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American Morning
Intelligence Reform; High-Tech Passports
Aired November 29, 2004 - 07:30 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: Welcome back everybody. It's just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
We're going to let you know in the next few days how far President Bush is willing to go to get the 9/11 reform bill through Congress. Pressure is now coming from both Democrats and Republicans, who are urging the president to use his clout to break a deadlock in the House. We're going to take a look at where the political maneuvering is t this morning.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also, some big changes coming to U.S. passports, changes that some people say will allow criminals to steal your identity, kind of hack your passport, if you will. How important is this new passport technology? What are the safeguards? We'll take a look at that.
S. O'BRIEN: I was going to say the risks and the benefits, but I said the renofits (ph).
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: It saves time. It saves time to say...
S. O'BRIEN: My goal was saving time, and I did.
M. O'BRIEN: A producer's dream. Renofits (ph).
S. O'BRIEN: Heidi Collins has the headlines this morning.
Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: I do. Unfortunately, we're going to go straight to Iraq now.
"Now in the News."
CNN has confirmed a car bomb attack in Iraq. It happened about two hours ago. The explosion went off in a town near Ramadi. Iraqi health officials say at least six people were killed, eight others wounded. Four Iraqi police officers are among the dead.
Here in the U.S., NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol and one of his sons are being treated this morning following a fiery plane crash in southwestern Colorado. A private jet crashed during takeoff in snowy weather yesterday, killing at least two of the people on board. KUSA reports that Ebersol's 14-year-old son, who was also on board, is still missing. We'll have more details about the incident coming up in a news conference. That should be happening in less than about four hours from now.
And in sports, the white stuff isn't stopping the silver and black. Oakland Raiders' Kerry Collins threw for 339 yards and four touchdowns to carry the Raiders to a snowy upset yesterday against the Denver Broncos. The final score there: 25-24. And, you know, the Broncos know how to play in snow.
S. O'BRIEN: And the Raiders don't.
COLLINS: So this was big time! This was a huge upset.
S. O'BRIEN: They don't get a lot of snow in Oakland.
COLLINS: Not a whole lot.
M. O'BRIEN: Those are the best games, though.
COLLINS: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: They really are.
S. O'BRIEN: They're all sliding around.
M. O'BRIEN: It's the way football should be played. All right.
S. O'BRIEN: Thanks.
COLLINS: Tough guy, Miles.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. When I was playing football, we did it that way, barefoot.
COLLINS: You didn't play football.
M. O'BRIEN: No.
S. O'BRIEN: Please, please.
M. O'BRIEN: I'm making it all up. All right.
S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Heidi.
M. O'BRIEN: OK. The battle over intelligence reforms is what we're talking about now. The bill continues this morning, and that battle continues as time is running out for Congress to pass the measure before year's end.
This weekend, opponents once again pointed out what they see as the bill's weaknesses.
Elaine Quijano is live at the White House now with more.
Good morning -- Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.
President Bush returned to the White House here yesterday after spending the holiday weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
And here in Washington, people on both sides of the aisle are looking to the president to intervene again to try to break this impasse on the intel reform bill. But the lawmakers who've raised objections aren't showing any signs of backing down.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO (voice over): Even though there are enough votes in the House to pass intelligence reform legislation now, Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert won't allow the bill to come to a vote because of some strong opposition within his own party.
Duncan Hunter, head of the Armed Services Committee, whose son served in Iraq, speaks for Republicans who say the bill doesn't preserve the chain of command needed to keep intelligence flowing quickly to front-line troops.
REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: When the Department of Defense has to have a satellite over Falluja, for example, because they've got people being shot at on the ground -- they need to know where the enemy is -- you have to be able to control that agency.
QUIJANO: Top military leaders agree, saying the Pentagon, not a new national intelligence director, should keep control of satellite and communications programs.
But other lawmakers say U.S. troops on the battlefield will get what they need.
SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: Every bill that we have proposed preserves that tactical intelligence.
QUIJANO: Another leading holdout, Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner, wants to bar states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), WISCONSIN: And until we are able to make sure that driver's licenses are given only to people who are lawfully present in the United States, America is still at greater risk.
QUIJANO: The 9/11 Commission's vice chair says the risk is not passing reforms now.
LEE HAMILTON, VICE CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: I know the attention has been on the intelligence and the immigration provisions. They're important provisions. But there are scores, if not hundreds, of provisions here, which strengthen the counterterrorism efforts of the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE) QUIJANO: Now, Democrats complain that President Bush, who says he will sign the bill, is not putting enough pressure on those Republican holdouts. But the White House says the president has made it very clear that he wants to see this legislation passed as quickly as possible. And White House officials say the president will continue working closely with Congress to make that happen -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano at the White House, thank you very much -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: In less than a year, the State Department will begin issuing high-tech passports. The computer chips in the new passports have already caused much debate over whether confidential information will become vulnerable.
Former FBI agent Bill Daly is at the Time Warner center in New York for us this morning. Jay Stanley is the ACLU spokesman for travel security, and he's in Washington, D.C. for us this morning.
Nice to see you, gentlemen. Thanks for joining us.
Mr. Daly, let's begin with you. How exactly will these chips embedded in passports work?
BILL DALY, FORMER FBI AGENT: Well, Soledad, the way it works is similar to what we have in some of our credit cards. We have a small intelligent chip that will store some data. In this case, it will just store the same information that is already on the inside the jacket of the passport. It would be the person's name, identifying data, as well as a photo.
And what it really is meant to do is speed up the processing, enhance our border security after 9/11 to make sure that people aren't running amuck with counterfeit passports. Or if one is lost or stolen, we can remove that from the system so that people can't reuse it.
S. O'BRIEN: If it's the same information that's already on the paper passport that we carry when we travel, Mr. Stanley, why are you opposed to it?
JAY STANLEY, ACLU TRAVEL SECURITY SPOKESMAN: The problem is, is that this computer chip is a radio computer chip, which actually broadcasts out all of the information that's on your passport, including your digital photograph, your name, date of birth, your place of birth -- everything that's on your passport -- to anybody who has what's called an RFID reader, which is a reader that can read these radio chips. They are similar to the ones used in toll booth speed passes.
And what we found in the documents that we've uncovered from the State Department is that the U.S. government actually opposed every suggestion that was made during the international United Nations' process for developing these passports, opposed every proposed security measure that would ensure that these passports can't be read by intruders. The consequence of that is that anybody who is carrying a passport is vulnerable to identity theft. If you're traveling abroad, terrorists could easily identify which people in a room are American citizens. And it also leaves you open to tracking and to surveillance. So there were easy fixes that could have been made to this and they weren't made.
S. O'BRIEN: Mr. Daly, it seems like Mr. Stanley has a laundry list of vulnerabilities of this new technology. Do you agree with him or no?
DALY: Well, first of all, I would certainly tell him to rethink the issue of this passport transmitting the data. It actually doesn't transmit the data. It actually is read by a reader and read by a proximity reader. Therein lies the issue which he has raised, which is proximity to a reader, and there is some data that is moved across a certain distance.
Let's keep in mind also that right now there are four companies that have been selected to develop prototypes of this chip. This passport chip will be actually printed by the U.S. Government Printing Office and put into the passports. So these other companies aren't actually putting it in the passports.
S. O'BRIEN: But there is evidence that somebody who has a reader, which could be embedded in a doorway or something, could actually read your information as walk through with your passport, right? I mean, you're not disputing that.
DALY: Well, I think that we're talking about a level of sophistication here, Soledad, that borders on saying, how far do you want to take it. I think in this case, the benefits certainly outweigh any of the risks.
And we also, don't forget, we expose ourselves to many more risks in our everyday life between using ATM cards, credit cards, online banking and online shopping. And I think this is -- for what we're gaining here, which is better security at our borders, better ability to be able to process up to 27 countries that we have the visa waiver program with, to be able to speed those through, I think far outweighs some of the risks that have been exposed.
S. O'BRIEN: Mr. Stanley, you talked about some of the fixes that would be relatively easy. For example, you could wrap the passport in something so it couldn't be read except when you take it out. Or you could make the process so that the passport had to actually be opened before a reader would be able to read it. If all of those things went into place or one of those things were put into place, would you be fine with this?
STANLEY: Well, we would still have problems with this idea of having a radio computer chip in passports. But the fact is, is that that's a hypothetical. The chip that has been proposed through this year-long United Nations process is a chip that doesn't have security controls on it. And that's what Americans need to worry about. And in terms of the sophistication needed to get a reader to read these chips, I think that as a security expert, Mr. Daly would be the first to say that the mistake that is always made in security is underestimating the enemy. And the fact is, is that the technology needed to read these chips will become widely available, will be in the hands of terrorists.
In fact, experts that testified to the United States actually testified that the knowledge for cracking smart cards is already widespread. And we will definitely see the same thing here.
This is about whether we want our identity cards to have beacons that send out our personal information to anybody who has a reader. It's about passports now, but it inevitably will expand to our driver's licenses and other identity documentation.
S. O'BRIEN: Jay Stanly and Bill Daly joining us this morning. Gentlemen, thanks. Appreciate it.
DALY: Thank you.
STANLEY: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: We should mention that when it comes to photos for international visas, the State Department says no smiling. Officials categorize a smile as an unusual or unnatural expression. They say smiling disport (ph) -- distorts, rather, facial features in a way that computerized security technology may not be able to recognize somebody.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, for most of those Customs guys, smiling is an unusual thing. I've got to tell you, yes, they don't know much about it.
S. O'BRIEN: Hey, hey, hey, that's not fair.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: They finally reversed the curse. Who else could take the honor this year? "Sports Illustrated" has named the 2004 Boston Red Sox their sportsmen of the year. Talk about a no-brainer. The magazine says the championship team and their fans made it an easy choice.
S. O'BRIEN: Good for them.
M. O'BRIEN: Good for them is right.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, I would have picked them, too.
M. O'BRIEN: Congratulations, Sox. Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely.
Still to come this morning, one airline sends its pilots back to school. It's got more to do with money management, though, than flying lessons. We'll explain in "Minding Your Business" just ahead.
M. O'BRIEN: Plus, Julia Roberts plays the name game. And, boy, it was an odd game. A little creative, I'd say. "90-Second Pop" will weigh in on Phinnaeus and Hazel ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: All right, time now for a little THC or TLC or something like that with Jack as we talk about...
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: What the hell are you talking about?
M. O'BRIEN: I have no idea.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: I've been using it for medicinal purposes only, sir.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
CAFFERTY: Eleven states allow the medicinal use of marijuana, if your doctors says you need it. The federal government says marijuana is illegal, period. No exceptions. The Supreme Court is now going to have to decide who is right. The case involves a woman in California with an inoperable brain tumor. Her doctors prescribed marijuana to ease the pain.
The question is: Under what circumstances should marijuana be illegal?
Kate in Williston, Florida, says: "It's amazing doctors give morphine, Demerol, codeine, et cetera, but marijuana is illegal to use and accomplishes more than the painkillers the pharmaceutical companies are doling out. If the pharmaceutical companies can figure out a way to grow and distribute marijuana and they get a piece of the action, then it would be legal in America."
Steven in Tennessee -- you're such a cynic, Kate.
Steven in Tennessee: "It's funny. Republicans are chomping at the bit to allow states to decide about abortion instead of the federal government but insists that the federal government overrule state's rights on medical marijuana."
Rich in Council Bluffs, Indiana, writes: "How much money are we spending to police something that the government has not been able to police? Legalize it and then tax the hell out of it."
And Pamela in Michigan writes: "It should be legalized under the same rules as purchasing alcohol. But until the nation wakes up, those who use it will continue to do so illegally, and the government will waste millions of dollars trying to control it."
M. O'BRIEN: Good comments. Good comments this morning. CAFFERTY: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Sober comments this morning. But haven't they created a THC pill, and a lot of people say that that's not as effective and more expensive?
CAFFERTY: I am unaware...
M. O'BRIEN: OK.
CAFFERTY: ... of the subtleties of medicinal marijuana.
M. O'BRIEN: Right.
CAFFERTY: But I have no reason to doubt what you say as being factual. I'm sure you know what you're talking about.
M. O'BRIEN: It's good enough for morning TV anyhow.
CAFFERTY: That's right.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Soledad...
CAFFERTY: It's close enough for government work.
S. O'BRIEN: A check now on the markets. Gerri Willis is here this morning. Andy has got a couple of days off.
Nice to see you.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Good to see you, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Pilots are going to back to school for what?
WILLIS: This is crazy. They're going to teach pilots at United how to save money on fuel. Fuel apparently is a huge cost for airlines. It's been going up. Oil now at 50 bucks a gallon.
And you see that the biggest cost for airlines after personnel: fuel. So, they're trying to teach the pilots how to save a little dough by flying a little slower apparently is the big way to save money. Just like if you're driving your SUV, you slow down and you save a little money.
Now, I don't know where -- they say safety is still No. 1, the most important thing that pilots do. But, yes, I thought it was curious.
M. O'BRIEN: I wonder why they don't use the self-serve pump. You know, it would be a lot cheaper.
WILLIS: Yes. Yes, you just drive up to...
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
WILLIS: ... with your (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
CAFFERTY: There you go again.
M. O'BRIEN: It's just a thought.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's transition this move into the markets, can we?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
WILLIS: We can. The markets last week, three and a half days of trading and that was it. Look at this. The market is up pretty dramatically. It did pretty well last week. Today's open is expected to be strong.
On the news that we talked about just a minute ago that retail sales on the Black Friday holiday weekend were high, just very strong for the holiday weekend. And we're looking at a big open this morning.
S. O'BRIEN: And we will see what happens, of course, over the next month to see how really those sales do. Gerri Willis, thank you. Appreciate it. We'll check back in with you again.
Still to come this morning, "Alexander" conquered much of the ancient world. But could he capture the box office as well? "90- Second Pop" is just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome, everybody. No chitchat. We're getting going here. It's time once again for our critically-acclaimed "90- Second Pop."
Here to play this morning, Sarah Bernard. She's a contributing editor for "New York" magazine. B.J. Sigesmund is a staff editor for "US Weekly." And Jessica Shaw for "Entertainment Weekly."
Good morning to all of you. Nice to have you.
JESSICA SHAW, "ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY": Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm loving your haircut, by the way.
SHAW: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: It's very cute.
All right, let's get right to it. Julia Roberts had twins.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Yes!
S. O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) than Julia Roberts. She's younger than me.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: She had a boy and a girl. Phinnaeus Walter and Hazel Patricia.
S. O'BRIEN: Those are the names.
SHAW: Those are the names. She's really just copying you. I mean, you have been the trendsetter for the celebrities. You are...
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: Julia wanted to have twins.
S. O'BRIEN: I hate that.
SHAW: Yes, you know...
S. O'BRIEN: What do you think of these names?
SHAW: I like -- personally, I like Hazel. Phinnaeus to me is -- I hope he goes by Phen.
S. O'BRIEN: That's cute.
SHAW: I mean, that's a cute nickname.
B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": Well, somebody downstairs was saying that there was a character named Phinnaeus in that novel, "A Separate Piece," that everyone read in junior high or were supposed to read in junior high.
BERNARD: Right, sure.
SIGESMUND: But it wasn't spelled quite the same way. This Phinnaeus is P-H-I-N-N-A-E-U,-S.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: And like restaurant reservations for the rest of your life.
BERNARD: Phinnaeus died in that book, sort of a tragic literary figure to get you...
SIGESMUND: Exactly.
S. O'BRIEN: It will be Finn, F-I-N-N.
SHAW: I think with this, though, is she going to become like Gwyneth Paltrow and take all of this time off and say, you know what? I really want to focus on being a mom and not go back to acting. And right now, she has nothing lined up except she's doing a voice in an animated movie.
SIGESMUND: Yes, yes.
S. O'BRIEN: She'll stay home with the twins for a couple of days and she'll be like, oh, I've got to get right back to acting.
SHAW: Right.
SIGESMUND: I'm done.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: ... come in to CNN and have your job.
S. O'BRIEN: Sure.
SIGESMUND: Does anyone think it's a little bit strange that she had these babies a month prematurely and just five days before "Closer" comes out and two weeks before her other movie, "Ocean's 12," comes out?
BERNARD: I was going to say that. Isn't it convenient?
S. O'BRIEN: Well...
(CROSSTALK)
SIGESMUND: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Honestly, twins are high risk. And I don't believe any mother would put her child at risk or her children at risk by inducing them early. Most doctors would make you wait. That is what I will say.
(CROSSTALK)
BERNARD: You probably would want them to induce you, but not your doctor.
SHAW: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) injecting the drug.
O'BRIEN: Wait a second. Let's talk about movies. "National Treasure" again.
SIGESMUND: Yes, out of nowhere. Who would have thought this movie, which got pretty bad reviews a week and a half ago, would be No. 1 for a second weekend in a row. It's now the biggest movie of Nic Cage's career. It dropped only 6 percent from its first weekend. And, you know, I guess people just really wanted to see this "Indiana Jones" style action-adventure. And critics couldn't dissuade them.
BERNARD: I think it's a perfect Thanksgiving escape movie. Don't you think?
SIGESMUND: Yes.
BERNARD: I mean, I think that's partially why it did so well.
S. O'BRIEN: A little mindless.
SIGESMUND: Yes.
BERNARD: Right. Because that's actually what people do over Thanksgiving, right?
SIGESMUND: Yes, exactly.
BERNARD: You're strapping your family and you go see movies.
SIGESMUND: As opposed to, we have to talk about "Alexander"...
S. O'BRIEN: Right.
SIGESMUND: ... which critics also nailed, but that could not convince people. This was an absolute dog. It made only $21 million over five days. That's less than half of what "Troy" made in just three days in May.
SHAW: I mean, it opened at No. 6. Even a movie like "Christmas With the Kranks" did better.
BERNARD: That's bad.
SHAW: I mean, like, that is so embarrassing.
S. O'BRIEN: Was it the blonde pageboy that had people not going to see it?
BERNARD: It was the casting. I mean, it just shows you how important it was. Colin Farrell -- I was going to say Colin Furst (ph) -- is just wrong for that movie.
SHAW: He would have -- Colin Furst (ph) would have been a good "Alexander."
BERNARD: I'm putting him in. But, you know, Nic Cage, it's not the greatest movie, but people love him. And he can open a movie much more.
SIGESMUND: Yes. And Colin Farrell is not -- he's a celebrity. He's not really thought of as an actor. And I think people really needed extra incentive -- i.e. good reviews -- to go see this three- hour epic.
S. O'BRIEN: You know what my thing is? If you get to three hours, I'm not going. I don't care what it is. Three hours is...
BERNARD: Even abbreviated.
SHAW: Especially once you've had turkey (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you're asleep after 10 minutes anyway.
S. O'BRIEN: Clearly. Let's talk about the "Desperate Housewives." Oh, what...
BERNARD: Oh.
S. O'BRIEN: What a ploy. They kept telling us one was going to be killed off.
BERNARD: I know!
S. O'BRIEN: One was going to be killed. One wasn't killed off.
BERNARD: Well, how could they really kill off one of the main four girls? I mean, that would just -- that would be wrong. And we have to give some props to B.J. here, who called in on Friday.
SHAW: Yes, so good.
SIGESMUND: Thank you.
BERNARD: And the woman who was bumped off was actually Martha Huber, the annoying nosy neighbor. She's kind of the classic -- I don't know. I was thinking Mrs. Roper or something from "Three's Company." You know, the annoying woman who lives next door and barges in on you all the time.
S. O'BRIEN: Well...
SIGESMUND: Right.
BERNARD: But, I think the thing that people were actually considering or people were taking seriously, the fact that they might bump off Nicollette Sheridan. That is impossible. I mean, she is the Kim Cattrell (ph) of the show.
SIGESMUND: Right.
BERNARD: They're really trying to groom her to be like that. And there is no way they would drop her.
SIGESMUND: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: It's too early in the season...
SIGESMUND: No.
S. O'BRIEN: ... to knock off any of the four main characters.
BERNARD: Exactly.
SHAW: The NFL, I'm sure, wanted to knock her off, but (UNINTELLIGIBLE) beyond that.
SIGESMUND: And, if you really like Martha Huber, I hear that she's going to be back in flashbacks all the way through the spring while they explain what actually Mary Alice did to this baby, Dana, that was so terrible.
S. O'BRIEN: Because they set it up.
BERNARD: No one died on that show. They just come back.
S. O'BRIEN: Right. They always just come back. It's good for a working actor, I think. You guys...
SHAW: Julia Roberts.
S. O'BRIEN: That's right, flashbacks, it worked.
Well, thanks, you guys. As always, appreciate it.
Miles -- back to you.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. In a moment, today's top stories, including the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Why is Pakistan cutting back on its search? One expert says it's hard to believe the Pakistanis are telling the whole story. CNN military analyst David Grange on tap. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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Aired November 29, 2004 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everybody. It's just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
We're going to let you know in the next few days how far President Bush is willing to go to get the 9/11 reform bill through Congress. Pressure is now coming from both Democrats and Republicans, who are urging the president to use his clout to break a deadlock in the House. We're going to take a look at where the political maneuvering is t this morning.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also, some big changes coming to U.S. passports, changes that some people say will allow criminals to steal your identity, kind of hack your passport, if you will. How important is this new passport technology? What are the safeguards? We'll take a look at that.
S. O'BRIEN: I was going to say the risks and the benefits, but I said the renofits (ph).
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: It saves time. It saves time to say...
S. O'BRIEN: My goal was saving time, and I did.
M. O'BRIEN: A producer's dream. Renofits (ph).
S. O'BRIEN: Heidi Collins has the headlines this morning.
Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: I do. Unfortunately, we're going to go straight to Iraq now.
"Now in the News."
CNN has confirmed a car bomb attack in Iraq. It happened about two hours ago. The explosion went off in a town near Ramadi. Iraqi health officials say at least six people were killed, eight others wounded. Four Iraqi police officers are among the dead.
Here in the U.S., NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol and one of his sons are being treated this morning following a fiery plane crash in southwestern Colorado. A private jet crashed during takeoff in snowy weather yesterday, killing at least two of the people on board. KUSA reports that Ebersol's 14-year-old son, who was also on board, is still missing. We'll have more details about the incident coming up in a news conference. That should be happening in less than about four hours from now.
And in sports, the white stuff isn't stopping the silver and black. Oakland Raiders' Kerry Collins threw for 339 yards and four touchdowns to carry the Raiders to a snowy upset yesterday against the Denver Broncos. The final score there: 25-24. And, you know, the Broncos know how to play in snow.
S. O'BRIEN: And the Raiders don't.
COLLINS: So this was big time! This was a huge upset.
S. O'BRIEN: They don't get a lot of snow in Oakland.
COLLINS: Not a whole lot.
M. O'BRIEN: Those are the best games, though.
COLLINS: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: They really are.
S. O'BRIEN: They're all sliding around.
M. O'BRIEN: It's the way football should be played. All right.
S. O'BRIEN: Thanks.
COLLINS: Tough guy, Miles.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. When I was playing football, we did it that way, barefoot.
COLLINS: You didn't play football.
M. O'BRIEN: No.
S. O'BRIEN: Please, please.
M. O'BRIEN: I'm making it all up. All right.
S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Heidi.
M. O'BRIEN: OK. The battle over intelligence reforms is what we're talking about now. The bill continues this morning, and that battle continues as time is running out for Congress to pass the measure before year's end.
This weekend, opponents once again pointed out what they see as the bill's weaknesses.
Elaine Quijano is live at the White House now with more.
Good morning -- Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.
President Bush returned to the White House here yesterday after spending the holiday weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
And here in Washington, people on both sides of the aisle are looking to the president to intervene again to try to break this impasse on the intel reform bill. But the lawmakers who've raised objections aren't showing any signs of backing down.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO (voice over): Even though there are enough votes in the House to pass intelligence reform legislation now, Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert won't allow the bill to come to a vote because of some strong opposition within his own party.
Duncan Hunter, head of the Armed Services Committee, whose son served in Iraq, speaks for Republicans who say the bill doesn't preserve the chain of command needed to keep intelligence flowing quickly to front-line troops.
REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: When the Department of Defense has to have a satellite over Falluja, for example, because they've got people being shot at on the ground -- they need to know where the enemy is -- you have to be able to control that agency.
QUIJANO: Top military leaders agree, saying the Pentagon, not a new national intelligence director, should keep control of satellite and communications programs.
But other lawmakers say U.S. troops on the battlefield will get what they need.
SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: Every bill that we have proposed preserves that tactical intelligence.
QUIJANO: Another leading holdout, Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner, wants to bar states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), WISCONSIN: And until we are able to make sure that driver's licenses are given only to people who are lawfully present in the United States, America is still at greater risk.
QUIJANO: The 9/11 Commission's vice chair says the risk is not passing reforms now.
LEE HAMILTON, VICE CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: I know the attention has been on the intelligence and the immigration provisions. They're important provisions. But there are scores, if not hundreds, of provisions here, which strengthen the counterterrorism efforts of the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE) QUIJANO: Now, Democrats complain that President Bush, who says he will sign the bill, is not putting enough pressure on those Republican holdouts. But the White House says the president has made it very clear that he wants to see this legislation passed as quickly as possible. And White House officials say the president will continue working closely with Congress to make that happen -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano at the White House, thank you very much -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: In less than a year, the State Department will begin issuing high-tech passports. The computer chips in the new passports have already caused much debate over whether confidential information will become vulnerable.
Former FBI agent Bill Daly is at the Time Warner center in New York for us this morning. Jay Stanley is the ACLU spokesman for travel security, and he's in Washington, D.C. for us this morning.
Nice to see you, gentlemen. Thanks for joining us.
Mr. Daly, let's begin with you. How exactly will these chips embedded in passports work?
BILL DALY, FORMER FBI AGENT: Well, Soledad, the way it works is similar to what we have in some of our credit cards. We have a small intelligent chip that will store some data. In this case, it will just store the same information that is already on the inside the jacket of the passport. It would be the person's name, identifying data, as well as a photo.
And what it really is meant to do is speed up the processing, enhance our border security after 9/11 to make sure that people aren't running amuck with counterfeit passports. Or if one is lost or stolen, we can remove that from the system so that people can't reuse it.
S. O'BRIEN: If it's the same information that's already on the paper passport that we carry when we travel, Mr. Stanley, why are you opposed to it?
JAY STANLEY, ACLU TRAVEL SECURITY SPOKESMAN: The problem is, is that this computer chip is a radio computer chip, which actually broadcasts out all of the information that's on your passport, including your digital photograph, your name, date of birth, your place of birth -- everything that's on your passport -- to anybody who has what's called an RFID reader, which is a reader that can read these radio chips. They are similar to the ones used in toll booth speed passes.
And what we found in the documents that we've uncovered from the State Department is that the U.S. government actually opposed every suggestion that was made during the international United Nations' process for developing these passports, opposed every proposed security measure that would ensure that these passports can't be read by intruders. The consequence of that is that anybody who is carrying a passport is vulnerable to identity theft. If you're traveling abroad, terrorists could easily identify which people in a room are American citizens. And it also leaves you open to tracking and to surveillance. So there were easy fixes that could have been made to this and they weren't made.
S. O'BRIEN: Mr. Daly, it seems like Mr. Stanley has a laundry list of vulnerabilities of this new technology. Do you agree with him or no?
DALY: Well, first of all, I would certainly tell him to rethink the issue of this passport transmitting the data. It actually doesn't transmit the data. It actually is read by a reader and read by a proximity reader. Therein lies the issue which he has raised, which is proximity to a reader, and there is some data that is moved across a certain distance.
Let's keep in mind also that right now there are four companies that have been selected to develop prototypes of this chip. This passport chip will be actually printed by the U.S. Government Printing Office and put into the passports. So these other companies aren't actually putting it in the passports.
S. O'BRIEN: But there is evidence that somebody who has a reader, which could be embedded in a doorway or something, could actually read your information as walk through with your passport, right? I mean, you're not disputing that.
DALY: Well, I think that we're talking about a level of sophistication here, Soledad, that borders on saying, how far do you want to take it. I think in this case, the benefits certainly outweigh any of the risks.
And we also, don't forget, we expose ourselves to many more risks in our everyday life between using ATM cards, credit cards, online banking and online shopping. And I think this is -- for what we're gaining here, which is better security at our borders, better ability to be able to process up to 27 countries that we have the visa waiver program with, to be able to speed those through, I think far outweighs some of the risks that have been exposed.
S. O'BRIEN: Mr. Stanley, you talked about some of the fixes that would be relatively easy. For example, you could wrap the passport in something so it couldn't be read except when you take it out. Or you could make the process so that the passport had to actually be opened before a reader would be able to read it. If all of those things went into place or one of those things were put into place, would you be fine with this?
STANLEY: Well, we would still have problems with this idea of having a radio computer chip in passports. But the fact is, is that that's a hypothetical. The chip that has been proposed through this year-long United Nations process is a chip that doesn't have security controls on it. And that's what Americans need to worry about. And in terms of the sophistication needed to get a reader to read these chips, I think that as a security expert, Mr. Daly would be the first to say that the mistake that is always made in security is underestimating the enemy. And the fact is, is that the technology needed to read these chips will become widely available, will be in the hands of terrorists.
In fact, experts that testified to the United States actually testified that the knowledge for cracking smart cards is already widespread. And we will definitely see the same thing here.
This is about whether we want our identity cards to have beacons that send out our personal information to anybody who has a reader. It's about passports now, but it inevitably will expand to our driver's licenses and other identity documentation.
S. O'BRIEN: Jay Stanly and Bill Daly joining us this morning. Gentlemen, thanks. Appreciate it.
DALY: Thank you.
STANLEY: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: We should mention that when it comes to photos for international visas, the State Department says no smiling. Officials categorize a smile as an unusual or unnatural expression. They say smiling disport (ph) -- distorts, rather, facial features in a way that computerized security technology may not be able to recognize somebody.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, for most of those Customs guys, smiling is an unusual thing. I've got to tell you, yes, they don't know much about it.
S. O'BRIEN: Hey, hey, hey, that's not fair.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: They finally reversed the curse. Who else could take the honor this year? "Sports Illustrated" has named the 2004 Boston Red Sox their sportsmen of the year. Talk about a no-brainer. The magazine says the championship team and their fans made it an easy choice.
S. O'BRIEN: Good for them.
M. O'BRIEN: Good for them is right.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, I would have picked them, too.
M. O'BRIEN: Congratulations, Sox. Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely.
Still to come this morning, one airline sends its pilots back to school. It's got more to do with money management, though, than flying lessons. We'll explain in "Minding Your Business" just ahead.
M. O'BRIEN: Plus, Julia Roberts plays the name game. And, boy, it was an odd game. A little creative, I'd say. "90-Second Pop" will weigh in on Phinnaeus and Hazel ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: All right, time now for a little THC or TLC or something like that with Jack as we talk about...
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: What the hell are you talking about?
M. O'BRIEN: I have no idea.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: I've been using it for medicinal purposes only, sir.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
CAFFERTY: Eleven states allow the medicinal use of marijuana, if your doctors says you need it. The federal government says marijuana is illegal, period. No exceptions. The Supreme Court is now going to have to decide who is right. The case involves a woman in California with an inoperable brain tumor. Her doctors prescribed marijuana to ease the pain.
The question is: Under what circumstances should marijuana be illegal?
Kate in Williston, Florida, says: "It's amazing doctors give morphine, Demerol, codeine, et cetera, but marijuana is illegal to use and accomplishes more than the painkillers the pharmaceutical companies are doling out. If the pharmaceutical companies can figure out a way to grow and distribute marijuana and they get a piece of the action, then it would be legal in America."
Steven in Tennessee -- you're such a cynic, Kate.
Steven in Tennessee: "It's funny. Republicans are chomping at the bit to allow states to decide about abortion instead of the federal government but insists that the federal government overrule state's rights on medical marijuana."
Rich in Council Bluffs, Indiana, writes: "How much money are we spending to police something that the government has not been able to police? Legalize it and then tax the hell out of it."
And Pamela in Michigan writes: "It should be legalized under the same rules as purchasing alcohol. But until the nation wakes up, those who use it will continue to do so illegally, and the government will waste millions of dollars trying to control it."
M. O'BRIEN: Good comments. Good comments this morning. CAFFERTY: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Sober comments this morning. But haven't they created a THC pill, and a lot of people say that that's not as effective and more expensive?
CAFFERTY: I am unaware...
M. O'BRIEN: OK.
CAFFERTY: ... of the subtleties of medicinal marijuana.
M. O'BRIEN: Right.
CAFFERTY: But I have no reason to doubt what you say as being factual. I'm sure you know what you're talking about.
M. O'BRIEN: It's good enough for morning TV anyhow.
CAFFERTY: That's right.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Soledad...
CAFFERTY: It's close enough for government work.
S. O'BRIEN: A check now on the markets. Gerri Willis is here this morning. Andy has got a couple of days off.
Nice to see you.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Good to see you, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Pilots are going to back to school for what?
WILLIS: This is crazy. They're going to teach pilots at United how to save money on fuel. Fuel apparently is a huge cost for airlines. It's been going up. Oil now at 50 bucks a gallon.
And you see that the biggest cost for airlines after personnel: fuel. So, they're trying to teach the pilots how to save a little dough by flying a little slower apparently is the big way to save money. Just like if you're driving your SUV, you slow down and you save a little money.
Now, I don't know where -- they say safety is still No. 1, the most important thing that pilots do. But, yes, I thought it was curious.
M. O'BRIEN: I wonder why they don't use the self-serve pump. You know, it would be a lot cheaper.
WILLIS: Yes. Yes, you just drive up to...
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
WILLIS: ... with your (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
CAFFERTY: There you go again.
M. O'BRIEN: It's just a thought.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's transition this move into the markets, can we?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
WILLIS: We can. The markets last week, three and a half days of trading and that was it. Look at this. The market is up pretty dramatically. It did pretty well last week. Today's open is expected to be strong.
On the news that we talked about just a minute ago that retail sales on the Black Friday holiday weekend were high, just very strong for the holiday weekend. And we're looking at a big open this morning.
S. O'BRIEN: And we will see what happens, of course, over the next month to see how really those sales do. Gerri Willis, thank you. Appreciate it. We'll check back in with you again.
Still to come this morning, "Alexander" conquered much of the ancient world. But could he capture the box office as well? "90- Second Pop" is just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome, everybody. No chitchat. We're getting going here. It's time once again for our critically-acclaimed "90- Second Pop."
Here to play this morning, Sarah Bernard. She's a contributing editor for "New York" magazine. B.J. Sigesmund is a staff editor for "US Weekly." And Jessica Shaw for "Entertainment Weekly."
Good morning to all of you. Nice to have you.
JESSICA SHAW, "ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY": Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm loving your haircut, by the way.
SHAW: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: It's very cute.
All right, let's get right to it. Julia Roberts had twins.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Yes!
S. O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) than Julia Roberts. She's younger than me.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: She had a boy and a girl. Phinnaeus Walter and Hazel Patricia.
S. O'BRIEN: Those are the names.
SHAW: Those are the names. She's really just copying you. I mean, you have been the trendsetter for the celebrities. You are...
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: Julia wanted to have twins.
S. O'BRIEN: I hate that.
SHAW: Yes, you know...
S. O'BRIEN: What do you think of these names?
SHAW: I like -- personally, I like Hazel. Phinnaeus to me is -- I hope he goes by Phen.
S. O'BRIEN: That's cute.
SHAW: I mean, that's a cute nickname.
B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": Well, somebody downstairs was saying that there was a character named Phinnaeus in that novel, "A Separate Piece," that everyone read in junior high or were supposed to read in junior high.
BERNARD: Right, sure.
SIGESMUND: But it wasn't spelled quite the same way. This Phinnaeus is P-H-I-N-N-A-E-U,-S.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: And like restaurant reservations for the rest of your life.
BERNARD: Phinnaeus died in that book, sort of a tragic literary figure to get you...
SIGESMUND: Exactly.
S. O'BRIEN: It will be Finn, F-I-N-N.
SHAW: I think with this, though, is she going to become like Gwyneth Paltrow and take all of this time off and say, you know what? I really want to focus on being a mom and not go back to acting. And right now, she has nothing lined up except she's doing a voice in an animated movie.
SIGESMUND: Yes, yes.
S. O'BRIEN: She'll stay home with the twins for a couple of days and she'll be like, oh, I've got to get right back to acting.
SHAW: Right.
SIGESMUND: I'm done.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: ... come in to CNN and have your job.
S. O'BRIEN: Sure.
SIGESMUND: Does anyone think it's a little bit strange that she had these babies a month prematurely and just five days before "Closer" comes out and two weeks before her other movie, "Ocean's 12," comes out?
BERNARD: I was going to say that. Isn't it convenient?
S. O'BRIEN: Well...
(CROSSTALK)
SIGESMUND: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Honestly, twins are high risk. And I don't believe any mother would put her child at risk or her children at risk by inducing them early. Most doctors would make you wait. That is what I will say.
(CROSSTALK)
BERNARD: You probably would want them to induce you, but not your doctor.
SHAW: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) injecting the drug.
O'BRIEN: Wait a second. Let's talk about movies. "National Treasure" again.
SIGESMUND: Yes, out of nowhere. Who would have thought this movie, which got pretty bad reviews a week and a half ago, would be No. 1 for a second weekend in a row. It's now the biggest movie of Nic Cage's career. It dropped only 6 percent from its first weekend. And, you know, I guess people just really wanted to see this "Indiana Jones" style action-adventure. And critics couldn't dissuade them.
BERNARD: I think it's a perfect Thanksgiving escape movie. Don't you think?
SIGESMUND: Yes.
BERNARD: I mean, I think that's partially why it did so well.
S. O'BRIEN: A little mindless.
SIGESMUND: Yes.
BERNARD: Right. Because that's actually what people do over Thanksgiving, right?
SIGESMUND: Yes, exactly.
BERNARD: You're strapping your family and you go see movies.
SIGESMUND: As opposed to, we have to talk about "Alexander"...
S. O'BRIEN: Right.
SIGESMUND: ... which critics also nailed, but that could not convince people. This was an absolute dog. It made only $21 million over five days. That's less than half of what "Troy" made in just three days in May.
SHAW: I mean, it opened at No. 6. Even a movie like "Christmas With the Kranks" did better.
BERNARD: That's bad.
SHAW: I mean, like, that is so embarrassing.
S. O'BRIEN: Was it the blonde pageboy that had people not going to see it?
BERNARD: It was the casting. I mean, it just shows you how important it was. Colin Farrell -- I was going to say Colin Furst (ph) -- is just wrong for that movie.
SHAW: He would have -- Colin Furst (ph) would have been a good "Alexander."
BERNARD: I'm putting him in. But, you know, Nic Cage, it's not the greatest movie, but people love him. And he can open a movie much more.
SIGESMUND: Yes. And Colin Farrell is not -- he's a celebrity. He's not really thought of as an actor. And I think people really needed extra incentive -- i.e. good reviews -- to go see this three- hour epic.
S. O'BRIEN: You know what my thing is? If you get to three hours, I'm not going. I don't care what it is. Three hours is...
BERNARD: Even abbreviated.
SHAW: Especially once you've had turkey (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you're asleep after 10 minutes anyway.
S. O'BRIEN: Clearly. Let's talk about the "Desperate Housewives." Oh, what...
BERNARD: Oh.
S. O'BRIEN: What a ploy. They kept telling us one was going to be killed off.
BERNARD: I know!
S. O'BRIEN: One was going to be killed. One wasn't killed off.
BERNARD: Well, how could they really kill off one of the main four girls? I mean, that would just -- that would be wrong. And we have to give some props to B.J. here, who called in on Friday.
SHAW: Yes, so good.
SIGESMUND: Thank you.
BERNARD: And the woman who was bumped off was actually Martha Huber, the annoying nosy neighbor. She's kind of the classic -- I don't know. I was thinking Mrs. Roper or something from "Three's Company." You know, the annoying woman who lives next door and barges in on you all the time.
S. O'BRIEN: Well...
SIGESMUND: Right.
BERNARD: But, I think the thing that people were actually considering or people were taking seriously, the fact that they might bump off Nicollette Sheridan. That is impossible. I mean, she is the Kim Cattrell (ph) of the show.
SIGESMUND: Right.
BERNARD: They're really trying to groom her to be like that. And there is no way they would drop her.
SIGESMUND: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: It's too early in the season...
SIGESMUND: No.
S. O'BRIEN: ... to knock off any of the four main characters.
BERNARD: Exactly.
SHAW: The NFL, I'm sure, wanted to knock her off, but (UNINTELLIGIBLE) beyond that.
SIGESMUND: And, if you really like Martha Huber, I hear that she's going to be back in flashbacks all the way through the spring while they explain what actually Mary Alice did to this baby, Dana, that was so terrible.
S. O'BRIEN: Because they set it up.
BERNARD: No one died on that show. They just come back.
S. O'BRIEN: Right. They always just come back. It's good for a working actor, I think. You guys...
SHAW: Julia Roberts.
S. O'BRIEN: That's right, flashbacks, it worked.
Well, thanks, you guys. As always, appreciate it.
Miles -- back to you.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. In a moment, today's top stories, including the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Why is Pakistan cutting back on its search? One expert says it's hard to believe the Pakistanis are telling the whole story. CNN military analyst David Grange on tap. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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