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American Morning

Hostage in Iraq; Blair's Son Target?; Scandal Impact

Aired January 18, 2006 - 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: Good morning, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
Time might be running out for an American journalist who's being held hostage in Iraq. We'll take you live to Baghdad for much more on this developing story.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien.

Was Tony Blair's son the target in a kidnapping plot, or was it just idle chatter? We're live in London with details.

S. O'BRIEN: And Mayor Ray Nagin, well, says he takes it back. Says he might have gone too far. We're going to have more from the mayor when we take you live to New Orleans.

That's just ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Glad to have you with us on this Wednesday morning.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get right to our top story.

Can you imagine this, an American family facing the pain of just not knowing about their daughter, a journalist? She's being held in Iraq. Her abductors want the U.S. to release all female prisoners.

Now, Al-Jazeera Arab television released this videotape of Jill Carroll. Her abductors say they're going to kill her if their demand is not met.

The story stretches from Baghdad to Boston, which is where Carroll worked.

CNN's Dan Lothian is live in Boston for us this morning.

Dan, good morning.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Indeed, 28-year-old Jill Carroll worked for the Boston-based "Christian Science Monitor." She was on assignment for them when she was abducted in a dangerous Baghdad neighborhood about a week and a half ago.

Her abductors had remained silent until yesterday when they released a 20-second videotape, as you mentioned. No audio along with it.

It was released on the Arab network Al-Jazeera. Along with it came a message calling on the U.S. to release all female prisoners from Iraqi prisons. If not, that the journalist would be killed in 72 hours.

Of course disturbing news for her family, who also released a statement yesterday saying that, "Jill is an innocent journalist," it read in part, "and we respectfully ask that you please allow her mercy and allow her to return home to her mother, sister and family. Jill is a kind person whose love for Iraq and the Iraqi people are evident in her articles. She has been welcomed into the homes of many Iraqis and shown every courtesy."

Friends say Carroll was living her dream of being an international war correspondent. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts. So she was doing, they said, what she really loved. She was very courageous but she was also very cautious -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: What a horrifying time for the family. Are there any details about what is being done to try to secure her release outside of the pleas from the family that we've heard?

LOTHIAN: Right. The "Christian Science Monitor," which so far has been unwilling to go on camera, they did tell us, though, that they are doing whatever they can as the paper itself. They said other media organizations are also helping out, and they also pointed out that government forces in Iraq -- they didn't give any more details than that, but said that government forces in Iraq are also doing all they can to get her released.

S. O'BRIEN: Any details? I mean, you said she was considered to be a very cautious reporter. What kind of precautions was she taking? Do you know?

LOTHIAN: That's an interesting question. I talked to someone who knew her very well. They worked with her when she worked at another paper. And they said that she was cautious in that she took people along with her who knew the terrain, she would also make sure and do a lot of background checks before she went.

She didn't really -- wasn't the type of person who could easily walk into a trap. On the other hand, she's a freelance journalist, so she can't afford some of the protections that the bigger news organizations can afford.

She didn't have a trail car with her. She didn't have bodyguards or anything like that. So a very dangerous situation for a freelancer to be in.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, what terrible news. All right. We'll all certainly hope for the best for this young woman.

Thanks, Dan. Appreciate it -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: To London now and word of a kidnapped plot aimed at the family that lives at Number 10 Downing Street. Fleet Street tabloids revealing a plot to kidnap Prime Minister Tony Blair's 5- year-old son Leo. No kidnapping attempt has been made. It's apparently not related to the war on terror.

Our Robin Oakley is at Number 10 this morning.

Good morning, Robin. What can you tell us about it?

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Miles.

This is one of those stories with a lot of media speculation, a lot of media attention, and very few hard facts attached to it. "The Sun" newspaper was the first to run the story, and it's been followed across the British media.

Basically, what seems to have happened is that Fathers for Justice, a campaigning group, a few extremists attached to that group or perhaps rejected by that group as being to extreme seem to have been overheard by security teams in the metropolitan police discussing the possibility of a plot to kidnap Leo Blair, the prime minister's 5- year-old youngest son. But as you say, there was no plot put into execution, nobody has been arrested and, indeed, police sources, the police aren't talking about this officially, nor Number 10, but police sources are suggesting that the group probably didn't have the resources to carry out anything like that anyway -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Robin, tell us what we know about this group.

OAKLEY: Well, basically, Fathers for Justice campaigns for fathers to get better access to their children in broken marriages where there has been legal action, separation, divorce and so on. And they have staged a number of high-profile stunts.

Basically, what they go for is direct action with a little bit of humor attached, dressing up in Batman costumes, for example, defeating the security at Buckingham Palace. There was an episode not far away down the end of Downing Street here when I was doing a story one day and looked up to see a couple of guys in Batman costumes edging along the parapet of the foreign office opposite.

Another case when they tossed -- two people got into the Stranger's Gallery in the House of Commons, tossed a couple of condoms containing purple flowers at Prime Minister Tony Blair while he was doing question time.

So that's the kind of stunt they've gone for. As they say, they would never get involved in anything like a kidnapping of a child, they are there to unite parents and children -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, OK. All right.

So I guess at this point, do we believe that what is being reported in the tabloids is wrong? Or was there something for real in the midst of all this coverage, do you think?

OAKLEY: No, I think the police have had to take an interest in the more extreme members attached to this group because of the way in which they've defied security at the House of Commons and so on. They have to be taken seriously.

I think this was something that they got into at a very early stage. It was probably just idle chatter in a bar among a few of the adherents of this cause. But they've had to take it seriously. And there's been a review once again of prime ministerial security, but this was not a serious threat, and of course this was nothing involving an organization like al Qaeda or anything as venomous as that -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Now I think we get it. A little pub talk that maybe got a little carried away there.

Robin Oakley, Number 10 Downing Street, thank you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: The Washington lobbying scandal is likely to cause some permanent changes in Congress. Democrats rolling out their lobbying reform plan today.

Republicans have already made some proposals, first saying they would ban all privately-funded travel. Investigators are looking at those golf trips paid for by lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Next, they say bar lawmakers from accepting gifts over $20. The current limit, $50, certainly enough to pay for lunch at an upscale Washington restaurant.

And then they ban former members who've become lobbyists from entry on to the House floor. Members of Congress would have to wait two years before they could take a job as a lobbyist, and they would lose their privileges to the Capitol's gym.

The scandal also reaches right inside the White House.

Let's get right to Suzanne Malveaux. She's there this morning.

Hey, Suzanne. Good morning.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey. Good morning, Soledad.

Well, you may know that Jack Abramoff raised more than $100,000 for the Bush re-election campaign. The White House has returned some $6,000 of it that was directly contributed by Abramoff, his wife, and an Indian tribe that's named in the indictment. And of course it raises a lot of questions, the kind of contacts that he had here at the White House, specifically with the president or senior staff.

Yesterday, there was a letter that went out from the Democratic leader Harry Reid, asking the president to reveal those contacts to the public. Now, Scott McClellan, the press secretary, has been asked on this numerous occasions, and he repeated what he has said before, essentially what they have dug up in their records is that he has been to the White House for two Hanukkah celebrations, also some staff level meetings, what he said. But he would not give those details. What we did learn yesterday, however, is that there was a connection between the president's political adviser, Karl Rove, and Jack Abramoff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: My understanding is that Karl would describe it as more of a casual relationship than a business relationship. That is what he has said.

But if you've got specific matters that I need to look into, it's my point that I think it's your obligation to bring that to my attention. And I'll be glad to take a look into it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: There is surely no evidence of wrongdoing there. A relationship, yes. And that is where the White House is essentially leaving it. Unless there are details or accusations that specific people in the White House have had some sort of connection or were named in that indictment with Abramoff, then the White House is going to leave it just where it is -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning.

We're going to check ahead this morning, Suzanne, with Illinois Democrat Senator Barack Obama, talk about what the Democrats are going to do today about lobbying reform.

That's ahead this morning -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin eating some crow this morning. Not topped off with chocolate, we suspect.

He says he regrets that term "chocolate city," and he feels bad he suggested god's wrath at Americans, and African-Americans in particular had something to do with Katrina.

Gulf Coast Correspondent Susan Roesgen joining us from New Orleans.

Susan, you had a chance to talk to his honor yesterday. What did he tell you?

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Miles, the mayor said he was really sorry. He said that he didn't mean to say what he said, that it didn't come out right. He said he knows that he has offended a lot of people here. He says that was not his intent.

And he also says, more than anything else, he wishes that he had not talked about god wanting to be this city -- wanting this city to be a majority African-American city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: If I could take anything back, that's what I would take, any references to god. I think that was inappropriate for that particular setting. It was something that I had discussed with a minister several weeks before and, for some reason, it became top of my mind and it became part of that speech. It was totally inappropriate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROESGEN: And you know, Miles, I pressed him on that, and the mayor said he was just trying to remind people that before Katrina, this city was 67 percent African-American, and he wants tens of thousands of displaced African-Americans to feel encouraged to come home.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, and we certainly can't fault the mayor for that. We want to encourage people to come home. But nevertheless, these comments fell flat really in both communities, both black and white, didn't they?

ROESGEN: They really did, Miles. I talked to white residents who were angry and embarrassed and afraid that the mayor's comments put this city in such a bad light that it will help us as we try to get national support to recover. And white residents also told me that they feel betrayed.

The mayor has had overwhelming white support, and it is what helped him get elected four years ago. So they feel betrayed by the mayor's comments.

Black residents were a little bit more charitable, Miles. They also said that the mayor should not have said what he said, but they said, you know, we got it, we got what he was trying to do, he was trying to reach out to us to encourage us in a really rough time when so many of our homes had been wiped out, we know the mayor was trying to give us hope.

M. O'BRIEN: Susan Roesgen in New Orleans.

Thanks -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get right to the forecast this morning. Chad Myers has that.

Good morning, Chad. What are you looking at?

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, Senator Hillary Clinton certainly didn't mince words the other day. She said this: "The House of Representatives is run like a plantation." What did she mean? Should she apologize? We'll take a look at those comments ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: The speaker calls it over the top. You decide.

Also, trouble at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Andy tells us how the huge sell-off there might ripple through Wall Street this morning. S. O'BRIEN: And later, British royalty, or a royal phony? This guy told some U.S. high school kids he was the fifth duke of Cleveland. But when the students did some digging of their own, they were pretty shocked to find out who he really was.

That story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Christopher Columbus still on guard out there. He hasn't moved...

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: In the dark.

M. O'BRIEN: In the dark, doing what he's got to do. Keeping us safe here at Columbus Circle.

Andy Serwer is here to explain what Livedoor might be and why some nervousness about Livedoor and the Nikkei might impact you and your portfolio.

SERWER: That's right. Why we care.

M. O'BRIEN: That's it, the why we care moment, yes.

SERWER: Let's start off in Tokyo, because that's where the problems are right now.

A huge sell-off on the Nikkei yesterday following one on Tuesday. This all about an Internet scandal. A company called Livedoor which, frankly, no one had ever heard in the United States before on Wall Street and the investing community, it's an Internet company sort of like a Yahoo! or a Google, does Web services, has a big Web site, a portal -- you can actually check it out, livedoor.com. And this company is being investigated.

Its offices were raided. This precipitated a major sell-off in Japan, the second biggest market, stock market in the world. And, in fact, they had to close the doors of the exchange early and, in fact, hours will be shortened today.

So a big, big sell-off there. And this company is very small. It has ties to book publishing and the television industry as well, but in 2004, for instance, sales only about $278 million, which is a middle market company, as they call them. Really kind of a small fry.

M. O'BRIEN: But I think maybe because it's so high profile there, it's kind of a Yahoo! or Google-type company...

SERWER: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: ... that, you know, it had greater impact?

SERWER: And it has ties to these other businesses as well.

M. O'BRIEN: Right. SERWER: Now, the impact on Wall Street, a sell-off yesterday precipitated, in part, because of this situation, but also there were other things going on. The price of oil streaking to $67 a barrel. And weakness in tech stocks here.

Now, this is really part of what's going on. This is a chart of the Nikkei, the Japanese stock market, versus the Dow industrials. And you can see -- in 2005. And you can see just how far ahead the Nikkei, which is the red line, has gotten over the Dow.

In other words, stock prices in Japan were inflated, I think it's safe to say.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

SERWER: And so a lot of people are suggesting, market watchers, that the Japanese market was looking for an excuse to sell off and this Livedoor scandal sort of is what set it off.

M. O'BRIEN: And so, by inference, the fact that the -- the NYSE hasn't kind of followed along, it's not as inflated and thus -- well, you shouldn't necessarily expect the same thing.

SERWER: Right. In fact, there's going to be a big sell-off this morning. Futures are way down. But often, the Japanese market and the U.S. market are not at all correlated. So, in the 1990s and last year, two cases in point.

M. O'BRIEN: Excellent. Thank you, Andy Serwer -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, a little controversy over Senator Hillary Clinton's speech on Monday. She said the House of Representatives is run like a plantation. What did she mean? Did she go too far?

Senator Barack Obama is going to join us next live.

And then later, why would a British royal go to high school in Minnesota? That's what some students asked when this guy right here claimed to be a duke. They were shocked, though, when they found out who he really is.

That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Because of the Abramoff lobbying scandal, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are offering some new rules to crack down on lobbyists. Republicans pitched their plan on Tuesday. Democrats will unveil theirs today.

Here are some of the key points that the Republicans have put forward: Ban all privately funded travel, bar lawmakers from accepting gifts over $20, ban former members-turned-lobbyists from entry on to the House floor.

We heard Tuesday from Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I think we need to tighten even further the gift rules. A member of the Congress should be able to accept a baseball cap or a T-shirt from the proud students of a local middle school, but he or she doesn't need to be taken to lunch or dinner by Washington lobbyists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: What's the Democrats' plan look like?

Illinois Senator Barack Obama has got that.

Good morning, Senator. Nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: How are you, Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: I'm very well, thank you. What's the Democrats' plan look like?

OBAMA: Well, I think there are a couple of principles that are completely necessary in order for us to move forward here. Number one, gift bans, I think, should be clear and concise. There should be no acceptance of gifts from lobbyists: Super Bowl tickets, trips to Scotland of the sort that Tom DeLay got from Jack Abramoff. Travel bans, making sure that privately-funded groups aren't paying for trips, I think, is critical.

Closing down the revolving door that has been so commonplace, where you've got people who are in charge of passing a prescription drug bill, turning around and going to work for the big drug companies the following year. And improve disclosure so that people actually know the connection between who is, in fact, giving money and what they expect to be getting in return.

S. O'BRIEN: And so the Democrats' plan sounds kind of like the Republican plan, which I just mentioned a moment ago. What's different about it?

OBAMA: Well, I think it's terrific that the Republicans are getting religious on this. You know, over the last five years, what you've seen is a doubling of lobbying in Washington.

You've seen the K Street Project, an institution set up by Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, in which they were forcing lobbying firms to contribute only to Republicans and hire only Republicans if they wanted, in fact, to have an impact on legislation. And so it's not surprising that there's some scrambling going on in Washington now in terms of moving this forward.

I think the Democrats don't have a monopoly on virtue, but the Abramoff scandal is one sin that can't be attributed to the Democrats. And I think what we're hoping is there is a sincere bipartisan effort on both sides to eliminate this kind of corrosive culture of corruption that is taking hold in Washington over the last several years.

S. O'BRIEN: The newspaper "The Hill" says the proposals that will come forward today from the Democrats, each one is going to be named for a lobbyist or someone linked to the scandal. Is that correct?

OBAMA: Well, you know, I'm not sure exactly how the press release is going forward. I think that the basic principles involved should be that an ordinary voter and their representatives should have at least as much impact, if not more impact, on legislation than lobbyists who are getting hired at $40,000 a month. And that has not been the principle in Washington over the last several years.

S. O'BRIEN: We'll see how their named when they come out.

Let's talk a little bit about some of these Martin Luther King Day speeches. You know, everybody called out to make their speech. Some of them get more attention than others.

For example, Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, said this -- let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAGIN: This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way god wants it to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: He also said god is mad at America and that's why he is sending hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, on and on and on. He has obviously apologized, as I'm sure you've heard this morning.

What do you think of his remarks?

OBAMA: Well, he apologized, and I think that was probably the right thing to do. If I'm the mayor of New Orleans, I want everybody to come back. And, you know, it sounded like maybe Mayor Nagin had been talking a little too much to Pat Robertson when he attributed hurricanes to our policies.

I think the mayor was correct when he tried to recant the statements that he made.

S. O'BRIEN: How about Hillary Clinton when she said -- used the word "plantation" to describe the House of Representatives? Let's listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation. And you know what I'm talking about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Some of those plantation owners/residents took a little great exception to that word, "plantation."

What do you think of that?

OBAMA: Well, I think what Senator Clinton was referring to was the topic that we were earlier discussing, and that is there's been a consolidation of power by the Republican Congress and this White House in which if you are the ordinary voter, you don't have access. Dick Cheney will call in major oil companies to write the energy bill. Tom DeLay will work with those who are participating in the K Street Project in terms of writing critical legislation. And the ordinary voter and even members of Congress who aren't in the majority party don't have much input.

And I think it's that kind of concern that you've got more and more concentration of power on behalf of special interests and money interests in Washington that should be a source of concern for all of us.

S. O'BRIEN: Barack Obama is the senator from Illinois.

Nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us this morning, Senator.

OBAMA: Great to talk to you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you.

OBAMA: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, after 37 years apart, a man is reunited with his long-lost love. True love, a '68 Vet. International blue it was. Now he's a little more silver and so is the car.

How did police finally track it down and reunite the two? We'll talk to the happy owner in just a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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