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American Morning
Winter Blast to Southern Plains; Interview With Shawn Hornbeck's Parents; Tale of Two Cities: New Orleans Saints & Survivors; Search For a Suspect in Los Angeles: The FBI Responds
Aired January 19, 2007 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody, Friday, January 19th.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien.
We're glad you're with us.
Wild weather making news once again this morning. Snow, ice, freezing rain bearing down on the Southwest U.S. as we speak, and tens of thousands are still without power from those ice storms this past week.
Reggie Aqui is in Krebs, Oklahoma, this morning, watching things for us.
Good morning, Reggie.
REGGIE AQUI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
And here in Krebs, you can see ice still covers all the bushes, all the trees. Many of them have fallen and caused some major power concerns in this area.
This is a week later, and look, still icy. And that means that a lot of the power lines are still covered with ice. And they are having a heck of a time getting the lights back on in this area.
In fact, they've opened up some shelters. One shelter opened up just across the street from where I'm standing last night.
Theresa, you decided to go over to that shelter last night...
She has two kids, by the way.
... because it was getting really cold in your house.
TERESA JOHNSON, STORM VICTIM: Oh, yes, I didn't have no electricity. Running of pure electric. And we didn't have no gas, no nothing. A lot of people around here don't have the gas power or even a fireplace.
AQUI: In fact, we're told that about 10,000 people in this area of southeast Oklahoma is still out of power, and so they're still waiting for that power to come back on, very patiently, I might add.
JOHNSON: Oh, yes.
AQUI: But it's getting, I would assume, more than annoying at this point.
JOHNSON: Oh, it's worse than annoying, because, you know, a lot of the stores were closed, and, you know, a lot of our food got -- you know, we didn't have no food, no nothing. You know? So we're really struggling down here in Oklahoma.
AQUI: And Teresa, tonight, as you know, the forecast says that we could get anywhere between six inches, maybe even more than a foot of snow, ice, sleet. Are you ready for this second round?
JOHNSON: Not really, but I'll be prepared this time because the last time I wasn't prepared. But this time I will be, and if it does happen again, at least I know there are shelters around that are open.
And then with the Red Cross being here and with all the crews that are working on the lines, they'll be here. So it will help us out a lot. You know, give us a lot of faith.
AQUI: All right, Teresa. I know the whole nation is crossing its fingers, hoping that somehow this storm misses us.
But it looks like, Miles, that's just not going to be the case.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, it's good to see she can still smile through all this.
Reggie Aqui, thank you very much.
He's in Oklahoma this morning -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: And there's wild weather across northern Europe as well. The U.K., Germany, France dealing with hurricane-force winds, heavy rains, too. Twenty-seven people are dead. In some parts of Europe, winds were gusting up to 118 miles an hour.
And just to get an idea of how powerful those winds are, take a look at this. These are waves that were lashing the coast of northern France. It looks like just a massive storm there.
More weather at quarter past the hour. Rob Marciano is going to have your traveler's forecast straight ahead this morning -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in Iraq right now meeting with U.S. and British troops. He arrived in the country unannounced overnight. This is Gates' second visit to Iraq in a month. His first since President Bush announced a plan to send more than 21,000 more U.S. troops to the country.
Conflicting reports about a deal on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. North Korea says it reached an agreement with the U.S. this week, but American officials are only saying that future talks look promising.
Concerns at the Pentagon about China's recent missile test. The Chinese used a ground-based missile to take down one of their old weather satellites about 500 miles above the earth. The U.S. military is concerned that American satellites used for everything from communications to missile guidance are now vulnerable.
A stunning reversible by Consumer Reports, retracting their article on infant car seats. Now, look at this video.
The Consumer Reports test done reportedly or supposedly at 38 miles an hour, the seat thrown from the car. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was startled by what they saw, so they did their own test. And their test showed it took speeds of 70 miles an hour to have the same effect on a car seat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICOLE NASON, NHTSA ADMINISTRATION: I do not believe that it was deliberate, but what they did wrong was essentially confused the physics of a front-impact crash with a side-impact crash. These are very different crashes to recreate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Consumer Reports says it will do new tests and release results in a future issue -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, one week ago today the son that they feared they had lost maybe forever came back to them. The parents of Shawn Hornbeck are now speaking out about his four-year ordeal. Shawn appeared on Oprah Winfrey's show, and Shawn was asked about just how he survived.
Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: Can you tell me how you got through these past four years?
SHAWN HORNBECK, KIDNAPPED FOR 4 YEARS: Hope and praying.
WINFREY: Hope and praying. You said you would pray and cross yourself every night.
HORNBECK: Yes.
WINFREY: And what would the prayer be?
HORNBECK: That one day my parents would find me and I'd be reunited with them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: I had a chance to talk with Shawn's parents, Pam and Craig Akers, to ask about Shawn. They confirmed that in fact he was the one who did post that message on the Web site that was created after he disappeared.
They also describe how he survived and how they survived all those years without him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: What did he tell you about what he was doing to make it through the last four-plus years?
CRAIG AKERS, SHAWN'S FATHER: He said the main mechanism he had for dealing with it was sleep. He spent a lot of time sleeping.
S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a question about the messages on the message board. It's got to break your heart to be...
C. AKERS: Oh, it does. To know that I sat there and looked at it. I remember reading it. And I remember reading it, looking at it, and...
S. O'BRIEN: What did you think it was?
C. AKERS: Somebody else yanking my chain again. I mean, we had already gone through numerous times where people would go into our chat room and say, "Hi, I'm Shawn. I left because I don't love you anymore." And, you know, things like that.
We'd get postings on the message board almost on a daily basis that we would delete as soon as we saw them because there was a lot of things like that posted. So it -- you know, it really didn't throw up a red flag.
S. O'BRIEN: When I read it, I thought, this is a classic question that a child asks a parent, how long will you keep looking for me, mom and dad? How long? How much do you love me?
PAM AKERS, MOTHER: Yes. And we would have kept going until the end of our lives. We would have never stopped looking for him.
C. AKERS: And he knows that. He has had occasions where he has seen us on the news saying that we would never, ever stop looking for him.
S. O'BRIEN: He saw you on TV while he was in captivity?
C. AKERS: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: While he was being held?
C. AKERS: Yes. Yes. And that's what gave him the strength to survive the ordeal that he survived, because he knew that we had hope and we would never stop looking for him.
S. O'BRIEN: When he told you that, I saw you on TV, mom and dad, and I heard you say you'll never stop looking for me, what was your reaction?
C. AKERS: Tears. Knowing that...
P. AKERS: Knowing he had to see us that way, that he wasn't able to just come home to us. But he did say that did help him keep going and helped him survive, because he knew one day that we were going to find him and bring him home. He kept the faith just like we did.
S. O'BRIEN: I know you kept Shawn's room the same as the day you lost him.
P. AKERS: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: So what was his reaction?
P. AKERS: He actually wasn't surprised. He -- you know, we're close, we're a close family. And he kind of figured that that was something that I probably was doing, because I would just go in there and I'd look at his clothes and I'd look at his games and his baseball glove and his hat and things like that. And it would just bring back good memories of him again, and it would just -- I just felt like he was still part of that room.
I still had the sheets and the blankets that he slept on for the last night. I have not let anybody touch them. And it was just something that I felt I had to keep to keep Shawn there with us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: The Akers talk about how they were in their commutes often driving just a few miles from where Shawn was held.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow. To think he was so close.
S. O'BRIEN: And so far, of course.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm sure they're going back and thinking about all the things they wish they had done in hindsight.
S. O'BRIEN: Certainly with that message board, absolutely. But he said sometimes the messages would be so vile and just mean -- I mean, a lot of crazy people would post stuff...
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: ... that things they thought weren't tips and weren't helpful they just deleted.
M. O'BRIEN: It must have been some awfully dark moments for them.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, wow. Well, they really feel like they're on the steps to -- maybe the first steps to healing.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. A long road.
S. O'BRIEN: Nice to talk to them.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Soledad.
It is NFL playoff time, and this Sunday game, a lot of people will be watching, the New Orleans Saints versus da Bears in Chicago. It will be cold.
The winner headed to Miami and the Super Bowl. In some ways, the Saints' wonderful season is just the tonic for a city still on its knees a year and a half after Katrina, but there is also a concern it is giving the rest of the country the wrong impression.
Where is Sean? Where is Sean again? Is he here? Is he in the end zone still?
S. O'BRIEN: No, he's...
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, he's up in the seats. Who's that in the seats there?
Sean Callebs in the Superdome.
How are you doing there, Sean?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good. I think I look a lot more like Joe Fan than Reggie Bush. That's the reason we came up here.
M. O'BRIEN: He was in the end zone before, folks, for those of you who missed it. He decided he belongs in the seats.
CALLEBS: If you think about it, though, those perennial losers, the New Orleans Saints, have probably done more than anyone to breathe some life, some excitement into the city. There's been a lot of network coverage, too, of all the spontaneous parties after the Saints' win.
Locals here say that's great, but don't lose sight of the big picture, that this city is a long way from being whole again.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS (voice over): One step from the Super Bowl, there is no question the New Orleans Saints are energizing this city. Cheering, smiling, celebration, images of the city blast around the country. But lest anyone forget, this, locals say, is a much more accurate picture.
CHUCK BACIGALUPI, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: There's so many people around here that are, you know, living in tents, inside, you know, gutted houses, because they just don't have the means.
CALLEBS: The Lower Ninth Ward, Lakeview. These are current pictures, not something from months ago.
BACIGALUPI: This neighbor over here hasn't done anything. Her refrigerator's still in there. It, you know, stinks, there's rats. You know, there's more holes where there used to be houses than there are houses now.
CALLEBS: So, come on, you say, it can't be that bad. We've seen Bourbon Street, and after all, Brad and Angelina are moving to the city, right? Business leaders say tourism is slowly coming back. But still...
EARL BERNHARDT, BOURBON STREET ALLIANCE: In normal times, these businesses, all of them on the street would be doing better than they are. But times are tough, and the strong survive and the weak don't.
CALLEBS: And even though the French Quarter was spared when 80 percent of the city was flooded, there is no question it still suffers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New Orleans is tourism. Without tourism, we're nothing.
CALLEBS: So few residents have been able to return to areas decimated after the levees gave way. They wonder, where are city, state, and federal government leaders? Where is the money for rebuilding? But people here are resilient, and they will take the black and gold until the city starts seeing the green.
BACIGALUPI: And hopefully it will come. This is helping. The Saints winning, you know, people are smiling.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: Indeed. And the Saints' amazing season did a lot to erase the horrific memories of what went on in here right after Hurricane Katrina.
And think about it, Miles. If you think back to last weekend's game, the Bears and Seahawks up in Chicago, the Bears won on a field goal in overtime. If the Seahawks would have won, they would be here this weekend, instead of the Saints going up to Chicago. And that would have meant somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 million to a city that really needs a nice shot in the arm right about now.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, and that is, I guess, the bottom line. It truly is the bottom line in this case.
All right. Sean Callebs, thanks very much -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, a follow-up to our exclusive report, a toxic substance spilled on a subway platform. We're going to talk to the FBI about the investigation now and whether the incident really was a dry run for a larger terror attack.
And a new take on those Super Bowl ads -- do it yourself.
We'll explain straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
The most news in the morning is right here on CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: The most news in the morning is right here on AMERICAN MORNING. Here are some of the stories we're watching for you this Friday.
New pictures just in from Iraq. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is meeting with U.S. and coalition troops right now after making an unannounced visit to Iraq overnight.
And just in from Taiwan, new pictures of an all-out brawl in parliament. Will you look at that. Oh, for goodness sake, have some decorum. This is parliament.
Members throwing punches. Some of them even threw their shoes. When they felt they couldn't hit hard enough, they took off their shoes and threw them. They were talking about a debate over election rules and it got a little bit out of control.
M. O'BRIEN: That's democracy with soul.
S. O'BRIEN: Democracy in action.
M. O'BRIEN: Wouldn't you say?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hopefully not parliamentary procedure.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I don't think so, the shoe-throwing.
Good morning. Quarter after the hour. That means a look at the weather.
MARCIANO: Yes, let's do that.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Rob.
MARCIANO: OK.
M. O'BRIEN: The Los Angeles Joint Terrorism Task Force looking for answers and possibly a terrorist this morning. Yesterday we showed you an exclusive, a man spilling mercury at a Los Angeles subway station.
Now, it's possible it was a dry run for a terror attack. It could have been something much less sinister. But either way, the transit authority there did not respond nearly fast enough. It was eight hours -- eight hours before police were even notified.
J. Stephen Tidwell is with the FBI's L.A. office. He joins us now on the program from our Los Angeles bureau.
Mr. Tidwell, good to have you with us.
Eight hours for the MTA there to respond. That's clearly not what's in the book, right?
J. STEPHEN TIDWELL, ASST. FBI DIRECTOR, LOS ANGELES: Well, good morning. The MTA has already spoken about the fact that they're looking at their protocols.
M. O'BRIEN: And they say they weren't followed, right?
TIDWELL: Well, I have not been a part of that dialogue because we've been -- we're busy working on the other side of it.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, I know you're not responsible for local authorities or the MTA, but there is a joint task force, and one of the things that was discussed post 9/11 was that federal, state and local agencies need to work more closely together.
What's your advice to these localities there?
TIDWELL: Well, as far as the public safety response and the joint terrorism task force response with our partners, all the protocols were followed there. And we did respond in the way that we would have expected ourselves to.
M. O'BRIEN: So the eight-hour gap was on the part of one agency, in this case the transit authority. I'm curious, so when exactly did the FBI become aware of this?
TIDWELL: Once the notifications were made to the L.A. City fire and others, we then, as a matter of course, something this unusual, given the fact that it was -- had to deal with mass transit, the joint terrorism task force responded.
M. O'BRIEN: So, in other words, what you just said, everything worked fine after that eight-hour delay.
Now, based on what -- you've had the chance to look at this tape, obviously, and we looked at it quite a bit yesterday. Deb Feyerick with the exclusive. And one of the things -- it's very difficult to figure out exactly what's going on here, but one of the things she pointed out is that if you look very closely at what this man is doing, is after he spills or drops the mercury -- now watch what he does -- he kind of backs away from it.
And then as he walks toward the camera in the next shot, if you look very closely -- not at that shot. That's obviously his backside. But if you look at the front side, he's got something on his belt which could be a camera or picture phone or something like that.
What do you make of all that?
TIDWELL: Well, quite frankly, we're still trying to decide what we can make of it. Obviously, the activities he was doing caused a great deal of suspicion. Mercury being left on the platform. So we're still working our way through it, and we've been actively investigating it since the incident occurred.
M. O'BRIEN: It certainly could be a dry run to test response for a terror attack, couldn't it?
TIDWELL: Well, we haven't ruled that in or out. Obviously, that's something that we're working very seriously with the JTTF and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department on exactly what happened here.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. In the lessons learned category, a lot of people would be concerned about this in Los Angeles -- 140,000 some odd people just go through that one station, Persing (ph) station, every day. If this had been something like sarin, or something else, clearly you'd want something faster than an eight-hour response.
Will these lessons be learned?
TIDWELL: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Any time anything like this occurs within the community that's responsible for this, us, and the -- our MTA partners, we'll be looking at what happened as far as a response and how it can be better.
M. O'BRIEN: J. Stephen Tidwell, thanks for being with us this morning.
TIDWELL: Good morning.
M. O'BRIEN: And we want to remind you, anyone with information about this case, please contact one of the following agencies -- the FBI's L.A. office, Mr. Tidwell's office, at 310-477-6565, or the L.A. County Sheriff's Department at 888-950-SAFE, which translates to 7233.
The phone lines open 24/7 -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Miles, would you like a trip to see the Super Bowl?
M. O'BRIEN: I would. I would.
S. O'BRIEN: How would you like to...
M. O'BRIEN: Are you going to hook me up?
S. O'BRIEN: Maybe.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes?
S. O'BRIEN: But how would you like to see your own Super Bowl ad on TV?
M. O'BRIEN: You know, I was going to do one of those, but I ran out of time.
S. O'BRIEN: Really? Really?
M. O'BRIEN: You know, because they offered up that deal.
S. O'BRIEN: Exactly. We're going to take a look this morning, in fact, at latest entries from the do-it-yourself commercial contest straight ahead this morning. M. O'BRIEN: I was going to do a promo for our show, but they probably wouldn't want to air that on the Super Bowl.
S. O'BRIEN: No, they probably wouldn't take that one.
Also this morning, a fresh polling from "Grey's Anatomy" Dr. Burke. There he is in Washington.
M. O'BRIEN: Dr. Apology, you could call him.
S. O'BRIEN: Dr. Apology this morning. Dr. Apology again, I guess you could call him. If you want to call the P.R. department stat to try to clean up that mess.
We've got that story straight ahead.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Say it ain't so. A Ford executive is going to start flying commercial.
Twenty-five minutes after the hour. Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business."
Shocking.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, when I was in Detroit, I spoke to an auto worker who I had spoken to a year before. He had been laid off from Ford and he was sort of very philosophical about it. He wasn't angry with the company, he wasn't angry with the union, but he did mention one thing. He said he doesn't like the fact that Mark Fields, who's the head of Ford's North American car unit, takes the corporate jet back to his home in Florida every weekend.
I don't think he was begrudging him the fact that executives use corporate jets, but they've laid off or somehow gotten rid of...
M. O'BRIEN: Just some symbolism here.
VELSHI: ... 40,000 people. Yes, and that's what it is. So Mark Fields now announcing that he is in fact not going to be using the corporate jet.
Now, our colleagues over at cnnmoney.com, Chris Isadore (ph), did some math on this and called up Northwest Airlines and said if that he were to fly every weekend first class, it would be probably about $90,000 a year. The bill that Ford has said for at least one quarter of the year, and if you extrapolate that to the whole year, $860,000 is what it's been costing Ford.
S. O'BRIEN: So roughly a tenth.
VELSHI: Yes, roughly a tenth. So symbolism. You know, there is something to be said for the efficiency, but this is a world where... S. O'BRIEN: And how many jobs could you get for that $800,000?
VELSHI: Yes. And the interesting thing here is that this is not an industry people want to hate. The car industry in the United States has failed quite miserably over the last few years, but there's such hope, there's so much investment in it.
We all know somebody who works there, or we drive the cars, or we invest in the company. So there's goodwill to it -- toward the companies, and the feeling was, this is ruining the goodwill when this kind of news gets out there.
So they're making the changes. GM's equivalent executives don't fly corporate jets on a regular basis.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, they don't?
VELSHI: No. Not to their homes. Nor do the other Ford executives.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So all these guys taking their shoes off, just like the rest of us.
VELSHI: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you.
VELSHI: That's right.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Ali. You have a good weekend.
VELSHI: You, too. Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at CNN this weekend, as a matter of fact. Let's go to T.J. Holmes at the CNN Center with a preview.
Hello, T.J.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey. Good morning, guys.
This weekend, like it seems like every weekend lately, we're going to be talking about weather again. Keeping a close eye on it. You're going to want to tune in for all that up-to-the-minute information on another winter storm that, yes, is on the way.
And we've got kind of a nicer story we're going to tell you about the weather as well. We're going to hear from a lottery winner who doesn't even have time to spend his loot.
He's helping people out who have been hard-hit by the winter storms. Pretty heart-warming story here. That's going to be in our "WaterCooler."
Also, dolphins in danger. Scores of animals beaching themselves on Cape Cod in Long Island. We're going to talk to animal expert Jack Hannah about what's behind this bizarre behavior. Plus, CNN's Warrior One, they won't let me have it. It's going on the auction block. This historic Hummer has been to Baghdad and back, and now its sale will help more military families.
And I hope all of that is enough to sell you guys on "CNN SATURDAY and SUNDAY MORNING." That begins tomorrow at 7:00 Eastern.
Hope you guys get up bright and early with us and check us out. Back to you.
M. O'BRIEN: You don't have to sell me, T.J.
S. O'BRIEN: Today and every day.
M. O'BRIEN: You don't have to sell me.
HOLMES: Well, we certainly appreciate it.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, what do you predict that Hummer will go for with all those fancy rims and everything? What do you think?
HOLMES: You know, I don't know. I offered $1,000 for it. They didn't think it was enough.
M. O'BRIEN: Nice try.
HOLMES: So probably more than that.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, T.J.
HOLMES: All right.
S. O'BRIEN: And they didn't take that?
M. O'BRIEN: No.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm shocked.
M. O'BRIEN: For some reason. For some reason.
The morning's top stories are straight ahead.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in Iraq right now. We'll take you there live.
Plus, President Bush's plans for his presidential library running into some trouble. Some Methodists are upset over the proposed location.
We'll explain, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
The most news in the morning, right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK) S. O'BRIEN: To developing news out of Iraq now and a surprise overnight trip to the country by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Take a look at some of this new videotape of Gates meeting with U.S. troops and commanders as well. It's his second trip to Iraq this month, his first since President Bush announced plans to send 21,000 more GIs into that country.
Let's get right to CNN's Arwa Damon. She's live for us this morning in Baghdad. Tell me a little bit of why we're seeing Robert Gates in the southern part of Iraq.
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Soledad. We are, and apparently thus far, this trip is only going to be concentrated in southern Iraq. He did visit Basra. That is where the British military is headquartered, and then moved onto Talil (ph) Air Base. That is where other coalition commanders are based.
Now, the south is very interesting, especially for the United States at this point. While we are seeing this increased rhetoric against Iran, it is predominantly Shia. U.S. and British military intelligence indicate that there is a high level of Iranian influence there. They say that they are seeing this in the increased sophistication of the IEDs, the roadside bombs, and they also believe that Iran is increasingly taking advantage of the growing disputes between various Shia militias that operate down in that area. It could very well be that Secretary Gates is looking to get a better handle on Iranian influence in Iraq. That could be one of the purposes of his trip down there.
We do know, though, that topping the agenda is of course security discussions, especially as the country does move forward with these new plans being put forward by the U.S. and Iraqi government -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Then you have news of this arrest of a high-profile aide to Muqtada al-Sadr. What's the significance of that, do you think?
DAMON: Soledad, this is a very interesting story. Now just to give you the bare facts, the aide who was detained in a midnight raid that took place overnight. His name is Abdul Hadi Al Daraji (ph). Now according to the U.S. military, he is believed responsible for torturing, kidnapping and murdering Iraqi civilians. According to Muqtada al-Sadr's office, he is the director of the bloc's main office that operates out of Sadr City.
Now, in the past, what we have seen is that when senior aides to Muqtada al-Sadr have been detained, when Mehdi militia cell leaders have been detained, the Iraqi government has interfered and put pressure on the U.S. and Iraqi security forces to release these individuals. Part of the prime minister's new plan has been this promise that there will be no more political interference, and that is one of the main points that the U.S. is looking for, really, this commitment on Nuri al-Maliki's part that his government will no longer be interfering when it comes to detaining these sort of sensitive individuals. Thus far, it does seem that the Iraqi government is sticking to its guns. It has said that it will fully investigate Daraji, but it will be interesting to see how this story develops -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Arwa Damon is in Baghdad for us this morning. Thanks, Arwa -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: President Bush's plans for his presidential library stirring up a tempest among methodists. The president making it clear the leading candidate is Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: Now I'm leaning heavily toward SMU. I understand there are some who have reservations, and my admonition to them, or my advice to them is, just you know, understand that a library, an institute, would enhance education.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Our faith and values correspondent, Delia Gallagher, joining us now with more on this. Why are they so upset?
DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN FAITH & VALUES CORRESPONDENT: Well, essentially, Miles, they don't want the legacy of the Bush administration to be associated with the Methodist name or with the Methodist SMU. And so they are suggesting, this petition is circulating around the Internet. Some bishops and some clergy members have signed it, and they are circulating this petition, which says, in part, "We believe the linking of this presidency with the university bearing the Methodist name is utterly inappropriate."
So their essential concern is over the issue of the war in Iraq, over accusations of torture, because of some of these policies of the administration, and they say particularly at SMU, that carries The methodist name.
M. O'BRIEN: It's very specific. It's his presidency, not just any presidency that they're upset about. So this is a political statement.
GALLAGHER: Yes, absolutely. This is a group of methodists who don't agree with some of the policies of the Bush administration, who are also concerned that there will be a thinktank attached to this library. And they don't want the thinktank to sort of color the non- partisan nature of the school. In other words, if there are conservative scholars at this thinktank, perhaps that might sort of color the view of SMU.
M. O'BRIEN: Of course, in taking the stand they do, they sort of get a partisan flavor to the school right away, don't they? So what did the school have to say to you about this?
GALLAGHER: Well, what the school says, I spoke to them yesterday, and they say that these ministers are part of the larger Methodist religion, part of, you know, the Methodist citizenry, as they call it, and they're not members of the university. In fact, the board of trustees has unanimously approved this proposal, and that the faculty members at the university who had difficulty with this idea have addressed the president with their questions. And according to the university's spokesman, they are very happy with the response that the president has given them. So the university's position is, we feel that we're happy to welcome this proposal. We feel this will be a prestigious thing for the university. And it's going to go ahead, if that's what the president wants.
M. O'BRIEN: So despite the ire, look for that presidential library to be at SMU, you think?
GALLAGHER: If that's the decision of the Bush administration.
M. O'BRIEN: OK, great. Delia Gallagher, faith and values correspondent, thank you very much -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: In Saving Your Life this morning, hope for a heart patient. A year ago we told you about a young man desperate to save his life who turned to what was really the only option left, an experimental treatment.
Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, tells us how that patient is doing today.
Hey, Sanjay, good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
This is a story you have to hear. It's a remarkable one. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of men and women in this country, but we have the story of a man who survived. He had congestive heart failure. He had three heart attacks. His heart was failing. So he turned to a high-tech experimental therapy where they actually took some cells from another part in his body and injected it into his heart.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): A year ago, Charlie Hoff was being wheeled into the O.R. His health had deteriorated to the point where he sometimes used a wheelchair to get around. He was taking part in a clinical trial that he hoped would improve his failing heart.
CHARLIE HOFF, HEART PATIENT: You know, I was feeling like an invalid, and thinking about that at my age, and I consider myself a young man at 60, you know, really disheartening.
It is up to the politicians to find a way.
GUPTA: A former CNN television reporter, Charlie suffered a heart attack in Jerusalem while he was bureau chief. And he admits, he ignored his symptoms.
HOFF: Bottom line was I waited too long and I did a lot of damage to my heart.
GUPTA: His medical history looked bleak. He had a stressful job. He smoked for over 30 years. He suffered three heart attacks and open-heart surgery. And his father died at the age of 47 from a heart attack. Time was running out, and he was running out of options.
So doctors took some muscle tissue from his leg and cultured those cells. Then they injected millions of his cells into the dead heart muscle in order to regrow his muscle, or at least booster his failing heart.
This is Charlie today, a year after his heart operation.
HOFF: I feel so much better. I can get out, I can do things. I've even played golf a couple of times.
GUPTA: And his cardiologist, Dr. Nick Chronos, is encouraged by his results.
DR. NICK CHRONOS, CARDIOLOGIST: His quality of life has dramatically improved. He's much less short of breath, he doesn't retain as much fluid, and his heart, on echocardography, appears to be functioning better.
HOFF: I'm optimistic. I feel like I can live a long time. I feel like I can watch my boys grow up. And life is good.
GUPTA: He says the surgery saved his life, and it gave him his life back.
HOFF: Good catch.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: You can see that he looks better there. His skin is pinker. He's obviously able to get around. Forty percent of the patients in this clinical trial of about 20 patients improved in terms of the congestive heart scales. They actually got better in terms of the function of their heart. This was just a phase, one clinical trial. Now they're hoping to petition the FDA to take it to phase two very early on, but a little bit of promise there for Charlie Hoff -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, what great news. And I think he looks a lot better.
Sanjay, let me ask you ask you a question, though -- how do people who are in his similar situation, there's sort of no hope left, how do they get into one of these trials like that?
GUPTA: Well, sometimes it can be hard, and this is something a lot of people have been working on, trying to fix for some time. There is a Web site out there called clinicaltrials.gov. I just looked at it again this morning. It's a pretty good Web site. You actually put in the particular disease process, whether it's heart problems or breast cancer. You put in your city, and it immediately gives you a list of all the clinical trials that are going on in your area. Also, if you happen to have a big academic medical center by you, you can talk to one of the doctors there about clinical trials that are going on at that particular hospital as well.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. And if you're not interested necessarily in getting into a clinical trial, but you'd just like more information about what you've been talking about all week, what should you do?
GUPTA: Yes, you know, we're real excited about this, Soledad. It's called Saving Your Life, and as we started thinking about this concept, we thought we really want to arm our viewers with tools to find some of this information, specifically with regards to cancer here. There are a lot of places where you can get free screening, for example, or low-cost screening. We've put it on our Web site. Click on your state, you'll get a list of those sites. You'll hear about the specific cancers that you can be screened for as well. We talked about it as well in the special, which is going to air again this weekend -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Excellent news. All right, Sanjay, thanks a lot.
GUPTA: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: How'd you like to go to the Super Bowl and see your own commercial air during the game? That'd be kind of cool. I know you're going to do it.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, I forgot to do the commercial, though. I had an idea.
S. O'BRIEN: Up next, we're going to look at some of the options out there in the do-it-yourself ad.
And then, the anatomy of a television feud. The cast members are turning up the heat, behind the scenes of one of TV's most popular shows. They win the big award, but everybody's talking about the gay slur today. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
We're back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: You know, a lot of people watch the Super Bowl just for the ads, and this year there's going to be an interesting -- Soledad, Soledad raising her hand there.
S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely.
M. O'BRIEN: Of course, everybody remembers the famous, you know, Apple commercial, 1984. That was the greatest. It aired one time and it's gotten a free ride ever since. This year there will be an interesting little twist and Jacki Schechner is here to explain this. It's kind of the YouTube-ification of ads.
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: User-generated content ads. Unbelievable. They -- this year a few major companies decided to give the general public a shot to play in the big game, promising to air these do-it-yourself ads during the Super Bowl. Now, it is a gamble, but one that could very well pay off in extra publicity points.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCHECHNER (voice-over): With super bowl ads running up to $2.6 million a pop, leaving one up to the amateurs would be a huge leap of fate. Turns out, some of America's top companies are willing to take the plunge. Chevy and the NFL asked consumers to submit ad ideas, and sent the best ones off to be produced by the pros.
But Doritos truly let the chips fall where they may. The company posted some rules and regulations on its Web site -- keep it clean, keep it to 30 seconds, but other than that, you make it, we like it, we'll air it. They picked five finalists and are showcasing them on doritos.com. It will be up to America to pick from scores on Super Bowl Sunday.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHECHNER: I laugh every time.
M. O'BRIEN: They look great!
SCHECHNER: Every time.
They are so well produced. And it's unbelievable that these are amateur ads. The grand prize winner's ad, by the way, is going to be played on Super Bowl Sunday. It will be the second commercial after the kickoff right after the Budweiser spot. And each of the five finalists gets a trip to Miami to attend a private Super Bowl party. They're going to get $10,000 prize. We did the math, by the way, translates to roughly 2,857 bags of Doritos.
I knew you were going to snag those while I was talking.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad just grabbed the whole bowl.
SCHECHNER: There's nothing like the smell of Doritos at 9:00 in the morning. It doesn't go well with coffee.
S. O'BRIEN: They're so fresh, too.
M. O'BRIEN: No probiotics in there, that's for sure.
SCHECHNER: No transfat.
M. O'BRIEN: In Doritos? Really?
SCHECHNER: No transfat. I looked for you, because you asked.
S. O'BRIEN: Even better.
M. O'BRIEN: These people, they have a career in directing/advertising, clearly, ahead of them. SCHECHNER: What? Oh, yes, absolutely. But these are totally amateur ads.
S. O'BRIEN: Really? these are not people who work for ad agencies?
SCHECHNER: No, these are people who have regular jobs who just decided to get together with their friends, or with their coworkers and create these ads.
S. O'BRIEN: Really? Wow.
M. O'BRIEN: Next time I prefer Cool Ranch. I'm kidding.
SCHECHNER: You are so demanding, Miles.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Jacki.
SCHECHNER: Any time.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: "CNN NEWSROOM" is just moments away. Heidi Collins is at the CNN center with a look at what's ahead.
Hello, Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi. You have my Doritos?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, here right here. Dive in, right there.
COLLINS: The cool ranch are gluten-free; nacho cheese are not. So I'll share that with you.
M. O'BRIEN: See, I knew that.
COLLINS: Yes, I know you did.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, yes. Intuitively, I knew that.
COLLINS: Coming up at 9:00 in the "NEWSROOM," this morning the plains still spinning from the last storm. Another winter blast gearing up today, believe it or not. West Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri targeted.
And U.S. and Iraqi forces in Iraq are arresting a top aide to Muqtada al-Sadr. The captured Mehdi Army figure linked to Iraq's death squads.
A Tennessee teacher, young, vibrant, hit by a major stroke. Her triumphant return to her classroom, the reunion with the students who saved her life. This is a great story.
So join T.J. Holmes and me in the "NEWSROOM" today. We get started at the top of the hour on CNN -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, see you then, Heidi. Have a good weekend, too.
COLLINS: You too.
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up -- tired of those triple-digit utility bills? ahead, some ways to save as winter unleashes its worst.
COLLINS: And add another round onto the "Grey's Anatomy" feud. A castmate already accused of using a gay slur uses it again at the Golden Globes. Hear what he's saying now, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Well, as you well know, we've all been talking about the deep freeze hitting coast to coast. If you use electricity to heat your home, you could be in for a very big shock when that bill arrives.
CNN's personal finance editor Gerri Willis has a couple ways to save on that bill.
Good morning.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. Good to see you.
I'm here today to talk about smart meters. This is an interesting new technology that consumers can now take advantage of. First off, you need to understand how conventional electricity meters work. They read an average of your cost each month and you pay an average cost of electricity per hour.
Now, smart meters allow you to target your usage by hour because you know exactly how much that electricity costs. Let's take a look at some of the numbers. Here you can see that electricity rates spike in the middle of the day when usage is at its highest. That's when everybody's at work, businesses are using energy, and costs go up.
If you have a smart meter, you can save tons of dough by just targeting your usage -- when you turn on the dish washer, dryer, whatever.
But it's not available absolutely everywhere. You know ComEd, which is the Chicago utility, they did a pilot program with 1,500 people. It was so popular, they rolled it out to 110,000 people.
S. O'BRIEN: It sounds like a great idea. So if it's not available yet, what do I do? I mean, while I'm at work, I could be not using that electricity and saving myself a ton of money.
WILLIS: Well, you could. But there's another technology if you can't get a smart meter, which is almost as good. These meters measure time-of-use rates, but they're in blocks, not hour by hour. So using a time-of-use meter, you can save a ton of dough. Check out these numbers. Here you can see your rates correspond with blocks of time, instead of individual hours. You can save a ton of dough here as well. To opt in, you should call your utility, but most of them offer it. It is widely available.
S. O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right, so how much -- when you say a ton of dough, how much could I save?
WILLIS: Well, hundreds of dollars certainly.
S. O'BRIEN: That's a ton of dough, I'll take that.
WILLIS: Every year.
But listen to this, this is a great number we found -- if consumers shifted just 7 percent of their usage nationally, we could save $23 billion, or a month's worth of energy savings, which I think is very interesting.
Now, the flip side of this, though, you should know that your costs could rise. If you use energy at the wrong time, using a smart meter, you'll actually pay more. So you've got to be very careful about how you use it. At the end of the day, Soledad, though, this is a green technology that could make life easier for a lot of people. Businesses have been doing this for a very long time.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Gerri Willis, excellent, excellent advice. Thank you very much.
WILLIS: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning we're going to talk -- well, let's talk about it now. This feud between "Grey's Anatomy."
Miles?
M. O'BRIEN: There's another twist in the behind-the-scenes feud. Actor Isaiah Washington apologizing yet again, this time for using a homophobic slur after Monday night's Golden Globes. Washington was telling reporters that he never used the word to describe castmate T.R. Knight, but then uttered the word once again. This week on "The Ellen Degeneres Show," Knight confirmed the incident, and you might remember Washington actually apologized for it a few months back. Perhaps he should have let this one stay where it was.
Meanwhile, Knight's friends are defending him before Washington's latest apology. Co-star Katherine Heigl told "Access Hollywood" Washington needs to just not speak in public. Zip the lip, as they say.
Here's a quick look at what "NEWSROOM" is working on for the top of the hour.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: See these stories in the "NEWSROOM" -- thousands still without power in the plains. Now another winter storm, a big one, targets Oklahoma and Missouri.
Europe, battered by hurricane-force winds.
Jordan's King Abdullah telling a newspaper his country will seek a nuclear program.
And a mass bath in a chilly river. The faithful say it cleanses the soul.
You're in the "NEWSROOM" 9:00 a.m. Eastern, 6:00 out west.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Well, it's seen action in Iraq, it's been made over by TLC's "Overhaulin," and now it can be yours. Warrior One, which is CNN's specialized Hummer, is going to be auction off tomorrow in Scotsdale, Arizona. All the proceeds are going to go to the Fisher House Foundation. That's a group that helps wounded U.S. soldiers and their families.
Today, at noon Eastern Time, Larry King will tour Fisher House, talk to Wynonna Judd, who was given the USO merit award in 2005 for her support of the troops. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WYNONNA JUDD, SINGER: I think it's important for us to support these families in their time of need. And so I'm here today just to say, hoo-ah, and to say I could not support it more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: I love Wynonna. Hoo-ah. She's supporting it. Larry and Wynonna and others, all at a special time today. That's noon Eastern, right here on CNN.
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