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CNN Live At Daybreak

U.S., Iraqi Forces Now into Second Day of New Offensive

Aired November 24, 2004 - 05:30   ET

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

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome to the second half hour of DAYBREAK. There is a lot going on right now, so let's get right to the headlines now.
Thousands of U.S., Iraq and British troops are in action south of Baghdad this morning. They are kicking off a new offensive against insurgents in Babil Province. These insurgents have repeatedly attacked convoys along a main highway.

Convicted killer Scott Peterson loses two appeals in a California State appeals court. The court rejected a request for a new jury for the sentencing phase. It also turned down a request to move the trial out of Redwood City.

People in Washington State hope to find out today who their new governor will be. The state's been recounting its November 2 vote. So far, the Republican is 300 votes ahead of the Democrat.

U.S. and Iraqi forces are now into the second day of a new offensive. They are in an area known as the "triangle of death". It is called that because of the frequent attacks on travelers. U.S. troops are targeting Iraq's volatile Babil Province and CNN's Karl Penhaul checked in moments ago with how the campaign is going.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): There is a major operation that has been launched Tuesday morning. It has been dubbed Operation Plymouth Rock. And it is going on in an area about 50 miles south of Baghdad. And area that has been dubbed the "triangle of death"; it is notorious for insurgent attacks there, but also for criminal attacks.

Now, the U.S. military has told us about 5,000 troops, an Iraqi SWAT team, U.S. Marines and members of Britain's Black Watch are taking part in this operation, a campaign that should last for several days.

One of the targets of the operation are insurgents who are expected or suspected of having moved out of Falluja as the offensive got underway there. And also, that may have struck up an alliance with some of the criminal gangs operating in the "triangle of death".

We are told that in the first day of operations 32 suspected insurgents were arrested.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: Karl Penhaul reporting for us with the latest -- from Iraq, from Falluja, from the Babil Province, and that brings us kind of up to date about how the campaign stands right now.

Karl said it is expected to last several days, but we want to find out more specifics. Captain David Nevers, with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, joins me now, by phone, from Iraq.

Good morning, Captain Nevers.

CAPT. DAVID NEVERS, U.S. MARINES, PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER: Good morning to you, Carol.

COSTELLO: You know this so-called "triangle of death", is that an accurate way to portray this area?

NEVERS: I don't think so. That is a term that has been picked and disseminated largely through reporting that I don't think paints a full picture of what is going on in this area.

Is it dangerous in northern Babil? Sure it is. But we are doing every thing we can in conjunction with the Iraqi security forces to disabuse the insurgents of the notion that they are going to be able to wreck havoc and torment the good people of Iraq. So, we are determined to change that equation and foster a far different perception.

COSTELLO: Captain, how does this offensive differ from Falluja?

NEVERS: I thin it is important to keep that this is very different from the operation in Falluja. It is under way, but it is not a Falluja-like mass assault marked by determined resistance and heavy fighting. The environment here south of Baghdad is very different and requires a different approach.

In the coming days, and already we've begun, Iraqi security forces, U.S. Marines, and British allies, will conduct a multitude of operations aimed at capturing or killing the those who are violently opposing Iraq's path to peace and democracy and freedom.

COSTELLO: So troops are going door-to-door still to find these insurgents. How many arrests have been made?

NEVERS: Well, thus far, in a series of raids that we conducted south of Baghdad yesterday morning, we rounded up 32 insurgents, including a number of high interest individuals; a very successful start to the operation.

Again, I'd like to point out that you don't have 5,000 troops sweeping across the Iraqi countryside. This is very different. What we are doing here is developing intelligence, patiently and persistently going after targets in a very focused way.

You are going to see, in the coming days, a lot of precision raids, house-to-house searches, but the activity is going to experience periods of hot and cold. The insurgents are not going to know when we're coming.

COSTELLO: Captain Nevers, when you say that you have taken into custody persons of high interest, what do you mean by that?

NEVERS: That means that we have good intelligence that these individuals are exercising some sort of key role in anti-Iraqi activity. Whether it is terrorism, whether it is criminal activity that wants to take advantage of the perception of chaos and violence in the country, exploit that for their own nefarious purposes, we're going to put a stop to that.

And the way we like to do that best is to focus in on the key guys. Not those who are accepting, you know, $200 a pop to lay and IED, an improvised explosive device, on the side of the road or to lob a mortar round at us. Those folks are trying to feed their families and are quite willing to accept a quick buck in order to do that.

What we're going after are those folks who are paying them the money to do that and feeding this activity.

COSTELLO: Captain, I know Iraqi forces are working with you. How involved are they in this operation?

NEVERS: They are playing a key role. Yesterday's operation, at the commencement of the operation, down in the town of Javella (ph), was lead by the Iraqi SWAT team, an emerging, elite Iraqi force that is already good and getting far better with each passing day and with each operation they conduct. They took the lead, they executed the raid, U.S. Marines provided reinforcements.

And it was a very successful day. They were in and out in a very quick period of time and it was a terrific start to what promises to be a lot of activity in the coming days.

COSTELLO: Captain, one last question for you. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. And your troops will be hard at work. How is the moral? How are they feeling? How will -- will they get to at all celebrate Thanksgiving?

NEVERS: Considering where we are at, the environment we're in, away from our families, I can tell you that moral couldn't be higher. We have a job to do. We're passionate about what we're doing here. We believe this is a very winnable fight that requires resolve and patience and persistence. We're going after the enemy. We're not going to let them breath. We have been at this now, four to five months, relentlessly. But we're going to maximize the time we have available until we are ready to go home, in order to get the job done here.

COSTELLO: Well, you stay safe.

NEVERS: And in answer to your question, we will, we will. Thank you.

COSTELLO: All right, Captain David Nevers, joining us live from Iraq this morning. Thanks so much.

Let's talk about the travel holiday period because rough weather is moving into many parts of country.

Sorry we didn't get to you sooner, Chad. But we had to get the captain in when we could.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know, I know, but I have a tornado warning for New Orleans and I really need to get it on, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, you go for it.

MYERS: So, let's get right to it here.

(TORNADO ALERT, NATIONAL WEATHER FORECAST, TRAVEL FORECAST)

COSTELLO: For all your holiday travel news, including interactive travel tips, be sure to log on to CNN.com.

Out of the fire and into the frying pan? Can people across Africa and Saudi Arabia combat a swarm of locusts by putting bugs on the menu? Take a look at that. Locusts are like giant flying grasshoppers. Whew! We'll have more for you at 41 minutes past, and a live report.

At 49 minutes after, a lifestyle choice that is having a devastating consequences in the black community.

And at 54 past, we'll hear from you. The question this morning: "How will Dan Rather's departure affect CBS?" Daybreak@cnn.com.

But first, here is a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning.

(GRAPHIC WITH HEADLINES)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports it is 5:44 Eastern. Here's what is all new this morning.

Triple A estimates more than 37 million people are planning to pack up their appetite and hit the road this Thanksgiving.

Protests are going into a third day in the Ukraine, with opposition supporters calling the country's recent presidential election a "sham". The voices are apparently being heard. Ukraine's outgoing president is now calling for all sides to negotiate.

In money news, Nasdaq gets serious. Sirius Satellite Radio stock was the hottest thing going on in Nasdaq yesterday. Shares rose 74 cents after the company announced it now has more than 800,000 subscribers.

In culture, a copy of Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai" is costing one man $300,000. A former member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences was fined that much for leaking screener copies of "Samurai" and for "Mystic River". Screener copies are sent out so members can vote on the Academy Awards. In sports, Steve Spurrier is the new head football coach at the University of South Carolina. He signed a seven-year deal worth more than a million each year. Spurrier replaces the retiring Lou Holtz (ph).

To the forecast center and Chad.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning. Still to come on DAYBREAK, Doctor Sanjay Gupta looks at some risky behavior that may be contributing to a health crisis.

And e-mail us what you think about Dan Rather's departure from the anchor desk, Daybreak@cnn.com. You are watching DAYBREAK for Wednesday, November 24.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In Africa every year locusts swarm across fields and plains, unseasonable rains last year though prompted a larger than normal hatching period and just about the heaviest locust infestation since 1988. We at DAYBREAK are frankly fascinated by these locusts, these flying grasshoppers.

We want to know more, so let's head live to Rome and Keith Cressman, locust forecasting officer from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Good morning.

Keith, are you there?

Keith is stuck in a swarm of locusts somewhere. And hopefully he will be joining us very soon. We're going to get back to him.

The United Nations is releasing a sobering report, though, another report, besides the report on locusts. It says the number of women infected with HIV is climbing in every region of the world.

In the United States about three out of four women diagnosed with the disease are African-American. CNN's Doctor Sanjay Gupta explains how that may be connected with something called "the down low".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's slowing down.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Forty-six-year-old Vanessa Johnson has already lived twice as long as her doctors told her she would.

In 1990 she was a young law student and the mother of a six-year- old son, when she was diagnosed with HIV and told she had seven years to live.

VANESSA JOHNSON, HIV POSITIVE: That scared me to death. I didn't want to suffer. And I knew that people suffered from this disease.

GUPTA: She suspects that she was infected by her high schools sweetheart. Although they never married, they dated for 18 years and had a child. He died of AIDS in 1994.

She says now, all the signs were there. He did have affairs and she believes that some of them were with men.

JOHNSON: He had a lot of gay friends. He, at the end, would say things to try to let me know, to try to affirm what I already knew. But it was still difficult for him to come right out and say, either my preference or my orientation is to have sex with men.

GUPTA: This situation isn't unique. It is called "the down low". Men who have wives or girlfriends -- and have sex with other men. Although some are claiming the down low is responsible for much of the increase of HIV infection among black straight women, many experts are saying it just isn't so.

RASHAD BURGESS, CDC: When we look at African-American men who have sex with men, that do not disclose their sexual activities or sexual orientation, we actually find that they are less likely to have high-risk behavior and less likely to be HIV positive.

DR. DAVID MALEBRANCHE, EMORY SCHOOLD OF MEDICINE: We can't really say for sure how much of a contribution this is having to the HIV infection rates among black women.

GUPTA: Experts say the reasons are many. That in the black community AIDS was originally thought of as a gay white man's disease and was not even on the radar screen. Add to that poverty, IV drug use, and the facts that blacks don't have the same access to primary health care. Whatever the reason, the explosion of numbers in the black community, especially straight women is undeniable -- Doctor Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And if you want to know more on any health headlines we have for you on CNN, the entire day, head to CNN.com.

All right, let's talk more about these locusts, these flying grasshoppers. Thick swarms of them in Israel and parts of Africa. Now, let's head live to Rome and Keith Cressman, who is the locust forecasting officer from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Good morning.

KEITH CRESSMAN, LOCUST FORECASTING, U.N. FOOD & AGRICULTURE ORG.: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So thick clouds of locusts have swarmed over Israel, parts of Africa, maybe heading to Rome. What are they like?

CRESSMAN: Well, at the moment, the most serious situation is in Morocco and Algeria. And that is really where we have these thick clouds of locusts. The other locusts that have been reported, in northeast Africa, in Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula and Israel. There we have a limited number of swarms. They are not quite as big nor as dense as those in northwest Africa. But certainly they do cause a lot of panic.

COSTELLO: So, what is a locust?

CRESSMAN: Well, a locust is a grasshopper, but it is specialized grasshopper. It is a grasshopper that can change its behavior according to the environmental conditions. In other words, when the conditions are very good, when there is rainfall, when there is green vegetation in the dessert, the locust actually changes from a solitary insect, one that acts completely alone, to a gregarious insect, one that acts as part of a group.

When they start to act as part of a group then they form these large wingless hopper bands, at the nymphal (ph) stage of their development, or they form the large swarms, the adult stage of their development. And it is these swarms that can very rapidly move from country to country, from one side of a continent to another. And they can then mature very quickly, lay eggs and then we have another generation of locusts that arrives.

COSTELLO: Oh, and the damage that can left behind can be quite devastating. I mean, locusts are mentioned in the Bible. God sent them as punishment. A quote from Revelations: "They have tails like scorpions and stings and their power of hurting men for five months lies in their tails."

Tell us of the locusts' power.

CRESSMAN: Well, this is the danger of the locusts. As you mention, it has been in history for hundreds of years, thousands of years, the potential for desert locust swarms to cause damage are enormous.

It can clean out a local farmers field in a morning, one swarm can do this; in other cases a swarm can pass a farmers field and not touch it at all. So the range of damage is anywhere between zero and 100 percent.

COSTELLO: Keith Cressman, thank you very much for joining DAYBREAK this morning for this fascinating story.

We're going to toss to a break. We'll be back with more DAYBREAK after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Welcome back to DAYBREAK. We want to read some of your e-mails right now. We're asking the question: How do you think that Dan Rather's departure will affect CBS News. And will those lingering controversies affect his legacy?

We have some interesting responses from you, as is usual. I'm going read one right off my computer. This is from Earl from Iowa. He says, "I think that Dan Rather departing the "CBS Evening News" was the only proper decision under the circumstances. As a former broadcast journalist I know that you have to report the facts rather than speculation or rumor, no matter how good a story you may have.

"I think that Mr. Rather's departure will help to heal the black eye that the Tiffany Network sustained because of Mr. Rather."

This one is from Bill, from Florida. He says, "I have mixed feelings about Dan Rather's departure. He is literally the face of CBS News but I'm getting tired of seeing that face through soft focus. Maybe it is time to pass the torch to a new generation.

And let's see, one more. This is from Al, from Palm Beach. "I'm confident that Mr. Rather's distinguished career as a journalist will stand the test of time. I don't believe one or two mistakes should define his 40 plus years of responsible news reporting in America."

Thank you for your comments this morning. We appreciate it.

The next hour of DAYBREAK starts right now.

Al Jazeera and Al-Qaeda, an Iraqi official accuses the Arab news network of having ties to the terrorist group.

Are you, or some one you know, looking for a job? Stick around, we'll tell you what not to put on that resume.

And expecting one of those gift cards this Christmas? We'll tell you some things about them you just might not know.

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 24, 2004 - 05:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome to the second half hour of DAYBREAK. There is a lot going on right now, so let's get right to the headlines now.
Thousands of U.S., Iraq and British troops are in action south of Baghdad this morning. They are kicking off a new offensive against insurgents in Babil Province. These insurgents have repeatedly attacked convoys along a main highway.

Convicted killer Scott Peterson loses two appeals in a California State appeals court. The court rejected a request for a new jury for the sentencing phase. It also turned down a request to move the trial out of Redwood City.

People in Washington State hope to find out today who their new governor will be. The state's been recounting its November 2 vote. So far, the Republican is 300 votes ahead of the Democrat.

U.S. and Iraqi forces are now into the second day of a new offensive. They are in an area known as the "triangle of death". It is called that because of the frequent attacks on travelers. U.S. troops are targeting Iraq's volatile Babil Province and CNN's Karl Penhaul checked in moments ago with how the campaign is going.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): There is a major operation that has been launched Tuesday morning. It has been dubbed Operation Plymouth Rock. And it is going on in an area about 50 miles south of Baghdad. And area that has been dubbed the "triangle of death"; it is notorious for insurgent attacks there, but also for criminal attacks.

Now, the U.S. military has told us about 5,000 troops, an Iraqi SWAT team, U.S. Marines and members of Britain's Black Watch are taking part in this operation, a campaign that should last for several days.

One of the targets of the operation are insurgents who are expected or suspected of having moved out of Falluja as the offensive got underway there. And also, that may have struck up an alliance with some of the criminal gangs operating in the "triangle of death".

We are told that in the first day of operations 32 suspected insurgents were arrested.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: Karl Penhaul reporting for us with the latest -- from Iraq, from Falluja, from the Babil Province, and that brings us kind of up to date about how the campaign stands right now.

Karl said it is expected to last several days, but we want to find out more specifics. Captain David Nevers, with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, joins me now, by phone, from Iraq.

Good morning, Captain Nevers.

CAPT. DAVID NEVERS, U.S. MARINES, PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER: Good morning to you, Carol.

COSTELLO: You know this so-called "triangle of death", is that an accurate way to portray this area?

NEVERS: I don't think so. That is a term that has been picked and disseminated largely through reporting that I don't think paints a full picture of what is going on in this area.

Is it dangerous in northern Babil? Sure it is. But we are doing every thing we can in conjunction with the Iraqi security forces to disabuse the insurgents of the notion that they are going to be able to wreck havoc and torment the good people of Iraq. So, we are determined to change that equation and foster a far different perception.

COSTELLO: Captain, how does this offensive differ from Falluja?

NEVERS: I thin it is important to keep that this is very different from the operation in Falluja. It is under way, but it is not a Falluja-like mass assault marked by determined resistance and heavy fighting. The environment here south of Baghdad is very different and requires a different approach.

In the coming days, and already we've begun, Iraqi security forces, U.S. Marines, and British allies, will conduct a multitude of operations aimed at capturing or killing the those who are violently opposing Iraq's path to peace and democracy and freedom.

COSTELLO: So troops are going door-to-door still to find these insurgents. How many arrests have been made?

NEVERS: Well, thus far, in a series of raids that we conducted south of Baghdad yesterday morning, we rounded up 32 insurgents, including a number of high interest individuals; a very successful start to the operation.

Again, I'd like to point out that you don't have 5,000 troops sweeping across the Iraqi countryside. This is very different. What we are doing here is developing intelligence, patiently and persistently going after targets in a very focused way.

You are going to see, in the coming days, a lot of precision raids, house-to-house searches, but the activity is going to experience periods of hot and cold. The insurgents are not going to know when we're coming.

COSTELLO: Captain Nevers, when you say that you have taken into custody persons of high interest, what do you mean by that?

NEVERS: That means that we have good intelligence that these individuals are exercising some sort of key role in anti-Iraqi activity. Whether it is terrorism, whether it is criminal activity that wants to take advantage of the perception of chaos and violence in the country, exploit that for their own nefarious purposes, we're going to put a stop to that.

And the way we like to do that best is to focus in on the key guys. Not those who are accepting, you know, $200 a pop to lay and IED, an improvised explosive device, on the side of the road or to lob a mortar round at us. Those folks are trying to feed their families and are quite willing to accept a quick buck in order to do that.

What we're going after are those folks who are paying them the money to do that and feeding this activity.

COSTELLO: Captain, I know Iraqi forces are working with you. How involved are they in this operation?

NEVERS: They are playing a key role. Yesterday's operation, at the commencement of the operation, down in the town of Javella (ph), was lead by the Iraqi SWAT team, an emerging, elite Iraqi force that is already good and getting far better with each passing day and with each operation they conduct. They took the lead, they executed the raid, U.S. Marines provided reinforcements.

And it was a very successful day. They were in and out in a very quick period of time and it was a terrific start to what promises to be a lot of activity in the coming days.

COSTELLO: Captain, one last question for you. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. And your troops will be hard at work. How is the moral? How are they feeling? How will -- will they get to at all celebrate Thanksgiving?

NEVERS: Considering where we are at, the environment we're in, away from our families, I can tell you that moral couldn't be higher. We have a job to do. We're passionate about what we're doing here. We believe this is a very winnable fight that requires resolve and patience and persistence. We're going after the enemy. We're not going to let them breath. We have been at this now, four to five months, relentlessly. But we're going to maximize the time we have available until we are ready to go home, in order to get the job done here.

COSTELLO: Well, you stay safe.

NEVERS: And in answer to your question, we will, we will. Thank you.

COSTELLO: All right, Captain David Nevers, joining us live from Iraq this morning. Thanks so much.

Let's talk about the travel holiday period because rough weather is moving into many parts of country.

Sorry we didn't get to you sooner, Chad. But we had to get the captain in when we could.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know, I know, but I have a tornado warning for New Orleans and I really need to get it on, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, you go for it.

MYERS: So, let's get right to it here.

(TORNADO ALERT, NATIONAL WEATHER FORECAST, TRAVEL FORECAST)

COSTELLO: For all your holiday travel news, including interactive travel tips, be sure to log on to CNN.com.

Out of the fire and into the frying pan? Can people across Africa and Saudi Arabia combat a swarm of locusts by putting bugs on the menu? Take a look at that. Locusts are like giant flying grasshoppers. Whew! We'll have more for you at 41 minutes past, and a live report.

At 49 minutes after, a lifestyle choice that is having a devastating consequences in the black community.

And at 54 past, we'll hear from you. The question this morning: "How will Dan Rather's departure affect CBS?" Daybreak@cnn.com.

But first, here is a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning.

(GRAPHIC WITH HEADLINES)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports it is 5:44 Eastern. Here's what is all new this morning.

Triple A estimates more than 37 million people are planning to pack up their appetite and hit the road this Thanksgiving.

Protests are going into a third day in the Ukraine, with opposition supporters calling the country's recent presidential election a "sham". The voices are apparently being heard. Ukraine's outgoing president is now calling for all sides to negotiate.

In money news, Nasdaq gets serious. Sirius Satellite Radio stock was the hottest thing going on in Nasdaq yesterday. Shares rose 74 cents after the company announced it now has more than 800,000 subscribers.

In culture, a copy of Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai" is costing one man $300,000. A former member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences was fined that much for leaking screener copies of "Samurai" and for "Mystic River". Screener copies are sent out so members can vote on the Academy Awards. In sports, Steve Spurrier is the new head football coach at the University of South Carolina. He signed a seven-year deal worth more than a million each year. Spurrier replaces the retiring Lou Holtz (ph).

To the forecast center and Chad.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning. Still to come on DAYBREAK, Doctor Sanjay Gupta looks at some risky behavior that may be contributing to a health crisis.

And e-mail us what you think about Dan Rather's departure from the anchor desk, Daybreak@cnn.com. You are watching DAYBREAK for Wednesday, November 24.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In Africa every year locusts swarm across fields and plains, unseasonable rains last year though prompted a larger than normal hatching period and just about the heaviest locust infestation since 1988. We at DAYBREAK are frankly fascinated by these locusts, these flying grasshoppers.

We want to know more, so let's head live to Rome and Keith Cressman, locust forecasting officer from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Good morning.

Keith, are you there?

Keith is stuck in a swarm of locusts somewhere. And hopefully he will be joining us very soon. We're going to get back to him.

The United Nations is releasing a sobering report, though, another report, besides the report on locusts. It says the number of women infected with HIV is climbing in every region of the world.

In the United States about three out of four women diagnosed with the disease are African-American. CNN's Doctor Sanjay Gupta explains how that may be connected with something called "the down low".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's slowing down.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Forty-six-year-old Vanessa Johnson has already lived twice as long as her doctors told her she would.

In 1990 she was a young law student and the mother of a six-year- old son, when she was diagnosed with HIV and told she had seven years to live.

VANESSA JOHNSON, HIV POSITIVE: That scared me to death. I didn't want to suffer. And I knew that people suffered from this disease.

GUPTA: She suspects that she was infected by her high schools sweetheart. Although they never married, they dated for 18 years and had a child. He died of AIDS in 1994.

She says now, all the signs were there. He did have affairs and she believes that some of them were with men.

JOHNSON: He had a lot of gay friends. He, at the end, would say things to try to let me know, to try to affirm what I already knew. But it was still difficult for him to come right out and say, either my preference or my orientation is to have sex with men.

GUPTA: This situation isn't unique. It is called "the down low". Men who have wives or girlfriends -- and have sex with other men. Although some are claiming the down low is responsible for much of the increase of HIV infection among black straight women, many experts are saying it just isn't so.

RASHAD BURGESS, CDC: When we look at African-American men who have sex with men, that do not disclose their sexual activities or sexual orientation, we actually find that they are less likely to have high-risk behavior and less likely to be HIV positive.

DR. DAVID MALEBRANCHE, EMORY SCHOOLD OF MEDICINE: We can't really say for sure how much of a contribution this is having to the HIV infection rates among black women.

GUPTA: Experts say the reasons are many. That in the black community AIDS was originally thought of as a gay white man's disease and was not even on the radar screen. Add to that poverty, IV drug use, and the facts that blacks don't have the same access to primary health care. Whatever the reason, the explosion of numbers in the black community, especially straight women is undeniable -- Doctor Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And if you want to know more on any health headlines we have for you on CNN, the entire day, head to CNN.com.

All right, let's talk more about these locusts, these flying grasshoppers. Thick swarms of them in Israel and parts of Africa. Now, let's head live to Rome and Keith Cressman, who is the locust forecasting officer from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Good morning.

KEITH CRESSMAN, LOCUST FORECASTING, U.N. FOOD & AGRICULTURE ORG.: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So thick clouds of locusts have swarmed over Israel, parts of Africa, maybe heading to Rome. What are they like?

CRESSMAN: Well, at the moment, the most serious situation is in Morocco and Algeria. And that is really where we have these thick clouds of locusts. The other locusts that have been reported, in northeast Africa, in Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula and Israel. There we have a limited number of swarms. They are not quite as big nor as dense as those in northwest Africa. But certainly they do cause a lot of panic.

COSTELLO: So, what is a locust?

CRESSMAN: Well, a locust is a grasshopper, but it is specialized grasshopper. It is a grasshopper that can change its behavior according to the environmental conditions. In other words, when the conditions are very good, when there is rainfall, when there is green vegetation in the dessert, the locust actually changes from a solitary insect, one that acts completely alone, to a gregarious insect, one that acts as part of a group.

When they start to act as part of a group then they form these large wingless hopper bands, at the nymphal (ph) stage of their development, or they form the large swarms, the adult stage of their development. And it is these swarms that can very rapidly move from country to country, from one side of a continent to another. And they can then mature very quickly, lay eggs and then we have another generation of locusts that arrives.

COSTELLO: Oh, and the damage that can left behind can be quite devastating. I mean, locusts are mentioned in the Bible. God sent them as punishment. A quote from Revelations: "They have tails like scorpions and stings and their power of hurting men for five months lies in their tails."

Tell us of the locusts' power.

CRESSMAN: Well, this is the danger of the locusts. As you mention, it has been in history for hundreds of years, thousands of years, the potential for desert locust swarms to cause damage are enormous.

It can clean out a local farmers field in a morning, one swarm can do this; in other cases a swarm can pass a farmers field and not touch it at all. So the range of damage is anywhere between zero and 100 percent.

COSTELLO: Keith Cressman, thank you very much for joining DAYBREAK this morning for this fascinating story.

We're going to toss to a break. We'll be back with more DAYBREAK after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Welcome back to DAYBREAK. We want to read some of your e-mails right now. We're asking the question: How do you think that Dan Rather's departure will affect CBS News. And will those lingering controversies affect his legacy?

We have some interesting responses from you, as is usual. I'm going read one right off my computer. This is from Earl from Iowa. He says, "I think that Dan Rather departing the "CBS Evening News" was the only proper decision under the circumstances. As a former broadcast journalist I know that you have to report the facts rather than speculation or rumor, no matter how good a story you may have.

"I think that Mr. Rather's departure will help to heal the black eye that the Tiffany Network sustained because of Mr. Rather."

This one is from Bill, from Florida. He says, "I have mixed feelings about Dan Rather's departure. He is literally the face of CBS News but I'm getting tired of seeing that face through soft focus. Maybe it is time to pass the torch to a new generation.

And let's see, one more. This is from Al, from Palm Beach. "I'm confident that Mr. Rather's distinguished career as a journalist will stand the test of time. I don't believe one or two mistakes should define his 40 plus years of responsible news reporting in America."

Thank you for your comments this morning. We appreciate it.

The next hour of DAYBREAK starts right now.

Al Jazeera and Al-Qaeda, an Iraqi official accuses the Arab news network of having ties to the terrorist group.

Are you, or some one you know, looking for a job? Stick around, we'll tell you what not to put on that resume.

And expecting one of those gift cards this Christmas? We'll tell you some things about them you just might not know.

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