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American Morning
Change of Course for Troops in Iraq?; Fourteen States Fighting Fires; Feeling the Heat: Highs Near 100 on East Coast; Fight for Iraq: When Will it End?
Aired July 09, 2007 - 06:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Extreme heat from coast to coast. This morning, soaring temperatures put new pressure on power systems in the East.
And fuel devastating new fires out West.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire came right over that Hill, and then we had about 30 seconds to get out of here.
ROBERTS: Hundreds of homes threatened. Residents on the run. And firefights in more than a dozen states on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And good morning to you and welcome back. It's Monday, the 9th of July.
I'm John Roberts, along with Kiran Chetry.
Good morning to you.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Nice to see you.
Well, it's going to be a hot one out there today for the Mid- Atlantic states, parts of the Midwest, and especially up and down the East Coast.
New York City, let's take a look outside live. A pretty picture of Central Park, 78 degrees. That's doable. Heading up though to 98 degrees today, about 10 or 15 degrees above normal.
Also, the nation's capital, 75 degrees there right now. And that could get into triple digits today.
ROBERTS: Yes. It could get up to as much as 100 this afternoon.
Reynolds Wolf is in Washington. We're going to check in with him in just a couple of minutes, make sure that we get you all up to speed on where it's going to be hot and what to do to make sure that you combat the heat.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, we start off in the nation's capital as well, talking about whether or not there is a war over the war within the White House. This morning's "New York Times" saying that there is a debate going on over a troop pullback in Iraq as the Senate takes up military spending yet again today.
CNN Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash is live on Capitol hill.
The article talks about losing support. Stalwart supporters on the GOP side may be rethinking in light of their view on whether or not the so-called troop surge is successful.
Hi, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran.
Well, that's exactly right. Look, the White House is well aware that this week in particular, there is going to be frustration publicly expressed by Republicans, even more so, because Iraq is going to be front and center in the U.S. Senate this week.
First of all, it will be part of the debate on the Senate floor. And also, there is expected to be a report coming from the White House, an interim report explaining whether or not the Iraqi government has met benchmarks.
This is something that was the brain child, this requirement, the brain child of Republican senators. They wanted to try to put the administration and the Iraqis government's feet to the fire. But the reality is, Kiran, that nobody is really -- even Republicans are really expecting much from that report to say -- that report to say much of anything that is going to give them and their constituents, more importantly, any kind of positive feedback in terms of the approach that the U.S. government and, more importantly, the Iraqi government is taking to what is going on the ground in Iraq.
CHETRY: It does though seem to be happening more quickly, an accelerated pace. We keep hearing about the middle of September as a date when we're going to hear back about progress on the so-called surge. And now we're in July, and these are the types of discussions that are taking place in Washington.
BASH: That's exactly right. There's no question it's been accelerated. It's been accelerated basically because of public opinion, because of the fact, Kiran, over the past couple of weeks we have seen Republicans who have been stalwart supporters of the president, who have only given criticism to the White House in private. They've done so publicly.
And I'll tell you what's interesting about the report in "The New York Times" about the internal deliberations. And that is, when you talk to some of these Republican senators like George Voinovich of Ohio, Richard Lugar of Indiana, what they tell us is that this is exactly what they want from the White House. Their frustration is that they don't think that the administration has any kind of plan to get troops out of Iraq. And they may not be voting in the next week or two for deadlines or timelines for a troop withdrawal, but what they are trying to do is spur debate and convince and push the administration to have some kind of plan to get out of Iraq.
CHETRY: Dana Bash, all right, reporting from Washington today.
Thanks.
We want to let people know in just about an hour we're going to be speaking with Maine Senator Susan Collins about this shift in thinking and possibly erosion of support among some of the key GOP leaders when it comes to Iraq policy -- John.
ROBERTS: Major fires are roaring across the country this morning. Fourteen states from Alaska to Florida are being hit, but none worse than Utah.
This is what it looks like to drive into an inferno. A police officer shot this with his dash cam at Milford Flat in Utah.
Our Kara Finnstrom is there this morning in Cove Fort, Utah. She joins us this morning.
Good morning to you, Kara. What's it looking like where you are?
KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Well, very quiet right here, but this massive wildfire continuing to burn pretty much uncontrolled on the other side of these hills behind us. Still at zero percent containment, at 283,000 acres burned. That is a state record. But the hope today is that all of this is going to start to change.
Fire officials tell us until now, they have largely been letting this fire do its own thing, just doing what they can to keep it away from families and from homes. But it's just so huge that they say they really haven't been able to get a grasp on it.
Today, it is going to go from state management of this fire to federal management, and that's going to bring in a lot more resources. We're going to go from about a hundred firefighters to about 500. There's going to be more air tankers coming in. So the hope is that they can go from just trying to, you know, be very much on the defensive with this fire, to actually trying to attack it and try to make some headway.
One home lost so far. A number of other structures, including a gift shop, that's amazing considering how much land this fire has covered.
But the big impact right now is really going to be on wildlife, we're told, and on livestock. There's a lot of ranching around here. Much of the feed for these animals just wiped away by this wildfire.
So, again, today the hope is that maybe they can start shifting things and start to get some control over this fire.
ROBERTS: All right. And Kara, you know, with the heat out there right now and the low humidity, how much longer is it expected to last before they get some kind of a break out there with maybe a little bit of rain or even higher humidity to try to help them put out those fires?
FINNSTROM: Well, the last forecast we had was these extreme weather conditions for a couple more days. And those weather conditions really have fueled this fire, because it's already dry out here. These conditions very parched because they had little rainfall, little snow, so it didn't take much to really spread this fire.
ROBERTS: All right. Our Kara Finnstrom for us in Cove Fort, Utah, this morning.
Kara, thanks. We'll check back in with you.
CHETRY: Well, the heat wave out West now in the East as well, as well as the Mid-Atlantic and some of the places in the Midwest today. Temperatures in some spots closing in on 100 degrees.
Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf is in Washington this morning.
I understand they're going to be starting to open up those cooling centers because a lot of people, especially the elderly, are going to have problems today.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, no doubt about it, Kiran. It is going to be a roasting hot day today.
Highs going up into the mid to upper 90s. High humidity, too, and it's just going to make things just unbearable for many people.
Right now, though, not so bad. We've got currently 82 degrees. We're right here in Freedom Plaza, right along Pennsylvania Avenue.
We have seen a lot of people walking about, making their way to work, some joggers moving in many spots. Over here, the City Hall building. Back over here towards the Reagan building, we've got the Post Office Pavilion. Then way, way down Pennsylvania Avenue you can see the Capitol.
Again, a lot of people out and about, but the tourists really haven't made their way around the city just yet. That's going to come in the next few hours as the heat begins to build.
With that in mind, people have got to remember, just use common sense. Take it easy out there, drink plenty of water. Don't really overexert yourself. If you happen to live in the D.C. area or anywhere up and down the Eastern Seaboard, you don't want to go out and cut the grass at 3:00 in the afternoon. Really not a wise thing to do.
Now, as you mentioned, Kiran, there have been some cooling centers that have been set up around the District of Columbia. Just going through those very quickly, we've got one set up at One Judiciary; the second at Frank D. Reeves Center -- that's over on 14th Street Northwest -- the King Office Building on MLK Avenue Southeast; and the Public center on M Street Southwest. They've got plenty of air-conditioning, plenty of water, cots so you can lay down and relax. All good ideas if the heat gets a little too tough.
One bit of good news is that the heat will continue tomorrow, but there will be that slight chance of showers. Then as we get closer to the weekend, a front comes through, and with that, highs will be into the mid 80s. So there is some end in sight.
Back to you.
CHETRY: Yes, it's a short one, but it's going to be brutal for a few days.
Reynolds Wolf, thanks so much.
(NEWSBREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: After more than 2,000 years the seven wonders of the world have gotten a little bit of an update. What made the list and what didn't?
Jacki Schechner here with more.
Good morning to you, Jacki.
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Good morning.
The foundation is saying that more than 100 million people voted and we now have the winners of the new seven wonders of the world. Let me tick through some of these for you. No particular order here.
This is Chichen Itza in Mexico, the palace tombs of Petra, in Jordan; the Christ Redeemer in Brazil; the Great Wall of China; Machu Picchu in Peru; the Roman Coliseum in Italy; and the Taj Mahal in India.
Now, there is another contest under way now. It's going for the seven natural wonders of the world, and this contest is going to go until 08/08/08, then they'll pick 21 finalists and you can narrow it down. These have to be ones, John, that were not at all altered by human beings.
ROBERTS: Jacki, thanks very much for that.
The list of most prescribed drugs is out. They're not statins, not antibiotics.
Elizabeth Cohen is in Atlanta. She's got the answer.
So what is the most prescribed drug?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What is the most prescribed drug? Well, you're going to have to wait a little bit to find that out. But this data is fascinating. And it makes you think when you walk out of the doctor's office, prescription in hand, do you really need that prescription?
We're going to the doctor a record number of times. We're getting more prescriptions than ever. What are the most prescribed drugs? Is it for pain, is it for blood pressure, is it for arthritis? Well, we'll tell you later. But I will tell you, there are some concerns that doctors and patients are overdoing it.
ROBERTS: All right. Elizabeth, thanks. We'll get the answer from you soon -- Kiran.
CHETRY: A new London-style surveillance system is in New York. Your "Quick Hits" now.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
ROBERTS: We're seeing reports today that the so-called troop surge in Iraq is not working. Eight people were killed today in two bombings. That's after a very deadly weekend in which 220 people were killed.
"The Washington Post" says the Iraqi government isn't likely to meet any of Congress' benchmarks in this interim report coming up on Sunday. And now, according to "The New York Times," the White House is debating a troop pullback.
Joining us now is Bobby Ghosh. He is the Baghdad bureau chief for "TIME" magazine.
Good morning to you, Bobby.
BOBBY GHOSH, BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF, "TIME": Hi, John.
ROBERTS: So, this so-called surge, you just -- you came back a week ago. What was your sense? Is it working or is it not?
GHOSH: Well, it's working in places in a limited way, John. It's working in Baghdad, in neighborhoods where there are -- where there's now a large American presence. The violence is down in Baghdad. But it's a very large country, and most of the bad guys flushed out of Baghdad by the American soldiers are turning up in other places and doing damage there. Places that were previously calm are now violent.
ROBERTS: As we saw in Amerli (ph), that little town up north, 150 people killed. Somebody drove a truck bomb into a row of mud huts and just brought them down on top of there.
GHOSH: I don't recall a single incidence of violence in Amerli (ph) in the last four years. Now suddenly a hundred people dead in a single event. ROBERTS: What about this idea, too, that the Iraqi government is not going to meet any of the benchmarks that were set up by Congress? Are they capable of doing anything?
GHOSH: No, they're not. Those of us who have been watching the Iraqi government for -- since it was set up about a year and a half ago have known that this government was never going to meet those deadlines.
They don't have the political wherewithal to do so. Prime Minister Maliki is too weak. He's surrounded by politicians who have other agendas. And they're never going to be able to meet the targets. I think the White House has been revising the targets and making them simpler and simpler with every passing month, and the government still isn't capable of delivering.
ROBERTS: And now there's this threat of a non-confidence vote against Maliki perhaps later on this week. We talked to Mowwafak al- Rubaie, the national security adviser to al-Maliki yesterday on "LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER". Here is what he had to say about the idea of a non-confidence vote passing in Parliament.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOWWAFAK AL-RUBAIE, IRAQI NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I can tell you one thing, that after Maliki, there is going to be the hurricane in Iraq. This is an extremely important point to make across to the Western audience and to the Arab audience, as well as the largest Muslim audience.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Rubaie saying if Maliki goes, the whole thing comes apart.
True, not true?
GHOSH: Sadly, he is probably right. It's not just Maliki who is responsible for the political status in Baghdad right now. All of the politicians in Iraq are cut from the same cloth essentially. They are all very sectarian, very narrow-minded, and many of them very corrupt. It's hard to see who will merge from this pact to deliver to the Iraqis a government that performs.
ROBERTS: And as we said at the begin, Bobby, the White House now in deliberations as to whether or not it should get out ahead of the action in Congress and announce some troop withdrawals, or at least some sort of idea of a timetable for getting U.S. troops out. What is your sense of, if U.S. troops do start to draw down, what happens in Iraq? Does the whole place fall apart, or does it miraculously somehow pull itself together?
GHOSH: I've been in Iraq for four and a half years now, John. I've learned not to expect miracles there anymore. I don't think there will be any.
I think wherever the American forces draw down, you'll see violence growing in those areas. And as the soldiers draw down to a small number, forced to remain in their bases to protect themselves.
ROBERTS: And does it become the hotbed of terrorism that the White House predicts it will?
GHOSH: It already is. Al Qaeda already has made it clear that is their center of operations, and the violence we saw last year I think will be back.
ROBERTS: All right. Bobby Ghosh from "TIME" magazine.
Thanks very much. Glad you got some home leave, by the way.
GHOSH: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: Appreciate it, Bobby -- Kiran.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
CHETRY: Well, it's 22 minutes past the hour now. Polly LaBarre is here "Minding Your Business".
The much anticipated 787, the Dreamliner by Boeing, unveiled yesterday.
What do you think?
POLLY LABARRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, with much pomp and circumstance they filled the Seattle Seahawks Stadium full of old employees and ex-employees. Lots of excitement over this.
The interesting is they have now booked 677 orders for this plane, which has just -- the first one has just rolled off. They actually will be going to commercial service in May of next year. But the real question is, will it live up to the Dreamliner promise? It's a pretty lofty name for an airplane.
CHETRY: Right. Well, what makes it so cool?
LABARRE: Right. Because we don't usually feel like we're on the Dreamliner when we're flying point to point.
CHETRY: Right.
LABARRE: It's built out of mostly carbon fiber composites (ph) and titanium, which makes it lighter, more durable. It's got sort of green credentials in the sense that they think it will be 20 percent more fuel efficient than comparable planes. More importantly, riding in it as a passenger is supposed to be a lot more pleasant. It has bigger windows, a lot more light. The air pressure is a lot lower. There's higher humidity, so when you get off the plane you're not all dehydrated and exhausted.
Great little fun technology features like infrared sensors, so you don't actually have to lift the trash can lid or turn on the faucets or flush the toilet. All of those things you try not to do when you're on a plane to avoid getting sick. So it's really designed for passenger comfort on that level.
CHETRY: Are the seats bigger?
LABARRE: That's the big trick. Right? Maybe a teeny bit. It's always better to fly in business class, isn't it?
CHETRY: I bet it is.
All right. The 787 -- and you said this is going to be competition for Airbus.
LABARRE: Well, so Airbus and Boeing are in kind of a neck and neck race. Airbus has sort of edged ahead of Boeing for a decade now. Now Boeing is taking Airbus on a run for its money.
Airbus has the competing A350 and then its superjumbo jet that everybody's been talking about, the A380 that was just unveiled. As of now, Airbus has 680 orders and Boeing has 677. The real critical thing is, are they all going to deliver these on time and in working order?
CHETRY: And when is the Dreamliner slated to actually start flying?
LABARRE: May of next year. Japan's All Nippon Airlines will be the first airline to fly these planes.
CHETRY: All right. Polly, thanks. See you in a couple of minutes.
LABARRE: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Twenty-four minutes now after the hour.
The list is out of the most prescribed drugs. Elizabeth Cohen is in Atlanta with a look at what topped the lists or what wasn't.
COHEN: You know, you would be surprised what it is, John.
Let's take a look. We're going to do a little quiz for the viewers at home to see if they can guess what the most prescribed drugs were.
In 2005, what were the most prescribed drugs according to the CDC? Were they drugs for arthritis, for high blood pressure? Were they antidepressants or were they headache drugs? Well, the answer is antidepressants led the list. Antidepressants were the most prescribed drugs during doctors visits in 2005. More than headaches, more than pain, more than blood pressure. Americans got prescriptions for antidepressants -- John.
ROBERTS: Well, what's the reason for that? Is there that much depression in America? Or is it that people are prescribed these drugs because they come in, they're a little bit blue, and the doctor says, well, here, go ahead take this and maybe you'll feel a little bit better? The doctor is trying to get them out of the office basically?
COHEN: Right. Well, there's a lot of concern about that, John. There is concern that people see ads for antidepressants on television. Maybe you just broke up with your boyfriend or girlfriend. You come in, you say you're a little bit sad.
Most of the time people are going to their regular family doctor to get these medicines, not to a psychiatrist. So the concern is that doctors are over-prescribing for mild depression.
I think everyone acknowledges that if someone is really, really depressed, has what is called a major depression, you need these. But if you're just feeling a little low, maybe your boss is not being very nice to you, do you really need an antidepressant? Concerns that they are prescribed too often for that kind of problem.
ROBERTS: A lot of young people getting them as well. And there's black box warnings in terms of prescribing for teenagers. What is the latest science on all of that?
COHEN: The science on that says young people and their parents, and young adults as well, need to be careful when they're taking antidepressants. They are life savers for some, but for others they can also lead people to have suicidal thoughts.
So, the thinking is, if you're going to take an antidepressant, you should be very careful in those first couple of weeks. People should really keep a watch on their family members and make sure they're not distributing -- and let me show -- I'm sorry, that they're not showing any strange behavior. Also true, you should keep a watch on your family member when the doctors ups the dosage of an antidepressant, because sometimes it can really make people feel suicidal instead of making them feel better.
ROBERTS: Wow. Some surprising news there.
Elizabeth Cohen for us from Atlanta this morning.
Elizabeth, thanks.
COHEN: Thanks.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: A beautiful day courtesy of WGN, Chicago, Illinois. This morning a look at the skyline. It is 73 degrees right now, heading up to 90 degrees today in the Windy City. I bet you they would be hoping for wind there today.
ROBERTS: It is a beautiful day there. Take a look at that, not a cloud in the sky.
CHETRY: Really, it's pretty.
Well, it's Monday, July 9th. Thanks for being with us. I'm Kiran Chetry, along with John Roberts.
Some of the stories on our radar this morning. It really is an incredible story of survival. You think you're going up in one of these tourist helicopters, get a great look at the Manhattan skyline. Little do you think, in a million years, that your chopper is going to go down. That is exactly what happened to one family. They had to be rescued, plucked out of the river. They live to tell about it. They had their video camera with them. They just arrived in our studio and they will be talking about that.
ROBERTS: Let's go now, first of all though, to our top story. There is a troop -- talk, at least, of a troop pullback going on inside the White House now. This surprising development comes from today's "New York Times". The White House may be trying to stop more Republican defections as the Senate takes up military spending again today. CNN's Ed Henry is live at the White House this morning.
And, Ed, if this talk is true it would just about go against everything the president has been saying the past four years.
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
That's right. The president is dug in on the sense that you can't be pulling out troops, can't be setting any timetables, but it's clear why the conversations are starting to take place. That's because Republican support for the war is sliding.
You're hearing from these veteran republicans like Richard Lugar, Pete Domenici, saying the president can't wait until September for this progress report from General Petraeus. He has to move quicker.
To give you a sense of the high stakes involved, Defense Secretary Robert Gates last night announced he is canceling a trip to Latin America this week, to stay here in Washington, to deal with this interim report that the White House has to send up to Capitol Hill about whether or not the Iraqi government is meeting certain benchmarks.
As you know, that report is not expected to be good, so that will only make the debate for the president even tougher on the Hill, because the whole idea of increasing the number of troops was to give what the president called political breathing space for the Iraqi government to get up on its feet. And if that's not happening, it's going to be tougher for the president to stop Republican defections, John.
ROBERTS: Now, there is all of this talk of the possible vote of non-confidence against Nuri al Maliki, what would happen if he were to go down. Here is what Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska had to say about that yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R) NEBRASKA: By any measurement, we're going backward in Iraq. If the Iraqi parliament votes a vote of no confidence for the Maliki government this week, that continues to even further complicate our ability to change things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Is the White House, Ed, entertaining the possibility that al Maliki may no longer be prime minister? What does it do, if he loses this vote of no confidence?
HENRY: Well, as the Iraqi national security advisor told Wolf Blitzer yesterday, on "Late Edition", it means a hurricane in Iraq if al Maliki government goes down. There's really no plan B for the White House. The president, himself, has been to Baghdad. He also met Maliki in Jordan last year, you'll remember. He's put all of this political support and capital behind Maliki so there's no plan B, nobody else waiting in the wings.
Even if some other person stepped up, and filled the vacuum, it would take too much time for that new prime minister to get his or her sea legs to really get going. It's time the White House does not have, John.
ROBERTS: Ed Henry for us this morning, from the White House. Ed, thanks.
HENRY: Thank you.
ROBERTS: We'll check back with you later on.
The investigation into the U.K. terror plot has now spread to India. Investigators there have seized a computer hard drive that belongs to the man who allegedly rammed a Jeep into the Glasgow airport in Scotland.
CHETRY: Miss New Jersey received another blackmail note. Amy Columbo (ph) received a second threatening letter over the weekend. The person sending the letters has threatened to publish personal pictures of her if she doesn't step down.
ROBERTS: Hot weather making it worse for firefighters battling wildfires in Western states; 14 states are dealing with wildfires right now. Utah getting hit the worst; 300,000 acres scorched there making it the worst fire in the state's history.
On the East Coast, it's going to be another hot one for sure. That looks like a nice play to be this morning, in a pool. Temperatures expected to hit triple digits in some spots. That means heat warnings are in effect. For more, on the extreme heat, we bring in Chad Myers.
I guess we're looking at, what? Going to be 10 to 15 degrees above normal for some parts of the mid-Atlantic, East Coast, as well as the Midwest special.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: They're awaiting the cause of a tragic tunnel collapse. It tops our "Quick Hits" now. A report into last summer ceiling collapse in Boston's big dig is due out tomorrow. It's expected to show what caused a huge section of tunnel roof to crash down on a car killing a woman. It happened a year ago tomorrow.
The NTSB and FAA looking into the cause of a sight-seeing helicopter crash. Eight people were on board when it went down in the Hudson River off of New York City. It happened Saturday. No one was hurt. Passengers say they thought they heard engine trouble right before the crash.
We're going to be talking with the family who survived that crash and we're going to see some of their home video coming up after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up to 39 minutes after the hour. New word this morning from J.K. Rowling. That tops our "Quick Hits". Rowling says, never say never, in response to a petition to persuade her to write an eighth "Harry Potter" book. She has long said that the upcoming "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will be the seventh and last book in the series.
For sale, a house with a great view of Long Island Sound and it's only up for a buck. The drawback, it's being sold in as-is condition, and as-is means it might be haunted! The U.S. General Services Administration is selling the Penfield Light House in Fairfield, Connecticut. Folks think it's haunted by the ghost of a former lighthouse keeper that drowned back in 1916.
A rain delay at a Colorado Rockies game, brought some wind with it as well. The grounds crew almost literally blown away trying to get the tarp on the field. Take a look at this. Whoa! To the rescue came the visiting team, the Philadelphia Phillies came out of the dugout and grabbed an end and held on until the grounds crew got sandbags to hold that tarp in place.
CHETRY: They offered a helping hand and then they beat them 8-4.
Thanks, John.
Well, John Sullivan loves New York City so he was armed and ready with his video camera on Saturday when he and his wife, and son took a helicopter ride in the Big Apple. But the airborne adventure went wrong when their sight-seeing chopper ended up crashing down, making an emergency landing in the Hudson River. John joins me now with his wife Tiziana, and son Kevin.
Thanks for being with us. Everyone is safe and sound. You don't look worse for the wear, but John, what was it like on Saturday?
JOHN SULLIVAN, HELICOPTER CRASH SURVIVOR: It was very scary. We were at first we were shocked. We didn't realize what was going to happen happened. Before we knew it we were getting lower and lower, and we got really scared we were going to crash.
CHETRY: There is some video, in the corner, of what happened when you guys actually landed. But you also have some home video you were taking when everything was going great.
Tiziana, when did you realize something was wrong?
TIZIANA SULLIVAN, HELICOPTER CRASH SURVIVOR: We were sightseeing, we were looking at the beautiful sights and all of a sudden the helicopter started shaking. It was shaking so hard and we started to go down. That was the scariest moment of my life.
CHETRY: What did you think? What was going through your head?
T. SULLIVAN: I thought we were going to die.
CHETRY: What about you, Kevin? Did you think, this is it?
KEVIN SULLIVAN, HELICOPTER CRASH SURVIVOR: Yeah. I wasn't really sure what was happening. It was really scary.
CHETRY: What happened when you guys hit the water at that point? How did you know I got to get out of aircraft, try to get away?
J. SULLIVAN: Right. The pilot said release your seat belts. She had opened her door before she landed. I opened my door because I was right there. As soon as we hit the water, we got our seat belts off. Tiziana and Kevin went out and I went out behind them and we swam away from the helicopter.
CHETRY: You were afraid -- listen, there is a tank of gas I got to get away from this before it blows?
T. SULLIVAN: Yeah, we want just wanted to swim away from the helicopter because we thought it was going to blow up.
CHETRY: Did you have life preservers on?
J. SULLIVAN: We had them around our waist. Kevin got his on. I didn't know how -- I didn't know what to do with mine. Mine was dragging in the water.
T. SULLIVAN: So was mine. I put it around my neck. We couldn't deploy. But I saw these wonderful people come over, on their yacht and they were yelling at us to swim over to their yacht. Kevin's life jacket was on, so we just swam over to the yacht.
CHETRY: Was the Hudson River freezing? J. SULLIVAN: It was cold. I noticed for a second, oh, this is cold, but that was immaterial to what we were trying to accomplish.
CHETRY: The good news is, it is a very busy part of the Hudson River. So, like you said, there two -- uh, just people that were boating, two boats that brought everyone aboard safely and everyone turned out to be OK.
J. SULLIVAN: Right.
CHETRY: Would you do it again?
T. SULLIVAN: Oh!
J. SULLIVAN: No. I'd have to really, really think about that.
T. SULLIVAN: We love to travel, we love to fly, and right now I can't even think about getting on a flight, a helicopter, or a plane. I can't think about it.
CHETRY: You're afraid of planes, too, now?
T. SULLIVAN: I'm afraid of everything right now! I got here in a car, but that's it.
K. SULLIVAN: I don't think I would go on a helicopter ever again.
CHETRY: The other interesting thing was you said you didn't know what to do. Did they offer, when you go for these tourist sight-seeing trips, do they tell you? I mean, do you go through these are the precautions, this is what to do in case of an emergency?
J. SULLIVAN: I recall the seat belt part and I recall them handing out the life preservers. I don't remember seeing a video on that.
CHETRY: All right. There is some of the home video when things were going well. It seems like you guys were up so high, and the pilot obviously, at least, seemed to know what she was doing because you did make what they are calling an emergency landing, as oppose to do a crash.
J. SULLIVAN: It appears as so. When the noise happened and everything started shaking, again, we didn't know where we were going or what was going to happen. Maybe we would hobble back to the heliport, but then we went down. And obviously, the result is -- speaks for itself.
CHETRY: And you guys were -- and no one is hurt, and no one feels even sore or anything like that?
T. SULLIVAN: We're sore and -- we can't sleep. We're just -- you know, we're really happy to be alive. Happy to be together and be alive.
CHETRY: Still shaking, you just made it.
J. SULLIVAN: Yeah.
T. SULLIVAN: We're happy we just made it.
CHETRY: Thanks for sharing your story with us. Boy, what a survival. You got more than you bargained for. You got to see the Hudson River, up close and personal. Thank goodness you're OK. Thanks everyone for being with us, John, Tiziana, and Kevin.
ROBERTS: Coming up to 44 minutes after the hour. This just in to CNN: News out of Vienna, Austria. The head of the United Nations atomic energy watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, said just a little while ago that it appears as though Iran is slowing down on it's work of constructing centrifuges to enrich uranium. Of course, this has been a point of contention with the international community, particularly the United States.
No word from ElBaradei on why Iran is slowing down, whether it's running into some technical problems, or whether it is responding to international pressure. ElBaradei also had some encouraging things to say about efforts to shut down North Korea's nuclear program. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED ELBARADEI, DIRECTOR, IAEA: On -- on -- the DPRK, I reported to the board that I'm pleased with the agreement reached by Mr. Olli Heinonen, the deputy director general for safeguards, his mission to Pyongyang last week.
He visited the facilities at Yongbyon. We agreed on the modalities that need to be taken to shut down these facilities, the four facilities there, with a view to eventual abandonment. This is the beginning of a process. It's going to be long and complex process. But I welcome the return of the DPRK to the verification process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So Mohamed ElBaradei sending a positive note there about the process to shut down North Korea's nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. Still to be decided what to do with the plutonium it already has, and what to do with any nuclear bombs it might have in its possession.
From pet food to fish and children's toys, more and more products imported from China are at the center of recalls and warnings. Why not just keep Chinese goods out of your house? Proof it's easier said than done ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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Clay Aiken, a threat to national security? Your "Quick Hits" now. The FBI briefly looked at the former "American Idol" runner-up after he got into an argument on an airplane. Investigators say Aiken got into a shouting match with a woman after she complained that he had put his foot on her arm rest.
And it's been 25 years, but Victor Willis is getting ready to perform again. He is the original cop in The Village People. Now, out of drug rehab and starting a world tour of Village People classics and his own song. Willis co-wrote "YMCA" and "In The Navy", but left the band back in 1980.
Well, if she had to do it all over again, would Katie Couric take on the CBS Evening News? A just-out interview that Katie Couric did with "New York" magazine has the blogs abuzzing this morning. Jacki Schechner has been watching the story unfold for us on the Internet.
Hi, Jacki.
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Hi, Kiran. How are you.
CHETRY: Good. What are they saying?
SCHECHNER: This is really interesting. This article has made the rounds pretty quickly and it's not a particularly flattering article, when it talks about Katie Couric in the past year, which has led a lot of people to wonder why she agreed to do the interview in the first place.
There's a lot of questioning knowing full well this was not going to be a particularly good piece, considering the difficult year she's had. Others are saying she is the victim of slant. But no matter how you look at it, there's one particular part of this article that's getting the most play out of all of it. It hit the "Drudge Report" and made the rounds online.
Apparently Katie Couric was upset at one of her news editor having used sputum in a story, which means mucus or phlegm. She doesn't like the word. It says that she jokingly hit this person, sort of in a kidding manner, but that is really what has been picked up. And people are using it to exemplify her manners, her anger, that kind of thing. This is really what is making the rounds online, Kiran.
CHETRY: The other interesting thing, it says would she, if she had it to do all over again, do it? And she talks about it. Her quote is, maybe she "would of thought twice about it. It would have been less appealing to me. It would have required a lot more thought." And of course, that is setting some of the blogs ablaze as well.
SCHECHNER: Yeah, a lot of people are saying, you know, she was in control of this at the beginning. It's changed some direction. She didn't know it was going to be hard newsy, for lack of a better definition. I think they thought she could bring more personality to it, and it's changed into a very news readery kind of direction for her.
Another thing, Kiran, that's come up, is people are wondering if this article is setting the stage for her departure. That maybe she is laying out all the problems along the way, and it will make it easier for her to go do something like "60 Minutes", or to move into a more news magazine format, and remove herself from the "Evening News".
So, it will be interesting to see if this opens the door, if that's what she intends by this article.
CHETRY: Yes, it's interesting because also says, "I'm not the woman on a verge of nervous breakdown. It's probably disappointing to some people because in the arc of the story that's what they want to see". Showing she is still keeping her sense of humor and cheerfulness about her, despite, you know, a lot of the buzz.
SCHECHNER: Well, ultimately, Kiran, she has been very, very successful. Let's not pretend that this woman has not been incredibly successful in her career. And this is obviously the latest step and we'll see where it goes from here. It has been a tough year and she is very candid about that. It's a very candid article and interview.
CHETRY: All right, Jacki Schechner, we'll see if it pays off for her, whether or not people view it as a mistake to do the interview. Thanks.
ROBERTS: An American terror trial that's beginning today tops your "Quick Hits". Jury selection starts in Scranton, Pennsylvania for Michael Reynolds. He is accused of trying to get Al Qaeda to help him blow up the trans-Alaska pipeline.
Anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan is issuing a challenge to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She wants her to introduce articles of impeachment against the president in two weeks, or she says, she will run against Pelosi in the next selection. Sheehan says Americans feel betrayed by the Democratic leadership they elected to bring an end to the war.
Going green, for the environment and the corporate bank account; a company rolling out environmentally friendly products and the huge profits it could make, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: A skateboarder protest tops your "Quick Hits". About two dozen people carried their boards through Hot Springs, Arkansas. The police department there has reinstated a police officer who was caught on camera during the rough arrest of a skateboarder. Investigators say that the officer used appropriate force.
Slow sales are forcing Sony to cut the price of PlayStation3. The price will drop a 100 bucks to $500, bringing it closer to Microsoft's Xbox, which has outsold PlayStation four to one.
Forget life guarding, or serving up ice cream, for the first time on record, more teenagers are not working, or looking for summer employment. According to the Labor Department, more teens are in school over the summer, and those typical summer jobs are harder to find these days.
CHETRY: Excuses, excuses. We all had them.
Hi, Polly LaBarre. Joining us to talk about NAU, which is billing itself as what, the greenest company around?
POLLY LABARRE, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: I think so. It's a very new two and a half year-old company out of Portland, Oregon. It's an outdoor clothing retailer dreamed up by a bunch of old Patagonia and Nike executives who basically have the conviction that in addition generating profit, business have an equal responsibility to be socially and environmentally responsible in everything they do?
So, they built this company integrating those values into everything it does from the ground up. Starting with its retail concept. They have something they call a "web front" which integrates the technology of the web with the intimacy of a boutique.
And the idea is if you get people to use their touch screen kiosk and ship clothing to home, you actually can have smaller stores, have a smaller environmental footprint and really attractive economics when it comes to retail.
CHETRY: So, when you go in the store, is there clothing there? Or it's only a kiosk?
LABARRE: Really, it's like a gallery setting for the clothing. You know, is one of every shape, color and size is there. You can use these self-scanners and touch screens but you're encouraged essentially to ship things to home. You get a 10 percent discount and free shipping if do you that.
Even more important than that, they've integrated a charitable contribution into every transaction. So they're giving 5 percent of their sales to charitable organizations. At the point of transaction, each customer gets a menu, and they get to choose where that 5 percent of their sale goes. So in the moment of getting something, of buying something, they've integrated a giving decision, which is really neat, because it's saying, look, you can actually put your values into your shopping decisions right there at the moment of transaction.
Now, they're not just interested in giving back to organizations that are doing good. They're trying to do good themselves. So the design of the clothes is about as green and sustainable as you possibly can get. It's taking the Patagonia standard and pushing it to the max. It's a really aggressive experiment, but one that I think has a magnetic appeal to that Wholefoods shopping, Prius driving crowd of consumers that really are growing out there in the world today.
CHETRY: Neat. All right, Polly, thank you.
LABARRE: Thank you.
ROBERTS: You've probably seen the annual "Running of the Bulls", that start over the weekend in Pamplona, Spain. Well, now get ready for running with the wives. It happened over the weekend in Finland. The idea is to carry your wife or girlfriend on a course 750 feet long. The race dates back to the time when Finnish bandits would kidnap women. And 44 couples took part in this year's competition.
CHETRY: There you go. All right, good exercise, if nothing else.
Well, the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
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ROBERTS (voice over): Firestorm: Right now fires burning in 14 Western states.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had about 30 seconds to get out of here. Nothing is going to be salvageable, except memories.
ROBERTS: Hundreds of homes at risk, hundreds of thousands of acres burned and the flames far from under control.
Plus, extreme heat. Temperatures rising in the East. Power systems taxed on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Good morning to you. Thanks for joining us. It's Monday, the 9th of July. I'm John Roberts along with Kiran Chetry.
CHETRY: Good to see you this morning.
On our radar today, we've been talking about a lot of recalls and warnings on imports from China. It has us asking well, if you wanted to, could you just keep goods made in China out of your house?
What do you got there?
ROBERTS: Well, the family you're about to talk to -- wrote a book.
CHETRY: That's right, it's "A Year Without Made In China" is the name of the book. Apparently it's easier said than done. You take a look at the labels, just how much of what you have in your home is actually made in China.
ROBERTS: Very difficult to get away with it -- or away from it, particularly at a reasonable cost.
And also this morning, a funeral for the N-word.
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