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Is U.S. Scouting Targets for Strikes in Iran?; Inaugural Preparations
Aired January 17, 2005 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Is the United States scouting targets for military strikes in Iran? The journalist who says it could happen by summer tells us what he knows this morning.
On the distant moon Titan, pictures of soft brown shoreline and miles and miles of orange. We'll explain these amazing discoveries.
And winners, losers and big surprises -- the Golden Globe Awards launch a new wave of Oscar buzz on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
COLLINS: Good morning, everybody.
I'm Heidi Collins in for Soledad this morning.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Bill Hemmer.
Happy Monday to you.
Martin Luther King Day across the country.
Some of the news making headlines this hour, the president's inauguration only three days away and a day for the history books, to be certain. What are the themes the president will highlight as he makes his inaugural address? Elaine Quijano is standing by at the White House. We'll get to Elaine in a moment here on that story.
COLLINS: Also, the guy out in Colorado who shot himself in the mouth with a nail gun and didn't even know it. He thought he had a little bit of a toothache. Well, now, he is recovering from surgery and is very lucky to be alive. Look at that x-ray. Sanjay is going to tell us something like that could happen.
HEMMER: We've seen this before, but the fact that this went on for some time...
COLLINS: But the other guy knew, yes.
HEMMER: Yes. This guy did not.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it starts by putting the nail gun in your mouth, apparently, which is...
HEMMER: Don't do it. CAFFERTY: ... you know, not a real cool idea, I would guess.
HEMMER: Right.
COLLINS: Good morning, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Hi, Heidi.
Coming up in the "Cafferty File," a Career Day speaker at a middle school in California tells these kids where the big bucks are and their parents are furious. And a short list of the people rumored to be in line to replace Dan Rather as the anchor of the CBS Evening News. One of the candidates works here at CNN. However, he is not in this room.
HEMMER: And his name is not Jack.
CAFFERTY: I'm in this room, so obviously that follow, yes.
HEMMER: Thank you.
We want to get to Carol Costello now and the headlines at the top of hour here -- hey, Carol, good morning to you.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Man, I thought I was in the running. But now you've burst my bubble, Jack. Thanks a lot.
CAFFERTY: Again.
COSTELLO: Again.
Good morning, everyone.
We begin in Iraq. Insurgents have launched a new attack on security forces there. At least 14 Iraqis were killed at two different security checkpoints this morning. Seven Iraqi police were killed in a suicide car bombing north of Tikrit. U.S. and Iraqi military officials say four other Iraqi soldiers were wounded when they were hit by small arms fire south of Ba'qubah.
Near Park City, Utah, rescuers continue their search this morning for as many as four people believed to have been buried in an avalanche. Yesterday, rescuers with dogs discovered the body of a 27- year-old skier from Idaho. High tech radar equipment is expected to be brought in today to assist in the search.
A decision could come as early as this week by the FDA on whether to sell the so-called morning after pill over the counter. Supporters say the pill is a safe way to prevent thousands of unwanted pregnancies. But opponents worry the drug, also known as Plan B, encourages risky sexual behavior. Last May, the FDA rejected non- prescription sales of the drug despite the recommendation of its scientific advisers.
And President Bush is honoring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The president plans to attend a "Let Freedom Ring" celebration this afternoon at Washington's Kennedy Center. It's one of many planned events across the country. President Bush says Martin Luther King believed deeply in liberty and dignity for every person.
HEMMER: Thank you, Carol. Is that it?
COSTELLO: Pregnant pause there.
HEMMER: That's all right. I didn't know if you...
COSTELLO: For that one time.
HEMMER: I didn't know if you had anything else. I was going to give you your moment.
Thank you.
We'll talk to you again in about 30 minutes.
President Bush expected to stress the global spread of democracy as a main theme of his inaugural address on Thursday.
To the White House this morning.
Here's Elaine Quijano standing by live there -- good morning, Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
That's right, aides say that on the international front, President Bush's second term agenda will focus largely on promoting liberty abroad, one of the themes that he is expected to talk about when he delivers inaugural address.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO (voice-over): President Bush spent the weekend working on his inaugural address, one aides say will emphasize freedom and the president's vision of spreading democracy world wide. Part of that focus now? Iraq. But as aides continue an apparent move to lower expectations, they're painting a picture of uncertainty for that country's January 30 elections.
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: We don't know exactly how that's going to come out when it comes out to a security environment in two weeks from now. But what we do know, the fact there is going to be an election two weeks from today is an incredible achievement for the Iraqi people.
QUIJANO: In an interview with the "Washington Post," the president was asked why no one in the administration has been held accountable for perceived missteps on Iraq policy? The president answered, "We had an accountability moment and that's called the 2004 election. And the American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq and they looked at the two candidates, and they chose me."
But some Democrats flatly dismiss that.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: I think the American people obviously reelected him. That doesn't mean they agree with all of his policies relative to Iraq, or all of the ways in which the Iraq war has been fought.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: Now, the president is standing by his actions, expressing no regrets about removing Saddam Hussein from power. And administration officials stress that the elections, they say, are just the beginning of what they hope will be democracy taking root in the region.
HEMMER: Meanwhile on Thursday, there's a debate about security, a $12 million price tag.
What's the latest on where that stands, Elaine?
QUIJANO: Well, local officials here in D.C., Bill, are not happy about having to pay, take millions of dollars out of their homeland security budget to pay for inauguration security costs. But President Bush is basically standing by that decision, as well, defending it, the decision to pass on those costs to D.C., saying that the inauguration, like a lot of other events, is a high profile event and in this day and age, with the war on terrorism going on, that it is a necessary cost -- Bill.
HEMMER: Elaine Quijano there at the White House this morning.
And stay tuned Thursday. AMERICAN MORNING travels to Washington. Special live coverage begins at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time from Capitol Hill -- hi.
COLLINS: Does the Bush administration have Iran on its hit list?
Journalist Seymour Hersh claims the U.S. has conducted secret missions to learn about nuclear, chemical and missile sites in Iran for potential air strikes. His explosive accusations are in the current issue of the "New Yorker."
And Seymour Hersh is joining us now live this morning from Washington.
Thank you for being here.
You write, in fact, that the administration has been conducting these missions since last summer. In fact, the words you have, "the focus is on the accumulation of information on Iranian nuclear, chemical and missile sites. The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen and perhaps more such targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids."
So, Seymour, does this go beyond the contingency planning? I mean the contingencies are something that we should expect from the U.S. government, right? SEYMOUR HERSH, "NEW YORKER" MAGAZINE: Yes, sure, in a way it does. Obviously you have contingency planning that's going on all the time and we have changed our planning a lot. Don't forget, normally we'd be looking at Iran, we'd only have to come in through the Gulf. Now we can hit Iran from Afghanistan and from Iraq. So there's been a lot of changes.
This is separate. This is part of a, what the president has said, and he said to the "Washington Post" again, as you mentioned in your news broadcast over the weekend. He's absolutely determined to spread democracy. And I think the important thing to understand is Iraq is one war zone and it's separate. Iran is another. Syria is yet another. The global war on terrorism. There's a lot of war zones and a lot of things are going to happen in the second administration.
This president really believes that his mission is to make the Middle East, change it in a way that makes the world and America safer.
COLLINS: Well, Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, has rejected these accusations that you make in your article. In fact, he talked to CNN.
Let's go ahead and listen for a moment to what he said to us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I've seen excerpts of this story. I think it's riddle with inaccuracies and I don't believe that some of the conclusions he's drawing in that are based on fact."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Seymour, who are your sources in all of this?
HERSH: Well, you know, I think a lot of your people in the audience will know that for the last three years in the "New Yorker" I've been writing what amounts to an alternative history of the war and I think, by and large, with an awful lot of accuracy, predicting particularly what -- how bad it was going to be in Iraq. And I'm still saying it's going to be much worse than the White House is thinking.
But Iraq is separate. You know, it's interesting, it would be great to say that if Iraq goes well, then they'll move on into Iran. The planning of this administration is, it includes not only right now by this, by next summer, if all goes well, they are serious about expanding the war. And it doesn't matter that a lot of the people, that I think the president, even in his "Washington Post" interview, which I found to be a remarkable one, said that people in Iran are waiting for us. The freedom loving people there are waiting for us to come.
They believe this. And I think, you know, it doesn't matter what I write. It doesn't matter what my sources tell me. This is a president that's going to do what he wants to do. And the only thing we can hope is that these guys are right about the world waiting for America to come and remake the Middle East and that Iran will go smoother than Iraq, because they're going to do it, I'm almost -- I'm pretty much convinced of it myself, and so are my sources.
COLLINS: But back to your questions about the sources that you mentioned. Again, they are written as unnamed former senior intelligence officials.
How are you certain that they're telling you the truth? I mean could this not possibly be some people who are sour grapes over the administration, not liking the direction the administration is going in?
HERSH: Oh, you've got to sort of stick with what I've been doing for the last three years and, you know, writing about -- when I wrote about Abu Ghraib the first time in May for the "New Yorker," the administration denounced it as just, I was throwing mud against the wall and seeing how much will stick.
The fact is, the fact is that we are operating right now in and out of Iran. We are collecting intelligence. Why are we working so hard on it? Because the last thing this administration wants to do is hit some targets in -- bomb some targets in Iran which will cause an enormous furor and not be right. We want to make sure we're not going to have another second WMD mistake, as we did in Iraq.
So there's -- they're paying an awful lot of attention and time. And I will tell you why people talk to me. People on the inside are talking to me because in this administration, you cannot tell them what they don't want to hear. In other words, as somebody said to me, you have to think -- you have to drink the Kool-Aid before you go to a meeting. And so they're not open to anybody saying hitting Iran is not a good idea, it's 75 million people, a big army, it's not going to be -- as difficult as Iraq is, Iran is going to be much harder. You're not going to get an outpouring of pro-American sentiment when you hit it. And yet there are people in the White House, we call them the neo-conservatives, some of the civilians who work in the Pentagon -- Wolfowitz is one, Doug Feith, his aide -- who really believe that when we do hit these targets it's going to lead to an incredible outcry of anti-mullah, you know, a lot of people who don't like the religious leadership in Iran will rise up and we'll have a revolution there.
It's, my friends, the people that talk to me, think it's loony, but they can't get their views in over the top so they go outside to a journalist to tell the stories.
COLLINS: All right, well, Seymour Hersh, we appreciate your time, live from Washington this morning with the latest article in the issue of the "New Yorker."
Thank you.
HERSH: Thank you.
HEMMER: About 12 minutes past the hour now.
From China today, a former high ranking official purged back in 1989 after showing sympathy with Tiananmen Square protesters, has died. Zhao Ziyang, a reformer, helped launch China's economic boom. But after meeting with demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Zhao was placed under house arrest, where he remained for 15 years until he was recently hospitalized.
The official reaction to his death has been muted. CNN broadcasts for foreigners were blacked out when they mentioned Zhao.
In Thailand, at least 160 people injured today in a rush hour crash in Bangkok. It happened when one train slammed into the back of another parked at the station. Eight of the injured are said to be in critical condition. The subways operators blamed the crash on a problem with the computer system controlling those trains. Bangkok's subway system opened less than six months ago -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Let's take a moment now to check on the weather.
And Chad Myers is standing by to do just that -- good morning to you once again, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Heidi.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: In a moment here, a view of the tsunamis none of us has seen until now. Startling new images, all of them from a man who lost nearly everything in that devastation.
COLLINS: Also, Social Security -- is it on the verge of going bankrupt or are scare tactics at work? Kamber and May take a look.
HEMMER: Also, the first images beamed back from the surface of Titan. What secrets are we now learning here?
Back in a moment here with those pictures and more, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Indonesia now reports fewer deaths, but more people missing from the December 26 tsunami. That puts the ever changing number of dead at just over 131,000. So many Indonesians are believed missing -- more than 132,000 -- that a list can't even be made. So survivors are signing an alive book in the hope of reconnecting families.
Indonesia now says there is no deadline for foreign troops, including Americans, to leave. And the March 26 date announced last week is only a benchmark for their own troops to take over relief efforts.
And a series of dramatic photos have just surfaced. As the wave hit Banda Aceh, a newspaper photographer started capturing the drama of the moment. You see it there. But soon his thoughts turned to his own family. He left his camera with a shopkeeper. After weeks of caring for his family's survivors, he finally got his camera back, with the record of what happened that day still inside.
HEMMER: Wow.
Eighteen minutes now past the hour.
To space this morning, where scientists are hoping images from Saturn's largest moon can reveal secrets about the Earth's origins. The pictures coming back to Earth from the Huygens space probe, which landed Friday on the surface of Titan.
Jack Horkheimer is back with us today.
He's the executive director of the Miami Planetarium.
Jack, good morning to you.
JACK HORKHEIMER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MIAMI PLANETARIUM: Good morning.
HEMMER: Welcome back here.
I'm going to take you through these images here.
First for our viewers on the screen, this first one here has an orange color that is quite dominant.
What does that suggest? Let's take that first.
HORKHEIMER: Well, when this first came in, Bill, the European scientists thought that these were rocks and boulders. Actually, it turns out the camera is much closer and these are actually pebbles. Those two rocks just below the middle of the screen, the long one and the oblong one is about six inches across. The other one is about an inch and a half across. And they look like they're sitting in kind of a depression. That means that this area, we think, is still kind of like the consistency of wet sand or clay. And if we look off in the distance, we think that we're on top of a sand dune gradually sloping off to a shoreline.
The orange color is part of the product of -- this whole planet is surrounded by -- and I call it a planet because it's bigger than Mercury and Pluto, even though it's a moon -- it's covered in a dense layer of methane gas and that gives us this kind of an orangish color.
HEMMER: All right, that's the first one.
The next one suggests drainage channels or possibly even a shoreline.
HORKHEIMER: Right.
HEMMER: Take us through this one.
HORKHEIMER: Sure. The most poetic description of these visuals are we're looking straight down coming in at about a 45 degree angle. And about 10 miles above the surface, you see those big black areas? We think those are methane lakes, liquid methane lakes. Kind of think of, oh, small lakes filled with paint thinner. And the brighter stuff are clouds of methane and maybe even icy hills. We are thinking in terms of some of the pictures have shown a kind of sweeping shorelines with frosty ice covered hills shrouded in a methane mist. This is the first time we've seen what we think may be pools of liquid, even though it's not water, it's methane, on another planet.
HEMMER: All right, that's number two.
Number three now, more shorelines, too, and some raised areas, as well, suggesting what?
HORKHEIMER: Well, you see those little dark channels? If you look closely, they look like river channels. And if you look to the right of the picture, you see what looks like a shoreline and a lake. Well, think, once again, Lake Michigan, only much smaller, of paint thinner. And those dark lines may be, we're not sure, but they may be riverbeds where a liquid has once slowed down to the shoreline.
These are really spectacular pictures when you analyze them. And, of course, it's taking the space agency in Europe a longer time to refine these pictures. This is pretty raw data. These pictures will be refined in the next coming weeks.
HEMMER: Take that last point another -- they're kind of dribbling out the information, aren't they, kind of dribbling out the pictures? Why is that?
HORKHEIMER: Yes, I'm glad you said that. Miles O'Brien was talking about that. They're really slow. I caught kind of a -- it's a cosmic striptease. They're just going to give us a little bit at a time. Every week we're going to get a new picture or a refined picture. And it kind of makes me very anxious to see what they're going to give us next.
HEMMER: Yes, I bet.
I bet.
HORKHEIMER: You know, we do it over here a little differently with NASA and JPL. We let people see the pictures and data that come in streaming video as it comes in. They kind of sit on this and say OK, fellows, we're going to give you this picture today, this picture next week. So it makes us all a little tense.
If you want to see more pictures, I'd suggest that today, since it's a holiday, or this week, take your kids and go to a planetarium or a museum where planetariums all over the country are installing these pictures into shows as they come down. It's really fascinating.
HEMMER: All right. And if you're in Florida, south Florida, check out Miami's planetarium, too.
HORKHEIMER: Yes. HEMMER: Thank you.
HORKHEIMER: And, you know, Bill?
HEMMER: Yes?
HORKHEIMER: One of the wonderful things about what's happening this week is that nobody's mentioned it, but Saturn happens to be in opposition last week and this week, which means that its closest, biggest and brightest for the entire year. Just go outside now after sunset, look east and you'll see the two bright stars Castor and Polyps of Gemini and just below it, a bright, bright object, which is Saturn. Take a department store telescope, look at it and you'll actually be able to see Titan. It's mind blowing right now.
HEMMER: Excellent. A great tip, too.
Thank you, Jack.
We'll talk to you again.
Jack Horkheimer in Miami -- Heidi.
COLLINS: A Colorado man goes to the dentist with a toothache. After he got the x-rays back, he probably wished he just needed a root canal. We're "Paging Dr. Gupta" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Time to check in with Jack now one more time and the Question of the Day.
CAFFERTY: Thanks, Heidi.
Seymour Hersh's article in the "New Yorker" suggests that by this coming summer, America may be attacking military targets inside Iran, not Iraq, Iran. Mr. Hersh's piece suggests that commandos from this country have been in Iran since last summer scouting those targets and that because of the fears over nuclear proliferation in Iran, we may strike targets there as early as three or four months from now.
Should we do that is the question?
Here are the answers.
Tom in Alma, West Virginia: "The search for WMD has been concluded in Iraq and has now begun in Iran. Our initial intelligence was only one letter off in the spelling of the country."
Giulluame writes: "If the U.N., not as a corrupted financial institution, but as the expression of the rest of the world, agrees with America in assessing specific threats, all right. But not as a preemptive strike. Didn't Bush learn anything from Iraq?"
Lloyd in Burgaw, North Carolina: "Here we go again. If the administration is so bent on attacking someone, let them choose North Korea, where we know their nuclear capabilities and their intentions."
And Peter in Houston writes: "Iran is the most dangerous nation in the world today, which has for decades created, supplied and armed terrorist groups that have killed Americans all over the world. It would be an act of pure insanity to permit Iran to develop nuclear weapons."
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: From Iran to Iraq, in a moment, should the White House be held accountable for mistakes in that war? The president answers that question. And Kamber and May have a look at that, in a moment.
Also, a quick reminder. Tomorrow live coverage here of Condoleezza Rice's confirmation hearings as they get underway at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time.
We're back in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING, right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired January 17, 2005 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Is the United States scouting targets for military strikes in Iran? The journalist who says it could happen by summer tells us what he knows this morning.
On the distant moon Titan, pictures of soft brown shoreline and miles and miles of orange. We'll explain these amazing discoveries.
And winners, losers and big surprises -- the Golden Globe Awards launch a new wave of Oscar buzz on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
COLLINS: Good morning, everybody.
I'm Heidi Collins in for Soledad this morning.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Bill Hemmer.
Happy Monday to you.
Martin Luther King Day across the country.
Some of the news making headlines this hour, the president's inauguration only three days away and a day for the history books, to be certain. What are the themes the president will highlight as he makes his inaugural address? Elaine Quijano is standing by at the White House. We'll get to Elaine in a moment here on that story.
COLLINS: Also, the guy out in Colorado who shot himself in the mouth with a nail gun and didn't even know it. He thought he had a little bit of a toothache. Well, now, he is recovering from surgery and is very lucky to be alive. Look at that x-ray. Sanjay is going to tell us something like that could happen.
HEMMER: We've seen this before, but the fact that this went on for some time...
COLLINS: But the other guy knew, yes.
HEMMER: Yes. This guy did not.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it starts by putting the nail gun in your mouth, apparently, which is...
HEMMER: Don't do it. CAFFERTY: ... you know, not a real cool idea, I would guess.
HEMMER: Right.
COLLINS: Good morning, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Hi, Heidi.
Coming up in the "Cafferty File," a Career Day speaker at a middle school in California tells these kids where the big bucks are and their parents are furious. And a short list of the people rumored to be in line to replace Dan Rather as the anchor of the CBS Evening News. One of the candidates works here at CNN. However, he is not in this room.
HEMMER: And his name is not Jack.
CAFFERTY: I'm in this room, so obviously that follow, yes.
HEMMER: Thank you.
We want to get to Carol Costello now and the headlines at the top of hour here -- hey, Carol, good morning to you.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Man, I thought I was in the running. But now you've burst my bubble, Jack. Thanks a lot.
CAFFERTY: Again.
COSTELLO: Again.
Good morning, everyone.
We begin in Iraq. Insurgents have launched a new attack on security forces there. At least 14 Iraqis were killed at two different security checkpoints this morning. Seven Iraqi police were killed in a suicide car bombing north of Tikrit. U.S. and Iraqi military officials say four other Iraqi soldiers were wounded when they were hit by small arms fire south of Ba'qubah.
Near Park City, Utah, rescuers continue their search this morning for as many as four people believed to have been buried in an avalanche. Yesterday, rescuers with dogs discovered the body of a 27- year-old skier from Idaho. High tech radar equipment is expected to be brought in today to assist in the search.
A decision could come as early as this week by the FDA on whether to sell the so-called morning after pill over the counter. Supporters say the pill is a safe way to prevent thousands of unwanted pregnancies. But opponents worry the drug, also known as Plan B, encourages risky sexual behavior. Last May, the FDA rejected non- prescription sales of the drug despite the recommendation of its scientific advisers.
And President Bush is honoring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The president plans to attend a "Let Freedom Ring" celebration this afternoon at Washington's Kennedy Center. It's one of many planned events across the country. President Bush says Martin Luther King believed deeply in liberty and dignity for every person.
HEMMER: Thank you, Carol. Is that it?
COSTELLO: Pregnant pause there.
HEMMER: That's all right. I didn't know if you...
COSTELLO: For that one time.
HEMMER: I didn't know if you had anything else. I was going to give you your moment.
Thank you.
We'll talk to you again in about 30 minutes.
President Bush expected to stress the global spread of democracy as a main theme of his inaugural address on Thursday.
To the White House this morning.
Here's Elaine Quijano standing by live there -- good morning, Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
That's right, aides say that on the international front, President Bush's second term agenda will focus largely on promoting liberty abroad, one of the themes that he is expected to talk about when he delivers inaugural address.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO (voice-over): President Bush spent the weekend working on his inaugural address, one aides say will emphasize freedom and the president's vision of spreading democracy world wide. Part of that focus now? Iraq. But as aides continue an apparent move to lower expectations, they're painting a picture of uncertainty for that country's January 30 elections.
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: We don't know exactly how that's going to come out when it comes out to a security environment in two weeks from now. But what we do know, the fact there is going to be an election two weeks from today is an incredible achievement for the Iraqi people.
QUIJANO: In an interview with the "Washington Post," the president was asked why no one in the administration has been held accountable for perceived missteps on Iraq policy? The president answered, "We had an accountability moment and that's called the 2004 election. And the American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq and they looked at the two candidates, and they chose me."
But some Democrats flatly dismiss that.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: I think the American people obviously reelected him. That doesn't mean they agree with all of his policies relative to Iraq, or all of the ways in which the Iraq war has been fought.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: Now, the president is standing by his actions, expressing no regrets about removing Saddam Hussein from power. And administration officials stress that the elections, they say, are just the beginning of what they hope will be democracy taking root in the region.
HEMMER: Meanwhile on Thursday, there's a debate about security, a $12 million price tag.
What's the latest on where that stands, Elaine?
QUIJANO: Well, local officials here in D.C., Bill, are not happy about having to pay, take millions of dollars out of their homeland security budget to pay for inauguration security costs. But President Bush is basically standing by that decision, as well, defending it, the decision to pass on those costs to D.C., saying that the inauguration, like a lot of other events, is a high profile event and in this day and age, with the war on terrorism going on, that it is a necessary cost -- Bill.
HEMMER: Elaine Quijano there at the White House this morning.
And stay tuned Thursday. AMERICAN MORNING travels to Washington. Special live coverage begins at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time from Capitol Hill -- hi.
COLLINS: Does the Bush administration have Iran on its hit list?
Journalist Seymour Hersh claims the U.S. has conducted secret missions to learn about nuclear, chemical and missile sites in Iran for potential air strikes. His explosive accusations are in the current issue of the "New Yorker."
And Seymour Hersh is joining us now live this morning from Washington.
Thank you for being here.
You write, in fact, that the administration has been conducting these missions since last summer. In fact, the words you have, "the focus is on the accumulation of information on Iranian nuclear, chemical and missile sites. The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen and perhaps more such targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids."
So, Seymour, does this go beyond the contingency planning? I mean the contingencies are something that we should expect from the U.S. government, right? SEYMOUR HERSH, "NEW YORKER" MAGAZINE: Yes, sure, in a way it does. Obviously you have contingency planning that's going on all the time and we have changed our planning a lot. Don't forget, normally we'd be looking at Iran, we'd only have to come in through the Gulf. Now we can hit Iran from Afghanistan and from Iraq. So there's been a lot of changes.
This is separate. This is part of a, what the president has said, and he said to the "Washington Post" again, as you mentioned in your news broadcast over the weekend. He's absolutely determined to spread democracy. And I think the important thing to understand is Iraq is one war zone and it's separate. Iran is another. Syria is yet another. The global war on terrorism. There's a lot of war zones and a lot of things are going to happen in the second administration.
This president really believes that his mission is to make the Middle East, change it in a way that makes the world and America safer.
COLLINS: Well, Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, has rejected these accusations that you make in your article. In fact, he talked to CNN.
Let's go ahead and listen for a moment to what he said to us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I've seen excerpts of this story. I think it's riddle with inaccuracies and I don't believe that some of the conclusions he's drawing in that are based on fact."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Seymour, who are your sources in all of this?
HERSH: Well, you know, I think a lot of your people in the audience will know that for the last three years in the "New Yorker" I've been writing what amounts to an alternative history of the war and I think, by and large, with an awful lot of accuracy, predicting particularly what -- how bad it was going to be in Iraq. And I'm still saying it's going to be much worse than the White House is thinking.
But Iraq is separate. You know, it's interesting, it would be great to say that if Iraq goes well, then they'll move on into Iran. The planning of this administration is, it includes not only right now by this, by next summer, if all goes well, they are serious about expanding the war. And it doesn't matter that a lot of the people, that I think the president, even in his "Washington Post" interview, which I found to be a remarkable one, said that people in Iran are waiting for us. The freedom loving people there are waiting for us to come.
They believe this. And I think, you know, it doesn't matter what I write. It doesn't matter what my sources tell me. This is a president that's going to do what he wants to do. And the only thing we can hope is that these guys are right about the world waiting for America to come and remake the Middle East and that Iran will go smoother than Iraq, because they're going to do it, I'm almost -- I'm pretty much convinced of it myself, and so are my sources.
COLLINS: But back to your questions about the sources that you mentioned. Again, they are written as unnamed former senior intelligence officials.
How are you certain that they're telling you the truth? I mean could this not possibly be some people who are sour grapes over the administration, not liking the direction the administration is going in?
HERSH: Oh, you've got to sort of stick with what I've been doing for the last three years and, you know, writing about -- when I wrote about Abu Ghraib the first time in May for the "New Yorker," the administration denounced it as just, I was throwing mud against the wall and seeing how much will stick.
The fact is, the fact is that we are operating right now in and out of Iran. We are collecting intelligence. Why are we working so hard on it? Because the last thing this administration wants to do is hit some targets in -- bomb some targets in Iran which will cause an enormous furor and not be right. We want to make sure we're not going to have another second WMD mistake, as we did in Iraq.
So there's -- they're paying an awful lot of attention and time. And I will tell you why people talk to me. People on the inside are talking to me because in this administration, you cannot tell them what they don't want to hear. In other words, as somebody said to me, you have to think -- you have to drink the Kool-Aid before you go to a meeting. And so they're not open to anybody saying hitting Iran is not a good idea, it's 75 million people, a big army, it's not going to be -- as difficult as Iraq is, Iran is going to be much harder. You're not going to get an outpouring of pro-American sentiment when you hit it. And yet there are people in the White House, we call them the neo-conservatives, some of the civilians who work in the Pentagon -- Wolfowitz is one, Doug Feith, his aide -- who really believe that when we do hit these targets it's going to lead to an incredible outcry of anti-mullah, you know, a lot of people who don't like the religious leadership in Iran will rise up and we'll have a revolution there.
It's, my friends, the people that talk to me, think it's loony, but they can't get their views in over the top so they go outside to a journalist to tell the stories.
COLLINS: All right, well, Seymour Hersh, we appreciate your time, live from Washington this morning with the latest article in the issue of the "New Yorker."
Thank you.
HERSH: Thank you.
HEMMER: About 12 minutes past the hour now.
From China today, a former high ranking official purged back in 1989 after showing sympathy with Tiananmen Square protesters, has died. Zhao Ziyang, a reformer, helped launch China's economic boom. But after meeting with demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Zhao was placed under house arrest, where he remained for 15 years until he was recently hospitalized.
The official reaction to his death has been muted. CNN broadcasts for foreigners were blacked out when they mentioned Zhao.
In Thailand, at least 160 people injured today in a rush hour crash in Bangkok. It happened when one train slammed into the back of another parked at the station. Eight of the injured are said to be in critical condition. The subways operators blamed the crash on a problem with the computer system controlling those trains. Bangkok's subway system opened less than six months ago -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Let's take a moment now to check on the weather.
And Chad Myers is standing by to do just that -- good morning to you once again, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Heidi.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: In a moment here, a view of the tsunamis none of us has seen until now. Startling new images, all of them from a man who lost nearly everything in that devastation.
COLLINS: Also, Social Security -- is it on the verge of going bankrupt or are scare tactics at work? Kamber and May take a look.
HEMMER: Also, the first images beamed back from the surface of Titan. What secrets are we now learning here?
Back in a moment here with those pictures and more, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Indonesia now reports fewer deaths, but more people missing from the December 26 tsunami. That puts the ever changing number of dead at just over 131,000. So many Indonesians are believed missing -- more than 132,000 -- that a list can't even be made. So survivors are signing an alive book in the hope of reconnecting families.
Indonesia now says there is no deadline for foreign troops, including Americans, to leave. And the March 26 date announced last week is only a benchmark for their own troops to take over relief efforts.
And a series of dramatic photos have just surfaced. As the wave hit Banda Aceh, a newspaper photographer started capturing the drama of the moment. You see it there. But soon his thoughts turned to his own family. He left his camera with a shopkeeper. After weeks of caring for his family's survivors, he finally got his camera back, with the record of what happened that day still inside.
HEMMER: Wow.
Eighteen minutes now past the hour.
To space this morning, where scientists are hoping images from Saturn's largest moon can reveal secrets about the Earth's origins. The pictures coming back to Earth from the Huygens space probe, which landed Friday on the surface of Titan.
Jack Horkheimer is back with us today.
He's the executive director of the Miami Planetarium.
Jack, good morning to you.
JACK HORKHEIMER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MIAMI PLANETARIUM: Good morning.
HEMMER: Welcome back here.
I'm going to take you through these images here.
First for our viewers on the screen, this first one here has an orange color that is quite dominant.
What does that suggest? Let's take that first.
HORKHEIMER: Well, when this first came in, Bill, the European scientists thought that these were rocks and boulders. Actually, it turns out the camera is much closer and these are actually pebbles. Those two rocks just below the middle of the screen, the long one and the oblong one is about six inches across. The other one is about an inch and a half across. And they look like they're sitting in kind of a depression. That means that this area, we think, is still kind of like the consistency of wet sand or clay. And if we look off in the distance, we think that we're on top of a sand dune gradually sloping off to a shoreline.
The orange color is part of the product of -- this whole planet is surrounded by -- and I call it a planet because it's bigger than Mercury and Pluto, even though it's a moon -- it's covered in a dense layer of methane gas and that gives us this kind of an orangish color.
HEMMER: All right, that's the first one.
The next one suggests drainage channels or possibly even a shoreline.
HORKHEIMER: Right.
HEMMER: Take us through this one.
HORKHEIMER: Sure. The most poetic description of these visuals are we're looking straight down coming in at about a 45 degree angle. And about 10 miles above the surface, you see those big black areas? We think those are methane lakes, liquid methane lakes. Kind of think of, oh, small lakes filled with paint thinner. And the brighter stuff are clouds of methane and maybe even icy hills. We are thinking in terms of some of the pictures have shown a kind of sweeping shorelines with frosty ice covered hills shrouded in a methane mist. This is the first time we've seen what we think may be pools of liquid, even though it's not water, it's methane, on another planet.
HEMMER: All right, that's number two.
Number three now, more shorelines, too, and some raised areas, as well, suggesting what?
HORKHEIMER: Well, you see those little dark channels? If you look closely, they look like river channels. And if you look to the right of the picture, you see what looks like a shoreline and a lake. Well, think, once again, Lake Michigan, only much smaller, of paint thinner. And those dark lines may be, we're not sure, but they may be riverbeds where a liquid has once slowed down to the shoreline.
These are really spectacular pictures when you analyze them. And, of course, it's taking the space agency in Europe a longer time to refine these pictures. This is pretty raw data. These pictures will be refined in the next coming weeks.
HEMMER: Take that last point another -- they're kind of dribbling out the information, aren't they, kind of dribbling out the pictures? Why is that?
HORKHEIMER: Yes, I'm glad you said that. Miles O'Brien was talking about that. They're really slow. I caught kind of a -- it's a cosmic striptease. They're just going to give us a little bit at a time. Every week we're going to get a new picture or a refined picture. And it kind of makes me very anxious to see what they're going to give us next.
HEMMER: Yes, I bet.
I bet.
HORKHEIMER: You know, we do it over here a little differently with NASA and JPL. We let people see the pictures and data that come in streaming video as it comes in. They kind of sit on this and say OK, fellows, we're going to give you this picture today, this picture next week. So it makes us all a little tense.
If you want to see more pictures, I'd suggest that today, since it's a holiday, or this week, take your kids and go to a planetarium or a museum where planetariums all over the country are installing these pictures into shows as they come down. It's really fascinating.
HEMMER: All right. And if you're in Florida, south Florida, check out Miami's planetarium, too.
HORKHEIMER: Yes. HEMMER: Thank you.
HORKHEIMER: And, you know, Bill?
HEMMER: Yes?
HORKHEIMER: One of the wonderful things about what's happening this week is that nobody's mentioned it, but Saturn happens to be in opposition last week and this week, which means that its closest, biggest and brightest for the entire year. Just go outside now after sunset, look east and you'll see the two bright stars Castor and Polyps of Gemini and just below it, a bright, bright object, which is Saturn. Take a department store telescope, look at it and you'll actually be able to see Titan. It's mind blowing right now.
HEMMER: Excellent. A great tip, too.
Thank you, Jack.
We'll talk to you again.
Jack Horkheimer in Miami -- Heidi.
COLLINS: A Colorado man goes to the dentist with a toothache. After he got the x-rays back, he probably wished he just needed a root canal. We're "Paging Dr. Gupta" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Time to check in with Jack now one more time and the Question of the Day.
CAFFERTY: Thanks, Heidi.
Seymour Hersh's article in the "New Yorker" suggests that by this coming summer, America may be attacking military targets inside Iran, not Iraq, Iran. Mr. Hersh's piece suggests that commandos from this country have been in Iran since last summer scouting those targets and that because of the fears over nuclear proliferation in Iran, we may strike targets there as early as three or four months from now.
Should we do that is the question?
Here are the answers.
Tom in Alma, West Virginia: "The search for WMD has been concluded in Iraq and has now begun in Iran. Our initial intelligence was only one letter off in the spelling of the country."
Giulluame writes: "If the U.N., not as a corrupted financial institution, but as the expression of the rest of the world, agrees with America in assessing specific threats, all right. But not as a preemptive strike. Didn't Bush learn anything from Iraq?"
Lloyd in Burgaw, North Carolina: "Here we go again. If the administration is so bent on attacking someone, let them choose North Korea, where we know their nuclear capabilities and their intentions."
And Peter in Houston writes: "Iran is the most dangerous nation in the world today, which has for decades created, supplied and armed terrorist groups that have killed Americans all over the world. It would be an act of pure insanity to permit Iran to develop nuclear weapons."
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: From Iran to Iraq, in a moment, should the White House be held accountable for mistakes in that war? The president answers that question. And Kamber and May have a look at that, in a moment.
Also, a quick reminder. Tomorrow live coverage here of Condoleezza Rice's confirmation hearings as they get underway at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time.
We're back in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING, right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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