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American Morning
Indonesia Hotel Bombings Kill Nine; President Obama Encounters Setback on Health Care Reform Passage; U.S. Economy on the Path to Recovery?; Obama Addresses NAACP on 100th Anniversary; Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings; Nine Dead in Indonesia Hotel Bombings; Is Affirmative Action Still Necessary?; Secret CIA Program Exposed
Aired July 17, 2009 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Thanks very much for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. It's a Friday, it's the 17th of July. I'm John Roberts.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello in for Kiran Chetry. Happy Friday to you.
We are following several developing stories this morning. We'll break them down for you in the next 15 minutes.
Breaking news out of Jakarta, Indonesia. Just hours ago, a brazen terrorist attack apparently targeting westerners. Bombs tore through two luxury hotels killing at least nine people and injuring dozens, including three Americans.
We have teams on the ground. We'll bring you the very latest in just a moment.
ROBERTS: President Obama delivering a powerful speech on race in the United States. Speaking to members of the NAACP, he pulled no punches urging an end to racial discrimination. We will play you the president's message.
COSTELLO: And a one-two punch to the heart of President Obama's fight for health care reform. A warning the Democrats' proposal wouldn't reduce costs, but actually drive up government spending. And one Democratic senator says the president is not helping. We'll take you live to Washington.
ROBERTS: We begin this morning with breaking news from Jakarta, Indonesia. Deadly terror bombings at two luxury hotels, the Marriott and the nearby Ritz-Carlton. Reports say at least nine people have been killed, more than 50 others injured, including three Americans.
The coordinated attacks took place just minutes apart. CNN has obtained this exclusive cell phone video of the scene shortly after the second blast, that one at the Ritz-Carlton. You can see panicked crowds of people running away from the hotel with smoke rising from the building.
Indonesian authorities believe it is the work of a Southeast Asia terror network with ties to al Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah (ph). The Associated Press quotes Jakarta's police chief, saying suspected bombers were guests at the Marriott.
We're monitoring all the developments from Indonesia through the worldwide resources of CNN. CNN producer Kathy Quijano joins us now live from Jakarta.
What's the very latest from there, Kathy?
KATHY QUIJANO, CNN PRODUCER: Well, John, the very latest is the national police spokesman told the press that there were eight people who were killed in the two blasts that hit Jakarta early this morning. One of them was a foreigner. Fifty-three others, including 18 foreigners were also injured. They were brought to hospitals and they're still being treated there.
And as you mentioned, there were several Americans who were injured, among the 18 who were injured. Now, the police also said and confirmed that they did find an unexploded bomb in one of the rooms on the 18th floor of the Marriott hotel. They found an active bomb that they had to defuse, although he said that the three bombs were similar and were actually low explosive devices.
Now, the police say that, you know, no one has claimed responsibility for this yes, but, of course, the initial suspects, as we have been saying here is the Jemaah Islamiyah (ph) terror network, which operates from Indonesia and has cells working in other countries in the region like Malaysia and the Philippines -- John.
ROBERTS: All right. That's Kathy Quijano for us this morning. Jemaah Islamiyah (ph) also believed to be responsible for the 2002 blast at the Bali nightclubs that killed 188 people. Of course, they have never claimed responsibility for that, unlikely that if there are behind these blasts that they would claim responsibility for these either.
Now we should just point out one little technical thing here. Because we are using the Internet and broadband to bring you those reports from Jakarta, there is a substantial delay from time to time between the time that we introduce our correspondent and the time you actually hear them. So please bear with us this morning as we are using all of the technology at our disposal just to try to get you the very latest from Indonesia.
Carol?
COSTELLO: These two most recent blast rocked those two luxury hotels just as guests were about to sit down for breakfast. Joining me now by phone, Peter Tuomey. He was inside his room on the 17th floor at the JW Marriott when the bomb exploded.
Good morning.
PETER TOUMEY, EYEWITNESS/SURVIVOR (via telephone): Good morning.
COSTELLO: Peter, first of all, tell me when you first became aware that something was going on inside the Marriott? TUOMEY: I guess the first indication, really, was the loud blast, the explosion. I said I was in my room on the 17th floor. It was about 7:30, (INAUDIBLE) local time and we're just about to head down for breakfast. And there was a very, very loud blast and the (INAUDIBLE) building shook.
Now, since I was on the 17th floor -- so it appeared to me this was something significant. So I went to the window and looked down, and on my right-hand side looking down at ground level there was a large black plume of smoke, lightning. Fairly evidence of an explosion.
COSTELLO: Peter, did you know at the time that the bomb blast actually took place inside the hotel near the lobby?
TUOMEY: No. What was clear because I was looking down is that it was at ground level and some glass have been blown out onto the front of the hotel. I'm afraid it didn't appear it was an explosion. It didn't strike me at the time that it would have been a bomb or a gas explosion or something like that.
COSTELLO: And I don't know if you realize this, but authorities found an unexploded bomb in a room on the 18th floor, which would have been the floor above you. And when you hear something like this, what goes through your mind?
TUOMEY: Yes. I've heard that locally, as well. I said, you know, I left the hotel. I waited for the list. I wasn't in any state of panic. Neither was anybody else in that situation. The list was full. Their operations was a bit full.
And so I decided to go down there (INAUDIBLE) and that (INAUDIBLE) and we came down on to the street. It was only at that stage that we felt (INAUDIBLE).
The situation shocked me in there. You know, I probably saw maybe four or five people walk in the room. They were cuts in (INAUDIBLE).
It was only on that stage that the reality stuck. But it's quite difficult to see the scale of the damage at the Marriott from the outside, whereas the Ritz-Carlton it's very evident. It's on the first floor.
COSTELLO: Yes.
TUOMEY: And the whole front and back of that room has been blown out.
COSTELLO: Well, Peter -- Peter, we're glad you made it.
TUOMEY: Horizontal steps, maybe 100 meters in length.
COSTELLO: Understood. Peter, we're glad you made it out safely. Thank you for joining us this morning and we'll hear more from other witnesses later on on AMERICAN MORNING. Thank you, Peter Tuomey, guest at the Marriott.
ROBERTS: That same Marriott hotel in Jakarta, by the way, was attacked back in 2003. Twelve people were killed during that attack. Western hotels certainly have been frequent targets of terrorists.
CNN terrorism expert Peter Bergen joins us now on the phone to talk about that.
Peter, the last attack back in 2003, now 2009. Any idea as to why now?
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM EXPERT (via telephone): Well, Jemaah Islamiyah (ph), the almost certain group behind this attack has been fairly quiet as of late. I mean, the last series of attacks that they conducted was in 2005 in Bali just as the tourist industry there was recovering from the 2002 attacks.
As a result of those attacks, both the Indonesian government and the Indonesian public very much turned against this group and I think the conventional wisdom which I certainly share was that Jemaah Islamiyah (ph) was more or less out of business.
Well, that turned out to be very wrong. Of course, you know, readily small numbers of people can do these kinds of attacks. It is certainly the case that top leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah (ph), top bombmakers were either captured or killed in the last several years and the organization is certainly less strong than it was several years back when it not only conducted the Bali attack but also the attack that you mentioned, John, in 2003 on the JW Marriott and also an attack on the Australian embassy all in very swift succession.
ROBERTS: In the wake of the attack in 2003, security was ramped up considerably both at the Marriott and at the Ritz-Carlton across the street. They put up barricades so the cars can't go in because the 2003 bombing was a car bomb. You have to go through security screening to get inside the hotel. What do you make of the idea, Peter, that it appears that the people responsible for the bombings here were actually guests at the hotel? Did they take a lesson from the Mumbai attacks?
BERGEN: Possibly. I mean, you know, this is not the only time that we've seen multiple attacks on JW Marriott, which obviously is a very well-known American brand. We had the attack on the JW Marriott in Islamabad rather recently, but that was not the first time that hotel had been attacked. It had been the subject of small bombs already in the past.
So, it is not unheard of for these groups to come back and attack the same target. I mean, we saw that in the United States with the World Trade Center, first in '93 and then again in 2001.
So, you know, this is a new modus operandi for guests if, indeed, this is the case, to be the actual bomb makers in the hotel. I don't think we've seen that in the past. But just because the place has been hit once doesn't mean it won't be hit again twice, unfortunately.
ROBERTS: I guess the trick is to always try to stay one step ahead of the terrorists because they're always shifting their tactics.
Peter Bergen for us in the phone this morning from Washington. Peter, thanks so much for that. We'll talk to you in a little bit.
COSTELLO: When we come back, we're going to talk a lot about President Obama's health care plan. A big setback for the president and the Senate. Dana Bash will join us live to tell us if that health care plan really has a chance to be passed in August. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It was just months ago that banks and bailouts seemed to go hand in hand, but just this week two market heavyweights, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, announced big earnings for the second quarter. And today Wall Street is hoping to pull off a five- day rally, despite rising unemployment. So, is there reason to think that the worst of the recession is over?
Joining us now, Jill Schlesinger. She is the editor-at-large of CBS MoneyWatch.com, and Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute.
So, on the one hand, we've got the stock market going up. It's a little over 8,700 right now. Goldman Sachs making $3.5 million. JP Morgan Chase doing really well and then we've got all these people out of work. Revenue forecasts for big companies are really uncertain. What are we to make of all this?
LAKSHMAN ACHUTHAN, MANAGING EDITOR, ECONOMIC CYCLE RESEARCH INSTITUTE FORECASTS: Well, it's cross currents. That's what happens at turning points, at cycle turning points. So, forward-looking leading indicators are shooting up. That's what we focus on, mostly because we're trying to protect and these are shooting up in a way that's very consistent with the recession ending this summer.
Employment is coincident indicator. So instead of looking at your windshield, you're kind of looking out your side window and that's telling you right now the recession is still happening right now today. And then unemployment, that's kind of rearview mirror. That's not going to improve until well after the recovery is under way.
ROBERTS: Do you agree with what Lakshman said, that the recession will actually end this summer?
JILL SCHLESINGER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, CBS MONEYWATCH.COM: I'm looking more towards the end of the year because I'm much more pessimistic than he is. You know, you've got to be upbeat sometimes.
I think the hard part is if you're at home and you're watching this, you're out of work, you really feel I don't really care if you think it's getting better.
ROBERTS: Yes. SCHLESINGER: It's still really hard to find a job. And I think that that is a critical issue that people are really kind of emotionally depressed around this. We're almost at two years from the top of the market. We've had a lot of bad news. And if you are out of work, you're competing with all the people that are part-timers and are disgruntled. And if you add all those folks up, the unemployment rate is about 16.5 percent.
And I think that is an issue because it makes people very anxious even if they have a job. They're less willing to spend money and that's why I think this is going to last a little bit longer towards the end of the year.
ROBERTS: You know, I'll tell you there's such a difference between Wall Street and Main Street. You walk up and down just Ninth Avenue on my way home here in New York, and you see so many businesses having such a tough time of it, just trying to get people in the door.
Paul Krugman has got an interesting take on the whole thing with Goldman Sachs making $3.44 billion. He said in the column today in "The New York Times," "First, it tells us," -- he says why Goldman is doing so well -- "First, it tells us that Goldman is very good at what it does. Unfortunately, what it does is bad for America. Second, it shows that Wall Street's bad habits, above all, the system of compensation that helped cause the financial crisis have not gone away. Third, it shows that by rescuing the financial system without reforming it, Washington has done nothing to protect us from a new crisis, and, in fact, has made another crisis more likely."
Lakshman, what do you think of that?
ACHUTHAN: Well, I'm not going to defend Goldman and I'm not going to say we're not -- we won't have another crisis, because I think those are both on the table here. But in terms of what we were trying to do -- remember last fall the financial system had seized. Credit had stopped flowing.
So, in that sense, you're getting what you paid for. OK. Your elected officials were decided in their collective wisdom that they wanted to get the system running again by pouring a lot of money into Wall Street giving money essentially for free and letting them loan it out to you and me at a higher rate. So they pocket the difference that's healing their profits. When the stock market goes up, they make money. When their competitors are out of work...
ROBERTS: But I guess the question is, have we learned anything from this or are we just determined to repeat mistakes?
ACHUTHAN: Well, look, we made mistakes before and we repeated them. We're going to make them again.
SCHLESINGER: And I think that's a little bit of that sort of the human quality of this that Goldman Sachs is in business to make money. I'm disappointed by the fact that the regulatory reform has really been watered down, and I think that has been a critical missing piece of this process. ROBERTS: You know one of the other big things that people talked about, including Krugman, also Herald Ford Jr. who's the chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, saying that we need a second stimulus package. Do you expect that we're going to see one? And if we are, how big? Because their contention is that we may heal the economy through the first stimulus package, but it's going to be a jobless recovery.
ACHUTHAN: OK. First, the first stimulus package has very little to do with the recovery that we're having this summer. OK? So, you've spent a lot of money, it's not why you're having a recovery.
The recovery is happening because as we back away from the abyss of this credit market freeze, the business cycle dynamics took over and they want to turn. And they always turn. So that's why you're having a recovery.
What you get for that $787 billion is the chance for that recovery to be reinforced quarters from now because the bulk of that stimulus spending has not happened yet. So, don't sell or don't debate a second stimulus saying we need it for recovery. You can argue it for other reasons.
ROBERTS: Well, you're arguing -- we need it for jobs.
SCHLESINGER: Well, I think that there's only -- the point being, that it's only a fraction of the money has been spent and this was a back-end loaded plan. And most of the money is going to be spent actually next year, not this year. So we won't know the end of that.
The problem is that in the period between now and next year, there's a lot of people who are out of work and they are going to be angry, and they're going to say, well, I just paid all this money and for what? I also think it's a little premature to talk about stimulus when we have a trillion dollar deficit and another trillion dollars on the table in health care until we really see where we are in this economy.
ROBERTS: Real quick because we've got to go.
ACHUTHAN: Yes, I just want to make one point. In the middle of the depression in the '30s, right, in 1933, unemployment was at 25 percent. We began a four-year expansion where the economy grew at 10 percent a year. OK? So high unemployment rates do not mean recessions can't end.
SCHLESINGER: God bless him, right? I love him?
ROBERTS: Lakshman, thanks. Jill, you as well.
Seventeen and a half minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. President Obama is a man on a mission as he pushes health care reform. And he got a boost overnight when a House committee passed one version of reform legislation but even now, there are some in his own party expressing skepticism.
CNN senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash is live in Washington.
So, Dana, what are his concerns?
DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, one of the main concerns, Carol, that many conservative Democrats have is that health care legislation their party is now crafting doesn't do enough to curb the exorbitant cost of health care for Americans. And the very important voice in this debate is now saying, they're right.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): It was a Democrat who asked the question. Will any of their health care plans actually reduce skyrocketing medical costs? The answer, no.
DOUGLAS ELMENDORF, CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE DIRECTOR: In the legislation that has been reported, we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount and on the contrary the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs.
BASH: With that, the head of the Congressional Budget Office, whose words carry enormous weight in Congress, dealt Democrats a devastating blow, since President Obama repeatedly says curbing health care costs is a central goal of reform.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've set some clear parameters in terms of what I want to achieve. We have to bend the cost curve on health care.
BASH: But CBO Director Doug Elmendorf warned Democrats' plans would actually raise costs because many, including the president, are resisting what Elmendorf calls a critical element to keeping medical spending down, taxing employer-provided health care benefits.
It had been one of the ways a bipartisan group of senators planned to pay for health care reform. Now that it's off the table, they're having trouble making the numbers add up. And in a stunningly candid moment, the frustrated Democratic finance chairman blamed the president.
SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D), MONTANA: Basically, the president is not helping us with tax exclusion off the table. It's still difficult to come up with revenue measures and other savings measures.
BASH: Because of the president's prodding to move faster, there had been hope for a bipartisan deal this week, but that's no longer in the cards.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BASH: Now, publicly the White House and Democratic leaders are downplaying the CBO director's stark warning and Senator's Baucus' open frustration about the president. But, Carol, privately, a senior Democratic leadership aide admitted to me that it's a "potentially devastating one-two punch" and the source said it couldn't come at a worst time. "A difficult time just got more difficult" -- Carol.
COSTELLO: We'll keep an eye on it. Dana Bash reporting live from Washington this morning. Thanks.
John?
ROBERTS: History made in New York City last night. For the first time in the 100-year history of the NAACP, the organization is addressed by an African-American president. What he said and his message for young minority children with Suzanne Malveaux, coming right up.
It's 22 and a half minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It is something that the founders of the NAACP could not have imagined, an African-American president addressing the organization's centennial convention. Last night in New York City, President Barack Obama paid tribute to civil rights leaders who paved his way. But he said not all racial barriers have been torn down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The pain of discrimination is still felt in America by African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and a different gender, by Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country, by Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneeled down to pray to their God, by our gay brothers and sisters still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights. Prejudice has no place in the United States of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux covered the president's speech and she is here with us this morning. Quite a moment last night.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It really was. And you saw the Barack Obama from the campaign, the one with the cadence, the rhythm, the energy that we have not seen.
ROBERTS: Some people say this is the best speech he's given.
MALVEAUX: I wouldn't actually say it was the best speech, but it certainly had a lot of resonance particularly with this audience. And one of the things that he did is that he acknowledged. He said that discrimination still exists, that there are still institutional barriers. But he called for reform and he also called for accountability and responsibility, and that is something that this president believes that he can say with familiarity and some credibility that previous presidents could not before this group. I want you to take a listen to something he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got to say to our children, yes, if you're African-American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that somebody in a wealthy suburb does not have to face.
And that's not a reason to get bad grades. That's not a reason to cut class. That's not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. No one has written your destiny for you.
Your destiny is in your hands. You cannot forget that. That's what we have to teach all of our children. No excuses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: No excuses. He cut to the chase. He had no excuses. He talked about the need for education emphasizing that as being really critical.
President Bush before this organization, I was there when he went before them in 2006, talked about the --
ROBERTS: After ignoring them for five years.
MALVEAUX: After ignoring them for five years, talked about the soft bigotry of low expectations. They were similar themes to both these leaders in what they were delivering, but you could see that President Obama really had the credibility and he also identified and they took that in. And he said this was part of a process, that this is not something that just begins now and because he is the president. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One hundred years from now on the 200th anniversary of the NAACP, let it be said that this generation did its part. That, we, too, ran the race, that full of faith, that our dark past has taught us full of the hope that the president has brought us. We faced in our lives and all across this nation the rising sun of a new day begun.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: He's on fire.
MALVEAUX: He absolutely was. He was on fire and he, once again, in kind of typical Obama fashion, used this to bring up the broad themes about what he's trying to accomplish, that he is trying to create more jobs, more opportunities for African-Americans as well as the community at large.
ROBERTS: You know, he took some heat during the campaign for being too tough on African-American men.
MALVEAUX: He did.
ROBERTS: But he doesn't show any signs of backing off on the call of responsibility.
MALVEAUX: He's not. And generally speaking, he's not comfortable talking and emphasizing race. He deemphasizes it all the time. But when you get him in one of these settings and he is called to give a message, he is very strong with that message and he doesn't back down.
COSTELLO: I actually thought it was very interesting he brought up Lebron James and Lil Wayne. He said, you know, I want our children to be scientists, you know, mathematicians -- you know, trying to get away from that other...
ROBERTS: You need to be more than just a baller or rapper.
COSTELLO: That are stereotypically African-American ideals.
MALVEAUX: And one other thing that they do, they don't advertise this necessarily. But at the White House, they're constantly bringing in a wide range of professionals, black professionals there.
You know, you see the president of BET. You see business leaders. They bring the athletes and the stars as Lil Wayne and all those guys, but they also expand this and that's something that they're trying to show by example that there are all kinds of folks out there who are achieving.
ROBERTS: Yes. You're going to back in our next hour, by the way.
MALVEAUX: Yes.
ROBERTS: We're going to put you together with Tara Wall and Michael Eric Geison (ph) and talk more about this.
MALVEAUX: Should be fun.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to it. Suzanne, thanks so much.
Reminder, by the way, that we're just days away from the premiere of the CNN documentary "Black in America 2" only on CNN next Wednesday and Thursday, July 22nd and 23rd. That's at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
COSTELLO: It's just about half past the hour. Checking our top stories now.
Deadly terror attacks rock Jakarta, Indonesia. At least nine people were killed when bombs went off just minutes apart at two luxury hotels, the Marriott and the nearby Ritz-Carlton. Fifty people injured, including three Americans.
Indonesia's president is promising to arrest those responsible. The Al Qaeda-linked terror group, Jemaah Islamiyah (ph), is suspected, Jakarta police say. Some of the bombers were guests at the Marriott.
ROBERTS: One of Iran's most powerful spiritual leaders is calling on the government to release those arrested following last month's disputed presidential election.
The Ayatollah Rafsanjani led traditional Friday prayers for the first time since the election. He has openly supported opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and challenging Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection. There are also reports that thousands of Mousavi supporters demonstrated in the streets after today's prayers.
COSTELLO: And the Senate approving a major expansion of the federal hate crimes law. The new legislation broadens the definition of victims and circumstances that gives federal protection to those attacked because of gender, sexual orientation or disability. Current law is limited to crimes motivated by race, ethnicity or religion. The House passed a similar hate crimes bill in April.
While many Americans are struggling to land one job, our next guest has a resume that keeps on growing. We've been following his track across the country with the goal of working 50 different jobs in 50 states.
Daniel Seddiqui's quest grew out of frustration with his post- college job search. And Daniel joins us now with an update.
You are 42 weeks through.
DANIEL SEDDIQUI, WORKING 50 JOBS IN 50 STATES: That's right. And I'm here in New York City, finally.
COSTELLO: You're here in New York City...
SEDDIQUI: And this city is wearing me out. This is the way too fast for me. I should have done this first.
COSTELLO: You'll be so exhausted you won't be able to finish the rest. You don't know how far they go.
SEDDIQUI: Yes. Eight more, yes.
COSTELLO: Before me get into it, though, remind our viewers why you're doing this.
SEDDIQUI: There are so many reasons why, but I'm just a really curious person that felt like there's no opportunities. And this is the land of opportunities, so I wanted to go and find one in every state. And that's what I've done.
COSTELLO: So you've had 42 different jobs...
SEDDIQUI: Yes. COSTELLO: ... 42 states and now you're in New York City. And I know you wanted to get a job on Wall Street, but that kind of didn't work out.
SEDDIQUI: Didn't work out.
COSTELLO: Why not?
SEDDIQUI: You know, the economy. I mean, I'm not recession- proof.
COSTELLO: You're persistent, though, man.
SEDDIQUI: I am persistent, but I couldn't get that one. And I had networking in that one as well. It just didn't work out, so...
COSTELLO: What kind of job did you get?
SEDDIQUI: Advertising is big here, too. So that's what I'm doing.
COSTELLO: What do you do -- what do you do in advertising?
SEDDIQUI: I'm doing creative side. I'm actually working on a Web site and doing some creativity on that.
COSTELLO: You don't sound excited about this.
SEDDIQUI: I mean, it's not my passion. It's not like all the other jobs that I experienced, like I loved being a high school football coach in Alabama and I love sports, and speaking about...
COSTELLO: And that was your favorite job. I mean, let's center on that, because you had some interesting comments, you know, as I'm reading through my research.
So you loved being a high school coach, plus, that might not be your life-long dream because...
SEDDIQUI: Because of the money -- you know.
COSTELLO: That's so long...
SEDDIQUI: I know, it's sad that the jobs that most people enjoy don't pay very well. I don't know about you, though.
Do you enjoy your job?
COSTELLO: I love my job, and I'm very lucky. I'm well paid, too. But I'm just like -- I consider myself blessed.
SEDDIQUI: You're one in a billion.
COSTELLO: I know, I'm very blessed.
SEDDIQUI: Yes. COSTELLO: OK. Let's go over some -- I want to get off that topic.
SEDDIQUI: OK.
COSTELLO: Let's go over some of the jobs that you've had. You've been a model.
SEDDIQUI: Yes.
COSTELLO: You've actually been on television as a Web person.
SEDDIQUI: Yes.
COSTELLO: That was in Cleveland, Ohio.
SEDDIQUI: Cleveland, yes.
COSTELLO: Tell me about that.
SEDDIQUI: It was -- it was nerve-wrecking and I just -- I didn't know what I was getting myself into. They just threw me out there in front of the camera.
COSTELLO: So it's harder than people think?
SEDDIQUI: Yes, I think so. Because, you know, you're behind the green screen and you're pointing in all sorts of directions you could see.
COSTELLO: And then you kind of actually have to know what those low front things do.
SEDDIQUI: Absolutely. And you have to memorize the slides and everything. So, I didn't do that very well.
COSTELLO: But you made it through.
SEDDIQUI: I never said I was good at any of these jobs. I just said I was able to land them.
COSTELLO: OK. So, what -- you have eight more states to go, eight more jobs. So, what's next on the agenda after you get out of this advertising thing in New York?
SEDDIQUI: I'm going to be working at the Visitors Bureau in Rhode Island. I mean, they're not really known for much other than sailing and I couldn't really relate that to a career.
So, I'm going to work in the tourist industry and then after that I will be doing insurance in Connecticut, lobster fishing in Maine, surfing instructor in Hawaii...
COSTELLO: Wow.
SEDDIQUI: ... and then lastly, I'll be "Dirty Jobs" host for an episode in California.
COSTELLO: Excellent.
SEDDIQUI: That's where I'm from.
COSTELLO: I think the most amazing thing that you've illustrated for us, that if you're persistent enough and you have a good plan, you can get a job in this economy.
SEDDIQUI: Well, it's all about passion, too. If I didn't have passion, I would have given up on the third week, you know. And I've -- yes, persistence and using networks. You know, just trying to use everything I have.
COSTELLO: Go, Daniel.
Daniel Seddiqui, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
SEDDIQUI: All right. Thank you.
ROBERTS: You're going to be doing "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe?
SEDDIQUI: No, I'll be the solo host.
ROBERTS: Really?
SEDDIQUI: Yes.
ROBERTS: Mike Rowe has just given you the whole show?
SEDDIQUI: Yes. Just one episode. I mean, he has like five years of episodes, so I think he can give me just one, right?
ROBERTS: That's a -- that's a big pair of hip waders to fill.
SEDDIQUI: Yes.
ROBERTS: Swallowing around...
SEDDIQUI: I'll be cleaning a garbage dump in San Francisco, and that's where I'm from.
ROBERTS: Excellent.
SEDDIQUI: Really fitting, right?
COSTELLO: Well, anyone can do a great job, you can.
SEDDIQUI: All right.
COSTELLO: Congrats to you.
SEDDIQUI: Thank you very much.
COSTELLO: And you can follow Daniel's cross-country adventure, working 50 jobs in 50 states on our Web site. We're going to link up with his Living the Map site. Just go to cnn.com/amfix.
ROBERTS: So, it's all over for Judge Sonia Sotomayor as far as the hot seat goes, now it's just down to the voting. How is she going to do? Will she be confirmed to be the latest associate justice on the Supreme Court?
COSTELLO: I think it was more the warm seat.
ROBERTS: Well, they call it a hot seat. Whether it actually is, is a matter of debate.
Our Brianna Keilar coming right up with her latest take on Sonia Sotomayor and the confirmation hearings.
Thirty-six minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Thirty-nine minutes after the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
In Washington, senators on the Judiciary Committee promising Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a quick confirmation vote, possibly as soon as next week.
CNN's Brianna Keilar is live on Capitol Hill for us this morning.
How did things go in the final day of the judge's confirmation hearings?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Sotomayor kept her cool as she demonstrated all week when she answered more questions about the controversial things she said about abortion, about same-sex marriage and also about the Second Amendment.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR (voice over): Gun rights dominated the discussion as Sonia Sotomayor spent her last day on the hot seat.
SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: My constituents in Oklahoma understand as do most of Americans that the right to own guns hangs in the balance, may very well hang in the balance with your ascendancy.
KEILAR: As Republican Senator Tom Coburn pressed her on the Second Amendment for the second day in a row, asking whether Americans have a fundamental right to bear arms, she demurred.
JUDGE SONIA SOTOMAYOR, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: Senator, would you want to judge a nominee who came in here and said, I agree with you, this is unconstitutional. Before I had a case before me, before I had both sides discussing the issue with me, I don't know that that's a justice that I can be.
KEILAR: Fellow Republican Lindsey Graham signaled he may vote to confirm Sotomayor and he's hopeful she will keep an open mind on gun rights.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I think, fundamentally, Judge, you're able, after all these years of being a judge, to embrace a right that you may not want for yourself. To allow others to do things that are not comfortable to you, but for the group, they're necessary.
KEILAR: But even he, once again, addressed her off-the-bench comments, including her "wise Latina" remarks.
GRAHAM: And you have said some things that just bugged the hell out of me.
SOTOMAYOR: I regret that I have offended some people. I believe that my life demonstrates that that was not my intent -- to leave the impression that some have taken from my words.
GRAHAM: You know what, Judge, I agree with you.
KEILAR: Though not many Republicans seemed one over.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: That you appear to be a different person, almost, in your speeches and in some of the comments that you made.
KEILAR: Still with Sotomayor's confirmation almost certain, Democrats were already looking ahead.
SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: Experience and wisdom will benefit all Americans. And when you walk under that piece of Vermont marble over the door of the Supreme Court, speaking of equal justice under law, I know that will guide you. Judge Sotomayor, thank you. Godspeed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Before this hearing, Republicans said this confirmation process was going too quickly, but now they say they're not going to try to delay or to block a vote. We're expecting a vote before the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and then a vote by the full Senate before Congress breaks for recess.
So, John, that would put Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court ahead of the Court's new fall session.
ROBERTS: I guess the only question is, how many votes will she get?
You got to love Senator Leahy promoting the home state there -- Vermont marble.
KEILAR: I know, definitely. Yes. I didn't know that.
ROBERTS: Brianna, thanks so much for that. Appreciate it.
Carol? COSTELLO: That was pretty cool.
Quick check of the "AM Rundown" of the stories coming up in the next few minutes.
We're covering two deadly hotel bombings in Indonesia, and in a moment we'll get new information from Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director who was in Jakarta last summer to work on counterterrorism efforts.
And after the first African-American president nominates the first Hispanic for the Supreme Court, just saying, is it time to do away with affirmative action?
We want to know what you think on this. CNN.com/amfix.
And the debate rages on over whether former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to keep Congress in the dark about a secret program to kill al Qaeda leaders. But should we really be surprised the U.S. is hunting down terrorists?
It's 42 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: We're back with the Most News in the Morning.
The terror network Jemaah Islamiyah was blamed in the 2003 blast at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, but so far no group has claimed responsibility for today's attack.
Joining me now is Tom Fuentes. He's a CNN contributor and former FBI assistant director.
Do all indications, Tom, at this point, towards Jemaah Islamiyah? They were, we said, responsible for the 2003 bombing, it's believed, in Jakarta as well as the 2002 bombing at the Bali nightclub that killed 182 people. But they typically don't go around claiming responsibility.
TOM FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's true, John. They have not claimed responsibility in the past even though investigations have shown before that they were involved in the earlier bombings.
ROBERTS: So, what leads you to believe that it is them?
FUENTES: Well, they're looking at the similar techniques. In this case, the police believe that an individual suicide bomber walked into each of the two hotels. The bomb was not from the basement or another location, but actually, in the case of the Marriott, in the lobby coffee shop area. They found body parts as well as portions of the backpack.
So, they believe that they have two suicide bombings and that's what they've had in the past in the attacks there. ROBERTS: Now, the 2003 attack at the Marriott Hotel was a car bomb outside, and in the wake of that, they undertook some pretty stringent security precautions both at the Marriott and the Ritz- Carlton across the street, and there's a business relationship between the two. Marriott owns a portion of the Ritz-Carlton Corporation.
So -- but this looked like it was an inside job, to some degree. There was an unexploded bomb that was found on the 18th floor of the Marriott Hotel. And police there in Jakarta say that the people responsible were guests.
So, they had actually gotten inside the hotel some time before the attack and it would seem to be -- and I don't know if they're taking a cue from it -- but mirror what happened in the Mumbai Hotel attacks, where the people responsible for those attacks had been operating from the inside for some time.
FUENTES: Right. In this case, they're reviewing the security cameras, the check-in cameras in the lobby. And they believe that, in the case of the Marriott, two subjects checked into that room on the 18th floor two days ago or two days before the bombing.
So, that's the location where they found the unexploded bomb and defused it just a few hours ago.
ROBERTS: So, there are, as we said, the security precautions. You can't get a vehicle close to the hotel. So, everybody who comes in and out has to go through a screening process. How could the bombers get their explosive materials inside the hotel?
FUENTES: Well, a large hotel like that, you're going to have delivery trucks, catering services, housekeeping, a variety of supply trucks and firms that are going to have access and bring material in and out of their hotel all the time.
So, the possibility of being able to scrutinize even every small package that comes in and out through one of the other services would be very difficult.
ROBERTS: So, you may be able to protect from -- against somebody from the outside who wants to come in, you know, determined to explode a device, sort of -- you know, they come in and then they do it. You might be able to protect against that, but protecting against an attack from the inside, more difficult? What does that say about what they need to do for security in the future?
FUENTES: Well, it's said that it's going to be very difficult to stop this type of attack, because if someone else that's cooperating as part of the network brings in the explosive material, then all they need to find are the people that have the ability to come in and actually put the bomb together, or in this case, bombs together and go off and commit suicide, blow themselves up with bombs.
So, you know, it's going to be very difficult to keep the material out of the hotel. And when you have large numbers of guests coming and going all the time, that's going to be next to impossible, because the guests that are the suicide bombers are coming in unarmed without any equipment, just maybe just a hand luggage.
ROBERTS: Wow
FUENTES: So, the equipment can be -- can be pre-positioned in that hotel through a variety of methods.
ROBERTS: You know, a former U.S. administration officials have said that, you know, we got to get lucky all the time in terms of protecting against it, that the terrorists only have to get lucky once.
Tom Fuentes, good to talk to you this morning. Thanks for dropping by. Appreciate it.
FUENTES: OK. Thank you, John.
ROBERTS: Ten minutes now to the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Affirmative action or quota system. It's a debate that's been reignited because of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings.
COSTELLO: Absolutely. You know, it's clear some people feel affirmative action ought to go away, just saying. It's time for my special segment. Just saying.
With an African-American in the White House and a soon-to-be Hispanic on the Supreme Court, is it time to say no to affirmative action?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): Born at the height of the civil rights movement, affirmative action helped minority students like Sonia Sotomayor get into elite schools like Princeton.
SOTOMAYOR: I am a product of affirmative action. I am the perfect affirmative action baby. My test scores were not comparable to that of my colleagues at Princeton or Yale.
COSTELLO: Keep in mind, back then only 12 percent of law school students nationwide were women and only seven percent were minorities. Today, the numbers have changed dramatically. Almost half of law school students are women and 23 percent are minority.
And minorities and women, overall, seem to be excelling. America votes a black president, a woman, secretary of state, and the list goes on and on and on.
(on camera): I'm just saying...
(voice-over): ...time to say no to affirmative action?
KEN BLACKWELL, FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: For us to operate under the nomenclature of affirmative action to operate on racial preferences and quotas is idiotic and counterproductive.
COSTELLO: It's a sentiment echoed by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote in his memoir of his Yale law degree, "I graduated from one of America's top law schools, but racial preference had robbed my achievement of its true value." And we found plenty of other Americans who agreed with him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't see the point in it anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time to go anyway.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's time to consider ending it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think it's relevant anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There will always be some group that would need it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe affirmative action should have never been in place in the first place.
COSTELLO: But others say not so fast. Yes, we have a black president, but there is just one black senator and two Hispanics.
CATHY AREU, CATALINA MAGAZINE: The day that we have a nominee for the Supreme Court and we don't bring up the word Latina or woman. I think that's a great day. I think we'll just say here's our new nominee, we're going to ask her questions. Then we won't need affirmative action.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Couple more things to keep in mind. Expert say minority enrollment at major public universities has actually fallen. It's not exactly growing. And it would be difficult to say discrimination on the job has disappeared for ordinary people. Despite this, voters in at least four states have limited the scope of affirmative action seeing it as a quota system and seeing it as anything but fair.
And, of course, we want to know what our viewers think about this this morning.
Is it time to say no to affirmative action? Should affirmative action go away? E-mail me on my blog at cnn.com/amfix. We want to know what you think.
ROBERTS: And a reminder that the much-anticipated CNN documentary "BLACK IN AMERICA 2" premieres next Wednesday and Thursday, July 22nd and 23rd at 8:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.
I like what that last woman said that when we get to a point where we'll just say the latest Supreme Court nominee or the latest candidate for president with no racial or gender identification, that's a -- that would be a good place to be.
COSTELLO: And when we can talk about women politicians in general without the gender thing hanging out there.
ROBERTS: Yes.
COSTELLO: Because, you know, when Hillary Clinton ran for president, there are a lot of horrible things said about her, as well as Sarah Palin.
ROBERTS: Yes. It will be -- it will be a good day when we get to that point, won't it?
COSTELLO: It would.
ROBERTS: Maybe a little away off that.
It's 54 minutes, almost 55 minutes after the hour. The latest on the hotel bombings live from Jakarta coming up next on the Most News in the Morning.
Stay right with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Since the secret program to kill al Qaeda members was recently exposed and shut down, former Vice President Dick Cheney has been taking a lot of heat for allegedly hiding it from Congress. But some terror experts are now wondering exactly what was being hidden.
Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr live from Washington with more on that this morning.
Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Well, you know, we decided to have a reality check on recent CIA and military hits. It's a world of capture or kill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone started all this.
STARR (voice-over): In the movie "The Bourne Ultimatum," Matt Damon plays an agent in the exotic world of a CIA assassin. But does it really exist? Leon Panetta just shut down an agency program reportedly aimed at killing al Qaeda terrorists. Congress may not have been informed.
SEN. KENT CONRAD (D), NORTH DAKOTA: That's a serious breach. Look, you can't gloss over it.
STARR: But experts say nobody should claim to be surprised that the U.S. is hunting down terrorists.
SETH JONES, RAND CORPORATION: We have seen a range of al Qaeda leaders that have been assassinated since September 11th in Afghanistan, in Pakistan and a range of other places. STARR: Indeed, CIA drones flying over Pakistan have killed dozens of suspected terrorists in recent years, but Jones says one of the diciest missions -- U.S. troops secretly on the ground in Pakistan in 2008 trading gunfire with al Qaeda.
JONES: There was a special operations force, direct action engagement in Waziristan. It was for a very short period of time.
STARR: Other hits, Somalia, 2007. Air Force AC-130 gunships launched strikes into southern Somalia, but failed to kill their al Qaeda targets.
Iraq, 2006, the U.S. military hunts down and kills Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. 2003, Saddam Hussein's sons are killed.
Yemen, 2002, a CIA drone kills an al Qaeda operative, the U.S. says was involved in the bombing of the "U.S. Cole." But whether it's the CIA or U.S. troops on the trigger, there are rules to be followed.
JONES: The United States cannot, ipso facto kill individuals in foreign countries. I mean, they're generally with foreign fighters. There has to be a determination that this individual and general is plotting and does threaten the homeland of the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: But one of the bottom line rules of the game, John, expert say, if U.S. troops are going to go into a foreign country, they have to have the permission of the host government or face diplomatic disaster if they're found out.
John?
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon with that.
Barbara, thanks so much.
