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American Morning

Iraq Mosque Attack; War Over The War; Money For Iraq; Unprepared; Planegate?; Gates To Step Down

Aired June 16, 2006 - 07:00   ET

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

CAL PERRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At least 11 people are dead, some 20 plus others are wounded. This comes, of course, as the prime minister brings his security crackdown to the capital. Seventy thousand security forces are out on the streets. There is a vehicle ban in the city. That is no cars allowed in Baghdad between the hours of 11:00 a.m. till 3:00 p.m.
Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Tell us about the previous attack there, Cal. This mosque in particular was the focus of an attack in April. And as suspect, as a result of that, they would have been very attuned to security issues.

PERRY: Well, you would think so, Miles. The attack came exactly 10 weeks ago to the day at about the same exact time, the same exact mosque. About an hour before noon prayers. That attack three suicide vest bombers, two of them women, killed over 70 people, wounding over 100 others. Many people believe that's the worst sectarian attack the country has seen in months.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: You know, it's probably worth reminding viewers at this point. With all the talk about al Qaeda and Iraq and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, that the kind of violence we're talking about here is a different brand. It is home-grown.

PERRY: It is and it's very low-grade violence. We've reported every day bodies found. We heard from the president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, the month before last, saw over 1,400 people killed in sectarian violence alone. It's the biggest concern here for the Iraqi government. They've tried to bring as many Sunni politicians as they can into the fold. It's an ongoing problem and one that they are certainly very concerned about.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Cal Perry in Baghdad, thank you.

Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a feisty session in the House. Actually, it was a furious debate over the war and it comes to a head today. The House is voting on a resolution in a few hours. That resolution says U.S. troops should not be withdrawn on an arbitrary timetable. The non-binding resolution is more like a political salvo aimed at the November elections. Congressional Correspondent Andrea Koppel live on Capitol Hill.

And, you know, this resolution is just sort of a statement yet they debated 11 hours yesterday.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol, and they're going to pick it up later this morning.

As you mentioned, House -- the midterm elections now are less than five months away and the House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called this Republican resolution a trap designed to show Democrats -- to basically force Democrats to endorse what they see is a failed Iraq policy and also as a way to portray Democrats as divided on Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. JOHN MURTHA, (D) PENNSYLVANIA: I know standing here does not solve the problem and it hasn't gotten better. It's gotten worse. That's the problem.

KOPPEL, (voice over): Emotions were high on both sides.

REP. MICHAEL ROGERS, (R) MICHIGAN: You know, our enemies do not have a first Tuesday in November plan. They have a plan for a caliphe (ph). They have well established themselves to murder Christians, Jew, Muslims, women, children. They'll behead you. They'll shoot you. They'll blow you up. They don't care.

KOPPEL: The battle lines were drawn.

REP. TODD TIAHRT, (R) KANSAS: If we leave now, it would be giving them a victory and we would be once again putting another picture on the board here saying, we should have fought harder. We should have stopped it back in 2006.

REP. LLOYD DOGGETT, (D) TEXAS: Instead of staying the course, we need to chart a smarter course. It's not weakness or retreat to recognize the administration offers us only an endless spend and bleed policy.

KOPPEL: Republicans said Democrats who support withdrawing U.S. troops want to cut and run.

REP. DENNIS HASTERT, (R) HOUSE SPEAKER: That is not enough for this House to say, we support our troops. To the men and the women in the field in harm's way, that statement rings hollow if we don't also say we support their mission.

KOPPEL: Democrats accused Republicans of playing politics by falsely linking the war in Iraq to the broader war on terror.

REP. LOUISE SLAUGHTER, (D) NEW YORK: It's a day designed to provide the majority with a chance to make cheap political attacks against Democrats in anticipation of upcoming midterm elections.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL: And debate will get underway again this morning in about two hours with a vote expected later this morning. Not surprisingly, in a Republican-dominated Congress, the resolution is expected to pass. But Carol, the bigger question that we can't answer as yet is what the political fallout may be for Democrats in the polls this November.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Andrea Koppel live on The Hill. And we'll be posing that very question in our next hour to Senator Edward Kennedy. He will be here with us at 8:30 Eastern.

MILES O'BRIEN: While House members bicker over wording in that symbolic resolution, President Bush ready to sign an emergency spending measure to pay the bills in Iraq. The total package weighs in at $94.5 billion. But will allow the government to make good on some other obligations as well. CNN's Kathleen Koch is at the White House this morning.

Good morning, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

And this is emergency money to fund numerous -- to fight battles on numerous fronts that the president does consider to be priorities. First of all, the war on terror. The bill that was passed yesterday by the Senate will spend some $70.4 billion primarily funding the continuing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And then there's hurricane recovery. Some $19.8 billion will go to the states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama as they continue that long and hard struggle to rebuild and recover. Much of the money going to New Orleans to help rebuild, strengthen those levees and restore the vital infrastructure that was destroyed there.

$2.3 billion will go for preparing for a possible avian flu pandemic. And the finally $1.9 billion toward beefing up security on the southern U.S. border. Hiring more border security agents and then, in the interim, sending National Guard members down there to help.

Now the Senate was largely in support of all of these measures, voting 98 to one in favor. Only Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter voting against the measure.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Kathleen Koch at the White House, thank you.

KOCH: You bet.

MILES O'BRIEN: Carol.

COSTELLO: He refused to go quietly, so House Democrats voted Thursday to strip Congressman William Jefferson of his seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. The Louisiana Democrat, the target of a federal bribery investigation. The FBI claims he stashed $90,000 in bribe money in his freezer. Jefferson, who's maintained his innocence, hasn't been charged with a crime and says he's still being treated unfairly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. WILLIAM JEFFERSON, (D) LOUISIANA: I simply ask the members of the caucus to put themselves in my shoes and imagine themselves standing where I was standing and to ask whether it would be deemed by them to be fair in a case where a member has had allegations, nonetheless serious allegations, made against him by third parties, and perhaps by some in the press, whether that is going to be the rule by which we operate here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Jefferson's suspension now goes to the full House for approval.

MILES O'BRIEN: Unprepared for disaster. The Department of Homeland Security says state and local governments are not ready to handle major emergencies. A report finding gaps found in disaster plans in all 50 states. But states susceptible to hurricanes, they say, are better prepared.

Among the big problems cited, inadequate planning to help people who need it the most, the poor, the sick and the elderly. The report also says states and major cities are too slow to issue disaster warnings. It also says, in many cases, there isn't a clear chain of command.

While that report gave hurricane-prone states decent grades on some fronts, it found glaring problems with evacuation plans. That's especially troubling given the problems with nursing home evacuations, you'll recall, during Hurricane Katrina and Rita. CNN's Jeanne Meserve takes a closer look at some of those issues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Did evacuation kill your dad?

DR. DAR KAVOUSPOUR, TRAUMA SURGEON, BEAUMONT, TEXAS: The stress, I believe, yes.

MESERVE: Montigard (ph) Kavouspour was 89, a stroke victim, fragile, when Hurricane Rita bore down on Texas. His son, Dar, a trauma surgeon, eventually got his father to a safe place. But the effort to save him, killed him.

KAVOUSPOUR: This was a little too much because it wasn't -- the whole situation was just chaotic. The heat, lack of air conditioning, lack of food. BILL KING, HURRICANE RITA EVACUATION STUDY: I don't think that I talked to a single nursing home that didn't lose at least one patient that evacuated.

MESERVE: Bill King was part of a Texas study of the Rita evacuation. One hundred and thirty-seven Rita evacuees died. Most of them elderly. Twenty-three perished when their bus burst into flames. But King says others died when Texas nursing homes that did not need to evacuate were pressured to do so because of the tragedy of St. Rita's nursing home in Hurricane Katrina. Thirty-four patients drowned there when they were not evacuated.

The Goose Creek Rehab Center in Baytown felt that pressure. It had an evacuation plan and bus and ambulance contracts. But when the storms came, the buses and ambulances did not.

GLENDA HAFER, GOOSE CREEK REHAB CENTER: We were frightened beyond belief. Once our transportation didn't come, we probably spent 48 hours, the assistant administrator and myself, crying back and forth. Residents never saw it, but we were just stressed beyond belief.

MESERVE: Eventually, the city and state came to the rescue. But finding transportation is just one issue. For heart patients, diabetics, stroke victims, dialysis patients, sitting for hours and hours in evacuation traffic jams can be deadly. Disorientation and stress can kill others.

It is also hard to find shelter with medical care. For all these reasons, Glenda Hafer knows what she'll do when the next hurricane threatens.

HAFER: I think that you try to move them at the early indication that it might be coming your way because they are so fragile. The less time you spend on the road with these patients, the better.

MESERVE: But Bill King fears early evacuations will mean people may die unnecessarily. He says move them late.

KING: We need to make absolutely sure that we'll need to evacuate. And we really don't know that until about the last 24 hours.

MESERVE: If nursing homes were located away from the coast and built to be more hurricane resistant, patients could just stay where they are. But for now there is only a difficult choice, risk losing the frail, elderly in an evacuation or risk losing them in a storm.

KAVOUSPOUR: You wish you had a crystal ball to know whether you should move or not. So you're almost damned in you do and damned if you don't.

MESERVE: And lives are on the line.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Baytown, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: President Bush called for that massive homeland security disaster review just nine days before Hurricane Rita made landfall. The report was also critical of the federal government, saying it needs to do a better job getting the latest disaster information to the local organizations.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Did Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt misuse a government airplane? Congress wants to know. We get more on this from Samantha Hayes of affiliate KSL.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAMANTHA HAYES, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Family brought Michael Leavitt to town this time. A Father's Day celebration and the chance to visit with grandchildren. And his trip may have gone unnoticed but Secretary Leavitt's use of a leased jet is catching national attention. He defended his position to Eyewitness News.

MICHAEL LEAVITT, HHS SECRETARY: That's an important tool of it. But the good news is we've had 39 million people sign up for Medicare and the country's better off in terms of avian flu and that's the important thing. That's what the president's asked me to do.

HAYES: The secretary is a frequent flyer. You would expect that from the man in charge of implementing Medicare drug benefits and preparing for a possible pandemic. That's what he was doing on a March visit to Salt Lake City and dozens of other cities since January.

LEAVITT: The measure of our success is, are we finding them and fixing them and finishing them rapidly? We are. The system gets better every day.

HAYES: Congress is taking a close look at how he flew to all those cities on a leased jet reportedly reserved for the CDC to use in emergencies. Democrats say Leavitt's trips did not qualify as emergencies and believe the $740,000 cost to taxpayers was wasteful.

LEAVITT: No, I'm just working hard to do my job.

COSTELLO: That report was from Samantha Hayes of affiliate KSL.

Congress did sign off on his use of the plane, but he was expected to coordinate with the CDC since it's their emergency plane. The "Atlanta-Journal Constitution" reported the CDC was forced to find another plane during two emergencies because Leavitt was using it.

MILES O'BRIEN: Police now have more power under a new Supreme Court ruling. The court weighing in on so-called no-knock search warrants. Justices saying evidence collected by police in illegal searches does not necessarily need to be forfeited. It's a 5-4 decision and it also reflects the new conservative balance of the high court. Convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo reportedly admitting some new crimes now. "The Washington Post" this morning saying Malvo told authorities he and co-conspirator John Allen Muhammad, responsible for four other shootings in 2002, two of them fatal. Malvo is already serving a life sentence for the Washington area shootings, almost four years ago now. Ten people were killed in that shooting spree. And Muhammad faces the death penalty.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Also happening in America, two people dead, dozens more injured after a tour bus collided with a pickup truck at a dangerous intersection in Tennessee. It happened northeast of Knoxville. Witnesses say the pickup literally ended up underneath the bus which was carrying high school students to a dance.

A busy freeway in Houston has reopened this morning after a deadly accident caused a temporary shutdown. One person killed when a chain reaction accident erupted into a fireball. The driver of a Lincoln apparently tried to exit the interstate but hit the barrier instead triggering the crash.

A little dog caused some very big problems at an airport in Burbank, California. The Yorkie was found on the runway and workers chased it for more than a half hour but they kept getting outsmarted by the dog. Later, the dog named Taxi, was taken to an animal shelter.

MILES O'BRIEN: They needed some Scooby Snacks in a big way. I mean that's not the way you get a dog. You don't chase after the dog.

COSTELLO: Oh, the poor little dog was probably so scared.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes. But, look, they finally got him.

COSTELLO: They did. He's safe and sound this morning.

Fast moving 700-acre wildfire is still burning out of control in Colorado and it's only expected to get worse. The state issued a red flag warning, meaning crews are dealing with high winds and low humidity. More than 120 firefighters are now trying to contain the flames.

The situation is much better in Arizona, though, where a wildfire near Flagstaff is now fully contained. The wind-fanned flames forced more than 1,000 people to evacuate their homes earlier this week but they have since returned. Officials say a thinning forests helped prevent the fire from getting too out of control.

So let's check on the weather out west and elsewhere.

Good morning, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MILES O'BRIEN: It was bound to happen, I suppose. The best player to ever hit the hard court back in the NBA, although not back on the court per say. Michael Jordan teaming . . .

COSTELLO: You never know.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, you never know. You're right, with him, you never know.

Michael Jordan is teaming up with Robert Johnson, a guy with some deep pockets there, part owner now of the Charlotte Bobcats. Now you'll recall His Airness was a part owner of the Washington Wizards a few years back and he did appear on the court for a little while. In the end, though, that whole thing kind of devolved into . . .

COSTELLO: And you wonder about that because Abe Pollin, the owner, is such a nice man. How could it not work out?

MILES O'BRIEN: It didn't work out well. Abe did fire him.

COSTELLO: I know.

MILES O'BRIEN: So whatever happened, it was not good.

In any case, hopefully this will work out better this time and it's good to have His Airness back in the game one way or another.

Motorcycle safety in the spotlight following that terrible, scary accident involving Big Ben, Ben Roethlisberger. Stay it now. He's going to wear a helmet if he rides a bike again.

And coming up, CNN's John Roberts, who is quite a biker himself, you know?

COSTELLO: He is indeed.

MILES O'BRIEN: Hits the road to look at the nationwide debate over helmet laws.

COSTELLO: Who knew?

Also, a big change on the way for millions of American Catholics. We'll tell you how they'll soon have to change the way they say mass.

MILES O'BRIEN: Plus, Britney Spears getting candid about her personal life, breaking into tears on national television. We'll show you why ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, a bitter debate set to resume in the House in just a few hours over that controversial resolution of the war in Iraq. The real rub, whether to set a timetable for troop withdrawals there.

A courtroom showdown today of a record seized in Congressman William Jefferson's office on Capitol Hill. The judge who allowed the FBI search last month will hear from the Justice Department and the House of Representatives. House leaders have called that raid unconstitutional. Jefferson the focus of a bribery investigation.

In Colorado, they'll break ground today on a memorial to the 13 victims of the Columbine High School shootings. Organizers say they are still $300,000 short in funding for the memorial park. Former President Bill Clinton will speak at the ceremony today.

Vaccination programs in full swing in Indonesia. As we speak, 18 earthquake survivors there have died of tetanus. The bacteria-borne disease has infected dozens of others. Tens of thousands of people left homeless in last month's massive earthquake.

And Dan Rather may soon be leaving the building. CBC completely. Rather told "The Philadelphia Inquirer" that no one at CBS has talked to him about continuing on at "60 Minutes." His contract with the network runs out in November.

COSTELLO: That is one sad end, is it?

MILES O'BRIEN: It is indeed.

COSTELLO: Now let's go to a happy end, though, because, you know, this thing just came out of the blue. A stunning announcement from Microsoft founder and co-chair Bill Gates. He's quitting his day job and working to better the world. CNN's Kyung Lah is live in Washington.

Good morning. Tell us more.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Nearly every American has been touched on many levels by Bill Gates' innovation. Whether it is having the Windows Operating System on your laptop, as is my case here, or having some Microsoft stock in your portfolio. This announcement, as you said, Carol, is on many levels a stunning one.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL GATES, MICROSOFT CORP. CHAIRMAN: The change we're announcing today is not a retirement. It's a reordering of my priorities.

LAH, (voice over): The richest man in the world says less business, more charity. Microsoft Founder Bill Gates stepping aside from daily duties to follow his other passion.

GATES: There's a common thread through my different work at Microsoft and at the foundation. It's a sense of optimism that smart, committed people with the right supports and vision can have a huge impact.

LAH: The Harvard University dropout dreamed of a personal computer in every American home. He became the geeky face identified with personal computer software as Microsoft dominated the industry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I also feel a lot of confidence that this company is ready and capable of making a smooth and orderly two-year transition.

LAH: Gates made his announcement after the markets closed. Microsoft shares down slightly in after hours trading. His hope now, helping poor nations fight poverty and AIDS. The "Time" magazine "Man of the Year" will continue shifting his $50 billion fortune to his foundation, a fortune amassed by technology that now will speed cures to the world's ills.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's taking the money that he has made -- he's going to take almost all of the money he's made and he's going to apply it to changing the world in fundamental ways.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: So how will it affect your pocketbook? Well, looking forward to today's market, yesterday we did have a nice rebound. The Street certainly going to be interested to see what's going to happen after today's opening bell. And as far as the future of Microsoft, Gates' announcement may actually now signal the change of computing in a box for the company to more online competition.

Carol.

COSTELLO: We'll see. Kyung Lah reporting live from Washington for us this morning.

Love him or hate him, a Hollywood superstar back on top of "Forbes" magazine celebrity power list. We've got the top 10 for you.

Plus, is the harsh glare of the tabloid spotlight getting to Britney Spears? Her tearful moments on national television. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: If you absolutely love fresh lobster, take Whole Foods off your shopping list because the natural foods grocery store says it has stopped selling live lobsters and soft shelled crabs because it's inhumane. But Whole Foods says it will continue to sell frozen, raw and cooked lobster products. I guess the lobsters just have to be dead first.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, which is more humane, I guess.

COSTELLO: Right.

MILES O'BRIEN: I guess.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Killed by someone else?

MILES O'BRIEN: Killed by someone else. It's not -- not in my shop.

SERWER: Right.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Let's talk about inflation now with Andy Serwer.

Hello, Andy.

SERWER: Hello, Miles. Good morning, everyone.

Is he or isn't he? I'm talking about Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and whether or not he's overly concerned about inflation. Of course it was the Fed chairman's comments over the past several weeks that made the stock market swoon, suggesting that inflation was a real problem that the Fed needed to address. But yesterday, in a speech of the Economic Club of Chicago, Bernanke seemed to suggest, or at least this is how the market's perceived it, that inflation was a concern but not something that the Federal Reserve couldn't handle.

Meanwhile, in South Korea, another Fed official, William Poole, was talking about inflation. And this is some interesting stuff here. He was saying how the Fed and other government officials needed to keep track of more anecdotal evidence of inflation rather than just those dry statistics. And, you know, it's always crazy how they strip out the volatile energy and food components, like we don't use gasoline or eat. I mean, it always struck me as a little crazy. So maybe he's suggesting that the Fed pay attention to orange juice prices and dry cleaning bills and the cost of a college education and the cost of prescription drugs. Interesting stuff there.

Now because of the perception that Bernanke is not overly concerned about inflation yesterday, the stock market took off. The Dow up 198 points. This follows on the heels of 110-point gain on Wednesday. Look at all those green arrows. We love to bring this to you in the morning.

COSTELLO: That's beautiful, Andy. Beautiful.

SERWER: That's a beautiful -- nice (ph) screen.

MILES O'BRIEN: It's a beautiful thing.

So let me ask you this. Bernanke and Wall Street, are they dancing yet? Have they figured it out?

SERWER: I think you hit the nail on the head. I think they're not dancing yet. You can see this back and forth. He says something, Wall Street overshoots. He says something else, it overshoots in the other direction and we'll get it together.

COSTELLO: Well they had that thing -- they had Alan Greenspan for so many years, so it's safe to say it should take some time for them to do the tango together.

SERWER: I think that's dead on. To make beautiful music together.

COSTELLO: (INAUDIBLE).

SERWER: Something like that, right? COSTELLO: Yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, what's next? Anything good (ph)?

SERWER: Oh, we're going to be talking about Amazon.com is going to be getting into the grocery delivery business. What do they do about ice cream. We'll tell you about that coming up.

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, what do they do about that. Good question. Thank you very much.

SERWER: You're welcome.

MILES O'BRIEN: It's out again, the "Forbes" list of top Hollywood heavy hitters. This year there were a few surprises. "Da Vinci Code" Author Dan Brown can in as the world's 10th biggest star. Is he a star?

SERWER: No.

MILES O'BRIEN: No.

SERWER: He's an author.

MILES O'BRIEN: He's a heavy hitter, right?

COSTELLO: He's rich.

MILES O'BRIEN: The cast of "The Sopranos." Rapper turned business man 50 Cent.

How'd I do?

COSTELLO: You said that like a white man, baby.

MILES O'BRIEN: You all right? All right. Yes, sorry, that's all I can do for you on a Friday. Howard Stern and director Steven Spielbreg made it into the top 10. None of these are surprises, of course. Tiger Woods, would you consider him Hollywood? I guess he is in some respects, right?

SERWER: A celebrity, I guess, right?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, celebrity is the better term here.

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