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CNN Sunday Morning
Laura Bush Confronted by Protesters in Jerusalem
Aired May 22, 2005 - 09:00 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.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: First lady Laura Bush on a mission of peace is confronted by anti U.S. protesters in Jerusalem. Tense moments for the Secret Service to be sure.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. It is May 22nd. Good morning everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen, 9 a.m. here in the east, 6 a.m. out west.
We want to start with some headlines right now. Israeli police and the Secret Service move in quickly to keep first lady Laura Bush safe while she visited the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem this morning. Now you can see by these pictures the Secret Service and Israeli police arm in arm forming a human chain to keep protesters away from the first lady.
Mrs. Bush arrived in Israel just a few hours ago to try to mend some political fences, but the Arab world sends a clear message. They don't want any more Americans intruding on their land.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is the only U.S. reporter traveling with the first lady and she joins us from Jerusalem to describe exactly what happened today.
Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty I can just describe it this way. It was a chaotic scene. It was a very frightening scene to be with the first lady in this kind of situation. She had approached this mosque, it's called the Dome of the Rock. It is up on a hill. We were walking, of course, she was surrounding by her Secret Service. She was covered in kind of a scarf or veil as tradition calls for.
We entered the front part of the mosque here. This is when we all had to take off our shoes. Now this is when the crowd really started moving in here. There were several people who started shouting, "You don't belong here at our mosque. Get out of here. This is -- you are insulting the Muslims."
At this point there was just a big crowd of reporters that were there that were trying to get in close. There were also people around the Mosque who were trying to get in close to the first lady. Secret Service really closed in on her. I grabbed the sleeve of one of her Secret Service agents who pulled me inside the mosque with her. At that point, when we were inside it was still rather quite but again a lot of people who were backing up trying to take pictures.
There were a group of women, as you know, women and men are separated in this mosque, a group of women who were really agitated by what was happening. They were waving their hands. There was a tour guide essentially who was taking her through the Mosque showing her various sights.
Well really the main tense moments happened when we left the mosque, when we were just leaving, that is when there were a group of about 50 protesters or so who started shouting and started coming in very close to the first lady. That is when she put her head down. The Secret Service went in really close. The Israeli security formed a chain around her. You had Secret Service as the first link, the second parameter was the Israeli security. They walked slowly. People were screaming. She walked extremely slowly down this mountain to try to get to the motorcade as quickly as possible.
Israeli security drew their guns. At one point a little boy went running towards the first lady. One of those security officials pointed his gun at that little boy. The little boy went running away, scurrying away. There was a photographer that got too close. They scuffled with some of the security as they brought her down to the motorcade, then quickly just got her into the motorcade, inside of her vehicle and they sped away.
And this, all of this Betty really happened as the second part, because the first part we had just come from the western wall. That is a very holy sight for the Jews. That is where she was offering her prayers there and again, a very, very tense moment, a very tense situation. A little tiny path that they made for her to walk up to that wall to offer her prayers, metal barricades on both sides. You had dozens and dozens of photographers who were trying -- scrambling to get a picture over the barricade, leaning over the barricade. You had Israeli security who were knocking their cameras away.
And then when she was leaving the wall that is when there were about 40 young women or so I would say, maybe two ages early 20s who started shouting at her. They had pictures of Jonathan Pollard saying, "Free Pollard Now." He is the spy, the Israeli spy who is There has been a big movement to free him. They were screaming at her and literally I was just about a foot away from the first lady when one of these young girls had one of these pictures and literally reached over and almost touched the first lady. The Secret Service, again, trying to block them from getting too close to her and they just hurried her away in her motorcade.
But it was clear that there were Israeli protesters. There were Muslim protesters. Both of these scenes very chaotic, very frightening. The first lady move on to Jericho, but this is supposed to be a fence mending mission. It was something that really turned into something else.
Betty.
NGUYEN: Suzanne, we're looking at these pictures right now and it doesn't appear anyone was injured during these tense moments. But as we watch the first lady it was hard to read. Was she visibly shaken by all of this?
MALVEAUX: She remained calm during all of this. She remained very quiet. She kept her head down. She tried to remain emotionless. She didn't have very much expression. You can tell that she was really trying to move very slowly, very deliberately. She was not making contact with any of the protesters.
There was a lot of noise around her. She was trying as best she could, I think, to stay focused to ignore a lot of what was happening, but it was just an unbelievable situation. You had people who were getting very close to her, people who were very angry, visibly angry, a loud chaotic scene around her at both of these sites. . It was a relief for the Secret Service once they huddled her inside of her vehicle, a very difficult, very tense moment.
NGUYEN: And quickly, Suzanne, what about the potential for other episodes of violence during this trip by the first lady? What's the talk about that at this point after seeing what we've seen so far today?
MALVEAUX: Well, this afternoon she's meeting with a group of Palestinian women in Jericho. She will move on to Egypt afterwards where she'll do some sightseeing, some touring. So hopefully, it won't be this kind of situation. But as you know, of course, Betty this is really the hot spot. This is where so much activity takes place. This is where security is heightened.
I spoke with some people. I asked them is this normal here? What do you see? What do you see? Some people say well, perhaps you're not used to the aggressive tactics of some of the Israeli security here. We've seen some of this kind of scuffling before. Obviously the secret service, Israeli secret service all of them are very concerned all of them on heightened alert because of this situation.
Betty.
NGUYEN: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux in Jerusalem. Thank you.
Tony.
HARRIS:. Wow! Here at home this morning the news takes us to a focus on children. There is a new Amber alert this morning out of Florida, and with few leads. For two Idaho who vanished from a murder scene a relative voices the desperation.
In Cleveland, Ohio hear broken family members are asking for prayers and answers. What caused this house fire that left seven children among the dead?
Now a closer look at each of those stories. We begin with the search for the two missing Idaho children. Their aunt has issued a tearful plea to the kids' assumed abductor as well as the siblings themselves.
CNN's Alina Cho is in Coeur d'Alene with the latest. Alina, good morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, good morning to you. The active search for the two missing children has ended, but some 40 investigators are chasing down more than 600 leads this morning and so far none of them have panned out.
Here's what we can tell you. Late yesterday family members released a new photo of 8-year-old Shasta Groene. She and her brother, 9-year-old Dylan, have not been seen since the bodies of their mother, brother and their mother's boy friend were found at their home on Monday night.
Tomorrow will mark one week since the kids went missing. The children's aunt late yesterday talked about the father's state of mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He hasn't been able to eat because he does not know if Shasta and Dylan are eating. He gets into bed and he can't get comfortable because he doesn't know where they're' sleeping and he can't drink water because he doesn't know if they've had any water. It's been a very difficult week for him. He wants his children back. He wants to put his other child to rest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: A public memorial for the victims will be held sometime early next week. That's about the same time, Tony, that the evidence gathered at the home will be shipped off to Quantico, Virginia for analysis. But the bottom line this morning, Tony, is that there are very few clues and no suspects.
HARRIS: Boy, time to get some answers on this one. Alina Cho for us this morning. Alina, thank you.
NGUYEN: Now on to Cleveland the scene of yesterday's horrific house fire. Investigators say early clues suggest it started accidentally then swept through the century old home and killed nine people. Seven of the victims were children taking part in a sleepover.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were -- smoke detectors we discovered in the debris of the fire that should have operated. We're investigating now to see whether or not they actually did or didn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: The teens who died ranged in age from 12 to 15 years old.
HARRIS: In Florida police suspect there could be more victims in the case of an accused rapist. Charlotte County police say this man, Eric Knap (ph), has confessed to snatching two young girls from their bedroom and then raping them. One girl is 13 years old, the other seven. The father of one of the victims says the torment is unrelenting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guilt is tremendous. The guilt alone is tremendous. Why didn't I hear it? Nothing is the same and it won't be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Prosecutors could seek the death penalty for the rape of the younger girl. Also in Florida officials have issued an amber alert for a missing 8-year-old girl. Police believe Michelle Nance may have been abducted by two white men driving a brown Ford or station wagon with tinted windows. She was last seen this morning. Anyone with information is asked the call the Lakeworth police department.
Here's the number, 561-596-1511.
NGUYEN: A battle looms on Capitol Hill. Senate Republicans are pushing for a Tuesday vote on the embattled judicial nominee or an embattled judicial nominee. Now if the GOP fails to muster the 60 votes needed they could try to ban filibusters on federal judicial nominees.
But we want to hear from you this morning about this filibuster fight. Do senators have better things to do? E-mail us your thoughts at weekends@cnn.com.
Two men who left the military, now living in Canada, are facing desertion charges here in the United States, why they laid down their arms in today's Soldier's story.
HARRIS: Plus scientists have been studying dinosaurs since the first fossil was found 200 years ago. How is 21st century technology now changing their earlier assumptions about the creatures?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And checking your top stories this Sunday morning, a deadly battle in eastern Afghanistan. CNN confirms that U.S. and Afghan soldiers clashed with insurgents near the Pakistani borders last night. Afghan and Pakistani soldiers say at least nine insurgents were killed, but the U.S. military puts that number at 12. Eight Afghan troops were also killed and a U.S. soldier was slightly wounded.
Laura Bush's goodwill trip to the Mid East has turned a bit unfriendly. These picture are new to CNN in the last hour. Security officers escorted the first lady from a Jerusalem mosque after a crowd of protesters heckled her, pretty aggressively actually.
NGUYEN: Well, here in the U.S. let's talk a little bit about the weather outside, and the man for that Rob Marciano.
Good morning, Rob.
(WEATHER REPORT)
NGUYEN: OK. In today's "Soldier's Story," two men who chose to flee rather than fight. Why they left the U.S. military, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: This morning's Soldier's Story is an unusual one. It is the story of two soldiers who are desperately trying not to be soldiers anymore. But as Maria Hinojosa reports, how not to be a soldier well, that's part of the story too.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DARRELL ANDERSON, FORMER SPECIALIST, U.S. ARMY: Well, at first I was scared. You know, I'd only ridden a subway twice in my life.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Back home in Lexington, Kentucky, there aren't any trolleys or subways. But here in Toronto, Darrell Anderson is getting used to them.
ANDERSON: So, you know, I was like, what do I do. How do I go about it?
HINOJOSA: Clifford Cornell is also adjusting to life in the big city. He's from a small town in Arkansas. Now they both call Toronto home.
Clifford and Darrell willingly signed up to serve their country in the U.S. Army. Each had his reasons for wanting to join. Money for school was a big part of it. But enlisting held a special meaning.
CORNELL: The really biggest thing was to prove to me and to prove to my family and friends that I was able, physically capable of doing it.
ANDERSON: Putting on the U.S. Army uniform, you're part of something bigger than most civilians are, so.
HINOJOSA (on camera): So you were a proud soldier?
ANDERSON: Oh, yes. I was a great soldier. You know, I did everything that was asked of me.
HINOJOSA (voice-over): Darrell was a star baseball player, the kind everyone wanted on the team. Clifford was more of a misfit. He got teased a lot as a kid because of a speech impediment. He knew that chances were good he'd end up in combat. But Clifford struggled with basic training. After failing three times, he finally passed, just as his unit was to be deployed to Iraq.
Darrell served seven months on the front lines in Baghdad and Najaf. A gunner, he saw hand-to-hand combat. He was wounded by shrapnel, awarded a Purple Heart.
ANDERSON: I was eager to see combat. I was not afraid to kill somebody. I wanted to go in combat and I wanted to see action.
HINOJOSA: Darrell's unit was on the cover of "Time" magazine and featured in the documentary "Gunner Palace."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to get blown up, man.
HINOJOSA: But the turning point for this once proud soldier came one night in Baghdad.
ANDERSON: And I'm thinking -- our procedures, if fired upon, you open fire on anybody that's around. So I take my weapon, I point it at someone. And I'm aiming and I look, and it's just a 14-year-old boy running, scared, just like me, my fellow soldiers. And, you know, it's -- who am I? Am I this monster? Am I this person killing innocent people? Am I this baby killer? Am I this, you know, this monster to these people?
HINOJOSA: Two all-American soldiers, once ready to give their lives for their country, now faced a decision. Clifford's turning point came, he says, when his captain told his unit what to do if they are captured in Iraq.
CORNELL: It scared the crap out of me. I mean, that's the last thing you want to do is tell your soldiers to shoot yourself in the head.
HINOJOSA: The thought of suicide was too much for Clifford to bear.
Darrell was on leave, due back to his base in Germany, where his unit would be sent again to Iraq.
ANDERSON: You know, I finally put my foot down, I said, this is not who I am. I can't be a part of this no longer. I need to do something.
HINOJOSA: That's when Darrell began thinking about going to Canada and weighed the cost.
ANDERSON: But it's so much to give up. I mean, if I were to put up for two more years, you know, if I come back alive or if I can live with myself after it, you know, I could go to college and I could have a house, I could have the American dream. But the other way is, I'll have my freedoms. I'll have my human rights.
HINOJOSA: Both men turned their backs on the U.S. Army. Each found friends willing to drive them north.
ANDERSON: I rolled my window down and I crossed over Niagara Falls and just, the beauty of Niagara Falls and the freedom that Canada represented to me was just -- there was no fear, no regret, no nothing. It was just complete sigh of relief. HINOJOSA: Darrell and Clifford finally met in the office of attorney Jeffrey House. House represents 10 deserters. He feels a kinship with them. He himself was a draft dodger who came to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War.
JEFFREY HOUSE, ATTORNEY: They will all tell me very quickly, well, there weren't even any weapons of mass destruction. The president said that the United States was under threat and it turns out to be nonsense. And I'm supposed to go and kill people?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't even fathom the stress and the....
HINOJOSA: Darrell's world has turned upside down. As a soldier, he never spoke publicly against his Army or his government.
For Clifford, there is still fear.
CORNELL: And there's always the chance that you won't get a refugee status, and I'll be forced -- be forced to go back to the States. And once I get back to the States, then I'll be arrested and be prosecuted as a deserter, a traitor. So it's really not an easy choice to make.
ANITA ANDERSON, DARRELL'S MOTHER: This is Darrell on the front page of our local newspaper.
HINOJOSA: Darrell's mother, Anita, may never see her son on U.S. soil again. And yet, she is at peace.
A. ANDERSON: To me, he's a hero. He has made me -- I mean, what mom wouldn't want their son to stand up and say he refuses to hurt innocent people? I mean, I can go to sleep at night.
HINOJOSA: While these former soldiers may for now be welcomed in Canada, they are haunted by these words -- traitor, coward, deserter.
CORNELL: And as long as I feel that I'm doing the right thing, that's all that matters to me.
ANDERSON: If you believe in this cause, you go, you go kill innocent people for this cause, you go lose an arm, you go lose a buddy. You go die for this cause.
HINOJOSA: Maria Hinojosa, CNN.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HARRIS: Soldier's Story for this Sunday morning.
The race for stem cell production, South Korea takes one step forward. Does that mean the U.S. is falling behind? We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: I want to welcome you back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I'm Betty Nguyen.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. Let's get you started with stories "Now in the News."
These pictures are new to CNN this morning. A crowd of protesters heckled first Lady Laura Bush as she visit add Jerusalem mosque, the latest stop on her goodwill trip to the Mideast. Security officers escorted the first lady from the area.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai goes from academic to the oval office. Karzai's in the U.S. he's speaking at Boston University's commencement today. Tomorrow he meets with President Bush; the visit comes amid growing tensions between the U.S. and Afghanistan.
And, coming up at noon Eastern, the Afghan leader will be the special guest on CNN's "LATE EDITION" with Wolf Blitzer.
NGUYEN: Well, there's a terrifying sight for tourists at New York's Coney Island. A small plane goes into a tailspin and plummets to the earth killing four people on board. CNN's Susan Lisovicz has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Cessna crash landed at one of New York City most famous attractions. Eyewitnesses say it was flying as low as Coney Islands Wonder Wheel when it fell from the sky, nose first, and slammed into the sand. Luckily few people were on beach, although hundreds were nearby on the boardwalk. At first, some people thought it was all part of a dangerous aerial stunt.
JOSHUA MCCABE, WITNESS: We could see it as it was as it was flying through the air. We say it start hit down. I looked over and tapped my friends, we were eating lunch, and I tapped my friends and said, "that's a terrible trick to try to play" and then I realized it was going down.
ABIDEMI AKINWANDE, WITNESS: (INAUDIBLE) persons inside, they're like, the one was like this and the other almost (INAUDIBLE) and all a sudden it come by the side, like, you know, like the side and went back up about 300 feet. Very high (INAUDIBLE) it went back up. Then all of a sudden it came back down with its nose down. Boom.
LISOVICZ: The plane had taken off just 30 minutes before from nearby Linden, New Jersey. NTSB officials say it was on a discovery flight, a brief excursion for prospective flight students. The NTSB says a certified flight instructor with 1,900 hours flight time was at the wheel.
(on camera): The crash occurred on a spectacular spring day and some folks here say it was a miracle no one on the ground was killed. It could have been a different story if it occurred next week.
FRANK SCALABRINO, WITNESS: Next weekend is open here for Coney Island and there would have been a lot, a lot of little kids running around the beach and that would have really been terrible.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: Four people are dead and our prayers go out to their families and for them and, you know, the good news, I suppose, if there is, as I said before, fortunately nobody on the ground was injured.
LISOVICZ: Susan Lisovicz, CNN Brooklyn, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: News that three Romanian journalists held hostage there, have just been leased.
NGUYEN: But the violence continues a senior government official is killed in Baghdad. And for all those details we want to turn it over to Anand Naidoo at the CNN International Desk -- Anand.
ANAND NAIDOO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning from me. I'll have more details on those Iraqi developments in just a minute, but first up Afghanistan, renewed fighting near the Pakistan border. At least nine rebels have been killed in clashes with Afghan and U.S. Troops. The U.S. had a higher figure saying 12 insurgents were killed. One American soldier was slightly wounded in the fighting. A U.S. military statement said that the insurgents had crossed from Pakistan into Afghanistan and had attacked a U.S. patrol.
Now to Iraq: A senior trade ministry official there has been assassinated. Officials say the director general of the ministry and his driver were shot while on their way to work in Western Baghdad. It was the latest in a series of drive-by shootings targeting senior government officials.
And this just in: Just a short while ago, three Rumanian journalists and their Iraqi-American translator have been released in Iraq. Romanian officials they were rescued. They and been held for nearly two months.
In Indonesia, thousands of demonstrators stage an anti-American rally in the capital of Jakarta. Signs they carried condemned the alleged American desecration of the Koran. That's a charge published by "Newsweek" that was later retracted. Organizers say 10,000 people took part in the demonstration, but police put the figure at less than that. U.S. officials in Jakarta are playing down that demonstration saying that it was not unexpected and not unusual.
That's all for me. More international developments as they happen, here at CNN. Now back to Betty and Tony.
NGUYEN: Thank you Anand.
HARRIS: Anand. A breakthrough in stem cell research in Korea and concerns the U.S. is falling behind in the race for stem cell reproduction. That's coming up later this hour on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
NGUYEN: First, though, a CNN "Extra," some scientists are reconsidering their view that sunshine causes skin cancer. Several recent studies have found that vitamin D, which our skin makes from ultraviolet rays, may prevent an even treat some types of cancer including melanoma. They say many people aren't getting enough vitamin D from nutrition alone, so some scientists advise, safe sun, 15 minutes outside a few time as week without sunscreen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Well you know what our top stories are? Our top stories. But web surfers may have a slightly different appetite for headlines -- time for the most popular stories at cnn.com. With that, cnn.com Christina Park.
Good morning.
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN.COM: Good morning, Tony. Well, we are checking all of our most popular stories on cnn.com and for the top 10 reports our users are clicking on the most, log onto our Web site and click on "most popular" at the top right-hand of your screen.
One of our hottest stories online: Unlocking the mystery of Archimedes and his long-lost lineup. The great mathematician is famous for supposedly exclaiming, "eureka!" or "I have found it!" upon a scientific discovery. Well, some of his work had been hidden for centuries after a thrifty Christian monk wrote over it in the Middle Ages to save on parchment costs. Now highly focused x-rays are being used to decipher parts of the 174-page text by causing iron in the hidden ink to glow. But, it's a slow process. The project is expected to take three to four years to complete.
Now, this story has also caught the attention of our users on cnn.com. The Catholic Church in Arizona is selling off real estate to raise money. Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the diocese in Tucson is auctioning off more than 80 properties in hopes of raising more than $3 million. That money would go toward an eventual settlement to pay clergy sex abuse claims.
And Tony, those are just some of the most popular stories on cnn.com, but it changes every 20 minutes so you have to keep checking.
HARRIS: That's a smart audience out there. Eureka, we found it!
Christina, thank you.
PARK: Thanks Tony.
NGUYEN: All right, tonight on "CNN PRESENTS" a rare look at autism through the words of a young woman who lives with it. Sue Reuben has autism, and until age 13 was unable to control her unusual behavior. Now at age 26 Sue has become a disabled rights advocate and a college student. That's tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN, watched by more Americans than any other news channel. Now back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING with Betty Nguyen and Tony Harris.
NGUYEN: It could be years before people with incurable diseases can actually benefit from South Korea's advances in stem cell research. Still, it's renewed debate over the controversy of cloning humans. A South Korean researcher announced this week his team has created the first embryonic stem cells that genetically match injured or sick patients. The same scientists cloned a human embryo last year.
Now, yesterday I spoke with Steven Minger, a leading expert on stem cell biology, about this global controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. STEVEN MINGER, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: What the South Koreans have done is really revolutionary. They have shown that it's possible to clone human stem cells. We -- this technology has been around for a while, this is how Dolly the sheep was made. But, for a long time we weren't certain that this would actually work in humans. And what the South Koreans have done is definitively proved that it is possible to create stem cell lines which are genetically matched to an adult human patient.
NGUYEN: And that's the key that it's genetically matched. How big of a break through is this in stem cell research?
MINGER: I -- well, in terms of therapeutic applications, it's huge. It means we now, in the not too distant future, should be able to create stem cell lines that have been individualized for every patient that we want to use them in. And this will be important because, up until now, we've have been thinking about using immunosuppression of other means of trying to prevent rejection. This mean we can safely deliver cells to people and not have to worry about rejection and we should be able to treat children with type one diabetes without having to expose them to really powerful anti- rejection drugs which in and of themselves are sometimes quite dangerous.
NGUYEN: So, as we watch what the Koreans have discovered, President Bush says he will veto additional funding to aid in stem cell research. In your opinion, is that a mistake? Or is that morally the right thing to do?
MINGER: In my own humble opinion, I would argue that it's the wrong thing to do. I mean we, in the U.K., as well as in Korea, we have a very, very tight regulatory system to control how stem cell research is conducted. It's very tightly regulated in this country, and yet at the same time it's scientifically permissive. It creates the proper ethical balance, I think, for how this research can be done and I'm surprised, actually, that the U.S., given the fact they are the largest funder of biomedical research in the word has distanced themselves from this technology. It will revolutionize medicine.
NGUYEN: Dr. Minger you moved from Kentucky to London to take part in the stem cell revolution. What do you think about the stance President Bush has taken? Does it put the U.S. years behind when it comes to this medical research?
MINGER: Well, I don't think it's solely down to President Bush, I mean, I would argue that the moral and political climate in the U.S. is quite different than, say, here. And clearly states like California and New York are raising huge amounts of money to circumvent the federal government's disinclination to want to fund this research. So, the research will move ahead, regardless of the president's stance. It just limits the amount of research that can be done. A number of academic researchers who would like to move into the field won't simply because of difficulty in trying to run one lab that's dependent on federal government money and another lab that has private money. It gets logistically too difficult to do. Here, we make no distinction about the source of funding whether you're privately funded or funded by the government; everybody plays by the same rules. And the rules are very strict. And you could have that in the U.S., as well.
NGUYEN: So are you saying basically that the genie is out of the bottle, the world is moving forward on this and eventually the U.S. is going to have to catch up?
MINGER: Well, I wouldn't say that -- I don't know what the genie is. Regenerative medicine, using -- and cell therapy, are pushing ahead worldwide at a very fast pace. I mean, the Koreans have accelerated work that we thought would probably take five or 10 years. They have -- they have done this in a year. In five to 10 years there will be cell therapies using human embryonic stem cells, will be in the earliest stages, but there will be clinical translation. And the U.S. will benefit from that, there's no doubt about that. It's a question of whether or not they want to be part of the international effort to move this forward. And I think it's a shame that American researchers are not more actively involved in this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And checking our top stories this morning, Afghan and U.S. soldiers traded gunfire with insurgents near the Afghan-Pakistani border last night. The U.S. military said 12 insurgents and eight Afghan troops were also killed, one American was slightly wounded.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's commitment to the fight against heroin production in his country is questioned. A "New York Times" report cites a U.S. internal memo critical of Karzai's leadership in trying to eradicate Afghanistan's poppy crop.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. HAMID KARZAI, AFGHANISTAN: We have done our job. The Afghan people have done our job. Now the international community must come and provide alternative livelihood to the Afghan people which they have not done so far. Let us stop the blame game. Instead of blaming Afghanistan the international community must now come and fulfill its own objective to the Afghan people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Wow, strong words. Wolf Blitzer talks with Hamid Karzai later today on CNN's "Late Edition" at Noon Eastern.
And some anxious moments for First Lady Laura Bush in Jerusalem, today. A crowd of protesters met her as she walked to two holy sites. Secret Service agents and guards had to physically hold back the guard. At one point a heckler yelled "How dare you come here" as Mrs. Bush went inside a mosque.
She got into another tight spot earlier when she visited the Western Wall, Judaism holist site. Dozens of protesters seeking the release of Jonathan Pollard surrounded the first lady. Pollard is an American in prison for passing security information to Israel.
NGUYEN: OK, we're going to shift topics to the subject of dinosaurs. The first fossils were found 200 years ago, but once 21st century technology arrived it unlocked a whole bird's nest of discovery. We'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: All right. Time, now, to check with Elaine Quijano in Washington for "On the Story."
What's coming up, Elaine?
ELAINE QUIJANO, "ON THE STORY": Good morning to you, Betty. Well, we're "On the Story" from Washington, New York, Jerusalem and Cairo. We'll go to Jerusalem and Suzanne Malveaux about tense moments and protests against First Lady Laura Bush.
I'll be talking about the big political battles between President Bush and Congress over federal judges and stem cell research. Christy Feig is on the medical stories of the week and how low-fat diets and aspirin make keep some cancers from returning.
And Kathleen Hays looks at the big airline mortgagor. Will fewer be better for travelers?
All coming up all "On the Story." Betty, back to you.
NGUYEN: Can't wait to see it. Thanks Elaine.
HARRIS: And all morning long we've been asking for your thoughts on our e-mail question. Let's put it up here. Filibuster Fight: Do senators have better things to do?
This e-mail from Susan, "We must keep the filibuster in order to protect minority rights. If the Senate majority breaks the rules to eliminate the filibuster, the foundations of our democracy are at stake."
NGUYEN: Well, Mike has a lot to say on this issue. He says, "The filibuster debate is nothing more than a political power struggle. It is NOT -- not a nationally important issue at this time. The Republicans have made a handful of judicial nominations the smokescreen for what is in essence an attempt to improve their power position. Ten years from now when the pendulum swings back, these same Republican senators will be denouncing these rules as unfair. Be careful what you wish for, senators. The American people are smarter than you think."
We appreciate all the comment this is morning, coming in. Some good ones.
HARRIS: Yeah, that e-mail felt like a filibuster. Let's get a final check of weather this weekend with Rob Marciano.
NGUYEN: Told you it was long.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Mike Cox gets more time than I do, for crying out loud. I mean, get a little chatty there on the e-mail. All right, let's go.
(WEATHER REPORT)
NGUYEN: All right, thank you Rob.
HARRIS: And its the search for the truth that's taken thousands of years. Just what exactly were dinosaurs? And how did they live? You might have thought you knew, but you are sure to be surprised at some of the new answers this morning. Here is CNN's Beth Nissen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For most of the 200 years since the first dinosaur bones were found those studying them had to use a combination of deduction and great imagination to puzzle out from ancient pieces how dinosaurs looked, moved, lived. But just in the last five to 10 years study of the oldest known creatures on earth has been revolutionized by the newest technology: High speed computer, new software, 3-D imaging. Scientists at the Royal Veterinary College in London developed a computer program to calculate, from scans of a T-Rex skeleton, the range of motion in its joints and its muscle mass. Their discovery:
MARK NORELL, PALEONTOLOGIST: For the animal to go very, very quickly you would have to have an unreasonable amount of the entire weight of the animal just in the muscles of the behind limb.
NISSEN: T-Rex didn't have muscles big enough to carry its five ton self at a run. Its top land speed: A relatively (INAUDIBLE) 10 to 20 miles an hour.
Perhaps the most significant discoveries about dinosaurs have come from CAT scans or CT scans. Most done in this lab at the University of Texas in Austin. Since the lab began scanning natural objects eight years ago, paleontologists from around the world have sent in thousands of dinosaur fossils including this skull of a syntarsis (ph), a small Jurassic carnivore.
TIMOTHY ROWE, UNIV. OF TEXAS: It's a specimen that's 180 million years old and it's the only specimen in the world of a complete skull of this little guy. And so the last thing that I want to do, break the skull open to try to get some idea of the inside. NISSEN: But CAT scanning it yields the details picture of the inside of the skull which is marked by the impression of the brain that used to fill it. Computer imaging and animation can reconstruct a 3-D image of dinosaur brains. And what scientists saw when they first looked at these images, astonished them.
ROWE: If it has a big cortex that's an indication the animal is receiving sensory inputs from feathers. Blows me away to discover that.
NISSEN: Feathers on dinosaurs.
NORELL: We found that these animals were covered with feathers. We can predict, strongly predict, that Tyrannosaurus Rex, at some stage of its life, probably when it was small, was feathered.
NISSEN: The most compelling evidence yet that carnivorous dinosaurs, like T-Rex, were more like birds than anyone had thought, had feathers like birds, nesting habits like birds, three-today feet like birds, wishbones and hollow bones like birds.
ROWE: It's one of the many pieces of evidence that tells us that birds are descendant from extinct dinosaurs like this.
NISSEN: Which lead to the most surprising of all the new discoveries, new theories about dinosaurs.
NORELL: Birds are a kind of dinosaurs. So, dinosaurs aren't extinct, we just call them birds now. The world is populated with at least 8,000 species of living dinosaurs today.
NISSEN: Imagine that. Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Birds like dinosaurs.
NGUYEN: Living today.
HARRIS: And they're just -- these scientists are just getting started. Who knows what's next. The music says we've to go.
NGUYEN: Yeah, we're out of time. We thank you for joining us this morning.
HARRIS: We'll see you back here next weekend. "On the Story" is next. Have a great Sunday.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 22, 2005 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: First lady Laura Bush on a mission of peace is confronted by anti U.S. protesters in Jerusalem. Tense moments for the Secret Service to be sure.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. It is May 22nd. Good morning everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen, 9 a.m. here in the east, 6 a.m. out west.
We want to start with some headlines right now. Israeli police and the Secret Service move in quickly to keep first lady Laura Bush safe while she visited the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem this morning. Now you can see by these pictures the Secret Service and Israeli police arm in arm forming a human chain to keep protesters away from the first lady.
Mrs. Bush arrived in Israel just a few hours ago to try to mend some political fences, but the Arab world sends a clear message. They don't want any more Americans intruding on their land.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is the only U.S. reporter traveling with the first lady and she joins us from Jerusalem to describe exactly what happened today.
Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty I can just describe it this way. It was a chaotic scene. It was a very frightening scene to be with the first lady in this kind of situation. She had approached this mosque, it's called the Dome of the Rock. It is up on a hill. We were walking, of course, she was surrounding by her Secret Service. She was covered in kind of a scarf or veil as tradition calls for.
We entered the front part of the mosque here. This is when we all had to take off our shoes. Now this is when the crowd really started moving in here. There were several people who started shouting, "You don't belong here at our mosque. Get out of here. This is -- you are insulting the Muslims."
At this point there was just a big crowd of reporters that were there that were trying to get in close. There were also people around the Mosque who were trying to get in close to the first lady. Secret Service really closed in on her. I grabbed the sleeve of one of her Secret Service agents who pulled me inside the mosque with her. At that point, when we were inside it was still rather quite but again a lot of people who were backing up trying to take pictures.
There were a group of women, as you know, women and men are separated in this mosque, a group of women who were really agitated by what was happening. They were waving their hands. There was a tour guide essentially who was taking her through the Mosque showing her various sights.
Well really the main tense moments happened when we left the mosque, when we were just leaving, that is when there were a group of about 50 protesters or so who started shouting and started coming in very close to the first lady. That is when she put her head down. The Secret Service went in really close. The Israeli security formed a chain around her. You had Secret Service as the first link, the second parameter was the Israeli security. They walked slowly. People were screaming. She walked extremely slowly down this mountain to try to get to the motorcade as quickly as possible.
Israeli security drew their guns. At one point a little boy went running towards the first lady. One of those security officials pointed his gun at that little boy. The little boy went running away, scurrying away. There was a photographer that got too close. They scuffled with some of the security as they brought her down to the motorcade, then quickly just got her into the motorcade, inside of her vehicle and they sped away.
And this, all of this Betty really happened as the second part, because the first part we had just come from the western wall. That is a very holy sight for the Jews. That is where she was offering her prayers there and again, a very, very tense moment, a very tense situation. A little tiny path that they made for her to walk up to that wall to offer her prayers, metal barricades on both sides. You had dozens and dozens of photographers who were trying -- scrambling to get a picture over the barricade, leaning over the barricade. You had Israeli security who were knocking their cameras away.
And then when she was leaving the wall that is when there were about 40 young women or so I would say, maybe two ages early 20s who started shouting at her. They had pictures of Jonathan Pollard saying, "Free Pollard Now." He is the spy, the Israeli spy who is There has been a big movement to free him. They were screaming at her and literally I was just about a foot away from the first lady when one of these young girls had one of these pictures and literally reached over and almost touched the first lady. The Secret Service, again, trying to block them from getting too close to her and they just hurried her away in her motorcade.
But it was clear that there were Israeli protesters. There were Muslim protesters. Both of these scenes very chaotic, very frightening. The first lady move on to Jericho, but this is supposed to be a fence mending mission. It was something that really turned into something else.
Betty.
NGUYEN: Suzanne, we're looking at these pictures right now and it doesn't appear anyone was injured during these tense moments. But as we watch the first lady it was hard to read. Was she visibly shaken by all of this?
MALVEAUX: She remained calm during all of this. She remained very quiet. She kept her head down. She tried to remain emotionless. She didn't have very much expression. You can tell that she was really trying to move very slowly, very deliberately. She was not making contact with any of the protesters.
There was a lot of noise around her. She was trying as best she could, I think, to stay focused to ignore a lot of what was happening, but it was just an unbelievable situation. You had people who were getting very close to her, people who were very angry, visibly angry, a loud chaotic scene around her at both of these sites. . It was a relief for the Secret Service once they huddled her inside of her vehicle, a very difficult, very tense moment.
NGUYEN: And quickly, Suzanne, what about the potential for other episodes of violence during this trip by the first lady? What's the talk about that at this point after seeing what we've seen so far today?
MALVEAUX: Well, this afternoon she's meeting with a group of Palestinian women in Jericho. She will move on to Egypt afterwards where she'll do some sightseeing, some touring. So hopefully, it won't be this kind of situation. But as you know, of course, Betty this is really the hot spot. This is where so much activity takes place. This is where security is heightened.
I spoke with some people. I asked them is this normal here? What do you see? What do you see? Some people say well, perhaps you're not used to the aggressive tactics of some of the Israeli security here. We've seen some of this kind of scuffling before. Obviously the secret service, Israeli secret service all of them are very concerned all of them on heightened alert because of this situation.
Betty.
NGUYEN: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux in Jerusalem. Thank you.
Tony.
HARRIS:. Wow! Here at home this morning the news takes us to a focus on children. There is a new Amber alert this morning out of Florida, and with few leads. For two Idaho who vanished from a murder scene a relative voices the desperation.
In Cleveland, Ohio hear broken family members are asking for prayers and answers. What caused this house fire that left seven children among the dead?
Now a closer look at each of those stories. We begin with the search for the two missing Idaho children. Their aunt has issued a tearful plea to the kids' assumed abductor as well as the siblings themselves.
CNN's Alina Cho is in Coeur d'Alene with the latest. Alina, good morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, good morning to you. The active search for the two missing children has ended, but some 40 investigators are chasing down more than 600 leads this morning and so far none of them have panned out.
Here's what we can tell you. Late yesterday family members released a new photo of 8-year-old Shasta Groene. She and her brother, 9-year-old Dylan, have not been seen since the bodies of their mother, brother and their mother's boy friend were found at their home on Monday night.
Tomorrow will mark one week since the kids went missing. The children's aunt late yesterday talked about the father's state of mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He hasn't been able to eat because he does not know if Shasta and Dylan are eating. He gets into bed and he can't get comfortable because he doesn't know where they're' sleeping and he can't drink water because he doesn't know if they've had any water. It's been a very difficult week for him. He wants his children back. He wants to put his other child to rest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: A public memorial for the victims will be held sometime early next week. That's about the same time, Tony, that the evidence gathered at the home will be shipped off to Quantico, Virginia for analysis. But the bottom line this morning, Tony, is that there are very few clues and no suspects.
HARRIS: Boy, time to get some answers on this one. Alina Cho for us this morning. Alina, thank you.
NGUYEN: Now on to Cleveland the scene of yesterday's horrific house fire. Investigators say early clues suggest it started accidentally then swept through the century old home and killed nine people. Seven of the victims were children taking part in a sleepover.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were -- smoke detectors we discovered in the debris of the fire that should have operated. We're investigating now to see whether or not they actually did or didn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: The teens who died ranged in age from 12 to 15 years old.
HARRIS: In Florida police suspect there could be more victims in the case of an accused rapist. Charlotte County police say this man, Eric Knap (ph), has confessed to snatching two young girls from their bedroom and then raping them. One girl is 13 years old, the other seven. The father of one of the victims says the torment is unrelenting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guilt is tremendous. The guilt alone is tremendous. Why didn't I hear it? Nothing is the same and it won't be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Prosecutors could seek the death penalty for the rape of the younger girl. Also in Florida officials have issued an amber alert for a missing 8-year-old girl. Police believe Michelle Nance may have been abducted by two white men driving a brown Ford or station wagon with tinted windows. She was last seen this morning. Anyone with information is asked the call the Lakeworth police department.
Here's the number, 561-596-1511.
NGUYEN: A battle looms on Capitol Hill. Senate Republicans are pushing for a Tuesday vote on the embattled judicial nominee or an embattled judicial nominee. Now if the GOP fails to muster the 60 votes needed they could try to ban filibusters on federal judicial nominees.
But we want to hear from you this morning about this filibuster fight. Do senators have better things to do? E-mail us your thoughts at weekends@cnn.com.
Two men who left the military, now living in Canada, are facing desertion charges here in the United States, why they laid down their arms in today's Soldier's story.
HARRIS: Plus scientists have been studying dinosaurs since the first fossil was found 200 years ago. How is 21st century technology now changing their earlier assumptions about the creatures?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And checking your top stories this Sunday morning, a deadly battle in eastern Afghanistan. CNN confirms that U.S. and Afghan soldiers clashed with insurgents near the Pakistani borders last night. Afghan and Pakistani soldiers say at least nine insurgents were killed, but the U.S. military puts that number at 12. Eight Afghan troops were also killed and a U.S. soldier was slightly wounded.
Laura Bush's goodwill trip to the Mid East has turned a bit unfriendly. These picture are new to CNN in the last hour. Security officers escorted the first lady from a Jerusalem mosque after a crowd of protesters heckled her, pretty aggressively actually.
NGUYEN: Well, here in the U.S. let's talk a little bit about the weather outside, and the man for that Rob Marciano.
Good morning, Rob.
(WEATHER REPORT)
NGUYEN: OK. In today's "Soldier's Story," two men who chose to flee rather than fight. Why they left the U.S. military, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: This morning's Soldier's Story is an unusual one. It is the story of two soldiers who are desperately trying not to be soldiers anymore. But as Maria Hinojosa reports, how not to be a soldier well, that's part of the story too.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DARRELL ANDERSON, FORMER SPECIALIST, U.S. ARMY: Well, at first I was scared. You know, I'd only ridden a subway twice in my life.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Back home in Lexington, Kentucky, there aren't any trolleys or subways. But here in Toronto, Darrell Anderson is getting used to them.
ANDERSON: So, you know, I was like, what do I do. How do I go about it?
HINOJOSA: Clifford Cornell is also adjusting to life in the big city. He's from a small town in Arkansas. Now they both call Toronto home.
Clifford and Darrell willingly signed up to serve their country in the U.S. Army. Each had his reasons for wanting to join. Money for school was a big part of it. But enlisting held a special meaning.
CORNELL: The really biggest thing was to prove to me and to prove to my family and friends that I was able, physically capable of doing it.
ANDERSON: Putting on the U.S. Army uniform, you're part of something bigger than most civilians are, so.
HINOJOSA (on camera): So you were a proud soldier?
ANDERSON: Oh, yes. I was a great soldier. You know, I did everything that was asked of me.
HINOJOSA (voice-over): Darrell was a star baseball player, the kind everyone wanted on the team. Clifford was more of a misfit. He got teased a lot as a kid because of a speech impediment. He knew that chances were good he'd end up in combat. But Clifford struggled with basic training. After failing three times, he finally passed, just as his unit was to be deployed to Iraq.
Darrell served seven months on the front lines in Baghdad and Najaf. A gunner, he saw hand-to-hand combat. He was wounded by shrapnel, awarded a Purple Heart.
ANDERSON: I was eager to see combat. I was not afraid to kill somebody. I wanted to go in combat and I wanted to see action.
HINOJOSA: Darrell's unit was on the cover of "Time" magazine and featured in the documentary "Gunner Palace."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to get blown up, man.
HINOJOSA: But the turning point for this once proud soldier came one night in Baghdad.
ANDERSON: And I'm thinking -- our procedures, if fired upon, you open fire on anybody that's around. So I take my weapon, I point it at someone. And I'm aiming and I look, and it's just a 14-year-old boy running, scared, just like me, my fellow soldiers. And, you know, it's -- who am I? Am I this monster? Am I this person killing innocent people? Am I this baby killer? Am I this, you know, this monster to these people?
HINOJOSA: Two all-American soldiers, once ready to give their lives for their country, now faced a decision. Clifford's turning point came, he says, when his captain told his unit what to do if they are captured in Iraq.
CORNELL: It scared the crap out of me. I mean, that's the last thing you want to do is tell your soldiers to shoot yourself in the head.
HINOJOSA: The thought of suicide was too much for Clifford to bear.
Darrell was on leave, due back to his base in Germany, where his unit would be sent again to Iraq.
ANDERSON: You know, I finally put my foot down, I said, this is not who I am. I can't be a part of this no longer. I need to do something.
HINOJOSA: That's when Darrell began thinking about going to Canada and weighed the cost.
ANDERSON: But it's so much to give up. I mean, if I were to put up for two more years, you know, if I come back alive or if I can live with myself after it, you know, I could go to college and I could have a house, I could have the American dream. But the other way is, I'll have my freedoms. I'll have my human rights.
HINOJOSA: Both men turned their backs on the U.S. Army. Each found friends willing to drive them north.
ANDERSON: I rolled my window down and I crossed over Niagara Falls and just, the beauty of Niagara Falls and the freedom that Canada represented to me was just -- there was no fear, no regret, no nothing. It was just complete sigh of relief. HINOJOSA: Darrell and Clifford finally met in the office of attorney Jeffrey House. House represents 10 deserters. He feels a kinship with them. He himself was a draft dodger who came to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War.
JEFFREY HOUSE, ATTORNEY: They will all tell me very quickly, well, there weren't even any weapons of mass destruction. The president said that the United States was under threat and it turns out to be nonsense. And I'm supposed to go and kill people?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't even fathom the stress and the....
HINOJOSA: Darrell's world has turned upside down. As a soldier, he never spoke publicly against his Army or his government.
For Clifford, there is still fear.
CORNELL: And there's always the chance that you won't get a refugee status, and I'll be forced -- be forced to go back to the States. And once I get back to the States, then I'll be arrested and be prosecuted as a deserter, a traitor. So it's really not an easy choice to make.
ANITA ANDERSON, DARRELL'S MOTHER: This is Darrell on the front page of our local newspaper.
HINOJOSA: Darrell's mother, Anita, may never see her son on U.S. soil again. And yet, she is at peace.
A. ANDERSON: To me, he's a hero. He has made me -- I mean, what mom wouldn't want their son to stand up and say he refuses to hurt innocent people? I mean, I can go to sleep at night.
HINOJOSA: While these former soldiers may for now be welcomed in Canada, they are haunted by these words -- traitor, coward, deserter.
CORNELL: And as long as I feel that I'm doing the right thing, that's all that matters to me.
ANDERSON: If you believe in this cause, you go, you go kill innocent people for this cause, you go lose an arm, you go lose a buddy. You go die for this cause.
HINOJOSA: Maria Hinojosa, CNN.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HARRIS: Soldier's Story for this Sunday morning.
The race for stem cell production, South Korea takes one step forward. Does that mean the U.S. is falling behind? We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: I want to welcome you back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I'm Betty Nguyen.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. Let's get you started with stories "Now in the News."
These pictures are new to CNN this morning. A crowd of protesters heckled first Lady Laura Bush as she visit add Jerusalem mosque, the latest stop on her goodwill trip to the Mideast. Security officers escorted the first lady from the area.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai goes from academic to the oval office. Karzai's in the U.S. he's speaking at Boston University's commencement today. Tomorrow he meets with President Bush; the visit comes amid growing tensions between the U.S. and Afghanistan.
And, coming up at noon Eastern, the Afghan leader will be the special guest on CNN's "LATE EDITION" with Wolf Blitzer.
NGUYEN: Well, there's a terrifying sight for tourists at New York's Coney Island. A small plane goes into a tailspin and plummets to the earth killing four people on board. CNN's Susan Lisovicz has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Cessna crash landed at one of New York City most famous attractions. Eyewitnesses say it was flying as low as Coney Islands Wonder Wheel when it fell from the sky, nose first, and slammed into the sand. Luckily few people were on beach, although hundreds were nearby on the boardwalk. At first, some people thought it was all part of a dangerous aerial stunt.
JOSHUA MCCABE, WITNESS: We could see it as it was as it was flying through the air. We say it start hit down. I looked over and tapped my friends, we were eating lunch, and I tapped my friends and said, "that's a terrible trick to try to play" and then I realized it was going down.
ABIDEMI AKINWANDE, WITNESS: (INAUDIBLE) persons inside, they're like, the one was like this and the other almost (INAUDIBLE) and all a sudden it come by the side, like, you know, like the side and went back up about 300 feet. Very high (INAUDIBLE) it went back up. Then all of a sudden it came back down with its nose down. Boom.
LISOVICZ: The plane had taken off just 30 minutes before from nearby Linden, New Jersey. NTSB officials say it was on a discovery flight, a brief excursion for prospective flight students. The NTSB says a certified flight instructor with 1,900 hours flight time was at the wheel.
(on camera): The crash occurred on a spectacular spring day and some folks here say it was a miracle no one on the ground was killed. It could have been a different story if it occurred next week.
FRANK SCALABRINO, WITNESS: Next weekend is open here for Coney Island and there would have been a lot, a lot of little kids running around the beach and that would have really been terrible.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: Four people are dead and our prayers go out to their families and for them and, you know, the good news, I suppose, if there is, as I said before, fortunately nobody on the ground was injured.
LISOVICZ: Susan Lisovicz, CNN Brooklyn, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: News that three Romanian journalists held hostage there, have just been leased.
NGUYEN: But the violence continues a senior government official is killed in Baghdad. And for all those details we want to turn it over to Anand Naidoo at the CNN International Desk -- Anand.
ANAND NAIDOO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning from me. I'll have more details on those Iraqi developments in just a minute, but first up Afghanistan, renewed fighting near the Pakistan border. At least nine rebels have been killed in clashes with Afghan and U.S. Troops. The U.S. had a higher figure saying 12 insurgents were killed. One American soldier was slightly wounded in the fighting. A U.S. military statement said that the insurgents had crossed from Pakistan into Afghanistan and had attacked a U.S. patrol.
Now to Iraq: A senior trade ministry official there has been assassinated. Officials say the director general of the ministry and his driver were shot while on their way to work in Western Baghdad. It was the latest in a series of drive-by shootings targeting senior government officials.
And this just in: Just a short while ago, three Rumanian journalists and their Iraqi-American translator have been released in Iraq. Romanian officials they were rescued. They and been held for nearly two months.
In Indonesia, thousands of demonstrators stage an anti-American rally in the capital of Jakarta. Signs they carried condemned the alleged American desecration of the Koran. That's a charge published by "Newsweek" that was later retracted. Organizers say 10,000 people took part in the demonstration, but police put the figure at less than that. U.S. officials in Jakarta are playing down that demonstration saying that it was not unexpected and not unusual.
That's all for me. More international developments as they happen, here at CNN. Now back to Betty and Tony.
NGUYEN: Thank you Anand.
HARRIS: Anand. A breakthrough in stem cell research in Korea and concerns the U.S. is falling behind in the race for stem cell reproduction. That's coming up later this hour on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
NGUYEN: First, though, a CNN "Extra," some scientists are reconsidering their view that sunshine causes skin cancer. Several recent studies have found that vitamin D, which our skin makes from ultraviolet rays, may prevent an even treat some types of cancer including melanoma. They say many people aren't getting enough vitamin D from nutrition alone, so some scientists advise, safe sun, 15 minutes outside a few time as week without sunscreen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Well you know what our top stories are? Our top stories. But web surfers may have a slightly different appetite for headlines -- time for the most popular stories at cnn.com. With that, cnn.com Christina Park.
Good morning.
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN.COM: Good morning, Tony. Well, we are checking all of our most popular stories on cnn.com and for the top 10 reports our users are clicking on the most, log onto our Web site and click on "most popular" at the top right-hand of your screen.
One of our hottest stories online: Unlocking the mystery of Archimedes and his long-lost lineup. The great mathematician is famous for supposedly exclaiming, "eureka!" or "I have found it!" upon a scientific discovery. Well, some of his work had been hidden for centuries after a thrifty Christian monk wrote over it in the Middle Ages to save on parchment costs. Now highly focused x-rays are being used to decipher parts of the 174-page text by causing iron in the hidden ink to glow. But, it's a slow process. The project is expected to take three to four years to complete.
Now, this story has also caught the attention of our users on cnn.com. The Catholic Church in Arizona is selling off real estate to raise money. Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the diocese in Tucson is auctioning off more than 80 properties in hopes of raising more than $3 million. That money would go toward an eventual settlement to pay clergy sex abuse claims.
And Tony, those are just some of the most popular stories on cnn.com, but it changes every 20 minutes so you have to keep checking.
HARRIS: That's a smart audience out there. Eureka, we found it!
Christina, thank you.
PARK: Thanks Tony.
NGUYEN: All right, tonight on "CNN PRESENTS" a rare look at autism through the words of a young woman who lives with it. Sue Reuben has autism, and until age 13 was unable to control her unusual behavior. Now at age 26 Sue has become a disabled rights advocate and a college student. That's tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN, watched by more Americans than any other news channel. Now back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING with Betty Nguyen and Tony Harris.
NGUYEN: It could be years before people with incurable diseases can actually benefit from South Korea's advances in stem cell research. Still, it's renewed debate over the controversy of cloning humans. A South Korean researcher announced this week his team has created the first embryonic stem cells that genetically match injured or sick patients. The same scientists cloned a human embryo last year.
Now, yesterday I spoke with Steven Minger, a leading expert on stem cell biology, about this global controversy.
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DR. STEVEN MINGER, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: What the South Koreans have done is really revolutionary. They have shown that it's possible to clone human stem cells. We -- this technology has been around for a while, this is how Dolly the sheep was made. But, for a long time we weren't certain that this would actually work in humans. And what the South Koreans have done is definitively proved that it is possible to create stem cell lines which are genetically matched to an adult human patient.
NGUYEN: And that's the key that it's genetically matched. How big of a break through is this in stem cell research?
MINGER: I -- well, in terms of therapeutic applications, it's huge. It means we now, in the not too distant future, should be able to create stem cell lines that have been individualized for every patient that we want to use them in. And this will be important because, up until now, we've have been thinking about using immunosuppression of other means of trying to prevent rejection. This mean we can safely deliver cells to people and not have to worry about rejection and we should be able to treat children with type one diabetes without having to expose them to really powerful anti- rejection drugs which in and of themselves are sometimes quite dangerous.
NGUYEN: So, as we watch what the Koreans have discovered, President Bush says he will veto additional funding to aid in stem cell research. In your opinion, is that a mistake? Or is that morally the right thing to do?
MINGER: In my own humble opinion, I would argue that it's the wrong thing to do. I mean we, in the U.K., as well as in Korea, we have a very, very tight regulatory system to control how stem cell research is conducted. It's very tightly regulated in this country, and yet at the same time it's scientifically permissive. It creates the proper ethical balance, I think, for how this research can be done and I'm surprised, actually, that the U.S., given the fact they are the largest funder of biomedical research in the word has distanced themselves from this technology. It will revolutionize medicine.
NGUYEN: Dr. Minger you moved from Kentucky to London to take part in the stem cell revolution. What do you think about the stance President Bush has taken? Does it put the U.S. years behind when it comes to this medical research?
MINGER: Well, I don't think it's solely down to President Bush, I mean, I would argue that the moral and political climate in the U.S. is quite different than, say, here. And clearly states like California and New York are raising huge amounts of money to circumvent the federal government's disinclination to want to fund this research. So, the research will move ahead, regardless of the president's stance. It just limits the amount of research that can be done. A number of academic researchers who would like to move into the field won't simply because of difficulty in trying to run one lab that's dependent on federal government money and another lab that has private money. It gets logistically too difficult to do. Here, we make no distinction about the source of funding whether you're privately funded or funded by the government; everybody plays by the same rules. And the rules are very strict. And you could have that in the U.S., as well.
NGUYEN: So are you saying basically that the genie is out of the bottle, the world is moving forward on this and eventually the U.S. is going to have to catch up?
MINGER: Well, I wouldn't say that -- I don't know what the genie is. Regenerative medicine, using -- and cell therapy, are pushing ahead worldwide at a very fast pace. I mean, the Koreans have accelerated work that we thought would probably take five or 10 years. They have -- they have done this in a year. In five to 10 years there will be cell therapies using human embryonic stem cells, will be in the earliest stages, but there will be clinical translation. And the U.S. will benefit from that, there's no doubt about that. It's a question of whether or not they want to be part of the international effort to move this forward. And I think it's a shame that American researchers are not more actively involved in this.
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HARRIS: And checking our top stories this morning, Afghan and U.S. soldiers traded gunfire with insurgents near the Afghan-Pakistani border last night. The U.S. military said 12 insurgents and eight Afghan troops were also killed, one American was slightly wounded.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's commitment to the fight against heroin production in his country is questioned. A "New York Times" report cites a U.S. internal memo critical of Karzai's leadership in trying to eradicate Afghanistan's poppy crop.
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PRES. HAMID KARZAI, AFGHANISTAN: We have done our job. The Afghan people have done our job. Now the international community must come and provide alternative livelihood to the Afghan people which they have not done so far. Let us stop the blame game. Instead of blaming Afghanistan the international community must now come and fulfill its own objective to the Afghan people.
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HARRIS: Wow, strong words. Wolf Blitzer talks with Hamid Karzai later today on CNN's "Late Edition" at Noon Eastern.
And some anxious moments for First Lady Laura Bush in Jerusalem, today. A crowd of protesters met her as she walked to two holy sites. Secret Service agents and guards had to physically hold back the guard. At one point a heckler yelled "How dare you come here" as Mrs. Bush went inside a mosque.
She got into another tight spot earlier when she visited the Western Wall, Judaism holist site. Dozens of protesters seeking the release of Jonathan Pollard surrounded the first lady. Pollard is an American in prison for passing security information to Israel.
NGUYEN: OK, we're going to shift topics to the subject of dinosaurs. The first fossils were found 200 years ago, but once 21st century technology arrived it unlocked a whole bird's nest of discovery. We'll explain.
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NGUYEN: All right. Time, now, to check with Elaine Quijano in Washington for "On the Story."
What's coming up, Elaine?
ELAINE QUIJANO, "ON THE STORY": Good morning to you, Betty. Well, we're "On the Story" from Washington, New York, Jerusalem and Cairo. We'll go to Jerusalem and Suzanne Malveaux about tense moments and protests against First Lady Laura Bush.
I'll be talking about the big political battles between President Bush and Congress over federal judges and stem cell research. Christy Feig is on the medical stories of the week and how low-fat diets and aspirin make keep some cancers from returning.
And Kathleen Hays looks at the big airline mortgagor. Will fewer be better for travelers?
All coming up all "On the Story." Betty, back to you.
NGUYEN: Can't wait to see it. Thanks Elaine.
HARRIS: And all morning long we've been asking for your thoughts on our e-mail question. Let's put it up here. Filibuster Fight: Do senators have better things to do?
This e-mail from Susan, "We must keep the filibuster in order to protect minority rights. If the Senate majority breaks the rules to eliminate the filibuster, the foundations of our democracy are at stake."
NGUYEN: Well, Mike has a lot to say on this issue. He says, "The filibuster debate is nothing more than a political power struggle. It is NOT -- not a nationally important issue at this time. The Republicans have made a handful of judicial nominations the smokescreen for what is in essence an attempt to improve their power position. Ten years from now when the pendulum swings back, these same Republican senators will be denouncing these rules as unfair. Be careful what you wish for, senators. The American people are smarter than you think."
We appreciate all the comment this is morning, coming in. Some good ones.
HARRIS: Yeah, that e-mail felt like a filibuster. Let's get a final check of weather this weekend with Rob Marciano.
NGUYEN: Told you it was long.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Mike Cox gets more time than I do, for crying out loud. I mean, get a little chatty there on the e-mail. All right, let's go.
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NGUYEN: All right, thank you Rob.
HARRIS: And its the search for the truth that's taken thousands of years. Just what exactly were dinosaurs? And how did they live? You might have thought you knew, but you are sure to be surprised at some of the new answers this morning. Here is CNN's Beth Nissen.
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BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For most of the 200 years since the first dinosaur bones were found those studying them had to use a combination of deduction and great imagination to puzzle out from ancient pieces how dinosaurs looked, moved, lived. But just in the last five to 10 years study of the oldest known creatures on earth has been revolutionized by the newest technology: High speed computer, new software, 3-D imaging. Scientists at the Royal Veterinary College in London developed a computer program to calculate, from scans of a T-Rex skeleton, the range of motion in its joints and its muscle mass. Their discovery:
MARK NORELL, PALEONTOLOGIST: For the animal to go very, very quickly you would have to have an unreasonable amount of the entire weight of the animal just in the muscles of the behind limb.
NISSEN: T-Rex didn't have muscles big enough to carry its five ton self at a run. Its top land speed: A relatively (INAUDIBLE) 10 to 20 miles an hour.
Perhaps the most significant discoveries about dinosaurs have come from CAT scans or CT scans. Most done in this lab at the University of Texas in Austin. Since the lab began scanning natural objects eight years ago, paleontologists from around the world have sent in thousands of dinosaur fossils including this skull of a syntarsis (ph), a small Jurassic carnivore.
TIMOTHY ROWE, UNIV. OF TEXAS: It's a specimen that's 180 million years old and it's the only specimen in the world of a complete skull of this little guy. And so the last thing that I want to do, break the skull open to try to get some idea of the inside. NISSEN: But CAT scanning it yields the details picture of the inside of the skull which is marked by the impression of the brain that used to fill it. Computer imaging and animation can reconstruct a 3-D image of dinosaur brains. And what scientists saw when they first looked at these images, astonished them.
ROWE: If it has a big cortex that's an indication the animal is receiving sensory inputs from feathers. Blows me away to discover that.
NISSEN: Feathers on dinosaurs.
NORELL: We found that these animals were covered with feathers. We can predict, strongly predict, that Tyrannosaurus Rex, at some stage of its life, probably when it was small, was feathered.
NISSEN: The most compelling evidence yet that carnivorous dinosaurs, like T-Rex, were more like birds than anyone had thought, had feathers like birds, nesting habits like birds, three-today feet like birds, wishbones and hollow bones like birds.
ROWE: It's one of the many pieces of evidence that tells us that birds are descendant from extinct dinosaurs like this.
NISSEN: Which lead to the most surprising of all the new discoveries, new theories about dinosaurs.
NORELL: Birds are a kind of dinosaurs. So, dinosaurs aren't extinct, we just call them birds now. The world is populated with at least 8,000 species of living dinosaurs today.
NISSEN: Imagine that. Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.
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HARRIS: Birds like dinosaurs.
NGUYEN: Living today.
HARRIS: And they're just -- these scientists are just getting started. Who knows what's next. The music says we've to go.
NGUYEN: Yeah, we're out of time. We thank you for joining us this morning.
HARRIS: We'll see you back here next weekend. "On the Story" is next. Have a great Sunday.
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