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On the Story

Political Fight Between White House and Congress; Trial of Al Qaeda Terrorists; Diplomatic Wrangle at U.N.; Search Dogs in New Orleans; Children Sharing Too Much on Internet

Aired March 12, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN Center in Atlanta with our top stories.
In Baghdad scenes of chaos and carnage as insurgents launch another round of deadly attacks. Three car bombs in the Iraqi capital's Sadr City neighborhood killed at least 36 people and wounded more than a hundred others. The bombs exploded at markets.

In Afghanistan a deadly day for American forces. The U.S. military says a roadside bomb killed four American troops working to keep an Afghan road open. The troops were traveling in an armored vehicle.

After a day of testimony Saddam Hussein's trial resumes tomorrow before today's proceedings ended, however, three of the former Iraqi dictators' co-defendants took the stand. They deny good role in the killings and arrests of Shiite Muslims in the 1980s. Hussein could face direct questioning as early as tomorrow.

Here in the States, in eastern Tennessee, nine people including five children died after an overnight fire engulfed their temporary home. Firefighters found the bodies on the second floor. A 19-year- old male on the first floor managed to escape.

And an apparent tornado is blamed for at least two deaths in southern Missouri. The storm struck about 80 miles south of St. Louis and caused more damage in southern Illinois. Those are the headlines.

More stories in about 30 minutes. ON THE STORY begins right now.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is CNN and we're ON THE STORY. From the campus of the George Washington University in the heart of the nation's capital, our correspondents have the stories behind the stories they're covering.

Dana Bash takes us inside the political fight between the White House and Congress over operation of U.S. ports.

Kelli Arena is on the story on the trial of an al Qaeda terrorists and why two flight school managers blew the whistle.

Richard Roth looks ahead at the diplomatic wrangle at the United Nations. The attempt to stop Iran's nuclear plan.

Sean Callebs was on the story with search dogs in New Orleans looking for bodies six months after Katrina.

And Jacki Schechner goes online to see why parents and cops think kids are sharing too much information.

Welcome. I'm Joe Johns. I'm ON THE STORY this week of Dana Reeve and how money for lung cancer isn't keeping up with the science. With me here, Dana Bash and Kelli Arena. Our correspondents will be taking questions from the studio audience drawn from visitors, college students and people across Washington.

This week the political uproar over the ports deal boiled over. Congress and the White House fought over whether a Dubai-based company could operate some of the busiest U.S. ports. In the end, the company itself provided a compromise, offering to transfer the port leases to a U.S. company. White House correspondent Dana Bash was on the story. Here's her reporter's notebook.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There are times as a reporter you know something's happening. You just feel it in your gut any and that's exactly what was happening Thursday morning. I knew from talking to source the night before and throughout the week that there was a very real move, very quiet, but very real move to try to get this company to somehow change their tactics.

The White House has really had to rely on what the company is and is not willing to do.

My colleague Andrea Koppel got a call from a source telling her essentially that this deal was done. That DP World, the company involved, was going divest.

What I had to do at that point was find a second source.

They were on pins and needles here at the White House.

Meanwhile, I was trying to get information, confirmation, maybe more context from people at the White House, senior officials who know what's going on and it was a fascinating experience because I was essentially telling them what was happening. They didn't know. They didn't know until they heard it from us and saw it on CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Dana Bash, you and Andrea Koppel together basically broke this story. What can you tell us about what tipped you off?

BASH: Well look, this has been -- This whole saga, really, it has been a saga, has been going for three weeks and what has been really amazing about it is, look, all of the time when we cover stories, there's the public line and the real deal in private, right? In this particular case the public line, particularly from the White House, my perch, has really had to be very consistent because the president did something he really saves for really big times. Which is he said I'm going veto this. If Congress says that they're going to stop this, I'm going veto it. So they had to stick to that line, but behind the scenes they were very much trying to get -- trying to put a stop to this, but the way they were doing is was working through outside sources, working through lobbyists and working through allies who had access to the company and key members of Congress to do this.

So while they were talking publicly about the fact that they weren't going to change their mind, we knew behind the scenes they were working it hard to get this thing over with.

JOHNS: A delicate negotiation going on in front of the TV cameras, basically.

We have a question from the audience. What's your name and what's your question?

QUESTION: My name is Max and I'm from Radford, Virginia. I was wondering if you think this fight over the Dubai Ports World deal is more symptomatic of a disrespect for Congress and the Bush administration in general.

BASH: Well, I'll tell you, if you asked members of Congress about that they'll say, maybe not disrespect, but they'll say that part of this -- and this was a multi-layered dynamic here, but part of it was the fact that the members of Congress who perhaps wanted to know about something like this that their constituents were very mad about didn't know about it and they say the reason why they got so mad was because it was a breaking point. Joe knows this, he covered Congress for a long time.

They have -- even the president's own party. They felt slighted by this White House that they have not gotten enough information and enough coordination and consultation, really from this president throughout a whole host of issues and they were expected to fall in line and they said this is a president that's at 30-something percent. This is an issue that's exploding, forget it. This is a declaration of independence and they were gleeful in the way they did it. That's what was remarkable.

JOHNS: Go ahead. What's your name?

QUESTION: Hi. My name is Melissa Meyer (ph), I'm from Elgin, Texas. And President Bush has been in office five years and hasn't used veto power a single time. Why does he feel so strongly about the port deal and he's willing to use the veto for the first time on this bill?

BASH: That was -- You just hit the nail on the head in terms of one of the many dramatic moments of this story and it was the fact that the president reacted the way he did. He never calls reporters up to the front of his cabin on Air Force One, but in this particular instance, once members -- Republican leadership said we're going to go against you on this Mr. President. He said I'll have to fight my fight on this and he did - who responded to a question about whether or not he would veto it and he said yes, but it's something that many people, many allies of the White House think exacerbated this whole political problem. KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: And you said something in your reporter's notebook that you were actually going over to officials with the news that they did not know which doesn't happen too often with this administration.

BASH: It doesn't. I'll tell you, one of the interesting things about the dynamic here is -- I'll tell you a story. Two weekends ago, I believe it was, doing my thing and doing my errands in Georgetown. I get an e-mail on my Blackberry from one source saying where are you today, trying to feel me out as to whether or not they can tell me some information and then about an hour later I got a phone call from a Republican member of Congress saying, listen, I just got information that there's a deal going down and they'll ask for an extra 45-day investigation and coming to me essentially, not only to perhaps get their name out there, their information out there, but also to get information from me. Why? Because they've seen me reporting on this from the White House. They want to know what the White House is going to think on this.

So there was this massive dance going between all of these sides that were talking to each other, but really talking at each other through people like me, reporters and this happens a lot but it was intense in this situation.

JOHNS: And the big stories, that's when it happens the most.

What's your name?

QUESTION: Hi, I'm Ben Park (ph). I'm from Boston. I'm a senior at Boston Latin School. Now that the ports deal seems to have been wrapped up with the handing over of the ports to a U.S. company, what does the outcome mean for the relationship between President Bush and his Republican Party especially given the upcoming elections this November?

BASH: That's a really important question. And that's what everybody is going to be watching for to see whether or not this was -- as somebody even toll me today on Capitol Hill, whether this was a tipping point or not, whether they're going to be able to come together or not.

We know the president met in the Oval Office with Republican leaders on Thursday and they talked about this issue and tried to move past this, but the bottom line. Look, the senior official said to me just at the end of week. The president is a political realist. He gets that this was basically a debacle and he also understands the real they you have people who are looking out for their own hides in the words of one person and they have to worry about their own reelection.

The president is not on the ballot and he is essentially a liability and they were looking for ways to separate themselves from this president.

ARENA: So, deja vu. BASH: And it is a deja vu with Clinton, but it is really something we didn't come close to seeing before this particular incident.

JOHNS: And they're probably very glad to see it get out of the way.

BASH: They were closing the book on this dark chapter as fast as they could at end of this week.

JOHNS: All right. Dana Bash will stay with us. Whether it's the port story on the war on terrorism, stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security. Our Kelli Arena is back ON THE STORY of the Moussaoui al Qaeda trial and her talks with the men who brought him down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: CNN is back ON THE STORY at the campus of the George Washington University. The sentencing trial of admitted al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui began this week. CNN's Kelli Arena had an exclusive interview with the two men who met Moussaoui at flight school just weeks before September 11th. Their call to the FBI led to his arrest. Here's Kelli Arena's notebook.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: We were able to convince them that the time was right to tell the story. It was really remarkable to sit down with both of these men because their stories are incredible.

Your antenna was up even before Moussaoui got here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just don't have somebody come in by themselves and pay that much money.

ARENA: Both men are really humble about their role in this whole thing and each of them says, you know, anybody in our shoes, you know, would have done the same thing, but it's not true because there were a lot of people who were in their shoes that were working side by side with them who did not go to the authorities. Day three, Moussaoui was staying at this Marriott Residence Inn.

The one good thing about being out on the field like this is you get to go and follow in the footsteps of the people you're reporting on and you get to see what they saw.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Kelli Arena joins us right now. So -- an amazing story and these guys have been out there for so long, haven't talked at all.

ARENA: Mm-hmm.

JOHNS: What was it that made them talk now and when you interviewed them were you sort of worried about their safety when you finally showed them on TV?

ARENA: Well, that was their concern, I think, all along especially their wives' concern that they didn't want them out there in a big way having turned in an al Qaeda terrorist, but we have an intrepid producer named Phil Hershcorn (ph) who for years has been calling these two men who say, please, you have to give us an interview. Make it CNN when you do. And they agreed to come on together for the first time ever.

JOHNS: Were they worried about doing this?

ARENA: They were. But we were actually supposed to conduct one of the interviews at one of the men's homes but his wife at the last minute said I'm still not very comfortable with the whole concept and I don't want them to really see what our house looks like. So can you do it somewhere else? And we ended up doing it at the hotel.

JOHNS: But their names his been out.

ARENA: Their names have been out, but I think with every step that you take you get a little bit closer to being able to identify them, where they live and there is a security issue.

BASH: You had another interview this week with a very interesting person. That is Moussaoui's mother.

ARENA: She was at the courtroom and she watched her son ...

BASH: What was it like to talk to the mother of someone like Moussaoui?

ARENA: She -- I asked her how she felt looking at her son fighting for his life, basically in a courtroom and she said this is much harder than you will ever, ever imagine and she said I have no idea what happened to him and how he got to be the man that he is, but she also said that she was hoping that the jurors could be fair and really listened to him and not use him as a scapegoat for the whole war on terror.

JOHNS: Audience question. What's your name?

QUESTION: Hi. My name is Kyra (ph) and I'm from Boston. My question is this. Considering that this is the first trial related to the September 11th attacks and it will most likely set a precedent for future trials what can we expect in the proceedings and especially the sentencing?

ARENA: Right. Well this is the sentencing. He has pled guilty. He's already pled guilty so this is either, do we put him to death or does he spend the rest of his life in prison and that's what this trial was all about. And there is very much an awareness that this trial is not only, you know, about this man, but it's to show the world that we -- that even terrorists in this country have rights. Constitutional rights and he does have representation and he's got a really solid legal team there with him. So it's very prevalent. The one interesting thing that we have seen and it's different about this trial than we've seen is the intense security that's there. I mean, I -- every day, he's escorted in and out of courtroom and they have bomb-sniffing dogs and you can't bring a cell phone or Blackberry into the courthouse, but he literally leaves every day with a whole motorcade. Like a presidential motorcade he is there and I was walking out of our work space because CNN rented a work space near the courthouse and there was a policeman out there who yelled freeze! And here I am and I'm on a crutch this week because I sprained my ankle and I'm, like, oh! You can't move. Either go back inside or don't move. And they had stopped all pedestrian traffic just to prepare for this motorcade that was coming down the block and Moussaoui was in one of vehicles.

BASH: And Kelli, you have a perch which none of us has. You actually get to sit in the courtroom and you can see him?

ARENA: Yes.

BASH: What's his demeanor like? What's he like as this is all going on as people are deciding his fate.

ARENA: He's a lot smaller than I thought he would be. It's true! You see the pictures and you think he's going to be this very big, imposing person. He's about 5'6" and he sits there quietly through most of the testimony. He has got a very big beard now. The pictures that you see don't have the beard. And he has a beer beard and he has a head covering and he just sort of strokes his beard and watches and watches and every single time he leaves the courtroom. Every break they have. He screams.

He screams, "God bless Osama bin Laden. God bless al Qaeda, God curse America! God curse his lawyers. God curse France."

But he has not left the courtroom once without screaming something which is very -- it can be humorous, but you know what? There are families of 9/11 victims who are sitting there watching and it's not the least bit funny to them and they're there and it's very emotional for them to go through this.

And so you are constantly reminded of why we're there with those family members there.

JOHNS: Intense story, Kelli Arena.

From homeland security to searching individual homes in New Orleans, still looking for dead bodies. Sean Callebs is back on the story of why it's taking so long.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: CNN is ON THE STORY. Sean Callebs watched in New Orleans this week as specially trained dogs and their human sidekicks look for bodies of Katrina victims six months after the storm's devastation. Take a look at Sean's reporter's notebook.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESONDENT: We would follow these dogs from house to house to house and they would go through -- the handlers would crawl through some of the most disgusting muck. I mean, if you think about, standing water, splintered homes, just the quality of the mess that was left lying around. To me, it was fascinating to watch these dogs the and fact that their senses are so sensitive and they were able to find even the most minute of smells.

They've been working in this area for the past five days. They found one person so far but the state medical examiner, Jim, expects them to find scores of bodies.

These dogs when they do find something like that they know they're the focus of attention. They know they're important to this effort and quite frankly they are -- the dogs of a single most important item to finding these people and reconnecting all these loved ones across the State of Louisiana. The dogs, you can't help but love. They're like big, happy, goofy dogs and to them the search and rescue, this grisly task is simply a game.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Sean Callebs joins us now from New Orleans, this is just gruesome duty, Sean. Is there any number -- do we know the number of people who are still presumed to be missing?

CALLEBS: I can tell you there's actually a couple of numbers they work with. One, the state is working with a number of about 1,700 people listed as missing. Those are people who called and said we're trying to find so and so. However the state medical examiner, Dr. Louis Kataldi (ph), he expects the number of people actually dead who have not been located and perhaps may never be located somewhere between three and 400.

How does he come to that number? Those are the people called week after week after week to the family assistance center saying we still have not heard from so and so. And this more than six months, a half a year since Katrina did its damage in this area, Joe.

JOHNS: That's a pretty wide range, Sean. We have an audience question. What's your name, what's your question?

QUESTION: My name is Maria. I'm a senior of the Boston Latin School in Boston and I was wondering is the gutting of the houses in New Orleans going stop on the FEMA deadline on June 1st and if it doesn't stop by then what are they going do with the houses that have been gutted?

CALLEBS: It's a good question because there are legal challenges for people especially in the Lower Ninth Ward saying these houses couldn't be destroyed. A lot of people haven't even come back got see their homes. That's one of the big reasons. Now they're not gutting any houses right now.

The homes, the Army Corps of Engineers are moving in to destroy. These are houses that have been knocked off their foundations and are in the middle of the street in what legally has been termed a right of way. Those houses are being demolished but only after a very thorough search by these cadaver dogs.

JOHNS: What's your name and what's your question for Sean Callebs?

QUESTION: My name is Jessica Allen (ph) from Boston Latin School and I was wondering what the mood is New Orleans because it must feel like a major setback to continue to discover bodies while trying to move forward. So how are people holding on to hope?

CALLEBS: It's interesting because if you look at the people who live here, it's largely a pretty cheerless environment. Day in and day out. Once you get out in the areas that weren't flooded. A lot of the debris fields are still there. Specifically, if you look at the people right now who are looking for these victims. It boils down to the dog handlers. Members of the New Orleans Fire Department as well as the Army corps of engineers are working hand in hand.

Now those entities are, the government entities are very focused. They really want to get in there. It's been so long. There was a legal challenge and the city simply ran out of money so they stopped looking for people for close to four months so this was supposed to be to energize this area and get people looking again and try and reconnect these loved ones, but as you probably know, you may have heard some of these dog teams actually left the state frustrated because simply the governments, FEMA, the state government and the city weren't working together and these people were actually scheduled to be kicked out of their hotel rooms today.

BASH: You know, I'm just thinking, Sean, about the fact that I guess it was two or three weeks ago, talking about the fact that you were standing in the middle of Mardi Gras and this was happening right a couple of blocks away and there were bodies that were uncovered.

So it is an amazing dichotomy there. My question for you is in covering this story, how do you -- this is pretty gruesome, as Joe said. How do you sort of get in the zone, if you will, to tackle this kind of tough story?

CALLEBS: I hear what you're saying. It wears on you because in a lot of stories you cover, even in the White House you run across things that are enjoyable, things that lift your spirits. As I said, this is a cheerless environment. When you get out in the morning you know once you leave the building you work in, you are going to head by a debris field, you will talk to someone who has lost a loved one or is looking for a loved one, or talk to members of the state and city who are frustrated by all these legal challenges and these legal messes that have been cropping up and FEMA, despite their best efforts, a lot of people here are pointing the finger at them. It's tough and it wears on you.

There are weekends -- When it comes to a Friday and you know Friday's here you are glad you have two days to decompress and you come back to do it all over again. JOHNS: Sean Callebs in New Orleans, thanks once again for being with us ON THE STORY.

From New Orleans we move on to the world stage. Our Richard Roth keeps watch at the united nations. He's back on the story of the looming diplomatic battle over Iran and its refusal to stop its nuclear program.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: This type of activity near the Security Council is what we will have for the weeks and months ahead. Ambassadors swarmed by members of the press desperate for any information. Here at the UN, just one word can make a difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: We're on the story from Washington, New York and New Orleans this week and also elsewhere. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For over 400 years the Hindu faithful have been flocking to this temple, but on this Tuesday instead of providing solace, the temple became the scene of a bloodbath when a powerful bomb exploded by the side of the street. Ten people were killed here, blown away as they bowed in prayer.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rare is the issue that brings thousands of Japanese together in protest, but this is about Japan's imperial family. They say allowing a woman to inherit the thrown will not only destroy 2,000 years of tradition but it will also end the imperial line.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mattariya is where the ancient Egyptians believe life itself began. A city sprawling a top what could be one of Egypt's most extensive archaeological sites. The remains of the temple of the sun god Ra and therein lies the dilemma in this country where tens of millions of people are crammed into a narrow strip of land along the Nile.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm meteorologist Reynolds Wolf. The latest we have for you is a tornado watch for many places including parts of Kansas. Most of the State of Missouri and into portions of Illinois as well.

At this hour we have got some tornado warnings in effect just to the southwest of Kansas city, moving due east. Strong severe thunderstorms and we're seeing right near northern Missouri and the northern border. Some particular cells just to the southwest of Centerville at this hour. We're seeing these storms, again, some near Emporia, this one very strong. This is part of a tornado warning we just to the west of Emporia right along I-35 and just to the northeast of St. Louis, some other showers and storms beginning to develop. We're going to be seeing this situation unfold throughout the afternoon into the evening hours. So for the very latest in that weather information you want to stay right here at CNN. Again, it is a widespread event that will be a growing event throughout the Midwest especially into the late afternoon hours. That is the very latest we have for you from the weather center. We now return back to ON THE STORY.

JOHNS: CNN is ON THE STORY at the George Washington University in the heart of the nation's capital. The United Nations tackles what see far the U.S. and allies have failed to, do either persuade or pressure Iran to stop moving toward nuclear weapons. Check out the reporter's notebook of our senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: This is undoubtedly where the Iran crisis headed. The UN Security Council, all 15 countries, talking about it. And out here is where we're going to be looking. Dozens of journalists are going to be camped out.

And ambassadors don't like to go public with their views, especially when things are so unsettled as they are for Iran.

We're going to be looking for ambassadors, whatever word they say.

How much freedom do you have in line by line negotiating here?

Diplomats expect a push to get the full council to agree on a statement calling on Iran to cooperate with nuclear inspectors and freeze its nuclear research.

It helps to have attention deficit disorder to keep track of Iran at the United Nations because there's that crisis and a lot of other stories here and the news does not get put right under your door. You have to be out in the hallways here. You have to be bumping into people. You have to be working the telephones and you need contacts to be telling you of events and of movements of important people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Richard Roth joins us right now. Kelli Arena, first question to you.

ARENA: Richard, these diplomats measure every word that they say how on earth do you get them to give you the real story?

ROTH: Well, cash. Hundred dollar bills, 500 dollars bills. We found that works very effectively. It worked well for the CIA when they got into Iraq. Nothing wrong with a little spreading around.

Basically, it's difficult, look. We know we have contacts, we call ambassadors at their mission, we call diplomats but I think Woody Allen, the famed diplomat said 90 percent of life is just showing up. If you're standing in a UN hallway, that's sometimes where you are going to get the most information because the world passes by.

JOHNS: A question from the audience, Richard, what's your name?

QUESTION: May name is Vin (ph) from Columbia, Maryland. My question is what do you think is the potential course of action if the United Nations Security Council does not take action?

ROTH: Well, that is a looming possibility. We don't know how grave that possibility is. They're going to give it a good run and over a gradual period of time, ramp up the threats to Iran to cooperate, but it's possible that the U.S. and other nations might go it alone if Iran's behavior seems that a nuclear bomb could be down the road in a short period of time.

JOHNS: What's your name?

QUESTION: Hi, my name is Kay Zane (ph) from the Boston Latin School. And my question is if the United Nations can't check the nature of the nuclear programs should the United States take a more direct role and ask for independent evaluations of Iran's nuclear capabilities?

ROTH: Well, I think the U.S. is happy with the International Atomic Energy Agency. After the Iraq experience, it doesn't want to seem like it's unilaterally doing something on its own. So the U.S. is trying to work with other countries.

For this time, unlike the Iraq situation, they do have France on their side. But China and Russia oppose sanctions and that's where the first big deadlock will be in the debating.

BASH: Richard, I want to ask you about John Bolton. The UN ambassador up there. He's been up there for a little while. I know that everybody was sort of on pins and needles waiting to see what happens when he came up. He was supposed to be a bull in a china shop. So how's it going?

ROTH: Interesting reference to China there. Basically he's doing well. He loves this. He loves the media. It looks like he has a Cheshire Cat smile on his face all of the time. He's an arms control, nonproliferation expert official so he's right in the thick of this, whether other countries appreciate and enjoy Bolton's presence it is still an open question. A lot of them think that he is to firm, too tough and too heavy handed and they're uncomfortable.

And some wonder who's calling the shots for the U.S. at the UN. Is Bolton the point man or just the hard man to get tough on Iran while policy is made in Washington? It is going to be interesting down the road to see where this goes, but Bolton is right in the spotlight and he was president of the Security Council last month and he loved it.

JOHNS: He was really raked over the coals on Capitol Hill during the confirmation process, but he's beyond that, you're telling us?

ROTH: Yes. He told me that look, he's never going satisfy those critics. There's a lot on his plate and he's very media friendly unlike some of the other ambassadors for the United States. Very cautious and shy around cameras. Sometimes you end up with almost too much videotape of Bolton, too many quotes, but he does tend to say sometimes some of the same things.

He said reforming the UN is not a one-night stand. I think he can retire that.

ARENA: Richard, you mentioned Russia and China before. How tenuous is that situation?

JOHNS: I think it's a real threat. I think you can't really go back - you have to go back and look at what happened to Iraq. The damage in the Security Council is immense. I mean, there's some possibility the U.S. is going to come in with satellite imagery or intelligence data on Iran's nuclear threat. Is that going to be believed by these other countries? Sometimes Russia talks tough and then rolls over a little bit and the other four big powers on the council will try to isolate China.

You might see that, but Russia has been talking about more talks elsewhere. Nobody's in a rush as one analyst said for the dog to catch up to the car because then what happens?

ARENA: Right.

JOHNS: Richard Roth, thanks for that. We will be watching for your reports next week.

From diplomacy on the world stage to conflict at home, maybe your home, between adults and kids over what young people make public about themselves online. Our Internet reporter Jacki Schechner is back on that story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: You're ON THE STORY. Tell us what topics you like, e- mail us at onthestory@CNN.com. New worries that kids are sharing too much personal information online. A "New York Times" headline reads "Don't talk to invisible strangers. Parents fear Web predators. Some experts, including kids, call that fear overblown."

"USA Today" asked how to monitor the kids? Parents worry about the perils of social networking sites. Let's see how our audience stands on this. How many of you post pictures and other information online at sites like Facebook and myspace.com. A lot of people, as you can see in the audience.

Now how many of you think it's wrong for young people to participate in the so-called social networking sites? Let's see it. Fewer people there. There's new proof now of just how much personal information you can find with a quick online search. As Internet reporter Jacki Schechner discovered, the three college students connected in connection with the Alabama church fires were online. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: This is Ben Moseley, this is Russell DeBusk and this is Matthew Lee Cloyd. We found out today that all three of them had somewhat of a life online. All three had posted profiles on the popular Facebook Web site. This is an online community geared toward college students. We found out what they were about through their college newspaper. They were both theater students, the two who went to Birmingham Southern College. This is Ben Moseley in a theater production and you've got Russell DeBusk putting together part of a set.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Jacki Schechner joins us now. How did you know to look online for these folks?

SCHECHNER: This is what we find so interesting. This has become a first-stop for us when we start looking for stories that involve kids or college students or anybody who might possibly be a part of one of these networks and I have to say we've all joined up all of these sites so at the very least we have got the shell that you need to go digging around in them. We just had a suspicion that these guys might be online.

JOHNS: Let's talk to somebody in the audience. You were one of the people who was in favor of these sites, right? What's your name?

QUESTION: Correct. Matt Schaeffer (ph) from Catholic University.

JOHNS: Now why do you think it's a good idea?

QUESTION: It's a great way for kids to communicate and it's fun and that the kids use common sense and the parents stay involved in their children's lives than it's completely safe.

JOHNS: But there are limits right?

QUESTION: As there are to anything, yes.

JOHNS: All right. Jacki, same with you, right?

A lot more people in this audience believe in it than don't.

SCHECHNER: My disclaimer is that I'm a big fan of online community in general. It's a wonderful way for people to get connected for a lot of different reasons, but safety is the number one issue we're talking about here.

JOHNS: You were one of the people who doesn't think this is such a good idea. What's your name?

QUESTION: Kayla.

JOHNS: Do you think there should be more controls on it or do you think they shouldn't do it at all? QUESTION: I agree with facebook.com but myspace.com it is scare because a lot of kids do have the opportunity to lie about their age more easily than Facebook because it's more of a college-based thing. So I just feel like myspace should be more control.

SCHECHNER: They are taking precautions on these sites, but parents need to look to organizations like Wired Safety, the FBI also has some links for parents. Also the Center for Missing and Exploited children. So some of the resources where parents can be vigilant about what their kids are doing on the Internet.

JOHNS: Jump in with another question from the audience. What's your name?

QUESTION: Sean Martin (ph). I'm a history teacher at the Boston Latin School. Do you think increasing parental control will force the government to pass legislation to further restrict information posted on these Web sites?

SCHECHNER: Oh, gosh. I hope the government stays out of it in terms of the Internet. That's a big debate that's raging. Yeah.

That's a big debate that's raging. I'm not so sure that the federal government or any government for that matter should really get involved on what kind of content can be posted on the Internet. When it comes to children there should be restrictions involved and I think we're going to see a lot of that, but in terms of controls over what people can and can't put on the Internet, I don't think that that's somewhere that the government can't is going get involved or wants to get involved.

JOHNS: What's your name?

QUESTION: My name is Anastasia Stone (ph), I'm from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Could you elaborate on the positive aspects on the networking sites? Is it really all bad?

SCHECHNER: Oh, gosh, not at all. I'd be happy to. I think it's wonderful. It's a wonderful way for people to keep in touch with each other after they've moved from place to place. I think it's a wonderful way to post photographs and to talk about their lives and join general interests. I think online community is an amazing concept. We've connected the entire world via the Internet. I think people use them for a variety of reasons. I think people find friends, they make friends and keep friends.

I think there's a lot of positive that does come out of it, but you do have to be careful and one of the things that all of the sites have reiterated to me and they're trying to get across here is that the Internet is public. You put it online and anyone can find it. So just keep that in mind.

JOHNS: Dana Reeve's death this week from lung cancer reminded us that now smokers are susceptible too. I'll take a look at why funding is lagging for aye the deadliest cancer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: CNN is ON THE STORY.

Dana Reeve, the wife of the "Superman" star Christopher Reeve died of lung cancer this week. It focused new attention to the disease on how it falls behind in federal research dollars. Let's click back to part of my report this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: The facts are hiding in plain sight. Lung cancer is the deadliest form of cancer for both men and women, almost 163,000 deaths are expected this year. But for such a deadly disease, the funding levels for lung cancer are relatively low.

Compare the number of deaths to the amount of funding and the picture is stark. Nearly $14,000 aye for each breast cancer death. More than $11,000 for every prostate cancer death and just $1,700 per lung cancer death.

For researchers looking for weapons against lung cancer it doesn't matter how patients get sick, but that doesn't change the perception, the automatic conclusion of most people that lung cancer a self-inflicted disease. Smokers assume the risk by lighting up. Public attitude set public funding priorities so Dana Reeve's death could be important in changing those attitude it is because she didn't smoke and still died of lung cancer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: So the bottom line here is that there's a stigma attached to this cancer.

JOHNS: There certainly is a stigma attached to the cancer and it makes them harder for them to get money and the result is you have a bunch of different projects and the hope is that we're going to assemble it into one big picture that dramatically reduces the number of fatalities due to lung cancer but one doctor compared it to trying to build an automobile and deciding you don't have enough money to put all of the wheels on.

So it's kind of a difficult situation, quite frankly. A question from the audience? Hi, what's your name?

QUESTION: Hello. My name is Kanal Meetry (ph) and I'm from Durham, North Carolina. Now even as medical students we're told not to assign fault and not to diminish care and treatment for patients with lung cancer. How do we get that same message and really bring that home to policymakers when there are so many other health issues on the table?

JOHNS: You're right. And that's one of the things that people at Johns Hopkins talked about. The hope, is obviously, is when you have a situation like Dana Reeve, someone who did not smoke and still got lung cancer and died from it, people do at least understand that they're not -- the smokers are not the only ones who die from the disease.

So the hope is that you have activists who put that word out there and it gets through to the policymakers on Capitol Hill and those people who otherwise might slow down the funding.

Yes. What's your name?

QUESTION: Hi. I'm Evie from Boston. My question is that even though the Bush administration is so anti-science and against funding research, do you think that even though the death of a prominent spokesperson for cancer research like Dana Reeve can make any difference?

JOHNS: Well, the truth is, first, the administration I imagine, Dana, you can tell yourself, Dana, would probably say we're not against research and we're not against funding. The numbers I looked at strongly suggested that some of the increases in the amount of funding have actually been slowed over the years.

Nonetheless, that's another policy discussion to be had. People do say that they think the death of Dana Reeve can and perhaps will have an effect on this simply because if you look at some of the other famous people who have come down with certain diseases. They have been able to, in a way sort of spur Capitol Hill, the White House and others to pay more attention. So it's certainly within the range of imagination.

BASH: I want to ask you how approached the story because this was a big, big surprise that Dana Reeve died so suddenly and it was sort of a scramble to figure out why and what it means. So when you decided that it would do this and tackle the whole issue of funding. How did you go about doing it?

JOHNS: It was actually, the hardest part was finding the scientist. Finding someone to actually talk to and when you called around to the different places that do this kind of research, you find that some are much more savvy and sophisticated about dealing with the news media than others.

Johns Hopkins arguably perhaps the best research hospital in the country, very aggressive, very sharp, returned the call immediately and said I've got just the guy for you. You call some of the other places, even NIH was hard to get through to actually -- you know, talk to someone on this thing.

BASH: It's an opportunity to highlight an issue that obviously they're struggling with.

JOHNS: And the second thing, of course, is the issue of just how do you handle statistics, people can massage statistics and do just about anything with them and as we went through the research we found a very interesting press release from someone who had done numbers -- not precise to the ones we did, but very similar and then we had to go and backtrack and see how they did it to get the right reports that were out, add up the same numbers and divide them to come up with the conclusions that they came with so that we could have some confidence in putting those numbers on the air.

We are back with a look at what we are expecting ON THE STORY next week.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Keep yourself ON THE STORY at CNN.com. Our Web site tells you about the panel, the topics and how to get tickets to join our audience. Let's take a quick look ahead ON THE STORY. So what are you all looking at this week?

ARENA: Zacarias Moussaoui, the trial conditions. I'll be there.

BASH: And President Bush is going to do yet another round of basically a big push on Iraq, trying to once again get public opinion back to where he hopes it will be on this war.

JOHNS: And there's a possibility I'll be looking back into the Sago mine disaster. Some more penalties and fines came out and we'll be asking questions about that.

Thanks to my colleagues and our audience here at the George Washington University and thank you for watching ON THE STORY.

We'll be back each week, Saturday night, Sunday afternoon. Straight ahead, a check on what's making news right now.

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