Return to Transcripts main page
Lou Dobbs Tonight
Bipartisan Commission on Iraq Intelligence Announced; Florida Girl Found Dead
Aired February 06, 2004 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Tonight: President Bush sets up a bipartisan commission to investigate prewar intelligence on Iraq.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The stakes for our country could not be higher.
DOBBS: Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, joins us.
"Exporting America." Powerful lobbyists on Capitol Hill are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to export American jobs overseas. Senator Byron Dorgan is our guest. Senator Dorgan will tonight, for the first time ever, release details of the number of American jobs lost because of NAFTA.
A brutal murder in Florida. An 11-year-old girl is dead. Her family says she died because a judge made a terrible mistake.
JOEY BRUCIA, FATHER OF CARLIE: In my opinion, he should have never been out on the street.
DOBBS: And "Broken Borders." More than half of this country's farm workers now are illegal. We'll have a special report.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Friday, February 6. Here now, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening.
President Bush today named seven members of a bipartisan commission to investigate U.S. intelligence on Iraq. That panel will be led by former Democratic Senator Chuck Robb, former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Lawrence Silberman. He's a Republican. That commission will include as well Senator John McCain.
President Bush said the stakes for this country cannot be higher.
White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux reports -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, really, it's a matter of restoring the administration's credibility, its justification for going to war.
What this commission is going to do is take a look at what the CIA knew before the war, compare that with what the Iraq Survey Group knew after the war. And we are also told that it is going to look at intelligence assessments on weapons programs in Iran, North Korea, Libya, as well as Afghanistan. But the main focus here is on that claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Dr. Kay also stated that some prewar intelligence assessments by America and other nations about Iraq's weapons stockpiles have not been confirmed. We're determined to figure out why. We're also determined to make sure that American intelligence is as accurate as possible for every challenge in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Senator John McCain, a top Republican who called for the commission, also, as you recall, was running against President Bush for the Republican nomination in 2000, considered a maverick and often critical of the Bush administration. He is also going to be on the commission. The reason for his appointment is essentially to counter the critics, the claims that this type of panel all appointed by President Bush cannot be objective.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I agree with Dr. Kay. It's clear that there were failures. And to assert otherwise, I think, flies in the face of the facts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Now, the members of this commission include the co- chairs, Democrat Chuck Robb, former senator and governor of Virginia, also Republican Lawrence Silberman, a retired federal judge, considered a staunch conservative, other members including Democrat Lloyd Cutler. He's a former White House counsel to President Carter and Clinton.
Patricia Wald, she's a former chief judge for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. Richard Levin, he's the president of Yale University. And Admiral William Studeman, he's a former deputy director for the CIA -- Lou.
DOBBS: Suzanne, thank you very much.
Secretary of State Colin Powell also defended the decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein. Secretary Powell made his comments to reporters at the United Nations today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: When we presented the case to the United Nations in September the year before last, and when the president took his action -- and his action was totally justified by the information that he had, the intelligence he was provided, and the record of this individual. And the one thing we don't have to worry about now is whether there are any weapons of mass destruction or Saddam Hussein in Iraq to use them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Joining me now from Capitol Hill, Senator Pat Roberts. Senator Roberts is the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Good to have you with us.
SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: Thank you, Lou.
DOBBS: You have said, Senator, that this panel would have to have expertise, it would have to have recognizable authorities and be independent. Has the president met your criteria?
ROBERTS: I think he has.
I know most of the panel members. I think they are very wise in regards to experience with our intelligence. I'm not sure they could all sit down and have lunch and order the same thing from the menu, either politics or otherwise. But I think they will be very dedicated to that task.
And I think -- I don't want to quarrel with your coverage, but I think that this mission is a lot broader than just Iraq. This mission is to take a look at the systemic challenges we have in the intelligence community as we approach the WMD-producing nations like North Korea, like Iran, like Libya. We basically overestimated it in regards to Iraq. We underestimated it in regards to Libya and Iran.
DOBBS: And, Senator, the fact that your committee is about to release a report on much the same subject, how do you feel about that?
ROBERTS: Well, basically, ours is a little more narrow in scope. Senator Rockefeller and I had four things that we have agreed to do. And we're still working to work out any differences of opinion.
But we released a working draft, really, a report. It's about 315 pages long. It involves extensive interviews with over 200 analysts, 19 volumes, about, floor-to-ceiling documents. I think it's the most comprehensive review of prewar intelligence and a tough look at the CIA and all of the intelligence community that we have had in about a decade.
Members are now going over it right now. They are going to go over it for the next two weeks. We hope we can reach bipartisan accommodation. And then, at the end of March, which is the deadline I'd like to put on it, we will have public hearings. And I think the American people have a right to know.
DOBBS: And to what degree do you believe this independent commission appointed by the president will be duplicative of your efforts?
ROBERTS: Well, I don't think they want to be duplicative.
I think we will certainly turn our report over to them. It will be a lot like the 9/11 investigation by the Senate and House Intelligence Committees last year. We gave all that material to the independent commission that now is studying the situation with regard to 9/11.
DOBBS: Senator Roberts, I am sure that CIA Director George Tenet appreciates all of the help and counsel that he is receiving here.
(LAUGHTER)
DOBBS: What is your level of confidence in the CIA director?
ROBERTS: Well, that's not really my call. That's the president's call.
And we're going to have the director up as of March the 2nd. He's asked to come up. We certainly have granted that request. He's been a very forthright witness. He's been a staunch defender of the CIA. I think he made some very interesting and pertinent remarks as of yesterday. And I think he wanted to do that for the spri decor (ph) of the CIA.
We have got a lot of people in the CIA who are sort of hunkered down right now. We have got about six, seven, eight, nine 10 panels investigating all of this intelligence. I hope there is somebody left at the CIA to conduct the global war on terrorism.
DOBBS: Well, you are saying that somewhat flippantly, but the fact is
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: No, I'm not saying it very flippantly. We have got the House. We have got the Senate. We have got the the president's foreign policy advisory board. We have got the Kerr report. We have got every service in the military taking a look at it. We have got all these independent commissions and all the armchair experts.
I don't want to damage the spri decor (ph) of those people who have to connect those dots to protect us from terrorism. I'm very serious about it.
DOBBS: And to that point, is it possible that this is being overdone, frankly, Senator, this seems in some respects reminiscent of 1974, the Church review at that time. Where are we headed?
ROBERTS: Well, I hope it's not the Church review. At the end of the Church review, we ended up that the Congress and the administration at that particular time did not fund the priorities of the CIA.
We went into a bathtub in terms of really supporting our intelligence effort. We don't need to repeat that mistake. And we're not doing that. On a bipartisan basis, we are trying to invest more dollars into intelligence. We're not just going to spend money, but we're trying to really prioritize it into human intelligence and also other matters that we think are appropriate, especially with the war against terrorism.
DOBBS: Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, thank you for being here.
ROBERTS: OK, thank you, Lou.
DOBBS: In Moscow today, terrorists killed at least 39 people in a bomb attack on a crowded rush hour subway train. More than 130 other people were wounded in the blast. Authorities say at least one suicide bomber carried out that attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed radical Islamists from Chechnya.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today said he has no regrets about describing France and Germany as old Europe. Rumsfeld made those comments last year when France and Germany refused to support the war against Saddam Hussein. In Germany today, Rumsfeld said relationships between the United States and Europe have improved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: My impression -- and everyone obviously can have their own impression -- is that the health of the alliance is good, that the relationship between the United States and North America and the European countries is good, that the relationships within Europe seem to be pretty good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: Nonetheless, plans under way to remove some U.S. troops from European bases.
Secretary Rumsfeld today also ordered an investigation into allegations of sexual assaults against U.S. troops in Kuwait and Iraq. Nearly 40 female troops say they have been assaulted by male soldiers.
Troubling questions tonight after the kidnapping and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Florida. Authorities found the body of Carlie Brucia near a church in Sarasota.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS (voice-over): Joseph Smith has an arrest record dating back to 1993. That record includes aggravated battery. He was sentenced to probation.
He was acquitted of charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment. Smith also served a year in prison in 2001 for drug charges, including possession of heroin. Carlie Brucia's devastated father wants to know why Joseph Smith was free to kill his daughter.
JOEY BRUCIA, FATHER OF CARLIE: I really find the decisions made by some of these judges very questionable. And I would ask the governor to look into this. In my opinion, he should have never been out on the street.
DOBBS: Joseph Smith was twice cited for probation violations. Both times, Florida Judge Harry Rapkin allowed him to remain free, in compliance with Florida law. The first violation was for a positive drug test. Smith was enrolled in a drug program. The second time, failure to pay court fees. But the judge didn't have information showing this failure was willful and he extended the deadline by six months.
JUDGE HARRY RAPKIN, 12TH CIRCUIT COURT OF FLORIDA: If I did something wrong, I would apologize. I promise. But I never saw the man. He never came here. And all I had was his paperwork. And all I did was require what the law makes me require.
DOBBS: There are now more than three million people on probation in this country and legal experts admit, the system is broken.
LAURIE LEVENSON, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL: The problem really is the system. We have so many defendants who are on probation, so many people being supervised that, even when they violate, there's no guarantee that they are going back to jail.
DOBBS: Joseph Smith has now been charged with the murder of 11- year-old Carlie Brucia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: Later in the broadcast, I'll be discussing this case and the role of Judge Harry Rapkin with our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin.
Also ahead tonight, lobbyists on Capitol Hill spending plenty of money, lots of money, to export American jobs overseas. Senator Byron Dorgan joins me. He will for the first time here tonight release details of the number of American jobs lost to NAFTA.
In "Broken Borders," illegal aliens are literally taking over the work force of America's farms. We'll have a special report for you.
And where are the jobs? The number of new jobs created last month not even enough to keep up with the growth of the labor force.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Hundreds of thousands of American jobs are being exported to cheap foreign labor markets. The majority of those jobs are being shipped to India.
But, as Lisa Sylvester now reports, pro-India lobbying groups are far from satisfied. They want more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a familiar sight these days, a rally to protest overseas outsourcing. But what you don't see is the other side. Foreign corporate groups are quietly launching a major public relations campaign to stop the backlash.
According to Senate lobbying records, the National Association of Software Service Companies, or NASSCOM, a New Delhi trade group, paid a Washington public relations firm $100,000 last year to help carry its message. Last month, another group, the Confederation of Indian Industry, sponsored a seven-day trip to India for 10 congressional Democratic.
Representative Joseph Crowley is co-chair of the Congressional India Caucus. He says overseas outsourcing allows American companies to become more competitive, which, he argues, will help the U.S. economy.
REP. JOSEPH CROWLEY (D), NEW YORK: When an Indian wakes up in the morning and is putting on the Nike shoes to go to work, when they go to lunch as McDonald's, when they are drinking Coca-Cola and Pepsi, when they're working on a Dell computer, that is, in essence, supporting the economy, in many respects, in the United States.
SYLVESTER: That's a hard shell for Natasha Humphries. The 30- year old was laid off from her I.T. job right after she finished training her replacement in India.
NATASHA HUMPHRIES, LAID-OFF WORKER: It outraged me the most, not to mention they -- basically, their strategy was to keep our nose to the grind, so we couldn't keep an eye on the ax looming above our heads, so that we wouldn't know that our relationship with the company would eventually be severed.
SYLVESTER: Critics say U.S. multinational corporations reap the benefits of offshoring, benefits that do not necessarily trickle down to the average American.
MARCUS COURTNEY, WASHINGTON ALLIANCE OF TECH WORKERS: I think the recipe of exporting our best-paying, best-skilled jobs overseas is not one for job creation, but is actually one of corporate greed.
SYLVESTER: Those fighting outsourcing may not have the money to pay lobbyists on Capitol Hill, but they have something else, strength in numbers, all the workers who have lost their jobs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: The India caucus has grown considerably. The Republican House membership of the caucus has tripled in the past year. When Representative Crowley was in India, he said one way to stop the backlash against outsourcing is for Indian companies to move some of their operations to the United States. So far, Lou, no takers.
DOBBS: Lisa, thank you very much -- Lisa Sylvester from Washington. Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota is among those leading the fight to keep American jobs in this country. Tonight, Senator Dorgan is joining us and releasing for the first time a disturbing report on the number of American jobs lost because of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Some 100 companies, 200,000 job, either because of cheap imports forcing companies to shut down factories or because jobs have been exported to Mexico or Canada.
Senator Dorgan joins us tonight from Capitol Hill.
Senator, good to have you with us.
SEN. BYRON DORGAN (D), NORTH DAKOTA: Hi, Lou. How are you?
DOBBS: I'm excellent, Senator.
The fact is that NAFTA, a great number of promises were made when the legislation authorizing NAFTA was signed in 1993. What is, in your judgment, not working?
DORGAN: Well, you know, when NAFTA, with Mexico and Canada, the trade agreement was negotiated, we had a small surplus, $2 billion surplus with Mexico. That is now a $40 billion deficit.
We had a $10 billion deficit with Canada. That's now a $50 billion deficit. And yet we still have people saying, gosh, this has been a great success. And so I decided to ask the official agencies in Washington, where they set up what is called a transitional trade adjustment assistance program. That's a fancy way of saying, we will provide a little income for people who lose their jobs due to NAFTA.
(CROSSTALK)
DORGAN: So I decided to ask them to release for me public information, which companies certified the loss of jobs. And they gave me the list of 100 of the companies, beginning with the largest, on down, that certified, here are the jobs that have been lost as a result of either imports coming in or exporting of jobs going out.
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: Senator, if I may interrupt, just quickly.
DORGAN: Yes.
DOBBS: These are the companies. The senator has provided us this list. And they're going to roll here for our viewers to look at.
Please go ahead, Senator.
(CROSSTALK)
DORGAN: Well, if I might just -- Levi Strauss, we all understand about Levis. They are not made in America; 15,000 Levi Strauss employees lost their jobs. They were making $14 an hour in Georgia, but those Levis are now made in Mexico. Motorola cell phones, 7,000 jobs. They are made in Chihuahua, Mexico, not Florida anymore.
Fruit of the Loom, 5,300 people. I sat on the floor of the Senate -- losing your shirt, that is one thing. But Fruit of the Loom, they are gone to Mexico. And Kraft Foods, Fig Newton. We lose a part of America when you lose Fig Newton, right? But none of this is funny.
This is an export of American jobs in search of lower wages by corporations who want to fatten profits. The problem is, American workers pay the price. And the other problem is this. I don't think a country remains a strong world economic power if it doesn't retain a strong manufacturing base. And I'm very worried about what is happening. I think it is weakening this country from the inside.
DOBBS: Senator, do you find, yourself being called, because of your views on this, xenophobic, protectionist, because you have the audacity to suggest that the United States, the most powerful economy and nation on Earth, should have a manufacturing base?
DORGAN: Oh, absolutely.
I mean, those who say, look, we're for "free trade" -- quote, unquote -- they look at someone like me, who asks, well, what about the export of American jobs, doesn't that weaken our country? They say, well, you are just -- you are kind of an isolation, xenophobic stooge. You just can't see over the horizon. You don't get it.
What I get is that we are negotiating bad trade agreements for this country. Will Rogers once said, the United States of America never lost a war and never won a conference. He surely must have been thinking about our trade negotiators, because whether it's NAFTA or WTO or GATT or now CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, we give away American jobs. And it is not fair. We fought for 100 years for the issues of minimum wage and safe plants and so on.
And what is happening in this country is very alarming, in my judgment.
DOBBS: And, also, to me, as alarming is the fact, the United States Congress, this administration, has taken no step to reverse the course that we are embarked upon. What are we going to do?
DORGAN: Oh, in fact, it is ratcheting up. We are doing more and more trade agreements and setting American workers and also businesses, incidentally, that are exclusively American businesses, setting them up to compete against others, where they can employ 12- year-olds, work them 12 hours a day, pay them 12 cents an hour, work them seven days a week. And you think that doesn't happen? I guarantee you it does. And that is not fair competition for American manufacturing.
DOBBS: Senator Byron Dorgan, we thank you for being here tonight.
DORGAN: Thank you, Lou. DOBBS: Well, some Hollywood studios have also turned to cheap overseas labor markets for production of films. Now, one very noteworthy Hollywood executive says his studio is paying a high price. Miramax Chairman Harvey Weinstein suggests that a backlash against overseas production is the reason that his movie "Cold Mountain" was left out of the race for a best picture Oscar nomination.
Weinstein told "The Hollywood Reporter" he believes that may have influenced Oscar voters. Why would the voters be upset about the location? The movie is a drama about the American Civil War and it was filmed, for budget regions, of course, in highly competitive low- cost Rumania.
Coming up next, "Broken Borders," illegal aliens taking more and more work from legal immigrants and other Americans on our nation's farms. And we'll have a special report.
Outrage over the killing of an 11-year-old girl in Florida. Her alleged killer twice violated his probation and was allowed to remain free. CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins me. We'll have that discussion and a great deal more still ahead.
Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: "Broken Borders" tonight.
The number of illegal aliens working on farms across this country has literally exploded over the past 15 years. And the nature of agriculture is only helping illegal aliens enter and stay in this country.
Kitty Pilgrim went to Belle Glade, Florida, and has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Southern Florida has some of the best farmland in the country. With warm days, cool nights, weather is seldom a problem. Labor can be.
CHARLES BRONSON, FLORIDA AGRICULTURE COMMISSION: The agriculture businesses in Florida depend so heavily on physical labor, when it comes to tomatoes and peppers and beans of different types, they have to be picked and picked over and over again. So it takes physical labor to do all that work.
PILGRIM: But not all workers are legal. Some present fake I.D.s, fake Social Security numbers. And by the time it's discovered, they have moved on.
Illegal workers used to make up some 7 percent of agricultural workers 15 years ago. But now the Labor Department says more than half of all agricultural workers are illegal. At Roth Farms in Belle Glade, Rick Roth says his workers are legal, fully documented. RICK ROTH, ROTH FARMS: They have to provide us with the proper documents. And they have to fill out I-9 forms. So we're very much up on the regulations.
PILGRIM (on camera): Roth Farms has been a family business since 1949, 5,000 acres. They grow lettuce, corn, parsley, sugar cane, rice and radishes.
(voice-over): With that kind of crop diversity, they can grow pretty much all year, guaranteeing workers steady work. Roth says that gives him a more stable work force. But other kinds of growers can't keep workers long term.
ROTH: If you're harvesting a crop five days a week for six months, you can hire a crew and keep them. They are working for me. If you are growing oranges or some other crop that maybe you are harvesting only one day a week or five days a month, and then they go on and harvest somewhere else.
PILGRIM: We spoke to illegal workers in California, grape pickers, who tell us it is not difficult to find work. This man has worked here illegally for six years and says most of his co-workers are illegal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes, the majority of undocumented.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It's easier for the ranchers to exploit a person who does not have documents than a person who is legal or a citizen.
PILGRIM: While there are jobs to be had, illegal workers will just keep coming.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: That's why many farmers favor new immigration proposals such as the guest worker programs to ensure that they have enough legal workers to hire -- Lou.
DOBBS: More than half the workers now illegal.
PILGRIM: That's exactly right.
DOBBS: Their pay in the time that they have moved from 7 percent of the agricultural worker population to over 55 percent, how much has it risen in that 15 years?
PILGRIM: It's minimum wage at this point, pretty much.
DOBBS: And the illegal aliens are paid minimum wage or less than minimum wage?
PILGRIM: Anecdotally, you hear that they are pressured on their wages, that they work longer hours, that they are taking less money, because, often, they are cheated out of (CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: And yet, people with straight faces in this country want to say that there's a labor shortage and the real issue is just simply bringing in labor, when they really mean they want to exploit these poor people.
PILGRIM: Lou, it's a difficult labor supply issue, and many people favor a legalization process that would prevent workers from being exploited.
DOBBS: And which proposal would that be, Ms. Pilgrim?
PILGRIM: Well, there are a lot that are favored. The Senate Ag Bill is absolutely favored by both the farmers and the workers. So, there are a couple of proposals that are actually favored by both the industry sides.
DOBBS: Terrific. Thank you, Kitty Pilgrim.
Coming up next, "Jobless in America." Millions of Americans are looking for work, millions more have simply given up hope of finding it. We'll have a special report.
And the sad story of Carlie Brucia and the disturbing events that led to the release of the man now charged with killing her. Another case of failure in our judicial system. Senior CNN legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, joins us.
And our feature segment "Heroes" tonight, we introduce you to a North Carolina reservist readjusting to life after war. We'll have his story a great deal more still ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: On the campaign trail tonight Democratic presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry, collecting endorsements in Michigan ahead of a key caucus there tomorrow. Today Kerry won the endorsements of former candidate Congressman Richard Gephardt, Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm. Gephardt said Kerry is the right Democrat to take on President Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT, (D) MISSOURI: We need a leader who can defeat George Bush in November in the general election and we need a leader who we all know can walk into that oval office tomorrow afternoon and be a great president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: Senator Kerry is ahead in the latest polls in Michigan. 128 delegates are at stake tomorrow. That's the largest number of delegates in any contest so far. 76 delegates are available in Washington state Saturday. 24 at stake in Maine Sunday. Senator Kerry's rivals have given up hope in winning any of the caucuses this weekend, instead, they are looking to the future. Howard Dean campaigning in Wisconsin ahead of its primary in two weeks. Senator John Edwards, General Wesley Clark, focusing on Tennessee and Virginia. Those two states vote next Tuesday.
Senator Edwards and Kerry today criticized President Bush for the latest jobs report which showed the economy lost another 11,000 manufacturing jobs last month. The White House, however, said the overall job picture shows promise. Peter Vials has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Bush administration called it good news. The jobless rate down to 5.6 percent and January was the best month of job creation in the Bush presidency.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm pleased, obviously, with the new job growth. I've been saying that this economy looks pretty strong. Today 112,000 new jobs created last month.
VILES (voice-over): But most economists expected more new jobs then that. In fact, one economist called it the weakest job creation relative to economic growth on record.
RICHARD TRUMKA, AFL-CIO: First of all, any jobs that get created are good news for the American worker, but this is pretty anemic. We created 112,000 jobs two and a half years into a recovery. We need 150,000 jobs just to keep pace with those that are coming into the market.
VILES (voice-over): Just as in December, 14.7 million Americans want full time work and don't have it. That's 8.3 million unemployed, 1.7 million who have given up looking. Another 4.7 million working part time who would rather work full time. And Job quality is becoming an issue. The Bush administration defended the quality of the service jobs being created.
ELAINE CHAO, SECRETARY OF LABOR: Average hourly earnings have actually increased. So all this myth about being passed around, somehow new jobs that are being formed are lower paying jobs is just not true.
JARED BERNSTEIN, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE: That feels a lot like purchase spin to me. Wages and earnings are almost always up month to month, year to year. The question is, how fast are they rising relative to inflation. At this point, hourly earnings are actually falling behind inflation.
VILES (voice-over): For the record, average hourly earnings rose by two pennies per hour in January.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VILES: As far as job creation, new jobs in this report, mainly in the retail and construction sectors. Manufacturing jobs lost for the 42nd month in a row, Lou.
DOBBS: It's job creation. At least it's the best performance so far. We can take heart in that at least.
VILES: It is the best performance of the Bush presidency, but had it happened in the Clinton years it would have been one of the worst months in the Clinton years job creation.
DOBBS: Well as we reported, there are troubling questions tonight about the circumstances that led to the kidnapping and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in Florida. I'm joined now by our senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
Jeffrey, it's hard to imagine a sadder story than this. And for this suspect, Joseph Smith, to have a report that goes back 11 years, for him to be free is -- it seems just utterly wrong as her father said.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It's just shocking. 13 arrests since 1993. And I thought in your report earlier there was a very revealing comment by the judge. Judge Rapkin said, I never saw the man. He never came before me. Violations of probation are processed so quickly through the system that it is often the case that there are not personal appearances required. It's very tough to make real judgments about people if you don't see them in the flesh.
DOBBS: Everywhere we turn in this legal system right now, there seems to be a problem. In this case, the life of an 11-year-old girl is lost. This is not a new situation. Why in the world is the legal profession itself, why are not our legislators, our judges, fixing it?
TOOBIN: In 1993, there was a tragically similar case in California, the Polly Class case, where Richard Allen Davis, who had a long record, was arrested for the crime that led to the creation of three strikes and you're out laws, which was supposed to correct this problem. Most states now have it. Florida has it.
But there are so many differences in how these laws are constructed. Some times drug offenses count. Sometimes they don't count. Property offenses count, sometimes they don't. Recidivism is the biggest problem in the system and it hasn't been fixed.
DOBBS: It is one of those issues about which is typical in this country. There's great controversy and opposite views. But the fact is, the last number I saw in terms of recidivism in serious crime is 78 percent. That's incredible.
TOOBIN: That is incredible. And what that means among other things is that this is a relatively small group of predators who are the repeat offenders, who are doing most of the crimes.
One theory is the prisons are full of people, nonviolent drug offenses, property crimes, filling up space that could go to the real dangerous people, but the effort to identify them, particularly in advance of a truly horrific crime like this one, it's not easy.
DOBBS: And we don't pay people in our legal system, whether it is easy or not, we pay them to do a job that's the responsibility, 3 million people on probation. Isn't it time for the legal profession to stand up and say, let's fix it?
TOOBIN: They are happy to do that if it doesn't cost money. But monitoring 3 million people costs a lot of money. And the money isn't in the system. And that's the stumbling block.
DOBBS: Jeffrey Toobin. Thank you very much.
Coming up next, "Heroes" serving in Iraq changed the life of this North Carolina attorney and army reservist. We'll have his story coming right up.
Also, news makers, a defining week for Democratic presidential hopeful, Senator John Kerry and a difficult week for those who want to see more jobs created. We'll be talking with our panel of leading editors. All of that, a great deal more still ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Tonight, "Heroes." Lieutenant Colonel Kirk Warner, a lawyer, an army reservist who received a bronze star for his service in Iraq. Now like many veterans returning from that war, he faces a new challenge of readjusting to civilian life. Casey Wian has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kirk Warner isn't your typical trial lawyer. Yes, there's the nice office, the big home in the Raleigh, North Carolina, but he's also a lieutenant colonel in the army Reserve who in October returned from eight months in Iraq. As a member of the Judge Advocate General Corps he set up a court system, interrogated some of the high value Iraqis depicted on playing cards and boarded and confiscated smuggler vessels.
LT. COL. KIRK WARNER, U.S. ARMY RESERVE: We were right where the action was, it was an absolutely remarkable experience for a bunch of civilians that do this part time. The adrenaline, action, accomplishment everything happening all at one time, it drives you through the whole time we were deployed.
WIAN: Once home, he took a week's vacation to reconnect with his wife.
DIANE WARNER, WIFE: When he was gone sometimes I would go in and smell his cologne just to know, just to make sure he was still with me.
WIAN: Then he returned to work.
WARNER: That was way too early. I was a total zombie. We didn't realize how fatigued we were. WIAN: Warner says he was ineffective for weeks but was ready when it came time to go to trial.
WARNER: Unfortunately, I'm probably fearless going into a courtroom anymore because nothing could be as fearful as some of the things that we probably went through. I didn't know there was evil on this planet until you see some of the things that were going on there. We were in a position of dealing with the people that had their hands chopped off. I was also involved in the mass grave situation. When you see that type of devastation and what they have done through this regime, man, I'll tell you -- it just knocks you back.
WIAN: But there are more good memories.
WARNER: You see the results. And you see the kids smiling. You see the rest of the Iraqis giving you thumbs up. At least I think they are giving us thumbs up.
WIAN: Back home his office is filled with reminders of Iraq. Including marble from the Saddam Hussein palace and a model of Saddam next to one of John Wayne. Warner explains, quoting the movie "Green Berets."
WARNER: Out here, due process is a bullet. And you know, that's as good as you get for a litigator. That's why he's on the wall. He's my hero.
WIAN: And Lieutenant Colonel Warner is one of ours. Casey Wian, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: We'll continue in just one moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: You remember that big and almost instant flap over former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's documents that he used in his book. Well, it turns out that the current treasury secretary now declares those documents given to predecessor Paul O'Neill contained classified information which was really not the fault of Paul O'Neill but rather that the Treasury Department itself. Treasury Department sources tell us the inspector general is placing blame on the Department of the Treasury for the incident, not on Paul O'Neill.
Wall Street closed the week with a strong performance. The Dow up 97 points. The Nasdaq rose 44. The S&P up 14 on the same day the government announced the economy created 112,000 jobs. Christine Romans is here with the story for us.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What better day to announce big job cuts than on a jobs day. Cigna, profit of 31 percent, it's going to cut 3,000 jobs. 9 percent of its workforce. It is slashing its dividend to about 2.5 cent from 33 cents. Paltry jobs growth almost daily news of job cuts from corporate America. On Wall Street, a reality dawning. There are big changes in the U.S. labor market. It's painful for the American worker.
But China watcher Don Strashine (ph), he says quit your belly aching, he says instead of sulking, investors need to accept the realities of global competition, industry leadership, and corporate survival demand outsourcing and job market changes. He says every big employer in America is looking to outsource for lower costs, that's why profits and U.S. profitability of U.S. firms will be strong and jobs growth will not -- you know, earnings have been strong. Profit growth in the fourth quarter up some 28 percent, Lou, but on these conference calls you do not hear American CEOs say they are going to add jobs, at least not in this country.
DOBBS: Well, Don Strashine (ph), a pretty darn good economist, I think he needs to quit his belly aching because if the only way an American corporation can compete effect in this world is by driving wages down to third-world levels and taking away jobs of Americans, you know they are in big trouble.
ROMANS: At some point the investor, the shareholders and the worker are all the same person.
DOBBS: Absolutely. Still, it's about the country. Not the market. Christine Romans, you have a great weekend.
ROMANS: You, too.
DOBBS: Now for some of your thoughts. Many of you writing in on our segments exporting American last night.
Patrick Helfrick (ph) of Duluth, Georgia. "I take pride in investing in my country by buying American-made products whenever possible. I am 38 years old and sadly, most people my age are more concerned with who will be the next winner on "American Idol" or "Survivor." Unless the direction changes, we can create a new reality show based upon the plight of this country. We can call it Outsource Styling and see how people survive when there is no work to be hard."
Gary Miller, Laguna Niguel, California. "Thanks for the moving interview with Jim Tillman (ph) which put a face on the hollowing out of America's economic base. I wish everyone in America could see this in the days leading up to the next election."
Broken borders. Linda Kilcrease of Dover, New Jersey. "The Hagel Daschle amnesty guest worker bill is not humane to Americans. It is an amnesty wage-depression program that has no enforcement provision and can only clog the immigration system.
Ron Goodden of Smyrna, Georgia. "Giving amnesty to illegal aliens is the wrong thing to do. Labeling it as humane is simply wrong-headed thinking." We appreciate your thoughts. Send more of them to us at loudobbs@cnn.com.
Coming up next, we'll talk to this week's "Newsmakers" about a host of events -- politics, and economics, business and geopolitics. And for famous people like Don King and Donald Trump, their hair is their trademark. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Ohio State Fair, however, in trouble for trying to give that same trademark to some very unlikely subjects.
But first, an update on the number of companies our staff has confirmed to be exporting America. Companies sending American jobs to cheap overseas labor markets or employing those foreign laborers instead of American workers. Tonight's additions include -- ProQuest, RCG Information Technology. The complete list is on cnn.com/lou. We'll be right back. Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: As we reported, President Bush established a bipartisan commission to investigate pre-war intelligence. The results of that investigation will be out in March of 2005. Joining us now, this week's "Newsmakers" with a lot to talk about. Steve Shepard, he's editor in chief of "BusinessWeek," Bob Lenzner, national editor of "Forbes," Rik Kirkland, editor and chief of "Fortune." Gentlemen, good to have you with us.
Quite a week. John Kerry has emerged, I think definitively as the frontrunner, and the president is obviously on the defensive, naming this commission. Give us your best assessment.
RIK KIRKLAND, "FORTUNE": It's been a rough week for the president. I'm not making a prediction about the election, but certainly he's had two credibility problems. One is the flack about our intelligence in Iraq and whether -- what we knew or didn't know about weapons of mass destruction, and I think his budget is a huge credibility problem, because it's sort of dead on arrival in terms of believability.
ROBERT LENZNER, "FORBES": Actually, there's an increase in jobs, but 75,000 of them were in the retail trade so there were more jobs but they weren't very good jobs. And they weren't at a rate that you would expect with the economy growing at 4 or 5 percent.
DOBBS: Yet the Labor Department, the Labor Secretary Elaine Chao today, Steve, defending the quality of those jobs, and by every account -- I'm talking with, every number I'm looking at says that we are looking at very low level replacement jobs that are coming back into this economy.
STEVE SHEPARD, "BUSINESSWEEK": Yeah, I mean, the number's clearly better than it was last month. And hopefully the trend is in the right direction, but this is not a great number given the level of GDP growth for all the reasons, of outsourcing and productivity and all of the things we've talked about. The question is, what happens and politically how it plays.
LENZNER: I think it will be a big political issue, because the poll that they took in Iowa showed that the people going into the caucuses were more concerned about the economy and their jobs and health care than they were about Iraq, and that Bush was playing the patriotism card, and I think that's what's changing.
SHEPARD: You know, the other piece of bad news for the president was the turnout at the Democratic primaries, which has been very, very strong, which suggests the base on the Democratic side is getting energized, which hasn't happened in a number of years.
DOBBS: My God, with seven candidate now, you would think that they would be a little energized. I would think that that would contribute to it. But I...
(CROSSTALK)
KIRKLAND: The president look a little more vulnerable, but to beat him you have got to beat him with something, and Kerry is going to have to run a really, really strong campaign.
DOBBS: Well, the CNN-"USA Today" Gallup poll showed Senator Kerry, in at least that one snapshot in time with that sample beating him, and beating him outside the margin of error.
KIRKLAND: These things change every month in an election year.
DOBBS: We've noticed that.
KIRKLAND: So I wouldn't put too much into it.
LENZNER: Because we don't know too much about what Kerry stands for in terms of the economy. He wants to roll back the dividend reduction tax for people making more than $200,000, which doesn't sound like too bad an idea. It will help reduce the budget deficit. But people don't really know what he stands for yet.
SHEPARD: But they know one thing, which is he is from Massachusetts, and Massachusetts State Supreme Court has just said that gay marriages are required. And that's going to...
DOBBS: Now, do you think voters...
SHEPARD: It's going to be ironic whether the economy and Iraq don't become the big issue, and some of the social issues come into play more than...
LENZNER: He's already come out, though, and said that he's only in favor of the civil arrangement, and he's not in favor of the thing. Whether they will be able to stick the Massachusetts thing against him -- they will try, surely, I think, yeah.
DOBBS: One of the things that's remarkable, we have been hearing a lot about electability, we've been hearing a great deal, in fact, about that. Very little about the issues. And when we do, it's about an issue the president has little control over, like gay marriage, for crying out loud, and state by state. That's a state decision. What in the world are we doing focusing on these kinds of issues instead of issues like job creation, what we're going to do for the middle class, how we're going to educate our children, our infrastructure. What is going on here, gentlemen?
SHEPARD: It's about winning elections, and it's easier to win elections by getting people to be very concerned about gay marriages, it's a very passionate issue, rather than deal with the hard, complex issues of job creation. DOBBS: Are we in the press letting them off the hook?
KIRKLAND: I don't know, I haven't -- I don't recall a really good issue debate in a long time during election. I mean, their debate at the margins, basically you are trying to connect with people with your personal story and your character, and people are making a judgment on that. And that's the way it is these days. It's very hard to get people to talk issues.
SHEPARD: It's a long way to go. And a lot of these issues will get aired.
LENZNER: But you know what? It's going to come down to a lot about the jobs and the health care and then -- and perhaps business about Iraq, if Iraq gets...
SHEPARD: Well, you know, this commission, which is a good idea and the people on it look to be very, very good. But to put this thing off to March of '05...
DOBBS: The 9/11 commission, the intelligence commission...
SHEPARD: No, I mean, the intelligence commission. You put it off to March of '05, after the election, it's a very long time.
DOBBS: Oh, it's like the campaign finance reform. The McCain- Feingold legislation, once enacted, only affected the subsequent elections.
LENZNER: That's because he does not want to get shellacked before election day about the what happened with our intelligence.
KIRKLAND: The most outrageous thing about the budget is to call for permanent tax cuts, which don't even show up in your five-year budget. The real effect is to show up afterwards. So there is a lot of games going on.
SHEPARD: This five-year window on the budget is really...
DOBBS: We have just a few seconds, but speaking of games, 13.5 trillion unfunded liability just for Medicare, we can start adding another $30 trillion if we bring in Social Security, Medicaid. When in the world are we going to start confronting the issues facing this...
SHEPARD: A long time from now. Rick's point is right, that by taking a five-year window in this budget thing, rather than the 10- year, which is traditional, we've put all those problems beyond the scope of his election campaign.
KIRKLAND: I hope we start after the election.
DOBBS: After the election?
KIRKLAND: The day after. We're not going to start before.
DOBBS: Rik, Bob, thanks. Steve, thank you very much. Gentlemen, have a great weekend.
Finally tonight, a few creative livestock exhibitors -- we wanted to save the best for last -- went to extremes to give their Holsteins an edge in last year's Ohio State Fair. This is a story about character, by the way, in our society. Three men have been disqualified for giving their cows hairpieces. That's right, hairpieces. State fair inspectors said the men actually glued and painted hair onto their animals to enhance the appearance of the cows in the show ring. This story inspired us. You might even say moved us, to try a little before and after experiment just to see what that hairpiece does for the attractiveness of a Holstein. You be the judge.
That's our show for tonight. We thank you for being with us. For all of us here, have a very pleasant weekend. Good night from New York. Anderson Cooper is next.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Florida Girl Found Dead>
Aired February 6, 2004 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Tonight: President Bush sets up a bipartisan commission to investigate prewar intelligence on Iraq.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The stakes for our country could not be higher.
DOBBS: Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, joins us.
"Exporting America." Powerful lobbyists on Capitol Hill are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to export American jobs overseas. Senator Byron Dorgan is our guest. Senator Dorgan will tonight, for the first time ever, release details of the number of American jobs lost because of NAFTA.
A brutal murder in Florida. An 11-year-old girl is dead. Her family says she died because a judge made a terrible mistake.
JOEY BRUCIA, FATHER OF CARLIE: In my opinion, he should have never been out on the street.
DOBBS: And "Broken Borders." More than half of this country's farm workers now are illegal. We'll have a special report.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Friday, February 6. Here now, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening.
President Bush today named seven members of a bipartisan commission to investigate U.S. intelligence on Iraq. That panel will be led by former Democratic Senator Chuck Robb, former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Lawrence Silberman. He's a Republican. That commission will include as well Senator John McCain.
President Bush said the stakes for this country cannot be higher.
White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux reports -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, really, it's a matter of restoring the administration's credibility, its justification for going to war.
What this commission is going to do is take a look at what the CIA knew before the war, compare that with what the Iraq Survey Group knew after the war. And we are also told that it is going to look at intelligence assessments on weapons programs in Iran, North Korea, Libya, as well as Afghanistan. But the main focus here is on that claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Dr. Kay also stated that some prewar intelligence assessments by America and other nations about Iraq's weapons stockpiles have not been confirmed. We're determined to figure out why. We're also determined to make sure that American intelligence is as accurate as possible for every challenge in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Senator John McCain, a top Republican who called for the commission, also, as you recall, was running against President Bush for the Republican nomination in 2000, considered a maverick and often critical of the Bush administration. He is also going to be on the commission. The reason for his appointment is essentially to counter the critics, the claims that this type of panel all appointed by President Bush cannot be objective.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I agree with Dr. Kay. It's clear that there were failures. And to assert otherwise, I think, flies in the face of the facts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Now, the members of this commission include the co- chairs, Democrat Chuck Robb, former senator and governor of Virginia, also Republican Lawrence Silberman, a retired federal judge, considered a staunch conservative, other members including Democrat Lloyd Cutler. He's a former White House counsel to President Carter and Clinton.
Patricia Wald, she's a former chief judge for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. Richard Levin, he's the president of Yale University. And Admiral William Studeman, he's a former deputy director for the CIA -- Lou.
DOBBS: Suzanne, thank you very much.
Secretary of State Colin Powell also defended the decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein. Secretary Powell made his comments to reporters at the United Nations today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: When we presented the case to the United Nations in September the year before last, and when the president took his action -- and his action was totally justified by the information that he had, the intelligence he was provided, and the record of this individual. And the one thing we don't have to worry about now is whether there are any weapons of mass destruction or Saddam Hussein in Iraq to use them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Joining me now from Capitol Hill, Senator Pat Roberts. Senator Roberts is the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Good to have you with us.
SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: Thank you, Lou.
DOBBS: You have said, Senator, that this panel would have to have expertise, it would have to have recognizable authorities and be independent. Has the president met your criteria?
ROBERTS: I think he has.
I know most of the panel members. I think they are very wise in regards to experience with our intelligence. I'm not sure they could all sit down and have lunch and order the same thing from the menu, either politics or otherwise. But I think they will be very dedicated to that task.
And I think -- I don't want to quarrel with your coverage, but I think that this mission is a lot broader than just Iraq. This mission is to take a look at the systemic challenges we have in the intelligence community as we approach the WMD-producing nations like North Korea, like Iran, like Libya. We basically overestimated it in regards to Iraq. We underestimated it in regards to Libya and Iran.
DOBBS: And, Senator, the fact that your committee is about to release a report on much the same subject, how do you feel about that?
ROBERTS: Well, basically, ours is a little more narrow in scope. Senator Rockefeller and I had four things that we have agreed to do. And we're still working to work out any differences of opinion.
But we released a working draft, really, a report. It's about 315 pages long. It involves extensive interviews with over 200 analysts, 19 volumes, about, floor-to-ceiling documents. I think it's the most comprehensive review of prewar intelligence and a tough look at the CIA and all of the intelligence community that we have had in about a decade.
Members are now going over it right now. They are going to go over it for the next two weeks. We hope we can reach bipartisan accommodation. And then, at the end of March, which is the deadline I'd like to put on it, we will have public hearings. And I think the American people have a right to know.
DOBBS: And to what degree do you believe this independent commission appointed by the president will be duplicative of your efforts?
ROBERTS: Well, I don't think they want to be duplicative.
I think we will certainly turn our report over to them. It will be a lot like the 9/11 investigation by the Senate and House Intelligence Committees last year. We gave all that material to the independent commission that now is studying the situation with regard to 9/11.
DOBBS: Senator Roberts, I am sure that CIA Director George Tenet appreciates all of the help and counsel that he is receiving here.
(LAUGHTER)
DOBBS: What is your level of confidence in the CIA director?
ROBERTS: Well, that's not really my call. That's the president's call.
And we're going to have the director up as of March the 2nd. He's asked to come up. We certainly have granted that request. He's been a very forthright witness. He's been a staunch defender of the CIA. I think he made some very interesting and pertinent remarks as of yesterday. And I think he wanted to do that for the spri decor (ph) of the CIA.
We have got a lot of people in the CIA who are sort of hunkered down right now. We have got about six, seven, eight, nine 10 panels investigating all of this intelligence. I hope there is somebody left at the CIA to conduct the global war on terrorism.
DOBBS: Well, you are saying that somewhat flippantly, but the fact is
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: No, I'm not saying it very flippantly. We have got the House. We have got the Senate. We have got the the president's foreign policy advisory board. We have got the Kerr report. We have got every service in the military taking a look at it. We have got all these independent commissions and all the armchair experts.
I don't want to damage the spri decor (ph) of those people who have to connect those dots to protect us from terrorism. I'm very serious about it.
DOBBS: And to that point, is it possible that this is being overdone, frankly, Senator, this seems in some respects reminiscent of 1974, the Church review at that time. Where are we headed?
ROBERTS: Well, I hope it's not the Church review. At the end of the Church review, we ended up that the Congress and the administration at that particular time did not fund the priorities of the CIA.
We went into a bathtub in terms of really supporting our intelligence effort. We don't need to repeat that mistake. And we're not doing that. On a bipartisan basis, we are trying to invest more dollars into intelligence. We're not just going to spend money, but we're trying to really prioritize it into human intelligence and also other matters that we think are appropriate, especially with the war against terrorism.
DOBBS: Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, thank you for being here.
ROBERTS: OK, thank you, Lou.
DOBBS: In Moscow today, terrorists killed at least 39 people in a bomb attack on a crowded rush hour subway train. More than 130 other people were wounded in the blast. Authorities say at least one suicide bomber carried out that attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed radical Islamists from Chechnya.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today said he has no regrets about describing France and Germany as old Europe. Rumsfeld made those comments last year when France and Germany refused to support the war against Saddam Hussein. In Germany today, Rumsfeld said relationships between the United States and Europe have improved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: My impression -- and everyone obviously can have their own impression -- is that the health of the alliance is good, that the relationship between the United States and North America and the European countries is good, that the relationships within Europe seem to be pretty good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: Nonetheless, plans under way to remove some U.S. troops from European bases.
Secretary Rumsfeld today also ordered an investigation into allegations of sexual assaults against U.S. troops in Kuwait and Iraq. Nearly 40 female troops say they have been assaulted by male soldiers.
Troubling questions tonight after the kidnapping and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Florida. Authorities found the body of Carlie Brucia near a church in Sarasota.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS (voice-over): Joseph Smith has an arrest record dating back to 1993. That record includes aggravated battery. He was sentenced to probation.
He was acquitted of charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment. Smith also served a year in prison in 2001 for drug charges, including possession of heroin. Carlie Brucia's devastated father wants to know why Joseph Smith was free to kill his daughter.
JOEY BRUCIA, FATHER OF CARLIE: I really find the decisions made by some of these judges very questionable. And I would ask the governor to look into this. In my opinion, he should have never been out on the street.
DOBBS: Joseph Smith was twice cited for probation violations. Both times, Florida Judge Harry Rapkin allowed him to remain free, in compliance with Florida law. The first violation was for a positive drug test. Smith was enrolled in a drug program. The second time, failure to pay court fees. But the judge didn't have information showing this failure was willful and he extended the deadline by six months.
JUDGE HARRY RAPKIN, 12TH CIRCUIT COURT OF FLORIDA: If I did something wrong, I would apologize. I promise. But I never saw the man. He never came here. And all I had was his paperwork. And all I did was require what the law makes me require.
DOBBS: There are now more than three million people on probation in this country and legal experts admit, the system is broken.
LAURIE LEVENSON, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL: The problem really is the system. We have so many defendants who are on probation, so many people being supervised that, even when they violate, there's no guarantee that they are going back to jail.
DOBBS: Joseph Smith has now been charged with the murder of 11- year-old Carlie Brucia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: Later in the broadcast, I'll be discussing this case and the role of Judge Harry Rapkin with our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin.
Also ahead tonight, lobbyists on Capitol Hill spending plenty of money, lots of money, to export American jobs overseas. Senator Byron Dorgan joins me. He will for the first time here tonight release details of the number of American jobs lost to NAFTA.
In "Broken Borders," illegal aliens are literally taking over the work force of America's farms. We'll have a special report for you.
And where are the jobs? The number of new jobs created last month not even enough to keep up with the growth of the labor force.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Hundreds of thousands of American jobs are being exported to cheap foreign labor markets. The majority of those jobs are being shipped to India.
But, as Lisa Sylvester now reports, pro-India lobbying groups are far from satisfied. They want more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a familiar sight these days, a rally to protest overseas outsourcing. But what you don't see is the other side. Foreign corporate groups are quietly launching a major public relations campaign to stop the backlash.
According to Senate lobbying records, the National Association of Software Service Companies, or NASSCOM, a New Delhi trade group, paid a Washington public relations firm $100,000 last year to help carry its message. Last month, another group, the Confederation of Indian Industry, sponsored a seven-day trip to India for 10 congressional Democratic.
Representative Joseph Crowley is co-chair of the Congressional India Caucus. He says overseas outsourcing allows American companies to become more competitive, which, he argues, will help the U.S. economy.
REP. JOSEPH CROWLEY (D), NEW YORK: When an Indian wakes up in the morning and is putting on the Nike shoes to go to work, when they go to lunch as McDonald's, when they are drinking Coca-Cola and Pepsi, when they're working on a Dell computer, that is, in essence, supporting the economy, in many respects, in the United States.
SYLVESTER: That's a hard shell for Natasha Humphries. The 30- year old was laid off from her I.T. job right after she finished training her replacement in India.
NATASHA HUMPHRIES, LAID-OFF WORKER: It outraged me the most, not to mention they -- basically, their strategy was to keep our nose to the grind, so we couldn't keep an eye on the ax looming above our heads, so that we wouldn't know that our relationship with the company would eventually be severed.
SYLVESTER: Critics say U.S. multinational corporations reap the benefits of offshoring, benefits that do not necessarily trickle down to the average American.
MARCUS COURTNEY, WASHINGTON ALLIANCE OF TECH WORKERS: I think the recipe of exporting our best-paying, best-skilled jobs overseas is not one for job creation, but is actually one of corporate greed.
SYLVESTER: Those fighting outsourcing may not have the money to pay lobbyists on Capitol Hill, but they have something else, strength in numbers, all the workers who have lost their jobs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: The India caucus has grown considerably. The Republican House membership of the caucus has tripled in the past year. When Representative Crowley was in India, he said one way to stop the backlash against outsourcing is for Indian companies to move some of their operations to the United States. So far, Lou, no takers.
DOBBS: Lisa, thank you very much -- Lisa Sylvester from Washington. Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota is among those leading the fight to keep American jobs in this country. Tonight, Senator Dorgan is joining us and releasing for the first time a disturbing report on the number of American jobs lost because of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Some 100 companies, 200,000 job, either because of cheap imports forcing companies to shut down factories or because jobs have been exported to Mexico or Canada.
Senator Dorgan joins us tonight from Capitol Hill.
Senator, good to have you with us.
SEN. BYRON DORGAN (D), NORTH DAKOTA: Hi, Lou. How are you?
DOBBS: I'm excellent, Senator.
The fact is that NAFTA, a great number of promises were made when the legislation authorizing NAFTA was signed in 1993. What is, in your judgment, not working?
DORGAN: Well, you know, when NAFTA, with Mexico and Canada, the trade agreement was negotiated, we had a small surplus, $2 billion surplus with Mexico. That is now a $40 billion deficit.
We had a $10 billion deficit with Canada. That's now a $50 billion deficit. And yet we still have people saying, gosh, this has been a great success. And so I decided to ask the official agencies in Washington, where they set up what is called a transitional trade adjustment assistance program. That's a fancy way of saying, we will provide a little income for people who lose their jobs due to NAFTA.
(CROSSTALK)
DORGAN: So I decided to ask them to release for me public information, which companies certified the loss of jobs. And they gave me the list of 100 of the companies, beginning with the largest, on down, that certified, here are the jobs that have been lost as a result of either imports coming in or exporting of jobs going out.
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: Senator, if I may interrupt, just quickly.
DORGAN: Yes.
DOBBS: These are the companies. The senator has provided us this list. And they're going to roll here for our viewers to look at.
Please go ahead, Senator.
(CROSSTALK)
DORGAN: Well, if I might just -- Levi Strauss, we all understand about Levis. They are not made in America; 15,000 Levi Strauss employees lost their jobs. They were making $14 an hour in Georgia, but those Levis are now made in Mexico. Motorola cell phones, 7,000 jobs. They are made in Chihuahua, Mexico, not Florida anymore.
Fruit of the Loom, 5,300 people. I sat on the floor of the Senate -- losing your shirt, that is one thing. But Fruit of the Loom, they are gone to Mexico. And Kraft Foods, Fig Newton. We lose a part of America when you lose Fig Newton, right? But none of this is funny.
This is an export of American jobs in search of lower wages by corporations who want to fatten profits. The problem is, American workers pay the price. And the other problem is this. I don't think a country remains a strong world economic power if it doesn't retain a strong manufacturing base. And I'm very worried about what is happening. I think it is weakening this country from the inside.
DOBBS: Senator, do you find, yourself being called, because of your views on this, xenophobic, protectionist, because you have the audacity to suggest that the United States, the most powerful economy and nation on Earth, should have a manufacturing base?
DORGAN: Oh, absolutely.
I mean, those who say, look, we're for "free trade" -- quote, unquote -- they look at someone like me, who asks, well, what about the export of American jobs, doesn't that weaken our country? They say, well, you are just -- you are kind of an isolation, xenophobic stooge. You just can't see over the horizon. You don't get it.
What I get is that we are negotiating bad trade agreements for this country. Will Rogers once said, the United States of America never lost a war and never won a conference. He surely must have been thinking about our trade negotiators, because whether it's NAFTA or WTO or GATT or now CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, we give away American jobs. And it is not fair. We fought for 100 years for the issues of minimum wage and safe plants and so on.
And what is happening in this country is very alarming, in my judgment.
DOBBS: And, also, to me, as alarming is the fact, the United States Congress, this administration, has taken no step to reverse the course that we are embarked upon. What are we going to do?
DORGAN: Oh, in fact, it is ratcheting up. We are doing more and more trade agreements and setting American workers and also businesses, incidentally, that are exclusively American businesses, setting them up to compete against others, where they can employ 12- year-olds, work them 12 hours a day, pay them 12 cents an hour, work them seven days a week. And you think that doesn't happen? I guarantee you it does. And that is not fair competition for American manufacturing.
DOBBS: Senator Byron Dorgan, we thank you for being here tonight.
DORGAN: Thank you, Lou. DOBBS: Well, some Hollywood studios have also turned to cheap overseas labor markets for production of films. Now, one very noteworthy Hollywood executive says his studio is paying a high price. Miramax Chairman Harvey Weinstein suggests that a backlash against overseas production is the reason that his movie "Cold Mountain" was left out of the race for a best picture Oscar nomination.
Weinstein told "The Hollywood Reporter" he believes that may have influenced Oscar voters. Why would the voters be upset about the location? The movie is a drama about the American Civil War and it was filmed, for budget regions, of course, in highly competitive low- cost Rumania.
Coming up next, "Broken Borders," illegal aliens taking more and more work from legal immigrants and other Americans on our nation's farms. And we'll have a special report.
Outrage over the killing of an 11-year-old girl in Florida. Her alleged killer twice violated his probation and was allowed to remain free. CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins me. We'll have that discussion and a great deal more still ahead.
Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: "Broken Borders" tonight.
The number of illegal aliens working on farms across this country has literally exploded over the past 15 years. And the nature of agriculture is only helping illegal aliens enter and stay in this country.
Kitty Pilgrim went to Belle Glade, Florida, and has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Southern Florida has some of the best farmland in the country. With warm days, cool nights, weather is seldom a problem. Labor can be.
CHARLES BRONSON, FLORIDA AGRICULTURE COMMISSION: The agriculture businesses in Florida depend so heavily on physical labor, when it comes to tomatoes and peppers and beans of different types, they have to be picked and picked over and over again. So it takes physical labor to do all that work.
PILGRIM: But not all workers are legal. Some present fake I.D.s, fake Social Security numbers. And by the time it's discovered, they have moved on.
Illegal workers used to make up some 7 percent of agricultural workers 15 years ago. But now the Labor Department says more than half of all agricultural workers are illegal. At Roth Farms in Belle Glade, Rick Roth says his workers are legal, fully documented. RICK ROTH, ROTH FARMS: They have to provide us with the proper documents. And they have to fill out I-9 forms. So we're very much up on the regulations.
PILGRIM (on camera): Roth Farms has been a family business since 1949, 5,000 acres. They grow lettuce, corn, parsley, sugar cane, rice and radishes.
(voice-over): With that kind of crop diversity, they can grow pretty much all year, guaranteeing workers steady work. Roth says that gives him a more stable work force. But other kinds of growers can't keep workers long term.
ROTH: If you're harvesting a crop five days a week for six months, you can hire a crew and keep them. They are working for me. If you are growing oranges or some other crop that maybe you are harvesting only one day a week or five days a month, and then they go on and harvest somewhere else.
PILGRIM: We spoke to illegal workers in California, grape pickers, who tell us it is not difficult to find work. This man has worked here illegally for six years and says most of his co-workers are illegal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes, the majority of undocumented.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It's easier for the ranchers to exploit a person who does not have documents than a person who is legal or a citizen.
PILGRIM: While there are jobs to be had, illegal workers will just keep coming.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: That's why many farmers favor new immigration proposals such as the guest worker programs to ensure that they have enough legal workers to hire -- Lou.
DOBBS: More than half the workers now illegal.
PILGRIM: That's exactly right.
DOBBS: Their pay in the time that they have moved from 7 percent of the agricultural worker population to over 55 percent, how much has it risen in that 15 years?
PILGRIM: It's minimum wage at this point, pretty much.
DOBBS: And the illegal aliens are paid minimum wage or less than minimum wage?
PILGRIM: Anecdotally, you hear that they are pressured on their wages, that they work longer hours, that they are taking less money, because, often, they are cheated out of (CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: And yet, people with straight faces in this country want to say that there's a labor shortage and the real issue is just simply bringing in labor, when they really mean they want to exploit these poor people.
PILGRIM: Lou, it's a difficult labor supply issue, and many people favor a legalization process that would prevent workers from being exploited.
DOBBS: And which proposal would that be, Ms. Pilgrim?
PILGRIM: Well, there are a lot that are favored. The Senate Ag Bill is absolutely favored by both the farmers and the workers. So, there are a couple of proposals that are actually favored by both the industry sides.
DOBBS: Terrific. Thank you, Kitty Pilgrim.
Coming up next, "Jobless in America." Millions of Americans are looking for work, millions more have simply given up hope of finding it. We'll have a special report.
And the sad story of Carlie Brucia and the disturbing events that led to the release of the man now charged with killing her. Another case of failure in our judicial system. Senior CNN legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, joins us.
And our feature segment "Heroes" tonight, we introduce you to a North Carolina reservist readjusting to life after war. We'll have his story a great deal more still ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: On the campaign trail tonight Democratic presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry, collecting endorsements in Michigan ahead of a key caucus there tomorrow. Today Kerry won the endorsements of former candidate Congressman Richard Gephardt, Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm. Gephardt said Kerry is the right Democrat to take on President Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT, (D) MISSOURI: We need a leader who can defeat George Bush in November in the general election and we need a leader who we all know can walk into that oval office tomorrow afternoon and be a great president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: Senator Kerry is ahead in the latest polls in Michigan. 128 delegates are at stake tomorrow. That's the largest number of delegates in any contest so far. 76 delegates are available in Washington state Saturday. 24 at stake in Maine Sunday. Senator Kerry's rivals have given up hope in winning any of the caucuses this weekend, instead, they are looking to the future. Howard Dean campaigning in Wisconsin ahead of its primary in two weeks. Senator John Edwards, General Wesley Clark, focusing on Tennessee and Virginia. Those two states vote next Tuesday.
Senator Edwards and Kerry today criticized President Bush for the latest jobs report which showed the economy lost another 11,000 manufacturing jobs last month. The White House, however, said the overall job picture shows promise. Peter Vials has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Bush administration called it good news. The jobless rate down to 5.6 percent and January was the best month of job creation in the Bush presidency.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm pleased, obviously, with the new job growth. I've been saying that this economy looks pretty strong. Today 112,000 new jobs created last month.
VILES (voice-over): But most economists expected more new jobs then that. In fact, one economist called it the weakest job creation relative to economic growth on record.
RICHARD TRUMKA, AFL-CIO: First of all, any jobs that get created are good news for the American worker, but this is pretty anemic. We created 112,000 jobs two and a half years into a recovery. We need 150,000 jobs just to keep pace with those that are coming into the market.
VILES (voice-over): Just as in December, 14.7 million Americans want full time work and don't have it. That's 8.3 million unemployed, 1.7 million who have given up looking. Another 4.7 million working part time who would rather work full time. And Job quality is becoming an issue. The Bush administration defended the quality of the service jobs being created.
ELAINE CHAO, SECRETARY OF LABOR: Average hourly earnings have actually increased. So all this myth about being passed around, somehow new jobs that are being formed are lower paying jobs is just not true.
JARED BERNSTEIN, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE: That feels a lot like purchase spin to me. Wages and earnings are almost always up month to month, year to year. The question is, how fast are they rising relative to inflation. At this point, hourly earnings are actually falling behind inflation.
VILES (voice-over): For the record, average hourly earnings rose by two pennies per hour in January.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VILES: As far as job creation, new jobs in this report, mainly in the retail and construction sectors. Manufacturing jobs lost for the 42nd month in a row, Lou.
DOBBS: It's job creation. At least it's the best performance so far. We can take heart in that at least.
VILES: It is the best performance of the Bush presidency, but had it happened in the Clinton years it would have been one of the worst months in the Clinton years job creation.
DOBBS: Well as we reported, there are troubling questions tonight about the circumstances that led to the kidnapping and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in Florida. I'm joined now by our senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
Jeffrey, it's hard to imagine a sadder story than this. And for this suspect, Joseph Smith, to have a report that goes back 11 years, for him to be free is -- it seems just utterly wrong as her father said.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It's just shocking. 13 arrests since 1993. And I thought in your report earlier there was a very revealing comment by the judge. Judge Rapkin said, I never saw the man. He never came before me. Violations of probation are processed so quickly through the system that it is often the case that there are not personal appearances required. It's very tough to make real judgments about people if you don't see them in the flesh.
DOBBS: Everywhere we turn in this legal system right now, there seems to be a problem. In this case, the life of an 11-year-old girl is lost. This is not a new situation. Why in the world is the legal profession itself, why are not our legislators, our judges, fixing it?
TOOBIN: In 1993, there was a tragically similar case in California, the Polly Class case, where Richard Allen Davis, who had a long record, was arrested for the crime that led to the creation of three strikes and you're out laws, which was supposed to correct this problem. Most states now have it. Florida has it.
But there are so many differences in how these laws are constructed. Some times drug offenses count. Sometimes they don't count. Property offenses count, sometimes they don't. Recidivism is the biggest problem in the system and it hasn't been fixed.
DOBBS: It is one of those issues about which is typical in this country. There's great controversy and opposite views. But the fact is, the last number I saw in terms of recidivism in serious crime is 78 percent. That's incredible.
TOOBIN: That is incredible. And what that means among other things is that this is a relatively small group of predators who are the repeat offenders, who are doing most of the crimes.
One theory is the prisons are full of people, nonviolent drug offenses, property crimes, filling up space that could go to the real dangerous people, but the effort to identify them, particularly in advance of a truly horrific crime like this one, it's not easy.
DOBBS: And we don't pay people in our legal system, whether it is easy or not, we pay them to do a job that's the responsibility, 3 million people on probation. Isn't it time for the legal profession to stand up and say, let's fix it?
TOOBIN: They are happy to do that if it doesn't cost money. But monitoring 3 million people costs a lot of money. And the money isn't in the system. And that's the stumbling block.
DOBBS: Jeffrey Toobin. Thank you very much.
Coming up next, "Heroes" serving in Iraq changed the life of this North Carolina attorney and army reservist. We'll have his story coming right up.
Also, news makers, a defining week for Democratic presidential hopeful, Senator John Kerry and a difficult week for those who want to see more jobs created. We'll be talking with our panel of leading editors. All of that, a great deal more still ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Tonight, "Heroes." Lieutenant Colonel Kirk Warner, a lawyer, an army reservist who received a bronze star for his service in Iraq. Now like many veterans returning from that war, he faces a new challenge of readjusting to civilian life. Casey Wian has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kirk Warner isn't your typical trial lawyer. Yes, there's the nice office, the big home in the Raleigh, North Carolina, but he's also a lieutenant colonel in the army Reserve who in October returned from eight months in Iraq. As a member of the Judge Advocate General Corps he set up a court system, interrogated some of the high value Iraqis depicted on playing cards and boarded and confiscated smuggler vessels.
LT. COL. KIRK WARNER, U.S. ARMY RESERVE: We were right where the action was, it was an absolutely remarkable experience for a bunch of civilians that do this part time. The adrenaline, action, accomplishment everything happening all at one time, it drives you through the whole time we were deployed.
WIAN: Once home, he took a week's vacation to reconnect with his wife.
DIANE WARNER, WIFE: When he was gone sometimes I would go in and smell his cologne just to know, just to make sure he was still with me.
WIAN: Then he returned to work.
WARNER: That was way too early. I was a total zombie. We didn't realize how fatigued we were. WIAN: Warner says he was ineffective for weeks but was ready when it came time to go to trial.
WARNER: Unfortunately, I'm probably fearless going into a courtroom anymore because nothing could be as fearful as some of the things that we probably went through. I didn't know there was evil on this planet until you see some of the things that were going on there. We were in a position of dealing with the people that had their hands chopped off. I was also involved in the mass grave situation. When you see that type of devastation and what they have done through this regime, man, I'll tell you -- it just knocks you back.
WIAN: But there are more good memories.
WARNER: You see the results. And you see the kids smiling. You see the rest of the Iraqis giving you thumbs up. At least I think they are giving us thumbs up.
WIAN: Back home his office is filled with reminders of Iraq. Including marble from the Saddam Hussein palace and a model of Saddam next to one of John Wayne. Warner explains, quoting the movie "Green Berets."
WARNER: Out here, due process is a bullet. And you know, that's as good as you get for a litigator. That's why he's on the wall. He's my hero.
WIAN: And Lieutenant Colonel Warner is one of ours. Casey Wian, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: We'll continue in just one moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: You remember that big and almost instant flap over former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's documents that he used in his book. Well, it turns out that the current treasury secretary now declares those documents given to predecessor Paul O'Neill contained classified information which was really not the fault of Paul O'Neill but rather that the Treasury Department itself. Treasury Department sources tell us the inspector general is placing blame on the Department of the Treasury for the incident, not on Paul O'Neill.
Wall Street closed the week with a strong performance. The Dow up 97 points. The Nasdaq rose 44. The S&P up 14 on the same day the government announced the economy created 112,000 jobs. Christine Romans is here with the story for us.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What better day to announce big job cuts than on a jobs day. Cigna, profit of 31 percent, it's going to cut 3,000 jobs. 9 percent of its workforce. It is slashing its dividend to about 2.5 cent from 33 cents. Paltry jobs growth almost daily news of job cuts from corporate America. On Wall Street, a reality dawning. There are big changes in the U.S. labor market. It's painful for the American worker.
But China watcher Don Strashine (ph), he says quit your belly aching, he says instead of sulking, investors need to accept the realities of global competition, industry leadership, and corporate survival demand outsourcing and job market changes. He says every big employer in America is looking to outsource for lower costs, that's why profits and U.S. profitability of U.S. firms will be strong and jobs growth will not -- you know, earnings have been strong. Profit growth in the fourth quarter up some 28 percent, Lou, but on these conference calls you do not hear American CEOs say they are going to add jobs, at least not in this country.
DOBBS: Well, Don Strashine (ph), a pretty darn good economist, I think he needs to quit his belly aching because if the only way an American corporation can compete effect in this world is by driving wages down to third-world levels and taking away jobs of Americans, you know they are in big trouble.
ROMANS: At some point the investor, the shareholders and the worker are all the same person.
DOBBS: Absolutely. Still, it's about the country. Not the market. Christine Romans, you have a great weekend.
ROMANS: You, too.
DOBBS: Now for some of your thoughts. Many of you writing in on our segments exporting American last night.
Patrick Helfrick (ph) of Duluth, Georgia. "I take pride in investing in my country by buying American-made products whenever possible. I am 38 years old and sadly, most people my age are more concerned with who will be the next winner on "American Idol" or "Survivor." Unless the direction changes, we can create a new reality show based upon the plight of this country. We can call it Outsource Styling and see how people survive when there is no work to be hard."
Gary Miller, Laguna Niguel, California. "Thanks for the moving interview with Jim Tillman (ph) which put a face on the hollowing out of America's economic base. I wish everyone in America could see this in the days leading up to the next election."
Broken borders. Linda Kilcrease of Dover, New Jersey. "The Hagel Daschle amnesty guest worker bill is not humane to Americans. It is an amnesty wage-depression program that has no enforcement provision and can only clog the immigration system.
Ron Goodden of Smyrna, Georgia. "Giving amnesty to illegal aliens is the wrong thing to do. Labeling it as humane is simply wrong-headed thinking." We appreciate your thoughts. Send more of them to us at loudobbs@cnn.com.
Coming up next, we'll talk to this week's "Newsmakers" about a host of events -- politics, and economics, business and geopolitics. And for famous people like Don King and Donald Trump, their hair is their trademark. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Ohio State Fair, however, in trouble for trying to give that same trademark to some very unlikely subjects.
But first, an update on the number of companies our staff has confirmed to be exporting America. Companies sending American jobs to cheap overseas labor markets or employing those foreign laborers instead of American workers. Tonight's additions include -- ProQuest, RCG Information Technology. The complete list is on cnn.com/lou. We'll be right back. Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: As we reported, President Bush established a bipartisan commission to investigate pre-war intelligence. The results of that investigation will be out in March of 2005. Joining us now, this week's "Newsmakers" with a lot to talk about. Steve Shepard, he's editor in chief of "BusinessWeek," Bob Lenzner, national editor of "Forbes," Rik Kirkland, editor and chief of "Fortune." Gentlemen, good to have you with us.
Quite a week. John Kerry has emerged, I think definitively as the frontrunner, and the president is obviously on the defensive, naming this commission. Give us your best assessment.
RIK KIRKLAND, "FORTUNE": It's been a rough week for the president. I'm not making a prediction about the election, but certainly he's had two credibility problems. One is the flack about our intelligence in Iraq and whether -- what we knew or didn't know about weapons of mass destruction, and I think his budget is a huge credibility problem, because it's sort of dead on arrival in terms of believability.
ROBERT LENZNER, "FORBES": Actually, there's an increase in jobs, but 75,000 of them were in the retail trade so there were more jobs but they weren't very good jobs. And they weren't at a rate that you would expect with the economy growing at 4 or 5 percent.
DOBBS: Yet the Labor Department, the Labor Secretary Elaine Chao today, Steve, defending the quality of those jobs, and by every account -- I'm talking with, every number I'm looking at says that we are looking at very low level replacement jobs that are coming back into this economy.
STEVE SHEPARD, "BUSINESSWEEK": Yeah, I mean, the number's clearly better than it was last month. And hopefully the trend is in the right direction, but this is not a great number given the level of GDP growth for all the reasons, of outsourcing and productivity and all of the things we've talked about. The question is, what happens and politically how it plays.
LENZNER: I think it will be a big political issue, because the poll that they took in Iowa showed that the people going into the caucuses were more concerned about the economy and their jobs and health care than they were about Iraq, and that Bush was playing the patriotism card, and I think that's what's changing.
SHEPARD: You know, the other piece of bad news for the president was the turnout at the Democratic primaries, which has been very, very strong, which suggests the base on the Democratic side is getting energized, which hasn't happened in a number of years.
DOBBS: My God, with seven candidate now, you would think that they would be a little energized. I would think that that would contribute to it. But I...
(CROSSTALK)
KIRKLAND: The president look a little more vulnerable, but to beat him you have got to beat him with something, and Kerry is going to have to run a really, really strong campaign.
DOBBS: Well, the CNN-"USA Today" Gallup poll showed Senator Kerry, in at least that one snapshot in time with that sample beating him, and beating him outside the margin of error.
KIRKLAND: These things change every month in an election year.
DOBBS: We've noticed that.
KIRKLAND: So I wouldn't put too much into it.
LENZNER: Because we don't know too much about what Kerry stands for in terms of the economy. He wants to roll back the dividend reduction tax for people making more than $200,000, which doesn't sound like too bad an idea. It will help reduce the budget deficit. But people don't really know what he stands for yet.
SHEPARD: But they know one thing, which is he is from Massachusetts, and Massachusetts State Supreme Court has just said that gay marriages are required. And that's going to...
DOBBS: Now, do you think voters...
SHEPARD: It's going to be ironic whether the economy and Iraq don't become the big issue, and some of the social issues come into play more than...
LENZNER: He's already come out, though, and said that he's only in favor of the civil arrangement, and he's not in favor of the thing. Whether they will be able to stick the Massachusetts thing against him -- they will try, surely, I think, yeah.
DOBBS: One of the things that's remarkable, we have been hearing a lot about electability, we've been hearing a great deal, in fact, about that. Very little about the issues. And when we do, it's about an issue the president has little control over, like gay marriage, for crying out loud, and state by state. That's a state decision. What in the world are we doing focusing on these kinds of issues instead of issues like job creation, what we're going to do for the middle class, how we're going to educate our children, our infrastructure. What is going on here, gentlemen?
SHEPARD: It's about winning elections, and it's easier to win elections by getting people to be very concerned about gay marriages, it's a very passionate issue, rather than deal with the hard, complex issues of job creation. DOBBS: Are we in the press letting them off the hook?
KIRKLAND: I don't know, I haven't -- I don't recall a really good issue debate in a long time during election. I mean, their debate at the margins, basically you are trying to connect with people with your personal story and your character, and people are making a judgment on that. And that's the way it is these days. It's very hard to get people to talk issues.
SHEPARD: It's a long way to go. And a lot of these issues will get aired.
LENZNER: But you know what? It's going to come down to a lot about the jobs and the health care and then -- and perhaps business about Iraq, if Iraq gets...
SHEPARD: Well, you know, this commission, which is a good idea and the people on it look to be very, very good. But to put this thing off to March of '05...
DOBBS: The 9/11 commission, the intelligence commission...
SHEPARD: No, I mean, the intelligence commission. You put it off to March of '05, after the election, it's a very long time.
DOBBS: Oh, it's like the campaign finance reform. The McCain- Feingold legislation, once enacted, only affected the subsequent elections.
LENZNER: That's because he does not want to get shellacked before election day about the what happened with our intelligence.
KIRKLAND: The most outrageous thing about the budget is to call for permanent tax cuts, which don't even show up in your five-year budget. The real effect is to show up afterwards. So there is a lot of games going on.
SHEPARD: This five-year window on the budget is really...
DOBBS: We have just a few seconds, but speaking of games, 13.5 trillion unfunded liability just for Medicare, we can start adding another $30 trillion if we bring in Social Security, Medicaid. When in the world are we going to start confronting the issues facing this...
SHEPARD: A long time from now. Rick's point is right, that by taking a five-year window in this budget thing, rather than the 10- year, which is traditional, we've put all those problems beyond the scope of his election campaign.
KIRKLAND: I hope we start after the election.
DOBBS: After the election?
KIRKLAND: The day after. We're not going to start before.
DOBBS: Rik, Bob, thanks. Steve, thank you very much. Gentlemen, have a great weekend.
Finally tonight, a few creative livestock exhibitors -- we wanted to save the best for last -- went to extremes to give their Holsteins an edge in last year's Ohio State Fair. This is a story about character, by the way, in our society. Three men have been disqualified for giving their cows hairpieces. That's right, hairpieces. State fair inspectors said the men actually glued and painted hair onto their animals to enhance the appearance of the cows in the show ring. This story inspired us. You might even say moved us, to try a little before and after experiment just to see what that hairpiece does for the attractiveness of a Holstein. You be the judge.
That's our show for tonight. We thank you for being with us. For all of us here, have a very pleasant weekend. Good night from New York. Anderson Cooper is next.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Florida Girl Found Dead>
