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CNN Saturday Morning News
Legal Briefs with Attorney's Nelda Blair, Lida Rodriguez- Taseff
Aired February 12, 2005 - 08:00 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, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: Here's the first from Justin from Cleveland.
He says, "No, they have violated treaty after treaty, while America is supposed to stand up to its treaty agreements. If you as me I say, let's go to the U.N. with Korea. Let's see what they say."
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: And Millicent agrees. She says, "I don't think so. If North Korea had any intention of cooperating with any one they would talk with the countries in their region. North Korea is looking for the U.S. to offer them a lot of money. North Korea thinks the bomb makes them a major player in the world."
HARRIS: True.
NGUYEN: We invite you to keep on sending those responses into our e-mail question of the day. It is on your screen. Should the U.S. negotiate directly with North Korea? Send those to wam@cnn.com.
HARRIS: More, more, more, we want more. The next hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING begins right now.
NGUYEN: Well, good morning, from the CNN Center. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It is February 12. We welcome you. It's 8 a.m. here at CNN Headquarters in Atlanta; 5 a.m. on the West Coast. Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen.
HARRIS: I'm Tony Harris. Thank you for being with us.
NGUYEN: "Now in the News": The White House rejects one on one nuclear talks despite North Korea 's claim that it has nuclear weapons. Administration officials are pressing other countries to persuade Pyongyang to return to those six-nation discussions. We do have a live report on that standoff just ahead.
Meanwhile, weather related catastrophes have taken more than 180 lives in Pakistan. Heavy rain and snow have triggered a dam break, flooding and avalanches on the past two days.
Three deaths are blamed on a powerful storm pounding California. More than three inches or rain, snow, in some mountain areas. And 60 miles an hour wind gusts were reported in some areas as well.
Now to Washington -- Howard Dean will be selected as the new Democratic national committee chairman. An election next hour is nearly a formality after six challengers dropped out.
HARRIS: You might recall this tough talk from President Bush on the run-up to the Iraq war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We cannot wait for the final proof. The smoking gun that could come in the form after mushroom cloud.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well now the administration is talking tough about Iran. Will history repeat itself? That's still ahead on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
Also, hanging on for dear life the story behind a dramatic rescue in drenched, California.
And what made him do it? A murder case put as popular antidepressant on trial. Our legal analysts weigh in on "Legal Briefs".
The U.S. is not budging and neither is North Korea. Looks like nuclear tensions between the two nations are mushrooming. For the latest we go to the White House and CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.
Good morning to you.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. The White House certainly sees this as a case of brinkmanship as was as bargaining on North Korea's part. They say there's absolutely no deal with North Korea in terms of one-on-one talks. The only way the U.S. is negotiating is through the six-party talks.
The White House strategy to put as much pressure as possible on the other members of the six parties; we're talking Russia, China, Japan, South Korea. It was just yesterday South Korea's foreign minister was here at the White House with the vice president at a previously scheduled meeting. But of course, this was the top of their list. He is also going to be meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as well as the National Security Advisor Steve Hadley in the coming weeks to discuss this.
The administration is saying that North Korea must first permanently and verifiably dismantle its nuclear weapons program before it gets any kind of economic aid or diplomatic recognition. The White House explaining its position here saying that the talks and agreement under the Clinton administration with North Korea had failed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: We have been down that road before. The 1994 agreed framework was the road that we went down before. It was a bilateral approach between the United States and North Korea . North Korea violated that agreement and continued to pursue nuclear weapons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, of course, the big question now, Betty, what is next on the agenda? We understand a high level Chinese delegation is going to be traveling to North Korea this coming week. Also, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be meeting with her counterparts, her Chinese counterparts as well as South Korean counterparts.
There will be Japanese officials who will be here in Washington in the weeks to come. And of course what the White House is doing now they say they are still in assessment mode trying to figure out what North Korea exactly means. If they are going to, in fact, pull away from those talks.
At the same time, there is some debate within the State Department whether or not they should abandon these six-party talks and perhaps use some other kind of diplomatic means. Perhaps they are referring it to the U.N. Security Council pushing economic sanctions. That would be a tough sell. They don't think China and Russia would sign on to that. They are still trying to put as much pressure as possible on the other members of the six parties to bring North Korea back to the table -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Pressure and watching very closely. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux. We appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.
Now for our e-mail question of the day -- should the U.S. negotiate directly with North Korea ? Send us your thoughts to wam@cnn.com. We'll read those on the air.
HARRIS: Two senior House Democrats are calling for an investigation into how a White House reporter using the pseudonym Jeff Gannon may have gotten a classified CIA document. The reporter's real name is James Kurt (ph) and he worked for a conservative Web site. The CIA document contained the name of a CIA operative whose outing is already being looked at by a grand jury.
Here is the latest on the situation in Iraq this morning. A suicide car bomb explosion has killed 17 Iraqis and wounded at least 26 others in a town south of Baghdad. The bomb exploded at a police checkpoint near a hospital. Six of those killed were police officers. Gunmen riding a motorcycle assassinated a prominent Iraqi judge in the southern city of Basra. The victim was a criminal court chief judge during Saddam Hussein's regime. Police speculate he was targeted because he chose to work with the new government.
And in the northern city of Mosul, six Iraqi national guardsmen were found shot to death today on a main highway. A note left at the scene said the guardsmen had participated in the offensive against the Falluja people.
NGUYEN: David Kay was the CIA's top weapons inspector in Iraq. Kay was unable to find any weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invaded and none has been found since. Now, he is worried the Bush administration is about to make the same mistake in Iran that it made in Iraq. He talked with our National Security Correspondent David Ensor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID KAY, FMR. CIA WEAPONS OFFICIAL: My suspicion is that we're going to find out in Iran, just like in Iraq, we had no human operatives on the ground and our best source of information were people who defected and had other agendas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Kay says the Bush administration should offer Iran something that European negotiators cannot. That is a security guarantee from a super power.
HARRIS: Some other "News Across America", in suburban Cincinnati police say an expectant mother fought off an killed a female attacker armed with a knife. Authorities are now investigating whether the attack was an attempt to steal the fetus. Police say Sara Brady wasn't hurt in the attack and won't be charged.
It turns out the story of a newborn baby tossed from a moving car is a hoax. A good Samaritan reportedly stopped to help the rush the baby boy to the hospital. The good Samaritan is really the baby's mother. Police say she concocted the whole story and does not want to keep the child. She is being held for psychiatric evaluation.
NGUYEN: In Oregon, exclusive CNN video of suicide-pact suspect Gerald Cream. Police have now charged him with solicitation to commit murder. They believe Cream used an Internet chat room to try to set up the mass suicide involving more than two dozen women. Authorities have seized Cream's computer and a web cam.
Well McDonald's has agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle a trans- fat lawsuit. A California activist has sued over the restaurant's delays in limits the artery clogging fats in cooking oil. And $7 million of that settlement will go to the American Heart Association.
A brutal crime involving a young boy and his grandparents. His defense Zoloft made him do it. Is that reason enough for jurors to go with a not guilty verdict? We'll ask our legal experts.
NGUYEN: And severe rain and flash flooding move across the West put some in life-threatening situations like this one. Our Rob Marciano tells you where the storm is heading, next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERRI WILLIS, CNN OPEN HOUSE: Planning a remolding project. When working out your budget set aside 10 to 20 percent of the total cost for any unexpected expenses. Know the retail prices of items like lighting fixtures, faucets, and knobs. And if you can buy them on your own for less the contractor will often agree do just the installation.
No last-minute changes or additions. That will add to the total cost and put your project behind schedule. Plan wisely, educate yourself and stick to the original plan. That's your tip of the day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: The horror unfolding in Sudan brings a new name atop "Parade" magazine's world's worst dictator list. Find out who is being blamed for 70,000 killed live on CNN SUNDAY MORNING, 7:00 a.m. Eastern.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Well, good morning, Chicago. Isn't that beautiful? Big blue sky there. This music, boy, makes you want to have a nice cup of coffee and relax on this Saturday.
Chicago today is your last day to check out the largest exhibition of Inca artifacts ever assemble. In fact, this song is called "Inca Gold" in your honor. You can see Machu Picchu, Unveiling the Mysteries of the Inca's" at Chicago's Field Museum.
HARRIS: Wow, that is a lot of information. You know what? I'm going to show you another picture as we bring in Rob Marciano. Not such of a pretty picture of the dramatic rescue. We have those pictures?
And Rob, where is this? Is this out in California again?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, this 13-year-old kid was pulled out of the Los Angeles River yesterday. Unbelievable.
HARRIS: Wow, look at that.
MARCIANO: You know, these rescue workers we mentioned just really working some overtime. Good news from this guy he had some -- the boy had a little bit of hypothermia, but he's not in critical condition.
NGUYEN: Do you know what he was doing? Did his car plunge into it?
MARCIANO: No, I don't know how he got in the river. But ended up there.
HARRIS: But he's OK?
MARCIANO: He's all right.
NGUYEN: Well, that's good news.
(WEATHER FORECAST)
NGUYEN: Nuclear tensions top our headlines today. The Bush administration calls one-on-one talks with North Korea a non-starter. This after North Korea publicly declared it has nuclear weapons and warned it is pulling out of six-nation talks. Pyongyang instead wants buy lateral negotiations.
A suicide car bomb kills 17 people and wounds 26 others south of Baghdad. Six Iraqi police officers are among the dead and that blast happened in front of a hospital in a mostly Shiite town.
Well, police say an Ohio woman who was nine months pregnant managed to fight off and kill a knife wielding female attacker. Authorities are now trying to determine whether the attack was an attempt to steal the fetus. No charges have been filed.
HARRIS: A convicted sex offender obeys the law, but after registering with authority he finds himself being sued. Find out why. That's straight ahead on our "Legal Briefs".
NGUYEN: Later on "House Call", our Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks back on the major stories from the last 25 years as we mark 25 years of broadcasting here at CNN. Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The top 25 medical stories that shaped our health and changed our lives during CNN's first 25 years. We asked top medical experts to come up with a list. Taking us into the top ten. Here's number 10 through 6.
Number 10, BMI or body mass index. In 1998 the U.S. government adopts new guidelines to define obesity.
Scale it down at number nine. Weight, the CDC announces in 1999 that over one half of Americans are overweight.
Buckle up for number eight, seatbelt laws. The first U.S. seat belt use law is enacted in 1984 in New York.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a sort of community health measure. It's good for the community because it saves lives.
GUPTA: Number seven, Prozac. In 1987 Prozac was released for use in the United States to help patients cope with depression.
At number six, the heart transplant. In 2001 59-year-old Robert Tools became the first person to receive a self-contained artificial heart. Stay tuned as we continue our countdown to number one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. We got a lot to get to. Let's rifle through this set-up. A developer in Springdale, Arkansas, says he can't unload a single home in a new subdivision since a registered sex offender and his wife bought a house there. Now he wants the couple and the realtor, who arranged the sale, to pay.
Also on the docket this morning, a 15-year-old on trial for killing his grandparents, his lawyers say an antidepressant Zoloft made him do it. Plus, earlier this week we saw the conviction of an attorney helping terrorists. Lynn Stewart was charged and convicted of distributing messages from her imprisoned client, Sheik Omar Abdul Rotham (ph), he's it he blind Muslim cleric who heads a terrorist group accused of trying to overthrow the Egyptian government.
We toss these cases to our legal warriors, former prosecutor Nelda Blair, is live in Houston and civil liberties attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff joins us from Miami.
Good morning, Ladies.
LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, CIVIL LIBERTIES ATTORNEY: Good morning.
NELDA BLAIR, FMR. PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: Lynn Stewart, Lida, I think I understand what she was charged with and convicted on. Give us a little bit of the background. What happened here? How did the government build its case against Stewart?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: The government built its case because it accused her of violating rules that the government itself had made up. The rules, of course, were unreasonable and the rules violated the duties that she had as an attorney to her clients.
HARRIS: Why unreasonable?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Because they violated the duties she had to her clients. The rules said you can't really represent your client. Have you to represent the government. You have to do what we tell you. You can't really communicate with your client about everything you're allowed to communicate with as a lawyer, because we decided your client is a terrorist. So the rules were unreasonable. There was no -- she had no choice but to break them then she got convicted.
HARRIS: Nelda, that doesn't sound fair.
BLAIR: Well it's not.
HARRIS: Oh.
BLAIR: It's not, because that's not right.
HARRIS: Oh, OK.
BLAIR: Lida, you need to review the attorney-client privilege rules again. Attorney-client privilege is to allow the client to assist the attorney in the defense of an alleged crime. What happened here is this lady hid behind the attorney-client privilege trying to help her client further terrorism. We don't allow that. This was a right ruling. There is no question she should have been convicted.
HARRIS: Did the attorney general at the time John Ashcroft basically say we're going to monitor these conversations with or without a court order?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely he said that. He announced this prosecution as it was happening -- he hailed it as this is a great time, because we're going after these people who help terrorists. Look, the bottom line is the government's case boiled down to turning this into a trial about terrorism. They put terrorism on trial. Who is going to acquit a terrorist?
HARRIS: All right. Let's move on to Christopher Pitman. This is the 15-year-old kid, he is a kid, who is on trial for murdering his grandparents. He was 12 when did he this. Pitman is claiming that the antidepressant Zoloft clouded his mind and he couldn't tell right from wrong. And Nelda, is the prosecution going to have a difficult time with the burden of proof here? It seems to be a reasonable claim.
BLAIR: It's not a reasonable claim.
HARRIS: OK, why not?
BLAIR: This kid knew right from wrong. Zoloft had nothing to do why he murdered both of his grandparents. Number one, the warnings on Zoloft have nothing to do with violence against others. The only warnings even indicated are about teen suicide. The defense is only hanging its hat saying Zoloft made him do it.
Let me tell you this. If this works then we might as well quit trying criminals for anything they could say I was high when I did it. That made me do it. I was drunk. I ate too many Big Macs that day, whatever. The excuse is going to be something else made me do it besides the fact I knew I was doing wrong and I committed murder.
HARRIS: But Lida, as you know, the language changed on the warning, didn't it?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: The language changed on the warning, Tony.
HARRIS: Didn't we learn that during the trial?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Yes, after Pfizer, the maker of Zoloft decided to go lobbying the FDA to soft pedal the language so it looked less obvious these drugs have tremendous side effects against teenagers.
And, Nelda, why don't we leave Big Macs out of this. The reality is one of the warnings with Zoloft if it causes hallucinations. It makes people angry. It makes them react in moody and different ways. So the bottom line is, you got to ask yourself, when you have a kid who is 12 years old, taking Zoloft, who is already been institutionalized for several days because of mental problems, who has a grandfather that beats him, did he know right from wrong? Answer, no.
BLAIR: Lida, the bottom line as you put it is exactly what you said, this kid had big problems. Zoloft is not what made him commit murder. And the defense is going to lose on this one because they will never prove that. If they do, we might as well quit having criminal trials.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: I'll remind you of that next week. HARRIS: Let me move on to the final topic this morning. I'm going to really need some help with this. This is a convicted sex offender who obeys the law and registers as he should. He buys a house in a pretty new subdivision, and now the police come out and say, hey, look, everybody, you got a sex offender, if you buy here you'll be living in the neighborhood with a sex offender.
Nelda, help me with this case.
BLAIR: Tony, Realtors of the world are cringing on this. Not only are they blamed for everything from cracked slabs to bad schools. Now they have to do background checks before they sell anybody a house? I don't think so. This case isn't going to stand.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Hallelujah! We agree on something!
BLAIR: You do not allow people to ban someone from their neighborhood. What if he was a known alcoholic or a known thief or had 20 kids and they didn't want him in the neighborhood. We don't allow that in housing laws.
HARRIS: Did I hear a note of agreement there?
BLAIR: I think I did.
HARRIS: Is that what I heard?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely. Kind of scary.
You know, this developer can try to prevent selling his houses to anybody he wants to prevent from as long as he's not discriminating. The developer, if he had known, could have chosen ...
HARRIS: I'm not going to let this thing stand on agreement. Hang on a second.
It sounds as if this guy, he didn't include his name on the documents to buy the home. There seems to have been at least some deceit here.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely! And he's allowed.
HARRIS: Oh, he's allowed.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Look, when you buy a home, you see this happen all the time. Do you think Jennifer Lopez and all these famous stars disclose they are the buyer when they are buying property?
HARRIS: OK, OK.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: It's absolutely permissible. You don't have the duty of disclosure. The duty of disclosure belongs to the seller, not the buyer.
HARRIS: Nelda, we have agreement on this? BLAIR: I have to say I do agree. The only possibility is that the guy's a nuisance. That's not going to fly. He's going to stay there.
HARRIS: Ladies good to see you, as always. Thank you for the spirited debate this morning.
BLAIR: Thanks, Tony.
HARRIS: We'll see you next week.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Have a good week.
NGUYEN: Let's see if you at home agree on this question? Or do you believe it should be -- should the U.S. negotiate directly with North Korea? We've been asking you that all morning long.
Here's what David says, he says, "Negotiate with the most repressive and unreliable regime in the world? As they have proven, they will take the money and continue to develop nukes."
HARRIS: And this from Milo, from Fort Lauderdale, "Yes, but with a tough talk philosophy. A two way talk between the U.S. and North Korea rather than the planned six-nations talks, should happen only if North Korea dismantles its nuclear plans and components with a verifiable and monitored treaty."
Thanks so much for the e-mails this morning. We'll take more at the top of the hour, 9:00 and through the hour. Here's the address wam@cnn.com.
NGUYEN: But straight ahead we have "House Call" from diet fads and stem cell breakers, and powerful new pills. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks back at the top 25 medical breakthrough stories from the last quarter century.
I'm Betty Nguyen. I'll tee you again at the top of the hour.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris, "House Call" and your top stories straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired February 12, 2005 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: Here's the first from Justin from Cleveland.
He says, "No, they have violated treaty after treaty, while America is supposed to stand up to its treaty agreements. If you as me I say, let's go to the U.N. with Korea. Let's see what they say."
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: And Millicent agrees. She says, "I don't think so. If North Korea had any intention of cooperating with any one they would talk with the countries in their region. North Korea is looking for the U.S. to offer them a lot of money. North Korea thinks the bomb makes them a major player in the world."
HARRIS: True.
NGUYEN: We invite you to keep on sending those responses into our e-mail question of the day. It is on your screen. Should the U.S. negotiate directly with North Korea? Send those to wam@cnn.com.
HARRIS: More, more, more, we want more. The next hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING begins right now.
NGUYEN: Well, good morning, from the CNN Center. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It is February 12. We welcome you. It's 8 a.m. here at CNN Headquarters in Atlanta; 5 a.m. on the West Coast. Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen.
HARRIS: I'm Tony Harris. Thank you for being with us.
NGUYEN: "Now in the News": The White House rejects one on one nuclear talks despite North Korea 's claim that it has nuclear weapons. Administration officials are pressing other countries to persuade Pyongyang to return to those six-nation discussions. We do have a live report on that standoff just ahead.
Meanwhile, weather related catastrophes have taken more than 180 lives in Pakistan. Heavy rain and snow have triggered a dam break, flooding and avalanches on the past two days.
Three deaths are blamed on a powerful storm pounding California. More than three inches or rain, snow, in some mountain areas. And 60 miles an hour wind gusts were reported in some areas as well.
Now to Washington -- Howard Dean will be selected as the new Democratic national committee chairman. An election next hour is nearly a formality after six challengers dropped out.
HARRIS: You might recall this tough talk from President Bush on the run-up to the Iraq war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We cannot wait for the final proof. The smoking gun that could come in the form after mushroom cloud.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well now the administration is talking tough about Iran. Will history repeat itself? That's still ahead on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
Also, hanging on for dear life the story behind a dramatic rescue in drenched, California.
And what made him do it? A murder case put as popular antidepressant on trial. Our legal analysts weigh in on "Legal Briefs".
The U.S. is not budging and neither is North Korea. Looks like nuclear tensions between the two nations are mushrooming. For the latest we go to the White House and CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.
Good morning to you.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. The White House certainly sees this as a case of brinkmanship as was as bargaining on North Korea's part. They say there's absolutely no deal with North Korea in terms of one-on-one talks. The only way the U.S. is negotiating is through the six-party talks.
The White House strategy to put as much pressure as possible on the other members of the six parties; we're talking Russia, China, Japan, South Korea. It was just yesterday South Korea's foreign minister was here at the White House with the vice president at a previously scheduled meeting. But of course, this was the top of their list. He is also going to be meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as well as the National Security Advisor Steve Hadley in the coming weeks to discuss this.
The administration is saying that North Korea must first permanently and verifiably dismantle its nuclear weapons program before it gets any kind of economic aid or diplomatic recognition. The White House explaining its position here saying that the talks and agreement under the Clinton administration with North Korea had failed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: We have been down that road before. The 1994 agreed framework was the road that we went down before. It was a bilateral approach between the United States and North Korea . North Korea violated that agreement and continued to pursue nuclear weapons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, of course, the big question now, Betty, what is next on the agenda? We understand a high level Chinese delegation is going to be traveling to North Korea this coming week. Also, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be meeting with her counterparts, her Chinese counterparts as well as South Korean counterparts.
There will be Japanese officials who will be here in Washington in the weeks to come. And of course what the White House is doing now they say they are still in assessment mode trying to figure out what North Korea exactly means. If they are going to, in fact, pull away from those talks.
At the same time, there is some debate within the State Department whether or not they should abandon these six-party talks and perhaps use some other kind of diplomatic means. Perhaps they are referring it to the U.N. Security Council pushing economic sanctions. That would be a tough sell. They don't think China and Russia would sign on to that. They are still trying to put as much pressure as possible on the other members of the six parties to bring North Korea back to the table -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Pressure and watching very closely. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux. We appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.
Now for our e-mail question of the day -- should the U.S. negotiate directly with North Korea ? Send us your thoughts to wam@cnn.com. We'll read those on the air.
HARRIS: Two senior House Democrats are calling for an investigation into how a White House reporter using the pseudonym Jeff Gannon may have gotten a classified CIA document. The reporter's real name is James Kurt (ph) and he worked for a conservative Web site. The CIA document contained the name of a CIA operative whose outing is already being looked at by a grand jury.
Here is the latest on the situation in Iraq this morning. A suicide car bomb explosion has killed 17 Iraqis and wounded at least 26 others in a town south of Baghdad. The bomb exploded at a police checkpoint near a hospital. Six of those killed were police officers. Gunmen riding a motorcycle assassinated a prominent Iraqi judge in the southern city of Basra. The victim was a criminal court chief judge during Saddam Hussein's regime. Police speculate he was targeted because he chose to work with the new government.
And in the northern city of Mosul, six Iraqi national guardsmen were found shot to death today on a main highway. A note left at the scene said the guardsmen had participated in the offensive against the Falluja people.
NGUYEN: David Kay was the CIA's top weapons inspector in Iraq. Kay was unable to find any weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invaded and none has been found since. Now, he is worried the Bush administration is about to make the same mistake in Iran that it made in Iraq. He talked with our National Security Correspondent David Ensor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID KAY, FMR. CIA WEAPONS OFFICIAL: My suspicion is that we're going to find out in Iran, just like in Iraq, we had no human operatives on the ground and our best source of information were people who defected and had other agendas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Kay says the Bush administration should offer Iran something that European negotiators cannot. That is a security guarantee from a super power.
HARRIS: Some other "News Across America", in suburban Cincinnati police say an expectant mother fought off an killed a female attacker armed with a knife. Authorities are now investigating whether the attack was an attempt to steal the fetus. Police say Sara Brady wasn't hurt in the attack and won't be charged.
It turns out the story of a newborn baby tossed from a moving car is a hoax. A good Samaritan reportedly stopped to help the rush the baby boy to the hospital. The good Samaritan is really the baby's mother. Police say she concocted the whole story and does not want to keep the child. She is being held for psychiatric evaluation.
NGUYEN: In Oregon, exclusive CNN video of suicide-pact suspect Gerald Cream. Police have now charged him with solicitation to commit murder. They believe Cream used an Internet chat room to try to set up the mass suicide involving more than two dozen women. Authorities have seized Cream's computer and a web cam.
Well McDonald's has agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle a trans- fat lawsuit. A California activist has sued over the restaurant's delays in limits the artery clogging fats in cooking oil. And $7 million of that settlement will go to the American Heart Association.
A brutal crime involving a young boy and his grandparents. His defense Zoloft made him do it. Is that reason enough for jurors to go with a not guilty verdict? We'll ask our legal experts.
NGUYEN: And severe rain and flash flooding move across the West put some in life-threatening situations like this one. Our Rob Marciano tells you where the storm is heading, next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERRI WILLIS, CNN OPEN HOUSE: Planning a remolding project. When working out your budget set aside 10 to 20 percent of the total cost for any unexpected expenses. Know the retail prices of items like lighting fixtures, faucets, and knobs. And if you can buy them on your own for less the contractor will often agree do just the installation.
No last-minute changes or additions. That will add to the total cost and put your project behind schedule. Plan wisely, educate yourself and stick to the original plan. That's your tip of the day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: The horror unfolding in Sudan brings a new name atop "Parade" magazine's world's worst dictator list. Find out who is being blamed for 70,000 killed live on CNN SUNDAY MORNING, 7:00 a.m. Eastern.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Well, good morning, Chicago. Isn't that beautiful? Big blue sky there. This music, boy, makes you want to have a nice cup of coffee and relax on this Saturday.
Chicago today is your last day to check out the largest exhibition of Inca artifacts ever assemble. In fact, this song is called "Inca Gold" in your honor. You can see Machu Picchu, Unveiling the Mysteries of the Inca's" at Chicago's Field Museum.
HARRIS: Wow, that is a lot of information. You know what? I'm going to show you another picture as we bring in Rob Marciano. Not such of a pretty picture of the dramatic rescue. We have those pictures?
And Rob, where is this? Is this out in California again?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, this 13-year-old kid was pulled out of the Los Angeles River yesterday. Unbelievable.
HARRIS: Wow, look at that.
MARCIANO: You know, these rescue workers we mentioned just really working some overtime. Good news from this guy he had some -- the boy had a little bit of hypothermia, but he's not in critical condition.
NGUYEN: Do you know what he was doing? Did his car plunge into it?
MARCIANO: No, I don't know how he got in the river. But ended up there.
HARRIS: But he's OK?
MARCIANO: He's all right.
NGUYEN: Well, that's good news.
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NGUYEN: Nuclear tensions top our headlines today. The Bush administration calls one-on-one talks with North Korea a non-starter. This after North Korea publicly declared it has nuclear weapons and warned it is pulling out of six-nation talks. Pyongyang instead wants buy lateral negotiations.
A suicide car bomb kills 17 people and wounds 26 others south of Baghdad. Six Iraqi police officers are among the dead and that blast happened in front of a hospital in a mostly Shiite town.
Well, police say an Ohio woman who was nine months pregnant managed to fight off and kill a knife wielding female attacker. Authorities are now trying to determine whether the attack was an attempt to steal the fetus. No charges have been filed.
HARRIS: A convicted sex offender obeys the law, but after registering with authority he finds himself being sued. Find out why. That's straight ahead on our "Legal Briefs".
NGUYEN: Later on "House Call", our Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks back on the major stories from the last 25 years as we mark 25 years of broadcasting here at CNN. Here's a preview.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The top 25 medical stories that shaped our health and changed our lives during CNN's first 25 years. We asked top medical experts to come up with a list. Taking us into the top ten. Here's number 10 through 6.
Number 10, BMI or body mass index. In 1998 the U.S. government adopts new guidelines to define obesity.
Scale it down at number nine. Weight, the CDC announces in 1999 that over one half of Americans are overweight.
Buckle up for number eight, seatbelt laws. The first U.S. seat belt use law is enacted in 1984 in New York.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a sort of community health measure. It's good for the community because it saves lives.
GUPTA: Number seven, Prozac. In 1987 Prozac was released for use in the United States to help patients cope with depression.
At number six, the heart transplant. In 2001 59-year-old Robert Tools became the first person to receive a self-contained artificial heart. Stay tuned as we continue our countdown to number one.
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HARRIS: OK. We got a lot to get to. Let's rifle through this set-up. A developer in Springdale, Arkansas, says he can't unload a single home in a new subdivision since a registered sex offender and his wife bought a house there. Now he wants the couple and the realtor, who arranged the sale, to pay.
Also on the docket this morning, a 15-year-old on trial for killing his grandparents, his lawyers say an antidepressant Zoloft made him do it. Plus, earlier this week we saw the conviction of an attorney helping terrorists. Lynn Stewart was charged and convicted of distributing messages from her imprisoned client, Sheik Omar Abdul Rotham (ph), he's it he blind Muslim cleric who heads a terrorist group accused of trying to overthrow the Egyptian government.
We toss these cases to our legal warriors, former prosecutor Nelda Blair, is live in Houston and civil liberties attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff joins us from Miami.
Good morning, Ladies.
LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, CIVIL LIBERTIES ATTORNEY: Good morning.
NELDA BLAIR, FMR. PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: Lynn Stewart, Lida, I think I understand what she was charged with and convicted on. Give us a little bit of the background. What happened here? How did the government build its case against Stewart?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: The government built its case because it accused her of violating rules that the government itself had made up. The rules, of course, were unreasonable and the rules violated the duties that she had as an attorney to her clients.
HARRIS: Why unreasonable?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Because they violated the duties she had to her clients. The rules said you can't really represent your client. Have you to represent the government. You have to do what we tell you. You can't really communicate with your client about everything you're allowed to communicate with as a lawyer, because we decided your client is a terrorist. So the rules were unreasonable. There was no -- she had no choice but to break them then she got convicted.
HARRIS: Nelda, that doesn't sound fair.
BLAIR: Well it's not.
HARRIS: Oh.
BLAIR: It's not, because that's not right.
HARRIS: Oh, OK.
BLAIR: Lida, you need to review the attorney-client privilege rules again. Attorney-client privilege is to allow the client to assist the attorney in the defense of an alleged crime. What happened here is this lady hid behind the attorney-client privilege trying to help her client further terrorism. We don't allow that. This was a right ruling. There is no question she should have been convicted.
HARRIS: Did the attorney general at the time John Ashcroft basically say we're going to monitor these conversations with or without a court order?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely he said that. He announced this prosecution as it was happening -- he hailed it as this is a great time, because we're going after these people who help terrorists. Look, the bottom line is the government's case boiled down to turning this into a trial about terrorism. They put terrorism on trial. Who is going to acquit a terrorist?
HARRIS: All right. Let's move on to Christopher Pitman. This is the 15-year-old kid, he is a kid, who is on trial for murdering his grandparents. He was 12 when did he this. Pitman is claiming that the antidepressant Zoloft clouded his mind and he couldn't tell right from wrong. And Nelda, is the prosecution going to have a difficult time with the burden of proof here? It seems to be a reasonable claim.
BLAIR: It's not a reasonable claim.
HARRIS: OK, why not?
BLAIR: This kid knew right from wrong. Zoloft had nothing to do why he murdered both of his grandparents. Number one, the warnings on Zoloft have nothing to do with violence against others. The only warnings even indicated are about teen suicide. The defense is only hanging its hat saying Zoloft made him do it.
Let me tell you this. If this works then we might as well quit trying criminals for anything they could say I was high when I did it. That made me do it. I was drunk. I ate too many Big Macs that day, whatever. The excuse is going to be something else made me do it besides the fact I knew I was doing wrong and I committed murder.
HARRIS: But Lida, as you know, the language changed on the warning, didn't it?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: The language changed on the warning, Tony.
HARRIS: Didn't we learn that during the trial?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Yes, after Pfizer, the maker of Zoloft decided to go lobbying the FDA to soft pedal the language so it looked less obvious these drugs have tremendous side effects against teenagers.
And, Nelda, why don't we leave Big Macs out of this. The reality is one of the warnings with Zoloft if it causes hallucinations. It makes people angry. It makes them react in moody and different ways. So the bottom line is, you got to ask yourself, when you have a kid who is 12 years old, taking Zoloft, who is already been institutionalized for several days because of mental problems, who has a grandfather that beats him, did he know right from wrong? Answer, no.
BLAIR: Lida, the bottom line as you put it is exactly what you said, this kid had big problems. Zoloft is not what made him commit murder. And the defense is going to lose on this one because they will never prove that. If they do, we might as well quit having criminal trials.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: I'll remind you of that next week. HARRIS: Let me move on to the final topic this morning. I'm going to really need some help with this. This is a convicted sex offender who obeys the law and registers as he should. He buys a house in a pretty new subdivision, and now the police come out and say, hey, look, everybody, you got a sex offender, if you buy here you'll be living in the neighborhood with a sex offender.
Nelda, help me with this case.
BLAIR: Tony, Realtors of the world are cringing on this. Not only are they blamed for everything from cracked slabs to bad schools. Now they have to do background checks before they sell anybody a house? I don't think so. This case isn't going to stand.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Hallelujah! We agree on something!
BLAIR: You do not allow people to ban someone from their neighborhood. What if he was a known alcoholic or a known thief or had 20 kids and they didn't want him in the neighborhood. We don't allow that in housing laws.
HARRIS: Did I hear a note of agreement there?
BLAIR: I think I did.
HARRIS: Is that what I heard?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely. Kind of scary.
You know, this developer can try to prevent selling his houses to anybody he wants to prevent from as long as he's not discriminating. The developer, if he had known, could have chosen ...
HARRIS: I'm not going to let this thing stand on agreement. Hang on a second.
It sounds as if this guy, he didn't include his name on the documents to buy the home. There seems to have been at least some deceit here.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely! And he's allowed.
HARRIS: Oh, he's allowed.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Look, when you buy a home, you see this happen all the time. Do you think Jennifer Lopez and all these famous stars disclose they are the buyer when they are buying property?
HARRIS: OK, OK.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: It's absolutely permissible. You don't have the duty of disclosure. The duty of disclosure belongs to the seller, not the buyer.
HARRIS: Nelda, we have agreement on this? BLAIR: I have to say I do agree. The only possibility is that the guy's a nuisance. That's not going to fly. He's going to stay there.
HARRIS: Ladies good to see you, as always. Thank you for the spirited debate this morning.
BLAIR: Thanks, Tony.
HARRIS: We'll see you next week.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Have a good week.
NGUYEN: Let's see if you at home agree on this question? Or do you believe it should be -- should the U.S. negotiate directly with North Korea? We've been asking you that all morning long.
Here's what David says, he says, "Negotiate with the most repressive and unreliable regime in the world? As they have proven, they will take the money and continue to develop nukes."
HARRIS: And this from Milo, from Fort Lauderdale, "Yes, but with a tough talk philosophy. A two way talk between the U.S. and North Korea rather than the planned six-nations talks, should happen only if North Korea dismantles its nuclear plans and components with a verifiable and monitored treaty."
Thanks so much for the e-mails this morning. We'll take more at the top of the hour, 9:00 and through the hour. Here's the address wam@cnn.com.
NGUYEN: But straight ahead we have "House Call" from diet fads and stem cell breakers, and powerful new pills. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks back at the top 25 medical breakthrough stories from the last quarter century.
I'm Betty Nguyen. I'll tee you again at the top of the hour.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris, "House Call" and your top stories straight ahead.
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