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American Morning

Update on Tropical Storm Ernesto, Hurricane John; Lack of Control?; Iran Remains Defiant in Nuclear Ambitions

Aired August 31, 2006 - 08:59   ET

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

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm meteorologist Chad Myers.
Ernesto back in open water and getting stronger. The forecast coming up.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's the kind of fall (ph) that's expected to be a big rainstorm in Charleston, South Carolina.

I'm Keith Oppenheim, and I'll have all the preparations coming up.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And Hurricane John is battering parts of Mexico right now. A possible tourist resort is right in the storm's path.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm David Mattingly in Lexington, Kentucky.

Did a lack of sleep for an air traffic controller play a role in a commuter crash? I'll have that story.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And RadioShack fires some employees with a few strokes of a keyboard. Somebody e-mail these guys a heart on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Hi.

S. O'BRIEN: You beat me to it. Good morning to you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Good to see you.

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

Welcome back, everybody.

We've been following a couple big weather stories this is morning -- Tropical Storm Ernesto, Hurricane John, as well.

Keith Oppenheim is in Charleston, South Carolina, for us.

Harris Whitbeck is in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico.

Severe weather expert Chad Myers is at the CNN center.

So, Chad, let's start with you. What's the big picture here?

MYERS: The big picture for Ernesto is that the longer it stays in the water the more it gets organized.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad. Thanks.

MYERS: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get right to CNN's Keith Oppenheim. He's live in Charleston, South Carolina, for us.

Hey, Keith. It actually doesn't look so bad yet.

OPPENHEIM: That's true, Soledad. It's not bad yet.

It was raining a little bit earlier, and we have a nice view of Charleston harbor behind me. And we can just begin to feel some of the winds that are coming off the coast, but not too bad. As Chad was saying, this is really expected to be a rain event, and because the city of Charleston, as you can see behind me is low -- this is called low country -- this is a place where there should be significant flooding today, if not for the next couple of days.

Take a look at some pictures we shot yesterday just a few miles from here on Sullivan's Island, where crews were putting up storm boards on some of the beachside houses there. One of the guys -- he was actually the head of that crew -- he said one reason he was taking those precautions was because he had gone through Sullivan's Island -- rather gone through Hurricane Hugo back in 1989.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had to deal with Hugo. That's pretty much when I started living in South Carolina. So it was -- it was a nightmare after the hurricane for the first six months or a year. So we're hoping that never comes around again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: Well, officials here are saying this is going to be no Hugo, Ernesto will be much milder than that. But even so, they are taking precautions, providing shelter for people who live in the low- lying areas and along beachfronts, saying that those people will likely need to take shelter because there will be all kinds of flooding along these low-lying areas.

Also today, no schools throughout the area. And some of the bridges might be closed, Soledad, if the winds start to get too -- too high.

Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, no surprise there. Great.

Keith Oppenheim for us.

Thanks, Keith, for the update from there.

M. O'BRIEN: Hurricane John, meanwhile, is pummeling Mexico's Pacific coast this morning. A lot of beach resorts in harm's way. A foot of rain on the way in some places.

CNN's Harris Whitbeck live now from Cabo San Lucas with more -- Harris.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Mexican civil defense authorities say some 10,000 people on Mexico's Pacific coast in the towns of Acapulco and Manzanillo spent the nights in shelters. Heavy rains associated with Hurricane John caused flooding, particularly in Acapulco, which has a population of about one million people.

Further up the coast, in Manzanillo, people were desperately trying to board up hotels and buildings as the storm churned up the coast towards them.

Here in Cabo San Lucas, on the tip of the Baja, California, peninsula, preparations are well under way. Local civil defense authorities say they have to prepare shelters for some 30,000 people. They believe an evacuation order will be issued just in a few hours.

Meanwhile, lots of tourists from the United States here have been trying to get out. We understand all flights to the U.S. are now practically sold out. And those tourists who are staying behind are being asked to stay in their hotels and local hotel management will tell them what steps to take as Hurricane John approaches.

It is expected to at least glance off the tip of the Baja, California, peninsula. This area is quite low, the elevation is quite low. So the concern is that there could a lot of flooding that could wash out a lot of the roads that connect the different towns around here -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Harris Whitbeck, thank you very much.

A system stretched thin. This morning, new information on what happened in that control tower in Lexington, Kentucky, on Sunday morning. Was a sleep-deprived controller a factor in the crash of that Comair plane that killed 49 people?

CNN's David Mattingly live now from Lexington with more -- David.

MATTINGLY: Good morning, Miles.

This air traffic controller was putting in a lot of hours in a short amount of time. He put in an eight-hour shift on Saturday, had nine hours off, got two hours of sleep, before coming back to another eight-hour shift, the overnight shift at midnight here at the Lexington airport.

This air traffic controller, however, did give the correct instructions to the Comair flight before it made the wrong turn on to the wrong runway. Still, federal crash investigators are looking at the scheduling very closely and looking around at other airports to see if this might be a sign of a bigger problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBBIE HERSMAN, NTSB SPOKESWOMAN: We won't not just be looking at this controller. We're going to be taking a system's approach to this, looking at what happens at this facility, potentially looking at what happens at other facilities. If we identify any issues, any safety issues, we will address them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: The ground investigation wrapping up here by the NTSB. We expect to see them leaving here today.

Meanwhile, here in Lexington, attention is turning to the families of the victims of this crash. A memorial service has been planned. Several of them, in fact, around here in the area.

A memorial has been set up outside the airport where people are bringing flowers and writing well wishes onto a banner. So many people affected by this terrible tragedy -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, David Mattingly -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. We're getting some information. The Associated Press is reporting that there has been a breach of security at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv.

A man apparently who is armed has breached security there. He is threatening to commit suicide.

This report coming to us from The Associated Press. This is breaking news. We're obviously following up on this story, update you on what's happening there as soon as we get more information -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. So, who is to blame for staffing problems at the Blue Grass Airport? We're going to discuss that a little bit later with the NTSB former vice chairman, Bob Francis, in just a few moments.

And now to a developing story. Iran right now remaining defiant in its nuclear ambitions. Today -- excuse me.

S. O'BRIEN: Want me to take over?

M. O'BRIEN: Why don't you -- you better. You better. Thank you. S. O'BRIEN: OK. You take a drink of water.

M. O'BRIEN: I apologize.

S. O'BRIEN: We're talking about the deadline, of course, the U.N. deadline for Tehran to stop its nuclear program. Nobody expects, though, that Iran will indeed stop. In fact, U.N. sanctions appear likely.

Let's get right this morning to CNN Senior United Nations Correspondent Richard Roth.

Hey, Richard. Good morning.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

A big day looming here, August 31st, deadline day, but there will not be a vote in the Security Council calling for sanctions against Iran. It's just not going to happen.

The U.S. needs to build its case. And it has been taking a gradual approach against Iran in rallying support.

The president of Iran, though, has vowed to be defiant, saying that his country has every right to have nuclear power, but it's only for peaceful purposes. The U.S. State Department's official, Nicholas Burns, will be going to Europe next week, likely to talk to key players on the Security Council about the way forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLAS BURNS, UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE: We're not going to be intimidated by anything the Iranians do. And they've got to understand one thing. They are fairly isolated on this issue.

They now have the entire Security Council, all the permanent members, including Russia and China, saying that they've got to cease and desist. And you had countries like India and Egypt also vote against them in the International Atomic Energy Agency.

So, the Iranians have to sit back, and they'll have to calculate the cost of isolation, the increased pressure that is going to come their way. And this is not going to be a pleasant time for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Kofi Annan today in Jordan saying the deadline has passed. The U.S. will have to convince China and Russia that it's time to go for sanctions. Both of those countries with extensive business ties to Iran think diplomacy is still the way forward.

The U.S. is likely, Soledad and Miles, to pursue gradual sanctions, maybe export bans, dual-use technology that can be banned that might go towards Iran's nuclear program.

Back to you. S. O'BRIEN: All right. Richard Roth for us.

Thanks, Richard. Appreciate it.

We're getting confirmation now from an Israeli spokesperson about this story we just told you about, breaking news that an armed man had in fact breached security at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv and he was threatening to commit suicide. That report first coming to us from The Associated Press. We're getting some details now from Israeli media reports.

Apparently, large forces have now been dispatched to the embassy. It happened around 2:45 p.m. The embassy employees reported apparently that an Arab-speaking man jumped the fence, entered the building with a gun, pointed at his own head. And there are reports that he is, in fact, requesting asylum.

The Israeli police couldn't enter the compound because it's considered to be British territory, and the British Embassy also saying that they could not respond to the event. So obviously that's going to be something that's up for a lot of investigation later. The whole area is closed right now, opened to traffic. Police everywhere.

We'll update you on what's happening there. This is some breaking news coming to us we're confirming now with officials in Israel -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, we'll have more on the investigation into Sunday' Comair crash in a moment. The air traffic controller on duty was working on just a couple of hours' sleep. Is that a factor in all of this?

Ultimately, it is the pilot in command, the flight crew, who has the responsibility in all that. We're going to talk to an expert and ask him about whether the system in general is just stretched too thin.

S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, your morning "House Call." We'll take a look at how fruit or vegetable juice could reduce your risk for Alzheimer's.

M. O'BRIEN: And later, you've got a pink slip. RadioShack employees find out they no longer have a job in a rather heartless way.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Federal investigators in Lexington, Kentucky, hope to wrap up their field work today, but it will be some time before they publicly release their conclusions on what went wrong. Why did the flight crew of Comair Flight 5191 use the wrong runway, a short runway, too short for that aircraft?

Forty-nine people are dead. The sole survivor, the man at the controls of the airplane, in the hospital struggling for his life.

Here to put this in perspective is former NTSB vice chairman Bob Francis, joining us from our Washington bureau this morning.

Bob, good to have you back on the program.

BOB FRANCIS, FMR. NTSB VICE CHAIRMAN: Miles, nice to talk to you.

M. O'BRIEN: We've been talking this morning quite a bit about the rest that the control tower ATC personnel had. He had basically a short turnaround, nine hours between shifts. Left at 2:30 p.m., came back at 11:00 p.m. for an overnight shift. Understandable that he wouldn't get a lot of sleep in all that down time there with all the sleep shifting involved.

He had about two hours of sleep. So he was fatigued. There's no question about that.

Do you think that's going to be a significant factor?

FRANCIS: I don't. I mean, I think you've got to be very careful. Suddenly, the last couple of days got this huge focus on a controller who did his job just the way he was supposed to have done it. And I think that our focus of all of us in the resources of the agencies involved and everyone else, including the media, should be on what caused the accident.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. But, nevertheless, an alert controller is a safer controller, right?

FRANCIS: In this case I don't know whether that's -- that's the issue or not. This controller apparently turned his back after -- after getting the confirmation from the pilot that he was cleared for runway 22. And I believe he was -- he was handling another airplane, vectoring it around weather, and he would be activating the flight plan of the Comair flight.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, there is a workload issue here. Ideally, according to FAA rules, there should have been two people in that tower to help with that -- that workload.

One of the things that hasn't been focused on too much is, technically, this tower personnel, he was also serving as the ground controller. And the ground controller's duty is to get an aircraft safely from the parking point to the threshold of the runway and get handed over to the tower at that point.

He did, in fact, fail in this portion of his job, didn't he?

FRANCIS: Well, there's one local controller. There are two controllers in question here at this facility. One is a radar controller who is usually downstairs in the radar room, and the local controller who is in the tower. There's no real -- I mean, the local controller does the ground. M. O'BRIEN: Right. But I'm saying his responsibility is ground traffic as well. It's not a typical -- like you would have in a bigger airport, where there's a ground function separate from the tower function.

FRANCIS: That is his function. But his function is to separate airplanes from airplanes. His function is not to make sure that the pilot looks at his compass before he starts his runway roll.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Do you think, though, that the fact that there was only one person in that tower -- because I know there was an incident back in 1993, very similar circumstances, they lined up on the wrong runway, and at that time an alert controller notified the crew they were lined up on the wrong runway, saved the day. So, I mean, I know in a sense it's a certain amount of speculation, but if there were two people there, you've got just that much more level of safety.

FRANCIS: Well, you know, I think certainly that's true. But the question here is, what caused the accident? The accident was not caused by the fact that the controller was not watching the takeoff.

M. O'BRIEN: No, but you know...

FRANCIS: Controllers don't...

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: I don't need to tell you, accidents are usually a string of several things. And if it takes all of those things together for the accident to happen, and if you pull out any one of those discreet factors, you wouldn't have an accident. Is this -- the controller component of this one of those factors?

FRANCIS: I don't believe the controller component is one of the causal factors. The controller, if he had been watching, if there had been two people there, might have watched the airplane and told -- and told the pilot that he was on the wrong runway. But I think that's different than saying that the controller's performance had something to do with the cause of the accident. The cause of the accident, from what I have seen, is pilot performance.

M. O'BRIEN: Is this a function, whether you look on the flight crew or the controllers, of a system that is stretched thin to the point that it is dangerous? And some would suggest perhaps it is time, especially given the state of the airlines and how thin the ranks are in the FAA, to re-regulate the airlines.

Would you go along with any of that?

FRANCIS: I would not go along with that. I would say what we've got to be doing -- we understand, I think, pretty well surface safety on airport surface and runways is a serious issue at this point. And there's a lot of work being done and some very good technological work being done that's trying to deal with this. So I say focus on that. Is the system -- as a totality, is there a problem? I don't think at all. I mean, you know very well, Miles, that it's the safest way you can go -- you can go from A to B, in this country particularly. So I think we've got to -- we've got to make sure that we're putting our resources where they are supposed to be, and that is looking at the issue of, how do we -- how do we deal with runway incursions?

Is air traffic control part of that? It may be, but I don't think that it's the major element in terms of solving the problem.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Bob Francis.

Bob Francis is the former NTSB vice chairman, and he is an analyst for us? Is that the correct term? Consultant?

FRANCIS: I guess so.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. CNN analyst.

Thank you for being with us.

S. O'BRIEN: Whatever it is, it's absolutely fascinating.

M. O'BRIEN: Always good to have you by.

S. O'BRIEN: I mean, it's those details that people will be looking at in the wake of this crash.

M. O'BRIEN: Exactly.

S. O'BRIEN: To hear the two of you, who are very knowledgeable about airplanes and airports and how it all works talk about the intricacies is really fascinating.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: All right.

Let's talk about what's ahead this morning. The morning "House Call."

As the saying goes, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. I don't know if that's true, but some people think that fruit juice or vegetable juice could in fact reduce your risk for Alzheimer's.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us with a look.

And then later, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Anna Quindlen will join us. She's talking about her new book, the midterm elections, the war in Iraq.

We've got a lot to cover. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) S. O'BRIEN: In this morning's 'House Call," a new study that seems to suggest that dietary changes could help delay or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer's Disease.

Let's get right to CNN senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He's in Atlanta.

Hey, Sanjay. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

You know, possibly some promising news here when it comes to Alzheimer's. We looked at the study very carefully. You know, it's easy to be dismissive of studies that point to fruits and vegetables as possibly warding off Alzheimer's.

We thought this one was fairly interesting, though. Let me give you some of the specifics.

What we're specifically talking about is fruit juices, certain types of fruit juices. The Alzheimer's study actually looked at about 2,000 Japanese-Americans, studied them for 10 years. They were assessed every two years.

They drank three glasses of juice a week. So about every other day. And what they found, they had about a 75, 76 percent lower incidence -- lower risk, rather, of Alzheimer's Disease by actually just having those simple steps.

Now, it wasn't completely controlled, so we don't know what else specifically this particular group of Japanese-Americans was doing. But the researchers pointed to the juice as possibly a factor in actually lowering that risk of Alzheimer's.

Some of the questions that were naturally asked is, well, why does this happen? And what is it specifically about the juice that is doing this?

The researchers actually looked at a compound known as polyphenols. That's a -- that's a name to remember. Polyphenols sort of an antioxidant that percent -- protects cells, I should say, from aging, and specifically in the skins and the peels of the juice. It is found in tea, juice and wine. But it's those skin and peels of the fruits that were so important.

The Alzheimer's Association, we talked to them. They say this is something that people should pay attention to, mainly because it is something that could help.

You're seeing some data now, but also probably won't hurt. There's a lot of reasons to be drinking your juice and eating your fruit anyway. This might be another one -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. So, a couple questions that jumped to my mind, Sanjay. First of all, why Japanese-Americans?

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's interesting. If you look at the incidence of Alzheimer's in Japan, it is much lower than it is in the United States. And if you look at Japanese Americans who moved to the United States, Japanese who moved to the United States, the incidence actually goes up.

The question a lot of people have been asking is, why? So this seemed like a pretty fertile group of people to study. What is it about their dietary habits that might be protective against Alzheimer's?

S. O'BRIEN: So, in this 10-year study, Sanjay, were these people who had always had fruits and vegetables and they just sort of, you know, monitored them over 10 years? Or are you saying for the 10 years they upped their fruit and veggie intake to see if it really corresponded with declining in getting Alzheimer's?

GUPTA: What they did was they specifically looked at that specific period of time over 10 years. So their dietary habits before that not necessarily taken into account, although it's a good question. And as I mentioned earlier, Soledad, were there other things, as well?

I mean, fish oil, for example, has been something people have pointed to, omega 3 fatty acids. But at least over this 10-year period, trying to exclude all other confounding factors, it appeared that juice three times a week seemed to decrease the risk of Alzheimer's by about 75, 76 percent.

S. O'BRIEN: That's really interesting. I wonder if it -- you know, if it's something then you say, OK, you should start drinking juice as a child, when you get in your 30s and 40s? When you get to the age of the people who are in the study?

GUPTA: When does it become protective? That's a great question. That's a good question.

These people are all 65 and older. So it's hard to extrapolate. Although, you might be able to say, look, it's probably a good thing if these polyphenols are in the body earlier.

And the other thing they're going to be looking at are what juices are the best? What are going to offer you the most protective effects. And, you know, if you don't like to drink because of sugar or things like that, might it come in a different form, as well, where you can get some of the same protection?

Those are questions that they are still trying to answer.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay. Thanks a lot.

GUPTA: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: It's a really interesting study, isn't it? CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta.

Got to take a short break. We're back with a look at our top stories just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: President Bush is trying to shore up some support for the war in Iraq again. Another series of speeches planned to make the case. This is the third time he's used this tactic, and it begins in just a few hours in Salt Lake City, and that's where we find our White House correspondent Ed Henry.

Good morning, Ed.

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

You're right, it's the third time. It's a little like going to the supermarket to buy some detergent. The box says new and improved, but when you open the package, it's really the same product; it's just got some new packaging on it, and this is really a new and improved version of the same strategy we've heard from the president again and again, trying to reframe this debate, say it's the central front in the broader war on terror. He does better in the public polls when he frames this as a referendum on the broader war on terror.

Yesterday the president insisting he does not want to politicize this debate, but when he arrived in Salt Lake City last night at the airport, he was greeted by about 2,000 cheering supporters. It certainly looked like a campaign rally, and the president certainly sounded like someone trying to buff up his party right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: Iraq is the central front in this war on terror. If we leave the streets of Baghdad before the job is done, we will have to face the terrorists in our own cities. We will stay the course, we will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed, and victory in Iraq will be a major ideological triumph in the struggle of the 21st century.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now the president insisting he does not want politics in this debate, a little like last week when he also said woe not question the patriotism of war critics, but certainly the president's defense secretary seemed to be doing just that on Tuesday, when Donald Rumsfeld basically suggested that critics of the war support the type of appeasement that really sparked the rise of Nazism leading up to World War II. That's really infuriated Democrats on Capitol Hill, as well as war protesters who are planning a big rally here today in Salt Lake City, even though Utah is obviously a reliably conservative state for the president.

The bottom line here is the president in this speech to the American Legion today is trying to push back, stem some of that political pressure to withdraw troops from Iraq. It's something not just Democrats, but now some Republicans are saying in this election year -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Ed Henry in Salt Lake City, thank you very much. CNN will have live coverage of the president's speech right where you saw Ed Henry standing, Salt Lake City at the Convention Center there, set to begin at 11:20 Eastern Time -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up morning, we're going to talk to Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Anna Anna Quindlen. She's got a new book out. It's called "Rise and Shine." We'll cover that and also the politics of the day, and we'll get her take on the upcoming elections, and also the anniversary of 9/11, all things that she has written about.

M. O'BRIEN: And later, some really bad news for hundreds of workers at Radio Shack, made even worse by how they received it. Andy, "Minding Your Business."

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Anna Quindlen always writes about issues that affect the lives of Americans. She's got a biweekly column in "Newsweek," writing about Iran and Iraq and the war on terror. She's also somewhere in there written five novels. The latest one is called "Rise and Shine."

It's nice to see you, Anna. Thanks for...

ANNA QUINDLEN, AUTHOR, "RISE AND SHINE": It's good to see you again.

S. O'BRIEN: ... coming back to talk with us.

We'll get to the novel in just a moment. I want to talk to you about some of the stuff that's going on politically. We've been mentioning the president is going to be giving a press conference today, kind of pitching again the strategy in Iraq and why he thinks it's important.

What do you make of this? And do you think, at the end of the day, the midterm election will really be a referendum on Iraq?

QUINDLEN: I don't know whether the midterm election will be the referendum, but we've already had the referendum. The American people seem to be pretty solid in their opposition to this war. The sad thing is that we all know how this is going to end. We're going to leave, probably later rather than sooner. Iraq is still going to have massive problems. And many, many more people will have died than needed to die to remove Saddam Hussein from power. You know, the president can do these whistle stops until the cows come home, and that's going to be the bottom line.

S. O'BRIEN: Talk to me a little bit about Islamic fascism. It's a word that's sort of popped up, and then now you hear it all the time when talking about the war on terror.

QUINDLEN: Well, it's a way of them conflating, once again...

S. O'BRIEN: They being?

QUINDLEN: The administration. 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq. You know they can backtrack and say, well, we never said that 9/11 was masterminded by people in Iraq. But the truth is that using this broad, overarching term is designed to do just that.

S. O'BRIEN: You've written a lot of how to balance national security and privacy. I think there are a lot of people who say it's just not -- you know, there's no balance there. In fact, you're going to have to give up some of your privacy in order to have good national security, real national security. It's the only way to catch the kind of criminals, terrorists, that are out there today.

QUINDLEN: Well, we have given up some of our privacy. The question is whether we have national security. And I think that many people would answer no. I don't think most Americans would tell you that they feel materially more safe today than they did five years ago.

S. O'BRIEN: Deadline for Iran to talk about their nukes and say they'll stop producing uranium. Everybody says it's just not going to happen.

QUINDLEN: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: The war in Lebanon, what kind of role do you think that has played in the positioning of Iran in the world, and even the U.S. in the world, as well?

QUINDLEN: You know, I'm not sure Americans, as a group, were as fixated on that as policy wonks were. And for policy wonks, certainly, I think once again it made it clear that America is always going to side with Israel. In a way that not necessarily, I think, did not take a good bounce for us. But I think the American people are so fixated on Iraq and the necessity of getting out of Iraq that I'm not sure the Israeli/Lebanese conflict focused -- was focused on by them as much as it should have been.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about your novel. I was reading it, actually, on the way to go cover the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And it sort of struck me that it talks about class struggle and, you know, at the same time, you're going down south and looking at the devastation there, which, of course, has a lot of elements of class struggle, too. Tell me a little bit about why you wrote the novel and what the message is.

QUINDLEN: Well, I wanted to write a novel about appearance and reality, which is so huge in America now. I mean, we have this sense that if things look good, you know, they are good. And we all know in our heart of hearts on our homefront that that's not necessarily the case.

I mean, this is a novel about two sisters who love each other very much, but at some level may not know each other as well as they think they do. One of whom is very famous, has a job very much like yours; and one of whom is a social worker and works in the other New York, the one that fairly affluent New Yorkers almost never get to see. And it's about -- it's about them coming to terms with the fact that sometimes the life that looks charmed from the outside is not necessarily charmed within.

S. O'BRIEN: A lot of fodder writing about family, isn't there? You can mine that forever.

QUINDLEN: It's where we learn everything that we know about life and work and how we transact in the world.

S. O'BRIEN: And TV anchors, too. A lot of fodder there.

Nice to see you.

QUINDLEN: Good to see you.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks for being with us. Anna Quindlen. Always love reading not only your column, of course, but this book is great.

QUINDLEN: Thanks.

S. O'BRIEN: A lot of fun to read.

QUINDLEN: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Just make sure it wasn't me you were talking about.

QUINDLEN: No, definitely not.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: Of course not.

"CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next. Daryn, what you got working this morning?

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, quite a bit, Miles. Good morning to you. It's a busy Thursday morning, as unfolding on "LIVE TODAY."

President Bush focuses on his signature issue, the war on terror. Live coverage from Salt Lake City. Sanctions ahead. Iran's president ignores today's nuclear deadline.

Also...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So you got a shot with that needle?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once a day, yes.

COHEN: Once a day, wow. Did it hurt?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got used to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Parents giving kids growth hormones. It's an expensive trend. "LIVE TODAY" at the top of the hour. We will see you then -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Daryn Kagan. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." What do you got coming up?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: Miles, a surprise firing by Donald Trump, and a very big day for Warren Buffet, and he's has had some big ones. We'll tell you about that, coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

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M. O'BRIEN: Back with more in a moment.

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M. O'BRIEN: All right. It's Miles-cam day, and...

S. O'BRIEN: My favorite day of the week.

M. O'BRIEN: I knew that. How did I know that. In any case, we've already gotten a few -- milescam@CNN.com is the place to send the e-mails. Pipeline is the place where we answer them at 10:30. Here's a quick preview.

Excuse me while I use the glasses here.

"Did I hear you say you and Soledad were married but not to each other? It's a shame then, because you two make such a handsome couple. You two are the reason I watch AMERICAN MORNING every Monday through Friday," and it says "love mom." It's from Esperanda Hernandez (ph).

S. O'BRIEN: That is my mother, Esperanda Hernandez. Thank you, mommy.

M. O'BRIEN: Anyway, we have some other stuff that's a little more serious than that.

S. O'BRIEN: We'll we've got to talk about the shuttle.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, we'll talk about the shuttle, questions about the crash and anything you have along those lines.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm going to log in and start sending you e-mails, man.

M. O'BRIEN: You might as well. You might as well.

All right, we do have one more. Here is one more for you. This is an interesting one. We are talking about the hurricanes. Ellen Lefler (ph) in Ontario say this, "I was wondering what they do with prisoners at Guantanamo Bay when a hurricane passes through?" Interesting question, I e-mailed our resident Guantanamo expert AMERICAN MORNING Bob Franken, and he had a couple of points. First of all, Guantanamo sits on a cliff. It's about 50 feet above sea level, so right there you've got an advantage with the, as you know, storm surge is a big concern. Secondly, if it was really bad and they had to evacuate them out of there, it is a Navy base. They have a lot of underground storage ammo depots there, and one of the plans might be to put them in the depots. But basically...

S. O'BRIEN: So what happened in Hurricane Katrina was all the prisoners they didn't know what to do with them.

M. O'BRIEN: Right. Well apparently the place is built like a rock and is up high. So it has -- a rock,got to be careful how you say that, a rock. And then that would give them a fair amount of measure of safety if they were to stay in there nevertheless.

And then we had one more also quickly about the -- tinkering with Google Earth -- on the runway, the control tower runway 22 and 26. this is about the Lexington crash. And his question was, Rick's question was, Rick Isaacs (ph) in Frankfurt, Kentucky. "Would reduced depth perception at night make it difficult to see which runway was on?"

Well, we know for a fact the controller wasn't looking out there, so that's kind of a moot issue. As for the pilots themselves, runway headings, runway numbers associate with compass headings. And one of the things I was taught very early on, is one way to check the compass as you start your flight and also make you're in the right place is to line up on the runway, look down at your compass and your gyro, and make sure it matches the number of the runway.

S. O'BRIEN: I talked to a pilot, though, who said that particular airport, he said it is very confusing, and people have made similar mistakes. So you're right, line it up, but also maybe could have been avoided in other ways as well.

All right, how exciting, Miles-cam, 10:30 this morning, Pipeline.

M. O'BRIEN: Good preview there.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, excellent.

We're out of time here. Let's get right to Daryn Kagan. She's at the CNN Center. She'll be with you for the next couple of hours on "CNN LIVE TODAY."

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