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Muslim Expectations; New Bin Laden Tape; Oil on the Agenda; Cuba's Tourism Boost

Aired June 03, 2009 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Mending relations and reaching out to Muslims, that is the mission for President Obama on his trip that began in Saudi Arabia today. The president arrived in Riyadh for talks with Saudi King Abdullah. From there he travels to Egypt for a major speech in Cairo tomorrow aimed at repairing relations with Muslims. The president will also make stops in Germany and France. White House correspondent Dan Lothian is traveling with the president. And Dan joins us from Riyadh.

And, Dan, you know, the trip to Saudi Arabia is being viewed as significant because of the peace plan put forward by the Saudis, but my understanding is that it was a late add to the president's schedule.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It really was a late add. But the president really believing that Saudi Arabia can really be helpful in moving the Middle East peace plan forward. The president pointing out that Saudi Arabia is a key ally.

As you pointed out, the president arrived to a military ceremony full of 21 gun salute and the president went out to King Abdullah's farm where they had private meetings. The president praised King Abdullah and pointed out that the two countries share a partnership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we'll be visiting Cairo tomorrow. I thought it was very important to come to the place where Islam began and to seek his majesty's council and discuss with him many of the issues that we confront here in the Middle East.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: So, Tony, obviously Middle East peace plan on top of the agenda here. The president looking toward King Abdullah to help with the Middle East peace plan. And also there's the issue of Iran, of what to do with Iran and their nuclear ambitions. The Arab states very concerned about that.

And, Tony, one other thing that we haven't talked much about today is energy. This is a big oil-producing country and we have seen over the last few weeks how oil has really spiked. So that's another thing that the president also talking with King Abdullah about.

HARRIS: All right. Our Dan Lothian, traveling with the president in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Dan, as always, great to talk to you. Let's go through the president's itinerary for the rest of his overseas trip. Once again, from Saudi Arabia the president travels to Egypt for his speech in Cairo tomorrow on Muslim relations. From there the president will visit Germany and France where he will take part in a ceremony commemorating D-Day.

And you can watch President Obama's much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world live tomorrow, 6:00 a.m. Eastern time on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." And in case you don't catch the speech at 6:00, we will be airing a large portion of it at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. We will also devote the hour to reaction to that speech.

On the eve of President Obama's address to the Islamic world, he's being verbally attacked, purportedly, by Osama bin Laden. The al Qaeda leader, speaking on a new audiotape surfacing today on the Arab- language network Al Jazeera, he slams the U.S. role in Pakistan, saying President Obama's policy is generating, quoting now, "new seeds of hatred and revenge."

Now, if the tape is indeed from bin Laden, it would be the first indication we've had in a while that he is alive. We want reaction from you about the bin Laden tape. Just do this for us, if you would. Just go to my blog page, cnn.com/newsroom, tell us your thoughts and how important is it to you that we find -- that the United States finds Osama bin Laden.

A leading Republican tries to tone down the race rhetoric over Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor after setting off a heated debate. Sotomayor is back on Capitol Hill for a second day of courtesy calls with senators. Senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash is following developments and she joins us from the Hill.

And, Dana, where do you want to start? Because there's a lot to get to with you.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Maybe we should start where the judge is right now. She is one floor below me in the Russell Office Building, meeting with the Republican senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham.

I just came from the maybe 30 seconds of those meetings where they actually allow those of us who work in the press corps to come in and they allow the cameras in. And so they're having their maybe more substantive meeting now. That was the third of her one-on-ones today. The first two were with Democrats, with Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and with Patty Murray of the state of Washington. And she has a lot more to go -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK. As I mentioned, a lot to get to with you. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, we talked about this last hour, he is backing off his earlier comments about Judge Sotomayor. He's now saying -- and maybe I should read this: "My initial reaction was strong and direct, perhaps too strong and too direct. The sentiment struck me as racist and I said so. Since then, some who want to have an open and honest consideration of Judge Sotomayor's fitness to serve on the nation's highest court have been critical of my word choice.

"With these critics who want to have an honest conversation, I agree. The word 'racist; should not have been applied to Judge Sotomayor as a person, even if her words themselves are unacceptable, the fact of which both President Obama and his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, have now admitted."

Dana, if you would, provide the context for this and then maybe you can tell us how this is playing out on the Hill.

BASH: Sure, well, the context is that he, of course, did call her a racist. He tweeted it. I believe it was last week or maybe even the week before at this point. And that was not the way Republicans here on the Hill wanted to go. They wanted to take a very different approach not to deal with personal attacks but to really try to show the potential real deep differences in judicial approach that she will have and what they will have and really probe that.

And so Newt Gingrich clearly got that message, I'm told, not just publicly but also privately. And Republicans here are very happy with his 180 on this. Listen to Jeff Sessions. I interviewed him earlier today. He's the top Republican on Senate Judiciary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R-AL), RANKING MEMBER, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I felt from the beginning that this was a nominee that had the basic qualities you look for in a judge. I have been troubled as I looked at her record as to whether or not she's an activist, a judge who would allow her personal views to influence her decision-making process.

But I didn't -- I haven't sensed this kind of hostile -- I just haven't felt that it's appropriate to make those kinds of strong statements about her.

BASH: You're glad he backed off?

SESSION: I'm very glad he backed off. I think that's unusual that commentators do that and I think it was very good that he did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, an interesting bit of color for you, Tony. We mentioned that Sonia Sotomayor is here on the Hill. She has been shuttling back and forth between Senate offices. And my colleagues in the press corps have been trying to shout her questions, asking her about her reaction to the fact that Newt Gingrich did back off.

And no surprise, given what we've been talking about, that she's not answering any questions, she hasn't responded. But not just that, she was actually asked one question at one of the photo-ops, and it looked like a White House aide reached over to her and said, don't answer any questions, in case she forgot that she was not supposed to just, you know, kind of speak from her gut, which, you can tell by the look on her face, a lot of these times when we're trying to ask her a question, she is dying to talk.

But she knows she's not supposed to. And so there was a little bit of a reminder there. It was a bit awkward because it was caught on tape. We caught this White House aide saying that to her. So we don't have a reaction from her yet, but it will be interesting to see what Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator of South Carolina who is meeting with her right now, what he says coming out of her meeting, because maybe he will ask her about it.

HARRIS: So the sense is she wants to say something but the handlers are getting in the way again. Blame it on the handlers.

BASH: Right. Well, but I will say this is ritual. This is standard for a Democratic nominee, for a Republican nominee, this is standard operating procedure. They come up here. They smile. They nod. They talk about, in her case, Nancy Drew and baseball games and -- for the cameras, and then they get down to business when the cameras aren't on her.

HARRIS: It would be nice if they were allowed to make a little news here. Our senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, for us. Dana, appreciate it. Thank you.

BASH: Thank you.

HARRIS: You know, on both sides of the Atlantic, hundreds of grieving friends and relatives of victims from the Air France crash are searching for answers today. Earlier this morning they gathered at Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral for an inter-religious memorial service. CNN's John Zarrella joins us by phone from Rio de Janeiro with more about the Brazilian families and how they are remembering the 228 lives lost.

And, John, what are you seeing and what are you hearing?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, as far as the families are concerned here, we're just hearing that some of them are saying that they would like to go down to an area of Brazil where the military base is where eventually the debris, when it is recovered, will be brought.

At this point that's the latest on what the families are hoping to do at some point. No indication when that might happen because the debris is still, of course, all in the ocean and as far as we know, even the latest from air force and navy officials is that none of it has yet been brought aboard any ships.

There are ships in the area, commercial as well as ships from the Brazilian navy that are en route there. A couple of those Brazilian naval vessels may already have arrived. Again, though, we don't have an update on that.

But this morning the military -- the air force officials did give us an update on new debris fields that were found. They found one circular area of debris that's about three miles, a three-mile across circle of debris. Within that there are four or five individual spots of debris.

One large piece of debris, some 21 feet in diameter, was found inside that circle. But there don't appear, at least according to the air force officials, to be any identifying marks on that. And so they can't identify it for certain from eyeballing it from the air what it is, whether it's a piece of the fuselage or what, in fact, it might be.

And they also found what appears to be a 12-mile-long slick apparently of jet fuel -- Tony.

HARRIS: Hey, John, are you getting any kind of assessment from officials on the chances of finding, recovering the flight data recorders? Boy, valuable information on those devices.

ZARRELLA: Yes, certainly, Tony, because without those, the chances of ever finding out what happened to Flight 447 are going to be extraordinarily difficult if not impossible without those devices.

They have got to locate the main body of the wreckage in order to even start to think about recovering it and finding those -- the voice data recorder and the voice recorder -- the data recorders. So until they can locate that, they're just going to be out of luck.

And right now it's really just hunting a needle in a haystack out there trying to pinpoint where the main body of the wreckage is.

HARRIS: CNN's John Zarrella from Rio de Janeiro for us. John, appreciate it, as always, thank you.

You know, there are deep underwater mountains and very rough seas this time of year in this part of the mid-Atlantic. How exactly are searchers going to accomplish getting the flight data recorders that we just mentioned? For that we turn to this explainer from Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the time line of a mystery. The plane takes off at 7:19 in the evening. Within 30 minutes it hits bad weather. But it keeps traveling at about 500 miles an hour toward on toward Paris on this route, and it reports no other problems until four hours after takeoff about here when an automated radio signals indicates an electrical problem and then nothing.

Rescuers begin scouring the flight path that they describe as three times as large as Europe. But right now it's all focused right here. This is where Brazilian air force officials say that debris was found, an airplane seat, oil, kerosene, a life vest, all quite close to the plane's estimated position when that radio call went out.

And that's both good and bad for investigators, because this is right along what's called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is an underwater mountain range. That means that in the shallowest area this may only be about a mile and a quarter deep, in the deepest area it could be as much as two miles deep. Now that's something to be reckoned with. It could be a lot deeper. But still, that's about the range, short by a quarter mile, of where the Titanic was found. And look at this, this plane is only about a quarter as big as the Titanic, if it stayed in one piece.

So in coming days look for this to happen. You'll see recovery teams dropping sonar beacons into the water all around here listening for pinging coming from a locator located on the plane.

This device is hooked to the cockpit voice recorder and to the data recorder which takes in hundreds of readings from the plane every moment while it's in flight. If they find them among all of these rocks and hills, the folks at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute say they can drop a deep sea diving vessel in and pluck those boxes from the ocean floor quite easily.

But the clock is ticking because the locator beacon sending out these signals will only work for 30 days.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: You know, it has been called "political suicide," but there's a push to have one segment of the population boycott the next Census.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The top executives of Chrysler and GM are on Capitol Hill today, testifying before a Senate panel. Do we have a live picture? Recess maybe? They're addressing concerns over the bankruptcy filings of the two companies and the plant closures of more than 2,000 dealerships. We will be following this and we will bring you any developments.

Will the GM bankruptcy actually work? A special report right now exploring GM's future, that is the top story as you can see at cnnmoney.com.

A clergy group is urging millions of illegal immigrants in the United States to boycott next year's Census. Why, you ask? Well, to send a strong message to Congress about amnesty.

CNN's Lisa Sylvester explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.S. Constitution calls for a Census every 10 years in which every person in the United States is counted. That includes even illegal aliens. The Census determines not only how federal dollars are allocated to states, but also the number of congressional seats each state gets.

But one prominent Hispanic group, the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, which represents 20,000 Latino churches, is urging illegals to boycott the Census. Why? As a way to pressure Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform that would grant amnesty to the country's 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens. REV. MIGUEL RIVERA, NATL. COALITION OF LATINO CLERGY & CHRISTIAN LEADERS: We went through the same process with President Bush and the Republicans in 2005, 2006, and 2007, and nothing happened. So at this time what we'd like to do -- or what we're doing is to put true pressure on members of Congress so that they will not skip the responsibility and be accountable.

SYLVESTER: According to a 2003 study by the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that favors immigration restrictions, California, with a large illegal presence, picked up three House seats. On the other hand, Indiana, Michigan, and Mississippi, each lost a seat.

The evangelical group's push for a boycott has them at odds with other Latino organizations like the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

ARTURO VARGAS, NATL. ASSN. OF LATINO ELECTED & APPOINTED OFFICIALS: I think it's political suicide in the sense that we're here at a time when the Latino population is growing. The immigrant population is an important part of American society, the American economy.

SYLVESTER: President Obama has said he wants Congress to pass an immigration bill.

(on camera): This has shown a divide within the Hispanic community over the approach of the issue of illegal immigration. The League of United Latin American Citizens, known as LULAC, in a statement, called the boycott "a phenomenal step backward." But the coalition of Latino clergy point to their translated slogan, "before being counted, we must be legalized."

Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Programming note here. Coming this October, CNN will present "Latino in America," a comprehensive look at how Latinos are changing America, reshaping politics, business, schools, churches, and neighborhoods. "Latino in America" this October on CNN.

I promise this next shot will be absolutely -- OK, that's not bad. I thought it was going to be gorgeous. But it's OK. It's OK. The Daily Presidential Briefing coming to you live from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in just moments. When it begins, we will be joining the press secretary, Robert Gibbs. We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says the state is once again in the hole. You'll remember a few months ago state lawmakers agreed on a plan to close a $42 billion budget gap. Now we're hearing the plan was too optimistic.

Tax revenue is down almost a third from last year and that has left the state cash-strapped, again. Yesterday Governor Schwarzenegger urged California's legislature to act quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: We have no time to waste. The controller has told us that we have 14 days to act or California is at risk of running out of cash. I have already used my executive authority to reduce the state payroll and I've proposed the necessary cuts to the three largest areas of our budget, which is education, health care, and prisons. I know the consequences of those cuts are not just dollars. I see the faces behind those dollars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Let's break this out a little bit. Those cuts include a reduction in public school funding by another $5.2 billion, layoffs for about 5,000 state workers and pay cuts for tens of thousands of others. The governor has also proposed taking some families off welfare and eliminating health care for almost 1 million of the state's low income children.

Now, the education cuts have teachers in Los Angeles pretty upset. So much so some of them have gone on a week-long hunger strike to protest.

Here's Eric Spillman with CNN affiliate KTLA.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIC SPILLMAN, KTLA REPORTER (voice-over): Sean Leys has had no food, only water, for the last seven days. He and other teachers are sleeping in tents on a sidewalk in front of a school in downtown L.A., and fasting to make a point.

SEAN LEYS, TEACHER: Right now I feel like cutting classrooms is balancing this budget on the backs of the community's most vulnerable, the children.

SPILLMAN: The "camp-in," as they call it, is a way of protesting the L.A. Unified District's plan to lay off more than 2,000 teachers. About a dozen are taking part in the hunger strike. Some of these teachers have already been told they'll be fired by the end of the month.

Says one: "How about a government bailout for education?"

MARTIN TERRONES, HUNGER STRIKE PARTICIPANT: They should be treating the education system like a bank. I mean, if we're going to bail out people when we didn't have any money in the first place, well then, let's treat it like a bank. And this is one investment that I'm willing to spend and pay for over the years than something like wars, GM, or any other corporations.

SPILLMAN: Those who are fasting are being monitored by doctors and are still teaching their classes. They want the district to use federal stimulus money now to avoid layoffs instead of squirreling some of it away for next year. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: That was KTLA affiliate reporter Eric Spillman. The camp-in is expected to last until tomorrow night.

Homegrown terrorism. Americans targeting Americans. Just this week an abortion provider gunned down and two soldiers shot at a recruiting center. The reported motive in each political and religious beliefs. A look at extremists and what sets them off.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Authorities say the Arkansas man accused of killing a U.S. soldier and wounding another outside a Little Rock recruiting center may have had more targets in mind. The Associated Press says officers found maps to Jewish organizations, a child care center, a Baptist church, and a post office. The Muslim convert, Abdul-Hakim Bledsoe (ph) has pled not guilty in the recruiting center shootings. Authorities say he targeted the soldiers because, quoting now, "because of what they had done to Muslims in the past."

The man accused of gunning down Wichita physician George Tiller inside a church Sunday morning has now been officially charged in his murder. Scott Roeder is being held without bail on a first-degree murder charge. Police still have not disclosed the motive yet, but associates have told CNN Roeder was a regular among anti-abortion protesters in Wichita. Tiller's women's clinic was a frequent target of protests.

The 67 year old was one of few doctors in America who performed late- term abortions. He had already survived one attempt on his life before being gunned down.

And it is a somewhat disturbing trend. Soldiers gunned down at a military recruiting center, a doctor who performed abortions gunned down at a church. Both deadly acts of terrorism. Criminologist and civil rights attorney Brian Levin joins me now, live from Irvine, California. He is an associate professor of criminal justice and director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University.

Brian, thanks for your time. We appreciate it.

BRIAN LEVIN, DIR., CTR FOR STUDY OF HATE & EXTREMISM, CALIF. STATE UNIV.: Thanks for having me, Tony.

HARRIS: Well, help us out here, enlighten us. The cases we have just detailed, do all of these cases -- I just want to be clear here, fall under the umbrella of domestic terrorism, to your mind?

LEVIN: Oh, absolutely. These are folks who want to have societal change through extreme methods. They're opting out of the levers and institutions of our pluralistic democracy. So they're trying to make change and they're doing it in a way that's violent. They've opted out of our pluralistic democracy, so that's why they're terrorists and extremists. HARRIS: You know, the language the members of the media are using to describe these cases, as I think you know is a little bit different from case to case. But to the extent that we can agree that the people involved in these incidents, these alleged domestic terrorists, talk to us through some of the types of terrorist, I know you have done a lot of work in this area.

First of all, tell us about terrorists who are ideologically motivated.

LEVIN: Great question. Yes, there are three basic types. But there is hybridization between them. The first type is the ideological extremist. And that can be someone who is political. It could be someone who is religious, or a combination of both. And there you go.

And here's an example, just going to hold this in front of my face. This is what they -- for instance, the radical violent anti-abortion folks look to as part of their folklore, "Army of God."

HARRIS: Can you describe that? Can you describe that for us?

LEVIN: Yes. Sure. With all of these kinds of extremist, they opt out of society and they buy into a folklore and they buy into a belief system. So there's an emotional component, but there's also a belief system historic and folklore component as well.

And when that ties together, when you are removed from the institutions that bind us together, mainstream and family, mainstream church, et cetera, they can become radicalized.

HARRIS: Hey, Brian, you also tell us that there is usually a trigger event that can be a motivator for someone who resorts to this kind of event. I want to have you listen to Scott Roeder's ex-wife. She was talking about her ex-husband last night on "AC 360." And then let's talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDSEY ROEDER, SCOTT ROEDER'S EX-WIFE: It was about 1991-'92 when he basically couldn't cope with every day life. When he couldn't make ends meet, he couldn't pay the bills and didn't know why he couldn't do that. And someone told him that if he didn't pay his federal taxes, if those taxes were left in his check, he could make ends meet. And then he started investigating that and someone told him that it wasn't ratified properly in the Constitution. That it was illegal. And he went from there and got into the anti-government, got into militia, got into the freemen. And along those lines, anti-abortion issues came up and he started becoming very religious in a sense that he finally was reading the Bible. But then after we were divorced, his religion really took on a whole new right wing of itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: All right. Brian, is that what you're referring to when you're talking about a motivating event for someone turning to extremism? LEVIN: Exactly. And what we've seen here, here we had some personal disappointments that really spiraled and he was able to scapegoat that into overall societal issues that he found immoral. So this became a combination of both these personal disappointments and things like abortion or an illegitimate government to become one.

And that's why these things are uniquely personal wars for people like Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, who basically didn't do well trying to go out for a special army unit. These kind of personal disappointments can then get hooked into some chronic things that are going on in society. It might be the abortion issue. It might be guy marriage. It might be something else. We write about this on our Web site, hatefigher.blogspot.com (ph) about these various issues.

And that's what you have to look at. Who's having some kind of personal difficulty, and how do they scapegoat that on to some chronic societal issue or trigger event some where?

HARRIS: I think that's helpful. I do. Brian Levin for us.

Brian, appreciate it. Thanks for your time today.

LEVIN: Tony, thanks so much for having me.

HARRIS: No, no, no, our pleasure.

A new audiotape from Osama bin Laden. His message refers to "hatred and revenge against America." The latest information and your comments next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Want to remind you again, if you're looking for the latest financial news and analysis, just go to cnnmoney.com. You can see the lead story there, "will the GM bankruptcy work?" Some believe GM has finally made the necessary changes to be competitive. That is the lead story right now at cnnmoney.com.

Let's swing you to the big board now and we're just past three hours into the trading day. As you can see, the Dow is down 93 points. Off of session lows. We were just down in triple digit territory just moments ago. The Nasdaq, tech heavy Nasdaq, as we like to say, is down 19 points. We are following the numbers throughout the day for you right hear in the CNN NEWSROOM with Susan Lisovicz.

President Obama has a tough task ahead in trying to reshape the U.S. image in the Muslim world. A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows only 14 percent of people in Muslim countries have a favorable opinion of the United States. Six percent, neutral. And a whopping 78 percent of those in the Muslim world with an unfavorable opinion of the United States.

The president is right now being warmly received in Saudi Arabia. His visit to the birthplace of Islam is the first stop on a trip aimed at mending U.S. relations with Muslims. Next stop for the president, Egypt, where he will deliver a highly anticipated speech to Muslims worldwide. Our Zain Verjee looks at the expectations.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, President Obama is lowering expectations of his Cairo speech, saying one speech is not going to solve all the problems in the Middle East. What he is saying is that both sides need to talk more and that the west needs to understand Islam more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE, (voice-over): America's next big ad campaign in the Muslim world. President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo. He's had a warmup.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation.

VERJEE: And is now gearing up for the big moment.

OBAMA: A nation of citizens.

VERJEE: His message, the U.S. is not at war with the Islamic world. Some Muslims are excited about the speech.

HIBA AL-HAJJAR, STUDENT: I like Obama a lot because he's like usually diversified. He likes all people from all cultures. So I hope that his visit to the Middle East would improve and change the situation.

VERJEE: Others, skeptical.

EHAB JUHABI, PALESTINIAN: Nothing would be changed because I think, you know, the American would keep supporting the Israeli state forever.

VERJEE: Mr. Obama has already gained ground in the Muslim world because he's not George Bush. But Mamoun Fandy, a Mideast expert, says Muslims want more than just talk. They want action.

MAMOUN FANDY, DIRECTOR OF MIDDLE EAST PROGRAM, ISS: That he is very serious about solving the Arab/Israeli problem. That he's very serious out engaging the Muslim world on the basis of recognizing their equality.

VERJEE: According to many estimates, there are more than 1 billion Muslims in the world and the vast majority are moderates who want to hear that they are part of the solution to world security.

ISMAIL YUSANTO, LEADER OF MUSLIM ORGANIZATION: We do not want anything from Obama except the realization of what he said of mutual respect, mutual understanding and mutual interest between USA and Muslim world.

VERJEE: Fandy says, on this trip, looks will matter.

FANDY: Obama looks like half of the Muslims. His wife looks like probably half of the Egyptians and the Saudis. So he's a familiar face that will be inspiring to the young Muslims who look like Obama, that they can be global leaders.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: President Obama says that he wants to tell young Muslims that they need to leave a legacy of building up their countries and not destroying them -- Tony.

HARRIS: Thank you, Zain.

Zain Verjee in London for us.

And you can watch President Obama's speech to the Muslim world live tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." And in case you don't catch the speech at 6:00 a.m., it is awfully early, we will be airing a large portion of it at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. We will also devote the rest of the hour to reaction to the speech.

As President Obama begins his Mideast trip, a new message said to be from Osama bin Laden. The message takes aim at the U.S. role in Pakistan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Welcome back, everyone.

A new tape purportedly from Osama bin Laden, accusing the United States of generating news seeds of hatred. It may be his latest audio message, but when's the last time we actually saw him? Josh Levs has an interactive time line.

Share that with us, Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's interesting, Tony. We've got this up and going now at cnn.com. It's part of the main story about this purported bin Laden tape that we received today.

And what I want to do is zoom right in because I want to show you how this interactive time line works. You can pretty much click on any one of dozens of dates. Let's go right in.

Along here you're going to see red notes at the bottom. And any time you click on one, it brings you to a different date. So you've got 2002, 2003. Various times we've heard from him or key events involving Osama bin Laden or believed to involve him.

Now this is the last time we got an actual video. September 11, 2007. The sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. This was a video purportedly featuring an introduction from Osama bin Laden.

So it's been that long since we have actual video that did apparently have him inside it. But as you know, Tony, we've continued to receive audio messages that authorities in various cases believe might have been or actually was him. And you can read all about that, including the most recent ones, at cnn.com there.

HARRIS: Curious to know what we're getting from folks to our blog in reaction to the latest audiotapes. LEVS: Yes, a lot. They jumped on this one really fast. Let's zoom back in. I want to show you. This is at cnn.com/newsroom. And you can see some of the various responses here. Just click on Tony.

Karen wrote us there here. "Looks to me like someone's a bit nervous that Obama is gaining ground in the hearts and minds territory."

Brian here. "I don't think bin Laden should be our first priority. If anything, it would be nice to find him just to have another success where the last administration failed."

Chris over here in San Antonio. "Seeds of hatred?," referring to what bin Laden purportedly said, "nah, ah, it's al Qaeda who is spreading the seeds of hatred."

Got a couple more here. Jim. "Bin Laden is dead. He's been dead for a long time."

HARRIS: Yes, a lot of people believe that.

LEVS: A lot of people do believe that. There are -- and, you know what, there are officials who have said they're not certain. So there are some people who point to these statements. But we don't know for sure.

We definitely want to invite everyone to weigh in on this. Your thoughts on the latest statement. Let's show Tony's face there so you know how to get to cnn.com/newsroom.

HARRIS: Oh, that handsome young man. Where, where.

LEVS: There you go. See, got to make the anchor happy. Put that face on, people. Cnn.com/newsroom.

HARRIS: Oh, look at that smile.

LEVS: Now you're going to see a little tiny one of me on the next page where we've got my FaceBook and my Twitter. Facebook.com/joshlevscnn. Twitter.com/joshlevscnn. There you go. Let us know what you think.

One thing I really like about these, honestly, is that even after our show, the conversations continue here. People respond to each other. It's a continuation past that 1:00 mark.

HARRIS: Keep the conversation going. Love it.

Josh, appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

LEVS: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: Are we in for another spike in oil prices? What President Obama's trip overseas could mean for what you're paying at the pump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Yes, let's do get an 'Energy Fix." As President Obama kicks off his Mideast tour in Saudi Arabia, you can bet oil is on the agenda. But has the discussion changed a bit? Cnnmoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our "Energy Fix" from New York."

Good to see you, Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hey there, Tony.

Well, yes, President Obama and King Abdullah just wrapped up that meeting. We don't have the specifics on it, but you can bet oil was a topic because in Saudi Arabia it's not exactly a cause for celebration when the president of the United States has made energy independence a key priority, right? Saudi Arabia, the kingdom is the fourth biggest oil exporter to our country.

When you look at the numbers here, folks, we are importing 944,000 barrels of oil a day just from Saudi Arabia. Right now oil is hovering around $67, $68 a barrel. If you do the math, that's more than $64 million a day and $23 billion a year on oil going from us to the Saudis.

Now, an energy analyst we spoke with said, right, Tony, the Saudis are concerned because our focus on this clean energy and on these independence in terms of our energy supply is going to hurt demand for Saudi oil. Another concern here is that legislation to limit carbon emissions, is going through Congress right now, would increase the taxes on oil prices, make it more expensive in this country, but Saudi Arabia won't benefit from that price hike if we do see one. So some concerns out there.

HARRIS: Yes, absolutely. So to drill down on this a bit more, President Obama -- to drill down, I'm sorry -- wants alternative energy in the mix here, but no doubt, Poppy, look, we still need oil. What's the long-term outlook?

HARLOW: Yes, we're not going to end our oil imports any time soon. The president has not said that. But analysts say this, what's going on right now in Saudi Arabia is a longer term discussion. It's not about oil today. It's about oil in five years. Down the road.

They say the president would like some assurances from King Abdullah that the kingdom is going to continue its investment in future oil exploration. Without that, what we could see is a huge spike in oil prices. That's something President Obama has said isn't going to benefit Americans, obviously. But it won't benefit Saudi interests either because there is a sweet spot for oil prices when the demand is there that they would like to see -- Tony.

HARRIS: You mean the spike like the spike we're seeing right now in oil prices?

HARLOW: And we are. I mean, you call this a spike, but last summer we were at over $140 a barrel. But let's talk about this week alone, we hit a seven-month high for oil prices. People are betting on a little bit of economic recovery, a little bit of increased demand for energy.

Look at the chart right there. What you see is the surge in oil this year alone. Prices, right now, are double what we saw in February. That means your gas prices are up for a 36th straight day in a row. $2.55 a gallon. That's the national average for gas.

As oil goes, so goes gas. The long-term outlook here, Tony, one analyst told us, in four or five years, we could see oil higher than the spike of last summer -- Tony.

HARRIS: Poppy Harlow for us.

Poppy, appreciate it. Thank you.

HARLOW: Sure.

HARRIS: Don't hate the messenger, and I don't.

Let's get a check of weather now. Chad Myers in the severe weather center.

Chad, what are you working on, doctor?

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Havana heating up. And I'm not just talking about the weather. We're talking tourism.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: That's right, come on, Kyra. We're going. Flights to Miami, to Cuba absolutely booked. Restaurants hopping. Beaches packed. May not be room for us, Kyra. CNN's Shasta Darlington reports on how the lifting of some U.S. travel restrictions is affecting Cuba's tourism industry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hugs, tears and shrieks of joy. At the airport in Havana, family reunions are played out in public. Ariel (ph) meets his baby son for the first time. His girlfriend, Aglis (ph), lives in Miami and was barred by U.S. law from visiting when Kevin was born.

"We haven't seen each other for a year and a half," he says. "Our son was born and I couldn't even see him." But thanks to U.S. President Barack Obama, families divided by the Florida straits are getting reacquainted. Washington has eliminated restrictions on Cuban- Americans traveling to their homeland. But they're also helping Cuban's tourism industry stay afloat.

DARLINGTON (on camera): This is the first time that tourism in Cuba isn't going to be as hard hit as its neighbors. But that's because thousands of Cuban-Americans are coming. Under President Bush, they could only visit their families once every three years. Now they can come as often as they want as long as they can afford it.

DARLINGTON (voice-over): One charter airline that connects Miami and Havana with daily flights says business is taking off. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd say the traffic will probably double.

DARLINGTON: Once on the ground, Cuban-Americans are helping make up for a decline in European tourism. They rent cars, eat out and take their families to beach resorts.

The tourism minister wouldn't comment on the impact of Cuban- Americans, but said the sector is holding up. Despite the crisis, Cuban tourism continues developing, he said. It grew 2 percent this winter.

Cuba is still off limits for the broader American public. And many who can come are critical of both governments. Jose says he won't take his family to any hotels or state-run restaurants.

JOSE: I don't want my money to go to the government, you see.

DARLINGTON: For Ariel and Aglis, it's all about family. They're getting married. Hoping tearful embraces at the airport will soon be a thing of the past.

Shasta Darlington, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Kyra Phillips.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Tony, thanks.

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