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CNN Live At Daybreak
Wrapping Up 9/11 Hearings; Another Difficult Day for Kobe Bryant's Accuser
Aired March 25, 2004 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you.
It is Thursday, March 25th.
From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Thanks for joining us this morning.
Iraqi insurgents ambush U.S. troops north of Baghdad. One soldier is killed, another wounded. U.S. forces did return fire, killing three attackers.
The verbal battle heats up between the Bush administration and its former counter-terrorism chief. Richard Clarke says if Condoleezza Rice had done her job, the 9/11 plot may have been foiled.
A sticky situation for the U.S. at the U.N. The Security Council is set to vote today on a resolution condemning Israel for assassinating Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair officers a hand to Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi after he renounces terrorism. But some critics wonder if oil is an underlying motive of today's Blair visit.
And there's a third arraignment try today for the Fresno, California man accused of killing nine family members. But Marcus Wesson's attorney problems are still not settled.
We update the top stories every 15 minutes. The next news update comes your way at 5:15 Eastern.
The 9/11 Commission has more information now as it works toward a final report, due out this summer. Clinton and Bush administration officials spent the last two days addressing why the terrorist attacks were not prevented. But perhaps the most significant question -- has anything been learned to stop a future attack -- that has not been answered.
CNN's David Ensor wraps up the hearings for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before the 9/11 commission, Richard Clarke reaffirmed and sharpened his attack on the Bush administration he once served for failing, he says, to do enough to protect the nation against al Qaeda terrorism in its first eight months in office.
RICHARD CLARKE, FMR. COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: And I thought if the administration doesn't believe its national coordinator for counterterrorism when he says there's an urgent problem, and if its unprepared to act as though there's an urgent problem, then probably I should get another job.
ENSOR: Clarke said President Bush further damaged national security by going to war against Saddam Hussein.
CLARKE: By invading Iraq, the president of the United States has greatly undermined the war on terrorism.
ENSOR: But there was plenty of blame to go around for the FBI.
CLARKE: I know how this is going to sound but I have to say it. I didn't think the FBI would know whether or not there was anything going on in the United States by al Qaeda.
SAMUEL BERGER, FMR. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Not only did we not know what we didn't know but the FBI didn't know what it did know.
CLARKE: And after hearing Clinton and Bush administration officials all say they just didn't have the actionable intelligence with which to successfully attack Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda before 9/11, the commission peppered the intelligence director with questions.
LEE HAMILTON, COMMISSION VICE-CHAIR: Why were we unable to do it?
GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: We didn't steal the secret that told us what the plot was. We didn't recruit the right people or technically collect the data notwithstanding enormous effort to do so.
ENSOR: And if they could have found bin Laden, even killed him, would it have made any difference?
TENET: Decapitating one person, even bin Laden in this context, I do not believe it would have stopped this plot.
ENSOR (on camera): Commission members suggested there may be plenty of blame to go around. For present and former policymakers it was a nerve-racking day in the hearing room or close to a television set.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: After Richard Clarke's testimony to the 9/11 panel, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice called reporters to her office to rebut his charges. An angry Rice described Clarke's assessment that she didn't seem to know about an al Qaeda at an initial briefing as "arrogance at its extreme." Then the war of words escalated when Clarke appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live." (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM CNN'S "LARRY KING LIVE")
RICHARD CLARKE, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: If Condi Rice had been doing her job and holding those daily meetings the way Sandy Berger did, if she had a hands-on attitude to being national security adviser when she had information that there was a threat against the United States, that kind of information was shaken out in December 1999. It would have been shaken out in the summer of 2001 if she had been doing her job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Those most closely touched by the 9/11 attacks got to hear an apology from Richard Clarke. But not everyone was satisfied with the public hearings. Family members of the victims, some showing strain, were inside the Senate hearing room for the testimony. But many left when Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage pinch hit for National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN BREITWEISER, 9/11 WIDOW: Frankly, the family members got up as a group and left the hearings today because Condoleezza Rice refuses to testify. We had hoped that in light of 3,000 people being murdered on homeland soil that she would want to set a moral precedent for the American people and for all of history, that 3,000 lost lives warranted her coming before the American people to restore confidence and to set the record straight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Rice has met privately with the Commission, but the White House does not want her to testify in public because it would violate executive privilege.
We'll have a Kelly Wallace report on the 9/11 families at the bottom of this hour.
Vacation is over and Senator John Kerry takes his campaign to familiar territory. That would be Washington, D.C. Kerry has a full day of campaigning and strategizing, beginning and ending with the Democratic National Committee. Also on the agenda, a speech to the National Newspaper Association.
And a big part of John Kerry's day will be accepting endorsements. One time rival Howard Dean is expected to declare his support during a rally at George Washington University. And a big union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is expected to endorse Kerry today.
President Bush had some fun. Yes, he had some fun before getting serious last night at the annual Radio TV Correspondents dinner. Always a good time. The president put on a slide show, "The White House Election Year Album," spoofing himself and his staff. But the album ended on a somber note, showing U.S. troops in Afghanistan honoring the victims of 9/11. Earlier in the day, the president helped honor a woman he called a giant of the civil rights movement. Dorothy Height, founder of the National Council of Negro Women, received the Congressional Gold Medal on her 92nd birthday. There she is wearing the blue hat. Height says she is overwhelmed by the honor.
Out to Colorado now, where it will be another difficult day for Kobe Bryant's accuser. She'll have to answer more questions from Bryant's attorneys about her sexual history.
CNN's Gary Tuchman is covering the hearings.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the first time since they were in a Colorado hotel room together nearly nine months ago, Kobe Bryant and the woman who has accused him of rape saw each other face to face inside this courtroom where the accuser was compelled to answer questions from Bryant's attorneys about other sexual encounters. No reporters were allowed inside.
CRAIG SILVERMAN, COLORADO ATTORNEY: They'll probably start off sensitive and slow. It will be toward the end before they get belligerent and a little tougher.
TUCHMAN: Bryant's lawyers say injuries the woman says she suffered at the hotel while having sex with Bryant could have come from a different sexual encounter and want the judge to listen to the evidence and allows its introduction during a trial.
SILVERMAN: The questioning is going to be x-rated and intimate. Not only will they ask about sex acts, they're going to ask about foreplay, sexual positions, duration, all the sorts of intimate questions that a person would normally not want to answer, let alone under oath in front of strangers.
TUCHMAN: The accuser entered the courtroom in a business suit, a serious expression on her face. CNN has decided not to show images of her.
The Colorado Rape Shield Law ordinarily does not allow a woman's sexual past to be used as evidence but exceptions are made.
KATHIE KRAMER, RAPE ASSISTANCE AND AWARENESS PROGRAM: So, if there is evidence then it certainly needs to be sought out because Kobe Bryant deserves a fair trial but we don't want it to turn into this fishing expedition where they're going back years and years and asking about, you know, every sexual encounter she's ever had because we don't feel that that is relevant.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Looking now at some other stories making news across America, searchers have found the wreckage of a light plane that smashed into a mountain in Kentucky. Six people from Illinois were aboard. No one survived. A state trooper says if the plane had been 20 or 30 yards higher, it would have cleared the mountain.
A setback for an endangered right whale and the scientists trying to save it. The whale is entangled in a web of fishing gear off the South Carolina coast. Rough waters forced the rescuers to turn back. They may have to wait for days before the seas calm down.
And pink is a problem at one California middle school. Six boys at the Newport Beach school were banned from a class picture for refusing to cover up their pink T-shirts. The principal says the color is associated with so-called dance crews, which can develop into gangs. The boys insist they wore the pink shirts so they could stand out in the photo.
Who knew the color pink would lead to being in a gang? The color pink!
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The pink gang.
COSTELLO: The pink gang.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: We kept showing girls in pink. I didn't know why.
MYERS: Because they're supposed to wear pink.
COSTELLO: Oh, oh, that's why.
MYERS: The guy pink gang, they don't really, nobody really fears them much. They don't --
COSTELLO: Oh, OK.
MYERS: Anyway, Carol, good morning.
How are you this fine morning?
COSTELLO: I'm fine.
And you?
MYERS: Good.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: I got my CNN cup back.
MYERS: Ah, really?
COSTELLO: Yes.
MYERS: Did you go buy a new one? COSTELLO: Yes, I -- well, I didn't want to say that. I was hoping that someone would return it, because I had left it in the newsroom and it disappeared, but no one did. So I bought this beautiful new mug.
MYERS: It looks beautiful.
COSTELLO: Which we will be sending out to the winners of our contest soon.
Listen to this, Chad. You'll laugh.
MYERS: Yes?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD SIMMONS: And up with your hands. Get that heart started. Now, kick it back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: He wasn't dealing any meals and he sure wasn't sweating to the oldies. So why is Richard Simmons in hot water with the police?
Plus, isolated from society, trapped in a cave for more than a week -- we will take you to the rescue effort in a remote Mexican desert.
Also, going it alone -- more and more Americans are buying health insurance themselves and it's not why you think.
And a shocking story of a teenaged suicide bomber and the mission he almost accomplished. Is Hamas recruiting 14-year-old boys to blow themselves up?
It is Thursday, March 25th.
You are watching DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: All this week on DAYBREAK we are looking at the health care challenges facing middle class Americans. This morning, marketing to the uninsured. Insurance companies are now pitching a variety of plans for professionals who lack coverage.
CNN's Kitty Pilgrim has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM (voice-over): Millions of people have no health coverage, some because they're out of work, and others because many small employers can't and don't pay for health care.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, AD) UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: My boss told me I had to start buying my own health insurance. You pick that up on your way home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PILGRIM: But insurers are recognizing that uninsured people are not always financially strapped. Of the 1.5 million who recently joined the ranks of the uninsured, nearly 60 percent have incomes of $75,000 or more.
ELIZABETH BIERBOWER, HUMANA: And sometimes they're not covering the dependents. So, sometimes you see the dependents falling through the cracks and these individual products can help there by offering that coverage for the dependents while the employee may in fact have coverage with their employer.
PILGRIM: Insurers say there is an information gap, especially if they lose health coverage when they lose their job.
WILLIAM ROTH, AETNA: I think it's a combination of not knowing about how to get insurance on an individual basis. Also, some people, frankly, have decided that they would rather spend their money elsewhere and made that financial decision.
PILGRIM: Insurers are pitching individual coverage directly to them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: Think you'll never need health care? Think again. Get Kaiser Permanente personal advantage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PILGRIM: Aetna is running seminars for its insurance brokers on how to pitch the new products.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll go over a bunch of tools that Aetna has developed to help you sell this product.
PILGRIM: Rate plans are becoming more competitive as more insurers target this market. For Aetna, individual coverage for a man in his early 30s can run $64 a month and that man's family, $231 a month.
KAREN IGNAGNI, AMERICA'S HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS: The common conclusion now is that one size doesn't fit all, that we need to have a solution with respect to the uninsured that really reflects the diversity of this population.
PILGRIM: The industry is also tailoring individual coverage in new ways to lure customers, such as catastrophic coverage only or specialized drug plans.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: More than one in three uninsured Americans are young adults. Many suffer a gap between when they're dropped from their parents' coverage and they can pick up their own. That story when our series continues, tomorrow on DAYBREAK.
It is now 5:17 Eastern.
Time for a quick look at the top stories.
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice calls former anti- terrorism chief Richard Clarke's allegations "scurrilous." Clarke says if Rice had done her job, there might not have been a 9/11.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Libya just a short time ago for talks with Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi.
And the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin, is home from the hospital this morning, just in time to celebrate her 62nd birthday. She had been hospitalized since Saturday for a blood disorder.
We update the top stories every 15 minutes. The next update comes your way at 5:30 Eastern.
Wall Street can't seem to figure out which direction it wants to go. Maybe European stocks have a better handle on things.
For that, we head live to London and Andrew Brown -- good morning, Andrew.
ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Carol.
Well, after a very weak Wednesday, the stock markets here are finally coming back. They're all in positive territory, as you can see. Many of them are reacting to corporate news. We haven't really got the same kind of global news affecting the markets at the moment with security concerns and so on.
Take a look at some of the main movers. Corus, this is one of the largest steel companies in Europe. It's up very strongly, more than seven percent. Corus is saying that it's going to raise steel prices by 20 percent because of demand for steel. Steel prices going crazy at the moment.
Lufthansa, this is the German carrier. It says going forward it's going to have a better time, its business is recovering, although -- well, actually, it's now just coming up. It was in negative territory before.
Next, this is one of the largest clothing retailers in the United Kingdom, posting better than expected earnings.
A quick look at the euro. If you are coming from the United States to Europe with a fist full of dollars, you're going to get more bang for your buck because the euro is weakening. It's at 121.3. This is because of a hint of a European Central Bank interest rate cut. Just a hint that rates are going to come down, that weakening the euro. Which means that if you pay $1.21 U.S., you will get one euro. A good time for a vacation -- back to you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Oh, it's certainly -- any time is a good time for a vacation. I don't care what the euro is worth.
Thank you very much.
Andrew Brown reporting live from London.
Blair and Gadhafi face to face -- we'll preview the landmark meeting with the former international pariah. We take you live to London.
And...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: One nation under god...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The "under god" debate -- a decades old debate over what millions of children say every day in school finds its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
But first, Richard Simmons accused of delivering a stinging blow, literally. We'll tell you why the exercise guru is in hot water with the cops.
You stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: A bank on wheels? Well, not really. Topping our DAYBREAK Eye-Opener, a big find in Arizona. Police stopped a truck hauling vehicles on a trailer. Hidden inside the truck, more than $1 million. The driver has been arrested on a probation violation warrant in a drug case. But he's not talking.
A message for beachgoers in Santa Monica, California -- get those butts off the beach, cigarette butts, that is. The city council has banned smoking on its beaches. Los Angeles is looking at doing the same thing. Some beaches in Orange and San Diego Counties already have a ban.
And Richard Simmons, known for his sweating to the oldies exercise videos, has been cited for misdemeanor assault. The alleged incident happened at the airport in Phoenix. A police officer tells you what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. TOM OSBORNE, PHOENIX POLICE: Apparently another passenger recognized Mr. Simmons and made the offhand comment, "Hey, everybody, it's Richard Simmons. Let's drop our bags and rock to the 50s," which I understand is a reference to an exercise video that Mr. Simmons had put out. Mr. Simmons took exception to it and walked over to the other passenger and apparently slapped him in the face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The police officer says the man Simmons allegedly slapped, he fights as a hobby. So it was the wrong person to slap.
Good morning -- Chad.
MYERS: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: How are you?
MYERS: Good.
Did you read "The Free Press" this morning from Detroit?
COSTELLO: No.
MYERS: Bob Brown is back in jail.
COSTELLO: Oh. What happened?
MYERS: He didn't pay child support in Massachusetts, so he's in jail until he pays the child support, 60 something thousand dollars.
COSTELLO: And it was just the other day that he gave that tearful message for people to leave him alone because he was changing his life.
MYERS: I know. He was so close. He was getting there.
COSTELLO: He was just 24 hours away.
MYERS: I just, I just wish the best for that guy, really. I mean after that apology, after that little thing I saw on TV the other day. I don't know...
COSTELLO: I don't know, there's very little defense for not paying child support in my book.
MYERS: I've completely got you on that one.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You bet.
COSTELLO: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has arrived in Libya. He got there just about an hour ago. The prime minister is meeting with Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi.
Sheila MacVicar joins us live from London with a look at the significance of this trip.
And it's kind of controversial, isn't is -- Sheila. SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is, indeed. And it's quite an extraordinary meeting. After nearly two decades of international isolation, the leader considered to be an international pariah, a former sponsor of terrorism, today, it seems, stands on the brink of international respectability.
Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Qaddafi, once called by President Reagan the mad dog of the Middle East, has basically, it seems, found a way back into the international community and that is the importance, the significance of this meeting today with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the first trip by a British leader to Libya since Colonel Qaddafi seized power in 1969 and the first trip since Britain broke off diplomatic relations, since restored with Libya, in the mid- 1980s.
It is a controversial trip. People here are saying perhaps Prime Minister Blair should not have left from the Madrid memorial service for the bombing -- the victims of the Madrid train bombings to go so quickly to see Colonel Qaddafi, who himself was held responsible for the deaths of 270 in the PanAm 103 bombing in 1988 -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Quite ironic.
What do the families think, who lost loved ones over Lockerbie, Scotland so long ago?
MACVICAR: Well, with 270 victims, there obviously are many different families and many different opinions. But the British government did a lot of work with the families here. And the families have come out in support of this visit, arguing that dialogue is better than a continuation of violence.
The U.S. administration says that over the past 15 years, there has been no indication that Colonel Qaddafi or his Libyan regime has been implicit or involved in any way in any act of terror. And they say that 15 years is an indication that he has, indeed, reformed.
More importantly, though, Colonel Qaddafi began looking for a way back to international respectability in the late 1990s and most startlingly, has given up his weapons of mass destruction programs, his chemical weapons and his attempt to build a nuclear bomb. He's given all of that equipment to the United States -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Sheila MacVicar reporting live from London for us this morning.
We're going to take a short break.
We'll be back with much more on DAYBREAK.
(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
Aired March 25, 2004 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you.
It is Thursday, March 25th.
From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Thanks for joining us this morning.
Iraqi insurgents ambush U.S. troops north of Baghdad. One soldier is killed, another wounded. U.S. forces did return fire, killing three attackers.
The verbal battle heats up between the Bush administration and its former counter-terrorism chief. Richard Clarke says if Condoleezza Rice had done her job, the 9/11 plot may have been foiled.
A sticky situation for the U.S. at the U.N. The Security Council is set to vote today on a resolution condemning Israel for assassinating Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair officers a hand to Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi after he renounces terrorism. But some critics wonder if oil is an underlying motive of today's Blair visit.
And there's a third arraignment try today for the Fresno, California man accused of killing nine family members. But Marcus Wesson's attorney problems are still not settled.
We update the top stories every 15 minutes. The next news update comes your way at 5:15 Eastern.
The 9/11 Commission has more information now as it works toward a final report, due out this summer. Clinton and Bush administration officials spent the last two days addressing why the terrorist attacks were not prevented. But perhaps the most significant question -- has anything been learned to stop a future attack -- that has not been answered.
CNN's David Ensor wraps up the hearings for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before the 9/11 commission, Richard Clarke reaffirmed and sharpened his attack on the Bush administration he once served for failing, he says, to do enough to protect the nation against al Qaeda terrorism in its first eight months in office.
RICHARD CLARKE, FMR. COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: And I thought if the administration doesn't believe its national coordinator for counterterrorism when he says there's an urgent problem, and if its unprepared to act as though there's an urgent problem, then probably I should get another job.
ENSOR: Clarke said President Bush further damaged national security by going to war against Saddam Hussein.
CLARKE: By invading Iraq, the president of the United States has greatly undermined the war on terrorism.
ENSOR: But there was plenty of blame to go around for the FBI.
CLARKE: I know how this is going to sound but I have to say it. I didn't think the FBI would know whether or not there was anything going on in the United States by al Qaeda.
SAMUEL BERGER, FMR. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Not only did we not know what we didn't know but the FBI didn't know what it did know.
CLARKE: And after hearing Clinton and Bush administration officials all say they just didn't have the actionable intelligence with which to successfully attack Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda before 9/11, the commission peppered the intelligence director with questions.
LEE HAMILTON, COMMISSION VICE-CHAIR: Why were we unable to do it?
GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: We didn't steal the secret that told us what the plot was. We didn't recruit the right people or technically collect the data notwithstanding enormous effort to do so.
ENSOR: And if they could have found bin Laden, even killed him, would it have made any difference?
TENET: Decapitating one person, even bin Laden in this context, I do not believe it would have stopped this plot.
ENSOR (on camera): Commission members suggested there may be plenty of blame to go around. For present and former policymakers it was a nerve-racking day in the hearing room or close to a television set.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: After Richard Clarke's testimony to the 9/11 panel, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice called reporters to her office to rebut his charges. An angry Rice described Clarke's assessment that she didn't seem to know about an al Qaeda at an initial briefing as "arrogance at its extreme." Then the war of words escalated when Clarke appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live." (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM CNN'S "LARRY KING LIVE")
RICHARD CLARKE, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: If Condi Rice had been doing her job and holding those daily meetings the way Sandy Berger did, if she had a hands-on attitude to being national security adviser when she had information that there was a threat against the United States, that kind of information was shaken out in December 1999. It would have been shaken out in the summer of 2001 if she had been doing her job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Those most closely touched by the 9/11 attacks got to hear an apology from Richard Clarke. But not everyone was satisfied with the public hearings. Family members of the victims, some showing strain, were inside the Senate hearing room for the testimony. But many left when Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage pinch hit for National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN BREITWEISER, 9/11 WIDOW: Frankly, the family members got up as a group and left the hearings today because Condoleezza Rice refuses to testify. We had hoped that in light of 3,000 people being murdered on homeland soil that she would want to set a moral precedent for the American people and for all of history, that 3,000 lost lives warranted her coming before the American people to restore confidence and to set the record straight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Rice has met privately with the Commission, but the White House does not want her to testify in public because it would violate executive privilege.
We'll have a Kelly Wallace report on the 9/11 families at the bottom of this hour.
Vacation is over and Senator John Kerry takes his campaign to familiar territory. That would be Washington, D.C. Kerry has a full day of campaigning and strategizing, beginning and ending with the Democratic National Committee. Also on the agenda, a speech to the National Newspaper Association.
And a big part of John Kerry's day will be accepting endorsements. One time rival Howard Dean is expected to declare his support during a rally at George Washington University. And a big union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is expected to endorse Kerry today.
President Bush had some fun. Yes, he had some fun before getting serious last night at the annual Radio TV Correspondents dinner. Always a good time. The president put on a slide show, "The White House Election Year Album," spoofing himself and his staff. But the album ended on a somber note, showing U.S. troops in Afghanistan honoring the victims of 9/11. Earlier in the day, the president helped honor a woman he called a giant of the civil rights movement. Dorothy Height, founder of the National Council of Negro Women, received the Congressional Gold Medal on her 92nd birthday. There she is wearing the blue hat. Height says she is overwhelmed by the honor.
Out to Colorado now, where it will be another difficult day for Kobe Bryant's accuser. She'll have to answer more questions from Bryant's attorneys about her sexual history.
CNN's Gary Tuchman is covering the hearings.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the first time since they were in a Colorado hotel room together nearly nine months ago, Kobe Bryant and the woman who has accused him of rape saw each other face to face inside this courtroom where the accuser was compelled to answer questions from Bryant's attorneys about other sexual encounters. No reporters were allowed inside.
CRAIG SILVERMAN, COLORADO ATTORNEY: They'll probably start off sensitive and slow. It will be toward the end before they get belligerent and a little tougher.
TUCHMAN: Bryant's lawyers say injuries the woman says she suffered at the hotel while having sex with Bryant could have come from a different sexual encounter and want the judge to listen to the evidence and allows its introduction during a trial.
SILVERMAN: The questioning is going to be x-rated and intimate. Not only will they ask about sex acts, they're going to ask about foreplay, sexual positions, duration, all the sorts of intimate questions that a person would normally not want to answer, let alone under oath in front of strangers.
TUCHMAN: The accuser entered the courtroom in a business suit, a serious expression on her face. CNN has decided not to show images of her.
The Colorado Rape Shield Law ordinarily does not allow a woman's sexual past to be used as evidence but exceptions are made.
KATHIE KRAMER, RAPE ASSISTANCE AND AWARENESS PROGRAM: So, if there is evidence then it certainly needs to be sought out because Kobe Bryant deserves a fair trial but we don't want it to turn into this fishing expedition where they're going back years and years and asking about, you know, every sexual encounter she's ever had because we don't feel that that is relevant.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Looking now at some other stories making news across America, searchers have found the wreckage of a light plane that smashed into a mountain in Kentucky. Six people from Illinois were aboard. No one survived. A state trooper says if the plane had been 20 or 30 yards higher, it would have cleared the mountain.
A setback for an endangered right whale and the scientists trying to save it. The whale is entangled in a web of fishing gear off the South Carolina coast. Rough waters forced the rescuers to turn back. They may have to wait for days before the seas calm down.
And pink is a problem at one California middle school. Six boys at the Newport Beach school were banned from a class picture for refusing to cover up their pink T-shirts. The principal says the color is associated with so-called dance crews, which can develop into gangs. The boys insist they wore the pink shirts so they could stand out in the photo.
Who knew the color pink would lead to being in a gang? The color pink!
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The pink gang.
COSTELLO: The pink gang.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: We kept showing girls in pink. I didn't know why.
MYERS: Because they're supposed to wear pink.
COSTELLO: Oh, oh, that's why.
MYERS: The guy pink gang, they don't really, nobody really fears them much. They don't --
COSTELLO: Oh, OK.
MYERS: Anyway, Carol, good morning.
How are you this fine morning?
COSTELLO: I'm fine.
And you?
MYERS: Good.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: I got my CNN cup back.
MYERS: Ah, really?
COSTELLO: Yes.
MYERS: Did you go buy a new one? COSTELLO: Yes, I -- well, I didn't want to say that. I was hoping that someone would return it, because I had left it in the newsroom and it disappeared, but no one did. So I bought this beautiful new mug.
MYERS: It looks beautiful.
COSTELLO: Which we will be sending out to the winners of our contest soon.
Listen to this, Chad. You'll laugh.
MYERS: Yes?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD SIMMONS: And up with your hands. Get that heart started. Now, kick it back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: He wasn't dealing any meals and he sure wasn't sweating to the oldies. So why is Richard Simmons in hot water with the police?
Plus, isolated from society, trapped in a cave for more than a week -- we will take you to the rescue effort in a remote Mexican desert.
Also, going it alone -- more and more Americans are buying health insurance themselves and it's not why you think.
And a shocking story of a teenaged suicide bomber and the mission he almost accomplished. Is Hamas recruiting 14-year-old boys to blow themselves up?
It is Thursday, March 25th.
You are watching DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: All this week on DAYBREAK we are looking at the health care challenges facing middle class Americans. This morning, marketing to the uninsured. Insurance companies are now pitching a variety of plans for professionals who lack coverage.
CNN's Kitty Pilgrim has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM (voice-over): Millions of people have no health coverage, some because they're out of work, and others because many small employers can't and don't pay for health care.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, AD) UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: My boss told me I had to start buying my own health insurance. You pick that up on your way home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PILGRIM: But insurers are recognizing that uninsured people are not always financially strapped. Of the 1.5 million who recently joined the ranks of the uninsured, nearly 60 percent have incomes of $75,000 or more.
ELIZABETH BIERBOWER, HUMANA: And sometimes they're not covering the dependents. So, sometimes you see the dependents falling through the cracks and these individual products can help there by offering that coverage for the dependents while the employee may in fact have coverage with their employer.
PILGRIM: Insurers say there is an information gap, especially if they lose health coverage when they lose their job.
WILLIAM ROTH, AETNA: I think it's a combination of not knowing about how to get insurance on an individual basis. Also, some people, frankly, have decided that they would rather spend their money elsewhere and made that financial decision.
PILGRIM: Insurers are pitching individual coverage directly to them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: Think you'll never need health care? Think again. Get Kaiser Permanente personal advantage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PILGRIM: Aetna is running seminars for its insurance brokers on how to pitch the new products.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll go over a bunch of tools that Aetna has developed to help you sell this product.
PILGRIM: Rate plans are becoming more competitive as more insurers target this market. For Aetna, individual coverage for a man in his early 30s can run $64 a month and that man's family, $231 a month.
KAREN IGNAGNI, AMERICA'S HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS: The common conclusion now is that one size doesn't fit all, that we need to have a solution with respect to the uninsured that really reflects the diversity of this population.
PILGRIM: The industry is also tailoring individual coverage in new ways to lure customers, such as catastrophic coverage only or specialized drug plans.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: More than one in three uninsured Americans are young adults. Many suffer a gap between when they're dropped from their parents' coverage and they can pick up their own. That story when our series continues, tomorrow on DAYBREAK.
It is now 5:17 Eastern.
Time for a quick look at the top stories.
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice calls former anti- terrorism chief Richard Clarke's allegations "scurrilous." Clarke says if Rice had done her job, there might not have been a 9/11.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Libya just a short time ago for talks with Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi.
And the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin, is home from the hospital this morning, just in time to celebrate her 62nd birthday. She had been hospitalized since Saturday for a blood disorder.
We update the top stories every 15 minutes. The next update comes your way at 5:30 Eastern.
Wall Street can't seem to figure out which direction it wants to go. Maybe European stocks have a better handle on things.
For that, we head live to London and Andrew Brown -- good morning, Andrew.
ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Carol.
Well, after a very weak Wednesday, the stock markets here are finally coming back. They're all in positive territory, as you can see. Many of them are reacting to corporate news. We haven't really got the same kind of global news affecting the markets at the moment with security concerns and so on.
Take a look at some of the main movers. Corus, this is one of the largest steel companies in Europe. It's up very strongly, more than seven percent. Corus is saying that it's going to raise steel prices by 20 percent because of demand for steel. Steel prices going crazy at the moment.
Lufthansa, this is the German carrier. It says going forward it's going to have a better time, its business is recovering, although -- well, actually, it's now just coming up. It was in negative territory before.
Next, this is one of the largest clothing retailers in the United Kingdom, posting better than expected earnings.
A quick look at the euro. If you are coming from the United States to Europe with a fist full of dollars, you're going to get more bang for your buck because the euro is weakening. It's at 121.3. This is because of a hint of a European Central Bank interest rate cut. Just a hint that rates are going to come down, that weakening the euro. Which means that if you pay $1.21 U.S., you will get one euro. A good time for a vacation -- back to you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Oh, it's certainly -- any time is a good time for a vacation. I don't care what the euro is worth.
Thank you very much.
Andrew Brown reporting live from London.
Blair and Gadhafi face to face -- we'll preview the landmark meeting with the former international pariah. We take you live to London.
And...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: One nation under god...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The "under god" debate -- a decades old debate over what millions of children say every day in school finds its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
But first, Richard Simmons accused of delivering a stinging blow, literally. We'll tell you why the exercise guru is in hot water with the cops.
You stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: A bank on wheels? Well, not really. Topping our DAYBREAK Eye-Opener, a big find in Arizona. Police stopped a truck hauling vehicles on a trailer. Hidden inside the truck, more than $1 million. The driver has been arrested on a probation violation warrant in a drug case. But he's not talking.
A message for beachgoers in Santa Monica, California -- get those butts off the beach, cigarette butts, that is. The city council has banned smoking on its beaches. Los Angeles is looking at doing the same thing. Some beaches in Orange and San Diego Counties already have a ban.
And Richard Simmons, known for his sweating to the oldies exercise videos, has been cited for misdemeanor assault. The alleged incident happened at the airport in Phoenix. A police officer tells you what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. TOM OSBORNE, PHOENIX POLICE: Apparently another passenger recognized Mr. Simmons and made the offhand comment, "Hey, everybody, it's Richard Simmons. Let's drop our bags and rock to the 50s," which I understand is a reference to an exercise video that Mr. Simmons had put out. Mr. Simmons took exception to it and walked over to the other passenger and apparently slapped him in the face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The police officer says the man Simmons allegedly slapped, he fights as a hobby. So it was the wrong person to slap.
Good morning -- Chad.
MYERS: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: How are you?
MYERS: Good.
Did you read "The Free Press" this morning from Detroit?
COSTELLO: No.
MYERS: Bob Brown is back in jail.
COSTELLO: Oh. What happened?
MYERS: He didn't pay child support in Massachusetts, so he's in jail until he pays the child support, 60 something thousand dollars.
COSTELLO: And it was just the other day that he gave that tearful message for people to leave him alone because he was changing his life.
MYERS: I know. He was so close. He was getting there.
COSTELLO: He was just 24 hours away.
MYERS: I just, I just wish the best for that guy, really. I mean after that apology, after that little thing I saw on TV the other day. I don't know...
COSTELLO: I don't know, there's very little defense for not paying child support in my book.
MYERS: I've completely got you on that one.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You bet.
COSTELLO: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has arrived in Libya. He got there just about an hour ago. The prime minister is meeting with Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi.
Sheila MacVicar joins us live from London with a look at the significance of this trip.
And it's kind of controversial, isn't is -- Sheila. SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is, indeed. And it's quite an extraordinary meeting. After nearly two decades of international isolation, the leader considered to be an international pariah, a former sponsor of terrorism, today, it seems, stands on the brink of international respectability.
Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Qaddafi, once called by President Reagan the mad dog of the Middle East, has basically, it seems, found a way back into the international community and that is the importance, the significance of this meeting today with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the first trip by a British leader to Libya since Colonel Qaddafi seized power in 1969 and the first trip since Britain broke off diplomatic relations, since restored with Libya, in the mid- 1980s.
It is a controversial trip. People here are saying perhaps Prime Minister Blair should not have left from the Madrid memorial service for the bombing -- the victims of the Madrid train bombings to go so quickly to see Colonel Qaddafi, who himself was held responsible for the deaths of 270 in the PanAm 103 bombing in 1988 -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Quite ironic.
What do the families think, who lost loved ones over Lockerbie, Scotland so long ago?
MACVICAR: Well, with 270 victims, there obviously are many different families and many different opinions. But the British government did a lot of work with the families here. And the families have come out in support of this visit, arguing that dialogue is better than a continuation of violence.
The U.S. administration says that over the past 15 years, there has been no indication that Colonel Qaddafi or his Libyan regime has been implicit or involved in any way in any act of terror. And they say that 15 years is an indication that he has, indeed, reformed.
More importantly, though, Colonel Qaddafi began looking for a way back to international respectability in the late 1990s and most startlingly, has given up his weapons of mass destruction programs, his chemical weapons and his attempt to build a nuclear bomb. He's given all of that equipment to the United States -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Sheila MacVicar reporting live from London for us this morning.
We're going to take a short break.
We'll be back with much more on DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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