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On the Story

Correspondents Discuss Stories Behind the Stories

Aired May 14, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

(NEWS BREAK)
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR, ON THE STORY: This is CNN and we are on the story. From the campus of the George Washington University in the heart of the nation's capital, our correspondents bring you the stories behind the stories they're covering. Suzanne Malveaux is on the story of the political uproar and White House response to government collection of phone records.

David Ensor is on the story of upheaval at the CIA, hard choices for the new team and the impact on national security.

Chris Lawrence went into the Iranian community in Los Angeles for reaction to the letter from the president of Iran to President Bush.

Nic Robertson is on the story in Africa, how the humanitarian crisis in Darfur is spreading, new shortages, new violence.

Gary Tuchman went to the Arizona Utah border and found polygamous families ignoring the law and celebrating their life in plural marriages. Welcome, I'm Ali Velshi on the story this week of higher interest rates and a retreat from that Wall Street record we thought we were going to get. But with me here in Suzanne Malveaux and David Ensor. All of our correspondents will be taking questions from our studio audience which is drawn from visitors, college students, and people from across Washington. Suzanne Malveaux was at her White House post. President Bush was reacting to news reports that the government is collecting phone call records of tens of millions of Americans with the help of major companies. Here's the president on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities. We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: I was watching it when it happened. Lots of people were watching it when it happened and I'm glad I wasn't a reporter there because I would have said huh? What are you talking about? What was going through your mind when you heard that?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What was really kind of extraordinary is what actually happened that morning. This story was explosive. It was on the front page of "USA Today" and within hours of this story breaking, the president -- clearly they were very concerned about how this was going to play with the American people. He was in front of the cameras. They put him out there, wasted no time and essentially what it said is like, A, we're worried. We want to make sure that we get ahead of this story. And, B, this is not a White House that is doing business as usual. Normally they might ignore this story. They might bury it. They might just kind of wiggle around it. He attacked it head on and said look, we're not doing anything wrong and we're trying to protect the American people.

VELSHI: David is a largely unimpressed fellow with things like this. I mean there's not very much that can shock you because you sort of work on the other end of these things that we all find out are happening. What was your reaction when you saw this happening? I know you were on TV moments later as well.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I was feeling sorry for the spooks a little bit, because they don't like publicity. They don't like the bright light and they've had it all week. There's some drama at the CIA, now drama at the National Security Agency. They don't take it very well.

VELSHI: What do you think that mood was? I know the president darted out of the hall, no questions.

MALVEAUX: No, they were setting the stage themselves. They wanted to control the situation. There are two things that this administration is really counting on. They're counting on the fact that if he gets out there, he gets out there fast and says this is an issue of national security and that we're not breaking the law, that Americans will side with him and so far last year when we saw in December that whole NSA domestic spy thing erupted, and for the most part Americans were not that bothered by it. Initially they had concerns and questions, but then afterwards it died down. That's what they're counting on this time around as well.

ENSOR: Some very angry senators right after this. You saw some real drama in the Senate Judiciary Committee, but, again, what Suzanne said, I also heard from various administration officials that they feel that they'd much rather talk about this than about Iraq.

VELSHI: Well, as you mentioned, as you alluded to, the CIA has been in the news all week, and this wouldn't have looked like the story you were going to be dealing with at the beginning of the week when we heard of a new nominee to the CIA. Tell me a little about what as unfolding on that side.

MALVEAUX: That's really the only glitch in all of this is that it's going to make the confirmation hearings a best messier. As you know, new CIA director nominee General Michael Hayden is going to go before members of Congress for his confirmation hearings and it certainly gives Democrats and critics a lot of material to use here to reopen and reexamine the whole question over the NSA domestic spy program and whatever it was legal and they have a chance to embarrass perhaps Hayden or at least put him on the spot because he was the former head of the NSA. VELSHI: Now this little dance that goes on for a nomination, General Hayden has been making his way around the halls of Congress, and, you know, sometimes you've only got that one chance to make that first impression. This week when he was making his rounds around Capitol Hill, CNN need to get that story and our photo journalist Jay McMichael was making his way through the halls of Congress to capture the photo op ritual for the cameras. Let's have a look at his behind the story report.

JAY MCMICHAEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you go into a room, the cover a photo op, you may have 25 to 30 seconds. You know you have to get in there, get yourself an establishing shot, show the room, show the people, then move in slowly and get a nice shot of each person in the room. Not everybody gets the shot they want and when that happens, that's when a lot of jostling happens, a lot of pushing and shoving and that's when things can get maybe a little nasty at times.

Photo opportunities on Capitol Hill are different than, say, photo opportunities at US district court. It was outside. It was a moving photo op, we were walking down the street and there were many many cameras involved. We try to get dead center on with the subject and move as he's moving. It pays to be quick. It also helps to be large, maybe heavy, because at times you really need to buckle down and bear down. The more video that we get, the more our editors are going to have to work with and therefore a better product hopefully for the reporter and the viewer.

VELSHI: They do such a great job. And, you know, it's always fascinating in that environment to watch how these guys get their shot.

MALVEAUX: What Jay doesn't mention too, it's often the correspondent who's right behind the photographer going with the hand on the back going OK, step, step wait, don't run into that pole behind.

ENSOR: Good pictures are oxygen for television. If we don't have them, if they don't get that shot when he says that dramatic thing, we're toast.

VELSHI: Given that you're not large and heavy, do you request large and heavy photo journalists to protect you?

MALVEAUX: You know, aggressive photo journalists are the best. They can be small and feisty, yes, and still be good.

VELSHI: Very good. All right. Well, this story isn't ending. In fact it's not ending for this show either. We're going to be following a little more of this in the next few minutes. But first I want to take it to the audience and find out what they're thinking about. Sir, your name and where you're from.

QUESTION: This is (INAUDIBLE) from Herndon, Virginia. My question is for Suzanne. We've heard a lot of changes in the White House recently. Do you think the changes are over? If not who do you think the next person is to be replaced? MALVEAUX: Sure. That's a good question. There's been a lot of talk about the Treasury Secretary John Snow that he has been considering other options and that he's been doing so for quite some time. So that is something that I think a lot of us are waiting for, simply that announcement to be made. There's been a lot of talk about that. There may be some changes within the communications office and essentially there is another position that is still vacant. It's domestic policy adviser position. That is something that they may actually fold into some other job, so you may not have an appointment there, but that's really still just being worked out.

VELSHI: Tony Snow, first week on the job trying to change things around, this is the new press secretary trying to change things around a little bit. How did that work out?

MALVEAUX: Oh, he had a really momentous first day. It was kind of a fiasco really, because we have what's called the off camera briefing, very informal, usually in the briefing room. He tried to hold it in his office, bad idea, actually. It used to happen before, but basically first mistake, it was early, and so the door was closed so people were outside kind of waiting, it had already started so they were upset about that. Open the door, and then it was just too small so you had all these reporters in the hallway. The lines spun around the corner, and eventually -- he's six feet tall, so he's trying to scream out the answers in this little briefing. We can't hear you. They're down the hall for God's sakes. Essentially he said you know what, this is a big mess. We're not going to do this anymore. I apologize. He was really good spirited about it. Think about it. He was just trying to be casual and informal. Everybody gets a bad first day.

VELSHI: How am I doing keeping this informal?

ENSOR: You're fine with me.

VELSHI: All right. You guys OK with it? All right. We're going to have a lot more on the spying story and disarray at the CIA coming up with David Ensor. Straight ahead, one international crisis that has defied resolution, Darfur in Africa. Nic Robertson was there right in the middle of that story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: CNN is on the story here at the George Washington University and we are on the story of the crisis in Darfur. 180,000 people killed in the fighting, two million people forced from their villages and new signs of hunger and violence spilling across the whole region. Nic Robertson got a taste of just how tense it is when he visited one of the oldest and largest displaced persons camp in Darfur. Here's an excerpt from one of Nic's reports.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It began with a misunderstanding, rapidly escalating into an all out attack. An aid agency translator fleeing an angry crowd seeks sanctuary in our vehicle. They want to kill him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're suspecting after me a government spy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drive, drive.

ROBERTSON: Suddenly the crowd got very angry with the man sitting next to me in this car now. They came after the car. They came after him with knives. They were beating the car with sticks. They were throwing rocks at him. The only thing we were able to do was drive out. Many of the camp's residents were angry with the new peace deal between the Sudanese government and rebels. Sudanese government officials had stopped an international aid group from running the camp, fragmenting the camp's delicate tribal, political and age related power balance. It wasn't until just before the flight back to the capital Khartoum, Egland (ph) learned the extent of those tensions. An African union, AU peacekeeper's translator was killed at the same camp. The attackers had wanted blood and they got it.

Nic Robertson now in Chad. Nic, when you watch what happened, I don't know how you had the presence of mind to narrate as it was going on. But I mean I've seen you do a lot of stuff, Nic. There was edge in your voice. There was anxiety in your voice. Now you look back at that. Give me the perspective, what was going on there looking back at it?

ROBERTSON: Well, you know, I've been looking back at it with my cameraman Neil Bennett (ph) who also had the presence of mind to get his camera out and shoot what was going on. It wasn't easy in that situation. When we look back on it now, we realize just how scary it was, how lucky we were and we certainly think about how we're going to avoid that in the future, but it came out of nowhere, in no time at all. Bang, you're in the middle of it dealing with it, and I guess we're just a little wiser, but situations like that, they're going to crop up. I hope this helps us in the future.

VELSHI: Look at the places you've report from and I'm not entirely sure you get wiser for it each time, Nic, otherwise you'd come back and work here. We've got a lot of questions in the audience. Let me go right to them. Sir, your name and where you're from.

QUESTION: Nathan from Washington, DC. I'm just wondering what the current presence of African Union military is in Sudan. Is there still a possibility that other African nations can bring a peaceful resolution to the Sudan crisis?

ROBERTSON: I think there still is. Certainly the Sudanese government doesn't really want to broaden the troop presence in the country it appears at the moment beyond an African Union or an expanded African Union presence. What the refugees here will tell you is we need a peace keeping force that's robust enough and capable to withstand government, capable of withstanding the rebels, capable of standing up for themselves, which at the moment, they're just not able to do. The civilian population, the refugees have largely lost faith in the African Union troops and they really look for their solution outside of Africa.

VELSHI: Another question from the audience, Nic. Your name and where you're from.

QUESTION: Helen from Washington, DC. I know that there are relief efforts on the ground in Darfur, but I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about whether there are more long-term efforts to provide services to refugees in particular educational services and things like that?

ROBERTSON: You know, that's an amazing question. Just yesterday, I was sitting in a camp in a tiny hut with a man who used to be a significant leader. He used to be a lecturer and a teacher. He taught English amongst other things. He told me, and I was sitting with aid workers and he told us all. He said what are we going to do about education? This is a guy that's got a big chalk board in the kitchen -- I call it a kitchen, it's literally a straw hut at the compound he's living in. He teaches his children there. And he said what are we going to do with education, higher education in the future? Everybody rushed in to help the refugees, to help the displaced people, then they built them and gave them some rudimentary education, but now they've been here for so long, three years, they want to know where they can give their kids secondary education. Many of these people are educated and want a good future for their kids and without that education, it really worries them.

MALVEAUX: Nic, I wanted to go back to that piece of video that we saw and it was really kind of that frightening moment for you and your crew. What is it about your perhaps your journalism training or just your experience that allows and perhaps says to your photographer, I have got to shoot this, I'm going to continue to shoot and you continue to narrate. Is that just something that's instinctual or at what point do you turn that off and figure OK, we've got to get out of here or it's all happening at the same time?

ROBERTSON: It's all happening at the same time I think. It's a whole mix of things going through your mind. At the very beginning I would say what is happening, what is happening? I couldn't figure it out, and then when I did, then you start dealing with it and then when the crowd gets to that sort of moment of no return, of outright anger you're really worried about your situation. I had a little camera in my hand as well that I was rolling to try and keep an account of what was happening. But you're thinking about everything at the same time and you really just focus on the main issue which is getting out of there, but trying to keep a record of the events as well, I guess.

VELSHI: Nic Robertson joining us from Chad, as always, continue to stay safe and thank you for joining us.

Well, from Africa, we're coming back here to Washington and David Ensor on the national intelligence beat. Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security. David's back on the story right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: CNN is on the story. National security correspondent David Ensor has been flat out on the CIA story. Change at the top, rumbling in the ranks and worries about how the U.S. gathers information about its enemies. David had just returned from Europe when the story broke. Look at his reporter's notebook.

ENSOR: I basically didn't have time to put the coat and tie on and to shave, I just went straight on the air.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David, what are you hearing from your sources?

ENSOR: It's exciting because you suddenly start to learn a lot about the guy who's leaving, things that have been secret that perhaps are not the best parts of his career. Then you get spinning going on like crazy from the people who are trying to get the new guy approved by the Senate. My associates tell me that it was made quite clear to both generals that Rumsfeld was not pleased. I know the people. I know where the bodies are buried. I know phone numbers. I have the home phone numbers, I know the secretaries, I know the wives. I can get to people in a way that a general assignment reporter simply can't. It's just the way it is in journalism.

VELSHI: David, fascinating, it's always fascinating. I would just throw my hands up in the hair every day if I had to do your beat. But this was a busy, busy week for you.

ENSOR, Nonstop, nonstop.

VELSHI: It started off as it did for you with one story, the resignation of the CIA director at the end of last week, and then it moved into who knows what. Let's find out what the audience wants to know. Sir, your name and your question.

QUESTION: Ken from Belleview, Washington. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a lawsuit against AT&T for assisting in domestic spying. What kinds of protections are the companies like AT&T being given by the administration or the government and what motivation would there be for a company such as AT&T to even do spying in the first place?

ENSOR: Well, let me tell you that the communications companies, the big communication companies in this country have been assisting the government with intelligence gathering since there were communication companies, since before there were telephones. During World War II, Franklin Roosevelt arranged it so that every single telex that went out of this country was delivered to the U.S. government. That wasn't by law. That was just -- could you please give them to us? And they did. So there's a tradition here. Now in this particular case, there is the -- I understand that the Supreme Court decided that it's OK for the government to receive information if it's voluntarily given. And on the other side, the telecommunications act of '34 and laws since that have said it's OK for private companies to give telephone records to the government as long as they don't give names and addresses.

VELSHI: That was some time ago, except today if you gave me a phone number, it would take all of 30 seconds to find out not just who that is and where you live, but probably what your preferences are on everything around.

ENSOR: That's right. I mean the law never keeps up with technology as we know, so the law is, you know, behind the scene, but the technology is way ahead.

VELSHI: Let's see how people feel. By a show of your hands, how many of you think the collection of phone records is an acceptable way to investigate terrorism? OK. OK, now, how many of you don't think it's acceptable? 80/20, 75/25. That's the inverse. Because the ABC poll found that 63 percent of Americans found it strongly or somewhat acceptable for the government to do that; 35 percent said it isn't. Why the difference?

ENSOR: And the administration believes that this ironically they're being attacked and there are angry senators out there and so forth, they actually think this might be good for them politically, because they'd much rather discuss this than discuss Iraq.

VELSHI: What do you think?

MALVEAUX: The White House, I mean their belief is that it will make them look stronger on fighting terror and the Democrats weak in that area, that this is something -- this is actually -- and the polls still show that President Bush has strong poll numbers when it comes to protecting the country and so they can use that to their advantage.

VELSHI: Let's see what else the audience wants to know. Your name and question.

QUESTION: Esther from Washington, DC. My question is what is your sense of the feelings of the CIA rank and file to the potential appointment of General Hayden and how do those feelings differ if at all from people outside the agency?

VELSHI: That's a good question.

ENSOR: Well, he's an outsider and yet he's an intelligence professional. He's generally respected in the intelligence business. So I think they feel actually good about the idea of having General Hayden replace Porter Goss who they weren't too happy with generally, the professionals at the CIA. They're also thrilled about who his deputy is. They're bringing back a guy that was actually forced out under Goss who's a very respected operations officer as his deputy, Stephen Kappas. So that's kind of really got the CIA priesthood pretty juiced.

VELSHI: But talk about morale problems. You had him at the beginning -- at the end of the previous week and then at the end of the last week, we had somebody else escorted off the property. What was that about?

ENSOR: This was Dusty Foggo who was the number three that Porter Goss appointed and he may be tangentially involved in the Cunningham congressman scandal where he's gone to jail. Whether he's really involved or not, it's alleged, but in any case, they're investigating, and they escorted him off the property and searched his office today, rather this week.

VELSHI: Another question, sir. Your name and where you're from. QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) from Manassas, Virginia. My question is now that we know about the civilian wire tapping, what is the government going to do with the list?

ENSOR: Very good question and I think a lot of civil liberties experts are wondering that too. You know, what calls have you made that you wouldn't like people to know?

I mean everybody's got secrets, right?

VELSHI: It's got nothing to do with terrorism...

ENSOR: Then somewhere out there in Fort Meade, Maryland they're all...

VELSHI: ... but there are probably some calls.

ENSOR: ... they're all listed. The government says that -- well, first of all, they don't comment on this program publicly. But my understanding from the people I talk to is that this is a strictly limited program. They're just looking for patterns that can trace terrorists and that is the only thing that this great big database is going to be used for.

But, you know, there have been abuses in the past and, you know, civil liberties' experts say we -- we ought to be concerned about it.

VELSHI: David, thank you so much for that.

From Washington, we are moving west.

Gary Tuchman went to the Arizona-Utah border, where families ignore legal and religious bans on polygamy.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They won't allow us inside with the camera, but we can tell you it is very busy, as you might expect. There are many households and you can see there are some angry people here who don't want the camera to be here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No cameras allowed here.

TUCHMAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry, this is private property. No cameras allowed.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VELSHI: We are ON THE STORY this week in the Southwest, in Central Africa, here in Washington, but also elsewhere.

John Vause is in the Middle East on a modern love story with classical problems.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yasmine Avishar (ph) and Osama Zaatar (ph) are a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. Only it's not family keeping them apart, it's Israeli law. Yasmine's an Israeli, Osama a Palestinian. They met three years ago working at an animal shelter in Arab East Jerusalem.

YASMINE AVISHAR, ISRAELI: We became very, very good friends and then we slowly fell in love.

VAUSE: A year later, as Israel pushed on with construction of its West Bank barrier, the couple decided to elope, marrying in Cyprus. Only as man and wife, they thought, would they be able to stay together. But since then, they've been trapped in a legal pincer.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

TUCHMAN: Would you like to have 10 more wives like your father did?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. Why not? the more the merrier.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VELSHI: CNN is ON THE STORY here at the George Washington University in the nation's Capitol.

And we are ON THE STORY in Arizona, along the Utah border, where polygamy is common. It's a lifestyle that's been glamorized in a TV series and back in the headlines this week as the FBI named a polygamist leader to its most wanted list.

CNN's Gary Tuchman got a rare peek inside the world of one very large family.

Here's a look at his report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A daughter and a mother.

CHRISTINE, DAUGHTER, POLYGAMIST: I've never had people make fun- of me, but I don't think they know.

TUCHMAN: What they don't know is that daughter Christine lives in 32-bedroom house with many siblings and many mothers. Most polygamists' homes are not this big, but size is a nice luxury to have in these kinds of families. The children are all fathered by one man -- one husband, who, because polygamy is against the law, doesn't feel safe appearing on camera.

We gathered a group of polygamists from different families who say as fundamentalist Mormons, God has obligated them to live in pluralistic marriages.

(on camera): I mean, when you see women out there who say you guys are just being taken advantage of.

PRISCILLA, POLYGAMIST: We say you're being taken advantage of. That's what we would say to them.

TUCHMAN: Why?

PRISCILLA: Because so many of them don't have a committed relationship.

TUCHMAN: Would any of you let your 14-year-old or 15-year-old daughters get married?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

TUCHMAN: Are any of you ladies at the point where you would not want your husband to take another wife?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, absolutely not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The more, the better.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VELSHI: Gary Tuchman, what an interesting, interesting story.

He's in Atlanta.

I've got a million questions for you, but this is about the audience, so I'm going to -- I'm going to hope some of them ask the questions I've got on my mind.

Sir, your name and where you're from?

PETE: Hi.

I'm Pete.

I'm from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

I was wondering if the people you talked to, are they very open in talking about their polygamist lifestyle or did you kind of have to drag that information out of them? TUCHMAN: Well, Pete, it was very hard to get this interview because, frankly, most polygamists don't trust the news media. So we worked on it for weeks, to try to get this interview nailed down.

And, finally, when we sat down with them, we were surprised at how easy it was to talk with them.

They think their lifestyle is the most normal lifestyle in the world. As a matter of fact, a couple of the women said to me, we feel badly for you that you only have one wife. I mean they really, genuinely think this is normal. But they do know they're certainly in the minority in this country.

VELSHI: Did you, when you got back, Gary, had you been thinking about that on the plane ride back and feeling badly for yourself that you just have one wife?

TUCHMAN: I told my wife when I came back that I did not bring back any other wives. It's still just her.

VELSHI: All right, thank you.

Another audience question for u.

Ma'am, your name and where you're from?

JANE: Jane from Washington, D.C.

I was wondering if there is any research that has looked at whether the children of polygamists are more likely to become polygamists themselves? And, also, could you share any of your observations regarding the children?

TUCHMAN: Well, Jane, this one house that we were just in that you saw that had 32 bedrooms, they didn't want to tell us for security reasons exactly how many wives and how many children were in the house. But they gave us a range. They said it's between 10 and 15 wives and between 30 and 40 children. And they say because there are so many women in the house, that the children always have attention.

But the fact is that there's only one man, one father. And it's hard enough when you two or three or four kids for a father to give them individual attention and no one is kidding themselves there that it's impossible for this father to give each of these 30 to 40 kids individual attention. And the fact is that these kids are raised to become polygamists.

But in the story you just saw, that one 17-year-old young lady we talked to, she told us she wasn't 100 percent sure she was going to be a polygamist. She wanted to think about it.

So, not everyone stays polygamist when they're in a polygamist family, but the parents certainly want them to.

ENSOR: Well, here's a guy question for you, Gary.

How does he pay for all of this?

TUCHMAN: David, what they do is most of the wives work, too. So you don't have a situation where you have only one breadwinner, one earner in the family. Most of the wives have jobs where they get paid.

Now, an obvious question, that house is not typical, OK? There's a lot of big houses in Colorado City, Arizona and Hilldale (ph), Utah, because there are big families. Most of them, though, are put together very haphazardly. This one, obviously, was a beautiful, beautiful home.

So what does that gentleman do? The family would not tell us for security reasons. They didn't feel safe in telling us, so we don't know exactly what he does.

VELSHI: Another question.

Sir, your name and where you're from?

GIDEON: Hi.

I'm Gideon from Sante Fe, New Mexico.

And I was just wondering how polygamists' families are getting away with having multiple marriages.

TUCHMAN: Well, what happens in most cases -- and this is very interesting -- is that the first marriage that the husband has, they get an official marriage certificate. But then each subsequent marriage, they don't get marriage certificates. So in the eyes of the state, they're not officially married. But in the eyes of the fundamentalist Mormon movement, they are.

So therefore the state -- and I talked to the Arizona attorney general about this. He actually was in Colorado City the day I was there earlier this week. And he said no, technically, from a legal standpoint, they can't arrest them, because they're not officially married more than once. But for, ostensibly, for all purposes, they are married multiple times.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Gary, for the ladies, some of the ladies, is there ever any talk of multiple husbands?

TUCHMAN: Suzanne, I asked that question. I said, "Can you do that if you want to? Can you marry multiple husbands?"

And they told us yes, we can do that. And this is very important, that I must point out. These people we interviewed are right next to Colorado City, where most of Warren Jeffs' followers live. However, they are not Jeffs' followers. They moved to this town of Centennial Park, which is only two miles away, to get away from the Jeffs family. They didn't want what they call a dictator leading them.

So they are more liberal.

So technically they say yes, we can have multiple husbands. But we still -- our religious background wouldn't allow this. The only way we go to heaven is to allow our husband to marry multiple women. We would not do that for religious reasons. But we could do that if we wanted to leave the religion we believe in.

VELSHI: A truly fascinating story.

Gary, thanks for being with us.

Gary Tuchman in Atlanta.

TUCHMAN: Thank you.

VELSHI: Well, we're California bound now.

We saw high stakes diplomacy by letter when the president of Iran wrote to the president of the United States.

How did that play in the big Iranian community in Los Angeles?

Chris Lawrence is back on that story, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: CNN is on the story.

The president of Iran's letter to President Bush may have failed to bring new dialogue between Tehran and Washington, but President Bush said the letter did not address what he called the main question of when Iran might scrap its nuclear program.

Chris Lawrence is in Los Angeles with a huge Iranian community. And he looked for reaction there.

Check out Chris's Reporter's Notebook.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was only natural that here in Los Angeles, where you have -- you've got probably the biggest Iranian population outside of Iran, that we would try to do something here to tie into the bigger story.

This was a straight ahead piece. This isn't a complicated, research kind of piece. This is go out on the street and find out what people are thinking.

What we did was we hit the street where there's just row after row of travel agencies and flower shops and bookstores and restaurants.

A lot of Iranian-Americans say it's more of a hope than any kind of realistic expectation. But other people have asked us how could you pass up any chance to get a peaceful solution? What you try to do is to get just a flavor, to give people an idea of what this community is about, to show a little bit of their diversity.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VELSHI: Chris joining us now from L.A. -- Chris, good to have you on the show.

You know, as much as you say it's a straight up piece and you don't have to do a lot of research, you have to get people to talk and you have to get people to give you their opinions.

How do you start that process?

I mean I know you said you went to this row of stores.

But what do you say? What's your approach? What's your beginning?

LAWRENCE: I just walked in. We walked in without the camera, just kind of walked in, hey, how's it going? My name is Chris, I work for CNN. This is kind of what we're doing here today.

I brought a copy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's letter with me. It was, you know, multiple, multiple pages, but I wanted people to be able to read it if they hadn't read it before they actually would start talking to us.

So we just went in very casually and started talking to folks and finally would ask them, hey, do you mind speaking with us on this issue?

VELSHI: Chris, let's see what the audience has to say.

Your question and where you're from?

LISA: Hi.

I'm Lisa from Bellevue, Washington.

Condoleezza Rice has been very skeptical about the intentions of the Iranian president. And I was wondering if the Iranian people in L.A. believe that the Iranian president will build a nuclear bomb if his country gets the necessary resources.

LAWRENCE: Some people told me they didn't even -- they didn't want to take Ahmadinejad at his word. They said, you know, how strange is it that he's been saying one thing all along and then all of a sudden we get this letter that, in some way, says something different.

So some of them were, Lisa, pretty skeptical, I would say, about that. But other people told me they just have such a hope, that it's so -- they kept telling me it's so hard right now for them because the U.S. is at odds with Iran. And one gentleman said it was almost OK for a couple of years because everything bad was Iraq, Iraq, and Iran was looked at in a somewhat favorable light.

And now that these tensions with Iran are coming up, it just makes them -- one man said it's hard to watch the news everyday because you know it's going to be something bad about, you know, his home country.

VELSHI: Hey, Chris, what's the balance between people thinking that, you know, having an opinion about the coverage of Iran in the media and people with opinions one way or the other about, you know, yes, I'm in favor of what the president of Iran is doing or no, I'm against them?

In other words, was there bigger concern the way Iran is conveyed in the media or is there bigger concern about what's actually happening?

LAWRENCE: It's funny, Ali, we were speaking with a gentleman at -- who owned a bookstore. And he didn't speak very much English. He was much better in Farsi. And my Farsi doesn't get past hello. So we were having a little bit of trouble.

And there was a woman there buying books and she said, "Would you like me to translate for you?" so she helped us and she started translating.

And I asked him that same question and what he told me in Farsi and what was translated back was sort of, you know, I can call my brother a jerk, but you can't call my brother a jerk. And they feel sort of that -- you're protective of their country in some ways. Even though they know some of what's going on is wrong, you never like to hear the criticism coming from outside.

I don't know if that makes any sense.

VELSHI: No, it makes a -- it makes a lot of sense.

Chris, thanks.

And it was a great story.

Thank you for joining us.

Chris Lawrence in Los Angeles.

LAWRENCE: Yes.

VELSHI: Well, from Los Angeles to your own bank account. Interest rates are up again.

How does that affect you?

I'm back on that story, after this.

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VELSHI: CNN is on the story. We were poised to see the stock market bust through the ceiling that it set in January of 2000. It didn't happen. What did happen was higher interest rates.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

VELSHI: About eight times a year, about every six weeks, the Federal Reserve meets in Washington and they do something about interest rates. In the last 16 cases, they've raised them.

Now, this is chewy, complicated stuff.

I'm just going through the statement, Kyra, that's been released by the Fed to get some read as to what this is going to mean for the future.

Now, when the Fed raises interest rates, the way it affects regular folk is that it raises the prime rate. And we have loans like home equity loans or lines of credit or credit cards or even auto loans which are tied to the prime rate.

Well, when the Fed funds rate goes up, the prime rate goes up, too. So if you're one of these people that has a loan that's connected to prime, you saw your interest rate go up.

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ENSOR: Ari, there was a lot more coverage in the last couple of weeks of oil prices, gasoline pump prices.

I'm wondering which is more important, the interest rates or the gas pump.

I assume it's the interest rates, right?

But I don't really know.

VELSHI: Long-term? Sure. But, you know, the one thing about gas prices is that you see that price every day and you fill up that tank every day and people get really mad about it. And we cover those stories about people saying oh my god, I can't believe that was $50.

But, you know, you think back in history, at no time in life have you ever, I don't think, as a reporter, ever gone to a gas station, interviewed someone who just filled up a tank who said that was a great deal. I'm really happy that gas is only $0.50 a gallon.

So, the interest rates are a longer-term. We think about it more intellectually than we do about the anger of gas rates.

Do you have a question?

KAYLA: Yes, I do.

VELSHI: Go ahead.

KAYLA: My name is Kayla (ph) from Akokida (ph), Iowa.

And regarding the stock market and the rising interest rates and the surging oil prices, I was just kind of wondering if there was any concern with the stock market crashing?

VELSHI: Well, that's a good question, too.

In so many of the last -- over the last several decades, when you've seen oil prices go as high as quickly as they have this time, it's led to a recession because that takes money out of your pocket if you're paying more for gas or heating oil. It also takes money out of your pocket if you're paying more for your credit card loans or your home equity loans.

So, yes, if you stop spending, that's bad for business.

But the stock market's at almost the highest point that it's ever been at. And that's, I guess, the mystery of business.

But we're keeping a close eye on that.

Well, ON THE STORY has given us a ride this week, from Darfur to the White House to the CIA to polygamy.

Our panel is back in a moment with what they're expecting next week ON THE STORY.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Keep yourself ON THE STORY at CNN.com. Our Web site tells you about the panel, the topics and how to get coveted tickets to join our audience.

Let's take a quick look ahead ON THE STORY.

Suzanne, do you know what -- yes, you know what you're covering.

MALVEAUX: I know what I'm covering.

VELSHI: You'll be covering...

MALVEAUX: Actually, it's going to be Monday, a prime time speech by the president on immigration reform. The news the president, we expect, he's going to make, he's going to talk about more of a role of the National Guard protecting the border.

VELSHI: All right.

Very good.

David, could you tell us what you think you're covering next week, or are you going to have to kill me? ENSOR: No, I'm not going to have to kill you. It's very obvious. General Michael Hayden will be up before the Senate. He'll be trying to get confirmed. And I predict he'll have a better week next week than the week from hell he had this week.

VELSHI: No, no kidding.

All right, and I will be -- I'll still be watching oil prices and the stock market.

But this may be the week that the corporate trial of the century goes to the jury. The Enron jury may get the chance to actually weigh in on what they are -- what they've been hearing for the last four months.

Well, thanks to you guys. Thanks to all my colleagues. Thanks to our fabulous audience here at the George Washington University. And thank you to you for watching ON THE STORY. We're back each week, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Straight ahead, a check on what's making news right now.

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