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American Morning
Dam Pushed to Breaking Point by Rising Floodwaters in Maryland; Israeli Troops in Gaza; A Soldier's Funeral
Aired June 28, 2006 - 08:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Some very tense moments in Maryland this morning. A dam pushed to the breaking point by rising floodwaters, while more than 2,200 people were forced out of their homes.
That story ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks for being with us.
S. O'BRIEN: We are talking about that earthen dam in Rockville, Maryland. It is the focus of concern this hour. Engineers are trying to determine if that dam is going to fail. Water has been found seeping from it. That happened late last night, and that has prompted the evacuation of more than 2,000 people.
Let get right to AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken. He is in Wheaton, Maryland, which is the -- Wheaton High School, I guess, on that big sign over your head.
The site of an evacuation shelter now? Is that right?
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We can't put anything past you, Soledad.
The lake -- the structural engineers are out there now, and county officials say before they decide whether to allow the evacuees to go home, they're going to make sure that it is sound, the weather seems to be cooperating. What happened was, this lake which feeds into the famous Rock Creek started leaking, in effect, an earthen dam. And they were worried enough that they evacuated 2,200 overnight.
Four hundred fifty of those evacuees were taken to this location, Wheaton High School, which is not far away from the area. They were taken here, 450 of them. The Red Cross is here administering to them.
Among those who was brought here overnight is Rachel Stanley. Rachel lives in an assisted facility -- assisted living facility on the Rock Creek. It's called Rock Creek Terrace.
Tell me what happened.
RACHEL STANLEY, EVACUEE: Well, they knocked at my door at 3:00 this morning and said that we have to evacuate, that I had to get my medication, my pillow, my blanket, and that they were -- that I had to come down and go on the bus. And we were going to Wheaton High School.
And that's all that they told us. Came down on the elevator, went to the bus, and we came straight over here. Got here about 6:30 this morning.
FRANKEN: Must have been kind of scary.
STANLEY: It was. And I called my mom from here to let her know that I was here and I was safe. And now I just want to go back home and get some more sleep.
Since I've been woken up at 3:30 -- quarter after 3:00 this morning, I haven't been back to sleep since. I've been up, having a good time seeing people here that I know, and it's fun. But I'd rather be at home.
FRANKEN: And the question about that is one that officials say they can't answer yet. They're going to wait until they make sure that the dam is safe.
The big worry, Soledad, had been that this heavy weather would continue and make the situation there worse. It could have resulted in the evacuation of thousands more, were that to happen. Of course, this has been a situation that has now been going on over several days, record amounts of rain, and it has brought with it some tragedy.
There are children missing in at least two creeks, three people were swept away by water as they were trying to escape after their car had been flooded. It is a situation here that has disrupted a lot of lives -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, no question about that. Although it looks, at least over your shoulder, certainly, that the weather is improving.
Bob Franken for us this morning.
Bob, thanks -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Our severe weather expert, Chad Myers, is watching all this from the weather center in Atlanta.
Hello, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Miles.
The rain really is over for Baltimore, Philadelphia, Allentown now, up through Scranton. The rain moving into Albany, and the heavier rain.
Now, kind of this yellow-orange area, some spots there an inch of rain an hour. In some spots here in the darker orange, an inch every half-hour. And then the rain through Hartford, also back down to about the Hamptons. But this is the very last part of a storm that probably was a tropical depression as it came onshore yesterday afternoon down around Moorhead City, North Carolina. Right over, basically, the cape, the part of Cape Hatteras there, a little bit east of -- west of Cape Hatteras.
The rain moving into parts of Massachusetts now. You can still see there's almost still a little bit of a spin to this storm as it rolls on up toward the Northeast.
The good news is, it's moving so fast now that it's not going to sit anywhere and put down a bunch of rain. The rain will be up and down the East Coast. There will be clear skies in Kansas City. There will even be some rain in Vegas today.
It rained in Phoenix. It rained yesterday in Phoenix. Some good news for them. They'll take any kind of rain you can get out there. The problem is, there were also five fires started by thunderstorms that didn't produce enough rain to stop the lightning from creating the fires that we have now today that the firefighters are working on.
Back to you guys.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Chad.
A once-in-300-years weather wallop, it's still lashing the East Coast this morning, as Chad referred to. In Pennsylvania, as we speak, the Coast Guard rescuing people off rooftops near Scranton. And farther south, the saturated soil, the brimming rivers and at least one damaged dam keeping authorities and commuters on their toes, as Bob Franken told us.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho in the newsroom with more.
Hello, Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Miles.
As you well know, it is a wet and sloppy mess along much of the East Coast today. Emergency shelters are open across the region, with flashflood warnings and mandatory evacuations the order of the day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it was just coming in everywhere.
CHO (voice over): From Virginia to New England, much of the Mid- Atlantic under water this morning. Days and days of heavy rain swamping homes, turning basements into muddy pools, and creating havoc for travelers. Flood warnings and states of emergencies posted up and down the East Coast. Across the region, police are warning residents to evacuate, like here in Pennsylvania.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See anybody from the city down here helping out? No. They come down, tell everybody they got to evacuate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All residents are to leave their house and leave the area by 7:00 p.m..
CHO: But many of those people aren't going anywhere. Instead, they're doing whatever it takes to stop the rising waters.
In New York State, major highways are being shut down. The high water making travel just too dangerous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In my years here, this is the worst I've ever seen. And I've been here 35 years.
CHO: There is hope on the horizon. The rains are tapering off from the south. But the cleanup is only beginning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: And some of that cleanup may have to wait just a little bit longer. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell says he expects to see major flooding throughout the eastern part of the state, Miles, both today and well into tomorrow.
M. O'BRIEN: Thanks very much Alina -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Happening "In America" this morning in Las Vegas, a wild shooting at the airport security line. A man with a knife snatched a 3-year-old then sprinted right past the checkpoint. Police confronted him and shocked him with a Taser.
He dropped the kid, but then lunged towards a trio of officers, and that's when they shot him. He survived. There is no word on his condition this morning.
In Georgia, a man is still missing, apparently somewhere beneath the rubble of this hotel that's collapsed, as you can see. An apparent gas leak is the cause of the explosion in Bremen, which is about 50 miles west of Atlanta.
Yesterday, rescue workers could hear the man's cries as they were digging through the rubble. They were hampered, though, by hot spots. And then as the day wore on, the cries faded. One other person's been confirmed dead, two other people are missing as well.
In Connecticut, a Coast Guard cadet charged with sex crimes is facing more than 13 years in prison this morning. Twenty-three-year- old Webster Smith convicted of indecent assault, extortion, sodomy, other charges, too. He was acquitted of rape, though.
A female cadet says Webster, of Houston, demanded sex in exchange for keeping a secret that she says would have derailed her career. This is the first court-martial of a cadet in the academy's 130-year history.
In Ocean City in Maryland, a carbon monoxide leak at the motel killed a father and his daughter and sent the mother and another daughter right to the hospital. Their condition at this hour is unknown. It happened at a Days Inn oceanfront at about 2:00 p.m. yesterday. Investigators are searching now for the source of the leak -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: To the Middle East now. Israeli tanks and troops rolling into Palestinian territory in Gaza. Right now their stated goal, to find a kidnapped Israeli corporal, as well as a settler. But it is also a show of force that may be part of an escalation of violence there.
CNN's John Vause live now from Gaza with more -- John.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, right now the Israeli prime minister is holding urgent security talks in his office in Jerusalem as word comes through that another Israeli may be held by Palestinian militants. They held a press conference earlier today holding out the I.D. papers of an 18-year-old Jewish settler from the West Bank.
Eliyahu Asheri went missing on Sunday night. The Palestinian militants say he is their prisoner and will be "butchered" unless Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza. That does not appear likely.
Right now, Israeli soldiers and tanks and armored personnel carriers have dug in not far from the city of Raffah, near the border with Egypt. For now, Israeli forces say they have encountered little resistance from Palestinian militants, and there seems to be no reports of casualties at this early stage. The Israeli prime minister, though, earlier warning that he will take extreme action to try and rescue this Israeli corporal who was kidnapped over the weekend after a raid on an Israeli army base.
All this began overnight with air strikes on the only power plant here in Gaza. It was set ablaze. Much of Gaza is still without electricity, and Israeli fighter jets bombed two bridges.
The stated goal of Operation Summer Rain is to try and limits the movement of the hostage-takers. Israeli intelligence has fears that they may try to smuggle out the Israeli corporal, take him to Egypt, and then maybe to Lebanon, possibly even Syria -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, which brings up a point, John. I mean, Gaza is small, it's about twice the size of D.C. How do the Israelis know -- it's still a pretty big place, relatively speaking, and very densely populated. How do they know where this soldier might be?
VAUSE: Well, senior Israeli military commanders say they have covert and overt operatives on the ground here in Gaza gathering intelligence. It has to be said that the Israelis know every inch of Gaza. They have this place sewn up from an intelligence point of view.
What they've been saying is that they have located through the gathering of intelligence a general idea of where Gilad Shalit is being held. They believe it's in Khan Yunis, which is the second biggest city here in Gaza. About 60,000 people live there. They've even narrowed it down to possibly in a refugee camp, but the precise location they still don't know. And the reason why they're not going into that refugee camp, very small alleyways, a lot of houses. If they went in, it could cause a lot of bloodshed, a lot of loss of life on both sides -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: John Vause in Gaza.
Thank you very much.
On Capitol Hill today, the media bashing goes on. House Republicans expected to introduce a measure condemning "The New York Times" for exposing a government program monitoring bank records.
Now, this follows a tongue lashing for the old gray lady from President Bush on down. And just a short time ago on our program, the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, joined the chorus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: And any time that our media irresponsibly, wrongly, I think, gives the playbook that makes us safer to the enemy, to the terrorists who want to kill you and kill people in New York and around, in Tennessee and in Nashville, that's their goal. And when you give them the playbook that allows them to escape detection, that is wrong. And I think it should not be done, and I think it is irresponsible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Now, when pressed by reporters yesterday, the White House press secretary, Tony Snow, says he's not sure if that leak has compromised any terror probes. "The Times," meanwhile, standing by its decision to publish the story -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Flags are flying at half-staff in Brownsville, Texas, today. A mass is going to be celebrated this morning for 23- year-old Army Private Kristian Menchaca. Menchaca was one of two American soldiers kidnapped on June 19th and then later killed by Iraqi insurgents.
CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Brownsville this morning.
Ed, good morning.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Soledad.
Well, the city's event center here in Brownsville has been converted into a church, essentially today, for the mass that will be given in Kristian Menchaca's honor here in just a few hours. Hundreds of people are expected to attend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): This South Texas border town is in pain. Flags across Brownsville have been lowered in honor of Army Private First Class Kristian Menchaca. Messages of grief are posted everywhere. RACHEL FIGUEROA, BROWNSVILLE RESIDENT: Everybody's hearts were just, you know, broken with this horrendous news.
LAVANDERA: Rachel Figueroa never met Menchaca, but she put up yellow ribbons and flags and watched the 23-year-old soldier's flag- draped casket return from Iraq, one of dozens are people who'd lined roadsides to pay their respects.
FIGUEROA: Just knowing the manner in which you know Kristian was taken from us, it just you know, it hurt. I think it hurt the whole community.
LAVANDERA: For Menchaca's family, it has been an excruciating week, a quiet, tight-knit family, thrust into the spotlight because of the barbaric nature of his killing by Iraqi insurgents.
Days of crying and hugging haven't helped Menchaca's cousin, Juan Vasquez.
JUAN VASQUEZ, MENCHACA'S COUSIN: It just feels so surreal, you know. It feels like this a real long dream I can't wake out of, and just -- it's hard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While many of us may not have had the honor and privilege of knowing PFC Menchaca, his life and loss has impacted each and every one of us.
LAVANDERA: Private Menchaca was a young man, who was newly married and had dreams of becoming a Border Patrol agent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not many young men can pull off having all of these characteristics, but he did. Goal-oriented, firm in his beliefs and convictions, loyal, caring and courageous.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: After the funeral this morning, at the graveside ceremony later on today, Border Patrol Color Guard is expected to be there, we're told, and they will play the bagpipes, their bagpipes, in honor of Kristian Menchaca's intentions of joining the Border Patrol, even though he didn't live long enough to reach that dream -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: That's a nice honor. I'm sure his family appreciates that.
Ed Lavandera for us this morning.
Ed, thank you -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on the program, inside the secret space race. This is the race to give spies the tools they need to do their job. David Ensor goes behind closed doors that are marked secret and shows us exclusively the U.S. spy satellite shop.
S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, one of the big roadblocks to New Orleans' recovery, abandoned vehicles. We'll take a look at why it's taking so long to haul them away.
M. O'BRIEN: Plus, a state of emergency out West. One state's battle against fires that have burned tens of thousands of acres.
That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, a show of support for the president of Afghanistan. The secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, in Kabul today, on her way to the G8 summit in Russia. She met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai amid questions about his leadership abilities.
One day after jogging with an amputee war veteran, President Bush will meet with other military personnel just back from Iraq and Afghanistan. He then heads to a Republican fund-raiser in St. Louis.
In Nevada, a state of emergency there for more than -- as more than 1,000 firefighters are trying to contain several fires sparked by lightning. The fires burned now more than 80,000 acres.
Congress trying to make the Internet safer for kids. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee holding a hearing this afternoon. Executives from MySpace.com and facebook.com set to testify.
A tense, uncertain shuttle countdown begins today at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Shuttle Discovery poised for the second flight after the loss of Columbia. The mission to fly over the objections of NASA's chief engineer and safety officer and the sudden reassignment of a key engineer and astronaut in Houston.
CNN planning live coverage of the launch. I'll be on hand at the Kennedy Space Center, Saturday -- 3:49 Eastern Time is the time -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Two reports this morning on the lingering effects of Hurricane Katrina. Almost $1.5 billion of fraud and waste have been rung up in the hurricane's aftermath.
CNN's Tom Foreman has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Ten months after Katrina the biggest storm of modern times is still claiming victims. Among them, American taxpayers everywhere. Fraud and waste related to Katrina, according to congressional investigators, is now pushing $1.5 billion. It's enough to make even a senator shutter.
Susan Collins is head of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R) MAINE: I have investigated a lot of examples of wasteful federal spending and I have never seen waste on this scale. The magnitude is just incredible. And it seems to be a bottomless pit.
FOREMAN: In "The New York Times'" latest tally of money lost or badly spent, nearly $8 million to renovate a military base in Alabama, which helped only a handful of evacuees. Nearly a quarter million paid to a hotel in Texas for storm victims who allegedly weren't there. About $400 million for trailers that are still empty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Someone set it up and I'm stupid enough to go do it like a fool.
FOREMAN: You never lived in New Orleans, did you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
FOREMAN: Other investigations have found thousands of cases of suspected fraud. People sending bills to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, for work they did not do, for losses of homes, businesses, even children they apparently never had.
COLLINS: For example, FEMA did not verify the identity of all of those seeking assistance. So we had people in jail applying for FEMA aid for rental assistance, believe it or not.
FOREMAN (on camera): FEMA has been investigating many of these claims for months and the agency says all this is not as bad as it seems.
(voice over): Many surplus supplies they say can be used for future disasters. FEMA is now demanding better identification of victims, better control on who gets aid, and it's recovering money that was lost to fraud. It all takes time.
DAVID GARRATT, FEMA: But I would urge taxpayers to believe us when we say that we are making real and dramatic changes to how we do business. No one is more interested in and committed to improving how we do business than we are.
FOREMAN: Watchdog groups say they've heard such promises before.
SCOTT AMEY, PROJECT ON GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT: I think as we're seeing from these reports that there are a lot of things that need to be corrected.
FOREMAN: Somebody better keep the bureaucrats honest, they say, because we're now in a new hurricane season.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Also in New Orleans, that slow cleanup. It's been well documented. A big part of the mess comes from cars, hundreds of dirty, broken down vehicles that still litter the streets. Abandoned, really, where the hurricane left them. After 10 long months, the cars are finally being hauled away.
Here's CNN's Sean Callebs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): One by one, the junk cars that have been a blight on the New Orleans landscape since Katrina are being hauled away. And for residents who had gazed daily at these mud-encrusted, flooded-out vehicles, it's about time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I think they can clean them up a little faster than they've done.
CALLEBS: For 10 months, empty promises from city leaders pledging to have the cars, trucks and boats hauled off. Now Mark Stafford's company, DRC, based in Mobile, Alabama, has a $33 million contract to do the job, and he's pledging to have the 26,000 cars abandoned in New Orleans out of here by the end of August.
MARK STAFFORD, DRC: It's a complete eye sore, and it's -- it's very demoralizing to drive down your neighborhood streets and see this day in and day out.
CALLEBS: Back in March, the city had a contract with a different company to remove the vehicles, but that fell apart after questions were raised about the company's ability to do the work. FEMA has funneled close to $60 million to the state to do the job. But officials say hooking them up and hauling them away isn't as easy as it sounds, because each vehicle, even though it's junk, still belongs to somebody.
CHUCK BROWN, DEPT. OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: So it's really not an easy concept to have somebody's private property taken to a staging area without notifying them and allowing them a chance to claim that property.
CALLEBS: Right now DRC is hauling away about 300 cars a day but hopes to soon be removing close to 1,000 each day. That's what it will take, a thousand a day, to meet Stafford's August deadline.
(on camera): Police are going through tagging all of these vehicles since they are private property, basically saying enough is enough. If you want it, come and get it. If not, the final ride will be on the back of a tow truck to the junkyard.
Sean Callebs, CNN, in New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on the program, more on the Gulf Coast recovery. We'll take to you one town that is so fed up with the pace of rebuilding it is turning to China for help.
And later, he may be homeless, but he is not opinionless. And he has a megaphone. We'll tune in to a cable TV show in Vermont that is stirring up some anger ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) S. O'BRIEN: It's been 10 months since Hurricane Katrina leveled the small town of D'Iberville, Mississippi, and frustrated by the slow pace of recovery there, they are reaching way beyond Washington, D.C., for help. In fact, they're looking to import construction workers from China to help rebuild their city.
The town's mayor is Rusty Quave. He's in D'Iberville in Mississippi.
Nice to see you, Mr. Mayor. Thanks for talking with us.
MAYOR RUSTY QUAVE, D'IBERVILLE, MISSISSIPPI: Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Why are you turning to China for help?
QUAVE: Well, it's not that we're turning to China. Several months ago, the Chinese delegation came in with Mr. Chen (ph) and Tang Du International (ph), a group that had came in and offered help.
So what we did was, we went ahead, and the city of D'Iberville agreed to host a delegation from China and invite the entire Gulf Coast community to come out on a three-day summit to discuss possibilities of construction, financing and rebuilding economic development of the entire Gulf Coast. We do have plenty of help from our United States. Our governor, introduced a cherette (ph) process for rebuilding, and we have taken that plan, and now it's time to try to implement that plan.
We have numerous investors from all over the United States that wants to come in here and invest in millions and billions of dollars of projects. And we know that private enterprise is going to build this Gulf Coast back.
S. O'BRIEN: OK. It all sounds good, but I'm not really understanding, then, the China connection, specifically, when you say you've got lots of investors who are interested in being part of the recovery in your town.
QUAVE: That's right's, we do have a lot of investors. But right now, nobody has came up to the table.
We have one investor right now that bought one piece of property for a casino project, and that project is going forward. But we do have the east side of D'Iberville that we feel like since the governors' renewal plan, our governor, Haley Barbour, did a great job in shortly after the storm rebuilding us, getting us back. And now it's time for long-term recovery.
And it's a opportunity for developers to possibly get financing for these multimillion-dollar projects that so far nobody's came up to the table from the United States. No financial institution or no contracting company has came in and said, hey, we'll help rebuild your economic development, and we'll finance it.
S. O'BRIEN: So the Chinese firms are offering private financing in addition to bringing their own labor in. Right? QUAVE: That -- that's correct. It's not that we went out and employed on them to come in and give us aid or help. We've got plenty of help from all over the United States. The United States has been great in this recovery. It overwhelms up how much support we've had from church groups all over the United States.
But this now is on the recovery side, and we invite any construction company from anywhere in the United States to come in and take a look at what we're getting ready to do in this Gulf Coast as far as rebuilding. And just in the city of D'Iberville alone, we're looking at possibly $4 billion worth of development occurring over the next three to five years.
S. O'BRIEN: How much damage did you have?
QUAVE: The Chinese...
S. O'BRIEN: Give me a sense -- forgive me for interrupting you there, Mr. Mayor. How much damage did you have? What needs to be rebuilt?
QUAVE: OK, we -- right now, we have over 800 homes that has been destroyed. We've lost 80 small businesses in the community. And our infrastructure, our utilities, our water and sewer took a major hit. We have a $4 million upgrade to our water and sewer plants, and just rebuilding roads and lift stations all over the city.
So we do have money. FEMA has given us money to rebuild our sewer plants, and we do have grant money available through economic development of the state of Mississippi, and we're going to tap in to those as a community, as a government, but private enterprise money will come in to this area and help rebuild. And as soon as the economic development gets back, then it will be some type of normalcy, because people will have homes and people will have jobs.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, we'll see if the plan has legs and if it can work. Rusty Quave is the mayor of D'Iberville, in Mississippi. Thanks for talking with us, Mr. Mayor.
QUAVE: Thank you, and have a good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you. Likewise -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, we're going to take you where no reporter has gone before, an exclusive peek inside a secret lab where they build U.S. spy satellites.
And later, a self-described B-list actor with a role that may give him an upgrade to the alpha crowd. Actor Adrian Grenier joins us in the house. You'll catch a rising star if you stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks for being with us.
(NEWSBREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: There is a new eye in the sky this morning. The latest and greatest American spy satellite launched from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. This comes from the satellite shot that delivers sophisticated eyes in the sky for the nation's spies. It's not the kind of place a reporter would be welcome, unless you happen to be one David Ensor, who pushed his way past some doors marked "top secret" and joins us now with the first of a two-party series you will see only on CNN.
David, good morning.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
Well, we kind of talked our way in, and it took a little doing. It's not often, as you say, that you get in to see a spy satellite under construction or a relay satellite under construction, nor that you get into the National Reconnaissance Office, but that's just what we did.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADMIRAL VICTOR SEA, NAVY: I'd much rather be putting my flight suit on.
ENSOR, (voice over): Navy Admiral Victor Sea (ph) is suiting up to take us into the clean room at a low-profile facility in California for a rare look at a government satellite under construction. The suits keep tiny particles on clothes from contaminating the satellites complex electronics.
It's a good size, isn't it.
SEA: It's about four stories tall when all put together and deployed in space.
ENSOR: Is that part of it as well?
SEA: That is. That is the spinning section.
ENSOR: This relay satellite is designed to capture pictures and signals from the nation's spy satellites and transmit them to ground stations.
Officials won't give a precise number, but there are currently between 15 and 20 U.S. intelligence satellites up there in orbit. They are the nation's eyes and ears in space.
The National Reconnaissance Office design, builds and runs satellites that track everything from North Korean missiles and Iran secret nuclear facilities, to individual al Qaeda fugitive high in the Pakistani-Afghan mountains.
Just how good are they? Government officials won't say. Only outside experts will give you an estimate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The really good ones, the high resolution ones, can see details as small as four inches from over 100 miles away.
ENSOR: They are good, but the NRO director says Hollywood, "Enemy of the State" to Tom Clancy movies, has completely exaggerated what they can do.
DONALD KERR, NRO DIRECTOR: One of the biggest misconceptions is the idea that we can put a satellite over some point on the earth and keep it there. The laws of physics are, in fact, immutable.
ENSOR: In fact, each satellite has only minutes to photograph an intelligence target. That's why the U.S. has a constellation of spy satellites amongst its many civilian ones. So do the Russians and the rest of the world. Then there are the inactive satellites out there and the space junk. To avoid collisions, the new relay satellite will use its red boosters with their big silver fuel balls.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: Officials say every spy satellite they have is working flat out in the post-9/11 world. And sources say they are working to develop new types that can't be seen by adversaries, and also types that can identify what's going on, even underground -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: David, I'm curious here. You mention 9/11, the failings of intelligence in the run-up to 9/11. The focus there was on human intelligence, a lack of it. What's the view at the NRO on that whole issue?
ENSOR: Well, their feeling is that they are supportive of that. The idea that the intelligence community thinks is working for it now post-9/11 is get all of those humans and the technical intelligence working for each for each other. If you get information from a human spy, you want to check it. They're notoriously unreliable.
So you get -- you put a satellite over the top and try to see whether or not what the spy is telling you is correct. It's working sort of with a system, with a grid of different intelligence sources that is the best road for it in their view.
M. O'BRIEN: Can't rely on either too much. Got to look at them both.
ENSOR: That's right.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, David Ensor, fascinating. We look forward to tomorrow, part two of this series. David will look at the role of spy satellites in the post-9/11 world and we'll talk about this issue of human intelligence versus technological intelligence, sig-int versus hum-int and all of those acronyms that can be confusing at times but nevertheless fascinating.
Coming up on the program, Nike bets big on the World Cup, and comes out a loser. Swoosh. Just like that. Andy explains, "Minding Your Business."
Plus, a rising star who has our female staffers all atwitter this morning. Actor Adrian Grenier in the house.
S. O'BRIEN: Good looking and talented is what I say. What's not to love?
M. O'BRIEN: The "Entourage" store has a little eye candy coming up for you ladies. So you want to stay tuned.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Talk about life imitating art. On the HBO comedy "Entourage," Adrian Grenier plays an up and coming movie star. In real life Hollywood, his own star is rising. He's appearing with Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway in the new movie "The Devil Wears Prada." He plays Hathaway's boyfriend Nate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNE HATHAWAY, ACTRESS: I didn't have a choice, OK? I -- Miranda asked me and I couldn't say no.
ADRIAN GRENIER, ACTOR: I know. I know. That's your answer for everything lately. I didn't have a choice. Like this job was forced on you. Like you don't make these decisions yourself.
HATHAWAY: You're mad because I work all the time and because I missed your birthday party and I'm sorry.
GRENIER: Oh, come on, what am I, four?
HATHAWAY: You hate runway and Miranda and you think fashion is stupid. You've made that clear.
GRENIER: Andy, I make port wine reductions all day. I'm not exactly in the Peace Corps. You know, I wouldn't care if you were out there pole dancing all night, as long as you did it with a little integrity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Adrian Grenier joins us this morning. Nice to see you.
GRENIER: She's joined the dark side.
S. O'BRIEN: She's joined the dark side. Even pole dancing would have been better.
GRENIER: She's in the fashion world. And, you know, actually, what's unexpected about this movie and what I've learned is that the fashion world isn't as superficial as we all might think, that it actually has a little more integrity than Nate thinks.
S. O'BRIEN: Really? Really? Tell me a little about Nate. He's kind of the suffering boyfriend. Young couple, living together.
GRENIER: He's the good guy boyfriend, and, you know, he thinks that, you know, he's different than Andy is and that the world of fashion -- but, in fact, you know, making port wine reductions isn't that deep either.
S. O'BRIEN: Because he's a chef wannabe who's working in a restaurant.
GRENIER: He's an aspiring chef.
S. O'BRIEN: Do you know a lot about fashion? Are you like a fashionist -- whatever the male version of fasionista would be?
GRENIER: I'm learning more and more everyday. And apparently it's all about shoes.
S. O'BRIEN: Why, yes it is. That's a very good and an important first lesson.
GRENIER: I had no idea!
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it is.
GRENIER: Very interesting.
S. O'BRIEN: And you can never have too many black shoes, is the most important rule.
GRENIER: I didn't know that.
S. O'BRIEN: You know what I find interesting about "Entourage" and also this movie. You play regular guys, kind of in the middle of sort of craziness. I mean, real situations. Do you like that? You know, but sort of good-hearted people that everybody focuses on in, you know, the fashion world or within the world of Hollywood agents?
GRENIER: Well, you know, I think that's one reason why I was offered this role, is because people see my sort of down to earth nature. And David Frankel (ph), the director, thought that that would play well in this character. And it's not unlike "Entourage," where Vince is being grounded by his friends while he navigates through the treacherous world of Hollywood.
S. O'BRIEN: Who are you more like? Nate or Vince?
GRENIER: Well, you know, Nate's a nice, good-hearted, loving, dedicated guy. So I'd say more like Nate.
S. O'BRIEN: But is true? You say that, but is it true?
GRENIER: You know, what is truth?
S. O'BRIEN: Have you been surprised at how well "Entourage" is doing? I mean, we've talked to Jeremy Piven about that a little bit, and he always seems so happy and so amazed a little bit about the success of that show.
GRENIER: You know, I'm just excited. I'm loving the ride and it's all new for me. I never expected it. So it's like, you know, I'm just waiting for the next day and to see what happens next.
S. O'BRIEN: You play in that show sort of an A-list celebrity. Do you learn things about the life you're sort of growing into, with the success of this movie, which everyone says is hilarious and great. Are you going to grow into that role?
GRENIER: "Entourage" is like a dry run, hopefully, for my career. But, no. You know, I always say I am a B-list actor playing an A-list star.
S. O'BRIEN: But that could change with the success of this.
GRENIER: We'll see.
S. O'BRIEN: Adrian Grenier, nice to see you. "The Devil Wears Prada" opens on Friday. We wish a really terrific success. Early word is that it's great.
M. O'BRIEN: Some live pictures coming in now. This comes from our affiliate WPVI out of Philadelphia. And what you're looking at there is Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Some heavy rains causing serious flooding there today. Although it looks as if the rain has stopped right now. What you're dealing with there is saturated ground and rising river, such as the Schuylkill River and the Susquehanna. And they will not crest until later this week. So we're going to watch this flooding situation all up and down the eastern seaboard for quite some time to come.
I saw someone at the weather service saying the confluence of these storms is a once in 300-year event. It's really something.
"CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next. Daryn Kagan is back. Daryn, good morning, good to see you.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's good to be back, Miles.
Money news on a midweek edition of "LIVE TODAY." It's a rush to refinance. Interest rates on student loans shoot up Saturday, unless you act now.
Plus, life and death drama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So this is one of the resuscitation bays and this would be one of the ones that we would use.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Inspired by the TV show, one hospital welcomes family members into the E.R.
And something completely different. A Kiss on caffeine. The high energy rock band opens a coffee house.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my Kiss wife and my Kiss children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: May I recommend the frozen rockachino?
"LIVE TODAY" at the top of the hour, right after AMERICAN MORNING.
Miles, I could see you going there.
M. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this. Was that one of the Kiss guys without the makeup?
KAGAN: No. That was an overgrown fan who is still stuck in 1975.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, OK. All right. I think we're going to get right over there.
S. O'BRIEN: Cute wife and kids, though. All right, Daryn, thanks.
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Daryn.
S. O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" up next. Hey, Andy.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: Hey, Soledad.
Which preppy clothing company is set to go public today? We'll tell you about that. Also how the World Cup nicked Nike. Coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Live pictures now. The city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. You're looking at the Skukel (ph) River, with the named expressway behind it, named of the same name. Does that make sense, named of the same name?
In any case, the Skukel River is among the rivers that are still on the way toward cresting. The cresting will not occur, even though the rain has passed, for a couple of days, and so we have problems all throughout this part of the world. As a matter of fact, 46 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties now state of emergency, because of flooding.
Let's move to the north, to Bucks County, live pictures there. This comes from our affiliate, WPVI, and you can see the extensive flooding there. Once again, weather seems to be pretty good right now. But obviously the days of rain that we've witnessed, leaving a huge problem there, as huge parts of this highway interchange are inundated. We have reports also in the Scranton area of people being rescued from rooftops by the Coast Guard. So the flooding story a big story all along the Eastern seaboard. We'll watch it for you all day today on CNN, and into the coming days, as a matter of fact.
(BUSINESS HEADLINES)
S. O'BRIEN: Coming up at the top of the hour, late developments from the Middle East to tell you about. The Israeli military making a move to rescue a captured soldier.
And this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody needs to put there selves in my shoes and know that this could happen to them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: A criminal swiped her identity. She's the one who has been arrested over and over and over, and over again. We've got one woman's story, just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: A rent dispute at a mobile home park in England sent one of the tenants over the edge apparently. Take a look at this. This is what the landlord's house looks like now. Yes, that's not good. A 52-year-old man, upset about getting a letter demanding the rent, which was due, so he basically smashed up the landlord's house with a backhoe. Look that. He just dropped the backhoe bucket down, down, down, took about 10 minutes, also destroyed two luxury cars. And then when the cops showed up, he smashed their car with them in it. They're OK. Nobody, in fact, was seriously hurt. The backhoe smasher, though, was taken to the hospital after saying he felt a little bit woozy. Apparently calm as cucumber during the entire thing.
M. O'BRIEN: I bet he doesn't get good a good reference from that landlord.
S. O'BRIEN: No, I bet he might get a little bit of prison time in fact.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, that's right, he doesn't need a reference where he's going.
S. O'BRIEN: No, he sure does not.
Coming up tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, my exclusive interview with singer and activist Bono. One year after the Live Aid concerts, did the promise of aid to Africa live up to reality? And what's needed now? U2's Bono tomorrow on AMERICAN LIVE. We begin at 6:00 a.m. Eastern.
M. O'BRIEN: Just blew by, didn't it.
S. O'BRIEN: It did.
Let's get right to Daryn Kagan. She's going to take you through the next couple of hours on "CNN LIVE TODAY."
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