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American Morning

Target: Terrorism: Bush Speaking to CEOs About Post-September 11th Economy; Authorities Indicate Bus Attack Appears to be Isolated Incident

Aired October 03, 2001 - 11:03   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Here in New York City, though, President Bush is sounding out some of the nation's top CEOs this hour about the post-September 11th economy.

CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace. Good to see you here in person.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good to be here.

HEMMER: He's going to meet with 30 members of the business community, leading members of leading countries all across the nation. Has he come to talk, or to listen or both?

WALLACE: Both, Bill.

He wants to get of sense of what business leaders think that the government needs to do, if there are any kind of additional tax breaks that the government can put forward, any additional increase in government spending. He wants to hear from business leaders, but also send a message that he is going to take what they say into account, what consumers are saying, that the government must do something to give the economy a boost.

HEMMER: When we look in a broad sense at this package, are we talking about tax cuts, are we talking about further reductions in interest rates, pushes along which lines here.

WALLACE: It's really being described to us as threefold. One, to sort of increase consumer confidence, so maybe more individual tax cuts, maybe more rebate checks going out. Maybe a payroll tax cut. Also, again, breaks for businesses. Maybe corporate income taxes cuts, maybe capital gains cut tax cut, and then of course for the hundreds of thousands of workers who have been laid off, how to help them since the September 11th attacks. Maybe extension and unemployment benefits, health care coverage, job training. I'm told that this will be all three in any package.

HEMMER: We have heard so much about the possibility for assistance for airline workers, more than 100,000 out of work by the end of this month. Are there other industries being studied as well? And is there a concern that if the airlines are getting assistance, will others come knocking on the door also? WALLACE: I think already, others are knocking on the door. Parts of the tourism industry, restaurants, various sectors, definitely deeply affected, so it's a big concern for the industry and for the Congress about who to help. The hope is that this package, the president said yesterday, the key is getting people to spend more money, businesses to spend more, getting consumers to spend more, businesses to invest, that that will have a ripple effect on the economy, obviously helping all those businesses that have been affected.

HEMMER: Certainly, there has to be a question here about time and putting on somewhat of a fast track.

Tom Daschle just said, it could take weeks. What are they saying at the White House?

WALLACE: You know, they're not really giving us a timetable. We do know, though, from Treasury Secretary O'Neill, who you mentioned, will be testifying, and President Bush today, he's likely to go a little bit further, maybe some more parameters, maybe more on size of package that he's looking for. He said yesterday, it should be big enough to give a boost in the short term, but not too big to sort of lead to an increase in long-term interest rates, but not really saying exactly a timetable.

There is this balancing act. Federal Reserve board chairman Alan Greenspan urging some caution, not wanting lawmakers to rush into anything until their was a full assessment of the impact on the economy. At the same time, urgency to help workers, to help industry to get people to spend, so it's a balancing act.

HEMMER: Also quickly going to make a stop at an elementary school down near the World Trade Center site, first-graders there, and then meeting with the mayor in New York as well, Rudy Giuliani.

WALLACE: Absolutely.

HEMMER: Kelly Wallace at the White House in New York today.

Another setback and tragedy connected to the nation's travel industry, this time involving a Greyhound bus. It happened before the sun came up today in Manchester, Tennessee. There they say a bus en route to Atlanta crashed after a man slit the driver's throat. At least seven, possibly as many as 10, we're hearing, are dead, including the attacker. Greyhound has suspended all service nationwide. The bus driver being treated for a laceration to his neck and is in stable condition.

Federal authorities indicate that bus attack appears to be an isolated incident, and not connected to terrorism, which is a critical point for many people hearing reports of this today.

Our justice correspondent Kelli Arena joins us live with the latest.

Kelli, good morning again. KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Well, first, let me tell you a government official confirmed the man who split the throat of the bus driver held a Croatian passport. Now what significance that holds, if any, is unclear at this point.

FBI officials also saying that, as you said, there is no information linking this incident with the terrorist attacks of three weeks ago. And, they say, that there have been no specific and credible terrorist threats involving buses. Now the FBI obviously participating in that investigation. That is because buses travel across state lines. And as one official put it, these extraordinary times give every incident greater priority.

Now, of course, much of the FBI's attention on the investigation into the September 11th attacks. An FBI official this morning testifying before a House subcommittee about the attacks saying that the FBI has no specific threat information about any other terrorist targets, but that the level of threat does remain high, and he spoke about United flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM CARUSO, FBI: We have also located some of the flight recorders and voice data recorders and are in the process of analyzing them for insights into what took place onboard those flights. With respect to the United airlines flight number 93 that crashed into Pennsylvania, I can confirm that the passenger engaged in a fight for their lives with their four hijackers, and most likely as a result of their efforts saved the lives of unknown individuals on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARENA: In another development in Alexandria, Virginia this morning, two individuals, a man named Louis Flores (ph) and a woman named Kenis Garcia (ph) were back in U.S. district court. They are charged with document fraud, meaning that they helped some of the alleged hijackers get driver's licenses. The two have not been directly linked to the terrorist attacks, but they could have information that's helpful to the investigation. Flores held without bail.

And also today, the head of the criminal division at the Justice Department, Michael Churchoff, and Paul O'Neill, the treasury secretary, are both testifying before Congress about the efforts to track down money linked to the terrorist. Now sources said one of the most productive areas of the terrorist investigation thus far has been following the money trail to track down possible associates, and that's about it for now.

Back to you, Bill.

HEMMER: Probably not the end of this trail today, though. We'll check back in a little later.

Kelli Arena, our justice correspondent in Washington. The Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the road today as well, looking to solidify the antiterror coalition, four planned stops and four separate companies.

Back to the Pentagon. Bob Franken checking in now.

Bob, good morning to you.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

And he left behind a deployment order. The 10th mountain army division, which is stationed in Fort Drum, New York, which is a light infantry division, which as the name suggests, with some training in high terrain, such as in Afghanistan.

At any rate, it's been put on heightened alert, waiting to see exactly it will be deployed. One of the talk is about Uzbekistan. And, of course, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is including Uzbekistan in his itinerary for this trip. Saudi, Oman and Egypt the other countries, but Uzbekistan is particularly of note, because of the fact that it is a former Soviet republic and if, in fact, troops are stationed there, it would be the first time that United States troops had been stationed in a country that was part of the former Soviet Union for use in a combat way.

In fact, Uzbekistan, of course particularly important because has sliver of land, about 80 miles, that borders on Afghanistan, and by all accounts, Afghanistan is become the focus of the plans for U.S. military action. We've seen deployment, visible parts of it any way, in the last couple of weeks. We've seen aircraft carrier battle groups spreading around the world. We've seen the USS Kitty Hawk without many of its airplanes, steaming for area near that would also be near the region.

So if possible, troops could be deployed from the ship itself. But there's some hopes that they can in fact deploy troops to places closer to Afghanistan. Uzbekistan fit the bill, and they're going talks about that when the secretary of defense includes that in his itinerary -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Bob, well check back in. Bob Franken at the Pentagon.

Now to Afghanistan, where the Taliban's supreme leader is out with another warning: Cross me, and face the possibility of death.

We've heard warning before, but again today, CNN's Walter Rogers now reporting from across the border in Pakistan. Walter's in the capital city of Islamabad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): After yesterday, calling for negotiations with the United States and its allies, to try to head off a military confrontation in Afghanistan, the Taliban is once again taking a defiant tone. Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban now saying that the United States is going to face a jihad, and he called on Muslim leaders around the world to preach to fellow Muslims about the need for jihad, a holy war against the West. He called on Muslim businessman to contribute money, and he called on young Muslims around the world to enlist in the jihad, the holy war against the west, to fight what he called the oppressive powers.

Increasingly, these Islamist hardliners, the fundamentalist leaders in this part of the world are taking a position that this is going to be a confrontation between Islam and the United States. Of course, President Bush has tried to say that is definitely not the case. Mr. Bush has repeatedly spoken admiringly of Islam and spiritual values. The problem, of course, is that many of the radical Isikoff in this part of this world, like this Pakistani Islamic leader, say they don't believe the American president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL SATTAR, PAKISTANI FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): We do not believe him. He is attacking Muslims without restraint or evidence. His bombs will not hit rocks; they will kill Muslims. It is my belief the life of one Muslim is worth more than the life of all Americans, and I am well within my rights to hold this opinion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RODGERS: One of the tough issues in this part of the world continues to be that of evidence. Many Muslims in Pakistan and elsewhere in the region simply don't believe the United States has convincing proof that links Osama bin Laden with the terrorist attacks on the United States last month. Many Muslims will tell you if the United States had such proof, it should have made this proof public. It has not. Therefore, they conclude the United States has fabricated the evidence. When you confront some of these Islamic clerics with the information which is coming about -- out that the United States has, they simply say this is a fabrication. They do not don't want to believe that Osama bin Laden was wrong and the United States right.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, Islamabad, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: I want to keep our focus overseas now. In the Middle East now, Israeli tanks rumbling into northern Gaza today, and a very young cease-fire with the Palestinians appears to have crumbled. The toll there, eight Palestinians and two Israelis dead after the fighting.

CNN's Mike Hanna from Jerusalem now with an update there.

Mike, hello.

MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.

The cease-fire, as you say, apparently lying in tatters, a cease- fire that has been in place for only one week. But also under threat because of this ongoing violence, U.S. efforts to include Arab nations in its international coalition in the war against terror.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANNA (voice-over): An attack by Palestinian gunmen on a Jewish settlement in the Gaza strip. An 18-year-old Israeli soldier and her boyfriend killed, a number of other soldiers wounded, as well as several other civilian residents of the settlement, including a baby. Two Palestinian gunmen, eventually shot and killed by Israeli soldiers. This, says the Israeli government, was a serious terrorist attack, the type of action that makes it impossible to accede to international pressure for a cessation of hostilities as the U.S. attempts to involve Arab nations in a coalition against terror.

ARIEL SHARON, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We are going to provide any help to the struggle against this terrible terror around the world. We will do that. But one must understand that we will not be able to pay with our lives for the appeasement of Arab countries, because they demand it.

HANNA: The Palestinian Authority has condemned the attack as a breach of the latest week-old cease-fire, and has committed itself to hunting down those who helped plan it.

But prior to this cease-fire, attacks against Jewish settlements and the soldiers who guard them have been defended by the Palestinian Authority as legitimate resistance to an illegal Israeli occupation.

The characterization of these attacks, a fundamental pot of difference between Israelis and Palestinians, and a major reason, says the chief Palestinian negotiator, why an independent arbitrator is needed in the region, specifically a special U.S. emissary.

SAED ERAKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: I'm not saying to negotiate for us, no. Israelis and Palestinians will do the negotiations, we will make the decisions, but we need a third party to monitor and follow up the implementation. We need an emissary, and we need monitors on the ground.

HANNA: In statements recorded before the settlement attack, two members of the extremist Hamas movement claimed responsibility. Hamas violently opposed to the Palestinian Authority's attempts to negotiate peacefully with Israel.

But in retaliation for the attack, Israel has launched an operation against the authority's security forces. Several Palestinians have been killed by tank and rifle fire as Israeli forces take up positions well inside autonomous Palestinian territory, destroying a number of Palestinian security outposts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANNA: The Israel government insists that the Palestinian Authority must accept responsibility for the latest Israeli deaths, a claim angrily rejected by Palestinian leaders, who say that the Hamas gunmen managed to slip past Israeli security points, as well as Palestinian security positions in their attack on the heavily-guarded Jewish enclave.

Within the last hour, reports of further violence this time in West Bank city of Hebron, where two Israeli women reported to have been shot and seriously injured by Palestinian gunmen.

The violence on the ground continues, continuing to defy U.S. efforts to get the sides of the region back to negotiating table -- Bill.

HEMMER: Mike Hanna live in Jerusalem.

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