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Body Count Rises In Iraq Over The Weekend; A Blackhawk Downed By Enemy Fire
Aired January 22, 2007 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone.
You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Heidi Collins.
For the next three hours, watch events as they come into the NEWSROOM live on Monday, the 22nd day of January.
Here's what's on the rundown.
Bombs and blood -- Baghdad attacks leave dozens of people dead. In another daring strike, insurgents in U.S. military uniforms kill five American soldiers.
HARRIS: Political rush -- the 2008 campaign for the White House off to a speedy and crowded start. Count them -- eight Democrats, nine Republicans.
COLLINS: No Super Bowl for the Saints, but the team energizing the soul of a broken New Orleans. Louisiana's governor live in THE NEWSROOM.
A deadly weekend for U.S. troops in Iraq. And just minutes ago, we learned details about a helicopter crash that killed 12 Americans near Baghdad.
CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has been working her sources and joins us now with the very latest -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Heidi.
More disturbing news about Iraq Saturday. That Black Hawk helicopter going down northeast of Baghdad, in Diyala Province. Twelve U.S. service members on board killed. All of the indications now, according to senior U.S. military officials, are the helicopter was brought down by hostile fire and they are leaning toward a finding at this point that it was brought down by a shoulder-fired surface-to- air-missile.
Now, of course, the investigation remains ongoing. But our sources are telling us, based on debris found on the ground and reports coming from the scene, the leaning at this point is that the indications are the helicopter was brought down by a shoulder-fired surface-to-air-missile on Saturday. All 12 service members on board, of course, perished in that incident -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Barbara Starr live from the Pentagon this morning with new information.
Barbara, thank you.
HARRIS: An explosion of gruesome violence in Iraq. Schoolchildren and civilians, insurgents show no mercy in the deadliest of the attacks today in central Baghdad. A pair of car bombs erupt. At least 75 people are killed and 160 wounded.
Elsewhere in the capital, mortar rounds rained down on an elementary school. One woman is killed, eight children -- eight children wounded.
CNN's Michael Holmes joins us from Baghdad -- and Michael, good morning to you.
What details can you offer us about this latest round of violence?
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and good morning to you, too.
Yes, the car bombings occurred -- it was a twin bombing, actually. It happened in Baghdad's largest marketplace. If that sounds familiar, it's because it's the third time in as many months that this particular marketplace, in the heart of Baghdad, has been hit by insurgents. This time, two car bombs exploding seconds apart.
We heard them go off here. It's only a mile or so away. And it was literally seconds between the two blasts.
One of them in particular was enormous, according to our sources, and included nails and other pieces of shrapnel. But the explosives themselves enormous. As you pointed out, 75 dead, 160 wounded.
This marketplace is in a -- it's in a fairly mixed area of Shia and Sunni, but most of the shoppers tend to be poor Shia people. This is a very impoverished neighborhood. The mortar rounds you mentioned, that happened in Dura. That's an area, a problematic area just south of Baghdad. And that mortar round landing in an elementary school. One adult and, as you said, eight children wounded in that.
Really, more carnage, body parts, in that bombing in the marketplace, strewn all over the area. It was a really horrific scene and stretched -- already stretched hospitals who had to deal just days ago with the 65 killed and 160 wounded from that university bombing -- back to you.
HARRIS: Oh, Michael, so a difficult day, to be sure, for Iraqi civilians.
Let's talk about the weekend and what a tough weekend it was for U.S. troops. Perhaps the most disturbing was the incident, that attack in Karbala on U.S. soldiers. What's the latest on that investigation?
HOLMES: Yes, this is bizarre, I've got to tell you. I've never heard of anything like that and none of us here have either. Because of how well organized it was, great suspicion this was an inside job, in many ways.
A security meeting going on in what was meant to be a secure compound in Karbala involving U.S. and Iraqi officials.
Now, seven to eight SUVs with tinted windows, looking every bit like a U.S. convoy does around here -- diplomatic or otherwise -- drives in, flashes -- the men inside flashing I.D.s. They're wearing U.S.-style uniforms.
The Iraqi police at the checkpoints thought they were Americans and they went through three checkpoints, got not just into the compound, they got into the building where this meeting was going on and opened fire, targeting specifically the Americans.
There were no Iraqi casualties in this attack. Five Americans killed, three of them wounded. That command is under, as you would imagine, lockdown at the moment. A big investigation going on. And police sources tell us Americans are interrogating everyone from the police chief on down, because this obviously an enormous breach of security.
HARRIS: And suggestions that it had been an inside job.
Michael Holmes for us in Baghdad.
Michael, thank you.
COLLINS: The war on terror is not going away. That warning likely to be part of President Bush's State of the Union message tomorrow night. Details leaking out all weekend.
White House correspondent Elaine Quijano joining us now live from the Washington -- Elaine, sort of a different dynamic this year, with President Bush going before a Democratic-led Congress.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, it really will be.
Good morning to you, Heidi.
Not only are Democrats skeptical about the president's new Iraq plan, but some Republicans have openly joined with those Democrats in voicing their opposition to the president's strategy for additional U.S. forces to quell the violence in Baghdad and Al Anbar Province.
Now, there are several proposals, of course, floating around by various lawmakers for non-binding resolutions to voice that opposition.
So President Bush, tomorrow night, when he heads to Capitol Hill, will continue trying to make the case that his strategy can be effective.
Now, aides say that his comments on the Iraq War will be within the larger war on terror, the context of the larger war on terror. Iraq was very much on the agenda this weekend, in fact.
The president, before leaving for Camp David, sat down with his secretaries of Defense and State to hear about their recent trips to the Middle East region, as the administration tries to build support on the international front, as well, for the Iraq strategy.
Now, today, Heidi, the White House -- the president will return to the White House from Camp David, where he spent the last couple of days putting the finishing touches on his State of the Union message -- Heidi.
COLLINS: But, Elaine, it's not going to be just Iraq or just the Middle East, by way of policy, that he'll be talking about. He's also going to be talking about domestic agenda.
What exactly will he be focusing on?
QUIJANO: Well, clearly, the White House trying to shift focus off foreign policy and on to the president's domestic agenda items. We know that his address will include, as the president previewed a little bit of in his radio address over the weekend, a proposal for a standard tax deduction for health care.
Now, we know from sources familiar with the plan that the figures -- the president may not lay them out by -- specifically, but the figures are $7,500 for individuals, $15,000 for -- a deduction for families. Again, not sure if he'll lay out those specifics, but the White House certainly wants to put some of the focus on that.
Other domestic issues he'll talk about, Heidi, include immigration, energy and education policy -- Heidi.
COLLINS: It's going to be a long speech.
Elaine Quijano live from the White House.
Thank you.
CNN is the place to watch the State of the Union Address. Our prime time coverage begins Tuesday evening, 7:00 Eastern. Watch a special two hour edition of THE SITUATION ROOM.
Then, President Bush's address live on CNN, followed by the Democratic response.
Then, at 10:30 Eastern, Anderson Cooper has reaction from around the world, followed with a special midnight edition of "LARRY KING LIVE."
The best political team on television has you covered.
HARRIS: Well, the race is on the field is getting crowded. Over the weekend, three more presidential hopefuls jumped into the political fray.
On the Democratic side, in a statement posted on her Web site, Senator Hillary Clinton said she's in and in to win. The New York senator is already making public appearances, putting the spotlight on health care.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: Heath insurance for every child and universal health care for every American. That will be, you know, a very major part of my campaign and I want to hear people's ideas about how we can achieve that goal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: New Mexico Democratic Governor Bill Richardson made his own Web announcement Sunday. Then he took straight to the talk show circuit and attacked the Iraq War issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: What you do is you set up a timetable for them to handle the security. You set national reconciliation talks with the three ethnic groups. You talk to Iran and Syria.
What we need to do is bring their neighbors in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And on the Republican side, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas announced his candidacy on Saturday and laid out his vision for Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: Let us resolve to move forward together, to have a bipartisan strategy for the war. We need unity here to win over there. We need to have that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And, again, stay with the best political team on television for all of your campaign and election coverage.
COLLINS: Another week, another wave -- oops. More snow, ice and freezing rain spreading more misery from coast-to-coast. I guess we'll show that again to you.
Ice, slick roads of big concern. You've kind of got to root for these people -- my goodness -- in the mid-Atlantic states, treacherous conditions in Charleston, West Virginia and parts of Maryland and Virginia, as well.
The nation's heartland also reeling from storm after storm. More heavy snow fell over the weekend in parts of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. At last count, more than 45,000 people in Missouri and 25,000 in Oklahoma were still without power after the ice storm more than a week ago now.
And check out the scene. Yes, this is Tucson, Arizona. That's snow. A little bit of a rare sight there. Parts of northern Arizona got more than a foot of snow.
Chad Myers standing by now with more on all of these wintry conditions -- Arizona, isn't there a ski resort like in Flagstaff area?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The Snow Bowl. Yes.
COLLINS: Yes.
See?
MYERS: Been there.
COLLINS: You have, have you?
MYERS: Yes, I have.
COLLINS: Good snow?
MYERS: I've played golf in Scottsdale and the next day I went skiing in Snow Bowl.
HARRIS: Yes.
COLLINS: See?
MYERS: Good morning.
HARRIS: That's living.
MYERS: You can do that. You can do it all the time, all winter long.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: Michael Devlin on the record -- the suspected kidnapper now speaking from his Missouri jail cell. What he said, ahead in THE NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: It was the feel good story of the NFL season. Boy, this felt good! The New Orleans Saints delivered their fans from despair, well, at least for a time. That story ahead in THE NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: And a beached freighter spills a bubbly cargo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's enormous 40-foot containers floating here about a mile offshore and it's shedding literally thousands of bottles of shampoo and conditioner. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Yikes! I thought he was going to say champagne.
Ship to shore coming up in THE NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: You were hoping.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: The Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears are Super Bowl bound. In the AFC championship, the Colts dug themselves out of a 21-3 hole to come back and beat New England. The final score, Colts 38; Patriots 34.
In the NFC title game, the Bears counted on their running game and defense to defeat New Orleans 39-14.
HARRIS: Tackle them!
COLLINS: Bears Coach Lovie Smith and Colts Coach Tony Dungy become the first African-American head coaches to reach the Super Bowl. Very cool.
HARRIS: So, the New Orleans Saints lost, ended a glorious run for the team. And the city still reeling from Hurricane Katrina and Rita.
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco joins us to talk about the Saints' impact off the field.
Governor, good morning to you.
GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO (R), NEW ORLEANS: Good morning.
HARRIS: Well, I'm disappointed. It's still the best football story of the year, don't you think?
Of course you think so, right?
Come on.
BLANCO: Absolutely. It was a real Cinderella story. Louisiana, New Orleans, and the whole region just fell in love with the Saints because they were the real champions. They were working their way and showing the way to recovery, showing that we could -- we could overcome a lot of difficulties and still play with the champions.
HARRIS: Yes.
You know, you get a lot of energy when your football team is performing as well as the Saints performed this year.
Are you a little worried that there might be a little bit of a letdown now that, you know, the Saints have lost and the football season is over and folks may not continue to come together in the spirit that they have?
BLANCO: Well, certainly the games have brought our people together.
HARRIS: Yes.
BLANCO: Given them a lot of physical and psychological relief, something to cheer on.
I think, though, that the successes are going to tide us over for a while and just give us a new energy.
HARRIS: Yes.
I have to ask you, bring us up to speed on recovery efforts post- Katrina.
Where are you with federal money? How much so far has been dedicated to Louisiana to rebuild post-Katrina, post-Rita? And how much more help from the federal government do you expect?
BLANCO: Well, we are trying to move some money through the pipeline, I think about $10 billion in housing. And it's very challenging because we have almost 100,000 people that we have to process on some very difficult technicalities and making sure that we don't have any fraud...
HARRIS: Yes.
BLANCO: Making sure that the people who really deserve the money are getting the money.
It is moving. It's not moving as fast as we would like.
I guess our other problem is simply getting parity and getting proportionate monies. Whenever new monies come up, with feel that -- that Louisiana's -- the magnitude of our -- of the problem here in Louisiana is usually ignored and some other criteria is used.
And I guess that's the one dismaying thing that we see happening.
HARRIS: Do you feel like you're using the money wisely, as effectively as you can?
BLANCO: Well, we are -- the devastation is enormous. And so every single system that we have to deal with has been impacted. So, of course, there's never quite enough money to get it all done and get it done in a timely fn.
But we're using the money that we have as wisely as we possibly can.
HARRIS: How concerned are you with the recent spike in violence in New Orleans?
BLANCO: Well, we are very concerned. But as we speak, we have 360 troops on the ground. I have 300 members of the National Guard and 60 state police who are working the city, who are working under the authority and the direction of the chief of police in New Orleans.
We are watching that situation very carefully. We're encouraging them. We're picking up the pieces because they -- they lost a significant number of their force.
HARRIS: Yes.
BLANCO: We are meeting with them and trying to get that force strength back up. And they're doing recruiting now and we're trying to back that up.
HARRIS: And difficult to diversify your economy, to bring jobs to the region, companies to the region, if this city gets this tag, this label as being a place where violent crime happens.
BLANCO: Well, every large city has its own measure of violent crime. But the citizens of New Orleans have -- have just put their foot down and say they want it stopped. And I think that's a very good sign, when you've got -- when you have citizen involvement.
We're going to help the legal and the law enforcement system get back on its footing. There were a lot of problems with the jails not being completed and the courtrooms being ruined by the storms. But we're trying to tackle it from every single angle.
HARRIS: Less than half of New Orleans' pre-storm population of 454,000 has returned.
Are you concerned that your city, your big city -- I mean there are other big cities, obviously, in Louisiana -- but are you concerned that New Orleans is going to become a forgotten, a lost city?
BLANCO: Well, I think as we get the housing back up, we're going to see people coming back every day. Right now, every single day brings 50 to 100 new students enrolling in the school systems in New Orleans. So we see there is an in migration trend. And as people can find housing, they are coming home.
Our people basically are homesick. And we're working very hard to be able to get their homes back up and enable them to come home where they want to be.
HARRIS: Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco with us this morning.
Great to see you, Governor.
Congratulations on a great season for your Saints.
BLANCO: Thank you.
We are very proud of the Saints.
HARRIS: Hoo-dad!
BLANCO: Hoo-dad!
HARRIS: Thank you.
COLLINS: A controversial jailhouse talk -- Michael Devlin grants his first interview. But his attorneys say their client was deceived. We'll talk about it ahead in THE NEWSROOM.
And what's it like to run against Hillary Rodham Clinton?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's a very disciplined campaigner. She's a very cautious campaigner. She'll be well briefed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Tips for current political rivals from a past opponent.
That's coming up in THE NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Michael Devlin speaks -- the man charged with kidnapping two Missouri teens now tells snippets of his story.
CNN's Rick Sanchez has more.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The accused kidnapper talked to the "New York Post" in two 15-minute interviews given from the Franklin County Jail. Michael Devlin admitted to the "Post" that he hasn't talked to his parents yet, saying, "It's much easier talking to a stranger about these things than your own parents."
Devlin, who comes from a large family, told the paper the only visitors he's had in jail were his attorneys.
He also told the reporter that he became lonely and withdrawn in 2002 when he was diagnosed with diabetes.
When talking about the past four years, the amount of time that Shawn Hornbeck was missing, Devlin told the "Post," and we quote, "I guess I was relatively happy."
The newspaper reports when asked if he was attracted to women, Devlin answered, "I can't talk about that because it has to do with the case."
Last week, Sean Hornbeck's parents told Oprah they thought their son was sexual abused during his captivity. Devlin has pleaded not guilty to one charge of felony kidnapping in regards to Ben Ownby and he is expected to be arraigned on kidnapping charges in the case of Shawn Hornbeck as well.
Rick Sanchez, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COLLINS: Michael Devlin's attorneys are taking exception with the "New York Post" interview, saying their reporter deceived their client. They're expected to file a motion today to have Devlin moved to another facility.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL KIELTY, MICHAEL DEVLIN'S ATTORNEY: I think the media is always going to try and do their job. And their job is to try and gain access to people of interest, people that -- and he's obviously an interesting character. I mean nobody really knows anything about him.
Nevertheless, I think it's the jail's fault.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ETHAN CORLIJA, MICHAEL DEVLIN'S ATTORNEY: There are several inaccuracies and they are grave inaccuracies. And we are, of course, you know, worried that things of an inflammatory nature will have an impact on people who are -- on how people view this case and potential jury people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Ambulances rushing in for another round of wounded. Insurgents pulling off a sneak attack against American G.I.s. Iraq's latest in THE NEWSROOM.
It is getting crowded out there -- 17 so far eyeing the Oval Office exactly a year before New Hampshire. We're looking for elbow room here in THE NEWSROOM.
And hold on -- it is -- hang in there -- it's treacherous out there. More miserable winter weather to tell you about in THE NEWSROOM.
We're right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Let's get the business day started, what do you say? Ring-ring, ring the bell. Come on, come on, Jeff Turner.
(BELL CLANGING)
There you go, Jeff Turner ringing the bell to get the business day going, from Spirit Aerosystems. Well, thank you, for the question about Spirit Aerosystems, Heidi.
(LAUGHTER)
It is an independent supplier of aero structures to Boeing and Airbus. Thought you'd like to know that.
The Dow closed down Friday, but just slightly. The Nasdaq was up 8 points. We'll follow all the business headlines with Susan Lisovicz, throughout the morning here in the NEWSROOM.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN AMERICAN MORNING: Among our top stories this morning: Body parts everywhere, one Iraqi official describing the scene of today's horrific attack in Baghdad. Insurgents targeting civilians in a marketplace with deadly precision, two car bombs explode almost simultaneously. At least 75 people dead, 160 wounded.
Americans suffered a bloody weekend in Iraq as well, a dozen U.S. troops killed in a helicopter crash. Now, sources are telling CNN, the Blackhawk, apparently brought down by hostile shoulder-to-fire missile. We learned that from our Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr today. In all, 27 died Saturday and Sunday.
Some, in an unprecedented attack in Karbala, about 30 armed militants disguised as a U.S. military convoy, passed through three checkpoints, and they attack a secure compound and meeting focusing on security concerns. Five U.S. troops killed, a massive investigation under way.
Another brigade of U.S. troops now in Baghdad, part of the president's plan to end the violence municipality back home, the debate heats up. CNN's Kathleen Koch reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN NEWSROOM (voice over): It's been one of the bloodiest weekend's of the war. The surge in U.S. military deaths fueling concerns in Congress that Iraq is not a war U.S. troops can win.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY, (D-MA): Third highest loss in the whole struggle with Iraq just reaffirms, confirms, that Americans are fighting and dying in a civil war.
KOCH: Wednesday the Senate will begin to consider one of six non-binding resolutions opposing the president's troop increase.
JOSEPH BIDEN, (D-DE), CHAIRMAN, FOREIGN RELATIONS: The quickest thing we can do is make it clear to the president that he doesn't have any support.
SEN. CARL LEVIN, (D-MI), CHAIRMAN, ARMED SERVICES: The worst thing we can do is vote on something which is critical of the current policy and lose it. Because if we lose that vote, the president will use the defeat of a resolution as support for his policy.
KOCH: One Republican co-author refutes claims such a resolution would embolden the enemy and discourage troops in the field. SEN. CHUCK HAGEL, (R-NE): I think it shows the support of the Congress, of our troops. And the concern the Congress has about assuring that those that we are asking to fight and die, have a policy worthy of their sacrifices. My goodness, we're a democracy.
KOCH: More headaches for President Bush could come in confirmation hearings for the military brass he's tapped to carry out his new plan. A top GOP senator voiced doubts about putting the outgoing U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, in charge of the Army.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), ARMED SERVICES CMTE.: I'm concerned about failed leadership, the message that sends to the rest of the military. I have hard questions to ask him.
KOCH (on camera): It's expected the president's new commanders will be approved. Still, the confirmation hearings that begin Tuesday will give opponents a stage from which to attack the president's Iraq policy, past and present. Kathleen Koch, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Iraq certainly to be on the list of topics the president will address in his State of the Union. Our primetime coverage of that event begins Tuesday evening, 7:00 Eastern. Watch a special two-hour edition of "Situation Room", then )President Bush's address, live on CNN. Followed by the Democratic response, then 10:30 Eastern, Anderson Cooper has reaction from around the world, followed with a midnight edition of "Larry King Live." The best political team on television has you covered.
HARRIS: So the race is on, and the field is getting crowded. Over the weekend, three more presidential hopefuls jumped into the political fray on the Democratic side. Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton says, "She's in, and in to win." Announcing and exploratory committee on her website Saturday, she hopes to become the first women president.
New Mexico Democratic Governor Bill Richardson made his own web announcement forming an exploratory committee. A successful run could make him the nation's first Hispanic president. And on the Republican side, Senator Sam Brownback, of Kansas, formally announced his candidacy.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential announcement has a lot of other politicians talking. CNN's Gary Nurenberg reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN MORNING (voice over): From someone who did run,
SEN. TED KENNEDY, (D-MA): Senator Clinton is in a very strong position for the nomination.
NURENBERG: To someone who plans to run, SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D-DE): I think she's incredibly formidable has got to be the front-runner.
NURENBERG: To an old adversary says he may run.
NEWT GINGRICH, FMR. HOUSE SPEAKER: A six out of 10 chance or better of being the Democratic nominee.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D-NY) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE I'm forming a presidential exploratory committee.
NURENBERG: Hillary Clinton's declaration dominates the country's political discussion, overshadowing the weekend announcements of two other candidates, who were asked how they will compete against her star power.
SEN. SAM BROWNBACK, (R-KS), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On ideas and issues. That's what I love about campaigning. It's a competition of ideas and issues.
RICHARDSON: Governors have good records being elected presidents. Because we balance budgets, we deal with healthcare, education.
NURENBERG (on camera): But as candidates were asked their reaction to Senator Clinton, one Republican said her announcement is a reaction to someone else.
GINGRICH: I think it's a tribute to Barack Obama, that his popularity has grown so rapidly. But I suspect it forced her to move a couple of months earlier than she planned to.
NURENBERG (voice over): What is it like to run against Hillary Clinton? We asked her 2000 opponent for New York Senate seat.
RICK LAZIO, FMR. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: You can expect that she will raise all the money that she needs to raise. She's a very disciplined campaigner. She's a very cautious campaigner. She will be well briefed. She has, as I say, battle-tested, very disciplined, very tough campaign operatives that she will surround herself with.
NURENBERG: But Lazio says she has lost one plus. She had the advantage in 2000, that Barack Obama may have in 2008, which is a limited record which to scrutinize.
NURENBERG: Some Democrats, asked if they will endorse Clinton -- ducked.
REP. MAXINE WATERS, (D-CA): This is democracy at work. I'm so excited about the possibility of having all these choices.
NURENBERG: And so early. When John Kennedy announced for president in 1960, it was only 10 months before the election. This campaign will be more than twice as long. Gary Nurenberg, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Just where do the candidates stand on some of the major issues? Let's take a look.
New York Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton voted for use of military force in Iraq, but opposes the president's plan for additional troops there. On immigration, Senator Clinton voted for the Bush-backed Senate immigration bill which would increase border security and grant amnesty for some illegal immigrants. And she supports abortion rights. Stay with CNN and the best political team on television for all of your campaign and election coverage.
COLLINS: Well, it seems it just won't let up. Another wave of snow, sleet and freezing rain pounding parts of the U.S. Treacherous roads after the nation's capitol got slammed by its first major storm of the season. Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland are also coping with snow, freezing rain.
In the Heartlands, snow plows working overtime. Another round of snow fell across Nebraska and Kansas over the weekend. At least 11 traffic deaths in those two states are blamed on the storm.
In Tucson, Arizona, something people don't get to see very often. The city got up to an inch and a half of snow. Parts of northern Arizona got more than a foot, believe it or not. Chad Myers joining us now.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: Still to come, a heads-up for travelers. You will now have to carry a passport of you are heading out of the country, even if you're not going overseas. We'll explain, new rules ahead in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: And you just heard it, sold! The auction of CNN's Warrior One, sends a lot of money to a good cause. How the new owner plans to continue what CNN started, we'll tell you about it, ahead in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: You already know to catch us weekday mornings from 9:00 to noon Eastern. But did you know you can take us anywhere on your iPod? CNN NEWSROOM's podcast, available 24/7, right on your iPod.
HARRIS: Love it, love it.
New travel rules you need to know about, already leading to some long lines. But not necessarily at the airport. An explanation from CNN Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, CNN NEWSROOM (voice over): The U.S. State Department has never seen anything like it. The demand for passports was up 56 percent this December over last December.
WANDA NESBITT, STATE DEPARTMENT: We broke yet another record, issuing more passports in one week than we have ever issued before in one week.
MESERVE: The reason? Come Tuesday anyone by air between the U.S., and Canada, Mexico or most islands in the Caribbean, will be required to have a passport.
(On camera): As of the 23rd, air travelers without a passport will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis by Customs & Border Protection, and may be deferred to secondary screening for a decision on their admissibility.
(Voice over): In Canada, passport offices in recent weeks were swamped with waits of four or even five hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first thing I did was ask what's the lineup for? And they said passport -- the ol' heart just, shoo!
MESERVE: The travel industry and the U.S. government have tried to alert the public to the new requirements with advertisements. Some Caribbean hotels concerned about the impact on business are even offering passport fee rebates. Though travel industry representatives believe the change will not, in the end, be too disruptive.
RICK WEBSTER, TRAVEL INDUSTRY ASSN. OF AMERICA: January 23 we believe will not be a non-event. We believe there will be high compliance with the new passport requirement. And we don't expect any interruption.
MESERVE: But this new requirement for air travelers is the easy part. Many more people move between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico and Caribbean by land and sea. As early as January, 2008, those travelers, too, will need passports or other valid travel documents. That deadline, already a worry. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: A scavenger hunt for the ages, people picking up all kinds of treasures on a British beach. How cars, camcorders, and other things got there. Ahead in the --
HARRIS: Who's minding their business? We're minding your's this morning. Stephanie Elam is here with a preview.
Stephanie, good morning.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN NEWSROOM: Good morning, Tony.
It kind of goes like this, dear diary. We want to tell you the story of a woman who lost her job for keeping a journal at work. Coming up, on the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: How about this? A treasure trove on a British beach? Scavengers are having a field day finding cars -- are you kidding me? Motorcycles, camcorders and other things all washed up on the beach. Hundreds of large containers fell off a cargo ship, beached off the southwestern coast of England. People have been told to stay away -- they've been told to stay away, but the lure of free stuff seems to be just too great to ignore.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got five car steering wheels here. Uh, I think I see three of them are BMWs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we've got some shoes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it's perfectly legal. There's nothing they can do. Spoils of war, as they say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Gas prices have been falling lately but how long will they stay low? Stephanie Elam, "Minding Your Business", this morning.
I don't know, is this -- are we at rock bottom?
ELAM: Well, it depends on how you look at it, Heidi. There's a couple of things -- I'll tell you the good news first. The good news is over the past two weeks, we've seen gas prices drop about 14 cents.
COLLINS: Yes.
ELAM: If you take a look at the national average for self-serve regular, it is at $2.18 a gallon, which sounds kind of good, right now, right?
COLLINS: Very.
ELAM: Yes. So, if you want to look at it by region, Detroit, $1.86 a gallon. That would be the lowest in the country. The highest would be in Hawaii, as it always is, Honolulu, at $2.81 a gallon.
Now, overall, oil prices are down 15 percent, so far this year, at this point. And it is because of that warm weather that we have been seeing throughout the country. And that is a driver behind the decline in gas prices.
However, cold weather is starting now to filter over the country.
COLLINS: Yes.
ELAM: Like here, where there's ice on the ground.
COLLINS: Seeing a lot of that, right?
ELAM: Right. So, it's cooling off. And so that means we could see a bit of turn around here. We could see that fact of gas prices stopping where they are and even possibly turning around, and going back up. So, it's not really necessarily the time to rush out and get your SUV.
COLLINS: Yes, no kidding.
ELAM: Not right now.
COLLINS: When you mention Arizona, too, all I can picture is all that of that snow and ice -- in Arizona!
ELAM: I know, in Arizona -- and Malibu, with their snow. So, things are a little helter-skelter this year.
COLLINS: It is.
ELAM: Let's talk about this woman in Iowa, that I was talking about earlier.
COLLINS: She's cold, she's inside writing in her journal.
ELAM: She should be very warm. She does need a job though. This may not help her. But she was denied unemployment benefits and that is because the company fired her because she was keeping a journal at work. She worked for a Sheraton Hotel in Des Moines, Iowa. A 25-year- old woman, there. She was a sales coordinator.
But she was keeping this journal on paper during work hours. They told her to stop. So she decided she would put it on the computer. In fact, it was 300 single-spaced pages, 300 of them, on her work computer.
COLLINS: That's a lot of memory.
ELAM: A lot of memory. And a lot of really great quotes like, "This typing thing seems to be doing the trick, it looks like I'm hard at work on something important."
(LAUGHTER)
COLLINS: Whoops.
ELAM: She also put in reasons how she could get out of work. One other quote that I have to tell you about, she says, "I'm only here for the money. I haven't really accomplished anything in a long while, and still getting paid more than I ever have with a job before, with less to do than I ever have before. It's actually quite nice when I think of it that way. I can shop online, play games, and read message boards and still get paid for it." So, she basically incriminated herself with her quotes.
COLLINS: Oh, yeah, yeah. And she was asked to stop with the paper writings and then decided to go to the computer, which they could read any time they wanted.
ELAM: Yes. And then they saw that. In her diary, as well, she did include that hopefully one day she would get published. COLLINS: Ah!
ELAM: I don't know if this is the way she thought it would happen, but she's getting that attention.
COLLINS: It's a book deal. She planned the whole thing.
(LAUGHTER)
COLLINS: Stephanie Elam, "Minding Your Business" this morning. Thank you, Stephanie.
ELAM: Thanks.
HARRIS: And still to come, staggering losses for U.S. troops. A helicopter goes down, a grim body count goes up, a deadly weekend for Americans serving in Iraq. A closer look in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: Hey, it's getting crowded out there, isn't it? With 17 so far, eying the Oval Office. Exactly a year before New Hampshire. We're looking for elbow room, in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Sold! Is that how they do it?
HARRIS: That was good. That was good.
COLLINS: I'm kind of like the soccer guy. Goal!
HARRIS: Yeah, OK.
COLLINS: Sold for a good cause. Look at this now. The auction of CNN's Warrior One Hummer raised a Hummer-size amount for military families on Saturday night. It all goes to the Fisher House, which of course provides housing for families of wounded veterans, near the hospitals where they are recuperating. Great places.
HARRIS: It really is. CNN put Warrior One on the auction block to raise more than money. We wanted to raise awareness. CNN's John Roberts witnessed the excitement first hand. He shows us what happened when Warrior One hit the auction block. Wait until you see this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's up for sale! 100 percent of the proceeds to a wonderful charity (ph). Up for sale, how many dollars? Who'll start the bidding?
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN NEWSROOM (voice over): It had to a record sale price for a Hummer, particularly one beaten and battered in war. But CNN's Warrior One reached an astonishing price of $1 million, plus another $250,000 in a straight donation, before the gavel came down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sold, and at a million, plus $250,000, we raised 1 million and $250,000 for the Fisher House.
ROBERTS: The Hummer was CNN's platform during the invasion of Iraq, carrying a crew of four from Kuwait to Baghdad, coming under fire in a battle near Baghdad University. Cameraman Scott McWhinnie remembers it well.
SCOTT MCWHINNIE, CNN CAMERAMAN: And all of a sudden we heard the ting-tings of bullets coming off our -- and we were being shot at from a boat on the Tigris River.
ROBERTS: And on the way to the stage one more battle, when the massive V8 engine flooded and caught fire. High octane and anxiety, but it turned out to be nothing serious, particularly after the action it saw in Iraq.
War and auctions, it seems, are hell.
It was the crew who called the Hummer home during the invasion, who came up with the idea to rebuild it from the ground up, on the "Overhaulin" television show and donate the proceeds to charity. The beneficiary? Fisher House, which has built 38 homes on military bases and near VA hospitals to accommodate the families of servicemen and women needing medical care.
KEN FISHER, PRESIDENT, FISHER HOUSE: The need is growing everyday. With our programs as such, we're going to be building 21 houses in the next four years. Something like this is going to be very, very important to the program and to the ongoing commitment that we made to these families.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's so unique, because it's one of a kind.
ROBERTS: For Dave Liniger, who started ReMax Realty, and heads up his own organization serving veterans, the whole concept was irresistible.
DAVE LINIGER, HAD WINNING BID: The cause is fabulous, obviously. The vehicle is so much prettier in person than it looks on TV or looked in the catalog.
ROBERTS: How high are you willing to go?
LINIGER: I'm not going to tell you that.
(LAUGHTER)
But we'll definitely bid on it.
ROBERTS: And bid he did. Though it looked like he was about to swoon, at one point. All the way up to a cool million. Liniger says he plans to tour the Hummer across the nation, raising more money for veterans. For this old war-horse, retirement is a long way off. John Roberts, CNN, Scottsdale, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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