Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Madrid Train Bombings; Fighting Terror; Presidential Campaign Ahead of Schedule
Aired March 12, 2004 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In Massachusetts, lawmakers stopped just short of final approval for a constitutional amendment. It would ban same-sex marriage, but approve civil unions for same-sex couples. The debate heats up again on March 29.
Jamaica's prime minister expects former Haitian President Jean- Bertrand Aristide to arrive some time next week. He says Aristide, now in exile in Africa, is coming to Jamaica for a reunion with his two children.
We update our top stories every 15 minutes. The next update comes your way at 5:45 Eastern.
ETA and al Qaeda among the suspects in those horrific bombings that killed 198 people and wounded 1,400 on commuter trains in Madrid. A three-day mourning period follows demonstrations by outraged Spaniards.
Al Goodman has covered the story from the time the very first explosion went off. He joins us live by phone from Madrid.
Good morning -- Al.
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, nothing like this has ever happened as a terrorist attack in Spain with nearly 200 dead and 1,400 injured. It is the biggest attack in Europe in the -- in 15 years. You have to go back to the Pan Am plane bombing at Lockerbie 15 years ago to find anything of a similar magnitude in terms of the dead and even more injured here.
So as you can imagine, Carol, the Spaniards woke up grimly, somberly. They went about their business trying to get the newspapers. They read in horror the headlines, the details, looking on at the photographs of the mangled bodies.
There were candles placed at the government building in the center of town. Here at the Atocha Train Station, where I am standing, which took about a half of the dead, about nearly a hundred people were killed right in a couple of trains right here.
So all of this, as we look ahead through the chastic (ph) being returned to the families as soon as the individual bodies can be identified, we are being told. And also, looking ahead through the mass demonstrations that will come on the heels of smaller demonstrations that happened Thursday night in various cities and states. This evening, Friday night in Spain, we're expecting many more people to take to the streets to show their outrage.
And the investigation continues. As you mentioned, is it al -- is it al Qaeda, is it ETA, that's the big question -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, Al, I was going to ask you about that. Can you tell us more about this van and what exactly was found inside? And what do the Spanish people think? Who do they think is to blame?
GOODMAN: Well let's start with the second one. There are quite a lot of Spaniards who hate the Basque separatist group ETA, which was listed as a terrorist organization by the United States. They also say that they don't think that ETA was capable of pulling off this kind of carnage, especially a weakened ETA after all these arrests of ETA suspects in the last year. You have got to remember that ETA was blamed for 800 killings in the last three decades and here in one day 200 more. So people, many people here are saying they doubt whether ETA was able to do this.
And they think, instead, that maybe this is al Qaeda or some Islamic terrorist group finally coming to hit back at Spain because of the government's staunch support here for the U.S.-led war in Iraq. That has listed (ph) warnings against Spain by al Qaeda representatives and it has put the government somewhat on the defensive ahead of the Sunday elections, which will elect a new parliament and prime minister.
The investigation officially is looking at both subjects, especially since this van was found, which opened up the investigation and possible, a possible Islamic connection and not just the Basque -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes, supposedly inside this van was a book of Koranic teachings. And was there anything else inside the van that could tell us about this morning?
GOODMAN: Yes. Well they mentioned that there were seven detonators in the van, in addition to this tape of, in Arabic, of Koranic teachings. Now they said the tape is available commercially in a store and it had no particular address, but they thought it was -- it was a new element, is how they put it. So they opened up the line of investigation.
I could tell you that a senior anti-terrorism investigator with whom I spoke early Thursday after the bombings, I asked him is this ETA or al Qaeda? He said it's definitely ETA. By late in the day he said, well, it actually could have been either. And especially because of the mass indiscriminate type of killing without any warning to these people on the commuter trains, he said that points to possibly al Qaeda -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Al Goodman live from Madrid this morning.
With terror being franchised across the world now, the U.S. military is pursuing a new strategy franchising counter-terrorism and the key is winning the hearts and minds of locals. Not an easy task sometimes. Maria Ressa has an exclusive report for us live from the Philippines. She joins us live by videophone.
Tell us about this -- Maria.
MARIA RESSA, CNN MANILA BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Carol, we do know for sure that al Qaeda has taken advantage of local regional conflicts around the world and franchised terrorism, perhaps like the one in Spain. But we -- here in the Philippines, an American Special Forces commander sat down while he was here about a year ago and helped develop this new strategy for the U.S. military. He sat down with me recently and explained the plan to franchise U.S. military might to work with local militaries in countries that have regional conflicts to fight terrorist cells within them.
This is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA RESSA, CNN MANILA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): You have seen the pictures, the U.S. military training with other soldiers from around the world. Now hear how these experiences became the basis of a new U.S. strategy for dealing with the global war on terror. It started in the Philippines.
LT. COL. DAVID MAXWELL, U.S. SPECIAL FORCES COMDR.: We took an approach that with our Philippine counterparts and approached this as a counterinsurgency rather than, in the popular term, combating terrorism.
RESSA: A Senior Special Forces Commander Col. Maxwell spent more than six months in the southern Philippines in 2002. While there his troops brought down significantly the numbers of the al Qaeda-linked group the Abu Sayyaf. The key, he said, was separating the terrorists from the people and stopping the spread of the ideology of radical Islam.
MAXWELL: What we tried to do was to help legitimize the Philippine government, Philippine military, which they did, and to win over the people. And the people really decided they did not want the terrorist threat on the island.
RESSA: Maxwell says that experience is a model for dealing with regional conflicts around the world where groups use terrorist tactics to try to topple local governments. Many of these conflicts are used by al Qaeda to franchise terror and win new recruits. So the key idea is to treat the war on terror as a global counterinsurgency.
MAXWELL: That's what we are -- we are looking at worldwide. And then, you know, we can drain the swamp and the terrorists will not have the support that they need to exist.
RESSA: Maxwell says it's a one-two punch against terrorism. On the one hand bolstering tough law enforcement, on the other, winning the hearts and minds of the people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
But that, Maxwell adds, requires commitment and political will. The only way to win the war on terror, he says, is to recognize enemy tactics and to bring down the barriers of distrust between allied nations.
Back to you -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Maria Ressa reporting live from Manila in the Philippines this morning.
Want to talk a little bit more about the attacks on Madrid's train system with our senior international editor Eli Flournoy, because we planned wide coverage today because a lot of new information will be coming out of Spain later today.
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: That's right. Carol, there are so many different facets to this story and we've got the investigation. You were talking to Al Goodman about is it -- you know is it ETA, is it al Qaeda? Who's responsible? Maybe a splinter group out of -- out of ETA? So we've got correspondents in London and in Spain looking at that.
COSTELLO: And I wanted to talk to you about something that we discovered yesterday about just how emotional and upset the Spanish people are, including members of their own government.
FLOURNOY: Absolutely. I mean you have to really relate this directly to the effect of the 9/11 attacks had on the United States. For a country the size of Spain, it really was on that same scope, that same level as the 9/11 attacks were for the United States.
COSTELLO: And for those Americans who have not been to Madrid, it's a big bustling city, sort of like New York.
FLOURNOY: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. It's a big city. You know the travel is focused around these commuter trains and the -- and the -- and the subway systems. Now this is right -- it hit right at the heart of the life of that city of Madrid. And so even people who were not directly affected by the attack, you know people are involved in that kind of travel. It's part of their everyday life. So it's affecting them. We're talking to them.
We're -- we've got Alessio Vinci who is right now at a press conference for -- from the hospital to find out what the status of victims. Some 1,200 people injured, many of them still in hospital in Spain.
COSTELLO: And many of them in very critical condition, so the death toll may rise again.
FLOURNOY: Absolutely. As we have seen already this morning, the death toll rising yet again, now approaching 200 people. And of course already this is the worst terrorist attack on Mainland Europe.
COSTELLO: And the -- and the other fascinating aspect of this is that this attack has affected the whole world. I mean we're -- it's affected us here in the United States as far as Amtrak hiring on more police and bomb-sniffing dogs to patrol this morning.
FLOURNOY: Absolutely. I mean you've got, as we heard from Robin Curno (ph) in London or this morning, you know folks in London are taking a look at security. It's a commuter society out there in the United States, in Europe, all over the place. If these transportation methods where you have large groups of people concentrated together, you have to take a look at this -- look at the security of that. And we're looking at that in the United States. There are so many different threats that are -- that are out there from al Qaeda or from...
COSTELLO: Whoever.
FLOURNOY: ... whoever may have a beef with the United States or with Europeans for whatever cause they have. The security issues are huge.
COSTELLO: Definitely so.
Eli Flournoy, thank you very much.
FLOURNOY: Thanks -- Carol.
COSTELLO: A Maryland woman charged with being a paid Iraqi intelligence agent will be back in court today. Susan Lindauer appeared in Baltimore federal court. She is a former journalist, congressional aide and cousin to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. And she says she is innocent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN LINDAUER, ACCUSED IRAQI AGENT: I'm an anti-war activist and I'm innocent. And I'm very proud and I will very proudly stand by my achievements. I am very proud of what I've done for this country, for the good of the security of this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Lindauer was released on $500,000 bail, but ordered to stay at a community facility and undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Acting like it's the playoffs when the season has just started. We'll get you up to date on the presidential campaign.
And "Sex in the City" may be gone, but these women are finding a way to keep it close to their hearts.
This is DAYBREAK for Friday, March 12.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: 5:43 Eastern Time, time to take a quick look at the top stories now.
Spain begins three days of mourning for the nearly 200 people killed in the Madrid train bombings.
The California Supreme Court orders a stop to same-sex marriages in San Francisco, while Massachusetts lawmakers move closer to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
And a deal may be in the works for the Muslim army chaplain charged with mishandling classified information at Guantanamo. Captain James Yee has agreed to resign if the military ends its prosecution.
We update our top stories every 15 minutes. The next update comes your way at 6:00 Eastern.
For the first time since Super Tuesday, President Bush has moved ahead of John Kerry in a poll. The NBC-"Wall Street Journal" poll shows the president with 47 percent to Kerry's 45 percent. A couple of qualifiers here, though, the Bush edge is within the margin of error and two other national polls conducted at the same time show Kerry leading. It should be an interesting race.
The poll may be significant, however, because the president's reelection team felt he probably would trail until the GOP Convention this summer. Of course everything seems ahead of schedule in the 2004 campaign.
Here's CNN's John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the groundbreaking of a 9/11 memorial on Long Island, 30 months to the day after the terrorist attacks, solemn at this event, but on the attack in new TV ads. In one, Mr. Bush himself suggests Senator Kerry is not up to the terrorism challenge.
BUSH: We can go forward with confidence, resolve and hope, or we can turn back to the dangerous solution that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat.
KING: The second new Bush ad take much sharper aim, saying a Kerry presidency would mean at least $900 billion in new taxes and less resolve on the war in terror.
NARRATOR: And he wanted to delay defending America until the United Nations approved. John Kerry, wrong on taxes, wrong on defense.
KING: The Kerry campaign challenged the accuracy of the Bush ads. The senator himself took issue with their tone.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is a Republican attack squad that specializes in trying to destroy people and be negative. I think the president needs to talk about the real priorities of our country.
KING: The Bush campaign says taxes and terrorism are top priorities, and said if Senator Kerry takes issue with the $900 billion figure, he should spell out just how he would pay for his promises on other health care and other issues. The intensity of the campaign is extraordinary for March. The economy now a daily focus of the slugfest.
BUSH: Did you hear we're going to repeal the tax cut? That's Washington, D.C. code for I'm fixing to raise your taxes. That's what that means.
KING: Senator Kerry pounced on word the president's choice to serve a new post of manufacturing was in trouble, suggesting he knew why.
KERRY: It turns out that the person they choose had cut the work force by 17 percent and built a plant in China.
KING: Administration officials called that attack unfair, but late Thursday, businessman Tony Raimondo withdrew his name from consideration.
(on camera): The Kerry campaign plans to rush out a response ad accusing the president of misleading attacks, further escalating the tension in a campaign already plenty rough and tumble a full eight months before the election.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: A month and a half later and people are still talking about that Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction. Talking about it so much that it's won an award. Go figure. Stick around and we'll explain further.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's that time, Chad, when...
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... we take a look at "Front Pages" from newspapers across the country.
MYERS: All right.
COSTELLO: We have some good ones.
MYERS: Good.
COSTELLO: This is from Siberia. This is out of "The Christian Science Monitor." But that picture on the front is a woman...
MYERS: Wow!
COSTELLO: ... digging out her home in Siberia. And apparently they deliver the poll boxes there so that people can vote in the presidential election.
MYERS: Wow, that looks like Buffalo back in 1977.
COSTELLO: What do you mean '77, you mean 2004.
This is from Utah's "Herald Journal." Guess what, in Logan Canyon turkeys are attacking motorists as they drive down the road. Apparently the turkeys come out making horrible noises and then they just start pecking at people's tires. People are so freaked out they stop the car. One driver is quoted as saying "I thought they had -- I thought that they had eaten some bad mushrooms or something. The turkeys acted mad."
MYERS: What. OK.
COSTELLO: No -- as far as we know no serious injuries from the turkeys.
MYERS: Stay in your car.
COSTELLO: Exactly, do not get out of your car.
This is from the "Anchorage Daily News." You know the Iditarod is going on there.
MYERS: Yes. Right, right, right.
COSTELLO: The dog sled races. Well Doug Swingley is the champion of these races, but he had to drop out because his corneas were frostbitten.
MYERS: Wow!
COSTELLO: Can you imagine?
MYERS: Yes. Well, that's why they have those goggles on the entire time. Obviously the dogs are feeling that same weather, too.
COSTELLO: Well you know he was wearing goggles, but he said he got Lasik eye surgery...
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: ... and he thinks that affected his eyes.
MYERS: Wow!
COSTELLO: And that's why they are prone to becoming frostbitten. Can you imagine frostbitten corneas?
MYERS: No.
COSTELLO: I don't even want to imagine it.
OK, we'll have 'Stump the Weatherman' in the next hour.
MYERS: OK.
COSTELLO: DAYBREAK@CNN.com. We're getting a lot of nice questions for you and comments in the mail.
MYERS: Here's an answer, by the way.
COSTELLO: Go ahead.
MYERS: Well, no, no, if you want to do it next hour that's fine. Are we out of time?
COSTELLO: OK, so do a little weather.
MYERS: We're not out of time?
COSTELLO: No.
MYERS: OK. The question was, we got it a little bit ago, the difference between partly cloudy and partly sunny. Because you know, and I never try to use partly sunny if I don't have to because no one knows what it is. But if there are 20 percent clouds, Carol, that's called mostly sunny. Obviously, if there are no clouds, it's just sunny, sunny.
So we'll start with 20 percent clouds mostly sunny. Forty percent cloud cover, partly cloudy. Sixty percent cloud cover, partly sunny. And 80 percent cloud cover is mostly cloudy. If it's 100 percent cloud cover, it's just cloudy.
COSTELLO: Cloudy.
MYERS: So there you go.
COSTELLO: I understand perfectly now.
MYERS: OK.
COSTELLO: Thank you -- Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: We appreciate that.
MYERS: All right.
COSTELLO: We'll have more questions answered for you in the next hour of DAYBREAK. DAYBREAK@CNN.com.
Also coming up in the next hour, spring is coming. It's less than two weeks away and so is swimming pool weather. I will show you my eight-week plan to make getting into that bathing suit a little less scary.
But first, upset because "Sex in the City" is all reruns now? Don't despair, as the girls would say, there's always shopping. "Sex in the City" fans are pulling out their credit cards. We'll explain. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We all know Hollywood has a big impact on pop culture. Now "The Global Language Monitor" is out with a new Hollyword. It's a Hollyword List, as a matter of fact, and it includes words or phrases that influenced language during the past year. So here's a look.
No. 1, it's obvious, wardrobe malfunction from the Janet Jackson breast baring incident at the Super Bowl.
No. 2, bootylicious. It describes a woman with a -- well, with a full figure.
Three, extreme makeover. That comes from the various makeover shows.
Gigli, a new word for a really -- a new word for really bad, as in Gigli bad, like the Affleck-J.Lo movie, Gigli bad.
No. 5, give it up! It's from "American Idol." The phrase replaced "The Square." Please applaud.
And No. 6, governator, and we all know where that's from. Of course that would be from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Second-hand "Sex in the City." Would you spend hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars for a memento of the recently retired TV show? Some fans in New York did.
And Jeanne Moos was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you said good bye to "Sex and the City," Now say...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello lover.
MOOS: To shoes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Aren't they fabulous.
MOOS: Tops. You name it. Cast away from the cast of "Sex and the City." The line outside a second-hand consignment shop wound around the block.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're armed with our heel and our credit cards we are ready to go.
MOOS: The first one rushing the door was a law student, she ended up with a striped dress, pink sandals and bra.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know who were it, but it's pink, and it pretty and was cheap.
MOOS: Every once in a while someone let out a scream -- when they recognized a piece of clothing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wore this when they had sex for the first time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The boots. I remember when these were on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anyone want Miranda's skinny jeans?
MOOS: Even the owner of Ina (ph) kept a little something.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got this little necklace.
MOOS: Prices range from 10 bucks to $5,000.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carrie wore this hat in the episode where her and Charlotte are sitting and rating the guys in New York City on who they would sleep with or not. So there you go.
SARAH JESSICA PARKER, ACTOR: Men who are too good looking they are never good in bed because they never had to be.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I dated plenty of the men here, and they were definitely not so good.
MOOS: That probably went over the head of the youngest shopper, Ricardo (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He watched the last episode, and he loved it.
MOOS: Now, Ricardo can cuddle up and watch reruns using Carrie's bath robe as a blankie.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And the next hour of CNN DAYBREAK starts right now.
Good morning to you, it is Friday, March 12. From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you for joining us.
Investigators in those deadly Spanish train bombings are following up on the discovery of a van. The vehicle contained detonators and an Arabic tape of Koranic teachings.
On Capitol Hill, the Senate approves a leaner budget than what President Bush had wanted. The $2.3 fixed trillion plan would allow smaller tax cuts and reduce the deficit more quickly.
Massachusetts' lawmakers move closer to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage but legalizing civil unions. A final vote is scheduled for later this month.
And a Utah woman faces a murder charge in the death of her unborn child. The woman had refused doctors' repeated requests to have a C- section.
We update our top stories every 15 minutes. The next update comes your way at 6:15 Eastern.
If you are heading to Amtrak or the subway this morning, expect to see more police and bomb-sniffing dogs. Increased patrols in light of what's happening in Spain. Nearly 200 dead now and no certainty as to who is to blame.
Let's head live or let's go to Madrid now and Al Goodman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As day breaks here in Madrid on Friday almost 24 hours after this series of explosions struck the commuter trains, some of them coming in to this Atocha Train Station behind me, you can see the candles that have been laid out by people now at what is the commuter entrance to this sprawling train station. This is the first visible sign in this area of the pain and the grief. And we expect to see many more of these scenes
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Campaign Ahead of Schedule>
Aired March 12, 2004 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In Massachusetts, lawmakers stopped just short of final approval for a constitutional amendment. It would ban same-sex marriage, but approve civil unions for same-sex couples. The debate heats up again on March 29.
Jamaica's prime minister expects former Haitian President Jean- Bertrand Aristide to arrive some time next week. He says Aristide, now in exile in Africa, is coming to Jamaica for a reunion with his two children.
We update our top stories every 15 minutes. The next update comes your way at 5:45 Eastern.
ETA and al Qaeda among the suspects in those horrific bombings that killed 198 people and wounded 1,400 on commuter trains in Madrid. A three-day mourning period follows demonstrations by outraged Spaniards.
Al Goodman has covered the story from the time the very first explosion went off. He joins us live by phone from Madrid.
Good morning -- Al.
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, nothing like this has ever happened as a terrorist attack in Spain with nearly 200 dead and 1,400 injured. It is the biggest attack in Europe in the -- in 15 years. You have to go back to the Pan Am plane bombing at Lockerbie 15 years ago to find anything of a similar magnitude in terms of the dead and even more injured here.
So as you can imagine, Carol, the Spaniards woke up grimly, somberly. They went about their business trying to get the newspapers. They read in horror the headlines, the details, looking on at the photographs of the mangled bodies.
There were candles placed at the government building in the center of town. Here at the Atocha Train Station, where I am standing, which took about a half of the dead, about nearly a hundred people were killed right in a couple of trains right here.
So all of this, as we look ahead through the chastic (ph) being returned to the families as soon as the individual bodies can be identified, we are being told. And also, looking ahead through the mass demonstrations that will come on the heels of smaller demonstrations that happened Thursday night in various cities and states. This evening, Friday night in Spain, we're expecting many more people to take to the streets to show their outrage.
And the investigation continues. As you mentioned, is it al -- is it al Qaeda, is it ETA, that's the big question -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, Al, I was going to ask you about that. Can you tell us more about this van and what exactly was found inside? And what do the Spanish people think? Who do they think is to blame?
GOODMAN: Well let's start with the second one. There are quite a lot of Spaniards who hate the Basque separatist group ETA, which was listed as a terrorist organization by the United States. They also say that they don't think that ETA was capable of pulling off this kind of carnage, especially a weakened ETA after all these arrests of ETA suspects in the last year. You have got to remember that ETA was blamed for 800 killings in the last three decades and here in one day 200 more. So people, many people here are saying they doubt whether ETA was able to do this.
And they think, instead, that maybe this is al Qaeda or some Islamic terrorist group finally coming to hit back at Spain because of the government's staunch support here for the U.S.-led war in Iraq. That has listed (ph) warnings against Spain by al Qaeda representatives and it has put the government somewhat on the defensive ahead of the Sunday elections, which will elect a new parliament and prime minister.
The investigation officially is looking at both subjects, especially since this van was found, which opened up the investigation and possible, a possible Islamic connection and not just the Basque -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes, supposedly inside this van was a book of Koranic teachings. And was there anything else inside the van that could tell us about this morning?
GOODMAN: Yes. Well they mentioned that there were seven detonators in the van, in addition to this tape of, in Arabic, of Koranic teachings. Now they said the tape is available commercially in a store and it had no particular address, but they thought it was -- it was a new element, is how they put it. So they opened up the line of investigation.
I could tell you that a senior anti-terrorism investigator with whom I spoke early Thursday after the bombings, I asked him is this ETA or al Qaeda? He said it's definitely ETA. By late in the day he said, well, it actually could have been either. And especially because of the mass indiscriminate type of killing without any warning to these people on the commuter trains, he said that points to possibly al Qaeda -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Al Goodman live from Madrid this morning.
With terror being franchised across the world now, the U.S. military is pursuing a new strategy franchising counter-terrorism and the key is winning the hearts and minds of locals. Not an easy task sometimes. Maria Ressa has an exclusive report for us live from the Philippines. She joins us live by videophone.
Tell us about this -- Maria.
MARIA RESSA, CNN MANILA BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Carol, we do know for sure that al Qaeda has taken advantage of local regional conflicts around the world and franchised terrorism, perhaps like the one in Spain. But we -- here in the Philippines, an American Special Forces commander sat down while he was here about a year ago and helped develop this new strategy for the U.S. military. He sat down with me recently and explained the plan to franchise U.S. military might to work with local militaries in countries that have regional conflicts to fight terrorist cells within them.
This is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA RESSA, CNN MANILA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): You have seen the pictures, the U.S. military training with other soldiers from around the world. Now hear how these experiences became the basis of a new U.S. strategy for dealing with the global war on terror. It started in the Philippines.
LT. COL. DAVID MAXWELL, U.S. SPECIAL FORCES COMDR.: We took an approach that with our Philippine counterparts and approached this as a counterinsurgency rather than, in the popular term, combating terrorism.
RESSA: A Senior Special Forces Commander Col. Maxwell spent more than six months in the southern Philippines in 2002. While there his troops brought down significantly the numbers of the al Qaeda-linked group the Abu Sayyaf. The key, he said, was separating the terrorists from the people and stopping the spread of the ideology of radical Islam.
MAXWELL: What we tried to do was to help legitimize the Philippine government, Philippine military, which they did, and to win over the people. And the people really decided they did not want the terrorist threat on the island.
RESSA: Maxwell says that experience is a model for dealing with regional conflicts around the world where groups use terrorist tactics to try to topple local governments. Many of these conflicts are used by al Qaeda to franchise terror and win new recruits. So the key idea is to treat the war on terror as a global counterinsurgency.
MAXWELL: That's what we are -- we are looking at worldwide. And then, you know, we can drain the swamp and the terrorists will not have the support that they need to exist.
RESSA: Maxwell says it's a one-two punch against terrorism. On the one hand bolstering tough law enforcement, on the other, winning the hearts and minds of the people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
But that, Maxwell adds, requires commitment and political will. The only way to win the war on terror, he says, is to recognize enemy tactics and to bring down the barriers of distrust between allied nations.
Back to you -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Maria Ressa reporting live from Manila in the Philippines this morning.
Want to talk a little bit more about the attacks on Madrid's train system with our senior international editor Eli Flournoy, because we planned wide coverage today because a lot of new information will be coming out of Spain later today.
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: That's right. Carol, there are so many different facets to this story and we've got the investigation. You were talking to Al Goodman about is it -- you know is it ETA, is it al Qaeda? Who's responsible? Maybe a splinter group out of -- out of ETA? So we've got correspondents in London and in Spain looking at that.
COSTELLO: And I wanted to talk to you about something that we discovered yesterday about just how emotional and upset the Spanish people are, including members of their own government.
FLOURNOY: Absolutely. I mean you have to really relate this directly to the effect of the 9/11 attacks had on the United States. For a country the size of Spain, it really was on that same scope, that same level as the 9/11 attacks were for the United States.
COSTELLO: And for those Americans who have not been to Madrid, it's a big bustling city, sort of like New York.
FLOURNOY: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. It's a big city. You know the travel is focused around these commuter trains and the -- and the -- and the subway systems. Now this is right -- it hit right at the heart of the life of that city of Madrid. And so even people who were not directly affected by the attack, you know people are involved in that kind of travel. It's part of their everyday life. So it's affecting them. We're talking to them.
We're -- we've got Alessio Vinci who is right now at a press conference for -- from the hospital to find out what the status of victims. Some 1,200 people injured, many of them still in hospital in Spain.
COSTELLO: And many of them in very critical condition, so the death toll may rise again.
FLOURNOY: Absolutely. As we have seen already this morning, the death toll rising yet again, now approaching 200 people. And of course already this is the worst terrorist attack on Mainland Europe.
COSTELLO: And the -- and the other fascinating aspect of this is that this attack has affected the whole world. I mean we're -- it's affected us here in the United States as far as Amtrak hiring on more police and bomb-sniffing dogs to patrol this morning.
FLOURNOY: Absolutely. I mean you've got, as we heard from Robin Curno (ph) in London or this morning, you know folks in London are taking a look at security. It's a commuter society out there in the United States, in Europe, all over the place. If these transportation methods where you have large groups of people concentrated together, you have to take a look at this -- look at the security of that. And we're looking at that in the United States. There are so many different threats that are -- that are out there from al Qaeda or from...
COSTELLO: Whoever.
FLOURNOY: ... whoever may have a beef with the United States or with Europeans for whatever cause they have. The security issues are huge.
COSTELLO: Definitely so.
Eli Flournoy, thank you very much.
FLOURNOY: Thanks -- Carol.
COSTELLO: A Maryland woman charged with being a paid Iraqi intelligence agent will be back in court today. Susan Lindauer appeared in Baltimore federal court. She is a former journalist, congressional aide and cousin to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. And she says she is innocent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN LINDAUER, ACCUSED IRAQI AGENT: I'm an anti-war activist and I'm innocent. And I'm very proud and I will very proudly stand by my achievements. I am very proud of what I've done for this country, for the good of the security of this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Lindauer was released on $500,000 bail, but ordered to stay at a community facility and undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Acting like it's the playoffs when the season has just started. We'll get you up to date on the presidential campaign.
And "Sex in the City" may be gone, but these women are finding a way to keep it close to their hearts.
This is DAYBREAK for Friday, March 12.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: 5:43 Eastern Time, time to take a quick look at the top stories now.
Spain begins three days of mourning for the nearly 200 people killed in the Madrid train bombings.
The California Supreme Court orders a stop to same-sex marriages in San Francisco, while Massachusetts lawmakers move closer to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
And a deal may be in the works for the Muslim army chaplain charged with mishandling classified information at Guantanamo. Captain James Yee has agreed to resign if the military ends its prosecution.
We update our top stories every 15 minutes. The next update comes your way at 6:00 Eastern.
For the first time since Super Tuesday, President Bush has moved ahead of John Kerry in a poll. The NBC-"Wall Street Journal" poll shows the president with 47 percent to Kerry's 45 percent. A couple of qualifiers here, though, the Bush edge is within the margin of error and two other national polls conducted at the same time show Kerry leading. It should be an interesting race.
The poll may be significant, however, because the president's reelection team felt he probably would trail until the GOP Convention this summer. Of course everything seems ahead of schedule in the 2004 campaign.
Here's CNN's John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the groundbreaking of a 9/11 memorial on Long Island, 30 months to the day after the terrorist attacks, solemn at this event, but on the attack in new TV ads. In one, Mr. Bush himself suggests Senator Kerry is not up to the terrorism challenge.
BUSH: We can go forward with confidence, resolve and hope, or we can turn back to the dangerous solution that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat.
KING: The second new Bush ad take much sharper aim, saying a Kerry presidency would mean at least $900 billion in new taxes and less resolve on the war in terror.
NARRATOR: And he wanted to delay defending America until the United Nations approved. John Kerry, wrong on taxes, wrong on defense.
KING: The Kerry campaign challenged the accuracy of the Bush ads. The senator himself took issue with their tone.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is a Republican attack squad that specializes in trying to destroy people and be negative. I think the president needs to talk about the real priorities of our country.
KING: The Bush campaign says taxes and terrorism are top priorities, and said if Senator Kerry takes issue with the $900 billion figure, he should spell out just how he would pay for his promises on other health care and other issues. The intensity of the campaign is extraordinary for March. The economy now a daily focus of the slugfest.
BUSH: Did you hear we're going to repeal the tax cut? That's Washington, D.C. code for I'm fixing to raise your taxes. That's what that means.
KING: Senator Kerry pounced on word the president's choice to serve a new post of manufacturing was in trouble, suggesting he knew why.
KERRY: It turns out that the person they choose had cut the work force by 17 percent and built a plant in China.
KING: Administration officials called that attack unfair, but late Thursday, businessman Tony Raimondo withdrew his name from consideration.
(on camera): The Kerry campaign plans to rush out a response ad accusing the president of misleading attacks, further escalating the tension in a campaign already plenty rough and tumble a full eight months before the election.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: A month and a half later and people are still talking about that Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction. Talking about it so much that it's won an award. Go figure. Stick around and we'll explain further.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's that time, Chad, when...
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... we take a look at "Front Pages" from newspapers across the country.
MYERS: All right.
COSTELLO: We have some good ones.
MYERS: Good.
COSTELLO: This is from Siberia. This is out of "The Christian Science Monitor." But that picture on the front is a woman...
MYERS: Wow!
COSTELLO: ... digging out her home in Siberia. And apparently they deliver the poll boxes there so that people can vote in the presidential election.
MYERS: Wow, that looks like Buffalo back in 1977.
COSTELLO: What do you mean '77, you mean 2004.
This is from Utah's "Herald Journal." Guess what, in Logan Canyon turkeys are attacking motorists as they drive down the road. Apparently the turkeys come out making horrible noises and then they just start pecking at people's tires. People are so freaked out they stop the car. One driver is quoted as saying "I thought they had -- I thought that they had eaten some bad mushrooms or something. The turkeys acted mad."
MYERS: What. OK.
COSTELLO: No -- as far as we know no serious injuries from the turkeys.
MYERS: Stay in your car.
COSTELLO: Exactly, do not get out of your car.
This is from the "Anchorage Daily News." You know the Iditarod is going on there.
MYERS: Yes. Right, right, right.
COSTELLO: The dog sled races. Well Doug Swingley is the champion of these races, but he had to drop out because his corneas were frostbitten.
MYERS: Wow!
COSTELLO: Can you imagine?
MYERS: Yes. Well, that's why they have those goggles on the entire time. Obviously the dogs are feeling that same weather, too.
COSTELLO: Well you know he was wearing goggles, but he said he got Lasik eye surgery...
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: ... and he thinks that affected his eyes.
MYERS: Wow!
COSTELLO: And that's why they are prone to becoming frostbitten. Can you imagine frostbitten corneas?
MYERS: No.
COSTELLO: I don't even want to imagine it.
OK, we'll have 'Stump the Weatherman' in the next hour.
MYERS: OK.
COSTELLO: DAYBREAK@CNN.com. We're getting a lot of nice questions for you and comments in the mail.
MYERS: Here's an answer, by the way.
COSTELLO: Go ahead.
MYERS: Well, no, no, if you want to do it next hour that's fine. Are we out of time?
COSTELLO: OK, so do a little weather.
MYERS: We're not out of time?
COSTELLO: No.
MYERS: OK. The question was, we got it a little bit ago, the difference between partly cloudy and partly sunny. Because you know, and I never try to use partly sunny if I don't have to because no one knows what it is. But if there are 20 percent clouds, Carol, that's called mostly sunny. Obviously, if there are no clouds, it's just sunny, sunny.
So we'll start with 20 percent clouds mostly sunny. Forty percent cloud cover, partly cloudy. Sixty percent cloud cover, partly sunny. And 80 percent cloud cover is mostly cloudy. If it's 100 percent cloud cover, it's just cloudy.
COSTELLO: Cloudy.
MYERS: So there you go.
COSTELLO: I understand perfectly now.
MYERS: OK.
COSTELLO: Thank you -- Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: We appreciate that.
MYERS: All right.
COSTELLO: We'll have more questions answered for you in the next hour of DAYBREAK. DAYBREAK@CNN.com.
Also coming up in the next hour, spring is coming. It's less than two weeks away and so is swimming pool weather. I will show you my eight-week plan to make getting into that bathing suit a little less scary.
But first, upset because "Sex in the City" is all reruns now? Don't despair, as the girls would say, there's always shopping. "Sex in the City" fans are pulling out their credit cards. We'll explain. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We all know Hollywood has a big impact on pop culture. Now "The Global Language Monitor" is out with a new Hollyword. It's a Hollyword List, as a matter of fact, and it includes words or phrases that influenced language during the past year. So here's a look.
No. 1, it's obvious, wardrobe malfunction from the Janet Jackson breast baring incident at the Super Bowl.
No. 2, bootylicious. It describes a woman with a -- well, with a full figure.
Three, extreme makeover. That comes from the various makeover shows.
Gigli, a new word for a really -- a new word for really bad, as in Gigli bad, like the Affleck-J.Lo movie, Gigli bad.
No. 5, give it up! It's from "American Idol." The phrase replaced "The Square." Please applaud.
And No. 6, governator, and we all know where that's from. Of course that would be from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Second-hand "Sex in the City." Would you spend hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars for a memento of the recently retired TV show? Some fans in New York did.
And Jeanne Moos was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you said good bye to "Sex and the City," Now say...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello lover.
MOOS: To shoes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Aren't they fabulous.
MOOS: Tops. You name it. Cast away from the cast of "Sex and the City." The line outside a second-hand consignment shop wound around the block.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're armed with our heel and our credit cards we are ready to go.
MOOS: The first one rushing the door was a law student, she ended up with a striped dress, pink sandals and bra.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know who were it, but it's pink, and it pretty and was cheap.
MOOS: Every once in a while someone let out a scream -- when they recognized a piece of clothing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wore this when they had sex for the first time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The boots. I remember when these were on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anyone want Miranda's skinny jeans?
MOOS: Even the owner of Ina (ph) kept a little something.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got this little necklace.
MOOS: Prices range from 10 bucks to $5,000.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carrie wore this hat in the episode where her and Charlotte are sitting and rating the guys in New York City on who they would sleep with or not. So there you go.
SARAH JESSICA PARKER, ACTOR: Men who are too good looking they are never good in bed because they never had to be.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I dated plenty of the men here, and they were definitely not so good.
MOOS: That probably went over the head of the youngest shopper, Ricardo (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He watched the last episode, and he loved it.
MOOS: Now, Ricardo can cuddle up and watch reruns using Carrie's bath robe as a blankie.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And the next hour of CNN DAYBREAK starts right now.
Good morning to you, it is Friday, March 12. From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you for joining us.
Investigators in those deadly Spanish train bombings are following up on the discovery of a van. The vehicle contained detonators and an Arabic tape of Koranic teachings.
On Capitol Hill, the Senate approves a leaner budget than what President Bush had wanted. The $2.3 fixed trillion plan would allow smaller tax cuts and reduce the deficit more quickly.
Massachusetts' lawmakers move closer to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage but legalizing civil unions. A final vote is scheduled for later this month.
And a Utah woman faces a murder charge in the death of her unborn child. The woman had refused doctors' repeated requests to have a C- section.
We update our top stories every 15 minutes. The next update comes your way at 6:15 Eastern.
If you are heading to Amtrak or the subway this morning, expect to see more police and bomb-sniffing dogs. Increased patrols in light of what's happening in Spain. Nearly 200 dead now and no certainty as to who is to blame.
Let's head live or let's go to Madrid now and Al Goodman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As day breaks here in Madrid on Friday almost 24 hours after this series of explosions struck the commuter trains, some of them coming in to this Atocha Train Station behind me, you can see the candles that have been laid out by people now at what is the commuter entrance to this sprawling train station. This is the first visible sign in this area of the pain and the grief. And we expect to see many more of these scenes
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Campaign Ahead of Schedule>
