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American Morning
Look at Damage Caused by Hurricane Ivan in Pensacola, Florida; Examining Who is Behind Violence in Iraq
Aired September 20, 2004 - 08:00 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: Good morning.
From bombings to kidnappings, a new wave of violence sweeping across Iraq. Are more Iraqis than ever now joining that insurgency?
More Northern states added to the list of destruction here in the wake of Ivan. Federal help pushed to the limits.
And a new controversy in the campaign. Is it fair game to say that al Qaeda wants a John Kerry presidency? A look at that, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: Good morning, everyone, on a Monday morning.
Good to have you here along with us.
Heidi Collins along with me, back here in New York City -- good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
HEMMER: We're going to go to the headlines again this hour.
Attacks and kidnappings in Iraq appear to be on the rise again, to the point where there are about 90 per day by some estimates. We'll talk to Ken Pollack in a few moments. He says the reason for the spike has nothing to do with elections that are now slated still on the schedule for January throughout that country.
COLLINS: Also, we're going to get a sense for what it was like in the courtroom last Friday when Michael Jackson was face to face with the mother of the boy accusing him of molestation. Court TV's Lisa Bloom, she was there and she's going to tell us more about that in just a moment.
For now, though, here's Jack this morning.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Coming up in the "Cafferty File" this morning, in what may be the only national exposure this thing gets, we're going to show you a new male nurses' calendar from Nebraska. It's pretty underwhelming. And the material moron is back from Israel with thoughts about how to achieve peace and serenity around the world.
HEMMER: She got a lot of attention on that trip, an awful lot.
CAFFERTY: It's just awful.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
COLLINS: All right, thanks, Jack.
We wanted to check on the stories now in the news once again with Kelly Wallace this morning -- Kelly, good morning.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi and Bill and Jack.
And good morning, everyone.
We begin with politics. President Bush and Senator John Kerry have tentatively agreed to a series of presidential debates. A Democratic source tells CNN negotiations are now under way for three sessions beginning at the end of the month. But GOP sources are stressing that no final agreement has been reached.
CBS News is trying to restore its credibility. At issue are documents Dan Rather used on "60 Minutes" to question President Bush's National Guard service. Sources now say the network plans to issue a statement acknowledging it aired the memos despite some doubts about their authenticity.
President Bush is expected to announce as soon as today that he's lifting sanctions against Libya. Libya had demanded sanctions be dropped before it would pay any more compensation to families of people who died in the bombing of PanAm Flight 103. The move could mean another $6 million for each family.
And the new most powerful man in China is Hu Jintao. Seventy- eight-year-old Jiang Zemin ended 15 years at the top when he gave up control of the military yesterday. Hu, who is 61, is not expected to make radical changes in China's foreign policy.
Those are some of the stories in the headlines right now -- Bill, back to you.
Heidi, actually, back to you.
COLLINS: That's OK, we're one and same.
All right, Kelly, thanks so much for that.
President Bush visited Florida and Alabama yesterday, surveying the damage left behind by hurricane Ivan. Mr. Bush walked the streets of Pensacola, where hundreds of homes were destroyed. He promised to speed federal aid money to the hardest hit areas. The president has already declared areas in eight states as disaster zones.
Katie King is a photographer with the "Pensacola News Journal." During the weekend, she got an aerial view of the devastation from hurricane Ivan, like this bridge collapse in Pensacola.
And she's going to share some of her amazing pictures with us now this morning.
Katie, thanks so much for being with us.
We just want to ask you to talk for a moment about what you saw from up in that plane as you looked down over this devastation.
KATIE KING, "PENSACOLA NEWS JOURNAL": Oh, it was pretty devastating. The bridge is just scattered and when I was flying in the airplane, when we got down on top of it, you could see, if you get close to it, you could see in my picture that there is a dive team searching for more wreckage, especially cars and bodies. And there's a semi that is halfway tipped over it.
And when we got closer, you could see that there was a dive team all around and they're still searching and there's -- the bridge looks like there's probably, I'd say, 10 to 15 blocks that have just been torn off, ripped off.
COLLINS: Wow!
KING: It looked awful.
COLLINS: Yes, we are looking at some of those photos now. And, of course, we should mention the driver of that truck unfortunately did not survive. Half of the cab there you see down in the water. And that, I'm sure, is what the divers were working on.
Katie, look at some of these other pictures for us. We want to go back to the Grand Lagoon area, as well.
What did you see there?
KING: Massive devastation. It was just -- it looked like splinters. The houses along the shoreline, the storm surge had taken out virtually every single home along the water and a lot of homes that even weren't along the water, that were up maybe 300, even 400 yards up from the water were wrecked. And it looked, I mean it just looked awful.
When I got to that site, I was in total shock.
COLLINS: Yes, and, you know, it does just look like matchbox houses. Again, as we look at another photo now of a home in Perdido...
KING: That's Pensacola Beach...
COLLINS: Yes. It just looks like, you know, little tiny sticks.
KING: Yes. It looks like -- yes, you're correct. It just, there was scattered -- debris was scattered everywhere and it was very hard to understand what you were looking at because of the devastation. It was hard to figure out where you were, what you were looking at, what kind of home, if it was a condo, trying to figure out which condos it were, because it was totally destroyed.
COLLINS: Yes. It sounds to me like you have a pretty good view of the pictures that we're looking at, as well. So let's just keep looking, as we could here, so we can get a good shot. Downtown Pensacola
KING: That's Perdido...
COLLINS: Yes, Perdido still.
KING: Yes.
COLLINS: Describe what we're seeing here now. I think this is Navarre and Navarre Beach coming up next.
KING: Yes. The condo complex on Navarre is, pretty much everywhere along the beach, any beach had massive destruction along the water line. The condos seem to have held -- the high rises seem to have held up a lot sturdier than most of the smaller condos and homes.
But it was very sporadic. It almost looked like tornadoes, because one house would be fine, the next house would be complete splinters.
COLLINS: Well, I'm sure...
KING: It was just random.
COLLINS: I'm sure that was pretty surprising, especially from up there as you looked down.
KING: Yes.
COLLINS: You expect kind of everything to be just destroyed.
Quickly, Katie, before we let you go, I know that you are a resident of Pensacola.
KING: Yes.
COLLINS: How was this for you personally?
KING: Personally it was a -- this is my first hurricane. I've been in Pensacola for two years now and I'd never experienced a hurricane before. And from what everyone was preparing me for was something more along the lines of Opal. They didn't think that it was going to have this much destruction. And coming out Thursday morning, getting to see Pensacola, downtown Pensacola and around that area, for the first time early that morning was totally just a shocking experience. It was for everybody. I mean everyone's mouths were dropped and no one could say anything.
COLLINS: Yes, I'm sure it's very hard to put all of that into words, for sure.
But Katie, we are certainly glad that you are OK and appreciate the pictures that you took very much.
KING: Oh, you're very welcome.
COLLINS: They helped us to really get a bird's eye view there.
Thanks so much once again.
Katie King, a photojournalist with the "Pensacola News Journal."
We want to check back now with Chad Myers at the CNN Center with more on the forecast -- Chad, still dealing with major aftermath from this thing.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, of course. All the water now still trying to run off and there is still more damage actually occurring from that runoff, all the way up from Pennsylvania down through the Ohio Valley. This is Jeanne, tropical storm Jeanne right now, the Bahamas, the Turks and Cacois, all that damage in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico actually called a disaster area by the president.
Tropical storm Jeanne, though, making a right-hand turn -- there it is -- by Thursday, heading back out to the ocean. Hurricane Karl making a hard right turn, heading into the North Atlantic. But now tropical storm Lisa -- this was 13 earlier this morning, but now classified, a tropical storm with a name, and it is heading to the west. There obviously the islands. There's Puerto Rico and there you see Florida.
Still a long way out there. But we want to watch it because obviously a very active season so far.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Thank you, Chad.
Talk to you a bit later.
MYERS: You're welcome.
HEMMER: We want to go back to the issue of Iraq this morning.
U.S. air strikes in Fallujah already killing at least three and wounding five more. And a U.S. convoy was struck in Baghdad, wounding at least 15 Iraqi civilians there. All this just the latest and growing violence. Over the weekend, a suicide bomber killed an Iraqi soldier and a civilian. A previously unknown group claims it will kill 15 kidnapped members of the Iraqi National Guard if a jailed aide to Muqtada al-Sadr is not released.
Also on Sunday, an Islamic Web site also posted a video saying that -- and showing the beheadings of three hostages from the Iraqi Kurdish Democratic Party. All of this while the family members of 13 other hostages, including two Americans and one Brit, await the fate of their loved ones.
So, then, who is carrying out the violence and why?
Our CNN analyst, Ken Pollack, now my guest here in New York City.
Nice to see you, Ken.
KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Thanks, Bill.
HEMMER: You say there are two different types of targets in Iraq.
POLLACK: Right. Two principal sorts (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
HEMMER: Who are they and what are they after?
POLLACK: First are obviously the United States. All of the insurgents have something in common -- they want to drive the U.S. out. Second are Iraqis cooperating with the United States, cooperating with the reconstruction. All of the insurgents want to convince Iraqis that it is simply not worth it to help the U.S. try to build a stable new Iraq.
HEMMER: I understand you have a very simple answer to the question why the attacks are on the rise. And you believe it has nothing to do with the elections in January?
POLLACK: Absolutely. I mean we've seen this time and again. You've seen people in the U.S. government suggesting that the rise in attacks is tied to this event, that event. It has nothing to do with it. We have seen a straight line from the day Baghdad fell to today. It is all about the increasing level of popular support for the insurgents and their growing capabilities.
HEMMER: Let's get back a little bit, because we've talked about Zarqawi a lot in the past. But answer this question, who is he, who does he represent and how much control does he have at this point?
POLLACK: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a foreign born Salafi jihadist. He is a Sunni Arab who came to Iraq to kill Americans. He came to Iraq because that's where the Americans are. And he represents a segment of the Iraqi insurgency. We tend to make too much of them. They're not a very sizable portion. But especially early on, they came in with a lot of capability and a lot of zeal, and they are there and they're one of the elements.
HEMMER: He's a Sunni?
POLLACK: Correct.
HEMMER: There's another Sunni, Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri.
POLLACK: Right.
HEMMER: He's one of the top 55 that still is not accounted for.
POLLACK: Correct.
HEMMER: Who does he represent?
POLLACK: We're really using him to represent the larger homegrown Sunni Arab resistance to the United States. A number of these people are like Izzat Ibrahim, a former member of the Baathist regime. They're there because they believe that the United States is trying to overturn Iraq's pyramid and put the Sunni minority at the bottom -- they had been on the top under Saddam -- and take the Shia majority, put them on the top. These old Sunni Baathists, they're trying to resist that change.
HEMMER: Go to Fallujah for a moment here, because a lot of people continue to contend that when the U.S. backed off of the raid on Fallujah, it said a lot to the insurgents on how tough the U.S. would be.
You say Fallujah represents a metaphor in Iraq today. How so?
POLLACK: That's right. Fallujah is one of the places, probably the best known place where all the elements of the Sunni insurgency have come together. You have foreign born fighters. There are elements of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network in Fallujah. But there are also homegrown Sunni fundamentalists, Sunni tribesmen, former Baathists. Basically every Sunni who hates the United States has got some kind of a relative or connection to Fallujah. It has become a city under the control of the insurgents and unfortunately there are a lot of others out there that we don't talk about.
HEMMER: That's on the Sunni side. That's in the triangle west and north of Baghdad.
On the Shiite side, you have Muqtada al-Sadr.
POLLACK: Right.
HEMMER: How critical is he to leading his group of militia now?
POLLACK: He's certainly becoming more important. And we need to think about Muqtada al-Sadr as being, again, a leadership symbol for a larger Shia movement. Increasingly you are having Shia who are becoming disappointed with the course of reconstruction. They are turning to Muqtada al-Sadr not because they like what he stands for, which is basically an Iranian style theocracy, but because they like what he stands against.
He has been the one Shia leader who, from the first day, was opposing the United States. He is attracting more and more people just for that reason.
HEMMER: Do you consider him still dangerous?
POLLACK: Absolutely. He's...
HEMMER: How so? POLLACK: Well, the Mehdi Army is still out there. They are not accounted for. They may be disarmed, they may have left Najaf, but he could recall them to the colors any time he believes that they've got an opportunity to take power.
HEMMER: Ken Pollack, thanks for your analysis this morning, for breaking it down for us.
POLLACK: Thank you.
HEMMER: All right -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Still to come, the gloves are off. Both major candidates are focusing on the war on terror. But one law maker says he knows who Osama bin Laden wants to win. Bill Schneider will joins us on that.
HEMMER: Also, in a moment, Heidi, some airports get a new tool to fight terrorism. It's called a people puffer. We'll explain that today.
COLLINS: And next, the one time king of pop goes to court, accused of child molestation. So why is Michael Jackson's lawyer talking about the thousands of suits he's faced in the past?
That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: His child molestation trial won't begin until January. But on Friday, Michael Jackson came to court to hear the mother of his accuser testify at a pretrial hearing. It was the first time they had been face-to-face since Jackson was charged.
Court TV's Lisa Bloom is here to talk about the case.
Oh, Lisa, good morning to you.
LISA BLOOM, COURT TV: Good morning.
COLLINS: I know you were there. The mother, who was called, said, you know, I really don't know why I'm here. The defense called her, though.
I mean why did they do that?
BLOOM: Well, the hearing is a suppression hearing. It's all about whether certain evidence can come in at trial that was gathered by an investigator named Bradley Miller. Now, the defense says he was working for Mark Geragos, everything he obtained is subject to the attorney-client privilege because he was working for an attorney.
The prosecution says he was working directly for Michael Jackson.
It's kind of a technical issue. The real question is why is the mother being called at this hearing? It's really an attempt to discredit her, to embarrass her. And I think if you take a step back, it's the Jackson side saying this is going to be a no holds barred trial. We are going after this boy. We are going after his family. Everybody on his side will be the subject of our attacks. And all of the Jacksons showed up, as you just showed, dressed in white. They say it's a color of innocence.
COLLINS: That's not the first time we've seen that, yes.
BLOOM: Right. For the second time -- and stared her down in the courtroom.
COLLINS: Yes, a little bit of intimidation probably.
BLOOM: Absolutely.
COLLINS: Well, let's listen a little bit. Now, Jackson's attorney, Thomas Mesereau, made some statements outside of the courtroom. We have a couple of excerpts.
Let's go ahead and listen to that just for one second.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS MESEREAU, MICHAEL JACKSON'S ATTORNEY: Greed begets greed. Mr. Jackson now realizes that the advice he received was wrong. He should have fought these actions to the bitter end and vindicated himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: As you say, they're going to fight this hard.
BLOOM: That's right. And, you know, it's very unusual for Mesereau to make a statement outside the courtroom in an ordinary case. Of course, this is an extraordinary case. He had to get permission from the judge to go outside of the gag order and to talk.
He also talked...
COLLINS: Why was that so important to do that?
BLOOM: Well, because a lot of this is P.R. for the Jackson side. He's not just an ordinary defendant. His public image is so very important to him. And so there are a lot of reports in the press.
His attorney wants to combat them, wants to be able to respond to them. The judge is allowing him, on a case by case basis, to do that.
COLLINS: All right, we have one more quick sound bite that we want to hear and we'll get your comment on the back side of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MESEREAU: Mr. Jackson has been a target of frivolous lawsuits throughout his career. To date, well over 1,000 ridiculous lawsuits have been filed or threatened against Mr. Jackson for all kinds of reasons by those who sought to obtain money by exploiting his achievements and love for people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: So why was this important? I mean why did he end up settling two particular lawsuits then? What made them stand out from all of these others?
BLOOM: First of all, absolutely astounding that we hear that Jackson has been sued over 1,000 times. Are we really to believe that all of those cases are frivolous, ridiculous cases, as Mesereau says? And, he admits to two multi-million dollar payments to boys who have accused Jackson of molestation. We knew about one, about a $25 million payment, in 1994.
COLLINS: Right.
BLOOM: Now we're getting confirmation of a second.
Here we are in 2004. A third boy is accusing Jackson. Are we to believe that so many kids, different in place and time, are coming up with frivolous lawsuits?
I really don't see how this helps Michael Jackson in the long run.
COLLINS: Yes. Very interesting words, indeed, outside that courtroom.
BLOOM: Yes.
COLLINS: All right, Lisa Bloom from Court TV, appreciate it.
BLOOM: Thank you.
COLLINS: Thanks so much -- Bill.
HEMMER: We want to get a break here.
In a moment on AMERICAN MORNING, who were the big winners last night at the Emmys? Some old standbys got the nod. That does not mean there weren't some surprises, though. There were, in fact. A look at that in a moment here.
Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Jack's here now once again, the Question of the Day, about John Kerry this morning.
CAFFERTY: Thanks, Heidi.
As the campaign heads toward the home stretch, there are a couple of pretty tough op-ed pieces in the "Times" this morning critical of Kerry's approach to winning the highest office in the land; critical on several fronts.
Bill Safire has a list of 10 things Kerry needs to do to stop the erosion in the polls and turn his campaign around. Bob Herbert says that Kerry has run a "cautious, soulless campaign" based on his actions of 30 years ago.
So the question we're asking this morning is what does John Kerry need to do to turn this race around?
Buck from Vassar, Michigan writes: "I've sent about 100 of these e-mails and they never get on the air, but here goes. Kerry needs to shout louder, talk smarter, tell the people what's wrong with Bush's policies and put a little fire in his speeches. He sounds like he's reading a bird watcher's life list."
Buck, the previous 99 were no good, but this one wasn't bad.
Sharon in Royal Oaks, Michigan: "Kerry and Edwards have very frumpy looking spouses. Mrs. Kerry could at least have her hair styled. I am for Kerry, but appearances count and Mrs. Kerry is no Jacqueline Kennedy. She really needs a lot of help."
Ooh.
Brad -- I love these -- Brad in Ridgecrest, California: "As a Democrat, I'm glad John Kerry has a plan to make our lives better. I just wish he'd pull his head out of his blank and tell us what it is."
And Rex in Toronto writes: "He needs to show some passion. He is essentially running for the leadership of the free world at the most dangerous time in the world's history. He looks like he's running for milk monitor."
Am@cnn.com.
HEMMER: Three debates, maybe -- later today we'll find out -- sandwiched in about a two week period.
CAFFERTY: Yes, what do the -- why did it --
HEMMER: They could be decisive.
CAFFERTY: Why did it take the Bush people so long to agree on this? And where does it say that they get to negotiate anyway? Aren't there organizations that just say we're going to have some debates, you can either show up or not and here's where they're going to...
HEMMER: There are those who contend that all this debate stuff is all negotiated, right down to the questions that are asked.
CAFFERTY: Well, it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. I mean the groups that do these should say here's -- we're having a debate here on this date at this time. HEMMER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: You want to debate, show up. If you don't, fine, go play cards or something. I mean, what is all this we're debating and we're negotiating and we're...
HEMMER: Did you see the Emmys last night?
CAFFERTY: No, gee, I missed them, again.
HEMMER: Last night in L.A.? The 56th annual awards handed out last night in L.A. The stars were out there -- Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, among others.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY ACCORDING TO A SOURCE, ABC)
SARAH JESSICA PARKER, BEST ACTRESS: I'm sort of now, in retrospect, grateful that they chose not to give this to me sooner. I mean I was always thrilled to be nominated, always relieved to be included in the category. And I really actually mean that, because there's a lot of really wonderful actresses who are doing great work. But I'm sort of -- not even sort I'm, I'm very happy they saved it for tonight because it has a lot of meaning coming at the end of this journey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Well, she was a winner. The Fox show "Arrested Development" won for best comedy. After five tries, best drama went to HBO's "Sopranos." And for the second year in a row, "The Amazing Race" on CBS won for outstanding reality series.
More winners -- James Spader, ABC's "The Practice," won for best actor. Allison Janney won best actress for her role in NBC's drama "The West Wing." Kelsey Grammer won his fourth Emmy for best comedy actor in "Frasier." And after six consecutive nominations, Sarah Jessica Parker scored a best comedy actress for "Sex and the City," also on HBO.
All in prime time last night. Of course, I didn't see any of that. You know why, Heidi? Because the Cincinnati Bangles were actually on tunnel television.
COLLINS: Oh, the Bangles.
HEMMER: For once. The first time in the...
COLLINS: Fourteen years, you said.
HEMMER: No, 1997, yes.
COLLINS: OK.
HEMMER: Seven years.
COLLINS: Well, I'm glad you got to watch it, too. HEMMER: They actually won.
COLLINS: I know. It was amazing.
HEMMER: What a pleasant...
COLLINS: I can't believe it took this long -- it's 8:26 -- to mention that.
HEMMER: That doesn't say much for the other team they were playing, though, Miami.
COLLINS: Right.
Still ahead this morning, starting today, some security changes could be coming to an airport near you. Find out how the so-called people puffer fits into it.
Plus, a running bull gets a little lost on his way back from Pamplona. Oh. We'll look at that a little closer on AMERICAN MORNING coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired September 20, 2004 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
From bombings to kidnappings, a new wave of violence sweeping across Iraq. Are more Iraqis than ever now joining that insurgency?
More Northern states added to the list of destruction here in the wake of Ivan. Federal help pushed to the limits.
And a new controversy in the campaign. Is it fair game to say that al Qaeda wants a John Kerry presidency? A look at that, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: Good morning, everyone, on a Monday morning.
Good to have you here along with us.
Heidi Collins along with me, back here in New York City -- good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
HEMMER: We're going to go to the headlines again this hour.
Attacks and kidnappings in Iraq appear to be on the rise again, to the point where there are about 90 per day by some estimates. We'll talk to Ken Pollack in a few moments. He says the reason for the spike has nothing to do with elections that are now slated still on the schedule for January throughout that country.
COLLINS: Also, we're going to get a sense for what it was like in the courtroom last Friday when Michael Jackson was face to face with the mother of the boy accusing him of molestation. Court TV's Lisa Bloom, she was there and she's going to tell us more about that in just a moment.
For now, though, here's Jack this morning.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Coming up in the "Cafferty File" this morning, in what may be the only national exposure this thing gets, we're going to show you a new male nurses' calendar from Nebraska. It's pretty underwhelming. And the material moron is back from Israel with thoughts about how to achieve peace and serenity around the world.
HEMMER: She got a lot of attention on that trip, an awful lot.
CAFFERTY: It's just awful.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
COLLINS: All right, thanks, Jack.
We wanted to check on the stories now in the news once again with Kelly Wallace this morning -- Kelly, good morning.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi and Bill and Jack.
And good morning, everyone.
We begin with politics. President Bush and Senator John Kerry have tentatively agreed to a series of presidential debates. A Democratic source tells CNN negotiations are now under way for three sessions beginning at the end of the month. But GOP sources are stressing that no final agreement has been reached.
CBS News is trying to restore its credibility. At issue are documents Dan Rather used on "60 Minutes" to question President Bush's National Guard service. Sources now say the network plans to issue a statement acknowledging it aired the memos despite some doubts about their authenticity.
President Bush is expected to announce as soon as today that he's lifting sanctions against Libya. Libya had demanded sanctions be dropped before it would pay any more compensation to families of people who died in the bombing of PanAm Flight 103. The move could mean another $6 million for each family.
And the new most powerful man in China is Hu Jintao. Seventy- eight-year-old Jiang Zemin ended 15 years at the top when he gave up control of the military yesterday. Hu, who is 61, is not expected to make radical changes in China's foreign policy.
Those are some of the stories in the headlines right now -- Bill, back to you.
Heidi, actually, back to you.
COLLINS: That's OK, we're one and same.
All right, Kelly, thanks so much for that.
President Bush visited Florida and Alabama yesterday, surveying the damage left behind by hurricane Ivan. Mr. Bush walked the streets of Pensacola, where hundreds of homes were destroyed. He promised to speed federal aid money to the hardest hit areas. The president has already declared areas in eight states as disaster zones.
Katie King is a photographer with the "Pensacola News Journal." During the weekend, she got an aerial view of the devastation from hurricane Ivan, like this bridge collapse in Pensacola.
And she's going to share some of her amazing pictures with us now this morning.
Katie, thanks so much for being with us.
We just want to ask you to talk for a moment about what you saw from up in that plane as you looked down over this devastation.
KATIE KING, "PENSACOLA NEWS JOURNAL": Oh, it was pretty devastating. The bridge is just scattered and when I was flying in the airplane, when we got down on top of it, you could see, if you get close to it, you could see in my picture that there is a dive team searching for more wreckage, especially cars and bodies. And there's a semi that is halfway tipped over it.
And when we got closer, you could see that there was a dive team all around and they're still searching and there's -- the bridge looks like there's probably, I'd say, 10 to 15 blocks that have just been torn off, ripped off.
COLLINS: Wow!
KING: It looked awful.
COLLINS: Yes, we are looking at some of those photos now. And, of course, we should mention the driver of that truck unfortunately did not survive. Half of the cab there you see down in the water. And that, I'm sure, is what the divers were working on.
Katie, look at some of these other pictures for us. We want to go back to the Grand Lagoon area, as well.
What did you see there?
KING: Massive devastation. It was just -- it looked like splinters. The houses along the shoreline, the storm surge had taken out virtually every single home along the water and a lot of homes that even weren't along the water, that were up maybe 300, even 400 yards up from the water were wrecked. And it looked, I mean it just looked awful.
When I got to that site, I was in total shock.
COLLINS: Yes, and, you know, it does just look like matchbox houses. Again, as we look at another photo now of a home in Perdido...
KING: That's Pensacola Beach...
COLLINS: Yes. It just looks like, you know, little tiny sticks.
KING: Yes. It looks like -- yes, you're correct. It just, there was scattered -- debris was scattered everywhere and it was very hard to understand what you were looking at because of the devastation. It was hard to figure out where you were, what you were looking at, what kind of home, if it was a condo, trying to figure out which condos it were, because it was totally destroyed.
COLLINS: Yes. It sounds to me like you have a pretty good view of the pictures that we're looking at, as well. So let's just keep looking, as we could here, so we can get a good shot. Downtown Pensacola
KING: That's Perdido...
COLLINS: Yes, Perdido still.
KING: Yes.
COLLINS: Describe what we're seeing here now. I think this is Navarre and Navarre Beach coming up next.
KING: Yes. The condo complex on Navarre is, pretty much everywhere along the beach, any beach had massive destruction along the water line. The condos seem to have held -- the high rises seem to have held up a lot sturdier than most of the smaller condos and homes.
But it was very sporadic. It almost looked like tornadoes, because one house would be fine, the next house would be complete splinters.
COLLINS: Well, I'm sure...
KING: It was just random.
COLLINS: I'm sure that was pretty surprising, especially from up there as you looked down.
KING: Yes.
COLLINS: You expect kind of everything to be just destroyed.
Quickly, Katie, before we let you go, I know that you are a resident of Pensacola.
KING: Yes.
COLLINS: How was this for you personally?
KING: Personally it was a -- this is my first hurricane. I've been in Pensacola for two years now and I'd never experienced a hurricane before. And from what everyone was preparing me for was something more along the lines of Opal. They didn't think that it was going to have this much destruction. And coming out Thursday morning, getting to see Pensacola, downtown Pensacola and around that area, for the first time early that morning was totally just a shocking experience. It was for everybody. I mean everyone's mouths were dropped and no one could say anything.
COLLINS: Yes, I'm sure it's very hard to put all of that into words, for sure.
But Katie, we are certainly glad that you are OK and appreciate the pictures that you took very much.
KING: Oh, you're very welcome.
COLLINS: They helped us to really get a bird's eye view there.
Thanks so much once again.
Katie King, a photojournalist with the "Pensacola News Journal."
We want to check back now with Chad Myers at the CNN Center with more on the forecast -- Chad, still dealing with major aftermath from this thing.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, of course. All the water now still trying to run off and there is still more damage actually occurring from that runoff, all the way up from Pennsylvania down through the Ohio Valley. This is Jeanne, tropical storm Jeanne right now, the Bahamas, the Turks and Cacois, all that damage in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico actually called a disaster area by the president.
Tropical storm Jeanne, though, making a right-hand turn -- there it is -- by Thursday, heading back out to the ocean. Hurricane Karl making a hard right turn, heading into the North Atlantic. But now tropical storm Lisa -- this was 13 earlier this morning, but now classified, a tropical storm with a name, and it is heading to the west. There obviously the islands. There's Puerto Rico and there you see Florida.
Still a long way out there. But we want to watch it because obviously a very active season so far.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Thank you, Chad.
Talk to you a bit later.
MYERS: You're welcome.
HEMMER: We want to go back to the issue of Iraq this morning.
U.S. air strikes in Fallujah already killing at least three and wounding five more. And a U.S. convoy was struck in Baghdad, wounding at least 15 Iraqi civilians there. All this just the latest and growing violence. Over the weekend, a suicide bomber killed an Iraqi soldier and a civilian. A previously unknown group claims it will kill 15 kidnapped members of the Iraqi National Guard if a jailed aide to Muqtada al-Sadr is not released.
Also on Sunday, an Islamic Web site also posted a video saying that -- and showing the beheadings of three hostages from the Iraqi Kurdish Democratic Party. All of this while the family members of 13 other hostages, including two Americans and one Brit, await the fate of their loved ones.
So, then, who is carrying out the violence and why?
Our CNN analyst, Ken Pollack, now my guest here in New York City.
Nice to see you, Ken.
KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Thanks, Bill.
HEMMER: You say there are two different types of targets in Iraq.
POLLACK: Right. Two principal sorts (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
HEMMER: Who are they and what are they after?
POLLACK: First are obviously the United States. All of the insurgents have something in common -- they want to drive the U.S. out. Second are Iraqis cooperating with the United States, cooperating with the reconstruction. All of the insurgents want to convince Iraqis that it is simply not worth it to help the U.S. try to build a stable new Iraq.
HEMMER: I understand you have a very simple answer to the question why the attacks are on the rise. And you believe it has nothing to do with the elections in January?
POLLACK: Absolutely. I mean we've seen this time and again. You've seen people in the U.S. government suggesting that the rise in attacks is tied to this event, that event. It has nothing to do with it. We have seen a straight line from the day Baghdad fell to today. It is all about the increasing level of popular support for the insurgents and their growing capabilities.
HEMMER: Let's get back a little bit, because we've talked about Zarqawi a lot in the past. But answer this question, who is he, who does he represent and how much control does he have at this point?
POLLACK: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a foreign born Salafi jihadist. He is a Sunni Arab who came to Iraq to kill Americans. He came to Iraq because that's where the Americans are. And he represents a segment of the Iraqi insurgency. We tend to make too much of them. They're not a very sizable portion. But especially early on, they came in with a lot of capability and a lot of zeal, and they are there and they're one of the elements.
HEMMER: He's a Sunni?
POLLACK: Correct.
HEMMER: There's another Sunni, Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri.
POLLACK: Right.
HEMMER: He's one of the top 55 that still is not accounted for.
POLLACK: Correct.
HEMMER: Who does he represent?
POLLACK: We're really using him to represent the larger homegrown Sunni Arab resistance to the United States. A number of these people are like Izzat Ibrahim, a former member of the Baathist regime. They're there because they believe that the United States is trying to overturn Iraq's pyramid and put the Sunni minority at the bottom -- they had been on the top under Saddam -- and take the Shia majority, put them on the top. These old Sunni Baathists, they're trying to resist that change.
HEMMER: Go to Fallujah for a moment here, because a lot of people continue to contend that when the U.S. backed off of the raid on Fallujah, it said a lot to the insurgents on how tough the U.S. would be.
You say Fallujah represents a metaphor in Iraq today. How so?
POLLACK: That's right. Fallujah is one of the places, probably the best known place where all the elements of the Sunni insurgency have come together. You have foreign born fighters. There are elements of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network in Fallujah. But there are also homegrown Sunni fundamentalists, Sunni tribesmen, former Baathists. Basically every Sunni who hates the United States has got some kind of a relative or connection to Fallujah. It has become a city under the control of the insurgents and unfortunately there are a lot of others out there that we don't talk about.
HEMMER: That's on the Sunni side. That's in the triangle west and north of Baghdad.
On the Shiite side, you have Muqtada al-Sadr.
POLLACK: Right.
HEMMER: How critical is he to leading his group of militia now?
POLLACK: He's certainly becoming more important. And we need to think about Muqtada al-Sadr as being, again, a leadership symbol for a larger Shia movement. Increasingly you are having Shia who are becoming disappointed with the course of reconstruction. They are turning to Muqtada al-Sadr not because they like what he stands for, which is basically an Iranian style theocracy, but because they like what he stands against.
He has been the one Shia leader who, from the first day, was opposing the United States. He is attracting more and more people just for that reason.
HEMMER: Do you consider him still dangerous?
POLLACK: Absolutely. He's...
HEMMER: How so? POLLACK: Well, the Mehdi Army is still out there. They are not accounted for. They may be disarmed, they may have left Najaf, but he could recall them to the colors any time he believes that they've got an opportunity to take power.
HEMMER: Ken Pollack, thanks for your analysis this morning, for breaking it down for us.
POLLACK: Thank you.
HEMMER: All right -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Still to come, the gloves are off. Both major candidates are focusing on the war on terror. But one law maker says he knows who Osama bin Laden wants to win. Bill Schneider will joins us on that.
HEMMER: Also, in a moment, Heidi, some airports get a new tool to fight terrorism. It's called a people puffer. We'll explain that today.
COLLINS: And next, the one time king of pop goes to court, accused of child molestation. So why is Michael Jackson's lawyer talking about the thousands of suits he's faced in the past?
That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: His child molestation trial won't begin until January. But on Friday, Michael Jackson came to court to hear the mother of his accuser testify at a pretrial hearing. It was the first time they had been face-to-face since Jackson was charged.
Court TV's Lisa Bloom is here to talk about the case.
Oh, Lisa, good morning to you.
LISA BLOOM, COURT TV: Good morning.
COLLINS: I know you were there. The mother, who was called, said, you know, I really don't know why I'm here. The defense called her, though.
I mean why did they do that?
BLOOM: Well, the hearing is a suppression hearing. It's all about whether certain evidence can come in at trial that was gathered by an investigator named Bradley Miller. Now, the defense says he was working for Mark Geragos, everything he obtained is subject to the attorney-client privilege because he was working for an attorney.
The prosecution says he was working directly for Michael Jackson.
It's kind of a technical issue. The real question is why is the mother being called at this hearing? It's really an attempt to discredit her, to embarrass her. And I think if you take a step back, it's the Jackson side saying this is going to be a no holds barred trial. We are going after this boy. We are going after his family. Everybody on his side will be the subject of our attacks. And all of the Jacksons showed up, as you just showed, dressed in white. They say it's a color of innocence.
COLLINS: That's not the first time we've seen that, yes.
BLOOM: Right. For the second time -- and stared her down in the courtroom.
COLLINS: Yes, a little bit of intimidation probably.
BLOOM: Absolutely.
COLLINS: Well, let's listen a little bit. Now, Jackson's attorney, Thomas Mesereau, made some statements outside of the courtroom. We have a couple of excerpts.
Let's go ahead and listen to that just for one second.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS MESEREAU, MICHAEL JACKSON'S ATTORNEY: Greed begets greed. Mr. Jackson now realizes that the advice he received was wrong. He should have fought these actions to the bitter end and vindicated himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: As you say, they're going to fight this hard.
BLOOM: That's right. And, you know, it's very unusual for Mesereau to make a statement outside the courtroom in an ordinary case. Of course, this is an extraordinary case. He had to get permission from the judge to go outside of the gag order and to talk.
He also talked...
COLLINS: Why was that so important to do that?
BLOOM: Well, because a lot of this is P.R. for the Jackson side. He's not just an ordinary defendant. His public image is so very important to him. And so there are a lot of reports in the press.
His attorney wants to combat them, wants to be able to respond to them. The judge is allowing him, on a case by case basis, to do that.
COLLINS: All right, we have one more quick sound bite that we want to hear and we'll get your comment on the back side of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MESEREAU: Mr. Jackson has been a target of frivolous lawsuits throughout his career. To date, well over 1,000 ridiculous lawsuits have been filed or threatened against Mr. Jackson for all kinds of reasons by those who sought to obtain money by exploiting his achievements and love for people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: So why was this important? I mean why did he end up settling two particular lawsuits then? What made them stand out from all of these others?
BLOOM: First of all, absolutely astounding that we hear that Jackson has been sued over 1,000 times. Are we really to believe that all of those cases are frivolous, ridiculous cases, as Mesereau says? And, he admits to two multi-million dollar payments to boys who have accused Jackson of molestation. We knew about one, about a $25 million payment, in 1994.
COLLINS: Right.
BLOOM: Now we're getting confirmation of a second.
Here we are in 2004. A third boy is accusing Jackson. Are we to believe that so many kids, different in place and time, are coming up with frivolous lawsuits?
I really don't see how this helps Michael Jackson in the long run.
COLLINS: Yes. Very interesting words, indeed, outside that courtroom.
BLOOM: Yes.
COLLINS: All right, Lisa Bloom from Court TV, appreciate it.
BLOOM: Thank you.
COLLINS: Thanks so much -- Bill.
HEMMER: We want to get a break here.
In a moment on AMERICAN MORNING, who were the big winners last night at the Emmys? Some old standbys got the nod. That does not mean there weren't some surprises, though. There were, in fact. A look at that in a moment here.
Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Jack's here now once again, the Question of the Day, about John Kerry this morning.
CAFFERTY: Thanks, Heidi.
As the campaign heads toward the home stretch, there are a couple of pretty tough op-ed pieces in the "Times" this morning critical of Kerry's approach to winning the highest office in the land; critical on several fronts.
Bill Safire has a list of 10 things Kerry needs to do to stop the erosion in the polls and turn his campaign around. Bob Herbert says that Kerry has run a "cautious, soulless campaign" based on his actions of 30 years ago.
So the question we're asking this morning is what does John Kerry need to do to turn this race around?
Buck from Vassar, Michigan writes: "I've sent about 100 of these e-mails and they never get on the air, but here goes. Kerry needs to shout louder, talk smarter, tell the people what's wrong with Bush's policies and put a little fire in his speeches. He sounds like he's reading a bird watcher's life list."
Buck, the previous 99 were no good, but this one wasn't bad.
Sharon in Royal Oaks, Michigan: "Kerry and Edwards have very frumpy looking spouses. Mrs. Kerry could at least have her hair styled. I am for Kerry, but appearances count and Mrs. Kerry is no Jacqueline Kennedy. She really needs a lot of help."
Ooh.
Brad -- I love these -- Brad in Ridgecrest, California: "As a Democrat, I'm glad John Kerry has a plan to make our lives better. I just wish he'd pull his head out of his blank and tell us what it is."
And Rex in Toronto writes: "He needs to show some passion. He is essentially running for the leadership of the free world at the most dangerous time in the world's history. He looks like he's running for milk monitor."
Am@cnn.com.
HEMMER: Three debates, maybe -- later today we'll find out -- sandwiched in about a two week period.
CAFFERTY: Yes, what do the -- why did it --
HEMMER: They could be decisive.
CAFFERTY: Why did it take the Bush people so long to agree on this? And where does it say that they get to negotiate anyway? Aren't there organizations that just say we're going to have some debates, you can either show up or not and here's where they're going to...
HEMMER: There are those who contend that all this debate stuff is all negotiated, right down to the questions that are asked.
CAFFERTY: Well, it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. I mean the groups that do these should say here's -- we're having a debate here on this date at this time. HEMMER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: You want to debate, show up. If you don't, fine, go play cards or something. I mean, what is all this we're debating and we're negotiating and we're...
HEMMER: Did you see the Emmys last night?
CAFFERTY: No, gee, I missed them, again.
HEMMER: Last night in L.A.? The 56th annual awards handed out last night in L.A. The stars were out there -- Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, among others.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY ACCORDING TO A SOURCE, ABC)
SARAH JESSICA PARKER, BEST ACTRESS: I'm sort of now, in retrospect, grateful that they chose not to give this to me sooner. I mean I was always thrilled to be nominated, always relieved to be included in the category. And I really actually mean that, because there's a lot of really wonderful actresses who are doing great work. But I'm sort of -- not even sort I'm, I'm very happy they saved it for tonight because it has a lot of meaning coming at the end of this journey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Well, she was a winner. The Fox show "Arrested Development" won for best comedy. After five tries, best drama went to HBO's "Sopranos." And for the second year in a row, "The Amazing Race" on CBS won for outstanding reality series.
More winners -- James Spader, ABC's "The Practice," won for best actor. Allison Janney won best actress for her role in NBC's drama "The West Wing." Kelsey Grammer won his fourth Emmy for best comedy actor in "Frasier." And after six consecutive nominations, Sarah Jessica Parker scored a best comedy actress for "Sex and the City," also on HBO.
All in prime time last night. Of course, I didn't see any of that. You know why, Heidi? Because the Cincinnati Bangles were actually on tunnel television.
COLLINS: Oh, the Bangles.
HEMMER: For once. The first time in the...
COLLINS: Fourteen years, you said.
HEMMER: No, 1997, yes.
COLLINS: OK.
HEMMER: Seven years.
COLLINS: Well, I'm glad you got to watch it, too. HEMMER: They actually won.
COLLINS: I know. It was amazing.
HEMMER: What a pleasant...
COLLINS: I can't believe it took this long -- it's 8:26 -- to mention that.
HEMMER: That doesn't say much for the other team they were playing, though, Miami.
COLLINS: Right.
Still ahead this morning, starting today, some security changes could be coming to an airport near you. Find out how the so-called people puffer fits into it.
Plus, a running bull gets a little lost on his way back from Pamplona. Oh. We'll look at that a little closer on AMERICAN MORNING coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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