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American Morning
Three U.S. Marines Killed West of Baghdad; 9/11 Commission Meets Again Tomorrow for More Public Testimony
Aired April 12, 2004 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Prayers for an American held hostage in Iraq. A man who drove trucks for Halliburton to earn money for his ailing wife.
A critical moment in the Jayson Williams trial. Will the judge throw out the charges after a prosecution mistake?
And one for the ages:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHIL MICKELSON, 2004 MASTERS CHAMPION: I just had a feeling that -- that I was going to knock the putt in.
O'BRIEN: Fan favorite Phil Mickelson wins The Masters on the last shot of the tournament. We'll tell you what he told CNN on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good morning, starting another week here.
Good morning to you. It's been a while -- Bill's my name.
O'BRIEN: Hi, Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: Nice to see you.
Also this morning, in a moment here, we'll talk to a former CIA agent about what the presidency met in their daily briefing, specifically the one on August 6, 2001 at the center of a political storm now.
Did it warrant action by the White House? A number of opinions on this issue. We'll get to all of them this morning.
O'BRIEN: Also this morning, retired general David Grange is back with us to help us sort through everything that's happened in Iraq.
He is looking at some of the toughest challenges the military faces right now from whether to increase troop strength to fighting this two-front war. He also says he has his doubts about that cease- fire that's now sort of tentatively in place in Fallujah.
HEMMER: A whole lot to talk about in Iraq yet again today.
Also on a Monday good morning to Jack Cafferty -- Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill. A little bit later today, John Kerry is going to be out with a "misery index," tell us all how awful things are in this country.
Is that really a good idea? Remember Jimmy Carter talking about a national malaise? Ronald Reagan promptly sent him right back to the peanut farm in Georgia. We'll talk about it some more later.
HEMMER: All right, Jack. Top stories again this morning.
Let's begin this morning in Texas. President Bush meets there today with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The two leaders will hold talks at Bush's ranch in Crawford.
On the agenda, Mubarak wants to know how the U.S. roadmap for Middle East peace connects to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to pull out of Gaza. They'll also certainly talk about the deadly violence in Iraq.
Vice-president Dick Cheney in Tokyo today for talks there with Japan's Prime Minister Koizumi. The U.S. offering support for the release of three Japanese civilians held hostage in Iraq. The vice- president has praised Japans' handling so far of that situation. Japan has reiterated that it will not pull troops out of Iraq, despite the current hostage crisis ongoing.
At the movies this weekend, over the Easter weekend, "The Passion of The Christ" number one yet again, back in first place. Studio estimates the controversial film earned about $17 million over the weekend.
The film knocked off last weekend's champ, "Hellboy," starring Ron Perlman as Satan's kindhearted, crime-fighting son. That slipped to number two. More later on "90-Second Pop" this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.
Also in golf, best story of the day, without question. Phil Mickelson finally winning at Augusta.
One of the most dramatic final rounds ever at The Masters. An eighteen-foot putt on the final hole rimmed the cup to seal the victory.
42 tries in a major, Mickelson won. He was the last golfer on the course late Sunday afternoon when he birdied that final hole, three under 69, shot 31 on the back yesterday. Good for a one-stroke victory over Ernie Ells.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICKELSON: My grandfather passed away, he was 97 in January, and he had been waiting for so long now to -- to put up a major championship flag on his wall. And before he passed away, he said this is your year, I can feel it coming. I know it's going to happen. And when he passed away, I just had a feeling that this was going to be the tournament.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: You could see the confidence throughout the round yesterday.
Mickelson's win marks the sixth straight major win by a first timer, something that has not happened in 144 years of championship golf, and what a day it was yesterday. Ernie Ells hit two eagles in one round and lost. Pretty remarkable in Augusta over the weekend.
O'BRIEN: I'd like to read his back story, too, about his family, and sort of all the effort and all the trials he has had so -- good for him. Congratulations.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Three U.S. Marines have been killed west of Baghdad, capping a bloody weekend of fighting with Iraqi insurgents. The deaths bring to 23 the number of U.S. troops killed since Friday.
Meanwhile, a fragile cease-fire between U.S. forces and insurgents seems to be holding in Fallujah, but a rash of hostage abductions and releases is still unfolding this morning.
Karl Penhaul is live for us in Baghdad -- Karl, good morning to you.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN: Morning, Soledad.
Yes, those three U.S. Marines were killed in fighting over night, and late yesterday along with two U.S. Army Apache helicopter pilots who died when their Apache helicopter was shot down west of Baghdad.
In a press briefing this morning, coalition military spokesman Gen. Kimmitt has said as far as the situation goes in Iraq, it's not a rosy picture, he says -- it's not a happy picture, but he said to characterize it as chaos would be an overstatement.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL: All hostages peering into a video camera wielded by Iraqi insurgents.
Eight men, Turks, Pakistanis, a Phillipino and an Indian hold up their passports and give their names.
In this video, passed to Arabic language broadcast on Al-Jazeera, the kidnappers say they'll release them from harm.
Diplomats, though, say seven Chinese are the latest victims in the rising tide of hostage taking. The facts, to Al-Jazeera said three Japanese hostages would be released, but so far the Japanese government says there's no sign of them.
The wait goes on, too, for Thomas Hamill, a U.S. contractor kidnapped when his fuel convoy was attacked late last week. His captors say they'll kill him unless U.S. Marines pull out of Fallujah when, in fact, anti-coalition revolt.
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, SPOKESMAN FOR U.S. MILITARY: But with regards to why the Marines are there, because they fought for those, they bled for those, and in some cases they died for those positions, and they don't give up ground that easy.
PENHAUL: Hospital officials' say more than 600 Iraqis died in the fighting between insurgent units and U.S. forces in Fallujah. Three Marines were killed in the area Sunday.
Two U.S. Army pilots died Sunday when insurgents shot down their Apache attack helicopter west of Baghdad. An uneasy ceasefire held in Fallujah for part of Sunday but witnesses report hearing renewed gunfire.
KIMMITT: The forces in some cases are attacking in some cases just taking pot shots. We don't know if they have not got a centralized command structure, which is causing them not to understand that there is an offer on the table for a cease-fire.
PENHAUL: Iraqi governing council members are working to broker a lasting peace in Fallujah but many civilians are streaming out, fearing new battles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL: The latest word from Fallujah over the last few moments is that sporadic clashes between Marines and insurgents continue to take place.
We do understand that around three battalions of Marines have dug in in and around the outskirts of the city and the Marines say some 2,000 insurgents are holed up inside Fallujah, a large number of those are believed to be foreign fighters, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Karl Penhaul for us this morning. Karl, thank you for that update.
That kidnapped American contractor, Thomas Hamill was driving a truck in Iraq for a Halliburton subsidiary when he was captured. His friends and neighbors in Macon, Mississippi gathered yesterday to pray for his safe return.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR DOROTHY HINES, MACON, MISSISSIPPI: We all just praying for him, and that's about all we can do right now, but we're going to show him our support by anything. We're going to have flags up yellow ribbons -- a prayer vigil -- and we will continue to keep him in prayer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Hamill was having financial problems with his dairy farm and took the job in Iraq to support his young family. He needed the money in part to pay his wife's medical bills after she had heart surgery.
HEMMER: Awful lot of concern in Mississippi today. Also back to the issue of a cease-fire in Fallujah and can that really hold?
CNN military analyst retired general David Grange is live in Oakbrook, Illinois. General good morning to you and welcome back here.
BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, U.S. ARMY (RET): Thank you.
HEMMER: Do you believe it can hold or not sir?
GRANGE: It's going to be very fragile. I have doubts and the reason being who do you make the ceasefire with?
I think the governing council and the coalition force leadership you know who they are. Who are the insurgents -- what's on the insurgent side?
You have some tribal leaders that I think truly want some peace, but you have some insurgent leaders that do not want peace which I think will violate the cease fire and I don't know if you can do a lasting cease fire for those kind of people.
HEMMER: If you heard Karl Penhaul reporting there, members of the Iraqi governing council are involved to some extent in that negotiation. How do you read that significance, General?
GRANGE: Very significant. I mean, it has to be Iraqi leadership involved in this thing. It cannot just be the coalition because again some of these insurgent leaders do not want to negotiate for a ceasefire with the coalition and what they really want is the coalition forces out of there and they cannot just like General Kimmitt said they cannot give up ground, bloody ground (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
HEMMER: As a military man, how much do ceasefires give the enemy a chance to regroup?
GRANGE: Well, that's one of the -- one of the concerns. You can't leave a ceasefire be a -- in a negotiation phase for too long. The enemy uses the ceasefire to regroup, reposition, re-dig in and gets posture for the next phase of operations.
HEMMER: If you read some of the stories over the weekend there appears to be a strategy in place now about if indeed the military action continues you would have block by block fighting in the Sunni triangle to root out that section of the opposition.
Then you would have target attacks in the south hitting the Shiites. Does that sound viable based on brute strength in Iraq today, sir?
GRANGE: Well it's a tough situation. It won't be block to block throughout the Sunni triangle. It will be in certain hotspots. There would have to obviously surge in certain areas to continue this momentum sustained combat if that's the case.
I think the concern is on more people, more coalition/U.S. forces in particular is to show that the determination, the resolve that you will surge to meet this contingency. I think it sends a powerful message to reinforce temporarily during this continuous surge of fighting.
HEMMER: That answer takes us into the next question. "TIME" magazine, General Barry Cafferty quoted and I'll put it on the screen for our viewers to see -- "There are no more U.S. troops to send to Iraq. That's why we need 80,000 or more troops added to the U.S. Army."
He wants it to grow. Do you agree?
GRANGE: I agree on permanent troop strength growth. I think that for the long-term that has to be done. I think there's troops available to send right now to reinforce for temporary assignment in Iraq.
I do think though long term this fight that everyone talks about is going to be a sustained spike for several years and I think that they need to permanently increase the size of the military. It's not just on the administration it's also on Congress because Congress cannot authorize it unless they put the monies to back it up for the long term.
Which goes into VA benefits, health care, etc.
HEMMER: David Grange, thanks. General there in Oakbrook, Illinois. We'll talk again, appreciate you appearing today -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: The trial of former NBA star Jayson Williams could end today with no verdict and no retrial. Williams's attorney want charges against him dropped. Williams is accused of accidentally killing a limo driver then trying to make it look like a suicide.
The trial was halted April 1st when lead prosecutor Steven Lember admitted that he hadn't given the defense evidence it should have received a year ago. The defense calls it intentional misconduct.
Legal experts doubt that the judge will grant the defense's request though. They say it's unlikely that Lember purposely held onto the material.
HEMMER: Jeff Toobin has got a few thoughts on this. We'll get to him a bit later this morning.
Still to come here on AMERICAN MORNING the declassified presidential briefing offers enough information to warn action against terrorists here in the U.S. We'll talk to a former CIA officer about that in a moment here.
O'BRIEN: Also, do Americans think President Bush has a clear plan to get out of Iraq? We're going to take a look at the latest CNN poll numbers.
HEMMER: And last night Nick and Jessica the variety hour at ABC. Was it a hit? Or was it a miss? "90-Second Pop" in a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: When the 9/11 Commission meets again tomorrow for more public testimony, it will likely have questions about a particular presidential briefing from August 6, 2001.
The memo, which was declassified on Saturday, noted that al Qaeda members were living in the United States. It also said the FBI had noted suspicious activity consistent with preparations for, quote, "hijackings or other types of attacks."
President Bush though says the report was not a warning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I asked for the Central Intelligence Agency to give me an update on any terrorist threats and the PDB was no indication of a terrorist threat. There was not a time and place of an attack and it was -- you know it said Osama bin Laden had designs on America. Well, I knew that. What I wanted to know was there anything specifically going to take place in America that we needed to react to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Former CIA officer Bob Baer is in Washington, D.C. with us this morning. Nice to see you, Bob, thanks for being back with us.
Let's start with this PDB dated August 6, 2001. I want to read you a small chunk of it. It says "FBI information sine that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks." It goes on to say: "CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the United Arab Emirates in May saying that a group of bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives."
So when you read that, do you think that's significant information in that briefing or do you say you know it's still too vague and too unspecific to actually provide a lot of valuable information. Where do you stand on this?
BOB BAER, FORMER CIA OFFICER: Soledad, I stand -- I agree with the president. That information was not actionable. I mean, in any sense of the word.
It was the president asked for are there any outstanding threats -- the CIA made a compilation of its best information. Some of it was very old, but there was nothing that the president could have done with that information, for instance order out the National Guard, cancel flights, hire extra border guards. Any of those things -- nothing in that report that PDB suggests he should do anything.
So, I agree with him it was not actionable.
O'BRIEN: At the same time it seems like it was compounded or the lack of action was compounded by numerous balls that were dropped. For example, Bob Kerrey wrote an Op-Ed in yesterday's "New York Times" about you recall of course the Phoenix FBI agent who recommended looking into al Qaeda operatives who were training at U.S. flight schools. This is what he wrote in the Op-Ed.
"Ms. Rice did not receive this information and while I am not blaming her, I have not seen any kind of urgent follow-up after this July 5 meeting that anyone who has worked in government knows needs to happen to make things happen."
Do you think the Senator has a point there?
BAER: Oh, he does have a point. I think the bureaucracy failed us, that we were not combining FBI databases and CIA databases. But that's the way it's been for a long time. In fact, the way the FBI and CIA are structured, they rarely share information. One is an organization that follows up criminal cases and the other collects intelligence and the information legally does not mesh very well.
I think that the failure was systematic all across the United States both in the FBI and the CIA, which is going to get corrected one day, I hope.
O'BRIEN: Do you think, though, the failure of bureaucracy as you call it is enough to lay the blame. I mean, Condoleezza Rice said as much in her testimony that there was a sort of systematic failure.
Do you think that explains why the sense of these documents weren't made public enough of that there was no sense of urgency. I mean, is that the be all end all who to blame here, the FBI and the CIA essentially not talking to each other?
BAER: I think there are people to blame. I mean one of these hijackers was coming from Yemen, I believe, went to Dubai -- there was enough information against him to search his room in Dubai but there was not, apparently, enough information to put him on a watch list. He should have been put on a watch list. There was a failure at a very low level. I think we should address those failures, pinpoint where it went badly and take appropriate action.
O'BRIEN: Bob Baer joining us this morning from Washington, D.C.
BAER: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Nice to see you as always -- thanks a lot. Bill.
HEMMER: In a moment here, more kidnappings and more killings over the weekend in Iraq as the U.S. still on track to handover power. Good question for Paul Bremer and not quite clear if he has the right answer yet.
Also why is the IRS auditing more individuals and fewer corporations? Good question for Andy Serwer up in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Wall Street getting ready for a flood of earnings reports that could dictate our future not just today but throughout the week. Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business" on a Monday morning.
Nice to see you.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good to see you guys.
HEMMER: Checking in on the big companies.
SERWER: Well, you know we really are hitting this full stream and it's important not just for these companies but for the rest of us to pay attention to how corporate America is shaping up for the first quarter and of course for the rest of the year.
We're going to be looking at companies like IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Harley-Davidson, Broom, Southwest Airlines, Nokia, and a whole bunch of other companies coming up.
There you go, there's the list. PepsiCo, Bank of America and a whole bunch of them.
HEMMER: Kind of a laundry list -- Wall Street was waiting last week to get the news this week because we were down slightly.
SERWER: Yes, last week just a little bit, of course we didn't have any trading on Friday and we were down just a little bit across the board, nothing really to complain about. You can check this out here. Down about 20 -- this is for the week.
As for the year, Bill Hemmer, you were asking earlier before the show began, how are we doing with the S&P 500, well, we're up 2.46 percent for the year. Two and half percent, basically, so that's not bad through the year.
You want to talk about the IRS stuff?
HEMMER: Love to, what's the deal? Companies are getting it, or people like you and me getting it?
SERWER: Well, we're getting it unfortunately and here's the situation of course Thursday is the big day, everyone, I hope you all have your taxes ready or almost done or done.
But, unfortunately, a lot of big companies don't have to worry too much about getting audited. This according to a new study by Syracuse University. The number of audits per big companies is down.
Check this out: down slightly but you know every little bit counts here. Whereas for individuals the audit rate is going up. What's this all about? You can see it's up 14 percent for individuals. The IRS had been saying it was going to crack down on audits for big corporations.
They're not getting the job done. This is particularly upsetting to a lot of people, particularly in the wake of all the corporate scandals we had over the past couple of years. The IRS saying it's understaffed. So, more criticism for that agency.
HEMMER: Thank you Andy -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Time for Jack now and the "Question of the Day." Hello.
CAFFERTY: Good morning. John Kerry is hoping that misery will help him become president. Later today the Massachusetts senator will formally release his misery index, focusing on negative economic trends that he claims have been suffered during the Bush administration.
Kerry says six of seven economic statistics worsened in the last four years including median family income, college tuition, health insurance costs, gas prices, personal bankruptcies, and private sector job growth.
Only home ownership rates improved. History suggests Senator Kerry may want to be careful with his pessimistic reading about this country. In July of 1979, former president Jimmy Carter gave a speech that focused on what Carter said was a crisis in confidence in the United States. It became known as the "malaise speech." Ronald Reagan went on to win the 1980 election on a campaign of optimism, restoring the country's self-confidence.
So here's the question: is John Kerry making a mistake focusing on a misery index? You can e-mail us at am@cnn.com. We'll read some of your responses as we move through the next couple of hours.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. And, still to come this morning, reality TV's hottest couple takes on a new gig -- is Nick and Jessica's new variety show the spice of life -- oh my, that's revealing a lot there.
Our "90-Second Pop" panel takes a look in just a moment. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right, welcome back, 7:30 here in New York on a Monday morning here. Did you have a good time off, by the way? I haven't had a chance to see you or talk to you.
O'BRIEN: I did, kind of busy, you know. Did a little traveling.
HEMMER: How's everything -- you know.
O'BRIEN: I'm getting bigger by the minute but otherwise it's all fine.
HEMMER: You look terrific.
O'BRIEN: Thank you. You lie, but that's sweet.
HEMMER: Not at all.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 12, 2004 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Prayers for an American held hostage in Iraq. A man who drove trucks for Halliburton to earn money for his ailing wife.
A critical moment in the Jayson Williams trial. Will the judge throw out the charges after a prosecution mistake?
And one for the ages:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHIL MICKELSON, 2004 MASTERS CHAMPION: I just had a feeling that -- that I was going to knock the putt in.
O'BRIEN: Fan favorite Phil Mickelson wins The Masters on the last shot of the tournament. We'll tell you what he told CNN on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good morning, starting another week here.
Good morning to you. It's been a while -- Bill's my name.
O'BRIEN: Hi, Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: Nice to see you.
Also this morning, in a moment here, we'll talk to a former CIA agent about what the presidency met in their daily briefing, specifically the one on August 6, 2001 at the center of a political storm now.
Did it warrant action by the White House? A number of opinions on this issue. We'll get to all of them this morning.
O'BRIEN: Also this morning, retired general David Grange is back with us to help us sort through everything that's happened in Iraq.
He is looking at some of the toughest challenges the military faces right now from whether to increase troop strength to fighting this two-front war. He also says he has his doubts about that cease- fire that's now sort of tentatively in place in Fallujah.
HEMMER: A whole lot to talk about in Iraq yet again today.
Also on a Monday good morning to Jack Cafferty -- Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill. A little bit later today, John Kerry is going to be out with a "misery index," tell us all how awful things are in this country.
Is that really a good idea? Remember Jimmy Carter talking about a national malaise? Ronald Reagan promptly sent him right back to the peanut farm in Georgia. We'll talk about it some more later.
HEMMER: All right, Jack. Top stories again this morning.
Let's begin this morning in Texas. President Bush meets there today with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The two leaders will hold talks at Bush's ranch in Crawford.
On the agenda, Mubarak wants to know how the U.S. roadmap for Middle East peace connects to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to pull out of Gaza. They'll also certainly talk about the deadly violence in Iraq.
Vice-president Dick Cheney in Tokyo today for talks there with Japan's Prime Minister Koizumi. The U.S. offering support for the release of three Japanese civilians held hostage in Iraq. The vice- president has praised Japans' handling so far of that situation. Japan has reiterated that it will not pull troops out of Iraq, despite the current hostage crisis ongoing.
At the movies this weekend, over the Easter weekend, "The Passion of The Christ" number one yet again, back in first place. Studio estimates the controversial film earned about $17 million over the weekend.
The film knocked off last weekend's champ, "Hellboy," starring Ron Perlman as Satan's kindhearted, crime-fighting son. That slipped to number two. More later on "90-Second Pop" this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.
Also in golf, best story of the day, without question. Phil Mickelson finally winning at Augusta.
One of the most dramatic final rounds ever at The Masters. An eighteen-foot putt on the final hole rimmed the cup to seal the victory.
42 tries in a major, Mickelson won. He was the last golfer on the course late Sunday afternoon when he birdied that final hole, three under 69, shot 31 on the back yesterday. Good for a one-stroke victory over Ernie Ells.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICKELSON: My grandfather passed away, he was 97 in January, and he had been waiting for so long now to -- to put up a major championship flag on his wall. And before he passed away, he said this is your year, I can feel it coming. I know it's going to happen. And when he passed away, I just had a feeling that this was going to be the tournament.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: You could see the confidence throughout the round yesterday.
Mickelson's win marks the sixth straight major win by a first timer, something that has not happened in 144 years of championship golf, and what a day it was yesterday. Ernie Ells hit two eagles in one round and lost. Pretty remarkable in Augusta over the weekend.
O'BRIEN: I'd like to read his back story, too, about his family, and sort of all the effort and all the trials he has had so -- good for him. Congratulations.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Three U.S. Marines have been killed west of Baghdad, capping a bloody weekend of fighting with Iraqi insurgents. The deaths bring to 23 the number of U.S. troops killed since Friday.
Meanwhile, a fragile cease-fire between U.S. forces and insurgents seems to be holding in Fallujah, but a rash of hostage abductions and releases is still unfolding this morning.
Karl Penhaul is live for us in Baghdad -- Karl, good morning to you.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN: Morning, Soledad.
Yes, those three U.S. Marines were killed in fighting over night, and late yesterday along with two U.S. Army Apache helicopter pilots who died when their Apache helicopter was shot down west of Baghdad.
In a press briefing this morning, coalition military spokesman Gen. Kimmitt has said as far as the situation goes in Iraq, it's not a rosy picture, he says -- it's not a happy picture, but he said to characterize it as chaos would be an overstatement.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL: All hostages peering into a video camera wielded by Iraqi insurgents.
Eight men, Turks, Pakistanis, a Phillipino and an Indian hold up their passports and give their names.
In this video, passed to Arabic language broadcast on Al-Jazeera, the kidnappers say they'll release them from harm.
Diplomats, though, say seven Chinese are the latest victims in the rising tide of hostage taking. The facts, to Al-Jazeera said three Japanese hostages would be released, but so far the Japanese government says there's no sign of them.
The wait goes on, too, for Thomas Hamill, a U.S. contractor kidnapped when his fuel convoy was attacked late last week. His captors say they'll kill him unless U.S. Marines pull out of Fallujah when, in fact, anti-coalition revolt.
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, SPOKESMAN FOR U.S. MILITARY: But with regards to why the Marines are there, because they fought for those, they bled for those, and in some cases they died for those positions, and they don't give up ground that easy.
PENHAUL: Hospital officials' say more than 600 Iraqis died in the fighting between insurgent units and U.S. forces in Fallujah. Three Marines were killed in the area Sunday.
Two U.S. Army pilots died Sunday when insurgents shot down their Apache attack helicopter west of Baghdad. An uneasy ceasefire held in Fallujah for part of Sunday but witnesses report hearing renewed gunfire.
KIMMITT: The forces in some cases are attacking in some cases just taking pot shots. We don't know if they have not got a centralized command structure, which is causing them not to understand that there is an offer on the table for a cease-fire.
PENHAUL: Iraqi governing council members are working to broker a lasting peace in Fallujah but many civilians are streaming out, fearing new battles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL: The latest word from Fallujah over the last few moments is that sporadic clashes between Marines and insurgents continue to take place.
We do understand that around three battalions of Marines have dug in in and around the outskirts of the city and the Marines say some 2,000 insurgents are holed up inside Fallujah, a large number of those are believed to be foreign fighters, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Karl Penhaul for us this morning. Karl, thank you for that update.
That kidnapped American contractor, Thomas Hamill was driving a truck in Iraq for a Halliburton subsidiary when he was captured. His friends and neighbors in Macon, Mississippi gathered yesterday to pray for his safe return.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR DOROTHY HINES, MACON, MISSISSIPPI: We all just praying for him, and that's about all we can do right now, but we're going to show him our support by anything. We're going to have flags up yellow ribbons -- a prayer vigil -- and we will continue to keep him in prayer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Hamill was having financial problems with his dairy farm and took the job in Iraq to support his young family. He needed the money in part to pay his wife's medical bills after she had heart surgery.
HEMMER: Awful lot of concern in Mississippi today. Also back to the issue of a cease-fire in Fallujah and can that really hold?
CNN military analyst retired general David Grange is live in Oakbrook, Illinois. General good morning to you and welcome back here.
BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, U.S. ARMY (RET): Thank you.
HEMMER: Do you believe it can hold or not sir?
GRANGE: It's going to be very fragile. I have doubts and the reason being who do you make the ceasefire with?
I think the governing council and the coalition force leadership you know who they are. Who are the insurgents -- what's on the insurgent side?
You have some tribal leaders that I think truly want some peace, but you have some insurgent leaders that do not want peace which I think will violate the cease fire and I don't know if you can do a lasting cease fire for those kind of people.
HEMMER: If you heard Karl Penhaul reporting there, members of the Iraqi governing council are involved to some extent in that negotiation. How do you read that significance, General?
GRANGE: Very significant. I mean, it has to be Iraqi leadership involved in this thing. It cannot just be the coalition because again some of these insurgent leaders do not want to negotiate for a ceasefire with the coalition and what they really want is the coalition forces out of there and they cannot just like General Kimmitt said they cannot give up ground, bloody ground (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
HEMMER: As a military man, how much do ceasefires give the enemy a chance to regroup?
GRANGE: Well, that's one of the -- one of the concerns. You can't leave a ceasefire be a -- in a negotiation phase for too long. The enemy uses the ceasefire to regroup, reposition, re-dig in and gets posture for the next phase of operations.
HEMMER: If you read some of the stories over the weekend there appears to be a strategy in place now about if indeed the military action continues you would have block by block fighting in the Sunni triangle to root out that section of the opposition.
Then you would have target attacks in the south hitting the Shiites. Does that sound viable based on brute strength in Iraq today, sir?
GRANGE: Well it's a tough situation. It won't be block to block throughout the Sunni triangle. It will be in certain hotspots. There would have to obviously surge in certain areas to continue this momentum sustained combat if that's the case.
I think the concern is on more people, more coalition/U.S. forces in particular is to show that the determination, the resolve that you will surge to meet this contingency. I think it sends a powerful message to reinforce temporarily during this continuous surge of fighting.
HEMMER: That answer takes us into the next question. "TIME" magazine, General Barry Cafferty quoted and I'll put it on the screen for our viewers to see -- "There are no more U.S. troops to send to Iraq. That's why we need 80,000 or more troops added to the U.S. Army."
He wants it to grow. Do you agree?
GRANGE: I agree on permanent troop strength growth. I think that for the long-term that has to be done. I think there's troops available to send right now to reinforce for temporary assignment in Iraq.
I do think though long term this fight that everyone talks about is going to be a sustained spike for several years and I think that they need to permanently increase the size of the military. It's not just on the administration it's also on Congress because Congress cannot authorize it unless they put the monies to back it up for the long term.
Which goes into VA benefits, health care, etc.
HEMMER: David Grange, thanks. General there in Oakbrook, Illinois. We'll talk again, appreciate you appearing today -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: The trial of former NBA star Jayson Williams could end today with no verdict and no retrial. Williams's attorney want charges against him dropped. Williams is accused of accidentally killing a limo driver then trying to make it look like a suicide.
The trial was halted April 1st when lead prosecutor Steven Lember admitted that he hadn't given the defense evidence it should have received a year ago. The defense calls it intentional misconduct.
Legal experts doubt that the judge will grant the defense's request though. They say it's unlikely that Lember purposely held onto the material.
HEMMER: Jeff Toobin has got a few thoughts on this. We'll get to him a bit later this morning.
Still to come here on AMERICAN MORNING the declassified presidential briefing offers enough information to warn action against terrorists here in the U.S. We'll talk to a former CIA officer about that in a moment here.
O'BRIEN: Also, do Americans think President Bush has a clear plan to get out of Iraq? We're going to take a look at the latest CNN poll numbers.
HEMMER: And last night Nick and Jessica the variety hour at ABC. Was it a hit? Or was it a miss? "90-Second Pop" in a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: When the 9/11 Commission meets again tomorrow for more public testimony, it will likely have questions about a particular presidential briefing from August 6, 2001.
The memo, which was declassified on Saturday, noted that al Qaeda members were living in the United States. It also said the FBI had noted suspicious activity consistent with preparations for, quote, "hijackings or other types of attacks."
President Bush though says the report was not a warning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I asked for the Central Intelligence Agency to give me an update on any terrorist threats and the PDB was no indication of a terrorist threat. There was not a time and place of an attack and it was -- you know it said Osama bin Laden had designs on America. Well, I knew that. What I wanted to know was there anything specifically going to take place in America that we needed to react to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Former CIA officer Bob Baer is in Washington, D.C. with us this morning. Nice to see you, Bob, thanks for being back with us.
Let's start with this PDB dated August 6, 2001. I want to read you a small chunk of it. It says "FBI information sine that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks." It goes on to say: "CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the United Arab Emirates in May saying that a group of bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives."
So when you read that, do you think that's significant information in that briefing or do you say you know it's still too vague and too unspecific to actually provide a lot of valuable information. Where do you stand on this?
BOB BAER, FORMER CIA OFFICER: Soledad, I stand -- I agree with the president. That information was not actionable. I mean, in any sense of the word.
It was the president asked for are there any outstanding threats -- the CIA made a compilation of its best information. Some of it was very old, but there was nothing that the president could have done with that information, for instance order out the National Guard, cancel flights, hire extra border guards. Any of those things -- nothing in that report that PDB suggests he should do anything.
So, I agree with him it was not actionable.
O'BRIEN: At the same time it seems like it was compounded or the lack of action was compounded by numerous balls that were dropped. For example, Bob Kerrey wrote an Op-Ed in yesterday's "New York Times" about you recall of course the Phoenix FBI agent who recommended looking into al Qaeda operatives who were training at U.S. flight schools. This is what he wrote in the Op-Ed.
"Ms. Rice did not receive this information and while I am not blaming her, I have not seen any kind of urgent follow-up after this July 5 meeting that anyone who has worked in government knows needs to happen to make things happen."
Do you think the Senator has a point there?
BAER: Oh, he does have a point. I think the bureaucracy failed us, that we were not combining FBI databases and CIA databases. But that's the way it's been for a long time. In fact, the way the FBI and CIA are structured, they rarely share information. One is an organization that follows up criminal cases and the other collects intelligence and the information legally does not mesh very well.
I think that the failure was systematic all across the United States both in the FBI and the CIA, which is going to get corrected one day, I hope.
O'BRIEN: Do you think, though, the failure of bureaucracy as you call it is enough to lay the blame. I mean, Condoleezza Rice said as much in her testimony that there was a sort of systematic failure.
Do you think that explains why the sense of these documents weren't made public enough of that there was no sense of urgency. I mean, is that the be all end all who to blame here, the FBI and the CIA essentially not talking to each other?
BAER: I think there are people to blame. I mean one of these hijackers was coming from Yemen, I believe, went to Dubai -- there was enough information against him to search his room in Dubai but there was not, apparently, enough information to put him on a watch list. He should have been put on a watch list. There was a failure at a very low level. I think we should address those failures, pinpoint where it went badly and take appropriate action.
O'BRIEN: Bob Baer joining us this morning from Washington, D.C.
BAER: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Nice to see you as always -- thanks a lot. Bill.
HEMMER: In a moment here, more kidnappings and more killings over the weekend in Iraq as the U.S. still on track to handover power. Good question for Paul Bremer and not quite clear if he has the right answer yet.
Also why is the IRS auditing more individuals and fewer corporations? Good question for Andy Serwer up in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Wall Street getting ready for a flood of earnings reports that could dictate our future not just today but throughout the week. Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business" on a Monday morning.
Nice to see you.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good to see you guys.
HEMMER: Checking in on the big companies.
SERWER: Well, you know we really are hitting this full stream and it's important not just for these companies but for the rest of us to pay attention to how corporate America is shaping up for the first quarter and of course for the rest of the year.
We're going to be looking at companies like IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Harley-Davidson, Broom, Southwest Airlines, Nokia, and a whole bunch of other companies coming up.
There you go, there's the list. PepsiCo, Bank of America and a whole bunch of them.
HEMMER: Kind of a laundry list -- Wall Street was waiting last week to get the news this week because we were down slightly.
SERWER: Yes, last week just a little bit, of course we didn't have any trading on Friday and we were down just a little bit across the board, nothing really to complain about. You can check this out here. Down about 20 -- this is for the week.
As for the year, Bill Hemmer, you were asking earlier before the show began, how are we doing with the S&P 500, well, we're up 2.46 percent for the year. Two and half percent, basically, so that's not bad through the year.
You want to talk about the IRS stuff?
HEMMER: Love to, what's the deal? Companies are getting it, or people like you and me getting it?
SERWER: Well, we're getting it unfortunately and here's the situation of course Thursday is the big day, everyone, I hope you all have your taxes ready or almost done or done.
But, unfortunately, a lot of big companies don't have to worry too much about getting audited. This according to a new study by Syracuse University. The number of audits per big companies is down.
Check this out: down slightly but you know every little bit counts here. Whereas for individuals the audit rate is going up. What's this all about? You can see it's up 14 percent for individuals. The IRS had been saying it was going to crack down on audits for big corporations.
They're not getting the job done. This is particularly upsetting to a lot of people, particularly in the wake of all the corporate scandals we had over the past couple of years. The IRS saying it's understaffed. So, more criticism for that agency.
HEMMER: Thank you Andy -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Time for Jack now and the "Question of the Day." Hello.
CAFFERTY: Good morning. John Kerry is hoping that misery will help him become president. Later today the Massachusetts senator will formally release his misery index, focusing on negative economic trends that he claims have been suffered during the Bush administration.
Kerry says six of seven economic statistics worsened in the last four years including median family income, college tuition, health insurance costs, gas prices, personal bankruptcies, and private sector job growth.
Only home ownership rates improved. History suggests Senator Kerry may want to be careful with his pessimistic reading about this country. In July of 1979, former president Jimmy Carter gave a speech that focused on what Carter said was a crisis in confidence in the United States. It became known as the "malaise speech." Ronald Reagan went on to win the 1980 election on a campaign of optimism, restoring the country's self-confidence.
So here's the question: is John Kerry making a mistake focusing on a misery index? You can e-mail us at am@cnn.com. We'll read some of your responses as we move through the next couple of hours.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. And, still to come this morning, reality TV's hottest couple takes on a new gig -- is Nick and Jessica's new variety show the spice of life -- oh my, that's revealing a lot there.
Our "90-Second Pop" panel takes a look in just a moment. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right, welcome back, 7:30 here in New York on a Monday morning here. Did you have a good time off, by the way? I haven't had a chance to see you or talk to you.
O'BRIEN: I did, kind of busy, you know. Did a little traveling.
HEMMER: How's everything -- you know.
O'BRIEN: I'm getting bigger by the minute but otherwise it's all fine.
HEMMER: You look terrific.
O'BRIEN: Thank you. You lie, but that's sweet.
HEMMER: Not at all.
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