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CNN Live At Daybreak
Zarqawi Injured?; Identity Crisis; Blackbeard Quest; U2 Fans Scammed
Aired May 27, 2005 - 05:29 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: Good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
"Now in the News."
An explosion ripped through a Muslim shrine in the Pakistani capital Islamabad this morning. Authorities say 10 people were killed, at least 40 others wounded. Hundreds of worshipers were in the shrine at the time of the blast.
President Bush is the speaker this morning at the Naval Academy's commissioning and graduation ceremony. You can catch it live right here on CNN at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
A candlelight vigil will be held tonight at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. It's one of the many Memorial Day events scheduled this weekend.
And are you getting ready to hit the road? AAA predicts a record 37 million of you will travel this Memorial Day weekend, that's despite the highest gas prices ever recorded for a holiday. And we're asking your survival tips this morning, so DAYBREAK@CNN.com.
Morning -- Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Morning, Carol, you just got to go sometimes. You know you got plans, you got family to see, everybody living across the country, different parts of the country, you know, you've got to make it to all those things.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
Now to the most wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Speculation about his fate and conflicting claims over who is running al Qaeda in Iraq suggest confusion or even a power struggle among Iraq's most lethal insurgents.
We get more now from CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While some Iraqi officials say they're convinced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was wounded five days ago in a firefight, Pentagon officials insist there is still no hard evidence to back up the claims.
BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, JOINT STAFF DEPUTY DIRECTOR: I think the best way to categorize it is that we look at those with great interest.
MCINTYRE: With a $25 million price on his head, there is no one the U.S. wants to capture or kill more than Zarqawi, who's believed to be able to inspire his followers to carry out deadly suicide attacks. But while Zarqawi's death or capture would clearly deal a blow to his al Qaeda network, the Pentagon says it would probably not shut it down.
HAM: We ought not expect that when that happens that the organization will crumble and will cease to exist. The organization has proven to be somewhat resilient.
MCINTYRE: A chart released by the U.S. military this month claims Zarqawi's network is shrinking with the roll up of more than 20 trusted lieutenants in recent months. But it remains, in the words of the Pentagon, lethal and dangerous.
In a speech to U.S. soldiers at Ft. Bragg, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Zarqawi is now acting much like Adolf Hitler did during his final days when defeat was clear.
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Reminiscent of Hitler in his bunker, this violent extremist, failing to achieve his military and political objectives, now appears committed to trying to destroy everything and everyone around him. History teaches us that this kind of evil, over time, fails.
MCINTYRE (on camera): Pentagon officials say if Zarqawi were captured, killed or otherwise out of the picture, someone in his group would likely step up and take his place. But no one here seems to know who that might be. If conflicting accounts on various al Qaeda Web sites are to be believed, it might only be decided after an internal power struggle.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Iraqi insurgents have killed two more American soldiers, this time in a helicopter crash. It happened near Baquba. Authorities say insurgents shot down the chopper with small arms fire. A second helicopter was attacked and damaged during the same incident but managed to land safely.
The debate over John Bolton will continue into next month. That's because Senate Democrats successfully blocked a vote on his nomination as Ambassador to the United Nations. Republicans fell just four votes short of forcing the vote. Instead, they'll have to wait until the Senate returns after the holiday. Key Democrats say this isn't a filibuster, they just want more information on Bolton's work at the State Department.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD (D), CONNECTICUT: We've been through a very dreadful period where intelligence was very, very wrong in assuming that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And so the issue for this senator is did Mr. Bolton do this or not? And if he did, then why are we even considering this nomination, in my view.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The United Nations needs the presence of a tough, hard, dedicated individual that has already been confirmed in various posts four times by this body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Many Republicans were surprised by the delay. They thought the compromise on the judicial nominees would carry over to John Bolton.
After an exhaustive search of over 30,000 documents, the commander of a joint task force at Guantanamo Bay says he has identified five incidents in which the Quran might have been mishandled, but he says none of them involved a toilet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. JAY HOOD, U.S. ARMY: I would like you to know that we have found no credible evidence that a member of the joint task force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Quran down a toilet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Hood says every effort has been made to accommodate the religious practices of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Now a DAYBREAK follow-up.
President Bush met with the new Palestinian president at the White House. Mahmoud Abbas is the first top Palestinian leader to visit the White House during Bush's presidency. In the Rose Garden, after their meeting, President Bush praised Abbas' commitment to peace and democracy and offered $50 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority. The president's remarks touched briefly on Middle East peace efforts.
Parliamentary elections would...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Israel must remove unauthorized outposts and stop settlement expansion. The barrier being erected by Israel as a part of its security effort must be a security rather than a political barrier. And its route should take into account, consistent with security needs, its impact on Palestinians not engaged in terrorist activities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Parliamentary elections, which pit Abbas supporters against the militant group Hamas, are just weeks away.
Still to come on DAYBREAK, one woman's crusade to raise awareness about identity theft. You will not believe how she's doing it.
And we want to hear from you this morning. What is your survival plan for this Memorial Day travel rush? How do you survive on the road with all those other people around you? E-mail us at DAYBREAK@CNN.com. That's DAYBREAK@CNN.com.
But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Friday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Talk about a beautiful sunrise this morning.
A Senate panel advances legislation to combat identity theft. The bill would prohibit public and private entities from posting or printing Social Security numbers on any card used to access services. The bill would allow individuals to place a security freeze on their credit reports in order to block access on the information. Businesses would be obligated to destroy records and data that contain personal information no longer needed. They would also be required to notify consumers if security has been breached.
You know your personal information might be even more vulnerable than you think, though. Ten thousand people had their names and personal information stolen from Stanford University. It's just the latest in a string of identity theft cases. Critics say our personal information is far too easily compromised.
CNN's Bill Tucker has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Getting a hold of someone's Social Security number is just this easy.
B.J. OSTERGREN, THE VIRGINIA WATCHDOG: And there it is right here, the CIA director's Social Security number right there.
TUCKER: Meet B.J., as she prefers to be called. The names and numbers she finds aren't those of ordinary citizens. She focuses on politicians and posts their numbers. Like her posting of Florida Governor Jeb Bush's Social Security number. It's done to make a point. OSTERGREN: I zeroed in on the big people, because when you target extremely highly -- or, you know, high-profile people, then you can make a point. And so that's why I chose some high-profile people to zero in on.
TUCKER: And it's worked. The state of Florida has ordered the masking of personal data by the beginning of next year.
Recent reports of computer records being lost or stolen at Stanford, ChoicePoint, LexisNexis, TimeWarner, have made the issue front-page news. Florida, North Carolina and New Hampshire, among others, are moving to pass, or have passed laws which protect the posting of Social Security numbers, as well as other personal information. A move that is long overdue and overlooked as states acting quickly to make public records available on the Internet.
KATHI GUAY, MERRIMACK COUNTY, N.H.: You know the debate is going to continue to rage between the Internet record and the in-house courthouse record. You know one is practically obscure, which is the courthouse record. You have to come to the courthouse Monday through Friday whenever they are open, whereas if you really want to make it a public record, you open up that access on the Internet. But there do need to be some kind of a safeguard in place so that that personal information isn't out there for everyone to see.
TUCKER: Ten million people a year are victims of some form of identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That's a little more than 4.5 percent of the population.
Bill Tucker, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: We're going to hear a lot more from B.J. Ostergren. She's the I.D. vigilante. She's the one that posted like the Social Security numbers of Governor Jeb Bush on her Web site. She's an interesting lady. We will hear from her live in the next hour of DAYBREAK. You will not want to miss it.
Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:43 Eastern. Here is what's all new this morning.
Senate Republicans lost their latest bid to force a vote on President Bush's nominee to the United Nations. Democrats say they want the White House to release classified information about John Bolton or pick somebody else for the job.
The death toll keeps going up following an explosion at a Muslim shrine in Pakistan. The blast has killed 14 worshipers and wounded 40 others. It happened about three hours ago in the capital Islamabad.
In money news, thousands of former Enron employees will share $85 million in insurance proceeds. A federal judge ruled the money will not go to pay the legal fees for former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. In culture, actress Angelina Jolie is denying all of those romance rumors with Brad Pitt. She says -- and I quote -- "absolutely not." She told that to "Marie Claire" magazine. Jolie says she is not dating anybody and would never have an affair with a married man.
In sports, Ryan Newman will be on the pole for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600. Newman stunned the rest of the field by shattering the Lowe's Motor Speedway lap record. He went 192 miles an hour. Wow!
To the Forecast Center now and -- Rob.
MARCIANO: That's moving.
(WEATHER REPORT)
That's the latest from here, Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Rob.
Still to come on DAYBREAK, he's a legend from the 18th century, Blackbird, the pirate. And now the latest discovery from a wreck off the coast of North Carolina, it might prove once and for all this is Blackbeard's ship. That's a giant cannon they're pulling out of the water.
And you may be hitting the high seas this weekend, which reminds me of our e-mail question, because I know a lot of you are watching us in the airport this morning. And, boy, I bet you waited in that security line a long time. How will you survive the massive crowds traveling this weekend? What are your survival tips? E-mail us, DAYBREAK@CNN.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Everyone likes a good pirate story. We've all seen the movies. Johnny Depp played one. So did Errol Flynn. But off the coast of North Carolina, a real piece of pirate history is playing out. It's the discovery and recovery of what's believed to be Blackbird's flagship.
For more on this story we're joined by Phil Masters, who's leading the expedition back to the 18th century.
Good morning.
PHIL MASTERS, PRESIDENT, INTERSAL: Good morning. How are you?
COSTELLO: I'm fine. This is exciting.
MASTERS: It's exciting for me.
COSTELLO: I bet it is. Tell us about your latest find, what you just pulled out of the water?
MASTERS: In the past couple of days we pulled two more cannon out of the water. So far we've recovered -- we've seen 24 cannon on the site. And as of today, eight of them have come up out of the water and have been brought to the laboratory for conservation.
COSTELLO: This particular cannon that we're -- this is huge. It's like 800 pounds, isn't it?
MASTERS: Yes. Actually, it's the smaller of two that we've brought up in the past couple of days. This is a six footer. And yesterday we brought up a -- the one you're seeing on the screen is a six footer. And yesterday we brought up an 8.5 footer that weighs basically twice as much.
COSTELLO: Tell us what else you have brought to the surface that would prove this is Blackbeard's ship.
MASTERS: Blunder bus parts, including the barrel. Lots of pewter plates. Any number of objects that suggest that this was a heavily-manned vessel and that this was a heavily-armed vessel. All indications are that this is Blackbird's flagship, which went down in the area where we're working in 1718.
COSTELLO: You know there are experts out there who say this is not Blackbird's ship.
MASTERS: No, they haven't done the research that I have or many of the other researchers who are involved in the project have.
COSTELLO: Well tell us why you think that this is the ship.
MASTERS: I have been to the major archives in the United States and in Great Britain. I have examined the original documents. I have studied the possibility of it being something else very carefully. And all indications are in every which way that this is Blackbird's ship. All the archive evidence points to that being the case.
COSTELLO: Why the fascination with him?
MASTERS: He was quite a character. He was an educated man. He was a brilliant leader of men. And he also was an actor. He really, amazingly, there's no record of him ever having actually directly killed anyone until the day he was attacked by the Royal Navy. He was more of a blustery guy than he was a bloody guy.
COSTELLO: So he was just scary but not necessarily a killer?
MASTERS: That's correct. He used his bluster and his image and his frightening look to paralyze people into surrendering without a fight, and they did in droves.
COSTELLO: When will your excavation be complete?
MASTERS: It's a matter of funding. It could be done within a year or two, but it looks like it's going to take many years because the funding is coming through slowly.
COSTELLO: Well good luck to you, and thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning with some fascinating information. Thank you so much, Phil Masters. Time now to get to our e-mail segment.
Rob, we're getting a lot of stuff from folks with very good survival tips and how they're going to survive this holiday weekend with all of those other people around them.
MARCIANO: There it is, what's your survival plan? DAYBREAK@CNN.com.
Carol, you mentioned just a few minutes ago, there's probably folks at the airport watching us right now. That's my favorite audience because they're actually forced to watch that channel and they can't actually change it. Pretty smart.
Hey, this guy from -- I'm at the Atlanta Airport, two hours early for my first flight, watching CNN. And for car tip trips, we bought individual DVDs with comfy headphones. So that's a two-fold tip for you.
And as far as cars are concerned, this is please let everybody know that the only way to stay awake while driving, regardless of how tired you are, is to have a bag of sunflowers, or at least sunflower seeds, in the car to munch on while you're driving.
That works. I've done that. That's true as well.
COSTELLO: I guess you'd use the sunflowers just to make you happy. You just look at them, you'd be happy.
MARCIANO: It does make people happy.
But Lisa (ph) in Virginia, though, not happy. And I kind of side with Lisa on this. She says my boss has a great survival plan, it's called working.
COSTELLO: That's our survival plan, too.
MARCIANO: Yes, we'll be here all weekend.
COSTELLO: I kind of like this one from Michelle (ph). She lives in upstate New York. Since I'm one of the lucky ones to live in the northeast, I guess my holiday travel will consist of walking about 100 feet out the backdoor, and not under a beach umbrella I might add, but under a rain umbrella, to my barbecue grill.
MARCIANO: It won't be that bad, but you know you might want to have it handy just in case.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
Any more?
MARCIANO: We'll dig some out. There's lots coming in.
COSTELLO: OK, we will. Thanks for your e-mails this morning. You won't want to miss the next hour of DAYBREAK. If you're staying in town this weekend, is "The Longest Yard" a hit or miss? Tom O'Neal gives us the lowdown on this remake and the lowdown on Burt Reynolds allegedly slapping someone over this movie.
DAYBREAK will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Fans of the band U2 are a pretty devoted bunch. They're willing to pay top dollar to rock with Bono. But imagine paying up to $2,000 for a ticket only to find out you've been had.
Kristin Caira with CNN affiliate WLVI has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTEN CAIRA, WLVI-TV REPORTER (voice-over): U2 fans will do and pay just about anything to see them in concert. This fan flying in from Columbia.
MANUEL SEVILLA, U2 FAN: We following them since the "Joshua Tree" days or something like that.
CAIRA: Now imagine paying as much as $2,000 for a ticket only to find when it's scanned at the door it's a fake. It happened to about 250 U2 fans Tuesday night.
RICHARD KREZWICK, FLEET CENTER PRESIDENT: The problem today is you can print your tickets at home on your home printer on an 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of paper. So very easy to duplicate, to create forgeries, and unfortunately, that's what's happening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It actually made me feel uncomfortable getting them like this, actually.
CAIRA: This is a legitimate printed out ticket, incredibly easy to copy versus a traditional ticket.
This fan from Russia, trying to get in tonight, rightly dubious of buying a printed out ticket from a scalper.
YURI ZACHAK, U2 FAN: I probably thought that I would be able to buy a ticket here, but I'm really not sure whether what they sell is true.
CAIRA: So how can you make sure it won't happen to you?
KREZWICK: You can't buy from a reseller. If you buy on eBay, if you buy in the street, if you buy from a broker, there is no guarantee that you're going to get in the door. If you buy a ticket from the box office or from Ticketmaster, there is a guarantee that you will get in the door.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: So consider yourself warned.
The next hour of DAYBREAK starts right now.
Some say he is enemy number one. Could an injury sideline any of his terrorism plans?
Plus, vigilante in Virginia, she is fed up with identity theft and she is making sure people in power know about it.
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Chris Huntington live at New York's LaGuardia Airport where folks are getting a jump on the long weekend, and certainly they're hoping that the weather holds out.
COSTELLO: We are, too.
It is Friday, May 27. You're watching DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you, from the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
"Now in the News."
An explosion at a Muslim shrine in Pakistan has killed 10 worshipers and wounded 40 others. Happened in Islamabad. Police say hundreds of people were inside the sanctuary at the time.
A Florida man who remains on an 18-story high construction crane in Atlanta. The murder suspect climbed it late Wednesday afternoon. He is ignoring pleas from negotiators and his sister on the ground.
An Indonesian court has convicted and sentenced an Australian woman to 20 years in prison for smuggling marijuana into Bali. She insists the nine pounds of drug were planted in her luggage.
To the Forecast Center, Rob Marciano in for Chad this morning.
Good morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 27, 2005 - 05:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
"Now in the News."
An explosion ripped through a Muslim shrine in the Pakistani capital Islamabad this morning. Authorities say 10 people were killed, at least 40 others wounded. Hundreds of worshipers were in the shrine at the time of the blast.
President Bush is the speaker this morning at the Naval Academy's commissioning and graduation ceremony. You can catch it live right here on CNN at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
A candlelight vigil will be held tonight at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. It's one of the many Memorial Day events scheduled this weekend.
And are you getting ready to hit the road? AAA predicts a record 37 million of you will travel this Memorial Day weekend, that's despite the highest gas prices ever recorded for a holiday. And we're asking your survival tips this morning, so DAYBREAK@CNN.com.
Morning -- Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Morning, Carol, you just got to go sometimes. You know you got plans, you got family to see, everybody living across the country, different parts of the country, you know, you've got to make it to all those things.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
Now to the most wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Speculation about his fate and conflicting claims over who is running al Qaeda in Iraq suggest confusion or even a power struggle among Iraq's most lethal insurgents.
We get more now from CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While some Iraqi officials say they're convinced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was wounded five days ago in a firefight, Pentagon officials insist there is still no hard evidence to back up the claims.
BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, JOINT STAFF DEPUTY DIRECTOR: I think the best way to categorize it is that we look at those with great interest.
MCINTYRE: With a $25 million price on his head, there is no one the U.S. wants to capture or kill more than Zarqawi, who's believed to be able to inspire his followers to carry out deadly suicide attacks. But while Zarqawi's death or capture would clearly deal a blow to his al Qaeda network, the Pentagon says it would probably not shut it down.
HAM: We ought not expect that when that happens that the organization will crumble and will cease to exist. The organization has proven to be somewhat resilient.
MCINTYRE: A chart released by the U.S. military this month claims Zarqawi's network is shrinking with the roll up of more than 20 trusted lieutenants in recent months. But it remains, in the words of the Pentagon, lethal and dangerous.
In a speech to U.S. soldiers at Ft. Bragg, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Zarqawi is now acting much like Adolf Hitler did during his final days when defeat was clear.
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Reminiscent of Hitler in his bunker, this violent extremist, failing to achieve his military and political objectives, now appears committed to trying to destroy everything and everyone around him. History teaches us that this kind of evil, over time, fails.
MCINTYRE (on camera): Pentagon officials say if Zarqawi were captured, killed or otherwise out of the picture, someone in his group would likely step up and take his place. But no one here seems to know who that might be. If conflicting accounts on various al Qaeda Web sites are to be believed, it might only be decided after an internal power struggle.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Iraqi insurgents have killed two more American soldiers, this time in a helicopter crash. It happened near Baquba. Authorities say insurgents shot down the chopper with small arms fire. A second helicopter was attacked and damaged during the same incident but managed to land safely.
The debate over John Bolton will continue into next month. That's because Senate Democrats successfully blocked a vote on his nomination as Ambassador to the United Nations. Republicans fell just four votes short of forcing the vote. Instead, they'll have to wait until the Senate returns after the holiday. Key Democrats say this isn't a filibuster, they just want more information on Bolton's work at the State Department.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD (D), CONNECTICUT: We've been through a very dreadful period where intelligence was very, very wrong in assuming that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And so the issue for this senator is did Mr. Bolton do this or not? And if he did, then why are we even considering this nomination, in my view.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The United Nations needs the presence of a tough, hard, dedicated individual that has already been confirmed in various posts four times by this body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Many Republicans were surprised by the delay. They thought the compromise on the judicial nominees would carry over to John Bolton.
After an exhaustive search of over 30,000 documents, the commander of a joint task force at Guantanamo Bay says he has identified five incidents in which the Quran might have been mishandled, but he says none of them involved a toilet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. JAY HOOD, U.S. ARMY: I would like you to know that we have found no credible evidence that a member of the joint task force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Quran down a toilet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Hood says every effort has been made to accommodate the religious practices of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Now a DAYBREAK follow-up.
President Bush met with the new Palestinian president at the White House. Mahmoud Abbas is the first top Palestinian leader to visit the White House during Bush's presidency. In the Rose Garden, after their meeting, President Bush praised Abbas' commitment to peace and democracy and offered $50 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority. The president's remarks touched briefly on Middle East peace efforts.
Parliamentary elections would...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Israel must remove unauthorized outposts and stop settlement expansion. The barrier being erected by Israel as a part of its security effort must be a security rather than a political barrier. And its route should take into account, consistent with security needs, its impact on Palestinians not engaged in terrorist activities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Parliamentary elections, which pit Abbas supporters against the militant group Hamas, are just weeks away.
Still to come on DAYBREAK, one woman's crusade to raise awareness about identity theft. You will not believe how she's doing it.
And we want to hear from you this morning. What is your survival plan for this Memorial Day travel rush? How do you survive on the road with all those other people around you? E-mail us at DAYBREAK@CNN.com. That's DAYBREAK@CNN.com.
But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Friday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Talk about a beautiful sunrise this morning.
A Senate panel advances legislation to combat identity theft. The bill would prohibit public and private entities from posting or printing Social Security numbers on any card used to access services. The bill would allow individuals to place a security freeze on their credit reports in order to block access on the information. Businesses would be obligated to destroy records and data that contain personal information no longer needed. They would also be required to notify consumers if security has been breached.
You know your personal information might be even more vulnerable than you think, though. Ten thousand people had their names and personal information stolen from Stanford University. It's just the latest in a string of identity theft cases. Critics say our personal information is far too easily compromised.
CNN's Bill Tucker has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Getting a hold of someone's Social Security number is just this easy.
B.J. OSTERGREN, THE VIRGINIA WATCHDOG: And there it is right here, the CIA director's Social Security number right there.
TUCKER: Meet B.J., as she prefers to be called. The names and numbers she finds aren't those of ordinary citizens. She focuses on politicians and posts their numbers. Like her posting of Florida Governor Jeb Bush's Social Security number. It's done to make a point. OSTERGREN: I zeroed in on the big people, because when you target extremely highly -- or, you know, high-profile people, then you can make a point. And so that's why I chose some high-profile people to zero in on.
TUCKER: And it's worked. The state of Florida has ordered the masking of personal data by the beginning of next year.
Recent reports of computer records being lost or stolen at Stanford, ChoicePoint, LexisNexis, TimeWarner, have made the issue front-page news. Florida, North Carolina and New Hampshire, among others, are moving to pass, or have passed laws which protect the posting of Social Security numbers, as well as other personal information. A move that is long overdue and overlooked as states acting quickly to make public records available on the Internet.
KATHI GUAY, MERRIMACK COUNTY, N.H.: You know the debate is going to continue to rage between the Internet record and the in-house courthouse record. You know one is practically obscure, which is the courthouse record. You have to come to the courthouse Monday through Friday whenever they are open, whereas if you really want to make it a public record, you open up that access on the Internet. But there do need to be some kind of a safeguard in place so that that personal information isn't out there for everyone to see.
TUCKER: Ten million people a year are victims of some form of identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That's a little more than 4.5 percent of the population.
Bill Tucker, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: We're going to hear a lot more from B.J. Ostergren. She's the I.D. vigilante. She's the one that posted like the Social Security numbers of Governor Jeb Bush on her Web site. She's an interesting lady. We will hear from her live in the next hour of DAYBREAK. You will not want to miss it.
Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:43 Eastern. Here is what's all new this morning.
Senate Republicans lost their latest bid to force a vote on President Bush's nominee to the United Nations. Democrats say they want the White House to release classified information about John Bolton or pick somebody else for the job.
The death toll keeps going up following an explosion at a Muslim shrine in Pakistan. The blast has killed 14 worshipers and wounded 40 others. It happened about three hours ago in the capital Islamabad.
In money news, thousands of former Enron employees will share $85 million in insurance proceeds. A federal judge ruled the money will not go to pay the legal fees for former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. In culture, actress Angelina Jolie is denying all of those romance rumors with Brad Pitt. She says -- and I quote -- "absolutely not." She told that to "Marie Claire" magazine. Jolie says she is not dating anybody and would never have an affair with a married man.
In sports, Ryan Newman will be on the pole for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600. Newman stunned the rest of the field by shattering the Lowe's Motor Speedway lap record. He went 192 miles an hour. Wow!
To the Forecast Center now and -- Rob.
MARCIANO: That's moving.
(WEATHER REPORT)
That's the latest from here, Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Rob.
Still to come on DAYBREAK, he's a legend from the 18th century, Blackbird, the pirate. And now the latest discovery from a wreck off the coast of North Carolina, it might prove once and for all this is Blackbeard's ship. That's a giant cannon they're pulling out of the water.
And you may be hitting the high seas this weekend, which reminds me of our e-mail question, because I know a lot of you are watching us in the airport this morning. And, boy, I bet you waited in that security line a long time. How will you survive the massive crowds traveling this weekend? What are your survival tips? E-mail us, DAYBREAK@CNN.com.
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COSTELLO: Everyone likes a good pirate story. We've all seen the movies. Johnny Depp played one. So did Errol Flynn. But off the coast of North Carolina, a real piece of pirate history is playing out. It's the discovery and recovery of what's believed to be Blackbird's flagship.
For more on this story we're joined by Phil Masters, who's leading the expedition back to the 18th century.
Good morning.
PHIL MASTERS, PRESIDENT, INTERSAL: Good morning. How are you?
COSTELLO: I'm fine. This is exciting.
MASTERS: It's exciting for me.
COSTELLO: I bet it is. Tell us about your latest find, what you just pulled out of the water?
MASTERS: In the past couple of days we pulled two more cannon out of the water. So far we've recovered -- we've seen 24 cannon on the site. And as of today, eight of them have come up out of the water and have been brought to the laboratory for conservation.
COSTELLO: This particular cannon that we're -- this is huge. It's like 800 pounds, isn't it?
MASTERS: Yes. Actually, it's the smaller of two that we've brought up in the past couple of days. This is a six footer. And yesterday we brought up a -- the one you're seeing on the screen is a six footer. And yesterday we brought up an 8.5 footer that weighs basically twice as much.
COSTELLO: Tell us what else you have brought to the surface that would prove this is Blackbeard's ship.
MASTERS: Blunder bus parts, including the barrel. Lots of pewter plates. Any number of objects that suggest that this was a heavily-manned vessel and that this was a heavily-armed vessel. All indications are that this is Blackbird's flagship, which went down in the area where we're working in 1718.
COSTELLO: You know there are experts out there who say this is not Blackbird's ship.
MASTERS: No, they haven't done the research that I have or many of the other researchers who are involved in the project have.
COSTELLO: Well tell us why you think that this is the ship.
MASTERS: I have been to the major archives in the United States and in Great Britain. I have examined the original documents. I have studied the possibility of it being something else very carefully. And all indications are in every which way that this is Blackbird's ship. All the archive evidence points to that being the case.
COSTELLO: Why the fascination with him?
MASTERS: He was quite a character. He was an educated man. He was a brilliant leader of men. And he also was an actor. He really, amazingly, there's no record of him ever having actually directly killed anyone until the day he was attacked by the Royal Navy. He was more of a blustery guy than he was a bloody guy.
COSTELLO: So he was just scary but not necessarily a killer?
MASTERS: That's correct. He used his bluster and his image and his frightening look to paralyze people into surrendering without a fight, and they did in droves.
COSTELLO: When will your excavation be complete?
MASTERS: It's a matter of funding. It could be done within a year or two, but it looks like it's going to take many years because the funding is coming through slowly.
COSTELLO: Well good luck to you, and thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning with some fascinating information. Thank you so much, Phil Masters. Time now to get to our e-mail segment.
Rob, we're getting a lot of stuff from folks with very good survival tips and how they're going to survive this holiday weekend with all of those other people around them.
MARCIANO: There it is, what's your survival plan? DAYBREAK@CNN.com.
Carol, you mentioned just a few minutes ago, there's probably folks at the airport watching us right now. That's my favorite audience because they're actually forced to watch that channel and they can't actually change it. Pretty smart.
Hey, this guy from -- I'm at the Atlanta Airport, two hours early for my first flight, watching CNN. And for car tip trips, we bought individual DVDs with comfy headphones. So that's a two-fold tip for you.
And as far as cars are concerned, this is please let everybody know that the only way to stay awake while driving, regardless of how tired you are, is to have a bag of sunflowers, or at least sunflower seeds, in the car to munch on while you're driving.
That works. I've done that. That's true as well.
COSTELLO: I guess you'd use the sunflowers just to make you happy. You just look at them, you'd be happy.
MARCIANO: It does make people happy.
But Lisa (ph) in Virginia, though, not happy. And I kind of side with Lisa on this. She says my boss has a great survival plan, it's called working.
COSTELLO: That's our survival plan, too.
MARCIANO: Yes, we'll be here all weekend.
COSTELLO: I kind of like this one from Michelle (ph). She lives in upstate New York. Since I'm one of the lucky ones to live in the northeast, I guess my holiday travel will consist of walking about 100 feet out the backdoor, and not under a beach umbrella I might add, but under a rain umbrella, to my barbecue grill.
MARCIANO: It won't be that bad, but you know you might want to have it handy just in case.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
Any more?
MARCIANO: We'll dig some out. There's lots coming in.
COSTELLO: OK, we will. Thanks for your e-mails this morning. You won't want to miss the next hour of DAYBREAK. If you're staying in town this weekend, is "The Longest Yard" a hit or miss? Tom O'Neal gives us the lowdown on this remake and the lowdown on Burt Reynolds allegedly slapping someone over this movie.
DAYBREAK will be right back.
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COSTELLO: Fans of the band U2 are a pretty devoted bunch. They're willing to pay top dollar to rock with Bono. But imagine paying up to $2,000 for a ticket only to find out you've been had.
Kristin Caira with CNN affiliate WLVI has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTEN CAIRA, WLVI-TV REPORTER (voice-over): U2 fans will do and pay just about anything to see them in concert. This fan flying in from Columbia.
MANUEL SEVILLA, U2 FAN: We following them since the "Joshua Tree" days or something like that.
CAIRA: Now imagine paying as much as $2,000 for a ticket only to find when it's scanned at the door it's a fake. It happened to about 250 U2 fans Tuesday night.
RICHARD KREZWICK, FLEET CENTER PRESIDENT: The problem today is you can print your tickets at home on your home printer on an 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of paper. So very easy to duplicate, to create forgeries, and unfortunately, that's what's happening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It actually made me feel uncomfortable getting them like this, actually.
CAIRA: This is a legitimate printed out ticket, incredibly easy to copy versus a traditional ticket.
This fan from Russia, trying to get in tonight, rightly dubious of buying a printed out ticket from a scalper.
YURI ZACHAK, U2 FAN: I probably thought that I would be able to buy a ticket here, but I'm really not sure whether what they sell is true.
CAIRA: So how can you make sure it won't happen to you?
KREZWICK: You can't buy from a reseller. If you buy on eBay, if you buy in the street, if you buy from a broker, there is no guarantee that you're going to get in the door. If you buy a ticket from the box office or from Ticketmaster, there is a guarantee that you will get in the door.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: So consider yourself warned.
The next hour of DAYBREAK starts right now.
Some say he is enemy number one. Could an injury sideline any of his terrorism plans?
Plus, vigilante in Virginia, she is fed up with identity theft and she is making sure people in power know about it.
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Chris Huntington live at New York's LaGuardia Airport where folks are getting a jump on the long weekend, and certainly they're hoping that the weather holds out.
COSTELLO: We are, too.
It is Friday, May 27. You're watching DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you, from the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
"Now in the News."
An explosion at a Muslim shrine in Pakistan has killed 10 worshipers and wounded 40 others. Happened in Islamabad. Police say hundreds of people were inside the sanctuary at the time.
A Florida man who remains on an 18-story high construction crane in Atlanta. The murder suspect climbed it late Wednesday afternoon. He is ignoring pleas from negotiators and his sister on the ground.
An Indonesian court has convicted and sentenced an Australian woman to 20 years in prison for smuggling marijuana into Bali. She insists the nine pounds of drug were planted in her luggage.
To the Forecast Center, Rob Marciano in for Chad this morning.
Good morning.
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