U.S.-Iraq Summit; More Troops to Baghdad; Massive Winter Storm.

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Original Source: AMERICAN MORNING

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Best Buy says they're committed to living up to their name.

Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business" this morning.

Good morning, Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Best Buy said yesterday in a conference with the CEO that they're going to match Wal-Mart's good pricing on electronics. And I put a call in to Best Buy this morning and couldn't get a hold of them to find out how that's going to happen. Do you have to take in a pamphlet and say the price is lower, or are they just going to know that the price is lower?

We're going to figure that out. But Best Buy, you know, a good time to be buying electronics. So that's not bad.

I want to talk about Wal-Mart for a second, though. Wal-Mart, a much bigger operation, 6,000 stores, 1.3 million employees, more than $300 billion in sales last year. Well, as of today, they've got a new problem.

The organization called Wake Up Wal-Mart, which is funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, is unrolling some 30-second ads which feature Wal-Mart employees in them. I think we may be able to listen to one of those very briefly.

OK. We're not going to listen to that, but it's got Wal-Mart workers in there talking about low wages, being locked in stores and not being able to leave to care for a sick child without being penalized.

We talked to Wal-Mart about this and they told us -- first of all, we asked them if these three workers who were featured in the ad are going to be fired. They said no comment on that. But they did mention that the three workers in the ads earn between -- earn $8.50 and $11.18 an hour.

They say that folks are getting tired of this campaign against Wal-Mart and they know exactly what it is. That's soon to be seen. Obviously this battle has been going on between Wal-Mart opponents and Wal-Mart for some time -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ali Velshi for us this morning.

Thanks, Ali.

The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING begins right now.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Troop cuts. The Iraq Study Group poised to recommend bringing home American GIs from Iraq. This, as President Bush promises to keep up the fight and other presidents weigh in on whether the conflict should be called a civil war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are more and more people who think that they can get what they want by shooting or throwing up these roadside bombs rather than engaging in politics. And when that happens, others take up arms in defense and it just gets worse and worse and worse. And that's a normal definition of a civil war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: We're going to have more of my exclusive interview with President Clinton straight ahead this morning.

Also, November's icy exit. A major winter storm is bearing down on more than a dozen states, making a mess of travel. We'll talk about that.

M. O'BRIEN: And new insight of whether it's safe for pregnant women to take antidepressants.

That's ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. It's Thursday, November 30th.

I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien.

Thanks for being with us.

We begin this morning with Iraq. Some mixed signals on when U.S. troops might be coming home.

President Bush on his way home now after meeting in Amman, Jordan, just a few hours ago with the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al- Maliki. The president insisting U.S. troops will stay in Iraq until the job is done. But in Washington, the Iraq Study Group is poised to recommend a gradual pullback of U.S. troops starting the first of the year. For now, though, the Pentagon is moving 1,600 troops into Baghdad, bolstering the 20,000 already there.

We have full coverage of this in three reports: Suzanne Malveaux from Amman. Arwa Damon in Baghdad. Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.

Let's begin with Suzanne and the president -- Suzanne.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Despite the serious doubts the White House has about Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's abilities to curb the violence in his country, President Bush today gave him a vote of confidence.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's the right guy for Iraq. And we're going to help him.

MALVEAUX: Mr. Bush is facing an increasingly unpopular war, with the new Congress actively seeking exit strategies. So the president is trying to push more responsibility on the Iraqi leader to govern and protect his people. Mr. Bush acknowledged the U.S. could do more to help.

BUSH: Part of the prime minister's frustration is, is that he doesn't have the tools necessary to take care of those who break the law.

MALVEAUX: The president promised more resources to speed up the training of Iraqi security forces, but he flatly refused to commit pulling out U.S. troops, even gradually, as recommended by a bipartisan commission, the Iraq Study Group.

BUSH: I know there's a lot of speculation that these reports in Washington mean there's going to be some kind of graceful exit out of Iraq. We're going to stay in Iraq to get the job done, so long as the government wants us there.

MALVEAUX: Even if that means U.S. troops would have to fight in what some consider a civil war.

BUSH: Killers taking -- taking innocent life is in some cases sectarian. I happen to view it as criminal.

MALVEAUX: Maliki also issued a thinly-veiled warning to his neighbors, Iran and Syria, for any role they may have in supporting the insurgents.

NURI AL-MALIKI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): So everybody who is trying to make Iraq their own influence here on account of the Iraqi people need to recalculate.

MALVEAUX (on camera): As billed, there were no major, bold, new initiatives coming out of this summit, but rather, a recommitment from both leaders to keep plotting ahead.

Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, Amman, Jordan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Prime Minister al-Maliki is already back in Baghdad, has some issues to confront there, of course, like Muqtada al-Sadr, who threatened to pull out of the government if al-Maliki went ahead with that meeting with President Bush.

CNN's Arwa Damon is live in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

Arwa, good morning to you.

So, how is it -- in the wake of this meeting now, what does it look like in the government?

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, the Iraqi prime minister most definitely faces a more fractured, more fragile government than when he left Baghdad less than 48 hours ago for that meeting with President Bush in Amman. In fact, he just wrapped up a press conference here in the capital at his residence in which he asked Muqtada al-Sadr's political bloc to review its decision to suspend activities in the government for the sake of the Iraqi people.

Now, according to the head of the political bloc, Hasan Shanshal, the group suspended its activities yesterday, they say, as a sign of protest that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki went ahead with his meeting with U.S. President Bush in Amman. From their perspective, they...

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