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American Morning
Iraq In Turmoil; Blackberry Blues; Minding Your Business; Mardi Gras World
Aired February 24, 2006 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: To a guy whose family has owned that company for 70 years. They had so much damage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Big debate, do you have the celebration or maybe, you know, maybe it's inappropriate to celebrate when so many people have lost so much. We'll talk about that ahead this morning.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's interesting. A lot of people are concerned it sends the wrong message. In other words, we're OK when, in fact, they're not.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Or we're having a party when we don't have a roof over our heads.
MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.
And, of course, Blackberries. We're going to talk about the Blackberry ruling, which has been a focus of our attention this morning in many respects.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer's spinning out of control on the Blackberry issue.
MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, he must know what NTP is all about. That's the company that holds a similar patent to RIM, which runs the Blackberry organization. They've been suing Blackberry saying, hey, we deserve a piece of the action here. And, in any case, a judge today may, in fact, decide one way or another whether the Blackberries will be shut off.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, we'll see.
MILES O'BRIEN: We'll see.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Let's get a look at some of the other stories making news. Kelly's got that.
Kelly, good morning.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Good morning, again.
And good morning, everyone.
There is an Amber Alert out this morning for a missing eight- year-old Florida boy. Police believe Jared McGuire, seen here, was kidnaped. According to authorities, the boy was forced into a van by a man described as being white with a goatee. They also say the little boy is autistic.
President Bush expect to speak out this morning about the growing tensions in Iraq. He's set to give a speech just about two and a half hours from now. He's focusing on the war on terror. And CNN will be carrying that speech live from Washington beginning at 10:05 a.m. Eastern.
Some lawmakers getting more time to look into that controversial U.S. ports deal. This after a firestorm from both Democrats and Republican lawmakers who argue that the arrangement would threaten America's security. A state-owned Arab company has agreed to delay taking over operations at six American ports. No word on how long this delay will last.
A pre-trial hearing today for Andrea Yates. She's being tried again in the drowning deaths of her children after her conviction was overturned. But new testimony cited in court documents could challenge her insanity plea. A fellow inmate claims Yates coached her on how to pretend to be mentally ill. Yates' lawyer calls the account bogus.
Phoenix police say a hostage standoff may have started with a job dispute. The suspect apparently held nine people at gun point in an office on federal property. He released them hours later without injury, then gave himself up and he's now in custody this morning.
And a third arrest in what's being called one of the biggest heists in British history. Police detained a woman early this morning in south London. Detectives arrested a man and another woman earlier on Thursday. They're all believed to be connected to an armed robbery from a cash depot. The group apparently made off with about $88 million.
That gets you caught up on some of the headlines. Now back to Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Kelly. Back with you in just a little bit.
The Iraqi government going to extremes to try to stop that violence sparked by the bombing of a Shiite holy shrine. Baghdad streets today, take a look, a day time curfew in effect. You can walk, but no cars. Very reminiscent of the security surrounding the elections. No chances for the delivery of bombs or gunmen and, as a result, very quiet. President Bush has been condemning the violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So I'm pleased with the voices of reason that have spoken out. And we will continue to work with those voices of reason to enable Iraq to continue on the path of a democracy that unites people and doesn't divide them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MILES O'BRIEN: Is Iraq on the brink of civil war? We'll ask our two guests right now. Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute, and Jane Arraf of the Council of Foreign Relations. Also CNN's former bureau chief in Baghdad.
Jane, let's begin with you. Brink of civil war. When does it go from brink to just plain old civil war?
JANE ARRAF, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Well, some people think we're there already, Miles. And with what's happened with the mosques, with the retribution, these next few days are going to be really crucial. In Iraq, people I've spoken to say that they've been thinking perhaps Iraqis say that they're more worried now than they've ever been. And this was even before the attack in Samarra. So it could actually be the beginnings already.
MILES O'BRIEN: Michael, would you agree?
MICHAEL RUBIN, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: I would say that the attack on the mosque is Iraq's 9/11. Iraqis are at the tipping point. They're pausing for reflection. But we'll know whether or not which way they're going toward civil war or not if this Iraqi army that we've put together starts to fracture at the seams and turn on itself.
MILES O'BRIEN: Ah, that's the next thing to watch then, what happens to the Iraqi army? Is that what you're watching most closely?
RUBIN: Yes. At this point, yes. The retributions have been quite unfortunate, but we're going to see whether people also listen to the Iraqi government's calls for calms or whether the Iraqi government is irrelevant at this point. What I would say is that every point in time after the bombing at the shine in Najaf in August 2003 and other key moments, the Iraqis have proven resilient and they know people are trying to spark a civil war and they don't want it. But the question is, when will their patience expire.
MILES O'BRIEN: Jane, you spent an awful lot of time with U.S. troops there, embedded with them. Being in the middle of a civil war is no place for them to be, is it?
ARRAF: It sure isn't, Miles, and it's a real fear. I've been at Ft. Leavenworth here at the army training center for the past couple of days where they're trying to come up with ways to fight counter insurgencies. And apart from all the difficulties of fighting an unconventional war like that, you throw this into the mix and it becomes almost impossible.
MILES O'BRIEN: Well, it's one thing to go after a counter insurgency which is sort of coming at you from one direction. When it's coming at you from all sides, what do you do?
ARRAF: There's not a whole lot they could do. I mean we want to be really realistic. They would need possibly to pour in more troops and even that wouldn't do it if is all out civil war. There's really no possibility they're going to pour in more troops. In fact, they were looking very closely, have been for a long time as we know, of withdrawing some of the troops this year. It's a terrible situation which will depend on the political aspect as well. People are watching very closely to see whether this government holds together.
MILES O'BRIEN: Michael, the notion of sending in more troops politically is going to go nowhere in the United States. Do you think it is time now for more serious discussion about pulling troops out altogether to avoid being in the midst of a civil war?
RUBIN: Well, first of all, we're not in a civil war yet. And second of all, one of the issues -- I think Jane was right on, but you can correlate the degree in violence and the lack of confidence among Iraqis with some of the talk of drawing down U.S. forces. Perhaps the first step would be to freeze the draw down on U.S. forces. We simply don't need to go there yet. But the most dangerous aspect would be to create a vacuum at this point in time and the Iraqis seem to recognize that and Ambassador Khalilzad has made that point clear in his dealings with the Iraqis over the last couple days.
MILES O'BRIEN: Doesn't that put the U.S. troops, though, in a very difficult position? Essentially putting targets on their back in the middle of a civil war potentially?
RUBIN: But we're not in a civil war. What I would strongly suggest is, if we do pull the troops back, then we will have a civil war. One of the other issues, though, I believe the International Crisis Group just did a analysis of Iraqi insurgent rhetoric. And what they've determined is that since around November, the Iraqi insurgent have been basically shifting their rhetoric to say that they've been winning.
If we're going to be successful in Iraq, we have to determine why they think that they've been winning and we've got to put a stop to that. What I would argue is that the insurgents have been reacting to some of the rhetoric coming out of Washington and we need to reinforce the fact that we're in this until we're successful and that we're not going to abandon the Iraqis again.
MILES O'BRIEN: All right. We'll leave it at that. Michael Rubin with the American Enterprise Institute.
RUBIN: Thank you.
MILES O'BRIEN: Jane Arraf, Council on Foreign Relations, former CNN Baghdad Bureau chief, on sabbatical now. We'll see you back soon. Thank you both.
RUBIN: Thanks.
ARRAF: Thanks very much.
MILES O'BRIEN: Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Lots of Blackberry users are asking if they're going to be singing the blues over their Blackberries. A court hearing today could determine the future of this hand-held communication advice. That hearing in Richmond, Virginia. That's where we find our own technology guru, Daniel Sieberg.
Daniel, good morning to you. What exactly happens at this hearing?
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Yes, it's all about this, the almighty Blackberry. You see everybody from private users to government users using them. They're just about everywhere. Those are people who bump into building occasionally. This court hearing today here at the U.S. District Court in Richmond, Virginia, is all about whether or not there will be an injunction in place that will effectively start to shut down the Blackberry service.
Now this has been going on for a long time. This legal battle between RIM, Research In Motion, which makes the Blackberry, and NTP, a small patent holdings company in Virginia that claims the rights to this wireless technology. It's been going on for several years. There's been no financial settlement in place, even though we're (ph) talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. So we could see a decision here today.
Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: OK. So let's say the judge comes up with a decision and, in fact, Blackberry gets shut down. Does that mean that the service just ends and those of us that own Blackberries are just out of luck or everybody goes to a competition? What happens?
SIEBERG: Well, there are a lot of subsets in this particular case. The judge, if he decides to issue an injunction, he could delay this for a while. But if he decides to issue an injunction, there will likely be a 30-day grace period. Even NTP has allowed that to happen. They know a lot of people would have to make contingency plans. And RIM has actually said that it has a work-around technology so that the Blackberry users could continue using their device. They may have to get an upgrade or a new piece of software. But NTP also want this to be the end of Blackberry sales in the U.S. So if this injunction goes forward today, that's another implication in all this.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, could be a big old mess for Blackberry users is what you're saying, I think, in short hand.
Daniel Sieberg, thank you for the update.
Time to get a look at the weather, 39 minutes past the hour. Bonnie's got that.
Hey Bonnie. Good morning again.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MILES O'BRIEN: All right, Andy Serwer has dropped in again.
ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have. Got some stuff to tell you about.
How about this, a computer ten free iPods, a $10,000 gift certificate all for 99 cents. SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I'll take it.
SERWER: We'll tell you how that deal went down coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
MILES O'BRIEN: No new car?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MILES O'BRIEN: All right, how long did it take McDonald's to get a billion served? Years and years and years.
SERWER: Yes.
MILES O'BRIEN: It took the iTune folks about two years, right?
SERWER: Three years, I think.
MILES O'BRIEN: Three years, right?
SERWER: Three years, yes, to get a billion songs downloaded off the site.
MILES O'BRIEN: This is Andy Serwer, by the way.
SERWER: Hello.
Hey, Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN: And you're an iPod guy.
SERWER: I am.
MILES O'BRIEN: And were you trying to get that billion song? Were you on there?
SERWER: I didn't know anything about this. I don't think anyone really knew about this.
MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: This is a story -- it's sort of like the music lovers version of winning Powerball. Yesterday, this is a story in "The New York Times" if you want to check this out, a young man named Alex Ostrovsky, 16-years-old, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, downloaded the Cold Play song "Speed of Sound" just innocently enough and bought it and put it on his iPod. A few hours later, a phone call from Apple Computer telling him he downloaded the one billionth song from the iTunes store.
MILES O'BRIEN: Wow. All of this happening at the speed of light, really, if you think about it.
SERWER: Yes. Indeed. Show them what he won. OK, what did you win? Here's what he won.
MILES O'BRIEN: A new car.
SERWER: A 20-inch iMac, 10 iPods, a 10,000 dollar gift card for the iTune store. And they even establish a scholarship in his name at Julliard, the music school here in New York City, which is kind of interesting.
MILES O'BRIEN: Now is he music-oriented or is that just because of the music connection?
SERWER: He just likes tunes. He likes Cold Play now.
MILES O'BRIEN: Is he the most popular kid in school at West Bloomfield today?
SERWER: He's going to be.
MILES O'BRIEN: I think so.
SERWER: He's going to be because, hey, can you -- brother, can you lend me some iTunes?
MILES O'BRIEN: Can you hook me up with an iPod here?
SERWER: Yes. Hook me up with an iPod or buy me about 50 songs? All interesting stuff there.
Hey, one thing I wanted to tell -- Soledad earlier was asking about the calories on that new Heineken light beer.
MILES O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes. We're talking about Heines.
SERWER: Heines, yes. And we figured that out, 99 calories, Soledad, 6.8 carbs. That's as opposed to regular Heineken, which is 166 calories and 9.88 carbs.
Meanwhile, I want to tell you about a tidy little business program.
MILES O'BRIEN: I've heard of this program.
SERWER: It's called "In The Money."
MILES O'BRIEN: I frequently Tivo it.
SERWER: Myself and Jack Cafferty are doing it. It's on Saturdays at 1:00, Sundays at 3:00. And we've got a news segment called "View From The Top."
MILES O'BRIEN: That's not a very good picture of you, by the way.
SERWER: That's Craig Barrett who is the chairman of Intel. We're going to be interviewing him on the program. Hope you can enjoy us.
MILES O'BRIEN: We will be tuning in. Thank you very much. SERWER: Good. Thank you.
MILES O'BRIEN: Is there a pod cast to that show? You've got to work on that?
SERWER: Yes, I should.
MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, might be good.
SERWER: Maybe on the eighth day of the week.
MILES O'BRIEN: Right. All right, Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: With all your free time, right?
SERWER: Yes.
MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, with your free time.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Hey, have you guys heard about this protest? The mayor of the town that was hit very hard by Hurricane Katrina is wearing shorts. Says he's making a statement about his town's troubles. We'll explain exactly what he's doing.
Mardi Gras is going to look a little bit different this year. Well, obviously, due to Hurricane Katrina. We're going to talk to a guy who's making lots of the floats. The family's actually had that job for 70 years. They too were hammered in the wake of the hurricane. We've got their story ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, you know that sound. It's the sound of Mardi Gras. It's back on track, sort of, in New Orleans. This is a procession by the Krewe of Muses. It features something else too and it was this. Look at that. The empty float. And that's, of course, the lives that were lost from Hurricane Katrina. You just caught a glimpse of it there.
Mardi Gras is scaled back a bit this year. Sentiment, though, I think to some degree it's fair to say, is the same. Let the good times roll. Brian Kern's Mardi Gras World is responsible for many of the floats you see at Mardi Gras and he's in New Orleans this morning.
Hey, Brian. Good morning. Nice to see you.
BRIAN KERN, MARDI GRAS WORLD: Good morning.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: How much did you -- how badly did Hurricane Katrina damage your family business?
KERN: Well, we had about a million dollars worth of damage to our warehouses, which isn't a whole lot when you consider, you know, a prop behind us cost about $5,000 to $10,000 to build. We lost about 15 floats, but we have great people here and we were able to rebuild everything and get it ready for this year's carnival season. SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And so big losses. But I guess in the scheme of things, not quite as bad as it could have been.
You're still going forward, obviously, as Mardi Gras has been, you know, underway, essentially, with the big day coming up. How much are you cutting back, though?
KERN: Well, I mean, well, the crowds are a little bit small this year, but, overall, the parades are pretty much the same size as they were last year. The Krewe of Endymion, which rolls tomorrow night, is actually going to have about a hundred more riders. Right before Katrina, we were scheduled to build six new floats for them and they were going to not do it and then they decided to do it because they had so many people interested in riding this year that they decided to go ahead and do it. And they're riding with more people this year.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, you know, I guess some -- that kind of leads me to the next question, which is about whether, you know, people are supporting Mardi Gras celebrations or against them. I mean, I've got to tell you, last week when I was in New Orleans, and in Mississippi, there were so many people who said to me, it's not only wrong, it's an insult that you would go ahead with the party when I have tarp on my roof, you know, or I'm sleeping in a trailer and here you are celebrating in New Orleans, you know, and I live in a tent. You know, that's what they said.
KERN: Well, I understand that and I understand people's concerns. I mean, a lot of bad things have happened. But if you know New Orleaneans who are very resilient and the show must go on. Mardi Gras carnival in New Orleans is a billion dollar industry. It's the backbone of the tourism economy and we need it more than ever this year. We need people to start coming back to New Orleans and visiting and spending money here.
Frankly, I don't want the government to come in and just hand out money. I want people to visit, spend money in our hotels, restaurants and get this economy back up and running again. We employ a hundred people here. If we wouldn't have had Mardi Gras this year, that would have be a hundred people without jobs. And we're just one, little, small portion of the whole Mardi Gras, you know, puzzle.
And it's real important that it takes place this year. And, plus, we want to tell the rest of the world that we're back open, come on down. And if you don't come for Mardi Gras, make sure you come in April and visit us for Jazz Fest. It's probably one of the best . . .
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You're like the city's PR guys also, in addition to your other job as well.
Let me ask you a question. I heard that the Zulu parade on Tuesday, I guess, that your dad actually went to Africa to get -- to recruit some Zulu warrior. Is that right?
KERN: Yes, he -- my dad has been wanting to do this for like 20 years. And he's bringing in 20 Zulu warriors to march on Lundi Gras down on Spanish Plaza, and then on Mardi Gras Day in the Krewe of Zulu.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's going to be pretty exciting, I think. Brian Kern is with Mardi Gras World. It's nice to talk to you, Brian. Good luck. We'll see you down there.
KERN: OK.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We're going to be heading down. As we've been talking about, AMERICAN MORNING's going to be reporting not only on Mardi Gras celebrations, obviously, but on a lot of what is happening and what's facing the Gulf region, some of the problems, some of the highlights, some of the low lights six months after Hurricane Katrina. AMERICAN MORNING's coming to you live from the Gulf Coast and that begins on Monday.
Ahead this morning, a look at the day's top stories. That deal to hand over U.S. ports to a state-owned Arab company is on hold.
And Iraq establishes a day time curfew. They're trying to control the violence there.
Plus, the Philippines declares a state of emergency amid massive protests there.
And a seven-hour hostage crisis is over in Phoenix. We'll tell you how it ended.
Plus, Sasha Cohen, she takes the silver in Torino. We're going to get former Gold Medalist Scott Hamilton's take on the Olympics thus far.
That's all ahead. Stay with us. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Good morning. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien.
That controversial port contract on hold for now. A political storm over the deal still going strong, though.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: An unusual daytime curfew in Baghdad. Some drastic steps to try to stop the escalating violence there.
And a state of emergency this morning in the Philippines as the government deals with massive protests and also a possible coo attempt.
MILES O'BRIEN: A call for attention. The mayor of one Gulf Coast city warns recovery after Katrina is slow going and he's getting kind of short about it, if you will.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So to speak.
And Sasha Cohen stumbles early on but she takes the silver. A closer look at what happened yesterday with Scott Hamilton.
That's ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
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