Patients receive augmerosen IV continuously on days 1-10 and filgrastim (G-CSF) subcutaneously beginning on day 5 and continuing until blood counts recover. Patients receive fludarabine IV over 30 minutes followed 3.5 hours later by cytarabine IV over 4 hours on days 6-10. Patients who achieve complete response (CR) receive a second course beginning 4 weeks after completion of the first course. Patients who achieve CR and have a matched sibling or unrelated bone marrow donor may undergo allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Cohorts of 3-6 patients receive escalating doses of fludarabine and cytarabine until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined. The MTD is defined as the dose preceding that at which 2 of 6 patients experience dose-limiting toxicity.