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American Morning
Bush to Hammer Home Plan for Winning war on Terror; Bomb Materials Missing; NASCAR Plane Crash
Aired October 25, 2004 - 8:00 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: Let's get to Daryn Kagan now with us at the CNN Center, topping the news this hour.
Daryn, good morning. Good to have you today.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Bill, good morning to you.
We're going to begin in Pakistan this hour. The Saudi ambassador there says his embassy is being threatened possibly by al Qaeda. The official says that a package of grenades was sent to the Saudi embassy in Islamabad. An attached letter threatens the Saudis with an attack if they do not leave Pakistan. Saudi officials say they have no intentions of withdrawing, and Pakistani security officials are investigating.
Nearly 400 tons of conventional explosives are missing in Iraq. A U.N. nuclear watchdog says the explosives were taken from one of Saddam Hussein's once secret military compounds following the U.S.-led invasion last year. The explosives are considered powerful enough to detonate a nuclear warhead. A CIA taskforce has reportedly been ordered to investigate.
And in California, a Los Angeles court will begin screening prospective jurors in the Robert Blake murder trial. The former star of "Baretta" is accused of killing his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, in May of 2001. As many as 1,800 people are expected to take part in the initial screening phase. That is set to start in just a couple of hours.
Soledad, the trial is expected to last four months. You have to have a good excuse for the judge if you say you're not available.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I was just going to say that. All right. Daryn, thanks.
Now down to the wire, eight days until the presidential election. President Bush heading to Colorado today, where he is expected to once again hammer home his plan for winning the war on terror. White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is traveling with the president, joins us from Waco, Texas, this morning.
Good morning, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. President Bush, of course, really wants to kick off this week strong. He is determined to do just that. And they will not be outdone by the Kerry camp, their rock star campaigner, former President Bill Clinton. The Bush camp says they have their own secret weapon they will be unleashing this week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
MALVEAUX (voice-over): The Bush camp is unleashing its biggest and brightest stars to campaign with President Bush in his race to the finish. Senior campaign officials confirm California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will travel with Mr. Bush late this week for a high- profile trip to the battleground state of Ohio.
Last week, Schwarzenegger broke ranks with Mr. Bush and his party on the issue of stem cell research, but the Bush campaign has been in talks with the governor for weeks to put the two together. Bush aides say Schwarzenegger is arguably the most popular Republican who enjoys mass appeal among moderates. Best known for his role as "The Terminator"...
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: Let's welcome the president of the United States, George Bush.
MALVEAUX: ... he also gave President Bush's father a boost in his campaign when he introduced him in Columbus, Ohio, in 1988 and 1992. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain, familiar faces on the campaign trail, will also be helping Mr. Bush close the deal with the undecided.
DANA BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: And President Bush is going to talk about his vision, his plans for the future, appeal to those undecided voters who are still making up their minds. He'll talk directly to them about what he's doing to help them in their daily lives, and how those differ from Senator Kerry's plans and his record.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX (on camera): Today, President Bush heads to Colorado, Iowa and Wisconsin. Those are three states that the president lost back in 2000.
They are confident that they can try to make some inroads in those states. But as you know, Soledad, it is down to the wire. They do not know. It is that close whether or not they will be able to pull it out -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Suzanne, I want to ask you a quick question about a story we have been reporting this morning, 380 tons missing explosives in Iraq. Any word, any response from White House officials this morning on that?
MALVEAUX: Well, not an official response, but I did speak with a senior administration official about this who is very much aware of the inner workings of how this happened. That official confirming that, yes, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was notified about this about a month ago.
But the thinking is here -- is among the intelligence community, is that if there's missing explosives, it's not the kind of thing that you're going to announce, let the bad guys know what they have. Secondly, they say, look, if you look at this in the grand scheme, the grand scale here, there are hundreds of tons of explosives, munitions, things like that in Iraq that are just out there.
This is, of course, they say, an important story. But if you put it in larger context, it is just not possible for American forces to try to track down and keep up with all of those explosives, all of that ammunition in Iraq.
But having said that, they said the Iraqi Survey Group, of course, is looking into this. Also, that official acknowledging, Soledad, this is not a good story for this administration, particularly at this time.
O'BRIEN: Clearly. All right. Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning, traveling with the president. Suzanne, thanks.
Melissa Fleming of the International Atomic Energy Commission joins us this morning from Vienna, Austria, with more on this angle of the story.
Melissa, thanks for being with us.
Who exactly was responsible for this 380 tons of material that has now gone missing? It used to be under your jurisdiction, correct?
MELISSA FLEMING, SPOKESWOMAN, IAEA: Well, yes, it was under our monitoring as inspectors in Iraq. It is, though, the responsibility of those in charge to take care of security of these sites and these items.
O'BRIEN: Meaning the Coalition Provisional Authority was the organization that's responsible for that?
FLEMING: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Go on. You sound like you're...
FLEMING: The multinational force in Iraq was responsible for security. And we have -- we informed them immediately upon receiving this declaration that this massive sum of explosive material was missing.
They are responsible for security in Iraq. And our hope was that they would take action to secure and track down these missing explosives before they got into the wrong hands.
O'BRIEN: So did you warn them ahead of time that you had concerns about this massive storage facility and the important explosives that were being held there?
FLEMING: Yes, and certainly this was one of the most well-known sites that weapons inspectors visited frequently. It was a massive military site. It stored not only these 380 tons of high explosives, but also huge caches of artillery.
So it was -- it was known. It was inspected frequently and also prominently mentioned in IAEA reports to the Security Council that were public.
O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of what kind of damage 380 tons of conventional explosives could do. Specifically, what would it be used for?
FLEMING: Well, you know, we were watching the stuff because it has a potential use in a nuclear explosive device. It's also used in conventional military for ammunition, for example. But of course the most immediate concern given the security climate in Iraq is that these explosives -- and this is a real massive quantity of explosives -- could have reached the hands of insurgents and could be used with deadly force and consequences against people in Iraq and elsewhere.
O'BRIEN: One would almost have to assume it's been stolen by someone who has some sort of nefarious purpose for it. The last I understand, that you had track of it or you go word was on October 10. Do you have any idea at this point exactly when was the last time that anyone knew that this material was still there? How long has it been gone for?
FLEMING: It's very difficult to tell, Soledad, because satellite images do not allow us to see inside the bunkers. These were very solid structures.
So we really from the -- from the imagery that we have been observing can't tell when it might have gone missing. The Iraqi authorities also are not clear when exactly it -- and how long it has been missing for. Let's just hope it hasn't been gone a long time.
O'BRIEN: Scary stuff. Melissa Fleming joining us this morning. We appreciate your time. Thanks for being with us.
HEMMER: About eight minutes now past the hour.
Back in this country, eight members of a leading NASCAR family are dead today after a plane crash in the mountains of Virginia. The twin-engine plane went down Sunday, just seven miles west of the Martinsville, Virginia, airport. The plane's two pilots were also killed.
Marty Snider is a pit reporter for TNT and NBC. And he's live in Charlotte, North Carolina.
And we want to say welcome and good morning to you. I know you knew this family quite well, the Hendrick family. What did they mean to the sport of NASCAR?
MARTY SNIDER, PIT REPORTER, TNT & NBC SPORTS: Good morning, Bill.
They were -- really, aside from the France family, who actually owns NASCAR, they're kind of the first family of NASCAR. Rick Hendrick has been a staple in the sport for 20 years now. He's been around for a long time. In fact, they celebrated their 20-year anniversary this year.
And Rick lost his father earlier this year who was -- they called him Papa Joe, a figure in the garage area where all the NASCAR teams work out of. And Rick has been there for a long time and been one of the favorites in the garage area. Always a good man.
You can ask anybody who works in NASCAR racing and they will tell you that Rick Hendrick is one of the nicest people in this business. And it's just -- this is just a profound tragedy within the sport.
HEMMER: Given the success of this family, it may come as no surprise that yesterday's winner drove for the family, Jimmy Johnson. It's my understanding he was not told of this until after the race. What was the mood on the track? Because I know the victory celebration was curtailed yesterday, Marty.
SNIDER: Yes, correct, Bill. They had -- they had not told any of the drivers.
There were rumors going throughout the pit area during the race that something might have happened. But they did not inform the drivers. I don't think the crew chiefs even knew what was going on. They wanted them to focus on the race.
Pretty much all the post-race activity was stopped afterwards. The normal victory lane, things did not happen. And I think that was the right call. And then the mood afterward was very somber.
I was walking out, and actually they had announced something over the P.A. system. Even the fans had a sense of what happened, and it was really a strange mood. Everybody was quiet when they were leaving the racetrack.
Usually fans are excited and happy, either mad because their driver lost or happy because the driver won. But everybody was really quiet. It was a very, very somber mood after the race yesterday.
HEMMER: Marty, for fans in this sport does anyone not know the Hendrick family?
SNIDER: No, I don't think anyone does not know them. Rick Hendrick has made such an impression on the sport. And his loss is unbelievable.
You've got to realize, in this crash he lost his brother, his two nieces, his son, his best friend, and Randy Dorton and -- his confidant for 20 years, and his right-hand man who runs the organization, the Hendrick Motorsports. So I feel so bad for him. And there's such an outreach towards him right now. Everybody feels so bad for the man that they have been friends with for 20 years. HEMMER: Father and son very close, too.
SNIDER: Yes.
HEMMER: Went through chemotherapy treatments that -- apparently Rick was being treated eventually for leukemia. A tough loss for the sport and certainly for this family. Marty, thanks for your time this morning in Charlotte.
SNIDER: Thank you, Bill.
HEMMER: Marty Snider down there.
Now Soledad.
O'BRIEN: A turn now to look at the weather. Jacqui Jeras is in for Chad Myers, who is off today. And she's at the CNN Center with the latest weather update for us.
Hey, Jacqui. Good morning.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Jacqui, thank as lot.
A Russian figure skater has left a Pittsburgh hospital after a frightening fall. In the video, you see Tatiana Totmianina fall on the ice during the Skate America competition on Saturday night. Ouch. That looked terrible.
Well, she suffered a concussion after she fell when her partner was performing a one-handed lift. Doctors say CAT scans, x-rays and neurological tests are all negative, thankfully. And she is expected to be OK.
Let's take another look. Oh!
HEMMER: Wow!
O'BRIEN: Gosh! That's hard to watch. Good news that she is OK after a fall like that. That obviously could have been fatal.
HEMMER: Yes. And the best news, all x-rays are negative, as you point out.
O'BRIEN: Yes. So far, so good.
HEMMER: Let's get a break here in a moment.
Former President Bill Clinton on the stump today for John Kerry. How will he be received by voters in key states? We'll have a look at that.
O'BRIEN: And a battle brewing over the acne medicine Accutane and whether it causes depression. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to join us with details on that ahead as AMERICAN MORNING continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Lots of developments out of Iraq to talk about this morning, as we've been reporting. Three hundred and eighty tons of conventional explosives apparently stolen. Also, at least 44 U.S.- trained Iraqi soldiers who were going home on leave brutally gunned down execution style by insurgents over the weekend.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in that case claimed responsibility for those killings on an Islamic Web site. Now a U.S. security official assigned to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad killed in a mortar attack.
Let's talk about all this coming out of Iraq this morning. CNN's military analyst, Don Shepperd, joins us.
Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for being with us.
Let's begin first with the stolen explosives, assuming they have been stolen. Logistically speaking, I mean, 380 tons, that is a massive facility. That's a massive amount of explosives. How could this be pulled off in the first place?
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE: I tell you, there's going to be a lot of people asking that question today, Soledad. This is something that should never happen. I mean, explosives are always guarded and guarded very carefully. But this is a massive amount of stuff.
Hopefully, we'll find out it is not really stolen, that there are record-keeping errors that it has vanished. But this is just unexplainable. I don't know how this could happen in a military organization.
O'BRIEN: All right. The Coalition Provisional Authority, the authority that actually was technically responsible for this, weren't there lots of red flags? I mean, the spokeswoman for the IAEA was telling us earlier that they had been warning everybody how important this particular facility was.
SHEPPERD: Yes. Again, it should be very, very well guarded. And this absolutely should not happen.
It also leads us to believe that in many cases there are infiltrators that have infiltrated and got good intelligence on where this stuff is, and could be an inside job if indeed it was stolen. So it's a major, major concern here.
O'BRIEN: Well, how about this other story, these ambushed soldiers, execution style killings? Also an inside job, when you hear the details of how they were stopped at a military checkpoint, some kind of fake checkpoint, brought out of their vehicles lined up a dozen in the row and shot through the head?
SHEPPERD: Soledad, this has to be an inside job. They have to know that the soldiers are coming. They had to know how many of them there were.
There was obviously a great deal of planning that went into this. The people were laid out in rows of 12 and gunned in the back of the head. This has to be an inside job. There's infiltration of the forces at every level over there in Iraq. It's a desperately difficult situation.
O'BRIEN: Outside of the devastating effect it's going to have on the troops, and also I have to imagine any new recruits that would be coming forward, what's the impact on the U.S. troops? Because, of course, these Iraqi troops were going to replace the U.S. troops eventually.
SHEPPERD: Yes. Quite frankly, there's not all that much impact on the U.S. troops. The real impact is where it's meant to be, which is on the Iraqi people.
The message to the Iraqi people by al-Zarqawi is that if you cooperate in any way with the coalition forces or with the interim government, you are going to be found and you are going to be killed. It's a very, very tough message, and one that he's trying to spread and spread terror.
The tipping point may come if he steps over the line and the Iraqi people said, "We've had enough. We're going to get rid of Zarqawi rather than the American forces because he represents more of a threat." That's what we're looking for, Soledad, but it hasn't happened yet.
O'BRIEN: Major General John Shepperd joining us this morning.
Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for your insight on this. Appreciate it -- Bill.
SHEPPERD: Pleasure.
HEMMER: About 18 minutes past the hour. If you stayed up late last night, you saw this one finish: Curt Schilling back on the mound and another gutsy performance for the Red Sox. But was it enough for Boston? We'll check in on that.
Also, Jack and Andy are back after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Whoever wins the fall classic, the World Series, the story of Curt Schilling will be remembered for a very long time. Schilling leading the Red Sox to a two-games to none lead last night, pitching in severe pain, sometimes bleeding, literally through his sock. His right ankle held together with stitches, putting off surgery as long as he can. Here's Schilling after the game.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH FOULKE, PITCHER, BOSTON RED SOX: It takes a lot of guts. You know -- you know, it says that, you know, no matter how much pain he's in, that he wants to go out there and help this ball club win. And, you know, that gives us a lot of inspiration.
KEVIN MILLAR, RED SOX FIRST BASEMAN: Tremendous. I mean, he's a tremendous professional, most prepared pitcher you will ever see. And this guy is going out there and grinding it out to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Well, Schilling and his doctor are not sure if he'll be able to do it again during this series. But if his teammates win two of the next three against the Cardinals in St. Louis, he will not have to.
Two games to none, the Red Sox lead. Back to St. Louis tomorrow night. New definition to the term "Red Sox," huh?
O'BRIEN: And tough.
HEMMER: When the blood is coming through the sock?
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Wait a second. How much does -- how much does he get paid?
HEMMER: He gets paid an awful lot.
CAFFERTY: Well, then, when the going gets tough, you go out and do your thing.
O'BRIEN: He's bleeding. The man is bleeding. Come on.
CAFFERTY: A little sore ankle. I mean, you know, suck it up.
ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, FORTUNE MAGAZINE: He's got a sore ankle, maybe.
CAFFERTY: Yes. Suck it up and get the job done.
Major tomato shortage has restaurants scrambling. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
I had no idea.
SERWER: Well...
CAFFERTY: This could be serious.
SERWER: They always give me the big stories.
CAFFERTY: This just in.
(LAUGHTER)
SERWER: Let's talk about the markets a little bit. Futures weaker this morning again because the higher price of oil hitting a record $55.67 a barrel. Here's what happened last week, folks.
Not a good one for the Dow. NASDAQ up a little bit, strengthened eBay and Google. Dow down 6.7 percent for the year. Futures are lower, as we said.
Tomato, tomato, it doesn't matter what you call it. There's not a lot of them around. Two reasons: Florida hurricanes, also bad weather in California.
The price of tomatoes up 167 percent over the past year. And what does that mean? Well, it means bad news for Darden, which owns Red Lobster and other restaurants, Olive Garden, and also Wendy's.
They are going to have to cut back on recipes using tomatoes. In fact, one restaurant said they are going to impose rolling black-outs of tomatoes. That means on certain days you will not be able to get salsa, for instance, on certain meals at some of these restaurants.
CAFFERTY: Well...
O'BRIEN: Really?
SERWER: I didn't know this at all.
CAFFERTY: What is the world coming to?
SERWER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: This is terrible.
SERWER: Do you say tomato or tomato.
CAFFERTY: I say pass the garlic. What else happened? Wal-Mart is in the news again.
SERWER: Yes, Wal-Mart. This is a story south of the border. A demonstration near some Aztec ruins in the city of Teotihuacan, 25 miles northeast...
O'BRIEN: Teothihuacan.
SERWER: Teotihuacan, thank you.
O'BRIEN: I have been there. It's beautiful. Go ahead -- sorry.
SERWER: Thank you. Beautiful, thank you -- 25 miles northeast of Mexico City, as Soledad can tell you.
Wal-Mart, a subsidiary of Bodega Aurrera -- I hope I pronounced that -- I butchered that as well, I'm sure -- a subsidiary of the giant store is looking to build a facility nearby, and demonstrators are saying it's too near the ruins, and they have been protesting.
CAFFERTY: There you go.
SERWER: And that's what happens.
O'BRIEN: Wal-Mart near the ruins.
CAFFERTY: I hope them tomatoes start growing. SERWER: Tomatoes.
CAFFERTY: We've got a week to go before the election. There's still no October surprise.
If you can roll the prompter up, then I can read the rest of the stuff. Fine. Thank you.
There are two -- now have you to roll it up again.
O'BRIEN: Keep going. There you go.
SERWER: Oh, look what they are doing to you.
O'BRIEN: Right there.
CAFFERTY: This is unbelievable. There we go. Stop right there.
Now, try and follow along with me as we read this script together. There are two negative developments in Iraq, possibly spelling trouble for the campaign. The first, of course, the execution of 50 newly-trained Iraqi police officers. The other is a "New York Times" report, 380 tons of powerful explosives have disappeared from one of Iraq's military facilities, and our government officials are afraid it may have fallen into the wrong hands.
Meanwhile, Bill Clinton's being dragged out of bed to campaign for Mr. Kerry, Arnold Schwarzenegger is being dragged out of the gym to campaign for Mr. Bush. We've got a week to go. Mercifully, all of this will be over.
Is there anything that could happen this week that would cause you to change your vote, is the question du jour.
Mike in Columbus, Mississippi, "If the old rumor the Saudis were going to lower gas prices before the election comes true, I might change my mind and vote for Bush. If Bush has that much power, he ought to be the president."
John writes from Auburn, Massachusetts, "Yes, I have changed my mind. These 1,000 lawyers that Kerry is going to put at polling stations is enough for me to vote the devil we know, i.e. Bush, versus the one we can't trust. Just what I want, a lawyer looking over my shoulder while I vote."
Brett in Laramie, Wyoming, "I don't have to change my vote. In Florida they change it for you."
(LAUGHTER)
CAFFERTY: "And if that isn't enough, the Supreme Court can change it for me."
And Jean in New York writes this: "Once again, Jack Cafferty explains his extreme anti-Democratic bias. Clinton is being sent out the rescue the Kerry campaign? Please, Clinton would be a great asset to any campaign, but Kerry is far from needing rescue."
"Can't Cafferty be replaced? He's insufferable."
HEMMER: I don't think he can be replaced.
SERWER: He's irreplaceable.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: By the way, Curt Schilling, $12 million a year. You can bleed through your sock for that cash, wouldn't you?
CAFFERTY: You can cut my foot off. Just write me the check and take it off right here. Cut it off right there.
O'BRIEN: Oh, so necessary. Oh!
HEMMER: Thank you. Let's get a break.
In a moment, in a bitter fight for votes next week, the campaign legal teams -- this one is for you, Jack -- or rather for Jean in New York City -- the teams are out in force. What does that mean for you as a voter?
Back in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING. Almost half past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Just about half-past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Coming up this morning, the bitter fight for votes. Already both campaigns sending in the lawyers to key battleground states. We're going to take a look at which states are poised for the biggest fights, and also what kind of effect this could have on voter turnout.
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Aired October 25, 2004 - 8:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get to Daryn Kagan now with us at the CNN Center, topping the news this hour.
Daryn, good morning. Good to have you today.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Bill, good morning to you.
We're going to begin in Pakistan this hour. The Saudi ambassador there says his embassy is being threatened possibly by al Qaeda. The official says that a package of grenades was sent to the Saudi embassy in Islamabad. An attached letter threatens the Saudis with an attack if they do not leave Pakistan. Saudi officials say they have no intentions of withdrawing, and Pakistani security officials are investigating.
Nearly 400 tons of conventional explosives are missing in Iraq. A U.N. nuclear watchdog says the explosives were taken from one of Saddam Hussein's once secret military compounds following the U.S.-led invasion last year. The explosives are considered powerful enough to detonate a nuclear warhead. A CIA taskforce has reportedly been ordered to investigate.
And in California, a Los Angeles court will begin screening prospective jurors in the Robert Blake murder trial. The former star of "Baretta" is accused of killing his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, in May of 2001. As many as 1,800 people are expected to take part in the initial screening phase. That is set to start in just a couple of hours.
Soledad, the trial is expected to last four months. You have to have a good excuse for the judge if you say you're not available.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I was just going to say that. All right. Daryn, thanks.
Now down to the wire, eight days until the presidential election. President Bush heading to Colorado today, where he is expected to once again hammer home his plan for winning the war on terror. White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is traveling with the president, joins us from Waco, Texas, this morning.
Good morning, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. President Bush, of course, really wants to kick off this week strong. He is determined to do just that. And they will not be outdone by the Kerry camp, their rock star campaigner, former President Bill Clinton. The Bush camp says they have their own secret weapon they will be unleashing this week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
MALVEAUX (voice-over): The Bush camp is unleashing its biggest and brightest stars to campaign with President Bush in his race to the finish. Senior campaign officials confirm California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will travel with Mr. Bush late this week for a high- profile trip to the battleground state of Ohio.
Last week, Schwarzenegger broke ranks with Mr. Bush and his party on the issue of stem cell research, but the Bush campaign has been in talks with the governor for weeks to put the two together. Bush aides say Schwarzenegger is arguably the most popular Republican who enjoys mass appeal among moderates. Best known for his role as "The Terminator"...
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: Let's welcome the president of the United States, George Bush.
MALVEAUX: ... he also gave President Bush's father a boost in his campaign when he introduced him in Columbus, Ohio, in 1988 and 1992. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain, familiar faces on the campaign trail, will also be helping Mr. Bush close the deal with the undecided.
DANA BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: And President Bush is going to talk about his vision, his plans for the future, appeal to those undecided voters who are still making up their minds. He'll talk directly to them about what he's doing to help them in their daily lives, and how those differ from Senator Kerry's plans and his record.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX (on camera): Today, President Bush heads to Colorado, Iowa and Wisconsin. Those are three states that the president lost back in 2000.
They are confident that they can try to make some inroads in those states. But as you know, Soledad, it is down to the wire. They do not know. It is that close whether or not they will be able to pull it out -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Suzanne, I want to ask you a quick question about a story we have been reporting this morning, 380 tons missing explosives in Iraq. Any word, any response from White House officials this morning on that?
MALVEAUX: Well, not an official response, but I did speak with a senior administration official about this who is very much aware of the inner workings of how this happened. That official confirming that, yes, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was notified about this about a month ago.
But the thinking is here -- is among the intelligence community, is that if there's missing explosives, it's not the kind of thing that you're going to announce, let the bad guys know what they have. Secondly, they say, look, if you look at this in the grand scheme, the grand scale here, there are hundreds of tons of explosives, munitions, things like that in Iraq that are just out there.
This is, of course, they say, an important story. But if you put it in larger context, it is just not possible for American forces to try to track down and keep up with all of those explosives, all of that ammunition in Iraq.
But having said that, they said the Iraqi Survey Group, of course, is looking into this. Also, that official acknowledging, Soledad, this is not a good story for this administration, particularly at this time.
O'BRIEN: Clearly. All right. Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning, traveling with the president. Suzanne, thanks.
Melissa Fleming of the International Atomic Energy Commission joins us this morning from Vienna, Austria, with more on this angle of the story.
Melissa, thanks for being with us.
Who exactly was responsible for this 380 tons of material that has now gone missing? It used to be under your jurisdiction, correct?
MELISSA FLEMING, SPOKESWOMAN, IAEA: Well, yes, it was under our monitoring as inspectors in Iraq. It is, though, the responsibility of those in charge to take care of security of these sites and these items.
O'BRIEN: Meaning the Coalition Provisional Authority was the organization that's responsible for that?
FLEMING: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Go on. You sound like you're...
FLEMING: The multinational force in Iraq was responsible for security. And we have -- we informed them immediately upon receiving this declaration that this massive sum of explosive material was missing.
They are responsible for security in Iraq. And our hope was that they would take action to secure and track down these missing explosives before they got into the wrong hands.
O'BRIEN: So did you warn them ahead of time that you had concerns about this massive storage facility and the important explosives that were being held there?
FLEMING: Yes, and certainly this was one of the most well-known sites that weapons inspectors visited frequently. It was a massive military site. It stored not only these 380 tons of high explosives, but also huge caches of artillery.
So it was -- it was known. It was inspected frequently and also prominently mentioned in IAEA reports to the Security Council that were public.
O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of what kind of damage 380 tons of conventional explosives could do. Specifically, what would it be used for?
FLEMING: Well, you know, we were watching the stuff because it has a potential use in a nuclear explosive device. It's also used in conventional military for ammunition, for example. But of course the most immediate concern given the security climate in Iraq is that these explosives -- and this is a real massive quantity of explosives -- could have reached the hands of insurgents and could be used with deadly force and consequences against people in Iraq and elsewhere.
O'BRIEN: One would almost have to assume it's been stolen by someone who has some sort of nefarious purpose for it. The last I understand, that you had track of it or you go word was on October 10. Do you have any idea at this point exactly when was the last time that anyone knew that this material was still there? How long has it been gone for?
FLEMING: It's very difficult to tell, Soledad, because satellite images do not allow us to see inside the bunkers. These were very solid structures.
So we really from the -- from the imagery that we have been observing can't tell when it might have gone missing. The Iraqi authorities also are not clear when exactly it -- and how long it has been missing for. Let's just hope it hasn't been gone a long time.
O'BRIEN: Scary stuff. Melissa Fleming joining us this morning. We appreciate your time. Thanks for being with us.
HEMMER: About eight minutes now past the hour.
Back in this country, eight members of a leading NASCAR family are dead today after a plane crash in the mountains of Virginia. The twin-engine plane went down Sunday, just seven miles west of the Martinsville, Virginia, airport. The plane's two pilots were also killed.
Marty Snider is a pit reporter for TNT and NBC. And he's live in Charlotte, North Carolina.
And we want to say welcome and good morning to you. I know you knew this family quite well, the Hendrick family. What did they mean to the sport of NASCAR?
MARTY SNIDER, PIT REPORTER, TNT & NBC SPORTS: Good morning, Bill.
They were -- really, aside from the France family, who actually owns NASCAR, they're kind of the first family of NASCAR. Rick Hendrick has been a staple in the sport for 20 years now. He's been around for a long time. In fact, they celebrated their 20-year anniversary this year.
And Rick lost his father earlier this year who was -- they called him Papa Joe, a figure in the garage area where all the NASCAR teams work out of. And Rick has been there for a long time and been one of the favorites in the garage area. Always a good man.
You can ask anybody who works in NASCAR racing and they will tell you that Rick Hendrick is one of the nicest people in this business. And it's just -- this is just a profound tragedy within the sport.
HEMMER: Given the success of this family, it may come as no surprise that yesterday's winner drove for the family, Jimmy Johnson. It's my understanding he was not told of this until after the race. What was the mood on the track? Because I know the victory celebration was curtailed yesterday, Marty.
SNIDER: Yes, correct, Bill. They had -- they had not told any of the drivers.
There were rumors going throughout the pit area during the race that something might have happened. But they did not inform the drivers. I don't think the crew chiefs even knew what was going on. They wanted them to focus on the race.
Pretty much all the post-race activity was stopped afterwards. The normal victory lane, things did not happen. And I think that was the right call. And then the mood afterward was very somber.
I was walking out, and actually they had announced something over the P.A. system. Even the fans had a sense of what happened, and it was really a strange mood. Everybody was quiet when they were leaving the racetrack.
Usually fans are excited and happy, either mad because their driver lost or happy because the driver won. But everybody was really quiet. It was a very, very somber mood after the race yesterday.
HEMMER: Marty, for fans in this sport does anyone not know the Hendrick family?
SNIDER: No, I don't think anyone does not know them. Rick Hendrick has made such an impression on the sport. And his loss is unbelievable.
You've got to realize, in this crash he lost his brother, his two nieces, his son, his best friend, and Randy Dorton and -- his confidant for 20 years, and his right-hand man who runs the organization, the Hendrick Motorsports. So I feel so bad for him. And there's such an outreach towards him right now. Everybody feels so bad for the man that they have been friends with for 20 years. HEMMER: Father and son very close, too.
SNIDER: Yes.
HEMMER: Went through chemotherapy treatments that -- apparently Rick was being treated eventually for leukemia. A tough loss for the sport and certainly for this family. Marty, thanks for your time this morning in Charlotte.
SNIDER: Thank you, Bill.
HEMMER: Marty Snider down there.
Now Soledad.
O'BRIEN: A turn now to look at the weather. Jacqui Jeras is in for Chad Myers, who is off today. And she's at the CNN Center with the latest weather update for us.
Hey, Jacqui. Good morning.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Jacqui, thank as lot.
A Russian figure skater has left a Pittsburgh hospital after a frightening fall. In the video, you see Tatiana Totmianina fall on the ice during the Skate America competition on Saturday night. Ouch. That looked terrible.
Well, she suffered a concussion after she fell when her partner was performing a one-handed lift. Doctors say CAT scans, x-rays and neurological tests are all negative, thankfully. And she is expected to be OK.
Let's take another look. Oh!
HEMMER: Wow!
O'BRIEN: Gosh! That's hard to watch. Good news that she is OK after a fall like that. That obviously could have been fatal.
HEMMER: Yes. And the best news, all x-rays are negative, as you point out.
O'BRIEN: Yes. So far, so good.
HEMMER: Let's get a break here in a moment.
Former President Bill Clinton on the stump today for John Kerry. How will he be received by voters in key states? We'll have a look at that.
O'BRIEN: And a battle brewing over the acne medicine Accutane and whether it causes depression. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to join us with details on that ahead as AMERICAN MORNING continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Lots of developments out of Iraq to talk about this morning, as we've been reporting. Three hundred and eighty tons of conventional explosives apparently stolen. Also, at least 44 U.S.- trained Iraqi soldiers who were going home on leave brutally gunned down execution style by insurgents over the weekend.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in that case claimed responsibility for those killings on an Islamic Web site. Now a U.S. security official assigned to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad killed in a mortar attack.
Let's talk about all this coming out of Iraq this morning. CNN's military analyst, Don Shepperd, joins us.
Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for being with us.
Let's begin first with the stolen explosives, assuming they have been stolen. Logistically speaking, I mean, 380 tons, that is a massive facility. That's a massive amount of explosives. How could this be pulled off in the first place?
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE: I tell you, there's going to be a lot of people asking that question today, Soledad. This is something that should never happen. I mean, explosives are always guarded and guarded very carefully. But this is a massive amount of stuff.
Hopefully, we'll find out it is not really stolen, that there are record-keeping errors that it has vanished. But this is just unexplainable. I don't know how this could happen in a military organization.
O'BRIEN: All right. The Coalition Provisional Authority, the authority that actually was technically responsible for this, weren't there lots of red flags? I mean, the spokeswoman for the IAEA was telling us earlier that they had been warning everybody how important this particular facility was.
SHEPPERD: Yes. Again, it should be very, very well guarded. And this absolutely should not happen.
It also leads us to believe that in many cases there are infiltrators that have infiltrated and got good intelligence on where this stuff is, and could be an inside job if indeed it was stolen. So it's a major, major concern here.
O'BRIEN: Well, how about this other story, these ambushed soldiers, execution style killings? Also an inside job, when you hear the details of how they were stopped at a military checkpoint, some kind of fake checkpoint, brought out of their vehicles lined up a dozen in the row and shot through the head?
SHEPPERD: Soledad, this has to be an inside job. They have to know that the soldiers are coming. They had to know how many of them there were.
There was obviously a great deal of planning that went into this. The people were laid out in rows of 12 and gunned in the back of the head. This has to be an inside job. There's infiltration of the forces at every level over there in Iraq. It's a desperately difficult situation.
O'BRIEN: Outside of the devastating effect it's going to have on the troops, and also I have to imagine any new recruits that would be coming forward, what's the impact on the U.S. troops? Because, of course, these Iraqi troops were going to replace the U.S. troops eventually.
SHEPPERD: Yes. Quite frankly, there's not all that much impact on the U.S. troops. The real impact is where it's meant to be, which is on the Iraqi people.
The message to the Iraqi people by al-Zarqawi is that if you cooperate in any way with the coalition forces or with the interim government, you are going to be found and you are going to be killed. It's a very, very tough message, and one that he's trying to spread and spread terror.
The tipping point may come if he steps over the line and the Iraqi people said, "We've had enough. We're going to get rid of Zarqawi rather than the American forces because he represents more of a threat." That's what we're looking for, Soledad, but it hasn't happened yet.
O'BRIEN: Major General John Shepperd joining us this morning.
Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for your insight on this. Appreciate it -- Bill.
SHEPPERD: Pleasure.
HEMMER: About 18 minutes past the hour. If you stayed up late last night, you saw this one finish: Curt Schilling back on the mound and another gutsy performance for the Red Sox. But was it enough for Boston? We'll check in on that.
Also, Jack and Andy are back after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Whoever wins the fall classic, the World Series, the story of Curt Schilling will be remembered for a very long time. Schilling leading the Red Sox to a two-games to none lead last night, pitching in severe pain, sometimes bleeding, literally through his sock. His right ankle held together with stitches, putting off surgery as long as he can. Here's Schilling after the game.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH FOULKE, PITCHER, BOSTON RED SOX: It takes a lot of guts. You know -- you know, it says that, you know, no matter how much pain he's in, that he wants to go out there and help this ball club win. And, you know, that gives us a lot of inspiration.
KEVIN MILLAR, RED SOX FIRST BASEMAN: Tremendous. I mean, he's a tremendous professional, most prepared pitcher you will ever see. And this guy is going out there and grinding it out to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Well, Schilling and his doctor are not sure if he'll be able to do it again during this series. But if his teammates win two of the next three against the Cardinals in St. Louis, he will not have to.
Two games to none, the Red Sox lead. Back to St. Louis tomorrow night. New definition to the term "Red Sox," huh?
O'BRIEN: And tough.
HEMMER: When the blood is coming through the sock?
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Wait a second. How much does -- how much does he get paid?
HEMMER: He gets paid an awful lot.
CAFFERTY: Well, then, when the going gets tough, you go out and do your thing.
O'BRIEN: He's bleeding. The man is bleeding. Come on.
CAFFERTY: A little sore ankle. I mean, you know, suck it up.
ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, FORTUNE MAGAZINE: He's got a sore ankle, maybe.
CAFFERTY: Yes. Suck it up and get the job done.
Major tomato shortage has restaurants scrambling. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
I had no idea.
SERWER: Well...
CAFFERTY: This could be serious.
SERWER: They always give me the big stories.
CAFFERTY: This just in.
(LAUGHTER)
SERWER: Let's talk about the markets a little bit. Futures weaker this morning again because the higher price of oil hitting a record $55.67 a barrel. Here's what happened last week, folks.
Not a good one for the Dow. NASDAQ up a little bit, strengthened eBay and Google. Dow down 6.7 percent for the year. Futures are lower, as we said.
Tomato, tomato, it doesn't matter what you call it. There's not a lot of them around. Two reasons: Florida hurricanes, also bad weather in California.
The price of tomatoes up 167 percent over the past year. And what does that mean? Well, it means bad news for Darden, which owns Red Lobster and other restaurants, Olive Garden, and also Wendy's.
They are going to have to cut back on recipes using tomatoes. In fact, one restaurant said they are going to impose rolling black-outs of tomatoes. That means on certain days you will not be able to get salsa, for instance, on certain meals at some of these restaurants.
CAFFERTY: Well...
O'BRIEN: Really?
SERWER: I didn't know this at all.
CAFFERTY: What is the world coming to?
SERWER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: This is terrible.
SERWER: Do you say tomato or tomato.
CAFFERTY: I say pass the garlic. What else happened? Wal-Mart is in the news again.
SERWER: Yes, Wal-Mart. This is a story south of the border. A demonstration near some Aztec ruins in the city of Teotihuacan, 25 miles northeast...
O'BRIEN: Teothihuacan.
SERWER: Teotihuacan, thank you.
O'BRIEN: I have been there. It's beautiful. Go ahead -- sorry.
SERWER: Thank you. Beautiful, thank you -- 25 miles northeast of Mexico City, as Soledad can tell you.
Wal-Mart, a subsidiary of Bodega Aurrera -- I hope I pronounced that -- I butchered that as well, I'm sure -- a subsidiary of the giant store is looking to build a facility nearby, and demonstrators are saying it's too near the ruins, and they have been protesting.
CAFFERTY: There you go.
SERWER: And that's what happens.
O'BRIEN: Wal-Mart near the ruins.
CAFFERTY: I hope them tomatoes start growing. SERWER: Tomatoes.
CAFFERTY: We've got a week to go before the election. There's still no October surprise.
If you can roll the prompter up, then I can read the rest of the stuff. Fine. Thank you.
There are two -- now have you to roll it up again.
O'BRIEN: Keep going. There you go.
SERWER: Oh, look what they are doing to you.
O'BRIEN: Right there.
CAFFERTY: This is unbelievable. There we go. Stop right there.
Now, try and follow along with me as we read this script together. There are two negative developments in Iraq, possibly spelling trouble for the campaign. The first, of course, the execution of 50 newly-trained Iraqi police officers. The other is a "New York Times" report, 380 tons of powerful explosives have disappeared from one of Iraq's military facilities, and our government officials are afraid it may have fallen into the wrong hands.
Meanwhile, Bill Clinton's being dragged out of bed to campaign for Mr. Kerry, Arnold Schwarzenegger is being dragged out of the gym to campaign for Mr. Bush. We've got a week to go. Mercifully, all of this will be over.
Is there anything that could happen this week that would cause you to change your vote, is the question du jour.
Mike in Columbus, Mississippi, "If the old rumor the Saudis were going to lower gas prices before the election comes true, I might change my mind and vote for Bush. If Bush has that much power, he ought to be the president."
John writes from Auburn, Massachusetts, "Yes, I have changed my mind. These 1,000 lawyers that Kerry is going to put at polling stations is enough for me to vote the devil we know, i.e. Bush, versus the one we can't trust. Just what I want, a lawyer looking over my shoulder while I vote."
Brett in Laramie, Wyoming, "I don't have to change my vote. In Florida they change it for you."
(LAUGHTER)
CAFFERTY: "And if that isn't enough, the Supreme Court can change it for me."
And Jean in New York writes this: "Once again, Jack Cafferty explains his extreme anti-Democratic bias. Clinton is being sent out the rescue the Kerry campaign? Please, Clinton would be a great asset to any campaign, but Kerry is far from needing rescue."
"Can't Cafferty be replaced? He's insufferable."
HEMMER: I don't think he can be replaced.
SERWER: He's irreplaceable.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: By the way, Curt Schilling, $12 million a year. You can bleed through your sock for that cash, wouldn't you?
CAFFERTY: You can cut my foot off. Just write me the check and take it off right here. Cut it off right there.
O'BRIEN: Oh, so necessary. Oh!
HEMMER: Thank you. Let's get a break.
In a moment, in a bitter fight for votes next week, the campaign legal teams -- this one is for you, Jack -- or rather for Jean in New York City -- the teams are out in force. What does that mean for you as a voter?
Back in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING. Almost half past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Just about half-past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Coming up this morning, the bitter fight for votes. Already both campaigns sending in the lawyers to key battleground states. We're going to take a look at which states are poised for the biggest fights, and also what kind of effect this could have on voter turnout.
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