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On the Story

Protesters Greet Laura Bush in Jerusalem; Some American Soldiers Are Fleeing to Canada

Aired May 22, 2005 - 10:00   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.


ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to CNN's ON THE STORY, where our journalist have the inside word on the stories we covered this week, from tense moments today with the first lady in Jerusalem to the latest in medicine and business.
I'm Elaine Quijano on the story of political standoff in Washington, the president versus Congress.

CHRISTY FEIG, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Christy Feig on the medical stories of the week: Some new discoveries on stem cells, new importance of low-fat diet and the fight against cancer.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Maria Hinojosa, in New York ON THE STORY of American soldiers fleeing to Canada. And the story of a college kid prosecutors say swindled banks and individuals out of more than $40 million.

KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Kathleen Hays on the story of how that big airline merger will play out in an airport near you. Also coming up, we'll go to Egypt, and talk to a CNN camerawoman profiled in a new documentary about war journalism.

And in our "What's Her Story?" segment at the end of the hour, a victory for one woman in Kuwait.

E-mail us at onthestory@cnn.com. Now, straight to Suzanne Malveaux in Jerusalem.

Suzanne, this charm offensive has suddenly turned into a bit of an offensive against the first lady Laura Bush in her Middle East tour. What happened so far this morning?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, really, it was an unbelievable situation to be in the middle of. It was chaotic. It was very frightening. We were with the first lady. She went to the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim holy site. This is where, of course, as custom calls for, she wore a head scarf. We were approaching up to the entrance of the mosque, and this is when we started to hear shouts of people saying "you don't belong here, how dare you come here, you are hassling our Muslims." Then there was a crush of people really just trying to get close to the first lady.

We took off our shoes as is the custom before entering the mosque. At that point, Secret Service really went in very close to the first lady. Literally, I grabbed the sleeve of one Secret Service agent and the sleeve of her press secretary, and they just pulled me into the mosque with the first lady. I stuck very close by her during that time.

Obviously, there were some women inside of the mosque, clearly agitated at our presence, were waving their hands. She got a very quick tour of the mosque. It was relatively quiet inside, but again a lot of jostling among photographers, those who were actually praying inside the mosque.

What happened, though, was when we left the mosque, outside, that is when it really erupted into chaos. There were protesters, about 40 or 50 or so, who started screaming at her and closed in, trying to get close to the first lady. That is when her Secret Service got very close. That's when you see Israelis security officers link arms in a chain and try to walk her down this hill outside of the mosque.

That is when things got very tense. I saw a little boy who ran towards the first lady. One of the Israeli security drew his gun on the little boy. The little boy went running back. One of the photographers was -- I guess you could say was roughed up a little bit. They grabbed him, threw him down. He obviously got too close to the first lady.

She remained calm. Her head was down. She moved very, very slowly as all of this took place. We were very close to her. And finally, we got to that motorcade and they whisked her away. Very frightening. Very chaotic scene this morning.

QUIJANO: And Suzanne, did you have any indication that things might get that rough? I mean, were there any kind of warnings or anything from Secret Service or anybody that was with the first lady?

MALVEAUX: Well, there were no warnings, but certainly they knew this was a very sensitive situation. As you know, the Dome of the Rock a very sacred site for Muslims. It was Muslim Palestinians, of course, who were protesting her presence there, making a political statement. And -- but obviously it was very tense. The Secret Service knew that it was going to be a very emotional experience, and you had the Israeli special unit for riot control that were on the ready. They called reinforcements, they realized that things were getting very tense, rather rough.

This is not something that we were prepared for necessarily, but it is something clearly that they are looking and taking a second look at being at these particular hot spots.

HINOJOSA: Suzanne, here's what I don't understand. She's going into a very sacred mosque, and you are saying that there were women inside the mosque who were agitated about the fact that she was going there. What kind of preparation was there? Don't they know that the first lady is coming and that they would have done some kind of check here? How could this happen?

MALVEAUX: Well, there was something too that really -- it's very sensitive among people there inside of the mosque, and that is the fact that Israeli security were accompanying the first lady, and they were also inside of this very holy site for Muslims. That might have also really raised some sensibilities there, offended some people.

Have to say that the first lady, however, she had two stops. One at this mosque, but before that even happened she was at the Western Wall, and that is really when we started to realize there were going to be some problems here.

They cleared a path for her. There were two barricades, a very narrow path. She went up to offer a prayer at this wall is the custom. And that is when initially it was -- all was quiet. She turned around after offering the prayer, was heading back, and that is when about 40 young women, maybe in their 20s or so, started shouting at her very loudly. "free Pollard now, free Pollard now." And they had pictures of his face. This is the spy, the Israeli spy that is being held in U.S. captivity. There's been a lot of controversy over trying to free him. And they got very, very close to the first lady. I was right beside her. One of them reached over the barricade, almost touched the first lady, presenting her with this photo, screaming and yelling.

All of this before we even got to the Muslim holy site. So she was try to show some balance, some deference, respect to both sides here, but clearly she was not received well by either group.

FEIG: Suzanne, give us some bigger picture here. I mean, this comes after a week of a lot of problems. We had the Cessna that violated the airspace in Washington, we had the grenade in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Now this. How is the first lady holding up through all of this? This certainly is quite a change from the way it used to be for her.

MALVEAUX: Well, certainly. And actually, she was asked about this. She went on to a site in Jericho. I stopped off at the mosque, but she went on, and she didn't take reporters' questions about what had happened, but what she did offer, she said that obviously she has seen a lot of emotion here at all of the various sites, at the Western Wall, at the Dome of the Rock. I think she was trying to acknowledge that, yes, you know, there are heightened sensibilities here at both places.

All the first lady can do, really, is make sure that they are prepared when it comes to security. You have to think that, of course, they realize both of these sites, very sensitive to both groups, that there might be some emotion, some high emotion.

What wasn't expected was the kind -- the level of security threat that you saw at both of these sites, but particularly at that mosque. I cannot tell you just how tense it was and how frightening it was to be in that kind of situation, where they were trying their best to get her out as quickly as possible.

HAYS: Well, undoubtedly then, as she continues through Israel, Egypt and Jordan, there will be heightened security. But it does seem to underscore two purposes of this trip, to try to bring sides together, but also to fight back against anti-Americanism. That's also how this trip was billed. Does this just underscore how big that task is for the Bush administration? MALVEAUX: Well, certainly, because she is the face of the Bush administration. She made a speech just yesterday in Amman, Jordan, and she talked about women's rights, promoting democracy, education, reform. Very interesting speech, very forceful, very aggressive. And I asked people, you know, what did they think of this? They said, well, you know, we like that message, but it's the messenger we have a problem with. It is the perception. It is the image of the United States as somewhat of a bully. They look at the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. They look at the Iraq war. They look at these pictures that come out of Saddam Hussein. And they point to the United States, and they say, we don't like the way that you are treating us. We don't think that you are fair or sincere in your message.

And so there is a lot of hostility. The whole goal of this trip, of course, was for the first lady to come out and to present a positive face to all of this, to somehow mend those fences. It has become much more difficult than they imagined.

QUIJANO: Well, Suzanne, thank you. We're glad you are OK, we're glad things are OK, and we wish you a safe trip from here on out.

From the first lady to the president and his standoff with Congress. I'm back on that story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have a duty to nominate well qualified men and women to the federal judiciary. I have done just that, and I will continue to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: President Bush signaling he's not giving up on his fight to have the judges he wants confirmed by the Senate. And all signs are that compromise has failed to break out, and the collision is looming next week over judges, traditional delaying tactics in Congress, and politics.

HINOJOSA: So, Elaine, there is the one side, which is what the White House is going to say publicly. But behind the scenes, they are saying something else about this whole filibuster debate. Talk to us about these two sides of what is going on inside the White House.

QUIJANO: Well, right. Publicly, the White House has said that President Bush obviously wants an up-or-down vote on these nominees, that they deserve that. We've also heard them say that at the same time, the president doesn't want to get involved in these specific Senate procedures.

Now, behind the scenes, of course, they are well aware of the fact that essentially, the president is looking at his second-term agenda and time is running out. You know, he wants to get Social Security reform passed, he's looking at tax reform down the road, an energy bill. And for all of that, of course, he's going to need the help of the Senate and of Congress. So if in fact the Democrats decide that they are going to dig in their heels and fight this one out, and Republicans are going to utilize what the Democrats are calling the nuclear option, doing away with filibusters, there is concern in the Bush administration that it's going to be a lot tougher for the president to get his agenda through.

FEIG: This could certainly make for a rocky road, you know, farther down the road, but what is the idea of a compromise here? Does it even seem like it's possible, or is this just snowballing out of control now?

QUIJANO: Well, at this point behind the scenes, the folks on Capitol Hill tell us that sources close to all of the negotiations behind closed doors, they know that this is serious. You know, there are moderates that really very much want to come up with a solution. We're talking about the tradition of the filibuster, 200 plus years that people in the Senate have been allowed to go on with this unlimited debate. And now, there is a realization, I think, that things are getting to the point where it could be a showdown as early as this week.

So now there are discussions, and in fact Monday they are supposed to resume face-to-face talks, this group of moderates that is trying to hammer out some kind of deal. And even over this weekend, we're told that there probably are some phone conversations going on. But certainly there is the realization that, you know, things could come to a head soon.

HAYS: Elaine, you've talked to a lot of people about this, I'm sure, because it's such a big deal in Washington. It's a big deal in the Congress, how it plays out. What is most convincing to you? Is this filibuster so important and so important to keeping the rights of the minority group, whoever they are, protected, or are the Democrats making too much of it? Are the Republicans right? That it's not that big of a deal? They can sweep it aside, basically?

QUIJANO: Well, what is interesting is that even some Republicans have come out and said that this is something we need to stop and think about very closely before we move forward on, because as they point out, it's not always going to be the Republicans in the majority. It could be the tables turned.

(CROSSTALK)

QUIJANO: Exactly. So there could certainly be conceivably a time in the future when in fact this could backfire. And so everyone is well aware of that.

And at the same time, though, you also have the public rhetoric kind of escalating, escalating, escalating. So you know, you have these two competing sort of factions, these ideas of, well, these are good judges, the president should have the right to get an up-or-down vote on these nominees. At the same time, though, you have other people saying, look, if you do away with the filibuster, it could come back to haunt us. HINOJOSA: So, Elaine, let's talk from the filibuster to another one of our favorite topics, politics and religion. Yesterday, you were with the president when he delivered the commencement speech at Calvin College, which is a conservative college in the Midwest. And he said some things that I find fascinating. God is not a Democrat or Republican. Take us into what happened yesterday.

QUIJANO: Well, what is interesting is that he essentially said -- that was a button in fact that some students were wearing, and it was strange, because I had never seen a commencement where people were actually wearing on their mortarboards and on their gowns these buttons. And a very -- a political kind of -- but they would argue not a protest, but a demonstration. They said God is not a Democrat or a Republican.

Basically they said, I talked to a couple of students yesterday, they said, they wanted to send the message that while President Bush is a Christian, and they in fact are Christians also, that not all Christians think alike. That was basically their message and their motivation behind wearing these buttons. They feel in many ways people have an unrealistic picture of Christianity and of what Christians believe. They have actually come out and objected to the president's policy on Iraq, on environmental policy as well. But what is interesting about that is President Bush at one point during his address said that the idea of serving others and community service, that's not a Republican or a Democrat idea, that's an American idea. And so sort of his way of kind of answering back in a way.

But it was, again, an intersection, if you will, of faith and politics that we have continued to see during the Bush presidency. But the commencement address itself quite short, only about 14 minutes long. But definitely some people -- students as well as faculty, who wanted to make it known that they did disagree, that they do disagree, despite the fact that they consider themselves Christians.

FEIG: You know, Elaine, one other thing that was a big hot issue over at the White House today was the "Newsweek" article, the abuses of the Koran at Guantanamo Bay. Has the administration moved beyond their anger over that whole "Newsweek" retraction?

QUIJANO: Well, what they continue to say is that they believe that "Newsweek" should maybe do more, that they believe that there are other things that ""Newsweek could do to kind of get the word out, because they have said that, you know, the genie is out of the bottle on this one. Even if they have retracted the story, there's still damage that's been done. And so they continue to say, it's unfortunate that that had to happen. And they hope that people in the Arab world, especially, will hear that retraction.

HAYS: Real quickly, though. There's a story on the other side. "New York Times" big story, for example, saying there's so much to the allegation -- maybe "Newsweek" got this particular story wrong, but the allegations of desecration of the Koran continue.

QUIJANO: Well, that's correct. And at the same time, though, the administration says, look, we have taken those allegations very seriously. The Department of Defense looks into those allegations very seriously. And all steps are being taken, anytime that there are those kind of allegations made about the Koran especially, that they do take a look at them very, very thoroughly. But undoubtedly they know it's a serious situation when you are talking about the Koran, with the potential to anger so many people around the world.

FEIG: Absolutely, sure is.

Well, from politics to the medical beat, I'm back on the story with new findings about diet and cancer right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Instead of french toast or sweet roll in the morning, they would have coffee with -- they would have cereal with milk. Instead of chips or cheese and crackers in the afternoon, they would have popcorn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEIG: Dr. Rowan Schlebowski (ph) singing the praises of a low fat diet. We've heard this before in general, but now researchers say a low fat diet may reduce the risk that breast cancer may reoccur.

Welcome back. I'm Christy Feig, for ON THE STORY.

HAYS: Christy, tell us more about this diet. Because when I heard that, my first thought was, well, how do they know it's because stripped out the fat, number one? Maybe they just ate more fruits and vegetables. But also, you really got to take almost all the fat out of your diet. And a lot of people are telling us that certain kind of fats are good for us.

FEIG: This is a very, very low fat diet. This is 33 grams of fat a day. Trying doing that some time. It is very tough. You take out all the fun foods. These people were basically taught how to re- cook. They were taught to use with different foods that are healthier, complete substitutions. I mean, they literally took their diet and substituted the low fat version of it. So it wasn't a low calorie diet necessarily.

And as you mentioned, the researchers went in thinking it was a fat thing, because we know that some breast cancers are fueled by estrogen. We know that fat produces estrogen, so you would think there's a cycle there. But actually, the surprise of the finding was it wasn't the estrogen link. Because people whose breast cancer was not sensitive to estrogen actually got more of a benefit in some places. So it wasn't the link they thought it was. They think now it might be an insulin link. They're just not quite sure about that.

HINOJOSA: OK, so -- so there's also the miracle drug of aspirin. And I have a story to tell, because I know you're going to talk about aspirin in a second and its relationship to colon cancer. My husband had a little fungus on his foot. I called my doctor, said, what should I do? He said, well, get some aspirin. I said, I don't have any aspirin in the house. He said, you don't have aspirin in your house? You need aspirin. It's the cure-all. Put it on your husband's foot, it's going to be fine. In fact, I did and it's true.

But tell us about what is coming out now regarding cancer, colon cancer?

(LAUGHTER)

FEIG: Yes, you are so un-American if you don't have cancer in your house. How can it be?

HINOJOSA: Or aspirin.

FEIG: Or aspirin.

(CROSSTALK)

FEIG: That's right. But it's a very interesting thing. They looked at about 850 people who had colon cancer. And they had already been treated for colon cancer. And they looked at the ones who were taking aspirin, and they reduced the risk that that cancer would come back and the risk of death by nearly 50 percent. I mean, it was quite an amazing finding, really, you know, that aspirin could do this. I, of course, keep saying that one of these days we are going to put aspirin and statins in the water because they seem to benefit everything. But yes, it was a very interesting finding by these studies. And all of these cancer studies, of course, came out of the big ASCO (ph) meeting that was down in Florida, the big cancer meeting down there this past week, but very interesting finding there.

QUIJANO: I wanted to ask you also about, on another topic, diabetes. I actually know some people who have diabetes, but interesting numbers out about how people are managing or maybe not managing the disease.

FEIG: Diabetes is very tough to manage. It's one of these that 18 million Americans have it. More and more people are being diagnosed with diabetes. It's a tough disease to manage, but we found in this study of 160,000 type II diabetics across the country, it's in every state across the country they looked; 70 percent of them, two- thirds are not managing their diabetes. That is absolutely scary, because if you don't manage diabetes, it can lead to some major problems. It can lead to heart disease, it can lead to kidney failure. It's one of the leading causes of blindness, amputations. You put yourself at risk for all of these.

But a lot of problems with this -- diabetes, you don't always know that you are not managing it well. You think your blood sugar might be in check and it's not. In fact, a lot of the people who weren't managing this in their study -- in this study thought that it was under control. They thought they had it in check, even though they really didn't. So you can't always feel the symptoms.

HAYS: I just want to come back to a point that links back to the breast cancer and it links to diabetes. You know, I'm a closet medical reporter. I love this stuff. But particularly insulin and the link to high-carb, sugary, high glycemic diets. Many people say it causes inflammation in cells. You mention that. They maybe think it's insulin and affecting that, that helped the breast cancer patients. Is this maybe another strike in the direction people say this is the future of a healthier diet and healthier people?

FEIG: I tell you, I cannot do enough stories on obesity, on eating low fat diet. Actually, it seems like every week I'm doing these stories, because it is all tied together. You know, if you think back to our grandparents' days, they ate natural food, they ate low fat food. They didn't have fast food. They didn't have sodas. You know, they were always moving about, because they didn't have all of the easy ways of getting around that we do. They had a lot less of these diseases, because so many of these diseases are tied together.

You know, as we gain weight, the fat causes problems. It makes us more sedentary. That leads to heart disease. That leads to cancer. It really is all tied together. I think when it all comes down to it, we just need to eat a lot better than we are, and we need to stay active, too.

HINOJOSA: Although I'll tell you something, when you cut out those carbs, you can't run as fast, let me tell you, because I don't eat carbs and I'm not running as fast as I usually do.

Let's switch to another big issue, stem cell research. A lot of discussion on that this week, Christy. What is the latest?

FEIG: The latest with the stem cell research is the South Koreans. They pretty much made huge steps forward in stem cells with therapeutic cloning. Now, therapeutic cloning is what a lot of people have said is what we need to basically cure a lot of diseases. We basically clone ourselves to get an ideal match of those embryonic stem cells, and in theory you can use them to treat diseases. Of course, that has not panned out yet, but it's raised all kinds of controversy, because federal funded researchers here in the United States can't do that kind of research. It's completely banned by the Bush administration at this point.

HAYS: Well, but this is such an important area. We'll see if some progress is made. And on the story again with Christy, we'll be looking at that I'm sure once of these days.

From the medical beat to the U.S. economy and how that new airline merger will hit home for consumers.

Also coming up, a CNN camerawoman talks about why she dares to cover the world's most dangerous stories.

And our "What's Her Story?" segment looks at winning the vote for women in Kuwait. That's all coming up. Plus, a check on what is making headlines right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Betty Nguyen at the CNN Center in Atlanta. ON THE STORY continues in just a moment, but first, now in the news.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at Boston University at the top of the hour. After arriving in Boston, the Afghan leader thanked American troops for, quote, "helping our people get back on their feet." But in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "LATE EDITION," Karzai said the alleged abuse of Afghan detainees in U.S. custody is not acceptable. We'll have more of that interview today at noon Eastern.

Meanwhile, thousands of Muslims marched through the streets of Indonesia's capital earlier today. They are protesting the alleged desecration of the Koran by American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The protest was peaceful. The alleged desecration was reported last week by "Newsweek." The magazine later retracted its report.

And in Idaho, the search goes on for two missing children. Nine- year-old Dylan Groene and his 8-year-old sister Shasta have been missing since Monday when police found the bodies of their mother, brother and their mother's boyfriend. Investigators have finished collecting evidence from the family's home where those bodies were found.

Those are the headlines right now. I'm Betty Nguyen in Atlanta. Now it's back to ON THE STORY.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG PARKER, CEO, AMERICA WEST: That's great news for consumers. We'll do so at prices that the consumers of both of our airlines have become fond of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYS: That's Doug Parker, CEO of America West, talking up the merger with U.S. Air as great news for consumers. Some of the employees around here in the Washington, D.C. area may be losing out, but the two companies say this is a bid to actually save 35,000 jobs across the country.

Welcome back. I'm Kathleen Hays, and we are ON THE STORY.

QUIJANO: OK, Kathleen, the reality check here. He says it's a good deal for consumers. Bottom line, is this in fact -- I mean, you have got these two companies that, you know, maybe are not on such sure footing, but coming together, is this going to be a good deal?

HAYS: They are going to now be the nation's sixth largest carrier. They are going to specialize, Doug Parker says we're going to be the low-cost, full service -- Southwest Airlines is going to be a big competitor. I look at it this way: There's a lot of airlines that are sick right now. They had September 11th, they had recession, and then they had this big, big run-up in oil prices, which makes jet fuel cost a lot. So even companies that might be profitable after all the cost cutting they have done, have had to struggle.

If too many airlines are put out of business, if we were just left with two or three big carriers, you know what would happen. Airline ticket prices would go up. So in a way, I think for more airlines to stay in business, is good for consumers as long as they don't have to take government loans -- both of these companies, U.S. Airways in bankruptcy, don't forget; America West has managed to stay out -- have gotten financial assistance from the government. And in fact, the -- one of the government agencies that oversees them will have to OK this deal for it to go through.

The loser probably is the worker, who eventually over the next two or three years may be phased out of the deal.

HINOJOSA: So, Kathleen, paint a picture of what this is going to look like for people like us who are on planes constantly. Because I have to tell you, I had an experience where I was on first class in one airline. And they wouldn't give me a pillow. They said, didn't you know we got rid of pillows six months ago? Because we can't afford them in first class. So what is this going to look like for those of us who are on these planes with this merger?

HAYS: Well, you know, I have long felt that flying was kind of like being on the Greyhound bus in the sky. And I think that these days, that is truer than ever, Maria. But this, again, what do you want? Do you want a low cost ticket and do you want to be able to fly round trip to the West Coast cheaper than you did many times a few years ago, or do you want the pillow? Do you want the free meal, you know? I think a lot of people would say, go ahead and give me the lower price ticket.

But it's a competitive industry. It's got a lot of costs right now. And as long as oil prices stay as high as they are, they have a big monkey on their back that you could say they didn't ask for; they are having to struggle with like a lot of people.

The interesting thing about these two airlines, they say that they will be ale to be competitive and make money with oil at $50 a barrel as a result of this merger, because of the efficiencies, because of the cost cutting. Again, a lot of the cost cutting will come because of some layoffs. They're also going to retire some planes. But they say they can make it work. And again, I think the more airlines there are in the sky flying and competing, the better it is for us when we go to buy a ticket.

FEIG: You know, one of the things you just mentioned was the big role that oil played here. Oil and interest rates, big news there this week?

HAYS: Absolutely, Christy. Wall Street has been pretty worried about inflation rising, because the more inflation rises, the more likely the Federal Reserve will push up interest rates more. And this week one of the big inflation reports, consumer price index. Most of us have heard of that, the CPI, surprised people in a very nice way.

Energy prices were up, but when you took out energy prices, the number looks so much tamer. There were declines in things like clothing prices. Even medical care prices had a very tame rise in April. That makes people think that if this Federal Reserve, which is raising short-term interest rates, keeps raising them, they won't be aggressive. And -- and long-term bond yields are staying very low. That keeps mortgage rates low. And that's one of the most important things about inflation staying down.

QUIJANO: On that point, on mortgage rates, I mean, fresh worries in recent days about whether or not, is there this nationwide real estate bubble that's about to burst?

HAYS: I have just seen, in "New York" magazine this week, the cover is, "Coming Real Estate Crash." "Fortune" magazine has about all the real estate frenzy, the boom, the gold rush in real estate. "The Washington Post" real estate section yesterday, it's all about investment. On Friday, Federal Reserve's Alan Greenspan was giving a speech in New York about oil prices, energy. Well, one of the questions of course he was asked, not about energy, is there a housing bubble? He keeps saying there isn't one, but because the national market -- the whole national market can't burst. But on the one hand as he said that, he said, well, you know, there are local bubbles. I'm seeing a lot more speculation. The market is frothy.

So even as the Fed chairman says there isn't a housing bubble, he does seem to be maybe a little bit worried about it as well.

HINOJOSA: All right, Kathleen. Well, from the economy to law enforcement and what prosecutors say is a college kid who tried to swindle banks out of millions of dollars.

And American soldiers deserting to Canada. I'm back on those stories in a minute.

ANNOUNCER: Maria Hinojosa is CNN urban affairs correspondent. She won a Robert F. Kennedy Award and was twice named by "Hispanic Business" magazine as one of the most influential Latinos in the country. She has written two books.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN O'CONNOR, U.S. ATTORNEY: Now more than ever I think it's easy for people to pretend to be something they are not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HINOJOSA: U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor in Connecticut. He's talking about a college student named Hakan Yalincak, someone that prosecutors claim did a headline-grabbing job of pretending, and he swindled banks and individuals out of millions of dollars.

Welcome back. I'm Maria Hinojosa, and we're ON THE STORY.

HAYS: Maria, this just seems to prove PT Barnum saying that there's a sucker born every minute, and even, you know, well-educated, sophisticated people can be taken.

HINOJOSA: And guess what, Kathleen, of course none of them would talk to us on camera, because they were just saying, oh my God, how is it possible that I'm an investor twice the age of this kid, and yet I was willing to sign over thousands upon thousands of dollars to this young man?

Hakan Yalincak, it's essentially a story of six degrees of separation. He created an entire life for himself, and his family, as well. He said that they were a family of Turkish royalty, that they were worth billions. Now, this kid is really good with numbers. He said he ran this international hedge fund, and the investors just kind of heard what he had to say, and they were swept in by the fact that this kid knew his numbers, could talk about derivatives, international finance back and forth. And they started giving him money. Lo and behold, it was all pretty much a fake.

FEIG: Maria, how did he pull this off for so long, and how did they finally catch him?

HINOJOSA: Well, what ended up happening was when the office where he opened up his hedge fund -- there was a very smart man who had been involved in a fraud case before. He had witnessed a fraud case. And the thing that tipped him off was when they brought in new computers, new office furniture, and they brought in the staff for a big meeting that this kid was going to be having with some bankers, and then this man realized that the computers were not plugged in, the telephones were not plugged in, and these people, these staff workers were essentially just sitting there doing nothing, and that's when he called the FBI, and that's kind of when the FBI got a roll on it.

They ended up catching him when he wrote a bad check for $25 million. They could have waited, perhaps, but they just caught him at that moment and that's what he's charged with and in prison now.

QUIJANO: That's incredible, Maria.

We know that you are also on the story of -- an exclusive story, we should say -- of U.S. members of the military deserting to Canada. Tell us about that.

HINOJOSA: Yeah, pretty incredible story that's not heard of a lot right now in the United States. But there are anywhere from just a few, and some people say well over 100 soldiers, who have said that they will not go and fight in this war. Some of them have seen combat and come back and said they won't go back; others who have said that they won't go on principle. Let's hear what Darryl Anderson, who actually saw combat, and is now in Canada. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARRYL ANDERSON: I am thinking our procedures, if fired upon, you open fire at anybody that's around. So I take my weapon, I point it at someone, and I'm aiming and I look, and it's just a 14-year-old boy, running, scared just like me, my fellow soldiers. And you know, it's -- who am I? Am I this monster? Am I this person killing innocent people?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HINOJOSA: And the thing is that many people don't realize, that going AWOL or deserting the military in times of war, the highest penalty is death. And many of these soldiers are told that if you leave, you could face that penalty, so out of fear, many of them say, listen, if I'm going to be perhaps facing the death penalty, I'll go to Canada instead.

HAYS: But Maria, Canada not welcoming these people with open arms as they once did. And even knowing that, you found out that there is an underground railroad basically from the United States to Canada.

HINOJOSA: Yeah, it's very interesting. In fact, I got a call from the lawyer who represents these young men in Canada. The lawyer who represents them was himself a draft dodger, an American draft dodger from the Vietnam War, who is now representing these kids. So talk about going full circle. And yes, he has said that because of my story, he has already gotten a number of calls from soldiers who are perhaps thinking about doing this. They just feel that there isn't an out for them here in the United States. They worry that the only thing that they will be faced with is perhaps prison time, or again the death sentence.

And so they start getting information off the Internet, and there is -- we have been told -- something of an underground railroad, that when these young men -- I heard a story of a father with his four children and his wife and a newborn that went, because he did not want to go back and serve in Iraq.

FEIG: Maria, you talked to a handful of people here, and the group you talked to said that there's some more. How big of a problem do you think this is? Is there a small problem, or are there a lot of people trying to do this?

HINOJOSA: You know, it's hard to say, because the Canadian government now has said that they are going to have to apply for political refugee status. And the first young man who applied was rejected. So you would have thought that these young men going into Canada would have been open and saying we are here, but because Canada is not accepting them with open arms, there's a possibility that these young men and women, perhaps, will go underground in Canada. So we may never know for many years to come how many soldiers have actually made the trip leaving the United States and the Army and going to Canada.

QUIJANO: It's a fascinating story. Thanks, Maria.

Well, from deserters in Canada, we're going to Cairo. CNN camerawoman Mary Rogers is part of a new A&E documentary about women covering wars. We're back to talk to Mary on that story in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUIJANO: And we are still working to establish contact with CNN's camerawoman Mary Rogers in Cairo, Egypt. But while we're waiting to do that, let's turn our attention to Kathleen Hays, and a story of some competition, I guess, breaking out for home movie rentals.

HAYS: Yes, and once again, competition among the giant companies and the little companies is great for consumers. What happened this week is Wal-Mart, you know -- Wal-Mart seems to steamroll everybody. Well, they have been trying to eat away at Netflix, the DVD rental, you know, you send in, what, for $18 a month you can get unlimited DVD rentals. They give you the postage back and forth.

Well, Wal-Mart has thrown in the towel. They say, we can't beat Netflix. They're too far ahead of us. So now you can do it through Wal-Mart. Netflix is going to say, by the way, customers, you can buy your DVDs at Wal-Mart.

Well, no sooner had the ink dried on this deal than Blockbuster, which is really, really, really the competition for Netflix, says, hey, wait a minute. We're going to undercut your monthly subscription price. We're going to offer some free DVD rental deals, and so the wars continue.

And meanwhile, hey, all you folks, you know, you can get probably the CNN 25, all the specials we have done, and "CNN PRESENTS" on DVD, and you can rent them for a really good price.

HINOJOSA: Yeah. So let's talk about "Star Wars" piracy, OK? And like my big thing was that I wanted to take my son out there to actually see all the people who dress up and wait in front of the Ziegfeld Theater for 24, 48 hours before they can see the movie, but now there's piracy going on? Why should I be surprised.

HAYS: You know, call me old-fashioned but you know, this -- I think when people say this is piracy or theft, they are right. Somehow somebody managed to get a copy of the movie. And they even think it was a studio copy, because it was time stamped. It was posted on the Internet on Wednesday before the movie even opened. They are trying to stop it. I won't say the name of the Web site, because I don't want to encourage people to go there, and I am sure the quality isn't the same as seeing it in the movie theater.

But it just underscores how vulnerable intellectual property is in this day and age. It's been a big deal with the U.S. and China, for example. It's so hard to stop. But it costs our companies, our software companies, entertainment companies billions of dollars a year. And remember, this is an area where the United States really has an advantage right now. This is one of the things we export to the rest of the world. So this is a very, very serious thing.

Why do people do it? I don't know. Maybe it's to thumb their noses at the big guys. But I think the movie theaters are taking it very seriously, and so does the United States government.

FEIG: I want to talk to Elaine for just a second about the stem cell story that we've both covered this week. You know, the developments in South Korea certainly fueled some fodder on the Hill and in the White House. What did the administration say? QUIJANO: Well, the president has said, you know, he does not like the idea of cloning. He's opposed to that for the therapeutic purposes. It's certainly something the White House is concerned about. At the same time, there is also this movement afoot on the Hill, on Capitol Hill, to try to expand the limits on the federal funding for embryonic stem cell research that the president imposed back in 2001. And essentially, what the White House has said, what the president himself said, was I'm going to issue a veto threat and let's take a listen to exactly what President Bush had to say on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Secondly, I made my position very clear on embryonic stem cells. I'm a strong supporter of adult stem cell research, of course. But I made it very clear to the Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayers' money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life, is -- I'm against that. And therefore if the bill does that, I will veto it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: And so President Bush there really acknowledging that, you know, there is this fight brewing, that Republicans themselves, some of them on the Hill, have come out and said, this is something we feel is necessary, that can help advance maybe perhaps the science involved in embryonic stem cell research, and that it's something that they feel they are committing themselves to.

HAYS: You know, and you've touched on what the states are doing. And you know, coming from the business side of this, the South Koreans are advancing this. All this great research with tremendous commercial spinoffs happening outside the country. If you are pragmatic about this, and if you are not against the kind of stem cell research you are talking about, then aren't we losing out? And who is going to pick up the ball in the United States?

FEIG: That's exactly the question. I mean, there is a group of scientists, quite a large group of scientists, that actually believe they are being left behind in a way. Because you have to take into consideration the vast majority of science is funded by federal dollars. A large amount. Most of it comes from the National Institutes of Health.

Well, other countries are already letting their scientists do some research on this, but the United States is not. So states can fund it. This is the exception here. The federal government cannot fund it. And while they are still battling this out on Capitol Hill, states are actually starting to make some momentum, fund it themselves.

California is one of the leaders in this. They have actually made a huge push, fund a lot of stem cell research. And they are trying to attract thee companies to come to California because of it. But there is a whole slew of other states that now are moving legislation in the same direction. HINOJOSA: So does that mean that essentially, the economics is going to perhaps trump what has become this huge debate about stem cell? Is that what we're looking forward to?

FEIG: Well, that's an interesting question, actually, what's going to win out here? It depends, because a lot of your Republicans are very conservative about this. I mean, this is tantamount to murder to some of them, because when you take these stem cells out of this embryo, the embryo dies. I mean, this is an embryo that has only been grown for a few days when you're doing the therapeutic cloning. When you take those stem cells out, that kills that embryo. The embryo cannot live.

So the question is, when does life begin? And that's what it is all coming down to. There was a lot of push in the scientific community, let us do some of this research, but it's hugely debated still.

HAYS: It's such a fascinating story.

And of course a fascinating story we apologize we could not get to yet and probably won't be able to today, is CNN camerawoman Mary Rogers, who is in a documentary "Bearing Witness." Cairo, sometimes it's TV, the connections are tough. We're going to try to get her next week, because her story is fascinating.

Another fascinating story just ahead, "What's Her Story," ON THE STORY coming up next.

ANNOUNCER: A Kuwaiti woman celebrates victory. "What's Her Story?" More when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Roula Al-Dashti, "What's Her Story?" She and other Kuwaiti women were granted political rights this week, allowing them to vote and run for office for the first time in the nation's history.

A U.S.-educated economist, Al-Dashti led the fight for women's rights, and now says she'll run for office.

ROULA AL-DASHTI (through translator): I believe today is a historic day for Kuwaiti women. I believe that today we've achieved the victories of freedom.

ANNOUNCER: Still to be worked out, how the new rights will coexist with Islamic law and rules on women's dress, and possibly separate polling places for men and women.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYS: Thanks so much to my colleagues. We'll be back next week. And at 12:00 noon Eastern, 9:00 a.m. Pacific, "LATE EDITION" with Wolf Blitzer. Among Wolf's guests, Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai. Straight ahead, a check on what's making news right now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired May 22, 2005 - 10:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to CNN's ON THE STORY, where our journalist have the inside word on the stories we covered this week, from tense moments today with the first lady in Jerusalem to the latest in medicine and business.
I'm Elaine Quijano on the story of political standoff in Washington, the president versus Congress.

CHRISTY FEIG, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Christy Feig on the medical stories of the week: Some new discoveries on stem cells, new importance of low-fat diet and the fight against cancer.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Maria Hinojosa, in New York ON THE STORY of American soldiers fleeing to Canada. And the story of a college kid prosecutors say swindled banks and individuals out of more than $40 million.

KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Kathleen Hays on the story of how that big airline merger will play out in an airport near you. Also coming up, we'll go to Egypt, and talk to a CNN camerawoman profiled in a new documentary about war journalism.

And in our "What's Her Story?" segment at the end of the hour, a victory for one woman in Kuwait.

E-mail us at onthestory@cnn.com. Now, straight to Suzanne Malveaux in Jerusalem.

Suzanne, this charm offensive has suddenly turned into a bit of an offensive against the first lady Laura Bush in her Middle East tour. What happened so far this morning?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, really, it was an unbelievable situation to be in the middle of. It was chaotic. It was very frightening. We were with the first lady. She went to the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim holy site. This is where, of course, as custom calls for, she wore a head scarf. We were approaching up to the entrance of the mosque, and this is when we started to hear shouts of people saying "you don't belong here, how dare you come here, you are hassling our Muslims." Then there was a crush of people really just trying to get close to the first lady.

We took off our shoes as is the custom before entering the mosque. At that point, Secret Service really went in very close to the first lady. Literally, I grabbed the sleeve of one Secret Service agent and the sleeve of her press secretary, and they just pulled me into the mosque with the first lady. I stuck very close by her during that time.

Obviously, there were some women inside of the mosque, clearly agitated at our presence, were waving their hands. She got a very quick tour of the mosque. It was relatively quiet inside, but again a lot of jostling among photographers, those who were actually praying inside the mosque.

What happened, though, was when we left the mosque, outside, that is when it really erupted into chaos. There were protesters, about 40 or 50 or so, who started screaming at her and closed in, trying to get close to the first lady. That is when her Secret Service got very close. That's when you see Israelis security officers link arms in a chain and try to walk her down this hill outside of the mosque.

That is when things got very tense. I saw a little boy who ran towards the first lady. One of the Israeli security drew his gun on the little boy. The little boy went running back. One of the photographers was -- I guess you could say was roughed up a little bit. They grabbed him, threw him down. He obviously got too close to the first lady.

She remained calm. Her head was down. She moved very, very slowly as all of this took place. We were very close to her. And finally, we got to that motorcade and they whisked her away. Very frightening. Very chaotic scene this morning.

QUIJANO: And Suzanne, did you have any indication that things might get that rough? I mean, were there any kind of warnings or anything from Secret Service or anybody that was with the first lady?

MALVEAUX: Well, there were no warnings, but certainly they knew this was a very sensitive situation. As you know, the Dome of the Rock a very sacred site for Muslims. It was Muslim Palestinians, of course, who were protesting her presence there, making a political statement. And -- but obviously it was very tense. The Secret Service knew that it was going to be a very emotional experience, and you had the Israeli special unit for riot control that were on the ready. They called reinforcements, they realized that things were getting very tense, rather rough.

This is not something that we were prepared for necessarily, but it is something clearly that they are looking and taking a second look at being at these particular hot spots.

HINOJOSA: Suzanne, here's what I don't understand. She's going into a very sacred mosque, and you are saying that there were women inside the mosque who were agitated about the fact that she was going there. What kind of preparation was there? Don't they know that the first lady is coming and that they would have done some kind of check here? How could this happen?

MALVEAUX: Well, there was something too that really -- it's very sensitive among people there inside of the mosque, and that is the fact that Israeli security were accompanying the first lady, and they were also inside of this very holy site for Muslims. That might have also really raised some sensibilities there, offended some people.

Have to say that the first lady, however, she had two stops. One at this mosque, but before that even happened she was at the Western Wall, and that is really when we started to realize there were going to be some problems here.

They cleared a path for her. There were two barricades, a very narrow path. She went up to offer a prayer at this wall is the custom. And that is when initially it was -- all was quiet. She turned around after offering the prayer, was heading back, and that is when about 40 young women, maybe in their 20s or so, started shouting at her very loudly. "free Pollard now, free Pollard now." And they had pictures of his face. This is the spy, the Israeli spy that is being held in U.S. captivity. There's been a lot of controversy over trying to free him. And they got very, very close to the first lady. I was right beside her. One of them reached over the barricade, almost touched the first lady, presenting her with this photo, screaming and yelling.

All of this before we even got to the Muslim holy site. So she was try to show some balance, some deference, respect to both sides here, but clearly she was not received well by either group.

FEIG: Suzanne, give us some bigger picture here. I mean, this comes after a week of a lot of problems. We had the Cessna that violated the airspace in Washington, we had the grenade in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Now this. How is the first lady holding up through all of this? This certainly is quite a change from the way it used to be for her.

MALVEAUX: Well, certainly. And actually, she was asked about this. She went on to a site in Jericho. I stopped off at the mosque, but she went on, and she didn't take reporters' questions about what had happened, but what she did offer, she said that obviously she has seen a lot of emotion here at all of the various sites, at the Western Wall, at the Dome of the Rock. I think she was trying to acknowledge that, yes, you know, there are heightened sensibilities here at both places.

All the first lady can do, really, is make sure that they are prepared when it comes to security. You have to think that, of course, they realize both of these sites, very sensitive to both groups, that there might be some emotion, some high emotion.

What wasn't expected was the kind -- the level of security threat that you saw at both of these sites, but particularly at that mosque. I cannot tell you just how tense it was and how frightening it was to be in that kind of situation, where they were trying their best to get her out as quickly as possible.

HAYS: Well, undoubtedly then, as she continues through Israel, Egypt and Jordan, there will be heightened security. But it does seem to underscore two purposes of this trip, to try to bring sides together, but also to fight back against anti-Americanism. That's also how this trip was billed. Does this just underscore how big that task is for the Bush administration? MALVEAUX: Well, certainly, because she is the face of the Bush administration. She made a speech just yesterday in Amman, Jordan, and she talked about women's rights, promoting democracy, education, reform. Very interesting speech, very forceful, very aggressive. And I asked people, you know, what did they think of this? They said, well, you know, we like that message, but it's the messenger we have a problem with. It is the perception. It is the image of the United States as somewhat of a bully. They look at the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. They look at the Iraq war. They look at these pictures that come out of Saddam Hussein. And they point to the United States, and they say, we don't like the way that you are treating us. We don't think that you are fair or sincere in your message.

And so there is a lot of hostility. The whole goal of this trip, of course, was for the first lady to come out and to present a positive face to all of this, to somehow mend those fences. It has become much more difficult than they imagined.

QUIJANO: Well, Suzanne, thank you. We're glad you are OK, we're glad things are OK, and we wish you a safe trip from here on out.

From the first lady to the president and his standoff with Congress. I'm back on that story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have a duty to nominate well qualified men and women to the federal judiciary. I have done just that, and I will continue to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: President Bush signaling he's not giving up on his fight to have the judges he wants confirmed by the Senate. And all signs are that compromise has failed to break out, and the collision is looming next week over judges, traditional delaying tactics in Congress, and politics.

HINOJOSA: So, Elaine, there is the one side, which is what the White House is going to say publicly. But behind the scenes, they are saying something else about this whole filibuster debate. Talk to us about these two sides of what is going on inside the White House.

QUIJANO: Well, right. Publicly, the White House has said that President Bush obviously wants an up-or-down vote on these nominees, that they deserve that. We've also heard them say that at the same time, the president doesn't want to get involved in these specific Senate procedures.

Now, behind the scenes, of course, they are well aware of the fact that essentially, the president is looking at his second-term agenda and time is running out. You know, he wants to get Social Security reform passed, he's looking at tax reform down the road, an energy bill. And for all of that, of course, he's going to need the help of the Senate and of Congress. So if in fact the Democrats decide that they are going to dig in their heels and fight this one out, and Republicans are going to utilize what the Democrats are calling the nuclear option, doing away with filibusters, there is concern in the Bush administration that it's going to be a lot tougher for the president to get his agenda through.

FEIG: This could certainly make for a rocky road, you know, farther down the road, but what is the idea of a compromise here? Does it even seem like it's possible, or is this just snowballing out of control now?

QUIJANO: Well, at this point behind the scenes, the folks on Capitol Hill tell us that sources close to all of the negotiations behind closed doors, they know that this is serious. You know, there are moderates that really very much want to come up with a solution. We're talking about the tradition of the filibuster, 200 plus years that people in the Senate have been allowed to go on with this unlimited debate. And now, there is a realization, I think, that things are getting to the point where it could be a showdown as early as this week.

So now there are discussions, and in fact Monday they are supposed to resume face-to-face talks, this group of moderates that is trying to hammer out some kind of deal. And even over this weekend, we're told that there probably are some phone conversations going on. But certainly there is the realization that, you know, things could come to a head soon.

HAYS: Elaine, you've talked to a lot of people about this, I'm sure, because it's such a big deal in Washington. It's a big deal in the Congress, how it plays out. What is most convincing to you? Is this filibuster so important and so important to keeping the rights of the minority group, whoever they are, protected, or are the Democrats making too much of it? Are the Republicans right? That it's not that big of a deal? They can sweep it aside, basically?

QUIJANO: Well, what is interesting is that even some Republicans have come out and said that this is something we need to stop and think about very closely before we move forward on, because as they point out, it's not always going to be the Republicans in the majority. It could be the tables turned.

(CROSSTALK)

QUIJANO: Exactly. So there could certainly be conceivably a time in the future when in fact this could backfire. And so everyone is well aware of that.

And at the same time, though, you also have the public rhetoric kind of escalating, escalating, escalating. So you know, you have these two competing sort of factions, these ideas of, well, these are good judges, the president should have the right to get an up-or-down vote on these nominees. At the same time, though, you have other people saying, look, if you do away with the filibuster, it could come back to haunt us. HINOJOSA: So, Elaine, let's talk from the filibuster to another one of our favorite topics, politics and religion. Yesterday, you were with the president when he delivered the commencement speech at Calvin College, which is a conservative college in the Midwest. And he said some things that I find fascinating. God is not a Democrat or Republican. Take us into what happened yesterday.

QUIJANO: Well, what is interesting is that he essentially said -- that was a button in fact that some students were wearing, and it was strange, because I had never seen a commencement where people were actually wearing on their mortarboards and on their gowns these buttons. And a very -- a political kind of -- but they would argue not a protest, but a demonstration. They said God is not a Democrat or a Republican.

Basically they said, I talked to a couple of students yesterday, they said, they wanted to send the message that while President Bush is a Christian, and they in fact are Christians also, that not all Christians think alike. That was basically their message and their motivation behind wearing these buttons. They feel in many ways people have an unrealistic picture of Christianity and of what Christians believe. They have actually come out and objected to the president's policy on Iraq, on environmental policy as well. But what is interesting about that is President Bush at one point during his address said that the idea of serving others and community service, that's not a Republican or a Democrat idea, that's an American idea. And so sort of his way of kind of answering back in a way.

But it was, again, an intersection, if you will, of faith and politics that we have continued to see during the Bush presidency. But the commencement address itself quite short, only about 14 minutes long. But definitely some people -- students as well as faculty, who wanted to make it known that they did disagree, that they do disagree, despite the fact that they consider themselves Christians.

FEIG: You know, Elaine, one other thing that was a big hot issue over at the White House today was the "Newsweek" article, the abuses of the Koran at Guantanamo Bay. Has the administration moved beyond their anger over that whole "Newsweek" retraction?

QUIJANO: Well, what they continue to say is that they believe that "Newsweek" should maybe do more, that they believe that there are other things that ""Newsweek could do to kind of get the word out, because they have said that, you know, the genie is out of the bottle on this one. Even if they have retracted the story, there's still damage that's been done. And so they continue to say, it's unfortunate that that had to happen. And they hope that people in the Arab world, especially, will hear that retraction.

HAYS: Real quickly, though. There's a story on the other side. "New York Times" big story, for example, saying there's so much to the allegation -- maybe "Newsweek" got this particular story wrong, but the allegations of desecration of the Koran continue.

QUIJANO: Well, that's correct. And at the same time, though, the administration says, look, we have taken those allegations very seriously. The Department of Defense looks into those allegations very seriously. And all steps are being taken, anytime that there are those kind of allegations made about the Koran especially, that they do take a look at them very, very thoroughly. But undoubtedly they know it's a serious situation when you are talking about the Koran, with the potential to anger so many people around the world.

FEIG: Absolutely, sure is.

Well, from politics to the medical beat, I'm back on the story with new findings about diet and cancer right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Instead of french toast or sweet roll in the morning, they would have coffee with -- they would have cereal with milk. Instead of chips or cheese and crackers in the afternoon, they would have popcorn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEIG: Dr. Rowan Schlebowski (ph) singing the praises of a low fat diet. We've heard this before in general, but now researchers say a low fat diet may reduce the risk that breast cancer may reoccur.

Welcome back. I'm Christy Feig, for ON THE STORY.

HAYS: Christy, tell us more about this diet. Because when I heard that, my first thought was, well, how do they know it's because stripped out the fat, number one? Maybe they just ate more fruits and vegetables. But also, you really got to take almost all the fat out of your diet. And a lot of people are telling us that certain kind of fats are good for us.

FEIG: This is a very, very low fat diet. This is 33 grams of fat a day. Trying doing that some time. It is very tough. You take out all the fun foods. These people were basically taught how to re- cook. They were taught to use with different foods that are healthier, complete substitutions. I mean, they literally took their diet and substituted the low fat version of it. So it wasn't a low calorie diet necessarily.

And as you mentioned, the researchers went in thinking it was a fat thing, because we know that some breast cancers are fueled by estrogen. We know that fat produces estrogen, so you would think there's a cycle there. But actually, the surprise of the finding was it wasn't the estrogen link. Because people whose breast cancer was not sensitive to estrogen actually got more of a benefit in some places. So it wasn't the link they thought it was. They think now it might be an insulin link. They're just not quite sure about that.

HINOJOSA: OK, so -- so there's also the miracle drug of aspirin. And I have a story to tell, because I know you're going to talk about aspirin in a second and its relationship to colon cancer. My husband had a little fungus on his foot. I called my doctor, said, what should I do? He said, well, get some aspirin. I said, I don't have any aspirin in the house. He said, you don't have aspirin in your house? You need aspirin. It's the cure-all. Put it on your husband's foot, it's going to be fine. In fact, I did and it's true.

But tell us about what is coming out now regarding cancer, colon cancer?

(LAUGHTER)

FEIG: Yes, you are so un-American if you don't have cancer in your house. How can it be?

HINOJOSA: Or aspirin.

FEIG: Or aspirin.

(CROSSTALK)

FEIG: That's right. But it's a very interesting thing. They looked at about 850 people who had colon cancer. And they had already been treated for colon cancer. And they looked at the ones who were taking aspirin, and they reduced the risk that that cancer would come back and the risk of death by nearly 50 percent. I mean, it was quite an amazing finding, really, you know, that aspirin could do this. I, of course, keep saying that one of these days we are going to put aspirin and statins in the water because they seem to benefit everything. But yes, it was a very interesting finding by these studies. And all of these cancer studies, of course, came out of the big ASCO (ph) meeting that was down in Florida, the big cancer meeting down there this past week, but very interesting finding there.

QUIJANO: I wanted to ask you also about, on another topic, diabetes. I actually know some people who have diabetes, but interesting numbers out about how people are managing or maybe not managing the disease.

FEIG: Diabetes is very tough to manage. It's one of these that 18 million Americans have it. More and more people are being diagnosed with diabetes. It's a tough disease to manage, but we found in this study of 160,000 type II diabetics across the country, it's in every state across the country they looked; 70 percent of them, two- thirds are not managing their diabetes. That is absolutely scary, because if you don't manage diabetes, it can lead to some major problems. It can lead to heart disease, it can lead to kidney failure. It's one of the leading causes of blindness, amputations. You put yourself at risk for all of these.

But a lot of problems with this -- diabetes, you don't always know that you are not managing it well. You think your blood sugar might be in check and it's not. In fact, a lot of the people who weren't managing this in their study -- in this study thought that it was under control. They thought they had it in check, even though they really didn't. So you can't always feel the symptoms.

HAYS: I just want to come back to a point that links back to the breast cancer and it links to diabetes. You know, I'm a closet medical reporter. I love this stuff. But particularly insulin and the link to high-carb, sugary, high glycemic diets. Many people say it causes inflammation in cells. You mention that. They maybe think it's insulin and affecting that, that helped the breast cancer patients. Is this maybe another strike in the direction people say this is the future of a healthier diet and healthier people?

FEIG: I tell you, I cannot do enough stories on obesity, on eating low fat diet. Actually, it seems like every week I'm doing these stories, because it is all tied together. You know, if you think back to our grandparents' days, they ate natural food, they ate low fat food. They didn't have fast food. They didn't have sodas. You know, they were always moving about, because they didn't have all of the easy ways of getting around that we do. They had a lot less of these diseases, because so many of these diseases are tied together.

You know, as we gain weight, the fat causes problems. It makes us more sedentary. That leads to heart disease. That leads to cancer. It really is all tied together. I think when it all comes down to it, we just need to eat a lot better than we are, and we need to stay active, too.

HINOJOSA: Although I'll tell you something, when you cut out those carbs, you can't run as fast, let me tell you, because I don't eat carbs and I'm not running as fast as I usually do.

Let's switch to another big issue, stem cell research. A lot of discussion on that this week, Christy. What is the latest?

FEIG: The latest with the stem cell research is the South Koreans. They pretty much made huge steps forward in stem cells with therapeutic cloning. Now, therapeutic cloning is what a lot of people have said is what we need to basically cure a lot of diseases. We basically clone ourselves to get an ideal match of those embryonic stem cells, and in theory you can use them to treat diseases. Of course, that has not panned out yet, but it's raised all kinds of controversy, because federal funded researchers here in the United States can't do that kind of research. It's completely banned by the Bush administration at this point.

HAYS: Well, but this is such an important area. We'll see if some progress is made. And on the story again with Christy, we'll be looking at that I'm sure once of these days.

From the medical beat to the U.S. economy and how that new airline merger will hit home for consumers.

Also coming up, a CNN camerawoman talks about why she dares to cover the world's most dangerous stories.

And our "What's Her Story?" segment looks at winning the vote for women in Kuwait. That's all coming up. Plus, a check on what is making headlines right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Betty Nguyen at the CNN Center in Atlanta. ON THE STORY continues in just a moment, but first, now in the news.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at Boston University at the top of the hour. After arriving in Boston, the Afghan leader thanked American troops for, quote, "helping our people get back on their feet." But in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "LATE EDITION," Karzai said the alleged abuse of Afghan detainees in U.S. custody is not acceptable. We'll have more of that interview today at noon Eastern.

Meanwhile, thousands of Muslims marched through the streets of Indonesia's capital earlier today. They are protesting the alleged desecration of the Koran by American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The protest was peaceful. The alleged desecration was reported last week by "Newsweek." The magazine later retracted its report.

And in Idaho, the search goes on for two missing children. Nine- year-old Dylan Groene and his 8-year-old sister Shasta have been missing since Monday when police found the bodies of their mother, brother and their mother's boyfriend. Investigators have finished collecting evidence from the family's home where those bodies were found.

Those are the headlines right now. I'm Betty Nguyen in Atlanta. Now it's back to ON THE STORY.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG PARKER, CEO, AMERICA WEST: That's great news for consumers. We'll do so at prices that the consumers of both of our airlines have become fond of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYS: That's Doug Parker, CEO of America West, talking up the merger with U.S. Air as great news for consumers. Some of the employees around here in the Washington, D.C. area may be losing out, but the two companies say this is a bid to actually save 35,000 jobs across the country.

Welcome back. I'm Kathleen Hays, and we are ON THE STORY.

QUIJANO: OK, Kathleen, the reality check here. He says it's a good deal for consumers. Bottom line, is this in fact -- I mean, you have got these two companies that, you know, maybe are not on such sure footing, but coming together, is this going to be a good deal?

HAYS: They are going to now be the nation's sixth largest carrier. They are going to specialize, Doug Parker says we're going to be the low-cost, full service -- Southwest Airlines is going to be a big competitor. I look at it this way: There's a lot of airlines that are sick right now. They had September 11th, they had recession, and then they had this big, big run-up in oil prices, which makes jet fuel cost a lot. So even companies that might be profitable after all the cost cutting they have done, have had to struggle.

If too many airlines are put out of business, if we were just left with two or three big carriers, you know what would happen. Airline ticket prices would go up. So in a way, I think for more airlines to stay in business, is good for consumers as long as they don't have to take government loans -- both of these companies, U.S. Airways in bankruptcy, don't forget; America West has managed to stay out -- have gotten financial assistance from the government. And in fact, the -- one of the government agencies that oversees them will have to OK this deal for it to go through.

The loser probably is the worker, who eventually over the next two or three years may be phased out of the deal.

HINOJOSA: So, Kathleen, paint a picture of what this is going to look like for people like us who are on planes constantly. Because I have to tell you, I had an experience where I was on first class in one airline. And they wouldn't give me a pillow. They said, didn't you know we got rid of pillows six months ago? Because we can't afford them in first class. So what is this going to look like for those of us who are on these planes with this merger?

HAYS: Well, you know, I have long felt that flying was kind of like being on the Greyhound bus in the sky. And I think that these days, that is truer than ever, Maria. But this, again, what do you want? Do you want a low cost ticket and do you want to be able to fly round trip to the West Coast cheaper than you did many times a few years ago, or do you want the pillow? Do you want the free meal, you know? I think a lot of people would say, go ahead and give me the lower price ticket.

But it's a competitive industry. It's got a lot of costs right now. And as long as oil prices stay as high as they are, they have a big monkey on their back that you could say they didn't ask for; they are having to struggle with like a lot of people.

The interesting thing about these two airlines, they say that they will be ale to be competitive and make money with oil at $50 a barrel as a result of this merger, because of the efficiencies, because of the cost cutting. Again, a lot of the cost cutting will come because of some layoffs. They're also going to retire some planes. But they say they can make it work. And again, I think the more airlines there are in the sky flying and competing, the better it is for us when we go to buy a ticket.

FEIG: You know, one of the things you just mentioned was the big role that oil played here. Oil and interest rates, big news there this week?

HAYS: Absolutely, Christy. Wall Street has been pretty worried about inflation rising, because the more inflation rises, the more likely the Federal Reserve will push up interest rates more. And this week one of the big inflation reports, consumer price index. Most of us have heard of that, the CPI, surprised people in a very nice way.

Energy prices were up, but when you took out energy prices, the number looks so much tamer. There were declines in things like clothing prices. Even medical care prices had a very tame rise in April. That makes people think that if this Federal Reserve, which is raising short-term interest rates, keeps raising them, they won't be aggressive. And -- and long-term bond yields are staying very low. That keeps mortgage rates low. And that's one of the most important things about inflation staying down.

QUIJANO: On that point, on mortgage rates, I mean, fresh worries in recent days about whether or not, is there this nationwide real estate bubble that's about to burst?

HAYS: I have just seen, in "New York" magazine this week, the cover is, "Coming Real Estate Crash." "Fortune" magazine has about all the real estate frenzy, the boom, the gold rush in real estate. "The Washington Post" real estate section yesterday, it's all about investment. On Friday, Federal Reserve's Alan Greenspan was giving a speech in New York about oil prices, energy. Well, one of the questions of course he was asked, not about energy, is there a housing bubble? He keeps saying there isn't one, but because the national market -- the whole national market can't burst. But on the one hand as he said that, he said, well, you know, there are local bubbles. I'm seeing a lot more speculation. The market is frothy.

So even as the Fed chairman says there isn't a housing bubble, he does seem to be maybe a little bit worried about it as well.

HINOJOSA: All right, Kathleen. Well, from the economy to law enforcement and what prosecutors say is a college kid who tried to swindle banks out of millions of dollars.

And American soldiers deserting to Canada. I'm back on those stories in a minute.

ANNOUNCER: Maria Hinojosa is CNN urban affairs correspondent. She won a Robert F. Kennedy Award and was twice named by "Hispanic Business" magazine as one of the most influential Latinos in the country. She has written two books.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN O'CONNOR, U.S. ATTORNEY: Now more than ever I think it's easy for people to pretend to be something they are not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HINOJOSA: U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor in Connecticut. He's talking about a college student named Hakan Yalincak, someone that prosecutors claim did a headline-grabbing job of pretending, and he swindled banks and individuals out of millions of dollars.

Welcome back. I'm Maria Hinojosa, and we're ON THE STORY.

HAYS: Maria, this just seems to prove PT Barnum saying that there's a sucker born every minute, and even, you know, well-educated, sophisticated people can be taken.

HINOJOSA: And guess what, Kathleen, of course none of them would talk to us on camera, because they were just saying, oh my God, how is it possible that I'm an investor twice the age of this kid, and yet I was willing to sign over thousands upon thousands of dollars to this young man?

Hakan Yalincak, it's essentially a story of six degrees of separation. He created an entire life for himself, and his family, as well. He said that they were a family of Turkish royalty, that they were worth billions. Now, this kid is really good with numbers. He said he ran this international hedge fund, and the investors just kind of heard what he had to say, and they were swept in by the fact that this kid knew his numbers, could talk about derivatives, international finance back and forth. And they started giving him money. Lo and behold, it was all pretty much a fake.

FEIG: Maria, how did he pull this off for so long, and how did they finally catch him?

HINOJOSA: Well, what ended up happening was when the office where he opened up his hedge fund -- there was a very smart man who had been involved in a fraud case before. He had witnessed a fraud case. And the thing that tipped him off was when they brought in new computers, new office furniture, and they brought in the staff for a big meeting that this kid was going to be having with some bankers, and then this man realized that the computers were not plugged in, the telephones were not plugged in, and these people, these staff workers were essentially just sitting there doing nothing, and that's when he called the FBI, and that's kind of when the FBI got a roll on it.

They ended up catching him when he wrote a bad check for $25 million. They could have waited, perhaps, but they just caught him at that moment and that's what he's charged with and in prison now.

QUIJANO: That's incredible, Maria.

We know that you are also on the story of -- an exclusive story, we should say -- of U.S. members of the military deserting to Canada. Tell us about that.

HINOJOSA: Yeah, pretty incredible story that's not heard of a lot right now in the United States. But there are anywhere from just a few, and some people say well over 100 soldiers, who have said that they will not go and fight in this war. Some of them have seen combat and come back and said they won't go back; others who have said that they won't go on principle. Let's hear what Darryl Anderson, who actually saw combat, and is now in Canada. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARRYL ANDERSON: I am thinking our procedures, if fired upon, you open fire at anybody that's around. So I take my weapon, I point it at someone, and I'm aiming and I look, and it's just a 14-year-old boy, running, scared just like me, my fellow soldiers. And you know, it's -- who am I? Am I this monster? Am I this person killing innocent people?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HINOJOSA: And the thing is that many people don't realize, that going AWOL or deserting the military in times of war, the highest penalty is death. And many of these soldiers are told that if you leave, you could face that penalty, so out of fear, many of them say, listen, if I'm going to be perhaps facing the death penalty, I'll go to Canada instead.

HAYS: But Maria, Canada not welcoming these people with open arms as they once did. And even knowing that, you found out that there is an underground railroad basically from the United States to Canada.

HINOJOSA: Yeah, it's very interesting. In fact, I got a call from the lawyer who represents these young men in Canada. The lawyer who represents them was himself a draft dodger, an American draft dodger from the Vietnam War, who is now representing these kids. So talk about going full circle. And yes, he has said that because of my story, he has already gotten a number of calls from soldiers who are perhaps thinking about doing this. They just feel that there isn't an out for them here in the United States. They worry that the only thing that they will be faced with is perhaps prison time, or again the death sentence.

And so they start getting information off the Internet, and there is -- we have been told -- something of an underground railroad, that when these young men -- I heard a story of a father with his four children and his wife and a newborn that went, because he did not want to go back and serve in Iraq.

FEIG: Maria, you talked to a handful of people here, and the group you talked to said that there's some more. How big of a problem do you think this is? Is there a small problem, or are there a lot of people trying to do this?

HINOJOSA: You know, it's hard to say, because the Canadian government now has said that they are going to have to apply for political refugee status. And the first young man who applied was rejected. So you would have thought that these young men going into Canada would have been open and saying we are here, but because Canada is not accepting them with open arms, there's a possibility that these young men and women, perhaps, will go underground in Canada. So we may never know for many years to come how many soldiers have actually made the trip leaving the United States and the Army and going to Canada.

QUIJANO: It's a fascinating story. Thanks, Maria.

Well, from deserters in Canada, we're going to Cairo. CNN camerawoman Mary Rogers is part of a new A&E documentary about women covering wars. We're back to talk to Mary on that story in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUIJANO: And we are still working to establish contact with CNN's camerawoman Mary Rogers in Cairo, Egypt. But while we're waiting to do that, let's turn our attention to Kathleen Hays, and a story of some competition, I guess, breaking out for home movie rentals.

HAYS: Yes, and once again, competition among the giant companies and the little companies is great for consumers. What happened this week is Wal-Mart, you know -- Wal-Mart seems to steamroll everybody. Well, they have been trying to eat away at Netflix, the DVD rental, you know, you send in, what, for $18 a month you can get unlimited DVD rentals. They give you the postage back and forth.

Well, Wal-Mart has thrown in the towel. They say, we can't beat Netflix. They're too far ahead of us. So now you can do it through Wal-Mart. Netflix is going to say, by the way, customers, you can buy your DVDs at Wal-Mart.

Well, no sooner had the ink dried on this deal than Blockbuster, which is really, really, really the competition for Netflix, says, hey, wait a minute. We're going to undercut your monthly subscription price. We're going to offer some free DVD rental deals, and so the wars continue.

And meanwhile, hey, all you folks, you know, you can get probably the CNN 25, all the specials we have done, and "CNN PRESENTS" on DVD, and you can rent them for a really good price.

HINOJOSA: Yeah. So let's talk about "Star Wars" piracy, OK? And like my big thing was that I wanted to take my son out there to actually see all the people who dress up and wait in front of the Ziegfeld Theater for 24, 48 hours before they can see the movie, but now there's piracy going on? Why should I be surprised.

HAYS: You know, call me old-fashioned but you know, this -- I think when people say this is piracy or theft, they are right. Somehow somebody managed to get a copy of the movie. And they even think it was a studio copy, because it was time stamped. It was posted on the Internet on Wednesday before the movie even opened. They are trying to stop it. I won't say the name of the Web site, because I don't want to encourage people to go there, and I am sure the quality isn't the same as seeing it in the movie theater.

But it just underscores how vulnerable intellectual property is in this day and age. It's been a big deal with the U.S. and China, for example. It's so hard to stop. But it costs our companies, our software companies, entertainment companies billions of dollars a year. And remember, this is an area where the United States really has an advantage right now. This is one of the things we export to the rest of the world. So this is a very, very serious thing.

Why do people do it? I don't know. Maybe it's to thumb their noses at the big guys. But I think the movie theaters are taking it very seriously, and so does the United States government.

FEIG: I want to talk to Elaine for just a second about the stem cell story that we've both covered this week. You know, the developments in South Korea certainly fueled some fodder on the Hill and in the White House. What did the administration say? QUIJANO: Well, the president has said, you know, he does not like the idea of cloning. He's opposed to that for the therapeutic purposes. It's certainly something the White House is concerned about. At the same time, there is also this movement afoot on the Hill, on Capitol Hill, to try to expand the limits on the federal funding for embryonic stem cell research that the president imposed back in 2001. And essentially, what the White House has said, what the president himself said, was I'm going to issue a veto threat and let's take a listen to exactly what President Bush had to say on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Secondly, I made my position very clear on embryonic stem cells. I'm a strong supporter of adult stem cell research, of course. But I made it very clear to the Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayers' money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life, is -- I'm against that. And therefore if the bill does that, I will veto it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: And so President Bush there really acknowledging that, you know, there is this fight brewing, that Republicans themselves, some of them on the Hill, have come out and said, this is something we feel is necessary, that can help advance maybe perhaps the science involved in embryonic stem cell research, and that it's something that they feel they are committing themselves to.

HAYS: You know, and you've touched on what the states are doing. And you know, coming from the business side of this, the South Koreans are advancing this. All this great research with tremendous commercial spinoffs happening outside the country. If you are pragmatic about this, and if you are not against the kind of stem cell research you are talking about, then aren't we losing out? And who is going to pick up the ball in the United States?

FEIG: That's exactly the question. I mean, there is a group of scientists, quite a large group of scientists, that actually believe they are being left behind in a way. Because you have to take into consideration the vast majority of science is funded by federal dollars. A large amount. Most of it comes from the National Institutes of Health.

Well, other countries are already letting their scientists do some research on this, but the United States is not. So states can fund it. This is the exception here. The federal government cannot fund it. And while they are still battling this out on Capitol Hill, states are actually starting to make some momentum, fund it themselves.

California is one of the leaders in this. They have actually made a huge push, fund a lot of stem cell research. And they are trying to attract thee companies to come to California because of it. But there is a whole slew of other states that now are moving legislation in the same direction. HINOJOSA: So does that mean that essentially, the economics is going to perhaps trump what has become this huge debate about stem cell? Is that what we're looking forward to?

FEIG: Well, that's an interesting question, actually, what's going to win out here? It depends, because a lot of your Republicans are very conservative about this. I mean, this is tantamount to murder to some of them, because when you take these stem cells out of this embryo, the embryo dies. I mean, this is an embryo that has only been grown for a few days when you're doing the therapeutic cloning. When you take those stem cells out, that kills that embryo. The embryo cannot live.

So the question is, when does life begin? And that's what it is all coming down to. There was a lot of push in the scientific community, let us do some of this research, but it's hugely debated still.

HAYS: It's such a fascinating story.

And of course a fascinating story we apologize we could not get to yet and probably won't be able to today, is CNN camerawoman Mary Rogers, who is in a documentary "Bearing Witness." Cairo, sometimes it's TV, the connections are tough. We're going to try to get her next week, because her story is fascinating.

Another fascinating story just ahead, "What's Her Story," ON THE STORY coming up next.

ANNOUNCER: A Kuwaiti woman celebrates victory. "What's Her Story?" More when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Roula Al-Dashti, "What's Her Story?" She and other Kuwaiti women were granted political rights this week, allowing them to vote and run for office for the first time in the nation's history.

A U.S.-educated economist, Al-Dashti led the fight for women's rights, and now says she'll run for office.

ROULA AL-DASHTI (through translator): I believe today is a historic day for Kuwaiti women. I believe that today we've achieved the victories of freedom.

ANNOUNCER: Still to be worked out, how the new rights will coexist with Islamic law and rules on women's dress, and possibly separate polling places for men and women.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYS: Thanks so much to my colleagues. We'll be back next week. And at 12:00 noon Eastern, 9:00 a.m. Pacific, "LATE EDITION" with Wolf Blitzer. Among Wolf's guests, Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai. Straight ahead, a check on what's making news right now.

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