TRANSCRIPT: # 122900cb.468

SECTION: NEWS; INTERNATIONAL BYLINE: JAMES HATTORI, PRESTON MENDENHALL, KEITH OLBERMANN, PETE WILLIAMS GUEST: PHIL LEMPERT, SOCORRO SERRANO, JOHN LOFTUS, DIANE DIMOND

LENGTH: 7970 words

HIGHLIGHT: FBI warns police to be on the lookout for suspicious people carrying suspicious almanacs and maybe maps, too.

BODY:

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST (voice-over): Which of these stories will make the big five on tonight's edition of COUNTDOWN?

More on the terror plots: Watching the skies, watching the New Year's Eve celebrations, watching the almanacs. Almanacs? FBI warns police to be on the lookout for suspicious people carrying suspicious almanacs and maybe maps, too.

The mad cow map: It gets a little bigger. Amid all the reassurances and all the science and all the recalled beef, the main question is getting lost. Should you drop that burger? We will have an answer.

Michael Jackson, amid the doo-doo: The fallout from the "60 Minutes" interview. He says officers locked him in a feces-covered bathroom for 45 minutes. We'll put his assertion to the test of the time line.

The "Romper Room" mugging: They broke Miss Marian's arm and Greg and Dennis and Izzy and Megan, they also stole her magic mirror.

And it seemed like a good holiday idea at the time. Santa is the boyfriend, his gift is a wedding proposal, only, and I may be going out on a limb here, it seems as if the intended thinks he's a burglar.

All of that and more now, on COUNTDOWN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OLBERMANN: Good evening. It might have been pulling Al Gore out of the boarding area twice on the same round trip for secondary carry-on searches, having possibly assumed that he was so embittered in his loss at the presidential election that he'd gone over to al-Qaeda, or it might have been the self-protection directives, now nearly a year old that amounted to 1,001 ways to use duct tape. Whichever was the strangest response of the Department of Homeland Security to terrorist threat, it may have been supplanted today, with news that the FBI has warned police to be on the alert for almanacs. Our fifth story in the COUNTDOWN, tonight: While the secretary of Homeland broached the subject of security on international flights to the U.S., the associated press has obtained a copy of a bulletin issued on Christmas Eve telling 18,000 police organizations to look for suspicious people carrying suspicious almanacs because the books could be used, quote, "to assist with and target selection and preoperational planning." Nothing in there about maps to the star's homes.

As to the more traditional terror concerns, Pete Williams tonight, on what the U.S. is now telling international air carriers they have to do if they want to use our airspace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE WILLIAMS, NBC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Acting on persistent worries about the threat of attacks from the air, the Department of Homeland Security issued new emergency rules today, requiring international airlines to place armed air marshals aboard certain passenger or cargo planes flying either to or from the United States or through U.S. airspace. The text of the new rules, obtained by NBC News, says "specific flights will be "identified by number, departure airport, and date when threat information warrants."

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The notice today, is in recognition that this is an international challenge and that as aviation partners we need to consider this possibility in the future.

WILLIAMS: British authorities today, formally announced a plan to begin deploying sky marshals on their flights, partly in response to the heightened alert, here.

ALISTAIR DARLING, U.K. TRANSPORT MINISTER: There are a range of measures that we're putting in place from increased screening of passengers and their baggage, increased security around aircraft and at airports, and that sky marshals are just one part.

WILLIAMS: But, unlike U.S. pilots who asked for the right to carry guns, British pilots don't want anyone armed on their planes.

JIM MCAUSLAN, BRITISH PILOTS UNION: We believe that firearms in pressurized cabins do not mix. We believe that you may minimize one risk, the risk of terrorism, and increase another risk, the risk flight safety.

WILLIAMS: In New York, with security preparations well under way for New Year's Eve, the FAA is investigating an embarrassing security lapse. The pilot of a single-engine plane managed to slip into restricted airspace yesterday, and fly over LaGuardia Airport, down the East River, and around the Statue of Liberty before he was met by a helicopter carrying armed policemen. The pilot says he was lost.

(on camera): Homeland Security officials tonight, acknowledge that some countries don't yet have trained air marshals. They say canceling international flights is still an option when specific intelligence requires it.

Pete Williams, NBC News, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OLBERMANN: And that small plane wasn't the only unwanted thrill for counterterrorism forces in New York. Somebody walked into the Port Authority bus station, passed what is supposed to be rigorous security, and towards a Peter Pan Lines bus idling at gate 69. He hopped in and drove off. Two hours later police found that bus and the hijacker at JFK Airport, well perfect. The unidentified suspect was not a terrorist, just a drunk.

Back to the skies, late word from the Homeland Security Adviser to Nevada's governor, Kenny Guinn, that the airspace directly over the strip in Las Vegas will be closed New Year's Eve. Homeland Security says the request came from the state of Nevada, it would not apply to commercial flights.

You will remember that last week's theory behind the cancellation of the three Air France flights from Paris to Los Angeles was that hijackers might be planning a crash during descent over Vegas.

Abroad, according to the British tabloid, the "Mail on Sunday," Saudi security men have foiled a plot to have suicide pilots crash explosive laden small planes into a Western Airliner in Riyadh. According to that, U.S. intelligence official, the "Mail 's" report is, quote, "Total camel dung."

Not so, unfortunately, a report from multiple sources that an unmarked police car was blown up in Riyadh, today. The blast is said to have shattered windows in nearby buildings. So far, no casualties nor arrests reported.

The presumed threat from international passenger flights was, of course, enough to get the U.S. and French government to cancel those three Paris to L.A. flights on Christmas Eve. But, just what so terrified the anti-terrorism officials of these two nations? That's still not precisely clear. We thought we'd again, ask former Justice Department official, now host of radio's "The Loftus Report," John Loftus, to help us sort through this.

John, welcome back, good evening.

JOHN LOFTUS, HOST, "THE LOFTUS REPORT": Thank you.

OLBERMANN: We've heard a lot about matching names and trained pilots who didn't show up for one of the canceled flights. Based on your various sources within the intelligence community, what are they not telling us about this?

LOFTUS: Well we're looking at a pattern of worldwide of known al-Qaeda supporters that we've been monitoring and everyone now is talking about New Year's Eve, the Israelis formally put out an alert they expect an attack on their country, New Year's Eve to New Year's Day. 54 different alert warnings came in, just in Israel. They're not releasing all the intelligence because it's from a sensitive group of sources, but they are making it clear that the attacks could come by air, by sea, or a mass group of suicide bombers and that the targets would include religious sites, for example, the Christian religious sites in Jerusalem, would seem to be a target.

OLBERMANN: New Year's Eve on this continent, this latest development from Vegas, that airspace being closed, but not to commercial aircraft, does that suggest that what we were worried about last week, that truly that that whole Air France and the -- and perhaps Mexican Connection that something or at least maybe Homeland Security feels like they really did stop something that involved Vegas?

LOFTUS: It's a realistic possibility. Vegas has been a name that's come up a lot in some of the prisoner interrogations and in a little bit of the NSA intercepts, so it's entirely possible they could be a target. The attack will probably, though, come not from passenger planes, as much as the small general aviation planes and those are all over America. And -- but they really can't carry enough explosives to do much damage. But, they could carry your unconventional weapons, and that's what the alert in Israel was about, saying unconventional attack will be made on Israel from New Year's Eve to New Year's Day. So, it might be chemical, biological, or even a dirty bomb.

OLBERMANN: Dirty bombs. 48 hours after we went to the orange threat level, Jim Miklaszewski had the story of the fear of international pilots as al-Qaeda operatives. ABC had the possibility of the flights were from France and Mexico and that they might be canceled, as ultimately the French ones were. Is there concern in the intelligence community that whether or not the government should be specific about telling people what's in these terror threats, what's behind them, that one of those choices has got to be better than when those specifics get out anyway and it turns out that Jim Miklaszewski and Peter Thomas of ABC are doing a better job of keeping the American people informed about the specifics?

LOFTUS: Well, it's balance. I mean, people want to be informed, but do you want to inform al-Qaeda that we know where they're coming and when they're coming? It was a disaster in Paris, for example, when the -- you know, the French Airline clerks called the passengers and said, "Yeah, the flight's been canceled for security reasons." So well, the al-Qaeda guys knew not to come to the airport. You know, that was just dumb.

OLBERMANN: John, I must ask you about this FBI bulletin from Christmas Eve to the police forces about -- about almanacs. I mean, I -- almanacs, Al Gore, al-Qaeda. Are they being serious, here? Almanacs?

LOFTUS: You know, you'd be surprised some of the intriguing weapons that they've come up with. They actually now have explosive clothing, they soak it in explosives. That -- you know, very effective stuff. And -- you know, almanacs can be used to identify, for example, major rivers. What if they're going to put a few pounds of ricin into the water supply for a major city? I mean, an almanac would tell you which rivers go where.

OLBERMANN: But, how do you counter that? Not publishing almanacs or stopping people who carry them openly? Or -- I don't understand what to do next.

LOFTUS: No, I thing it's -- they're not telling people to seize almanacs. What they're saying is, look, if you see -- this might be a suspicious circumstance. If someone's carrying a map book or almanacs and he's obviously foreign to the area, he's newly arrived. So far the intelligence seems to indicate that there are going to be mass numbers of small attacks, a lot of little suicide bombings. You can't stop those, Keith. There's nothing that can be done. The Saudis are probably going to get the worst of it. Most intelligence seems to indicate that there's a massive group of al-Qaeda supporters that have been moving from Yemen into Saudi Arabia and they're really going to try and do major damage in that country.

OLBERMANN: John Loftus of radio's "The Loftus Report," as always, many thanks. Let the New Year dawn peacefully, sir. Thank you.

COUNTDOWN underway. Your preview of our upcoming No. 4 story: 45 minutes locked in with doo-doo.

First to pause the COUNTDOWN and clean up the stories from the neighborhood of Saddam Hussein, and first of Iraq.

Two U.S. soldiers from the 101st Airborne, wounded in a firefight in the northern city of Mosul, and three Iraqis, all suspected members of the al-Qaeda affiliate, Ansar al-Islam, were killed. The total of Americans injured in Iraq now, inches towards 1,800. This all happened yesterday when the troops arrived at, what a military spokesman described as a suspected Ansar al-Islam house in the city, and were greeted with small arms fire and grenades.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, an American soldier was killed along with two Iraqi children, when two improvised bombs went off as a U.S. military convoy passed by. At least 14 more were wounded.

And, by all accounts he has not coughed up the info on WMD, if any, nor on the insurgence, but an Iraqi official says Saddam Hussein is spilling the beans about the dough. Saddam has confessed the names of the people he told to keep his money, so says Iyad Allawi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Counsel, as quoted in the London Arabic language newspaper. A senior U.S. official tells NBC News the report is, quote, "Bull. This is not what he is telling interrogators. " Mr. Allawi says the IGC thinks Saddam may have secreted as much as $40 billion in banks around the world and he's given them a first hint.

There's also a report tonight, from Jordan that no fewer than 600 lawyers there, have volunteered to represent Hussein as his defense attorney. Well, we may not know where that $40 billion is now, but at least we know who will wind up with it.

Still ahead of us here tonight, the COUNTDOWN investigation. Could Michael Jackson, as he claims, have been locked up for 45 minutes in a doo-doo stained men's room by the Santa Barbara sheriff's office?

The COUNTDOWN mystery: Who stole Miss Marian's magic mirror? And what to do with the punks who mugged Miss Marian.

And the COUNTDOWN mystification: Two days 'til New Year's Eve. What are these people doing?

These stories ahead, first COUNTDOWN "Top 3 Newsmakers" of this day: No. 3: 20-year-old Brandi Nicole Nason of Citrus Heights, California. Brandi was not happy with the Christmas gift given to her by her former stepmother, so speaking for all of this holiday's dissatisfied recipients, she did what any one of us would do, she threw a Molotov cocktail through the woman's window. Tough to shop for.

No. 2: Masakazu Yamanaka, a passenger who wanted to see what would happen if he opened one of the doors on the Japanese train -- a Japanese bullet train -- on a Japanese bullet train going 186 miles an hour.

Answer: You do not get killed, you get arrested. The Kyoto police report notes dryly, he was reportedly drunk at the time.

And, No. 1: Paris Hilton, not the real Paris Hilton, mind you. Domino's pizza has surveyed its drivers in Washington, they report Paris Hilton is now the most favored fake name used by people calling for deliveries. That's well ahead of runner-up: John Ashcroft. So, the bad news is, it isn't the real Paris Hilton. The good news is, whoever she is, she has volunteered to remove one topping.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OLBERMANN: Coming up: More mudslide threatening parts of Southern California, and we'll put the Michael Jackson doo-doo story to the videotape smell test.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OLBERMANN: Our fourth story of the COUNTDOWN, tonight: Your entertainment dollars in action. Day 42 of the Michael Jackson investigation. Last night Jackson told millions of TV viewers that the day he turned himself in to the Santa Barbara County sheriff, officers locked him in a bathroom for 45 minutes, a bathroom whose walls were covered with, in his own words, "doo-doo." The math didn't seem to add up. The day Jackson surrendered, a sheriff's spokesman said the entire booking process only lasted 30 to 45 minutes. But, the videotapes don't lie, and Jackson's memory may not have either. Jackson entered the sheriff's facility at 12:24 p.m. Pacific and he left at 1:34 p.m. Pacific, that's 70 minutes, a maximum of 45 of which were spent in the actual booking process leaving 25 minutes or more for Jackson to have been locked in amid the doo-doo.

That, of course, was hardly the only topic in Jackson's first on-camera appearance since his arrest. Reaction, in a moment, from the reporter who's been ahead of this story since the beginning, "Court TV's" Diane Dimond. First, the "60 Minutes" interview itself. Our reporter is Jim Avila.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM AVILA, NBC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): First, came the blanket denial.

MICHAEL JACKSON, POP STAR: Totally false. Before I would hurt a child, I would slit my wrists. I would never hurt a child.

AVILA: Michael Jackson interviewed at a Los Angeles hotel on Christmas day telling "60 Minutes" he first met his 13-year-old accuser when the cancer victim was very sick from chemotherapy. The boy made many visits to Neverland, Jackson's Santa Barbara county ranch, where the singer says they climb trees together, played video games, and according to Jackson, slept in the same room, but not the same bed.

JACKSON: Well, what's wrong with sharing your bed? I didn't say I slept in the bed. Even if I did sleep in the bed, it's OK. I am not going to do anything sexual to a child. It's not where my heart is.

AVILA: Jackson went on the offensive claiming the boy's mother is after money and charging that 80 sheriff's deputies trashed his home while searching it for evidence and then mistreated him during the arrest leaving bruises on his body.

JACKSON: They manhandled me very roughly. My shoulder is dislocated, literally. It's hurting me very badly. I'm in pain all the time.

AVILA: As for his ranch, Jackson says it is no longer his primary residence.

JACKSON: I won't live there ever again. I'll visit Neverland. It's a house now, it's not a home anymore.

AVILA: Spoiled, he says, by investigators, who will next see Jackson in court January 16.

Jim Avila, NBC News, Santa Barbara.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OLBERMANN: Reaction to Jackson's aggressiveness in that interview was swift. The Santa Barbara County sheriff's department releasing its official statement, basically reiterating an earlier one about all this, quoting, The department would again re-emphasize that Mr. Jackson was treated with courtesy and professionalism throughout the arrest and booking process." Nothing about the doo-doo.

And, the bizarre references that Michael Jackson chose to use in his defense did not go unnoticed either. This reaction from a former attorney of the accuser's family, quoting him, "It seemed to me like he reindicted himself...His reference to being Jack the Ripper or a pedophile or not being Jack the Ripper or a pedophile, I thought was very strange."

Now as promised, we turn to the authority on all things Jackson for her reaction of the interview that was heard around the world, "Court TV's" Diane Dimond.

Diane, good evening.

DIANE DIMOND, "COURT TV": Hi Keith. Don't ask me about doo-doo, OK?

OLBERMANN: OK well...

DIMOND: OK.

OLBERMANN: ...not first, at least, anyway. In his accusations, the first time he has said these things, though his brother Jermaine had said them on "Dan Abram's Show" here, weeks back.

DIMOND: Right.

OLBERMANN: First, being locked in the bathroom, whatever details after that are irrelevant, does it ring true would the officers be dumb enough to hand him an anecdote that makes him look like a victim? And, where's Mark Geragos during those 45 minutes?

DIMOND: Well look, we can go back and forth on this. Prisoners are locked in bathrooms when they go in, when they knock on the door, they're unlocked, and allowed out. I am told, by sources inside the Santa Barbara County sheriff's department, that they locked him in there as usual, but also to protect him. Look, your point is very well taken. Mark Geragos was in that building with him the whole time. Do you think if Michael Jackson was locked in the bathroom for 45 minutes, taunted repeatedly by sheriff's department officials, manhandled, had his shoulder dislocated, don't you think Mark Geragos would have come marching out of that office and reported it all to the media? We were all standing out there waiting.

OLBERMANN: And you mentioned the shoulder, and he couldn't raise either arm above his shoulder as he demonstrated for Ed Bradley, and yet he waved on the way out of the sheriff's station -- doctors would say perhaps those were late-presenting symptoms. Is there any other explanation?

DIMOND: Watch his hand on the banister, there. He puts his full weight on the banister as he comes down the stairs on one shoulder, raises his arm up on the other throwing kisses, doing the peace sign. Look, the bottom line is Michael Jackson needed to have his say. He got it on national television last night. But, I'm not sure he did himself a whole world of good because I think there's a whole world of people that just don't buy a lot of what he said, not only the injuries, but the 70 -- 80 police officers inside his bedroom. I'm told there were only about 60 ever dispatched out there. There was too much "I'm the victim here." "my arms," "my house, I can never go back to," "my bruise on my arm." I don't think he struck the tone he meant to strike, there.

OLBERMANN: The other thing that struck me about this was this -- the thing that apparently was from off camera, he was stopped from going into further detail about, his theory that his new CD is No. 1 around the world except in the U.S. because of a conspiracy.

DIMOND: But yet he was never asked, a conspiracy by who? The police? Tommy Mottola? I mean, what was that about? It was just one of many, many questions follow-ups that I kept waiting for last night and I just didn't hear.

OLBERMANN: Tommy Mottola, Andy Lack, somebody like that.

The last thing, the CBS entertainment spokesman said that the network was not reschedule the entertainment special that Jackson had done unless he addressed the molestation charges with the network's news division. Did the whole thing thus, have the feeling of a quid pro quo?

DIMOND: Well, nobody officially is using that word, but certainly it does and I think it put Ed Bradley, who is a veteran correspondent, on a -- the granddaddy of all news magazines, in a very tough spot. First of all, I don't think he got enough time to ask the follow-up questions he should have or probably wanted to. And then to have this whole idea, this specter hanging over his head, well, OK, once you do this, no matter what you say, then we're going to go ahead and give you this special that you want, Michael, that's going to help you sell your CD that, yes indeed, is floundering here in America. So, it just didn't smack of anything I've ever heard surrounding the vulnerable old show, "60 Minutes," ever before. I think people are embarrassed there, today.

OLBERMANN: Well, just generally speaking, doo-doo runs downhill. So, there we have it. "Court TV's" Diane Dimond.

DIMOND: Only you could get away with this, Keith.

OLBERMANN: One hopes so. Many...

DIMOND: My pleasure.

OLBERMANN: Many thanks.

DIMOND: You bet.

OLBERMANN: Day 42 of Jackson, in the books, and the fastest moving hour in news moves on, perhaps downhill. Your preview of our upcoming No. 3 story: 10,000 pounds of beef recalled? That was some big cow, huh?

Also ahead, a child model's playground of lawsuits. This one will need to be seen to be believed.

Mad cow schizophrenia: Prices dropped for cattle; beef goes back on some supermarket shelves.

And, is this Santa the marrying kind or just a stickup man in disguise?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OLBERMANN: Now to pause the COUNTDOWN, per se, and dumpster dive headfirst into those stories of interest, but no importance; of the moment, but without momentousness-ness, in other works, let's play "Oddball!"

How not to propose marriage: Manse Mitchell, dressed as Santy, approached girlfriend, Meredith Maxim, at her job, pointed at his bag, reached for something, so naturally she assumed it was a stickup.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEREDITH MAXIM, GIRLFRIEND: I thought he was a burglar for sure.

MANSE MITCHELL, BOYFRIEND: I wanted to get her to donate money to a bag, say he was deaf, and then when she donated money, the present I was going to give was the ring, but it didn't quite happen like that.

MAXIM: All I could think about was, OK, he's wearing gloves, he's totally covered. You know, he's got gloves on so we can't get the fingerprint.

MITCHELL: She started getting scared so I asked -- I just said, "Will you to marry me?" to calm her down and then she got even more scared.

MAXIM: I saw him reach for the arm. That's when I thought it was a gun, or thought it was something and I ran.

MITCHELL: Will you marry me?

MAXIM: No. Oh, my god!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: Manse and Meredith finally straightened it all out. She agreed to marry him and they agreed on behalf of mankind not to pro-create.

Of course there are worse ways to get the girl, consider this one. The 27-year-old man from Piazza Armerina in Italy, his ex-girlfriend dumped him, he decided the way to win her back was to get her to pity him. So, naturally he asked a friend to shoot him with a pellet gun in the groin. Both the ex-boyfriend and his friend now face criminal charges. Ham. I like the pity thing, but the (BANG) seems to defeat the whole purpose of having the girlfriend in the first place.

And this doesn't work either, more chimney divers. Unnamed 34-year-old man says he somehow dropped his keys down the chimney of Uncle Hugo's Bookstore in Minneapolis early Christmas morning and decided to go down, and in after them, having, of course, first removed all of his clothing. He was stuck in the chimney all night, about eight hours, could have been 32 hours. The store's owner actually went into work on Christmas morning to put up some signs for some sort of a post-Christmas sale, and thus saved the guy's life. Our reminder once again, for like the 44th time, do not try to come down the chimney. Santa is both fictional and self-lubricating.

More "Oddball," model child, clearly not model parents. 2-year-old boy runs into a railing at a public playground, parents sue claiming the injuries are interfering with the toddler's income from modeling. The Connecticut newspaper "The Stamford Advocate" says Deena Mader has sued that city after the accident that befell her 2-year-old, Conrad -- Conrad Mador, child model. You are not looking at any of the children or jungle gyms actually involved in this story, by the way.

Conrad needed stitches, he had medical bills, he had pain and suffering, I'm quoting here, "a lost wage amount due to his inability to audition or take modeling or commercial job when his head -- while his head heals."

The kid's two!

No comment from the city or the mother, who is presumably protecting herself against the chance that, shortly, Conrad (ph) will be running away from home.

And lastly from "Oddball," it's New Year's Eve practice. Practice? Making sure the Times Square ball can drop unhindered? Perfecting crowd control, safety? No, silly, confetti practice. Every year, organizers open a window and throw official Times Square confetti out in the annual air-worthiness test, making sure it falls down rather than up, I guess. Two guys get paid to do this. Please note that much of the stuff blows back in on them. There are no doubt two other guys in charge of the blowback. And, yes, all the confetti, 100 percent ground-up almanacs.

I made the last part up.

Coming up to the break now on COUNTDOWN. When we return, Ottawa rejects an alleged Canadian connection to the mad cow scare in Washington state. Crews have moved from rescue to recovery in the shattered Iranian city of Bam. And George Steinbrenner has rebounded sufficiently form his fainting spell to start telling bad jokes about it.

All that ahead. First, as a public service to the half-a--million revelers and other drunks headed to my neighborhood for Times Square Wednesday night, A, keep it down. B, here's COUNTDOWN top three survival tips for a New York's rocking eve. No. 3, whatever you do, do not look Dick Clark directly in the eye or he will have your legs broken. No. 2, simple math, 500,000 people, 10 port-a-potties, best plan ahead accordingly. And, No. 1, bring plenty of duct tape. You never know when you might see someone carrying an almanac.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OLBERMANN: As if you didn't have enough Air France flights and almanacs to worry about, suddenly you're thinking twice about having pot roast for New Year's, hesitating about ordering pepperoni on your pizza. Welcome to day seven of madness that is mad cow America.

Now that we've survived a week of mind-numbing lessons on how renegade proteins can leave holes in your brain, tonight, some basic practical lessons on what you should and should not eat, our third story on the COUNTDOWN tonight. We'll get to those stories in a moment.

First, James Hattori with the new news about the 21st century equivalent of Mrs. O'Leary's cow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES HATTORI, NBC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Vancouver, Washington, today, extra-lean ground beef is back at WinCo foods after the store removed suspect beef cuts, part of 10,000 pounds of meat recalled so far from eight states and Guam.

The meat came from an infected Holstein in a central Washington ranch that was slaughtered three weeks ago at a local packing house; 80 percent went to Washington and Oregon, where customers are being notified.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Safer to stay away from it for now.

HATTORI: Department of Agriculture officials today said the infected animal, among 82 the ranch bought from Canada, was 6.5 years old, which means it was born before a ban on livestock feed containing cow brain or spinal cord material.

RON DEHAVEN, USDA CHIEF VETERINARIAN: Research evidence suggests that this is the primary, if not in fact the only means by which BSE is spread from animal to animal.

HATTORI: Officials maintain that, while meat from the tainted cow was sold, none of the infectious material reached the public.

DR. KEN PETERSEN, USDA: Because the meat leaving Verns did not contain these high-risk materials, the recalled beef presents an essentially zero risk to consumers.

HATTORI (on camera): But some watchdog groups question the Agriculture Department's quality control, saying recent budget cuts have undermined public confidence.

JOAN CLAYBROOK, PRESIDENT, PUBLIC CITIZEN: I think that this is really a wakeup call to consumers to be careful.

HATTORI (voice-over): Consumer group Public Citizen points to recent meat recalls from E coli and comments from USDA workers, who say they're overworked and spend less time in the field.

CLAYBROOK: I talked to one inspector who had to drive 200 miles a day and cover three plants. Well, you can imagine how little he saw.

HATTORI: Lack of confidence, too, on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where prices for live cattle futures have fallen more than 10 percent over the last three trading days. And the plunge could have been much worse, because the exchange shuts down selling after a large drop to keep investors from panicking.

James Hattori, NBC News, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OLBERMANN: The scope of the danger emanating from that single infected dairy cow might best be illustrated by geology. Beef originating from 20 carcasses from Washington state now being recalled as far away as Guam. Federal officials extended the recall order Sunday. So it now encompasses the eight Western states and that U.S. territory. So far, about 10,000 pounds of raw beef recalled from the four states of Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada.

And now that American officials say they've traced the infected cow north of the border, officials in Ottawa are fuming that this is just another excuse for the states to blame Canada. During a news conference today, that nation's agriculture minister continued to dispute U.S. claims that the diseased cow originated on a farm in Alberta Province.

American officials base the claim on a single ear tag that they say recovered from the animal when it was slaughtered. Canadian officials are still bristling at the USDA's sledgehammer approach from last spring when one Canadian cow tested positive. They are now countering that the ear tag is not enough proof. And like some bovine O.J. Simpson case, Canada is now holding out for more proof of the cow's nationality from DNA tests.

Since this all broke a week ago tomorrow, parts of each of our brains have gotten as spongy as those of mad cow victims themselves. If we hear any more about the medicine here, we'll all earn honorary degrees in veterinary science from the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University.

How about the real question, eat it or throw it away? Phil Lempert is foods trends editor of "The Today Show" and editor of SuperMarketGuru.com.

Good evening, sir. Thanks for your time tonight.

PHIL LEMPERT, SUPERMARKETGURU.COM: Thank you, Keith.

OLBERMANN: Let's get as much practical advice as we can out there. Start in the supermarket. What beef should I buy? What should I skip in the short term?

LEMPERT: Well, to be honest with you, if you do love beef and you don't want to cut down, the best thing you can do is to buy certified organic beef.

Because of the certified organic regulations that took place about two years ago, anything that's certified organic means that that cow was not fed any animal protein, just a vegetarian diet. So whether it's certified organic, or there are some other brands out there, for example, like Coleman, which actually states on the label that that animal has not been fed any animal protein.

OLBERMANN: All right, let's move away from places that have ingredients labels. I'm at Wendy's. I'm at McDonald's, Arby's, the diner on the corner. Yes or no on the burgers?

LEMPERT: Well, all of the fast-food chains have sent out press releases guaranteeing, if you will, that they are BSE-free.

The question is really very personal. You've got to understand that a lot of these ground meat products do have byproducts in them. Now, in the case of major fast-food chains, they guarantee that it's not there. So if you do love that burger, you can feel safe. But nobody is going to say 99 percent sure.

OLBERMANN: Away from beef for a second. This can also perhaps get into processed meats, bologna, pepperoni, hot dogs. Is it a gray area? Is there any rule of thumb in this?

LEMPERT: Yes.

Keith, what you want to do is, you want to read those ingredient labels. You want to be careful of those ingredients that say byproducts, for example. We're really talking about brains. We're talking about that spinal cord, the tissue that can be added in there. You also want to keep away from T-bone steaks. If you're in a soup market, you want to buy ground beef, look for ground chuck.

In fact, the best thing to do, if you love ground beef, is get a piece, then bring it to the butcher in the supermarket and have them grind it for you right there, so you know that no fillers or any other tissue is being added to it.

OLBERMANN: And, finally, you have raised a red flag on this that I don't think many of us would have thought of. In some respects, it's a tragedy of a whole different sort. This outbreak could have an impact on people through dog food and cat food, too?

LEMPERT: Yes, Keith.

Keep in mind -- and nobody has the exact number -- but it's estimated that between 10 percent and 15 percent of pet food is actually consumed by humans. So, again, you want to read those labels and you want to buy products. And, in fact, Newman's Own, Paul Newman's daughter, now has organic pet food. So if you're one of those people that are eating pet food, again, you might want to think organic.

OLBERMANN: Phil Lempert of "The Today Show" and SuperMarketGuru.com, cutting through the bull, literally, for us. And with all the other talk going on, truly appreciate it, sir. Thanks.

LEMPERT: Thank you, Keith.

OLBERMANN: Past the midpoint of the COUNTDOWN.

And your preview of our No. 2 story, nature's other wrath, not the one, but the tens of thousands. Also still ahead, a deadly consequence of the recent wildfires in Southern California. Plus, how an attack on the queen's corgis is tantamount to a death sentence. And some "Romper Room" solidarity. After the worst of all possible "Romper Room" crimes, something stole Ms. Mary Ann's magic mirror.

Stand by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OLBERMANN: The mystery of the missing magic mirror and advertising a martini with a teetotaler still ahead on COUNTDOWN.

Stand by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OLBERMANN: The holidays may have given us some refuge from work, but they have not offered much sanctuary from the wrath of Mother Nature.

Our No. 2 story tonight, the disaster wrought not by men, but rather by nature, beginning in Southern California. Authorities are now warning residents in the San Bernardino Mountains to prepare for the possibility of more devastating weather and thus the prospect of more devastating results, that warning coming on the same day that yet another victim was recovered, an 8-month-old baby, by far the youngest of the 13 found dead so far in mudslides. This all traces back to the horrible wildfires.

A wall of mud came scratching down a scorched hillside, uprooting a home where several had just sat down to Christmas dinner. Four days later, those rains continue, four inches total today and tomorrow. A 13-year-old boy is still missing.

And those mudslides are as nothing to the unyielding horror in Iran, 25,000 dead, at least, 15,000 or more hospitalized, a vow to rebuild, followed hard upon by an insistence that further rescue efforts beyond tonight are without purpose, followed by a seismologist's prediction that, if a similar earthquake hit the capital city of Tehran, it would destroy half the buildings there and kill 700,000.

MSNBC's Preston Mendenhall is in what remains of the medieval city of Bam.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRESTON MENDENHALL, NBC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Their home was flattened, but the Fakhralipour family survived. And today, they were digging for any possessions they could find.

They jumped from their windows during the 12-second quake, escaping while their neighbors were crushed as their home collapsed next door.

(on camera): You must feel like the luckiest man in town.

(voice-over): "Everyone says so," he tells me.

Authorities say as many as 40,000 people were killed here, almost half the population of this ancient town. Thousands are still missing. Entire families were lost. Bodies lie unclaimed in the streets, increasing the threat of disease. This man says over 300 relatives, several generations of his family, were killed. In the surrounding region, more than 100,000 people have been left homeless.

(on camera): Almost all the houses here are made of mud, bricks, and straw. The quake reduced the town to rubble in a matter of seconds.

(voice-over): The owner of this guest house, a favorite among foreign travelers, lost almost everything. His son and an American tourist were killed when the hotel collapsed.

AKBAR PANJALIZADEH, FATHER OF EARTHQUAKE VICTIM: This house means a lot. It was my dream for ages to do this. I was always dreaming of doing a job.

MENDENHALL: An American relief team arrived today. And 150,000 pounds of U.S. supplies have been delivered to help those who survived.

But, in the rubble tonight, emergency workers from 22 countries shifted focus from rescue to the recovery of bodies. As more of the dead were buried, some people still searched for loved ones in the streets of this once-thriving desert oasis now filled with destruction and despair.

Preston Mendenhall, NBC News, Bam, Iran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OLBERMANN: One story remaining in tonight's COUNTDOWN. And your preview, obviously, not a do-be, but a don't-be.

First, nothing but don't-bes. They populate our nightly review of the no-man's land of news. We call it "Keeping Tabs."

And America's turtleneck manufacturers are breathing a collective sigh of relief. George Steinbrenner went back home today. On the eve of his 31st anniversary as the owner of baseball's New York Yankees, the 73-year-old Steinbrenner collapsed in Florida Saturday night while attending a memorial for his friend, the late football star Otto Graham. Steinbrenner's spokesman said he passed all cardiac tests and will go back to the office tomorrow.

And the owner himself said -- quote -- "I really didn't faint. I was practicing my slide into second base." And judging by the quality of that joke, he is absolutely himself again.

Back to England's equivalent of the royalty that is American sports ownership. And you may not be surprised to hear that Queen Elizabeth is arguing that an unpredictable rogue animal is ruining things and she wants that animal put down. The surprise is, she's not talking about Prince Charles.

It's Dotty, the bull terrier belonging to Princess Anne. Last week she, the terrier, not the princess, mauled and killed Pharos, one of Queen Elizabeth's prized corgi dogs. Dotty also attacked two children last year.

And taking a page from the Catherine Zeta-Jones school of acting, the noble Gwyneth Paltrow has reportedly received $7 million to do a series of advertisements for Italian liquor, this even though she does not drink and even though she recently married her boyfriend, who also does not drink, and even though she is four months pregnant. Ms. Paltrow reportedly insisted that the ads not be shown outside Italy.

As Dennis Rodman once said of Michael Jordan, if they made jock straps you wore on your face and they paid him enough, Michael would do a commercial for them.

Tonight's No. 1 story is still ahead. And here's a headline hint: Mugger makes off with magic mirror.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OLBERMANN: I see Virginia and Lee and Tina and Desi.

Ah, but it is who I don't see that brings us to our No. 1 story on the COUNTDOWN tonight, namely, the punks who made off with Ms. Mary Ann's magic mirror. Mary Ann King was the beloved host of the Los Angeles edition of the children's television classic "Romper Room" for the 10 years between 1966 and '76.

But nearly two week ago, Ms. King was mugged. She suffered a broken arm and a punctured lung. And more devastating to her, somebody stole her magic mirror, the one through which she saw the kids in the audience and reeled off their names. As all the hostesses of the various editions of "Romper Room," she did this on the air. And she had had to do it off the air, too.

She did it when the kids were 7. She did it when the kids were 37 and would approach her on the street and ask her why she never said their name. That is why she was carrying the mirror stolen by the muggers. Physically, she is on the mend. But she told "The Los Angeles Times" they don't make those mirrors anymore. And she does not know what to do now.

We have good news, Ms. Mary Ann.

I'm joined by now by Ms. Mary Ann's successor, Socorro Serrano, better known to her fans as Ms. Soco.

And good evening to you.

SOCORRO SERRANO, FORMER "ROMPER ROOM" HOST: Good evening. Glad to be here.

OLBERMANN: So you have good news for Ms. Mary Ann? Is that correct?

SERRANO: Absolutely.

In 1989, when I finished my stint -- I was the "Romper Room" teacher here in Los Angeles from '76 to '89 -- I packed everything up, sent it back to Baltimore headquarters. And they sent me back the magic mirror with their thanks. And just like Ms. Mary Ann, I had my show "Romper Room" mirror, but I had my backup personal appearance "Romper Room" mirror, too.

OLBERMANN: So you have got a spare for her to replace the one that somebody ran off with.

SERRANO: I'm waiting right here with a spare magic mirror for her. And this is the one that we all used to use to see everybody at home. That's right.

OLBERMANN: And that is such good news.

And there was something also very sweet, even though it involved Ms. King being injured. I was charmed about the story about carrying the mirror with her, because, when I lived in Los Angeles, one of my friends was the late actress Elizabeth Montgomery. And we used to travel together crosscountry. And she was inevitably besieged by viewers who had seen her on "Bewitched" years before who wanted her to do that little thing with her nose.

And, of course, she always obliged.

SERRANO: Yes.

OLBERMANN: Have you experienced what Mary Ann King spoke of, adults coming up to you and saying, "Hey, Ms. Soco, why didn't you mention my name?"

SERRANO: All the time. Absolutely.

It's interesting. I had 4,000 kids on the show. And every day, we should -- I would call off like eight or 10 names. But let me tell you what the secret was. The parents used to send the kids' names in. They used to send drawings of the kids. And they used to say, see my child in the magic mirror? And then I would send a card back to the parent, saying make sure that Rafael is sitting in front of the TV next Thursday, because I'm calling his name out.

And we went through thousands and thousands of names like that. And, of course, being Southern California, we had the diversity of the names. We had the Rafaels and the Keishas and Latanyas and the Chens, everybody that I could think of. And yet, to this day, people stop me on the street and say, I never saw them in the magic mirror.

OLBERMANN: I don't know that

(CROSSTALK)

OLBERMANN: You do that, too?

SERRANO: Well, I don't carry the magic mirror around with me. The thing about it, the reason I still have the magic mirror, actually, is that, after '89, I went on, worked at other TV stations, kind of put that away as just a wonderful time in my life.

And it wasn't until I saw the story this last Saturday that I actually found the box and pulled the mirror out. Most of the time, when kids -- or adults -- come up to me and say, you never saw my name, I will say, you know, I will bet you left early that day for school, because I could have sworn I said your name.

OLBERMANN: Well, we can't possibly resist the temptation to ask you, if you will look into the magic mirror for us now and see some of the audience members right here on COUNTDOWN.

SERRANO: Absolutely. Here we go. And say it along with me. Come on, everybody in the United States knows this.

Romper bomper stomper boo, tell me, tell me tell me, do, magic mirror, tell me today, did my friends have fun at play?" I see Megan, Patricia, Keith. I see Dennis and Rich. I see Steve. I see Mario, Amanda, Martin, Kirsten, and you, Ms. Mary Ann. And I will see you again in "Romper Room" school.

OLBERMANN: Ah, Ms. Soco, so many thanks. And I don't know how you saw Rich, because he is in the back not doing anything. But that is another story altogether.

(LAUGHTER)

SERRANO: It is a magic mirror. Don't forget.

OLBERMANN: It is. It's a magic -- it would have to be to see him.

(LAUGHTER)

OLBERMANN: Socorro Serrano, now in media relations for Kaiser Permanente health care, many thanks for your time. And if we hear from Ms. Mary Ann first, we will make sure she gets in touch with you, so you can give her that spare magic mirror and we can resolve this. Many thanks.

SERRANO: Absolute pleasure to do it. Thank you for your help.

OLBERMANN: OK. Take care.

Now to recap tonight's COUNTDOWN stories. Five, threat and counterthreat, new rules requiring armed marshals on select international flights. And Las Vegas closes its airspace -- to private planes, anyway -- over the new year, FBI warning that terrorists could be armed with almanacs. Four, the Michael Jackson case. He breaks his silence, claiming he was locked in a bathroom and taunted by officers. He also claims a conspiracy is keeping his album from reaching No. 1 here.

Three, mad cow madness. Which meats are OK? Experts say sirloin is safe. Pepperoni poses problems. Two, natural disasters, the deadly mudslides in California and extraordinarily devastating earthquake in Iran. And No. 1, solidarity in the "Romper Room," Ms. Soco offering to help Ms. Mary Ann replace her stolen magic mirror. We got something done tonight.

That's COUNTDOWN. I'm Keith Olbermann. Thanks for being part of it.

Good night and good luck.

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