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American Morning
Marines Move To Four Locations Near Falluja; Mia Farrow Visits the Sudan for UNICEF; Interview With Paula Radcliffe; "90-Second Pop"
Aired November 08, 2004 - 09:28 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. Almost 9:30 here in New York. Kelly Wallace working for Soledad today. Good to have you back with us today.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good to be here.
HEMMER: We are waiting again -- waiting for the word in Falluja, keeping a very close eye on what's happening there in and around the town. Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi forces now getting ready to go into the city and take it back from the insurgents.
Jane Arraf is there. Karl Penhaul is there. We'll talk to Jane in a moment, try and figure out now with nightfall, as the day is closing there, with the darkness there, whether it is imminent or not.
WALLACE: And it'll be interesting to see.
Also, Bill, actress Mia Farrow is trying to bring more attention to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. She and her son travelling through the country with UNICEF. We will ask them what they've learned so far about the catastrophic suffering there.
HEMMER: All right.
WALLACE: All right. And Daryn -- we're going to go to Daryn Kagan at the CNN Center in Atlanta for a check of what's in the news now -- Daryn?
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I think we're going to do -- all right. We'll get to the opening bell on that stock market in just a bit. Right now, let's check out a few headlines.
Four top Palestinian officials are heading to France. They are going to visit Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The high-level delegation left Ramallah just over an hour ago. The trip had been postponed for a while following some comments from Arafat's wife. She claims the officials are trying to grab power from her husband.
Here in the U.S., the case of John Hinckley Jr. is back before a federal judge this hour. Hinckley is in a psychiatric hospital for the attempted assassination of former President Reagan. His lawyers are now asking Hinckley be granted longer, unsupervised visits at his parents' home. Government attorneys oppose that request.
And it's a public goodbye from New Jersey Governor James McGreevey. He will address -- he'll give his farewell address in Trenton, New Jersey, in just a few hours. McGreevey officially steps down next week. His term was cut short last August by revelations he had an extra marital affair with a man. It's not clear whether McGreevey's wife will be present during today's speech.
Kelly, back to you in New York.
WALLACE: All right, Daryn. We're figuring things out on this end. What's ahead, though, for you at 10:00 a.m.?
KAGAN: We are going to be following -- of course, waiting to see what the latest is in the Peterson verdict, also the latest from Paris with Yasser Arafat. And of course, we will not leave the situation in Falluja. Back to you.
WALLACE: All right. Daryn, we'll be watching. Thanks so much -- Bill?
HEMMER: On the topic of Falluja, want to get straight away to Baghdad and Nic Robertson, who is making a lot of phone calls, talking to people on the ground there. Nic joins us live now. Nic, what do you have?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, it seems that the countdown is on for that advance into Falluja. It is half an hour before the curfew is due to go into place. The prime minister, Ayad Allawi, using his new emergency measures, called that just a few hours ago.
He said that the curfews would stay in place on Falluja until such time as the areas were cleaned out, as he said, of the terrorists. Then, that curfew would be lifted area by area in Falluja. And that, as we understand, is the way the multi-national forces, a coalition backed up by those Iraqi troops, will go into Falluja.
It hasn't started yet to the best of our knowledge. There was an intense firefight to the west of the city, close to the city's hospital earlier in the day, but that advance into the city hasn't happened. But the curfew does seem to set the stage for that at this time. And of course, Allawi, as well, using those powers to close the roads around Falluja, to close the borders with Syria and Jordan, to close Baghdad's International Airport -- all these said designed to catch those foreign fighters who might try and escape -- Bill?
HEMMER: Nic, when he talks about closing the borders, be it with Jordan in the west or Syria in the northwest, this is a huge amount of area in the open desert. Is that to be taken literally when they close the borders?
ROBERTSON: That's what has given us to understand. He said the border checkpoints -- and there are, perhaps, half a dozen major checkpoints or border crossings along the Jordanian/Syrian segment of Iraq's border -- that only food trucks will be allowed to pass through there.
This is part of the emergency procedures that the government has announced here. If gives the prime minister a lot more authority to change transportation, to change -- to impose travel restrictions, to impose communications restrictions, to do things like closing Baghdad International Airport. And really, within 24 hours of having announced the government had those powers, announcing that the prime minister had those powers, he has already put him into effect, Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Nic, thanks. Nic Robertson in Baghdad. 5:30 in the evening there in Iraq. Nic, thanks.
Back to Kelly now.
WALLACE: Thanks, Bill.
Actress Mia Farrow, a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, is getting a first-hand look at the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. She's visiting the war-ravaged Darfur region of western Sudan, trying to focus attention on the plight of refugees there. Farrow is in the region, along with her 16-year-old son Seamus.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
Mia Farrow, let me begin with you. Why it was it important for you to go to the region, the Darfur region of Sudan?
MIA FARROW, ACTRESS/UNICEF GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: Well, as a mother and as a woman, as a human being and as a UNICEF ambassador. I mean, when I started hearing reports about what was going on in this region, I think a lot of us got very worried, very concerned. And so, when UNICEF asked me to go, I jumped at the chance.
WALLACE: You have been touring the region over the past several days -- in particular, meeting with women and children in refugee camps. Describe what you have been seeing and what you've heard.
M. FARROW: Well, we've toured two camps, massive camps. Today, a camp of 70,000-plus IDPs, internally displaced persons, and yesterday, another camp of about half that amount of people.
I think that the chief concern and the overwhelming concern is the security. The women depend on firewood to cook with, and they trade among themselves. Firewood is kind of a currency, but more important is to cook their meals.
And to get the firewood, they have to leave the camp. And they've been in the camp for many, many months. So, they have to walk six, eight hours to get firewood and return. And the situation around the camps, it's not at all secure for them. And there are rapes ongoing on a daily basis. And so, they're terrified to leave the camp.
WALLACE: Seamus, let me ask you, you have been with your mom on other UNICEF trips...
SEAMUS FARROW, MIA FARROW'S SON: I have, yeah.
WALLACE: ... what stands out in your mind specifically about this trip now?
S. FARROW: Talking to the young people, the extent of the security problem, that especially -- I mean, she described the dilemma for the women. The cultural expectation is that while the women go out and collect the wood, the men stay in the camps and the villages and tend to the farmlands. They pursue their commercial careers. None of that -- all that's come to a halt here.
So, we have men who are -- you know, even people my age, I'm talking to 16, 17, 18-year-olds who are just stagnating. They can't do anything. There is no higher education available in the camps. Past a certain point, we see men just lying in the sun while the women in the camps are forced to go out and be raped. It's a horrible decision that they have to take.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: Actress Mia Farrow and her son Seamus talking with us earlier from Sudan -- Bill?
HEMMER: Kelly, thanks.
Twenty-five minutes before the hour. Mount St. Helens continues to take on new formations. Over the weekend, inside the crater, the volcano's lava dome has sprouted a new extension the size of a three- story building. That new formation can be seen glowing at night with temperatures as high as 1,200 degrees. Mount St. Helens last erupted back in 1980, but rumbled back to life in late September. Keep a close eye on that one.
Back to the weather and Chad Myers, again. Hey, Chad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: Thanks, Chad.
We certainly had good weather yesterday in New York City as more than 30,000 runners took part in the annual New York City Marathon this weekend. In the end, it was South Africa's Hendrik Ramaala who won the men's race in just two hours, nine minutes, and 28 seconds. Britain's world record holder Paula Radcliffe won the woman's race. She did it two hours, 23 minutes, and seven seconds, narrowing elbowing out the second-place finisher.
We had the pleasure of speaking with her earlier here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
You look very relaxed after running a marathon from yesterday.
PAULA RADCLIFFE, 2004 NYC MARATHON WINNER: Thank you. No, I'm recovering. I'm on holiday now.
WALLACE: I want some of our viewers who might not know, this was the tightest finish in the New York City Marathon history. There you are, the final few miles, going neck and neck with Susan Chepkemei -- I believe it is.
What is going through your mind as you guys are neck and neck, elbow to elbow over those final miles?
RADCLIFFE: Well, I've raced Susan for a long time. We've probably raced each other for more than 10 years, so we know quite a lot about each other. And I was pretty confident that I could win in a sprint finish.
So, I was really just trying to gauge my finish. And I'd run the closing stages quite a few times over the last couple days, so I knew that when I got to the crest of the hill, there was round about 100 meters to go.
WALLACE: So, your finish -- two hours, 23 minutes. How important was this finish for you and this victory after what happens in Athens? Our viewers might not know you had to pull out a few miles before the end of the marathon at the Summer Olympic Games. And then, you tried to do the 10,000 meters, you had to pull out -- shots of you in tears because of this.
How important was this victory after your disappointment in Athens?
RADCLIFFE: Well, it was important after the disappointment, because that was a terrible time. But I've put it behind me, and I've moved on from there. And the victory here in New York was special in its own right, regardless of what happened at the Olympics, because it's a great marathon. It's a great city. And it was really important to me to come here and to win the marathon here.
WALLACE: I understand you only decided a couple of weeks ago that you, in fact, felt ready and physically ready to run the marathon. Is that true?
RADCLIFFE: Yes, that's true. It took me a while to recover from the trauma of the Olympics. And I had an injury before, I had a lot of stomach problems there. So, it took a long time for my body to recover. And when it did and I thought about running races, I just thought about coming to New York. And so, I spoke to the organizers to see if I could come.
WALLACE: So many people talk about the New York City Marathon, running through the five boroughs, thousands and thousands of New Yorkers cheering you on at every part of this city. What is that like, and what is it like when you cross that finish line as the number one woman competitor?
RADCLIFFE: It's an amazing atmosphere. As you go through each of the boroughs, you can really tell the difference between the boroughs, and they all have got so much -- they're out there for so long, because if you think the lead women go there and then maybe 45 minutes later the lead men, and then the others runners are coming through for so lone. And those guys are out there on the street really supporting everyone. So, thank you very much. It really, really helps. And just to cross the finish line -- as you come into Central Park, the crowds are getting thicker and thicker. And then, you come up through toward Tavern on the Green and the stands are out of sight and the noise is just amazing. And you just -- you can see the finish line, and you just want to get across it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: A great day for Paula Radcliffe.
We also want to mention our senior broadcast producer Ted Fine (ph) -- he finished the race yesterday in just under four hours. Congratulations, Ted. We hope you're recovering back at home -- Bill?
HEMMER: We know he's sleeping, right?
WALLACE: Yeah, I bet he is.
HEMMER: He's not here today. Well done, Ted.
A bizarre scene in south Florida over the weekend to an 80-year- old woman crashed her car into a neighbor's swimming pool. The driver mistakenly hit the gas instead of the breaks when her tire got stuck in a storm drain. A Florida State Trooper who lives in the neighborhood ran to the woman's rescue and pulled her to safety. And luckily, no injuries. That story out of Florida, Kelly.
WALLACE: All right, Bill.
Still to come, a band of superheroes saves Wall Street. Andy Serwer will tell us what has one stock so animated.
And the "Big, Fat, Obnoxious Boss" is making a dozen MBAs sweat. And after all that, he's not even going to give then a job. "90- Second Pop" is just ahead. Stay with us right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Time to wake up on a Monday morning, "90-Second Pop" here. Andy Borowitz, chairman of the board at borowitzreport.com. Sarah Bernard, chairwoman of the board at "New York" magazine.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: All right! I like that.
HEMMER: And just flat out plain Toure, whose hair gets taller by the day.
TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.
HEMMER: Good morning, by the way.
BERNARD: Good morning.
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: Good morning.
HEMMER: Did you see "My Big, Fat, Obnoxious Boss" last night?
BERNARD: I did see it.
HEMMER: And?
BERNARD: I had low expectations, and I thought it was hilarious, honestly. It's the same producers of "My Big, Fat, Obnoxious Fiance," as you might remember. And this really is a goof on the 12 contestants. They are all MBAs who are competing for 250 grand. That is actually real. But they're being put through their paces by a guy who is supposed to be a billionaire. He's actually an actor, William August, who was a very convincing obnoxious boss.
HEMMER: Those crazy Hollywood producers. Why were your expectations so low?
BERNARD: Well, I actually really didn't think that the obnoxious fiance was so funny. And it's kind of like this show to "The Apprentice" was "Joe Millionaire" to "The Bachelor." It was sort of a rip-off.
TOURE: Do they actually get money if they win?
BERNARD: They do actually win.
TOURE: They do?
BERNARD: Right. They do actually get the money. So, it's not all for nothing. But they are humiliated in the process. They are told that they are -- their first task is actually to pretend they're homeless and beg on the street. They're being fed all of this fancy food. They're talking about how wonderful it is, and it's actually spam and, you know, fake cheese.
TOURE: Oh!
BERNARD: So, the whole thing is a joke. But it's really a joke on Donald Trump, and that's where the humor is. There are boardroom scenes when he's sort of grilling the contestants. It's so transparent about how he just has nonsensical questions. It's great.
BOROWITZ: Well, I just have one question. These are all supposed to be, like, Ivy League grads. But I just have one word for them: Google. I mean...
BERNARD: Why didn't they know?
BOROWITZ: And this guy is, like...
TOURE: Yes.
BOROWITZ: How did that not happen? TOURE: Right.
BOROWITZ: I mean, yeah, it's like you meet someone on the street you Google them.
TOURE: Right. You're a real MBA, and you don't do any research to figure out who this guy is? That always throws me.
BERNARD: That's a good point.
HEMMER: Well, in a word, success or not for this show?
BERNARD: I think a success.
HEMMER: OK. All right.
BERNARD: We'll see next week.
HEMMER: Next topic, what do we got for you, Andy, today? Late, late, late, late comedy stuff.
BOROWITZ: Right.
HEMMER: We have four guys in competition to take over this job. Take us through it.
BOROWITZ: Well, it's CBS. You know, they're still looking for the replacement for Craig Kilborn. And they're bringing back a couple of these guys for sort of more extended tryouts, like D.L. Hughley, Michael Ian Black.
So, CBS says they found four people who could host "The Late Late Show." The real challenge will be to find four people who watch "The Late Late Show." I think that should be next.
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE: You (INAUDIBLE), right? That would be cool.
BOROWITZ: It's a little late for me. I have to get up early for this thing. But you know, what I think is hilarious is that they're trying to create all of this drama, like America wants to know who is going to take over the show. This is like choosing somebody to water your plants. I mean, who is watching...
BERNARD: Who can do it?
BOROWITZ: Who is watching this program?
HEMMER: Hey, thanks. Happy Monday. See you later.
BERNARD: Happy Monday.
HEMMER: See you later. Here is Kelly again -- Kelly.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WALLACE: Thanks, Bill.
Still to some, Andy Serwer with a stock that is hoping to enjoy an incredible performance. Stay with us right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: "The Incredibles" hit it big at the weekend box office. So, what does it all mean for investors in Pixar? Andy Serwer has a check on that and the markets. He's "Minding Your Business." Good day for the markets.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yeah, it is. It's actually starting off to be a good day, Kelly. Let's check it out. It was down this morning a little bit, but now we're up seven.
And "The Incredibles" was "incredibles" at the box office -- $70 million, second biggest animation open ever after "Shrek 2," which did $108 million. But this thing -- and all the kids are talking about it, believe me, because they were all at my house this weekend and "Have you seen it," and "It's great," and "it's amazing."
And the stock -- actually it's interesting, this morning. It's trading down a little bit. This is one of these classic buy on the rumors, sell on the news. It's down about four bucks. But it went up about six later in the week -- last week as news and buzz of this movie came out. And you can see the Pixar chart is just incredible and -- incredible, get it?
Steve Jobs -- I've talked about him a lot this year, but he -- you know, as the CEO of both Pixar and Apple Computer, and both of these stocks are just amazing. And he's recovering from pancreatic cancer, and I think -- there's Apple. There's one word -- iPod -- iPod. This guy, in my mind, businessman of the year. I mean, the CEO of two companies that have just roared ahead. Pixar has not never had a flop, and I don't know how they do it.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: They're doing better than Time Warner, I think.
SERWER: You know, I didn't do a direct comparison, but somehow I suspect.
WALLACE: Time Warner's not quite going that way.
CAFFERTY: I looked at the stock chart.
SERWER: You did?
CAFFERTY: Yeah, it goes like this -- 90 down to, what is it, 17 now? Something like that?
SERWER: Yeah, 16 and change.
CAFFERTY: Yeah, so they're doing better. SERWER: They are doing -- you're right. Good point.
HEMMER: Thanks, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
HEMMER: Back to the Question of the Day.
CAFFERTY: Further endear me to the management.
SERWER: There it goes again.
CAFFERTY: Question of the Day is: How far will the president go to repay his debt to conservatives who voted in large numbers to winning a second term in the White House?
Jim writes from Framingham, Massachusetts: "Fear not. He will give the evangelists less than they demand and more than the rest of us can tolerate."
Laura in Pine Bush, New York: "Once again, we have media presuming that a 'debt exists. All Mr. bush has to do is continue his decisive leadership of the past four years."
And Galen in King George, Virginia: "I understand some Democrats are so upset with the election results they want to leave the United States. Where can I send money to help pay for their one-way airfare?"
So, the country may still be a little divided based on that last thing.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
Just getting word now out of Falluja, breaking news in fact outside of that town. CNN confirming now that Marines have moved to four locations on the outskirts of Falluja. Not a lot of information after that, but with two embedded reporters for CNN -- Jane Arraf and Karl Penhaul -- we can get up-to-date information on what's happening.
We do know thousands of U.S. Marines, U.S. soldiers, and also Iraqi forces, too, amassed on the outskirts of Falluja. It is nightfall, almost 6:00 in the evening there in Iraq. And as soon as we get more on what's happening with this Marine movement, we'll bring it to you. Daryn and Rick have more on it next hour.
They're also going to talk next hour about President Bush, back at the White House today after a weekend at Camp David. A live report on what's happening there today. Again, Daryn and Rick have that next hour. We're back in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Before we get out of here, we want to take you back to Iraq right now, let you know what we're finding out here at CNN. U.S. Marines apparently moving forward to positions around the town of Falluja. The indications we're given right now is that there are four different areas on the outskirts of the town where U.S. Marines have now moved. That is, essentially, the information we have now with darkness now in central Iraq.
And we've been talking for days now about the assault, Kelly, that could happen at any time. The indications are now that it could be happening some time very, very soon.
WALLACE: Exactly. We've been talking all weekend about when it could come. Obviously, now, sundown there in Iraq. And obviously, this is a key moment for the U.S. forces, especially as they try to deal with this before the elections in January.
CAFFERTY: When darkness falls, advantage America. They've got all that night vision equipment. Yeah. And so, it makes sense for them to go in, I guess, at night.
WALLACE: That's clearly part of the American strategy here, too. It appears to be a quick, fast, big deployment of forces to try and send a message to other insurgents in other parts of the country.
HEMMER: We heard over the weekend that speed is on their side, if they can take advantage of that speed, based on the strategy they have it laid out. But commanders warn us, and our own military analysts say it could be a battle that goes five days or five weeks. No one knows.
CAFFERTY: And this is only a theory and it's based on nothing expect my own intuition, but this should have happened six months ago, could have happened six months ago if we weren't having an election in the United States. American kids are going to get killed in this fight. They didn't want that all over the newspapers going into the election. In the meantime, do you give guys like Zarqawi a chance to get out of town along with his henchmen by delaying an invasion that could have happened last summer?
HEMMER: The other thing we found over the weekend, they've taken this hospital, which is west of the river, the Euphrates, in Falluja. They have taken over two bridges, too, which is right near this hospital location. One of the bridges is where the corpses of the four American contractors were hung last spring.
SERWER: Oh, that's right. Those horrible images, right?
HEMMER: Now, if there is a silver lining in all of this, based on the relationship the U.S. forces are building up now with Ayad Allawi, perhaps over the past six months those relationships have been more solidified than they were back in the springtime when they sent that new brigade, head up by Iraqis, into town. And they failed, and we saw that over the summer.
WALLACE: Right. And there was a lot of question about how trained these Iraqi forces were, how much more trained they are right now, what role the Iraqi forces will play. But we are talking about urban warfare. We could be talking street-to-street, house-to-house if it gets to that. So...
HEMMER: Now we all await now.
WALLACE: Wait and watch.
HEMMER: 6:00 in Baghdad, 6:00 in Falluja. We've got to run. 10:00 here in the morning in New York City. Back to Daryn and Rick now as we say good morning to you.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And you know, guys, whatever happens in the next couple of hours, we're going to have it covered for you here. We have people in places, and we're trying to also hook up with some military analysts, trying to break some of what's going on down for you.
KAGAN: We have a lot of news, as well. Let's start with some headlines.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 8, 2004 - 09:28 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. Almost 9:30 here in New York. Kelly Wallace working for Soledad today. Good to have you back with us today.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good to be here.
HEMMER: We are waiting again -- waiting for the word in Falluja, keeping a very close eye on what's happening there in and around the town. Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi forces now getting ready to go into the city and take it back from the insurgents.
Jane Arraf is there. Karl Penhaul is there. We'll talk to Jane in a moment, try and figure out now with nightfall, as the day is closing there, with the darkness there, whether it is imminent or not.
WALLACE: And it'll be interesting to see.
Also, Bill, actress Mia Farrow is trying to bring more attention to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. She and her son travelling through the country with UNICEF. We will ask them what they've learned so far about the catastrophic suffering there.
HEMMER: All right.
WALLACE: All right. And Daryn -- we're going to go to Daryn Kagan at the CNN Center in Atlanta for a check of what's in the news now -- Daryn?
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I think we're going to do -- all right. We'll get to the opening bell on that stock market in just a bit. Right now, let's check out a few headlines.
Four top Palestinian officials are heading to France. They are going to visit Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The high-level delegation left Ramallah just over an hour ago. The trip had been postponed for a while following some comments from Arafat's wife. She claims the officials are trying to grab power from her husband.
Here in the U.S., the case of John Hinckley Jr. is back before a federal judge this hour. Hinckley is in a psychiatric hospital for the attempted assassination of former President Reagan. His lawyers are now asking Hinckley be granted longer, unsupervised visits at his parents' home. Government attorneys oppose that request.
And it's a public goodbye from New Jersey Governor James McGreevey. He will address -- he'll give his farewell address in Trenton, New Jersey, in just a few hours. McGreevey officially steps down next week. His term was cut short last August by revelations he had an extra marital affair with a man. It's not clear whether McGreevey's wife will be present during today's speech.
Kelly, back to you in New York.
WALLACE: All right, Daryn. We're figuring things out on this end. What's ahead, though, for you at 10:00 a.m.?
KAGAN: We are going to be following -- of course, waiting to see what the latest is in the Peterson verdict, also the latest from Paris with Yasser Arafat. And of course, we will not leave the situation in Falluja. Back to you.
WALLACE: All right. Daryn, we'll be watching. Thanks so much -- Bill?
HEMMER: On the topic of Falluja, want to get straight away to Baghdad and Nic Robertson, who is making a lot of phone calls, talking to people on the ground there. Nic joins us live now. Nic, what do you have?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, it seems that the countdown is on for that advance into Falluja. It is half an hour before the curfew is due to go into place. The prime minister, Ayad Allawi, using his new emergency measures, called that just a few hours ago.
He said that the curfews would stay in place on Falluja until such time as the areas were cleaned out, as he said, of the terrorists. Then, that curfew would be lifted area by area in Falluja. And that, as we understand, is the way the multi-national forces, a coalition backed up by those Iraqi troops, will go into Falluja.
It hasn't started yet to the best of our knowledge. There was an intense firefight to the west of the city, close to the city's hospital earlier in the day, but that advance into the city hasn't happened. But the curfew does seem to set the stage for that at this time. And of course, Allawi, as well, using those powers to close the roads around Falluja, to close the borders with Syria and Jordan, to close Baghdad's International Airport -- all these said designed to catch those foreign fighters who might try and escape -- Bill?
HEMMER: Nic, when he talks about closing the borders, be it with Jordan in the west or Syria in the northwest, this is a huge amount of area in the open desert. Is that to be taken literally when they close the borders?
ROBERTSON: That's what has given us to understand. He said the border checkpoints -- and there are, perhaps, half a dozen major checkpoints or border crossings along the Jordanian/Syrian segment of Iraq's border -- that only food trucks will be allowed to pass through there.
This is part of the emergency procedures that the government has announced here. If gives the prime minister a lot more authority to change transportation, to change -- to impose travel restrictions, to impose communications restrictions, to do things like closing Baghdad International Airport. And really, within 24 hours of having announced the government had those powers, announcing that the prime minister had those powers, he has already put him into effect, Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Nic, thanks. Nic Robertson in Baghdad. 5:30 in the evening there in Iraq. Nic, thanks.
Back to Kelly now.
WALLACE: Thanks, Bill.
Actress Mia Farrow, a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, is getting a first-hand look at the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. She's visiting the war-ravaged Darfur region of western Sudan, trying to focus attention on the plight of refugees there. Farrow is in the region, along with her 16-year-old son Seamus.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
Mia Farrow, let me begin with you. Why it was it important for you to go to the region, the Darfur region of Sudan?
MIA FARROW, ACTRESS/UNICEF GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: Well, as a mother and as a woman, as a human being and as a UNICEF ambassador. I mean, when I started hearing reports about what was going on in this region, I think a lot of us got very worried, very concerned. And so, when UNICEF asked me to go, I jumped at the chance.
WALLACE: You have been touring the region over the past several days -- in particular, meeting with women and children in refugee camps. Describe what you have been seeing and what you've heard.
M. FARROW: Well, we've toured two camps, massive camps. Today, a camp of 70,000-plus IDPs, internally displaced persons, and yesterday, another camp of about half that amount of people.
I think that the chief concern and the overwhelming concern is the security. The women depend on firewood to cook with, and they trade among themselves. Firewood is kind of a currency, but more important is to cook their meals.
And to get the firewood, they have to leave the camp. And they've been in the camp for many, many months. So, they have to walk six, eight hours to get firewood and return. And the situation around the camps, it's not at all secure for them. And there are rapes ongoing on a daily basis. And so, they're terrified to leave the camp.
WALLACE: Seamus, let me ask you, you have been with your mom on other UNICEF trips...
SEAMUS FARROW, MIA FARROW'S SON: I have, yeah.
WALLACE: ... what stands out in your mind specifically about this trip now?
S. FARROW: Talking to the young people, the extent of the security problem, that especially -- I mean, she described the dilemma for the women. The cultural expectation is that while the women go out and collect the wood, the men stay in the camps and the villages and tend to the farmlands. They pursue their commercial careers. None of that -- all that's come to a halt here.
So, we have men who are -- you know, even people my age, I'm talking to 16, 17, 18-year-olds who are just stagnating. They can't do anything. There is no higher education available in the camps. Past a certain point, we see men just lying in the sun while the women in the camps are forced to go out and be raped. It's a horrible decision that they have to take.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: Actress Mia Farrow and her son Seamus talking with us earlier from Sudan -- Bill?
HEMMER: Kelly, thanks.
Twenty-five minutes before the hour. Mount St. Helens continues to take on new formations. Over the weekend, inside the crater, the volcano's lava dome has sprouted a new extension the size of a three- story building. That new formation can be seen glowing at night with temperatures as high as 1,200 degrees. Mount St. Helens last erupted back in 1980, but rumbled back to life in late September. Keep a close eye on that one.
Back to the weather and Chad Myers, again. Hey, Chad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: Thanks, Chad.
We certainly had good weather yesterday in New York City as more than 30,000 runners took part in the annual New York City Marathon this weekend. In the end, it was South Africa's Hendrik Ramaala who won the men's race in just two hours, nine minutes, and 28 seconds. Britain's world record holder Paula Radcliffe won the woman's race. She did it two hours, 23 minutes, and seven seconds, narrowing elbowing out the second-place finisher.
We had the pleasure of speaking with her earlier here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
You look very relaxed after running a marathon from yesterday.
PAULA RADCLIFFE, 2004 NYC MARATHON WINNER: Thank you. No, I'm recovering. I'm on holiday now.
WALLACE: I want some of our viewers who might not know, this was the tightest finish in the New York City Marathon history. There you are, the final few miles, going neck and neck with Susan Chepkemei -- I believe it is.
What is going through your mind as you guys are neck and neck, elbow to elbow over those final miles?
RADCLIFFE: Well, I've raced Susan for a long time. We've probably raced each other for more than 10 years, so we know quite a lot about each other. And I was pretty confident that I could win in a sprint finish.
So, I was really just trying to gauge my finish. And I'd run the closing stages quite a few times over the last couple days, so I knew that when I got to the crest of the hill, there was round about 100 meters to go.
WALLACE: So, your finish -- two hours, 23 minutes. How important was this finish for you and this victory after what happens in Athens? Our viewers might not know you had to pull out a few miles before the end of the marathon at the Summer Olympic Games. And then, you tried to do the 10,000 meters, you had to pull out -- shots of you in tears because of this.
How important was this victory after your disappointment in Athens?
RADCLIFFE: Well, it was important after the disappointment, because that was a terrible time. But I've put it behind me, and I've moved on from there. And the victory here in New York was special in its own right, regardless of what happened at the Olympics, because it's a great marathon. It's a great city. And it was really important to me to come here and to win the marathon here.
WALLACE: I understand you only decided a couple of weeks ago that you, in fact, felt ready and physically ready to run the marathon. Is that true?
RADCLIFFE: Yes, that's true. It took me a while to recover from the trauma of the Olympics. And I had an injury before, I had a lot of stomach problems there. So, it took a long time for my body to recover. And when it did and I thought about running races, I just thought about coming to New York. And so, I spoke to the organizers to see if I could come.
WALLACE: So many people talk about the New York City Marathon, running through the five boroughs, thousands and thousands of New Yorkers cheering you on at every part of this city. What is that like, and what is it like when you cross that finish line as the number one woman competitor?
RADCLIFFE: It's an amazing atmosphere. As you go through each of the boroughs, you can really tell the difference between the boroughs, and they all have got so much -- they're out there for so long, because if you think the lead women go there and then maybe 45 minutes later the lead men, and then the others runners are coming through for so lone. And those guys are out there on the street really supporting everyone. So, thank you very much. It really, really helps. And just to cross the finish line -- as you come into Central Park, the crowds are getting thicker and thicker. And then, you come up through toward Tavern on the Green and the stands are out of sight and the noise is just amazing. And you just -- you can see the finish line, and you just want to get across it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: A great day for Paula Radcliffe.
We also want to mention our senior broadcast producer Ted Fine (ph) -- he finished the race yesterday in just under four hours. Congratulations, Ted. We hope you're recovering back at home -- Bill?
HEMMER: We know he's sleeping, right?
WALLACE: Yeah, I bet he is.
HEMMER: He's not here today. Well done, Ted.
A bizarre scene in south Florida over the weekend to an 80-year- old woman crashed her car into a neighbor's swimming pool. The driver mistakenly hit the gas instead of the breaks when her tire got stuck in a storm drain. A Florida State Trooper who lives in the neighborhood ran to the woman's rescue and pulled her to safety. And luckily, no injuries. That story out of Florida, Kelly.
WALLACE: All right, Bill.
Still to come, a band of superheroes saves Wall Street. Andy Serwer will tell us what has one stock so animated.
And the "Big, Fat, Obnoxious Boss" is making a dozen MBAs sweat. And after all that, he's not even going to give then a job. "90- Second Pop" is just ahead. Stay with us right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Time to wake up on a Monday morning, "90-Second Pop" here. Andy Borowitz, chairman of the board at borowitzreport.com. Sarah Bernard, chairwoman of the board at "New York" magazine.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: All right! I like that.
HEMMER: And just flat out plain Toure, whose hair gets taller by the day.
TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.
HEMMER: Good morning, by the way.
BERNARD: Good morning.
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: Good morning.
HEMMER: Did you see "My Big, Fat, Obnoxious Boss" last night?
BERNARD: I did see it.
HEMMER: And?
BERNARD: I had low expectations, and I thought it was hilarious, honestly. It's the same producers of "My Big, Fat, Obnoxious Fiance," as you might remember. And this really is a goof on the 12 contestants. They are all MBAs who are competing for 250 grand. That is actually real. But they're being put through their paces by a guy who is supposed to be a billionaire. He's actually an actor, William August, who was a very convincing obnoxious boss.
HEMMER: Those crazy Hollywood producers. Why were your expectations so low?
BERNARD: Well, I actually really didn't think that the obnoxious fiance was so funny. And it's kind of like this show to "The Apprentice" was "Joe Millionaire" to "The Bachelor." It was sort of a rip-off.
TOURE: Do they actually get money if they win?
BERNARD: They do actually win.
TOURE: They do?
BERNARD: Right. They do actually get the money. So, it's not all for nothing. But they are humiliated in the process. They are told that they are -- their first task is actually to pretend they're homeless and beg on the street. They're being fed all of this fancy food. They're talking about how wonderful it is, and it's actually spam and, you know, fake cheese.
TOURE: Oh!
BERNARD: So, the whole thing is a joke. But it's really a joke on Donald Trump, and that's where the humor is. There are boardroom scenes when he's sort of grilling the contestants. It's so transparent about how he just has nonsensical questions. It's great.
BOROWITZ: Well, I just have one question. These are all supposed to be, like, Ivy League grads. But I just have one word for them: Google. I mean...
BERNARD: Why didn't they know?
BOROWITZ: And this guy is, like...
TOURE: Yes.
BOROWITZ: How did that not happen? TOURE: Right.
BOROWITZ: I mean, yeah, it's like you meet someone on the street you Google them.
TOURE: Right. You're a real MBA, and you don't do any research to figure out who this guy is? That always throws me.
BERNARD: That's a good point.
HEMMER: Well, in a word, success or not for this show?
BERNARD: I think a success.
HEMMER: OK. All right.
BERNARD: We'll see next week.
HEMMER: Next topic, what do we got for you, Andy, today? Late, late, late, late comedy stuff.
BOROWITZ: Right.
HEMMER: We have four guys in competition to take over this job. Take us through it.
BOROWITZ: Well, it's CBS. You know, they're still looking for the replacement for Craig Kilborn. And they're bringing back a couple of these guys for sort of more extended tryouts, like D.L. Hughley, Michael Ian Black.
So, CBS says they found four people who could host "The Late Late Show." The real challenge will be to find four people who watch "The Late Late Show." I think that should be next.
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE: You (INAUDIBLE), right? That would be cool.
BOROWITZ: It's a little late for me. I have to get up early for this thing. But you know, what I think is hilarious is that they're trying to create all of this drama, like America wants to know who is going to take over the show. This is like choosing somebody to water your plants. I mean, who is watching...
BERNARD: Who can do it?
BOROWITZ: Who is watching this program?
HEMMER: Hey, thanks. Happy Monday. See you later.
BERNARD: Happy Monday.
HEMMER: See you later. Here is Kelly again -- Kelly.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WALLACE: Thanks, Bill.
Still to some, Andy Serwer with a stock that is hoping to enjoy an incredible performance. Stay with us right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: "The Incredibles" hit it big at the weekend box office. So, what does it all mean for investors in Pixar? Andy Serwer has a check on that and the markets. He's "Minding Your Business." Good day for the markets.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yeah, it is. It's actually starting off to be a good day, Kelly. Let's check it out. It was down this morning a little bit, but now we're up seven.
And "The Incredibles" was "incredibles" at the box office -- $70 million, second biggest animation open ever after "Shrek 2," which did $108 million. But this thing -- and all the kids are talking about it, believe me, because they were all at my house this weekend and "Have you seen it," and "It's great," and "it's amazing."
And the stock -- actually it's interesting, this morning. It's trading down a little bit. This is one of these classic buy on the rumors, sell on the news. It's down about four bucks. But it went up about six later in the week -- last week as news and buzz of this movie came out. And you can see the Pixar chart is just incredible and -- incredible, get it?
Steve Jobs -- I've talked about him a lot this year, but he -- you know, as the CEO of both Pixar and Apple Computer, and both of these stocks are just amazing. And he's recovering from pancreatic cancer, and I think -- there's Apple. There's one word -- iPod -- iPod. This guy, in my mind, businessman of the year. I mean, the CEO of two companies that have just roared ahead. Pixar has not never had a flop, and I don't know how they do it.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: They're doing better than Time Warner, I think.
SERWER: You know, I didn't do a direct comparison, but somehow I suspect.
WALLACE: Time Warner's not quite going that way.
CAFFERTY: I looked at the stock chart.
SERWER: You did?
CAFFERTY: Yeah, it goes like this -- 90 down to, what is it, 17 now? Something like that?
SERWER: Yeah, 16 and change.
CAFFERTY: Yeah, so they're doing better. SERWER: They are doing -- you're right. Good point.
HEMMER: Thanks, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
HEMMER: Back to the Question of the Day.
CAFFERTY: Further endear me to the management.
SERWER: There it goes again.
CAFFERTY: Question of the Day is: How far will the president go to repay his debt to conservatives who voted in large numbers to winning a second term in the White House?
Jim writes from Framingham, Massachusetts: "Fear not. He will give the evangelists less than they demand and more than the rest of us can tolerate."
Laura in Pine Bush, New York: "Once again, we have media presuming that a 'debt exists. All Mr. bush has to do is continue his decisive leadership of the past four years."
And Galen in King George, Virginia: "I understand some Democrats are so upset with the election results they want to leave the United States. Where can I send money to help pay for their one-way airfare?"
So, the country may still be a little divided based on that last thing.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
Just getting word now out of Falluja, breaking news in fact outside of that town. CNN confirming now that Marines have moved to four locations on the outskirts of Falluja. Not a lot of information after that, but with two embedded reporters for CNN -- Jane Arraf and Karl Penhaul -- we can get up-to-date information on what's happening.
We do know thousands of U.S. Marines, U.S. soldiers, and also Iraqi forces, too, amassed on the outskirts of Falluja. It is nightfall, almost 6:00 in the evening there in Iraq. And as soon as we get more on what's happening with this Marine movement, we'll bring it to you. Daryn and Rick have more on it next hour.
They're also going to talk next hour about President Bush, back at the White House today after a weekend at Camp David. A live report on what's happening there today. Again, Daryn and Rick have that next hour. We're back in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Before we get out of here, we want to take you back to Iraq right now, let you know what we're finding out here at CNN. U.S. Marines apparently moving forward to positions around the town of Falluja. The indications we're given right now is that there are four different areas on the outskirts of the town where U.S. Marines have now moved. That is, essentially, the information we have now with darkness now in central Iraq.
And we've been talking for days now about the assault, Kelly, that could happen at any time. The indications are now that it could be happening some time very, very soon.
WALLACE: Exactly. We've been talking all weekend about when it could come. Obviously, now, sundown there in Iraq. And obviously, this is a key moment for the U.S. forces, especially as they try to deal with this before the elections in January.
CAFFERTY: When darkness falls, advantage America. They've got all that night vision equipment. Yeah. And so, it makes sense for them to go in, I guess, at night.
WALLACE: That's clearly part of the American strategy here, too. It appears to be a quick, fast, big deployment of forces to try and send a message to other insurgents in other parts of the country.
HEMMER: We heard over the weekend that speed is on their side, if they can take advantage of that speed, based on the strategy they have it laid out. But commanders warn us, and our own military analysts say it could be a battle that goes five days or five weeks. No one knows.
CAFFERTY: And this is only a theory and it's based on nothing expect my own intuition, but this should have happened six months ago, could have happened six months ago if we weren't having an election in the United States. American kids are going to get killed in this fight. They didn't want that all over the newspapers going into the election. In the meantime, do you give guys like Zarqawi a chance to get out of town along with his henchmen by delaying an invasion that could have happened last summer?
HEMMER: The other thing we found over the weekend, they've taken this hospital, which is west of the river, the Euphrates, in Falluja. They have taken over two bridges, too, which is right near this hospital location. One of the bridges is where the corpses of the four American contractors were hung last spring.
SERWER: Oh, that's right. Those horrible images, right?
HEMMER: Now, if there is a silver lining in all of this, based on the relationship the U.S. forces are building up now with Ayad Allawi, perhaps over the past six months those relationships have been more solidified than they were back in the springtime when they sent that new brigade, head up by Iraqis, into town. And they failed, and we saw that over the summer.
WALLACE: Right. And there was a lot of question about how trained these Iraqi forces were, how much more trained they are right now, what role the Iraqi forces will play. But we are talking about urban warfare. We could be talking street-to-street, house-to-house if it gets to that. So...
HEMMER: Now we all await now.
WALLACE: Wait and watch.
HEMMER: 6:00 in Baghdad, 6:00 in Falluja. We've got to run. 10:00 here in the morning in New York City. Back to Daryn and Rick now as we say good morning to you.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And you know, guys, whatever happens in the next couple of hours, we're going to have it covered for you here. We have people in places, and we're trying to also hook up with some military analysts, trying to break some of what's going on down for you.
KAGAN: We have a lot of news, as well. Let's start with some headlines.
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