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CNN Live At Daybreak
War on Terrorists; Renewed Debate on Ending All Volunteer Service; Free Speech?; Terrorist Threats; Gift of Life
Aired April 22, 2003 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: A militant Saudi group calling itself the Brigade of the Two Holy Shrines has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Riyadh. The car bomb ripped through a building housing Saudi security forces, killing 4 people and injuring 148.
The Saudi ambassador to the United States says this attack means war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE BANDAR BIN SULTAN, SAUDI AMB. TO THE U.S.: It's a total war with them now. And there will be no compromises and no give up -- no -- we're not going to give up on them. We're going to protect our people. We're going to protect the guests who live with us in our country. And good will beat evil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Officials in Riyadh believe the al Qaeda terror network is behind that attack.
Let's talk more about the bombings and how they impact the region and the United States. For that, we head overseas to London and Professor Robert Springborg, director of the London Middle East Institute.
Welcome to DAYBREAK.
PROF. ROBERT SPRINGBORG, DIRECTOR, LONDON MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: Good morning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: When Prince Bandar says this means total war, what does he mean?
SPRINGBORG: Well the Saudis have been collaborating -- excuse me -- much more closely with the American security force, especially the FBI, in recent months. And part of that has included a crackdown on terrorists throughout the Kingdom. Indeed there was a crackdown 10 days ago in one of the poorer sections of Riyadh that led to a firefight. I think what we're going to see is an intensification of the collaborations. The Saudis themselves have said, with American support, to try to extirpate as many of these elements as they possibly can.
COSTELLO: And when you say American support, you mean more FBI agents, more CIA over there in Saudi Arabia?
SPRINGBORG: I'm not sure that there will be more there, but there was, as you know, probably a bit of foot dragging in Saudi cooperation up until some months ago. And then as the threat to Saudi increased, so did the willingness to cooperate increase. And now it would be suggested that that cooperation is quite closely, because last week, the American State Department issued orders for non- essential personnel from the embassy to be evacuated. So clearly there is very close collaboration going on at the present time. And I think this event will reinforce that collaboration and hopefully reinforce the results growing out of it.
COSTELLO: Well it's interesting you mean -- you mentioned foreign nationals within Saudi Arabia, because there seems to be a shift in tactics here that the terrorists are now striking Saudis.
SPRINGBORG: Yes, that's correct. That's what is new about this particular event. The reaction against the crackdown by the Saudi security forces in the past two weeks or so may be seen in this form. That is to say now there is a direct confrontation between Saudi security and these elements and so they are reacting against the Saudi security forces.
And it must be added that including those killed in this -- in this bombing were traffic police. And why traffic police? It is speculated that it is those traffic police who have been cooperating with security and intelligence in providing license plate numbers and so on. So we could see this possibly as a sort of a tit for tat, a revenge situation now that's engulfing the terrorists on the one hand and Saudi security forces on the other.
COSTELLO: Is it also evidence that these terrorists are becoming more radical and more extreme?
SPRINGBORG: It's possible. The events over the border in Iraq could very well have not only emboldened these elements in Saudi Arabia but also cause them to widen their target range to include Saudis themselves. There are certainly those in their world who feel that the time is right for a revolution. That is to say that the struggle in Iraq can be generalized now and that Saudi Arabia is an obvious place for that to occur. So it could very well be that an upsurge of these sorts of incidents is going to be taking place not only in Saudi but more widely throughout the region as part of an effort to generalize the situation in Iraq.
COSTELLO: Professor Robert Springborg from the London Middle East Institute, thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning.
We want to talk now about what's happening inside of Iraq. Funeral services are going on in Basra.
Our senior international David -- our senior international editor David Clinch is here to tell us more about that.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Morning, Carol. It's a lot calmer today than it was yesterday. It's never, you know, exciting or never -- I should say it is exciting to sort of cover those events that happened yesterday in Fallujah and Basra, but the sad side of course is the human costs.
Looking in Basra today as anywhere, I'm not sure of the exact figures, anywhere between 15 and 20 young children being buried in the streets there. These were children who, according to early reports, had actually been taken from their schools in buses because they weren't considered safe there and then got caught in the bombings there. So quite a tense situation in Basra today, although no further violence that we're aware of.
Fallujah also, we were covering that incredible shootout yesterday with the Marines there. We got an update from the Marines late last night that they thought they had killed over 30 of the insurgents who were firing against them. Again, no further violence there that we're aware of.
But on the other hand, no significant evidence, according to the Marines, of any progress really on this cease-fire idea of the insurgents handing in their weapons or of the civilian population coming back. Some weapons have been hand over -- handed over, but not very many, and not of the type that were being used yesterday against the Marines.
COSTELLO: Right. Let's go back to Basra for just a second, it's quiet there.
CLINCH: Yes.
COSTELLO: Basra really has been pretty calm overall.
CLINCH: Right.
COSTELLO: Who were the people of Basra blaming for this attack?
CLINCH: Right. Well we've been reporting on this somewhat today. There is a mixed reaction. Immediately there was this knee- jerk reaction based on some rumors, and obviously you never know where these rumors start, that the British forces were responsible for the attacks. Obviously that's a rumor. That was not the case.
But what we do know today is that supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, the same radical cleric who is holed up in Najaf, who has been causing trouble there and elsewhere, this plaza, obviously, a Shiite area, his group, that's not the majority of people, but his group are blaming the British and are blaming the Americans and they are getting out in the street.
Now again, that's a minority, but given the atmosphere of violence, he is desperately trying to feed on that. And it creates a problem for the British forces. It has been relatively peaceful there, but they have been taking a hands-off approach. When these things happen, the British, obviously, have to debate do they go back in again in a big way or do they stay out? A very tough decision for the British, and Tony Blair has a press conference later today. We'll hear from him on that I'm sure.
COSTELLO: All right. Many thanks, David Clinch.
CLINCH: OK.
COSTELLO: U.S. troops in Iraq stretched thin, ordered to stay longer and there's already talk that even more troops will be needed. This has led some in Congress to talk about something we haven't seen since the Vietnam War, that would be the draft.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't want a draft. And I don't think we need a draft. And I think what we need is a president who knows how to take the steps to get other countries involved in this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: If in fact this is a generational war that the president has noted, we -- all of us, I think, have noted -- then why should we ask a very few people in our society to bear the heavy price, to carry the heavy burden and not ask everybody to carry some burden?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: All right. Jimmy Barrett from WRVA Radio in Richmond, Virginia joins us to talk about this controversial topic. We want to hear what Jimmy is telling his listeners out there in Virginia.
Good morning -- Jimmy.
JIMMY BARRETT, WRVA RADIO, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA: Hey, good morning feisty one. How are you?
COSTELLO: I'm fine, feisty one right back at you.
BARRETT: That's all right, I like playing slap and tickle with you. It's fun.
COSTELLO: My goodness! Can you say that now in light of the FCC regulations?
BARRETT: Yes, of course we can. Come on!
COSTELLO: I was wondering though how the people in Virginia were taking word of a possible draft?
BARRETT: Well you know here's the thing about the draft, I don't know that anybody is taking it very seriously right now. As you know, Virginia is a military state with a -- with a fine record of service. We have a lot of military bases here. We're very, very supportive of the military. How supportive they would be of a possible draft, I'm not quite sure. I don't think realistically we need a draft.
I see two problems here, and I'm wondering what you think about this. No. 1, we're obviously spread way too thin.
COSTELLO: Yes.
BARRETT: We are way too thin. There is supposed to be an organization out there called the United Nations that pulls all these countries together. Why do we need to have U.S. troops stationed in Bosnia at this particular point in time? Can't we pull some of those people out?
COSTELLO: Well I think that there is a thought process (ph) on that going on right now. But you know Spain is pulling out of Iraq, Honduras is pulling out of Iraq. And you know while that's not a sizeable number of soldiers, at least the Spanish troops were in charge of some important stuff there.
BARRETT: Well, yes, and you're talking about 1,300 troops from Spain, also, a little over 300 troops from the Dominican Republic and Honduras, that really doesn't add up to a whole heck of a lot. I'm not saying that the Spanish troops, as you said, weren't doing something fairly serious to help this effort, I know that they were, but they are very replaceable numbers.
But I think it also brings about another great issue as far -- if we really do need to recruit more soldiers, aside from a draft, which I think would be pretty unpopular in this country right now, aside from a draft, what could you do? And I think, quite frankly, we can -- most of us can agree that our military remains woefully, woefully underpaid. We're not paying soldiers enough. We're not providing enough benefits here for -- to -- these people to...
COSTELLO: Well, but realistically, I don't think their pay is going to increase because the war is starting to cost more and more. They are already over budget in Iraq.
BARRETT: Well we're over budget but are we over -- are we over budget because of what we're paying our soldiers or are we over budget because of other considerations, not the least of which is the amount of bombs that we have dropped, the amount of deployment that we have used? I mean there are so many other costs that go into a military situation.
COSTELLO: But isn't it all in the same pot?
BARRETT: Well, yes, it's all in the same pot here, but do you want to spend the money on soldiers or do you want to -- what do you want to spend the money on?
COSTELLO: Well there is also some sentiment that there are not enough, you know, bullet proof vests in Iraq and not enough equipment. So you're going to have to pay more money -- more money for those things as well.
BARRETT: Well there's no doubt this war is going to go down as the most expensive war certainly in the -- in the time period that it ends up being fought in United States history. I mean we have spent how much now, $700 billion, $800 billion. We're going to have to spend billions of dollars more. We don't know how much longer we're going to be there. And the decision at this point is is how long do we stay?
I mean the president says we're not going to cut and run, so we might as well be prepared if we're going to be spending billions and billions more. And if we need more soldiers, then let's spend it on our citizens and get more soldiers. I don't want to send people to Iraq who don't even want to be a part of the military. I'll tell you one thing, the United States Marines would want to have no part of a draft right now. They want to make sure that the people are joining up for the Marines are people who want to be a part of the military.
COSTELLO: All right, and with that, that ends our time. Jimmy Barrett from WRVA Radio in Richmond, Virginia. Thanks for joining DAYBREAK this morning.
Well the Chinese say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Well they have taken some steps towards allowing free speech.
But as our Mike Chinoy reports, they have also taken some steps backward.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was one of the high points of Vice President Cheney's trip to China last week, a speech at Shanghai's Fudan University. After complex negotiations, the Chinese agreed to air the speech live on a Chinese news channel, but they did so with no prior announcement to viewers, at an hour when few people were watching. And then the Web site of the Communist Party's official mouthpiece, The People's Daily, published what it described as the full text of Cheney's remarks in which references to politically sensitive topics were changed or deleted.
Here is one example.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Across Asia, rising prosperity and expanding political freedom have gone hand in hand.
CHINOY: On the People's Daily Web site, the words political freedom were cut out.
Beijing's doctoring of Cheney's speech just days after he met Chinese leaders was documented by a China expert at the U.S. Naval Academy, Yu Maochun.
YU MAOCHUN, U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY: I think the Chinese government is nervous about a lot of things. And one of the things they were really nervous about is the spread of democracy in East Asia.
CHINOY: All together, Chinese sensors made more than a dozen major alterations or deletions. This is what Cheney said on Taiwan.
CHENEY: We support the principle of one China based upon the three communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act.
CHINOY: But the Web site deleted the reference to the Taiwan Relations Act, the law under which the U.S. sells weapons to help Taiwan defend itself from a possible Chinese attack.
Also cut, references to the need for democracy in the Middle East, details on North Korea's nuclear program and this...
CHENEY: The war on terror must never be used as an excuse for silencing legitimate dissent.
MAOCHUN: They struck out the portion on that how -- somehow war on terror cannot be used as an excuse to suppress the individual rights of citizens. In the -- in the specific context of China, of course, is the Muslims in Chinese and central Asia in Chinga (ph) province and the Tibetans and the other pro-democracy activists and anybody China doesn't like.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHINOY: This is hardly the first time the Chinese have censored or doctored what outsiders say. Last year, for example, when the Chinese edition of Hillary Clinton's book came out, Chinese sensors took out unflattering references in that book about China and didn't tell Hillary Clinton that they were doing so. For the country's authoritarian Communist Party, it seems old habits die hard -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Mike Chinoy reporting live for us from Beijing this morning.
The 9/11 attacks, some say we had a failure to communicate. Just ahead, how intelligence agencies are trying to make sure they no longer keep secrets from each other about terror threats.
This is DAYBREAK for Thursday, April 22.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:48 Eastern. Here is what's all new this morning.
A Saudi militant group is claiming responsibility for the latest suicide bombing in Riyadh and vowing more attacks. The blast on security forces headquarters killed at least 4 people and wounded 148 others.
Asia's crowded shipping and financial centers could be the target of a terrorist attack. That's the new warning from Washington this morning.
And in money news, electronics giant Sony Corporation and two buy out firms have their sights set on MGM Studios. The companies are in advanced talks to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $5 billion. In sports, today is the day the next batch of inductees into the world Golf Hall of Fame will be named.
And in culture, happy Earth Day. Today is the 35th observance of nature's day all around the world. Celebrations and activities are expected to attract millions of people.
MYERS: And coming up in the next hour, obviously, be talking to the folks at Home Depot.
This afternoon, warm across parts of the South, stormy across the Central Plains. Go to the other map source, we'll actually see the temperatures there. Temperatures in the 50s and 60s already across the northeast and across the south central plains as well. Never mind, we'll just stay with this one -- Carol.
COSTELLO: You're just having all kinds of map trouble today.
MYERS: Ugly, ugly day today.
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you.
You have probably never heard of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, TTIC for short, but it just could help prevent another terrorist attack like 9/11.
Our national security correspondent David Ensor tells us about this in an exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is an experiment cobbled together a year ago in temporary offices at the CIA. The urgent mission of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center is to make the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security and other agencies share everything they know about terrorists, a response to the failures to communicate before the 9/11 attacks.
In his first television interview, Director John Brennan told CNN the experiment is working. By comparing FBI and CIA data, he says, TTIC has already identified dangerous terrorists.
JOHN BRENNAN, DIRECTOR, TTIC: And so now we have those names on watch lists.
ENSOR (on camera): From its temporary headquarters here at the CIA, TTIC run a government-only top-secret Web site with about 3.5 million terrorism related documents on it. About 2,500 people worldwide have the clearances necessary to log on.
(voice-over): The goal is to make sure the next time an FBI field agent writes a memo like the one from Phoenix in 2001 warning about Middle Eastern men training to fly passenger jets, that memo will get to every U.S. official who should know about it.
BRENNAN: When that agent in the field, whether they're in Phoenix or whether they're overseas, pushes that button and it arrives at their headquarters, we see it at the same time, the same exact time.
ENSOR: But our traditionally turf conscious agencies really sharing everything with TTIC? Do they have the computers to do so? Not all the bosses believe it.
GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: We need to make sure that the domestic data shows up. And we need to keep pressure to make sure that happens. Otherwise, you're going to have a lot of data and no left hand to meet the right hand.
ENSOR: And the staff director of the joint congressional intelligence inquiry says TTIC analysts don't always get the raw intelligence from the CIA and others.
ELEANOR HILL, FORMER STAFF DIRECTOR, 9/11 CONGRESSIONAL COMMISSION: We heard that time and again during our inquiry, complaints from analysts that could not do their job without access to that raw intelligence.
ENSOR: But Brennan insists, from the interrogation reports on al Qaeda prisoner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, to FBI wiretaps, his people can see the raw material that they need to.
BRENNAN: I and the analysts in TTIC can see whatever we need that is going to shed light into the threat of terrorism.
ENSOR: Right now, TTIC is based at CIA headquarters, but at the end of May, the center plans to move to one of the most secure buildings ever devised.
BRENNAN: It is being built to in far excess of Oklahoma City standards in terms of its durability, its strength.
ENSOR: The new building is the Tyson's Corner, Virginia, area, officials say. Sources say but officials will not confirm that this is the building that will house a state-of-the-art operations center for TTIC, along with the FBI and CIA's counterterrorism staffs.
BRENNAN: There is going to be no dividing walls between TTIC and CIA and FBI officers. There is going to be a free flow of information and exchange so that as information comes in, information can be shared and acted upon.
ENSOR (on camera): Do you think that another September 11 attack could happen?
BRENNAN: I think that we have positioned this country the best way possible to prevent another occurrence. I am not of the mind that another attack is inevitable.
ENSOR (voice-over): Not inevitable, but the possibility, Brennan admits, sometimes keeps him awake at night.
David Ensor, CNN, Langley, Virginia. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: In the next hour of DAYBREAK, trying to grow a green thumb, we have some tips on how to plant shrubs.
Plus,...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA AMSTER, WAITING FOR A KIDNEY: You have the opportunity to save a life, do you want to do it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The growing need for organ donors is a life and death matter. Just ahead, one woman's fight to stay alive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Organ donation is something most of us don't worry about, thank goodness, but it's a huge worry if you are one of the more than 84,000 people waiting for an organ transplant. Before today ends, about 16 people will die waiting.
Christy Feig looks at this issue of life and death.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTY FEIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Barbara Amster and Rodney Rodriguez (ph) would love to have children of their own, but first, she needs a kidney transplant. So far, she's been waiting three years.
AMSTER: Because I'm on dialysis, it's a very risky pregnancy. I would have to pretty much be on dialysis every day.
FEIG: She already gets three hours of dialysis every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after work. But her wait for a kidney could be long.
WALTER GRAHAM, UNITED NETWORK FOR ORGAN SHARING: Well currently there are almost 85,000 people waiting in this country for vital organ transplants. The sad thing is that about 6,000 of those people will die this year because there are not enough organs donated.
FEIG (on camera): One of the biggest misconceptions about signing up to be an organ donor is doctors won't try as hard to save you if something happens.
(voice-over): But experts say that's not the case.
GRAHAM: And they will do everything they can to save your life. If something happens and a person becomes brain dead, then an entirely different medical team is called in to talk about organ donation and to do the organ recoveries.
FEIG: So when you are asked, do you want to be an organ donor, Barbara wants you to see it from her point of view.
AMSTER: You have the opportunity to save a life, do you want to do it?
FEIG: In the meantime, her dream waits.
AMSTER: Hopefully one day, if I get a transplant, I'll have my little pitter patters running around my house.
FEIG: In Washington, I'm Christy Feig.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address, CNN.com/Health.
An official indictment against the so-called King of Pop, what is next for Michael Jackson? In the next hour of DAYBREAK, we'll have a live report for you out of California.
Plus a rousing welcome for these troops safe at home, a live report out of Fort Hood, Texas just ahead on DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: A welcome home party for thousands of soldiers, a bittersweet celebration for one military community today.
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Aired April 22, 2003 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: A militant Saudi group calling itself the Brigade of the Two Holy Shrines has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Riyadh. The car bomb ripped through a building housing Saudi security forces, killing 4 people and injuring 148.
The Saudi ambassador to the United States says this attack means war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE BANDAR BIN SULTAN, SAUDI AMB. TO THE U.S.: It's a total war with them now. And there will be no compromises and no give up -- no -- we're not going to give up on them. We're going to protect our people. We're going to protect the guests who live with us in our country. And good will beat evil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Officials in Riyadh believe the al Qaeda terror network is behind that attack.
Let's talk more about the bombings and how they impact the region and the United States. For that, we head overseas to London and Professor Robert Springborg, director of the London Middle East Institute.
Welcome to DAYBREAK.
PROF. ROBERT SPRINGBORG, DIRECTOR, LONDON MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: Good morning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: When Prince Bandar says this means total war, what does he mean?
SPRINGBORG: Well the Saudis have been collaborating -- excuse me -- much more closely with the American security force, especially the FBI, in recent months. And part of that has included a crackdown on terrorists throughout the Kingdom. Indeed there was a crackdown 10 days ago in one of the poorer sections of Riyadh that led to a firefight. I think what we're going to see is an intensification of the collaborations. The Saudis themselves have said, with American support, to try to extirpate as many of these elements as they possibly can.
COSTELLO: And when you say American support, you mean more FBI agents, more CIA over there in Saudi Arabia?
SPRINGBORG: I'm not sure that there will be more there, but there was, as you know, probably a bit of foot dragging in Saudi cooperation up until some months ago. And then as the threat to Saudi increased, so did the willingness to cooperate increase. And now it would be suggested that that cooperation is quite closely, because last week, the American State Department issued orders for non- essential personnel from the embassy to be evacuated. So clearly there is very close collaboration going on at the present time. And I think this event will reinforce that collaboration and hopefully reinforce the results growing out of it.
COSTELLO: Well it's interesting you mean -- you mentioned foreign nationals within Saudi Arabia, because there seems to be a shift in tactics here that the terrorists are now striking Saudis.
SPRINGBORG: Yes, that's correct. That's what is new about this particular event. The reaction against the crackdown by the Saudi security forces in the past two weeks or so may be seen in this form. That is to say now there is a direct confrontation between Saudi security and these elements and so they are reacting against the Saudi security forces.
And it must be added that including those killed in this -- in this bombing were traffic police. And why traffic police? It is speculated that it is those traffic police who have been cooperating with security and intelligence in providing license plate numbers and so on. So we could see this possibly as a sort of a tit for tat, a revenge situation now that's engulfing the terrorists on the one hand and Saudi security forces on the other.
COSTELLO: Is it also evidence that these terrorists are becoming more radical and more extreme?
SPRINGBORG: It's possible. The events over the border in Iraq could very well have not only emboldened these elements in Saudi Arabia but also cause them to widen their target range to include Saudis themselves. There are certainly those in their world who feel that the time is right for a revolution. That is to say that the struggle in Iraq can be generalized now and that Saudi Arabia is an obvious place for that to occur. So it could very well be that an upsurge of these sorts of incidents is going to be taking place not only in Saudi but more widely throughout the region as part of an effort to generalize the situation in Iraq.
COSTELLO: Professor Robert Springborg from the London Middle East Institute, thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning.
We want to talk now about what's happening inside of Iraq. Funeral services are going on in Basra.
Our senior international David -- our senior international editor David Clinch is here to tell us more about that.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Morning, Carol. It's a lot calmer today than it was yesterday. It's never, you know, exciting or never -- I should say it is exciting to sort of cover those events that happened yesterday in Fallujah and Basra, but the sad side of course is the human costs.
Looking in Basra today as anywhere, I'm not sure of the exact figures, anywhere between 15 and 20 young children being buried in the streets there. These were children who, according to early reports, had actually been taken from their schools in buses because they weren't considered safe there and then got caught in the bombings there. So quite a tense situation in Basra today, although no further violence that we're aware of.
Fallujah also, we were covering that incredible shootout yesterday with the Marines there. We got an update from the Marines late last night that they thought they had killed over 30 of the insurgents who were firing against them. Again, no further violence there that we're aware of.
But on the other hand, no significant evidence, according to the Marines, of any progress really on this cease-fire idea of the insurgents handing in their weapons or of the civilian population coming back. Some weapons have been hand over -- handed over, but not very many, and not of the type that were being used yesterday against the Marines.
COSTELLO: Right. Let's go back to Basra for just a second, it's quiet there.
CLINCH: Yes.
COSTELLO: Basra really has been pretty calm overall.
CLINCH: Right.
COSTELLO: Who were the people of Basra blaming for this attack?
CLINCH: Right. Well we've been reporting on this somewhat today. There is a mixed reaction. Immediately there was this knee- jerk reaction based on some rumors, and obviously you never know where these rumors start, that the British forces were responsible for the attacks. Obviously that's a rumor. That was not the case.
But what we do know today is that supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, the same radical cleric who is holed up in Najaf, who has been causing trouble there and elsewhere, this plaza, obviously, a Shiite area, his group, that's not the majority of people, but his group are blaming the British and are blaming the Americans and they are getting out in the street.
Now again, that's a minority, but given the atmosphere of violence, he is desperately trying to feed on that. And it creates a problem for the British forces. It has been relatively peaceful there, but they have been taking a hands-off approach. When these things happen, the British, obviously, have to debate do they go back in again in a big way or do they stay out? A very tough decision for the British, and Tony Blair has a press conference later today. We'll hear from him on that I'm sure.
COSTELLO: All right. Many thanks, David Clinch.
CLINCH: OK.
COSTELLO: U.S. troops in Iraq stretched thin, ordered to stay longer and there's already talk that even more troops will be needed. This has led some in Congress to talk about something we haven't seen since the Vietnam War, that would be the draft.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't want a draft. And I don't think we need a draft. And I think what we need is a president who knows how to take the steps to get other countries involved in this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: If in fact this is a generational war that the president has noted, we -- all of us, I think, have noted -- then why should we ask a very few people in our society to bear the heavy price, to carry the heavy burden and not ask everybody to carry some burden?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: All right. Jimmy Barrett from WRVA Radio in Richmond, Virginia joins us to talk about this controversial topic. We want to hear what Jimmy is telling his listeners out there in Virginia.
Good morning -- Jimmy.
JIMMY BARRETT, WRVA RADIO, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA: Hey, good morning feisty one. How are you?
COSTELLO: I'm fine, feisty one right back at you.
BARRETT: That's all right, I like playing slap and tickle with you. It's fun.
COSTELLO: My goodness! Can you say that now in light of the FCC regulations?
BARRETT: Yes, of course we can. Come on!
COSTELLO: I was wondering though how the people in Virginia were taking word of a possible draft?
BARRETT: Well you know here's the thing about the draft, I don't know that anybody is taking it very seriously right now. As you know, Virginia is a military state with a -- with a fine record of service. We have a lot of military bases here. We're very, very supportive of the military. How supportive they would be of a possible draft, I'm not quite sure. I don't think realistically we need a draft.
I see two problems here, and I'm wondering what you think about this. No. 1, we're obviously spread way too thin.
COSTELLO: Yes.
BARRETT: We are way too thin. There is supposed to be an organization out there called the United Nations that pulls all these countries together. Why do we need to have U.S. troops stationed in Bosnia at this particular point in time? Can't we pull some of those people out?
COSTELLO: Well I think that there is a thought process (ph) on that going on right now. But you know Spain is pulling out of Iraq, Honduras is pulling out of Iraq. And you know while that's not a sizeable number of soldiers, at least the Spanish troops were in charge of some important stuff there.
BARRETT: Well, yes, and you're talking about 1,300 troops from Spain, also, a little over 300 troops from the Dominican Republic and Honduras, that really doesn't add up to a whole heck of a lot. I'm not saying that the Spanish troops, as you said, weren't doing something fairly serious to help this effort, I know that they were, but they are very replaceable numbers.
But I think it also brings about another great issue as far -- if we really do need to recruit more soldiers, aside from a draft, which I think would be pretty unpopular in this country right now, aside from a draft, what could you do? And I think, quite frankly, we can -- most of us can agree that our military remains woefully, woefully underpaid. We're not paying soldiers enough. We're not providing enough benefits here for -- to -- these people to...
COSTELLO: Well, but realistically, I don't think their pay is going to increase because the war is starting to cost more and more. They are already over budget in Iraq.
BARRETT: Well we're over budget but are we over -- are we over budget because of what we're paying our soldiers or are we over budget because of other considerations, not the least of which is the amount of bombs that we have dropped, the amount of deployment that we have used? I mean there are so many other costs that go into a military situation.
COSTELLO: But isn't it all in the same pot?
BARRETT: Well, yes, it's all in the same pot here, but do you want to spend the money on soldiers or do you want to -- what do you want to spend the money on?
COSTELLO: Well there is also some sentiment that there are not enough, you know, bullet proof vests in Iraq and not enough equipment. So you're going to have to pay more money -- more money for those things as well.
BARRETT: Well there's no doubt this war is going to go down as the most expensive war certainly in the -- in the time period that it ends up being fought in United States history. I mean we have spent how much now, $700 billion, $800 billion. We're going to have to spend billions of dollars more. We don't know how much longer we're going to be there. And the decision at this point is is how long do we stay?
I mean the president says we're not going to cut and run, so we might as well be prepared if we're going to be spending billions and billions more. And if we need more soldiers, then let's spend it on our citizens and get more soldiers. I don't want to send people to Iraq who don't even want to be a part of the military. I'll tell you one thing, the United States Marines would want to have no part of a draft right now. They want to make sure that the people are joining up for the Marines are people who want to be a part of the military.
COSTELLO: All right, and with that, that ends our time. Jimmy Barrett from WRVA Radio in Richmond, Virginia. Thanks for joining DAYBREAK this morning.
Well the Chinese say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Well they have taken some steps towards allowing free speech.
But as our Mike Chinoy reports, they have also taken some steps backward.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was one of the high points of Vice President Cheney's trip to China last week, a speech at Shanghai's Fudan University. After complex negotiations, the Chinese agreed to air the speech live on a Chinese news channel, but they did so with no prior announcement to viewers, at an hour when few people were watching. And then the Web site of the Communist Party's official mouthpiece, The People's Daily, published what it described as the full text of Cheney's remarks in which references to politically sensitive topics were changed or deleted.
Here is one example.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Across Asia, rising prosperity and expanding political freedom have gone hand in hand.
CHINOY: On the People's Daily Web site, the words political freedom were cut out.
Beijing's doctoring of Cheney's speech just days after he met Chinese leaders was documented by a China expert at the U.S. Naval Academy, Yu Maochun.
YU MAOCHUN, U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY: I think the Chinese government is nervous about a lot of things. And one of the things they were really nervous about is the spread of democracy in East Asia.
CHINOY: All together, Chinese sensors made more than a dozen major alterations or deletions. This is what Cheney said on Taiwan.
CHENEY: We support the principle of one China based upon the three communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act.
CHINOY: But the Web site deleted the reference to the Taiwan Relations Act, the law under which the U.S. sells weapons to help Taiwan defend itself from a possible Chinese attack.
Also cut, references to the need for democracy in the Middle East, details on North Korea's nuclear program and this...
CHENEY: The war on terror must never be used as an excuse for silencing legitimate dissent.
MAOCHUN: They struck out the portion on that how -- somehow war on terror cannot be used as an excuse to suppress the individual rights of citizens. In the -- in the specific context of China, of course, is the Muslims in Chinese and central Asia in Chinga (ph) province and the Tibetans and the other pro-democracy activists and anybody China doesn't like.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHINOY: This is hardly the first time the Chinese have censored or doctored what outsiders say. Last year, for example, when the Chinese edition of Hillary Clinton's book came out, Chinese sensors took out unflattering references in that book about China and didn't tell Hillary Clinton that they were doing so. For the country's authoritarian Communist Party, it seems old habits die hard -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Mike Chinoy reporting live for us from Beijing this morning.
The 9/11 attacks, some say we had a failure to communicate. Just ahead, how intelligence agencies are trying to make sure they no longer keep secrets from each other about terror threats.
This is DAYBREAK for Thursday, April 22.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:48 Eastern. Here is what's all new this morning.
A Saudi militant group is claiming responsibility for the latest suicide bombing in Riyadh and vowing more attacks. The blast on security forces headquarters killed at least 4 people and wounded 148 others.
Asia's crowded shipping and financial centers could be the target of a terrorist attack. That's the new warning from Washington this morning.
And in money news, electronics giant Sony Corporation and two buy out firms have their sights set on MGM Studios. The companies are in advanced talks to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $5 billion. In sports, today is the day the next batch of inductees into the world Golf Hall of Fame will be named.
And in culture, happy Earth Day. Today is the 35th observance of nature's day all around the world. Celebrations and activities are expected to attract millions of people.
MYERS: And coming up in the next hour, obviously, be talking to the folks at Home Depot.
This afternoon, warm across parts of the South, stormy across the Central Plains. Go to the other map source, we'll actually see the temperatures there. Temperatures in the 50s and 60s already across the northeast and across the south central plains as well. Never mind, we'll just stay with this one -- Carol.
COSTELLO: You're just having all kinds of map trouble today.
MYERS: Ugly, ugly day today.
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you.
You have probably never heard of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, TTIC for short, but it just could help prevent another terrorist attack like 9/11.
Our national security correspondent David Ensor tells us about this in an exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is an experiment cobbled together a year ago in temporary offices at the CIA. The urgent mission of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center is to make the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security and other agencies share everything they know about terrorists, a response to the failures to communicate before the 9/11 attacks.
In his first television interview, Director John Brennan told CNN the experiment is working. By comparing FBI and CIA data, he says, TTIC has already identified dangerous terrorists.
JOHN BRENNAN, DIRECTOR, TTIC: And so now we have those names on watch lists.
ENSOR (on camera): From its temporary headquarters here at the CIA, TTIC run a government-only top-secret Web site with about 3.5 million terrorism related documents on it. About 2,500 people worldwide have the clearances necessary to log on.
(voice-over): The goal is to make sure the next time an FBI field agent writes a memo like the one from Phoenix in 2001 warning about Middle Eastern men training to fly passenger jets, that memo will get to every U.S. official who should know about it.
BRENNAN: When that agent in the field, whether they're in Phoenix or whether they're overseas, pushes that button and it arrives at their headquarters, we see it at the same time, the same exact time.
ENSOR: But our traditionally turf conscious agencies really sharing everything with TTIC? Do they have the computers to do so? Not all the bosses believe it.
GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: We need to make sure that the domestic data shows up. And we need to keep pressure to make sure that happens. Otherwise, you're going to have a lot of data and no left hand to meet the right hand.
ENSOR: And the staff director of the joint congressional intelligence inquiry says TTIC analysts don't always get the raw intelligence from the CIA and others.
ELEANOR HILL, FORMER STAFF DIRECTOR, 9/11 CONGRESSIONAL COMMISSION: We heard that time and again during our inquiry, complaints from analysts that could not do their job without access to that raw intelligence.
ENSOR: But Brennan insists, from the interrogation reports on al Qaeda prisoner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, to FBI wiretaps, his people can see the raw material that they need to.
BRENNAN: I and the analysts in TTIC can see whatever we need that is going to shed light into the threat of terrorism.
ENSOR: Right now, TTIC is based at CIA headquarters, but at the end of May, the center plans to move to one of the most secure buildings ever devised.
BRENNAN: It is being built to in far excess of Oklahoma City standards in terms of its durability, its strength.
ENSOR: The new building is the Tyson's Corner, Virginia, area, officials say. Sources say but officials will not confirm that this is the building that will house a state-of-the-art operations center for TTIC, along with the FBI and CIA's counterterrorism staffs.
BRENNAN: There is going to be no dividing walls between TTIC and CIA and FBI officers. There is going to be a free flow of information and exchange so that as information comes in, information can be shared and acted upon.
ENSOR (on camera): Do you think that another September 11 attack could happen?
BRENNAN: I think that we have positioned this country the best way possible to prevent another occurrence. I am not of the mind that another attack is inevitable.
ENSOR (voice-over): Not inevitable, but the possibility, Brennan admits, sometimes keeps him awake at night.
David Ensor, CNN, Langley, Virginia. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: In the next hour of DAYBREAK, trying to grow a green thumb, we have some tips on how to plant shrubs.
Plus,...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA AMSTER, WAITING FOR A KIDNEY: You have the opportunity to save a life, do you want to do it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The growing need for organ donors is a life and death matter. Just ahead, one woman's fight to stay alive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Organ donation is something most of us don't worry about, thank goodness, but it's a huge worry if you are one of the more than 84,000 people waiting for an organ transplant. Before today ends, about 16 people will die waiting.
Christy Feig looks at this issue of life and death.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTY FEIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Barbara Amster and Rodney Rodriguez (ph) would love to have children of their own, but first, she needs a kidney transplant. So far, she's been waiting three years.
AMSTER: Because I'm on dialysis, it's a very risky pregnancy. I would have to pretty much be on dialysis every day.
FEIG: She already gets three hours of dialysis every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after work. But her wait for a kidney could be long.
WALTER GRAHAM, UNITED NETWORK FOR ORGAN SHARING: Well currently there are almost 85,000 people waiting in this country for vital organ transplants. The sad thing is that about 6,000 of those people will die this year because there are not enough organs donated.
FEIG (on camera): One of the biggest misconceptions about signing up to be an organ donor is doctors won't try as hard to save you if something happens.
(voice-over): But experts say that's not the case.
GRAHAM: And they will do everything they can to save your life. If something happens and a person becomes brain dead, then an entirely different medical team is called in to talk about organ donation and to do the organ recoveries.
FEIG: So when you are asked, do you want to be an organ donor, Barbara wants you to see it from her point of view.
AMSTER: You have the opportunity to save a life, do you want to do it?
FEIG: In the meantime, her dream waits.
AMSTER: Hopefully one day, if I get a transplant, I'll have my little pitter patters running around my house.
FEIG: In Washington, I'm Christy Feig.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address, CNN.com/Health.
An official indictment against the so-called King of Pop, what is next for Michael Jackson? In the next hour of DAYBREAK, we'll have a live report for you out of California.
Plus a rousing welcome for these troops safe at home, a live report out of Fort Hood, Texas just ahead on DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: A welcome home party for thousands of soldiers, a bittersweet celebration for one military community today.
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