Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Impact of Today's Release of More Pictures of Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners; Republicans, Democrats Trying to Get Out the Vote For This Year's Presidential Election

Aired May 21, 2004 - 08:00   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: The FBI warns police across the country to be on the lookout for suicide bombers. The prison abuse scandal is a factor in that warning.
Intense fighting in the Iraqi city of Karbala this morning. U.S. forces trying to bring down a rebel army.

And all across America, a boisterous army from the underworld -- the cicada invasion.

All ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody.

Eight o'clock here in New York.

Other stories this hour, the "Washington Post" today showing more photos of what appears to be Iraqi prisoner abuse yet again today. What will the reaction now be in the Arab world? We'll talk to Ken Pollack and see if we can get an answer. We'll have that story in a moment.

O'BRIEN: Also this morning, it's fair to say the most controversial statements from this week's 9/11 hearings came from panel member John Lehman. In just a few minutes, we're going to talk to him and see if he still stands by his Boy Scout comparison when he was talking, of course, about the fire and police response on 9/11.

HEMMER: Stay tuned for that.

Also, Jack Cafferty -- good morning -- on a Friday.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, sir.

Thank you, Bill.

Coming up in the Cafferty File about 20 minutes from now, we're going to tell you how strip clubs across the country may be helping John Kerry in his race for the White House.

And a report in the File that you don't want your children to watch. We're going to tell you about some people who got rich -- very, very rich -- playing video games. So set your VCRs. It'll be another electric moment in national television.

HEMMER: I bet it will be.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

HEMMER: Thanks, Jack.

CAFFERTY: Sure.

HEMMER: The top stories here at the top of the hour.

There's a new terror warning from the FBI. It has issued a bulletin for law enforcement agencies across the country, 18, 000 strong, to be on alert for possible suicide bombers. The alert may be due to fears of retribution from terrorists responding to the Iraqi prison abuse scandal. The FBI says to lookout for signs such as people wearing bulky clothing in warm weather. But the Bureau says there is no hard intelligence indicating terrorist plans to strike here in the U.S.

From Iraq today, a convoy possibly carrying radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was engaged in a firefight with U.S. troops today. They were traveling near Najaf. However, the U.S. military could not confirm whether al-Sadr was, in fact, traveling in that convoy.

In Karbala, hospital officials report five Iraqis dead from violent clashes in that holy city. Among the fatalities, an Arab TV journalist.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces continue making headway against militia positions overnight.

Meanwhile, more detainees are being released from the Baghdad area facility at the heart of the prisoner abuse scandal. Busloads of Iraqi prisoners leaving Abu Ghraib earlier. The coalition says it plans to release nearly 500 today. The prison population eventually reduced to about 2, 500 in that facility.

The House has voted to preserve and expand the $1, 000 child tax credit. Law makers passed the bill overwhelmingly, 271-139. The child tax credit, scheduled to drop down to $700, but this bill is aimed at preventing that from happening.

Case workers dealing with an abandoned 3-year-old girl in Baltimore say the story is very complicated now. Two people claiming to be little Courtney's father and her mother have stepped forward. According to the woman's attorneys, the account from the man claiming to be her father is, for lack of a better word, confusing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY GERSTENFIELD, MOTHER'S ATTORNEY: If we were to speculate, it's probably because the father has been hiding out in Baltimore and he's been hiding out to keep the little girl away from her mother. So he changed her name, told her that she was Puerto Rican instead of African-American and has been hiding away from the law -- there's been a warrant out for his arrest -- and trying to keep the child away from her mom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Gary Gerstenfield earlier today on AMERICAN MORNING.

According to the attorneys for the woman claiming to be Courtney's mother now say she plans to ask a judge for custody of the little girl. That hearing is scheduled possibly later today. Maybe they'll get to the bottom of it in the Baltimore area. Stay tuned. (WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: We're getting a new look this morning at more pictures of apparent alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners. The pictures have been published by the "Washington Post" and the paper says it's received hundreds more pictures and several digital videos of the alleged abuse. The "Post" also quotes previously secret statements from inmates at the Abu Ghraib Prison. The prisoners are quoted as saying they were ridden like animals, they were fondled and they were forced to retrieve their food from their toilets.

Joining us this morning from Washington to talk about the situation in Iraq, Ken Pollack of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Nice to see you, Ken, as always.

Let's get right into it.

When we start with these pictures that show, apparently, abuse, and more of the same, to some degree, of abuse that's been alleged now, what do you think the ramifications are?

I mean is there a sense that people have seen the photos, they've been shocked, so, to some degree, it can't get any worse than it already is?

KEN POLLACK, FORMER CIA ANALYST: Well, Soledad, I think certainly to some extent these are more of the same and it's certainly the case that they're not going to have the same kind of impact that the first round of photographs did.

That said, certainly here in the United States I think that they're the kind of things that people will look at and say, you know, boy oh boy, things really got out of hand at Abu Ghraib, this is not how we like to see ourselves, what happened there, we need to get to the bottom of this.

Also in the Arab world, this is going to inflame passions. You've got a lot of Arabs who are angry at the United States for every reason that you can possibly imagine and they're going to see this as more confirmation of what they already believe, which is that the United States is no better than they are, the United States is evil, the United States practices all kinds of cruelties to Iraqis.

But as far as the Iraqis themselves are concerned, this will help to erode their already shaky morale. But honestly, the Iraqis have so many other grievances right now, that I think the photographs are simply one in a whole series of other problems in Iraq.

O'BRIEN: How about the punishment? Will the court-martials go far enough or courts-martials, excuse me, to have Iraqis say, well, it looks as if they're trying to fix the big problem?

POLLACK: Well, I think the real question, Soledad, is what will the final verdicts be in the various court-martials. If very heavy sentences are handed down, yes, Iraqis may say well, at least the Americans punished the guilty and they showed that they have an effective system and that's the kind of thing that we want to have here.

On the other case, the other hand, if Iraqis believe that the sentences are very light, they will see this as more indications of American hypocrisy and it'll help to undermine us a little bit more.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about Ahmad Chalabi and on also this raid that took place. Pretty surprising to a lot of people. A month ago, though -- and maybe not surprising to you, because a month ago you were testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I think, and you said that you thought that the support of Chalabi by the U.S. was a disgrace. At the same time, he's been a long time favorite of many in the administration.

So explain why you think it's been a disgrace.

POLLACK: Well, my specific point at that time was that the United States was paying Chalabi $335, 000 a month to have his people go through intelligence files from Saddam's regime. Now, Chalabi is an Iraqi politician. He's made no bones about it. His people will say up front he wants to be the prime minister of Iraq.

There are any number of reports coming from other Iraqis that Chalabi and his people were using those intelligence documents to blackmail other Iraqis, to bribe them, to pressure them in a whole variety of ways to support what he was doing. And the simple fact of the matter is these were documents that ultimately belonged to the whole Iraqi people. They are part of the legacy from Saddam's tyranny. They did not belong in the hands of one Iraqi politician or his group.

O'BRIEN: A big rift now. So what exactly is Chalabi's power base? I mean what are the ramifications of this raid and this big rift between the U.S. administrators there and Ahmad Chalabi?

POLLACK: Well, Chalabi doesn't have a real power base per se. This has been his problem all along is he doesn't have a great deal of popular appeal. He is an extremely intelligent man and he is a wily politician. And he has built, as he always does, all kinds of networks among other Iraqi members of the current Governing Council. He has convinced them to work with him and he has, in some cases, made himself a bit of a power broker among them. But I think that some of the problems that Chalabi is having now stems from this problem that he doesn't have much of a power base. You know, many of the charges that are being made by senior administration officials are that Chalabi apparently has given information to the Iranians, which have greatly compromised U.S. operations.

If that is true, and obviously I can't prove anything right now -- I'm just listening to other people in the U.S. government -- but if that is true, what that suggests is that Chalabi recognized he didn't have a base of power and he was reaching out to the Iranians, who he knows do have a great deal of influence inside of Iraq.

O'BRIEN: Ken Pollack of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, joining us this morning.

Nice to see you, Ken, as always.

Thanks.

POLLACK: Thank you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: We should mention that tonight on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now," Paula is going to speak with Ahmad Chalabi. That's tonight right here on CNN. It begins at 8:00 Eastern time -- Bill.

HEMMER: Nine minutes past the hour.

To politics now. The 2004 presidential race, by far, already the most expensive ever. The president set a record for fundraising -- $200 million so far. His campaign has already spent $126 million of that.

As for Senator John Kerry, he is behind, but catching up. He's raised $117 million, spent $89 million to date. A hundred days from today, Republicans gather here in New York City for the beginning of their national convention.

As for this Friday, President Bush gives the graduation address at LSU, Louisiana State University. Meanwhile, Senator John Kerry attends events just north of New York. And both parties mobilizing thousands of volunteers, spending millions to get the vote out this November.

Let's talk about it.

Our national correspondent Kelly Wallace here looking at this issue -- good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Well, normally when we talk about this get out the vote effort, we are talking about what's happening after Labor Day. But this is a campaign unlike any we have seen before. So we wanted to see who has the ground war advantage right now. And we traveled to a battleground state, the State of Pennsylvania, to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEONARD NESBITT, AMERICA'S COMING TOGETHER: I'm from ACT. My name is Leonard Nesbitt. WALLACE (voice-over): In the Pittsburgh suburbs, home of some of the state's highly coveted swing voters, some new faces -- first time players in the ground war game.

KARL RASZEWSKI, BUSH-CHENEY VOLUNTEER: I'm a volunteer for the Allegheny County reelection program.

WALLACE: Like Karl Raszewski, a 31-year-old registered Republican, and 45-year-old Leonard Nesbitt, an unemployed steelworker who now goes door to door for $8 an hour.

NESBITT: Hi. My name is Leonard Nesbitt.

WALLACE: Armed with a smile and a Palm Pilot, he's contacting registered voters n helping to sign up new ones.

(on camera): You're trying to mobilize people to go out and vote for the Democratic Party.

NESBITT: I'm trying to mobilize people to get out and vote period, to make a difference in this world.

WALLACE (voice-over): Nesbitt is one of 85 paid staffers in Pennsylvania working for an independent group called America Coming Together, also known as ACT.

JON DELANO, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY: I don't think there's any doubt that ACT is going to make a tremendous difference in Pennsylvania simply by identifying Democrats and others who support John Kerry.

WALLACE: ACT's competition, fired up volunteers like Raszewski, an artist by day, who oversees phone banks at night.

RASZEWSKI: I think it's crucial that George Bush wins the presidency this year. I think we're at an important time in our history and he's the only man that can do the job.

WALLACE: While the Bush team has a headquarters in Pennsylvania, the Kerry team has yet to open an office, sharing space with the local Democratic Party.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been very, very effective.

WALLACE: Camp Kerry, gearing up for some 1, 000 house parties this month in Pittsburgh, has five paid staffers in the state. Bush- Cheney has 11.

DAN ONORATO, ALLEGHENY COUNTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE, KERRY SUPPORTER: They can spend as much as they want on professional staff. It's the quality of your volunteer staff that's going to win this race.

WALLACE: And the stakes of this ground war could not be higher. The road to the White House could very well lead through Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WALLACE: And back in 2000, George W. Bush lost in Pennsylvania to Al Gore by just four percentage points. Republicans, Bill, call that a near miss, which is motivating them. What's motivating Democrats? They say the fact that that state, Pennsylvania, went their way in the last three presidential elections.

HEMMER: You asked him a pretty direct question, though. He didn't answer it. Why can't he say Kerry or Bush?

WALLACE: It's a fine line because ACT is one of these independent groups. It's getting unlimited contributions from individuals and corporations. What it can't do, under campaign finance laws, is go out there and say vote for one candidate or against another. So a fine line there about what they're doing. But clearly they're trying to get more Democrats to the polls.

HEMMER: See you a bit later today.

Thanks, Kelly.

WALLACE: Sure.

HEMMER: All right -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, an American detained in the Madrid bombings is free after a fingerprint comes into dispute. Why was he held in the first place? We take you live to Oregon up next.

HEMMER: It was a comment some said explosive, hitting a raw nerve at the 9/11 hearings in New York City this week. Does the man who made it wish he had not? We'll ask him about it in a moment.

O'BRIEN: And they have been in hiding for 17 years. Now about 10 trillion of them are hatching. It's the cicada invasion. That story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: An Oregon attorney is free after spending two weeks in police custody in connection with the Madrid train bombings. Brandon Mayfield was released yesterday after Spanish authorities said some critical evidence, in fact, did not link him to those bombings.

Kimberly Osias is in Aloha, Oregon with more on this case -- Kimberly, good morning.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning, Soledad.

That's exactly right, a very relieved Brandon Mayfield will be waking up here in his Oregon home in a couple of hours. This, after he was detained by federal authorities for two weeks. And it was quite the reunion yesterday. A jubilant Mayfield embraced his family. He was being held as a material witness in connection with the March Madrid train bombings. U.S. authorities say a fingerprint found on a plastic bag near the Madrid train station was that of Mayfield's. Spanish authorities say there was never enough evidence for a print match. They say the prints match those of an Algerian national, Ouhnane Daoud.

A relieved Mayfield and his attorney spoke briefly to the press yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY KGW)

BRANDON MAYFIELD, RELEASED FROM PRISON: I want to thank my family and friends, who were supporting me through this what I'll call a harrowing ordeal. And I just want to say lehela illela (ph), Allah akbar, god is great.

STEVE WAX, PUBLIC DEFENDER: He has maintained at the outset that he has had no involvement in the horrible bombing that occurred in Spain in March and he has maintained from the outset that he has no knowledge about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OSIAS: Mayfield is a convert to Islam. He is also a practicing attorney here in the Portland area.

Now, you may recall he represented one of the so-called Portland 7 in a custody case. Six of those people pled guilty to aiding the Taliban back last October -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Kimberly Osias for us this morning.

Thanks -- Bill.

HEMMER: Eighteen minutes past the hour, Soledad.

The 9/11 Commission reconvenes in Washington next month for a new round of hearings there. For the families of the 9/11 victims, the panel's two day session in New York City this week hit a raw nerve in areas. Commission member John Lehman did not hold back on his thoughts regarding the city's emergency response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN LEHMAN, 9/11 COMMISSIONER: I think that the command and control and communications of this city's public service is a scandal. It's not worthy of the Boy Scouts, let alone this great city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: 9/11 Commissioner John Lehman our guest now from Washington to talk about that.

Good morning, sir, and thank you for your time and coming to speak with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

Yesterday the former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, addressed your comment.

Here's Giuliani.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: I mean those comments are totally inappropriate and are part of the reason why, you know, a lot of people were very, very upset about the Commission. Now, it isn't the entire Commission. It's his comments. But that isn't the way to approach this, I mean to call people names and -- the people that, the command and control system that he's describing as Boy Scouts saved 9, 000 to 12, 000 lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: That was Rudy Giuliani from yesterday.

Any regret with the statement this past week?

LEHMAN: Well, first of all, the police and the firemen and their leaders, including the mayor, their leadership under fire, their bravery not only saved 90 percent -- over 90 percent of the people there, but it did more than that. It provided a real message to the world that no matter what kind of atrocity that al Qaeda visits on the United States, that Americans don't panic, their leaders don't panic, that the rank and file don't panic and we are a very robust nation.

So I very much regret that the officials that were being questioned who were part of that heroism took my remarks personally.

I was criticizing a system of command and control, and particularly communications, that has to be fixed, because al Qaeda is coming back and New York is the top target. And they do not have unity of command and they do not have the kind of robust communications that every military unit in the United States takes for granted.

And they've got to recognize that they -- there are things to do to improve this.

But I do regret that they took it personally and I guess I was less sensitive than I should have been to the rawness of the nerves.

But if we don't face up to some of the things that are still wrong with talking between the police and the firemen, then more lives will be lost in the future.

So I hope they'll be open to it.

HEMMER: I think -- what I see in this, what I read in this is that the criticism is well taken in many areas and a lot of people say, yes, the system should have been better and it will be if the events are to occur again in the city in some form.

But that phrase Boy Scouts, was that a mistake? LEHMAN: It certainly was, because now I've gotten more e-mails from the Boy Scouts, outraged at being compared to the City of New York's communications, than I have from the City of New York.

Yes, sure. It was insensitive. I should have been a little more sensitive to the environment. But the fact is that when you compare -- and the criterion we're applying is what we have now as standard procedures in even the smallest American military unit -- you compare the technology, the training, the infrastructure for communications in what is now the front line of a military war in New York, it's very bad so.

HEMMER: Commissioner Lehman, we'd like you to tackle the issue we're asking our viewers today online, by way of e-mail.

How worthwhile have the 9/11 hearings been? To date, how would you answer that question?

LEHMAN: Well, I think they've been tremendously worthwhile. You know, you have to separate the question of how worthwhile is the Commission as opposed to the public hearings. The Commission's primary mission is to establish the facts, find out what really happened. And we've done that for the last year and a half. We've got -- we've been working 24-7. And we know, I think, factually, more than any other body in the world about what actually happened.

So, the second and most important mission is to make the -- draw the right lessons and make the right recommendations. And that we are going to do on July 26 and we've been doing it before that, m interacting with the government agencies.

HEMMER: Some suggest the report is already written.

Is it?

LEHMAN: Well, it's not, but -- no, it's being written, but we've been sharing the clearly unambiguous findings in dialogues with the CIA, FBI and with the City of New York.

The third mission, if you will, is bringing the public along with us. And that is what the hearings have been all about.

HEMMER: Thank you.

LEHMAN: And hearings, public hearings are, of their nature, a bit messy. They don't give the full picture. But I think they've been very, very helpful in letting the American people see the issues.

HEMMER: I apologize. We're out of time.

Have a good weekend.

John Lehman there in D.C.

LEHMAN: Right.

HEMMER: Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the FBI warns to be on the lookout for suicide bombers. More on that just ahead.

And the tale of a reporter who goes the extra mile to get a story. We'll explain ahead.

AMERICAN MORNING is back right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Just having a little cicada fun here. We're going to get to it in the next half hour.

Good morning -- Jack.

CAFFERTY: We were speculating on what it must be like to be a cicada. That's for another time and another time slot.

Now, the Cafferty File.

If John Kerry wins in November, he may have strip club owners to thank. A lot of them are asking their patrons to register to vote and then to vote against President Bush. They are afraid that conservatives may put an end to the strip club industry.

Jim Halbach owns a joint called The Isabella Queen in southern Wisconsin. He's registered 200 voters in the last month. A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee says she doesn't know why they consider the president unfriendly to the strip club industry.

A Louisiana reporter became part of the story on Wednesday his own self. Fred Childers, KSAL-TV, chased down a man who had escaped from authorities while he was filming a story outside the Shreveport Police Department. Childers grabbed the guy from behind, held onto him until the police arrived. He says he once considered becoming a police officer.

O'BRIEN: Good for him. But that guy was like six inches taller than he was.

CAFFERTY: He was? I didn't notice it.

O'BRIEN: He was a big guy, yes.

CAFFERTY: If you're worried that your kid spends too much time playing video games, well, think again. The "Wall Street Journal" has got a great story on the front page today, professional video game players making six figure salaries. South Korea, they have cable stations that air video game matches 24 hours a day. And you thought reality TV was terrible in this country. One of the most successful video game players made $300,000 last year. Another top player, whose fingers were insured for 60 grand, recently signed a three year contract for almost $500,000. So don't be so quick to...

HEMMER: He insured his fingers?

CAFFERTY: For 60 grand.

O'BRIEN: Sixty grand.

CAFFERTY: Because he's got that dexterity.

HEMMER: Nice.

CAFFERTY: You know that reporter who chased that guy down?

HEMMER: Yes?

CAFFERTY: In Kansas City a long time ago, I walked into the newsroom at WDAF-TV and they had all these gas masks and stuff out on the table. And I said, "What's that for?" I'd just started to work there. And Sam Feebach (ph), who is now dead, a cameraman, said, "Those are what we use to cover the riots." This was back in the '60s when there were riots all over the country.

I walked into the news director's office and I said, "Whatever you're paying me, it ain't enough. So don't assign me to go cover any riots, because I'll quit first."

And he just looked at me like, well, what kind of journalist are you?

HEMMER: Yes.

O'BRIEN: So you wouldn't hunt down the escapee from the police department?

CAFFERTY: Yes, yes. Taxi?

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: Hasn't changed. Nice to know.

O'BRIEN: That's funny.

Still to come this morning, cracks in Republican unity -- can the president hold the party together for November?

Stay with us.

A look at that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

And, they're here -- about 10 trillion cicadas. Can you do anything to stop them? We'll talk to an expert just ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired May 21, 2004 - 08:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The FBI warns police across the country to be on the lookout for suicide bombers. The prison abuse scandal is a factor in that warning.
Intense fighting in the Iraqi city of Karbala this morning. U.S. forces trying to bring down a rebel army.

And all across America, a boisterous army from the underworld -- the cicada invasion.

All ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody.

Eight o'clock here in New York.

Other stories this hour, the "Washington Post" today showing more photos of what appears to be Iraqi prisoner abuse yet again today. What will the reaction now be in the Arab world? We'll talk to Ken Pollack and see if we can get an answer. We'll have that story in a moment.

O'BRIEN: Also this morning, it's fair to say the most controversial statements from this week's 9/11 hearings came from panel member John Lehman. In just a few minutes, we're going to talk to him and see if he still stands by his Boy Scout comparison when he was talking, of course, about the fire and police response on 9/11.

HEMMER: Stay tuned for that.

Also, Jack Cafferty -- good morning -- on a Friday.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, sir.

Thank you, Bill.

Coming up in the Cafferty File about 20 minutes from now, we're going to tell you how strip clubs across the country may be helping John Kerry in his race for the White House.

And a report in the File that you don't want your children to watch. We're going to tell you about some people who got rich -- very, very rich -- playing video games. So set your VCRs. It'll be another electric moment in national television.

HEMMER: I bet it will be.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

HEMMER: Thanks, Jack.

CAFFERTY: Sure.

HEMMER: The top stories here at the top of the hour.

There's a new terror warning from the FBI. It has issued a bulletin for law enforcement agencies across the country, 18, 000 strong, to be on alert for possible suicide bombers. The alert may be due to fears of retribution from terrorists responding to the Iraqi prison abuse scandal. The FBI says to lookout for signs such as people wearing bulky clothing in warm weather. But the Bureau says there is no hard intelligence indicating terrorist plans to strike here in the U.S.

From Iraq today, a convoy possibly carrying radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was engaged in a firefight with U.S. troops today. They were traveling near Najaf. However, the U.S. military could not confirm whether al-Sadr was, in fact, traveling in that convoy.

In Karbala, hospital officials report five Iraqis dead from violent clashes in that holy city. Among the fatalities, an Arab TV journalist.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces continue making headway against militia positions overnight.

Meanwhile, more detainees are being released from the Baghdad area facility at the heart of the prisoner abuse scandal. Busloads of Iraqi prisoners leaving Abu Ghraib earlier. The coalition says it plans to release nearly 500 today. The prison population eventually reduced to about 2, 500 in that facility.

The House has voted to preserve and expand the $1, 000 child tax credit. Law makers passed the bill overwhelmingly, 271-139. The child tax credit, scheduled to drop down to $700, but this bill is aimed at preventing that from happening.

Case workers dealing with an abandoned 3-year-old girl in Baltimore say the story is very complicated now. Two people claiming to be little Courtney's father and her mother have stepped forward. According to the woman's attorneys, the account from the man claiming to be her father is, for lack of a better word, confusing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY GERSTENFIELD, MOTHER'S ATTORNEY: If we were to speculate, it's probably because the father has been hiding out in Baltimore and he's been hiding out to keep the little girl away from her mother. So he changed her name, told her that she was Puerto Rican instead of African-American and has been hiding away from the law -- there's been a warrant out for his arrest -- and trying to keep the child away from her mom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Gary Gerstenfield earlier today on AMERICAN MORNING.

According to the attorneys for the woman claiming to be Courtney's mother now say she plans to ask a judge for custody of the little girl. That hearing is scheduled possibly later today. Maybe they'll get to the bottom of it in the Baltimore area. Stay tuned. (WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: We're getting a new look this morning at more pictures of apparent alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners. The pictures have been published by the "Washington Post" and the paper says it's received hundreds more pictures and several digital videos of the alleged abuse. The "Post" also quotes previously secret statements from inmates at the Abu Ghraib Prison. The prisoners are quoted as saying they were ridden like animals, they were fondled and they were forced to retrieve their food from their toilets.

Joining us this morning from Washington to talk about the situation in Iraq, Ken Pollack of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Nice to see you, Ken, as always.

Let's get right into it.

When we start with these pictures that show, apparently, abuse, and more of the same, to some degree, of abuse that's been alleged now, what do you think the ramifications are?

I mean is there a sense that people have seen the photos, they've been shocked, so, to some degree, it can't get any worse than it already is?

KEN POLLACK, FORMER CIA ANALYST: Well, Soledad, I think certainly to some extent these are more of the same and it's certainly the case that they're not going to have the same kind of impact that the first round of photographs did.

That said, certainly here in the United States I think that they're the kind of things that people will look at and say, you know, boy oh boy, things really got out of hand at Abu Ghraib, this is not how we like to see ourselves, what happened there, we need to get to the bottom of this.

Also in the Arab world, this is going to inflame passions. You've got a lot of Arabs who are angry at the United States for every reason that you can possibly imagine and they're going to see this as more confirmation of what they already believe, which is that the United States is no better than they are, the United States is evil, the United States practices all kinds of cruelties to Iraqis.

But as far as the Iraqis themselves are concerned, this will help to erode their already shaky morale. But honestly, the Iraqis have so many other grievances right now, that I think the photographs are simply one in a whole series of other problems in Iraq.

O'BRIEN: How about the punishment? Will the court-martials go far enough or courts-martials, excuse me, to have Iraqis say, well, it looks as if they're trying to fix the big problem?

POLLACK: Well, I think the real question, Soledad, is what will the final verdicts be in the various court-martials. If very heavy sentences are handed down, yes, Iraqis may say well, at least the Americans punished the guilty and they showed that they have an effective system and that's the kind of thing that we want to have here.

On the other case, the other hand, if Iraqis believe that the sentences are very light, they will see this as more indications of American hypocrisy and it'll help to undermine us a little bit more.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about Ahmad Chalabi and on also this raid that took place. Pretty surprising to a lot of people. A month ago, though -- and maybe not surprising to you, because a month ago you were testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I think, and you said that you thought that the support of Chalabi by the U.S. was a disgrace. At the same time, he's been a long time favorite of many in the administration.

So explain why you think it's been a disgrace.

POLLACK: Well, my specific point at that time was that the United States was paying Chalabi $335, 000 a month to have his people go through intelligence files from Saddam's regime. Now, Chalabi is an Iraqi politician. He's made no bones about it. His people will say up front he wants to be the prime minister of Iraq.

There are any number of reports coming from other Iraqis that Chalabi and his people were using those intelligence documents to blackmail other Iraqis, to bribe them, to pressure them in a whole variety of ways to support what he was doing. And the simple fact of the matter is these were documents that ultimately belonged to the whole Iraqi people. They are part of the legacy from Saddam's tyranny. They did not belong in the hands of one Iraqi politician or his group.

O'BRIEN: A big rift now. So what exactly is Chalabi's power base? I mean what are the ramifications of this raid and this big rift between the U.S. administrators there and Ahmad Chalabi?

POLLACK: Well, Chalabi doesn't have a real power base per se. This has been his problem all along is he doesn't have a great deal of popular appeal. He is an extremely intelligent man and he is a wily politician. And he has built, as he always does, all kinds of networks among other Iraqi members of the current Governing Council. He has convinced them to work with him and he has, in some cases, made himself a bit of a power broker among them. But I think that some of the problems that Chalabi is having now stems from this problem that he doesn't have much of a power base. You know, many of the charges that are being made by senior administration officials are that Chalabi apparently has given information to the Iranians, which have greatly compromised U.S. operations.

If that is true, and obviously I can't prove anything right now -- I'm just listening to other people in the U.S. government -- but if that is true, what that suggests is that Chalabi recognized he didn't have a base of power and he was reaching out to the Iranians, who he knows do have a great deal of influence inside of Iraq.

O'BRIEN: Ken Pollack of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, joining us this morning.

Nice to see you, Ken, as always.

Thanks.

POLLACK: Thank you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: We should mention that tonight on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now," Paula is going to speak with Ahmad Chalabi. That's tonight right here on CNN. It begins at 8:00 Eastern time -- Bill.

HEMMER: Nine minutes past the hour.

To politics now. The 2004 presidential race, by far, already the most expensive ever. The president set a record for fundraising -- $200 million so far. His campaign has already spent $126 million of that.

As for Senator John Kerry, he is behind, but catching up. He's raised $117 million, spent $89 million to date. A hundred days from today, Republicans gather here in New York City for the beginning of their national convention.

As for this Friday, President Bush gives the graduation address at LSU, Louisiana State University. Meanwhile, Senator John Kerry attends events just north of New York. And both parties mobilizing thousands of volunteers, spending millions to get the vote out this November.

Let's talk about it.

Our national correspondent Kelly Wallace here looking at this issue -- good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Well, normally when we talk about this get out the vote effort, we are talking about what's happening after Labor Day. But this is a campaign unlike any we have seen before. So we wanted to see who has the ground war advantage right now. And we traveled to a battleground state, the State of Pennsylvania, to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEONARD NESBITT, AMERICA'S COMING TOGETHER: I'm from ACT. My name is Leonard Nesbitt. WALLACE (voice-over): In the Pittsburgh suburbs, home of some of the state's highly coveted swing voters, some new faces -- first time players in the ground war game.

KARL RASZEWSKI, BUSH-CHENEY VOLUNTEER: I'm a volunteer for the Allegheny County reelection program.

WALLACE: Like Karl Raszewski, a 31-year-old registered Republican, and 45-year-old Leonard Nesbitt, an unemployed steelworker who now goes door to door for $8 an hour.

NESBITT: Hi. My name is Leonard Nesbitt.

WALLACE: Armed with a smile and a Palm Pilot, he's contacting registered voters n helping to sign up new ones.

(on camera): You're trying to mobilize people to go out and vote for the Democratic Party.

NESBITT: I'm trying to mobilize people to get out and vote period, to make a difference in this world.

WALLACE (voice-over): Nesbitt is one of 85 paid staffers in Pennsylvania working for an independent group called America Coming Together, also known as ACT.

JON DELANO, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY: I don't think there's any doubt that ACT is going to make a tremendous difference in Pennsylvania simply by identifying Democrats and others who support John Kerry.

WALLACE: ACT's competition, fired up volunteers like Raszewski, an artist by day, who oversees phone banks at night.

RASZEWSKI: I think it's crucial that George Bush wins the presidency this year. I think we're at an important time in our history and he's the only man that can do the job.

WALLACE: While the Bush team has a headquarters in Pennsylvania, the Kerry team has yet to open an office, sharing space with the local Democratic Party.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been very, very effective.

WALLACE: Camp Kerry, gearing up for some 1, 000 house parties this month in Pittsburgh, has five paid staffers in the state. Bush- Cheney has 11.

DAN ONORATO, ALLEGHENY COUNTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE, KERRY SUPPORTER: They can spend as much as they want on professional staff. It's the quality of your volunteer staff that's going to win this race.

WALLACE: And the stakes of this ground war could not be higher. The road to the White House could very well lead through Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WALLACE: And back in 2000, George W. Bush lost in Pennsylvania to Al Gore by just four percentage points. Republicans, Bill, call that a near miss, which is motivating them. What's motivating Democrats? They say the fact that that state, Pennsylvania, went their way in the last three presidential elections.

HEMMER: You asked him a pretty direct question, though. He didn't answer it. Why can't he say Kerry or Bush?

WALLACE: It's a fine line because ACT is one of these independent groups. It's getting unlimited contributions from individuals and corporations. What it can't do, under campaign finance laws, is go out there and say vote for one candidate or against another. So a fine line there about what they're doing. But clearly they're trying to get more Democrats to the polls.

HEMMER: See you a bit later today.

Thanks, Kelly.

WALLACE: Sure.

HEMMER: All right -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, an American detained in the Madrid bombings is free after a fingerprint comes into dispute. Why was he held in the first place? We take you live to Oregon up next.

HEMMER: It was a comment some said explosive, hitting a raw nerve at the 9/11 hearings in New York City this week. Does the man who made it wish he had not? We'll ask him about it in a moment.

O'BRIEN: And they have been in hiding for 17 years. Now about 10 trillion of them are hatching. It's the cicada invasion. That story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: An Oregon attorney is free after spending two weeks in police custody in connection with the Madrid train bombings. Brandon Mayfield was released yesterday after Spanish authorities said some critical evidence, in fact, did not link him to those bombings.

Kimberly Osias is in Aloha, Oregon with more on this case -- Kimberly, good morning.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning, Soledad.

That's exactly right, a very relieved Brandon Mayfield will be waking up here in his Oregon home in a couple of hours. This, after he was detained by federal authorities for two weeks. And it was quite the reunion yesterday. A jubilant Mayfield embraced his family. He was being held as a material witness in connection with the March Madrid train bombings. U.S. authorities say a fingerprint found on a plastic bag near the Madrid train station was that of Mayfield's. Spanish authorities say there was never enough evidence for a print match. They say the prints match those of an Algerian national, Ouhnane Daoud.

A relieved Mayfield and his attorney spoke briefly to the press yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY KGW)

BRANDON MAYFIELD, RELEASED FROM PRISON: I want to thank my family and friends, who were supporting me through this what I'll call a harrowing ordeal. And I just want to say lehela illela (ph), Allah akbar, god is great.

STEVE WAX, PUBLIC DEFENDER: He has maintained at the outset that he has had no involvement in the horrible bombing that occurred in Spain in March and he has maintained from the outset that he has no knowledge about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OSIAS: Mayfield is a convert to Islam. He is also a practicing attorney here in the Portland area.

Now, you may recall he represented one of the so-called Portland 7 in a custody case. Six of those people pled guilty to aiding the Taliban back last October -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Kimberly Osias for us this morning.

Thanks -- Bill.

HEMMER: Eighteen minutes past the hour, Soledad.

The 9/11 Commission reconvenes in Washington next month for a new round of hearings there. For the families of the 9/11 victims, the panel's two day session in New York City this week hit a raw nerve in areas. Commission member John Lehman did not hold back on his thoughts regarding the city's emergency response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN LEHMAN, 9/11 COMMISSIONER: I think that the command and control and communications of this city's public service is a scandal. It's not worthy of the Boy Scouts, let alone this great city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: 9/11 Commissioner John Lehman our guest now from Washington to talk about that.

Good morning, sir, and thank you for your time and coming to speak with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

Yesterday the former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, addressed your comment.

Here's Giuliani.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: I mean those comments are totally inappropriate and are part of the reason why, you know, a lot of people were very, very upset about the Commission. Now, it isn't the entire Commission. It's his comments. But that isn't the way to approach this, I mean to call people names and -- the people that, the command and control system that he's describing as Boy Scouts saved 9, 000 to 12, 000 lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: That was Rudy Giuliani from yesterday.

Any regret with the statement this past week?

LEHMAN: Well, first of all, the police and the firemen and their leaders, including the mayor, their leadership under fire, their bravery not only saved 90 percent -- over 90 percent of the people there, but it did more than that. It provided a real message to the world that no matter what kind of atrocity that al Qaeda visits on the United States, that Americans don't panic, their leaders don't panic, that the rank and file don't panic and we are a very robust nation.

So I very much regret that the officials that were being questioned who were part of that heroism took my remarks personally.

I was criticizing a system of command and control, and particularly communications, that has to be fixed, because al Qaeda is coming back and New York is the top target. And they do not have unity of command and they do not have the kind of robust communications that every military unit in the United States takes for granted.

And they've got to recognize that they -- there are things to do to improve this.

But I do regret that they took it personally and I guess I was less sensitive than I should have been to the rawness of the nerves.

But if we don't face up to some of the things that are still wrong with talking between the police and the firemen, then more lives will be lost in the future.

So I hope they'll be open to it.

HEMMER: I think -- what I see in this, what I read in this is that the criticism is well taken in many areas and a lot of people say, yes, the system should have been better and it will be if the events are to occur again in the city in some form.

But that phrase Boy Scouts, was that a mistake? LEHMAN: It certainly was, because now I've gotten more e-mails from the Boy Scouts, outraged at being compared to the City of New York's communications, than I have from the City of New York.

Yes, sure. It was insensitive. I should have been a little more sensitive to the environment. But the fact is that when you compare -- and the criterion we're applying is what we have now as standard procedures in even the smallest American military unit -- you compare the technology, the training, the infrastructure for communications in what is now the front line of a military war in New York, it's very bad so.

HEMMER: Commissioner Lehman, we'd like you to tackle the issue we're asking our viewers today online, by way of e-mail.

How worthwhile have the 9/11 hearings been? To date, how would you answer that question?

LEHMAN: Well, I think they've been tremendously worthwhile. You know, you have to separate the question of how worthwhile is the Commission as opposed to the public hearings. The Commission's primary mission is to establish the facts, find out what really happened. And we've done that for the last year and a half. We've got -- we've been working 24-7. And we know, I think, factually, more than any other body in the world about what actually happened.

So, the second and most important mission is to make the -- draw the right lessons and make the right recommendations. And that we are going to do on July 26 and we've been doing it before that, m interacting with the government agencies.

HEMMER: Some suggest the report is already written.

Is it?

LEHMAN: Well, it's not, but -- no, it's being written, but we've been sharing the clearly unambiguous findings in dialogues with the CIA, FBI and with the City of New York.

The third mission, if you will, is bringing the public along with us. And that is what the hearings have been all about.

HEMMER: Thank you.

LEHMAN: And hearings, public hearings are, of their nature, a bit messy. They don't give the full picture. But I think they've been very, very helpful in letting the American people see the issues.

HEMMER: I apologize. We're out of time.

Have a good weekend.

John Lehman there in D.C.

LEHMAN: Right.

HEMMER: Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the FBI warns to be on the lookout for suicide bombers. More on that just ahead.

And the tale of a reporter who goes the extra mile to get a story. We'll explain ahead.

AMERICAN MORNING is back right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Just having a little cicada fun here. We're going to get to it in the next half hour.

Good morning -- Jack.

CAFFERTY: We were speculating on what it must be like to be a cicada. That's for another time and another time slot.

Now, the Cafferty File.

If John Kerry wins in November, he may have strip club owners to thank. A lot of them are asking their patrons to register to vote and then to vote against President Bush. They are afraid that conservatives may put an end to the strip club industry.

Jim Halbach owns a joint called The Isabella Queen in southern Wisconsin. He's registered 200 voters in the last month. A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee says she doesn't know why they consider the president unfriendly to the strip club industry.

A Louisiana reporter became part of the story on Wednesday his own self. Fred Childers, KSAL-TV, chased down a man who had escaped from authorities while he was filming a story outside the Shreveport Police Department. Childers grabbed the guy from behind, held onto him until the police arrived. He says he once considered becoming a police officer.

O'BRIEN: Good for him. But that guy was like six inches taller than he was.

CAFFERTY: He was? I didn't notice it.

O'BRIEN: He was a big guy, yes.

CAFFERTY: If you're worried that your kid spends too much time playing video games, well, think again. The "Wall Street Journal" has got a great story on the front page today, professional video game players making six figure salaries. South Korea, they have cable stations that air video game matches 24 hours a day. And you thought reality TV was terrible in this country. One of the most successful video game players made $300,000 last year. Another top player, whose fingers were insured for 60 grand, recently signed a three year contract for almost $500,000. So don't be so quick to...

HEMMER: He insured his fingers?

CAFFERTY: For 60 grand.

O'BRIEN: Sixty grand.

CAFFERTY: Because he's got that dexterity.

HEMMER: Nice.

CAFFERTY: You know that reporter who chased that guy down?

HEMMER: Yes?

CAFFERTY: In Kansas City a long time ago, I walked into the newsroom at WDAF-TV and they had all these gas masks and stuff out on the table. And I said, "What's that for?" I'd just started to work there. And Sam Feebach (ph), who is now dead, a cameraman, said, "Those are what we use to cover the riots." This was back in the '60s when there were riots all over the country.

I walked into the news director's office and I said, "Whatever you're paying me, it ain't enough. So don't assign me to go cover any riots, because I'll quit first."

And he just looked at me like, well, what kind of journalist are you?

HEMMER: Yes.

O'BRIEN: So you wouldn't hunt down the escapee from the police department?

CAFFERTY: Yes, yes. Taxi?

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: Hasn't changed. Nice to know.

O'BRIEN: That's funny.

Still to come this morning, cracks in Republican unity -- can the president hold the party together for November?

Stay with us.

A look at that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

And, they're here -- about 10 trillion cicadas. Can you do anything to stop them? We'll talk to an expert just ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com