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American Morning

White House Promises to Bring Those Seen Executing Nicholas Berg to Justice; 'Paging Dr. Gupta'

Aired May 12, 2004 - 08:30 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.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: 8:30 here in New York. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Kamber and May back with us in a few moments, talking about the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, talk about the situation with Nic Berg and the videotape that was put on that Web site yesterday, all this in context right now with the hearings we've been watching in D.C., the senators seeing more of those photos today. We'll get to all of that in a moment.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, lots to cover. Also, this morning, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to join us. He's talking about one of the simplest ways to protect your child from a potentially debilitating injury. So why is nobody listening is the question?

HEMMER: Well, listen, years ago, it used to be a very uncool thing to wear a helmet.

Kind of came in fashion, did not?

O'BRIEN: Right, hopefully they really wear them.

HEMMER: That's right. Top stories now here at the half hour, radical Muslim cleric Muqtada Al Sadr is urging fighters in Karbala to resist U.S. troops during an ongoing operation in that holy city, military officials say coalition forces killed at least 20 insurgents, seven coalition soldiers injured. Four have since returned to duty in that city.

The U.S. Army general who authorized the report on abuses at the Abu Ghraib Prison said soldiers there acted on their own volition. Major General Antonio Taguba testifying yesterday before the Senate committee, blaming the abuses on lack of supervision, and saying they were not part of official U.S. policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. ANTONIO TAGUBA, U.S. ARMY: Failure in leadership, sir, from the brigade commander on down, lack of discipline, no training whatsoever and no supervision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Again, as we just mentioned senators will soon get to see more pictures of abuse this afternoon in Washington.

Israeli forces have fired a missile into a neighborhood in Gaza. Smoke was seen billowing out of a building following that attack. At least three Palestinians are dead, dozens more, we're told, are wounded. The attack was launched in the same area where six Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday. Their bodies, so far, have not been recovered.

President Bush is tightening the U.S. economic squeeze on Syria. U.S. officials accuse Syria of supporting militant groups and not doing enough to stop insurgents from crossing the Iraqi border. The new sanctions ban, U.S. exports to Syria, except for food and medicine.

8:33. You are up to date here from New York.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: The White House has promised to bring those who have been seen executing 26-year-old American Nicholas Berg to justice. Berg's murder was shown yesterday on an al Qaeda-linked Web site. His executioners said the murder was partial retribution for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops. And there is information about a warning that Berg received from U.S. officials about leaving the country.

For more on all of this, let's go right to our national security correspondent David Ensor this morning.

David, good morning.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATL. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Well, on that last point, we understand from officials that Mr. Berg was in fact detained by Iraqi authorities working under the U.S. and was in fact imprisoned by them for a couple of days. He was arrested while in an Iraqi taxicab. He was then released, and American officials spoke to him and advised him that he ought to leave the country, that it was not safe to be moving around alone as he was at the time.

Now, he disappeared on April 9th. It's assumed that he was taken prisoner at that point. Officials are now saying that they believe -- his body was found on Saturday, and they now believe he was actually executed either on Saturday or perhaps just the day before that. So a very sad end, and a very dramatic videotape.

O'BRIEN: Terrible, really horrific, I think it's fair to say. The question is, of course, who exactly were the executioners? And if you listen to the tape, Zarqawi takes credit for the execution, but there's some experts I know that you've talked to, who say, no, that's not the case, it can not be. Why?

ENSOR: Well, actually, we are talking here about Arabic-language experts that work at CNN, who have listened to the tape and who have listened to other tapes that are known to be the voice of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, and they say, whereas Zarqawi is from northern Jordan and has the accent of that area, the person who is speaking on the tape clearly has a southern Jordanian accent. Now U.S. officials have not been able to comment on this at this point. They are keeping all their options open.

The only reason we have to believe that it's Zarqawi on the tape is that on the Web site, where the tape is presented, it's presented as Zarqawi actually talking and then killing Mr. Berg. That's the only reason we have to think that it's Zarqawi. Now it might have been a different person who wrote the Web site.

Zarqawi, of course, is the wanted terrorist, wanted for the death of an American diplomat in Jordan, wanted in dozens of attacks against U.S. forces and others in Iraq. He's a Jordanian from the north of the country.

So this man is very much on -- in the sights of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement. There's a $10 million reward for his capture as we now speak.

O'BRIEN: All right, David Ensor for us again. What a horrible story, and of course our hearts go out to the family members today.

Thank, David. Appreciate it -- Bill.

HEMMER: Soledad, now with so many stories out there, Nick Berg, the question about Iraqi prisoner abuse, that later senators will have a look at that later today. Also the issue of politics now entering this entire debate. Let's talk about that.

Democratic strategist Victor Kamber back with us today. Good morning, Victor. Nice to see you.

VICTOR KAMBER, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning, Bill. How are you?

HEMMER: I'm doing just fine. Thank you much.

HEMMER: Former RNC communication director Cliff May also in D.C. We call it Kamber and May.

Cliff, good morning to you as well.

CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR.: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: I want to go back to the hearing yesterday. Republican Senator James Inhofe put a whole new light on the argument and discussion in this country.

Listen to what he said. We'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JAMES INHOFE (R), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: I have to say, and I am probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment. The idea that these prisoners, you know, they're not there for traffic violations. If they're in cell block 1a or 1b, these prisoners, they are murderers, they are terrorists, they're insurgents, many of them probably have American blood on their hands, and here we are so concerned about the treatment of those individuals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: This is where we start this morning, Victor, in this segment. Is he on point or off point? Outrage by the outrage.

KAMBER: Well, I find Mr. Inhofe to be offensive. I could have closed my eyes and that could have been Saddam Hussein speaking about why he'd put prisoners in jail, because to him, they were murderers and terrorists. The difference between us and Iraqis and Saddam Hussein is there should be some humanity.

Clearly, I'm not defending criminals in Iraq that are put in prison. Clearly, I understand the sentiment in this country about people -- we are in war, and there are people there who murder, who -- what we saw with the -- yesterday, the beheading, the animals that are there.

Having said that, we have a responsibility. We went into liberate people. We went in to treat people, to free people in a whole different way. To suggest that we are just do-gooders who care about prisoners and these prisoners are outright prisoners and should be tortured, this gentleman, and I don't even -- that's a light word I'd like to use about Mr. Inhofe, is way out in left field.

HEMMER: Cliff, what about it?

MAY: The beheading of Nick Berg doesn't excuse the abuses that took place at Abu Ghraib Prison, but it put it in some sort of perspective. These are the kinds of people we are trying to fight. and most of the people in the military would never do the kinds of things that would happen at Abu Ghraib prison. I think General Taguba's investigation shows that. We are there helping Iraqis, for the most part.

There are always abuses in war. We are prosecuting those abuses. We will punish those responsible. By contrast, the people who cut off Nick Berg's head, the people who decapitated Danny Pearl, the people who attack us on 9/11 and going back for years, they are only going to come to justice if your military brings them to justice. So I think that a lot of people do feel that while we're showing all these pictures over and over again, I understand, of Abu Ghraib, we're probably not going to show the pictures over and over again on CNN and other stations of Nick Berg getting his head taken off or Danny Pearl getting his head taken off. Let's put it into some perspective. I think that's what Senator Inhofe is trying to say.

KAMBER: What Cliff just said, we want to bring people to justice. There is a difference with bringing people to justice and suggesting that there should be no outrage. And when Cliff says we'll bring people to justice, it's not 18, 19, 20-year-olds that made these decisions. I don't care...

MAY: You don't know that, Victor; you're assuming that. We know that those 18, 19, 20-year-olds did what they did. Now if somebody ordered them to do so or was charged...

KAMBER: Or closed their eyes.

MAY: Or closed their eyes, by all means, let's bring them to justice as well. There was a breakdown in military discipline. Look, it was only November when we were talking about Colonel Alan West, who was drummed out of the military for firing his sidearm to scare a suspect under interrogation. And at that point, I worried that we were going to far in not allowing people to investigate as they should.

By the way, one of the reasons we may have had contractors in here, is because going back years, we have closed down interrogation training at the CIA as part of the peace dividend, as part of the demilitarization of America, because a lot of people thought we had no enemies. You know what, we have serious enemies out there, and let's not get so distracted that we don't fight the war we have to fight and win it.

KAMBER: Cliff, we totally agree. The problem is, we have a president who went to war ill prepared, ill prepared for the war and ill prepared for the aftermath of the war, which we're in right now. And to suggest that it's only 18-year-olds, 19-year-olds and 20-year- olds that -- it's ludicrous, it's ludicrous.

MAY: No one is suggesting that. No one is suggesting that. But I think that you're trying to get some political capital out of this.

KAMBER: No, I'm not, I don't -- this is not a politics story.

MAY: It sound like it when you say, we were ill prepared for war.

KAMBER: We are ill prepared.

MAY: You are absolutely right. The terrorists first attacked us in 1983, and you, and I and every president since 1983 refused to recognize that we had a war we had to fight. We didn't recognize it until 9/11. Now some of us do.

HEMMER: Gentlemen, I got to leave it there. Thanks, Cliff May, Victor Kamber, Kamber and May.

See you again next week, OK.

MAY: OK.

HEMMER: Appreciate it, gentlemen -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Former President Bill Clinton talked about completing his memoir last night at a fund-raiser here in New York City. The book, called "My Life" is just about 900 pages long. It'll hit stores in late June. Mr. Clinton said writing his life story wasn't easy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have been in writer's jail up in Chappaqua. For three months, I have done nothing but try to finish the story of my life. It was hard enough to live it the first time. It's been awful the second time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Mr. Clinton attended a special concert at the world famous Apollo Theater in Harlem. It was a fund-raiser for Voices for Working Families and moveon.org.

HEMMER: Let's get a break here. In a moment, a scoop of one of your favorite summer treats is going to cost you a bit more. Andy tells us why...

O'BRIEN: Really? Ice cream?

HEMMER: ... in business.

I know you love it.

O'BRIEN: And next, what every parent should know before sending their kid off on their bike. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to have a look at that ahead, as AMERICAN MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: More than 200 American children are killed every year in bicycle-related accidents, but still, more than half of bike-riding kids don't wear their helmets. And many of them who do are wearing them improperly.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at CNN Center in Atlanta to show us a little bit more about this and how those helmets should be worn.

Hey, Sanjay, good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly it turns out a lot of people are forgetting their helmets. Bike riding very, very popular still. About 70 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 14 do ride bikes on a pretty regular occasion. But they also find that bike riding, next to cars, is the No. 1 cause of injury in terms of consumer products.

So this has been a big issue with the National Safe Kids Campaign who looked at the issue of bike helmets in particular and its relationship to injuries. Some interesting things here, what they found. First of all, as you said, about 41 percent of children wearing helmets, actually better than some people thought it was going to be, 39 percent of adults wore helmets as well, but 35 percent of both of them actually wearing the helmets improperly, sometimes rendering them useless.

They did find that if kids were riding with adults, they were more likely to wear helmets. About 50 percent of kids wearing them when the adult were wearing them as well. Now helmets are important for a lot of different reasons. The big reason is, if you have an injury, it can take what was otherwise a scraped knee or a scraped elbow and turn it into a devastating head injury. You are about 20 times more likely to have a head injury or brain injury if you're not wearing a helmet than if you are. That's sort of obvious to some extent.

But here's the thing, you can reduce the risk of head injury or brain injury by up to 88 to 90 percent by wearing one of these helmets. So this is why there's so much emphasis on these helmets lately. Some of them are very good. Again, big concern, not wearing them enough or wearing them improperly -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And then let's talk a little bit about wearing them improperly, Sanjay. What are people doing wrong?

GUPTA: A couple of things. The most common concern -- and I got the helmets, so I'll show you. Basically, maybe having the helmet ride up too high on the forehead. It's supposed to sit just above the eyebrow. Sometimes they sit up too high on the forehead. Or the chin straps are not snug enough.

There's this two-hit hypothesis when it comes to head injuries. First, you have the fall. Second you may have another injury as well; if the helmet gets knocked loose from your head, it's not going to be protected as well.

So there's a simple pneumonic that the child safety folks have come up with. It's called MVP. This to help you remember how to put the helmet on properly. Move it down on the forehead. It's usually further down than you think it's going to be. The straps should form a V around your ear. And pull those chin straps snugly. That's going to give you the best bet at trying to avoid a head injury -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: What should parents look for? I mean, I think every parent, obviously, wants to protect their children. So what do they need to look for when they're going out there and buying a helmet for their kid?

GUPTA: Yes, children and adults, it's worth pointing out. And people are wearing helmets for all sorts of things, besides just biking, but also skateboarding, skiing, things like that. You want a sturdy helmet, obviously. A strong strap. Again, that two-hit hypothesis. Oftentimes, the head will take two separate hits. The strap has got to stay tight. It's got to be comfortable, otherwise people just won't wear them. If you're riding at night especially, they should be highly visible, and really spend some time making sure it fits properly. It really has to do its job, otherwise, again, it's of no use at all -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Sorry about the little audio problem at the beginning, but now we hear you loud and clear -- Bill.

HEMMER: In a moment here, why the next ice cream scoop this summer could cost you just a bit more, and not just in calories. Andy's back in a moment. So, too, is Jack, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: All right, welcome back, everybody. Wearing his helmet, doing his best to mind -- what?

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Excuse me?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I didn't understand that.

CAFFERTY: You talking to me?

HEMMER: I'm talking to you.

CAFFERTY: Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business." Got the scoop on stocks and the scoop on ice cream. It's that time of year, you know.

Good morning.

SERWER: And it's not cheap. Good morning to you. They're calling it "liquor shock." We'll get into that in a second.

Let's recap the market, though. Yesterday, a very nice day indeed, bouncing back from Monday's debacle. You can see here tech stocks in particular climbing nearly 2 percent. Cisco reporting good numbers. We'll be watching that stock today. Foreign markets going boffo. Japan up, biggest gain this year so far. Trade gap widening, though, this morning, and unfortunately, the price of oil is at $40. So that's some bad news, which is making futures kind of mixed.

CAFFERTY: Yes, well, never mind that. Let's get to ice cream.

O'BRIEN: That's what I was going to say.

(CROSSTALK)

CAFFERTY: Let's move along.

SERWER: OK, the price of ice cream is going through the roof, and it has to do with a bunch of factors. Industry experts say it's a perfect storm. Prices going to be going up 6 to 20 percent this summer. Why? Well, you got milk going up because no Canadian cows. You got vanilla prices going through the roof because of cyclones in Madagascar. Jack has been tracking those closely. Also, political unrest in the Ivory Coast. That's the largest producer of cocoa in the world, making cocoa prices going up through the roof.

HEMMER: Everyone's got an excuse.

SERWER: Now, in our effort to feed Soledad, which we do almost every day here.

CAFFERTY: Which is no small job anymore.

SERWER: Yes. O'BRIEN: And it's only going to get worse, trust me.

Thanks, Jack. Love you.

SERWER: We scoured Manhattan to find the most expensive ice cream we could in the city, which is a bit of a gimmick, because of course this is the town of the $60 hamburger.

K, this is a laboratorio gelato (ph). That is $8.50 for a pint, $8.50.

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: Well, we try.

And then here, Jack is a little mad because we didn't get his favorite Haagen-Dazs.

O'BRIEN: Wow, that's great.

CAFFERTY: They have a new flavor out, Haagen-Dazs. It's called white chocolate with raspberry truffle. I just discovered it about three days ago. And it's wonderful. It's just...

SERWER: This is from the Coldstone Creamery. This is $10.99.

CAFFERTY: Somebody's been eating out of this already.

SERWER: No, they haven't. They pre...

(AUDIO GAP)

SERWER: ... $10.99.

CAFFERTY: For a whole bucket.

Forty-eight ounces, the ultimate bucket.

And here's a nice trick from Friendly's, the ice cream chain. They have their 64 ounce half gallon bucket is now 56 ounces. How about that for a trick?

O'BRIEN: It's smaller.

SERWER: Yes, nice trick.

So anyway, expect to pay more.

HEMMER: Jack, are you sharing that, by the way?

SERWER: No, he's not.

CAFFERTY: I've got to read the file.

SERWER: Expensive stuff, but...

CAFFERTY: I've got to work.

SERWER: I'm sorry about that, chief.

CAFFERTY: White chocolate with raspberry truffle.

SERWER: Get us some.

CAFFERTY: Get us some?

SERWER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: What do I look like, the Red Cross here?

SERWER: Yes, you do.

CAFFERTY: Wednesday, things people say, beginning with this, "This is no different than what hand at the Skull & Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin people's lives over it? You ever heard of a need to blow some steam off?" That's Rush Limbaugh, radio talk show host, on the behavior of the U.S. soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners. Take another pill.

"I think women make better senators than men." Soledad is choking on her fudge (UNINTELLIGIBLE) over there. "I think women make better senators than men. These little ladies like Elizabeth Dole and Mary Landrieu are terrific senators." That's Fritz Hollings, the senator from South Carolina, on expecting Democrat Inius Tennenbaum (ph) to win his seat when he retires in November. These little ladies? Come on, Fritz.

SERWER: He's getting in touch with his inner Neanderthal.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

"Britney was absolutely devastated when I told her," Taryn Manning on breaking the news to her friend Britney Spears that the Japanese symbol on her rear end there was -- did not say what she thought it said. It said something different. She also has one on her neck that supposedly says something that she thought it said that it doesn't say. And she's got one on her foot. I mean, you got to stop, Britney, until you know what this stuff means.

"Making a great motion picture is easy. It's getting people to pay $9 for a total piece of" -- S-blank-blank-T -- "that is really hard," Rob Schneider talking about his movie career.

"I was pretty amped about the situation. I've never been asked if I want to vote," Joe Herbrand, who is 23 years old at a voter registration drive held at the Isabella Queen strip club in Wisconsin. But they make good cheese there.

SERWER: They sure do, custard, too, frozen custard.

HEMMER: Rush is on line one for Mr. Cafferty.

SERWER: His doctor. CAFFERTY: Take a message. I'll get right back to him.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: We're going to get back to this horrible story out of Iraq. The hometown mourning the loss now, outside of Philadelphia. We'll talk to a spokesperson for the family of Nicholas Berg in a moment. We'll continue, top of the hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.

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 May 12, 2004 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: 8:30 here in New York. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Kamber and May back with us in a few moments, talking about the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, talk about the situation with Nic Berg and the videotape that was put on that Web site yesterday, all this in context right now with the hearings we've been watching in D.C., the senators seeing more of those photos today. We'll get to all of that in a moment.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, lots to cover. Also, this morning, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to join us. He's talking about one of the simplest ways to protect your child from a potentially debilitating injury. So why is nobody listening is the question?

HEMMER: Well, listen, years ago, it used to be a very uncool thing to wear a helmet.

Kind of came in fashion, did not?

O'BRIEN: Right, hopefully they really wear them.

HEMMER: That's right. Top stories now here at the half hour, radical Muslim cleric Muqtada Al Sadr is urging fighters in Karbala to resist U.S. troops during an ongoing operation in that holy city, military officials say coalition forces killed at least 20 insurgents, seven coalition soldiers injured. Four have since returned to duty in that city.

The U.S. Army general who authorized the report on abuses at the Abu Ghraib Prison said soldiers there acted on their own volition. Major General Antonio Taguba testifying yesterday before the Senate committee, blaming the abuses on lack of supervision, and saying they were not part of official U.S. policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. ANTONIO TAGUBA, U.S. ARMY: Failure in leadership, sir, from the brigade commander on down, lack of discipline, no training whatsoever and no supervision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Again, as we just mentioned senators will soon get to see more pictures of abuse this afternoon in Washington.

Israeli forces have fired a missile into a neighborhood in Gaza. Smoke was seen billowing out of a building following that attack. At least three Palestinians are dead, dozens more, we're told, are wounded. The attack was launched in the same area where six Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday. Their bodies, so far, have not been recovered.

President Bush is tightening the U.S. economic squeeze on Syria. U.S. officials accuse Syria of supporting militant groups and not doing enough to stop insurgents from crossing the Iraqi border. The new sanctions ban, U.S. exports to Syria, except for food and medicine.

8:33. You are up to date here from New York.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: The White House has promised to bring those who have been seen executing 26-year-old American Nicholas Berg to justice. Berg's murder was shown yesterday on an al Qaeda-linked Web site. His executioners said the murder was partial retribution for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops. And there is information about a warning that Berg received from U.S. officials about leaving the country.

For more on all of this, let's go right to our national security correspondent David Ensor this morning.

David, good morning.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATL. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Well, on that last point, we understand from officials that Mr. Berg was in fact detained by Iraqi authorities working under the U.S. and was in fact imprisoned by them for a couple of days. He was arrested while in an Iraqi taxicab. He was then released, and American officials spoke to him and advised him that he ought to leave the country, that it was not safe to be moving around alone as he was at the time.

Now, he disappeared on April 9th. It's assumed that he was taken prisoner at that point. Officials are now saying that they believe -- his body was found on Saturday, and they now believe he was actually executed either on Saturday or perhaps just the day before that. So a very sad end, and a very dramatic videotape.

O'BRIEN: Terrible, really horrific, I think it's fair to say. The question is, of course, who exactly were the executioners? And if you listen to the tape, Zarqawi takes credit for the execution, but there's some experts I know that you've talked to, who say, no, that's not the case, it can not be. Why?

ENSOR: Well, actually, we are talking here about Arabic-language experts that work at CNN, who have listened to the tape and who have listened to other tapes that are known to be the voice of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, and they say, whereas Zarqawi is from northern Jordan and has the accent of that area, the person who is speaking on the tape clearly has a southern Jordanian accent. Now U.S. officials have not been able to comment on this at this point. They are keeping all their options open.

The only reason we have to believe that it's Zarqawi on the tape is that on the Web site, where the tape is presented, it's presented as Zarqawi actually talking and then killing Mr. Berg. That's the only reason we have to think that it's Zarqawi. Now it might have been a different person who wrote the Web site.

Zarqawi, of course, is the wanted terrorist, wanted for the death of an American diplomat in Jordan, wanted in dozens of attacks against U.S. forces and others in Iraq. He's a Jordanian from the north of the country.

So this man is very much on -- in the sights of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement. There's a $10 million reward for his capture as we now speak.

O'BRIEN: All right, David Ensor for us again. What a horrible story, and of course our hearts go out to the family members today.

Thank, David. Appreciate it -- Bill.

HEMMER: Soledad, now with so many stories out there, Nick Berg, the question about Iraqi prisoner abuse, that later senators will have a look at that later today. Also the issue of politics now entering this entire debate. Let's talk about that.

Democratic strategist Victor Kamber back with us today. Good morning, Victor. Nice to see you.

VICTOR KAMBER, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning, Bill. How are you?

HEMMER: I'm doing just fine. Thank you much.

HEMMER: Former RNC communication director Cliff May also in D.C. We call it Kamber and May.

Cliff, good morning to you as well.

CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR.: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: I want to go back to the hearing yesterday. Republican Senator James Inhofe put a whole new light on the argument and discussion in this country.

Listen to what he said. We'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JAMES INHOFE (R), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: I have to say, and I am probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment. The idea that these prisoners, you know, they're not there for traffic violations. If they're in cell block 1a or 1b, these prisoners, they are murderers, they are terrorists, they're insurgents, many of them probably have American blood on their hands, and here we are so concerned about the treatment of those individuals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: This is where we start this morning, Victor, in this segment. Is he on point or off point? Outrage by the outrage.

KAMBER: Well, I find Mr. Inhofe to be offensive. I could have closed my eyes and that could have been Saddam Hussein speaking about why he'd put prisoners in jail, because to him, they were murderers and terrorists. The difference between us and Iraqis and Saddam Hussein is there should be some humanity.

Clearly, I'm not defending criminals in Iraq that are put in prison. Clearly, I understand the sentiment in this country about people -- we are in war, and there are people there who murder, who -- what we saw with the -- yesterday, the beheading, the animals that are there.

Having said that, we have a responsibility. We went into liberate people. We went in to treat people, to free people in a whole different way. To suggest that we are just do-gooders who care about prisoners and these prisoners are outright prisoners and should be tortured, this gentleman, and I don't even -- that's a light word I'd like to use about Mr. Inhofe, is way out in left field.

HEMMER: Cliff, what about it?

MAY: The beheading of Nick Berg doesn't excuse the abuses that took place at Abu Ghraib Prison, but it put it in some sort of perspective. These are the kinds of people we are trying to fight. and most of the people in the military would never do the kinds of things that would happen at Abu Ghraib prison. I think General Taguba's investigation shows that. We are there helping Iraqis, for the most part.

There are always abuses in war. We are prosecuting those abuses. We will punish those responsible. By contrast, the people who cut off Nick Berg's head, the people who decapitated Danny Pearl, the people who attack us on 9/11 and going back for years, they are only going to come to justice if your military brings them to justice. So I think that a lot of people do feel that while we're showing all these pictures over and over again, I understand, of Abu Ghraib, we're probably not going to show the pictures over and over again on CNN and other stations of Nick Berg getting his head taken off or Danny Pearl getting his head taken off. Let's put it into some perspective. I think that's what Senator Inhofe is trying to say.

KAMBER: What Cliff just said, we want to bring people to justice. There is a difference with bringing people to justice and suggesting that there should be no outrage. And when Cliff says we'll bring people to justice, it's not 18, 19, 20-year-olds that made these decisions. I don't care...

MAY: You don't know that, Victor; you're assuming that. We know that those 18, 19, 20-year-olds did what they did. Now if somebody ordered them to do so or was charged...

KAMBER: Or closed their eyes.

MAY: Or closed their eyes, by all means, let's bring them to justice as well. There was a breakdown in military discipline. Look, it was only November when we were talking about Colonel Alan West, who was drummed out of the military for firing his sidearm to scare a suspect under interrogation. And at that point, I worried that we were going to far in not allowing people to investigate as they should.

By the way, one of the reasons we may have had contractors in here, is because going back years, we have closed down interrogation training at the CIA as part of the peace dividend, as part of the demilitarization of America, because a lot of people thought we had no enemies. You know what, we have serious enemies out there, and let's not get so distracted that we don't fight the war we have to fight and win it.

KAMBER: Cliff, we totally agree. The problem is, we have a president who went to war ill prepared, ill prepared for the war and ill prepared for the aftermath of the war, which we're in right now. And to suggest that it's only 18-year-olds, 19-year-olds and 20-year- olds that -- it's ludicrous, it's ludicrous.

MAY: No one is suggesting that. No one is suggesting that. But I think that you're trying to get some political capital out of this.

KAMBER: No, I'm not, I don't -- this is not a politics story.

MAY: It sound like it when you say, we were ill prepared for war.

KAMBER: We are ill prepared.

MAY: You are absolutely right. The terrorists first attacked us in 1983, and you, and I and every president since 1983 refused to recognize that we had a war we had to fight. We didn't recognize it until 9/11. Now some of us do.

HEMMER: Gentlemen, I got to leave it there. Thanks, Cliff May, Victor Kamber, Kamber and May.

See you again next week, OK.

MAY: OK.

HEMMER: Appreciate it, gentlemen -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Former President Bill Clinton talked about completing his memoir last night at a fund-raiser here in New York City. The book, called "My Life" is just about 900 pages long. It'll hit stores in late June. Mr. Clinton said writing his life story wasn't easy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have been in writer's jail up in Chappaqua. For three months, I have done nothing but try to finish the story of my life. It was hard enough to live it the first time. It's been awful the second time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Mr. Clinton attended a special concert at the world famous Apollo Theater in Harlem. It was a fund-raiser for Voices for Working Families and moveon.org.

HEMMER: Let's get a break here. In a moment, a scoop of one of your favorite summer treats is going to cost you a bit more. Andy tells us why...

O'BRIEN: Really? Ice cream?

HEMMER: ... in business.

I know you love it.

O'BRIEN: And next, what every parent should know before sending their kid off on their bike. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to have a look at that ahead, as AMERICAN MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: More than 200 American children are killed every year in bicycle-related accidents, but still, more than half of bike-riding kids don't wear their helmets. And many of them who do are wearing them improperly.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at CNN Center in Atlanta to show us a little bit more about this and how those helmets should be worn.

Hey, Sanjay, good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly it turns out a lot of people are forgetting their helmets. Bike riding very, very popular still. About 70 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 14 do ride bikes on a pretty regular occasion. But they also find that bike riding, next to cars, is the No. 1 cause of injury in terms of consumer products.

So this has been a big issue with the National Safe Kids Campaign who looked at the issue of bike helmets in particular and its relationship to injuries. Some interesting things here, what they found. First of all, as you said, about 41 percent of children wearing helmets, actually better than some people thought it was going to be, 39 percent of adults wore helmets as well, but 35 percent of both of them actually wearing the helmets improperly, sometimes rendering them useless.

They did find that if kids were riding with adults, they were more likely to wear helmets. About 50 percent of kids wearing them when the adult were wearing them as well. Now helmets are important for a lot of different reasons. The big reason is, if you have an injury, it can take what was otherwise a scraped knee or a scraped elbow and turn it into a devastating head injury. You are about 20 times more likely to have a head injury or brain injury if you're not wearing a helmet than if you are. That's sort of obvious to some extent.

But here's the thing, you can reduce the risk of head injury or brain injury by up to 88 to 90 percent by wearing one of these helmets. So this is why there's so much emphasis on these helmets lately. Some of them are very good. Again, big concern, not wearing them enough or wearing them improperly -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And then let's talk a little bit about wearing them improperly, Sanjay. What are people doing wrong?

GUPTA: A couple of things. The most common concern -- and I got the helmets, so I'll show you. Basically, maybe having the helmet ride up too high on the forehead. It's supposed to sit just above the eyebrow. Sometimes they sit up too high on the forehead. Or the chin straps are not snug enough.

There's this two-hit hypothesis when it comes to head injuries. First, you have the fall. Second you may have another injury as well; if the helmet gets knocked loose from your head, it's not going to be protected as well.

So there's a simple pneumonic that the child safety folks have come up with. It's called MVP. This to help you remember how to put the helmet on properly. Move it down on the forehead. It's usually further down than you think it's going to be. The straps should form a V around your ear. And pull those chin straps snugly. That's going to give you the best bet at trying to avoid a head injury -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: What should parents look for? I mean, I think every parent, obviously, wants to protect their children. So what do they need to look for when they're going out there and buying a helmet for their kid?

GUPTA: Yes, children and adults, it's worth pointing out. And people are wearing helmets for all sorts of things, besides just biking, but also skateboarding, skiing, things like that. You want a sturdy helmet, obviously. A strong strap. Again, that two-hit hypothesis. Oftentimes, the head will take two separate hits. The strap has got to stay tight. It's got to be comfortable, otherwise people just won't wear them. If you're riding at night especially, they should be highly visible, and really spend some time making sure it fits properly. It really has to do its job, otherwise, again, it's of no use at all -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Sorry about the little audio problem at the beginning, but now we hear you loud and clear -- Bill.

HEMMER: In a moment here, why the next ice cream scoop this summer could cost you just a bit more, and not just in calories. Andy's back in a moment. So, too, is Jack, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: All right, welcome back, everybody. Wearing his helmet, doing his best to mind -- what?

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Excuse me?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I didn't understand that.

CAFFERTY: You talking to me?

HEMMER: I'm talking to you.

CAFFERTY: Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business." Got the scoop on stocks and the scoop on ice cream. It's that time of year, you know.

Good morning.

SERWER: And it's not cheap. Good morning to you. They're calling it "liquor shock." We'll get into that in a second.

Let's recap the market, though. Yesterday, a very nice day indeed, bouncing back from Monday's debacle. You can see here tech stocks in particular climbing nearly 2 percent. Cisco reporting good numbers. We'll be watching that stock today. Foreign markets going boffo. Japan up, biggest gain this year so far. Trade gap widening, though, this morning, and unfortunately, the price of oil is at $40. So that's some bad news, which is making futures kind of mixed.

CAFFERTY: Yes, well, never mind that. Let's get to ice cream.

O'BRIEN: That's what I was going to say.

(CROSSTALK)

CAFFERTY: Let's move along.

SERWER: OK, the price of ice cream is going through the roof, and it has to do with a bunch of factors. Industry experts say it's a perfect storm. Prices going to be going up 6 to 20 percent this summer. Why? Well, you got milk going up because no Canadian cows. You got vanilla prices going through the roof because of cyclones in Madagascar. Jack has been tracking those closely. Also, political unrest in the Ivory Coast. That's the largest producer of cocoa in the world, making cocoa prices going up through the roof.

HEMMER: Everyone's got an excuse.

SERWER: Now, in our effort to feed Soledad, which we do almost every day here.

CAFFERTY: Which is no small job anymore.

SERWER: Yes. O'BRIEN: And it's only going to get worse, trust me.

Thanks, Jack. Love you.

SERWER: We scoured Manhattan to find the most expensive ice cream we could in the city, which is a bit of a gimmick, because of course this is the town of the $60 hamburger.

K, this is a laboratorio gelato (ph). That is $8.50 for a pint, $8.50.

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: Well, we try.

And then here, Jack is a little mad because we didn't get his favorite Haagen-Dazs.

O'BRIEN: Wow, that's great.

CAFFERTY: They have a new flavor out, Haagen-Dazs. It's called white chocolate with raspberry truffle. I just discovered it about three days ago. And it's wonderful. It's just...

SERWER: This is from the Coldstone Creamery. This is $10.99.

CAFFERTY: Somebody's been eating out of this already.

SERWER: No, they haven't. They pre...

(AUDIO GAP)

SERWER: ... $10.99.

CAFFERTY: For a whole bucket.

Forty-eight ounces, the ultimate bucket.

And here's a nice trick from Friendly's, the ice cream chain. They have their 64 ounce half gallon bucket is now 56 ounces. How about that for a trick?

O'BRIEN: It's smaller.

SERWER: Yes, nice trick.

So anyway, expect to pay more.

HEMMER: Jack, are you sharing that, by the way?

SERWER: No, he's not.

CAFFERTY: I've got to read the file.

SERWER: Expensive stuff, but...

CAFFERTY: I've got to work.

SERWER: I'm sorry about that, chief.

CAFFERTY: White chocolate with raspberry truffle.

SERWER: Get us some.

CAFFERTY: Get us some?

SERWER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: What do I look like, the Red Cross here?

SERWER: Yes, you do.

CAFFERTY: Wednesday, things people say, beginning with this, "This is no different than what hand at the Skull & Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin people's lives over it? You ever heard of a need to blow some steam off?" That's Rush Limbaugh, radio talk show host, on the behavior of the U.S. soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners. Take another pill.

"I think women make better senators than men." Soledad is choking on her fudge (UNINTELLIGIBLE) over there. "I think women make better senators than men. These little ladies like Elizabeth Dole and Mary Landrieu are terrific senators." That's Fritz Hollings, the senator from South Carolina, on expecting Democrat Inius Tennenbaum (ph) to win his seat when he retires in November. These little ladies? Come on, Fritz.

SERWER: He's getting in touch with his inner Neanderthal.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

"Britney was absolutely devastated when I told her," Taryn Manning on breaking the news to her friend Britney Spears that the Japanese symbol on her rear end there was -- did not say what she thought it said. It said something different. She also has one on her neck that supposedly says something that she thought it said that it doesn't say. And she's got one on her foot. I mean, you got to stop, Britney, until you know what this stuff means.

"Making a great motion picture is easy. It's getting people to pay $9 for a total piece of" -- S-blank-blank-T -- "that is really hard," Rob Schneider talking about his movie career.

"I was pretty amped about the situation. I've never been asked if I want to vote," Joe Herbrand, who is 23 years old at a voter registration drive held at the Isabella Queen strip club in Wisconsin. But they make good cheese there.

SERWER: They sure do, custard, too, frozen custard.

HEMMER: Rush is on line one for Mr. Cafferty.

SERWER: His doctor. CAFFERTY: Take a message. I'll get right back to him.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: We're going to get back to this horrible story out of Iraq. The hometown mourning the loss now, outside of Philadelphia. We'll talk to a spokesperson for the family of Nicholas Berg in a moment. We'll continue, top of the hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.

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