[Carol Costello, Cnn Anchor:] A new tactic in Fallujah. Instead of fighting, there is an attempt to negotiate a cease-fire. Good morning to you from the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta. This is DAYBREAK for Friday, April 9. I'm Carol Costello. Here are the latest headlines now. In Iraq, the U.S. military announces a unilateral suspension of offensive operations in Fallujah. It wants to talk to local religious leaders and get people there time to bury their dead after five days of fighting. A cease-fire has been signed between the government of Sudan and rebel leaders. It ends a year-long battle between Arab and non-Arab Muslims that has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people. The engineer of the Amtrak train that crashed in Mississippi Tuesday has told federal investigators he hit the brakes because the rails ahead were misaligned. The NTSB says the train went from 80 miles an hour to a dead stop in just 10 seconds. One person was killed and dozens of passengers injured.
[Costello:] Some new information to pass along to you this morning. The White House says it will declassify a memo given to President Bush on August 6 a month before the 911 attacks. That memo was entitled, "bin Laden Determined to Attack Within the United States." Now, that document sparked some heated questioning during National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's testimony. But with the benefit of hindsight, Rice says the administration has made huge improvements.
[Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor:] I think that it is possible that they are that they recognized the heightened security profile that we have post-September 11, and I believe that we have made it harder for them to attack here. I will tell you that I get up everyday concerned because I don't think we've made it impossible for them. We're safer, but we're not safe.
[Costello:] We gathered a diverse group of Americans together to watch Rice testify to tell us what they think. CNN's Jason Carroll was with them.
[Jason Carroll, Cnn Correspondent:] All eyes were on the national security adviser as she publicly testified in front of the 911 Commission. Here in our studio, more were watching, a cross- section of people a teacher, student, Democrat.
[Unidentified Male:] I think she should have apologized.
[Carroll:] And Republican.
[Mychal Massie, Columnist:] What was she going to apologize about?
[Carroll:] All with ideas on how Condoleezza Rice did. [on camera]: Just a show of hands. Did she do well? Who said she did well? Show of hands.
[Larry Herrmann, Lawyer:] In what sense, doing well? I think she had an agenda of trying to protect the administration.
[Unidentified Male:] I think the strongest point was that she supported the administration and their policy very dynamically.
[Carroll:] The group agreed Rice did well in presenting her point of view, but that does not mean they agreed with what she said.
[Danielle Tuminaro, Teacher:] I just think that she could have done more. There was more information that she could have provided, and she failed to do that.
[Barbara Nelson, College Student:] I believe that she was speaking truthfully and from the heart and from all of the intelligence that she had.
[Carroll:] Take weather the administration did enough to prevent 911. Rice says there was no silver bullet.
[Massie:] I think she's exactly right. There was no silver bullet available.
[Herrmann:] If the '93 attempt to blow up the World Trade Center isn't a silver bullet, in her terminology, I don't know what the hell is.
[Unidentified Female:] There isn't one single thing that could have been changed that would have stopped this. You know, it...
[Carroll:] Does everyone I see a lot of heads nodding.
[Ron Caldwell, University Instructor, Democrat:] I would hold accountable the Clinton administration as much or more than the Bush administration.
[Carroll:] The group split on whether classified documents about al Qaeda threats prior to 911 should be made public and on who was more credible: former counterterrorism chief, Richard Clarke...
[Unidentified Female:] Clarke.
[Unidentified Male:] Clarke.
[Carroll:] ... or Rice.
[Massie:] Obviously, I believe Dr. Rice.
[Carroll:] Believability, credibility, at least with this group, may depend on your politics. Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.
[Costello:] Believe it or not, this is the first anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Here is the situation in Iraq right now. The U.S. military has announced a unilateral suspension of its offensive in Fallujah. Reporters on the scene say they are not sure though how solid that cease-fire is right now. Iraqi insurgents are holding three Japanese and two Arabs linked to Israel. The militants threaten to burn the Japanese alive if Japan doesn't withdraw its troops. The war's top commander, General John Abizaid, is reportedly looking at ways to boost combat power by 10,000 troops. That's according to his interview in "The Washington Post." Abizaid says it may mean bringing part of the 3rd Infantry Division back to Iraq sooner than scheduled. And a spokesman for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr says an intifada has broken out across the country. He's calling on the Americans to quote "remove your tanks." As I just said, it has been one year to the day since Saddam Hussein was toppled in Iraq. We've seen some horrific video coming out of Iraq in the past few days, along with the horrifying casualty count. Britain, as you know, has a very large stake in the coalition fight for Iraq, too. CNN's Matthew Chance live in London for us, where he's been surveying the U.K.'s reaction. Good morning Matthew.
[Matthew Chance, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning to you as well, Carol. It's been a year, of course, since the momentous toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Paradise Square in central Baghdad; those images, of course, being the defining images perhaps of the very rapid invasion by U.S.-led coalition forces of the country. Back then, I can tell you from personal experience, there was still a great deal of tension on the streets, but there was also a mood of celebration that this dictator had been removed from power, and that perhaps the worst of the conflict was over. But just look at the images that we've seen over the past few days coming out of Iraq, and it seems that things haven't quite developed that way. It seems amongst some commentators that, you know, Iraq has plunged to new depths of chaos. Certainly that's the mood that's been reflected in the British media, in the European media, in general on this sort of one-year anniversary of the toppling of that statue. Just let me show you one of the leading British newspapers here, "The Independent," which strikes very clearly on its front page that headline, that contrast, the image of the statue toppling here, celebrating jubilant Iraqis in the streets of Baghdad. One photograph here is even showing an Iraqi kissing an American soldier. Contrast that with the images from yesterday, the Japanese hostages with the threat of death hanging over them, the bloodied Iraqi child here being carried from Fallujah, where casualties are being counted in the hundreds as the result of that U.S. offensive, and as well, of course, the mounting U.S. casualties. So, a very stark contrast in those images from a year ago. There's been criticism in the British press as well for the U.S. handling of the occupation. It's been called hand-fisted, even misguided. So, a general sense of dismay in the British press on this one-year anniversary since that toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue Carol.
[Costello:] Matthew Chance reporting live from London for us this morning. Still to come on DAYBREAK, parents want to protect their children from the stresses of the world, and sometimes that means a trip to the doctor or hospital. How can you make it less painful? Coming up, we'll have advice from a pediatrician on kids and anxiety. And I will take you inside an urban rebounding class. Urban rebounding. It's the cool way to make your workout bounce. Then, a workout for pigs diving, racing and performing for people. We'll be right back.