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American Morning

President Bush Welcomes Tony Blair at White House; How Are Military Families Handling News of Extended Stays in Iraq?

Aired April 16, 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: And good morning. Welcome to Friday, everybody. Other stories that we're following this morning, Howard Dean back with us. The former Democratic candidate for president talking about a big campaign challenge for Senator John Kerry, how to criticize the president about the war, but continuing to support the U.S. troops there. Is there an answer to doing that? We're going to talk about that.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also today, what to make of all delayed indecision in the Jayson Williams trial, even if you can. Did either side suffer a setback yesterday. The judge deciding a trial will proceed. Jeff Toobin helps us out on this one. We're going to need a little bit of help, too. It's a strange one there in Jersey.

O'BRIEN: How many times have we said that? And who is from Jersey?

HEMMER: Oh, good morning.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm from Reno, Nevada, man. I don't know who you're referring to.

Anyway, guess how many government agencies there are charge with protecting our security? Fifteen. And apparently that's not enough. We'll get into that in a few minutes.

O'BRIEN: They thinking about making a 16th?

CAFFERTY: Yes, the department of CYA is what they'll call that.

O'BRIEN: Well, look forward to talking about that.

Jack, thanks very much.

Let's get right to our top stories this morning. Another presumed kidnapping in Iraq to talk about. The Danish government says that one of its citizens is missing. IT Says The person is probably detained, although it has not received any ransom demands.

Meanwhile, intense explosions were reported overnight in Fallujah. A U.S. military spokesman says there is fighting in that city, although it is not exactly clear just who's involved. Fallujah has been under a shaky cease-fire.

The U.S. State Department is strongly urging American citizens to leave Saudi Arabia. The department has ordered all nonessential personnel serving the U.S. embassy and consulates to get out of the country. A top State Department official says there is concern about the terror threat level in Saudi Arabia.

The Environmental Protection Agency says more than half the U.S. population is breathing dirty air. Yesterday, the agency singled out 474 U.S. counties as not meeting new health standards for ground-level ozone, the worst of which are in Southern California and the eastern part of the country.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to take a closer look at this report later this morning.

And after weeks of saying you're fired, billionaire Donald Trump finally said, "You're hired."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, "THE ENTREPRENEUR": Bill, you're hired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: That's right. Last night a live broadcast. Donald finally picking entrepreneur Bill Rancic over investment manager Kwame Jackson in the season finale episode of NBC's the hit reality series "the Apprentice." Rancic will oversee the building of a Trump skyscraper in Chicago, a job that pays 250 grand.

HEMMER: About 20 millions Americans watched that show, last night?

O'BRIEN: Yes, Kwame says what's her face sunk him.

HEMMER: Ameroso (ph)?

O'BRIEN: Amerso.

HEMMER: Laying out the blame, I like that.

O'BRIEN: Yes, well, you know, cause she didn't fire her when she did all kinds of inappropriate and slimebally things.

HEMMER: Hey, another big story here in New York, Soledad. The sky is still blue. We found out yesterday afternoon, we can confirm now, that in New York City, Chad, the sky is still blue.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: With the increasingly uncertain situation in Iraq topping our agenda today, President Bush welcomed our closets ally today. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is at the White House a bit later this morning. Last night, here in New York, Blair met with the U.N. Secretary General Koffi Annan, expressing support for an idea put forward this week by Annan's special adviser in Baghdad, Lactar Brahimi (ph). Brahimi says the Iraqi government that takes over power at the end of June should be headed by a prime minister, a president and then two vice presidents. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I welcome very much the efforts that have been made by Mr. Brahimi on behalf of the United Nations to find the right way forward, the right political way forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Again, that was in New York. Today, it's in Washington. Our senior White House correspondent John King, awaiting there.

John, good morning.

The White House open to this plan from Brahimi coming out of Baghdad this week?

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Open, Bill, eager, great anticipation. The plan is most welcome. Some would say, the critics in this administration would say the president is desperate to have this plan enacted because of the recent violence in Iraq, and the question is to whether that June 30 deadline can be kept. The president has endorsed it, at least in principle, so has his secretary of state.

And it is remarkable, because this plan put forward by Mr. Brahimi is so different than the plan the White House first pushed a few months back. The only thing left is that June 30th deadline to transfer sovereignty. Even this past week, a senior official traveling with Vice President Cheney in Asia said that the leading plan would to the expand the current 25-member Governing Council in Iraq. Well, that is not what Mr. Brahimi wants to do. He wants to all but disband that council and create a new government.

But the administration realizes any American plan is now dead. It wants to get a political transition in place. That deadline is now fewer than 80 days away. So even though some of the details still need to be worked out, and that could be tough, making it happen, the administration very much now behind the Brahimi plan, and indeed, Bill, behind a much more vigorous United Nations role, essentially, the White House is prepared to hand over control of Iraq to the United Nations.

Also, John, in addition to that, we see all this in the election year cycle that we're now currently involved in. John Kerry consistently says you have to bring the U.N. and give the U.N. a greater role in Iraq, which is apparently exactly what you are suggesting this morning. Does the White House see that as a political concession?

KING: Well, the White House sees it as realism, that you have to have a plan in place to transfer power, and the American plan simply was not acceptable to many on the ground in Iraq. Certainly it will factor into the political campaign, in that if you ask here at the White House, Kerry says, why isn't the U.N. more involved, the White House would say the U.N. is taking the lead right now, so that Senator Kerry's criticism is off base.

It's also no secret, Prime Minister Blair today will be quite publicly supportive of this president, but it's no secret that Prime Minister Blair and others in Europe have asked this president, urged this president to lean more on the United Nations for help months and months ago. You're now seeing what the president calls a vital U.N. role. To many it is too late, but right now to this White House, Bill, it is critical.

HEMMER: One more thing on this Tony Blair issue, any cracks in that relationship, John?

KING: Well, there are cracks in the sense that Mr. Blair would have liked U.N. involvement earlier. There are cracks in the sense that some in Europe, including Mr. Blair, a little nervous about the big endorsement the president gave this week to Prime Minister Sharon's plan in Israel to disengage from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. Publicly, though, you will see solidarity behind the scenes. There are some concerns in Europe.

HEMMER: John king from the White House. John, thanks for that.

KING: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld makes it official after the intense violence of recent weeks, 20,000 troops will stay in Iraq longer than planned. Secretary Rumsfeld says the delayed rotation, along with newly arriving units, will put U.S. troops strength in Iraq at 137,000. The Pentagon is extending some tours of duty by up to three months. This breaks a promise to soldiers who have been told they would only be in Iraq for a year. April has opinion the deadliest month yet for U.S. troops in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECY.: I certainly would not have estimated that we would have had the number of individuals lost in -- that we have had lost in the last week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Ongoing battles with insurgents have killed more than 85 Americans this month. So how are military families handling the news of extended stays in Iraq?

Joining us this morning from Franklin, New Hampshire, Sharon and Richard MacDonald, along this morning with Wayne and Francesca LeBreton. Their sons, Adam MacDonald and Matthew LeBreton are serving in the 94th military police company, an Army Reserve unit that's been in Iraq for nearly a year. The MacDonalds and LeBretons -- I'm having trouble with that name there -- joining us this morning.

To all you, thank you so much for spending some time with us. We truly appreciate it.

And, Sharon, I want to start with you. Can you give me some details about when your son first learned that he was going to be deployed longer and what he said? SHARON MACDONALD, SON SERVING IN IRAQ: Well, he learned on Saturday. He called us Saturday night. We were at the Lebreton's house for the evening, because we were going to spend Easter with them. And we actually found out from another soldier who called home before Adam actually called home, because she said that some of the soldiers couldn't bear to call home and tell family members, and he was very tired, said he didn't get any sleep, and was very disappointed, and so were we.

O'BRIEN: You say very disappointed. Richard, describe how he sounded. Was he upset? Was he angry? Was he just frustrated?

RICHARD MACDONALD, SON SERVING IN IRAQ: Well, he sounded tired. You know, the boys were in -- at the Customs Office, and they were processing to, you know, leave to come home, and the buses were waiting outside for them. And during that process they were pulled away, you know, from the station and told that they are not going home. So these guys, you know, mentally were home. They were homeward bound, and they were just abruptly pulled away from that. And all of those boys over there were pretty upset and pretty shocked.

O'BRIEN: You say boys, but of course there were women, too. Franesca, in fact, it was really just a matter of hours before they were officially supposed to leave, before they heard the news about staying, and we've read reports about some of the soldiers throwing out some of their stuff because they thought, I'm out of here, I'm gone. Tell me a little bit about how you son Matthew reacted when he heard the news that in fact he'd be staying as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCESCA LEBRETON, SON SERVING IN IRAQ: Well, I didn't get a call from Matthew. Matthew was so upset, and he couldn't bear to call me to give me the news, because he was afraid of how I was going to react. So he called a neighbor to let them know that they were on hold, and that neighbor called me. And...

O'BRIEN: And how did you react?

LEBRETON: I completely -- I just fell apart. I just felt like the rug was pulled out from under me. The soldiers were so close to coming home after being extended once. They really thought they were on their way home. They were waiting for the buses, and then all hope just left them when they were told they were on hold.

O'BRIEN: Wayne, your wife says she fell apart. What was your reaction? Are you angry? Are you frustrated?

WAYNE LEBRETON, SON SERVING IN IRAQ: I'm terribly frustrated. I was in South Carolina when I got the call, and my wife sounded very, very upset and depressed when she gave me the information. And I was expecting I'd spend a week in South Carolina playing golf, and I expected when I got home on Saturday night that I'd be getting a call from my son Matthew, saying that he was in Ft. Drum, New York. And to find out that they were set back again for the second time, it was extremely demoralizing to me, and I know how the troops feel as well. O'BRIEN: I know that you all have a very strong support network within the 94th, soldiers there. So I hope that you're all going to be able to help each other get through this really disappointing and difficult time. Our best to all of you.

Thank you so much for talking to us. I know it's a difficult topic to broach. So we sure appreciate it.

HEMMER: That will be extremely challenging times.

O'BRIEN: As a parent you can't even imagine.

HEMMER: Remember when Jane Arraf was reporting that the helicopters were shrink wrapped, which is a sure sign you're going out of there. So hang in there.

We'll get a break here. In a moment, the CIA says that voice is...

(AUDIO GAP)

HEMMER: ... Afghanistan this morning for us on that.

O'BRIEN: Also, Howard Dean ran president and vocally opposed the war. What does he think about the situation in Iraq now and the presidential campaign. There he is. We're going to ask him, coming up next.

HEMMER: Also, that little girl who survived for days after a terrible car crash killing her mother. She's out of the hospital, an update, in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean our guest today talking about Iraq and the campaign ahead.

Good morning to you, Governor. Welcome back here to AMERICAN MORNING.

HOWARD DEAN, FRM. VERMONT GOVERNOR: Good morning.

HEMMER: There's a front-page story today in "The New York Times" talking about the U.S. now backing a U.N. plan to involve the United Nations in a much more forceful way starting this summer. Do you support that idea?

DEAN: I do. I think that's what's necessary. I wish it had been done that way in the first place.

But we are going to have to bring many more foreign troops into Iraq to replace ours.

I was listening to the story earlier about the troops being extended. You know, that's really demoralizing. One of the problems we're going to see is a dramatic reduction in the number of people who re-enlist in the National Guard as a result of having this president continue to mislead them and send them on missions they never thought they were going to get into.

HEMMER: Are you suggesting those numbers are going down or do you have proof of it?

DEAN: The numbers are going down now and they'll go down a lot more as the re-enlistments come in.

It's really tough on people who join the National Guard who believe that they're there serving their country, particularly domestically, and then get shipped off to places like Iraq for 12 months time and then extended.

And I think it's going to hurt -- it has already hurt our armed forces, and I think it's hurt our armed forces' ability to do what they need to do to defend the country.

So I think getting the United Nations in is long overdue. I think if we weren't having an election and the war were going better, the president wouldn't even be talking about that. The truth is, that's what we should have done in the first place to confront Saddam Hussein.

HEMMER: Also on this issue of this election year -- John Kerry yesterday said -- a man you fully support, contrary to what we heard in New Hampshire when the situation was completely different. John Kerry said yesterday, "Ask him a question," meaning the president, "and he's going to go to terror." Mark Racicot, a Republican responding, "On a day when Osama bin Laden again threatened the United States and our allies with an audio tape it's disturbing to realize that John Kerry neither recognizes nor understands the murderous ideology of our enemies and the threat they pose to our nation."

Is John Kerry missing the point on this?

DEAN: Well, I actually think the administration -- most of the -- none of the people who made the decision to go into Iraq have ever served a day in their lives overseas to defend the United States of America. This is the typical syndrome we see, that people who understand very little about combat are the ones that are willing to send our young people to die in foreign countries.

John Kerry has three Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars. He's a genuine war hero. I would far rather trust the defense of the United States of America to someone with actual combat experience. And I think, sort of, the catty comments of the Republicans notwithstanding, we need a change in the presidency so we can really defend America and not go on to these adventures without thinking about what we're doing ahead of time.

HEMMER: There are some new polling numbers that indicate only 40 percent of those surveyed now say the U.S. is more protected against terrorism since the war in Iraq broke out. That's down from 51 percent just a few short weeks ago. You have talked about Bushgate, you have mentioned the words "impeachment" along with "the president" at this point. Do you believe...

DEAN: That actually is not accurate. I have not mentioned the word "impeachment" along with "the president." So let's not get something started that wasn't true.

HEMMER: You've been extremely critical of this president, especially this past weekend on LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER, and you got into this whole conversation. My question to you is a little more pointed than that.

Is that the right thing to say when the U.S. military men and women with their lives are on the line in Iraq today?

DEAN: The right thing to do is to have a president who understands what it is to ask Americans to give their lives in the service of their country and to be a little bit more discriminating about what represents a danger to the United States and what doesn't.

It's very clear now that the president of the United States did not tell the truth to the American people when he said there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda when he implied that Saddam Hussein had something to do with terrorism, which was not true and the nation now knows that as a result of Richard Clarke's testimony; when he said in the State of the Union that Iraq was purchasing uranium from Africa, which was not true; when the vice president said that they were in Iraq accumulating nuclear weapons, that that was not true. The secretary of defense said he knew just where the weapons of mass destruction were; that was not true.

What we need is a president who will tell the truth to the American people about why we're in this war.

HEMMER: Governor Dean, thanks for your time.

DEAN: Thanks very much.

HEMMER: Back to Soledad now.

O'BRIEN: That little girl who survived up for up to 10 days at the bottom of a ravine after a terrible car crash has spent her first night at home. Five-year-old Ruby Bustamante was rescued on Tuesday from a California ravine. And look at her, she's all smiles as she's wheeled out of the hospital.

The little girl's mother, though, died in the accident. Ruby stayed by her side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSE LOPEZ, RUBY'S AUNT: This is a joyful occasion, but at the same time, there is sadness because now we need to make burial arrangements for Ruby's mother, Norma.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Amazingly, the little girl suffered only a fractured knee and a pretty minor cut on her finger. But it's true, it's such a happy story. And of course, at the same time, such a sad story because they leave behind -- she had five brothers and sisters. So a family of six kids left behind without a mother. It's really sad.

HEMMER: I wonder what she's thinking rolling out of that hospital yesterday, too.

O'BRIEN: It must be so confusing.

HEMMER: Let's get a break here, mention Tony Blair at the White House today meeting with the president hours from now. A preview of that in a moment here.

Also, mortgage rates are on the move. Could it signal the end of that huge housing boom in America? Back in a moment after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: There are some dramatic changes in mortgage rates. What's it mean for house hunters and anybody who's looking to refinance? Not good things. With that and a market preview, Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business." Right, bad news?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Yes, it is. I mean we don't want to get too alarmist here, Soledad. But no question, mortgage rates have been trending up.

Let's look at what's been going on here. You can see that's the 30-year at the top. We're up to 5.89 percent. A month ago, you can see, we were up significantly from there. And the 5.89 percent is the highest we've been this year.

Now go back to last year, you are at 6.4 percent on the 30. So it's still not at a situation where you have to be unduly concerned.

But the trend is up. And that's because, Soledad, the word on Wall Street is inflation. That's what people are concerned about. You look at those March numbers, 308,000 jobs created, retail sales going really well and then an inflation rate itself at 1.5 percent.

Well, of course if you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that, you get 6 percent. That's probably a bit much to extrapolate like that because it was 3 percent last year.

Other things, China growing 10 percent a year. IBM says its sales are up.

Getting back to the housing market, though, a lot of times when interest rates and mortgage rates go up, housing prices fall because it makes the cost of a house more expensive. You probably won't see that right away because the housing market's so tight. But if you are looking to refinance or buy a home, maybe sooner rather than later.

O'BRIEN: Good advice. How did the market do yesterday and what does it look for today?

SERWER: Yesterday was a sell-off, particularly in the Blue Chips. Let's check out where we were.

You can see here, the Dow is down -- the Dow is up a little bit, excuse me. Nasdaq down. So it's the techs that sold off. A lot of it having to do with IBM. IBM coming out with kind of mixed picture.

Nokia this morning though really saying that its business not going so great. So we might have a weaker open there. That's a Nokia phone.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it is.

SERWER: There you go, thank you for that.

O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Andy, thank you very much.

HEMMER: Calling on Jack now, "Question of the Day."

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Bill. Actually, there are two questions today. The first one is, what does government tend to do when it feels threatened? I'll answer that for you. The tendency is it creates more government.

The United States currently has 15 intelligence agencies. Let me say that again. The United States currently has 15 intelligence agencies. But apparently that's not enough.

"The New York Times" reports that the administration may create a new post for a director of national intelligence or a Department of CYA. They would manage the other 15 agencies that we already is have.

Now this is a plan drafted more than a year ago. But it's been lying around, given little attention by the White House until now. Why now? Because this summer the 9/11 Commission is expected to come out with its report and the chances are parts of it may not be real flattering to the administration and what's been done to protect this country since September 11.

How about a couple of other ideas like maybe getting the security community's computers up to speed. The commission revealed this week that prior to September 11, the FBI had no common computer database. And most of the computers are more than a decade out of date by the year 2001. Astonishing.

Question is this. Is a director of national intelligence the answer to this country's security problems? You can e-mail us at am@cnn.com.

HEMMER: Cover your apple.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, with Osama bin Laden on the loose, apparently communicating with the world, America's top general gets a progress report on the hunt. We'll take you live to Afghanistan coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired April 16, 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: And good morning. Welcome to Friday, everybody. Other stories that we're following this morning, Howard Dean back with us. The former Democratic candidate for president talking about a big campaign challenge for Senator John Kerry, how to criticize the president about the war, but continuing to support the U.S. troops there. Is there an answer to doing that? We're going to talk about that.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also today, what to make of all delayed indecision in the Jayson Williams trial, even if you can. Did either side suffer a setback yesterday. The judge deciding a trial will proceed. Jeff Toobin helps us out on this one. We're going to need a little bit of help, too. It's a strange one there in Jersey.

O'BRIEN: How many times have we said that? And who is from Jersey?

HEMMER: Oh, good morning.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm from Reno, Nevada, man. I don't know who you're referring to.

Anyway, guess how many government agencies there are charge with protecting our security? Fifteen. And apparently that's not enough. We'll get into that in a few minutes.

O'BRIEN: They thinking about making a 16th?

CAFFERTY: Yes, the department of CYA is what they'll call that.

O'BRIEN: Well, look forward to talking about that.

Jack, thanks very much.

Let's get right to our top stories this morning. Another presumed kidnapping in Iraq to talk about. The Danish government says that one of its citizens is missing. IT Says The person is probably detained, although it has not received any ransom demands.

Meanwhile, intense explosions were reported overnight in Fallujah. A U.S. military spokesman says there is fighting in that city, although it is not exactly clear just who's involved. Fallujah has been under a shaky cease-fire.

The U.S. State Department is strongly urging American citizens to leave Saudi Arabia. The department has ordered all nonessential personnel serving the U.S. embassy and consulates to get out of the country. A top State Department official says there is concern about the terror threat level in Saudi Arabia.

The Environmental Protection Agency says more than half the U.S. population is breathing dirty air. Yesterday, the agency singled out 474 U.S. counties as not meeting new health standards for ground-level ozone, the worst of which are in Southern California and the eastern part of the country.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to take a closer look at this report later this morning.

And after weeks of saying you're fired, billionaire Donald Trump finally said, "You're hired."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, "THE ENTREPRENEUR": Bill, you're hired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: That's right. Last night a live broadcast. Donald finally picking entrepreneur Bill Rancic over investment manager Kwame Jackson in the season finale episode of NBC's the hit reality series "the Apprentice." Rancic will oversee the building of a Trump skyscraper in Chicago, a job that pays 250 grand.

HEMMER: About 20 millions Americans watched that show, last night?

O'BRIEN: Yes, Kwame says what's her face sunk him.

HEMMER: Ameroso (ph)?

O'BRIEN: Amerso.

HEMMER: Laying out the blame, I like that.

O'BRIEN: Yes, well, you know, cause she didn't fire her when she did all kinds of inappropriate and slimebally things.

HEMMER: Hey, another big story here in New York, Soledad. The sky is still blue. We found out yesterday afternoon, we can confirm now, that in New York City, Chad, the sky is still blue.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: With the increasingly uncertain situation in Iraq topping our agenda today, President Bush welcomed our closets ally today. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is at the White House a bit later this morning. Last night, here in New York, Blair met with the U.N. Secretary General Koffi Annan, expressing support for an idea put forward this week by Annan's special adviser in Baghdad, Lactar Brahimi (ph). Brahimi says the Iraqi government that takes over power at the end of June should be headed by a prime minister, a president and then two vice presidents. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I welcome very much the efforts that have been made by Mr. Brahimi on behalf of the United Nations to find the right way forward, the right political way forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Again, that was in New York. Today, it's in Washington. Our senior White House correspondent John King, awaiting there.

John, good morning.

The White House open to this plan from Brahimi coming out of Baghdad this week?

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Open, Bill, eager, great anticipation. The plan is most welcome. Some would say, the critics in this administration would say the president is desperate to have this plan enacted because of the recent violence in Iraq, and the question is to whether that June 30 deadline can be kept. The president has endorsed it, at least in principle, so has his secretary of state.

And it is remarkable, because this plan put forward by Mr. Brahimi is so different than the plan the White House first pushed a few months back. The only thing left is that June 30th deadline to transfer sovereignty. Even this past week, a senior official traveling with Vice President Cheney in Asia said that the leading plan would to the expand the current 25-member Governing Council in Iraq. Well, that is not what Mr. Brahimi wants to do. He wants to all but disband that council and create a new government.

But the administration realizes any American plan is now dead. It wants to get a political transition in place. That deadline is now fewer than 80 days away. So even though some of the details still need to be worked out, and that could be tough, making it happen, the administration very much now behind the Brahimi plan, and indeed, Bill, behind a much more vigorous United Nations role, essentially, the White House is prepared to hand over control of Iraq to the United Nations.

Also, John, in addition to that, we see all this in the election year cycle that we're now currently involved in. John Kerry consistently says you have to bring the U.N. and give the U.N. a greater role in Iraq, which is apparently exactly what you are suggesting this morning. Does the White House see that as a political concession?

KING: Well, the White House sees it as realism, that you have to have a plan in place to transfer power, and the American plan simply was not acceptable to many on the ground in Iraq. Certainly it will factor into the political campaign, in that if you ask here at the White House, Kerry says, why isn't the U.N. more involved, the White House would say the U.N. is taking the lead right now, so that Senator Kerry's criticism is off base.

It's also no secret, Prime Minister Blair today will be quite publicly supportive of this president, but it's no secret that Prime Minister Blair and others in Europe have asked this president, urged this president to lean more on the United Nations for help months and months ago. You're now seeing what the president calls a vital U.N. role. To many it is too late, but right now to this White House, Bill, it is critical.

HEMMER: One more thing on this Tony Blair issue, any cracks in that relationship, John?

KING: Well, there are cracks in the sense that Mr. Blair would have liked U.N. involvement earlier. There are cracks in the sense that some in Europe, including Mr. Blair, a little nervous about the big endorsement the president gave this week to Prime Minister Sharon's plan in Israel to disengage from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. Publicly, though, you will see solidarity behind the scenes. There are some concerns in Europe.

HEMMER: John king from the White House. John, thanks for that.

KING: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld makes it official after the intense violence of recent weeks, 20,000 troops will stay in Iraq longer than planned. Secretary Rumsfeld says the delayed rotation, along with newly arriving units, will put U.S. troops strength in Iraq at 137,000. The Pentagon is extending some tours of duty by up to three months. This breaks a promise to soldiers who have been told they would only be in Iraq for a year. April has opinion the deadliest month yet for U.S. troops in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECY.: I certainly would not have estimated that we would have had the number of individuals lost in -- that we have had lost in the last week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Ongoing battles with insurgents have killed more than 85 Americans this month. So how are military families handling the news of extended stays in Iraq?

Joining us this morning from Franklin, New Hampshire, Sharon and Richard MacDonald, along this morning with Wayne and Francesca LeBreton. Their sons, Adam MacDonald and Matthew LeBreton are serving in the 94th military police company, an Army Reserve unit that's been in Iraq for nearly a year. The MacDonalds and LeBretons -- I'm having trouble with that name there -- joining us this morning.

To all you, thank you so much for spending some time with us. We truly appreciate it.

And, Sharon, I want to start with you. Can you give me some details about when your son first learned that he was going to be deployed longer and what he said? SHARON MACDONALD, SON SERVING IN IRAQ: Well, he learned on Saturday. He called us Saturday night. We were at the Lebreton's house for the evening, because we were going to spend Easter with them. And we actually found out from another soldier who called home before Adam actually called home, because she said that some of the soldiers couldn't bear to call home and tell family members, and he was very tired, said he didn't get any sleep, and was very disappointed, and so were we.

O'BRIEN: You say very disappointed. Richard, describe how he sounded. Was he upset? Was he angry? Was he just frustrated?

RICHARD MACDONALD, SON SERVING IN IRAQ: Well, he sounded tired. You know, the boys were in -- at the Customs Office, and they were processing to, you know, leave to come home, and the buses were waiting outside for them. And during that process they were pulled away, you know, from the station and told that they are not going home. So these guys, you know, mentally were home. They were homeward bound, and they were just abruptly pulled away from that. And all of those boys over there were pretty upset and pretty shocked.

O'BRIEN: You say boys, but of course there were women, too. Franesca, in fact, it was really just a matter of hours before they were officially supposed to leave, before they heard the news about staying, and we've read reports about some of the soldiers throwing out some of their stuff because they thought, I'm out of here, I'm gone. Tell me a little bit about how you son Matthew reacted when he heard the news that in fact he'd be staying as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCESCA LEBRETON, SON SERVING IN IRAQ: Well, I didn't get a call from Matthew. Matthew was so upset, and he couldn't bear to call me to give me the news, because he was afraid of how I was going to react. So he called a neighbor to let them know that they were on hold, and that neighbor called me. And...

O'BRIEN: And how did you react?

LEBRETON: I completely -- I just fell apart. I just felt like the rug was pulled out from under me. The soldiers were so close to coming home after being extended once. They really thought they were on their way home. They were waiting for the buses, and then all hope just left them when they were told they were on hold.

O'BRIEN: Wayne, your wife says she fell apart. What was your reaction? Are you angry? Are you frustrated?

WAYNE LEBRETON, SON SERVING IN IRAQ: I'm terribly frustrated. I was in South Carolina when I got the call, and my wife sounded very, very upset and depressed when she gave me the information. And I was expecting I'd spend a week in South Carolina playing golf, and I expected when I got home on Saturday night that I'd be getting a call from my son Matthew, saying that he was in Ft. Drum, New York. And to find out that they were set back again for the second time, it was extremely demoralizing to me, and I know how the troops feel as well. O'BRIEN: I know that you all have a very strong support network within the 94th, soldiers there. So I hope that you're all going to be able to help each other get through this really disappointing and difficult time. Our best to all of you.

Thank you so much for talking to us. I know it's a difficult topic to broach. So we sure appreciate it.

HEMMER: That will be extremely challenging times.

O'BRIEN: As a parent you can't even imagine.

HEMMER: Remember when Jane Arraf was reporting that the helicopters were shrink wrapped, which is a sure sign you're going out of there. So hang in there.

We'll get a break here. In a moment, the CIA says that voice is...

(AUDIO GAP)

HEMMER: ... Afghanistan this morning for us on that.

O'BRIEN: Also, Howard Dean ran president and vocally opposed the war. What does he think about the situation in Iraq now and the presidential campaign. There he is. We're going to ask him, coming up next.

HEMMER: Also, that little girl who survived for days after a terrible car crash killing her mother. She's out of the hospital, an update, in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean our guest today talking about Iraq and the campaign ahead.

Good morning to you, Governor. Welcome back here to AMERICAN MORNING.

HOWARD DEAN, FRM. VERMONT GOVERNOR: Good morning.

HEMMER: There's a front-page story today in "The New York Times" talking about the U.S. now backing a U.N. plan to involve the United Nations in a much more forceful way starting this summer. Do you support that idea?

DEAN: I do. I think that's what's necessary. I wish it had been done that way in the first place.

But we are going to have to bring many more foreign troops into Iraq to replace ours.

I was listening to the story earlier about the troops being extended. You know, that's really demoralizing. One of the problems we're going to see is a dramatic reduction in the number of people who re-enlist in the National Guard as a result of having this president continue to mislead them and send them on missions they never thought they were going to get into.

HEMMER: Are you suggesting those numbers are going down or do you have proof of it?

DEAN: The numbers are going down now and they'll go down a lot more as the re-enlistments come in.

It's really tough on people who join the National Guard who believe that they're there serving their country, particularly domestically, and then get shipped off to places like Iraq for 12 months time and then extended.

And I think it's going to hurt -- it has already hurt our armed forces, and I think it's hurt our armed forces' ability to do what they need to do to defend the country.

So I think getting the United Nations in is long overdue. I think if we weren't having an election and the war were going better, the president wouldn't even be talking about that. The truth is, that's what we should have done in the first place to confront Saddam Hussein.

HEMMER: Also on this issue of this election year -- John Kerry yesterday said -- a man you fully support, contrary to what we heard in New Hampshire when the situation was completely different. John Kerry said yesterday, "Ask him a question," meaning the president, "and he's going to go to terror." Mark Racicot, a Republican responding, "On a day when Osama bin Laden again threatened the United States and our allies with an audio tape it's disturbing to realize that John Kerry neither recognizes nor understands the murderous ideology of our enemies and the threat they pose to our nation."

Is John Kerry missing the point on this?

DEAN: Well, I actually think the administration -- most of the -- none of the people who made the decision to go into Iraq have ever served a day in their lives overseas to defend the United States of America. This is the typical syndrome we see, that people who understand very little about combat are the ones that are willing to send our young people to die in foreign countries.

John Kerry has three Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars. He's a genuine war hero. I would far rather trust the defense of the United States of America to someone with actual combat experience. And I think, sort of, the catty comments of the Republicans notwithstanding, we need a change in the presidency so we can really defend America and not go on to these adventures without thinking about what we're doing ahead of time.

HEMMER: There are some new polling numbers that indicate only 40 percent of those surveyed now say the U.S. is more protected against terrorism since the war in Iraq broke out. That's down from 51 percent just a few short weeks ago. You have talked about Bushgate, you have mentioned the words "impeachment" along with "the president" at this point. Do you believe...

DEAN: That actually is not accurate. I have not mentioned the word "impeachment" along with "the president." So let's not get something started that wasn't true.

HEMMER: You've been extremely critical of this president, especially this past weekend on LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER, and you got into this whole conversation. My question to you is a little more pointed than that.

Is that the right thing to say when the U.S. military men and women with their lives are on the line in Iraq today?

DEAN: The right thing to do is to have a president who understands what it is to ask Americans to give their lives in the service of their country and to be a little bit more discriminating about what represents a danger to the United States and what doesn't.

It's very clear now that the president of the United States did not tell the truth to the American people when he said there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda when he implied that Saddam Hussein had something to do with terrorism, which was not true and the nation now knows that as a result of Richard Clarke's testimony; when he said in the State of the Union that Iraq was purchasing uranium from Africa, which was not true; when the vice president said that they were in Iraq accumulating nuclear weapons, that that was not true. The secretary of defense said he knew just where the weapons of mass destruction were; that was not true.

What we need is a president who will tell the truth to the American people about why we're in this war.

HEMMER: Governor Dean, thanks for your time.

DEAN: Thanks very much.

HEMMER: Back to Soledad now.

O'BRIEN: That little girl who survived up for up to 10 days at the bottom of a ravine after a terrible car crash has spent her first night at home. Five-year-old Ruby Bustamante was rescued on Tuesday from a California ravine. And look at her, she's all smiles as she's wheeled out of the hospital.

The little girl's mother, though, died in the accident. Ruby stayed by her side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSE LOPEZ, RUBY'S AUNT: This is a joyful occasion, but at the same time, there is sadness because now we need to make burial arrangements for Ruby's mother, Norma.

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O'BRIEN: Amazingly, the little girl suffered only a fractured knee and a pretty minor cut on her finger. But it's true, it's such a happy story. And of course, at the same time, such a sad story because they leave behind -- she had five brothers and sisters. So a family of six kids left behind without a mother. It's really sad.

HEMMER: I wonder what she's thinking rolling out of that hospital yesterday, too.

O'BRIEN: It must be so confusing.

HEMMER: Let's get a break here, mention Tony Blair at the White House today meeting with the president hours from now. A preview of that in a moment here.

Also, mortgage rates are on the move. Could it signal the end of that huge housing boom in America? Back in a moment after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: There are some dramatic changes in mortgage rates. What's it mean for house hunters and anybody who's looking to refinance? Not good things. With that and a market preview, Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business." Right, bad news?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Yes, it is. I mean we don't want to get too alarmist here, Soledad. But no question, mortgage rates have been trending up.

Let's look at what's been going on here. You can see that's the 30-year at the top. We're up to 5.89 percent. A month ago, you can see, we were up significantly from there. And the 5.89 percent is the highest we've been this year.

Now go back to last year, you are at 6.4 percent on the 30. So it's still not at a situation where you have to be unduly concerned.

But the trend is up. And that's because, Soledad, the word on Wall Street is inflation. That's what people are concerned about. You look at those March numbers, 308,000 jobs created, retail sales going really well and then an inflation rate itself at 1.5 percent.

Well, of course if you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that, you get 6 percent. That's probably a bit much to extrapolate like that because it was 3 percent last year.

Other things, China growing 10 percent a year. IBM says its sales are up.

Getting back to the housing market, though, a lot of times when interest rates and mortgage rates go up, housing prices fall because it makes the cost of a house more expensive. You probably won't see that right away because the housing market's so tight. But if you are looking to refinance or buy a home, maybe sooner rather than later.

O'BRIEN: Good advice. How did the market do yesterday and what does it look for today?

SERWER: Yesterday was a sell-off, particularly in the Blue Chips. Let's check out where we were.

You can see here, the Dow is down -- the Dow is up a little bit, excuse me. Nasdaq down. So it's the techs that sold off. A lot of it having to do with IBM. IBM coming out with kind of mixed picture.

Nokia this morning though really saying that its business not going so great. So we might have a weaker open there. That's a Nokia phone.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it is.

SERWER: There you go, thank you for that.

O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Andy, thank you very much.

HEMMER: Calling on Jack now, "Question of the Day."

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Bill. Actually, there are two questions today. The first one is, what does government tend to do when it feels threatened? I'll answer that for you. The tendency is it creates more government.

The United States currently has 15 intelligence agencies. Let me say that again. The United States currently has 15 intelligence agencies. But apparently that's not enough.

"The New York Times" reports that the administration may create a new post for a director of national intelligence or a Department of CYA. They would manage the other 15 agencies that we already is have.

Now this is a plan drafted more than a year ago. But it's been lying around, given little attention by the White House until now. Why now? Because this summer the 9/11 Commission is expected to come out with its report and the chances are parts of it may not be real flattering to the administration and what's been done to protect this country since September 11.

How about a couple of other ideas like maybe getting the security community's computers up to speed. The commission revealed this week that prior to September 11, the FBI had no common computer database. And most of the computers are more than a decade out of date by the year 2001. Astonishing.

Question is this. Is a director of national intelligence the answer to this country's security problems? You can e-mail us at am@cnn.com.

HEMMER: Cover your apple.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, with Osama bin Laden on the loose, apparently communicating with the world, America's top general gets a progress report on the hunt. We'll take you live to Afghanistan coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

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