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CNN Live At Daybreak

Latest on Deadly Mudslides in Southern California; Examining Controversy Around Bush's Nominee for Director of Homeland Security Department

Aired January 12, 2005 - 05:00   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.


KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Straight ahead on DAYBREAK, hopes fade, but not the heartbreak. The search goes on for victims and possibly survivors under tons of mud and debris in California.
Plus, a tragedy in the making. A small plane in trouble tries to land on a Florida golf course.

And a report this morning that the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is over. We'll get some insight when we take you to CNN's War Room.

It is Wednesday, January 12, and this is DAYBREAK.

And good Wednesday morning to you.

From the Time Warner Center in New York, I am Kelly Wallace, in today for Carol Costello.

Now in the news, in La Conchita, California, searchers have been added through the night, looking for signs of life and death from that massive mud slide. It has already killed six people. Governor Schwarzenegger tours the area later today.

Adding to the fears in southern California, a magnitude 4.3 earthquake near Palm Springs. It happened less than two hours ago, triggering emergency alarms. But authorities say there are no apparent injuries or damage.

Michael Jackson heading to court in L.A. today. It is a hearing to decide if evidence of prior sexual offenses will be admissible in his upcoming trial. Prosecutors want the courtroom open to the press and public. Jackson's attorneys want the hearing closed.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta will announce measures today to deal with a rash of laser beams aimed at planes. He is also expected to reveal steps pilots can take if temporarily blinded by those lasers.

NASA getting ready to launch a spacecraft today that will plow deep into a comet on the 4th of July. Scientists say the Deep Impact mission could help answer questions about how our solar system was formed.

Time for a first look at the forecast.

Say good morning to Chad Myers in Atlanta -- good morning, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kelly.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: And we're focusing again on the weather in California. At least 21 people have died as a result of the flooding in that state. Thousands of others have been forced from their homes. Officials were able to destroy a 20-foot high boulder that had blocked off Topanga Canyon. That road near Malibu. And in Corona, the airport there was closed when high water and mud covered the runways. Flooding has also caused the closure of a number of roads and bridges throughout the state.

But the most dramatic pictures of the weather's impact come from Ventura County. That's where more than a dozen people are still missing after a wall of mud crashed their homes.

CNN's Ted Rowlands has more from La Conchita, California.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another body has been pulled out, but no more survivors. Still, rescue crews here will work through the night, digging and listening for signs of life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it keeps you optimistic. Like I said, tsunami victims are still being found. So there's always hope.

ROWLANDS: Firefighter Garrett Prater helped rescue three people kept alive in air pockets, including a woman who was almost buried alive.

GARRETT PRATER, FIREFIGHTER: She was probably a good 20, 30 feet in, underneath several layers of flooring and roof, and she was actually -- had debris, and she was pinned from her legs down. But she had debris all the way up to her neck.

ROWLANDS: But thus far, stories of survival are outnumbered by heartbreaking examples of possible loss. Jimmy Wallet, a father of three, left his home just minutes before the hillside gave way. Friends say he was buying ice cream for his children and watched the mudslide crash down on his home. His wife, father and daughters, ages 10, 6, and 2, were inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when he came out of the thing, he saw it come down and ran up the street as fast as he could. And they just -- he couldn't get up there fast enough.

ROWLANDS: Jimmy Wallet's father was found dead. The rest of his family is among the more than 20 people still missing. He and other members of the community are working alongside rescue crews looking for life in this mountain of debris.

(on camera): The weather conditions now windy and cold, but dry. If conditions stay this way, rescue crews will be able to work around the clock until further notice as they continue to comb through the pile of debris, looking for any sign of life.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, La Conchita, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: California isn't the only state dealing with a weather disaster. An emergency was declared in Las Vegas when the city streets started resembling rivers. Avalanche warnings are also in effect in parts of southern Nevada after a 13-year-old boy was killed by a wall of snow.

In southern Utah, National Guard helicopters were called in to help evacuate people from flooded areas. Bridges, roads and homes were washed away by those floods. Utah's governor declared Washington County a disaster area. A team from the Federal Emergency Management Agency expected to arrive in that area today.

And stay with CNN for a special look at the severe weather and natural disasters that have made headlines over the past year, from the hurricanes to the tsunamis, and now the Western floods. So join us for a special edition of "NEWSNIGHT," "Extreme Weather," tonight, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

To CNN's "Security Watch" now, President Bush has tapped federal appeals court judge Michael Chertoff to head the huge Homeland Security Department. The president calls him a "key leader in the war on terror." But there are some skeptics.

Our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, has that.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The nominee has made fighting terror sound straightforward.

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY NOMINEE: Those who commit acts of terror against Americans, whenever and wherever, will be hunted, captured and brought to justice.

MESERVE: But if he is confirmed, experts say, Michael Chertoff will face complexities and more.

CLARK KENT ERVIN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: I would say dysfunction and chaos.

MESERVE: Clark Kent Ervin is the former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security.

ERVIN: The department is largely still a collection of 22 disparate dysfunctional agencies sharing a common name. It has yet to come together as a cohesive, integrated, effective whole focused on its core counterterrorism mission.

MESERVE: The president says Chertoff has a record of cutting red tape. But he will oversee 180,000 employees on sea, and land and air, and some are asking if Michael Chertoff really has the skills to tame and harness the DHS behemoth.

MICHAEL GREENBERGER, UM CENTER FOR HEALTH & HOMELAND SECURITY: Chertoff does not have the resume of somebody who can run a large bureaucracy.

MESERVE: In the dust of 9/11, Chertoff was a key player in crafting the U.S. government's legal policies, including the Patriot Act. And that is a record which, in some corners, creates concern, not confidence.

GREGORY NOJEIM, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION: Mr. Chertoff has taken a number of positions that have been put into policies that have adversely affected Americans and non-citizens' civil liberties in the United States.

MESERVE: Chertoff has a rich prosecutorial and law enforcement background. He was a key figure in the Whitewater investigation of former President Clinton's financial dealings. He also supervised the prosecution of Zarqawi Al-Moussaoui, the only person in the United States charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks. But homeland security is about emergency response, transportation security and infrastructure protection. Chertoff has no experience with many of these issues and doesn't know key players, including the governors, the mayors, the first responders.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Today the United States government is raising the threat level to code orange.

MESERVE: Tom Ridge, a politician, has a calm and folksy demeanor, which was considered a great plus at times of crisis. It is unclear how Chertoff's hard charging, no nonsense style will go over with the public.

RICHARD FALKENRATH, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: He's not a public figure. He's never run for office, to my knowledge. And so we'll have to see what sort of public persona he establishes now that he's in this incredibly high profile position.

MESERVE: Ridge is the only man who has held this job and truly knows what it takes. He believes Chertoff is the right pick.

RIDGE: He comes well equipped by experiment -- by experience and temperament and background to be a very effective and capable secretary.

MESERVE: But even those who question whether Chertoff is a perfect fit for the homeland job recognize his intellect. And that gives many of them hope that he will master what he does not know and move forward the department and the country's security.

Jean Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Now, despite some of those skeptics, President Bush says Chertoff already has been confirmed by the Senate for federal posts on three previous occasions. And several Democrats on Capitol Hill have applauded the nomination.

Well, time for our E-mail Question of the Day.

For that, we turn to DAYBREAK contributor Ali Velshi -- Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kelly, good morning.

Good to see you.

The E-mail Question of the Day, I should tell our viewers, is whether Michael Chertoff is the right choice. You can e-mail us at daybreak@cnn.com with that. Do you think President Bush nominated the right person to oversee homeland security?

Now, Michael Chertoff has had some chance to develop a public persona over the last few years. He was responsible for a lot of the major trials in business, including the first trial against Andersen Consulting, the one that ended up in a hung jury and a mistrial. And I don't know if you recall, Kelly, this was a few years ago, this was one really complicated trial. Those of us who covered business news daily had trouble sort of getting our heads around it and the jury found it too complicated. And I remember the day the trial was declared a mistrial and Michael Chertoff got out there and said this was just too complicated, we've got to make these things simpler and make them easier to understand.

So that might have been a key lesson to him that he can bring over to homeland security, to say this is complicated stuff.

WALLACE: He is known to be a tough prosecutor, as you're pointing out.

VELSHI: Yes.

WALLACE: And, again, Democrats also noting that he is a tough prosecutor, noting he's coming from the New York area, work experience here.

VELSHI: Yes.

WALLACE: It is interesting, though, in terms of the political dimension here, because we do have, of course, he did work as the chief counsel when you had the Senate Whitewater committee.

VELSHI: Right.

WALLACE: And it is interesting, in his previous post, as he was getting confirmed, there was one Democrat who voted against those nominations, and that was Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

VELSHI: Yes.

WALLACE: But now she even says she's looking forward to meeting with him and talking with him.

VELSHI: Yes, initially the -- it sounds like the White House did some homework on this one after the Bernard Kerik situation. They don't want to lose Chertoff for the wrong reasons. But let's see what our viewers have to say about it.

WALLACE: It was so interesting, too, the president noted he had been confirmed not once, not twice...

VELSHI: Three times.

WALLACE: ... three different times, exactly.

VELSHI: Yes.

WALLACE: OK, Ali, we look forward to seeing what you're hearing from viewers.

VELSHI: Good.

WALLACE: Thanks so much.

VELSHI: OK.

WALLACE: And be sure to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

Still to come here on DAYBREAK, hope among the ruins. Survivors still search for loved ones missing from the tsunami disaster. We'll take you on a heart wrenching journey.

Also, Deep Impact. NASA is on a collision course with a comet.

And a red flag over red meat? It might put your health at stake, so to speak.

First, here is a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning, January 12.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

WALLACE: Well, we take you beyond the sound bite this morning with the relatives of Andrea Yates. It is an interview you'll see only here on CNN. Yates, you'll recall, confessed to drowning her five young children in a bathtub back in 2001. She was convicted of the deaths, but now she's in legal limbo. An appeals court threw out the conviction, citing problems with a prosecution witness.

Meantime, her brother and mother are still trying to come to grips with the loss. They talked to our Larry King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM CNN'S "LARRY KING LIVE")

LARRY KING, HOST: Karin, what was it like, though, to lose your grandchildren?

KARIN KENNEDY, MOTHER: It was a nightmare. KING: I don't even know how we can understand what you went through when your daughter, whom you love, kills your grandchildren, who you love.

K. KENNEDY: I think my husband's death two months before had a little to do with it. Andrea, she was in a deep depression, and she got worse when my husband died.

KING: She was very close to him?

K. KENNEDY: Oh, yes, yes. Very close.

KING: So he didn't get to live to see his grandchildren killed?

K. KENNEDY: No. Thank God.

KING: How do you cope? Do you have faith?

K. KENNEDY: Yes.

KING: I notice you're wearing a cross. Are you a very religious person?

K. KENNEDY: No. I mean just normal.

KING: But you have faith that there's a God?

K. KENNEDY: Oh, yes.

KING: You, too?

BRIAN KENNEDY, BROTHER OF ANDREA YATES: Oh, absolutely. Mom goes church every Sunday, to a Catholic church. But she's probably one of the strongest people I've actually ever seen in my life. I mean she's -- to lose her husband and then the children and then her daughter in a period of six months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: And it is not clear yet if Yates will face a new trial. Prosecutors plan to ask the appeals court to rethink its ruling.

Your news, money, weather and sports.

It is about 17 minutes after the hour and here is what is all new this morning.

Rescue crews have been working around the clock in an effort to find people missing in a mud slide in La Conchita, California. At least six people are dead and more than a dozen others still missing.

A federal grand jury is hearing evidence in the criminal probe of former Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. Berger admitted to removing documents from the National Archives and destroying them. But he says it was a mistake. In money, Apple unveiled its newest iPod portable music player. The Shuffle is cheaper and smaller than the original iPods. Apple sold four and a half million iPods during the holiday shopping season.

In culture, First Lady Laura Bush has picked as many as five different outfits for next week's inauguration events. The crown jewel is the Oscar de la Renta evening gown she will wear for those inaugural balls.

In sports, quarterbacks Dan Merino and Steve Young lead the list of nominees for this year's pro football Hall of Fame. They join 13 other former players and executives on the ballot. The six inductees will be announced on February 5. That is the day before the Super Bowl.

Time now to get a look at the forecast again.

Chad -- what is it looking like for those folks in California?

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: OK, those are the headlines on this Wednesday morning.

The search lights certainly burning all night long in La Conchita, California. But this is not the first time mudslides have hit that area.

Chad, I want to bring you back in again because a lot of us are focusing on how this is, again, not the first time you've had mudslides in this area. You've had a couple before this.

Why is this area so prone to these mudslides?

MYERS: Actually, I was checking some stuff from the Geological Survey out there, in fact, from the geomorphology of the Ventura region. Some really great reading at 5:00 in the morning, by the way.

WALLACE: Yes, I bet. It really wakes you up, I'm sure.

MYERS: This actually came from May of 1942. Let me read this to you. "Nearly every square foot of the surface of the hill slopes under laned by the upper Pico clay shale is in motion down slope or has moved in the very recent geological past. Given the geology composition and tectonic origin of the cliffs above La Conchita, it is difficult to understand how development was allowed to take place in this area at the base of the cliffs, given the high risk of landslides."

Now, this is 64, 62 years ago they knew this, and, in fact, even in 1889 there used to be a train that ran down below those cliffs. The train was actually pushed into the ocean because of a landslide there. So this is not the first time this has happened, Kelly.

What has happened here, this is a tectonic area. The cliffs above La Conchita are actually going up. They're still rising 15 feet every thousand years. It doesn't seem like a lot, but in geological terms it is. That's actually a lot of going up. Then it all has to get washed down.

What has happened with all of this mud and all of this rain -- almost 20 inches fell in this region -- the land actually becomes saturated. And if you think of the little dirt particles and when they're touching each other with air in between them, they've got good friction. But when you get a lot of water in between those dirt particles, you lose that friction and you start to get a little bit of aqua -- you know, it just, it almost turns into just a slimy mud substance.

And what happened here was that it really got to be heavy, heavy rain. The land couldn't hold any more water. It couldn't run off and it couldn't percolate down into the subsoil and the whole mud there, the whole land that was dirt turned into basically a liquid boiling cauldron that ran right down the mountain. And obviously this has happened so many, many times before in this exact location.

WALLACE: And that is why, Chad, raising a lot of questions about, just as you've pointed out, why development allowed in that area and also why no warning, it appears, once that area was seeing significant rainfall. But, again, these are questions that the authorities are focusing on right now.

OK, Chad, we'll talk to you in a few minutes.

MYERS: All right.

WALLACE: Thanks so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

WALLACE: Hurricanes, blizzards and mudslides -- what is going on and why now? At 10:00 p.m. Eastern tonight, some answers. "NEWSNIGHT" and Aaron Brown take a special one hour in depth look at nature's wrath, from a record number of hurricanes in Florida to tornadoes, devastating mudslides and horrific tsunamis. That's tonight, again, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Pacific.

Ready to see what a comet looks like? NASA's deep image spacecraft will give us a rare glimpse inside.

And reports say the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is over. Is this good or bad news? We'll tackle that topic in the War Room.

Our E-mail Question of the Day once again, did President Bush nominate the right person to oversee homeland security? E-mail us. The address, daybreak@cnn.com.

You are watching DAYBREAK for Wednesday, January 12.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And welcome back to DAYBREAK. Ever wonder what a comet is made of? Well, NASA scientists have been wondering about that very question. And today they launch a mission to find out the answer.

CNN's John Zarrella takes a closer look at the comet buster known as Deep Impact.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The comet, Temple One, looks kind of like a giant celestial chicken leg. Next July 4th, NASA scientists hope to take a bite out of it to find out exactly what it's made of -- solid ice or perhaps a fluffy, cotton candy like material.

DON VOEMANS, DEEP IMPACT PROGRAM: That's the whole beauty of this mission is that almost anything can happen when we hit it. And when we do hit it, we'll understand just how the comet is -- was put together some four and a half billion years ago when the solar system formed.

ZARRELLA: The mission, dubbed Deep Impact, is set for lift-off from Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft will travel 268 million miles, racing to catch up with the rotating comet. An 800 pound impacter is then deployed from the mother ship and waits to be run over, in essence becoming the first deep space road kill.

KAREN MEECH, DEEP IMPACT CO-INVESTIGATOR: This particular comet, we've discovered, rotates once every 41 or so hours. And it will be important when we get to the comet to be able to arrive on one of the large sides to give us a larger targeting area. So we spent a lot of time trying to characterize how fast it spins.

ZARRELLA: Scientists believe the impact will create a huge crater and cause an explosion of cometary debris. That will be captured by telescopes on Earth, in space and by cameras on the mother ship. But mission managers say there's no chance the collision will send the comet hurtling toward Earth. It's more like a mosquito being hit by an airliner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The impact, of course, will make a change in the orbit of the comet. But the change will be so small as to be undetectable.

ZARRELLA: But some day a comet may threaten Earth. The Deep Impact team says if one has to be deflected, it would sure help knowing what it's made of. From a scientific standpoint, comets may hold promising clues about the formation of the solar system and how life here on Earth got started.

John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WALLACE: Fascinating stuff.

Well, here is what is all new in the next half hour of DAYBREAK.

Low carb dieters beware. A new study suggests some serious health risks for eating too much red meat.

Plus, are those new fares touted by the airlines really a bargain? We'll investigate later in the show.

And a reminder, our E-mail Question of the Day -- did President Bush nominate the right person to oversee homeland security? We want to hear from you.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired January 12, 2005 - 05:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Straight ahead on DAYBREAK, hopes fade, but not the heartbreak. The search goes on for victims and possibly survivors under tons of mud and debris in California.
Plus, a tragedy in the making. A small plane in trouble tries to land on a Florida golf course.

And a report this morning that the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is over. We'll get some insight when we take you to CNN's War Room.

It is Wednesday, January 12, and this is DAYBREAK.

And good Wednesday morning to you.

From the Time Warner Center in New York, I am Kelly Wallace, in today for Carol Costello.

Now in the news, in La Conchita, California, searchers have been added through the night, looking for signs of life and death from that massive mud slide. It has already killed six people. Governor Schwarzenegger tours the area later today.

Adding to the fears in southern California, a magnitude 4.3 earthquake near Palm Springs. It happened less than two hours ago, triggering emergency alarms. But authorities say there are no apparent injuries or damage.

Michael Jackson heading to court in L.A. today. It is a hearing to decide if evidence of prior sexual offenses will be admissible in his upcoming trial. Prosecutors want the courtroom open to the press and public. Jackson's attorneys want the hearing closed.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta will announce measures today to deal with a rash of laser beams aimed at planes. He is also expected to reveal steps pilots can take if temporarily blinded by those lasers.

NASA getting ready to launch a spacecraft today that will plow deep into a comet on the 4th of July. Scientists say the Deep Impact mission could help answer questions about how our solar system was formed.

Time for a first look at the forecast.

Say good morning to Chad Myers in Atlanta -- good morning, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kelly.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: And we're focusing again on the weather in California. At least 21 people have died as a result of the flooding in that state. Thousands of others have been forced from their homes. Officials were able to destroy a 20-foot high boulder that had blocked off Topanga Canyon. That road near Malibu. And in Corona, the airport there was closed when high water and mud covered the runways. Flooding has also caused the closure of a number of roads and bridges throughout the state.

But the most dramatic pictures of the weather's impact come from Ventura County. That's where more than a dozen people are still missing after a wall of mud crashed their homes.

CNN's Ted Rowlands has more from La Conchita, California.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another body has been pulled out, but no more survivors. Still, rescue crews here will work through the night, digging and listening for signs of life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it keeps you optimistic. Like I said, tsunami victims are still being found. So there's always hope.

ROWLANDS: Firefighter Garrett Prater helped rescue three people kept alive in air pockets, including a woman who was almost buried alive.

GARRETT PRATER, FIREFIGHTER: She was probably a good 20, 30 feet in, underneath several layers of flooring and roof, and she was actually -- had debris, and she was pinned from her legs down. But she had debris all the way up to her neck.

ROWLANDS: But thus far, stories of survival are outnumbered by heartbreaking examples of possible loss. Jimmy Wallet, a father of three, left his home just minutes before the hillside gave way. Friends say he was buying ice cream for his children and watched the mudslide crash down on his home. His wife, father and daughters, ages 10, 6, and 2, were inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when he came out of the thing, he saw it come down and ran up the street as fast as he could. And they just -- he couldn't get up there fast enough.

ROWLANDS: Jimmy Wallet's father was found dead. The rest of his family is among the more than 20 people still missing. He and other members of the community are working alongside rescue crews looking for life in this mountain of debris.

(on camera): The weather conditions now windy and cold, but dry. If conditions stay this way, rescue crews will be able to work around the clock until further notice as they continue to comb through the pile of debris, looking for any sign of life.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, La Conchita, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: California isn't the only state dealing with a weather disaster. An emergency was declared in Las Vegas when the city streets started resembling rivers. Avalanche warnings are also in effect in parts of southern Nevada after a 13-year-old boy was killed by a wall of snow.

In southern Utah, National Guard helicopters were called in to help evacuate people from flooded areas. Bridges, roads and homes were washed away by those floods. Utah's governor declared Washington County a disaster area. A team from the Federal Emergency Management Agency expected to arrive in that area today.

And stay with CNN for a special look at the severe weather and natural disasters that have made headlines over the past year, from the hurricanes to the tsunamis, and now the Western floods. So join us for a special edition of "NEWSNIGHT," "Extreme Weather," tonight, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

To CNN's "Security Watch" now, President Bush has tapped federal appeals court judge Michael Chertoff to head the huge Homeland Security Department. The president calls him a "key leader in the war on terror." But there are some skeptics.

Our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, has that.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The nominee has made fighting terror sound straightforward.

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY NOMINEE: Those who commit acts of terror against Americans, whenever and wherever, will be hunted, captured and brought to justice.

MESERVE: But if he is confirmed, experts say, Michael Chertoff will face complexities and more.

CLARK KENT ERVIN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: I would say dysfunction and chaos.

MESERVE: Clark Kent Ervin is the former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security.

ERVIN: The department is largely still a collection of 22 disparate dysfunctional agencies sharing a common name. It has yet to come together as a cohesive, integrated, effective whole focused on its core counterterrorism mission.

MESERVE: The president says Chertoff has a record of cutting red tape. But he will oversee 180,000 employees on sea, and land and air, and some are asking if Michael Chertoff really has the skills to tame and harness the DHS behemoth.

MICHAEL GREENBERGER, UM CENTER FOR HEALTH & HOMELAND SECURITY: Chertoff does not have the resume of somebody who can run a large bureaucracy.

MESERVE: In the dust of 9/11, Chertoff was a key player in crafting the U.S. government's legal policies, including the Patriot Act. And that is a record which, in some corners, creates concern, not confidence.

GREGORY NOJEIM, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION: Mr. Chertoff has taken a number of positions that have been put into policies that have adversely affected Americans and non-citizens' civil liberties in the United States.

MESERVE: Chertoff has a rich prosecutorial and law enforcement background. He was a key figure in the Whitewater investigation of former President Clinton's financial dealings. He also supervised the prosecution of Zarqawi Al-Moussaoui, the only person in the United States charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks. But homeland security is about emergency response, transportation security and infrastructure protection. Chertoff has no experience with many of these issues and doesn't know key players, including the governors, the mayors, the first responders.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Today the United States government is raising the threat level to code orange.

MESERVE: Tom Ridge, a politician, has a calm and folksy demeanor, which was considered a great plus at times of crisis. It is unclear how Chertoff's hard charging, no nonsense style will go over with the public.

RICHARD FALKENRATH, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: He's not a public figure. He's never run for office, to my knowledge. And so we'll have to see what sort of public persona he establishes now that he's in this incredibly high profile position.

MESERVE: Ridge is the only man who has held this job and truly knows what it takes. He believes Chertoff is the right pick.

RIDGE: He comes well equipped by experiment -- by experience and temperament and background to be a very effective and capable secretary.

MESERVE: But even those who question whether Chertoff is a perfect fit for the homeland job recognize his intellect. And that gives many of them hope that he will master what he does not know and move forward the department and the country's security.

Jean Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Now, despite some of those skeptics, President Bush says Chertoff already has been confirmed by the Senate for federal posts on three previous occasions. And several Democrats on Capitol Hill have applauded the nomination.

Well, time for our E-mail Question of the Day.

For that, we turn to DAYBREAK contributor Ali Velshi -- Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kelly, good morning.

Good to see you.

The E-mail Question of the Day, I should tell our viewers, is whether Michael Chertoff is the right choice. You can e-mail us at daybreak@cnn.com with that. Do you think President Bush nominated the right person to oversee homeland security?

Now, Michael Chertoff has had some chance to develop a public persona over the last few years. He was responsible for a lot of the major trials in business, including the first trial against Andersen Consulting, the one that ended up in a hung jury and a mistrial. And I don't know if you recall, Kelly, this was a few years ago, this was one really complicated trial. Those of us who covered business news daily had trouble sort of getting our heads around it and the jury found it too complicated. And I remember the day the trial was declared a mistrial and Michael Chertoff got out there and said this was just too complicated, we've got to make these things simpler and make them easier to understand.

So that might have been a key lesson to him that he can bring over to homeland security, to say this is complicated stuff.

WALLACE: He is known to be a tough prosecutor, as you're pointing out.

VELSHI: Yes.

WALLACE: And, again, Democrats also noting that he is a tough prosecutor, noting he's coming from the New York area, work experience here.

VELSHI: Yes.

WALLACE: It is interesting, though, in terms of the political dimension here, because we do have, of course, he did work as the chief counsel when you had the Senate Whitewater committee.

VELSHI: Right.

WALLACE: And it is interesting, in his previous post, as he was getting confirmed, there was one Democrat who voted against those nominations, and that was Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

VELSHI: Yes.

WALLACE: But now she even says she's looking forward to meeting with him and talking with him.

VELSHI: Yes, initially the -- it sounds like the White House did some homework on this one after the Bernard Kerik situation. They don't want to lose Chertoff for the wrong reasons. But let's see what our viewers have to say about it.

WALLACE: It was so interesting, too, the president noted he had been confirmed not once, not twice...

VELSHI: Three times.

WALLACE: ... three different times, exactly.

VELSHI: Yes.

WALLACE: OK, Ali, we look forward to seeing what you're hearing from viewers.

VELSHI: Good.

WALLACE: Thanks so much.

VELSHI: OK.

WALLACE: And be sure to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

Still to come here on DAYBREAK, hope among the ruins. Survivors still search for loved ones missing from the tsunami disaster. We'll take you on a heart wrenching journey.

Also, Deep Impact. NASA is on a collision course with a comet.

And a red flag over red meat? It might put your health at stake, so to speak.

First, here is a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning, January 12.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

WALLACE: Well, we take you beyond the sound bite this morning with the relatives of Andrea Yates. It is an interview you'll see only here on CNN. Yates, you'll recall, confessed to drowning her five young children in a bathtub back in 2001. She was convicted of the deaths, but now she's in legal limbo. An appeals court threw out the conviction, citing problems with a prosecution witness.

Meantime, her brother and mother are still trying to come to grips with the loss. They talked to our Larry King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM CNN'S "LARRY KING LIVE")

LARRY KING, HOST: Karin, what was it like, though, to lose your grandchildren?

KARIN KENNEDY, MOTHER: It was a nightmare. KING: I don't even know how we can understand what you went through when your daughter, whom you love, kills your grandchildren, who you love.

K. KENNEDY: I think my husband's death two months before had a little to do with it. Andrea, she was in a deep depression, and she got worse when my husband died.

KING: She was very close to him?

K. KENNEDY: Oh, yes, yes. Very close.

KING: So he didn't get to live to see his grandchildren killed?

K. KENNEDY: No. Thank God.

KING: How do you cope? Do you have faith?

K. KENNEDY: Yes.

KING: I notice you're wearing a cross. Are you a very religious person?

K. KENNEDY: No. I mean just normal.

KING: But you have faith that there's a God?

K. KENNEDY: Oh, yes.

KING: You, too?

BRIAN KENNEDY, BROTHER OF ANDREA YATES: Oh, absolutely. Mom goes church every Sunday, to a Catholic church. But she's probably one of the strongest people I've actually ever seen in my life. I mean she's -- to lose her husband and then the children and then her daughter in a period of six months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: And it is not clear yet if Yates will face a new trial. Prosecutors plan to ask the appeals court to rethink its ruling.

Your news, money, weather and sports.

It is about 17 minutes after the hour and here is what is all new this morning.

Rescue crews have been working around the clock in an effort to find people missing in a mud slide in La Conchita, California. At least six people are dead and more than a dozen others still missing.

A federal grand jury is hearing evidence in the criminal probe of former Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. Berger admitted to removing documents from the National Archives and destroying them. But he says it was a mistake. In money, Apple unveiled its newest iPod portable music player. The Shuffle is cheaper and smaller than the original iPods. Apple sold four and a half million iPods during the holiday shopping season.

In culture, First Lady Laura Bush has picked as many as five different outfits for next week's inauguration events. The crown jewel is the Oscar de la Renta evening gown she will wear for those inaugural balls.

In sports, quarterbacks Dan Merino and Steve Young lead the list of nominees for this year's pro football Hall of Fame. They join 13 other former players and executives on the ballot. The six inductees will be announced on February 5. That is the day before the Super Bowl.

Time now to get a look at the forecast again.

Chad -- what is it looking like for those folks in California?

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: OK, those are the headlines on this Wednesday morning.

The search lights certainly burning all night long in La Conchita, California. But this is not the first time mudslides have hit that area.

Chad, I want to bring you back in again because a lot of us are focusing on how this is, again, not the first time you've had mudslides in this area. You've had a couple before this.

Why is this area so prone to these mudslides?

MYERS: Actually, I was checking some stuff from the Geological Survey out there, in fact, from the geomorphology of the Ventura region. Some really great reading at 5:00 in the morning, by the way.

WALLACE: Yes, I bet. It really wakes you up, I'm sure.

MYERS: This actually came from May of 1942. Let me read this to you. "Nearly every square foot of the surface of the hill slopes under laned by the upper Pico clay shale is in motion down slope or has moved in the very recent geological past. Given the geology composition and tectonic origin of the cliffs above La Conchita, it is difficult to understand how development was allowed to take place in this area at the base of the cliffs, given the high risk of landslides."

Now, this is 64, 62 years ago they knew this, and, in fact, even in 1889 there used to be a train that ran down below those cliffs. The train was actually pushed into the ocean because of a landslide there. So this is not the first time this has happened, Kelly.

What has happened here, this is a tectonic area. The cliffs above La Conchita are actually going up. They're still rising 15 feet every thousand years. It doesn't seem like a lot, but in geological terms it is. That's actually a lot of going up. Then it all has to get washed down.

What has happened with all of this mud and all of this rain -- almost 20 inches fell in this region -- the land actually becomes saturated. And if you think of the little dirt particles and when they're touching each other with air in between them, they've got good friction. But when you get a lot of water in between those dirt particles, you lose that friction and you start to get a little bit of aqua -- you know, it just, it almost turns into just a slimy mud substance.

And what happened here was that it really got to be heavy, heavy rain. The land couldn't hold any more water. It couldn't run off and it couldn't percolate down into the subsoil and the whole mud there, the whole land that was dirt turned into basically a liquid boiling cauldron that ran right down the mountain. And obviously this has happened so many, many times before in this exact location.

WALLACE: And that is why, Chad, raising a lot of questions about, just as you've pointed out, why development allowed in that area and also why no warning, it appears, once that area was seeing significant rainfall. But, again, these are questions that the authorities are focusing on right now.

OK, Chad, we'll talk to you in a few minutes.

MYERS: All right.

WALLACE: Thanks so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

WALLACE: Hurricanes, blizzards and mudslides -- what is going on and why now? At 10:00 p.m. Eastern tonight, some answers. "NEWSNIGHT" and Aaron Brown take a special one hour in depth look at nature's wrath, from a record number of hurricanes in Florida to tornadoes, devastating mudslides and horrific tsunamis. That's tonight, again, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Pacific.

Ready to see what a comet looks like? NASA's deep image spacecraft will give us a rare glimpse inside.

And reports say the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is over. Is this good or bad news? We'll tackle that topic in the War Room.

Our E-mail Question of the Day once again, did President Bush nominate the right person to oversee homeland security? E-mail us. The address, daybreak@cnn.com.

You are watching DAYBREAK for Wednesday, January 12.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And welcome back to DAYBREAK. Ever wonder what a comet is made of? Well, NASA scientists have been wondering about that very question. And today they launch a mission to find out the answer.

CNN's John Zarrella takes a closer look at the comet buster known as Deep Impact.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The comet, Temple One, looks kind of like a giant celestial chicken leg. Next July 4th, NASA scientists hope to take a bite out of it to find out exactly what it's made of -- solid ice or perhaps a fluffy, cotton candy like material.

DON VOEMANS, DEEP IMPACT PROGRAM: That's the whole beauty of this mission is that almost anything can happen when we hit it. And when we do hit it, we'll understand just how the comet is -- was put together some four and a half billion years ago when the solar system formed.

ZARRELLA: The mission, dubbed Deep Impact, is set for lift-off from Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft will travel 268 million miles, racing to catch up with the rotating comet. An 800 pound impacter is then deployed from the mother ship and waits to be run over, in essence becoming the first deep space road kill.

KAREN MEECH, DEEP IMPACT CO-INVESTIGATOR: This particular comet, we've discovered, rotates once every 41 or so hours. And it will be important when we get to the comet to be able to arrive on one of the large sides to give us a larger targeting area. So we spent a lot of time trying to characterize how fast it spins.

ZARRELLA: Scientists believe the impact will create a huge crater and cause an explosion of cometary debris. That will be captured by telescopes on Earth, in space and by cameras on the mother ship. But mission managers say there's no chance the collision will send the comet hurtling toward Earth. It's more like a mosquito being hit by an airliner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The impact, of course, will make a change in the orbit of the comet. But the change will be so small as to be undetectable.

ZARRELLA: But some day a comet may threaten Earth. The Deep Impact team says if one has to be deflected, it would sure help knowing what it's made of. From a scientific standpoint, comets may hold promising clues about the formation of the solar system and how life here on Earth got started.

John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WALLACE: Fascinating stuff.

Well, here is what is all new in the next half hour of DAYBREAK.

Low carb dieters beware. A new study suggests some serious health risks for eating too much red meat.

Plus, are those new fares touted by the airlines really a bargain? We'll investigate later in the show.

And a reminder, our E-mail Question of the Day -- did President Bush nominate the right person to oversee homeland security? We want to hear from you.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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