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American Morning
CIA Shake-Up; Iran Nuclear Threat; Apple vs. Apple; Florida Wildfire; Royal Scammers
Aired May 08, 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: A new CIA chief expected to be named in just a few hours. Already, General Michael Hayden is drawing criticism from both Democrats and Republicans.
A fast-moving wildfire in Florida forces a thousand people from their homes and an interstate is shut down. Firefighters are struggling right now to contain it.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And Apple versus Apple. The computer company and the Beatles record label tangling in court, and we have word of a verdict for you.
Your fraudship, the Lord Buckingham. He lived like a royal after stealing a child's identity. Now he's in jail. It turns out he is just a guy from Florida -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Rain showers and thunderstorms through Texas already this morning, more coming up later today. We'll get to those wildfires in Florida in a few minutes.
M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you. Welcome to another week. I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.
This morning, President Bush is expected to name an Air Force general to takeover command at the CIA. Both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, well, some of them are already voicing their concerns.
More now from White House correspondent Elaine Quijano.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Senior administration officials say President Bush has settled on his choice, Air Force General Michael Hayden, to be the next CIA director and that an announcement is planned for later today.
Already, though, word of a possible Hayden nomination is sparking a debate about whether the military or civilians should be in charge of the nation's intelligence. A key Republican, Pete Hoekstra, the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says he thinks a member of the military should not lead the CIA, a civilian agency. At the same time, the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, says he thinks that issue can easily be remedied by having Hayden resign his military post.
These developments follow on the heels of Porter Goss' resignation late last week as the top CIA official. Goss has not offered a public explanation, but intelligence sources tell CNN it was turf wars that led to his resignation.
Elaine Quijano, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Well, yes, not going to be a slow first day on the job for the new White House press secretary. Tony Snow takes over today as the president's chief spokesman. The former FOX News commentator is going to hold his first White House press briefing.
Snow got a gift from his predecessor, Scott McClellan, an old flack jacket passed along from press secretary to press secretary for years now. Apparently notes of advice then are stuffed into the pockets -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Hundreds of people in Florida waiting for word this morning on whether they can return home. They were forced to leave ahead of a fast-moving wildfire in New Smyrna Beach. That's about 15 miles south of Daytona Beach. Firefighters have been working around the clock trying to put out the flames. The fire already has destroyed one home, damaged two others. A stretch of Interstate 95 closed this morning because of the fire.
Which way is the forecast going to help the firefighters? Chad Myers has an answer for us.
Good morning, -- Chad.
MYERS: Well, I'll do as much as I can for you, Miles.
The entire area, New Smyrna Beach, a very populated area. And you have to realize that the beach is over here, the town of New Smyrna here, Pioneer trail, Glencoe Road and then I-95. So we're really not talking the city, really, of New Smyrna Beach. And a lot of folks have summer homes, winter homes, whatever you might call them, down there.
This is the area right through here, right along the I-95, and that's why I-95 is still closed in many areas, because the smoke. This is 4:30 yesterday. The smoke here right along I-95 was actually billowing across the freeway, you had zero visibility, and then through the city and just north of New Smyrna Beach proper and across the cut through there.
So this is the smoke. This is not the fire area. The radar doesn't know the difference between a raindrop and a smoke particular, so that's why it's so amazing to use a radar in order to find where the base of a fire is, where a forest fire is. And that's what we had yesterday right there across parts of the deep southern sections of Florida.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Back to you guys.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thank you.
MYERS: You're welcome.
S. O'BRIEN: The president of Iran is writing President Bush a letter, proposing new solutions to their differences. The letter, which is to be delivered today, comes as the U.S. and France and Great Britain demand that Tehran stop enriching uranium. It is the first time in nearly 30 years that an Iranian leader has written to a U.S. president.
Let's get right to CNN's Aneesh Raman. He joins us by phone from Tehran this morning.
Aneesh, what do you know about this letter?
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning.
A government spokesman here says the letter offers -- quote -- "new ways for getting out of the current critical conditions in the world." Now the understanding on the ground is that the specifics of what Iran's president has offered in terms of solutions will not be made public until President Bush receives his letter.
As you mentioned, it's the first time that correspondence between Iran's president and a U.S. president has been publicly acknowledged since the U.S. cut off diplomatic ties with Iran amid the hostage crisis back in 1980.
The big question this morning is what did Iran's president offer and how will President Bush respond and whether this could lead to direct talks between the U.S. and Iran, something that has met huge hurdles, Soledad, in recent weeks.
S. O'BRIEN: Aneesh, let me ask you about the timing. What do you think is the significance of it?
RAMAN: Well clearly we're seeing the U.N. debate what sort of actions to take. We've heard from the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. that all agree that Iran needs to suspend its uranium enrichment, something that Iran does not want to do. We have heard in the weeks prior strong statements from Iran towards the U.S. warning against attacks, suggesting the U.S. is behind the international pressure.
And keep in mind it has not been direct evidence of a weapons program in Iran that has raised concerns from the West but fiery statements from Iran's president about Israel, about the U.S. And so because of that and because of the U.N. taking potential action this week, it could be that Iran's president is looking to tone down his rhetoric -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman joining us by phone this morning from Tehran. And we should remind you that Aneesh is one of a few American journalists in Iran right now.
Thanks, Aneesh -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Happening in America this morning, the leader of a polygamist sect has been added to the FBI's 10 most wanted list. Warren Jeffs is the self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church. The group is not affiliated with the Mormon Church, which denounces polygamy. Jeffs faces rape and unlawful flight charges. The FBI offering $100,000 reward.
In Cincinnati, a man accused of breaking into the same house five times finally caught with the help of a computer camera. The camera captured the thief in action. The homeowner followed the suspect as he was getting away, called 911.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't break into my house. I'm going to catch you, especially if you do it five times. Give me a break, I'm not that stupid. I work on computers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Suspect has admitted to the robberies. He's being held on $50,000 bond.
In Massachusetts, the last American survivor of the Titanic has died. Lillian Asplund was 99 years old. She was just 5 when the unsinkable ship went down in the icy Atlantic in 1912. She lost her father and three brothers. Her mother and younger brother survived.
Barry Bonds is gaining on the Bambino. The San Francisco Giants slugger hit home run 713 last night against the Phillies. Beep, beep, it's gone. That leaves Bonds just one homer away from tying Babe Ruth for second place on baseball's career list. Bonds still 42 homers behind Hank Aaron's all-time record. The Giants, by the way, lost. Score, nine to five.
S. O'BRIEN: And still to come this morning, it was Apple versus Apple, a legal battle over the use of the Apple logo. We're going to tell you this morning who has walked away the big winner in this case.
M. O'BRIEN: And a Florida man passing himself off as British royalty. We'll explain that one.
S. O'BRIEN: And a plan that could help ease some of the pain at the pump. We'll tell you about that.
First though, here's a look at some of the other stories making news on this Monday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Top stories this morning.
President Bush expected to name General Michael Hayden to lead the CIA. Lawmakers in both parties critical of the choice. They say they're worried about having a military man leading a civilian spy agency.
Major brushfires forced parts of Interstate 95 in Florida to shut down. About a thousand people have had to evacuate their homes as well. The word is you should try to avoid I-95 for the next few days if you can.
And also in Florida, an Orlando family says a man who passed himself off as British royalty is really their missing relative. Charles Stopford went missing about 20 years ago. He's allegedly been passing himself off as the Earl of Buckingham.
Well good news for Apple, Apple Computer that is, a London judge has sided with the computer giant. The Beatles record label of the same name had picked the battle. The core issue, did Apple's iTunes business send it into the Beatles bailiwick?
Jim Boulden has the verdict for us from London.
Jim, what's -- is -- will there ever be an appeal, for example?
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there will be an appeal. Apple Records has already said in court this morning that this, here at the High Court in London, that it will appeal this judgment. But really no surprise that Apple Computer has won this case. Apple Computer, the question here really, Miles, was is the iTunes service a de facto record company? Is Apple Computer in the music business?
Well they are in the data transmission business, the judge says. They are obviously making a lot of money from music. But the judge has said this morning that Apple Computer, run by Steve Jobs, is not a music record label.
And if you remember, the two Apple -- the two Apple logos, the two trademarks, obviously, are very similar, and these two companies have been suing each other for the past 25 years. Apple Records came around, of course, in the late '60s, owned by the Beatles, and they were very upset when Apple Computer came along, and they have sued them now three times.
An uneasy agreement back in 1991 did cost Apple Computer some $26 million, but the agreement was that the two could continue to use that Apple name and that Apple logo. The judge today said that that 1991 agreement has not been breached by the iTunes service -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Well now, Jim, when the lawyers for Apple Records came into the courtroom and learned that the judge had an iPod, they must have been a little bit nervous things were a little bit stacked against them?
BOULDEN: Yes, I would say things were stacked against them from the beginning. Back in March 29, the first day of this trial, which lasted about a week and a half, the judge had some very, very detailed and harsh questions for Apple Records. I think, though, both sides were quite pleased that at least he had some sense of the knowledge of downloading music. He did agree, he did admit he had an iPod. And some of the judges here a bit old and a bit creaky may not have known what the heck they were talking about.
But in this case, this judge was very tech savvy, very young. He knew all about dowloading. He knew about data transmissions, as they called it here. And so they didn't have to spend a lot of the time explaining this to him.
But I have to say, just from the beginning, he did ask Apple Records a lot of tough questions and they did have, if you excuse it, they did have a long and windy road to try to change the judge's mind, and of course they did not.
M. O'BRIEN: You're rotten to the core, Jim Boulden.
By the way, just the image of the guy with one of those white wigs and the Apple iBuds, I like that one. That's my image of the morning.
All right, thank you very much, Jim Boulden -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: You knew that was coming, right?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes, of course.
S. O'BRIEN: Gauging gas prices this morning. The national average is $2.90 for a gallon of regular unleaded. A month ago it was $2.63. A year ago it was $2.19. All these figures come to us from AAA this morning.
New York Senator Charles Schumer says that ethanol could help the Democratic -- could help, rather. The Democratic senator says he's going to propose legislation this week urging Congress to temporarily suspend the tariff on imported ethanol. We were talking about this last week with Andy Serwer. He is also, the senator that is, urging tax incentives to encourage ethanol production. He says these two measures could cut gas prices by up to eight cents per gallon.
Well, we're all feeling it when you're talking about gas certainly, all of us, we should say, right?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, that's right. Higher energy costs obviously hurting people where it counts the most, in their pocketbook.
A new survey from The Associated Press says higher energy costs are beginning to change American's behavior. They are driving less, they're cutting short on vacations and they're curtailing the use of air conditioning and heating, obviously depending on where they're living. Seven out of 10 Americans surveyed said that.
And interestingly, people in the middle class, in particular, are really starting to feel the pinch. People making between $50,000 and $70,000 a year, 6 out of 10 of them say they are feeling this as well. Not changing the kinds of cars they're buying quite yet.
Other business headlines we're going to be following today, Ben Bernanke is going to be meeting this week, a Federal Reserve meeting, and expected to raise interest rates, short-term rates, by a quarter point to 5 percent. The 16th rate hike in two years. There had been signals the Fed would pause or stop in this rate hike campaign, but most anticipate that this will continue at least one more time.
And then, finally, for investors, it has been the best of times over the past couple of weeks. Last week, in particular, it was just gangbusters. You can see here, look at all those green arrows.
S. O'BRIEN: Dow 12,000.
SERWER: Dow 12,000 coming. And of course the all-time high was 11,722 on January 14, 2000. So we're getting close. You could see -- look at that -- 211 points last week, up 2 percent, man.
S. O'BRIEN: I...
M. O'BRIEN: What was going on -- is that just everybody was so happy that Y2K didn't happen and they just sent the market up, is that what happened?
SERWER: That's it.
M. O'BRIEN: That was it, the Y2K rally.
SERWER: Sure, it was the tech bubble.
M. O'BRIEN: The tech bubble.
SERWER: That, too.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm not surprised it's the middle class that's feeling it when it comes to gas prices. I mean you make enough money to own a car, because I would imagine that there's a lot of income levels where you just can't even afford to have a vehicle.
SERWER: Right, people way down on the totem pole, right.
S. O'BRIEN: And you sort of make enough money to have the car but and you don't get any breaks...
SERWER: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: ... whatsoever.
SERWER: I think that's right. It costs a lot to fill up.
S. O'BRIEN: Always, always brutal.
All right, Andy, thank you.
SERWER: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: No brakes and plenty of shocks, if you know what I mean.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: Sure.
M. O'BRIEN: Hundreds of people in Florida forced from their homes this morning. Those homes are in the path of a fast-moving wildfire. The thousand-acre fire has already destroyed two homes. It's happening in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. That's about 15 miles from Daytona Beach, about 55 miles from Orlando.
Josh Einiger of our affiliate WFTV live now from New Smyrna Beach.
Josh, what's going on there now?
JOSH EINIGER, WFTV REPORTER: Well good morning, Miles.
Actually, things have quieted down, because it's gotten a little bit more humid overnight. But there are quite a few hotspots, as Jeff Freeman, the photographer, shuts off his camera light and walks into that. That's one of a million hotspots we have seen kind of flaring up and then dying down over the course of the morning here.
Now as you said, Miles, it's about a thousand acres that burned yesterday, a very, very dry spot of Florida. We've been, you know, in desperate drought conditions over the past couple of months. And this is what all the forecasters had predicted, a lot of these fires flaring up.
This one, in particular, set off yesterday, causing a very large evacuation. Eight hundred people forced from their homes, a mandatory evacuation, another 200 people urged very strongly to walk out of their homes and leave their homes and seek shelter in one of several shelters that have been set up here.
Right now, more than a hundred people firefighters from around the area are expected to come back to this site at first light to try to continue putting out hotspots, like this, because they do expect that as the sun comes up and the wind picks up that this will happen again, the exact same scenario that they saw yesterday that the fire will continue to spread.
Of course a very disturbing experience for people who live around here. One woman that you're about to meet lost her home of 30 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDA PATTERSON, EVACUATED RESIDENT: And we've lived here for 30 years. Never had this, never. Weathered the hurricanes and everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jeez, I'm sorry. PATTERSON: We've lost everything. All we could get was just our clothes and our -- what we had to have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
EINIGER: And we are still awaiting a convoy of so-called strike team, two strike teams, in fact, that are going to come. We're going to see helicopters today to drop water on this fire. Another very active day expected here in Volusia County, Florida -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Josh, we were talking about Interstate 95 being shut down. That's a big deal, main north-south highway. How long is that going to last? How much of a problem is it in general just getting around that area?
EINIGER: Well it's a very big deal, Miles, especially because it's not the only part of I-95 that is shut down in the central Florida area. We are -- we have no idea when the road is going to open in this part in New Smyrna Beach.
But if you look farther south in Brevard County, in the Cocoa and Titusville area, right near the Kennedy Space Center, that part of I- 95 has had multiple problems with its separate brushfire that's up to 7,000 acres at this point. That has shut down the road every day for the last 10 days with multiple pileups because of all the smog that's been caused. So a real traffic mess here in central Florida as a result of all of these fires.
M. O'BRIEN: Josh Einiger with our Orlando affiliate WFTV, thank you very much -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, a royal faker. He was called the Earl of Buckingham for more than a decade. Well it turns out he is a guy from Orlando. We'll tell you how he was nabbed just ahead this morning.
Then later, the Catholic Church is embroiled in its own "Da Vinci Code" controversy. We'll explain just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: It is a scandal of royal proportions, a man posing as British nobility may really just be a guy from Orlando.
Here's Carol Costello in the newsroom this morning.
Hey, Carol, good morning.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just a guy from Orlando. It seems nowadays everybody wants to be a princess or a prince or a king or an earl and it seems they're doing that quite successfully, at least for a time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): He answers to the name Lord Christopher Buckingham. British police say he stole it from a baby's gravestone and assumed the name undetected for more than a decade. Now a Florida family says Lord Buckingham is the spitting image of Charles Stopford who disappeared from his home in Orlando more than 20 years ago. It is just the latest in this series of incidents involving royal phonies.
A New York woman, Lisa Walker, posed as a Saudi princess buying expensive jewelry and then trying to scam millions from credit card and insurance companies. She was sentenced last September to a psychiatric hospital for her misdeeds.
JOHN ARLIA, LISA WALKER'S ATTORNEY: It's always been our contention that she suffers from eating disorder and various other disabilities. And, obviously, this is a person who needs treatment.
COSTELLO: And back in January, a group of Minnesota high school journalists unmasked a young impostor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said he was with Harry when Charles told him that his mother had died. And he said that the Queen came into his bedroom once and told him to clean it.
COSTELLO: The student claimed to be Caspian James Crichton- Stuart IV, otherwise known as the 5th Duke of Cleveland.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would somebody who hangs out with the Queen come to our school? We -- that didn't add up in our heads.
COSTELLO: The more his classmates dug, they discovered there are no dukes of Cleveland. Caspian was actually 22-year-old Joshua Adam Gardner, a registered sex offender.
JOSHUA ADAM GARDNER, ROYAL SCAMMER: Joshua has obviously a lot of you know problems going on that he has not yet dealt with. By becoming Caspian, you know I really don't have any worries. You know I find it easier to talk to people and I find it easier to get along with people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Back to the latest case, the guy who allegedly pretended to be an earl, Charles Stopford. His father says he has absolutely no idea why his son disappeared in 1983. But it could have something to do with this, he was accused at the time of trying to blow up his boss' car. He worked in a fast food restaurant. So that could be a reason why he disappeared and assumed a new identity.
S. O'BRIEN: So, Carol, what happens now? I mean, is there some big penalty for assuming the identity of the Earl of Buckingham? Is there an Earl of Buckingham?
COSTELLO: I have no idea, but we're going to -- we're going to do a live interview a little bit later. But I know that they are going to undergo -- he is going to undergo DNA tests just to make sure he's not the earl. And then maybe he'll be brought back to the United States. S. O'BRIEN: Interesting.
COSTELLO: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Carol Costello in the newsroom.
Carol, thank you.
A look at the top stories are ahead this morning, including the Bush administration doing a little staff house cleaning. We're going to tell you who is out and who is in.
Then the latest Vatican broadside against "The Da Vinci Code." We'll tell you what it wants Christians to do.
That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.
A look at our top stories this morning.
Lawmakers from both parties are wary of President Bush's choice to head the CIA. President Bush is expected to choose Air Force General Michael Hayden to lead the agency. Some concerns, though, about his ties to the Pentagon.
Rhode Island Democrats expected today to endorse Representative Patrick Kennedy for reelection. Representative Kennedy checked himself into the Mayo Clinic for addiction to prescription drugs after a car accident on Capitol Hill last week.
And more details today on those sniper shootings in the D.C. area back in 2002. John Allen Muhammad on trial for six of the sniper killings is now asking to have the trial moved and a new jury named.
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