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CNN Saturday Morning News

Filipino threatened With Beheading; Congressional Report Slams WMD Intelligence

Aired July 10, 2004 - 07:00   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.


DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
It's July 10.

Good morning, everybody.

I'm Drew Griffin. BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen.

Thanks so much for being with us today.

Here's what's coming up this hour.

Piecing together the parts of a puzzling mystery. After vanishing in Iraq, U.S. Marine Wassef Hassoun wound up back with this family in Lebanon. Now he's at a hospital in Germany, as many await details of his disturbing disappearance. We will have a live report just ahead.

And ousting Saddam Hussein also meant toppling his ruling political party. But now the party that symbolized all that was wrong with Iraq is finding favor with the new government. Have Iraq's Baathists changed for the better?

Plus, it's out of here -- just days before baseball's best batter up, experts say the game has gone wild, as in wildly popular. We'll take a look.

But first, here's what's happening now in the news.

GRIFFIN: The Philippines says it will not withdraw its troops from Iraq until August 20, as scheduled. A Filipino truck driver was taken hostage in Iraq this week. His captors threatened to kill him within 72 hours unless the Philippines pulled its troops out of Iraq. That deadline comes this afternoon.

Two computer disks containing classified material missing again from the nation's top nuclear lab. The disks were reported missing on Monday from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. This is the second incident in four years at Los Alamos.

Colombian drug agents head for Cuba today to try to get a suspected drug trafficker extradited. Luis Hernando Bustamante is believed to be a leader of the Colombian cartel that smuggled $10 billion worth of cocaine into the U.S. Bustamante was arrested this week in Cuba.

Up first this hour, tense negotiations in an ongoing hostage crisis. An abducted Filipino pleads for his life, begging his country to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

CNN's Maria Ressa joins us via video phone from Manila with Delia Albert, the Philippines' foreign affairs secretary -- Maria.

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Drew.

With the deadline approaching, the Philippine government has come out with a new statement just shortly after a new videotape with the appeal from the hostage.

Joining me now is secretary of foreign affairs, Delia Albert.

Secretary Albert, what is the government doing now?

DELIA ALBERT, PHILIPPINES FOREIGN AFFAIRS SECRETARY: Well, the whole day we have looked at every possible way to save the life of a Filipino, which is paramount in terms of our president's declaration that we will do everything to save Filipino lives.

Now, I reveal the statement which we have crafted after that meeting.

"We continue to hope and pray and work for the safe release of Mr. Angelo dela Cruz. We are in contact with his family and providing them with every assistance. We have taken additional measures to ensure the safety of Filipino workers already in Iraq. We strongly advise them to remain in safe installations. We are prepared to work out trade (AUDIO GAP) those who wish to return to the Philippines.

We are hopeful the deployment of our Filipino workers in Iraq, our humanitarian contingent, is already scheduled to return on 17 August, 2004. Our future actions shall be guided by the United Nations Security Council decision as embodied in Resolution 1546, which defines the role of the United Nations and its member states in the future of Iraq."

RESSA: So, let's hone in on your last statement about the Philippine troops in Iraq.

ALBERT: May I correct you?

RESSA: Yes.

ALBERT: There are no troops. It's a humanitarian contingent.

RESSA: So the humanitarian contingent, they were there for six months at the beginning and then extended for another six months.

ALBERT: That's right.

RESSA: This decision not to extend it, is that due to this hostage situation?

ALBERT: You know, the commitment to the Iraqi people was for one year. So we have done six months and starting February 20 of this year up to August of this year is the second month of the presence of our humanitarian contingent. And they will be returning at the end of that (AUDIO GAP) half of that one year commitment, which we have given to the Iraqi people.

RESSA: How many people are we talking about?

ALBERT: We're talking about 51.

RESSA: Fifty-one? That's a very small number.

ALBERT: It's a very small number. These are engineers. These are construction people. They are medical people and they are health workers. So these are the people we are talking about.

RESSA: And, finally...

ALBERT: They do not have any combat role.

RESSA: Thank you very much, Secretary Albert.

We've been speaking with the Philippine foreign affairs secretary, Delia Albert, here in Manila -- back to you, Drew.

GRIFFIN: Maria, I'm just slightly confused. Did she say that the workers would be going back in February or this is it, August 20 they are out?

RESSA: August 20 they are out -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: OK.

Maria Ressa reporting from the Philippines, from Manila.

Thank you very much.

NGUYEN: In Washington, the committee chairman says this report cries out for reform and the focus now is on how or whether to make sweeping changes in the U.S. intelligence community. The Senate intelligence report released yesterday says the U.S. went to war in Iraq on the basis of flawed intelligence, but there's no evidence that resulted from political pressure.

Details now from our national security correspondent David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: The Senate panel's 511-page report is blunt. It says the justification for the war in Iraq, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, was just plain wrong, and that the U.S. intelligence community was to blame for the mistake.

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Today we know these assessments were wrong. And, as our inquiry will show, they were also unreasonable and largely unsupported by the available intelligence.

ENSOR: The report complains of groupthink in U.S. intelligence, leading the community "to interpret ambiguous evidence as conclusively indicative of a WMD program."

SEN. JOHN ROCKEFELLER (D-WV), INTELLIGENCE COMM.: We in Congress would not have authorized that war. We would not have authorized that war with 75 votes if we knew what we know now.

ENSOR: At the CIA, the deputy director took the unusual step of holding a news conference to respond, saying steps have already been taken to make sure such mistakes are never made again.

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, DEPUTY CIA DIRECTOR: So my first message to you is a very simple one. We get it.

ROBERTS. Most, if not all, of these problems stem from a broken corporate culture and poor management.

MCLAUGHLIN: No, I don't think we have a broken corporate culture at all.

ENSOR: The report says before the Iraq war, the CIA did not have a single officer in that country working on finding weapons of mass destruction. Committee staffers called the agency risk-averse.

MCLAUGHLIN: I mean, if it's intended to convey a timidity on the part of our officers in terms of working in dangerous environments, I would just reject that totally out of hand. I mean, we put stars on the wall out here this year. We put stars on the wall out here this year.

ENSOR: The stars in the CIA's front hall represent officers killed in the line of duty. Though, Mclaughlin, insisted CIA analyst were not pressured excessively by administration officials to come up with conclusions that the White House wanted on Iraq, the committees top Democratic is not so sure.

ROCKEFELLER: A veteran of many years there said that the hammering on analyst was greater than he had seen in 32 years of service to the Central Intelligancy Agency and we was referring to pressure.

ENSOR: With the 9/11 Commission report yet to come, the U.S. Intelligence community is in for a summer of criticism and debate, possibly followed in 2005 by some real changes in the way it's organized and lead.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: President Bush has reacted to all this, saying despite the quality of the intelligence, as he put it, we were right to go into Iraq and America is safer today because we did. During an Ask the President session in Kutztown University, Pennsylvania, the president talked about the Senate intelligence report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The idea that the Senate has taken a hard look to find out where the intelligence gathering services went short is good and positive. And I commend the chairman of the committee for doing that. We need to know. I want to know. I want to know how to make the agencies better, to make sure that we're better able to gather the information necessary to protect the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Mr. Bush said he wasn't the only one who looked at the intelligence on Iraq and saw a threat. He said Congress, the U.N. and the Clinton administration also saw it. The report says there's no evidence the Bush administration tried to pressure analysts into shaping answers that would support the call for war. Two Democrats on the committee say that second part of the report, which conservatives on the panel have blocked until after the November elections, should be completed now and released.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: The committee's report does not acknowledge that the intelligence estimates were shaped by the administration. In my view, this remains an open question and needs more scrutiny.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: At least one Democratic congresswoman, Jane Harman of California, says she hopes the House will address the issue in its investigation.

NGUYEN: The campaign of presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry used the report's scathing assessment of intelligence gathering as an indictment of the administration.

Mark Kitchen, who's Kerry's deputy press secretary for national security, said "Nothing in this report absolves the White House for its mishandling of the country's intelligence. The fact is that when it comes to national security, the buck stops at the White House, not anywhere else."

GRIFFIN: Missing payroll records and what they mean is bringing back the controversy over President Bush's National Guard service back in the '70s. The "New York Times" reports three months of missing payroll records could have cleared up confusion over how the president fulfilled his service back in 1972. The White House called the report old news and said it acknowledged the missing payroll records back in February, saying the 30-year-old documents were accidentally destroyed. The "Times" report says had those records not been destroyed, they could have determined if the president did fulfill his duties in the National Guard.

NGUYEN: Less than four months before election day, the Senate has opened debate on the emotionally charged issue of gay marriage. A vote is scheduled for Wednesday. But the shadow this issue could cast, well, that could stretch all the way to the ballot box in November.

CNN congressional correspondent Joe Johns explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The debate over a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage kicked off in the Senate with a lot of talk about values, appealing to social conservatives in an election year.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: I worry that the American family will not be able to sustain itself against this continued attempt to marginalize the importance of traditional families.

JOHNS: Supporters were trying hard not to alienate social moderates.

SEN. GORDON SMITH (R), OREGON: Let me express to my gay and lesbian friends, I don't mean to disappoint you, but I can't be true to you if I'm false to my basic beliefs.

JOHNS: Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says he opposes gay marriage, but won't vote to ban it because it should be left up to the states.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I personally believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. But I don't think we need a constitutional amendment at the federal level.

JOHNS: From the campaign trail, the president restated his support of the amendment, pointing out judges in Kerry's home state recently ruled gay marriage is OK.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is too important a decision to have it defined by four judges in a state, say, of Massachusetts -- like Massachusetts.

JOHNS: Some Democrats attacked the timing of the debate, so close to Boston's Democratic National Convention, and questioned Republican priorities.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: When we should be considering measures to strengthen homeland security, Republican partisans have focused on divisive wedge issues for partisan political purposes.

JOHNS (on camera): Some supporters of the amendment acknowledge they don't have the votes to pass it, but say the issue is so important the Senate needs to go on the record.

Joe Johns, CNN, Capitol Hill. (END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Well, it's a high profile test case for gay rights here in the State of Georgia. Gay members of a private golf club say it's unfair that married couples have to pay one fee, while gays and lesbians pay a fee for each person. The golf club is standing firm and the mayor of Atlanta is trapped in the middle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAYOR SHIRLEY FRANKLIN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA: I regret that Georgia is one of the few states that has not put on the books that ant-discrimination law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Could this case be headed to court? New developments in the stand-off between gay golfers and a private club. That's tomorrow on CNN SUNDAY MORNING at 9:00 Eastern.

GRIFFIN: Other stories across America this morning, a military hearing has been delayed for U.S. Army Private Lynndie England, one of the soldiers charged with abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison. The hearing was to determine whether she should face a military trial in this case. Her next court date on Monday will now focus only on procedural issues.

Here's a dramatic rescue from the Ohio State Highway Patrol. A dashboard camera captures troopers pulling a woman from her burning vehicle. It happened after a crash near Granville. The woman was taken to the hospital with burns to her head and arms.

Hours after a California judge declared rock star Courtney Love a fugitive for missing a court hearing, she admitted herself to a New York hospital. Love's attorney says the reason is medically related, not a drug overdose, as rumored. The California judge issuing the bench warrant says he expects Love in court early next week to post a new bond.

In south Florida, brush fires smoldering in southwestern Miami- Dade County. The good news is the winds have calmed and are no longer blowing smoke and ash into the downtown area. No structures have been damaged and no evacuations ordered.

NGUYEN: Here's the morning e-mail question: Would you be willing to give up more personal information to get through airport security more quickly?

Let us know what you think. E-mail us at wam@cnn.com and we'll read your responses on the air.

GRIFFIN: The strange case of Marine Corporal Wassef Hassoun -- lost and found, but what happened in between is what everybody wants to know. We're going to get a live report from the U.S. military hospital in Germany.

NGUYEN: And later, the hardball business of hard ball. Every crack of the bat sounds like kaching. Our guest will cover all the bases.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: You may not have been able to keep up with all the news this week and that is why we're here. Time to rewind.

Questions remain about what happened to U.S. Marine Corporal Wassef Hassoun. Flown to Germany yesterday and remains at a U.S. military facility there. But officials still haven't explained just how he got to Lebanon after being reported missing from Iraq. The translator was listed as captured after being seen blindfolded in a video. We're going to go live to Landstuhl for an update on the story, coming up.

Former Enron chief Ken Lay turned himself in to authorities this week. He is awaiting trial on charges that include securities fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud. Lay says he's innocent. He blames the betrayal of top financial officer Andrew Fastow for Enron's collapse. Lay was released on a $500,000 bail.

The group Americans for Tax Reform says average Americans have finally stopped working for Uncle Sam and their state and local governments -- that happened Wednesday -- and began working for themselves. The group says Americans, on average, worked 189 days of this year to pay off their tax burden. Not everyone finds the news so taxing. Another research calls the numbers statistical garbage.

Tomorrow, we'll fast forward to the week ahead and tell you which stories people will be talking about -- Betty.

NGUYEN: To Germany now, where U.S. military officials are delving deeper into the mystery of U.S. Marine Corporal Wassef Hassoun.

CNN's Chris Burns is live on the phone from Germany with the latest.

What a mystery -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, definitely a mystery, Betty. But it is no mystery that he is in pretty good shape. Doctors say that they've gotten past the medical exams. They say he lost a lot of sleep. He lost about 20 pounds of weight. But otherwise, medically, he's OK.

So now they're looking into his head today. That's when it starts. You look at the psychological condition. And they also asked him a lot of questions. They're trying to get intel out of him and that is why they're granting him immunity at this point, even though there are questions as to whether perhaps maybe some of this event might have been a hoax. They still want to talk to him and find out what he knows about the people he was with when he apparently was in captivity.

He also has access to a Muslim chaplain, we're told. Was this a hoax? Well, his brother Mohammed in Utah says no and he's angry about any speculation about it. And, one might ask, if he went back to the U.S. military, went back to the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, perhaps it wasn't a hoax, perhaps he was really in captivity, perhaps that video of that sword over his head really was a threat to him -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Chris, is this immunity temporary immunity until they get this information, because at one time he was classified as a deserter?

BURNS: Exactly. He was classified as missing, then deserted, then captive and then showed up in Lebanon. So different statuses there. And what they want to do is really get as much information as they from him. He left his Fallujah base back on June 19 and didn't show up the next day. That's why he was declared missing.

Now, what did he know? Who did he meet? That could perhaps offer more insight into what the insurgency is in Iraq. So that is why they've given him immunity.

Now, the investigation -- in a criminal investigation by the Navy, which is under way, he would face any questions about that when he gets back to the States. His first stop is supposed to be his base, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

NGUYEN: OK, still a lot of questions to be answered.

CNN's Chris Burns on the phone for us.

Thank you -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Back in Iraq, the sudden rise in fortune for Iraq's Baath Party. Once denounced as a pariah, now it reemerges a viable positive force. We are going to take a closer look at what's behind the about face.

Also coming up...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "LEGEND IN HIS OWN MIND," COURTESY DREAMWORKS) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need to use this machine so I can watch a tape for a story run.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'm using the tape. I'm showing...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: The very funny story of Ron Burgundy, local news anchor and legend in his own mind. A glimpse of that and other new releases, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

I'm Betty Nguyen.

In the mood for a movie this weekend? Well, here's a glimpse of what's new in theaters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "ANCHORMAN")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening. I'm Art Burgundy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Damn it, who typed a question mark on the teleprompter?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Oh, that makes us so proud. The trials and tribulations of a TV anchorman in the 1970s. Will Farrell stars as Ron Burgundy, local TV news star and womanizer. Sparks start to fly, however, when a female reporter is hired as his co-anchor and Ron starts to wonder about his own abilities.

Critics? Well, they call it a very funny motion picture, saying it also has a good sense of the time and how the medium of TV news was changing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "KING ARTHUR")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My father told me great tales of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Based on the legend but set much earlier, against the fall of the Roman Empire, this tale touts itself as a true story of King Arthur. It opens with the young military officer's quest to become a king. The "Washington Post" says "The film boasts all the hallmarks of a '50s historic epic minus the presence of Tony Curtis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SLEEPOVER")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I decided to put together a little hunt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hunting what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scavenger hunting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: A group of four nerdy girls who want to become popular before their first day of high school plan a sleepover and challenge the "cool girls" to an all night scavenger hunt, where being naughty is what it takes to win. Filmcritic.com calls it "a most pleasant surprise."

Drew, do you think your little daughter is going to be watching that one?

GRIFFIN: Nope.

NGUYEN: Not any time soon if you have anything to say about that.

Well, we want to talk about the weather this morning.

GRIFFIN: First, let's go to the top stories.

The government of the Philippines says its 50 humanitarian workers will leave Iraq next month. That comes as negotiations for the release of a Filipino hostage in Iraq are ongoing. Officials in Manila didn't say if the decision is part of the negotiations.

There's a blistering report by the Senate Intelligence Committee finding the CIA gave flawed information about the level of threat posed by Iraq before last year's war. President Bush defending his decisions, but says the Senate report will help improve intelligence gathering.

And U.S. military officials anxious to question Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun. He hasn't yet explained how he ended up in his native Lebanon after being missing from his unit in Iraq for some two weeks. He is now, as we've heard earlier, getting medical treatment in Germany.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Well, they may be the boys of summer, but how is the actual game of baseball doing this year from the business side of things? We go beyond the game when CNN SATURDAY MORNING returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Deja vu in Iraq -- what once seemed old is new again.

Welcome back.

I'm Drew Griffin at the CNN Center in Atlanta.

NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen.

That story in just a minute. But first, headlines in the news right now.

As the Philippine government works to gain the release of one of its citizens abducted in Iraq, it says Filipino troops will leave Iraq next month as planned. An Islamic group has threatened to kill the man unless the troops return home. The 72 hour deadline set by those militants comes later in the day.

An American journalist who edited "Forbes" magazine's Russian edition has been shot and killed outside his Moscow office. Paul Klebnikov had reported extensively on organized crime in Russia and in May, he published a list of the country's wealthiest people. His family issued a statement calling him "a fighter for the truth," and demanding his assailants be brought to justice. The first direct presidential elections in Afghanistan will be held October 9. But, voters will have to wait until next spring to vote in the country's parliamentary elections. The presidential contest was first set for June, moved to September then delayed until October. President Bush says the elections will be a critical step forward in the move toward democracy.

And British Prime Minister Tony Blair considering resigning last month? He had to be convinced to stay on the job by some cabinet secretaries. That's according to the BBC. Analysts have said the Labor prime minister will win reelection next year, though some in the party see him as a liability because of his support for the war in Iraq.

GRIFFIN: Two weeks into its official rule, the interim Iraqi government is starting to make some of the tough decisions required to rebuild that country. And as CNN's Jane Arraf reports, bringing some former Saddam Hussein loyalists back into the fold is part of that plan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This new sovereign Iraq is just a week old, but already asserting its independence. The government is promising an amnesty for low level insurgents and militia members and it's bringing the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party, disbanded and discredited under Paul Bremer's Iraq, in from the cold.

The shift was signaled in Washington itself by the new Iraqi ambassador to the United States.

REND RAHIM, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: This is a new departure with a democratic, pluralistic system that respects the right of all the citizens, that gives everybody in Iraq an opportunity to participate in this decision-making, in making their voices heard.

ARRAF: Rend Rahim said the new Iraq would try to engage not just former Baathists, but current ones. Saddam Hussein headed the Ba'ath Party but he didn't invent it. Many Iraqis say he and his regime hijacked a party that had made Iraq one of the best educated countries in the region.

It's a far cry from May last year, when the chief U.S. administrator hailed the destruction of the 57-year-old Ba'ath Party as one of the coalition's main achievements.

L. PAUL BREMER, U.S./IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATOR: Those who were on high before, in particular the Baathists, who used their power to repress the Iraqi people, will be removed from office.

ARRAF: But the move banned from public employment hundreds of thousands of badly needed teachers, engineers and other professionals. Dissolving the Iraqi Army threw just as many officers out of work, creating hundreds of thousands of enemies, making clear they would have no role in the new Iraq. (on camera): Iraqis say in teahouses and living rooms in Baghdad and other cities, a new Ba'ath Party is forming, one that will appeal partly to Sunni Muslims, who believe they've been ignored; and stripped of Saddam Hussein, one that will be able to compete in the political process.

(voice-over): Some of the most senior U.S. military officials believe even people funding the insurgency can be convinced that their fight is futile and can be rehabilitated.

LT. GEN. THOMAS METZ, U.S. ARMY: My logic tells me that that's a better way to go than to feed an insurgency with your money. And maybe we can work to get those -- have a few converts.

ARRAF: Many American officials say the United States has learned a lot in the past year. One of the things it's learned the hard way is that building a new country takes more than tearing down a regime.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: It was a busy week in the war on terror. We've got the highlights in your terror watch this weekend.

A confidential source tells CNN the heads of the CIA and FBI briefed senators behind closed doors this week. They told the legislators the terror threat level in the U.S. is as high as it's been since the September 11 attacks.

Now, that came as the public heard from Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Thursday. He said officials believe al Qaeda is planning a large scale attack on the United States in an effort to disrupt the democratic process before the November elections. But Secretary Ridge said there was no specific threat.

The U.S. Coast Guard is continuing efforts to secure America's ports. Nineteen ships have been denied entry and another 30 have been detained since July 1, when new security regulations went into effect.

And it's a cleanup operation also considered a preventative measure against potential nuclear terror threats. The Energy Department says it removed nearly two tons of radiological and nuclear materials from Iraq last month. The Defense Department transported the material to the U.S.

And just what does he know about a possible link? The federal 9/11 Commission said this week it believes Vice President Dick Cheney knows nothing more about the September 11 attacks than panel members do. The commission has said it has seen no evidence to suggest Saddam Hussein's government had anything to do with the attacks and asked Mr. Cheney to come forward if there is something he hasn't told the panel.

GRIFFIN: There are some who say former President Bill Clinton bears part of the blame for the lingering war on terror. Tomorrow here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING, Clinton responds to his critics in an interview with our Christiane Amanpour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This has nothing to do with my being a Democrat and your being a Republican. I just my -- I believe objectively, I've been reading this for eight years, I've been watching this. I think by far your biggest problem is bin Laden and al Qaeda, and it's my great regret that I didn't get him. I tried.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, the Middle East -- no topic off limits in a Christiane Amanpour interview with Bill Clinton tomorrow on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. That's at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time.

NGUYEN: Well, for some it's a feeling of hopelessness with a failing organ the only chance of survival as transplant surgery and the generosity of a single donor. That's the subject of this morning's House Call at 8:30 Eastern time.

And at 9:00, should the use of condoms be part of the high school health curriculum? A spirited debate live at 9:00 Eastern.

Plus, a 9-year-old boy struck by lightning, no pulse, no breathing -- the story of his dramatic revival, now called a miracle, on CNN SATURDAY MORNING at 9:00, as well.

But first, the midseason classic. Baseball's All Star Game is just days away. Time to give a midterm grade for the national pastime.

Sports analyst Rick Horrow live on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, good morning.

Here is a look at the White House in the capital of Washington, D.C. this morning. Ron will be here with your complete forecast in about 15 minutes.

CNN SATURDAY MORNING will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas the site of this year's baseball All Star Game. And barring injuries, the final rosters are apparently set.

The top vote getter this year, Texas Rangers' second baseman Alfonso Soriano, with 3.4 million ballots. The Yankees lead all teams with players making it to the midseason classic. This will also be the first year that three players with 500 home runs have been selected. Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey, Jr. will all start in the National League outfield. And throwing out the first pitch -- this is interesting -- former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. Could there be a better living sports figure than that man right there?

If you look at the bottom line, major league baseball more popular than ever -- the bottom line being money.

CNN sports business analyst Rick Horrow is the author of "When The Game Is On The Line."

Rick's here to talk about baseball, the All Star Game and the home run derby -- and, Rick, this game was on the line not too long ago. In fact, I thought the business was still dying.

RICK HORROW, CNN SPORTS BUSINESS ANALYST: Hey, two years ago in Milwaukee they had that famous tie All Star Game. And it was three months from labor Armageddon and everybody said the game is over. They avoided a shutdown for the first time in 30 years. Now, it's a $3.7 billion business and two and a half billion of it is from TV. So they've come a heck of a long way.

GRIFFIN: Why do I still hear about owners whining about not making money. The debt on their clubs is outrageous. And even players whining about salaries, don't want to be tested for drugs, don't want this, don't want that.

HORROW: Because the American sports entrepreneur loves to whine. It's the national pastime. The bottom line, though, is that the major league baseball business has put in a salary cap. They've put in a luxury tax, which is effectively a salary cap, because it serves to reduce salaries. But it also has a revenue sharing plan of about $300 million by '06.

What that means is that more teams now have more money to compete. Seventeen teams were within three and a half games of the lead three weeks ago, which is the latest that's happened in a decade.

Then there's the Yankees, you know, a $182 million payroll. The Devil Rays are only $30 million. But they know what they're doing. It's the cost of doing business. They spent $22 million to pay the luxury tax this last year. ARod's contract -- $22 million a year.

Guess what? A 30 percent increase in attendance for the Yankees this year. That translates to about a $22 million net increase. So have they figured it out.

GRIFFIN: Where is that revenue, where are the people coming from going into these stands? Because a while back I think I read a survey and in some of the notes you said 50 years old or older was the average baseball fan.

HORROW: Right. Yes, well, they're closer to my demographic now, which is a little unfortunate. The games have to start earlier, they have to be swifter. But baseball has to market a little better. You know, they've hired Snoop Dogg now as a consultant, as an endorser, by the way. GRIFFIN: A role model.

HORROW: Yes, as a role model.

GRIFFIN: Yes.

HORROW: But also Toronto has celebrated Gay Pride Day. You've had more emphasis on women. Artie Moreno, the owner of the California Angels, has targeted the Hispanic audience.

So it's not just getting younger, but it's getting more diverse, as well. That's the goal.

GRIFFIN: But in competing with other sports like the NBA for that 9-year-old boy who's going to be a sports fan the rest of his life, baseball is slow. It is boring to them. There's not a lot of stuff happening between pitches.

HORROW: Hey, it may be slow and boring to you. The problem is that it's got to be more accepted to the general audience. More people are now going to movies than they go to sports games combined. So it's not just baseball. It's all entertainment. There is that major competition for the entertainment dollar.

So now we have the Internet, which is now focusing on marketing. A hundred and forty-one million fans voted for the All Stars, including Soriano, the top vote getter, by the way, on the Internet. It compared to 60 million the year before. More people are watching it on TV, 11 million people this last year as opposed to nine million the year before.

So salaries are stabilizing. The game seems to be better from a business context. But more needs to be done for marketing to kids and the anchors, who say the game is boring.

GRIFFIN: Let's talk about the All Star Game. Actually, what I find fascinating about this All Star Game is the home run derby, because you've got all these guys who can smack 500 home runs or more now competing against each other.

HORROW: Well, I'll be there live from Houston and the home run derby, believe me, is much more exciting than the game. The bottom line, though, it is an economic engine. It is a time where baseball transacts business. All of the relocation candidates, from Virginia and Washington and Portland, Oregon and Vegas, are all going to scurry around to see if baseball is going to make a decision there. Probably not.

But this is the time where baseball meets. It's also a time where Houston is really going to benefit. Remember, six months ago, we were talking about Super Bowl 38 held in Houston with a $300 million economic impact.

Now they've got the major league baseball All Star Game. So it's a wonderful impact for that Texas city.

GRIFFIN: Real quickly, the addition of Mohammed Ali to throw out that first pitch.

HORROW: Classy, fantastic, tasteful. It shows that baseball is understanding what it takes to regain its mantle as America's pastime. They're doing the right thing.

GRIFFIN: All right, Rick Harrow, defender of the exiting game of baseball.

Thanks for joining us.

HORROW: See you next week.

GRIFFIN: OK.

You bet, Rick -- Betty.

NGUYEN: This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first kidney transplant. But the process can still be confusing. Ahead on House Call, Dr. Sanjay Gupta puts to rest the myths surrounding organ donation. He also discusses some of the controversies. That is at 8:30 Eastern right here on CNN.

Well, no, you're not seeing things. How this car got in this house. And, more importantly, how they get the car out. It's one of our Wows of the Week. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: A few highlights from the week that just might, you say, what -- Betty?

NGUYEN: Wow!

GRIFFIN: Wow.

New ultraviolet images of Saturn's rings from Cassini wowing scientists and mere mortals alike. The icy rings aren't actually these colors, but NASA says the contrast helps scientists see more detail.

A classic story -- older driver mistakes gas pedal for brake. This time the elderly woman went airborne. This house near Boston sits just below a parking deck. Nobody hurt. Police say the car came to rest on a support beam.

In Spain, the bulls running in Pamplona. So, of course, we have an injury report to tell you about. Four people gored. Twenty-eight runners have been taken to the hospital so far. The annual event ends, fortunately, on Wednesday.

And Nemo glad he's been found. The kitten was rescued by boaters in Florida, who found him paddling for his life in the open sea. A vet says the 10 week old is healthy and he has been adopted.

NGUYEN: Well, of course. What a cutie.

And we have much more coming up here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING, so don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, good morning.

Look at this beautiful shot live from Norfolk, Virginia.

This is our affiliate WADY. A look at the sun there. Hopefully it's a great day there and in your neighborhood. Rob will be up with the complete forecast. That is coming up in just a little bit.

Today's headlines.

The Philippine government is negotiating the release of a hostage in Iraq. Video on Al Jazeera Television shows a Filipino truck driver begging his government to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Kidnapped on Wednesday, militants threatened to behead the man by today.

Here at home, a Senate Intelligence Committee report criticizes the information used to justify invading Iraq. Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin admits there were intelligence shortfalls and problems will be corrected.

It's a big check -- no, it is a mega check for Geraldine Williams. She claimed the $294 million Mega Million jackpot. After taxes, she'll get just a mere $118 million. The 67-year-old grandmother says she plans to travel and give money to her three children, plus she wants to donate a little to charity, as well.

GRIFFIN: Do you know, Rob, that bugs me. $294 million. She just gets $118 million of it.

NGUYEN: After taxes. They kill you, don't they, Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, well, you know, Uncle Sam has got to get a little piece of the pie, after all.

GRIFFIN: A little?

NGUYEN: Of course.

MARCIANO: We've got to keep this...

NGUYEN: How about half?

MARCIANO: But she can now, what, write off those taxes so she doesn't have to pay taxes on her state? I don't know.

NGUYEN: Yes, that's a pretty big...

MARCIANO: It's a lot of cash. It's a lot of cash. It's amazing that they didn't have to split that up among a number of players. That's normally what happens.

GRIFFIN: Well, she has children.

NGUYEN: Well, she's going to split it up among her kids. Exactly.

GRIFFIN: They'll take it.

NGUYEN: And we're not one of them, unfortunately.

GRIFFIN: No. No we're not, so we must forge ahead.

(WEATHER REPORT)

GRIFFIN: We're going to check our e-mail Question of the Day. Are you willing to give up more information, personal information, to get through the airport lines more quickly?

We have a couple of e-mails that have come in.

Number one: "Why not? Even though I'm in the civilian workforce, I get to be fingerprinted every time I change jobs. I have to let the same government department know every time I change jobs or move. What else do they want to know? So I can move through the airport more swiftly." Sharon in Florida.

NGUYEN: And another person writes: "This administration is using the Patriot Act against its own people. I'll spend a week in the airport or walk before I would allow any more of my rights to be taken away. Before the Patriot Act, we had a chance to preserve our democracy." And I understand that is Linda from Florida who wrote in with that.

And, of course, we would like to invite you to send in your responses to the e-mail Question of the Day.

All you have to do is send that to wam@cnn.com and we'll read it on the air.

GRIFFIN: The next hour of CNN SATURDAY begins right now.

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 July 10, 2004 - 07:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
It's July 10.

Good morning, everybody.

I'm Drew Griffin. BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen.

Thanks so much for being with us today.

Here's what's coming up this hour.

Piecing together the parts of a puzzling mystery. After vanishing in Iraq, U.S. Marine Wassef Hassoun wound up back with this family in Lebanon. Now he's at a hospital in Germany, as many await details of his disturbing disappearance. We will have a live report just ahead.

And ousting Saddam Hussein also meant toppling his ruling political party. But now the party that symbolized all that was wrong with Iraq is finding favor with the new government. Have Iraq's Baathists changed for the better?

Plus, it's out of here -- just days before baseball's best batter up, experts say the game has gone wild, as in wildly popular. We'll take a look.

But first, here's what's happening now in the news.

GRIFFIN: The Philippines says it will not withdraw its troops from Iraq until August 20, as scheduled. A Filipino truck driver was taken hostage in Iraq this week. His captors threatened to kill him within 72 hours unless the Philippines pulled its troops out of Iraq. That deadline comes this afternoon.

Two computer disks containing classified material missing again from the nation's top nuclear lab. The disks were reported missing on Monday from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. This is the second incident in four years at Los Alamos.

Colombian drug agents head for Cuba today to try to get a suspected drug trafficker extradited. Luis Hernando Bustamante is believed to be a leader of the Colombian cartel that smuggled $10 billion worth of cocaine into the U.S. Bustamante was arrested this week in Cuba.

Up first this hour, tense negotiations in an ongoing hostage crisis. An abducted Filipino pleads for his life, begging his country to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

CNN's Maria Ressa joins us via video phone from Manila with Delia Albert, the Philippines' foreign affairs secretary -- Maria.

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Drew.

With the deadline approaching, the Philippine government has come out with a new statement just shortly after a new videotape with the appeal from the hostage.

Joining me now is secretary of foreign affairs, Delia Albert.

Secretary Albert, what is the government doing now?

DELIA ALBERT, PHILIPPINES FOREIGN AFFAIRS SECRETARY: Well, the whole day we have looked at every possible way to save the life of a Filipino, which is paramount in terms of our president's declaration that we will do everything to save Filipino lives.

Now, I reveal the statement which we have crafted after that meeting.

"We continue to hope and pray and work for the safe release of Mr. Angelo dela Cruz. We are in contact with his family and providing them with every assistance. We have taken additional measures to ensure the safety of Filipino workers already in Iraq. We strongly advise them to remain in safe installations. We are prepared to work out trade (AUDIO GAP) those who wish to return to the Philippines.

We are hopeful the deployment of our Filipino workers in Iraq, our humanitarian contingent, is already scheduled to return on 17 August, 2004. Our future actions shall be guided by the United Nations Security Council decision as embodied in Resolution 1546, which defines the role of the United Nations and its member states in the future of Iraq."

RESSA: So, let's hone in on your last statement about the Philippine troops in Iraq.

ALBERT: May I correct you?

RESSA: Yes.

ALBERT: There are no troops. It's a humanitarian contingent.

RESSA: So the humanitarian contingent, they were there for six months at the beginning and then extended for another six months.

ALBERT: That's right.

RESSA: This decision not to extend it, is that due to this hostage situation?

ALBERT: You know, the commitment to the Iraqi people was for one year. So we have done six months and starting February 20 of this year up to August of this year is the second month of the presence of our humanitarian contingent. And they will be returning at the end of that (AUDIO GAP) half of that one year commitment, which we have given to the Iraqi people.

RESSA: How many people are we talking about?

ALBERT: We're talking about 51.

RESSA: Fifty-one? That's a very small number.

ALBERT: It's a very small number. These are engineers. These are construction people. They are medical people and they are health workers. So these are the people we are talking about.

RESSA: And, finally...

ALBERT: They do not have any combat role.

RESSA: Thank you very much, Secretary Albert.

We've been speaking with the Philippine foreign affairs secretary, Delia Albert, here in Manila -- back to you, Drew.

GRIFFIN: Maria, I'm just slightly confused. Did she say that the workers would be going back in February or this is it, August 20 they are out?

RESSA: August 20 they are out -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: OK.

Maria Ressa reporting from the Philippines, from Manila.

Thank you very much.

NGUYEN: In Washington, the committee chairman says this report cries out for reform and the focus now is on how or whether to make sweeping changes in the U.S. intelligence community. The Senate intelligence report released yesterday says the U.S. went to war in Iraq on the basis of flawed intelligence, but there's no evidence that resulted from political pressure.

Details now from our national security correspondent David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: The Senate panel's 511-page report is blunt. It says the justification for the war in Iraq, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, was just plain wrong, and that the U.S. intelligence community was to blame for the mistake.

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Today we know these assessments were wrong. And, as our inquiry will show, they were also unreasonable and largely unsupported by the available intelligence.

ENSOR: The report complains of groupthink in U.S. intelligence, leading the community "to interpret ambiguous evidence as conclusively indicative of a WMD program."

SEN. JOHN ROCKEFELLER (D-WV), INTELLIGENCE COMM.: We in Congress would not have authorized that war. We would not have authorized that war with 75 votes if we knew what we know now.

ENSOR: At the CIA, the deputy director took the unusual step of holding a news conference to respond, saying steps have already been taken to make sure such mistakes are never made again.

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, DEPUTY CIA DIRECTOR: So my first message to you is a very simple one. We get it.

ROBERTS. Most, if not all, of these problems stem from a broken corporate culture and poor management.

MCLAUGHLIN: No, I don't think we have a broken corporate culture at all.

ENSOR: The report says before the Iraq war, the CIA did not have a single officer in that country working on finding weapons of mass destruction. Committee staffers called the agency risk-averse.

MCLAUGHLIN: I mean, if it's intended to convey a timidity on the part of our officers in terms of working in dangerous environments, I would just reject that totally out of hand. I mean, we put stars on the wall out here this year. We put stars on the wall out here this year.

ENSOR: The stars in the CIA's front hall represent officers killed in the line of duty. Though, Mclaughlin, insisted CIA analyst were not pressured excessively by administration officials to come up with conclusions that the White House wanted on Iraq, the committees top Democratic is not so sure.

ROCKEFELLER: A veteran of many years there said that the hammering on analyst was greater than he had seen in 32 years of service to the Central Intelligancy Agency and we was referring to pressure.

ENSOR: With the 9/11 Commission report yet to come, the U.S. Intelligence community is in for a summer of criticism and debate, possibly followed in 2005 by some real changes in the way it's organized and lead.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: President Bush has reacted to all this, saying despite the quality of the intelligence, as he put it, we were right to go into Iraq and America is safer today because we did. During an Ask the President session in Kutztown University, Pennsylvania, the president talked about the Senate intelligence report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The idea that the Senate has taken a hard look to find out where the intelligence gathering services went short is good and positive. And I commend the chairman of the committee for doing that. We need to know. I want to know. I want to know how to make the agencies better, to make sure that we're better able to gather the information necessary to protect the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Mr. Bush said he wasn't the only one who looked at the intelligence on Iraq and saw a threat. He said Congress, the U.N. and the Clinton administration also saw it. The report says there's no evidence the Bush administration tried to pressure analysts into shaping answers that would support the call for war. Two Democrats on the committee say that second part of the report, which conservatives on the panel have blocked until after the November elections, should be completed now and released.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: The committee's report does not acknowledge that the intelligence estimates were shaped by the administration. In my view, this remains an open question and needs more scrutiny.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: At least one Democratic congresswoman, Jane Harman of California, says she hopes the House will address the issue in its investigation.

NGUYEN: The campaign of presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry used the report's scathing assessment of intelligence gathering as an indictment of the administration.

Mark Kitchen, who's Kerry's deputy press secretary for national security, said "Nothing in this report absolves the White House for its mishandling of the country's intelligence. The fact is that when it comes to national security, the buck stops at the White House, not anywhere else."

GRIFFIN: Missing payroll records and what they mean is bringing back the controversy over President Bush's National Guard service back in the '70s. The "New York Times" reports three months of missing payroll records could have cleared up confusion over how the president fulfilled his service back in 1972. The White House called the report old news and said it acknowledged the missing payroll records back in February, saying the 30-year-old documents were accidentally destroyed. The "Times" report says had those records not been destroyed, they could have determined if the president did fulfill his duties in the National Guard.

NGUYEN: Less than four months before election day, the Senate has opened debate on the emotionally charged issue of gay marriage. A vote is scheduled for Wednesday. But the shadow this issue could cast, well, that could stretch all the way to the ballot box in November.

CNN congressional correspondent Joe Johns explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The debate over a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage kicked off in the Senate with a lot of talk about values, appealing to social conservatives in an election year.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: I worry that the American family will not be able to sustain itself against this continued attempt to marginalize the importance of traditional families.

JOHNS: Supporters were trying hard not to alienate social moderates.

SEN. GORDON SMITH (R), OREGON: Let me express to my gay and lesbian friends, I don't mean to disappoint you, but I can't be true to you if I'm false to my basic beliefs.

JOHNS: Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says he opposes gay marriage, but won't vote to ban it because it should be left up to the states.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I personally believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. But I don't think we need a constitutional amendment at the federal level.

JOHNS: From the campaign trail, the president restated his support of the amendment, pointing out judges in Kerry's home state recently ruled gay marriage is OK.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is too important a decision to have it defined by four judges in a state, say, of Massachusetts -- like Massachusetts.

JOHNS: Some Democrats attacked the timing of the debate, so close to Boston's Democratic National Convention, and questioned Republican priorities.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: When we should be considering measures to strengthen homeland security, Republican partisans have focused on divisive wedge issues for partisan political purposes.

JOHNS (on camera): Some supporters of the amendment acknowledge they don't have the votes to pass it, but say the issue is so important the Senate needs to go on the record.

Joe Johns, CNN, Capitol Hill. (END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Well, it's a high profile test case for gay rights here in the State of Georgia. Gay members of a private golf club say it's unfair that married couples have to pay one fee, while gays and lesbians pay a fee for each person. The golf club is standing firm and the mayor of Atlanta is trapped in the middle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAYOR SHIRLEY FRANKLIN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA: I regret that Georgia is one of the few states that has not put on the books that ant-discrimination law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Could this case be headed to court? New developments in the stand-off between gay golfers and a private club. That's tomorrow on CNN SUNDAY MORNING at 9:00 Eastern.

GRIFFIN: Other stories across America this morning, a military hearing has been delayed for U.S. Army Private Lynndie England, one of the soldiers charged with abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison. The hearing was to determine whether she should face a military trial in this case. Her next court date on Monday will now focus only on procedural issues.

Here's a dramatic rescue from the Ohio State Highway Patrol. A dashboard camera captures troopers pulling a woman from her burning vehicle. It happened after a crash near Granville. The woman was taken to the hospital with burns to her head and arms.

Hours after a California judge declared rock star Courtney Love a fugitive for missing a court hearing, she admitted herself to a New York hospital. Love's attorney says the reason is medically related, not a drug overdose, as rumored. The California judge issuing the bench warrant says he expects Love in court early next week to post a new bond.

In south Florida, brush fires smoldering in southwestern Miami- Dade County. The good news is the winds have calmed and are no longer blowing smoke and ash into the downtown area. No structures have been damaged and no evacuations ordered.

NGUYEN: Here's the morning e-mail question: Would you be willing to give up more personal information to get through airport security more quickly?

Let us know what you think. E-mail us at wam@cnn.com and we'll read your responses on the air.

GRIFFIN: The strange case of Marine Corporal Wassef Hassoun -- lost and found, but what happened in between is what everybody wants to know. We're going to get a live report from the U.S. military hospital in Germany.

NGUYEN: And later, the hardball business of hard ball. Every crack of the bat sounds like kaching. Our guest will cover all the bases.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: You may not have been able to keep up with all the news this week and that is why we're here. Time to rewind.

Questions remain about what happened to U.S. Marine Corporal Wassef Hassoun. Flown to Germany yesterday and remains at a U.S. military facility there. But officials still haven't explained just how he got to Lebanon after being reported missing from Iraq. The translator was listed as captured after being seen blindfolded in a video. We're going to go live to Landstuhl for an update on the story, coming up.

Former Enron chief Ken Lay turned himself in to authorities this week. He is awaiting trial on charges that include securities fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud. Lay says he's innocent. He blames the betrayal of top financial officer Andrew Fastow for Enron's collapse. Lay was released on a $500,000 bail.

The group Americans for Tax Reform says average Americans have finally stopped working for Uncle Sam and their state and local governments -- that happened Wednesday -- and began working for themselves. The group says Americans, on average, worked 189 days of this year to pay off their tax burden. Not everyone finds the news so taxing. Another research calls the numbers statistical garbage.

Tomorrow, we'll fast forward to the week ahead and tell you which stories people will be talking about -- Betty.

NGUYEN: To Germany now, where U.S. military officials are delving deeper into the mystery of U.S. Marine Corporal Wassef Hassoun.

CNN's Chris Burns is live on the phone from Germany with the latest.

What a mystery -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, definitely a mystery, Betty. But it is no mystery that he is in pretty good shape. Doctors say that they've gotten past the medical exams. They say he lost a lot of sleep. He lost about 20 pounds of weight. But otherwise, medically, he's OK.

So now they're looking into his head today. That's when it starts. You look at the psychological condition. And they also asked him a lot of questions. They're trying to get intel out of him and that is why they're granting him immunity at this point, even though there are questions as to whether perhaps maybe some of this event might have been a hoax. They still want to talk to him and find out what he knows about the people he was with when he apparently was in captivity.

He also has access to a Muslim chaplain, we're told. Was this a hoax? Well, his brother Mohammed in Utah says no and he's angry about any speculation about it. And, one might ask, if he went back to the U.S. military, went back to the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, perhaps it wasn't a hoax, perhaps he was really in captivity, perhaps that video of that sword over his head really was a threat to him -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Chris, is this immunity temporary immunity until they get this information, because at one time he was classified as a deserter?

BURNS: Exactly. He was classified as missing, then deserted, then captive and then showed up in Lebanon. So different statuses there. And what they want to do is really get as much information as they from him. He left his Fallujah base back on June 19 and didn't show up the next day. That's why he was declared missing.

Now, what did he know? Who did he meet? That could perhaps offer more insight into what the insurgency is in Iraq. So that is why they've given him immunity.

Now, the investigation -- in a criminal investigation by the Navy, which is under way, he would face any questions about that when he gets back to the States. His first stop is supposed to be his base, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

NGUYEN: OK, still a lot of questions to be answered.

CNN's Chris Burns on the phone for us.

Thank you -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Back in Iraq, the sudden rise in fortune for Iraq's Baath Party. Once denounced as a pariah, now it reemerges a viable positive force. We are going to take a closer look at what's behind the about face.

Also coming up...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "LEGEND IN HIS OWN MIND," COURTESY DREAMWORKS) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need to use this machine so I can watch a tape for a story run.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'm using the tape. I'm showing...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: The very funny story of Ron Burgundy, local news anchor and legend in his own mind. A glimpse of that and other new releases, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

I'm Betty Nguyen.

In the mood for a movie this weekend? Well, here's a glimpse of what's new in theaters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "ANCHORMAN")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening. I'm Art Burgundy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Damn it, who typed a question mark on the teleprompter?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Oh, that makes us so proud. The trials and tribulations of a TV anchorman in the 1970s. Will Farrell stars as Ron Burgundy, local TV news star and womanizer. Sparks start to fly, however, when a female reporter is hired as his co-anchor and Ron starts to wonder about his own abilities.

Critics? Well, they call it a very funny motion picture, saying it also has a good sense of the time and how the medium of TV news was changing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "KING ARTHUR")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My father told me great tales of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Based on the legend but set much earlier, against the fall of the Roman Empire, this tale touts itself as a true story of King Arthur. It opens with the young military officer's quest to become a king. The "Washington Post" says "The film boasts all the hallmarks of a '50s historic epic minus the presence of Tony Curtis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SLEEPOVER")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I decided to put together a little hunt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hunting what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scavenger hunting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: A group of four nerdy girls who want to become popular before their first day of high school plan a sleepover and challenge the "cool girls" to an all night scavenger hunt, where being naughty is what it takes to win. Filmcritic.com calls it "a most pleasant surprise."

Drew, do you think your little daughter is going to be watching that one?

GRIFFIN: Nope.

NGUYEN: Not any time soon if you have anything to say about that.

Well, we want to talk about the weather this morning.

GRIFFIN: First, let's go to the top stories.

The government of the Philippines says its 50 humanitarian workers will leave Iraq next month. That comes as negotiations for the release of a Filipino hostage in Iraq are ongoing. Officials in Manila didn't say if the decision is part of the negotiations.

There's a blistering report by the Senate Intelligence Committee finding the CIA gave flawed information about the level of threat posed by Iraq before last year's war. President Bush defending his decisions, but says the Senate report will help improve intelligence gathering.

And U.S. military officials anxious to question Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun. He hasn't yet explained how he ended up in his native Lebanon after being missing from his unit in Iraq for some two weeks. He is now, as we've heard earlier, getting medical treatment in Germany.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Well, they may be the boys of summer, but how is the actual game of baseball doing this year from the business side of things? We go beyond the game when CNN SATURDAY MORNING returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Deja vu in Iraq -- what once seemed old is new again.

Welcome back.

I'm Drew Griffin at the CNN Center in Atlanta.

NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen.

That story in just a minute. But first, headlines in the news right now.

As the Philippine government works to gain the release of one of its citizens abducted in Iraq, it says Filipino troops will leave Iraq next month as planned. An Islamic group has threatened to kill the man unless the troops return home. The 72 hour deadline set by those militants comes later in the day.

An American journalist who edited "Forbes" magazine's Russian edition has been shot and killed outside his Moscow office. Paul Klebnikov had reported extensively on organized crime in Russia and in May, he published a list of the country's wealthiest people. His family issued a statement calling him "a fighter for the truth," and demanding his assailants be brought to justice. The first direct presidential elections in Afghanistan will be held October 9. But, voters will have to wait until next spring to vote in the country's parliamentary elections. The presidential contest was first set for June, moved to September then delayed until October. President Bush says the elections will be a critical step forward in the move toward democracy.

And British Prime Minister Tony Blair considering resigning last month? He had to be convinced to stay on the job by some cabinet secretaries. That's according to the BBC. Analysts have said the Labor prime minister will win reelection next year, though some in the party see him as a liability because of his support for the war in Iraq.

GRIFFIN: Two weeks into its official rule, the interim Iraqi government is starting to make some of the tough decisions required to rebuild that country. And as CNN's Jane Arraf reports, bringing some former Saddam Hussein loyalists back into the fold is part of that plan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This new sovereign Iraq is just a week old, but already asserting its independence. The government is promising an amnesty for low level insurgents and militia members and it's bringing the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party, disbanded and discredited under Paul Bremer's Iraq, in from the cold.

The shift was signaled in Washington itself by the new Iraqi ambassador to the United States.

REND RAHIM, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: This is a new departure with a democratic, pluralistic system that respects the right of all the citizens, that gives everybody in Iraq an opportunity to participate in this decision-making, in making their voices heard.

ARRAF: Rend Rahim said the new Iraq would try to engage not just former Baathists, but current ones. Saddam Hussein headed the Ba'ath Party but he didn't invent it. Many Iraqis say he and his regime hijacked a party that had made Iraq one of the best educated countries in the region.

It's a far cry from May last year, when the chief U.S. administrator hailed the destruction of the 57-year-old Ba'ath Party as one of the coalition's main achievements.

L. PAUL BREMER, U.S./IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATOR: Those who were on high before, in particular the Baathists, who used their power to repress the Iraqi people, will be removed from office.

ARRAF: But the move banned from public employment hundreds of thousands of badly needed teachers, engineers and other professionals. Dissolving the Iraqi Army threw just as many officers out of work, creating hundreds of thousands of enemies, making clear they would have no role in the new Iraq. (on camera): Iraqis say in teahouses and living rooms in Baghdad and other cities, a new Ba'ath Party is forming, one that will appeal partly to Sunni Muslims, who believe they've been ignored; and stripped of Saddam Hussein, one that will be able to compete in the political process.

(voice-over): Some of the most senior U.S. military officials believe even people funding the insurgency can be convinced that their fight is futile and can be rehabilitated.

LT. GEN. THOMAS METZ, U.S. ARMY: My logic tells me that that's a better way to go than to feed an insurgency with your money. And maybe we can work to get those -- have a few converts.

ARRAF: Many American officials say the United States has learned a lot in the past year. One of the things it's learned the hard way is that building a new country takes more than tearing down a regime.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: It was a busy week in the war on terror. We've got the highlights in your terror watch this weekend.

A confidential source tells CNN the heads of the CIA and FBI briefed senators behind closed doors this week. They told the legislators the terror threat level in the U.S. is as high as it's been since the September 11 attacks.

Now, that came as the public heard from Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Thursday. He said officials believe al Qaeda is planning a large scale attack on the United States in an effort to disrupt the democratic process before the November elections. But Secretary Ridge said there was no specific threat.

The U.S. Coast Guard is continuing efforts to secure America's ports. Nineteen ships have been denied entry and another 30 have been detained since July 1, when new security regulations went into effect.

And it's a cleanup operation also considered a preventative measure against potential nuclear terror threats. The Energy Department says it removed nearly two tons of radiological and nuclear materials from Iraq last month. The Defense Department transported the material to the U.S.

And just what does he know about a possible link? The federal 9/11 Commission said this week it believes Vice President Dick Cheney knows nothing more about the September 11 attacks than panel members do. The commission has said it has seen no evidence to suggest Saddam Hussein's government had anything to do with the attacks and asked Mr. Cheney to come forward if there is something he hasn't told the panel.

GRIFFIN: There are some who say former President Bill Clinton bears part of the blame for the lingering war on terror. Tomorrow here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING, Clinton responds to his critics in an interview with our Christiane Amanpour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This has nothing to do with my being a Democrat and your being a Republican. I just my -- I believe objectively, I've been reading this for eight years, I've been watching this. I think by far your biggest problem is bin Laden and al Qaeda, and it's my great regret that I didn't get him. I tried.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, the Middle East -- no topic off limits in a Christiane Amanpour interview with Bill Clinton tomorrow on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. That's at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time.

NGUYEN: Well, for some it's a feeling of hopelessness with a failing organ the only chance of survival as transplant surgery and the generosity of a single donor. That's the subject of this morning's House Call at 8:30 Eastern time.

And at 9:00, should the use of condoms be part of the high school health curriculum? A spirited debate live at 9:00 Eastern.

Plus, a 9-year-old boy struck by lightning, no pulse, no breathing -- the story of his dramatic revival, now called a miracle, on CNN SATURDAY MORNING at 9:00, as well.

But first, the midseason classic. Baseball's All Star Game is just days away. Time to give a midterm grade for the national pastime.

Sports analyst Rick Horrow live on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, good morning.

Here is a look at the White House in the capital of Washington, D.C. this morning. Ron will be here with your complete forecast in about 15 minutes.

CNN SATURDAY MORNING will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas the site of this year's baseball All Star Game. And barring injuries, the final rosters are apparently set.

The top vote getter this year, Texas Rangers' second baseman Alfonso Soriano, with 3.4 million ballots. The Yankees lead all teams with players making it to the midseason classic. This will also be the first year that three players with 500 home runs have been selected. Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey, Jr. will all start in the National League outfield. And throwing out the first pitch -- this is interesting -- former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. Could there be a better living sports figure than that man right there?

If you look at the bottom line, major league baseball more popular than ever -- the bottom line being money.

CNN sports business analyst Rick Horrow is the author of "When The Game Is On The Line."

Rick's here to talk about baseball, the All Star Game and the home run derby -- and, Rick, this game was on the line not too long ago. In fact, I thought the business was still dying.

RICK HORROW, CNN SPORTS BUSINESS ANALYST: Hey, two years ago in Milwaukee they had that famous tie All Star Game. And it was three months from labor Armageddon and everybody said the game is over. They avoided a shutdown for the first time in 30 years. Now, it's a $3.7 billion business and two and a half billion of it is from TV. So they've come a heck of a long way.

GRIFFIN: Why do I still hear about owners whining about not making money. The debt on their clubs is outrageous. And even players whining about salaries, don't want to be tested for drugs, don't want this, don't want that.

HORROW: Because the American sports entrepreneur loves to whine. It's the national pastime. The bottom line, though, is that the major league baseball business has put in a salary cap. They've put in a luxury tax, which is effectively a salary cap, because it serves to reduce salaries. But it also has a revenue sharing plan of about $300 million by '06.

What that means is that more teams now have more money to compete. Seventeen teams were within three and a half games of the lead three weeks ago, which is the latest that's happened in a decade.

Then there's the Yankees, you know, a $182 million payroll. The Devil Rays are only $30 million. But they know what they're doing. It's the cost of doing business. They spent $22 million to pay the luxury tax this last year. ARod's contract -- $22 million a year.

Guess what? A 30 percent increase in attendance for the Yankees this year. That translates to about a $22 million net increase. So have they figured it out.

GRIFFIN: Where is that revenue, where are the people coming from going into these stands? Because a while back I think I read a survey and in some of the notes you said 50 years old or older was the average baseball fan.

HORROW: Right. Yes, well, they're closer to my demographic now, which is a little unfortunate. The games have to start earlier, they have to be swifter. But baseball has to market a little better. You know, they've hired Snoop Dogg now as a consultant, as an endorser, by the way. GRIFFIN: A role model.

HORROW: Yes, as a role model.

GRIFFIN: Yes.

HORROW: But also Toronto has celebrated Gay Pride Day. You've had more emphasis on women. Artie Moreno, the owner of the California Angels, has targeted the Hispanic audience.

So it's not just getting younger, but it's getting more diverse, as well. That's the goal.

GRIFFIN: But in competing with other sports like the NBA for that 9-year-old boy who's going to be a sports fan the rest of his life, baseball is slow. It is boring to them. There's not a lot of stuff happening between pitches.

HORROW: Hey, it may be slow and boring to you. The problem is that it's got to be more accepted to the general audience. More people are now going to movies than they go to sports games combined. So it's not just baseball. It's all entertainment. There is that major competition for the entertainment dollar.

So now we have the Internet, which is now focusing on marketing. A hundred and forty-one million fans voted for the All Stars, including Soriano, the top vote getter, by the way, on the Internet. It compared to 60 million the year before. More people are watching it on TV, 11 million people this last year as opposed to nine million the year before.

So salaries are stabilizing. The game seems to be better from a business context. But more needs to be done for marketing to kids and the anchors, who say the game is boring.

GRIFFIN: Let's talk about the All Star Game. Actually, what I find fascinating about this All Star Game is the home run derby, because you've got all these guys who can smack 500 home runs or more now competing against each other.

HORROW: Well, I'll be there live from Houston and the home run derby, believe me, is much more exciting than the game. The bottom line, though, it is an economic engine. It is a time where baseball transacts business. All of the relocation candidates, from Virginia and Washington and Portland, Oregon and Vegas, are all going to scurry around to see if baseball is going to make a decision there. Probably not.

But this is the time where baseball meets. It's also a time where Houston is really going to benefit. Remember, six months ago, we were talking about Super Bowl 38 held in Houston with a $300 million economic impact.

Now they've got the major league baseball All Star Game. So it's a wonderful impact for that Texas city.

GRIFFIN: Real quickly, the addition of Mohammed Ali to throw out that first pitch.

HORROW: Classy, fantastic, tasteful. It shows that baseball is understanding what it takes to regain its mantle as America's pastime. They're doing the right thing.

GRIFFIN: All right, Rick Harrow, defender of the exiting game of baseball.

Thanks for joining us.

HORROW: See you next week.

GRIFFIN: OK.

You bet, Rick -- Betty.

NGUYEN: This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first kidney transplant. But the process can still be confusing. Ahead on House Call, Dr. Sanjay Gupta puts to rest the myths surrounding organ donation. He also discusses some of the controversies. That is at 8:30 Eastern right here on CNN.

Well, no, you're not seeing things. How this car got in this house. And, more importantly, how they get the car out. It's one of our Wows of the Week. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: A few highlights from the week that just might, you say, what -- Betty?

NGUYEN: Wow!

GRIFFIN: Wow.

New ultraviolet images of Saturn's rings from Cassini wowing scientists and mere mortals alike. The icy rings aren't actually these colors, but NASA says the contrast helps scientists see more detail.

A classic story -- older driver mistakes gas pedal for brake. This time the elderly woman went airborne. This house near Boston sits just below a parking deck. Nobody hurt. Police say the car came to rest on a support beam.

In Spain, the bulls running in Pamplona. So, of course, we have an injury report to tell you about. Four people gored. Twenty-eight runners have been taken to the hospital so far. The annual event ends, fortunately, on Wednesday.

And Nemo glad he's been found. The kitten was rescued by boaters in Florida, who found him paddling for his life in the open sea. A vet says the 10 week old is healthy and he has been adopted.

NGUYEN: Well, of course. What a cutie.

And we have much more coming up here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING, so don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, good morning.

Look at this beautiful shot live from Norfolk, Virginia.

This is our affiliate WADY. A look at the sun there. Hopefully it's a great day there and in your neighborhood. Rob will be up with the complete forecast. That is coming up in just a little bit.

Today's headlines.

The Philippine government is negotiating the release of a hostage in Iraq. Video on Al Jazeera Television shows a Filipino truck driver begging his government to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Kidnapped on Wednesday, militants threatened to behead the man by today.

Here at home, a Senate Intelligence Committee report criticizes the information used to justify invading Iraq. Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin admits there were intelligence shortfalls and problems will be corrected.

It's a big check -- no, it is a mega check for Geraldine Williams. She claimed the $294 million Mega Million jackpot. After taxes, she'll get just a mere $118 million. The 67-year-old grandmother says she plans to travel and give money to her three children, plus she wants to donate a little to charity, as well.

GRIFFIN: Do you know, Rob, that bugs me. $294 million. She just gets $118 million of it.

NGUYEN: After taxes. They kill you, don't they, Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, well, you know, Uncle Sam has got to get a little piece of the pie, after all.

GRIFFIN: A little?

NGUYEN: Of course.

MARCIANO: We've got to keep this...

NGUYEN: How about half?

MARCIANO: But she can now, what, write off those taxes so she doesn't have to pay taxes on her state? I don't know.

NGUYEN: Yes, that's a pretty big...

MARCIANO: It's a lot of cash. It's a lot of cash. It's amazing that they didn't have to split that up among a number of players. That's normally what happens.

GRIFFIN: Well, she has children.

NGUYEN: Well, she's going to split it up among her kids. Exactly.

GRIFFIN: They'll take it.

NGUYEN: And we're not one of them, unfortunately.

GRIFFIN: No. No we're not, so we must forge ahead.

(WEATHER REPORT)

GRIFFIN: We're going to check our e-mail Question of the Day. Are you willing to give up more information, personal information, to get through the airport lines more quickly?

We have a couple of e-mails that have come in.

Number one: "Why not? Even though I'm in the civilian workforce, I get to be fingerprinted every time I change jobs. I have to let the same government department know every time I change jobs or move. What else do they want to know? So I can move through the airport more swiftly." Sharon in Florida.

NGUYEN: And another person writes: "This administration is using the Patriot Act against its own people. I'll spend a week in the airport or walk before I would allow any more of my rights to be taken away. Before the Patriot Act, we had a chance to preserve our democracy." And I understand that is Linda from Florida who wrote in with that.

And, of course, we would like to invite you to send in your responses to the e-mail Question of the Day.

All you have to do is send that to wam@cnn.com and we'll read it on the air.

GRIFFIN: The next hour of CNN SATURDAY begins right now.

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