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American Morning

Hurricane Bertha Now a Category Three Storm; McCain Promises to Balance Budget; Rescued Hostages Speak Out; Diplomat Volunteers for Iraq Duty; Iraqi Prime Minister Calls for Timetable for U.S. Troop Withdrawal; Christian License Plate; President Bush's Olympic Trip

Aired July 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: McCain, 2.0.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: American families need tax relief. And I, not my opponent, will deliver it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: A new approach and new focus on your money. We look at the promises and whether he can keep them.

Plus, Hurricane Bertha. The first major storm of the season getting bigger right now. Whether it could hit the U.S. and where on this AMERICAN MORNING.

That's right. We were tracking that just a couple seconds ago and noting that that hurricane did move north. So we'll see, kind of getting a little close to Bermuda at this point.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Is it any threat to the United States? That's the big question today and something that we'll be talking about.

It's the 8th of July. Good morning to you. It's a Tuesday morning. We begin with Bertha on the move in the Atlantic. Let's take a look at the latest satellite picture.

Hurricane Bertha strengthening to a major Category Three storm with winds of up to 120 miles an hour. Right now, swirling out over the Atlantic posing no immediate threat to land. Forecasters say it's too soon to tell whether it's going to hit Bermuda. Not likely to make landfall in the United States, unlike its namesake of 12 years ago, Bertha, which slammed into Wrightsville in Topsail Beach in North Carolina at Category Two.

This morning they're checking the damage after a powerful earthquake rocked southern Japan. It measured a magnitude six and struck a little bit more than an hour ago. So far, no reports of any injuries or major damage.

The quake was not felt some 1,400 miles away at the G-8 Summit in Japan in the island of Hokkaido. Leaders are endorsing a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by the year 2050. Their joint declaration says it must be done with the cooperation of all major economies which would include China and India, which are not members of the G-8.

President Bush has been reluctant to move forward without having China and India on board. The G-8 leaders also called for an increase in oil production and refining capacity to counter soaring energy prices worldwide.

CHETRY: Well, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain is rolling out his plan to fix the economy. He says he can help Americans by creating jobs, cutting taxes and balancing the federal budget by the end of his first term. But can McCain realistically wipe out the red ink in the federal budget in just four years?

Our CNN's Allan Chernoff joins us live right now with a fact check of sorts of McCain's big economic plan. Good to see you this morning.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. And you know, in theory, anything is possible. But in practice, analysts are saying let's not count on this happening.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF (voice-over): John McCain claims he can balance the federal budget.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: American workers and families pay their bills and balance their budgets, and I'll demand the same thing of our government, which you're not getting now.

CHERNOFF: Is there any way it can be done? The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says yes, even predicting a surplus by fiscal year 2012 under current law. How? Because the Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire in 2010. And the alternative minimum tax introduced in the '70s to ensure the wealthy pay income tax is due to affect more middle income households. But that is not what John McCain has in mind.

MCCAIN: American families need tax relief. And I, not my opponent, will deliver it.

CHERNOFF: McCain pledges to extend the Bush tax cuts. And protect millions of Americans from paying the alternative minimum tax. Those promises, some experts say, would dramatically increase the budget deficit.

BOB GREENSTEIN, CENTER FOR BUDGET AND POLICY PRIORITIES: The chance that he would really balance the budget by the end of his first four years, near zero.

CHERNOFF: On the spending side, John McCain says he won't back down in Iraq or Afghanistan. But the wars are costly budgeted at $188 billion this coming fiscal year.

STEPHEN BIDDLE, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: To the extent that it becomes possible to draw troop levels down in Iraq, there's going to be a tremendous demand not to bring them home, set them down and not use them but to swing them or at least some significant fraction of them to Afghanistan.

CHERNOFF: Even if U.S. troops in Iraq were cut by 80 percent, the Urban-Brookings Tax Center says McCain would still face a deficit of nearly $450 billion. To balance the budget, McCain would have to make cuts as severe as chopping Social Security by 50 percent, slashing Medicare by 70 percent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF: And, of course, that is not going to happen. Now another note here, McCain is saying in order to balance the budget, he needs to have reasonable economic growth.

Given the fact that right now the economy is pretty lousy, it's reasonable to expect that once the next president does take office, the economy is going to be growing at a sub par rate. So Kiran, at least to start, very unlikely we'd have that reasonable growth. You need that growth to get tax revenue.

CHETRY: Exactly. At this point we'll take any growth.

Allan Chernoff, good stuff. Thanks for joining us this morning.

And one programming note, we are going to be speaking with Senator John McCain. He's going to be joining us this morning on AMERICAN MORNING -- John.

ROBERTS: All right. Looking forward to that. That's our 8:00 hour this morning.

Meantime, Senator Barack Obama was making his economic pitch by telephone to about 200 people in Charlotte, North Carolina. Why on the phone? Well, he was supposed to be there in person. Mechanical trouble though forced his plane to land in St. Louis. Obama fired back at McCain for criticizing his economic plan. Obama saying McCain's numbers just don't add up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know that during his statements he was also making some suggestions that my plan would raise taxes on the middle class. That is absolutely not the case. And everybody who has looked at it has said that, in fact, my tax cuts are three times more likely to go to the middle class than John McCain's.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Obama says under his plan 95 percent of Americans would get a tax cut.

This morning we have a better idea of what life was like for the three Americans held hostage in the jungles of Colombia for five years. They spoke out for the first time about their ordeal, blasting their captors and revealing what kept them alive during that ordeal.

Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, it was the first public comments made by the freed American hostages since their rescue. And it happened in a choreographed ceremony at Brooke Army Medical Center where they've spent the last five days. And it offered a brief glimpse into what life was like for the men in the Colombian jungle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Thomas Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell forever bonded by their hostage ordeal, and their first words gave you a sense of the despair they endured.

THOMAS HOWES, FORMER HOSTAGE: Almost five and a half years ago, we fell off the edge of the earth. My companions helped me cope with the difficult conditions.

MARC GONSALVES, FORMER HOSTAGE: There was a time that when I slept, I would dream that I was free. That time was only a few days ago. It feels so good to be free here now with all of you.

KEITH STANSELL, FORMER HOSTAGE: To my country, this doesn't run, who never forgot me, never. It is my privilege to stand here before you with my family. They are, these people here, the reason that I'm alive.

LAVANDERA: With their families standing next to them, the former hostages made brief statements, answered no questions and thanked the Colombian soldiers who orchestrated their rescue and asked people to remember that there are others just like them.

HOWES: We're doing well, but we cannot forget those that we left behind in captivity.

GONSALVES: Right now, right now, they're wearing chains around their necks. They're going to get up early tomorrow morning. They're going to put a heavy backpack on their backs. They're going to be forced to march with that chain on their neck while a guerrilla with an automatic weapon is holding the other end of this chain like a dog.

LAVANDERA: Marc Gonsalves spoke the longest and issued a blistering critique of the Colombian rebels who held him captive.

GONSALVES: I want to send a message to the FARC. FARC, you guys are terrorists. You deny that you are. You say with words that you're not terrorists. But your words don't have any value.

Don't tell us that you're not terrorists. Show us that you're not terrorists. Let those other hostages come home.

LAVANDERA: Gonsalves says he's grateful that he no longer has to dream of coming home. But that reminded Keith Stansell who wants to go home to Florida of one problem of being free. STANSELL: And to Governor Crist of the great state of Florida, sir, I don't have a driver's license. How am I going to get home?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: There's no word yet on when these men will leave Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Their doctors continue to say that they have no significant medical problems and that they all appear to be in very good health. John and Kiran, back to you.

CHETRY: Ed Lavandera for us. Thank you.

Well, new this morning. For the first time ever, Iraq's prime minister is calling for a timetable to get U.S. forces out of Iraq. Nouri al-Maliki saying he wants to plan to be part of a security deal between Iraq and the United States that they're now negotiating.

Iraq's leader did not offer specifics, but Pentagon officials stress that any withdrawal would be based on the performance of Iraqi security forces. Al-Maliki also says Baghdad has an unofficial formula for troop withdrawal "on the table." President Bush has repeatedly said no to any firm timetable.

And there's a new study out by four retired military officers that finds gays in the military do not undermine unit cohesion and suggests Congress should repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy." Included in the studies panel, the same three star Air Force lieutenant general who helped draft the current guidelines. The panel points to British and Israeli militaries both of which allow gays and lesbians in uniform to be open about their sexuality.

ROBERTS: So how is the economy doing? A new CNN poll out shows more of you think we are in a recession. Ali Velshi crunches the numbers for us just ahead.

CHETRY: Volunteer army.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN NALAND, PRES., AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOC: It would be hard for me to encourage others to go if I didn't do it myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: He's not a soldier, but he's leaving his family behind to serve in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA NALAND, JOHN NALAND'S WIFE: A lot of families are in the same boat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Oh, "Going All Around the World" this morning. Is that the Bangles?

CHETRY: The B-52's.

ROBERTS: B-52's, right. There you go. OK.

CHETRY: Good old karaoke days.

ROBERTS: Yes.

CHETRY: Got to remember that song.

ROBERTS: Well, talk about all around the world, we know that here at CNN the economy is -- and here to talk more about that -- our own Ali Velshi.

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Listen, I have some good news and bad news for you right now. First of all, the tough news is that we had a rough day on the markets yesterday and that has started to catapult around the world. So we have the Asian markets closing substantially lower.

We don't typically look at this thing but we have sort of little signals to tell us it might be important to look at. Hong Kong was down more than 3.2 percent overnight. The Nikkei down 2.5 percent. Australia down 1.4.

Over in London, Frankfurt and Paris, they're all off 2 1/3 percent. Take a look at the Dow. This is why this might be good news it might be bad news. Take a look at the Dow over the last year.

You can sort of see at the right side of the screen it's dipped quite dramatically in the last month or so. And that has some people saying, wow, this is really serious. And it has other people saying maybe this is an opportunity with the Dow and the S&P, about 20 percent off their highs from October to start getting into the market. This could be an inflection point.

I don't know whether it is or not, but it definitely has people talking about it. Now, what do you think about the economy?

Well, a new CNN/Opinion Research poll says that three quarters of you believe we are in a recession. That's the bad news. The good news is that's actually down a little bit from the last time we asked this question on a very broad basis. This is a very big poll that we do.

In April, 79 percent of you thought so. Back in January, it was just 61 percent and October, it was 46 percent. So some of you think things are getting better. It might be by virtue of the fact that in this campaign we're talking about it so much.

How long will this recession last for those of you who believe we are in one? Two of you -- two percent of you say less than six months. Eighteen percent say six months to a year. Thirty percent say one to two years. Twenty-three percent say longer than that. Of course, a quarter of you think there's no recession.

Interestingly, recessions recently have been eight to 10 months long. So it's not likely that we'll see a two-year recession. So again, but that's what you think and we'll continue to track that as we go along.

ROBERTS: Susan Lisovicz had some interesting figures yesterday. I guess it was '73, '74, it was 18 months long?

VELSHI: Yes. But they have shortened since then. That's the thing. They've really, really shorten since then.

ROBERTS: We're used to shorter ones.

VELSHI: We -- the cycle is better. We tend to be more efficient. By the way, the main difference back in those days when there was a recession, people got stuck with inventory that wasn't sold. We're now much more efficient with inventory, so people don't buy stuff. You don't have warehouses full of stuff that isn't being sold. That's the big difference.

CHETRY: Very interesting. All right, Ali. See you soon.

VELSHI: OK.

CHETRY: Well, being told when to go home. Iraq's prime minister says that he wants a timetable for U.S. troops to get out. Are the Iraqi Security Forces ready to go it alone?

Also, we're tracking Hurricane Bertha. Gaining strength now, growing into a powerful Category Three storm. Rob Marciano is following this, and he'll join us right now from the weather center. Hey, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Kiran. Yes, this has grown to quite a storm overnight. We'll talk about where it is and where it's going when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: We have some new pictures to share with you now. A lot of unique interpretations of what this is this morning. But really, it is one of the planets in the solar system. Mercury.

For the past five months, scientists at NASA have been scrutinizing these photos and they're coming out with some surprising announcements. Among them, traces of water, they say, seen on Mercury. And active magnetic field and proof that the planet is shrinking. Scientists say new measurements show Mercury has shrunk by more than a mile in diameter over its history.

Pretty neat stuff this morning. Sixteen after the hour.

Rob Marciano in the weather center. Are you fascinated as a meteorologist when I come with this type of stuff?

MARCIANO: Absolutely. Any shot from space just gets me all jazzed up. CHETRY: What are the chances they're going to get rid of Mercury, too? They got rid of Pluto as a planet, right?

MARCIANO: Yes, you know, it just tells you that our world -- our universe is getting even more cozy, right?

CHETRY: I guess.

MARCIANO: Just a shot from outer space here. This is one of the satellites we use to track hurricanes. They've been around, you know, for a few decades now and they've certainly helped.

The satellite imagery here has shown that Bertha is getting a little bit smaller. Winds now 120. That's the same intensity at around 5:00, almost the same as 5:00 yesterday afternoon. Still over 1,000 miles from Bermuda. Winds gusting to 150 miles an hour.

You see that eye that's beginning to collapse a little bit. So it's hitting some waters that are a little bit on the chillier side than what we've seen the past couple of days because it's made that turn to the north just a little bit. So that's the good news.

We do expect it to weaken just a little bit. This is the official forecast out of the National Hurricane Center. Just to give you an idea of what we're dealing with, these are the sea surface temperatures. These numbers -- 25, 27, 28 degrees Celsius. The threshold is about 26, 27. So you get over into the Caribbean and into the Gulf of Mexico, that's when we really start to see -- that's where we would expect storms to develop this time of year.

This storm developed way out there towards Africa. That's one of the reasons that we were surprised by it. But it looks like it's not going to get to the East Coast of the U.S. That's good news. We'll watch it as it gets closer and closer to Bermuda.

And we'll also talk more about the California fire situation heating up out there again today. John and Kiran, back up to you.

ROBERTS: Last thing they need out there. Thanks, Rob. We'll see you again soon.

A medical mistake at a hospital exposes 14 newborns to dangerous levels of a blood thinner. We'll tell you how it happened and how the infants are doing this morning.

Dangerous assignment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZAIN VERJEE, STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Why is it important for you to volunteer to go to Iraq?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Zain Verjee talks to a diplomat being shipped off to a war zone. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning." (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's coming up at 21 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning."

More foreign service officers are serving in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year the State Department had a tough time filling diplomatic posts in Iraq. Now, one career diplomat is stepping up, hoping to lead by example.

Here's Zain Verjee with the latest in a series that focuses on the dangers and challenges the new diplomats face today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAIN VERJEE, STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not just American troops risking their lives to serve in Iraq. The State Department is struggling to get diplomats to sign up for the jobs, too.

John Naland, head of the union of U.S. diplomats, answered the call and will leave his family for one year to lead a reconstruction team in Iraq's Diyala province.

VERJEE (on camera): Why is it important for you to volunteer to go to Iraq?

JOHN NALAND, PRES., AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOC: Well, we're a U.S. foreign service family. And so, the key words are foreign and service. It would be hard for me to encourage others to go if I didn't do it myself.

VERJEE (voice-over): For all foreign service families, hard choices.

BARBARA NALAND, JOHN NALAND'S WIFE: A lot of families are in the same boat.

NALAND: Not seeing my two daughters go through a whole year of their elementary school career.

B. NALAND: I think we can manage, you know, for a year. It's obviously -- I'm more worried about him because he will be in a dangerous place even though the violence is down.

VERJEE: Last year the State Department was burned by bad publicity after threatening to fire diplomats who refused to serve in Iraq. The stormy town hall meeting ended in confrontation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a potential death sentence and you know it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't you or anybody else stand there and tell me I don't care about my colleagues.

VERJEE: This time around, the department's playing it cool. Thanking, not threatening. CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: Employees and their families deserve our nation's gratitude. I assure you that they have mine. And I encourage you to join our teams in Baghdad and Kabul.

PATRICK KENNEDY, UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE: Foreign service people and civil service colleagues as well have stepped up, and I have every belief that they'll do the same thing this year.

VERJEE: It's too dangerous for diplomat's families to live in Iraq or Afghanistan, so John Naland, like many others, will step up on their own while their families wait and worry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Zain Verjee reporting for us this morning.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says more diplomats are needed to deal with the dangerous world. There are about 900 unaccompanied positions today. That's four times more than in 2001, and most of those are in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CHETRY: Speaking of Iraq, the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, sends a message to the U.S. and to its neighbors that Iraq wants a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces. How would that work on the ground? We're going to talk about that coming up.

ROBERTS: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, Ali's energy hunt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is what we came here to see. This is oil sand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: The land of giant trucks where billions of barrels of oil are literally right under your feet. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." For the first time ever, Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, says that he wants a timetable for getting U.S. forces out of his country. It's something the White House has rejected in the past calling it an artificial timetable that it has to really go with conditions on the ground. Al-Maliki's suggestion comes as a new security pact between the U.S. and Iraq is still under negotiation.

Vali Nasr is a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations and he recently returned from Iraq and joins me now from Washington to talk more about this. Great to see you this morning.

VALI NASR, SR. FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Good to see you.

CHETRY: So this is the first time at least publicly that Nouri al- Maliki has spoken about Iraq setting a timetable for withdrawal. There's a lot of questions, of course, here in the U.S. about the U.S. government setting a timetable for withdrawal. First of all, the significance of that announcement, Vali?

NASR: The greatest significance is that -- is domestic for Nouri al- Maliki's base of power in Iraq. His government has been battered in the past months for entering into these negotiations over the future role of the United States in Iraq in which Iraq is thinking Iraq will be giving up a lot of its sovereignty to the United States without any notion of when U.S. occupation in Iraq would be over.

And Maliki has suffered legitimacy in Iraq for those status of force negotiations. His asking for a timetable is his way of telling his countrymen that his independent of Washington and he can actually stand up to Washington. And therefore, shore up his own base within Iraq.

CHETRY: Meantime, while there have been security gains made in Iraq, there seems to still be problems when it comes to infrastructure. What about taking care of those problems first?

NASR: Well, without a doubt Iraq is doing better security wise. There's fewer attacks and there are more areas of the country now under Iraqi Security Forces. But the challenge is that the Iraqi government has to provide electricity, jobs, basic services to the population. And that is still wanting.

The Iraqi government in many ways is still dysfunctional. Its reaching to the country is very limited and it relies heavily on the United States in order to be able to govern Iraq. And those are challenges that Maliki is facing and would have to be able to deal with if his government is able to stabilize.

CHETRY: So you were there last month. You had a chance to meet with both Iraqi and U.S. leaders. Is this what Iraqi citizens want?

NASR: Iraqi citizens definitely would like to see more stability and more security in the country. They are also very eager to see more jobs, more services, greater economic development.

CHETRY: But would they like to see U.S. forces gone?

NASR: What they want is ultimately the U.S. forces gone. But what they also want is that Iraq be treated as an independent country with its sovereignty respected. And the current negotiations between the United States and Iraq have created the sense in Iraq that that's not the case.

These negotiations are not transparent. Iraqis think that Iraq is giving up all of its sovereignty to the United States. And that's not a good situation for an Iraqi politician like Maliki to be in, to be seen as signing an agreement that Iraqis don't like and think to be unpatriotic.

CHETRY: I got you. All right. Well, we'll see how that goes. As we know, the U.S. has been trying to push for those negotiations to continue moving forward and Iraqi leaders like Maliki are the ones that have said let's slow this down and take a look. So this latest announcement as you said is probably as a result of that and some of the pressures within the country.

Very interesting. And we'll continue to follow it. Vali Nasr, great to have you with us today. Thanks.

NASR: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Coming up to the half hour mark now. And here's some of your top stories today.

A bipartisan group is proposing legislation that would require the president to get the approval of Congress before sending U.S. troops into action. Under the revised war powers plan, the president would have to consult with lawmakers if combat lasts longer than a week. Tomorrow we'll hear from the co-chairman of the legislation, former Secretaries of State James Baker and Warren Christopher.

Hurricane Bertha now a major Category Three storm with winds of 120 miles an hour with higher gusts. Forecasters expect the Atlantic season's first hurricane to head somewhere toward Bermuda. Still too soon to tell if Bertha is going to hit land and Bermuda is in the crosshairs. But people there are being advised to monitor the storm's progress.

A medical scare in Texas after 14 babies were accidentally given too much of the anti-clotting drug Heparin. Officials say it appears the error occurred when the pharmacy was mixing the medicine. It's not clear how much of an overdose they received. Two of the newborns have been were released, the others are still being monitored. You'll remember that an overdose of Heparin was also given to Actor Dennis Quaid's twins back in November. In that case the children were given an adult dose of the drug.

To Japan now, and the meeting of the leaders of the group of eight leading industrial nations, or the G-8. This morning the White House is endorsing a group goal of cutting greenhouse gasses by mid century.

CNN's Elaine Quijano joins us now from the island of Hokkaido with more on this global target.

Elaine, we talked with Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair last week about all of this. He said that it's going to take some pretty drastic action to get those levels down by the year 2050.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. And critics are already saying that this is not drastic enough.

John, that goal, we should tell you, has a big caveat attached to it. First of all, the goal that the G-8 leaders agreed to was backing a long-term goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by the year 2050.

Now, the caveat is that all major economies, i.e., China and India, would also have to sign on in order for this to move forward. That's, of course, a nod to President Bush's position.

Now, environmentalists are already saying that they are disappointed. They argue that the goal doesn't do enough to head off the worst effects of climate change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM CARSTENSEN, WORLD WILDLIFE FUND: Setting a goal for 2050 is somehow too far off. I mean, it is important to have a goal. It is important to also have a long-term vision. And I think the 2050 is a good vehicle for that.

But what we are really missing is a goal that also binds us much closer to home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, G-8 leaders did agree to implement mid-term goals, goals that they called, quote, "ambitious." But, John, they did not elaborate on what specifically those goals would be -- John.

ROBERTS: Elaine Quijano with the very latest for us from the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) summit.

Elaine, thanks very much.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN CO-ANCHOR: Well, for the first time, three Americans held hostage for more than five years in Colombia are speaking about the cruelty they endured at the hands of a rebel group called FARC. Emotions were raw as one of the men talked of the hell those who are still being held have to endure for their escape and blasted the group, calling them terrorists who pretend to be fighting for the poor.

Here's Mark Gonsalves in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK GONSALVES, FORMER HOSTAGE: The FARC are not a revolutionary group. They are not a revolutionary group. They are terrorists. Terrorists with a capital T. Bad people.

There are people who right now in this very moment, they're still there in the jungle being held hostage. In this exact moment, right now, they're being punished because we got rescued successfully. I want you guys to imagine that. Right now. Right now, they're wearing chains around their necks. They're going to get up early tomorrow morning. They're going to put a heavy backpack on their backs and they're going to be forced to march with that chain on their neck while a guerrilla with an automatic weapon is holding the other end of his chain like a dog.

I want to send a message to the FARC. FARC, you guys are terrorists. You deny that you are. You say with words that you're not terrorists. But your words don't have any value. Don't tell us that you're not terrorists. Show us that you're not terrorists. Let those other hostages come home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: All three men are still being treated at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and it's still unclear when they will be able to head home.

ROBERTS: A new license plate now at the center of a holy war. We'll take a look at why critics say a plate similar to this one violates your First Amendment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS (voice-over): Oil sands.

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: All right, this is it. We are literally walking on black gold.

ROBERTS: The big dig and giant gear that's turning dirt into oil. Ali shows us how it's done.

You're watching the most news in the morning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's part of your coverage of issue number one. We are going on an energy hunt, looking for new sources of oil and alternate fuels to be able to fulfill our energy needs going well into the future.

And our Ali shell shi, now with part one of that.

Good morning to you.

CHETRY: Did you find what you were looking for?

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I still haven't found what I'm looking for. But I'll tell you what I did find.

As worldwide demand for oil grows, we decided to start our energy hunt in a place that you might be surprised to learn supplies about 10 percent of America's imported oil.

The oil sands of Canada is the largest known oil deposit in the world, significantly larger than Saudi Arabia. And unlike where the oil lies beneath the sand in Saudi Arabia, in Canada the oil lies in the sand.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI (voice-over): One-third of the world's known oil deposits are right here in the dirt. So that's where we headed on our energy hunt, from New York to Fort McMurray, Alberta.

(on camera): All right, this is it. We are literally walking on black gold. This is what we came here to see. This is oil sand. It's sand that's encased in water and oil. In fact, this is about 10 percent crude oil.

(voice-over): Large quantities of oil embedded in sand only occur in two places in the world: Venezuela and Canada.

Giant shovels scoop up 100 tons of oil laden dirt at a time. Hundreds of trucks move across the landscape all day and night every single day.

(on camera): You need a lot of earth to make oil. It takes about two tons of oil sands to make one barrel of oil. Now, this big hauler holds 400 tons of oil sands. So once that's all filled up and made into oil, you'll have about 200 barrels of oil.

(voice-over): That's right. Two tons of oil sand makes one barrel of oil. But at today's oil prices it's wildly profitable. That's why major players like Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron and others squeeze 1.5 million barrels of oil out of this land every day and they send most of it to the U.S.

It's costlier than getting it from a simple land well because the tar like oil has to be separated from the sand. And that uses lots of natural gas and warm water. The result is a heavy molasses like oil which has to be upgraded into a lighter, high quality form of crude that can then be easily refined into gasoline, home heating oil and other petroleum products.

Canada produces much more oil than it needs. So the excess oil is sold and sent by pipeline to its best customer, the United States. Notice there's no pipeline to Canada's west coast. There is one proposed and it's backed by China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI (on camera): Well, most of the oil from the oil sands comes to the U.S. right now. It's not clear that that's always going to be the case. If that pipeline to Canada's west coast actually gets built, that oil could just as easily be shipped to China. As for how much oil we get from Canada, optimistic predictions are that Canada can increase its daily oil sands production to between 4 million and 5 million barrels per day within the next decade. And that would account for a third of all U.S. imports.

And by the way, Canada has other traditional oil as well. This is just the hard to get oil sands.

ROBERTS: You know, that's a pretty good deal. I mean, if you figure 50 forty-pound bags of sand to get a barrel of oil, that's not bad.

VELSHI: Yes. Yes. There can be as much as 18 percent of that sand. The one I was holding was about 10 percent. But it can be as much as 18 percent of that soil is actually oil. And you can definitely feel it when you hold that sand.

CHETRY: So this is a new venture for them or something that they're starting?

VELSHI: They've been doing this for about 40 years. But as soon as oil hit $50 a barrel, they really ramped up. So the infrastructure was all in place. Unlike the shale oil that President Bush is talking about in the Green River Basin in the western United States, there's no infrastructure there at all.

CHETRY: So will this eventually hypothetically at least factor into lower gas prices for us because we get so much of our oil from Canada?

VELSHI: Well, for the moment that's the idea, that if we can increase the amount of oil that's produced, it should result in more supply. But as you guys mentioned yesterday, it may not be a supply and demand problem that's causing oil to be as high as it is.

ROBERTS: What does the whole place smell like?

VELSHI: It was -- you know, because we were there in late June, it was not bad. But the guys tell me that once July and August hit, it's like sitting on a like, you know when guys are doing street, when they're repaving the street or doing a roof, that that's the smell you get. It definitely smells like tar. They used to call it tar sands because it definitely smells like tar.

ROBERTS: Wow.

VELSHI: I've got a couple more of these. I'm going to tell you about the boomtown that's in the nearby area because of all this business and, of course, the environmental impact of it. We'll do that over the next couple days.

CHETRY: Very interesting.

ROBERTS: Looking forward to that.

Thanks, Ali.

CHETRY: Meanwhile, Hurricane Bertha exploding in the past 24 hours from a weak Category One, now to a major Category Three. We are tracking the storm and we will update its latest track, next.

You're watching the most news in the morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: There it is. We found it. A shot from Raleigh, Durham, North Carolina this morning, thanks to our friends at WRAL for that. Cloudy right now, 74 degrees. Thunderstorms and going up into the mid 80s today. So, should be a half decent day. Sun just coming up there, looks like there's a little bit of clearing in the area. So, it's always beautiful waking up in North Carolina no matter what the weather's like.

CHETRY: How about it.

Well, it is 43 minutes past 6:00 here on the East Coast. Rob Marciano in the weather center, tracking Hurricane Bertha for us. This thing started off pretty small. Not really gusting that much. And now, just overnight, it seems to have grown.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it did explode yesterday, Kiran.

Good morning again,

Now, in from a minimal Category One to a Category Three, really, in just about six hours. From the 11:00 advisory yesterday to 5:00 in the afternoon, that's when we went from a one to a three.

Still a three at 1:20. Although, you can see the last couple frames of the satellite picture, it's getting just a little bit strong, bumping into maybe a little bit higher winds at the upper levels and knocking down the front part of that and the eye wall looks like it's getting a little bit hit as well.

So, I wouldn't be surprised to see this knocked down a little bit with the next advisory coming out as it makes its turn towards the north. That's good news for us. Good news for Bermuda as well.

This shows the history as this thing came off the Cape Verde Islands almost over a week ago. And it made its way off to the west, hitting some decent waters. Now, as it drifts a little bit farther to the north, it will run into one, slightly cooler water. And it will also run into a little bit more in the way of wind sheer that will help weaken things and keep it away from the U.S. That's the good news.

All right, Carolina coast, the Florida coastline, no threat for hurricane, but some showers out there.

We would love to see some showers across parts of California. Seeing lighter winds today, but the big issue will be fire weather. Watch red flag warnings for parts of northern California and excessive heat watches with temperatures well up and over 100 degrees in the Inman (ph) Valleys of California today and probably through the rest of the week.

Back to you guys.

ROBERTS: Rob, thanks very much.

CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.

ROBERTS: Well, nowadays there's a personalized license plate for just about anything except religion. Well, that may soon change in one state. But critics say a design similar to this one goes too far. We'll tell you why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY (voice-over): Dropping the ball. It's as simple as a phone call.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It can really help?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Find the bad guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it can.

CHETRY: So why aren't local police doing more to stop potential terrorists?

You're watching the most news in the morning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up on 11 minutes now to the top of the hour.

A license plate allowing drivers to profess their Christian faith has been thrust into the center of a legal debate over the separation of church and state.

The South Carolina plate bears the words "I Believe" with a picture of a cross similar to this sample plate from the state of Florida. Critics say it gives preferential treatment to religion, but lawmakers disagree.

AMERICAN MORNING's Legal Analyst Sunny Hostin is here.

So what's the basis of the lawsuit here?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, there are two bases. And it's really interesting, John, because this is America's first religious specialty license plate that has been, the statute has been passed.

One challenge that a couple plaintiffs are making, and I think what's also interesting to note, the plaintiffs are Hindu, they're Jewish, they're Christian, so people of all faiths are challenging it. They're saying one, it violates the establishment cause of the First Amendment, and that's that separation of church and state. And the reason they're saying that is because actually the lieutenant governor in this case has offered to pay $4,000 to put it into production. So they're saying this is state sanctioned, state sanctioned activity.

ROBERTS: So, are they, are they saying that they deserve equal treatment, that they should have their own religious symbols made available or if they can't be made available, then this one's got to go?

HOSTIN: Well, and that's the second basis. They're saying, you know, they're giving the Christian viewpoint an opportunity, but they're not giving non-religious or other viewpoints the same opportunity.

That's classic sort of First Amendment violations, or at least that's what they're alleging. And we got statements from both parties. The South Carolina Attorney General says, listen, the legislation creating the "I Believe" license plate is based on found legal principles and we are convinced it passes constitutional muster. So they're saying there is no violation here.

On the other hand, the plaintiffs are saying these I do believe -- he says I do believe these "I Believe" plates will not see the light of day.

And so there really are -- both -- just two different sides of the spectrum here. It's unbelievable. Fascinating.

ROBERTS: So we saw the sample license plate that we showed from Florida. That never saw the light of day. That was, that was shot down.

HOSTIN: It did not.

ROBERTS: This one, as you said, has already passed. There's the sample license plate from Florida.

HOSTIN: Yes.

ROBERTS: Very similar to South Carolina. This one's already passed. So now they're going after it after the fact.

HOSTIN: Exactly.

ROBERTS: Do you expect that this will suffer the same fate in South Carolina it did in Florida?

HOSTIN: Well, you know, the same arguments were made in Florida and it did not pass. They were saying this is separate -- that there has to be a separation of church and state. And so I think it's, it's hard to tell, but it is highly unusual that a government official is going to pay to have this take place a $4,000 fee. So I think it is likely -- I hate to guess, John. You always put me on the spot. But I think it's likely that it won't pass. I think that the...

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: I'm not asking you to guess. I'm asking you to bring to bear your vast and storied legal knowledge.

HOSTIN: My legal background tells me that this would be a violation and that a federal judge will probably strike it down. But we'll see, folks, if I'm right this time. I've been right a couple of times.

ROBERTS: That, that is hardly a guess. That's an opinion. All right, Sunny, thanks very much.

HOSTIN: Thank you.

ROBERTS: And don't forget to e-mail Sunny your legal questions. You can send them to sunnyslaw@cnn.com or logon to our Web site at CNN.com/AM. She answers your e-mails every Friday here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY (voice-over): Their story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To my country.

CHETRY: Freed American hostages talk about five years in the jungle and about hundreds of others still out there.

GONSALVES: Chains around their necks, forced to march like a dog.

CHETRY: Plus, housing holdup. Barney Frank made a promise to us that Congress didn't keep.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I think it's stalled. I'm confident we'll have this worked out by the middle of June.

CHETRY: Hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes later, he comes back to tell us why.

You're watching the most news in the morning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY (voice-over): Dropping the ball. It's as simple as a phone call.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It can really help?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Find the bad guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes it can.

CHETRY: So why aren't local police doing more to stop potential terrorists?

You're watching the most news in the morning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY (on camera): And welcome back to the most politics in the morning. We check the political ticker now. Virginia Senator Jim Webb saying that he will not be Barack Obama's running mate.

In a statement, Webb said, under no circumstances will I be a candidate for vice president. So, perhaps that makes it clearer.

The economy, issue number one, and Americans feeling pessimistic about it. With rising gas prices and falling home prices, a new CNN survey found that three-quarters of Americans think the country is in a recession. That's similar to the way Americans felt back in 1992 when Bill Clinton took the White House with a campaign focused on America's economic troubles.

ROBERTS: Cindy McCain is going to Rwanda next week. She's going to spend four days there as part of a humanitarian trip organized by the one campaign.

Former Senator Tom Daschle will make the trip on behalf of the Obama campaign.

And for more up to the minute political news, just head to CNN.com/ticker.

CHETRY: Barack Obama says that if he were president, he'd skip the opening ceremonies at the Olympics, at least until he saw progress between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama.

Those comments coming in a reaction to President Bush's decision to attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing games one month from today.

Jason Carroll has more on reaction to the president's decision -- Jason.

JASON CARROLL: Kiran, John, one Olympic historian says no sitting American president has ever attended an Olympic opening ceremony outside the United States.

Now comes word President Bush will attend in Beijing, China, a country with an abysmal human rights record. His critics say this simply sends the wrong message.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): It is so large, such an economic power house, that it's difficult to find the footing to get a message through to china.

And that's why human rights activists had hoped President Bush would use the Olympics to send China a bold message. They had hoped he would boycott the opening ceremony for the games in Beijing. But they were disappointed.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I happen to believe not going to the opening games would be -- the opening ceremony for the games would be an affront to the Chinese people.

CARROLL: But critics say attending is an affront to those suffering under China's repressive policies in places like Tibet where in March protesters demonstrating against Chinese communist rule were met with violence. And in Darfur where the Chinese continue close ties with the Sudanese government, despite the genocide in that African country.

JERRY FOWLER: I think there's a tremendous amount of frustration, but even deeper than that, it's a disappointment. CARROLL: Germany's chancellor as well as Britain's and Canada's prime ministers will not attend. Still, one Asian policy group says President Bush made the right decision.

JAMIE METZLE, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, ASIA SOCIETY: When we weigh the costs and benefits of going versus not going, the benefits of going outweigh the costs of not going.

CARROLL: Such as alienating a world power that carries a hefty portion of U.S. financial debt.

A White House spokeswoman says Bush's decision is not political.

But some Democrats and Republicans argue China brought politics into the event when it told the International Community it would improve its human rights record if granted the games.

REP. DANA ROHRABACHER (R), CALIFORNIA: This is the genocide olympics. This is the Darfur olympics. This is a time when they're having olympics in a country that represses its religious believers and has no freedom of speech or democracy. The president of the United States should not be there.

CARROLL: A spokesman for Senator John McCain said if McCain were president, he would hold off on committing to attend the ceremonies in order to take the time to monitor progress by the Chinese on human rights issues.

Senator Barack Obama says he wanted to see the Chinese government take steps to reach out to the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In the absence of some sense of progress, in the absence of some sense from the Dalai Lama that there was progress I would not have gone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (on camera): Those who support and oppose President Bush attending the opening ceremony say once he's there, he should use that opportunity to speak to Chinese officials about human rights offenses.

Kiran, John?

CHETRY: Jason, thanks.

Other world leaders, including Germany's chancellor and the British prime minister, have said they will skip the opening ceremonies.

ROBERTS: It's about a minute before the top of the hour now, and we begin with Hurricane Bertha. Now a major hurricane and on the move in the Atlantic Ocean, a Category Three storm now with winds of up to 120 miles an hour, posing no immediate threat to land, but Bermuda is out there. It just needs to shift a couple of degrees to the west and it might hit Bermuda. It's not likely to make landfall in the United States, though. An eco-friendly agreement at the G-8 summit in Japan. The world's major economic powers agreed on a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. A statement urges all major economies to contribute. That's important for the United States since President Bush has been reluctant to commit to a number without China and India being on board.

And for the very first time Iraq's prime minister mentions the idea of a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops. During a meeting with Arab ambassadors Nouri al-Maliki talked about the quote, "necessity of terminating the foreign presence in Iraq." His National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie tells the A.P. the government proposes a timetable based on Iraq's ability to defend its own security.

The Bush administration has said setting a timetable would give terrorists an advantage. U.S. officials in Baghdad did not comment on the announcement.