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American Morning
Tracking Hurricane Ivan; North Korea Explosion
Aired September 13, 2004 - 07:31 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: It's just about half past the hour now on this AMERICAN MORNING.
North Korea says a massive cloud picked up in satellite images last week was actually caused by a demolition project. Does that explanation wash, though? We're going to ask a former member of the Defense Department what he believes really went on there.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also Chad Myers is coming up with the latest forecast for Hurricane Ivan. The storm is still shifting somewhat as it moves through the Caribbean. We'll look at where it may be heading now.
Let's check on the stories now in the news with Daryn Kagan at the CNN center.
Good morning -- Daryn.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, good morning to you once again.
Military-style weapons such as Uzis could be back on the market in just hours. The 1994 bill banning such weapons is set to expire at midnight tonight. President Bush has said he supports the ban, but a number of attempts to extend it in Congress have failed.
Fire officials in Columbus, Ohio, are expected to release new information this morning about a fire that has killed at least 10 people. That fire broke out in a stairwell of the apartment building yesterday, blocking escape routes and forcing some of the victims to jump from windows. Firefighters say that they suspect arson. Earlier this summer, three fires were set -- excuse me -- at the same apartment complex.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is ordering sweeping changes to improve security in Russia. According to the Interfax News Agency, Mr. Putin wants to focus on North Caucasus, where he says international terrorism is active. The announcement follows this morning's meeting with top Russian officials on the tragedy in Beslan. More than 340 people were killed in that 48-hour siege.
And in Hong Kong, democracy advocates fell short of expectations in legislative elections. Pro-democracy candidates picked up only three seats, giving them 25 of the total 60 seats. The Democratic Party spokesperson says he believes people in Hong Kong want a full democracy, despite the poor results. But, Heidi, they would have had to pick up about 28 to 29 seats in order to bring democracy back to that region. COLLINS: All right. Daryn, thanks so much for that. We'll check back a little bit later on.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Ivan is unpredictable at best, extremely powerful and very deadly. Seventeen people died in Jamaica as Ivan veered through the Caribbean this weekend. Forty-two lives have been lost to the storm so far.
Ivan is back up to a category 5 that is, and Cuba is preparing now for the 160-mile-per-hour winds that could strike the island tonight. Eventually, it looks like Ivan is targeting the Florida panhandle, an area that already saw hurricane effects this season.
Susan Candiotti is live in Panama City Beach now with more on all of this.
Susan -- good morning.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.
Yes, we're coming to you from Bay Point here at Panama City Beach, where everyone here is watching and waiting for Ivan to make its move. That's pretty much what is happening all along the Florida panhandle and at least as far west as Mobile, Alabama.
As recently as Sunday afternoon, for example, here in Panama City, Bay County, commissioners here met with emergency management officials trying to decide what to do. And for now, they've decided to sit back and wait to track Ivan just a little bit more before starting to issue evacuation orders.
However, in the meantime, no one is sitting around not doing anything, of course. Again, all along the panhandle people are boarding up their homes, their schools, their businesses, putting up shutters, buying plywood. We even found some people doing that very same thing in St. George's Island to the east of here.
Again, everyone is trying to make preparations for what is to come. For example, St. George's Island, they are still cleaning up from flooding from Hurricane Frances just a few weeks ago.
In the meantime, all along the panhandle people are trying to keep things as normal as is possible. Schools are open. However, they are telling me here in Bay County they might start issuing evacuation orders as early as tomorrow morning, getting people out of low-lying areas. The last time a serious hurricane hit here was Opal back in 1995, and it smacked the area about 80 miles west of here. That put Panama City on the serious -- most serious part of the storm, the right side. And they suffered half the damage from Hurricane Opal.
So for now, everyone along the Florida panhandle is steeling themselves, Heidi, for what is to come.
COLLINS: Yes, I can't imagine, Susan, how you ever really get good at expecting a hurricane. And the anxiety that people must feel between whether or not they should go, whether or not they should be packing up their belongings. For the most part, the feeling there of the people is what?
CANDIOTTI: Oh, it's terrible. They are storm weary. They are anxious about what is to come, because no one can predict it. And, of course it's tiring to go through these preparations. But everyone here realizes how serious it can be. They've been able to track the serious damage from Frances, from Charley and, of course, from Ivan.
COLLINS: All right, Susan Candiotti live this morning from Panama City Beach. Appreciate it.
(WEATHER BREAK)
O'BRIEN: A cloud of suspicion hangs over North Korea after a mysterious explosion last week. The blast sent a plume of smoke more than two miles wide into the air. The Bush administration says so far there is no evidence it was nuclear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: There are all kinds of reports and there are all kinds of assessments that are going on. Maybe it was a fire of some kind, a forest fire of some kind. But we don't believe at this point that it was a nuclear event.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: (AUDIO GAP) says the explosion was part of a hydroelectric demolition project.
Joining us from Washington to talk about this global concern, Peter Brookes is with The Heritage Foundation.
Mr. Brookes, it's good to have you with us.
PETER BROOKES, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: What's your best take on it? Was it a nuclear explosion?
BROOKES: It's very unlikely. First of all, if you saw this sort of cloud, the North Koreans probably would be irradiating themselves, because they would have done it above ground. Most nuclear experiments today are done below ground, well below ground. And, in fact, the hole is sealed. They put down instruments to see if the nuclear explosion happened the way they expected it to, wanted it to.
But we don't -- people generally don't do above-ground testing, because of the possibility of radiation fallout.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, there was a lot of concern, because it did happen to fall on the anniversary of the founding of the regime, that perhaps a message was being sent. There also were some reports that there was some suspicious activity that was tracked by satellite capability leading up to that explosion. How do you jive all that?
BROOKES: You're absolutely right. In fact, August 9 is their National Day. And they often do something to remind everybody that they're still around. I mean, they're the only country, I think, in the world today that has a decreasing population because of the starvation. And they are small. They don't have a very strong card. But the strong card they do have is their military power.
So, they often do something politically provocative to remind people on August 9 that they should be paid attention to. But the fact is...
O'BRIEN: Yes, and I think you mean September 9, right?
BROOKES: I'm sorry, September 9.
O'BRIEN: OK. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. Go ahead.
BROOKES: No, and the other thing that's very important, Miles, is that the intelligence that we've received about suspicious nuclear activity, about the possibility of workups for a test, is in a different location than we saw this dust cloud. So that's another very significant thing. They are not in the same place.
We will over the next couple of days be able to determine. We'll have aircraft up there. They will be sniffing the air, not over North Korea but in the surrounding areas, depending which the way the wind is blowing to see if there is any nuclear activity within that cloud.
We also use seismic measurement activities or instrumentation in South Korea to see if there's a large seismic event. And so far, we haven't seen that. So, we'll have to see.
I mean, also the other thing is that there is some large missile facilities up in that part of the country, North Korean missile facilities. And it's always a possibility that perhaps an ammo dump went up or there was a missile -- you know, some sort of missile explosion as well during some testing.
So, we'll probably find that out as the dust cloud clears. We'll be able to see it with satellites and follow up on some other experimentation.
O'BRIEN: I suppose it's quite possible that this explosion was timed on that day to create precisely what is going on right now: speculation all around the world that North Korea might be on the cusp of having a nuclear capability. Do you think that's possible?
BROOKES: That's absolutely right. You know, North Korea is very well-known for doing provocative things for political purposes. They also certainly wouldn't mind introducing themselves into our own electoral process here by even threatening to do a nuclear test. And we do have negotiations going on in these six-party talks, which include China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, and North Korea of course. But things are not moving along that quickly. North Korea would certainly like to even bluff or perhaps even decide to light off a nuclear weapon to bring people to the table on terms favorable to North Korea.
O'BRIEN: And it's got to raise tensions so high in that region in particular. I note that South Korea is being called upon by the United Nations to be more forthcoming about its uranium enrichment and plutonium separation. Clearly, if North Korea is nuclear it raises the stakes and raises the possibility of many more nuclear powers in that region.
BROOKES: Certainly. I mean, it certainly would have an effect on South Korea, which there was a few weeks ago South Korea admitted that they had a rogue program. A few scientists were involved in enriching very, very small elements of uranium to see if they could actually do it.
Now, what would Japan's course be? Would Japan decide it needed a nuclear option? Although Japan currently lies under the American nuclear umbrella. It would certainly cause a lot of problems in the negotiations and also for the security standpoint in northeast Asia.
O'BRIEN: Peter Brookes, thanks for your time. Appreciate it.
BROOKES: Thank you.
COLLINS: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, one of the biggest actresses in Hollywood says she is willing to call it quits. But how serious is she? "90-Second Pop" is ahead.
O'BRIEN: Plus, we're going to dial up Andy Serwer, and he'll tell you how you can get your phone bill in half and still get many features. You just sort of have to carry your computer with you wherever you go. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer, man of the future. "The Future is Now," as a matter of fact. Basically everything with Andy has to do with the Redskins football coach.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: George Allen, the future.
O'BRIEN: Yes, George Allen, "The Future is Now."
SERWER: Right.
O'BRIEN: Tell us about the future.
SERWER: Well, today we're going to talk about making phone calls over the Internet. And a lot of people think to do that you have to talk with your computer and mess around with a lot of complicated technology. And we found out it's actually a lot more simple than that. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN THOMPSON, VOIP USER: Hi, it's John.
SERWER (voice over): This may be all you ever need to know about making phone calls over the Internet.
THOMPSON: We used to spend about $60 to $70 a month for just a single line with a few basic features. The bill now is about $30 a month for two lines with all the features.
SERWER: John Thompson, a New Jersey computer programmer, now makes all his phone calls online through a technology called Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP. And he does it with the same phone and the same phone number he's been using for years.
THOMPSON: All I do is I just pick up the phone and dial 1 and the number, and that's it. The compute doesn't need to be on.
SERWER: You need a broadband Internet connection and an adapter, which John got from his phone company, Vonage (ph). Bigger companies like AT&T, Verizon and CNN's parent Time Warner have similar services.
(on camera): All right. We have decided to put the Internet phone to the ultimate test.
ANNOUNCER: Paging Dr. Gupta.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello.
SERWER: Hey, Sanjay?
GUPTA: Hey, man, what's going on?
SERWER: Hey, it's Serwer. How are you doing?
GUPTA: I'm doing all right.
SERWER: I just wanted to ask you if it sounded pretty normal to you.
GUPTA: You are Andy Serwer, right? That's never completely normal. The sound quality and everything sounds great.
SERWER (voice over): You can take your adapter and calling plan anywhere around the world, but that might present a small problem: dialing 911. Emergency services don't know where you're calling from. You'll have you to tell them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
All right, calling plans are often like mobile plans with the cheapest starting around $15 for 500 anywhere minutes. And you'll pay about double that for unlimited local and long distance.
O'BRIEN: Oh, the telcos (ph) must hate this. Now, what are the other advantages to have in this thing? SERWER: Well, one thing that's really neat -- and I think you saw this in the piece a little bit -- is that you have you a log of all of the phone calls you've made or the phone calls that have come into your line right on your computer. And you can see all of your messages all online, too. It's really pretty neat stuff.
O'BRIEN: And it's something that could be subpoenaed later, but that's another source.
SERWER: It depends who you are.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about tomorrow.
SERWER: Tomorrow we'll take a look at downloading movies online; legitimately that is. How easy is it? What about the quality and the cost? That's tomorrow on in the future -- "The Future is Now" -- excuse me.
O'BRIEN: Get it right, will you?
SERWER: "The Future is Now."
O'BRIEN: "The Future is Now."
SERWER: "The Future is Now."
O'BRIEN: All right, future man, thank very much.
SERWER: Thank you. OK.
COLLINS: We want to check in with Jack now on "The Question of the Day" about North Korea.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, you know, that stuff you were talking about is so far beyond me that....
SERWER: We're going to get you some of that stuff.
CAFFERTY: You should have done this last week when I was on vacation, because I don't understand it.
SERWER: Because you're going to be ridiculing me every time.
CAFFERTY: No, not at all.
Senator Kerry accused the Bush administration yesterday of allowing a nuclear nightmare to develop by not dealing with North Korea sooner. President Bush has refused direct talks with North Korea. He favors six-nation talks, citing the notion that North Korea's neighbors have more to lose from its nuclear ambitions.
Meanwhile -- I love this -- intelligence officials say the large explosion seen near the northern border with China was not a nuclear bomb, despite the fact that there was a two-mile-wide mushroom cloud. They say it was a demolition site. Now, I've seen a tape of them knocking down those old casinos on the Las Vegas strip. There were no mushroom clouds with those, you know.
SERWER: That's true.
CAFFERTY: A lot of dust, and then they go in and start building a new deal.
So, the question is: How should the U.S. deal with the potential nuclear threat in North Korea? And the smart alecks are up early this morning around the county.
Mel in Cornwall on the Hudson: "Engage North Korea in talking in multinational forms. The Kim gang is infamous for endless talks and bad faith. But as Winston Churchill said, jaw, jaw is better than war, war, preemptive war against a country with nothing left to lose is a tactical and strategic folly."
Ron says: "Let China deal with North Korea. If North Korea does test and use nukes, China has the most to lose due to their location."
Paul writes from Hellertown: "I have full confidence the same experts who advised Bush to invade Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction will blame the explosion in North Korea on a link between bin Laden and John Kerry, resulting in a preemptive invasion of Massachusetts."
SERWER: Wow!
CAFFERTY: And April in New York City: "What can we do? All of the troops are in -- what was the name of that country? Oh, yes, Iraq. And the news media is focused on Vietnam, and the troops are in Iraq, and the weapons of mass destruction are in North Korea. What is wrong with this picture?"
And Mark in Colleyville, Texas: "Do they have oil? If so, invade immediately, bomb them, and then award the reconstruction contracts to Halliburton."
AM@CNN.com.
I didn't get a lot of this stimulation last week when I was away.
SERWER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: It's nice to be back.
COLLINS: All right, Jack, thanks so much. We'll check in a little bit later on, too.
Still to come this morning, CBS didn't see eye to eye with Madonna. So, find out why the network sent her packing in "90-Second Pop."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: Don't you just want to dance? Hey, it's time now for "90-Second Pop."
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: No.
COLLINS: Andy says no.
With us this morning, Andy Borowitz, chief, cook and bottle washer, BorowitzReport.com. We are giving you far too much, I guess, before. Sarah Bernard, contributing editor for "New York" magazine. And Toure, our pop culture correspondent.
Thanks so much, you guys, for being here.
OK. So, let's first get to Gwyneth Paltrow, if we may, Toure.
TOURE, CNN POPULAR CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: This is good news.
COLLINS: Yes. She says she's quitting acting. She wants more time to raise her daughter, Apple. And...
TOURE: Be nice.
COLLINS: This is all good, or is this kind of another publicity maybe stunt?
TOURE: Well, she says in "Entertainment Weekly" that she can't see going back to doing another movie in a year, maybe a little more, maybe a little less.
COLLINS: But is that quitting?
TOURE: She -- I think we're going to see her again. But she's going to take a long break and be a mom. And she's had a hard last couple of years, her dad, and then getting married is a big change in your life, and now she's got a baby. And it's good to see personally somebody focused on their personal life.
COLLINS: Yes, but why say you're quitting?
TOURE: But...
SARAH BERNARD, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: But she didn't really say she was quitting.
TOURE: Yes, it's not a great artistic loss. I mean, you know, there's "The Royal Tenenbaums," which is great. But there is a bunch of films like "Bounce."
BERNARD: Oh, come on!
TOURE: I mean, like, I dragged my girlfriend to see "Bounce." I lost movie-choosing privileges for six months!
BOROWITZ: You know, coincidentally, Ben Affleck said that he quit acting in movies four movies ago. BERNARD: Oh! You know, this isn't that unusual. I mean, if she were a regular 9:00 to 5:00, she would still be coming back from maternity leave, like, right now. It's not that much time.
COLLINS: That's true.
BERNARD: I think we'll see her again.
COLLINS: All right.
BERNARD: I don't think it's a publicity stunt.
COLLINS: OK. But somebody that we're probably not going to see, at least on CBS, is Madonna.
TOURE: Right.
COLLINS: She wanted this to be -- she was going to do this concert, right? And she wanted it to be two hours commercial-free.
TOURE: Right.
COLLINS: What's so big demand of a, you know, about that?
BOROWITZ: Well, CBS (UNINTELLIGIBLE) response, because she wanted a two-hour Madonna concert with no interruption. And CBS said that's actually in violation of the Geneva Convention. So, they had no choice really.
COLLINS: So, what's the deal? Why didn't they want to put her on?
BERNARD: How did Madonna and the Tiffany Network get paired up together at all?
BOROWITZ: I don't know. I just think...
BERNARD: It doesn't seem right.
BOROWITZ: They usually, like, when there's, like, a two-hour thing, no commercial interruptions, it's, like, "Schindler's List," you know. I think, you know, the Reagan funeral. I don't think Madonna is concert is really out there.
TOURE: This is a continuing wardrobe malfunction shadow over America. Just like...
COLLINS: They are afraid.
TOURE: Yes, more P.C. and more puritan than we have ever been. It's bizarre.
BERNARD: But they're -- you know, I mean, the reason why these concerts have become so popular on TV is because they're so expensive. This is, like, the one way that people can get to see them.
COLLINS: All right.
BERNARD: So, I think that's how it happened in the first place.
COLLINS: OK. Well, what about this other show that debuted on the WB last night, "Jack and Bobby?" Is it supposed to be about the Kennedys?
BERNARD: No, it's not really.
COLLINS: What's it about?
BERNARD: That's just the reference to kind of suck you in. Toure doesn't like this show. So, we are fighting about it. But the show is about these two brothers in present day, 2004. One of them turns out to be president, and it flashes forward to 2040, where members of his staff are reflecting on his presidency.
Now, what is so interesting about this is it proves that it doesn't have to be a reality show. It doesn't have to be a crime scene drama to be an interesting hour of television, I think.
TOURE: Was it on Lifetime?
BERNARD: No, it was on WB. But what was really great about it was Christine Lahti. She plays -- I mean, we've never had a mom character like this. She's addicted to pot. She's a university professor who is this crazy liberal mom.
COLLINS: Now, what year is this, again? I'm confused now.
BERNARD: 2004. But then it flashes forward to reflecting on one of the kid's presidencies. But the characters...
BOROWITZ: And the other one, because the WB, the other one grows up to be Superman.
BERNARD: That's right.
COLLINS: Wow!
BERNARD: And you have to guess which is which. But it's really an original structure to a show. And I felt for this reason it was worth watching, Toure.
COLLINS: It sounds like it's got it all, like Toure.
BERNARD: Right.
COLLINS: OK, you guys, thanks so much. Toure, Sarah and Andy, appreciate it.
Miles -- over to you.
O'BRIEN: Still to come, Charley and Frances left much of Florida a mess and stretched emergency crews thin. If Ivan hits, can FEMA even spare the resources? We'll talk to the agency's director and pose that question. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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Aired September 13, 2004 - 07:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: It's just about half past the hour now on this AMERICAN MORNING.
North Korea says a massive cloud picked up in satellite images last week was actually caused by a demolition project. Does that explanation wash, though? We're going to ask a former member of the Defense Department what he believes really went on there.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also Chad Myers is coming up with the latest forecast for Hurricane Ivan. The storm is still shifting somewhat as it moves through the Caribbean. We'll look at where it may be heading now.
Let's check on the stories now in the news with Daryn Kagan at the CNN center.
Good morning -- Daryn.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, good morning to you once again.
Military-style weapons such as Uzis could be back on the market in just hours. The 1994 bill banning such weapons is set to expire at midnight tonight. President Bush has said he supports the ban, but a number of attempts to extend it in Congress have failed.
Fire officials in Columbus, Ohio, are expected to release new information this morning about a fire that has killed at least 10 people. That fire broke out in a stairwell of the apartment building yesterday, blocking escape routes and forcing some of the victims to jump from windows. Firefighters say that they suspect arson. Earlier this summer, three fires were set -- excuse me -- at the same apartment complex.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is ordering sweeping changes to improve security in Russia. According to the Interfax News Agency, Mr. Putin wants to focus on North Caucasus, where he says international terrorism is active. The announcement follows this morning's meeting with top Russian officials on the tragedy in Beslan. More than 340 people were killed in that 48-hour siege.
And in Hong Kong, democracy advocates fell short of expectations in legislative elections. Pro-democracy candidates picked up only three seats, giving them 25 of the total 60 seats. The Democratic Party spokesperson says he believes people in Hong Kong want a full democracy, despite the poor results. But, Heidi, they would have had to pick up about 28 to 29 seats in order to bring democracy back to that region. COLLINS: All right. Daryn, thanks so much for that. We'll check back a little bit later on.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Ivan is unpredictable at best, extremely powerful and very deadly. Seventeen people died in Jamaica as Ivan veered through the Caribbean this weekend. Forty-two lives have been lost to the storm so far.
Ivan is back up to a category 5 that is, and Cuba is preparing now for the 160-mile-per-hour winds that could strike the island tonight. Eventually, it looks like Ivan is targeting the Florida panhandle, an area that already saw hurricane effects this season.
Susan Candiotti is live in Panama City Beach now with more on all of this.
Susan -- good morning.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.
Yes, we're coming to you from Bay Point here at Panama City Beach, where everyone here is watching and waiting for Ivan to make its move. That's pretty much what is happening all along the Florida panhandle and at least as far west as Mobile, Alabama.
As recently as Sunday afternoon, for example, here in Panama City, Bay County, commissioners here met with emergency management officials trying to decide what to do. And for now, they've decided to sit back and wait to track Ivan just a little bit more before starting to issue evacuation orders.
However, in the meantime, no one is sitting around not doing anything, of course. Again, all along the panhandle people are boarding up their homes, their schools, their businesses, putting up shutters, buying plywood. We even found some people doing that very same thing in St. George's Island to the east of here.
Again, everyone is trying to make preparations for what is to come. For example, St. George's Island, they are still cleaning up from flooding from Hurricane Frances just a few weeks ago.
In the meantime, all along the panhandle people are trying to keep things as normal as is possible. Schools are open. However, they are telling me here in Bay County they might start issuing evacuation orders as early as tomorrow morning, getting people out of low-lying areas. The last time a serious hurricane hit here was Opal back in 1995, and it smacked the area about 80 miles west of here. That put Panama City on the serious -- most serious part of the storm, the right side. And they suffered half the damage from Hurricane Opal.
So for now, everyone along the Florida panhandle is steeling themselves, Heidi, for what is to come.
COLLINS: Yes, I can't imagine, Susan, how you ever really get good at expecting a hurricane. And the anxiety that people must feel between whether or not they should go, whether or not they should be packing up their belongings. For the most part, the feeling there of the people is what?
CANDIOTTI: Oh, it's terrible. They are storm weary. They are anxious about what is to come, because no one can predict it. And, of course it's tiring to go through these preparations. But everyone here realizes how serious it can be. They've been able to track the serious damage from Frances, from Charley and, of course, from Ivan.
COLLINS: All right, Susan Candiotti live this morning from Panama City Beach. Appreciate it.
(WEATHER BREAK)
O'BRIEN: A cloud of suspicion hangs over North Korea after a mysterious explosion last week. The blast sent a plume of smoke more than two miles wide into the air. The Bush administration says so far there is no evidence it was nuclear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: There are all kinds of reports and there are all kinds of assessments that are going on. Maybe it was a fire of some kind, a forest fire of some kind. But we don't believe at this point that it was a nuclear event.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: (AUDIO GAP) says the explosion was part of a hydroelectric demolition project.
Joining us from Washington to talk about this global concern, Peter Brookes is with The Heritage Foundation.
Mr. Brookes, it's good to have you with us.
PETER BROOKES, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: What's your best take on it? Was it a nuclear explosion?
BROOKES: It's very unlikely. First of all, if you saw this sort of cloud, the North Koreans probably would be irradiating themselves, because they would have done it above ground. Most nuclear experiments today are done below ground, well below ground. And, in fact, the hole is sealed. They put down instruments to see if the nuclear explosion happened the way they expected it to, wanted it to.
But we don't -- people generally don't do above-ground testing, because of the possibility of radiation fallout.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, there was a lot of concern, because it did happen to fall on the anniversary of the founding of the regime, that perhaps a message was being sent. There also were some reports that there was some suspicious activity that was tracked by satellite capability leading up to that explosion. How do you jive all that?
BROOKES: You're absolutely right. In fact, August 9 is their National Day. And they often do something to remind everybody that they're still around. I mean, they're the only country, I think, in the world today that has a decreasing population because of the starvation. And they are small. They don't have a very strong card. But the strong card they do have is their military power.
So, they often do something politically provocative to remind people on August 9 that they should be paid attention to. But the fact is...
O'BRIEN: Yes, and I think you mean September 9, right?
BROOKES: I'm sorry, September 9.
O'BRIEN: OK. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. Go ahead.
BROOKES: No, and the other thing that's very important, Miles, is that the intelligence that we've received about suspicious nuclear activity, about the possibility of workups for a test, is in a different location than we saw this dust cloud. So that's another very significant thing. They are not in the same place.
We will over the next couple of days be able to determine. We'll have aircraft up there. They will be sniffing the air, not over North Korea but in the surrounding areas, depending which the way the wind is blowing to see if there is any nuclear activity within that cloud.
We also use seismic measurement activities or instrumentation in South Korea to see if there's a large seismic event. And so far, we haven't seen that. So, we'll have to see.
I mean, also the other thing is that there is some large missile facilities up in that part of the country, North Korean missile facilities. And it's always a possibility that perhaps an ammo dump went up or there was a missile -- you know, some sort of missile explosion as well during some testing.
So, we'll probably find that out as the dust cloud clears. We'll be able to see it with satellites and follow up on some other experimentation.
O'BRIEN: I suppose it's quite possible that this explosion was timed on that day to create precisely what is going on right now: speculation all around the world that North Korea might be on the cusp of having a nuclear capability. Do you think that's possible?
BROOKES: That's absolutely right. You know, North Korea is very well-known for doing provocative things for political purposes. They also certainly wouldn't mind introducing themselves into our own electoral process here by even threatening to do a nuclear test. And we do have negotiations going on in these six-party talks, which include China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, and North Korea of course. But things are not moving along that quickly. North Korea would certainly like to even bluff or perhaps even decide to light off a nuclear weapon to bring people to the table on terms favorable to North Korea.
O'BRIEN: And it's got to raise tensions so high in that region in particular. I note that South Korea is being called upon by the United Nations to be more forthcoming about its uranium enrichment and plutonium separation. Clearly, if North Korea is nuclear it raises the stakes and raises the possibility of many more nuclear powers in that region.
BROOKES: Certainly. I mean, it certainly would have an effect on South Korea, which there was a few weeks ago South Korea admitted that they had a rogue program. A few scientists were involved in enriching very, very small elements of uranium to see if they could actually do it.
Now, what would Japan's course be? Would Japan decide it needed a nuclear option? Although Japan currently lies under the American nuclear umbrella. It would certainly cause a lot of problems in the negotiations and also for the security standpoint in northeast Asia.
O'BRIEN: Peter Brookes, thanks for your time. Appreciate it.
BROOKES: Thank you.
COLLINS: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, one of the biggest actresses in Hollywood says she is willing to call it quits. But how serious is she? "90-Second Pop" is ahead.
O'BRIEN: Plus, we're going to dial up Andy Serwer, and he'll tell you how you can get your phone bill in half and still get many features. You just sort of have to carry your computer with you wherever you go. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer, man of the future. "The Future is Now," as a matter of fact. Basically everything with Andy has to do with the Redskins football coach.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: George Allen, the future.
O'BRIEN: Yes, George Allen, "The Future is Now."
SERWER: Right.
O'BRIEN: Tell us about the future.
SERWER: Well, today we're going to talk about making phone calls over the Internet. And a lot of people think to do that you have to talk with your computer and mess around with a lot of complicated technology. And we found out it's actually a lot more simple than that. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN THOMPSON, VOIP USER: Hi, it's John.
SERWER (voice over): This may be all you ever need to know about making phone calls over the Internet.
THOMPSON: We used to spend about $60 to $70 a month for just a single line with a few basic features. The bill now is about $30 a month for two lines with all the features.
SERWER: John Thompson, a New Jersey computer programmer, now makes all his phone calls online through a technology called Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP. And he does it with the same phone and the same phone number he's been using for years.
THOMPSON: All I do is I just pick up the phone and dial 1 and the number, and that's it. The compute doesn't need to be on.
SERWER: You need a broadband Internet connection and an adapter, which John got from his phone company, Vonage (ph). Bigger companies like AT&T, Verizon and CNN's parent Time Warner have similar services.
(on camera): All right. We have decided to put the Internet phone to the ultimate test.
ANNOUNCER: Paging Dr. Gupta.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello.
SERWER: Hey, Sanjay?
GUPTA: Hey, man, what's going on?
SERWER: Hey, it's Serwer. How are you doing?
GUPTA: I'm doing all right.
SERWER: I just wanted to ask you if it sounded pretty normal to you.
GUPTA: You are Andy Serwer, right? That's never completely normal. The sound quality and everything sounds great.
SERWER (voice over): You can take your adapter and calling plan anywhere around the world, but that might present a small problem: dialing 911. Emergency services don't know where you're calling from. You'll have you to tell them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
All right, calling plans are often like mobile plans with the cheapest starting around $15 for 500 anywhere minutes. And you'll pay about double that for unlimited local and long distance.
O'BRIEN: Oh, the telcos (ph) must hate this. Now, what are the other advantages to have in this thing? SERWER: Well, one thing that's really neat -- and I think you saw this in the piece a little bit -- is that you have you a log of all of the phone calls you've made or the phone calls that have come into your line right on your computer. And you can see all of your messages all online, too. It's really pretty neat stuff.
O'BRIEN: And it's something that could be subpoenaed later, but that's another source.
SERWER: It depends who you are.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about tomorrow.
SERWER: Tomorrow we'll take a look at downloading movies online; legitimately that is. How easy is it? What about the quality and the cost? That's tomorrow on in the future -- "The Future is Now" -- excuse me.
O'BRIEN: Get it right, will you?
SERWER: "The Future is Now."
O'BRIEN: "The Future is Now."
SERWER: "The Future is Now."
O'BRIEN: All right, future man, thank very much.
SERWER: Thank you. OK.
COLLINS: We want to check in with Jack now on "The Question of the Day" about North Korea.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, you know, that stuff you were talking about is so far beyond me that....
SERWER: We're going to get you some of that stuff.
CAFFERTY: You should have done this last week when I was on vacation, because I don't understand it.
SERWER: Because you're going to be ridiculing me every time.
CAFFERTY: No, not at all.
Senator Kerry accused the Bush administration yesterday of allowing a nuclear nightmare to develop by not dealing with North Korea sooner. President Bush has refused direct talks with North Korea. He favors six-nation talks, citing the notion that North Korea's neighbors have more to lose from its nuclear ambitions.
Meanwhile -- I love this -- intelligence officials say the large explosion seen near the northern border with China was not a nuclear bomb, despite the fact that there was a two-mile-wide mushroom cloud. They say it was a demolition site. Now, I've seen a tape of them knocking down those old casinos on the Las Vegas strip. There were no mushroom clouds with those, you know.
SERWER: That's true.
CAFFERTY: A lot of dust, and then they go in and start building a new deal.
So, the question is: How should the U.S. deal with the potential nuclear threat in North Korea? And the smart alecks are up early this morning around the county.
Mel in Cornwall on the Hudson: "Engage North Korea in talking in multinational forms. The Kim gang is infamous for endless talks and bad faith. But as Winston Churchill said, jaw, jaw is better than war, war, preemptive war against a country with nothing left to lose is a tactical and strategic folly."
Ron says: "Let China deal with North Korea. If North Korea does test and use nukes, China has the most to lose due to their location."
Paul writes from Hellertown: "I have full confidence the same experts who advised Bush to invade Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction will blame the explosion in North Korea on a link between bin Laden and John Kerry, resulting in a preemptive invasion of Massachusetts."
SERWER: Wow!
CAFFERTY: And April in New York City: "What can we do? All of the troops are in -- what was the name of that country? Oh, yes, Iraq. And the news media is focused on Vietnam, and the troops are in Iraq, and the weapons of mass destruction are in North Korea. What is wrong with this picture?"
And Mark in Colleyville, Texas: "Do they have oil? If so, invade immediately, bomb them, and then award the reconstruction contracts to Halliburton."
AM@CNN.com.
I didn't get a lot of this stimulation last week when I was away.
SERWER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: It's nice to be back.
COLLINS: All right, Jack, thanks so much. We'll check in a little bit later on, too.
Still to come this morning, CBS didn't see eye to eye with Madonna. So, find out why the network sent her packing in "90-Second Pop."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: Don't you just want to dance? Hey, it's time now for "90-Second Pop."
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: No.
COLLINS: Andy says no.
With us this morning, Andy Borowitz, chief, cook and bottle washer, BorowitzReport.com. We are giving you far too much, I guess, before. Sarah Bernard, contributing editor for "New York" magazine. And Toure, our pop culture correspondent.
Thanks so much, you guys, for being here.
OK. So, let's first get to Gwyneth Paltrow, if we may, Toure.
TOURE, CNN POPULAR CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: This is good news.
COLLINS: Yes. She says she's quitting acting. She wants more time to raise her daughter, Apple. And...
TOURE: Be nice.
COLLINS: This is all good, or is this kind of another publicity maybe stunt?
TOURE: Well, she says in "Entertainment Weekly" that she can't see going back to doing another movie in a year, maybe a little more, maybe a little less.
COLLINS: But is that quitting?
TOURE: She -- I think we're going to see her again. But she's going to take a long break and be a mom. And she's had a hard last couple of years, her dad, and then getting married is a big change in your life, and now she's got a baby. And it's good to see personally somebody focused on their personal life.
COLLINS: Yes, but why say you're quitting?
TOURE: But...
SARAH BERNARD, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: But she didn't really say she was quitting.
TOURE: Yes, it's not a great artistic loss. I mean, you know, there's "The Royal Tenenbaums," which is great. But there is a bunch of films like "Bounce."
BERNARD: Oh, come on!
TOURE: I mean, like, I dragged my girlfriend to see "Bounce." I lost movie-choosing privileges for six months!
BOROWITZ: You know, coincidentally, Ben Affleck said that he quit acting in movies four movies ago. BERNARD: Oh! You know, this isn't that unusual. I mean, if she were a regular 9:00 to 5:00, she would still be coming back from maternity leave, like, right now. It's not that much time.
COLLINS: That's true.
BERNARD: I think we'll see her again.
COLLINS: All right.
BERNARD: I don't think it's a publicity stunt.
COLLINS: OK. But somebody that we're probably not going to see, at least on CBS, is Madonna.
TOURE: Right.
COLLINS: She wanted this to be -- she was going to do this concert, right? And she wanted it to be two hours commercial-free.
TOURE: Right.
COLLINS: What's so big demand of a, you know, about that?
BOROWITZ: Well, CBS (UNINTELLIGIBLE) response, because she wanted a two-hour Madonna concert with no interruption. And CBS said that's actually in violation of the Geneva Convention. So, they had no choice really.
COLLINS: So, what's the deal? Why didn't they want to put her on?
BERNARD: How did Madonna and the Tiffany Network get paired up together at all?
BOROWITZ: I don't know. I just think...
BERNARD: It doesn't seem right.
BOROWITZ: They usually, like, when there's, like, a two-hour thing, no commercial interruptions, it's, like, "Schindler's List," you know. I think, you know, the Reagan funeral. I don't think Madonna is concert is really out there.
TOURE: This is a continuing wardrobe malfunction shadow over America. Just like...
COLLINS: They are afraid.
TOURE: Yes, more P.C. and more puritan than we have ever been. It's bizarre.
BERNARD: But they're -- you know, I mean, the reason why these concerts have become so popular on TV is because they're so expensive. This is, like, the one way that people can get to see them.
COLLINS: All right.
BERNARD: So, I think that's how it happened in the first place.
COLLINS: OK. Well, what about this other show that debuted on the WB last night, "Jack and Bobby?" Is it supposed to be about the Kennedys?
BERNARD: No, it's not really.
COLLINS: What's it about?
BERNARD: That's just the reference to kind of suck you in. Toure doesn't like this show. So, we are fighting about it. But the show is about these two brothers in present day, 2004. One of them turns out to be president, and it flashes forward to 2040, where members of his staff are reflecting on his presidency.
Now, what is so interesting about this is it proves that it doesn't have to be a reality show. It doesn't have to be a crime scene drama to be an interesting hour of television, I think.
TOURE: Was it on Lifetime?
BERNARD: No, it was on WB. But what was really great about it was Christine Lahti. She plays -- I mean, we've never had a mom character like this. She's addicted to pot. She's a university professor who is this crazy liberal mom.
COLLINS: Now, what year is this, again? I'm confused now.
BERNARD: 2004. But then it flashes forward to reflecting on one of the kid's presidencies. But the characters...
BOROWITZ: And the other one, because the WB, the other one grows up to be Superman.
BERNARD: That's right.
COLLINS: Wow!
BERNARD: And you have to guess which is which. But it's really an original structure to a show. And I felt for this reason it was worth watching, Toure.
COLLINS: It sounds like it's got it all, like Toure.
BERNARD: Right.
COLLINS: OK, you guys, thanks so much. Toure, Sarah and Andy, appreciate it.
Miles -- over to you.
O'BRIEN: Still to come, Charley and Frances left much of Florida a mess and stretched emergency crews thin. If Ivan hits, can FEMA even spare the resources? We'll talk to the agency's director and pose that question. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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