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American Morning

Bush on Terror; Spying Allegations; Cancer Breakthrough?

Aired October 06, 2005 - 08:01   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Does the administration have new and specific information and al Qaeda's plans? President Bush set to deliver a new message on the war on terror.
Was a spy stealing secrets right out of the vice president's office? An investigation is raising questions about security today at the White House.

And a vaccine that is 100 percent effective on one of cancer's biggest killers. Word of that breakthrough is just out on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning to you.

Doctors have called this new vaccine the holy grail of cancer research. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to break the news for us in just a few moments.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. It focuses on cervical cancer in women, which is just an absolutely deadly cancer. I mean, if you get cervical cancer, there is such a big chance, 60 percent chance, you're going to die from that kind of cancer. It's really, really tough.

So we've got some breaking news on that front.

Also, breaking news out of Washington this morning. President Bush is going to be holding a news conference in just about two hours, a little over two hours. And we're getting some details about what he's going to talk about, mainly the war on terror and the war in Iraq.

M. O'BRIEN: Exactly. According to the White House, the president will be more specific about how the war in Iraq is related to the broader war against al Qaeda.

We've got several correspondents looking at this story. Suzanne Malveaux begins it now at the White House. National Security Correspondent David Ensor is our in our Washington bureau. Barbara Starr standing by at the Pentagon.

As we said, Suzanne first.

Good morning, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Well, we don't expect any new policy initiatives to come out of this. What we do expect is perhaps some new details about what they're saying is the strategy of al Qaeda, simply that they are trying to unite with this loose network of radicals, regional, local cells, to try to undermine the mission, the U.S. mission in Iraq, as well as the broader issue in the Middle East. That is what we are told, unprecedented details about their particular strategy.

Important to note, however, Miles, is the timing of all of this. It comes when a lot of Americans have lost support, the president for the U.S. mission in Iraq, and also when Iraqis are going to be facing that vote on their constitution next week. The president expects a dramatic rise in violence in the next couple of weeks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Suzanne.

David Ensor, the president is calling Iraq a battlefield in the war on terror. He's been saying that all along. A lot of people are not convinced of the al Qaeda links.

Is it really a front?

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It is a battlefield, Miles, in the war on terror, no question. The Bush administration says that's a good thing. The fact that would-be terrorists are attracted to Iraq means this country can fight them there instead of fighting them here.

Critics, of course, say by going to war in Iraq, the administration has created thousands of new would-be terrorists, and that they are going to school in Iraq, learning tactics and bombing techniques that they will bring with them to their home countries one day, and that they could even bring here. Certainly is that what explosive experts tell me. They believe they expect to see more of the remotely-exploded devices, as well as the suicide bombers that have been used in Iraq. They expect to see them used in the west too -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. But you could make a case, David, that it was the U.S. invasion that made this a place for al Qaeda to learn its trade.

ENSOR: That's exactly right. And that is the argument that the critics are making.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, David Ensor.

Barbara Starr, the president said on Wednesday troops won't come home, U.S. troops won't come home until Iraqi troops are ready to stand alone. And we've heard all kinds of reports maybe only a battalion is ready of Iraqi troops.

What's the latest on that front?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, no predictions from here anymore about when exactly a substantial number of U.S. troops may come home from Iraq. The working assumption is they may begin to make some troop withdrawals next year. It will all depend on that political progress in Iraq, getting a permanent Iraqi government in place, making the Iraqi people believe they have a stake in their future and that they can be less dependent on U.S. forces -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

And thanks to all of you, Suzanne Malveaux and David Ensor preceding her.

Once again, just about two hours from now a major speech by the president on the war on terror. We'll have live coverage 10:10 Eastern Time. That's right here on CNN -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Allegations of spying inside the White House. Investigators say a former White House staffer may have stolen top- secret information.

Kelli Arena, Justice correspondent, has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A former U.S. Marine who's already been arrested for stealing from FBI computers is now being fingered for allegedly stealing classified information from White House computers.

RICHARD FALKENRATH, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: We have a number of very sensitive sources and methods, interception technologies, human agents. And it's possible that by revealing the information he actually reveals its source. And once the source is revealed, we can lose the source.

ARENA: As first reported by ABC and confirmed by multiple U.S. government sources for CNN, Leandro Aragoncillo allegedly misused his top-secret clearance to download the information, including a dossier on the Philippine president, which he allegedly passed on to her political opposition. Aragoncillo worked at the White House for three years, from 1999 to 2001 in the vice president's office, but it wasn't until he left to work as an analyst for the FBI that he was nabbed.

Las month, federal prosecutors said Aragoncillo and an accomplice were seeking to reveal classified information to foreign nationals.

LESLIE WISER, FBI, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: While it is disheartening to realize that a man who was hired to be an analyst in our own organization, and who was a former serviceman who swore to uphold the United States Constitution would conduct these types of activities, the American public should be aware that the FBI is ever-vigilant against all threats, whether they emanate from beyond our shores or within our own borders. ARENA: In a criminal complaint, Aragoncillo was charged with giving the information to Michael Ray Aquino, a former officer with the Philippines Secret Police, who government sources say is expected to be indicted this week.

CHRISTOPHER CHRISTIE, U.S. ATTORNEY: I have to tell you that our -- our view on matters like this is that there is to be no compromising the secrets of the United States.

ARENA: Aragoncillo has not been indicted. CNN is attempting to locate both his and Aquino's lawyer for comment.

(on camera): Officials tell CNN Aragoncillo is cooperating with investigators, who are trying to determine the scope of his alleged illegal activity. The White House says it's cooperating, too, but would not comment on the ongoing investigation. Neither would the Justice Department.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Much more on this story ahead this morning.

Other stories making news. Let's get right to Carol Costello. She has a look at those.

Good morning to you, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News," strong winds could be a major problem for firefighters in California this morning. They're battling a 6,000- acre wildfire just about 70 miles east of Los Angeles.

We just got these pictures in. You can see how fierce this fire is. It's only about 5 percent under control. Some 100 homes are now threatened, but no mandatory evacuations have been ordered just yet.

A series of attacks in Baghdad this morning. A bombing near the Iraqi oil ministry has killed at least 10 people and wounded eight others. It happened just over an hour ago.

In the meantime, a military spokeswoman says one U.S. soldier was killed in a roadside bombing in the northwestern part of the city. Another U.S. military convoy was targeted by a car bomb. According to early reports, four American soldiers were injured in that attack.

CIA Director Porter Goss says he will not single out anyone, anyone in the agency for failing to predict 9/11. Goss says a report by the agency's independent watchdog did not suggest that any one person or group of people could have prevented the attacks.

It's not clear if this report, which was released in August, will ever be made completely public. Goss says it could give too much away about the agency sources and methods.

Health experts and other officials from around the world are in Washington this morning to discuss a response to the bird flu. The talks are aimed at developing ways to share information in case the avian flu mutates and spreads to humans. Experts warn a possible pandemic could kill millions within months.

And some incredible pictures capturing the tail end of a high- speed police chase. And it didn't take place in California. This is in Idaho. Take a look.

Wow. The suspect's van slams into a police car that as parked alongside the road. Nobody inside the police car. These images, by the way, captured what the dashboard camera on a second police car.

The state trooper managed to escape, as I said. The suspect is alive, but he's in very critical condition in the hospital. They were traveling at speeds up to 100 miles an hour in this chase.

The man was wanted for battery. And, of course, he recovers and gets out of the hospital, he'll be charged with that.

S. O'BRIEN: Look at that. Look at the car.

M. O'BRIEN: Was he drunk?

COSTELLO: Don't know. Don't know. He was going to be arrested for battery. When the police came to arrest him, he jumped in his car. And then the police chase began.

So don't know.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you. Quite a picture this morning. Picture of the morning. Maybe the picture of the week.

Each year, approximately 4,000 women die from cervical cancer in the U.S., but soon there may be a new tool for fighting this deadly disease.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta with that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A few years ago, Rose Dennis, a 53-year-old healthy woman, went in for a routine pap smear, one of the most common procedures done in the world. As she felt fine, she really thought nothing of it until she got a life-altering call from her doctor. She had cervical cancer.

ROSE DENNIS, CERVICAL CANCER SURVIVOR: During that time, it was -- I don't want to really remember it. It was just horrible.

GUPTA: Dennis is one of thousands of women in this country to suffer from cervical cancer, which is actually called by a virus called human papilloma virus, or HPV. It is often transmitted sexually. Now, this cancer is curable if treated early. But now there may be a way to prevent the disease from ever occurring in the first place, a vaccine.

It wasn't easy to develop such a vaccine, as there are more than 70 different types of HPV. But researchers honed in on two of them, number 16 and 18, because those are the most dangerous types.

DR. KEVIN AULT, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: In this particular vaccine there are four types of human papilloma virus that are covered. They're probably the four most common types. Sixteen and 18 are responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancers.

GUPTA: Best news of all, the vaccine prevented 100 percent of those two strains.

AULT: We don't think of most vaccines as being 100 percent effective, so I think that's good news overall, and certainly a pleasant surprise to those of us who have been doing this research for a number of years.

GUPTA: The vaccine is called Gardasil, and Merck and Company Inc., the manufacturer, says it plans to apply for a license before the end of the year. Now, if approved, this vaccine may become extremely common, recommended to all women in their teenage years before they become sexually active.

Rose Dennis had no such option. She had to endure a hysterectomy, chemotherapy and radiation to become cancer free. For her, and possibly thousands of others, a vaccine would make all the difference.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Stay tuned for more on this new vaccine, a very promising one. Just ahead, we'll talk to one of the researchers involved in that discovery, finding, whatever you want to call it -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. Wow, 100 percent. A hundred percent.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. What in life is 100 percent? Death, taxes and apparently this vaccine.

S. O'BRIEN: Apparently so.

M. O'BRIEN: So that's it, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: We'll talk to one of the researchers ahead this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: First, though, a look at the weather. Chad Myers is at the CNN center. He's got the latest forecast for us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, faith and Harriet Miers. We'll take a look at the role religion could play in the Supreme Court nominee's decisions on the bench.

S. O'BRIEN: Also, two major hospitals could be forced to close in New Orleans. How's the city going to meet the needs of its patients when the patients finally do come back?

M. O'BRIEN: Might have to turn them down.

And next, more on that White House spy investigation. A look at how such a major security breach could happen. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Well, it's kind of hard to believe, allegations of spying at the White House. And now follow with me on this one.

A former FBI analyst who was a former Marine -- I guess once a Marine always a Marine -- but when he -- as a Marine, he worked for the vice president's staff in the White House. Apparently accessed classified information all throughout, and the allegation is he took some of that information and fed it to the political opposition in the Philippines.

OK. A little tangled plot there. I'm sorry to bog you down with that.

But joining us now is CNN security analyst and former deputy homeland security advisor, Richard Falkenrath, to explain how this could possibly happen in this day and age.

Richard, good to have you with us.

RICHARD FALKENRATH, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: First of all, the vetting process, people who get these clearances in the White House or for the FBI, it's -- it takes a lot to get that clearance, right?

FALKENRATH: Well, it sure does. He would have got through three separate clearances. One to be a Marine officer, there's a clearance that goes into that. Two...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, but being a Marine officer doesn't mean you have access to top-secret information, right?

FALKENRATH: No, though I think all of the officers do actually have security clearances. They need it to be able to function in wartime. But there are additional checks that go in for higher levels of classification, top secret and sensitive compartments. But then, finally, every White House badge holder has a special FBI background check to make sure there's nothing in their background that could embarrass the president.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Now, do we know how high a level of security Aragoncillo had?

FALKENRATH: No. It hasn't been reported in the public, at least. I'm sure the investigators know this. And that matters a lot.

If he had -- the office of the vice president's staff, only a few of them actually have access to the most sensitive national security information system there. If he had access to that system, the potential damage that he could have done is really grave. If he didn't have access to that system, it's not as dangerous, I think.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, let me ask you this. Quite frankly, when I hear "Marine" at the White House, I think of the guys in full dress pulling the door open. They're doing other things there.

What would a Marine on the vice president's staff typically be doing?

FALKENRATH: Well, he could be doing many different things. There are officers who serve in policy positions at -- in the White House, in the office of vice president, the National Security Council.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, think Ollie North here for a moment, right?

FALKENRATH: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

FALKENRATH: And that's quite common. But there are also the cooks who work in the White House mess and the military aides around the president. So there's a lot of different jobs open for U.S. military officers in the White House.

And I'm not exactly sure which one he was in. I don't personally remember him, although we coincided for a year on the White House staff.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, yes?

FALKENRATH: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, let me ask you this. So he went on to the FBI, and that's where there were further allegations that he was funneling this information out. He clearly had a fairly high level of security clearance.

Once you get a clearance, is that like a lifetime ticket to secrets, or is there a recurrent process where they double check to make sure you're still good to receive these kinds of things? FALKENRATH: There's a recurrent process. Normally, the clearances are good for five years, and then you need to be reinvestigated to have the clearance renewed. Those are for the highest level clearances.

M. O'BRIEN: Five years seems like a long time, though.

FALKENRATH: Well, yes, but there are a lot of people with security clearances. And if you were to reduce that number, I think they would have even worse backlogs than they currently have.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Final thought here, because -- I'm sorry to keep cutting you off. We're kind of running out of time here.

What are the implications here? Fortunately, this appears to be something that was used in a political context in the Philippines. If you substituted different countries and different contexts and different motivations, it could be very serious, especially as it relates to the war on terror.

How -- can we say this morning how potentially serious this breach might have been?

FALKENRATH: I don't think we can. We need to know what systems he had access to. But clearly, if he had access to the classified information system in the White House, he had the potential to do really extensive damage to our intelligence sources and methods.

What's reported right now is essentially embarrassing for the Bush administration and the White House, for our relationship with the Philippines, which is an important ally. But it hasn't -- it hasn't come out that anything he divulged disclosed a sensitive source or method or compromised an operation.

That's the most damaging thing that can come from espionage cases like this. The embarrassment is bad, but it's not as bad as it could get, as it was, for instance, with Aldridge Ames or Hansen at the FBI.

M. O'BRIEN: A whole different kettle of fish there, we hope.

FALKENRATH: We hope.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. CNN security analyst Richard Falkenrath.

Thanks again.

FALKENRATH: Thanks, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, judging Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. Not much legal history to look at, so how about her religious beliefs? That's up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Not much is known about the new Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' legal view. But we do know that President Bush is describing her as a woman of deep faith. That's kind of about it.

Let's go right to Delia Gallagher. She's CNN's faith and values correspondent.

Obviously we went from knowing zero about Harriet Miers when she was sort of announced as a nominee to knowing more. But a lot of what we know about is her religious perspective.

Why do you think the White House is pitching that and pitching it hard?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN FAITH & VALUES CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think part of the reason is, as you say, she doesn't have this judicial record to go on. And so what we can know about her is her involvement, her faith. And that will convince conservatives, hopefully, the White House thinks, that she is a good conservative candidate for the Supreme Court.

It's very important to them that they have the conservatives on board. And this is one way to do it.

S. O'BRIEN: So, basically, it's a message being telegraphed, do you think, to -- or not even telegraphed. It's probably less subtle than that.

GALLAGHER: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: Because they say -- I mean, she's born again...

GALLAGHER: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: ... and she's a conservative Christian.

GALLAGHER: Yes, absolutely. And, you know, one of the big dividing issues, of course, is the question of Roe v. Wade, the question of abortion. And it is important for a conservative president to show his constituency that he is bringing somebody on the court who may uphold that.

It hasn't happened necessarily in the past. Both presidents Reagan and Bush senior, of course, appointed judges that one thought maybe would uphold -- would do something to change Roe v. Wade, and instead they upheld it. So that's a big question for conservative constituents.

S. O'BRIEN: I know you've been talking a lot with her church, which is the Valley View Christian Church. And she's apparently a very dedicated member. And you look at what the church opposes, abortion, opposes gay marriage, opposes assisted suicide. I mean, no shocker there. It's a Christian church. Can you draw a line between what she thinks personally in her religious life to how she could possibly rule on the bench?

GALLAGHER: Yes, and it's a very important distinction. I mean, it's been brought up with all of the people that I've talked to, because one can, you know, not sort of say, well, she believes this in her personal life, or her church believes this, and therefore, she will necessarily judge a case like this, because, of course, judging a case is very different sometimes from what you believe personally.

But certainly it has been said that she is pro-life, that she is pro-family. Therefore, one can assume for civil rights for homosexuals, but not necessarily for gay marriage. And on assisted suicide, the pastor of the church told me that they would be against assisted suicide.

But one has to be careful not to say, well, that means she would vote this way on those cases. Because, for example, in the assisted suicide case now if front of the Supreme Court, it's not about whether the judges think assisted suicide is OK. It's a constitutional question, whether this should be a case for federal law or a case for state law. So it's a very different question that they address.

S. O'BRIEN: And she's leaving the church. I mean, there's a rift, although it doesn't sound like a particularly bitter one.

GALLAGHER: Yes. No, I talked to the current pastor of that church, Reverend McCarthy (ph), and he explained in the past two weeks, as so often happens in religious communities, there are some people that want a service to be more traditional, and there are some people that want a more modern service. And the pastor explained to me that he was sort of aiming toward the 20 and 30-year-old group and wanted to bring in rock bands, for example, and then there were some people in the church that wanted to go for more traditional organ music and traditional hymns.

Apparently, Harriet Miers is part of that second group. And so they have moved up into another -- another church.

S. O'BRIEN: No rock bands, but more traditional service.

Delia Gallagher, our faith and values correspondent.

Thanks, Delia. Appreciate it.

GALLAGHER: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, more on the study medical breakthrough we've been talking about. Researchers say they developed a vaccine for cervical cancer. What does it mean for women at risk for the disease? We'll take a look ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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