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American Morning
Destruction Caused by Tropical Storm Jeanne in Haiti; Examining Latest Developments in Presidential Contest
Aired September 23, 2004 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The destructive force of hurricane Jeanne killing more than 1,000 people in Haiti. Now Jeanne is moving again, headed in the direction of Florida.
And Ivan, he is back for an encore, this time as the season's most unlikely tropical storm.
The prime minister of Iraq speaking to Congress in two hours. How will he address the turmoil in his country?
And hunting terrorists in southern Afghanistan -- are Taliban fighters now making a comeback? Answers on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
COLLINS: Good morning, everybody.
I'm Heidi Collins in for Soledad.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Bill Hemmer.
Good morning.
Welcome back to another hour here.
The commute looks pretty easy this morning out there on Sixth Avenue.
COLLINS: Yes, it does look easy.
HEMMER: Time to get to work.
Other headlines this hour, Iraq becoming the main focus in this campaign. Both sides hammering at one another on who has the better plan to restore order in that country. In a few minutes, we'll talk with General Wesley Clark, a John Kerry supporter; Republican Senator Norm Coleman our guest next hour. We'll get to both men today.
COLLINS: Also, we told you yesterday about singer Cat Stevens, now Yusuf Islam, being denied entry into the United States because his name is on a terror watch list. Well, this morning we'll get an explanation of why that happened from Asa Hutchinson of the Homeland Secretary Department.
HEMMER: All right, stay tuned for that and more. Jack Cafferty back again -- good morning.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Coming up in the "Cafferty File," we'll tell you about a cell phone that will let you know if you have bad breath. And we'll take you to the city and the country that has the best dressed cops anywhere, and yet there's another stupid study out about money.
Those are the items in the "File." You do want to set your VCR...
COLLINS: That was a fabulous tease.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
COLLINS: All right.
Good.
I'm looking forward to the cell phone thing.
Thanks so much, Jack.
We want to check on the stories now in the news, though, with Kelly Wallace once again this morning -- good morning, Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you all.
Good morning, everyone.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is making an historic visit to Capitol Hill this morning. About two hours from now, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi will address a joint meeting of Congress at the House chamber. He will then meet with President Bush at the Oval Office. CNN will have live coverage of Prime Minister Allawi's address to Congress at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
In the last half hour, we told you about an explosion heard near an Israeli settlement. Sources now tell CNN the blast was caused by the Israeli military blowing up an abandoned building used by Palestinian militants in Gaza City.
A new study shows incidents of planes flying too close are under reported. A study by the Department of Transportation found that 22 percent of the operational errors were reported by outside parties last year and not by air traffic controllers, as required. The Federal Aviation Administration admits it needs better oversight.
And authorities in Montana are calling it a miracle. Two U.S. Forest Service workers reported dead after a plane crash are now hospitalized and recovering. The pair was spotted along a highway yesterday, two days after their plane went down in the wilderness. Initially, all five people on board were believed to be dead. An incredible story. Some great news for their friends and families -- Bill. HEMMER: Indeed, it is.
Yes.
Kelly, thanks for that.
We want to get back to Ivan because Ivan is back. The Gulf Coast feeling the effects of the former hurricane again today. The coasts off of Texas and Louisiana getting another full hit later. The tropical storm, tropical storm now, not a hurricane, should not pack the punch like we saw last week along the Alabama coast. But some flooding and a lot of rain is expected, further east, though.
We'll check on Ivan's path with Chad in a moment.
But hurricane Jeanne also still a threat. That storm killed more than 1,000 people in Haiti. The number could go even higher.
CNN's Karl Penhaul reporting now from Haiti.
And he joins us by way of video phone -- Karl, hello.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Bill.
Well, behind us right now there is a small market here in one sector of Gonaives. That was the city hardest hit by the passage of tropical storm Jeanne. But things are far from normal right now. The food being sold here is inadequate for the hundred thousand population of the city. The aid effort is going under way, but things have been slow so far.
Now, to bring you up to date with those figures, we've been talking to the Haitian Department of Civil Protection this morning. They tell us that the total death toll confirmed so far is 1,151 so far. And numbers are expected to rise as the floodwaters recede.
We've been doing a tour of parts of Gonaives to see how some of the hardest hit sectors of the city have been faring.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
PENHAUL (voice-over): A Haitian woman wades through floodwaters after salvaging her last possessions. Teenager Lifedna Dorleans sits amid the wreckage of what was once her home, preparing a few scraps for dinner. She and her family were lucky to escape alive as tropical storm Jeanne churned up a sea of mud and rain. "We found a ladder and went up to a roof. We thought we were going to die," she says. "We stood there but couldn't stay because the water reached us. We jumped from one roof to another to escape," she says.
Many of her neighbors are still camping out on their roofs. Others try in vain to sweep out the tide of destruction.
It will take days yet for the city to dry out. And as it does, United Nations and Haitian officials say the corpses of more victims may emerge. Hundreds of dead so far discovered in Gonaives are hurriedly being buried in mass graves to avoid possible disease.
(on camera): The floodwaters are beginning to subside now. At one point residents say the water was above roof level. The main challenge now is getting emergency supplies to these people.
(voice-over): Some of these people say the emergency aid effort is slow and they've only had a few mouthfuls of clean drinking water since the storm struck. That desperation was clear when volunteers began distributing soft drinks donated by local Haitian businessmen. After the storm, these people must survive chaos and even fighting if they hope to get enough to eat and drink to make it through the next few days.
Ask Lifedna Dorleans what promise the future holds for her and thousands of other poor Haitians hit by this disaster? "Misery," she says.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
PENHAUL: Now, we expect in the course of the day, the authorities will continue to dig mass graves and dispose of some of those bodies to stop what they fear could be the possibility of epidemics. Also, it's very clear touring through Gonaives that there are many bodies still lying around, both on open ground and inside some of the buildings -- Bill.
HEMMER: What a devastating storm that is.
Karl Penhaul, video phone in Haiti.
Back to Chad on this and Jeanne perhaps headed for Florida -- Chad.
What's your map tell you?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely. Now, the new Hurricane Center forecast takes it right over Cape Canaveral on Sunday. Now, you know that that line always changes to the left or to the right. But this is Jeanne here. It started over St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, went over Puerto Rico and then kind of drove itself over the Dominican Republic and then over Haiti.
It tried to go to the north, was pushed back down south by a high pressure center here and now it's going to be traveling back off toward the west, the way they usually move from east to west. And it's going to be making a run at Florida on Sunday. It could be early in the day on Sunday if it's south Florida. It could even be late in the day on Monday or Tuesday if it turns hard enough to get on up toward Cape Fear. We'll have to keep watching.
It's one of those big right turners. It's going to be hard to know when that right turn happens. We're going to have to just keep watching it as it trends.
As it gets closer and closer to Florida, they're going to get more and more nervous. Then all of a sudden it's going to make that right turn. We'll see when it does that.
There you go. This is Ivan. Tropical storm Ivan still won't go away. The entire system here went offshore in the Atlantic, back down south, across Florida two days ago, and now it's making rainfall from Baton Rouge in New Orleans back over to about New Iberia.
There is the rain with Ivan. It is only a T.S., but now 45 miles per hour. More of a rain maker than anything else.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: Wow, though. For those people down in Florida and that area, just unbelievable once again.
MYERS: Yes, I know.
COLLINS: All right, Chad, thanks so much.
We'll check back a little bit later on.
In the meantime, one week before the first presidential debate, the political temperature rising higher and higher. And whether it's the heated attacks or just the tough campaign schedule, John Kerry needs a break today.
Bob Franken is covering the Kerry campaign in Columbus this morning.
He joins us now.
Good morning to you, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's see, it's Thursday, it must be Ohio. Of course, the candidates have been here an awful lot, this being such a battleground state. But John Kerry has cut back his schedule. He has to skip Iowa. He's got really a bad case of laryngitis from his speaking yesterday. So he was speaking softly, but still carrying a big schtick.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
FRANKEN (voice-over): He's had his run of the television shows, but John Kerry was still tossing out the one liners.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yesterday I was in Orlando right next to Fantasy Land. And the difference between George Bush and me is I drove by it, he lives in it.
FRANKEN: Notice Kerry's voice is almost gone. In fact, he'll be scaling back today. But he's certainly not getting any sympathy from the president, who is staying right on message.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Incredibly this week, my opponent said he would prefer the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to the situation in Iraq today. That's not the first time he's changed positions. FRANKEN: And just in case the number ones didn't get their message across, the number twos were continental ready to chime in.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: John Kerry gives every indication that his repeated efforts to cast and recast and redefine the war on terror and our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan of someone who lacks the resolve, the determination and the conviction to prevail in this conflict.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Dick Cheney is, on so many things, is dead wrong. I mean the problem, of course, is that John Kerry and I will be aggressive.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
FRANKEN: Both candidates are campaigning aggressively, campaigning probably more described in a more appropriate way as bickering in a campaign that is becoming really a competition of insults -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Boy, bickering is right.
How often do you think it is then, Bob, that the message gets lost in all that, people just tune out and say, you know, I don't want to hear that any more?
FRANKEN: Well, that's always been a theory. That's one of the theories about negative campaigning, that it turns people off. But I think that there is a belief on both sides that there are such strongly held opinions here, that people are so revved up that the way to keep them revved up is to make sure you put down the competition.
This is really a battle between who the people are more against than who they're for, in the minds of many.
COLLINS: All right, Bob Franken coming to us from Columbus this morning.
Bob, thanks so much.
HEMMER: Let's talk more politics now.
General Wesley Clark is in the Kerry campaign.
The former Democratic presidential candidate my guest here in New York.
And good morning.
Good to see you in person again.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good to see you, Bill.
HEMMER: Senator Kerry suggested this week that the draft would be reinstated, possibly, if George Bush wins a second term. On what does he base that statement?
CLARK: Well, there's no telling what's going to happen in terms of manpower requirements if we continue the course we're on in Iraq. And we've got a family military, especially the Guard and Reserve. These people have been ripped out of their homes and communities and jobs for unanticipated periods.
You know, I was talking to a man in the private sector yesterday who was telling me, you know -- and he's in the financial community. Well, if somebody goes and they're gone for six months, we'll hold their job for them, he says. But if they're gone for a year or 18 months, he says there's no way that our firm could keep people's jobs for them. And this is exactly what's happening.
HEMMER: You're a military man.
Do you agree with what John Kerry said, then? Do you believe the draft will come back in 2005, 2006?
CLARK: Well, I think that we've got another set of rotations or so that we can extend the volunteer force. But by the time that people are going back on their fourth tours, and if the rate of casualties continues as it is and the families are exacerbated the way they are, we'll have gone to the well too -- once too often with these men and women and their families and kids. It's just too much.
HEMMER: On Monday, John Kerry came out with his four point plan for Iraq. And one of the key issues was the election that we will hear later today from Ayad Allawi, still planned for January. We'll see if that holds. But one of the other points, though, is to get NATO involved in training Iraqis to defend their own country. NATO reached agreement yesterday on this. It will happen again. And now the Bush administration moving forward, seemingly, on this agenda.
If that's the case, is the argument being stolen away from John Kerry?
CLARK: Not at all. I mean John and I and a lot of other people have called for NATO involvement from the very beginning. What's happened is that the Bush administration has been very, very slow and ineffective to use the full tools of American statecraft -- diplomacy, economic power, work with allies -- to bring to bear the means for success in Iraq.
Think of it this way, Bill. You cannot just kill people on the ground in Iraq because they don't like Americans. And the military would be the first ones to tell you. Our men and women in Iraq fighting are doing a great job. But there's two other parts of the problem that the Bush administration just hasn't worked effectively.
One thing you have to do is you have to persuade the nations around Iraq, who are feeding and fueling and incentivizing the conflict, to turn it off. You've got to persuade Iran and Syria, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, that a stable, peaceful, democratizing Iraq is in their interests. Right now it isn't because some of these countries feel like as soon as the United States succeeds in Iraq, we're moving on to them.
HEMMER: I mentioned Ayad Allawi. We will hear him address Congress in about two hours from now on Capitol Hill.
Can you not point to some successes on the ground in Iraq? Can you not say that there has been progress in certain areas? Because apparently he will relay that message to members of Congress today and the American people.
CLARK: Well, I hope there's been some progress on the ground in Iraq in some places. But there's also been some...
HEMMER: Are you saying there has not?
CLARK: ... deterioration on the ground in Iraq in some places. We've got some huge challenges over there.
What hasn't been done effectively by the administration is not only the diplomacy around Iraq, but to put in place a political process inside Iraq that can convince every faction and grouping in Iraq that they're better off served by participating in a political process than by standing outside of it and using force.
That just, it hasn't been effective. It wasn't effective when Paul Bremer was there and it still is not effective. Muqtada al-Sadr has found that he gets more political power from opposing the Americans with force than withdrawing and he beefs up his forces. We've got to break that cycle.
HEMMER: Thank you, General.
Wesley Clark here.
Next hour, we'll get the other side. My guest will be Republican Senator Norm Coleman out of Minnesota. We'll talk to him next hour here on AMERICAN MORNING -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Still to come this morning, allergy tests can be painful and time consuming. But now there may be a better way. We're "Paging Dr. Gupta" on that.
Also ahead, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens on a terrorist watch list and barred from the U.S. So why does he find the situation amusing?
And U.S. troops are on terrorists' trail. But are the Taliban making a comeback?
It's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Eighteen minutes past the hour.
In Afghanistan, they're getting ready for landmark national elections in early October, the first since the Taliban was taken out back in late 2001.
Insurgents, however, trying to disrupt that process. Already in the past week, President Karzai and one of his vice presidents survived assassination attempts.
Meanwhile, along the border with Pakistan, coalition forces now are on terrorists' trail, hunting for al Qaeda and Taliban suspects.
Afghanistan's foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, is in this country.
He's my guest now in Washington.
Sir, welcome to you and good morning.
ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, AFGHANISTAN'S FOREIGN MINISTER: Good morning.
HEMMER: Is the Taliban now making a comeback? Already this week two American forces killed in southeastern Afghanistan.
Is it a fact that the forces are back and fighting the U.S. and others?
ABDULLAH: I wouldn't call it comeback of Taliban. And there is no doubt that a few weeks from our first general elections, they will try to disrupt and create security incidents and there will be some increase in the security -- the number of security incidents. But this will not be a comeback of the Taliban.
Al Qaeda and Taliban (UNINTELLIGIBLE) al Qaeda and Taliban are involved and they are crossing the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan most of the time. And they are operating from the bases outside the country.
HEMMER: How many are you talking about there?
ABDULLAH: It is difficult to give you a number with any precision. But in these sort of operations, there are a number of small groups, groups of five to 10, who are operating in different parts of the country, mainly in southern Afghanistan.
HEMMER: Pakistan's leader, Pervez Musharraf, says, and quoting now: "Pakistan has led the way in this campaign against terrorism."
Are you getting the cooperation that you need from the east side of your border, in Pakistan?
ABDULLAH: Well, of course the recent operations in Pakistan's side against the bases of al Qaeda, it is a major contribution in the war against terror. And it will help Afghanistan. It has already helped Afghanistan a great deal.
In the visit, during the visit of President Karzai to New York, there was a meeting between President Musharraf and President Karzai. And security related issues were discussed and Pakistan gives us assurances of their continued cooperation in that field. HEMMER: You're about 16 or 17 days away from your elections. You had been backing the challenger to Hamid Karzai, a man by the name of Qanuni.
Are you still giving Qanuni your support or is there a deal in the works that will help coalesce the forces in your country to back Hamid Karzai?
ABDULLAH: No, I think the -- I will be supportive of the process, the democratic process, and there is no doubt that Mr. Qanuni announced himself as a candidate and I am working with him. And my point is that at this stage, at the end of the Bonn Agreement, it will be to the interests of the country to continue to work together and to move the process forward one step further. It is a major historical event and I think national unity and preserving national unity should be utmost in our minds.
HEMMER: Just to be clear, does that unity come together before the 9th of October or not?
ABDULLAH: That's my hope.
HEMMER: Abdullah Abdullah, good luck to you down in D.C.
ABDULLAH: Thank you.
HEMMER: All right -- Heidi.
ABDULLAH: Thanks.
COLLINS: And still to come this morning, it turns out getting a free car on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" wasn't all it was cracked up to be. We'll tell you about it ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Let's check in with Jack now and The Question of the Day. Not an easy question, is it?
CAFFERTY: No. There's probably not a single answer to this, but we're trying. We're talking about the problem of these beheadings that are going on in Iraq. Today is the deadline for a British hostage captured by the terrorist murdering thugs who are demanding the release of two women scientists, including this woman they call "Dr. Germ," the woman who was responsible for Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons development.
U.S. officials are denying reports that they're going to submit to the kidnappers' demands and release the two women.
The is what should be done about the beheadings of hostages in the Middle East? What's the right response?
Richard writes: "The first thing we should do is stop showing the pictures of the beheadings on television. These terrorists are counting on America's free press to get their message out and that's exactly what we do for them."
Lan in Miami: "Get out of that country. We're not wanted there. The resistance will fight until their last drop of blood, just like Vietnam."
Judith in New York: "When people don't have to work three jobs to make a living, people won't have to go to Iraq, where they risk beheading."
And Joe in Birmingham writes: "Ask Mr. Henley's wife, Jack. Put your father, brother or family members up there and then answer your own q."
I don't have the answer, partner.
COLLINS: Yes, really great topic there brought up by the first gentleman, Richard. You know, really tough to decide as a network how much you show, how much you don't show. A lot of discussion here about how to handle that.
CAFFERTY: Yes, well.
HEMMER: It's extraordinary, though, how they use technology, with the Internet how quickly they can get their message out.
CAFFERTY: And yet they have societies that are mired in the 14th century.
HEMMER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: So go figure.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: We want to lighten things up just a bit here.
Jay Leno making a few cracks about Cat Stevens. You know the run-in he had with the Feds over this past week, a flight that was rerouted. It landed up in the Northeast. He was taken off the plane and sent back to London.
Here's Jay on that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO," COURTESY NBC)
JAY LENO, HOST: Cat Stevens, who is also known as Yusuf Islam, he was denied access into the United States. They said he could not come to the United States and his flight was from London. It was diverted to Maine. Well, thank god he wasn't allowed in the United States. What, did we lose Bangor in a poker game or something? What happened? People in Maine, they're going hey, hey, we're in the Union.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Jay Leno from last night.
Asa Hutchinson is going to stop by in a little bit here and talk about that incident, too, what led to it and what's being done since then.
COLLINS: And how those lists work. Yes.
HEMMER: Yes. Very true.
In a moment here, also, a supposed strength for John Kerry starting to look a bit weaker. Political guru Bill Schneider looking at the poll numbers. We'll explain in a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Just about half past the 8:00 hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
So, is the presidential race tightening up?
Bill Schneider is going to be with us in just a few minutes to look at some new poll numbers that show the candidates getting closer together.
HEMMER: Also, what's up with Cat Stevens? His changed name is Yusuf Islam, appearing on the terror watch list. We'll talk to Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson about why this happened and how it happened.
And also this disturbing report today, CNN has it, the front page of "USA Today," also. About a year ago a number of explosives and firearms sneaked past security officers at 15 airports across the country.
COLLINS: Right.
HEMMER: Why did it happen and what's happening 12 months later to correct this?
So we'll get to that, also.
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Aired September 23, 2004 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The destructive force of hurricane Jeanne killing more than 1,000 people in Haiti. Now Jeanne is moving again, headed in the direction of Florida.
And Ivan, he is back for an encore, this time as the season's most unlikely tropical storm.
The prime minister of Iraq speaking to Congress in two hours. How will he address the turmoil in his country?
And hunting terrorists in southern Afghanistan -- are Taliban fighters now making a comeback? Answers on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
COLLINS: Good morning, everybody.
I'm Heidi Collins in for Soledad.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Bill Hemmer.
Good morning.
Welcome back to another hour here.
The commute looks pretty easy this morning out there on Sixth Avenue.
COLLINS: Yes, it does look easy.
HEMMER: Time to get to work.
Other headlines this hour, Iraq becoming the main focus in this campaign. Both sides hammering at one another on who has the better plan to restore order in that country. In a few minutes, we'll talk with General Wesley Clark, a John Kerry supporter; Republican Senator Norm Coleman our guest next hour. We'll get to both men today.
COLLINS: Also, we told you yesterday about singer Cat Stevens, now Yusuf Islam, being denied entry into the United States because his name is on a terror watch list. Well, this morning we'll get an explanation of why that happened from Asa Hutchinson of the Homeland Secretary Department.
HEMMER: All right, stay tuned for that and more. Jack Cafferty back again -- good morning.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Coming up in the "Cafferty File," we'll tell you about a cell phone that will let you know if you have bad breath. And we'll take you to the city and the country that has the best dressed cops anywhere, and yet there's another stupid study out about money.
Those are the items in the "File." You do want to set your VCR...
COLLINS: That was a fabulous tease.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
COLLINS: All right.
Good.
I'm looking forward to the cell phone thing.
Thanks so much, Jack.
We want to check on the stories now in the news, though, with Kelly Wallace once again this morning -- good morning, Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you all.
Good morning, everyone.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is making an historic visit to Capitol Hill this morning. About two hours from now, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi will address a joint meeting of Congress at the House chamber. He will then meet with President Bush at the Oval Office. CNN will have live coverage of Prime Minister Allawi's address to Congress at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
In the last half hour, we told you about an explosion heard near an Israeli settlement. Sources now tell CNN the blast was caused by the Israeli military blowing up an abandoned building used by Palestinian militants in Gaza City.
A new study shows incidents of planes flying too close are under reported. A study by the Department of Transportation found that 22 percent of the operational errors were reported by outside parties last year and not by air traffic controllers, as required. The Federal Aviation Administration admits it needs better oversight.
And authorities in Montana are calling it a miracle. Two U.S. Forest Service workers reported dead after a plane crash are now hospitalized and recovering. The pair was spotted along a highway yesterday, two days after their plane went down in the wilderness. Initially, all five people on board were believed to be dead. An incredible story. Some great news for their friends and families -- Bill. HEMMER: Indeed, it is.
Yes.
Kelly, thanks for that.
We want to get back to Ivan because Ivan is back. The Gulf Coast feeling the effects of the former hurricane again today. The coasts off of Texas and Louisiana getting another full hit later. The tropical storm, tropical storm now, not a hurricane, should not pack the punch like we saw last week along the Alabama coast. But some flooding and a lot of rain is expected, further east, though.
We'll check on Ivan's path with Chad in a moment.
But hurricane Jeanne also still a threat. That storm killed more than 1,000 people in Haiti. The number could go even higher.
CNN's Karl Penhaul reporting now from Haiti.
And he joins us by way of video phone -- Karl, hello.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Bill.
Well, behind us right now there is a small market here in one sector of Gonaives. That was the city hardest hit by the passage of tropical storm Jeanne. But things are far from normal right now. The food being sold here is inadequate for the hundred thousand population of the city. The aid effort is going under way, but things have been slow so far.
Now, to bring you up to date with those figures, we've been talking to the Haitian Department of Civil Protection this morning. They tell us that the total death toll confirmed so far is 1,151 so far. And numbers are expected to rise as the floodwaters recede.
We've been doing a tour of parts of Gonaives to see how some of the hardest hit sectors of the city have been faring.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
PENHAUL (voice-over): A Haitian woman wades through floodwaters after salvaging her last possessions. Teenager Lifedna Dorleans sits amid the wreckage of what was once her home, preparing a few scraps for dinner. She and her family were lucky to escape alive as tropical storm Jeanne churned up a sea of mud and rain. "We found a ladder and went up to a roof. We thought we were going to die," she says. "We stood there but couldn't stay because the water reached us. We jumped from one roof to another to escape," she says.
Many of her neighbors are still camping out on their roofs. Others try in vain to sweep out the tide of destruction.
It will take days yet for the city to dry out. And as it does, United Nations and Haitian officials say the corpses of more victims may emerge. Hundreds of dead so far discovered in Gonaives are hurriedly being buried in mass graves to avoid possible disease.
(on camera): The floodwaters are beginning to subside now. At one point residents say the water was above roof level. The main challenge now is getting emergency supplies to these people.
(voice-over): Some of these people say the emergency aid effort is slow and they've only had a few mouthfuls of clean drinking water since the storm struck. That desperation was clear when volunteers began distributing soft drinks donated by local Haitian businessmen. After the storm, these people must survive chaos and even fighting if they hope to get enough to eat and drink to make it through the next few days.
Ask Lifedna Dorleans what promise the future holds for her and thousands of other poor Haitians hit by this disaster? "Misery," she says.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
PENHAUL: Now, we expect in the course of the day, the authorities will continue to dig mass graves and dispose of some of those bodies to stop what they fear could be the possibility of epidemics. Also, it's very clear touring through Gonaives that there are many bodies still lying around, both on open ground and inside some of the buildings -- Bill.
HEMMER: What a devastating storm that is.
Karl Penhaul, video phone in Haiti.
Back to Chad on this and Jeanne perhaps headed for Florida -- Chad.
What's your map tell you?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely. Now, the new Hurricane Center forecast takes it right over Cape Canaveral on Sunday. Now, you know that that line always changes to the left or to the right. But this is Jeanne here. It started over St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, went over Puerto Rico and then kind of drove itself over the Dominican Republic and then over Haiti.
It tried to go to the north, was pushed back down south by a high pressure center here and now it's going to be traveling back off toward the west, the way they usually move from east to west. And it's going to be making a run at Florida on Sunday. It could be early in the day on Sunday if it's south Florida. It could even be late in the day on Monday or Tuesday if it turns hard enough to get on up toward Cape Fear. We'll have to keep watching.
It's one of those big right turners. It's going to be hard to know when that right turn happens. We're going to have to just keep watching it as it trends.
As it gets closer and closer to Florida, they're going to get more and more nervous. Then all of a sudden it's going to make that right turn. We'll see when it does that.
There you go. This is Ivan. Tropical storm Ivan still won't go away. The entire system here went offshore in the Atlantic, back down south, across Florida two days ago, and now it's making rainfall from Baton Rouge in New Orleans back over to about New Iberia.
There is the rain with Ivan. It is only a T.S., but now 45 miles per hour. More of a rain maker than anything else.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: Wow, though. For those people down in Florida and that area, just unbelievable once again.
MYERS: Yes, I know.
COLLINS: All right, Chad, thanks so much.
We'll check back a little bit later on.
In the meantime, one week before the first presidential debate, the political temperature rising higher and higher. And whether it's the heated attacks or just the tough campaign schedule, John Kerry needs a break today.
Bob Franken is covering the Kerry campaign in Columbus this morning.
He joins us now.
Good morning to you, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's see, it's Thursday, it must be Ohio. Of course, the candidates have been here an awful lot, this being such a battleground state. But John Kerry has cut back his schedule. He has to skip Iowa. He's got really a bad case of laryngitis from his speaking yesterday. So he was speaking softly, but still carrying a big schtick.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
FRANKEN (voice-over): He's had his run of the television shows, but John Kerry was still tossing out the one liners.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yesterday I was in Orlando right next to Fantasy Land. And the difference between George Bush and me is I drove by it, he lives in it.
FRANKEN: Notice Kerry's voice is almost gone. In fact, he'll be scaling back today. But he's certainly not getting any sympathy from the president, who is staying right on message.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Incredibly this week, my opponent said he would prefer the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to the situation in Iraq today. That's not the first time he's changed positions. FRANKEN: And just in case the number ones didn't get their message across, the number twos were continental ready to chime in.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: John Kerry gives every indication that his repeated efforts to cast and recast and redefine the war on terror and our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan of someone who lacks the resolve, the determination and the conviction to prevail in this conflict.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Dick Cheney is, on so many things, is dead wrong. I mean the problem, of course, is that John Kerry and I will be aggressive.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
FRANKEN: Both candidates are campaigning aggressively, campaigning probably more described in a more appropriate way as bickering in a campaign that is becoming really a competition of insults -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Boy, bickering is right.
How often do you think it is then, Bob, that the message gets lost in all that, people just tune out and say, you know, I don't want to hear that any more?
FRANKEN: Well, that's always been a theory. That's one of the theories about negative campaigning, that it turns people off. But I think that there is a belief on both sides that there are such strongly held opinions here, that people are so revved up that the way to keep them revved up is to make sure you put down the competition.
This is really a battle between who the people are more against than who they're for, in the minds of many.
COLLINS: All right, Bob Franken coming to us from Columbus this morning.
Bob, thanks so much.
HEMMER: Let's talk more politics now.
General Wesley Clark is in the Kerry campaign.
The former Democratic presidential candidate my guest here in New York.
And good morning.
Good to see you in person again.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good to see you, Bill.
HEMMER: Senator Kerry suggested this week that the draft would be reinstated, possibly, if George Bush wins a second term. On what does he base that statement?
CLARK: Well, there's no telling what's going to happen in terms of manpower requirements if we continue the course we're on in Iraq. And we've got a family military, especially the Guard and Reserve. These people have been ripped out of their homes and communities and jobs for unanticipated periods.
You know, I was talking to a man in the private sector yesterday who was telling me, you know -- and he's in the financial community. Well, if somebody goes and they're gone for six months, we'll hold their job for them, he says. But if they're gone for a year or 18 months, he says there's no way that our firm could keep people's jobs for them. And this is exactly what's happening.
HEMMER: You're a military man.
Do you agree with what John Kerry said, then? Do you believe the draft will come back in 2005, 2006?
CLARK: Well, I think that we've got another set of rotations or so that we can extend the volunteer force. But by the time that people are going back on their fourth tours, and if the rate of casualties continues as it is and the families are exacerbated the way they are, we'll have gone to the well too -- once too often with these men and women and their families and kids. It's just too much.
HEMMER: On Monday, John Kerry came out with his four point plan for Iraq. And one of the key issues was the election that we will hear later today from Ayad Allawi, still planned for January. We'll see if that holds. But one of the other points, though, is to get NATO involved in training Iraqis to defend their own country. NATO reached agreement yesterday on this. It will happen again. And now the Bush administration moving forward, seemingly, on this agenda.
If that's the case, is the argument being stolen away from John Kerry?
CLARK: Not at all. I mean John and I and a lot of other people have called for NATO involvement from the very beginning. What's happened is that the Bush administration has been very, very slow and ineffective to use the full tools of American statecraft -- diplomacy, economic power, work with allies -- to bring to bear the means for success in Iraq.
Think of it this way, Bill. You cannot just kill people on the ground in Iraq because they don't like Americans. And the military would be the first ones to tell you. Our men and women in Iraq fighting are doing a great job. But there's two other parts of the problem that the Bush administration just hasn't worked effectively.
One thing you have to do is you have to persuade the nations around Iraq, who are feeding and fueling and incentivizing the conflict, to turn it off. You've got to persuade Iran and Syria, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, that a stable, peaceful, democratizing Iraq is in their interests. Right now it isn't because some of these countries feel like as soon as the United States succeeds in Iraq, we're moving on to them.
HEMMER: I mentioned Ayad Allawi. We will hear him address Congress in about two hours from now on Capitol Hill.
Can you not point to some successes on the ground in Iraq? Can you not say that there has been progress in certain areas? Because apparently he will relay that message to members of Congress today and the American people.
CLARK: Well, I hope there's been some progress on the ground in Iraq in some places. But there's also been some...
HEMMER: Are you saying there has not?
CLARK: ... deterioration on the ground in Iraq in some places. We've got some huge challenges over there.
What hasn't been done effectively by the administration is not only the diplomacy around Iraq, but to put in place a political process inside Iraq that can convince every faction and grouping in Iraq that they're better off served by participating in a political process than by standing outside of it and using force.
That just, it hasn't been effective. It wasn't effective when Paul Bremer was there and it still is not effective. Muqtada al-Sadr has found that he gets more political power from opposing the Americans with force than withdrawing and he beefs up his forces. We've got to break that cycle.
HEMMER: Thank you, General.
Wesley Clark here.
Next hour, we'll get the other side. My guest will be Republican Senator Norm Coleman out of Minnesota. We'll talk to him next hour here on AMERICAN MORNING -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Still to come this morning, allergy tests can be painful and time consuming. But now there may be a better way. We're "Paging Dr. Gupta" on that.
Also ahead, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens on a terrorist watch list and barred from the U.S. So why does he find the situation amusing?
And U.S. troops are on terrorists' trail. But are the Taliban making a comeback?
It's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Eighteen minutes past the hour.
In Afghanistan, they're getting ready for landmark national elections in early October, the first since the Taliban was taken out back in late 2001.
Insurgents, however, trying to disrupt that process. Already in the past week, President Karzai and one of his vice presidents survived assassination attempts.
Meanwhile, along the border with Pakistan, coalition forces now are on terrorists' trail, hunting for al Qaeda and Taliban suspects.
Afghanistan's foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, is in this country.
He's my guest now in Washington.
Sir, welcome to you and good morning.
ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, AFGHANISTAN'S FOREIGN MINISTER: Good morning.
HEMMER: Is the Taliban now making a comeback? Already this week two American forces killed in southeastern Afghanistan.
Is it a fact that the forces are back and fighting the U.S. and others?
ABDULLAH: I wouldn't call it comeback of Taliban. And there is no doubt that a few weeks from our first general elections, they will try to disrupt and create security incidents and there will be some increase in the security -- the number of security incidents. But this will not be a comeback of the Taliban.
Al Qaeda and Taliban (UNINTELLIGIBLE) al Qaeda and Taliban are involved and they are crossing the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan most of the time. And they are operating from the bases outside the country.
HEMMER: How many are you talking about there?
ABDULLAH: It is difficult to give you a number with any precision. But in these sort of operations, there are a number of small groups, groups of five to 10, who are operating in different parts of the country, mainly in southern Afghanistan.
HEMMER: Pakistan's leader, Pervez Musharraf, says, and quoting now: "Pakistan has led the way in this campaign against terrorism."
Are you getting the cooperation that you need from the east side of your border, in Pakistan?
ABDULLAH: Well, of course the recent operations in Pakistan's side against the bases of al Qaeda, it is a major contribution in the war against terror. And it will help Afghanistan. It has already helped Afghanistan a great deal.
In the visit, during the visit of President Karzai to New York, there was a meeting between President Musharraf and President Karzai. And security related issues were discussed and Pakistan gives us assurances of their continued cooperation in that field. HEMMER: You're about 16 or 17 days away from your elections. You had been backing the challenger to Hamid Karzai, a man by the name of Qanuni.
Are you still giving Qanuni your support or is there a deal in the works that will help coalesce the forces in your country to back Hamid Karzai?
ABDULLAH: No, I think the -- I will be supportive of the process, the democratic process, and there is no doubt that Mr. Qanuni announced himself as a candidate and I am working with him. And my point is that at this stage, at the end of the Bonn Agreement, it will be to the interests of the country to continue to work together and to move the process forward one step further. It is a major historical event and I think national unity and preserving national unity should be utmost in our minds.
HEMMER: Just to be clear, does that unity come together before the 9th of October or not?
ABDULLAH: That's my hope.
HEMMER: Abdullah Abdullah, good luck to you down in D.C.
ABDULLAH: Thank you.
HEMMER: All right -- Heidi.
ABDULLAH: Thanks.
COLLINS: And still to come this morning, it turns out getting a free car on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" wasn't all it was cracked up to be. We'll tell you about it ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Let's check in with Jack now and The Question of the Day. Not an easy question, is it?
CAFFERTY: No. There's probably not a single answer to this, but we're trying. We're talking about the problem of these beheadings that are going on in Iraq. Today is the deadline for a British hostage captured by the terrorist murdering thugs who are demanding the release of two women scientists, including this woman they call "Dr. Germ," the woman who was responsible for Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons development.
U.S. officials are denying reports that they're going to submit to the kidnappers' demands and release the two women.
The is what should be done about the beheadings of hostages in the Middle East? What's the right response?
Richard writes: "The first thing we should do is stop showing the pictures of the beheadings on television. These terrorists are counting on America's free press to get their message out and that's exactly what we do for them."
Lan in Miami: "Get out of that country. We're not wanted there. The resistance will fight until their last drop of blood, just like Vietnam."
Judith in New York: "When people don't have to work three jobs to make a living, people won't have to go to Iraq, where they risk beheading."
And Joe in Birmingham writes: "Ask Mr. Henley's wife, Jack. Put your father, brother or family members up there and then answer your own q."
I don't have the answer, partner.
COLLINS: Yes, really great topic there brought up by the first gentleman, Richard. You know, really tough to decide as a network how much you show, how much you don't show. A lot of discussion here about how to handle that.
CAFFERTY: Yes, well.
HEMMER: It's extraordinary, though, how they use technology, with the Internet how quickly they can get their message out.
CAFFERTY: And yet they have societies that are mired in the 14th century.
HEMMER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: So go figure.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: We want to lighten things up just a bit here.
Jay Leno making a few cracks about Cat Stevens. You know the run-in he had with the Feds over this past week, a flight that was rerouted. It landed up in the Northeast. He was taken off the plane and sent back to London.
Here's Jay on that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO," COURTESY NBC)
JAY LENO, HOST: Cat Stevens, who is also known as Yusuf Islam, he was denied access into the United States. They said he could not come to the United States and his flight was from London. It was diverted to Maine. Well, thank god he wasn't allowed in the United States. What, did we lose Bangor in a poker game or something? What happened? People in Maine, they're going hey, hey, we're in the Union.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Jay Leno from last night.
Asa Hutchinson is going to stop by in a little bit here and talk about that incident, too, what led to it and what's being done since then.
COLLINS: And how those lists work. Yes.
HEMMER: Yes. Very true.
In a moment here, also, a supposed strength for John Kerry starting to look a bit weaker. Political guru Bill Schneider looking at the poll numbers. We'll explain in a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Just about half past the 8:00 hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
So, is the presidential race tightening up?
Bill Schneider is going to be with us in just a few minutes to look at some new poll numbers that show the candidates getting closer together.
HEMMER: Also, what's up with Cat Stevens? His changed name is Yusuf Islam, appearing on the terror watch list. We'll talk to Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson about why this happened and how it happened.
And also this disturbing report today, CNN has it, the front page of "USA Today," also. About a year ago a number of explosives and firearms sneaked past security officers at 15 airports across the country.
COLLINS: Right.
HEMMER: Why did it happen and what's happening 12 months later to correct this?
So we'll get to that, also.
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