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American Morning

Bush War Update; Duke Rape Arrests; Trapped on a Tram

Aired April 19, 2006 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Alina Cho in Durham, North Carolina, where two men are in custody in the Duke rape investigation. Friends say there is no way they committed the crime.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elaine Quijano, live at the White House, where President Bush is just minutes away from another Iraq assessment, this time with added perspective.

CHRISTOPHER KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Christopher King, on Roosevelt Island in New York. Passengers from a commuter tram are safe and sound after a horrifying 12-hour ordeal. I'll have that story.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You are feeling the pain every time you fill up, but are the oil companies putting the squeeze on you illegally? We'll give you the gouge.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And baby makes three. The couple now known as "Tomkat" welcomed a little kitten into the family. We'll tell you about it.

O'BRIEN: Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.

NGUYEN: Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen, in for Soledad this week.

O'BRIEN: Go ahead.

NGUYEN: Want to get the latest now with Elaine Quijano. She is standing by. President Bush is about to speak. He's going to be talking about the war on terror this morning from the Rose Garden. Let's get straight to it.

Elaine Quijano, good morning. Give us a preview of what the president is about to say.

QUIJANO: Hello to you, Betty.

Well, this morning, President Bush met with a bipartisan group of governors who have just came back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and those governors included his own brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, as well as Iowa's Governor Tom Vilsack, Indiana's Governor Mitch Daniels, and also West Virginia's Governor Joe Manchin.

Now, the president is expected to make some remarks in the Rose Garden, joined by these governors. And this really is coming at a time, of course, when the White House is trying to turn around public opinion, specifically on Iraq. That certainly is the issue that continues to weigh down President Bush's approval ratings.

The president will then, after his remarks in the Rose Garden, board Marine One to travel to Tuskegee University in Alabama to talk about his American Competitiveness Initiative. But this topic of Iraq, again, one that the White House is in the midst of a campaign, if you will, to try to turn around public opinion on. So we'll hear the president give not only his assessment, but also adding in perspectives of this bipartisan group of governors who have just come back from Iraq and Afghanistan -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Any idea of what the details will be today? Anything extra that we're going to learn that's new?

QUIJANO: We don't have word on specifics. Really, this is a chance for him to share what it is that these governors who have had the chance to speak to military commanders, who have had a chance to visit with troops and seen for themselves what is being done in Iraq, to give a sense of sort of accumulative assessment, if you will. But at this point, we don't know that there's going to necessarily be anything new. We'll have to wait and see -- Betty.

NGUYEN: And as you mentioned, his brother, Jeb Bush, just returned from Iraq. And I understand the president now has just walked out. This is happening in the Rose Garden, where he will be speaking on the war on terror. There you see the president walking up to the podium.

Let's take a listen to what he has to say this morning.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just had breakfast with four governors who've returned from Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan. I invited Secretary Rice and Secretary Rumsfeld, as well as Steve Hadley and Josh Bolten to breakfast so that we could hear from these governors.

First of all, I want to thank the four of them for traveling overseas. I particularly want to thank them for going to see our men and women who are helping secure freedom and peace. I thank them for sending a message from home that we care about them, we care about our troops, that we'll support our troops, that we appreciate the fact that people are willing to make sacrifices.

I assured them that our goal in Afghanistan and Iraq is victory. And victory will be achieved when there is a democracy in both countries that is able to sustain itself and defend itself.

Secretary Rice brought the governors up to date about a conversation she had with Ambassador Khalilzad. We fully recognize that the Iraqis must step up and form a unity government, so that those who went to the polls to vote recognize that a government will be in place to respond to their needs.

In other words, we also recognize that vacuums in the political process create opportunity for malfeasance and harm. And so we assured these governors that we understand full well that the political process in Iraq must occur soon, and we're working toward that end.

I, again, want to thank the governors for coming. I thought -- I asked them if they wouldn't mind saying a few words.

We -- I don't expect everybody to agree with my decision to go into Iraq, but I do want the people to understand, the American people to understand, that failure in Iraq is not an option, that failure in Iraq would make the security situation for our country worse. And that success in Iraq will begin to lay the foundation of peace for generations to come.

Governor Daniels.

GOV. MITCH DANIELS (R), INDIANA: First, profound gratitude to the president, the administration for the chance to go, for the chance to carry a message to the men and women of our state who are serving in such large numbers there. Our love for them and appreciation for what they're doing for the rest of us.

And my dominant impressions are, one, the sheer pro proficiency of the United States military in carrying out the tasks they have been assigned. One knows this, but until you see it firsthand and on this immense scale, it's very hard to express how well they do what they are asked to do.

Secondly, the commitment to their safety, the enormity of the investment in each and every soldier, and the ingenuity and the constant adaptation to the evolving tactics of a very malicious and determined enemy is very heartening to people who -- like us, who feel responsible for the men and women in harm's way. Everything that can be done is being done, and on a daily basis.

I think, thirdly, involvement of the citizen soldier and the full integration of our Guard units, as well as reservists, and then of the services with each other, very hard to tell, impossible to tell until you ask who is whom. And this, I guess, can be thought of as the transformation that this president came to office intent on driving, happening before our eyes.

Lastly, I would simply report that the commitment to mission on the part of every single person that I talked to -- and I gave them ample chances to express themselves out of earshot of their commanding officers and others -- is unanimous. They believe they're doing something important, and...

NGUYEN: You've been listening to Governor Mitch Daniels there, following the president's remarks about the war. Basically saying, while he doesn't expect everyone to agree with his decision to go into Iraq, failure is not an option, and that the political process in Iraq must occur very soon. That's a lot of what people have been talking about lately.

Elaine Quijano is at the White House following this as well. And we're going to have much more on this throughout the day -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Betty. In Durham, North Carolina, they are waiting for another shoe to drop, the possibility of an arrest. We're going to get to that in just a moment. As a matter of fact, we'll get to it now.

The D.A. there is suggesting another arrest could happen soon in the Duke lacrosse team rape investigation. The two players already arrested are charged, will be in court on May 15th.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho joining us from Durham with more on this.

Hello, Alina.

CHO: Hi there, Miles.

The D.A. is not saying whether an arrest is imminent. He would only say that the investigation is continuing, that he is working to identify a third assailant, and that, in his words, he is hoping to bring that third assailant to justice.

Now, sources close to the case have told us the name of the third lacrosse player that the D.A. is targeting, but we are not releasing that name at this time.

Meanwhile, friends and classmates of the two suspects already charged in this case say there is no way they committed this crime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NONA FARAHNIK, FRIEND OF ARRESTED PLAYERS: I know them well enough, and a lot of my peers know them well enough to know that there is no way, no way that either of these two boys of capable of anything like this. Even after this indictment I would be comfortable being anywhere alone with either of the two boys. This is a completely false accusation, and I feel very comfortable declaring their innocence, unequivocally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: That was a Duke classmate. Defense attorneys, of course, would add to that. And, in fact, they say they have evidence, proof that these two students were not at the party in question when the alleged rape occurred -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Alina Cho in Durham, North Carolina.

Thank you very much.

Terra firma probably has never felt better for about 70 people who spent most of the night swaying in some stranded trams over New York's East River. Some of them stuck for almost 12 hours. The last pulled to safety about four hours ago.

Christopher King on Roosevelt Island this morning with more.

Hello, Christopher. KING: That's right. Good morning, Miles. Hello to you.

They were stuck up in the air for about 12 hours, those passengers. Now, they were trapped hundreds of feet above water. There were two trams.

Rescue teams used a diesel-powered gondola to get out the passengers on the Roosevelt Island side. They used a large crane for the Manhattan-bound passengers.

Now, there were 68 passengers in all. Twelve of them were children. One of them spoke with AMERICAN MORNING not too long ago, and here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just a little scared because, one, what if I miss it? Two, what if I slip? And I might fall into the river.

So, I just kept looking up and got directions. And then, next thing you know, I was on the gondola and they brought us down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, two of those kids on board were infants. They were about year old.

The trams got stuck after power went down to the whole system. Engineers could not get it to restart last night. Emergency crews worked overnight. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the problem was mechanical in nature -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Christopher King on Roosevelt Island.

Thank you very much -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Well, in case you haven't heard, it is a girl for Tom and Katie. We'll talk to the folks at "People" magazine who broke the story and get the scoop on the special delivery.

Also ahead, be prepared for sky-high gas prices this summer. Big surprise. We'll tell you how to avoid getting gouged.

And later, a blind man gets a new lease on life thanks to special technology found in millions of cars.

Stay with us for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Gas prices have gone through the roof, $3. Get used to it, folks, because even without a hurricane, and even as the situation in Iran and, let's say, Nigeria starts to boil over, the possibility of it being even higher than that is on the horizon, potentially.

So what are we going to do about this besides get upset? Carrie Coolidge is with "Forbes" magazine to give us a little bit of gas prices 101.

First of all, let's -- you know, we might as well just walk through this in a basic way. With the price of oil at $71 a barrel, or whatever, hovering around $70, is it at simple as supply and demand? Is it the fact that, you know, a lot of people in China are trading in bicycles for cars? That kind of thing?

CARRIE COOLIDGE, "FORBES" MAGAZINE: Well, supply and demand is a huge part of it. But it's more than that.

Investors are spooked by unrest in the Middle East. That's affecting the price of crude oil.

You know, it's problems with refineries in the U.S. that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Production's down 9 percent since last year, so there were a lot...

O'BRIEN: So they're still not back. Like a lot of things in the Gulf Coast, they're still trying to come back. All we need is one big hurricane and we've got real problem, right?

COOLIDGE: Right. So, there are a lot of factors that go into the price of crude oil. Crude oil accounts for about 68 percent of the cost of gas. And so there are other factors involved as well.

O'BRIEN: All right. So you've got these factors, you've got the price of oil. There are some other issues involved, world events and all of that.

There's still the sense, when we see these, you know, Exxon profit reports, people are just like, wait a minute, these guys are taking advantage of this. You know, on the one hand, (INAUDIBLE) while the sun shines when you're in business. On the other hand, is it gouging?

COOLIDGE: Well, price gouging is a very difficult thing to pinpoint. In fact, across the country there are about 23 states that have price gouging laws on the books. There's no federal protection for consumers with this regard.

And, you know, to ascertain whether or not a gas station is price gouging you, it's hard to say, because people have sticker shock. They're just not used to spending 10 cents more a gallon this week than they were just last week, or 30 cents more today than they were a month ago. Especially if they haven't filled up their tank for a while. They're in for a surprise.

O'BRIEN: Yes. And I think what bothers people is, you know, this is -- there's gas that is sitting in their tank at the gas station which they bought, you know, last week. The price of oil goes up and the price goes up. They've already bought that tank of gas.

COOLIDGE: Yes. Too bad they can't trade it in or sell it as a future. O'BRIEN: There you go. Hey, now that's a thought, too. That would be kind of interesting.

Let's talk about some of the ways we can find cheaper gas. Of course, a lot of people, you know, they'll drive 50 miles in their SUV to save five cents a gallon. That's not very smart. If -- there's some sites you can go to, say, on the Internet to find out places to go.

COOLIDGE: Absolutely. There are two wonderful Web sites to go to.

There's one called gaspricewatch.com. And this is a fantastic Web site. You plug in your zip code, and it will give you neighborhood gas stations with their addresses and the cost of the gas.

In fact, consumers dial in, write in this information. So it's updated constantly. So you should shop around online before you go and buy...

O'BRIEN: All right. We just put in a zip code on gaspricewatch.com.

What zip code did we put in? 30309? Well, that's Atlanta. It's cheap gas down there.

And what is it? $2.89. $2.89. It's always pretty good there.

Now, why don't you put in -- Brian (ph), why don't you put in -- there's another one at aaa.com, right?

COOLIDGE: Right, AAA...

O'BRIEN: Similar thing?

COOLIDGE: Exactly. AAA is called fuelgaugereport.com.

O'BRIEN: Yes, there it is.

COOLIDGE: And what they will give you is an average price, you know, for a city or a town.

O'BRIEN: All right. Why don't you put in New York for that one, Brian (ph), and see how that compares to Atlanta.

So he's going to put in a New York zip code. It varies -- you know, primarily there's a tax differential, there's higher taxes in some parts of the country. But are there other reasons why certain parts of the country have much higher gas prices than others?

COOLIDGE: Well, certainly you have to think about location. New York City, I filled up my tank the other day and paid $3.11 a gallon.

O'BRIEN: Ouch. Ouch. It's a good thing you lived in the city and don't have to drive that much, right, at that price? Brian (ph), did you get a price on New York City yet?

All right. We're working on that right now.

So, in the meantime, consumers, one thing that we've been thinking about is getting rid of the SUV. We have this Yukon XL, which is like a rolling zip code. But, you know, the thing about it is, when you start doing the math on buying a new car, the economic decision, actually, gas prices have to go up a little higher to justify getting rid of a car we already own.

COOLIDGE: Right, unless you trade it in for a Honda or a Toyota. Hybrid cars, they're only $20,000. So you trade in your car, you might even get more than $20,000 for your car, get a hybrid that uses gas and electricity, get 60 miles a gallon.

O'BRIEN: Two kids and two dogs in there. What do you think? Are we going to be able to do that?

COOLIDGE: You might have to get two.

O'BRIEN: That's not a bad idea. We'll get two of them.

Carrie, what do you think this summer, then? Is this -- is this going to have a real impact on how people travel, do business? I mean, in other words, are we -- are we heading for trouble with the economy overall?

COOLIDGE: Certainly, we could be. I think that there's a very good chance that gas prices will continue to rise. And I think people are going to have to change their lifestyles a little bit, if it's really affecting their pocketbook.

O'BRIEN: If there's a silver lining in all of this, it will force us to conserve more and maybe will force some real alternatives to a emerge in the market. Don't you think?

COOLIDGE: Yes, I sure hope so, because it's a long time in coming. This is what people should have been thinking about many, many years ago. It shouldn't have been the high cost of gas that drove us to this, you know, decision we're going to have to make.

O'BRIEN: I think we all got kind of drunk on cheap oil. Didn't we?

COOLIDGE: Yes, we sure did.

O'BRIEN: And we're having the hangover right now.

COOLIDGE: It didn't taste very good either.

O'BRIEN: That's right.

Carrie Coolidge -- I don't know, we never -- did we get it to work, Brian (ph)? We don't have a New York price.

It's high. All right? I'm sure it's over $3 on the average.

Check out those sites if you need to, and by all means drive safely and drive with conservation in mind.

Carrie Coolidge, "Fortune" (sic) magazine.

Thanks for being here.

COOLIDGE: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: All right -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Yes, it's probably so high in New York...

O'BRIEN: "Forbes" -- that's "Forbes."

NGUYEN: ... you don't even want to know what the price is. So it's probably a good thing you didn't get it, Miles. You'll just depress everybody.

All right. Coming up, a nation on the brink of anarchy. We'll tell you why those massive protests in Nepal are gaining momentum.

And new blood at the CIA. The search for the best and brightest to protect our country. That's ahead right here on CNN AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Apologies to Carrie Coolidge. I said "Fortune." She's with "Forbes" magazine. Big difference. Big competitor.

"Forbes" magazine. Thank you to Carrie and to "Forbes" -- Betty.

NGUYEN: We got it straight now.

All right. Well, the war on terror is leading to a flurry of activity at the CIA. It is now adding new agents at a record pace.

CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor has the story, which you can see only here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It looks like a sedate college campus in springtime, complete with a commencement speaker and a graduating class. But the students are joining not the big world, but a shadowy, secret one.

CARMEN MEDINA, CIA DEPUTY DIR. FOR INTELLIGENCE: Your success is our future. Thank you.

ENSOR: Since that future may include undercover work overseas, this graduate, who speaks two other languages, did not want to show her face or reveal her name.

(on camera): Do your family all know about your choice to work at the CIA?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a pretty large family. So, no, not all of my family knows. But my close and immediate family does.

ENSOR: And do you tell friends that you work at the CIA?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I tell some of my close friends, but I choose who I tell.

ENSOR (voice over): With orders from the White House to increase staff by 50 percent, the CIA's director of intelligence, whose number two is Carmen Medina, is churning out new analysts at a record pace.

(on camera): Job applications to the CIA have more than doubled since 9/11 to over 140,000 a year. And officials say that the college grade point average of those accepted as new analysts last year was 3.7.

MEDINA: We're not really looking for know-it-alls, you know. We're looking for people that understand sort of like Socrates that the wisest person is the person who realizes that they don't know everything.

ENSOR (voice over): Humility, openness to dissenting views is lesson one nowadays as the CIA school for analysts, after U.S. intelligence got it so wrong on whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Peter is a senior analyst.

PETER, CIA ANALYST: We were not clear about the nature of the evidence, our confidence level in the evidence. And that's the part -- if I could do it over again, I would do that over again, which I think would have conveyed, you know, there's a certain degree of uncertainty here, folks, that we just can't give you a definitive, absolute answer.

ENSOR: Carmen Medina says the old image of the pipe-smoking CIA analyst is out of date. They are tech-savvy globetrotters now, often working right alongside the operations officers, the spies.

MEDINA: You know, analysts don't work here in headquarters hermetically sealed. They sometimes go out into the field and get their boots dirty.

ENSOR (on camera): Do you think you ever might go in harm's way for work?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. I hope not, for a mother's sake.

ENSOR (voice over): In an office cluttered with toys and souvenirs from visiting foreign officials, the CIA's number two intelligence analyst works on her blog, reaching out to the new young analysts.

(on camera): Now, this is classified blog, right?

MEDINA: Yes, this is our agency system.

ENSOR: I can't get into this?

MEDINA: No, you can't.

What brought you to the CIA? Why'd you come here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was looking for something that I could believe in, and a mission that I could believe in, where I felt like I would be making a difference.

ENSOR: What is the mission?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keeping America safe.

ENSOR (voice over): Hoping to make a difference in the shadows.

David Ensor, CNN, Langley, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: A bubonic plague warning. No, you haven't awakened in the middle ages. We'll have details for you in just a moment.

And later, how special technology founded millions of cars, airplanes and boats, and GPS is helping one blind man and others like them get a new view of the world.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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