Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Tracking Hurricane Humberto; Did President Bush Change Any Minds Last Night?
Aired September 14, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: This is not about one side really sticking it to the other at this point. This is about moving forward, making better cars at lower cost, and trying to keep everybody employed as much as possible.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: And still talking, with that deadline extended.
VELSHI: That's right.
COLLINS: All right. Very good. Ali Velshi, "Minding Your Business". Thank you. Ali.
COLLINS: The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING (voice over): The long haul:
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Their success will require U.S. political, economic and security engagement that extends beyond my presidency.
ROBERTS: The president delivers a new report card on Iraq today to a skeptical Congress.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An endless and unlimited military presence in Iraq is not an option.
ROBERTS: A new storm comes to life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of a sudden just all hell broke loose.
ROBERTS: And Humberto sets a record.
And flag on the play. The NFL sticks it to the Patriots in the sideline spy scandal, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins in for Kiran Chetry here in New York. You heard John's voice but he's actually in Washington, D.C. We're having a little bit of trouble with the signal now. He'll be up shortly. As you know, he is there covering the prime-time address that the president gave last night on the situation and progress in Iraq. We will get to him shortly.
Meanwhile, another earthquake hitting Indonesia this morning, to tell you about, triggering a brief tsunami alert. The latest quake was a magnitude 6.9. This follows 48 hours of seismic activity there. Many hospitals, houses, government buildings and clinics have been destroyed. At least 13 people killed.
There is a new tropical storm. Ingrid is her name. It is actually the ninth storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Still hundreds of miles from the outer Caribbean Islands. But we are watching it for you. It is a very fast developing hurricane.
It's the fastest in fact, in recorded history. Humberto went from tropical depression to full-blown hurricane in less than 24 hours. The storm surprised Texas and Louisiana, bringing 85 mile-an-hour winds and dumping more than a foot of rain in some places. Residents are surveying the damage this morning.
We have teams covering it for us as well. Reynolds Wolf is at the CNN Weather Center and Sean Callebs is in High Island, Texas for us this morning.
Sean, let's go ahead and begin with you. If I understand correctly this is actually where Humberto made landfall?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, exactly. It is not a very large town, about 500 people here. Today really begins a serious cleanup, people trying to get back on their feet. More than 100,000 people in Texas and parts of Louisiana lost power when this hurricane snuck up on them last night.
If you look where we're standing right now, this is the home of 69-year-old Connie Payton. Hard to believe she rode out the hurricane in this house, which is just now shredded, her life belongings strewn all across this lawn.
Like many people here in Texas and Louisiana, she went to sleep the night before thinking they might have strong winds, up to 50 miles an hour. She lives just a couple of blocks away from the Gulf of Mexico so it is not something she'd never been through before. When she woke up at 2:00 in the morning with the roof ripping off the house, she new something was up.
That is the frustration a lot of people here say they are dealing with today. They said, if they got a warning and didn't evacuate they could certainly understand what happened. But they said this one just came upon them, they had absolutely no warning.
We've been talking to people all around this area. As we can hear in the distance, there are some generators droning on as people trying to keep their houses cool, trying to stay in their homes. Another tough thing, Heidi, we talked to a couple of people in this area, actually several -- no homeowners insurance to cover all the flooding and all of the damage. So this cleanup is going to be punishing for this small little area. COLLINS: As you mentioned, Sean, they've been through it many times before there in High Island. We'll check back with you later. Sean Callebs for us, thank you.
Reynolds Wolf is also watching the situation. He's at the CNN weather desk now, tracking all of the extreme weather. There is a lot to talk about. We have the aftermath of Humberto, and now Ingrid.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know. It's no question, a smorgasbord of weather events this morning beginning what happened in parts of Texas.
Take a look at these rainfall totals. I mean, this is really mind boggling; 14.13 inches of rain. I don't care where you are, that's a heck of a lot of rainfall. Let's go to the weather computer now, if we can. Show you that big number, there it is. Other spots, where it was very impressive, Beaumont City, Galveston, even Lake Arthur and Lake Charles.
At this time what's left of Humberto is now moving into parts of Alabama, into Tennessee and into Georgia, bringing some very beneficial rainfall. You have to keep in mind, much of the Southeast has just been mired in a horrible drought. So this is actually good news, leaving it from a very, very bad situation in Texas, Louisiana to really a promising situation in terms of that much-needed rain in parts of the U.S.
You were talking about Ingrid. This is the latest we have on the storm, maximum sustained winds are still at 40 miles per hour. The storm expected to pull it's way to the west-northwest and do so at a fairly slow rate of speed. The storm only moving west-northwest at seven miles an hour. Winds at 40, gusting to 50 miles an hour, still nearly 900 miles from the Leeward Islands. This is a long way away from being a threat to land. However, these storms can be very fickle, so of course we'll watch it for you very carefully.
Another tremendous story we have for you, Heidi, is not the tropics, but the cold air that's been building up in parts of the Midwest. We're talking about some intense cold for parts of Minnesota, Big Sky Country, even into parts of the Corn Belt, where in spots like Minneapolis, take a look at the temperatures, going from the 50s and 60s today, tomorrow morning's low around 34 degrees.
So, again, as I mentioned, a lot to talk about in the weather department today and of course, we're going to keep you up to speed with all of it throughout the morning and throughout the day.
Let's sent it back to you in New York.
COLLINS: You're freezing out my homeland there in Minnesota, Reynolds!
WOLF: Yes, they are, indeed.
COLLINS: Isn't Montana Big Sky Country?
WOLF: I would say so. Pretty much anything up there.
COLLINS: We're just trying to give you a hard time.
WOLF: That's all right.
COLLINS: Land of 10,000 lakes -- or 20,000 --
WOLF: Yeah. Frozen lakes.
COLLINS: Yeah, frozen. Thank you, Reynolds. We'll talk to you in a minute.
WOLF: Talk to you soon.
COLLINS: John, back to you.
ROBERTS: All right, Heidi, sorry we went away for a little while. Little technical problem here.
Now to the president's message on Iraq. He delivers a progress report to Congress today after setting the stage for it last night in his address to the nation. The president announced gradual reductions of U.S. forces in Iraq, 2,200 Marines out almost immediately, and 5,700 more troops home by Christmas, then the rest of the brigades that made up the so-called surge back home by the middle of July.
He said the troop withdrawals are linked to success of the surge. Our Jamie McIntyre is at the Pentagon this morning where he's been checking the facts about success of the surge. Let's listen for a second to some of what the president said last night, Jamie, about a transition of the mission, which would allow him to draw down the troops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our troops will shift from leading operations to partnering with Iraqi forces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So is it really changing, Jamie?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, the president is saying that because of the success of the surge, they're able to shift the mission more toward training Iraqi troops. But a lot of people point out, that's the same mission that is supposed to have been going on all along and has yet to be accomplished.
The independent report from the General Jones Commission found that the Iraqi troops are not going to be ready to do that for a year, or year and a half. Even General Petraeus in an interview with CNN said, one of the reasons the Iraqi forces are having such trouble is they are fighting, and they're taking losses, and that's making it hard for them to get to that capability. So we don't see any prospect any time real soon that the Iraq is are going to be able to take over for the U.S.
ROBERTS: All right. So the president said we're able to draw down these troops because of improvement in the security situation in Iraq, particularly in the capital city of Baghdad. Here's what he had to say about what's going on in Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Today most of Baghdad's neighborhoods are being patrolled by coalition and Iraqi forces who live among the people they protect. Many schools and markets are reopening. Citizens are coming forward with vital intelligence. Sectarian killings are down and ordinary life is beginning to return.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Ordinary life beginning to return, talking about Baghdad becoming far more secure. Though, I'm wondering how far down the road he went with that. In terms of an accurate portrayal, how does that square with what you've been hearing on the ground, what you've seen on the ground?
MCINTYRE: It is pretty clear Baghdad is in a little better shape than it was before, but what it means is it's gone from really bad to not quite as bad. But it is still far from being safe and far from ordinary life. All you have to do is take a look at what's going on there.
I was watching our own Anderson Cooper as he is describing the shelters they have to have around because of the shelling of the green zone, supposedly secure area of Baghdad. To say that ordinary life is returning -- it is true that ordinary Iraqis are adapting and going about their life, but it is far from an ordinary life in Iraq.
ROBERTS: All right, Jamie McIntyre for us this morning, the Iraq Fact Check Desk at our Washington bureau. Jamie, thanks.
Heidi.
COLLINS: Other headlines new this morning now, a 12-hour manhunt involving more than a 1,000 law enforcement officers is now over in South Florida. The gunman, suspected of killing a Miami-Dade police officer, and wounding three others, was killed late last night in a shootout with police. Police cornered this man, Shawn Labeet in a condo complex in Pembrook Pines, that's north of Miami. He had been pulled over earlier in the day for driving erratically and opened fire on police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT PARKER, MIAMI-DADE POLICE: Something was very wrong with that individual. We don't have any answers. I'm certain that as time passes in the future and we look at everything that is before us, in terms of the connection with Mr. Labeet, his motives and motivations, we might have some insight as to why this occurred.
But there was no, to my knowledge, early warnings or early indicators that he would try or do something like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: One of the wounded officers is still in the hospital.
Inside the mind of a killer. Pro wrestler Chris Benoit's diary is raising more questions now about his mental state when he strangled his wife and smothered his son.
According to WBS, Channel 2, in Atlanta, Benoit wrote how much he loved his family and about being lonely on the road. There were many entries written as letters to his friend, Eddie Guerrero, another former champ who died in 2005 of an enlarged heart. He wrote, "I'll be with you soon." His father's attorney says it shows signs of dementia and depression. Doctors say brain scans on Benoit showed similar findings likely due to concussions.
Bill Belichick's New England Patriots are paying big time for cheating during last week's win over the Jets. The NFL fined the head coach a half a million dollars. The league also ordered the team to pay $250,000, and give up one or two draft picks next year depending on where they finish. The Pats were caught trying to steal the Jets' signs by illegally videotaping their sideline calls.
Pop star Prince suing YouTube. The man behind "Purple Rain" in 1999 says he's tired of his material illegally posted on the video- sharing site. Prince says YouTube can filter porn but it is not bothering to filter copyrighted music and video. YouTube responds that it is working with artists to help stop unauthorized material from appearing on the site.
Two provocative studies this morning about risk factors for a heart attack. They don't involve baby boomers, but teens and toddlers instead. CNN's Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is in Boston this morning with some answers to all of this.
Good morning, to you, Elizabeth. What about these studies?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. It is so interesting, this is something parents really need to think about -- clogging of the arteries, or high cholesterol, can start as young as 15 months old. And so according to a new study in the British Medical Journal, it would help to screen to 15 months old.
So, in other words, you take your child in for to get their immunizations. They'd also get a cholesterol check. Not every doctor agrees that at 15 months old you need to have this test, but one thing is definitely clear. Other studies have shown this, too -- that clogging of the arteries does start in childhood -- Heidi.
COLLINS: It's so bizarre. I think people will probably be very surprised by this. How would a toddler, you mentioned 15 months, have high cholesterol? They're certainly no steak that they're eating. I don't think at that point in life?
COHEN: Well, they may not be eating steaks but there are, unfortunately, plenty of 15-month-olds who are indeed eating junk food. So that is a problem that the American diet is full of fatty foods. So that's one of the reasons why sometimes -- again, this is unusual -- but why sometimes you do find toddlers with high cholesterol.
Another reason is that some toddlers inherit a gene that basically gives them high cholesterol. It really has very little to do with what they eat. That's another reason as well.
COLLINS: If you're going to test for high cholesterol should you not also test for high blood pressure?
COHEN: Yes, that's another risk factor for heart disease. Pediatricians say starting at age three, children ought to be tested for high blood pressure. Unfortunately, high blood pressure among children, even that age, is going up in the United States, probably because of obesity. And if a child does have high blood pressure, you really need to know, because it can be a sign of heart or kidney disease. That's another one to look out for.
COLLINS: Absolutely. Elizabeth Cohen, for us this morning from Boston.
Elizabeth, thanks for that.
COHEN: Thanks.
ROBERTS: With adjustable rate mortgages ready to reset next month, what should homeowners know about refinancing? Gerri Willis will join us with some answers to that important question.
And the battle for hearts and minds. President Bush lays out a new plan for Iraq. Were any of his critics sold? Will they change their minds? A political insider's take ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Want to show you some of the best shots of the morning in our "Quick Hits." Tropical Storm Ingrid now the ninth named storm of the 2007 hurricane season. National Hurricane Center says it formed Thursday night in the open Atlantic. Still hundreds of miles though from the outer Caribbean Islands. That's good news.
Meanwhile, a child stands on top of a pile of brick and rubble that was once a house. It was leveled in a series of powerful earthquakes and aftershocks that hit Indonesia this week, killing at least nine people.
A lightning strike caught on film in Texas. Look at that. Wow! It actually hit a school library. I-Reporter Christy Duran caught it while picking up her son from school. It's huge. Nobody reports of injuries, though. Again, good news there -- John.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Heidi.
In his speech to the nation last night President Bush hailed the reduction of violence in Iraq and said some troops will begin returning home by end of the year but did he change any minds last night? The Jim Vandehei is the co-founder and executive editor of Politico.com and joins me from Politico's headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.
Jim, thanks for being with us. Let me play a little bit of what the president said last night in his address to the nation and get you to react to it. It's about the draw-down of troops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: He has recommended that we not replace about 2,200 Marines scheduled to leave Anbar Province later this month. In addition he says it will soon be possible to bring home an Army combat brigade, for a total force reduction of 5,700 troops by Christmas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So, Jim, has the debate shifted now from whether to bring troops home to now how many troops and when? And is this a tacit acknowledgement by the president things are not going well in Iraq, and it is time to start bringing these troops home?
JIM VANDEHEI, CO-FOUNDER, EXEC. EDITOR, POLITICO.COM: I've got to tell you, I was surprised about the tone of this speech. There was a very optimistic spin to what's happening in Baghdad. You know from covering Bush, he really gets into trouble when it starts to look like there is a disconnect between what he's saying and what people are seeing on the ground in Iraq.
I do not think he did himself any favors with that speech. You know, just when Petraeus is talking to Congress, members want to listen to the general, and they want to do what the commanders are saying. They get a little frustrated when they have to listen to Bush and they feel like Bush isn't being completely candid with him.
So, I think moderate Republicans, particularly those we talked to last night and this morning, they are as skeptical and ever. And they are really going to scrutinize the scorecard that Bush is going to send up to the Hill today and make determinations about whether they should leave the staunch support of Bush and start working with Democrats and something that might restrict this military campaign.
ROBERTS: What effect do you think this progress report will have today? We said there were nine of the 18 benchmarks met satisfactorily, five unsatisfactorily, two too early to tell, which in many people's books would be a failing report card, or at the very least one that would be maybe a "D."
VANDEHEI: It's certainly one that you would not be proud of. Members of Congress are going to start scratching their head and wondering what is it that we heard over the last week from the White House and from Petraeus? It sounded like things were going so well, at least on the trajectory to start doing much better. And then you look at this report card, and it seems to contradict what they're hearing. I think that will add to more frustration. There are a lot of Senate Republicans, people like John Sununu, in New Hampshire, who are very skeptical to begin with and who are looking for some sort of political cover and also some policy cover, to do something different with Iraq. Bush has to be worried that he's going to start to lose these members. So far they've held firm.
ROBERTS: Certainly the Democrats didn't find anything in this thing to like. Here's what Jack Reed, of Rhode Island, said in the official Democratic response afterwards.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JACK REED (D), RHODE ISLAND: We have put forth a plan to responsibly and rapidly begin a reduction of our troops. Our proposal cannot erase the mistakes of the last four and a half years. But we can chart a better way forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So they got a proposal but they don't have the votes to get the proposal passed. What do they do between now and the '08 election, Jim? Just keep on hammering on measure after measure after measure, hoping that it begins to give them some traction and get the court of public opinion going in their direction?
VANDEHEI: Democrats made a strategic blunder I think a few months ago when they really had an opportunity to work with moderate Republicans on something that did not demand a fixed end to the war, but would have restricted what Bush could do and what troops could do in Iraq. Now Democrats have changed their tactics and are really trying to work with moderate Republicans. I think they'll continue to pound that.
I think that Bush knows he has enough support among Republicans in the Senate to be able to sustain a veto if he were to have to veto any legislation passed by Congress. So, he'll be able to continue the military campaign, as proposed.
What Democrats need to do is bring in more and more Republicans over the next couple of months to try to restrict what Bush can do. If you cut between the words what Bush is saying, essentially we'll have as many troops six months from now as nine months ago. That's not good news for Republicans who want to see this war over by the time Bush leaves office. There will probably be more than 100,000 troops still in Iraq when Bush leaves.
ROBERTS: Then there is the idea of what is the scope of this extraordinarily long-term commitment that he was talking about last night.
Jim Vandehei, from the Politico.com -- Jim, thanks. Good to see you.
VANDEHEI: Take care, John.
ROBERTS: Heidi.
COLLINS: A flag ban overturned tops your "Quick Hits" now. A high school in North Carolina has reversed its ban on clothes with flags on them. The story got national attention after a student was told to change out of an American flag T-shirt on September 11th. The school says the ban was put in place to stop kids from sporting flags with gang colors.
What will eventually be the world's tallest building is already the world's tallest free-standing structure. Look at this, the Birge (ph) Dubai, in Dubai, which is still under construction, is now more than 1,831 feet tall. That makes it taller than the CNN Tower -- no, that's the CNN Tower, I was going to say, do we have a tower in Toronto? No -- which had been the tallest free-standing structure since 1976.
Defending the defender: Rudy Giuliani takes out his own ad in the "New York Times" and he has good things to say about General David Petraeus. We have his response to MoveOn.org and to Senator Clinton.
Adjustable rate mortgages, we were just talking about this with Ali Velshi, are about to adjust. Homeowners are worried about refinancing their loans. Gerri Willis will be here to help coming up here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Millions of adjustable rate mortgages are due to reset in a matter of weeks. So, now's the time to think about refinancing, at least for some people. Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis is in Atlanta this morning with some advice.
What's the deal? You're there, I'm here. We are switching up?
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: I know. It's confusing, isn't it?
COLLINS: We've been talking about this though, for a while. What's the deal? Who should, who shouldn't?
WILLIS: Let's talk about what's going on first; $50 billion in mortgages are resetting come October so you really want to think about getting a new loan if you're in that situation. You should know that the Fed is -- will probably cut rates next week. That's the expectation by the market. A quarter point, maybe even a half a point. Mortgage rates are moving ahead of that, so now is a good time to think about refinancing.
COLLINS: If I am one of those people who decides to refinance, what's the first step? I guess I'm going to have to have a sharp pencil.
WILLIS: Well, you need to do your research first. Pull out your mortgage documents. If you have an adjustable rate loan, you definitely want to look at the adjustable rate rider. That will describe the rate that you have and the limits, the caps, how much it can reset over time. That first reset can be as much as 5 percent. Each and every year after that, it can be as high as 2.
COLLINS: All right, so, shopping around. Isn't that probably a pretty good idea? There's a lot of options out there.
WILLIS: You've absolutely got to shop around. You need to look at different loans from different folks. There are very big differences right now in rates offered by different institutions. Make sure you talk to at least three lenders. Get offers from three lenders. Be wary of mail offers because they may be more hype than reality. And, check out websites like HSH.com, Bankrate.com, CNNmoney.com can help you find the best loan.
COLLINS: Is there a time though, Gerri, where refinancing is really a poor idea?
WILLIS: There are a couple of scenarios. If you're only going to be in your house another year, it probably doesn't make sense to refinance right now. Here's the other scenario -- and a scary one, Heidi -- if prices have been going down in your area fairly dramatically you can find that you owe more than the house is worth. If you refinance, when you sit down at the closing table you'll have to stroke a check. That's scary stuff. You need to know what's going on with prices in your area -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Certainly you do. Don't forget, "Open House" tomorrow. Gerri will have more on the mortgage meltdown certainly and how to buy a better credit score. And why there is just no excuse for not saving for retirement. All great topics.
Gerri, thanks so much for that.
WILLIS: Heidi, my pleasure.
COLLINS: Her show will be coming up, 9:30 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
Meanwhile, here's a look now at a story coming up that you just can't miss. The sideline spying scandal, John.
ROBERTS: Right. The NFL dropped the hammer on coach Bill Belichick and his New England Patriots. Half a million dollar fine to the coach, $250 -- $250,000 to the team. Imagine if it was $250 million? They might actually do something with a fine that size. But is it really going to hurt them? We'll have the fallout ahead. Those stories ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: A shot of the White House for you this morning on this Friday, September 14th. Where the president gave his address last night, and today we're seeing the fallout of it here in Washington as he delivers a report to Capitol Hill that shows the Iraqi government not making a whole lot of progress on those benchmarks that were laid down earlier this year.
Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks very much for joining us. I'm John Roberts here in the nation's capital.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, John. I'm Heidi Collins right here in New York. I'm in this morning for Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: Hey, thanks for coming up. Appreciate you being here.
One day after President Bush addressed the nation on the military goals in Iraq he is set to report to Congress on the political progress. It's not expected to be as positive as last night's speech was, but earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, on his last day on the job, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said that things are headed in the right direction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's probably about time for members of Congress who have been hooked on a failure narrative to realize we're having some success - celebrate it, give our guys credit for what they're doing and build on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So, were any of his critics sold? Congressional correspondent Dana Bash has reaction on Capitol Hill. Dana, the Democrats are saying that this is not enough. But what do they plan to do about it to make it enough for them?
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What they plan to do about it is change their strategy dramatically, John, and try to get Republicans on board with some kind of consensus to try to change the plan of the course in Iraq. And what is most interesting perhaps isn't necessarily that, as you know, that the Democrats are criticizing the President, it is the growing number of Republicans, the president's fellow Republicans, the President's fellow Republicans, who are as well -- they say they simply don't think that a plan to bring those extra surge troops home is enough of a plan.
Look at what Republican Senator Lamar Alexander said last night about the president's speech. He said he didn't go as far along that path as our country could and should go and still honorably finish the job in Iraq. So what is going on, and has been going on really all week long, is a flurry of behind-the-scenes talks, negotiations with Democrats and Republicans, trying to figure out if they can find a consensus to get to that magic number -- 60 votes to pass some kind of force to change the course in Iraq.
The Democrat who's taking the lead on this is the Armed Services Chairman Karl Levin. It's interesting, what he's telling Republicans and telling us publicly but really pressing the point with the Republicans behind the scenes is that General Petraeus said something that went under the radar this week, and that is that he indicated to Senator Levin under questioning that it is not a question of "if" more troops are going to come home, it is just a question of "when" the general can announce it and how many they will be. That is the selling point, if you will, that Senator Levin is making to these Republicans as he talks to them behind the scenes. ROBERTS: So, what are some of the options for compromise if the Democrats do hope to get some Republicans over to their side?
BASH: No, it's going to be telling when we see the debate, which is going to start next week. We're probably going to see about a half-a-dozen amendments or proposals on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Some of the things that they're talking about is sort of the main plan that Democrats had, which is to have a general time line for troop withdrawal, to change the mission to counter insurgency and to counter terrorism, to step up diplomacy, but without an actual hard deadline for withdrawal.
The other thing is that there really has a lot of bi-partisan support and is something along the lines of what the Iraq study group recommended, the senators, the Democrats and Republicans, who worked on that. They're trying to update that, maybe put a little bit more teeth in that. Maybe the proposal, John, that has the most support, though is from Democrat Jim Webb of Virginia that is to mandate troops stay home in between deployments. They call that kind of a back-door way to force redeployment from Iraq.
ROBERTS: And you wonder what the effect of that maybe if they had to maintain these elevated troop levels, whether or not they'd be able to do that if the Webb Bill passes. Dana, thanks very much. Dana Bash for us on Capitol Hill this morning.
Also new this morning, Rudy Giuliani is firing back in print on moveon.org. He took out a full-page ad to respond to the left wing group's general "betray us" ad. This one lists the general's accolades. It also goes after Hillary Clinton for saying that General Petraeus's testimony required "the suspension of disbelief."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What I don't think should happen in political discourse is the kind of character assassination that moveon.org participated in and calling him General betray us, That "The New York Times" gave them a discount to do and that Hillary Clinton followed up with these attacks on his integrity.
ROBERTS: Move on's ad ran in the "The New York Times" on Monday. It was the same day that the general began his testimony before Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Polygamist religious leader Warren Jeffs will be back in court today after an explosive start to his trial. Jeffs was led into court in chains and a bulletproof vest. He's charged as an accomplice to rape for allegedly setting up a 14-year-old girl to be married to her first cousin.
In court, prosecutors played a tape of one of Jeffs' sermons on how women must be absolutely submissive. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FROM KTVK) VOICE OF WARREN JEFFS, POLYGAMIST RELIGIOUS LEADER: Do you give yourself to him that means, in full obedience, you are literally taken from your father's home and given to that man. You belong to him.
ROBERTS: The woman who Jeffs allegedly married off is 21 now. She testified against him saying she was raised to obey Jeffs or risk her eternal soul.
VOICE OF JEFFS'S ACCUSER: He said 'I've always wanted to see a woman naked.' I was so embarrassed. So embarrassed.
ROBERTS: Jeffs is a so-called prophet of the fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints. His followers believe that he communicates directly with god. Heidi.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The reputation and the wallet of the New England Patriots just took a huge hit. The NFL has levied its fines on the Patriots after they were caught videotaping the opposing team's sideline.
"New York Daily News" sports writer T.J. Quinn is joining us to talk a little bit more about this. Good morning to you, T.J.
For just a minute, let's go ahead and put on the screen what some of these fines and penalties are that Roger Goodell actually came up with. There you see -- they're fining Belichick $500,000. They're fining the team $250,000. And then, the Patriots actually could lose the first round draft choice. I guess that depended on, you know, how they finish up the year in the playoffs and so forth. How big of a deal is this? People really seem to be talking about it a lot.
T.J. QUINN, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, SPORTS WRITER: They are pretty upset in the NFL, part of it is because who it is. It's Belichick. It's a guy who has won three Super Bowls, somebody who dresses like a (trapeze) monk who kinds of puts himself above the game, the image of it. And here it turns out that people think he's just a garden- variety cheat. Maybe not garden variety, pretty successful, it seems like. But a lot of teams are upset and even on the punishment was unprecedented, there are a lot of people in the league who feel it should have been more severe, that Belichick should have been suspended.
COLLINS: Really.
QUINN: Yes.
COLLINS: Who thinks he should have been suspended?
QUINN: Well, other teams and I think notably teams who have lost to the Patriots. Right, the Steelers are pretty upset. They lost to them in the playoffs before. There is a big to-do in Philadelphia where the Eagles lost to the Patriots in the Super Bowl saying we knew all along that there was something wrong, that these guys knew too well what we were going to do when we played them. COLLINS: Well, some people would say, hey there's been an apology by Belichick. We're going to put that in the screen real quick so we can see exactly what that verbiage is.
He said this, "our use of the sideline video had no impact on the outcome of last week's game. We have never used sideline video to obtain a competitive advantage while the game was in progress." Was this a real apology?
QUINN: I can't find exactly what he is apologizing for here. He didn't apologize to the other teams. He didn't really apologize to the league. He apologized to kind of the broader Patriots family I think for the embarrassment of this. If you're not going to get a competitive advantage I don't know why you'd bother to do it in the first place...
COLLINS: Do they need a competitive advantage?
QUINN: Well, they may think they do. Other teams may think they do and I'm sure there are plenty of people who have lost to them before who think right now, 'see, I knew we were better than they were. He's not the genius we thought he was.'
COLLINS: You know, isn't there a kind of wink, wink, nod, nod to in the whole culture of all of this? This is not the first time that somebody's tried to figure out a signal, whether it be football or baseball for that matter.
QUINN: It is. It' a long tradition of cheating. It's funny each sport has its own rule about how to cheat. Like in baseball, they've always said 'if you ain't cheating you ain't trying.'
COLLINS: Hey, that's a great... I think I'm going to teach that to my 6-year-old.
QUINN: If your 6-year-old plays baseball, he'll probably run across it. There are ways to cheat which is just kind of a funny thing within each sport that it's OK for a guy, a coach to figure out, decode another team's signals. Not OK to use equipment to do it. And this one went way beyond what the league allows.
COLLINS: All right, we appreciate your insight in all this. T.J. Quinn, thank you.
QUINN: You're welcome.
ROBERTS: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will deliver a farewell remarks at the Justice Department this afternoon. Gonzales resigned last month amid controversy over the handling of domestic wiretapping and the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. He'll officially be stepping down on Monday.
And all eyes are on tropical storm Ingrid this morning. It's the ninth storm of the 2007 Atlantic season.
Where it is now, where it's headed and what we can expect from Ingrid ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning now.
"Quick Hits" for you. A new study says teenage girls who start dieting are twice as likely to become regular smokers. University of Florida researchers also found among boys, those who tried dieting but didn't stick to it are most at risk for becoming regular smokers.
Well, it's getting hot in here. The world's average temperature this year is the hottest since reliable record keeping began 127 years ago. The National Climatic Data Center found warmer than average temperatures on all land areas except for the southern tip of South America and the south central U.S.
And it's a girl. This adorable panda cub was born six weeks ago at the San Diego Zoo but veterinarians didn't determine her sex, this is how it usually goes with pandas, until just recently when they gave her an exam. She's now the fourth panda born at the zoo. Only about 1,600 of the giant pandas remain in the wild, some 200 live in captivity. The new cub still doesn't have a name. Following Chinese tradition, she won't be named until after she is 100 days old. Cute.
Time now to go to Reynolds Wolf. Will bring him in to talk a little bit more about this extreme weather we have been following for -- it just seems like weeks and weeks and weeks.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know, it keeps going. Doesn't it? Really and truly it does, especially in parts of Texas, into Louisiana, now moving into parts of Mississippi and Alabama. It was really bad news in Texas and Louisiana but good news as it moves farther to the east. We're talking about Mississippi this time where we may see some flooding in Columbus and Tupelo, Russellville, Alabama, back over to (inaudible). They may get some heavy rain there as well but that's really good news, they really could use the precipitation in Tennessee, North Georgia, North Alabama. And that's exactly what they're getting at this time.
We're watching another tropical system. This is one that's beginning to really develop. We're looking at Ingrid at this time. The latest we have from this storm -- this has got winds, maximum sustained winds around 40 miles an hour, so it's a very weak system. Its stronger gusts though have been going up to 50. Just to give you an idea how far away this is from land, just to give you a little bit perspective here. Again, winds at 40, gusting to 50, moving west- northwest at 7 miles per hour. Here at (inaudible) island, the United States is way over here so it is a long way away from posing any direct threats in the United States or anywhere else but we're going watch it for you very carefully.
That's the latest we got for you, more updates following throughout the day. Let's send it over to John with more.
ROBERTS: All right. Reynolds, thanks very much. A Japanese probe is now on its way to the moon. That tops your "Quick Hits." After a few delays, Japan's space program has launched the largest mission to the moon since the Apollo flights. The project involves putting three satellites in orbit around the moon. Researchers will use the data that they gathered to study the moon's origin and evolution.
Putting the finishing touches on China's tallest skyscraper. The final beam was placed atop the 1,614-foot high Shanghai World Financial Center in China. It is said to be the second tallest completed skyscraper in the world. It took ten years to get there. Construction began on the $1 billion job way back in 1997. Set to be opened in time for the 2008 Beijing games.
Alan Greenspan in the news this morning. Did he drop the ball on a huge financial problem while at the helm of the Federal Reserve?
And it looks less like an embassy and more like a fort but its costing Americans billions. A look at what it is. Coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Authorities searching for millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett have ruled out the possibility he wanted to vanish. There has been no trace of Fossett or his single-engine plane since he took off from the Nevada desert on Labor Day. Authorities also said they don't expect foul play or that Fossett was kidnapped for ransom.
ROBERTS: While President Bush insists things are improving in Iraq, the new U.S. embassy in Baghdad might tell a different story. It is basically an imposing fortress and it is costing you a fortune in tax dollars. Our State Department Correspondent Zain Verjee joins us now live from our Washington Bureau with more.
Good morning, Zain. What's this all about?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Well, it's the most expensive U.S. embassy complex ever built but it may come at a higher cost to the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: It is a city within a city on banks of the Tigress River. Taxpayers have already shelled out about $600 million for the new fortress-like U.S. embassy in Baghdad. With it's own gym, movie theater, and dry cleaners.
JANE LOEFFLER, ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN: It's about 21 buildings on some 104 acres, we're told, and self-contained with its own power, its own water, its own sewage treatment, its own shopping.
VERJEE: State Department officials say it should be open by the end of the year. Photographs of the U.S. compound in the fortified green zone are top secret but artists in foreign policy magazine sketched out images based on architectural renderings that surfaced on the internet, a security breach that could make the embassy a target. Historian Jane Loeffler wrote a book on "The Architecture of Diplomacy," and says the isolation of the Baghdad embassy contradicts U.S. values.
LOEFFLER: It sends a message of fear and defensiveness and lack of engagement in the place and with the people in the place.
VERJEE: Democratic Congressman John Turney says the U.S. mission in Iraq needs more than what he called remote control diplomacy.
REP. JOHN TURNEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: What purpose does an embassy serve if nearly 1,000 of the United States of the State Department officials are only rarely permitted to interact with Iraqis outside the green zone, an essential part of their job.
VERJEE: The bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 forced a move away from building where officials could mix easily with public to more modern facilities heavily protected, largely self-contained. State Department officials say they're trying to strike a balance between protecting U.S. diplomats and encouraging open door diplomacy. And John, they're likely to be congressional hearings to debate exactly how to handle the need for security and the need for diplomacy. John.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Hey Zain, how much is this facility going to cost to run on a day-to-day basis? You got the basic construction costs, but then you've got, you know, the maintenance and the operation. That's got to be pretty large.
VERJEE: Right. The basic construction cost has been about $600 million already. It may cost even more because of the security. But it may also be that it will cost millions more. One congressman we spoke to said it may even cost up to $1 billion a year to do it.
ROBERTS: All right. Zain Verjee for us this morning. Zain, thanks very much. Heidi.
COLLINS: "Quick Hits" now. A new luxury concept car offers passengers a flying carpet experience. The Mercedes-Benz F-700 introduced at the International Auto Show in Frankfurt. It gives passenger a bump-free ride. It has two lasers in the front headlights, which act like eyes. Scanning the road ahead for bumps, debris and potholes.
Well, not sure where it rates on the list of breakthroughs, but British scientists have invented a virtually nonstick chewing gum. Thank goodness! We've been waiting for this.
The chemical company developing it says the product is easier to remove from streets and shoes. If it passes the European health and safety test it could be in stores neck year.
Alan Greenspan in the news this morning. The former fed chair talking about the mortgage dilemma and why he realized the problem too late. Tell you all about it coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: One has fur, the other has feathers. But this monkey and pigeon are just like two peas in a pod. They met each other at an animal sanctuary in China. The staff says the monkey's mom abandoned him and he was near death when he found his new friend. Now they're inseparable. And both in great health.
COLLINS: Isn't that sweet?
ROBERTS: You got to wonder what are the kids going to look like.
COLLINS: I don't know. Do you buy it? Or do you think it is a fixed kind of picture. I don't know I've become very skeptical about these things. It's really sweet. Thank you, John.
Hey, Ali Velshi is here now for to "Mind your Business" this morning.
ROBERTS: He's not nearly as cute but...
COLLINS: Oh, stop.
Hey, you don't have all that great news. Talk about oil today.
ALI VELSHI, "MINDING YOUR BUSINESS": Just keep the warm fuzzy feelings about the little monkey and the bird going on while I tell you about oil prices which really settle above $80 for the first time yesterday. We've been seeing it going above $80 but then it really settled at $80.09 per barrel. It's the highest it ever settled at but again remember accounting for inflation, oil would have to be at least $90, maybe even $100 for it to really be an all-time high.
Now, when oil spike people start talking about recessions. When we have those bad job numbers a week ago, people start talking about recessions. And on Tuesday, we're going to get the fed meeting where they may cut rates. They'll probably cut rates.
Then on Monday, we got Alan Greenspan releasing his memoirs, 18 years at the helm of the fed until last January. And he says this is the guy -- the maestro, the guy who knew it all about everything. He says about subprime lending, "while I was aware a lot of these practices were going on, I had no notion of how significant they had become until very late. I really didn't get it until very late in 2005 and 2006." Alan Greenspan saying he didn't see it coming.
COLLINS: Did that surprise you?
VELSHI: It surprises me. It surprises a lot of people, and it surprises those people -- or it may play into the hands of those investors who say the fed doesn't always have its finger on the pulse. So, maybe we have more to worry about than now. We'll have to see how markets respond to that and the things the fed are saying. We'll follow on all that very closely.
COLLINS: OK. Very good. All right, Ali. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Here's the story down. Coming up in our next half hour that you just can't miss.
Let's face it, the more you try to fight off a chocolate craving, the more you want. Right, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes. There's no question about it. And I think we just have to give in to those urges sometimes. In fact, researchers are telling us what drives our craving for chocolate. That would be good to know when it comes to maybe control it.
The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING begins right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When and how will it end?
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Their success will require U.S. political economic and security engagement that extends beyond my presidency.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A new report card due on Iraq as Democrats plots another fight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We intend to exercise our constitutional duties and profoundly change our military involvement in Iraq.
Plus, dear diary. Secrets revealed from Chris Benoit's handwritten journal.
And hang ten, meet the surfing buddies and the dog they saved from drowning on this AMERICAN MORNING.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
