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American Morning
A Reunion in Wisconsin; Some of Highest Gasoline Prices Ever
Aired April 01, 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In Fallujah, a city marred by violence again today outrage growing over yesterday's brutality.
Also, found:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANIE SEILER, AUDREY'S MOTHER: Right now we're just focusing on being together and holding each other and hugging each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: A reunion in Wisconsin. That missing college student now back at home this morning.
Investigators answer the many questions still remaining.
And some of the highest gasoline prices ever. OPEC could drive them even higher. In Washington -- do anything to fight the hike on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Heidi Collins.
All right, good morning, welcome to Thursday.
We welcome Heidi Collins with us today. Soledad has a few days off.
Nice to have you here.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: She does.
HEMMER: And good morning.
COLLINS: Thank you sir, appreciate that very much.
I'll let you know other stories that we are following.
Martha Stewart's lawyers say they have the goods on a rogue juror, and they want a new trial. Do they have a good case, though?
We're going to talk to Jeffrey Toobin about that.
HEMMER: Also this hour, Jayson Williams's trial moving closer to an end. Defense resting yesterday. Now the prosecution gets another go of things. An update on that. Also Jayson Williams not taking the stand. The impact of that.
And if you ever go to Google, one of our favorite websites in the world, free e-mail. We'll fill you in on that, so stay tuned.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, touch pictures out of Fallujah yesterday, burned and mutilated bodies hanging from a bridge.
How does the media handle stuff like that, and do the pictures give us an indication of something strange, or bigger, or more ominous that may be going on in that country? We'll take a look at that in a few minutes.
HEMMER: Pressing issue again today. Jack, thanks.
Let's go straight back to Iraq where we start today where a U.S. military convoy attacked near the stronghold of Fallujah. The stronghold for the insurgency there.
One U.S. Humvee was burned, unclear if there were any casualties. This attack comes a day after four American contactors were brutally killed in Fallujah, and for the latest on the violence to Baghdad, and Jim Clancy for more there.
Jim, hello.
JIM CLANCY, CNN: Hello, and good afternoon from Baghdad.
Yes, near Fallujah all that was left was one disabled Humvee, it was on fire, Iraqis gathered around it and probed it.
U.S. military officials said, though, they had no information about any incident on that road, so we're going to have to wait to find out.
Certainly they had no reports of any causalities. Meantime, there were casualties when two roadside bombs exploded -- the apparent target a fuel convoy.
The first bomb exploded and an Iraqi civilian was injured, his car damaged. A second device then a few minutes later went off just as the U.S. military police on the scene were beginning to search with a robot for other IEDs, improvised explosive devices.
One of the truck drivers for a contractor, a civilian contractor, was wounded by some shrapnel or glass from his windscreen. Fortunately the fuel convoy, none of the trucks, was ignited in all of that. That was clearly the target.
So from that incident we have two people wounded. We also have some unemployment protests in Basra in the south. News agencies reporting now one person was wounded in a clash with Iraqi police -- Bill.
HEMMER: Jim, with regard to the situation yesterday in Fallujah, we can see in this country how the newspapers and the media are playing that story.
How is that playing in Baghdad with these four members dragged from their cars and brutally beaten, as you described yesterday on this same program?
CLANCY: Well, Bill, certainly there is some -- a lot of people looking at this, but you have really two camps here. Some people find that they are shocked by this, the way that the crowd behaved. There's another camp that might say this is a result of the occupation.
One of the newspapers today even offering advice to U.S. soldiers, telling them to take the kinder, gentler approach to the Iraqis of Fallujah.
The reality is a lot of people in Iraq see Fallujah as a stronghold of former Baathists and supporters of Saddam Hussein. They were not too terribly surprised by what they saw on television.
HEMMER: Much more on this throughout the morning. Jim Clancy, thanks for that, live in Baghdad.
At the headlines now gas prices expected to go up even more and analysts say you can blame it on OPEC.
OPEC deciding to cut oil production by about a million barrels a day, starting today. The White House says President Bush is disappointed with that decision. Andy Serwer is watching it -- much more on this in about 20 minutes here on our program.
Police in Italy say they've arrested five people in connection with international terrorism. Officials say three Italians and a Turkish man and woman have been detained there. It is not clear how the suspects are tied to terrorist activity, but police say they were part of a local terror cell.
This country now: state of New Jersey, the defense resting its case in the manslaughter trial of former NBA star Jayson Williams. Williams told the judge yesterday that he has trust in God and confidence in the jury. He did not testify in his own defense.
Williams is charged with manslaughter for the shooting death of a limousine driver two years ago inside of his home. A closer look at this case in a moment. The impact of Williams not taking the stand.
Google, perhaps the most popular online search engine, now offering free e-mail. The new service is called g-mail. Google says customers will get one gigabyte of storage, which the company says is 250 to 500 times more storage space than the Yahoo or Hotmail e-mail.
The catch? Google will send customers targeted ads so if you don't like spam, heads up there. Spam is a dirty word around here, so...
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: A missing Wisconsin college student is alive and well this morning, four days after she disappeared.
20-year-old Audrey Seiler told police she was kidnapped at knifepoint. CNN's Jonathan Freed is in Madison, Wisconsin now with the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN FREED, CNN: Audrey Seiler was found in a marshy area about two miles from her home when a passerby spotted her and called authorities.
Police quickly set up a parameter and started searching for a suspect believed armed with a gun and a knife.
NOBLE WRAT, ASSISTANT CHIEF MADISON POLICE DEPT: The suspect was described as a white male in his late 20s to early 30s. 5'11" to 6 feet -- 6 feet tall, last wearing a black sweatshirt and jeans with a black cap.
FREED: While at the hospital:
KEITH SEILER, AUDREY'S FATHER: Just relieved, glad to be warm, to see her friends and family.
FREED: The 20-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin disappeared early Saturday morning. A security camera in her apartment building caught her leaving without a coat.
Doctors were impressed by her condition.
DR. PHILIP SCHULTZ, ST. MARY'S EMERGENCY SERVICES: She really got through an ordeal remarkably well, physically.
She has lots of muscle aches from being confined during this period of time, and she's really been dehydrated, so what we've been doing basically is just kind of replenishing her fluids, but she already looks a lot better than she did when she came in.
FREED: A few hours later, Seiler left the hospital. Investigators paid extra attention to the missing person case because Seiler says she was attacked two months ago, knocked unconscious while out walking after midnight.
But she wasn't robbed or badly hurt. During the four-day ordeal, her family tried to focus on positive thoughts.
STEPHANIE SEILER, AUDREY'S MOTHER: We needed to stay strong for Audrey and Audrey needed to stay strong for us and we believed in that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREED: Now the search for the suspect was suspended over night, it is set to resume again this morning, and police have just told me that when it does resume it will not be with as many officers as were here yesterday -- Heidi. COLLINS: All right, Jonathan Freed, thanks so much, live from Madison this morning.
Just a little bit earlier today I spoke with Larry Kamholz, public information officer for the Madison police department about the latest on their investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OFC. LARRY KAMHOLZ, MADISON POLICE DEPT.: The investigation is still going on, and we have a lot of information to glean from the family at this point, but we're kind of giving them an opportunity to bond with each other.
It is reported that Audrey was abducted by knifepoint from her apartment. There is also a report that Audrey believed that there was some type of gun involved. However, she did not see any type of gun -- it was more implied during this course of her time with the suspect.
We don't have a lot of information -- we've secured off the area that we found Audrey -- we searched that area initially for the suspect.
There is no one in there. We brought in helicopters with infrared cameras to help identify somebody that may be hiding in that area, but we did not find anybody.
Currently this morning some time early this morning after some of our briefings, our crime scene processing unit will be out in that area going through there and trying to find any evidence or process the scene as we do any other crime.
COLLINS: All right, I want to ask you a little bit about Audrey now if I could. We've been hearing that she was held in captivity but not harmed. Heard a little bit about dehydration. What can you tell us about her condition?
KAMHOLZ: Well, I can tell you very briefly I've spoke with the family in great detail over the last 12 hours here. The family is just so grateful that she's returned.
Her health -- she's doing very well. She's very tired; she's been through a lot emotionally and physically but overall she's doing very well.
She was released from the hospital late afternoon yesterday, and right now like I said they are probably sleeping as we speak and trying to catch up on all that missed opportunity of sleeping throughout the days that they haven't been able to in the last part of the week.
COLLINS: Understandable. Officer, how strange is this? We've also learned a little bit about this apparent attack that happened back in February as well. An attack of another kind according to Audrey. Does this seem strange to you? KAMHOLZ: You know, this investigation, as a whole, is just very unique. There's just so many things about this case. You know she was -- she was attacked and left unconscious, which is very strange, and obviously the abduction itself and us locating her and -- in the place that we did was very unique.
There's a lot of things that we have to sit down and go through and try to piece some more information together so we can identify the person that is involved and that's going to take some time here.
I anticipate the interview with Audrey is going to last for several hours. It's just something that we're going to have to take our time with and make sure that we have the correct and accurate information from Audrey.
COLLINS: As we know, the alleged abductor is a white male, 20s to 30s, last seen wearing a black sweatshirt and a hat and jeans. Wondering if you are going on that description, or if there are other leads that you are pursuing at this time?
KAMHOLZ: Well, we're definitely taking that description that we have from Audrey and that's what we're working on, but we are taking any tips that may come into us that may help identify this person involved or help lead us to identify the assailant and obviously we want to contact him and we'll take the appropriate steps with out investigative measures from that point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Officer Kamholz said there was little information police have been able to glean from this, a surveillance video showing Audrey leaving her apartment building.
HEMMER: A 32-year-old man charged with driving drunk accused of being behind the wheel when a truck swerved into a gas station in Maine.
It hit a pump, set up a huge explosion. Dramatic videotape here on a surveillance camera. A couple pumping gas just a few feet away narrowly escaping that ball of flames.
Other witnesses at that 7-11 aided police in identifying the driver of the truck. Police say now that additional charges may be filed against that 32-year-old man. That is some stuff you don't see every day.
COLLINS: No, man. All right.
Still to come this morning Martha Stewart's legal team says one of the jurors lied. We'll ask Jeffrey Toobin if there are grounds to have their conviction -- or her conviction, that is, thrown out.
HEMMER: All right, which side has the stronger signal now? Al Franken debuts yesterday from the left. We'll see on the right also which area viewers and listeners are paying attention to. COLLINS: That's right and does Jennifer Lopez need a makeover? Our "90-Second-Pop" crew will tell us what changes she's making. It's all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Martha Stewart's lawyers arguing now for new trial saying one of the jurors who convicted her lied about a previous criminal record thereby depriving Stewart of her right to a fair trial.
Stewart convicted of conspiracy, obstructing justice and lying to government investigators. Is there a chance here for a mistrial or even a retrial? Jeffrey Toobin is here to talk about it.
You're lukewarm on this aren't you?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well it's a very interesting situation because this juror is probably the one juror who's familiar to people at home because he is the juror who right after the verdict who came out and gave a very outspoken news conference, talking about how this was a victory for the little guy.
And really gave kind of a political analysis of the case.
HEMMER: Let me stop you right there. We'll roll some videotape -- some of the statements that he made with reporters that seemed at times to go on and on and on. Let's listen from a few weeks ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHAPPELL HARTRIDGE, FORMER JUROR IN MARTHA STEWART CASE: What messes up this sense of (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Maybe to the middle investors, they may feel a little bit more comfortable that they can invest in the market and not worry about these type of scams where they can lose their 401Ks or just lose money on (UNINTELLIGIBLE) stocks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Can lawyers take those statements, after a verdict has been rendered and go back and say, hey, wait a minute we got a case here?
TOOBIN: Well what's --what's significant is not so much his statements here it's that during voir dire he was asked about his criminal record and he did apparently have a record for domestic violence and did apparently -- we need to hear his side of the story -- lie in the course of domestic -- lie -- in the course of jury selection and that is the grounds for asking for a new trial, not so much those statements alone, it's the lying during voir dire.
HEMMER: All right, I showed our viewers some of the statements by Martha Stewart's attorneys: "There's a fine line between being wiling to serve and being anxious. Between accepting the grave responsibility for passing judgment on a human life and being so eager to serve that you commit perjury to avoid being struck."
It continues but just take that statement there -- how strong is the argument, Jeff?
TOOBIN: Well, the argument is -- the risk to Martha -- the problem with Martha Stewart's argument is that it's not enough simply to prove that someone was dishonest during voir dire.
You have to show that that dishonesty indicated partiality, indicated that he got on the jury essentially to get Martha Stewart and that's going to be a lot harder to prove.
Because, you know, you can't have a system where every juror you can conduct an investigation after the fact, find out if there was some dishonesty in their -- in their voir dire and then get a new trial. Courts are very reluctant to give new trials.
HEMMER: Smart move or a desperate move?
TOOBIN: Oh, very smart move. I mean, this is a -- certainly a reasonable thing for the lawyers to ask. This is a very responsible thing that Martha Stewart's lawyers did. I think ultimately it will probably be unsuccessful because it's just hard -- it's hard to get a new trial but this is a serious issue, it's not a trivial thing.
HEMMER: Sentencing schedule for mid-June. Thank you, Jeff, good to see you.
OK. All right, here's Heidi.
COLLINS: The Jayson Williams manslaughter trial is about to move into its final phase now. Both sides will deliver closing arguments next week. The defense rested yesterday after the former NBA star decided against telling his story.
Here's CNN's Deborah Feyerick.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN: The jury was out when Jayson Williams told the judge what he decided eight weeks into his manslaughter trial.
JAYSON WILLIAMS, CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER: I understand my rights. Under the advice of my counsel, I will not testify. I am innocent; I put my trust in God and I have great confidence in this jury.
FEYERICK: Soon after, Williams's legal team wrapped its case.
BILLY MARTIN, DEFENSE LAWYER: Your honor, the defense rests.
FEYERICK: Not taking the stand could raise questions. When the trial began, jury members were told by Williams's own lawyer they'd hear directly from the former NBA star.
MARTIN: Jayson Williams will tell you how this horrific totally unforeseeable accident occurred.
FEYERICK: Williams story instead told over four days by defense witnesses, among them two gun experts testifying the shotgun which killed limo driver Gus Christofi was filled with debris, claiming it was capable of going off at the slightest touch.
But prosecutors believe they proved the 12-gague shotgun did misfire, their experts testifying there was nothing wrong with the trigger. The judge will instruct the jury Williams has a right not to testify and that it can't be held against him.
Also prosecutors will not be able to mention the all star's absence on the stand. During rebuttal, prosecutors are expected to call at least one witness to counter Williams claim that the gun went off accidentally. Both sides making closing arguments early next week.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: If convicted of all eight counts, Williams faces a possible 55 years in prison.
HEMMER: In a moment here, Heidi, much more on the discovery of missing student Audrey Seiler. She is alive and well. The questions though persist yet again this morning.
Also, what will OPEC's production cut mean for prices at the pump here in this country? Andy has that.
Jack, too, is back in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back everybody. What goes up may go up even more and that's the word anyway.
Plus a check of the markets first quarter report with Andy Serwer, "Minding Your Business." First check of the morning for us here.
Good morning, OPEC is the news, the White House had a statement yesterday -- what are you seeing here?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Well, might not be quite as bad as everyone is suggesting. Of course there are a lot of people outraged this morning.
Of course, we're talking about OPEC cutting back it's production, takes effect today by a million barrels a day, four percent and the White House did have some comment on it.
Let's hear what White House press secretary Scott McClellan had to say about this yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president is disappointed in today's decision. Producers should not take steps that harm American consumers and our economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERWER: Well, here you go. You can see what it's been doing to gas prices. You see a trend here, Bill? I think I do. Obviously going up and up and April forecasts were a buck 83.
California of course well over two dollars a barrel. OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, there's eleven who produce about a third of the world's oil, about half of ours.
And here's why it might not be so bad, there's some mitigating factors I want to get to very quickly here. Number one is OPEC famous for cheating. That means they have quotas, each one of these countries, they will probably over-produce meaning they won't cut back as much as anticipated.
Number two, in the second quarter, oil demand goes down. You're not in the heavy winter months so there's not a lot of heating oil and you're also not in the heavy driving months. And so that won't be as bad as well.
And also the thing to remember here is we are still paying a lot less for gasoline than other countries around the world and we're paying less for gasoline than we were say 20 years ago inflation adjusted so those are some mitigating factors there.
HEMMER: There's a tax issue in there too. The silver lining, thanks for finding that for us.
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: Quickly, markets or not, do we have time today?
SERWER: I can do them very quickly, down a little bit yesterday, why don't we pull up the quarter numbers because -- well that's where we are yesterday, sorry.
Just a little bit of a blip. And here was what happened for the quarter. Very volatile first quarter for the markets, the broadest measure for the S&P 500 up a little bit, though so why don't we just pay attention to that one?
HEMMER: Yes, why not?
SERWER: Yes, OK.
HEMMER: Thanks, Andy. Heidi.
COLLINS: Time now for the Cafferty File and the "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: Thank you, Heidi. The murder of four civilians yesterday in Fallujah in Iraq raises a couple of questions.
One is the resistance in Iraq limited to former Saddam Hussein supporters and terrorists from outside the country or do the events in Fallujah represent some sort of a form of Iraqi nationalism?
The aftermath of this attack included hours of celebration in the streets, cheering children and the mutilation and hanging of bodies from a bridge.
The second question is a difficult decision faced by the news media. Newspapers, TV stations have to decide which and how much of these graphic images to show.
For example, here's the front page of "The New York Times" this morning. I don't remember ever seeing as graphic a picture as this on the front page of the "Times." Those are bodies burned and charred hanging from this bridge in Fallujah.
Just as tough as it gets -- what do you do with these pictures? Do the pictures convey something that was suggested in the first part of the question, some sort of Iraqi nationalism? If they do, you sort of have to show them.
The question is, should the media show the most graphic images from Fallujah? Not an easy one to answer. You can e-mail us your thoughts though at am@cnn.com and we'll read some of the letters a little bit later.
HEMMER: News organizations across the country struggling to answer that yesterday.
SERWER: Yes, I want to tell you something. This morning I took that newspaper and hid it before my kids woke up.
HEMMER: Is that so?
SERWER: Absolutely.
COLLINS: I bet you did.
SERWER: I didn't want them to see that.
HEMMER: You showed the "Times." "USA Today," "Washington Post" -- they show a similar image, but it is before these bodies were literally hung from that steel bridge...
CAFFERTY: Yes, they were similar but not nearly as graphic. This is the toughest representation of any of the papers that I saw and you know the "Times" obviously is -- has a political agenda. They're a left of center publication and you know there may be something going on editorially with the decision to put that on your front page.
HEMMER: But your point is well taken, though -- how much of this can you show to portray the story with viewers and with readers and with listeners and how much do you want to hold back because of just simply bad taste?
CAFFERTY: Remember what finally got the Vietnam War to end? It was television pictures of the war.
HEMMER: No question about it.
CAFFERTY: Not to suggest that there's -- you know -- these are the same two things.
COLLINS: All right, a lot more to talk about this morning and -- you know -- coming on that one I am sure.
Also want to let you know still to come this morning an outpouring of emotion in Wisconsin when word comes that a friend is back home safe.
Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired April 1, 2004 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In Fallujah, a city marred by violence again today outrage growing over yesterday's brutality.
Also, found:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANIE SEILER, AUDREY'S MOTHER: Right now we're just focusing on being together and holding each other and hugging each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: A reunion in Wisconsin. That missing college student now back at home this morning.
Investigators answer the many questions still remaining.
And some of the highest gasoline prices ever. OPEC could drive them even higher. In Washington -- do anything to fight the hike on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Heidi Collins.
All right, good morning, welcome to Thursday.
We welcome Heidi Collins with us today. Soledad has a few days off.
Nice to have you here.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: She does.
HEMMER: And good morning.
COLLINS: Thank you sir, appreciate that very much.
I'll let you know other stories that we are following.
Martha Stewart's lawyers say they have the goods on a rogue juror, and they want a new trial. Do they have a good case, though?
We're going to talk to Jeffrey Toobin about that.
HEMMER: Also this hour, Jayson Williams's trial moving closer to an end. Defense resting yesterday. Now the prosecution gets another go of things. An update on that. Also Jayson Williams not taking the stand. The impact of that.
And if you ever go to Google, one of our favorite websites in the world, free e-mail. We'll fill you in on that, so stay tuned.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, touch pictures out of Fallujah yesterday, burned and mutilated bodies hanging from a bridge.
How does the media handle stuff like that, and do the pictures give us an indication of something strange, or bigger, or more ominous that may be going on in that country? We'll take a look at that in a few minutes.
HEMMER: Pressing issue again today. Jack, thanks.
Let's go straight back to Iraq where we start today where a U.S. military convoy attacked near the stronghold of Fallujah. The stronghold for the insurgency there.
One U.S. Humvee was burned, unclear if there were any casualties. This attack comes a day after four American contactors were brutally killed in Fallujah, and for the latest on the violence to Baghdad, and Jim Clancy for more there.
Jim, hello.
JIM CLANCY, CNN: Hello, and good afternoon from Baghdad.
Yes, near Fallujah all that was left was one disabled Humvee, it was on fire, Iraqis gathered around it and probed it.
U.S. military officials said, though, they had no information about any incident on that road, so we're going to have to wait to find out.
Certainly they had no reports of any causalities. Meantime, there were casualties when two roadside bombs exploded -- the apparent target a fuel convoy.
The first bomb exploded and an Iraqi civilian was injured, his car damaged. A second device then a few minutes later went off just as the U.S. military police on the scene were beginning to search with a robot for other IEDs, improvised explosive devices.
One of the truck drivers for a contractor, a civilian contractor, was wounded by some shrapnel or glass from his windscreen. Fortunately the fuel convoy, none of the trucks, was ignited in all of that. That was clearly the target.
So from that incident we have two people wounded. We also have some unemployment protests in Basra in the south. News agencies reporting now one person was wounded in a clash with Iraqi police -- Bill.
HEMMER: Jim, with regard to the situation yesterday in Fallujah, we can see in this country how the newspapers and the media are playing that story.
How is that playing in Baghdad with these four members dragged from their cars and brutally beaten, as you described yesterday on this same program?
CLANCY: Well, Bill, certainly there is some -- a lot of people looking at this, but you have really two camps here. Some people find that they are shocked by this, the way that the crowd behaved. There's another camp that might say this is a result of the occupation.
One of the newspapers today even offering advice to U.S. soldiers, telling them to take the kinder, gentler approach to the Iraqis of Fallujah.
The reality is a lot of people in Iraq see Fallujah as a stronghold of former Baathists and supporters of Saddam Hussein. They were not too terribly surprised by what they saw on television.
HEMMER: Much more on this throughout the morning. Jim Clancy, thanks for that, live in Baghdad.
At the headlines now gas prices expected to go up even more and analysts say you can blame it on OPEC.
OPEC deciding to cut oil production by about a million barrels a day, starting today. The White House says President Bush is disappointed with that decision. Andy Serwer is watching it -- much more on this in about 20 minutes here on our program.
Police in Italy say they've arrested five people in connection with international terrorism. Officials say three Italians and a Turkish man and woman have been detained there. It is not clear how the suspects are tied to terrorist activity, but police say they were part of a local terror cell.
This country now: state of New Jersey, the defense resting its case in the manslaughter trial of former NBA star Jayson Williams. Williams told the judge yesterday that he has trust in God and confidence in the jury. He did not testify in his own defense.
Williams is charged with manslaughter for the shooting death of a limousine driver two years ago inside of his home. A closer look at this case in a moment. The impact of Williams not taking the stand.
Google, perhaps the most popular online search engine, now offering free e-mail. The new service is called g-mail. Google says customers will get one gigabyte of storage, which the company says is 250 to 500 times more storage space than the Yahoo or Hotmail e-mail.
The catch? Google will send customers targeted ads so if you don't like spam, heads up there. Spam is a dirty word around here, so...
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: A missing Wisconsin college student is alive and well this morning, four days after she disappeared.
20-year-old Audrey Seiler told police she was kidnapped at knifepoint. CNN's Jonathan Freed is in Madison, Wisconsin now with the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN FREED, CNN: Audrey Seiler was found in a marshy area about two miles from her home when a passerby spotted her and called authorities.
Police quickly set up a parameter and started searching for a suspect believed armed with a gun and a knife.
NOBLE WRAT, ASSISTANT CHIEF MADISON POLICE DEPT: The suspect was described as a white male in his late 20s to early 30s. 5'11" to 6 feet -- 6 feet tall, last wearing a black sweatshirt and jeans with a black cap.
FREED: While at the hospital:
KEITH SEILER, AUDREY'S FATHER: Just relieved, glad to be warm, to see her friends and family.
FREED: The 20-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin disappeared early Saturday morning. A security camera in her apartment building caught her leaving without a coat.
Doctors were impressed by her condition.
DR. PHILIP SCHULTZ, ST. MARY'S EMERGENCY SERVICES: She really got through an ordeal remarkably well, physically.
She has lots of muscle aches from being confined during this period of time, and she's really been dehydrated, so what we've been doing basically is just kind of replenishing her fluids, but she already looks a lot better than she did when she came in.
FREED: A few hours later, Seiler left the hospital. Investigators paid extra attention to the missing person case because Seiler says she was attacked two months ago, knocked unconscious while out walking after midnight.
But she wasn't robbed or badly hurt. During the four-day ordeal, her family tried to focus on positive thoughts.
STEPHANIE SEILER, AUDREY'S MOTHER: We needed to stay strong for Audrey and Audrey needed to stay strong for us and we believed in that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREED: Now the search for the suspect was suspended over night, it is set to resume again this morning, and police have just told me that when it does resume it will not be with as many officers as were here yesterday -- Heidi. COLLINS: All right, Jonathan Freed, thanks so much, live from Madison this morning.
Just a little bit earlier today I spoke with Larry Kamholz, public information officer for the Madison police department about the latest on their investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OFC. LARRY KAMHOLZ, MADISON POLICE DEPT.: The investigation is still going on, and we have a lot of information to glean from the family at this point, but we're kind of giving them an opportunity to bond with each other.
It is reported that Audrey was abducted by knifepoint from her apartment. There is also a report that Audrey believed that there was some type of gun involved. However, she did not see any type of gun -- it was more implied during this course of her time with the suspect.
We don't have a lot of information -- we've secured off the area that we found Audrey -- we searched that area initially for the suspect.
There is no one in there. We brought in helicopters with infrared cameras to help identify somebody that may be hiding in that area, but we did not find anybody.
Currently this morning some time early this morning after some of our briefings, our crime scene processing unit will be out in that area going through there and trying to find any evidence or process the scene as we do any other crime.
COLLINS: All right, I want to ask you a little bit about Audrey now if I could. We've been hearing that she was held in captivity but not harmed. Heard a little bit about dehydration. What can you tell us about her condition?
KAMHOLZ: Well, I can tell you very briefly I've spoke with the family in great detail over the last 12 hours here. The family is just so grateful that she's returned.
Her health -- she's doing very well. She's very tired; she's been through a lot emotionally and physically but overall she's doing very well.
She was released from the hospital late afternoon yesterday, and right now like I said they are probably sleeping as we speak and trying to catch up on all that missed opportunity of sleeping throughout the days that they haven't been able to in the last part of the week.
COLLINS: Understandable. Officer, how strange is this? We've also learned a little bit about this apparent attack that happened back in February as well. An attack of another kind according to Audrey. Does this seem strange to you? KAMHOLZ: You know, this investigation, as a whole, is just very unique. There's just so many things about this case. You know she was -- she was attacked and left unconscious, which is very strange, and obviously the abduction itself and us locating her and -- in the place that we did was very unique.
There's a lot of things that we have to sit down and go through and try to piece some more information together so we can identify the person that is involved and that's going to take some time here.
I anticipate the interview with Audrey is going to last for several hours. It's just something that we're going to have to take our time with and make sure that we have the correct and accurate information from Audrey.
COLLINS: As we know, the alleged abductor is a white male, 20s to 30s, last seen wearing a black sweatshirt and a hat and jeans. Wondering if you are going on that description, or if there are other leads that you are pursuing at this time?
KAMHOLZ: Well, we're definitely taking that description that we have from Audrey and that's what we're working on, but we are taking any tips that may come into us that may help identify this person involved or help lead us to identify the assailant and obviously we want to contact him and we'll take the appropriate steps with out investigative measures from that point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Officer Kamholz said there was little information police have been able to glean from this, a surveillance video showing Audrey leaving her apartment building.
HEMMER: A 32-year-old man charged with driving drunk accused of being behind the wheel when a truck swerved into a gas station in Maine.
It hit a pump, set up a huge explosion. Dramatic videotape here on a surveillance camera. A couple pumping gas just a few feet away narrowly escaping that ball of flames.
Other witnesses at that 7-11 aided police in identifying the driver of the truck. Police say now that additional charges may be filed against that 32-year-old man. That is some stuff you don't see every day.
COLLINS: No, man. All right.
Still to come this morning Martha Stewart's legal team says one of the jurors lied. We'll ask Jeffrey Toobin if there are grounds to have their conviction -- or her conviction, that is, thrown out.
HEMMER: All right, which side has the stronger signal now? Al Franken debuts yesterday from the left. We'll see on the right also which area viewers and listeners are paying attention to. COLLINS: That's right and does Jennifer Lopez need a makeover? Our "90-Second-Pop" crew will tell us what changes she's making. It's all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Martha Stewart's lawyers arguing now for new trial saying one of the jurors who convicted her lied about a previous criminal record thereby depriving Stewart of her right to a fair trial.
Stewart convicted of conspiracy, obstructing justice and lying to government investigators. Is there a chance here for a mistrial or even a retrial? Jeffrey Toobin is here to talk about it.
You're lukewarm on this aren't you?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well it's a very interesting situation because this juror is probably the one juror who's familiar to people at home because he is the juror who right after the verdict who came out and gave a very outspoken news conference, talking about how this was a victory for the little guy.
And really gave kind of a political analysis of the case.
HEMMER: Let me stop you right there. We'll roll some videotape -- some of the statements that he made with reporters that seemed at times to go on and on and on. Let's listen from a few weeks ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHAPPELL HARTRIDGE, FORMER JUROR IN MARTHA STEWART CASE: What messes up this sense of (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Maybe to the middle investors, they may feel a little bit more comfortable that they can invest in the market and not worry about these type of scams where they can lose their 401Ks or just lose money on (UNINTELLIGIBLE) stocks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Can lawyers take those statements, after a verdict has been rendered and go back and say, hey, wait a minute we got a case here?
TOOBIN: Well what's --what's significant is not so much his statements here it's that during voir dire he was asked about his criminal record and he did apparently have a record for domestic violence and did apparently -- we need to hear his side of the story -- lie in the course of domestic -- lie -- in the course of jury selection and that is the grounds for asking for a new trial, not so much those statements alone, it's the lying during voir dire.
HEMMER: All right, I showed our viewers some of the statements by Martha Stewart's attorneys: "There's a fine line between being wiling to serve and being anxious. Between accepting the grave responsibility for passing judgment on a human life and being so eager to serve that you commit perjury to avoid being struck."
It continues but just take that statement there -- how strong is the argument, Jeff?
TOOBIN: Well, the argument is -- the risk to Martha -- the problem with Martha Stewart's argument is that it's not enough simply to prove that someone was dishonest during voir dire.
You have to show that that dishonesty indicated partiality, indicated that he got on the jury essentially to get Martha Stewart and that's going to be a lot harder to prove.
Because, you know, you can't have a system where every juror you can conduct an investigation after the fact, find out if there was some dishonesty in their -- in their voir dire and then get a new trial. Courts are very reluctant to give new trials.
HEMMER: Smart move or a desperate move?
TOOBIN: Oh, very smart move. I mean, this is a -- certainly a reasonable thing for the lawyers to ask. This is a very responsible thing that Martha Stewart's lawyers did. I think ultimately it will probably be unsuccessful because it's just hard -- it's hard to get a new trial but this is a serious issue, it's not a trivial thing.
HEMMER: Sentencing schedule for mid-June. Thank you, Jeff, good to see you.
OK. All right, here's Heidi.
COLLINS: The Jayson Williams manslaughter trial is about to move into its final phase now. Both sides will deliver closing arguments next week. The defense rested yesterday after the former NBA star decided against telling his story.
Here's CNN's Deborah Feyerick.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN: The jury was out when Jayson Williams told the judge what he decided eight weeks into his manslaughter trial.
JAYSON WILLIAMS, CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER: I understand my rights. Under the advice of my counsel, I will not testify. I am innocent; I put my trust in God and I have great confidence in this jury.
FEYERICK: Soon after, Williams's legal team wrapped its case.
BILLY MARTIN, DEFENSE LAWYER: Your honor, the defense rests.
FEYERICK: Not taking the stand could raise questions. When the trial began, jury members were told by Williams's own lawyer they'd hear directly from the former NBA star.
MARTIN: Jayson Williams will tell you how this horrific totally unforeseeable accident occurred.
FEYERICK: Williams story instead told over four days by defense witnesses, among them two gun experts testifying the shotgun which killed limo driver Gus Christofi was filled with debris, claiming it was capable of going off at the slightest touch.
But prosecutors believe they proved the 12-gague shotgun did misfire, their experts testifying there was nothing wrong with the trigger. The judge will instruct the jury Williams has a right not to testify and that it can't be held against him.
Also prosecutors will not be able to mention the all star's absence on the stand. During rebuttal, prosecutors are expected to call at least one witness to counter Williams claim that the gun went off accidentally. Both sides making closing arguments early next week.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: If convicted of all eight counts, Williams faces a possible 55 years in prison.
HEMMER: In a moment here, Heidi, much more on the discovery of missing student Audrey Seiler. She is alive and well. The questions though persist yet again this morning.
Also, what will OPEC's production cut mean for prices at the pump here in this country? Andy has that.
Jack, too, is back in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back everybody. What goes up may go up even more and that's the word anyway.
Plus a check of the markets first quarter report with Andy Serwer, "Minding Your Business." First check of the morning for us here.
Good morning, OPEC is the news, the White House had a statement yesterday -- what are you seeing here?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Well, might not be quite as bad as everyone is suggesting. Of course there are a lot of people outraged this morning.
Of course, we're talking about OPEC cutting back it's production, takes effect today by a million barrels a day, four percent and the White House did have some comment on it.
Let's hear what White House press secretary Scott McClellan had to say about this yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president is disappointed in today's decision. Producers should not take steps that harm American consumers and our economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERWER: Well, here you go. You can see what it's been doing to gas prices. You see a trend here, Bill? I think I do. Obviously going up and up and April forecasts were a buck 83.
California of course well over two dollars a barrel. OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, there's eleven who produce about a third of the world's oil, about half of ours.
And here's why it might not be so bad, there's some mitigating factors I want to get to very quickly here. Number one is OPEC famous for cheating. That means they have quotas, each one of these countries, they will probably over-produce meaning they won't cut back as much as anticipated.
Number two, in the second quarter, oil demand goes down. You're not in the heavy winter months so there's not a lot of heating oil and you're also not in the heavy driving months. And so that won't be as bad as well.
And also the thing to remember here is we are still paying a lot less for gasoline than other countries around the world and we're paying less for gasoline than we were say 20 years ago inflation adjusted so those are some mitigating factors there.
HEMMER: There's a tax issue in there too. The silver lining, thanks for finding that for us.
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: Quickly, markets or not, do we have time today?
SERWER: I can do them very quickly, down a little bit yesterday, why don't we pull up the quarter numbers because -- well that's where we are yesterday, sorry.
Just a little bit of a blip. And here was what happened for the quarter. Very volatile first quarter for the markets, the broadest measure for the S&P 500 up a little bit, though so why don't we just pay attention to that one?
HEMMER: Yes, why not?
SERWER: Yes, OK.
HEMMER: Thanks, Andy. Heidi.
COLLINS: Time now for the Cafferty File and the "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: Thank you, Heidi. The murder of four civilians yesterday in Fallujah in Iraq raises a couple of questions.
One is the resistance in Iraq limited to former Saddam Hussein supporters and terrorists from outside the country or do the events in Fallujah represent some sort of a form of Iraqi nationalism?
The aftermath of this attack included hours of celebration in the streets, cheering children and the mutilation and hanging of bodies from a bridge.
The second question is a difficult decision faced by the news media. Newspapers, TV stations have to decide which and how much of these graphic images to show.
For example, here's the front page of "The New York Times" this morning. I don't remember ever seeing as graphic a picture as this on the front page of the "Times." Those are bodies burned and charred hanging from this bridge in Fallujah.
Just as tough as it gets -- what do you do with these pictures? Do the pictures convey something that was suggested in the first part of the question, some sort of Iraqi nationalism? If they do, you sort of have to show them.
The question is, should the media show the most graphic images from Fallujah? Not an easy one to answer. You can e-mail us your thoughts though at am@cnn.com and we'll read some of the letters a little bit later.
HEMMER: News organizations across the country struggling to answer that yesterday.
SERWER: Yes, I want to tell you something. This morning I took that newspaper and hid it before my kids woke up.
HEMMER: Is that so?
SERWER: Absolutely.
COLLINS: I bet you did.
SERWER: I didn't want them to see that.
HEMMER: You showed the "Times." "USA Today," "Washington Post" -- they show a similar image, but it is before these bodies were literally hung from that steel bridge...
CAFFERTY: Yes, they were similar but not nearly as graphic. This is the toughest representation of any of the papers that I saw and you know the "Times" obviously is -- has a political agenda. They're a left of center publication and you know there may be something going on editorially with the decision to put that on your front page.
HEMMER: But your point is well taken, though -- how much of this can you show to portray the story with viewers and with readers and with listeners and how much do you want to hold back because of just simply bad taste?
CAFFERTY: Remember what finally got the Vietnam War to end? It was television pictures of the war.
HEMMER: No question about it.
CAFFERTY: Not to suggest that there's -- you know -- these are the same two things.
COLLINS: All right, a lot more to talk about this morning and -- you know -- coming on that one I am sure.
Also want to let you know still to come this morning an outpouring of emotion in Wisconsin when word comes that a friend is back home safe.
Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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