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"Promises, Promises": Taxes; Hurricane Landfall Locations; Yusuf Islam, Formerly Cat Stevens, Being Deported to London
Aired September 22, 2004 - 14:30 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.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the CNN Center in Atlanta. This is LIVE FROM. I'm Drew Griffin.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR And I'm Kyra Phillips.
Here's what's all new this half hour. Moderate Muslims cry foul as former folkster Cat Stevens gets the boot from a flight to D.C. A debate about safer skies and personal freedom, straight ahead.
GRIFFIN: Telling the truth about taxes and (INAUDIBLE). Are the candidates doing it? Kelly Wallace runs the numbers, as our "Promises, Promises" series tackles the money problem.
First, here's what's happening now in the news.
There's a live picture, Democratic candidate John Kerry on the campaign trail down in Florida. He is Holding a town meeting in West Palm Beach. Kerry calling President Bush's proposal to partially privatize Social Security, quote, "a ripoff." The senator's next stop, Columbus, Ohio.
President Bush in Pennsylvania with the First Lady Laura Bush, emphasizing his education proposals. Later this afternoon, he'll tour parts of Pennsylvania affected by flooding due to Hurricane Ivan.
CBS appointing a new independent investigative team, this one to look into their documents. Former U.S. attorney General Dick Thornburgh and former chief executive of the Associated Press, Lewis Boccardi, the two will look into some discredited documents related to a story on President Bush's National Guard duty made it on "60 Minutes."
And the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is claiming responsibility for today's deadly suicide blast in Jerusalem. An 18-year-old female suicide bomber blew herself up at a bus stop. Two border policemen who tried to stop her were killed, about a dozen others wounded.
PHILLIPS: One of the biggest concerns we hear from you, the viewer, during this election season, is that we're not focused tightly enough on the actual issues. So today, we continue our series "Promises, Promises," with a look plans candidates have for your wallet and for the ballooning federal deficit.
Kelly Wallace has some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): First, the big picture -- the big deficit picture that is.
GEORGE W. BUSH (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can say to you that the deficit will be cut in half over the next five years.
WALLACE: Senator Kerry says he can accomplish that in four.
KERRY: We believe it's time for Washington to live within a budget just like you do.
WALLACE: But cutting in half a federal budget deficit, expected to reach a record $422 billion this year, translates into a case of simple arithmetic. To keep all their campaign promises, the candidates need to cut spending, raise your taxes, or both.
BUSH: And we've got to keep your taxes low.
WALLACE: The president promises to make permanent across-the- board tax cuts set to expire in 2010, but that would mean $1 trillion in lost government revenue. He also proposes allowing younger workers to invest social security payroll taxes in the stock market, but that could cost 2 trillion over the next 10 years, according to independent experts.
So, the president's wish list adds up to about 3 trillion over the next decade, and that doesn't include spending for the war in Iraq, homeland security, education and everything else.
So, how will President Bush bring down the deficit? He promises to restrain the growth in spending and make cuts to offset spending increases.
KERRY: We're going to cut taxes for the middle class.
WALLACE: Senator Kerry, for his part, promises to lower taxes on 98 percent of Americans, says he would raise taxes only on the wealthiest two percent who make more than $200,000 per year. This would bring in $860 billion over 10 years, his campaign says.
He promises to use that money to pay for new programs: 200 billion for education; 650 billion for healthcare. But other experts say his healthcare plan will cost much more. His wish list, like Mr. Bush's, does not include spending for the war, homeland security and everything else.
So, how would the senator cut down the deficit? He promises to impose spending caps and offset spending increases with mandatory spending cuts or tax increases.
Now the bottom line. The assessment from independent analysts that both candidates' promises would likely increase the deficit, not reduce it.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WALLACE: But the message from both campaigns is that if they can take steps to grow the economy, and if they can keep spending in check, yes, they can turn their promises to cut the deficit in half into a reality.
But Kyra, the bottom line, again, here is no matter who wins in November, the candidate will not have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to taxes or spending with $422 billion deficit -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Kelly, let's talk about the budget deficit for a minute. And to be honest with you, I can't sit here and understand it. I don't know, do I need to pay...
WALLACE: Join the club.
PHILLIPS: Yes, exactly. I mean, on a day-to-day basis, do I really get it? Do I understand it? Do I need to know all about it? Do voters really understand it, and do they care?
WALLACE: Well, You know, it's interesting when you look at weekend polls, "The New York Times"/CBS poll, just like like all of our polls do, they asked voters to talk about the issues that are most important to them. The budget deficit is sort of on the bottom. On the top, the economy, other issues like the Iraq war and terrorism.
But people care about it, Kyra, because they get, they understand that with a budget deficit, just like your own budget at home, if you have a deficit, that doesn't give you a lot of money to spend, you have to cut back.
So, they understand that means that the candidates might not be able to do all the things they say they will do, they might not be able to lower taxes, so they get it. But big picture, they're looking for more about the economy, and in particular, more about jobs -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So I take it that's what you're talking about tomorrow.
WALLACE: Didn't I set myself up well for that.
PHILLIPS: Perfect segue.
WALLACE: Yes, tomorrow it is jobs jobs, jobs. What does each candidate do, or promise to do, to increase jobs in the U.S., stop the job loss, and, Kyra, ultimately, whether any candidate really has any control over that issue in the end.
PHILLIPS: Kelly Wallace, CNN LIVE FROM favorite. Thank you. We'll see you tomorrow.
WALLACE: All right.
PHILLIPS: OK -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Thank you. Here's what we're talking about next right here, did the U.S. government unfairly target the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens. Questions arise after his name shows up on a terror watch list, and he's forced off an airplane. The two sides of that debate, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: This was supposed to be a feel-good story about a mission to save a wayward cow. It became a bit dramatic when one of the rescuers -- as you see there -- had to be rescued himself. That's a veterinarian who slipped off the rocks in Scotland's Western Skye. He knocked into the ice-cold water. He is recovering from a head injury. The cow, there he is safe and sound, or should I say there she is -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: When it comes to stormy weather, nature is like so many of us, going back to the same old favorite locations over and over again.
CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: From Mississippi to the Caribbean and the Carolinas, some areas seem to be hurricane havens.
So far this year, it's Florida's turn. Mother Nature slapped the Sunshine State with three strong storms within a month. Charley sliced the state from the southwest, Frances forced millions to flee from the east, then Ivan struck the Panhandle.
But the Sunshine State is not alone. The Carolina coast breaks the record with some 30 hurricanes making landfall over the past 100 years.
And let's not neglect the Gulf. Last week, Hurricane Ivan devastated the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines, too.
But some of the worst destruction this year was felt in the Caribbean, in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman. It will take months, or years, for the islands to recover from the multiple hurricanes that have swept in from the Atlantic.
Not surprisingly, a map of hurricane activity from the U.S. Geological Survey clearly shows that the eastern seaboard and the Gulf Coast regions are high-risk areas for hurricanes, even states as far north as New York have felt the slap of a passing storm. But some cities seem to wear a lucky charm.
New Orleans has not had a direct hit by a major hurricane since it was struck by Betsy in 1965. And Savannah on the coast of Georgia dodged every major hurricane in the 20th century.
Chad Myers, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: News across America now -- following a record number of complaints, the FCC announces a record fine against CBS stations that showed Janet Jackson's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction." Her exposed breast will cost the company $550,000 in fines for indecency.
Police in suburban Atlanta say a 12-year-old girl missing from Florida has been found and appears to be all right. That girl and her 30-year-old traveling companion were taken into custody yesterday. The man, Raymond Lewis, is a registered sex offender.
Chucky the 12-foot alligator is back inside an Alabama zoo after escaping during Hurricane Ivan. The 1,000-pound gator was captured last night by a team from Gatorland in Orlando, Florida. After a three-hour struggle, Chucky was theirs.
GRIFFIN: At last word, the singer known best as Cat Stevens awaiting deportation. In fact, he may be at Boston's airport right now to get on a plane heading to Dulles and then back to London.
He's known for years as Yusuf Islam. The converted Muslim was removed by federal agents -- there's a live shot of the plane right now -- from a commercial flight from London because his name recently added to a federal watch list for purported links to terrorists. A short time ago, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge had this to say about Cat Stevens.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECY.: Whether you are a celebrity or a complete unknown, if somewhere in the intelligence community that name appears on a watch list that says you're not to fly on airplanes, for whatever reason, the individual at the port of entry are responsible -- for this instance, aviation security is responsible to make sure that the information is acted upon, and that's precisely what we did.
Unfortunately, United Airlines had the information and they didn't act on it before he got on the airplane, but when that information got to Homeland Security's National Targeting Center, we took that action.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: In a case like this, bound to be debates. Joining us now is: aviation security expert Jamal (sic) Haidar, an advisor to the King of Jordan; and Ibrahim Hooper on the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Mr. Hooper, you held a news conference today denouncing the removal of Yusuf Islam. Why shouldn't the United States be able to remove this person from a plane? He's apparently on this watch list.
IBRAHIM HOOPER, CAIR: Well, obviously, the United States can do whatever it wants in terms of excluding people from its borders. But I think we really need an explanation as to how this happened, why this happened.
Yusuf Islam is an internationally respected Muslim peace activist, an educator. He's known for his charitable work around the world. He is perhaps the most best known Muslim in the Islamic world. And this is going to have a tremendously negative impact on America's image in the Islamic world.
GRIFFIN: But perhaps some of his charities also include terrorist organizations? Let's ask you Jamal (sic)...
JALAL HAIDAR, AVIATION SECURITY ADVISOR: Jalal.
Jalal, I'm sorry -- why he was on the list in the first place, and should the government be allowed to take him off the plane?
HAIDAR: He must have been on the list for some reason. These lists are put, you know, in cooperation with many government agencies. And they are passed on to the airlines to be actions.
There should be a reason. There must be a reason, which...
HOOPER: Well, unfortunately, we often see that it's the case that there is not a reason. We have the case of a man named Asif Iqbal in Pennsylvania has been detained time and time again trying to get on planes, because his name is similar to one of an actual accused terrorist.
GRIFFIN: Well, Mr. Hooper, why do you think that Yusuf Islam was denied on the plane today? Is the U.S. government trying to prevent him from speaking in the United States? Is that your position?
HOOPER: I don't know. That's why we're asking for an explanation. And that's why we also ask for an explanation of barring the internationally known scholar Tariq Ramadan from his post at Notre Dame University.
We sent a letter to Mr. Ridge, have not received a reply. Notre Dame has not received a reply. And we just -- people are being excluded, our image is being damaged, and nobody is explaining why it's happening.
GRIFFIN: Mr. Haidar, obviously thousands of people with Muslim- sounding names fly each day. Is there a problem with the watch list?
HAIDAR: Well, I mean, let me be fair here: Take my name, Jalal Haidar. It cannot be more than Arabic and Muslim name than that. I'm an Arab-American, a Muslim-American, I'm proud of my heritage, of my religion. I have never been stopped. I have never been taken off a list.
However, mistakes happen. There are lots of redundant names, and identity can be mistaken. The system is not perfect yet. But I can tell you this: Tens of thousands of Arabs and Muslims just like myself -- again, I told you I'm an Arab-American Muslim -- travel into the U.S. every day from Casablanca, from Cairo, from Amman, Jordan, from Kuwait, from many other places on the world. We don't see these things happening.
I don't think the government will on purpose divert an aircraft to target one specific passenger. However, mistakes happen, and the system has to improve, and it will improve. It is still an infant system, and the system will work out itself.
GRIFFIN: But Secretary Ridge said this was no mistake. He's on the list, and therefore he should not be allowed to fly.
HAIDAR: There must be a reason -- as I said initially, there must be a reason. What is the reason? I don't know.
But again, to repeat, I don't think the government would do this on purpose.
GRIFFIN: And Mr. Hooper, you're not ready to give the government the benefit of the doubt in this case? You think this is some kind of discrimination?
HOOPER: We give the benefit of the doubt. But as President Reagan said, "Trust, but verify." We need to know where this is coming from, where these allegations are coming from.
I don't think we want to be in a situation where people are merely denounced by anonymous government officials and labeled as terrorists and that's it, and everybody just says, OK, we don't need any more information. We need more information.
GRIFFIN: Well, hopefully we'll get the information in the coming days. We thank you both for joining us on this interesting issue that came up today. Thank you, sir.
HAIDAR: It's a pleasure.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, Rosie O'Donnell back in legal trouble. Find out why she's being sued right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: A child in California helping children in Russia cope with tragedy. This bounty of bears and other stuffed animals is part of Operation Fuzzy Wuzzy. The goal: getting them to young people who survived that deadly school siege in Beslan, Russia, earlier this month.
An 11-year-old Sacramento area boy came up with the idea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADAM JOHNS, OPERATION FUZZY WUZZY: Since the kids got attacked that I would certainly feel scared going back to school, and they will eventually have to go back. So, I think it'd be awesome that we send them teddy bears to know that people care and help them go back to school. (END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Adam's got shoes, clothing, and nearly 5,000 stuffed animals donated so far.
PHILLIPS: Well, checking entertainment headlines this Wednesday, call it the case of the sketchy sketches. Two courtroom artists suing Rosie O'Donnell for copyright infringement. The artists say they sketched the trial of the lawsuits between O'Donnell and the publishers of her now defunct magazine. And since then, they claim O'Donnell's made collages of those sketches, autographed them, and passed them off as her own work. O'Donnell's publicist says the suit is without merit.
Speaking of suits, British soccer star David Beckham, pretty bent about a recent tabloid headlin claiming his marriage was in trouble. As a result, he and his wife Victoria, a.k.a. Posh Spice, are taking the tab to court.
Finally, talk show diva Oprah Winfrey was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky -- she probably didn't wear this dress, by the way. But she was there to enlist -- and she wasn't there, I guess I should say, to enlist in the 101st Airborne Division either. But she was there to offer kudos and gifts to 640 soldiers' wives who became pregnant after their husbands returned home from Iraq.
GRIFFIN: That ought to be an interesting show.
Stocks sharply lower on Wall Street. Doesn't look like things are turning around, either.
PHILLIPS: Notice I didn't do a segue from that to Rhonda Schaffler, live at the New York Stock Exchange. Hi, Rhonda.
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Thank you for that, Kyra. And hello, again, to you and Drew.
A lot going on here. Investor really dealing with lots of problems today on Wall Street. Biggest among them: disappointing earnings news and soaring oil prices. Let's show you the numbers, because it's a fierce sell-off.
The Dow is off 130 points; Nasdaq down one-and-two-thirds percent. Crude oil surging more than $1.50 a barrel to well above $48. That after a government report showed a big drop in U.S. inventories last week in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan -- Kyra, Drew?
PHILLIPS: All right. That debate stirring up over the national registry of cell phone numbers -- what's going on?
SCHAFFLER: That's right. Not clear if it's going to happen. And if you don't want everyone to have access to your cell phone number, know this: Verizon is on your side.
The company is slamming this idea of a national 411 wireless database and saying it's just not going to participate in the program. Verizon CEO told a Senate committee yesterday that the directory is, quote, "a terrible idea because of privacy issues."
Other carriers, along with a national trade group, had hoped to get the service up and running sometime next year. They say it's necessary because more people use cell phones and people would have the right to opt in or opt out. But without Verizon and its 40 million customers, the whole idea at this point might have to be reworked.
And that is the latest from Wall Street. Drew, Kyra, all yours.
GRIFFIN: All right, Rhonda. That issue over Verizon and the cell phone directory, you know, it costs money when you get those calls. So, that could be a big issue coming up.
SCHAFFLER: That's right.
GRIFFIN: All right. Well, "INSIDE POLITICS" is coming up next.
PHILLIPS: That's right. Judy's on the road today. She joins us with a preview. Hi, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hi, Kyra. Hi, Drew. Thanks to both of you.
Well, I am here in warm and sunny Florida, where John Kerry just wrapping up a town meeting.
Today, we're going to take the pulse of the Sunshine State and look at how voters in one of the most watched showdown states feel about the race for the White House.
Plus, the Swift Boat Veteran for Truth are back and making new accusations about the Democratic nominee. Our Bill Schneider takes a look at the latest ads when "INSIDE POLITICS" starts in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Now in the news -- confusion over the fate of a high- profile Iraqi detainee. Iraqi security officials say Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha, also known as Dr. Germ, will be released soon. Iraq's interim prime minister says he'll be the one to decide that. CNN's Barbara Starr will have a live report at 5:00 Eastern.
Safe and sound: In the last hour, we learned a missing Florida girl has been found in Georgia. An Amber Alert was issued after the 12-year-old vanished on Sunday. The 30-year-old man that police say she'd been traveling with has been arrested.
And it took three hours and six people to haul him out of the ditch, but Chucky is back at an Alabama zoo. The half-ton gator escaped last week during Hurricane Ivan. Volunteers from Gatorland found him last night.
Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news. Now "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS."
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Aired September 22, 2004 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the CNN Center in Atlanta. This is LIVE FROM. I'm Drew Griffin.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR And I'm Kyra Phillips.
Here's what's all new this half hour. Moderate Muslims cry foul as former folkster Cat Stevens gets the boot from a flight to D.C. A debate about safer skies and personal freedom, straight ahead.
GRIFFIN: Telling the truth about taxes and (INAUDIBLE). Are the candidates doing it? Kelly Wallace runs the numbers, as our "Promises, Promises" series tackles the money problem.
First, here's what's happening now in the news.
There's a live picture, Democratic candidate John Kerry on the campaign trail down in Florida. He is Holding a town meeting in West Palm Beach. Kerry calling President Bush's proposal to partially privatize Social Security, quote, "a ripoff." The senator's next stop, Columbus, Ohio.
President Bush in Pennsylvania with the First Lady Laura Bush, emphasizing his education proposals. Later this afternoon, he'll tour parts of Pennsylvania affected by flooding due to Hurricane Ivan.
CBS appointing a new independent investigative team, this one to look into their documents. Former U.S. attorney General Dick Thornburgh and former chief executive of the Associated Press, Lewis Boccardi, the two will look into some discredited documents related to a story on President Bush's National Guard duty made it on "60 Minutes."
And the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is claiming responsibility for today's deadly suicide blast in Jerusalem. An 18-year-old female suicide bomber blew herself up at a bus stop. Two border policemen who tried to stop her were killed, about a dozen others wounded.
PHILLIPS: One of the biggest concerns we hear from you, the viewer, during this election season, is that we're not focused tightly enough on the actual issues. So today, we continue our series "Promises, Promises," with a look plans candidates have for your wallet and for the ballooning federal deficit.
Kelly Wallace has some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): First, the big picture -- the big deficit picture that is.
GEORGE W. BUSH (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can say to you that the deficit will be cut in half over the next five years.
WALLACE: Senator Kerry says he can accomplish that in four.
KERRY: We believe it's time for Washington to live within a budget just like you do.
WALLACE: But cutting in half a federal budget deficit, expected to reach a record $422 billion this year, translates into a case of simple arithmetic. To keep all their campaign promises, the candidates need to cut spending, raise your taxes, or both.
BUSH: And we've got to keep your taxes low.
WALLACE: The president promises to make permanent across-the- board tax cuts set to expire in 2010, but that would mean $1 trillion in lost government revenue. He also proposes allowing younger workers to invest social security payroll taxes in the stock market, but that could cost 2 trillion over the next 10 years, according to independent experts.
So, the president's wish list adds up to about 3 trillion over the next decade, and that doesn't include spending for the war in Iraq, homeland security, education and everything else.
So, how will President Bush bring down the deficit? He promises to restrain the growth in spending and make cuts to offset spending increases.
KERRY: We're going to cut taxes for the middle class.
WALLACE: Senator Kerry, for his part, promises to lower taxes on 98 percent of Americans, says he would raise taxes only on the wealthiest two percent who make more than $200,000 per year. This would bring in $860 billion over 10 years, his campaign says.
He promises to use that money to pay for new programs: 200 billion for education; 650 billion for healthcare. But other experts say his healthcare plan will cost much more. His wish list, like Mr. Bush's, does not include spending for the war, homeland security and everything else.
So, how would the senator cut down the deficit? He promises to impose spending caps and offset spending increases with mandatory spending cuts or tax increases.
Now the bottom line. The assessment from independent analysts that both candidates' promises would likely increase the deficit, not reduce it.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WALLACE: But the message from both campaigns is that if they can take steps to grow the economy, and if they can keep spending in check, yes, they can turn their promises to cut the deficit in half into a reality.
But Kyra, the bottom line, again, here is no matter who wins in November, the candidate will not have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to taxes or spending with $422 billion deficit -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Kelly, let's talk about the budget deficit for a minute. And to be honest with you, I can't sit here and understand it. I don't know, do I need to pay...
WALLACE: Join the club.
PHILLIPS: Yes, exactly. I mean, on a day-to-day basis, do I really get it? Do I understand it? Do I need to know all about it? Do voters really understand it, and do they care?
WALLACE: Well, You know, it's interesting when you look at weekend polls, "The New York Times"/CBS poll, just like like all of our polls do, they asked voters to talk about the issues that are most important to them. The budget deficit is sort of on the bottom. On the top, the economy, other issues like the Iraq war and terrorism.
But people care about it, Kyra, because they get, they understand that with a budget deficit, just like your own budget at home, if you have a deficit, that doesn't give you a lot of money to spend, you have to cut back.
So, they understand that means that the candidates might not be able to do all the things they say they will do, they might not be able to lower taxes, so they get it. But big picture, they're looking for more about the economy, and in particular, more about jobs -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So I take it that's what you're talking about tomorrow.
WALLACE: Didn't I set myself up well for that.
PHILLIPS: Perfect segue.
WALLACE: Yes, tomorrow it is jobs jobs, jobs. What does each candidate do, or promise to do, to increase jobs in the U.S., stop the job loss, and, Kyra, ultimately, whether any candidate really has any control over that issue in the end.
PHILLIPS: Kelly Wallace, CNN LIVE FROM favorite. Thank you. We'll see you tomorrow.
WALLACE: All right.
PHILLIPS: OK -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Thank you. Here's what we're talking about next right here, did the U.S. government unfairly target the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens. Questions arise after his name shows up on a terror watch list, and he's forced off an airplane. The two sides of that debate, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: This was supposed to be a feel-good story about a mission to save a wayward cow. It became a bit dramatic when one of the rescuers -- as you see there -- had to be rescued himself. That's a veterinarian who slipped off the rocks in Scotland's Western Skye. He knocked into the ice-cold water. He is recovering from a head injury. The cow, there he is safe and sound, or should I say there she is -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: When it comes to stormy weather, nature is like so many of us, going back to the same old favorite locations over and over again.
CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: From Mississippi to the Caribbean and the Carolinas, some areas seem to be hurricane havens.
So far this year, it's Florida's turn. Mother Nature slapped the Sunshine State with three strong storms within a month. Charley sliced the state from the southwest, Frances forced millions to flee from the east, then Ivan struck the Panhandle.
But the Sunshine State is not alone. The Carolina coast breaks the record with some 30 hurricanes making landfall over the past 100 years.
And let's not neglect the Gulf. Last week, Hurricane Ivan devastated the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines, too.
But some of the worst destruction this year was felt in the Caribbean, in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman. It will take months, or years, for the islands to recover from the multiple hurricanes that have swept in from the Atlantic.
Not surprisingly, a map of hurricane activity from the U.S. Geological Survey clearly shows that the eastern seaboard and the Gulf Coast regions are high-risk areas for hurricanes, even states as far north as New York have felt the slap of a passing storm. But some cities seem to wear a lucky charm.
New Orleans has not had a direct hit by a major hurricane since it was struck by Betsy in 1965. And Savannah on the coast of Georgia dodged every major hurricane in the 20th century.
Chad Myers, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: News across America now -- following a record number of complaints, the FCC announces a record fine against CBS stations that showed Janet Jackson's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction." Her exposed breast will cost the company $550,000 in fines for indecency.
Police in suburban Atlanta say a 12-year-old girl missing from Florida has been found and appears to be all right. That girl and her 30-year-old traveling companion were taken into custody yesterday. The man, Raymond Lewis, is a registered sex offender.
Chucky the 12-foot alligator is back inside an Alabama zoo after escaping during Hurricane Ivan. The 1,000-pound gator was captured last night by a team from Gatorland in Orlando, Florida. After a three-hour struggle, Chucky was theirs.
GRIFFIN: At last word, the singer known best as Cat Stevens awaiting deportation. In fact, he may be at Boston's airport right now to get on a plane heading to Dulles and then back to London.
He's known for years as Yusuf Islam. The converted Muslim was removed by federal agents -- there's a live shot of the plane right now -- from a commercial flight from London because his name recently added to a federal watch list for purported links to terrorists. A short time ago, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge had this to say about Cat Stevens.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECY.: Whether you are a celebrity or a complete unknown, if somewhere in the intelligence community that name appears on a watch list that says you're not to fly on airplanes, for whatever reason, the individual at the port of entry are responsible -- for this instance, aviation security is responsible to make sure that the information is acted upon, and that's precisely what we did.
Unfortunately, United Airlines had the information and they didn't act on it before he got on the airplane, but when that information got to Homeland Security's National Targeting Center, we took that action.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: In a case like this, bound to be debates. Joining us now is: aviation security expert Jamal (sic) Haidar, an advisor to the King of Jordan; and Ibrahim Hooper on the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Mr. Hooper, you held a news conference today denouncing the removal of Yusuf Islam. Why shouldn't the United States be able to remove this person from a plane? He's apparently on this watch list.
IBRAHIM HOOPER, CAIR: Well, obviously, the United States can do whatever it wants in terms of excluding people from its borders. But I think we really need an explanation as to how this happened, why this happened.
Yusuf Islam is an internationally respected Muslim peace activist, an educator. He's known for his charitable work around the world. He is perhaps the most best known Muslim in the Islamic world. And this is going to have a tremendously negative impact on America's image in the Islamic world.
GRIFFIN: But perhaps some of his charities also include terrorist organizations? Let's ask you Jamal (sic)...
JALAL HAIDAR, AVIATION SECURITY ADVISOR: Jalal.
Jalal, I'm sorry -- why he was on the list in the first place, and should the government be allowed to take him off the plane?
HAIDAR: He must have been on the list for some reason. These lists are put, you know, in cooperation with many government agencies. And they are passed on to the airlines to be actions.
There should be a reason. There must be a reason, which...
HOOPER: Well, unfortunately, we often see that it's the case that there is not a reason. We have the case of a man named Asif Iqbal in Pennsylvania has been detained time and time again trying to get on planes, because his name is similar to one of an actual accused terrorist.
GRIFFIN: Well, Mr. Hooper, why do you think that Yusuf Islam was denied on the plane today? Is the U.S. government trying to prevent him from speaking in the United States? Is that your position?
HOOPER: I don't know. That's why we're asking for an explanation. And that's why we also ask for an explanation of barring the internationally known scholar Tariq Ramadan from his post at Notre Dame University.
We sent a letter to Mr. Ridge, have not received a reply. Notre Dame has not received a reply. And we just -- people are being excluded, our image is being damaged, and nobody is explaining why it's happening.
GRIFFIN: Mr. Haidar, obviously thousands of people with Muslim- sounding names fly each day. Is there a problem with the watch list?
HAIDAR: Well, I mean, let me be fair here: Take my name, Jalal Haidar. It cannot be more than Arabic and Muslim name than that. I'm an Arab-American, a Muslim-American, I'm proud of my heritage, of my religion. I have never been stopped. I have never been taken off a list.
However, mistakes happen. There are lots of redundant names, and identity can be mistaken. The system is not perfect yet. But I can tell you this: Tens of thousands of Arabs and Muslims just like myself -- again, I told you I'm an Arab-American Muslim -- travel into the U.S. every day from Casablanca, from Cairo, from Amman, Jordan, from Kuwait, from many other places on the world. We don't see these things happening.
I don't think the government will on purpose divert an aircraft to target one specific passenger. However, mistakes happen, and the system has to improve, and it will improve. It is still an infant system, and the system will work out itself.
GRIFFIN: But Secretary Ridge said this was no mistake. He's on the list, and therefore he should not be allowed to fly.
HAIDAR: There must be a reason -- as I said initially, there must be a reason. What is the reason? I don't know.
But again, to repeat, I don't think the government would do this on purpose.
GRIFFIN: And Mr. Hooper, you're not ready to give the government the benefit of the doubt in this case? You think this is some kind of discrimination?
HOOPER: We give the benefit of the doubt. But as President Reagan said, "Trust, but verify." We need to know where this is coming from, where these allegations are coming from.
I don't think we want to be in a situation where people are merely denounced by anonymous government officials and labeled as terrorists and that's it, and everybody just says, OK, we don't need any more information. We need more information.
GRIFFIN: Well, hopefully we'll get the information in the coming days. We thank you both for joining us on this interesting issue that came up today. Thank you, sir.
HAIDAR: It's a pleasure.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, Rosie O'Donnell back in legal trouble. Find out why she's being sued right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: A child in California helping children in Russia cope with tragedy. This bounty of bears and other stuffed animals is part of Operation Fuzzy Wuzzy. The goal: getting them to young people who survived that deadly school siege in Beslan, Russia, earlier this month.
An 11-year-old Sacramento area boy came up with the idea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADAM JOHNS, OPERATION FUZZY WUZZY: Since the kids got attacked that I would certainly feel scared going back to school, and they will eventually have to go back. So, I think it'd be awesome that we send them teddy bears to know that people care and help them go back to school. (END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Adam's got shoes, clothing, and nearly 5,000 stuffed animals donated so far.
PHILLIPS: Well, checking entertainment headlines this Wednesday, call it the case of the sketchy sketches. Two courtroom artists suing Rosie O'Donnell for copyright infringement. The artists say they sketched the trial of the lawsuits between O'Donnell and the publishers of her now defunct magazine. And since then, they claim O'Donnell's made collages of those sketches, autographed them, and passed them off as her own work. O'Donnell's publicist says the suit is without merit.
Speaking of suits, British soccer star David Beckham, pretty bent about a recent tabloid headlin claiming his marriage was in trouble. As a result, he and his wife Victoria, a.k.a. Posh Spice, are taking the tab to court.
Finally, talk show diva Oprah Winfrey was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky -- she probably didn't wear this dress, by the way. But she was there to enlist -- and she wasn't there, I guess I should say, to enlist in the 101st Airborne Division either. But she was there to offer kudos and gifts to 640 soldiers' wives who became pregnant after their husbands returned home from Iraq.
GRIFFIN: That ought to be an interesting show.
Stocks sharply lower on Wall Street. Doesn't look like things are turning around, either.
PHILLIPS: Notice I didn't do a segue from that to Rhonda Schaffler, live at the New York Stock Exchange. Hi, Rhonda.
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Thank you for that, Kyra. And hello, again, to you and Drew.
A lot going on here. Investor really dealing with lots of problems today on Wall Street. Biggest among them: disappointing earnings news and soaring oil prices. Let's show you the numbers, because it's a fierce sell-off.
The Dow is off 130 points; Nasdaq down one-and-two-thirds percent. Crude oil surging more than $1.50 a barrel to well above $48. That after a government report showed a big drop in U.S. inventories last week in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan -- Kyra, Drew?
PHILLIPS: All right. That debate stirring up over the national registry of cell phone numbers -- what's going on?
SCHAFFLER: That's right. Not clear if it's going to happen. And if you don't want everyone to have access to your cell phone number, know this: Verizon is on your side.
The company is slamming this idea of a national 411 wireless database and saying it's just not going to participate in the program. Verizon CEO told a Senate committee yesterday that the directory is, quote, "a terrible idea because of privacy issues."
Other carriers, along with a national trade group, had hoped to get the service up and running sometime next year. They say it's necessary because more people use cell phones and people would have the right to opt in or opt out. But without Verizon and its 40 million customers, the whole idea at this point might have to be reworked.
And that is the latest from Wall Street. Drew, Kyra, all yours.
GRIFFIN: All right, Rhonda. That issue over Verizon and the cell phone directory, you know, it costs money when you get those calls. So, that could be a big issue coming up.
SCHAFFLER: That's right.
GRIFFIN: All right. Well, "INSIDE POLITICS" is coming up next.
PHILLIPS: That's right. Judy's on the road today. She joins us with a preview. Hi, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hi, Kyra. Hi, Drew. Thanks to both of you.
Well, I am here in warm and sunny Florida, where John Kerry just wrapping up a town meeting.
Today, we're going to take the pulse of the Sunshine State and look at how voters in one of the most watched showdown states feel about the race for the White House.
Plus, the Swift Boat Veteran for Truth are back and making new accusations about the Democratic nominee. Our Bill Schneider takes a look at the latest ads when "INSIDE POLITICS" starts in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Now in the news -- confusion over the fate of a high- profile Iraqi detainee. Iraqi security officials say Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha, also known as Dr. Germ, will be released soon. Iraq's interim prime minister says he'll be the one to decide that. CNN's Barbara Starr will have a live report at 5:00 Eastern.
Safe and sound: In the last hour, we learned a missing Florida girl has been found in Georgia. An Amber Alert was issued after the 12-year-old vanished on Sunday. The 30-year-old man that police say she'd been traveling with has been arrested.
And it took three hours and six people to haul him out of the ditch, but Chucky is back at an Alabama zoo. The half-ton gator escaped last week during Hurricane Ivan. Volunteers from Gatorland found him last night.
Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news. Now "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS."
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