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Terror Plot Arrests; Craig May Not Resign; Search For Steve Fossett; Craig Not Resigning?; Gerri's Top Tips

Aired September 05, 2007 - 10:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Sex sting.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A report that tests show severe brain damage from his time in the wrestling ring didn't lead to WWE's Chris Benoit to murder/suicide. A news conference live this hour.

It is Wednesday, September 5th and you are in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Unfolding this morning, an alleged terrorist plot disrupted. Three suspects arrested. They are accused of planning imminent and massive attacks against American targets in Germany. Want to get to Frankfurt now and CNN's Frederik Pleitgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: German authorities are on high alert after they say they have thwarted what they call a massive and imminent terrorist attack here in Germany. German authorities say they have arrested three individuals, two of them are German nationals who apparently converted to Islam and visited terrorist training camps in Pakistan that were run by al Qaeda. The third individual was a Turkish national. Now the German interior minister says he believes that the orders for these attacks came directly from al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan.

Now the method that these terrorists were going to use, authorities say, was that they acquired 1,500 pounds of highly potent hydrogen peroxide that they were going to turn into bomb-making material. The reason German authorities say they did this now, they arrested these people now is that they believe they were on the verge of turning this hydrogen peroxide into explosives. And also with the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks coming up in only a few days, German authorities say they felt they had to make these arrests now.

Frederik Pleitgen, CNN, Frankfort, Germany.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Senator Larry Craig in that men's room sex scandal. He may not resign after all. A spokesman says Craig will fight his own guilty plea. Congressional correspondent Dana Bash is with us on Capitol Hill.

Dana, good morning to you. What is the react to this new twist from Republicans on Capitol Hill? DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's certainly a sense of shock here. People are very surprised. Especially people inside the Republican leadership. Senator Craig's very own leadership that was instrumental in forcing Senator Craig to announce his intention to resign on Saturday.

They thought that this was behind them, this political nightmare that they have had over a sex scandal and it turns out that it may not be. And it is because the senator's office is changing their tune a little bit. What they are saying is that he may -- may, and they emphasize the word may, not resign if the senator is successful in his legal battle, trying to overturn the guilty plea he signed admitting to misconduct in a men's room in the Minneapolis Airport just last month.

Now this whole idea of pulling back from resigning appears to have been prompted from -- by his colleague here, one of his colleagues, the only colleague who has come out and supported Senator Craig, that is Senator Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Now the newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, "Roll Call," obtained a voice mail from Senator Craig apparently trying to reach his attorney and Senator Craig talked about the call that he got from Arlen Specter. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LARRY CRAIG, (R) IDAHO: Yes, billy, this is Larry Craig calling. You can reach me on my cell. Arlen Specter is now willing to come out in my defense, arguing that it appears by all that he knows I've been railroad and all of that. Having all of that, we've reshaped my statement a little bit to say, it is my intent to resign on September 30.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now the very next day, on Sunday, Senator Specter did go on television and make the case that he does believe that Senator Craig has a legal case in trying to overturn his guilty plea. Today he is not adding anything to that. Simply saying that his public words stand for themselves.

Now, CNN has been told that Senator Craig is calling around here to Capitol Hill, to his other Republican colleagues, trying to see if there is other support beyond Senator Specter. Unclear what he's been hearing. But what is clear, Tony, is that the Republican leadership, as I mentioned, is not happy about this. They made clear yesterday, the Republican leader himself said that this episode is over and that's how they view it. Wouldn't be surprised if we heard similar words later today.

HARRIS: Yes. Our congressional correspondent Dana Bash for us.

Dana, appreciate it. Thank you.

COLLINS: Startling news from the military this morning. A B-52 bomber, like this one, mistakenly loaded with six nuclear warheads and flown across country. It happened last Thursday. The mistake not discovered until after the flight. The bomber was flying from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. A three and a half hour flight. It was during that time the nuclear warheads on advanced cruise missiles were unaccounted for. Air Force officials are now investigating how it happened. But important here, they say the nuclear bombs could not have detonated because of redundant safeguards.

HARRIS: Felix weaker this morning, but still very much a threat. The storm slammed ashore yesterday in Central America as a fierce category five. It is now a tropical depression. The concern now, heavy rain and massive flooding in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras. It is reported that at least four people may have died as the storm made landfall.

In the Pacific, Hurricane Henriette is a category one storm with winds near 75 miles per hour. It made landfall along the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula yesterday and is still on the move.

COLLINS: It's just coming from all directions it seems like. Rob Marciano joining us now for the very latest on everything that's happening.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Here's a question for you. What drove wrestler Chris Benoit to kill his wife, son and himself? A doctor who examined Benoit's brain offers a possible explanation this morning. He told ABC's "Good Morning America" the wrestler suffered brain damage from multiple concussions. Doctor Julian Bailes says it could have been a leading cause of the tragedy. He says the damage is similar to that found in Alzheimer's patients.

COLLINS: Crews in Nevada searching for adventurer Steve Fossett this morning. His plane vanished Monday. CNN's Ted Rowlands is in Minden, Nevada, for us now this morning.

And, Ted, conditions, I heard you say a little bit earlier, are at least better this morning in the search for Steve Fossett.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Much better. And pilots are arriving here. We just got a little bit of an update. They expect to start flying in about 20 minutes. That's 7:30 Pacific Time here. And they expect to exploit these weather conditions and use this day to try to find Fossett, who has been missing since Monday morning.

He took off in a single engine plane by himself. The plan had about three to four hours' worth of fuel in it. They have expanding the search area to about a 600-square mile area. A huge area. About half the size of Rhode Island.

They're using a grid search technique through this. Yesterday they accomplished some work but the conditions were very difficult. They're hoping to get back up there and accomplish more and hopefully find him. There are some discouraging things. There's a beacon on the plane that if he were to land this thing safely, he would able to manually activate it. And they haven't heard anything from that. On the upside, if there was a crash, it would have gone off automatically. They haven't heard anything on that side either. So there's some good news and some bad news.

Time is a factor here. They're very concerned. But this is a guy who has done it all in his lifetime. He not only is an aviator, a sailor, he set world records in sailing, he's even set cross-country ski records, swam the English Channel, been in the Ironman competition, the Iditarod. He is a survivalist. His friend, Richard Branson, another adventurer, said this about Steve Fossett earlier this morning on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD BRANSON, CHAIRMAN, VIRGIN GROUP: If he's landed and he's not too badly hurt, he's the one person in the world who will, you know, who will be mentally and physically equipped to get out of this. So, you know, so if anyone's going to end up, you know, walking back up the ranch and apologizing for (INAUDIBLE), you know, the Hilton's plane, it's likely to be Steve Fossett.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: A reference to the Hilton's plane. He took off from a ranch nearby here owned by the Hilton family and was using their plane when he left. And that is where we understand his wife Peggy of some 30 years is with family members. A lot of people around the world very concerned about Steve Fossett, hoping today, Heidi, that they will be able to get some answers. And you hear the aircraft in the background. They're about ready to go up and resume this search. And hopefully today it will be fruitful.

COLLINS: Hey, Ted, just curious. I know there's Nellis Air Force Base out there. Very, very active Air Force base. Just wondering if there's any possibility that someone from there or people from there might also help in this search.

ROWLANDS: Well, the Civil Air Patrol is coordinating this. And they're basically an auxiliary of the Air Force. They handle search and rescue in this area. So they're coordinating it, but they're getting help from other agencies and they're trying to get every asset available to take part in this search. They have to control it, though, because they don't want independent searches going on and they need to control every movement of these planes. But they say they are exploiting the weather and the resources in this area and they're doing everything humanly possible to find Steve Fossett.

COLLINS: All right, Ted, we know you're on top of it for us. We'll check back later. Thanks so much.

And an update on the search for Steve Fossett scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Eastern. We will carry this for you live right here on CNN.

HARRIS: OK, parents, time to check the toy box again. Another big recall to tell you about.

COLLINS: A senator's sex scandal, a new legal challenge. Can the lawmaker stay in office despite his guilty plea? We'll talk with our legal expert, Jeffrey Toobin.

HARRIS: She's getting a lot of attention on the presidential campaign trail, but she's not the candidate. Michelle Obama makes the cover of "Jet" magazine. We will hear from "Jet's" associate editor coming up.

COLLINS: And U.S. service families in Germany feeling like sitting ducks?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The extremists or the terrorists that would like to make a statement against Americans would, of course, like to get a hold of Americans' children and American families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: We'll check out security at the U.S. base in Wiesbaden (ph).

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM. Good morning. I'm Tony Harris.

Terror suspects arrested. We will tell you about a massive bomb they were said to be cooking up and what they were planning to do with it, in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Another big recall from the world's biggest toy maker. Mattel pulling some 800,000 toys off the shelves because of excessive levels of lead paint. They including Barbie accessories sold since October, as well as thousands of Geo Trax engines and Bongo Band toys. All of them were made in China. This is Mattel's third major toy recall now in six weeks. Last month the company's chairman warned of more recalls as Mattel stepped up its monitoring.

HARRIS: So we're talking about millions of toys pulled from shelves and toy chests this summer. Some of the other major recalls. Stay with me here, this gets a little tricky.

Last month more than 70,000 spinning tops and pails featuring Thomas and Friends, Curious George and other characters were recalled. Remember that? Two hundred and fifty thousand SpongeBob SquarePants address books and journals also pulled. Remember that?

Mattel recalled 19 million toys worldwide on August 14th. The worries here, lead paint and kids potentially swallowing magnets. The toys made in China. On August 1st, Mattel's Fisher-Price division recalled 1.5 million preschool toys featuring such characters as Dora the Explorer, Big Bird and Elmo.

Hasbro, stay with me here, recalled about 1 million Chinese-made Easy-Bake ovens, you remember this, in July because kids could get their fingers caught. And in June, 1.5 million Thomas and Friends wooden railway toys were recalled. The concern here, lead paint.

H:C Senator Larry Craig and the men's room sex scandal. The Idaho conservative bouts (ph) a new legal challenge to stay in office. His goal, overturning the guilty plea he, himself, entered. Here to explain, CNN's senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

You're also laughing. Stick with me.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have a question. I have a question.

COLLINS: Oh, geez. What?

TOOBIN: Is this story strange enough for you yet, Heidi?

COLLINS: It is strange enough. Indeed it is.

TOOBIN: Is it strange enough?

COLLINS: It seems a little calculated possibly, but we don't really know. So let's go through it. Bear with me. Anyway, just to begin with this, that Craig could actually take back that guilty plea. I mean once you enter it, isn't it entered?

TOOBIN: Well, there is a legal process for withdrawing a guilty plea. But in Minnesota, like most states, it's almost impossible. You basically have to show one of two things. You have to show coercion. Were you forced into pleading guilty? Did someone say, plead guilty or I'll kill you or plead guilty or I'll kill your sister.

COLLINS: We've heard those tapes. That did not happen, correct?

TOOBIN: It did not happen, clearly.

The other issue is incompetence. Were you on drugs? Did you not understand English? That's another reason. Again, it didn't seem to apply here.

So as a legal matter, I don't see any real way he has any chance of getting this guilty plea overturned.

COLLINS: All right. And key to this story has got to be Arlen Specter. Listen to this from Arlen Specter. You probably heard it over the weekend, Jeff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R) PENNSYLVANIA: He's got his life on the line and 27 years in the House and Senate. And I'd like to see him fight the case because I think he could be vindicated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: OK. So Specter is a former D.A. for Philadelphia. He knows the law. Would he really be saying that if he didn't think that Senator Craig could fight these charges?

TOOBIN: Well I think what Senator Specter was talking about was, if Senator Craig had actually fought the charges from the very beginning, I think he actually had a chance. The evidence, based on what I've seen, was sort of ambiguous. It didn't seem like a open and shut case that Craig was guilty of solicitation or disorderly conduct. But the problem is, he plead guilty. That case is over. So, I mean, I think, you know, Senator Specter is a very smart man and a very distinguished lawyer and he was a D.A., but I don't think he's right about how likely it is that that guilty plea can be overturned.

COLLINS: At least at this point.

Well, what about the mail-in plea? Is that something that's standard or not so much?

TOOBIN: It's an unusual process, but is it the process in Minneapolis. It's been in place for many years. And if you look at the document, two things really jump out at you. One is, you know, the arrest was June 11th. He signed his guilty plea on August 1st.

COLLINS: Exactly.

TOOBIN: So he had six weeks to think this over and decide whether to plead guilty or not. This wasn't a spur of the moment thing. So that, again, argues against his being able to withdraw the plea.

And the other point is, if you read the form, it says, by pleading guilty, I acknowledge that I am guilty and I am not going to ask for this document to be changed.

COLLINS: Yes.

TOOBIN: So, again, that makes it hard for him to change his mind now.

COLLINS: Seems like it kind of puts the nail in it when it's signed that way. But maybe, I don't know, is there a loophole in the fact that an attorney actually never signed that plea?

TOOBIN: Well, no. In fact, the document has a provision that says, I am not represented by an attorney. So it's very clear you don't have to be represented by an attorney to file -- to mail a document like that in.

And again, we're talking about a United States senator. A sophisticated person. Someone who could be expected to get a lawyer if he wanted one. I just don't see how anything is different now than it was when he withdraw on Saturday. So I don't know what he's thinking in sort of having a spokesman say, well maybe he's not really resigning. I just don't get it.

COLLINS: Yes. I had a couple of other questions here for you but we've already answered it. It just seems like it's done and we're just going to see how it plays out now.

TOOBIN: Well, and it's always a surprise.

COLLINS: There's always -- oh, that's a good tease. We'll have to stay tuned and have you back.

TOOBIN: Absolutely.

COLLINS: CNN's senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Thank you.

TOOBIN: See you, Heidi.

HARRIS: Taxi, taxi, taxi. It could be harder to hail a cab in Manhattan today. Why some taxi drivers are on strike.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Gerri Willis.

We're getting out that magnifying glass to look at the fine print when it comes to your credit cards. We'll tell you how to find the best one for you. That's next on "Top Tips" in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Well, we're down 152 points.

HARRIS: Wow!

COLLINS: The Dow Jones Industrial average is, and it's only 10:25 Eastern Time. Only an hour in. But you see the numbers there, resting at 13,296. Yesterday, when all was said and done, we were up 91 points. So we will continue to follow this. The Nasdaq also down. You see on the bottom right-hand side of your screen, down 20 points. Susan Lisovicz is going to be joining us a little bit later on, give you some more information about some of these key economic reports that may really have bearing on the numbers that we see today.

HARRIS: Credit card offers on the rise and so is the fine print. Here to help us sort it all out, see if we can get the right card for you, if you want a card at all, CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis.

I hate credit cards.

Gerri, good to talk to you.

WILLIS: Well, you know, you got to have one to have a credit history.

HARRIS: Well, I guess you do.

WILLIS: And for people to know who you are. I mean it's one of those things you've got to do. HARRIS: Yes, I guess you do. You know, you hear all this about a credit crunch and yet, boy, you go to the mailbox and there's another offer.

WILLIS: Right.

HARRIS: And, you know, the question is for a lot of folks, what do you do. Do you go with one of the smaller companies or big, big, big? Do you go with a big company?

WILLIS: Well, bigger isn't always better, Tony.

HARRIS: There you go.

WILLIS: Look, a recent survey by consumer reports found that people who had credit cards with USAA Federal Savings Bank and credit unions were more satisfied with their credit cards than people who have credit cards from big banks, like JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, HSBC. To qualify for a USAA credit card, you have to have a military connection, but credit unions may be a good option if you don't have that. You'll likely get charged lower interest rates. And some credit unions allow members' relatives to join. Check out the Credit Union National Association at creditunion.coop to see what's available in your area.

HARRIS: Well, you know what, Gerri, why are you warning us against -- at least to be on the lookout for these zero percent offers. If you have one of these blasted things, that seems to be the way to go to get one with a zero percent off.

WILLIS: Well, you know, they can be a great thing. Look, switching your balance from a high interest rate card to a lower one makes a lot of sense. But the windows on those zero percent introductory rate cards, it's getting shorter, Tony.

HARRIS: Oh, OK.

WILLIS: Now it used to be that zero percent rates lasted for a year. Today they're disappearing in six months. After that, you'll be paying rates higher than 15 percent. You'll also want to ask about balance transfer fees. But more often credit card companies are getting rid of caps on balance transfer fees or increasing the fees. Keep an eye out for those.

HARRIS: All right, Gerri, you know what, we had a couple of other tips, but we've got some breaking news we want to get to right away. But thank you for being with us, Gerri. We'll see you tomorrow.

WILLIS: My pleasure.

HARRIS: OK.

COLLINS: Quickly want to get you to these live pictures now. We just saw Senator Tim Johnson go down the hallway of the Capitol in his wheelchair. I think you'll be able -- there he is. HARRIS: There he is.

COLLINS: You can see the back of his head now. There we have the tape for you. Big, big smile on his face. We should let you know, he's got a full schedule today, too, as he returns to the U.S. Senate and the Senate floor as well. You see all the people clapping their hands for him. This is his first time back to the Capitol, in fact, since December when he had that brain hemorrhage that required emergency surgery and months and months of therapy. I'm not sure if we can listen in. Guys, do we have any sound coming in to us? Let's listen for a moment.

We're trying. We're trying to hear it. But, as you can see, he does have a big smile on his face and just reminding you that he plans to have a full schedule in front of him today. I imagine pretty darn happy to be back and back at work. We will continue to follow this. If we get any sound there, as we try to listen in, we will certainly bring it to you.

HARRIS: Do we have time to get back to Gerri Willis? Someone tell me. Is Gerri there?

WILLIS: Yes.

HARRIS: Beautiful! Gerri Willis back with the rest of the great tips today.

Gerri, the other thing you're telling us to be mindful of, of these triggers in some of the fine print in these credit card offers.

WILLIS: Yes, we're talking about credit cards and how to pick them. You want to watch out for triggers. Now if you make late payments or exceed your credit limit, you should be shifted into what they call a default penalty interest rate on your credit card. And that means your interest rate could be 20 percent or higher.

Now, in the past, you trigger this kind of penalty if you made a few late payments within the year. But now, hey, issuers are getting stricter. Now some cards are imposing these penalties even if your payment is just a few hours late. So before applying or accepting a credit card offer, make sure you ask what exactly triggers penalty pricing.

HARRIS: Nice. And I think we all understand this next one, watch your credit limit.

WILLIS: Ah, the devil's in the details here. You know, before you sign on with a card, you've got to look at this specifically because credit card issuers are decreasing credit limits more and more frequently. Even if you already have a card and you may have qualified for a higher limit, the issuer can change that. They can scale back that limit at any time. And that can dramatically hurt your credit score if your balance is really close to that limit.

And if you have a question, be sure to send it to us at toptips@cnn.com. We answer them right here every Friday. And we love to hear from you.

Tony.

HARRIS: That was interesting. We made it work.

WILLIS: We did.

HARRIS: Gerri Willis, our CNN personal finance editor.

Gerri, great to see you. Thanks.

WILLIS: Good to see you.

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins and Tony Harris.

HARRIS: All of that and we managed to hit you right there in the bottom of the hour.

Welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.

COLLINS: Hi there, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Among our top stories this morning, new details coming out about the arrest of three terror suspects. German police say the suspected Islamic militants were planning massive and imminent attacks against American targets in Germany. German authorities say the suspects received terrorist training in Pakistan and had close ties to al Qaeda. They say the group behind the alleged plot had amassed 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide to make bombs. The suspects were believed to have been planning attacks against military installations, discos, airports and places frequented by Americans.

Authorities would not elaborate on whether the U.S. airbase Ramstein and the Frankfurt International Airport were targets.

HARRIS: Civilians targeted again in Baghdad this morning. At least 11 dead, 20 wounded in a roadside bombing. That word from an interior ministry official. The blast detonating next to buses used by morning commuters. It happened in the predominantly Shiite Sadr City neighborhood. Officials say it is not clear who is responsible.

COLLINS: We are hearing this morning about four more U.S. troops killed in Iraq. Four others injured. It happened in separate incidents in Baghdad Tuesday. The military says three of the soldiers died when a powerful roadside bomb hit their patrol. A fourth soldier was killed in combat. That raises the U.S. death toll in the Iraq War to 3,748.

HARRIS: She is getting a lot of attention on the presidential campaign trail, but she's not the candidate. Michelle Obama makes the cover of "Jet" magazine. We will hear from Jet's associate editor.

Good morning.

COLLINS: What caused pro wrestler Chris Benoit to kill his family and himself? A possible new clue. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Michelle Obama, her husband is in the spotlight as one of the Democratic contenders for president, but she's also getting a lot of attention. This week gracing the cover of "Jet" magazine. Nice photo.

With us now from Chicago, "Jet's" associate editor Dana Slagle. Dana, good to talk to you. Good morning.

DANA SLAGLE, ASSOC. EDITOR, "JET" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

HARRIS: Hey, you to tell me, what's her style on the campaign trail? Is she kind of folksy? Is she kind of everyday people? Or is she kind of stiff and wonkish?

SLAGLE: You know, Michelle is very warm, very personable, affable. She's emphatic. She's an emphatic speaker. She's warm and friendly. She's just the type of speaker who can draw you in. She speaks with passion.

SLAGLE: Did you go -- yes, you can kind of see that. But did you go below the surface and -- I know you did, because you're good -- so when you peeled back the exterior, what did you find? Is she tough as nails? Is she running that household? How much input is she giving to Barack in this campaign?

SLAGLE: Well, in speaking with her, she just seems like a classy person, very personable and sincere.

And when I asked her what her biggest life lesson was, she said that she learned to be very kind to people. So that was important to her. She's a kind person, and someone I would like to have as a friend, so...

HARRIS: Really?

SLAGLE: Very together.

HARRIS: Oh, Dana, you got too close to your subject here. You know you did. All right, was there anything that you learned about her in the course of this interview, preparing for this cover story, that you weren't aware of before you met her?

SLAGLE: Yes, I learned that she wants to be just like a regular person. She views herself as just like the common, ordinary woman, that she goes to the grocery store. She has to go and buy Downy and Comet just like other women do. And she said that people are surprised to know that about her.

Also, on a personal level, she loves to listen to music. She likes Stevie Wonder, things like that. I didn't know that about her. She loves family.

HARRIS: Just Stevie Wonder, anyone else?

SLAGLE: That's her favorite singer.

HARRIS: What's on the Michelle Obama iPod?

SLAGLE: She didn't mention her iPod.

HARRIS: Oh, she didn't?

SLAGLE: She kept that secret. No.

HARRIS: I have to ask you, how does she manage to do everything she is doing right now? She is juggling this campaign...

SLAGLE: Yes.

HARRIS: ... this family, and you know, there is an ins inference when we talk about juggling; there's always the possibility that something could be dropped. How is she managing to do everything she's trying to do right now?

SLAGLE: Well, being the busy woman that she is, first and foremost, she says efficiency. She has to be efficient. And then secondly, she also makes sure she exercises and eats well. That helps her to maintain energy on this rigorous schedule that she has. And she also utilizes resources. You know, she gets help from her mom. So she's glad to have that. And she also makes sure she only makes day trips. That way when she finishes her day, she's at home to kiss her girls good night, and at the same time she's there to get them off to school in the morning.

And then the other thing that she does, she has two BlackBerrys, one for the campaign and one for work, and that helps her to stay ahead of the game and keep track of both responsibilities.

HARRIS: You know, I wonder, what is her role on the stump? Is she just merely echoing the policies of Barack or what? What is her role out there? What's her job?

SLAGLE: I think she's speaking passionately about things that concerns her as far as women's issues, as far as family. Family is very important to her. She emphasized that it's very important that her daughters do not feel uncomfortable. She wants her daughters to feel happy. And at the same time, she wants other families to be happy and comfortable.

One thing that she spoke about was the plight that women have. Many women are working, taking care of families, children. And by the time they finish with that, there's no time left for themselves. And women suffer. They suffer silently. And that -- when women suffer, the family suffers. So she's very concerned about family. She speaks about these things, and education, and health care, and child care. When a woman has to take off work to care for her sick child, you know, she may lose a day's pay or have to use her own personal time. So these are issues she's concerned about.

HARRIS: Dana Slagle, the -- this is on the cover, right, on all the newsstands right now?

SLAGLE: On newsstands.

HARRIS: Can't wait. Michelle Obama, there it is. There's the profile. Dana Slagle is the Associate Editor of "Jet" magazine.

Dana, good to see you. Thank you.

SLAGLE: You, too. Thank you very much.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: What drove wrestler Chris Benoit to kill his wife, son and himself? A doctor who examined Benoit's brain offers a possible explanation this morning. He told ABC's "Good Morning America" the wrestler suffered brain damage from multiple concussions. Dr. Julian Bales (ph) says that could have been a leading cause of the tragedy. He says the damage is similar to that found in Alzheimer's patients.

I want to get more now on the Chris Benoit story. Let's bring in CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and CNN investigative correspondent Drew Griffin. He's joining us now with more as well.

I want to start with you, Drew. When you had a chance to watch some of this, this morning what did you think? This Is the first time that we have heard from Michael Benoit, Chris Benoit's father.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I think what it really shows is a father looking for answers in how his son, who obviously he loved, could have done what he did. I mean, Chris Benoit committed a horrific crime, and so the father, Michael Benoit, was looking for answers, trying anything he could to find a reason, other than perhaps steroids, which was the first thing that came up, and then we learned he was on a pain killer and an anti-anxiety medication as well.

But what was the answer to why you had this horrific crime of killing his wife and child and then killing himself? And I'm not sure that we got that answer this morning.

COLLINS: Yes, I'm not sure, either. When it makes that leap to the violence. And it's a good idea to have Sanjay Gupta come in to us now, too, as well.

And, Sanjay, we talked a little bit earlier about whether or not this new study coming out from Dr. Bails actually makes that leap, makes the leap from having this condition from all of the concussions that he had leading to dementia, then leading to acts of violence.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's very hard, as you and Drew are both saying, to draw the cause and effect. What we do know, though, some interesting things, is he does have brain changes that are pretty profound for someone that's of his age. They don't appear to be due to steroid use. So those are two things we can say a little bit more definitively now after having looked at some of these slides.

Let me see, I think we may have some of those slides. I want to show you what a normal brain looks like and what some of the abnormal brain looks like. This is what it would be normally. These are neurons, certain cells that sort of transmit signals within the brain.

What they were looking for specifically was evidence of some sort of brain damage as a result of repeated concussions, and I think we -- you can see there. And you know, to the untrained eye, it's hard to tell a difference there, but you're seeing a lot of those clumps, those brown clumps basically that you see in there, those are proteins that are deposited. You see similar sort of things in people who have severe dementia. They are more the clumps sort of closer up. That's abnormal. What exactly that means, it's a little bit hard to say, but it's often seen in people who've had repeated concussions, and that is associated with dementia. It's associated with some of the problems that people had in terms of depression.

Possibly, according to Julian Bales, who'd done research on football players, possibly even linked to suicide.

Again, as Drew said, I think absolutely correctly, is that drawing the cause and effect, we may never know. This is an abnormal brain, and it's especially abnormal in a 40-year-old man.

CHETRY: Quickly, Sanjay, before I get back to drew, because I want to ask him about the type of style of wrestling which Chris Benoit did in that ring, which, who knows, may have had a sort of result to all of this. When you talk about concussion, I mean, you're talking about basically bruising the brain over and over again. There have been other professional athlete who have had several concussions, and yet not led to violent acts.

GUPTA: Very good point. I mean, this is not saying that all of people who've had concussions are going to exhibit vicious or violent behavior necessarily.

But we do know, for example, that a second concussion is exponentially worse than a first concussion. We learn a lot about, for example, return to field sort of examinations. How do you know when to return a player to the football field or to the wrestling rink or something like that? There's a lot of studies on that. He had, according to him, more concussions than he could remember. So he had several over the years. And one thing we do know, is that they become exponentially worse. So it's not a linear problem; it's sort of an exponential problem, and it gets compounded over the years.

COLLINS: And, Drew, as far as the type of fighting, the style of wrestling, the entertainment that Chris Benoit provided, I mean, he was a headbutter.

GRIFFIN: That's exactly -- he was a small guy. You know, he was big in muscle, small in stature, so his head was always in the way. And you know, this is fake, it's scripted, but there's still taking hits, and he's using his head when he wrestled as a weapon, whether it be against another person or like you see jumping off here. I mean, when his head hits the mat, his head hits the mat, even though this is all scripted and fake...

COLLINS: Sure.

GRIFFIN: ... he's still taking that hit. When what I don't understand from the results this morning -- and maybe Dr. Gupta could explain this -- is the crime. I want to remind people of the crime. This was over a period of time. It was planned. He tied his wife's legs and arms together. He wrapped her up in some kind of blanket, and then he choked her. And then hours later, we're told, he went and strangled his own son. And then, even later, is when he went down into the basement of his house, posted a few things on the Internet and then hung himself. Even if you go to Alzheimer's rage, from what I know of, or steroid rage, none of that seems to apply in this case, I believe. Is that right, Sanjay?

GUPTA: Well I think it certainly makes an argument against the steroid rage, which tend to be very impulsive and very at-the-moment sort of rage. An Alzheimer's rage, I don't know if there's such a term necessarily, but you know, people who have sort of this onset of dementia, I would have expected him to have more symptoms earlier than this, you know, forgetfulness, problems profound looking at the brain. Again, you know, drawing the cause and effect between that and violent or vicious attack, I don't know that we'd ever do that, but I would have expected him to have him to have more problems in the years and certainly months preceding any of these events.

COLLINS: Yes, and we didn't really see that, because at least people that we've talked to, you know, they were all really surprised that this had happened. So it didn't seem to be a history of that kind.

Thanks to the both of you, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and our investigative reporter, Drew Griffin. Thanks, guys.

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COLLINS: Authorities say attacks were imminent. Three terror suspects arrested. They're accused of plotting to bomb American targets. We'll tell you where.

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COLLINS: Some new information to us here at CNN. We want to get straight to our correspondent, John Zarrella, who is standing by. John, what do you have? Something on Manuel Noriega?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Heidi. That's exactly Right.

What we have just learned is that his attorney, Frank Rubino, has filed an emergency motion to stay the extradition of the former Panamanian dictator to France.

Now within the last month or so, we'd learned that the French government had asked for Manuel Noriega to be extra indicted there. He faces up to 10 years in prison on charges of money laundering, drug money laundering through French banks. The attorneys representing Noriega had said, look, he's a prisoner of war. That was his status when he came here. He can't be extradited to France. He should be sent back to Panama.

The bottom line is the Panamanian government doesn't want him. He's scheduled to be released on his U.S. charges by the end of this week, possibly as early as Friday. The concern on the part of Noriega's attorneys was that he would be spirited out of this country in the overnight hours and sent to France, because a federal judge has ruled here, William Hoovler (ph), ruled that, in fact, he could be extradited to France. So that's the reason for this emergency motion, trying to fight that extradition to keep him here, at least until they can get another court to take a look at this.

But the bottom line right now is that Manuel Noriega could be released as early as Friday, and again, his attorneys were concerned that he would be flown out under the cover of darkness into France to face those charges of money laundering there. So a last-ditch attempt now to keep the former Panamanian dictator here in this country -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, thanks for that. CNN's John Zarrella on Manuel Noriega. Thank you, John.

HARRIS: So how does the Air Force mistakenly load nuclear warheads on to a bomber like this and then fly it across country? A live report from the Pentagon, coming up for you in the NEWSROOM.

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