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American Morning

Bush Energy Plan; Egypt Terror Attack; Iraq's New Leader

Aired April 25, 2006 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: High gas prices hounding President Bush. The White House says a major energy speech is coming in a little more than an hour.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A deadly terror attack targets tourists at a popular Egyptian resort. Four Americans are among the injured.

M. O'BRIEN: A scary scenario in Washington State. Police believe a teenager built a bomb for a planned suicide attack on his high school.

S. O'BRIEN: And look at this. An Oklahoma tornado, it's going the wrong way. We'll explain what you're looking at when our severe weather forecast comes just a moment.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, coffee and your heart. Many of us need both to live, especially on this shift. But is java bad for you? I can't even talk without coffee.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm going to make you an honorary Long Islander for a moment there.

M. O'BRIEN: Java. Have some java. That's all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING there.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Glad you're with us this morning.

Anger over rising gas prices, concern over falling poll numbers will bring the president to the podium in about an hour. The White House promising a four-point plan to try to drive down the price of oil. Among the ideas, the president will propose an investigation into possible price gouging by the oil companies.

Now, here are the poll numbers. Only 32 percent of people in our newest poll out just this morning approve of the way President Bush is handling his job. That's a record low. And nearly 70 percent of Americans are saying rising gas prices are a hardship, 11 points higher than this time last year.

Of course, there are other factors in the political fray. Let's turn to Ed Henry at the White House for details on what the president is proposing today. Hello, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

That's right. In fact, this is a four-point plan the president calling to deal with pain at the pump. First and foremost, of course, as you mentioned, the president ordering an investigation of alleged price gouging not just by one, but three different federal agencies, the Federal Trade Commission, the departments of Energy and Justice.

Second, the president is going to promote greater fuel efficiency at this speech this morning.

Third, he will call for boosting the gasoline supply here at home. Of course, we've heard him before call for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for example, to oil exploration, but that has stalled on the Hill.

Finally, the president will encourage energy companies to invest in alternative fuels. This follows on what we heard from the president over the weekend on Earth Day in California, when he said he wanted more federal research and development to promote hydrogen- powered cars.

The most significant part, of course, the investigation, federal probe of alleged price gouging. We saw one after Hurricane Katrina. That only basically gave consumers a small bit of relief. Now they see prices creeping back up. Obviously, the White House hoping this is a broader investigation with some real teeth.

Democrats know that they've been putting pressure on the president for months to act on this. They think he's finally feeling the political pain, the political heat, especially with the poll numbers you cited. But also, Republican fears on the Hill that, in fact, these rising gas prices could fuel a Democratic takeover in November -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Ed. We hear word of a new sheriff in town there. Tony Snow, commentator at FOX News right now, apparently poised to accept the job of press secretary. Hopefully you have his cell phone number. If not, you should be getting it soon.

What's the thinking on that announcement?

HENRY: Well, sources close to the White House say that, in fact, Tony Snow is inching closer to this, that he's expected to, in fact, take it. We've known that for days. Really, the only final hurdle here really was his health.

We know he had battled colon cancer. We're told now that he's gotten a clean bill of health from his doctors. So he's expected to, in fact, take this job.

The thinking is that the new White House chief of staff, Josh Bolten, has made it clear that he thinks Snow has the gravitas to help rehabilitate the president's image, deal better with the media here in the White House press corps. The timetable really is expected to be as soon as this week.

Bolten wants to move quickly so there's not a drip, drip of staff changes. He really wants to get his team in place. We're expecting an announcement possibly on Snow as early as this week -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry at the White House.

Thank you very much.

CNN will bring you the president's energy speech live one hour from now, 10:05 Eastern -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: A popular Egyptian tourist town devastated by a terror attack. At least 23 people are dead, many more injured, including four Americans. It happened on a crowded street in Dahab along the Red Sea coast.

CNN's Paula Hancocks has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Broken glass litters the streets that were jammed with tourists. Bloody footprints lead away from the scene of the blasts, an eerie reminder of the carnage of the night before.

Tourists of all nationalities should be waking up to another day of their holiday. Instead, locals in the Red Sea town of Dahab are coming to terms with being the third Sinai resort to be attacked in 18 months. At least 23 dead, more than 60 others wounded.

(on camera): Now, the timing of these blasts was crucial. 7:15 in the evening, these streets would have been crammed with tourists, Egyptian and foreigners. Many of them going into the touristy shops here, the likes of this jewelry one which looks like it hasn't been touched since just seconds after the blast.

(voice over): Sebry Abdul Atif has been manager of the Alaska Camp Backpackers Hostel (ph) for three years. He was standing just feet away from one of the blasts. He is lucky to be alive, but believes the town is ruined.

SEBRY ABDUL ATIF, HOSTEL MANAGER: I don't think nobody will come. Even if they come, they'll be scared. Perhaps so many Egyptian (INAUDIBLE).

HANCOCKS: Dahab has always been a diver's paradise. Jason Lovett has been an instructor here for three years. He was here a year and a half ago when a bomb 65 miles north in Taba killed 34 and in July when a bomb 75 miles south in Sharm el-Sheikh killed 67.

JASON LOVETT, DIVING INSTRUCTOR: It's not really any surprise to any of us. I mean, if you've been here long enough, you know everything else has been bombed. It was a natural progression that this was going to be the next place.

HANCOCKS: A tourist's paradise once again ripped apart by bombs.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Dahab, Egypt.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: More violence in Iraq as the parliament and the U.S. sizes up a new prime minister. At least one person killed, six hurt in Baghdad after a pair of car bombs exploded in the capital city. This as the new prime minister takes the reigns.

Ryan Chilcote live for us now from Baghdad with more.

Ryan, what can you tell us?

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, there's been absolutely no letup in the violence since the prime minister took office. Today is his fourth day on the job.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHILCOTE (voice over): In just six hours, more than half a dozen explosions in Baghdad. A daily reminder Iraq is so racked by an insurgency in sectarian violence, it is under threat of falling apart.

In his first interview with an international news organization since taking office, the man Iraqis are looking to, to stop it, promised it won't come to that.

JAWAD AL-MALIKI, IRAQ PRIME MINISTER-DESIGNATE (through translator): Undoubtedly, some people want to instigate a civil war, but the situation is still manageable and the government is still unified. We have a constitution. We have a parliament. And a new government will be formed soon. They won't succeed in starting a civil war.

CHILCOTE: Mr. Maliki's nomination to the job of prime minister Saturday marks a moment of hope for the Iraqi people. After four months of political stalemate, the country's vying ethnic and religious groups overcame their differences and backed Mr. Maliki. If he fails to form a government of national unity, fear is Iraq's insurgency and sectarian violence will only grow.

Even with a strong unifying government, the new prime minister says Iraq is not ready for life without the U.S. military.

AL-MALIKI (through translator): We need to continue our cooperation until we have fully built up our security forces so they can control the security situation. The day we don't need them anymore we will tell the multinational forces, "Thank you," and they can go back to their countries knowing they took part in building democracy in this region.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHILCOTE: Miles, until then, Iraq is still a nation very much under threat, and its future, to a very large extent, rests on Mr. Maliki's shoulders -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: That's a -- that's a lot of pressure, Ryan. When you chatted with him, did you have any sense of what his plan would be specifically to try and stem the violence?

CHILCOTE: Yes. He was very clear about that. I mean, he recognizes that the biggest problem in this country right now is the split in the population along the sectarian lines.

What he needs to do -- Mr. Maliki is a Shiite politician. He has a record of being a very fierce advocate for Shiite rights. But what he needs to do in his new job as the prime minister, as the unifier of this country, is really to reach out to the other parties, and, in particular, to reach out to the Sunni Muslims.

He said that he would do that. He's been talking the talk, if you will, but here in Iraq, as you know, the proof is really in the pudding.

M. O'BRIEN: Ryan Chilcote in Baghdad. Thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Charges now for the five teenagers arrested in connection with that alleged plot to attack their school in Riverton, Kansas. They're charged with incitement to riot and making criminal threats as well. One of them, 18-year-old Coy New, can be released on bond. Four others between the ages of 15 or 17 are being held until a status hearing, which is scheduled to happen on May 3rd.

Meanwhile, in Washington State, police say they foiled another Columbine-style plot.

Carol Costello now with that story in the newsroom.

Hey, Carol. Good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, can you believe it? We've seen three in just the past week. We just heard about the first in Kansas. The second happened in Alaska, where six seventh-graders plotted to kill teachers and students.

This time, it is Washington State. Police say they foiled a student's plan to kill more than a dozen classmates and then himself.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was kind of scare that actually somebody would actually think about doing that to us.

COSTELLO (voice over): Students at Rogers High School in Puyallup, Washington, reacting to the news a 16-year-old boy at their own school is suspected of plotting to kill fellow students.

ED TROYER, PIERCE COUNTY SHERIFF'S SPOKESMAN: We recovered a couple of rifles, ammunition. He had made a homemade bomb which our bomb team went out and got. So, he definitely had access to the tools to carry this out if he decided to do it.

COSTELLO: A search of the boy's home also netted a downloaded copy of a book with directions for making explosives. Investigators recovered computer messages the suspect allegedly sent to a fellow ROTC student outlining his plan to shoot people at the school this Wednesday.

The graphic messages detail his desire "To finally go out in a blaze of hatred and fury... to wrongly hurt others for my own sick pleasure before ending it for myself."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I walk through the halls, I see the people. You know, they all look like good people, but I guess they're really not, not all of them.

COSTELLO: Police have charged the 16-year-old with felony harassment, first-degree attempted assault and possession and manufacture of an incendiary device.

News of the arrest shocked neighbors, especially those with children attending the same high school.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're in the same neighborhood. It's kind of a scary thing, you know. So...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is kind of scary, yes. I've got kids that go to high school, too, and he's graduating this year. So, yes, it is scary.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: It is scary. And deputies entered the boy's home. The deputies say he told them of his plot, at least part of it. The boy remains in juvenile detention pending a court appearance on May 2nd.

S. O'BRIEN: Great, Carol. Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Here's a rare look at a rare tornado in Oklahoma. I know what you're saying, nothing rare about tornadoes in Oklahoma. They don't call it "Tornado Alley" for nothing, but look at this one closely.

It is spinning clockwise. Not sure the banner is helping out in this one. Maybe we can lose that, Kelly (ph), just so people can see a little bit better. There you go.

It's hard to see in that shot. We have a close-up that Chad had a little while ago, and he tell us that's actually kind of a water spout on the ground. A ground spot.

Now, check out these lightning bolts. This is in the same neck of the woods, El Reno, Oklahoma. About 6,000 homes and businesses in Oklahoma lost power in the storms. Most of the customers have their power back on this morning, we're glad to report. And there we go. There's the close-up of that same one you saw earlier, and you see that very distinct clockwise spin to it. Positively southern hemisphere.

That we're showing you, of course, is an airplane hangar. A lot of dreams going up in pieces there as that odd, upside-down and clockwise, counter to the normal spin, tornado occurred there. Interesting.

Chad, are you there?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, President Bush is facing rising gas prices. We all are facing that. But he's also got low poll numbers to deal with, and he's got that immigration battle, he's got a war in Iraq to contend with. He's got issues.

Up next, our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, will take a look at the weight of all these pressures on the president. We'll show you some new poll numbers out this morning.

S. O'BRIEN: Then a jury decides life or death for al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. We'll talk about that this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: And I just got a fresh cup of coffee. Thank you for that, Bruce. I do appreciate it. But maybe I ought to hold back.

S. O'BRIEN: Maybe not...

M. O'BRIEN: We're going to show you a study -- I don't know.

S. O'BRIEN: ... after the results of this new study.

M. O'BRIEN: Is it a kind of mas o menos kind of thing?

S. O'BRIEN: No. It's all good.

M. O'BRIEN: So drink up. Party on, dudes.

Another cup, please, Bruce.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: President Bush planning a major energy speech in less than an hour from now. You'll see it live here on CNN.

It comes on the heels of a CNN poll that we just released this morning. Americans giving the president a new all-time low approval rating. Fewer than a third of us now approving of the way he's doing his job.

Let's talk to our political analyst about this, a man who we give very high approval ratings for at all times, well into the 90s consistently here at CNN, Bill Schneider.

Good to have you with us, sir.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's put the grim number up there, the one the White House doesn't want to see this morning. "Do you approve of the way the president's handling the job?" is the question. Straightforward question.

The answer, 32 percent approve. And what we have here is just a little sampling of approval ratings, recent polling numbers.

And you see the most current one, starting with the Pew poll at 35 percent, the first part of April, to what we have now, 32 percent. Of course, you know, with the statistical dither and all this, I guess you could say that's a wash. But nevertheless, it's been a bad month.

SCHNEIDER: Low 30s, that's a bad month. The president is headed down. Gas prices up, Bush numbers down, although it's been going on for months now. It isn't just a recent phenomenon because of gas prices.

When a president is headed toward 30 percent, that's when he's got to watch out. Deep trouble. What presidents have hit below that?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, but he's headed below 30 percent at this point, isn't he?

SCHNEIDER: Yes, he is. When presidents hit below 30 percent, let me tell you what happens.

Truman hit below 30 percent. He decided not to run for reelection. Jimmy Carter lost his bid for reelection. Bush's father lost his bid for reelection. And Richard Nixon, well, we know what happened to him. You don't want to be on that list.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Of course, in this case, that's not the situation for the president himself, but it does cast a pall on that Capitol dome over your right shoulder there.

SCHNEIDER: Yes, it certainly does, because those voters who are angry at President Bush can only do one thing, which is take it out on the president's party, which is typically what they do in a midterm election. That's why Republicans are desperate to try to treat this as a local election. It's not about him, it's about me, it's about things in Kansas or Iowa, or wherever the congressman represents. Pay no attention to what's happening in Washington, Republicans hope.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. All politics is local, but you buy your gas locally. Take a look at these gas prices.

The gas prices a portion of this poll. And the question is, "Have rising gas prices caused hardship to you and your family?"

The now numbers are to the left, the last-year numbers are to the right. And you see dramatic increase there, 11-point swing. Sixty- nine percent of us saying this is a hardship.

That's got to play into the way people are thinking, and that's why you have a 32 percent approval rating, right?

SCHNEIDER: And it's also why Republicans are running behind when people are asked how they'll vote for Congress. The more serious the hardship people feel from gas prices, the more likely they are to vote for Democrats for Congress. That's why the issue is shaking up Washington.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's talk a little bit more about gas. Another question we asked, "Are people worried if gas prices double?" If gas prices double, but there are no shortages, in other words. That's the question.

Why don't you explain that one.

SCHNEIDER: We there we did a little test to see what worried people more, a spike in gas prices doubling even from where they are now, or shortages, (INAUDIBLE) prices. This country is a country of suburbs.

Most Americans live in the suburbs. The American way of life is organized around cheap and accessible, easily available gasoline. It's really a necessity today, which is why some people are saying, why don't we regulate energy companies the way we regulate public utilities? It's an idea that's being discussed.

M. O'BRIEN: I don't think that's one of the four points we're going to hear in just a little bit, though.

SCHNEIDER: No, I don't think so. The president does have some ideas for energy. The question is -- and they sound to a lot of people, Democrats and Republicans, like good ideas in the medium or long run, but Americans want to know, what are you going to do this week?

M. O'BRIEN: Bill Schneider, thank you very much for your time, as always.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

M. O'BRIEN: President Bush's remarks on energy less than an hour away, 10:05 Eastern. CNN will bring it to you live -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, legal drama for talk show host Maury Povich. We're going to tell you why a former producer is suing him.

First, though, a question. Is coffee good for you or is coffee bad for you? There's some new research about coffee and your heart. We'll give you the answers just ahead. Dr. Pamela Peeke joins us, spells out the facts, up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: In this morning's "House Call," is coffee good for you or is it bad for you? There's some new research about coffee and your heart.

Dr. Pamela Peeke from the University of Maryland joins us. She's also the author of the book "Body for Life for Women." She's in D.C. this morning.

Hey, Pamela. Nice to see you, as always.

DR. PAMELA PEEKE, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Well, good morning to you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you.

Hey, let's get right to it. At the end of day, did the study find that coffee's good for you or bad for you?

PEEKE: Guess what? It's great for you. They found that by studying 84,000 women and 44,000 men over many, many years that indeed there is no association between coffee and heart disease. Go ahead, drink it on up.

S. O'BRIEN: Certain things, though, we know are linked to heart disease: your weight, smoking, drinking, diabetes. In these, you know, 100,000-plus people, how were they able to separate those things from the individuals who are also drinking coffee to figure out coffee's relationship with your heart?

PEEKE: You know, Soledad, it was very confusing for so long. People were reading studies for years in the '70s and '80s. Some studies said it was good for your heart, some it was bad. Very confusing for a long time.

These Harvard researchers were smart. They teased out smoking. They teased out the weight issue, and also drinking, and they looked at diabetes.

And when you tease out those first three elements, guess what? It turns out it wasn't the caffeine after all. It was those other elements that were independent risk factors for heart disease.

S. O'BRIEN: Have there been past studies that showed that coffee was in fact bad for your heart?

PEEKE: Absolutely, but again, they were conflicting. They weren't prospective studies, meaning you're following people as you go along.

This was, by far, the best study. And guess what? It's the study that really nails it.

It turns out caffeine consumption like this is not at all bad for your heart disease. For that matter, in diabetes, it's actually good for your heart, because we found out the antioxidants -- and this was pointed out again in this Harvard study -- are actually good for your insulin and your blood glucose levels.

S. O'BRIEN: Outside of diabetics, is coffee good for you or is just sort of, hey, a wash, not bad for you, not good for you?

PEEKE: You want to know something? It's neutral. It's not good for you, it's not bad for you in that regard. It's not going to affect your heart disease, that's for sure. So, if you're drinking right now, well, you know, it's not so bad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, good. I feel better about my cup of coffee I just had refilled.

Let me ask you a question about what the study does not talk about, the French pot pressed coffee that, you know, you see every so often. That has actually been linked to high cholesterol. I don't get that. Why?

PEEKE: You what it is? It's called boiled coffee. And the whole issue of boiled coffee -- and they actually bring this up in the study -- is that it's unfiltered.

What you're doing when you have filtered coffee, which is what we recommend you do if you want to have that healthy coffee consumption, is that the filter takes out several of the components in boiled coffee in the whole coffee that actually increase your cholesterol and, therefore, are most associated with heart disease. So it's filtered coffee.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Dr. Pamela Peeke...

PEEKE: Absolutely.

S. O'BRIEN: ... a little good news to report about coffee this morning. Thank you very much. Always nice to see you.

PEEKE: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: I will drink to that.

As gas prices go up, some drivers are refusing to dig deeper into their wallets. We'll take a look at some of the drastic changes they're making to save a few bucks.

And later, the best-selling novelist Terry McMillan will join us. She is probably best known for "How Stella Got Her Groove Back." Now she's helping high school graduates get in the groove for college.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: At just half-past the hour, the opening bell ringing on Wall Street this morning.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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