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American Morning

Al Qaeda Group Claims Responsibility for Attacks in Jordan; Battling Rioters in France

Aired November 10, 2005 - 09:01   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Has al Qaeda opened up a new terror front in Jordan? Fifty-six people killed in three hotel bombings. Officials this morning say Jordanians were the target, not Westerners. We're live in Amman and Washington with more.
Beefing up security here at home after the latest attacks. A show of force outside of hotels in New York even though no specific threat.

And a deadly morning in Iraq. A bombing in Baghdad. Another in Tikrit. Dozens of people killed. The aftermath on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning. Welcome, everybody.

We've been covering these stories, really breaking news, both out of -- well, the follow-up on what happened in Jordan yesterday and also in Baghdad today. Violent stories on both fronts.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And you can connect those dots with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

S. O'BRIEN: Again.

M. O'BRIEN: They're now saying that the claim that Abu Musab al- Zarqawi's group was responsible for the Jordan bombings is credible, according to U.S. authorities. So, once again, this terror mastermind appears to be causing a lot of problems for the U.S. and a lot of death and destruction and injury.

S. O'BRIEN: And as we mentioned, 56 people were killed when those suicide bombers wearing bomb belts detonated themselves inside the Radisson hotel and the Hyatt hotel and the Days Inn. More than a hundred others were injured.

Hala Gorani is live for us in Amman, Jordan, this morning.

Hala, what's been the response today?

HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, from shock and dismay yesterday, Soledad, what we're seeing today on the part of some Jordanians is defiance. They're protesting in the streets, holding up pictures of their king, Abdullah, waving Jordanian flags, and holding up pictures, crossed out pictures of their compatriot, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, whose group, al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the three bombings that killed 56 people and injured hundreds more. So right now what we're seeing in the streets of Jordan is a lot of activity with cars and sirens blaring and pictures and banners. And Jordanians saying this is not Jordanian against Jordanian, this is the terrorists against Jordanians -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Hala Gorani reporting for us live this morning from Amman, Jordan, with the very latest in the wake of these bombings in Jordan.

Hala, thanks for the update for us -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Boy, that's quite a scene there in Jordan...

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, it's a mess.

M. O'BRIEN: ... as people come out and blare their horns and try to make a statement against terror. President Bush has called Jordan's King Abdullah to express his condolences.

AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken at the White House with more on that.

Good morning, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

The phone call went out this morning. Of course King Abdullah a staunch ally of the United States. The president making the call. We're told by the White House that President Bush found out about what occurred in Amman shortly after the Medal of Freedom ceremony yesterday afternoon.

The call, of course, consistent with the statement that the president put out, part of which says, "These barbaric acts again demonstrated the terrible cruelty of terrorists and the great toll they take on civilized society. To the people of Jordan and King Abdullah, we pledge our full support in their efforts to bring the terrorists to justice. Jordan is a key ally in the war on terror and will have all assistance we can offer."

And the, of course, national security apparatus of the United States is looking at this with some concern, of course, because al Qaeda is demonstrating once again that it has the ability to mount attacks, as you pointed out. There is credibility being given by U.S. officials to the claim that al Qaeda-related organizations had had a hand in this. So they're watching this with very, very much concern -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: CNN's Bob Franken at the White House.

Let's head across the river and go to the Pentagon. Barbara Starr is there with a little more information on the investigation in the wake of those bomb blasts in Jordan -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Miles, CNN has just learned that Jordanian -- the Jordanian government now believes that two of the suicide bombers in fact were Iraqis. Iraqis that came into Jordan and conducted these attacks against the hotels.

What we are given to understand is that witnesses in the hotels talked to some of these suicide bombers, at least these two Iraqis, that they were very cool, calm and collected, that they had drinks in the hotel and talked to people before they detonated their devices.

Further, CNN has learned that the current thinking at the moment is that the bombs were actually suicide vests that had ball bearings in them, and that the basic construction of these suicide vests is indeed similar to what has been seen by suicide bombers inside Iraq.

This, now, is a very significant concern to the Jordanian government, of course, that these Iraqis came into their country, because the assessment would be in fact that there are facilitators for them inside of Jordan. So today, much of the investigation, much of the police work in Jordan is centering around trying to find those facilitators and get them into custody. A number of people of course detained for questioning, but they are now trying to determine, we are told, just how these two Iraqis got into Jordan.

What we are further told is, indeed, Jordan's borders with both Iraq and Syria are sealed. Now, the border with Iraq is relatively simple to seal. There are checkpoints, and there's a lot of security along that border. Sealing the border with Syria which, of course, has been a mode for fighters to move in and out of Iraq, is perhaps more problematic, something the Jordanian government is focusing on very seriously this morning.

Quite ironically, tragically, perhaps, it was just yesterday, we are told, that about 60 of those detection devices, the kinds of things we all walk through at airport checkpoints and building checkpoints, 60 of them had arrived in Jordan. They were going to be used in public buildings to try and beef up security and improve even further security in public buildings in Jordan. Now, of course, hotels in Jordan are also being told this is something they must invest in.

Also, we know now that it was over the summer in the June, July time frame about 25 to 50 people were arrested in Jordan for a belief they were targeting Western hotels. That apparently was a separate operation. This one now apparently, perhaps, originating out of Iraq -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, curfews may be getting the job done in France. Rioting there for the 14th straight night, but reports from around the country say that the violence is steadily falling off.

Jim Bittermann live for us in Paris this morning.

Jim, good morning to you.

President Chirac, as you know, just addressed the nation on this. What was his main focal point? JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fact was, Soledad, it was kind of a press conference coming out of a meeting with the Spanish prime minister, Zapatero. And one of the major points that he made in that press conference was about responsibility.

He said that everyone here, no matter what their national origin, is a child of France, and as such has certain rights and responsibilities. And he said that everyone should be exercising their responsibilities.

He talked about the police and the firemen and the way they are handling this situation, but he also said the responsibility of parents have to be taken into account, that they should be taking care of their children, making sure they understand what -- those that are doing wrong on the streets, that they are doing wrong because a lot of minors have been picked up in the arrests here.

Now, as you mentioned, things do appear to be somewhat calmer. One of the top police officials in France said that the signs are encouraging from overnight.

They're still going to keep up the police presence. More than 9,500 police on the streets. But the way they measure things here, it's probably not a great way to measure peace on the streets, but it's the number of burned cars overnight, and last night there were 480 vehicles that were burned. There were 617 the previous night. So from that point of view, at least things are getting somewhat better -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I know. And 1,200 the night before. So I guess you're right. It's kind of a strange way to measure progress, but I guess it seems to be working.

Jim Bittermann is reporting for us from France this morning.

Jim, thanks.

Other stories making news. Carol has a look at those.

Carol, good morning again.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

A bombing targeting Iraqi security forces and al Qaeda in Iraq may be to blame. A man wearing an explosive belt blew himself up in a Baghdad restaurant this morning. He killed at least 34 people.

There are reports Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is claiming responsibility. His group also says it had a role in Wednesday's triple suicide bombings in Amman, Jordan.

In the meantime, in Tikrit, a suicide bomber blew himself up and his car outside a medical center, killing at least four army recruits.

New York City is responding to the deadly hotel bombings in Jordan. Police say they're shifting deployments of critical response teams near major hotels in the city, but the alert level has not been raised. It's still at orange.

Wednesday's suicide attacks in Amman killed at least 56 in a number of Western hotels.

After more than 30 years, a family is finally seeing justice. Fletcher Worrell, also known as Clarence Williams, was suspected in a string of rapes. He was finally convicted Wednesday of one of them, a 1973 attack on a woman in New York City.

The verdict was made possible by DNA testing which was not available in the original trial. Worrell is to be sentenced at the end of this month. He also faces possible charges in a number of other cases.

He's not old enough to drink, but boy he can lead a town now. Michael Sessions is the new mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan, population 9,000. He ran as a write-in candidate because he was to young to get on the ballot in the spring.

Sessions just turned 18 on September 22. The young politician used $700 from a summer job to fund his door-to-door campaign.

So congrats, Mr. Mayor.

And TV is steaming up. A new report out says nearly three out of four shows on the tube may have sexual content, like that. The Kaiser Family Foundation watched an entire week of programs and found 3,800 scenes with sexual content.

And if you average that out, that's about five sex scenes per hour. That's nearly twice as many sex scenes as there were seven years ago. So thank goodness for AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: No sex scenes here.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: No, we keep it clean. Very clean.

S. O'BRIEN: Not nary a one.

COSTELLO: Let's head now to Atlanta to check in with Bonnie. She only has a weather map, with nothing sexual on it.

S. O'BRIEN: That's it.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Nothing at all. Nothing at all.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, more than two weeks after Hurricane Wilma hit, hundreds of Florida families are still living in shelters. Is the government doing anything to help them? We're going to take a look at that. M. O'BRIEN: And later, the common sleep disorder that could lead to a stroke. I snore a little bit. I wonder if I have this. Sleep apnea it's called. And we'll talk about what other medical implications it might have ahead in our "House Call."

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Live pictures now from Hollywood, Florida, where people have begun once again to line up to try to get some food stamps. Not as big a line as we saw yesterday. Take a look at these pictures, where an estimated 10,000 people waited in lines for a long time in the hopes of getting some food stamps.

It's been two and a half weeks since Hurricane Wilma hit the area, and some people there still without power. Many still without homes.

Mara Giulianti is the mayor of Hollywood, Florida, and she joins us from McNicol Middle School, which is a temporary shelter to about a third of the people who don't have any homes.

Ms. Mayor, thank you for talking with us.

MAYOR MARA GIULIANTI, HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA: My pleasure.

S. O'BRIEN: The pictures that we saw from yesterday -- and I've got to expect we're going to see a similar thing today as folks start to line up for these food stamps -- 10,000 people waiting for assistance. How bad are things in Hollywood?

GIULIANTI: I've never seen anything like this. We're recovering fine. I don't want to be alarmist. And right now we're down to only about 500 people without power in Hollywood and about 7,000 in Broward County, two and a half weeks later. So it's difficult, but we've seen tremendous progress, of course.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. At the same time, though, I guess good news on the power front, but when you look at the shelters, I mean, there's one. You're right at -- you know, at a shelter.

What's going on in there? How are things going at that location?

GIULIANTI: Hollywood's a convenient location, so we're sheltering people not only from Hollywood, of course, but from this entire area. And so the 400-some-odd families that are actually living, sleeping, eating here, there really are only about 15 of those families that are Hollywood. And there are 31 municipalities in Broward County. So they're a smarting from all over.

And Hollywood is going to be concentrating actually today, within a few moments, on helping those people find a suitable place to live and start their lives again.

S. O'BRIEN: Those 15 families then. What happens, though, to the 400 families? Because that middle school has actually got to go back to being a middle school in a couple of weeks.

GIULIANTI: Absolutely. We are extremely pressed for time. It's less than two weeks and they've got to be out.

We're contacting all of our colleagues in the other cities. I've been very involved. And we're hoping that the mayors are going to take a role.

It's very manageable if each city concentrates on finding locations for their people. So instead of the overwhelming task of going in and trying to interview 400 and some odd families today, we can take 15, do a real interview triage. In fact, our local rotary club is going to take the kids out tonight and buy them some clothes.

If we do that, municipality by municipality, I think we can get it done. But we are pressed for time.

S. O'BRIEN: A minute ago...

GIULIANTI: And it's not that easy.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. No question about it. I mean, that's a massive problem and a massive thing to try to fix quickly, certainly.

We were looking at videotape just a minute ago of some of the damage in Hollywood. What's the -- what's the long-range plan? And do you feel like you're getting enough help from the government to try to repair the massive amount of damage you've got?

I'm going to take that as no.

GIULIANTI: The help question -- yes, the help question, I hate to tackle it. It's disappointing.

I think that local government seems to be where it's at. We never thought that we would need to take such a dramatic, aggressive role. We all kind of expected a lot more help from higher echelon, but...

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: So let me just stop you there. Are you saying -- so the government's not stepping in to help you out?

GIULIANTI: There's help, but it's extremely slow. And as I mentioned, your time frames here are very abbreviated.

We're in the middle of a school year for children. People have jobs. We can't afford to have our residents lose those jobs because we don't have the kind of public transportation that somebody can live in one area, drop their child off in another, and go to work in another. We can't afford the ramifications.

So cities are just going have to do the job. We respond faster.

S. O'BRIEN: Mara Giulianti is the mayor of Hollywood, Florida. We're going to continue to check in with you, Ms. Mayor, if we may, over the next few weeks and months to see just how Hollywood, Florida, is coping.

GIULIANTI: Well, thank you very much.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Wish them well down there.

Do you have a snorer in your house?

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I'm a snorer.

M. O'BRIEN: Are you a snorer? Really?

S. O'BRIEN: I know. I know. It's so not cute, is it?

M. O'BRIEN: Brad isn't?

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Brad isn't a snorer?

S. O'BRIEN: I sleep like a log. I wouldn't know if Brad's a snorer or not.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow. Because I have awakened Sandy many a night to snoring. And the question is, -- ooh, yes that's...

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, I'm not that bad. That's just gross.

Are you like that?

M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, I haven't heard myself snore, but I suspect so.

I do awaken the entire family at times. And the question is, is it something worse? Is it sleep apnea? Am I forgetting to breathe?

S. O'BRIEN: Oh.

M. O'BRIEN: And that ultimately can lead to a stroke.

Oh, man!

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, man!

M. O'BRIEN: That is brutal! Grounds for divorce right there, I think.

That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: All right. One more time with the snorer now. Let's get a shot in there, because the crew loves it.

It actually sounds like -- sounds like a barnyard animal there. But it's, in many respects, not something to take lightly.

It -- how'd they get in my house? How'd they do that? You stay out of my bedroom.

Anyway, this snoring is -- not only keeps the spouse up, and causes problems with the kids, who are two doors down from you, but also can be a sign of something much more serious. We're talking about sleep apnea. A new study out on that which links sleep apnea to the risk of stroke.

Dr. Anna Krieger is here. She's with the NYU Sleep Disorder Center. She joins us now.

Good to have you with us.

DR. ANNA KRIEGER, NYU SLEEP DISORDER CENTER: Thank you. My pleasure.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's go through it right now.

The heightened risk of stroke, let's make that link, if we will. And what we're talking about here is why. Why is there that connection there?

KRIEGER: Well, it's very -- it's still unclear what happens, but patients with sleep apnea have a higher likelihood of developing a stroke.

M. O'BRIEN: And we don't know.

KRIEGER: We don't know yet.

M. O'BRIEN: But the study is fairly clear cut on this?

KRIEGER: It is.

M. O'BRIEN: And was it a fairly big group that they sampled?

KRIEGER: A very large group. They sampled over a thousand patients that came to the center.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. I was telling you just before the break, about a month ago I woke up and I was kind of like gasping for air. That could be sleep apnea.

How would you know if you have it?

KRIEGER: Well, there are several symptoms that are red flags. If you snore, if you feel a gasping sensation frequently during the night, if you're overweight and you feel fatigued and tiredness during the day, those are key symptoms.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. And how do you get -- they put those electrodes on you and...

KRIEGER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: How do you fall asleep with all of that stuff on you, anyway? I mean...

KRIEGER: Well, if you have a sleep problem...

M. O'BRIEN: If you're real tired.

KRIEGER: ... sometimes that is an issue. But for patients with severe sleep apnea, they're just glad to go to sleep.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. And so then you can determine if in fact -- and there -- and then there are ways that you can deal with this. Let's go through some of the things that people can do to try to prevent it.

First of all, excess weight. That's a big one, isn't it?

KRIEGER: It is.

M. O'BRIEN: So to speak.

KRIEGER: That's the biggest factor in men.

M. O'BRIEN: So, lose the weight, number one. Alcohol is not a good thing?

KRIEGER: Not good, because alcohol relaxes the muscles. So when you go to sleep, the tendency of the airway to close is increased.

M. O'BRIEN: Airway closes, which is sleep apnea. That's a problem.

KRIEGER: And leads to snoring.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Now, I snore a lot more if I'm sleeping on my back. I guess that's true for everybody. So if you can avoid that, that's good, right?

KRIEGER: Absolutely. Many people only have sleep apnea if they're on their back. So if they change to the sides, sleep apnea might be cured.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. And the other thing is, keep the nasal passages open. If you have an allergy or cold, that could make matters more, right?

KRIEGER: Right. So you need to be evaluated by an EMT physician and my your own doctor to make sure if there are other any other issues that could be addressed.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. Those are kind of the self-administered ways to go about. If -- there are obviously other ways to go here. I've seen those breathing machines, which would certainly scare your spouse in bed. What else can you do?

KRIEGER: It might not scare your spouse, because if the snoring is gone, and if you sleep better at night, I'm sure your spouse would be very happy.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, I just don't know. It really makes you handsome, doesn't it?

KRIEGER: Well, they're both asleep, let's put it that way.

M. O'BRIEN: There you go. There you go. And with the mask on, you're going to sleep more soundly, right?

KRIEGER: Absolutely.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Dr. Anna Krieger is director of the NYU Sleep Disorder Center.

Thanks for being with us this morning.

KRIEGER: My pleasure.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, some new developments to tell you about in those deadly bombings in Jordan. Citizens there are making a defiant stand against the terrorists today. How is the rest of the Arab world reacting? We'll take a closer look just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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