Return to Transcripts main page
Lou Dobbs Tonight
Interview With NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe; Government Launches Fingerprint Program For Foreign Visitors
Aired January 05, 2004 - 18:00 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.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight: The government has launched a huge program to photograph and fingerprint millions of foreign visitors. Critics, however, say it will do little to stop terrorists. Bob Franken will report.
In "Exporting America" tonight, U.S. companies are not only shipping American jobs overseas. They're also destroying the living standards of middle-class Americans. Lisa Sylvester with a special report.
The Mars rover Spirit sends a dramatic three-dimensional image of the Mars surface back to Earth, Spirit now beaming back its first color photographs. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe is our guest.
North America's biggest auto show is open in Detroit, with the big three carmakers promising dozens of new vehicles to fight back against foreign competition. We'll take a look at some of the hottest new models.
And the CIA says the latest audiotape attributed to Osama bin Laden is likely his voice. Terrorism experts say the tape could be a sign another big terrorist attack is imminent.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Monday, January 5. Here now, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening.
Tonight, the White House is moving closer to giving legal status to millions of illegal aliens in this country. President Bush this week is expected to announce the proposal as part of sweeping changes to immigration laws. Word of the move comes just a week before President Bush is scheduled to visit Mexico to meet with President Vicente Fox. They will discuss growing immigration and trade tensions between the two countries.
Senior White House correspondent John King joins us now with a report -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Lou, officials tells us the president is on target to release that plan on Wednesday here in Washington.
It will be his first major policy initiative of this new and this reelection year for the president. And, as you note, the immigration initiative will come just five days before Mr. Bush travels to Monterey, Mexico, for a regional summit meeting that will include bilateral talks with President Vicente Fox of Mexico.
Immigration, of course, a source of tension between the two countries and the two presidents in recent years. Of the eight to 10 illegal million illegal aliens in the United States, half of them are estimated to be Mexican Americans. Administration officials tell us, the key highlights of the new Bush plan will be this. It will create a new system to match prospective immigrants with jobs available here in the United States.
And it also would allow some workers now in the United States illegally to keep their jobs and get on a path to eventual legal status. Now, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, declined to discuss the plan in any detail today with reporters, but he did say this -- quote -- "The president has long talked about the importance of having an immigration policy that matches willing workers with willing employers. It's important for America to be a welcoming society. We are a nation of immigrants, and we're better for it."
McClellan also making the case, there is an economic need for these new workers. Of course, though, Lou, as you well know, this will be a source of contention in the political environment here in Washington and across the country. White House officials says the president's plan closely tracks proposals already put forward by Republican Senator John McCain and other Republicans from the border state of Arizona. It also closely tracks many of the ideas advocated by the Democrats running for president.
The president's biggest problem here will be fellow conservative Republicans, many of whom vehemently, vehemently oppose offering any benefits, any rewards to those who enter this country illegally -- Lou.
DOBBS: And, John, is there any concern there at the White House that the president could appear to be pandering to the Hispanic and Latino vote in this country on this election year?
KING: Well, they certainly, Lou, are expecting some criticism, both from liberals associated with the Latino and Hispanic communities, and also from conservative, saying that this politics by the president, giving up on what they will call principle.
Mr. Bush's team will make the case that, yes, he benefits politically. They will say the main argument for this is economics, that there are the need for the workers in this country, and that, while many did enter this country illegally, they will say it is time simply to accept the reality and to try to get those workers into the system. But, Lou, it will be a source of great political debate.
DOBBS: And adding to an intense year of electioneering.
Thank you very much, John King, our senior White House correspondent. Thanks, John.
The federal government today launched a massive new screening program to track millions of foreign visitors to this country. Citizens from most foreign countries will be photographed and fingerprinted when they arrive at airports and some seaports. The program is designed to make it harder for terrorists to enter the country.
National correspondent Bob Franken has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The program has the benign name US-VISIT. But it is the latest high-tech, brave new world response to the fearful new world of post-9/11 terrorism.
TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: US-VISIT will not be kind to those who think that privacy can hide their hate or their intention to harm.
FRANKEN: The technology is called biometrics. At 115 U.S. airports and 14 seaports, foreign visitors will undergo what amounts to a digital fingerprinting and will have their pictures taken as well.
The information will be matched against various watch lists and will become part of a permanent record; 28 nations are excluded. Some of those that are not excluded are not happy. Brazil, for instance, is retaliating by fingerprinting U.S. tourists. But officials insist, it is only a minor inconvenience. And many who had just undergone the process agreed, even some Brazilian visitors.
PABLO GUZMAN, BRAZILIAN TOURIST: This is a security issue, process. So it's fine for me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's a good idea. I think (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to travel now, to fly anywhere. It's a good security feature, I think.
FRANKEN: But the program is not without its critics.
TIMOTHY EDGAR, ACLU: We're concerned that, when the government proposes these kinds of programs that may infringe on people's privacy or civil liberties, fingerprinting people, searching them and so forth, that privacy not be an afterthought.
FRANKEN: This is happening in stages. Ultimately, homeland security officials hope to expand it to land border entries. They describe the initial tests, which began in November at Hartsfield- Jackson Airport in Atlanta, a complete success.
ROBERT MOCNY, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, US-VISIT: US-VISIT matched 21 hits on the criminal watch list, including those with previous convictions for statutory rape, dangerous drugs, aggravated felonies and several cases of visa fraud.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN: The process, Lou, is, according to officials, taking only about an additional 15 seconds for people seeking entry into the United States. They say that this is an important new tool in the cat-and-mouse battle with terrorists -- Lou.
DOBBS: Bob, thank you very much -- Bob Franken.
Well, as Bob just reported, the new registration system for foreign visitors has a few holes in it, 28 holes at least. The so- called VISIT program gives visa waivers to 27 countries, mostly European countries. Nearly all Canadian visitors will be exempt as well from this new system. Those 27 countries include the largest nations in Western Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as 17 smaller European nations.
Countries outside Europe that are exempt from the new program include Australia, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore. There are also more a few other several significant holes in the programs as well. Dozens of seaports in this country are not yet included in this new registration system. And foreign visitors arriving from Mexico and Canada are also exempt.
More problems today for British Airways Flight 223 from London to Washington. Today's flight left London's Heathrow Airport more than three hours late because of security concerns, this the third consecutive day that the flight was delayed. Flight 223 was canceled altogether last Thursday and Friday.
In another security alert tonight, authorities in Boston have charged a Saudi Arabian man with carrying incendiary or explosive devices on an aircraft. The man arrived at Boston Logan International Airport Saturday on Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt, Germany. Federal agents found three small firecracker devices, as they described them, in his luggage. Officials say it is too early to determine whether the case has anything to do with terrorism.
Fighter planes have checked more than ten commercial aircraft flying in U.S. airspace since the government raised the national terrorist alert level to orange two weeks ago. The alert level remains at orange tonight. A senior Pentagon official said military commanders ordered the fighter planes to check those airliners because of heightened concerns about the possibility of a terrorist attack. Fighter planes have also been patrolling airspace over major U.S. cities.
Coming up next here, "Exporting America" tonight -- the pay gap that is costing millions of Americans their jobs, millions of others their standard of living. Lisa Sylvester will report.
Then, NASA's Spirit is ready to roll on Mars. The head of NASA, Sean O'Keefe, is our guest.
And tracking terrorist funding. Senator Charles Grassley and a number of other U.S. senators say the federal agency in charge of stopping terrorist funding isn't doing the job.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DOBBS: Tonight, we begin a series of special reports on how the shipment of American jobs overseas is affecting the lives of millions of Americans. Companies that give away jobs to cheaper foreign labor markets are also giving away the American standard of living.
Lisa Sylvester reports from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Richard Ingebrigtsen lost his job at Intel in 2002. He was told he was not up to company standards anymore. But, by the end of the year, his entire department was closed, the jobs shipped to Costa Rica. Now he's a substitute teacher, his salary cut in half.
RICHARD INGEBRIGTSEN, UNEMPLOYED PROGRAMMER: My wife was forced to go out and find her own job. And she's doing pretty well at it. But I haven't been able to participate that much in bringing in money.
SYLVESTER: Ingebrigtsen earned $10 to $15 an hour as a computer programmer. He says his counterpart in Costa Rica makes about half of that amount.
Wages in China and India are even lower, dipping to about a sixth of the U.S. wage. Trade agreements and globalization have made it easier for companies to pick up and move operations.
SCOTT PAUL, AFL-CIO: Right now, trade agreements tend only to protect the rights of corporations. And so, they can move capital and investment around the world and know it's guaranteed. Workers don't have that same guarantee. They're subject to market forces, which are sometimes brutal.
SYLVESTER: The average U.S. manufacturing worker is paid more than $21 an hour, Mexico, far less, and in China and India, only 25 cents to 27 cents an hour. An American textile worker makes $15 an hour.
In Costa Rica and Mexico, wages are less than $3 an hour, in China, only around 48 cents, and, in Vietnam, even less, about 22 cents an hour. Call center workers in India are paid as little as $1.35 an hour. Accountants in China make just under $2 an hour, according to the McKinsey & Company Group. This puts downward pressure on American wages.
JIM SCHOLLAERT, MANUFACTURING & TRADE ACTION COALITION: Look at life in China, life in Mexico, life in Haiti, or anyplace else where wage rates are extremely low. Our pensions will be a thing of the past. Our homes will be a thing of the past, our health care system, our educational system.
SYLVESTER: Ingebrigtsen worries, if the high-paying jobs move offshore, that could leave him and other American workers permanently underemployed.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SYLVESTER: So, what can be done? Labor groups say, the U.S. government needs to take a long, hard look at trade agreements and to negotiate protections for American workers, the same way safeguards are built in for U.S. multinational corporations -- Lou.
DOBBS: I suppose the best news on all of this, Lisa, is, at least people are beginning to recognize the seriousness, the profound seriousness of this problem.
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: Lisa, thank you very much -- Lisa Sylvester reporting from Washington. Thanks, Lisa.
Growing outrage over the shipment of American jobs overseas inspired a fiery exchange for the first time in yesterday's Democratic presidential debate. With two weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, the Democratic candidates sparred over how to best keep those American jobs in this country.
Kitty Pilgrim has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Exporting jobs proved an explosive topic during the Democratic debate.
HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Right now, we're exporting jobs. And that's not a good thing.
PILGRIM: The candidates went after each other, so much so, the moderator expressed surprise trade was such a flash point.
PAUL ANGER, EDITOR, "DES MOINES REGISTER": We've hit the mother lode here so far.
(LAUGHTER)
PILGRIM: This accusation started the fight.
REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-MO), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Everybody up here except Dennis voted for NAFTA and voted for the China agreement. They did the wrong thing.
PILGRIM: John Edwards called him on it.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: First of all, I didn't vote for NAFTA. I campaigned against NAFTA, because I've seen what's happened in my state of North Carolina, with the loss of manufacturing jobs.
GEPHARDT: You voted for the China agreement. And it's had a bad impact here in Iowa. And it's had a bad impact in your state of North Carolina. One of the biggest textile makers has closed all of their plants across the country, 60,000 jobs lost.
PILGRIM: Kucinich flat-out declared trade agreements dead if he wins.
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My first act in office will be to cancel NAFTA and the WTO. We've lost over three million manufacturing jobs in this country.
DEAN: I believe that NAFTA and the WTO only globalized the rights of multinational corporations, but they did not globalize the rights of workers.
PILGRIM: Blame Bush appeared to be the tactic.
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He just sits back and lets foreign countries break the rules of trade, rip off patents, copyrights, take American jobs, play with the currency.
PILGRIM: A solution of sorts was suggested.
CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You have to have environmental and labor standards and human rights standards in order to level the playing field for American companies, so that we aren't hemorrhaging jobs as a result of our engagements with the rest of the world.
PILGRIM: There are still a couple of chances to fight this out in Iowa. Democrats have a radio debate and another forum before the caucuses in two weeks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Most of the candidates acknowledge that cheap foreign labor, lower pay, fewer worker rights, and fewer regulations have caused the hemorrhage of jobs overseas -- Lou.
DOBBS: And this is the first time in this campaign, as we begin 2004, that these candidates have specifically addressed this issue.
PILGRIM: It seemed to me that it was quite the forum for it. It went very, very long. It went much longer than anyone anticipated. And they practically had to throw the rules out on the debate to get through it.
DOBBS: Well, it's about time, for the benefit of American workers, that they took on the issue and took it on seriously, even in fiery terms, or perhaps especially in fiery terms.
Kitty, thank you -- Kitty Pilgrim.
A political ad stating that amnesty for illegal aliens hurts Iowa workers was taken off the air by a Des Moines television station for being -- quote -- "borderline racist" -- end quote. "The New York Times"-owned WHO-TV pulled the commercial paid for by the Coalition For the Future American Worker. That's an umbrella group of some 20 organizations.
We thought you would like to make your own judgment about this charge of borderline racism. So here it is. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, AD)
NARRATOR: How much longer can Iowa workers be the punching bags for greedy corporations and politicians? First, meat packers replaced Iowans with thousands of foreign workers. Next, wages were cut almost in half. Now, politicians want new laws to import millions more foreign workers and give amnesty to illegal aliens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: Now, that ad was removed after complaints from several organized labor groups. Iowa Federation of Labor President Mark Smith called the commercial "just racist stuff with no factual basis" -- end quote.
We invited the general manager of "The New York Times"-owned WHO Television to join us here tonight and debate the issue, but he didn't return our calls. Nine other television stations in Iowa continue to run that commercial.
A lot of our viewers are clearly fed up with this country's lack of a rational immigration policy and the coordinated efforts of a number of special interest groups to disguise what is really going on at our borders.
Mary Falk of Front Royal, Virginia, wrote: "I remember when working a construction job was a good-paying, honorable, blue-collar job. Like many other mid-income jobs, corporate America has managed to Wal-Mart this industry, as well as many others like it, with cheap, often illegal workers."
On the president's changes to this country's immigration policy that's expected Wednesday, Bruce Fisher of Newark, Delaware says: "This proposal is not in the interests of American citizens. It increases polarization between American citizens and Mexicans. It is very unfair to those who obtain citizenship legally. And it is a huge national security risk."
And Peter Romanenko of Waco, Texas, has noticed, on this show, we call illegal aliens illegal aliens, rather than undocumented workers. "Illegal is anything," he writes, "that is against the law, including drug trafficking, smuggling, terrorism, or crossing the border into a country. Undocumented is anything that can no longer be verified, including unemployed American workers who no longer qualify for unemployment benefits and are no longer counted in statistics. What a sorry nation we're becoming when we allow corporate political correctness to pervade our daily speech. Illegal means illegal."
Well, said, Peter. We love hearing from you. E-mail us at LouDobbs@CNN.com.
Tonight's poll question is on our top story tonight, the president's proposal for a national immigration policy. The question: Do you believe President Bush is proposing a change in our national immigration policy to win Hispanic or Latino votes, yes or no? Cast your vote at CNN.com/Lou. We'll have the results for you later in the show.
Coming up next, it was supposed to be Leave No Child Behind. Now the issue is leaving Democrats in the race for the White House looking for a way out.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Democratic front-runner Howard Dean has attacked his major rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination for their support of President Bush's policy on Iraq. Today, the president visited an elementary school in Saint Louis to defend his No Child Left Behind education reform. And Dean has been exploiting his rivals' support for that Bush policy as well.
Bill Schneider reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Two years ago, 95 percent of Democrats in Congress voted for President Bush's education reform bill. Senator Kennedy's blessing was crucial.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I was proud to stand with President Bush as he signed that reform into law.
SCHNEIDER: A year later, Senator Kennedy withdrew his blessing.
KENNEDY: The money isn't there. Needed resources for education are denied.
SCHNEIDER: Now schools around the country are facing penalties for failing to make adequate yearly progress in student achievement. Their complaint -- the No Child Left Behind bill provides money to test children, but not enough to teach them. Democrats running for president are accusing President Bush of not putting his money where his mouth is.
LIEBERMAN: We passed something called the No Child Left Behind act then George W. Bush left behind $6 billion that we promised in the ads.
SCHNEIDER: President Bush claimed in his radio address Saturday to have increased federal funding for elementary and high school education to the highest level ever. Democrats counter he has not spent as much money as the bill called for. We were duped, say Democrats.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But there's nothing in the No Child Left Behind act that requires it to be implemented the way this administration is doing it.
SCHNEIDER: Then why did they vote for it?
GEPHARDT: I voted for the bill because I thought it was the only way to get money into public education under a Bush presidency.
EDWARDS: I voted for No Child Left Behind because I believe in accountability. I believe in standards. SCHNEIDER: Now Howard Dean has seized the issue to open a second front, not just against President Bush, but against the other Democrats.
DEAN: I have two big policy differences with almost everybody up here. I opposed the Iraq war, with the exception of Dennis and Carol, everybody else supported it. I opposed No Child Left Behind. I don't know how Carol would have voted. But everybody else supported it.
SCHNEIDER: In other words, fools, dupes, they let President Bush suck them in.
DEAN: What has happened to so many Democrats in Congress is they've been co-opted by the agenda of George Bush.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: Many Democrats say they now see a hidden agenda in No Child Left Behind. If most public schools are declared failing, which some experts say could happen, then the bill may destroy public education. Dean's message, fools, dupes, why did you trust this guy? -- Lou.
DOBBS: Bill, it's kind of fun to watch the circuitous travels of this legislation.
The program, fundamentally Democratic in philosophy, approach, and spurred on by Senator Ted Kennedy, as you point out, embraced by George Bush, the compassionate conservative as president, and now Democrats being attacked for their support of it, and attacking the program itself. It doesn't get much more ironic than that, does it?
SCHNEIDER: It is marvelously ironic.
But, of course, Democrats will say, well, he just didn't come up with the funding that was authorized or at least called for under the program. You know, they were voting for what they thought the program was. And, in the end, the program was what President Bush wanted. And that's why they're saying, you know, this wasn't what we voted for. And Dean says, you're all idiots.
(LAUGHTER)
DOBBS: Well, whatever everybody is running for this office, and holding it, quickly, tell the American people tonight, what's the difference between a Democrat and Republican right now on education?
SCHNEIDER: On education, Democrats want to spend more money. End of story.
(LAUGHTER)
DOBBS: Bill Schneider, thank you very much.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
DOBBS: On the campaign trail tonight, Democratic presidential candidates working hard to catch up to front-runner Howard Dean. Dean is set to pick up another high-profile endorsement tomorrow from former Senator, former presidential candidate Bill Bradley.
Meanwhile, Senator John Kerry and Wesley Clark are offering new economic initiatives to cut taxes and curb the exportation of American jobs overseas. Kerry, speaking in Iowa today, said his plan would reward companies that create jobs in this country. He said the plan would also close tax loopholes for companies that ship those American jobs to cheap foreign labor markets.
Wesley Clark's proposed overhaul of the nation's tax code would raise taxes for the wealthy, cut or eliminate taxes for lower-income families.
And separately, the liberal group MoveOn.org is under fire tonight for political ads posted on its Web site that compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler. Those ads were part of a contest. The group has issued a statement, saying the ads were rejected by its members and the public and were definitely in poor taste. MoveOn.org says, in the future, it will create a more effective filtering system.
Coming up next, the reality of Mars far surpassing fantasy, according to NASA scientists. NASA's administrator, Sean O'Keefe, joins us next.
And the latest reminder that the war against terror is far from over. National security correspondent David Ensor on what may be the latest words of Osama bin Laden.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: NASA today released a dramatic three-dimensional image of the surface of Mars from the rover Spirit. The vehicle is now sending back its first color photographs. NASA scientists are simply ecstatic about the rover's performance to this point.
Bill Tucker has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A seven-month journey through space ended Saturday evening and a new mission to Mars began with photographs. Scientists got their first look at the 4 billion-year-old Gusev crater which is believed to have once contained a Martian lake. Pictures which include a panoramic view of the surface. Cool stuff. But the best news is, all of the equipment on board appears to have survived the trip in good shape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ART THOMPSON, SPIRIT TACTICAL UPLINK LEAD: We're like kids at the candy store. We're no longer looking in the glass, we're at the case trying to decide which way to go and we can hardly wait to get off the lander so we can start driving and doing fun stuff on the surface.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCKER: But it's not expected to happen for at least a week. After a rough and tumble landing which put the Spirit, a 400-pound vehicle right where NASA wanted it, the rover is not expected to extend its legs and get rolling until a thorough checkup is complete. The immediate desired destination? A depression near the rover that scientists have named Sleepy Hollow.
DR. STEVE SOUYRES, SPIRIT CHIEF SCIENTIST: Early on we're going to be driving this vehicle very, very cautiously. It's the right thing to do. We've got unknown terrain beneath our vehicles. We've got a vehicle that's completely different from anything that's ever been operated before.
I'm sure Matt and Art and the rest of the engineers who drive these things are going to be very, very cautious, and if it takes a week to get to Sleepy Hollow, that's fine with me.
TUCKER: Now that NASA's Spirit has arrived, its twin, Opportunity, is close behind. Opportunity is scheduled to land on January 24.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: Meanwhile, Europe's Mars probe, the Beagle 2 remains silent. The scientists working on that project remain hopeful that communications can be established, and they were very quick to offer their congratulations to NASA -- Lou.
DOBBS: It's a terrific accomplishment. NASA deserves those congratulations from all of us. Bill Tucker, thank you.
NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe says the initial success of Spirit proves NASA is back. Sean O'Keefe joins me now from Washington D.C. at NASA headquarters. Good to have you with us. Congratulations to you and to all of NASA. Great accomplishment and it's exciting to see these pictures coming back, reminiscent of '97 Pathfinder. What should we expect?
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Well, thank you, Lou, appreciate it very much. This is really a spectacular day. And it worked out better than we could have anticipated. There's no doubt the volume that we've had come back has been much more extensive. The clarity has been greater. Everything we could have ever hoped for has worked out exceptionally well.
In the next 24 to 48 hours we'll start seeing sharper images, color images. A wide range of different expanded capabilities, I think, that are beginning to unfold literally from Spirit as time goes by. I think as Steve Squires just offered in the briefing a few moments ago, within a week, we'll start looking at mobility. And it will take on the task of being the robotic geologist that we've designed it to be.
DOBBS: It's remarkable. Seven months to journey to the surface of Mars. And as you were speaking, we're looking at that panoramic, the 3-D image that has just come back. Color photographs on their way. It will be about nine days on it before Spirit, the rover leaves the platform and heads out. Is everything working in the initial tests, suggesting that it will have full mobility, and be deployable?
O'KEEFE: It sure is. Everything seems to be working exactly as it's supposed to. Which is unbelievable. We had built in so many different second and third order kind of contingencies in order to be prepared for various glitches and faults and problems and whatever else. And it all seems to be working exactly right. Knock wood, it's still continuing well.
We should have bought lottery tickets for this one, because it's worked better than anybody could have hoped for. Hopefully that trend will continue. We'll see it continue to roll up.
I think that's about right, we're looking at a week to nine days, roughly, whenever the engineers and the technical folks come back and say, yes, it's all checked out, ready to go. Steve's exactly right, we need to be cautious. Make sure we don't do anything stupid here.
DOBBS: In a few weeks, also, scheduled to land, Opportunity, the sister craft to Spirit, landing on the opposite side of Mars. Those two vehicles over the course of about three months, the kinds of information that they will seek out, that's within basically about, what, about a half a square mile area there?
O'KEEFE: Roughly that. Again, Opportunity will be in a totally different portion of the planet, to be sure. It will be just north of the equator whereas Spirit is just south of the equator in different parts of the area.
But the two things they have in common is they're landing in areas where we believe just based on the geological formations appear to have either been lake beds or could have sustained hematite, which is commonly found on earth-bound, you know, bottoms of lake beds, sediment and so forth. We'll see what may emerge from that. Those are the two common characteristics.
DOBBS: The hope is, of finding at least the residue of the requirements for life, to do that over the course of 90 days and be successful, that would be even more remarkable.
Sean O'Keefe, let me ask you this. We've just gotten word here, this evening, that the international space station is experiencing a decline in air pressure, a small decline in air pressure. The astronauts aboard having a discussion again today. Give us a sense of how big a problem that is, or how small a problem?
O'KEEFE: Well, apparently based on everything we've been able to determine so far, it's a very, very slight cabin pressure change. And as a matter of fact, even less dramatic than what you would typically experience on a commercial airline flight when you see variations of that.
That said, the problem is, we're not sure exactly what the cause of it is. We're trying to run that to ground. But so far, it doesn't appear to be anything that's life-threatening. I've just sent Mike Foale an e-mail, as a matter of fact, asking him exactly what changes we may need to adapt to as a result of that. I don't anticipate this is going to be a real showstopper by any means.
DOBBS: Mike Foale, the American astronaut aboard the international space station.
O'KEEFE: The commander of Expedition 8.
DOBBS: And he's had some experience, I'm sure he would say, unfortunately, before aboard Mir so with pressure changes. And certainly --
O'KEEFE: Well, he and Sasha Kaleri have been through the full gamut of this. They've had onboard Mir, there were collisions and fires. I mean, they are veteran astronauts. They really know what they're doing. As a consequence, they're in good hands.
DOBBS: The Mir station was filled with experience. Much of it -- most of those astronauts would have liked to have avoided. Again, Sean O'Keefe, to everybody at NASA, this is just thrilling. It's wonderful to see this kind of success. We look forward to continued success. So dazzle us with the science of the pictures. Thanks for being here.
O'KEEFE: Thank you. Appreciate it, Lou. Nice talking to you.
DOBBS: Coming up next, three American soldiers in Iraq dismissed. Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre will have the report.
And we'll be joined by Senator Charles Grassley, who says the United States isn't getting it done in tracking down and stopping the funding of terrorists. Senator Grassley joins us. Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: The army today said it discharged three military police officers for beating and harassing Iraqi prisoners in Iraq. The army launched an investigation after other soldiers reported their abusive behavior. Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has the report. Jamie?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, the army investigation concluded that the Iraqi prisoners brought to a detention camp in southern Iraq last May were mistreated by three army military police officers, all from the same Pennsylvania reserve M.P. battalion. The reservists have all been demoted, fined and discharged from the military, two under less than honorable conditions after deciding to accept administrative punishment rather than risk a court-martial that could have sent them to prison.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice-over): Master Sergeant Lisa Girman, a 14-year veteran Pennsylvania state trooper, was found to have mistreated an Iraqi prisoner by repeatedly kicking him in the groin, abdomen and head, and encouraging her subordinate soldiers to do the same.
Staff Sergeant Scott McKenzie was found to have abused a prisoner by holding his legs apart and encouraging others to kick him in the groin, while other U.S. soldier kicked him in the abdomen and head.
And Specialist Timothy Canjer was determined to have mistreated a detainee by violently twisting his previously injured arm and causing him to scream in pain. A fourth reservist Shawna Edmundson was given a less than honorable discharge in lieu of a court-martial. For months the soldiers protested their innocence.
Shortly after the incident last may Staff Sergeant Mckenzie wrote an e-mail to his Congressman saying we are only doing our job. And claiming that 10 to 12 prisoners resisted as we escorted them. And that two prisoners assaulted the MPs. All of the force is what I believed in my mind was the minimum force necessary, he concluded.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: The army says the investigation began after other soldiers saw and reported the alleged abuse, but the discharged soldiers say the real bad guys are the prisoners. Who they believe included two Iraqi police officers who raped, tortured and killed American POWs. And Lou, on another note, the army is about to issue new guidelines that will prevent some 7,000 U.S. Army soldiers from getting out of the military when they planned to sometime this year. These are soldiers who are in Iraq, and under their original retirement plan would have left before their unit's tour of duty was over in Iraq. The Pentagon is instituting a policy to keep them their units until those units rotate back to the United States -- Lou.
DOBBS: This from the same general staff that says, we don't need more U.S. troops?
MCINTYRE: Well, that's right. They say that in this case, some of the people who are retiring are in key positions. Some of them are commanders. And that it would just be too disruptive to rotate them in and out. So they're going to make them stay in a couple of months, and in some cases a little longer than that.
DOBBS: Jamie, thank you very much. As always, Jamie McIntyre, our senior Pentagon correspondent.
The coalitions presence in Iraq is mentioned in a new audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden. The CIA says today it's likely that the voice on the tape is that of bin Laden. The tape's release is adding to concerns that radical Islamist terrorists may be in the final stages of planning to launch an attack.
National security correspondent David Ensor with the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OSAMA BIN LADEN: (SPEAKING IN ARABIC)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Central intelligence agency officials are confident the voice on the tape is that of Osama bin Laden. Based on recent events bin Laden refers to on the tape, officials say it was recorded in the last few weeks. A new tape then but the same message.
RIDGE: It's really not news for Osama bin Laden to tell the rest of the world, all those people, that small minority people who share his hatred and that evil that America should be the No. 1 target of their hatred. It's not news.
ENSOR: Still, the tape calls on Muslims to overthrow moderate governments and calls for Jihad against the U.S. Intelligence officials have the same concern their boss had 11 months ago about an earlier tape.
GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: And whether this is a signal of impending attack or not is something we're looking at. I can only tell you what the history is.
ENSOR: That history included a bin Laden tape, October 6, 2002, followed immediately by the attack on a French oil tanker and then the bombing in Bali. Bin Laden's November 12, 2002 tape was broadcast 12 days before the bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya. But there have been more attacks than tapes, and some analysts believe bin Laden may simply want to show he's still around.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: I think the most important thing it tells us is bin Laden is alive and he was alive relatively recently. Secondly, he's continuing to try to influence what's going on. He's calling for -- he gained a response to the occupation of Iraq, and he wants to show he's in business.
ENSOR: A recent bin Laden tape that was released turned out to be a compilation of fragments of old former recordings. But this one is new. And so well recorded, officials say, that you can hear his breathing between the words. It's bin Laden, alive and breathing.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee says the Treasury Department is not doing enough to stop the flow of money to radical Islamist terrorists. Senator Charles Grassley has criticized the Treasury Department's office of Foreign Asset Control for failure to force bank to impose sanctions against terrorist. Senator Grassley is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and joins us tonight from Orlando, Florida.
Mr. Chairman, good to have you with us.
SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R-IO), CHAIRMAN, SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE: Glad to be with you, Lou.
DOBBS: Senator, you have sent in your role as chairman of the committee, a letter to the office of foreign asset control.
Have they responded to your concerns and your questions?
GRASSLEY: No. And worse yet, there's been suggestions from the inspector general that they should have made some changes a couple years ago, recommendations made that haven't even been made. And it's kind of a case of the agency maybe not knowing what it doesn't know. And this is a very important agency, because it's the agency that, when it gets word of terrorist activity and the source of funding, it can freeze those funds. So it's really in the front line of our war against terrorism.
DOBBS: You in your letter say that there were at least two occasions when nine U.S. agencies identified terrorists before the office of Foreign Asset Control.
What do you propose should be done?
How can that happen?
GRASSLEY: Well, the U.N. and the European Union did identify bin Laden's brother-in-law, and froze his assets. Our own government recognized the organization that bin Laden's brother-in-law was connected with, froze the assets of the organization, but didn't freeze the assets of the individual, so there's a big loophole. We asked this agency when it came before our committee, if it needed any additional authority. And they told us it didn't need any additional authority. I think it does. But I would like to have the agency tell us what sort of authority it needs to stay on top of it. We're also finding that, according to these recommendations, that it really is operating in files that are paper, and old-fashioned, and not really the high-tech sort of record-keeping you need. In fact, our terrorists' enemies are using the highest tech, latest equipment against us. It seems like our own agency ought to have high-tech response and particularly the records that are needed.
DOBBS: And they are not demanding enough, in your judgment, of banks and other financial institutions to track and to stop the flow of this money?
GRASSLEY: That's another thing. They're not working with our regulatory agencies to keep on top of it. They're saying that certain laws would leave it to these banks to voluntarily give this information. We just can't wait for agencies that may know about activity reporting to us. We ought to be very aggressively pursuing it. And if they need additional legislative authority, that's what we're really asking them. They're taking kind of a copout saying, well, we're doing all we can do, because we're asking for voluntary compliance. In the war on terror, we can't wait for voluntary compliance.
DOBBS: Senator Chuck Grassley, we thank you very much for being with us here. And senator, we have invited Richard Newcom, the director of the office of Foreign Assets Control to join us. And we hope he will accept it tomorrow evening. We thank you for being here, sir.
GRASSLEY: I'm glad to be with you.
DOBBS: "Tonight's Thought" is on national security. "If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it. If we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war." George Washington.
A reminder to vote in "Tonight's Poll." The question, do you believe President Bush is proposing a change in national immigration policy to include Hispanic or Latino votes in the up coming presidential election, yes or no?
Cast your vote at cnn.com/lou. We'll have the results for you a little later.
Coming up next, stocks soar to open the week.
Christine Romans will have the market.
And racing into the future. Some of the hottest cars of tomorrow on display today. You'll see them here and more from deep in space. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Taking a look at news in brief tonight, a winter storm dropped up to 10 inches of snow in parts of the Midwest. That storm caused airport delays in Iowa, and Illinois, and two multi-vehicle accidents in Wisconsin; 20 people injured.
That same storm system caused flooding in roads and homes across central Ohio. At least 150 people there had to be evacuated from their homes.
And the Agriculture Department today said it will destroy 450 calves in a Washington state herd that has now been linked to mad cow disease. Those calves include the offspring of the cow that tested positive for the disease.
And two more letter bombs have been sent to members of the European Parliament. They exploded today. A third letter bomb was discovered before it blew up. At least seven letter bombs have been intercepted since last week. No one has been injured.
On Wall Street today, stocks opened the first full week of the new trading year with a powerful rally. The Dow surged 134 points. The Nasdaq rose 40.68. The S&P gained almost 14. Christine Romans is here with all of the market for us. Well, a lot of it, anyway.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Starting right where it left off, stocks rising...
DOBBS: Happy new year.
ROMANS: Happy new year. Good to be back. Dollar following, commodities on fire.
Let's start with stocks up. The Nasdaq, two-year high today. S&P 500 in the midst of its longest weekly winning streak since 1998. Why? Certainly a momentum from a 25 percent gain in 2003. New money being put to work in the beginning of a new year.
There is optimism about what they call the January effect, Lou. That's where the first few days predict the month and the year. And the January barometer, that's where small caps stocks gain favor.
And don't forget election year history. The Dow has gained more than 9 percent on average in presidential election years. That would take the Dow to almost 11,400, if that held true.
Now, stock strength despite dollar weakness. The dollar fell to an all-time low against the euro. At one point today, it took $1.27 to buy a euro.
Gold surged to a 15-year high. Oil jumped more than $1. Very close to nine-month highs there, Lou. So the trends we saw very deeply entrenched late last year continue.
DOBBS: Good. Let's hope they continue for the next 51 weeks. Christine, thanks.
Coming up next, the hottest wheels yet. We'll preview the cars of tomorrow tonight.
But first, "Exporting America," updating the list of U.S. companies that our staff has confirmed to be exporting American jobs to cheaper overseas labor markets. Tonight's additions to our list include consulting firm A.T. Kearney, GlobespanVirata, a networking company based in New Jersey, Lifescan, a medical supply company, Lockwood Greene, an industrial engineering firm based in South Carolina, Planar Systems, a computer hardware maker, Providian Financial, R.R. Donnelley & Sons, the nation's second largest printing company, Telcordia, a telecom networking company, and TRW Automotive. We will, of course, be updating the list each evening on this show. And please keep sending us the names of those companies not on our list that you know to be exporting jobs to those cheap overseas labor markets. Our e-mail address here is loudobs@cnn.com. And we will be right back. Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Now the results of tonight's poll. Ninety-five percent of you said President Bush is proposing a change in our national immigration policy to win Hispanic and Latino votes in the upcoming presidential election; 5 percent of you say no.
In Detroit today, the North American International Auto Show opened for the press. Car buyers will have as many as 65 new vehicles to choose from in auto showrooms this year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS (voice-over): Ford calls 2004 the year of the car, trying to take consumer focus away from SUVs. Pontiac has unveiled the Solstice, the new rear wheel drive two-seat roadster. It's designed to compete against the Mazda Miata, and it should reach showrooms in the fall of 2005. Base price, $20,000.
General Motors is offering its new version of an old classic, the Corvette. The Chevrolet Nomad is a small four-seater that looks similar to the early Corvette.
The Ford F-150 was named 2004 North American truck of the year. It will cost from about $19,000 to just under $36,000.
Ford's Bronco concept car is a tough-looking, two-door sports utility.
The Saturn curve concept car combines a front-hinged hood and a rear-hinged trunk lid.
The Rescue is Chrysler's response to GM's Hummer, with 37-inch tires, a collapsible windshield and removable doors.
The Dodge Slingshot is designed for open-air driving. Side rails over the passenger area can be stored in the trunk.
Automotive journalists named the hybrid Toyota Prius sedan the North American car of the year. The company's next step, the FTX, a full-size pickup powered by a V-8 hybrid engine using both gasoline and electricity.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: Well, that's a sample. In case you're in the Detroit area and want to take a closer look at the future, the auto show will be open to the public beginning this Saturday for nine days.
That's our show for tonight. We thank you for being with us. Tomorrow here, "Exporting America." We take a look at how one small town is trying to deal with the loss of jobs to cheap foreign labor markets. And tomorrow, we'll be talking politics. Karen Tumulty of "Time," Roger Simon of "U.S. News and World Report," Ron Brownstein of "The L.A. Times."
We leave you tonight with these stunning pictures from the planet Mars. Thanks for being with us. For all of us here, good night from New York.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Launches Fingerprint Program For Foreign Visitors>
Aired January 5, 2004 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight: The government has launched a huge program to photograph and fingerprint millions of foreign visitors. Critics, however, say it will do little to stop terrorists. Bob Franken will report.
In "Exporting America" tonight, U.S. companies are not only shipping American jobs overseas. They're also destroying the living standards of middle-class Americans. Lisa Sylvester with a special report.
The Mars rover Spirit sends a dramatic three-dimensional image of the Mars surface back to Earth, Spirit now beaming back its first color photographs. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe is our guest.
North America's biggest auto show is open in Detroit, with the big three carmakers promising dozens of new vehicles to fight back against foreign competition. We'll take a look at some of the hottest new models.
And the CIA says the latest audiotape attributed to Osama bin Laden is likely his voice. Terrorism experts say the tape could be a sign another big terrorist attack is imminent.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Monday, January 5. Here now, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening.
Tonight, the White House is moving closer to giving legal status to millions of illegal aliens in this country. President Bush this week is expected to announce the proposal as part of sweeping changes to immigration laws. Word of the move comes just a week before President Bush is scheduled to visit Mexico to meet with President Vicente Fox. They will discuss growing immigration and trade tensions between the two countries.
Senior White House correspondent John King joins us now with a report -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Lou, officials tells us the president is on target to release that plan on Wednesday here in Washington.
It will be his first major policy initiative of this new and this reelection year for the president. And, as you note, the immigration initiative will come just five days before Mr. Bush travels to Monterey, Mexico, for a regional summit meeting that will include bilateral talks with President Vicente Fox of Mexico.
Immigration, of course, a source of tension between the two countries and the two presidents in recent years. Of the eight to 10 illegal million illegal aliens in the United States, half of them are estimated to be Mexican Americans. Administration officials tell us, the key highlights of the new Bush plan will be this. It will create a new system to match prospective immigrants with jobs available here in the United States.
And it also would allow some workers now in the United States illegally to keep their jobs and get on a path to eventual legal status. Now, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, declined to discuss the plan in any detail today with reporters, but he did say this -- quote -- "The president has long talked about the importance of having an immigration policy that matches willing workers with willing employers. It's important for America to be a welcoming society. We are a nation of immigrants, and we're better for it."
McClellan also making the case, there is an economic need for these new workers. Of course, though, Lou, as you well know, this will be a source of contention in the political environment here in Washington and across the country. White House officials says the president's plan closely tracks proposals already put forward by Republican Senator John McCain and other Republicans from the border state of Arizona. It also closely tracks many of the ideas advocated by the Democrats running for president.
The president's biggest problem here will be fellow conservative Republicans, many of whom vehemently, vehemently oppose offering any benefits, any rewards to those who enter this country illegally -- Lou.
DOBBS: And, John, is there any concern there at the White House that the president could appear to be pandering to the Hispanic and Latino vote in this country on this election year?
KING: Well, they certainly, Lou, are expecting some criticism, both from liberals associated with the Latino and Hispanic communities, and also from conservative, saying that this politics by the president, giving up on what they will call principle.
Mr. Bush's team will make the case that, yes, he benefits politically. They will say the main argument for this is economics, that there are the need for the workers in this country, and that, while many did enter this country illegally, they will say it is time simply to accept the reality and to try to get those workers into the system. But, Lou, it will be a source of great political debate.
DOBBS: And adding to an intense year of electioneering.
Thank you very much, John King, our senior White House correspondent. Thanks, John.
The federal government today launched a massive new screening program to track millions of foreign visitors to this country. Citizens from most foreign countries will be photographed and fingerprinted when they arrive at airports and some seaports. The program is designed to make it harder for terrorists to enter the country.
National correspondent Bob Franken has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The program has the benign name US-VISIT. But it is the latest high-tech, brave new world response to the fearful new world of post-9/11 terrorism.
TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: US-VISIT will not be kind to those who think that privacy can hide their hate or their intention to harm.
FRANKEN: The technology is called biometrics. At 115 U.S. airports and 14 seaports, foreign visitors will undergo what amounts to a digital fingerprinting and will have their pictures taken as well.
The information will be matched against various watch lists and will become part of a permanent record; 28 nations are excluded. Some of those that are not excluded are not happy. Brazil, for instance, is retaliating by fingerprinting U.S. tourists. But officials insist, it is only a minor inconvenience. And many who had just undergone the process agreed, even some Brazilian visitors.
PABLO GUZMAN, BRAZILIAN TOURIST: This is a security issue, process. So it's fine for me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's a good idea. I think (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to travel now, to fly anywhere. It's a good security feature, I think.
FRANKEN: But the program is not without its critics.
TIMOTHY EDGAR, ACLU: We're concerned that, when the government proposes these kinds of programs that may infringe on people's privacy or civil liberties, fingerprinting people, searching them and so forth, that privacy not be an afterthought.
FRANKEN: This is happening in stages. Ultimately, homeland security officials hope to expand it to land border entries. They describe the initial tests, which began in November at Hartsfield- Jackson Airport in Atlanta, a complete success.
ROBERT MOCNY, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, US-VISIT: US-VISIT matched 21 hits on the criminal watch list, including those with previous convictions for statutory rape, dangerous drugs, aggravated felonies and several cases of visa fraud.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN: The process, Lou, is, according to officials, taking only about an additional 15 seconds for people seeking entry into the United States. They say that this is an important new tool in the cat-and-mouse battle with terrorists -- Lou.
DOBBS: Bob, thank you very much -- Bob Franken.
Well, as Bob just reported, the new registration system for foreign visitors has a few holes in it, 28 holes at least. The so- called VISIT program gives visa waivers to 27 countries, mostly European countries. Nearly all Canadian visitors will be exempt as well from this new system. Those 27 countries include the largest nations in Western Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as 17 smaller European nations.
Countries outside Europe that are exempt from the new program include Australia, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore. There are also more a few other several significant holes in the programs as well. Dozens of seaports in this country are not yet included in this new registration system. And foreign visitors arriving from Mexico and Canada are also exempt.
More problems today for British Airways Flight 223 from London to Washington. Today's flight left London's Heathrow Airport more than three hours late because of security concerns, this the third consecutive day that the flight was delayed. Flight 223 was canceled altogether last Thursday and Friday.
In another security alert tonight, authorities in Boston have charged a Saudi Arabian man with carrying incendiary or explosive devices on an aircraft. The man arrived at Boston Logan International Airport Saturday on Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt, Germany. Federal agents found three small firecracker devices, as they described them, in his luggage. Officials say it is too early to determine whether the case has anything to do with terrorism.
Fighter planes have checked more than ten commercial aircraft flying in U.S. airspace since the government raised the national terrorist alert level to orange two weeks ago. The alert level remains at orange tonight. A senior Pentagon official said military commanders ordered the fighter planes to check those airliners because of heightened concerns about the possibility of a terrorist attack. Fighter planes have also been patrolling airspace over major U.S. cities.
Coming up next here, "Exporting America" tonight -- the pay gap that is costing millions of Americans their jobs, millions of others their standard of living. Lisa Sylvester will report.
Then, NASA's Spirit is ready to roll on Mars. The head of NASA, Sean O'Keefe, is our guest.
And tracking terrorist funding. Senator Charles Grassley and a number of other U.S. senators say the federal agency in charge of stopping terrorist funding isn't doing the job.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DOBBS: Tonight, we begin a series of special reports on how the shipment of American jobs overseas is affecting the lives of millions of Americans. Companies that give away jobs to cheaper foreign labor markets are also giving away the American standard of living.
Lisa Sylvester reports from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Richard Ingebrigtsen lost his job at Intel in 2002. He was told he was not up to company standards anymore. But, by the end of the year, his entire department was closed, the jobs shipped to Costa Rica. Now he's a substitute teacher, his salary cut in half.
RICHARD INGEBRIGTSEN, UNEMPLOYED PROGRAMMER: My wife was forced to go out and find her own job. And she's doing pretty well at it. But I haven't been able to participate that much in bringing in money.
SYLVESTER: Ingebrigtsen earned $10 to $15 an hour as a computer programmer. He says his counterpart in Costa Rica makes about half of that amount.
Wages in China and India are even lower, dipping to about a sixth of the U.S. wage. Trade agreements and globalization have made it easier for companies to pick up and move operations.
SCOTT PAUL, AFL-CIO: Right now, trade agreements tend only to protect the rights of corporations. And so, they can move capital and investment around the world and know it's guaranteed. Workers don't have that same guarantee. They're subject to market forces, which are sometimes brutal.
SYLVESTER: The average U.S. manufacturing worker is paid more than $21 an hour, Mexico, far less, and in China and India, only 25 cents to 27 cents an hour. An American textile worker makes $15 an hour.
In Costa Rica and Mexico, wages are less than $3 an hour, in China, only around 48 cents, and, in Vietnam, even less, about 22 cents an hour. Call center workers in India are paid as little as $1.35 an hour. Accountants in China make just under $2 an hour, according to the McKinsey & Company Group. This puts downward pressure on American wages.
JIM SCHOLLAERT, MANUFACTURING & TRADE ACTION COALITION: Look at life in China, life in Mexico, life in Haiti, or anyplace else where wage rates are extremely low. Our pensions will be a thing of the past. Our homes will be a thing of the past, our health care system, our educational system.
SYLVESTER: Ingebrigtsen worries, if the high-paying jobs move offshore, that could leave him and other American workers permanently underemployed.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SYLVESTER: So, what can be done? Labor groups say, the U.S. government needs to take a long, hard look at trade agreements and to negotiate protections for American workers, the same way safeguards are built in for U.S. multinational corporations -- Lou.
DOBBS: I suppose the best news on all of this, Lisa, is, at least people are beginning to recognize the seriousness, the profound seriousness of this problem.
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: Lisa, thank you very much -- Lisa Sylvester reporting from Washington. Thanks, Lisa.
Growing outrage over the shipment of American jobs overseas inspired a fiery exchange for the first time in yesterday's Democratic presidential debate. With two weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, the Democratic candidates sparred over how to best keep those American jobs in this country.
Kitty Pilgrim has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Exporting jobs proved an explosive topic during the Democratic debate.
HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Right now, we're exporting jobs. And that's not a good thing.
PILGRIM: The candidates went after each other, so much so, the moderator expressed surprise trade was such a flash point.
PAUL ANGER, EDITOR, "DES MOINES REGISTER": We've hit the mother lode here so far.
(LAUGHTER)
PILGRIM: This accusation started the fight.
REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-MO), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Everybody up here except Dennis voted for NAFTA and voted for the China agreement. They did the wrong thing.
PILGRIM: John Edwards called him on it.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: First of all, I didn't vote for NAFTA. I campaigned against NAFTA, because I've seen what's happened in my state of North Carolina, with the loss of manufacturing jobs.
GEPHARDT: You voted for the China agreement. And it's had a bad impact here in Iowa. And it's had a bad impact in your state of North Carolina. One of the biggest textile makers has closed all of their plants across the country, 60,000 jobs lost.
PILGRIM: Kucinich flat-out declared trade agreements dead if he wins.
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My first act in office will be to cancel NAFTA and the WTO. We've lost over three million manufacturing jobs in this country.
DEAN: I believe that NAFTA and the WTO only globalized the rights of multinational corporations, but they did not globalize the rights of workers.
PILGRIM: Blame Bush appeared to be the tactic.
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He just sits back and lets foreign countries break the rules of trade, rip off patents, copyrights, take American jobs, play with the currency.
PILGRIM: A solution of sorts was suggested.
CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You have to have environmental and labor standards and human rights standards in order to level the playing field for American companies, so that we aren't hemorrhaging jobs as a result of our engagements with the rest of the world.
PILGRIM: There are still a couple of chances to fight this out in Iowa. Democrats have a radio debate and another forum before the caucuses in two weeks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Most of the candidates acknowledge that cheap foreign labor, lower pay, fewer worker rights, and fewer regulations have caused the hemorrhage of jobs overseas -- Lou.
DOBBS: And this is the first time in this campaign, as we begin 2004, that these candidates have specifically addressed this issue.
PILGRIM: It seemed to me that it was quite the forum for it. It went very, very long. It went much longer than anyone anticipated. And they practically had to throw the rules out on the debate to get through it.
DOBBS: Well, it's about time, for the benefit of American workers, that they took on the issue and took it on seriously, even in fiery terms, or perhaps especially in fiery terms.
Kitty, thank you -- Kitty Pilgrim.
A political ad stating that amnesty for illegal aliens hurts Iowa workers was taken off the air by a Des Moines television station for being -- quote -- "borderline racist" -- end quote. "The New York Times"-owned WHO-TV pulled the commercial paid for by the Coalition For the Future American Worker. That's an umbrella group of some 20 organizations.
We thought you would like to make your own judgment about this charge of borderline racism. So here it is. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, AD)
NARRATOR: How much longer can Iowa workers be the punching bags for greedy corporations and politicians? First, meat packers replaced Iowans with thousands of foreign workers. Next, wages were cut almost in half. Now, politicians want new laws to import millions more foreign workers and give amnesty to illegal aliens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: Now, that ad was removed after complaints from several organized labor groups. Iowa Federation of Labor President Mark Smith called the commercial "just racist stuff with no factual basis" -- end quote.
We invited the general manager of "The New York Times"-owned WHO Television to join us here tonight and debate the issue, but he didn't return our calls. Nine other television stations in Iowa continue to run that commercial.
A lot of our viewers are clearly fed up with this country's lack of a rational immigration policy and the coordinated efforts of a number of special interest groups to disguise what is really going on at our borders.
Mary Falk of Front Royal, Virginia, wrote: "I remember when working a construction job was a good-paying, honorable, blue-collar job. Like many other mid-income jobs, corporate America has managed to Wal-Mart this industry, as well as many others like it, with cheap, often illegal workers."
On the president's changes to this country's immigration policy that's expected Wednesday, Bruce Fisher of Newark, Delaware says: "This proposal is not in the interests of American citizens. It increases polarization between American citizens and Mexicans. It is very unfair to those who obtain citizenship legally. And it is a huge national security risk."
And Peter Romanenko of Waco, Texas, has noticed, on this show, we call illegal aliens illegal aliens, rather than undocumented workers. "Illegal is anything," he writes, "that is against the law, including drug trafficking, smuggling, terrorism, or crossing the border into a country. Undocumented is anything that can no longer be verified, including unemployed American workers who no longer qualify for unemployment benefits and are no longer counted in statistics. What a sorry nation we're becoming when we allow corporate political correctness to pervade our daily speech. Illegal means illegal."
Well, said, Peter. We love hearing from you. E-mail us at LouDobbs@CNN.com.
Tonight's poll question is on our top story tonight, the president's proposal for a national immigration policy. The question: Do you believe President Bush is proposing a change in our national immigration policy to win Hispanic or Latino votes, yes or no? Cast your vote at CNN.com/Lou. We'll have the results for you later in the show.
Coming up next, it was supposed to be Leave No Child Behind. Now the issue is leaving Democrats in the race for the White House looking for a way out.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Democratic front-runner Howard Dean has attacked his major rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination for their support of President Bush's policy on Iraq. Today, the president visited an elementary school in Saint Louis to defend his No Child Left Behind education reform. And Dean has been exploiting his rivals' support for that Bush policy as well.
Bill Schneider reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Two years ago, 95 percent of Democrats in Congress voted for President Bush's education reform bill. Senator Kennedy's blessing was crucial.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I was proud to stand with President Bush as he signed that reform into law.
SCHNEIDER: A year later, Senator Kennedy withdrew his blessing.
KENNEDY: The money isn't there. Needed resources for education are denied.
SCHNEIDER: Now schools around the country are facing penalties for failing to make adequate yearly progress in student achievement. Their complaint -- the No Child Left Behind bill provides money to test children, but not enough to teach them. Democrats running for president are accusing President Bush of not putting his money where his mouth is.
LIEBERMAN: We passed something called the No Child Left Behind act then George W. Bush left behind $6 billion that we promised in the ads.
SCHNEIDER: President Bush claimed in his radio address Saturday to have increased federal funding for elementary and high school education to the highest level ever. Democrats counter he has not spent as much money as the bill called for. We were duped, say Democrats.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But there's nothing in the No Child Left Behind act that requires it to be implemented the way this administration is doing it.
SCHNEIDER: Then why did they vote for it?
GEPHARDT: I voted for the bill because I thought it was the only way to get money into public education under a Bush presidency.
EDWARDS: I voted for No Child Left Behind because I believe in accountability. I believe in standards. SCHNEIDER: Now Howard Dean has seized the issue to open a second front, not just against President Bush, but against the other Democrats.
DEAN: I have two big policy differences with almost everybody up here. I opposed the Iraq war, with the exception of Dennis and Carol, everybody else supported it. I opposed No Child Left Behind. I don't know how Carol would have voted. But everybody else supported it.
SCHNEIDER: In other words, fools, dupes, they let President Bush suck them in.
DEAN: What has happened to so many Democrats in Congress is they've been co-opted by the agenda of George Bush.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: Many Democrats say they now see a hidden agenda in No Child Left Behind. If most public schools are declared failing, which some experts say could happen, then the bill may destroy public education. Dean's message, fools, dupes, why did you trust this guy? -- Lou.
DOBBS: Bill, it's kind of fun to watch the circuitous travels of this legislation.
The program, fundamentally Democratic in philosophy, approach, and spurred on by Senator Ted Kennedy, as you point out, embraced by George Bush, the compassionate conservative as president, and now Democrats being attacked for their support of it, and attacking the program itself. It doesn't get much more ironic than that, does it?
SCHNEIDER: It is marvelously ironic.
But, of course, Democrats will say, well, he just didn't come up with the funding that was authorized or at least called for under the program. You know, they were voting for what they thought the program was. And, in the end, the program was what President Bush wanted. And that's why they're saying, you know, this wasn't what we voted for. And Dean says, you're all idiots.
(LAUGHTER)
DOBBS: Well, whatever everybody is running for this office, and holding it, quickly, tell the American people tonight, what's the difference between a Democrat and Republican right now on education?
SCHNEIDER: On education, Democrats want to spend more money. End of story.
(LAUGHTER)
DOBBS: Bill Schneider, thank you very much.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
DOBBS: On the campaign trail tonight, Democratic presidential candidates working hard to catch up to front-runner Howard Dean. Dean is set to pick up another high-profile endorsement tomorrow from former Senator, former presidential candidate Bill Bradley.
Meanwhile, Senator John Kerry and Wesley Clark are offering new economic initiatives to cut taxes and curb the exportation of American jobs overseas. Kerry, speaking in Iowa today, said his plan would reward companies that create jobs in this country. He said the plan would also close tax loopholes for companies that ship those American jobs to cheap foreign labor markets.
Wesley Clark's proposed overhaul of the nation's tax code would raise taxes for the wealthy, cut or eliminate taxes for lower-income families.
And separately, the liberal group MoveOn.org is under fire tonight for political ads posted on its Web site that compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler. Those ads were part of a contest. The group has issued a statement, saying the ads were rejected by its members and the public and were definitely in poor taste. MoveOn.org says, in the future, it will create a more effective filtering system.
Coming up next, the reality of Mars far surpassing fantasy, according to NASA scientists. NASA's administrator, Sean O'Keefe, joins us next.
And the latest reminder that the war against terror is far from over. National security correspondent David Ensor on what may be the latest words of Osama bin Laden.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: NASA today released a dramatic three-dimensional image of the surface of Mars from the rover Spirit. The vehicle is now sending back its first color photographs. NASA scientists are simply ecstatic about the rover's performance to this point.
Bill Tucker has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A seven-month journey through space ended Saturday evening and a new mission to Mars began with photographs. Scientists got their first look at the 4 billion-year-old Gusev crater which is believed to have once contained a Martian lake. Pictures which include a panoramic view of the surface. Cool stuff. But the best news is, all of the equipment on board appears to have survived the trip in good shape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ART THOMPSON, SPIRIT TACTICAL UPLINK LEAD: We're like kids at the candy store. We're no longer looking in the glass, we're at the case trying to decide which way to go and we can hardly wait to get off the lander so we can start driving and doing fun stuff on the surface.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCKER: But it's not expected to happen for at least a week. After a rough and tumble landing which put the Spirit, a 400-pound vehicle right where NASA wanted it, the rover is not expected to extend its legs and get rolling until a thorough checkup is complete. The immediate desired destination? A depression near the rover that scientists have named Sleepy Hollow.
DR. STEVE SOUYRES, SPIRIT CHIEF SCIENTIST: Early on we're going to be driving this vehicle very, very cautiously. It's the right thing to do. We've got unknown terrain beneath our vehicles. We've got a vehicle that's completely different from anything that's ever been operated before.
I'm sure Matt and Art and the rest of the engineers who drive these things are going to be very, very cautious, and if it takes a week to get to Sleepy Hollow, that's fine with me.
TUCKER: Now that NASA's Spirit has arrived, its twin, Opportunity, is close behind. Opportunity is scheduled to land on January 24.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: Meanwhile, Europe's Mars probe, the Beagle 2 remains silent. The scientists working on that project remain hopeful that communications can be established, and they were very quick to offer their congratulations to NASA -- Lou.
DOBBS: It's a terrific accomplishment. NASA deserves those congratulations from all of us. Bill Tucker, thank you.
NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe says the initial success of Spirit proves NASA is back. Sean O'Keefe joins me now from Washington D.C. at NASA headquarters. Good to have you with us. Congratulations to you and to all of NASA. Great accomplishment and it's exciting to see these pictures coming back, reminiscent of '97 Pathfinder. What should we expect?
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Well, thank you, Lou, appreciate it very much. This is really a spectacular day. And it worked out better than we could have anticipated. There's no doubt the volume that we've had come back has been much more extensive. The clarity has been greater. Everything we could have ever hoped for has worked out exceptionally well.
In the next 24 to 48 hours we'll start seeing sharper images, color images. A wide range of different expanded capabilities, I think, that are beginning to unfold literally from Spirit as time goes by. I think as Steve Squires just offered in the briefing a few moments ago, within a week, we'll start looking at mobility. And it will take on the task of being the robotic geologist that we've designed it to be.
DOBBS: It's remarkable. Seven months to journey to the surface of Mars. And as you were speaking, we're looking at that panoramic, the 3-D image that has just come back. Color photographs on their way. It will be about nine days on it before Spirit, the rover leaves the platform and heads out. Is everything working in the initial tests, suggesting that it will have full mobility, and be deployable?
O'KEEFE: It sure is. Everything seems to be working exactly as it's supposed to. Which is unbelievable. We had built in so many different second and third order kind of contingencies in order to be prepared for various glitches and faults and problems and whatever else. And it all seems to be working exactly right. Knock wood, it's still continuing well.
We should have bought lottery tickets for this one, because it's worked better than anybody could have hoped for. Hopefully that trend will continue. We'll see it continue to roll up.
I think that's about right, we're looking at a week to nine days, roughly, whenever the engineers and the technical folks come back and say, yes, it's all checked out, ready to go. Steve's exactly right, we need to be cautious. Make sure we don't do anything stupid here.
DOBBS: In a few weeks, also, scheduled to land, Opportunity, the sister craft to Spirit, landing on the opposite side of Mars. Those two vehicles over the course of about three months, the kinds of information that they will seek out, that's within basically about, what, about a half a square mile area there?
O'KEEFE: Roughly that. Again, Opportunity will be in a totally different portion of the planet, to be sure. It will be just north of the equator whereas Spirit is just south of the equator in different parts of the area.
But the two things they have in common is they're landing in areas where we believe just based on the geological formations appear to have either been lake beds or could have sustained hematite, which is commonly found on earth-bound, you know, bottoms of lake beds, sediment and so forth. We'll see what may emerge from that. Those are the two common characteristics.
DOBBS: The hope is, of finding at least the residue of the requirements for life, to do that over the course of 90 days and be successful, that would be even more remarkable.
Sean O'Keefe, let me ask you this. We've just gotten word here, this evening, that the international space station is experiencing a decline in air pressure, a small decline in air pressure. The astronauts aboard having a discussion again today. Give us a sense of how big a problem that is, or how small a problem?
O'KEEFE: Well, apparently based on everything we've been able to determine so far, it's a very, very slight cabin pressure change. And as a matter of fact, even less dramatic than what you would typically experience on a commercial airline flight when you see variations of that.
That said, the problem is, we're not sure exactly what the cause of it is. We're trying to run that to ground. But so far, it doesn't appear to be anything that's life-threatening. I've just sent Mike Foale an e-mail, as a matter of fact, asking him exactly what changes we may need to adapt to as a result of that. I don't anticipate this is going to be a real showstopper by any means.
DOBBS: Mike Foale, the American astronaut aboard the international space station.
O'KEEFE: The commander of Expedition 8.
DOBBS: And he's had some experience, I'm sure he would say, unfortunately, before aboard Mir so with pressure changes. And certainly --
O'KEEFE: Well, he and Sasha Kaleri have been through the full gamut of this. They've had onboard Mir, there were collisions and fires. I mean, they are veteran astronauts. They really know what they're doing. As a consequence, they're in good hands.
DOBBS: The Mir station was filled with experience. Much of it -- most of those astronauts would have liked to have avoided. Again, Sean O'Keefe, to everybody at NASA, this is just thrilling. It's wonderful to see this kind of success. We look forward to continued success. So dazzle us with the science of the pictures. Thanks for being here.
O'KEEFE: Thank you. Appreciate it, Lou. Nice talking to you.
DOBBS: Coming up next, three American soldiers in Iraq dismissed. Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre will have the report.
And we'll be joined by Senator Charles Grassley, who says the United States isn't getting it done in tracking down and stopping the funding of terrorists. Senator Grassley joins us. Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: The army today said it discharged three military police officers for beating and harassing Iraqi prisoners in Iraq. The army launched an investigation after other soldiers reported their abusive behavior. Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has the report. Jamie?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, the army investigation concluded that the Iraqi prisoners brought to a detention camp in southern Iraq last May were mistreated by three army military police officers, all from the same Pennsylvania reserve M.P. battalion. The reservists have all been demoted, fined and discharged from the military, two under less than honorable conditions after deciding to accept administrative punishment rather than risk a court-martial that could have sent them to prison.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice-over): Master Sergeant Lisa Girman, a 14-year veteran Pennsylvania state trooper, was found to have mistreated an Iraqi prisoner by repeatedly kicking him in the groin, abdomen and head, and encouraging her subordinate soldiers to do the same.
Staff Sergeant Scott McKenzie was found to have abused a prisoner by holding his legs apart and encouraging others to kick him in the groin, while other U.S. soldier kicked him in the abdomen and head.
And Specialist Timothy Canjer was determined to have mistreated a detainee by violently twisting his previously injured arm and causing him to scream in pain. A fourth reservist Shawna Edmundson was given a less than honorable discharge in lieu of a court-martial. For months the soldiers protested their innocence.
Shortly after the incident last may Staff Sergeant Mckenzie wrote an e-mail to his Congressman saying we are only doing our job. And claiming that 10 to 12 prisoners resisted as we escorted them. And that two prisoners assaulted the MPs. All of the force is what I believed in my mind was the minimum force necessary, he concluded.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: The army says the investigation began after other soldiers saw and reported the alleged abuse, but the discharged soldiers say the real bad guys are the prisoners. Who they believe included two Iraqi police officers who raped, tortured and killed American POWs. And Lou, on another note, the army is about to issue new guidelines that will prevent some 7,000 U.S. Army soldiers from getting out of the military when they planned to sometime this year. These are soldiers who are in Iraq, and under their original retirement plan would have left before their unit's tour of duty was over in Iraq. The Pentagon is instituting a policy to keep them their units until those units rotate back to the United States -- Lou.
DOBBS: This from the same general staff that says, we don't need more U.S. troops?
MCINTYRE: Well, that's right. They say that in this case, some of the people who are retiring are in key positions. Some of them are commanders. And that it would just be too disruptive to rotate them in and out. So they're going to make them stay in a couple of months, and in some cases a little longer than that.
DOBBS: Jamie, thank you very much. As always, Jamie McIntyre, our senior Pentagon correspondent.
The coalitions presence in Iraq is mentioned in a new audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden. The CIA says today it's likely that the voice on the tape is that of bin Laden. The tape's release is adding to concerns that radical Islamist terrorists may be in the final stages of planning to launch an attack.
National security correspondent David Ensor with the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OSAMA BIN LADEN: (SPEAKING IN ARABIC)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Central intelligence agency officials are confident the voice on the tape is that of Osama bin Laden. Based on recent events bin Laden refers to on the tape, officials say it was recorded in the last few weeks. A new tape then but the same message.
RIDGE: It's really not news for Osama bin Laden to tell the rest of the world, all those people, that small minority people who share his hatred and that evil that America should be the No. 1 target of their hatred. It's not news.
ENSOR: Still, the tape calls on Muslims to overthrow moderate governments and calls for Jihad against the U.S. Intelligence officials have the same concern their boss had 11 months ago about an earlier tape.
GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: And whether this is a signal of impending attack or not is something we're looking at. I can only tell you what the history is.
ENSOR: That history included a bin Laden tape, October 6, 2002, followed immediately by the attack on a French oil tanker and then the bombing in Bali. Bin Laden's November 12, 2002 tape was broadcast 12 days before the bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya. But there have been more attacks than tapes, and some analysts believe bin Laden may simply want to show he's still around.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: I think the most important thing it tells us is bin Laden is alive and he was alive relatively recently. Secondly, he's continuing to try to influence what's going on. He's calling for -- he gained a response to the occupation of Iraq, and he wants to show he's in business.
ENSOR: A recent bin Laden tape that was released turned out to be a compilation of fragments of old former recordings. But this one is new. And so well recorded, officials say, that you can hear his breathing between the words. It's bin Laden, alive and breathing.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee says the Treasury Department is not doing enough to stop the flow of money to radical Islamist terrorists. Senator Charles Grassley has criticized the Treasury Department's office of Foreign Asset Control for failure to force bank to impose sanctions against terrorist. Senator Grassley is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and joins us tonight from Orlando, Florida.
Mr. Chairman, good to have you with us.
SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R-IO), CHAIRMAN, SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE: Glad to be with you, Lou.
DOBBS: Senator, you have sent in your role as chairman of the committee, a letter to the office of foreign asset control.
Have they responded to your concerns and your questions?
GRASSLEY: No. And worse yet, there's been suggestions from the inspector general that they should have made some changes a couple years ago, recommendations made that haven't even been made. And it's kind of a case of the agency maybe not knowing what it doesn't know. And this is a very important agency, because it's the agency that, when it gets word of terrorist activity and the source of funding, it can freeze those funds. So it's really in the front line of our war against terrorism.
DOBBS: You in your letter say that there were at least two occasions when nine U.S. agencies identified terrorists before the office of Foreign Asset Control.
What do you propose should be done?
How can that happen?
GRASSLEY: Well, the U.N. and the European Union did identify bin Laden's brother-in-law, and froze his assets. Our own government recognized the organization that bin Laden's brother-in-law was connected with, froze the assets of the organization, but didn't freeze the assets of the individual, so there's a big loophole. We asked this agency when it came before our committee, if it needed any additional authority. And they told us it didn't need any additional authority. I think it does. But I would like to have the agency tell us what sort of authority it needs to stay on top of it. We're also finding that, according to these recommendations, that it really is operating in files that are paper, and old-fashioned, and not really the high-tech sort of record-keeping you need. In fact, our terrorists' enemies are using the highest tech, latest equipment against us. It seems like our own agency ought to have high-tech response and particularly the records that are needed.
DOBBS: And they are not demanding enough, in your judgment, of banks and other financial institutions to track and to stop the flow of this money?
GRASSLEY: That's another thing. They're not working with our regulatory agencies to keep on top of it. They're saying that certain laws would leave it to these banks to voluntarily give this information. We just can't wait for agencies that may know about activity reporting to us. We ought to be very aggressively pursuing it. And if they need additional legislative authority, that's what we're really asking them. They're taking kind of a copout saying, well, we're doing all we can do, because we're asking for voluntary compliance. In the war on terror, we can't wait for voluntary compliance.
DOBBS: Senator Chuck Grassley, we thank you very much for being with us here. And senator, we have invited Richard Newcom, the director of the office of Foreign Assets Control to join us. And we hope he will accept it tomorrow evening. We thank you for being here, sir.
GRASSLEY: I'm glad to be with you.
DOBBS: "Tonight's Thought" is on national security. "If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it. If we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war." George Washington.
A reminder to vote in "Tonight's Poll." The question, do you believe President Bush is proposing a change in national immigration policy to include Hispanic or Latino votes in the up coming presidential election, yes or no?
Cast your vote at cnn.com/lou. We'll have the results for you a little later.
Coming up next, stocks soar to open the week.
Christine Romans will have the market.
And racing into the future. Some of the hottest cars of tomorrow on display today. You'll see them here and more from deep in space. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Taking a look at news in brief tonight, a winter storm dropped up to 10 inches of snow in parts of the Midwest. That storm caused airport delays in Iowa, and Illinois, and two multi-vehicle accidents in Wisconsin; 20 people injured.
That same storm system caused flooding in roads and homes across central Ohio. At least 150 people there had to be evacuated from their homes.
And the Agriculture Department today said it will destroy 450 calves in a Washington state herd that has now been linked to mad cow disease. Those calves include the offspring of the cow that tested positive for the disease.
And two more letter bombs have been sent to members of the European Parliament. They exploded today. A third letter bomb was discovered before it blew up. At least seven letter bombs have been intercepted since last week. No one has been injured.
On Wall Street today, stocks opened the first full week of the new trading year with a powerful rally. The Dow surged 134 points. The Nasdaq rose 40.68. The S&P gained almost 14. Christine Romans is here with all of the market for us. Well, a lot of it, anyway.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Starting right where it left off, stocks rising...
DOBBS: Happy new year.
ROMANS: Happy new year. Good to be back. Dollar following, commodities on fire.
Let's start with stocks up. The Nasdaq, two-year high today. S&P 500 in the midst of its longest weekly winning streak since 1998. Why? Certainly a momentum from a 25 percent gain in 2003. New money being put to work in the beginning of a new year.
There is optimism about what they call the January effect, Lou. That's where the first few days predict the month and the year. And the January barometer, that's where small caps stocks gain favor.
And don't forget election year history. The Dow has gained more than 9 percent on average in presidential election years. That would take the Dow to almost 11,400, if that held true.
Now, stock strength despite dollar weakness. The dollar fell to an all-time low against the euro. At one point today, it took $1.27 to buy a euro.
Gold surged to a 15-year high. Oil jumped more than $1. Very close to nine-month highs there, Lou. So the trends we saw very deeply entrenched late last year continue.
DOBBS: Good. Let's hope they continue for the next 51 weeks. Christine, thanks.
Coming up next, the hottest wheels yet. We'll preview the cars of tomorrow tonight.
But first, "Exporting America," updating the list of U.S. companies that our staff has confirmed to be exporting American jobs to cheaper overseas labor markets. Tonight's additions to our list include consulting firm A.T. Kearney, GlobespanVirata, a networking company based in New Jersey, Lifescan, a medical supply company, Lockwood Greene, an industrial engineering firm based in South Carolina, Planar Systems, a computer hardware maker, Providian Financial, R.R. Donnelley & Sons, the nation's second largest printing company, Telcordia, a telecom networking company, and TRW Automotive. We will, of course, be updating the list each evening on this show. And please keep sending us the names of those companies not on our list that you know to be exporting jobs to those cheap overseas labor markets. Our e-mail address here is loudobs@cnn.com. And we will be right back. Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Now the results of tonight's poll. Ninety-five percent of you said President Bush is proposing a change in our national immigration policy to win Hispanic and Latino votes in the upcoming presidential election; 5 percent of you say no.
In Detroit today, the North American International Auto Show opened for the press. Car buyers will have as many as 65 new vehicles to choose from in auto showrooms this year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS (voice-over): Ford calls 2004 the year of the car, trying to take consumer focus away from SUVs. Pontiac has unveiled the Solstice, the new rear wheel drive two-seat roadster. It's designed to compete against the Mazda Miata, and it should reach showrooms in the fall of 2005. Base price, $20,000.
General Motors is offering its new version of an old classic, the Corvette. The Chevrolet Nomad is a small four-seater that looks similar to the early Corvette.
The Ford F-150 was named 2004 North American truck of the year. It will cost from about $19,000 to just under $36,000.
Ford's Bronco concept car is a tough-looking, two-door sports utility.
The Saturn curve concept car combines a front-hinged hood and a rear-hinged trunk lid.
The Rescue is Chrysler's response to GM's Hummer, with 37-inch tires, a collapsible windshield and removable doors.
The Dodge Slingshot is designed for open-air driving. Side rails over the passenger area can be stored in the trunk.
Automotive journalists named the hybrid Toyota Prius sedan the North American car of the year. The company's next step, the FTX, a full-size pickup powered by a V-8 hybrid engine using both gasoline and electricity.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: Well, that's a sample. In case you're in the Detroit area and want to take a closer look at the future, the auto show will be open to the public beginning this Saturday for nine days.
That's our show for tonight. We thank you for being with us. Tomorrow here, "Exporting America." We take a look at how one small town is trying to deal with the loss of jobs to cheap foreign labor markets. And tomorrow, we'll be talking politics. Karen Tumulty of "Time," Roger Simon of "U.S. News and World Report," Ron Brownstein of "The L.A. Times."
We leave you tonight with these stunning pictures from the planet Mars. Thanks for being with us. For all of us here, good night from New York.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Launches Fingerprint Program For Foreign Visitors>
