[Catherine Callaway, Cnn Anchor:] Welcome to CNN Center in Atlanta, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Thanks for joining us, everyone. It is March 28th and I'm Catherine Callaway.
[Fredricka Whitfield, Cnn Anchor:] And I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks for waking up with us. Here's what's happening or coming up in this hour. John Kerry hasn't hesitated to take aim at President Bush. Now Condoleezza Rice is also in his line of fire. And from the left, Air America launches liberal talk radio. Will programs such as "Al Franken" be O'Franken Factor catch on? In Ireland, a nation famous for its smoky watering holes faces a ban on smoking in all public places. When the smoke clears, how will the pubs deal with the fallout? We'll get reaction from Dublin. But first, the headlines.
[Callaway:] Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai postpones Afghan national elections from June until September. The decision comes after the U.N. says it was concerned about security at the polls. The Taliban threatened to disrupt the presidential and parliamentary elections. And food shipments and child health care in Gaza are among the benefits threatened by a spat between Israel and U.N. relief agencies. A spokesman for the agencies says that those operations could stop tomorrow unless Israel relaxes its ban on non-diplomatic vehicles as they're crossing into Gaza. Well that big storm in southern Brazil is about to hit a wall of mountains that should drain its power. The storm sank a fishing boat. And its crew of seven is still missing. U.S. meteorologist call it a hurricane, but Brazilian officials refer to it as a cyclone. Grand jurors convene tomorrow in the Michael Jackson child molestation case. A judge has released 18 heavily edited search warrants in that case, warrants used to seize computers, disks, tapes and documents. The judge acted on motions by the media, including
[Cnn. Whitfield:] Our top story this hour, Senator John Kerry is chastising Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's National Security Adviser. Kerry takes Rice to task for refusing to testify publicly before the commission investigating the 911 suicide hijackings.
[Sen. John Kerry , Presidential Candidate:] Well if Condoleezza Rice can find time to do "60 MINUTES" on television before the American people, she ought to find 60 minutes to speak to the commission under oath.
[Whitfield:] The Bush-Cheney campaign says Kerry's attack on Rice is part of the Democrat strategy to politicize the work of the 911 commission. Senator Kerry holds a jobs rally in St. Louis and is joined by a former rival, Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt. Kerry says he wants to eliminate the loopholes that let companies move their operations overseas to avoid U.S. taxes and then ship their goods back to the United States. A few decades ago, the FBI and the Nixon White House were among those paying close attention to what John Kerry was saying. That was when Kerry was active in a group called Vietnam Veterans Against the War. That story now from our national correspondent Kelly Wallace.
[Kerry:] We're going to keep coming back until this war ends.
[Kelly Wallace, Cnn Correspondent:] As John Kerry stepped into the national spotlight in 1971, the Nixon administration's FBI stepped up its monitoring of Kerry and the group he helped direct, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, also known as
[Vvaw. Gerald Nicosia, Author, Home To War:] Nixon and the FBI saw VVAW as a major, major threat to the United States.
[Wallace:] Gerald Nicosia is author of the book, "Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans Movement."
[Nicosia:] They really believed that these veterans were going to come to Washington with, you know, rifles and armaments and storm and create a coup, you know, storm the White House, kill the president, take over the government.
[Wallace:] But it wasn't until Nicosia recently reviewed 20,000 pages of FBI documents he obtained five years ago that the extent Kerry himself was followed by FBI agents became public. The documents note the mundane, like how many people Kerry talked to and what he said. Like here, calling for a political process to bring an end to the war. Through a spokesman, the senator told CNN, "It is almost surreal to learn the extent to which I was followed by the FBI." White House tapes show President Nixon keeping tabs on Kerry. Here, he talks with his special counsel, Charles Colson.
[Charles Colson:] He was in Vietnam a total of four months...he's politically ambitious and just looking for an issue.
[Richard Nixon, Fmr. President:] Yes.
[Colson:] Came back a hawk and became a dove when he saw the political opportunities for sure.
[Nixon:] Well, anyway...
[Colson:] Keep the faith. We'll keep hitting him, Mr. President.
[Wallace:] The documents also do something else. They place John Kerry at a November 1971 convention in Kansas City, Missouri, where three Vietnam Veterans tell CNN there was discussion at some point of an idea to kill U.S. leaders who support the war. Nicosia says veterans told him the idea was viewed as ludicrous.
[Nicosia:] People were screaming, throwing chairs in the air. This is mad, this is crazy. What do you think, we're going to be assassinating people?
[Wallace:] There is no confirmation that Kerry heard any of that. He says he has no memory of attending the Kansas City gathering. [on camera]: The FBI never linked Kerry to any violent activity and ended its surveillance in May 1973. But the question now is could the Vietnam era path that Kerry is touting on the campaign trail also end up causing him some harm? Kelly Wallace, CNN, New York.
[Callaway:] A "Newsweek" poll indicates criticism by his former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke has not changed how most Americans view President Bush. But the poll shows public support for the president's anti-terrorism policy has dropped eight points in the past month from 65 percent to 57 percent. And the Clinton administration fares less well in the public view. 61 percent say the Bush administration took the terrorism threat seriously, but only 26 percent believe the Clinton administration took it seriously.
[Whitfield:] That brings us to our e-mail question, is an eight month presidential campaign too long? E-mail us with your comments at wam@CNN.com. Other stories making headlines this morning, Jan Berry of the Jan and Dean duo of the 1960s is dead at the age of 62. Berry suffered a seizure at his home in California. Among Jan and Dean's hits, "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" and "Dead Man's Curve." More gay marriages in New York state. In Albany, a Unitarian minister oversaw the marrying of two same sex couples in what he describes as civil ceremonies. In New Paltz, New York, 11 same sex marriages were held. Six months after a white tiger mauled Roy Horne of Siegfried and Roy, they say they'll be back together and back in business soon. The Las Vegas duo will promote an NBC animated series titled, "Father of The Pride." It features a family of white lions.
[Callaway:] And in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, fire destroyed a downtown movie theater, but no one was injured. The fire may have been sparked by a major thunderstorm there. And that may have been part of a system that brought some tornadoes to western Oklahoma, signaling the start of the severe weather season there. Funnel clouds were reported in four counties, but there are no reports of injuries of damage. Amateur video there.
[Whitfield:] In Fort Myers, Florida, an American Airlines flight had to be canceled after a psychic thought a bomb might be on the plane. The flight was supposed to go to Dallas, Texas. The Transportation Safety Administration called the psychic story unusual, but still searched the plane for explosives. Nothing was found on board. The delay, however, pushed the flight crew over its allotted hours, forcing the cancellation. You know the passengers were upset about that.
[Callaway:] Yes, but you know, something had happened. They would have said we should have checked the plane.
[Whitfield:] They've got to check everything, especially this day and age.
[Callaway:] That's right.
[Unidentified Female:] The biggest change was and hard to deal with is seeing how tall my kids are, and how big they are.
[Callaway:] Well, after a long tour in Iraq, a reality check back at home. The story of a military mom in today's "Heroes" series coming up next on Sunday morning.
[Whitfield:] And later, Ireland is making its first step on the smoke-free road, but are the Irish breathing a sigh of relief?
[Callaway:] And no relief for the former World Champ. Michelle Kwan completes her routine with no major mistakes, but barely makes it to the podium? What went wrong? We have the results coming up later this hour.