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Pentagon Announces Troop Increase in Iraq; New bin Laden Tape?
Aired April 15, 2004 - 15:00 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
Regrets and resolve at the Pentagon. If you were with us the last hour, you saw Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and then General Peter Pace announce what we've been reporting for days. Thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq will not be coming home at the end of the year after all, specifically 20,000 forces give or take from the 1st Armored Division, 2nd Cavalry, National Guard and Reserves who had been at the ends of their tours of duty.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Needless to say, we regret having to extend those individuals. They had anticipated being in country or in the AOR something like up to 365 days. This will extend their time in Iraq somewhat. But the country is at war and we need to do what is necessary to succeed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: The extensions amount to 90 extra days in Iraq, as much as 120 extra days overseas. If more troops are needed after that, Rumsfeld says they'll be sent in from elsewhere. They will not be held over.
Joining us from Tucson, Arizona, to talk a little bit about the briefing, which he just listened to, retired U.S. Major General, U.S. Air Force, Don Shepperd.
General Shepperd, good to have you with us.
RETIRED MAJOR GEN. DONALD SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: How are you, Miles?
O'BRIEN: All right.
Through all the tortured responses and prose there, it seems like the Pentagon was having a hard time not admitting what seemed to be rather obvious, that they might have been a little bit off on their estimates of troop strength. What's the matter with just saying that?
SHEPPERD: Yes, not so obvious.
Everybody wants Secretary Rumsfeld who's in the hot seat to say, hey, we were wrong. If we had simply had more troops there in the beginning, this wouldn't have happened. If we had more troops there now, we could quell all this violence.
Look, the supposition behind those stands are that, if we had more troops, we could provide security in Iraq. Troops are a blessing and a curse as well. You have to protect the troops themselves. You have to resupply them. They supply more targets. So they're not the answer.
We cannot provide security for Iraq. The Iraqis must do it and the emphasis must be on training the Iraqis as rapidly as possible and turning security over to them. The reason we need more troops right now is, there's a bump up in the violence because of the 30 June turnover. You've got Fallujah going on, the al-Sadr movement, infiltration increasing across the borders, and of course you've also got the kidnapping and convoy attacks.
So it's natural to delay the troops that are there and keep more troops there for this bump. But I guarantee you, just like Vietnam, if you add two more divisions, you'll soon need another two and another two divisions and it's endless. We should be going the other way as soon as possible. And I'm confident we will, but we're trekking a very dangerous path towards the 30 June turnover, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Well, let's talk about that escalation that could be a possibility if you go down this road. First, the U.S. does not have the forces to sustain an escalation of that nature, right?
SHEPPERD: Well, we really do.
As General Pace said, you've got 2.4 million people in the military between the active duty and the Guard and Reserve.
The thing that will sustain that level, however, is the patience and the support of the American people. And it is a race right now to see, especially in an election year, whether the American public is going to stay with this war effort and the level of killings of Americans, young Americans, that's taking place right now. So if the people support it, yes, we have the forces to do it.
It will be tough on the soldiers. It will be tough on employers out there from the Guard and Reserve and of course the families, but we do have the troops to do it. It's a question of popular support.
O'BRIEN: Take us into the general officers' mind-set here for a moment here. There was quite a bit of talk from General Pace and from Secretary Rumsfeld about how the civilian leadership of the Pentagon has simply responded to whatever the senior leadership in charge of Iraq has asked for. Is there a tendency, however, for those generals to underestimate, to not ask for enough?
SHEPPERD: I don't think so.
I know either as personal friends or passing acquaintances pretty much all of the commanders over there. General Abizaid is a stand-up guy. I can guarantee you, if he needed more people to do something, he would say it and he would say it loud and clear. He would be careful about how he said it, but he would certainly say it. What the commanders need is, they need to know, what is our mission? And then you can decide upon the troop level. Right now, he needs more troops because the missions he's been given are expanding. That's what details your number of troops. And the people that I talk to, General Petraeus, that was over there, General Odierno, General Sanchez, all of them understand that they can ask for more troops if they need them.
Again, they're just not going to ask for troops to ask for troops because they understand the curse of that. But these are stand-up guys. There's not going to be any reluctance on their part.
O'BRIEN: All right, a final thought here . You used to run the National Guard, Air National Guard. And so you know particularly a little bit about the psyche there. These people are not people who when they signed up expected this kind of duty, whether it's National Guard or reservists. To what extent does this play and chip away at the morale over there? And how big an issue is that as you look down the road?
SHEPPERD: Very good question.
You did not sign up expecting this level of activity, but most of these people come off active duty. And that's where most of the recruiting comes from. Again, the support of the National Guard and Reserve for these long call-ups and the employers is tied to the American support for the entire war. I'm confident that we can manage Guard and Reserve call-ups. You can call them up to two years for these things. The question is, can you call them repeatedly?
Right now, we're not seeing big effects on recruiting and retention. In fact, anecdotally, the retention in some of the units coming back is better than those that haven't been.
O'BRIEN: So you don't think there is a morale problem potentially here?
SHEPPERD: Oh, there is a potential morale problem. But, again, as long as the America public supports this war, you will see Guardsmen and reservists being able to manage it and the leadership of the Guard and Reserve being able to manage it. If the American public support for it slips, you'll see that reflected immediately in terrible morale.
O'BRIEN: Major General Don Shepperd, our military analyst, thanks, as always.
SHEPPERD: Pleasure.
O'BRIEN: Wherever he is, Osama bin Laden has apparently managed to convey yet another message. CIA officials say the voice on a newly aired audiotape likely that of the terrorist mastermind. And the recording is apparently recent.
Our report is from CNN's Nic Robertson. Nic is in an eastern part of Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan where the hunt for bin Laden grinds on.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This latest message purporting to come from Osama bin Laden strikes a more politically astute note than many of his previous messages.
It appears to pick up on the post-Madrid bombing mood in Spain, that is, the Spanish prime minister saying Spain could pull its troops out of Iraq after the handover of sovereignty to Iraq at the end of June. The message says, the message purporting to come from Osama bin Laden says from the positive response we've seen from there, implying Europe. Now, what he says is that European countries have an opportunity to get out of the fight with al Qaeda, if you will, if they stop siding with the United States and stop being involved in Muslim countries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I offer a truce to them with a commitment to stop operations against any state which vows to stop attacking Muslims or interfere in their affairs, including participating in the American conspiracy against the wider Muslim world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Now, these conditions for a truce also have a deadline. Osama bin Laden or the person purporting to be him gives the European countries three months to meet these conditions.
It goes on to say -- the message goes on to say anyone who rejects this wants war and says that we are the sons of war or we are the war sons, an implication that they will carry on their fight if that is rejected.
This base where I'm at right now is a base by U.S. troops used for searching for Osama bin Laden in the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. I talked with some of those soldiers. They told me they were very interested to note the details, interested to know that this was quite a recent message. They said it came to no surprise to them to know that he was still apparently alive, Osama bin Laden still apparently alive.
They said, however, they were already trying very hard to locate him and that they felt in the areas they were operating, at least, that he had no base of operation and was not able to hide there.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Camp Salano (ph), near Khost, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Well, no surprise here. European officials are scoffing at the notion that they cut a deal with the likes of Osama bin Laden. Italy says it is unthinkable. The French and Germans insist they won't bargain with terrorists. And, as for London, no deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACK STRAW, BRITISH FOREIGN MINISTER: One has to treat such claims, proposals by al Qaeda with a contempt which they deserve. This is a murderous organization which seeks impossible objectives by the most violent of means and has said in terms that whilst we love life, they love death. I'm afraid that it is yet another bare-faced attempt to divide the international community. It cannot and will not succeed, because everybody knows that there is only one side on which the international community can be in the fight against terrorism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: On a related note, British Prime Minister Tony Blair due to visit Washington tomorrow to meet with the president. One of the top concerns will be the effort to keep the lid on Iraq and the impending transfer of power back to the Iraqis.
News across America now.
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Buying time to stop the weddings. The governor of Massachusetts tries another tact to keep same-sex marriages from becoming legal May 17. Governor Mitt Romney asking lawmakers for a special counsel who can take the matter to the Supreme Court.
And clearing the air of smog. The EPA says 474 counties in 31 states don't meet air quality standards. They have three years to clean up their act; 34 New York counties failed the test. The worst smog area is where it all began, L.A.
America's oldest working professor is calling it quits. He's only 104. That's right, 104. He'll join us tomorrow and tell us what his plans are for retirement.
Ahead this hour, a lesson from "The Apprentice," what you can learn about climbing the corporate ladder and stepping on other people's back along the way.
But, first, Randall Terry, the nation's most famous anti-abortion protester, you'll see a side of him you haven't. His children speak out for the first time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Sometimes things are not as they seem. Take the case of Randall Terry, who made a name for himself preaching family values. For years, his own family seemed to reflect those values. Now his children are grown and they are telling a different story.
CNN's Maria Hinojosa has our story. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He became famous being dragged from the doorways of abortion clinics. Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue.
RANDALL TERRY, OPERATION RESCUE: This is what choice is all about.
HINOJOSA: He was imprisoned for sending Bill Clinton an aborted fetus, a man so confrontational, he was ordered by the courts to stop block the doors of an abortion clinics.
R. TERRY: The millions of children born out of wedlock, some of whom will grow up to rob or assault you or a loved one.
HINOJOSA: Randall Terry found other causes, preaching against infidelity, birth control, divorce, his moral enemies, gays and unwed mothers.
R. TERRY: The homosexual agenda is to normalize what is a tragic lifestyle of bondage.
HINOJOSA: But today, it's his own children who are speaking out, saying that the very people his father condemns are just like them.
R. TERRY: Well, there it is.
HINOJOSA: Jamiel, the adopted son who once accompanied his father to Vermont to fight gay marriage, now says he is gay in an essay in May's "Out" magazine.
JAMIEL TERRY, SON OF RANDALL TERRY: In my family it was you start having sex outside of marriage, you get AIDS, you're a whore, you're a slut. Those are exact words. Yesterday he said to me, I'm going to be at your funeral. You're going to die at 42.
HINOJOSA: Tila, just 18, says the father who adopted her away from a woman trying to abort her no longer welcomes her in his own home.
TILA TERRY, DAUGHTER OF RANDALL TERRY: I had sex outside of marriage. I got pregnant and I miscarried after about three or four months. I hadn't been speaking with my dad. We haven't been as close as, you know, we were since I left his house.
HINOJOSA: His oldest daughter, Ebony, who also had two children out of wedlock and now calls herself a Muslim, is moved to tears by the conflicts in her own family.
EBONY WHETSTONE, DAUGHTER OF RANDALL TERRY: The whole makeup of our family is not traditional by far. So it is not going to be, you know, picture-perfect.
HINOJOSA: But the perfect marriage didn't exist. Randall Terry was censured by his church for having sinful relationships with other women. He divorced his wife and married his former church assistant.
T. TERRY: We had this image we had to live up to of being perfect and growing up with that is very hard.
HINOJOSA: On CNN's "NEWSNIGHT WITH AARON BROWN," Randall Terry reacted to his children's public remarks about the family.
R. TERRY: There is two painful issues. One is that my son is involved in a lifestyle that is self-destructive. It is a sexual addiction that might end up taking his life. And then the other is that he took thousands of dollars from "Out" magazine to do this.
HINOJOSA: Randall Terry also questioned their motives.
R. TERRY: He used my name to get money for himself and to bring out stuff in our family and to present a picture of our family's history that is frankly inaccurate.
HINOJOSA (on camera): "Out" magazine says Jamiel Terry approached them to write article and paid him the going rate. As for Jamiel Terry, he says he's angered by his father's attacks on him, but for now, he and his sisters, who all remain against abortion, say they still love and respect their father.
Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Ahead on LIVE FROM, today's reality TV watch. You guessed it. "The Apprentice" finale is tonight, all two hours of it. How much can the show really teach you, however, about climbing the corporate ladder?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(FINANCIAL UPDATE)
O'BRIEN: Business mogul Donald Trump will get to say you're hired to the last man standing on "The Apprentice" season finale tonight. That's because no women made the final cut despite their flirting, their short skirts on the show, etcetera, etcetera.
Our guest says it proves using sex appeal does not get you ahead in the long run in the business world.
Joining us is Liz Ryan. She is the founder of WorldWIT, an online networking group for women.
Good to have you with us, Liz.
LIZ RYAN, FOUNDER, WORLDWIT: Thanks for having me.
O'BRIEN: I was kind of rooting for Amy there.
RYAN: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Then I heard her in those interviews last night and she was rather annoying. What is the lesson there?
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: Well, I think the lesson with Amy and a lot of the young women on "The Apprentice" is that some of the things they did initially, the short skirts, the fabulous pumps, the really sexy attire and the super aggressive behavior got them to round one and that's as far as it got them.
You notice there are no women in the final round. And I think that part of the lesson there is that all that stuff, that window dressing, is, you know, very limited in what it can do for new business. There's a lot more fundamentals that it would have been nice those women concentrate on.
O'BRIEN: So even with a self-described ladies man like Trump, all that's going to do is get your gam in the door.
RYAN: He's a ladies man, but he's a businessman. Look at Carolyn, the woman who is one of his top lieutenants. She doesn't do all that stuff with the Blahnik pumps.
O'BRIEN: She is tough as nails,
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: She is tough as nails, professional. She's not especially vampy in her dress.
O'BRIEN: Prim. I would call it prim.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Not that we're doing a fashion segment here.
RYAN: Well, you know "The Apprentice" is sort of a cartoon version of business.
But I think there are things you can learn from it how to succeed and some things that can really derail you.
O'BRIEN: Yes, we should put reality here in quotes maybe just a little bit.
All right, let's talk about some of your advice here.
RYAN: OK.
O'BRIEN: Real-life lessons that you have offered up in a recent article. Business is a balancing act. What does that tell you that does not relate to what we're seeing on TV?
RYAN: Well, "The Apprentice" relies a lot on great resumes. All those young people had terrific resumes. And a lot of them were very sharp looking. The women dressed incredibly well. But the balance was, very few of them had any real-life experience and almost none of them had good people skills, communication skills, which turn out to be critically important in succeeding in business.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: So you can't just be a hard charger. You've got to get along.
RYAN: Exactly.
The message that you get from "The Apprentice" is that business is really sort of the Gordon Gekko Wall Street world of buy, sell, make a deal, stab somebody in the back to get ahead. Mostly, it's not like that. You see those people. You see those people when they finally get indicted 20 years down the road, but most of them drop out or get stalled in their careers earlier on because that's really not what makes people succeed.
O'BRIEN: All right, greed maybe isn't good. Let's talk a little bit about accepting accountability.
RYAN: Right.
O'BRIEN: I would say fessing up to mistakes is a good idea wherever you are in life, right?
RYAN: Great idea.
In fact, Kristi, one of the contestants on "The Apprentice," did a great job of taking responsibility for the mistakes she made. Fired. After that, you notice nobody really did. They got into a lot of blaming and finger-pointing, which happens in business, but it's not a good strategy. The thing is, if you take responsibility, people will understand what you know and don't know about yourself and it leads to a lot more trust.
O'BRIEN: Always easier to apologize they say, right?
All right, next one, create substance and strategy. Creating substance, that sounds like you're making it out of thin air which of course makes it an oxymoron, doesn't it?
RYAN: Well, the thing that people on "The Apprentice" tended not to do -- and they're very young -- is take a step back at any point and say, what's the plan? They were all hard charges. They were all sort of the type A personalities, most of them, a few exceptions.
And their idea of being effective is being busy. What you learn being in business over a few years is that stepping back and saying what are we trying to accomplish, what's step one, two, three, that's really more important. Very, very little of that on "The Apprentice."
O'BRIEN: All right, keep your compass. We're talking about moral compass here. In a word, don't be a Kozlowski.
RYAN: Absolutely. Don't be a Kozlowski. Don't be a lot of people who got dropped off the show. What happened there is that people really bought into this idea that a lot of young people share that stabbing somebody in the back and climbing over somebody else is the way to succeed in business.
Remember what your mother told you. Be who you are. Don't succumb to peer pressure. This is just a grownup example of the same thing.
O'BRIEN: And finally, mentors, finding good mentors. How do you go about that? Why is that important as well?
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: The women on "The Apprentice," all of whom are historical now in terms of the running for that job, should have looked to Carolyn, one of Trump's top lieutenants. She was there all the time, not especially vampy or sexy on the show, very professional, very controlled. They could have learned a lot from her. And there are a lot of women and men that you can learn tons from in business if you don't buy into sort of the stereotype of the moment as in the model of the people on "The Apprentice."
I lead a group called WorldWIT, which is an e-mail discussion network for women in business. Men are welcome, too. The Web site is www.WorldWIT.org. That's a great place to come and get business advice from more experienced people that can really help you a lot.
O'BRIEN: All right, I appreciate your time. WorldWIT.org is the place and we appreciate you joining us to talk a little bit about this subject.
RYAN: Thanks, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, we're out of time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 15, 2004 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
Regrets and resolve at the Pentagon. If you were with us the last hour, you saw Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and then General Peter Pace announce what we've been reporting for days. Thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq will not be coming home at the end of the year after all, specifically 20,000 forces give or take from the 1st Armored Division, 2nd Cavalry, National Guard and Reserves who had been at the ends of their tours of duty.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Needless to say, we regret having to extend those individuals. They had anticipated being in country or in the AOR something like up to 365 days. This will extend their time in Iraq somewhat. But the country is at war and we need to do what is necessary to succeed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: The extensions amount to 90 extra days in Iraq, as much as 120 extra days overseas. If more troops are needed after that, Rumsfeld says they'll be sent in from elsewhere. They will not be held over.
Joining us from Tucson, Arizona, to talk a little bit about the briefing, which he just listened to, retired U.S. Major General, U.S. Air Force, Don Shepperd.
General Shepperd, good to have you with us.
RETIRED MAJOR GEN. DONALD SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: How are you, Miles?
O'BRIEN: All right.
Through all the tortured responses and prose there, it seems like the Pentagon was having a hard time not admitting what seemed to be rather obvious, that they might have been a little bit off on their estimates of troop strength. What's the matter with just saying that?
SHEPPERD: Yes, not so obvious.
Everybody wants Secretary Rumsfeld who's in the hot seat to say, hey, we were wrong. If we had simply had more troops there in the beginning, this wouldn't have happened. If we had more troops there now, we could quell all this violence.
Look, the supposition behind those stands are that, if we had more troops, we could provide security in Iraq. Troops are a blessing and a curse as well. You have to protect the troops themselves. You have to resupply them. They supply more targets. So they're not the answer.
We cannot provide security for Iraq. The Iraqis must do it and the emphasis must be on training the Iraqis as rapidly as possible and turning security over to them. The reason we need more troops right now is, there's a bump up in the violence because of the 30 June turnover. You've got Fallujah going on, the al-Sadr movement, infiltration increasing across the borders, and of course you've also got the kidnapping and convoy attacks.
So it's natural to delay the troops that are there and keep more troops there for this bump. But I guarantee you, just like Vietnam, if you add two more divisions, you'll soon need another two and another two divisions and it's endless. We should be going the other way as soon as possible. And I'm confident we will, but we're trekking a very dangerous path towards the 30 June turnover, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Well, let's talk about that escalation that could be a possibility if you go down this road. First, the U.S. does not have the forces to sustain an escalation of that nature, right?
SHEPPERD: Well, we really do.
As General Pace said, you've got 2.4 million people in the military between the active duty and the Guard and Reserve.
The thing that will sustain that level, however, is the patience and the support of the American people. And it is a race right now to see, especially in an election year, whether the American public is going to stay with this war effort and the level of killings of Americans, young Americans, that's taking place right now. So if the people support it, yes, we have the forces to do it.
It will be tough on the soldiers. It will be tough on employers out there from the Guard and Reserve and of course the families, but we do have the troops to do it. It's a question of popular support.
O'BRIEN: Take us into the general officers' mind-set here for a moment here. There was quite a bit of talk from General Pace and from Secretary Rumsfeld about how the civilian leadership of the Pentagon has simply responded to whatever the senior leadership in charge of Iraq has asked for. Is there a tendency, however, for those generals to underestimate, to not ask for enough?
SHEPPERD: I don't think so.
I know either as personal friends or passing acquaintances pretty much all of the commanders over there. General Abizaid is a stand-up guy. I can guarantee you, if he needed more people to do something, he would say it and he would say it loud and clear. He would be careful about how he said it, but he would certainly say it. What the commanders need is, they need to know, what is our mission? And then you can decide upon the troop level. Right now, he needs more troops because the missions he's been given are expanding. That's what details your number of troops. And the people that I talk to, General Petraeus, that was over there, General Odierno, General Sanchez, all of them understand that they can ask for more troops if they need them.
Again, they're just not going to ask for troops to ask for troops because they understand the curse of that. But these are stand-up guys. There's not going to be any reluctance on their part.
O'BRIEN: All right, a final thought here . You used to run the National Guard, Air National Guard. And so you know particularly a little bit about the psyche there. These people are not people who when they signed up expected this kind of duty, whether it's National Guard or reservists. To what extent does this play and chip away at the morale over there? And how big an issue is that as you look down the road?
SHEPPERD: Very good question.
You did not sign up expecting this level of activity, but most of these people come off active duty. And that's where most of the recruiting comes from. Again, the support of the National Guard and Reserve for these long call-ups and the employers is tied to the American support for the entire war. I'm confident that we can manage Guard and Reserve call-ups. You can call them up to two years for these things. The question is, can you call them repeatedly?
Right now, we're not seeing big effects on recruiting and retention. In fact, anecdotally, the retention in some of the units coming back is better than those that haven't been.
O'BRIEN: So you don't think there is a morale problem potentially here?
SHEPPERD: Oh, there is a potential morale problem. But, again, as long as the America public supports this war, you will see Guardsmen and reservists being able to manage it and the leadership of the Guard and Reserve being able to manage it. If the American public support for it slips, you'll see that reflected immediately in terrible morale.
O'BRIEN: Major General Don Shepperd, our military analyst, thanks, as always.
SHEPPERD: Pleasure.
O'BRIEN: Wherever he is, Osama bin Laden has apparently managed to convey yet another message. CIA officials say the voice on a newly aired audiotape likely that of the terrorist mastermind. And the recording is apparently recent.
Our report is from CNN's Nic Robertson. Nic is in an eastern part of Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan where the hunt for bin Laden grinds on.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This latest message purporting to come from Osama bin Laden strikes a more politically astute note than many of his previous messages.
It appears to pick up on the post-Madrid bombing mood in Spain, that is, the Spanish prime minister saying Spain could pull its troops out of Iraq after the handover of sovereignty to Iraq at the end of June. The message says, the message purporting to come from Osama bin Laden says from the positive response we've seen from there, implying Europe. Now, what he says is that European countries have an opportunity to get out of the fight with al Qaeda, if you will, if they stop siding with the United States and stop being involved in Muslim countries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I offer a truce to them with a commitment to stop operations against any state which vows to stop attacking Muslims or interfere in their affairs, including participating in the American conspiracy against the wider Muslim world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Now, these conditions for a truce also have a deadline. Osama bin Laden or the person purporting to be him gives the European countries three months to meet these conditions.
It goes on to say -- the message goes on to say anyone who rejects this wants war and says that we are the sons of war or we are the war sons, an implication that they will carry on their fight if that is rejected.
This base where I'm at right now is a base by U.S. troops used for searching for Osama bin Laden in the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. I talked with some of those soldiers. They told me they were very interested to note the details, interested to know that this was quite a recent message. They said it came to no surprise to them to know that he was still apparently alive, Osama bin Laden still apparently alive.
They said, however, they were already trying very hard to locate him and that they felt in the areas they were operating, at least, that he had no base of operation and was not able to hide there.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Camp Salano (ph), near Khost, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Well, no surprise here. European officials are scoffing at the notion that they cut a deal with the likes of Osama bin Laden. Italy says it is unthinkable. The French and Germans insist they won't bargain with terrorists. And, as for London, no deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACK STRAW, BRITISH FOREIGN MINISTER: One has to treat such claims, proposals by al Qaeda with a contempt which they deserve. This is a murderous organization which seeks impossible objectives by the most violent of means and has said in terms that whilst we love life, they love death. I'm afraid that it is yet another bare-faced attempt to divide the international community. It cannot and will not succeed, because everybody knows that there is only one side on which the international community can be in the fight against terrorism.
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O'BRIEN: On a related note, British Prime Minister Tony Blair due to visit Washington tomorrow to meet with the president. One of the top concerns will be the effort to keep the lid on Iraq and the impending transfer of power back to the Iraqis.
News across America now.
The trial must go on, so says the judge hearing the Jayson Williams manslaughter case. He refused to dismiss charges after Williams' lawyers said prosecutors withheld evidence, the retired NBA star accused of fatally shooting a limo driver at his home.
Buying time to stop the weddings. The governor of Massachusetts tries another tact to keep same-sex marriages from becoming legal May 17. Governor Mitt Romney asking lawmakers for a special counsel who can take the matter to the Supreme Court.
And clearing the air of smog. The EPA says 474 counties in 31 states don't meet air quality standards. They have three years to clean up their act; 34 New York counties failed the test. The worst smog area is where it all began, L.A.
America's oldest working professor is calling it quits. He's only 104. That's right, 104. He'll join us tomorrow and tell us what his plans are for retirement.
Ahead this hour, a lesson from "The Apprentice," what you can learn about climbing the corporate ladder and stepping on other people's back along the way.
But, first, Randall Terry, the nation's most famous anti-abortion protester, you'll see a side of him you haven't. His children speak out for the first time.
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O'BRIEN: Sometimes things are not as they seem. Take the case of Randall Terry, who made a name for himself preaching family values. For years, his own family seemed to reflect those values. Now his children are grown and they are telling a different story.
CNN's Maria Hinojosa has our story. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He became famous being dragged from the doorways of abortion clinics. Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue.
RANDALL TERRY, OPERATION RESCUE: This is what choice is all about.
HINOJOSA: He was imprisoned for sending Bill Clinton an aborted fetus, a man so confrontational, he was ordered by the courts to stop block the doors of an abortion clinics.
R. TERRY: The millions of children born out of wedlock, some of whom will grow up to rob or assault you or a loved one.
HINOJOSA: Randall Terry found other causes, preaching against infidelity, birth control, divorce, his moral enemies, gays and unwed mothers.
R. TERRY: The homosexual agenda is to normalize what is a tragic lifestyle of bondage.
HINOJOSA: But today, it's his own children who are speaking out, saying that the very people his father condemns are just like them.
R. TERRY: Well, there it is.
HINOJOSA: Jamiel, the adopted son who once accompanied his father to Vermont to fight gay marriage, now says he is gay in an essay in May's "Out" magazine.
JAMIEL TERRY, SON OF RANDALL TERRY: In my family it was you start having sex outside of marriage, you get AIDS, you're a whore, you're a slut. Those are exact words. Yesterday he said to me, I'm going to be at your funeral. You're going to die at 42.
HINOJOSA: Tila, just 18, says the father who adopted her away from a woman trying to abort her no longer welcomes her in his own home.
TILA TERRY, DAUGHTER OF RANDALL TERRY: I had sex outside of marriage. I got pregnant and I miscarried after about three or four months. I hadn't been speaking with my dad. We haven't been as close as, you know, we were since I left his house.
HINOJOSA: His oldest daughter, Ebony, who also had two children out of wedlock and now calls herself a Muslim, is moved to tears by the conflicts in her own family.
EBONY WHETSTONE, DAUGHTER OF RANDALL TERRY: The whole makeup of our family is not traditional by far. So it is not going to be, you know, picture-perfect.
HINOJOSA: But the perfect marriage didn't exist. Randall Terry was censured by his church for having sinful relationships with other women. He divorced his wife and married his former church assistant.
T. TERRY: We had this image we had to live up to of being perfect and growing up with that is very hard.
HINOJOSA: On CNN's "NEWSNIGHT WITH AARON BROWN," Randall Terry reacted to his children's public remarks about the family.
R. TERRY: There is two painful issues. One is that my son is involved in a lifestyle that is self-destructive. It is a sexual addiction that might end up taking his life. And then the other is that he took thousands of dollars from "Out" magazine to do this.
HINOJOSA: Randall Terry also questioned their motives.
R. TERRY: He used my name to get money for himself and to bring out stuff in our family and to present a picture of our family's history that is frankly inaccurate.
HINOJOSA (on camera): "Out" magazine says Jamiel Terry approached them to write article and paid him the going rate. As for Jamiel Terry, he says he's angered by his father's attacks on him, but for now, he and his sisters, who all remain against abortion, say they still love and respect their father.
Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Ahead on LIVE FROM, today's reality TV watch. You guessed it. "The Apprentice" finale is tonight, all two hours of it. How much can the show really teach you, however, about climbing the corporate ladder?
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(FINANCIAL UPDATE)
O'BRIEN: Business mogul Donald Trump will get to say you're hired to the last man standing on "The Apprentice" season finale tonight. That's because no women made the final cut despite their flirting, their short skirts on the show, etcetera, etcetera.
Our guest says it proves using sex appeal does not get you ahead in the long run in the business world.
Joining us is Liz Ryan. She is the founder of WorldWIT, an online networking group for women.
Good to have you with us, Liz.
LIZ RYAN, FOUNDER, WORLDWIT: Thanks for having me.
O'BRIEN: I was kind of rooting for Amy there.
RYAN: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Then I heard her in those interviews last night and she was rather annoying. What is the lesson there?
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: Well, I think the lesson with Amy and a lot of the young women on "The Apprentice" is that some of the things they did initially, the short skirts, the fabulous pumps, the really sexy attire and the super aggressive behavior got them to round one and that's as far as it got them.
You notice there are no women in the final round. And I think that part of the lesson there is that all that stuff, that window dressing, is, you know, very limited in what it can do for new business. There's a lot more fundamentals that it would have been nice those women concentrate on.
O'BRIEN: So even with a self-described ladies man like Trump, all that's going to do is get your gam in the door.
RYAN: He's a ladies man, but he's a businessman. Look at Carolyn, the woman who is one of his top lieutenants. She doesn't do all that stuff with the Blahnik pumps.
O'BRIEN: She is tough as nails,
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: She is tough as nails, professional. She's not especially vampy in her dress.
O'BRIEN: Prim. I would call it prim.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Not that we're doing a fashion segment here.
RYAN: Well, you know "The Apprentice" is sort of a cartoon version of business.
But I think there are things you can learn from it how to succeed and some things that can really derail you.
O'BRIEN: Yes, we should put reality here in quotes maybe just a little bit.
All right, let's talk about some of your advice here.
RYAN: OK.
O'BRIEN: Real-life lessons that you have offered up in a recent article. Business is a balancing act. What does that tell you that does not relate to what we're seeing on TV?
RYAN: Well, "The Apprentice" relies a lot on great resumes. All those young people had terrific resumes. And a lot of them were very sharp looking. The women dressed incredibly well. But the balance was, very few of them had any real-life experience and almost none of them had good people skills, communication skills, which turn out to be critically important in succeeding in business.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: So you can't just be a hard charger. You've got to get along.
RYAN: Exactly.
The message that you get from "The Apprentice" is that business is really sort of the Gordon Gekko Wall Street world of buy, sell, make a deal, stab somebody in the back to get ahead. Mostly, it's not like that. You see those people. You see those people when they finally get indicted 20 years down the road, but most of them drop out or get stalled in their careers earlier on because that's really not what makes people succeed.
O'BRIEN: All right, greed maybe isn't good. Let's talk a little bit about accepting accountability.
RYAN: Right.
O'BRIEN: I would say fessing up to mistakes is a good idea wherever you are in life, right?
RYAN: Great idea.
In fact, Kristi, one of the contestants on "The Apprentice," did a great job of taking responsibility for the mistakes she made. Fired. After that, you notice nobody really did. They got into a lot of blaming and finger-pointing, which happens in business, but it's not a good strategy. The thing is, if you take responsibility, people will understand what you know and don't know about yourself and it leads to a lot more trust.
O'BRIEN: Always easier to apologize they say, right?
All right, next one, create substance and strategy. Creating substance, that sounds like you're making it out of thin air which of course makes it an oxymoron, doesn't it?
RYAN: Well, the thing that people on "The Apprentice" tended not to do -- and they're very young -- is take a step back at any point and say, what's the plan? They were all hard charges. They were all sort of the type A personalities, most of them, a few exceptions.
And their idea of being effective is being busy. What you learn being in business over a few years is that stepping back and saying what are we trying to accomplish, what's step one, two, three, that's really more important. Very, very little of that on "The Apprentice."
O'BRIEN: All right, keep your compass. We're talking about moral compass here. In a word, don't be a Kozlowski.
RYAN: Absolutely. Don't be a Kozlowski. Don't be a lot of people who got dropped off the show. What happened there is that people really bought into this idea that a lot of young people share that stabbing somebody in the back and climbing over somebody else is the way to succeed in business.
Remember what your mother told you. Be who you are. Don't succumb to peer pressure. This is just a grownup example of the same thing.
O'BRIEN: And finally, mentors, finding good mentors. How do you go about that? Why is that important as well?
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: The women on "The Apprentice," all of whom are historical now in terms of the running for that job, should have looked to Carolyn, one of Trump's top lieutenants. She was there all the time, not especially vampy or sexy on the show, very professional, very controlled. They could have learned a lot from her. And there are a lot of women and men that you can learn tons from in business if you don't buy into sort of the stereotype of the moment as in the model of the people on "The Apprentice."
I lead a group called WorldWIT, which is an e-mail discussion network for women in business. Men are welcome, too. The Web site is www.WorldWIT.org. That's a great place to come and get business advice from more experienced people that can really help you a lot.
O'BRIEN: All right, I appreciate your time. WorldWIT.org is the place and we appreciate you joining us to talk a little bit about this subject.
RYAN: Thanks, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, we're out of time.
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