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American Morning
Tsunami Warning Issued For Pacific Rim; Doctors Look into How to Speed up Heart Attack Health Care
Aired November 15, 2006 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: And we begin with breaking news. A tsunami warning is effective for Japan. It's expected to hit in 10 minutes. Plus, at home, tornado warnings. We'll have a look at both of those.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Wheels down in Moscow. Air Force One drops in for gas and the president tries to refuel a strained relationship.
S. O'BRIEN: And in the hot seat the military's top general in the Middle East is heading to Capitol Hill facing some tough questions on Iraq. All that, and much more on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome back, everybody. It's Wednesday November 15. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks for being with us.
We begin with a breaking news story. A six-foot tsunami maybe heading for northern Japan and parts of Russia right now. Northern Japan preparing for a wave of at least 6-feet high to crash on shore perhaps in less than two hours. Our Severe Weather Expert Chad Myers is watching it all from the CNN Center.
Chad what do we know?
CHAD MYERS, CNN SEVERE WEATHER EXPERT, AMERICAN MORNING: There is also now a tsunami advisory for Hawaii itself. They don't think it will be a destructive tsunami and it is a long way from where this was, but the wave could still be moving. It moves about 600 miles per hour.
Think of a tsunami, think of an earthquake as throwing a rock in a pond. As the rock hits the pond, the waves come out from it. So it has to take some time. If you're close to the tsunami, if you're close to the earthquake, you might have two minutes to run.
But if you have hours to run, as the wave gets wider and wider and wider. In about 10 minutes it will hit the north shore here, of Hokkaido. Now Sapporo, you're on the other side, but you still could get a storm surge here, a wave surge, even on these other south-facing shores. We always think about the wave coming and hitting that shore. The wave could actually come around a little bit as well and come up into the more populated areas from Tokyo all the way back over to Kawasaki. Now look how far it is over to Hawaii. This is how we're going to know that we have a lot of time before it could hit Hawaii, because this wave has to travel all the way across the Pacific Ocean. There are no advisories, right now, for Alaska, for British Columbia, for California, nothing yet. But now the new advisory there, for a wave. We'll have to see how much that makes a difference for the folks there.
Now, back to our story here, across the Southeast, tornadoes on the ground overnight, many reports of damage and injuries. If you live in the Southeast today, you need to pay attention. This is going to be a spring day, a tornado outbreak day.
Back to you guys, in the newsroom.
M. O'BRIEN: Chad, quick question. As those waves go along and get farther from their source, do they lose some of their force?
MYERS: They lose a little bit of their height, but not a lot. It's actually very strange. You think of a wake of a boat, by the time it goes out a couple of hundred feet, it's not much left. But these waves, they travel long distances and stay big. It really depends on your coastline and your shore.
If you're in a very deep area, where this was, this was 20 miles deep. And this was in the Kuril Trench; these are the Kuril Islands. There is Russia there. So Russia expecting a wave as well, as the water goes this way. The wave goes that way. But a very sparsely populated area there in Russia. We'll keep watching it here. This is more populated down toward Japan, obviously.
M. O'BRIEN: Chad Myers, thank you very much.
The man in charge of U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq is heading to the Hill this morning. He will face some tough questions from newly emboldened Democratic leaders pushing for a phased troop withdrawal out of Iraq. Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon with a preview.
Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN MORNING: Good morning, Miles.
Well, General John Abizaid, the head of the U.S. Central Command, will be on Capitol Hill most of the day today. He will be the first senior commander, of course, to testify about the war in Iraq since the midterm elections.
General Abizaid has a long reputation as somebody who is pretty darn candid. The last time he was on Capitol Hill, he talked about the possibility of sectarian violence in Iraq actually turning into civil war.
Today he essentially walks into a four-way political buzz saw on the Hill. Democrats are calling for a troop withdrawal to begin in as soon as four months. That is something that concerns the military. They don't want to see an artificial deadline.
Republicans, some of them led by John McCain, calling for more troops to be sent to Iraq. And of course there's that Baker-Hamilton commission, the Iraq study group, as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Everyone seems to be coming up with recommendations these days. So everyone will be watching General Abizaid to see what markers he puts down, if any, how candid he might be. And if we suddenly do see some new level of candor from General Abizaid, the questions may be, where was that in the weeks before the election? Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, he is a candid person, as you say. It will be interesting to see how the might change. The question, I guess, on a lot of people's minds is we've heard rumblings from some people in the senior staff that they would like more troops there. Is there any sense that he's among those that think that's a good idea?
STARR: No. I would think that would be very doubtful. General Abizaid, for years now, has been very much on the record that Iraq's problems -- there's no military solution that the U.S. military can provide. That Iraqis must step up, and it is the job of the new Iraqi government.
Just two days ago he was in Baghdad talking to Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki, really giving that stern warning that time is running short in the view of the United States; that the Iraqi government needs to step up.
What the generals appear to be focusing on is the notion of timetables, to turn over province-by-province to those Iraqi security forces, but essentially still be there to help out if it doesn't work as fast as everybody hopes. They don't want to see artificial deadlines. You're still likely to hear a lot today of that phrase "conditions on the ground." That's what the military still appears to be focusing on -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: We know the conditions aren't so great. Barbara Starr, at the Pentagon. Thank you.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: President Bush is just arriving in Russia this morning on a stopover on his way to the Asia Pacific Summit. The president arrived in Moscow for a very short meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. CNN's Ryan Chilcote, live for us in Moscow this morning.
Ryan, what is on the top of their agenda?
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN MORNING: Well, Soledad, it's quite unusual that this meeting is taking place at all.
In fact, this was just basically supposed to be a gas-a-go operation. Air Force One was just supposed to stop at the airport, refuel and head on. But at President Putin's initiative, the two presidents and their wives will meet at the airport for about an hour and a half while Air Force One refuels there. The only thing on the agenda, according to both sides, is really for the presidents and their wives to make nice during that refueling visit. This visit coming at a really difficult time between the United States and Russia in terms of relations. They've been deteriorating for the last couple of years. And both administrations, at this particular point, really feel they need one another in order to accomplish their immediate policy goals.
For the United States, that's getting Russia on board the U.N. Security Council resolution to enforce sanctions against Iran if it continues with its uranium enrichment program. For Russia, that means getting and U.S. support, maintaining U.S. support, for it's bid to joint the World Trade Organization.
They're going to meet up in two-day's time, at that APEC Summit, but they wanted to get together before those substantive talks there, to make nice, if you will -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Ryan Chilcote for us this morning. Ryan, thank you very much.
Also happening this morning, big news of a major airline merger proposal, involving U.S. Airways and Delta. We'll have more details on that story straight ahead.
Senate Republicans are choosing their new leaders today. Mississippi Senator Trent Lott is vying for the number two slot. He's up against Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. Alexander says he's got the votes to win. Lott, you might remember, quit as majority leader back in 2002 after he made some racially insensitive marks at a birthday party for the late Strom Thurman.
The original Al Jazeera English language channel hits the airwaves today. The original Al Jazeera, which is bankrolled by Qatar's royal family, is hugely popular in the Arab world. Right now it's only available online here in the U.S.
Former Hewlett-Packard Chairwoman Patricia Dunn will be in a California courtroom today. She is being arraigned in connection with the Hewlett-Packard corporate spying scandal. Dunn and four others face fraud, identity theft and conspiracy charges for their roles in HP's botched probe into board room links to journalists.
And a report in Pennsylvania shows that 19,000 people contracted infections while they were staying in hospitals in that state, in 2005. That's a 64 percent jump over the previous. It's unclear if it's just better recordkeeping responsible for that big jump -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: The L.A. police department is fending off a lot of heat after seemingly damning videotapes hit the Internet. Did police there use excessive force? AMERICAN MORNING's Chris Lawrence has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN MORNING (voice over): This home video captures an LAPD officer pepper spraying a suspect after he's handcuffed and inside the patrol car. We're blurring the face of the suspect Ben Barker, as part of an agreement with his attorney. The witness who shot the video could tell Barker was hurting.
CALVIN MOSS, AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER: He was tearing. There was a lot of saliva, he was drooling. And he looked very -- in pain.
LAWRENCE: The officers arrested him after Barker assaulted a store worker in Venice Beach. The videotape shows Barker complaining and yelling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop! Stop!
LAWRENCE: But eventually he voluntarily gets in the car.
JOHN RAPHLING, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: He's subdued. He's submitted to their authority. He's handcuffed. He's helpless. He can't do anything to them.
LAWRENCE: Attorney John Raphling admits the officers did loosen Barker's handcuffs when he complained they were too tight. Chief William Bratton says the officers showed restraint, based on behavior not seen on the video tape.
CHIEF WILLIAM BRATTON, LAPD: He kicked at Officer Dusing (ph); lunged toward Sergeant Barrus (ph) and baited Officer Gooderman (ph) by spitting on him. Barker spat inside the police car and then vandalized it during transportation to the jail.
LAWRENCE: This arrest happened last year. The officer who spray Barker resigned shortly thereafter. Chief Bratton says after a full investigation, the prosecutor found the officers did not violate the law.
BRATTON: Pepper spray is here to stay. Let's make no mistake about that. It's an appropriate tool to deal with uncooperative individuals.
LAWRENCE: Last week the FBI launched an investigation into a separate incident in Hollywood. Police say William Cardanis ran when ordered to stop and resisted arrest. Cardanis says he struggled because he could not breathe.
Civil rights attorney Connie Rice says officers are in a tough position.
CONNIE RICE, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: They have to make a split- second decision that may or may not get them killed. In that assessment, does LAPD have a culture that has an overreaction in terms of force?
LAWRENCE: A questions investigators and the LAPD are still trying to answer.
(END VIDEOTAPE) S. O'BRIEN: In America, tempers flaring at a peewee football game in Corpus Christi, Texas. Take a look at this videotape. This is just crazy. Look at this.
OK, coach argues with a ref. Then the coach punches ref, knocks him out, knocks him unconscious. The parents step in, you can see them all running in now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call the cops!
S. O'BRIEN: "Call the cops," he says. And watch, someone comes in and just kicks -- yep, yep -- just a bystander. Another parent kicks another parent. Completely out of control. This is not the five and six-year-olds who are playing. It is the grownups. That is ridiculous.
Also this morning, investigators piecing together the cause of that deadly plane crash in South Bend, Indiana. Five bodies have been recovered along with the wreckage of the small Cessna. All the victims were from Iowa.
In Houston, remember the story we were reporting on a while back? Oh, this terrible sadistic attack on a teenager. Violence -- there was a party, the man who is accused of attacking the teenager had swastikas on his boot and his wallet, according to investigators. His name is David Henry Tuck (ph).
He now faces charges of aggravated sexual assault. The victim was a 17-year-old boy; it happened last April. Prosecutors say Tuck was a skin head and his racist beliefs prompted the attack against the Hispanic victim.
Let's turn to Fort Lauderdale, in Florida, where election officials thought -- the stamp you're looking at right there, which was used in an absentee ballot -- they thought it was a rare gem.
Nope. It was a fake. Broward County election officials believed it was the inverted Jenny Stamp. That would mean it would be worth about $300,000. But it's a counterfeit, so it's worth nothing. And there was also no name on the envelope, so even the vote was completely useless.
M. O'BRIEN: Counterfeited everywhere, I guess you could say.
This just in, we're following very closely right now a tsunami warning for the northern part of the Pacific Rim. Take a look. This is NHK, Japanese television, and they have cameras posted on coastal areas.
You see the blinking areas there, that tip portion there, can't telestrate for you right at the moment. But that tipped orange portion on the right mid-part of your screen is the most area of concern. Potential six and a half foot in height tsunami headed in their direction.
This came after an earthquake. Let's take a look at where the earthquake was, just to the northeast of Japan, along the Kuril Islands. We'll show you that earthquake location if we can in just a moment. It's got a 7.7 magnitude quake. There it is. Which happened just about 40 minutes ago.
This tsunami making its way -- imagine, as Chad puts it, imagine a stone dropping in the middle of a pond and the ripples going out. You see northern portions of that peninsula of Russia there, the Kuril Islands, Russia and Japan.
Then we just heard, a moment ago, as Chad told us that there is a tsunami advisory for Hawaii, which, I guess that's like a tornado watch would be, right, Chad?
MYERS: Exactly.
M. O'BRIEN: A lower degree of concern, but nevertheless, beware, be listening.
MYERS: It's the first indication that there could be a tsunami. As the wave is generated and it comes across the Pacific. There are buoys in the Pacific. As those buoys go up and down, they are tsunami advisory buoys. They will figure out what the wave will be, if there is one.
They do not expect a destructive tsunami. But they do expect an increase in wave height there in Hawaii. Anyway, it's going to take a while for it to go. You were saying 7.1. That's what the USGS originally had, U.S. Geological Survey. Now they bumped it to 7.8.
The meteorological service in Japan is now saying it was an 8.1, which is now significantly bigger. Because an 8.1 is twice as big as an 8.0, is twice as big as a 7.9. And they told two friends, and so on. So this could be more significant than maybe they even think.
M. O'BRIEN: Now, to put it in perspective, the tsunami we all remember, which affected, of course, huge swathes of Southeastern Asia, that was a magnitude 9, as I recall.
MYERS: Yes, it was, a 9, 9.1.
M. O'BRIEN: So that is many times greater magnitude. But there are many other factors that are involved here. Like the depth and what kind of -- how the plates shifted, that kind of thing.
MYERS: Absolutely. If an island literally sunk, that pushes so much water out. Or if an island was pushed up, that also pushes water out, in all different directions. If it was a solitary wave; it was just one wave, or is it a series of ripples, it depends how far it will go. One wave will go a lot farther than a bunch of them will. And one wave will usually be, the solitary wave, will usually be a lot higher than a bunch of little waves. It all depends on how it shook.
M. O'BRIEN: It's possible the plates could have shifted like this, which wouldn't have caused as great a problem, right?
MYERS: Right. It is in a subduction zone, that is why this is darker. This is the Kuril Trench and it is a subduction zone. So it is awful like the same topography that they did have on the earthquake that we know.
OK, now we have a tsunami warning in effect, which includes Alaska. Alaska, from Dutch Harbor all the way to Uttutu (ph), Alaska. A tsunami watch in effect for British Columbia. The Alaska coastal areas from the northern tip of Vancouver all the way up to Dutch Harbor. So the tsunami warning now for Alaska. You know the part of Alaska we're talking about, all the way up and around the islands.
M. O'BRIEN: Sure. It's actually not that far away when you look at it on the map, yes.
MYERS: It really isn't. If you ever watched "The Most Dangerous Job" or whatever that show is --
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, there you are. Suddenly, you're in Alaska.
MYERS: Where all the fisherman come out of here, exactly. All the way up there from Dutch Harbor all the way to Atuu (ph), Alaska.
S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Chad, can I ask you a quick question?
MYERS: Go ahead.
S. O'BRIEN: What timeline are we looking at? Everything I've been reading says 7:15 a.m., not any earlier than that. What time could some of the biggest impact be made?
MYERS: Let's go back down. Shawn (ph), let's go back to Hokkaido and also Honshu. It depends on how close you are to the epicenter of the earthquake. The tsunami usually travels somewhere about 600 miles per hour. So, as it's coming in -- as it is coming in the farther and the closer you are to the system, to the earthquake, you're going to get it first.
Then all the way back down and around will be much slower. So, when we get back down to Honshu -- also now because of the direction of the wave, it's not directly on shore. It's kind of coming around. It appears Tokyo will have a significant wave, maybe half a meter, that's 18 inches, but it's still enough in the coastal areas, depending where you are in a river basin or in a tributary. That could certainly bring the water. They want everyone on the Pacific Coast of Japan, they want you away from the water. Now they want you away from it in Alaska as well.
M. O'BRIEN: And the places that are most at risk are places where it gets very shallow near to the beach, right? That's when the waves really get -- the magnitude of them gets greater.
MYERS: Well, you have to think about how the wave comes even on shore in Atlantic City, you have this little ripple way out there where it's deep. Maybe it hits a shelf or something. And you start to get that little crest. As it starts to come on shore, you have all this water now getting into a smaller and smaller area. And it bubbles up and that's when you get the larger wave, depending on the topography of the land. Rather than a big sharp, steep cliff. If it falls off a cliff, like it does in British Columbia, or in Oregon, then the wave just kind of slaps the shore and goes back, there won't be nearly much damage. Plus, people, if there is a cliff, there won't be people living on the shore, will there? So there you go.
M. O'BRIEN: Good point. All right, Chad Myers. We'll have more on this when we come back. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back. Today's top stories: President Bush is now in Russia. He's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the airport before he heads to Asia for a week.
America's top in the Middle East, General John Abizaid, is delivering his war briefing to Congress today.
M. O'BRIEN: A week away from your road trip over the interstate and through the malls to grandmother's house. A check of what it will cost you to fill up your sleigh now. Triple A reports the national average of unleaded gas now at $2.22 a gallon.
Shoot, grandmother could live further away, or farther away, I guess. And with prices falling more people are heading back to the bigger rides. AMERICAN MORNING's Dan Lothian joining us from Washington with more on that.
Hello, Dan.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN MORNING: Good morning, Miles.
Well, you know, over the last couple of days we've seen gas prices in some markets across the country trickling up just a little bit. But as you mention, overall the trend is going down. For some people, that means a return to old habits.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOTHIAN (voice over): After months of severe pain at the pump, call it the recovery.
TOM LIDDY, J.D. POWER: When there's been a gas price hike, people have moved to small cars, but then they very quickly, in the United States, when gas prices go down, get big vehicles very quickly regain favor.
LOTHIAN: With gas prices well off their highs nationwide, some experts say more and more Americans seem to be pulling into SUV dealerships.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From what we see Americans have very short memories.
LOTHIAN: Sales Manager David Melkonian sees evidence firsthand.
DAVID MELKONIAN, SALES MANAGERS: They're telling you that, gee, prices of gas is down, now it makes it a little bit more comfortable to buy a vehicle like this.
LOTHIAN: Industry analyst J.D. Power says customer loyalty for bigger vehicles is on the rise. Internet site Cars.com says it is traffic is shifting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're seeing people search much less for hybrids and the smallest cars.
LOTHIAN: Still, some people, like Bruce McCarthy, are holding on to habits they adopted during the recent run on gas prices.
BRUCE MCCARTHY, COMMUTER: I'm now working at home and taking the train because it's a better solution.
LOTHIAN: Other commuters, like Houston Smith, say they'll eventually return to their big cars, but are waiting until gas prices drop a little lower.
HOUSTON SMITH, COMMUTER: I don't think they've gotten low enough yet to even enjoy driving that truck the way I'd like to.
LOTHIAN: After all, gas is still averaging more than $2 a gallon. The highest, $2.48 out West. If prices stay flat, or fall, some experts say more commuters will give up trains, bikes and small cars. What will change this cycle?
LIDDY: If they believe the gas prices are going to be high and stay there for a long time, and we haven't seen that yet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LOTHIAN: And experts say not just staying high for a long period of time but, perhaps, hitting a shocking level like $4 a gallon. Something like that, they believe, could cause people to make lifestyle changes for a lifetime -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: How quickly we forget. It's interesting. Tell us about the dealer incentives. Is that part of this equation as well?
LOTHIAN: You know, that's a good point. It really is part of the equation because when gas prices were so high, a lot of people weren't buying these vehicles, so they were sitting on the lots. The sales weren't being made. Now there are a lot of those vehicles out there. So to entice people they have a lot of great incentives. People are sitting back saying I can get a good deal on an SUV and they buy it.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Dan Lothian, in Washington. Thank you.
Still to come on the program, they're supposed to know what's inside your luggage, but did they know inside information about surprise inspections? AMERICAN MORNING is back with more in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Bringing you up to date on the tsunami. It struck 6:20, 6:15, Eastern Time. A little more than an hour ago an earthquake struck, I should say, northeast of Japan. There you see the red dot there. That peninsula there is parts of Russia.
We are watching now as a tsunami warning is in place for northern Japan, and beyond, and also coastal portions of Russia. Six and a half-foot wave is anticipated. There are buoys all in that section of the Pacific. We're watching to get more information for you as it becomes available.
The tricky thing about tsunamis is in the deep water, the wave may not be nearly as big or seemingly as strong as it is when it gets to the shallow areas near the coast -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk some business news now. You know what -- before we go to business news. Ali, standby for a second. Looks like we're getting new information on the tsunami. So let's quickly check back with Chad with that.
Hey, Chad. Thanks.
MYERS: Hi, Soledad. Yes, you have tsunami warning, you have tsunami watch and you have tsunami advisory. The advisory is the lowest. That's where Hawaii was. Now, Hawaii is in tsunami watch, with an expected arrival time of a wave, some wave, at 7:20 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time. That's a while from now. It has to go all the way across the Pacific. We'll keep you up to date if this becomes a warning.
S. O'BRIEN: How far out would they know if it's going to be -- obviously in a tsunami, what you want to know the size and force of the wave that's going to hit. Will they be able to tell far enough out to warn people to get to higher land?
MYERS: Absolutely. No question about it. Because we did not have the tsunami sensors back in Indonesia, where they needed them a couple years ago, they have plenty of them here in the Pacific. Don't have too many in the Atlantic yet. They're working on that. The ones in the Pacific, they'll know exactly to the minute, probably, and to the foot how big the wave will be if it hits Hawaii.
S. O'BRIEN: OK. So, now, we're watch Hawaii. We're watching Alaska, we are watching Japan, we are watching Russia as well.
MYERS: Exactly.
S. O'BRIEN: ALL right. Thank you, Chad.
We'll continue to check in with Chad, for more information. Let's now turn to business news.
Ali, thank you for the momentary delay. A big story, of course, is this airline merger or purchase, I guess.
ALI VELSHI, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN MORNING: Yes. We've been following news that the CEO of America West -- of US Airways, which merged with America West -- has sent a letter to the CEO of Delta Air Lines, which is in bankruptcy protection at the moment, to say we'd like to buy you up, for $8 billion in cash and stock.
Delta remains under bankruptcy protection. This would make this one of the world's biggest airlines. U.S. Airways really covets some of the lines that Delta has. It would, together, perhaps, according to US Airways, create a very strong airline.
The only response we've had from Delta right now is a reiteration of a response they had once before, to say they are going to emerge from bankruptcy as an independent airline.
That's fantastic, except if I were a traveler or an investor, or a creditor of Delta, I'd like to know they might be even be talking to these guys about what could potentially be a better deal.
M. O'BRIEN: Reading the tea leaves there, is this a hostile approach then?
VELSHI: Well, US Airways is causing it a proposal. Delta, apparently, is calling it nothing. We'll have to see. What would be always the best is if there are at least friendly discussions, which may or may not lead to anything. But if I were Delta, Delta's not had the best record of running this airline in the last few years. If there's a better plan, US Air and America West together have not done too badly out of this merger from 2005.
M. O'BRIEN: At that time a lot of people were skeptical about that merger.
VELSHI: Including myself. Yes. a lot of people were skeptical about it. So let's see what happens. It would make everybody happier if we had some strong airlines.
M. O'BRIEN: Indeed. Ali Velshi.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Ali. Thank you. We'll check in with you again, in a little bit.
(MARKET REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Ali thank you. We'll check in with you again in a little bit. And a reminder, we are watching Hawaii now, Alaska, Japan and Russia as well. As you can see here, from this map of Japan, in the red area that's sort of flashing on and off, tsunami warnings and watches as we wait for the tsunami to make land fall.
Chad is watching that for us. We've got a short break. We're back in just a moment though, with an update.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) M. O'BRIEN: Breaking news, a tsunami warning in Japan, Alaska and Hawaii on alert as well.
S. O'BRIEN: Also, mass confusion about that mass kidnapping in Baghdad. How could gunman abduct dozens of people and not be caught? We'll have an insider's view straight ahead.
M. O'BRIEN: And we'll check in with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, new insight on how to survive a heart attack. All that and more ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
S. O'BRIEN: And good morning. Welcome back, everybody. It is Wednesday, November 15th. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks for being with us. Let's get to the tsunami warning in Japan and elsewhere. Chad Myers at the CNN Weather Center watching it for us. Chad?
MYERS: Good morning, Miles. A little bit over an hour ago, up here in the Curl Islands, this is Hokkaido, here's Honshu, there's Tokyo there, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake was sensed there along the Curl Islands, in the subduction zone. There was a wave generated, we do know that, of at least two meters, they are calling, but it could be much bigger than that in some spots. Now here's a map NOAA, and it's a little bit course, but I want you to get a feel for it.
Here's Japan, there's Russia and here's the west coast of U.S. There's Hawaii right there. Every line, different color, is an hour. So this is how many hours it is going to take, one, two, three, four, five, to get all the way, if it continues, across to the west coast. Now there is a tsunami watch right here from Vancouver, all the way up to Atu (ph). And then Atu all the way over to Dutch Harbor there is a warning. And there is now a tsunami watch for Hawaii. They upgraded from just an advisory to a watch they first thought it was a 7.7 earthquake. Now they know it was closer to an 8.1. Back to you guys.
M. O'BRIEN: Chad, we're talking about a wave perhaps six feet high, but do they know that for sure at this point?
MYERS: No, they have no idea that it is that big. That's the first estimate. When it did hit -- I'm sure we've already had some land fall in Hokkaido. So, they will know where that is, but they also don't know which way it really went yet. I mean, there could be a force going one way, where the wave actually pulls out in one direction. It could be a south eastward wave, it could be a north eastward wave. They don't know that yet. The sensors will have to tell them that. Hokkaido, up there, the northern tip, the first spot to get hit and then a couple of hours from now, they are worried about the Alaskan Islands, the Alaskan chain, as we will see that wave move all the way that way. Of course, that would be the first place in the U.S. to get hit.
M. O'BRIEN: Chad Myers at the Weather Center watching the tsunami warning for us now. We will keep you posted on it.
Happening also this morning, America's top general in the Middle East on the hot seat on Capital Hill today. General John Abizaid taking questions from the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. Expect Iraq to be the primary focus, of course. Democrats hope Abizaid will express a need for an immediate change of course in Iraq.
In just a few hours, Senate Republicans will be choosing their new leaders and Mississippi Senator Trent Lott vying for the number two slot, as we told you yesterday. He is up against Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. Alexander says he has the votes to win. Lott, as you'll recall, quit as majority leader in 2002 after making racially insensitive remarks at a birthday party for the late Senator Strom Thurmond.
The controversial Arab television network Al Jazeera debuts in the United States today in English. It's available only online. None of the country's major satellite or cable providers planning to carry it. Al Jazeera covers international news from an Arab perspective. The network is banned in several countries. The Bush administration has blasted Al Jazeera as playing to terrorists by airing messages from Osama bin Laden.
No charges will be filed against two Los Angeles police officers caught punching a suspect on tape. Legal authorities say the suspect was resisting arrest. They say the officers were doing what they had to get him in hand cuffs. L.A. Police Chief William Bratton will now decide whether the violent arrest violated any department policy, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: In Iraq today there are lots of questions about exactly how that mass kidnapping went off. How exactly did 80 gunmen, who were dressed as police, storm a university building in broad daylight, cordon off an area for 20 minutes and escape with dozens of hostages in a convey, unchallenged at any point by security forces. There are conflicting reports today on just how many hostages are being held, how many hostages have now been freed and arrest warrants are out for several high-ranking police officials who are responsible for security in the area.
Joining us this morning to talk about all of this is Daniel O'Shea. He is a former coordinator of the State Department's hostage working group in Baghdad. Nice to see you Daniel. Thanks so much for talking with us.
DANIEL O'SHEA, FMR. HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: Good morning Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: When you hear all these details, does this -- I mean, how brazen it was, how coordinated it was, how organized it was, does all of this say to you inside job?
O'SHEA: It says a number of things, Soledad. It definitely was a -- you know, the reports are coming in. They were in uniforms, police uniforms, you know, a combination of old and new. And it's more than just -- if it just somebody in one of the ministries, because you have got a lot militias that are running around that have uniforms as well. You know, beside the fact that you can buy an Iraqi police uniform on the street for ten dollars or so. So it -- but it sounds coordinated. It sounds like there were ministry vehicles, you know, official looking vehicles, which is why everyone on the street assumed it was some official raid, because these raids happen all the time. You have police commando battalions that will show up on a site, multiple vehicles, multiple individuals and they will take over a site. So, for that to have happened is not all that out of the ordinary and why the average people on the street are going to standby and just think, wow, it's another raid.
S. O'BRIEN: The numbers are all over the place, but we were told somewhere around 55 hostages, at the end, were taken and most of them released at the end of the day. So what would be the point? Is it a speedy negotiation process that released them? Is it to make some kind of a point and just release them at the end of the day?
O'SHEA: Well, again, it comes down to who took them. It sounds like they were driven to Abalya Dot (ph). It's a neighborhood just south of Sadr City, opposite a Shiite stronghold, which means, again, who -- what kind of message are they sending? It sounds like, from the reports, that they were lining people up and pulling out I.D.s, reading names off. That tells me that it's along sectarian lines, that they're lining these people up and the ones that they're letting go are potentially the Shia and the ones they're holding on to are potentially Sunni, if it's along a pure sectarian kidnapping, but it might be also driving a political message, as well.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, although I had heard that actually some of the people who were kidnapped -- it was a mixed group, you know, partly Shia, partly Sunnis, that were taken and kidnapped. Again, I know a lot of the details are still a little bit foggy. Why the Ministry of Higher Education? Why target that group?
O'SHEA: Again, I can't -- you know, it's going to come down to who is in the leadership in that group? I know that obviously in education you have got members from the Kurdish, Shia, Sunni faculty. Obviously pre-invasion, a lot of the university professors were members of the Baath party and I know a lot of Sunnis, you know, were typically higher education levels. So, it could be -- that's where, again, it could be a message driven from a Shia militia that is trying to send a message. But again, it is going to come down to -- it does sounds like it was a Shia group, just simply because they took them to a Shia stronghold, if they did, indeed, go to that area south of Sadr City. They could be sending a message. But, you know, again, as more and more people are being let loose, more details will be coming out.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, we'll wait for those. Daniel O'Shea, thank you for talking with us. He is a former hostage negotiator and also the former coordinator of the State Department's hostage working group. Appreciate it.
O'SHEA: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: We're still following a breaking story. A tsunami warning issued for Japan this morning after a magnitude 8.1 earthquake. Rob Marciano is going to join us to talk about, coming up. And surviving a heart attack, what you need to know about angioplasty, when it works and when it doesn't. We'll have a House Call from Dr. Gupta when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you Chad. Those warnings following, as we told you, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake. I think just about the moment it was happening our meteorologist Rob Marciano was here talking about earthquakes, coincidentally. And a house in, of all places Buffalo, New York, is being built to try to come up with better ways to survive earthquakes.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's true and in buffalo, you mentioned it during the break, that you don't think of Buffalo for earthquakes. But it happened 30 or 40 years ago. The engineering department was actually assigned a project by a construction company, and that project has now morphed into the largest laboratory in the country to test earthquakes or what earthquakes do to structures. And what they did, they built an 80,000-pound town house and put it on a couple of shakers to see what would happen if they would replicate the 1994 earthquake in North Ridge, California. Here's what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO (voice-over): Three bedrooms, a cozy den. The table is even set for dinner, but the location might leave a little to be desired.
ANDRE FILIATRAULT, U.BUFFALO ENGINEERING: This is a full-scale, two-story, 18,000 square foot town house with an attached garage. And it's mounted on our shake tables here, and we're going to submit it to a large earthquake.
MARCIANO: Andre Filiatrault is an engineering professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His team spent a month building this house in a huge lab last spring. Now they plan to shake it apart with a simulated earthquake.
FILIATRAULT: In the other corner over there, we have a whole set of instruments that measure how much this foundation moves.
MARCIANO: The house is equipped with 250 sensors to monitor every nook and cranny. Eight cameras will film what happens inside. But what's most important is what happens in the basement, so to speak.
(on camera): Now we're actually underneath the dining room, where this house sits on top of this huge shaker. This is it. This is what's going to do it, isn't it Andre?
FILIATRAULT: That's right. That's one of the shake tables. I said there's two of them and this shake table has eight actuators, basically a big piston. You can see one of those here. You can see the stainless steel piston here, the shaft of the stainless steel piston. And basically this is going to move up and down during the shaking. In 15 seconds you're going to see very high velocity, displacement and so on, to reproduce the motion.
MARCIANO (voice-over): Within a few seconds, one of the eight cameras dies. In one room, computers, TVs and lamps go flying. In a garage, a station wagon rocks and rolls. In one room, where all of the furniture have been braced and bolted down, the book cases and television are still intact. Plates slip and slide, but like a magic trick, remain on the kitchen table. But the house severely damaged, with large cracks in the walls. Studying all this will help engineers design better wooden buildings. Someday this fake quake could save your life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Well, as you would imagine, most of our homes in the U.S. are made of wood, about 90 percent. And in earthquake prone California that number is even higher and probably you see around certainly neighborhoods, Miles, those buildings are getting higher and higher. And the higher up you go, the more dangerous it goes in an earthquake. And that's why these tests with wooden structures are so important.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, what's the general thinking about wooden structures versus masonry structures or steel structures? Do they do pretty well?
MARCIANO: Well, they didn't do too well in the 1994 earthquake. There's a lot more research on masonry, brick and mortar type of stuff. That's why they wanted to get in and talk about this, because this is where people actually live. Tuck under garages, that's a big no-no, very convenient for everybody, but that's where there's a lot of weakness. And that's what they found on this test.
M. O'BRIEN: Big open space is not a good thing, generally, right?
MARCIANO: Yes, they were concerned that this thing might come down. They were impressed with how the building handled, so we are doing pretty well here in the U.S. and they hope to do even better.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, my general impression was it looked good. It probably wasn't as good as it looked though.
MARCIANO: But, inside, you saw a lot of stuff flying around and certainly in kids rooms, you know, with TVs, they're going all over the place. There are certain precautions you can take.
M. O'BRIEN: Wouldn't want to bend there. All right Rob Marciano, thank you.
MARCIANO: You bet.
S. O'BRIEN: Some of the stories we're following for you this morning, when it comes to your heart health, is chocolate the new as Aspirin? Oh, I certainly hope so. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to give us some of the sweet details straight ahead.
And General John Abizaid is the head of the U.S. Central Command. He reports to Congress this morning. He faces those newly empowered Democrats, some of whom are looking to make big changes. Those stories and much more ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We'll be back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWS BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. In fact, it's time for a little heart to heart, Miles, about your heart. If you have a heart attack, obviously you need to get to the hospital fast. But there are some ways to increase your chances of survival. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has a look at a new study for us. Also a little good news about chocolate and your heart. Let's begin with a new study though first Sanjay. Good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Soledad. Really interesting, you know, when someone is having a heart attack, speed is key. And doctors will put it at 90 minutes, hoping to get the patient to the hospital and actually get those blood vessels re-opened. That's what they are trying to do here.
What they have found in this new study is that fewer than a third of the hospitals are getting patients treated in that necessary time. And the risk of dying or having significant problems goes up significantly if you wait too long. We're talking specifically about angioplasty, actually threading a catheter from the groin, actually into one of the blood vessels that is blocked and opening that up. Sometimes they'll put a little mesh stent in there as well to basically keep the artery open. That is the goal. That's what they're talking about. Again, saying too many hospitals taking too long.
What the study went on to say, I thought this was important, some specific measures to try and actually shave off time. Talking about things specifically like setting up the angioplasty suite while the patient is en-route. That saves you 15 minutes. Having an on-site cardiologist available at all times saves another 14 minutes. Assembling the angioplasty team, the entire team, immediately saves 19 minutes. And also, just having a simple phone paging system within the hospital, instead of hunting people down one by one, saves another 13 minutes.
Now, you know, 90 minutes is the goal. That's the minimum goal. If you do it even faster, it could mean that these patients leave the hospital without any heart damage whatsoever. Some simple time saving mechanisms that could potentially have a significant impact.
S. O'BRIEN: Sanjay, when you think about it, that's just logistical stuff that moves everything along a little bit faster. I would imagine, too, that the patient could do something. I mean, if you're in the hospital or heading to this hospital or with a loved one who you think is having a heart attack, how can you move the process along? I mean, how can you help them? Is there a way to increase their chances of survival?
GUPTA: There is. I think a couple things. One is, you know, and I've talked to you about this before, Soledad, you know, before you even get to that point, you know, as much as you research schools and supermarkets and other things in your area, learn about your hospital as well, if you're someone with a heart condition, worried about potentially having a heart attack. Know which hospital you should go to. Know if they have the angioplasty team available. That's going to be important.
If you're already en-route, you can talk to the paramedics about the fact that the hospital where you are going, or your loved one is going, has an angioplasty team and a cardiologist available. That's the name of the game at that point. Really nothing else is as important as getting those people assembled and getting that treatment.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, let me ask you about this chocolate study as well. It's a relatively small study, but it seemed to show that chocolate has the same effect as Aspirin. So, why not take chocolate instead of Aspirin for your heart?
GUPTA: I don't think doctors are quite ready to prescribe it yet. But, you know, it's interesting --and part of the reason, to answer your question, chocolate, obviously, has some negative effects as well. It has fat in it. It can potentially cause some problems with your heart, ironically enough, but small amounts of chocolate, this study found -- we always talk about large amounts of chocolate, but small amounts of chocolate, just a couple of pieces, could have at least temporary, what we call, anti-clotting effects. It prevents clots from forming in your bloodstream, which can cause heart attacks.
So, they found this actually quite by accident. They were doing a study on Aspirin and they told people not to eat chocolate, not to smoke, not to do a lot of things, but about 138 people could not resist the urge for the short term of the study and they ate chocolate anyway. The doctors said, well let's study their blood and figure out if it had an effect. What they saw was that, in fact, it had similar effects to Aspirin. It's just the blood didn't clot as well, which is what you want. So, they say, well, you know, small amounts of chocolate, two pieces of the darkest chocolate, that's the non-sweet, not-as-tasty chocolate, can have, at least temporarily, some of the same effects as Aspirin.
S. O'BRIEN: That's too bad. Because it would be really much better if the highest-fast, yummiest-tasting, best, delicious chocolate.
GUPTA: Snickers bars aren't going to do it for you.
S. O'BRIEN: No, that's the take-away today, isn't it. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks Sanjay.
GUPTA: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: No one said life is fair, Soledad. S. O'BRIEN: Oh, it's so not.
M. O'BRIEN: So sorry. Let's bring you up to date on the tsunami. AS we have told you now, it's been a little more than an hour and a half since that earthquake which triggered that tsunami warning all through the northern part of the Pacific rim, Japan, Russia, triggered tsunami warnings, concerns about a wave that might be as high as six feet. But now, as that wave begins to appear in northern Japan, not so great a concern. Chad Myers has some details for us from the weather center, Chad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: OK, thank you Chad. We're watching it for you. We'll be back with more in a moment.
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