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American Morning
President Bush Makes Unannounced Visit to Iraq; Hurricane Felix 'Catastrophic' Category 5; More Than 20 Businesses Hit by Bomb Scam
Aired September 03, 2007 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go to our Michael Ware now. He's in Baghdad.
Michael, this is the president's third trip to Baghdad. Any idea where he is, what he'll see on this visit?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely no clue, John. This is very much a cloak-and-dagger-style visit as we've seen in the past from the president, again on holidays. This is obviously Labor Day back home. So, he's come in here -- there's a multitude of reasons that you could -- you could fathom.
Clearly, this is on the eve of the all-important reports to flow into Congress and the testimony next week from Ambassador Ryan Crocker here and from the American commander of the war in Iraq, General David Petraeus. It might also be to give the Iraqi government a bit of a nudge, much needed, to try and see if there's any last hope for them to deliver on any of the benchmarks or anything that America wants.
And obviously he'll be keen to sing the praises of the American success in the west with the Sunni, with the tribal program as the military calls it, but, in fact, it's American Sunni militia-building. So, all we know from the U.S. military is that yes, indeed, the president has arrived in Iraq for a surprise Labor Day visit -- John.
ROBERTS: Do you know, Mike, how he arrived? I expect that he would have switched planes and landed on a military transport. Air Force One is not typically the thing you'd want to bring in at Baghdad International.
WARE: To be honest, John, we wouldn't have a clue. And I think that's the way that the military would prefer it. And I dare say that those who do know the mechanisms of the president's visits, including pool reporters, would be restricted from detailing that.
So, honestly, we had no idea that he was coming. We had no idea how he was obviously going to get here. And right now, we have no idea what he's doing or where he's going to go. We'll just have to wait for the military to release it in due course -- John.
ROBERTS: Right.
In terms of what Petraeus is expected to report, Michael, from you're reporting on the ground -- and you've been there for four years, if not a little bit longer than that, what would you expect he's going to say in terms of how long U.S. forces need to stay?
WARE: Oh, U.S. forces are going to have to stay for a considerable time, I'm sure the general is going to say. I mean, if the military could, I'm sure it would want to maintain the current troop level of 160,000 in Iraq for some considerable period of time.
Indeed, I would in fact speculate that in a dream world, they would want even more troops, because they still don't have enough boots on the ground here in Iraq to enforce U.S. policy or to protect U.S. interests. So, indeed, what I would anticipate to hear from the ambassador and the general next week is that whilst there has been some military successes, some pluses and minuses from the so-called surge, particularly they'll be hailing the triumphant success of what they call the Sunni tribal program, which is, according to the Iraqi government, a militia-building program by the Americans to counter Iranian-Shia militia influence.
They'll say that, despite these successes and putting al Qaeda on the back foot, that politically, this place is still a disaster, and right now there's very little on the horizon to suggest that the political front is going to change at all. So, this, indeed, I would imagine, is something that they'll say is the time for America to actually act decisively to try and secure what remains of American influence here. But, only time will tell, and we'll find out soon enough next week -- John.
ROBERTS: Michael, the other big story there in Iraq besides the president's impromptu and unannounced visit today is the fact that the British have pulled back out of Basra to the Basra airport. Is that expected to make any difference on the ground at all? And can the Iraqi forces who are now in charge of security there maintain whatever semblance of peace there was? And not that there was a whole lot of it.
WARE: Yes, well, the short answer to that is, no, there'll be no change, and yes, the Iraqi authorities will be able to maintain what little control there is down there because, to be honest, the Brits have been all but irrelevant in the south for years possibly now. The people who own the south are the Shia militias, short and simple.
Forget the rest. It's not the Brits, it's not American influence, it's the militias. The very militias that U.S. military intelligence say are dominated, backed, military-supported by Iran.
Now, indeed, what we see in the south, essentially operators in an autonomous region defiant of the so-called Iraqi government that the Americans have built here in Baghdad. Remember, the governor of Basra, the oil-rich city, the province with the most oil in this country, was sacked by the prime minister but refused to go. The prime minister can't even sack his own governor, who is more powerful down there than the prime minister himself is.
Indeed, according to U.S. sources, when the prime minister ordered his general down there to remove the governor, the general responded that he simply couldn't do us it because he couldn't rely on the loyalty of more than 100 soldiers or so. So, Iranian-backed militias own the south, have done for a long time. The Brits have been a big player, and this just consolidates the militia influence that we see both in the south and here in the capital, Baghdad -- John.
ROBERTS: All right.
Michael Ware for us live this morning from Baghdad on the situation in Basra and the president's secret trip -- not so secret now to Baghdad -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, we want to go to CNN's Ed Henry. He's joining us in Washington on the phone right now with some more details about the trip.
We learned that it looks like the defense secretary went ahead of the president. It was also interesting to note that they flew directly to the Al-Assad Air Base as opposed to Baghdad -- Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran.
White House spokesman Tony Snow just a moment ago telling me on the phone that you're absolutely right, they went in to Al Assad Air Base in Anbar. On previous secret trips, the president has gone straight into Baghdad. You're right, they when to Anbar. Obviously, one likely reason is Anbar has been a place where there have been some successes on the ground that the administration has been trying to tout in advance of General David Petraeus' progress report.
In terms of some of the details, Tony Snow is saying the president left Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland last night on this trip. What's interesting -- to give you an idea of the secrecy, we had gotten a schedule, the White House press corps, saying the president was leaving the White House south lawn via Marine One this morning, about 11:00 a.m., to head to Australia for the Asian-Pacific trade summit.
Obviously, that schedule was completely wrong, bogus, and sort of tried to lead us in another direction as if the president was going directly to Australia. As it turns out, he went to Iraq first.
There had been rumors about this. White House would never confirm those reasons -- those rumors. And I asked Tony Snow a moment ago about why all the secrecy and whatnot, and obviously he said it's because of security. They did not want to give anyone any inkling that the president was going to Iraq.
They also will not give us any idea of the itinerary, how long the president will be in Iraq, who he'll be meeting with for security reasons as well. But Snow said broadly speaking, that obviously President Bush will be meeting with various Iraqi officials.
I think one thing to watch will be which Iraqi officials the president meets with. You'll remember the secret visit about a year or so ago. The president made a big show of meeting directly for the first time with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Given the cloud over Maliki, it would seem likely that the president would end up meeting with more officials than just Maliki. And obviously, the president trying to get an up-close look at the situation on the ground in Iraq in advance of this Petraeus report -- Kiran.
CHETRY: It's also interesting, you know, because they're citing this bottoms-up approach to progress, saying that, you know, it has to happen on a local level. Interesting that they're in Anbar, Ed, bypassing Baghdad, the place where a lot of this political paralysis has been taking place in Iraq.
HENRY: You're absolutely right. And just in the last couple of days we've learned that the White House is also planning to have the U.S. government send some money directly to some of these provinces outside Baghdad, in particular trying to reward Sunni officials, Sunni leaders for pushing back against Sunni insurgents and working with the Americans.
That, obviously, the White House thinks is a positive because it can help with some of this bottom-up progress. But obviously the potential downfall is that it goes around the central government, as you noted, in Baghdad.
CHETRY: Right.
HENRY: That's likely to upset Nouri al-Maliki. But the bottom line is this White House, after a long time of sticking with Maliki, has finally come to the conclusion that they can't just give him whatever he wants, that they have to go around him on some of these things because he's just not moving quickly enough on progress.
CHETRY: Ed Henry on the phone for us, giving us more details about the unexpected and unannounced trip by the president, as well as some of his closest advisers, to Al Anbar province, Al Assad Air Base in Iraq.
We're going to continue to follow this on AMERICAN MORNING.
Ed, thanks.
ROBERTS: Hurricane Felix is now an extremely dangerous Category 5 storm. The National Weather Service says winds are hitting 165 miles per hour, and forecasters say it's on a similar track as last month's powerful Hurricane Dean. Right now, a hurricane watch is up for Honduras.
These are pictures from Aruba. Heavy rains and winds knocked down trees, flooded homes, and caused scattered power outages as the hurricane skirted by there. Thousands of tourists were forced to hunker down in their hotels.
Rob Marciano, by the way, is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He's got more on Felix and its track.
Rob, what are you looking at here in terms of where it's going and who could be affected?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, it looks like Central America is going to get hammered by this. It will likely make landfall a little bit south of where Dean was.
Here's the satellite picture here. Again, it's a pretty tight eye. The hurricane-force winds only extend about 30 miles from the center of the eye, so that's the good news. The bad news is it's a Cat 5 with 165 winds and they don't think it's going to strengthen or weaken all that much.
So, it's going to hit Honduras, Nicaragua probably in the next 24 hours.
We are on the beach here in Myrtle Beach, where this is no stranger to tropical storms and hurricanes. But nothing happening today, Labor Day. And folks certainly enjoying the sun coming up over the Atlantic Ocean.
You can take a look at this beautiful shot for you as folks just take a stroll along the beach. The waves coming in, temperatures in the water about 80 degrees. That is enough to sustain hurricanes and tropical storms, but there are none on the horizon here. And the East Coast looks safe for this Labor Day holiday.
But we'll continue to watch Felix as it barrels towards Central America. The latest forecast out of the National Hurricane Center does not bring it to the United States, and that, of course, is good news, at least for us.
Back to you guys in New York.
CHETRY: All right. We'll check in with you in a few. Thanks, Rob.
Well, Iran claiming to have reached a major goal in its nuclear program. It has 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium.
CNN's Monita Rajpal is in London covering international headlines for us this morning.
Hi, Monita.
MONITA RAJPAL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kiran.
Yes, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is calling it an important milestone with this 3,000 centrifuges up and running to enrich uranium. Now, they've made this claim before. They did so back in April, but the International Atomic Energy Agency refuted that, saying that number is about a tenth of that.
Now, last Thursday, the IAEA issued a report on Iran saying that the country had produced 2,000 centrifuges. But the amount of fuel, the nuclear fuel that's needed to make nuclear warheads, was negligible, so small that they weren't able to do so at this time. The report also said that Iran was indeed cooperating and complying with IAEA inspectors when it came to answering questions about their nuclear facility at Natanz. Now, the U.S. is claiming that Iran is trying to build nuclear bombs. Tehran, however, is saying that they're only trying to shore up and master the technology needed for future energy requirements, something that they say that under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty they are entitle told do so.
The U.N. has passed sanctions on Iran for noncooperation. But again, as the Iranian president has been saying, they have been cooperating, but they're also saying they are well on their way to making 3,000 centrifuges -- or having 3,000 centrifuges up and running to enrich uranium -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right.
Thanks, Monita Rajpal.
(NEWSBREAK)
CHETRY: Well, to our terror watch now. And today, the FBI stepping up its search for the people behind a bomb threat scam. The scam has hit more than 20 businesses across the U.S.
CNN's Kelli Arena is in our Washington bureau.
First, how does this scam work?
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, basically you have businesses being called, and those employees are being asked to wire money to an overseas location. The FBI says that it's basically still investigating at least two dozen instances where this happened.
It happened to businesses like Wal-Mart, grocery stores. They've all received these type of bomb threats. It's a widely scattered extortion scheme. Businesses in at least 15 states have received those threats.
Now, the scam involves, as I said, people threatening to detonate a bomb. And it's very scary for the people that are working there because they have no idea if the caller is close by, in the store, if there's really a device.
So the FBI has sent out information to businesses across the United States warning them about this scam. And the whole thing started back in Portland, Oregon, on August 23rd. Unfortunately, whenever you get any word of something like this, you know, there are copycats out there. The FBI is also dealing with that as well -- Kiran..
CHETRY: Also, some bomb threats against universities. Any link there?
ARENA: No, no. Investigators say that those are totally separate. Unfortunately, you know, it's not unusual to have bomb threats that coincide with the start of school. You know, we've seen a state of that. But this extortion scheme very different.
And the FBI has not made any arrests. They've tracked it they think back to Portugal. But again, nobody in custody. This investigation continues.
CHETRY: All right. Kelli Arena for us in Washington.
Thanks.
ARENA: You're welcome.
CHETRY: Still ahead, a battle over same-sex marriage not in the deep blue states on the coast, but in Iowa. It was only legal for four hours, but two men took advantage of the opportunity and took the plunge. So now with the law on hold, are they still really married?
We're going to talk to them up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Seventeen minutes after the hour. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING, the most news in the morning on this Labor Day.
Want to bring you up to speed on a breaking news story that we're following.
President Bush has made another secret unscheduled trip to Iraq this morning. About an 11-hour trip, the president flying to the Al Assad Air Base in Anbar province rather than Baghdad, where he's flown into before.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is with the president. We're being told that he's going to meet with some troops a little bit later on this afternoon in a mess hall, and we're expecting to be able to bring that to you live today. We're waiting for the exact time for that, though.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates also on the ground in Iraq. He flew out ahead of the president. He's said to have already convened a meeting with the country's top political leaders.
Mr. Bush was expected to head to Australia and will be heading to Australia for a trade summit. He wasn't expected to leave until this morning though. He was scheduled to leave the White House around 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time for that. Instead, last night he got on the plane and he flew to Iraq.
We of course are following the story. We'll bring you more on it throughout the morning.
So stay with us right here on CNN. We'll keep you up to date on the president's moves there in Iraq. CHETRY: Well, on one issue in particular, it's been a confusing few days in Iowa. Same-sex marriages were briefly legalized by a judge on Thursday and then halted Friday pending an appeal. And only one couple managed to get a license and get married before that short window of opportunity closed.
They're Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan, and they join us live from Des Moines this morning.
Thanks for being with us.
SEAN FRITZ, MARRIED SAME-SEX PARTNER: Thanks for having us, Kiran.
CHETRY: So, walk us through what happened here. How did you hear about the ruling? And how did you know to act so quickly?
We'll start with you, Shawn.
FRITZ: Well, one of our friends had actually sent us a link to the ruling on the press coverage. And we looked at that, and we had been planning on getting married for a while. And we knew that our window of opportunity would probably be kind of short, so we just -- we took the chance and we got it done.
CHETRY: Now, Tim, how did you guys know that this window of opportunity would be short? Was this something that was highly contested? Was it a contentious issue when the decision was first granted?
FRITZ: Well, the press had been covering about there being a stay. And so we assumed that the press had some information.
CHETRY: All right.
So, Tim, tell us how you were able to get through this, waive this three-day waiting period, because they usually make you wait for three days when you apply for a license. You guys were able to wave that.
TIM MCQUILLAN, MARRIED SAME-SEX PARTNER: That's right. For an extra $5 fee, and if we were able to contact a judge, which we were, to sign off on the waiver, the three-day waiving period is waived. And that's what we did.
CHETRY: So you guys were the only ones that managed to complete the entire process from the waiver to the license to the wedding in time. In fact, we have a picture -- we have a shot of your marriage license right now that we're going to put up there.
Have you been able to test out your new rights yet? Have you worked on anything like insurance that you weren't able to get before, Sean?
FRITZ: Well, we just got back from our honeymoon, so we haven't actually had a chance to do anything like that. CHETRY: Where did you guys go?
FRITZ: We went to just a private hotel away from the media.
CHETRY: And now it's Monday and you're back.
We want to get your reaction, by the way, to this CNN research poll, because this has been a very contentious issue and one that a lot of the 2008 presidential candidates have highlighted as well.
Forty percent of Americans believe gay marriage should be legally recognized, 57 percent, which is the majority of people, believe it should not.
How do you react to those numbers?
FRITZ: Well, people can have their own opinions, but we live in a great country that has freedom of religion, and different religions believe different things.
CHETRY: What's next for you two. Do you plan to adopt children? Why was marriage, as opposed to civil union, important?
MCQUILLAN: Well, for the first question, we're still in college, so any question about children is actually pretty far off from this moment right now. And as for marriage and civil unions, that's up to the states to decide, I suppose.
CHETRY: And how about your family? Have they been supportive of the two of you getting married?
MCQUILLAN: Definitely, all of them. Both of our families are very supportive.
CHETRY: Well, it will be interesting to see how it goes in Iowa right now. As we said, that ruling has now been delayed pending an appeal, and you are the only two who managed to get it all done in time.
So, keep us posted on how everything goes.
Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan, thanks so much for being with us this morning.
MCQUILLAN: Sure thing. Thanks for having us again.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: How about that? There's the sign of CNN's ticker above Midtown Manhattan today, Columbus Circle. Beautiful day, it's 67 degrees out there right now. Shaping up to be 83 degrees and beautiful, brilliant sunshine on this Labor Day.
Boy, does it look empty. It is Labor Day in Columbus Circle. We usually see that packed with taxi cabs and buses. Hey, you could just walk down the street blindfolded if you wanted to and wouldn't get in any trouble.
It's Monday, September 3. Glad you're with us. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts.
We've been reporting some breaking news coming out of Iraq this morning, President Bush has made an unannounced visit to the Al Assad Air Base. That's in Iraq's Anbar Province west of Baghdad. It is a big northwest of the city of Ramadi. Let's get you the latest on this trip from the Pentagon. That's where Barbara Starr is standing by live.
He did it again, Barbara. He snuck in there without anybody knowing about it.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: He sure did, John. And he was not alone to say the least. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with him, Lieutenant General Doug Lute, his top military adviser, inside the White House, on the war in Iraq. And, of course, Defense Secretary Gates we just learned, within the last hour, also arrived in Iraq, separately landing at the Al Assad Air Base.
We have this picture to show you. The Pentagon put it on their website, and rapidly decided they might want to take it off. They didn't want to step on the president's toes, clearly. It's up to everyone to decide, I suppose, whether they believe this is a substantive visit or a photo op.
Al Assad, in the Anbar Province, is the area that is the showcase for reconciliation with the Sunni tribal sheiks. Clearly, that is what this White House and the Pentagon want people to see, an area where security has improved to some extent, where they are working with local leaders, whether that really carries through to the rest of Iraq remains to be seen.
And it is a bit surprising, I have to say, that it comes so close to General Petraeus' visit to Washington. One week from today, he is expected to be on Capitol Hill reporting to Congress about the progress in Iraq.
And as for Defense Secretary Gates, as you well know, John, we haven't seen much of him lately. He has not been in the Pentagon press room for close to a month. He's been traveling. He has been on vacation, but he has been the silent man. No public face on this -- for him -- on this ongoing debate about Iraq, John.
ROBERTS: Put all the pieces together for us, Barbara. The president there just a week ahead of General Petraeus coming to Washington to start to report to all of the congressional committees. Are they laying the ground work to say the surge needs to continue?
STARR: I think one has to assume that that's exactly what they're doing. You're exactly right. But, by all account, what they -- what General Petraeus will report to Congress is that there is progress in security in Iraq. And Anbar Province, the area where the president is, is the showcase for that. But, there are -- you know, many questions. Attacks are down there. Attacks are down in Baghdad.
But what people are now keeping an eye on whether, one more time, the insurgents have either gone to ground, or have shifted to other areas. Just over the weekend, as we see the British pulling out of their positions in Basra, in southern Iraq. A lot of concern, a lot of anxiety about whether attacks will pick up there again. General Petraeus wants to make the case that the surge is working; that they need to keep the troops there.
But really the clock is ticking, John. April is just around the corner, really. That is the time frame when the U.S. begins to run out of troops to keep the surge going. So there's two things here -- what to do in September? And what to do come April -- John.
ROBERTS: And the overarching problem with the lack of political progress that the United States is getting increasingly frustrating with. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon this morning.
Barbara, thanks.
STARR: Sure.
CHETRY: New this morning, Hurricane Felix now a major Category 5 hurricane and moving fast. The National Weather Service says winds are now 165 miles per hour. The storm is closing in on the Central American coastline, the Honduran government issuing a hurricane warning from its border with Nicaragua, on up. A hurricane watch issued, again, for Honduras and other parts there.
We also have pictures for you from Aruba where toppled trees, flooded homes, and power outages were seen all across the island. Thousands of tourists also forced to hunker down in their hotels. Our Rob Marciano tracking Felix for us from a much more idyllic setting, which is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
No more hurricane worry there, is there, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kiran.
Myrtle Beach, no stranger to hurricanes. Aruba, very rare to even get one to brush by there. This is an unusual storm, no doubt about that.
Quick look at the satellite imagery once again of this hurricane; a Category 5, 165 miles per hour winds. We'll go to the track and show you where the National Hurricane Center think this thing is going. Likely south of Dean's landfall, along the border of Honduras and Nicaragua, over the next 24 hours. So that will be interesting to watch, no doubt about that, unfortunately. It will come ashore and cause a whole lot of damage.
Here, in Myrtle Beach, they get brushed or hit by a hurricane every three and a half years. Nothing today, though. Check it out, Labor Day, gorgeous sun coming up over the Atlantic Ocean. People taking a stroll on the beach. We were here yesterday. We talked to a few people. Took some shots of people doing exactly what they should be doing on Labor Day, which is not working. This is a holiday that's in effect nationwide for over 100 years, and people taking advantage of it in Myrtle Beach and beaches up and down the Atlantic seaboard.
The good news on this end of the country, at least, well the entire end of the country, no hurricanes to be seen for this holiday. We'll continue to track Felix, looks like tomorrow is going to be a big day for Central America.
Kiran, back over to you.
CHETRY: Thanks so much, Rob. It looks gorgeous out there. No sharks or medical waste. You're doing better than New Jersey and New York this morning.
MARCIANO: Sounds like it. Yes, it's gorgeous here.
CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.
ROBERTS: Other headlines new this morning, Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari is out of Iran this morning. It ends an eight-month long nightmare for her and her family. "The Washington Post" reports that she met up with her husband in Austria today. Esfandiari was held in prison accused of getting paid by a U.S. government in trying to start a revolution in Iran.
A horrific midair collision caught on tape. Thousands of people were there to witness it at an air show in Poland. Take a look. A polish air force spokesman said two pilots were killed when the planes slammed into each other at full speed. They wreckage then, just sort of spiraled lazily to the woods below. There were no reports of injuries on the ground.
CHETRY: During the past week, we haven't heard much from people who support Senator Larry Craig. CNN's Jim Acosta traveled to the senator's hometown in Idaho to see what some people, who know the outgoing senator, think of the scandal that brought him down. Jim is live in Boise for us right now.
Hi, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.
Yes, we traveled to the tiny Idaho town on the Oregon border that Senator Larry Craig calls home. It seems half a world away from Washington and the people there are fully supporting their native son.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice over): Larry Craig's hometown of Midvale, population 176, give or take a few, is so remote locals in true Idaho fashion call it, "Small Potatoes". In a stark and isolated section America's heartland, hearts are breaking over the downfall of a local boy done good. SHIRLEY JOHNSTON, WIDOW OF CRAIG'S TEACHER: He worked all the years to attain what he did. To see it come crashing down is really sad.
Here's his senior picture here.
ACOSTA: Shirley Johnston's late husband taught Craig public speaking in high school. The graduating class of 1963 consisted of just 10 students, nine boys and one girl. Johnston says the senator never forgot his Idaho roots.
(On camera): When your late husband passed away, Larry Craig --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Larry called, last year, to send his condolences to me and my family.
ACOSTA: And in Midvale's lone restaurant, The Country Coffee Cabin, lifelong friends of the senator are sticking by him.
REX TOWELL, MIDVALE RESIDENT: It's none of their business, his private life. Their business should be how he's serving in the Senate.
GERTIE SUTTON, MIDVALE RESIDENT: I feel really bad for him and his family. I feel bad for Idaho.
FERN WILLIAMS, CRAIG'S CLASSMATE: For them to take him out of there and treat him like that, that's a shame.
ACOSTA (voice over): It took a while but we did find one person who thinks justice has been served.
KEITH BOGGS, IDAHO RESIDENT: He pled guilty to a lesser deal, to get it over with. He knows how the law is and how the law operates.
ACOSTA: But he was just passing through.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: And it's not too difficult to do an informal poll of the citizens of Midvale. The town phone book fits on one sheet of paper. The general consensus there is that Larry Craig got railroaded -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Jim Acosta in Boise, Idaho. Thanks.
ROBERTS: Just joining us at 39 minutes after the hour.
Of course, the big news of the morning is President Bush has made another surprise visit to Iraq. This time, though, touching down in Al Anbar Province well west of Baghdad, kind of way out in the middle of nowhere.
What's the visit all about? Because it comes just a week before General Petraeus is scheduled to come here to the United States to start testifying to people in Congress about what his plans should be going forward in Iraq, to try to win the peace there. CHETRY: So, joining us from Washington, D.C., we are still doing our political jackpot, by the way. Leslie Sanchez, a Republican strategist, and Democratic strategist Rich Masters.
But first we'll talk a little bit about President Bush and then we'll dig into the ballots here.
Leslie, fist of all, let's start with you. What's the significance of the president's trip? And also the fact that the he bypassed the politically paralyzed Baghdad, to make his way to the Anbar Province the land?
LESLIE SANCHEZ, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, you don't know politically, or for security reasons why the generals and the president's security selected that province.
I will say this, this is all part of a strategic effort by the president to show momentum behind not only the surge but what's going to be happening in the future with respect to Iraq. You have General Petraeus' report coming out. You have another government report coming out. The president has laid out a series of talking points and speeches, talking about the historical context of Iraq. The president is really showing some momentum here and leadership. I think that's what this country has been waiting for.
ROBERTS: Rich, what are Democrats going to do about all of this? Is there really anything they can do? Or is it a fait accompli that this so-called surge will be there in Iraq until April when they really run out of personnel?
RICH MASTERS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I certainly hope the Democrats will do whatever they can to kind of bring about an end. I know they already have. I mean, I think the reason that George Bush is not in Baghdad this morning is because he does not want to go anywhere near the Maliki government, which is going to fall short.
Leslie mentioned the other government report. It's a GAO report that will show that only three of the 18 benchmarks they set up for political progress in Baghdad have completely failed. So I would stay out of Baghdad, too, if I were the president.
SANCHEZ: That's really not the case. I think you're seeing some positive things coming out of Baghdad. It's been the quietest period of time in terms of pressing down a lot of security --
MASTERS: That's because they were on vacation.
SANCHEZ: No, no, over the period of the time of the surge, let's be fair. It's hard to hear about certain accomplishments. The president is drawing attention to that. It will be a battle, politically, to lay out the correct ground work of what is happening in Iraq.
CHETRY: It will be interesting to see who he meets with politically other than Maliki, as well.
ROBERTS: Some tribal leaders, I think, in the region. Those tribal leaders who have been working together with the United States.
SANCHEZ: That's Correct.
(CROSS TALK)
ROBERTS: What?
CHETRY: She said you're right.
SANCHEZ: You're right.
ROBERTS: Let's switch gears and go to our ballot box. Whoa! Ooh.
CHETRY: Craig resigns. Boy, yeah, it was a Saturday press conference and everybody was still watching. Senator Craig calls it quits and now calls of hypocrisy from the Democrats -- and the Republicans -- on both sides.
Leslie, let's start with you?
SANCHEZ: I'm really glad you mentioned that. That's the only way you can get people to watch the news in August, take themselves away from the beach.
It's a very important issue in the sense that -- on the Republican side, you had a lot of folks realizing they did not want a corruption-laden type of election coming in 2008. It was something that was responded to swiftly.
Craig lost a tremendous amount of political support from the party and it dissolved rather fast. In terms of the hypocrisy, that's ridiculous. Republicans and Democrats this, is a human story, human travesty that has implications regardless of the party.
ROBERTS: Rich, the president dealt with this so quickly. He got thrown under a bus faster than anybody I've seen in the past. Are Democrats going to be able to do anything with this? Or have the Republicans laid down a positive marker to say, we had a problem in our midst, we dealt with it, no problem there.
MASTERS: Well, John, you bring up and excellent point. People have been talking for the last week about Larry Craig's hypocrisy, that he preaches one thing about family values and then goes the other way.
Let's bring in another piece of hypocrisy to you. David Vitter, of Louisiana, pled guilty of a sin of consorting with prostitutes.
ROBERTS: Yes, but that wasn't illegal.
SANCHEZ: That's not a criminal thing.
MASTERS: No, no, no, let's be fair. We don't know what he did and when he did it. That's why there should be an ethics committee investigation on that.
ROBERTS: So why didn't you all throw Patrick Kennedy out of Congress. He pled guilty to a crime?
MASTERS: Well, good point. You would have to ask House leadership.
(CROSS TALK)
MASTERS: But the truth is, the silence was deafening on David Vitter. He got applause when he went to the Republicans. What's the difference between consorting with prostitutes and what Larry Craig did. I think, at a certain level, the Republicans are going to have to clean their house, and really get back to the business of governing the country.
(CROSS TALK)
SANCHEZ: Democrats have to be very careful in throwing stones here. I do not think the Democratic Party, especially Hillary Clinton, want to relive a 10-year-old investigation and all of the corruption surrounding her presidency. There is a lot of hypocrisy going around on both sides.
And with respect to Vitter, he did not commit a criminal act. That's is very different. That's what I would call liberal moralism.
CHETRY: All right, we're out of time. Leslie Sanchez, Rich Masters, great debate, thanks for being with us.
SANCHEZ: Thank you.
MASTERS: Thanks.
ROBERTS: We'll be right back on AMERICAN MORNING. Are you headed out to enjoy some fun in this Labor Day? Dr. Sanjay Gupta along with good advice to make it a safe one coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Planning a holiday picnic or barbecue, heading to the amusement park with the kids?
CHETRY: Sounds like fun if you are, but before you hear what Doctor Sanjay Gupta found to keep you and your family safe. He joins us from Atlanta.
Hi, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
CHETRY: So, the first question is about -- worrying about mosquito bites. I can tell you got bit up this weekend when I was out.
GUPTA: Those welts are really a big problem. They can be uncomfortable. A bigger concern this year, and years past, is West Nile virus. A couple things about it, let's say you're at a barbecue on Saturday. By Monday, within two days, you could actually start to develop symptoms. You could just be tired, could have some joint aches, you could develop a rash, usually on your trunk, so on your chest or your abdomen. It can be quite profound. Sometimes you'll get some swollen lymph nodes, as well.
Most people, again, four out of five people, for example, who get a lot of these mosquito bites, even get West Nile virus, will never get sick. They'll never have any problem whatsoever. Never even know they had it. It is something a lot of doctors and mosquito -- people who get a lot of mosquito bites are paying attention to.
ROBERTS: All right.
CHETRY: All right, we'll talk about something unrelated, but someone else wanted to know about this. If you're spending the day at the amusement park, this one says with your grandkids, is it safe to ride the roller coasters? A lot of the roller coasters they make these days are terrifying. You're wondering, should I send my kids on that thing?
GUPTA: Yes, no doubt, you ride these things and you see all these warnings posted ahead of time. Warning about back and neck injuries, warning about heart-related problems, warning about epilepsy as well. I thinks, some of it is obvious -- people who have any of these problems, pregnant women, very young children probably should not ride these things.
I want to give you a little sense of perspective here. When it comes to heart attacks, or cardiac-related problems, there's been about seven cardiac related deaths over a 10-year period from 1994 to 2004. We talked to Association for Amusement Parks and they say, look, there's 300 million people who ride these rides, and the chance of being seriously injured by a heart attack, or otherwise, is about one in 9 million. Pretty safe. The odds are certainly with you as far as having any serious problems from this.
ROBERTS: I always get a headache when I ride the roller coaster.
CHETRY: Probably from clenching so bad, because you're going down. We want to show you quickly, the winner of the two fastest roller coasters in the country, Kingda Ka, this is the new one they have over at Great Adventure, in New Jersey. My husband just went on it last weekend and said it was terrifying. It goes 128 miles -- zero to 128 miles per hour in 3.5 seconds.
ROBERTS: Incredible. The fastest one I've been on, of course, it's really the only one I've been on in the last few years, is the Rock & Roller Coaster, the Aerosmith one.
CHETRY: That's pretty scary, too.
(CROSS TALK)
CHETRY: How about you, Sanjay?
GUPTA: The one at Cedar Point, I think, is pretty fast as well. I forget he name of it, but I think that one gets over 100 miles per hour.
CHETRY: Oh, yeah, the Top Thrill Dragster, as well at Cedar Point, Ohio.
GUPTA: Sandusky, Ohio.
CHETRY: Those are scary. Those are pretty fast these days.
GUPTA: Yeah. It's amazing. I mean, your neck and your back is going back and forth. I think you'd be surprised you don't have more injury. But the track record is pretty safe.
ROBERTS: Sounds like really healthy stuff.
CHETRY: Have a fun Labor Day, Sanjay.
ROBERTS: Sanjay, always good to see you, thanks.
GUPTA: Take care, Guys.
CHETRY: CNN "Newsroom" just minutes away, Heidi Collins is at the CNN Center with a look at what's ahead.
Good Labor Day to you, Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Yeah, good Labor Day as we labor away.
Hurricane Felix, of course, we're going to have that on "Newsroom" rundown this morning. The menacing Category 5 storm closing in on the Central American coast today. Top winds, 165 miles per hour.
And, surprise stop over, President Bush arrives in Iraq. Nobody knew he was going. We didn't. He's on his way to Australia. We'll have more on that.
And the worst boss -- Labor Day horror stories in the "Newsroom". And how payback might get a whole lot easier.
And any breaking news, of course, when it happens. You're in the "Newsroom" top of the hour, right here on CNN -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Heidi, thank you.
ROBERTS: More details on President Bush's trip. We just got our first pool report in from a pool producer Antoine Sanfuentes, who works with NBC, pool on Air Force One.
They left Washington last night around 8:05 Eastern Daylight. The big surprise, they were taken to the Andrews Air Force Base. They knew something was up, because President Bush wasn't supposed to leave until 11:00 this morning. Flew the 11 hours, landed at the Al Assad Air Base, which is way out west in Anbar Province, some distance away from Baghdad. It's even west of Ramadi, which is the furthest-west big city in Iraq. They landed there at 7:40 a.m. Eastern Time this morning. President Bush will be spending the day on the air base. He's not going to leave at all. They say they don't have time for that. He'll be meeting with some tribal leaders, some of these tribal leaders who had been working together with the U.S. military in terms of trying to attack Al Qaeda. He'll also address the troops this afternoon at the mess hall. We hope to be able to bring that to you live here on CNN.
Of course, all of this comes just a week before General Petraeus travels to Washington to start reporting to Congress on his plan for what should happen in Iraq going forward. And how long this so-called surge could last; very important for the administration to try to highlight the progress, if they can find it, in Iraq. And the one place where they have pointed to progress is in Anbar Province, where these tribal leaders have been working together with the U.S. military to try to bring some peace and stability.
In fact, military leaders are saying if all of Iraq could look like Anbar Province, which, as you recall, used to be one of the worst places in Iraq, then they'd really be making some progress.
All of that coming up for you later on today on CNN, as we continue to cover the president's surprise visit to Iraq. Not Baghdad this time, way out west in the middle of nowhere, really, in Anbar Province.
It's being called a major victory over terrorists; the end of three months of bloodshed at a Palestinian refugee camp. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's 55 minutes past the hour. A three-month siege is over at a Lebanese refugee camp. CNN's Monita Rajpal is in London; she's covering the international headlines for us.
Good morning, Monita.
MONITA RAJPAL, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
Yes, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is calling it the country's biggest victory over terrorists. Three months of fighting have come to an end after a Lebanese army said they crushed the remnants of the Fatah Al-Islam militant group who had taken refuge at a Palestinian refugee camp. These camps are very widely and densely populated; some 40,000 Palestinian refugees had at one point taken refuge there.
Now the fighting between the Lebanese army and the militants was described as among the worst fighting since the Lebanese civil war, 15-year civil war between 1975 and 1990.
The Washington has actually earmarked $300 million, this year, to help Fouad Siniora's the fledgling government, which the fighting has really proved to be a big test for.
Now, he is jumping on the Internet bandwagon like pretty much every politician is doing. Australia's prime minister has decided to appeal to the would-be protesters at the APEC Summit, in Australia, to not join in any violent protests. Now large street protests are planned in Sydney, over the 21 days, that is any time over the last week, sorry. Over the next week, as any time it's expected whenever 21 world leaders gather, John.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks very much, Monita Rajpal, for us from London this morning.
Kiran.
CHETRY: Here's a quick look at what CNN "Newsroom" is working on for the top of the hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS (voice over): See these stories in CNN "Newsroom": Felix eyes Central America. A dangerous Category 5 hurricane. Storms bring heavy flooding to coastal Georgia. British troops leave central Basra; the city now in the hands of Iraqi forces. President Bush makes a surprise visit to Iraq this morning. He's on his way to Australia. And an air show crash turns deadly. Newsroom, top of the hour, on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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