'Educational Apartheid in the United States'?
COSTELLO: As we've been telling you this morning, terrorists have struck again. Indonesian police blame al Qaeda linked terrorists for this morning's powerful car bomb that killed at least four people and injured about 100 others. Joining us from London to discuss the terrorist problem in Indonesia and how it might affect all of us is M.J. Gohel, head of the Asia-Pacific Foundation. Good morning.</s>M.J. GOHEL, CEO, ASIA-PACIFIC FOUNDATION: Good morning to you.</s>COSTELLO: This attack apparently targeted the Australian embassy. Why?</s>GOHEL: I think the intention by the terrorists was multi- dimensional. The Australians are a target for the simple reason that there are Australian troops in Iraq. There's an Australian election coming up later this year. Australia was also involved in the independence of East Timor in 1999. And the Australians are, of course, a major key U.S. ally. And on top of that, there are Indonesian elections, presidential elections, taking place in about 10 days time.</s>COSTELLO: Australia has also been pretty instrumental in helping, well, try to solve the terrorist problem within Indonesia.</s>GOHEL: Well, you see, indeed, the Australian intelligence service has been working extremely closely with the Indonesian intelligence. And this, again, makes the Australians a target. On top of all of this, the political scenario in Australia is very similar to Spain. You will recall that in March there was a multiple train bombing. And, of course, the incumbent government in Spain wanted to keep the troops in Iraq. The opposition party wanted to get out of Iraq. And the same thing is happening in the Australian election, where the incumbent Liberal Party wants to maintain the troops in Iraq. The opposition Labor Party wants to get the troops out. So, you know, I think these terrorists are trying to disrupt and influence elections.</s>COSTELLO: This terror group has links to al Qaeda. Have there been arrests? Do we know who's orchestrating these attacks?</s>GOHEL: Well, the Jemaah Islamiyah group was established in about the late 1980s by a couple of clerics. And a lot of Jemaah Islamiyah members went to Pakistan and to Afghanistan in the 1990s, linked up with bin Laden's al Qaeda and became very radicalized. Now, their intention is to create an Islamic caliphate, an Islamic super state, in Southeast Asia, which would encompass Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and even parts of northern Australia, it's alleged. This group has suffered some setbacks. Its key leader, Himbali, and Fadr al-Gozi (ph), have been killed. And it was thought that Jemaah Islamiyah's back had been broken. But this latest atrocity shows that it still maintains operational capability. And the one individual suspected of being involved in this is a guy called Azahari Husin. Azahari Husin is a Malaysian, a man who, it is alleged, has written a book on how to make a bomb. So it seems Jemaah Islamiyah is still very dangerous.</s>COSTELLO: M.J. Gohel, head of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, joining us live from London this morning. Thank you. Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 6:16 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning. Bill Clinton is now out of intensive care. But he'll remain in the hospital for at least a few more days. The former president had quadruple bypass surgery in New York on Monday. His doctors expect a full recovery. A prosecutor in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case says his accuser pulled out of the case because she became ill from stress shortly before the trial was to begin. The prosecutor says the 20- year-old alleged victim was raped when she went to Bryant's room for an autograph. In money news, Delta Airlines plans to cut up to 7,000 jobs as part of its reorganization. The plan also calls for Delta to stop using Dallas-Fort Worth as a hub. In culture, Donald Trump fans take notice. "Apprentice 2" begins tonight. I know how excited you are. Over the next 16 weeks, "The Donald" will once again fire a bunch of schemers and over achievers. And in sports, another season premier, and this is exciting. The pro-football season kicks off tonight with defending champion New England Patriots taking on the Indianapolis Colts -- Chad.</s>MYERS: In a muggy Foxboro, Carol. There's going to be heavy rain there, especially heavy rain now this morning.</s>COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you. It is a thought provoking title -- "Educational Apartheid in the United States." What it means to some in this country is that our schools have become dangerously segregated. It and more topics before the Congressional Black Caucus. Front and center to offer advice, Bill Cosby. And, again, he was blunt in his views concerning parenting.</s>WILLIAM H. COSBY, ENTERTAINER: If your parents come and sit in the classroom or come to meetings and know what classes you have, your game is gone. And you will behave. These children need that. With all of the systematic racism that pounds away at us every day, there is nothing that will defeat parenting.</s>COSTELLO: The moderator for the panel joins us live from Washington. She's Maya Rockeymoore, vice president of research and programs at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Good morning.</s>MAYA ROCKEYMOORE, CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS FOUNDATION: Good morning, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: You know, the title of this discussion before members of Congress, "Educational Apartheid in the United States," it seems extreme. Tell me about that. Who came up with that and what evidence if there of it?</s>ROCKEYMOORE: Well, the evidence is basically in the numbers in every classroom, and especially in urban cities. We're on the 50th anniversary of "Brown v. The Board of Education" and what we're finding is is that many African-Americans, especially African-American males, are segregated within schools because they are tracked into low performance classes, special education classes, as opposed to gifted and talented classes. So we have a situation where we have under representation of African-Americans in gifted and talented classes and basically university bound classes, and an over representation in special education. And it's a problem because we're seeing it in terms of dropout statistics. We're seeing it also in terms of the rate of people who are or are not going to the university level.</s>COSTELLO: The high school dropout rate for African-Americans is, what, above 14 percent now.</s>ROCKEYMOORE: Actually, when you're looking at total dropouts, it's 50 percent. And so it's really, really disturbing when you look at the numbers and understand that we actually really have a problem in this country.</s>COSTELLO: You know, in part the blame, you say, is institutional. But Bill Cosby was invited to speak before the panel and he says it's more than that. Let's listen to what else he had to say.</s>COSBY: When a child witnesses helplessly the mother being battered and then making love to the man and then being battered and then putting him out and taking him back in, then this child is helpless and scarred forever. Sometimes the children are molested. There's a very ugly life some of these children live and they can't talk about it.</s>COSTELLO: You know, that's perhaps a deeper problem. Were there ideas presented in how to combat that?</s>ROCKEYMOORE: Yes. Actually, Dr. Cosby called for more psychologists in the schools. I mean he really called attention to the fact that a lot of these kids come to school, they're angry. They're facing problems in their family life. And he really called for a movement, a nationwide movement, not just for the African- American community, but for all Americans, to basically take control over our families, over our neighborhoods and over our schools so that we can uplift our kids and so that we can have a better future. And so Dr. Cosby really laid it down. And he was well received by the audience members.</s>COSTELLO: So what are African-American members of Congress doing about this?</s>ROCKEYMOORE: African-American members of Congress have, especially the Congressional Black Caucus, have been at the forefront of calling for full funding for education, for calling for smaller classroom sizes, for calling for more attention to the problems, especially that urban center cities face in terms of providing adequate funding for their school systems. And so the Congressional Black Caucus has really been a leader in the Congress on this. We're really calling for President Bush, as well, to fully fund no child left behind. So, you know, the Congressional Black Caucus has really been a leader.</s>COSTELLO: Maya Rockeymoore, vice president of research and programs at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning.</s>ROCKEYMOORE: Thank you, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: We'll be back with much more after this.