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American Morning

Nearly 200 Dead in Spain

Aired March 12, 2004 - 08:00   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Nearly 200 dead, the evidence is mounting, but there is no clear answer as to who's behind the terror bombings in Spain.
The presidential campaign heats up. Both sides complain they have new ads and new accusations.

And a woman charged with murder because she refused a Caesarean section. It's a case that's troubling pro-choice activists on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good morning.

Eight o'clock here in New York.

It's Friday.

Good to have you with us.

Could what happened in Madrid, Spain happen here in a major American city? Amtrak taking extra precautions on American trains. More on this in a moment. A hundred and forty thousand miles of routes in this country. Five hundred Amtrak stations. We'll get to that.

O'BRIEN: And impossible to protect them all.

HEMMER: That's right.

O'BRIEN: No question about that.

Also this morning, John Kerry says he is not apologizing to the GOP. Kerry campaign senior advisor Ted Devine is going to join us to answer the latest charges from the Bush campaign.

HEMMER: All right, back to Jack Cafferty on a Friday -- good morning.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Coming up in the Cafferty File, we'll tell you why some Red Sox fans may not be able to eat those delicious Fenway franks on opening day up in Boston. And in Japan, they actually hold drills where they practice what they would do in the event that the zoo animals escape from their cages. We have footage of the rhinoceros drill and you ain't gonna believe it.

HEMMER: Oh, yes, I bet that's so nice.

CAFFERTY: Wait till you see it.

O'BRIEN: Oh my goodness.

HEMMER: Thanks, Jack.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's get to our top stories.

The Senate has approved a $2.36 trillion budget. The plan passed early this morning by a 51-45 vote. The package calls for lower spending, smaller tax cuts and less time for deficit reduction. Although a leaner version, the plan closely resembles President Bush's original outline.

The Colorado Supreme Court has cleared the way for Kobe Bryant's accuser to testify about her sexual past. The state court yesterday refused a petition from a prosecutor in the case who asked that for that line of questioning to be restricted. Bryant's accuser is scheduled to testify behind closed doors during a hearing later this month.

Authorities have charged a Utah woman with murder after the stillborn birth of one of her twins. Investigators say that doctors repeatedly warned Melissa Ann Rowland of the dangers to the babies if she did not get a Caesarean section. But she said she refused the procedure. Rowland is now behind bars.

And the House of Representatives has OKed huge fines for indicate programming on television and radio. The measure was approved yesterday. The vote increases the maximum penalty for offenders to half a million dollars. A similar bill is now pending in the Senate.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: We want to get to the prime minister of Spain, saying the victims in the attack in Madrid yesterday came from 11 different countries. The latest numbers we have today, 24 hours later, 198 people dead, some 1,400 others wounded. Spanish officials say their investigation of who's to blame for the carnage "will soon bear fruit."

To Madrid and Christiane Amanpour on the scene there -- and, Christiane, we're talking about two conflicting theories about who's responsible, this Basque separatist group ETA or al Qaeda.

If it turns out to be al Qaeda, why Spain?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, why Spain is basically because, according to the analysts, of Prime Minister Aznar's very strong support of the war in Iraq and his strong cooperation with the Bush administration on the general war against al Qaeda. You know that 90 percent of the people of Spain were against the war in Iraq and people here are kind of worried. Today, the day after, they are asking who could this have been?

The Spain government has immediately blamed ETA, the terrorist organization which has been waging a 35 year armed struggle. But there are new lines of investigation based on what they discovered later last night, which was this van containing detonators and Arab Koranic verses.

So there's still a struggle to -- and conflicting sort of lines of investigation to determine who actually carried this out.

HEMMER: Yes, well, the prime minister has called for three days of mourning. That begins today.

What is the reaction from the Spanish people -- Christiane.

AMANPOUR: Well, you know, sort of -- it's raining today and I have to say that because it kind of sums up the mood of people in this city, certainly, and around this country. There's a deep sense of sorrow, a deep sense of having been wounded right in the national gut, if you like, of this country. They've never had anything like this, although this country is no stranger to terrorism. As I say, ETA has been waging its 35 year struggle. Eight hundred people in total have been killed over these last 35 years.

But in one day, if it's ETA, it's 200, nearly, who have been killed. There are, you know, little sort of makeshift candlelit memorials laid at the station behind me. There are flowers. There are notes. One of the notes said, "Today, from all over Spain, we are all citizens of Madrid." And it sort of reminded me of that poignant outpouring after 9/11, when people all over the world said today we are Americans.

So people are really feeling this sense of solidarity. There are mass rallies called by the prime minister and announced on television, radio and in all the newspapers for this evening, in a show of defiance and a show of confrontation against the killers.

HEMMER: And you have elections planned for this Sunday. We're told they will go on as scheduled for now.

Christiane Amanpour, thanks, live in Madrid.

More now on the question of who might be behind the deadly bombings.

Jessica Stern, former National Security Council staffer, now teaching at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. She's the author of "Terror In the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill."

She's live in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Good morning.

Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING here.

JESSICA STERN, HARVARD SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT, AUTHOR, "TERROR IN THE NAME OF GOD": Good morning.

HEMMER: How strong is the presence for al Qaeda in Spain, do you believe?

STERN: Al Qaeda does have a presence in Spain and, of course, there are a number of reasons why al Qaeda has to be a prime suspect, including Spain's participation in the war in Iraq and bin Laden's -- a purported message from bin Laden that he planned to attack Spain.

HEMMER: Yes. There also a suggestion here with this Basque separatist group that perhaps they are dealing with a new round of terrorism specifically from ETA, from a younger generation.

Do you buy into that theory?

STERN: Well, that's also a fairly compelling theory, the fact that the explosive used was a kind of dynamite that ETA has been seen with in the past, the fact that elections were coming up, the fact that those who remain in ETA are the most hardened, those who law enforcement authorities haven't been able to capture yet.

HEMMER: There is another suggestion, Ms. Stern, that if you look at some of the evidence captured a month ago and back on Christmas and back in the fall of last year, attacks that were thwarted, said to be carried out by ETA, that were stopped. Does that give more credence to the Basque separatist group for the attacks of yesterday or not?

STERN: Yes, it does because it's precisely the same kind of explosive that was found earlier and the kind of attack they seemed to be plotting. So it's really difficult, based on the evidence available to us so far, to know which of these two entities was responsible or, indeed, whether, perhaps, they were working together.

HEMMER: So then if it is ETA, what does it suggest to you if they are mimicking the attacks of al Qaeda?

STERN: It does suggest that ETA has moved into a new phase in which it is deliberately targeting a large number of non-combatants without warning, which would be unprecedented.

HEMMER: Jessica Stern, thanks for talking, from Watertown, Massachusetts this morning.

Nice to have you.

STERN: Thank you.

HEMMER: Now, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, the bombings in Madrid raise some serious questions about rail safety here in the U.S., as homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

03110003.v84 (END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Despite what Jeanne found, Amtrak says it has increased patrols by police and also by canine units. It also says it's reminding employees to report anything suspicious.

HEMMER: Jack talked about the tunnels coming into New York earlier today, with the increased security. You can see them downtown, too, right around Union Square, around the subway systems here, also.

O'BRIEN: Right.

HEMMER: In a moment here, President Bush rolling out tough new campaign ads. How will the Kerry camp respond to them? We'll talk to a senior advisor from John Kerry in a moment.

O'BRIEN: Also, political upheaval in South Korea. Tempers flare when the president is impeached.

HEMMER: Also, using the sounds of Mozart and Gregorian chant to treat learning disabilities. We'll get to that story this hour here on AMERICAN MORNING also.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Senator John Kerry will spend the weekend in Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania, all states he's going to need if he wants to beat President Bush in November. Mr. Bush attends a women's rights event today in Washington, D.C. before he heads to Camp David. The president was on the campaign trail yesterday while his campaign rolled out some tough new ads.

Senior White House correspondent John King has this report.

(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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, Bush campaign advisor Mary Matalin called on Senator Kerry to begin engaging on the issues facing the country.

I also spoke earlier with Tad Devine.

He's a senior advisor to the Kerry campaign.

And I asked him for his reaction to the new Bush campaign ads.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAD DEVINE, KERRY CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR: It's utterly inaccurate. It is absolutely false. It's -- the Associated Press ran a report yesterday pointing out that John Kerry has never, ever said he would raise taxes by $900 billion. That's a patently false charge. You know, in terms of defending America, John Kerry has been defending America his whole adult life and he absolutely will be very strong on the defense of this nation.

So I think it's just an indication that the president has absolutely nothing to say about his record, about his issues and his positions, and they've resorted to false negative attacks.

O'BRIEN: But the ad says that Senator Kerry would like to weaken the Patriot Act. Isn't that true? Hasn't, in fact, Senator Kerry called for a repeal of the Patriot Act?

DEVINE: Well, John Kerry is very concerned about the way the Patriot Act is being administered and he would administer it and have an attorney general who administered it in a completely different way. So he hasn't called for repealing any specific section. What he has said is we need an attorney general who recognizes that the Patriot Act should be used for the purposes for which it was intended, to protect America, and not for some of the political purposes for which it has been used.

O'BRIEN: You obviously take issue with that $900 billion figure for raising taxes.

DEVINE: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: What's the figure, then, that John Kerry is comfortable with? What's the number?

DEVINE: Well, he has said that for people who make more than $200,000 a year, if he is president, he will repeal the Bush tax cuts for those people. That is a number far, far smaller. It's about $250 billion in more revenue that will be produced.

But, in fact, what the Bush campaign is doing is pointing to Senator Kerry's health plan, his plan for health care, a big part of it is a tax cut, OK? And it's just remarkable that they would do this. I mean I think they've decided, you know, that they're just going to resort to any device whatsoever. They said they were looking for the WMDs over in Iraq. I think we found the WMDs, the weapons of mass distortion that this campaign has decided to launch on John Kerry.

So, we're just not going to take it. We're going to point out the truth. These are false charges. I think every newspaper around the country that reports on this today is going to point out the false charges in these ads.

O'BRIEN: Well, when you talk about that health care plan and you say that it's about $250 billion, is what the tax increase would be...

DEVINE: Sure.

O'BRIEN: And yet you would decrease taxes with the health care plan.

DEVINE: Right.

O'BRIEN: You're not going to increase the budget deficit, according to Senator John Kerry.

DEVINE: Sure.

O'BRIEN: So do the math. How do you pay for the health care plan with a number that is significantly lower than what the Republicans are saying and at the same time you're saying you're not going to increase the deficit?

DEVINE: Well, you know, first of all, you're going to have to find new sources of revenue. I mean, John Kerry has been straightforward about the fact that people who make more than $200,000 a year are going to have to pay more taxes.

Second, you're going to have to cut expenditures.

O'BRIEN: Lots of focus in the past days has been about this comment that Senator Kerry was heard -- overhead on a microphone saying, "These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen."

First, I'm curious to know, did the senator know he was miked and that that mike was -- the tape was running at the time, or was he unaware that the mike was on?

DEVINE: Well, it certainly looked like he did -- he was unaware. But even if he had been aware that he was overheard, I think, you know, he'll stand by his comments, as he did publicly yesterday. I mean John Kerry was talking about a Republican attack machine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That's senior advisor Tad Devine talking with us a little bit earlier on AMERICAN MORNING.

HEMMER: A bit of humor right now from the political world. Late night television, the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" got a bit personal.

Here's a sample from last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO")

JAY LENO, HOST: Once again, let's get ready to name that sound. Punch it! That's me writing a letter to my sister. No, no, no, I'm sorry. Martha? That's me installing a lovely bay window in my prison cell. No, no, wrong, wrong. Mr. President? Yes? That's John Kerry getting a haircut. That's correct, John Kerry getting a haircut. There you are, John Kerry getting a haircut.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Jay Leno last night. Well, they can have some fun for the next, what, eight months and counting?

O'BRIEN: Oh, at least. At least.

HEMMER: Buckle up.

In a moment here, things get a bit out of hand in parliament. We'll show it to you and tell you what happened in a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HEMMER: Check this out, Soledad, Jack. Seoul, South Korea, members of parliament cursing and shoving one another. A tough vote, huh?

CAFFERTY: Democracy in action.

HEMMER: Yes, you thought our politics was tough? The national assembly met to impeach the president, Roh Moo-hyun. Security officers trying to remove lawmakers to keep the assembly speaker from calling a vote. Supporters of the president, Roh, still angry after the vote, they weren't done yet, Jack. Take that.

Many yelled in protest when it was announced that the impeachment bill had passed. That was the view from Seoul, South Korea.

O'BRIEN: And socked, apparently.

CAFFERTY: So, yes...

O'BRIEN: It makes the attack ads look so mild, doesn't it?

CAFFERTY: Yes, yes.

O'BRIEN: It's like putting on more of those ads, that's nothing.

HEMMER: Sure.

CAFFERTY: That's very funny. That's a good point.

Back to something much more serious, that bombing in Madrid. The question of the day is concerning whether or not al Qaeda's fingerprints are on this thing. Nobody's sure exactly who did this yet. But there are signs that could indicate it was al Qaeda. The scale of the attack, unlike anything that ETA, the long running Basque separatist organization in Spain, has ever carried out. Spain was a key ally of this country in the war in Iraq.

The bombings came on March 11, exactly two and a half years to the day after September 11 and 911 days, actually, from September 11. If you do the math, that's a little scary. There was a van found in a suburb of Madrid with detonators and an Arabic tape of Koranic teachings.

So the question is this, are you afraid al Qaeda might be behind this?

Now, a couple of these are fairly long, but they're interesting.

Beginning with Roberta in Chicago: "Don't forget, Sunday in Spain, general elections. The Spanish government is a hardliner against ETA and will most likely benefit from them being the prime suspect. On the other hand, if al Qaeda is blamed, the Spanish government is somewhat responsible for aligning Spain with the United States against the wishes of the Spanish people. So their main suspect will be ETA, at least until Sunday. And at that point, don't be surprised if al Qaeda quickly becomes suspect number one." And then Robert writes from Arizona: "When will the media report what they see without all the conjecture? We spent a lot of time trying to link September 11 to Saddam and none was found. The officials in Spain have dealt with ETA for many years and immediately saw their fingerprints on that organization on this tragedy. Now, the United States media is bent on defining the Spanish tragedy as the work of Arab terrorists. Why can't we wait for Spain to complete its investigation?"

Peter in Houston: "Al Qaeda's fingerprints all over the Madrid bombing. It's a warning to all those Americans who think that terrorism is only fifth on their concerns after the economy, health, Social Security and jobs outsourcing. The real question, ask yourself under whom do you feel safer, Kerry or Bush."

And M. Guy from Sparta, New Jersey: "Although my gut, perhaps influenced by the media, says al Qaeda, my heart says why don't we, as Americans, quit trying to personalize this and just extend our heartfelt sympathy to the people of Spain and wait for more facts before we attribute blame?"

O'BRIEN: Interesting, although, as we both, everyone knows, after a tragedy immediately people want to attribute the blame as quickly as possible.

CAFFERTY: Sure.

HEMMER: I thought what Christiane said was very interesting. The feeling that she has today in Madrid, after being there, is similar to what she felt in European capitals in the days soon after, years ago after the attacks here.

CAFFERTY: There's also been some concern among people who've studied this stuff that al Qaeda is about to get active in Europe. There's a great fear in France over the, you know, the Muslim population there that al Qaeda might get started there. There's been concern all around Europe that we may start seeing terrorist attacks in Europe.

HEMMER: Paris already amped up their security as a result from yesterday.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Interesting.

All right, Jack, thanks.

Still to come this morning, presidential hopeful John Kerry has called some of his opponents crooked. Should he apologize? Our Give Me A Minute Gang will debate that and much more ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired March 12, 2004 - 08:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Nearly 200 dead, the evidence is mounting, but there is no clear answer as to who's behind the terror bombings in Spain.
The presidential campaign heats up. Both sides complain they have new ads and new accusations.

And a woman charged with murder because she refused a Caesarean section. It's a case that's troubling pro-choice activists on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good morning.

Eight o'clock here in New York.

It's Friday.

Good to have you with us.

Could what happened in Madrid, Spain happen here in a major American city? Amtrak taking extra precautions on American trains. More on this in a moment. A hundred and forty thousand miles of routes in this country. Five hundred Amtrak stations. We'll get to that.

O'BRIEN: And impossible to protect them all.

HEMMER: That's right.

O'BRIEN: No question about that.

Also this morning, John Kerry says he is not apologizing to the GOP. Kerry campaign senior advisor Ted Devine is going to join us to answer the latest charges from the Bush campaign.

HEMMER: All right, back to Jack Cafferty on a Friday -- good morning.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Coming up in the Cafferty File, we'll tell you why some Red Sox fans may not be able to eat those delicious Fenway franks on opening day up in Boston. And in Japan, they actually hold drills where they practice what they would do in the event that the zoo animals escape from their cages. We have footage of the rhinoceros drill and you ain't gonna believe it.

HEMMER: Oh, yes, I bet that's so nice.

CAFFERTY: Wait till you see it.

O'BRIEN: Oh my goodness.

HEMMER: Thanks, Jack.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's get to our top stories.

The Senate has approved a $2.36 trillion budget. The plan passed early this morning by a 51-45 vote. The package calls for lower spending, smaller tax cuts and less time for deficit reduction. Although a leaner version, the plan closely resembles President Bush's original outline.

The Colorado Supreme Court has cleared the way for Kobe Bryant's accuser to testify about her sexual past. The state court yesterday refused a petition from a prosecutor in the case who asked that for that line of questioning to be restricted. Bryant's accuser is scheduled to testify behind closed doors during a hearing later this month.

Authorities have charged a Utah woman with murder after the stillborn birth of one of her twins. Investigators say that doctors repeatedly warned Melissa Ann Rowland of the dangers to the babies if she did not get a Caesarean section. But she said she refused the procedure. Rowland is now behind bars.

And the House of Representatives has OKed huge fines for indicate programming on television and radio. The measure was approved yesterday. The vote increases the maximum penalty for offenders to half a million dollars. A similar bill is now pending in the Senate.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: We want to get to the prime minister of Spain, saying the victims in the attack in Madrid yesterday came from 11 different countries. The latest numbers we have today, 24 hours later, 198 people dead, some 1,400 others wounded. Spanish officials say their investigation of who's to blame for the carnage "will soon bear fruit."

To Madrid and Christiane Amanpour on the scene there -- and, Christiane, we're talking about two conflicting theories about who's responsible, this Basque separatist group ETA or al Qaeda.

If it turns out to be al Qaeda, why Spain?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, why Spain is basically because, according to the analysts, of Prime Minister Aznar's very strong support of the war in Iraq and his strong cooperation with the Bush administration on the general war against al Qaeda. You know that 90 percent of the people of Spain were against the war in Iraq and people here are kind of worried. Today, the day after, they are asking who could this have been?

The Spain government has immediately blamed ETA, the terrorist organization which has been waging a 35 year armed struggle. But there are new lines of investigation based on what they discovered later last night, which was this van containing detonators and Arab Koranic verses.

So there's still a struggle to -- and conflicting sort of lines of investigation to determine who actually carried this out.

HEMMER: Yes, well, the prime minister has called for three days of mourning. That begins today.

What is the reaction from the Spanish people -- Christiane.

AMANPOUR: Well, you know, sort of -- it's raining today and I have to say that because it kind of sums up the mood of people in this city, certainly, and around this country. There's a deep sense of sorrow, a deep sense of having been wounded right in the national gut, if you like, of this country. They've never had anything like this, although this country is no stranger to terrorism. As I say, ETA has been waging its 35 year struggle. Eight hundred people in total have been killed over these last 35 years.

But in one day, if it's ETA, it's 200, nearly, who have been killed. There are, you know, little sort of makeshift candlelit memorials laid at the station behind me. There are flowers. There are notes. One of the notes said, "Today, from all over Spain, we are all citizens of Madrid." And it sort of reminded me of that poignant outpouring after 9/11, when people all over the world said today we are Americans.

So people are really feeling this sense of solidarity. There are mass rallies called by the prime minister and announced on television, radio and in all the newspapers for this evening, in a show of defiance and a show of confrontation against the killers.

HEMMER: And you have elections planned for this Sunday. We're told they will go on as scheduled for now.

Christiane Amanpour, thanks, live in Madrid.

More now on the question of who might be behind the deadly bombings.

Jessica Stern, former National Security Council staffer, now teaching at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. She's the author of "Terror In the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill."

She's live in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Good morning.

Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING here.

JESSICA STERN, HARVARD SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT, AUTHOR, "TERROR IN THE NAME OF GOD": Good morning.

HEMMER: How strong is the presence for al Qaeda in Spain, do you believe?

STERN: Al Qaeda does have a presence in Spain and, of course, there are a number of reasons why al Qaeda has to be a prime suspect, including Spain's participation in the war in Iraq and bin Laden's -- a purported message from bin Laden that he planned to attack Spain.

HEMMER: Yes. There also a suggestion here with this Basque separatist group that perhaps they are dealing with a new round of terrorism specifically from ETA, from a younger generation.

Do you buy into that theory?

STERN: Well, that's also a fairly compelling theory, the fact that the explosive used was a kind of dynamite that ETA has been seen with in the past, the fact that elections were coming up, the fact that those who remain in ETA are the most hardened, those who law enforcement authorities haven't been able to capture yet.

HEMMER: There is another suggestion, Ms. Stern, that if you look at some of the evidence captured a month ago and back on Christmas and back in the fall of last year, attacks that were thwarted, said to be carried out by ETA, that were stopped. Does that give more credence to the Basque separatist group for the attacks of yesterday or not?

STERN: Yes, it does because it's precisely the same kind of explosive that was found earlier and the kind of attack they seemed to be plotting. So it's really difficult, based on the evidence available to us so far, to know which of these two entities was responsible or, indeed, whether, perhaps, they were working together.

HEMMER: So then if it is ETA, what does it suggest to you if they are mimicking the attacks of al Qaeda?

STERN: It does suggest that ETA has moved into a new phase in which it is deliberately targeting a large number of non-combatants without warning, which would be unprecedented.

HEMMER: Jessica Stern, thanks for talking, from Watertown, Massachusetts this morning.

Nice to have you.

STERN: Thank you.

HEMMER: Now, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, the bombings in Madrid raise some serious questions about rail safety here in the U.S., as homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

03110003.v84 (END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Despite what Jeanne found, Amtrak says it has increased patrols by police and also by canine units. It also says it's reminding employees to report anything suspicious.

HEMMER: Jack talked about the tunnels coming into New York earlier today, with the increased security. You can see them downtown, too, right around Union Square, around the subway systems here, also.

O'BRIEN: Right.

HEMMER: In a moment here, President Bush rolling out tough new campaign ads. How will the Kerry camp respond to them? We'll talk to a senior advisor from John Kerry in a moment.

O'BRIEN: Also, political upheaval in South Korea. Tempers flare when the president is impeached.

HEMMER: Also, using the sounds of Mozart and Gregorian chant to treat learning disabilities. We'll get to that story this hour here on AMERICAN MORNING also.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Senator John Kerry will spend the weekend in Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania, all states he's going to need if he wants to beat President Bush in November. Mr. Bush attends a women's rights event today in Washington, D.C. before he heads to Camp David. The president was on the campaign trail yesterday while his campaign rolled out some tough new ads.

Senior White House correspondent John King has this report.

(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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, Bush campaign advisor Mary Matalin called on Senator Kerry to begin engaging on the issues facing the country.

I also spoke earlier with Tad Devine.

He's a senior advisor to the Kerry campaign.

And I asked him for his reaction to the new Bush campaign ads.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAD DEVINE, KERRY CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR: It's utterly inaccurate. It is absolutely false. It's -- the Associated Press ran a report yesterday pointing out that John Kerry has never, ever said he would raise taxes by $900 billion. That's a patently false charge. You know, in terms of defending America, John Kerry has been defending America his whole adult life and he absolutely will be very strong on the defense of this nation.

So I think it's just an indication that the president has absolutely nothing to say about his record, about his issues and his positions, and they've resorted to false negative attacks.

O'BRIEN: But the ad says that Senator Kerry would like to weaken the Patriot Act. Isn't that true? Hasn't, in fact, Senator Kerry called for a repeal of the Patriot Act?

DEVINE: Well, John Kerry is very concerned about the way the Patriot Act is being administered and he would administer it and have an attorney general who administered it in a completely different way. So he hasn't called for repealing any specific section. What he has said is we need an attorney general who recognizes that the Patriot Act should be used for the purposes for which it was intended, to protect America, and not for some of the political purposes for which it has been used.

O'BRIEN: You obviously take issue with that $900 billion figure for raising taxes.

DEVINE: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: What's the figure, then, that John Kerry is comfortable with? What's the number?

DEVINE: Well, he has said that for people who make more than $200,000 a year, if he is president, he will repeal the Bush tax cuts for those people. That is a number far, far smaller. It's about $250 billion in more revenue that will be produced.

But, in fact, what the Bush campaign is doing is pointing to Senator Kerry's health plan, his plan for health care, a big part of it is a tax cut, OK? And it's just remarkable that they would do this. I mean I think they've decided, you know, that they're just going to resort to any device whatsoever. They said they were looking for the WMDs over in Iraq. I think we found the WMDs, the weapons of mass distortion that this campaign has decided to launch on John Kerry.

So, we're just not going to take it. We're going to point out the truth. These are false charges. I think every newspaper around the country that reports on this today is going to point out the false charges in these ads.

O'BRIEN: Well, when you talk about that health care plan and you say that it's about $250 billion, is what the tax increase would be...

DEVINE: Sure.

O'BRIEN: And yet you would decrease taxes with the health care plan.

DEVINE: Right.

O'BRIEN: You're not going to increase the budget deficit, according to Senator John Kerry.

DEVINE: Sure.

O'BRIEN: So do the math. How do you pay for the health care plan with a number that is significantly lower than what the Republicans are saying and at the same time you're saying you're not going to increase the deficit?

DEVINE: Well, you know, first of all, you're going to have to find new sources of revenue. I mean, John Kerry has been straightforward about the fact that people who make more than $200,000 a year are going to have to pay more taxes.

Second, you're going to have to cut expenditures.

O'BRIEN: Lots of focus in the past days has been about this comment that Senator Kerry was heard -- overhead on a microphone saying, "These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen."

First, I'm curious to know, did the senator know he was miked and that that mike was -- the tape was running at the time, or was he unaware that the mike was on?

DEVINE: Well, it certainly looked like he did -- he was unaware. But even if he had been aware that he was overheard, I think, you know, he'll stand by his comments, as he did publicly yesterday. I mean John Kerry was talking about a Republican attack machine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That's senior advisor Tad Devine talking with us a little bit earlier on AMERICAN MORNING.

HEMMER: A bit of humor right now from the political world. Late night television, the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" got a bit personal.

Here's a sample from last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO")

JAY LENO, HOST: Once again, let's get ready to name that sound. Punch it! That's me writing a letter to my sister. No, no, no, I'm sorry. Martha? That's me installing a lovely bay window in my prison cell. No, no, wrong, wrong. Mr. President? Yes? That's John Kerry getting a haircut. That's correct, John Kerry getting a haircut. There you are, John Kerry getting a haircut.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Jay Leno last night. Well, they can have some fun for the next, what, eight months and counting?

O'BRIEN: Oh, at least. At least.

HEMMER: Buckle up.

In a moment here, things get a bit out of hand in parliament. We'll show it to you and tell you what happened in a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HEMMER: Check this out, Soledad, Jack. Seoul, South Korea, members of parliament cursing and shoving one another. A tough vote, huh?

CAFFERTY: Democracy in action.

HEMMER: Yes, you thought our politics was tough? The national assembly met to impeach the president, Roh Moo-hyun. Security officers trying to remove lawmakers to keep the assembly speaker from calling a vote. Supporters of the president, Roh, still angry after the vote, they weren't done yet, Jack. Take that.

Many yelled in protest when it was announced that the impeachment bill had passed. That was the view from Seoul, South Korea.

O'BRIEN: And socked, apparently.

CAFFERTY: So, yes...

O'BRIEN: It makes the attack ads look so mild, doesn't it?

CAFFERTY: Yes, yes.

O'BRIEN: It's like putting on more of those ads, that's nothing.

HEMMER: Sure.

CAFFERTY: That's very funny. That's a good point.

Back to something much more serious, that bombing in Madrid. The question of the day is concerning whether or not al Qaeda's fingerprints are on this thing. Nobody's sure exactly who did this yet. But there are signs that could indicate it was al Qaeda. The scale of the attack, unlike anything that ETA, the long running Basque separatist organization in Spain, has ever carried out. Spain was a key ally of this country in the war in Iraq.

The bombings came on March 11, exactly two and a half years to the day after September 11 and 911 days, actually, from September 11. If you do the math, that's a little scary. There was a van found in a suburb of Madrid with detonators and an Arabic tape of Koranic teachings.

So the question is this, are you afraid al Qaeda might be behind this?

Now, a couple of these are fairly long, but they're interesting.

Beginning with Roberta in Chicago: "Don't forget, Sunday in Spain, general elections. The Spanish government is a hardliner against ETA and will most likely benefit from them being the prime suspect. On the other hand, if al Qaeda is blamed, the Spanish government is somewhat responsible for aligning Spain with the United States against the wishes of the Spanish people. So their main suspect will be ETA, at least until Sunday. And at that point, don't be surprised if al Qaeda quickly becomes suspect number one." And then Robert writes from Arizona: "When will the media report what they see without all the conjecture? We spent a lot of time trying to link September 11 to Saddam and none was found. The officials in Spain have dealt with ETA for many years and immediately saw their fingerprints on that organization on this tragedy. Now, the United States media is bent on defining the Spanish tragedy as the work of Arab terrorists. Why can't we wait for Spain to complete its investigation?"

Peter in Houston: "Al Qaeda's fingerprints all over the Madrid bombing. It's a warning to all those Americans who think that terrorism is only fifth on their concerns after the economy, health, Social Security and jobs outsourcing. The real question, ask yourself under whom do you feel safer, Kerry or Bush."

And M. Guy from Sparta, New Jersey: "Although my gut, perhaps influenced by the media, says al Qaeda, my heart says why don't we, as Americans, quit trying to personalize this and just extend our heartfelt sympathy to the people of Spain and wait for more facts before we attribute blame?"

O'BRIEN: Interesting, although, as we both, everyone knows, after a tragedy immediately people want to attribute the blame as quickly as possible.

CAFFERTY: Sure.

HEMMER: I thought what Christiane said was very interesting. The feeling that she has today in Madrid, after being there, is similar to what she felt in European capitals in the days soon after, years ago after the attacks here.

CAFFERTY: There's also been some concern among people who've studied this stuff that al Qaeda is about to get active in Europe. There's a great fear in France over the, you know, the Muslim population there that al Qaeda might get started there. There's been concern all around Europe that we may start seeing terrorist attacks in Europe.

HEMMER: Paris already amped up their security as a result from yesterday.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Interesting.

All right, Jack, thanks.

Still to come this morning, presidential hopeful John Kerry has called some of his opponents crooked. Should he apologize? Our Give Me A Minute Gang will debate that and much more ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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