intelligence had discovered in an air sample taken over or near North Korea some traces of a gas known as krypton 85. Krypton 85 is a gas that might be found in the atmosphere if, for example, a nuclear program were involved in reprocessing spent fuel rods into plutonium, which could be used in nuclear weapons.
This is something that the United States has been watching very closely for a number of years now in North Korea. This has been a major issue between North Korea and the United States, and North Korea and its neighbors in the region, of course, not the least of which, South Korea and also Japan. North Korea listed by President Bush in the axis of evil, one of the axis of evil countries has, according to some in the administration, been attempting effectively to blackmail the United States by going forward with a nuclear program, weapons program, even though they had agreed not to in 1994.
So this is an indication that they are, in fact, going ahead with that. And it's bothersome, obviously, to many in the administration -- Rhonda.
SCHAFFLER: Yes, Chris, how did they detect this stuff?
PLANTE: Well, that's a good question. Normally these sorts of air samples are taken by reconnaissance aircraft that operate in the area. They may operate at very high altitude. Again, they may not. Now, the location where this nuclear facility is in North Korea in Yongbyon is well inland from the sea, and if you are to catch an air sample off the coast, it's going to have to be some distance away. There have been at least a couple of news reports that suggested that this wasn't collected in the conventional fashion by reconnaissance aircraft, that some other means may have been employed. If some other means have been employed, the people that I've been speaking to have not been willing, at least, to make clear what that method is -- Rhonda.
SCHAFFLER: Chris Plante at the Pentagon. Thanks, Chris. When we come back, diamonds in some cases, there's a lot of blood behind all that sparkle. We're going to tell you about a new move to get so-called conflict diamonds off the market.
And later, a really big portrait of a really big thinker.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHAFFLER: Welcome back. As President Bush wrapped up his trip to Africa today, he promised Nigeria's president that the United States would continue to try to bring peace to Liberia, racked by civil war. Liberia's leader, Charles Taylor, is under international indictment accused of smuggling guns for diamonds with rebels in Sierra Leone. This sheds new light on what some call the blood diamond trade. Now, dozens of countries have joined forces with the diamond industry and activists to create a global trade process as transparent as the gems themselves.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCHAFFLER (voice-over): The ads may boast that diamonds are forever, and the song does say...
MARILYN MONROE, ACTRESS (singing): Diamonds are a girl's best friend
SCHAFFLER: But not if you live in countries like Sierra Leone or Angola, where this is ongoing civil war and where people will forever live with the legacy of what is called the blood diamond trade. Indeed, in some other African countries, civil war rebels are suspected of financing their activities by smuggling diamonds into the legitimate diamond market, while imposing their will on the people by brutal force.
Keeping those blood gems out of the global market is the mission of the Kimberly Process, a program to prohibit the export of all diamonds from countries whose governments cannot certify their origin.
But some experts note that the journey of a diamond from the mine to the marketplace could take months, even years. They say that to sort, cut, polish and set a gemstone could send it across several borders, leaving some to question whether this plan will work. But the diamond industry is banking on the hope that the clarity of the Kimberly Process will do its part to remove the cloud from its once brilliant reputation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHAFFLER: Now, joining us to talk about the Kimberly Process and how it's going to work is Eli Izhakoff, chairman and CEO of the World Diamond Council, and Steve Morrison, the director for Africa projects with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Gentlemen, thanks for joining me. We do appreciate it very much.
ELI IZHAKOFF, CEO, WORLD DIAMOND COUNCIL: Good to be here. SCHAFFLER: Mr. Izhakoff, let me start with you, let's explain briefly the Kimberly Process, how is it going to work, nuts and bolts of it?
IZHAKOFF: Well, every stone that being exported must be accompanied by Kimberly Process certificate. Otherwise it cannot be imported to any country that is a participant in the Kimberly Process.
SCHAFFLER: And when is this going to take effect?
IZHAKOFF: As a matter of fact, as we speak, since January 1 this year, the system has been in effect. Some countries, however, were not able to pass legislation in time, and they have to send their shipments with a letter of comfort. That will, of course, end July 31. Any country that will not have its laws with compliance with the Kimberly system will not be able to export diamonds.
SCHAFFLER: Mr. Morrison, a question for you. As we mentioned, a diamond goes from the mine and has several steps are taken before it gets to, say, in a retail store. How is it feasible here that the process is going to effectively monitor the diamond as it goes from point to point?
STEVE MORRISON, DIRECTOR OF AFRICA PROJECTS, CSIS: I think the premise here is that it's in the legitimate industry's best interests. It's in the best interests of the producing countries that -- producing and consuming countries to try to keep the conflict diamonds out of the legitimate channels.
And also it's a very concentrated industry. In the sense that you have one major player, DeBeers, which controls approximately 60 percent of the marketing of rough, uncut gemstones, which gives you a very large force, which has been quite motivated to try and make this work to bring other parties within the industry into line, so I think those are the two main factors. It's in everyone's best interests. No one other than the smugglers of these conflict diamonds really has any interest in concealing this. Their interests, in fact, are preserving consumer confidence in North America, Europe, Japan, the major consuming markets, because if people chose to go from buying diamonds for weddings or for anniversaries to buying some other gemstone, the market could collapse quite suddenly.
SCHAFFLER: Good point. Mr. Izhakoff, a question for you. Of course, we're talking about the president of Liberia, Charles Taylor here, and we have a situation where there are guns for diamonds, a situation we're trying to prevent with this Kimberly Process. What do we need from the governments? How do we know that the government's information is going to be reliable?
IZHAKOFF: Well, the peer pressure. We have industry NGOs and some good governments out there in the world who will be watching every government that's up to no good. And recently, there was a mission sent to the Central African Republic after they had their revolution, and we had the industry and government and NGOs visit there and give them a clean bill of health. So anytime anything looks suspicious or happens that is irregular around the world, there will that be peer pressure.
SCHAFFLER: Mr. Morrison, Liberia, the one singled out by the U.N., should we worry there are others? Why was it just Liberia?
MORRISON: Well, Liberia occupied a special place, because Charles Taylor supported the RUF (ph) resurgence in Sierra Leone, which controlled the diamond fields until very recently, so he was able to stoke wars through the control of insurgencies and conflict diamonds that destabilized that country, the country of Guinea, and eventually Ivory Coast as well, and it was marked by war crimes, atrocities, maiming, raping, dismemberment of civilians and direct defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions and U.N. peacekeeping operations. And it was that that brought this forward.
We had a similar situation in Angola, where Unita was controlling diamonds illicitly in defiance of the U.N. and undermining a U.N. peacekeeping operation. When you have these settings where you have a combination of armed insurgents, illicit diamonds and defiance of U.N. peacekeeping operations and U.N. Security Council actions, that's when the issue has really come to the fore most powerfully.
In the Congo, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, you have lots of diamonds, perhaps 600 million per annum that flow through illicit channels and stoke conflict there. Also, in there you have a U.N. Security council Operation, peacekeeping operation, which has a great difficulty in performing its work. So there are other places.
SCHAFFLER: OK. I want to get the last question to Mr. Izhakoff before we run out of time completely here. We know that diamonds, you know, is the hardest surface there. Is there any way to mark a diamond or somehow track it as we watch it move along?
IZHAKOFF: Well, what we have done in the industry, we have introduced a voluntary chain of warranties. After the first point of import, every dealer that will be selling diamonds will warrant on his invoice that the diamonds he's selling are conflict-free all the way to the retailer. This will be audited by their own independent auditors, subject to government inspection. The retailer, once he gets those warranties, will be able to assure the consumer that the diamonds they're buying are conflict-free.
SCHAFFLER: Eli Izhakoff and Steve Morrison, thanks very much. Appreciate the conversation.
MORRISON: Thank you.
IZHAKOFF: Thank you.
SCHAFFLER: Coming up, a smoking gun and a gaping hole in the search for a cause of the shuttle Columbia disaster.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SLEEPER") WOODY ALLEN, ACTOR: Don't come near me. Don't come near me. I'm warning you, or he gets it right between the eyes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Remember the movie "Sleeper"? Scientists cloned a man out of a nose. Fiction 25 years ago, closer to reality today considering the animals being cloned. And now researchers say someday they'll be able to make carbon copies of that nose, ears, even internal organs like a heart using something as common in just about every office, a printer.
THOMAS BOLAND, CLEMSON UNIVERSITY: A procedure to prove that you could take cells and use them as ink in the copier.
KELLAN: Researchers at Clemson University and the Medical University of South Carolina have developed an inkjet printer that spits out human tissue. The tissue is printed on special gel-like paper. In this sample, the human cells spell out a tiny "CNN."
Researchers say this is just the first step. Eventually, using a more sophisticated 3-D printer, researchers will be able to shape the bio-paper into three-dimensional nodes and print the human tissue on it.
Boland estimates the nodes could be rolling off the presses in five years. Already they're working with NASA to print out a 3-D blood vessel.
BOLAND: We're improving it, and it might be sooner than you think we might be able to actually have this type of blood vessel.
KELLAN: Researchers claim in the not-so-distant future, a plastic surgeon, instead of fashioning a nose will be able to design one on the computer and simply print it out.
Absurd, you say? Almost as much as cloning from a nose.
Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHAFFLER: Shuttle investigators are wrapping up their probe of the Columbia disaster. Their final report is not expected until next month. But you can preview the board's working scenario on the Web at caib.us. It's about 189 pages long. At a news conference yesterday, the board chairman said they aren't trying to single out anyone in a blame game.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. HAL GEHMAN (RET.), COLUMBIA INVESTIGATION BOARD CHAIRMAN: We will not -- we have not -- we did not address or look for any personal accountability here. However, if a reader of our report or the Congress or the administrator of NASA wants to follow up on some process that doesn't look right because they think maybe somebody fell down on the job, it will be pretty easy to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHAFFLER: Another board member said Monday's foam test produced definitive results on the cause of the accident, as Miles O'Brien explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It struck like a thunderbolt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, four, three, two, one, zero.
O'BRIEN: And left behind a gaping hole and some slackened jaws.
SCOTT HUBBARD, COLUMBIA ACCIDENT BOARD MEMBER: What we got was something completely unexpected.
O'BRIEN: In a test that crash investigators say faithfully recreated what happened to the Space Shuttle Columbia 82 seconds after launch, the team looking for the cause of the orbiter's demise hit pay dirt.
HUBBARD: I believe that we have found the smoking gun. I believe that we've established that the foam block that fell off of the external tank was, in fact, the most probable cause, the direct cause of the Columbia accident.
O'BRIEN: The insulating foam fell off Columbia's external fuel tank and struck the leading edge of her left wing at a relative speed of 500 miles an hour. NASA's shuttle team knew about the foam strike shortly after launch, but presumed the light material could not pierce the tough carbon panels that protect the wings.
But take a look at this view captured during the test by a camera mounted inside the wing mockup. It's clear proof Columbia flew more than two weeks with a huge hole in its wing.
HUBBARD: I felt surprised at how it appeared, such a dramatic punch through. But it is the kind of damage, the type of damage that must have occurred to bring down the orbiter.
O'BRIEN: A hole like this, 16 inches across, would have allowed 3,000 degree plasma to blow torch the aluminum structure of the wing during reentry. Investigators believe the hole on Columbia's wing might have been a little smaller, perhaps 10 inches in diameter. But they still say this test leaves little room for doubt Columbia and her crew of seven were doomed one minute and 22 seconds into their mission.
Miles O'Brien, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHAFFLER: A similar but smaller breach in another shuttle tops our "NEXT News" headlines this week. Internal NASA documents show that super-heated gases leaked into the left wing of the shuttle Atlantis as it landed after a mission in May of 2000. NASA says an improperly installed seal in Atlantis' wing was the cause. The breach was in nearly the same location as the breach in Columbia, but did not pose a serious threat to the crew or spacecraft.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Main mission start, zero and liftoff of the Delta rocket with Opportunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHAFFLER: Well, NASA's finally launched its second of two Mars rovers. The Delta rocket lifted off successfully Monday night in its second launch window of the night. The first launch opportunity was scrubbed with just seven seconds left in the countdown. There was a valve problem at the time. The space agency had been trying to launch Opportunity for two weeks, but technical problems and bad weather repeatedly postponed liftoff.
Federal Express and General Motors this week launched the first commercial fuel-cell vehicle. FedEx will use the GM Hydrogen 3 on delivery routes around Tokyo for a one-year free trial period. The car's liquid hydrogen fuel cells last for 250 miles before it needs to be filled up again.
And the mystery behind this painting by Vincent Van Gogh has been solved. Researchers say they figured out exactly what Van Gogh created with the masterpiece called "Moonrise." It was July 13, 1889, 9:08 p.m. local time near a monastery in southern France. Researchers from Southwest Texas State University figured this out from lunar table calculations, trips to France and notes left by Van Gogh himself.
Now, art of a different kind. The portrait you're about to see is truly outstanding in its field. Jeanne Moos explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the next best thing to getting inside the mind of Albert Einstein.
(on camera): What is this?
ROBERT BAKER, ARTIST: Part of Einstein's hair.
MOOS: It's where you mowed him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Albert Einstein, genius.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS (voice-over): Albert Einstein, crop art. BAKER: These protrusions in the grass here are the wrinkles in his forehead.
MOOS: Einstein was tops in many fields and now a hayfield in the Catskill Mountains.
BAKER: We are now in his right eye.
MOOS: A 35 foot eye. But from the ground, you'd never know you'd stumbled on the glint in Albert Einstein's pupil.
Starting from a sketch, artist Roger Baker used lawn mower tractors to carve Einstein's portrait.
BAKER: He's got great hair. It's a great image to do. I've always been fascinated with the guy. His mustache is really cool.
MOOS (on camera): Oh, let's go to his mustache.
BAKER: Let's go to his mustache.
MOOS (voice-over): The crop portrait coincides with an exhibit on Einstein at New York's American Museum of Natural History. But the E in this E equals Mc squared is 120 feet tall.
BAKER: Oh, look at the deer.
MOOS (on camera): Do they eat Einstein?
BAKER: Yes, they've grazed on Albert.
MOOS (voice-over): Nibbled on and landed on.
(on camera): So hang gliders land here?
BAKER: Hang gliders land here.
MOOS (voice-over): Some of these pictures were taken by a parasail pilot as he drifted back to earth. You can even see the shadow of an ultra light plane piloted by another photographer. Sure, there have been other crop portraits, from Larry King to Babe Ruth, but not with the fine lines of Einstein. This is not Roger's first.
(on camera): So Elvis was here and down there?
BAKER: It covered as far as you could see.
MOOS (voice-over): Last year, Elvis was cut into the very same field. The high point was mowing Elvis' sideburns. From a hang glider's point of view...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When -- really see it nice is when you're coming in to land.
MOOS: More than once Albert Einstein has had to take it on the chin, but this is one straw man who never had to say if I only had a brain.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, Ellenville, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHAFFLER: There's lots more to come in our next half hour.
If you have an old, outdated computer, find out how you can get rid of it easily and safely.
Also ahead, research that gives new meaning to the term "urban jungle."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Rhonda Schaffler. "Next @ CNN" continues in just a minute after a check on what's going on at this hour. A senior Bush administration official told CNN's Chris Plant that there are indications North Korea has resumed reprocessing nuclear fuel rods in a possible bid to build nuclear weapons. Sensors have apparently picked up traces of krypton 85, a telltale sign that nuclear repossessing is under way.
CIA director, George Tenet, has taken the wrap for President Bush's assertion that Iraq has sought to obtain nuclear weapons material in Africa. That statement is now acknowledged to be wrong, but Tenet's job may not be in jeopardy.
President Bush says he remains confident in Tenet. A "Newsweek" poll released today says 45 percent believe of the administration misinterpreted or misanalyzed the nuclear information while 38 percent said the Bush administration purposely misled the public.
And just a few hours ago in Norfolk, Virginia, the aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan, became the newest member of the U.S. Navy fleet. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) home in California and suffering from Alzheimer's, former First Lady Nancy Reagan was among the honored guests at the commissioning.
More top stories at the top of the hour. Now back to "Next @ CNN."
After passing through Cancun Mexico, on Friday, tropical storm "Claudette" is headed for the Gulf Coast. Just two weeks after tropical storm "Bill" made landfall in Louisiana. The storm may hit within the next few days, anywhere between Texas and New Orleans. CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras joins us and tracks the storm. Hi, again Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi Ronda. Well, it looks like our greatest likelihood at this time is going to be somewhere along the Texas coast or Northern parts of Mexico. Still a couple of days away before tropical storm Claudette could possibly be make landfall. Right now it's smack dab almost in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, it's packing winds of about 50 miles per hour, some gusts a little bit stronger, around 65 miles per hour at times. Now, this weekend, what you really want to be doing is preparing for the potential of this storm, affecting you along the U.S. Gulf Coast, really best chances, as I mentioned, along the Texas coast line, but still if you live across lower parts of Louisiana here, be on alert for that potential, as changes in the path we know can happen with tropical systems. At this time, our best estimate is that it's going to be moving a little from its Northwesterly track and starting to move on more of a due West track. As it does that, it's going to move in a little bit of a less favorable air flow system, so some weakening is going to be expected for today. However, as it gets closer to the coast line, the waters here are going to be a little bit warmer, so it will likely re-strengthen once again as we head into Sunday and into Monday. Looks like Monday night possibly into the early morning hours of Tuesday is when it could be making landfall, of course, our red cone area here is where we have the greatest likelihood, but really watch out from Galveston on Westward into that area all across that Texas bend area, Claudette not a threat right now, but we'll be watching it over the next couple of days.
We'll have another update from the national hurricane center coming up at 5:00 Eastern Time. All right?
SCHAFFLER: All right, Jacqui. Thanks so much. See you then.
JERAS: OK.
SCHAFFLER: Well, they certainly don't look dangerous, but all those laptops, desktops, printers, and servers in your office and in your bedroom have toxic parts. 250 million computers are expected to become obsolete in the next two years alone. This could be a nightmare for landfills and companies trying to deal with the no longer useful parts. Today some residents, here in the Atlanta area, dropped off computer equipment at Georgia Tech University. Computer giant dell will refurbish some of the machines and donate them to charity. Most will be dismantled and components like glass and plastic recycled. Most folks just didn't realize how much high-tech stuff their families accumulate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We knew we just couldn't throw them away, so -- you know, we kept them. So it was accumulating. This is a real good opportunity. ,
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had them on tables down in the basement. I thought, "gee, I need some more room." And, so finally our -- we have a little website and saw the recycling information and we said, "let's take it down."
PAT NATHAN, DELL COMPUTERS: Awareness is a big part of what we're doing today -- is trying to figure out how to get the message out to people that it isn't something that you should throw in your trash cans and I think most consumers are aware of that, it's pretty bulky to begin with, but they don't know what to do with it. So, building awareness, getting them to go to websites, take a look, we'll take anybody's brands, most of us will, and it is important that they learn to do that and for all of their electronics, not just computer hardware.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHAFFLER: Joining us now, to talk more about computer end-of life issues is Stephanie Busch, she deals with pollution issues for the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Thanks so much for coming in on this Saturday afternoon, appreciate it.
STEPHANIE BUSCH, P2AD: Thank you.
SCHAFFLER: You know what's so interesting about this particular story, for those of us who have old computers and have tried to donate them, many times our out of luck, so you're stuck way computer, you want to get rid of it, you might not be aware that you should be recycling. What's the awareness, do you find, at this point about the necessity to recycle, and if you want to do it, are the options there?
BUSCH: Well, the options are there, but as we learned from the event today here in Atlanta, that many people were not aware until they heard this week on television or radio that they had options, and so we're thankful for Dell to hosting the event to make people more aware. So, I think as consumers, now that they're aware, they can share for with their friends about the options that are available, and there are websites and phone numbers that people across the country can call to find the nearest recycler closest to them.
SCHAFFLER: And it's important to do this because of that toxic material, which you don't normally think of when you're looking at a computer here, but it's a serious issue.
BUSCH: Right. Computers contain between four to five pounds of lead in an average monitor, so it's important that these computers are properly managed, diverted from the land fill and sent to a recycler where they can reclaim that lead and reuse it.
SCHAFFLER: Yeah, how much does get reused, after all?
BUSCH: Only about 11 percent of consumer electronics are recycled in the United States, and we hope to see that number grow in the next couple of years.
SCHAFFLER: We know that Dell did this event here, in Atlanta today. Hewlett-Packard also involved with some projects here that company is in the process of leasing equipment, so when it becomes obsolete it can get upgraded, here. Tell us a little bit what the industry should be doing.
BUSCH: That's a tremendous thing that Hewlett-Packard is doing and many other consumer -- manufacturers also have similar programs where they're taking stewardship and responsibility of their products from cradle to grave and you'll see leasing as an option available from many major manufacturers and that's a great option for consumers to do because they no longer have to manage it, they can send it back to the manufacturer.
SCHAFFLER: We also, of course, many of us have laptops now, so that probably helps the problem, there's less waste there and a lot of people who have laptops aren't in a hurry to upgrade that, I guess.
BUSCH: They -- you're right, they do and it is less waste. That's another option that you can consider, because a monitor and a computer weighs about 50 pounds, so it's a lot less weight if you're purchasing a laptop. Also, consumers should consider buying equipment that's upgradeable.
SCHAFFLER: Yeah, that does seem to be at least a positive way to think about it, here. How are we, as far as educating the public on some of these issues? Where would you rate that process?
BUSCH: I think we're doing a great job. I think events like today really have helped the consumers become more aware of where they can take their computers. I think, obviously, we can improve, and we're looking to manufacturers, as well as, other agencies like our agency, here in Georgia, that are out there educating consumers and citizens in our state about the options available.
SCHAFFLER: And you've done a great service as well, helping to educate. Stephanie Busch, thanks so much for being here.
BUSCH: Thank you.
SCHAFFLER: Appreciate it.
We're going to continue to talk trash when we come back. This time the tons of garbage left behind after baseball games and other big-stadium events. It doesn't all end up in landfills; we're going to tell you where it goes.
Also ahead, why these rabbits are under a death sentence at Miami International Airport.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Looking at the world from the eyes from the eyes of an armadillo, or a scorpion. Animal videographer, Sam Easterson, has made a profession out of putting tiny cameras onto wild animals' heads to see their point of view.
SAM EASTERSON, ANIMAL VIDEOGRAPHER: I think scientists can learn about how these animals move through space. From a behavioral standpoint there's a lot to be learned, too.
KELLAN: Especially when other animals show up. Wolf finds snake or meets another wolf. Getting a camera on a wild animal isn't easy. Since Easterson doesn't anesthetize the animals, he often gets help from professional animal handlers. Even so cameras stay on at most an hour. EASTERSON: This is a camera for an armadillo. I usually study the animal first to figure out what angle I want to have. This camera just quickly wrappes around a buffalo's horn, it's just a bungee cord. And then this last camera, Ann, it's just a little camera that I put on a tarantula that just weighs maybe a half an ounce to an ounce.
KELLAN: From a tarantula to swimming with an alligator, even plants like tumbleweeds get into the role. There's a fee to access the videos, but Easterson hopes someday to assemble a library of all these views for all to study and enjoy.
Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHAFFLER: Time to take a look at some "Next" news headlines, now. An elderly man from Aconi (PH) County, South Carolina is the first human case of West Nile virus this season. The diagnosis was confirmed this week filed the CDC. Last year 284 people died of the disease out of about 4,100 cases. High mosquito populations are predicted this summer due to above-average rainfall and that has local control efforts in full swing. The CDC has good news to report on that front, it's advising that people near areas sprayed with insecticides are at a low risk for adverse health affects. They've monitored nine states for the past four years now, and turned up only 133 cases of sickness due to exposure.
They say everything is bigger in New York City, it is. That's where I'm normally working. And to the surprise of in scientists, even the trees in that urban jungle grow twice as big as genetically identical trees planted in several rural sites on Long Island. Ecologist, Jillian Greg, published this study. She's seen here with the big tough trees of the city and on the right of your screen, those scrawny are country cousins. The culprit is ozone, it seems. Once ozone is blown out of the city to the countryside, it stays in the atmosphere longer and that's what's to blame to the reduced growth.
Black-tailed Jackrabbits at Miami National Airport are now under the gun. A judge has given the OK for sharpshooters to kill the animals. The shooting began Thursday. The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the airport to get rid of the rabbits, seems when they're run over by planes, the carcasses attract turkey vultures, those are a hazard to aircraft.
Well, ballparks and arenas across the U.S. spend millions of dollars to clean up all that trash people leave behind. But, instead of hauling it off to landfills, many facilities have chosen to recycle. Joining me now is Eric Parestuk, director of engineering for Turner Field, home of the Braves, right here in Atlanta, of course. Eric, it's good to have you.
ERIC PERESTUK, DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING TURNER FIELD: Good to be here.
SCHAFFLER: Boy, I'm trying to imagine what the weirdest piece of trash was that's ever been tossed. PERESTUK: Oh, I couldn't even imagine. We find just about everything. You talk about animal carcasses, we've found them. From everything from -- you know, your beer cans, and your coke, and food, and everything else, and of course, Turner Field being a multi-use facility, we have it all. I mean people just think it's paper, and it's not.
SCHAFFLER: And you have too much, right? So, you've got to get rid of it.
PERESTUK: 3,000 tons a year.
SCHAFFLER: 3,000 tons.
PERESTUK: Of total trash.
SCHAFFLER: So where's it going?
PERESTUK: Well, pretty much what we tried to do at Turner Field is reduce the amount of trash we send to landfills every year. Really my goal is, pretty much, one pound out of every three pounds, so about 1,000 tons a year, we try to recycle. That's really our goal, which is everything from cardboard to plastic to paper, the bottles and those types of things. But we also go one step further and try to take everything, even the grass clippings, oil, batteries, carts.
SCHAFFLER: That's pretty inclusive as far as a recycling program goes.
PERESTUK: Oh, it's huge. And you've got to give that to Turner -- our founder, Ted Turner, who started this here, all at CNN center. We just kind of collect everything and anything that we could find and we -- every year we try to come up with something a little bit different. This year Turner Field our really -- goal is to go to plastic, get rid of glass and -- which is a little difficult, as most beer and things are sold in cans, which is fine with aluminum, but we'd like to try to get rid of glass bottles, the designer beers, the imports and if we can get them, the manufacturers of the bottlers to start putting them in plastic, we'd do a little bit better.
SCHAFFLER: We should mention of course, Turner Field, Ted Turner, we're all one big happy family, here at CNN AOL Time Warner, we get all the plugs in there.
PERESTUK: Exactly.
SCHAFFLER: I want to ask you a little bit about the recycling issue itself. For you is it environmental or is it a cost factor?
PERESTUK: Well, you know, a lot of people say it's a way to make money or something, but on for us, we don't look at it that way. We do it -- obviously it's the right thing to do. But for us, it's just more of a -- kind of the right thing to do as to reduce the costs, yes it helps a little bit, but recycling itself, to set it up, at Turner Field I could tell you, just the program itself was about a half a million dollars to set that up. And that's a pretty long payback when you're coming with that, so it's more of a -- just the right thing to do, we like to consider it.
SCHAFFLER: You know, it's so funny, though, because the right thing to do is actually to put this stuff in a trash can before it gets to the floor and we know it's part of the experience, people throw peanuts all over the place, but don't we need some help educating people or perhaps -- you know, saying -- you know, it'd be easier if you guys would just throw this in the trash can?
PERESTUK: I can't even begin to tell you how difficult. We've actually taken it to the point where we try to recycle it from the vendor itself, we will pour it into a can and have the vendors actually place it, signage, it's such a challenge to get people to work with us because the contamination, I don't know if you know this, but if you do throw the wrong kind of glass in a bottle, it would contaminate the whole thing and would end up back at the landfill. We do different things and we will actually have people quality-control our trash, as we like to call it.
SCHAFFLER: I like that, Eric Perestuk, if I go to Turner Field, while I'm here; I'm not going to throw anything, anything on the ground. I can guarantee that.
PERESTUK: Well, we'd really appreciate that.
SCHAFFLER: Good talking to you. Thanks so much.
PERESTUK: Thank you very much. Good to be here.
SCHAFFLER: Still to come, could someone be using your PC to spread pornography over the internet? It's possible. We're going to talk with a man who discovered a porno plot.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHAFFLER: Oh, we've got a new one for you now, your home computer may be running hard-core pornographic websites right now and you would never know it. A plot uncovered this month involves at least 1,000 PCs, criminal hijackers hijack home computers and turn them into part of a sex site network. The twist is that the software is hidden so you wouldn't even know it's happening to you. Computer security consultant Richard Smith uncovered the plot, he joins us from Boston.
Richard, good to talk to you.
RICHARD SMITH, COMPUTER SECURITY EXPERT: Thanks for having me.
SCHAFFLER: You know, it just sounds like such a far-fetched idea. I mean, I can just hear some guy saying, I had no idea this was going on with my computer. I mean, you can understand how it would be a very interesting alibi.
SMITH: Right. But it is happening. These -- this ring is apparently installing software on people's home computers without their knowledge and it's running in the background, providing, you know, pornographic websites, but they're mainly aimed at trying to get people to sign up for other websites.
SCHAFFLER: Yeah, so Richard...
SMITH: And so whoever's running...
SCHAFFLER: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. Just, let's start off by explaining exactly, in sort of simple terms here, how it happens.
SMITH: Well, it's unclear how the server software is being installed on people's computer. That still needs to be worked out. But the idea is that once the software's on your computer, it turns your home PC into, like, a little web server and provides web pages just like a commercial website. And this is...
SCHAFFLER: How'd you find this?
SMITH: Well, I was looking at a different scam, somebody was sending out spam messages to try to get credit card numbers and this was using the PayPal service, where they claimed they -- the scammers claimed they were from the PayPal security department and they may need your credit card again and this information was being sent back to a website, and I started doing some research on this website and what was interesting was, I found it kept, every -- about every ten minutes, changing what computer it was running on and at first I didn't even think this was possible and I was, sort of, amazed and did more research and found it was really indeed, true. I then went up to some news groups and looked around to see if anybody else was researching this and discovered some anti-spam people had noticed the same computers were being used for these pornographic websites. So, the same computers are involved for both PayPal and for the pornographic websites and there was, maybe, a half a dozen people that were monitoring this since early July.
SCHAFFLER: All right, how do we get these people responsible, then?
SMITH: Well, the scam looks like it's probably coming out of Russia. So, it's going to be hard to go after them from a law enforcement standpoint, it's hard to get people in other countries. However, in this particular case there was one sort of home-based computer that was directing all these computers and that computer was discovered on Friday, and it was shut down then and so the scam is over with for now. But, it could be started up again really, at any time.
SCHAFFLER: Is there any way to protect yourself, at all?
SMITH: Well, if you have a firewall installed on your home PC, that would prevent outsiders from getting to this software, so that's one of protection. Another is -- these kinds of programs, many times, get installed through, you know, computer viruses. So, anti-virus software can detect these kind of programs and also shut them down. So, those are two -- you know, two ways to do it. I think one good piece of advice should -- that always should be true, many of these scams get installed on your computer using e-mail messages that have file attachments, so you never want to click on an attachment unless you really know what it's about.
SCHAFFLER: Good advice. Richard Smith, thanks for joining us from Boston. Appreciate that.
SMITH: OK, thank you for having me.
SCHAFFLER: That's all the time we have for today. But, next we'll will be back tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern with another hour of news seen through science and technology. Among the stories we'll be covering, the umpires strike back. We'll speak with famed ump, Ken Kaiser about a heated controversy in Major League Baseball, should cameras be used to check up on Major League umpires behind the plate. That story and more coming up tomorrow. Hope you'll be watching and thanks for joining us, today.
Coming up at the top of the hour, "CNN live Saturday," we'll discuss the political fallout from the snafu involving a nuclear weapons program, or lack thereof, in Iraq. That's followed by "People in the News" at 5:00 Eastern Time, profiling Venus and Serena Williams and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and "CNN live Saturday" at 6:00 Eastern.
Back after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHAFFLER: When it comes to the debate over questionable intelligence reports on Iraq, where exactly does the buck stop?
On the lighter side, the sweet or maybe sour taste of revenge as baseball mascots win one for the sausage.
And what do you do when you suddenly become rich, whether inherited or lottery-won? Big money can be big headaches in our second half hour, we'll tackle this problem, a problem we'd like to have, as our experts answer your questions. Just e-mail us at dollarsigns@CNN.com.
Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY, I'm Rhonda Schaffler at CNN World Headquarters. Here's what's happening at this hour.
The U.S. military in Iraq reports the capture of five Ba'ath party loyalists, one of whom may have been a colonel in Saddam Hussein's regime. And a top coalition civilian official says five other people arrested may include members of Hussein's personal security force and cousins of the former Iraqi leader.
U.S. Central Command confirms it's handing over security responsibilities in the troublesome Iraqi city of Fallujah to the local police department. There have been frequent attacks against U.S. forces in Fallujah, and Iraqi police have complained that high U.S. troop visibility put them in danger.
President Bush is returning from a five-nation tour of Africa. Before leaving Nigeria, he thanked that country's president for his efforts for battling AIDS and bringing peace in Liberia. During the trip, Mr. Bush proposes U.S. funding to combat AIDS and terrorism in Africa.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Faces Criticism After Leaving Africa. Shuttle Investigators Wrap Up Probe on Columbia>
