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American Morning
Violence Rages in Iraq; Iran to Ramp up Uraniun Enrichment; Stocks Waffle; Children Removed From Polygamous Ranch; Bloggers Help Catch a Thief
Aired April 08, 2008 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of bad publicity around the world.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
Breaking news to tell you about this morning, though. Calls for a cease-fire in Baghdad are going ignored today, as new fighting rages between Iraqi forces and the Mahdi Army in Sadr City. Rockets and mortars are blowing up parts of the capital. The U.S. military says four more soldiers have died since yesterday.
All of this as General David Petraeus returns from Iraq to convince Congress that the so-called surge is working. His latest report card in the war comes in front of several skeptical lawmakers and in front of the backdrop of extreme bloodshed over the past couple of weeks. All three Republican and Democratic presidential candidates will be there with their questions. And as Iraq becomes the focus on Capitol Hill, Iran is making new noise with its nuclear program.
Our Barbara Starr has got breaking news for us live from the Pentagon this morning. Good morning, Barbara. What's up?
BARBARA STARR, PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, John. Today is all going to be about message in Washington versus the political reality, the military reality, on the ground in Baghdad. We spoke a little while ago to a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. He points out to us that violence is up in many categories as General Petraeus comes to town. Suicide car bombs on the rise. Suicide vest bombs on the rise.
The message that General Petraeus will want to deliver to Capitol Hill is that the surge is working, continues to work. More U.S. troops on the ground have given the Iraqis time to get their own security house in order, improve their troop capability, and engage in political reconciliation. The reality on the ground in Iraq, as you say, violence is on the rise. The fighting between the government forces and Shia militias goes on. Not the timing that General Petraeus perhaps had hoped for.
ROBERTS: So, Barbara, General Petraeus has said to President Bush that he would recommend a pause after the surge forces have been withdrawn. Because of the new violence going on there, not just in Baghdad but in other cities across Baghdad, what might that mean about future drawdowns of the forces that will remain there after the surge troops are gone? STARR: Well, that, of course, time frame is July. Now, right now, that's just fine for General Petraeus' strategy. Pause in July, assess the security conditions. But what happens later in the year because the clock is beginning to run out.
It takes about six weeks to get a brigade out of Iraq. So the best he can hope for at this point if conditions actually substantially improve, is perhaps withdraw one to two additional brigades, about 10,000 troops total at best, by the end of the year, before the Bush administration runs out.
But there's going to have to be a lot of progress, most people believe, before General Petraeus will go down that road. And that means, John, the Bush administration will wind up the clock with still perhaps more than 100,000 troops on the ground.
ROBERTS: And Barbara, one more piece of breaking news this morning, at the same time all of this is going on, Iran again being belligerent saying that it has increased and improved its nuclear program.
STARR: Watch for General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, of course, to talk about Iran. They both are very likely to say that Iran at least inside Iraq has not lived up to its promise to stop meddling.
You know, John, just last week in the last few days, U.S. troops got their biggest haul ever of IED components that they believe were made in Iran. The so-called explosively-formed penetrators, armor- penetrating IEDs, they got a haul of components and explosives. They say enough to make 1,000 of these projectiles that are killing both American troops and very tragically Iraqi civilians as well -- John.
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr for us from the Pentagon with the latest on that. Barbara, thanks very much. We'll check back with you because it's a big news day there in Washington -- Kiran.
CHETRY: And something very unique that we are going to be seeing today, which is that all three presidential candidates are going to be getting the chance to demonstrate their leadership skills at today's hearings as they talk about Iraq and question both Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker about how things are going.
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain will try to show voters that they are the ones with the best approach to dealing with Iraq. McCain told a group of veterans in Kansas City that last year's U.S. troop build up has led to a sharp drop in sectarian violence, and he also blasted his Democratic rivals for their exit plans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: To promise a withdrawal of our forces from Iraq regardless of the calamitous consequences to the Iraqi people, our most vital interests, and the future of the Middle East is a height of irresponsibility. It is a failure of leadership. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: He also went on to say that he doesn't believe anyone should make promises, the candidate for president, that they can't keep if elected. And he says that the promise to withdraw forces is the height of irresponsibility.
Meantime, Barack Obama accused Senator McCain of being wrong from the beginning about the war and pushing for an open-ended commitment. Hillary Clinton says McCain's stance on Iraq would mean four more years of the "policy of continuing to police a civil war." She also said it's time to end the war as quickly, responsibly, and safely as possible.
So what is her plan for getting out of Iraq now? We're going to ask Senator Clinton. She's going to be joining us on the show live in just about an hour.
Also, we have some breaking news this morning about the Olympic torch. Just a short time ago, the International Olympic Committee president said that the IOC will consider canceling the rest of the International Torch Relay because of these disruptions that have been taking place in many cities by pro Tibetan demonstrators.
We brought you video of both the London and Paris protest. The torch expected to arrive in San Francisco within the hour, where some arrests ahead of the torch's only appearance in North America tomorrow.
Now, there's another look at the Golden Gate Bridge as well, where protesters scaled the bridge and hung signs. The California Highway Patrol saying it's ready as well as getting the FBI ready as well. At least seven people were arrested for this dramatic stunt though at the Golden Gate Bridge. They scaled the cables, and they were able to unfurl signs. That one says "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet." The torch is aboard a plane right now nearing San Francisco, and we will, of course, track the progress and have live coverage throughout the morning.
ROBERTS: Pretty impressive display there yesterday. Alina Cho here now with other stories new this morning. Good morning to you.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys. And good morning, everybody. We're going to have more on that breaking news now we first told you about a couple of minutes ago.
Iranian state TV says Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced that Iran is installing 6,000 new centrifuges at a uranium enrichment plant. And Iran already has about 3,000 of them in operation. The U.S. and other countries say the centrifuges are being used as part of a nuclear weapons program. Today is national day of nuclear technology in Iran, the second anniversary of the day Iran learned how to enrich uranium.
A $15 billion plan for fixing the mortgage crisis could go to a vote in the Senate today. But first, it's going to have to get past critics who say the bill will actually increase the foreclosure rate. They're complaining about a $7,000 tax credit for people who buy foreclosed homes. They say it will actually give banks more incentive to foreclose. The Senate bill also includes tax rebates for the housing industry.
Some important health news to tell you about, especially if you have children. Infants who don't get enough sleep, according to a new study, may be at a greater risk for obesity. This new study was conducted by Harvard University. It found that babies who slept less than 12 hours a day were twice as likely to be overweight by the age of 3. It's incredible. And, if they watch TV for two or more hours a day, their risk increases even more.
Previous studies revealed a link between sleep and obesity in older children and adults. We've heard about that, but the study's author says this is the first time they've examined the link in very young children.
An important beer recall to tell you about this morning. The maker of Sam Adams is recalling 12-ounce glass bottles because they may contain little bits of glass. The company discovered the defects during a routine bottle inspection. Sam Adams says the number of bottles that actually contain the glass is "significantly less than one percent," but it is something you should know about.
The bottles, by the way, came from the company's factory in Cincinnati. To know if you're affected by all of this, check the bottom of your Sam Adams bottles to find out if they're tainted. As you can see there, you're going to look for the code N35 followed by OI (ph).
Finally, Kansas is the new king of college basketball beating Memphis last night to win the NCAA championship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Extend the game. Collins driving, almost lost the handle. Chalmers for the tie. Got it!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: That's really what did it for them. The Jayhawks hit that desperation three-pointer with just two seconds left. They sent the game into overtime. Kansas finally won it all, 75-68.
And that victory set off some pretty wild celebrations in the streets of Lawrence, Kansas. You could imagine how happy the fans were. It is the Jayhawks third national championship, but it's their first in 20 years. In fact, it came on the 20-year anniversary of that first win. So, yes.
CHETRY: It is the first.
CHO: Yes.
CHETRY: How about it? CHO: Yes.
CHETRY: Unbelievable.
CHO: They're not going to remember that one from 20 years ago. Anyway --
CHETRY: Thanks, Alina.
CHO: You bet.
CHETRY: Well, the stock market pulls back just a bit as corporate earnings start to roll in. Ali Velshi joins us now with more. You know, you gave us a heads up yesterday that these were coming in.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This was going to happen.
CHETRY: How do they affect your portfolio?
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: And why should you care?
VELSHI: And by the middle of the day yesterday, markets and the Dow was up over 100 points. I mean, it looked like a strong day. And then people start getting concerned about what's really going to happen with these earnings. And as I was saying to you, these next few weeks is going to be like that. So I wouldn't pay too much attention to the market movement.
But yesterday, the earning season got kicked off with Alcoa. This is, you know, the biggest aluminum company, one of the biggest in the world, and Alcoa's earnings did come in a little lower than was expected. They still earned money, but they earned less than the estimates had said. As a result, take a look at what the markets did yesterday. Now, of course, Alcoa came out after the markets but this is what happened. There was just virtually no movement on those stock exchanges at all after a very, very strong lead.
What we've got this morning is some news from AMD, the graphics chipmaker, and it says it's laying people off. Now, that's interesting because the chips go into the computers obviously before the computers are sold. So when the chipmaker says that sales are low or slowing down, that's an indicator of the fact that PC sales, computer sales in the future are going to slow down, which means, you know, that sort of indicates part of the slowdown that we're in economically.
Also, Washington Mutual, one of the biggest home lenders is announcing that it is closing its stand-alone mortgage centers and it's going to offer its loans through its bank branches. It's going to concentrate more on its banking than its home loans. Obviously, the home loans business has been very hard for those companies that are directly in it. And to Alina's point, I think Sam Adams is a well-run company, but significantly less than one percent of the bottles of beer have glass in them. Could be a lot of beer.
ROBERTS: It could. That's -- I mean, how many bottles of beer?
VELSHI: One hundred. I mean we just came through March Madness. That's not necessarily a risk I'm all that interested in taking.
CHETRY: And it could be higher that maybe you don't notice after the first few.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Right. This has got to stop. I don't want the glass of the beer. That kind of just ruins the effect.
And that thing about the babies sleeping, 12 hours a day, less than 12 hours a day and watching more than two hours of TV, does that affect humans like adults?
So that could explain everything right now because I work out like a machine, OK. And this is all you get. This is as good as it gets and -- seriously. I don't sleep 12 hours a day, and I watch -- I have a muscle tone -- I have a muscle tone of an underslept TV watching --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Like you need to work after you spend in the machine.
(LAUGHTER)
All right. Now, coming up on 12 minutes after the hour. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning." More children have been removed from the polygamist compound in Texas and this morning, there are new details about the 50-year-old man at the center of the raid. We'll tell you who authorities say he is and where he's living.
And criminals beware. Because coming up, we're going to tell you how a cyber savvy victim used the power of the Internet to catch the thief who robbed his home. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Fifteen minutes after the hour, and "Hot Shot" time now. Maybe charity does not begin at home. Check out of the side of Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy. It's one of Ernest Hemingway's favorites.
The classy restaurant is offering a 20 percent discount for anything on the menu just to financially-strapped Americans suffering from the mortgage meltdown. Of course, I don't know how you prove the latter part of that. Obviously you got a passport, but how do you prove that you're suffering from the mortgage meltdown when you're in Italy? Of course, it's a lot more expensive over there anyways right now with the dollar near record lows against the euro.
And if you've got yourself a "Hot Shot," send it to us. Head to our Web site, CNN.com/am and follow the "Hot Shot" link.
Weather time now. Rob Marciano at the weather update desk tracking extreme weather this morning in Tornado Alley. What do we got there, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, we got a tornado watch and then a whole lot of action on the scope for this morning, John. This is going to be the beginning of what will be a three-day stretch of extreme weather in the part of the country that we would expect at this time of year, and will be increasingly dangerous as we go through time.
Here it is on the radar screen. We'll show exactly what we're looking at this morning. A couple of watches out. The yellow boxes, a severe thunderstorm watch out for much of eastern Kansas, and then this red box is a tornado watch out that's in effect for eastern Oklahoma and through parts of Arkansas and southwest of Missouri until 11:00 this morning.
We have some cells that are moving quickly off to the east, 30 to 40 miles an hour. This one with the purple, that likely has some hail with it. Right now, none of these are showing any sort of tornado signature, but certainly a lot of lightning, some hail and some heavy rain and some gusty winds.
Moving the map, you see Tulsa is getting hammered this morning, and we'll see a number of impulses come out of the Rocky Mountains that will instigate more of this activity over the next 36 to 48 hours, and even beyond that, 72 hours.
Kansas City, what a miserable commute for you, folks. This is mostly just heavy rain, and it's rapidly moving off towards the north and east there. Here are the forecast weather map for today, and the areas of concern, moving over much of Arkansas, southeast Missouri, and in through the mid-Mississippi River Valley as well. Lots of things to watch over the next three days, John. We'll be busy here. Back up to you.
ROBERTS: All right, Rob. I'm sure we will. Thanks very much -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, 401, that is how many children, who once called a polygamist compound in Texas home, are now in shelters. They're now temporary wards of the state of Texas, and this is the biggest child abuse investigation in Texas history. All of this sparked by a 16- year-old mother who first alerted authorities.
She still has not been found, but the alleged father of her child is 50-year-old Dale Barlow, a convicted sex offender, and his probation officer says he is not in hiding. Rather, he's in Arizona living with three women and their 22 kids.
Now, as for the children taken from the compound in Texas, the state is now individually reviewing each case and ruling if they left with their parents. Could they be harmed trying to decide what now happens to these many, many young children?
AMERICAN MORNING's legal analyst Sunny Hostin joins us now. When you talk about legal wards of the state, apparently each of them has been given an attorney and an advocate.
SUNNY HOSTIN, AMERICAN MORNING LEGAL ANALYST: Absolutely.
CHETRY: So how does that work?
HOSTIN: And I'll tell you, Kiran, this may be the biggest case in Texas history. But the bottom line is they are going to treat each case individually, each child individually, and each child will, as you mention, get an attorney and a guardian ad litem. And that guardian is going to basically take the place of that child's parents and make the decisions, and make the decision as to what is in the best interest of that individual child.
So we really have 401 cases, and each case is going to be treated differently, investigated differently, and a judge will make a different decision or perhaps the same decision for each and every child.
CHETRY: Also going to be quite difficult, polygamy is illegal. And so, oftentimes they don't have any type of a record of any second marriage, third marriage, fourth marriage. And the children that come from those, how do they even determine whose parents of which kids and which siblings need to stay together and all of those issues that you think of when you think of these child endangerment cases?
HOSTIN: It's a very, very difficult case, Kiran, as you mentioned. We don't have DNA evidence, for example. We don't have marriage licenses. We may not have birth certificates. But, again, this is a case about people, about children, and each child is going to be interviewed, and it's about a story. Each child will be interviewed.
Investigators will get that evidence from each person, each family, each mother perhaps, if the mothers are willing to cooperate and they will be interviewed on an individual basis. And I think that's what this case is going to come down to -- each individual child's story.
CHETRY: Where do you see these kids being placed and with whom?
HOSTIN: I think they're going to be placed in foster care actually and again, what's in the best interest of each child. Perhaps some of these families were loving families. Perhaps this is a sort of a generational abuse. A child's mother may have been placed in this situation. A child's grandmother may have been placed into this situation.
So do you continue to punish these particular women? I don't know. Again, it's going to be -- this determination has to be made on a case-by-case basis, but it's a very, very difficult case to investigate. But people are going to be able to do the right thing here.
CHETRY: All right. Sunny, great to see you. We'll see you in the next hour. Thanks.
HOSTIN: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Twenty minutes now after the hour. The war in Iraq is once again a hot topic on the campaign trail today, and we are going to look at where the candidates stand on this key issue. That's coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, taunted by a thief.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo dude, I got your Xbox. If you want it, you can buy it back off me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: A computer engineer turns to what he knows best and tries to crack his own case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: This community posted everything on this kid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: The results of his cyber sleuthing, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up on 24 minutes after the hour. If you have ever been robbed, you know how helpless that you feel. Not much chance that you'll ever see your goods again or that the robber will ever be caught. But what if you could hunt down the thief online and get a little cyber-vigilante justice? AMERICAN MORNING's Internet correspondent Veronica De La Cruz shows us that it is possible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSE MCPHERSON, CYBER-SLEUTH: They took out the screen and then just pretty much slid the window off and came on in.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN INTERNET CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jesse McPherson's Philadelphia home was broken into last month.
MCPHERSON: They came in and they pulled the TV right off my wall.
DE LA CRUZ: They also snatched his Xbox and MAC PowerBook. Police dusted for fingerprints and filed a report. But Jesse, a computer engineer, did his own investigation online.
DE LA CRUZ (on camera): What's the first Web site you hit at?
MCPHERSON: I went to Google maps and did a search for pawnshops in the area.
DE LA CRUZ (voice-over): He called the first pawnshop and got confirmation that somebody tried to sell a PowerBook there, and it was all captured on surveillance video.
DE LA CRUZ (on camera): So bingo. How did you feel at that point?
MCPHERSON: I felt very excited.
DE LA CRUZ (voice-over): Jesse told the police who said they'd get back to him. Meanwhile, Jesse's co-workers surprised him with a new Xbox, but the bigger surprise came when he hooked it up.
MCPHERSON: I saw a notify message pop up saying that you have a new voice message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo dude, I got your Xbox.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DE LA CRUZ: Jesse was being taunted apparently by a teenager who said he stole the Xbox.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you want it, you can buy it back off me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DE LA CRUZ (on camera): Did you feel your blood boil?
MCPHERSON: Yes. I was just pacing. So while I was upset, I still knew that like that was his downfall.
DE LA CRUZ (voice-over): As a result of the voice mail, Jesse now had the kid's game tag, the screen name that identifies the player. But he still didn't know his real name. Since he has his own blog, Jesse decided to write about what happened and included the clues he had.
DE LA CRUZ (on camera): This community posted everything on this kid.
DE LA CRUZ (voice-over): The online community was outraged and in just eight hours time had posted three pages of information on the teenager.
MCPHERSON: You have this instant messenger screen name, his name on MySpace, his IP address.
DE LA CRUZ: They even found this YouTube video of him rapping. The kid was quickly bombarded with angry messages.
MCPHERSON: They are taunting him saying what an idiot that he is, and he's going to end up in jail.
DE LA CRUZ: It was too much for Jesse's tormentor and the Xbox was dropped off on Jesse's doorstep, but the kid wasn't the real thief. Police say he bought the Xbox from the burglar, the guy pictured in the pawnshop. Amazingly, that guy decided to return the PowerBook taken from Jesse's home after hearing how the boy was attacked online.
DE LA CRUZ (on camera): So you really applaud this group who pulled together for you.
MCPHERSON: Yes. I think they're amazing people, and they're only trying to do what was right.
DE LA CRUZ (voice-over): Today Jesse is a local celebrity in Philly not only because of all the publicity he got in cyberspace, but in the real world, too.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DE LA CRUZ: Now, Philadelphia police have picked up one suspect on burglary charges. They have a warrant out on a second suspect. And as for the kid who was taunting Jesse online, he doesn't want to press charges because he believes that he got his just desserts.
ROBERTS: He probably got more than the police would have ever given him or the judge.
DE LA CRUZ: Yes.
ROBERTS: Obviously, a real testament here to the power of the Internet.
DE LA CRUZ: Yes.
ROBERTS: He got the Xbox back and the laptop. What about the TV?
DE LA CRUZ: Well, as for the TV, he says he's just going to go ahead and replace that on his own. You probably remember his colleagues all pitched in. They bought him another Xbox. He's going to return that, John, and he is going to take the money and donate it to a charity called Child's Play that buys toys and video games for sick kids in the hospital.
ROBERTS: Still hasn't gotten the TV back. No idea where it might be.
DE LA CRUZ: Doesn't care at this point to be quite honest with you. ROBERTS: Veronica, great story. Thanks very much.
DE LA CRUZ: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Kiran?
CHETRY: We have been telling you this morning the top two American officials in Iraq will be on Capitol Hill today. And just as they did back in September, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will tell lawmakers about security and the political progress in Iraq. In fact, the general is expected to pitch a plan for stopping troop cuts sometime in July.
It brings us to this morning's "Quick Vote" question. We're hearing from the general, but what's your take? What's your assessment on Iraq? Do you think we should give it more time? Do you think the situation is improving but not fast enough? Or it's a no- win situation for America.
Cast your vote, CNN.com/am. We'll get a tally of the votes a little later this hour. We also want your e-mails. Drop us a line CNN.com/am. Let us know what you think. We'll start reading them in the next hour as well.
ROBERTS: That should provoke a lot of interesting responses I would think.
CHETRY: Hopefully we'll hear from you.
ROBERTS: All right. We'll see you. We'll get watching on that.
You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
Trouble with the Olympic torch. The International Olympic Committee may decide to cancel this worldwide tour and maybe for all future Olympics as well. The torch within minutes of arriving in the United States that some of the protests there in San Francisco that are going to greet it when it arrives. Got a live report coming up from the Bay City next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING on this Tuesday. It's the 8th of April. And we're wondering if we're ever going to hit spring.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Sure doesn't feel like it.
ROBERTS: God, can you -- It's going to be 48 degrees today in New York City.
CHETRY: Yes, It's been a cold one.
ROBERTS: I mean, come please, a little bit of a break here.
CHETRY: It's been a cold one. We do need a little bit of a break. And, of course, the one bright spot, the cherry blossoms are out in Washington, D.C.
ROBERTS: Yes, beautiful out there. I was watching a baseball game yesterday from Atlanta thinking if only it was so nice there. Everybody is out there in short sleeves
CHETRY: Yes, exactly. Well, you're not going to be that way this summer.
ROBERTS: Maybe one of these days.
CHETRY: It's a give and take. Well, still ahead, not only are we talking about the fact that a lot is going on in D.C. today. The focus is going to be in Washington, but it's about Iraq.
We're talking about mortars, grenades, rockets, and rising violence in Baghdad as brand new clashes happened today between Iraqi troops and Shiite militias.
The U.S. military saying that U.S. rocket hit the heavily-guarded green zone. All of this despite a government ultimatum on anti- American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. To either disband his militia or get out of politics. Now, all of this comes just as the top U.S. Commander in Iraq will be in Capitol Hill today with his latest progress report on the war.
General David Petraeus questioned by lawmakers, including the three presidential candidates in the Senate.
Jill Dougherty is live for us in Baghdad with an update on this latest round of fighting and how that may play into what we're going to be hearing today on the hill.
CHETRY: Good morning, Jill.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. I can tell you we heard it last night. Overnight, these sporadic clashes that are taking place.
As you said, mortars, all sorts of fire, air power being brought in. Now, let me set the scene. It's happening in the northeast part of the city. It's about three miles from where we are. It's a gigantic slum, a Shiite slum, 2 million people in that slum. And so the fighting is literally house-to-house, and it's been pretty intense.
In fact, at latest from the interior ministry, they said 36 people had died, 139 people wounded over Sunday and Monday. So it is -- you can hear it happening, and it's happening as we know on the very day of some of that testimony back in Washington, D.C., later today.
Kiran?
CHETRY: And we're also seeing tomorrow marks the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. And I understand there have been some calls by some groups to mark that occasion. DOUGHERTY: There have. We were just talking about these militias. The militia, which is called the Mahdi Army, which supports the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. And he has called for a million of his supporters to show up in Baghdad to mark that anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein.
But the latest reports that are coming out from the head of -- the spokesman for his political party -- his political bloc, is saying that young men are being stopped in cars as they're trying to make their way into Baghdad. This could be a very big deal if they do get those million people out on the streets of Baghdad, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Jill Dougherty for us in Baghdad this morning. Thank you.
ROBERTS: The Olympic flame is set to arrive at the San Francisco Airport within the hour. It is the only North American stop for the torch on this tour. But there is breaking news this morning -- the International Olympic Committee may decide to scrap the rest of the international relay due to pro-Tibet protests.
Three climbers were arrested at the Golden Gate Bridge after hanging a Tibetan flag and two banners yesterday. The torch hits San Francisco streets. Later on, the city has said it will change or shorten the route if things get out of hand. That's what happened in Paris where the city yesterday skipped the final leg of the run after protesters caused chaos along the route. The torch was extinguished at least a couple of times and put aboard a bus taken to other locations, but they eventually had to cancel the whole procession.
Kara Finnstrom is in San Francisco this morning, awaiting the torch's arrival.
Any idea what protesters had got on tap for today, Kara?
KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Quite a bit. We've actually been watching, John, just below us the security presence being beefed up because within about 30 minutes now, that Olympic torch expected to be brought off of a chartered plane into this terminal. And security concerns are extremely high now throughout the city.
So high that, as you mentioned, the International Olympic Committee is now considering scrapping the international part of this torch relay, which would mean it would essentially take place just within China. Discussions on that due to take place on Friday, which would be after the relay, of course, here in San Francisco.
We want to show you some video of a small protest that did take place yesterday before this torch even arrived. Three people scaling the Golden Gate Bridge, hoisting up a Tibetan flag and some banners. This group saying that they wanted to protest China's policies towards Tibet, as well as what they call its dismal human rights record.
Thousands of other protesters are expected here in San Francisco today into tomorrow. This relay expected to start tomorrow around 1:00 local time. Two of the big names expected to be here. The Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as well as actor Richard Gere.
Now, the city itself says it is taking steps to try and ensure the people can express their opinions as well as protect this torch as it continues on its relay here. Some of the things they have taken -- steps they have taken, they have reduced the length of this route from eight miles to six. They also say that they are going to be staging firefighters and some ambulances along the route just as a precaution, John. Back to you.
ROBERTS: Quite an amazing scene there yesterday, Kara, watching those protesters scale that bridge. And obviously, a tremendous amount of sympathy for what's going on there in Tibet. We'll be watching all day today and again tomorrow to see exactly how they express themselves on that point. Kara Finnstrom for us at San Francisco International Airport this morning. Kara, thanks.
You can follow the torch and all of the news on the protest by logging on to our Web site at cnn.com/olympics.
Kiran?
CHETRY: Well, there is new follow up this morning from the congressional investigation to the Federal Aviation Administration's mishandling of airline safety inspection. The man who oversaw the agency's Southwest office has now been reassigned.
A spokeswoman for the FAA says Thomas Stuckey is still working at the agency but no longer oversees safety issues. He's the second person to be removed after an investigation found that Southwest Airlines flew jets without required inspections.
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is telling hospitals to protect patient's records. This after he and his wife's medical files were breached. "The Los Angeles Times" says Maria Shriver was one of more than 30 celebrity patient whose records were looked at by an employee at UCLA medical center. "The Time" said it was the same person fired for looking at actress, Farrah Fawcett's files last year.
Schwarzenegger said his files were also opened by unauthorized people. A California health official says the state will be taking action against UCLA.
Well, New York City has proposed congestion pricing plan is shot down. Mayor Michael Bloomberg had proposed an $8 charge for drivers to enter the busiest areas of Manhattan. I think it was $20 per trucks.
He'd hoped that the fee would prompt more people to use mass transit. Reduce traffic and pollution. But the state assembly speaker said the plan did not have enough support to even bring it up for a vote.
Online sales are expected to rise 17 percent this year to $204 billion affording to the National Retail Federation. Meanwhile, traditional brick and mortar stores are still seeing a slowdown. A report Thursday is expected to show that retailers' sales figures have actually stayed flat in March.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, those National Retail Federation numbers. They're not entirely forth coming. Online sales are rising because people increasingly use the Internet more. It's not actually a boost in sales.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: They kind -- I kind of get tired of the National Retail Federation spinning how it's not a downturn. So, you know.
CHETRY: I got you. But the other interesting thing a lot of times people do shop online for the convenience.
VELSHI: Yes. And with gas prices and shipping charges, sure it does make sense.
CHETRY: Right. But we're wondering how long until we stop seeing free shipping in a lot of these sites, because it's still costing retailers.
VELSHI: I'm actually thinking it will probably for the rest of the year you will see more of it than less, because they got to get it somewhere.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Because people are driving to the mall less. They're going less frequently. So if they can do that, you might even see free delivery from restaurants, fast food -- you know, the casual restaurants.
ROBERTS: And then people may have a little less discretionary income this year not only because of the price of gasoline and other things like that, but the price of food continues to go up.
VELSHI: You know, we saw on Monday, a record price for rice. We saw I think on Friday, you pointed out, a record price for corn. We have seen record prices for wheat in the last few weeks.
In fact, the World Bank says that over the last eight years, since 2000, average prices, that's average, this is everything you eat, not these commodities they grow. 75 percent increase over -- from 2000 and 2008.
But take a look at the wheat, the rice and the maize which is what (INAUDIBLE) this morning. Since 2008, wheat is up 362 percent, rice 318 percent. Maize, corn, 250 percent.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Because these numbers come from the World Bank and the FAO. We refer to this maize as a commodity.
These prices are not -- this is not a sudden thing nor does the World Bank say it's going to stop anytime soon. 36 countries are now in a crisis that will require -- remember, this is a big deal. Remember the (INAUDIBLE), remember things like that, 36 countries are in a crisis because these are their staple foods.
I spoke to the vice president from Sierra Leone yesterday. This is a country that battled civil war for years. Finally, had a peaceful election and transition. Rice is their staple. And rice hit a record on Monday. Like this is a real problem for people.
CHETRY: What are they attributing that humongous?
VELSHI: This America's ridiculous policy of making fuel out of corn. Making fuel out of a food and demand.
ROBERTS: But how does that affect rice?
CHETRY: Right.
VELSHI: What's happened? There are two issues going on. India, China, and other developing countries are consuming more because their populations are getting wealthier. So there's a natural increase in all the other commodities. But Europe and the U.S. have gone toward this growing corn for biofuels.
ROBERTS: But you just said the price of rice in Sierra Leone is pegged to what we're doing with corn. I don't get that.
VELSHI: The general increase in food over the last eight years is priced to the increase in the use of biofuel. The fact that you've replaced growing corn -- growing wheat, soybeans, sorghum, and these like that with a growing corn.
Rice, you're right. It doesn't grow in the same places as the corn grows in. But Rice has seen an increase in demand because of population increase. So you've got the combination of people needing more food and less food actually being produced. So you can't replace your rice consumption in a country like Sierra Leone for instance.
You can't say, all right, guys rice is really expensive so we're going to switch to wheat or corn because everything has gone up because of western policies of using food to grow fuel.
You can't take things that you eat and make it into fuel for your car. You can take garbage from sugar cane, like they do in Brazil and make that into fuel for your car, because that was garbage. But corn is food. So it's pushed the price of everything else up because you can't substitute. Sierra Leone and other countries import rice. They don't grow it there. But they can import something else because it's all expensive. That's the problem.
ROBERTS: You talk to some interesting folks.
VELSHI: You got to do something in the afternoon. When I'm like those babies, I'm not sleeping enough.
ROBERTS: All right. Ali, thanks very much. CHETRY: Well, a service provided by Google allows users to see pictures of streets as if you're standing there. You know, when they first talked about launching this, there were a lot of questions. Is this a huge invasion of privacy? Well now, one couple is up in arms over what they say is happening. What would you do if Google was literally in your front lawn? We're going to talk more about it, coming up.
Also, three senators who want to be president are getting a chance to talk about what they would do as president as it relates to the Iraq War. Where exactly do they stand on the conflict? We're going to explore their positions on the war ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. The Iraq war dominating the presidential campaign today. The commander of multinational forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, as well as Ambassador Ryan Crocker, will be testifying before two Senate committees today, and all three major presidential candidates will get a chance to question them.
So where exactly do the candidates stand on the war? And what can we expect today, as they do question the general and the ambassador on issue number two. One of the biggest things on the campaign trail. What to do about Iraq. Joining me now from Washington CNN political analyst John Dickerson.
First of all, it's going to be a change for them to be senators, right? They've been campaigning for the past months.
JOHN DICKERSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. They get to ask questions now instead of being peppered with questions themselves.
CHETRY: Let's go through where the different candidates stand, what their positions are, and what we might be able to expect starting with John McCain. Of course, he's been a supporter of the war in Iraq even though he has been critical of some of the decisions the Bush administration has made. But he did initially vote for the use of force, and he also was one of the early supporters for sending more troops in the so-called surge.
So how critical is the success in Iraq for McCain's candidacy and how is he going to make that known today in his questioning.
DICKERSON: Well, it's critical for McCain. But the real critical test for McCain is that he doesn't look like he's talking up success too much. One of the reasons he's able to distance himself and has been able to distance himself from the Bush administration is that he is seen as an honest broker. He puts himself forward as a straight talker.
Well now, that he's running, he's pushing the fact that the surge has worked. He can't get caught, as he did in one of his visits to Baghdad, sort of giving happy talk about how things are going. He needs to look realistic or as a president he's going to look like more of the same that voters have gotten from the Bush administration.
CHETRY: And two things that we've heard from him on the trail, as he criticizes the Democrats, is failure of leadership and irresponsibility saying that what they're suggesting to pull out now is, quote, "irresponsible." So are we going to be hearing more about -- from his questioning, the dangers of leaving too early?
ROBERTS: That's right. He'll talk about - he's got two goals in his questioning or in -- most importantly in his statements afterwards. They won't get to do a whole lot in their questioning, but it will be, "A," that things are success, and, "B," that America can't leave now or leave too quickly.
CHETRY: You know, on the flip side, the Democrats are saying, you talk about the height of irresponsibility. We can't have an open- ended commitment that is draining America. And so let's talk about Senator Barack Obama. He's the presidential candidate who opposed the use of military force from the beginning. Now, he wasn't in office -- he wasn't a senator at the time, right? He was against it, but he was not in a position to vote, correct?
DICKERSON: That's right. Yes, he was just a candidate.
CHETRY: Then, at the time, back in later voting, he did vote to withdraw troops by March of '08. And of course, opposed the president's plan to send in additional troops. He's also the one that says that there would be an immediate drawdown when he takes office.
So what do we need to hear and what will we hear from Senator Barack Obama today?
DICKERSON: Well, Obama has two challenges. One, he needs to look presidential. He needs to look in command of the moment. However, he frames his question. That's the way voters are looking at him now. And he needs to reassert that he was right in the first place. And explain, sort of, -- or show how he would take command of things once he's president.
He also has another interesting challenge which is moveon.org, which was very tough on General Petraeus. The last time he testified, is now supporting Obama's candidacy. When moveon was tough on Petraeus, Obama tried to sort of straddle. He didn't want to attack Petraeus but he also didn't want to attack moveon.
What will he do now? He's had some questions about his patriotism shown up in the polling. The last few poll showed that. And so, he has an interesting challenge there in terms of being critical but also looking like he could be, in fact the commander-in- chief of the armed forces.
CHETRY: So as you talk about he's going to be straddling, you know, a delicate line. Perhaps so will Senator Hillary Clinton because she has a perhaps more nuance situation when it comes to this. She initially did vote for the -- authorize the use of military force. Then she had later said that if she knew what she knows now, she would have voted differently. She also talks about a phased redeployment but she says that within 60 days of taking office, or a little bit of a longer time period than Barack Obama saying immediately, she would begin looking at getting troops out of Iraq. What is her challenge today?
DICKERSON: Well, her challenge is to try and steal -- it's the challenge that's been with her all campaign, which is make up for the fact that she voted for the war. And then she hasn't said it's a mistake. She says, as you point out, that she knew now what she knew then, but that hasn't helped her on the campaign trail.
She needs to also assert the -- or support the notion that she's been asserting that she would make the stronger commander-in-chief. That she is the better of the two Democratic candidates against John McCain. She needs to show that.
And she needs to shake things up. She's behind and her campaign has been trying to shake things up. She needs a better storyline than that her chief strategist had to be demoted, which has been the storyline of the last days.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we'll all be listening and watching for sure. Bet you some of this might show up in campaign ads in the general election as well.
John Dickerson, great to see you. Thanks.
DICKERSON: Thanks.
CHETRY: Couple of quick programming notes as well. Senator Hillary Clinton will be our guest live here on AMERICAN MORNING in just a few minutes. In fact, she's joining us at 7:15 Eastern. You can stick around for that.
Also, CNN will be carrying today's hearings on Iraq live starting at 9:30 Eastern Time. If you're at work, you can also check it out on your computer, cnn.com/live.
ROBERTS: Pictures of your house and backyard could be just a Google search away. Does your privacy end on the Internet? We'll ask AMERICAN MORNING legal analyst Sunny Hostin.
And a quick reminder, we want your e-mails on our question of the morning. What's your assessment of how things are going in Iraq? Go to our Web site at ccn.com/am. We'll be reading those. Coming up in just a few minutes. We're back in just a moment.
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ROBERTS: Six minutes to the top of the hour. Imagine buying a home for its secluded location only to have images from your driveway posted on the Internet.
A couple in Pittsburgh is filing suit against Google over its panoramic street level maps saying their private information was made public. What are your rights when it comes to pictures of your property? AMERICAN MORNING's legal analyst Sunny Hostin is here now to explain.
Now, those particular images because of the lawsuit, Google blanked them out. But there are plenty of other images on the Internet that we found surfing around yesterday on this new Street View facility of people's homes, where it looks they've gone right up your driveway.
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Exactly. And that is not legal. You know, I always get the opportunity to decide is it legal, is it not? This is not legal. It's completely illegal in that this is private property. These are people that took the pains to be on a private driveway with a big sign that said private road. And they're alleging trespass and invasion of privacy.
And I have tell you, I've been reviewing this lawsuit this morning and it's short, it's quick, it's dirty, it's to the point. It's only 10 pages. It's not like this 50-page lawsuit. And it says they used one of these camera cars, a car with a big digital camera on top.
ROBERTS: Yes, in fact, we've got a picture of one of those. And now -- not to say that this is an actual Google car. But it's very similar to this. So, if you see this running around your neighborhood, you know that more likely than not it's mapping for this street view for maps.google.com.
HOSTIN: That's right, John. And running around your neighborhood or driving around your neighborhood is one thing. Driving onto your driveway is another. You can certainly take pictures on a public roadway. That is not a problem. When it does become a problem is when you're on a private driveway, private roadway.
ROBERTS: Now here is another example that we found yesterday. As we said, that one image was blocked out. But look at this. The car has gone right up to the driveway.
You see the trampoline, the basketball net. You can scroll up and down here as well. I mean, you can get close to looking in windows. We don't know if you actually can see that, but this car has obviously driven right up this person's driveway. Now it is labeled as a lane, I believe.
HOSTIN: Yes.
ROBERTS: This is a certain lane in the city of Pittsburgh -- a Pittsburgh suburb. So, perhaps they thought that it was a road, not somebody's driveway. But, I mean, if a car gets this close, what are the potential penalties for somebody who is driving it?
HOSTIN: I have to tell you, that is trespass. Trespass -- easy trespass case. And it's also an invasion of privacy. People are expected to be protected in their homes, in their persons, in their things, especially inside of their home. People walk around naked, John, in their home. They don't think that someone's going to drive up through their driveway with a camera taking pictures into their window.
ROBERTS: Now, here's what Google said about it. "There are instances when it may not be immediately obvious that we're on private property and drivers make mistakes. When we find out about those instances, we try to act quickly to address these issues."
Do you expect that they're going to get a flurry of complaints as people now say, wow, let me see where my property is and what you can see?
HOSTIN: Absolutely. But I think, John, what Google is going to do is they're going to try to stick their thumb in the dam here. These people are only suing for $25,000. And they want the pictures destroyed. And they want their home taken off the Internet. And I think that's what's going to happen here. This is going to be quietly, quietly settled and there aren't going to be a flurry of lawsuits.
ROBERTS: Well, a lot of people are going to be looking at Street View from now on.
HOSTIN: That's right.
ROBERTS: Sunny Hostin, thanks very much.
Kiran?
CHETRY: Well, ahead, Hillary Clinton joins us live. The Democratic presidential candidate preparing for a key hearing on Capitol Hill today. And she has tough questions about the war to ask. And we have questions for her. We're going to be talking with her, coming up in just about 15 minutes here on AMERICAN MORNING.
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