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CNN Live At Daybreak

Lee Boyd Malvo Will be Sentenced Later Today

Aired March 10, 2004 - 06:00   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you.
It is Wednesday, March 10.

From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.

Thank you for being with us this morning.

Let me bring you up to date. A sign of hope in the Middle East. The Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers have agreed to meet. The summit is tentatively set for Tuesday of next week.

A 69-year-old businessman is Haiti's new prime minister. Gerard Latortue travels from his Florida home today and then, of course, he's going to Haiti to become the prime minister there.

There will be no leeway for Lee Boyd Malvo's judge at today's sentencing. The judge must follow the jury's recommendation of life in prison for the convicted D.C. area sniper. We'll have a live report from Chesapeake, Virginia coming up in just a few minutes.

Five British detainees are back on home soil after two years at Guantanamo Bay. British authorities are holding four on terrorism charges. The fifth has been released.

We update the top stories every 15 minutes. The next update comes your way at 6:15 Eastern.

Let's talk politics now. President Bush has some fighting words and he will deliver his verbal jabs later today in job deprived Cleveland. A preview? The president will defend free trade as one way to boost the economy and he'll describe taxing and spending as the enemy of job creation. CNN will have live coverage of the president's remarks beginning at noon Eastern.

One more thing. The Bush campaign plans to file a complaint today with the Federal Election Commission over new anti-Bush ads. It says the ads are illegally funded.

Oh, and one more thing. President Bush did officially clinch the GOP nomination for president with his four primary wins on Tuesday.

John Kerry also won in the Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana Democratic primaries. But he's still a few delegates shy of wrapping up the Democratic nomination, something he'll do no later than next week's Illinois primary. Kerry was already stumping, though, in Chicago, when Tuesday's results came in and he was mocking a Bush campaign theme.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: George Bush is running on the slogan of steady leadership. But I think if you measure the last four years and the failed policies, what you really have is stubborn leadership.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And we must tell you this. As a great Yogi Berra once said, it's deja vu all over again. In Florida, election officials in Bay County will begin a recount two hours from now. It doesn't involve hanging chads, but a ballot printing mistake. It messed up the initial count. We'll keep you posted.

In the war of words, John Kerry has one less line to use against President Bush. The White House now says there will be no stop watches when the 9/11 Commission comes calling.

CNN's John King has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): The White House took umbrage at Senator Kerry's charge that the president is stonewalling the 9/11 commission.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don't think he's someone who lets the facts get in the way of his campaign. I think I've made it very clear the type of unprecedented cooperative this commission -- that this administration is providing to the commission.

KING: The issue dominated the White House briefing a day after Senator Kerry said if the president has time to attend events like this rodeo he should be able to spend more than an hour answering questions from the commission.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This president has been stonewalling the effort of our own country to know what happened.

KING: The White House says it has given the commission more than two million documents, 50 discs containing radar, flight and other information, dozens of interviews with administration officials, and more than 100 briefings.

Given that, the official line is the hour the president has promised to spend with the panel's chairman and vice chairman should suffice but note this somewhat softer tone.

MCCLELLAN: Obviously, the president is going to answer all the questions that they want to raise.

KING: And if those questions run more than the allotted hour?

MCCLELLAN: Nobody is watching the clock, Terry, but again there is a reasonable period of time that has been set aside for this meeting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: CIA Director George Tenet walks a tightrope on the issue of prewar intelligence in Iraq. Tenet did testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said policymakers put a sense of urgency on his agency's reporting. But Tenet also says he doesn't think President Bush overstated the case for war.

Here's how Tenet describes the ongoing security threat to the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: Across the operational spectrum -- air, maritime, special weapons -- we have time and again uncovered plots that are chilling. On aircraft plots alone, we have uncovered new plans to recruit pilots and to evade new security measures in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Even catastrophic attacks on the scale of 11 September remain within al Qaeda's reach.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Tenet says al Qaeda is damaged, but not defeated.

Testifying of another kind, too, today, involving super sized fries, steroids and satellite TV. The House will consider a bill to shield restaurants and fast food franchises from being sued for causing people to get fat. A Senate hearing will look at drug testing practices of professional and amateur sports organizations. Senators want to know if drug testing deters athletes from using steroids. And a satellite TV dispute will play out on the House floor. Law makers will hear from Echostar Communications, owner of Dish Network, and Viacom, which owns MTV, Nickelodeon and CBS. Their fight over programming fees left millions of viewers unplugged.

To the Middle East now, a groundbreaking event there officers new hope in bridging the divide. Israel and Jordan have torn down a stretch of border fence between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea for a joint project.

Paul Hancocks joins us live from Jerusalem to tell us more -- hello.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.

Yes, it is being billed as very significant, the first time something of this scale and this type has been attempted in the Middle East.

Now, basically what will happen is an international science center is going to be built on the border between Jordan and Israel, in collaboration with the Universities of Cornell and of Stanford.

Now, those involved are saying that it's very significant not just from an education point of view. There'll be students from Jordan and Israel to start with. Within five years, they're hoping that there will be students from all across the Middle East. But also they're hoping that scientific cooperation within this research center could actually filter through to the political arena.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS (voice-over): In the barren desert of the Jordan- Israeli border, these soldiers will soon be replaced by students, the vision of an Israeli businessman based in New York, and a rare instance of cooperation between the Middle East neighbors.

MATI KOCHAVI, DIRECTOR, "BRIDGING THE RIFT": We'll be able to see 10 years from today a big center with hundreds of students from all the Middle East -- Palestinians, Israelis, Jordanians, Iraqis, Libyans, whoever -- will come over to study together because they see that this can build them a better future.

HANCOCKS: The science and research center has support at the highest level. Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, says the project is of first rank strategic importance. King Abdullah of Jordan says this plan is larger than Jordan and Israel. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI FINANCE MINISTER: This is the other side of the Middle East. It's the side of cooperation, of science, of the attempt to build a better future for our peoples.

HANCOCKS: Jordan's minister of planning is more realistic about the political significance of the center. Tensions between the two countries remain, as Jordan condemns both Sharon's West Bank barrier and the recent Israeli incursions into Gaza.

BASSEM AWADALLAH, JORDANIAN MINISTER OF ECONOMIC PLANNING: The cycle of violence is still continuing in the Palestinian areas. Obviously, that entire climate casts its dark shadows on any possible and potential cooperation that can exist between Israel and any of the Arab countries.

HANCOCKS: But this ceremony at least got the two sides talking, animatedly at times. And a vote of confidence from an unexpected source, demonstrating a wider hope the center will succeed.

GEN. TOMMY FRANKS (RET.), FORMER U.S. CENTCOM COMMANDER: If this project can create an opportunity for people to come to appreciate one another better in this region, then I think it may serve as a useful model elsewhere.

HANCOCKS: High hopes surrounding the ceremony. But some are questioning the logic in pushing the project at a time of great mistrust and political tension in the region.

KOCHAVI: Well, find a time when there is no political tension, and we'll choose it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS: So, Carol, part of this border that is usually fairly heavily guarded will now be full of students if this goes ahead, the sort of bridge building that was envisaged when Jordan and Israel signed that peace treaty back in 1994 -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Paul Hancocks, many thanks, live from Jerusalem this morning.

An update now on that weekend water taxi accident. It tops our Headlines Across America. A second person has died from injuries suffered in Saturday's accident in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. The pontoon boat they were on flipped over in high winds. Crews are still searching for the bodies of three other victims.

John Ramsey, the father of slain 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, is now considering a run for the Michigan statehouse. The Ramseys own a vacation home in Michigan. Ramsey, a Republican, must file his candidacy papers by May 11.

Here in Georgia, oh, this is our favorite story of the morning, a woman was arrested after trying to pay for her Wal-Mart goods with a one million dollar bill. Look at that. Of course, a million dollar bill isn't real. There's no such thing. There were even two more of the one million dollar bills in her wallet. She's now being held on $2,500 bail and they presumably will not let her use her million dollar bills to pay her way out.

I don't know, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Excuse me, can I break this?

COSTELLO: It's like, if you're going to make a counterfeit bill, make one that at least exists.

MYERS: Right. Like $3,000.

COSTELLO: Yes.

MYERS: You know, I mean a million dollars, it's not even believable, right?

COSTELLO: It doesn't exist.

MYERS: Well, of course not.

COSTELLO: In most of our lives, it really doesn't exist and...

MYERS: It looked real, though. I mean, you know, it had the folds in it. It looked like it was in her wallet a long time.

COSTELLO: I bet she was busy on her computer a long time making that thing.

MYERS: I don't even want to go there. Anyway...

COSTELLO: Allegedly, I should say.

MYERS: Exactly.

(WEATHER REPORT) COSTELLO: Coming up on DAYBREAK, get paid to pick up the phone? Some people are turning the tables on telemarketers.

Plus, will Lee Boyd Malvo spend the rest of his life in prison? We're going to take you live to Virginia, where he will be sentenced later today.

And hear from the new leader of Haiti as he prepares to step into power.

And stick around for another cup of Joe. It's good for you, really. We'll tell you why.

This is DAYBREAK for March 10.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is now 6:15 Eastern.

Time to take a quick look at the top stories in our DAYBREAK early briefing.

President Bush takes his economic plan to Ohio today. It's a key battleground state, where unemployment is nearly one percent higher than the national average.

A clean sweep for John Kerry. He won all four Southern primaries Tuesday and is now just a few delegates shy of clinching the Democratic nomination.

And top baseball and players' union officials are expected to appear before the Senate Commerce Committee today. They'll hear a plea from Congress for more rigorous drug testing.

We update the top stories every 15 minutes. The next update comes your way at 6:30 Eastern

Time now, though, for a little business buzz. Do you hang up on telemarketers? Well, here's one reason to stay on the line, really.

Carrie Lee tells us why.

She's live at the NASDAQ market site.

Why? Why shouldn't we hang up on these telemarketers?

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically, Carol, you might get paid if you accept these calls. This is the concept behind Adnoodle.com. They've started this program basically letting consumers go to their Web site, put in some personal information such as spending habits and brand preferences. You agree to be called a certain number of times for certain types of products and then you can get paid anywhere from between, say, $0.25 to a $1. Consumers basically set these terms

This is a concept that's pretty new. Adnoodle has come out since February. They say they're adding 1,000 registered users a day. Advertisers on this site take their target audience from people's personal profiles and then payments are transmitted via Pay Pal.

Now, they plan to make quite a bit of money doing this. Keep in mind, though, that those paid for surf sites that came up in the dot- com area, well, none of those were very successful.

But still, Adnoodle.com is the place to go, Carol, if you're interested in this type of thing. They say a lot of seniors are signing up, so we'll see if it's successful or not. Been around for about a month or so.

COSTELLO: A quick look at the futures?

LEE: Things looking flat to slightly higher for stocks this Wednesday morning. Procter & Gamble a stock to watch, one of the Dow 30 components, saying that profits for this quarter, and, in fact, for the year ending in June, could come in higher than Wall Street is forecasting. They're raising their dividend. They're stetting a 2 for 1 stock price.

Just a quick check on yesterday. Interesting to note that the NASDAQ closed below the 2,000 mark. It was on this day four years ago that the NASDAQ hit its all time high of 5,048. So, quite a bit of a difference based on where the stock where the Index is right now at 1,995 -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Quite a big difference.

Carrie Lee live from the NASDAQ market site in New York.

Coming up on DAYBREAK, a country in need. Poor people, abjectly poor people trapped in a land of chaos. Can anything be done? I'll talk to a priest who makes regular visits to Haiti. In fact, he's planning to leave for Haiti on Saturday.

And at this hockey -- watch this hit here. Did that go too far? Punishment for one painful play.

And then the DAYBREAK Photo of the Day. Take a look at this. What is it? We will reveal the answer and the big picture, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: There is no suspense about the outcome, but the younger of the two D.C. area snipers, Lee Boyd Malvo, will be sentenced later today.

Bill Prasad joins us now live from Chesapeake, Virginia with details.

And I would suppose that this is an important sentence for those who live in that area to hear.

BILL PRASAD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is. At 19, Carol, he's supposed to have his life in front of him. Instead, it'll be life behind bars for Lee Boyd Malvo. The sniper will be sentenced at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRASAD (voice-over): Lee Boyd Malvo, the frequent triggerman in a so-called killing team that terrorized the D.C. area in the fall of 2002, except this man was an adolescent, 17 at the time of the sniper shootings, old enough to kill, but spared from execution by the jury.

PROF. WILLIAM CHAMBLISS, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: If you asked the question, do you think that Malvo should be given the death penalty, even Malvo, with all the killings that are behind him and the murders that are behind him, a lot of people will say no, because he's a juvenile.

PRASAD: Malvo and 43-year-old John Allen Muhammad, convicted by juries last year in a string of shootings that left 10 people dead, two wounded. People were shot pumping gas, cutting grass and going shopping. No one felt safe. Many people lost loved ones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justice has been served today. I can go to my son's grave and wish him a happy birthday.

PRASAD: Tuesday, a Manassas, Virginia judge sentenced Muhammad to death. The killer maintained his innocence, saying he had nothing to do with the crimes. Prosecutors applauded the judge's ruling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I take no pleasure in asking a court for imposing the death penalty, but I think the court certainly did the right thing.

PRASAD: Now another judge looks at a much younger man and decides how the team will spend the rest of his adult years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PRASAD: This is a mandatory sentence -- life in prison without parole. The judge has no discretion. As for Malvo, there probably won't be any surprises in the hearing today. Attorneys say he will not be speaking during this hearing.

We're live in Chesapeake, Virginia.

I'm Bill Prasad -- Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: All right, many thanks, Bill.

To the forecast center now.

It's time to check in with Chad and also try to figure out our DAYBREAK Photo of the Day.

We're going to show it to you one more time to see if you can figure out what it is.

MYERS: I'm ready.

COSTELLO: Here goes. There it is. Can you figure what the heck that is?

MYERS: Well, obviously, it's a grainy photo from space of some city. But I can't figure out what city it is. Obviously, there's a little water in there.

COSTELLO: Well, we chose this just for you. It's an image of Oahu, courtesy of NASA.

MYERS: Well, there you go.

COSTELLO: So as we bring it into photo...

MYERS: And on the top left, obviously, Pearl Harbor.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

MYERS: Wow!

COSTELLO: The beach at Waikiki in there, too, the Diamond Head volcano.

MYERS: Look at that.

COSTELLO: Beautiful.

MYERS: Carol, I'm going to be landing there May 14. Did you know that?

COSTELLO: You're going to Hawaii?

MYERS: Yes. I'm going to check it out for you, because I know you want to go there on your honeymoon. I'm going to do some scouting for you so that I can get you some of the best places.

COSTELLO: And you can probably take that off on your taxes as a business trip.

MYERS: I doubt it.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: All right, 10 days till spring. Did you say that?

MYERS: No, you just did.

COSTELLO: Oh, well, good. Then it's covered.

MYERS: All right.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome. COSTELLO: Well, let's talk now about what's going on in Haiti. The country has a new prime minister. Sixty-nine-year-old international businessman Gerard Latortue lives in Boca Raton, Florida right now, and he does plan to return to his homeland later today. He will arrive as U.S. Marines begin helping Haitian police disarm the population. The new prime minister was selected by a commission backed by Washington. Before his selection, Mr. Latortue talked with CNN affiliate WP-TV and reached out to the people of Haiti.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERARD LATORTUE, HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER: My hope is that Haitians will realize that it is not Aristide who is not good, it is the political system that needs to be revised.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: As we said, on top of the new prime minister's agenda, disarming the rebels and the general population. It is dangerous in the streets of Haiti, so dangerous, Fairfield University's Father Paul Carrier will go to Haiti to check on the university's program there.

Father Carrier joins us live by phone from Fairfield, Connecticut.

Good morning.

PAUL CARRIER, S.J., FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Tell us a little bit about the program there. You provide education for kids in Haiti, right?

CARRIER: Pretty much, for kids who otherwise would not have an opportunity to go to school or to have any future in Haiti.

COSTELLO: And so you're going to go there Saturday. It's dangerous there.

Why is it so important for you to go?

CARRIER: Well, again, I think it's important to support our people who have been working there for many years now. And certainly what they've lived through over the past three weeks, I can't even imagine, begin to imagine what they've been through, although being in telephone conversation with them, I've had a sense of the stress and just the danger they've been in in the past three weeks.

COSTELLO: Tell us a little bit more about that, what they're facing.

CARRIER: Well, again, Carol, I think that, you know, in the news we hear things about how the Marines are going to disarm the rebels. But there's been no disarmament. The rebels are still walking around, driving around Cap Haitien in trucks with their guns. The past few days they've imposed a curfew of four or six o'clock at night, where everybody has to be in their homes, otherwise they get shot. So on one hand we think that things are getting back to normal, the Marines are putting things back in order. But in a sense it's the same as it has been for the past three weeks. There's terror. There's intimidation. There are people who are disappearing. There are bodies that are appearing in the water.

So, I mean, the story under the surface is still pretty bad.

COSTELLO: I've been to Fairfield, Connecticut. It's a beautiful, safe place. Still, I ask you again, why do you feel it's necessary for you to go and how are you going to get there? Can you catch a plane to Haiti these days?

CARRIER: Well, I understand that American Airlines is flying into Port-au-Prince. And from Port-au-Prince, I would take a small flight to Cap Haitien. The only awkward thing is that the rebels, when they went into Cap Haitien, burnt down the buildings of the airport. So there is a runway that you can land on, but the buildings themselves have been destroyed.

I think it's really key for me to express solidarity not only with our people who are working there, the Americans, but also with the Haitians, especially with the kids, to tell them that they're not forgotten, that they're remembered, that we care about them and that we really want this to work out for the best.

COSTELLO: Well, Father Carrier, you're a braver man than I. And we're going to follow your progress in Haiti and hopefully you'll check back with us periodically.

Father Paul Carrier from Fairfield University in Connecticut.

CARRIER: Carol, thank you.

COSTELLO: Don't blame them if you've packed on the pounds. Some law makers want to protect the fast food chains from obesity lawsuits. That's just ahead on DAYBREAK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired March 10, 2004 - 06:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you.
It is Wednesday, March 10.

From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.

Thank you for being with us this morning.

Let me bring you up to date. A sign of hope in the Middle East. The Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers have agreed to meet. The summit is tentatively set for Tuesday of next week.

A 69-year-old businessman is Haiti's new prime minister. Gerard Latortue travels from his Florida home today and then, of course, he's going to Haiti to become the prime minister there.

There will be no leeway for Lee Boyd Malvo's judge at today's sentencing. The judge must follow the jury's recommendation of life in prison for the convicted D.C. area sniper. We'll have a live report from Chesapeake, Virginia coming up in just a few minutes.

Five British detainees are back on home soil after two years at Guantanamo Bay. British authorities are holding four on terrorism charges. The fifth has been released.

We update the top stories every 15 minutes. The next update comes your way at 6:15 Eastern.

Let's talk politics now. President Bush has some fighting words and he will deliver his verbal jabs later today in job deprived Cleveland. A preview? The president will defend free trade as one way to boost the economy and he'll describe taxing and spending as the enemy of job creation. CNN will have live coverage of the president's remarks beginning at noon Eastern.

One more thing. The Bush campaign plans to file a complaint today with the Federal Election Commission over new anti-Bush ads. It says the ads are illegally funded.

Oh, and one more thing. President Bush did officially clinch the GOP nomination for president with his four primary wins on Tuesday.

John Kerry also won in the Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana Democratic primaries. But he's still a few delegates shy of wrapping up the Democratic nomination, something he'll do no later than next week's Illinois primary. Kerry was already stumping, though, in Chicago, when Tuesday's results came in and he was mocking a Bush campaign theme.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: George Bush is running on the slogan of steady leadership. But I think if you measure the last four years and the failed policies, what you really have is stubborn leadership.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And we must tell you this. As a great Yogi Berra once said, it's deja vu all over again. In Florida, election officials in Bay County will begin a recount two hours from now. It doesn't involve hanging chads, but a ballot printing mistake. It messed up the initial count. We'll keep you posted.

In the war of words, John Kerry has one less line to use against President Bush. The White House now says there will be no stop watches when the 9/11 Commission comes calling.

CNN's John King has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): The White House took umbrage at Senator Kerry's charge that the president is stonewalling the 9/11 commission.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don't think he's someone who lets the facts get in the way of his campaign. I think I've made it very clear the type of unprecedented cooperative this commission -- that this administration is providing to the commission.

KING: The issue dominated the White House briefing a day after Senator Kerry said if the president has time to attend events like this rodeo he should be able to spend more than an hour answering questions from the commission.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This president has been stonewalling the effort of our own country to know what happened.

KING: The White House says it has given the commission more than two million documents, 50 discs containing radar, flight and other information, dozens of interviews with administration officials, and more than 100 briefings.

Given that, the official line is the hour the president has promised to spend with the panel's chairman and vice chairman should suffice but note this somewhat softer tone.

MCCLELLAN: Obviously, the president is going to answer all the questions that they want to raise.

KING: And if those questions run more than the allotted hour?

MCCLELLAN: Nobody is watching the clock, Terry, but again there is a reasonable period of time that has been set aside for this meeting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: CIA Director George Tenet walks a tightrope on the issue of prewar intelligence in Iraq. Tenet did testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said policymakers put a sense of urgency on his agency's reporting. But Tenet also says he doesn't think President Bush overstated the case for war.

Here's how Tenet describes the ongoing security threat to the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: Across the operational spectrum -- air, maritime, special weapons -- we have time and again uncovered plots that are chilling. On aircraft plots alone, we have uncovered new plans to recruit pilots and to evade new security measures in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Even catastrophic attacks on the scale of 11 September remain within al Qaeda's reach.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Tenet says al Qaeda is damaged, but not defeated.

Testifying of another kind, too, today, involving super sized fries, steroids and satellite TV. The House will consider a bill to shield restaurants and fast food franchises from being sued for causing people to get fat. A Senate hearing will look at drug testing practices of professional and amateur sports organizations. Senators want to know if drug testing deters athletes from using steroids. And a satellite TV dispute will play out on the House floor. Law makers will hear from Echostar Communications, owner of Dish Network, and Viacom, which owns MTV, Nickelodeon and CBS. Their fight over programming fees left millions of viewers unplugged.

To the Middle East now, a groundbreaking event there officers new hope in bridging the divide. Israel and Jordan have torn down a stretch of border fence between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea for a joint project.

Paul Hancocks joins us live from Jerusalem to tell us more -- hello.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.

Yes, it is being billed as very significant, the first time something of this scale and this type has been attempted in the Middle East.

Now, basically what will happen is an international science center is going to be built on the border between Jordan and Israel, in collaboration with the Universities of Cornell and of Stanford.

Now, those involved are saying that it's very significant not just from an education point of view. There'll be students from Jordan and Israel to start with. Within five years, they're hoping that there will be students from all across the Middle East. But also they're hoping that scientific cooperation within this research center could actually filter through to the political arena.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS (voice-over): In the barren desert of the Jordan- Israeli border, these soldiers will soon be replaced by students, the vision of an Israeli businessman based in New York, and a rare instance of cooperation between the Middle East neighbors.

MATI KOCHAVI, DIRECTOR, "BRIDGING THE RIFT": We'll be able to see 10 years from today a big center with hundreds of students from all the Middle East -- Palestinians, Israelis, Jordanians, Iraqis, Libyans, whoever -- will come over to study together because they see that this can build them a better future.

HANCOCKS: The science and research center has support at the highest level. Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, says the project is of first rank strategic importance. King Abdullah of Jordan says this plan is larger than Jordan and Israel. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI FINANCE MINISTER: This is the other side of the Middle East. It's the side of cooperation, of science, of the attempt to build a better future for our peoples.

HANCOCKS: Jordan's minister of planning is more realistic about the political significance of the center. Tensions between the two countries remain, as Jordan condemns both Sharon's West Bank barrier and the recent Israeli incursions into Gaza.

BASSEM AWADALLAH, JORDANIAN MINISTER OF ECONOMIC PLANNING: The cycle of violence is still continuing in the Palestinian areas. Obviously, that entire climate casts its dark shadows on any possible and potential cooperation that can exist between Israel and any of the Arab countries.

HANCOCKS: But this ceremony at least got the two sides talking, animatedly at times. And a vote of confidence from an unexpected source, demonstrating a wider hope the center will succeed.

GEN. TOMMY FRANKS (RET.), FORMER U.S. CENTCOM COMMANDER: If this project can create an opportunity for people to come to appreciate one another better in this region, then I think it may serve as a useful model elsewhere.

HANCOCKS: High hopes surrounding the ceremony. But some are questioning the logic in pushing the project at a time of great mistrust and political tension in the region.

KOCHAVI: Well, find a time when there is no political tension, and we'll choose it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS: So, Carol, part of this border that is usually fairly heavily guarded will now be full of students if this goes ahead, the sort of bridge building that was envisaged when Jordan and Israel signed that peace treaty back in 1994 -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Paul Hancocks, many thanks, live from Jerusalem this morning.

An update now on that weekend water taxi accident. It tops our Headlines Across America. A second person has died from injuries suffered in Saturday's accident in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. The pontoon boat they were on flipped over in high winds. Crews are still searching for the bodies of three other victims.

John Ramsey, the father of slain 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, is now considering a run for the Michigan statehouse. The Ramseys own a vacation home in Michigan. Ramsey, a Republican, must file his candidacy papers by May 11.

Here in Georgia, oh, this is our favorite story of the morning, a woman was arrested after trying to pay for her Wal-Mart goods with a one million dollar bill. Look at that. Of course, a million dollar bill isn't real. There's no such thing. There were even two more of the one million dollar bills in her wallet. She's now being held on $2,500 bail and they presumably will not let her use her million dollar bills to pay her way out.

I don't know, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Excuse me, can I break this?

COSTELLO: It's like, if you're going to make a counterfeit bill, make one that at least exists.

MYERS: Right. Like $3,000.

COSTELLO: Yes.

MYERS: You know, I mean a million dollars, it's not even believable, right?

COSTELLO: It doesn't exist.

MYERS: Well, of course not.

COSTELLO: In most of our lives, it really doesn't exist and...

MYERS: It looked real, though. I mean, you know, it had the folds in it. It looked like it was in her wallet a long time.

COSTELLO: I bet she was busy on her computer a long time making that thing.

MYERS: I don't even want to go there. Anyway...

COSTELLO: Allegedly, I should say.

MYERS: Exactly.

(WEATHER REPORT) COSTELLO: Coming up on DAYBREAK, get paid to pick up the phone? Some people are turning the tables on telemarketers.

Plus, will Lee Boyd Malvo spend the rest of his life in prison? We're going to take you live to Virginia, where he will be sentenced later today.

And hear from the new leader of Haiti as he prepares to step into power.

And stick around for another cup of Joe. It's good for you, really. We'll tell you why.

This is DAYBREAK for March 10.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is now 6:15 Eastern.

Time to take a quick look at the top stories in our DAYBREAK early briefing.

President Bush takes his economic plan to Ohio today. It's a key battleground state, where unemployment is nearly one percent higher than the national average.

A clean sweep for John Kerry. He won all four Southern primaries Tuesday and is now just a few delegates shy of clinching the Democratic nomination.

And top baseball and players' union officials are expected to appear before the Senate Commerce Committee today. They'll hear a plea from Congress for more rigorous drug testing.

We update the top stories every 15 minutes. The next update comes your way at 6:30 Eastern

Time now, though, for a little business buzz. Do you hang up on telemarketers? Well, here's one reason to stay on the line, really.

Carrie Lee tells us why.

She's live at the NASDAQ market site.

Why? Why shouldn't we hang up on these telemarketers?

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically, Carol, you might get paid if you accept these calls. This is the concept behind Adnoodle.com. They've started this program basically letting consumers go to their Web site, put in some personal information such as spending habits and brand preferences. You agree to be called a certain number of times for certain types of products and then you can get paid anywhere from between, say, $0.25 to a $1. Consumers basically set these terms

This is a concept that's pretty new. Adnoodle has come out since February. They say they're adding 1,000 registered users a day. Advertisers on this site take their target audience from people's personal profiles and then payments are transmitted via Pay Pal.

Now, they plan to make quite a bit of money doing this. Keep in mind, though, that those paid for surf sites that came up in the dot- com area, well, none of those were very successful.

But still, Adnoodle.com is the place to go, Carol, if you're interested in this type of thing. They say a lot of seniors are signing up, so we'll see if it's successful or not. Been around for about a month or so.

COSTELLO: A quick look at the futures?

LEE: Things looking flat to slightly higher for stocks this Wednesday morning. Procter & Gamble a stock to watch, one of the Dow 30 components, saying that profits for this quarter, and, in fact, for the year ending in June, could come in higher than Wall Street is forecasting. They're raising their dividend. They're stetting a 2 for 1 stock price.

Just a quick check on yesterday. Interesting to note that the NASDAQ closed below the 2,000 mark. It was on this day four years ago that the NASDAQ hit its all time high of 5,048. So, quite a bit of a difference based on where the stock where the Index is right now at 1,995 -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Quite a big difference.

Carrie Lee live from the NASDAQ market site in New York.

Coming up on DAYBREAK, a country in need. Poor people, abjectly poor people trapped in a land of chaos. Can anything be done? I'll talk to a priest who makes regular visits to Haiti. In fact, he's planning to leave for Haiti on Saturday.

And at this hockey -- watch this hit here. Did that go too far? Punishment for one painful play.

And then the DAYBREAK Photo of the Day. Take a look at this. What is it? We will reveal the answer and the big picture, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: There is no suspense about the outcome, but the younger of the two D.C. area snipers, Lee Boyd Malvo, will be sentenced later today.

Bill Prasad joins us now live from Chesapeake, Virginia with details.

And I would suppose that this is an important sentence for those who live in that area to hear.

BILL PRASAD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is. At 19, Carol, he's supposed to have his life in front of him. Instead, it'll be life behind bars for Lee Boyd Malvo. The sniper will be sentenced at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRASAD (voice-over): Lee Boyd Malvo, the frequent triggerman in a so-called killing team that terrorized the D.C. area in the fall of 2002, except this man was an adolescent, 17 at the time of the sniper shootings, old enough to kill, but spared from execution by the jury.

PROF. WILLIAM CHAMBLISS, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: If you asked the question, do you think that Malvo should be given the death penalty, even Malvo, with all the killings that are behind him and the murders that are behind him, a lot of people will say no, because he's a juvenile.

PRASAD: Malvo and 43-year-old John Allen Muhammad, convicted by juries last year in a string of shootings that left 10 people dead, two wounded. People were shot pumping gas, cutting grass and going shopping. No one felt safe. Many people lost loved ones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justice has been served today. I can go to my son's grave and wish him a happy birthday.

PRASAD: Tuesday, a Manassas, Virginia judge sentenced Muhammad to death. The killer maintained his innocence, saying he had nothing to do with the crimes. Prosecutors applauded the judge's ruling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I take no pleasure in asking a court for imposing the death penalty, but I think the court certainly did the right thing.

PRASAD: Now another judge looks at a much younger man and decides how the team will spend the rest of his adult years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PRASAD: This is a mandatory sentence -- life in prison without parole. The judge has no discretion. As for Malvo, there probably won't be any surprises in the hearing today. Attorneys say he will not be speaking during this hearing.

We're live in Chesapeake, Virginia.

I'm Bill Prasad -- Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: All right, many thanks, Bill.

To the forecast center now.

It's time to check in with Chad and also try to figure out our DAYBREAK Photo of the Day.

We're going to show it to you one more time to see if you can figure out what it is.

MYERS: I'm ready.

COSTELLO: Here goes. There it is. Can you figure what the heck that is?

MYERS: Well, obviously, it's a grainy photo from space of some city. But I can't figure out what city it is. Obviously, there's a little water in there.

COSTELLO: Well, we chose this just for you. It's an image of Oahu, courtesy of NASA.

MYERS: Well, there you go.

COSTELLO: So as we bring it into photo...

MYERS: And on the top left, obviously, Pearl Harbor.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

MYERS: Wow!

COSTELLO: The beach at Waikiki in there, too, the Diamond Head volcano.

MYERS: Look at that.

COSTELLO: Beautiful.

MYERS: Carol, I'm going to be landing there May 14. Did you know that?

COSTELLO: You're going to Hawaii?

MYERS: Yes. I'm going to check it out for you, because I know you want to go there on your honeymoon. I'm going to do some scouting for you so that I can get you some of the best places.

COSTELLO: And you can probably take that off on your taxes as a business trip.

MYERS: I doubt it.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: All right, 10 days till spring. Did you say that?

MYERS: No, you just did.

COSTELLO: Oh, well, good. Then it's covered.

MYERS: All right.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome. COSTELLO: Well, let's talk now about what's going on in Haiti. The country has a new prime minister. Sixty-nine-year-old international businessman Gerard Latortue lives in Boca Raton, Florida right now, and he does plan to return to his homeland later today. He will arrive as U.S. Marines begin helping Haitian police disarm the population. The new prime minister was selected by a commission backed by Washington. Before his selection, Mr. Latortue talked with CNN affiliate WP-TV and reached out to the people of Haiti.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERARD LATORTUE, HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER: My hope is that Haitians will realize that it is not Aristide who is not good, it is the political system that needs to be revised.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: As we said, on top of the new prime minister's agenda, disarming the rebels and the general population. It is dangerous in the streets of Haiti, so dangerous, Fairfield University's Father Paul Carrier will go to Haiti to check on the university's program there.

Father Carrier joins us live by phone from Fairfield, Connecticut.

Good morning.

PAUL CARRIER, S.J., FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Tell us a little bit about the program there. You provide education for kids in Haiti, right?

CARRIER: Pretty much, for kids who otherwise would not have an opportunity to go to school or to have any future in Haiti.

COSTELLO: And so you're going to go there Saturday. It's dangerous there.

Why is it so important for you to go?

CARRIER: Well, again, I think it's important to support our people who have been working there for many years now. And certainly what they've lived through over the past three weeks, I can't even imagine, begin to imagine what they've been through, although being in telephone conversation with them, I've had a sense of the stress and just the danger they've been in in the past three weeks.

COSTELLO: Tell us a little bit more about that, what they're facing.

CARRIER: Well, again, Carol, I think that, you know, in the news we hear things about how the Marines are going to disarm the rebels. But there's been no disarmament. The rebels are still walking around, driving around Cap Haitien in trucks with their guns. The past few days they've imposed a curfew of four or six o'clock at night, where everybody has to be in their homes, otherwise they get shot. So on one hand we think that things are getting back to normal, the Marines are putting things back in order. But in a sense it's the same as it has been for the past three weeks. There's terror. There's intimidation. There are people who are disappearing. There are bodies that are appearing in the water.

So, I mean, the story under the surface is still pretty bad.

COSTELLO: I've been to Fairfield, Connecticut. It's a beautiful, safe place. Still, I ask you again, why do you feel it's necessary for you to go and how are you going to get there? Can you catch a plane to Haiti these days?

CARRIER: Well, I understand that American Airlines is flying into Port-au-Prince. And from Port-au-Prince, I would take a small flight to Cap Haitien. The only awkward thing is that the rebels, when they went into Cap Haitien, burnt down the buildings of the airport. So there is a runway that you can land on, but the buildings themselves have been destroyed.

I think it's really key for me to express solidarity not only with our people who are working there, the Americans, but also with the Haitians, especially with the kids, to tell them that they're not forgotten, that they're remembered, that we care about them and that we really want this to work out for the best.

COSTELLO: Well, Father Carrier, you're a braver man than I. And we're going to follow your progress in Haiti and hopefully you'll check back with us periodically.

Father Paul Carrier from Fairfield University in Connecticut.

CARRIER: Carol, thank you.

COSTELLO: Don't blame them if you've packed on the pounds. Some law makers want to protect the fast food chains from obesity lawsuits. That's just ahead on DAYBREAK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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