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Convention Security; 'Paging Dr. Gupta'

Aired April 01, 2004 - 08:32   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A little bit past 8:30 here in New York. Welcome back. Good to have you here. Soledad is out today. Heidi Collins picks up the chores here.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I saw her coughing a little bit yesterday.

HEMMER: Yes, a bit of a cold. I guess that happens when she has got a few things going on in her life. Let's just keep it a that. She has a few days off. She has a vacation, too, so...

COLLINS: Good for her.

All right, well stories that we are following this morning, "The Washington Post" has a report this morning, detailing a speech Condoleezza Rice had planned for 9/11, but which was canceled after the attacks, perhaps offer some insight into what areas the White House was focusing on for national security reason. We'll get that from Kamber and May.

HEMMER: Also Sanjay in a moment, talking about where to pull up your prescription if you're on a budget without leaving the country. We talk a lot of times about going to Canada. Apparently there are places here where you can get it on the cheap, too. Sanjay has that in a moment here.

First, though, top stories there at the half hour. In Madison, Wisconsin, police there say they plan on meeting with Audrey Seiler again today. Her family and friends rejoicing yesterday after word of her safe return. She's alive and apparently unharmed. Seiler says she was abducted at knife point by a stranger and held captive, but was not hurt. Investigators say they believe he may still be in the city of Madison. Still questions persist on this story. We will try to get to the bottom of it, coming up here on AMERICAN MORNING.

From New York, jurors in the Tyco trial expected to get more information today. The panel asked the judge yesterday to clarify two charges against the former CEO Dennis Kozlowski and the firm's former CFO. Both are accused of taking about 600 million from the company. Deliberations set to resume again this morning.

U.S. and Canadian officials say they have broken up one of the largest ecstasy rings in North America. Agents say they have taken 140 people into custody in a series of raids in the U.S. and Canada. Authorities say the group was run by Asian traffickers out of Toronto and responsible for as much as 15 percent of the ecstasy smuggled here into the U.S. The landmark Siegfried and Roy on the Las Vegas strip now taken down almost six months after a tiger mauled Roy Horn. The Siegfried and Roy show forced to close after that incident. Horn, aged 59, still recovering. The new sign at the Mirage Hotel will promote Danny Gans (ph) and the Siegfried and Roy Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat Attraction.

A royal romance. Britain's Prince William reportedly has his first serious girlfriend. Not quite sure how they define that, but they say serious. "The Sun" newspaper in London printed a series of photos with a girl the paper identified as Kate Middleton (ph). The pair spotted skiing at a Swiss resort a bit earlier this week.

COLLINS: No? Spotted skiing?

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: Commuters in Boston may regret that the city invited the Democratic Party to hold its convention there. The Secret Service has announced antiterrorism measures that includes closing a major highway and a rail hub during the last week in July.

Jeanne Meserve has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Zip down Interstate 93 in Boston and you pass within feet of the Fleet Center, the venue for this summer's Democratic convention. For that very reason, the road will be shut down during evening hours while the convention is in town. About 200,000 people a day use this stretch of road. And if that isn't enough of a headache, 24,000 rail commuters will have to use alternative routes and modes of transportation because North Station will be shuttered for a week. It is right underneath the fleet.

STEVE RICCARDI, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: Our goal is to provide a safe and secure environment for all event participants and the general public.

MESERVE: But the general public expects commuter chaos.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's very wrong, because what about the peoples that lives in Chelsea like myself, and plus, the people that have to get to work and back and forth. I think it's very wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to get to work somehow, some way. We'll get here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I plan on staying out of the city for the week.

MESERVE: The announcement of the closures comes just weeks after the Madrid train bombing that killed 190. And the Democrats convention will be the first since the September 11th attacks. But there are no plans at this point to close New York's Penn Station during the Republican Convention, even though it is underneath Madison Square Garden. ANN ROMAN, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: Our security plans are site specific, and each security plain is tailored to each venue.

MESERVE (on camera): Although there be a security perimeter around Madison Square Garden, the New York City Police Department says no major thoroughfares are slated to be closed. The Secret Service cautions, however that the security plans for both conventions are still fluid.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: The governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, a Republican, suggest that the Democrats move to another site in south Boston. The Democrats rejected that idea -- Bill.

HEMMER: Heidi, about 22 minutes now before the hour.

Nothing yet on the testimony for Condoleezza Rice, no scheduled announced yet, waiting on that. But a question today, could this decision to have her talk in public under oath backfire.

From D.C., Democratic consultant Victor Kamber of the Kamber Group back with us.

Vic, good morning to you.

VICTOR KAMBER, DEMOCRATIC CONSULTANT: Good morning, Bill. How are you?

HEMMER: I'm doing just fine, thank you.

From Denver, former RNC communications director, Cliff May, now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Cliff, good morning to you also.

CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR.: Good morning, Bill.

Good morning, Vic.

HEMMER: I want to start with you in the warm weather out there in Denver, "Washington Post" has a piece today, front page, left side, above the fold. It's saying on 9/11, Condoleezza Rice had a speech planned for that day that mentioned nothing about al Qaeda. It was largely about missile defense. Is this the kind of thing the White House has concern with before she testifies?

MAY: Well, it's possible that they do, but they shouldn't. I think we all understand the truth, and that is in the eight months that the Bush administration was in office, leading up to 9/11, they weren't focused with laser-like intensity on the threat that came from al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. And in the eight years that President Clinton was in office, leading up to 9/11, they were not focused with laser-like intensity on al Qaeda and on the terrorist threat. In fact, most of the people who were focused on that were considered somewhat eccentric. But I think now in retrospect, we do know that we should have been looking at this threat, at least going back to 1983, when Hezbollah suicide terrorists killed more than 250 U.S. Marines and diplomats in Beirut. We have simply not wanted to take terrorism as seriously as we need to, and I hope we're going to do it now going forward.

HEMMER: Let me go back to the point with Victor then about "The Washington Post" article. Is this the kind of thing the Democrats seize upon when Condoleezza Rice sits down?

KAMBER: Well, I think it's the kind of thing that opinion leaders, the American public seizes upon, Democrats certainly, even Republicans. The Bush administration has said we were focused. Dick Clarke has said they weren't focused. We are going to find out how focused they were. Clearly, one speech by itself -- and I'll defend her on this -- does not make a whole administration. She was giving a speech on the day it happened to be when the crisis happened in this country, and that speech, according to "The Washington Post" was focused on missiles. I mean, she could have given a speak a week later or a week earlier on another subject.

But the bottom line is I think this administration is finally opening up and allowing the American public and its commission to understand what was the thinking of this administration regarding terrorism, al Qaeda, et cetera. They've been stonewalling for at least two weeks if not longer, and we're going to get to the bottom of it right now. And hopefully, there is nothing to get to the bottom of, except how we move forward. We may find things that will allow for politics to play a role in the election, however.

HEMMER: Cliff, I know you've got a thought -- make it quick and I'm moving to the next topic.

MAY: Just very quick, let's make the main thing the main thing. This commission's job is not to find somebody we can all blame. This commission's job is to find ways that we can better fight terrorism in the future by looking at the mistakes in the past, and I think we sometimes get away from that goal.

KAMBER: That's how the commission was picked, we all agree.

HEMMER: Victor, listen, let's go to Fallujah. What's the American reaction based on the stories we're seeing as the fallout from yesterday?

KAMBER: Well, it's horrific I think, and it's a reminder. I think it's twofold. It's reminds many Americans why George Bush went to Iraq, because we're dealing with animals, we're dealing with people there that have no regard for human life, no regard for any forms of freedoms.

But on the other hand it reminds Americans, that should we be there? That where in one breath he says everything is under control, we are going to move ahead, we're going to turn over the government in June, we're going to come out of there, and what we're seeing is chaos and death and destruction. We lost four troops, or five troops yesterday, four civilians. It continues, and as every day that death continues, there's a question of whether we made the right decision to go to begin with.

MAY: Keep in mind, if you will, that the people who did this are the people who were in control of Iraq when Saddam Hussein was in power. We could ignore it then, but that's who was in control.

KAMBER: Not 10-year-old kids.

MAY: Those 10-year-old kids were raised under Saddam Hussein's brutality. Think of the life they have lead and think of the morality they were taught.

One thing I think Vic and I agree on, I certainly hope so, is that you don't retreat and leave that country to these people. We tried that after what happened in Somalia in 1993, the Black Hawk down incident, and in Beirut, we pulled out after they hit us. What we have to understand is, when we retreat because of this kind of brutality, they do come after us. That is one of the lessons of 9/11, we can't get away just by retreating.

KAMBER: And I think on this, Cliff and I do agree. The problem is leaving right now. I think we still have to answer questions why we're there, what brought us there, were we lied to by this administration as to the reasons for being there? But all said and done, we're there, now the question is how do we extricate ourselves and protect lives while we do it?

HEMMER: Let's end it there. Thank you, gentlemen. Victor Kamber, Cliff May, appreciate it, from D.C. and Denver today. Thank you, gentlemen.

COLLINS: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, the price is right, you can save money on prescription drugs, and the best deals may be right in your own backyard. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has tips for smart shopping.

HEMMER: Also, think you pay too much for gas now? How about $5.45 a gallon? We will tell you where they're paying that much and check the price at the pump in cities around the world. Andy has that.

Back in a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: In the search for cheaper prescription drugs, more Americans are turning to Canadian Internet pharmacies. The best prices, though, may not be north of the border after all, but right in your backyard.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us with the details on this.

So, are we misinformed? DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, because if you look at the prices of prescription drugs over the last decade, this has gone up so much, 7 percent a year roughly over the past decade, more than inflation certainly. So a lot of people have been looking for all sorts of ways to get cheaper prescription drugs. The Canadian pharmacies won't talk about that, because that's got a lot of play certainly, but there are ways to do it more close to home, locally even.

Take a look at -- this is sort of the result of consumer's checkbook. They compared 17 prescription drugs, 12 brand name, five generics, 1,400 pharmacies in five cities, so really comprehensive. This is their advice, shop around locally. Why? You could save 25 to 30 percent between pharmacies in your own city. Check mail order and Canadian prices, again saving money there.

The mail order in particular, if you have a chronic illness, something that lasts a long time, you need the same medication over and over again, the mail orders are a good way to do it.

Prescription drug cards, this is starting to get a lot of attention as well. You could save a significant amount of money, and the more you use it, the more you save. So people who take a lot of medications, a prescription drug card a good deal for them.

And generics as well. Now when you go to your doctor and you talk about the medications that you're on, you can ask your doctor a couple of questions, one, do you still need to be on all these medications, and, two, are there generics that are cheaper than these medications? And sometimes they can be up significantly, 50 to 60, 70 percent cheaper than the brand names.

COLLINS: It said shop locally up there. What are some tips for doing that?

GUPTA: Really good tips, specific tips about shopping locally, if you are going to compare specific drug prices, there might be independent stores that are going to cheaper than some of the bigger stores. Take a look there. You see some of the big chain stores. If you go to the independent stores, the mom and pop type stores, you might save some money there.

Also the bulk suppliers, like Costco, they save significant amount of money over some of the bigger chains as well. And also, if you compare regions of the country, Midwest tends to be cheaper. So Minneapolis, for example, Heidi, where you're from 10 percent cheaper than Boston, for example, on a lot of different drugs.

COLLINS: All right, so let's get back to the north, though, Canada. Are all of the drugs cheaper up there, or is it just specific ones, maybe popular ones.

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, that's exactly right, because people start to think that all drugs are going to be cheaper in Canada, because of the regulations over there. Not so. You can save up to 70 percent on some drugs, but we actually did some looking around ourselves to see the other drugs, comparing specific drugs in Canada versus the United States. Take a look there. Viagra, a month's supply, $283 in the United States, $344 in Canada. Those numbers you're not used to seeing, higher in Canada. Oxybutynin, $22 versus $33, and Amoxicillin, which is a common antibiotic, may be given to your kids for ear infections, things like that. It's $10 to $20 and a change in price there.

If you're going to do U.S. online pharmacies, we looked around that as well. This particular organization says these two pharmacies, see the names there on the screen, are going to be the cheapest, familymedicine.com and aarppharmacy.com, cheaper prices as well. The point being that Canadian pharmacies, make sure you're looking around, you might get cheaper prices on those drugs in the United States versus in Canada. Not all drugs are going to be cheaper in Canada.

COLLINS: All right, it really takes a lot of work doing this homework, doesn't it?

GUPTA: It does, but I think the payoff financially could be significant.

COLLINS: Sure. All right, thanks so much, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, good to see you -- Bill.

HEMMER: In a moment here, a similar topic. How about some lower gas prices. We're tell you where you pay 14 cents a gallon. That's it, we've done the math, found the cheapest and the most expensive, cities worldwide. Back in a moment with Andy and Jack, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: All right, welcome back.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Think you are paying too much at the old gas pump. In some cities, American prices look like a true bargain. With that and the story of an Enron's executive's way out of bounds request, Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business."

Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: How are you?

Let's talk about gas prices, obviously big news today, OPEC cutting back on production by a million barrels today starting right now. That's 4 percent. That's going to make the price of oil and the price of gasoline go up. Yes, that's true. Mitigating factors. One, they will cheat. In other words, these countries will probably produce more anyway. We'll also going to get more oil from places like Canada, the U.K., Norway and Mexico that are probably a bit more friendly.

But let's look and see exactly how bad are those gas prices? Let's look first of all historically. Adjusting for inflation, Jack, we don't really have that much to complain about. In other words, the price of gasoline in 1981, if you use today's prices, almost three bucks. That means the prices of everything else in our economy has gone up a lot more than gas prices. OK, so that's No. 1. OK, so don't cry so much.

OK, now, let's go overseas, and look and see how prices of gasoline are per gallon overseas. Hong Kong, wow, you might want to take a bike to work. U.K., also expensive. Now I want to read a couple of other things here, France just under that, Japan, $4 a barrel, Brazil, India, also much higher. You can see there, Kuwait where gas is very inexpensive, they're going to be cutting back on production. Venezuela, 14 cents a gallon. They've got oil there obviously.

CAFFERTY: That's cheaper than if you are a burro and have to buy him like hay and stuff.

What about this moron from Enron?

SERWER: Well, yes, I thought you'd be a little more sympathetic. I mean, you're a golfer, right. I mean, this is a golf situation, this story. This is a guy, Rick Causey, who's the former chief accounting officer at Enron. He's been indicted. The guy has got $6 million of assets been frozen by the courts. He asked the court for a cost of living allowance, a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year. I guess he's got a pretty sweet lifestyle.

But he also asked the judge for some money to pay for his country club fees. The judge said Mr. Causey shall not be permitted to use any of the release funds for country club fees. Then, again, you know, Jack, he's a golfer, a fellow golfer.

CAFFERTY: He should be barred from the game.

Got to go to the Cafferty File, I'm told.

Thanks, Andy.

Proof to the saying that people look like their dogs. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego spent time and money to study this stuff, and they found out that when people pick a dog, they look for one that looks like them. When they get a purebred, this ends up being the case more often than not, but it doesn't hold true for mutts. Experts say that mutt owners usually make spur of the moment decisions. when they're at the dog pound, so they just get whatever is available and have no idea.

That was Martha Stewart's dog there. No idea what the dog will look like when it grows up.

All right, that's enough.

SERWER: Remember Josh?

HEMMER: Sure do.

CAFFERTY: The Jackson family, more bad news, new poll out that comes out every April Fool's Day. Michael Jackson and sister, Janet, have been named the most foolish Americans. Could you call them a pair of boobs? I guess you could. This is the second year in a row that Michael won the most foolish American award. After the Jackson duo other Americans making the list included Martha Stewart, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and at number 10, President Bush.

California' governor, the walking barbell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, says he took a course on preventing sexual harassment. He was followed by sexual harassment allegations, you'll remember, during the campaign, says he voluntarily took this course in January with his senior staff, five days before the election last year. "Los Angeles Times" out with a story detailing accusations by six women that went back 30 years against the Terminator. Schwarzenegger apologized at the time for, quote, "behaving badly toward women." He said at the time he would hire an investigator after the election to look into these allegations. But, gee, guess what, that never managed to happen. What a surprise.

SERWER: But he took the course, and now it's OK.

CAFFERTY: Apparently he took this class, yes.

SERWER: Thanks so much, Jack.

CAFFERTY: A pair of boobs.

COLLINS: Still to come this morning -- yes, we heard it the first time. Martha Stewart is seeking a new trial because of something one of the jurors who convicted her did. That's just ahead right here, on AMERICAN MORNING.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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Aired April 1, 2004 - 08:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A little bit past 8:30 here in New York. Welcome back. Good to have you here. Soledad is out today. Heidi Collins picks up the chores here.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I saw her coughing a little bit yesterday.

HEMMER: Yes, a bit of a cold. I guess that happens when she has got a few things going on in her life. Let's just keep it a that. She has a few days off. She has a vacation, too, so...

COLLINS: Good for her.

All right, well stories that we are following this morning, "The Washington Post" has a report this morning, detailing a speech Condoleezza Rice had planned for 9/11, but which was canceled after the attacks, perhaps offer some insight into what areas the White House was focusing on for national security reason. We'll get that from Kamber and May.

HEMMER: Also Sanjay in a moment, talking about where to pull up your prescription if you're on a budget without leaving the country. We talk a lot of times about going to Canada. Apparently there are places here where you can get it on the cheap, too. Sanjay has that in a moment here.

First, though, top stories there at the half hour. In Madison, Wisconsin, police there say they plan on meeting with Audrey Seiler again today. Her family and friends rejoicing yesterday after word of her safe return. She's alive and apparently unharmed. Seiler says she was abducted at knife point by a stranger and held captive, but was not hurt. Investigators say they believe he may still be in the city of Madison. Still questions persist on this story. We will try to get to the bottom of it, coming up here on AMERICAN MORNING.

From New York, jurors in the Tyco trial expected to get more information today. The panel asked the judge yesterday to clarify two charges against the former CEO Dennis Kozlowski and the firm's former CFO. Both are accused of taking about 600 million from the company. Deliberations set to resume again this morning.

U.S. and Canadian officials say they have broken up one of the largest ecstasy rings in North America. Agents say they have taken 140 people into custody in a series of raids in the U.S. and Canada. Authorities say the group was run by Asian traffickers out of Toronto and responsible for as much as 15 percent of the ecstasy smuggled here into the U.S. The landmark Siegfried and Roy on the Las Vegas strip now taken down almost six months after a tiger mauled Roy Horn. The Siegfried and Roy show forced to close after that incident. Horn, aged 59, still recovering. The new sign at the Mirage Hotel will promote Danny Gans (ph) and the Siegfried and Roy Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat Attraction.

A royal romance. Britain's Prince William reportedly has his first serious girlfriend. Not quite sure how they define that, but they say serious. "The Sun" newspaper in London printed a series of photos with a girl the paper identified as Kate Middleton (ph). The pair spotted skiing at a Swiss resort a bit earlier this week.

COLLINS: No? Spotted skiing?

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: Commuters in Boston may regret that the city invited the Democratic Party to hold its convention there. The Secret Service has announced antiterrorism measures that includes closing a major highway and a rail hub during the last week in July.

Jeanne Meserve has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Zip down Interstate 93 in Boston and you pass within feet of the Fleet Center, the venue for this summer's Democratic convention. For that very reason, the road will be shut down during evening hours while the convention is in town. About 200,000 people a day use this stretch of road. And if that isn't enough of a headache, 24,000 rail commuters will have to use alternative routes and modes of transportation because North Station will be shuttered for a week. It is right underneath the fleet.

STEVE RICCARDI, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: Our goal is to provide a safe and secure environment for all event participants and the general public.

MESERVE: But the general public expects commuter chaos.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's very wrong, because what about the peoples that lives in Chelsea like myself, and plus, the people that have to get to work and back and forth. I think it's very wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to get to work somehow, some way. We'll get here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I plan on staying out of the city for the week.

MESERVE: The announcement of the closures comes just weeks after the Madrid train bombing that killed 190. And the Democrats convention will be the first since the September 11th attacks. But there are no plans at this point to close New York's Penn Station during the Republican Convention, even though it is underneath Madison Square Garden. ANN ROMAN, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: Our security plans are site specific, and each security plain is tailored to each venue.

MESERVE (on camera): Although there be a security perimeter around Madison Square Garden, the New York City Police Department says no major thoroughfares are slated to be closed. The Secret Service cautions, however that the security plans for both conventions are still fluid.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: The governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, a Republican, suggest that the Democrats move to another site in south Boston. The Democrats rejected that idea -- Bill.

HEMMER: Heidi, about 22 minutes now before the hour.

Nothing yet on the testimony for Condoleezza Rice, no scheduled announced yet, waiting on that. But a question today, could this decision to have her talk in public under oath backfire.

From D.C., Democratic consultant Victor Kamber of the Kamber Group back with us.

Vic, good morning to you.

VICTOR KAMBER, DEMOCRATIC CONSULTANT: Good morning, Bill. How are you?

HEMMER: I'm doing just fine, thank you.

From Denver, former RNC communications director, Cliff May, now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Cliff, good morning to you also.

CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR.: Good morning, Bill.

Good morning, Vic.

HEMMER: I want to start with you in the warm weather out there in Denver, "Washington Post" has a piece today, front page, left side, above the fold. It's saying on 9/11, Condoleezza Rice had a speech planned for that day that mentioned nothing about al Qaeda. It was largely about missile defense. Is this the kind of thing the White House has concern with before she testifies?

MAY: Well, it's possible that they do, but they shouldn't. I think we all understand the truth, and that is in the eight months that the Bush administration was in office, leading up to 9/11, they weren't focused with laser-like intensity on the threat that came from al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. And in the eight years that President Clinton was in office, leading up to 9/11, they were not focused with laser-like intensity on al Qaeda and on the terrorist threat. In fact, most of the people who were focused on that were considered somewhat eccentric. But I think now in retrospect, we do know that we should have been looking at this threat, at least going back to 1983, when Hezbollah suicide terrorists killed more than 250 U.S. Marines and diplomats in Beirut. We have simply not wanted to take terrorism as seriously as we need to, and I hope we're going to do it now going forward.

HEMMER: Let me go back to the point with Victor then about "The Washington Post" article. Is this the kind of thing the Democrats seize upon when Condoleezza Rice sits down?

KAMBER: Well, I think it's the kind of thing that opinion leaders, the American public seizes upon, Democrats certainly, even Republicans. The Bush administration has said we were focused. Dick Clarke has said they weren't focused. We are going to find out how focused they were. Clearly, one speech by itself -- and I'll defend her on this -- does not make a whole administration. She was giving a speech on the day it happened to be when the crisis happened in this country, and that speech, according to "The Washington Post" was focused on missiles. I mean, she could have given a speak a week later or a week earlier on another subject.

But the bottom line is I think this administration is finally opening up and allowing the American public and its commission to understand what was the thinking of this administration regarding terrorism, al Qaeda, et cetera. They've been stonewalling for at least two weeks if not longer, and we're going to get to the bottom of it right now. And hopefully, there is nothing to get to the bottom of, except how we move forward. We may find things that will allow for politics to play a role in the election, however.

HEMMER: Cliff, I know you've got a thought -- make it quick and I'm moving to the next topic.

MAY: Just very quick, let's make the main thing the main thing. This commission's job is not to find somebody we can all blame. This commission's job is to find ways that we can better fight terrorism in the future by looking at the mistakes in the past, and I think we sometimes get away from that goal.

KAMBER: That's how the commission was picked, we all agree.

HEMMER: Victor, listen, let's go to Fallujah. What's the American reaction based on the stories we're seeing as the fallout from yesterday?

KAMBER: Well, it's horrific I think, and it's a reminder. I think it's twofold. It's reminds many Americans why George Bush went to Iraq, because we're dealing with animals, we're dealing with people there that have no regard for human life, no regard for any forms of freedoms.

But on the other hand it reminds Americans, that should we be there? That where in one breath he says everything is under control, we are going to move ahead, we're going to turn over the government in June, we're going to come out of there, and what we're seeing is chaos and death and destruction. We lost four troops, or five troops yesterday, four civilians. It continues, and as every day that death continues, there's a question of whether we made the right decision to go to begin with.

MAY: Keep in mind, if you will, that the people who did this are the people who were in control of Iraq when Saddam Hussein was in power. We could ignore it then, but that's who was in control.

KAMBER: Not 10-year-old kids.

MAY: Those 10-year-old kids were raised under Saddam Hussein's brutality. Think of the life they have lead and think of the morality they were taught.

One thing I think Vic and I agree on, I certainly hope so, is that you don't retreat and leave that country to these people. We tried that after what happened in Somalia in 1993, the Black Hawk down incident, and in Beirut, we pulled out after they hit us. What we have to understand is, when we retreat because of this kind of brutality, they do come after us. That is one of the lessons of 9/11, we can't get away just by retreating.

KAMBER: And I think on this, Cliff and I do agree. The problem is leaving right now. I think we still have to answer questions why we're there, what brought us there, were we lied to by this administration as to the reasons for being there? But all said and done, we're there, now the question is how do we extricate ourselves and protect lives while we do it?

HEMMER: Let's end it there. Thank you, gentlemen. Victor Kamber, Cliff May, appreciate it, from D.C. and Denver today. Thank you, gentlemen.

COLLINS: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, the price is right, you can save money on prescription drugs, and the best deals may be right in your own backyard. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has tips for smart shopping.

HEMMER: Also, think you pay too much for gas now? How about $5.45 a gallon? We will tell you where they're paying that much and check the price at the pump in cities around the world. Andy has that.

Back in a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.

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COLLINS: In the search for cheaper prescription drugs, more Americans are turning to Canadian Internet pharmacies. The best prices, though, may not be north of the border after all, but right in your backyard.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us with the details on this.

So, are we misinformed? DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, because if you look at the prices of prescription drugs over the last decade, this has gone up so much, 7 percent a year roughly over the past decade, more than inflation certainly. So a lot of people have been looking for all sorts of ways to get cheaper prescription drugs. The Canadian pharmacies won't talk about that, because that's got a lot of play certainly, but there are ways to do it more close to home, locally even.

Take a look at -- this is sort of the result of consumer's checkbook. They compared 17 prescription drugs, 12 brand name, five generics, 1,400 pharmacies in five cities, so really comprehensive. This is their advice, shop around locally. Why? You could save 25 to 30 percent between pharmacies in your own city. Check mail order and Canadian prices, again saving money there.

The mail order in particular, if you have a chronic illness, something that lasts a long time, you need the same medication over and over again, the mail orders are a good way to do it.

Prescription drug cards, this is starting to get a lot of attention as well. You could save a significant amount of money, and the more you use it, the more you save. So people who take a lot of medications, a prescription drug card a good deal for them.

And generics as well. Now when you go to your doctor and you talk about the medications that you're on, you can ask your doctor a couple of questions, one, do you still need to be on all these medications, and, two, are there generics that are cheaper than these medications? And sometimes they can be up significantly, 50 to 60, 70 percent cheaper than the brand names.

COLLINS: It said shop locally up there. What are some tips for doing that?

GUPTA: Really good tips, specific tips about shopping locally, if you are going to compare specific drug prices, there might be independent stores that are going to cheaper than some of the bigger stores. Take a look there. You see some of the big chain stores. If you go to the independent stores, the mom and pop type stores, you might save some money there.

Also the bulk suppliers, like Costco, they save significant amount of money over some of the bigger chains as well. And also, if you compare regions of the country, Midwest tends to be cheaper. So Minneapolis, for example, Heidi, where you're from 10 percent cheaper than Boston, for example, on a lot of different drugs.

COLLINS: All right, so let's get back to the north, though, Canada. Are all of the drugs cheaper up there, or is it just specific ones, maybe popular ones.

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, that's exactly right, because people start to think that all drugs are going to be cheaper in Canada, because of the regulations over there. Not so. You can save up to 70 percent on some drugs, but we actually did some looking around ourselves to see the other drugs, comparing specific drugs in Canada versus the United States. Take a look there. Viagra, a month's supply, $283 in the United States, $344 in Canada. Those numbers you're not used to seeing, higher in Canada. Oxybutynin, $22 versus $33, and Amoxicillin, which is a common antibiotic, may be given to your kids for ear infections, things like that. It's $10 to $20 and a change in price there.

If you're going to do U.S. online pharmacies, we looked around that as well. This particular organization says these two pharmacies, see the names there on the screen, are going to be the cheapest, familymedicine.com and aarppharmacy.com, cheaper prices as well. The point being that Canadian pharmacies, make sure you're looking around, you might get cheaper prices on those drugs in the United States versus in Canada. Not all drugs are going to be cheaper in Canada.

COLLINS: All right, it really takes a lot of work doing this homework, doesn't it?

GUPTA: It does, but I think the payoff financially could be significant.

COLLINS: Sure. All right, thanks so much, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, good to see you -- Bill.

HEMMER: In a moment here, a similar topic. How about some lower gas prices. We're tell you where you pay 14 cents a gallon. That's it, we've done the math, found the cheapest and the most expensive, cities worldwide. Back in a moment with Andy and Jack, after this.

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HEMMER: All right, welcome back.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Think you are paying too much at the old gas pump. In some cities, American prices look like a true bargain. With that and the story of an Enron's executive's way out of bounds request, Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business."

Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: How are you?

Let's talk about gas prices, obviously big news today, OPEC cutting back on production by a million barrels today starting right now. That's 4 percent. That's going to make the price of oil and the price of gasoline go up. Yes, that's true. Mitigating factors. One, they will cheat. In other words, these countries will probably produce more anyway. We'll also going to get more oil from places like Canada, the U.K., Norway and Mexico that are probably a bit more friendly.

But let's look and see exactly how bad are those gas prices? Let's look first of all historically. Adjusting for inflation, Jack, we don't really have that much to complain about. In other words, the price of gasoline in 1981, if you use today's prices, almost three bucks. That means the prices of everything else in our economy has gone up a lot more than gas prices. OK, so that's No. 1. OK, so don't cry so much.

OK, now, let's go overseas, and look and see how prices of gasoline are per gallon overseas. Hong Kong, wow, you might want to take a bike to work. U.K., also expensive. Now I want to read a couple of other things here, France just under that, Japan, $4 a barrel, Brazil, India, also much higher. You can see there, Kuwait where gas is very inexpensive, they're going to be cutting back on production. Venezuela, 14 cents a gallon. They've got oil there obviously.

CAFFERTY: That's cheaper than if you are a burro and have to buy him like hay and stuff.

What about this moron from Enron?

SERWER: Well, yes, I thought you'd be a little more sympathetic. I mean, you're a golfer, right. I mean, this is a golf situation, this story. This is a guy, Rick Causey, who's the former chief accounting officer at Enron. He's been indicted. The guy has got $6 million of assets been frozen by the courts. He asked the court for a cost of living allowance, a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year. I guess he's got a pretty sweet lifestyle.

But he also asked the judge for some money to pay for his country club fees. The judge said Mr. Causey shall not be permitted to use any of the release funds for country club fees. Then, again, you know, Jack, he's a golfer, a fellow golfer.

CAFFERTY: He should be barred from the game.

Got to go to the Cafferty File, I'm told.

Thanks, Andy.

Proof to the saying that people look like their dogs. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego spent time and money to study this stuff, and they found out that when people pick a dog, they look for one that looks like them. When they get a purebred, this ends up being the case more often than not, but it doesn't hold true for mutts. Experts say that mutt owners usually make spur of the moment decisions. when they're at the dog pound, so they just get whatever is available and have no idea.

That was Martha Stewart's dog there. No idea what the dog will look like when it grows up.

All right, that's enough.

SERWER: Remember Josh?

HEMMER: Sure do.

CAFFERTY: The Jackson family, more bad news, new poll out that comes out every April Fool's Day. Michael Jackson and sister, Janet, have been named the most foolish Americans. Could you call them a pair of boobs? I guess you could. This is the second year in a row that Michael won the most foolish American award. After the Jackson duo other Americans making the list included Martha Stewart, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and at number 10, President Bush.

California' governor, the walking barbell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, says he took a course on preventing sexual harassment. He was followed by sexual harassment allegations, you'll remember, during the campaign, says he voluntarily took this course in January with his senior staff, five days before the election last year. "Los Angeles Times" out with a story detailing accusations by six women that went back 30 years against the Terminator. Schwarzenegger apologized at the time for, quote, "behaving badly toward women." He said at the time he would hire an investigator after the election to look into these allegations. But, gee, guess what, that never managed to happen. What a surprise.

SERWER: But he took the course, and now it's OK.

CAFFERTY: Apparently he took this class, yes.

SERWER: Thanks so much, Jack.

CAFFERTY: A pair of boobs.

COLLINS: Still to come this morning -- yes, we heard it the first time. Martha Stewart is seeking a new trial because of something one of the jurors who convicted her did. That's just ahead right here, on AMERICAN MORNING.

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