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American Morning
Ice-Cold Awakening for Much of the Country; New Details in a Gruesome Crime
Aired December 20, 2004 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: An ice cold awakening for much of the country. Temperatures take a sudden plunge. How long will this deep freeze stick around? We'll find out.
The gruesome crime of a baby stolen from the womb. Today, an FBI special agent gives us new details in that case.
And Marines wounded in war, their families suddenly going broke and one woman who simply would not allow it. She's our guest this hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: Good morning, everybody.
8:00 here in New York.
Minus two wind chill outside. Good thing we're inside today.
Good morning -- Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Great to...
HEMMER: It's nice to see you, too.
WALLACE: And great to see you.
HEMMER: Working for Soledad today.
WALLACE: Yes. Coming back from Japan, it must feel like 8:00 p.m. for you.
HEMMER: I think it does, maybe 10:00 at night.
WALLACE: Exactly.
HEMMER: Eventually we'll readjust.
An extremely violent weekend in Iraq. Some of the most devastating attacks by insurgents yet, as well as some of the most brazen. Serious questions now about whether or not security there is getting any better. And we'll also talk with Senator Carl Levin in a moment about that, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- Kelly.
WALLACE: Also, Bill, you may know, tomorrow is the shortest day of the year. That's right. And between the lack of sunlight and the cold and the holidays, this is one of the most depressing times of the year for millions of Americans. We will talk about surviving what is called seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.
HEMMER: That'll do it to you, right? That live picture outside in the streets of Manhattan.
Jack Cafferty back with us, also -- good morning, Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's actually my favorite day of the year. Yes.
WALLACE: Mine, too.
CAFFERTY: Coming up in the "Cafferty File," CBS is said to be courting a major new superstar to fill Dan Rather's anchor chair. Not everybody wants a first daughter as their neighbor. And a plea for donations to help poor old Scott Peterson.
Coming up in less than an hour.
HEMMER: And we'll wait for it.
Thank you, Jack.
WALLACE: Thanks, Jack.
HEMMER: Carol Costello also with us this morning, top of the hour, and the headlines as well -- good morning, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you.
Good morning, everyone.
Now in the news, authorities in eastern Pennsylvania are asking people to search around their homes and businesses for a missing 9- year-old boy. Logan Mitchletree was last seen on Saturday. Here's a picture of him for you to look at. He's autistic. He cannot speak. Authorities believe he may be holed up in a warm place following last night's freezing temperatures.
Some changes for the arthritis drug Celebrex. The drug maker, Pfizer, says it's stopping all direct marketing to U.S. patients. This after a study linked the drug to increased cardiovascular risk. Pfizer says Celebrex is safe, though, and will continue marketing the drug to doctors.
Some 25,000 drivers are looking for a way around the giant sink hole in central Florida. Workers are pumping a cement mixture underneath the road, but officials say the hole could be 350 feet across before it stabilizes. We're going to see a live picture of this sink hole in just a second. The sink hole is threatening to take down a major power line. Ooh, there's the live aerial view of this humongous sink hole. Emergency crews are working to reroute the wires that you see. It'll take 100,000 loads of dirt from a dump truck to fill up this hole, but it may take more because the thing is getting bigger. We'll keep you posted. This is in Deltona, Florida.
And U.S. postal workers are bracing for what's expected to be the busiest mailing day of the year. The U.S. Postal Service expects to handle some 280 million cards and letters today, three times the volume on a regular day. The mailings will keep postal workers hopping. The busiest mail delivery day is forecast for Wednesday. So if you're going to the post office today, you're crazy.
WALLACE: And if you didn't get your gifts yet, you're in big fat trouble.
COSTELLO: You're crazy.
WALLACE: Right?
COSTELLO: That's right.
HEMMER: Out of luck.
Thank you, Carol.
Weather wise, one of our headlines again this morning. The arctic blast slamming much of the country east of the Mississippi. Plummeting temperatures from the Northeast to the Northern Plains. Snow falling now from northern Alabama up to the State of Maine. Forecasters predict a hard freeze and increasingly frigid temperatures. That blast brought some heavy snow to the Northeast, too, from Indiana to New York State, dumping about six inches in some areas. Also, in Pennsylvania, police are blaming poor visibility for a massive car pileup there. A chain reaction on Interstate 80 involved 70 vehicles. It all started when a tractor-trailer jackknifed across the highway. Near whiteout conditions made visibility so bad, the cars came crashing into it. Luckily, no one died. The Interstate has since reopened, but it is cold again there today.
Chad Myers looking across the country -- good morning, Chad, at the CNN Center
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Bill.
Nice to have you back here across this side of the Atlantic, or the Pacific, depending on which way you came, I guess.
HEMMER: Thank you.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: Checking now in about the situation in Iraq.
It has been another bloody weekend in the country. At least 52 people are dead after a car bomb ripped through a funeral procession yesterday in Najaf. And in Karbala, a car bombing killed at least 16 people and wounded at least 37. In Baghdad, a senior election official and his bodyguards were dragged from their car on Haifa Street, forced to kneel and then killed by gunmen, all as an Associated Press photographer captured the event.
Senator Joseph Biden, Democrat of Delaware, said the killing of the election official would have a "traumatic effect" on election preparations.
Well, Senator Carl Levin recently returned from Iraq as part of a congressional delegation.
He is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and he is live with us today from Capitol Hill.
Senator, thanks so much for being here today.
We appreciate it.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Good morning.
WALLACE: Senator, we have just been talking about some of the deadliest violence in that country, in Iraq, in months.
So here is the question for you. You've just returned from the country. Is it possible that due to this violence, the elections scheduled for the end of January will have to be delayed?
LEVIN: No. I don't see any possibility of that. We talked to the U.N. election officials in Iraq. We talked to the Iraqi leadership, including the prime minister of Iraq, Prime Minister Allawi. There's no issue as to whether the election will be held. The real issue is whether or not, in the aftermath of this election, there will be greater or lesser instability. That's the real issue here and that's the unknown.
But the election is going to come off. It's going to take some real courage on the part of some people in four of the 18 provinces, where there is violence, to get to the polls. That's been true in other countries at times. These are (AUDIO GAP) the Iraqi Army is nowhere near capable of maintaining order. It was a terrible mistake when this administration decided to disband the Iraqi Army.
But the security will have to be the best it possibly can. But there will be violence right up to the election and probably after the election.
WALLACE: As you know, lots of questions coming from Democrats, but also from Republicans, about the leadership of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld concerning the situation in Iraq. Yesterday, White House Chief of Staff Andy Card saying on one of the Sunday morning talk shows, he says: "Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a spectacular job and the president has great confidence in him."
What's your reaction to that?
LEVIN: Well, I think there's been a lot of mistakes, but the mistakes have been mainly policy mistakes on the part of the administration, going in as unilaterally as they did, without support of the world community through the United Nations; disbanding the Iraqi Army; not having a plan for the aftermath; leaving out the top professional leaders in this country in planning for an aftermath. They made a lot of mistakes. They're unwilling to acknowledge any mistakes.
But that's mainly the policies of this administration and if I thought those policies would change by changing the secretary of defense, I'd be all for it. But I don't see that that is the ticket to policy changes. Hopefully the president will see the need to reach out to other countries, because that is the key here. Every country that I know of in the world, all of NATO, all the Muslim and Arab nations that met at Sharm el-Sheikh, want this election and do not want disintegration in Iraq. There's a unanimous feeling on that part.
WALLACE: You know, though, again, that there are calls for Secretary Rumsfeld to step down. Some Republicans even saying they're losing confidence in him.
What do you believe about his, you know, long-term leadership at the Pentagon? Do you think ultimately if the situation does not improve, that it might be time for new leadership at the Pentagon?
LEVIN: Well, I've had a lot of problems, as I say, with -- differences with Secretary Rumsfeld over the years, including the areas that I've mentioned. But these are mainly policy differences that are set by the president of the United States. Those are the basic issues here and it is those policies which need to change, so that we reach out to other countries to give us a hand, at least in forcefully speaking out to the Sunni community inside of Iraq about why it is so important that they vote and that they're not going to get support from any of their Sunni brothers in neighboring countries if they don't vote.
We know that that's the key to this election, is Sunnis voting.
WALLACE: All right, Senator Carl Levin, we have to leave it there, just back from Iraq, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
We appreciate your time today.
LEVIN: Sure.
WALLACE: Bill.
HEMMER: About almost 12 minutes past the hour now.
Lisa Montgomery, the woman accused of killing a mom to be and cutting her baby out of her womb, is expected in federal court this morning to face charges.
FBI Special Agent Jeff Lanza is my guest now from Kansas City to talk about this case. And in Melverne, Kansas, Mike Wheatly is the pastor of First Church of God. On Friday, he saw the couple and held the baby for a period of about 15 minutes.
Both gentlemen now join us to talk about the latest on this case.
I want to begin with Jeffrey Lanza there.
Was the woman, Lisa Montgomery, was she questioned more over the weekend that you know of?
JEFF LANZA, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: She's been actually sitting in a jail cell over the weekend and she was questioned when we first arrived at the house on Friday. I don't know if any additional questioning took place.
HEMMER: Well, we were talking with one of the prosecutors last hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Do you know of a solid motivation for this woman's behavior last week?
LANZA: That is a question I really can't get into, Bill. The motivation is something that will be discussed in later court hearings and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to discuss it in this setting.
HEMMER: Can you say whether or not it's fact that she had a miscarriage at one point recently?
LANZA: All that will be contained in some court documents, I think, that may be filed today. Beyond that, I really can't talk about that.
HEMMER: So you're saying that may or may not have happened?
LANZA: I don't want to comment on that, Bill.
HEMMER: All right, let me try and delve into another area for the relationship for how these two women met.
LANZA: Right.
HEMMER: Do you believe they met online at this point, based on the information you have?
LANZA: That's what the evidence shows in the charges that have been filed, that they met online and that the victim was involved in selling dogs and that she had a posting on the Internet, an Internet Web page that had been set up and that the suspect may have viewed this Web page. And there were actually contacts that we were able to pick up off the suspect's computer indicating that she had received Internet messages from the suspect.
HEMMER: So you've seized the computer now and that's being examined, right?
LANZA: Yes.
HEMMER: That's fair to say?
LANZA: And that was an integral part of the investigation in leading us back to Melverne, Kansas.
HEMMER: Another question then. Did she act alone?
LANZA: Right now she's the only person charged in the case. The FBI investigation is still continuing and I don't anticipate any additional charges in the very near term. She's the only one charged right now.
HEMMER: OK.
Let me talk with the pastor, Mike Wheatly, a second here.
On Friday when you met the couple and held the baby, did you notice anything unusual about their behavior, the way they reacted or talked?
MIKE WHEATLY, CHURCH PASTOR: No, not at all. You see a lady walk in that's moving a little slow and her husband is carrying a baby with a smile on his face a mile wide, you don't suspect a thing.
She...
HEMMER: So they were completely normal, based on your judgment? Is that right?
WHEATLY: Absolutely. Absolutely. It was -- there was no reason to be any -- to suspect anything.
HEMMER: Give us an understanding of it. What was she like in and around church?
WHEATLY: Well, we hadn't seen her in church for two or three months. Her husband comes pretty regularly because he was raised in this church and his family, his mom and dad, have attended here for 30 some odd years so. Lisa herself, we saw her, the last time we saw her before the other morning with the baby was in October.
HEMMER: Can you help us under...
WHEATLY: So I would have to...
HEMMER: Can you help us -- I apologize for the interruption. There's a bit of a delay in the satellite signal.
Help us understand the relationship between Lisa and her husband a bit better here.
WHEATLY: Well, what can I help you with?
HEMMER: Did they appear close to you?
WHEATLY: Give me a question.
HEMMER: Did they appear like they were a normal couple? Is there any observation you could offer this morning?
WHEATLY: Well, I would say that, considering that she worked quite a lot, she was busy taking care of her family and her husband was working and driving back and forth to Kansas City, that they probably didn't see each other very much. He did, however, say that he knew that she had been pregnant and felt the baby kick. So as far as we know, she was. We don't, I mean we didn't feel the baby kick, so -- and that's obvious. But as far as we knew, he knew that she was pregnant.
HEMMER: Did you give a sermon over the weekend? And, if so, did it relate to this story in any way?
WHEATLY: Very little because my sermon was entitled "A Baby Changed Everything." And it was really meant to be about Jesus Christ. And you could correlate, I suppose, this situation because the sermon had been written -- I wrote it two weeks ago. So the fact that it kind of tied in with what was going on in Melverne was totally coincidental and that was definitely the lord.
HEMMER: Mike Wheatly is the pastor there in Melverne, Kansas.
And in Kansas City, Missouri, Jeffrey Lanza is the FBI special agent.
Thank you, gentlemen, to both of you.
WHEATLY: Thank you.
LANZA: Thank you.
HEMMER: Thanks for joining us this morning.
WHEATLY: Have a blessed day.
HEMMER: Thank you.
You get the same.
WALLACE: All right, Bill, still to come here, a lot of troops and their families have money problems because of the war in Iraq. It can be even worse for the wounded. But we'll talk with a nurse who was inspired to do something about it.
HEMMER: Also today, what would it take to get you to commute five hours a day to and from work? Why more and more Americans are becoming extreme commuters. A look at that today.
WALLACE: Plus, got the winter blues? Find out what people can do to prevent seasonal affective disorder.
That is all ahead.
Stay with us right back here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: President Bush recently honored a few extraordinary Americans who have gone out of their way to support U.S. troops. All week on AMERICAN MORNING, we're hearing their stories of special service.
And today, we're joined by a nurse who helped raise more than half a million dollars for Marine families in need.
Karen Gunther is the cofounder of the Injured Marines Semper Fi Fund.
She's my guest here in New York.
Welcome to New York and good morning to you.
KAREN GUNTHER: Thank you.
HEMMER: A couple of weeks ago, the president mentioned your name in a speech he was giving, and about five others, about a half dozen in total. But you were one he mentioned for outstanding service in your contribution on the volunteer front.
How did you -- how did that make you feel when you had the president talk about that?
GUNTHER: It was great. I think the greatest moment was after the speech, for me. He walked -- he walked down the line and he was shaking the general's hands that I was standing next to. And I stuck my hand out and he said well, I'll shake your hand, but I'm going to give you a big hug.
HEMMER: Oh, sweet.
GUNTHER: So, and he did. He reached across and gave me a big bear hug. And he told me how proud he was of what we were doing. And I felt that he truly understood. He helped highlight the efforts that we're taking to...
HEMMER: Now, your husband is a Marine, right?
GUNTHER: He is.
HEMMER: So you go down to Camp Pendleton.
What inspires you to start this fund? What were you seeing down there?
GUNTHER: When we started, my husband was in Operation Iraqi Freedom one, and I was working at the hospital at Camp Pendleton. And I met the Medivac flights as they were coming in. As I met the Marines and their families, I was motivated by their love and their stories. Together we got a group together to help meet some of the needs that we were seeing. HEMMER: What were those needs that you found down there, Karen?
GUNTHER: We helped bring other family members to the bedside. When hospitalizations are long and they're facing long recoveries, we help provide additional assistance. The Marine Corps does a great job. They truly wrap their arms around these families. But sometimes it's not enough. And so we're an extension of that Marine Corps family. Our name, Injured Marines Semper Fi Fund, Semper Fi is always faithful.
HEMMER: Sure.
GUNTHER: We're faithful to our Marines and our sailors.
HEMMER: Where do you get your funding?
GUNTHER: We get our funding from donations all across the country. In fact, President Bush's endorsement has helped just in the last two weeks.
HEMMER: It kind of helps when the commander-in-chief is mentioning your name and your program right in front of the country and the world, for that matter.
GUNTHER: Oh, it does.
HEMMER: What's the response that you're getting from the families and the Marines you're helping?
GUNTHER: The response has been overwhelming. I think, I think for the parents, they're overwhelmed that people, patriotic citizens across the country are supporting them and the Marines after they've so bravely fought for their country. And I think it's overwhelming for them. We see lots of tears, lots of hugs. It's a great, it's great for us to do this. It's one of the greatest things I've ever done.
HEMMER: Thanks for sharing with us today.
GUNTHER: Thank you...
HEMMER: Special service, Karen Gunther.
GUNTHER: Thank you so much.
HEMMER: Thank you for making time and best of luck to you.
GUNTHER: Thank you.
HEMMER: Half a million dollars already, so we hope the program continues with even more gusto from this point forward.
GUNTHER: We hope so.
Thank you.
HEMMER: Thanks, Karen.
Good luck to you and your husband.
GUNTHER: Thank you.
HEMMER: All week long here -- anyone interested, by the way, in donating to the Marine fund can go to www.semperfifund.org.
And our Special Service series continues on Tuesday. We'll hear from the soldier who served in Iraq then went on to create the My Soldier Pen Pal campaign, a national phenomenon. That story is up tomorrow -- back to Kelly now, across the room.
WALLACE: A great story, Bill.
Still to come here, Santa gets ready for the big night. But the hardest work may be going on south of the North Pole. We'll explain.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: Welcome back.
Time now to check with Jack and the Question of the Day -- great to see you.
CAFFERTY: Thank you, Kelly.
The Food and Drug Administration advising doctors to consider alternatives to Celebrex, which is a leading arthritis painkiller. A study shows that medication increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. During the last seven years, a growing number of drugs have been pulled from the market after FDA approval, raising questions now about the agency's ability to protect the American public from harmful prescriptions.
An internal FDA survey -- this is troubling -- an internal FDA survey made public last week found two thirds of FDA scientists are less than fully confident in the agency's monitoring of the safety of prescription drugs.
So the question this morning is what should be done to improve prescription drug safety?
Steve in Palmetto, Florida writes: "Final safety studies need to be performed by the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control, instead of by the manufacturers."
Michael in Sante Fe, New Mexico: "The FDA and the drug companies don't want drugs coming in from Canada because they say they're concerned about their safety. Now we find out they allowed drugs to stay on the market that they knew were potentially dangerous. I think this is criminal and there should be an investigation."
Joann writes: "The American public needs to know that they can report adverse side effects from prescription drugs on what is called Medwatch Form 3500, that you can send on to the FDA."
And Rich in Rochester writes: "First, define drug safety. Even aspirin is lethal in certain doses. Second, realize that a trial with 3,000 subjects lasting two years cannot uncover side effects that occur once in 10,000 people over seven year periods of time. And, third, when condemning the FDA, recall that it was the FDA that refused to allow thalidomide on the U.S. market when the rest of the world was blindly feeding it to pregnant women."
Am@cnn.com if you've got idea on how to clean up this situation.
WALLACE: It's such a big issue. So many people are going out and buying and using these drugs.
CAFFERTY: And there are questions about the relationship between the big pharmaceutical companies and the FDA.
HEMMER: That's it.
CAFFERTY: The pharmaceutical companies give money to the FDA. There's implied pressure to rush these drugs to market because there's such tremendous profit potential if you happen to have a blockbuster. And oftentimes not enough is done after the drug comes to market to follow up and see what the long-term side effects will be.
HEMMER: A bit of a smell test there, huh?
CAFFERTY: Yes. Yes. There's an odor there.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
In a moment here, is the drumbeat getting louder now for one of the biggest figures in Washington to get out? Kamber and May have a look at that in a moment.
Also, snow is already falling east of the Mississippi. How do you ward off the winter blues? We'll look into some tips for SAD, S- A-D, when we continue.
Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired December 20, 2004 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: An ice cold awakening for much of the country. Temperatures take a sudden plunge. How long will this deep freeze stick around? We'll find out.
The gruesome crime of a baby stolen from the womb. Today, an FBI special agent gives us new details in that case.
And Marines wounded in war, their families suddenly going broke and one woman who simply would not allow it. She's our guest this hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: Good morning, everybody.
8:00 here in New York.
Minus two wind chill outside. Good thing we're inside today.
Good morning -- Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Great to...
HEMMER: It's nice to see you, too.
WALLACE: And great to see you.
HEMMER: Working for Soledad today.
WALLACE: Yes. Coming back from Japan, it must feel like 8:00 p.m. for you.
HEMMER: I think it does, maybe 10:00 at night.
WALLACE: Exactly.
HEMMER: Eventually we'll readjust.
An extremely violent weekend in Iraq. Some of the most devastating attacks by insurgents yet, as well as some of the most brazen. Serious questions now about whether or not security there is getting any better. And we'll also talk with Senator Carl Levin in a moment about that, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- Kelly.
WALLACE: Also, Bill, you may know, tomorrow is the shortest day of the year. That's right. And between the lack of sunlight and the cold and the holidays, this is one of the most depressing times of the year for millions of Americans. We will talk about surviving what is called seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.
HEMMER: That'll do it to you, right? That live picture outside in the streets of Manhattan.
Jack Cafferty back with us, also -- good morning, Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's actually my favorite day of the year. Yes.
WALLACE: Mine, too.
CAFFERTY: Coming up in the "Cafferty File," CBS is said to be courting a major new superstar to fill Dan Rather's anchor chair. Not everybody wants a first daughter as their neighbor. And a plea for donations to help poor old Scott Peterson.
Coming up in less than an hour.
HEMMER: And we'll wait for it.
Thank you, Jack.
WALLACE: Thanks, Jack.
HEMMER: Carol Costello also with us this morning, top of the hour, and the headlines as well -- good morning, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you.
Good morning, everyone.
Now in the news, authorities in eastern Pennsylvania are asking people to search around their homes and businesses for a missing 9- year-old boy. Logan Mitchletree was last seen on Saturday. Here's a picture of him for you to look at. He's autistic. He cannot speak. Authorities believe he may be holed up in a warm place following last night's freezing temperatures.
Some changes for the arthritis drug Celebrex. The drug maker, Pfizer, says it's stopping all direct marketing to U.S. patients. This after a study linked the drug to increased cardiovascular risk. Pfizer says Celebrex is safe, though, and will continue marketing the drug to doctors.
Some 25,000 drivers are looking for a way around the giant sink hole in central Florida. Workers are pumping a cement mixture underneath the road, but officials say the hole could be 350 feet across before it stabilizes. We're going to see a live picture of this sink hole in just a second. The sink hole is threatening to take down a major power line. Ooh, there's the live aerial view of this humongous sink hole. Emergency crews are working to reroute the wires that you see. It'll take 100,000 loads of dirt from a dump truck to fill up this hole, but it may take more because the thing is getting bigger. We'll keep you posted. This is in Deltona, Florida.
And U.S. postal workers are bracing for what's expected to be the busiest mailing day of the year. The U.S. Postal Service expects to handle some 280 million cards and letters today, three times the volume on a regular day. The mailings will keep postal workers hopping. The busiest mail delivery day is forecast for Wednesday. So if you're going to the post office today, you're crazy.
WALLACE: And if you didn't get your gifts yet, you're in big fat trouble.
COSTELLO: You're crazy.
WALLACE: Right?
COSTELLO: That's right.
HEMMER: Out of luck.
Thank you, Carol.
Weather wise, one of our headlines again this morning. The arctic blast slamming much of the country east of the Mississippi. Plummeting temperatures from the Northeast to the Northern Plains. Snow falling now from northern Alabama up to the State of Maine. Forecasters predict a hard freeze and increasingly frigid temperatures. That blast brought some heavy snow to the Northeast, too, from Indiana to New York State, dumping about six inches in some areas. Also, in Pennsylvania, police are blaming poor visibility for a massive car pileup there. A chain reaction on Interstate 80 involved 70 vehicles. It all started when a tractor-trailer jackknifed across the highway. Near whiteout conditions made visibility so bad, the cars came crashing into it. Luckily, no one died. The Interstate has since reopened, but it is cold again there today.
Chad Myers looking across the country -- good morning, Chad, at the CNN Center
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Bill.
Nice to have you back here across this side of the Atlantic, or the Pacific, depending on which way you came, I guess.
HEMMER: Thank you.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: Checking now in about the situation in Iraq.
It has been another bloody weekend in the country. At least 52 people are dead after a car bomb ripped through a funeral procession yesterday in Najaf. And in Karbala, a car bombing killed at least 16 people and wounded at least 37. In Baghdad, a senior election official and his bodyguards were dragged from their car on Haifa Street, forced to kneel and then killed by gunmen, all as an Associated Press photographer captured the event.
Senator Joseph Biden, Democrat of Delaware, said the killing of the election official would have a "traumatic effect" on election preparations.
Well, Senator Carl Levin recently returned from Iraq as part of a congressional delegation.
He is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and he is live with us today from Capitol Hill.
Senator, thanks so much for being here today.
We appreciate it.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Good morning.
WALLACE: Senator, we have just been talking about some of the deadliest violence in that country, in Iraq, in months.
So here is the question for you. You've just returned from the country. Is it possible that due to this violence, the elections scheduled for the end of January will have to be delayed?
LEVIN: No. I don't see any possibility of that. We talked to the U.N. election officials in Iraq. We talked to the Iraqi leadership, including the prime minister of Iraq, Prime Minister Allawi. There's no issue as to whether the election will be held. The real issue is whether or not, in the aftermath of this election, there will be greater or lesser instability. That's the real issue here and that's the unknown.
But the election is going to come off. It's going to take some real courage on the part of some people in four of the 18 provinces, where there is violence, to get to the polls. That's been true in other countries at times. These are (AUDIO GAP) the Iraqi Army is nowhere near capable of maintaining order. It was a terrible mistake when this administration decided to disband the Iraqi Army.
But the security will have to be the best it possibly can. But there will be violence right up to the election and probably after the election.
WALLACE: As you know, lots of questions coming from Democrats, but also from Republicans, about the leadership of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld concerning the situation in Iraq. Yesterday, White House Chief of Staff Andy Card saying on one of the Sunday morning talk shows, he says: "Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a spectacular job and the president has great confidence in him."
What's your reaction to that?
LEVIN: Well, I think there's been a lot of mistakes, but the mistakes have been mainly policy mistakes on the part of the administration, going in as unilaterally as they did, without support of the world community through the United Nations; disbanding the Iraqi Army; not having a plan for the aftermath; leaving out the top professional leaders in this country in planning for an aftermath. They made a lot of mistakes. They're unwilling to acknowledge any mistakes.
But that's mainly the policies of this administration and if I thought those policies would change by changing the secretary of defense, I'd be all for it. But I don't see that that is the ticket to policy changes. Hopefully the president will see the need to reach out to other countries, because that is the key here. Every country that I know of in the world, all of NATO, all the Muslim and Arab nations that met at Sharm el-Sheikh, want this election and do not want disintegration in Iraq. There's a unanimous feeling on that part.
WALLACE: You know, though, again, that there are calls for Secretary Rumsfeld to step down. Some Republicans even saying they're losing confidence in him.
What do you believe about his, you know, long-term leadership at the Pentagon? Do you think ultimately if the situation does not improve, that it might be time for new leadership at the Pentagon?
LEVIN: Well, I've had a lot of problems, as I say, with -- differences with Secretary Rumsfeld over the years, including the areas that I've mentioned. But these are mainly policy differences that are set by the president of the United States. Those are the basic issues here and it is those policies which need to change, so that we reach out to other countries to give us a hand, at least in forcefully speaking out to the Sunni community inside of Iraq about why it is so important that they vote and that they're not going to get support from any of their Sunni brothers in neighboring countries if they don't vote.
We know that that's the key to this election, is Sunnis voting.
WALLACE: All right, Senator Carl Levin, we have to leave it there, just back from Iraq, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
We appreciate your time today.
LEVIN: Sure.
WALLACE: Bill.
HEMMER: About almost 12 minutes past the hour now.
Lisa Montgomery, the woman accused of killing a mom to be and cutting her baby out of her womb, is expected in federal court this morning to face charges.
FBI Special Agent Jeff Lanza is my guest now from Kansas City to talk about this case. And in Melverne, Kansas, Mike Wheatly is the pastor of First Church of God. On Friday, he saw the couple and held the baby for a period of about 15 minutes.
Both gentlemen now join us to talk about the latest on this case.
I want to begin with Jeffrey Lanza there.
Was the woman, Lisa Montgomery, was she questioned more over the weekend that you know of?
JEFF LANZA, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: She's been actually sitting in a jail cell over the weekend and she was questioned when we first arrived at the house on Friday. I don't know if any additional questioning took place.
HEMMER: Well, we were talking with one of the prosecutors last hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Do you know of a solid motivation for this woman's behavior last week?
LANZA: That is a question I really can't get into, Bill. The motivation is something that will be discussed in later court hearings and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to discuss it in this setting.
HEMMER: Can you say whether or not it's fact that she had a miscarriage at one point recently?
LANZA: All that will be contained in some court documents, I think, that may be filed today. Beyond that, I really can't talk about that.
HEMMER: So you're saying that may or may not have happened?
LANZA: I don't want to comment on that, Bill.
HEMMER: All right, let me try and delve into another area for the relationship for how these two women met.
LANZA: Right.
HEMMER: Do you believe they met online at this point, based on the information you have?
LANZA: That's what the evidence shows in the charges that have been filed, that they met online and that the victim was involved in selling dogs and that she had a posting on the Internet, an Internet Web page that had been set up and that the suspect may have viewed this Web page. And there were actually contacts that we were able to pick up off the suspect's computer indicating that she had received Internet messages from the suspect.
HEMMER: So you've seized the computer now and that's being examined, right?
LANZA: Yes.
HEMMER: That's fair to say?
LANZA: And that was an integral part of the investigation in leading us back to Melverne, Kansas.
HEMMER: Another question then. Did she act alone?
LANZA: Right now she's the only person charged in the case. The FBI investigation is still continuing and I don't anticipate any additional charges in the very near term. She's the only one charged right now.
HEMMER: OK.
Let me talk with the pastor, Mike Wheatly, a second here.
On Friday when you met the couple and held the baby, did you notice anything unusual about their behavior, the way they reacted or talked?
MIKE WHEATLY, CHURCH PASTOR: No, not at all. You see a lady walk in that's moving a little slow and her husband is carrying a baby with a smile on his face a mile wide, you don't suspect a thing.
She...
HEMMER: So they were completely normal, based on your judgment? Is that right?
WHEATLY: Absolutely. Absolutely. It was -- there was no reason to be any -- to suspect anything.
HEMMER: Give us an understanding of it. What was she like in and around church?
WHEATLY: Well, we hadn't seen her in church for two or three months. Her husband comes pretty regularly because he was raised in this church and his family, his mom and dad, have attended here for 30 some odd years so. Lisa herself, we saw her, the last time we saw her before the other morning with the baby was in October.
HEMMER: Can you help us under...
WHEATLY: So I would have to...
HEMMER: Can you help us -- I apologize for the interruption. There's a bit of a delay in the satellite signal.
Help us understand the relationship between Lisa and her husband a bit better here.
WHEATLY: Well, what can I help you with?
HEMMER: Did they appear close to you?
WHEATLY: Give me a question.
HEMMER: Did they appear like they were a normal couple? Is there any observation you could offer this morning?
WHEATLY: Well, I would say that, considering that she worked quite a lot, she was busy taking care of her family and her husband was working and driving back and forth to Kansas City, that they probably didn't see each other very much. He did, however, say that he knew that she had been pregnant and felt the baby kick. So as far as we know, she was. We don't, I mean we didn't feel the baby kick, so -- and that's obvious. But as far as we knew, he knew that she was pregnant.
HEMMER: Did you give a sermon over the weekend? And, if so, did it relate to this story in any way?
WHEATLY: Very little because my sermon was entitled "A Baby Changed Everything." And it was really meant to be about Jesus Christ. And you could correlate, I suppose, this situation because the sermon had been written -- I wrote it two weeks ago. So the fact that it kind of tied in with what was going on in Melverne was totally coincidental and that was definitely the lord.
HEMMER: Mike Wheatly is the pastor there in Melverne, Kansas.
And in Kansas City, Missouri, Jeffrey Lanza is the FBI special agent.
Thank you, gentlemen, to both of you.
WHEATLY: Thank you.
LANZA: Thank you.
HEMMER: Thanks for joining us this morning.
WHEATLY: Have a blessed day.
HEMMER: Thank you.
You get the same.
WALLACE: All right, Bill, still to come here, a lot of troops and their families have money problems because of the war in Iraq. It can be even worse for the wounded. But we'll talk with a nurse who was inspired to do something about it.
HEMMER: Also today, what would it take to get you to commute five hours a day to and from work? Why more and more Americans are becoming extreme commuters. A look at that today.
WALLACE: Plus, got the winter blues? Find out what people can do to prevent seasonal affective disorder.
That is all ahead.
Stay with us right back here on AMERICAN MORNING.
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HEMMER: President Bush recently honored a few extraordinary Americans who have gone out of their way to support U.S. troops. All week on AMERICAN MORNING, we're hearing their stories of special service.
And today, we're joined by a nurse who helped raise more than half a million dollars for Marine families in need.
Karen Gunther is the cofounder of the Injured Marines Semper Fi Fund.
She's my guest here in New York.
Welcome to New York and good morning to you.
KAREN GUNTHER: Thank you.
HEMMER: A couple of weeks ago, the president mentioned your name in a speech he was giving, and about five others, about a half dozen in total. But you were one he mentioned for outstanding service in your contribution on the volunteer front.
How did you -- how did that make you feel when you had the president talk about that?
GUNTHER: It was great. I think the greatest moment was after the speech, for me. He walked -- he walked down the line and he was shaking the general's hands that I was standing next to. And I stuck my hand out and he said well, I'll shake your hand, but I'm going to give you a big hug.
HEMMER: Oh, sweet.
GUNTHER: So, and he did. He reached across and gave me a big bear hug. And he told me how proud he was of what we were doing. And I felt that he truly understood. He helped highlight the efforts that we're taking to...
HEMMER: Now, your husband is a Marine, right?
GUNTHER: He is.
HEMMER: So you go down to Camp Pendleton.
What inspires you to start this fund? What were you seeing down there?
GUNTHER: When we started, my husband was in Operation Iraqi Freedom one, and I was working at the hospital at Camp Pendleton. And I met the Medivac flights as they were coming in. As I met the Marines and their families, I was motivated by their love and their stories. Together we got a group together to help meet some of the needs that we were seeing. HEMMER: What were those needs that you found down there, Karen?
GUNTHER: We helped bring other family members to the bedside. When hospitalizations are long and they're facing long recoveries, we help provide additional assistance. The Marine Corps does a great job. They truly wrap their arms around these families. But sometimes it's not enough. And so we're an extension of that Marine Corps family. Our name, Injured Marines Semper Fi Fund, Semper Fi is always faithful.
HEMMER: Sure.
GUNTHER: We're faithful to our Marines and our sailors.
HEMMER: Where do you get your funding?
GUNTHER: We get our funding from donations all across the country. In fact, President Bush's endorsement has helped just in the last two weeks.
HEMMER: It kind of helps when the commander-in-chief is mentioning your name and your program right in front of the country and the world, for that matter.
GUNTHER: Oh, it does.
HEMMER: What's the response that you're getting from the families and the Marines you're helping?
GUNTHER: The response has been overwhelming. I think, I think for the parents, they're overwhelmed that people, patriotic citizens across the country are supporting them and the Marines after they've so bravely fought for their country. And I think it's overwhelming for them. We see lots of tears, lots of hugs. It's a great, it's great for us to do this. It's one of the greatest things I've ever done.
HEMMER: Thanks for sharing with us today.
GUNTHER: Thank you...
HEMMER: Special service, Karen Gunther.
GUNTHER: Thank you so much.
HEMMER: Thank you for making time and best of luck to you.
GUNTHER: Thank you.
HEMMER: Half a million dollars already, so we hope the program continues with even more gusto from this point forward.
GUNTHER: We hope so.
Thank you.
HEMMER: Thanks, Karen.
Good luck to you and your husband.
GUNTHER: Thank you.
HEMMER: All week long here -- anyone interested, by the way, in donating to the Marine fund can go to www.semperfifund.org.
And our Special Service series continues on Tuesday. We'll hear from the soldier who served in Iraq then went on to create the My Soldier Pen Pal campaign, a national phenomenon. That story is up tomorrow -- back to Kelly now, across the room.
WALLACE: A great story, Bill.
Still to come here, Santa gets ready for the big night. But the hardest work may be going on south of the North Pole. We'll explain.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: Welcome back.
Time now to check with Jack and the Question of the Day -- great to see you.
CAFFERTY: Thank you, Kelly.
The Food and Drug Administration advising doctors to consider alternatives to Celebrex, which is a leading arthritis painkiller. A study shows that medication increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. During the last seven years, a growing number of drugs have been pulled from the market after FDA approval, raising questions now about the agency's ability to protect the American public from harmful prescriptions.
An internal FDA survey -- this is troubling -- an internal FDA survey made public last week found two thirds of FDA scientists are less than fully confident in the agency's monitoring of the safety of prescription drugs.
So the question this morning is what should be done to improve prescription drug safety?
Steve in Palmetto, Florida writes: "Final safety studies need to be performed by the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control, instead of by the manufacturers."
Michael in Sante Fe, New Mexico: "The FDA and the drug companies don't want drugs coming in from Canada because they say they're concerned about their safety. Now we find out they allowed drugs to stay on the market that they knew were potentially dangerous. I think this is criminal and there should be an investigation."
Joann writes: "The American public needs to know that they can report adverse side effects from prescription drugs on what is called Medwatch Form 3500, that you can send on to the FDA."
And Rich in Rochester writes: "First, define drug safety. Even aspirin is lethal in certain doses. Second, realize that a trial with 3,000 subjects lasting two years cannot uncover side effects that occur once in 10,000 people over seven year periods of time. And, third, when condemning the FDA, recall that it was the FDA that refused to allow thalidomide on the U.S. market when the rest of the world was blindly feeding it to pregnant women."
Am@cnn.com if you've got idea on how to clean up this situation.
WALLACE: It's such a big issue. So many people are going out and buying and using these drugs.
CAFFERTY: And there are questions about the relationship between the big pharmaceutical companies and the FDA.
HEMMER: That's it.
CAFFERTY: The pharmaceutical companies give money to the FDA. There's implied pressure to rush these drugs to market because there's such tremendous profit potential if you happen to have a blockbuster. And oftentimes not enough is done after the drug comes to market to follow up and see what the long-term side effects will be.
HEMMER: A bit of a smell test there, huh?
CAFFERTY: Yes. Yes. There's an odor there.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
In a moment here, is the drumbeat getting louder now for one of the biggest figures in Washington to get out? Kamber and May have a look at that in a moment.
Also, snow is already falling east of the Mississippi. How do you ward off the winter blues? We'll look into some tips for SAD, S- A-D, when we continue.
Back after this.
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