Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Secretary of State Clinton Announces Afghanistan as "Non-NATO Ally"; Voters Split Over Obama and Romney; Another Scorching Day for Most of the U.S.; Malware Virus Expected to Hit on Monday; Asian- American Community Focuses on Election Day; Bullying Victim Speaks Out

Aired July 07, 2012 - 09:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning once again, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye. It' s 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. out west. Thanks for waking up with us.

We start with Afghanistan and a commitment from the U.S. government. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Kabul this morning for the announcement. Afghanistan has now been designated as a major non-NATO ally of the U.S. It means that after U.S. troops pull out, the two will continue to work together on the defense and Afghan economy.

Secretary Clinton left Afghanistan for Japan a few hours ago to attend a fund-raiser of sorts for Afghanistan.

To American economy now and a not so great jobs report -- just 80,000 jobs added in June. That fell below expectations. Still that's 80,000 people who now have a job. 14,000 jobs were added in manufacturing. So how is this all playing on the campaign trail? Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got to deal with what's been happening over the last decade, last 15 years -- manufacturing leaving our shores, incomes flat lining. All those things are what we've got to struggle and fight for.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a time for America to choose whether they want more of the same, whether unemployment above 8 percent month after month after month is satisfactory or not. It doesn't have to be this way. America can do better. This kick in the gut has got to end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: So who do the voters think can get the ship righted? Our CNN/ORC poll shows registered voters are pretty much split. You see it there, 48 percent chose Romney, 47 percent choosing Obama.

There are a number of weather warnings across the country today. It is because it's going to be another scorcher. Take a look at the map. If you live in these areas, stay out of the heat if you can. Many areas have opened cooling centers to help people stay cool. Here are your highs -- so many big numbers. We have seen dozens of records set in the past month and there are more to come. No doubt. We'll have much more on the warnings and advisories later on in the show.

Those high temperatures are especially daunting for around 350,000 people across 12 states. That is because they don't have power. The electricity has been out for some of them for a week now since strong storms swept through. It's also been a problem for the Red Cross. They say the outages have led to a dangerous drop in blood donations so they are putting out the call asking for people to step up and give some blood.

Monday could be a bad day for thousands of Internet users. The FBI plans to shut down some servers to fix a nasty virus. In the U.S. 70,000 users could be affected. Worldwide it's estimated more than a quarter million computers have been infected.

No blackout but we are hoping to avoid a rainout at Wimbledon today. It is lady's day. It could also be Serena Williams' day as she goes for her fifth Wimbledon singles title.

Joining me live from the Championships is a very lucky woman who gets to be there, CNN world sports correspondent Amanda Davies.

Amanda, good morning to you.

So it looks like the weather is not very good there, but Serena is still the clear favorite, right?

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: That's true. The weather is not great here, interestingly the players have just walked out onto Center Court and the organizers have decided to keep the roof open for the moment.

There's been intermittent spells of wet and dry this morning. It will be interesting to see how that lasts. It's incredible really to remember it is ten years since Serena won her first Wimbledon title here and now as you said standing in her way of her fifth Rosewater trophy is Poland's 23-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska. Serena very much the favorite. Radwanska has been struggling with a chest infection and this is her first grand slam title.

It's been a tough two years for Serena as well hasn't it, with that freak foot injury two years ago and then that pulmonary embolism that caused her to stay out of tennis for a year. And just as recently as six weeks ago she was knocked out of the French Open in the first round. But she has really stepped things up in the last week or so and was very commanding in her performance against the defending champion, Petra Kvitova, and then in the semi-final at Wimbledon she hit that record 24 aces to book her place in the final.

Radwanska says on her blog on the WTA Tour website that it's her dream to win a first Grand Slam title and to become the world's number one. And if things go her way and she pulls off a surprise today, then she will be doing both of those things this afternoon. KAYE: Well, I know it's lady's day but you can't not talk about Andy Murray and the men's final match tomorrow. Andy Murray against Roger Federer. People there are celebrating, it has been what, since the 1930s since a British player made it to the finals at Wimbledon?

DAVIES: Yes, it's one bit of -- seriously big bit of history that Andy Murray has got off his back. That is of course, he's become the first British man to book his place in the finals since Buddy Austin 74 years ago.

Of course, there is another bit of history to come and that is for him to become the first British man to win the men's final here at Wimbledon since Fred Perry. That was two years prior to Buddy Austin.

People are seriously, seriously excited. Despite the terrible weather they are camping out in hopes to get tickets to go into the grounds tomorrow. Kate Middleton has already booked her spot in the royal box. We know that. There's talk The Queen might be coming as well because she's not got such a busy diary this weekend.

Andy Murray has been here already this morning. He put in about 35 minutes of practice before the rain cut things short. Murray has been keen to point out probably he's under less pressure tomorrow. Where he feels the pressure is with six-time champion Roger Federer.

Federer, of course, looking for his seventh title at Wimbledon. That would seem to equal the great record set by Pete Sampras. Federer says he's looking forward to it and hoping he might cause an upset to the British fans.

KAYE: I don't know how Andy Murray could not feel the pressure with The Queen watching. But I guess he's used to that.

Amanda Davies, thank you very much. Appreciate that.

And back here in the states, making a difference on Election Day, that's the goal among some in the Asian-American community. As Sandra Endo reports, their influence is growing with numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, my name is Ben Lee. I want our community voice to be heard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to make sure that everyone is registered to vote.

ANH PHAN, POLITICAL VOLUNTEER: My name is Anh Phan. I'm 37 years old and I live in Alexandria, Virginia.

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ann Phan is part of the group of volunteers this election year, making sure Asian-Americans turn out to vote.

PHAN: I think the Asian-American community has been politically overlooked because maybe Asian-Americans haven't been as politically involved for as long.

ENDO: A recent Pew Research Center study shows Asian-Americans have been the fastest growing racial group in the past decade. Even outpacing Latinos in the past three years. And for Asian-Americans their political power is slowly progressing.

TOBY CHAUDHURI, CHAIR, AAPI VOTE: They have actually moved from being a marginalized community to being able to be the margin of victory in very close elections.

ENDO: Asian-Americans comprise nearly six percent of the American population. And according to the Pew study, the racial group has the highest median household income for any group and is the best educated. But political volunteer Toa Do, who immigrated from Vietnam, says stereotypes have worked against Asian-Americans.

TOA DO, POLITICAL VOLUNTEER: There's a lot of myths about us as a model immigrant community. Like we do well in school, we work hard, we pay taxes. So the myth is that we don't have any problems. And because we don't have any problems, we don't have any voice.

ENDO: The latest census numbers show in 2008, 3.4 million Asian- Americans went to the polls, but the group is largely ignored by both political parties. And another challenge, unlike a Latino population, which mainly has a common bilingual identity, Asian-American communities have so many different languages, making it hard for them to coalesce that into one voting bloc.

CHAUDHURI: They haven't been reached out to or engaged. So, there's -- there's a level of engagement that can happen there. And because the community is so young and spread out across the country, you know, some engagement in the short term could really reap a lot of benefits in the long term.

ENDO: And with bilingual ballots for Asian-Americans expanding across 11 states, the communities time in the political wilderness may be coming to an end.

Sandra Endo, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Asian-Americans lagged behind when it came to turnout for the 2008 Election. Take a look at the numbers here with me, Asians ranked last behind Hispanics but that's a trend they hope to reverse this time around.

The secrets of Scientology. We are breaking through the myths and misconceptions. What is it all about and why are so many celebrities taking part. This is our focus this morning.

Plus, a bully tortured this teenager so badly that he suffered three concussions and feared for his life. So why in the world is the school letting the bully come back after expelling him? I'll talk to the young victim and his father.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Good morning, Atlanta, thanks for waking up with us. Lovely shot there of Centennial Park. Welcome back to CNN Saturday Morning.

It is the celebrity break-up heard around the world and people are still talking about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' split. Holmes filed for divorce and wants custody of the couple's daughter. She hasn't really said what led to the decision to walk away from Cruise.

Some say it may have to do with Cruise's religion Scientology. It has also brought more attention to the church and its practices. We are focusing on Scientology this morning, the beliefs, celebrities and money.

But first there are many misconceptions about Scientology so we thought we'd try and clear those up. The religion started by Author L. Ron Hubbard in the 1950s and has grown from there.

Earlier, I spoke with Dan Gilgoff co-editor of CNN.com's Belief Blog and asked when Scientology finally got approval from the federal government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN GILGOFF, CO-EDITOR, CNN.COM BELIEF BLOG: Scientology is a relatively new religion. The first church opened up in Los Angeles in 1954. It sort of helps explain the church's long affiliation with Hollywood and celebrities.

Now, for a long time, the church fought to get government recognition in this country so it could get tax exempt status like other religious organizations, other churches in this country enjoy. It took them a long time to do so and they filed a lot of lawsuits against the IRS to make it happen. The IRS finally granted that status in 1993.

KAYE: When you talk about the belief, I mean, what is at the core of scientology?

GILGOFF: Scientology is really meant as a kind of new approach to mental health. So a lot of it revolves around thinking about how the mind operates. Scientologists believe there is this reactive mind that we have that sort of experiences all of this trauma and distress, not only in our present life, but also in what Scientologists believe is our past lives. So a lot of the religion is aimed at working through those traumas and regaining the sense of what Scientologists call clear. And it's this access to this analytic mind, the thinking goes, that lets us experience reality sort of more truly or more clearly.

KAYE: Danny Masterson, the actor from "That '70s Show," he's a second generation Scientologist. And he actually opened a museum called Psychiatry Industry of Death. Does the church have a problem with psychiatry?

GILGOFF: It really does. You know, if you go on to the church website, it compares psychiatric drugs to elicit street drugs. And Tom Cruise has generated controversy by talking about this as well. Now, because scientology treats itself as kind of a new approach to mental health, it's meant as a replacement for modern psychiatry and psychiatric drugs. So there's this whole process of what Scientologists call auditing, which Scientologists sit with someone else from the church and there's something called an e-meter that sends electrical waves through their body. This is meant to pick up on those sources of distress we were talking about. And all of that is really meant to replace psychiatry.

So it really does dispute and reject modern day psychiatry, and that's one of the big kind of areas of controversy surrounding the church.

KAYE: And what about all this talk about an alien or outer space somehow linked with Scientology. What is that all about?

GILGOFF: Scientologists, if you talk to them, will reject this talk of aliens. At the same time, and this is something that the Scientologists only reveal to members who are seen to be very advanced. There's this whole founding story of humanity that revolves around an ancient intergalactic civilization that comprised dozens of planets.

Now the story goes that a lot of this population was sent to Earth and extinguished and that kind of the souls of these bodies are now free floating and attach themselves to human bodies and that some of the trauma that we are experiencing today is born of those bodies as well. It's another way that Scientology says it takes aim at kind of our minds and on providing clarity in the face of all these bodies that have attached themselves to human kind.

KAYE: All right. Dan Gilgoff, thank you so much. Fascinating conversation.

GILGOFF: Randi, good to see you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Of course there's so many more aspects of this story we want to share with you. Coming up the next hour, the money trail. Just what does the church own. You might be surprised.

Beaten and bullied and left with several concussions, this teen's bully got kicked out of school. But now the school is letting his tormenter come back. I'll talk with the victim and his father.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back.

Each week at this time we bring you stories on bullying. This morning the focus is on a 15-year-old Canadian boy. A bully tortured Frasier Sutherland repeatedly, so much so that he suffered three concussions and feared for his life.

Going to school, he finally got some peace of mind when the school expelled the bully. Now the school has reversed course and is letting the bully come back to school. Frasier and his father Kirk are joining me from Toronto.

Good morning to both of you. Thank you for joining us this morning. Frasier, let me start with you on this. How long had this other boy been bullying you?

FRASIER SUTHERLAND, BULLIED BOY: For years, since 2005, nonstop.

KAYE: And Kirk, were you aware of this? Did you know that this was happening?

KIRK SUTHERLAND, FRASIER'S FATHER: Absolutely. When I first learned that this was happening, I would take it directly to the school. This was elementary school at the time. Unfortunately for us and mainly for Frasier, nothing was done about it right from the very start.

KAYE: Frasier, you were actually hospitalized in the last attack. Can you tell me what happened?

SUTHERLAND: I was at a skating rink and two of the three individuals jumped me. One of them hit me from behind in the head. And the police and paramedics were called to the scene. I was taken away by ambulance to the hospital.

KAYE: Was that when the bully was expelled?

SUTHERLAND: No, before.

KAYE: Before that. So it continued for quite some time then.

SUTHERLAND: Yes.

KAYE: I want to share a statement with you, because we did reach out to the York Catholic District School Board. We got this response.

It reads in part, "Bullying in any form is not tolerated by the York Catholic School Board. This case is more complicated than what has been reported and there have been many meetings, interventions and support provided on both sides to help resolve the situation. We will continue to work with both parties to find a resolution that ensures both students are provided with a safe and caring environment."

Kirk, you are told this bully is now going to be returning to school. What reason did the school give you that they are letting him come back?

KIRK SUTHERLAND: Well, you're looking at an individual who has perpetrated my son over and over and over again. He's been caught on film at school, the security cameras, beating my son, one of which was the second concussion that he suffered. No consequences whatsoever. And after expelling him, they did send him to a remedial school. We were told he would never come back to the school. We were told he'll never come near our house or Frasier or any one of us. About ten days ago, they said, well, he's reformed, he's rehabilitated, he feels terrible remorse for what he's done. Basically he's a model student and he's coming back. If we don't like it, we can suck it up and just leave and go to another school. KAYE: Did they actually use those words?

KIRK SUTHERLAND: Well, exactly. Basically I'm embellishing by saying suck it up but believe me, the attitude in the room was, if you don't like it, this is true, Sutherlands, you noticed to go to another school. They threw reconciliation on us, too.

KAYE: Frasier, has this boy ever apologized to you? Maybe not in person. If he's reformed, has he ever sent an apology your way?

SUTHERLAND: No.

KAYE: You haven't heard from him at all.

SUTHERLAND: Never. Not at all.

KAYE: And so what is the plan? I mean, Kirk, what is your greatest fear about this boy returning to the school to take classes again alongside your son?

KIRK SUTHERLAND: Well, this is an individual who was part of a scenario that pushed my son down a hill. Concussed my son. He went 25 feet into a tree and suffered -- he suffered neck damage for the rest of his life, has been beaten on camera and was jumped on January 4th with another individual in Unionville, Ontario at a skating rink. Honestly, these are the details we're giving. There's lots of bullying in-between that and innuendo and cyber bullying and all around picking on Frasier since '05. I don't feel very secure about that at all. No, I don't.

KAYE: Frasier, what has it been like for you being on the receiving end of such severe bullying?

SUTHERLAND; Well, very upsetting, because I thought at first that this kid was actually a friend, but he kept hurting me and bullying me. After the first year, I said this isn't how a friend treats another person.

KAYE: It certainly isn't. Listen, I thank you so much for sharing your story. We'd like to know what you do decide to do in the end. So please let us know if you do plan to stay at school or switch schools as well.

KIRK SUTHERLAND: Definitely, Randi, thank you very much for this opportunity.

SUTHERLAND: Thank you, Randi.

KAYE: Thank you. Take care of yourself.

If you would like to sound off on stories about bullying, I'd love to hear what you think. You can Tweet me any time, use the has tag bullyingstopshere. Find me on Twitter at RandiKayeCNN. Definitely let me know what you think about bullying taking place in our schools.

Bill Gates' wife, Melinda, has made it her mission to make birth control available to all women but that's got her into a battle with the Catholic Church. We will have more on the controversy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: As the world economy sputters, not even the Vatican is immune to money problems. The Catholic state is reporting a nearly 19 million dollars in the red this year. While millions of paying tourists continue to flock to its wholly monument like the Sistine Chapel. The cost of employing its nearly three thousand staff during the crisis has led to its worst financial year on record.

Growing up against the Vatican and the teachings of your own religion. One Catholic woman is making it her life's mission to see that all women have access to birth control.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke with Melinda Gates about how tough it is to face off against her critics that say her foundation violates the sanctity of sex.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: If you were meeting with the Pope, what would you tell him?

MELINDA GATES: I would tell him this is right for all women. That if you believe in helping poor women, if you believe in children living and thriving, I think this is a necessary tool in this day and age.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: To hear more about this Catholic controversy as it all unfolds, watch "SANJAY GUPTA MD." You can catch it today at 4:30 Eastern or tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. Eastern.

They are young, healthy, and willing but the Red Cross doesn't want their blood. Why? Because they are gay. But lawmakers are now trying to change that.

And a real life girl power, a fourteen-year-old makes it her mission to put a stop to photo shopping models in teen magazines. How her effort made one effort agree to publish honest images of young women.

That is all at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. But first, "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" with Christine Romans starts right now.