Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Aftermath of Massive Iraq Hotel Bombing; What Led Police to Capture Ohio Sniper Suspect
Aired March 18, 2004 - 07:00 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: Acts of bombing at a hotel in Baghdad. How many were killed. What was the target? Who are the terrorists behind the bombing?
Also, Iraq a battleground in the presidential campaign. The two sides hammering each other on questions of war.
And Michael Jackson's former wife Lisa Marie Presley trying to take back the words that started a media frenzy.
Those stories ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good morning. Welcome to Thursday -- 7:00 -- good to have you with us.
A lot to talk about today. A search for survivors called off in Baghdad and what's left of Mount Lebanon Hotel. Officials still trying to figure out the exact death toll. There are some other incidents also in Iraq today.
We'll talk with Walt Rodgers near the scene there in Baghdad and also two Americans working on the reconstruction and the military effort there today.
Stay tuned today.
O'BRIEN: Also this morning what led police to capture Charles McCoy, the man who is suspected in the Ohio shootings case? A member of the Las Vegas police force is going to join us. He was involved in the capture and is going to tell us exactly what happened.
HEMMER: Got some interesting details already on that matter.
Jack Cafferty good morning to you.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: How you doing, Bill?
Celebrities, can they influence the outcome of an election? Howard Stern and Mel Gibson have taken to criticizing President Bush, and we're going to find out if it makes any difference as we move through the morning.
O'BRIEN: That's a great question of the day.
CAFFERTY: You like that?
HEMMER: It sure is.
CAFFERTY: You like that?
O'BRIEN: Yes, I do.
HEMMER: Interesting...
CAFFERTY: Sara Leader (ph) came up with that; she's the...
O'BRIEN: Sara, you go, girl.
CAFFERTY: She produces this stuff for me, and it's all hers.
O'BRIEN: Well, she did a great job.
CAFFERTY: Yes, she did.
HEMMER: All right, top stories now.
Starting the morning, now.
More arrests have been made in connection with the Madrid train attacks.
According to Spanish state radio, four North Africans now in custody.
The report saying three of the arrests were made in a Madrid suburb where police found a van containing seven detonators and a Arabic tape with teachings from the Quran.
It's also a neighborhood where some of these trains originated. More than 200 were killed as a result of the attacks last Thursday. NATO is sending in more peacekeepers in the Balkans after what is being called the worst violence in that region since the war ended back in 1999.
At least ten have died; scores of others injured in fighting between Serbs and ethnic Albanians. The clashes in Kosovo, once part of Yugoslavia, said to have started after the drowning of three Albanian children on Tuesday night of this week.
This country now the suspect in the Ohio highway shootings could be extradited from Las Vegas back to Columbus as early as this weekend.
Officials say Charles McCoy Jr. scheduled to appear in court tomorrow charged with being a fugitive now held without bond acting on a tip.
Police arrested McCoy early yesterday at a motel in Las Vegas. He is suspected in two dozen shootings around Interstate 270 back in Ohio going back to May of last year. A live update in Columbus in a moment here.
Lawyers for Martha Stewart working on her appeal following her conviction for lying about a stock sale. Reports say that the appeal will focus on what Stewart's attorney say was a mistake made on the trial judge's part.
They'll argue that the judge did not allow jurors to hear -- the points stressed that Stewart was not on trial for insider trading. More on Martha Stewart also this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.
And residents here in the northeast hit with a late winter storm.
In upstate New York, bring out the shovels late in the season. More than a foot of snow fell in some parts. Also, 11 deaths accounted for in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio blamed on that bad weather, and more snow already falling today in New York City.
We're going to get it today -- we may get a little more tomorrow as well, so it ain't done yet.
You're up to date now at 7:03. There's a beautiful picture there, isn't it Soledad?
O'BRIEN: Yes, you know...
HEMMER: It's a good day to be inside.
O'BRIEN: It is a great day to be inside.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: U.S. authorities today have revised the death toll of the Baghdad hotel bombing downward to 17.
It was reported yesterday that 29 people had been killed and Iraqi police are saying that only six people are killed.
Whatever the eventual number, though, it is clear that the timing and the target are of great concern to those who are fighting the insurgency.
Walt Rodgers is at the scene of that blast in Baghdad for us this morning.
Walt, good morning.
WALTER RODGERS, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Soledad.
Well, for the residents of this neighborhood, it's less than a good morning, and walking through the neighborhood, the sight of the murderous car bomb last night, the question you hear most frequently asked is "niesh, niesh" (ph) -- that's Arabic for "why, why." There do not appear to be any answers yet.
The acrid smell of smoke hung over much of Baghdad even when the sun came up 12 hours after a car bomb destroyed a mixed residential and commercial neighborhood. The destruction and visions of death will remain long after the scorched smell is washed away.
Many people are listed as having been killed, over forty injured in Wednesday night's blast said to have been caused by 1,000 pounds of plastic explosives packed into a vehicle. U.S. military authorities believe the explosives may also have detonated a large artillery shell in the car.
As far as a kilometer away, buildings rumbled on their foundations. At the sight of the vehicle bomb, outside the Mount Lebanon Hotel, a deep crater has now filled with water from fire trucks trying to extinguish the blaze ignited by the blast.
Reportedly, it took fire trucks half an hour to reach the scene. Iraqi police seem to have lacked discipline and did not have a recovery plan according to one eyewitness.
When U.S. soldiers came to help, raging Iraqis at first tried to drive them off. The Arab street needed someone to blame and the U.S. soldiers were convenient.
American authorities responsible for security in Baghdad now believe the murderous car bomb was the work of Islamic militants out to thwart American efforts to establish order and a civil society.
The fingers all seem to point to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group, or another Islamic group Ansar al-Islam.
Predictably, I overheard one Iraqi at the bombsite this morning blaming the Israelis. The neighborhood seemed an unlikely target for an attack. It is a mixed Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish area.
Thanks, Peter. Good guy.
It's a given here among U.S. officials that the violence will continue in the weeks and months ahead.
What's unstated, however, is the specter that the United States is now involved in a long-term guerrilla war with Islamic militants with no visible exit strategy.
Soledad, Bill.
O'BRIEN: Walt Rodgers for us this morning. Walt, thank you.
HEMMER: Part of yesterday's deadly blast captured on tape. It happened just as the Arabic language American TV channel Al Hurra was conducting an interview with a guest in Baghdad. Listen and watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: That blast happening about a half mile from that location where the camera and the interview was set to take place.
Clearly a delay between the sound and the movement in the background that you can see on the explosion as that fireball spreads just high into the nighttime sky in central Baghdad.
Al Hurra is a new satellite channel based here in Virginia in this country. Yesterday's attack the latest movement in what seems to be a new strategy by insurgents in Iraq targeting civilians there.
The soft targets.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt now live from Baghdad. Deputy Director for Coalition Operations also there in Baghdad -- Dan Senor, Senior Adviser of U.S. Administrator Paul Bremer.
Gentlemen, we thank you for taking time with us today.
Almost immediately, yesterday, Mr. Senor, the finger of blame was pointed at foreign fighters. Where is the evidence that confirms that?
DAN SENOR, SENIOR ADVISER TO COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY: Well, this is -- and I'll let General Kimmitt talk about the details of the investigation.
But, this has all the look and feel of similar terrorist attacks we've seen in Iraq.
Large explosives, well orchestrated, clearly designed and timed to progress we're making on the political front. Recent signing of the interim constitution. Progress made between the governing council and the United Nations just yesterday.
HEMMER: So, do you think there was a message sent in this bomb yesterday knowing that tomorrow marks the one-year start of the war?
SENOR: Well, actually, Bill, if you look at this document we often refer to written by Mr. Zarqawi, who is tied to al Qaeda, he talks about the threat that the path of democracy poses to the terrorists.
And the more progress that is made on that path, the more terrorist attacks must be carried out because then the race against time if we hand over sovereignty and once that date comes and goes the terrorists are through.
And, so, I would link it more to the progress that's being made on the political front.
Again, historic bill of rights and the interim constitution recently passed by the governing council, the Iraqi Governing Council. Again, progress made with the United Nations by the Iraqi Governing Council -- those are the events that I think are more significant. HEMMER: If I could ask General Kimmitt the -- a similar question then, if Zarqawi is the person that is being blamed right now? You have any indication where in Iraq this man is operating?
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS: We strongly suspect that he remains in Iraq and is operating throughout the country of Iraq. Probably more likely in the center part of Iraq.
HEMMER: In the center part of Iraq. How much control do you believe he has right now and how many people do you believe are working for him?
KIMMITT: We think that any people that are working with Zarqawi are too many. If you take a look at what he and his organization have done, or have taken great pride in doing, they have been a significant impediment to the progress of this country.
As we move toward a safe and secure environment and governance for the people of Iraq.
HEMMER: In the city itself with Baghdad you have five million people. Countless soft targets. Can you sit here today and say with any measure of assurance that there is a way to keep the people in Iraq safe?
KIMMITT: I'm not sure that any city manager or any city mayor can make that claim any where in the world. All we can do is get out in the streets every day, maintain a presence, take action when intelligence comes to us, go out and fight for the intelligence so that we can go out and get these people who perpetrate the crimes against the people of Iraq and against coalition soldiers.
HEMMER: In general, Operation Iron Promise, I understand, has already started in Baghdad. A giant sweep, an operation designed to clear out the insurgents. Has that yielded any success at this point?
KIMMITT: It's the second night coming up for Iron Promise. We've had some initial success with it, and I think over the days and weeks to come as we not only capture some of these extremists, but pick up intelligence in the process, that will provide more intelligence for us to go against further extremists, and I know that General Dempsey and his troops are out there every night and they're not going to rest until they bring this problem down considerably.
HEMMER: And tomorrow is March 19 Mr. Senor.
In the final few seconds we have here is there more security planned in Iraq throughout the country to anticipate more attacks like we all watched yesterday here on CNN?
SENOR: Bill, for obvious operational security reasons we don't want to signal what we have planned but needless to say we are always focused on these situations. The nature of the terrorist threat, however, is asymmetrical.
They have to be successful once in a while to wreak havoc. We have to be successful 100 percent of the time to protect against terrorism.
Sometimes they'll be some things that slip through the cracks and certainly they're getting aggressive as they get closer and closer to June 30 and the handover of sovereignty. But we're working with the Iraqi security forces and we are always monitoring the situation, doing our best to protect against these situations.
HEMMER: Thank you, gentlemen. Stay safe.
Dan Senor, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt live in Baghdad with the latest on the day after. Thanks.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning as the man suspected in two dozen Ohio highway shootings prepares for a court appearance we're going to talk with a police sergeant who was part of the team that captured him.
HEMMER: Also the vice president and the Democratic presidential candidate not pulling any punches about Iraq. Two major speeches yesterday. The fall out we're tacking again today.
O'BRIEN: Also this morning what's Lisa Marie Presley saying now about her ex-husband Michael Jackson? Those stories are all ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: The U.S. presence in Iraq is increasingly becoming a key issue in the battle for the White House. Yesterday Vice-President Dick Cheney and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry traded jabs about Iraq, also about the war on terror.
Joining us this morning for more on the presidential campaign and the situation in Iraq is former Democratic presidential candidate and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark, who is now a supporter of Senator John Kerry.
Nice to see you, thanks for coming back. Always nice to talk to you.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FRM. NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: Good to see you, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Yesterday we saw and we heard both Senator Kerry and the vice president sort of trading jabs at each other.
The vice president was questioning the senator's military record, his voting in the senate and also his overall fitness to be president.
I want to first listen just to a little bit of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is not an impressive record for someone who aspires to become commander-in-chief in this time of testing for our country.
Over the years, he's repeatedly voted against weapons systems for the military. He voted against the Apache helicopter, against the Tomahawk Cruise missile, against even the Bradley fighting vehicle. He's also been a reliable vote against military pay increases, opposing them no fewer than 12 times.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: It seems that the White House strategy is to try to undermine the senator's ability on national security and all things sort of militarily related.
So, how is Senator Kerry going to fight against that?
CLARK: Well, I think these facts are taken out of context on his voting record, but I think the fact is this. John Kerry does have the right character and experience to be our commander-in-chief and to be a great president.
He did serve in Vietnam; he's -- he's been at the point of (UNINTELLIGIBLE); he's seen bullets fly in anger; he's had his life in danger. He's got three purple hearts. He won a Silver Star. As a Navy Lieutenant on a small boat in Vietnam.
And he served his life in public service; he's had any number of votes for and against any number of issues in the United States Senate. He's got a long public career.
I've gotten to know him over the years, I've watched his record, I've watched his statements, I watched how he thinks. He's a thoughtful man who will make the right decisions for this country and keep us safe and he'll do it by bringing our allies in with us.
And I think as we look to the future, Soledad, it's not Apache helicopters and Bradley fighting vehicles alone that are going to keep this country safe although we need them.
And John's voted for them. I think what we need is a strong international coalition, an alliance, the same as we had when we were fighting in Europe in the late 1990s against the Serbs in Kosovo where nations were committed to work together against international terrorism.
This administration hasn't built that.
O'BRIEN: When you look at the polls, though -- CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll asked at the beginning of March who would do a better job on terrorism, on Iraq, on world affairs -- President Bush significantly ahead of Senator Kerry -- so I guess my question would be how do you after all that you've said change public opinion and -- and -- sway from what obviously voters or potential voters seem to think about Kerry's strength versus the president's strength?
CLARK: Well, I think we've got to get the facts out to the American people. And here are the facts. The administration took us to war in Iraq, a war that we didn't actually have to fight. There was no linkage between Saddam Hussein and the events of 9/11. There actually have been no weapons of mass destruction discovered. Iraq was not an imminent threat to the United States.
We went to war before our allies were on board fully, before diplomatic options were exhausted. We went to war without sufficient forces to handle the problems after we got to Baghdad and without a plan of doing so.
So now we're there, we want to succeed. The really key factor in Iraq is how can you bring the international community in to help spread the burden and make this a sustainable mission. There's no magic bullet, no quick fix solution to the problems of Iraq.
We just have to make the size of the U.S. occupation force over time able to be sustained by the overall size of our armed forces.
O'BRIEN: If the violence does not abate, how big of a problem is this for president Bush? Do you think it's career ending?
CLARK: Well, I think the American people are going to judge this on whether the on -- on whether the overall wisdom of the foreign policy and security policy of the Bush administration. When we could have focused on terrorists and gotten rid of Osama bin Laden, the president took us instead into Iraq.
It looked like an easier target, more of a sure thing, it was a state. It wasn't a nebulous group of people. And it seemed more accessible in Iraq than going after Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan but now Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, we're still having terrorist incidents around the world and Iraq is a problem.
And this really is the key foreign policy issue in this campaign. Which person: John Kerry or George W. Bush is best suited to bring the nations of the world together to focus on keeping the world safe from international terrorism?
I support John Kerry. I believe he's the best person to do this.
O'BRIEN: General Wesley Clark. Nice to see you as always. Thanks for coming in.
CLARK: Soledad, as you were talking breaking news out of Southern Iraq in the town of Basra. Apparently another suicide car bombing taking place just moments ago. This according to the Associated Press and the Reuters News Agency.
In the town of Basra shaking a hotel nearby. Some reports say three dead; others say four dead, much more on this when we get it from Basra just moments ago.
Let's get a break in a moment here the Pentagon says Halliburton has been overcharging and now the company may be in a bit more of hot water. Andy has that and Jack is back, too, right after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right one economic story touched on for the past two weeks the price at the pump and you think you're paying a lot now just wait.
Perhaps the summer it will go even higher. Also Halliburton under fire. With those stories and more and a market preview Andy Serwer checks in first time today, "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.
HEMMER: Good to see you. Let's start at the pump. Two bucks a gallon, you think?
SERWER: Yes, well that's already there in California, Bill. Where the national average is about a buck seventy-seven and unfortunately it really looks like we're going to see over $2 a gallon nationwide this summer.
The situation is really of grave concern now to economists and to consumers because it's not just you know well it's going to make my summer trip a little bit more expensive.
The ripple effect through the economy is tremendous. You can see here the numbers. $1.51 earlier, now $1.77. It acts like a tax on the economy, Bill.
You know it hurts trucking companies. They pass along the costs to Wal-Mart, etc.; they pass along the costs to us.
So there's real concern. Right now low interest rates sort of mitigating that effect. One big problem is China. The energy demand there is tremendous and growing.
In fact, I just spoke with a friend of mine who came back from there and said the brownouts there and energy shut downs are rampant because they simply don't' have enough fuel right now. And that's sucking a lot of energy demand right over into that country.
HEMMER: Halliburton meanwhile is not going to get paid at least part of it anyway for a while. What's happening?
SERWER: Well, what happens I guess when you're doing business with someone and they say well we can't really figure out what's going on here with the paperwork and then you just say well look we're not going to pay you 100 cents on the dollar that's what the Pentagon is doing to Halliburton.
Of course, all kinds of questions about cost delays there and overruns with regard to some of those feeding operations for the troops so what the Pentagon is saying is we're going to pay you 85 cents on the dollar withholding 15 percent. This could mean $300 million less going to Halliburton until they sort this thing out. HEMMER: The contract is huge anyway.
SERWER: Yes, it's billions of dollars.
HEMMER: A lot of this coming out of Iraq and also Kuwait too, the fixing station for U.S. troops. Quickly to markets a big day yesterday.
SERWER: Yes, first day we've been up two days in a row in well over a month. You can see here another triple-digit day. Nice earnings coming out and despite the bombing yesterday in Iraq.
Unfortunately today though futures looking a little bit lower.
HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
HEMMER: Soledad.
O'BRIEN: And Jack's got the question of the day. Hello.
CAFFERTY: How you doing? Senator John Kerry and Vice-President Dick Cheney not the only ones gearing up for the election in November and slinging a little mud.
Radio shock jock Howard Stern and Mel Gibson are also in the political fray as it were.
Stern, who was yanked off six Clear Channel radio stations last month now spends a good deal of his on-air time attacking President Bush. Stern says that we're in a, quote, "culture war" unquote and he's urging his eight million listeners to dump the president.
Mel Gibson, usually a Bush supporter says he's been having doubts about the president and the war in Iraq. Gibson said in a radio interview that it's, quote, all to do with these weapons that we can't seem to find. And why did we go over there?
So the question is could Howard Stern or Mel Gibson influence your vote for president? Am@cnn.com a disparate view of this Mel Gibson of the much-acclaimed film "The Passion of The Christ" of course Howard Stern who's famous for things like lesbian dial a date.
SERWER: Among other things.
O'BRIEN: Among other things. He wanted to work that in.
HEMMER: Thanks Jack.
O'BRIEN: Interesting question, I think. How much celebrities influence -- even outside of the two of them.
CAFFERTY: The one thing about Stern -- Stern can be a problem for the president. He has an audience of 8 million people...
HEMMER: Huge.
CAFFERTY: ... and most of them are white males and that's President Bush's whale house in the electorate. The white male voters are -- he desperately needs their support and one poll I looked at is supporting that particular group has been declining of late.
So you know to the degree that that you know massages Howard's ego. But his audience is composed of people who are vital to Bush's reelection effort.
O'BRIEN: It will be interesting to see.
CAFFERTY: That will be the end of my analysis of that poll.
O'BRIEN: Thank you Dr. Cafferty. We appreciate it.
CAFFERTY: I'll have another point in the next hour.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, MTV's sister act. Could Jessica Simpson's little sister Ashleigh be the real next thing? Our 90-Second Pop panel is going to weigh in with that. Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
to Capture Ohio Sniper Suspect>
Aired March 18, 2004 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Acts of bombing at a hotel in Baghdad. How many were killed. What was the target? Who are the terrorists behind the bombing?
Also, Iraq a battleground in the presidential campaign. The two sides hammering each other on questions of war.
And Michael Jackson's former wife Lisa Marie Presley trying to take back the words that started a media frenzy.
Those stories ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good morning. Welcome to Thursday -- 7:00 -- good to have you with us.
A lot to talk about today. A search for survivors called off in Baghdad and what's left of Mount Lebanon Hotel. Officials still trying to figure out the exact death toll. There are some other incidents also in Iraq today.
We'll talk with Walt Rodgers near the scene there in Baghdad and also two Americans working on the reconstruction and the military effort there today.
Stay tuned today.
O'BRIEN: Also this morning what led police to capture Charles McCoy, the man who is suspected in the Ohio shootings case? A member of the Las Vegas police force is going to join us. He was involved in the capture and is going to tell us exactly what happened.
HEMMER: Got some interesting details already on that matter.
Jack Cafferty good morning to you.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: How you doing, Bill?
Celebrities, can they influence the outcome of an election? Howard Stern and Mel Gibson have taken to criticizing President Bush, and we're going to find out if it makes any difference as we move through the morning.
O'BRIEN: That's a great question of the day.
CAFFERTY: You like that?
HEMMER: It sure is.
CAFFERTY: You like that?
O'BRIEN: Yes, I do.
HEMMER: Interesting...
CAFFERTY: Sara Leader (ph) came up with that; she's the...
O'BRIEN: Sara, you go, girl.
CAFFERTY: She produces this stuff for me, and it's all hers.
O'BRIEN: Well, she did a great job.
CAFFERTY: Yes, she did.
HEMMER: All right, top stories now.
Starting the morning, now.
More arrests have been made in connection with the Madrid train attacks.
According to Spanish state radio, four North Africans now in custody.
The report saying three of the arrests were made in a Madrid suburb where police found a van containing seven detonators and a Arabic tape with teachings from the Quran.
It's also a neighborhood where some of these trains originated. More than 200 were killed as a result of the attacks last Thursday. NATO is sending in more peacekeepers in the Balkans after what is being called the worst violence in that region since the war ended back in 1999.
At least ten have died; scores of others injured in fighting between Serbs and ethnic Albanians. The clashes in Kosovo, once part of Yugoslavia, said to have started after the drowning of three Albanian children on Tuesday night of this week.
This country now the suspect in the Ohio highway shootings could be extradited from Las Vegas back to Columbus as early as this weekend.
Officials say Charles McCoy Jr. scheduled to appear in court tomorrow charged with being a fugitive now held without bond acting on a tip.
Police arrested McCoy early yesterday at a motel in Las Vegas. He is suspected in two dozen shootings around Interstate 270 back in Ohio going back to May of last year. A live update in Columbus in a moment here.
Lawyers for Martha Stewart working on her appeal following her conviction for lying about a stock sale. Reports say that the appeal will focus on what Stewart's attorney say was a mistake made on the trial judge's part.
They'll argue that the judge did not allow jurors to hear -- the points stressed that Stewart was not on trial for insider trading. More on Martha Stewart also this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.
And residents here in the northeast hit with a late winter storm.
In upstate New York, bring out the shovels late in the season. More than a foot of snow fell in some parts. Also, 11 deaths accounted for in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio blamed on that bad weather, and more snow already falling today in New York City.
We're going to get it today -- we may get a little more tomorrow as well, so it ain't done yet.
You're up to date now at 7:03. There's a beautiful picture there, isn't it Soledad?
O'BRIEN: Yes, you know...
HEMMER: It's a good day to be inside.
O'BRIEN: It is a great day to be inside.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: U.S. authorities today have revised the death toll of the Baghdad hotel bombing downward to 17.
It was reported yesterday that 29 people had been killed and Iraqi police are saying that only six people are killed.
Whatever the eventual number, though, it is clear that the timing and the target are of great concern to those who are fighting the insurgency.
Walt Rodgers is at the scene of that blast in Baghdad for us this morning.
Walt, good morning.
WALTER RODGERS, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Soledad.
Well, for the residents of this neighborhood, it's less than a good morning, and walking through the neighborhood, the sight of the murderous car bomb last night, the question you hear most frequently asked is "niesh, niesh" (ph) -- that's Arabic for "why, why." There do not appear to be any answers yet.
The acrid smell of smoke hung over much of Baghdad even when the sun came up 12 hours after a car bomb destroyed a mixed residential and commercial neighborhood. The destruction and visions of death will remain long after the scorched smell is washed away.
Many people are listed as having been killed, over forty injured in Wednesday night's blast said to have been caused by 1,000 pounds of plastic explosives packed into a vehicle. U.S. military authorities believe the explosives may also have detonated a large artillery shell in the car.
As far as a kilometer away, buildings rumbled on their foundations. At the sight of the vehicle bomb, outside the Mount Lebanon Hotel, a deep crater has now filled with water from fire trucks trying to extinguish the blaze ignited by the blast.
Reportedly, it took fire trucks half an hour to reach the scene. Iraqi police seem to have lacked discipline and did not have a recovery plan according to one eyewitness.
When U.S. soldiers came to help, raging Iraqis at first tried to drive them off. The Arab street needed someone to blame and the U.S. soldiers were convenient.
American authorities responsible for security in Baghdad now believe the murderous car bomb was the work of Islamic militants out to thwart American efforts to establish order and a civil society.
The fingers all seem to point to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group, or another Islamic group Ansar al-Islam.
Predictably, I overheard one Iraqi at the bombsite this morning blaming the Israelis. The neighborhood seemed an unlikely target for an attack. It is a mixed Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish area.
Thanks, Peter. Good guy.
It's a given here among U.S. officials that the violence will continue in the weeks and months ahead.
What's unstated, however, is the specter that the United States is now involved in a long-term guerrilla war with Islamic militants with no visible exit strategy.
Soledad, Bill.
O'BRIEN: Walt Rodgers for us this morning. Walt, thank you.
HEMMER: Part of yesterday's deadly blast captured on tape. It happened just as the Arabic language American TV channel Al Hurra was conducting an interview with a guest in Baghdad. Listen and watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: That blast happening about a half mile from that location where the camera and the interview was set to take place.
Clearly a delay between the sound and the movement in the background that you can see on the explosion as that fireball spreads just high into the nighttime sky in central Baghdad.
Al Hurra is a new satellite channel based here in Virginia in this country. Yesterday's attack the latest movement in what seems to be a new strategy by insurgents in Iraq targeting civilians there.
The soft targets.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt now live from Baghdad. Deputy Director for Coalition Operations also there in Baghdad -- Dan Senor, Senior Adviser of U.S. Administrator Paul Bremer.
Gentlemen, we thank you for taking time with us today.
Almost immediately, yesterday, Mr. Senor, the finger of blame was pointed at foreign fighters. Where is the evidence that confirms that?
DAN SENOR, SENIOR ADVISER TO COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY: Well, this is -- and I'll let General Kimmitt talk about the details of the investigation.
But, this has all the look and feel of similar terrorist attacks we've seen in Iraq.
Large explosives, well orchestrated, clearly designed and timed to progress we're making on the political front. Recent signing of the interim constitution. Progress made between the governing council and the United Nations just yesterday.
HEMMER: So, do you think there was a message sent in this bomb yesterday knowing that tomorrow marks the one-year start of the war?
SENOR: Well, actually, Bill, if you look at this document we often refer to written by Mr. Zarqawi, who is tied to al Qaeda, he talks about the threat that the path of democracy poses to the terrorists.
And the more progress that is made on that path, the more terrorist attacks must be carried out because then the race against time if we hand over sovereignty and once that date comes and goes the terrorists are through.
And, so, I would link it more to the progress that's being made on the political front.
Again, historic bill of rights and the interim constitution recently passed by the governing council, the Iraqi Governing Council. Again, progress made with the United Nations by the Iraqi Governing Council -- those are the events that I think are more significant. HEMMER: If I could ask General Kimmitt the -- a similar question then, if Zarqawi is the person that is being blamed right now? You have any indication where in Iraq this man is operating?
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS: We strongly suspect that he remains in Iraq and is operating throughout the country of Iraq. Probably more likely in the center part of Iraq.
HEMMER: In the center part of Iraq. How much control do you believe he has right now and how many people do you believe are working for him?
KIMMITT: We think that any people that are working with Zarqawi are too many. If you take a look at what he and his organization have done, or have taken great pride in doing, they have been a significant impediment to the progress of this country.
As we move toward a safe and secure environment and governance for the people of Iraq.
HEMMER: In the city itself with Baghdad you have five million people. Countless soft targets. Can you sit here today and say with any measure of assurance that there is a way to keep the people in Iraq safe?
KIMMITT: I'm not sure that any city manager or any city mayor can make that claim any where in the world. All we can do is get out in the streets every day, maintain a presence, take action when intelligence comes to us, go out and fight for the intelligence so that we can go out and get these people who perpetrate the crimes against the people of Iraq and against coalition soldiers.
HEMMER: In general, Operation Iron Promise, I understand, has already started in Baghdad. A giant sweep, an operation designed to clear out the insurgents. Has that yielded any success at this point?
KIMMITT: It's the second night coming up for Iron Promise. We've had some initial success with it, and I think over the days and weeks to come as we not only capture some of these extremists, but pick up intelligence in the process, that will provide more intelligence for us to go against further extremists, and I know that General Dempsey and his troops are out there every night and they're not going to rest until they bring this problem down considerably.
HEMMER: And tomorrow is March 19 Mr. Senor.
In the final few seconds we have here is there more security planned in Iraq throughout the country to anticipate more attacks like we all watched yesterday here on CNN?
SENOR: Bill, for obvious operational security reasons we don't want to signal what we have planned but needless to say we are always focused on these situations. The nature of the terrorist threat, however, is asymmetrical.
They have to be successful once in a while to wreak havoc. We have to be successful 100 percent of the time to protect against terrorism.
Sometimes they'll be some things that slip through the cracks and certainly they're getting aggressive as they get closer and closer to June 30 and the handover of sovereignty. But we're working with the Iraqi security forces and we are always monitoring the situation, doing our best to protect against these situations.
HEMMER: Thank you, gentlemen. Stay safe.
Dan Senor, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt live in Baghdad with the latest on the day after. Thanks.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning as the man suspected in two dozen Ohio highway shootings prepares for a court appearance we're going to talk with a police sergeant who was part of the team that captured him.
HEMMER: Also the vice president and the Democratic presidential candidate not pulling any punches about Iraq. Two major speeches yesterday. The fall out we're tacking again today.
O'BRIEN: Also this morning what's Lisa Marie Presley saying now about her ex-husband Michael Jackson? Those stories are all ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: The U.S. presence in Iraq is increasingly becoming a key issue in the battle for the White House. Yesterday Vice-President Dick Cheney and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry traded jabs about Iraq, also about the war on terror.
Joining us this morning for more on the presidential campaign and the situation in Iraq is former Democratic presidential candidate and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark, who is now a supporter of Senator John Kerry.
Nice to see you, thanks for coming back. Always nice to talk to you.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FRM. NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: Good to see you, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Yesterday we saw and we heard both Senator Kerry and the vice president sort of trading jabs at each other.
The vice president was questioning the senator's military record, his voting in the senate and also his overall fitness to be president.
I want to first listen just to a little bit of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is not an impressive record for someone who aspires to become commander-in-chief in this time of testing for our country.
Over the years, he's repeatedly voted against weapons systems for the military. He voted against the Apache helicopter, against the Tomahawk Cruise missile, against even the Bradley fighting vehicle. He's also been a reliable vote against military pay increases, opposing them no fewer than 12 times.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: It seems that the White House strategy is to try to undermine the senator's ability on national security and all things sort of militarily related.
So, how is Senator Kerry going to fight against that?
CLARK: Well, I think these facts are taken out of context on his voting record, but I think the fact is this. John Kerry does have the right character and experience to be our commander-in-chief and to be a great president.
He did serve in Vietnam; he's -- he's been at the point of (UNINTELLIGIBLE); he's seen bullets fly in anger; he's had his life in danger. He's got three purple hearts. He won a Silver Star. As a Navy Lieutenant on a small boat in Vietnam.
And he served his life in public service; he's had any number of votes for and against any number of issues in the United States Senate. He's got a long public career.
I've gotten to know him over the years, I've watched his record, I've watched his statements, I watched how he thinks. He's a thoughtful man who will make the right decisions for this country and keep us safe and he'll do it by bringing our allies in with us.
And I think as we look to the future, Soledad, it's not Apache helicopters and Bradley fighting vehicles alone that are going to keep this country safe although we need them.
And John's voted for them. I think what we need is a strong international coalition, an alliance, the same as we had when we were fighting in Europe in the late 1990s against the Serbs in Kosovo where nations were committed to work together against international terrorism.
This administration hasn't built that.
O'BRIEN: When you look at the polls, though -- CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll asked at the beginning of March who would do a better job on terrorism, on Iraq, on world affairs -- President Bush significantly ahead of Senator Kerry -- so I guess my question would be how do you after all that you've said change public opinion and -- and -- sway from what obviously voters or potential voters seem to think about Kerry's strength versus the president's strength?
CLARK: Well, I think we've got to get the facts out to the American people. And here are the facts. The administration took us to war in Iraq, a war that we didn't actually have to fight. There was no linkage between Saddam Hussein and the events of 9/11. There actually have been no weapons of mass destruction discovered. Iraq was not an imminent threat to the United States.
We went to war before our allies were on board fully, before diplomatic options were exhausted. We went to war without sufficient forces to handle the problems after we got to Baghdad and without a plan of doing so.
So now we're there, we want to succeed. The really key factor in Iraq is how can you bring the international community in to help spread the burden and make this a sustainable mission. There's no magic bullet, no quick fix solution to the problems of Iraq.
We just have to make the size of the U.S. occupation force over time able to be sustained by the overall size of our armed forces.
O'BRIEN: If the violence does not abate, how big of a problem is this for president Bush? Do you think it's career ending?
CLARK: Well, I think the American people are going to judge this on whether the on -- on whether the overall wisdom of the foreign policy and security policy of the Bush administration. When we could have focused on terrorists and gotten rid of Osama bin Laden, the president took us instead into Iraq.
It looked like an easier target, more of a sure thing, it was a state. It wasn't a nebulous group of people. And it seemed more accessible in Iraq than going after Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan but now Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, we're still having terrorist incidents around the world and Iraq is a problem.
And this really is the key foreign policy issue in this campaign. Which person: John Kerry or George W. Bush is best suited to bring the nations of the world together to focus on keeping the world safe from international terrorism?
I support John Kerry. I believe he's the best person to do this.
O'BRIEN: General Wesley Clark. Nice to see you as always. Thanks for coming in.
CLARK: Soledad, as you were talking breaking news out of Southern Iraq in the town of Basra. Apparently another suicide car bombing taking place just moments ago. This according to the Associated Press and the Reuters News Agency.
In the town of Basra shaking a hotel nearby. Some reports say three dead; others say four dead, much more on this when we get it from Basra just moments ago.
Let's get a break in a moment here the Pentagon says Halliburton has been overcharging and now the company may be in a bit more of hot water. Andy has that and Jack is back, too, right after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right one economic story touched on for the past two weeks the price at the pump and you think you're paying a lot now just wait.
Perhaps the summer it will go even higher. Also Halliburton under fire. With those stories and more and a market preview Andy Serwer checks in first time today, "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.
HEMMER: Good to see you. Let's start at the pump. Two bucks a gallon, you think?
SERWER: Yes, well that's already there in California, Bill. Where the national average is about a buck seventy-seven and unfortunately it really looks like we're going to see over $2 a gallon nationwide this summer.
The situation is really of grave concern now to economists and to consumers because it's not just you know well it's going to make my summer trip a little bit more expensive.
The ripple effect through the economy is tremendous. You can see here the numbers. $1.51 earlier, now $1.77. It acts like a tax on the economy, Bill.
You know it hurts trucking companies. They pass along the costs to Wal-Mart, etc.; they pass along the costs to us.
So there's real concern. Right now low interest rates sort of mitigating that effect. One big problem is China. The energy demand there is tremendous and growing.
In fact, I just spoke with a friend of mine who came back from there and said the brownouts there and energy shut downs are rampant because they simply don't' have enough fuel right now. And that's sucking a lot of energy demand right over into that country.
HEMMER: Halliburton meanwhile is not going to get paid at least part of it anyway for a while. What's happening?
SERWER: Well, what happens I guess when you're doing business with someone and they say well we can't really figure out what's going on here with the paperwork and then you just say well look we're not going to pay you 100 cents on the dollar that's what the Pentagon is doing to Halliburton.
Of course, all kinds of questions about cost delays there and overruns with regard to some of those feeding operations for the troops so what the Pentagon is saying is we're going to pay you 85 cents on the dollar withholding 15 percent. This could mean $300 million less going to Halliburton until they sort this thing out. HEMMER: The contract is huge anyway.
SERWER: Yes, it's billions of dollars.
HEMMER: A lot of this coming out of Iraq and also Kuwait too, the fixing station for U.S. troops. Quickly to markets a big day yesterday.
SERWER: Yes, first day we've been up two days in a row in well over a month. You can see here another triple-digit day. Nice earnings coming out and despite the bombing yesterday in Iraq.
Unfortunately today though futures looking a little bit lower.
HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
HEMMER: Soledad.
O'BRIEN: And Jack's got the question of the day. Hello.
CAFFERTY: How you doing? Senator John Kerry and Vice-President Dick Cheney not the only ones gearing up for the election in November and slinging a little mud.
Radio shock jock Howard Stern and Mel Gibson are also in the political fray as it were.
Stern, who was yanked off six Clear Channel radio stations last month now spends a good deal of his on-air time attacking President Bush. Stern says that we're in a, quote, "culture war" unquote and he's urging his eight million listeners to dump the president.
Mel Gibson, usually a Bush supporter says he's been having doubts about the president and the war in Iraq. Gibson said in a radio interview that it's, quote, all to do with these weapons that we can't seem to find. And why did we go over there?
So the question is could Howard Stern or Mel Gibson influence your vote for president? Am@cnn.com a disparate view of this Mel Gibson of the much-acclaimed film "The Passion of The Christ" of course Howard Stern who's famous for things like lesbian dial a date.
SERWER: Among other things.
O'BRIEN: Among other things. He wanted to work that in.
HEMMER: Thanks Jack.
O'BRIEN: Interesting question, I think. How much celebrities influence -- even outside of the two of them.
CAFFERTY: The one thing about Stern -- Stern can be a problem for the president. He has an audience of 8 million people...
HEMMER: Huge.
CAFFERTY: ... and most of them are white males and that's President Bush's whale house in the electorate. The white male voters are -- he desperately needs their support and one poll I looked at is supporting that particular group has been declining of late.
So you know to the degree that that you know massages Howard's ego. But his audience is composed of people who are vital to Bush's reelection effort.
O'BRIEN: It will be interesting to see.
CAFFERTY: That will be the end of my analysis of that poll.
O'BRIEN: Thank you Dr. Cafferty. We appreciate it.
CAFFERTY: I'll have another point in the next hour.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, MTV's sister act. Could Jessica Simpson's little sister Ashleigh be the real next thing? Our 90-Second Pop panel is going to weigh in with that. Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
to Capture Ohio Sniper Suspect>
