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American Morning

Attacks in Baghdad; A Plea to Bring U.S. Troops Home

Aired November 18, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien. Breaking news out of Iraq this morning. Attacks in Baghdad. Take a look at that, insurgents targeting an international hotel. Another attack in east Iraq, more than 50 people killed. We've got a live report from Iraq straight ahead.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien. Meanwhile in Washington, a plea to bring U.S. troops home now coming from a hawkish congressman who served in two wars and is widely respected by the military. Is he saying what military leaders are really thinking?

S. O'BRIEN: And pandemonium outside the trade talks in South Korea. President Bush and other Asian leaders getting a rowdy welcome, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Welcome back, everybody. Boy, the rhetoric is increasing, getting quite nasty. And it's interesting timing, as the president is overseas on an important international trip. I think this is pretty unusual.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, it's ratcheted up, and it's coming from a person, he is a Democrat, but he is a very hawkish Democrat, one who doesn't normally seek the limelight, served in two wars, and by many people is thought to be a pipeline, a conduit to military leaders. John Murtha is his name. We'll be talking a little bit more about him this morning.

But let's get to the breaking news first out of Iraq. Violence across the country this morning.

Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson joining us live from Baghdad.

Nic, bring us up to date.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Miles, the target this morning in Baghdad, a hotel used by Western journalists, used by Western expatriate workers. Two suicide bombers targeting the hotel. What you see is a white van drawing up to the concrete barrier, the security barrier around the hotel, detonate. Then in that big could of debris coming up, another suicide bomber tries to drive his car through the same hole, trying to get closer to that Al Hamra Hotel where the journalists are staying, doesn't get through the gap, detonates his explosives. Windows are broken in hotel, buildings nearby, some apartments are collapsed. Six people are killed. Two of them are children. One of them a woman. More than 40 people were wounded. And the rescue workers on the scene were trying to immediately, after the attack, trying to get a family out from one of the collapsed apartments there.

This attack very similar to an attack three weeks ago on another hotel used by Western journalists. This -- the similarities in the attack, that the attackers tried to get one car through the security barricade, using explosives, blow a hole, try to get a second car through that space.

About lunchtime today, a very deadly attack, 85 miles northeast of Baghdad. Two suicide bombers walked into two separate mosques in a small town, detonating their explosives. We know from the U.S. military, 41 people killed. A third bomb also in that town as well -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Nic Robertson in Baghdad, thanks very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All of this violence in Iraq a backdrop today to the big question that's on many Americans' minds. When are the troops going to come home? Congressman John Murtha, a pro-military Democrat, says now is the time to get troops out.

White House correspondent Dana Bash is traveling with the president. She joins us from Busan in South Korea.

Dana, good morning to you.

What's been the White House reaction to Murtha's comments?

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, in keeping with their strategy, campaign-style strategy to let no charge on the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq go unanswered, the White House response was swift and scathing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): No press questions here with Russian's leader. President Bush, for now, is letting deputies fight the latest skirmish over the Iraq War political debate back home.

STEPHEN HADLEY, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We simply believe that the Congressman is wrong on this issue.

BASH: The gloves-off White House effort is to paint a Democratic Congressman calling for troops out of Iraq in six months as out of the mainstream.

"Congressman Murtha is a respected veteran and politician who has a record of supporting a strong America," said the White House press secretary in a blistering statement. "So it is baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party."

By trying to link John Murtha to the dovish filmmaker Michael Moore, Bush aided hope to stop independent and Republicans, already skittish about Iraq, from following the influential Democrat's lead.

JOHN KERRY (D), FMR. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I respectfully disagree with John Murtha.

BASH: White House officials note even outspoken war critics in Murtha's own party think an immediate troop withdrawal would be dangerous.

But the Bush strategy to dismiss Murtha's biting criticism of the president's Iraq policy, calling him part of the left-wing fringe, may be undermined by past statements like this.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: One of my strongest allies in Congress when I was secretary of defense was Jack Murtha, a Democrat who was chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. We used to be able to do more together on a bipartisan basis, but it seems impossible these days.

BASH: It's that kind of glowing comment in the heat of last year's campaign that makes the bronze star double Purple Heart recipient slam at the vice president on Iraq so stunning.

REP. JOHN MURTHA (D), PENNSYLVANIA: That guy's got five deferments and never been there and sent people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And the debate about Iraq is not raging back at home, The Bush officials appeared to be caught off guard and the South Korea Defense Ministry announced while the president is here that they are going to put forward a proposal in their parliament to start drawing down some of their 3,000-plus troops that are currently in Iraq -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Dana Bash is traveling with the president. She's in Busan in South Korea today.

Dana, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Congressman Murtha's suggestion drawing fire in Congress as well. GOP leaders accusing him of surrender. Congressional Ed Henry live on Capitol Hill.

Ed, let's just talk for just a moment here. Congress doesn't really have the power to pull the troops out of Iraq, does it?

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not really. But congress has the power of the purse, so in theory, Congress could cut off funding for the war at some point. Obviously, in practice, that seems highly unlikely. So individual lawmakers really only have the power of writing a resolution that doesn't have the force of law, but try to prompt the president into changing his policy. That is what John Murtha is doing here, writing this resolution, demanding the troops be withdrawn over the course of six months.

Obviously you heard from Dana there at the White House there trying to say that he's part of the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party, but that may be difficult to stick, because of his war credentials. Murtha voted for Iraq War, served in the Vietnam War. He says that even though he voted for Iraq war, he struggled with this, because he believes the troops have done their job, and it's time for them to stop being the target of terrorists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURTHA: It's time to bring them home. They've done everything they can do. The military has done everything they can do. This war has been so mishandled from the very start. Not only was the intelligence bad, the way they disbanded the troops. There's all kinds of mistakes have been made. They don't deserve to continue to suffer! They're the targets! They have become the enemy! Eighty percent of Iraqis want us out of there. The public wants us out of there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: And Republican speaker Dennis Hastert released a blistering statement, saying that Murtha is waving, quote, "the white flag of surrender to the terrorists in the world."

And I can tell you as well, Democrats, as you heard from Dana, in Mr. Murtha's own party, are really not flocking to this resolution at all. They're ratcheting up their rhetoric, but they're not joining his cause. So he may be a strong voice on this issue, but he's a lonely voice, at least for now -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Certainly an impassioned voice as well.

Ed, let's shift gears and talk about the budget. While we were sleeping, they were working there last night. Maybe you were, too. I don't know about that. But tell us what they were able to cook up on the budget front.

HENRY: Well, Senate Republicans had relatively smooth passage of $60 billion tax package, mostly extends some of the tax cuts that were about to expire, but it also includes a tax increase for oil companies that's drawn a presidential veto threat.

Over on the House side, Republicans had a much more difficult time. In the afternoon, they lost a vote on a spending bill covering all the nation's education and health problems, the first time in 10 years they've suffered such a defeat. They also struggled all through the night to try to pass a budget framework that included $50 billion in spending cuts, raising a lot of questions about in the post-Tom DeLay world, at least for now, why they're having trouble pushing through their agenda.

Finally, 1:45 a.m. in the morning, House Republicans passed those $50 billion in spending cuts by one vote, but Democrats are complaining those the cuts are too deep for food stamps, Medicaid and other programs -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: That is so far past my bedtime, that's almost my wake time.

All right, Ed Henry. Glad they're working hard there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: The president of South Korea, and the protesters are there. Police using hoses to break up demonstrations there. We'll have a live report on what's going on in Asia as the president tours there.

S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, we'll take a look at a drug that is supposed to help protect you from bird flu. Is it linked, though, to the deaths of a dozen children in Japan? We'll talk to an expert about that.

M. O'BRIEN: And as we just mentioned, while you were sleeping, there was a little bit of money being spent on Capitol Hill, $60 billion tax bill. What's in it for you? Which is what we always want to know anyway. What's in it for me, huh? Andy Serwer knows. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Take a look what's happening in South Korea today. Violent protests near where President Bush is. He and other world leaders are at the APEC summit in Busan.

Let's get right to senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy, who is there as well.

Mike, first, let's talk about these protests. How does it look? Are they going on right now?

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, at this point, the protests have died down, Soledad. But earlier in the day, while the high level of diplomacy was going on at the Busan Convention Center, there was, as so often happens at these kinds of international meetings, disorder in the streets. About 5,000 people, mostly farmers angry at the prospect of opening up South Korea's markets to imports of rice and other products from overseas, tried to march on the venue where the president and the other APEC leaders were meeting. Police had lined the approach roads with big shipping containers, and when the protesters tried to move those containers and break through, the police opened up with a water cannon. The protesters throwing rocks, and there were ongoing skirmishing in these streets for several hours during the afternoon.

But by the end of the afternoon, the enormous security presence, so many police in the streets, had won the day, and the protesters basically gave up, having gotten no closer than about a half a mile from where the president and the other leaders were meeting -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: So a sigh of relief for the people whose job it is to protect all of them.

Mike Chinoy for us with an update on those protests in South Korea. Mike, thank you -- Miles. M. O'BRIEN: You know, you got to be careful when you go to sleep, because Congress is spending your money. They were busy at work trying to decide what to cut. No windfall profits tax for the oil companies, right?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: No, no, no, there was a little bit.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, there was. Tell me about it. Andy Serwer is going to clarify what I've obviously messed up, because I was, in fact, asleep.

SERWER: Well, it's easy to mess it up, Miles, because there was a lot of balls in the air last night, and actually even into the early-morning hours in the halls of Congress. Both the Senate and the House passed separate bills. The House passed a cut, a spending-cut bill that passed 217-215. No Democrats voted for this bill. We'll break it down for you. Medicaid, food stamps and student-loan subsidies cut $50 billion cut out of the budgets. These are the programs that their trimmed.

Now, if you move over to the Senate side, Miles, this is where the windfall-profit tax, but don't call it that, because the Republicans don't want to use that phrase. This is a tax cut bill, a separate issue winding its way through Congress. A $4 billion tax imposed on oil companies, which really doesn't amount to a hill of beans if you ask me, because of course they made $33 billion in the third quarter alone this year. The president has threatened to veto this bill because of that tax.

Two other important parts of this tax, however. The alternative- minimum tax, which was subject to hit 14 million American families. This is an onerous tax that was supposed to be directed against the wealthy, often hits the middle class. That has been rolled back. That's good news for people who are concerned about that. And also an extension of the capital gains and dividends preference tax, lower taxes, and that has been extended to 2009. That's pretty far down the road.

But a whole lot of stuff going on. And interesting, on the one hand, cutting spending, on the other hand, cutting taxes in the other chamber. So we'll see how this all comes together.

M. O'BRIEN: It all comes into the Conference Committee.

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: See, we don't cover it very often, but in darkened rooms, in the basement of the Capitol, these things get kind of hashed out, and we'll see how it goes.

Andy Serwer, thank you very much.

SERWER: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Next week on AMERICAN MORNING, it's the week of giving. If you were affected by this season's hurricanes, want to thank someone who helped you, please send us your story. Just go to CNN.com/am, and we will post a bunch of those responses on the Web site, share them with you. And some of you will be selected to share your story, right here on AMERICAN MORNING -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, could a popular drug to fight bird flu be dangerous for children? And since the first time since announcing she has lung cancer, Dana Reeves speaks out about how she's doing. We'll check in on both of those stories just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: An advisory committee to the FDA begins today to review the risks of the drug Tamiflu to children. Of course that's a drug that's used for flu. It could be used for bird flu, if there is an outbreak.

Well, joining us this morning from Nashville is Dr. William Schaffner. He's an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical School.

Nice to see you, doctor. Thank you for being with us.

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: Good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, when you look at the risk -- I mean, I guess what's triggered all of this is what they found in Japan, which is this, 12 children died while using Tamiflu. There have been 31 cases of neuropsychiatric events, two possible teen suicides. It's all spelling up to some big concerns.

First those neuropsychiatric events. What are they talking about? What is that?

SCHAFFNER: Episodes of delirium, and hallucination, and sometimes strange behavior, children taking the drug and apparently running across the street. Strange stuff.

S. O'BRIEN: At this point, is there any confirmed link of that behavior and the deaths as well in Tamiflu?

SCHAFFNER: Not yet, and we hope not. But that's what this committee will be looking at. They will be addressing the question, are these strange coincidences? Or is there some sort of causal relations between the two?

S. O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, forgive me for interrupting you there. I'm just curious to know if there is anything in the drug itself that you might say, oh, that's a red flag? Oh, we've seen other concerns with this.

SCHAFFNER: Exactly the opposite. This is a drug that's been enormously safe. We haven't seen anything like this in the United States. And of course Japan uses much more of this drug than we do here. But nonetheless, it is very, very curious. I'm sure the committee will be giving this a hard look.

S. O'BRIEN: In fact, Japan, I think there's something like 13 million prescriptions for Tamiflu written worldwide, and Japan uses over 11 million, almost 12 million of them, is that right?

SCHAFFNER: Exactly. Exactly. They've really adopted this drug. And it will be very important to see, are these children taking other drugs? How long have they taken the drug? What's really going on here? What's their medical history?

S. O'BRIEN: We should mention the statement from Hoffman-La Roche, which is the maker of Tamiflu is this: "There is no increase," they say, "in adverse events for children on Tamiflu, versus children with influenza in general."

So what exactly are they doing now? What do they need to look at to see if there are risks?

SCHAFFNER: Well, they will be looking at the complete medical histories of these children, seeing if they take other drugs. How long have they been taking the drugs? What was the dosage that they were taking? And Is there a particular temporal relationship between the two? The committee is going to decide whether they need to just keep observing things or whether cautionary statements need to be applied. They have a range of options. They could ask for further studies, which undoubtedly they will do, I think.

S. O'BRIEN: Part of the reason, of course, we're talking about this now, is that Tamiflu is the drug that comes up in discussions when you talk about preventing and protecting against the bird flu. What exactly is -- are the concerns there, that many more children could be using Tamiflu here in the U.S.?

SCHAFFNER: Well, Tamiflu is used to treat influenza year in and year out. And it is the drug we would treat pandemic bird flu, should it strike us. So we would not like to lose that drug, which we could use to make the disease milder. So we want to look at it very, very carefully. We would use it in children. We would use it in adults. This is not something I would like to practice medicine without, unless there's a very, very good reason.

S. O'BRIEN: Do you think there's a risk of that, that this drug could be pulled off the market because of these concerns coming out of Japan?

SCHAFFNER: I suspect that that will not happen after this committee meeting, but the committee has a range of options, and it will probably continue to look at this carefully.

S. O'BRIEN: Dr. William Schaffner, we're going to continue to look at it very carefully as well. He joins us from Vanderbilt Medical School.

Thank you, doctor. Appreciate it -- Miles.

SCHAFFNER: My pleasure, Soledad.

M. O'BRIEN: Here in New York City last night, we saw Christopher Reeve's, Dana Reeve, for the first time since starting treatment for lung cancer. She hosted a huge fund-raiser for her late husband's foundation, and she said she's getting better.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA REEVE, CHRISTOPHER REEVE FOUNDATION: I'm feeling great surprisingly. I am responding well to treatment. And I have to say that I have gotten so much support from friends and family, and really everyone, and I have to thank all of you for being so respectful of my privacy during this time, and also I thank -- just i've Gotten letters, and I've gotten more prayers shawls than I know what to do with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Dana Reeve presented Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones with the Christopher Reeve Spirit of Courage Award. Proceeds from last night's event go to finding treatments for spinal cord injuries.

S. O'BRIEN: There's a great shot in the paper this morning of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Dana Reeve giving each other a big hug, and obviously I think a real symbol of support for her in her battle. It's nice to see.

M. O'BRIEN: And a couple of fine-looking lovely -- how do I say that delicately? A couple of babes. That's all I can tell you.

S. O'BRIEN: They're not hard to look at either, I think, is what you were trying to say.

M. O'BRIEN: That's what I was trying to say. Thank you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: My pleasure.

Still to come this morning, Democrats and Republicans fighting tooth and nail over prewar intelligence. Did the president mislead the country? We've got a fact check coming up.

Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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