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Now That Election is Over, Is It a Turning Point for Insurgency?; Seven Steps to World Peace

Aired February 01, 2005 - 08:31   ET

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

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


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Ballot counting is under way in Baghdad right now. Authorities were worried that the violence could derail the election. But now that that is over, is it a turning point for the insurgency? We're going to talk with "Newsweek's" Baghdad's bureau chief just ahead. He spent much of his time covering the violence.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also this hour, seven steps to world peace, only seven. We'll talk to Deepak Chopra this morning. The alternative medicine has written a new book. It's called "Peace is the Way." Chopra tells us about seven steps over seven days that could change the world. So we'll talk him about that in a few minutes.

O'BRIEN: One of the steps is meditation.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Really?

O'BRIEN: Expressing gratitude is another.

HEMMER: Shall we begin?

O'BRIEN: Maybe we should cut to the other five that are a little more aggressive is what I'm thinking. We'll chat with him about his ideas in just a little bit.

COSTELLO: Do the meditation thing during my news headline segment and see if it helps.

O'BRIEN: OK, here's Carol.

HEMMER: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning, everyone. Oh, my.

Now in the news, good news to report out of Iraq. Iraq is reopening its borders. Security restrictions being eased today following Sunday's historic election. A final tally of the votes now under way in Baghdad. Some 200 election workers are reviewing hand- counted ballots. Official results are not expected till next week. But a partial count could be released shortly. An when it is released, we'll get it along to you.

Pope John Paul does have the flu. He's in bed recovering, but this is a concern for many, because he's not in the best of health. The Vatican says there's nothing to worry about, though, but it's canceled the pope's public and private meetings for the next few days, including the general audience on Wednesday.

In California, BALCO founder Victor Conte is fighting a subpoena to appear in court this morning. The hearing, of course, about illegal steroids. Prosecutors want Conte to turn over the contents of one of BALCO's computer hard drives. They say he may have leaked grand jury testimony involving slugger Barry Bonds and other top athletes. Conte denies the claim.

And Microsoft is joining the search-engine race, even though the software giant is admitting that it's somewhat late in the game. Today, Microsoft is unveiling its own service, hoping to catch up with competitors like Google and Yahoo!, which, of course, as you know, have had great success.

HEMMER: Great with a capital 'G' too. Sorry, we weren't finished.

COSTELLO: I was wondering if there have been major changes in your lives.

O'BRIEN: It did, so we stopped.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Carol.

Insurgents had promised to stop this weekend's Iraqi elections with a rash of violence. That didn't happen. Twenty-nine were killed, far fewer than anticipated on Sunday.

The question now, the insurgents did not stop the elections. So can the election now stop the insurgents? Let's start with Rob Nordland, Baghdad bureau chief in "Newsweek" magazine. He wrote the cover story this weekend. It is one fascinating article as well.

Rob, welcome here to AMERICAN MORNING. Answer that question, first off -- is it possible for these elections to stop the insurgency?

ROB NORDLAND, "NEWSWEEK" BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Well, it's possible. It's probably more likely that the elections will actually feed the insurgency, because as successful as they were, a large number of Sunnis did not participate, particularly in the most conflicted areas, in Anbar province and some other parts of the country. And that potentially could lead to a very big recruiting ground for the insurgents. I mean, ultimately, you fight insurgencies with political means if you want to ultimately defeat them or resolve them. And it remains to be seen whether that will work in this case.

HEMMER: One of the questions being asked here in the U.S., especially over the past 24 hours, is now that the elections are finished, does that speed up the process now for the U.S. military to pack up and come home in some form? Does that send the wrong message to insurgents. NORDLAND: Well, yes, it was a very major feat for the insurgency. They threw everything they had at the election. There were 260 attacks, there were a record nine or 10 suicide bombings in Baghdad, but they made very little impact, and they didn't accomplish their aim, which was to deter voters from going to the polls, or even wreck the elections.

Certainly if they'd have wrecked the elections, we'd be that much farther away from leaving. So in a sense, they do bring us closer to it, but it's certainly not going to happen tomorrow, or even in the next months. There's still this very big and very effective insurgency to combat, and it's going to be around for a while.

HEMMER: And Zarqawi apparently put out an audio tape, I believe it was yesterday, saying that Baghdad will never become Shiite. That was part of translation. In your report -- by the way, and it's a wonderful article, and congratulations to you, in "Newsweek" magazine now -- you say that Zarqawi was in possession of coalition forces or Iraqi forces in Falluja back in October. How do we know that?

NORDLAND: Well, the Iraqi authorities found a Saudi youth in a hospital, they originally thought that he was injured as a bystander in a suicide bombing. Turns out he was the bomber, and by some miracle survived. When he started talking, it turns out he was from a cell that was under Zarqawi's control, and he related other cell members talking about Zarqawi's arrest, having a good yuk about it. They checked it out, and Iraqi authorities now are satisfied it's true. He was actually in custody for seven hours in Falluja.

HEMMER: Begs the question, why didn't the Iraqis know this? Why could they not identify him?

NORDLAND: Well, it does raise the question. There were police in Falluja that remember, and the police in Falluja, at that time, before the U.S. attacked and subdued the place, were pretty much working with the insurgency, so they might well have known who he was, or they were just incompetent and missed an opportunity for a $25 million reward. Either one is possible. I don't think that would happen again.

HEMMER: One more thing, let me pick up on this -- one of the things you write about in your article is the key to success right now in defeating the insurgents is to separate these groups from one another. In other words, take Zarqawi's groups and separate them and get some distance between them and some of these other groups operating throughout Iraq. You say that has worked in Egypt. It's worked in Algeria in the 1990s. Why would that work today in Iraq?

NORDLAND: Well, there are two major strands in the resistance. There's Zarqawi and the terrorists, and there's not going to be any negotiating with them. They want to kill as many people as possible. Their goal is to provoke a major conflagration between the West and Islam. So there's just no dealing with them.

The others are Baathists, and Iraqis and former regime elements, and they include a lot of people who possibly could be talked to, or certainly could be persuaded to lay down their weapons, and ultimately, that's a solution, and it has worked other places.

But first of all, they need to be reassured that there's a role for Sunnis in this future government, and it's not just a Shia-only affair, which is what Zarqawi's trying very hard to depict it as, and there is a danger it would become that, if the right moves aren't made.

HEMMER: Well, the article is called "Unmasking the Insurgents." Rob Nordland wrote it at "Newsweek" magazine, along Tom Meslin (ph) and Christopher Dickey (ph).

To our viewers, it is excellent reading and a great article, too. Congratulations to you, Rob. Stay safe over there in Baghdad. Thanks for your time -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Michael Jackson returns to court this morning for another face-to-face meeting with the people who could return him to prison.

CNN's Ted Rowlands has more on the start of jury selection at the Jackson's child molestation trial.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Jackson, dressed in white, acknowledged his screaming fans as he walked into the courthouse for day one of his criminal trial. In court, Jackson seemed to be at his best behavior, standing up as prospective jurors walked in.

LINDA DEUTSCH, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, A.P.: He had a little smile on his face. Some of the jurors appeared quite taken with looking at him. They appeared not to be surprised at who was the defendant in this case. They apparently had been told. But some of them craned their necks to get a better look at him.

ROWLANDS: Over half of the 300 prospective jurors that came through indicated that six months of service was OK with them. The rest asked to be let go for a variety of reasons, as Jackson looked on.

Michael Jackson is accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy at his Neverland Ranch in 2003. If convicted of all of the charges he's facing, he could serve up to 20 years in prison.

Outside the courthouse, hundreds of Jackson's fans spent the day waiting for a glimpse of the pop superstar. In contrast to his arraignment last year, when he danced on the top of his SUV, this time Jackson just waved from the street and again after he got into his car, which seemed to satisfy the crowd.

(on camera): The judge estimates it'll take a few weeks to come up with 12 jurors and eight alternates. Michael Jackson is required to attend the jury selection process, meaning he's expected to be back here when court resumes at 10:00 a.m.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The Jackson trial could last six months -- Bill.

HEMMER: Well, the Super Bowl's going to last about four hours, and it goes down Sunday night in Jacksonville.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: New research on treating a condition that affects millions of children. Sanjay tells us how it might affect your child. In a moment here, we'll get to that.

O'BRIEN: And Deepak Chopra is with us this morning. Can world peace be far behind? A look at that ahead as we continue right here on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: We are "Paging Dr. Gupta" this morning about kids and asthma. New research could lead to you mow effective treatment of young asthma patients. Sanjay's at CNN center. Good morning. What gives here, Sanjay?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Yes, asthma can be a very serious condition, also a very treatable condition. About five million children across the United States have it. For a long time, treatment has been a little bit hard to figure out, figure out which medication is going to work best for which child. So researchers from the National Jewish Medical and Research Center tried to figure out which medications work best in which situations.

There are different types of medications out there. There are steroid-type medications, which a lot of parents of asthmatic children know about. There's also other medications as well. What they've found, interestingly, was that if a child has lower lung function or the asthma is mainly due to allergic inflammation, use the Flovent first. That's the inhaled steroid. If it's mainly due to other causes, but is still long-standing asthma, try both medications, both the Flovent and Singulair, which is another asthma medication. But also, if a child is under the age of 10 and has had short-term asthma, then the Singulair alone may be a good medication.

Figuring out which type of asthma the child has does require significant diagnostic tests, trying to figure out their lung function, how well they breathe, how well they can force air out of their lungs. But it might be worth it, in terms of trying to figure out which medication is best -- Bill.

HEMMER: Back to these diagnostic tests for a moment. If you know child hasn't had them, should he or she go back to the doctor?

GUPTA: Yes, you know, here's the thing. Most doctors -- most pediatricians can take care of asthma pretty well and most of them will put the child on the right medications. If the child's asthma is longer standing, a couple, three months perhaps, then the child probably needs to get more significant diagnostic tests. Again, measuring how much air is in the lungs, how much air can be forced out of the lungs. And that can better appropriate the treatment. Sometimes the specialist will be the best to try to take care of that -- Bill.

HEMMER: What about a pill versus an inhaler? The inhaler seems like it's getting more and more popularity every year. Is one better than the other, Sanjay?

GUPTA: Some of that popularity is warranted, some of it's not. A lot of parents sort of focus on the inhalers because they're easier to use in older children. But there are advantages and disadvantages to both. The inhaler's probably going to be a little better for more immediate treatment for better severe cases. Also, it may be a little bit easier to adjust the dose. You know, one puff versus two puffs versus three puffs.

As far as the pill goes, you're going to get more precise dosaging, although you can't really change it. It's going to work fairly quickly and there's no risk of growth deterrence. Sometimes these steroid medications, the big concern, Bill, is that they can deter growth when a child becomes older. Obviously, both parents and children both worry about that.

HEMMER: Indeed they do. Sanjay, thanks for that. We'll talk to you later. Here's Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, there are 12-step programs designed to treat addiction. Now Deepak Chopra, the world-renowned spiritual guru, has devised a seven-step program to deal with a world seemingly addicted to war. He delivers the message in his new book. It's called "Peace is the Way."

Deepak Chopra joins us this morning. Nice to see you. Thanks for coming in to talk to us.

DEEPAK CHOPRA, AUTHOR, "PEACE IS THE WAY": Thanks for having me.

O'BRIEN: You're a medical doctor. Usually, you write about spiritual topics. Why are you writing about world peace this time around?

CHOPRA: Well, in a way, this is also a spiritual topic because the thesis is that personal transformation is the key to global transformation. Therefore, what we see is the collective rage out there is a reflection of the rage inside ourselves. So if you had a critical mass of people who are peaceful, that would translate, hopefully, into society that's peaceful.

O'BRIEN: We'll get to the specifics of your plan in a moment. But the way you lay it out is sort of seven steps. And I guess my question would be is it meant to be practical advice for how to bring the world to peace? CHOPRA: Yes, it's very practical, yes. Well, actually, you know, if you ask people do you want peace of mind, I don't think there's anyone who says I don't. So if you had peace of mind, then you could create peace. Peace can only be created by those who are peaceful. You have this amazing phenomenon in society where you have peace activists and most of them are angry people, so you have this very interesting paradox of angry peace activists. You can't do it that way.

O'BRIEN: The seven practices, each one is linked to a day of the week. For example, on Sunday, you talk about meditation. For Tuesday, compassion and understanding. Thursday, resolving conflict in your own personal life. And then on Sunday you say bringing it all to this critical mass, which you mentioned as sort of the most important thing.

To some degree, aren't you preaching to the choir? The people saying I want to do this, I want to think about this, I want to encompass this in my life, they're not the ones you have to convert to being peaceful. These are people who are really thinking about it. They're not the terrorists. They're not the people who are planting bombs or flying planes into buildings or even creating wars.

CHOPRA: You have to realize that terrorism actually has its seeds in fear, separation, degrading conditions, humiliation, a sense of injustice, extreme poverty. So those issues have to be addressed. You know, you can't get rid of terrorists by killing them. Just like you can't get rid of cancer by killing the cancer cells. It starts coming back again. As a physician, if I have a patient with a tumor, of course, if it's life-threatening I'm going to excise it. But if I don't ask myself what were the conditions that gave rise to this malignancy, then it's going to recur.

And so peace here, the book deals with issues like extreme nationalism, religious fundamentalism, poverty, sense of injustice, perception. The context in which this arises. There's a religious context, there's a medical context, there's a social context, cultural context, historical context. So if you really want to resolve conflict, we have to understand the context in which these things happen. But at the same time...

O'BRIEN: The individual has the power to bring about peace, do you think?

CHOPRA: Mahatma Gandhi said, could you be the change that you wish to see in the world? And actually, he's the one that said, there's no way to peace, peace is the way.

O'BRIEN: Hence the title.

CHOPRA: That's the title.

O'BRIEN: Deepak Chopra. Nice to have you come in to talk about your book. It's called "Peace is the Way." We appreciate it.

CHOPRA: Thank you. O'BRIEN: Bill?

HEMMER: All right, Soledad, want to interrupt for just a moment here, take you to Pennsylvania, near Allentown, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County. Apparently an underground pipe has exploded this morning in that country, forcing the evacuation of some homes and businesses. No immediate reports of injuries or property damage.

It happened about, oh, two hours and 20 minutes ago, 6:30 a.m. local time. The pipeline apparently for a small pumping station. It's not clear what's burning there, whether it's fuel oil, or gasoline or some other material. The evacuations, we are told, are only as a precaution. Again, this near Allentown, Pennsylvania. We'll keep an eye out of for you. A lot of flames there going up into the morning sky.

A break here. In a moment, first, an NBA championship ring, now a product endorsement gone wild. Andy explains that in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: All right. Here's Jack and welcome back.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Fortunately, for all involved the new month on Wall Street and a story of one NBA endorsement deal that's just run amok. It's great.

Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business."

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I like this. It's a really terrific one.

Let's talk about the market. We're going to talk about January one more time. I mean, I really thought we'd be done with this, but here we go. Bill, the Dow was down 2.7 percent in January, the worst showing in two years -- two years. Hadn't been so bad since 2003.

The good news is February's coming up. And what happens in February? doesn't really mean anything for the rest of the year. It's just another month, thank goodness.

Futures are up a little bit this morning. And we'll be watching that for you.

A couple of product endorsement stories to tell you about this morning. These are really great. First of all, a kindergarten teacher in California whose ship came in. A gentleman named Russell Chrisoff (ph), he modeled early in his career, 1986, he took some pictures. Then all of a sudden, he's walking through a supermarket and he sees himself on a jar of Nescafe. He said, hey, that's me, and I never got paid for it. Went and dug up -- you see him right on the top there. He's sort of smelling the coffee. He went back, looked at his contract. He was owed $2,000. Went so Nestle, and said I'd like my $2,000 for you putting me on the jar for all those years. They said, it's not you, we paid you a little bit, you know, sort of conflicting stuff.

O'BRIEN: Wrong answer.

SERWER: Yes, wrong answer. So he and his lawyer had a field day, and they went after them. And you know, there was $100,000 offered, then there was $8 million offered. The jury came back, awarded him $15.6 million.

O'BRIEN: Wow!

SERWER: That's what happens when you do the wrong thing, and then deny it and try to cover it up.

O'BRIEN: They could have done the right thing and just given him a million bucks.

SERWER: Right, oh, he would have walked out just fine, and of course Nestle said they're appealing.

This is a really even better story, I think. Rip Hamilton plays for the Detroit Pistons, and he has a very unusual endorsement deal.

There's Rip yesterday at the White House, the NBA champion Pistons visiting President Bush.

Goodyear Tire rubber has paid Rip to model his hair in the style of its new Assurance Triple-Tread Tire. Now, there's the triple-tread tire. We saw Rip. His hair is braided and modeled after the tread. Now, they're not saying how much he got paid for this, but he is getting a pair of -- or four new tires. This is a story from Bloomberg. But -- so he's getting paid some money, he's getting some tires.

O'BRIEN: That's subtle advertising.

SERWER: What do you think, Jack, maybe a Cadillac grill?

CAFFERTY: That's very funny. How about the fender of a 48 Nash?

Thanks very much.

SERWER: That, too. You're welcome.

CAFFERTY: Time for the "File." I don't think I can follow Andy today. These aren't that good.

Teenagers four times as likely as older drivers to crash their cars, and now scientists think they know why. A study by the National Institute of Mental Health and UCLA shows that the part of the brain that inhibits risky behavior doesn't fully mature until age 25, which explains a lot of other things in addition to the car crashes, if you get my drift.

Previous studies show the brain matures at 18. Apparently, that's not the case. The study's findings could have an effect on the nation's driving laws. At last week's economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, someone left behind a page of scribbled notes during a debate among Bill Gates, Bono, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Bill Clinton. Here's the doodles: On it, a tangle of boxes and loops with key words such as "debt cancellation," "global vaccine," "trade," "debt" and "G-8." "The Times of London" firs reported the doodles belonged to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Hand writing analysts immediately began to pick apart the writing. They described Blair as struggling to concentrate, not a natural leader and stressed and tense. Well, it turns out the scribbles weren't Blair's at all -- there were Bill Gates.

Finally, dumb idea, Dummer Academy. Governor Dummer Academy in Massachusetts wants to change its name in order to make a better first impression on prospective students and their families. Plus, they're tired of the dumb jokes. The school opened in 1763, claims to be the nation's first independent boarding school. Its name has been changed several times over the years, but it's always included the name "dummer." The headmaster, John Dogget (ph), says the school will celebrate its legacy in whatever names it chooses. The board of trustees will vote on a new name in May. Maybe something like not as dumb as our name suggests.

SERWER: I know a guy who went there. He was a smart guy.

CAFFERTY: Well, it's a very prestigious place.

SERWER: It is. He always had to deal with the name. He said he went there and he'd always have defend himself.

CAFFERTY: I guess there was a Governor Dummer, who was the governor of Massachusetts back a long time ago. I was right, "the File" wasn't as good as your stuff.

HEMMER: The doodles were good.

CAFFERTY: Which one?

HEMMER: The doodles.

CAFFERTY: The doodles were good, right?

HEMMER: Top stories in a moment here.

Also shake, rattle and roll on the high seas. A ship of students stuck at sea finally making it back to port, but not before weathering some extremely rough waters. We'll talk to some of those onboard in a moment here, in AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired February 1, 2005 - 08:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Ballot counting is under way in Baghdad right now. Authorities were worried that the violence could derail the election. But now that that is over, is it a turning point for the insurgency? We're going to talk with "Newsweek's" Baghdad's bureau chief just ahead. He spent much of his time covering the violence.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also this hour, seven steps to world peace, only seven. We'll talk to Deepak Chopra this morning. The alternative medicine has written a new book. It's called "Peace is the Way." Chopra tells us about seven steps over seven days that could change the world. So we'll talk him about that in a few minutes.

O'BRIEN: One of the steps is meditation.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Really?

O'BRIEN: Expressing gratitude is another.

HEMMER: Shall we begin?

O'BRIEN: Maybe we should cut to the other five that are a little more aggressive is what I'm thinking. We'll chat with him about his ideas in just a little bit.

COSTELLO: Do the meditation thing during my news headline segment and see if it helps.

O'BRIEN: OK, here's Carol.

HEMMER: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning, everyone. Oh, my.

Now in the news, good news to report out of Iraq. Iraq is reopening its borders. Security restrictions being eased today following Sunday's historic election. A final tally of the votes now under way in Baghdad. Some 200 election workers are reviewing hand- counted ballots. Official results are not expected till next week. But a partial count could be released shortly. An when it is released, we'll get it along to you.

Pope John Paul does have the flu. He's in bed recovering, but this is a concern for many, because he's not in the best of health. The Vatican says there's nothing to worry about, though, but it's canceled the pope's public and private meetings for the next few days, including the general audience on Wednesday.

In California, BALCO founder Victor Conte is fighting a subpoena to appear in court this morning. The hearing, of course, about illegal steroids. Prosecutors want Conte to turn over the contents of one of BALCO's computer hard drives. They say he may have leaked grand jury testimony involving slugger Barry Bonds and other top athletes. Conte denies the claim.

And Microsoft is joining the search-engine race, even though the software giant is admitting that it's somewhat late in the game. Today, Microsoft is unveiling its own service, hoping to catch up with competitors like Google and Yahoo!, which, of course, as you know, have had great success.

HEMMER: Great with a capital 'G' too. Sorry, we weren't finished.

COSTELLO: I was wondering if there have been major changes in your lives.

O'BRIEN: It did, so we stopped.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Carol.

Insurgents had promised to stop this weekend's Iraqi elections with a rash of violence. That didn't happen. Twenty-nine were killed, far fewer than anticipated on Sunday.

The question now, the insurgents did not stop the elections. So can the election now stop the insurgents? Let's start with Rob Nordland, Baghdad bureau chief in "Newsweek" magazine. He wrote the cover story this weekend. It is one fascinating article as well.

Rob, welcome here to AMERICAN MORNING. Answer that question, first off -- is it possible for these elections to stop the insurgency?

ROB NORDLAND, "NEWSWEEK" BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Well, it's possible. It's probably more likely that the elections will actually feed the insurgency, because as successful as they were, a large number of Sunnis did not participate, particularly in the most conflicted areas, in Anbar province and some other parts of the country. And that potentially could lead to a very big recruiting ground for the insurgents. I mean, ultimately, you fight insurgencies with political means if you want to ultimately defeat them or resolve them. And it remains to be seen whether that will work in this case.

HEMMER: One of the questions being asked here in the U.S., especially over the past 24 hours, is now that the elections are finished, does that speed up the process now for the U.S. military to pack up and come home in some form? Does that send the wrong message to insurgents. NORDLAND: Well, yes, it was a very major feat for the insurgency. They threw everything they had at the election. There were 260 attacks, there were a record nine or 10 suicide bombings in Baghdad, but they made very little impact, and they didn't accomplish their aim, which was to deter voters from going to the polls, or even wreck the elections.

Certainly if they'd have wrecked the elections, we'd be that much farther away from leaving. So in a sense, they do bring us closer to it, but it's certainly not going to happen tomorrow, or even in the next months. There's still this very big and very effective insurgency to combat, and it's going to be around for a while.

HEMMER: And Zarqawi apparently put out an audio tape, I believe it was yesterday, saying that Baghdad will never become Shiite. That was part of translation. In your report -- by the way, and it's a wonderful article, and congratulations to you, in "Newsweek" magazine now -- you say that Zarqawi was in possession of coalition forces or Iraqi forces in Falluja back in October. How do we know that?

NORDLAND: Well, the Iraqi authorities found a Saudi youth in a hospital, they originally thought that he was injured as a bystander in a suicide bombing. Turns out he was the bomber, and by some miracle survived. When he started talking, it turns out he was from a cell that was under Zarqawi's control, and he related other cell members talking about Zarqawi's arrest, having a good yuk about it. They checked it out, and Iraqi authorities now are satisfied it's true. He was actually in custody for seven hours in Falluja.

HEMMER: Begs the question, why didn't the Iraqis know this? Why could they not identify him?

NORDLAND: Well, it does raise the question. There were police in Falluja that remember, and the police in Falluja, at that time, before the U.S. attacked and subdued the place, were pretty much working with the insurgency, so they might well have known who he was, or they were just incompetent and missed an opportunity for a $25 million reward. Either one is possible. I don't think that would happen again.

HEMMER: One more thing, let me pick up on this -- one of the things you write about in your article is the key to success right now in defeating the insurgents is to separate these groups from one another. In other words, take Zarqawi's groups and separate them and get some distance between them and some of these other groups operating throughout Iraq. You say that has worked in Egypt. It's worked in Algeria in the 1990s. Why would that work today in Iraq?

NORDLAND: Well, there are two major strands in the resistance. There's Zarqawi and the terrorists, and there's not going to be any negotiating with them. They want to kill as many people as possible. Their goal is to provoke a major conflagration between the West and Islam. So there's just no dealing with them.

The others are Baathists, and Iraqis and former regime elements, and they include a lot of people who possibly could be talked to, or certainly could be persuaded to lay down their weapons, and ultimately, that's a solution, and it has worked other places.

But first of all, they need to be reassured that there's a role for Sunnis in this future government, and it's not just a Shia-only affair, which is what Zarqawi's trying very hard to depict it as, and there is a danger it would become that, if the right moves aren't made.

HEMMER: Well, the article is called "Unmasking the Insurgents." Rob Nordland wrote it at "Newsweek" magazine, along Tom Meslin (ph) and Christopher Dickey (ph).

To our viewers, it is excellent reading and a great article, too. Congratulations to you, Rob. Stay safe over there in Baghdad. Thanks for your time -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Michael Jackson returns to court this morning for another face-to-face meeting with the people who could return him to prison.

CNN's Ted Rowlands has more on the start of jury selection at the Jackson's child molestation trial.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Jackson, dressed in white, acknowledged his screaming fans as he walked into the courthouse for day one of his criminal trial. In court, Jackson seemed to be at his best behavior, standing up as prospective jurors walked in.

LINDA DEUTSCH, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, A.P.: He had a little smile on his face. Some of the jurors appeared quite taken with looking at him. They appeared not to be surprised at who was the defendant in this case. They apparently had been told. But some of them craned their necks to get a better look at him.

ROWLANDS: Over half of the 300 prospective jurors that came through indicated that six months of service was OK with them. The rest asked to be let go for a variety of reasons, as Jackson looked on.

Michael Jackson is accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy at his Neverland Ranch in 2003. If convicted of all of the charges he's facing, he could serve up to 20 years in prison.

Outside the courthouse, hundreds of Jackson's fans spent the day waiting for a glimpse of the pop superstar. In contrast to his arraignment last year, when he danced on the top of his SUV, this time Jackson just waved from the street and again after he got into his car, which seemed to satisfy the crowd.

(on camera): The judge estimates it'll take a few weeks to come up with 12 jurors and eight alternates. Michael Jackson is required to attend the jury selection process, meaning he's expected to be back here when court resumes at 10:00 a.m.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The Jackson trial could last six months -- Bill.

HEMMER: Well, the Super Bowl's going to last about four hours, and it goes down Sunday night in Jacksonville.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: New research on treating a condition that affects millions of children. Sanjay tells us how it might affect your child. In a moment here, we'll get to that.

O'BRIEN: And Deepak Chopra is with us this morning. Can world peace be far behind? A look at that ahead as we continue right here on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: We are "Paging Dr. Gupta" this morning about kids and asthma. New research could lead to you mow effective treatment of young asthma patients. Sanjay's at CNN center. Good morning. What gives here, Sanjay?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Yes, asthma can be a very serious condition, also a very treatable condition. About five million children across the United States have it. For a long time, treatment has been a little bit hard to figure out, figure out which medication is going to work best for which child. So researchers from the National Jewish Medical and Research Center tried to figure out which medications work best in which situations.

There are different types of medications out there. There are steroid-type medications, which a lot of parents of asthmatic children know about. There's also other medications as well. What they've found, interestingly, was that if a child has lower lung function or the asthma is mainly due to allergic inflammation, use the Flovent first. That's the inhaled steroid. If it's mainly due to other causes, but is still long-standing asthma, try both medications, both the Flovent and Singulair, which is another asthma medication. But also, if a child is under the age of 10 and has had short-term asthma, then the Singulair alone may be a good medication.

Figuring out which type of asthma the child has does require significant diagnostic tests, trying to figure out their lung function, how well they breathe, how well they can force air out of their lungs. But it might be worth it, in terms of trying to figure out which medication is best -- Bill.

HEMMER: Back to these diagnostic tests for a moment. If you know child hasn't had them, should he or she go back to the doctor?

GUPTA: Yes, you know, here's the thing. Most doctors -- most pediatricians can take care of asthma pretty well and most of them will put the child on the right medications. If the child's asthma is longer standing, a couple, three months perhaps, then the child probably needs to get more significant diagnostic tests. Again, measuring how much air is in the lungs, how much air can be forced out of the lungs. And that can better appropriate the treatment. Sometimes the specialist will be the best to try to take care of that -- Bill.

HEMMER: What about a pill versus an inhaler? The inhaler seems like it's getting more and more popularity every year. Is one better than the other, Sanjay?

GUPTA: Some of that popularity is warranted, some of it's not. A lot of parents sort of focus on the inhalers because they're easier to use in older children. But there are advantages and disadvantages to both. The inhaler's probably going to be a little better for more immediate treatment for better severe cases. Also, it may be a little bit easier to adjust the dose. You know, one puff versus two puffs versus three puffs.

As far as the pill goes, you're going to get more precise dosaging, although you can't really change it. It's going to work fairly quickly and there's no risk of growth deterrence. Sometimes these steroid medications, the big concern, Bill, is that they can deter growth when a child becomes older. Obviously, both parents and children both worry about that.

HEMMER: Indeed they do. Sanjay, thanks for that. We'll talk to you later. Here's Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, there are 12-step programs designed to treat addiction. Now Deepak Chopra, the world-renowned spiritual guru, has devised a seven-step program to deal with a world seemingly addicted to war. He delivers the message in his new book. It's called "Peace is the Way."

Deepak Chopra joins us this morning. Nice to see you. Thanks for coming in to talk to us.

DEEPAK CHOPRA, AUTHOR, "PEACE IS THE WAY": Thanks for having me.

O'BRIEN: You're a medical doctor. Usually, you write about spiritual topics. Why are you writing about world peace this time around?

CHOPRA: Well, in a way, this is also a spiritual topic because the thesis is that personal transformation is the key to global transformation. Therefore, what we see is the collective rage out there is a reflection of the rage inside ourselves. So if you had a critical mass of people who are peaceful, that would translate, hopefully, into society that's peaceful.

O'BRIEN: We'll get to the specifics of your plan in a moment. But the way you lay it out is sort of seven steps. And I guess my question would be is it meant to be practical advice for how to bring the world to peace? CHOPRA: Yes, it's very practical, yes. Well, actually, you know, if you ask people do you want peace of mind, I don't think there's anyone who says I don't. So if you had peace of mind, then you could create peace. Peace can only be created by those who are peaceful. You have this amazing phenomenon in society where you have peace activists and most of them are angry people, so you have this very interesting paradox of angry peace activists. You can't do it that way.

O'BRIEN: The seven practices, each one is linked to a day of the week. For example, on Sunday, you talk about meditation. For Tuesday, compassion and understanding. Thursday, resolving conflict in your own personal life. And then on Sunday you say bringing it all to this critical mass, which you mentioned as sort of the most important thing.

To some degree, aren't you preaching to the choir? The people saying I want to do this, I want to think about this, I want to encompass this in my life, they're not the ones you have to convert to being peaceful. These are people who are really thinking about it. They're not the terrorists. They're not the people who are planting bombs or flying planes into buildings or even creating wars.

CHOPRA: You have to realize that terrorism actually has its seeds in fear, separation, degrading conditions, humiliation, a sense of injustice, extreme poverty. So those issues have to be addressed. You know, you can't get rid of terrorists by killing them. Just like you can't get rid of cancer by killing the cancer cells. It starts coming back again. As a physician, if I have a patient with a tumor, of course, if it's life-threatening I'm going to excise it. But if I don't ask myself what were the conditions that gave rise to this malignancy, then it's going to recur.

And so peace here, the book deals with issues like extreme nationalism, religious fundamentalism, poverty, sense of injustice, perception. The context in which this arises. There's a religious context, there's a medical context, there's a social context, cultural context, historical context. So if you really want to resolve conflict, we have to understand the context in which these things happen. But at the same time...

O'BRIEN: The individual has the power to bring about peace, do you think?

CHOPRA: Mahatma Gandhi said, could you be the change that you wish to see in the world? And actually, he's the one that said, there's no way to peace, peace is the way.

O'BRIEN: Hence the title.

CHOPRA: That's the title.

O'BRIEN: Deepak Chopra. Nice to have you come in to talk about your book. It's called "Peace is the Way." We appreciate it.

CHOPRA: Thank you. O'BRIEN: Bill?

HEMMER: All right, Soledad, want to interrupt for just a moment here, take you to Pennsylvania, near Allentown, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County. Apparently an underground pipe has exploded this morning in that country, forcing the evacuation of some homes and businesses. No immediate reports of injuries or property damage.

It happened about, oh, two hours and 20 minutes ago, 6:30 a.m. local time. The pipeline apparently for a small pumping station. It's not clear what's burning there, whether it's fuel oil, or gasoline or some other material. The evacuations, we are told, are only as a precaution. Again, this near Allentown, Pennsylvania. We'll keep an eye out of for you. A lot of flames there going up into the morning sky.

A break here. In a moment, first, an NBA championship ring, now a product endorsement gone wild. Andy explains that in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: All right. Here's Jack and welcome back.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Fortunately, for all involved the new month on Wall Street and a story of one NBA endorsement deal that's just run amok. It's great.

Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business."

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I like this. It's a really terrific one.

Let's talk about the market. We're going to talk about January one more time. I mean, I really thought we'd be done with this, but here we go. Bill, the Dow was down 2.7 percent in January, the worst showing in two years -- two years. Hadn't been so bad since 2003.

The good news is February's coming up. And what happens in February? doesn't really mean anything for the rest of the year. It's just another month, thank goodness.

Futures are up a little bit this morning. And we'll be watching that for you.

A couple of product endorsement stories to tell you about this morning. These are really great. First of all, a kindergarten teacher in California whose ship came in. A gentleman named Russell Chrisoff (ph), he modeled early in his career, 1986, he took some pictures. Then all of a sudden, he's walking through a supermarket and he sees himself on a jar of Nescafe. He said, hey, that's me, and I never got paid for it. Went and dug up -- you see him right on the top there. He's sort of smelling the coffee. He went back, looked at his contract. He was owed $2,000. Went so Nestle, and said I'd like my $2,000 for you putting me on the jar for all those years. They said, it's not you, we paid you a little bit, you know, sort of conflicting stuff.

O'BRIEN: Wrong answer.

SERWER: Yes, wrong answer. So he and his lawyer had a field day, and they went after them. And you know, there was $100,000 offered, then there was $8 million offered. The jury came back, awarded him $15.6 million.

O'BRIEN: Wow!

SERWER: That's what happens when you do the wrong thing, and then deny it and try to cover it up.

O'BRIEN: They could have done the right thing and just given him a million bucks.

SERWER: Right, oh, he would have walked out just fine, and of course Nestle said they're appealing.

This is a really even better story, I think. Rip Hamilton plays for the Detroit Pistons, and he has a very unusual endorsement deal.

There's Rip yesterday at the White House, the NBA champion Pistons visiting President Bush.

Goodyear Tire rubber has paid Rip to model his hair in the style of its new Assurance Triple-Tread Tire. Now, there's the triple-tread tire. We saw Rip. His hair is braided and modeled after the tread. Now, they're not saying how much he got paid for this, but he is getting a pair of -- or four new tires. This is a story from Bloomberg. But -- so he's getting paid some money, he's getting some tires.

O'BRIEN: That's subtle advertising.

SERWER: What do you think, Jack, maybe a Cadillac grill?

CAFFERTY: That's very funny. How about the fender of a 48 Nash?

Thanks very much.

SERWER: That, too. You're welcome.

CAFFERTY: Time for the "File." I don't think I can follow Andy today. These aren't that good.

Teenagers four times as likely as older drivers to crash their cars, and now scientists think they know why. A study by the National Institute of Mental Health and UCLA shows that the part of the brain that inhibits risky behavior doesn't fully mature until age 25, which explains a lot of other things in addition to the car crashes, if you get my drift.

Previous studies show the brain matures at 18. Apparently, that's not the case. The study's findings could have an effect on the nation's driving laws. At last week's economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, someone left behind a page of scribbled notes during a debate among Bill Gates, Bono, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Bill Clinton. Here's the doodles: On it, a tangle of boxes and loops with key words such as "debt cancellation," "global vaccine," "trade," "debt" and "G-8." "The Times of London" firs reported the doodles belonged to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Hand writing analysts immediately began to pick apart the writing. They described Blair as struggling to concentrate, not a natural leader and stressed and tense. Well, it turns out the scribbles weren't Blair's at all -- there were Bill Gates.

Finally, dumb idea, Dummer Academy. Governor Dummer Academy in Massachusetts wants to change its name in order to make a better first impression on prospective students and their families. Plus, they're tired of the dumb jokes. The school opened in 1763, claims to be the nation's first independent boarding school. Its name has been changed several times over the years, but it's always included the name "dummer." The headmaster, John Dogget (ph), says the school will celebrate its legacy in whatever names it chooses. The board of trustees will vote on a new name in May. Maybe something like not as dumb as our name suggests.

SERWER: I know a guy who went there. He was a smart guy.

CAFFERTY: Well, it's a very prestigious place.

SERWER: It is. He always had to deal with the name. He said he went there and he'd always have defend himself.

CAFFERTY: I guess there was a Governor Dummer, who was the governor of Massachusetts back a long time ago. I was right, "the File" wasn't as good as your stuff.

HEMMER: The doodles were good.

CAFFERTY: Which one?

HEMMER: The doodles.

CAFFERTY: The doodles were good, right?

HEMMER: Top stories in a moment here.

Also shake, rattle and roll on the high seas. A ship of students stuck at sea finally making it back to port, but not before weathering some extremely rough waters. We'll talk to some of those onboard in a moment here, in AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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