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American Morning

President Set to Lift a Veil Over Secret War on Terror; Cartoon Outrage

Aired February 09, 2006 - 08:31   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.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of joggers out there, Miles, this morning.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Nice morning for it. A little chilly, but that will keep them moving, won't it, along Central Park there in New York City.

The president is set to lift a veil over the secret war on terror. He will deliver a speech in about 90 minutes. You'll see it here on CNN of course, and we are told he will talk about, among other things, a thwarted airline terror plot in 2002. Live now to the White House and Suzanne Malveaux to fill us in.

Suzanne, what do we know?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, should be clear about this, this is a terror plot that the White House has talked about in the past, one of 10 filed plots that the president has talked about, as well as the administration, putting out some facts about it. What we know is that they'll offer greater detail about how that plot was foiled. It is the West Coast airliner plot. Some of the details. It was disrupted. It happened around mid 2002, a plot to attack targets, multiple targets, on the West Coast, using hijacked airplanes, and then also one of the plotters, including a major operational planner involved in the September 11th attacks. That has already been put out there.

What we understand there will be greater detail about how that plot was actually unfoiled. The other aspect of this, of course, the president will continue to talk about the war on terror. He'll be praising the National Guard for their work in Afghanistan and Iraq, also as well as the rescue efforts from hurricane Katrina, but all of this, Miles, as you know a part of the larger effort of this administration to sell the global war on terror to the Americans.

O'BRIEN: Well, and specifically the issue of domestic surveillance, is the president going to make a link between the issue of domestic surveillance and the efforts to thwart that plot?

MALVEAUX: We've actually asked that, Miles. They won't give us that level of detail at this time. He is going to, however, as he does often, is defend that domestic spy program, saying that it is crucial to surveil and go after al Qaeda and their communications. We don't know whether or not that's actually connected to some of the new details. We'll learn about that West Coast plot.

O'BRIEN: We'll have tune in, and that's what we will do right here on CNN, 9:55 Eastern Time.

Suzanne Malveaux, North Lawn of the White House, thank you very much.

(NEWSBREAK)

VERJEE: To that cartoon outrage now, Condoleezza Rice says some in the Muslim world are inciting protests, and she's pointing the finger at two long-time thorns in Washington's side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECY. OF STATE: Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes, and the world ought to call them on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERJEE: Fawaz Gerges is the author of "The Far Enemy, Why Jihad Went Global." He's also a professor at Sarah Lawrence College, and he joins us now. Thanks you so much for being with us.

Is Secretary Rice right? Are countries like Iran and Syria just exploiting the controversy for their own benefit and political motive?

FAWAZ GERGES, SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE: Zain, the widespread protests are much wider and bigger than any political role that Syria and Iran could play. That does not mean that Iran is not trying to use the particular controversy for political purposes, but I think many Muslims really feel that the cartoon controversy basically really goes to the heart of their Islamic identity and their spiritual values.

VERJEE: Is their identity in the Muslim and the Islamic world in crisis?

GERGES: Absolutely. I think many Muslims are really genuinely offended by the depiction of their prophet, and they also believe the Islamic identity basically are violated, under tack. And lets's remember here, I think many Muslims believe there is a war being waged in the west against Islam and Muslims, and the cartoon controversy is just another battle in the wider Western war against Islam and Muslims.

VERJEE: The White House, other governments in the West around the world have said that is absolutely not the case. The war on terror is not a war on Islam, and they've really reached out and gone out of their way to make that point, but what about Islamic radicals In Denmark, inn other places, taking cartoons -- like "The Wall Street Journal" reported this, "The New York Times" reported it -- the cartoons published in the Danish paper, as well as others that weren't, and used that to inflame the situation. How are they able to just do that and create this sort of controversy? GERGES: Zain, there are several factors involved here. I think the first factor, as you said, is that the crisis itself really shows the deepening cultural divide between the Muslim world and the Christian West.

VERJEE: What do you mean?

GERGES: On the one hand, Muslims say, listen, your cartoon controversy is part of this wider war waged against Islam and Muslims, is part of the war on terror.

VERJEE: So they don't get the freedom of speech argument.

GERGES: Not at all. They say, look, freedom of speech, why do you have to offend our deepest spiritual value, our Islamic identity? On the other hand, you're absolutely correct, there are some militant Islamists, and of course we know the Iranian government are trying to manipulate and use the political controversy for their own political purposes, but I think there are larger issues here involved.

VERJEE: What?

GERGES: The most important issue in the eyes of Muslims is that Islamic values, the Islamic identity, and I think in this particular sense the protest reflect what I call a state of mind that senses internal and external danger. It's a besieged state of mind. You are attacking us continuously. This is part of you're war against us, against our Islamic identity.

VERJEE: Even if that were the case, if that's how they are perceiving it, what does one do in this situation now today? Because it only appears to be escalating. I mean, you've got the Iranians saying, well, we're going to solicit cartoons now, and you know, about the Holocaust. And I mean, where does it send? How should it be handled to diffuse it?

GERGES: Well, I think what we need to understand is that the leading Islamic clerics and religious authority basically have become very vocal in that condemnation of violence.

VERJEE: That doesn't help. It's not helping. Because the extremist voice is the one that's being heard.

GERGES: In a way it's helped. And most of the protest really have been peaceful. The exception just a few protests in Lebanon and Syria and Afghanistan. I think what we need to talk about, to keep talking, Zain, about -- we need dialogue. We need to talk. I think what we need is a genuine dialogue, a real dialogue.

VERJEE: How?

GERGES: We need to deepen the cultural, intellectual and social links between Muslim societies and Western societies. And also the war on terror -- the war on terror has done a great deal of damage to the image of the West in the eyes of the Muslim. Because I suggested earlier, in the eyes of Muslim majorities, the war on terror is really a war against Islam and Muslims.

And the question is, how do you link Muslim societies with Christian societies? How do you deepen the links? How do you connect with Muslim societies? And fortunately, the cartoon controversy does not help matters. It exacerbates an already raging fire between the Muslim world and the Christian world.

VERJEE: Professor Fawas Gerges of Sarah Lawrence College. Thank you so much.

GERGES: My pleasure.

VERJEE: Good to see you.

GERGES: Same here, thank you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Andy, "Minding Your Business" just ahead. What do you have, Andy?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: I'm doing that, Miles. Just how proficient are top-U.S. executives in foreign languages? You'll be surprised.

VERJEE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SERWER: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

O'BRIEN: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SERWER: OK, enough of that. Plus.

VERJEE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SERWER: There I'm lost with the German. I don't (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

Oprah has a new job, too, coming up on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay tuned. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VERJEE: President Bush's call for global competitiveness could be facing a language barrier. Andy Serwer is here. With the (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

SERWER: I'm lost already. How many languages do you speak?

VERJEE: I speak two. I speak Swahili, which is a Kenyan language, and a little bit of Gadrathe (ph), which is an Indian dialect.

SERWER: And then there's English.

O'BRIEN: I think there's English. That would be three.

VERJEE: OK, there's English. There's a little French, there's a little German. My Aramaic is OK.

SERWER: Excellent. Well, this probably won't surprise you, Zain, but top U.S. executives are striking out when it comes to languages. And as you suggest, just when global competitiveness is becoming more and more important, only one of five CEOs running the top -- the largest companies in the United States speaks a foreign language. And this would be Rick Wagoner, the CEO of GM, who speaks Portuguese. He was head of Brazilian operations.

O'BRIEN: That's really useful.

SERWER: Well, it's useful in Brazil. How about these gentleman, though? Lee Scott at Wal-Mart, global company, nothing. Rex Tillerson, Exxon, a very global company, nothing. Bill Ford, Jeff Immelt, nothing, nothing, nothing. No languages there at all.

And listen to this. Speaking of China, we were talking earlier, 200 million Chinese students are learning English. Twenty-four thousand U.S. students are learning Chinese. And only 1 percent of American students are learning languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, Japanese and Russian, languages that are no doubt very important.

We're still sort of stuck on French and Spanish. Spanish obviously very, very important. French, you could argue less important than learning some of the other languages. And companies don't have language programs, which really sort of surprises me, that, you know, they wouldn't be teaching their own.

O'BRIEN: We're pretty provincial about these things. What about you for languages? What do you got?

SERWER: I (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) French, which is the language of love, the language of wine and the language of food.

VERJEE: That's all you need to know.

SERWER: That's what I really care about.

O'BRIEN: You're all about the love.

SERWER: A couple other things I want to talk about.

VERJEE: How about you?

O'BRIEN: Pig Latin.

SERWER: Oh, you want to do that? Pig Latin?

All right, can I do another thing here I want to tell you about? We want to just skip over to Oprah's new deal here and tell you that she has a new gig, this just crossing the tape a few minutes ago. She's signed a three-year deal, $55 million to do...

O'BRIEN: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SERWER: ... an XM radio show. Who doesn't have a satellite radio show?

O'BRIEN: I believe we don't. I think it's our turn.

SERWER: And you know, she's not getting paid as much as Howard Stern. He's getting paid ten times as much.

VERJEE: How much is he getting paid again?

SERWER: Five-hundred million.

VERJEE: That's it?

SERWER: That's it.

O'BRIEN: Weekly show?

SERWER: Yes, I think. It seems like it's less than. Right.

O'BRIEN: All right.

VERJEE: Andy, always a pleasure.

SERWER: Merci.

VERJEE: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

O'BRIEN: Mucho mas to come ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Ahead on "A.M. Pop," the 48th Annual Grammy Awards are in the books and from the big winners to the big losers, we've got you covered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERYL CROW, MUSICIAN: And the Grammy goes to...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: A Grammy edition of "A.M. Pop" is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMEMRCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: If you stayed up and watched the Grammy Awards, you might be regretting that now, perhaps on a couple of levels, but we'll get to that in a molt. The Grammy edition of "AM Pop" is here now for those of you who didn't. See, we keep you covered here. You don't have to stay up. Just tune in to AMERICAN MORNING, and you get all you need to know to go to water cooler.

Christopher John Farley, author of several books on music. He's way overqualified for this gig, including the soon to be published book "Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley."

Looking forward to seeing that one when it comes out. Soon on that?

CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY, AUTHOR & MUSIC EXPERT: It will come out soon, in May.

O'BRIEN: Excellent. Good to have you with us this morning.

FARLEY: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: You were up late, so we didn't have to.

FARLEY: That's right. I'm like TiVo, I'm a living TiVo.

O'BRIEN: A living TiVo, the human TiVo.

FARLEY: That's right.

O'BRIEN: Tell us, U2, on one dimension, not a surprise, kind of a perennial favorite. On the other dimension, everybody was talking about Mariah Carey in advance of this. What happened?

FARLEY: Well, you know, I think they say the Grammys were on a five-second delay. They're really on to, like, a 10-year delay. Here are veterans who've been around for awhile finally getting their nomination due. Mariah Carey was finally going to get her major awards. That didn't happen. She won in some minor categories. U2 was really the big winner of the night, winning everything they were nominated for, including the big awards, such as song of the year and album of the year.

O'BRIEN: And essentially it's kind of, oh gosh, we forgot about Sly Stone, let's bring him in, too. It's kind of like they have two left feet, and as you say, they're a little bit behind the beat.

FARLEY: Yes, I that I Grammy voters tend to go for tradition, they tend to go to veterans they know. I think they're a little confused by modern music. I think a lot of Grammy voters probably tuned in and said like, Joss Stone, Sly Stone, are they related? What's going on here? So, you saw the veterans win a lot of big categories, people like Kanye West, who were talked up a lit, didn't come through with major awards. He won in some of the rap categories, but West for the most part -- I could say West went south, but that would demean your program and take it down.

O'BRIEN: No, no, no, that's exactly what we love.

FARLEY: I wouldn't stoop to that kind of a pun.

O'BRIEN: So the Grammys are aptly named. It's a bunch of Grammys that are voting, I guess, maybe.

Let's talk about Kelly Clarkson, from "American Idol" to Grammy. That's quite a road, a journey there. What do you think that's all about?

FARLEY: Well, the big winner last night was Simon Cowell, because finally, all of the things she says on that program, all his bluster was finally rewarded with Grammys. She's the first American Idol to come home with Grammys. She won two of them, an upset winner over Mariah Carey, who was really favored in pop vocal female, and it shows that she's not only someone who can win a popularity contest, she can win another popularity contest and win in a big way.

O'BRIEN: Right, and get up there and say, take this, Simon! There you go.

This would make my daughter happy. I didn't let her stay up late. I hope she wasn't staying up late. She has a way of sneaking in and watching. Green Day, big them for them.

FARLEY: Green Day, Boulevard of Broken Dreams...

O'BRIEN: Great album, it really is. I mean an album, which you don't have a finally crafted album anymore.

FARLEY: Well, that's a key thing. People didn't think they had it in them, because they started out this punk band known for short punky songs. Here they are with a big concept album, "American Idiot." The album was released, I think, back in the summer of 1979, it seems.

O'BRIEN: It's been around, hasn't it, yes?

FARLEY: I think the initial punk explosion back in the '70s, and here it is, it's still winning Grammys. Record of the year for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams."

O'BRIEN: Final thought, just your take on the show overall?

FARLEY: The big winner, again, was really sort of decorum, because no one really did anything outrageous.

O'BRIEN: How boring. Decorum is boring.

FARLEY: No one was out of control. I think you have to wait for the MTV Video Music Awards to really see that.

O'BRIEN: A little more relevant, I think, with the youngsters.

FARLEY: I think so.

O'BRIEN: All right. The Grammys are for the grannies.

Christopher Farley, thanks as always, for being with us. We look forward to seeing your book and we look forward to seeing you in the interim, of course.

Once again, it is "Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley." It's coming out in May -- Zain.

VERJEE: Miles, coming up, all of the big names are at New York City's Fashion Week, but there are plenty of up-and-comers too. Ahead, we're going to bring you the trials and the tribulations of a young designer trying to hit it big.

Plus, we'll tell you about a crime-busting kitten. Yes, find out why this cat went undercover for the NYPD blue. That's ahead here on AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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