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CNN LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE
Stocks Tumble; A Look at Free Trade; Government Announces New Tough Checks on Overseas Visitors
Aired May 19, 2003 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, HOST: Good evening, everyone.
Stocks today tumbled on Wall Street, investors concerned about the declining value of the dollar. Christine Romans will have the report for us.
And, exporting America, free trade was supposed to create new jobs and markets for U.S. workers. The reality is very different. We'll have a special report for you beginning tonight.
And, tracking foreigners, the government announces tough new checks on overseas visitors to this country. The Department of Homeland Security's Asa Hutchinson will be here tonight.
But first, the largest sell-off on Wall Street in two months, investors took profits from what has been a five-week-long rally and today sold on new concerns about a falling dollar. The Dow Jones Industrials fell 185 points losing two percent. The NASDAQ fell 45 points losing almost three percent. The S&P 500 down 23 points on the day.
Christine Romans has more for us on this sell-off -- Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A 2 percent loss is more than 2 percent losses for some of the major averages here and the weak dollar got the blame but it was drug shares that led the way lower on a Supreme Court ruling that could lead to lower drug prices and retail shares tumbled on disappointing revenue from lows.
It was the worst day for stocks since the five-week-long spring rally began. Only Coke and Altria closed higher in the Dow. Volume just average 1.3 billion shares and a little more than two stocks fell for every one that rose. And, Lou, bond prices also fell today along with stock prices.
DOBBS: Christine, thank you very much.
The U.S. trade deficit is rising by roughly $1.4 billion a day so far this year. By our calculations that deficit now has already reached $191 billion.
Tonight, we begin a special series of reports on a rising threat to the American economy and the American worker. We've titled these reports exporting America because we're shipping not only American dollars around the world but we're also shipping economic activity, jobs, and manufacturing plants overseas.
Tonight, we begin with a look at the broken promise of international trade for hundreds of thousands of American workers. Jobs in this country are disappearing, in some cases literally being exported overseas along with valuable technology and intellectual capital.
We could have easily entitled these reports the great American giveaway, Peter Viles reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For two years the American economy has been losing jobs and sometimes you can see exactly where they're going, Honeywell shutting a factory in Rhode Island where it makes thermal controls, exporting 374 jobs to Mexico and China.
Alcoa this spring announced cutbacks in New York, Texas, and Washington, and invested $400 million in South America, invested $1.1 billion in East Iceland; Delta Airlines outsourcing some reservations job; overseas, 600 new jobs in India and the Philippines.
Now this is not how global trade was supposed to work out. The promise was new markets and new jobs for American workers.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We must recognize that the only way for a wealthy nation to grow richer is to export, to simply find new customers for the products and services it makes.
VILES: The reality is the trade deficit has rocketed to five percent of GDP. The promise of new markets for American products appears broken in what author Alan Tonelson calls a race to the bottom in wages and costs.
ALAN TONELSON, "THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM": And they sold America a bill of goods during the 1990s because they said that all of these new trade agreements, NAFTA, normalized trade with China, were going to boost exports from their American factories, and what they've done is they've used these trade agreements to send production abroad.
VILES: And not just production. Increasingly, corporate America is exporting so-called knowledge jobs. By one estimate, the high tech industry in this country lost 560,000 jobs in 2001 and 2002.
The U.S. is also exporting capital. Among the biggest investors in China, Motorola, $3.4 billion invested; General Electric, $1.5 billion invested; Kodah, $1.2 billion, all participating in a rush to globalize that has outraced U.S. policy.
BARRY C. LYNN, TRADE ANALYST: One of the things that they really don't understand is the degree to which most manufacturing has become globalized and it happened so quickly and it happened so dramatically in the 1990s and over this last decade that most policymakers, it's just way off their map. VILES: The issue is not just jobs, it's intellectual capital as well. In semiconductors and other high tech manufacturing, China has narrowed the gap with the U.S. so quickly it raises national security concerns.
Right now most of the magnets that make smart bombs work are made in Indiana but Magnequench is closing its Indiana plant and may move the jobs overseas. Indiana lawmakers are asking the White House to intervene and keep those jobs out of China, saying such a move would "threaten national security."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VILES: In a report to Congress last July, a special commission on this subject warned that U.S. reliance on Chinese imports is a growing security issue saying it might "undermine the U.S. defense industrial base." That same commission said China is gaining an unfair trade advantage by manipulating its currency -- Lou.
DOBBS: And in these days it doesn't even have to manipulate that currency. With the dollar declining it pegged to the dollar it's also achieving those benefits.
VILES: And all of these things, this trade deficit pressures the dollar lower. Eventually if the dollar gets low enough that may help but that's not necessarily the way you want to get out of a mess like this.
DOBBS: And this week we're going to continue the series of reports, as you know Pete, looking also at the impact of immigration, a million people legally immigrating to this country, a half a million not legally. Thank you, Pete.
It's not just factory jobs that are leaving this country. Service jobs are now being exported as well and many of these jobs are going to India. There's even talk of moving some Wall Street research analysts to India. Tomorrow, we will tell you what this means for American workers as we continue our special series of reports, "Exporting America."
President Bush tonight is discussing tax cuts with Republican leaders from Congress. The House has passed a bill that calls for $550 billion in tax cuts, the Senate $350 billion.
Congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Senate being equally divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative and the amendment...
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Senate Republicans may have kept the tax cut alive last week but bitterness between House and Senate GOP leaders is complicating efforts to get the bill to the president's desk. House leaders are still fuming over a secret deal Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley made five weeks ago with moderate Republicans to keep the size of the tax cut at $350 billion.
And they think the Senate's tax cut is small and ineffective. Using an expletive, a senior House Republican aide called it a peace of blank bill and said some House conservatives would prefer no tax cut to the one passed by the Senate.
House Republicans don't like the roughly $90 billion in offsets or tax increases, the temporary dividend cut which lasts only four years, and the $20 billion in state aid included in the Senate bill.
House Republicans also object to special interest tax cuts the Senate passed in the dead of night by a voice vote, including: Allowing business travelers to deduct their spouse's travel expenses, a measure pushed by Nevada's Harry Reid; a tax break for domestic liquor distillers pushed by Kentucky's Jim Bunning; and a tax cut on sight-seeing helicopter flights pushed by Hawaii's Daniel Inouye. The personal involvement of the president may be needed to break the impasse.
SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: The president has been the key initiator, the pusher, and I think we'll be the one that will ultimately press the deal together to get a House and Senate agreement that cuts taxes, that stimulates the economy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KARL: Republicans are confident they will eventually get that deal but they are no longer confident that they can meet the Memorial Day deadline that they had set earlier to try to get a tax bill done. Now it looks like if you're looking at holidays your best chance may be by the July 4th holiday to actually get this agreement done.
There are a lot of thorny issues, but of course, Lou, we may learn a lot more about this in just a short while after those congressional leaders, those Republican leaders, emerge from their meeting at the White House.
DOBBS: And, Jonathan, the great thing about tax cuts is that they at least, unlike tax hikes, can be made retroactive. Jonathan, thank you very much, Jonathan Karl from Capitol Hill.
A new twist in the legal arguments about limiting political contributions tonight, a federal court today suspended its entire ruling on the new campaign finance law while the Supreme Court considers the case. The ruling means the McCain-Feingold law will remain in force at least for the moment. Earlier this month, the federal court struck down some of the most important provisions of that law.
MCI has agreed to pay investors $500 million to settle accounting fraud charges. That agreement with the SEC comes after the company, formerly called WorldCom, admitted to accounting irregularities that now total some $11 billion. The settlement still must be approved by two judges. One of those judges today called the terms inadequate. A final ruling is expected later in June. Separately, MCI has won a contract estimated at $45 million to build a wireless network in Iraq for the federal government.
Enron's former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow was arraigned today on new charges of insider trading, filing false tax forms, and conspiracy in an expanded indictment unveiled earlier this month.
Fastow is the highest-ranking Enron executive to face criminal charges. Fifteen Enron executives in all have been charged. Another 50 executives from the rest of corporate America have been charged in the 532 days since Enron filed for bankruptcy. No one has gone to jail.
Coming up next, the threat to peace, a wave of violence in the Middle East just weeks after the road map was unveiled. Former Middle East envoy Senator George Mitchell joins us to talk about the latest violence and what it could mean to the prospects for peace.
And later, tracking anthrax leads the FBI into an altercation with its principal subject of the investigation. We'll have that story and a great deal more still ahead here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Five Marines were killed today in a helicopter crash in Iraq. The Pentagon said the Marines' Sea Knight helicopter crashed into a waterway near Karbala in central Iraq. Four Marines aboard were killed. The fifth died on the ground as he tried to rescue the others. The Sea Knight helicopter is used to move troops and cargo. No other details on this crash have been released by the Pentagon.
Radical Islamist terrorists today carried out their fifth suicide attack against Israelis in two days. The bomber killed three Israelis, 47 people were wounded, 13 of them seriously, the target today a shopping mall in the northern city of Afula.
Kelly Wallace joins us live now from Afula with the latest -- Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Lou, and that bomber was a 19-year-old woman from a West Bank village just about 15 miles from here. That's the word according to Israeli security forces and Palestinian sources, and it happened right here, right at the entrance to the shopping mall.
Probably hard to believe about seven hours ago there was a huge blast but that is because emergency workers and volunteers work very, very quickly after a suicide bombing to clear away the debris, the glass, and the bodies, and the body parts so that the country can get back to normal.
But this was the scene earlier this afternoon. It was about 5:30 p.m., a very busy time for the shopping mall, when according to police sources the suicide bomber walked up to the entrance and tried to get inside the mall when a male security guard started checking out the bomber. It's fairly typical security guards checking every person who enters a public place. When the suicide bomber failed to make it past the security guard she blew herself up.
We spoke to a man who owns a restaurant here at this shopping mall. He arrived just a few minutes before the blast and he told us he still can't believe what happened here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see the man in the eyes before you blow it up and you take him with you. I saw pieces of legs here. In my car this is the paper that was in the car. There was blood on it, pieces of woman or man on the car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And many people believe that male security guard prevented this situation from becoming much, much worse, two radical Palestinian groups claiming responsibility for this attack, four other attacks taking place over the past 48 hours, another radical Palestinian group, that group Hamas claiming responsibility for those attacks.
These groups appear to be trying to send a message that they can operate throughout Israel and that they are very much against any return to negotiations with the Israelis.
Israeli officials say for their part they want to see action and action now from Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to try and reign in these radical Palestinian groups, but the Palestinian position continues to be it needs to see action from Israel that Israel must accept and implement that so-called Mid East road map pulling forces out of Palestinian towns so that Mahmoud Abbas will have some political leverage to try and convince these radical groups to disarm.
This all being said, Lou, there's not a lot of discussion here in Afula about that road map, this community coping with the deaths of three Israelis and more than 40 people injured -- Lou.
DOBBS: Kelly, thank you very much, Kelly Wallace reporting from Afula.
President Bush today said he remains confident about the Middle East peace process despite these latest suicide bombings; White House Correspondent Chris Burns reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another terrorist bombing puts yet another deadly pothole in President Bush's road map to peace. The president passionately asserts he remains undeterred as he hosts an ally in his war on terror, Philippine President Arroyo.
BUSH: No, the road map still stands. The vision of two states existing side-by-side in peace is a real vision and one that I will work toward but we got a lot of work to do to convince all of us who care about peace to step up and fight off terror, to cut off the money and to find these people and bring them to justice.
BURNS: An obvious challenge to the new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to try to quell the militants before Mr. Bush invites him to the White House.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon postponed his Tuesday White House visit as a result of the latest attacks. Observers say Mr. Bush has to try to break a vicious cycle.
GEORGE MITCHELL, FORMER MIDDLE EAST ENVOY: It's a chicken and egg situation, of course. The Palestinians can't crack down on violence until they know that something's going to follow that and the Israelis can't take any steps until they know that there's going to be a crackdown on violence and it's going to be up to the U.S. to work them through that.
BURNS: Amid a wave of bombings, Mr. Bush's initial message is to battle the militants but also to keep one's eye on the horizon.
BUSH: We're still on the road to peace. It's just going to be a bumpy road.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNS: It's a road that may go in circles unless President Bush can persuade both sides to engage in confidence building measures, the Palestinians to reign in the militants and the Israelis to make life a little bit easier for the Palestinians -- Lou.
DOBBS: Chris, is the White House exerting pressure on either the Palestinians or Ariel Sharon tonight to move this process forward, otherwise we will see a continuation of what we've seen for some 50 years?
BURNS: Well, that's absolutely true and this road map is not even three weeks old. We're seeing all this happen. We've seen Secretary Powell traveling to the Middle East getting no results. We've seen meetings between -- a meeting between Sharon and Abbas and still no progress on that, and so the White House apparently is trying to show with a statement from President Bush that he does intend to push ahead with this.
However, when it comes to concrete measures today, no phone calls that we have heard of, the White House saying that President Bush nor Secretary Powell have made any phone calls. I think they want to see how this statement by President Bush will trickle down in the next couple of days -- Lou.
DOBBS: Chris, thank you very much, Chris Burns from the White House. Still ahead here, the hunt for al Qaeda has U.S. investigators focusing now on Iran. National Security Correspondent David Ensor will have that report.
And later, new procedures are put in place to protect this country. The Undersecretary for Homeland Security Asa Hutchinson will be joining us, that and a great deal more coming right up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Police are questioning five people thought to have been involved in the suicide bomb attacks in Morocco. Those bombings in Casablanca killed 42 people Friday including 13 bombers.
Police arrested dozens of other people after those attacks. Authorities say the bombers were Moroccans who received terrorist training in other countries. It is believed the terrorists may have been al Qaeda or have been linked to al Qaeda.
A U.S. official today said American and Saudi investigators are fully cooperating in the investigation of those bombings. Radical Islamist terrorists from the al Qaeda network are believed to have been responsible. The Saudi government says four people with possible links to al Qaeda are now under arrest.
There are suspicions the terrorists involved in the Riyadh attacks bought weapons from members of the Saudi National Guard. U.S. and Saudi officials say weapons seized earlier this month were traced back to National Guard stockpiles. A small number of Saudi National Guard soldiers have reportedly been selling weapons for money for several years.
The State Department today called upon Iran to take further action against al Qaeda terrorists. U.S. officials say senior members of al Qaeda are hiding in Iran, including the al Qaeda's new operations chief.
Our National Security Correspondent David Ensor has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is evidence a half dozen or more senior al Qaeda leaders are in Iran, say U.S. officials, including Saif al-Adel, a top security expert for al Qaeda, Abu Ghaith, the group's one-time spokesman, and Saad bin Laden, son of the al Qaeda leader.
With some U.S. officials now saying al-Adel may have played a role in last week's attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the administration is keeping the pressure up on Tehran.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We will continue to make sure that the Iranians receive the message about how seriously the president takes this. ENSOR: Presidential Envoy Zalmay Khahlilzad himself a Farsi speaker, has held several meetings with Iranian officials already this year and more are planned to discuss issues in the two countries bordering Iran where U.S. forces are now present, Afghanistan and Iraq, likely high on the agenda, chasing al Qaeda.
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We know there are senior al Qaeda in Iran for example, presumably not an ungoverned area.
ENSOR: Iran's influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Monday called baseless U.S. charges Iran was sheltering members of al Qaeda but some experts say there are some extreme clerical factions in Iran that could decide to host al Qaeda terrorists in secret.
GARY SICK, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: The reality is that there are people in Iran, small factions who in fact are not fully under control of the government. They operate on their own. They have their own financing. They have their own foreign policy, and those groups are very, very well connected to the upper levels of the Iranian leadership and, as a result, they can literally get away with murder.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: A senior administration official told CNN the U.S. holds Iran's government responsible for anything that happens on Iranian territory. They've said they want nothing to do with terrorism, the official told us, and now they need to prove it -- Lou.
DOBBS: David, thank you very much, David Ensor, our national security correspondent.
The Pentagon today said allegations in a BBC report on the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch are "ridiculous." The BBC report said U.S. Special Operations forces used what it termed Hollywood theatrics, including blank ammunition to make a show of Private Lynch's rescue.
The Pentagon flatly denied that and said it doesn't take any unnecessary risk. The Pentagon also said it never claimed Lynch's rescuers came under fire and suggested speculation about Lynch's rescue and capture originated in the media.
Several hundred U.S. soldiers raided a central Baghdad neighborhood today searching for former members of Saddam Hussein's regime. The troops stopped pedestrians checking identity cards and bags. Residents said the raid followed a tip that someone significant was hiding in the area. Forty people were arrested. It's not clear whether anyone on the most wanted list was detained.
When we return our "Thought of the Day" from a woman who knows something about a woman rising to a challenge.
And, tracking foreigners, Bill Tucker will have a special report on tough new rules.
And, the Undersecretary of Homeland Security Asa Hutchinson joins us next.
Also, the battle for control of a Palestinian refugee camp, Brent Sadler will report on the struggle between radical Islamists and Yasser Arafat in southern Lebanon. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: An unusual incident involving the man under FBI surveillance in the anthrax attack investigation, Steven Hatfill stepped out of his car this weekend. He was to photograph the driver of another car that was following him. That driver drove off running over Hatfill's foot in the process.
Sources tell CNN that driver was an FBI agent. Police then issued a ticket to Hatfill for what they called walking to create a hazard. Steven Hatfill has been identified as what the FBI calls a person of interest in the anthrax investigation by Attorney General John Ashcroft.
In other news across America tonight, divers spent a fourth day in San Francisco Bay looking for evidence in the deaths of Laci Peterson and her unborn son. Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve. The bodies of mother and son were found last month. Scott Peterson has been charged with their murders.
Weather forecasters say we'll have a busy hurricane season this year, predicting as many as nine hurricanes. Four of those, they say, could develop into major storms. Only Hurricane Lili reached U.S. shores last year but that storm caused more than $300 million in damage.
Another five people have been arrested in connection with last week's deadly smuggling incident in Texas. That brings the total number arrested now to six. The truck's driver was taken into custody last week for leaving 100 immigrants locked in the back of a sweltering truck. Nineteen of those people died.
There is a new effort tonight to intensify security at U.S. borders and to prevent terrorists from entering this country. The Homeland Security Department unveiled details of that program today. Bill Tucker reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUCKER, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The program is called U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indication Technology System, or by its more memorable and shorter acronym USAVISIT. It has a simple goal, to integrate computer systems so that information can be shared between security agencies and thus allow the Department of Homeland Security to track visitors entering America.
ASA HUTCHINSON, DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Securing our borders often comes down to making a decision on the spot instantaneously, using the best information at hand. The more we're able to identify people and assess them on their individual history, the less dependent we are on broad, general categories such as national origin. That makes the system fairer and it makes the system safer for everyone.
TUCKER: Here's how it'll work beginning January 1. The visitor's passports will be scanned and the person photographed and fingerprinted. That information will then be checked against terrorist watch lists. As the technologies improve, they will also be subject to facial recognition scans or even iris scans.
Skeptics praise the ambition but doubt the government's ability to execute.
CHRISTOPHER SANDS, CSIS: I think they've laid out a good set of goals for themselves but we're a long way from seeing a realistic plan for implementation, particularly when it comes to land. And until you start to bring more into the system, it's really just hard to tell whether this is going to be the plan or whether we'll see a change down the road.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: Now, program to deal with visitors over land isn't even attempted in the current program. Only visitors by sea and by air. And to start, it will only be visitors with visas which does not include visitors from countries like Great Britain, Canada or Mexico, to name a few -- Lou.
DOBBS: Bill, thank you very much. Bill Tucker.
Well joining me now from our studios in Washington, D.C. is Asa Hutchinson. He is the undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Good to have you with us.
HUTCHINSON: Good to be with you, Lou.
DOBBS: As you heard Bill Tucker report, there's some skeptics who say this is a mammoth task that will be difficult at best. What do you say?
HUTCHINSON: Well, I say it's a mammoth task that will be difficult.
(LAUGHTER)
HUTCHINSON: But it's a mandate that Congress has given to us, and it is certainly appropriate with the security concerns that we have and the experience of our country.
So it's a challenge the Department of Homeland Security is undertaken. We're going to do our best to meet this. Secretary Ridge has said we will meet the goal for our seaports and airports for this year. And that's a start. And then we'll be working with Congress to complete the goal to have a comprehensive system.
DOBBS: How many visitors, visa holders do you anticipate having to process in the first year of the program?
HUTCHINSON: Well the first year it will apply to seaports and airports. That will include about 23 million visitors that will come from visa-holding countries, that will be required to give their fingerprints and will go through this U.S. visitor system. And so about 23 million visitors the first year that this is implemented. And then we'll have to expand it to the land ports to meet the Congressional goals.
DOBBS: Now, seaports and airports. That leaves two rather large borders to deal with. What are you going to do there?
HUTCHINSON: Well, the Congressional mandate is by '04, the end of '04, to have our 50 most busy land ports engaged with our U.S. visitor system where we can track those people that come in and check their visas with a biometric standard. Now that's going to take an enormous investment. It's going to take a great information infrastructure that we do not currently have. We're working with build that.
And it's important to work with industry. We're not trying to do this just government alone but we're partner with industry that has the technology to accomplish this.
DOBBS: As you well know, in years past, now folded into the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Naturalization Service did not have the best of records. We're talking about a million immigrants into this country over the last several years each year. An estimated -- I've seen estimates as high as nearly a million illegal immigrants.
With that kind of security threat, how will you deal with it as the man responsible for those borders?
HUTCHINSON: Well, first of all, the people of Immigration, now Department of Homeland Security are working hard, every day and are very dedicated. And you've two issues.
One, we're talking about the ports of entry where you have people with legal basis to come in this country, a visa that, ultimately might stay here illegally. And that's a challenge that will be met through the U.S. visit system.
The second one is the challenge between our ports of entry, the Border Patrol, another Department of Homeland Security's responsible for. And they're working very aggressively. We're trying to add technology there with sensors. We're looking at UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles, that can help us in that arena.
And so it is -- when we have an open society, when we have traditionally had more open borders, it a challenge for the United States of America. But with technology, and with a strong strategy for our ports and our land between it, I think that we can make substantial progress. We're going to get better every day. And immigration will be a large part of that.
DOBBS: Asa Hutchinson, we thank you very much for being with us here on the broadcast. That brings us to the subject of tonight's poll. The question, do you agree with the Department of Homeland Security's decision to fingerprint and photograph foreign visitors with visas? Yes, no, or undecided? Cast your vote at CNN.com/moneyline. We'll have the preliminary results a little later in the broadcast.
The final results of Friday's polling. The question, are Chinese authorities right to suspend the adoption of babies because of the SARS virus. Eight-four percent of you said yes, 16 percent of you said no.
And speaking of crossing boundaries, Annika Sorenstam will be playing in the Colonial Golf Tournament this weekend. Vijay Singh will not. Singh pulled out of the event shortly after winning the Byron Nelson Classic over the weekend. Singh stirred up a lot of controversy last week when he made some comments about Sorenstam's participation in the Colonial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIJAY SINGH, GOLFER: This is no attack on Annika at all. I mean, like I said, if I did and -- I could apologize to her. It was not put that way. It came out the wrong way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: Annika Sorenstam will make history with her appearance at the Colonial. She will be the first woman to -- in 58 years to play in a PGA Tour event. Which leads us to "Our Thought of the Day" from another woman who wasn't afraid to take on challenges and take risk.
Saying, "I want to because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others." That from Amelia Earhart.
Coming up next, "Our Quote of the Day" and what it will take to establish peace in the Mideast. And the latest threat to that delicate process, a new wave of suicide bombings. Senator George Mitchell, former Middle East negotiator, joins us next.
And, he's the voice of the president and he's saying good-bye. Senior White House correspondent John King will report on why White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer is saying adios.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Gunman loyal to Yasser Arafat today fought fierce battles with radical Islamist in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. Five people were killed, 20 others wounded. Brent Sadler reports from southern Lebanon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon becomes a battle zone. Life in Inelhiway (ph) the village particularized by intense fire fights, pulverizing contested neighborhoods of this heavily armed camp, home to some 70,000 Palestinians. And perhaps, until now, a relatively safe haven for armed Islamic militants accused by the Lebanese authorities of involvement with terror.
Serious trouble has been brewing here for days. Rival groups vying for supremacy with the series of recent assassinations. Yasser Arafat's Fatah wing of the Palestinian Liberation Organization here taking incoming fire from the Islamic extremists. Some of whom are accused by the United States of links to international terror, and the al Qaeda network.
Lebanese army troops have no mandate to enter camps like this under a 33-year-old agreement. So they watch the fighting on the sidelines as battles rage. Sometimes, supervising the chaotic exodus of a few refugees who've run the gauntlet of fire to escape.
The hostilities coincide with Lebanese and Syrian efforts to crack down on Islamic militants in a country which hosts some 350,000 Palestinian refugees in a dozen camps.
(on camera): This is vicious, close quarters fighting, civilians caught in a deadly crossfire. A turf battle between rival Palestinian factions that could have wider implications in the war on terror.
(voice-over): Especially if pro-Arafat fighters are given the green light to eliminate their rivals here.
For the Inel Hillway's (ph) population though, it's yet another round in a camp war that has raged on and off for years, inflicting casualties and hardships in street battles that could, say some observers here, be a turning point in the bitter infighting for control of these Palestinian camps.
Brent Sadler, Inel Hillway, South Lebanon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: Our next guest was last with us on the day the roadmap for peace was presented to Middle East leaders. In the almost three weeks since, there's been a wave of violence and that includes five suicide bombings within the past 48 hours. Former Senate majority leader Senator George Mitchell served as U.S. negotiator in the Middle East and joins us tonight.
Good to have you with us.
GEORGE MITCHELL, FMR. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Thanks, Lou.
DOBBS: This new wave of violence -- do you think that this new wave of violence, do you think it's absolutely destructive of the roadmap?
MITCHELL: No.
DOBBS: Precludes any hope for peace? MITCHELL: There is a hope of peace. It was, of course, entirely predictable because there are those who are opposed to any negotiation, and it's no coincidence that these attacks have coincided with the beginning of the effort to implement the roadmap and Secretary Powell's visit to the region.
DOBBS: At what point should we end being surprised by the violence in the Middle East, and be anticipating and preparing for it and dealing with it as a matter of policy in this country?
MITCHELL: Well, I think that there is no likelihood of a complete end to violence in these circumstances. In Northern Ireland, where I served as our negotiator for several years, we had ongoing violence throughout the entire negotiating process. It was reduced from what it was at the peak of conflict, but it continued over time.
DOBBS: In your judgment, what is required to end the Palestinian violence -- we will deal with violence from both sides -- but first the Palestinian violence.
MITCHELL: It is unlikely that any Palestinian authority can completely end it. No leader can completely end violence in his or her sight. President Bush couldn't end violence in America this -- for a week or a month or three months even if he tried.
What they haven't done and must do is to make a 100 percent effort, exercise the authority that they do have to crack down. Not that they can have 100 percent success, but they have to make a 100 percent effort.
DOBBS: So you're suggesting that Mahmoud Abbas has not made such an effort?
MITCHELL: He has not made such an effort and the reason he has not is that there hasn't been assurance of any political action following it. Our committee said that any cessation or reduction of violence won't be sustained unless it's followed immediately by political steps.
DOBBS: In point of fact, Ariel Sharon, who delayed and postponed his trip to the United States because of this new wave of violence, immediately launched 17 objections to the roadmap and conceded nothing. Are those concessions necessary before violence can at least be reduced?
MITCHELL: There will have to be agreement of some kind, a roadmap, whether this road map or some other, that assures a continuation of steps, reciprocal steps, on both sides. No one will take a first step on trust because there is no trust.
DOBBS: In your judgment, is the Bush administration, Secretary Powell President Bush, doing enough to put pressure on both the Palestinians and the Israelis to come to the table and begin real progress?
MITCHELL: It will have to intensify to meet the intensification of violence in the region.
I like the president's statement today, that we're going forward, making it clear that we're not going to be deterred by this. He said there are going to be bumps on the road. They're going to be more than that. They're going to be hills on the road, mountains on the road. But we've got to continue on the effort to overcome them and I think there has to be an intensification of that effort.
DOBBS: Senator George Mitchell, always good to have you here.
MITCHELL: My pleasure.
DOBBS: And that brings us to our "Quote of the Day," from an Israeli government official on what it will take to achieve peace in the region, saying, "Without any action taken by the Palestinians. there is no chance for any program to move ahead, because no country but no country can tolerate the killing of its citizens, having this rampage of terrorism."
From Daniel Ayalon, Israeli ambassador to the United States.
A reminder now to vote in our poll tonight. The question: "Do you agree with the Department of Homeland Security's decision to fingerprint and photograph foreign visitors with visas? Yes? No? Undecided? "
Please cast your vote at cnn.com/moneyline. We'll have the preliminary results coming up in just a few minutes.
Next, the public face of the Bush white house calling it quits. We'll take a look at why White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer is stepping down.
And the big winner in the weekend box office race, "The Matrix: Reloaded" blows away the competition. We'll take a look at that and the other top movies when we continue.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Well, stocks today fell sharply on concerns, amongst other things, about a weakening dollar.
Christine Romans with more on the selloff -- Christine.
ROMANS: Well, Lou, as stocks, bonds and the dollar were falling today, bulls were assuring investors this could be the beginning of the natural pull back that they have been calling for.
Merrill Lynch's Dick McCabe predicted substantial gains in coming months even if stocks falter in coming weeks. And Tom McMannus of Bank of America said, "Buy the Dips."
Now as investors fretted about the weak dollar, J.P. Morgan raised S&P 500 earnings and yearend targets because of it, saying a weaker dollar will helps earnings for tech, energy, materials and industrial companies.
A big exception to the selling today: Genentec. The biotech company announced its experimental drug, avasten, helped colon cancer patients live longer. The stock rocketed almost $17 higher today and caught the Bank of America -- drug analyst red-faced. Mike King of Bank America had just downgraded DNA shares to sell and cut the price target to 30 because he was pessimistic about avasten. He quickly flip-flopped in a report titled, "Our Timing Couldn't Have Been Worse." He raised the stock to a buy and then pumped up the price target to $73, from $30 to $73 -- Lou.
DOBBS: And what period of time? About an hour?
ROMANS: Yes. I'd say give or take 10 minutes.
DOBBS: Analysts hard pressed these days.
ROMANS: They really are. They're looking at the rally in the past five weeks and a lot folks want to believe it's a new bull phase but they watch the bond, they watch the falling dollar, and trying to make sense of what's moving the markets trying to tell us.
DOBBS: Good at this point to wait on the market.
ROMANS: Exactly.
DOBBS: Christine thanks. Christine Romans.
"The Matrix: Reloaded" made box office history this weekend. In just three days earned more than $90 million. That's the best opening for an R-rated movie ever. It topped the 2001 movie "Hannibal" by 34 million. Also nearly five times the amount of the nearest competitor over the weekend, "Daddy Daycare."
Rounding out the top five "X2: X-Men United," earned 17 million, "Down With Love," 7 million, the "Lizzie McGuire" movie added another 4 and half million dollars.
Our nightly look at the national debt now, it stands at more than $6,460,391 -- and we can break that out to family's share, we hope you have a very large family, almost $70 million shares. We are going to have to fix that.
President Bush's first and only press secretary said today it's time for him to do something else. Ari Fleischer plans to leave the White House this summer.
Senior White House correspondent John King has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He envisions August by the ocean in Nantucket, not land-locked at the steamy Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas.
FLEISCHER: I'm very much looking forward to relaxing. KING: It will be 30 months as White House press secretary when Ari Fleischer steps down in July. No shortage of big days.
FLEISCHER: September 11, one war, anthrax attacks, another war.
KING: There were playful snowball fights with reporters, and for the most part good relations. But Fleischer's tenure has not been without controversy. He once blamed Middle East violence on the Clinton administration, saying the former president had overreached, in Fleischer's words tried to, quote, "shoot the moon" with last minute peace negotiations.
Last fall he answered a question about the cost of war in Iraq by suggesting someone assassinate Saddam Hussein.
FLEISCHER: The cost of one bullet, if the Iraqi people take it on themselves, is substantially less than that.
KING: And Fleischer said this just last week in the wake of the Riyadh terrorist bombings.
FLEISCHER: We continue to be pleased with the cooperation we've had from Saudi Arabia in the ongoing war against terrorism.
KING: Yet the credibility of that statement came into question hours later when it was learned Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley made a secret trip to Saudi Arabia just before the bombing to appeal for more Saudi help. He was a New Yorker in a world dominated by Texans, but Mr. Bush came to like him, to the point of once protecting him from the elements. Fleischer told the president of his plans last Friday. Deputy Scott McClelland is thought to be the next press secretary.
KING (on camera): Fleischer said he is thinking about leaving for months and had to make a decision now or commit to stay with the president though his reelection campaign. After 21 years, mostly in government and politics, he says's it's time to relax, spend more time with his wife and make some money.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: Not bad things.
Well, When we continue, many of you written in about the series that we have launched this evening. "Exporting America," a week long series of reports. We'll share some of your thoughts and the preliminary results of tonight's poll coming right up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Results of tonight's poll question, the question, do you agree with the Department of Homeland Security's decision to fingerprint and photograph foreign visitors with Visas?
60 percent said, yes, 36 percent said yes, 4 percent undecided.
Taking a look at some of your thoughts. We have received already and overwhelming response to our special series of reports of "Exporting America." And we'll be continuing with the reports throughout the week.
Jon Clayton, of Elburn, Illinois said, "As a displaced IT worker and an American, I hope you will shine the light brightly on these outsourcing activities. We sold out our manufacturing and now we are in the process of outsourcing more and more of our future."
Kevin Taylor, of Wheaton, Illinois wrote, "Thank you for the nearly exclusive coverage of U.S. corporations exporting white collar and high-tech jobs overseas. U.S. corporations are shortsightedly aiming to reduce costs by exporting jobs by ignoring that nobody will be left to buy their products. It is a vicious cycle we must avoid."
And Pat Heichelbeck, of Chrisney, Indiana wrote, of the devastating effects of exporting America here at home. "General Electric in Tell City is moving to Mexico and this has left this small town in bad shape. Houses are for sale all over town and nobody wants to buy them because there are no other jobs here. This should not be happening in this country. How can the economy get any better with the factories leaving?"
That is, of course, a central question.
Finally, Kam Thakker, of Beveraly Hills wrote about WorldCom's settlment with the FCC. Saying "I noticed that as WorldCom was find $500 million for their criminality, the White House awarded them with the cellular phone contract for Iraq. Who rewards and does business with a company so soon after pleading guilty? Our federal government of course."
We love hearing from you. E-mail us your thoughts at LouDobbs@cnn.com.
Thanks for being with us tonight.
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