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American Morning

Immigration Battle; Moussaoui Bombshell; Preacher Shot Dead; Israel Votes; GM Layoffs

Aired March 28, 2006 - 06:00   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. Welcome, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Roberts in for Miles O'Brien who is on assignment today. Good morning to you.

O'BRIEN: More protests to tell you about as the debate over immigration now moves to the next level and setting up what will likely become a showdown in the Senate.

And a bombshell in the Moussaoui case.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bob Franken in Alexandria, Virginia, where defense attorneys for Zacarias Moussaoui will try to undo the damage he did on the stand. That's coming up.

ROBERTS: No plea from the wife accused of killing her minister husband. His funeral later on this morning.

Pink slips for hundreds of white-collar workers at the nation's largest automaker, but will it help put the brakes on GM's sinking earnings?

O'BRIEN: And a pre-Iraq war memo revealed. Did President Bush and Tony Blair plan to invade Iraq no matter what?

We begin talking about immigration this morning. Amnesty for undocumented workers is likely to be the main bone of contention in the Senate today as immigration reform takes the next step.

The debate was already in full voice in many places on Monday. Take a look at these pictures where thousands of students skipped school in Los Angeles to voice their opinions. Some even had a chance to meet with L.A.'s mayor. An even larger group clogged the streets of Detroit.

The protests focus on a controversial provision that would make illegal immigrants felons. That did not make it into the Senate bill, which was finally hammered out last night.

CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash has much more on what they'll be talking about.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The idea of creating a guest worker program that puts illegal immigrants on the path to citizenship is now in the hands of the full U.S. Senate.

Last night, four Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee joined eight Democrats in approving the measure which would allow illegal workers who have been working in the United States for six years to apply for permanent citizenship, but only after paying a $2,000 fine and going through extensive security background checks.

Now the committee was split when it comes to Republicans, and that's not a big surprise. This is an issue that rips apart the GOP and is ladened with election-year politics.

Now, as for the White House, they were careful not to specifically endorse this measure, but Mr. Bush has been very much supporting the idea of a guest worker program since he has been in office. And Senate Republicans who do support this say it is time for him to get involved if he wants to see this measure on his desk this year.

Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Coming up in our next hour, Lou Dobbs, who has been focusing on the nation's "Broken Borders." We're going to talk with him about the immigration battle. That's just ahead.

ROBERTS: In this morning's CNN "Security Watch," Zacarias Moussaoui may be closer to facing a death sentence. For the first time he has admitted in court that he knew about the September 11 attacks in advance and that he hoped to take part in them, he says, by crashing a plane into the White House.

AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken joins us live from the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia.

And good morning, Bob. What will the defense team do today to try to undo all the damage done yesterday?

FRANKEN: Well, we have one of these situations where the attorneys for Zacarias Moussaoui are going to try and undermine the credibility of Zacarias Moussaoui. He not only said that he had at least the general outline knowledge of the plan for an attack that resulted in the September 11 attacks, but also that he lied to investigators about it, which is key to the prosecution case saying that he deserves the death penalty because he had a responsibility to tell the truth and the truth might have caused actions by the government to prevent the attacks.

Also, he said that he originally was part of a plan to pilot a fifth plane, a plane that would go into the White House. And made the claim that some considered bizarre that one of the people on his crew was Richard Reid. Richard Reid is now known as the Shoe Bomber because he had tried in December of 2001 to detonate a bomb in his shoe before he was overcome by other passengers, about 200 passengers on a plane that was going from Paris to Miami.

So, now the defense attorneys have to try and undermine, as I said, his credibility. They are putting on depositions from some captured terrorists saying that in reality Moussaoui was nothing more than a fringe player, not the significant one that he says he is -- John.

ROBERTS: Bob, how damaging was Moussaoui's testimony yesterday? Some legal eagles have called it suicide.

FRANKEN: Well, the prosecution had been characterized by a bunch of missteps. Everybody was believing that the prosecution was harming its own case. Now we find that the defense and the person, Zacarias Moussaoui, is doing the most damage to his case.

ROBERTS: Right. All right, Bob, we'll get back to you later on this morning.

Bob Franken live outside the courthouse in Alexandria, thanks.

And stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Accused of gunning down her husband, a minister at a Tennessee church, Mary Winkler sits this morning in jail. She's awaiting a bail hearing. Her first day in court, though, on Monday, provided little insight about her case.

Rusty Dornin has the latest for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Mourners stood in line for hours for a visitation for Matthew Winkler, the very popular pastor here in Selmer, Tennessee. His wife, Mary, confessed to planning and killing her husband last week. Mary Winkler appeared very briefly in court on Monday afternoon saying very little.

Police are still not saying what the motive was in this killing. We should hear more during her preliminary hearing on Thursday. That's when the state will present their evidence.

Meantime, her husband, Matthew, will be laid to rest and funeral services will be held at the church where he preached more than a year.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Selmer, Tennessee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Israelis are voting right now. The government they chose today will signal the direction of Middle East peace, depending on how it deals with the West Bank settlements, the barrier dividing Israel from the Palestinians and the Palestinian government run by the militant Hamas group.

CNN's Guy Raz is outside a polling station in Jerusalem.

Guy, a lot at stake today in those elections.

GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed a lot at stake, John.

And for an election with so much at stake, it's perhaps surprising to learn that many Israelis are simply saying they will not vote. But whether turnout is low or high, the results of this election could really determine the future of this country for generations. That's because, in many ways, this election is a referendum about the country's relationship with the West Bank, how much of it Israel will hold on to, how much of it the country will give up.

Now the leading party, the centrist movement Kadima, founded by ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, is widely expected to take the most number of seats in this election. And the man at the helm of that party, Ehud Olmert, has promised that if he's elected, he will lay down this country's permanent borders by the year 2010, borders that, in the end, may include parts of the Palestinian West Bank.

Now it's a view widely supported by many Israelis today who have simply come to the view that peace, for the moment, is not in the cards and that separation will, in the end, bring stability -- John.

ROBERTS: Guy, how is Sharon's absence affecting this election?

RAZ: Well, remarkably the country has moved on. Of course Ariel Sharon was a very -- is a very popular figure, was a very popular prime minister and his political heirs, including Ehud Olmert, have tried to capitalize on that. In fact, Olmert's Kadima Party has used the slogan "Vote for us, the path of Ariel Sharon."

But no matter which man emerges as the prime minister after the results come in tonight, it's very clear that the next prime minister of Israel will come from the so-called New Generation of Israeli leaders -- John.

ROBERTS: And there was some violence at the polls today, Guy, tell us what happened there.

RAZ: Well, we understand that there was an attack, either a rocket attack or a mortar attack, from the Gaza Strip, which is now under Palestinian control, into Israel. It killed two Israelis. There are very few details about it. But we can say that security throughout the country has been very, very high over the past several weeks in anticipation of possible terror strikes ahead of this election.

ROBERTS: Guy Raz reporting for us from Jerusalem this morning.

Guy, thanks very much.

Time for a check now on the weather forecast. Chad Myers is at the CNN Center.

And, Chad, it looks like you may have some good news on the horizon. Yes.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I mean the East Coast is great today.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Back to you guys.

O'BRIEN: Amazing.

ROBERTS: They'll be happy about that.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

ROBERTS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, a secret memo of a private meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. The president was issuing an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, disarm or face war. But in this memo, was he thinking war is inevitable?

ROBERTS: Also, General Motors apparently ready to slash hundreds more jobs. We'll look at what it means for the future of the slumping automaker.

O'BRIEN: Plus, the courtroom battle over "The Da Vinci Code" heads back to bookstores. We'll explain just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Looking not bad so far.

O'BRIEN: No, it looks great. It looks great.

ROBERTS: A little bit of rain coming, though, through the mid- Atlantic states this morning.

O'BRIEN: Yes, kind of a bummer on that.

ROBERTS: So looks may be deceiving.

O'BRIEN: But, as they say, we need the rain.

Lots to get to this morning.

ROBERTS: Already we're talking like that, are we? Usually we save that sort of talk for July or August.

O'BRIEN: No, people just say that.

ROBERTS: Well, I guess. O'BRIEN: You know, make you feel better.

Let's get right to Carol, she's got an update on the top stories this morning.

Hey, Carol, good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It's a beautiful sunrise, though, don't you think? Earlier it was fantastic.

ROBERTS: Very nice out there.

COSTELLO: Very nice.

Good morning, everyone, and the headlines this morning.

"It's easier to buy radiation material for a dirty bomb than it is to buy cold medicine." That's the quote from Senator Norm Coleman. Says he was alarmed by the lack in U.S. security. This, after government investigators used fake documents to enter the United States and buy enough radioactive material for two dirty bombs. The teams are set to testify before a Senate panel in just about three hours.

Out of prison and seeking political asylum in the West. Abdul Rahman, an Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting to Islam to Christianity, still fearing for his life. Rahman was released from jail overnight, despite Monday's protests in Afghanistan. We'll have a live report for you coming up from Kabul.

A potential breakthrough in HIV/AIDS treatments, scientists say they may soon have a pill that could prevent infection. It's actually a combination of two drugs already on pharmacy shelves. It's shown great promise in monkeys. Early testing now being expanded to people.

New Orleans will hold city elections next month as scheduled. A federal judge refused to postpone the vote despite complaints from Jesse Jackson and the NAACP that much of the black community was scattered by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Mayor Ray Nagin is running for reelection. He's facing nearly two dozen opponents.

A key figure in the Reagan White House has died. Franklin Lyn Nofziger being remembered today for his fierce loyalty to President Reagan as press secretary and political adviser. Nancy Reagan called him one of the nicest men she's ever known. Nofziger died Monday from cancer. He was 81 years old.

Author Dan Brown's courtroom rivalry is moving to the best seller list. Today, a paperback edition of Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" goes on sale, you know, right before the release of the movie in May.

In the meantime, one of Brown's courtroom rivals is coming out with his own book. It's titled "The Jesus Papers." That author claims Brown plagiarized part of an earlier work. We're expecting a verdict in that case, by the way, within weeks. So the battle moves to the bookstore shelves, -- Chad. MYERS: Yes, you know I bought that book, that "Holy Grail, Holy -- "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" to try to find out whether I thought that he plagiarized it or not. And it's such a -- my god, it's like some encyclopedia going through there. So I'm not sure whether Dan Brown could have actually understand -- understood all that stuff. Anyway, I digress.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Back to you.

ROBERTS: Thank you, Chad. Appreciate it.

Less than a week after announcing a massive buyout program, General Motors may be ready to slash its work force yet again.

Art Edwards of affiliate WDIV is live outside of GM's Technical Center. That's in Warren, Michigan, about 20 miles outside of Detroit.

Art, what's happening there today?

ART EDWARDS, WDIV-TV REPORTER: Well, what's going to be happening today, John, is that there are going to be workers who are going to be told that they are losing their jobs. We're talking about salaried workers, primarily engineers, who work here at this facility and one other one. We are outside of the Warren Technical Facility, the GM Tech Center, here in Warren.

We're told that there are going to be several hundred people here who will probably lose their jobs. Also one other location out in Milford, what they call the proving grounds, where they do a lot of testing of cars and equipment. That will be several hundred of the engineers out there are going to lose their jobs as well.

Overall, there will be a 7 percent reduction in salaried workers for GM. There are about 36,000 U.S. salaried workers for the company. At about 7 percent, maybe about 2,500 to 3,000 of them ultimately will lose their jobs.

This won't be the end of the cutbacks for the salaried workers. In April, we're told, that we can expect to hear about cutbacks for sales and marketing employees as well. Just sort of the latest round of things that General Motors is trying to do in order to be able to stay competitive in the automotive industry. They are having a very tough time. They say it is a very tough decision to cutback on workers, but it is something that they have to do in order to make sure that the company survives -- John.

ROBERTS: A lot of pain there in Michigan. Art, what have employees there been told to do in preparation for this announcement?

EDWARDS: Right. They have been told today that all vacations and sick time has been cancelled. They have to come to work today, regardless of anything else that might be going on. They've also been told that if you are an engineer who drives a company car, you have to drive that company car in to work today.

And also, the CEO of General Motors, John Wagoner, is going to address employees at some point during the day. They'll be able to gather in conference rooms and they'll be able to hear what he has to say to them. Likely he'll be telling them things like how tough the decision is to cutback on the workers.

ROBERTS: Wow, doesn't sound like a good day for GM employees.

Art Edwards of Detroit affiliate WDIV, thanks very much. Appreciate it.

O'BRIEN: Sounds like a brutal day.

What happens with GM now?

Carrie is "Minding Your Business."

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is the big question on Wall Street and for a lot of consumers as well. You know the cuts today follow blue-collar cuts last week. Salaried workers, in addition to hourly workers, now.

But the big picture for GM is to become nimbler, get smaller and sell fewer cars but making more money on them. So becoming nimbler, in a sense, avoiding the big discount incentives that we have seen so much of. You know they had those big discounts last summer, did great for short-term sales, really boosted sales numbers, but it only really lasted in the short term.

O'BRIEN: Gave them money.

LEE: And, exactly, it didn't really help the bottom line, it helped the top line, the sales number. Profits not so. They're also trying to cut down on low margin sales like things to selling cars to rental car companies.

Now GM does expect that its overall market share is going to fall a bit in March to 24 percent from 27 percent a year ago. But still, they are expecting that the big picture here things are going to turnaround. They want to reduce sales and marketing expenses, as well, as you just saw there. And overall, trying to make more money per car, which sounds like a good idea, because clearly those incentives weren't a good idea for the long term not helping the company.

O'BRIEN: They hope.

ROBERTS: You've got to wonder if the job market in Michigan can absorb all those people.

LEE: Yes, I mean that's the big question. Taking a look at GM shares, as well, over the past year or so, stock trades around 23 bucks apiece right now. But take a look at this, you can see...

O'BRIEN: That's an ugly graphic. LEE: Exactly. Since last summer, and this is when all those incentives were taking place, see that high point last summer? Well we're at about maybe 55, 60 percent of the share price from less than a year ago, so.

O'BRIEN: Well that story has just been a bad story for a while now.

LEE: Well hopefully, you know, a lot of times Wall Street likes to see the end result, see the final cuts, see the numbers and then things start to pick up from there. It's better than not knowing what's going on. At least now they know what's going to start happening.

ROBERTS: Yes, and it's such hard times ahead for those people who are going to be laid off.

LEE: Absolutely, yes.

O'BRIEN: All right, Carrie, thank you.

LEE: OK.

O'BRIEN: Let's get right back to Carol, she's got a look at what's coming up in "Morning Coffee."

Good morning again.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

Coming up, an 8-year-old kid tossed out of school for passing love notes. Does that constitute sexual harassment, really? Plus, John Kerry's aversion to tomatoes. That's next in "Morning Coffee."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: New York sunrises are so cool, aren't they?

COSTELLO: Aren't they. It's gorgeous.

O'BRIEN: You know it's smog that makes a great sunrise.

ROBERTS: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: Hey, I hate to burst the bubble here, but, yes.

COSTELLO: I know I've always heard the more...

ROBERTS: Great sunsets, too.

COSTELLO: Yes.

O'BRIEN: But the skyline helps, too.

COSTELLO: It does. It does.

Time for "Morning Coffee."

And you know I'm trying to be fair here. Last week we told you about Vice President Dick Cheney's hotel demands. You know every light on and the TVs tuned to that specific channel.

Well, now we have some of the same information on then presidential candidate John Kerry. The SmokingGun.com quotes Kerry's campaign advance team on these, nothing too weird, although it does say to avoid anything with tomatoes on or in it. Interesting, since John Kerry is married to the Heinz Ketchup Queen.

O'BRIEN: That's weird, isn't it?

COSTELLO: Yes, he doesn't like celery either. That's the only shocking things I could find.

O'BRIEN: What's not to like about celery?

COSTELLO: It's the consistency.

O'BRIEN: The crunch.

ROBERTS: What's not to like about tomatoes, either? Wow!

COSTELLO: I don't know. I don't even want to go there, -- John.

ROBERTS: Nature's most fabulous food.

COSTELLO: Well, I don't even want to go there, again. OK.

Well it seems that President Bush may be running out the clock, literally. I'm of course talking about the debt clock. It's been ticking away in Times Square since the Reagan administration. Back then, the debt was 2.7 trillion. But now, we're up to more than 8 trillion. That's $8,310,200,545,702.

Anyway, the clock watchers are not sure what to do if it hits 14 digits or 10 trillion. You see the clock isn't set up to handle that many numbers. So maybe they'll just do like a McDonald's thing and just change it to like say trillions and trillions owed.

O'BRIEN: Which would be so sad.

ROBERTS: I'm not sure a lot of economists are sure what to do when it hits $10 trillion either.

COSTELLO: Yes, right. It could do that in two years, so it's no joke.

ROBERTS: Unbelievable. You know there are some forecasts that it could hit $20 trillion or even $40 trillion in the next 20 or 30 years.

COSTELLO: Wow! Wow!

O'BRIEN: Not just a problem for the clock. ROBERTS: Not just a problem for the clock.

COSTELLO: True.

Now to a sad story out of Loraine, Ohio, that's near Cleveland you know. An 8-year-old boy there was tossed out of school for a day for supposedly grabbing a little girl's bottom, but they're calling it an emergency removal for sexual harassment. The boy was also disciplined for passing love notes to the little girl. They even made him sign a form saying he sexually harassed her. But the second grader only printed his first name on the paper because he was confused.

And now his parents say they're going to pull him out of school altogether. And this brings up all those usual questions, because it's really not clear if he did grab the girl's bottom. It was gym class and it was a group of boys and he was one of the boys. And when they were questioning him about this incident, he said, well, I don't know if I grabbed her, but I did...

O'BRIEN: And he's 8.

COSTELLO: And he was 8. He goes I did send her some love notes. And so the school said it's enough for us, sign this paper, kid. And then he was out of school.

ROBERTS: Wow!

COSTELLO: And he had to return the next day with his parents.

O'BRIEN: Well, you know the parents have the right to take him out.

COSTELLO: That's right.

O'BRIEN: You know what, I'm sure there's another school where he can do well.

ROBERTS: Yes, I mean there's obviously issues here with setting boundaries. But I think you have to -- maybe they acted a little harshly in setting those boundaries.

COSTELLO: Yes, because that could scar that kid for life.

O'BRIEN: Another -- he needs a new school.

COSTELLO: Yes.

O'BRIEN: All right.

COSTELLO: Food for thought this morning.

O'BRIEN: Carol, thank you.

COSTELLO: Sure. O'BRIEN: A look at the morning's top stories are straight ahead. Plus, one guy could get $10,000 because he confused George Mason with George Washington.

ROBERTS: Got the wrong team, I'll bet, or the right team, actually.

O'BRIEN: Guess it was lucky.

And then later, an invasion that has one neighborhood going a little buggy. We'll explain just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: New information now on the lead up to the war in Iraq, a secret memo details some surprising plans between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

A Christian convert now out of jail and headed for asylum outside Afghanistan. We're live with the very latest on this story.

And an unlikely hero. An amazing story of overcoming obstacles. We'll explain.

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