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Senator Kerry Discusses His Seven-Point Plan to Win the War on Terror

Aired September 24, 2004 - 10:30   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.


BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: The mother of a British man held hostage in Iraq is back home at this hour, after being released from the hospital. Eight-six-year-old Lil Bigley collapsed and was rushed to the hospital after videotaping this heart-wrenching plea for the release of her son, Kenneth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIL BIGLEY, HOSTAGE'S MOTHER: Would you please help my son?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go on, mom. Take a breath. Go on, take a breath.

BIGLEY: He is only a working man who wants to support his family. Please show mercy to Ken and send him home to me alive. His family needs him, and I need him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Kidnappers have threatened to kill the 62-year-old Bigley unless all Iraqi women are freed from the U.S.-led jails there. Now the two Americans seized with him have both been beheaded.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is echoing President Bush's vow that Iraq will hold its elections in January, but there are many questions of how to overcome significant obstacles as that date and the commitment draws nearer.

CNN's State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

AYAD ALLAWI, IRAQ'S INTERIM PRIME MINISTER: Go from Basra to Nasiriyah to Kut.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Addressing skeptics head on, Prime Minister Allawi said the vast majority of Iraq could hold elections as soon as tomorrow.

ALLAWI: The Iraqi elections may not be perfect, they may not be the best elections that Iraq will ever hold, but they will take place and they will be free and fair.

KOPPEL: But with only four months left before election day, privately U.S. and U.N. officials fear Iraq has neither the security nor the logistics in place for elections to go forward. President Bush says it's up to the United Nations to make sure Iraq is ready.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Prime Minister Allawi and I have urged the U.N. to send sufficient personnel to help ensure the success of Iraqi elections.

KOPPEL: Fewer than 10 U.N. election advisers are now in Baghdad and Secretary General Kofi Annan has told Mr. Bush he won't send any more until the security situation is stabilized and additional protection for U.N. staff is provided. So far, only the former Russian republic of Georgia has offered to contribute to a U.N. protection force.

But even if security improves, experts say, Iraq still has a lot to do to prepare a credible framework for elections, establish a list of eligible voters among Iraq's 27 million people, set up an estimated 30,000 polling sites, train about 130,000 election workers and educate voters. Another complicating factor? Ensuring broad-based participation among Iraq's feuding ethnic and religious groups.

LES CAMPBELL, NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE: If Iraqis, Sunni, Kurd, Shia, Christian and otherwise, are to feel that they are fully invested in a new Iraq, a democratic Iraq, they are going to have to have the opportunity to walk into a polling place and cast their vote for their leadership.

KOPPEL (on camera): Despite the positive words from Bush and Allawi, some U.S. officials behind the scenes acknowledge more pessimism, that in reality it may be difficult to go ahead with elections as early as January, and if they did, worry whether Iraqis would accept the results as legitimate.

Andrea Koppel, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And we want to remind you that we are still waiting for Senator John Kerry to speak. That speech will happen today in Philadelphia. During this hour. And when that does happen, we'll bring it to you live right here on CNN LIVE TODAY. We'll be right back.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

NGUYEN: Welcome back. As you can see, Senator John Kerry has taken to the podium today. He's going to be speaking about his seven- point plan to win the war on terror.

And right now we want to bring in CNN's Bill Schneider to get a quick question in.

Bill, let's talk about this. Lately he's been focusing on terror a whole lot. What's behind all of this?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POL. ANALYST: Essentially the Republican Convention, which focused almost exclusively on the war on terror. At that convention the Republicans presented the nation's economic problems as tied to the war on terror and 9/11. They presented the war in Iraq as part of the war on terror. Everything was seen in the context of the war on terror.

What we found for the entirety of this campaign year is that when Americans are asked who do you think would do a more effective job fighting terrorism, voters have told us again and again, George Bush. And that may be behind what appeared to be a bounce, at least for a time, after the Republican Convention.

Senator Kerry has been on the defensive on that issue. Today he's going to lay out an agenda in the war on terror, just as on Monday he laid out his plan for the war in Iraq and resolving the conflict there. So he is laying it out, seven-point plan, to essentially establish his credentials on this issue.

NGUYEN: Absolutely. Because there's been a lot of criticism by Republicans saying that Kerry is soft on terror.

SCHNEIDER: Yes. Well that criticism you heard very much at the Republican Convention. And there's also been some concern among Democrats because of the slippage among women voters, the so-called security moms. You know, every election has a kind of group that people focus on, whether it's NASCAR dads or soccer moms. This year that seems to be security moms, because pollsters have noticed that among women right now, the election is getting quite close. Al Gore carried women by 11 points.

So in his remarks today, we have an advanced copyright here, what Kerry is saying is, I'm doing everything in my power to keep your children safe.

NGUYEN: All right, Bill Schneider, hang around with us, if you would. We'll talk to you after the speech. We want to listen in right now to Senator John Kerry.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My fellow Americans, the most urgent national security challenge we face is the war against those who attacked our country on September 11th, the war against Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida.

As president, I will fight a tougher, smarter, more effective war on terror. My priority will be to find and capture or kill the terrorists before they get us, and I will never take my eye off the ball.

(APPLAUSE)

When we hear people pleading for their lives before being beheaded, and when we see the brutal images of people on their hands and knees facing execution; when we look at the images of children brutalized by remorseless terrorists in Russia, we know that this is not just a political or military struggle. It goes to the very heart of what we value most: our families, our freedom, our communities.

KERRY: It strikes at the bond between mother and child.

As president, I will make it my sacred duty to be able to say to every single mother and father in this country, I am doing everything in my power to keep your children and our country safe.

(APPLAUSE)

We owe the American people a real debate about the choices that President Bush has made, not this phony kind of 30 second, 60 second, attack, attack, attack. A real debate, real ideas, a real discussion that goes to the heart of how you make America safe.

We owe America a real debate about the choices that President Bush has made and the choices that I will make to fight and to win the war on terrorism.

President Bush was right to invade Afghanistan and overthrow the Taliban. I supported that decision, so did our country and our allies, so did the world. All those people that Joe just referred to who joined with us on September 12th with those headlines that said, All of us are Americans now.

But since then, again and again, the president has made the wrong choices in the war on terror around the world and here at home.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of using U.S. forces, the best trained military in the world, the most capable, the most willing to go out and capture Osama bin Laden, the president outsourced the job to Afghan warlords who let Osama bin Laden slip away. That was the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: Instead of listening to career uniformed military officers, instead of listening to his own State Department, to Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress, and outside experts about how to win the peace in Iraq, he hitched his wagon to the ideologues who told him that our troops would be welcomed as liberators. That was the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of responding to the greatest intelligence failure in our history with a rapid overhaul of our intelligence system, starting on day one, the president dragged his feet and actually resisted reform, stood on the side of the status quo, blocked new ideas, resisted creativity.

After opposing the 9/11 Commission, after trying to block its extension, as you've heard from two wives who are principally responsible for helping to keep pushing to make it happen, after finally agreeing to testify, but only with Vice President Cheney at his side...

(APPLAUSE)

... he still fully refuses to implement all of the commission's recommendations.

Those were -- all of them -- the wrong choices.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of proposing a department of homeland security, the president actually opposed it. And then, when he caved in to political pressure, he actually went out and exploited it for political purposes. That was the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of expanding programs to keep weapons of mass destruction in Russia out of terrorist hands, the president tried to cut the programs, and even after 9/11, did little to strengthen them. That was the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of facing the urgent nuclear dangers in North Korea and Iran, he allowed these dangers to mount on his presidential watch.

KERRY: That was the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of speaking forcefully to the Saudis and others about terrorist financing, instead of being able to hold people accountable for the money that flows to the terrorists, the president has said little and done less. That is the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of providing our police, our firefighters and ambulance drivers with the equipment they need, instead of protecting ports, trains, subway lines, highways in their most potentially catastrophic places -- we all understand it's difficult to protect everything, but there are certain places where there's a chance for much greater catastrophe than others.

Instead of defending nuclear plants and chemical factories, this president underfunded homeland security again and again. That is the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

And as Joe Biden mentioned a moment ago -- and he meets with leaders all over the world, all the time; he knows this -- that instead of bringing the world together against the terrorists, the president alienated the countries whose help we need to defeat them. That was the wrong choice. (APPLAUSE)

Yet in the face of all of these judgments, all of these misjudgments, all the miscalculations and all the mistakes, the president still says he wouldn't do anything different.

I would. I will make very different choices in the war on terrorism.

(APPLAUSE)

My fellow Americans, I know what needs to be done and I know what has been done wrong.

I begin with this belief: The war on terror is the monumental struggle of our time. It is as monumental a struggle as the Cold War. Its outcome will determine whether we and our children live in freedom or in fear. It is not, as some people think, a clash of civilizations.

Radical Islamic fundamentalism is not the true face of Islam.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: This is a clash between civilization and the enemies of civilization, between humanity's best hopes and most primitive fears.

The danger we face today will become even greater if terrorists acquire what we know they are seeking -- weapons of mass destruction -- which they would use to commit mass murder.

We are confronting an enemy and an ideology that must be destroyed. We are at war. We are in a war that must be won.

(APPLAUSE)

Americans know this. We understand the stakes.

On September 11th, there were no Democrats, no Republicans; we were only Americans. We stood together, we stood together in the ways that Joe described, in blood lines and helping lines, searching for people, helping to comfort our fellow Americans.

We all supported the president. We all prayed for victory, because we love our country and we despise everything our enemies stand for.

But three years after 9/11, we see our enemies striking in Spain, in Turkey, in Indonesia, in Kenya, and now every day in the most despicable, gruesome ways in Iraq, which was not a terrorist haven before the invasion.

(APPLAUSE)

In fact, there were more terrorist attacks in the world last year than the year before. And we see an administration in confusion. We hear the president, the commander in chief proclaiming one day that the war can't be won, and then saying something different the next day.

We hear the secretary of defense himself wondering whether the radicals are recruiting, training and deploying more terrorists than we're killing or capturing.

Then yesterday, when asked about conditions in Iraq, Secretary Rumsfeld told Congress, I quote, "Let's pretend, hypothetically, that you get to election time in January, and let's pretend that it's roughly like what it is or a little worse, which it could be, because you've got to expect it to continue. So be it. Nothing is perfect in life."

Now, if there was any doubt that the leaders of the Bush administration are living in a fantasy world of spin, I think Secretary Rumsfeld put that to rest.

(APPLAUSE)

My friends, we need to end this confusion. We need national leaders who will face reality, not only in Iraq, but in the whole war on terror. And we need a president who has no doubt that the war on terror can and must be won.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: Let me be as blunt and direct with the American people as I can be. Let me tell you the truth, which is what America deserves.

(APPLAUSE)

The invasion of Iraq was a profound diversion from the battle against our greatest enemy, Al Qaida, which killed more than 3,000 people on 9/11 and which still plots our destruction today.

And there's just no question about it, the president's misjudgment, miscalculation and mismanagement of the war in Iraq all make the war on terror harder to win.

Iraq is now what it was not before the war: a haven for terrorists.

George Bush made Saddam Hussein the priority; I would have made Osama bin Laden the priority.

(APPLAUSE)

As president, I pledge to you, America, I will finish the job in Iraq and I will refocus our energies on the real war on terror. I will wage this war relentlessly, with a single-minded determination to capture or kill the terrorists, crush their movements and free the world from fear.

But to destroy our enemy we have to know our enemy. (APPLAUSE)

We have to understand that we are facing a radical, fundamentalist movement with global reach and a very specific plan. They are not just out to kill us for the sake of killing us. They want to provoke a conflict that will radicalize the people of the Muslim world, turning them against the United States and the West.

KERRY: And they hope to transform that anger into a force that will topple the region's governments and pave the way for a new empire -- an oppressive, fundamentalist superstate stretching across a vast area from Europe to Africa, from the Middle East to Central Asia.

That's their goal.

And the American people have a right to hear the answer to a fundamental question: How are we going to win this war? What is our strategy for eliminating the terrorists, discrediting their cause, and smashing their forces so that America can actually be safer?

Every week, too many American families grieve for loved ones killed in Iraq by terrorist forces that weren't even there before the invasion, many of which got their weapons from the very ammo dumps that George Bush didn't guard after we won the war -- after we won the military part of the war.

The jihadist movement that hates us is gaining adherents around the world -- ask any leader. An estimated 18,000 Al Qaida-trained militants are operating in 60 countries around the world, in a dangerous and more elusive network of extremist groups.

Al Qaida shouldn't be hitting us anywhere. They should be losing everywhere. We should be winning everywhere. That is the goal of our...

(APPLAUSE)

That will take time. It will not be easy, but it can be done.

And I have a comprehensive strategy for victory over terrorism, something this administration has never put forward, never fought for, never really understood.

First, I will build a stronger, smarter military and intelligence capability to capture or kill our enemies. As president, I will expand our Army, which is now overstretched, by 40,000 active duty troops, not for Iraq, but so that we have more soldiers to actually fight and find the terrorists in the places that they are.

I will double our Army special forces capacity. And we will accelerate the development and the deployment of many new technologies to track down and bring down the terrorists.

I will strengthen our intelligence system, something that should have started three years ago, not waiting for a 9/11 Commission and then resisting it, in order to detect and stop the terrorists before they can strike.

KERRY: By the morning of September 12th, everyone in America knew that our intelligence wasn't as good as it needed to be. But three years later, believe it or not, we read that the CIA unit charged with finding bin Laden has fewer experienced case officers today than it had before 9/11.

When I am president, that will change. I will act immediately.

(APPLAUSE)

I will act immediately to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations and I will create a national intelligence director with all of the budget and personnel authority that the commission says is needed to keep America safe. It's long overdue.

(APPLAUSE)

I will double our overseas clandestine service, train the linguists and the Arab experts that we need, and make sure that the operation hunting down Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida has all of the resources that it needs.

I will make Afghanistan a priority again, because it's still the front line in the war on terror. And all you have to do is ask General Tommy Franks how surprised he was that those troops got moved out of there when he was trying to do the job he was doing before the Congress had even approved moving to Iraq.

As president, I will not subcontract the fight to warlords who are out for nothing but power and personal gain.

I will help the government of Afghanistan expand its authority beyond Kabul to the rest of the country. I will lead our allies to share the burden so that NATO finally provides even more troops and I will show the world that America finishes what it begins.

(APPLAUSE)

Second, and this is critical, I will move decisively to deny the terrorists the deadly weapons that they seek. Those weapons were not in Iraq, but tons and kilotons of poorly secured chemical and nuclear weapons are spread throughout the former Soviet Union.

Twelve years ago, we began a bipartisan program -- Joe Biden knows about it; he was part of it with Senator Dick Lugar and others -- in order to help these nations secure and destroy those weapons.

KERRY: It is incredible and unacceptable that in the three years after 9/11, President Bush has not stepped up that effort to lock down those loose nuclear materials and weapons in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere. Much more materials were secured in the two years before 9/11 than in the two years afterwards.

When I am president, denying our most dangerous enemies the world's most dangerous weapons will become the central priority for the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

I will secure nuclear weapons and materials in the former Soviet Union within four years.

Now, let me just remind America, we tried to upgrade the amount of money that was going into this effort and they said no. I say yes, because that's how you make America safer.

(APPLAUSE)

At President Bush's current pace it will take 13 years. I don't think we can afford that when you know what's happened in the black market and in the underground of clandestine efforts.

I will seek a verifiable global ban on the production of materials for nuclear weapons.

Nowhere is the nuclear danger more urgent and more obvious to Americans than in Iran and North Korea. This week, Iran announced its intention to process enough raw uranium to create five nuclear weapons.

I will make it clear to Iran that we will lead an international effort to impose tough sanctions if they do not permanently suspend their uranium enrichment program and provide verifiable assurances that they are not developing nuclear weapons.

Yesterday, there were reports that North Korea is preparing to fire an intermediate range ballistic missile that may be able to carry a nuclear warhead. When President Clinton left office that was impossible. The rods, the fuel rods, the uranium and the television cameras and inspectors were in the reactor.

But George Bush refused to talk to them at all for two years, just left them to their own devices, and they figured out their own way to get our attention.

KERRY: I will work with our allies to get the six-party talks with North Korea back on track and I will talk directly to the North Koreans to get a verifiable agreement that will eliminate their nuclear weapons program completely and irreversibly.

(APPLAUSE)

My friends, we have to get serious about diplomacy with North Korea now and only then are we going to have the support that our allies need in order to have the kind of action that you might have to take if diplomacy were to fail.

Third, as president, I will wage a war on terrorist finances every bit as total as the war we wage on the terrorists themselves.

We will trace terrorist funds to their sources and we will freeze the assets of anyone, any person, any bank or any foreign official who is financing terrorism. I know how to do this.

As a senator, I exposed and I helped dismantle an international bank that was one of the early financiers of terrorism. It actually had $3 million of Osama bin Laden's money in it, as well as the money of drug transactions and underground weapons transactions.

We did it by following the money. We can and must do the same to choke off the dollars that are funding Al Qaida and its allies.

And on this, let me make clear, I will grant no one, no country, no sweetheart relationship a free pass.

(APPLAUSE)

As president, I will do what President Bush has not done -- I will hold the Saudis accountable.

(APPLAUSE)

Since 9/11, there have been no public prosecutions in Saudi Arabia and few elsewhere of terrorist financiers. And I will work with our allies, with the World Bank and international financial institutions to shut down the financial pipeline that keeps terrorism alive.

And I will pursue a plan, most importantly, to make this great nation of ours with all of its creativity, with all of our colleges and universities and laboratories and scientists and venture capitalists -- we're going to pull together and we're going to embark on a great journey and make this nation independent of Mideast oil.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: That is our mission.

(APPLAUSE)

My friends, I believe in and I want an America that relies on our own innovation and ingenuity, not the Saudi royal family.

(APPLAUSE)

Fourth, as president I will make homeland security a real priority by offering a real plan and backing it with real resources.

The first task is to prevent the terrorists and their tools of destruction from entering our country. We know that Al Qaida members and other terrorists could cross into America from Mexico and Canada.

We're now told that America's borders have actually grown more porous since September 11th, and 9/11 Commission staff report that our border inspectors don't even have the training and basic intelligence information to keep out the terrorists.

At our sea ports, we're physically inspecting only 5 percent of the cargo coming into America. The Bush administration is spending more money in Iraq in four days than they've spent protecting our ports for all of the last three years.

(APPLAUSE)

At our airports, there's been some progress. You all feel it when you try to travel. But there is far more to do.

According to news accounts, the terrorist aviation list includes only those who are categorized as a danger to aviation. This is ridiculous. It should include every suspected terrorist who is a danger to anything anywhere in our country so you can capture them when they present themselves at the desk. That's common sense.

(APPLAUSE)

Terrorists recently used explosives to bring down two planes in Russia. Yet here in America, I regret to tell you, the system for detecting explosives carried by passengers fails to pass our own government's tests. And here's something that makes no sense at all. Your luggage is X-rayed when it's put on the plane, but the cargo on the hold underneath seldom is.

This has to change.

In a Kerry-Edwards administration, we'll give our inspectors at our borders access to the terrorist watch lists. At our ports, we will provide a 600 percent increase in support for the most promising cargo inspection programs. In our airports, we're going to install the equipment to check passengers for explosives, to screen cargo just like we screen baggage, and make people fully safe on those planes.

And across the country, we're going to make sure that our police and our firefighters and our ambulance drivers have the latest radios, hazmat suits, decontamination facilities and emergency operation centers that they need to respond effectively to a crisis.

That is the least that we should do to make America safer.

(APPLAUSE)

This is actually all common sense.

KERRY: But none of it is a priority for the Bush administration.

Here's what's on their agenda: costly, new nuclear weapons we don't need that risk fueling the new arms race, and committing to a missile defense system that could eventually cost $100 billion that doesn't yet work and won't stop the likely threats to our security that come through the Verrazano Bridge in a ship or that carried in in various suitcases and are assembled in a hotel.

Near here in Philadelphia region, there are eight chemical plants where a terrorist attack could endanger a million people. But this president allowed the chemical industry to derail common-sense measures for chemical plant security.

My friends, as president, I won't hesitate to protect them. That's protecting the American people.

(APPLAUSE)

At a time when police officers are more critical than ever to our homeland security -- this is something Joe Biden and I know a lot about. Because back in 1994 we stood up together and fought to put 100,000 police officers on the streets of America to reduce crime. And you know what? It worked. We did reduce crime. We made our communities safer.

But lo and behold, here we are at a time when America needs police who are more trained, police who are even trained as they are in Israel to go out on a patrol and be able to look for terrorists, to think differently about terror -- a whole new kind of training -- guess what this administration's doing?

They've gutted the program to put 100,000 new police on our streets. I will restore that funding and make sure that that money reaches our first responders.

(APPLAUSE)

This president, believe it or not, has even failed in his budget to provide a nickel to safeguard our railroads and subways, leaving millions of people every single day vulnerable to terrorist attacks. We've got more people underneath in a tunnel in certain places in America, the equivalent of six 747s at one moment without escape, without ventilation, without recourse.

I intend to invest more than $2 billion in new funding to protect our transit systems so that what happened in Madrid doesn't happen here in the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

Fifth, as we go after the terrorists and secure our homeland, I will focus on the long-term front line of this war.

KERRY: To defeat the terrorists' aims, we have to deny them recruits and safe havens.

For Al Qaida, this war is a struggle for the heart and soul of the Muslim world. We will win this war only if the terrorists lose that struggle.

We will win when ordinary people from Nigeria to Egypt to Pakistan to Indonesia know that they have more to live for than to die for.

(APPLAUSE)

We will win when they once again see America as the America we were on September 12th, when they see us as the champion, not the enemy of their legitimate yearning to live in just and peaceful societies.

We will win when we stop isolating ourselves and start isolating the terrorists.

(APPLAUSE)

The world...

(UNKNOWN): (OFF-MIKE)

KERRY: I will. You know what, I'll say something about AIDS if you let me get a chance, because it's a very legitimate issue. And I have something to say about it, because I wrote the major legislation to deal with it three years ago. OK?

(APPLAUSE)

This is particularly important, what I'm talking about right now, because this is really at the core of how we set out a strategy where we actually can win, where you answer the question of Secretary Rumsfeld, are you creating more recruits than you're killing and capturing.

The world knows the difference between empty promises and genuine commitment. So we're going to win when we show that America uses its economic power for the common good, doing our share to defeat abject poverty, hunger and disease that destroys lives.

(APPLAUSE) This is not in my speech, but I'm going to answer that gentleman's question, because it's a perfect segue for where I find myself.

KERRY: Several years ago, three or four years ago, I joined with Senator Bill Frist in a bipartisan effort and we co-chaired the effort on AIDS, because AIDS is the great moral challenge and the great pandemic across this globe. We've got 4 million people -- 5 million people have died of it. We've got 40 million people infected and it's moving.

It's not a question of Africa. It's a question of South Asia, India, China, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, all across the world -- and it destroys human infrastructure.

We laid out a comprehensive approach that dealt with treatment, dealt with prevention, dealt with retroantiviral drugs that can help prevent the passage from mother to child, dealt with creating the human infrastructure so we could stand up and lead.

And we called and passed -- Joe helped -- we passed with Jesse Helms' support, who co-sponsored it. We passed it in the Senate, but the ideological resistance of this administration has stopped it.

The president has stood up and said he's going to provide $15 billion, and guess what, only a few hundred million have been released, only $200 million to the Global Fund.

The Global Fund has no confidence in America. America is losing its moral authority because we don't step up on issues like AIDS.

I will. I will lead America on these issues.

(APPLAUSE)

And it's not just a question of AIDS.

The world's poorest countries suffering under crushing debt burdens need particular attention.

As president, I'm going to lead the international community to cancel the debt of the most vulnerable nations in return for them living up to goals of social and economic progress and human rights.

My friends, we will win when we work with our allies to enable children in poor countries to be able to get a basic education. More than 50 percent of the population in the Arab and Muslim world is under the age of 25. If all they get to do is go to radical Islamic madrassas and learn how to hate and learn how to strap themselves with explosives, we have a problem for years to come, my friends.

The future is a race between schools that spark learning and schools that teach hate. We have to pre-empt the haters.

(APPLAUSE)

We have to win the war of ideas. New generations have to believe that there is more to life than salvation through martyrdom.

Sixth, we will promote the development of free and democratic societies throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Millions of people there share our human rights values. They share our hopes for a better life for the next generation. They're facing their own struggle at home against the forces of fanaticism and militancy.

They're our natural allies. Their lost trust in our intentions has to be reversed. We have to restore the position where they trust us again. We have to reach out to them and, yes, we have to always promote democracy, but I will be clear with repressive governments in the region that we expect to see them change, not just for our sake, but for their own survival.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: As president, I will do what this president should have done years ago and what we need to do, which is lead a massive effort to improve our outreach to the Muslim world.

We need to train a new generation of American scholars, diplomats, military officers who know this region just as we built our knowledge of the Soviet empire during the Cold War.

I will convene a summit with our European partners and leaders from the Muslim world to strengthen mutual understanding, economic growth and the fight against terror.

And I believe we need to bring all of the leaders of the world's religions, including the moderate mullahs, imams and clerics of the world of Islam, together in order to isolate those who pervert even that religion.

(APPLAUSE)

Let it be clear, the issue here is advancing democracy in Arab nations, not yielding to pressure to undermine Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.

(APPLAUSE)

Our alliance with Israel, the survival and security of Israel are non-negotiable.

(APPLAUSE)

The only solution is a Jewish state of Israel living side by side in security and peace with a democratic Palestinian state. That is what we need to achieve.

(APPLAUSE)

Finally, we will be stronger if we do not go it alone.

As president, I will lead and rebuild strong alliances. This is not only critical to our military operations, it is essential to every other measure that we must take from tracking down terrorists, where we need the cooperation of other nations, to homeland security, where we need their help to stop terrorists and their weapons before they ever reach our shores.

If ever the United States of America needed to reach out rather than alienate countries, it is now.

KERRY: The path to success in the war on terror is to recognize working with other countries is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength and it will make America stronger.

(APPLAUSE)

My fellow Americans, we will not succeed in destroying freedom's adversaries if we are divided from freedom's friends. The terrorists certainly understand that. They're making a special effort to set off bombs in Turkey, Morocco and Indonesia. They want to keep other countries from standing with us in the war on terror.

They know what the Bush administration has been so reluctant to admit, that we are weaker when we fight almost alone. We are safer and stronger in our capacity to capture and kill the terrorists when we fight with allies by our side.

But the Bush administration would have you believe that when it comes to our allies -- this is what they're telling America today -- that when it comes to our allies, it won't make any difference who's president. They say the Europeans won't help us no matter what. We're not going to get more cooperation in the war on terror they say, no matter what. Ordinary people around the world will resent us, no matter what. Well, I have news for President Bush: Just because you can't do something doesn't mean it can't be done.

KERRY: It can be done.

(APPLAUSE)

My friends, it is not George Bush's style that keeps our allies from helping, it's his judgment. And they know that he's not going to change.

But I know that, as always, our allies will follow an America that leaves with sound judgment. And I will provide that.

(APPLAUSE)

The first President Bush waged the first Gulf War with a real coalition that fought with us on the battlefield and paid virtually the entire cost of that war. President Clinton built a real coalition in Kosovo, despite the opposition of Republicans in Congress, and now virtually every soldier on patrol there comes from a foreign country. During the Cold War, every American president understood what is still true today: The strength of our country is vital, but so is the character of our country.

(APPLAUSE)

It is better to be an America that rallies other countries to our cause than to be an America that isolates itself and has to go it alone.

I know that we can win the war on terror. We can defeat, capture and kill those who commit terror. And I've just outlined a strategy for victory, a real strategy.

I know this struggle will be waged in many ways and many places. And I know that it will be a long and a difficult struggle. And I know we have to be resolute in confronting the evil that exists in the world.

But in the end, one of our greatest strengths, one of our greatest safeguards, is that America can be the ideal that inspires others everywhere.

That's who we are. That's America. If we again become that beacon of hope, we're going to discover in ourselves the most powerful and useful weapons in the war against the terrorists. Because if we're true to ourselves, terrorists cannot defeat the values and vision that have made America great.

(APPLAUSE)

No American mother should have to lie awake at night wondering whether her children will be safe at school the next day. No one should fear visiting our nation's capital or our greatest cities because they might be attacked. Our hope, our determination is nothing less than this: to live our lives confident that we are safe at home and secure in the world. And that is the great victory that I will fight for and win as your president.

Thank you. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

BETTY NGUYEN, ANCHOR: You've been listening to Senator John Kerry speak in Philadelphia today about his plan to win the war against terrorism.

We want to go now to CNN's Bill Schneider to get some analysis on this speech.

Hi there, Bill.

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Betty.

NGUYEN: Well, listening to this speech, any surprises? The thing that surprised me -- that surprised me, I should say, is that standing ovation that Senator Kerry got when he talked about holding the Saudis accountable.

SCHNEIDER: That's right. That's an important theme of his speech. He said that he would attack the terrorist financing and he would hold the Saudis accountable.

There is a lot of information, there are a lot of ties between the Bush family and the Saudi families. They've been dramatized; they've been criticized. He has stood up and said the United States should hold the Saudis responsible because they're the chief financers of international terrorism. A very clear difference with President Bush.

My -- the surprise that I found, you're asking anything surprising, is what he did not say. He did not talk about his Vietnam War record. He didn't talk about his military service.

This is a speech in which I think Senator Kerry has literally and metaphorically found his voice. He's talking about the real issues in this campaign, the war on terror, and not allowing it to be diverted into a debate that happened over something 35 years ago.

NGUYEN: Keeping on focus. All right, CNN's Bill Schneider, thank you so much for that.

We want to also get some reaction now to the Kerry speech on fighting terrorism, campaign manager, Ken Mehlman joins us from the Bush/Cheney headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

I'm doing great. How are you today?

KEN MEHLMAN, BUSH/CHENEY CAMPAIGN MANAGER: It's good.

NGUYEN: Let's talk about this. You response to this seven-point plan?

MEHLMAN: Well, I thought it was fairly interesting on the same week that John Kerry said that America would be safer if Saddam Hussein was in power, just one day after, he criticized the new Iraqi prime minister, we heard three things from him today.

First we heard him repackage the president's idea and claim they were their own.

Second we heard more baseless political tacks.

And third, we heard more vacillation. We heard on issue after issue, the John Kerry of today would be a very different person than the John Kerry who the American people and that the whole world has heard throughout the campaign.

And when you think about it, what we need to defeat Zarqawi and to win the war on terror is not vacillation and it's not political attacks; it's strong and steady leadership, which is what this president offers.

NGUYEN: So you don't see difference in the Kerry plan versus the Bush plan?

MEHLMAN: Well, the Bush plan -- the Kerry plan is a lot of what the Bush plan is doing. What has changed today as compared to what Kerry said before is where John Kerry has been.

Remember in December of 2001, John Kerry called Saddam Hussein a terrorist. He said that removing Saddam Hussein was a critical part of the war on terror. Now he says it's a diversion from the war on terror.

It was John Kerry who for 112 days delayed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Today he attacks the president for it.

It was John Kerry who voted against providing our troops with the body armor and ammunition they needed to succeed. And now he criticizes the president for providing insufficient support.

So the changes that has occurred is that once again John Kerry has changed his tune based on politics.

And I think the real question in this campaign is the following. When we face these global threats, when we face this international terrorist threat, do we want a commander in chief who speaks clearly, or do we want a commander in chief who vacillates based on the politics?

And if that were to happen, think of the message that would send to the terrorists and it would send to around the world. That's the last thing we need right now.

NGUYEN: Talking about speaking clearly and clearing up a lot of the confusion, we want to play you a little excerpt from that speech where Kerry basically says the Bush administration is in confusion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY: ... administration of confusion. We hear the president, the commander in chief, proclaiming one day that the war can't be won. And then saying something different the next day.

We hear the secretary of defense himself wandering whether the radicals are recruiting, training and deploying more terrorists than we're killing or capturing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Now, your response to that?

MEHLMAN: My response is that I think what he's referring to is some weeks ago the president pointed out that the struggle against terrorism was a different struggle than the struggle we'd ever faced before.

When we faced a nation before and the white flag went up, the battle ended. But this is going to be a longer and more difficult struggle, which is why this president has gone after the terrorists where they gather to protect the American people.

And that's exactly the kind of struggle where John Kerry's vacillation and where his defeatism and where his political approach would be so devastating. That's exactly why it's so important, this president be re-elected and the consequences would be so bad for winning the war on terror if John Kerry were our commander in chief.

NGUYEN: All right. Campaign manager Ken Mehlman, thank you so much for that.

MEHLMAN: Thank you. Appreciate it.

NGUYEN: Let's compare the two approaches for waging the war on terror, the Kerry plan side by side with the Bush plan. And for that, CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen joins us in Washington this morning.

Good morning to you.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning.

NGUYEN: Do you see much of a difference between the two plans?

BERGEN: Well, I was surprised. I thought were substantive differences.

Obviously very strong -- very strongly condemning the Iraq war as being a diversion from the war on al Qaeda; also saying that the hunt for bin Laden is had been given a lower priority. That's something that he would change. Afghanistan itself, a country in which he would put more resources, try and make more secure. There are also a number of different programs that he -- that he was talking about expanding: 40,000 members of active duty Army, not for Iraq, but just in general to -- to be used anywhere in the war on terrorism.

Also talking about doubling the number of clandestine officers, increasing the number of Arab linguists, a lot of actual quite detailed programs that seem to be different or in addition to what the Bush administration has been talking about.

And indeed, also talking about really going after the Saudis. He's sort of making a dig at the administration, I thought, in the terms of we're giving nobody any special preferences, in terms of cracking down on terrorist financing.

Also talking about making us independent from Middle East oil. Also, I think a substantive difference in the Bush administration.

And talking about and also giving kind of a laundry list of things for homeland security, which would certainly be in addition to what the Bush administration is doing right now. More checks on cargo, for instance. Very little cargo is actually checked at this moment.

Also more money for first responders, the people who would actually go to a WMD, or weapons of mass destruction scene, and respond to it.

More money for transit systems. He mentions specifically the attacks in Madrid, where obviously there were commuter railway trains were bombed. Kerry saying the Bush administration hasn't done enough to protect mass transit in this country.

And then, you know, in the broader sense, also ending America's isolation in the world. It's simply a fact that anti-Americanism is at an all-time high around the world, not only in the Middle East, but also in Europe. And Kerry's saying that he would do something to fix that.

I thought one of the most interesting ideas he had was this notion of a summit, including moderate Muslim clerics from around the world, to try and isolate the radicals.

And then finally, he concluded that, you know, the Bush administration's isolation from the rest of the world is not a matter of Bush's style, but his judgment.

And I think by that, I think one of the implications, of course, is that the Iraq war has really been a distraction from the war on terrorism. And that is Kerry's opinion, obviously.

But that is also a view, I think, that is shared with quite a lot of terrorism experts that I've talked to in the past, both on the Republican side of the aisle and the Democratic side of the aisle, that the Iraq war has not increased our security and may well have decreased it. NGUYEN: Thanks for that insight. CNN's Peter Bergen.

And we will have much more here on CNN LIVE TODAY. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning. I'm Betty Nguyen. Let's get a check of what's happening in the news for Friday, September 24.

John Kerry outlined a seven-point plan today that he says will win the war against terror. Kerry says the war in Iraq has diverted resources from the pursuit of terrorists, including the capture of Osama bin Laden.

U.S. warplanes pound more targets in the volatile Iraqi city of Fallujah. Planes struck two areas of the city, but there are no reports of casualties. Fallujah has been a stronghold for insurgents. And over the past few weeks, U.S. forces have targeted sites linked to the terror network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

President Bush's new CIA director was sworn in this morning. Florida Congressman Porter Goss takes over the agency during the tumultuous time. The CIA has been criticized for failures leading up to the September 11 attacks. And Congress is considering a major intelligence overhaul.

Goss was approved over the objection of some Democrats who accused him of being too partisan.

President Bush thanked a group of volunteers this morning for helping victims of the school attack in Russia. More than 300 hostages were killed earlier this month when Chechen rebels seized the school.

Iraq's interim prime minister lays a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery. Ayad Allawi also met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this morning as he wraps up his visit to Washington. Allawi has expressed optimism about his country's future, including the January elections.

Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.

More hurricane news to tell you about. Hurricane Jeanne is on a path that could lead to Florida's east coast by Sunday.

Parts of Haiti are in dire straits six days after Jeanne washed over the island of Espanola (ph) as a tropical storm. At least 1,100 Haitians were killed and more than 1,200 are still missing. Many residents say they haven't had any food since losing their homes.

Three weeks after it first formed, Ivan, well it is still causing problems. Parts of Louisiana and Texas along the Gulf coast are the latest victims. The storm system has weakened to a tropical depression, but it is bringing plenty of rain to make life miserable for many.

So to get the latest on all of these hurricanes, of course we check in with Orelon Sidney.

Is it ever going to stop, Orelon?

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Staying optimistic. Thank you.

SIDNEY: You're welcome.

NGUYEN: We'll have your "Daily Dose" of health news right after this break.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most days you probably feel tied to your computer. How'd you like to wear it all the time? Well, Thad Stern has worn his modified P.C. nearly every day since 1993. He thinks eventually many of us will do the same. A pioneer in the wearable computer world, Stern points to the explosion of mobile gadgets like cell phones and PDAs.

THAD STERNER, MOBILE COMPUTER PIONEER: Last year in 2003, there were actually three times as many on-body computer devices sold than laptops and desktops combined.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His goal is to make voice controlled wearable computers that are interactive without being intrusive, like being able to update your daily calendar or giving you helpful reminders, all while on the go.

STERNER: What we're looking at is systems that can use speech that you normally would say to help control your computer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sterner believes wearable computers in one form or another will one day replace the desktop as we know it and change how we communicate with each other.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: In your "Daily Dose" of health news, man's best friend might be better than we thought. Some dogs can smell cancer.

Researchers have known about cases where a pet dog identified its owner's cancer long before medicine caught up with it. Now British scientists have tested that theory by training dogs to identify urine samples of bladder cancer patients. The dogs were right more than half the time.

And a Belgian woman has become the first to have a baby after an ovarian tissue transplant. Doctors froze part of her ovaries while she underwent cancer treatment. The tissue was re-implanted six years later with successful results.

To get your "Daily Dose" of health news online, all you have to do is logon to our web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. The address, CNN.com/health.

John C. McGinley has a heart of gold. You'll probably never know it by watching his character on the hit TV show "Scrubs," but believe us, it is there. Up next, John C. joins us live to talk about something very near and dear to that heart. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN JENKINS, ACTOR: Oh, so you're going to sock me again. Good God, Perry, at a certain point you're beating up an old man.

JOHN MCGINLEY, ACTOR: Relax, I'm just fixing your nose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Oh, goodness. A fourth season of laughs is under way on NBC's "Scrubs." John C. McGinley steals the show as the caustic but sometimes caring Dr. Perry Cox. He joins us in New York to talk about the comedy and something also very close to his heart, the National Buddy Walk for Down Syndrome.

John C., as you like to be called, morning to you.

MCGINLEY: Good morning. How are you?

NGUYEN: I'm doing well. Let's first talk about the National Down Syndrome Society. This cause is very personal to you. Tell us about it.

MCGINLEY: I have a 7-year-old son named Max who was born with Down Syndrome. And when -- when Max had a seizure disorder when he was 3 and then that abated. And when Max turned 4, I was able then to stop circling the wagons and just take care of Max and -- and reach out to other children and families who had special needs.

And so I found the National Down Syndrome Society. It's this group that just had this enormous, profound amount of resources that families could go to.

It's -- look, it's very disorienting when you have a child born with special needs, especially if you didn't have an amnio and you have the kid and then all of a sudden, in the case of Down Syndrome, the 21st chromosome tripled.

And what are you supposed to do, and who are you supposed to turn to? And what does all this mean anyway?

And NDSS, which is the way that it's abbreviated, and their web site is NDSS.org is just this -- this huge wealth of knowledge and support structures and chat rooms and information and a place to go where -- where you can find out what other people are doing with their children and mistakes that maybe you don't want to make, because somebody made it before you.

NGUYEN: And did you go there to get information for your family?

MCGINLEY: Yes, we sure did. And, look, there's everything from -- from speech therapies that might be appropriate for a child, occupational therapy. There's a great horseback riding therapy called hippotherapy that helps with low tone and muscular development for kids. There's gymnastic resources, musical therapy.

NGUYEN: So many resources. We're running out of time. I want to get to Buddy Walk really quick. Tell us about that.

MCGINLEY: The Buddy Walk is a day of empowerment and inclusion. And really what we want to with the Buddy Walk is just create a sense of community and love and elevate the families and the kids and know that they're not alone. And that there's other people and families who are sharing kind of their arc.

And that you've actually been blessed with these children. It's not a burden. It's a blessing. And it's -- if you can foster a landscape where these children can thrive, then you're actually doing something amazing.

NGUYEN: And that takes place when?

MCGINLEY: In New York. It's this Sunday. But there are almost 200 of them throughout the country in September and October.

NGUYEN: We wanted to talk to you about "Scrubs," but we're way out of time, John C.

MCGINLEY: Sorry about that.

NGUYEN: It's been a pleasure. And we'll look for you on TV. How about that?

MCGINLEY: Thanks for having us on.

NGUYEN: All right. Thank you.

MCGINLEY: Sure.

NGUYEN: Well, that does it for me, Betty Nguyen here in Atlanta and LIVE TODAY. Carol Lin is up next, in for Wolf Blitzer.

(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 September 24, 2004 - 10:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: The mother of a British man held hostage in Iraq is back home at this hour, after being released from the hospital. Eight-six-year-old Lil Bigley collapsed and was rushed to the hospital after videotaping this heart-wrenching plea for the release of her son, Kenneth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIL BIGLEY, HOSTAGE'S MOTHER: Would you please help my son?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go on, mom. Take a breath. Go on, take a breath.

BIGLEY: He is only a working man who wants to support his family. Please show mercy to Ken and send him home to me alive. His family needs him, and I need him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Kidnappers have threatened to kill the 62-year-old Bigley unless all Iraqi women are freed from the U.S.-led jails there. Now the two Americans seized with him have both been beheaded.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is echoing President Bush's vow that Iraq will hold its elections in January, but there are many questions of how to overcome significant obstacles as that date and the commitment draws nearer.

CNN's State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

AYAD ALLAWI, IRAQ'S INTERIM PRIME MINISTER: Go from Basra to Nasiriyah to Kut.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Addressing skeptics head on, Prime Minister Allawi said the vast majority of Iraq could hold elections as soon as tomorrow.

ALLAWI: The Iraqi elections may not be perfect, they may not be the best elections that Iraq will ever hold, but they will take place and they will be free and fair.

KOPPEL: But with only four months left before election day, privately U.S. and U.N. officials fear Iraq has neither the security nor the logistics in place for elections to go forward. President Bush says it's up to the United Nations to make sure Iraq is ready.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Prime Minister Allawi and I have urged the U.N. to send sufficient personnel to help ensure the success of Iraqi elections.

KOPPEL: Fewer than 10 U.N. election advisers are now in Baghdad and Secretary General Kofi Annan has told Mr. Bush he won't send any more until the security situation is stabilized and additional protection for U.N. staff is provided. So far, only the former Russian republic of Georgia has offered to contribute to a U.N. protection force.

But even if security improves, experts say, Iraq still has a lot to do to prepare a credible framework for elections, establish a list of eligible voters among Iraq's 27 million people, set up an estimated 30,000 polling sites, train about 130,000 election workers and educate voters. Another complicating factor? Ensuring broad-based participation among Iraq's feuding ethnic and religious groups.

LES CAMPBELL, NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE: If Iraqis, Sunni, Kurd, Shia, Christian and otherwise, are to feel that they are fully invested in a new Iraq, a democratic Iraq, they are going to have to have the opportunity to walk into a polling place and cast their vote for their leadership.

KOPPEL (on camera): Despite the positive words from Bush and Allawi, some U.S. officials behind the scenes acknowledge more pessimism, that in reality it may be difficult to go ahead with elections as early as January, and if they did, worry whether Iraqis would accept the results as legitimate.

Andrea Koppel, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And we want to remind you that we are still waiting for Senator John Kerry to speak. That speech will happen today in Philadelphia. During this hour. And when that does happen, we'll bring it to you live right here on CNN LIVE TODAY. We'll be right back.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

NGUYEN: Welcome back. As you can see, Senator John Kerry has taken to the podium today. He's going to be speaking about his seven- point plan to win the war on terror.

And right now we want to bring in CNN's Bill Schneider to get a quick question in.

Bill, let's talk about this. Lately he's been focusing on terror a whole lot. What's behind all of this?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POL. ANALYST: Essentially the Republican Convention, which focused almost exclusively on the war on terror. At that convention the Republicans presented the nation's economic problems as tied to the war on terror and 9/11. They presented the war in Iraq as part of the war on terror. Everything was seen in the context of the war on terror.

What we found for the entirety of this campaign year is that when Americans are asked who do you think would do a more effective job fighting terrorism, voters have told us again and again, George Bush. And that may be behind what appeared to be a bounce, at least for a time, after the Republican Convention.

Senator Kerry has been on the defensive on that issue. Today he's going to lay out an agenda in the war on terror, just as on Monday he laid out his plan for the war in Iraq and resolving the conflict there. So he is laying it out, seven-point plan, to essentially establish his credentials on this issue.

NGUYEN: Absolutely. Because there's been a lot of criticism by Republicans saying that Kerry is soft on terror.

SCHNEIDER: Yes. Well that criticism you heard very much at the Republican Convention. And there's also been some concern among Democrats because of the slippage among women voters, the so-called security moms. You know, every election has a kind of group that people focus on, whether it's NASCAR dads or soccer moms. This year that seems to be security moms, because pollsters have noticed that among women right now, the election is getting quite close. Al Gore carried women by 11 points.

So in his remarks today, we have an advanced copyright here, what Kerry is saying is, I'm doing everything in my power to keep your children safe.

NGUYEN: All right, Bill Schneider, hang around with us, if you would. We'll talk to you after the speech. We want to listen in right now to Senator John Kerry.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My fellow Americans, the most urgent national security challenge we face is the war against those who attacked our country on September 11th, the war against Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida.

As president, I will fight a tougher, smarter, more effective war on terror. My priority will be to find and capture or kill the terrorists before they get us, and I will never take my eye off the ball.

(APPLAUSE)

When we hear people pleading for their lives before being beheaded, and when we see the brutal images of people on their hands and knees facing execution; when we look at the images of children brutalized by remorseless terrorists in Russia, we know that this is not just a political or military struggle. It goes to the very heart of what we value most: our families, our freedom, our communities.

KERRY: It strikes at the bond between mother and child.

As president, I will make it my sacred duty to be able to say to every single mother and father in this country, I am doing everything in my power to keep your children and our country safe.

(APPLAUSE)

We owe the American people a real debate about the choices that President Bush has made, not this phony kind of 30 second, 60 second, attack, attack, attack. A real debate, real ideas, a real discussion that goes to the heart of how you make America safe.

We owe America a real debate about the choices that President Bush has made and the choices that I will make to fight and to win the war on terrorism.

President Bush was right to invade Afghanistan and overthrow the Taliban. I supported that decision, so did our country and our allies, so did the world. All those people that Joe just referred to who joined with us on September 12th with those headlines that said, All of us are Americans now.

But since then, again and again, the president has made the wrong choices in the war on terror around the world and here at home.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of using U.S. forces, the best trained military in the world, the most capable, the most willing to go out and capture Osama bin Laden, the president outsourced the job to Afghan warlords who let Osama bin Laden slip away. That was the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: Instead of listening to career uniformed military officers, instead of listening to his own State Department, to Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress, and outside experts about how to win the peace in Iraq, he hitched his wagon to the ideologues who told him that our troops would be welcomed as liberators. That was the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of responding to the greatest intelligence failure in our history with a rapid overhaul of our intelligence system, starting on day one, the president dragged his feet and actually resisted reform, stood on the side of the status quo, blocked new ideas, resisted creativity.

After opposing the 9/11 Commission, after trying to block its extension, as you've heard from two wives who are principally responsible for helping to keep pushing to make it happen, after finally agreeing to testify, but only with Vice President Cheney at his side...

(APPLAUSE)

... he still fully refuses to implement all of the commission's recommendations.

Those were -- all of them -- the wrong choices.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of proposing a department of homeland security, the president actually opposed it. And then, when he caved in to political pressure, he actually went out and exploited it for political purposes. That was the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of expanding programs to keep weapons of mass destruction in Russia out of terrorist hands, the president tried to cut the programs, and even after 9/11, did little to strengthen them. That was the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of facing the urgent nuclear dangers in North Korea and Iran, he allowed these dangers to mount on his presidential watch.

KERRY: That was the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of speaking forcefully to the Saudis and others about terrorist financing, instead of being able to hold people accountable for the money that flows to the terrorists, the president has said little and done less. That is the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

Instead of providing our police, our firefighters and ambulance drivers with the equipment they need, instead of protecting ports, trains, subway lines, highways in their most potentially catastrophic places -- we all understand it's difficult to protect everything, but there are certain places where there's a chance for much greater catastrophe than others.

Instead of defending nuclear plants and chemical factories, this president underfunded homeland security again and again. That is the wrong choice.

(APPLAUSE)

And as Joe Biden mentioned a moment ago -- and he meets with leaders all over the world, all the time; he knows this -- that instead of bringing the world together against the terrorists, the president alienated the countries whose help we need to defeat them. That was the wrong choice. (APPLAUSE)

Yet in the face of all of these judgments, all of these misjudgments, all the miscalculations and all the mistakes, the president still says he wouldn't do anything different.

I would. I will make very different choices in the war on terrorism.

(APPLAUSE)

My fellow Americans, I know what needs to be done and I know what has been done wrong.

I begin with this belief: The war on terror is the monumental struggle of our time. It is as monumental a struggle as the Cold War. Its outcome will determine whether we and our children live in freedom or in fear. It is not, as some people think, a clash of civilizations.

Radical Islamic fundamentalism is not the true face of Islam.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: This is a clash between civilization and the enemies of civilization, between humanity's best hopes and most primitive fears.

The danger we face today will become even greater if terrorists acquire what we know they are seeking -- weapons of mass destruction -- which they would use to commit mass murder.

We are confronting an enemy and an ideology that must be destroyed. We are at war. We are in a war that must be won.

(APPLAUSE)

Americans know this. We understand the stakes.

On September 11th, there were no Democrats, no Republicans; we were only Americans. We stood together, we stood together in the ways that Joe described, in blood lines and helping lines, searching for people, helping to comfort our fellow Americans.

We all supported the president. We all prayed for victory, because we love our country and we despise everything our enemies stand for.

But three years after 9/11, we see our enemies striking in Spain, in Turkey, in Indonesia, in Kenya, and now every day in the most despicable, gruesome ways in Iraq, which was not a terrorist haven before the invasion.

(APPLAUSE)

In fact, there were more terrorist attacks in the world last year than the year before. And we see an administration in confusion. We hear the president, the commander in chief proclaiming one day that the war can't be won, and then saying something different the next day.

We hear the secretary of defense himself wondering whether the radicals are recruiting, training and deploying more terrorists than we're killing or capturing.

Then yesterday, when asked about conditions in Iraq, Secretary Rumsfeld told Congress, I quote, "Let's pretend, hypothetically, that you get to election time in January, and let's pretend that it's roughly like what it is or a little worse, which it could be, because you've got to expect it to continue. So be it. Nothing is perfect in life."

Now, if there was any doubt that the leaders of the Bush administration are living in a fantasy world of spin, I think Secretary Rumsfeld put that to rest.

(APPLAUSE)

My friends, we need to end this confusion. We need national leaders who will face reality, not only in Iraq, but in the whole war on terror. And we need a president who has no doubt that the war on terror can and must be won.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: Let me be as blunt and direct with the American people as I can be. Let me tell you the truth, which is what America deserves.

(APPLAUSE)

The invasion of Iraq was a profound diversion from the battle against our greatest enemy, Al Qaida, which killed more than 3,000 people on 9/11 and which still plots our destruction today.

And there's just no question about it, the president's misjudgment, miscalculation and mismanagement of the war in Iraq all make the war on terror harder to win.

Iraq is now what it was not before the war: a haven for terrorists.

George Bush made Saddam Hussein the priority; I would have made Osama bin Laden the priority.

(APPLAUSE)

As president, I pledge to you, America, I will finish the job in Iraq and I will refocus our energies on the real war on terror. I will wage this war relentlessly, with a single-minded determination to capture or kill the terrorists, crush their movements and free the world from fear.

But to destroy our enemy we have to know our enemy. (APPLAUSE)

We have to understand that we are facing a radical, fundamentalist movement with global reach and a very specific plan. They are not just out to kill us for the sake of killing us. They want to provoke a conflict that will radicalize the people of the Muslim world, turning them against the United States and the West.

KERRY: And they hope to transform that anger into a force that will topple the region's governments and pave the way for a new empire -- an oppressive, fundamentalist superstate stretching across a vast area from Europe to Africa, from the Middle East to Central Asia.

That's their goal.

And the American people have a right to hear the answer to a fundamental question: How are we going to win this war? What is our strategy for eliminating the terrorists, discrediting their cause, and smashing their forces so that America can actually be safer?

Every week, too many American families grieve for loved ones killed in Iraq by terrorist forces that weren't even there before the invasion, many of which got their weapons from the very ammo dumps that George Bush didn't guard after we won the war -- after we won the military part of the war.

The jihadist movement that hates us is gaining adherents around the world -- ask any leader. An estimated 18,000 Al Qaida-trained militants are operating in 60 countries around the world, in a dangerous and more elusive network of extremist groups.

Al Qaida shouldn't be hitting us anywhere. They should be losing everywhere. We should be winning everywhere. That is the goal of our...

(APPLAUSE)

That will take time. It will not be easy, but it can be done.

And I have a comprehensive strategy for victory over terrorism, something this administration has never put forward, never fought for, never really understood.

First, I will build a stronger, smarter military and intelligence capability to capture or kill our enemies. As president, I will expand our Army, which is now overstretched, by 40,000 active duty troops, not for Iraq, but so that we have more soldiers to actually fight and find the terrorists in the places that they are.

I will double our Army special forces capacity. And we will accelerate the development and the deployment of many new technologies to track down and bring down the terrorists.

I will strengthen our intelligence system, something that should have started three years ago, not waiting for a 9/11 Commission and then resisting it, in order to detect and stop the terrorists before they can strike.

KERRY: By the morning of September 12th, everyone in America knew that our intelligence wasn't as good as it needed to be. But three years later, believe it or not, we read that the CIA unit charged with finding bin Laden has fewer experienced case officers today than it had before 9/11.

When I am president, that will change. I will act immediately.

(APPLAUSE)

I will act immediately to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations and I will create a national intelligence director with all of the budget and personnel authority that the commission says is needed to keep America safe. It's long overdue.

(APPLAUSE)

I will double our overseas clandestine service, train the linguists and the Arab experts that we need, and make sure that the operation hunting down Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida has all of the resources that it needs.

I will make Afghanistan a priority again, because it's still the front line in the war on terror. And all you have to do is ask General Tommy Franks how surprised he was that those troops got moved out of there when he was trying to do the job he was doing before the Congress had even approved moving to Iraq.

As president, I will not subcontract the fight to warlords who are out for nothing but power and personal gain.

I will help the government of Afghanistan expand its authority beyond Kabul to the rest of the country. I will lead our allies to share the burden so that NATO finally provides even more troops and I will show the world that America finishes what it begins.

(APPLAUSE)

Second, and this is critical, I will move decisively to deny the terrorists the deadly weapons that they seek. Those weapons were not in Iraq, but tons and kilotons of poorly secured chemical and nuclear weapons are spread throughout the former Soviet Union.

Twelve years ago, we began a bipartisan program -- Joe Biden knows about it; he was part of it with Senator Dick Lugar and others -- in order to help these nations secure and destroy those weapons.

KERRY: It is incredible and unacceptable that in the three years after 9/11, President Bush has not stepped up that effort to lock down those loose nuclear materials and weapons in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere. Much more materials were secured in the two years before 9/11 than in the two years afterwards.

When I am president, denying our most dangerous enemies the world's most dangerous weapons will become the central priority for the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

I will secure nuclear weapons and materials in the former Soviet Union within four years.

Now, let me just remind America, we tried to upgrade the amount of money that was going into this effort and they said no. I say yes, because that's how you make America safer.

(APPLAUSE)

At President Bush's current pace it will take 13 years. I don't think we can afford that when you know what's happened in the black market and in the underground of clandestine efforts.

I will seek a verifiable global ban on the production of materials for nuclear weapons.

Nowhere is the nuclear danger more urgent and more obvious to Americans than in Iran and North Korea. This week, Iran announced its intention to process enough raw uranium to create five nuclear weapons.

I will make it clear to Iran that we will lead an international effort to impose tough sanctions if they do not permanently suspend their uranium enrichment program and provide verifiable assurances that they are not developing nuclear weapons.

Yesterday, there were reports that North Korea is preparing to fire an intermediate range ballistic missile that may be able to carry a nuclear warhead. When President Clinton left office that was impossible. The rods, the fuel rods, the uranium and the television cameras and inspectors were in the reactor.

But George Bush refused to talk to them at all for two years, just left them to their own devices, and they figured out their own way to get our attention.

KERRY: I will work with our allies to get the six-party talks with North Korea back on track and I will talk directly to the North Koreans to get a verifiable agreement that will eliminate their nuclear weapons program completely and irreversibly.

(APPLAUSE)

My friends, we have to get serious about diplomacy with North Korea now and only then are we going to have the support that our allies need in order to have the kind of action that you might have to take if diplomacy were to fail.

Third, as president, I will wage a war on terrorist finances every bit as total as the war we wage on the terrorists themselves.

We will trace terrorist funds to their sources and we will freeze the assets of anyone, any person, any bank or any foreign official who is financing terrorism. I know how to do this.

As a senator, I exposed and I helped dismantle an international bank that was one of the early financiers of terrorism. It actually had $3 million of Osama bin Laden's money in it, as well as the money of drug transactions and underground weapons transactions.

We did it by following the money. We can and must do the same to choke off the dollars that are funding Al Qaida and its allies.

And on this, let me make clear, I will grant no one, no country, no sweetheart relationship a free pass.

(APPLAUSE)

As president, I will do what President Bush has not done -- I will hold the Saudis accountable.

(APPLAUSE)

Since 9/11, there have been no public prosecutions in Saudi Arabia and few elsewhere of terrorist financiers. And I will work with our allies, with the World Bank and international financial institutions to shut down the financial pipeline that keeps terrorism alive.

And I will pursue a plan, most importantly, to make this great nation of ours with all of its creativity, with all of our colleges and universities and laboratories and scientists and venture capitalists -- we're going to pull together and we're going to embark on a great journey and make this nation independent of Mideast oil.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: That is our mission.

(APPLAUSE)

My friends, I believe in and I want an America that relies on our own innovation and ingenuity, not the Saudi royal family.

(APPLAUSE)

Fourth, as president I will make homeland security a real priority by offering a real plan and backing it with real resources.

The first task is to prevent the terrorists and their tools of destruction from entering our country. We know that Al Qaida members and other terrorists could cross into America from Mexico and Canada.

We're now told that America's borders have actually grown more porous since September 11th, and 9/11 Commission staff report that our border inspectors don't even have the training and basic intelligence information to keep out the terrorists.

At our sea ports, we're physically inspecting only 5 percent of the cargo coming into America. The Bush administration is spending more money in Iraq in four days than they've spent protecting our ports for all of the last three years.

(APPLAUSE)

At our airports, there's been some progress. You all feel it when you try to travel. But there is far more to do.

According to news accounts, the terrorist aviation list includes only those who are categorized as a danger to aviation. This is ridiculous. It should include every suspected terrorist who is a danger to anything anywhere in our country so you can capture them when they present themselves at the desk. That's common sense.

(APPLAUSE)

Terrorists recently used explosives to bring down two planes in Russia. Yet here in America, I regret to tell you, the system for detecting explosives carried by passengers fails to pass our own government's tests. And here's something that makes no sense at all. Your luggage is X-rayed when it's put on the plane, but the cargo on the hold underneath seldom is.

This has to change.

In a Kerry-Edwards administration, we'll give our inspectors at our borders access to the terrorist watch lists. At our ports, we will provide a 600 percent increase in support for the most promising cargo inspection programs. In our airports, we're going to install the equipment to check passengers for explosives, to screen cargo just like we screen baggage, and make people fully safe on those planes.

And across the country, we're going to make sure that our police and our firefighters and our ambulance drivers have the latest radios, hazmat suits, decontamination facilities and emergency operation centers that they need to respond effectively to a crisis.

That is the least that we should do to make America safer.

(APPLAUSE)

This is actually all common sense.

KERRY: But none of it is a priority for the Bush administration.

Here's what's on their agenda: costly, new nuclear weapons we don't need that risk fueling the new arms race, and committing to a missile defense system that could eventually cost $100 billion that doesn't yet work and won't stop the likely threats to our security that come through the Verrazano Bridge in a ship or that carried in in various suitcases and are assembled in a hotel.

Near here in Philadelphia region, there are eight chemical plants where a terrorist attack could endanger a million people. But this president allowed the chemical industry to derail common-sense measures for chemical plant security.

My friends, as president, I won't hesitate to protect them. That's protecting the American people.

(APPLAUSE)

At a time when police officers are more critical than ever to our homeland security -- this is something Joe Biden and I know a lot about. Because back in 1994 we stood up together and fought to put 100,000 police officers on the streets of America to reduce crime. And you know what? It worked. We did reduce crime. We made our communities safer.

But lo and behold, here we are at a time when America needs police who are more trained, police who are even trained as they are in Israel to go out on a patrol and be able to look for terrorists, to think differently about terror -- a whole new kind of training -- guess what this administration's doing?

They've gutted the program to put 100,000 new police on our streets. I will restore that funding and make sure that that money reaches our first responders.

(APPLAUSE)

This president, believe it or not, has even failed in his budget to provide a nickel to safeguard our railroads and subways, leaving millions of people every single day vulnerable to terrorist attacks. We've got more people underneath in a tunnel in certain places in America, the equivalent of six 747s at one moment without escape, without ventilation, without recourse.

I intend to invest more than $2 billion in new funding to protect our transit systems so that what happened in Madrid doesn't happen here in the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

Fifth, as we go after the terrorists and secure our homeland, I will focus on the long-term front line of this war.

KERRY: To defeat the terrorists' aims, we have to deny them recruits and safe havens.

For Al Qaida, this war is a struggle for the heart and soul of the Muslim world. We will win this war only if the terrorists lose that struggle.

We will win when ordinary people from Nigeria to Egypt to Pakistan to Indonesia know that they have more to live for than to die for.

(APPLAUSE)

We will win when they once again see America as the America we were on September 12th, when they see us as the champion, not the enemy of their legitimate yearning to live in just and peaceful societies.

We will win when we stop isolating ourselves and start isolating the terrorists.

(APPLAUSE)

The world...

(UNKNOWN): (OFF-MIKE)

KERRY: I will. You know what, I'll say something about AIDS if you let me get a chance, because it's a very legitimate issue. And I have something to say about it, because I wrote the major legislation to deal with it three years ago. OK?

(APPLAUSE)

This is particularly important, what I'm talking about right now, because this is really at the core of how we set out a strategy where we actually can win, where you answer the question of Secretary Rumsfeld, are you creating more recruits than you're killing and capturing.

The world knows the difference between empty promises and genuine commitment. So we're going to win when we show that America uses its economic power for the common good, doing our share to defeat abject poverty, hunger and disease that destroys lives.

(APPLAUSE) This is not in my speech, but I'm going to answer that gentleman's question, because it's a perfect segue for where I find myself.

KERRY: Several years ago, three or four years ago, I joined with Senator Bill Frist in a bipartisan effort and we co-chaired the effort on AIDS, because AIDS is the great moral challenge and the great pandemic across this globe. We've got 4 million people -- 5 million people have died of it. We've got 40 million people infected and it's moving.

It's not a question of Africa. It's a question of South Asia, India, China, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, all across the world -- and it destroys human infrastructure.

We laid out a comprehensive approach that dealt with treatment, dealt with prevention, dealt with retroantiviral drugs that can help prevent the passage from mother to child, dealt with creating the human infrastructure so we could stand up and lead.

And we called and passed -- Joe helped -- we passed with Jesse Helms' support, who co-sponsored it. We passed it in the Senate, but the ideological resistance of this administration has stopped it.

The president has stood up and said he's going to provide $15 billion, and guess what, only a few hundred million have been released, only $200 million to the Global Fund.

The Global Fund has no confidence in America. America is losing its moral authority because we don't step up on issues like AIDS.

I will. I will lead America on these issues.

(APPLAUSE)

And it's not just a question of AIDS.

The world's poorest countries suffering under crushing debt burdens need particular attention.

As president, I'm going to lead the international community to cancel the debt of the most vulnerable nations in return for them living up to goals of social and economic progress and human rights.

My friends, we will win when we work with our allies to enable children in poor countries to be able to get a basic education. More than 50 percent of the population in the Arab and Muslim world is under the age of 25. If all they get to do is go to radical Islamic madrassas and learn how to hate and learn how to strap themselves with explosives, we have a problem for years to come, my friends.

The future is a race between schools that spark learning and schools that teach hate. We have to pre-empt the haters.

(APPLAUSE)

We have to win the war of ideas. New generations have to believe that there is more to life than salvation through martyrdom.

Sixth, we will promote the development of free and democratic societies throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Millions of people there share our human rights values. They share our hopes for a better life for the next generation. They're facing their own struggle at home against the forces of fanaticism and militancy.

They're our natural allies. Their lost trust in our intentions has to be reversed. We have to restore the position where they trust us again. We have to reach out to them and, yes, we have to always promote democracy, but I will be clear with repressive governments in the region that we expect to see them change, not just for our sake, but for their own survival.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: As president, I will do what this president should have done years ago and what we need to do, which is lead a massive effort to improve our outreach to the Muslim world.

We need to train a new generation of American scholars, diplomats, military officers who know this region just as we built our knowledge of the Soviet empire during the Cold War.

I will convene a summit with our European partners and leaders from the Muslim world to strengthen mutual understanding, economic growth and the fight against terror.

And I believe we need to bring all of the leaders of the world's religions, including the moderate mullahs, imams and clerics of the world of Islam, together in order to isolate those who pervert even that religion.

(APPLAUSE)

Let it be clear, the issue here is advancing democracy in Arab nations, not yielding to pressure to undermine Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.

(APPLAUSE)

Our alliance with Israel, the survival and security of Israel are non-negotiable.

(APPLAUSE)

The only solution is a Jewish state of Israel living side by side in security and peace with a democratic Palestinian state. That is what we need to achieve.

(APPLAUSE)

Finally, we will be stronger if we do not go it alone.

As president, I will lead and rebuild strong alliances. This is not only critical to our military operations, it is essential to every other measure that we must take from tracking down terrorists, where we need the cooperation of other nations, to homeland security, where we need their help to stop terrorists and their weapons before they ever reach our shores.

If ever the United States of America needed to reach out rather than alienate countries, it is now.

KERRY: The path to success in the war on terror is to recognize working with other countries is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength and it will make America stronger.

(APPLAUSE)

My fellow Americans, we will not succeed in destroying freedom's adversaries if we are divided from freedom's friends. The terrorists certainly understand that. They're making a special effort to set off bombs in Turkey, Morocco and Indonesia. They want to keep other countries from standing with us in the war on terror.

They know what the Bush administration has been so reluctant to admit, that we are weaker when we fight almost alone. We are safer and stronger in our capacity to capture and kill the terrorists when we fight with allies by our side.

But the Bush administration would have you believe that when it comes to our allies -- this is what they're telling America today -- that when it comes to our allies, it won't make any difference who's president. They say the Europeans won't help us no matter what. We're not going to get more cooperation in the war on terror they say, no matter what. Ordinary people around the world will resent us, no matter what. Well, I have news for President Bush: Just because you can't do something doesn't mean it can't be done.

KERRY: It can be done.

(APPLAUSE)

My friends, it is not George Bush's style that keeps our allies from helping, it's his judgment. And they know that he's not going to change.

But I know that, as always, our allies will follow an America that leaves with sound judgment. And I will provide that.

(APPLAUSE)

The first President Bush waged the first Gulf War with a real coalition that fought with us on the battlefield and paid virtually the entire cost of that war. President Clinton built a real coalition in Kosovo, despite the opposition of Republicans in Congress, and now virtually every soldier on patrol there comes from a foreign country. During the Cold War, every American president understood what is still true today: The strength of our country is vital, but so is the character of our country.

(APPLAUSE)

It is better to be an America that rallies other countries to our cause than to be an America that isolates itself and has to go it alone.

I know that we can win the war on terror. We can defeat, capture and kill those who commit terror. And I've just outlined a strategy for victory, a real strategy.

I know this struggle will be waged in many ways and many places. And I know that it will be a long and a difficult struggle. And I know we have to be resolute in confronting the evil that exists in the world.

But in the end, one of our greatest strengths, one of our greatest safeguards, is that America can be the ideal that inspires others everywhere.

That's who we are. That's America. If we again become that beacon of hope, we're going to discover in ourselves the most powerful and useful weapons in the war against the terrorists. Because if we're true to ourselves, terrorists cannot defeat the values and vision that have made America great.

(APPLAUSE)

No American mother should have to lie awake at night wondering whether her children will be safe at school the next day. No one should fear visiting our nation's capital or our greatest cities because they might be attacked. Our hope, our determination is nothing less than this: to live our lives confident that we are safe at home and secure in the world. And that is the great victory that I will fight for and win as your president.

Thank you. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

BETTY NGUYEN, ANCHOR: You've been listening to Senator John Kerry speak in Philadelphia today about his plan to win the war against terrorism.

We want to go now to CNN's Bill Schneider to get some analysis on this speech.

Hi there, Bill.

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Betty.

NGUYEN: Well, listening to this speech, any surprises? The thing that surprised me -- that surprised me, I should say, is that standing ovation that Senator Kerry got when he talked about holding the Saudis accountable.

SCHNEIDER: That's right. That's an important theme of his speech. He said that he would attack the terrorist financing and he would hold the Saudis accountable.

There is a lot of information, there are a lot of ties between the Bush family and the Saudi families. They've been dramatized; they've been criticized. He has stood up and said the United States should hold the Saudis responsible because they're the chief financers of international terrorism. A very clear difference with President Bush.

My -- the surprise that I found, you're asking anything surprising, is what he did not say. He did not talk about his Vietnam War record. He didn't talk about his military service.

This is a speech in which I think Senator Kerry has literally and metaphorically found his voice. He's talking about the real issues in this campaign, the war on terror, and not allowing it to be diverted into a debate that happened over something 35 years ago.

NGUYEN: Keeping on focus. All right, CNN's Bill Schneider, thank you so much for that.

We want to also get some reaction now to the Kerry speech on fighting terrorism, campaign manager, Ken Mehlman joins us from the Bush/Cheney headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

I'm doing great. How are you today?

KEN MEHLMAN, BUSH/CHENEY CAMPAIGN MANAGER: It's good.

NGUYEN: Let's talk about this. You response to this seven-point plan?

MEHLMAN: Well, I thought it was fairly interesting on the same week that John Kerry said that America would be safer if Saddam Hussein was in power, just one day after, he criticized the new Iraqi prime minister, we heard three things from him today.

First we heard him repackage the president's idea and claim they were their own.

Second we heard more baseless political tacks.

And third, we heard more vacillation. We heard on issue after issue, the John Kerry of today would be a very different person than the John Kerry who the American people and that the whole world has heard throughout the campaign.

And when you think about it, what we need to defeat Zarqawi and to win the war on terror is not vacillation and it's not political attacks; it's strong and steady leadership, which is what this president offers.

NGUYEN: So you don't see difference in the Kerry plan versus the Bush plan?

MEHLMAN: Well, the Bush plan -- the Kerry plan is a lot of what the Bush plan is doing. What has changed today as compared to what Kerry said before is where John Kerry has been.

Remember in December of 2001, John Kerry called Saddam Hussein a terrorist. He said that removing Saddam Hussein was a critical part of the war on terror. Now he says it's a diversion from the war on terror.

It was John Kerry who for 112 days delayed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Today he attacks the president for it.

It was John Kerry who voted against providing our troops with the body armor and ammunition they needed to succeed. And now he criticizes the president for providing insufficient support.

So the changes that has occurred is that once again John Kerry has changed his tune based on politics.

And I think the real question in this campaign is the following. When we face these global threats, when we face this international terrorist threat, do we want a commander in chief who speaks clearly, or do we want a commander in chief who vacillates based on the politics?

And if that were to happen, think of the message that would send to the terrorists and it would send to around the world. That's the last thing we need right now.

NGUYEN: Talking about speaking clearly and clearing up a lot of the confusion, we want to play you a little excerpt from that speech where Kerry basically says the Bush administration is in confusion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY: ... administration of confusion. We hear the president, the commander in chief, proclaiming one day that the war can't be won. And then saying something different the next day.

We hear the secretary of defense himself wandering whether the radicals are recruiting, training and deploying more terrorists than we're killing or capturing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Now, your response to that?

MEHLMAN: My response is that I think what he's referring to is some weeks ago the president pointed out that the struggle against terrorism was a different struggle than the struggle we'd ever faced before.

When we faced a nation before and the white flag went up, the battle ended. But this is going to be a longer and more difficult struggle, which is why this president has gone after the terrorists where they gather to protect the American people.

And that's exactly the kind of struggle where John Kerry's vacillation and where his defeatism and where his political approach would be so devastating. That's exactly why it's so important, this president be re-elected and the consequences would be so bad for winning the war on terror if John Kerry were our commander in chief.

NGUYEN: All right. Campaign manager Ken Mehlman, thank you so much for that.

MEHLMAN: Thank you. Appreciate it.

NGUYEN: Let's compare the two approaches for waging the war on terror, the Kerry plan side by side with the Bush plan. And for that, CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen joins us in Washington this morning.

Good morning to you.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning.

NGUYEN: Do you see much of a difference between the two plans?

BERGEN: Well, I was surprised. I thought were substantive differences.

Obviously very strong -- very strongly condemning the Iraq war as being a diversion from the war on al Qaeda; also saying that the hunt for bin Laden is had been given a lower priority. That's something that he would change. Afghanistan itself, a country in which he would put more resources, try and make more secure. There are also a number of different programs that he -- that he was talking about expanding: 40,000 members of active duty Army, not for Iraq, but just in general to -- to be used anywhere in the war on terrorism.

Also talking about doubling the number of clandestine officers, increasing the number of Arab linguists, a lot of actual quite detailed programs that seem to be different or in addition to what the Bush administration has been talking about.

And indeed, also talking about really going after the Saudis. He's sort of making a dig at the administration, I thought, in the terms of we're giving nobody any special preferences, in terms of cracking down on terrorist financing.

Also talking about making us independent from Middle East oil. Also, I think a substantive difference in the Bush administration.

And talking about and also giving kind of a laundry list of things for homeland security, which would certainly be in addition to what the Bush administration is doing right now. More checks on cargo, for instance. Very little cargo is actually checked at this moment.

Also more money for first responders, the people who would actually go to a WMD, or weapons of mass destruction scene, and respond to it.

More money for transit systems. He mentions specifically the attacks in Madrid, where obviously there were commuter railway trains were bombed. Kerry saying the Bush administration hasn't done enough to protect mass transit in this country.

And then, you know, in the broader sense, also ending America's isolation in the world. It's simply a fact that anti-Americanism is at an all-time high around the world, not only in the Middle East, but also in Europe. And Kerry's saying that he would do something to fix that.

I thought one of the most interesting ideas he had was this notion of a summit, including moderate Muslim clerics from around the world, to try and isolate the radicals.

And then finally, he concluded that, you know, the Bush administration's isolation from the rest of the world is not a matter of Bush's style, but his judgment.

And I think by that, I think one of the implications, of course, is that the Iraq war has really been a distraction from the war on terrorism. And that is Kerry's opinion, obviously.

But that is also a view, I think, that is shared with quite a lot of terrorism experts that I've talked to in the past, both on the Republican side of the aisle and the Democratic side of the aisle, that the Iraq war has not increased our security and may well have decreased it. NGUYEN: Thanks for that insight. CNN's Peter Bergen.

And we will have much more here on CNN LIVE TODAY. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning. I'm Betty Nguyen. Let's get a check of what's happening in the news for Friday, September 24.

John Kerry outlined a seven-point plan today that he says will win the war against terror. Kerry says the war in Iraq has diverted resources from the pursuit of terrorists, including the capture of Osama bin Laden.

U.S. warplanes pound more targets in the volatile Iraqi city of Fallujah. Planes struck two areas of the city, but there are no reports of casualties. Fallujah has been a stronghold for insurgents. And over the past few weeks, U.S. forces have targeted sites linked to the terror network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

President Bush's new CIA director was sworn in this morning. Florida Congressman Porter Goss takes over the agency during the tumultuous time. The CIA has been criticized for failures leading up to the September 11 attacks. And Congress is considering a major intelligence overhaul.

Goss was approved over the objection of some Democrats who accused him of being too partisan.

President Bush thanked a group of volunteers this morning for helping victims of the school attack in Russia. More than 300 hostages were killed earlier this month when Chechen rebels seized the school.

Iraq's interim prime minister lays a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery. Ayad Allawi also met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this morning as he wraps up his visit to Washington. Allawi has expressed optimism about his country's future, including the January elections.

Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.

More hurricane news to tell you about. Hurricane Jeanne is on a path that could lead to Florida's east coast by Sunday.

Parts of Haiti are in dire straits six days after Jeanne washed over the island of Espanola (ph) as a tropical storm. At least 1,100 Haitians were killed and more than 1,200 are still missing. Many residents say they haven't had any food since losing their homes.

Three weeks after it first formed, Ivan, well it is still causing problems. Parts of Louisiana and Texas along the Gulf coast are the latest victims. The storm system has weakened to a tropical depression, but it is bringing plenty of rain to make life miserable for many.

So to get the latest on all of these hurricanes, of course we check in with Orelon Sidney.

Is it ever going to stop, Orelon?

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NGUYEN: Staying optimistic. Thank you.

SIDNEY: You're welcome.

NGUYEN: We'll have your "Daily Dose" of health news right after this break.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most days you probably feel tied to your computer. How'd you like to wear it all the time? Well, Thad Stern has worn his modified P.C. nearly every day since 1993. He thinks eventually many of us will do the same. A pioneer in the wearable computer world, Stern points to the explosion of mobile gadgets like cell phones and PDAs.

THAD STERNER, MOBILE COMPUTER PIONEER: Last year in 2003, there were actually three times as many on-body computer devices sold than laptops and desktops combined.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His goal is to make voice controlled wearable computers that are interactive without being intrusive, like being able to update your daily calendar or giving you helpful reminders, all while on the go.

STERNER: What we're looking at is systems that can use speech that you normally would say to help control your computer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sterner believes wearable computers in one form or another will one day replace the desktop as we know it and change how we communicate with each other.

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NGUYEN: In your "Daily Dose" of health news, man's best friend might be better than we thought. Some dogs can smell cancer.

Researchers have known about cases where a pet dog identified its owner's cancer long before medicine caught up with it. Now British scientists have tested that theory by training dogs to identify urine samples of bladder cancer patients. The dogs were right more than half the time.

And a Belgian woman has become the first to have a baby after an ovarian tissue transplant. Doctors froze part of her ovaries while she underwent cancer treatment. The tissue was re-implanted six years later with successful results.

To get your "Daily Dose" of health news online, all you have to do is logon to our web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. The address, CNN.com/health.

John C. McGinley has a heart of gold. You'll probably never know it by watching his character on the hit TV show "Scrubs," but believe us, it is there. Up next, John C. joins us live to talk about something very near and dear to that heart. Stick around.

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KEN JENKINS, ACTOR: Oh, so you're going to sock me again. Good God, Perry, at a certain point you're beating up an old man.

JOHN MCGINLEY, ACTOR: Relax, I'm just fixing your nose.

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NGUYEN: Oh, goodness. A fourth season of laughs is under way on NBC's "Scrubs." John C. McGinley steals the show as the caustic but sometimes caring Dr. Perry Cox. He joins us in New York to talk about the comedy and something also very close to his heart, the National Buddy Walk for Down Syndrome.

John C., as you like to be called, morning to you.

MCGINLEY: Good morning. How are you?

NGUYEN: I'm doing well. Let's first talk about the National Down Syndrome Society. This cause is very personal to you. Tell us about it.

MCGINLEY: I have a 7-year-old son named Max who was born with Down Syndrome. And when -- when Max had a seizure disorder when he was 3 and then that abated. And when Max turned 4, I was able then to stop circling the wagons and just take care of Max and -- and reach out to other children and families who had special needs.

And so I found the National Down Syndrome Society. It's this group that just had this enormous, profound amount of resources that families could go to.

It's -- look, it's very disorienting when you have a child born with special needs, especially if you didn't have an amnio and you have the kid and then all of a sudden, in the case of Down Syndrome, the 21st chromosome tripled.

And what are you supposed to do, and who are you supposed to turn to? And what does all this mean anyway?

And NDSS, which is the way that it's abbreviated, and their web site is NDSS.org is just this -- this huge wealth of knowledge and support structures and chat rooms and information and a place to go where -- where you can find out what other people are doing with their children and mistakes that maybe you don't want to make, because somebody made it before you.

NGUYEN: And did you go there to get information for your family?

MCGINLEY: Yes, we sure did. And, look, there's everything from -- from speech therapies that might be appropriate for a child, occupational therapy. There's a great horseback riding therapy called hippotherapy that helps with low tone and muscular development for kids. There's gymnastic resources, musical therapy.

NGUYEN: So many resources. We're running out of time. I want to get to Buddy Walk really quick. Tell us about that.

MCGINLEY: The Buddy Walk is a day of empowerment and inclusion. And really what we want to with the Buddy Walk is just create a sense of community and love and elevate the families and the kids and know that they're not alone. And that there's other people and families who are sharing kind of their arc.

And that you've actually been blessed with these children. It's not a burden. It's a blessing. And it's -- if you can foster a landscape where these children can thrive, then you're actually doing something amazing.

NGUYEN: And that takes place when?

MCGINLEY: In New York. It's this Sunday. But there are almost 200 of them throughout the country in September and October.

NGUYEN: We wanted to talk to you about "Scrubs," but we're way out of time, John C.

MCGINLEY: Sorry about that.

NGUYEN: It's been a pleasure. And we'll look for you on TV. How about that?

MCGINLEY: Thanks for having us on.

NGUYEN: All right. Thank you.

MCGINLEY: Sure.

NGUYEN: Well, that does it for me, Betty Nguyen here in Atlanta and LIVE TODAY. Carol Lin is up next, in for Wolf Blitzer.

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