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CNN Live At Daybreak
Papal Health; Fighting Terrorism; 'War Room'; RX Drug Cuts
Aired February 08, 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: And good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
"Now in the News."
President Bush takes his budget on the road today. He's pushing his nearly $2.6 trillion package at the Detroit Economic Club today.
High level Israeli-Palestinian talks have been going on at Egypt's Sharm el-Sheik resort at the Red Sea. We're expecting the two sides to declare a cease-fire to the violence dating back at September of 2000.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Rome meeting with government officials and a representative of the Vatican. Coming up in five-and-a-half hours at 11:00 Eastern, she delivers a major international policy address in Paris.
It's Fat Tuesday, don't you know, the day for Mardi Gras in the Big Easy. Rain has been falling in New Orleans, but who cares. A lot of people will be clamoring for beads as they yell, hey mister, throw me something. And then you know what happens after that, Chad, I guess it happens before that.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's not what they yell. Not at all, Carol. Obviously you've never been there.
COSTELLO: I know. Well it's the PG -- well we could be a PG rated show at 5:00 a.m.
MYERS: Yes, let's not even try it.
COSTELLO: OK.
MYERS: OK, the bosses are watching.
COSTELLO: All right.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MYERS: Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Thank you -- Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome. COSTELLO: He is 84 years old, suffers from the flu, Parkinson's and several other ailments. Pope John Paul II is in a Rome hospital, taken there a week ago today, this morning new speculation about the possible resignation of the pope.
Alessio Vinci in Rome to tell us more about that.
Good morning -- Alessio.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well you know every time the pope is sick there is renewed attention on his health. The question of whether or not he should step down comes up. And this speculation is primarily in the media.
Yesterday a top cardinal was approached by reporters with this very simple question, will the pope consider stepping down? And the cardinal, who is the Angelo Sodano, who is the No. 2 in the church, if you want, said that it was up to the pope's conscience to make that decision. So the speculation surrounds around the fact that Mr. Sodano did not rule out the fact that the pope could indeed step down.
However, I can tell you by you know speaking with both Vatican officials, as well as many people who covered the Vatican for many, many years, the pope has said time and again that he has no intention whatsoever of stepping down. Even as late as last Sunday, through an aide who delivered his speech on the Angelist (ph), the pope said he continues to remain the head of the Catholic Church.
So what Sodano really said is what the Carnal Law (ph) really envisions (ph) and that is that a pope, if he chooses to do so, can resign, but he cannot be forced to do so. So certainly the pope's health remains a concern. There is talk inside the Vatican about the possibility of what would happen if he steps down, but it is up to the pope and the pope alone to make that decision.
COSTELLO: It's just so strange, because so many rumors are swirling around, because you know the pope came out and said a few words a couple of days ago. In the press at Rome, they were saying that it was really a taped message and he wasn't really talking. Any more about that -- Alessio?
VINCI: No. The Vatican insists that the speech or the blessing that the pope delivered on Sunday was live. But you know at the end of the day whether it was live or taped, Carol, I don't think it makes that big of a difference. He would have recorded that blessing early in the morning anyway. We did see the pope moving. We did see the pope alert, if you want. He looked quite rested, although obviously tired and, sorry, obviously still with a hoarse voice. So I don't think it really makes a big difference whether it was live or taped.
One reporter actually made a point to me that he did sound pretty bad in that blessing. So if indeed it was a tape, he didn't do a really good job in actually taping, so it would have been better, perhaps, to go live. So really a lot of speculation even around that. But at the end of the day, it doesn't really make a big difference. COSTELLO: Alessio Vinci, live in Rome this morning, thank you.
The Saudi government is hosting an international conference on combating terrorism. Our terrorism analyst Peter Bergen has been at many of those sessions. He joins us live from Riyadh with details on what's going on.
Good morning -- Peter.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Who is participating in this meeting?
BERGEN: Well a lot of people. I mean more than 50 countries, including the United States. Also, ironically enough, some countries that the United States regards as state sponsors of terrorism, for instance, Iran and Syria. So it's a large grouping of people.
It's sort of an unprecedented event in the Saudi Kingdom. You can't imagine that this event would have happened here in Saudi Arabia, except in the context of a wave of terrorist attacks that began sweeping the country in May of 2003, and the Saudis are obviously taking a very proactive stance of going after the terrorists in the country. And I think that they want to showcase, not only their efforts, but also indicate to the international community and also the world media that a very different kind of approach to al Qaeda is now being taken in the Kingdom.
COSTELLO: Are they suggesting all of these very different countries with very different personalities work together to combat terrorism?
BERGEN: Well the kinds of subjects they have chosen to talk about are things that most people can agree on. And I think they have done quite a shrewd way of organizing the conference. They've organized it around three themes, the link of terrorism to money laundering, drug trafficking and arms smuggling.
Now very few people can disagree that arms smuggling, drug trafficking and money laundering are bad things. And so by keeping the subjects of the conference mostly to these areas, it has two good effects. One, there's a wide area of agreement that these are bad things. And two, these are the sorts of things that governments can actually, you know, in an international cooperative way make some incremental changes that will actually affect policy.
So I think that they're keeping off the table larger issues, which I think would have derailed the conference, like the Palestinian conflict, Kashmir, the role that authoritarian governments in the Middle East have in incubating terrorist groups. These kinds of questions were off the table.
COSTELLO: I know. I was just going to ask you about Iran and Syria, because many people believe that those countries allow terrorists to live within their borders, but that probably will not be talked about today? BERGEN: The U.S. counterterrorism coordinator Fran Townsend did raise with the Saudis the fact that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism, as far as the United States is concerned. But I think that those kinds of discussions, there have been some reports that there was a contentious meeting between the United States and the Iranian delegation, sort of unconfirmed. But I think that, generally speaking, those kinds of issues were purposely not dealt with, because at the end of the day, they want to come up with some real world kind of implementable policies.
That in a couple of hours they're going to come out with a final communique with a number of recommendations. I mean one recommendation, as a for instance, which I think makes a lot of sense, is the recommendation that when terrorist assets are seized that the assets should be used to compensate the victims' families of terrorism. That's a very common sensible (ph) thing. That's the sort of thing governments can actually implement. And so these are the kinds of proposals that I think will come out of the conference.
COSTELLO: Interesting. Well we'll check back with you. Peter Bergen, our terror analyst live in Saudi Arabia this morning, thank you.
We just got this tape in from Rome. Actually, it's from the Vatican. You can see Condoleezza Rice apparently in that car. Let's see if she gets out. But she has met now with, I guess, the No. 2 man at the Vatican. She will also be meeting with Italy's foreign minister. And then she'll be moving on to Paris to deliver a major policy address there. And probably she'll talk about the spread of democracy through the world.
There you see the secretary of state greeting the No. 2 cardinal at the Vatican. She was to meet with the pope, but, as you know, the pope has been ill. He's in the hospital right now. We just heard from Alessio Vinci. And that very man that Condoleezza Rice shook the hand the first time, he was the cardinal who had said that it's up to the pope's conscience whether or not he will resign or not. And, as you can see, they're moving into the offices at the Vatican.
When Condoleezza Rice comes out and if she has anything to say, of course we'll take you back to Rome and the Vatican live.
A new warning from Iran this morning, the country's controversial nuclear program has sparked growing tensions with the United States. Now Iran's national security chief says a U.S. military strike would not destroy the program but would only push it underground. He asked that Iran would rather seek a diplomatic solution.
President Bush is enjoying his highest job approval rating in more than a year, and it's due largely to the Iraq election going better than expected. A CNN-"USA TODAY"-Gallup Poll finds 50 percent of Americans surveyed approve of how the president is handling Iraq and 57 percent approve of his overall job performance.
So how are President Bush, the Iraqi election and Iran's nuclear program related? We'll explain as we enter "The War Room." David Clinch joins us live from Atlanta.
Good morning -- David.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.
And it is interesting to try and connect this boost that President Bush has because of the elections in Iraq, and going better than expected is a relative term. Of course there's no arguing that people were able to vote and that was a very impressive sight.
But something that's hidden within that fact, something that we've been aware of but is emerging far more clearly now, is the Sunnis did not vote in any great numbers in Iraq. And so the emerging, almost inevitability at this point in Iraq is that within the next few months, by the end of this year, the government in Iraq will be a Shiite government. Not a Shiite government in the same sense as next door in Iran, but certainly a conservative Shiite government.
Many of these parties ran with one goal and that was to have the U.S. military leave Iraq as soon as possible. It will be interesting to see whether they do in fact come up and do that promise and ask the U.S. to leave when they are appointed the government. So we'll be keeping a close eye there, because the goal for the U.S. government will be listening to Condoleezza Rice later in the day outlining the foreign policy of the second Bush administration.
The goal in Iraq now said to be democracy. We've had democracy, but the end results of that may be a Shiite government with at least sympathy for next door, for Iran.
And of course Iran, we talked about this yesterday, the complications of dealing with Iran on the military side we talked yesterday. Today we're seeing, interestingly, an op-ed piece in "The New York Times" from the Nobel Peace Prize winner, a woman named Ebadi, who is one of the leading reformers within Iran. But she, in "The New York Times" today, appealing to the United States not to invade, not to have military action against Iran.
So apart from all of the military aspects that we talked about yesterday about how difficult it is to mount a meaningful military action against Iran, you noted today the Iranians saying any military action would fail to shut down their nuclear program because it's spread out all over the country. And now you have a leading liberal within Iran itself saying not invade the country, but do not invade the country, it would be a very negative thing for human rights within Iran.
So a very complicated issue. And both Iraq and Iran ending up, probably at the end of this year, with conservative, and in Iran's case, even more conservative governments, Shiite governments, than we've seen before. Not making Condoleezza Rice's job and President Bush's job any easier by the end of this year.
COSTELLO: David Clinch, live in Atlanta this morning, thank you. CLINCH: OK.
COSTELLO: Young British woman sails into the record books after a very long, lonely trip. We'll hear from her about what it's like to be back on dry land.
And later, a look at the latest battle a 79-year-old veteran is fighting.
But first, here is a look at what else is making news this Tuesday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: This is pretty cool stuff. Call it around the world in 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds. This is a live shot of an English woman, Ellen MacArthur. She set a new record for speed on her sailing voyage around the globe. She's about to come into shore, as you can see. She shaved more than a day off the previous record, which was set last year.
Let's listen to her.
ELLEN MACARTHUR, AROUND-THE-WORLD SAILOR: Well right now I think I feel -- I'm elated. I'm absolutely drained. It's been a very tough trip. The whole south Atlantic was terrible for us on the way back up. And it's just been one big draining event, I think. And from there onwards, I feel just absolutely exhausted but obviously elated to be here. And I've got some mixed emotions in my mind of things spinning around in my head.
COSTELLO: Her support crew cracked open a few bottles of champagne to celebrate the new record. The Queen called MacArthur's record a remarkable and historic achievement. I can't even imagine being on a boat that long.
MYERS: Carol, she was on it by herself. She sailed around the world by herself. She was averaging 22 knots at times. It's a 70- foot trimaran. The mast is almost a hundred feet high, or maybe a little bit more, maybe 120 feet high. She had to sail around without re-supplying. If she stopped, she was done.
And she beat the old record by a day and then some. And what she attributed it to is she said that women can actually deal with sleep deprivation better than men. Even though she was hit by that boom, she was hit by sails, the winds got really bad. The waves got over, at times, 40 feet, which is almost half the length of that boat. And she's -- obviously she did it all by herself.
COSTELLO: That is terrific. She says women can deal with sleep deprivation better.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: I bet that's because they have children.
MYERS: Exactly.
COSTELLO: Because the babies keep them up, so we're conditioned to not sleep.
MYERS: You got it.
COSTELLO: Good for her. I want...
MYERS: And my wife will attest.
COSTELLO: We'll keep you up to date in the 6:00 hour of DAYBREAK after Ellen gets off that boat.
MYERS: Awesome.
COSTELLO: All right. Still to come on DAYBREAK, they are usually protected,...
MYERS: Thanks.
COSTELLO: ... but now veterans may be faced with rising prescription drug costs. That's if the president's budget is approved. We'll meet one veteran facing the future after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: In "Health Headlines" for you this morning, if you have a preschooler, give them fruit this morning instead of fruit juice or a sweet drink. Research suggests sweet drinks raise the risk of pudgy preschoolers getting fatter. Pediatricians recommend limiting all preschoolers to four to six ounces of juice per day.
Another warning, this for pregnant women. Researchers in California say expectant mothers who have asthma allergies or psoriasis have a higher risk of having an autistic baby. Having those symptoms, especially in the second trimester, doubles the risk of autism.
And a warning for heavy marijuana users, smoking pot makes the blood in your brain flow faster. That suggests narrowed arteries, similar to people with high blood pressure and dementia. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says that could help explain why some heavy marijuana users have trouble on memory tests.
Health programs for veterans are among the items on the chopping block in President Bush's new budget proposal.
Our Keith Oppenheim reports on one vet who hopes Congress will shoot down at least part of the president's plan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JERRY VLECK, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: In the morning it can be real rough.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jerry Vleck is heading home.
VLECK: What else have I got left in life to help the fellow vets now?
OPPENHEIM: Several times a week, Vleck volunteers for the American Legion at the V.A. Hospital in North Chicago, the same place where he gets all his health care. This year he'll celebrate the 60th anniversary of another homecoming, his return from two years in the Pacific during World War II. Like many in his generation, like his modest.
VLECK: I didn't do anything different than anybody else was doing out there. We were trying to stay alive, let me put it to you that way.
OPPENHEIM: At age 79, Jerry Vleck is still trying to stay alive.
VLECK: That's Anul (ph).
OPPENHEIM (on camera): What's that for?
VLECK: And that's for blood pressure.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): He now takes eight different medications every day, mainly for heart disease and diabetes.
(on camera): How much do you pay for one of those now, for one prescription?
VLECK: Seven dollars.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Right now the costs are relatively low for Vleck as most of his health care is covered by his veteran's benefits.
(on camera): On one level you must feel lucky that you're a veteran.
VLECK: I'm lucky I'm alive, let's put it that way. I know a lot of guys that aren't.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): But in the president's current budget proposal, Vleck would have to pay $15 per prescription, more than twice as much. In his case, with eight medications, that could add up to more than $1,200 per year, and that's not small change for a guy who only takes in about $2,200 a month between Social Security and his truck driver's pension. With these increases, he'll feel the squeeze. An insult, he says, to those who risked their lives for their country.
VLECK: Especially to the ones who can't afford it, especially them.
OPPENHEIM (on camera): Are you that person? Can you afford to pay $7 for one of these?
VLECK: No. Right now it's not a question of whether I can afford it or not, I have to do it.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): With all his ailments, Jerry Vleck has been getting by. As a widower, he has lived by himself for 17 years. But now he is looking for a little help from Congress, which has been known to stop presidents from touching benefits for veterans.
VLECK: I hope they shoot it down because I don't think it's right.
OPPENHEIM: Keith Oppenheim CNN, Grays Lake, Illinois.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: We're talking this morning about the skyrocketing costs of higher education. Coming up in the next hour of DAYBREAK, a writer from "Money" magazine will join us to bust some myths and share some savings strategies for parents and young college students alike.
Also ahead in the next hour, time to pull out the beads and fill up those glasses, it's Fat Tuesday. We're going to take you live to New Orleans to check in on the celebration.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We're getting new DAYBREAK cups, by the way.
MYERS: What have you got there? They look nice.
COSTELLO: Isn't that cute?
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: Very good coffee.
MYERS: OK.
COSTELLO: But it is time to check out our "Web Clicks" this morning, and one really intrigued me. You know what was getting your attention on CNN.com. About MTV2, they're revamping it with this great new logo of the two-headed dog.
MYERS: Yes, but are they going to play music or are they...
COSTELLO: Supposedly.
MYERS: You know when did MTV stop playing music, was it 10 years ago, I don't even know, but you hardly even see a music video anymore.
COSTELLO: Well the frightening part is they're gearing it to 12 to 24-year-old males.
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: Twelve. Twelve.
MYERS: Hey. COSTELLO: I was trying to think back to when MTV began,...
MYERS: They have money, too.
COSTELLO: ... back when we were young, you know back in the day.
MYERS: Right, after they got rid of the radio.
COSTELLO: Was MTV geared to 12 year olds?
MYERS: I guess so, sure.
COSTELLO: Really?
MYERS: Well you know some of the videos were a little risque for their time, so maybe not. Maybe, you know, PG-13, I'm not sure.
COSTELLO: Well, gosh, what 12 year olds see nowadays, what's risque anymore?
MYERS: Exactly.
COSTELLO: Anyway, I thought that was interesting, so MTV2 with the two-headed dog. And, yes, you're 12-year-old can now watch music videos, at least we think so.
MYERS: Wow.
COSTELLO: We have been getting your e-mails this morning about the cost of applying to college and the cost of a college education. "USA Today" reporting you've got to shell out hundreds or even thousands of dollars just to get into the university. There are fees for applications, SAT or ACT exams, classes to prepare for those exams, additional costs for mailing extra copies of all those scores to the schools and even applying for scholarships, so it all adds up. And we've been getting some interesting e-mail this morning.
You've got some -- Chad?
MYERS: I have a nice one from Preston (ph) in Arkansas. It says the only thing more expensive about applying to college is not getting into one. You sure need a college education to make any kind of money in this day and age.
And then another one here from Roxbury, Connecticut. It's kind of funny. It's about trying to buy a horse. How much does that horse cost? And the answer is, by the time you get done putting up a fence, building a barn, paying for the lot, getting unexpected vet bills, buying new outfits for the event, getting your new tac, purchasing a trailer, then getting a bigger truck to pull the trailer, you won't even know how much that horse cost in the first place.
COSTELLO: That is excellent. I like that.
This is from Richard (ph) with another perspective. He's from New York. He said I think the costs are not too high. The application fees can be seen as a way to filter the serious application from those applying for the sake of just applying. On the other hand, tests required for many colleges can be useful for applicants to identify what is the best academic fit for them.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: So he says be damned with the costs.
MYERS: Same kind of thing from Donna (ph). It says the application, though, is to go there and then to spend 25 or 50, whatever it is to apply to every college, why should you pay to make a request to go to their school. It's not refundable if you get turned down.
COSTELLO: They just keep the money.
MYERS: Yes, they sure do, and it's not applied.
COSTELLO: This is from Michael (ph). He's a student at Ithaca, New York. As a college student at a partially state-funded school, I can tell you that application fees and tuition are only the beginning. From $600 a semester for books, not to mention enormous fees for parking on campus or replacing keys and ID cards, it seems that schools are always trying to hit students and their parents up for cash. We even have a fee for getting locked out of your dorm room and calling an R.A. to let you back in.
That's just life.
MYERS: Guess what, that's the real world.
COSTELLO: That's just life, Michael.
MYERS: Wait until you have to call a locksmith when you get locked out of your car, that's not cheap either.
COSTELLO: No, that's not cheap. But you know to park on campus it costs a lot of money, I don't know if that's right, is it?
MYERS: I think -- yes, I had to pay like $15 or $20. And then all those fines because you parked in the wrong spot.
COSTELLO: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in college.
MYERS: Then you had to pay the fines before they'd give you your diploma.
COSTELLO: Yes.
MYERS: You had to be all the way up to full.
COSTELLO: Yes, I know that story well.
MYERS: I know.
COSTELLO: Anyway, thank you for your e-mails this morning. The next hour of DAYBREAK starts right now.
Pinching pennies and cutting corners, how does the president's new budget affect America's armed forces?
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Aired February 8, 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: And good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
"Now in the News."
President Bush takes his budget on the road today. He's pushing his nearly $2.6 trillion package at the Detroit Economic Club today.
High level Israeli-Palestinian talks have been going on at Egypt's Sharm el-Sheik resort at the Red Sea. We're expecting the two sides to declare a cease-fire to the violence dating back at September of 2000.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Rome meeting with government officials and a representative of the Vatican. Coming up in five-and-a-half hours at 11:00 Eastern, she delivers a major international policy address in Paris.
It's Fat Tuesday, don't you know, the day for Mardi Gras in the Big Easy. Rain has been falling in New Orleans, but who cares. A lot of people will be clamoring for beads as they yell, hey mister, throw me something. And then you know what happens after that, Chad, I guess it happens before that.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's not what they yell. Not at all, Carol. Obviously you've never been there.
COSTELLO: I know. Well it's the PG -- well we could be a PG rated show at 5:00 a.m.
MYERS: Yes, let's not even try it.
COSTELLO: OK.
MYERS: OK, the bosses are watching.
COSTELLO: All right.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MYERS: Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Thank you -- Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome. COSTELLO: He is 84 years old, suffers from the flu, Parkinson's and several other ailments. Pope John Paul II is in a Rome hospital, taken there a week ago today, this morning new speculation about the possible resignation of the pope.
Alessio Vinci in Rome to tell us more about that.
Good morning -- Alessio.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well you know every time the pope is sick there is renewed attention on his health. The question of whether or not he should step down comes up. And this speculation is primarily in the media.
Yesterday a top cardinal was approached by reporters with this very simple question, will the pope consider stepping down? And the cardinal, who is the Angelo Sodano, who is the No. 2 in the church, if you want, said that it was up to the pope's conscience to make that decision. So the speculation surrounds around the fact that Mr. Sodano did not rule out the fact that the pope could indeed step down.
However, I can tell you by you know speaking with both Vatican officials, as well as many people who covered the Vatican for many, many years, the pope has said time and again that he has no intention whatsoever of stepping down. Even as late as last Sunday, through an aide who delivered his speech on the Angelist (ph), the pope said he continues to remain the head of the Catholic Church.
So what Sodano really said is what the Carnal Law (ph) really envisions (ph) and that is that a pope, if he chooses to do so, can resign, but he cannot be forced to do so. So certainly the pope's health remains a concern. There is talk inside the Vatican about the possibility of what would happen if he steps down, but it is up to the pope and the pope alone to make that decision.
COSTELLO: It's just so strange, because so many rumors are swirling around, because you know the pope came out and said a few words a couple of days ago. In the press at Rome, they were saying that it was really a taped message and he wasn't really talking. Any more about that -- Alessio?
VINCI: No. The Vatican insists that the speech or the blessing that the pope delivered on Sunday was live. But you know at the end of the day whether it was live or taped, Carol, I don't think it makes that big of a difference. He would have recorded that blessing early in the morning anyway. We did see the pope moving. We did see the pope alert, if you want. He looked quite rested, although obviously tired and, sorry, obviously still with a hoarse voice. So I don't think it really makes a big difference whether it was live or taped.
One reporter actually made a point to me that he did sound pretty bad in that blessing. So if indeed it was a tape, he didn't do a really good job in actually taping, so it would have been better, perhaps, to go live. So really a lot of speculation even around that. But at the end of the day, it doesn't really make a big difference. COSTELLO: Alessio Vinci, live in Rome this morning, thank you.
The Saudi government is hosting an international conference on combating terrorism. Our terrorism analyst Peter Bergen has been at many of those sessions. He joins us live from Riyadh with details on what's going on.
Good morning -- Peter.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Who is participating in this meeting?
BERGEN: Well a lot of people. I mean more than 50 countries, including the United States. Also, ironically enough, some countries that the United States regards as state sponsors of terrorism, for instance, Iran and Syria. So it's a large grouping of people.
It's sort of an unprecedented event in the Saudi Kingdom. You can't imagine that this event would have happened here in Saudi Arabia, except in the context of a wave of terrorist attacks that began sweeping the country in May of 2003, and the Saudis are obviously taking a very proactive stance of going after the terrorists in the country. And I think that they want to showcase, not only their efforts, but also indicate to the international community and also the world media that a very different kind of approach to al Qaeda is now being taken in the Kingdom.
COSTELLO: Are they suggesting all of these very different countries with very different personalities work together to combat terrorism?
BERGEN: Well the kinds of subjects they have chosen to talk about are things that most people can agree on. And I think they have done quite a shrewd way of organizing the conference. They've organized it around three themes, the link of terrorism to money laundering, drug trafficking and arms smuggling.
Now very few people can disagree that arms smuggling, drug trafficking and money laundering are bad things. And so by keeping the subjects of the conference mostly to these areas, it has two good effects. One, there's a wide area of agreement that these are bad things. And two, these are the sorts of things that governments can actually, you know, in an international cooperative way make some incremental changes that will actually affect policy.
So I think that they're keeping off the table larger issues, which I think would have derailed the conference, like the Palestinian conflict, Kashmir, the role that authoritarian governments in the Middle East have in incubating terrorist groups. These kinds of questions were off the table.
COSTELLO: I know. I was just going to ask you about Iran and Syria, because many people believe that those countries allow terrorists to live within their borders, but that probably will not be talked about today? BERGEN: The U.S. counterterrorism coordinator Fran Townsend did raise with the Saudis the fact that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism, as far as the United States is concerned. But I think that those kinds of discussions, there have been some reports that there was a contentious meeting between the United States and the Iranian delegation, sort of unconfirmed. But I think that, generally speaking, those kinds of issues were purposely not dealt with, because at the end of the day, they want to come up with some real world kind of implementable policies.
That in a couple of hours they're going to come out with a final communique with a number of recommendations. I mean one recommendation, as a for instance, which I think makes a lot of sense, is the recommendation that when terrorist assets are seized that the assets should be used to compensate the victims' families of terrorism. That's a very common sensible (ph) thing. That's the sort of thing governments can actually implement. And so these are the kinds of proposals that I think will come out of the conference.
COSTELLO: Interesting. Well we'll check back with you. Peter Bergen, our terror analyst live in Saudi Arabia this morning, thank you.
We just got this tape in from Rome. Actually, it's from the Vatican. You can see Condoleezza Rice apparently in that car. Let's see if she gets out. But she has met now with, I guess, the No. 2 man at the Vatican. She will also be meeting with Italy's foreign minister. And then she'll be moving on to Paris to deliver a major policy address there. And probably she'll talk about the spread of democracy through the world.
There you see the secretary of state greeting the No. 2 cardinal at the Vatican. She was to meet with the pope, but, as you know, the pope has been ill. He's in the hospital right now. We just heard from Alessio Vinci. And that very man that Condoleezza Rice shook the hand the first time, he was the cardinal who had said that it's up to the pope's conscience whether or not he will resign or not. And, as you can see, they're moving into the offices at the Vatican.
When Condoleezza Rice comes out and if she has anything to say, of course we'll take you back to Rome and the Vatican live.
A new warning from Iran this morning, the country's controversial nuclear program has sparked growing tensions with the United States. Now Iran's national security chief says a U.S. military strike would not destroy the program but would only push it underground. He asked that Iran would rather seek a diplomatic solution.
President Bush is enjoying his highest job approval rating in more than a year, and it's due largely to the Iraq election going better than expected. A CNN-"USA TODAY"-Gallup Poll finds 50 percent of Americans surveyed approve of how the president is handling Iraq and 57 percent approve of his overall job performance.
So how are President Bush, the Iraqi election and Iran's nuclear program related? We'll explain as we enter "The War Room." David Clinch joins us live from Atlanta.
Good morning -- David.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.
And it is interesting to try and connect this boost that President Bush has because of the elections in Iraq, and going better than expected is a relative term. Of course there's no arguing that people were able to vote and that was a very impressive sight.
But something that's hidden within that fact, something that we've been aware of but is emerging far more clearly now, is the Sunnis did not vote in any great numbers in Iraq. And so the emerging, almost inevitability at this point in Iraq is that within the next few months, by the end of this year, the government in Iraq will be a Shiite government. Not a Shiite government in the same sense as next door in Iran, but certainly a conservative Shiite government.
Many of these parties ran with one goal and that was to have the U.S. military leave Iraq as soon as possible. It will be interesting to see whether they do in fact come up and do that promise and ask the U.S. to leave when they are appointed the government. So we'll be keeping a close eye there, because the goal for the U.S. government will be listening to Condoleezza Rice later in the day outlining the foreign policy of the second Bush administration.
The goal in Iraq now said to be democracy. We've had democracy, but the end results of that may be a Shiite government with at least sympathy for next door, for Iran.
And of course Iran, we talked about this yesterday, the complications of dealing with Iran on the military side we talked yesterday. Today we're seeing, interestingly, an op-ed piece in "The New York Times" from the Nobel Peace Prize winner, a woman named Ebadi, who is one of the leading reformers within Iran. But she, in "The New York Times" today, appealing to the United States not to invade, not to have military action against Iran.
So apart from all of the military aspects that we talked about yesterday about how difficult it is to mount a meaningful military action against Iran, you noted today the Iranians saying any military action would fail to shut down their nuclear program because it's spread out all over the country. And now you have a leading liberal within Iran itself saying not invade the country, but do not invade the country, it would be a very negative thing for human rights within Iran.
So a very complicated issue. And both Iraq and Iran ending up, probably at the end of this year, with conservative, and in Iran's case, even more conservative governments, Shiite governments, than we've seen before. Not making Condoleezza Rice's job and President Bush's job any easier by the end of this year.
COSTELLO: David Clinch, live in Atlanta this morning, thank you. CLINCH: OK.
COSTELLO: Young British woman sails into the record books after a very long, lonely trip. We'll hear from her about what it's like to be back on dry land.
And later, a look at the latest battle a 79-year-old veteran is fighting.
But first, here is a look at what else is making news this Tuesday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: This is pretty cool stuff. Call it around the world in 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds. This is a live shot of an English woman, Ellen MacArthur. She set a new record for speed on her sailing voyage around the globe. She's about to come into shore, as you can see. She shaved more than a day off the previous record, which was set last year.
Let's listen to her.
ELLEN MACARTHUR, AROUND-THE-WORLD SAILOR: Well right now I think I feel -- I'm elated. I'm absolutely drained. It's been a very tough trip. The whole south Atlantic was terrible for us on the way back up. And it's just been one big draining event, I think. And from there onwards, I feel just absolutely exhausted but obviously elated to be here. And I've got some mixed emotions in my mind of things spinning around in my head.
COSTELLO: Her support crew cracked open a few bottles of champagne to celebrate the new record. The Queen called MacArthur's record a remarkable and historic achievement. I can't even imagine being on a boat that long.
MYERS: Carol, she was on it by herself. She sailed around the world by herself. She was averaging 22 knots at times. It's a 70- foot trimaran. The mast is almost a hundred feet high, or maybe a little bit more, maybe 120 feet high. She had to sail around without re-supplying. If she stopped, she was done.
And she beat the old record by a day and then some. And what she attributed it to is she said that women can actually deal with sleep deprivation better than men. Even though she was hit by that boom, she was hit by sails, the winds got really bad. The waves got over, at times, 40 feet, which is almost half the length of that boat. And she's -- obviously she did it all by herself.
COSTELLO: That is terrific. She says women can deal with sleep deprivation better.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: I bet that's because they have children.
MYERS: Exactly.
COSTELLO: Because the babies keep them up, so we're conditioned to not sleep.
MYERS: You got it.
COSTELLO: Good for her. I want...
MYERS: And my wife will attest.
COSTELLO: We'll keep you up to date in the 6:00 hour of DAYBREAK after Ellen gets off that boat.
MYERS: Awesome.
COSTELLO: All right. Still to come on DAYBREAK, they are usually protected,...
MYERS: Thanks.
COSTELLO: ... but now veterans may be faced with rising prescription drug costs. That's if the president's budget is approved. We'll meet one veteran facing the future after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: In "Health Headlines" for you this morning, if you have a preschooler, give them fruit this morning instead of fruit juice or a sweet drink. Research suggests sweet drinks raise the risk of pudgy preschoolers getting fatter. Pediatricians recommend limiting all preschoolers to four to six ounces of juice per day.
Another warning, this for pregnant women. Researchers in California say expectant mothers who have asthma allergies or psoriasis have a higher risk of having an autistic baby. Having those symptoms, especially in the second trimester, doubles the risk of autism.
And a warning for heavy marijuana users, smoking pot makes the blood in your brain flow faster. That suggests narrowed arteries, similar to people with high blood pressure and dementia. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says that could help explain why some heavy marijuana users have trouble on memory tests.
Health programs for veterans are among the items on the chopping block in President Bush's new budget proposal.
Our Keith Oppenheim reports on one vet who hopes Congress will shoot down at least part of the president's plan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JERRY VLECK, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: In the morning it can be real rough.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jerry Vleck is heading home.
VLECK: What else have I got left in life to help the fellow vets now?
OPPENHEIM: Several times a week, Vleck volunteers for the American Legion at the V.A. Hospital in North Chicago, the same place where he gets all his health care. This year he'll celebrate the 60th anniversary of another homecoming, his return from two years in the Pacific during World War II. Like many in his generation, like his modest.
VLECK: I didn't do anything different than anybody else was doing out there. We were trying to stay alive, let me put it to you that way.
OPPENHEIM: At age 79, Jerry Vleck is still trying to stay alive.
VLECK: That's Anul (ph).
OPPENHEIM (on camera): What's that for?
VLECK: And that's for blood pressure.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): He now takes eight different medications every day, mainly for heart disease and diabetes.
(on camera): How much do you pay for one of those now, for one prescription?
VLECK: Seven dollars.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Right now the costs are relatively low for Vleck as most of his health care is covered by his veteran's benefits.
(on camera): On one level you must feel lucky that you're a veteran.
VLECK: I'm lucky I'm alive, let's put it that way. I know a lot of guys that aren't.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): But in the president's current budget proposal, Vleck would have to pay $15 per prescription, more than twice as much. In his case, with eight medications, that could add up to more than $1,200 per year, and that's not small change for a guy who only takes in about $2,200 a month between Social Security and his truck driver's pension. With these increases, he'll feel the squeeze. An insult, he says, to those who risked their lives for their country.
VLECK: Especially to the ones who can't afford it, especially them.
OPPENHEIM (on camera): Are you that person? Can you afford to pay $7 for one of these?
VLECK: No. Right now it's not a question of whether I can afford it or not, I have to do it.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): With all his ailments, Jerry Vleck has been getting by. As a widower, he has lived by himself for 17 years. But now he is looking for a little help from Congress, which has been known to stop presidents from touching benefits for veterans.
VLECK: I hope they shoot it down because I don't think it's right.
OPPENHEIM: Keith Oppenheim CNN, Grays Lake, Illinois.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: We're talking this morning about the skyrocketing costs of higher education. Coming up in the next hour of DAYBREAK, a writer from "Money" magazine will join us to bust some myths and share some savings strategies for parents and young college students alike.
Also ahead in the next hour, time to pull out the beads and fill up those glasses, it's Fat Tuesday. We're going to take you live to New Orleans to check in on the celebration.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We're getting new DAYBREAK cups, by the way.
MYERS: What have you got there? They look nice.
COSTELLO: Isn't that cute?
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: Very good coffee.
MYERS: OK.
COSTELLO: But it is time to check out our "Web Clicks" this morning, and one really intrigued me. You know what was getting your attention on CNN.com. About MTV2, they're revamping it with this great new logo of the two-headed dog.
MYERS: Yes, but are they going to play music or are they...
COSTELLO: Supposedly.
MYERS: You know when did MTV stop playing music, was it 10 years ago, I don't even know, but you hardly even see a music video anymore.
COSTELLO: Well the frightening part is they're gearing it to 12 to 24-year-old males.
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: Twelve. Twelve.
MYERS: Hey. COSTELLO: I was trying to think back to when MTV began,...
MYERS: They have money, too.
COSTELLO: ... back when we were young, you know back in the day.
MYERS: Right, after they got rid of the radio.
COSTELLO: Was MTV geared to 12 year olds?
MYERS: I guess so, sure.
COSTELLO: Really?
MYERS: Well you know some of the videos were a little risque for their time, so maybe not. Maybe, you know, PG-13, I'm not sure.
COSTELLO: Well, gosh, what 12 year olds see nowadays, what's risque anymore?
MYERS: Exactly.
COSTELLO: Anyway, I thought that was interesting, so MTV2 with the two-headed dog. And, yes, you're 12-year-old can now watch music videos, at least we think so.
MYERS: Wow.
COSTELLO: We have been getting your e-mails this morning about the cost of applying to college and the cost of a college education. "USA Today" reporting you've got to shell out hundreds or even thousands of dollars just to get into the university. There are fees for applications, SAT or ACT exams, classes to prepare for those exams, additional costs for mailing extra copies of all those scores to the schools and even applying for scholarships, so it all adds up. And we've been getting some interesting e-mail this morning.
You've got some -- Chad?
MYERS: I have a nice one from Preston (ph) in Arkansas. It says the only thing more expensive about applying to college is not getting into one. You sure need a college education to make any kind of money in this day and age.
And then another one here from Roxbury, Connecticut. It's kind of funny. It's about trying to buy a horse. How much does that horse cost? And the answer is, by the time you get done putting up a fence, building a barn, paying for the lot, getting unexpected vet bills, buying new outfits for the event, getting your new tac, purchasing a trailer, then getting a bigger truck to pull the trailer, you won't even know how much that horse cost in the first place.
COSTELLO: That is excellent. I like that.
This is from Richard (ph) with another perspective. He's from New York. He said I think the costs are not too high. The application fees can be seen as a way to filter the serious application from those applying for the sake of just applying. On the other hand, tests required for many colleges can be useful for applicants to identify what is the best academic fit for them.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: So he says be damned with the costs.
MYERS: Same kind of thing from Donna (ph). It says the application, though, is to go there and then to spend 25 or 50, whatever it is to apply to every college, why should you pay to make a request to go to their school. It's not refundable if you get turned down.
COSTELLO: They just keep the money.
MYERS: Yes, they sure do, and it's not applied.
COSTELLO: This is from Michael (ph). He's a student at Ithaca, New York. As a college student at a partially state-funded school, I can tell you that application fees and tuition are only the beginning. From $600 a semester for books, not to mention enormous fees for parking on campus or replacing keys and ID cards, it seems that schools are always trying to hit students and their parents up for cash. We even have a fee for getting locked out of your dorm room and calling an R.A. to let you back in.
That's just life.
MYERS: Guess what, that's the real world.
COSTELLO: That's just life, Michael.
MYERS: Wait until you have to call a locksmith when you get locked out of your car, that's not cheap either.
COSTELLO: No, that's not cheap. But you know to park on campus it costs a lot of money, I don't know if that's right, is it?
MYERS: I think -- yes, I had to pay like $15 or $20. And then all those fines because you parked in the wrong spot.
COSTELLO: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in college.
MYERS: Then you had to pay the fines before they'd give you your diploma.
COSTELLO: Yes.
MYERS: You had to be all the way up to full.
COSTELLO: Yes, I know that story well.
MYERS: I know.
COSTELLO: Anyway, thank you for your e-mails this morning. The next hour of DAYBREAK starts right now.
Pinching pennies and cutting corners, how does the president's new budget affect America's armed forces?
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