Thursday, March 29, 2007
Kyra Phillips Goes On Patrol with Iraqi Border Police
On the morning edition of CNN Newsroom, CNN anchor Kyra Phillips reports on going on patrol with Iraqi Border police. Phillips takes a look at the role of drugs on the War on Terror.HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: War in Iraq . A new enemy emerges -- drug money helping fuel the insurgency.
CNN's Kyra Phillips is tracking that angle. She is live now from Baghdad .
Kyra, how seriously do investigators actually take this?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Heidi, here in Iraq , if you're the head of a drug ring and you're caught, without question you die for your crime. We're on patrol with the Iraqi border police. They're looking for drug smugglers.
(on camera): Does the drug money support terrorism?
(voice over): "Yes," the investigator tells me, "it's very clear."
Clear, because once unheard of in Iraq , high-profile drug busts are now the norm, and this is where many of them end up.
(on camera): Tell me what type of criminals you deal with in this jail.
(voice over): "Drug smugglers, terrorists, kidnappers," he tells me, "and murderers, the worst."
Welcome to Baghdad 's major crimes unit, where we have to protect every investigator's identity.
(on camera): I'm told your investigators are murdered for what they do.
(voice over): "Our country should be secure," he says. "We need to make a sacrifice for that. This is the principle."
If you're convicted and sent to this prison, you are executed or locked up for life.
Shaban Ali (ph) was arrested for smuggling hasheesh. He says he's innocent. But he had no problem describing how hasheesh, heroin, and marijuana are the popular drugs here. Most of it, investigators say, smuggled from Iran and Afghanistan , funneling millions of dollars and plenty of drugs to the terrorists.
(on camera): Why would -- why would you want to kidnap and kill anybody? Why?
(voice over): Mohammed Kadam (ph) says he is not a terrorist, but he admits he did kidnap and murder a man. He says he did it for the money.
Back at the border, back to yet another post-war reality, drugs. Just one more enemy in this war in Iraq .
PHILLIPS: And Heidi, the lead investigator also said to me that these drugs are being used as a tool of motivation, sort of like what we've seen with the children soldiers in Sudan . They're given these drugs, and then they commit these acts of terror, and as the investigator says, they're completely unaware of what they're doing.
They're high.
COLLINS: That's amazing. Isn't execution a harsh punishment for drug smugglers?
PHILLIPS: That was one of the questions that I asked, and the general of the high crimes unit said, look, drugs have a lasting effect. Once you become an addict or once you start bringing that money in, it not only ruins you as an individual, but it completely ruins your society.
So, they're already seeing that effect, and the number of drug addicts has even increased. This was a problem that was -- or an issue that was not necessarily a big problem in Iraq , and now it's ongoing. And even these addiction centers have more people and are growing across the country because of the drugs being smuggled in.
COLLINS: Well, we must be talking about obviously a significant problem. I mean, how much money do the smugglers make?
PHILLIPS: Well, for example, the bust that you saw there, that the patrol did, they seized 1,500 pounds of hasheesh, $10 million street value. So, it brings in a lot of money for the insurgency and the terrorists to be able to operate, buy weapons.
And as these drugs are coming over, Heidi, weapons come with them, other chemicals come with them. So the type of things that are being smuggled with the drugs, that's increasing as well.
COLLINS: Yes. And therein lies the real problem, I would imagine, that they're looking at.
# posted by ATN @ 2:20 PM 
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
CNN Celebrates Larry King’s 50th Anniversary in Broadcasting
Source: CNN Press Release Award-winning broadcaster Larry King marks his 50th anniversary in broadcasting with a weeklong celebration on Larry King Live and on CNN across all of its platforms, including on air, online and on radio. King kicks off the anniversary week with Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, Bill Clinton, Bill Maher and a two-hour special presentation, CNN Presents: Larry King – 50 Years of Pop Culture.
King’s career began in 1957 when he worked at a small radio station in Miami Beach , Fla. , performing odd jobs. When an announcer suddenly quit, he was given his big break and offered a position as a disc jockey. Fifty years and 40,000 interviews later, King altered the face of broadcasting with his everyman touch. He has interviewed everyone from presidents and kings, celebrities and newsmakers and ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. When King made the transition from his successful national radio talk show to cable, he helped pioneer the future of cable news programming and CNN.
As part of the weeklong anniversary celebration, King will host a few of his favorite guests during the week of April 16-22 on Larry King Live.
Monday, April 16 – Oprah Winfrey joins King for an in-depth discussion on longevity in the media and the call to give back, 9-10p.m. (ET);
Tuesday, April 17 – Katie Couric turns the microphone on King and interviews him on his own set, 9-10p.m. (ET);
Wednesday, April 18 – CNN Presents premieres a two-hour special Larry King - 50 Years of Pop Culture. This documentary will focus on the last 50 years of pop culture as seen through King’s bespectacled eyes, including his early days in Miami covering local celebrities and hurricanes to his national radio show that was broadcast from Washington, D.C., to his pioneering cable television move to CNN with a prime-time, worldwide show with audience calls, 9-11p.m. (ET);
Thursday, April 19 – Bill Clinton joins King for an exclusive and engaging interview, 9-10p.m. (ET);
Friday, April 20 – Bill Maher and more than 20 surprise all-star guests celebrate King on his set, 9-10p.m (ET);
Saturday, April 21 – Larry King – 50 Years of Pop Culture, 8-10p.m. (ET);
Sunday, April 22 – Larry King – 50 Years of Pop Culture, 8-10p.m. (ET).
Photographs and a full transcript of all interviews will be available each night and in advance when possible. All guests are subject to change.
In addition, King will appear on CNN programming and radio throughout the week discussing his career and
his greatest interviews.
CNN will release Larry King Live: The Greatest Interviews, a three-disc DVD collection containing more than nine hours of programming. The collections will feature King’s most compelling interviews with movie and television stars, comedians, talk show hosts, presidents and newsmakers from CNN’s longest-running interview program. The collection will go on sale Tuesday, April 17.
CNN.com highlights King’s 50th anniversary with a special report located at www.CNN.com/LarryKing50. The report includes an interactive timeline reflecting King’s life and his most famous interviews, complete with video and audio clips; several galleries and features offering trivia and statistics about King; an audio quiz that invites users to listen to King ask some of his famous questions and then guess the guest who answers; and a behind-the-scenes look at King’s career as he talks about the evolution of broadcasting over the past 50 years and reveals his tips for a successful interview and the secret to a long career.
# posted by ATN @ 1:14 PM
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Reporters Getting Snow-balled at The White House
On Sunday's edition of CNN's "Reliable Sources," Howard Kurtz spoke with John Harris, managing editor of Politico.com, Jill Zuckman, national correspondent for the “Chicago Tribune”, Ed Henry, CNN White House correspondent, and Dan Lambro, chief political correspondent for “The Washington Times” spoke about the relationship between politics and the media. Read the full trascript HERE. Below is a portion of the discussion:
KURTZ: When President Bush offered to have Karl Rove and other White House officials testify before Congress about the firing of those eight U.S. attorneys, but in secret, not under oath and with no written record, it was obvious the press didn't think much of the proposal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: Why do you have a transcript of the briefing every day and you won't have a transcript of what Karl Rove is going to tell Congress?
SNOW: Do you have a transcript of the conversation you and I had over in the corner the other day?
HENRY: We don't have a transcript.
SNOW: Do you have a transcript of the conversation we have when you call me up and try to get an answer?
KURTZ (voice over): The grilling of Snow continued on the morning shows.
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS: Most people on the street, members of Congress, say, if you haven't got anything to hide, why not go up and testify under oath?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Why not Karl Rove and Harriet Miers? Why not the people who they want to subpoena? Why not have them testify under oath?
SNOW: Harry, you're sounding like a partisan rather than a reporter here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KURTZ: Ed Henry, you and your colleagues have been going at Snow pretty hard on this issue. It sounds like you think the Bush proposal is a terrible idea.
HENRY: Well, the bottom line for me that when you're a White House correspondent, you have a duty to ask tough questions. Earlier in the week, Tony Snow, when I asked him a question about Iraq , told me off camera to "zip it." He later apologized for that, but
You've got John Harris on your panel, and I seem to recall when he was covering the Clinton White House, there were pretty tough questions for Bill Clinton, and I didn't necessarily hear Republicans think that John Harris and others asking tough questions of the Clinton White House were doing the bidding of Republicans.
I think you have to let the chips fall where they may, whether you're covering a Democratic or Republican White House, and tough questions come with the territory -- Howie.
KURTZ: All right. Well, zip it for just one moment so I can get John Harris in. You were a White House correspondent for years. You know that when 10 reporters in a row pound the press secretary on the same issue, it can sound pretty one-sided.
HARRIS: Well, that's right, but that doesn't mean that it is one-sided. And the sort of pushback that Tony Snow was giving to -- hey, you're being partisan -- is itself part of the defense for them to get off the defensive.
You have to brush it off and go to the heart of what's very legitimate questions, as Ed says.
Keep asking them. The job is not to be popular. It is to try to get answers.
And that can be difficult to do with this White House.
ZUCKMAN: And the press briefing is not a television show. The bottom line is what reporters write in their newspaper stories or on their Web sites, or put on television in the evening news broadcasts.
KURTZ: But these days the press briefing is a television show.
ZUCKMAN: Well, you know, that shouldn't stop reporters from asking questions.
# posted by ATN @ 8:08 PM
