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CNN Live At Daybreak

Alex Upgraded to Hurricane Off Carolina Coast; Pakistan Terror Link; 'America's Voice'

Aired August 03, 2004 - 06:30   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: Hurricane Alex became a hurricane overnight, the first of the season in the Atlantic. Despite sustained 80-mile-per-hour winds, few residents of North Carolina's Outer Banks are boarding up their homes or leaving; in fact, they're staying.
For more on Alex, let's head straight to Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

Good morning -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

In fact, even some of the vacationers are staying. No mandatory evacuations here in Atlantic Beach.

And the bridge is still open this morning. We were concerned when we were driving across at 4:00 this morning that maybe the state police would, in fact, shut down the bridges to the Outer Banks, shut down the bridges to the Barrier Islands. This is called the Bogus Bank here. It's about a 20-mile-long barrier island just now to the south of Moorhead City.

And here are some of the radar pictures here. It's beginning to really pick up, as we promised. We knew that at 5:00 this morning that the outer bands, the squall bands were still a little bit farther to the south of us.

But there you see the orange and the reds moving up just to the east of Jacksonville, and I'm right under the word "heavy" or "severe." That radar picture there is really showing it very, very well, showing the eye very nice and tight, or not nice and tight if you live here, of course, because you don't want that kind of stuff coming here.

We obviously have low pressure well into the low 29s for our pressure now, winds at 75 to 80 miles per hour, and it's only 75 miles east/southeast of Wilmington, headed right on up, probably just going to clip Cape Hatteras again, just like those last storms did all last year. We had two of them clip again last year. One actually moved right into Virginia.

This one looks like it's going to head on out to sea. But it is going to do a little bit of damage here, a lot of beach erosion.

Obviously nobody in the water today, absolutely nobody in the water and a lot of the ferry service back and forth across to these Outer Banks islands. Some of them don't have bridges. All of that ferry service is going to be shut down here rather quickly as these conditions deteriorate.

We are seeing a lot of lower visibility now. We can see the gray clouds. We can also see much of the visibility, the sky obscured with that rainfall. We know there are big storms out there, and they're headed this way. So, stay with us. You make get a show -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I think you're going to need a bigger umbrella.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Good luck. Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: All right, thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: The new terror alert has created a new sense of urgency on Capitol Hill. Despite being in summer recess, two congressional committees will hold hearings today on reforming U.S. intelligence agencies. Lawmakers will discuss recommendations proposed by the 9/11 Commission. They'll especially take a look at establishing a new national intelligence director.

The heightened terror alert level stems from intelligence uncovered in Pakistan. And there is new information to share with you this morning. So, let's head there live.

Ash-Har Quraishi is in Islamabad. He has new details for us.

Fill us in -- Ash-Har.

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

Well, the interrogations, the arrests and the investigations continue here in Pakistan.

Now, within the last few days, we're told by intelligence sources, that there have been at least seven more arrests of suspected of al Qaeda operatives. One of those suspects was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore as recently as Monday. Now, he was believed to be taking out some sort of communications out of the country when he was apprehended at the international airport there.

Now, we're also told that he is an associate, he's being called by intelligence officials, of a man that U.S. officials have identified as Muhammad Naeem Moor Khan. Now, Khan is the man whose computer was found to have much of the details and the specifics of those targets in New Jersey, New York and Washington.

Now, there is some reports right now that we see that some of this information may have been as old as a few years. But there have been some indications from sources here in Pakistan that these plans may have been in the offing for some time.

Now, the imminences of these attacks are still not known, and that's something that interrogators and investigators at this time are pouring over, trying to find out how much of this communication has gotten out of here in Pakistan's other operatives, and how imminent some sort of an attack against these locations could be -- Carol.

COSTELLO: You know, Ash-Har, everybody is so eager to know when the last communication between these terrorists took place. Is there any way of knowing?

QURAISHI: Well, what we understand from intelligence sources right now is that they are scouring the computers. They are getting some very useful information from the disks and the documents that have been retrieved over the last two months or so in several raids. So, really, it's a matter of tracing it back.

Now, basically the way we understand it's been operating is that one person is carrying a message to another person, carrying it on from there, and then finally at some point getting to a destination where the communications expert would try and encrypt it, try and send it out over the Internet.

So, really it's a matter of trying to trace it back and hopefully try and trace it back before the attack, if any attack is planned for the near future -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ash-Har Quraishi live in Islamabad this morning, thank you.

While Congress works on legislation creating a new intelligence director post, President Bush still has to pick a new CIA chief. Acting Director John McLaughlin has been warming the seat since George Tenet resigned in June. The White House says we can expect to hear more on a permanent replacement soon.

We want to know what you think. Does the idea of creating the position of a national intelligence director make you feel safer? E- mail us. We're going to read some of your responses very soon. The address: Daybreak@CNN.com. And we've had some interesting responses, as always, from our very in-tune viewers.

With talk of a national intelligence director, the people over at Gallup decided to poll; hence, some new numbers for you this morning.

So, let's head live to Princeton, New Jersey, and Gallup Poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport.

Frank, let's start with the public support for the 9/11 Commission's recommendations.

FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Well, this is quite interesting. There has been a real rush on the part of the candidates, John Kerry and then President Bush, to say let's do something, let's put these recommendations into law quickly. The public actually is pulling back just a little on that.

Now, of those who know about the report, it's clearly approve over disapprove. See that 37 to 11? There are a couple of things here. One, well over half of Americans say, hey, they don't know enough about it to say whether they have an opinion.

And, Carol, we asked another question which said: Should Congress and the president go slow and considerate, or rush the recommendations into law? And on that question, we actually had a significant majority say go slow and understand what they are before them into law.

So, in this instance, we have the public, the voters out there, saying make sure you know what you're doing before you rush any brand new intelligence kind of things into law.

COSTELLO: It's interesting, because that's what most of our e- mailers are saying about the post of a new national intelligence czar this morning.

NEWPORT: Interesting.

COSTELLO: Let's go back a few days to the Democratic Convention, though, shall we? Did the Kerry campaign get that expected bounce from the convention?

NEWPORT: Well, no it didn't. I mean, the summary of all of the polls that have been done show, if anything, it might have been a minimal bounce. Our CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup Poll showed Kerry did not increase his standing. If anything, Bush solidified his base.

Let's look a little at some of the internals. We did a large sample of 1,500 interviews over the weekend. Let's look at some of the interesting findings.

First of all, Kerry's acceptance speech, the key point of the whole convention last Thursday, let's put it in context. Fifty-two percent rated it excellent or good. Here are some other speeches that we've rated in recent years, almost exactly the same, Gore and Bush and Dole's speech you can see.

Although Kerry's speech had a little more people rating it excellent, but when you put the top two boxes together, it really is just writing context with other speeches that we have seen.

Here is something else that's quite interesting. The convention had the impact of actually increasing Republican enthusiasm. That's one reason Bush solidified his base to some degree.

Notice from March to July that middle graphic, the Democrats have gone up to 68 percent enthusiasm. This is more enthusiasm than usual. But look at what's happening. Now, after the convention, Democrats went up about 5 points, but Republicans went from 51 to 62 percent enthusiastic.

So, watching the opponents' convention seemed to have had the impact of increasing more motivation in the Republican base, interestingly. Two more points. John Kerry's favorable image didn't change one iota statistically. Before the convention, 55 favorable, 37 unfavorable. After the convention, statistically almost exactly the same, 57 to 37. So no real change in his image.

His wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, her name I.D. went up, but her unfavorables, as well as her favorables, went up. Carol, isn't that interesting? She was 31 to 19 favorable or unfavorable. A lot of people didn't know her before the convention. Now, after the convention, 42 to 31.

She's got an image out there, some favorable but also some unfavorable. Maybe that publicity over the "Shove it" comment didn't work to her favor in the eyes of the public -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Maybe not. We've got a new sound byte from Teresa Heinz Kerry. We're going to let our viewers hear that later this morning.

Frank Newport live from Princeton, thanks for joining DAYBREAK.

Just ahead on DAYBREAK, thoughts from the left and right on President Bush's idea of a national intelligence chief and other hot political topics like Teresa Heinz Kerry.

And major changes in the works for trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Details in a live report when DAYBREAK returns this Tuesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Wall Street opens up this morning. Monday's Dow closed at 10179. That's up, oh, just about 39 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed at 1892, just about 5 points up. And the S&P 500 closed at just over 1106.

Time for a little business buzz now. The New York Stock Exchange prepares for more electronic trading.

Carrie Lee has more live from the Nasdaq Marketsite.

Ooh, a tradition may go.

CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's not going to completely go away, Carol. But certainly things downtown at the New York Stock Exchange are going to get changed. That's the plan anyway. The NYSE says it plans to scrap a lot of its limits on electronic trading and expand computer-driven orders.

Now, this is a move that's being called historic. It could very likely erode the 212-year dominance of the NYSE's open outcry auction system.

Now, it doesn't mean all of those floor traders and market movers you see there are going to go away. But rather this proposal would create a hybrid market that would still use the traditional system of floor traders, but it would also use more electronic trades. That means that high volumes can be handled, greater volumes can be handled with more ease, and also you'll see more transparency for your orders.

For companies that trade these stocks it could save them a lot of money as well.

Now, all of this has to be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Also, Carol, stepping up electronic trading could curb some criticism that the NYSE has faced in recent years regarding favoritism and things like that.

So, that is the latest from the NYSE and from here.

Back to you.

COSTELLO: All right, Carrie Lee live from the Nasdaq Marketsite, thank you.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 6:43 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

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.

Money as the motive. That's the direction the latest testimony took in the Scott Peterson trial. An expert testified that Scott Peterson's fertilizer business was losing money and forced him deep into debt.

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 is the $110 million National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. Among its displays, a 20-by-30 foot holding pen for slaves built in 1833.

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

(WEATHER BREAK)

COSTELLO: She says she speaks her mind. Well, she's done it again. But Teresa Heinz Kerry is just part of our hot talks this morning.

Joining us, conservative libertarian talker Neal Boortz, and managing editor of Talk Radio News Service and liberal Victoria Jones. She joins us live from D.C. this morning.

Welcome to you both.

NEAL BOORTZ, CONSERVATIVE RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Good morning.

VICTORIA JONES, TALK RADIO NEWS SERVICE: Thank you.

COSTELLO: OK. Before we launch in the wisdom of a national intelligence czar, let's talk Teresa. This is what happened at a campaign rally in Milwaukee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERESA HEINZ KERRY, WIFE OF SEN. JOHN KERRY: I know somewhat and they want four more years of hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And, Neal, you know what she's talking about.

BOORTZ: I do. She's a trip, isn't she? She's certainly far more entertaining than her husband is on the speaking platform. And you know what? There have been some reporters in my life I wanted to say some pretty nasty things to, so I don't have a problem with Teresa Heinz Kerry.

I do wonder, though, last week in Boston why they didn't give more coverage to some of the statements that she had to say about Ted Kennedy here about 10 years ago. But I...

COSTELLO: Victoria, any thoughts on that?

JONES: Well, they did. I mean, the only reason we know about them is because they did give coverage to them. But seeing as the networks give almost no coverage to anything and we had to rely on CNN, I'm not surprised that we don't know very much about anything.

She's an outspoken woman, and we're ready for that. I mean, it's kind of astonishing that here we are the leader of the free world and we're talking about whether it's OK for a woman to be outspoken. It's kind of funky, really.

COSTELLO: Kind of...

JONES: We all agree.

BOORTZ: Yes, we're together on that.

COSTELLO: I know. So, let's move on to the national intelligence czar. We've been soliciting e-mail from our viewers on whether that's a good idea, whether that will make them feel safer.

And I want to read this one from Sue. She's from Flowery Branch, Georgia. She says, "No, I won't feel safe with yet another bureaucrat to oversee the other bureaucrats that aren't in touch with the agencies that they lead." Not many of our viewers think it's a good idea, Victoria.

JONES: Well, it may or it may not be. I think it's too early to tell, because we don't know what the person is going to do. The person, it seems -- and I was at the press conferences yesterday. And from what I could gather, he is not going to or she's not going to have very much control over budget.

And in Washington, D.C., as in the rest of the world, if you don't have control of the purse, if you don't have control of the money, you don't have control of very much. And that seems to me to be putting a major restriction on this person. And so for that I think they may be a bit of a puppet.

But, look, we have to do some major things. The 9/11 Commission recommended this. My concern is that if we're moving this fast to make this decision one week after the release of this report, have we considered it more carefully? We need to think about exactly how we want to do this and not just rush in.

COSTELLO: But, Neal, isn't there some pressure on the president to act on the 9/11 Commission's recommendations?

BOORTZ: Exactly. That's why we're moving this fast at this point after the release of the report is because there is political pressure to do so, especially from the Kerry campaign.

What causes me the most concern is I like the idea of competition. I like the idea of different intelligence agencies actually competing with one another to gather information. The key there is you have to share that information with these agencies when it's acquired.

The problem with one central czar is, if this person has operational control over almost all of the intelligence-gathering, then in order to politically compromise intelligence-gathering all you have to do is compromise one person. And I find that a little bit alarming.

JONES: My understanding is that they wouldn't have operational control. They would be reported to on what has been gathered. I think it's a great idea to share information. I mean, one of the things that came out was that information is not shared.

And competition in theory is great, but they are already competing. You already have the CIA and the FBI and other agencies competing and not sharing. And given the nature of the agencies and their history and their culture, they're not going to start sharing.

BOORTZ: But let's...

JONES: So, I don't think in this case that more competition is going to help.

BOORTZ: Let's make sure. There are a lot of reasons these agencies don't share. But let's make sure that the people of this country remember some of those reasons; for instance, the politically- inspired wall between the FBI and the CIA that was erected during the Clinton administration. They need to share this information. Sharing this information 10 years ago, 5 years ago might have saved American lives.

COSTELLO: Well, let me...

JONES: But that wall was -- that's not correct.

COSTELLO: Before we go on with this, let me inject this. I think...

JONES: The wall was already erected. It wasn't erected then.

COSTELLO: Let me inject something else our viewers are concerned about. They're confused by the position.

This is from Joan. She says: "And the purpose of a national security adviser is? What is Condi Rice doing? Should she not be the person to gather intelligence from all agencies?"

JONES: Well, nobody really knows what Condi Rice is doing. She doesn't seem to be doing very much.

BOORTZ: Well, of course, that statement is absurd.

JONES: No, it's really not.

BOORTZ: Condi Rice is the national security advisory to the president, and she's advising the president.

Now, if you were to know...

JONES: On what?

BOORTZ: Well, Victoria, I am sorry that you're not included in the loop with Condoleezza Rice. Neither am I.

JONES: I am too.

BOORTZ: She serves at the pleasure of the president. She advises him, not the media. She advises him, not Neal Boortz and Victoria.

JONES: Right. And she advises him and preferably not the 9/11 Commission unless they were forced to turn around and actually get this information out.

COSTELLO: Ooh, that opens up a whole other can of worms.

BOORTZ: Yes.

COSTELLO: That's all the time we have. Thank you for debating. You'll be back next Tuesday, both of you.

BOORTZ: See you then. COSTELLO: Neal Boortz and Victoria Jones, thank you both very much.

JONES: Thank you.

COSTELLO: DAYBREAK will be right back with more from the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The waves are growing along the North Carolina coast. That is a sure indication that Hurricane Alex is closing in. But for many area residents, Alex, well, he really isn't that big a deal.

Chad Myers is in North Carolina this morning.

Ooh, the rain is coming down now.

MYERS: Carol, I am going to need a bigger umbrella here pretty soon, because this is just the first of the outer bands. Obviously the eye wall is still offshore by about 80 miles or so, and that whole thing is going to be moving on here.

And winds are now picking up to about 50, maybe 55 miles per hour, heading right through this umbrella.

Anyway, the waves now, I would say, are a good eight feet, and headed higher. You can't see any more than about maybe 100, 150 yards out into the ocean now, because of the water coming down, because of the rain blowing sideways.

As the eye wall moves onshore, you're actually going to see this even get worse than what we are seeing right now. The good news is we're in a very protected position. That's why we still have a satellite shot. If we didn't have this protected position, there would be no way we'd even get this signal out right now.

Here's what we're looking at now, though. The radar picture itself has the eye itself -- and it's so easy to see. The place where there isn't rain, that's where the eye wall is. And as we see the orange and the yellows and even some of the reds heading up to Moorhead City, we are just south of that word "Moorhead City" in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

And this is what it's going to be like all day now. Squall after squall after squall, right up through Cape Hatteras, right through Kill Devil Hills, right on up even to (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and then eventually possibly some of this weather as far north as Virginia Beach and the Hampton Rhodes area.

You don't have to really worry so much about the eye here. The winds are only 80 miles per hour, but there could also be water spouts coming onshore with this and obviously some coastal flooding. We're not going to see much in the way of a storm surge as it's going to be a glancing blow up the East Coast, not a direct hit. We are going to see -- are definitely going to see our winds and our waves come up here in the next half-hour or so. And I suspect as the high tides starts to come up, we're going to get this water an awful lot closer to our position.

Back to you.

COSTELLO: Chad, thank you. Chad, there he is frozen on our satellite. He's OK, though. Chad Myers in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

Your chance to win a DAYBREAK coffee mug, but first the latest headlines for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is time to reveal the winner of the DAYBREAK coffee quiz. On Monday we asked, what was the No. 1 movie over the weekend? And how much money did it bring in? The answer: "The Village," $50.8 million. And according to a government study, it will cost consumers how much a day to get the recommended daily serving of vegetables and fruit? The answer: 64 cents a day.

And the winner is: Emanuel Diaz of New York, New York. Congratulations, Emanuel. The cup is in the mail, wrapped in bubble wrap, as usual.

Here's your chance to win a DAYBREAK coffee mug now. Today's coffee quiz questions: How old is the Statue of Liberty? And a highly anticipated video game will be in stores today. What's the name of that game?

And we'll announce the winner tomorrow. Daybreak@CNN.com. Daybreak@CNN.com.

From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello along with Chad Myers and Rob Marciano earlier this morning. "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.

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Aired August 3, 2004 - 06:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Alex became a hurricane overnight, the first of the season in the Atlantic. Despite sustained 80-mile-per-hour winds, few residents of North Carolina's Outer Banks are boarding up their homes or leaving; in fact, they're staying.
For more on Alex, let's head straight to Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

Good morning -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

In fact, even some of the vacationers are staying. No mandatory evacuations here in Atlantic Beach.

And the bridge is still open this morning. We were concerned when we were driving across at 4:00 this morning that maybe the state police would, in fact, shut down the bridges to the Outer Banks, shut down the bridges to the Barrier Islands. This is called the Bogus Bank here. It's about a 20-mile-long barrier island just now to the south of Moorhead City.

And here are some of the radar pictures here. It's beginning to really pick up, as we promised. We knew that at 5:00 this morning that the outer bands, the squall bands were still a little bit farther to the south of us.

But there you see the orange and the reds moving up just to the east of Jacksonville, and I'm right under the word "heavy" or "severe." That radar picture there is really showing it very, very well, showing the eye very nice and tight, or not nice and tight if you live here, of course, because you don't want that kind of stuff coming here.

We obviously have low pressure well into the low 29s for our pressure now, winds at 75 to 80 miles per hour, and it's only 75 miles east/southeast of Wilmington, headed right on up, probably just going to clip Cape Hatteras again, just like those last storms did all last year. We had two of them clip again last year. One actually moved right into Virginia.

This one looks like it's going to head on out to sea. But it is going to do a little bit of damage here, a lot of beach erosion.

Obviously nobody in the water today, absolutely nobody in the water and a lot of the ferry service back and forth across to these Outer Banks islands. Some of them don't have bridges. All of that ferry service is going to be shut down here rather quickly as these conditions deteriorate.

We are seeing a lot of lower visibility now. We can see the gray clouds. We can also see much of the visibility, the sky obscured with that rainfall. We know there are big storms out there, and they're headed this way. So, stay with us. You make get a show -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I think you're going to need a bigger umbrella.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Good luck. Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: All right, thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: The new terror alert has created a new sense of urgency on Capitol Hill. Despite being in summer recess, two congressional committees will hold hearings today on reforming U.S. intelligence agencies. Lawmakers will discuss recommendations proposed by the 9/11 Commission. They'll especially take a look at establishing a new national intelligence director.

The heightened terror alert level stems from intelligence uncovered in Pakistan. And there is new information to share with you this morning. So, let's head there live.

Ash-Har Quraishi is in Islamabad. He has new details for us.

Fill us in -- Ash-Har.

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

Well, the interrogations, the arrests and the investigations continue here in Pakistan.

Now, within the last few days, we're told by intelligence sources, that there have been at least seven more arrests of suspected of al Qaeda operatives. One of those suspects was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore as recently as Monday. Now, he was believed to be taking out some sort of communications out of the country when he was apprehended at the international airport there.

Now, we're also told that he is an associate, he's being called by intelligence officials, of a man that U.S. officials have identified as Muhammad Naeem Moor Khan. Now, Khan is the man whose computer was found to have much of the details and the specifics of those targets in New Jersey, New York and Washington.

Now, there is some reports right now that we see that some of this information may have been as old as a few years. But there have been some indications from sources here in Pakistan that these plans may have been in the offing for some time.

Now, the imminences of these attacks are still not known, and that's something that interrogators and investigators at this time are pouring over, trying to find out how much of this communication has gotten out of here in Pakistan's other operatives, and how imminent some sort of an attack against these locations could be -- Carol.

COSTELLO: You know, Ash-Har, everybody is so eager to know when the last communication between these terrorists took place. Is there any way of knowing?

QURAISHI: Well, what we understand from intelligence sources right now is that they are scouring the computers. They are getting some very useful information from the disks and the documents that have been retrieved over the last two months or so in several raids. So, really, it's a matter of tracing it back.

Now, basically the way we understand it's been operating is that one person is carrying a message to another person, carrying it on from there, and then finally at some point getting to a destination where the communications expert would try and encrypt it, try and send it out over the Internet.

So, really it's a matter of trying to trace it back and hopefully try and trace it back before the attack, if any attack is planned for the near future -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ash-Har Quraishi live in Islamabad this morning, thank you.

While Congress works on legislation creating a new intelligence director post, President Bush still has to pick a new CIA chief. Acting Director John McLaughlin has been warming the seat since George Tenet resigned in June. The White House says we can expect to hear more on a permanent replacement soon.

We want to know what you think. Does the idea of creating the position of a national intelligence director make you feel safer? E- mail us. We're going to read some of your responses very soon. The address: Daybreak@CNN.com. And we've had some interesting responses, as always, from our very in-tune viewers.

With talk of a national intelligence director, the people over at Gallup decided to poll; hence, some new numbers for you this morning.

So, let's head live to Princeton, New Jersey, and Gallup Poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport.

Frank, let's start with the public support for the 9/11 Commission's recommendations.

FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Well, this is quite interesting. There has been a real rush on the part of the candidates, John Kerry and then President Bush, to say let's do something, let's put these recommendations into law quickly. The public actually is pulling back just a little on that.

Now, of those who know about the report, it's clearly approve over disapprove. See that 37 to 11? There are a couple of things here. One, well over half of Americans say, hey, they don't know enough about it to say whether they have an opinion.

And, Carol, we asked another question which said: Should Congress and the president go slow and considerate, or rush the recommendations into law? And on that question, we actually had a significant majority say go slow and understand what they are before them into law.

So, in this instance, we have the public, the voters out there, saying make sure you know what you're doing before you rush any brand new intelligence kind of things into law.

COSTELLO: It's interesting, because that's what most of our e- mailers are saying about the post of a new national intelligence czar this morning.

NEWPORT: Interesting.

COSTELLO: Let's go back a few days to the Democratic Convention, though, shall we? Did the Kerry campaign get that expected bounce from the convention?

NEWPORT: Well, no it didn't. I mean, the summary of all of the polls that have been done show, if anything, it might have been a minimal bounce. Our CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup Poll showed Kerry did not increase his standing. If anything, Bush solidified his base.

Let's look a little at some of the internals. We did a large sample of 1,500 interviews over the weekend. Let's look at some of the interesting findings.

First of all, Kerry's acceptance speech, the key point of the whole convention last Thursday, let's put it in context. Fifty-two percent rated it excellent or good. Here are some other speeches that we've rated in recent years, almost exactly the same, Gore and Bush and Dole's speech you can see.

Although Kerry's speech had a little more people rating it excellent, but when you put the top two boxes together, it really is just writing context with other speeches that we have seen.

Here is something else that's quite interesting. The convention had the impact of actually increasing Republican enthusiasm. That's one reason Bush solidified his base to some degree.

Notice from March to July that middle graphic, the Democrats have gone up to 68 percent enthusiasm. This is more enthusiasm than usual. But look at what's happening. Now, after the convention, Democrats went up about 5 points, but Republicans went from 51 to 62 percent enthusiastic.

So, watching the opponents' convention seemed to have had the impact of increasing more motivation in the Republican base, interestingly. Two more points. John Kerry's favorable image didn't change one iota statistically. Before the convention, 55 favorable, 37 unfavorable. After the convention, statistically almost exactly the same, 57 to 37. So no real change in his image.

His wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, her name I.D. went up, but her unfavorables, as well as her favorables, went up. Carol, isn't that interesting? She was 31 to 19 favorable or unfavorable. A lot of people didn't know her before the convention. Now, after the convention, 42 to 31.

She's got an image out there, some favorable but also some unfavorable. Maybe that publicity over the "Shove it" comment didn't work to her favor in the eyes of the public -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Maybe not. We've got a new sound byte from Teresa Heinz Kerry. We're going to let our viewers hear that later this morning.

Frank Newport live from Princeton, thanks for joining DAYBREAK.

Just ahead on DAYBREAK, thoughts from the left and right on President Bush's idea of a national intelligence chief and other hot political topics like Teresa Heinz Kerry.

And major changes in the works for trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Details in a live report when DAYBREAK returns this Tuesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Wall Street opens up this morning. Monday's Dow closed at 10179. That's up, oh, just about 39 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed at 1892, just about 5 points up. And the S&P 500 closed at just over 1106.

Time for a little business buzz now. The New York Stock Exchange prepares for more electronic trading.

Carrie Lee has more live from the Nasdaq Marketsite.

Ooh, a tradition may go.

CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's not going to completely go away, Carol. But certainly things downtown at the New York Stock Exchange are going to get changed. That's the plan anyway. The NYSE says it plans to scrap a lot of its limits on electronic trading and expand computer-driven orders.

Now, this is a move that's being called historic. It could very likely erode the 212-year dominance of the NYSE's open outcry auction system.

Now, it doesn't mean all of those floor traders and market movers you see there are going to go away. But rather this proposal would create a hybrid market that would still use the traditional system of floor traders, but it would also use more electronic trades. That means that high volumes can be handled, greater volumes can be handled with more ease, and also you'll see more transparency for your orders.

For companies that trade these stocks it could save them a lot of money as well.

Now, all of this has to be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Also, Carol, stepping up electronic trading could curb some criticism that the NYSE has faced in recent years regarding favoritism and things like that.

So, that is the latest from the NYSE and from here.

Back to you.

COSTELLO: All right, Carrie Lee live from the Nasdaq Marketsite, thank you.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 6:43 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

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.

Money as the motive. That's the direction the latest testimony took in the Scott Peterson trial. An expert testified that Scott Peterson's fertilizer business was losing money and forced him deep into debt.

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 is the $110 million National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. Among its displays, a 20-by-30 foot holding pen for slaves built in 1833.

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

(WEATHER BREAK)

COSTELLO: She says she speaks her mind. Well, she's done it again. But Teresa Heinz Kerry is just part of our hot talks this morning.

Joining us, conservative libertarian talker Neal Boortz, and managing editor of Talk Radio News Service and liberal Victoria Jones. She joins us live from D.C. this morning.

Welcome to you both.

NEAL BOORTZ, CONSERVATIVE RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Good morning.

VICTORIA JONES, TALK RADIO NEWS SERVICE: Thank you.

COSTELLO: OK. Before we launch in the wisdom of a national intelligence czar, let's talk Teresa. This is what happened at a campaign rally in Milwaukee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERESA HEINZ KERRY, WIFE OF SEN. JOHN KERRY: I know somewhat and they want four more years of hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And, Neal, you know what she's talking about.

BOORTZ: I do. She's a trip, isn't she? She's certainly far more entertaining than her husband is on the speaking platform. And you know what? There have been some reporters in my life I wanted to say some pretty nasty things to, so I don't have a problem with Teresa Heinz Kerry.

I do wonder, though, last week in Boston why they didn't give more coverage to some of the statements that she had to say about Ted Kennedy here about 10 years ago. But I...

COSTELLO: Victoria, any thoughts on that?

JONES: Well, they did. I mean, the only reason we know about them is because they did give coverage to them. But seeing as the networks give almost no coverage to anything and we had to rely on CNN, I'm not surprised that we don't know very much about anything.

She's an outspoken woman, and we're ready for that. I mean, it's kind of astonishing that here we are the leader of the free world and we're talking about whether it's OK for a woman to be outspoken. It's kind of funky, really.

COSTELLO: Kind of...

JONES: We all agree.

BOORTZ: Yes, we're together on that.

COSTELLO: I know. So, let's move on to the national intelligence czar. We've been soliciting e-mail from our viewers on whether that's a good idea, whether that will make them feel safer.

And I want to read this one from Sue. She's from Flowery Branch, Georgia. She says, "No, I won't feel safe with yet another bureaucrat to oversee the other bureaucrats that aren't in touch with the agencies that they lead." Not many of our viewers think it's a good idea, Victoria.

JONES: Well, it may or it may not be. I think it's too early to tell, because we don't know what the person is going to do. The person, it seems -- and I was at the press conferences yesterday. And from what I could gather, he is not going to or she's not going to have very much control over budget.

And in Washington, D.C., as in the rest of the world, if you don't have control of the purse, if you don't have control of the money, you don't have control of very much. And that seems to me to be putting a major restriction on this person. And so for that I think they may be a bit of a puppet.

But, look, we have to do some major things. The 9/11 Commission recommended this. My concern is that if we're moving this fast to make this decision one week after the release of this report, have we considered it more carefully? We need to think about exactly how we want to do this and not just rush in.

COSTELLO: But, Neal, isn't there some pressure on the president to act on the 9/11 Commission's recommendations?

BOORTZ: Exactly. That's why we're moving this fast at this point after the release of the report is because there is political pressure to do so, especially from the Kerry campaign.

What causes me the most concern is I like the idea of competition. I like the idea of different intelligence agencies actually competing with one another to gather information. The key there is you have to share that information with these agencies when it's acquired.

The problem with one central czar is, if this person has operational control over almost all of the intelligence-gathering, then in order to politically compromise intelligence-gathering all you have to do is compromise one person. And I find that a little bit alarming.

JONES: My understanding is that they wouldn't have operational control. They would be reported to on what has been gathered. I think it's a great idea to share information. I mean, one of the things that came out was that information is not shared.

And competition in theory is great, but they are already competing. You already have the CIA and the FBI and other agencies competing and not sharing. And given the nature of the agencies and their history and their culture, they're not going to start sharing.

BOORTZ: But let's...

JONES: So, I don't think in this case that more competition is going to help.

BOORTZ: Let's make sure. There are a lot of reasons these agencies don't share. But let's make sure that the people of this country remember some of those reasons; for instance, the politically- inspired wall between the FBI and the CIA that was erected during the Clinton administration. They need to share this information. Sharing this information 10 years ago, 5 years ago might have saved American lives.

COSTELLO: Well, let me...

JONES: But that wall was -- that's not correct.

COSTELLO: Before we go on with this, let me inject this. I think...

JONES: The wall was already erected. It wasn't erected then.

COSTELLO: Let me inject something else our viewers are concerned about. They're confused by the position.

This is from Joan. She says: "And the purpose of a national security adviser is? What is Condi Rice doing? Should she not be the person to gather intelligence from all agencies?"

JONES: Well, nobody really knows what Condi Rice is doing. She doesn't seem to be doing very much.

BOORTZ: Well, of course, that statement is absurd.

JONES: No, it's really not.

BOORTZ: Condi Rice is the national security advisory to the president, and she's advising the president.

Now, if you were to know...

JONES: On what?

BOORTZ: Well, Victoria, I am sorry that you're not included in the loop with Condoleezza Rice. Neither am I.

JONES: I am too.

BOORTZ: She serves at the pleasure of the president. She advises him, not the media. She advises him, not Neal Boortz and Victoria.

JONES: Right. And she advises him and preferably not the 9/11 Commission unless they were forced to turn around and actually get this information out.

COSTELLO: Ooh, that opens up a whole other can of worms.

BOORTZ: Yes.

COSTELLO: That's all the time we have. Thank you for debating. You'll be back next Tuesday, both of you.

BOORTZ: See you then. COSTELLO: Neal Boortz and Victoria Jones, thank you both very much.

JONES: Thank you.

COSTELLO: DAYBREAK will be right back with more from the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The waves are growing along the North Carolina coast. That is a sure indication that Hurricane Alex is closing in. But for many area residents, Alex, well, he really isn't that big a deal.

Chad Myers is in North Carolina this morning.

Ooh, the rain is coming down now.

MYERS: Carol, I am going to need a bigger umbrella here pretty soon, because this is just the first of the outer bands. Obviously the eye wall is still offshore by about 80 miles or so, and that whole thing is going to be moving on here.

And winds are now picking up to about 50, maybe 55 miles per hour, heading right through this umbrella.

Anyway, the waves now, I would say, are a good eight feet, and headed higher. You can't see any more than about maybe 100, 150 yards out into the ocean now, because of the water coming down, because of the rain blowing sideways.

As the eye wall moves onshore, you're actually going to see this even get worse than what we are seeing right now. The good news is we're in a very protected position. That's why we still have a satellite shot. If we didn't have this protected position, there would be no way we'd even get this signal out right now.

Here's what we're looking at now, though. The radar picture itself has the eye itself -- and it's so easy to see. The place where there isn't rain, that's where the eye wall is. And as we see the orange and the yellows and even some of the reds heading up to Moorhead City, we are just south of that word "Moorhead City" in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

And this is what it's going to be like all day now. Squall after squall after squall, right up through Cape Hatteras, right through Kill Devil Hills, right on up even to (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and then eventually possibly some of this weather as far north as Virginia Beach and the Hampton Rhodes area.

You don't have to really worry so much about the eye here. The winds are only 80 miles per hour, but there could also be water spouts coming onshore with this and obviously some coastal flooding. We're not going to see much in the way of a storm surge as it's going to be a glancing blow up the East Coast, not a direct hit. We are going to see -- are definitely going to see our winds and our waves come up here in the next half-hour or so. And I suspect as the high tides starts to come up, we're going to get this water an awful lot closer to our position.

Back to you.

COSTELLO: Chad, thank you. Chad, there he is frozen on our satellite. He's OK, though. Chad Myers in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

Your chance to win a DAYBREAK coffee mug, but first the latest headlines for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is time to reveal the winner of the DAYBREAK coffee quiz. On Monday we asked, what was the No. 1 movie over the weekend? And how much money did it bring in? The answer: "The Village," $50.8 million. And according to a government study, it will cost consumers how much a day to get the recommended daily serving of vegetables and fruit? The answer: 64 cents a day.

And the winner is: Emanuel Diaz of New York, New York. Congratulations, Emanuel. The cup is in the mail, wrapped in bubble wrap, as usual.

Here's your chance to win a DAYBREAK coffee mug now. Today's coffee quiz questions: How old is the Statue of Liberty? And a highly anticipated video game will be in stores today. What's the name of that game?

And we'll announce the winner tomorrow. Daybreak@CNN.com. Daybreak@CNN.com.

From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello along with Chad Myers and Rob Marciano earlier this morning. "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.

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