Key Spots in Iraqi Government Filled at Last; Searching for Clues in Georgia After a Bride-to-Be Vanishes
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. There's a developing story out of Baghdad today that may change the future of Iraq. After months of fighting, key spots in that government filled at last. And now the big challenges still lie ahead. Searching for clues in Georgia after a woman vanishes only days before her wedding. This morning, police telling us about a key change in their investigation. And in the Michael Jackson case, astonishing testimony from his ex-wife. What does the prosecution do today? We'll get to it on</s>AMERICAN MORNING. ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.</s>SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Also ahead this morning, we're going to sort out what happened last night in the House of Representatives. Republicans reversing course on some key changes in the ethics rules. We'll take a look at the pressure they were under and, of course, what all of this means for Tom DeLay.</s>HEMMER: Also, we're thinking about retirement again today, aren't we?</s>O'BRIEN: I know I am each and every day.</s>HEMMER: A couple of years away.</s>O'BRIEN: Did I just say that?</s>HEMMER: Part four of our series --</s>JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's contagious.</s>HEMMER: Yes. We're looking today at the early days of retirement planning, when to get started, how much to save, what kind of payoff you will get in the end. Gerri Willis continues her series and takes us through the numbers. Did I put a thought into your head, by the way?</s>O'BRIEN: You know, Jack and I have been talking about retirement ever since we started talking about this series.</s>CAFFERTY: That's right. Yes. I'm taping this thing. I got me one of those TiVo deals.</s>O'BRIEN: Taking notes during the segment. What do I need to do?</s>CAFFERTY: That's right.</s>CAFFERTY: Coming up in "The Cafferty File," some folks in Congress want us all to have more paid sick leave. Metrosexuals are out and manly men are in. We will have some examples. And only in the "Cafferty File," exploding toads.</s>HEMMER: Cool.</s>O'BRIEN: OK.</s>HEMMER: Do have video to back that up?</s>CAFFERTY: We've got pictures.</s>HEMMER: Excellent.</s>O'BRIEN: It's no good without the pictures.</s>HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.</s>O'BRIEN: You know that. Thanks, Jack.</s>HEMMER: First to the headlines. And here's Carol Costello with those -- how are you?</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It makes it very difficult to do these headlines after that, exploding toads.</s>HEMMER: Good luck.</s>COSTELLO: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. We start out with a very serious story out of Duluth, Georgia, that woman missing just days before her wedding. Police now saying the search for her has become a criminal investigation. Thirty-two- year-old Jennifer Wilbanks went jogging on Tuesday night and she has not been heard from since. Officials say they have very few clues in this case.</s>MAJ. DON WOODRUFF, DULUTH POLICE DEPARTMENT: Based on the circumstances of her disappearance, according to the family members and friends, this is totally uncharacteristic of her. It's been suggested by some that she had premarital jitters. Family and friends completely dismiss that and say that this is totally out of her character. And that being the case, we feel that, you know, there -- we have to classify it as a criminal investigation and proceed forward in that perspective.</s>COSTELLO: Wilbanks' family is urging anyone with information in the case to come forward. A prime time news conference for President Bush. The president is set to address the nation in a televised news conference tonight. Topping the agenda, his energy policy and more specifics about Social Security reform. Stay tuned to CNN for live coverage of the president's news conference. That begins tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. The president is actually started to -- or, expected to start to speak at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. The Senate is debating a bill that would make it tougher for young girls to get abortions. The House voted Wednesday to make it illegal for an adult to help a minor cross state lines to get an abortion. Senators voted against similar bills in the past, but lawmakers from both parties say this time the bill is likely to gain approval. And Congress is moving ahead with possible legislation to curb steroid use in sports. Officials from the National Football League testified before a House committee on Wednesday. Lawmakers hailed the NFL's testing policy, calling it tough but not perfect. The panel next turns to the NBA. So get ready for chapter three.</s>HEMMER: I can't wait until they get to golf.</s>O'BRIEN: There's a whole litany of sports to get to.</s>HEMMER: Seeing those 155-pound guys out there, yes.</s>COSTELLO: They don't have to worry about hockey because there is no hockey.</s>HEMMER: That, too.</s>O'BRIEN: Skip that. Thanks, Carol.</s>HEMMER: See you, Carol.</s>O'BRIEN: New developments this morning to talk about. The Iraqi parliament formed the country's first democratically elected government in more than 50 years. With more on that this morning, Ryan Chilcote joins us from Baghdad -- Ryan, good morning to you. This was obviously history making.</s>RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a clear step toward democracy today in Iraq, Soledad. The national assembly, Iraq's legislative body, approving the proposed government with a decisive margin today. Iraq got its first, in almost 50 years, government to be formed on the basis of democratic elections, a real big victory there. But where it fell short, I think, of expectations is that we actually only got a partial government. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the prime minister, was expected to name all of the ministers, all 36 of them, I should say, in this new government. But he didn't do that. He left four very key posts unoccupied and he said that he and his deputies will occupy them for the moment, until they can decide who gets them. So a little bit of a delay in the process, but definitely a step toward democracy.</s>O'BRIEN: Ryan, outside of filling those key four posts, give me a sense of some of the other obstacles and the other challenges for this new government.</s>CHILCOTE: Sure. Some of the other big obstacles, I think, ahead of them will really be to win the confidence of the people that went to the polls on January 30. A lot of Iraqis are really disappointed in their politicians. They felt like they risked their lives by going to the polls on that first vote on January 30 and that their politicians really haven't delivered yet for them. Witness how long, three months, the three months it took to form this government. So they're going to need to win their confidence. They're going to need to create law and order on the streets and they're going to need to improve the economy. And the second thing is they're going to need to bring some kind of national unity. And that means including Sunni Arabs. Sunni Arabs in this country largely feel alienated by the political processes and this new government is going to need to do everything it can, and says it already is, to try and include Sunni Arabs in the future, political future of Iraq -- Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: Well, obviously lots to tackle for this new government. Ryan Chilcote for us this morning from Baghdad. Ryan, thanks -- Bill.</s>HEMMER: Michael Jackson's ex-wife returns for a second day of testimony today in that trial in California. Debbie Rowe, one of the state's key witnesses, had some surprises yesterday for prosecutors when she took the stand on Wednesday. Attorney Anne Bremner was in the courtroom. She's back in Santa Maria, California this morning. Anne, welcome back. Good morning to you.</s>ANNE BREMNER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Thanks. Good morning to you.</s>HEMMER: You say you were astounded by her testimony. I think the word you used was mind-boggling. How so?</s>BREMNER: It was mind-boggling. She was called to basically corroborate the accuser's mother. And the prosecutors said in their opposite and to the court, when they argued that she should testify, that she did a rebuttal video in this case praising Michael Jackson after this Martin Bashir documentary where he was, you know, vilified in the press for saying he liked to sleep with young boys. She said -- she was going to say she was scripted, that visitation of her children was held over her head, that this was coerced. And basically this would all support the false imprisonment and conspiracy charges, that Michael Jackson and his agents did the same things with the accuser's family. Well, the opposite happened. She completely flipped. It wasn't backtracking. She was a complete unguided missile, flip-flopped and testified no one could tell her what to say, it wasn't scripted, she did it voluntarily. It was amazing.</s>HEMMER: There's that phrase again, Anne, unguided missile.</s>BREMNER: Nice.</s>HEMMER: You're using it for everyone.</s>BREMNER: I had said it yesterday.</s>HEMMER: You know, she...</s>BREMNER: You know, that's what this whole trial...</s>HEMMER: She also broke down on the stand, too. She was crying. It seems like everybody is crying when they take the stand.</s>BREMNER: Everyone's crying and everyone's unguided. It is the most remarkable case I have ever seen.</s>HEMMER: You mentioned this thing about being scripted or not. Here is part of what she said yesterday. "As Mr. Jackson knows, no one can tell me what to say. I speak my own mind. It was a cold interview and I wanted to keep it that way." Why is this issue about a script or unscripted so critical at this point?</s>BREMNER: Because, it's really because of this, and it's kind of -- the family did this. They went out and they did this rebuttal video. The prosecutors didn't know about it -- or the police -- until late in the investigation. Once they found it, it was a huge problem for them because the family was praising Michael Jackson, crying tears, again, of joy about how much they loved him, calling him their savior, saying that he cured the accuser's cancer. Well, that hurts the prosecution because how can they be saying all these wonderful things when they're falsely imprisoned, coerced, etc.? So the accuser's mother said well, it was scripted, I was rehearsed, I -- nothing I said in there was true, but, you know, everything was scripted and I, you know, I had to say it. So they have to show that it was scripted with other people. It's a huge problem for them because we've all seen it here in court so many times. It's 66 minutes long. And you'd have to be Meryl Streep to act that well. And it just doesn't work.</s>HEMMER: All right, here's another thing she said, Anne. She said yesterday: "I was excited to see Michael and the children." She continues to be reintroduced to them and to be reacquainted with their dad. And Ted Rowlands, for CNN, last night, comes out of the courtroom and says she came across as a woman that wanted to be reacquainted with Michael Jackson. If that's the case, did this completely backfire on the prosecution yesterday?</s>BREMNER: Yes. I was reminded of a title of an article on another trial called "Misfire In the Twilight Zone." You know, that's what it was. It completely -- it was a misfire and it backfired. And, you know, she looked at him, she smiled, she has a lot of feelings for him. And, you know, when he walked out yesterday, for the first time, he was carrying his own umbrella. I think he felt he had a good day.</s>HEMMER: Wow! One more thing here. At the end of her testimony yesterday, which lasted about 40 minutes, they asked her whether or not she was truthful and she said, "No." And then testimony pretty much stopped there. What was she hinting at and is that where we begin today?</s>BREMNER: Yes. And, you know, interestingly, last night a group of us were out for dinner. We saw Debbie Rowe out at the Hitching Post, which is featured in the film "Sideways," with the prosecution team. You know, they're going to have to work with her today, you know, to get something that's salvageable in her testimony. But what she was talking about was his parenting skills. So we're not sure where that's going yet. But she's yet to say anything damaging to Michael Jackson.</s>HEMMER: More later. Thanks, Anne. Anne Bremner out in Santa Maria, California. Thanks.</s>BREMNER: Thank you.</s>HEMMER: Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: Ten minutes after the hour. Time to take a look at the weather again this morning and Chad Myers -- hey, Chad, good morning to you. A nice day here.</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.</s>O'BRIEN: How about for everybody else?</s>HEMMER: Save now or worry later? In a moment, tips on what young people can do to get ready for retirement, as our series "Never Too Late" continues in a moment.</s>O'BRIEN: And the pros of patches. We're going to take a look at the new variety of medicines that are more than skin deep. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.