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American Morning
Entrenched Congress and President Bush Square Off Over Bill That Could Pull Troops out of Iraq; Heat on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Aired March 30, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN HOST: Entrenched Congress and President Bush square off over a bill that could pull troops out of Iraq. Is there room for compromise?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN HOST: Heat on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales after his former aide testifies about those fired U.S. attorneys.
ROBERTS: And hack job. Warnings overseas now about one of the largest personal security breaches ever. On this AMERICAN MORNING.
OBRIEN: Morning, welcome back, everybody. It's Friday, March 30th. I'm Soledad O'Brien in New York today. Hey, John, good morning.
ROBETS: Hey, good morning to you, Soledad.
I'm John Roberts here on Capitol Hill in for Miles O'Brien. Lots happening on Capitol Hill this morning. Thanks for joining us. We'll tell you all about it. Right now, though, fast-moving developments this morning in that international standoff between Iran and Great Britian. Over 15 captured British sailors. Iranian TV just releasing new video of what it says is a sailor's confession. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATHAN THOMAS SUMMERS, CAPTURED BRITISH SAILOR: It happened back in 2004, my government promised that it wouldn't happen again and then, again, I deeply apologize for entering the waters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: CNN's Jim Boulden is standing by live right now with the very latest. Jim, we saw some pretty sharp reaction to that videotape aired yesterday of Faye Turney. What are you hearing about this videotape?
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Foreign Office has come out very quickly with a statement. Let me read it to you. It says, as the foreign secretary made clear on Thursday, "Using our servicemen in this way for prop propaganda reasons is outrageous."
It's the same word as yesterday, "outrageous." They do see this very clearly as propaganda and they're very upset to see their servicemen being paraded on television, John. ROBERTS: And Jim, what about the families? Has there been any official response from any of them? Have you talked to any of them?
BOULDEN: Well, we're told that the man we just saw heard speaking, his name is Nathan Summers and CNN did contact his father who lives in Cornwall in southwest England and his father has told CNN he is very distressed at seeing his son on television.
Obviously there was no warning. We did not know who was going to be on that video until it was aired by an Arabic channel out of Iran and the father is saying that it is very distressing, indeed, it see his son being paraded on television, as the foreign secretary said, as well.
ROBERTS: So what about the prospects for a resolution, here, Jim? Yesterday seemed to be some promise that Faye Turney might be released very soon, but that kind of went away. Where does it sit now?
BOULDEN: Well, the Turkish government says it hasn't gone away now. They say that prime minister of Turkey has spoken with the president of Iran and the Turkish spokesman has said that the Iranian president, Ahmadinejad, is going to consider releasing Faye Turney, so that's a step forward, if you will.
And we also have a statement that was given to the British embassy in Tehran last night, a piece of paper, a statement that we're not told what is in that. But that it may show some movement. But meanwhile the British government is trying to get more international pressure. There is a meeting in Germany today of the E.U. foreign ministers and they are hoping for a combined statement from all of Europe to really put pressure on Iran because, frankly, British say they're not in Iranian waters and they're not going to apologize because there's nothing to apologize for.
ROBERTS: All right, Jim, we're going to keep checking back with you. Jim Boulden for us this morning outside the prime minister's residence at Number 10 Downing Street. Soledad?
O'BRIEN: And there in a nutshell, John, is the standoff. Iran is not happy, in fact, about the fact that the British have turned to the UN for help. Let's get the latest on this flurry of diplomatic activity. CNN's UN correspondent is Richard Roth.
Now, Britain turned to the UN for help. Is that unusual? To me, that sounds like the standard steps when some of your sailors have been captured and are clearly being held against their will, what is Iran so mad about?
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're mad that now they've been criticized again at the UN Security Council and told to release the prisoners they have. But it didn't take that long by diplomatic standards come to the UN, but one diplomat said Britain wanted to come there because they felt it wasn't working with Iran, direct talks. And they had to come to the Security Council. But a few days ago on the weekend Britain didn't even want to talk about the hostage thing because the sanctions, vote they were saying this was a separate matter and now back in the international arena there.
O'BRIEN: They didn't want to muddy the waters.
OK, so they had this meeting but what the outcome seems to some people could have been decided like that, but instead it took many, many hours debating over actual specific words in the statement.
ROTH: It was interesting timing. The U.S. deputy ambassador walked out very angry saying this statement could have been adopted in 30 minutes instead of four hours and then just three minutes later, after she left the room the statement was adopted but that was only after the word "immediate", calling for the immediate release of the British sailors was dropped. Some council members thought it was too heavy handed at this moment to demand a heavy handed thing like that. Immediate release, they say. So they went for a more compromised version. Watered down vote.
O'BRIEN: Does all of this indicate it you that British authorities are very worried now about what is going to happen next to these 15 sailors?
ROTH: It shows they're getting increasingly worried when they go to the Security Council and may have to go back there and this videotape will not go down well there. But as we've seen before with the UN Security Council, sometimes they come out too quickly with a statement. Remember the train bombings in Madrid? They condemned the Basque separatist group, only later it turned out to be al Qaeda.
O'BRIEN: Yeah. That was a big mistake.
ROTH: That was.
O'BRIEN: All right, Richard Roth. Our UN correspondent. Thanks, Richard, as always.
John?
ROBERTS: Thanks, Soledad. The White House seems to be creating a little bit of distance between itself and attorney general Alberto Gonzales this morning, this after Gonzales' former top aide, his chief of staff, testified about the fired U.S. attorneys on Capitol Hill. Kyle Sampson slightly challenged his boss' story on how involved he was in the firings. Take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KYLE SAMPSON, FORMER GONZALES CHIEF OF STAFF: I don't think the attorney general's statement that he was not involved in any discussions about U.S. attorney removals is accurate.
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R) PA: Is what? Accurate?
SAMPSON: I don't think it's accurate.
SPECTER: So he was involved in discussions contrary to the statement he made in his news conference on March 13th?
SAMPSON: I believe, yes, sir.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: CNN's Elaine Quijano joins us live from the White House.
And Elaine, despite that testimony yesterday President Bush for the moment, at least for the moment, sill standing behind his man.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely right. What we've seen certainly from the White House, John, as you know in recent weeks, is the president continuing to express confidence in Alberto Gonzales. Now, at the same time, though, you have to keep in mind, of course, that this is also a president who last fall said that he supported his defense secretary then Donald Rumsfeld and then about a week later announced he had accepted the secretary of defense's resignation.
Now, that said, last night the White House did release a statement. Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino saying, quote, "The president is confident the attorney general can overcome these challenges."
But certainly the testimony by Kyle Sampson the former chief of staff to Alberto Gonzales before the Senate Judiciary Committee certainly provides some fresh ammunition for Gonzales' critics. They continue to question his competence and it's not just criticism coming from Democrats, but from Republicans, as well, as you know. They say that Sampson's statements are at odds with what the attorney general has said in the past.
Clearly those contradictions, John, as you know, already adding to the intense pressure on this White House to change leadership at the Justice Department. John?
ROBERTS: Elaine, how long do you think President Bush can continue to back Gonzales with now this ground swell of opinion against him?
QUIJANO: Well, certainly a lot hinges on the April 17th testimony. That's going to be something that officials want to see him knock out of the park, quite frankly. Lawmakers are already quite skeptical. Obviously what the White House is so frustrated about is the fact that the president does, in fact, have the right to replace these U.S. attorneys. But this is a controversy that has been generated about the handling of that.
We heard the president even few weeks ago talk about how on an international trip, the fact that he was having to answer questions about it, something he wasn't very happy with. So, we'll see what happens between now and April 17th, but, certainly, this is something that the White House does not want to continue to deal with, but I asked Dana Perino about that yesterday and she said the president is not distracted, he is continuing to carry out the nation's business.
We'll see.
ROBERTS: That's a longs way away and plenty of erosion could happen between now and then. Elaine Quijano at the White House for us this morning. Thanks very much.
President Bush pays a visit today to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It's his first visit since substandard living conditions there were exposed. The army surgeon general and two other top army officials lost their jobs over that scandal and the V.A. is conducting a full review of veterans' hospitals nationwide. Soledad?
O'BRIEN: New developments to tell you about in the pet food recall. The FDA is holding a news conference. It's going to happen in a couple of hours. They are going to release their preliminary results of their investigation. Nearly 100 brands of cuts and gravy style food were recalled this month after rat poison was found.
Now, animal rights groups, PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, they claim the recall doesn't go far enough. They're going to ask the FDA today to expand it to include dry food varieties, too. Menu Foods is now the target of class action lawsuits in several states, including the State of California.
Other new developments in one of the largest credit card fraud cases ever, involves T.J. Maxx and Marshall's and many, many other companies, too. And the parent company says 46 million credit card numbers were stolen from its computers over 18 months. Four hundred fifty-five thousand T.J. Maxx customers who returned merchandise but didn't have a receipt had their data stolen, including their driver's license number.
And now customers in Great Britain are being warned to check their statements, too. Stephanie Elam is "Minding Your Business" this morning. Bad and getting worse.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is getting worse. Because it is the largest that we've seen of this sort of case so far where it is just so many people involved that they don't even know how many and they don't know if they'll ever know how many people were affected.
This morning in the U.K. people who shopped at T.K. Maxx, which is the British version of T.J. Maxx were warned to check their credit card statements but the company is saying they don't believe that PIN numbers were actually taken because they weren't stored on their computers in the U.K., but, still, we're looking at almost 46 million card numbers stolen from computers between July 2005 and January in 2007 is the period that when in December the company realized there was some suspicious software on their computer systems and they said they don't believe any data was actually taken after December 18th when they did notice this.
But we heard about it two months ago but this is the first time we're actually getting an idea of just how wide sweeping this credit card tap-in has actually become.
Now one other thing. T.J. Maxx says 75 percent of the cards that had their data stolen were actually either encrypted or they had expired. So, they're saying this may not be effective against people who have cards in their wallets right now. It's not really affecting those. But still, if your driver's license number is out there, your home address. It's still a very scary thing.
O'BRIEN: Yeah. That's a lot of information outside of the encrypted stuff, absolutely.
ELAM: Definitely.
O'BRIEN: Stephanie Elam, thank you very much. Let's throw it right back to John in Washington, DC. Hey, John.
ROBERTS: Hey, thanks Soledad. In Ohio a bittersweet debut today for Bluffton University's baseball team. Players are going to be taking the field for the first time since a bus crash that killed five of their teammates.
You'll recall well the Bluffton team's charter bus went off a highway overpass in Atlanta earlier this month. The driver and his wife also died in that crash. In remembrance, the team is going to wear black uniforms today instead of their usual purple and white.
Some tense moments on the ground in Orlando's Sanford Airport. An Allegiant air jet flying from Portsmouth, New Hampshire with 157 passengers onboard was forced to make an emergency landing on Thursday afternoon, unable to extend the plane's nose landing gear. The pilot touched down safely in a cloud of smoke and sparks.
How would you like to have that as an end to your trip? No one was injured, thankfully. Soledad?
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, as Miles likes to say, anyone you can walk away from was a very good landing.
ROBERTS: It seems to me as though any one you can put down your gin and tonic and nicely walk out the jetway is one that you can be welcome ...
O'BRIEN: Yeah. But we're lowering the bar. We're lowering the bar.
Ahead this morning, Texas and Oklahoma are still getting pounded by heavy rains and tornadoes. Chad is going to join us to tell us what to expect straight ahead today.
And is Google going to rewrite history? We're going to tell you what is upsetting some people in New Orleans. Plus, the fight over the withdrawal date for U.S. troops in Iraq. The president is vowing a veto. So what happens next? We'll take a closer look straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Cameras were rolling as another tornado hits Oklahoma. This twister touched down near Oklahoma City yesterday. Happened in the afternoon. Damaged several homes as well.
Now a separate tornado killed a couple in Oklahoma on Wednesday.
Holley, Colorado, near the Kansas border, as the family of a young mother of a twister who was killed there said she had absolutely no time to run. The tornado ripped Rosemary Rosales' home right off its foundation, threw the 29-year-old against a tree. It's a quarter past the hour, Chad Myers watching that and many other storms for us this morning.
Hey, Chad, good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.
We said yesterday that that tornado was actually on the ground when the warning was issued and was already through Holly by the time the warning actually came over the wire. It is 19 degrees right now in Denver, it is 60 in Kansas City, that's the clash of the warm and the cold that will fire up storms to today.
In fact, we're already getting storms across South Texas and that is going to be the battle zone. Texas itself will be the battle zone and one very large cell right there. I can kind of take you to, not that far from San Anglo. This storm here is rotating and there is a new severe thunderstorm watch box that was just put out. Not a tornado watch box, but these storms are rotating and they are turning to the right, which does indicate the potential for tornadoes this morning and into this afternoon, certainly, as well, as the air heats up there will be more tornadoes on the ground today.
The day before yesterday, 65 tornadoes, yesterday only 4, but a couple of them getting very close to Oklahoma City proper. Today there will be more than four for absolutely sure, but it will be kind of a densely populated area or not so densely populated this morning and getting maybe closer to San Antonio, Austin and maybe as close to Waco as they'd like to see. So we'll keep an eye on that, especially across South Texas. Soledad?
O'BRIEN: All right, Chad.
Hey, Chad, have you seen this thing on Google Maps?
MYERS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: If you go to Google Maps and you Google New Orleans, people there are so puzzled what they're seeing. The Web site has gone back to showing satellite images from before Hurricane Katrina. Yeah. So that means the Lower Ninth Ward, for example, which is devastated. All the houses in the Google Maps they're intact and so on and so on and so on. Any work that's being done on the levees, any of the repairs, any of the blue tarps, you won't see them.
Now, the spokesman for Google says the old images are the best they could offer, which makes no sense, because for a while they were showing the new images. Some people think it might be part of a P.R. campaign and other people think politicians are somehow involved trying to paint a rosier picture of what our very slow recovery efforts. It's really unclear what's behind it but we're going to look into that one. John?
ROBERTS: Old pictures of Baghdad, as well, Soledad. I am wondering if that's for security reasons.
O'BRIEN: Interesting.
ROBERTS: Hey, some startling new numbers from Iraq up today. Since Sunday not even a full week, 449 people have been reported killed in attacks across Iraq. One hundred twenty four of those people died yesterday when suicide bombers attacked Shiite marketplaces in and around Baghdad.
Here in Washington an Iraq War spending bill may soon land on the president's desk. He promises to veto any bill that includes a deadline for troop withdrawal and all indications are that the bill, when it eventually emerges from Congress, will include such a provision. Amy Walter, senior editor of the "Cook Political Report" and CNN political analyst joins me now. Amy, two Republicans voted with the Democrats on this in the Senate, Gordon Smith of Oregon, but he had actually voted with them before and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska switched his vote. Do you see this as being the beginning of a steady erosion on the Republican side?
AMY WALTER, "COOK POLITICAL REPORT": Well, there is a tremendous amount of nervousness on the part of Republicans right now but they have held strong and have been unified both in the House and the Senate.
Now, the president after the vote brought the Republican conference in the House up to the White House, a show of strength, a show of unity. We need to be in this together.
ROBERTS: Guys, stay with me.
WALTER: Exactly, and to say, look, we are united in this and that let's make the Democrats the ones who start to crack and see some problem, some fissures with their unity. At the same time, at some point, this is either going to get better or it's not. And Republicans who are looking already at a very bleak outlook for 2008 may not be able to stick with this unity for very long.
ROBERTS: Democrats are incredibly united on this, really unusual.
WALTER: Exactly.
ROBERTS: But it's going to be because they're going on their Easter break, it's going to be a couple weeks at least before this gets through the conference and then who knows how long it is going to take before the bill eventually gets out. At least the middle of April. Funding officially runs out for the troops on April the 15th. I mean, at some point this is going to start to affect the troops and who is going to get blamed for that?
WALTER: This is exactly what Republicans are hoping to do. Do two things. One, to say that Democrats are playing here with funding for the troops. Get -- again, put the debate back on the territory that where Republicans want to start talking about this which is safety, security for the troops.
The second is this is a bill not just about funding for Afghanistan and Iraq, but it's loaded would pork and that Democrats are back to their old ways and once they control Congress you see what they want to do which is load stuff and earmarks up on to this bill and change the debate on to those areas where Democrats traditionally have been weaker and hope to be able to change. The question is if voters really see that as concern.
ROBERTS: But hey, peanut storage is a very important issue when it comes to the Iraq War and Afghanistan.
WALTER: That's right. You can put those two together and understand that.
ROBERTS: Amy, thanks very much. Always appreciate it. Amy Walter of the "Cook Political Report."
Soledad?
O'BRIEN: Still ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, protecting our troops from roadside bombs. I got to take a look at a new technology that is saving lives.
And you've seen the shocking videotape of this woman being beaten by an off-duty police officer in Chicago. What took the police so long to take action? We have got the chief of police live talking to us. That's straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: We're heading into Holy Week which is the most sacred on the Christian calendar. It marks the final days of Jesus Christ, his death, his resurrection. And AMERICAN MORNING is going to be live in the Holy Land all next week, following those very last steps. CNN's Atika Shubert gives us a preview now of the sites that she is going to show us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every year thousands of pilgrims come to Jerusalem, following the last steps of Jesus. From the place where Jesus ate his last meal with the disciples to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus is betrayed and contemplates his own death.
The streets where Jesus carried his cross and the place the Gospels say Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. The myths and history of these sacred places and the politics that engulfs them today.
One of the most precious, most sacred sites in Christianity. That's why everyone wants a bit of it.
SHUBERT: The story and the history behind the last steps of Jesus.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: So please, be sure to join us on Monday and all next week, which is Holy Week. AMERICAN MORNING, live in the Holy Land, tracing the last days of Jesus.
Business news now, financial glitches for Dell Computers and the news was bad news for the company. Twenty minutes past the hour and Stephanie Elam is "Minding Your Business." Good morning.
ELAM: Good morning. It's never good when a company comes out talking about misconduct as being part of its accounting.
Let's take a look at what's happening with Dell. They had an internal audit and in that they found some misconduct and accounting errors, as well as weak financial controls. They're already facing federal and regulatory reviews for its accounts because of several disappointing quarters that they've had.
They're now going to extend past the April 3rd due date and the extended deadline of April 18th to report to regulators with their annual numbers. They're considering whether or not they have to restate their past results.
Let's move on and take a look at merger news today. U.S.Steel and Lone Star. U.S Steel is going to buy Lone Star Technologies in a $2 billion deal. Lone Star makes welding tubing products which are used in oil and natural gas exploration, so this will expand the overall offerings from U.S. Steel.
This is also interesting because this is helping U.S. Steel from becoming an acquisition target itself. The deal is expected to close in the second or third quarter of this year. Last thing to tell you about GlaxoSmithKline, they are seeking FDA approval of their cervical cancer vaccine which is called Cervabrix (ph), it would then challenge Merck's industry leading Gardasil product that's already on the market.
It would prevent strains of the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus from spreading and that can cause cancer. That's the reason why they're looking to stop it, cervical cancer, in particular. Hoping that Cervabrix will be on the market in late 2007, Soledad, and that's because they are hoping they'll get fast tracked by the FDA and be able to get it out on the market. As you know, 10,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer a year and 4,000 die from it.
O'BRIEN: It will be interesting to see if there is the same sort of controversy that will follow that release as we've seen before.
ELAM: As we've seen with Gardasil.
I guess it doesn't matter what kind of vaccine, it matters how people respond to it.
O'BRIEN: Right. Exactly. All right, Stephanie Elam, thank you. Let's throw it right back to John in Washington, DC.
John?
ROBERTS: Thank you, Soledad. Top stories of the morning are coming up next. Just this morning, Iran releases new video of those British sailors being held.
We'll have the latest developments for you.
Also, they are easy to make and deadly to American soldiers in Iraq. We'll have a new look at technology that is saving lives.
And the Chicago Police Department taking a beating from the public after two very public beatings. Find out what's being done to fix its problems. We'll talk to the police chief live. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Good morning, welcome back, everybody. It's Friday, March 30th. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
ROBERTS: And from Washington I'm John Roberts in today for Miles O'Brien. Thanks very much for joining us. Soledad, you're missing a beautiful day here. I have got to tell you.
O'BRIEN: I hope we're getting one here, too. We have no windows like I do, so I wouldn't know. But it does look pretty. Those cherry blossoms look fabulous.
ROBERTS: We'll try to send some good wishes your way.
Several stories developing right now. New video out this morning that shows one of those captured British sailors apologizing to Iran.
O'BRIEN: In Chicago, city cops have been put on notice after this, remember this scene caught on tape? An off-duty officer attacking a female bartender. We're going to go straight to the top this morning, talk with the superintendent of the Chicago police about what his department is doing now and if they should have done it all much sooner. ROBERTS: New developments in the pet food recall. The FDA releasing results of an investigation today and there was a call from the group PETA to expand the recall to include dry food. We'll find out why. Plus, a story that is going to touch your heart.
O'BRIEN: Oh, a six-year-old boy in kindergarten. No one will ever forget this little boy and he will never forget his dad who is just back from Iraq with a big surprise. We've got that story straight ahead. I tear up every time I see that story. That's a good one. That's ahead this morning. John, let's go back to you.
ROBERTS: It is just such an incredibly touching scene, Soledad.
We begin with breaking news this morning in the standoff between Iran and Great Britain over 15 captured British sailors. Iranian TV just releasing new video of what it says is a sailor's confession. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATHAN THOMAS SUMMERS, CAPTURED BRITISH SAILOR: I'd like to apologize for entering in your waters without any permission and it happened back in 2004 and our government promised that it wouldn't happen again and then, again I deeply apologize for entering the waters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: CNN's Jim Boulden is standing by live right now outside Number 10 Downing Street in London to bring us the very latest. Jim, Britain was saying that it was going to give serious consideration to a proposal from Iran to free these soldiers, these sailors and Marines. Is this videotape going to change that position at all?
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it might harden the two sides, John, for sure. The British government has come out with a statement after we saw that sailor, his name is Nathan Summers, allegedly confessing on camera and they said that the use of a sailor for propaganda reasons is quote outrageous. This is the second time in two days that the government has said that it's outrageous that they see their sailors on television confessing. Of course, the other tape was of the one woman sailor and she was also talking about the treatment that she was getting and they were saying very good treatment on this tape. You can see someone off camera actually talking to Nathan Summers as he's saying what he's saying. We have also talked to Nathan Summer's father. He lives in southwest England and he says that he is very distressed to see his son on camera. So even though the two sides did have a little bit of diplomatic discussions last night when the Iranian embassy in Tehran, the British embassy in Tehran when the Iranians gave a statement to the British, it's hard to see how this is going to be resolved any time soon. John.
ROBERTS: So it looked like maybe it was going to be resolved in a day or two as of yesterday. Does this look like an indefinite process at this point or could it happen over the weekend? BOULDEN: What we do know is happening, there's a lot of back channel discussions. We know for instance, the Turkish government is involved and they're trying to go between the two governments because it is obviously getting more intense by the day. We are now a week into this crisis. These soldiers, these sailors were actually captured last Friday. We also have the European Union meeting and the foreign ministers in Germany and they're expected to make a statement that could very well push closer to Iran, trying to get Iran to try to get this resolved. But Tony Blair did say yesterday that he still would like to consider this to have been a mistake and he wishes that the Iranians would confess up that it was a mistake. Meanwhile the Iranians are saying no, it was a mistake that you were in our waters and we want you to apologize. John, that is just not going to happen. The British are not going to apologize any time soon.
ROBERTS: You got to wonder who's going to blink first in this, Jim Boulden for us this morning in London, thanks Jim, we'll keep checking back. Soledad?
O'BRIEN: In Iraq this morning a suspect accused of importing sophisticated roadside bombs from Iran is in custody. He was captured in a raid by U.S. and Iraq forces near Sadr City, a Shiite militia stronghold. Now, the U.S. military believes that this man, who is 58 years old, was a father of six is tied to networks bringing explosively formed projectiles. You may have heard of them referred to as EFPs into Iraq. An EFPs are in fact believed to be responsible for the deaths of more than 170 American and coalition soldiers since 2004.
Now, those are EFPs but it's IEDs, improvised explosive devices that are actually devastating U.S. troops when they hit the mark. They account for 70 percent, 70 percent of wounded and killed soldiers in Iraq. Those numbers come to us from the Defense Secretary Robert Gates. So, back to our series on the home front this morning. What is being done here to help soldiers survive attacks over there?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Army Specialist Demitrios Konstintinidis was on patrol when his vehicle was hit by an IED. It was a year ago and he survived he said thanks to an Army issued protective face shield that blocked the shrapnel from hitting his face.
DIMITRIOS KONSTINTINIDIS, SPECIALIST, U.S. ARMY: (INAUDIBLE) I mean it strops shrapnel good. The face shield is good.
O'BRIEN: Grateful he signed the shield and shipped it back to the army's rapid equipping force. That's the military unit that helped develop it. That's the thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: That's the thank you.
O'BRIEN: That is precisely the type of outcome that Colonel Robert Lovitt's (ph) rapid equipping force aims for. His units also developed devices that find IEDs before they explode like this robot called (INAUDIBLE) . So this can go in and find IEDs? UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Yes ma'am and this is actually the eyes on (ph) for our soldiers out in the field.
O'BRIEN: How quickly can they put this into action? I assume it's sort kept in the back of the Humvee.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: It's kept in the back of the Humvee but two minutes they could pull it out and get it in full operation.
O'BRIEN: This is what's left of a mark bot (ph) that uncovered an IED and got destroyed in the process.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Look at the beauty of it. We've got an $8,000 robot verse a human life.
O'BRIEN: But is it enough to protect soldiers against devices that are so inexpensive and easy to make? Retired Army General Montgomery Meigs heads the IED task force. He's got a new budget and a new focus, more money into attacking the networks, less money into attacking the device. Do you feel then that you've defeated the device?
GEN. MONTGOMERY MEIGS, U.S. ARMY (RET): Lord no. Look, the networks that put this stuff out are constantly innovating. They're able to come up with more artillery rounds, more explosive. So it's the quite frankly, it's the Iraqi people that will rein in the propensity for this kind of activity. We will help them defeat it, but in the final analysis, it's the word on the street that will stop this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: The IED task force now has close to 300 people with two smaller task forces working in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan. They report the latest information they're getting on tactics right back to the Pentagon. John?
ROBERTS: Thanks, Soledad. The war is at the center of the latest high-stakes showdown here in Washington, the new Democratic Congress and the president squaring off over the Iraq spending bill. The president is making it clear that he's going to veto it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We stand united and saying loud and clear that when we've got our troops in harm's way, we expect that troop it be fully funded and we got commanders making tough decisions on the ground. We expect there to be no strings on our commanders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Congressional correspondent Dana Bash is joining us here this morning. Good morning to you, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. ROBERTS: So you got the president saying send me a bill that funds the troops with no deadlines and you got Congress saying the only bill you're going to get from us includes deadlines. Who's going to win?
BASH: In the short term, if you just look at the votes, the raw votes, the president's going to win. The Democrats fully admit they simply do not have the votes to override the veto that he promises he is going to put on this bill once he finally gets it. When you look at polls, Democrats do have a point when they say over and over again that the public is on their side, that they do want some kind of timeline to withdraw troops in Iraq.
ROBERTS: And they're picking up Republicans, albeit it slowly. They got one more this time around.
BASH: One more this time around, and albeit a Republican who has been vehemently anti-war. That's why the image that you saw at the White House yesterday was so crucial for the White House and for Republicans up here to have the president surrounded by the entire House Republican caucus saying, look, we're united. Look at us, we can stick together. Now, that does belie a lot of concern, a lot of concern inside the Republican ranks here on Capitol Hill about how long they're going to be able to stick with the president on this because they see the same polls Democrats do.
ROBERTS: You mention that the Democrats do have public opinion behind them, but in this blame game of the president saying, if you don't fund the troops, the public is going to know who to blame and the Democrats Harry Reid yesterday saying if the president doesn't sign this bill, he's withholding funds for the troops. Who's the public going to believe in this?
BASH: That's the fight that we're in right now, the big public relations fight and it's unclear, but I'll tell you one thing that Democrats are concerned about, is something we saw yesterday here on Capitol Hill. The chief military officer of the nation Peter Pace coming up and saying, if we don't get this funding by the middle of May, we're going to have problems with training. We're going to have problems with the National Guard. We're going to have big problems with the troops who are in combat on the ground and that's something that Democrats say is just rhetorical, that it's not real, they can shift money around. But it is a potential big problem for them especially because when it comes to funding, John, you well know, that is where the divisions really are inside the Democratic caucus, whether or not to fund the war and whether or not to fund the war and whether to use the money in order to bring the troops home.
ROBERTS: So what happens after the veto? Is this just a one-time show and then the Democrats capitulate or do they do battle again?
BASH: There is no answer to that. That is why this is going to be really fascinating to watch. Democrats, they say that they really don't really have a strategy yet for when that time comes. The time probably is going to come.
ROBERTS: You would think you would want to have a strategy.
BASH: Exactly, but that's why this really does tear open the Democratic party because they've been able to unite in a remarkable way on this issue. But that's probably going to end pretty soon because the issue of funding is really what tears the Democrats apart.
ROBERTS: All right, we know that you'll keep watching and even though there's a couple week break coming up, I'll bet you're looking forward to that.
BASH: I sure am.
ROBERTS: Dana, thanks very much.
Coming up, we're just getting word from Prime Minister Tony Blair. He's reacting to the hostage situation in Iran. We're going to have that for you next.
ROBERTS: Plus, parts of Oklahoma cleaning up today from devastating tornadoes. We'll show you the aftermath and find out if there is more trouble on the way. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody, some breaking news for you, lots of developments in the standoff over those 15 British troops who are being held by Iran. The British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke just moments ago, kind of had a warning for Iran. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I really don't know why the Iranian regime keep doing this. I mean all it does is it harms people's sense of disgust that captured personnel being paraded and manipulated in this way doesn't fool anyone and what the Iranians have it realize is that if they continue in this way, they will face increasing isolation. The United Nations yesterday, the European Union today. We'll be talking to other key allies over the weekend and we just got to pursue this with the necessary firmness and determination but, also, but also patience because there is only one possible conclusion to this and that is that our personnel are released safe and sound.
O'BRIEN: Truly a standoff at this point. You saw that new videotape that was broadcast showing one of these British sailors, one of the 15 again repeating in a lot of ways what the female sailor said, apologizing for being in Iranian waters. That is at the heart of the dispute. Of course, they have been held now against their will for a week.
Back here at home, there's lots of outrage over another tape, this one out of Chicago. We've seen it. We've shown it to you a bunch of time. It's surveillance camera video showing an off-duty police officer in Chicago beating a female bartender who is literally half his size. It happened back on February 19th and it took over a month for the officer to be arrested. Then Saturday night another alleged attack by off duty cops was made public. In this case, six officers are now accused of beating four businessmen. It happened back on December 15th, allegedly. Chicago police Superintendent Philip Cline has stripped those police officers of their police powers. He's with us this morning. It's nice to see you sir. We certainly appreciate you talking to us. Those six officers who have been stripped of their powers, are they still being paid by the city? Are they still working?
SUPT. PHILIP CLINE, CHICAGO POLICE: Yes, they are, Soledad because at this time the state's attorney is determining whether or not they'll bring criminal charges against any or all of the officers.
O'BRIEN: We keep hearing that there is videotape of this attack that happened first, but would be the second attack of the four businessmen being beaten. Is that true? Have you seen the videotape?
CLINE: I've seen the videotape. It shows an altercation in a bar and then one of the officers, a sergeant walking outside and talking to responding officers and then the responding officers leaving. So that's all part of our investigation.
O'BRIEN: Is that tape going to be made public?
CLINE: That will be up to the state's attorney. The state's attorney's office has asked us now not to make it public while they're still conducting their investigation.
O'BRIEN: Why did it take so long for the arrest to be made in the Anthony Abbate (ph) case? The guy who is beating this female bartender, clearly, on surveillance videotape? Why did it take a month?
CLINE: Well, it didn't take a month, first of all. Two days after the incident we showed the tape to the state's attorney office. That night internal affairs investigators went to arrest him and he had checked himself into a hospital. We were unable to arrest him until he came out of the hospital and he was arrested on March 14th and he's charged. We've stripped him of his police powers and we're moving to fire him. We were outraged and I was embarrassed by that video. I said we were outraged and I was embarrassed by that video.
O'BRIEN: And other people everywhere frankly were outraged by that videotape, as well. It's a brutal attack and then we hear about at his hearing some police officers almost seemed to harass the news media that was covering it. They ticketed their car, their blocked their shots and they couldn't get what we call the perp walk going by. Such a brutal attack, why would people want to defend this guy?
CLINE: Well, there, again, I, the captain that was in charge of the station that day I moved to demote him. I was not pleased at all with the actions of the officers on that day.
O'BRIEN: Is this a case of a couple of bad apples or do you think it go deeper than that, that you have officers, a large number of them, who are out of control in your department? CLINE: There are 13,600 police officers and like any other profession in the United States, there's problems with alcohol abuse. We have one of the best employee assistance programs in the country and if officers don't take advantage of that and it leads to what happened in the Abbate incident or the incident in the other bar, then we're going to take the appropriate action against them, including arresting them, if it's appropriate. But this is, out of 13,600 officers who are out there every day putting their life on the line for the citizens of Chicago, we can't be distracted by these two incidents. They're two isolated incidents.
O'BRIEN: The Chicago police Superintendent is Philip Cline, thanks for talking with us, we certainly appreciate it.
CLINE: Thank you, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: John, back it you.
ROBERTS: Health headlines straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, a possible threat at the gym for your eyes. Are you putting your vision at risk?
And they seem harmless enough. Cute, fuzzy, baby chicks just in time for Easter, a warning out for parents, though, the same one we get every year. We'll show you ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back. Health headlines for you this morning. A drug to treat Parkinson's is now being pulled to market reportedly because it damages the heart valves. The FDA says Pervax (ph) is used by 25,000 Parkinson's patients.
If you're thinking of buying a cute baby chick or a little duckling for Easter, you might want to think again. New word from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is linking salmonella outbreaks to baby poultry. The chicks carry salmonella apparently. It could cause an infection and high fever and vomiting. What happens is the kids touch the baby birds and they put their fingers in their mouth, then they get sick.
And those ultra white lights that are usually used in gymnasiums, well, they are being blamed actually for causing some serious injuries to four teachers in Portland, Oregon. Apparently when the light's protective cover is broken they can give off ultraviolet radiation that can burn your corneas literally. Usually people recover immediately but doctors say in some cases, the pain can last for years. John, that actually happened to me, I burned my corneas. It's incredibly painful. It takes a while to recover from it.
ROBERTS: If I ever got to the gym, Soledad, I might experience that problem.
O'BRIEN: See, you're saving yourself, that's good news.
ROBERTS: There you go, a recall to tell you about this morning involving chocolate milk. Guida Dairy is recalling its chocolate milk about eight school children in Connecticut got sick. The company thinks that the milk was contaminated with a cleaning solution after a worker failed to flush out a machine that was used during processing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES GUIDA, GUIDA DAIRY SR VP: We at Guida would like to extend our heartfelt apologies to the children, their families and to our customers that might be been infected by this unfortunate incident. We take great pride in our product quality. We've been in business for 120 years and procedures that we take in sanitation and cleanup is top notch and second to none.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The recall covers Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and Massachusetts and includes all Guida chocolate milk with an expiration date of April 13th. If you have any questions about the recall or want more information, you call Guida Dairy toll free at 800-832-8929. You can also get information online at supercow.com.
Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, heavy rains bring floods to parts of Texas overnight. Chad's got the forecast for you coming right up.
Also, questions about the safety of meats and the government's inspectors.
And a heart warming reunion. Wait until you see this one. We're there as a sailor comes home to his little boy. It was a real surprise. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news this morning is on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Overnight we came across a story that really warmed our hearts. We're sure you're going to love it, too. A six-year-old boy is sitting in his classroom in school and he got a surprise he'll never forget. His sailor father finally came home from Iraq. Alissa Hahn (ph) is with our Seattle affiliate KNEG (ph) and she has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALISSA HAHN, KNEG CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the last seven months, Ensign Bill Hawes has been in Iraq, an eternity for his family, especially his six-year-old son who had no idea his dad was coming home and was surprising him in class. All year the (INAUDIBLE) six-year-old had written letters to his dad and his kindergarten class at Central elementary joined in sending the sailor care packages. A tearful John got to introduce his father to all his pen pals.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is his name? This is Bill.
ENSIGN BILL HAWES, U.S. NAVY: It is great to be home. Seven months over there and it's nice to see my kids and my wife.
JULIE HAWES, SAILOR'S WIFE: I'm so proud of him.
HAHN: The Hawes family was happy to share their joy with the whole class who all took part in the welcome home party, the sweetest homecoming for a sailor who had been gone too long and for a little boy who dreamed of this day with his dad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Oh, I love that story. I love his face when he runs up to see his dad. When you think about all the other servicemen and women as they walk in the door or walk in the classroom, their kids run up to him.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: His little face makes me want to cry every time I see it.
O'BRIEN: ... top of the hour, business news, we're talking about honey bees.
ELAM: It does seem a little odd, but we're talking about honey bees but dying off like about 50 to 90 percent of honey bees dying off in the last six months U.S. beekeepers are saying. That's helping honey production to drop by about 11 percent in 2006 and driving up honey prices by about 14 percent. Overall, this is threatening the fruit and vegetable production because three quarters of the world's 250,000 flowering plants actually need to have those bees come in and pollinate them. It's actually really key here. They don't know what is going on here. They're calling it the colony collapse disorder. But they're saying one reason might be stress, not the kind of stress that we deal with. More like migratory stresses, mites, pathogens and pesticides and it's affecting migratory and non-migratory bees. It's a very interesting topic, but it does affect way more than we would think.
O'BRIEN: Scientifically and business-wise too.
ELAM: Business wise and the numbers there. The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
O'BRIEN: Thank you Stephanie. British Prime Minister Tony Blair comes out and reacts to the new videotape this morning of those captured sailors.
ROBERTS: Pet food scare, new calls this morning to expand the recall to include dry food.
O'BRIEN: Nature's fury, floods down south, tornadoes through the plains and is there a new threat for extreme weather today?
ROBERTS: And a secret revealed. We finally meet the nun whose miracle could fast track Pope John Paul II to sainthood ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
O'BRIEN: And good morning. Welcome back everybody. It's Friday, March 30th. I'm Soledad O'Brien. Hey, John. ROBERTS: Hey, good morning to you Soledad. From Washington, I'm John Roberts in today for Miles. We're following some of the big stories down there. Thanks for joining us today.
We begin though with breaking news overseas. New video of the captured British sailors. Iranian TV just releasing new video of what it says is a sailor's confession. Take a listen.
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