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American Morning
Senate Pulls All-Nighter on Iraq Pullout; Brazil Plane Crash; Successful Surgery for TB Patient
Aired July 18, 2007 - 06:59 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): Breaking news. How safe was the runway? A deadly plane crash in an airport in Brazil. At least 200 dead.
Sanjay scrubs up.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The surgery is already under way.
ROBERTS: An exclusive look inside the rare TB surgery on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And good morning to you. Welcome back. And thanks for joining us.
It is Wednesday, the 18th of July.
I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry.
I think we found a few people that are more sleep deprived than us. It would be the senators who are pulling an all-nighter.
ROBERTS: Or the people who are out in front of a Whole Foods waiting for those designer bags.
CHETRY: Yes. So we have two different groups this morning.
We're so glad you're with us. We are actually talking about that all-nighter right now in the Senate.
ROBERTS: Yes. Now to the Senate's all-nighter, where it stands on pulling troops out of Iraq. They've been at it all night and they're still going.
Here's a live picture from the Senate floor. And they are still talking. They have been talking all night. But it's not the sort of all-nighter that the Democrats were promising earlier. They staged this debate to put pressure on Republicans to go along with the troop withdrawal plan.
CNN Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash is live on Capitol Hill.
And Dana, when we say it's not the all-nighter that the Democrats had really sold us on, what are we talking about here?
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I think a good way to answer that question, John, is to show you some new video we have this morning of those much-talked-about cots that Democrats rolled in for senators and staff to sleep on overnight right off the Senate floor. And I think we do have some video of that.
Excuse me, we don't have video. But I was in there and I can describe it. Oh, there it is.
You can see there is one bed that looks like it was slept in but, for the most part, I can tell you that it looks like most weren't. And there is a reason for that, and that is because most senators actually went home.
The Senate majority leader was going to hold votes, attendance votes at 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning, but he gave in and essentially let senators go back. They didn't, for the most part, come back in until the sun was coming up at 5:00 in the morning. That was the first attendance vote that was taken.
But the lights were definitely on all night, and there was sort of continuous debate on the Senate floor. High-profile senators like John McCain and Hillary Clinton, they were up and talking at 4:00 in the morning -- John.
ROBERTS: Dana, from the time that the Democrats announced this, Republicans dismissed denounced it and dismissed it as nothing more than just a political stunt.
Did the Democrats change any minds overnight?
BASH: They certainly did not seem to. I can tell you that, as you said, their focus, their target really were Democrats, especially those under political pressure. Excuse me, their focus was Republicans under political pressure, those up for reelection, those who have been more vocally opposed to the war. What Democrats are trying to do is get them to actually vote with Democrats on a deadline for troop withdrawal.
Listen to Senator Norm Coleman. He was one of the Democrats' top targets. Listen to him in the middle of the night on the Senate floor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. NORM COLEMAN (R), MINNESOTA: We have to be looking at a range of options, but why now? Why at this point in time, other than there are, I presume, interest groups on the left who are concerned that the Democratic majority hasn't done what perhaps moveon.org wants them to do, which is to, you know, get us out of Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: So you hear there from Republican Norm Coleman of Minnesota. His mind clearly does not seem changed. The same goes for other Republicans I talked to early, early this morning.
By the end of the day, later this morning, when this vote is taken, John, probably three, maybe four Republicans will vote with Democrats, but certainly not enough for them to actually pass what they're trying to do here. That is, legislation to bring troops home by next spring.
ROBERTS: All right.
Dana Bash, thanks very much.
Dana on Capitol Hill for us this morning -- Kiran.
BASH: Thank you.
CHETRY: And now to some breaking news. New developments in Brazil's second major air disaster in less than a year.
We have new pictures of the crash site and these have come to us within the hour. A TAM Airlines A320 crashed on landing in Sao Paulo late yesterday. At least 200 people were killed, everyone onboard the plane, as well as others who were on the ground and hit by all of the debris. The runway has been repeatedly criticized for being too short.
CNN's Chief Technology and Environment Correspondent, Miles O'Brien who also is a pilot himself, is live at the CNN Center with us this morning.
Miles, good to see you.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CHIEF TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Kiran.
What are the early theories about what may have gone wrong?
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, first of all, it might help if we show viewers the lay of the land, if you will. Let's take a look at some satellite imagery, move in on Sao Paulo, Brazil, a city of 11 million people, numerous skyscrapers, the most populated city in the southern hemisphere.
This airport right in the center of Sao Paulo was built in 1919. We can zoom in on it. At 6,300 feet, that runway was certainly adequate for many, many years of aviation, but these days is right at the edge of the capabilities of the Airbus 320.
This is an airport that you approach -- or a runway you approach from the south, and -- heading north. And as we say, that distance from the touchdown point there where I pointed to the end is 6,300 feet.
An Airbus A320 on a good day needs about 4,500 feet. Now, it wasn't a good day. And as they came on to that runway, they, for whatever reason, the crew could not stop.
Now, did they try to stop, hit the brakes hard? Did they try to become airborne again? In any case, they ended up here across this highway, veering off to the left into a facility that is coincidentally owned by that same airline, causing numerous deaths on the ground.
Now, I want to point out one thing. That surface on that runway there was newly repaved, and it had not yet been grooved. Take a look at these grooves. You've seen them all before, but this was developed in the early 1960s by a couple of guys -- there they are -- at NASA Langley Field in Virginia.
The grooves go perpendicular to the distance of the runway, and when it's raining, causes water to be shed off. Those grooves had not yet been put in place. There was a lot of rain there, Kiran, and there is some concern that that runway was just not only too short, but just not safe enough to handle that water.
CHETRY: It seems like there were certainly a lot of things that went wrong in that situation, and ultimately 200 people lost their lives because of it.
Thanks, Miles, for your insight and for showing us a look at that runway.
O'BRIEN: You're welcome.
CHETRY: Also this morning, the surgery was a success. We mentioned yesterday that our own Sanjay Gupta would be in the O.R. for really a landmark surgery that was taking place. Doctors in Colorado are removing part of the right lung of TB patient Andrew Speaker, and they say that surgery went flawlessly this morning.
ROBERTS: Well, Sanjay Gupta is there outside of the National Jewish Medical Center in Colorado, where he just got back out from observing the surgery.
What was it like, Sanjay, being inside the O.R. while they were undergoing what I guess is a pretty rare procedure?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is a pretty rare procedure.
Good morning, guys.
About 5:00 in the morning here, so doctors haven't made rounds on Andrew as of yet, but the operation did go flawlessly, as they say. I watched it happen. They were actually able to successfully remove part of his right lung.
I'll tell you a couple of things.
What was very interesting for me is just the overall prep for this operation. You've got to keep in mind that obviously the operation is a risk for the patient, but because it's infectious disease-related, it's also a risk for the doctors and the nurses in the O.R. as well.
They actually fit you with these special air-tight masks and actually test it by putting a hood over your head and spraying this bitter stuff into the hood to make sure you're not smelling it or tasting it. That way they can ensure that it's air-tight.
Then you're allowed to go into the operating room. And through a series of scopes, using a video camera sort of inside the chest, they actually remove that infected part of the lung. You could tell right away as soon as they opened the chest where the -- where the infection was, and they just removed all of that.
Now, one thing that was very interesting as well, when they're taking it out they actually put it in this bag and then take it out so that as it's coming out, it doesn't infect any other part of the chest, doesn't infect any other part of the chest wall either. The operation took about two hours.
Andrew was obviously under general anesthesia the entire time. But again, by all reports it went flawlessly. He's recovering at 5:00 this morning.
CHETRY: So when they say it went flawlessly, is he cured now of this TB?
GUPTA: It's a good question. The answer is we don't know for sure.
Basically, it looked like all of the infection was localized to the right upper lobe of his lung. Could there be a few stray bacteria still hanging out in the rest of his chest, or even elsewhere in his body? Possibly, which is why he's going to need to stay on antibiotics for some time.
Typically if you're treating this type of tuberculosis, you could be on antibiotics up to two years. This may shorten the duration of his antibiotics because a lot of the bacteria is gone, but he still needs to take it, and then they're going to keep monitoring his cultures to see if they stay negative.
CHETRY: And the other question, does he still have to take rounds of antibiotics and continue on medication?
GUPTA: For a while. You know, he's going to stay here in Colorado for at least another few weeks. Certainly taking the antibiotics and recovering from this operation.
Incidentally, we're outside the University of Colorado Hospital. That's where he had the surgery. It was at National Jewish Hospital where he will probably be transferred back after a few days to continue those antibiotics. These two hospitals work in conjunction.
But he's going to need to take those for a while. His last culture that he had was sort of mid-June, and they like those cultures from his sputum to stay negative for about eight weeks. So that's sort of mid-August. Doctors will reassess at that point. CHETRY: Sanjay Gupta in Aurora, Colorado, for us this morning.
Really remarkable you had a chance to sit in on that surgery. Thanks.
(NEWSBREAK)
CHETRY: Well, our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents are working on these stories.
New this morning, is Harry Potter's secret out?
Alina Cho is on it for us.
You would think this would be one of the most fiercely-protected secrets and it's on the Internet.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's up for debate, whether that ending that has been posted is actually real. But if you're a "Harry Potter" fan, your greatest enemy may be the Web.
Numerous Web sites have posted amateur photographs of what appears to be every single page of the seventh and final installment of the "Harry Potter" series called "Deathly Hallows". Now, some have just posted the ending. They're calling them "Potter Poopers".
The big question is, how do we know it's real? There is great debate about that, much of it on the Web.
What we can tell you is, even if you're not looking for the ending of the book, some leakers have actually posted the pages on Web sites that have nothing to do with "Harry Potter," like celebrity Web sites. So you may be even looking for the ending and it will just pop up.
So, "Harry Potter" fans, watch out.
Now, author J.K. Rowling and the publishers, as you know, have gone to great lengths to guard the content until what they are calling "Midnight Magic". That's 12:01 a.m. this Saturday, the official release of the book.
Rowling has hinted that two or more characters are likely to die. And everyone, of course, is wondering whether the boy wizard himself will make it.
True "Harry Potter" fans, they say they don't want to know. In fact, Kiran, one of our production assistants, she's a big "Harry Potter" fan. We asked her to do some research for us this morning and she was literally hiding her eyes because she didn't want to spoil it for herself. So this is serious stuff.
CHETRY: Poor thing. She needed a new assignment this morning. She shouldn't have been assigned to your story.
CHO: That's right. CHETRY: All right. Alina, thank you.
Well, this right here is the latest celebrity fashion accessory, and Lola Ogunnaike is here to explain which celebrities are wearing this new anklet.
LOLA OGUNNAIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's an ankle bracelet designed to detect alcohol in the system. And, you know, one recently showed up on Lindsay Lohan this weekend, Kiran. And she's usually so ahead of the curve, but this time she is woefully behind.
Tracy Morgan has been wearing one of these since May. The rapper Eve has been wearing one since last month. And Michelle Rodriguez, you know, star of "Lost," she wore one for a few months earlier this year. So she's over it now.
CHETRY: Yes, we're going to talk about what they do and what they detect and why they're supposedly helping people maintain sobriety.
Lola Ogunnaike, thanks so much.
Well, Chrysler drops plans for its big luxury sedan, citing new fuel efficiency standards.
Ali Velshi put down the bag and is now talking about cars for us for a couple of minutes.
Hey, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Getting back to business. I don't mind talking about cars.
Chrysler last year announced that it was coming out with a car called the Imperial. You might remember there have been Imperials in Chrysler's history.
This is the concept car. This is what it was going to look like.
It was going to be a foot and a half longer than the 300, it was going to be six inches taller. Well, they're scrapping it now, saying that with gas at $3 a gallon and with Congress moving on fuel- efficiency, there's no market for a car like this for them. They're getting out of this market. It was going to be sort of a super -- it wasn't going to be a super luxurious car, but it was going to be their bigger car.
They are now saying they're not going for it. They're going to focus their energies elsewhere. This, they've said, has nothing to do with the takeover of Chrysler that we reported on a few months ago. It's just smart business.
So we'll continue to follow that and see whether that trend picks up in other -- with other car makers -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Ali, sounds good. Thanks so much. VELSHI: OK.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: New reports show that al Qaeda is getting stronger, especially in Iraq. It is planning to attack the United States.
How concerned should we be? We'll talk about it with a former FBI assistant director next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
U.S. intelligence warning of a possible new al Qaeda attack on the U.S. The new national intelligence estimate, which is the most formal assessment of our nation' terror risk collected from the entire intelligence community, was sent yesterday to both the president and Congress. And it really paints a scary picture when it comes to al Qaeda's resurgence.
James Kallstrom is the former head of the New York office of the FBI. He also served as New York's homeland security director under Governor George Pataki, and he joins me now this morning.
Good to see you, James.
JAMES KALLSTROM, FMR. FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Good morning.
CHETRY: You know, one of the most striking things that some of the analysts are pointing out is that this year's national intelligence estimate seemed to show that we are not safer than we were even last year, despite spending billions on homeland security and intelligence.
Why?
KALLSTROM: Well, you know, this is the first time they actually had a comprehensive all, you know, agency survey with a new intelligence director, who is a very good guy, by the way. So I think it's just really telling us what we already knew, that we're against a movement, really, a worldwide global movement of radical -- you know, a religious radical element of that faith that wants to kill us, wants to destroy Israel, and they'll stop at nothing to do that. And the concerns that I have, having spent my whole life in this business, is that we're not taking it here inside the United States as serious as we should be doing.
CHETRY: And when you say we're not taking it as seriously, the national intelligence estimate expressed some concern, I guess, saying that there are some, only a handful, actually, they say, of individuals in the U.S. with ties to al Qaeda.
Do you agree with that, that there is just a handful of people who are here now who want to do us harm? KALLSTROM: Well, I think that's pie in the sky and optimism to the extreme. I think there is actually thousands and thousands of people that agree with the terrorists. And there is probably some smaller number of people that are actually here to conduct operations.
I've been out of the government for a length of time, so I don't have the exact details. And if I did, I couldn't talk about them. But I think that's really an understatement of what the threat is here.
Look, we don't know who comes and goes into the country. We haven't done anything on the border for 30 years. The gateways and the ports, you know, aren't that much better than they were before. They're working towards that.
A lot has been done. There's a lot of good people, you know, in the FBI and the government and the local police departments...
CHETRY: Right.
KALLSTROM: ... and the NYPD. But we need to do more common sense things.
First off, I'm very concerned that we're not supporting the FBI with resources.
CHETRY: You say actually there are fewer agents now than there were right after 9/11.
Why is that?
KALLSTROM: That's a good question to ask the Congress and ask OMB and ask the White House. I mean, it's crazy when you think about it.
You know, we are at a time now -- and I, you know, grew up in the Cold War and organized crime and the beginning of terrorism in the '90s, but we're in a very scary time now, a very more complicated time. We need to be putting resources into the bureau. They're the main counterterrorism agency in the U.S. government, and we need to be giving them the tools that keep up with the changing technologies.
CHETRY: And taken all that you know and this new information that's comes out in the NIE, are we prepared to counter another terror attack here in the United States?
KALLSTROM: Well, we're prepared in some areas, but we have a long way to go. And the notion that, you know, to do more, we have to change the Constitution, is rubbish. You know? We just need to do common sense things.
For instance, you know, (INAUDIBLE) law needs to be upgraded. There's a law called Kalia (ph) that deals with emerging technologies, communications technologies. It needs to be updated because technologies change dramatically just since 9/11. You know, voice- over computers and all of this new technology, you know, we need tools, we need legal tools, and we need technology tools so that we can keep up the communications of these people.
CHETRY: Yes, and bottom line, do you think that we are -- given this national intelligence estimate and some of the other information that we've gotten, is another attack in this country inevitable right now?
KALLSTROM: Well, I think it probably is. You k now, I hate to say that, but I think it probably is, because this menace isn't going to go away.
The military has done a great job of killing a lot of them, but we can't kill them all. And they are all over the globe.
Look what's happened in the U.K. in just the last couple of years. That ought to be a big wake-up call to the United States that we need to do some of these things to better protect ourselves.
CHETRY: James Kallstrom, former FBI assistant director, head of the New York office.
Thanks for being with us today.
KALLSTROM: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Coming up to 22 minutes after the hour.
The Senate has been up all night working overtime on a plan to pull troops out of Iraq, but did anything get done? We'll hear from two tired senators, Republican Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Barbara Boxer, coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is in big trouble this morning. He's facing federal charges, basically accused of torturing dogs.
Joining us now to talk about Vick's criminal charges and career crisis is John Forsythe. He's a sports commentator for Washington Post Radio.
John, I know that this cloud has been hanging over Vick's for an awfully long time. He has proclaimed his innocence.
Are you surprised he was indicted yesterday?
JOHN FORSYTHE, WASHINGTON POST SPORTS COMMENTATOR: Not after reading through the 19-page indictment. It looks like there's actually a lot of evidence against him, which, you know, in the last couple of weeks the story has kind of been sort of downplayed a little bit, but now that the indictment is out -- there were reports that folks thought that he would get off, there wasn't that much evidence against him. And now, with so much evidence it looks like against him, it's certainly bad news for Vick, and certainly one of the faces of the NFL. It will be very interesting to see what new commissioner Roger Goodell does under the new player conduct policy that he's already shown that he cracks down on.
ROBERTS: Certainly, Michael Vick has been a controversial figure before. Did anybody peg him for running a dog-fighting ring?
FORSYTHE: Not before this, no. This has allegedly been going on since 2001 at his mansion in Surry County, Virginia.
So many dogs they found on the property chained to axles that were buried under the ground. And some of the more frightening things that came out in this indictment were that some of the dogs that actually weren't killed in the ring for the dog fighting were actually electrocuted in some cases, hanged, even shot and drowned after they lost fights.
So certainly very troubling. Like you mentioned, Michael Vick has had some run-ins with the law before. Had he a water bottle incident. He was later cleared of that. They thought that there were was some drug paraphernalia in a water bottle that he was pulled over at the Atlanta airport for.
ROBERTS: Right.
FORSYTHE: But certainly, he also flicked off some fans and was fined by the NFL last year. But certainly not like this.
ROBERTS: Yes. So what's his playing status right now with this investigation under way and these charges pending?
FORSYTHE: Well, right now he is still -- he is still fine to play. It will be interesting to see what -- the NFL's issued a statement that says they're going to let the legal proceedings go ahead and play out, and then they're going to make a determination.
He has met with Roger Goodell, the draft in New York, and he sort of -- you're wondering why Michael Vick didn't come out before and sort of try to clear himself early on before the feds got involved. He certainly is a high-profile athlete, one of the most exciting players in the NFL, $105 million contract and a Nike pitch man, so he certainly stands to lose a lot in this.
ROBERTS: Yes. A lot on the line.
John Forsythe for us from Washington Post Radio down there in D.C.
John, thanks very much.
FORSYTHE: Thank you.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: A shot this morning from KUSA TV in Denver, Colorado, looking at a really pretty sky, as the sun comes up over the Mile High City. Going to be a high of 93 degrees today. Hot one; dry one there, as well, but some thunderstorms later on this afternoon, sweeping in from the front range. So be careful with that!
Wednesday, July 18th. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm John Roberts. Good morning to you.
CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. Great to see you this morning.
New today, U.S. forces announcing a major arrest. They say they've arrested the most senior Iraqi member of Al Qaeda in Iraq. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is in Baghdad for us this morning.
This was an arrest took place, I guess, a week or so ago, and they just announced it today. What do we know about the suspect Khalid al-Mashadani?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right, Kiran.
A very interesting arrest that took place on July 4th. This man was arrested in Mosul, and apparently he's a direct go-between Al Qaeda and Iraq and senior Al Qaeda leadership outside of Iraq. The American spokesperson for multinational forces here in Iraq specifically mentioned contacts to Osama bin Laden. Here is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He served as the Al Qaeda media emir for Baghdad and then was appointed the media emir for all of Iraq. And served as an intermediary between AQI leader Al Masri and Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri. In fact, communication between senior Al Qaeda leadership and Al Masri frequently went through Mashadani.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: Now, here is one of the really interesting points, Kiran. Apparently al-Mashadani is cooperating with multinational forces and one of the things he appears to be saying is that Al Qaeda and Iraq is an organization that is -- that has guided and headed almost completely by people who are from outside of Iraq, who are foreigners.
He says one of the people who was propped up to be the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, an Iraqi called Omar Al-Bagnadi (ph), was in fact, an actor, was a fictitious figure to mask the fact that Al Qaeda and Iraq is in fact being led by people from outside Iraq by Egypt, by Saudi Arabians, but certainly not by Iraqis.
Now, one of the other very interesting points that was made in that press conference is that al-Mashadani seems to be saying that one of the reasons he was captured in Mosul is that a lot of the senior Al Qaeda in Iraq leadership appears to be fleeing from Baghdad, and moving out of Baghdad, because of the increased operations by American forces in that area, due to the troop increase taking place the past couple of months, Kiran.
CHETRY: Right. The question remains if they are driving them out of that area are they able to catch up with them in some of the other places they're hiding? In this case, it seems that it did work.
Fred Pleitgen, thanks so much for joining us from Baghdad with an update.
ROBERTS: From Iraq to the Iraq debate in the Senate now, the all-night marathon session still going on. Some of the cots that were brought in, apparently slept in, but did any policy get made while the pizzas were getting delivered?
Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss and California Democrat Barbara Boxer join us now from Capitol Hill.
Good morning to both of you.
Senator Boxer, did you accomplish anything last night? Is this bill any closer to passage?
SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D) CALIFORNIA: We will have a vote at 11:00 on procedural vote. The Republicans are forcing us to get 60 votes in order to consider redeploying the troops out of the civil war. So we will know at 11 o'clock. But I think we accomplished what we wanted to.
We wanted to show the people who sent us -- and really gave us the reins of power in the Senate -- that we are willing to stay up through the night, work through the night to start bringing this war to a close, and changing the mission of our troops. We want to get them out of a civil war, get them back on track, going after Al Qaeda, and training the Iraqi forces and out of the middle of a civil war. I think shining the spotlight on this was important for us to do.
ROBERTS: I got a question about the all-nighter, in just a second.
But first of all, let me go to Senator Chambliss and ask: Did the Democrats change any minds, Senator Chambliss? Are there any more Republicans who are going to sign on the bill than there were yesterday?
SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: Oh, absolutely not. There will be some Republicans voting with the Democrats. There will be a couple of Democrats voting with Republicans on this issue.
The sad part about this, John, is that we've got a bill that gives those troops in Iraq a pay increase, that provides a better quality of life for them and their families, provides more and better and safer equipment for them. All of that has been lost and delayed by the Democrats with this procedure, as they have called -- a stunt, that took place last night.
But, you know, the Senate always requires 60 votes on major issues. We were ready to vote last night on this, but, unfortunately, we didn't get that accomplished. We're going to have that today, though.
ROBERTS: Senator Boxer, the debate did go on, but it wasn't exactly as the Democrats had initially laid it out to be. Here is what Senator Dick Durbin, from Illinois, told us was going to happen when he joined us yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: We thought it was time to really make the point that if the Republicans are going to filibuster and try to stop the debate on the war in Iraq then, frankly, they have to stay here and pay the price. Too many times we've sanitized these filibusters so members can go out to a nice dinner, go home, and go to sleep, get up in the morning, and say well, the filibuster is over. Tonight we're staying on the job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Senator Boxer, didn't last night -- just before midnight -- you and a bunch of senators get around Harry Reid to say, look, do we really have to have a roll call vote at 3 o'clock in the morning. Can't we go home and get sleep and come back in at 5:00 a.m.?
BOXER: Yeah, we didn't go home at all. Yes, it is true that Harry was going to have a vote every three hours. Some of the women senators appointed me, of course, to go speak with Harry and beg to have about four and a half, or five. But I slept in my office down from here. I'm in the Capitol studio now. I curled up on my little couch, so I did get about four hours. I don't know the point of the question.
But here is the deal. We were up all night. Why? Because we did want the Republicans to stay there with us, which they did, they had to do that. Why? Because every time we asked to have a vote on this amendment, it's called the Levin/Reid Amendment, which would start redeploying our troops out of a civil war which is what we need to do and get them back on track with a mission they can accomplish.
This is what the American people want. Republicans said no, no, no. You need to get 60 votes. You know, the sad thing is that the Republicans are blocking us from a clear simple majority and I think we're going to have that majority. We'll know at 11 o'clock. And that would be a huge step forward. And, yeah, we worked all night and some of us slept a little more than others, but it was -- it was a long night.
ROBERTS: Senator Chambliss, obviously, it looks like this bill is not going to pass this morning. But let me ask you this question, September 15th or thereafter, after General Petraeus reports, is it going to be a different situation? Will Republican support start to turn against the president?
CHAMBLISS: Well, I don't know that it will turn against the president because I think the president, after September 15, is going to come forward and say, OK, here is where we are. This is what we've been waiting for. And that has been the gist of our argument all night long. Petraeus told us when he was appointed, by a unanimous vote of the Senate, look, you have to give me time to see if this thing will work, militarily. He said he needed till September. We've said all along let's wait till the middle of September and let's see what the report says. We got an interim report a couple of weeks ago, didn't look all that good but is that going to be the report we get in September? Who knows.
The fact is I've been there as late as two months ago, when I talked to General Petraeus when I'm there with my with my -- in theater, looking those men and women in their eye with their boots on the ground, they tell me that it is working.
ROBERTS: Right.
CHAMBLISS: Militarily, we're doing fine. Here, we've seen another capture of a high-value target of Al Qaeda in Iraq. That's very positive progress in my opinion.
But the fact is we need to give this the opportunity to work. We've just had the full complement of soldiers in theater within the last three weeks. Come September, we're going to review it again and I think the president is likely to come forward with something different, but what it will be, obviously, we don't know now.
ROBERTS: It's beginning to look like General Petraeus will have the time, but we'll see where that debate goes. And we'll see where this vote today goes.
Senators Saxby Chambliss, Senator Barbara Boxer ...
BOXER: Well ...
ROBERTS: Thanks very much. I'm sorry, Senator, we're out of time.
BOXER: That's too bad. Sorry.
ROBERTS: Glad you got some sleep last night, though. Appreciate it.
CHETRY: It could be the next best thing, is that a sad commentary or what, on young Hollywood. It's the alcohol ankle bracelet. There it is. It's designed to detect when someone has been drinking. We have a closer look at Lindsay Lohan's latest accessory.
How does it work and can it really help people who have alcohol problems? We are going to talk to the people who invented it, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
Lindsay Lohan's latest fashion accessory is probably something you don't want. It's a post rehab ankle bracelet that can detect even the slightest trace of alcohol consumption.
This is the device. I have one on my ankle right now. It's called SCRAM, the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring Device. Karen Brudnicki is the SCRAM Coordinator for the Lackawanna Pennsylvania Probation & Parole Department.
You're one of the ones across the country that are using these right now.
KAREN BRUDNICKI, LACKAWANNA CO. ALCOHOL MINITORING COORDINATOR: Yes, we are.
CHETRY: Who gets one of these?
BRUDNICKI: DUI offenders it could be from the first-time offender to multi-offenders.
CHETRY: How do they work?
BRUDNICKI: They work by being attached to the leg. It's a tamper-proof, water-resistant device, attached to your leg very similarly to how like you have it on, except we're missing the battery. What it does is it measures the perspiration and if there is any alcohol it would just come through the sensors.
CHETRY: Right. So, when you consume alcohol and part of it comes out in your sweat. A lot of it is digested in your body and the part that comes out of your sweat is detected. So if -- let's say I was a DUI offender, and I drank, where would this signal go?
BRUDNICKI: The signal is stored in the bracelet itself and then it would transferred at a designated time through the modem. And go through the Central Processing Center. It's a web-based application. Once they receive the data from the bracelet, at that time, they would confirm it, deny it, whatever, and have it sent through and we would receive the reports.
CHETRY: So this would be through people's parole officers, or the judge or, in your case, the actual detention facilities?
BRUDNICKI: In our case, the way it comes through, it comes through our monitoring center, Mid-Atlantic Monitoring. And then, from there, they would send me the actual information from that.
CHETRY: I got you. Now, there are some high profile celebrities, including, I think Michelle Rodriguez who is in the really popular show "Lost" who has reported apparently false/positives say if you use Listerine, or let's say you drink something that has a vanilla extract in it, does that happen a lot?
BRUDNICKI: No, it doesn't happen a lot. It will detect an alcohol reading but the Listerine -- you would need lethal amounts for that to actually detect it, as a confirmed alcohol consumption. Because the alcohol has to process through the body. You don't drink the alcohol so it's not going to actually be absorbed.
CHETRY: You warn people, stay away from things like cold medicines and cough medicines that contain alcohol some.
BRUDNICKI: Absolutely, absolutely.
CHETRY: How does this help a person stay on the straight and narrow more so than just other things like treatment and parole and probation?
BRUDNICKI: Because you're being monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's a constant reminder for you.
CHETRY: Not that comfortable.
BRUDNICKI: That's right.
CHETRY: You say eight ounces, but it's a little bulky and when people walk I think it bangs up against your other leg sometimes.
BRUDNICKI: Yes, it is. It's a constant reminder of. I've had people coming in that they're very apprehensive to come off of it, because they just felt very safe with it on.
CHETRY: Oh, that's interesting, as well. And usually, how long do people have to wear these?
BRUDNICKI: Well, 90 days is the rule, but it could vary from there. It's individual.
CHETRY: Very interesting. Thanks for explaining more about how it works. Karen Brudnicki, with the Lackawanna County Probation and Parole Department.
ROBERTS: Coming up now to 46 minutes after the hour. Every once in a while, we hear the peal of thunder here in our studio. It's because the rain is coming down in New York City causing some delays here as well.
Chad Myers in the weather center. How bad are those delays getting?
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: What would you ask the people running for president? The YouTube debate will show us some of that next Monday. Our Tom Foreman is also on a mission to find out what is on your mind. "Raw Politics" just ahead here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Here at CNN we've been trying to find out what matters most to you in this upcoming presidential election.
CHETRY: Yes, and thanks to the YouTube/CNN partnership we're finding out a lot about that. Also, Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards will joining us in our next half hour. He has been talking a lot about poverty, so he will be speaking with you more about that as well. ROBERTS: He is on an eight-state poverty tour, in the town of Wise, Virginia today, which is like way out in the middle of nowhere. CNN's Tom Foreman, along with our AMERICAN MORNING interns have been collecting questions from Americans for John Edwards.
What do people want to know, Tom?
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, part of the YouTube debate -- we've asked people to ask not just about issues, but about specific people, things they want to know about these folks. And there are a lot of questions about John Edwards because he is one of those guys who is sort of on the cusp. He's not one of the big frontrunners, yet, he's a big figure. Now, he's out doing the poverty tour. He's going to get more and more attention. Listen to some of the questions we heard for him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROGER FORTUNA, OUTSIDE WASHINGTON: Quite simply, I'd ask John if he could distinguish himself from the other two leading candidates. At this point in time the three seem to me, at least, to be blending. How is he distinctive and different from the two other leading candidates?
MIKE PINNOCK, RETIRED, INDEPENDENT: I would want to know his stand on nuclear energy. That would be most important to me. It's time. We're ready for nuclear energy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOREMAN: Look at our intrepid interns out there doing an excellent job. It took me 30 years to get here. Look it, they're out there doing the job.
But that's the point of the whole YouTube debate. To get these questions from normal people.
And Edwards, right now, has got some issues to deal with, for in New Hampshire, the latest poll, it's very close. But now Bill Richardson, from New Mexico, has moved into the third slot. That's something you don't want to see as a campaign.
ROBERTS: He is still doing well out in Iowa, though?
FOREMAN: Yes, he's still doing well in Iowa and he'd doing all of this big poverty tour, right now. You can expect -- I mean, "Raw Politics" tells us he's going to get a bump in the next few weeks from this, because he is getting a lot of attention, a lot of people talking to him. People get exposed to his ideas.
And just what that guy asked for, people are going to say, OK, so this is the difference between you, and the other folks out there.
CHETRY: I love how Tom said he wants to hear questions from "normal people".
ROBERTS: Yes, normal people. CHETRY: As in -- we're not!
FOREMAN: We're not even vaguely normal!
CHETRY: Tom, thank you so much.
Well, how about this one? Is this normal, waiting outside in the pouring rain in New York City, at 4 o'clock in the morning, to get your hands on a grocery bag? It's actually happening now. There is the bag. It's going for 15 bucks. It is made by this really fancy designer. And it's cotton. And it's trying to help the environment, at the same time, make a fashion statement.
Well, apparently it's catching on. There are lines around the block at Whole Foods all over the place, to get our hands on these things. When I say that it is because, look, we just got one here. This is the Ali Velshi model. He said it was harder to get his hands on than the iPhone, in fact. What is all the fuss? We will try to explain the hype when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It is four minutes till the top of the hour, right now. And Ali Velshi was able to somehow get out of that big crowd down at Whole Foods, which is in our building, by the way. A big buzz over this -- cotton bag?
ALI VELSHI, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Of all the things I've covered, the line ups that I've covered, this is unbelievable. That is for cotton bag that says, "I'm not a plastic bag." It's designed by a British designer named Ania Highmarsh (ph), who makes handbags that usually cost, you know, up to about $1,500.
People are lined up around the block to pay $15 to go into Whole Foods and buy one of these, because it seems to have caught the trend of consumerism, and having a nice handbag and being fashionable, and yet making a statement.
We've seen this trend. We saw it at all of these stores who will now charge you for plastic bags, but ask you to use their reusable bags except you don't necessarily want to be watching around with IKEA bag for your daily business. For 15 bucks you get yourself this bags. These are the lineups we've seen in other places -- somewhere in Asia -- this is London.
(CROSS TALK)
CHETRY: I think it was Japan, there was a stampede.
VELSHI: That we're looking at.
CHETRY: Three people went to the hospital.
VELSHI: There were lineups all over the place. This is released today. They put limits on how many of them you can buy. You cannot believe the number of e-mails I've had this morning from people saying, Hey, I got that, I saw that, can I get the bag?
CHETRY: Right, including me. Sorry.
VELSHI: The problem, of course, with this is that good, interesting business that is going on, on Ania Highmarsh (ph), with these bags, but there is a little bit of a back story right now, as we know with Whole Foods, where their CEO has sort of gotten them into a little hot water posting messages on the chat boards for the last eight years, under an assumed name. This is having to do with their competition, Wild Oats.
CHETRY: The SEC is going to be looking into that now?
VELSHI: The SEC is looking into it. The board of Whole Foods is looking into it. But for folks buying this bag I don't think they have any particular connection to Whole Foods. They like the idea that a fashion designer has created a bag they can buy for $15, and walk around and make a statement that says, "I'm not a plastic bag."
CHETRY: It's all fine until you realize -- I can't fit that many groceries in there!
VELSHI: It's not that big. No, I think just it's meant to carry your normal stuff.
CHETRY: Right. All right, $15 but on eBay already going for $250?
VELSHI: Well, over $250, exactly. Are you coveting it, John.
ROBERTS: I'll never figure out America. I just never!
VELSHI: Keep on buying!
CHETRY: Hey, it's in Hong Kong and Japan, too. Not just the United States.
ROBERTS: OK, I'll never figure out the fashion world.
CHETRY: Thanks, Ali.
ROBERTS: Other stories on our radar this morning. Chris Benoit, the toxicology report on his death came in. He had 10 times the amount of testosterone in his body as well as other drugs, like, Xanax and Vicodin. You know there are some people who have speculated that it was steroid rage that led to him killing his wife and his son, but the coroner saying that it looked like the testosterone injected shortly before his death. So, a lot of -- a big sense of mystery still surrounding this case.
CHETRY: Right. Perhaps more questions than answers now, after the toxicology reports, including those on his wife and son. So we'll bring you the details on that.
Also, we all do it, from time to time, speeding when we're driving in a car. We know we're not supposed to. ROBERTS: Never!
CHETRY: But there is one state, in particular, that wants to make some fines quite hefty for speeding offenses.
ROBERTS: I was quite surprised about this because I live in Virginia and 20 miles an hour over the speed limit, like I said, I wasn't aware of this -- can get you a fine of a $1,000!
CHETRY: Yeah. In fact, it's raising quite a controversy there. There is now petitions in place to try to stop this legislation. We're going to talk to the man behind all of it coming up. The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS (voice over): Breaking news: A plane crashes and burns, on a recently repaired runway. Hundreds killed. Was enough done to keep people safe?
A former military sniper accused of killing his wife found dead with a note. There were clues he left behind, on this, AMERICAN MORNING?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And welcome back. And thanks for joining us on this ...
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