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President Bush Pledges to Take Down Prison West of Baghdad; 'Paging Dr. Gupta'
Aired May 25, 2004 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A major change in leadership now in the works in Iraq. The top U.S. commander in that country, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez is leaving. Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon in a moment and tells us why and what this is all about. In a moment, we'll talk to Barbara.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, a lot of questions about the president's ability to put Americans' nerves at rest over his plan for Iraq. Our old friends Kamber and May standing by this morning. We're going to talk about the president's speech last night, no surprise there, and also a question about what Senator John Kerry should be doing now.
HEMMER: Feels like a Tuesday, with Kamber and May.
O'BRIEN: It is.
HEMMER: In the meantime, President Bush pledging last night in that speech to take down that prison west of Baghdad, where all the photos of abuse were taken.
Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon for more on this and other stories as well.
Barbara, good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
Well, indeed. Now the Army expects to finish its report on questionable intelligence practices at Abu Ghraib Prison. That report to be finished in the next couple of weeks. But now the question is, will Abu Ghraib Prison be there in the months ahead. President Bush last night offering his views about what should happen to one of the most notorious prisons in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America will fund the construction of a modern maximum security prison. When that prison is completed, detainees at Abu Ghraib will be relocated. Then with the approval of the Iraqi government, we will demolish the Abu Ghraib Prison as a fitting symbol of Iraq's new beginning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Now, Bill, to put some of this in context, of course many in Congress in the last several weeks had already called for the demolition of the prison, and it's not at all clear that any demolition would change any Iraqi minds about the prison abuse scandal.
But as you say, two additional personnel developments, if you will. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq, he is now set to leave. But it has nothing to do with the prison scandal. This is a regularly scheduled rotation. He's been there for 13 months, and even top generals eventually get to come home.
General Janis Karpinski, however Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the commander of the 800 Military Police Brigade, the unit that was at Abu Ghraib, the commander when all of this happened, she's a Reservist. She's back in the United States. But she has now been suspended from command of her unit. That does not mean that she is out officially, but her career, officials say, is all but over -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara, if I could, back to this prison issue, it's not an easy thing to house 2,500 detainees. Do you know of any plans in the works to locate space, or to build it, or to have a blueprint at this point?
STARR: Well, as the president said, they do want to build, with U.S. taxpayer money presumably, a new maximum security prison for the Iraqis. But one of the key unanswered questions, when that handover takes place June 30th, will the United States still have control of those prisoners, if you will? Top officials have been asked about this. U.S. officials say it is their understanding that those prisoners will still be in U.S. custody, but there will be an effort to turn them over to Iraqi authorities as quickly as possible. So all of this, as well as a lot of other things in a state of flux.
HEMMER: And a very interesting response to the question.
Thank you, Barbara. We'll be watching it, as you will as well. Thanks -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Some of the president's political enemies are downplaying the impact of a plan for Iraq he talked about last night. President Bush laid out a five-point plan to, quote, "achieve freedom and peace in Iraq," and he added that America's task is not only to defeat an enemy, it's to give strength to a friend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I sent American troops to Iraq to defend our security, not to stay as an occupying power. I sent American troops to Iraq to make its people free, not to make them American. Iraqis will write their own history and find their own way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Joining us this morning to talk about the performance, Democratic consultant Victor Kamber of the Kamber Group, also Cliff May, the former RNC communications director. He is now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Gentlemen, good morning. Nice to see you both. Good morning.
CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR.: Good morning.
VICTOR KAMBER, DEMOCRATIC CONSULTANT: Good morning, Soledad. You look terrific, by the way.
O'BRIEN: Well, thank you. Forget this whole political stuff, keep going. Just kidding. Let's go right to the speech. In fact this morning, Vic, we're going to start with you. What did you think?
KAMBER: I was disappointed, frankly. I was disappointed. I wanted more. I wanted to know what he was going to do. He gave a lot of platitudes, but he didn't say anything. I, frankly, thought when it was over, that if I hadn't watched the speech, I wouldn't feel any different than I did afterward. We knew nothing more than we knew before. We're turning over the control of the government supposedly on June 30th, but we have no idea what that means.
O'BRIEN: But you got a five-point plan that was revealed yesterday. Cliff, what do you think? Do you think that the president gave enough specifics, or as Vic has said, and many other critics have said as well, it didn't go far enough?
MAY: I think he was very specific. The speech was almost wonkish, I thought, in its specificity. I think it was a good start, because I think it's necessary that the president be, in a sense, the educator in chief. I think he should have started this a long time ago, not making news, but making arguments for what the stakes are in Iraq, and how we are going to achieve what we need to achieve.
Most of the Iraqis I know are fearful that we are going to lower our sights and leave them to the jihadist from abroad, the people like Zarqawi, to the former ruling class. They are worried that Americans are going to lose their will. And when you lose your will to fight, that's the definition of defeat.
I think the president was saying last night, we are not going to be defeated. We are going to succeed, and it's going to be difficult, this is a hard war to fight, but we can do this. And think he needs to continue along these lines.
KAMBER: What cliff just said, we agree with. I don't know what the president said about whether we're going to leave or not leave. I am now agreeing with Cliff. We cannot leave the Iraqi people. There will be a massacre there of untold proportions.
But we did not understand last night what role we're going to play after June 30th, what role that government has. Can that government tell us to leave? Can the new government ask the U.S. to leave? Can the new government control the prison? Just what was said on your news before. We know nothing.
MAY: It's important that Victor and I do agree upon this, because you know, and Victor knows and I know, that there are folks like Ralph Nader, and there signs all over Washington, saying all foreign troops out immediately. And I think it's very important that responsible Democrats, like Victor, like John Kerry say, no, that's not what's going to happen, we're going to stay there until we have a decent government in place, one that protects human rights, protects minority rights, and gives the people of Iraq some say over who govern them. If we agree upon that, we've come a long way.
O'BRIEN: I would say, that's true, if you agree on anything, you've come a long way.
Senator Kerry had this statement released yesterday. It says this: "The president laid out general principles tonight, most of which we've heard before. What's most important now is to turn these words into action by offering presidential leadership to the nation and the world."
Cliff, how does he do that?
MAY: I think he does that -- and by the way, I think I agree with what John Kerry is saying there. I think that's exactly what the president has to do. I think he knows that. He needs to do that by continuing to make the arguments, by continuing to show that we have a policy in place, that he's willing to make midcourse corrections when necessary, but that he's not going to abandon the people of Iraq or the Middle East in order to try to get some quick bump in the polls.
I thought also Joe Lieberman last night was very good when he said, look, this was a hard time, but we're going to look back upon this years from now and be proud of what we accomplished in Iraq. I think that's important. We've got to recognize that what's going on in the world is more than just one election here in the U.S., we are fighting a global war against a ruthless enemy that we cannot allow to win.
O'BRIEN: Vic, as you well know, this is a first in a series of speeches that come in the next few weeks. How do you think John Kerry stays in this game, outside of releasing a statement at the end of every speech? I mean, how does he maintain his relevance here?
KAMBER: Well, I think, frankly, the relevance of John Kerry is shown by the weakness of George Bush. You can't just give a speech and assume that the American public is going to fall in line. Saying that we need leadership and that I'm a leader doesn't prove anything. George Bush has done virtually nothing since he announced mission accomplished a year ago. He should have last night said, I've been on the phone to these five world leaders, this is the decision we've made, this is the agreement we've made, this is how we're resolving it. To say we're going to pull down a prison and build a housing facility and build a maximum prison, that was the only new news last night in the entire speech he gave.
He will give five speeches. Obviously, one purpose to those speeches. They are political, for this election in America today. That's not an answer.
MAY: I want Vic to tell me which five leaders he should be calling up right now.
KAMBER: French, German, Russian -- every one of them.
MAY: OK, let me tell you, if John Kerry would have put on a beret and take a bottle of Merlot and walk over to Paris, it wouldn't matter.
KAMBER: You can joke all you want. It's worth the call.
MAY: Victor, the French are not sending the Foreign Legion into Iraq, and they're not doing it for a number of reasons. One, because of the rivalry they perceive with the U.S., and two you and I know about the U.N. Oil for Food Scandal in which French and others were complicit in stealing money.
KAMBER: There's no country in the world that will not take the president's call, and there's no country in the world the president shouldn't be calling if it's world leadership we're about.
O'BRIEN: Cliff, you going to have the final word.
MAY: What would the French do in Iraq that we're not doing in Iraq? What do you think their military is capable of in Iraq that our military isn't?
KAMBER: Showing the rest of the world, showing the Arab people, showing the Muslim people that it's a united front against terrorism, against the insurrections of the radicals.
O'BRIEN: Gentlemen, we are out of time. Victor Kamber, Cliff May joining us this morning. Nice to see you, guys. Thanks.
MAY: You look marvelous.
O'BRIEN: Thanks -- Bill.
HEMMER: I want to show you this weeknight in Atlanta, Georgia, in the town of Conyers, 20 miles east of Atlanta, a huge plume of smoke still billowing into that blue sky there in Georgia, east of Atlanta. Interstate 20 is open in both directions, but here's what we know at this point: A warehouse owned by Bio Lab, which makes chemicals for pools and cleaning products, first reported in the suburb of 10,000 about 5:00 a.m. today an evacuation has been issued for the people living in that area. Interestingly enough, they're telling people door to door to evacuate, and also the motorists driving through the air told to roll up their car windows, which this time of year, if you don't have air-conditioning, that is a hot proposition in Georgia.
Bottom line, the plume of smoke is enormous. Quite clear and evident in the video tape we're getting not only on the ground, but also in the aerial you just saw there. So we'll continue to follow that. CNN's David Mattingly on the scene there. We'll talk to David a bit later this hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Chemical fire the reason for that earlier today. O'BRIEN: What a huge mess for the fire crews. But of course the question is, do you just let it burn out, which can always have its own risks? Or do you try to contain it? Because obviously, chemicals being spewed into the environment. We'll see what happens there.
Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, the FBI holding the wrong man. Are charges ahead for the way suspected terrorist -- changes ahead, rather, for the way suspected terrorist are handled? We'll look at that, coming up.
HEMMER: Also, Kobe Bryant's attorneys take a page out of the O.J. Simpson defense playbook. Back in a moment with that, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: And welcome back, everybody. Let's go right to Heidi Collins. She's got a look at some of the other stories that are making headlines today.
Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We sure do. We're going to start off in Iraq. And right now, it is about 45 minutes past the hour, so we want to get you up to speed on the headlines. Another bomb blast in Baghdad, this by the Australian embassy. There are still conflicting reports, though, on casualties. Iraqis say four people were killed in the blast, but coalition officials say five were injured.
The FBI apologizing to a falsely accused terror suspect. In a statement released yesterday, the FBI apologized to Brandon Mayfield and his family. The exonerated Mayfield, a Muslim convert, was held for two weeks in connection with the Madrid bomb attacks. FBI agents thought they found his fingerprint on detonators near one of the bomb sites, but the agency now says the fingerprint evidence was flawed. They plan to review current guidelines for print identification.
Defense attorneys for NBA star Kobe Bryant are making a request to call expert witnesses in the case after suggesting bias. Bryant's lawyers contend the sexual assault investigation against Bryant is woeful and incomplete. The court filing was made public yesterday. Bryant has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault.
A tentative agreement now for the nation's second biggest local phone company. It's a five-year deal between SBC Communications and the Communication Workers of America. It's still being finalized after a four-day strike. The new agreement improves wages, helps protect health care benefits and protects against layoffs.
And to Florida now. He's a little on the soggy side and a little hungry, but OK. Rescuers save a kitten, but not from a tree this time. A concerned resident tried for several days to save this little itty-bitty kitty that you see there from a sewer in Jacksonville. Finally a local vet and workers from critter control came to the rescue. The kitten will undergo a few tests and maybe also a little hair drying, but he's going to need a little recovery time, as you would imagine, before being up for adoption. Whenever we see stories like this, people call and call and the kitties or doggies usually get nice new homes.
HEMMER: That's one tiny kitten, too.
COSTELLO: Yes, really tiny.
HEMMER: The guys on the floor here are big hockey fans, and they've been giving us a hard time for a week now, because we're not doing NHL playoffs.
COSTELLO: I agree. I have to agree.
HEMMER: Stanley Cup tonight, game one, Tampa Bay-Calgary. Andy says, who cares?
COSTELLO: Is that what he said?
O'BRIEN: I'm with you, Andy.
HEMMER: We'll get it tomorrow. Thanks, Heidi.
Every year thousand of children are born with the defect of the ear known as microsia. Traditional treatment to repair the deformed ear requires extensive and sometimes painful surgeries. But a pioneering plastic surgeon has cut down on the procedures, and today Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the story of a Native American boy with a new ear and new outlook on life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Until now, 6-year-old Edmund Hobb's was something he always had to explain.
SANDRA HOBBS, EDMUND'S MOTHER: Kid would come up and say, what happened to your ear? Where is your ear? And he would just look at them straight in the eye and say, I was born that way. Let's go play.
GUPTA (voice-over): You see Edmund was born with only traces of a left here. All he had was a small flap of skin no ear canal. His condition is called single-sided microsia, which effects about one in 8,000 children. For Edmund, not having an ear meant not being able to fully to appreciate basic things, like music.
HOBBS: He's such a bright child, and I know he has a place somewhere in society, and I hate to see him lose that because of something that he was born with.
GUPTA: Edmund's family had been prepare for his ear replacement since he was born, but the risks seemed too great. Traditional ear replacement is painful, and lengthy. It usually involves six operations and removing a rip to whittle it into the shape of an ear. Not all doctors like that option.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This doesn't make sense to me, why we would leave it there and use rib graft. There's got to be some compatible implant we can use to eliminate taking these kids' chest and cutting them up like that.
GUPTA: A new technique allowed doctors to fashion a new ear for Edmund in two steps instead of six, so he could finally hear in stereo. Surgeons first pulled back the tissue above the ear, and positioned an artificial ear framework where Edmund's ear should be, then they cover the new surface area with skin from the groin. In a second operation, the ear lobe is repositioned, and a permanent earring aid is placed just under the skin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've taken a six-stage operation and taken it down to two.
GUPTA: Two steps in two months, compared to 18 months of surgery after surgery. And for the first time, Edmund can hear out of his left here and he can wear sunglasses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you hear me, dude?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Yes, we're told Edmund is back home on the Hobie (ph) Reservation. Next fall, he will start first grade, and his mother says piano lessons are in order. And the best of luck to him.
In a moment here, airline fares on the rise, but is it because of higher fuel prices? Andy has a rather interesting look at that and an answer, right after this on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Here's a question for you, can the airlines make higher fares stick? Plus, one airline now says it's not how far you fly, but how much money you spend. A look at that with Andy Serwer who's "Minding Your Business" this morning. Hello.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.
Yes, let's talk about this airline news. Remember last week, we were talking about the airlines raising fares $10 each way, a total of $20. They were playing around with different combinations. Guess what? it didn't stick. I love this, Northwest held out, and so people flocked to that airline, and so the other airlines had to drop those increases back.
Now today, though, they're adding fares up again, but this time only $2. That's a fuel surcharge, matching Southwest Airlines. Southwest being the most profitable, really the only profitable airline in the business over the past 10 years. So you're looking at $2 fare surcharges, not too much. I think we can all handle that. Let's talk a little bit about Independence Airline. This is a new one out of Dulles that's going to be starting in June. They have a novel frequent-flier program, Soledad. You know how if you buy a $900 ticket to Nashville, you get the same amount of frequent-flier miles if you did a $300 ticket. This one, Independent now, is going to be doing a program where you get more miles if you pay more.
O'BRIEN: Congratulations, you paid more than anybody else on the flight.
SERWER: Yes, but the mileage -- but you get more miles. You get miles based on how much you pay, rather than the miles you flew.
And finally, I want to take you to Conyers, Georgia, where that chemical fire was. This is a totally different story, but it just happens to be in the same town. Look at this, this is a gas station, arm, leg and firstborn, right.
HEMMER: Give it all up.
SERWER: Yes, that's the whole bit.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks.
SERWER: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the president makes a major speech. Not everyone had a chance to watch it. We'll explain ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. To Jack and the File today.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Bill. It is now time to go to the Cafferty File and find out what -- I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
HEMMER: As you were.
CAFFERTY: Yes, and we'll start over. President Bush addressed the nation last night, you know that. Not everybody was watching, because not everyone has cable TV, and the broadcast networks chose not to carry the president's speech. So much for that -- what do they call that, broadcasting in the public interest? Anyway, last night was the last night of the May sweeps period. So instead of President Bush on Iraq, NBC had "Fear Factor" where people eat those little worms and bugs and stuff. ABC carried a four or five-year-old movie, "A Beautiful Mind." CBS some sitcom, called "Yes, Dear," and on Fox, that show where these women compete for plastic surgery or something, "The Swan." So congratulations to the nation's broadcasters for coming through in fine (UNINTELLIGIBLE) yet again.
On to other items. Pink has become the hot color in hip-hop and urban clothing. It seems that men now are going to extreme measures to get pink sneakers. I don't know that I want to know a lot about this. But "The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" reports that men are actually so desperate that they're squeezing their feet into women's shows, because none of the athletic clothing companies make pink sneakers in men's sizes. The Nike women sneakers, the hot item this past weekend at one Wisconsin shopping. Other brands of pink women's shoes, including Reebok and K Swiss also popular among men. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
HEMMER: Not these men.
Thank you, Jack.
In a moment here, the president speaks in some stark terms about the challenges facing Iraq and the U.S. there. We'll get a Democratic critic's view when we come back in a moment. A lot more to talk about regarding this speech last night, and we will, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired May 25, 2004 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A major change in leadership now in the works in Iraq. The top U.S. commander in that country, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez is leaving. Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon in a moment and tells us why and what this is all about. In a moment, we'll talk to Barbara.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, a lot of questions about the president's ability to put Americans' nerves at rest over his plan for Iraq. Our old friends Kamber and May standing by this morning. We're going to talk about the president's speech last night, no surprise there, and also a question about what Senator John Kerry should be doing now.
HEMMER: Feels like a Tuesday, with Kamber and May.
O'BRIEN: It is.
HEMMER: In the meantime, President Bush pledging last night in that speech to take down that prison west of Baghdad, where all the photos of abuse were taken.
Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon for more on this and other stories as well.
Barbara, good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
Well, indeed. Now the Army expects to finish its report on questionable intelligence practices at Abu Ghraib Prison. That report to be finished in the next couple of weeks. But now the question is, will Abu Ghraib Prison be there in the months ahead. President Bush last night offering his views about what should happen to one of the most notorious prisons in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America will fund the construction of a modern maximum security prison. When that prison is completed, detainees at Abu Ghraib will be relocated. Then with the approval of the Iraqi government, we will demolish the Abu Ghraib Prison as a fitting symbol of Iraq's new beginning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Now, Bill, to put some of this in context, of course many in Congress in the last several weeks had already called for the demolition of the prison, and it's not at all clear that any demolition would change any Iraqi minds about the prison abuse scandal.
But as you say, two additional personnel developments, if you will. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq, he is now set to leave. But it has nothing to do with the prison scandal. This is a regularly scheduled rotation. He's been there for 13 months, and even top generals eventually get to come home.
General Janis Karpinski, however Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the commander of the 800 Military Police Brigade, the unit that was at Abu Ghraib, the commander when all of this happened, she's a Reservist. She's back in the United States. But she has now been suspended from command of her unit. That does not mean that she is out officially, but her career, officials say, is all but over -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara, if I could, back to this prison issue, it's not an easy thing to house 2,500 detainees. Do you know of any plans in the works to locate space, or to build it, or to have a blueprint at this point?
STARR: Well, as the president said, they do want to build, with U.S. taxpayer money presumably, a new maximum security prison for the Iraqis. But one of the key unanswered questions, when that handover takes place June 30th, will the United States still have control of those prisoners, if you will? Top officials have been asked about this. U.S. officials say it is their understanding that those prisoners will still be in U.S. custody, but there will be an effort to turn them over to Iraqi authorities as quickly as possible. So all of this, as well as a lot of other things in a state of flux.
HEMMER: And a very interesting response to the question.
Thank you, Barbara. We'll be watching it, as you will as well. Thanks -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Some of the president's political enemies are downplaying the impact of a plan for Iraq he talked about last night. President Bush laid out a five-point plan to, quote, "achieve freedom and peace in Iraq," and he added that America's task is not only to defeat an enemy, it's to give strength to a friend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I sent American troops to Iraq to defend our security, not to stay as an occupying power. I sent American troops to Iraq to make its people free, not to make them American. Iraqis will write their own history and find their own way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Joining us this morning to talk about the performance, Democratic consultant Victor Kamber of the Kamber Group, also Cliff May, the former RNC communications director. He is now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Gentlemen, good morning. Nice to see you both. Good morning.
CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR.: Good morning.
VICTOR KAMBER, DEMOCRATIC CONSULTANT: Good morning, Soledad. You look terrific, by the way.
O'BRIEN: Well, thank you. Forget this whole political stuff, keep going. Just kidding. Let's go right to the speech. In fact this morning, Vic, we're going to start with you. What did you think?
KAMBER: I was disappointed, frankly. I was disappointed. I wanted more. I wanted to know what he was going to do. He gave a lot of platitudes, but he didn't say anything. I, frankly, thought when it was over, that if I hadn't watched the speech, I wouldn't feel any different than I did afterward. We knew nothing more than we knew before. We're turning over the control of the government supposedly on June 30th, but we have no idea what that means.
O'BRIEN: But you got a five-point plan that was revealed yesterday. Cliff, what do you think? Do you think that the president gave enough specifics, or as Vic has said, and many other critics have said as well, it didn't go far enough?
MAY: I think he was very specific. The speech was almost wonkish, I thought, in its specificity. I think it was a good start, because I think it's necessary that the president be, in a sense, the educator in chief. I think he should have started this a long time ago, not making news, but making arguments for what the stakes are in Iraq, and how we are going to achieve what we need to achieve.
Most of the Iraqis I know are fearful that we are going to lower our sights and leave them to the jihadist from abroad, the people like Zarqawi, to the former ruling class. They are worried that Americans are going to lose their will. And when you lose your will to fight, that's the definition of defeat.
I think the president was saying last night, we are not going to be defeated. We are going to succeed, and it's going to be difficult, this is a hard war to fight, but we can do this. And think he needs to continue along these lines.
KAMBER: What cliff just said, we agree with. I don't know what the president said about whether we're going to leave or not leave. I am now agreeing with Cliff. We cannot leave the Iraqi people. There will be a massacre there of untold proportions.
But we did not understand last night what role we're going to play after June 30th, what role that government has. Can that government tell us to leave? Can the new government ask the U.S. to leave? Can the new government control the prison? Just what was said on your news before. We know nothing.
MAY: It's important that Victor and I do agree upon this, because you know, and Victor knows and I know, that there are folks like Ralph Nader, and there signs all over Washington, saying all foreign troops out immediately. And I think it's very important that responsible Democrats, like Victor, like John Kerry say, no, that's not what's going to happen, we're going to stay there until we have a decent government in place, one that protects human rights, protects minority rights, and gives the people of Iraq some say over who govern them. If we agree upon that, we've come a long way.
O'BRIEN: I would say, that's true, if you agree on anything, you've come a long way.
Senator Kerry had this statement released yesterday. It says this: "The president laid out general principles tonight, most of which we've heard before. What's most important now is to turn these words into action by offering presidential leadership to the nation and the world."
Cliff, how does he do that?
MAY: I think he does that -- and by the way, I think I agree with what John Kerry is saying there. I think that's exactly what the president has to do. I think he knows that. He needs to do that by continuing to make the arguments, by continuing to show that we have a policy in place, that he's willing to make midcourse corrections when necessary, but that he's not going to abandon the people of Iraq or the Middle East in order to try to get some quick bump in the polls.
I thought also Joe Lieberman last night was very good when he said, look, this was a hard time, but we're going to look back upon this years from now and be proud of what we accomplished in Iraq. I think that's important. We've got to recognize that what's going on in the world is more than just one election here in the U.S., we are fighting a global war against a ruthless enemy that we cannot allow to win.
O'BRIEN: Vic, as you well know, this is a first in a series of speeches that come in the next few weeks. How do you think John Kerry stays in this game, outside of releasing a statement at the end of every speech? I mean, how does he maintain his relevance here?
KAMBER: Well, I think, frankly, the relevance of John Kerry is shown by the weakness of George Bush. You can't just give a speech and assume that the American public is going to fall in line. Saying that we need leadership and that I'm a leader doesn't prove anything. George Bush has done virtually nothing since he announced mission accomplished a year ago. He should have last night said, I've been on the phone to these five world leaders, this is the decision we've made, this is the agreement we've made, this is how we're resolving it. To say we're going to pull down a prison and build a housing facility and build a maximum prison, that was the only new news last night in the entire speech he gave.
He will give five speeches. Obviously, one purpose to those speeches. They are political, for this election in America today. That's not an answer.
MAY: I want Vic to tell me which five leaders he should be calling up right now.
KAMBER: French, German, Russian -- every one of them.
MAY: OK, let me tell you, if John Kerry would have put on a beret and take a bottle of Merlot and walk over to Paris, it wouldn't matter.
KAMBER: You can joke all you want. It's worth the call.
MAY: Victor, the French are not sending the Foreign Legion into Iraq, and they're not doing it for a number of reasons. One, because of the rivalry they perceive with the U.S., and two you and I know about the U.N. Oil for Food Scandal in which French and others were complicit in stealing money.
KAMBER: There's no country in the world that will not take the president's call, and there's no country in the world the president shouldn't be calling if it's world leadership we're about.
O'BRIEN: Cliff, you going to have the final word.
MAY: What would the French do in Iraq that we're not doing in Iraq? What do you think their military is capable of in Iraq that our military isn't?
KAMBER: Showing the rest of the world, showing the Arab people, showing the Muslim people that it's a united front against terrorism, against the insurrections of the radicals.
O'BRIEN: Gentlemen, we are out of time. Victor Kamber, Cliff May joining us this morning. Nice to see you, guys. Thanks.
MAY: You look marvelous.
O'BRIEN: Thanks -- Bill.
HEMMER: I want to show you this weeknight in Atlanta, Georgia, in the town of Conyers, 20 miles east of Atlanta, a huge plume of smoke still billowing into that blue sky there in Georgia, east of Atlanta. Interstate 20 is open in both directions, but here's what we know at this point: A warehouse owned by Bio Lab, which makes chemicals for pools and cleaning products, first reported in the suburb of 10,000 about 5:00 a.m. today an evacuation has been issued for the people living in that area. Interestingly enough, they're telling people door to door to evacuate, and also the motorists driving through the air told to roll up their car windows, which this time of year, if you don't have air-conditioning, that is a hot proposition in Georgia.
Bottom line, the plume of smoke is enormous. Quite clear and evident in the video tape we're getting not only on the ground, but also in the aerial you just saw there. So we'll continue to follow that. CNN's David Mattingly on the scene there. We'll talk to David a bit later this hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Chemical fire the reason for that earlier today. O'BRIEN: What a huge mess for the fire crews. But of course the question is, do you just let it burn out, which can always have its own risks? Or do you try to contain it? Because obviously, chemicals being spewed into the environment. We'll see what happens there.
Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, the FBI holding the wrong man. Are charges ahead for the way suspected terrorist -- changes ahead, rather, for the way suspected terrorist are handled? We'll look at that, coming up.
HEMMER: Also, Kobe Bryant's attorneys take a page out of the O.J. Simpson defense playbook. Back in a moment with that, after this.
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O'BRIEN: And welcome back, everybody. Let's go right to Heidi Collins. She's got a look at some of the other stories that are making headlines today.
Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We sure do. We're going to start off in Iraq. And right now, it is about 45 minutes past the hour, so we want to get you up to speed on the headlines. Another bomb blast in Baghdad, this by the Australian embassy. There are still conflicting reports, though, on casualties. Iraqis say four people were killed in the blast, but coalition officials say five were injured.
The FBI apologizing to a falsely accused terror suspect. In a statement released yesterday, the FBI apologized to Brandon Mayfield and his family. The exonerated Mayfield, a Muslim convert, was held for two weeks in connection with the Madrid bomb attacks. FBI agents thought they found his fingerprint on detonators near one of the bomb sites, but the agency now says the fingerprint evidence was flawed. They plan to review current guidelines for print identification.
Defense attorneys for NBA star Kobe Bryant are making a request to call expert witnesses in the case after suggesting bias. Bryant's lawyers contend the sexual assault investigation against Bryant is woeful and incomplete. The court filing was made public yesterday. Bryant has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault.
A tentative agreement now for the nation's second biggest local phone company. It's a five-year deal between SBC Communications and the Communication Workers of America. It's still being finalized after a four-day strike. The new agreement improves wages, helps protect health care benefits and protects against layoffs.
And to Florida now. He's a little on the soggy side and a little hungry, but OK. Rescuers save a kitten, but not from a tree this time. A concerned resident tried for several days to save this little itty-bitty kitty that you see there from a sewer in Jacksonville. Finally a local vet and workers from critter control came to the rescue. The kitten will undergo a few tests and maybe also a little hair drying, but he's going to need a little recovery time, as you would imagine, before being up for adoption. Whenever we see stories like this, people call and call and the kitties or doggies usually get nice new homes.
HEMMER: That's one tiny kitten, too.
COSTELLO: Yes, really tiny.
HEMMER: The guys on the floor here are big hockey fans, and they've been giving us a hard time for a week now, because we're not doing NHL playoffs.
COSTELLO: I agree. I have to agree.
HEMMER: Stanley Cup tonight, game one, Tampa Bay-Calgary. Andy says, who cares?
COSTELLO: Is that what he said?
O'BRIEN: I'm with you, Andy.
HEMMER: We'll get it tomorrow. Thanks, Heidi.
Every year thousand of children are born with the defect of the ear known as microsia. Traditional treatment to repair the deformed ear requires extensive and sometimes painful surgeries. But a pioneering plastic surgeon has cut down on the procedures, and today Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the story of a Native American boy with a new ear and new outlook on life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Until now, 6-year-old Edmund Hobb's was something he always had to explain.
SANDRA HOBBS, EDMUND'S MOTHER: Kid would come up and say, what happened to your ear? Where is your ear? And he would just look at them straight in the eye and say, I was born that way. Let's go play.
GUPTA (voice-over): You see Edmund was born with only traces of a left here. All he had was a small flap of skin no ear canal. His condition is called single-sided microsia, which effects about one in 8,000 children. For Edmund, not having an ear meant not being able to fully to appreciate basic things, like music.
HOBBS: He's such a bright child, and I know he has a place somewhere in society, and I hate to see him lose that because of something that he was born with.
GUPTA: Edmund's family had been prepare for his ear replacement since he was born, but the risks seemed too great. Traditional ear replacement is painful, and lengthy. It usually involves six operations and removing a rip to whittle it into the shape of an ear. Not all doctors like that option.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This doesn't make sense to me, why we would leave it there and use rib graft. There's got to be some compatible implant we can use to eliminate taking these kids' chest and cutting them up like that.
GUPTA: A new technique allowed doctors to fashion a new ear for Edmund in two steps instead of six, so he could finally hear in stereo. Surgeons first pulled back the tissue above the ear, and positioned an artificial ear framework where Edmund's ear should be, then they cover the new surface area with skin from the groin. In a second operation, the ear lobe is repositioned, and a permanent earring aid is placed just under the skin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've taken a six-stage operation and taken it down to two.
GUPTA: Two steps in two months, compared to 18 months of surgery after surgery. And for the first time, Edmund can hear out of his left here and he can wear sunglasses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you hear me, dude?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Yes, we're told Edmund is back home on the Hobie (ph) Reservation. Next fall, he will start first grade, and his mother says piano lessons are in order. And the best of luck to him.
In a moment here, airline fares on the rise, but is it because of higher fuel prices? Andy has a rather interesting look at that and an answer, right after this on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Here's a question for you, can the airlines make higher fares stick? Plus, one airline now says it's not how far you fly, but how much money you spend. A look at that with Andy Serwer who's "Minding Your Business" this morning. Hello.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.
Yes, let's talk about this airline news. Remember last week, we were talking about the airlines raising fares $10 each way, a total of $20. They were playing around with different combinations. Guess what? it didn't stick. I love this, Northwest held out, and so people flocked to that airline, and so the other airlines had to drop those increases back.
Now today, though, they're adding fares up again, but this time only $2. That's a fuel surcharge, matching Southwest Airlines. Southwest being the most profitable, really the only profitable airline in the business over the past 10 years. So you're looking at $2 fare surcharges, not too much. I think we can all handle that. Let's talk a little bit about Independence Airline. This is a new one out of Dulles that's going to be starting in June. They have a novel frequent-flier program, Soledad. You know how if you buy a $900 ticket to Nashville, you get the same amount of frequent-flier miles if you did a $300 ticket. This one, Independent now, is going to be doing a program where you get more miles if you pay more.
O'BRIEN: Congratulations, you paid more than anybody else on the flight.
SERWER: Yes, but the mileage -- but you get more miles. You get miles based on how much you pay, rather than the miles you flew.
And finally, I want to take you to Conyers, Georgia, where that chemical fire was. This is a totally different story, but it just happens to be in the same town. Look at this, this is a gas station, arm, leg and firstborn, right.
HEMMER: Give it all up.
SERWER: Yes, that's the whole bit.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks.
SERWER: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the president makes a major speech. Not everyone had a chance to watch it. We'll explain ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. To Jack and the File today.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Bill. It is now time to go to the Cafferty File and find out what -- I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
HEMMER: As you were.
CAFFERTY: Yes, and we'll start over. President Bush addressed the nation last night, you know that. Not everybody was watching, because not everyone has cable TV, and the broadcast networks chose not to carry the president's speech. So much for that -- what do they call that, broadcasting in the public interest? Anyway, last night was the last night of the May sweeps period. So instead of President Bush on Iraq, NBC had "Fear Factor" where people eat those little worms and bugs and stuff. ABC carried a four or five-year-old movie, "A Beautiful Mind." CBS some sitcom, called "Yes, Dear," and on Fox, that show where these women compete for plastic surgery or something, "The Swan." So congratulations to the nation's broadcasters for coming through in fine (UNINTELLIGIBLE) yet again.
On to other items. Pink has become the hot color in hip-hop and urban clothing. It seems that men now are going to extreme measures to get pink sneakers. I don't know that I want to know a lot about this. But "The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" reports that men are actually so desperate that they're squeezing their feet into women's shows, because none of the athletic clothing companies make pink sneakers in men's sizes. The Nike women sneakers, the hot item this past weekend at one Wisconsin shopping. Other brands of pink women's shoes, including Reebok and K Swiss also popular among men. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
HEMMER: Not these men.
Thank you, Jack.
In a moment here, the president speaks in some stark terms about the challenges facing Iraq and the U.S. there. We'll get a Democratic critic's view when we come back in a moment. A lot more to talk about regarding this speech last night, and we will, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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