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American Morning

Muslim Leaders Invited; Strained Alliance; Detainee Deal; Iranian Threat; FAA Cutbacks; Minding Your Business

Aired September 22, 2006 - 07:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: For Osama bin Laden.
Plus . . .

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBYN ALGOOD, KYLE'S MOTHER: We've been through all of the ranges of emotion. The grief. The sadness. The guilt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Parents coming to grips now. Is the death of their two-year-old connected to the growing E. Coli outbreak?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And questions now about the safety of our skies. New FAA rules could be putting the squeeze on air traffic controllers. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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

COSTELLO: And I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad.

M. O'BRIEN: The pope is still trying to undo the mess he made by uttering an old quote critical of Islam. This morning he invited Muslim ambassadors to a meeting at the Vatican on Monday. The Vatican is on high alert, meanwhile, after a letter from a would-be assassin says the pope's life is in danger. AMERICAN MORNING's Delia Gallagher in Rome for us this morning.

Good morning, Delia.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good morning, Miles.

You know, the Vatican has 175 ambassadors from different countries that are permanently stationed here. So the pope has called in those ambassadors from the Muslim countries to come and meet with him on Monday because the effects of his speech last week are still being felt and debated around the world and nowhere more so than here at the Vatican.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GALLAGHER, (voice over): The normally peaceful Vatican is on high alert. Adding to that tension, a letter sent by Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot the previous pope, John Paul II, in 1981, to the Italian newspaper Later Cublica (ph). He wrote, "Pope Ratzinger, listen to someone who knows these things very well. Your life is in danger. You absolutely must not come to Turkey."

Ali Agca claims he's been in contact with both Vatican and western intelligence services, though he offered no evidence. Then he goes on to asked the pope to step down, writing, "for your own welfare you must make a grand gesture of honor and resign. Then you must return to your native land, and in your place an Italian cardinal can be elected pope."

Ali Agca was freed from an Italian prison in 2000 and is now serving time in a prison in Istanbul. Around the world, some Muslim leaders have accepted the pope's apology. But others remain angry. In Pakistan, this cleric and about 1,000 others demanded his removal.

One of Italy's top Islamic spokesman is calling for calm.

ADBALLAH REDOUANE, ITALIAN ISLAMIC CULTURE CENTER, (through translator): Let's hope that with dialogue we can manage to overcome this difficult moment, to calm down the spirits and quench down the tension.

GALLAGHER: Not surprisingly, the faithful visiting St. Peters Square are supporting their spiritual leader.

JOE MARZANO, VISITOR FROM ARIZONA: He apologized for what he said, but mostly it sounds to me like it was misinterpreted because the pope don't have a bad bone in his body, you know what I mean? He's so pure and beautiful. So nothing was meant -- it's like anything in the world, people misinterpret and translate things the way they want.

GALLAGHER: One Vatican expert agrees.

JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: I really believe he thought that that academic audience would take it in that spirit. And to be honest, they did. I mean the people who attended that lecture, you know, didn't think -- didn't walk out thinking, we have just seen a historic, you know, poke in the eye at Islam from the pope. It took, you know, 24-hours for that one phrase, lifted out of context, to make its way around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GALLAGHER: And despite Ali Agca's warning, Miles, the Vatican says that the pope's scheduled trip to Turkey in November is still on track for now.

M. O'BRIEN: I suspect they're pretty concerned about security for that trip. In general, Delia, how do you think -- it's almost got a time-released component to this. It seems like it builds as it goes on. How's the Vatican responding to this growing concern in the Muslim world?

GALLAGHER: Well, of course, they're taking any warnings and threats to the pope's life seriously. They can't afford not to. But, at the same time, there is a sense that they've got it under control, that he's not going to change his schedule just because of some threats. So they say everything is still going ahead as planned, everything under control for the moment at the Vatican.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Delia Gallagher, in Rome, thank you.

Carol.

COSTELLO: President Bush has some issues to work out with one of America's strongest allies in the war on terror. There is a tense meeting coming up this morning between President Bush and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf. CNN's Elaine Quijano live at the White House this morning.

Tell us more, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.

Well, that's exactly right, President Musharraf's visit here with President Bush later this morning does come amid some tension this week after President Bush, in an interview with Wolf Blitzer, said that if there was actionable intelligence against Osama bin Laden, President Bush saying that the U.S. would go into Pakistan with or without the government's prior approval.

Well, as you can imagine, of course, the public comments on this quite strong. President Musharraf himself saying that his government would not like that at all. That his government could handle it themselves.

Now experts say that behind the scenes what is going on here is, of course, both men playing to their constituencies with these public comments. President Bush is continuing his tough talk on the war on terror at a time when he's trying to boost his party's national security credentials ahead of those congressional midterm elections. At the same time, President Musharraf, for his part, is facing some pressure of his own from hard-lined Muslim extremists and so he is very mindful of not wanting to appear as though he is too close to the United States.

Clearly, though, Pakistan is a critical ally on the war on terror for the United States. The meeting with President Bush today actually coming ahead of a tri lateral summit. The leaders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and President Bush sitting down here for a critical meeting next week.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Now that will be an interesting meeting. So what should we expect to come from that?

QUIJANO: Yes. Well, basically there's been a lot of tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan lately. Both countries are pointing the fingers of blame at each other for the resurgence of the Taliban. President Bush wants to bring these men together, bring the two sides together in the Oval Office and engage in some diplomacy and try to convince both men, Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, that they must work together in order to fight Islamic radicalism and extremists.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Elaine Quijano, reporting live from the White House this morning, thanks.

Of course, after the meeting, the two men, that is Musharraf and Bush, will hold a news conference. That will happen at 10:10 Eastern this morning. CNN will carry it live for you.

O'BRIEN: Congress is ready to pump $70 billion into the war effort. That money has been tacked on to a $447 billion Pentagon spending bill. It will cover the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq until next May. The two wars have now cost $500 billion since 9/11.

Congress also reaching a deal on cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. Under the deal, Americans would be able to go to Canada and bring up to a three months' supply of drugs back with them. Currently customs agents at the Canadian border can confiscate any Canadian prescription drugs coming into the U.S.

Republicans mostly on the same page now when it comes to the treatment of terror detainees. A compromise deal sets the rule of interrogation and gives the president authority to establish military tribunals all without changing the Geneva Conventions. CNN congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel is on Capitol Hill with more.

Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Well, that's right. One of the key sticking points had been whether or not defendants in these terror trials before military tribunals should be allowed to see classified evidence. And even though the three, as they came to be known, renegade Republican senators, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Warner, had reached an agreement, struck a deal with the White House on this point.

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan Hunter, yesterday make very clear that he is not on board with that, saying, "we think that we're close, but we have some recommendations." What his concern is, that the suspects not be allowed to see classified information under any circumstances. Under the deal struck between the White House and the Republican senators, they agreed that they would allow suspects to see what's known as scrubbed or basically a summary of evidence. Here's Duncan Hunter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER, (R) CHAIRMAN, ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: And we provide a number of safeguards for an American jag officer can be appointed by the court to go in, look at the evidence, cross-examine with respect to the evidence. If it's an American agent and you don't want to reveal his identity, the jag officer could go in a closed room with the judge present, and he could interrogate or cross-examine the American agent without disclosing his identity. But you would not give that identity or would not disclose that agent's identity to the alleged terrorist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: So negotiations must continue now between the White House and House Republicans. As you know, Miles, this has been a contentious issue for the Republican Party and somewhat embarrassing and potentially there was political liability there as they headed into the November midterms. So even though things have been resolved with Senate Republicans, they still have a bit of work to do.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Andrea Koppel, on Capitol Hill, thank you very much.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Health officials are looking into another death that could be linked to that E. Coli contaminated spinach. Two-year-old Kyle Algood from Idaho died at this Utah hospital this week from a kidney disease. Tests are now being done to find out if there's a connection to the E. Coli outbreak. The boy's parents said he'd eaten packaged spinach blended into a smoothie. Here's what health officials are saying this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR CHRISTINE HAHN, IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: We're investigating our reports that he may have consumed spinach in the days -- fresh spinach in the days prior to becoming ill. So we are investigating to see whether he may be related to this nationwide outbreak related to fresh bagged spinach.

JEFF ALGOOD, KYLE'S FATHER: That's what we suspected is, he ate spinach, what we thought was kind of bad spinach, and so we didn't use it any more after that.

ROBYN ALGOOD, KYLE'S MOTHER: We've been through all of the range of emotion. The grief, the sadness, the guilt, some anger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Test results are expected some time this week. There has been only one confirmed death so far linked to that tainted spinach. In the meantime, despite a short list of suspected spinach growers, the government still doesn't know the source of the E. Coli outbreak. So far, 157 people have been sickened in 23 states. The FDA still warning you not to eat fresh bagged spinach.

To the farmers now. California spinach growers are planning new safety measures. They're expected to focus on better water and soil testing and beefed up sanitation rules for workers in the field and in processing plants.

Let's head to Atlanta now. Some pretty bad weather in the Midwest to tell you about.

Hi, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, after his tough talk at the United Nations, the Iranian president seems bent on changing his image. We'll explain.

Plus, cops in the control tower. The FAA trying to save some money. But is our safety up in the air? We'll take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: After his much-hyped U.N. showdown with President Bush earlier this week, we're now seeing, apparently, a kinder, gentler Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Maybe. Our senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth, joins us now with more on what appears to be an effort to change his image, I guess.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he was less belligerent than he was the day before at the General Assembly and he apologized to New Yorkers and the city of New York for all of the disruptions by his motorcade and that of dozens of other world leaders.

But he also had some more alarming comments about Israel or Zionists. This is what he said when he was asked about what he really meant when he said last year that he wished that Israel, a U.N. member, was wiped off the face of the earth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRAN, (through translator): We love everyone around the world -- Jews, Christians, Muslims, non-Muslims, non-Jews, non-Christians. We have no problem with people. What we object to are acts that are inappropriate against us or acts of occupation, of aggression, of violence, of displacement of nations. We have no problem with regular people. We have no problem. Everyone we respect. Everyone should enjoy their legitimate rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: This is his attempt to be a little bit kinder. But what you don't see there is where he's also saying that he was misinterpreted regarding Israel and Jews. He says these Zionists are not Jews, they're a raw power group trying to take control. But he also kept skirting the issue about wiping Israel off the face of the earth or the Holocaust.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, interesting.

All right. Let's talk about the nuclear program. A lot of people focused on that. Did he address that at all?

ROTH: Again, not directly. He said, if Iran gets a fair guarantee, an offer, maybe they'll negotiate. And the U.S. and the Europeans now are indicating it's still going to be a little bit more time for negotiating with Iran, which is just what the president of Iran wants. Secretary of State Rice last evening still saying, though, that Tehran is going to have to finally give in or else face sanctions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: The terms here are very clear. Iran has been told by the international community, through a Security Council resolution, that they should suspend. And if they suspend, the negotiations can begin. It's as simple as that. I don't think we need any further conditionality. We need to have a suspension of enrichment and reprocessing and then we can move to full-fledged negotiations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: There are a lot of people, though, in the U.S. who say, why is the Bush administration waiting so long, setting deadlines in the Security Council, and why are other countries also trying to stall here and allowing Ahmadinejad to have more time?

M. O'BRIEN: What is the current deadline now? Because these deadlines keep passing.

ROTH: There is no firm date. It appears to be early October.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. We'll be watching. Richard Roth, thank you very much.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Is the FAA trying to control costs at the expense of your safety? Just last month a Comair jet crash in Lexington, Kentucky, turned a spotlight on under staffing in the control tower. Well now, newly imposed rules are causing concern for controllers directing the nation's air traffic. CNN's Allan Chernoff has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): A veteran air traffic controller here at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport tells CNN the FAA is imposing work rules that could compromise safety. For example, controllers no longer have contractual protection against the manager forcing them to work without a break for more than two consecutive hours at a radar screen. That worries the union president.

PAT FORREY, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: We have less staffing and less eyes watching the skies and watching the radar scopes. There's just room and margin for error there. And we shouldn't really look at saving money when we really need bodies in the system.

CHERNOFF: But saving taxpayer money is a key reason the FAA is changing rules. It hopes to save nearly $2 billion over the life of the new five-year contract. That push for productivity includes salary cuts for new hires, restrictions on time off and enforcement of a dress code that bans jeans and sneakers. In protest, some male controllers wore dresses to the control tower, pictures of which are on the Internet.

Safety is an especially sensitive issue after last month's crash of a Comair jet in Lexington, Kentucky, that tried to take off from the wrong runway, killing 49 people. The FAA says the sole controller on duty that night was performing both radar and tower functions against regulations. FAA chief operating officer, Russell Chew, says the U.S. air traffic control network is the safest in the world and properly staffed.

RUSSELL CHEW, FAA CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: The safety of the system is our prime order of business here at the FAA. And we are not just maintaining these levels of safety. We are continually improving the level of safety so that anyone who is flying now and into the future can look forward to an even safer system.

CHERNOFF: The FAA says it's having no problem hiring new controllers, even under the brand new contract. Good thing, because the FAA concedes it will need to attract and train more than 11,000 now controllers in the next decade since it predicts 70 percent of today's air traffic controllers will either retire or quit by the year 2015.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, the agency charged with counting heads can't keep track of its computers. How did more than 1,000 laptops disappear and what's on those hard drives? Should we be worried? We'll take a look.

And your morning coffee buzz may soon cost you a little more. We'll tell you why ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: You could say vanished. More than 1,100 laptop computers have simply disappeared from the Commerce Department in the last five years. According to government officials, a total of 1,137 laptop computers have gone missing since 2001. Most of the laptops, 672 of them, were assigned to the Census Bureau, 246 contained personal data. The Commerce Department says no personal information from any missing computer has been improperly used, however.

How much are you willing to pay for a Starbuck's buzz? Well, word from Starbuck's headquarters that they're raising prices by a nickel. That's an average of almost 2 percent. It is the first time the company has raised drink prices in two years. The price hike goes into effect next month. So save your pennies now.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Now for another installment in "As the HP Turns." Andy Serwer is here with the latest developments and a story that keeps giving.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It does.

Yes, Miles, thank you. Good morning.

Hewlett-Packard, there's a bunch of developments to tell you about this morning. First of all, HP's CEO, Mark Hurd, has offered to appear before that congressional committee that is meeting next week. As you remember, Patty Dunn, the chairman, will be testifying, as will the company's chief legal officer.

Now, the stock, HP's stock, fell sharply yesterday. More than 5 percent. This after published reports suggested that Hurd actually knew about all this stuff going on.

M. O'BRIEN: You mean details?

SERWER: Yes. Yes, that he was involved. That he knew about the whole investigation of board members and the possibly below-board means that were used to get information about them.

M. O'BRIEN: That's bad.

SERWER: This is bad, but it's very unclear whether he knew and how much he knew. And, of course, then there's when he knew it. And we get back to the Watergate questions. That's what happens here.

Now for the first time -- and where have you been? The SEC wants information from HP.

M. O'BRIEN: Hello.

SERWER: Hello. You know, we have been reporting this story, as has "The New York Times," "Wall Street Journal," C-Net and all other news organizations, for the past, what, three, four weeks? Three weeks.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, they were on vacation maybe.

SERWER: I guess. It's after Labor Day. It's time to get back to work, Securities and Exchange Commissions.

M. O'BRIEN: That's right. Go to the Hamptons.

SERWER: And finally, from the department of irony, I love this. Hewlett-Packard, it turns out, sponsors a "Privacy Innovation Award."

M. O'BRIEN: Say what?

SERWER: The Fourth Annual Privacy Innovation Award.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm sorry. There's something in my ear.

SERWER: "Privacy Innovation Award" by Hewlett-Packard. According to the award's website, the prize was created to honor, "strong and unique contributions to the privacy industry." M. O'BRIEN: Wow.

COSTELLO: That's just too good to be true.

SERWER: It really is. And previous winners include Microsoft, Sprint, Nextel and two Canadian provincial offices. So you just have to wonder who's going to get this.

M. O'BRIEN: You've got to wonder under what pretext that you (INAUDIBLE).

SERWER: (INAUDIBLE). Yes. Fill in your own punch line to this one.

M. O'BRIEN: It needs to punch line.

SERWER: It just keeps getting better. You're right, it doesn't.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. What's next?

SERWER: Coming up, we told you yesterday about Wal-Mart offering those cheap, cheap drugs. Well, guess who's following suit? That's right, Target. Not to be outdone. We'll get to that.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. We'll see you in a bit.

SERWER: Yes.

COSTELLO: Coming up, a disturbing, yet familiar story, out of Florida. A homeless man brutally beaten. Maybe, maybe you'll be shocked by the two suspects and who they are.

Plus . . .

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 800 pound gorilla because of the oil. If prices of oil today go back down to $25, $26 oil, let me reassure you, that that gorilla becomes a cheap, unseen very quickly. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a closer look at the man who stole the spotlight at the United Nations this week. That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Happening this morning.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is due at the White House in little over an hour. He will meet with President Bush. The meeting

(NEWSBREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome to the program. I'm Miles O'Brien.

COSTELLO: And I'm Carol Costello in for Soledad.

The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, is telling the United Nations his government wants to coexist with Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAHMOUD ABBAS, PALESTINIAN PRES. (through translator): I would to reaffirm that Any future Palestinian government will commit and abide with all the agreements that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (INAUDIBLE) or the Palestinian National Authority have committed to in the past. They contend the denunciation of violence and the (INAUDIBLE) commitment to negotiations on the path toward reaching a permanent solution that would lead to the establishment of the independent state of Palestine, alongside the state of Israel.

So what does this mean for Israeli/Palestinian relations? We get more from Ben Wedeman, live in Jerusalem.

Hello, Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well, what it means is, is that things are getting very complicated here. We've heard Mahmoud Abbas saying any Palestinian government will recognize Israel and so on and so forth. But Hamas is saying the exact opposite. We have heard from Ismael Haniyeh, who is the Hamas prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, that they will not, he will not lead any government that recognizes Israel. Hamas has no intention, it says, of recognizing Israel. And therefore, we're really three steps forward, four steps back at this point.

There are expectations that when Mahmoud Abbas gets back to the Palestinian territories, there well may be a political crisis, that he may use his emergency powers to form a government in defiance of Hamas. Let's keep in mind that earlier this year Hamas won in the parliamentary election. So there's a very good possibility there could be a political clash on the way -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Ben Wedeman in Jerusalem, thank you very much.

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez just won't stop his trash talk. Yesterday, in Harlem, he went after Mr. Bush once again. Now mind you, he said he likes Americans a lot, and he offered to double his program to provide heating oil for them.

But then, he once again launched into an attack on the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. HUGO CHAVEZ, VENEZUELA (through translator): He doesn't have the slightest idea of politics. He arrived where he is because he is the son of his father. He was an alcoholic, an ex-alcoholic. He is a sick man full of complexes. Very dangerous, because now he has a lot of power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We'll have more on Hugo Chavez. Obviously, we're having a few technical issues this morning. Let's talk about this now. A disturbing pattern of violence has emerged in Florida and several other states across the country. The homeless are being randomly targeted by teenagers.

We get more now from CNN's John Zarrella.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For police in Ft. Lauderdale, it's an all-too-familiar 911 call -- an attack on a homeless man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's four kids on bicycles. We saw them earlier, too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Four kids on bikes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, I didn't see what they did to the guy, but he's bleeding. He was sitting there reading.

ZARRELLA: Forty-four-year-old William Teeters (ph) had been attacked by what police and witnesses described as four young teenagers riding bikes. They allegedly went up to Teeters in a park, punched him and slashed him with what appeared to be a knife. He survived with minor wounds. Shortly before the assault, surveillance cameras at a 7-Eleven captured these images, four young men on bicycles, young men police are now looking for.

DET. KATHERINE COLLINS, FORT LAUDERDALE POLICE: We believe that they know something or possibly are involved in the attack.

ZARRELLA: The 7-Eleven is where the video was recorded is no more than a block from Esplanades Park, where the attack took place. It is the same park where another homeless man, Norris Gaynor, was brutally beaten to death in January. In his only interview, the one witness to the killing described what he saw.

ANTHONY CLARKE, WITNESSED GAYNOR KILLING: I saw the individual with the -- I call it the afro, that's how I can remember him, the little afro, strike the individual on the bench.

ZARRELLA: There were two other nonfatal attacks on homeless men that same night, one caught by a surveillance camera at a school. The stunning images show teenaged boys wielding baseball bats. Three teenagers were arrested for the attacks, and are now awaiting trial, charged with murder.

There was a frightening pattern here, say homeless advocates.

SEAN CONONIE, HOMELESS VOICE: Sadly, it's juveniles and the young teens, or very young adults, 18 to 21. It's not only the kids that are doing it, but it's the type of attacks. It's not simple crimes on people -- they're vicious attacks.

ZARRELLA: And not just in Florida, in California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody poured gas on me and just threw a match on me, I guess.

ZARRELLA: Illinois.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's where they jumped, all six of them. They surrounded me.

ZARRELLA: New Jersey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a bunch of kids with a pipe and baseball bat.

ZARRELLA: The one thing these attacks seem to have in common, police say, is that they were all committed by teenagers doing it for thrills.

John Zarrella, CNN, Ft. Lauderdale.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the weather now. The risk of tornadoes moving east from Kansas. The storm caused at least seven confirmed tornadoes in central Kansas yesterday. No one hurt, but as you might imagine, some homes were damaged and, of course, trees are down.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Still to come, an update on a troubling story we first reported back in February.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love him because he's my father, but I don't think I could forgive him. I really want him back behind bars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: A convict let out of prison so he could donate a kidney to his son. Instead, he went on the lam and left his kid in the lurch. So what's happened since? That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: More now on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Just what kind of guy comes to the United States and verbally rips his president on his home soil? Mr. Chavez is a leader who has seen his fortunes increase lately, literally, thanks to one thing -- oil.

Rick Sanchez with a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By diplomatic standards, a smackdown.

CHAVEZ (through translator): The devil came here yesterday, and it smells of sulfur still today.

SANCHEZ: If ever there's been a coming out by a world leader trying to portray himself as the new giant power, this was it, a defiant and personal shot aimed at a standing U.S. president in his own backyard. Even Fidel Castro was seldom so incendiary, so direct.

So what emboldens Chavez to go even beyond the man he seems to be modeling himself after -- two words, black crude. His words are bankrolled by his country's oil revenues.

SANCHEZ: Venezuela is believed to have the hemisphere's largest crude reserves.

JORGE PINON, U.M. CUBAN-AMERICAN STUDIES: He is the 800-pound gorilla because of the oil. If prices of oil today go back down to $25, $26 oil, let me reassure you that that gorilla becomes a chimpanzee very quickly.

SANCHEZ (on camera): There's something else that emboldens Chavez. It happened here at the national palace in Mia Flores (ph), and this one for Chavez is personal. In 2002, there was a failed coup by members of his own military. Chavez, who's a former paratrooper, was incensed. Both the White House and the State Department have denied involvement, but Chavez insists to this day it was the Bush administration who tried to overthrow him.

(voice-over): This is Chavez's world. It is here among the nation's poor and barrios like the corner of San Miguel where we find Juan and Sergio, who agree with Chavez, even his use of the "devil" world.

(on camera): The word "devil," he said devil in George Bush's own country. You think it's reality?

So you think he did the right thing? You think Chavez did the right thing?

You also believe so?

(voice-over): Here among the poor, Chavez's radical leftist anti-U.S. message works in his favor. He can be found spewing that same hatred for hours ever Sunday on his television program "Hello Presidente (ph)."

CHAVEZ: You are a donkey.

SANCHEZ: Fighting words from the leader of a country who made it illegal to insult the president in Venezuela.

He also uses this platform to push his radical programs, including one that allows the government to seize property for redistribution.

(on camera): Those opposed you say are, what, 20 percent?

(voice-over): Chavez's Venezuela is represented by two types of people, the middle to upper class, who tend to despise his policies, and those toward the bottom of the economic rung, who tend to revere him.

(voice-over): The problem for Chavez's opponents is a numbers game. There are more at the bottom than there are at the top, which may explain why he's already won two elections. And now even his opponents concede, he will likely win another election later this year.

JULIA SWEIG, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: He deflects attention, and by saying the United States is exclusively to blame, he paradoxically, and maybe unintentionally, takes the focus off of Latin America's own actors on the ground, who are, in fact, responsible for these problems.

SANCHEZ: Here in Venezuela, critics charge he wins elections by portraying himself as Robin Hood on the word stage. His opponents say he's using oil as a weapon. He takes credit for raising oil prices to benefit his people, but he also lowers the price for political gain. Cuba gets Venezuelan crude in exchange for doctors. And he's provided several U.S. cities, among them Philadelphia, Boston, New York, as well as localities in Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island, with 45 million gallons in subsidized Citgo fuel.

At this point it seems, though, no amount of oil is lubrication enough to ease the friction between Chavez and the Bush administration.

Rick Sanchez, CNN, Caracas, Venezuela.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Rick's report first aired on "ANDERSON COOPER 360." You can watch it weeknights, 10:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

COSTELLO: Just about six months ago, we brought you a story of a young boy who needed a new kidney, and the father who ran out on him, after promising to donate his. Today that boy is doing much better, but his father is still on the run. And the man once described as the most hated man in America certainly hasn't been forgiven by the son he let down.

Susan Candiotti has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like any new golfer, Destin Perkins admits he needs some work on his swing.

DESTIN PERKINS, KIDNEY RECIPIENT: I shanked it.

CANDIOTTI: But for him that's not what playing golf is all about.

PERKINS: It's just fun. Especially when you've got your friends with you, it makes it a lot of fun. CANDIOTTI: Fun is not what Destin was having last winter. The 16-year-old was badly in need of a kidney transplant. And the man he counted on for help, skipped out on him.

(On camera): Do you think you could ever forgive him?

PERKINS: Forgive him, probably not. That's a pretty bad thing that he did to me.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): That he, is Destin's own father. U.S. marshals call by Destin's dad, Byron Perkins, the most hated man in America.

Are you any closer to catching Byron Perkins?

DEPUTY DAWN IZGARJAN, U.S. MARSHAL SERVICE: We are no closer for catching Byron Perkins or Lee Ann Howard.

CANDIOTTI: Perkins took off with his fugitive girlfriend, Lee Ann Howard, last January. He was temporarily freed from jail while awaiting a maximum life sentence so he could donate a kidney to his son.

After CNN first ran the story last February, American tourists vacationing near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, told police they recognized the couple, but not before Mexican villagers say they bought Perkins' sob story that his money was stolen and were never repaid for bailing him out.

Though they've run down leads from Canada to Kansas, U.S. marshals suspect the couple is still in Mexico pulling off scams.

IZGARJAN: I don't want the public to forget about Byron Perkins and Lee Ann Howard just because Destin is doing is great right now. We need to catch him and we need to bring him and face the charges. This is my working file on Perkins and Howard.

CANDIOTTI: Authorities say they hope the publicity will generate fresh leads.

(On camera): What, do you think he'll just slip up?

IZGARJAN: Everybody makes a mistake, and he will eventually make a mistake, and we'll just wait.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Destin's mother also is waiting for that day.

ANGELA HAMMOND, DESTIN PERKIN'S MOTHER: He will mess up. He always did.

CANDIOTTI: Do you still love him because he's your father?

PERKINS: Yes, I love him because he's my father, but I still don't think I could forgive him. I really want him back behind bars.

CANDIOTTI: You think he should be punished?

PERKINS: Yes.

CANDIOTTI: Put behind bars?

The person who gets credit for saving Destin Perkins? An anonymous organ donor who died in California.

Do you think this has made you a stronger person?

PERKINS: Oh yes, I think I could probably do anything now.

CANDIOTTI: Including showing off his transplant scar that may fade faster than the emotional wounds left by his fugitive father.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Jamestown, Kentucky.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Up next, Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business" -- Andy.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Miles, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Target, not shy at all about copying Wal-Mart's new prescription drug plan, cheap-priced drugs. We'll tell you about that.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you, Andy.

Also ahead, one more sign of the decline of Western civilization. In America, there are now more TVs than people. Wait until you hear how long we're watching. Don't stop watching now though.

Stay with us.

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(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

O'BRIEN: All right. How many TVs do you have in your house? OK, how many people now? For the first time, the average American home has more televisions than human beings.

SERWER: Hooray!

O'BRIEN: Nielsen, the ratings outfit, says there are now 2.73 TVs in a typical American home, and only 2.55 people. This is on average, of course, because nobody knows what a 55 person would look like.

COSTELLO: Man, is anyone having children? that's amazing!

O'BRIEN: They're certainly having TVs.

SERWER: They're having TVs, that's it, Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, they're having TVs. O'BRIEN: Come and meet the grand TVs.

Anyway, Americans are watching about eight hours and 14 minutes of TV a day. That's on the house. And individually that comes to four hours and 35 minutes per person of television viewing. We say bring it on. Keep going, folks.

COSTELLO: Well, if you don't have kids to keep you busy.

O'BRIEN: Keep it on CNN.

COSTELLO: In a moment, our top stories, including new developments on the E. coli outbreak. There may be more deaths linked to contaminated spinach.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta will bring us the latest, just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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