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American Morning
Plot To Kill President?; Gender Controversy; '90-Second Pop'
Aired February 23, 2005 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. It's 7:30 here in New York.
In a moment here, an international terror case is getting a lot of attention. It's centered around a possible plot to assassinate President Bush. A lot to talk about in this story, accusations of torture, claims about terror cells here in the U.S. We'll check out the details on this in a moment. So stay tuned for more.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also, in the hallowed halls of Harvard, this down and dirty fight on the very basics between men and women. The president there is still in a lot of trouble over some comments he made about women. Basically, he gave his opinion why maybe there are not so many of them suited -- women, this is -- suited to the fields of math and science. We're going to talk to you about an emergency faculty meeting that happened last night and tell you what both sides are saying now.
HEMMER: He said those comments about a month ago, right?
O'BRIEN: And, you know, that storm...
HEMMER: And on and on.
O'BRIEN: ... keeps coming on and on and on.
HEMMER: All right, more in a moment.
O'BRIEN: He's got defenders on both sides, though.
Headlines first, though, with Heidi Collins.
Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Look what I have.
HEMMER: Oh my.
O'BRIEN: Presents, we love presents.
COLLINS: Presents, yes.
HEMMER: You don't want to replace this beautiful, stainless- steel mug over here, do you?
COLLINS: I know. It looks a little -- I don't know -- toxic.
O'BRIEN: That's for you.
HEMMER: A little used?
COLLINS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
HEMMER: Excellent.
COLLINS: But it's actually not from me, I should be clear.
HEMMER: I know.
COLLINS: The crew, mind you, the crew got these for us. Aren't they slick?
HEMMER: They're taking good care of us.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.
COLLINS: They are. We love these guys.
HEMMER: Hopefully we return the favor.
COLLINS: Yes.
HEMMER: Do we, guys?
COLLINS: I hope they'll fill them up with something the next time.
O'BRIEN: I was going to say, hi, hello, no coffee in the coffee mug.
HEMMER: It's time to wake up.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
COLLINS: We do want to get to the headlines now, though in the news this morning.
Californians bracing for more rain today. More than eight inches of rain have fallen in the Los Angeles area since Thursday. The storms are being blamed for at least nine deaths, causing floods, mudslides and opening up sinkhole there. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn declared a state of emergency for the city.
New details are coming out this morning about the deaths of a pregnant woman and her 7-year-old son. Police say the bodies believed to be of Lisa and Jayden Underwood were found about 25 miles outside of Fort Worth, Texas. According to authorities, the suspect in the killings, Stephen Barbee, admitted to killing both of them, and then led police to their shallow grave. Police also believe Barbee was the father of Lisa Underwood's unborn child.
In Santa Maria, California, jury selection in the Michael Jackson trial is set to resume later today. Twenty potential jurors were dismissed yesterday, whittling the jury pool down to 221. This, as the star-studded list of potential witnesses grows. The latest names, in case you're keeping track, included are Eddie Murphy, McCauley Culkin and Smoky Robinson.
O'BRIEN: Smoky Robinson?
COLLINS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Wow!
COLLINS: Yes, it's getting interesting.
And new warnings about e-mail attachments this morning. If it seems like the FBI is contacting you, don't fall for it. The bureau says scam artists pretending to be FBI agents are spreading a computer virus through e-mail attachments. The real FBI is investigating the phony messages.
I'm always suspicious the FBI is trying to contact me, you know?
O'BRIEN: Not a good sign.
HEMMER: Never open an attachment unless you know who is sending it to you, or you will get burned.
COLLINS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Thanks.
HEMMER: Thank you, Heidi.
A 23-year-old American with alleged ties to al Qaeda is now facing charges of helping terrorists in a plot to kill the president.
Our justice correspondent, Kelli Arena, has more this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Texas-born Ahmed Abu Ali is 23 years old. He just spent the last 20 months of his life in prison in Saudi Arabia but was never charged there.
Abu Ali says he was tortured in prison, and has the scars on his back to prove it, a claim the Saudi government denies.
He finally got home last night. His first stop? A U.S. courtroom. U.S. prosecutors say Abu Ali conspired to assassinate President Bush, that he supported al Qaeda and was willing to set up a terror cell right here in the United States.
Abu Ali's parents say the government is lying to save embarrassment.
OMAR ABU ALI, SUSPECT'S FATHER: The government, they lied to us from the first day. They told the district court that this is a Saudi case, and we have nothing to do with this case. Now they are cooking. They cooked new things. They changed the story about Ahmed.
ARENA: His family says he was held at the request of the United States, and sued the U.S. government on behalf of their son. U.S. government officials have insisted the Saudis had their own interests in Abu Ali, having to do with the bombings in Riyadh in May of 2003.
The judge assured him he would not suffer any torture or humiliation while in U.S. custody.
In the indictment against him, Abu Ali is charged with discussing two scenarios to assassinate President Bush, one in which he would get close enough to the president to shoot him on the street, and another in which Abu Ali would detonate a car bomb.
(on camera): All of the evidence against him remains under seal. The indictment, just the bare bones of what the government knows.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Abu Ali was born in Houston, Texas, later moved to Falls Church in Virginia. There, he was valedictorian of his high school class -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, under fire for comments about the aptitudes of women, has avoided a no- confidence vote for now. Summers met with 500 faculty members last night to face questions and calls to step down. But what he said in a conference just a month ago has fueled a nationwide debate about the sexes.
National correspondent Kelly Wallace with us this morning with much more.
Good morning.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
This is a provocative one. It is a question that Lawrence Summers raised, among other things, when he was talking at that conference last month, raising the question: Are innate differences between men and women partly the reason why fewer women than men reach the top in science and math?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No! We vote no!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No! We vote no!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No! We vote no!
WALLACE (voice over): What a debate it has become, moving from the campus of Harvard to the headlines to the airwaves. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Harvard President...
WALLACE: The man who started it all, Harvard's President Lawrence Summers, who told a conference last month -- quote -- "Issues of intrinsic aptitude may be one of the reasons fewer women than men reach the highest levels in science and engineering."
Outrage from liberal women's groups.
KATHERINE SPILLAR, FEMINIST MAJORITY FOUNDATION: Well, the heart of the matter is the bias that President Summers exhibited himself in his comments.
WALLACE: Support from conservatives.
NANCY PFOTENHAUER, INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM: So this poor guy basically told the truth in an off-the-record meeting, and now he's being painted as someone who is anti-women.
WALLACE: Two women, two very different views. So we asked them first, are there innate differences between the sexes?
PFOTENHAUER: In the field of neurobiology it's pretty well- established that men have a superior spatial ability, on average. Women have superior verbal reasoning skills, on average.
SPILLAR: Well, the research is in, and it's conclusive. Women are every bit an equal to a man in any of these fields.
WALLACE: Why, then, do fewer women than men become scientists and engineers? Bias, says one.
SPILLAR: What is clear is that when women face discrimination in the workplace and in education, of course their opportunities are stunted.
WALLACE: Career choice, says the other.
PFOTENHAUER: The women are going to law school, because they're likely to be better than the male lawyers they're up against. And the men are going to science and math, because they're likely to be better than their competition.
WALLACE: One says women too often complain about discrimination.
PFOTENHAUER: I think that you're basically setting someone up to have a victim mentality.
WALLACE: The other says women too often are discriminated against.
SPILLAR: This is stealing from girls their chances of achieving their full potential, and that's wrong.
WALLACE: Both, however, agree on this: Society benefits from the debate sparked by one speech, by one Ivy League president. (END VIDEOTAPE)
Because if the goal is seeing more women go into the fields of science and engineering, then both women agree that only after we identify the problem, if there is one, will we find the solution.
O'BRIEN: So he's avoided the no-confidence vote for now. What happens next?
WALLACE: For now, it's unclear. There is another faculty meeting in March. They could take up this issue again. There was a lot of talk going into last night's meeting, Soledad, that there would be this vote of no-confidence. A lot of uproar, a lot of outrage. The fact that there wasn't this no-confidence vote, it seems at least at the moment, he might be OK.
Lawrence Summers coming out saying he's going to listen more carefully, open a new chapter. So it seems he might be OK for now, but the controversy is not dying down at all.
O'BRIEN: One would imagine he'll speak more carefully also.
WALLACE: Perhaps, yes.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kelly Wallace, thanks.
WALLACE: Sure.
O'BRIEN: Bill.
HEMMER: It's about 22 minutes now before the hour. A check of the weather again. Chad knows his numbers. Back to the CNN center there. California does not need rain.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No.
HEMMER: They can have a little bit of our weather here, by the way, because it's beautiful.
MYERS: It is. It is beautiful on one side of the coast and just ugly on the other. Los Angeles now, this is the third-wettest rainy season of all time, and it doesn't even end until the end of March. They've had almost 35 inches of rainfall in the past three months.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: A new TV special takes celebrity gawking to a whole new level. How about stars without makeup? Would you watch? "90-Second Pop" has a shot at that in a moment here.
O'BRIEN: Plus, Andre Agassi no longer tops the world tennis rankings, but he's on top of the world nonetheless. We'll explain ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: Have you seen this, you guys? Tennis stars Andre Agassi and Roger Federer could have used a bigger net certainly yesterday. They were hitting ground strokes 700 feet above sea level. Look at that in Dubai. That's a helipad off of the exclusive verge Al Arab Hotel. It was turned into a tennis court for publicity. Agassi and Federer are competing in the Dubai Open. They said they loved playing up there. And look, look at the edge. Not a whole lot of debate about when one's out, huh?
HEMMER: That's right. When that shot's long, you let it go. That's OK, your point.
O'BRIEN: You know, you might lose someone off the edge on that.
HEMMER: How stunning is that architecture there?
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: They have too much money there.
HEMMER: Well, I'll tell you, do you remember a couple of months ago...
CAFFERTY: They have entirely too much money.
HEMMER: One of these times the Summer Games is going to go to these Persian Gulf states, and they're going to stun the world.
CAFFERTY: That would be a good idea. How would you like to run the...
HEMMER: The architecture and the way they build things.
CAFFERTY: ... the 15,000 meters in Dubai in August?
HEMMER: Oh, I guess we won't do it in August, will we?
CAFFERTY: It would take about four days to finish in 180-degree heat.
HEMMER: Extra water.
CAFFERTY: Doctor-assisted suicide. The Supreme Court of the United States agreed to take up the issue. The Bush administration is trying to overturn Oregon's Death With Dignity Act that allows doctors to prescribe drugs to help terminally-ill people get out of here.
The Justice Department argues prescribing a lethal drug for purposes of suicide is not a -- quote -- "legitimate medical purpose" -- unquote -- under U.S. drug laws.
The question is this: Should doctor-assisted suicide be legal?
Gloria in Pennsylvania: "After seeing my brother die of cancer and seeing the suffering he went through, I would say yes. As much as you love a person and want them to live until the last possible breath they can take, if that person wants to have doctor-assisted suicide, then it's not for me to judge." Ken in Arizona: "Of course, doctor-assisted suicide should be legal."
Steve in Massachusetts: "Doctor-assisted suicide should only be considered in times of patients nearing normal end of life. It should be my choice, not others choosing to keep me alive."
Matt here in New York City: "I think doctors should morally realize that assisting somebody in taking their own life is wrong. Doctors should seek help for people that inquire about these services."
And Lee in Washington says: "Jack, a government wants to tell me when I can't die? To hell with the government. Suicide shouldn't be illegal anyway. If you succeed, they can't prosecute you."
HEMMER: Yes, that's one way.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, that's true.
O'BRIEN: There's a point.
SERWER: But I don't know about the whole "first do no harm" thing here, though, right? I mean, it doesn't jive with that, does it?
O'BRIEN: Exactly.
CAFFERTY: But philosophically, are you doing harm if you alleviate someone's suffering that is so overwhelming that there is virtually no quality of life left, that all they do is lie comatose and in unbearable pain 24/7?
HEMMER: And most of the people in Oregon have been cancer patients, right?
CAFFERTY: I don't know. I don't know what most of them are, but there have been fewer than 25 since this law passed per year that have availed themselves of this. But, I mean, there is a philosophical debate that you can get into about a physician...
SERWER: Right.
O'BRIEN: Philosophical and emotional elements, too, of that debate.
CAFFERTY: Huh?
O'BRIEN: I mean...
SERWER: Well, he doesn't want to do the emotional. He'll be philosophical.
CAFFERTY: No, that's true. I just...
O'BRIEN: He'll do the emotional in the next hour. SERWER: We'll try to stay on that.
CAFFERTY: You know what the cynics are saying? Ashcroft is not there anymore, but they're saying this is Ashcroft's justice department trying to intrude its morality into people's lives and the Christian right trying to tell people whether they can live or die or not. That's the cynics' feeling. They might have something there.
O'BRIEN: Maybe. Well, let's take a moment and break for some business news, shall we?
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: It looks like everybody's got an iPod.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: I got a new one. I haven't taken it out of the box yet.
SERWER: Oh, you haven't?
O'BRIEN: You're minding our business this morning because there's some news on that front. What's going on?
SERWER: Yes, this is America's favorite gizmo. Of course, the iPod, 10 million sold and counting. And it seems like we've got some new features coming up, new colors for the Mini and a color screen. Those are the original colors. And they're probably going to be coming out with some more.
And the color screen, more memory, and the price drop. That is the big deal. It's maybe going down from 249 to a dollar -- to 199, I should day. Not a dollar.
Now, these are on these Web sites that Apple hates, because they leak secrets out. And, of course, no company likes to have someone come out and say the price is going to be lower one month from now, because, of course, everyone will stop buying them. So, Apple doesn't like that at all. And, in fact, they've sued some of these people.
The other big thing is, the worst thing about an iPod are the wires, because you've got to untangle them constantly. And I'm always doing that. And so it seems like they're going to be coming out with a wireless iPod soon. That's the real cutting edge rumor, Jack.
CAFFERTY: So you just put on, like, a little headset?
SERWER: Yes, it's Bluetooth technology. It's cool.
CAFFERTY: There you go.
SERWER: Yes, Bluetooth, Jack.
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's a good idea.
HEMMER: Does your daughter have a pink or a green one?
SERWER: Pink, of course, yes. (UNINTELLIGIBLE), right?
O'BRIEN: For girls, absolutely.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks.
SERWER: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Miss America, believer it or not, is falling on hard times and low ratings, too. But would you watch the beauty pageant if it was turned into a reality show? "90-Second Pop" is just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. It's time for the Wednesday edition of "90-Second Pop." Our pop experts -- those big words. Andy Borowitz of Borowitzreport.com. Crystal McCrary Anthony, author of the "Gotham Diaries." And Toure, CNN's pop culture correspondent.
Good morning. Nice to see you.
TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
CRYSTAL MCCRARY ANTHONY, AUTHOR, "GOTHAM DIARIES": Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Loving Duran Duran, by the way. Are you really going to see them in concert?
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: I am. I am.
ANTHONY: Lucky.
O'BRIEN: Simon Le Bon.
BOROWITZ: I'm taking my daughter. But it's a secret, so don't tell anybody that, America.
O'BRIEN: Don't you even worry about it. Oops, my bad.
BOROWITZ: It's OK.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about Miss America. I think this is a brilliant idea.
BOROWITZ: You do? OK.
O'BRIEN: Miss America as a reality...
BOROWITZ: Well, yes. Well, I mean, it's...
O'BRIEN: OK. BOROWITZ: Well, no, that's good. It's good to hear all sides. Well, you know, Miss America, I guess, has lost its TV deal, because the ratings were going down. So they've gone to Hollywood's William Morris Agency to help revamp the show and turn it into a reality show. And their theory is -- I guess their spokesman said that the Miss America pageant is the original reality show, which I agree with...
O'BRIEN: It is.
BOROWITZ: ... except for the reality part. Because I think that it's like where is the reality in this show? The women have sashes on. It just doesn't seem -- I don't know. So what is it going to be? Is it going to be like "Fear Factor?" Are they going to get rid of the swimsuit competition? Are they going to eat bugs and stuff?
O'BRIEN: The back-biting, the controversy, the girl-on-girl violence. Come on!
BOROWITZ: OK. All right. Well, now it's starting to sound...
ANTHONY: That sounds like another series, girl-on-girl violence.
TOURE: It sounds like high school.
O'BRIEN: But why would they go to -- why not just go to Mark Burnett himself and get it, you know, packaged?
BOROWITZ: I don't know.
ANTHONY: I think they're going to totally repackage it.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
ANTHONY: And the thing about this is there's such a thing as too much reality. I mean, I don't know if I really want to hear the story about Peggy Sue's grandma and her bingo club that saved up to send her to the pageant.
TOURE: I want to hear that.
ANTHONY: I mean, there's a bit...
TOURE: I want to hear that. I definitely want to hear about that.
O'BRIEN: Peggy Sue grabbing a handful of somebody else's hair and pulling.
ANTHONY: That's more interesting.
TOURE: now that, yes.
O'BRIEN: That's the kind of TV I'm visualizing here.
BOROWITZ: I have a fix. I mean, I'm not William Morris or anything, but I think, like, in the old days, there were these scandals when it turned out that Miss America contestants had posed for naked photos and stuff like that.
O'BRIEN: Right.
BOROWITZ: Why not just make that a regular part of the pageant itself? I mean, I think that would be great.
O'BRIEN: Let's take you now to the pictures, the photographs.
BOROWITZ: Exactly. Exactly.
O'BRIEN: That would be scary. Crystal let's talk a little bit about something people are doing that's very mean to the stars. You're really heartbroken about this. But, again, I'm so...
ANTHONY: I think it's very mean. I mean, it's humiliating.
O'BRIEN: It's something called -- it's called "Stars Without Makeup," which kind of says it all. Every so often, a title says it all. This says it all.
ANTHONY: That would be me an hour ago. I mean, anybody without makeup, I mean, it's humiliating. It's degrading. They're going to show...
O'BRIEN: Blah, blah, blah. They're stars. Who cares?
ANTHONY: When you think about it, though, I mean, I understand why a Sean Penn knocks a cameraman out. Now no offense. Or an Alec Baldwin, who I understand is featured in this, along with Diana Ross, looking really bad and Goldie Hawn with no makeup.
O'BRIEN: It's so hard to throw a little powder and some lip gloss on in the morning. You've have paparazzi in your front yard, for god's sake.
TOURE: This would be really cool if it was on MTV or on Nickelodeon...
BOROWITZ: Right.
TOURE: ... marketed at teenage girls, right? Deconstructing the celebrity beauty mix. But it's on Fox, so it will be crass and just bitz (ph).
BOROWITZ: You know, if I want to see a behind-the-scene look at celebrities, I'll do what I always do. I'll just hack into their cell phones. Who needs Fox?
O'BRIEN: Again, I'm going to try to watch that. I think that sounds great.
BOROWITZ: Sounds good.
O'BRIEN: And finally, OK, I think we can all agree, quality television, "Project Runway." TOURE: Yea! The best reality show since "Apprentice." Smart reality show, right? I love Heidi's accent. I love how smart it is. I love evil. I love hating Wendy Pepper, right? That's part of it. Tonight is the finale.
O'BRIEN: There are three. And Wendy Pepper is a suburban mom.
TOURE: There's the evil suburban mom.
O'BRIEN: Oh, she's not evil.
TOURE: She is evil. Watch the show, see evil. But Kara Saun is the consistently respectable, consistently good...
O'BRIEN: You think she's going to win?
TOURE: No. Most people think Kara Saun is going to win. My man, Jay McCarroll, flights of fancy, he is the genius of the show. He's the one who can become a fashion visionary like Alexander McQueen. He's going to pull it out. He is going to win. That's not a spoiler; that's a prediction.
BOROWITZ: You know, I didn't think I would like this show, but I took Toure's advice. And now I'm, like, totally into fashion. For example, I'm wearing Old Navy today.
ANTHONY: We're all color-coordinated, one of my favorite things to do.
BOROWITZ: We are.
O'BRIEN: I was going to point that out. And I wanted to say your ensemble today...
BOROWITZ: Thank you. I'm also finding myself saying things like 'You go, girl.' I'm saying that a lot.
O'BRIEN: Are you feeling it?
BOROWITZ: Yes, I'm totally feeling it.
O'BRIEN: Are you feeling this?
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE: Like, 'That's hot, that's not.'
BOROWITZ: OK.
ANTHONY: That's old jargon. What's a new hip word? Can you help us with something?
TOURE: CNN is too old for this. We can't, like, have new words. It will scare the people.
O'BRIEN: We don't want to scare them. ANTHONY: People aren't saying "what's up" anymore. They're saying "what to do?"
BOROWITZ: Really?
TOURE: Really?
ANTHONY: That's what I heard.
O'BRIEN: Spoken like a bunch of people in their 40s. All right, you guys, as always, thank you.
Back to Bill.
HEMMER: Showing our age.
In a moment here, top stories, including the latest on California. We'll talk to a family jolted awake in the middle of the night by a very loud noise: the ground giving way under their home. Back in a moment here, top of the hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
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Aired February 23, 2005 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. It's 7:30 here in New York.
In a moment here, an international terror case is getting a lot of attention. It's centered around a possible plot to assassinate President Bush. A lot to talk about in this story, accusations of torture, claims about terror cells here in the U.S. We'll check out the details on this in a moment. So stay tuned for more.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also, in the hallowed halls of Harvard, this down and dirty fight on the very basics between men and women. The president there is still in a lot of trouble over some comments he made about women. Basically, he gave his opinion why maybe there are not so many of them suited -- women, this is -- suited to the fields of math and science. We're going to talk to you about an emergency faculty meeting that happened last night and tell you what both sides are saying now.
HEMMER: He said those comments about a month ago, right?
O'BRIEN: And, you know, that storm...
HEMMER: And on and on.
O'BRIEN: ... keeps coming on and on and on.
HEMMER: All right, more in a moment.
O'BRIEN: He's got defenders on both sides, though.
Headlines first, though, with Heidi Collins.
Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Look what I have.
HEMMER: Oh my.
O'BRIEN: Presents, we love presents.
COLLINS: Presents, yes.
HEMMER: You don't want to replace this beautiful, stainless- steel mug over here, do you?
COLLINS: I know. It looks a little -- I don't know -- toxic.
O'BRIEN: That's for you.
HEMMER: A little used?
COLLINS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
HEMMER: Excellent.
COLLINS: But it's actually not from me, I should be clear.
HEMMER: I know.
COLLINS: The crew, mind you, the crew got these for us. Aren't they slick?
HEMMER: They're taking good care of us.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.
COLLINS: They are. We love these guys.
HEMMER: Hopefully we return the favor.
COLLINS: Yes.
HEMMER: Do we, guys?
COLLINS: I hope they'll fill them up with something the next time.
O'BRIEN: I was going to say, hi, hello, no coffee in the coffee mug.
HEMMER: It's time to wake up.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
COLLINS: We do want to get to the headlines now, though in the news this morning.
Californians bracing for more rain today. More than eight inches of rain have fallen in the Los Angeles area since Thursday. The storms are being blamed for at least nine deaths, causing floods, mudslides and opening up sinkhole there. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn declared a state of emergency for the city.
New details are coming out this morning about the deaths of a pregnant woman and her 7-year-old son. Police say the bodies believed to be of Lisa and Jayden Underwood were found about 25 miles outside of Fort Worth, Texas. According to authorities, the suspect in the killings, Stephen Barbee, admitted to killing both of them, and then led police to their shallow grave. Police also believe Barbee was the father of Lisa Underwood's unborn child.
In Santa Maria, California, jury selection in the Michael Jackson trial is set to resume later today. Twenty potential jurors were dismissed yesterday, whittling the jury pool down to 221. This, as the star-studded list of potential witnesses grows. The latest names, in case you're keeping track, included are Eddie Murphy, McCauley Culkin and Smoky Robinson.
O'BRIEN: Smoky Robinson?
COLLINS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Wow!
COLLINS: Yes, it's getting interesting.
And new warnings about e-mail attachments this morning. If it seems like the FBI is contacting you, don't fall for it. The bureau says scam artists pretending to be FBI agents are spreading a computer virus through e-mail attachments. The real FBI is investigating the phony messages.
I'm always suspicious the FBI is trying to contact me, you know?
O'BRIEN: Not a good sign.
HEMMER: Never open an attachment unless you know who is sending it to you, or you will get burned.
COLLINS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Thanks.
HEMMER: Thank you, Heidi.
A 23-year-old American with alleged ties to al Qaeda is now facing charges of helping terrorists in a plot to kill the president.
Our justice correspondent, Kelli Arena, has more this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Texas-born Ahmed Abu Ali is 23 years old. He just spent the last 20 months of his life in prison in Saudi Arabia but was never charged there.
Abu Ali says he was tortured in prison, and has the scars on his back to prove it, a claim the Saudi government denies.
He finally got home last night. His first stop? A U.S. courtroom. U.S. prosecutors say Abu Ali conspired to assassinate President Bush, that he supported al Qaeda and was willing to set up a terror cell right here in the United States.
Abu Ali's parents say the government is lying to save embarrassment.
OMAR ABU ALI, SUSPECT'S FATHER: The government, they lied to us from the first day. They told the district court that this is a Saudi case, and we have nothing to do with this case. Now they are cooking. They cooked new things. They changed the story about Ahmed.
ARENA: His family says he was held at the request of the United States, and sued the U.S. government on behalf of their son. U.S. government officials have insisted the Saudis had their own interests in Abu Ali, having to do with the bombings in Riyadh in May of 2003.
The judge assured him he would not suffer any torture or humiliation while in U.S. custody.
In the indictment against him, Abu Ali is charged with discussing two scenarios to assassinate President Bush, one in which he would get close enough to the president to shoot him on the street, and another in which Abu Ali would detonate a car bomb.
(on camera): All of the evidence against him remains under seal. The indictment, just the bare bones of what the government knows.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Abu Ali was born in Houston, Texas, later moved to Falls Church in Virginia. There, he was valedictorian of his high school class -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, under fire for comments about the aptitudes of women, has avoided a no- confidence vote for now. Summers met with 500 faculty members last night to face questions and calls to step down. But what he said in a conference just a month ago has fueled a nationwide debate about the sexes.
National correspondent Kelly Wallace with us this morning with much more.
Good morning.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
This is a provocative one. It is a question that Lawrence Summers raised, among other things, when he was talking at that conference last month, raising the question: Are innate differences between men and women partly the reason why fewer women than men reach the top in science and math?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No! We vote no!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No! We vote no!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No! We vote no!
WALLACE (voice over): What a debate it has become, moving from the campus of Harvard to the headlines to the airwaves. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Harvard President...
WALLACE: The man who started it all, Harvard's President Lawrence Summers, who told a conference last month -- quote -- "Issues of intrinsic aptitude may be one of the reasons fewer women than men reach the highest levels in science and engineering."
Outrage from liberal women's groups.
KATHERINE SPILLAR, FEMINIST MAJORITY FOUNDATION: Well, the heart of the matter is the bias that President Summers exhibited himself in his comments.
WALLACE: Support from conservatives.
NANCY PFOTENHAUER, INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM: So this poor guy basically told the truth in an off-the-record meeting, and now he's being painted as someone who is anti-women.
WALLACE: Two women, two very different views. So we asked them first, are there innate differences between the sexes?
PFOTENHAUER: In the field of neurobiology it's pretty well- established that men have a superior spatial ability, on average. Women have superior verbal reasoning skills, on average.
SPILLAR: Well, the research is in, and it's conclusive. Women are every bit an equal to a man in any of these fields.
WALLACE: Why, then, do fewer women than men become scientists and engineers? Bias, says one.
SPILLAR: What is clear is that when women face discrimination in the workplace and in education, of course their opportunities are stunted.
WALLACE: Career choice, says the other.
PFOTENHAUER: The women are going to law school, because they're likely to be better than the male lawyers they're up against. And the men are going to science and math, because they're likely to be better than their competition.
WALLACE: One says women too often complain about discrimination.
PFOTENHAUER: I think that you're basically setting someone up to have a victim mentality.
WALLACE: The other says women too often are discriminated against.
SPILLAR: This is stealing from girls their chances of achieving their full potential, and that's wrong.
WALLACE: Both, however, agree on this: Society benefits from the debate sparked by one speech, by one Ivy League president. (END VIDEOTAPE)
Because if the goal is seeing more women go into the fields of science and engineering, then both women agree that only after we identify the problem, if there is one, will we find the solution.
O'BRIEN: So he's avoided the no-confidence vote for now. What happens next?
WALLACE: For now, it's unclear. There is another faculty meeting in March. They could take up this issue again. There was a lot of talk going into last night's meeting, Soledad, that there would be this vote of no-confidence. A lot of uproar, a lot of outrage. The fact that there wasn't this no-confidence vote, it seems at least at the moment, he might be OK.
Lawrence Summers coming out saying he's going to listen more carefully, open a new chapter. So it seems he might be OK for now, but the controversy is not dying down at all.
O'BRIEN: One would imagine he'll speak more carefully also.
WALLACE: Perhaps, yes.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kelly Wallace, thanks.
WALLACE: Sure.
O'BRIEN: Bill.
HEMMER: It's about 22 minutes now before the hour. A check of the weather again. Chad knows his numbers. Back to the CNN center there. California does not need rain.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No.
HEMMER: They can have a little bit of our weather here, by the way, because it's beautiful.
MYERS: It is. It is beautiful on one side of the coast and just ugly on the other. Los Angeles now, this is the third-wettest rainy season of all time, and it doesn't even end until the end of March. They've had almost 35 inches of rainfall in the past three months.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: A new TV special takes celebrity gawking to a whole new level. How about stars without makeup? Would you watch? "90-Second Pop" has a shot at that in a moment here.
O'BRIEN: Plus, Andre Agassi no longer tops the world tennis rankings, but he's on top of the world nonetheless. We'll explain ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: Have you seen this, you guys? Tennis stars Andre Agassi and Roger Federer could have used a bigger net certainly yesterday. They were hitting ground strokes 700 feet above sea level. Look at that in Dubai. That's a helipad off of the exclusive verge Al Arab Hotel. It was turned into a tennis court for publicity. Agassi and Federer are competing in the Dubai Open. They said they loved playing up there. And look, look at the edge. Not a whole lot of debate about when one's out, huh?
HEMMER: That's right. When that shot's long, you let it go. That's OK, your point.
O'BRIEN: You know, you might lose someone off the edge on that.
HEMMER: How stunning is that architecture there?
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: They have too much money there.
HEMMER: Well, I'll tell you, do you remember a couple of months ago...
CAFFERTY: They have entirely too much money.
HEMMER: One of these times the Summer Games is going to go to these Persian Gulf states, and they're going to stun the world.
CAFFERTY: That would be a good idea. How would you like to run the...
HEMMER: The architecture and the way they build things.
CAFFERTY: ... the 15,000 meters in Dubai in August?
HEMMER: Oh, I guess we won't do it in August, will we?
CAFFERTY: It would take about four days to finish in 180-degree heat.
HEMMER: Extra water.
CAFFERTY: Doctor-assisted suicide. The Supreme Court of the United States agreed to take up the issue. The Bush administration is trying to overturn Oregon's Death With Dignity Act that allows doctors to prescribe drugs to help terminally-ill people get out of here.
The Justice Department argues prescribing a lethal drug for purposes of suicide is not a -- quote -- "legitimate medical purpose" -- unquote -- under U.S. drug laws.
The question is this: Should doctor-assisted suicide be legal?
Gloria in Pennsylvania: "After seeing my brother die of cancer and seeing the suffering he went through, I would say yes. As much as you love a person and want them to live until the last possible breath they can take, if that person wants to have doctor-assisted suicide, then it's not for me to judge." Ken in Arizona: "Of course, doctor-assisted suicide should be legal."
Steve in Massachusetts: "Doctor-assisted suicide should only be considered in times of patients nearing normal end of life. It should be my choice, not others choosing to keep me alive."
Matt here in New York City: "I think doctors should morally realize that assisting somebody in taking their own life is wrong. Doctors should seek help for people that inquire about these services."
And Lee in Washington says: "Jack, a government wants to tell me when I can't die? To hell with the government. Suicide shouldn't be illegal anyway. If you succeed, they can't prosecute you."
HEMMER: Yes, that's one way.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, that's true.
O'BRIEN: There's a point.
SERWER: But I don't know about the whole "first do no harm" thing here, though, right? I mean, it doesn't jive with that, does it?
O'BRIEN: Exactly.
CAFFERTY: But philosophically, are you doing harm if you alleviate someone's suffering that is so overwhelming that there is virtually no quality of life left, that all they do is lie comatose and in unbearable pain 24/7?
HEMMER: And most of the people in Oregon have been cancer patients, right?
CAFFERTY: I don't know. I don't know what most of them are, but there have been fewer than 25 since this law passed per year that have availed themselves of this. But, I mean, there is a philosophical debate that you can get into about a physician...
SERWER: Right.
O'BRIEN: Philosophical and emotional elements, too, of that debate.
CAFFERTY: Huh?
O'BRIEN: I mean...
SERWER: Well, he doesn't want to do the emotional. He'll be philosophical.
CAFFERTY: No, that's true. I just...
O'BRIEN: He'll do the emotional in the next hour. SERWER: We'll try to stay on that.
CAFFERTY: You know what the cynics are saying? Ashcroft is not there anymore, but they're saying this is Ashcroft's justice department trying to intrude its morality into people's lives and the Christian right trying to tell people whether they can live or die or not. That's the cynics' feeling. They might have something there.
O'BRIEN: Maybe. Well, let's take a moment and break for some business news, shall we?
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: It looks like everybody's got an iPod.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: I got a new one. I haven't taken it out of the box yet.
SERWER: Oh, you haven't?
O'BRIEN: You're minding our business this morning because there's some news on that front. What's going on?
SERWER: Yes, this is America's favorite gizmo. Of course, the iPod, 10 million sold and counting. And it seems like we've got some new features coming up, new colors for the Mini and a color screen. Those are the original colors. And they're probably going to be coming out with some more.
And the color screen, more memory, and the price drop. That is the big deal. It's maybe going down from 249 to a dollar -- to 199, I should day. Not a dollar.
Now, these are on these Web sites that Apple hates, because they leak secrets out. And, of course, no company likes to have someone come out and say the price is going to be lower one month from now, because, of course, everyone will stop buying them. So, Apple doesn't like that at all. And, in fact, they've sued some of these people.
The other big thing is, the worst thing about an iPod are the wires, because you've got to untangle them constantly. And I'm always doing that. And so it seems like they're going to be coming out with a wireless iPod soon. That's the real cutting edge rumor, Jack.
CAFFERTY: So you just put on, like, a little headset?
SERWER: Yes, it's Bluetooth technology. It's cool.
CAFFERTY: There you go.
SERWER: Yes, Bluetooth, Jack.
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's a good idea.
HEMMER: Does your daughter have a pink or a green one?
SERWER: Pink, of course, yes. (UNINTELLIGIBLE), right?
O'BRIEN: For girls, absolutely.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks.
SERWER: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Miss America, believer it or not, is falling on hard times and low ratings, too. But would you watch the beauty pageant if it was turned into a reality show? "90-Second Pop" is just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. It's time for the Wednesday edition of "90-Second Pop." Our pop experts -- those big words. Andy Borowitz of Borowitzreport.com. Crystal McCrary Anthony, author of the "Gotham Diaries." And Toure, CNN's pop culture correspondent.
Good morning. Nice to see you.
TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
CRYSTAL MCCRARY ANTHONY, AUTHOR, "GOTHAM DIARIES": Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Loving Duran Duran, by the way. Are you really going to see them in concert?
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: I am. I am.
ANTHONY: Lucky.
O'BRIEN: Simon Le Bon.
BOROWITZ: I'm taking my daughter. But it's a secret, so don't tell anybody that, America.
O'BRIEN: Don't you even worry about it. Oops, my bad.
BOROWITZ: It's OK.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about Miss America. I think this is a brilliant idea.
BOROWITZ: You do? OK.
O'BRIEN: Miss America as a reality...
BOROWITZ: Well, yes. Well, I mean, it's...
O'BRIEN: OK. BOROWITZ: Well, no, that's good. It's good to hear all sides. Well, you know, Miss America, I guess, has lost its TV deal, because the ratings were going down. So they've gone to Hollywood's William Morris Agency to help revamp the show and turn it into a reality show. And their theory is -- I guess their spokesman said that the Miss America pageant is the original reality show, which I agree with...
O'BRIEN: It is.
BOROWITZ: ... except for the reality part. Because I think that it's like where is the reality in this show? The women have sashes on. It just doesn't seem -- I don't know. So what is it going to be? Is it going to be like "Fear Factor?" Are they going to get rid of the swimsuit competition? Are they going to eat bugs and stuff?
O'BRIEN: The back-biting, the controversy, the girl-on-girl violence. Come on!
BOROWITZ: OK. All right. Well, now it's starting to sound...
ANTHONY: That sounds like another series, girl-on-girl violence.
TOURE: It sounds like high school.
O'BRIEN: But why would they go to -- why not just go to Mark Burnett himself and get it, you know, packaged?
BOROWITZ: I don't know.
ANTHONY: I think they're going to totally repackage it.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
ANTHONY: And the thing about this is there's such a thing as too much reality. I mean, I don't know if I really want to hear the story about Peggy Sue's grandma and her bingo club that saved up to send her to the pageant.
TOURE: I want to hear that.
ANTHONY: I mean, there's a bit...
TOURE: I want to hear that. I definitely want to hear about that.
O'BRIEN: Peggy Sue grabbing a handful of somebody else's hair and pulling.
ANTHONY: That's more interesting.
TOURE: now that, yes.
O'BRIEN: That's the kind of TV I'm visualizing here.
BOROWITZ: I have a fix. I mean, I'm not William Morris or anything, but I think, like, in the old days, there were these scandals when it turned out that Miss America contestants had posed for naked photos and stuff like that.
O'BRIEN: Right.
BOROWITZ: Why not just make that a regular part of the pageant itself? I mean, I think that would be great.
O'BRIEN: Let's take you now to the pictures, the photographs.
BOROWITZ: Exactly. Exactly.
O'BRIEN: That would be scary. Crystal let's talk a little bit about something people are doing that's very mean to the stars. You're really heartbroken about this. But, again, I'm so...
ANTHONY: I think it's very mean. I mean, it's humiliating.
O'BRIEN: It's something called -- it's called "Stars Without Makeup," which kind of says it all. Every so often, a title says it all. This says it all.
ANTHONY: That would be me an hour ago. I mean, anybody without makeup, I mean, it's humiliating. It's degrading. They're going to show...
O'BRIEN: Blah, blah, blah. They're stars. Who cares?
ANTHONY: When you think about it, though, I mean, I understand why a Sean Penn knocks a cameraman out. Now no offense. Or an Alec Baldwin, who I understand is featured in this, along with Diana Ross, looking really bad and Goldie Hawn with no makeup.
O'BRIEN: It's so hard to throw a little powder and some lip gloss on in the morning. You've have paparazzi in your front yard, for god's sake.
TOURE: This would be really cool if it was on MTV or on Nickelodeon...
BOROWITZ: Right.
TOURE: ... marketed at teenage girls, right? Deconstructing the celebrity beauty mix. But it's on Fox, so it will be crass and just bitz (ph).
BOROWITZ: You know, if I want to see a behind-the-scene look at celebrities, I'll do what I always do. I'll just hack into their cell phones. Who needs Fox?
O'BRIEN: Again, I'm going to try to watch that. I think that sounds great.
BOROWITZ: Sounds good.
O'BRIEN: And finally, OK, I think we can all agree, quality television, "Project Runway." TOURE: Yea! The best reality show since "Apprentice." Smart reality show, right? I love Heidi's accent. I love how smart it is. I love evil. I love hating Wendy Pepper, right? That's part of it. Tonight is the finale.
O'BRIEN: There are three. And Wendy Pepper is a suburban mom.
TOURE: There's the evil suburban mom.
O'BRIEN: Oh, she's not evil.
TOURE: She is evil. Watch the show, see evil. But Kara Saun is the consistently respectable, consistently good...
O'BRIEN: You think she's going to win?
TOURE: No. Most people think Kara Saun is going to win. My man, Jay McCarroll, flights of fancy, he is the genius of the show. He's the one who can become a fashion visionary like Alexander McQueen. He's going to pull it out. He is going to win. That's not a spoiler; that's a prediction.
BOROWITZ: You know, I didn't think I would like this show, but I took Toure's advice. And now I'm, like, totally into fashion. For example, I'm wearing Old Navy today.
ANTHONY: We're all color-coordinated, one of my favorite things to do.
BOROWITZ: We are.
O'BRIEN: I was going to point that out. And I wanted to say your ensemble today...
BOROWITZ: Thank you. I'm also finding myself saying things like 'You go, girl.' I'm saying that a lot.
O'BRIEN: Are you feeling it?
BOROWITZ: Yes, I'm totally feeling it.
O'BRIEN: Are you feeling this?
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE: Like, 'That's hot, that's not.'
BOROWITZ: OK.
ANTHONY: That's old jargon. What's a new hip word? Can you help us with something?
TOURE: CNN is too old for this. We can't, like, have new words. It will scare the people.
O'BRIEN: We don't want to scare them. ANTHONY: People aren't saying "what's up" anymore. They're saying "what to do?"
BOROWITZ: Really?
TOURE: Really?
ANTHONY: That's what I heard.
O'BRIEN: Spoken like a bunch of people in their 40s. All right, you guys, as always, thank you.
Back to Bill.
HEMMER: Showing our age.
In a moment here, top stories, including the latest on California. We'll talk to a family jolted awake in the middle of the night by a very loud noise: the ground giving way under their home. Back in a moment here, top of the hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
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