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American Morning

U.S. Helicopter Down in Iraq; Third Letter Bomb in Britain; Astronaut Lisa Nowak Accused of Attempted Murder

Aired February 07, 2007 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. Wednesday, February 7th.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien.

Thanks for being with us.

We begin with news coming out of Baghdad this morning about that Chinook helicopter down.

Let's go straight to Barbara Starr, live form the Pentagon, with details as they come in -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Miles, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad just a few moments ago confirmed that another helicopter is down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: We have a CH-46 that is down. The quick reaction forces are on site and the investigation is going on as we speak. That was the location to the northwest here of Baghdad, about 20 miles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Of course, four helicopters went down in a two-week period. The military confirming all of those, they believe, brought down by hostile enemy fire.

If this helicopter is also demonstrated to have been brought down by hostile fire, it will be a matter of great concern to the U.S. military. They are already reviewing all of their tactics and procedures for flying helicopters in Iraq, trying to determine whether there are new insurgent tactics that are making U.S. helicopters vulnerable. Too soon to say about this latest incident -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Barbara, let's talk about the CH-46, the Chinook helicopter. This is a helicopter which -- its lineage dates back to the '60s, the big twin rotor. In many cases, there have been problems, mechanical problems with this particular craft, in many cases because it's such an old bird.

At this point, has anything been ruled out? STARR: No. That's a very good point, Miles. It is simply too soon to say.

There are -- let's be very clear, there are some wire service, wire reports out there suggesting that this one may have been mechanical failure, but for the military, way too soon to say. They are going to begin an investigation.

They will look at the crash site. They will look at the debris, and that is usually in helicopter incidents how they determine it, if they see evidence of some sort of surface-to-air missile tube that may have been fired at the helicopter, any evidence of small arms fire penetrating the helicopter itself. And they will begin to look at it and go bit by bit and rule out all the possible scenarios and see what they are left with.

This time it's just too soon to say.

M. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

Thank you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Now to another developing story this morning. This one's out of Britain. Another letter bomb has exploded. It is the third in just the last three days.

CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh is live for us in London.

Alphonso, good morning.

ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

We have new information for you. We're understanding from police in the area where that letter bomb went off there are now three people that have been injured. And officials are saying that the mailroom is now a crime scene.

Now, that is coming at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. That's pretty much the equivalent of the DMV for this country. Authorities want to know who may be responsible for this, catching the attention of not just the home secretary, but even the prime minister expressing sympathy for those who have been injured.

S. O'BRIEN: Alphonso, there were two other bombings in the two previous days. Is this third one -- has it been officially connected to the other two?

VAN MARSH: Well, authorities at today's bombing are saying that they are looking into, they're working with authorities and the rest of the country -- as you mentioned, two other bombings, one in central London, one west of London on Monday. One bomb that went off injured one person, and that happened at a firm that handles the congestion charges. That's the fee that people pay to be able to drive in central London. Then on Tuesday, two people were injured when a bomb went off at an accounting firm. Now, the accounting firm isn't necessarily connected directly to driving, but one of their clients is. It was understood that the company that puts out speeding cameras, cameras that catch drivers perhaps breaking the rules or going through lights, getting their license plate numbers issued with the fines, that's where that went off, injuring two people. So, at this point, that is one of the theories that, yes, the three bombings in three days could indeed be connected -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Alphonso Van Marsh for us this morning in London.

Thanks, Alphonso.

(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Now to the odd, tragic mission of astronaut Lisa Nowak. She is due to land at home in Houston in about 50 minutes. Nowak is on paid leave from NASA for 30 days now while she fends off charges she had kidnapping and murder on her mind as she pursued the other woman in a love triangle.

Police say she targeted Air Force captain Colleen Shipman, who shared a love interest with her in astronaut Bill Oefelein. Police say Nowak drove 950 miles from Houston to Orlando to meet Shipman as she arrived on a flight from Houston. Nowak wore diapers on that road trip to avoid bathroom breaks.

She confronted Shipman in the airport parking lot in Orlando. Her attorney says she simply wanted to talk.

But she was packing a BB gun, a four-inch buck knife, a steel mallet, rubber hoses, latex gloves and garbage bags. And police say that is enough to charge her with attempted first-degree murder.

Susan Candiotti picks up the story for us now live from Orlando.

Susan, good morning.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

By 9:00 Eastern Time, Lisa Nowak is scheduled to be back in Houston, where she will be greeted by her family, perhaps even her estranged husband of 19 years. They separated a few weeks ago. Nowak has been put on paid leave by the Navy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice over): Covering her head with a jacket, Lisa Nowak's courthouse exit not the white glove treatment astronauts are used to.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Murder was the plan, and it just was not able to be carried out.

CANDIOTTI: Nowak was stoic in court, but police say she was obsessed with her perceived love rival Colleen Shipman over fellow astronaut Bill Oefelein, and had murder on her mind. Her attorney says Nowak just wanted to talk with Shipman.

Nowak's family released this statement: "Considering both her personal and professional life, these alleged events are completely out of character and have come as a tremendous shock to our family." By all accounts, a loving family.

Nowak was thrilled by Neil Armstrong's moonwalk. In Rockville, Maryland, she was co-valedictorian in high school. Her former classmates showed off yearbook photos of Nowak, active in student government and sports.

DENNIS ALLOY, FMR. NOWAK CLASSMATE: She was a good student, a sweet person. You know, a serious student, athletic. Just never -- didn't find her to be the one in trouble or doing something like this.

CANDIOTTI: She earned an aerospace engineering degree at the U.S. Naval Academy. Nowak finally made it into the Navy's test pilot school after six failed attempts.

In the mid-'80s, she married. Her husband works at mission control. They separated a few weeks ago. They have a teenage son and young twin daughters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And liftoff of the space shuttle Discovery...

CANDIOTTI: Last year she flew on the shuttle Discovery, working a robotic arm.

BRIAN CLEAVES, FMR. NOWAK CLASSMATE: I think that she's all about her career, and that's why I was just very surprised that she'd do something outside of normal, you know, and get herself in a jam like this.

CANDIOTTI: Before the shuttle launch, Nowak talked with CNN about the program's future.

LISA NOWAK, ASTRONAUT: Well, I'm glad we get to participate in the current program, even if it's retiring soon. But I'm also looking forward to the next things that are coming.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: Well, the next thing for Nowak now here in Orlando, there are no new court dates set for her yet on those attempted murder and kidnapping charges. NASA has released a statement saying it is deeply saddened by what it calls this tragic event -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Susan Candiotti in Orlando.

Thank you.

Coming up in just a few moments, a closer look at the closed world of NASA astronauts and the stress coming back to Earth -- Soledad. S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and Senator Barack Obama are on the move in New Hampshire. We'll share with you the latest poll numbers in the race to '08.

You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: The most news in the morning is right here.

A developing story from Iraq this morning. The military confirming just moments ago that another U.S. helicopter crashed north of Baghdad this morning. That's the fifth in about two weeks.

Also this morning, British prime minister Tony Blair reacting to that newly-released video that shows a U.S. pilot mistakenly killing a British soldier in Iraq in 2003. Mr. Blair extending condolences to the soldier's family -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Some news in the race to '08 this morning. After just one visit to Iowa, Senator Hillary Clinton is now in the lead there. The latest poll from the American Research Group shows that she jumped from fourth place to first place at 35 percent.

You can see it right there on that graphic.

For Republicans, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is the favorite in Iowa, followed by John McCain, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Still about a year to the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. The political pros are already running on all cylinders, watching every poll, even though they seldom admit that publicly.

No secret, though, that Bill Schneider is a confirmed poll watcher. He joins us now with the latest digits. He revels in the digits.

Good morning, Bill.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I have some for you. The latest New Hampshire primary polls, CNN and WMUR in New Hampshire, and it's getting real interesting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): It's neck and neck in New Hampshire. John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are nearly tied.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER: Thank you for having me here at this New Hampshire First in the Nation Rally. I appreciate that very much. SCHNEIDER: The poll is not good news for McCain. McCain won the New Hampshire primary in 2000. And he's been leading polls of New Hampshire Republicans for the past two years.

Until now. Giuliani seems to have gotten a boost from his visit to New Hampshire last month. Not from moderate Republicans, where McCain leads Giuliani by nearly two to one. Giuliani seems to be rallying conservatives in New Hampshire, despite his views on social issues.

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK: We have to reassert the basic core issues of the Republican Party. We've got -- you know, we've got to be about being Republican strong, not Democrat light.

SCHNEIDER: In 2000 McCain was helped by independents who voted in the Republican primary. But Granite State independents are strongly anti-Bush and anti-war. This year two thirds of them say they plan to vote in the Democratic primary.

Hillary Clinton is still in place among New Hampshire Democratic primary voters, but Barack Obama has bolted to the number two spot. Clinton commands the loyalty of registered Democrats.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: I've been fighting for more than 35 years on behalf of poor people and children and women and families.

SCHNEIDER: But her lead is considerably smaller among independents who intend to vote in the Democratic primary. They like Obama's stand on the war.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: I was opposed to this invasion publicly, frequently, before it began.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: For voters, the toughest choice is often between candidates who have similar views -- McCain and Giuliani, Clinton and Obama. And that's why the New Hampshire primary could get very close in both parties and very exciting -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: We like it when it's exciting, don't we?

SCHNEIDER: We do, indeed.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Bill Schneider. Thank you very much.

About quarter past the hour now. If you're headed out the door, Chad Myers has the weather word for you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, why one U.S. beer maker is looking south to the border for a new formula. We're minding your beer and "Minding Your Business," too, straight ahead.

Plus, inside another world. Questions about NASA's culture now that one of their own is accused of attempted murder.

Those stories and much more coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LETTERMAN, "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": The category tonight: Top Ten Signs an Astronaut is Trying to Kill You.

(LAUGHTER)

This is the kind of thing that's going to give NASA a black eye.

No. 5: Previous attempts to kill you have been postponed due to high winds.

No. 4: She poisoned your Tang.

That's the last thing you want to do is get ahead of some bad Tang.

PAUL SHAFFER, "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": I'm telling you. Especially if it stinks (ph).

LETTERMAN: Yes, exactly.

SHAFFER: But if you have a diaper on...

LETTERMAN: Thank you.

No. 3: She says she looks forward to being the first to walk on your lifeless corpse.

No. 2: Been getting threatening e-mails from Connie (ph) at internationalspacestation.com.

And the number one sign an astronaut is trying to kill you, she keeps stabbing you with a pen that writes upside down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Obviously David Letterman and the others had a little bit of fun with this, but it is a serious subject, and it's a story everybody's talking about.

Let's take a closer look now at this astronaut star-crossed fall from grace.

Lisa Nowak is not the first astronaut to deal with demons, despite the carefully-managed public image from NASA. They are, after all, human beings who live in a world of huge risk, high stress, and towering expectations for themselves and from others.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN (voice over): Jon Clark is no longer with NASA, but he's still part of the family, and that family is in shock.

JON CLARK, FMR. NASA FLIGHT SURGEON: It was very apparent that she's under a huge amount of stress, and obviously she was not thinking right.

M. O'BRIEN: Lisa Nowak was there for Clark and his son Ian on some very dark days. Clark's wife Laurel perished on the space shuttle Columbia four years ago. The two had much in common -- both naval officers, astronaut classmates, working moms.

CLARK: She loved kids, they loved their family life, they loved gardening and flowers. And, you know, she was very close to Lisa, and that's the part of it -- I sit there and I think, you know, if somebody's under enough emotional stress, who knows what could happen?

M. O'BRIEN: As a former NASA flight surgeon, Clark has seen the stress through a doctor's eyes as well. He says many astronauts do not have happy landings after the emotional high of space flight.

CLARK: They've been on this tremendous high, and then there is this tremendous low that follows, this vacuum that follows. And that's a period, I think, that they're very vulnerable, and I think that might be the case, you know, here, too.

M. O'BRIEN: Lisa Nowak flew to space for the first time in July. If she needed psychological help post-mission, it would be no surprise that she did not seek it.

MIKE MULLANE, FMR. ASTRONAUT: You've got to understand, for astronauts, it is a life quest. This isn't a job. This is a dream for us.

And we have worked our entire lives to achieve this dream. And we don't want to get anything -- have anything get in the way of having it realized on a mission into space.

M. O'BRIEN: Former astronaut Mike Mullane flew on the shuttle three times starting in the late '80s. He reluctantly sought out a NASA psychiatrist because of problems he had with a boss.

MULLANE: They don't just lock us in a tube and say deal with it, like I'm getting the impression some people think.

M. O'BRIEN: But it is an elite club, a type A-plus fraternity, the ranks always closed, allowing problems to fester. The divorce rate is high, and astronauts say extramarital affairs are not uncommon, seldom discussed outside the family.

HOMER HICKAM, FMR. NASA ENGINEER: For years, we have left it up to the astronauts to essentially pick their own membership. And so, they're brought in, they are beholden to the people who have brought them in. They become part of this -- this little fraternity. They become isolated down in Houston, to a great extent.

M. O'BRIEN: Former NASA engineer Homer Hickam is author of the book that inspired the movie "October Sky." He says there are too many astronauts chasing too few seats to space. The competition almost inhumane.

HICKAM: The astronaut office, in my opinion, really needs to be broken up. It needs to be spread around all of the NASA centers. It needs to get out. The people in the astronaut office need to get out into the real world a little bit, breathe a little fresh air, and understand what's really going on in the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: And anyone who saw "The Right Stuff" or read the book knows the astronaut office no stranger to shenanigans, shall we say, the boys will be boys days. And there was a lot of kind of covering up for that kind of activity. But this, charges of a felony for an active astronaut, puts it in a whole different level.

S. O'BRIEN: But how much of that is due to the astronaut officer, as the last gentleman interviewed said, you know, because of the culture, very insulated, and how much of that is just a person who cracks, who happens to be an astronaut?

M. O'BRIEN: It's impossible to run an experiment and separate the two, because she is a product of that environment. And if she -- and this is speculation -- but if she felt she needed help and felt constrained not to seek it for fear it would disqualify her for a flight, perhaps that's what led to a crisis, possibly.

S. O'BRIEN: You talk about how they feel like at the end -- at the end of being an astronaut, you sort of feel this massive loss.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, she was an astronaut for 10 years and had dreamt about going to space since she was 5. She finally realized that dream in July, and then had seen the shuttle program, with only 14 flights left, about to retire that program, maybe not another flight. I'm sure it was a tremendous letdown.

S. O'BRIEN: And then she has a 19-year marriage, but suddenly she's getting separated.

M. O'BRIEN: A lot of cross currents.

S. O'BRIEN: It's a really sad story. She's got little, little kids.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: That's a really sad story.

Let's turn now and talk a little bit about business news.

Miller wants beer drinkers to chill out.

Twenty-five minutes past the hour. That means Stephanie Elam is "Minding Your Business."

Hey, Stephanie. Good morning.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Soledad.

That's exactly it. Miller Brewing is now going to start selling cerveza, as it turns out. What's going on here, next month they're going to start selling -- or actually, I should say testing a beer that's flavored with lime and salt in a few parts of the country. Specifically targeting Latino areas.

And it's calling it a modern American take on a Mexican classic. It's a low-calorie beer called Miller Chill. And it's modeled after a popular style of Mexican beer called Chelada.

Now, it's going to compete against other light beers, and it will be tested in Florida, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and in San Diego as well. They're hoping to expand nationwide eventually.

Now, moving on from there to a story about $6 million, it's about poker, actually. It's a dispute that has finally been settled and it has to do with this man named Jamie Gold, who won $12 million after winning the World Series of Poker main event last summer.

He was then sued by Bruce Crispin Leyser, who is a television producer, actually, who claimed that Gold had promised him half of the money if he won. Now, Gold probably did not think he was actually going to win. The odds were totally against him.

He's not a pro when it comes to poker. And on top of it, 8,700 people were enrolled in this event overall. But now Gold has said that he has paid up. We don't know, however, if he paid the exact full $6 million, but apparently both sides are happy about how things turned out.

So I guess even if you don't think you're going to win, keep your mouth shut so you can keep your money. That's the takeaway from that.

S. O'BRIEN: There are so many instances where that takeaway is relevant.

ELAM: And it has -- I mean, I think a Chicago Bears player just went through that, too. So you've got to be careful about what you say if you don't mean it.

S. O'BRIEN: You know? Because you think you're not going to win.

ELAM: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: The next thing you know, someone is suing you and you're getting calls from lawyers.

ELAM: And they'll call. They'll remember.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, they will. That's why they're lawyers.

All right. Stephanie Elam for us this morning.

Thanks, Stephanie. ELAM: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: A look at the top stories of the morning are coming up next, including a developing story out of Iraq. Another U.S. helicopter has been shot down -- is down. Was it shot down, is the question now.

We're going to bring you the very latest on that story.

And after his stunning fall from grace and three intense weeks of rehab, we'll tell you what Pastor Ted Haggard now says is his next move. He's got a completely heterosexual life, we're told.

That story straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: That chopper down just the latest wrinkle in the situation in Iraq. We are at the point now where just the beginning of that additional troop force will start making its presence known on the ground, specifically targeting Baghdad. Joining us now to talk about potential change in tactics by the insurgents as well as what that new force of U.S. soldiers will do in Baghdad and around Iraq is retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd, a CNN military analyst.

Good to have you with us this morning, General Shepperd. First of all, let's talk about Baghdad and the battle for Baghdad. I want to zoom in on the city right now. A lot of people probably underestimate the size of the city. This is a city of seven million people. Let's give people quickly the lay of the land, because they're probably not familiar with it, although at this point, they're probably getting pretty close. This is the green zone area. That's where the U.S. headquarters is. That's the fortified compound. The Iraqi government is in there.

As the U.S. kind of surveys this sprawling city and considers how to reel in the violence, what do they do? They divvy it up by neighborhoods and sectors?

MAY. GEN. SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE: Yes. First of all, you've got to realize. It's really hard. Think of Chicago. That's what you're dealing with, a big city, complex city. The blue neighborhoods here are the Shia neighborhoods. The green neighborhoods are the Sunni neighborhoods. This is where most of the fighting is going on now, mortaring back and forth between these neighborhoods, capturing of hostages, death squads, particularly in the Sadr City area there. This is a desperately difficult situation, a lot of fighting going on go on.

M. O'BRIEN: So what's the idea, put a cordon around places like this and control access in and out? SHEPPERD: Not necessarily. It's hard to do in a big city. It works in a smaller city, but basically what you're going to do is deploy troops in. You're going to establish in various precincts, supposedly nine precincts throughout the city, you're going to establish headquarters, what have you, in other words, police stations. And the idea is to slowly bring the violence down with Iraqi and U.S. troops.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well let's go and point out the difficulty in all this, because while you can -- if we look at the next graphic -- while you can point out these areas where you have a concentration of Shia or Sunni, the violence doesn't necessarily match that pattern.

OK, here's that green zone once again, all right. This is Sadr City, which is Shia. That's a little Shia pocket there. But if you look at recent bombings -- these are big car bombings recently, and we've certainly had enough to tell you about, but these are big ones. We've got one, two, that's three, four, and I think six of them on there right now, and they don't follow the pattern of those neighborhoods. There's really no rhyme or reason.

SHEPPERD: No. Tens, even hundreds of incidents like this. Car bombings and suicide bombers with suicide belts, the hardest thing to prevent. And the bad guys, the al Qaeda in Iraq, which are responsible for most of these, basically know that all they have to do is sow a bunch of violence and kill a bunch of civilians, and the American mission will be seen as a failure. It's a difficult problem.

M. O'BRIEN: So this is where it gets difficult, when you talk about 20,000-plus troops and violence that is scattered across this sprawling city of seven million. It doesn't really fit into neat little boxes, does it?

SHEPPERD: It does not. This is a very, very complex problem. We're at the early stages of getting the troops over there, getting them organized. They have to learn how to work together. They have to learn how to trust each other, and then you have to start bringing the violence down. It's an immensely difficult problem.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about choppers now. We have the reports this morning. It's way too early to say. This could have been a mechanical failure. We don't know what's going on with this latest one. But we do have leading up to this four confirmed shoot-downs. One of them was a civilian helicopter run by a civilian contractor, the other three military. Whether they're heat-seeking missiles, small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, the point is, what we seem to be seeing -- and here is the location of the four previous and the latest one in the northwest area of Baghdad, Fallujah area -- what we seem to be seeing, apparently, is a change in tactics.

SHEPPERD: Yes. Basically, you find these times where you lose several aircraft all in a short period of time. It's very worrisome. The first thing you do is investigate them to find out what brought them down, and then investigate your tactics. For instance, flying at night is a defense against IR missiles, because they can't see where to aim their infrared missiles, changing routes, making sure that you don't take off at the same time and go over the same area. Where this fifth chopper went down -- I've flown over there in a chopper recently at low level. A helicopter is vulnerable because it operates at low altitude. But again, you want to know what brought them down. Then you change your tactics and then you also change your equipment, if you find out the equipment itself can be adjusted.

M. O'BRIEN: But the very nature of the utility of a helicopter puts it in a vulnerable position. And we're talking about, potentially, the specter of shoulder-fired missiles, and these would be Soviet-lineage type missiles, we think, SA-7s perhaps.

SHEPPERD: Hopefully.

M. O'BRIEN: But could it be -- this is the old version, the SA- 7, I believe, what we're seeing here.

SHEPPERD: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: The newer versions would be more troublesome, correct?

SHEPPERD: It would. This is the old SA-7. There are about 500,000 of them running around the arms market, on the black market. They sell for a few thousand to higher up. The new missiles, the follow-on to this, is a SA-16 and 18. If those come in, it changes the game because it changes the type of flares you have to use, the protection majors that you have onboard, your automotive protection majors. So it's a difficult problem if we find these new weapons, and they would probably come from Iran. That would be very serious.

M. O'BRIEN: We've talked about this since day one in the war, the key advantage to the U.S. is air superiority. If the choppers become vulnerable, the U.S. loses a key advantage, and that is potentially very troubling.

SHEPPERD: Choppers are vulnerable. If you're going to be involved in combat operations, you need choppers and you're going to get some of them shot down. It's just a matter of fact that that's going to happen. So increased U.S. forces, increase U.S. operations means more American casualties, more choppers down. It's a fact of life.

M. O'BRIEN: But perhaps a change of tactics is in order.

SHEPPERD: And you will change your tactics and you will also change your equipment.

M. O'BRIEN: Major General John Shepperd, our military analyst, thanks for flying in for this. I appreciate it -- Soledad.

SHEPPERD: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Straight ahead this morning, new revelations about former Pastor Ted Haggard and claims that now he's completely heterosexual. Is all this the beginning of his comeback? We'll take a look, straight ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: The reverend Ted Haggard is telling his friends that he's ready to move on after a sex scandal with a male prostitute and three intense weeks of counseling. Haggard resigned in November as pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs and the National Association of Evangelicals. Then he sent an e-mail off to his former church members.

AMERICAN MORNING's faith and values correspondent Delia Gallagher's with us with more. Good morning.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN FAITH AND VALUES CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: Three weeks -- people might say, wow, three weeks is certainly fast to be cured of homosexuality.

GALLAGHER: Well, he says the three weeks was something like three years of analysis, so maybe there's something to that. But I mean, I think, this e-mail is a kind of here's what I've done and here's what I'm planning on doing. It wasn't necessarily hallelujah, I'm cured. The idea of being completely homosexual was something attributed to him by another pastor. And the tone of the e-mail is very sort of asking for forgiveness and talking about walking this difficult, horrific time, he says, with Jesus.

But he says a key word in there, which is he did the therapy to understand the incongruity, how this incongruity, he calls it, in his life developed, and I think that's where the crux is.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm married and having sex with a male prostitute, that's incongruity.

GALLAGHER: Correct. And does that mean, therefore, that this is a straight man that has had an instance or several instances of sin, as the evangelicals would see it, or does that mean this is a gay man in denial or something in between there?

S. O'BRIEN: What is the cure involved? I mean, is there sort of a template for how people are cured?

GALLAGHER: They have something called a restoration process, which, according to them, takes many years and involves therapy and involves this kind of analysis that the pastor is doing. I don't know that they would necessarily speak of cure. They do have ministries to gay and lesbian people, and they think that it is a choice, and therefore, it is something that you can also unchoose. Just as, for example, they expect heterosexuals, by the way, not to engage in premarital sex. Of course, the difference being that heterosexuals can eventually marry.

So I think that, you know, they try to say that it is something which, you know, they're trying to work through this process, but not necessarily to cure them, but to restore them to their initial sort of grace with God.

S. O'BRIEN: I thought it was interesting what he said in his letter, was sort of laying out his future plans. What's he going to be doing? And his wife will be doing it with him as well.

GALLAGHER: Very important actually is the role of the wife. Because for the church and for the evangelical community, they want to see also that she is supporting him in this, and she went to the therapy with him, and he claims that they will be moving. They will be going either to Iowa or Missouri, or some place unnamed, and they will be pursuing degrees in psychology together online, probably some kind of secular counseling work at the moment. So the big question to watch is, is he going to be able to go back into Christian ministry?

S. O'BRIEN: I was going to ask, is that sort of the first step in being able to regain his various positions that he had...

GALLAGHER: Well, I think it's very much a wait-and-see question at the moment for the church community, and a big question mark in that is, you know, how much is his wife going to stand by him and what is going to kind of come out of this in the long-term? It's only been three months. I mean, this is very fast.

Three weeks is three years, three months -- well, we'll see how it goes. Interesting questions. Fascinating.

GALLAGHER: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Delia, thank you.

GALLAGHER: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Delia Gallagher is our faith and values correspondent.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: "CNN NEWSROOM" is just a couple of minutes away, and Heidi Collins is at the CNN Center with a look at what's ahead for them this morning.

Hey, Heidi, good morning.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there, Soledad.

That's right. We've got these stories are coming up on the "NEWSROOM" rundown. An astronaut accused in an alleged love triangle gone bad. I'm sure you've heard about this one, Lisa Nowak arriving home in Houston. Next hour we'll have live coverage of that story coming up in the "NEWSROOM."

And a consumer group calling for some birth control pills to be pulled from the market. Public Citizen claims certain pills can increase the risk of blood clots. Also, what would you do for a million dollars? A California man says he'll do anything. But it's just got to be legal. Down and out in Beverly Hills.

You can join Tony Harris and I in the "NEWSROOM" at the top of the hour on CNN.

At least it's going to be legal, right?

S. O'BRIEN: I'll do that, too. A million bucks, as long as it's legal. All right, Heidi, thanks.

COLLINS: What could be so bad?

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Heidi.

A look at our top stories coming up as well. Plus, did you know it's possible to suddenly lose your memory so completely that you don't even know who you are? Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us about a rare condition and one man's mysterious story.

Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.

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Now to a mystery of the brain, a condition where your entire memory's wiped out. It could happen out of nowhere, and just as mysteriously comes right back in. We have our resident brain surgeon looking into that.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta's in Atlanta this morning. Hey, Sanjay. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

It is one of those amazing things. The term is actually psychogenic fugue. It's a type of amnesia, but no one really knows for sure what causes it. Is it a trauma, or is it a psychological difference somehow? We don't know, but here's what it's like for one man.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): At 59, after 35 years at the power company, Joe Bieger found his true calling.

JOE BIEGER, PSYCHOGENIC FUGUE: I played football all through my high school and college years, and this was the first opportunity I've ever had to coach football.

GUPTA: The new job was pressure. Bieger wanted to win and mentor his boys, and he practiced hard. SEAN BEHL. THE HIGHLANDS SCHOOL QB: He's ready to go, hitting you hard with the pad, making you want to go hard at him.

GUPTA: Then one day, he took out his dogs and vanished. For 25 agonizing days, nothing.

BIEGER: The last thing I remember from that morning is feeling very ill. I don't know where I was or what I was doing.

GUPTA: He has vague recollections of sleeping on a swing, being found dirty and bearded, and his memory returning.

BIEGER: It didn't come to me like a flash of light, but it wasn't a struggle, either. Over a matter of a few hours or four, five hours, I'm not sure, I felt perfectly normal.

GUPTA: Doctors say Bieger experienced psychogenic fugue, something so rare, no statistics exist.

DANIEL SCHACTER, HARVARD UNIV. PSYCHOLOGIST: Psychogenic fugue is a rare form of memory loss in which someone typically experiences some sort of traumatic event, and as a result of that, begins to wander.

GUPTA: What erased Bieger's memory is a mystery. He had suffered temporary amnesia twice, just weeks before his disappearance. MRI scans showed no physical damage, suggested emotional trauma from coaching.

BIEGER: It's the conclusion of the doctors that the stress of that new activity is what caused me to go into this fugue state.

GUPTA: As Bieger learns to manage stress, his wife insists he carries a cell phone with a GPS tracking device. Humbled, Bieger sees a lesson in his strange journey.

BIEGER: I had to look lost, and yet, I'm not sure that I was ever approached. We all have to be much more aware of people who might need some help.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: And Mr. Bieger has gone through a series of neuropsychiatric tests now to try and figure out what exactly caused this memory loss. No conclusive diagnosis as of yet. Very interesting. They're still not sure if it was some sort of psychological or traumatic hit. They may never know. His memory from before the event returned 100 percent. He has no gaps. He just can't remember those 25 days.

S. O'BRIEN: But you talked a little about how he had these little bouts of short-term amnesia. Is that very unusual for anybody?

GUPTA: Well, amnesia in and of itself, there are several types of amnesia. There's something known as transient global amnesia, where you can't remember things before an event or after an event. It's relatively rare still. They actually thought that maybe he had that, but the tests didn't bare that out. They also thought he might having mini strokes, TIA-type symptoms, but he didn't have that either, according to the tests. So they're not sure what caused it in this case.

S. O'BRIEN: And they have no idea what he was doing for twenty- some odd days, do they?

GUPTA: They don't. They haven't found anybody who actually witnessed him, saw him. He has some recollections of, you know, as he said, being found bearded and dirty on a swing set. Very unusual. I mean, you met the guy in the piece. To have that sort of behavior all of a sudden, very bizarre.

S. O'BRIEN: Does that happen to a lot of people? if it's really linked to stress, right, you would think a lot of people have stressful jobs or have changes that are stressful. This should be happening more often, right?

GUPTA: And we talked to memory experts about this, and it is still considered rare, but it might happen more often than we think. Not to the length of time that it happened to him, 25 days. But people may have sort of blips of time when they just sort of lose, possibly as related to stress, maybe more often associated with trauma.

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting. What a weird story that guy has, huh?

GUPTA: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay. Thanks.

GUPTA: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Fascinating. Fascinating.

Here's a quick look at what "CNN NEWSROOM" is working on for the top of the hour.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: See these stories in the "CNN NEWSROOM." Hiding from cameras -- astronaut Lisa Nowak arrives home in Houston in just moments. She's charged with trying to kill an alleged romantic rival.

Millions misspent -- FEMA admits $350 million in Katrina relief squandered on people who didn't qualify.

Ted Haggard -- an associate reportedly says the disgraced pastor is, quote, "completely heterosexual" after intensive counseling.

You're in the "NEWSROOM," 9:00 a.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific.

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