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American Morning

Second Day of Battle For Falluja; Arafat's Health Worsens Overnight; Latest On the Peterson Trial; Drug To Prevent Heart Failure in African-Americans Showing Promise

Aired November 09, 2004 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Before any of that, though, let's first get to the very latest out of Falluja.
U.S. and Iraqi troops are pounding insurgents for a second day. Jane Arraf embedded with the 1st Infantry Division in Falluja. She joins us by phone this morning. Jane, good morning. What are you seeing where you are?

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Soledad.

We're seeing quite a lot, actually. We're moving through the industrial section now. This was the stronghold, thought to be the stronghold of foreign fighters in Falluja. And after 24 hours of pounding it with artillery, air strikes and everything else, it's a scene of devastation. That doesn't mean it's empty. It's quite tense here at the moment.

We're actually behind an armored personnel carrier, where they have just received fire from a rocket propelled grenade. They don't know exactly where it came from, so all the soldiers around me have their guns drawn in that direction.

This is an area where there have been very few civilians and we were shown part of the reason. The task force commander showed us just one street that was booby-trapped. It had a berm, a sand berm to prevent vehicles from coming through. But if they did get through, it was wired to explode.

Those are some of the things they've been facing as they've gone through the city -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of the insurgent response. Has it been strong, how many insurgents have you been able to see -- we've heard, of course, that there have been some response, but not the number that may have been earlier expected.

ARRAF: Not sure whether it's not that the numbers aren't there, or whether the response was different, but you are absolutely right. It's not entirely as expected.

The Task Force commander, and this is Task Force 22, with the First Infantry Division, has -- the unit that was responsible for clearing the way for Marines that went into the city first with its heavy armor and it -- and according to the commander of the Task Force, did not meet the kind of organized resistance that they had expected.

He tells us that he was surprised at how quickly they melted away, especially in this area, which had been an area where it was billed as a heavy concentration of foreign fighters willing to fight to the death.

Now, some of them have been killed and maybe that some of them have just gone to ground and they will reappear in the coming hours, days, or even weeks -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Quick final question for you -- you said it was a scene of devastation. Give me a sense of what's being destroyed. Is it industrial park areas that we've seen on some of these maps? Is it residential -- what's actually being taken out?

ARRAF: The part that we are in is industrial and residential and there isn't a block that doesn't have at least a couple of houses or a building that is either in rubble or is charred from the strikes or has bullet holes making an absolute tangle of iron and steel. It's mostly as if someone had dropped something very heavy on the whole area.

Now these were suspected insurgents hideouts. They were places where they believed insurgents were gathering. Some of them they had targeted long before. Some of them were what they called targets of opportunity where they received fire and they fired back. And when the Marines and the Army have been firing back, as they've made clear, they have been doing it with huge force. They want to end this insurgency, and they want to make sure it's over for good -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Baghdad Bureau Chief is Jane Arraf, and that's Jane reporting for us by phone this morning with the very latest from Falluja. Jane, thank you very much, and stay safe while you remain embedded with the troops there.

Time to get another check of the headlines with Kelly Wallace at the news desk. Hey, Kelly. Good morning again.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning again, Soledad. Good morning, Bill. Good morning everyone.

We're continuing in Iraq where Baghdad is under a nighttime curfew for the first time in a year.

Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi ordered the restrictions just an hour ago. Meantime the violence continues throughout the country. Iraqi police say insurgents have launched several attacks targeting the Iraqi National Guard, hospitals, and a church. There are reports of dozens of casualties.

Here in the United States, President Bush and the First Lady are spending part of today with wounded American soldiers. The First Couple will visit Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center this afternoon. The president awarded Purple Heart medals to eight soldiers there last March. And former presidential candidate Howard Dean may be preparing for a political comeback. There is word Dean is considering a bid to become the party chairman. The Democratic National Committee will vote next year to replace outgoing chair Terry McAuliffe, but no definite word from the Dean campaign.

A spokeswoman says it's far too early to speculate. Of course, Soledad, that's not stopping all the speculation. I have heard names such as former President Bill Clinton and even Senator John Edwards who could be interested in the job.

O'BRIEN: How much of this do you think is a trial balloon where they just sort of float and see what the reaction is?

WALLACE: I think it's a little bit of that. They see how the rest of the party feels then they go from there.

O'BRIEN: All right, Kelly thanks.

Health officials in Paris say Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's health has worsened overnight. CNN's Jim Bittermann is live outside Percy Military Hospital with the very latest from there for us.

Good morning to you, Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Soledad. In fact, what we're watching here right now is this Palestinian delegation -- these would be the top four people in the Palestinian pecking order under Yasser Arafat who've come here personally to assess his -- the exact state of his health.

That after days of rumors here about whether or not he could ever recover and once again become the president of the Palestinian Authority.

They've come here; they want to make an assessment of whether there should be a succession, what exactly should be put in line in terms of secession.

And we understand at least one agency, one wire agency, is reporting that Ahmed Qorei, the prime minister actually got a sight of Yasser Arafat -- Suha Arafat his wife has been preventing people from seeing him and also very carefully controlling the flow of information coming out.

Now we did have one medical bulletin this morning from General Christian Estripeau, who is the overseer of information here at this military hospital. And General Estripeau said that in fact overnight Arafat's condition had worsened, that he had slipped into a deeper coma and they were not issuing any kind of prognosis.

That kind of the most dire description of his medical state that we've heard to date -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: The world continues to watch and wait for more information. Jim Bittermann for us in Paris this morning. Jim thank you for that update -- Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Soledad, 24 minutes before the hour now. Day number five of deliberations in the Scott Peterson double murder case, and concerns in California now about prosecutors that the jury may be deeply divided.

Tough to read a jury. We're going to try and do our best with our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin here to talk about this case. Toobin, right? It still is, right?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Hemmer, right?

HEMMER: Hemmer, right. H-E-M-M-E-R. Want to talk about the Kobe Bryant matter, as well, first of all, in California. What are you to make about the way the judge instructed jurors yesterday?

TOOBIN: Well, what's so peculiar about what the judge did yesterday is he was talking to this jury as if they had been deliberating for ten days rather than just three or four.

I mean, he really gave the impression that this was a seriously divided jury at that early stage. It's surprising given that this is a 20-plus week trial.

HEMMER: We were talking a half hour ago, California has rules, though. They can take one of these jurors and set them to the side and replace them, can they not?

TOOBIN: They can, but that raises real difficult questions on appeal, especially in a death penalty case. The judge certainly does not want to do that. Sure it's possible and this judge is going to fight a long time to get a verdict out of this jury.

HEMMER: Are you suggesting a mistrial comes into play here? And that's how you fight it on appeal?

TOOBIN: Well, if there's a mistrial you just have to retry the case, but I think the judge is going to keep this jury out a long time when you consider the time, the money, the emotional effort in trying a case like this for this long. The judge is going to do everything he can to try to get this case to a verdict.

HEMMER: And, ultimately, we do not know what's happening in that jury room...

TOOBIN: We certainly do not.

HEMMER: In deliberations.

TOOBIN: Our ignorance is profound.

HEMMER: Every day. Kobe Bryant may be back in court. There is a report out there that says the accuser may take the case on a civil matter to California. How does she do that?

TOOBIN: Right. The lawyers for the woman have said that they believe the law is more favorable for them to sue Kobe Bryant in California rather than Colorado. I mean -- we discussed this many times. I don't think this civil case is ever going to trial. I think this is an elaborate settlement negotiation. It is so much in both sides interest not to try this case that I think what's going on here is a lot of posturing but this case will never go to trial.

HEMMER: You have said, though, that discrediting this case in Colorado, you might have a better chance in California going ahead and proceeding with that.

TOOBIN: The case has gotten such terrible press in Colorado they might want something like a fresh start.

There was a fascinating report in "The Los Angeles Times" over the weekend about a mock trial that was held by the prosecution before the criminal case fell apart and according to this report, the accuser did very badly on a mock cross examination. It was one of the things that led them to drop the criminal case.

She's going to be cross-examined in a civil case as well. She doesn't want that to happen. Kobe Bryant just signed a $100 million contract. He's got money to spare. She wants money, he's got money, a settlement would serve both their interests...

HEMMER: My first hunch on "The L.A. Times" story is that that was the story that was perhaps leaked by the defense, not by prosecutors.

TOOBIN: Well, prosecutors were quoted in it although subsequently they have said well it wasn't as bad as all that. I was surprised at how open some of the prosecutors were with "The L.A. Times" report.

HEMMER: One more thought here. Lynn Wood, the attorney for the accuser. He says the laws in Colorado are unfair. Would he stand a better chance if he were in court in L.A.?

TOOBIN: He might. But the laws haven't changed since two months ago when they filed the case. So, I mean I think there's some cause for him going on here. I mean he had to know what the law was when he filed it. Now he's moving to California. I am confident that we are not going to reach a trial in this case.

HEMMER: Thank you, Jeff. Good to see you.

TOOBIN: See you, Bill.

HEMMER: Soledad.

O'BRIEN: A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Bush administration is sidestepping international law by using military tribunals to try suspected terrorists. The ruling by U.S. district judge James Robertson stopped pre-trial proceedings of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. The U.S. government says it will seek an emergency stay and a quick appeal. Hundreds of detainees are being held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Judge Robertson rejects the government's claim that the detainees are not prisoners of war, but enemy combatants, a classification that provides fewer legal protections under the Geneva Conventions -- Bill.

HEMMER: We are told that Global Warming is getting worse, faster than expected, according to the new research study done by the Pew Foundation as well at the American Meteorological Society, and the two new reports say humans are to blame.

Environmentalists point to coal-fired power plants and car exhaust as major offenders, leading to unprecedented changes in weather patterns and atmospheric temperatures. Again, that report out today.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, medicine has just dipped its toe into tailoring treatments that are race specific. We've got a medical report on that just ahead.

HEMMER: Also the NFL striking a new deal that should thrill football fans for years to come and a lot of cash to boot. Back in a moment right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Sanjay has got the day off today. A new study of a drug to prevent heart failure in African-Americans showing some promise. And if it's approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it would be the first medication marketed to a specific race.

Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen live for us at the CNN Center with details on that. Good morning to you Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Soledad, we've all heard about the problem that too often drugs are tested mostly on white men, that they're not tested on minorities as much as they should. And this leads to many medical issues.

For example, a very common heart drug called ACE inhibitors simply doesn't work very well on black people as well as it does on white people, so doctors got together and said gee we need to come up with a drug that could work better on our cardiac patients of African origin.

So, they came up with a combination of two pills; they put them together. It's called BiDil, and they did a test. And here are the results of the test. About 1,000 patients, all of them African- American, half given standard therapy plus a placebo, half given standard therapy plus this new drug called BiDil.

And what they found is that they found a 43 percent reduction in the number of deaths when the people were given this drug called BiDil. Only 16 percent required hospitalization; that's compared to 22 percent who didn't receive the BiDil.

Now, it's important to note that this drug could work on white people but they decided to test it out to specifically on black people because those other therapies hadn't worked as well -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Decision in fact is what made all of this controversial because there are some who say well why not -- why limit any drugs testing, essentially. What's the impact of that?

COHEN: Well, you know whenever you start talking about racial differences it makes people very uncomfortable, and so here's one way to think about it. Certainly it all has to do with genes.

Certain genetic diseases run more in some races than in others. For example, you think about sickle cell anemia, think about breast cancer genes running in certain populations of Jewish women. And so, certain genes dictate how your body is going to react to drugs. And so, certain genes are going to be more common in some racial groups than others.

So, people say this is what we need to do, we need to test drugs on specific groups and it would -- it's all sort of heading towards this whole situation of having more personalized medicine. Having medicines that are tailor made to your genetics.

O'BRIEN: And really underscores that there is so much more testing that is needed to be done when you have groups that come out upset that they did not get to be a focus of the attention. In past years of course, African-American in fact is what made all of this controversial because there are some who say well why not -- why limit any drugs testing, essentially. What's the impact of that?

COHEN: Well you know whenever you start talking about racial differences it makes people very uncomfortable and so here's one way to think about it. Certainly it all has to do with genes. Certain genetic diseases run more in some races than in others.

For example, you think about sickle cell anemia, think about breast cancer genes running in certain populations of Jewish women and so certain genes dictate how your body is going to react to drugs. And so, certain genes are going to be more common in some racial groups than others. So, people say this is what we need to do, we need to test drugs on specific groups. And it would -- it's all sort of heading towards this whole situation of having more personalized medicine. Having medicines that are tailor made to your genetics.

O'BRIEN: And really underscores that there is so much more testing that is needed to be done when you have groups that come out upset that they did not get to be a focus of the attention. In past years of course, African-Americans upset that they've been left out of the trials and drugs sort of created to help essentially whites.

COHEN: Right when you have decades where African-Americans were not well represented in clinical trials, well now is the time to do clinical trials on African-Americans because really for decades they pretty much missed out.

O'BRIEN: Essentially to some degree clouding the issue because the findings pretty strong in this case.

COHEN: Right in this case it certainly is.

O'BRIEN: All right, Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning. Elizabeth, thanks -- Bill.

HEMMER: Want to talk about some money in a moment here, also talk about some football, too. The NFL's new deal could give couch potatoes more not to do on Mondays. We'll explain that in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: All right. Ready for some football?

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: The National Football League has made some kind of deal with CBS and FOX. Andy Serwer is here with that and a check of the markets. He's "Minding Your Business" this morning. We're talking billions.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I'm going to talk about football? All right, let's do that. Yes.

Yesterday, the markets managed to eke out a gain. That is the Dow and the Nasdaq did. S&P 500 slipped a little bit. Big Fed meeting tomorrow, be watching that.

Marsh and McLennan laying off 3,000 workers. Maybe there should be a law that when a company is being investigated or investigating the top executives that they can't lay people off.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

SERWER: Wouldn't that be a nice little rule?

CAFFERTY: Or Eliot Spitzer could have them all over to his house for Christmas dinner.

SERWER: All right. The NFL has a new deal with CBS and Fox and it's a barnburner -- $8 billion over five years from 2006 to 2011. Here's the salient factor, or one. This contract is going to be bigger than the NBA, baseball, hockey, and NASCAR combined.

HEMMER: Wow.

SERWER: This is the king of American sport. It really is. And they still have to do the ABC and ESPN deals and they're also looking at doing packages where they're going to show games during prime time on Thursday and Saturday nights, so guess what? Could be a lot more football coming. I mean who wants better news than that?

O'BRIEN: I'm so happy.

SERWER: Soledad is psyched about that. O'BRIEN: Now I'll never see my husband.

SERWER: And let's also talk about a videogame. This is also big news, too. I never heard it - "Halo 2" came out yesterday. I never heard of "Halo 1." This is a big Xbox. Look at these people. They're lining up for "Halo 2." And get this, Jack -- 1.5 million people pre-ordered this thing at $50 a pop.

This is the Xbox so Microsoft gets $75 million in 24 hours off of this new game. That's bigger than the -- so they all talk about "The Incredibles," but this thing is bigger than that.

CAFFERTY: Huh.

SERWER: Big money.

CAFFERTY: I have to get me one of those.

SERWER: You have to get "Halo 1" first before you get "Halo 2." Here's Bill.

HEMMER: We are -- have re-established contact with Jane Arraf -- she's embedded with the U.S. Army there in Falluja and apparently some sort of firefight has broken out in the section of Falluja where Jane is and if you can hear me, Jane, take it from here. What are you seeing?

ARRAF: ... a bit chaotic but we are in the middle of a firefight here in the industrial section of Falluja.

Now we've come through the city with an Army unit as a (INAUDIBLE) of the Task Force that has been taking a look at the damage that booby-trapped buildings and (INAUDIBLE). We've come under fire and rocket-propelled grenades fired originally and now small arms fire. Some of them very loud.

Some very loud gunfire that you might have been hearing where the vehicles appear to have been firing back. It's a sign, obviously, that the insurgents have not been entirely flushed out. This is where most of the foreign fighters were thought to be, the area that we are now driving through. And everywhere are demolished buildings from more than 24 hours of air strikes, mortar attacks, and artillery by U.S. forces that paved their way through the city.

Through this area that's -- there is obviously, there are obviously insurgents here. They are firing at us at the moment. We're not quite sure where it's coming from. But it does appear that there are small pockets still of insurgents in this area.

HEMMER: Jane - Jane, it's Bill Hemmer. Stick with us just a second here. On the map about 25 minutes ago, you said you were moving through a part of Falluja that you described as an industrial park. I don't know if that's the same area about where you're operating now. But you described a scene of devastation. Can you give us a better idea about what you're seeing in your immediate vicinity there? ARRAF: What I'm seeing, Bill, as I look around is -- we're in an armored personnel carrier but I'm looking around right now and what you can see is imagine an industrial area (INAUDIBLE) to begin with and every third or fourth building had been bombed or had been shot at. A lot of the buildings have started to crumble. Some of them were -- it's partly a residential area as well. Some of them extremely nice houses in the past, it looks like.

We passed by one, which has pillars, which were blackened and burned. Sheet metal is lying around twisted like paper from some of the shots here. There is hardly a soul in place. The only people who appear to be left in this area are those who are shooting at the American forces going through.

This morning as the sun came up over Falluja, we could still see fires burning and smoke rising from parts of the city. Once again, is a part where there was not a lot of civilians, they were believed to have been chased out by insurgents who have booby-trapped entire streets here as we were shown today. But there are clearly still insurgents here -- Bill.

HEMMER: And Jane as the reports came in for the past several hours we were told that the resistance has been lighter than expected. Has that clearly changed in your estimation based on what you're hearing and seeing now?

ARRAF: The Task Force commander of this Army Task Force had been saying that he was surprised at how quickly they melted away. This really has been thought to be a place where they would make their last stand, where they would fight to the death. Now perhaps some of them are going away to fight again in the coming hours, days or weeks so it is a mystery to them why there wasn't the strength of resistance that they, perhaps, expected.

What they have found here apart from the scattered insurgence still clearly left here because they are shooting at the American forces are -- is quite an elaborate system of booby traps based on explosive devices set to go off when the American forces enter. They detonated most of them, causing huge explosions, but it is still a mystery as to whether a lot of these insurgents have managed to flee, whether they've gone to ground, or whether there are just not that many -- Bill.

HEMMER: Jane, how long ago did the firing and the RPGs start in your vicinity and do they still continue at this moment?

ARRAF: Bill, could you say that again?

HEMMER: I just want to get an understanding for the return fire that you're seeing in your area. Is it continuing at this point? The bullets, the RPGs that you described three minutes ago?

ARRAF: (INAUDIBLE) I don't know if you can still hear me -- we're just changing and it's been going on for (INAUDIBLE) just mentioned here (INAUDIBLE) going to these places. We have been coming under fire at similar scenes in other parts of the city as American Marines and American soldiers go through the streets as well.

HEMMER: All right, Jane Arraf. Excellent reporting there in very, very tough conditions there by satellite phone. With the U.S. Army. She's embedded there moving through the town of Falluja. When we get better contact with Jane we'll bring it to you. Developments continue from Falluja right here back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired November 9, 2004 - 08:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Before any of that, though, let's first get to the very latest out of Falluja.
U.S. and Iraqi troops are pounding insurgents for a second day. Jane Arraf embedded with the 1st Infantry Division in Falluja. She joins us by phone this morning. Jane, good morning. What are you seeing where you are?

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Soledad.

We're seeing quite a lot, actually. We're moving through the industrial section now. This was the stronghold, thought to be the stronghold of foreign fighters in Falluja. And after 24 hours of pounding it with artillery, air strikes and everything else, it's a scene of devastation. That doesn't mean it's empty. It's quite tense here at the moment.

We're actually behind an armored personnel carrier, where they have just received fire from a rocket propelled grenade. They don't know exactly where it came from, so all the soldiers around me have their guns drawn in that direction.

This is an area where there have been very few civilians and we were shown part of the reason. The task force commander showed us just one street that was booby-trapped. It had a berm, a sand berm to prevent vehicles from coming through. But if they did get through, it was wired to explode.

Those are some of the things they've been facing as they've gone through the city -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of the insurgent response. Has it been strong, how many insurgents have you been able to see -- we've heard, of course, that there have been some response, but not the number that may have been earlier expected.

ARRAF: Not sure whether it's not that the numbers aren't there, or whether the response was different, but you are absolutely right. It's not entirely as expected.

The Task Force commander, and this is Task Force 22, with the First Infantry Division, has -- the unit that was responsible for clearing the way for Marines that went into the city first with its heavy armor and it -- and according to the commander of the Task Force, did not meet the kind of organized resistance that they had expected.

He tells us that he was surprised at how quickly they melted away, especially in this area, which had been an area where it was billed as a heavy concentration of foreign fighters willing to fight to the death.

Now, some of them have been killed and maybe that some of them have just gone to ground and they will reappear in the coming hours, days, or even weeks -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Quick final question for you -- you said it was a scene of devastation. Give me a sense of what's being destroyed. Is it industrial park areas that we've seen on some of these maps? Is it residential -- what's actually being taken out?

ARRAF: The part that we are in is industrial and residential and there isn't a block that doesn't have at least a couple of houses or a building that is either in rubble or is charred from the strikes or has bullet holes making an absolute tangle of iron and steel. It's mostly as if someone had dropped something very heavy on the whole area.

Now these were suspected insurgents hideouts. They were places where they believed insurgents were gathering. Some of them they had targeted long before. Some of them were what they called targets of opportunity where they received fire and they fired back. And when the Marines and the Army have been firing back, as they've made clear, they have been doing it with huge force. They want to end this insurgency, and they want to make sure it's over for good -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Baghdad Bureau Chief is Jane Arraf, and that's Jane reporting for us by phone this morning with the very latest from Falluja. Jane, thank you very much, and stay safe while you remain embedded with the troops there.

Time to get another check of the headlines with Kelly Wallace at the news desk. Hey, Kelly. Good morning again.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning again, Soledad. Good morning, Bill. Good morning everyone.

We're continuing in Iraq where Baghdad is under a nighttime curfew for the first time in a year.

Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi ordered the restrictions just an hour ago. Meantime the violence continues throughout the country. Iraqi police say insurgents have launched several attacks targeting the Iraqi National Guard, hospitals, and a church. There are reports of dozens of casualties.

Here in the United States, President Bush and the First Lady are spending part of today with wounded American soldiers. The First Couple will visit Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center this afternoon. The president awarded Purple Heart medals to eight soldiers there last March. And former presidential candidate Howard Dean may be preparing for a political comeback. There is word Dean is considering a bid to become the party chairman. The Democratic National Committee will vote next year to replace outgoing chair Terry McAuliffe, but no definite word from the Dean campaign.

A spokeswoman says it's far too early to speculate. Of course, Soledad, that's not stopping all the speculation. I have heard names such as former President Bill Clinton and even Senator John Edwards who could be interested in the job.

O'BRIEN: How much of this do you think is a trial balloon where they just sort of float and see what the reaction is?

WALLACE: I think it's a little bit of that. They see how the rest of the party feels then they go from there.

O'BRIEN: All right, Kelly thanks.

Health officials in Paris say Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's health has worsened overnight. CNN's Jim Bittermann is live outside Percy Military Hospital with the very latest from there for us.

Good morning to you, Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Soledad. In fact, what we're watching here right now is this Palestinian delegation -- these would be the top four people in the Palestinian pecking order under Yasser Arafat who've come here personally to assess his -- the exact state of his health.

That after days of rumors here about whether or not he could ever recover and once again become the president of the Palestinian Authority.

They've come here; they want to make an assessment of whether there should be a succession, what exactly should be put in line in terms of secession.

And we understand at least one agency, one wire agency, is reporting that Ahmed Qorei, the prime minister actually got a sight of Yasser Arafat -- Suha Arafat his wife has been preventing people from seeing him and also very carefully controlling the flow of information coming out.

Now we did have one medical bulletin this morning from General Christian Estripeau, who is the overseer of information here at this military hospital. And General Estripeau said that in fact overnight Arafat's condition had worsened, that he had slipped into a deeper coma and they were not issuing any kind of prognosis.

That kind of the most dire description of his medical state that we've heard to date -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: The world continues to watch and wait for more information. Jim Bittermann for us in Paris this morning. Jim thank you for that update -- Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Soledad, 24 minutes before the hour now. Day number five of deliberations in the Scott Peterson double murder case, and concerns in California now about prosecutors that the jury may be deeply divided.

Tough to read a jury. We're going to try and do our best with our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin here to talk about this case. Toobin, right? It still is, right?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Hemmer, right?

HEMMER: Hemmer, right. H-E-M-M-E-R. Want to talk about the Kobe Bryant matter, as well, first of all, in California. What are you to make about the way the judge instructed jurors yesterday?

TOOBIN: Well, what's so peculiar about what the judge did yesterday is he was talking to this jury as if they had been deliberating for ten days rather than just three or four.

I mean, he really gave the impression that this was a seriously divided jury at that early stage. It's surprising given that this is a 20-plus week trial.

HEMMER: We were talking a half hour ago, California has rules, though. They can take one of these jurors and set them to the side and replace them, can they not?

TOOBIN: They can, but that raises real difficult questions on appeal, especially in a death penalty case. The judge certainly does not want to do that. Sure it's possible and this judge is going to fight a long time to get a verdict out of this jury.

HEMMER: Are you suggesting a mistrial comes into play here? And that's how you fight it on appeal?

TOOBIN: Well, if there's a mistrial you just have to retry the case, but I think the judge is going to keep this jury out a long time when you consider the time, the money, the emotional effort in trying a case like this for this long. The judge is going to do everything he can to try to get this case to a verdict.

HEMMER: And, ultimately, we do not know what's happening in that jury room...

TOOBIN: We certainly do not.

HEMMER: In deliberations.

TOOBIN: Our ignorance is profound.

HEMMER: Every day. Kobe Bryant may be back in court. There is a report out there that says the accuser may take the case on a civil matter to California. How does she do that?

TOOBIN: Right. The lawyers for the woman have said that they believe the law is more favorable for them to sue Kobe Bryant in California rather than Colorado. I mean -- we discussed this many times. I don't think this civil case is ever going to trial. I think this is an elaborate settlement negotiation. It is so much in both sides interest not to try this case that I think what's going on here is a lot of posturing but this case will never go to trial.

HEMMER: You have said, though, that discrediting this case in Colorado, you might have a better chance in California going ahead and proceeding with that.

TOOBIN: The case has gotten such terrible press in Colorado they might want something like a fresh start.

There was a fascinating report in "The Los Angeles Times" over the weekend about a mock trial that was held by the prosecution before the criminal case fell apart and according to this report, the accuser did very badly on a mock cross examination. It was one of the things that led them to drop the criminal case.

She's going to be cross-examined in a civil case as well. She doesn't want that to happen. Kobe Bryant just signed a $100 million contract. He's got money to spare. She wants money, he's got money, a settlement would serve both their interests...

HEMMER: My first hunch on "The L.A. Times" story is that that was the story that was perhaps leaked by the defense, not by prosecutors.

TOOBIN: Well, prosecutors were quoted in it although subsequently they have said well it wasn't as bad as all that. I was surprised at how open some of the prosecutors were with "The L.A. Times" report.

HEMMER: One more thought here. Lynn Wood, the attorney for the accuser. He says the laws in Colorado are unfair. Would he stand a better chance if he were in court in L.A.?

TOOBIN: He might. But the laws haven't changed since two months ago when they filed the case. So, I mean I think there's some cause for him going on here. I mean he had to know what the law was when he filed it. Now he's moving to California. I am confident that we are not going to reach a trial in this case.

HEMMER: Thank you, Jeff. Good to see you.

TOOBIN: See you, Bill.

HEMMER: Soledad.

O'BRIEN: A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Bush administration is sidestepping international law by using military tribunals to try suspected terrorists. The ruling by U.S. district judge James Robertson stopped pre-trial proceedings of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. The U.S. government says it will seek an emergency stay and a quick appeal. Hundreds of detainees are being held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Judge Robertson rejects the government's claim that the detainees are not prisoners of war, but enemy combatants, a classification that provides fewer legal protections under the Geneva Conventions -- Bill.

HEMMER: We are told that Global Warming is getting worse, faster than expected, according to the new research study done by the Pew Foundation as well at the American Meteorological Society, and the two new reports say humans are to blame.

Environmentalists point to coal-fired power plants and car exhaust as major offenders, leading to unprecedented changes in weather patterns and atmospheric temperatures. Again, that report out today.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, medicine has just dipped its toe into tailoring treatments that are race specific. We've got a medical report on that just ahead.

HEMMER: Also the NFL striking a new deal that should thrill football fans for years to come and a lot of cash to boot. Back in a moment right after this.

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O'BRIEN: Sanjay has got the day off today. A new study of a drug to prevent heart failure in African-Americans showing some promise. And if it's approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it would be the first medication marketed to a specific race.

Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen live for us at the CNN Center with details on that. Good morning to you Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Soledad, we've all heard about the problem that too often drugs are tested mostly on white men, that they're not tested on minorities as much as they should. And this leads to many medical issues.

For example, a very common heart drug called ACE inhibitors simply doesn't work very well on black people as well as it does on white people, so doctors got together and said gee we need to come up with a drug that could work better on our cardiac patients of African origin.

So, they came up with a combination of two pills; they put them together. It's called BiDil, and they did a test. And here are the results of the test. About 1,000 patients, all of them African- American, half given standard therapy plus a placebo, half given standard therapy plus this new drug called BiDil.

And what they found is that they found a 43 percent reduction in the number of deaths when the people were given this drug called BiDil. Only 16 percent required hospitalization; that's compared to 22 percent who didn't receive the BiDil.

Now, it's important to note that this drug could work on white people but they decided to test it out to specifically on black people because those other therapies hadn't worked as well -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Decision in fact is what made all of this controversial because there are some who say well why not -- why limit any drugs testing, essentially. What's the impact of that?

COHEN: Well, you know whenever you start talking about racial differences it makes people very uncomfortable, and so here's one way to think about it. Certainly it all has to do with genes.

Certain genetic diseases run more in some races than in others. For example, you think about sickle cell anemia, think about breast cancer genes running in certain populations of Jewish women. And so, certain genes dictate how your body is going to react to drugs. And so, certain genes are going to be more common in some racial groups than others.

So, people say this is what we need to do, we need to test drugs on specific groups and it would -- it's all sort of heading towards this whole situation of having more personalized medicine. Having medicines that are tailor made to your genetics.

O'BRIEN: And really underscores that there is so much more testing that is needed to be done when you have groups that come out upset that they did not get to be a focus of the attention. In past years of course, African-American in fact is what made all of this controversial because there are some who say well why not -- why limit any drugs testing, essentially. What's the impact of that?

COHEN: Well you know whenever you start talking about racial differences it makes people very uncomfortable and so here's one way to think about it. Certainly it all has to do with genes. Certain genetic diseases run more in some races than in others.

For example, you think about sickle cell anemia, think about breast cancer genes running in certain populations of Jewish women and so certain genes dictate how your body is going to react to drugs. And so, certain genes are going to be more common in some racial groups than others. So, people say this is what we need to do, we need to test drugs on specific groups. And it would -- it's all sort of heading towards this whole situation of having more personalized medicine. Having medicines that are tailor made to your genetics.

O'BRIEN: And really underscores that there is so much more testing that is needed to be done when you have groups that come out upset that they did not get to be a focus of the attention. In past years of course, African-Americans upset that they've been left out of the trials and drugs sort of created to help essentially whites.

COHEN: Right when you have decades where African-Americans were not well represented in clinical trials, well now is the time to do clinical trials on African-Americans because really for decades they pretty much missed out.

O'BRIEN: Essentially to some degree clouding the issue because the findings pretty strong in this case.

COHEN: Right in this case it certainly is.

O'BRIEN: All right, Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning. Elizabeth, thanks -- Bill.

HEMMER: Want to talk about some money in a moment here, also talk about some football, too. The NFL's new deal could give couch potatoes more not to do on Mondays. We'll explain that in a moment.

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HEMMER: All right. Ready for some football?

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: The National Football League has made some kind of deal with CBS and FOX. Andy Serwer is here with that and a check of the markets. He's "Minding Your Business" this morning. We're talking billions.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I'm going to talk about football? All right, let's do that. Yes.

Yesterday, the markets managed to eke out a gain. That is the Dow and the Nasdaq did. S&P 500 slipped a little bit. Big Fed meeting tomorrow, be watching that.

Marsh and McLennan laying off 3,000 workers. Maybe there should be a law that when a company is being investigated or investigating the top executives that they can't lay people off.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

SERWER: Wouldn't that be a nice little rule?

CAFFERTY: Or Eliot Spitzer could have them all over to his house for Christmas dinner.

SERWER: All right. The NFL has a new deal with CBS and Fox and it's a barnburner -- $8 billion over five years from 2006 to 2011. Here's the salient factor, or one. This contract is going to be bigger than the NBA, baseball, hockey, and NASCAR combined.

HEMMER: Wow.

SERWER: This is the king of American sport. It really is. And they still have to do the ABC and ESPN deals and they're also looking at doing packages where they're going to show games during prime time on Thursday and Saturday nights, so guess what? Could be a lot more football coming. I mean who wants better news than that?

O'BRIEN: I'm so happy.

SERWER: Soledad is psyched about that. O'BRIEN: Now I'll never see my husband.

SERWER: And let's also talk about a videogame. This is also big news, too. I never heard it - "Halo 2" came out yesterday. I never heard of "Halo 1." This is a big Xbox. Look at these people. They're lining up for "Halo 2." And get this, Jack -- 1.5 million people pre-ordered this thing at $50 a pop.

This is the Xbox so Microsoft gets $75 million in 24 hours off of this new game. That's bigger than the -- so they all talk about "The Incredibles," but this thing is bigger than that.

CAFFERTY: Huh.

SERWER: Big money.

CAFFERTY: I have to get me one of those.

SERWER: You have to get "Halo 1" first before you get "Halo 2." Here's Bill.

HEMMER: We are -- have re-established contact with Jane Arraf -- she's embedded with the U.S. Army there in Falluja and apparently some sort of firefight has broken out in the section of Falluja where Jane is and if you can hear me, Jane, take it from here. What are you seeing?

ARRAF: ... a bit chaotic but we are in the middle of a firefight here in the industrial section of Falluja.

Now we've come through the city with an Army unit as a (INAUDIBLE) of the Task Force that has been taking a look at the damage that booby-trapped buildings and (INAUDIBLE). We've come under fire and rocket-propelled grenades fired originally and now small arms fire. Some of them very loud.

Some very loud gunfire that you might have been hearing where the vehicles appear to have been firing back. It's a sign, obviously, that the insurgents have not been entirely flushed out. This is where most of the foreign fighters were thought to be, the area that we are now driving through. And everywhere are demolished buildings from more than 24 hours of air strikes, mortar attacks, and artillery by U.S. forces that paved their way through the city.

Through this area that's -- there is obviously, there are obviously insurgents here. They are firing at us at the moment. We're not quite sure where it's coming from. But it does appear that there are small pockets still of insurgents in this area.

HEMMER: Jane - Jane, it's Bill Hemmer. Stick with us just a second here. On the map about 25 minutes ago, you said you were moving through a part of Falluja that you described as an industrial park. I don't know if that's the same area about where you're operating now. But you described a scene of devastation. Can you give us a better idea about what you're seeing in your immediate vicinity there? ARRAF: What I'm seeing, Bill, as I look around is -- we're in an armored personnel carrier but I'm looking around right now and what you can see is imagine an industrial area (INAUDIBLE) to begin with and every third or fourth building had been bombed or had been shot at. A lot of the buildings have started to crumble. Some of them were -- it's partly a residential area as well. Some of them extremely nice houses in the past, it looks like.

We passed by one, which has pillars, which were blackened and burned. Sheet metal is lying around twisted like paper from some of the shots here. There is hardly a soul in place. The only people who appear to be left in this area are those who are shooting at the American forces going through.

This morning as the sun came up over Falluja, we could still see fires burning and smoke rising from parts of the city. Once again, is a part where there was not a lot of civilians, they were believed to have been chased out by insurgents who have booby-trapped entire streets here as we were shown today. But there are clearly still insurgents here -- Bill.

HEMMER: And Jane as the reports came in for the past several hours we were told that the resistance has been lighter than expected. Has that clearly changed in your estimation based on what you're hearing and seeing now?

ARRAF: The Task Force commander of this Army Task Force had been saying that he was surprised at how quickly they melted away. This really has been thought to be a place where they would make their last stand, where they would fight to the death. Now perhaps some of them are going away to fight again in the coming hours, days or weeks so it is a mystery to them why there wasn't the strength of resistance that they, perhaps, expected.

What they have found here apart from the scattered insurgence still clearly left here because they are shooting at the American forces are -- is quite an elaborate system of booby traps based on explosive devices set to go off when the American forces enter. They detonated most of them, causing huge explosions, but it is still a mystery as to whether a lot of these insurgents have managed to flee, whether they've gone to ground, or whether there are just not that many -- Bill.

HEMMER: Jane, how long ago did the firing and the RPGs start in your vicinity and do they still continue at this moment?

ARRAF: Bill, could you say that again?

HEMMER: I just want to get an understanding for the return fire that you're seeing in your area. Is it continuing at this point? The bullets, the RPGs that you described three minutes ago?

ARRAF: (INAUDIBLE) I don't know if you can still hear me -- we're just changing and it's been going on for (INAUDIBLE) just mentioned here (INAUDIBLE) going to these places. We have been coming under fire at similar scenes in other parts of the city as American Marines and American soldiers go through the streets as well.

HEMMER: All right, Jane Arraf. Excellent reporting there in very, very tough conditions there by satellite phone. With the U.S. Army. She's embedded there moving through the town of Falluja. When we get better contact with Jane we'll bring it to you. Developments continue from Falluja right here back in a moment.

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