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American Morning
President Bush's Secret Wiretaps; Airline Security Changes; Extreme Commutes in New York City; Holiday Travel Tips
Aired December 21, 2005 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.
You're looking at a live picture right outside of our window in Columbus Circle. Yes, I'm from New York. And you're seeing people try to make their way to work this morning. It is cold. It's going to be another ugly day as we're in day two of the transit strike here.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: It usually takes them a little longer to get in on days like this. because of the transit strike I mean.
O'BRIEN: Oh, yes.
SANCHEZ: But eventually they all get here but it's about 10 o'clock in the evening actually.
O'BRIEN: Yes, it's going to be a mess. That's for sure.
Let's get right to our top stories this morning, starting overseas. Carol's got that.
Good morning.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Good morning to all of you.
Saddam Hussein's back in court and this time he's quietly taking notes. The trial resumed early today after a two-week hiatus. You may remember Saddam failed to show up the last time. Today a witness described how his entire family was rounded up by the former Iraqi leader's officers more than 20 years ago. We'll be talking much more about the Saddam trial throughout the morning.
Is it too soon to ask, when will it end? Thousands of New Yorkers walking and biking to work again this morning because of the transit strike. Mayor Michael Bloomberg among them. These are new pictures we just got in. And you can see him walking to work across the Brooklyn Bridge again this morning. The mayor says no new talks until this strike is called off. A judge imposed a major fine against the Transport Workers Union, $1 million for each day of the strike. Put that figure up against what the city says it's losing in lost retail and other costs, that's about $400 million each day. Lawyers due back in court today. The suspected "Shenandoah Rapist" is on the loose and police are asking for your help. Reynaldo Rapalo has been linked to attacks in Miami, Shenandoah neighborhood, starting in 2002. His alleged victims range in age from 11 to 77. Rapalo apparently got away on Tuesday. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call police.
High school athletes tested for steroids. New Jersey becoming the first state to require random testing for teens if their teams qualify for championship games. The testing plan is slated to begin next year and we hear it's one strike and you're out. But the team would still be eligible to play. Lawmakers in Florida, Texas and Missouri are apparently considering similar plans.
And Sir Elton John is now a married man. He and his longtime partner David Furnish tied the knot just about an hours ago. You see him coming out. The wedding comes on the first day that same sex unions became legal in England. And while the actual ceremony was low key, the planned reception is anything but. The star-studded extravaganza is expected to cost $2 million. Incidently, this is not the first marriage for Elton John. He married that woman back in 1984 but they divorced four years later. So just awaiting glimpses of pictures from inside Elton John's reception.
O'BRIEN: The pictures -- right, the party pictures are going to be great.
COSTELLO: Yes they are!
O'BRIEN: Anyway, Carol, thanks.
COSTELLO: Sure.
SANCHEZ: The clothes alone, right?
Another development in the controversy over domestic spying. A federal judge has resigned from that court that oversees government wiretaps in intelligence cases. And "The Washington Post" says it's in protest of the president's secret approval of a spying program in the states. Also Vice President Dick Cheney is speaking out now about this controversy. Our Dana Bash has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): An unapologetic Dick Cheney says the president must have unimpaired powers. In an interview with CNN, he insisted broadening executive authority is crucial for a post-9/11 world.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Article 2 that specifically indicates, spells out that the president's the commander in chief and he is sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
BASH: While traveling in the mountains of Kashmir, Pakistan, to check on U.S. military personnel helping earthquake victims, Mr. Cheney defended the executive order authorizing secret wiretapping in the U.S. Insisting if that power existed before September 11th, the government may have picked up on two hijackers. And in careful, but more specific terms than usual about intelligence, he said it's no accident America hasn't been hit again.
CHENEY: It is good, solid, sound policy. It is, I'm convinced, one of the reasons we have not been attacked for the last four years.
BASH: Critics have long said the vice president leads the Bush charge for expanded authorities and aboard Air Force Two he proudly proved them right, telling reporters he believes executive power has dangerously eroded since the 1970s. He called the NSA directive a key example of how the White House is trying to expand their authority. It's sure to be a told you so moment for Democrats who have long accused him of ignoring checks and balances. But the vice president said a congressional resolution gave the president broad power after 9/11.
CHENEY: He was granted authority by the Congress to use all means necessary to take on the terrorists. And that's what we've done.
BASH: And as he concluded his trip abroad, he staunchly defended his controversial world view, to successfully fight today's terrorist threats, America needs a more empowered presidency.
Dana Bash, CNN, Mildenhall, England.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: And meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is in the Middle East today. Tuesday he visited with some U.S. troops helping with earthquake relief in Pakistan. Asked about Osama bin Laden, Mr. Rumsfeld said that he wasn't sure whether the al Qaeda leader was dead or alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I suspect that, in any event, if he's alive and functioning, that he's probably spending a major fraction of his time trying to avoid being caught. I have trouble believing that he's able to operate sufficiently to be in a position of major command over a worldwide al Qaeda operation. But I could be wrong. We just don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Today, Mr. Rumsfeld's in Afghanistan where he's meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Soledad, over to you.
O'BRIEN: Well, new airport screening rules go into effect tomorrow and those could change the way that you travel over the holidays. That's in our "CNN Security Watch" this morning. The new rules allow small scissors and knives to be carried onboard planes. Other changes include more random screenings and pat-down searches. Transportation Security Administration Director Kip Hawley joins us this morning. He's at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.
Kip, nice to see you. Good morning to you.
KIP HAWLEY, TSA DIRECTOR: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Why now? We've, obviously, talked about this issue now for weeks. But why are you doing it now?
HAWLEY: Well, we actually started it over Thanksgiving, that we put in place a lot of new training in time for the Thanksgiving holiday and we wanted to have these additional measures in place for the busy holiday season. We think these changes make an improvement in the security system we have and we wanted to roll it out as soon as possible so it would have immediate effect.
O'BRIEN: So it's exactly because there will be a big rush, essentially, of holiday travelers that you're putting these rules into effect right now.
I know you know Congressman Edward Markey, what he has said about this. And there are many flight attendants who would agree with him. Let's listen first to his comments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. EDWARD MARKEY, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: From our perspective, it makes no sense to make a distinction between four-inch knives and four-inch scissors. A four-inch knife can, in fact, kill a flight attendant or a passenger or an air marshal, but a four-inch scissors will accomplish the same goal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Do you think he has a point at all, that the truth is these are weapons, even if they're four inches or seven inches or three inches?
HAWLEY: Well, I think the key word in that was "perspective." And I understand the perspective from flight attendants who are concerned about personal safety. Yes, virtually any object can cause harm. My hands, a tie, a belt, you know, whatever. But our perspective at TSA and Homeland Security is the system and what can hurt the United States. And the big threat is explosives to the United States. Scissors and small tools do not represent much of a threat to the country.
O'BRIEN: The TSA, I've read, is teaching some of the screeners behavior recognition. What exactly does that mean? What kind of training does that take?
HAWLEY: That's training we've been piloting for a couple years. It's well in use with the secret service and customs and boarder protection and gives us another layer. So we want to do as much as we can before somebody arrives at the passenger checkpoint to make sure that somebody who's dangerous is stopped well before the aircraft. O'BRIEN: You know when you talk about it's a technique used by the secret service, I travel all the time and you see the TSA screeners, usually they're dealing with sometimes hostile people or they've got a lot going on. They're busy. Do you think that they can actually manage an additional responsibility that something the secret service would be trained to do?
HAWLEY: Well, we're piloting that over the holidays to see exactly how that would work in operation. In our initial pilots, it is very successful and something that we want to continue to explore. So we're going to be doing a lot of training. And that's one of the advantages of getting rid of the routing around in bags for little objects, is that we can spend more time training and developing additional skills, additional layers.
O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a question about the New York City transit strike. Have you had any impact or felt any impact because of the strike?
HAWLEY: Well, our employees, of course, come from all over. And we have in place programs now for all the New York metropolitan areas where our folks carpool in. We've arranged plans so that we can make sure our transportation security officers are there at the airports as people want to travel.
O'BRIEN: TSA Director Kip Hawley, thanks for talking with us.
HAWLEY: Sure.
O'BRIEN: He's at Reagan National Airport this morning. Appreciate it.
HAWLEY: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: You want to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
Rick.
SANCHEZ: We here at AMERICAN MORNING wanted to find out for ourselves exactly what kind of effect this strike was having on New Yorkers. So last night I went out with one of our crews to, well, see for myself what it was doing to traffic, what it was doing to pedestrians. Just how much confusion was out there? Here's what we found out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ, (voice over): Commercial Banker Dustin Craven knew how to prepare for New York's first transit strike in 25 years.
DUSTIN CRAVEN, ROLLERBLADING COMMUTER: I have ski gear on.
SANCHEZ: And roller blades for the improvised commute to and from her office in Lower Manhattan to her home in Queens.
SANCHEZ: An hour and a half on skates?
CRAVEN: That's right.
SANCHEZ: Is that grueling?
CRAVEN: It's a long haul but it was fun!
SANCHEZ: Not so fun for the millions of commuters who walked, biked, and carpooled their way out of Manhattan after work Tuesday night. Store manager Damani Ali says he can't afford to miss work.
DAMANI ALI, WALKED TO WORK: If our tax money is going towards that service, then that service should be available.
SANCHEZ: And that's what you're mad about?
ALI: Yes.
SANCHEZ: And you got to walk for two hours now?
ALI: Yes.
SANCHEZ: We're talking about seven million people that are trying to get into the city every day. And this morning, many of them decided they'd just have to drive, it would be the only way in. It's now about 5:30 and some of those people are trying to get back out. You can imagine what's happened. Gridlock.
How many you got in there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have eight.
SANCHEZ: Eight people you're taking home?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
SANCHEZ: And these are all family, workers?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole family. Wife, sister.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She just walked from Water Street to get over here.
SANCHEZ: An hour on a bicycle?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
SANCHEZ: That's a long way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's a long way. It could be a lot worse, though.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of us live in Queens. Some of us live in Brooklyn but, you know, we carpool and we've got to do it. SANCHEZ: As for Craven, she says she's OK to keep skating to work for now. But talk to her in a week.
CRAVEN: One day is not too bad for us, you know? But if it lasts much longer, it's a big -- it's, you know, a hassle to get in. I guess we'll do what we have to do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: You know, that was a prevailing sentiment. People were saying, you know what, we're New Yorkers. We're tough. If we've got to go through this for a couple of days we can.
O'BRIEN: We can deal for now, yes.
SANCHEZ: But every time I'd say them, what if I come back a week from now and I ask you this very same question all over again and they all would say, don't even take me there.
O'BRIEN: Yes. No. I think you have a very small window where people are going to be furious, really furious, in about 48 hours.
SANCHEZ: A lot of confusion out there.
O'BRIEN: That's my guess.
All right, let's take a look at the weather for the day ahead. Bonnie's got that.
Good morning again.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Andy's "Minding Your Business."
What do you have coming up?
ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, one large casino company is cashing out of coastal Mississippi. Of course, Katrina is to blame. We'll tell you that story coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: I'm older than Kiefer Sutherland.
SANCHEZ: Are you?
O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: But not to (INAUDIBLE) Sutherland, probably.
O'BRIEN: And now Jane Fonda either.
SERWER: And not Jane Fonda. Right. We know that.
O'BRIEN: That's kind of a shocker.
Welcome back, everybody.
SANCHEZ: Hey, we're going to be talking about casinos because apparently they just don't mix very well with hurricanes. And as a result, Andy will tell you, something has happened.
SERWER: That's right, Rick.
We're talking about Harrah's, the big gaming company that owned two casinos on the Mississippi coast. Both of them completely obliterated by Katrina. And what it's decided to do basically is shut one of them down and rebuild the other one. We're talking about the Grand Gulf. That was the casino in Gulfport. Here's a before. It's very nice. And let's go to the after. I mean, it is just bam. Doesn't exist.
SANCHEZ: Well, they've forced them to be on the water.
SERWER: That's right. Those are the state rules. And that's another issue here.
The Biloxi one, they're going to rebuild. They basically decided to sell off the Gulfport one completely and rebuild the Biloxi one into a bigger facility. They're going to sell that Grand Gulf facility to another gaming company, a local facility down there, the Copa Casino. So really it's kind of a win-win situation, you guys, because they're going to be rebuilding the one in Gulfport, another company is, and they're going to be making the one in Biloxi bigger. And the reason it's a win-win is because it means jobs and more jobs.
O'BRIEN: Right.
SERWER: Now, what you're talking about, Rick, that whole other issue of whether they're in a safe place or not, whether gaming should be in Mississippi, that's a whole other issue that they've got to work out down there themselves. We're not going to handle that one.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
SANCHEZ: You mean letting them go inland at some point?
SERWER: Right. Yes. Exactly.
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's a whole other political move that's been going on there as well.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thank you for the update.
SERWER: OK. Thanks.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know how the song goes, there's no place like home for the holidays. But if you put off buying your ticket home, stay tuned. We've got the inside track on some of the very best bargains online. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: If you still haven't made all your travel plans for the holidays, there might still be time to find a bargain. My partner, Miles O'Brien, did a little 411 for us. He sat down with consumer advocate Clark Howard for some travel tips.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks (INAUDIBLE) for being with us.
CLARK HOWARD, CONSUMER ADVOCATE: Sure.
MILES O'BRIEN: Clark, I suppose your advice would of been to already book for your winter travel, because booking in advance is a good thing. But there are some places to go where you can get deals at the last minute as well. Tell us where to go.
HOWARD: Oh, the whole key with travel is, you buy a bargain and then figure out why you want to go there. In the airline industry -- I'm serious!
MILES O'BRIEN: That's the tail wagging the dog, isn't it?
HOWARD: But it's what you do. Because I only buy the bargain. And I've been to every continent on earth except Antarctica. When if you buy the bargain, considering how airline deregulation works, where it makes no sense based on distance what a fare is, that's how you decide where to go. You will go everywhere on earth but you'll do it for a whole lot less money.
MILES O'BRIEN: So what site should you go to and how do you search for these deals?
HOWARD: Well, I love -- well, Travelzoo is great. Have you ever been to Travelzoo?
MILES O'BRIEN: No. No, I haven't.
HOWARD: A neat site. It tells you the kind of things I'm talking about where, you're not going to believe it, but there's this great deal to Cabo San Lucas or wherever and you see it on their list with their top 20 every week that they e-mail to you. Plus, for booking fares, let's say you have to go to a particular place or you want to go and you're looking for the best deal there, there are some sites people don't use a lot that are great. Kayak.com. Have you been to that one?
MILES O'BRIEN: No.
HOWARD: k-a-y-a-k.com. Really good. Sidestep.com.
MILES O'BRIEN: How would you know Kayak was a travel site, you know? HOWARD: Well, because I'm going to tell you.
MILES O'BRIEN: That's really odd. No wonder people don't go there.
HOWARD: Yes, but it's great. It's great.
MILES O'BRIEN: Sidestep?
HOWARD: Sidestep is wonderful. Sidestep works one of two ways. You can either use it while you're going to Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia and Airline site to go do its own searches while you're at one of those sites or you can go there directly and have it do a search. And for international travel, Mobissimo.com. Do you know that one?
MILES O'BRIEN: Mobissimo. No.
HOWARD: M-o-b-I-s-s-I- o. Mobissimo. Fantastic! And it will find routings and ways for you to get somewhere around the globe that you never ever would have thought about.
MILES O'BRIEN: All right, hotels. You're in New York now. We put you up. And I know that kind of appalls you. Tell me about that.
HOWARD: Oh, you upset me so much. When I got to the desk at the hotel and they said how much my room was, I have never paid this much money for a hotel night in my life. And I travel 100 nights a year. It was $599.
MILES O'BRIEN: And that's about 100 nights a year for you, right?
HOWARD: Right. So what are you thinking? Exactly. What is Time Warner doing? How would the stockholders feel if they knew you were spending that kind of money?
MILES O'BRIEN: When you pay your cable bill, think of that hotel, right?
Tell me . . .
HOWARD: But you can save a ton on hotels.
MILES O'BRIEN: Tell me how to find those deals, though.
HOWARD: OK. Biddingfortravel.com is my favorite bargain site to save money on hotels. Biddingfortravel is a bulletin board. And fellow travelers tell you what deals they're finding using Priceline and Hotwire. What hotels, if you bid a four-star in Chicago, what you're going to get and what you should bid for. It will save you more money than you can ever shake a stick at. But another thing is Tripadvisor. You ever been to Tripadvisor?
MILES O'BRIEN: No.
HOWARD: Neat site. Tripadvisor is where your fellow travelers tell you a hotel may be rated three stars, but it's really a place that the rats carry the furniture around.
MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, really?
HOWARD: So you find out what people really think about a hotel by going to Tripadvisor and it will steer you right.
MILES O'BRIEN: Because people have used it to offer up their own little reviews?
HOWARD: Exactly. So you look for the compilation of reviews. Because you could take the best hotel in the world and somebody's going to be somebody who just, no matter what you give them, they're not going to like it. But if you see review after review that saying the hotel stinks, I don't care how many stars somebody gave it, you go with what the Tripadvisor fellow poster said. MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Clark Howard, thank you very much.
HOWARD: Certainly.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, in today's top stories, the New York walking tour of 2005. How are commuters holding up on day two of the transit strike? We're going to tell you just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, did you know that today is the busiest day for deliveries from the post office?
SANCHEZ: Wow. Might be a good day to talk to somebody like the postmaster general.
O'BRIEN: He's exactly who we're talking to this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.
SANCHEZ: Wow.
O'BRIEN: Find out if it's too late to mail a package and have it get there on time for Christmas. We're back in just a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Good morning. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
The transit strike in New York causing big headaches, costing big money, too. Hundreds of millions of dollars already lost. Where do things stand this morning? How long could it continue? We'll take a look.
SANCHEZ: I'm Rick Sanchez in for Miles O'Brien.
Saddam Hussein finally made it back to court. But now he's facing more tough testimony. We will be taking you back live to Baghdad.
O'BRIEN: And millions of Christmas packages being delivered today as post offices around the country brace for their biggest day. We've got some last-minute mailing advice from the postmaster general. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning. Welcome, everybody.
Miles has the day off. We've been nice enough to have Rick Sanchez helping us out. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you very much.
SANCHEZ: God, it's great to be here.
O'BRIEN: You're here for the week, right?
SANCHEZ: I am. I am.
O'BRIEN: Thank you. Thank you very much.
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