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CNN Saturday Morning News
Saddam Hussein On Audiotapes; Helicopter Crash Victims All Found; Olympics Update; Legal Questions About Cheney's Hunting Accident; Mardi Gras Begins; Powerball Biggest Lottery Jackpot Ever; Hamas Takes Power, Rejects Calls For Peace With Israel; Possible Women For President
Aired February 18, 2006 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: A blast from the past, and CNN has got it -- secret audiotapes of Saddam Hussein passed out to reporters this morning. Will the decade old tapes unveil any new smoking guns, or something even worse? We're going to take a closer look.
Good morning, everybody. It's Saturday, February 18th. From the CNN Center right here in Atlanta, in the middle of the news room, welcome. I'm Betty Nguyen.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. Good morning, everyone. We will dissect the Saddam tapes in just a moment. First let's take a quick look at other stories making news right now.
Three more Americans have been abducted overseas, this time in Nigeria. They are among the group of nine foreign employees of an oil services firm that were taken captive. The abductors are from the same group that's claimed responsibility for recent oil pipeline attacks. Members say they want greater local control of oil wealth.
Thirty-five people are confirmed dead and 1,800 people remain missing after half a mountain came crashing down yesterday in the Philippines. There is little optimism after no survivors were found today. The U.S. sent two warships and 1,000 marines to help in the aftermath.
NGUYEN: The militant group Hamas is rejecting any deals with Israel as it takes over the Palestinian parliament. The Hamas legislators won a majority of the seats in the last election. They were officially sworn in today.
And an urgent search this morning for 10 U.S. marines. They're missing after two marine helicopters crashed yesterday off the Horn of Africa. These are photos from that search mission just released this morning. Two other marines have been rescued and are in stable condition. Authorities aren't sure what caused the transport helicopters to crash but there was no sign of hostile fire.
HARRIS: President Bush is calling for doubling the number of troops in Sudan's war ravaged Darfur region, where the U.S. says a genocide is underway but the president is not talking about sending Americans troops. Instead he wants NATO to take a bigger role. Tens of thousands of Sudanese have been killed in Darfur by Arab militias, and more than two million others are displaced. These folks must feel lucky. You're looking at live pictures from Washington, D.C., one of the areas where you can buy a Powerball ticket. The Powerball jackpot as of today, is the biggest in U.S. Lottery history. The drawing is tonight, and the winning ticket worth $365 million, Betty.
NGUYEN: Not just -- a whopping 365.
HARRIS: OK, sorry.
NGUYEN: Let's get excited about this.
HARRIS: Need the adjective. You're right.
NGUYEN: In this hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING the vice president shot his friend in the face and was cleared of any charges but would you have been cleared if that was you? If you were in the same circumstances?
HARRIS: Good question.
NGUYEN: Our legal ladies debate the issues.
Also we watch her on TV running the Oval Office but are Americans really willing to elect a female commander in chief? If so, who would be your top pick? We'll have a look at the contenders. That is coming up.
And for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, no hurricane can separate New Orleans from Mardi Gras. We'll go to the Big Easy and peek in on some festival preparations.
HARRIS: Well, we're hearing a voice from the past, Saddam Hussein when he was still in power on hours of audiotapes just released to CNN this morning. What is he talking about? Terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and that's not all.
Our senior editor for Arab affairs, Octavia Nasr, has been listening to the recordings and she joins us now. Octavia, good morning.
OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SENIOR EDITOR FOR ARAB AFFAIRS: Good morning, Tony. It is very interesting, you're right. Twelve long hours of secret tapes released to us today, all of them meetings between Saddam Hussein and his cabinet, Saddam Hussein and his councils.
So you have a lot of discussion going on, some about promoting people and why promote them, and why not; others about talking to the international community and making the case for Iraq, that is of course, prior to the war in 2003.
They do discuss some issues that have timelines, for example, a trip, a famous trip that the Iraqi foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, made to Morocco as an effort -- it was at the time that was in 1999 -- early in '99 -- when he had a tour of the Arab world. We reported it here on CNN, basically, him going around trying to rally support from those Arab leaders for Iraq, basically trying to make the case that Iraq is abiding by the rules of the United Nations and that the United Nations and the U.S. back then were not abiding by their promises to the Iraqi people.
It's very chilling to hear Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq -- everybody referring to him as your excellency, everybody talking to him, dealing with him with velvet gloves in comparison to the Saddam Hussein that we saw of late behind bars and defending himself in a court of law.
Another topic of discussion that we were able to listen to -- again, I mean we're talking about 12 long hours of type. We were able to listen to several hours already because we have about five people working on those tapes and taking notes and translating at the same time.
The one topic of discussion in the last file that was released is a bit -- you know, can be touching on the issue of nuclear facilities and nuclear programs.
The discussion that I just listened to is about plasma. And Saddam Hussein has in his audience a scientist explaining to him plasma is used for, how plasma can be processed, the industrial uses of plasma, the military uses of plasma, and basically they discussed the fact that back in the '80s, early '80s Iraq started its nuclear program.
And in the discussion they go on to say in the late '90s the work was completed. So that gives the impression that maybe they completed a nuclear program. But they leave it vague so it is hard to tell if they were talking about that or not.
Another interesting that is worth mentioning, in one of the conversations, Saddam Hussein says that he talks about the scud missiles. He said that he had some left, and if he knew the war was going to end back in the early '90s that he would have dumped them on Israel's head.
Chilling remarks obviously and we will continue to look at the rest of the tapes, listen to them and translate them for you, Tony.
HARRIS: Octavia, just a quick question. Anywhere on the tapes that you listened to so far do we have Saddam Hussein talking about Iraq launching an attack against the United States?
NASR: No, no, no, not at all. As a matter of fact, he does talk about an attack on the United States. And he said that he himself warned the Americans of that, that possibility, but he says when that happens it's not going to be coming from Iraq.
So he makes it clear, lucky for him, I guess, on this tape. He says -- he does talk about an imminent attack on the U.S. but he does say that this attack won't be coming from Iraq. HARRIS: OK. Octavia Nasr for us. Octavia, thanks for the time. Thanks for listening to all those tapes and making some sense of it for us.
NASR: Any time, Tony.
HARRIS: Appreciate it.
NGUYEN: Well if you live in the Northwest or Midwest, you want to bundle up. It's freezing. A fierce winter storm swept across both regions, winds whipped up to nearly 80 miles an hour. Three people were killed by falling trees in New York.
Subfreezing temperatures combined with strong winds left parts of western Washington state in the dark. And some homes were nearly split in two by falling trees.
Hardy Minnesotans were still spending time out doors even though it is below zero in some places across the state, but the frigid temps are forcing some ski areas to close up before the sun sets. Lots of problems.
HARRIS: Lots of problems. Let's get a check of weather now. Brad Huffines upstairs in the CNN Weather Center. Brad, good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
HARRIS: Well, Betty, it's a story we've been following this morning, the U.S. and allied forces in an urgent search for ten crew members still missing a day after two U.S. marine helicopters crashed off the coast of Djibouti. And we have more information to share with you.
NGUYEN: Yes, we have just learned that those ten crew members that were missing have been found. So what this means is with the two that were found yesterday and the ten found today, all 12 members of these two CH-53e helicopters that crashed are now accounted for. So this is what we know.
We're looking at some pictures right now of the rescue operations that were underway. Still not known exactly what caused this crash but what we do know about that is so far the military has been able to tell us that there is no hostile fire involved in it. But the good news is that all 12 members, all crew members, of these two helicopters are accounted for.
HARRIS: OK, and the helicopters are part of a squadron based out of Jacksonville, North Carolina. Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has been reporting on this story. We're going to get Barbara up and she will have the latest for us in just a short order of time here.
But we'll take a break and we'll come back with more CNN SATURDAY MORNING right after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: A young man from Chicago's Southside is hoping to win the gold for America. Speed skater Shani Davis is also hoping to set an example for kids back home. CNN Sports' Mark McKay joins us from Torino with all the details. Hi there, Mark.
MARK MCKAY, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hello again, Betty. We'll start you on the slopes, 0 for 3. That is Bode Miller's glaring Torino games record. The brash American skied off the course in the ends supergiant slalom Saturday at C'est Triare (ph). The U.S. did not medal. Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway taking Super-G gold.
As you mentioned, the men's 1,000 speedskating event will be held tonight in Torino. A star-studded crew including Chad Hedrick, Joey Cheek, and the world record holder from Chicago who didn't have an easy time making these games. Here is CNN's Larry Smith.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shani Davis has always had reasons to go fast. Some weren't as good as others.
SHANI DAVIS, U.S. SPEEDSKATER: The only reason why I really learned to rollerskate was because they had lots of video games there. So I would just skate as fast as I could to go play the video games.
SMITH: When Davis switched to skating on ice, his approach didn't change but his reason for going fast got better. His speed had him winning races at the rink and staying out of trouble away from it.
CHERIE DAVIS, SHANI'S MOTHER: I finally used to run to school and he says yes, I used to run home, too. And I would say, why? He said because of the gangs. But he never really told me.
S. DAVIS: I've seen all kind of gangs, and I've seen all kind of like real bad gang fights and things like that. But, I mean, it was just nothing that really interested me.
SMITH: Davis grew up on the Southside of Chicago, when Michael Jordan was making basketball the sport of choice for most kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Number 23, Michael Jordan.
SMITH: That made the neighborhood speedskater even more of an oddity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From Chicago, Illinois, Shani Davis.
C. DAVIS: Shani didn't even go like, trick or treating. You know, he didn't go to prom. So it's always skating. Skating was his life.
S. DAVIS: A lot of kids slighted me for it. The taunting never really like, persuaded me not to want to skate. It just made me stronger, you know? It made me, you know, like the sport even more because it was something that I could, you know, show my friends.
SMITH: Davis may soon have an Olympic medal to show his friends. He's the world record holding in the 1,000 meters and barely missed becoming the first athlete to ever qualify for both long track and short track teams.
S. DAVIS: I gave it my best shot. I didn't like -- I wasn't a coward about it and, you know, tuck my tail between my legs and, you know, said I couldn't do it before I even tried. I went out there and gave it a good, honest fight. And that's all I could do.
SMITH: Davis will settle for the distinction of being the first African-American to ever make the long track team. And the honor that some kid might run home to watch his performance and decide he wants to go fast some day, too.
S. DAVIS: To me that's a gold medal within itself. That's winning the gold medal in life.
SMITH: Larry Smith, CNN, Torino.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCKAY: Betty I think Shani is going be hearing those cheers from Chicago all the way over here tonight.
NGUYEN: Yes, that is for true. All right, let's talk about this because people are talking about it. This snowboarder who got a little too confident out there.
MCKAY: That's right, Tony and Betty. Snowboarder Lindsay Jacobellis -- yes, perhaps a little too confident, maybe some showboating at the end. If you missed it, in happened in Friday's women's cross final. The American looked as if she was golden. She was on her way to a gold medal when she attempted a back side method grab.
Experts say she didn't need to do that. She was going to win the gold medal. Instead, she crashed out. The Swiss snowboarder who was second suddenly becomes the gold medal winner and Jacobellis comes home with a silver, much to her regret.
NGUYEN: You know she is looking at that video going, why, why, I was almost there. All right, Mark, thank you so much.
HARRIS: Yes, thinking about ad dollars. Cash in.
NGUYEN: She still got the silver.
HARRIS: Still ahead, women won the right to vote here in America in 1920. Could the year 2008 be the next major milestone in their political future? A look at the women who might one day wear the title Madam President coming up in our next half hour.
NGUYEN: You can address me like that any day, Tony, if you like. All right, next legal issues continue to find their way into Dick Cheney's office. A hunting accident, the Scooter Libby investigation -- so you know we had to assemble our legal eagles for this. We're going to be back with them as well. Stay with us. You're watching CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS (voice-over): The Kenedy County sheriff's department in South Texas says there was no misconduct and no charges will be filed in the Dick Cheney hunting accident that injured 78-year-old South Texas attorney Harry Whittington.
However, legal questions remain about how the investigation was handled. Deputies didn't interview the vice president until the next day, 14 hours after the shooting incident.
Plus, a state game warden gave Cheney a warning, no fine for hunting without a required stamp on his license. Cheney's office later sent in a check to pay for the stamp.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: All right, this leads us to the question this morning, is vice president Dick Cheney above the law? And if you were in the middle of a hunting accident, would you be treated much differently? Joining me now civil rights attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff and criminal defense attorney Michelle Suskauer. Ladies, good to see you. Good morning.
MICHELLE SUSKAUER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY:
LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY:
HARRIS: All right. Michelle, let me start with you. Did the vice president receive any special treatment in this investigation?
SUSKAUER: You know, it really doesn't seem that way. Even though that was, you know, Texas and it's Bush country. But ...
HARRIS: Yes, Michelle, put that back in because I have got a question for you. Really, no special treatment? Fourteen hours before the vice president, really?
SUSKAUER: Oh, come on. You know what I think this was? I think this was a very bad communication mishap.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Oh, come on, Michelle. You've gotten that wrong.
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: Lida, let her clean it up and then ...
(CROSSTALK)
SUSKAUER: They interviewed all the witnesses. They did all of that. And this is -- you know, when you hunt, you assume the risk. This happened sometimes. I think this is really just so blown out of proportion. It's ridiculous.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: All right. Well here it goes. Absolutely he received special treatment. First of all, let's talk about the facts here. The sheriff said that there was no criminal activity here. However, he didn't investigate whether or not alcohol played a role in this incident, in this accident.
And all did he was rely on the statements from Cheney and Whittington that said that there was no alcohol during the hunt. That says if a DUI suspect says, officer, I didn't have a drop to drink while I was behind the wheel of a car -- since when is that the question?
Isn't the question whether or not alcohol influenced the decisions made by Dick Cheney and whether or not his conduct possibly in drinking and hunting.
HARRIS: What do you want here, Lida? You want the vice president to submit to what? A Breathalyzer. What do you want here?
SUSKAUER: It's too late now.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, he should have submitted to a Breathalyzer, but as you know ...
(CROSSTALK)
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: His CIA -- his -- listen to me -- his special guards basically shooed away the sheriff's office when they were trying to investigate the night of the accident and he didn't give a statement until the next day, 15 hours later.
HARRIS: Michelle, I mean, what -- is there something to that, that there should have been more of an investigation in terms of whether alcohol played a role in this? Yes, the answer is yes, Michelle.
SUSKAUER: You know, this is not a crime. The answer is no, I don't think so. This is -- first of all, this is such an intensely private individual so he's having really a hellish week because this is just awful for him.
HARRIS: Oh, come on, Michelle.
SUSKAUER: I really think -- I really think -- that this is just simply an accident. Accidents happen. We don't hear about them because normally it doesn't involve the vice president. But people get shot all the time in hunting.
And that doesn't mean there needs to be a full blown criminal investigation because it's a simple hunting accident. The victim -- the victim -- his friend doesn't want any charges filed. They interviewed all the witnesses. What more could they possibly do here?
HARRIS: Hey, what about this -- Lida, this idea of a warning instead of a fine for not having the stamp on the license?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, you know, after all he is the vice president. He does deserve special treatment. He is above the law. So why not just give him a warning?
HARRIS: You need to stop. You need to stop. But let ask you something. Is that within the discretion of whoever is investigating this to decide to give a warning instead of a fine?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: I assume it's within their discretion. That's basically -- that's the minor point.
HARRIS: So you don't have a problem with that, the whole fine, warning thing?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: The whole fine, warning thing, it's irrelevant when you worry about whether or not he was shooting after drinking and whether or not he should have been shooting in the first place and he hits the man.
(CROSSTALK)
SUSKAUER: Been drinking? This is one beer. One beer.
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: How do you know it was one beer, Michelle? How do you know it was one beer?
SUSKAUER: Because, well, if we take what he says on face value, which I don't know if we want to, but let's just assume it is, come on here. You think that one of the other witnesses would have said it was more than one beer.
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: Well, I don't know. I mean, I'm just saying I don't know. I don't know. It was 14 hours before there was an interview. I don't know why it happened that way. I just don't know. I just don't know.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, Tony, you know about the one beer defense that criminal defendants use?
HARRIS: What was that?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: That whole one beer thing, it's tried and true. Every suspect who has been drinking said I only had one beer. According to Mrs. Armstrong ...
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: No, no, sometimes they ... RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: It was Dr. Pepper, it was root beer. I guess she kind of missed the root versus beer.
HARRIS: You know what? That is ...
SUSKAUER: Well, OK, you know what? Let's jump around and say she was drinking too. Come on. I mean, how far are we really going to go with this? This is absolutely ridiculous.
HARRIS: You know what? We're not going to go any farther. We're not going to go any farther.
You know, I wanted to get into the whole CIA leak investigation but, you know, we started on Cheney and hunting and that ...
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: Yes, and a couple of beers and we're done. Lida, good to see you. Michelle, thanks for playing the feud this morning. We appreciate it.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Good to see you, Tony.
SUSKAUER: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Well, they were about to really go at it over that beer, weren't they? OK.
Well, it's more than just a New Orleans tradition. We know that. Mardi Gras is a way of life in Louisiana and this year the carnival takes on an added meaning for a city struggling to survive. We're going live to New Orleans right after the break.
HARRIS: And we will also take you live to Washington to one of the many places selling tickets for the largest Lottery jackpot in U.S. history.
(WEATHER REPORT)
BRENDA BERNARD, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Brenda Bernard at the International Desk. They're dressed for bed while working hard at the office, all in the name of company spirit. Details on "Going Global"
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: It is a grim scene in the Philippines. Rescuers say they don't expect to find most of the 1800 people still missing in yesterday's devastating mud slide. More than 50 survivors were found yesterday, none today. Meanwhile two U.S. warships are steaming toward the region with 1,000 Marines to help out.
Militants in Nigeria are holding three American hostages this morning. They are among nine foreign oil workers abducted today in a wave of attacks across Nigeria. Several oil installations were also blown up. Now the group claiming responsibility is threatening more attacks will follow on a grander scale. That's their words. Members say they want greater local control of oil wealth.
HARRIS: We have new information about those 10 missing Marines whose choppers went down off east Africa. The U.S. military tells us all of them have been accounted for. But they are not giving any more information on the status or condition of the crew at this time. We'll let you know as soon as we hear more.
The bird flu has killed another man in Indonesia. He is the 19th Indonesian to die of the virus. That's according to a health ministry official. The man worked in a traditional market transporting chicken eggs.
President Bush is calling for doubling the number of peace keeping troops in Sudan's war ravaged Darfur region. He says NATO should take a bigger role in the crisis. Tens of thousands of black Sudanese have been killed by Arab militias and more than two million others have been displaced. The U.S. calls it genocide.
Here we are, here we are, just past the half hour, 10:33 a.m. Eastern time. Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen.
It's the 18th day of February on this Saturday morning. We want to get you started this half hour with new developments in the Mid East.
HARRIS: Going global now, Palestinian legislators are ushering in a new parliament.
NGUYEN: And the new parliament, new problems. Our Brenda Bernard joins us now from the International Desk with all these details. Let's talk about those problems.
BERNARD: Oh, yes, problems indeed. The militant group Hamas officially took control of the Palestinian parliament this morning and almost immediately it rejected Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas' calls for peace talk with Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel is considering sanctions against the Hamas-led government. Both Israel and Washington may withhold money from Hamas which has launched some 60 suicide attacks against the Jewish state.
Arab anger over those controversial cartoons has resulted in more violent protests. Police in eastern Pakistan today opened fire on a crowd of young people trying to burn down shops. Four youths were critically hurt. It came one day after a Pakistani cleric announced a $1 million reward for the killing of the cartoonist who drew the prophet Muhammad.
On a lighter note, Betty and Tony, what do you think about wearing your jammies to work?
NGUYEN: That would be comfortable. I don't know if you guys would want to see it.
HARRIS: The Iraqis on trial over there with Saddam they are wearing them to the courtroom, so...
NGUYEN: Why not.
BERNARD: Why not roll just out of bed and roll on in here. A South Korean company is taking the casual Friday thing a bit further than most. We here at CNN and many of our viewers wear jeans to work on Friday. But at the Good People Company in Seoul they have pajama Friday once a month.
It's actually a lingerie and underwear company and management says wearing their products boosts morale and stimulates creativity. I done know, Tony, I don't think a lot of the guys on the morning show would get a lot of work done if people here wore ...
(CROSSTALK)
NGUYEN: Stimulating creativity, right.
HARRIS: Looks like G-rated jammies.
NGUYEN: Yes, those are pajamas. No teddies or anything like that.
HARRIS: No lingerie, right?
NGUYEN: Lingerie?
BERNARD: Yes, Betty, can you see yourself wearing your nighty to read the news?
NGUYEN: No, I don't think anyone would take me seriously if I did. Could you see Tony here in his PJs?
HARRIS: Don't turn it on me. Don't turn it on me.
NGUYEN: Hair in rollers, yes. It would not be a pretty sight. Cold cream on my face. Yes, all right Brenda, talk to you later.
BERNARD: OK.
NGUYEN: Well it is party time in New Orleans. The first weekend of Mardi Gras kicks off tonight with a parade, of course. Officials hope this year's Mardi Gras will jump start the city's economy. This is a city very much in need of a good time after the devastation from hurricane Katrina. CNN's Sean Callebs joins us now from New Orleans. Where's your beads, Sean?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You want to see beads? I have beads. You asked.
NGUYEN: Oh, oh. Here we go.
CALLEBS: OK, we got these.
NGUYEN: Nice. CALLEBS: These things have some ballast to them here, but last night we had a CNN crew ride on the Excalibur cruise float through the town of Metarie and they were throwing these things out to the crew and people would stand there and just watch us go by. They want something good.
NGUYEN: Can I ask you what did you do for those beads, Sean?
CALLEBS: Oh come on Betty. I can't tell you.
NGUYEN: Nice answer, very good.
CALLEBS: You saw Kevin earlier our sound tech.
NGUYEN: Boy, did we.
CALLEBS: Let's just put it this way, he is a hardworking man to show up this morning. He's dedicated. We have some pictures of that parade last night. Just a preview of what people are going to be treated to here in the city. I'm on St. Charles Avenue, open to traffic now. It's going to close pretty soon because the first parade will begin winding its way down this way and then of course out Canal St.
Look at the pictures though last night from neighboring Jefferson Parish. This not one of the larger parades. It's more of a neighborhood, more of a family-oriented parade, went off well and you talked earlier about, does this area need Mardi Gras considering everything it has been through and considering it is a cash strapped city.
Is now the best time to be spending money on overtime for police and fire fighters and all the crews it's going to take to clean up after this mess? Well, here's what a couple of people had to say last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need Mardi Gras, it's part of the process of bringing us back. It's one day at a time and Mardi Gras is a major step in that direction. And hopefully when everyone sees that Mardi Gras is back and everything people will start wanting to come back, you know, in terms of the tourism. We need people to come to New Orleans. We can't survive without the tourism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: OK. Here are some of the beads. We talked to a guy who sells these, a company called Beads by the Dozen or something like that. He sells 95 million beads and he's sold already about 90 percent of it. Now usually Mardi Gras brings in about a billion dollars to the city.
Well, tourism officials say it's only going to be a fraction of that this year. They hope to get about $300 million. What about hotel rooms with all the emergency workers here? Usually about 38,000 hotel rooms. At least 10,000 are filled up with those crews that are doing what they can to put this area back.
But we talked to some more folks and they believe that those folks are going to bring their relatives in. So that tourism money will probably spin off there. We know the airport too is also operating at a reduced capacity, but it is operating.
People are landing today and for the next 10 days, except I think Tuesday, parades are going to wind the way through the city and give folks here a reason to smile, laugh and have a good time. After that guarantee it's going to be back to the grind stone, beginning to put this area back together. Tony, Betty?
NGUYEN: You've got to have a little bit of a good time while you can there. Let the good times roll. And get more beads, will you, Sean?
CALLEBS: OK. We'll get you some ones that light up and send them back.
NGUYEN: We want the good stuff. All right. We'll talk to you soon.
Well this weekend is a very special "CNN Presents" speaking of New Orleans and Katrina. It's called "Saving My Town" and CNN's Kathleen Koch returns to her hurricane damaged hometown in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. She explores a community's determination to rebuild and you can watch "CNN Presents." That's tonight and tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
HARRIS: Well, if you want to get in on the biggest lottery jackpot ever, get ready to stand in line. Lottery officials are expecting to be very busy today with people buying into the dream of winning a jackpot of $365 million. Powerball is sold in 28 states, the District of Colombia and in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Yesterday in West Virginia, tickets were selling Betty at an average of 29 per second. CNN's Gary Nurenberg joins us from Washington where Powerball fever is spreading out the door, down the street and around the block. Good morning Gary.
GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Tony. People buying a lot of lottery tickets here, been busy since they opened at 6:00 in the morning, $365 million as you say, it's the biggest lottery jackpot in American history. In the year 2000, there was a jackpot of $363 million, not as big as this one.
In October of last year, an Oregon family won a jackpot of $340 million. Everyone here seems to think that they have a chance even though we're told the odds of winning this thing are less than being struck by lightning twice. So outside this little mini mart in northwest Washington, we asked people why are they doing it?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm playing because I want to be hit by lightning. I want to be hitting that power ball, definitely. I could use it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not? I mean it's a chance in a lifetime but it's a chance in a lifetime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you always believe that you can. You always have to be positive. There's always the chance that it just might happen to you. You never know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NURENBERG: There are optimists in this world. One of the clerks here told me that someone came in yesterday and bought 460 tickets just for himself. They sell them for another nine hours and we'll find out tonight whether anybody wins. Tony and Betty.
HARRIS: Hey, Gary, let me ask you this question now. I see a line there, of folks ready to buy tickets. What if you're at the store and you want to buy, I don't know, some laundry detergent or some bubble gum or something. Do you go to the other side? Is anyone buying anything other than lottery tickets?
NURENBERG: You have got it exactly figured out. Just on the other side of the line there is another clerk with another cash register where you can buy ice cream and beer and soda, anything else in this mini mart. If you want to buy a lottery ticket over there, you get sent outside where the special lotto window that we'll show you later or you end up in this line.
HARRIS: That person on the other side not very busy.
NGUYEN: Not at all, maybe one person over there. No line at all.
HARRIS: Gary, thank you.
NGUYEN: What would you do with that kind of money Tony?
HARRIS: That kind of money. We talked about this earlier, didn't we? I think I'd buy a house on a nice little island where the kids could play. Here is my list. Here's my list, house on an island, unlimited travel, just want to go and see the world.
NGUYEN: Anywhere, everywhere.
HARRIS: Personal trainer because I'm paunching out a little bit.
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: And rent out Carnegie Hall for my favorite performers -- Bonnie Raitt, Tower of Power, George Clinton ...
NGUYEN: Oh my.
HARRIS: ... and the P-Funk All Stars, maybe a little Randy Travis. I love Randy Travis. So, yes, that's it. That's it. NGUYEN: That's quite a spread of entertainers there. All right. Here is my list. Besides giving money to charity, paying our taxes and spending a little on friends and family. I don't want just the house. I want the island itself. I want the house and the island and everything and of course I need a jet to get there and you got to eat good when you're on an island, right? You got to eat well. So I want that, a personal chef and, of course, a Bentley and a driver. Who doesn't want a Bentley?
HARRIS: Betty...
NGUYEN: Write those down because, before you know it, Christmas will be here.
HARRIS: High maintenance.
NGUYEN: These are -- this is our dream list. This is our wish list if we win, $365 million. What would you do? That's a good question this morning for our viewers. What would you do with that kind of money?
All right. We're going to shift gears here. We're going to talk about a female president, yes, it could happen and it could happen soon. Coming up a look at eight intriguing possible contenders.
HARRIS: Plus, take a look at this. It is a wall of water. Can you imagine something like this coming at you? What would you do? Where would you go? How fast would you run? We'll tell you where it happened. Go morning, Brad.
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NGUYEN: Well, she is the ultimate leading lady, Geena Davis as the president of the United States on the hit TV series "Commander in Chief." Is 2008 the year we turn fiction into fact and put a woman in the oval office? And just who could fill those high heels? The nonprofit White House Project has chosen eight for '08, powerful women who it says has real presidential potential.
The White House Project lists the topic of -- list is the topic of an article in this Sunday's "Parade" magazine. Now you can see all the names and whey they picked them tomorrow, but we've got the names for you today. Marie Wilson joins us with some insight on who made the list. She is president herself and founder of the White House Project. Thanks for being with us today.
MARIE WILSON, THE WHITE HOUSE PROJECT: Thank you, great day.
NGUYEN: It is a great day. One thing is we get to see these women before they are unveiled tomorrow in "Parade" magazine. But before we get to the eight chosen women, first of all tell us how you came across this list.
WILSON: Well, it's easy to look out across the country and see who America is interested in. They are interested in Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, so that's a no-brainer.
NGUYEN: Sure. Yes.
WILSON: They want people who have executive leadership, so we got some of the best executive leaders in America: Janet Napolitano in Arizona, Kathleen Sibelius in Kansas; governors, blue governors in red states; and Shirley Franklin, the major of Atlanta. All these women who work across party lines and ideologies and then three great senators, a couple from Maine-- Collins and Snowe -- and one from Texas.
So if you look at people who have courage, who have experience in economy, in foreign policy because we like them to have that if they are women. It's not hard to find eight women who could really be the president.
NGUYEN: We're going through some of these one by one. First up on your list, though, was Hillary Clinton. Why was she number one on that list?
WILSON: Well, she's probably number one on that list by alphabetical order, I hope.
NGUYEN: Oh, I see.
WILSON: Yes, but she is number one in the conversation.
NGUYEN: Are you sure that's it, though? Is there a little more backing to that.
WILSON: She is the rock star, isn't she? I mean, she's the one that people talk about the most. But she's the one that actually has been the ambassador to the world during the Clinton administration and certainly here in this country the best known woman and the one that we talk about for the presidency. But she has a strong track record and that's why.
NGUYEN: Now Condoleezza Rice is a little bit farther down on the list. But she has repeatedly said that she is not interested in running yet she is on that list.
WILSON: Oh, let me tell you, a lot of -- most women are saying they are not interested in running just like most men. So got to be the great mentioner. No way that Rice could be doing what she is doing with Iran and Palestinian right now and say she is running for the presidency. But when Laura Bush says she hopes she runs, that's kind of a heads up.
NGUYEN: I see some senators and some governors on here, but one thing that really struck me was a mayor, of course, being in Atlanta, Mayor Shirley Franklin. Why did you put her on the list?
WILSON: Again, executive leadership. Rudy Giuliani from my home state is always mentioned as the top contender for the GOP. But if you looked at Shirley Franklin, again named by a world magazine as one of the world's best mayors in many magazines here, you would see that her experience at turning Atlanta, Georgia, around, huge metropolitan area, $3.2 million sewer problem she fixed right away, calling herself the sewer mayor which was really unheard of. Again, she is an extraordinary woman and very interesting if the country knew about her.
NGUYEN: All right. This is all hypothetical at the moment, but it could turn into reality. So let's get to the real facts here. Do you think Americans are ready for a female president?
WILSON: I know they are. It's interesting, you know, Germany, Chile and Liberia have just elected a woman president. What we are interested in right now, I think, are people who can be tough and effective, 92 percent of Americans think that women can do that by a new poll.
And I'll tell you what really changed is that because we've had Rice and Albright in foreign policy, Americans now trust women almost at the same level they trust men on the tough areas of foreign policy, homeland security and the economy. That's a big deal.
NGUYEN: That is a big deal and I'm going to trust you to answer this question. Who do you think has the best chance of winning?
WILSON: Oh, that is not fair. I mean, I'll tell you what the most important thing is. I mean it's obvious about who is most well known, but the most important thing and why we did eight for '08 is, we should have as many women out there as men because if we get enough women, then it won't be about a woman president or their gender. We can look at what they believe in. We can look at their agenda, so I want to have a conversation about the top eight women who could be standing along side those men and those debates.
NGUYEN: Well we are going to be watching, waiting, and we'll see how it plays down. Mary Wilson, thank you so much for your time.
WILSON: Thank you and go vote at the White House Project.
NGUYEN: Of course, all right.
WILSON: Thank you.
HARRIS: We've got a bit of everything for you this morning in weather from a deep freeze to a wall of water.
NGUYEN: This is a really interesting thing, that wall of water. You got to see it. Also want to say good morning Seattle. Look at that beautiful sunshine over the city. Meteorologist Brad Huffines is up next with a frigid national forecast.
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NGUYEN: Well, you want to stick around because we have a lie detector that is supposed to be foolproof. How can you tell when someone isn't be straight with you? We'll give you some tips. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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