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CNN Live At Daybreak

Pakistan Terror Link; London Terror Alert; Hurricane Alex; Film Freedom?

Aired August 03, 2004 - 05:30   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: While you were sleeping, Alex turned from a tropical storm to a hurricane.
It is Tuesday, August 3. This is DAYBREAK.

And good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.

"Now in the News," Congress is on summer break, but two committees will hold hearings today to discuss some of the recommendations from the 9/11 Commission.

The case of Army Private Lynndie England goes before a military court in just about two-and-a-half hours. A hearing will determine whether England should be court-martialed in the Abu Ghraib Prison abuse scandal.

A spacewalk under way right now at the International Space Station. Two crew members are taking care of a little outside maintenance, like installing antennas and laser reflectors.

Tropical Storm Alex became a hurricane overnight, the first of the season in the Atlantic. Despite sustained 75-mile-per-hour winds, few residents of North Carolina's Outer Banks are boarding up their homes or leaving.

In fact, Rob, they're staying.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well they're tough. They're tough cookies. And we don't expect it to actually make direct hits, so that's maybe one of the reasons. And it is a minimal hurricane, just upgraded last night. Eighty-mile-an-hour winds now.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Romantic thing, I think it's a pretty scary thing myself.

MARCIANO: As long as it stays off shore, it's just, you know, kind of gets everybody fired up, especially the first one in the season, you know.

COSTELLO: Thank you -- Rob.

MARCIANO: OK. COSTELLO: Commuters in the nation's capital will have a tougher time getting around the Capitol Hill area this morning due to new anti-terror restrictions. U.S. Capitol Police say all traffic around the perimeter of the Capitol complex will be funneled through about 10 checkpoints. That includes heavily traveled Constitution and Independence Avenues. Police also plan to stop and search every single vehicle that drives past the Capitol and its office buildings.

And police with body army and automatic weapons are on the streets of New York and New Jersey in response to that terror alert. Homeland Security has listed the New York Stock Exchange and the Citicorp buildings as possible targets of attacks. Workers in the Big Apple are heading to their jobs today through a gauntlet of ID checks and bag searches.

In New Jersey, the Prudential Financial headquarters in Newark is on a list of possible targets and authorities have set up concrete barriers and police teams around the 24-story buildings.

Now much of the intelligence on the latest terror threats has come from Pakistan, and there is new information for you this morning.

Our Ash-Har Quraishi joins us live from Islamabad with what he's been able to confirm there, and we're eager to find out -- Ash-Har.

ASH-HAR QURAISHI, CNN ISLAMABAD BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Carol.

Well what we know right now is since the Ghailani arrest, the arrest of a top al Qaeda operative who has been indicted in the U.S. Embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. Now that arrest took place back on July 25.

Now what's been going on here in Pakistan over the past few months is a series of raids and arrests that have really come out with some information and some calling it a treasure trove of information that led to or helped contribute to the heightened alert in the United States. They say imminent attacks, however, are not known. They say some of this information may be as old as before September 11, 2001.

However, what we are really learning at this point is the intricate nature of the communications between al Qaeda operatives here in Pakistan and how they are getting their information out and how they are planning these attacks.

Now just since Ghailani was arrested on July 25, we're told seven more suspected al Qaeda operatives have been arrested here in Pakistan, the latest coming yesterday in the city of Lahore. Now this is somebody who has been tied to a communications expert, also arrested here in Pakistan, who was taking coded messages from the leadership of al Qaeda and then disseminating it on to the Internet.

Now we understand from our intelligent sources that this person who was arrested in Lahore was carrying some of these coded messages and trying to leave from the Lahore International Airport. Now we're told that he may have been going to Nigeria where he may have been trying to pass on this information when he was apprehended by Pakistani security forces.

Now currently they are in interrogation and they are still combing through some of the laptops, some of the computers and disks from which much of this information they have been getting. Now right now they say that the key is trying to find out when and if this communication has gotten out of Pakistan and where it's gone and how imminent any kind of attack may be, particularly as we lurch in the United States -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Any indication that Osama bin Laden is directly involved in this through these computer records?

QURAISHI: So far they say they haven't had any direct connection.

But right now what we understand is that some of this information now this would work as the al Qaeda leadership possibly sending messages by courier and then being transferred. Basically it's a compartmentalized unit. These cells work independently. They are given a task. They move to the next cell. The next cells passes it on and passes it on until it gets to a communications expert, somebody who can disseminate this throughout the network, possibly through the Internet, possibly through al Qaeda Web sites. So it's not clear where this leads to, but it leads with an understanding of the trail -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ash-Har Quraishi live from Islamabad this morning. Thank you.

Terror concerns are nothing new in the city of London. Police there already are on a heightened state of alert after a series of IRA bombings in the 1990s. Still, the new threat in the United States is having an impact in London.

Here's more from CNN's Diana Muriel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The city of London is no stranger to terrorism. This was the scene in 1993 when the IRA detonated a bomb in the heart of London's financial district, killing 1, injuring 44 and causing an estimated $525 million of damage.

Now the threat is from a different quarter. The British government has confirmed there is a real and serious threat of a terrorist attack in the U.K. After the United States warned financial institutions, like the New York Stock Exchange, could be targets for an al Qaeda attack.

The city of London police, responsible for security in London's financial district, declined to be interviewed. But a spokesman told CNN, "we are policing as normal. We already have a heightened state of alert, and this new situation hasn't caused any changes."

The IRA bomb blasts in the early '90s prompted the British government to throw a so-called ring of steel around the city. Cameras monitor every street, including automated car number plate recognition cameras at all entry points. More police officers are on patrol and security has been stepped up by individual firms.

Helping to advise them in a post 9/11 world is the City of London Corporation.

PAUL ESKRIETT, CITY OF LONDON CORPORATION: We've had to look more broadly at just preventing and deterring terrorism and look more closely at how we actually respond should an incident occur and how companies can establish business continuity.

MURIEL: One London-based bank that has been the victim of a direct terrorist attack is HSBC. Last November, a bomb exploded at the bank's local headquarters in Istanbul. Four people were killed and scores injured.

STEPHEN GREEN, GROUP CEO, HSBC: We're used to operating in environments where there's been an experience of our people in difficulty. We think we have the mettle to carry on through it.

MURIEL: HSBC is headquartered at London's Canary Wharf, the target of another IRA attack in February 1996 when a bomb blast killed two men and caused around $130 million in damage. Londoners then are familiar with the possibility of terrorist attacks, but are they more worried now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Brits have lived with the IRA for a while, so they get used to it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not to give in to these people. You know they are just fanatics and sooner or later they'll realize that what they are doing is a waste of time.

MURIEL (on camera): The scene of devastation left in the wake of that 1993 IRA bomb has been transformed back into part of London's bustling financial district. But the lessons learned then about the need for vigilance are still relevant and still heated here in the city of London today.

Diana Muriel, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And back here in the United States, President Bush is taking action on some recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission. He's asked Congress to create a new national intelligence director and has called for establishing a national counterterrorism center.

Senior administration officials say the new director would coordinate all 15 intelligence agencies, and that is a key point, according to many observers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTE: I'm hopeful that this will actually be helpful in unifying, allowing one person to supervise the whole intelligence community, but also allowing debate within that community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The president says the new position should remain outside the White House, in part to ensure autonomy.

Well, we wanted to know what you think. We asked the question, does the idea of creating the position of a national intelligence director make you feel safer? And many of you have e-mailed us. I want to read a few now.

This is from Chris (ph) in Sarasota. He says an intelligence director will not change anything. The intelligence agencies of the United States are too overconfident and arrogant to confer all of their information to one source.

This from Suzy (ph) in Arizona. What does it really matter? The 9/11 Commission set it up so that the blame would fall in the president's lap. And if it wasn't implemented, the president would be blamed for not protecting us. She says it's all part of partisan politics.

And this from Roy (ph) from Atlantic Beach, Florida. He says I am distressed that there is not a major effort to identify and try to resolve the causes of terrorism. We focus on identification, location and extermination of terrorists. What about addressing the reasons why terrorists exist?

Keep those e-mails coming, DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

Here are some other stories making news "Across America" this Tuesday.

Rescue crews are heading farther out as they search for a missing 9-year-old boy in the San Bernardino Mountains. The boy wandered away on Saturday while on a camping trip with his family. Volunteers have joined police in searching an eight-mile-wide perimeter around the campsite.

Same-sex marriage is expected to take center stage as Missouri voters head to the polls today. A constitutional amendment banning gay marriage is on the primary ballot. As many as 12 other states may vote on similar measures this fall. Voters will also pick the candidates who will vie for Dick Gephardt's seat in the House.

And they say TV is bad for kids. Television helped save the life of this shark attack victim, really. Eleven-year-old Aaron Perez met the media for the first time since being attacked while fishing last week. The boy says he learned how to fight off the shark from the Discovery Channel. Doctors reattached the boy's right arm after the attack.

Let's head out to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We have found Chad.

Chad, we thought you were hijacked somehow. CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

COSTELLO: It's raining, too.

MYERS: No, no.

COSTELLO: Tell us what's happening out there.

MYERS: It is raining right now, but it's going to rain an awful lot harder here probably in the next half hour or so. Some of the final bands, the outer bands of the eyewall beginning to come on shore here. So we're just seeing some light winds, some light rain right now.

Even when I got here last night about 10:00 and landed on the beach, we probably had winds to 50. Now they're down to about 20 or 30. But I suspect if the winds offshore are 80 miles per hour, we are definitely going to see more in the way of these sea oats trampling themselves down later on this morning. As you can see even there, the sea oats not even blowing at all.

But as the wind comes in, as the squalls come around the storm, we are right there at the very peak. We're up by Morehead City, the very, very southern part of the Outer Banks. And really we are almost what we would call the center of the storm. The eye may pass a little bit to our east, but the wind is going to be blowing across our screen all day long. And as it does, we're probably going to pick up winds here 60 to 70 miles per hour.

There you see Morehead City. And just to the south of Morehead City, all of that orange and all of that green and all of that red, that's all the squally weather, the very windy weather that's associated with the eyewall. And yes it has an eyewall. Last week and yesterday we talked about this thing, a tropical storm does not have an eyewall, it has a center, but a hurricane does. And this thing is really getting well formed.

Hurricane hunters back in this storm at 8:00 this morning. They may find more than 80-mile-per-hour winds. Carol, about 2,000 feet in the sky they found winds to 94 miles per hour yesterday. Residents here though not concerned. They say they don't even get concerned until it gets to 120.

Back to you.

COSTELLO: They're tough out there. Thank you, Chad, we'll get back to you.

MYERS: Yes. All right.

COSTELLO: DAYBREAK will return right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The film "Fahrenheit 9/11" is becoming quite popular in communist Cuba, but it may not be for the intended reason. As CNN Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman reports the Cuban people are getting an unexpected taste of freedom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): It's the movie Bush bashers all over the world love to see. And nowhere in the world is that easier than in Cuba, the only country in the world where the communist state has organized screenings of "Fahrenheit 9/11" in cinemas nationwide. The pirated version is also shown on state-run television after a predictable introduction.

These curious Cubans went to Havana's Charles Chaplin Theater to see the controversial film.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Bush is no good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It gives you an idea of the peril the world is in led by a man with such a small brain.

NEWMAN: That's certainly the message Cuba's government wants to get across, but it's getting more than it bargained for.

(on camera): And that's because "Fahrenheit 9/11" is presenting another unintended message. And that is that unlike in Cuba, in the United States someone can make a box office hit that not only criticizes, but at times even ridicules the president, without going to jail for it.

(voice-over): Many said what most impressed them was that "Fahrenheit 9/11" could be made at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The film shows that the alternative media, in other words, independent media is possible in the United States.

NEWMAN: This mother and daughter say such a bold film could not be made here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): No, it can't.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Because people are afraid. Everyone here is afraid, fear that is unnecessary, because when I have something to say, I say it.

NEWMAN: Not so for Cuban dissident filmmakers who, unlike Michael Moore, are definitely out of work in this country where opinions that damage the credibility of the state are outlawed.

Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:50 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning. A new national intelligence chief may be on the way. President Bush has asked Congress to create the new position on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission.

The husband of Lori Hacking is in a Salt Lake City jail right now. Mark Hacking was picked up on suspicion of aggravated murder when he left a Salt Lake City area psychiatric hospital on Monday.

In money news, the nation's fourth largest cable television company wants to go private. Cox Enterprises says it plans to buy all publicly held shares of Cox Communications for $7.9 billion. No surprise, the stock jumped more than 20 percent with Monday's announcement.

In culture, opening today, the $110 million National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. Among its displays, a 20-by- 30-foot holding pen for slaves that was built back in 1833.

In sports, American sprinter Calvin Harrison gets a two-year suspension for a second doping violation. No Olympics for him. Also means the U.S. relay team will likely lose its gold medal from the world championship -- Rob.

MARCIANO: Carol, live pictures for you from Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. There you go. Chad Myers just off screen. The rain is coming down in Wilmington. It's blowing at about 25 miles an hour. There's a hurricane out there and its name is Alex.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MARCIANO: Carol, back over to you.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but is a petite soldier a political scapegoat? In the next hour of DAYBREAK, our legal eagle Kendall Coffey weighs in on the case of Lynndie England.

But first, our e-mail question of the day, does the idea of creating the position of a national intelligence director make you feel safer? We want to know what you think. E-mail us, the address is DAYBREAK@CNN.com. That's DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Some interesting "Health Headlines" for you this morning.

Flu in pregnancy is linked to schizophrenia. This is the finding of a small new study. Researchers say if an expectant woman gets the flu during the first half of pregnancy, it may damage the fetal brain. And that raises the risk of the child developing schizophrenia later in life.

If you've got a pacemaker, a defibrillator or other implanted heart device, you'll be glad to know it is safe to undergo an MRI. Researchers say tests on laboratory animals suggest magnetic scans will not damage or dislodge the newest devices.

And you may be able to test for sexually transmitted diseases in the privacy of your own home someday. An infection test kit is being studied in Maryland. Researchers say the kit allows women to test themselves in much the same way they test for pregnancy.

For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address, CNN.com/health.

DAYBREAK will return right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: An eerily beautiful picture for you this morning. Hurricane warnings for North Carolina's Outer Banks. You're looking at Atlantic Beach.

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 August 3, 2004 - 05:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: While you were sleeping, Alex turned from a tropical storm to a hurricane.
It is Tuesday, August 3. This is DAYBREAK.

And good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.

"Now in the News," Congress is on summer break, but two committees will hold hearings today to discuss some of the recommendations from the 9/11 Commission.

The case of Army Private Lynndie England goes before a military court in just about two-and-a-half hours. A hearing will determine whether England should be court-martialed in the Abu Ghraib Prison abuse scandal.

A spacewalk under way right now at the International Space Station. Two crew members are taking care of a little outside maintenance, like installing antennas and laser reflectors.

Tropical Storm Alex became a hurricane overnight, the first of the season in the Atlantic. Despite sustained 75-mile-per-hour winds, few residents of North Carolina's Outer Banks are boarding up their homes or leaving.

In fact, Rob, they're staying.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well they're tough. They're tough cookies. And we don't expect it to actually make direct hits, so that's maybe one of the reasons. And it is a minimal hurricane, just upgraded last night. Eighty-mile-an-hour winds now.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Romantic thing, I think it's a pretty scary thing myself.

MARCIANO: As long as it stays off shore, it's just, you know, kind of gets everybody fired up, especially the first one in the season, you know.

COSTELLO: Thank you -- Rob.

MARCIANO: OK. COSTELLO: Commuters in the nation's capital will have a tougher time getting around the Capitol Hill area this morning due to new anti-terror restrictions. U.S. Capitol Police say all traffic around the perimeter of the Capitol complex will be funneled through about 10 checkpoints. That includes heavily traveled Constitution and Independence Avenues. Police also plan to stop and search every single vehicle that drives past the Capitol and its office buildings.

And police with body army and automatic weapons are on the streets of New York and New Jersey in response to that terror alert. Homeland Security has listed the New York Stock Exchange and the Citicorp buildings as possible targets of attacks. Workers in the Big Apple are heading to their jobs today through a gauntlet of ID checks and bag searches.

In New Jersey, the Prudential Financial headquarters in Newark is on a list of possible targets and authorities have set up concrete barriers and police teams around the 24-story buildings.

Now much of the intelligence on the latest terror threats has come from Pakistan, and there is new information for you this morning.

Our Ash-Har Quraishi joins us live from Islamabad with what he's been able to confirm there, and we're eager to find out -- Ash-Har.

ASH-HAR QURAISHI, CNN ISLAMABAD BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Carol.

Well what we know right now is since the Ghailani arrest, the arrest of a top al Qaeda operative who has been indicted in the U.S. Embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. Now that arrest took place back on July 25.

Now what's been going on here in Pakistan over the past few months is a series of raids and arrests that have really come out with some information and some calling it a treasure trove of information that led to or helped contribute to the heightened alert in the United States. They say imminent attacks, however, are not known. They say some of this information may be as old as before September 11, 2001.

However, what we are really learning at this point is the intricate nature of the communications between al Qaeda operatives here in Pakistan and how they are getting their information out and how they are planning these attacks.

Now just since Ghailani was arrested on July 25, we're told seven more suspected al Qaeda operatives have been arrested here in Pakistan, the latest coming yesterday in the city of Lahore. Now this is somebody who has been tied to a communications expert, also arrested here in Pakistan, who was taking coded messages from the leadership of al Qaeda and then disseminating it on to the Internet.

Now we understand from our intelligent sources that this person who was arrested in Lahore was carrying some of these coded messages and trying to leave from the Lahore International Airport. Now we're told that he may have been going to Nigeria where he may have been trying to pass on this information when he was apprehended by Pakistani security forces.

Now currently they are in interrogation and they are still combing through some of the laptops, some of the computers and disks from which much of this information they have been getting. Now right now they say that the key is trying to find out when and if this communication has gotten out of Pakistan and where it's gone and how imminent any kind of attack may be, particularly as we lurch in the United States -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Any indication that Osama bin Laden is directly involved in this through these computer records?

QURAISHI: So far they say they haven't had any direct connection.

But right now what we understand is that some of this information now this would work as the al Qaeda leadership possibly sending messages by courier and then being transferred. Basically it's a compartmentalized unit. These cells work independently. They are given a task. They move to the next cell. The next cells passes it on and passes it on until it gets to a communications expert, somebody who can disseminate this throughout the network, possibly through the Internet, possibly through al Qaeda Web sites. So it's not clear where this leads to, but it leads with an understanding of the trail -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ash-Har Quraishi live from Islamabad this morning. Thank you.

Terror concerns are nothing new in the city of London. Police there already are on a heightened state of alert after a series of IRA bombings in the 1990s. Still, the new threat in the United States is having an impact in London.

Here's more from CNN's Diana Muriel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The city of London is no stranger to terrorism. This was the scene in 1993 when the IRA detonated a bomb in the heart of London's financial district, killing 1, injuring 44 and causing an estimated $525 million of damage.

Now the threat is from a different quarter. The British government has confirmed there is a real and serious threat of a terrorist attack in the U.K. After the United States warned financial institutions, like the New York Stock Exchange, could be targets for an al Qaeda attack.

The city of London police, responsible for security in London's financial district, declined to be interviewed. But a spokesman told CNN, "we are policing as normal. We already have a heightened state of alert, and this new situation hasn't caused any changes."

The IRA bomb blasts in the early '90s prompted the British government to throw a so-called ring of steel around the city. Cameras monitor every street, including automated car number plate recognition cameras at all entry points. More police officers are on patrol and security has been stepped up by individual firms.

Helping to advise them in a post 9/11 world is the City of London Corporation.

PAUL ESKRIETT, CITY OF LONDON CORPORATION: We've had to look more broadly at just preventing and deterring terrorism and look more closely at how we actually respond should an incident occur and how companies can establish business continuity.

MURIEL: One London-based bank that has been the victim of a direct terrorist attack is HSBC. Last November, a bomb exploded at the bank's local headquarters in Istanbul. Four people were killed and scores injured.

STEPHEN GREEN, GROUP CEO, HSBC: We're used to operating in environments where there's been an experience of our people in difficulty. We think we have the mettle to carry on through it.

MURIEL: HSBC is headquartered at London's Canary Wharf, the target of another IRA attack in February 1996 when a bomb blast killed two men and caused around $130 million in damage. Londoners then are familiar with the possibility of terrorist attacks, but are they more worried now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Brits have lived with the IRA for a while, so they get used to it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not to give in to these people. You know they are just fanatics and sooner or later they'll realize that what they are doing is a waste of time.

MURIEL (on camera): The scene of devastation left in the wake of that 1993 IRA bomb has been transformed back into part of London's bustling financial district. But the lessons learned then about the need for vigilance are still relevant and still heated here in the city of London today.

Diana Muriel, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And back here in the United States, President Bush is taking action on some recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission. He's asked Congress to create a new national intelligence director and has called for establishing a national counterterrorism center.

Senior administration officials say the new director would coordinate all 15 intelligence agencies, and that is a key point, according to many observers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTE: I'm hopeful that this will actually be helpful in unifying, allowing one person to supervise the whole intelligence community, but also allowing debate within that community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The president says the new position should remain outside the White House, in part to ensure autonomy.

Well, we wanted to know what you think. We asked the question, does the idea of creating the position of a national intelligence director make you feel safer? And many of you have e-mailed us. I want to read a few now.

This is from Chris (ph) in Sarasota. He says an intelligence director will not change anything. The intelligence agencies of the United States are too overconfident and arrogant to confer all of their information to one source.

This from Suzy (ph) in Arizona. What does it really matter? The 9/11 Commission set it up so that the blame would fall in the president's lap. And if it wasn't implemented, the president would be blamed for not protecting us. She says it's all part of partisan politics.

And this from Roy (ph) from Atlantic Beach, Florida. He says I am distressed that there is not a major effort to identify and try to resolve the causes of terrorism. We focus on identification, location and extermination of terrorists. What about addressing the reasons why terrorists exist?

Keep those e-mails coming, DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

Here are some other stories making news "Across America" this Tuesday.

Rescue crews are heading farther out as they search for a missing 9-year-old boy in the San Bernardino Mountains. The boy wandered away on Saturday while on a camping trip with his family. Volunteers have joined police in searching an eight-mile-wide perimeter around the campsite.

Same-sex marriage is expected to take center stage as Missouri voters head to the polls today. A constitutional amendment banning gay marriage is on the primary ballot. As many as 12 other states may vote on similar measures this fall. Voters will also pick the candidates who will vie for Dick Gephardt's seat in the House.

And they say TV is bad for kids. Television helped save the life of this shark attack victim, really. Eleven-year-old Aaron Perez met the media for the first time since being attacked while fishing last week. The boy says he learned how to fight off the shark from the Discovery Channel. Doctors reattached the boy's right arm after the attack.

Let's head out to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We have found Chad.

Chad, we thought you were hijacked somehow. CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

COSTELLO: It's raining, too.

MYERS: No, no.

COSTELLO: Tell us what's happening out there.

MYERS: It is raining right now, but it's going to rain an awful lot harder here probably in the next half hour or so. Some of the final bands, the outer bands of the eyewall beginning to come on shore here. So we're just seeing some light winds, some light rain right now.

Even when I got here last night about 10:00 and landed on the beach, we probably had winds to 50. Now they're down to about 20 or 30. But I suspect if the winds offshore are 80 miles per hour, we are definitely going to see more in the way of these sea oats trampling themselves down later on this morning. As you can see even there, the sea oats not even blowing at all.

But as the wind comes in, as the squalls come around the storm, we are right there at the very peak. We're up by Morehead City, the very, very southern part of the Outer Banks. And really we are almost what we would call the center of the storm. The eye may pass a little bit to our east, but the wind is going to be blowing across our screen all day long. And as it does, we're probably going to pick up winds here 60 to 70 miles per hour.

There you see Morehead City. And just to the south of Morehead City, all of that orange and all of that green and all of that red, that's all the squally weather, the very windy weather that's associated with the eyewall. And yes it has an eyewall. Last week and yesterday we talked about this thing, a tropical storm does not have an eyewall, it has a center, but a hurricane does. And this thing is really getting well formed.

Hurricane hunters back in this storm at 8:00 this morning. They may find more than 80-mile-per-hour winds. Carol, about 2,000 feet in the sky they found winds to 94 miles per hour yesterday. Residents here though not concerned. They say they don't even get concerned until it gets to 120.

Back to you.

COSTELLO: They're tough out there. Thank you, Chad, we'll get back to you.

MYERS: Yes. All right.

COSTELLO: DAYBREAK will return right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The film "Fahrenheit 9/11" is becoming quite popular in communist Cuba, but it may not be for the intended reason. As CNN Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman reports the Cuban people are getting an unexpected taste of freedom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): It's the movie Bush bashers all over the world love to see. And nowhere in the world is that easier than in Cuba, the only country in the world where the communist state has organized screenings of "Fahrenheit 9/11" in cinemas nationwide. The pirated version is also shown on state-run television after a predictable introduction.

These curious Cubans went to Havana's Charles Chaplin Theater to see the controversial film.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Bush is no good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It gives you an idea of the peril the world is in led by a man with such a small brain.

NEWMAN: That's certainly the message Cuba's government wants to get across, but it's getting more than it bargained for.

(on camera): And that's because "Fahrenheit 9/11" is presenting another unintended message. And that is that unlike in Cuba, in the United States someone can make a box office hit that not only criticizes, but at times even ridicules the president, without going to jail for it.

(voice-over): Many said what most impressed them was that "Fahrenheit 9/11" could be made at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The film shows that the alternative media, in other words, independent media is possible in the United States.

NEWMAN: This mother and daughter say such a bold film could not be made here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): No, it can't.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Because people are afraid. Everyone here is afraid, fear that is unnecessary, because when I have something to say, I say it.

NEWMAN: Not so for Cuban dissident filmmakers who, unlike Michael Moore, are definitely out of work in this country where opinions that damage the credibility of the state are outlawed.

Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:50 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning. A new national intelligence chief may be on the way. President Bush has asked Congress to create the new position on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission.

The husband of Lori Hacking is in a Salt Lake City jail right now. Mark Hacking was picked up on suspicion of aggravated murder when he left a Salt Lake City area psychiatric hospital on Monday.

In money news, the nation's fourth largest cable television company wants to go private. Cox Enterprises says it plans to buy all publicly held shares of Cox Communications for $7.9 billion. No surprise, the stock jumped more than 20 percent with Monday's announcement.

In culture, opening today, the $110 million National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. Among its displays, a 20-by- 30-foot holding pen for slaves that was built back in 1833.

In sports, American sprinter Calvin Harrison gets a two-year suspension for a second doping violation. No Olympics for him. Also means the U.S. relay team will likely lose its gold medal from the world championship -- Rob.

MARCIANO: Carol, live pictures for you from Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. There you go. Chad Myers just off screen. The rain is coming down in Wilmington. It's blowing at about 25 miles an hour. There's a hurricane out there and its name is Alex.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MARCIANO: Carol, back over to you.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but is a petite soldier a political scapegoat? In the next hour of DAYBREAK, our legal eagle Kendall Coffey weighs in on the case of Lynndie England.

But first, our e-mail question of the day, does the idea of creating the position of a national intelligence director make you feel safer? We want to know what you think. E-mail us, the address is DAYBREAK@CNN.com. That's DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Some interesting "Health Headlines" for you this morning.

Flu in pregnancy is linked to schizophrenia. This is the finding of a small new study. Researchers say if an expectant woman gets the flu during the first half of pregnancy, it may damage the fetal brain. And that raises the risk of the child developing schizophrenia later in life.

If you've got a pacemaker, a defibrillator or other implanted heart device, you'll be glad to know it is safe to undergo an MRI. Researchers say tests on laboratory animals suggest magnetic scans will not damage or dislodge the newest devices.

And you may be able to test for sexually transmitted diseases in the privacy of your own home someday. An infection test kit is being studied in Maryland. Researchers say the kit allows women to test themselves in much the same way they test for pregnancy.

For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address, CNN.com/health.

DAYBREAK will return right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: An eerily beautiful picture for you this morning. Hurricane warnings for North Carolina's Outer Banks. You're looking at Atlantic Beach.

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