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American Morning
Is War in Iraq Fueling Terrorism?; Gas Prices Down and Heading Lower
Aired September 25, 2006 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Is the war in Iraq fueling terrorism?
An intelligence report is leaked just 43 days before we go to the polls.
Gas prices going down and heading lower, heading into the elections.
Is there politics behind that?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG HENWOOD, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, "LEFT BUSINESS OBSERVER": Certainly there is a strong statistical relationship between Bush's approval rating and the price of gas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: The latest conspiracy theory, just ahead.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Two more cases of E. coli. Now, 173 people have gotten sick from tainted spinach. A third company is recalling salad.
And a party at the Superdome. Last year it was the scene of fear and chaos as Katrina struck New Orleans. Tonight, football is back and so is the arena.
Those stories and more on this AMERICAN MORNING.
M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you.
I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.
A report on global terrorism is getting lots of attention this morning. It's the first since the Iraq war began.
According to the "New York Times," the report concludes the Iraq war is contributing to an increased threat of terrorism. It also says the war has helped create a new generation of Islamic radicalism.
We get some reaction this morning.
Kelli Arena is in Washington, D.C. Kathleen Koch joins us from the White House.
Michael Ware in Baghdad.
Let's begin with Kelli -- why is this report so important, Kelli?
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, it's not stuff that we haven't heard before, that Iraq is -- has become a recruiting vehicle for al Qaeda, that it is a training ground for the next generation of terrorists. And so that we've sort of heard from officials before.
But the question really is what happens to all of these fighters once they leave Iraq? Do they go back to their home countries to recruit and pull off more attacks? Do they try to come here, to the United States?
This report, though, Soledad, you should note, doesn't only focus on Iraq. I mean, as its title implies, it is a global -- it is a look at the global threat of the terror -- of terrorism.
The Iraq part was the only part, though, that people chose to talk about, to leak to the "New York Times" and the "Washington Post." And as we heard from Miles earlier, just in time for the mid-term elections.
S. O'BRIEN: Kelli Arena for us.
Kelli, thanks.
What's the White House saying about all of this?
Kathleen Koch is there for us this morning -- good morning to you, Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
The White House has no direct reaction to the report, saying that it doesn't comment on classified documents, though it certainly does cast doubts on the ongoing Bush administration claims we've been hearing of quite a bit in a series of speeches the president has been making over the last few months, the claims that the U.S. is winning the war on terror and that Americans are, indeed, safer.
But one administration official tells CNN that the excerpts cited are "not representative of the complete document." And the director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, released a statement yesterday saying that any news report that includes "only a small handful of those judgments distorts the broad strategic framework the NIE is assessing, in this case, global trends in global terrorism."
It goes on to say: "The Estimate highlights the importance of the outcome in Iraq on the future of global Jihadism, judging that should the Iraqi people prevail in establishing a stable political and security environment, the Jihadists would be perceived to have failed and fewer Jihadists will leave Iraq determined to carry on the fight elsewhere."
Well, certainly you can imagine this is providing quite a lot of fodder for Democrats, just weeks before the mid-term elections. They'd been planning on using dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq to their advantage in the campaign.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi released a statement yesterday calling the report "further proof that the war in Iraq is making it harder for America to fight and win the war on terror."
So, we'll likely be hearing a lot more about this report in the days leading up to the mid-terms -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, no question about that.
Kathleen Koch for us this morning.
Thanks, Kathleen.
KOCH: You bet.
S. O'BRIEN: Mark Mazzetti is the national security correspondent for the "New York Times."
He wrote the article about the intelligence report. We're going to speak to him live in just a few moments.
Let's get right to the intelligence report from Baghdad this morning.
CNN's Michael Ware is there -- hey, Michael, good morning to you.
It's a report that's actually been out for a while, but it's classified.
Why do you think the leak is happening now?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the most fascinating thing about it, Soledad. I mean the contents of the report simply are not new. This has been a known reality here on the ground in Iraq, that al Qaeda is getting stronger, not weaker, not just in Iraq, but globally.
Look at the what's been done in the name of Iraq -- the London train bombings, Madrid and other things.
I mean what these top 16 intelligence agencies are telling President Bush, in effect, is that everything Osama bin Laden wanted is now happening. September 11 was Osama and the old guard saying you see what we can do, now you do it. It's McDonald's franchise terrorism -- think globally, act locally. And we're seeing that spread.
And we're seeing them blotted here in Iraq -- either physically coming and learning, or at least gaining from the inspiration and the experience of Iraq. The real question is given that this is so well known in the intelligence community -- in fact, this report started being written in 2004 -- why is it coming out now?
We've already seen one leak from U.S. Marines intelligence about the difficulties in Al Anbar Province, where al Qaeda has effectively taken over and they -- the Marines don't have enough the reports to defeat them. Now we have this, on the back of President Bush saying because of Iraq, we are safer, not in more danger.
This says the exact opposite.
I think we're starting to see the U.S. military commanders and the U.S. intelligence community chafing at what they see as the restrictions put on them to fight this war and in comparison to what they're hearing from D.C. to the ugly reality that they've been reporting on the ground -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Michael Ware is in Baghdad for us this morning.
Michael, thanks.
We're going to take a closer look all day long as just how the Iraq war is affecting the war on terror.
You want to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: In Washington today more focus on a new bill spelling out how the U.S. treats its terror detainees and more dissension within the GOP.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter says he has a problem with the compromise measure between the White House and some Senate leaders. Specter is upset because the legislation would still allow the Pentagon to hold detainees indefinitely without a hearing.
Now, the Senate Judiciary Committee will meet on this subject later today.
Meanwhile, at Guantanamo, a crack down amid growing concerns detainees there are planning organized uprisings. The military jailers say there conditions will be getting tougher for detainees held at GITMO. They say the new prison rules are designed to protect guards who have been the target of attacks in recent months.
The Red Cross is at GITMO again today for another visit. They'll soon visit 14 terror suspects who were recently transferred out of those secret CIA jails. Among the 14, the suspected mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and some other former al Qaeda leaders.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken joining us from Washington with more -- good morning, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles. And Guantanamo Bay can be looked at in the context of the debate that's going on over the war on terror, either a symbol of U.S. resolve or a symbol, in the minds of critics, of excessive abuse on the part of the United States.
In any case, the International Committee of the Red Cross, which operates in ultimate confidentiality, goes down about every six weeks, talks to detainees, is the connection with detainees and the outside world. Of course, the 14 we're talking about have had no connection. They have been held absolutely incommunicado until very recently in CIA secret prisons.
But now the ICRC, as the committee is called, the Red Cross, will be meeting, will allow the 14 to have some communication with their families -- heavily censored letters. That would be the first time.
Now, we're told that the meetings will not occur in this first week, that's it's going to take about a week before the 14 will be made available to the Red Cross monitors. That is apparently to allow a 30-day period after the incarceration in Guantanamo to go on.
down the road, there's going to be a tribunal -- three member military commissions to decide if these 14 would be designated as enemy combatants. You can bet on that one. And down the road, if they can ever agree on the rules, there will be the military commissions that have been so controversial in Washington for these 14 -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Bob, as far as we know, is this the first time these 14 will have had any sort of contact outside of their interrogators?
FRANKEN: As far as we know, this is absolutely the case. As a matter of fact, they weren't even acknowledged officially for the longest time. One of the complaints by human rights groups is that they were denied the kind of Red Cross protection that is designated in the Geneva Conventions.
M. O'BRIEN: Bob Franken in Washington, thank you -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Former President Bill Clinton is delivering a fiery blast at his critics who portray his administration as weak on terror.
The former president spoke to Fox News and said he regrets not killing Osama bin Laden but insisted that he tried.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM FOX NEWS)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But at least I tried. That's the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed.
When I failed, I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clark, who got demoted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Mr. Clinton accused Fox's Chris Wallace of a conservative hit job and he asked whether Wallace had challenged the Bush administration on its handling of the war on terror -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Happening in America, East St. Louis, Illinois -- a horrific crime to tell you about there. Police say a woman has confessed to drowning three children and stuffing them into a washer and dryer. Tiffany Hall has already faced charges in the death of their pregnant mother, Jimella Tunstall. Police say Hall cut the fetus from her womb. Hall will be in court today.
Another spinach recall. Seattle-based S.T. Produce now the third company in the nation to recall salads that might included E. coli tainted spinach. Its salads were distributed to stores in Washington State, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. So far, more than 170 people have sickened and one confirmed death because of the tainted spinach.
In southern California, firefighters are gaining ground on the so-called Day Fire along the Los Angeles-Ventura County line.
Look at this spectacular shot. That's a DC-10. Twelve thousand gallons of fire retardant in there as it flies low over the fire. It was back in the fire to drop that fire retardant. But the Day Fire continues on and there's a state of emergency in effect there. It has burned now more than 127,000 acres. Only about 40 percent contained.
Residents of Lexington, Kentucky trying to get their lives back in order after major flooding this weekend. The water is receding this morning. At least eight people were killed, six linked to the flooding. Severe weather is blamed for the deaths of four others in Arkansas and Illinois.
Let's get a check of the forecast now.
Chad Myers, that sort of kind of cropped up -- well, you probably knew about it, but that flooding just kind of happened quickly there, didn't it?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we knew there was going to be severe weather. I mean, we knew the storms were going to be twisting and the potential for tornadoes. And there was. On Friday, there was like 37 tornadoes on the ground. On Saturday only 12. But then eventually the storms lined up and they went over the same path that a storm just went over about an hour ago.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Do you see these pictures of the bald eagle?
MYERS: I did, yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Did you see this?
MYERS: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, wasn't it nice?
MYERS: The north bound end of a south bound eagle.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, yes, right. That's what -- this is the last time.
MYERS: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: There it is. Look at that.
OK, this is the face first end of, of course, a bald eagle...
M. O'BRIEN: There we go...
S. O'BRIEN: Symbol of freedom.
M. O'BRIEN: There's your (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, pick up. Come on.
MYERS: Go, go, go!
S. O'BRIEN: There we go.
Go, go, go! Go, go, go!
Anyway, over the weekend, some folks got a chance to see it in Portland, Oregon. Take a look at this. Released back into its natural habitat after a little faulty first start. A 4-year-old eagle. It spent the last six months nursing a broken wing. It's a female eagle, too, which, of course, is critical, because they're trying to get this species to recover fully.
MYERS: Awesome.
S. O'BRIEN: Pretty neat pictures, I thought. Yes.
Ahead this morning, we're going to tell you about the search that's on now for Saturday's big Power Ball winner -- $200 million. You can't find them because they're talking to their accountant right now. That's why.
Also ahead this morning, we'll tell you about the recent drop in gas prices. Some people say it's a conspiracy. We'll take a look at that ahead.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Happening This Morning, just outside of Rome right now, Pope Benedict meeting with ambassadors from Muslim countries. It's the latest effort to patch up relations after the pope's controversial speech earlier this month. In it, he quoted a 14th century emperor who called Islam evil.
In Baghdad this morning, Saddam Hussein again thrown out of court. Hussein was tossed for complaining to the judge. His lawyers are boycotting the trial, protesting the replacement of the chief judge.
A big milestone for Saints fans in New Orleans tonight -- and for the city in general, for that matter. The Saints versus the Atlanta Falcons on "Monday Night Football." The Superdome back in business. The first sporting event since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the stadium a little more than a year ago.
And so far, the winner from Saturday's $200 million Power Ball drawing has not come forward. I can tell you, it's not me. The winning ticket was sold in Fort Dodge, Iowa, about 70 miles from Des Moines. This is the 13th Power Ball jackpot worth at least $200 million.
S. O'BRIEN: Democrats are jumping on those allegations leaking out from the National Intelligence Estimate. One conclusion is that the Iraq war has increased the terror threat. It was written by all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. And details of the classified report were disclosed over the weekend.
One of the reporters who broke the story is the "New York Times" national security correspondent, Mark Mazzetti.
Nice to see you, Mark.
Thanks for talking with us.
MARK MAZZETTI, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Thanks for having me on.
S. O'BRIEN: It's a classified report, as I mentioned.
So how do you know the details?
MAZZETTI: Over a few weeks of reporting, talking with people inside, outside government who had participated in the report or knew about it, and so over time we felt confident enough in the report's conclusions to run-the story.
S. O'BRIEN: There are a lot of people who say well, this is something that we know already. For example, General Michael Hayden, back in April, was saying this. If we throw this quote up on the screen here: "New Jihadist networks and cells, sometimes united by little more than their anti-Western agendas, are increasingly likely to emerge. If the trend continues, threats to the U.S. at home and abroad will become more diverse and that could lead to increasing attacks worldwide."
Do you think people are going to be shocked, then, by this news?
MAZZETTI: No. I mean, as we said in the story on Sunday, there's certainly -- there have been speeches by General Hayden, by John Negroponte, who were hinting at some of the details in this report.
The real difference is the direct role the Iraq war is playing in this expansion of the Jihad ideology. That's something that policymakers and intelligence officials, at least publicly, have not made a strong connection to. And I -- but I would say that this -- this report does confirm what you hear from intelligence officials speaking off the record, what terrorism experts say. It's just the fact that the intelligence community has made this formal assessment, we thought, was significant.
S. O'BRIEN: No surprise that the White House is disagreeing with your findings.
Let me read to you what they said in their response: "We don't comment on classified documents and the characterization of the NIE in the "New York Times" is not representative of the complete document."
And then you have the director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, saying this: "Only a small handful of those judgments distorts the broad strategic framework the NIE is assessing, in this case, trends in global terrorism."
In other words, you got it wrong.
MAZZETTI: Well, I don't think there's anything that the White House put out yesterday that took issue with anything we said in our story directly. No one challenged any aspect of what we reported. They just said that you didn't report on the entire report. We gave a broad assessment of the report and a lot of the findings beyond just the impact of the Iraq war.
So, nothing that we saw yesterday, I think, from the White House or from Director Negroponte challenged directly anything that we put in the story.
S. O'BRIEN: What do you think the impact on the mid-term elections is going to be?
MAZZETTI: I have no idea. I mean I don't cover the politics of this and so it's, you know, I think maybe both sides will probably use aspects of it to their own advantage. But it's probably not something I'd be confident to predict on.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, I think we've already seen the Democrats using the reporting for their side, so I would imagine that's going to continue.
Mark Mazzetti is with the "New York Times."
Thanks for joining us this morning, Mark.
Appreciate it.
MAZZETTI: All right.
Thanks for having me. S. O'BRIEN: We're going to take a look all morning long about how the Iraq war is affecting the war on terror. You can stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
Ahead this morning, is there a conspiracy behind the drop in gas prices?
Bloggers say there is something fishy going on.
We'll tell you what most Americans think.
That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Ah, we're checking the gas gauge now.
Is a price right?
Well, the national average is now $2.38 for unleaded regular. One month ago, it was $2.87. A year ago, it was $2.79. The price is supposed to go even lower as we head toward the election. Hmm.
Some bloggers are putting those two things together and, you know, this is the grassy knoll group.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Ali Velshi is here to tell us about the latest conspiracy...
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm not necessarily one of those.
M. O'BRIEN: I'm not saying you are.
VELSHI: All right...
M. O'BRIEN: But they're out there.
VELSHI: ... they're giving the stuff away now. They're giving gas away.
M. O'BRIEN: Giving it away.
VELSHI: Now, all of these years when oil prices have been going up, you know, the minute oil ticks up, gas goes up, and everybody complains that it goes up instantly and it can't possibly be that gas that came from that oil.
M. O'BRIEN: Right. Right.
VELSHI: But when it goes down, it doesn't go down as fast. The last couple of months, gas has been going down faster than oil and that has got these conspiracy theorists' wheels turning.
Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE) VELSHI (voice-over): Cheaper gas -- finally. But why?
Well, the legendary summer driving season is over. No hurricanes have damaged Gulf Coast rigs and refineries. But with a little more than six weeks to the mid-term elections, the blogs are buzzing with other theories.
Are lower gas prices a Republican plot?
This blogger wonders if Republicans are trying to soften voters, who have spent the last year angry about high prices. "I predict it will work, by the way. The Republicans will retain control of Congress. Those Republicans need all the help they can get, and big oil is doing the best they can to assist."
HENWOOD: Certainly, there is a strong statistical relation between Bush's approval rating and the price of gas. 9/11 -- approval spike...
VELSHI: Doug Henwood, editor of the liberal newsletter "The Left Business Observer," has charted President Bush's popularity against gas prices. He calls the correlation he found uncanny, but he stopped short of calling it a conspiracy.
HENWOOD: More than three quarters of the movement in Bush's approval rating can be explained by movements in the price of gas.
VELSHI: But it's not just the blogs.
A recent "USA Today"/Gallup poll last weekend asked voters: "Do you think the Bush administration has deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall's elections?" Forty-two percent said yes.
Big oil's P.R. Operation calls the whole idea preposterous.
RAYOLA DOUGHER, MANAGER OF ENERGY MARKET ISSUES, AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE: I think if politicians had -- were really in charge of oil prices, I think that they would be low. They'd probably be free right now. And the very notion that we have some sort of command and control oil economy is -- is silly.
VELSHI: Back in July, both crude oil and gasoline hit their highest recorded prices. Gas was averaging about $3.a gallon. By mid-September, oil had dropped about $15 a barrel, so gas should have dropped about $0.45 a gallon. It actually dropped $0.50 a gallon, and it's dropped more since then.
Could President Bush have had anything to do with plummeting gas prices?
We asked Professor Akshay Rao, who studies pricing strategies.
DR. AKSHAY RAO, INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN MARKETING AT THE CARLSON SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Surely, if he picked up the phone and made, you know, five or 10 strategic phone calls, he might be able to influence prices to some degree. But, you know, I -- I think that it's a fairly farfetched theory.
VELSHI: What's more conceivable, according to Rao, is that the energy industry cut prices without any prompting from Washington. That's because they're worried that if the Democrats win, they'll follow up on threats to tax the energy industry more heavily.
We put that idea to big oil's P.R. People.
DOUGHER: It can't be done. They couldn't do it if they wanted to do it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Now, whether they actually did it or didn't do it is an interesting question. I don't think it's -- they could do it. The oil companies -- this doesn't -- there doesn't need to be any conspiracy here. So, for the conspiracy theorists, they can have that put to bed.
Maybe the oil companies realize that the Democrats coming in, it's going to be bad for them, because the Democrats have pretty much said to the oil companies, we're going to pile the taxes on if we take over in November.
M. O'BRIEN: Which is why there'll be no e-mails saying this. It just...
VELSHI: No smoking gun.
M. O'BRIEN: ... if it is happening, it just happens organically, shall we say?
VELSHI: And that's what it is.
M. O'BRIEN: One of the things they talked about in the early part of this, in the spring, when they were starting to ramp up, was this blend of ethanol which they have to incorporate in the summer months. And that's over with now.
VELSHI: Right. We just...
M. O'BRIEN: Does that have something to do with it?
VELSHI: ... switched to winter blend.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
VELSHI: You remember that oil shot up -- gas shot up in the spring because they added ethanol. There was a run-on ethanol. That price is removed until next spring and hopefully we won't have that much of that cost next spring. But that's what the oil companies say, that chunk has come out. That may be part of it.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Ali Velshi, thanks very much.
VELSHI: Good to see you. M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we've got a terrible story to share with you out of North Carolina. A woman allegedly killed by her estranged husband in a domestic violence shelter.
Is enough being done to protect victims of abuse?
We'll take a closer look ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien. Lot's to get to this morning. Carol Costello has a look at some of our top stories. She's in the newsroom.
Hey, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN NEWS ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Good morning, Soledad. Good morning to all of you.
Some new ammunition in the debate in the debate over the war in Iraq. A leaked government intelligence report reportedly says the war in Iraq is making it harder to win the global war on terror and has made America less safe. Democrats are seizing on the report, just 43 days before the mid-term congressional elections.
In Washington, today more focus on a bill spelling out how the U.S. treats it terror detainees and more dissension within the GOP. Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter says he has a problem with the Republican agreement on rules for the interrogation and trial of terror suspects. He's upset over a provision allowing legal counsel only for those detainees selected by the Pentagon for prosecution. The Senate Judiciary Committee meets on the issue today.
An East St. Louis, Illinois woman who is charged with killing her pregnant friend is heading to court today. Tiffany Hall will be advised of the charges she faces for allegedly killing Jimella Tunstall. Hall's also suspected of cutting a fetus from Tunstall's womb. Over the weekend police say Hall confessed to drowning Tunstall's three children and then stuffing them in into a washer and dryer.
Residents of Lexington, Kentucky trying to get their lives back in order after major flooding this weekend, the waters receding this morning. There were at least eight storm-related deaths in Kentucky, six due to flooding. Severe weather is blamed for the death of four others in Arkansas and Illinois.
The CNN Political Ticker debuting moments ago. The daily news service on CNN.com will give readers an insider's perspective on the day's political stories as they happen, as we head into the crucial midterm election, and prepare for the presidential contest of 2008. You can find it at CNN.com/ticker. And as I said, political news as it happens.
Those are the headlines this morning. Back to you, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: That's the way we like it, as it happens. Thank you, Carol.
An assessment of global terrorism threats putting the White House in defense mode this morning. CNN has confirmed portions of the classified intelligence document conclude that the war in Iraq has increased the terrorist threat to the United States, that despite what President Bush is telling Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have put in place the institutions needed to win this war. Five years after September 11, 2001, America is safer, and America is winning the war on terror.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr joining us live with more.
Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN MORNING: Good morning to you, Miles.
That report certainly getting a lot of attention around Washington this morning. That is a national intelligence estimate about the situation in Iraq, a document that is getting serious attention because it comes from the intelligence community. But make no mistake, the whole Iraq war now, topic number one, almost every day in Washington.
Here in the Pentagon, for example, this morning, there is confirmation that the U.S. Army has taken a stand, if you will, against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker, known as one of the most principled officers in the U.S. Army, well, he has now said, he can't sign the budget document that the Pentagon offered to him, because it simply doesn't have enough money with it. So, he is now in negotiation with Secretary Rumsfeld over that.
But going back to the national intelligence estimate, it's something that certainly people had understood, just watching your TV news, that the war in Iraq certainly has led to a good deal of terrorist activity around the world. One of the very crucial things this report says is that much of the terrorist activity now taking place in the virtual world.
The Internet, Internet videos, Internet communication becoming a vital tool for these self-generating terrorist cells around the world. Many terrorists now never meeting Osama bin Laden, will never see him, but signing up to the jihad ideology because of the Internet activity -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thank you very much.
To what extent could the current problems in Iraq be traced to coalition decisions in the first year of the occupation? Rajiv Chandrasekaran is the author of "The Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone" He is an assistant managing editor of "The Washington Post." And was "The Post" Baghdad bureau chief for 18 months, right after the fall of Baghdad. He joins us now.
Rajiv, good to have you back with us.
RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN, AUTHOR, "IMPERIAL LIFE IN THE EMERALD CITY": Good morning, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Your book focuses on the early months after the invasion, the Bremer era, if you will.
CHANDRASEKARAN: Right.
M. O'BRIEN: To what extent is focusing on the Bremer era at all -- does it relate to what's going on today?
CHANDRASEKARAN: I think it's very instructive in helping us understand some of the root causes for the mess we're in today in Iraq. We had incredible opportunity there in those days and weeks and months after the liberation of Baghdad. We had goodwill among the Iraqi people, we had an opportunity, a real opportunity to set that country on the right course, to engage in real political reform, economic development, rebuilding the infrastructure.
What I argue in this book, "Imperial Life in the Emerald City", is that we squandered a really valuable opportunity. We didn't marshal the right resources for reconstruction, didn't have a good political plan in place, and the Americans who came there to govern and reconstruct, isolated themselves in a bubble in the green zone or, as I write, the Emerald City.
M. O'BRIEN: You talk about some of these people that were selected to go there and have crucial jobs, as being people who wouldn't necessarily have the best resume for this, to say the least. And in many respects, you make the allegation they were picked more for ideological reasons, like how did they vote for Roe versus Wade and did they vote for President Bush in 2000 or whatever.
Did you see a lack of expertise that occurred all across the board?
CHANDRASEKARAN: There was a lot of it. Let me be clear, there were very good people, very brave people, very dedicated people who went out there, but there were a lot of people who went out there, also because they were chosen for their political fidelity. Not because they spoke Arabic, because they were experts in the Middle East. You had people who were put in jobs well over their heads. In the case of some, it was not sending the best and the brightest. We sent the loyal and the willing, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: You quote a general in there who talks about the so-called man in the moon phenomenon. This is the country that put a man on the moon, and Iraqis had expectations that they'd have their lights on, and pretty quickly right after this invasion. There were a series of missteps that you recount here, which put Baghdad literally in the dark for quite some time. And that caused a lot of ill will. Tell us about that.
CHANDRASEKARAN: Exactly. And you know, missteps began even before the war. After the war, American officials reacted with such surprise, saying we didn't realize Iraq's infrastructure were so decrepit. Well, there were plenty of reports from before the war, produced by the United Nations, and others, that really spelled out how bad things where. And had we wanted to, we could have marshaled the right resources to really bring teams in place, equipment to deal with all this stuff.
Not only did we not have that, but then as I write in this book, we didn't pay attention, the Coalition Provisional Authority just sort of neglected it. It had a very small team assigned to this for many weeks. It was just an after thought, until finally one or two very committed, dedicated people working there, raised this with Ambassador Bremer, who was the head of the CPA, and said, hey, look, we need to redouble our resources on it.
But again, this was months in. We had a valuable opportunity right there to get things working. We didn't do it.
M. O'BRIEN: There were big things, but you talk about little things like serving pork inside the cafeterias inside the green zone. The fact that people are being shuttled around and there were air conditioned buses and there were bars. And sort of this little bubble. Does that reflect arrogance or naivety, or a little bit of both?
CHANDRASEKARAN: A little bit of both. And just this sort of tone deafness setting themselves up in this little America. Now, granted, the American civilians and soldiers there in Baghdad needed comforts from home. But did we really need to serve pork in the heart of a Muslim country, a food that's very offensive to many Muslims? Did they need to set up bars and a disco? And to do all of those things that really created this disconnect.
You know, these were the people that needed to out interacting with Iraqis to understand what was going on there. Meanwhile, you know, when there was maybe eight, 10 hours a day of electricity in the rest of Baghdad, they were getting 24/7 reliability inside the green zone. When people were sweltering in 130 degree heat on the outside, the offices were chilled to a crisp 68 degrees inside the green zone. It was like a different world. You know, I lived on the outside just like your reporters do over there.
And when I went into the green zone, it was like I had blasted off Earth and landed on Mars. It was a whole different planet.
M. O'BRIEN: The book is "Imperial Life in the Emerald City", Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Thanks very much for coming in.
CHANDRASEKARAN: Good to be here again.
M. O'BRIEN: Always a pleasure. Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Time for a check of the forecast. Chad's got that for us.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Tonight's game between the Saints and Falcons will be way more than just any old Monday night football game. New Orleans Saints fans haven't seen a game in the Superdome, in fact, since Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the City of New Orleans. Tonight is going to be a time to remember -- and, of course, these guys are planning for a party. Susan Roesgen live for us in New Orleans this morning.
Hey, Susan.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Soledad. This Superdome was never intended to be a shelter. It's a stadium. But in Hurricane Katrina, the city called this a shelter of last resort. And for 30,000 people that's what it was.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROESGEN (voice over): These were not football fans filing into The Dome last August. These were people running from the hurricane with nowhere else to go.
VELENA COCO, KATRINA SURVIVOR: Jeffrey would sit in front of us sometimes. And it was Leecee, and her duffel bag, my mama and her purse, and me.
ROESGEN: Velena Coco, and her daughter Leecee, were rescued from the roof of a church and wound up with two other family members in the stadium stands. This is where they stayed and slept for four days.
BRIAN MILLER, KATRINA SURVIVOR: This is the -- what they call the warehouses.
ROESGEN: Brian Miller was also in the Superdome, as the relative of a Superdome employee, he had a little privacy and a couch to sleep on. But he was stuck here like everybody else.
MILLER: I called it the Island of Katrina. Because it was like we were on an island right here in The Dome.
ROESGEN: The island was dark, hot and crowded. The city anticipated a few thousand people in the Superdome, 30,000 came.
COCO: As you passed the bathrooms, it was, like, just --
LEECEE COCO, KATRINA SURVIVOR: It was like one light might be working here and then you go down to the next set of restrooms and there might be where the next light is.
MILLER: As hot as it was outside, you wanted to go outside, because it was actually cooler -- at least the air moved. There was some circulation. In The Dome, there was none.
ROESGEN: Finally both Brian and the Coco family were evacuated to other cities. Today they say they'll be glad to see the Saints come marching back in.
V. COCO: It's wonderful because life goes on, but we'll always remember, and we'll leave the next time something that big gets into the Gulf.
MILLER: You've got to accept the bad with the good. We put the bad behind us, as the Saints should do. If you have a loosing game, you put it behind you, and move on. We can just move on now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROESGEN: Now, tonight, just before the opening kickoff, President George H. Bush will do the opening coin toss. And then, Soledad, I'm going to be somewhere up in the nosebleed section, with 68,000 other people for this sold-out game. We'll be listening for the word touchdown in something like 50 different languages. Because there has been such media interest here that there are so many reporters here. Everyone from Japanese television to Al Jazeera, has sent people to this game tonight, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: No matter who wins, it will be a big deal now that it's reopened. Susan Roesgen for us. Thanks, Susan.
If you want more information about the transformation of the Superdome, you can catch Susan's in-depth piece about The Dome's comeback, it's running at cnn.com/pipeline.
M. O'BRIEN: Straight to come in the program, the pope reaches out again to Muslim leaders. Will another olive branch diffuse the anger, finally? We'll go live to Rome.
And later, a new way to help moms and dads become better parents. Have you ever considered a personal parenting coach? Sort of a modern- day Mary Poppins. Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: You might recall this story, a man suspected of forcing his way into a shelter for battered women in North Carolina. Happened last week. The man is now believed to have killed his estranged wife. Authorities continue the search for John Woodring. His wife had a restraining order against him.
Meanwhile, domestic violence shelters across North Carolina are on high alert as advocates discuss what to do about security. Professor Sara Buel is one of the nations' foremost experts on domestic violence. She teaches at the University of Texas School of Law, where she started the Domestic Violence Clinic. She also was a victim of domestic violence. She's in Austin.
It's nice to see you, Professor. Thanks for talking with us this morning. Appreciate it.
SARAH BUEL, PROF., UNIV. OF TEXAS SCHOOL OF LAW: You're welcome.
S. O'BRIEN: You look at everything the woman did right. She had a restraining order, she was in a secure facility. Where did the system fail her?
BUEL: One step we hope will take place in her community is called a death review, where all the relevant players sit down together and try to figure out where did we go wrong? It's our belief that most of these murders can be prevented. And the important piece is to make sure we learn what we can do so it doesn't happen again.
S. O'BRIEN: This particular shelter had panic buttons, had an alarm system, had locks on every window, and every door. It didn't have a fence and it didn't have any security guards. Is that a fluke, or do you think that's sort of a general standard?
BUEL: Well, our shelters in this country are so dramatically under-funded that we really cannot point the finger at them for not providing state-of-the-art security for every victim who stays there. Part of this has to fall in the lap of our state legislatures who have refused -- and federal -- have refused to adequately fund these programs so that they can best protect victims who are staying with them.
S. O'BRIEN: Is it all about the money, or is it all about the law, too?
BUEL: Part of it is the money. I think the laws are generally sufficient, although they can certainly use some improvements. But a good part of it is just needing the money so that you can have an 80- foot fence, a security system that requires either a pass code, or a card system to get in, that those seem to decrease access by abusers.
Some shelters have located their program next to a sheriff's department or a police station. We can work with programs to increase safety, but funding is generally the stumbling block for us.
S. O'BRIEN: There are some people who realistically, though, if a husband wants to kill his wife or injure his wife, he will just wait around and do it. Maybe he won't be able to get inside the shelter, but he will just wait. And you really can not protect yourself, or your family, each and every day unless you're going to lock yourself in a room. Do you agree with that argument at all?
BUEL: I think a tiny minority of cases, that may be true. What we're attempting to do now is comprehensive safety planning, so that any victim calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline, or a shelter near them, will have the kind safety planning done for them. So we can determine, do we need to put you on a plane and get you across the country because this person is going to stalk and terrorize, and maybe kill you if you stay in your community. S. O'BRIEN: Back in the 1970s, I know this has been written about in articles, you were physically abused by your husband. Do you get the sense that things are getting worse than they were?
BUEL: No, I think they've dramatically improved. When I left, there were no shelters, no abuse prevention laws. It's been the extraordinary work of many advocates, law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, around the country -- and legislators -- to improve that situation, but our work is certainly not done.
S. O'BRIEN: Professor Sarah Buel, is with the University of Texas School of Law.
Professor, thanks for talking with us.
BUEL: You're very welcome.
S. O'BRIEN: Sad, sad story, isn't it?
BUEL: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles?
M. O'BRIEN: Up next, Andy "Minding Your Business".
Hello, Andy.
ANDY SERWER, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Hello, Miles. Tomorrow is Yell at Andy Fastow day in Houston. Don't want to miss that.
Plus, the giant CITGO sign in Boston over Fenway Park has some seeing red, as in the devil. We'll explain, coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Enron victims getting a day in court today. Andy Serwer here "Minding Your Business," telling us about -- it would be great theater, if we could watch it, wouldn't it?
SERWER: That's right. We're talk about the Enron trial down in Houston. Tomorrow victims of Enron will get a chance to speak their mind at the sentencing of former Chief Financial Officer Andy Fastow.
Apparently, there won't be cameras there. People who say they've got a beef with Andy Fastow, and the company, will be able to speak and speak their mind, say their piece for a reasonable amount of time. Presumably the judge will limit it to 10 minutes or so. Letters can also be written. He's already accepted a 10-year prison sentence and surrendered some $30 million.
So there is not going to be a lot of suspense, but the theater could be amazing. The question is could you hire someone to speak for you? Could you hire, someone like Samuel L. Jackson, to come in and yell at him. I think not.
M. O'BRIEN: A professional yeller.
SERWER: Yes, a professional yeller.
M. O'BRIEN: He has to be there?
SERWER: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: And how long could this go on? Is there a limit?
SERWER: It could go on for days. At a certain point it starts to become like the cultural revolution with people denouncing people endlessly. I think after like an afternoon of it, I would say that's enough. We get the point. A lot of people's lives were ruined. On the other hand, hey, I want to get my chance, too.
Another story we want to tell you about concerns the CITGO sign, the famed CITGO sign in Boston that's over the green monster at Fenway Park. A city councilor wants the sign removed --
S. O'BRIEN: Ah, the first fall out --
(CROSS TALK)
SERWER: Yes, because Hugo Chavez called President Bush, The Devil. Of course, CITGO is the Venezuelan state oil company. And it is controlled by the Venezuelan state oil company I should say.
M. O'BRIEN: But the devil is the Yankees, in that part of the world.
SERWER: That's a very good point. It doesn't say Yankees there. CITGO said they just spent a million dollars refurbishing the sign. I don't know how they spent a million dollars on that.
S. O'BRIEN: A million dollars?
SERWER: A million dollars refurbishing the sign.
M. O'BRIEN: Nice sign.
S. O'BRIEN: They should put it in a museum, then.
SERWER: Really. I'll buy it for five bucks.
Finally, we have just a second here. Bonded by blood poster, a rugby team. The New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks, has this wild marketing gimmick, I guess you could say. They've mixed the blood of all team members into an ink, into the ink of posters that they are going to be giving to people who buy their $70 jerseys.
S. O'BRIEN: They gathered off the field?
SERWER: Yes, right.
(CROSS TALK)
SERWER: The poster is printed with ink, and part of the ink is from the blood of the All Blacks. Have you ever seen them do the hakka (ph), that dance that they do?
S. O'BRIEN: Yeah. I love the All Blacks.
SERWER: Yes, I do, too. I'm a huge All Black --
S. O'BRIEN: Those are some big ol' boys.
(CROSS TALK)
M. O'BRIEN: You used to play rugby, right?
S. O'BRIEN: I did play. My dad used to play, too.
SERWER: Yes. That's right. I remember hearing about that.
S. O'BRIEN: Not quite as big as the All Blacks, though.
SERWER: Those guys are big.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. See you in a bit. Andy, thank you.
SERWER: OK, see you.
M. O'BRIEN: Top stories after a short break, including former President Bill Clinton's fiery interview with FOX News about trying to catch Osama bin Laden. Right after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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