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American Morning
Ex-Patriate Iraqis Head to Polls
Aired January 28, 2005 - 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.
Iraqis far from home making a stand for their country's future, as voting in the election begins today.
Nearly a million Ford owners with trucks and SUVs now being recalled. A little switch that could start a fire.
And chasing down convicted felons on the run here in the U.S. Fugitives hunted down by a team called Ice, 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, everybody.
Soledad has left the building.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, man.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I feel so bad for her.
HEMMER: She tried, didn't she?
CAFFERTY: She's parlayed this into a day and a half off in the last two days. I want to get something of whatever she's got.
HEMMER: I'm telling you.
CAFFERTY: It's Friday. She's out of here.
HEMMER: She's a mother of four.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: Under the age of four. Do you want that?
CAFFERTY: No. I'll stay here with you and...
COSTELLO: That's no vacation.
CAFFERTY: ... the rest of these folks and work.
HEMMER: You did your time.
CAFFERTY: Yes, I've been there and done that, that's right.
HEMMER: Carol Costello is here helping us out -- good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: Good to have you with us today.
COSTELLO: Thank you.
HEMMER: As we continue here, we'll get a look at the voting here in America. Suburban Detroit, one of the five cities where Iraqi- Americans are casting ballots today.
We'll also talk to one of the candidates in the election about whether Sunnis in Iraq could derail the election by doing nothing. That's in a moment.
COSTELLO: Also, an amazing crime story out of Illinois. Imagine watching out your window as a neighbor shows police where to dig for victim after victim of a serial murderer. We'll look at a community learning about the secret life of an apparent mass murderer.
CAFFERTY: Wow!
HEMMER: Intriguing there.
Jack -- what's happening?
CAFFERTY: We've got the "Cafferty File" in less than an hour. A 12-year-old who can bench press three times his body weight and, who knows, seemed he might be the governor of California. British parents get a chance to be babies all over again. It's a pretty funny video. And we'll tell you how to get Jenna Jameson to talk dirty to you on your telephone.
HEMMER: More than 900?
CAFFERTY: It's something you want the maybe pay attention to, Carol. You could be interested in this.
COSTELLO: Yes.
Have you read her book?
CAFFERTY: No. Does she have a book?
COSTELLO: Yes, she does. It was a best-seller.
HEMMER: Have you?
CAFFERTY: It was?
COSTELLO: Yes.
CAFFERTY: Did you buy it?
COSTELLO: No.
CAFFERTY: Did you read it?
COSTELLO: No. I just found it interesting that a porn star could write a best-selling book about sex.
CAFFERTY: TV people write them all the time. I don't know what's so unusual.
COSTELLO: That's true. It's kind of the same thing, if you think about it.
CAFFERTY: Yes, it really is.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Jack, I think.
CAFFERTY: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Now in the news, two leading members of the insurgent group headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have been arrested. One of them was said to be al-Zarqawi's head of Baghdad operations. Al-Zarqawi, that's who you're seeing here. Iraq's national security minister says the arrest shows that progress is being made by the Iraqi security forces.
In the meantime, Iraqis in Iraq will vote on Sunday, but expatriates are already taking to the polls around the globe. Here in the United States, they will vote in one of five cities -- Washington, Detroit, Chicago, Nashville or Los Angeles.
CNN's Chris Lawrence is at a polling center in suburban Detroit.
He filed this story.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
FATIMA Al-HUSSEINI: Good morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fatima al- Husseini (ph) is 18 years old and excited about Iraq's fire free election in half a century.
AL-HUSSEINI: First of all, it was counting down the weeks, and then it was coming down the days. Now it's just the hours.
LAWRENCE: From talking to college classmates in her political science class...
AL-HUSSEINI: We need to prove that we want this.
LAWRENCE: To after school meetings at a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan.
AL-HUSSEINI: Is the voting in the same place and the same time?
LAWRENCE: Fatima is registered and ready to cast her first vote ever.
AL-HUSSEINI: It's an honor. It's a privilege. And it's an obligation.
LAWRENCE: Election officials estimate there are about 100,000 eligible voters in the Dearborn area, including immigrants like Fatima's new husband, Gator (ph).
GATOR: I see too many religious.
LAWRENCE: And young, second generation Iraqis who've never set foot in the country.
AL-HUSSEINI: I'm an American. I have an American passport. I was born right here in Detroit, Michigan.
LAWRENCE: Fatima defends her right to vote because her parents are both Iraqi.
AL-HUSSEINI: And I once said if it wasn't for the regime of Saddam Hussein, we would probably still be in Iraq anyways.
LAWRENCE: Gator was there just four years ago and knows the risk Iraqis are taking on election day. He and Fatima are disappointed so many young Iraqi-Americans didn't bother to register.
AL-HUSSEINI: It's extremely frustrating because they're given the privilege to vote.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: Chris Lawrence reporting.
Tonight on CNN, a special report on "NEWSNIGHT WITH AARON BROWN," live from Dearborn, Michigan. Aaron sits down with a cross section of the area's large Iraqi population to discuss their role as expatriates in Iraq's historic election. That's tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.
President Bush is set to be on hand next hour for the ceremonial swearing in of Condoleezza Rice. Rice addressed the State Department for the first time yesterday as the 66th secretary of state. She told her new employees "History is calling us."
Rice will take her first official visit next week, to the Middle East and to Europe.
And a major merger between two household companies. The Procter & Gamble Company is acquiring Gillette Razor Group for $57 billion. If shareholders give their OK, the deal will close later this fall.
What does this mean for your wallet? We'll have much more from David Haffenreffer, coming up later this hour.
HEMMER: That is a big, big story. We'll chew on that throughout the morning. Carol, thanks.
Back to Iraq, quickly.
Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan is the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee.
He's my guest now, back in Dearborn, Michigan.
Senator, good morning.
Welcome back here to AMERICAN MORNING.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: One of your colleagues, Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, said this yesterday, on the screen for our viewers: "A prolonged American military presence in Iraq," he says, "is no longer productive for either Iraq or the United States. The U.S. military presence has become part of the problem, not a part of the solution."
Do you agree with that?
LEVIN: I think we're much too much of a target. We went in there much too unilaterally and we're paying a price for it now. But in terms of how we leave, we should hold off until the election is over, see what that procedures, whether it produces more stability or not. And also, there's going to be a new government there in the next few months. There will be an assembly and then a few months after that we're going to have a presidency that's elected by the people of Iraq and we ought to work out with them the details of our departure and make sure they want us to stay, but then decide whether or not the Iraqi people are willing to fight for their country.
We know a majority want a country there. Are they willing to put their lives on the line for that country and are the majority of the Shia smart enough to negotiate with the Sunnis, even though the Sunnis won't participate much in the election, to still negotiate with them to protect the minority rights of both the Sunnis and the Christians.
HEMMER: And just back to this quote from Senator Kennedy.
Some are saying that it's not the right message to be getting out there a couple days before the election.
Do you agree with that?
LEVIN: I think the message, the overall message is the right one, that we've got to find a way to end the occupying status of America -- that is counter-productive -- and that we've got to find a way to leave Iraq and to make sure that Iraq, Iraqis are willing to fight for their own country, to put their lives on the line the way we are.
But as to setting a specific date, I would not do that, or the specifics for departure, I would not do that. I don't think he did either. It was a goal which he set rather than a fixed date. It is not wise to set a fixed date for a fixed number of Americans to leave at this moment, because I think that does send the wrong message.
HEMMER: There was, John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, was with us last hour. We've been consistently asking our guests here throughout the week about how they define success on Sunday. He said three things: the fact that the election is taking place; the second fact, that the importance of moving from an appointed to an elected government is critical; and he believes there will be a strong voter turnout, with millions of Iraqis taking part on Sunday.
Do you agree with all three of those points in terms of defining success?
LEVIN: I agree with those three. But there's another side of the ledger, and that is that there will be a very small Sunni turnout and the question then is how will that play in Iraq, particularly? Will the Shia, who will dominate in that assembly, be smart enough to negotiate with the Sunnis to protect their right in a new draft -- their rights in a new draft constitution, which is going to be produced in the next few months?
So I think those points are legitimate points, but we have got to understand the negatives going in here, too, that there's been a very strong exaggeration by this administration of the number of troops that Iraqis have produced. They use a figure 130,000. There's not even a quarter of that number that are able to fight strongly, that are well trained and will put their lives on the line. And so there's some negative things that are on that ledger, as well. We've got to weigh it all after the election.
But I think Negroponte's points are legitimate.
HEMMER: Let me try to get to two more points quickly here.
If it is deemed a success, does that redeem the White House?
LEVIN: Well, the White House has made just too many mistakes going in and after we went in there. The Iraqi Army has never, should not have been disbanded. It was the one way that we could have produced some security in Iraq. There was no plan for the aftermath. And we're paying the price for those mistakes.
But we're there now, even those of us that criticized going in and how this has been handled, I think are all together in making the best of the situation if we can, trying to put the Iraqis in the position that they can really fight for their own country.
They've got to want their country as much as we do.
So I wouldn't say that the mistakes of the administration will be proven not to have been mistakes. Those mistakes are there. We're paying a price. But we've got to take it on from here and do the best we can. HEMMER: What are you hearing from Arab-Americans out of places like Dearborn, Michigan? Are they excited? Are they hopeful? Are they positive? What are you hearing?
LEVIN: They're worried. Some of them are going to vote, but it's not a huge -- it's going to be a huge turnout here. It's not going to affect the outcome in Iraq. It's too few numbers that are going to turn out.
But they're hopeful that somehow or other that their country or their former country is going to be able to make it.
And so I would say that there's some hope, but there's also some great nervousness as to whether this election will produce more stability than instability, and I think that is a question which is not an obvious -- there's no obvious answer to that question.
HEMMER: Well, thank you, Senator.
Aaron Brown is in Dearborn, Michigan later tonight here on CNN.
Much more from your part of the country then.
Thank you.
Senator Carl Levin there in Detroit.
Later tonight, a special report on Iraq votes. Christiane, Anderson, Paula, Aaron all hosting that later tonight at 7:00 Eastern here on CNN -- Carol.
COSTELLO: We're going to check in with the weather right now.
Let's go to the forecast center in Atlanta and Rob Marciano in for Chad Myers this morning -- good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Iraq's once powerful Sunni Muslims may lose big on Sunday. And, if so, what are the consequences there? We'll talk to the leading Sunni candidate in a moment here today.
COSTELLO: Also, cracking down on fugitive illegal immigrants.
CNN rides along with a crime squad called "Ice."
HEMMER: And a dangerous glitch involving thousands of popular SUVs and trucks. We'll talk about a major recall today in a moment as we continue live in New York City on a Friday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Ford is recalling nearly 800,000 trucks and SUVs. They're in danger of catching fire, especially while parked with the engines off. The problem is with a possibly defective cruise control switch in the model year 2000 Expeditions, Navigators and F150 pickup trucks; also, the 2001 F Series Super Crew truck.
Lawrence Ulrich of "Money" magazine is here to explain further.
LAWRENCE ULRICH, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: How you doing?
COSTELLO: It's kind of a scary problem because it -- your car can actually catch fire and the engine can be turned off.
ULRICH: Yes, in fact, in every case so far it seems like it's been with the engine turned off. You know, it's not a new thing. It's happened with some other vehicles. Not to name names, but the BMW X5 SUV was one that suffered this problem a few years ago. And, you know, at the moment we're talking a pretty small number of vehicles, 63 vehicles out of a vehicle population. And even in this slice of 800,000, you're talking what, you know, one in less than 10,000 vehicles.
But if it happens to you, you don't care about it. You don't care about statistics.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
ULRICH: You're just wondering what's this thing on fire, you know, outside here?
COSTELLO: Exactly. And I'd be watching my Ford truck thinking, oh my god, it could burst into flames at any time.
ULRICH: That's it. And, you know, this is, hey, the F150 pickup alone, this has been the nation's most popular vehicle for almost three decades. And they sell close to a million of these trucks, of these pickups alone a year, you know, and people, people love them and there's a lot of them out there. And when you hear about something like this, people, rightly, you know, are very concerned.
COSTELLO: Oh, absolutely.
So what can customers expect from Ford? What is Ford doing to contact them about this?
ULRICH: Well, right now, all right, owners can expect notifications to go out in about the next, in about the next week or so, early February. And it's going to have to be a two step process here. What they're going to have people do is take their car or trucks to the dealer and actually have them shut off the cruise control, because they don't have enough switches right now. And they're going to ramp up the supply of switches and then a second notification is going to go out in April and then you're going to be able to go back to the dealer, they'll fix it and you'll be able to use your cruise control.
And for consumers, what they need to know is it's not a matter of well, I just won't use my cruise control. This is something that happens, you know, there's always a voltage, there's always electricity under the hood there. And a lot of the reports are people, you know, coming out of a store with the vehicle shut off or looking out their window and it's happening.
You know, the good thing about it happening with the engine off, of course, is you're way less likely to be injured. The bad part of this is that you've got your car potentially parked in a garage or next to your house and your garage or something can go up with it. So if, you know, even...
COSTELLO: So is there anything you can do yourself to disconnect this switch? Because you're going to have to wait to bring it into your dealer, right?
ULRICH: No, this is something a back, you know, a shade tree mechanic, as they call it, a backyard mechanic, isn't going to want to touch. But if you take it to your dealer, they're going to be pretty quick and pretty good, we hope, about getting this done.
COSTELLO: Larry Ulrich from "Money" magazine joining AMERICAN MORNING this morning.
Thank you.
ULRICH: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Bill.
HEMMER: About 18 minutes past the hour now, Carol.
There may be as many as 100,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. convicted of crimes. This story only here on CNN today, where CNN's Dan Lothian went along as a special homeland security team hunts them down one by one.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the trail of convicted illegal immigrants, federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement Unit, or "Ice," are getting ready to move in on a Dominican national in Fall River, Massachusetts. They say he served time for his crime, but is in this country illegally and is avoiding deportation.
DANIEL MONACO, "ICE" DEPORTATION SUPERVISOR: He's been arrested on several charges, including up to assault and battery, domestic violence. He does have a history of violence.
LOTHIAN: Long before the sun rises...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me water from the other side.
LOTHIAN: Daniel Monaco, Jim Martin and the rest of the "Ice" unit plod through fresh snow and find their target on the second floor of this apartment building.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He came out to us and he saw us. Again, we identified ourselves to him.
LOTHIAN (on camera): What was his reaction?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little surprised.
LOTHIAN (voice-over): An hour later, a Cape Verdian man in the U.S. illegally, agents say, is cornered in the city of Brockton as he walks down the sidewalk. His crime?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The initial charge was rape of a child and, again, for whatever reason, it was plea bargained down. But it was a conviction.
LOTHIAN: Just two of more than 100 illegal fugitives in this pile the Boston office is hunting. Nationally, it's estimated 80,000 to 100,000 convicted illegal immigrants are out there.
MARC RAIMONDI, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: People who show repeat offenses, multiple charges against them, multiple convictions. We prioritize our removal proceedings by going after the worst of the worst. And what do we do? We do that with the aim of protecting national security and public safety.
LOTHIAN (on camera): There are 18 of these teams hunting down fugitives across the country using the element of surprise to put them in handcuffs, then sending them out of the country in anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of months.
(voice-over): The heat was turned up after 9/11, even though there's evidence that anyone on the "Ice" unit's list is a terrorist.
(on camera): You're going to go get them?
JIM MARTIN, "ICE" DEPUTY FIELD OFFICER: We're going to go get them.
LOTHIAN: The effort, say Martin and Monaco, is critical in protecting America's borders.
MARTIN: These people have disregarded their orders to leave the country. They've had an opportunity to be heard in court and the case was decided against them. So we're pursuing those folks that are just not complying with those orders.
LOTHIAN: Even as the Department seeks more funding and more personnel to keep these units in hot pursuit.
Dan Lothian, CNN, Brockton.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HEMMER: Twenty-one minutes past the hour now.
"Passion of the Christ" was one of the most talked about films of the year in 2004. Virtually shut out from the big categories of the Oscars. Was that a politically motivated snub? One of the topics we'll talk about today on "Gimme A Minute" after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: If you're on our Web site right now, cnn.com, the smashed front end of a nuclear sub is the most popular story on our Web now. The Navy yesterday published pictures. The USS San Francisco -- look at that -- slammed into an undersea mountain at high speed back on the 8th of January. Damage extensive. One crew member was killed and the blue tarp covers the classified gear on the badly damaged hull.
The mountain was apparently not on the charts the crew was using. That's evident. The Navy is now investigating that. That's on our Web site right now at cnn.com.
COSTELLO: Let's check in with Jack and the Question of the Day.
CAFFERTY: Don't they have stuff on those submarines that's supposed to tell them like that there's something up there in front that they might run into, like little beepy things that go beep, beep, beep?
COSTELLO: It wasn't on their navigational chart, they say.
CAFFERTY: I know. But don't they have those little beepy things that are supposed to -- I mean if you, you know, I mean if there's another ship in the water, you don't -- the ships in the water that are coming to throw depth charges at you aren't on the charts either.
COSTELLO: That's true.
CAFFERTY: They've got ways to know if they're around, right?
COSTELLO: I'm just giving you the company line.
CAFFERTY: Yes. All right, lieutenant commander. Back to your post.
In the "Cafferty File" yesterday, we had a story about a North Dakota legislator who wants to ban teachers from college classrooms who don't speak understandable English. Gee, what a concept. Representative Betty Grandy (ph) thinks students should get their money back if they can't understand the lectures that are delivered with thick accents and weird pronunciations. After all, they are the paying customer.
The legislation would require that university teachers prove their command of English in an interview before they're allowed into the classroom to teach the students.
That's the question -- should college teachers have to speak understandable English?
Dave in Ft. Meade, Maryland writes: "If I want to learn in a different language, then I'll go to another country and pay to attend their college or university. You're in America. We speak English here. Get with the program."
Shane writes: "Duh! Worst question ever."
Hey, Shane, it's not the worst question ever. What happened to the full screen of Shane's worst question ever? We don't have it. Maybe it is the worst question ever. We'll never know. We can't see it.
Hide in Yokohama, Japan: "It's a huge problem that professors can't communicate with students and can't show things that he or she should teach. But I think the intelligence we have to learn shouldn't depend on language. Having said that, I know I must study English more hard. I'm Japanese."
And Bob -- we're on in prime time, by the way, in Japan, so -- Rob, Bob, rather, in Romney, West Virginia: "My brother had a trig professor at West Virginia University" -- we are getting tons of these from -- and they're naming colleges all over this country. I mean big time colleges, places like Ohio State, Notre Dame, here, every place. "A professor of trig at West Virginia University that no one could understand. Everybody in class was failing. The professor made a deal with the students. If everyone would just show up for the lectures, he'd give them a C. He was as good as his barely understandable word."
HEMMER: Two of my favorite professors, Deider Stradig (ph) was German and Neil Haag (ph) was from Luxembourg.
CAFFERTY: Yes?
HEMMER: Thick, thick accents, but man, were they good. They really pulled you into the topic.
CAFFERTY: But you're German. What about the kid from Vietnam who's in their class and has no idea what the hell they're talking about?
HEMMER: You know, see, you've got me there.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: You're right.
CAFFERTY: So, you know...
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: You know...
HEMMER: We're going to get back to the shocking serial murder case in the Midwest. Police may have solved it with help from a very surprising source. That's ahead after a break here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired January 28, 2005 - 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.
Iraqis far from home making a stand for their country's future, as voting in the election begins today.
Nearly a million Ford owners with trucks and SUVs now being recalled. A little switch that could start a fire.
And chasing down convicted felons on the run here in the U.S. Fugitives hunted down by a team called Ice, 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, everybody.
Soledad has left the building.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, man.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I feel so bad for her.
HEMMER: She tried, didn't she?
CAFFERTY: She's parlayed this into a day and a half off in the last two days. I want to get something of whatever she's got.
HEMMER: I'm telling you.
CAFFERTY: It's Friday. She's out of here.
HEMMER: She's a mother of four.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: Under the age of four. Do you want that?
CAFFERTY: No. I'll stay here with you and...
COSTELLO: That's no vacation.
CAFFERTY: ... the rest of these folks and work.
HEMMER: You did your time.
CAFFERTY: Yes, I've been there and done that, that's right.
HEMMER: Carol Costello is here helping us out -- good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: Good to have you with us today.
COSTELLO: Thank you.
HEMMER: As we continue here, we'll get a look at the voting here in America. Suburban Detroit, one of the five cities where Iraqi- Americans are casting ballots today.
We'll also talk to one of the candidates in the election about whether Sunnis in Iraq could derail the election by doing nothing. That's in a moment.
COSTELLO: Also, an amazing crime story out of Illinois. Imagine watching out your window as a neighbor shows police where to dig for victim after victim of a serial murderer. We'll look at a community learning about the secret life of an apparent mass murderer.
CAFFERTY: Wow!
HEMMER: Intriguing there.
Jack -- what's happening?
CAFFERTY: We've got the "Cafferty File" in less than an hour. A 12-year-old who can bench press three times his body weight and, who knows, seemed he might be the governor of California. British parents get a chance to be babies all over again. It's a pretty funny video. And we'll tell you how to get Jenna Jameson to talk dirty to you on your telephone.
HEMMER: More than 900?
CAFFERTY: It's something you want the maybe pay attention to, Carol. You could be interested in this.
COSTELLO: Yes.
Have you read her book?
CAFFERTY: No. Does she have a book?
COSTELLO: Yes, she does. It was a best-seller.
HEMMER: Have you?
CAFFERTY: It was?
COSTELLO: Yes.
CAFFERTY: Did you buy it?
COSTELLO: No.
CAFFERTY: Did you read it?
COSTELLO: No. I just found it interesting that a porn star could write a best-selling book about sex.
CAFFERTY: TV people write them all the time. I don't know what's so unusual.
COSTELLO: That's true. It's kind of the same thing, if you think about it.
CAFFERTY: Yes, it really is.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Jack, I think.
CAFFERTY: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Now in the news, two leading members of the insurgent group headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have been arrested. One of them was said to be al-Zarqawi's head of Baghdad operations. Al-Zarqawi, that's who you're seeing here. Iraq's national security minister says the arrest shows that progress is being made by the Iraqi security forces.
In the meantime, Iraqis in Iraq will vote on Sunday, but expatriates are already taking to the polls around the globe. Here in the United States, they will vote in one of five cities -- Washington, Detroit, Chicago, Nashville or Los Angeles.
CNN's Chris Lawrence is at a polling center in suburban Detroit.
He filed this story.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
FATIMA Al-HUSSEINI: Good morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fatima al- Husseini (ph) is 18 years old and excited about Iraq's fire free election in half a century.
AL-HUSSEINI: First of all, it was counting down the weeks, and then it was coming down the days. Now it's just the hours.
LAWRENCE: From talking to college classmates in her political science class...
AL-HUSSEINI: We need to prove that we want this.
LAWRENCE: To after school meetings at a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan.
AL-HUSSEINI: Is the voting in the same place and the same time?
LAWRENCE: Fatima is registered and ready to cast her first vote ever.
AL-HUSSEINI: It's an honor. It's a privilege. And it's an obligation.
LAWRENCE: Election officials estimate there are about 100,000 eligible voters in the Dearborn area, including immigrants like Fatima's new husband, Gator (ph).
GATOR: I see too many religious.
LAWRENCE: And young, second generation Iraqis who've never set foot in the country.
AL-HUSSEINI: I'm an American. I have an American passport. I was born right here in Detroit, Michigan.
LAWRENCE: Fatima defends her right to vote because her parents are both Iraqi.
AL-HUSSEINI: And I once said if it wasn't for the regime of Saddam Hussein, we would probably still be in Iraq anyways.
LAWRENCE: Gator was there just four years ago and knows the risk Iraqis are taking on election day. He and Fatima are disappointed so many young Iraqi-Americans didn't bother to register.
AL-HUSSEINI: It's extremely frustrating because they're given the privilege to vote.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: Chris Lawrence reporting.
Tonight on CNN, a special report on "NEWSNIGHT WITH AARON BROWN," live from Dearborn, Michigan. Aaron sits down with a cross section of the area's large Iraqi population to discuss their role as expatriates in Iraq's historic election. That's tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.
President Bush is set to be on hand next hour for the ceremonial swearing in of Condoleezza Rice. Rice addressed the State Department for the first time yesterday as the 66th secretary of state. She told her new employees "History is calling us."
Rice will take her first official visit next week, to the Middle East and to Europe.
And a major merger between two household companies. The Procter & Gamble Company is acquiring Gillette Razor Group for $57 billion. If shareholders give their OK, the deal will close later this fall.
What does this mean for your wallet? We'll have much more from David Haffenreffer, coming up later this hour.
HEMMER: That is a big, big story. We'll chew on that throughout the morning. Carol, thanks.
Back to Iraq, quickly.
Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan is the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee.
He's my guest now, back in Dearborn, Michigan.
Senator, good morning.
Welcome back here to AMERICAN MORNING.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: One of your colleagues, Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, said this yesterday, on the screen for our viewers: "A prolonged American military presence in Iraq," he says, "is no longer productive for either Iraq or the United States. The U.S. military presence has become part of the problem, not a part of the solution."
Do you agree with that?
LEVIN: I think we're much too much of a target. We went in there much too unilaterally and we're paying a price for it now. But in terms of how we leave, we should hold off until the election is over, see what that procedures, whether it produces more stability or not. And also, there's going to be a new government there in the next few months. There will be an assembly and then a few months after that we're going to have a presidency that's elected by the people of Iraq and we ought to work out with them the details of our departure and make sure they want us to stay, but then decide whether or not the Iraqi people are willing to fight for their country.
We know a majority want a country there. Are they willing to put their lives on the line for that country and are the majority of the Shia smart enough to negotiate with the Sunnis, even though the Sunnis won't participate much in the election, to still negotiate with them to protect the minority rights of both the Sunnis and the Christians.
HEMMER: And just back to this quote from Senator Kennedy.
Some are saying that it's not the right message to be getting out there a couple days before the election.
Do you agree with that?
LEVIN: I think the message, the overall message is the right one, that we've got to find a way to end the occupying status of America -- that is counter-productive -- and that we've got to find a way to leave Iraq and to make sure that Iraq, Iraqis are willing to fight for their own country, to put their lives on the line the way we are.
But as to setting a specific date, I would not do that, or the specifics for departure, I would not do that. I don't think he did either. It was a goal which he set rather than a fixed date. It is not wise to set a fixed date for a fixed number of Americans to leave at this moment, because I think that does send the wrong message.
HEMMER: There was, John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, was with us last hour. We've been consistently asking our guests here throughout the week about how they define success on Sunday. He said three things: the fact that the election is taking place; the second fact, that the importance of moving from an appointed to an elected government is critical; and he believes there will be a strong voter turnout, with millions of Iraqis taking part on Sunday.
Do you agree with all three of those points in terms of defining success?
LEVIN: I agree with those three. But there's another side of the ledger, and that is that there will be a very small Sunni turnout and the question then is how will that play in Iraq, particularly? Will the Shia, who will dominate in that assembly, be smart enough to negotiate with the Sunnis to protect their right in a new draft -- their rights in a new draft constitution, which is going to be produced in the next few months?
So I think those points are legitimate points, but we have got to understand the negatives going in here, too, that there's been a very strong exaggeration by this administration of the number of troops that Iraqis have produced. They use a figure 130,000. There's not even a quarter of that number that are able to fight strongly, that are well trained and will put their lives on the line. And so there's some negative things that are on that ledger, as well. We've got to weigh it all after the election.
But I think Negroponte's points are legitimate.
HEMMER: Let me try to get to two more points quickly here.
If it is deemed a success, does that redeem the White House?
LEVIN: Well, the White House has made just too many mistakes going in and after we went in there. The Iraqi Army has never, should not have been disbanded. It was the one way that we could have produced some security in Iraq. There was no plan for the aftermath. And we're paying the price for those mistakes.
But we're there now, even those of us that criticized going in and how this has been handled, I think are all together in making the best of the situation if we can, trying to put the Iraqis in the position that they can really fight for their own country.
They've got to want their country as much as we do.
So I wouldn't say that the mistakes of the administration will be proven not to have been mistakes. Those mistakes are there. We're paying a price. But we've got to take it on from here and do the best we can. HEMMER: What are you hearing from Arab-Americans out of places like Dearborn, Michigan? Are they excited? Are they hopeful? Are they positive? What are you hearing?
LEVIN: They're worried. Some of them are going to vote, but it's not a huge -- it's going to be a huge turnout here. It's not going to affect the outcome in Iraq. It's too few numbers that are going to turn out.
But they're hopeful that somehow or other that their country or their former country is going to be able to make it.
And so I would say that there's some hope, but there's also some great nervousness as to whether this election will produce more stability than instability, and I think that is a question which is not an obvious -- there's no obvious answer to that question.
HEMMER: Well, thank you, Senator.
Aaron Brown is in Dearborn, Michigan later tonight here on CNN.
Much more from your part of the country then.
Thank you.
Senator Carl Levin there in Detroit.
Later tonight, a special report on Iraq votes. Christiane, Anderson, Paula, Aaron all hosting that later tonight at 7:00 Eastern here on CNN -- Carol.
COSTELLO: We're going to check in with the weather right now.
Let's go to the forecast center in Atlanta and Rob Marciano in for Chad Myers this morning -- good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Iraq's once powerful Sunni Muslims may lose big on Sunday. And, if so, what are the consequences there? We'll talk to the leading Sunni candidate in a moment here today.
COSTELLO: Also, cracking down on fugitive illegal immigrants.
CNN rides along with a crime squad called "Ice."
HEMMER: And a dangerous glitch involving thousands of popular SUVs and trucks. We'll talk about a major recall today in a moment as we continue live in New York City on a Friday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Ford is recalling nearly 800,000 trucks and SUVs. They're in danger of catching fire, especially while parked with the engines off. The problem is with a possibly defective cruise control switch in the model year 2000 Expeditions, Navigators and F150 pickup trucks; also, the 2001 F Series Super Crew truck.
Lawrence Ulrich of "Money" magazine is here to explain further.
LAWRENCE ULRICH, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: How you doing?
COSTELLO: It's kind of a scary problem because it -- your car can actually catch fire and the engine can be turned off.
ULRICH: Yes, in fact, in every case so far it seems like it's been with the engine turned off. You know, it's not a new thing. It's happened with some other vehicles. Not to name names, but the BMW X5 SUV was one that suffered this problem a few years ago. And, you know, at the moment we're talking a pretty small number of vehicles, 63 vehicles out of a vehicle population. And even in this slice of 800,000, you're talking what, you know, one in less than 10,000 vehicles.
But if it happens to you, you don't care about it. You don't care about statistics.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
ULRICH: You're just wondering what's this thing on fire, you know, outside here?
COSTELLO: Exactly. And I'd be watching my Ford truck thinking, oh my god, it could burst into flames at any time.
ULRICH: That's it. And, you know, this is, hey, the F150 pickup alone, this has been the nation's most popular vehicle for almost three decades. And they sell close to a million of these trucks, of these pickups alone a year, you know, and people, people love them and there's a lot of them out there. And when you hear about something like this, people, rightly, you know, are very concerned.
COSTELLO: Oh, absolutely.
So what can customers expect from Ford? What is Ford doing to contact them about this?
ULRICH: Well, right now, all right, owners can expect notifications to go out in about the next, in about the next week or so, early February. And it's going to have to be a two step process here. What they're going to have people do is take their car or trucks to the dealer and actually have them shut off the cruise control, because they don't have enough switches right now. And they're going to ramp up the supply of switches and then a second notification is going to go out in April and then you're going to be able to go back to the dealer, they'll fix it and you'll be able to use your cruise control.
And for consumers, what they need to know is it's not a matter of well, I just won't use my cruise control. This is something that happens, you know, there's always a voltage, there's always electricity under the hood there. And a lot of the reports are people, you know, coming out of a store with the vehicle shut off or looking out their window and it's happening.
You know, the good thing about it happening with the engine off, of course, is you're way less likely to be injured. The bad part of this is that you've got your car potentially parked in a garage or next to your house and your garage or something can go up with it. So if, you know, even...
COSTELLO: So is there anything you can do yourself to disconnect this switch? Because you're going to have to wait to bring it into your dealer, right?
ULRICH: No, this is something a back, you know, a shade tree mechanic, as they call it, a backyard mechanic, isn't going to want to touch. But if you take it to your dealer, they're going to be pretty quick and pretty good, we hope, about getting this done.
COSTELLO: Larry Ulrich from "Money" magazine joining AMERICAN MORNING this morning.
Thank you.
ULRICH: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Bill.
HEMMER: About 18 minutes past the hour now, Carol.
There may be as many as 100,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. convicted of crimes. This story only here on CNN today, where CNN's Dan Lothian went along as a special homeland security team hunts them down one by one.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the trail of convicted illegal immigrants, federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement Unit, or "Ice," are getting ready to move in on a Dominican national in Fall River, Massachusetts. They say he served time for his crime, but is in this country illegally and is avoiding deportation.
DANIEL MONACO, "ICE" DEPORTATION SUPERVISOR: He's been arrested on several charges, including up to assault and battery, domestic violence. He does have a history of violence.
LOTHIAN: Long before the sun rises...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me water from the other side.
LOTHIAN: Daniel Monaco, Jim Martin and the rest of the "Ice" unit plod through fresh snow and find their target on the second floor of this apartment building.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He came out to us and he saw us. Again, we identified ourselves to him.
LOTHIAN (on camera): What was his reaction?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little surprised.
LOTHIAN (voice-over): An hour later, a Cape Verdian man in the U.S. illegally, agents say, is cornered in the city of Brockton as he walks down the sidewalk. His crime?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The initial charge was rape of a child and, again, for whatever reason, it was plea bargained down. But it was a conviction.
LOTHIAN: Just two of more than 100 illegal fugitives in this pile the Boston office is hunting. Nationally, it's estimated 80,000 to 100,000 convicted illegal immigrants are out there.
MARC RAIMONDI, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: People who show repeat offenses, multiple charges against them, multiple convictions. We prioritize our removal proceedings by going after the worst of the worst. And what do we do? We do that with the aim of protecting national security and public safety.
LOTHIAN (on camera): There are 18 of these teams hunting down fugitives across the country using the element of surprise to put them in handcuffs, then sending them out of the country in anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of months.
(voice-over): The heat was turned up after 9/11, even though there's evidence that anyone on the "Ice" unit's list is a terrorist.
(on camera): You're going to go get them?
JIM MARTIN, "ICE" DEPUTY FIELD OFFICER: We're going to go get them.
LOTHIAN: The effort, say Martin and Monaco, is critical in protecting America's borders.
MARTIN: These people have disregarded their orders to leave the country. They've had an opportunity to be heard in court and the case was decided against them. So we're pursuing those folks that are just not complying with those orders.
LOTHIAN: Even as the Department seeks more funding and more personnel to keep these units in hot pursuit.
Dan Lothian, CNN, Brockton.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HEMMER: Twenty-one minutes past the hour now.
"Passion of the Christ" was one of the most talked about films of the year in 2004. Virtually shut out from the big categories of the Oscars. Was that a politically motivated snub? One of the topics we'll talk about today on "Gimme A Minute" after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: If you're on our Web site right now, cnn.com, the smashed front end of a nuclear sub is the most popular story on our Web now. The Navy yesterday published pictures. The USS San Francisco -- look at that -- slammed into an undersea mountain at high speed back on the 8th of January. Damage extensive. One crew member was killed and the blue tarp covers the classified gear on the badly damaged hull.
The mountain was apparently not on the charts the crew was using. That's evident. The Navy is now investigating that. That's on our Web site right now at cnn.com.
COSTELLO: Let's check in with Jack and the Question of the Day.
CAFFERTY: Don't they have stuff on those submarines that's supposed to tell them like that there's something up there in front that they might run into, like little beepy things that go beep, beep, beep?
COSTELLO: It wasn't on their navigational chart, they say.
CAFFERTY: I know. But don't they have those little beepy things that are supposed to -- I mean if you, you know, I mean if there's another ship in the water, you don't -- the ships in the water that are coming to throw depth charges at you aren't on the charts either.
COSTELLO: That's true.
CAFFERTY: They've got ways to know if they're around, right?
COSTELLO: I'm just giving you the company line.
CAFFERTY: Yes. All right, lieutenant commander. Back to your post.
In the "Cafferty File" yesterday, we had a story about a North Dakota legislator who wants to ban teachers from college classrooms who don't speak understandable English. Gee, what a concept. Representative Betty Grandy (ph) thinks students should get their money back if they can't understand the lectures that are delivered with thick accents and weird pronunciations. After all, they are the paying customer.
The legislation would require that university teachers prove their command of English in an interview before they're allowed into the classroom to teach the students.
That's the question -- should college teachers have to speak understandable English?
Dave in Ft. Meade, Maryland writes: "If I want to learn in a different language, then I'll go to another country and pay to attend their college or university. You're in America. We speak English here. Get with the program."
Shane writes: "Duh! Worst question ever."
Hey, Shane, it's not the worst question ever. What happened to the full screen of Shane's worst question ever? We don't have it. Maybe it is the worst question ever. We'll never know. We can't see it.
Hide in Yokohama, Japan: "It's a huge problem that professors can't communicate with students and can't show things that he or she should teach. But I think the intelligence we have to learn shouldn't depend on language. Having said that, I know I must study English more hard. I'm Japanese."
And Bob -- we're on in prime time, by the way, in Japan, so -- Rob, Bob, rather, in Romney, West Virginia: "My brother had a trig professor at West Virginia University" -- we are getting tons of these from -- and they're naming colleges all over this country. I mean big time colleges, places like Ohio State, Notre Dame, here, every place. "A professor of trig at West Virginia University that no one could understand. Everybody in class was failing. The professor made a deal with the students. If everyone would just show up for the lectures, he'd give them a C. He was as good as his barely understandable word."
HEMMER: Two of my favorite professors, Deider Stradig (ph) was German and Neil Haag (ph) was from Luxembourg.
CAFFERTY: Yes?
HEMMER: Thick, thick accents, but man, were they good. They really pulled you into the topic.
CAFFERTY: But you're German. What about the kid from Vietnam who's in their class and has no idea what the hell they're talking about?
HEMMER: You know, see, you've got me there.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: You're right.
CAFFERTY: So, you know...
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: You know...
HEMMER: We're going to get back to the shocking serial murder case in the Midwest. Police may have solved it with help from a very surprising source. That's ahead after a break here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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