Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Observing the Iraqi Vote; Expatriate Vote; Iraq: What's Next?; British Troops Killed; Benefits of Folic Acid
Aired January 31, 2005 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of Iraqi voters braved suicide bombings and mortar attacks to participate in the election. And a handful of international observers turned out to watch the voting.
One of those observers, Canadian Leslie Campbell is Director of the Middle East Programs for the National Democratic Institute. He joins us live now from Baghdad.
Good morning.
LESLIE CAMPBELL, NATL. DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE: Good morning.
COSTELLO: So where exactly were you observing?
CAMPBELL: I was in Baghdad, in a fairly central neighborhood, mixed Shi'a Christian primarily, some Sunni residents, but mostly Shi'a Christian neighborhood, and got to about six or seven polling stations.
COSTELLO: Tell us some of what you observed.
CAMPBELL: Well what I thought was you know really consistent with what you have been reporting and the pictures that the people have been seeing in the sense that we actually had people waving at us from windows as we walked by and drove by. A real sense of a positive atmosphere, kids on the street, families in front of houses.
In the polling station, we saw a very orderly process, the materials were there, the poll workers appeared to be confident and trained. The manager of one of the larger areas of school had several stations and it seemed to be very on top of it.
Lots of security. We were frisked, very thoroughly frisked, so they didn't -- you know they didn't make an exception for internationals at all, which was good. I was impressed.
COSTELLO: So how does this compare...
CAMPBELL: But very positive.
COSTELLO: I'm sorry, how does this compare to other elections that you have observed?
CAMPBELL: I'm not sure there's ever been anything like this. I've never seen an election carried out under this type of violence, this type of threat of violence. As you know, yesterday was far from violence free. In fact, it was one of the worst days in the past few months, but still people came out. And the stakes are huge. It's a very, very different experience. I've been to a lot of elections in the Middle East, in fact around the world, and never seen anything like this.
COSTELLO: One of the interesting aspects of this, since many of the candidates couldn't campaign because of the violence, did the voters know who they were voting for or what they were voting for?
CAMPBELL: I think they did. Because the way that the system worked with this proportional representation system and national lists of candidates headed by usually a well-known person or well-known party, people in the end had a sense, for example, the Kurdish coalition that was running, people knew who they were. The grand sort of Shi'a coalition, people knew that one. The Communist Party, a well-known party. Allawi, obviously Prime Minister Allawi very well known.
So the level of order education (ph) often it wasn't as what it could have been, but people I think very much knew what they were voting for. And you could tell by their determination. They didn't know all the details, but they knew enough to know that this -- you know they knew what they were casting a vote for.
COSTELLO: A lot of different figures have been thrown out as far as turnout goes. What is your sense, how many people turned out to vote?
CAMPBELL: It's still difficult to say. Our organization was involved in training a group of 10,000 Iraqi monitors. And they're probably the best source of information in terms of an objective source. And they're sending us mixed signals. We're still gathering information from around the country. The logistics of that are difficult, but we're finding signs of a huge turnout in some areas, 80 to 90 percent in some of the Shi'a and Kurdish areas, a mixed bag in others.
In Mosul, a very slow start, but the turnout in the Sunni areas in Mosul picked up heavily in the afternoon. In Ramadi and Falluja, probably the two worst areas to vote, there was no one voting early in the morning, but signs of at least 10,000 voters in those cities by late afternoon.
So we can't confirm the numbers yet. My guess is that the initial rumors of 70-some percent are probably a little bit high. But it's pretty clear so far by anecdotal evidence that it's easily above 50 percent. So you know hard to guess right now, but remarkable nonetheless, absolutely remarkable.
COSTELLO: Final question, how would you characterize this election, was it a resounding success?
CAMPBELL: Yes, it was a resounding success. But I think something, again, that we'll probably start thinking in the next few days is it's even more amazing in the sense that this is the first time ever in an Arab country that people have gone to choose their new rulers in government. It has never happened before. There have been elections, but never elections that have actually changed a government in an Arab country.
So it was a success in the small sense of the word, in the sense that people got out and voted and defied the insurgents. But it's also been a success in the bigger sense in that it's done something that no other Arab country had ever done before.
COSTELLO: Interesting. Thank you so much for joining us. Leslie Campbell, the Director of Middle East Programs for the National Democratic Institute, observing the elections in Baghdad in Iraq, thank you for joining DAYBREAK.
Iraqis living in 14 other countries turned out by the thousands to vote over the weekend. One of those countries is Great Britain.
CNN's Robin Oakley joins us live from London now.
Good morning.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN EUROPEAN POLITICAL EDITOR: Hello, Carol.
We'll it's certainly been a psychological turning point, I think, both for many Britons who opposed the war in Iraq and for politicians across Europe. The tone of all the comment we've had so far from politicians and from the media has been surprise at the turnout, praise for the courage of the Iraqi people in defying intimidation and really a sense that things can start to move on from here.
Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, called it a great day for democracy and signal to the whole region. Joschka Fisher, the Foreign Minister of Germany, one of the countries who opposed the war, paid tribute to the courage of the Iraqi people and talked about them moving forward now in the right direction. Javier Solana, the International Policy Chief for the European Union, said that the E.U. would now offer additional help to Iraq and part of that help is going to be an extra $260 million.
Here in Britain, Tony Blair hailed it as a blow for democracy and a blow at the heart of global terrorism. But of course British feelings have been somewhat muted by the biggest single loss of military personnel that we've seen in the war with the downing of the C-130 Hercules -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Robin Oakley, live in London this morning, thank you.
Iraqis living in Turkey also voted, but their concern is focused more on the northern city of Kirkuk rather than at Baghdad.
CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh is in Istanbul to explain.
Hello.
ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. That's right, it is hard to explain, even Iraqis find it hard to explain that extreme joy and excitement from 30,000 eligible Iraqis living in Turkey. However, only about 4,200 actually registered to vote, but election officials here say that at least, at least 97 percent of those 4,200 actually followed through and cast their ballots.
I have spent the last three days at a polling center here in Istanbul. There's a group of Bulgarians, I should say Iraqis who drove all the way from Bulgaria, so visibly excited. They were jostling to take pictures as they put their ballots in the box, put their votes in the box.
And in particular, there is one gentleman who caught my attention, a 66-year-old retiree. He was literally shaking with excitement as he explained to me what this election meant to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are very happy. We are now. We are living this total compliment in our life all together. And we are thinking that our fortune, our reward will build in new Iraq democracy here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAN MARSH: Now, as you mentioned, there is some concern here, the Turkish government following this election very, very closely. In focus is the city of Kirkuk, the oil rich city of Kirkuk. Turkey is concerned that tens of thousands of ethnic Kurds have gone back to that city. Kurds claim that city as their ethnic homeland, so do ethnic Turkmen.
The majority of the Iraqis voting here are also ethnic Turkmen and there have been tensions in Kirkuk. The authorities here, the prime minister, the foreign minister, the leader of the military, saying watch out, if this situation is not resolved, if these tensions are not resolved, there could be trouble, perhaps even civil war.
The paper this morning, the foreign minister pictured here, saying do not stir up Kirkuk. You can bet that's going to be on the agenda when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice comes here the first week of February -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Alphonso Van Marsh, reporting live from Istanbul, Turkey this morning, thank you.
And as tough as getting Iraqis to the voting booths have been, now comes the hard part, will a democratically elected government in Iraq really calm the insurgency?
Senior international editor David Clinch joins us now with that perspective.
Good morning.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.
I do want to say, though, before we start, sort of tearing this story apart in terms of facts and figures, and that there's always sort of the difficult questions. I really do want to emphasize that we are going to make every effort to continue what we did yesterday, which is to bring you some of these fantastic human stories.
I don't know if you saw some of those pictures yesterday of people queuing to vote for hours and hours, old women being carried by their sons, things like that. So before we start getting too facts and figures oriented, we will continue to look for those great stories today. What a wonderful day that was yesterday our coverage of the people going out to vote.
But there are the difficult questions, and that is exactly the question that you brought up, a democratically elected government in Iraq. First of all, that's months away, at the earliest, months away, because this election was really only the first step in that.
And as of course we know living here in the United States, democracy is not a fix all. Democracy by itself is a wonderful thing, but it is not an answer for terrorism by itself and it is not an answer for all the ills of a society. So there clearly are some massive problems. Allawi, the interim Prime Minister, just had a press conference in which he asked for unity amongst all those who voted and all those who didn't vote.
The big elephant in the room today, of course, is that in the Sunni areas, at least some of the Sunni areas, only a few hundred people turned up to vote in some of the larger Sunni areas of Iraq. And that, of course, will be the really big question in this area that's been the feeding ground for the insurgency. And the fear that there could still be pockets within Iraq, democratic or not democratic, where terrorists will breed, that is the question that will face the government, which, again, is still months away.
So the interim period here, Allawi calling for unity. But even beyond that, just with many, many people in the Sunni community not even having voted, what will that mean for Iraq and for the rest of the world, too, if terrorists are still able to breed within those communities.
COSTELLO: Let's talk more about the Sunni vote or a lack thereof in some parts of Iraq. How does Iran play into that -- David?
CLINCH: Well Iran, of course, heavily interested in the vote in the Shiite areas in the south, and of course there you know Ba'ath (ph) is of course on the Shiite's getting the majority. But there's also of course the threat from the Sunni insurgents there within those towns around Falluja, Ramadi, Samara, all of those places, that just scare people away from voting.
And the Iranians, watching from next door, of course, will be quite happy to see that the Shiites seem to have come out and voted. As expected, they may achieve the majority in this National Assembly. The Sunnis, of course, excuse the pun, but shooting themselves in the foot here. They will have had only a minority, at best. And if they didn't turn up to vote, their voice may be a very weak one going forward. The Iranian influence of possibly of course increasing if the Shiites have that level of a majority in the National Assembly.
COSTELLO: David Clinch, live in Atlanta this morning, thank you.
On a day that should have been filled with celebration for the U.S. and its allies, it is a sad day for the British military. Up next, we'll take you live to England for more on yesterday's military transport plane crash.
But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Monday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And in particular, I want our British armed forces to know the immense debt of gratitude that they are owed. This is the true face of the British Army, brave, committed, professional the world over, doing an extraordinary job on behalf of their country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Tony Blair made that comment during a televised address to the British people. He also told them about a tragic loss of British lives. At least 10 soldiers were killed when their transport plane crashed north of Baghdad.
CNN's Matthew Chance joins us now from the plane's home base in Wiltshire, England.
Good morning.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you as well, Carol.
And a great deal of confusion still surrounding the circumstances of that plane crash. The wreckage of which has strewn to the northwest of Baghdad, just outside that U.S. Balad Air Base, to the northwest of the Iraqi capital.
This is the U.K. Air Base, RAF Lyneham, where the Hercules operated out of. In fact, a whole fleet of British Hercules operates out of here. And there's a great sense of concern, of course, amongst the local community about the downing of this aircraft.
As I say, on the ground, an investigation under way, led by British military officials, to try and determine exactly what it was that was the cause of this crash. Officials, at this stage, say they're not ruling out either mechanical failure or hostile fire. Because, remember, that area, particularly around the Balad Air Base, is extremely hostile indeed. And that's making the recovery effort and, as well as the forensic teams getting on the ground to try and get the pieces of the aircraft, that's making that effort extremely difficult indeed. A sort of investigation taking place, if you like, in a very hostile area indeed in that part of Iraq -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Matthew Chance, reporting live from Britain this morning, thank you.
Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:44 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.
The U.S. administration that ran Iraq after the war reportedly cannot account for almost $9 billion. That's according to an audit by a special U.S. inspector general. Former U.S. administrator Paul Bremer disputed the claim.
It's going to be a media circus in Santa Maria, California today, jury selection begins in the Michael Jackson trial. Hordes of supporters and media will be at the courthouse. Jackson himself expected to appear as well.
In money news, the California quarter makes its debut today. The 25-cent piece depicts conservationist John Muir. It's part of the U.S. Mint's 50 State Quarters program. If you're collecting, this is No. 31.
In culture, Clint Eastwood is picked as best filmmaker of the year by his peers. The actor/director won the Directors Guild of America honor for the boxing saga, "Million Dollar Baby." And what a great moving that is.
In sports, Duke rebounded from their first loss of the season by pounding Virginia Tech 100 to 65. The Blue Devils improve to 16 and 1 for the season, Chad.
Wow!
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. Yes, Redick had 29 points in that game for Duke. It was a good game, I tell you what, but it was hard to watch about after the second half. About half way through it, it was all over.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Carol.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.
Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.
We all know milk builds strong bones, but can it also prevent a deadly disease? We'll have that story for you right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: In "Health Headlines" for you this morning, medical researchers report they have coaxed human embryonic stem cells to become spinal motored neurons. All right, let me explain further. Motor neurons transmit messages from the brain and the spinal cord, dictating almost every movement in the body. The experiment might one day help scientists repair damaged nerve systems.
Kaiser Permanente has banned the distribution of the painkiller Bextra. It may increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes in some arthritis patients. Bextra is in the same family of painkillers as Celebrex and Vioxx. As you know, Vioxx was pulled off the market last September for the same reason.
If you got milk, you may not get cancer. Cornell University researchers are focusing on a fatty acid in milk shown to prevent or limit cancer. Researchers are formulating a special diet for cows to boost production of this fatty acid.
We've all heard of the benefits of Folic Acid, you know it's good for women in child bearing years and it can prevent certain birth defects. Well, now there's a new benefit.
Here's CNN's senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well it's nothing new that folic acid is good for you, but did you know this, it might reduce your risk of hypertension or high blood pressure as well. A really interesting study coming out in women between the ages of 27 and 44 finding that folic acid alone could reduce their risk of high blood pressure by 46 percent.
Now millions of women already take folic acid supplements to try and prevent birth defects. It's very good at that, specifically neural tube defects. It's also been found over the years that folic acid could reduce your risk of breast cancer and a stroke. But this is the first study now showing it might reduce your risk of high blood pressure.
Now this particular study, women took between 250 and 300 micrograms of folic acid every day. For pregnant women, the recommendation is about 400 micrograms of folic acid a day. That's about the amount found in one single multivitamin. Now in the study that women who consumed the most folic acid, up to 1,000 micrograms a day, had the best reduction risk of high blood pressure.
Now a lot of people ask is this good for men as well? And the study didn't particularly look at men, although the scientists and researchers we talked to said the same should apply to men in terms of reducing their risk of blood pressure, again, from a simple multivitamin.
Also the foods, the foods that best contain folic acid, citrus fruits, for example, tomatoes, leafy green vegetables, beans. And they say that your best bet is to actually get foods that are fortified with folic acid, such as whole grains.
Now we don't know if it's going to be as beneficial for men in the long run or if it's going to be as beneficial for women in terms of keeping that blood pressure down, but we do know that folic acid has very few downsides. So go ahead and eat up.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: We will take your advice, doctor, and eat up.
For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site, the address, CNN.com/health.
All new in the next hour of DAYBREAK, Michael Jackson vows he will be vindicated. We'll bring you his latest statement on videotape. It came hours before the start of his trial on child molestation charges.
Plus, waiting for word. A man on death row in Connecticut still doesn't know if tonight's execution will proceed.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Time to check out our "Web Clicks" this morning, because we're always interested in what people are clicking onto on CNN.com.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: And you know all about this -- Chad.
MYERS: There's that little box over there that you can click on that says most popular, and it'll give you the top 10 things people are actually clicking on.
Two hundred and thirty people getting sick on a cruise ship, but they already knew that this ship was sick the cruise before. I guess...
COSTELLO: I can't believe people would accept the voyage.
MYERS: They said that they gave them their money back or offered to give the money back and people just kept going. I was actually -- I was in Tampa this weekend, so that story was a bigger story down there because that's where the cruise ship left and where it was coming back to. And people said when they got off the boat, they could hear people sick in the cabin next to them. Thanks for my relaxing cruise.
COSTELLO: Let's tell people this one. You're not kidding. This was Holland America,...
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... and it's owned by the Carnival cruise ship line, right?
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: Two hundred and thirty people, out of the, what, some 1,200 passengers onboard...
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... got sick.
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: The cruise lasted, what, 13 hours and they had to turn back, as you said, to Tampa. So, there you go.
MYERS: Well the cruise actually went out last time, they came back. There was 70 people sick when they came back the last time, so.
COSTELLO: And then they offer these people, hey, you're taking your chances,...
MYERS: Well they knew it.
COSTELLO: ... and 1,200 people took their chances.
MYERS: I went on a cruise ship after one of those, you know, those episodes back a couple of years ago. I took a whole big box -- a can of those Lysol wipes. I wiped down my entire room from top to bottom and everything was fine.
COSTELLO: Yes, well it worked for you.
MYERS: All right, move on.
COSTELLO: OK, move on. The second most clicked on story, this town in Oregon is in an uproar after the Nazis adopt a road. Now usually the Boy Scouts do this, you know, when they clean a...
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: ... stretch of road in a state. Well the Nazi party wanted to clean a stretch of road, and they wanted to put up a road sign, like that that you see there in that picture.
MYERS: And they did.
COSTELLO: Well, yes, they did. The city of Portland tried to fight them on this. They took it to court, but the court said that by doing that they violated the Nazi group's free speech rights.
MYERS: But if that sign is defaced or taken down or spray painted, whatever, it was a $500 sign that the city had to pay for to put it up, if it gets defaced, then the -- that the party actually will have to replace it for another $500. So I can see that being an ongoing process.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
Quickly, the third most clicked on story was the horrible weather in Atlanta. And of course you're going to tell us much more about that a little later, because it's over now, isn't it?
MYERS: Yes, it is. But you know when they cancel Amtrak, you know that the storm is bad. In fact, the Amtrak from Atlanta all the way to Charlotte was canceled yesterday, or Saturday, because of the ice on the roads, ice on the tracks and all over the place. People just couldn't get around at all down here.
COSTELLO: But the big meltdown is today, so that's a good thing.
MYERS: You bet.
COSTELLO: All right, thank you -- Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: The powerful sights and sounds of the Iraqi elections are reverberating today long after the polls closed. Here's a look back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLAIR: It may have been the force of arms that removed Saddam and created circumstances in which Iraqis could vote, but it was the force of freedom that was felt throughout Iraq today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very, very happy today, very, very happy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Across Iraq today, men and women have taken rightful control of their country's destiny and they have chosen a future of freedom and peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we never have any election before. This is first time in our life, in my life. I'm 32 years old, I never seen any election, any freedom, so this is first time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Celebrating a basic function of freedom. In Iraq, the votes are cast, now the counting is under way.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 31, 2005 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of Iraqi voters braved suicide bombings and mortar attacks to participate in the election. And a handful of international observers turned out to watch the voting.
One of those observers, Canadian Leslie Campbell is Director of the Middle East Programs for the National Democratic Institute. He joins us live now from Baghdad.
Good morning.
LESLIE CAMPBELL, NATL. DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE: Good morning.
COSTELLO: So where exactly were you observing?
CAMPBELL: I was in Baghdad, in a fairly central neighborhood, mixed Shi'a Christian primarily, some Sunni residents, but mostly Shi'a Christian neighborhood, and got to about six or seven polling stations.
COSTELLO: Tell us some of what you observed.
CAMPBELL: Well what I thought was you know really consistent with what you have been reporting and the pictures that the people have been seeing in the sense that we actually had people waving at us from windows as we walked by and drove by. A real sense of a positive atmosphere, kids on the street, families in front of houses.
In the polling station, we saw a very orderly process, the materials were there, the poll workers appeared to be confident and trained. The manager of one of the larger areas of school had several stations and it seemed to be very on top of it.
Lots of security. We were frisked, very thoroughly frisked, so they didn't -- you know they didn't make an exception for internationals at all, which was good. I was impressed.
COSTELLO: So how does this compare...
CAMPBELL: But very positive.
COSTELLO: I'm sorry, how does this compare to other elections that you have observed?
CAMPBELL: I'm not sure there's ever been anything like this. I've never seen an election carried out under this type of violence, this type of threat of violence. As you know, yesterday was far from violence free. In fact, it was one of the worst days in the past few months, but still people came out. And the stakes are huge. It's a very, very different experience. I've been to a lot of elections in the Middle East, in fact around the world, and never seen anything like this.
COSTELLO: One of the interesting aspects of this, since many of the candidates couldn't campaign because of the violence, did the voters know who they were voting for or what they were voting for?
CAMPBELL: I think they did. Because the way that the system worked with this proportional representation system and national lists of candidates headed by usually a well-known person or well-known party, people in the end had a sense, for example, the Kurdish coalition that was running, people knew who they were. The grand sort of Shi'a coalition, people knew that one. The Communist Party, a well-known party. Allawi, obviously Prime Minister Allawi very well known.
So the level of order education (ph) often it wasn't as what it could have been, but people I think very much knew what they were voting for. And you could tell by their determination. They didn't know all the details, but they knew enough to know that this -- you know they knew what they were casting a vote for.
COSTELLO: A lot of different figures have been thrown out as far as turnout goes. What is your sense, how many people turned out to vote?
CAMPBELL: It's still difficult to say. Our organization was involved in training a group of 10,000 Iraqi monitors. And they're probably the best source of information in terms of an objective source. And they're sending us mixed signals. We're still gathering information from around the country. The logistics of that are difficult, but we're finding signs of a huge turnout in some areas, 80 to 90 percent in some of the Shi'a and Kurdish areas, a mixed bag in others.
In Mosul, a very slow start, but the turnout in the Sunni areas in Mosul picked up heavily in the afternoon. In Ramadi and Falluja, probably the two worst areas to vote, there was no one voting early in the morning, but signs of at least 10,000 voters in those cities by late afternoon.
So we can't confirm the numbers yet. My guess is that the initial rumors of 70-some percent are probably a little bit high. But it's pretty clear so far by anecdotal evidence that it's easily above 50 percent. So you know hard to guess right now, but remarkable nonetheless, absolutely remarkable.
COSTELLO: Final question, how would you characterize this election, was it a resounding success?
CAMPBELL: Yes, it was a resounding success. But I think something, again, that we'll probably start thinking in the next few days is it's even more amazing in the sense that this is the first time ever in an Arab country that people have gone to choose their new rulers in government. It has never happened before. There have been elections, but never elections that have actually changed a government in an Arab country.
So it was a success in the small sense of the word, in the sense that people got out and voted and defied the insurgents. But it's also been a success in the bigger sense in that it's done something that no other Arab country had ever done before.
COSTELLO: Interesting. Thank you so much for joining us. Leslie Campbell, the Director of Middle East Programs for the National Democratic Institute, observing the elections in Baghdad in Iraq, thank you for joining DAYBREAK.
Iraqis living in 14 other countries turned out by the thousands to vote over the weekend. One of those countries is Great Britain.
CNN's Robin Oakley joins us live from London now.
Good morning.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN EUROPEAN POLITICAL EDITOR: Hello, Carol.
We'll it's certainly been a psychological turning point, I think, both for many Britons who opposed the war in Iraq and for politicians across Europe. The tone of all the comment we've had so far from politicians and from the media has been surprise at the turnout, praise for the courage of the Iraqi people in defying intimidation and really a sense that things can start to move on from here.
Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, called it a great day for democracy and signal to the whole region. Joschka Fisher, the Foreign Minister of Germany, one of the countries who opposed the war, paid tribute to the courage of the Iraqi people and talked about them moving forward now in the right direction. Javier Solana, the International Policy Chief for the European Union, said that the E.U. would now offer additional help to Iraq and part of that help is going to be an extra $260 million.
Here in Britain, Tony Blair hailed it as a blow for democracy and a blow at the heart of global terrorism. But of course British feelings have been somewhat muted by the biggest single loss of military personnel that we've seen in the war with the downing of the C-130 Hercules -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Robin Oakley, live in London this morning, thank you.
Iraqis living in Turkey also voted, but their concern is focused more on the northern city of Kirkuk rather than at Baghdad.
CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh is in Istanbul to explain.
Hello.
ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. That's right, it is hard to explain, even Iraqis find it hard to explain that extreme joy and excitement from 30,000 eligible Iraqis living in Turkey. However, only about 4,200 actually registered to vote, but election officials here say that at least, at least 97 percent of those 4,200 actually followed through and cast their ballots.
I have spent the last three days at a polling center here in Istanbul. There's a group of Bulgarians, I should say Iraqis who drove all the way from Bulgaria, so visibly excited. They were jostling to take pictures as they put their ballots in the box, put their votes in the box.
And in particular, there is one gentleman who caught my attention, a 66-year-old retiree. He was literally shaking with excitement as he explained to me what this election meant to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are very happy. We are now. We are living this total compliment in our life all together. And we are thinking that our fortune, our reward will build in new Iraq democracy here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAN MARSH: Now, as you mentioned, there is some concern here, the Turkish government following this election very, very closely. In focus is the city of Kirkuk, the oil rich city of Kirkuk. Turkey is concerned that tens of thousands of ethnic Kurds have gone back to that city. Kurds claim that city as their ethnic homeland, so do ethnic Turkmen.
The majority of the Iraqis voting here are also ethnic Turkmen and there have been tensions in Kirkuk. The authorities here, the prime minister, the foreign minister, the leader of the military, saying watch out, if this situation is not resolved, if these tensions are not resolved, there could be trouble, perhaps even civil war.
The paper this morning, the foreign minister pictured here, saying do not stir up Kirkuk. You can bet that's going to be on the agenda when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice comes here the first week of February -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Alphonso Van Marsh, reporting live from Istanbul, Turkey this morning, thank you.
And as tough as getting Iraqis to the voting booths have been, now comes the hard part, will a democratically elected government in Iraq really calm the insurgency?
Senior international editor David Clinch joins us now with that perspective.
Good morning.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.
I do want to say, though, before we start, sort of tearing this story apart in terms of facts and figures, and that there's always sort of the difficult questions. I really do want to emphasize that we are going to make every effort to continue what we did yesterday, which is to bring you some of these fantastic human stories.
I don't know if you saw some of those pictures yesterday of people queuing to vote for hours and hours, old women being carried by their sons, things like that. So before we start getting too facts and figures oriented, we will continue to look for those great stories today. What a wonderful day that was yesterday our coverage of the people going out to vote.
But there are the difficult questions, and that is exactly the question that you brought up, a democratically elected government in Iraq. First of all, that's months away, at the earliest, months away, because this election was really only the first step in that.
And as of course we know living here in the United States, democracy is not a fix all. Democracy by itself is a wonderful thing, but it is not an answer for terrorism by itself and it is not an answer for all the ills of a society. So there clearly are some massive problems. Allawi, the interim Prime Minister, just had a press conference in which he asked for unity amongst all those who voted and all those who didn't vote.
The big elephant in the room today, of course, is that in the Sunni areas, at least some of the Sunni areas, only a few hundred people turned up to vote in some of the larger Sunni areas of Iraq. And that, of course, will be the really big question in this area that's been the feeding ground for the insurgency. And the fear that there could still be pockets within Iraq, democratic or not democratic, where terrorists will breed, that is the question that will face the government, which, again, is still months away.
So the interim period here, Allawi calling for unity. But even beyond that, just with many, many people in the Sunni community not even having voted, what will that mean for Iraq and for the rest of the world, too, if terrorists are still able to breed within those communities.
COSTELLO: Let's talk more about the Sunni vote or a lack thereof in some parts of Iraq. How does Iran play into that -- David?
CLINCH: Well Iran, of course, heavily interested in the vote in the Shiite areas in the south, and of course there you know Ba'ath (ph) is of course on the Shiite's getting the majority. But there's also of course the threat from the Sunni insurgents there within those towns around Falluja, Ramadi, Samara, all of those places, that just scare people away from voting.
And the Iranians, watching from next door, of course, will be quite happy to see that the Shiites seem to have come out and voted. As expected, they may achieve the majority in this National Assembly. The Sunnis, of course, excuse the pun, but shooting themselves in the foot here. They will have had only a minority, at best. And if they didn't turn up to vote, their voice may be a very weak one going forward. The Iranian influence of possibly of course increasing if the Shiites have that level of a majority in the National Assembly.
COSTELLO: David Clinch, live in Atlanta this morning, thank you.
On a day that should have been filled with celebration for the U.S. and its allies, it is a sad day for the British military. Up next, we'll take you live to England for more on yesterday's military transport plane crash.
But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Monday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And in particular, I want our British armed forces to know the immense debt of gratitude that they are owed. This is the true face of the British Army, brave, committed, professional the world over, doing an extraordinary job on behalf of their country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Tony Blair made that comment during a televised address to the British people. He also told them about a tragic loss of British lives. At least 10 soldiers were killed when their transport plane crashed north of Baghdad.
CNN's Matthew Chance joins us now from the plane's home base in Wiltshire, England.
Good morning.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you as well, Carol.
And a great deal of confusion still surrounding the circumstances of that plane crash. The wreckage of which has strewn to the northwest of Baghdad, just outside that U.S. Balad Air Base, to the northwest of the Iraqi capital.
This is the U.K. Air Base, RAF Lyneham, where the Hercules operated out of. In fact, a whole fleet of British Hercules operates out of here. And there's a great sense of concern, of course, amongst the local community about the downing of this aircraft.
As I say, on the ground, an investigation under way, led by British military officials, to try and determine exactly what it was that was the cause of this crash. Officials, at this stage, say they're not ruling out either mechanical failure or hostile fire. Because, remember, that area, particularly around the Balad Air Base, is extremely hostile indeed. And that's making the recovery effort and, as well as the forensic teams getting on the ground to try and get the pieces of the aircraft, that's making that effort extremely difficult indeed. A sort of investigation taking place, if you like, in a very hostile area indeed in that part of Iraq -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Matthew Chance, reporting live from Britain this morning, thank you.
Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:44 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.
The U.S. administration that ran Iraq after the war reportedly cannot account for almost $9 billion. That's according to an audit by a special U.S. inspector general. Former U.S. administrator Paul Bremer disputed the claim.
It's going to be a media circus in Santa Maria, California today, jury selection begins in the Michael Jackson trial. Hordes of supporters and media will be at the courthouse. Jackson himself expected to appear as well.
In money news, the California quarter makes its debut today. The 25-cent piece depicts conservationist John Muir. It's part of the U.S. Mint's 50 State Quarters program. If you're collecting, this is No. 31.
In culture, Clint Eastwood is picked as best filmmaker of the year by his peers. The actor/director won the Directors Guild of America honor for the boxing saga, "Million Dollar Baby." And what a great moving that is.
In sports, Duke rebounded from their first loss of the season by pounding Virginia Tech 100 to 65. The Blue Devils improve to 16 and 1 for the season, Chad.
Wow!
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. Yes, Redick had 29 points in that game for Duke. It was a good game, I tell you what, but it was hard to watch about after the second half. About half way through it, it was all over.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Carol.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.
Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.
We all know milk builds strong bones, but can it also prevent a deadly disease? We'll have that story for you right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: In "Health Headlines" for you this morning, medical researchers report they have coaxed human embryonic stem cells to become spinal motored neurons. All right, let me explain further. Motor neurons transmit messages from the brain and the spinal cord, dictating almost every movement in the body. The experiment might one day help scientists repair damaged nerve systems.
Kaiser Permanente has banned the distribution of the painkiller Bextra. It may increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes in some arthritis patients. Bextra is in the same family of painkillers as Celebrex and Vioxx. As you know, Vioxx was pulled off the market last September for the same reason.
If you got milk, you may not get cancer. Cornell University researchers are focusing on a fatty acid in milk shown to prevent or limit cancer. Researchers are formulating a special diet for cows to boost production of this fatty acid.
We've all heard of the benefits of Folic Acid, you know it's good for women in child bearing years and it can prevent certain birth defects. Well, now there's a new benefit.
Here's CNN's senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well it's nothing new that folic acid is good for you, but did you know this, it might reduce your risk of hypertension or high blood pressure as well. A really interesting study coming out in women between the ages of 27 and 44 finding that folic acid alone could reduce their risk of high blood pressure by 46 percent.
Now millions of women already take folic acid supplements to try and prevent birth defects. It's very good at that, specifically neural tube defects. It's also been found over the years that folic acid could reduce your risk of breast cancer and a stroke. But this is the first study now showing it might reduce your risk of high blood pressure.
Now this particular study, women took between 250 and 300 micrograms of folic acid every day. For pregnant women, the recommendation is about 400 micrograms of folic acid a day. That's about the amount found in one single multivitamin. Now in the study that women who consumed the most folic acid, up to 1,000 micrograms a day, had the best reduction risk of high blood pressure.
Now a lot of people ask is this good for men as well? And the study didn't particularly look at men, although the scientists and researchers we talked to said the same should apply to men in terms of reducing their risk of blood pressure, again, from a simple multivitamin.
Also the foods, the foods that best contain folic acid, citrus fruits, for example, tomatoes, leafy green vegetables, beans. And they say that your best bet is to actually get foods that are fortified with folic acid, such as whole grains.
Now we don't know if it's going to be as beneficial for men in the long run or if it's going to be as beneficial for women in terms of keeping that blood pressure down, but we do know that folic acid has very few downsides. So go ahead and eat up.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: We will take your advice, doctor, and eat up.
For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site, the address, CNN.com/health.
All new in the next hour of DAYBREAK, Michael Jackson vows he will be vindicated. We'll bring you his latest statement on videotape. It came hours before the start of his trial on child molestation charges.
Plus, waiting for word. A man on death row in Connecticut still doesn't know if tonight's execution will proceed.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Time to check out our "Web Clicks" this morning, because we're always interested in what people are clicking onto on CNN.com.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: And you know all about this -- Chad.
MYERS: There's that little box over there that you can click on that says most popular, and it'll give you the top 10 things people are actually clicking on.
Two hundred and thirty people getting sick on a cruise ship, but they already knew that this ship was sick the cruise before. I guess...
COSTELLO: I can't believe people would accept the voyage.
MYERS: They said that they gave them their money back or offered to give the money back and people just kept going. I was actually -- I was in Tampa this weekend, so that story was a bigger story down there because that's where the cruise ship left and where it was coming back to. And people said when they got off the boat, they could hear people sick in the cabin next to them. Thanks for my relaxing cruise.
COSTELLO: Let's tell people this one. You're not kidding. This was Holland America,...
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... and it's owned by the Carnival cruise ship line, right?
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: Two hundred and thirty people, out of the, what, some 1,200 passengers onboard...
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... got sick.
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: The cruise lasted, what, 13 hours and they had to turn back, as you said, to Tampa. So, there you go.
MYERS: Well the cruise actually went out last time, they came back. There was 70 people sick when they came back the last time, so.
COSTELLO: And then they offer these people, hey, you're taking your chances,...
MYERS: Well they knew it.
COSTELLO: ... and 1,200 people took their chances.
MYERS: I went on a cruise ship after one of those, you know, those episodes back a couple of years ago. I took a whole big box -- a can of those Lysol wipes. I wiped down my entire room from top to bottom and everything was fine.
COSTELLO: Yes, well it worked for you.
MYERS: All right, move on.
COSTELLO: OK, move on. The second most clicked on story, this town in Oregon is in an uproar after the Nazis adopt a road. Now usually the Boy Scouts do this, you know, when they clean a...
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: ... stretch of road in a state. Well the Nazi party wanted to clean a stretch of road, and they wanted to put up a road sign, like that that you see there in that picture.
MYERS: And they did.
COSTELLO: Well, yes, they did. The city of Portland tried to fight them on this. They took it to court, but the court said that by doing that they violated the Nazi group's free speech rights.
MYERS: But if that sign is defaced or taken down or spray painted, whatever, it was a $500 sign that the city had to pay for to put it up, if it gets defaced, then the -- that the party actually will have to replace it for another $500. So I can see that being an ongoing process.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
Quickly, the third most clicked on story was the horrible weather in Atlanta. And of course you're going to tell us much more about that a little later, because it's over now, isn't it?
MYERS: Yes, it is. But you know when they cancel Amtrak, you know that the storm is bad. In fact, the Amtrak from Atlanta all the way to Charlotte was canceled yesterday, or Saturday, because of the ice on the roads, ice on the tracks and all over the place. People just couldn't get around at all down here.
COSTELLO: But the big meltdown is today, so that's a good thing.
MYERS: You bet.
COSTELLO: All right, thank you -- Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: The powerful sights and sounds of the Iraqi elections are reverberating today long after the polls closed. Here's a look back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLAIR: It may have been the force of arms that removed Saddam and created circumstances in which Iraqis could vote, but it was the force of freedom that was felt throughout Iraq today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very, very happy today, very, very happy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Across Iraq today, men and women have taken rightful control of their country's destiny and they have chosen a future of freedom and peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we never have any election before. This is first time in our life, in my life. I'm 32 years old, I never seen any election, any freedom, so this is first time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Celebrating a basic function of freedom. In Iraq, the votes are cast, now the counting is under way.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
