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CNN Saturday Morning News

Iran Opens Heavy-Water Production Plant; Katrina: One Year Later; Ethnic Profiling Causing Problems

Aired August 26, 2006 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: "Now in the News," Iran says its controversial nuclear program poses no threat to the world. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad officially opened a heavy-water production plant today. Now, heavy water can be used in preparing uranium for nuclear weapons, but Iran says the plant will serve agricultural and scientific needs.
Sources in Gaza report encouraging signs in efforts to free those two FOX News journalists kidnapped last week. The Palestinian interior minister says there are no direct talks, but some third parties may be getting involved. On Wednesday, you'll recall, the militant group Holy Jihad Brigades demanded U.S. officials release Muslim prisoners from American jails by today.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: New clashes in Afghanistan. U.S. military officials say two coalition soldiers were killed and two were wounded. It happened when a roadside bomb detonated during an ambush in the eastern part of the country.

"If I can do it, you can do it, too." A message from the heart from Senator Barack Obama. He's in Kenya today raising AIDS awareness. He took an AIDS test in front of thousands of people who cheered for him. Kenya has about 1.2 million infected with HIV.

NGUYEN: Pop star Michael Jackson wasn't home when a wildfire swept through his Neverland ranch in California. Crews controlled the fire late yesterday, but not before it blackened 40 acres. The cause of that fire is still under investigation.

Now to Bonnie Schneider for a quick check of the weather outside. Something we're watching very closely is Ernesto.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: As you know, we do run down the top stories every 15 minutes right here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING with in-depth coverage all morning long. Your next check of the headlines coming up at 9:15 Eastern.

HARRIS: Dietary supplements, do they really pump you up or just, I don't know, deflate your dreams? We have that story coming up for you in 20 minutes.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

NGUYEN: Well not that you know, because that's all natural, right, Tony?

HARRIS: Thank you. Thank you for recognizing the guns (ph).

NGUYEN: Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen.

Well, there are new worries to tell you about. It's about Iran's nuclear ambitions. Iran's president officially opened a heavy-water production plant today, but Tehran insisted it poses no threat.

CNN's Aneesh Raman is in Iran and he joins us by phone with the details on this.

Good morning to you, Aneesh.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, good morning.

Just days ahead of the deadline by which Iran, according to the U.N., must stop its nuclear program, today it is showing no sign of doing that. In fact, expanding that program.

Iran's president opening a heavy-water production facility west of the capital in Arak. An important nuclear facility.

It does not, though, dramatically change things on the ground in terms of the speed with which Iran is pursuing its nuclear program. This heavy-water production facility is essentially useless until they get a reactor up and going, and that, they say, they will have in a couple of years.

But what it does do is show a symbolic gesture of defiance that Iran is pursuing and expanding its nuclear program ahead of that deadline. Iran's president, who toured the facility, said that the country poses no threat, as you said, to anyone else, that they are pursuing a peaceful civilian nuclear program. But concerns, of course, that as they go forward, from the west and the U.S. specifically, they might pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran has denied that that from the start and says suspicions over a weapons program is not enough to force them to stop this program -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Yes. The president also said today, when inaugurating this project, that no one can deprive a nation of its rights based on its capability. Does he essentially, the president of Iran, say to the U.S., to the U.N., you know, your deadline is coming up, but we are going to stay full steam ahead on what we want to do with our plans?

RAMAN: Yes, that is formed by every indication. Iran is not going to meet the U.N. deadline on Thursday for it to stop its nuclear program.

This defiance is shrouded in this fierce patriotism that surrounds its program. As you say, Iran very often uses its words, "It is our right," the right of Iran to pursue this program. And until a weapons program is verifiably proven, Iran says it has a right within the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

And Iran is a growing power in the region and wants to be treated as such, wants respect as such, and wants to be part of this nuclear club. Not one of weapons, but one of energy. It is part of Iran's rising stature which has been going on for some time, Betty.

When Saddam was taken out of Iraq, it balanced to Iran. Iran has stepped up. It has a relationship with Hezbollah, it has a strong alliance now with Iraq. So Iran is the power in the region and it wants to be seen as such, and this is all part of it -- Betty.

NGUYEN: All right. CNN's Aneesh Raman joining us by phone today.

Aneesh, thank you.

HARRIS: So, a few days from now we could all be talking about Ernesto. Right now it's a tropical storm in the Caribbean, but hurricane watchers think that will change. One of those hurricane watchers, CNN's Bonnie Schneider, is tracking Ernesto from her post in the hurricane center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: As Ernesto looms on the horizon, so does the ominous anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Tuesday marks the fateful day that Katrina erased communities all along the Gulf Coast and forever transformed the city of New Orleans.

CNN's Sean Callebs has returned to New Orleans to see what's changed and what hasn't.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are a lot people like Al and Yoni Hebron. The Lakeview couple has spent months and thousands dollars gutting and renovating their flooded-out home after Katrina. But with another storm churning in the Caribbean, they know what they will do if the storm threatens New Orleans.

AL HEBRON, RESIDENT OF LOUISIANA: Whenever you say storm, we pack up, and we get out of here.

CALLEBS: It has been almost a year since Katrina struck. But some memories fade slowly.

HEBRON: In this block, that we're the only people that live here, three people drowned in this one block here. Twenty-three people drowned in Lakeview.

CALLEBS: The Hebrons live in the shadow of this metal monster, New floodgates and a pumping station designed to protect New Orleans. The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for maintaining the levees and flood walls, and offers a glowing review of what it has done to keep water out of the city. COLONEL JEFFREY BEDEY, HURRICANE PROTECTION OFFICE, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: It is nothing short of remarkable, what was achieved -- my opinion, that the system has not only been repaired to its pre-Katrina level's protection, but, in fact, is -- from a holistic perspective, is actually a better system than what we had in place a year ago today.

CALLEBS: But, in recent tests on the new pumping station, it failed to perform the way it's supposed to. Efforts are being made to correct the problem.

But there's no way to test the bolstered levees. Everyone remembers what New Orleans looked like when the levees failed. An independent group, the American Society of Civil Engineers, spent months reviewing work done by the Corps of Engineers, and says the levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans suffer from serious deficiencies, and that there is no quick fix.

The group says, since no one knows how the levees will hold up in a hurricane, there is only one recourse, if a major storm bears down on the city.

TOM JACKSON, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS: And I think it's so important that the leadership of this area proceed in a calm fashion in an orderly evacuation, if it becomes necessary, in order to protect life and safety.

CALLEBS: This year, neither the Superdome, nor the Convention Center will be used as shelters of last resort. New Orleans does have 1,800 busses on standby, and 47 Amtrak trains to ferry people to safety this year, a way to prevent a repeat of these horrific scenes.

People here know, it's not a question of if another hurricane hits, but when. And, at this point, residents say, no one knows how New Orleans will handle it.

YONI HEBRON, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: That is a big unknown. And that's real scary.

CALLEBS: Sean Callebs, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: CNN has extensive special programming to mark the anniversary of Katrina. On Monday the "Storm of a Lifetime." Our crews never left the Gulf region. For the past year, we've documented how lives were changed, the progress made, and where the greatest challenges still lie.

NGUYEN: Well, it is a case of airlines on the edge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had this piece of paper in his hand, and he said the crew and captain got suspicious, and right then I knew that they think we could be potential terrorists. (END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: But they were just two innocent guys needing a flight. Up next, victims of alleged racial profiling. They are speaking out.

HARRIS: And in 10 minutes, our exercise and eating right, all you need to get that slimmer figure.

NGUYEN: That hard body.

HARRIS: Well, we'll take a look at that, plus the pros and cons of dietary and vitamin supplements in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And good morning, everyone.

While you were sleeping, Tropical Storm Ernesto was gathering strength in the Caribbean. It's expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico early next week as a full-blown hurricane.

Stay with CNN around the clock for continuous live updates on Ernesto from our experts in the CNN hurricane center. The next update from the National Hurricane Center is at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

"Now in the News," Iran says its controversial nuclear program poses no threat to the world. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad officially opened a heavy-water production plant today. Heavy water can be used in preparing uranium for nuclear weapons, but Iran says the plant will serve agricultural and scientific needs.

Sources in Gaza report encouraging signs in efforts to free those two FOX News journalists kidnapped last week. The Palestinian interior minister says there are no direct talks, but some third parties may be getting involved. The militant group Holy Jihad Brigades has demanded the release of Muslim prisoners from American jails by today.

We run down the top stories every 15 minutes here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING with in-depth coverage all morning long. Your next check of the headlines is coming up at 9:30 a.m. Eastern.

NGUYEN: All right. Here's a question for U.S. and Argentine authorities this morning. How did a college student get a partial stick of dynamite on a plane? It was in his checked luggage to Buenos Aires.

Now, it turned up in a baggage search in Houston. He says it was a souvenir he bought while touring an abandoned Bolivian mine. The FBI says there was no terror threat but the 21-year-old could face charges. And that was one of several airline security incidents on Friday.

Now, in another one, a U.S. Airways flight from Phoenix to Charlotte was diverted to Oklahoma City due to a disruptive passenger. A Continental Airline jet, it was held in El Paso, Texas, because of a bomb threat. And a United Airlines flight was delayed in Chicago due to a 10-year-old boy's inappropriate comment. Plus, an American Airlines plane was diverted to Bangor, Maine, because of security worries.

And worries about terrorism are prompting some fliers to take action on their own.

Robin Oakley reports on some unofficial ethic (sic) profiling -- ethnic profiling that's causing problems for people who simply want to fly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN EUROPEAN POLITICAL EDITOR (voice over): Since news of the plot to bomb transatlantic airliners out of the sky with liquid explosives, airport security has been heavily reinforced. New baggage restrictions and extra searches have swelled concourse queues. The answer, say some, is to weed out travelers who need extra security searches and fast-track the others. But jumpy passengers have in some cases been imposing their own passenger profiling, and doing so on an ethnic basis.

So nervous were some Monarch Airlines holiday passengers waiting to fly back to Britain from Malaga in Spain, that when they saw two young Asian men looking at their watches and speaking Arabic, they walked off the plane, refusing to depart with them aboard. The two men, Karem Zeb (ph) and Sohal Ashraf (ph) were told by airline staff they couldn't fly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had this piece of paper in his hand and he said the crew and the captain got suspicious, and right then I knew that they think we could be potential terrorists.

OAKLEY: The Monarch passengers had, in effect, staged an Islamaphobic mutiny.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I felt like I couldn't do anything because there we are at the door with two police officers with guns, and there's the pilot. If we start arguing back, we look bad. And I didn't want no more headache.

OAKLEY: The two men were found to be totally legitimate travelers and came home on a later flight.

It isn't the only such example.

A Dubai family talking Arabic were initially refused entry to London's biggest tourist attraction, the London Eye. And unofficial passenger profiling doesn't just happen to tourists.

Claude Moraes is a British member of the European parliament. He's not a Muslim. He's a South Asian of Christian background. But he says that because he looks Pakistani or Arab, he finds himself regularly detained and subject to extra searches.

CLAUDE MORAES, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: And I've been stopped more than my MEP colleagues. I could work out that I was being detained and that was clearly wrong. I could see that I was being looked at differently both by Customs and by passport control. And it was always just an inconvenience. The detention wasn't an inconvenience, because then there is a greater fear.

OAKLEY: Some, like former Metropolitan Police chief Lord Stevens, support the idea of ethnic profiling, but you shouldn't move away from basic security, says Mr. Moraes.

MORAES: The issue is that, if you move away from that, to just a basic ethnic profiling, pulling people out of queues, checking them at passport control, catching them on CCTV and then going for them, if you do that, what you're then creating is a resource-intensive process that doesn't actually catch any terrorists.

OAKLEY: The debate about the best means of ensuring security without clogging every airport will go on, but the MEP warns that making one section of the community feel as invaded and humiliated as he has felt on occasion will never help the fight against terrorism.

Robin Oakley, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And still ahead, can a healthier body really be found in a bottle?

Up next, the good, the bad, and the ugly of dietary supplements.

NGUYEN: And in 10 minutes, do you know how to treat your biggest investment? Well, Gerri Willis does, and she's in "Open House" today. That's coming your way at the bottom of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: In today's "Jerry's Jump Start," so many people want to know the answer to this. Here it is. Can the search for that buff body be found outside the weight room?

Well, if you believe all those dietary supplement ads, it can. But, can they be trusted?

So, to weigh through the good, the bad, and then just the downright ugly...

JERRY ANDERSON, FITNESS EXPERT: Yes.

NGUYEN: ... this person's not ugly. Personal trainer Jerry Anderson joins us from Los Angeles.

I see you have got the muscles showing once again.

ANDERSON: Yes. I've got to show a little bit of something. It's show time.

NGUYEN: You had to pull out the guns this morning. ANDERSON: You know what? Of course, because, you know what? I'm so excited about this topic and it's very important to me. I've been waiting for years to talk about it, supplements, the good, the bad and ugly.

NGUYEN: Well, let's get right to it.

ANDERSON: There's so many people doing it.

NGUYEN: You know, that' the key, because so many people think that you can find the answer in a bottle.

ANDERSON: Right.

NGUYEN: And let me ask you, because a lot of these commercials are very convincing.

Can you build muscle with a bottle?

ANDERSON: Well, you know, the thing is that it's not in the bottle. The muscle building is, when you get stronger, you get bigger. You don't take this product -- if you take a product that builds muscle, it's some muscle-building properties in the product. Why would the body get bigger and stronger without you doing anything?

NGUYEN: Right.

ANDERSON: That's a major problem.

NGUYEN: OK. Well, what about those weight loss supplements? A lot of people think, you know, I don't have to change my eating habits.

ANDERSON: Right.

NGUYEN: I don't have to exercise.

ANDERSON: Right.

NGUYEN: I just need to take this pill and it will do everything for me.

ANDERSON: You know what? These weight loss programs, I mean, they are the bad. I mean, you see them on the market -- I mean, they are -- you know, Fen-phen, they had all these -- Ephedra, they're really bad. There's no magic pill. You have to do the work.

Everyone thinks you can jump-start your workout with these programs. It won't work. What it's going to do is ruin your health, increase your chance for heart disease, stroke, cancer.

These are very, very bad. Very easy. You exercise, you do some strength training, cardiovascular, low-fat nutrition, and you've got to get the right mindset.

A lot of people, what we do, have that short-term mindset. We need to switch it over, Betty, to a long-term mindset so then you don't want it real quick and you create the long-term habits and the results. That's the key, short term won't work. Long term does work.

NGUYEN: Well, that's true, because you want to create a healthy lifestyle. You don't want to drop, you know, 100 pounds in six months and then after that you start eating the same way that you did, exercising the same way that you did or didn't...

ANDERSON: Right.

NGUYEN: ... and then you're back where you started.

ANDERSON: Right.

NGUYEN: But, let's not be confusing, because there are supplements out there, right, that can help you, as long as you use them correctly?

ANDERSON: Right. Right, they do have some good supplements out, just vitamins, mineral supplements. But the supplements, you should always consult your physician before taking any supplements, because they could be dangerous, especially if you're already taking medication.

It can create a real negative reaction. And the supplements should not be over 100 percent of your daily value.

People are taking supplements that are 300, 500, 1,000 percent over their daily value, which are very, very dangerous. So keep it under control.

And one thing, Betty, I've noticed, some of these supplements, they call them energy -- high supplements. And these supplement not only have the vitamin and minerals in there that you need, but they have, you know, some amphetamines in there that increase your heart rate, give you diarrhea, constipation, and have a negative effect.

NGUYEN: Ooh.

ANDERSON: So, yes, you really have to watch it.

NGUYEN: Yes, we don't want that.

ANDERSON: Exactly.

NGUYEN: But just very quickly, I mean, doesn't the FDA approve these? I mean, aren't these supposed to be safe, the ones you see on the market, any of them?

ANDERSON: Well, you know what? This is amazing.

I was speaking to a group Monday, and this lady said, "Well, what about these natural products?" I said, "You know what? The FDA does not approve these dietary supplements. They consider them to be food stuff."

But they don't create the same result as food. They create a lot of negative things. So you really have to watch it.

I mean, mushrooms, poisons, herbs come from the ground. So you really have to watch it and use your mind. And, you know, Betty, one of the big things is a lot of people are using, you know, protein drinks...

NGUYEN: Right.

ANDERSON: ... and steroids. Those things are terrible. I mean, they create so many problems. I was talking to a guy recently who was taking an over-the-counter, you know, muscle builder, fat burner, and you know what? This guy ended up with breasts.

NGUYEN: Oh, you are kidding. You know what? I don't even want to hear that, Jerry.

ANDERSON: I mean, that's a reaction that these products can do. I mean, it's really bad.

NGUYEN: Oh my goodness.

ANDERSON: Of course.

NGUYEN: All right.

ANDERSON: You don't want to see a buff body with breasts. I mean, that's crazy. You don't want to go there.

NGUYEN: Yes. That would be a bad reaction. Definitely a bad side-effect there.

ANDERSON: Exactly. Right.

NGUYEN: Jerry Anderson, we could talk all day. But yours are natural, not the breasts, but the muscles, right?

ANDERSON: This is the real stuff.

NGUYEN: All right.

ANDERSON: And Betty, next week is going to be crazy because we've got that -- we've got Labor Day Weekend coming up.

NGUYEN: Right.

ANDERSON: And I know people are going to be overeating a little bit, barbecuing. So I'm going to show you some tips on how to clean your plate and still lose weight.

NGUYEN: Love it. All right.

ANDERSON: All right.

NGUYEN: We'll see you next weekend.

Thank you. ANDERSON: All right. Thanks. Have a great day.

NGUYEN: There's much more to come here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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