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American Morning

A Dry Run for a Wet Disaster; President Bush Prepping for First Meeting With New Israeli Prime Minister

Aired May 23, 2006 - 08:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A dry run for a wet disaster. New Orleans practices today. What to do if another Katrina hits, God forbid.
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ed Henry at the White House, where President Bush is prepping for his first meeting with the new Israeli prime minister, with a slew of thorny issues on the agenda.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dana Bash on Capitol Hill, where a congressman under investigation for taking hundreds of thousands in bribes is back at work, vowing not to resign.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And some excellent news for new grads. The job market is looking pretty good.

How good is it?

We'll take a look.

M. O'BRIEN: And the Dixie Chicks are back. They're out with a new record and making no apologies for their anti-war comments. We'll look and listen, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you.

I'm Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Welcome everybody.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's get right to it.

The U.S. -Israeli summit set for the White House today. It will be the first personal meeting between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who succeeded the ailing Ariel Sharon.

Aside from the talk of what lies ahead with the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, the two will also discuss the nuclear stand-off with Iran.

Ed Henry live now from the White House this morning -- Ed, good morning.

HENRY: Good morning, Miles. Before the Oval Office meeting with President Bush, Prime Minister Olmert will also be meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. That's because the administration is trying to get as much detail as possible about Prime Minister Olmert's plan to withdraw from most of the Jewish settlements on the West Bank. President Bush urging a go slow approach. Concern here at the White House that moving too quickly could only exacerbate, complicate some of the tensions involving the Mideast peace process.

They obviously want that to move forward. That is concern about this. But Prime Minister Olmert has been making the case that ever since Hamas took over the Palestinian government, Israel no longer has a partner in peace and they may need to act unilaterally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EHUD OLMERT, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Since he was elected, there was a new government elected. And this government is a terrorist government. And Mahmoud Abbas was deprived of police powers. He is powerless. He is helpless. He is unable to even stop the minimum terror activities amongst the Palestinians, so how can he seriously negotiate with Israel and take -- assume responsibility for the most major fundamental issues that are in controversy between us and them?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, the White House knows ending some of the settlement activities could actually help pave the way for a Palestinian state. That could be a step forward in the Mideast peace process. But there is a concern that Israel is planning to keep other significant settlements. That could look like the White House is endorsing a land grab at a time when the White House is trying to get as many partners as possible to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Ed, as if to underscore Mr. Olmert's point that he just made there about Mr. Abbas and how powerless he is, there's just open violence right now. Palestinians fighting amongst themselves in Gaza right now. That certainly complicates any discussion about peace.

HENRY: Absolutely. And the administration has been wanting Prime Minister Olmert to engage directly with President Abbas, his Palestinian counterpart. But a you say, and as president -- as Prime Minister Olmert made clear there, Israel does not feel that it has a partner in peace. They are not confident that any talks with the Palestinians will really move this process forward -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry at the White House, thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson says he's going to be on the floor of Congress today. He is not quitting even though the Justice Department is apparently building a bribery case against him.

Congressional correspondent Dana Bash live for us on Capitol Hill -- Dana, good morning to you.

We saw Congressman Jefferson hold a press conference where he essentially said absolutely nothing.

How long can an investigation go on where he doesn't really comment?

BASH: Well, he's not commenting because he made clear his lawyers won't let him. In fact, I can tell you, his lawyers were not very happy about the fact that he went in front of the cameras at all yesterday.

But as you said, he is not, he's saying that he will not resign. He voted yesterday. He will vote again today. He says simply he is not stepping down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. WILLIAM JEFFERSON (D), LOUISIANA: There are two sides to every story. There are certainly two sides to this story. There will be an appropriate time and forum when that can be explained and explicated. But this is not the time, this is not the forum and operating on advice of counsel, I will not get into the facts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: But the congressman actually does not have a lot of support from his Democratic colleagues here on Capitol Hill, who want to use the corruption issue against Republicans this November. In fact, his leader, the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, issued a very short, very pointed statement simply saying: "Members of Congress must obey the law with any criminal investigation and if they don't, they will be held accountable."

Soledad, it's not too hard to read between the lines there.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I thought it was short and sweet and to the point.

Dennis Hastert actually had a much longer and much more convoluted, in a lot of ways, statement.

It's unusual, Dana, to have the GOP and the Dems in sync on anything. But in this case, on that issue, they really are.

BASH: That's true. And to be clear, of course, the Republicans here on Capitol Hill are not in a way defending the Democratic congressman in the allegations against him on corruption. But you're absolutely right. There is bipart -- there are bipartisan questions -- concern about one specific issue, and that is the separation of powers issue. Many people think that the FBI crossed a constitutional line when they, for the first time in history, raided a sitting congressman's office.

S. O'BRIEN: Dana Bash for us this morning.

Dana, thanks for the update.

BASH: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: The federal government talks about its hurricane preparation plans today. With about a week to go before the start of hurricane season, officials will tell us how they have retooled federal response plans. Officials from Homeland Security, FEMA and the U.S. military will be briefing reporters.

Hurricane season officially begins next week. It gets underway today, though, in New Orleans, as the city simulates a category three storm in order to test its new evacuation plan. Large parts of the plan, though, still aren't in place. Homeland Security and FEMA officials are on hand to keep an eye on the drill.

Moving Congress to protect animals, the House overwhelming voted last night to require that evacuation plans include provisions to save pets. Countless animals died during Hurricane Katrina. In fact, many owners risked their lives and would shoo away the rescue choppers, in fact, because they would not abandon their pets in the middle of the storm -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Cleanup begins this morning in Colorado Springs. Strong winds ripped apart at least two homes. No injuries reported. A crew from the National Weather Service heading there today. They'll try to determine if it was a tornado there.

Downed trees near Charleston, South Carolina, the other end of the country. Dozens snapped in what felt like a tornado to some there. A tree crashed through one woman's roof, leaving a gaping hole there. She and her family are fine, however.

Chad Myers watching the weather, severe and otherwise, for us -- good morning, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Supposedly, that was about a 71 mile per hour wind, sustained wind, that really went all the way from almost Columbia, South Carolina right on down to the shore, right on into the lower area there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Hey, have you seen these pictures?

Take a look at these. These are pictures that have just come into us from Germany. An amazing escape from a burning building. Look there. You can see a boy and his mother...

M. O'BRIEN: Whoa!

S. O'BRIEN: The building, a huge fire. Watch what's going to happen. They're on the second floor.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh my gosh.

S. O'BRIEN: Ooh, gosh, there he goes. M. O'BRIEN: Wow!

S. O'BRIEN: He gets down safely. He's obviously terrified. And then a few minutes later he's going to jump down to the bottom.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow!

S. O'BRIEN: And the mother goes, as well.

They both suffered from smoke inhalation and apparently the mother, who took, as you can see, the longer plunge, had some minor injuries, as well. But they seem to be OK and there's no word yet on what exactly caused that fire.

Those are terrifying pictures. You can see the firefighters there trying to help her out.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow!

S. O'BRIEN: Oh my goodness. How scary. It's -- you can see those flames coming right out over their heads.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: How awful.

Ahead this morning, we are talking about this really what could turn into the biggest I.D. theft case ever. Crooks have made off with the personal data on as many as 26 million vets. We're going to tell you how it happened and what people can do to protect themselves today.

M. O'BRIEN: Also ahead, now that you take the mortar board off and remove the robe, what do you do now, graduate?

Well, there's some jobs out there. As a matter of fact, it's actually the best time in five years to be looking for a job.

We'll take you live where to go in just a moment.

S. O'BRIEN: And also this morning, the little boy who did it. Seven-year-old Braxton Bilbrey, he's the guy who swam all the way from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco-yesterday. Remember we were telling you his story? We'll check in with him and see if he's warmed up a bit this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: His lips are still blue.

S. O'BRIEN: Stay with us.

You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A woman who reached major milestones on Wall Street, on today's Blue Chips. Muriel Siebert has earned her nickname as the first woman of finance. In 1967, she was the first female to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.

Siebert founded her multi-million dollar brokerage firm that same year. A decade later, she served as New York's banking regulator, another first for a woman.

MURIEL SIEBERT, CHAIRWOMAN & PRESIDENT, MURIEL SIEBERT & COMPANY: I think one of the things that really helped me along the way was a sense of humor, because when you're first, not everybody is going to love you.

Success for me is more than money. In today's environment, integrity is one of the major things a CEO must strive to accomplish. It should be on your mind all the time.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: A massive mistake is putting the identities of millions of American veterans at risk. Names, addresses and Social Security numbers of more than 25 million veterans all on a computer disk and all stolen from the home of a Veterans Administration employee.

Mark Rasch is a former cyber crimes prosecutor.

He's in Washington, D.C. this morning.

Mark, good morning to you.

I mean it's -- it actually is breathtaking, I think it's fair to say, that one person, by having this information on a disk at his home unsecured in any way, has put this all at risk.

Are you surprised?

MARK RASCH, FORMER CYBER CRIMES PROSECUTOR: Well, I'm not surprised that these types of data theft happen. I'm kind of surprised that they would have this many pieces of personal information on one disk in one location, where it could be easily stolen by any third rate burglar.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it doesn't necessarily have to be a hacker who would have to get to this information. It doesn't seem like as if anything was encoded.

Does that surprise you?

RASCH: Yes, I mean whenever you're going to this kind of data, which is very sensitive data, it should be encrypted, it should be encoded. It shouldn't be portable. It shouldn't be out there in the public domain.

We've made it very easy for people to steal this kind of information.

S. O'BRIEN: I guess if there's any good news, it is that it seems like it was sort of a run-of the mill burglary, meaning they weren't actually going after this kind of information. They were just trying to break into his house. That's kind of good news, in a way.

RASCH: That's right. The thieves probably don't know what they have and it's probably sitting in a dumpster somewhere in Maryland instead of being used by data thieves. But you can never be sure.

S. O'BRIEN: On the other hand, if you have your Social Security number and you have a birth date but you don't have financial, you know, account information, what kind of damage can you do?

RASCH: Well, you know, you can do tremendous amounts of damage, because if you were to call the bank, if you were to call a hospital or other places and you wanted to get that financial information or that medical information, they'd ask you for your name and your Social Security number, and then they'd give you that information.

So from one bit of information you can then get other bits of information and commit full identity theft and get -- create new financial records and new identities.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, what I found interesting -- we had a report earlier from John King and he said, you know, there was this three week delay in which people were not told that this information was missing. And the reason given, at least, was well, we don't want to tip off the burglars to what they have.

What do you make of that rationale?

RASCH: Well, that's not necessarily bad. I mean the burglars who had these disks, if they didn't realize that they were valuable, they probably got rid of them. If you told them immediately, hey, that thing that you stole is potentially worth millions of dollars, then they're going to start to use it and try to sell it, sell it on the Internet, sell it to third parties.

And so the delay actually does help mitigate the harm here if the bad guys didn't know what they had.

S. O'BRIEN: The sloppiness I have found just so incredible in this story. I mean the idea that an employee can walk out the door, apparently unchecked, with, you know, this information in his briefcase or her handbag or who -- you know, they haven't identified the employee yet -- it seems very surprising to me.

RASCH: Well, you know, in the old days if I wanted to steal all of the files of the Department of Veterans Affairs, I'd have to hire a bunch of tracks and wheel out wheelbarrows full of paper. Now, it can all be done on a floppy disk, on a single drive. And in this case, the employee had legitimate access to the information. What they didn't have is the right -- or shouldn't have had the right to take it home with them after work. But, you know, this is going to happen more and more as we have more telecommuting and we have more data moving around. We have to do it securely. We have to think about why is this data being portable and why isn't it encrypted?

S. O'BRIEN: You know, when you talk about the implications for terrorists, if you have someone's Social Security number and you have their name and they served in the armed forces, you know, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that you could easily steal someone's identity to have access, certainly, right?

RASCH: Well, there are a couple of things you can do.

First of all, if you wanted to target members of the military, you've got their name and their Social Security number. You can find out where they live. And we see in Baghdad that they were target -- they're targeting the military and the police. There's no reason to think that they could do that here.

But if I wanted to get access to a military base or I wanted to create a fictitious I.D. now I've got a list of mil -- of current or former military people that I can go ahead and target, as well.

Foreign intelligence agencies would love this information, as well, to find out who spies are, who has access to classified information.

So it's a tremendously sensitive information, but we don't treat it that way.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, apparently not.

Cyber crime expert Mark Rasch joining us this morning.

Mark, nice to see you.

Thanks.

Appreciate it.

RASCH: Nice to see you again, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on the program, the best places for college grads to find a job. We'll tell you who's hiring and how much they're paying.

And later, the Dixie Chicks back with a new album. They're not ready to make nice and the country music crowd is offering a cold shoulder.

We'll explain ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) M. O'BRIEN: When Jim Scott was a young lad growing up, he walked through the woods to school every day -- a mile. The experience embedded in him a lifelong love of the outdoors that is serving him well as he faces a new horizon.

Here's CNN's Linda Stouffer.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

LINDA STOUFFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The breathtaking beauty of the Pacific Northwest. It's where 65-year-old Jim Scott feels at home.

JIM SCOTT, CASCADE RAMBLINGS.COM: I recognize the trees, the different tress, the different shrubs, the trails, the animals. I feel like I'm -- I'm really among friends.

STOUFFER: Now that he's retired, the Oregon native more time to spend outdoors with his wife Jeanette.

Jim researches the best spots to hike, fish, ski and view wildlife. Then he posts trip reports on his Web site, cascaderamblings.com. His son Michael developed the site for him five years ago.

SCOTT: I work on a product daily. We average around 500 hits a day. There isn't any money made on it. It's all volunteer labor, a labor of love, yes.

When we're out hiking, people will come up and, in the course of the conversation, it comes up that I'm Jim Scott from cascaderamblings. And they'll say oh, yes, we love your site. We use it all the time.

It keeps the mind stimulated. I'm always researching the plants and animals that I find and photograph, and new places to go. I think people that are successful in retirement and happy are people that have something that gives them a reason for getting up out of bed and staying off the couch.

STOUFFER: Linda Stouffer, CNN.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: All right, party on class of '06. The job market is looking ever so fat. Employers say it is the best job market, in fact, in five years. Hiring is up in all sectors. Nine out of 10 employers see more competition to find those choice candidates with fresh sheepskin in their hands.

Joining us now to talk about it is Jeanne Sahadi.

She is a writer for cnnmoney.com.

Good to have you with us, Jeanne.

JEANNE SAHADI, CNNMONEY.COM: Thanks.

Thank you for having me.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about these companies that are looking to hire.

You want to be in the rental car business it's a good year, huh?

SAHADI: It's a great year. There is a Web site called collegegrad.com that every year surveys about 1,000 to 2,000 companies, asks them what their hiring plans are for entry level opportunities. And they list the top 500 companies that say they have the most entry level jobs available.

We have the top 50 listed on cnnmoney.com.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car, for some reason, always comes out near the top. I'm not quite sure why. But you also see Lockheed Martin...

M. O'BRIEN: Enterprise Rent-A-Car needs 7,000 people?

SAHADI: Apparently.

M. O'BRIEN: Who knew?

SAHADI: That's what they said in January. So probably some of those jobs have been filled. But that's kind of...

M. O'BRIEN: Do they rent these people or do they hire them?

SAHADI: They hire them for at least a while, I think.

M. O'BRIEN: OK.

SAHADI: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: And the collision damage waiver is signed and all of that.

SAHADI: Right. Right.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Lockheed Martin is looking to scale up for some reason.

SAHADI: Right. The defense and aerospace industry is always looking for highly skilled labor. That's a really fruitful area for people who are qualified.

M. O'BRIEN: The drugstore business is good.

SAHADI: The drugstore business. I would take...

M. O'BRIEN: Are those great jobs, though?

Are these high paying jobs? Or are these like clerk jobs?

SAHADI: Well, no, they're not clerk jobs. For the most part, in terms of sort of salary expectations on the part of college seniors, a lot of seniors think they're going to make more than $50,000. Some will if they have really highly -- if they're highly technically skilled and so forth. But probably the average is going to be somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 a year.

M. O'BRIEN: OK.

Let's talk about some overlooked industries here...

SAHADI: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: ... that you may not be thinking of out there.

SAHADI: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: Number one, agriculture.

Go buy a farm, huh?

SAHADI: Go buy a -- no, work for companies that might be into alternative fuels.

M. O'BRIEN: Ethanol is big.

SAHADI: Exactly.

M. O'BRIEN: Which means corn is big, right?

SAHADI: Yes, exactly. And think outside the box. If you're a liberal arts grad or you have a non-business degree, you still have a chance in these areas because what they're looking for are sort of -- and I don't know if it's back office, but, you know, administrative people, H.R. people, P.R. people, salespeople.

M. O'BRIEN: Right.

SAHADI: Lots and lots of sales jobs out there.

M. O'BRIEN: There is hope, history majors.

SAHADI: And lobbying. Don't forget that.

M. O'BRIEN: It's OK.

You'll be all right.

Nuclear engineering is now hot, so to speak...

SAHADI: Right...

M. O'BRIEN: ... because of concerns about energy issues as well as global warming.

SAHADI: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Government -- who wants, I mean people aren't just embracing becoming a bureaucrat, but this is a place to go.

SAHADI: It's the place to go that -- apparently there are 30,000 jobs coming available in the government. The government is facing the same demographic trend as companies, which is to say baby boomers are starting to retire and they realize there's going to be a shortage of skilled workers, so they want to fill their pipelines coming up.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about what grads are thinking. You could say they're confident. Some might say they're a little cocky, but that's, you know, just a generational issue.

SAHADI: Right. Right.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm getting to be an old man, I guess.

SAHADI: That's right.

M. O'BRIEN: But 53 percent expected to find a job in one to three months.

Are they realistic?

SAHADI: Some are, if they're very proactive and they started this spring. The problem is in summer, hiring tends to...

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, but that messes with the parties. Come on, Jeanne. You can't do that.

SAHADI: It does mess. I know. And those people, the ones who are now partying probably already have jobs, or are not going to start looking until September.

M. O'BRIEN: Right. One or the other.

SAHADI: They're going to live with their parents.

M. O'BRIEN: One or the other.

Right.

SAHADI: Yes.

But they -- they may find a job in one to three months. But four to five months is more realistic.

M. O'BRIEN: There are some who are even more wild-eyed. These 16 percent expected to find a job in less than a month.

SAHADI: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Forty-two percent expect to earn $50,000 or more.

Are they deluded? SAHADI: No.

M. O'BRIEN: Really?

SAHADI: They're not deluded but not quite so high a percentage will be earning that much. As I said, a lot of the salary surveys that have come out said the salaries are up, but they tend to measure what the best and the brightest have been offered. And they get hired early on.

Once you get into the summer and fall months, you've got a bigger pool of candidates and the average tends to come down.

So, again, it will probably be somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000.

M. O'BRIEN: So I guess if I had to do it over again, it should have been nuclear engineering, huh?

SAHADI: I guess.

I should have, too, but I messed up.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, well.

SAHADI: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: I could have been a nuclear energy.

SAHADI: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Jeanne Sahadi from cnnmoney.com.

SAHADI: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks for dropping by.

SAHADI: Thanks very much.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we talk to 7-year-old Braxton Bilbrey. He is that second grader who swam from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco. We'll ask him, ooh, what was that chilly experience like.

And the Dixie Chicks have a new song, "Not Ready To Make Nice." That's kind of their motto, too.

Are audiences going to embrace them now that -- after they bashed the president?

Stay with us.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning.

Welcome everybody.

I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien.

Thanks for being with us this morning.

Let's get some headlines.

Carol Costello is watching some things for us in the newsroom -- hello, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am, indeed.

Good morning, Miles.

Good morning to all of you.

There is now word this morning that a Turkish pilot has been rescued off the Greek island of Karpathos. The rescue taking place hours after the plane he was flying collided in midair with a Greek fighter jet over the Aegean Sea. Both jets taking part in a mock dog fight when the collision happened over international waters. The Greek pilot still missing.

New Orleans doing a dry run. The city practicing an evacuation drill this morning. The new Atlantic hurricane season begins in just eight days. Experts predict an active season, but short of the record pounding 28 storms last year. Oh, we hope so.

Today, President Bush will sit down with Israel's new prime minister, Ehud Olmert. These are new pictures we've just got of the Israeli prime minister at the Pentagon. The president and Olmert are expected to discuss Israel's plans for the West Bank and pushing the Mideast peace process forward. We'll hear more details later today when the two hold a joint news conference.

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