Iraqis Prepare to Vote; President Gerald Ford Admitted to Hospital
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A developing story now that we have been following all afternoon, the health of former President Gerald Ford. Our Tony Harris working it in the newsroom right now -- Tony.</s>TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Kyra. It's a story we have been following all day today. The 38th president of the United States, Gerald Ford, in the hospital for what is described as a series of tests, a routine test -- not sure of the symptoms that led to the trip to the hospital. I want to read to you a -- a brief statement a few hours ago now from Penny Circle, the president's chief of staff. It reads: "President Ford was admitted to Eisenhower Medical Center at Rancho Mirage, California. He is undergoing medical tests and will be released when those tests have been completed." Now, Circle goes on to tell the Associated Press that the tests are scheduled each December and that he has a horrible cold and still hasn't gotten over it. Now, during the daily White House briefing, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan was asked about Ford's condition. And here's what he had to say.</s>SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don't have any additional information, other than -- than what his office put out. We wish President Ford well and a speedy recovery.</s>HARRIS: And just a couple of past health issues that we're aware of, Kyra -- a mild stroke during the 2000 Republican National Convention and a dizzy spell while playing golf in 96-degree heat. That was in 2003. Now, the former president is 92 years old. Now, we expect to hear from CNN's Dan Simon soon. He's on his way to the Eisenhower Medical Center. When we catch up with him, we will get the latest information from where he is, at the hospital. And we are going to talk to the editor of one of the local papers in the area to find out what the former president has been doing with himself over the last couple of years -- all that coming up this hour -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: All right, Tony, we will stay on top of it.</s>PHILLIPS: Thank you so much. Well, the eyes of the world are also on Iraq. So says Condoleezza Rice, as she continues the administration's push to shore up support for the war. The secretary of state spoke this afternoon to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington. Rice says that more countries are realizing that securing democracy in Iraq is essential to the Middle East and the world. And she says now is not the time to pull out.</s>CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: If we quit now, we will give terrorists exactly what they want. We will desert Iraq's democrats at the time of greatest need. We will embolden every enemy of liberty across the Middle East. We will destroy any chance that the people of this region have of building a future of hope and decency. And, most of all, we will make America more vulnerable.</s>PHILLIPS: Rice also had some tough words for two of Iraq's neighbors. She said Syria still hasn't done enough to keep foreign terrorists out of Iraq. And she says Iran keeps meddling in Iraqi affairs. Well, Iraqis go to the polls in less than 48 hours. So, what is at stake and what do Iraqis think about it? Our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, takes a look.</s>CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Iraqi army is voting first. And it will be protecting the polls when the public pass ballots on Thursday. And, again, the big question is what will the Sunnis do, the minority who had supported and benefited from Saddam Hussein's regime. The Bush administration notes Sunni turnout in October's referendum on a proposed constitution, but it doesn't say they overwhelmingly rejected it. This time, the administration hopes that Sunni turnout could help turn things around. In Baghdad, Sunnis, like Shias and Kurds, tell us that they will go to the polls.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course I will -- going to vote.</s>AMANPOUR: While Sunnis rejected the referendum and boycotted last January's elections for a transitional government, people like Munjad al-Nayib (ph) now say they must have a voice in a parliament that, so far, has been dominated by their rivals, the Shias.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I want to make some balance, actually.</s>AMANPOUR (on camera): Political posters are plastered all over the walls and even on the concrete security barriers. According to a new poll, three quarters of Iraqis say they believe this election will produce a stable government and that they expect improvement over the next year. But, by far, their biggest concern is security in the country and the growing divide between Sunni and Shiites. (voice-over): For instance, that "TIME" magazine poll of 1,700 Iraqis says only 29 percent of Sunnis think things are getting better, and many are afraid of a recent spate of sectarian killing by Shiite militias.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not always come in the -- in the -- in the TV. But we know it. We heard about it. They are killing people.</s>AMANPOUR: Munjad (ph) and his wife, Amira (ph), despair of the Sunni insurgency, too. The Pentagon says a staggering 26,000 Iraqis have been killed and wounded in the last two years alone. "Democracy, is this chaos and killing?" asks Amira (ph). "Is this the democracy Bush promised us?" And what about the promise to rebuild Iraq? Electricity remains below pre-war levels. Oil production has fallen. And reconstruction money is running out.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Saddam gone, everyone say that's OK. This is the life, and they can -- will bring us a new future. And here we are, two years.</s>AMANPOUR: So, as they prepare to vote for the first permanent post-Saddam government, Iraqis, like the al-Nayib (ph) family, resort to what they know best.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very hard, actually, to imagine what will happen. But we hope and we pray.</s>AMANPOUR: Christiane Amanpour CNN, Baghdad.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, spider hole to court -- it's been two years since the capture of Saddam Hussein. This is how the world first saw the once mighty Iraqi dictator in custody, dirty and disheveled, after months in hiding. Well, the images stunned Iraqis used to seeing Hussein in power and in control. But, two years later, he's returning to his old ways. He's been defiant in court during his trial, refusing to appear during the last session. And, by the way, Hussein and his seven co-defendants are not eligible to vote in Thursday's election. Only prisoners who haven't been charged with a crime, detainees being held for questioning, for example, can cast a ballot. A quarter-point increase -- as expected, the Federal Reserve hiked short-term interest rates again today to four-and-a-quarter percent. That's the highest it's been in more than four years. The move is fueling speculation that a year-and-a-half rate-rise campaign could be winding down. So, do your holiday plans include a cruise? If so, listen up. Issues of crime and security aboard some cruise ships are getting attention today on Capitol Hill. And the baffling disappearance of several passengers this year only heightens the concern. Our Deborah Feyerick investigates.</s>DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When Royal Caribbean's jewel of the sea returned to south Florida Sunday, 59- year-old Jill Begora was no longer on board. She had vanished without a trace the day before, while vacationing with her husband. Another mystery disappearance, George Smith -- five months ago, he was honeymooning, also on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship.</s>MAUREEN SMITH, SON DISAPPEARED FROM CRUISE SHIP: We have lived a nightmare for the last five months. My son boarded a Royal Caribbean ship for his honeymoon, and he never got off, and we want to know why.</s>FEYERICK: His family believes he was murdered. Royal Caribbean tells CNN, "We do not know what happened to George Smith, only that he tragically disappeared from a cruise." The Smith family said they're suing Royal Caribbean.</s>BREE SMITH, BROTHER DISAPPEARED FROM CRUISE SHIP: We want to force Royal Caribbean into accountability.</s>FEYERICK: The Smiths are also asking Congress for tough new laws, hoping to stop what happened to them from happening again, but it does happen more often than you might think. Chris Caldwell was with his fiance, enjoying the final night of their cruise, when he vanished -- his sister, Shannon, still in shock. (on-camera): Is it crazy for you that -- that here is somebody who is so full of life and now he just disappeared; he just vanished, and there's no answers?</s>SHANNON NOWLAN, BROTHER DISAPPEARED FROM CRUISE SHIP: There's no answers. And, you know, it's really amazing.</s>FEYERICK (voice over): The trade group that represents major cruise lines says 10 to 12 people have gone overboard in the last year-and-a-half.</s>MICHAEL CRYE, INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF CRUISE LINES: I think you need to keep this in perspective. Ten to 12 people out of maybe 15 million who cruised in that same time frame is something less than one person goes missing for every million people.</s>FEYERICK: But for Shannon and others going through the same thing, that's not the point.</s>NOWLAN: That's not very high statistically. But we're not talking about cattle here. We're talking about my brother. We're talking about somebody's sister. We're talking about somebody's mom and dad, niece, nephew, uncle, aunt.</s>FEYERICK: No one saw Chris Caldwell fall overboard. And investigators have few clues. Part of the reason? No surveillance cameras monitor the railings. Cruise ships aren't required by law to have them.</s>CRYE: I can tell you that it would be -- require an investment of literally millions of dollars to have those types of security cameras installed and monitored. And is it a significant enough problem to justify that kind of an expense?</s>FEYERICK: The cruise industry is a $25 billion business. Lawyer James Walker says some of that money should be spent on cameras to alert the crew when someone falls overboard. And his concerns go further than just surveillance.</s>JAMES WALKER, MARITIME ATTORNEY: They don't warn the public. They don't want the public to know that there are risks in going on a cruise, because, of course, they're in the business of selling dream vacations.</s>CRYE: The record of the cruise industry is one of the best in the -- in the entire world. It is the safest form of transportation that there is in -- in the -- in the United States.</s>FEYERICK: Yet, when people do vanish in or near U.S. waters, search-and-rescue teams are called to help. (on-camera): When you're doing 14 miles, are the chances pretty good you're going to find somebody or does it really depend?</s>LIEUTENANT KIM GUEDRY, U.S. COAST GUARD: It's really dependent on the time that we receive the report, until the time we start searching, given that information.</s>FEYERICK (voice over): Fourteen miles, remember, that's how far Chris Caldwell was from shore when he vanished. It took hours to search the ship, then notify the Coast Guard.</s>NOWLAN: On Saturday evening, the -- the Coast Guard called me and told me that they were calling off the search and that, basically, that no one could have survived as long as they had been looking in the water, so that he was presumed dead at that point.</s>FEYERICK: So, what happened to Chris Caldwell? A bartender who spoke to authorities said Caldwell was in the casino, acting loud and drunk. That description has haunted Shannon and her family.</s>NOWLAN: If a bartender reported to someone that he was belligerent and very, you know, heavily drinking, then why didn't they escort him back to his room?</s>FEYERICK: That begs the question, who is ultimately responsible when someone is lost at sea?</s>CRYE: You can't treat adults as children. You have to give them the benefit of the doubt. You cannot tell them what to do and guard against any eventuality. So, otherwise, you would be taking away from the -- the experience of the cruise itself.</s>FEYERICK: When her brother disappeared, Shannon was eight months pregnant. (on camera): He knew you were having this baby and he never got a chance to meet that baby.</s>NOWLAN: That's really hard, because she is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me, and I would really like to share that with him.</s>FEYERICK (voice-over): A small number lost at sea, but a number, to those who love them, no less significant. Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.</s>PHILLIPS: Let's go straight to Tony Harris in the newsroom, a story we have been following all day, the condition of the former...</s>HARRIS: That's right.</s>PHILLIPS: ... President Gerald Ford.</s>HARRIS: That's right, Kyra. It is a story of the day. We have been following it since 11:00 here Eastern time, about 8:00 a.m. on the West Coast. And that's where we're going to go right now. Kakie Urch is an editor with "The Desert Sun" newspaper in Palm Springs, California. Kakie, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Like I just mentioned, we started getting word about 11:00 Eastern time. Were you getting any indications before that, earlier than that, that the former president was, in fact, in the hospital?</s>KAKIE URCH, EDITOR, "THE DESERT SUN": Well, we had heard for about a week that he wasn't feeling well. We got some word a little bit earlier than you did. About 7:30, we were -- were hearing reports that were then confirmed by his chief of staff, that he had been admitted late last night, late Monday.</s>HARRIS: And, Kakie, what have you been hearing in terms of the condition, what he's been suffering from? What -- what has his health been like recently?</s>URCH: Well, his health -- his health has been -- been fine. But he's an older man. And, so, this time, he has a horrible cold. And it's not going away. But his office is continually stressing -- they have issued a new statement that says it's -- it's really something routine. And, instead of going home tomorrow, he's actually going to be able to go home today, Tuesday.</s>HARRIS: Oh -- oh, really? OK. And -- and you're right. He -- he's 92 years old. And I have to ask you, the most recent episodes we have heard of any ill health for the former president, outside of this cold, was I guess the -- the mild stroke in 2000.</s>URCH: That's right.</s>HARRIS: And, then, there was a dizzy spell, is -- is that correct, while he was playing golf in 2003?</s>URCH: That's right. In May of 2003, he was hospitalized at Eisenhower Medical Center. He was playing golf in a weather that was about 96 degrees, which is normal for here. He has -- he has cut back on his golf. But I want to point out that he's been very active. This past January, he presented the trophy at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic tournament that he plays in. And, last Sunday, he was in church.</s>HARRIS: Kakie, I want you to -- to make that point again, if you would, because I think a lot of folks think of Gerald Ford -- and we know that he was made fun of and made to appear kind of klutzy in those skits by Chevy Chase during the "Saturday Night Live" days. But this a man who has been an athlete, has been very active through all of his life.</s>URCH: Right. And he and his wife, Betty Ford, have been residents here in the Coachella Valley and Rancho Mirage-Palm Springs area since 1977. They are very active here. And -- and no one here thinks of -- of those pratfall jokes.</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>URCH: They think of Gerald Ford the humanitarian, Gerald Ford and Betty Ford the philanthropists. And, just recently, he awarded his wife the Gerald R. Ford medal for distinguished public service back in July. It was an event, a gala event attended by Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of State James Baker.</s>HARRIS: And, Kakie, once again, what's the late in terms of when he's expected to be released from the hospital?</s>URCH: His chief of staff, Penny Circle, is saying some time Tuesday. And she is stressing that this is really a routine -- a routine trip to the hospital for an older man to check out what is going on with a horrible cold.</s>HARRIS: Sure. Tests that are scheduled each December, and, this time around, he just has a horrible cold.</s>URCH: That's right. And that is -- that is true to form. We have -- we have covered his admission for those routine tests in past years.</s>HARRIS: OK, Kakie Urch, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. We appreciate it.</s>URCH: Thank you, Tony.</s>HARRIS: OK -- Kyra, back to you.</s>PHILLIPS: All right, Tony, thank you so much. Well, straight ahead, honoring the fallen and protecting their long journey home. Is the U.S. military doing enough to bring our war dead home with the honor and dignity that they deserve? The parents of one fallen Marine shares their thoughts with me coming up next.