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President's New Conference; Missing Soldier; Iraq Polls; Winter Onslaught; The Fight For Iraq; Battle For The Body; Top Tips
Aired February 14, 2007 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you once again, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. Spend a second hour in the NEWSROOM this morning and staying informed. Here's what's on the rundown.
President Bush in front of reporters and the nation one hour from now. The best political team on television covering his news conference. It is live in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: Bear of a blizzard. A fierce noreaster beats up on New England and beyond. Travelers tripped up, schools shut down.
HARRIS: An automaker cutting deep. Thousands of workers get their walking papers. Tough love at Chrysler on this Valentine's Day, February 14th. You are in the NEWSROOM.
And at the top this morning, the Bush White House at war in Iraq, under siege on Capitol Hill and facing reporters next hour. CNN White House correspondent Elaine Quijano is in place for the news conference in an hour. She is, of course, a part of the best political team on television.
Elaine, what are we expecting to hear from the president this morning?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Tony.
A senior administration official tells CNN that at the outset the president is going to make a brief statement on Iraq and North Korea. The statement is going to be about five to seven minutes long. And the official says that it will include a mention of the debate taking place in the House over a non-binding resolution expressing opposition to the president's plan for an increase in the number of troops in Iraq.
You can expect some of what the president will say will also include input from his new commander on the ground in Iraq, General David Petraeus. General Petraeus formally took command in Iraq over the weekend. And this morning the two spoke via secure video conference.
Now it's been nearly two months, Tony, since President Bush last held his last news conference. He's been having them about once a month. But, of course, in January he delivered those two major addresses, including the address on Iraq where he announced his troop increase plan, as well as the State of the Union Address. So a lot certainly on the agenda when he talks to reporters later today.
Tony.
HARRIS: And you will be with us before and after the president's news conference this morning. Can't wait. Elaine Quijano at the White House for us.
Elaine, thank you.
COLLINS: An American soldier abducted in Baghdad nearly four months ago. Today he is shown alive in an undated video. It appeared on a militant website. Live now to CNN's Arwa Damon in the Iraqi capital.
Arwa, at this point, what do we know about that video?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, we can tell you that it was posted on a website. The group that is claiming responsibility for the kidnapping and that posted the video is called the Alhed Beit Brigade (ph). They are actually a little known Shia militant group. The video coming out on a website for supporters for the Mehdi militia. That is the militia loyal to radical Shia cleric Muqtada al- Sadr. Now CNN is unable to independently verify the authenticity of this video, but we did speak with Altaie's uncle, Entifadh Qanbar. He said that he is 100 percent sure that the man in the video is his nephew. And he said that the family has, in fact, been in touch with this group for quite some time now. He described them as being sophisticated and saying that some of the correspondence was even in English.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ENTIFADH QANBAR, MISSING SOLDIER'S UNCLE: I was sort of expecting the video because through the corresponding with this group, they promised to release a video. I was hoping to get this video with more specifics, with dates, with more specifics to give us a proof of life. Because that was the whole point in my dialogue with them, is to basically send us a proof of life.
It was a relief, to be honest with you. It was a great relief for me to see his face. He looks very healthy. He looks very good. He look in great shape.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAMON: Altaie was kidnapped on October 23rd when he left Baghdad's international zone to go visit his family and his Iraqi wife in a central Baghdad neighborhood. His kidnapping sparked a massive citywide search. The U.S. military now saying that they are trying to authenticate the video.
Heidi.
COLLINS: Arwa, I want to go ahead and talk a little bit about the security plan that I know you're familiar with along the Iran and Syrian border. It's being implemented today too. And already we're hearing a little bit of criticism coming in from the Iraqis about maybe this should have been done sooner. Are these troops who are patrolling if area trained well enough and are they really committed to helping cut down on the violence?
DAMON: That's right, Heidi. And ever since the Baghdad security plan has come forward, it has been met with very harsh criticism from Iraq's streets. In part because they have heard their government put forward so many plans and all have failed. And this does appears to be the government's last-ditch effort to try to bring some sort of civility to the country and to re-establish its own credibility.
Now we do know that right now the borders with Iran and Syria are closed. Two border crossings with Syria, five with Iran. This signaling really the beginning of the major push to implement this security plan.
And we have been hearing reports from some neighborhoods that there are searches undergoing at this point. But really, for the Iraqis to start to believe in this new plan, we're going to have to see a significant decrease in the violence.
Heidi.
COLLINS: CNN's Arwa Damon reporting live from Baghdad for us.
Arwa, thank you.
And the latest polls on Iraq. Now they suggest most Americans want Congress to do more about the war than hold a symbolic vote. CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider breaks down the numbers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): What's the most important problem facing the country? Nearly a third of Americans say Iraq in the CBS News poll. No other issue was in double digits. That's the main reason why President Bush's job approval rating remains low, 32 percent.
What about Congress? Just as low, 32 percent. The public is as frustrate with Congress as it is with President Bush. What do they want Congress to do? Vote against the troop increase? Yes. By two to one in last month's CNN poll.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have legislation to cap the number of American troops.
SCHNEIDER: Fifty-seven percent favor limiting the number of U.S. troops serving in Iraq.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This plan would not only place a cap on the number of troops in Iraq and stop the escalation, more importantly it would begin a phase redeployment of U.S. forces with the goal of removing all U.S. combat forces from Iraq by March 31, 2008.
SCHNEIDER: Sixty-three percent want Congress to set a timetable for withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of next year. John Edwards is calling on Congress to block funding for an escalation of the war. While only 8 percent in the CBS News poll want Congress to block all funding for the war, an additional 45 percent want Congress to block funding for more troops.
The House of Representatives is debating a non-binding resolution. The Senate can't even do that. Sixty-three percent of Americans say they are bothered by the Senate's failure to hold a debate. Those who are bothered blame Republicans more than Democrats by better than two to one.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And coming up in just a little while, less than an hour, we are going to be hearing from the president of the United States. He's going to be holding a brief news conference, about five to seven minutes or so, on the Iraq situation and the new North Korea deal. He's going to break that down a little bit for us. And, of course, we will have it live and talk with our political team about it.
HARRIS: Icy roads and runways, schools shut down, homes and businesses plunged in the dark. What a mess today from the Midwest to the East Coast. Right in the middle of all of this misery, the state of Ohio. The situation there dangerous today. The snow is so heavy in some areas drivers could be arrested if they venture out. CNN's Rob Marciano joins us now from Cleveland.
Where are you, Rob? Are you there just off of Lakeshore Boulevard, 14th, maybe 9th, right by the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, by that stadium? Where are you?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're right on, Tony. Right here by the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. We are on 9th and Shoreline. The lake is right behind me. There's a tanker or a freighter right over there in the distance. It's not going anywhere. There's chunks of ice all over the lake.
So this isn't really lake effect snow. This is just this big storm system that has come through the Ohio River Valley and dumped over a foot of snow here in Cleveland. And then the blowing snow, the drifting has been the main issue. Clearing the roadways and also the airports are closed down for a brief period of time because of those drifts. But they expect the airport to be open for the remainder of the day.
There it is. There's the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Kind of looks like a pyramid, you know, in a sandstorm, except we're in the middle of winter here and the snow is just whipping around that structure. Pretty incredible site.
Traffic was just gridlocked yesterday across Cleveland. This morning or today, you know, it's pretty much a ghost town. Take a look up this street. You know, a couple of cars out there. But it's a slow go.
Schools are closed. And we'll just have to see what kind of businesses get cranked up and open up today. This looks like it's going to turn out to be -- this will easily be the biggest snow storm of this season here in Cleveland. But it could very well be the biggest snowstorm that they see in the next several years.
Tony.
HARRIS: Well, I've got to tell you something. Having lived there for a period of time, you can get significant snows, like what you're experiencing right now in Cleveland, but if you head east and you get into that snowbelt area of, what, Chardon, Ashtabula, I mean, you can see some incredible snow totals.
MARCIANO: And they'll probably get a little bit. That's still open for business. A little bit as far as lake-effect snows over there. So when these winds get cranking north, northwest later on tonight and tomorrow, they'll pick up a few more inches. So this storm, even though it's transferring its energy to the east coast and Nor'easter, as you can see, we're still in it and it will be a slow, diminishing return, so to speak, as we go through the afternoon.
HARRIS: Rob Marciano in the frozen tundra of Cleveland, Ohio.
Rob, appreciate it. Thank you, sir.
COLLINS: Boy, hard not to find a frozen tundra. Yes.
Let's head to, I don't know, California. How about that? Chad, any luck there?
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: President Bush getting ready to meet reporters this morning. See his news conference 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. We will talk with the best political team on television about it. Questions and answers in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: Meanwhile, thousands of auto workers losing their jobs today. Big cuts at Chrysler to tell you all about, coming up in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: A survivors next step. A man attacked by a mountain lion. Remember this story? Well, he's getting better. The question is, will he hike again? That story in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: Snow safety first. What you need to know before you start digging out. We are on top of the story and the roof, coming up in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Iran's involvement in Iraq. A leading topic of a military briefing earlier today. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now with more.
Barbara, good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony.
Well, you know, yesterday, a lot of confusion, a lot of conflicting message points from an administration that prides itself on message discipline. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, yesterday said he wasn't so sure that Iran's central government could really be tied to those shipments of Iranian weapons into Iraq. That had been a topic of conversation in Baghdad over the weekend.
Top briefers holding a background session with reporters saying those Iranian weapons shipments had been tied to the highest levels of the Iranian government. Now the chairman of the Joint Chiefs saying he wasn't to sure. Earlier today in Baghdad, the top spokesman held a briefing and he appeared to back off from what that original background briefing had said. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: I think people want to make an inference and I think people want to hype this up. What we are saying is that within Iran that these EFP component parts are being manufactured, within Iran weapons, ammunitions are being manufactured that are ending up in Iraq. And we are asking the Iranian government to assist in stopping that from occurring.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: It's a little hard to see how General Caldwell came up with hype per say because, of course, it was a background military briefer over the weekend that indeed said these shipments were tied to the highest levels of the Iranian government. General Caldwell acknowledged that statement had been made. But what he tried to emphasize clearly was the message point of the day, which is nobody's trying to attack the Iranian government.
All of this is about force protection for U.S. troops that are being killed by all of these weapons. We will see what President Bush has to say about all of this in just a little while. But one can only suspect, Tony, he will agree with his chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
HARRIS: So many questions. But let's leave it there for now. I know you'll be available to us after the president's news conference this morning. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us.
Barbara, thank you.
STARR: Sure.
COLLINS: And Gerri Willis is here live today sitting right next to us. Lovely to see you on this Valentine's Day. And what a topic along with the day that we have today. Money and marriage.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Money and marriage. Money and sex. We're covering it all. Money is up there when it comes to reasons for marriage quarrels. In today's "Top Tips" I'll tell you how you can actually make money by saying "I do." You wondered how. That's coming up next, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CNN's Susan Candiotti is on the line with us right now. And Susan is reporting on the latest legal wranglings I hate to put it this way -- but we're talking about the latest developments in the battle over the body of Anna Nicole Smith.
Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is what it boils down to, Tony, doesn't it? While the controversy goes on over what to do with Anna Nicole Smith's remains, a Broward circuit county court judge right now has ordered that the body stay put. For the moment, the body will remain at the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office while the dispute over a paternity test goes on.
You'll recall that this paternity test matter was brought up by one of Anna Nicole Smith's exboyfriend, Larry Birkhead. And his lawyer this day (ph) got a judge in an emergency hearing in his chambers with none of the other parties represented -- that's called an ex parte hearing -- to hear their request for him to order an injunction to keep the body at the medical examiner's office. The reason they wanted that done is that it's been the contention of Larry Birkhead, the exboyfriend, that he wants to maintain the integrity, as he puts it, of any DNA testing to be done on her remains. He didn't want her to be buried, for example, before this matter could be settled.
So this means that the body will remain at the medical examiner's office. Now this also means that it is OK for the body to be embalmed until that time because this matter could take some time to settle. There was a concern expressed by the medical examiner yesterday in a signed affidavit. Him saying that the body of Anna Nicole Smith frankly is decomposing, as gruesome as that may sound, and unless the body is embalmed soon, Doctor Perper said that if they wished to bring the body to a funeral home and the service and the like, that she should be embalmed sooner than later. So that the happen.
HARRIS: So, Susan, just to sort of be clear about this. Anna Nicole Smith's body can't be buried yet until there is some kind of final determination through the court system as to how DNA will be preserved. Is that close to what we're talking about?
CANDIOTTI: Yes, that's pretty much what it boils down to. They're trying to figure out how these DNA tests can be conducted, what is necessary for that to happen, whether she can be buried while that's being determined. And so -- but while that matter is determined, this order, this injunction, simply means that she will remain -- her remains will stay at the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office.
HARRIS: OK. CNN's Susan Candiotti for us.
Susan, thank you.
ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Tony Harris and Heidi Collins.
COLLINS: Good morning once again, everybody. Back to this weather picture we've been showing you this morning. Tens of thousand of people shivering in the dark. Ice-slick roads, passenger planes stuck on the runway, even federal offices shut down in Washington, D.C. That's the scene from parts of the Midwest to the East Coast.
Another winter onslaught dumping snow and ice all across the region. And check this out, record snow in Indianapolis. That city also dealing with below zero wind chills. Not fun.
Chicago, best to stay indoor there's, too. The windy city coping with all sorts of snow and cold-related problems. Many roads across Illinois just plain impassable.
Even in parts of the south, no escaping the misery. Treacherous roads across the state of Virginia. Ice blamed for a chain reaction on Interstate 64. More than a dozen vehicles slamming into each other. Two people were taken to the hospital.
I want to go ahead and get over to Chad Myers to sort all of this out for us, if you would like or if you can.
Chad, so much activity going on across the country.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: OK. About an hour into the trading day. Let's check the big board, New York Stock Exchange. The Dow, as you can see, up 56 points. Wondering about the Nasdaq. Someone any moment now is going to give me a number on the Nasdaq. I know it has to be up today. But there you see the Dow up 56 points. The big news of the day, Chrysler. Boy, announcing all kinds of -- oh, really? Thank you, Heidi. The Nasdaq up 24? Way to go.
COLLINS: Sources say.
HARRIS: Thank you. We will check the Chrysler story in just a couple of minutes with Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange.
COLLINS: Valentine's Day wisdom. Money can't buy you love. But financial struggles sure can put a strain on a relationship. Here with her "Top Tip" on money and happiness, CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis today here in Atlanta with us.
So nice to see you.
WILLIS: Good to see you, Heidi. Happy Valentine's Day.
COLLINS: Thank you. And I'm so glad that I am lucky enough to, well at least today anyway, be fighting about money. But 13 percent of people, is that what you're telling us, are struggling and fighting about
money. But 13 percent of people, is that what you're telling us, are struggling and fighting about money? WILLIS: Yes. It's so common for couples to fight about money. In fact, money cautions tension in 84 percent of marriages. That's according to "Money Magazine." Thirteen percent of married couples say they fight about money several times a month.
In fact, get this, Heidi, get this, couples argue more about money than about sex.
COLLINS: I know.
WILLIS: But not as much as they argue about the kids or taking out the garbage.
COLLINS: That puts it in perspective.
WILLIS: Exactly, exactly. Now you know the full picture.
COLLINS: So is it really sort of the theory of what's mine is yours?
WILLIS: Well, you kind of have to make a stab at that. I know it might feel funny, but you need to streamline your accounts. Think about opening a joint checking account to pay bills, while maintaining separate savings accounts for each of you.
This way you'll be handling your finances together while at the same time maintaining financial independence, because you need a little of that, too.
If you keep all of your money at one bank, you can link your accounts and cut down on paperwork. You may also qualify for lower fees and higher rates.
Now, if the thought of managing these accounts has got you worried, think about online banks. You can access them anytime at all. Plus, if you shop around, you can get a higher rate of return.
COLLINS: All right, so what about employee benefits? I mean, if both of you are working or if just one of you is working, you do, as the spouse, have a right to some of those benefits, right?
WILLIS: Yes. This is interesting and you may not know about this. You should make the most of your options. Once you've tied the knot, you also have a stake in your spouse's employee benefits. Take some time, sit down, compare your 401(k)s.
Look, if one employer is more generous than the other, the two of you should max that out first and then contribute to the other person's 401(k).
One important note here. Once you are married, your 401(k) is your spouse's 401(k). That means if, God forbid, you have a divorce, you're entitled to half. Also, you should sign on to your spouse's health plan if it offers more benefits. It's all about comparing and contrasting. COLLINS: And what about insurance? Your car insurance goes down. But I think I'm reading here you should marry a guy under 25 years old. That would be a good thing, right?
WILLIS: Well, this is good news for guys under 25 out there. Look, update your insurance when you get married. When you go get married, your car insurance will go down, especially if you're a young fellow.
Don't forget that combining auto policies together, as well as any other insurance policies, such as renter's or homeowner's insurance, for example, should get you a discount since you'll become a more lucrative customer to the insurance company.
Now, once you're married, it's a good time to review all those other insurance policies so you can decide if you still need them.
And remind viewers, send us your questions, we love to hear from you, to toptips@cnn.com. We answer them right here every Friday morning, although I'm not here every Friday morning. We're remote, but we can still answer them.
COLLINS: And we always have really great questions.
WILLIS: We do, we do, smart viewers, smart viewers.
COLLINS: Love it. Gerri, nice to see you and Happy Valentine's Day.
WILLIS: Happy Valentine's Day to the two of you.
HARRIS: Hi, Gerri, good to see you. Happy Valentine's Day.
WILLIS: Good to see you, Tony.
COLLINS: He's a wonderful gift-giver, by the way. More on that later.
HARRIS: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the northeast clobbered by snow, ice, wind and cold. Feeling February. In the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: President Bush getting ready to meet reporters. A news conference live at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, about 25 minutes from now. We'll be talking with the best political team on television, all about it, questions and answers. North Korea and Iraq, in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And this just in to CNN. We are learning from the "Associated Press" that the United States now plans to allow about 7,000 Iraqi refugees into the country, this over the course of the next year, compared with 463 allowed in since the war began.
As you know, there is clearly a huge developing refugee story in Iraq with most of those fleeing the war heading to Syria and Jordan. The United States has been criticized for not extending the welcome mat to Iraqis fleeing the war and with families here in the United States.
So clearly now an attempt by the government to address that perception problem.
The United States announcing that it is planning to allow about 7,000 Iraqi refugees into the country over the next year.
We will continue to follow developments in this story and bring you the very latest.
COLLINS: The latest blast of winter causing flight delays and cancellations at some of the country's major airports. Even O'Hare in Chicago having a tough time getting planes off the ground, as you might imagine, looking at pictures like that.
CNN's Kathleen Koch is with us now from the FAA command center in Herndon, Virginia.
Kathleen, it's usually the airline companies themselves who decide whether flights will be cancelled. When does the FAA get involved? Is it when you have severe weather situations like this?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, they manage the big picture. And as you can see on the screens behind me, there are a lot of pictures that they're watching right now.
The map with the red dots, those signify aircraft in the air, right now about 4,300. On a normal day, there would be 6,000.
There's also a big screen that shows closures. We've got five airports that are either closed or airports or the runways are closed. It's been a very dicey couple of days for the FAA employees here.
And here to kind of fill us in on it is the FAA national operations manager, John Shaffrey.
John how are things looking right now?
JOHN SHAFFREY, NATIONAL OPERATIONS MANAGER, FAA: Good morning, Kathleen. Good morning, everybody.
We're having an interesting day. We're dealing with the residual traffic that we had yesterday and the weather that has affected Chicago and the south has moved and hit us last night.
It's moving northeast into the New York markets.
KOCH: John, let's talk about the closures up on this big board. Now, there were five earlier. We've dropped down to three. So that's pretty good on a day like this.
SHAFFREY: Excellent on a day like this. Technically, a couple of the airports were open. However, the runways themselves were closed. It's a technicality to treat the runways and de-ice the runways and the associated taxiways.
So we just opened up Washington Reagan and Washington Dulles is expected to open up in about a half-hour.
KOCH: You were telling me earlier that right now in the New York area, they're experiencing some new and different weather that they're coping with. What's that doing?
SHAFFREY: Up in New York they're dealing with ice pellets. When ice pellets are either in the forecast or actually happening, which is happening in New York, LaGuardia, and Kennedy, the aircraft are not departing and it's because they cannot safely maintain the integrity of the aircraft frame and keep it de-iced.
So most of the departures out of the New York market have been stopped for the last 25 or 30 minutes. We're hoping that will get over with in about another 25 or 30 minutes and start departures again.
KOCH: There's been a lot of talk about Chicago. It's really been hammered by bad weather lately. I think you told me yesterday they had hundreds and hundreds of flights cancelled. How are they looking today?
SHAFFREY: They're looking much, much better today. In fact, they're down to 290 cancellations for the day and yesterday they had over 1,000. The winds are a little bit strong out of the west. However, we're able to land 72 airplanes an hour, which is quite well considering the meteorological conditions in the area.
So we're quite pleased with Chicago O'Hare and Chicago Midway. We think they'll do quite well today.
KOCH: John, how tough has it been for you folks here coping with this changing weather, the delays, the cancellations, around the country, even just managing to get in here yourself when this entire area is coated with a sheet of ice?
SHAFFREY: It was difficult, but we have a pretty good crew. They all pretty much showed up today. Several people couldn't make it. Several people came in a little bit late and that's understandable because of the conditions to the roads.
But we have a pretty good staff and they all showed up not only here, but some other adjacent airports, Dulles and Washington National and Baltimore and Washington Center. That's important.
KOCH: It's important, John, because you guys are here operating 24/7. And we're going to be here throughout the day, Heidi, basically keeping tabs on how the system is operating.
Back to you.
COLLINS: Really quickly, Kathleen, I wonder if you might be able to ask John or maybe you know off the top of your head about de-icing in a situation like this.
Is that something the FAA advises the airlines need to do in situations like this where we have such severe weather? KOCH: Let me toss that to John.
John, Heidi was wondering, when it comes to bad weather like this, de-icing, who makes the call at the individual airports whether planes need to de-ice or not?
SHAFFREY: It's the airplane companies that make the call.
KOCH: The individual airlines then.
SHAFFREY: The individual airlines do it and they maintain their own fleet of de-icing trucks and de-icing people that are staffed that are qualified to do all of that.
KOCH: And, obviously, it's a safe bet, Heidi, that there is a lot of that going on all around the country right now.
COLLINS: It's likely, since we keep hearing about sleet from our Chad Myers here.
All right, great information from the FAA command center.
Kathleen Koch, thank you. And, John, you, too.
KOCH: You bet.
HARRIS: Well, a short time ago we showed you pictures of snow falling, blowing, drifting in New York City. Let's stay in New York, to Albany now, Greg Hunter is there.
Greg, what is the situation on the ground now and what's expected?
HUNTER: Well, we about six, eight degrees right now and the snow has been changing. It was nice and fluffy earlier. Then there were little pellets. Now it's fluffy and pellets and there's some pretty good wind coming up.
I think Chad Myers was talking about the wind and snow drifting. Take a look at how that snow is getting blown, just blown by the wind. Higher up the flags are blowing straight out here in the capitol.
Now, what they're expecting in the next 24 hours is somewhere in the neighborhood of about 24 inches in 24 hours. Our own expert, Chad Myers, thinks it'll be much more than that.
And right now, I mean, this city is used to cold weather, but lots of cars slipping and sliding. We found buses behind us getting stuck and drivers driving by telling us, "Hey, it's bad over here, it's bad over there."
So they are going to get hit with a lot of snow, whether it's 24 inches or 44 inches, whatever. They're going to need one of these, an ergonomically designed snow shovel, because there's going to be a lot of people having to dig out.
Tony?
HARRIS: Great, Hunter, keeping an eye on it, keeping on power outages, school closings and the like.
Greg Hunter, appreciate it. Thank you, sir.
COLLINS: Want to talk more about some air travel now. We know you're interested on it on a weather day like this.
Chad Myers now with reports from LaGuardia Airport in New York. Takeoffs and landings, what have you got there, Chad?
MYERS: Well, Kathleen Koch was talking about, and the professional, the expert there, was talking about how you can't take off in sleet and how difficult it is.
On the map behind me I have every plane that has left in the past hour and a half from LaGuardia. One, two, three, four, five. That's it. There's an awful lot more on the ground and an awful lot of frustrated passengers that aren't on the other hundred that should be in the air.
Heidi?
COLLINS: Five.
MYERS: Five planes are off the ground now from LaGuardia.
COLLINS: Man, that is not good.
MYERS: That is not a good ratio.
COLLINS: I always seem to find the delays when IO fly in and out of LaGuardia, but this is really, really delayed.
Chad, thanks for that.
MYERS: You're welcome.
HARRIS: General Motors did it, so did Ford and now Chrysler is, too. A historic restructuring that will slash thousands of jobs.
Susan Lisovicz, as promised, at the New York Stock Exchange with details.
Susan, good morning.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE: Good morning, Tony. Well, we've seen it before, but it doesn't make it any less painful for the folks at Daimler-Chrysler. It's called the Valentine's Day massacre for good reason.
Less than an hour ago, the chief of the Chrysler Group said 13,000 employees will lose their jobs. That's 16 percent of Chrysler's workforce. Not only that, but plants in Newark, Delaware and Cleveland will be shut down and worker shifts in Warren, Michigan and St. Louis will be reduced.
The goal? To save money, $4.5 billion to be exact and that's certainly needed. Just this morning Daimler's Chrysler division reported that it lost nearly $1.5 billion last year.
Slumping sales of SUVs and trucks certainly taking a toll. And because of that, Chrysler is planning to shift its product mix to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, including the first fuel hybrid Dodge Durango.
Tony?
HARRIS: Susan, there have been rumors that Daimler-Chrysler might actually spin off its American arm. Any word on that?
LISOVICZ: Chrysler folks were asked that and so far no answer. A German paper says a sale is still under consideration. Some German shareholders are pressed for it.
But the head of Chrysler says, quote, "No option is being excluded," end quote. While Chrysler reported a loss for 2006, the Mercedes division at Daimler saw a jump in earnings.
And just let me tell you what's also seeing a jump is Daimler- Chrysler shares. They're up four percent today, which is obviously a sign that these steps, at least on Wall Street, are seen as painful, but needed.
And that's the latest from Wall Street. Heidi and Tony, back to you.
HARRIS: OK, Susan, appreciate it. Thank you.
COLLINS: Quickly now we are watching for a news conference coming out of the White House from President Bush. He will be talking about the Iraq resolution that's being debated in the White House right now, that non-binding resolution we've been telling you about here.
And, also, the North Korea deal, details on all of that from all of our correspondents on the ground coming up right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: President Bush about to head to the podium. Mounting questions topping the list.
New developments out of Iraq, nagging questions about Iran and increasingly hostile turf on Capitol Hill.
COLLINS: We are covering all the angles this morning with the best political team on television. You see them there at the White House.
Elaine Quijano in Washington, Andrea Koppel, Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon, and Michael Weir joining us now from Baghdad.
You want to go ahead and start there with Elaine Quijano coming to us from the White House.
And, Elaine, this is all happening as that nonbinding Iraq resolution is being debated in the House.
QUIJANO: That's exactly right. Good morning to you, Heidi. In fact, that will be part of the president's opening statements, about five to seven minutes long is what we're hearing from a senior administration official, a statement on Iraq, as well as North Korea, and it will make mention of that debate taking place on Capitol Hill in the House, specifically, over that nonbinding resolution opposing the president's plan for a troop increase in Iraq.
You can expect some of what the president will say will include input from his top commander, his new commander on the ground in Iraq, General David Petraeus.
General Petraeus formally took command in Iraq over the weekend. And this morning via videoconference the president had the chance to speak to him.
Now, it's been nearly two months since President Bush held his last news conference, Heidi. He'd been having them about once a month, but, of course, in January, he gave two major addresses, one on Iraq, announcing that troop increase plan, the other, of course, the "State of the Union" address.
This will be his first formal news conference since those two speeches. So a lot certainly on the agenda.
Heidi?
COLLINS: All right, Elaine Quijano outside the White House for us this morning. Thank you, Elaine.
HARRIS: And let's get to Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr now. Barbara, boy, we're expecting to hear a lot this morning, at least in questioning of the president about the claims over the weekend that Iran is supplying Iraqi militias with these EFPs, these deadly explosively-shaped penetrators.
Help us understand where we stand on this story and what we learned out of the briefing this morning from General Caldwell.
STARR: Well, Tony, this is going to sound all pretty confusing because it's a mix of politics domestic and politics international.
What the U.S. military is really saying is they have evidence that Iran is shipping weapons into Iraq. That does not appear to be in dispute. The question is who's responsible for it.
At a background briefing over the weekend in Baghdad, a top U.S. official, at that briefing at least he was a top official, said that there was evidence tying all of this to the highest levels of the Iranian government.
That set off a fire storm when General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "Hang on, I don't know that." He said that he did not know that it was at the orders of the highest levels of the Iranian government.
One can only assume that the president will stand behind his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. What appears to be going on here at the end of the day is, yes, that there is evidence, it is tied to the Iranian government, but that the U.S. really doesn't want to talk about it.
According to sources we have spoken to today, they do feel they have evidence, but they want to ratchet down the tensions with Iran and the new message point is, "We're only here to talk about protecting our troops from Iranian weapons. We're not here to point the finger of blame. We would like Iran to take care of this problem."
That's what we expect to hear from the president.
Tony?
HARRIS: That is so interesting. OK, Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us. Barbara, thank you.
COLLINS: I want to go ahead and get to Andrea Koppel now. She is standing by to talk more about this press conference that we are waiting for coming to us from the White House.
And, Andrea, as we bring you into the discussion, very interesting about what will be going on at 11:00 a.m. when the president begins to speak. Some people might call it lucky, but the majority leader, Steny Hoyer, is actually going to yield to a group of Republicans who are talking about supporting this nonbinding resolution on Iraq today.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Heidi. And this had actually been planned before they knew that the president was going to have this news conference today at 11:00.
Nevertheless, it will be a significant moment and symbolic of this entire debate right now. The evolution, if you will, of the Republican or some Republicans on Capitol Hill that you will have at the same time president bush is going to be urging his party to continue to support his policy and his plan to send thousands more troops to Iraq.
You will have people like Walter Jones, who's a Republican of North Carolina, on the floor explaining why he opposes that plan. Walter Jones is also a cosponsor of this Democratic resolution, which is extremely simple, basically, two sentences, one expressing support for U.S. troops and the other expressing opposition to the president's plan. The Democrats wanted it to be simple for a couple of reasons. One, because they needed to keep their own party united. There are a number of Democrats, as you well know, John Murtha among them, who feel that the U.S. should start looking at cutting off funds for future troops, looking at that supplemental that the president presented to Congress last week in which he's asking for more money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also because, Heidi, they're hoping to attract as many Republicans as possible to this and we know that there could be anywhere between 15 to 25, perhaps even more Republicans, who have indicated they're going to sign on to this resolution.
COLLINS: All right, CNN Congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel. Stick around for us, Andrea, if you would.
HARRIS: And let's take you to Baghdad now and Michael Weir.
And, Michael, a couple of things with you. First of all, Barbara Starr is expecting to hear from the president, according to her sources, that the president is going to back away from the most explosive charges from this administration over the weekend, that being that Iran, at the highest level of the government, is involved in supplying these EFPs to Iraqi insurgents.
Now, if you would, paint a broader context of this story based on your reporting from as far back as two years ago.
MICHAEL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, essentially, what we're talking about here is if this is, in fact, the case and President Bush does pull back from the rhetorical brink, then what he'll be doing is betraying not only the reality on the ground as American forces here see it, but also the body of knowledge that American intelligence currently possesses.
Essentially, what has been happening here in the war in Iraq since the invasion is that the Iranian armed forces and the regime in Tehran were primed and ready to take advantage of the vacuum that the removal of Saddam would create.
Now, to do this, they had many tools at their disposal. For decades they have been fighting Saddam, giving shelter to hundreds and thousands of Shia Iraqis.
Now, from this ex-pact community they formed military brigades. They formed surveillance networks, reconnaissance teams, assassination networks, sabotage crews. When the Brits and the Americans advanced, removed Saddam, these teams were put to work. They seized political power. They seized ground in the south.
We have seen them take the central government, essentially, to now there's a point where Tehran has more sway with the government, an ally of the U.S. here in Baghdad, than Washington does.
So this is something that clearly has been plaguing the U.S. mission and obviously something has happened since this briefing and the president wants to back away, if we're what we're being told is correct.
HARRIS: And, Michael, you have spent as much time there as anyone covering this war. Why would the president want to back away now, if that is, in fact, what happens? And we'll find out shortly in this news conference.
Why would the president want to back away from claims, from a case it has been building for quite some time now?
WEIR: Well, it's very, very hard to say. I mean, it's just a matter of pure speculation. Either the administration may feel that what it was seeking has been achieved. They have sought undertaking or some kind of assurance that they've pursued.
Who knows? Perhaps they feel that they don't want to escalate this campaign of rhetoric and accusation that's been underway for some time.
It's anyone's guess. But what's clear is that U.S. intelligence knows that the Iranian special forces and intelligence community has been waging a shadow proxy war against not only American interests in this country, but against American soldiers.
American soldiers have been dying as a result of the training, assistance and financing of Iranian special forces.
There's a lot at stake here. There's diplomatic levels, military levels, economic levels. Goodness knows which way the president can take here.
HARRIS: Michael, appreciate that insight. We'll ask you to stand by. We will talk to you, of course, again after the president's news conference.
Heidi?
COLLINS: I want to go ahead and get inside that news conference. You see the scene there live on your screen. That's the East Room inside the White House, and our Ed Henry is right inside to bring us up to speed on what we can expect to hear.
Boy, there's so much to talk about, Ed, with the North Korea plan and the nonbinding Iraq resolution. But really the president expected to only speak for about five or seven minutes.
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