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U.S. Jobs Got a Big Boost Last Month; Arafat's Condition Causing Middle East Watchers to Ponder Post-Arafat Peace Process

Aired November 05, 2004 - 13:31   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, here's the news that proves the maxim every cloud has a silver lining. U.S. jobs got a big boost last month, and a chunk of the credit is going to Hurricanes Charley, Francis, Ivan and Jeanne.
CNN's Kathleen Hays with more on today's job numbers and what they indicate.

Hi, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I couldn't say it better myself, Kyra. There's no doubt, no doubt that even big hurricane clouds have silver linings, and this time it was construction jobs, but the number much more than people were looking for, even with hurricane jobs. 337,000 new jobs in October. But also making this report look so good, big revisions in September and October -- excuse me, September and August, more than 100,000 jobs from the revisions in those two months alone. So it starts to paint a picture that's looking a lot, lot better.

Now looks at where some of the jobs are coming from. Let's look at the break down. The services sector -- that's where 80 percent of the jobs are in this economy -- up 272,000. That's starting to look like a healthy economy. Construction added 71,000, again, aided by four hurricanes in two months.

Now there's a lot of rebuilding going on and cleanup. Manufacturing, though, this is still a problem. More than two million jobs were lost during President Bush's first term, and we see another 5,000-person drop in October. That's the second monthly drop. So there's still some problem there.

Let's look at paychecks, because of course that's another thing very important to us. Average hourly earnings were up just 0.03 percent, but up 2.6 percent over the year, sounds like a lot of numbers, and let me boil it down for you. It's modest growth. We're going into the Christmas shopping season. I think economists are hopeful that with the confidence that are created by seeing good job numbers and maybe some people getting some somewhat better raises, we'll see a healthy holiday shopping season, but I think others, the skeptics, are going to say, you know, people's paychecks aren't that fat. So maybe they're not getting overly optimistic about a really strong shopping season -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, am I being skeptic when I say if jobs went up this much, why did unemployment rate also rise? HAYS: Well, you know, I love telling this story, because if you think if things are good and if jobs are growing, why would the unemployment rate go up? And there's one really simply hypothesis. When the labor market starts improving, if you've been out of a job, you say -- you start looking for a job again. So when the government calls you to survey you, you say yes I'm looking, and guess what? Now you're back in the labor force. You're unemployed, but you're seeking work. This is a good thing. So when the labor market starts to turn, people often see this.

Just remember, beyond the official statistics of unemployed, economists estimate there's many as many as four million people who have been discouraged workers who are sitting on the sidelines. That's why they're happy to see the kind of job growth they got in October, to hope that those people kinds of people can find jobs now.

But again, I think are there people who are saying we have to see more of this. We saw good job growth in March of this year. It petered out. So again, with the revisions in August, September, a good October number, things are definitely looking up -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, good news. Kathleen Hays, thanks so much.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: In Paris, in the Palestinian territories and around the world, the vigil for Yasser Arafat. His condition at last report remains grave, causing Middle East watchers to ponder a post-Arafat peace process in present-day terms.

Guy Raz reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: God bless his soul.

GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The subdued reaction of an American president wrongly informed that Yasser Arafat had died. But Arafat's condition has, once again, thrust the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the top of President Bush's foreign policy agenda.

BUSH: Middle East peace is a very important part of a peaceful world. I have been working on Middle Eastern peace ever since I've been the president.

RAZ: A second Bush term, combined with the possibility a new Palestinian leadership, may resurrect the faltering Middle East peace process.

SIMON PERES, FMR. ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: It can already come to something quite (INAUDIBLE).

RAZ: Former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is no stranger to President Bush. The two have met before, and Abbas, also known as Abu Mazan (ph), has been closely linked to the peace process. Abbas is now running the Palestinian Liberation Organization in Arafat's absence and has been involved in the Palestinian struggle since its inception.

MAHMOUD ABBAS: The Palestinians are ready to work with the new administration, provided that the terms of the political settlement are not determined only and solely in Tel Aviv.

RAZ: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has refused to deal with Yasser Arafat. So, too, the Bush administration, in the past, taking its queue from Sharon.

ABBAS: With Mr. Arafat or after Mr. Arafat? The question lies with Mr. Sharon. If he wants to insist that the settlement should be only under Israeli conditions, I don't think that he will have a political settlement.

RAZ: Israel plans to pull out its settlements in Gaza by the end of next year. The process was to take place without Palestinian input.

Now, in a possible post-Arafat era, speculation is that Israel will be forced to coordinate that move with his successors. And who might they be? Aside from Mahmoud Abbas, current Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei is a likely possibility, so is Marwan Barghouti, one of the most popular Palestinian leaders, but now serving a jail sentence in Israel.

(on camera): But no matter who takes over in the interim, the road to Jerusalem may ultimately run through Washington. Europe and the Arab League both see resolving the Palestinian-Israeli crisis as key to the Middle East stability. The White House now has to decide whether it shares that view.

Gay Raz, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: To Saudi Arabia now, a kingdom torn between its alliance on Western trade and an official fundamental adherence to strict Islamist law.

We have a look now at part of the Saudi capital that few outsiders see, considered a nerve center of Muslim extremists.

Here's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And this is Abdullah Alutabe (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This my house, the greenhouse.

ROBERTSON: He's taking me and my cameramen to Suweidi, one of the capital's poorest districts.

(on camera): They arrested you here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Reporter: That was more than 10 years ago. He was a radical jihadi who went to jail for his beliefs. Today he says he's reformed, but not Suweidi.

(on camera): It's become over the years a recruiting ground for al Qaeda, and government officials say it's not safe for us to get out of the car.

You see McDonald's? McDonald's in Suweidi.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): The drive is a surreal and chilling experience.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A BBC killed here.

ROBERTSON: The month before, journalist Simon Cumbers (ph), a close friend of mine, was shot dead while filming for the BBC. Local jihadists were blamed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They hit American, hit the British.

ROBERTSON: The simple understanding in Suweidi -- Westerners are not welcomed.

From an office across town, Abdullah's working to undermine the extremists. But it's not being easy. Government clerics got him banned from writing for months for saying their religious teachings helped breed terrorism.

ABDULLAH AL-OTABI (ph), FMR. MILITANT (through translator): It is one of the first articles that directly say that we have flaws in the locally preached religious message.

ROBERTSON: A message that in Suweidi spawned the now dead Al Qaeda leader Abdullah Aziz Al Muqrin. Muqrin rose the providence through the spate of violent attack, beginning with that Mahaya (ph) compound in November 2003. He's best known in the West for his brutal beheading of U.S. engineer Paul Johnson.

To Abdullah, Muqrin he was an angry man, propelled toward terrorism by the same radical interpretation of the Koran that religious teachers used to ensnare him. It was a message that was everywhere in Suweidi, not just the mosque.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Nic Robertson has a special report on Saudi Arabia. That was an excerpt of it. It's about the kingdom and the stability within in this age of terrorism. We invite you to tune in Sunday evening. You won't see this on any other channel. It's unusual access to a place where there is little access.

"CNN PRESENTS: KINGDOM ON THE BRINK," a fascinating look inside a secret place, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

PHILLIPS: Other news from around the world now, developments in the killing of a controversial Dutch filmmaker. One of the nine suspects believed connected to the shooting and stabbing of Theo Van Gogh will also charged with terrorist intentions. A letter reportedly found on Van Gogh's body threatened politicians. It was pinned to his body with a knife.

Kyoto is a go. With his signature, Russian President Vladimir Putin cleared the way for the Global Climate Pact to officially exist next year. Protocol aims to stem greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, and would have died on the vine without Moscow's support.

By the way, the U.S. does not back Kyoto, by the way.

A war zone, that's what Danish officials say the southern town of Holden (ph) looks like, after a fireworks plant caught fire and lit up the sky. One firefighter was killed. Twenty buildings were flattened. Officials think the factory was stockpiling illegal amounts of fireworks.

O'BRIEN: A new view or two from Mars. A NASA mission. Well, we'll tell you what these missions have in common with the Energizer Bunny. That's coming up in a little bit.

And also still to come, covered in soot. What was he doing in a chimney anyway? He wasn't Santa, that's for sure.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, let's slip the surly bond of Earth, and cast our eyes upward, way upward. It's "Mars Minute" time, folks. Why? Because we can. Pictures of the Red Planet, new ones to show you with that.

Let's start the one minute clock, and off we go. Nice panoramic shot there.

You like this one, Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Beautiful.

O'BRIEN: This is spirit in the Colombia Hills. These hills are made after the Colombia crew members, I should tell you. Initially when they landed nearby, they said they'd never got this far. Not only have they gotten this far, but they have discovered more concrete proof that there was once water on Mars. It's now been 10 months and 2 1/4 miles for Spirit, one mile for Opportunity on the odometer, well beyond the warranty.

Kyra, do you know what that is? That circular thing right there?

PHILLIPS: It looks like on the forehead of that sci-fi show, what is it, "Stargate?"

O'BRIEN: I'm sorry I asked. That is the result of the rock abrasion tool.

PHILLIPS: I was close.

O'BRIEN: It is a rat which scrapes away the surface so that they can do some scientific work. This particular rock gives them additional clues that there was minerals altered by water there.

Boy, that clock went fast today. Let's go a little bit further. This is Opportunity, Opportunity tracks. That's when it got kind of bogged down. This is a rock they're really into. It's called the Wopmay Rock -- Wopmay -- W-O-P-M-A-Y. Once again, because it's so rounded and has these distinct cracks, sure sign there was water there once. There's Wopmay. You see these cracks. These were all made by water flowing through there.

That round, smoothish surface indicates water was there present at one time. There is the 50,000th image taken by both rovers. It's a sundial. You know, Bill Nye "The Science Guy," that was his idea to put that sundial on there, and here it is, 50,000 images later, working just fine. It looks like it's about 2:30 on mars.

PHILLIPS: We'll check the financial markets right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: No, this wasn't an early visit by Santa Claus. A man in Portland, Oregon got a bit a surprise when he came home to find a teen snuck his chimney. Police freed the 18-year-old, but he wasn't freed for long. He's facing charges of criminal mischief and burglary.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

O'BRIEN: Coming up in our second hour of LIVE FROM...

PHILLIPS: What went wrong with the Kerry campaign? And what went right for the Bush push for re-election? We're going to talk with reporters who followed both camps in their quest for the White House.

O'BRIEN: LIVE FROM's hour of power begins right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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 November 5, 2004 - 13:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, here's the news that proves the maxim every cloud has a silver lining. U.S. jobs got a big boost last month, and a chunk of the credit is going to Hurricanes Charley, Francis, Ivan and Jeanne.
CNN's Kathleen Hays with more on today's job numbers and what they indicate.

Hi, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I couldn't say it better myself, Kyra. There's no doubt, no doubt that even big hurricane clouds have silver linings, and this time it was construction jobs, but the number much more than people were looking for, even with hurricane jobs. 337,000 new jobs in October. But also making this report look so good, big revisions in September and October -- excuse me, September and August, more than 100,000 jobs from the revisions in those two months alone. So it starts to paint a picture that's looking a lot, lot better.

Now looks at where some of the jobs are coming from. Let's look at the break down. The services sector -- that's where 80 percent of the jobs are in this economy -- up 272,000. That's starting to look like a healthy economy. Construction added 71,000, again, aided by four hurricanes in two months.

Now there's a lot of rebuilding going on and cleanup. Manufacturing, though, this is still a problem. More than two million jobs were lost during President Bush's first term, and we see another 5,000-person drop in October. That's the second monthly drop. So there's still some problem there.

Let's look at paychecks, because of course that's another thing very important to us. Average hourly earnings were up just 0.03 percent, but up 2.6 percent over the year, sounds like a lot of numbers, and let me boil it down for you. It's modest growth. We're going into the Christmas shopping season. I think economists are hopeful that with the confidence that are created by seeing good job numbers and maybe some people getting some somewhat better raises, we'll see a healthy holiday shopping season, but I think others, the skeptics, are going to say, you know, people's paychecks aren't that fat. So maybe they're not getting overly optimistic about a really strong shopping season -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, am I being skeptic when I say if jobs went up this much, why did unemployment rate also rise? HAYS: Well, you know, I love telling this story, because if you think if things are good and if jobs are growing, why would the unemployment rate go up? And there's one really simply hypothesis. When the labor market starts improving, if you've been out of a job, you say -- you start looking for a job again. So when the government calls you to survey you, you say yes I'm looking, and guess what? Now you're back in the labor force. You're unemployed, but you're seeking work. This is a good thing. So when the labor market starts to turn, people often see this.

Just remember, beyond the official statistics of unemployed, economists estimate there's many as many as four million people who have been discouraged workers who are sitting on the sidelines. That's why they're happy to see the kind of job growth they got in October, to hope that those people kinds of people can find jobs now.

But again, I think are there people who are saying we have to see more of this. We saw good job growth in March of this year. It petered out. So again, with the revisions in August, September, a good October number, things are definitely looking up -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, good news. Kathleen Hays, thanks so much.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: In Paris, in the Palestinian territories and around the world, the vigil for Yasser Arafat. His condition at last report remains grave, causing Middle East watchers to ponder a post-Arafat peace process in present-day terms.

Guy Raz reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: God bless his soul.

GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The subdued reaction of an American president wrongly informed that Yasser Arafat had died. But Arafat's condition has, once again, thrust the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the top of President Bush's foreign policy agenda.

BUSH: Middle East peace is a very important part of a peaceful world. I have been working on Middle Eastern peace ever since I've been the president.

RAZ: A second Bush term, combined with the possibility a new Palestinian leadership, may resurrect the faltering Middle East peace process.

SIMON PERES, FMR. ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: It can already come to something quite (INAUDIBLE).

RAZ: Former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is no stranger to President Bush. The two have met before, and Abbas, also known as Abu Mazan (ph), has been closely linked to the peace process. Abbas is now running the Palestinian Liberation Organization in Arafat's absence and has been involved in the Palestinian struggle since its inception.

MAHMOUD ABBAS: The Palestinians are ready to work with the new administration, provided that the terms of the political settlement are not determined only and solely in Tel Aviv.

RAZ: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has refused to deal with Yasser Arafat. So, too, the Bush administration, in the past, taking its queue from Sharon.

ABBAS: With Mr. Arafat or after Mr. Arafat? The question lies with Mr. Sharon. If he wants to insist that the settlement should be only under Israeli conditions, I don't think that he will have a political settlement.

RAZ: Israel plans to pull out its settlements in Gaza by the end of next year. The process was to take place without Palestinian input.

Now, in a possible post-Arafat era, speculation is that Israel will be forced to coordinate that move with his successors. And who might they be? Aside from Mahmoud Abbas, current Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei is a likely possibility, so is Marwan Barghouti, one of the most popular Palestinian leaders, but now serving a jail sentence in Israel.

(on camera): But no matter who takes over in the interim, the road to Jerusalem may ultimately run through Washington. Europe and the Arab League both see resolving the Palestinian-Israeli crisis as key to the Middle East stability. The White House now has to decide whether it shares that view.

Gay Raz, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: To Saudi Arabia now, a kingdom torn between its alliance on Western trade and an official fundamental adherence to strict Islamist law.

We have a look now at part of the Saudi capital that few outsiders see, considered a nerve center of Muslim extremists.

Here's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And this is Abdullah Alutabe (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This my house, the greenhouse.

ROBERTSON: He's taking me and my cameramen to Suweidi, one of the capital's poorest districts.

(on camera): They arrested you here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Reporter: That was more than 10 years ago. He was a radical jihadi who went to jail for his beliefs. Today he says he's reformed, but not Suweidi.

(on camera): It's become over the years a recruiting ground for al Qaeda, and government officials say it's not safe for us to get out of the car.

You see McDonald's? McDonald's in Suweidi.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): The drive is a surreal and chilling experience.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A BBC killed here.

ROBERTSON: The month before, journalist Simon Cumbers (ph), a close friend of mine, was shot dead while filming for the BBC. Local jihadists were blamed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They hit American, hit the British.

ROBERTSON: The simple understanding in Suweidi -- Westerners are not welcomed.

From an office across town, Abdullah's working to undermine the extremists. But it's not being easy. Government clerics got him banned from writing for months for saying their religious teachings helped breed terrorism.

ABDULLAH AL-OTABI (ph), FMR. MILITANT (through translator): It is one of the first articles that directly say that we have flaws in the locally preached religious message.

ROBERTSON: A message that in Suweidi spawned the now dead Al Qaeda leader Abdullah Aziz Al Muqrin. Muqrin rose the providence through the spate of violent attack, beginning with that Mahaya (ph) compound in November 2003. He's best known in the West for his brutal beheading of U.S. engineer Paul Johnson.

To Abdullah, Muqrin he was an angry man, propelled toward terrorism by the same radical interpretation of the Koran that religious teachers used to ensnare him. It was a message that was everywhere in Suweidi, not just the mosque.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Nic Robertson has a special report on Saudi Arabia. That was an excerpt of it. It's about the kingdom and the stability within in this age of terrorism. We invite you to tune in Sunday evening. You won't see this on any other channel. It's unusual access to a place where there is little access.

"CNN PRESENTS: KINGDOM ON THE BRINK," a fascinating look inside a secret place, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

PHILLIPS: Other news from around the world now, developments in the killing of a controversial Dutch filmmaker. One of the nine suspects believed connected to the shooting and stabbing of Theo Van Gogh will also charged with terrorist intentions. A letter reportedly found on Van Gogh's body threatened politicians. It was pinned to his body with a knife.

Kyoto is a go. With his signature, Russian President Vladimir Putin cleared the way for the Global Climate Pact to officially exist next year. Protocol aims to stem greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, and would have died on the vine without Moscow's support.

By the way, the U.S. does not back Kyoto, by the way.

A war zone, that's what Danish officials say the southern town of Holden (ph) looks like, after a fireworks plant caught fire and lit up the sky. One firefighter was killed. Twenty buildings were flattened. Officials think the factory was stockpiling illegal amounts of fireworks.

O'BRIEN: A new view or two from Mars. A NASA mission. Well, we'll tell you what these missions have in common with the Energizer Bunny. That's coming up in a little bit.

And also still to come, covered in soot. What was he doing in a chimney anyway? He wasn't Santa, that's for sure.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, let's slip the surly bond of Earth, and cast our eyes upward, way upward. It's "Mars Minute" time, folks. Why? Because we can. Pictures of the Red Planet, new ones to show you with that.

Let's start the one minute clock, and off we go. Nice panoramic shot there.

You like this one, Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Beautiful.

O'BRIEN: This is spirit in the Colombia Hills. These hills are made after the Colombia crew members, I should tell you. Initially when they landed nearby, they said they'd never got this far. Not only have they gotten this far, but they have discovered more concrete proof that there was once water on Mars. It's now been 10 months and 2 1/4 miles for Spirit, one mile for Opportunity on the odometer, well beyond the warranty.

Kyra, do you know what that is? That circular thing right there?

PHILLIPS: It looks like on the forehead of that sci-fi show, what is it, "Stargate?"

O'BRIEN: I'm sorry I asked. That is the result of the rock abrasion tool.

PHILLIPS: I was close.

O'BRIEN: It is a rat which scrapes away the surface so that they can do some scientific work. This particular rock gives them additional clues that there was minerals altered by water there.

Boy, that clock went fast today. Let's go a little bit further. This is Opportunity, Opportunity tracks. That's when it got kind of bogged down. This is a rock they're really into. It's called the Wopmay Rock -- Wopmay -- W-O-P-M-A-Y. Once again, because it's so rounded and has these distinct cracks, sure sign there was water there once. There's Wopmay. You see these cracks. These were all made by water flowing through there.

That round, smoothish surface indicates water was there present at one time. There is the 50,000th image taken by both rovers. It's a sundial. You know, Bill Nye "The Science Guy," that was his idea to put that sundial on there, and here it is, 50,000 images later, working just fine. It looks like it's about 2:30 on mars.

PHILLIPS: We'll check the financial markets right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: No, this wasn't an early visit by Santa Claus. A man in Portland, Oregon got a bit a surprise when he came home to find a teen snuck his chimney. Police freed the 18-year-old, but he wasn't freed for long. He's facing charges of criminal mischief and burglary.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

O'BRIEN: Coming up in our second hour of LIVE FROM...

PHILLIPS: What went wrong with the Kerry campaign? And what went right for the Bush push for re-election? We're going to talk with reporters who followed both camps in their quest for the White House.

O'BRIEN: LIVE FROM's hour of power begins right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com