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American Morning

Travel Security Changes; Mosul Blast Investigation

Aired December 23, 2004 - 07:30   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. It's just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
We have seen some dramatic photos from that attack in Mosul. It was taken by a photographer from the "Richmond Times-Dispatch." In just a few moments, we're going to talk with a reporter who was with that photographer to tell us what it was like in that mess hall when the bomb went off.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, women who fly will notice a change very soon in how they are searched at airports. The TSA -- that's the Transportation Safety Administration -- is changing its procedures that has outraged many. We'll talk to an official with the TSA to find out about how that decision came about, what the changes will be and what you can expect, especially if you're a woman flying over the holidays.

O'BRIEN: Good.

HEMMER: Carol loves this, by the way. She's been talking about it for two hours today.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I was, because, you know, they can only check around the perimeter of the breast, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: As opposed to the full-on pat down they were doing before. Come on, we're all talking about it.

COSTELLO: And if the metal detector is set off, they can check the breast fully. But if you wear an under-wire bra, Bill...

O'BRIEN: It's going to set it off.

COSTELLO: ... you're going set it off.

HEMMER: How did you know?

COSTELLO: I just took a stab, and it was there. I think we'd better get to the headlines now.

Good morning, everyone.

People from the Plains to the Midwest are digging out this morning after a massive winter storm. Heavy snow and sleet and rain were causing havoc on the roads yesterday. As much as 20 inches of snow fell in Dayton and other parts of Ohio. The bad weather is being blamed for at least six deaths across the country. Chad will have much more on what we can expect today in just a few minutes.

Overseas now to Iraq, where hundreds of Iraqi refugees are now heading back to the city of Falluja. They're passing through security checkpoints as they return today. Falluja was the scene of last month's U.S.-led campaign to retake the city from insurgents. Most of the residents fled during that time.

Another FDA-approved drug in the spotlight. This time, the agency itself is moving to block newspaper ads for the cholesterol- lowering drug, Crestor. The FDA says the ads are misleading and downplay the drug's risks. According to the drug maker, the ads ran for a short time and have since been pulled.

In the world of sports, there is word the Miami Dolphins are closer to gaining a new head coach. ESPN first reporting Nick Saban, now the coach for LSU, is being offered the job. The tentative deal would mean 4 to 5 million bucks a season for Saban. It's not clear whether he will accept this really hard job.

HEMMER: The way they're playing, shell out like $10 million for a coach, right?

COSTELLO: It's really bad.

O'BRIEN: And they give the money and good luck.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: We'll see you. All right, Carol, thank.

COSTELLO: Sure.

O'BRIEN: Well, as the country's airports brace for the holiday weekend travel rush, the government is out with some new security guidelines. The new rules are an answer to complaints from women that pat-down procedures are just too intrusive. The Transportation Security Administration's communications director, Mark Hatfield, is at Washington's Reagan National Airport.

Good morning, Mark. Nice to see you. Thanks for being with us.

MARK HATFIELD, TSA COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Good morning, Soledad. It's good to be here.

O'BRIEN: Let's begin with these changes. I'm well. Thank you. How exactly do the rules change?

HATFIELD: Well, it's the second modification that we've made to the much-discussed pat-down procedure that went into place September 22 of this year. Last week we made a modification that was targeted to make the process a little more comfortable. Passengers were invited to lower their arms during most of that pat down.

And today it goes -- we go into a second modification, which changes the way that the pat down around the chest area is performed. It is more around the perimeter of the chest, still the sides, the abdomen, the back.

Look, there's a really serious threat out there. There is no doubt about that. We've got a responsibility to address that, to mitigate the risks. But we also have a commitment to customer service. And like good partners, we listen to our traveling public. And we're looking at how to make this a little bit more comfortable.

You know, I don't enjoy going through it myself that much. I'm rather non-plus about it. I hear some of the complaints that are very emotional. But then there are passengers who say, hey, why are people complaining? This is necessary.

So, in that whole mix, we're listening. We're committed to the customer service. And we want to make it a comfortable and a quick experience. It's done professionally, and it gets to a very specific security threat.

O'BRIEN: When do these new procedures go into effect?

HATFIELD: Today.

O'BRIEN: It starts today. Let's talk a little bit about what happened in Honolulu, the blade in the shoe. Give me a sense of how this guy was caught.

HATFIELD: I'm sorry, the example again is?

O'BRIEN: It was in Honolulu where a blade was found in a shoe.

HATFIELD: Well, I don't have the details on the Honolulu event. But I can tell you, as troubling as this may be, every week we find some of the most bizarre, artfully-concealed weapons, often knives, blades, that are hidden either in hollowed-out insoles of people's shoes. Frankly, we found in the last month four different women who had knives hidden in their bras. We had a woman a couple weeks ago who had a loaded pistol hidden in a hollowed-out book.

So, you know, it's always hard to understand the motives of why these people are carrying weapons like that. The job of the security screeners is not to analyze motives; it's to keep dangerous items off of airplanes.

O'BRIEN: Well, how much does a holiday complicate all of this? Obviously people are traveling with more packages. It's very difficult to stick to that one check-on rule, because, frankly, you're carrying too many gifts. They're all wrapped generally. How do all of those things complicate what your screeners are trying to do?

HATFIELD: Well, the complication is just the sheer volume of people and of carry-on items, of packed items. And so, the job just becomes incrementally more difficult.

But what we do in terms of passenger education is very important. And we keep talking about that partnership. Our job is really the success or failures so predicated upon the partnership that we have with passengers. And so, if they can ship packages via UPS or FedEx or one of the other carriers, pack as much as you can, but don't over-pack those bags. The carry-on rule is enforced by the airlines, by the ticket checkers, who are in advance of the checkpoint. And they're pretty tough about that.

So, it slows things down if you get there and get argumentative and say I've only got, you know, two and a half items. The rule is two. And they're keeping to that, because these planes are full. And you can see the lines behind me. Today is a very busy day.

And by the way, this line behind me is at the ticket counter. It's about a third that long down at the checkpoint. The checkpoint lines are moving really quickly this morning.

O'BRIEN: I was going to say, I'd like you to point out the long lines at the checkpoint mark. That would be a surprise. One tip you give is to familiarize yourself with the new screening procedures before traveling. That's your tip for travelers. What do you mean by that?

HATFIELD: Well, you know, there's a couple of really basic things. No. 1 is that whole preparation in terms of clothing and pocket contents, bag contents. Make sure -- I've been saying this over and over again -- if you're packing your bag, you're getting dressed, make sure that you haven't gone to the shooting range and had shotgun shells in your bag. It's amazing how many rounds of live ammunition we find every week. It's about 2,000 incidents per month, actually. And knives, scissors, mace, those are the big offenders. People just inadvertently have them in their pockets or in their bags.

So, if you've been using your bag for some other purpose, or the outerwear that you're donning that day, make sure that the pockets start out empty, that you load them up prepared for travel. No metal objects when you go through that magnetometer. Don't overstuff the bag. Keep your carry-on items to the required minimum or to the required maximum. And just be a little bit patient.

And when you get through that security line, give a nod and a smile to those screeners. They are working really hard. Most of them are taking their leave after the holidays so that they can be here and get people home and on to their holiday destinations.

O'BRIEN: That might be a tall order, getting people to smile. But for the record, you've asked for it. Mark Hatfield at Reagan National Airport, nice to se you. Thanks. Appreciate it.

HATFIELD: Thanks very much.

HEMMER: An update from the North Pole today and Washington. The weather man has grounded some travelers, but Santa has been given the all-clear to fly on Christmas Eve. His sleigh passed a safety inspection by the FAA and the transportation secretary, Norm Mineta. The new and improve sleigh should allow Santa to clock an even faster delivery time this year. I mean, it's technology, right? We progress every year. Santa promises his around-the-world route will not interfere with air traffic.

O'BRIEN: Did you notice how skinny Santa looks in that shot?

HEMMER: Yes, your tax dollars at work, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Hey, you know what? I've got two...

HEMMER: Here in Washington D.C.

O'BRIEN: I've got four kids. That's good spending of the tax dollars for my estimation.

HEMMER: I hope so.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Well, this morning the Pentagon says a suicide bomber may be to blame for Tuesday's attack on a U.S. military base in Iraq. A number of the soldiers in the mess tent were from Virginia.

A reporter and cameraman from the "Richmond Times-Dispatch" were also there. I spoke with that reporter, Jeremy Redmond, and asked him if anything seemed out of place to him in the moments before the blast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY REDMOND, REPORTER, "RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH": It was really crowded that day. And it was around noon. But I couldn't tell you that I saw anything necessarily out of place.

O'BRIEN: It seems that nobody was wearing body armor. We've heard that from some of the doctors who are working on some of the most severely injured at Landstuhl. Do you know about those rules and regulations? Did you ever see anybody wearing body armor? Did you ever think about that, considering the number of times that this base had been under attack, and the fact that, frankly, it was a very soft target?

REDMOND: Well, a few things. You're not required to wear body armor at all times. The level of security changes based on the threat. There are times when they do ask you to carry -- wear your body armor. But I have been here since Friday and eating at that chow hall every day since then. And I don't recall many people at all ever wearing body armor or helmets in there.

The tent, the dining facility really is essentially a huge white tent. And it has been mortared more than 30 times this year. A soldier was killed, actually, in October, a female soldier, as she was running outside the tent from the first blast, trying to take cover under one of the concrete bomb shelters. She was hit by a second mortar round and killed.

No, but the level of your security, again, changes based on the threat. And at the time, you are not required to wear body armor or helmets. I might add, too, that there is no security that I saw that was apparent at that dining facility when I was there. They had guards, armed guards there during Ramadan screening visitors through the tent. But that stopped after Ramadan had passed.

O'BRIEN: So you never were checked? You never had to show your ID or anything like that when you entered the tent?

REDMOND: No. You could walk right in. And there was a civilian sitting at a table at the entrance. But he never challenged me. I know there was even some concern among soldiers in the day or so before this event about civilians wandering in that did not belong there and taking all sorts of food back to their families.

I might add one other thing, too, is that you cannot get on the base if you are a non-U.S. military official without photo identification and a sponsor. So the civilians that were going into the D-FAC (ph), as it's called, or dining facility, had to first get on the base with a photo ID. (END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That's reporter Jeremy Redmond at Camp Marez in Mosul -- Bill.

HEMMER: We'll get a break. Here in a moment, a powerful tale of survival, Toure dies down with the star of "Hotel Rwanda" and the hero who inspired that film, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A politically eye-opening film is now out in selected cities. And it's based on a true story.

Pop culture correspondent Toure is with us this morning.

Hi there.

TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: How are you?

O'BRIEN: Great.

TOURE: A 1994 civil war in Rwanda killed thousands in an attempted racial cleansing. Paul Rusesabagina turned the four-star hotel he was managing into a safe house for 1,200 refugees and saved their lives.

You can think of him as the African Oskar Schindler. And now "Hotel Rwanda" is telling his story, and the great Don Cheadle plays him. It's one of the most powerful films of the year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON CHEADLE, ACTOR, "HOTEL RWANDA": There was no question, you know, when I read the script. It didn't matter what the -- I said I want to do it. It didn't matter the trappings.

TOURE: This film doesn't exist if you don't make the choice to risk your life for your fellow countrymen.

PAUL RUSESABAGINA, SAVED 1,200 PEOPLE IN RWANDA: When I was doing what I did in 1984, I knew I was going to die. So I was just -- I thought, I'm going to do it, and doing it is my duty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifty thousand francs for my wife and children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take them.

CHEADLE: It was really a story about a man and his family. And that you can get your head around. It's hard to get your head around the entire thing. But you can get your head around one how it affects one man and his family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will give you 100,000 francs for all of them.

CHEADLE: He's not this heroic figure. Paul was doing what was in front of him and what he had to do day to day just to live. And he says right now, and he told me the whole time, he said, I never thought I would live to see the next day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Father, it is of no use. These men are not here to help us.

TOURE: This movie is based around the idea that the world abandoned Rwanda at a moment that Rwanda needed the world.

RUSESABAGINA: Well, it happened in Rwanda, and whole world instead of intervening turned its back

CHEADLE: One of the characters in the movie said it's not worth a single vote to any of the other leaders to intervene. And, yes, when you have no oil and nothing, no upside other than saving lives but risking your own people, it can be a political debacle, I think, to many world leaders. I never go, well, this movie is going to change the social -- it's going to change the policy. But at least it's a film really about something. And it has a shot to at least flicker a light in some people's minds. And I think that's powerful.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TOURE: It's a great story. It's a gory film, very powerful, very gripping. I'm not so sure it's going to do that well in the awards season, but still something that you should see.

O'BRIEN: I love Don Cheadle, too. I really do.

TOURE: Yes.

O'BRIEN: It's a powerful movie.

TOURE: It is.

O'BRIEN: All right, Toure, thanks. TOURE: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Bill.

HEMMER: Movie lovers on a budget just got an early Christmas present. And Andy's "Minding Your Business."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: If Americans were Santa Claus, Britney Spears would find a lump of coal in her stocking. In a CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll, we asked the public which celebrities were naughty and nice this year, excluding politicians and those who have been accused of crimes, which is a very large exclusion I should point out.

Well, Britney ranked the very highest in the naughty category with 67 percent. She was followed by Janet Jackson and Paris Hilton. All in good company, I think.

Tom Hanks led the nice bunch with 90 percent, followed by Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods and Mel Gibson.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: It's been a little slow over there at Gallup since the election is over.

HEMMER: Yes, I'd say, Jack. I think Cafferty is fifth on that list, right, of being nice? Oh, thank you.

O'BRIEN: I'm just trying to move on here, you know?

HEMMER: Another strike in the online video rental price war. Andy has got that.

What's happening? Blockbuster is making a move?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, Blockbuster versus Netflix bam, and customers make out. Blockbuster cutting the monthly rental fees of its subscription service -- to its subscription service, I should say. Oh, that's a mouthful. It's 14.99 a month. Nextflix, 17.99. You do the match. People may be switching.

Now we are going to move on to a special Thursday edition of AMERICAN MORNING football.

HEMMER: And why Thursday, Andy?

SERWER: That's because the markets are closed tomorrow and so is the AMERICAN MORNING business desk. It's closed tomorrow.

Let's take a look at the season standings here. And Soledad continues to be dominant.

O'BRIEN: Oh!

SERWER: She really just...

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: Have we mentioned that Soledad is outsourcing her picks?

O'BRIEN: No, I work in conjunction with Todd.

SERWER: In conjunction with. In conjunction with Todd. They sit down and analyze for hours.

Let's talk about some of the big games. The Patriots versus Jets. The Patriots stumbled against the Fish last week.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

SERWER: The Jets, I think, are actually going to win this one, though. They have just never won a big game this year. They have not. The game is going be at home. I think they can pull this one off.

Let's talk about the Packers against the Vikings, two 8-6 teams, big playoff implications. I'm picking the Vikings on this one. They lost to the Packers previously. Randy Moss, miffed that he's not in the Pro Bowl. He's going to play big.

And how about the Giants against Bill Hemmer's Bengals? You know, the Bengals are the better team.

HEMMER: Yes.

SERWER: They are. The Giants have lost seven in a row, Bill. And they're playing in Cincinnati.

HEMMER: Correct.

SERWER: I'm going with the Giants. Eli played well, but he didn't get a win. I think he's going to play well and get the win this time. OK? We'll see, though.

Are you going to the game?

HEMMER: I'll be at that game.

SERWER: You're going to be that game.

HEMMER: Yes.

SERWER: Get a coat. It's going to be cold.

HEMMER: A big coat.

SERWER: A big coat.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

HEMMER: All right.

O'BRIEN: The "Question of the Day" involves cloning.

CAFFERTY: A $50,000 pussy cat here. Little Nicky, 50 grand. He's a clone created from the DNA of the owner's previous cat. An outfit out in California, where else? An outfit called Genetics Savings and Clone made this kitty. And they're hard at work on a dog now. They ought to have him ready to ship out in May. More money in dogs they say.

Pet advocacy groups are fried about all of this. They point out between three and four million dogs and cats are put to sleep in shelters every year.

The question this morning is: Where do you draw the line when it comes to cloning animals?

Bob in The Pass Manitoba writes: "If a person can afford to get a duplicate of their deceased animal, which makes them feel good, go for it. But I can think of something better to spend $50,000 on."

Yes, like maybe, you know, poor people who need something to eat at Christmastime.

Melissa in Chicago: "My husband and I lost our beloved dog to cancer last spring. As much as we loved him, we would never re-create him. Money is not the issue. It's the principle of playing with life to serve personal interests."

Nick weighs in from Calgary, Alberta: "You don't even need a religious value of any kind to know this is a bad idea. When we have the ability to create life, where do we stop? Imagine what this kind of power can do in the wrong hands."

Mark writes from Cocoa Beach, Florida: "I find it sad, Jack, that we ban genetic research using stem cells on shaky moral grounds. Yet when a dollar can be made on genetic research cloning, no problem."

Finally John weighs in from Tallahassee, Florida: "My wife and I have dogs we think the world of. One is getting long in the tooth, like Jack and myself. But cloning? Absolutely not, at least not until the price comes down by $49,500."

HEMMER: You can save yourself a few bucks.

SERWER: Yes.

O'BRIEN: All right, Jack, thanks.

Well, investigators say a suicide bomber was behind the attack in Mosul. Was it their inside help? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Get the latest news every morning in your e-mail. Sign up for AMERICAN MORNING quick news at CNN@com/am.

Winter is packing a wallop across the country. Will it keep you from getting home for the holidays? We're back in a moment.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.


Aired December 23, 2004 - 07:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. It's just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
We have seen some dramatic photos from that attack in Mosul. It was taken by a photographer from the "Richmond Times-Dispatch." In just a few moments, we're going to talk with a reporter who was with that photographer to tell us what it was like in that mess hall when the bomb went off.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, women who fly will notice a change very soon in how they are searched at airports. The TSA -- that's the Transportation Safety Administration -- is changing its procedures that has outraged many. We'll talk to an official with the TSA to find out about how that decision came about, what the changes will be and what you can expect, especially if you're a woman flying over the holidays.

O'BRIEN: Good.

HEMMER: Carol loves this, by the way. She's been talking about it for two hours today.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I was, because, you know, they can only check around the perimeter of the breast, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: As opposed to the full-on pat down they were doing before. Come on, we're all talking about it.

COSTELLO: And if the metal detector is set off, they can check the breast fully. But if you wear an under-wire bra, Bill...

O'BRIEN: It's going to set it off.

COSTELLO: ... you're going set it off.

HEMMER: How did you know?

COSTELLO: I just took a stab, and it was there. I think we'd better get to the headlines now.

Good morning, everyone.

People from the Plains to the Midwest are digging out this morning after a massive winter storm. Heavy snow and sleet and rain were causing havoc on the roads yesterday. As much as 20 inches of snow fell in Dayton and other parts of Ohio. The bad weather is being blamed for at least six deaths across the country. Chad will have much more on what we can expect today in just a few minutes.

Overseas now to Iraq, where hundreds of Iraqi refugees are now heading back to the city of Falluja. They're passing through security checkpoints as they return today. Falluja was the scene of last month's U.S.-led campaign to retake the city from insurgents. Most of the residents fled during that time.

Another FDA-approved drug in the spotlight. This time, the agency itself is moving to block newspaper ads for the cholesterol- lowering drug, Crestor. The FDA says the ads are misleading and downplay the drug's risks. According to the drug maker, the ads ran for a short time and have since been pulled.

In the world of sports, there is word the Miami Dolphins are closer to gaining a new head coach. ESPN first reporting Nick Saban, now the coach for LSU, is being offered the job. The tentative deal would mean 4 to 5 million bucks a season for Saban. It's not clear whether he will accept this really hard job.

HEMMER: The way they're playing, shell out like $10 million for a coach, right?

COSTELLO: It's really bad.

O'BRIEN: And they give the money and good luck.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: We'll see you. All right, Carol, thank.

COSTELLO: Sure.

O'BRIEN: Well, as the country's airports brace for the holiday weekend travel rush, the government is out with some new security guidelines. The new rules are an answer to complaints from women that pat-down procedures are just too intrusive. The Transportation Security Administration's communications director, Mark Hatfield, is at Washington's Reagan National Airport.

Good morning, Mark. Nice to see you. Thanks for being with us.

MARK HATFIELD, TSA COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Good morning, Soledad. It's good to be here.

O'BRIEN: Let's begin with these changes. I'm well. Thank you. How exactly do the rules change?

HATFIELD: Well, it's the second modification that we've made to the much-discussed pat-down procedure that went into place September 22 of this year. Last week we made a modification that was targeted to make the process a little more comfortable. Passengers were invited to lower their arms during most of that pat down.

And today it goes -- we go into a second modification, which changes the way that the pat down around the chest area is performed. It is more around the perimeter of the chest, still the sides, the abdomen, the back.

Look, there's a really serious threat out there. There is no doubt about that. We've got a responsibility to address that, to mitigate the risks. But we also have a commitment to customer service. And like good partners, we listen to our traveling public. And we're looking at how to make this a little bit more comfortable.

You know, I don't enjoy going through it myself that much. I'm rather non-plus about it. I hear some of the complaints that are very emotional. But then there are passengers who say, hey, why are people complaining? This is necessary.

So, in that whole mix, we're listening. We're committed to the customer service. And we want to make it a comfortable and a quick experience. It's done professionally, and it gets to a very specific security threat.

O'BRIEN: When do these new procedures go into effect?

HATFIELD: Today.

O'BRIEN: It starts today. Let's talk a little bit about what happened in Honolulu, the blade in the shoe. Give me a sense of how this guy was caught.

HATFIELD: I'm sorry, the example again is?

O'BRIEN: It was in Honolulu where a blade was found in a shoe.

HATFIELD: Well, I don't have the details on the Honolulu event. But I can tell you, as troubling as this may be, every week we find some of the most bizarre, artfully-concealed weapons, often knives, blades, that are hidden either in hollowed-out insoles of people's shoes. Frankly, we found in the last month four different women who had knives hidden in their bras. We had a woman a couple weeks ago who had a loaded pistol hidden in a hollowed-out book.

So, you know, it's always hard to understand the motives of why these people are carrying weapons like that. The job of the security screeners is not to analyze motives; it's to keep dangerous items off of airplanes.

O'BRIEN: Well, how much does a holiday complicate all of this? Obviously people are traveling with more packages. It's very difficult to stick to that one check-on rule, because, frankly, you're carrying too many gifts. They're all wrapped generally. How do all of those things complicate what your screeners are trying to do?

HATFIELD: Well, the complication is just the sheer volume of people and of carry-on items, of packed items. And so, the job just becomes incrementally more difficult.

But what we do in terms of passenger education is very important. And we keep talking about that partnership. Our job is really the success or failures so predicated upon the partnership that we have with passengers. And so, if they can ship packages via UPS or FedEx or one of the other carriers, pack as much as you can, but don't over-pack those bags. The carry-on rule is enforced by the airlines, by the ticket checkers, who are in advance of the checkpoint. And they're pretty tough about that.

So, it slows things down if you get there and get argumentative and say I've only got, you know, two and a half items. The rule is two. And they're keeping to that, because these planes are full. And you can see the lines behind me. Today is a very busy day.

And by the way, this line behind me is at the ticket counter. It's about a third that long down at the checkpoint. The checkpoint lines are moving really quickly this morning.

O'BRIEN: I was going to say, I'd like you to point out the long lines at the checkpoint mark. That would be a surprise. One tip you give is to familiarize yourself with the new screening procedures before traveling. That's your tip for travelers. What do you mean by that?

HATFIELD: Well, you know, there's a couple of really basic things. No. 1 is that whole preparation in terms of clothing and pocket contents, bag contents. Make sure -- I've been saying this over and over again -- if you're packing your bag, you're getting dressed, make sure that you haven't gone to the shooting range and had shotgun shells in your bag. It's amazing how many rounds of live ammunition we find every week. It's about 2,000 incidents per month, actually. And knives, scissors, mace, those are the big offenders. People just inadvertently have them in their pockets or in their bags.

So, if you've been using your bag for some other purpose, or the outerwear that you're donning that day, make sure that the pockets start out empty, that you load them up prepared for travel. No metal objects when you go through that magnetometer. Don't overstuff the bag. Keep your carry-on items to the required minimum or to the required maximum. And just be a little bit patient.

And when you get through that security line, give a nod and a smile to those screeners. They are working really hard. Most of them are taking their leave after the holidays so that they can be here and get people home and on to their holiday destinations.

O'BRIEN: That might be a tall order, getting people to smile. But for the record, you've asked for it. Mark Hatfield at Reagan National Airport, nice to se you. Thanks. Appreciate it.

HATFIELD: Thanks very much.

HEMMER: An update from the North Pole today and Washington. The weather man has grounded some travelers, but Santa has been given the all-clear to fly on Christmas Eve. His sleigh passed a safety inspection by the FAA and the transportation secretary, Norm Mineta. The new and improve sleigh should allow Santa to clock an even faster delivery time this year. I mean, it's technology, right? We progress every year. Santa promises his around-the-world route will not interfere with air traffic.

O'BRIEN: Did you notice how skinny Santa looks in that shot?

HEMMER: Yes, your tax dollars at work, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Hey, you know what? I've got two...

HEMMER: Here in Washington D.C.

O'BRIEN: I've got four kids. That's good spending of the tax dollars for my estimation.

HEMMER: I hope so.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Well, this morning the Pentagon says a suicide bomber may be to blame for Tuesday's attack on a U.S. military base in Iraq. A number of the soldiers in the mess tent were from Virginia.

A reporter and cameraman from the "Richmond Times-Dispatch" were also there. I spoke with that reporter, Jeremy Redmond, and asked him if anything seemed out of place to him in the moments before the blast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY REDMOND, REPORTER, "RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH": It was really crowded that day. And it was around noon. But I couldn't tell you that I saw anything necessarily out of place.

O'BRIEN: It seems that nobody was wearing body armor. We've heard that from some of the doctors who are working on some of the most severely injured at Landstuhl. Do you know about those rules and regulations? Did you ever see anybody wearing body armor? Did you ever think about that, considering the number of times that this base had been under attack, and the fact that, frankly, it was a very soft target?

REDMOND: Well, a few things. You're not required to wear body armor at all times. The level of security changes based on the threat. There are times when they do ask you to carry -- wear your body armor. But I have been here since Friday and eating at that chow hall every day since then. And I don't recall many people at all ever wearing body armor or helmets in there.

The tent, the dining facility really is essentially a huge white tent. And it has been mortared more than 30 times this year. A soldier was killed, actually, in October, a female soldier, as she was running outside the tent from the first blast, trying to take cover under one of the concrete bomb shelters. She was hit by a second mortar round and killed.

No, but the level of your security, again, changes based on the threat. And at the time, you are not required to wear body armor or helmets. I might add, too, that there is no security that I saw that was apparent at that dining facility when I was there. They had guards, armed guards there during Ramadan screening visitors through the tent. But that stopped after Ramadan had passed.

O'BRIEN: So you never were checked? You never had to show your ID or anything like that when you entered the tent?

REDMOND: No. You could walk right in. And there was a civilian sitting at a table at the entrance. But he never challenged me. I know there was even some concern among soldiers in the day or so before this event about civilians wandering in that did not belong there and taking all sorts of food back to their families.

I might add one other thing, too, is that you cannot get on the base if you are a non-U.S. military official without photo identification and a sponsor. So the civilians that were going into the D-FAC (ph), as it's called, or dining facility, had to first get on the base with a photo ID. (END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That's reporter Jeremy Redmond at Camp Marez in Mosul -- Bill.

HEMMER: We'll get a break. Here in a moment, a powerful tale of survival, Toure dies down with the star of "Hotel Rwanda" and the hero who inspired that film, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A politically eye-opening film is now out in selected cities. And it's based on a true story.

Pop culture correspondent Toure is with us this morning.

Hi there.

TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: How are you?

O'BRIEN: Great.

TOURE: A 1994 civil war in Rwanda killed thousands in an attempted racial cleansing. Paul Rusesabagina turned the four-star hotel he was managing into a safe house for 1,200 refugees and saved their lives.

You can think of him as the African Oskar Schindler. And now "Hotel Rwanda" is telling his story, and the great Don Cheadle plays him. It's one of the most powerful films of the year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON CHEADLE, ACTOR, "HOTEL RWANDA": There was no question, you know, when I read the script. It didn't matter what the -- I said I want to do it. It didn't matter the trappings.

TOURE: This film doesn't exist if you don't make the choice to risk your life for your fellow countrymen.

PAUL RUSESABAGINA, SAVED 1,200 PEOPLE IN RWANDA: When I was doing what I did in 1984, I knew I was going to die. So I was just -- I thought, I'm going to do it, and doing it is my duty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifty thousand francs for my wife and children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take them.

CHEADLE: It was really a story about a man and his family. And that you can get your head around. It's hard to get your head around the entire thing. But you can get your head around one how it affects one man and his family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will give you 100,000 francs for all of them.

CHEADLE: He's not this heroic figure. Paul was doing what was in front of him and what he had to do day to day just to live. And he says right now, and he told me the whole time, he said, I never thought I would live to see the next day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Father, it is of no use. These men are not here to help us.

TOURE: This movie is based around the idea that the world abandoned Rwanda at a moment that Rwanda needed the world.

RUSESABAGINA: Well, it happened in Rwanda, and whole world instead of intervening turned its back

CHEADLE: One of the characters in the movie said it's not worth a single vote to any of the other leaders to intervene. And, yes, when you have no oil and nothing, no upside other than saving lives but risking your own people, it can be a political debacle, I think, to many world leaders. I never go, well, this movie is going to change the social -- it's going to change the policy. But at least it's a film really about something. And it has a shot to at least flicker a light in some people's minds. And I think that's powerful.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TOURE: It's a great story. It's a gory film, very powerful, very gripping. I'm not so sure it's going to do that well in the awards season, but still something that you should see.

O'BRIEN: I love Don Cheadle, too. I really do.

TOURE: Yes.

O'BRIEN: It's a powerful movie.

TOURE: It is.

O'BRIEN: All right, Toure, thanks. TOURE: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Bill.

HEMMER: Movie lovers on a budget just got an early Christmas present. And Andy's "Minding Your Business."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: If Americans were Santa Claus, Britney Spears would find a lump of coal in her stocking. In a CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll, we asked the public which celebrities were naughty and nice this year, excluding politicians and those who have been accused of crimes, which is a very large exclusion I should point out.

Well, Britney ranked the very highest in the naughty category with 67 percent. She was followed by Janet Jackson and Paris Hilton. All in good company, I think.

Tom Hanks led the nice bunch with 90 percent, followed by Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods and Mel Gibson.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: It's been a little slow over there at Gallup since the election is over.

HEMMER: Yes, I'd say, Jack. I think Cafferty is fifth on that list, right, of being nice? Oh, thank you.

O'BRIEN: I'm just trying to move on here, you know?

HEMMER: Another strike in the online video rental price war. Andy has got that.

What's happening? Blockbuster is making a move?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, Blockbuster versus Netflix bam, and customers make out. Blockbuster cutting the monthly rental fees of its subscription service -- to its subscription service, I should say. Oh, that's a mouthful. It's 14.99 a month. Nextflix, 17.99. You do the match. People may be switching.

Now we are going to move on to a special Thursday edition of AMERICAN MORNING football.

HEMMER: And why Thursday, Andy?

SERWER: That's because the markets are closed tomorrow and so is the AMERICAN MORNING business desk. It's closed tomorrow.

Let's take a look at the season standings here. And Soledad continues to be dominant.

O'BRIEN: Oh!

SERWER: She really just...

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: Have we mentioned that Soledad is outsourcing her picks?

O'BRIEN: No, I work in conjunction with Todd.

SERWER: In conjunction with. In conjunction with Todd. They sit down and analyze for hours.

Let's talk about some of the big games. The Patriots versus Jets. The Patriots stumbled against the Fish last week.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

SERWER: The Jets, I think, are actually going to win this one, though. They have just never won a big game this year. They have not. The game is going be at home. I think they can pull this one off.

Let's talk about the Packers against the Vikings, two 8-6 teams, big playoff implications. I'm picking the Vikings on this one. They lost to the Packers previously. Randy Moss, miffed that he's not in the Pro Bowl. He's going to play big.

And how about the Giants against Bill Hemmer's Bengals? You know, the Bengals are the better team.

HEMMER: Yes.

SERWER: They are. The Giants have lost seven in a row, Bill. And they're playing in Cincinnati.

HEMMER: Correct.

SERWER: I'm going with the Giants. Eli played well, but he didn't get a win. I think he's going to play well and get the win this time. OK? We'll see, though.

Are you going to the game?

HEMMER: I'll be at that game.

SERWER: You're going to be that game.

HEMMER: Yes.

SERWER: Get a coat. It's going to be cold.

HEMMER: A big coat.

SERWER: A big coat.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

HEMMER: All right.

O'BRIEN: The "Question of the Day" involves cloning.

CAFFERTY: A $50,000 pussy cat here. Little Nicky, 50 grand. He's a clone created from the DNA of the owner's previous cat. An outfit out in California, where else? An outfit called Genetics Savings and Clone made this kitty. And they're hard at work on a dog now. They ought to have him ready to ship out in May. More money in dogs they say.

Pet advocacy groups are fried about all of this. They point out between three and four million dogs and cats are put to sleep in shelters every year.

The question this morning is: Where do you draw the line when it comes to cloning animals?

Bob in The Pass Manitoba writes: "If a person can afford to get a duplicate of their deceased animal, which makes them feel good, go for it. But I can think of something better to spend $50,000 on."

Yes, like maybe, you know, poor people who need something to eat at Christmastime.

Melissa in Chicago: "My husband and I lost our beloved dog to cancer last spring. As much as we loved him, we would never re-create him. Money is not the issue. It's the principle of playing with life to serve personal interests."

Nick weighs in from Calgary, Alberta: "You don't even need a religious value of any kind to know this is a bad idea. When we have the ability to create life, where do we stop? Imagine what this kind of power can do in the wrong hands."

Mark writes from Cocoa Beach, Florida: "I find it sad, Jack, that we ban genetic research using stem cells on shaky moral grounds. Yet when a dollar can be made on genetic research cloning, no problem."

Finally John weighs in from Tallahassee, Florida: "My wife and I have dogs we think the world of. One is getting long in the tooth, like Jack and myself. But cloning? Absolutely not, at least not until the price comes down by $49,500."

HEMMER: You can save yourself a few bucks.

SERWER: Yes.

O'BRIEN: All right, Jack, thanks.

Well, investigators say a suicide bomber was behind the attack in Mosul. Was it their inside help? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Get the latest news every morning in your e-mail. Sign up for AMERICAN MORNING quick news at CNN@com/am.

Winter is packing a wallop across the country. Will it keep you from getting home for the holidays? We're back in a moment.

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