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A Grim Discovery Near Iraq/Syria Border; Is Mt. St. Helens on Verge of Another Major Eruption?

Aired March 09, 2005 - 07:00   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Escalating violence in Iraq. Insurgents launch new attacks across the country, and now a grim discovery near the Iraq/Syria border, the scene of a mysterious massacre.
The biggest blast of smoke and ash in months. Is Mt. St. Helens on the verge of another major eruption?

And former President Clinton about to have a rare surgery. What he's doing today, though, might surprise you, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING, with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, on a Wednesday. Good to have a along with us today. 7:00 here in New York. Good morning to you as well.

O'BRIEN: Good morning to you.

HEMMER: We are watching again another major story from the Middle East at this hour. Another rally happening now. Live pictures from Syria now, a rally in support of that government. We'll talk about what's happening here, and also the fallout from this massive demonstration yesterday that happened in Lebanon, to the west in Beirut, a pro-Syria rally then, and President Bush's latest comments in the speech he gave yesterday, again, demanding Syria to get out of Lebanon. The former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, is our guest, and she will give us her thoughts on her that in a moment.

O'BRIEN: Also ahead, this morning, from the feud between 50 Cent and The Game to the famous East Coast/West Coast rap wars of the '90s, hip-hop, frankly, has a legacy of violence. The Reverend Al Sharpton says it is time to put an end to it. He's our guest this morning as well.

Also, Jack Cafferty, good morning. What's happening?

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill.

The Army is having recruiting problems, particularly among minorities and women. We will take a look at what's behind it and what possibly can be done with it.

O'BRIEN: Interesting question. All right, Jack, thanks. A suicide car bomb exploded on a road that leads to a U.S. base in Iraq. Another suicide bomber used a garbage truck to get a target in Baghdad.

Aneesh Raman in Baghdad this morning.

Aneesh, good morning to you.

First, any indication how these attackers got their hands on that garbage truck?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning.

No indication yet how they obtained the vehicle, but it does show a sophistication by these insurgents that we have seen before in the past. A suicide car bomber driving through the courtyard outside the ministry of agriculture when guards there fired upon the vehicle. It detonated. At least two guards have been killed, some 22 are wounded. The intended target, according to ministry officials, was the Al Sadir (ph) Hotel, adjacent to the ministry and known to house a large number of Westerners. So if this car bomb had reached its intended target, it would have been more severe in terms of the destruction, which was severe in itself. Some 40 cars owned by the ministry were damaged.

Also, Soledad, if it had happened later in the day, happened around 6:30 a.m. local, if it had happened later, more people would have been arriving to work at the ministry and the casualty numbers would have likely been higher. Also, just getting word of another suicide car bomb taking place near Ramadi at a military checkpoint. We do not yet know casualty numbers or, Soledad, the extent of damage there.

O'BRIEN: Aneesh, I want to ask you this morning about the massacre, Some 26 bodies were found shot, either execution-style or in some cases beheaded as well. It's in Iraq, but right on that Syrian border. Do you have any idea at this point what exactly happened?

RAMAN: Not yet. We do now know that these people were killed, officials say, four days ago. That's in Siam (ph), a town, as you say, west of the Baghdad, near the Syrian border. They were found today. Also yesterday, some 15 bodies were beheaded south of Baghdad. There, we don't know exactly when they were killed. In both of these, we don't know by whom, but given the location of the former, of the incident in Siam, as you say, near the border, where there have been reports of large insurgent activity, the motive not yet known, but the context, everyone is quite aware of -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman for us in Baghdad this morning.

Aneesh, thanks for that report -- Bill.

HEMMER: There were thousands of demonstrators in the streets of Damascus at this hour. They are there in support of their own president, Bashar Assad. Meantime, to the west, Syrian troops now pulling back in Lebanon, but the Assad government has not guaranteed that they'll be completely out of Lebanon by the elections, now scheduled for May, and that does not satisfy the U.S. president, George Bush.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The time has come for Syria to fully implement Security Council Resolution 1519. All Syrian military forces and intelligence personnel must withdraw before the Lebanese elections for those elections to be free and fair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Lebanese elections without the influence of Syria could lay another cornerstone of President Bush's pro-democracy policy.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is Madrid, Spain, attending the International Summit or Democracy, Terrorism and Security. She's my guest this morning. Thanks for coming back here Madam Secretary.

I guess I first want to touch upon...

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FMR. SECY. OF STATE: Good to be with you, Bill.

HEMMER: ... the theme from the president almost on a daily basis. Why is it so important for him to put pressure on Syria to leave Lebanon immediately?

ALBRIGHT: Well, he has made that a very important part of his policy, because we and the French have supported the Security Council resolution calling on the Syrians to go.

And the reason that we want them to go is that, in fact, it's important for Lebanon to be an independent country, and not be a client state of Syria. But it's not without its difficulties, as you have reported, because there are pro-Syrian factions in Lebanon, and there are the Hezbollah, that is actually a very powerful political movement that put on a huge counter-demonstration yesterday.

HEMMER: One of the most frequently asked questions in Washington today is this, and you can pick up on this in every talk show you listen to out of Washington -- was the president right about his push for democracy in the Middle East? When you answer that question, what do you say?

ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that I agree with the fact everybody in the world is the same and wants to be able to make decisions about their lives, and democracy is the best approach to it. I think the question is the extent to which it is viewed as an American program, rather than in support of what is going on in the countries themselves. And I think we have to be very careful in the way that the president phrases this of making it sound as if democracy is an American demand. You can't impose democracy. You have to talk of it as offering it to the people.

And I have to say, in listening to the newscast, we are on a roller coaster ride here. Democracy in various ways is being exhibited in these country itself, but we're a long way from democracy. And for the president to keep pushing and pushing in ways that sound like this is our program and not theirs, I'm not sure is truly helpful.

HEMMER: In his speech yesterday, in part, he said with regard to democracy in that part of the world, "a thaw has begun," his words from yesterday. Do you agree with that?

ALBRIGHT: Well, there clearly is a lot going on. But I don't think you can just think that term is supposed to kind of refer (ph) to (ph) (INAUDIBLE) Berlin Wall. Every part of the world is different. There are elements of change in these countries. There is a step forward of people going out and no longer being afraid. And then we hear (INAUDIBLE) suicide bombers. So there clearly is movement and (INAUDIBLE) useful to support it. But I'd be a little more careful in terms of predicting (INAUDIBLE).

HEMMER: Madeleine Albright, thank you for your time from Madrid, Spain this morning.

Seven minutes past the hour. Here's Soledad again.

O'BRIEN: Scientists are looking for new signs of activity within Mt. St. Helens this morning. The volcano blew a plume of smoke and ash six miles high on Tuesday evening. The explosion occurred about an hour after a 2.0 earthquake on the east side of the mountain.

John Major is with the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory.

Nice to see you, Dr. Major, thanks for talking with us this morning.

JOHN MAJOR, USGS CASCADES VOLCANO OBSERVATORY: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: The plume and ash reaching some 36,000 feet in the air. Why is that so significant?

MAJOR: Well, the primary significance of it is that we're close to the Portland Airport here in Vancouver, and the mountain, when you get ash off to 36,000 feet, you're putting it up into aviation airspace. So the principal danger would be to an ash encounter with an aircraft. And so one of the first people we called was the FAA, to notify them that we had this event under way and that the plume was rising that high.

O'BRIEN: Scientifically speak, though, a high plume, does that mean there are going to be more eruptions, or a more significant eruption down the road?

MAJOR: No, it doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to see more eruptions or more significant eruptions. This is the kind of activity that we've been forecasting could occur without warning throughout this entire building of the lava dome that's been growing in the crater since early October.

O'BRIEN: I know you're going to try today to get a look inside the crater. What does getting that view tell scientists?

MAJOR: Well, first of all, we want to find out exactly where this explosion took place. We had a time lapse still camera out near the mouth of the crater of the mountain, but it was very difficult to tell from the images we got back from the camera exactly where this event took place. So one of the things we want to find out is exactly where things took place, and we also want to find out the status of some of the equipment we had in the field that quit transmitting shortly after the onset of this event.

O'BRIEN: As you are well aware, we're only a couple months away from the 25th anniversary of the major eruption of Mt. St. Helens. And of course when people think about Mt. St. Helens erupting, they think back to that original explosion, 50-some odd -- 57 people was the number of people who died in that explosion. Any chance that the explosions you're seeing now and you're monitoring now could be as intense down the road as that one 25 years ago?

MAJOR: I don't think so. The events today and the events we've had throughout this period of activity are pretty small compared to what happened in 1980. 1980 was actually rather an anomaly in that we had some magma that moved extremely high up into the volcano, and it triggered this enormous landslide, which was kind of like taking the lid off a pressure cooker. We don't envision anything like that happening during the current phase of activity. And like I said, the explosions that we've seen so date, since September, are really pretty small compared to what happened in 1980.

O'BRIEN: Comparison-wise.

Dr. John Major from the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory joining us this morning. Thanks for your time. I know it's nice and early where you are. We appreciate it.

MAJOR: You're welcome.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, a scary report on a possible link between second hand smoke and breast cancer. Dr. Gupta's going to stop by, sort it out for us.

HEMMER: He's also going to talk about Bill Clinton, the news that broke yesterday, another surgery, just six months after a quadruple bypass. Said to be routine, but still rare. Sanjay has more on that, what's involved.

O'BRIEN: Also, making music and money off of violence. Is a ban the answer? What about spree speech? The Reverend Al Sharpton has got a plan. He joins us live, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Fifteen minutes past the hour now. In six months after his open-heart surgery, the former president, Bill Clinton, will undergo a rare follow-up procedure tomorrow. President Clinton will have surgery to remove a buildup of fluid and scar tissue from his September heart bypass.

Our senior medical correspondent is Dr. Sanjay Gupta, back here.

Good morning to you.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. And no one takes this operation lightly, for sure. Any chest surgeon around the country who does this sort of operation takes it very seriously, trying to alleviate the symptoms bothering Bill Clinton for a few weeks now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first clues were subtle. During routine exercise near his home in New York, doctors say former President Clinton began to feel the nagging in his chest and shortness of breath.

DR. ALLAN SCHWARTZ, NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL: He had noticed over the past month or so that on steep hills, he was getting winded a bit more easily. At the same time, he was starting to feel a bit of discomfort in his left chest.

GUPTA: A rare complication of fluid and scar build-up in the chest will place Clinton back in the operating room on Thursday.

SCHWARTZ: This is not an emergency. This is being done to assure that he is able to continue to maintain a highly active lifestyle and that he's not at all functionally limited by his lung. But this is not a medically urgent procedure.

GUPTA: Even though Schwartz called the procedure elective, it's clear that President Clinton needs the operation. His discomfort due to fluid, which is causing the thin lining outside the lungs, called the pleura, to thicken and collapse.

SCHWARTZ: Left untouched for a long period of time, any collection in the body is potentially could be seeded with infection, although that risk is extremely low. We don't want to leave him with compromise of normal lung function.

GUPTA: So doctors will perform a procedure to shore off those thickened layers and remove fluid, allowing the lung to heal and re- expand. When asked if Clinton's busy schedule, including recent trips to areas devastated by the tsunami, are to blame for his condition, doctors said...

SCHWARTZ: The short answer is no.

GUPTA: And so the president kept his busy schedule and even talked about the procedure.

CLINTON: It's a routine sort of deal, and it'll knock me out of commission for a week or two, then I'll be back to normal. It's no big deal. And, you know, I felt well enough to go to Asia to try to keep up with President Bush, and we're going to go play golf tomorrow. So I'm not in too bad a shape.

GUPTA: Doctors do predict expect a routine operation and recovery, in and out of the hospital in three to 10 days.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Clinton and President Bush going to play golf tomorrow to raise money for the tsunami victims. It goes to show how sick he is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: Of course, that was yesterday. So golf today and the O.R. tomorrow. He should do well. Over the weekend, maybe early next week, out of the hospital.

HEMMER: Well, what, three to five days?

GUPTA: They're saying three to 10 days.

HEMMER: One thing that struck me yesterday, is he said he noticed he was more winded than normal when walking, especially uphill. As a practical matter, for other people, not just Bill Clinton, how concerned should they be about a possible warning sign if they're in a similar situation?

GUPTA: This is one of the earliest warning signs, and could be a concerning one as well. Typically, in most people, they're not going to have what Bill Clinton has. That's still a relatively rare thing. But still, anytime someone has what we call exercise intolerance, you're just not tolerating exercise well, you're noticing a change from what you used to be able to do, you should get that checked out. How? Get a chest X-ray, see if there's any fluid building up in your lungs, look at your heart to make sure your heart's still beating well. Those are some simple things.

HEMMER: Yes, I think you said yesterday, too, it is not necessarily usual, about, what, 10 percent to 15 percent is the thing you put on it.

GUPTA: You know, and Dr. Craig Smith, who did his operation, said, listen, I've done 6,000 of these, it's only happened to me 10 times. I bet he wishes that one of those 10 wasn't former President Bill Clinton. That's pretty rare.

HEMMER: Less than 10 percent, too.

There's another study out today about breast cancer and secondhand smoke. What can you tell us with this?

GUPTA: Interesting study, front page of "USA Today" today, and basically talking about secondhand smoke. For a long time, people have said, yes, we know there are links between secondhand smoke, which is smoke that you blow out or comes off the end of your cigarette, and cancers. That's been well known.

But now this relatively reputable agency out of California saying, we're taking it a step further, and saying, actually, there's a cause and effect here. Secondhand smoke could cause breast cancer, in -- particularly in young women.

Short of that, before the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, CDC, they've all said, yes, there's some relationships that we know of; secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer in particular.

Some specific numbers to keep in mind here. If you are exposed to secondhand smoke in the workplace, for example, 20-plus years, you increase your risk by about 25 percent. If your spouse smokes 30-plus years, it goes up 23 percent. Social settings, the bar, parties, things like that, a 26 percent increase. Again, known for some time secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer, can cause heart disease, leading to death even, respiratory problems. But breast cancer, that's sort of a new one, and people are going to be checking this out.

HEMMER: We're just learning about this study so far this morning. So we'll talk a bit later about it again.

See you, Sanjay -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, get your wallet ready. You're not going to believe just how high gas prices are going. What's behind the rapid rise? Andy's "Minding Your Business," up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

You might want to take fewer road trips this summer. Plus, Martha's return isn't helping her company. With those stories, Andy Serwer's "Minding Your Business" this morning.

Good morning to you.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad.

Higher oil prices pulled down stock prices yesterday. We'll take a take a look. Not a good day for investors. And how often have we seen this. When we get near a big milestone like 11,000 for the Dow, have trouble getting over it. You can see 24 points, Nasdaq, pretty much damage across the board, and the price of oil obviously impacting gas prices. We'll get to that in a second.

One stock really hitting some heavy sledding here is Martha Stewart, and I sort of warned people this might happen last week. You can see here, after peaking around $37, the stock is down 30 percent since Martha got out of jail. And this is what happens, because there was a huge run-up, basically the stock went from mid single digits in July, when she was sentenced, people thought she'd be putting the bad news behind her, and the stock really ran up. And now, of course, people are locking in profits, so you really have to be careful there.

Now, as far as gas prices, last week, we talked about an independent analyst suggesting the price of gasoline was going to go way north of $2 this spring and summer. Now the government itself says yes, that's right. It's going to be averaging around $2.15 a gallon, up from $1.97 the whole summer. Inflation adjusted, still nothing like it was in 1981, which it would be around $3 in today's dollars.

O'BRIEN: Still $2.15 is steep.

SERWER: Yes, and it's going to stay there. Just get used to it. It's high.

O'BRIEN: Andy, thanks.

HEMMER: Here's Jack now and the "Question of the Day."

CAFFERTY: Thanks, Bill.

The Army's having recruiting problems, especially among blacks and women. In 2000, African-Americans made up 23.5 percent of Army recruits. Today, it's less than 14 percent. Similarly, women have declined from 22 percent of recruits to 17 percent during the same period. Tough to tell whether the decline is because of opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or because the economy is improving, perhaps providing better job opportunities at home. Either way, it's a problem for Uncle Sam.

Here's the question, how should the U.S. Army go about attracting more minorities and women?

HEMMER: A problem too when you've got an all-volunteer army.

CAFFERTY: That's correct.

HEMMER: You've got a front in Afghanistan a front in Iraq.

Good question, Jack. Thanks.

More of AMERICAN MORNING right after the break here.

Ahead on "90-Second Pop," Sylvester Stallone enters the ring of reality TV in search for the next Rocky.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER STALLONE, ACTOR: See anything that's impressed you so far?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: But is "The Contender" already right down for the count?

50 Cent makes headlines and a bit history. What's next for the G-Unit empire? That and more a bit later on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired March 9, 2005 - 07:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Escalating violence in Iraq. Insurgents launch new attacks across the country, and now a grim discovery near the Iraq/Syria border, the scene of a mysterious massacre.
The biggest blast of smoke and ash in months. Is Mt. St. Helens on the verge of another major eruption?

And former President Clinton about to have a rare surgery. What he's doing today, though, might surprise you, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING, with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, on a Wednesday. Good to have a along with us today. 7:00 here in New York. Good morning to you as well.

O'BRIEN: Good morning to you.

HEMMER: We are watching again another major story from the Middle East at this hour. Another rally happening now. Live pictures from Syria now, a rally in support of that government. We'll talk about what's happening here, and also the fallout from this massive demonstration yesterday that happened in Lebanon, to the west in Beirut, a pro-Syria rally then, and President Bush's latest comments in the speech he gave yesterday, again, demanding Syria to get out of Lebanon. The former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, is our guest, and she will give us her thoughts on her that in a moment.

O'BRIEN: Also ahead, this morning, from the feud between 50 Cent and The Game to the famous East Coast/West Coast rap wars of the '90s, hip-hop, frankly, has a legacy of violence. The Reverend Al Sharpton says it is time to put an end to it. He's our guest this morning as well.

Also, Jack Cafferty, good morning. What's happening?

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill.

The Army is having recruiting problems, particularly among minorities and women. We will take a look at what's behind it and what possibly can be done with it.

O'BRIEN: Interesting question. All right, Jack, thanks. A suicide car bomb exploded on a road that leads to a U.S. base in Iraq. Another suicide bomber used a garbage truck to get a target in Baghdad.

Aneesh Raman in Baghdad this morning.

Aneesh, good morning to you.

First, any indication how these attackers got their hands on that garbage truck?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning.

No indication yet how they obtained the vehicle, but it does show a sophistication by these insurgents that we have seen before in the past. A suicide car bomber driving through the courtyard outside the ministry of agriculture when guards there fired upon the vehicle. It detonated. At least two guards have been killed, some 22 are wounded. The intended target, according to ministry officials, was the Al Sadir (ph) Hotel, adjacent to the ministry and known to house a large number of Westerners. So if this car bomb had reached its intended target, it would have been more severe in terms of the destruction, which was severe in itself. Some 40 cars owned by the ministry were damaged.

Also, Soledad, if it had happened later in the day, happened around 6:30 a.m. local, if it had happened later, more people would have been arriving to work at the ministry and the casualty numbers would have likely been higher. Also, just getting word of another suicide car bomb taking place near Ramadi at a military checkpoint. We do not yet know casualty numbers or, Soledad, the extent of damage there.

O'BRIEN: Aneesh, I want to ask you this morning about the massacre, Some 26 bodies were found shot, either execution-style or in some cases beheaded as well. It's in Iraq, but right on that Syrian border. Do you have any idea at this point what exactly happened?

RAMAN: Not yet. We do now know that these people were killed, officials say, four days ago. That's in Siam (ph), a town, as you say, west of the Baghdad, near the Syrian border. They were found today. Also yesterday, some 15 bodies were beheaded south of Baghdad. There, we don't know exactly when they were killed. In both of these, we don't know by whom, but given the location of the former, of the incident in Siam, as you say, near the border, where there have been reports of large insurgent activity, the motive not yet known, but the context, everyone is quite aware of -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman for us in Baghdad this morning.

Aneesh, thanks for that report -- Bill.

HEMMER: There were thousands of demonstrators in the streets of Damascus at this hour. They are there in support of their own president, Bashar Assad. Meantime, to the west, Syrian troops now pulling back in Lebanon, but the Assad government has not guaranteed that they'll be completely out of Lebanon by the elections, now scheduled for May, and that does not satisfy the U.S. president, George Bush.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The time has come for Syria to fully implement Security Council Resolution 1519. All Syrian military forces and intelligence personnel must withdraw before the Lebanese elections for those elections to be free and fair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Lebanese elections without the influence of Syria could lay another cornerstone of President Bush's pro-democracy policy.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is Madrid, Spain, attending the International Summit or Democracy, Terrorism and Security. She's my guest this morning. Thanks for coming back here Madam Secretary.

I guess I first want to touch upon...

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FMR. SECY. OF STATE: Good to be with you, Bill.

HEMMER: ... the theme from the president almost on a daily basis. Why is it so important for him to put pressure on Syria to leave Lebanon immediately?

ALBRIGHT: Well, he has made that a very important part of his policy, because we and the French have supported the Security Council resolution calling on the Syrians to go.

And the reason that we want them to go is that, in fact, it's important for Lebanon to be an independent country, and not be a client state of Syria. But it's not without its difficulties, as you have reported, because there are pro-Syrian factions in Lebanon, and there are the Hezbollah, that is actually a very powerful political movement that put on a huge counter-demonstration yesterday.

HEMMER: One of the most frequently asked questions in Washington today is this, and you can pick up on this in every talk show you listen to out of Washington -- was the president right about his push for democracy in the Middle East? When you answer that question, what do you say?

ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that I agree with the fact everybody in the world is the same and wants to be able to make decisions about their lives, and democracy is the best approach to it. I think the question is the extent to which it is viewed as an American program, rather than in support of what is going on in the countries themselves. And I think we have to be very careful in the way that the president phrases this of making it sound as if democracy is an American demand. You can't impose democracy. You have to talk of it as offering it to the people.

And I have to say, in listening to the newscast, we are on a roller coaster ride here. Democracy in various ways is being exhibited in these country itself, but we're a long way from democracy. And for the president to keep pushing and pushing in ways that sound like this is our program and not theirs, I'm not sure is truly helpful.

HEMMER: In his speech yesterday, in part, he said with regard to democracy in that part of the world, "a thaw has begun," his words from yesterday. Do you agree with that?

ALBRIGHT: Well, there clearly is a lot going on. But I don't think you can just think that term is supposed to kind of refer (ph) to (ph) (INAUDIBLE) Berlin Wall. Every part of the world is different. There are elements of change in these countries. There is a step forward of people going out and no longer being afraid. And then we hear (INAUDIBLE) suicide bombers. So there clearly is movement and (INAUDIBLE) useful to support it. But I'd be a little more careful in terms of predicting (INAUDIBLE).

HEMMER: Madeleine Albright, thank you for your time from Madrid, Spain this morning.

Seven minutes past the hour. Here's Soledad again.

O'BRIEN: Scientists are looking for new signs of activity within Mt. St. Helens this morning. The volcano blew a plume of smoke and ash six miles high on Tuesday evening. The explosion occurred about an hour after a 2.0 earthquake on the east side of the mountain.

John Major is with the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory.

Nice to see you, Dr. Major, thanks for talking with us this morning.

JOHN MAJOR, USGS CASCADES VOLCANO OBSERVATORY: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: The plume and ash reaching some 36,000 feet in the air. Why is that so significant?

MAJOR: Well, the primary significance of it is that we're close to the Portland Airport here in Vancouver, and the mountain, when you get ash off to 36,000 feet, you're putting it up into aviation airspace. So the principal danger would be to an ash encounter with an aircraft. And so one of the first people we called was the FAA, to notify them that we had this event under way and that the plume was rising that high.

O'BRIEN: Scientifically speak, though, a high plume, does that mean there are going to be more eruptions, or a more significant eruption down the road?

MAJOR: No, it doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to see more eruptions or more significant eruptions. This is the kind of activity that we've been forecasting could occur without warning throughout this entire building of the lava dome that's been growing in the crater since early October.

O'BRIEN: I know you're going to try today to get a look inside the crater. What does getting that view tell scientists?

MAJOR: Well, first of all, we want to find out exactly where this explosion took place. We had a time lapse still camera out near the mouth of the crater of the mountain, but it was very difficult to tell from the images we got back from the camera exactly where this event took place. So one of the things we want to find out is exactly where things took place, and we also want to find out the status of some of the equipment we had in the field that quit transmitting shortly after the onset of this event.

O'BRIEN: As you are well aware, we're only a couple months away from the 25th anniversary of the major eruption of Mt. St. Helens. And of course when people think about Mt. St. Helens erupting, they think back to that original explosion, 50-some odd -- 57 people was the number of people who died in that explosion. Any chance that the explosions you're seeing now and you're monitoring now could be as intense down the road as that one 25 years ago?

MAJOR: I don't think so. The events today and the events we've had throughout this period of activity are pretty small compared to what happened in 1980. 1980 was actually rather an anomaly in that we had some magma that moved extremely high up into the volcano, and it triggered this enormous landslide, which was kind of like taking the lid off a pressure cooker. We don't envision anything like that happening during the current phase of activity. And like I said, the explosions that we've seen so date, since September, are really pretty small compared to what happened in 1980.

O'BRIEN: Comparison-wise.

Dr. John Major from the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory joining us this morning. Thanks for your time. I know it's nice and early where you are. We appreciate it.

MAJOR: You're welcome.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, a scary report on a possible link between second hand smoke and breast cancer. Dr. Gupta's going to stop by, sort it out for us.

HEMMER: He's also going to talk about Bill Clinton, the news that broke yesterday, another surgery, just six months after a quadruple bypass. Said to be routine, but still rare. Sanjay has more on that, what's involved.

O'BRIEN: Also, making music and money off of violence. Is a ban the answer? What about spree speech? The Reverend Al Sharpton has got a plan. He joins us live, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Fifteen minutes past the hour now. In six months after his open-heart surgery, the former president, Bill Clinton, will undergo a rare follow-up procedure tomorrow. President Clinton will have surgery to remove a buildup of fluid and scar tissue from his September heart bypass.

Our senior medical correspondent is Dr. Sanjay Gupta, back here.

Good morning to you.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. And no one takes this operation lightly, for sure. Any chest surgeon around the country who does this sort of operation takes it very seriously, trying to alleviate the symptoms bothering Bill Clinton for a few weeks now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first clues were subtle. During routine exercise near his home in New York, doctors say former President Clinton began to feel the nagging in his chest and shortness of breath.

DR. ALLAN SCHWARTZ, NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL: He had noticed over the past month or so that on steep hills, he was getting winded a bit more easily. At the same time, he was starting to feel a bit of discomfort in his left chest.

GUPTA: A rare complication of fluid and scar build-up in the chest will place Clinton back in the operating room on Thursday.

SCHWARTZ: This is not an emergency. This is being done to assure that he is able to continue to maintain a highly active lifestyle and that he's not at all functionally limited by his lung. But this is not a medically urgent procedure.

GUPTA: Even though Schwartz called the procedure elective, it's clear that President Clinton needs the operation. His discomfort due to fluid, which is causing the thin lining outside the lungs, called the pleura, to thicken and collapse.

SCHWARTZ: Left untouched for a long period of time, any collection in the body is potentially could be seeded with infection, although that risk is extremely low. We don't want to leave him with compromise of normal lung function.

GUPTA: So doctors will perform a procedure to shore off those thickened layers and remove fluid, allowing the lung to heal and re- expand. When asked if Clinton's busy schedule, including recent trips to areas devastated by the tsunami, are to blame for his condition, doctors said...

SCHWARTZ: The short answer is no.

GUPTA: And so the president kept his busy schedule and even talked about the procedure.

CLINTON: It's a routine sort of deal, and it'll knock me out of commission for a week or two, then I'll be back to normal. It's no big deal. And, you know, I felt well enough to go to Asia to try to keep up with President Bush, and we're going to go play golf tomorrow. So I'm not in too bad a shape.

GUPTA: Doctors do predict expect a routine operation and recovery, in and out of the hospital in three to 10 days.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Clinton and President Bush going to play golf tomorrow to raise money for the tsunami victims. It goes to show how sick he is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: Of course, that was yesterday. So golf today and the O.R. tomorrow. He should do well. Over the weekend, maybe early next week, out of the hospital.

HEMMER: Well, what, three to five days?

GUPTA: They're saying three to 10 days.

HEMMER: One thing that struck me yesterday, is he said he noticed he was more winded than normal when walking, especially uphill. As a practical matter, for other people, not just Bill Clinton, how concerned should they be about a possible warning sign if they're in a similar situation?

GUPTA: This is one of the earliest warning signs, and could be a concerning one as well. Typically, in most people, they're not going to have what Bill Clinton has. That's still a relatively rare thing. But still, anytime someone has what we call exercise intolerance, you're just not tolerating exercise well, you're noticing a change from what you used to be able to do, you should get that checked out. How? Get a chest X-ray, see if there's any fluid building up in your lungs, look at your heart to make sure your heart's still beating well. Those are some simple things.

HEMMER: Yes, I think you said yesterday, too, it is not necessarily usual, about, what, 10 percent to 15 percent is the thing you put on it.

GUPTA: You know, and Dr. Craig Smith, who did his operation, said, listen, I've done 6,000 of these, it's only happened to me 10 times. I bet he wishes that one of those 10 wasn't former President Bill Clinton. That's pretty rare.

HEMMER: Less than 10 percent, too.

There's another study out today about breast cancer and secondhand smoke. What can you tell us with this?

GUPTA: Interesting study, front page of "USA Today" today, and basically talking about secondhand smoke. For a long time, people have said, yes, we know there are links between secondhand smoke, which is smoke that you blow out or comes off the end of your cigarette, and cancers. That's been well known.

But now this relatively reputable agency out of California saying, we're taking it a step further, and saying, actually, there's a cause and effect here. Secondhand smoke could cause breast cancer, in -- particularly in young women.

Short of that, before the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, CDC, they've all said, yes, there's some relationships that we know of; secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer in particular.

Some specific numbers to keep in mind here. If you are exposed to secondhand smoke in the workplace, for example, 20-plus years, you increase your risk by about 25 percent. If your spouse smokes 30-plus years, it goes up 23 percent. Social settings, the bar, parties, things like that, a 26 percent increase. Again, known for some time secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer, can cause heart disease, leading to death even, respiratory problems. But breast cancer, that's sort of a new one, and people are going to be checking this out.

HEMMER: We're just learning about this study so far this morning. So we'll talk a bit later about it again.

See you, Sanjay -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, get your wallet ready. You're not going to believe just how high gas prices are going. What's behind the rapid rise? Andy's "Minding Your Business," up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

You might want to take fewer road trips this summer. Plus, Martha's return isn't helping her company. With those stories, Andy Serwer's "Minding Your Business" this morning.

Good morning to you.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad.

Higher oil prices pulled down stock prices yesterday. We'll take a take a look. Not a good day for investors. And how often have we seen this. When we get near a big milestone like 11,000 for the Dow, have trouble getting over it. You can see 24 points, Nasdaq, pretty much damage across the board, and the price of oil obviously impacting gas prices. We'll get to that in a second.

One stock really hitting some heavy sledding here is Martha Stewart, and I sort of warned people this might happen last week. You can see here, after peaking around $37, the stock is down 30 percent since Martha got out of jail. And this is what happens, because there was a huge run-up, basically the stock went from mid single digits in July, when she was sentenced, people thought she'd be putting the bad news behind her, and the stock really ran up. And now, of course, people are locking in profits, so you really have to be careful there.

Now, as far as gas prices, last week, we talked about an independent analyst suggesting the price of gasoline was going to go way north of $2 this spring and summer. Now the government itself says yes, that's right. It's going to be averaging around $2.15 a gallon, up from $1.97 the whole summer. Inflation adjusted, still nothing like it was in 1981, which it would be around $3 in today's dollars.

O'BRIEN: Still $2.15 is steep.

SERWER: Yes, and it's going to stay there. Just get used to it. It's high.

O'BRIEN: Andy, thanks.

HEMMER: Here's Jack now and the "Question of the Day."

CAFFERTY: Thanks, Bill.

The Army's having recruiting problems, especially among blacks and women. In 2000, African-Americans made up 23.5 percent of Army recruits. Today, it's less than 14 percent. Similarly, women have declined from 22 percent of recruits to 17 percent during the same period. Tough to tell whether the decline is because of opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or because the economy is improving, perhaps providing better job opportunities at home. Either way, it's a problem for Uncle Sam.

Here's the question, how should the U.S. Army go about attracting more minorities and women?

HEMMER: A problem too when you've got an all-volunteer army.

CAFFERTY: That's correct.

HEMMER: You've got a front in Afghanistan a front in Iraq.

Good question, Jack. Thanks.

More of AMERICAN MORNING right after the break here.

Ahead on "90-Second Pop," Sylvester Stallone enters the ring of reality TV in search for the next Rocky.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER STALLONE, ACTOR: See anything that's impressed you so far?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: But is "The Contender" already right down for the count?

50 Cent makes headlines and a bit history. What's next for the G-Unit empire? That and more a bit later on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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