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American Morning

Lowering the Bar?; Al Gore Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Aired October 12, 2007 - 07:00   ET

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

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, lowering the bar? Convicts, high school dropouts, new questions about how the Army is filling the ranks on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And what impact that might have on the military years down the road.

Good morning. Welcome back. Thanks for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING, Friday, the 12th of October. I'm John Roberts.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us.

Just in this morning, Al Gore awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this morning. He shares it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their efforts to raise awareness about climate change, and for laying the foundation to do something about it.

Well, here's the announcement that came earlier today in Oslo, Norway.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLE DANBOLT MJOS, CHMN. NORWEGIAN NOBEL CMTE.: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared in two equal parts between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, and Albert Arnold Al Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about manmade climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: John Dickerson is a CNN political analysts and chief political correspondent for slate.com. He joins us right now to talk more about the political impact, if any , from this award received by Al Gore.

Thanks for being with us this morning, John.

JOHN DICKERSON, CN CNN POL. ANALYST: Sure.

CHETRY: So whether or not he decides to use this maybe to decide to step in, throw his hat in the ring, run for president or just to have more political power in general. What do you think the impact of this award will be on Al Gore? DICKERSON: Well, the impact on Al Gore is clearly he feels vindicated. The earlier report this morning, at least from one of his advisers I talked to, is that this won't change his presidential ambitions. That's hard to say. We'll see what kind of groundswell comes out of it.

But the view this morning anyway is this will be energy can he just channel back into this cause he cares so much about, and so we'll probably see him try to use this to continue talking about this issue.

CHETRY: You know, and of course this decision is not without its critics, as often is the case, when the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. But there have been some critics who say that the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" is filled with mistakes. A judge in Britain, in fact, just ruled that Al Gore's climate change film has nine errors, and you have the author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist," who said today that awarding this prize to Al Gore cannot be seen as anything other than a political statement. Is it a political statement?

DICKERSON: Well, I don't know. As you quite rightly point out, there's always some controversy about the awarding of this prize, and I suppose you could argue that the loose charter for the prize has to do with standing armies, and this might not be in that context.

But you know, it seems to me that the prize committee can make up whatever -- you know, they're the ones who have the last word on the issue. And so, yes, it will certainly be seen in a political contest. But it seems to me Gore and the movement he's starting and pushing he's got the upper hand in that argument.

CHETRY: All right, John Dickerson, good to see you. Thanks.

DICKERSON: Thank you.

(NEWSBREAK)

CHETRY: It's time to check in with our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents for other stories new this morning. You know, last week we told but workplace asthma. Could there be triggers in your office place that actually cause you to have breathing problems. Well, now it turns out that cleaning your house could also be making you sick. New research shows that common household spray cleaners, room fresheners can actually cause asthma in adults.

Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us live from Atlanta with new details on this.

Hi, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran.

Kiran, these are products that you use, that I use, that we all use every day. So this is of high concern for a lot of people, because what this study did is that they looked at people just like you and me, people who clean their houses and who use these products, and they followed them for nine years. They didn't start out with asthma, but what they found is that some people ended up with asthma,; and the more you use these products, the more likely you were to end up with asthma.

In fact, if you used three different products, three different cleaning products, one or more days per week, you were more likely to end up with asthma. And it was a very simple calculus -- the more products you use, the more days you use them, the more likely you were to end up with asthma.

Now the manufacturers, the folks who make these products, have said in the past when studies like this have come out, they say our products are evaluated by state and federal agencies. They do not contain chemicals that can trigger asthma, and in fact they say our products can help fight asthma, because they clean up things like dust mites that trigger asthma -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Are there certain types of cleaners, or brands of cleaners, that seem to be worse than others?

COHEN: You know what, in fact, there were certain types of cleaners that seemed to trigger asthma more than others, and those were sprays, things like furniture sprays, things that you would spray on glass to clean glass, and the reason for that really is pretty simple. When you spray something you get all of these little droplets that go out into the air and so that can, you can inhale those and it bothers you. The liquid cleaners were less likely to be a problem.

My husband did not believe me when I told him I was feeling sick after cleaning the bathrooms, but now I have medical proof.

CHETRY: There you go.

COHEN: Thank you.

CHETRY: Elizabeth, good to see you, as always, thank you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

(NEWSBREAK)

ROBERTS: Filling the ranks -- surprising news this morning about what the Army is doing to meet recruitment goals. Convicts and high school dropouts on the front lines? We're talking with the general in charge of recruitment. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

ROBERTS: The U.S. Army will meet its recruitment goal for 2007, but it has not been easy. The Army is enlisting more recruits with criminal records and fewer recruits who have high school diplomas.

Joining us now is Major General Bostick from the Pentagon.

General Bostick, increased number of recruits with prior criminal records that you have to grant special exceptions, so-called waivers to, 18 percent this year, compared to 15 percent the year before. Are you lowering standards to meet your recruiting goals?

MAJ. GEN. THOMAS BOSTICK, U.S. ARMY RECRUITING COMMAND: Well, first, John, thanks for this opportunity. And I want to congratulate the Army, and really the nation, for the fact that 175,000 young men and women have joined the United States Army, the active Army, the Reserve component and the National Guard, so that's a great tribute, and we ought to be very proud of those young men and women.

Now when we look at waivers, yes, it has gone up from about 15 percent that need waivers to 18 percent this year.

ROBERTS: Right.

BOSTICK: And if you break that down, a very small number, about 1.5 percent are what we call serious misconduct. Eight percent are for medical reasons. About 10 percent for misdemeanors. The misdemeanors are small offenses, driving past curfew, joyriding, false identification card. And then we have about 1.4 percent that are for drug and alcohol reasons.

ROBERTS: Right.

BOSTICK: But the serious misconduct waivers are done by general officer, like myself or my deputy.

ROBERTS: Right. So you're saying that that's 1.5 percent. David Chu, who's the undersecretary of defense for personnel, was kind of joking about this idea yesterday that drug offenses constitute a lot of these waivers. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CHU, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR PERSONNEL: One of the questions they ask about is, did you ever use marijuana? If I remember correctly -- correct me if I'm wrong -- in the Marine Corps if you answer yes about one use, about one use, requires a waiver. That's a pretty tough standard. Not to be cheeky about this, but apply that standard to our legislative overseers, a significant fraction would need waivers to join the United States military.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: I mean, you know, general, it's always a convenient joke to say, who in Congress would be able to pass this standard? But the fact is that some people are saying that this is a recipe for disaster. Is this going to be a long-term concern that more and more people have some sort of record requiring a waiver, whether it be a serious crime or whether it be even just a misdemeanor?

BOSTICK: Well, it is a concern. Less than three out of 10 young men and women in the age group that we're looking at primarily, the 17 to 24 year olds, less than three out of 10 qualify to serve the United States army. They don't qualify for physical, mental and moral reasons. So it's more than just marijuana use, drug use. It's the education in America. It's...

ROBERTS: Let's take a look at the education statistics. Your goal is 90 percent of recruits would have a high school diploma. In 2003, 94 percent of recruits did. That might have been a high-water mark. 2007 that number was down to 79. It seems as though you are lowering your standards on that front as well.

BOSTICK: Well, what I'd say is we reflect society. The Army really does reflect society. We're a microcosm of society. And when you look at where high school graduation rates are today, depending on which study you look at, they're somewhere between 70 and 80 percent. Now our goal is still 90 percent. But for every one of those soldiers that come in with a GED, we're confident that they are fully qualified to serve the United States Army. And when you talk to the commanders in the field, and I think they are most important. I deployed with the First Cavalry Division in Iraq. I served with many of the soldiers that received waivers, that have GEDs, and they're doing quite well for us. If you look at aptitude...

ROBERTS: General, one quick question if we could, because we're just about out of time. here. There's also an interesting shift in demographic as well. African-American recruits in the last year, 15 percent, down from 23 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, Hispanics up to 16 percent from 12 percent in 2001. Why the shift in that demographic?

BOSTICK: Well, it's difficult to say. We see the shift. It has dropped, just as you say. It is now on the uprise. Last year it was about 15 percent of what we recruited were African-Americans. And it's important to note that that represents the country. The country of African-Americans population is about 14.5 percent, so we're recruiting at about that rate. We would like to grow, and what it's going to take is continued role models, continued emphasis in our schools about the opportunities, the great opportunities to serve their nation, get their education while they're in the military and be proud of the service, and becoming Army strong. It's a physical, it's a mental, it's an emotional strength that we provide in the United States Army.

ROBERTS: Well, Major General Thomas Bostick, good luck as you start recruiting for the next year. Appreciate you being with us this morning. Good to talk to you.

BOSTICK: John, good talking to you. This is a challenge for the nation, not just for the Army. It's a challenge for the nation. So we look for the nation to stand up and serve.

ROBERTS: It is. Thank you, sir. Good to see you -- Kiran.

CHETRY: One other hate message found at Colombia University. Police found a swastika in a men's bathroom on campus. It comes just two days after a black professor found a noose hanging outside of her office. Police plan to review security tapes to determine who was responsible and will even conduct DNA testing on the noose.

Well, a lot of us get tickets at concerts and games through Ticketmaster, but some are saying enough to those hefty fees that could add even a 40 percent premium to the face value of tickets. The complaints are coming in from Congress and from the performers. So is anything being done about it? We'll take a look just ahead.

ROBERTS: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, exclusive, the woman behind the airport surveillance tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Carol must have been so desperate, so desperate, and in my heart what I believe is that it was a cry for help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: A CNN exclusive, the first sitdown interview with the family of Carol Gotbaum, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Twenty-six minutes after the hour now. Stephanie Elam in for Ali Velshi, "Minding Your Business" this morning. Think some members of concert went to a concert last summer?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And they were, like, mad because they bought it over Ticketmaster, and like look at all these other fees we have in here. So we're taking a look at how much you have to pay on top of it. And when consumers buy a ticket from Ticketmaster, they're more annoyed about the fees than anything else. So let's take a look at what we're talking about here. Ticketmaster obviously there's a face value. That's determined by the promoter, the venue or artist. Then there's teh convenience charge. That covers the cost of providing tickets at local outlets, staffing call centers, ongoing Internet system maintenance as well.

Buyers have to pay the fee no matter how you get your tickets. Then on top of that there's an order-processing fee. That's different. That's if you're taking and maintaining the order. That's what Ticketmaster is saying it's for, arranging for shipping and coordinating with Will Call. That's another thing. Of course, if you say that you want them sent by UPS or FedEx, that's another charge on top of that.

So all of this comes in together. There could even be a facility charge, but that goes to the venue not ticketmaster. So let's say you have say $35 ticket. That's the base charge there. Convenience charge of $8.35. And you add in a processing fee of $3.15. And if you get an eTicket, $1.75. That could be a $48 ticket. That's up almost 40 percent. So people are looking to see what they can do to stop this. Artists as well have been mad about it because they're restricted on where they can go.

ROBERTS: Is there a fellow named surcharge in there as well?

ELAM: Surcharge! Surcharge! Yes, it's all in there, artists going after them. And on top of it, a lot of people saying, how can I go around it, go directly to the venues and other Web sites are popping up, but they're not nearly as strong as Ticketmaster is in their venue agreements.

CHETRY: Exactly. All right, Stephanie, thank you.

And coming up now, a story that you can't miss. It's a CNN exclusive, and it's shedding new light on the moments at the Sky Harbor Airport when Carol Ann Gotbaum died in police custody.

ROBERTS: We're going to have the very first sitdown with Gotbaum's family. This one you'll want to stick around for. We'll have that and the headlines when AMERICAN MORNING returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. There's a look at New York City this morning. It's 56 degrees, a little rainy, dreary out there today. Only going up to 60 for this Friday. What a way to start the weekend. It is Friday, October 12th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.

ROBERTS: And good morning to you, I'm John Roberts. We've been blessed up here with such great weather for so long, finally. It couldn't last forever.

CHETRY: I feel we need the rain anyway.

Well, we have a CNN exclusive for you now, 911 tapes released from the night that Carol Gotbaum died in custody at the Phoenix Airport. Her husband, Noah, frantically calling airport emergency workers, trying to warn them that his wife was suicidal and alcoholic but neither the police nor the 911 dispatcher would tell him that his wife was already dead.

(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)

COMMUNICATIONS: Communications, this is Mark.

GEHLBACH: Rick Gehlbach.

COMMUNICATIONS: Hey, I've got Noah Gotbaum, the subject's husband, on the line.

GEHLBACH: OK.

COMMUNICATIONS: Looking for her. OK. You going to talk to him?

GEHLBACH: Uh, you know, I want somebody who's professional to be talking to him and not just blow it to him over the phone because I don't know how he'll react.

(END AUDIOTAPE)

CHETRY: AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho has been breaking news on this case. And she joins us now with more about the family's reaction. Hi, Alina.

ALINA CHO, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kiran. You know, when you put this all in context it's extraordinary when you listen to the audio tapes but we should also mention that the family of Carol Gotbaum is speaking exclusively to CNN. We're going to get to that in just a moment. But first, what you are about to hear is the desperate voice of Noah Gotbaum frantically trying to get in touch with police to tell them his wife was emotionally disturbed and needed to be treated with kid gloves. What he didn't know at the time was that Carol, his beloved wife, had already died, shackled and alone in a holding cell. In fact, by the time her husband was calling, she had already been dead an hour.

(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)

MR. GOTBAUM: They're waiting for her down in Cottonwood at...

COMMUNICATIONS: OK.

MR. GOTBAUM: ... at the rehab center down there...

COMMUNICATIONS: OK.

MR. GOTBAUM: She is suicidal. Obviously, she has been... alcohol abusive...

COMMUNICATIONS: Uh-hum...

MR. GOTBAUM: But she is also in deep depression and the police have to understand that they're not dealing with someone who's been just drinking on flight and acting rowdy. That's not what's going on here.

COMMUNICATIONS: OK. Yeah, I think somebody talked tot the other dispatcher on that earlier and we passed along that information.

MR. GOTBAUM: Well, but, again, I have not heard anything back.

COMMUNICATIONS: Yeah. I don't know. You know, unfortunately.

MR. GOTBAUM: It concerns me, Mike, that they have not called me. That they're just dealing with her, that she is all alone.

COMMUNICATIONS: Uh-hum.

MR. GOTBAUM: OK. Because she should not be.

(END AUDIOTAPE)

CHO: Keep in mind the airport and police both knew Carol Gotbaum was already dead but they weren't telling Noah. Phoenix police tells CNN that's because proper protocol is to finish their preliminary investigation before notifying next of kin. Now, also this morning for the first time, the family of Noah Gotbaum is speaking out extensively about who she was, what led to her alcoholism and deep depression and how they believe she was manhandled by police.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DOUG MILLER, CAROL GOTBAUM'S BROTHER-IN-LAW: I think the manner in which she was treated was inhumane, you know. She was shackled like a criminal, and she was really just crying out for help.

CHO: when you see that surveillance video, what goes through your mind?

MILLER: What I think is that Carol must have been so desperate, so desperate and in my heart what I believe is that it was a cry for help. She believed she needed to get onto that airplane for the sake of her children, to get help for the struggle she was going through, and she was prepared to do that at any cost.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: Police have maintained Gotbaum accidentally strangled herself while trying to escape from her handcuffs. How she died really is still a mystery. Kiran, we're going to have much more tonight on "Anderson Cooper 360," including news about those friends that were supposed to meet them at Phoenix Airport, it turns out, Kiran, they never got the message and there was never any expectation that they would meet them at the airport.

CHETRY: That's another unbelievable twist because a lot of people were asking should she have been alone in the state she was in? Alina, great job, thank you.

CHO: You bet.

ROBERTS: 35 minutes after the hour. Breaking news this morning, Al Gore awarded the Nobel Peace prize. He is sharing it with the Intergovernmental panel on climate change, that's a United Nations organization. They are recognized for informing the world about climate change and then laying the foundations for doing something about it. Al Gore, though was a controversial choice. A British judge had just ruled that errors in his film "An Inconvenient Truth" make it unfit for showing in British classrooms at least without a caveat. Mary Jordan is the London bureau chief for "The Washington Post." She joins us now. So just how much of a controversy has this created in Britain there, Mary?

MARY JORDAN, "THE WASHINGTON POST," LONDON BUREAU CHIEF: Well, really it's more of in the details. The judge actually said that Gore's film builds a powerful case that humans are causing climate change and that urgent and inconvenient means are need to combat it, but he said if the British government's plan to distribute the film to 3 million students here is to go ahead, the teachers have to point out nine errors, so it's really more of a little, in the details, not in the big scope. And the errors are things --

ROBERTS: Yes, the errors are things like --

JORDAN: The kind of errors -- sorry.

ROBERTS: He claims that sea levels will rise by up to 20 feet in the near future. The judge ruled that's not going to happen any time soon, only after millennia. Pacific atolls had to be evacuated, no evidence of that, the judge said. The Gulf Stream will shut down according to "An Inconvenient Truth," the judge said very unlikely that that's going to happen. These are some pretty significant claims that he makes in this movie

JORDAN: He uses some strong words. First of all, this case is a very oddly timed. It has nothing to do with the Nobel Prize today, but it comes up, because a local school official, who had two students in the schools, didn't believe the film. He didn't want his kids to see it, and he said it was, "sentimental mush." And so it went to a court, because the judge, who doesn't have an expertise, but he had both sides come to him and weigh the evidence, and they did spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees and research to look at case by case.

Now, the Gore people who are pretty darned happy today, said, look, there were thousands of facts presented in this film that did win an Oscar and now has been a key thing about winning the Nobel prize but you know what? The judge took issue with a handful of them. One of the most interesting ones was that Gore says during the film that there's a new study that shows that polar bears are drowning for the first time because they have to swim up to 60 miles to find packed ice. So the judge said, well he gave weeks for people to find these studies and the only study they could find was one that said four polar bears died but it was because of a storm.

ROBERTS: Do you think the fact that he has been awarded the Nobel Prize will tamp down this controversy at all?

JORDAN: Yes. I mean, I think that no one's going to rain on his parade today. I thought it was interesting what the Gore camp was saying, they said we're gratified that the judge has agreed with our main thesis here, and interestingly enough, Gore is sharing the prize today with the U.N. panel of climate experts.

ROBERTS: Right.

JORDAN: It was the U.N. panel that the judge used to say, you know what, Mr. Gore, you're not agreeing with the U.N. panel, and this was what he was using to talk about the nine errors. But I think today, it's a big day for Gore and a big day for climate change.

ROBERTS: Certainly is.

JORDAN: And the British government is very happy that 3 million kids there are going to see Gore's film.

ROBERTS: I'm sure they are. But there's irony in everything. Mary Jordan, the London bureau chief for "The Washington Post." Thanks for being with us this morning. Good to see you.

So, what do you think about all of this? Did Al Gore deserve to win the Nobel Peace prize? Cast your vote at CNN.com/am. We're going to have the results throughout the morning.

Right now here's what the tally looks like. 77 percent of you say yes, he does deserve the honor. 23 percent of you say no, those numbers really haven't changed for about the last hour. Keep voting. Let's see how it ends up when we go off the air in about an hour and a half.

CHETRY: And FEMA preparing for disaster, by making so-called base plans for a handful of calamities, including devastating earthquakes in San Francisco and St. Louis, and also plans for a category 5 hurricane to hit South Florida or Hawaii. Now, FEMA has been taken to task for not having disaster plans in place. It's been left up to the states in the past.

Recovery operations on the sky diving plane that crashed in Washington State will begin later today. It could, though, be months before investigators find out what caused that crash. The Cessna crashed Sunday killing all ten people on board.

ROBERTS: A rescue at sea tops your "Quick Hits" now. A navy pilot rushed to the hospital after being pulled from the Atlantic Ocean. He ejected before his fighter jet went down, that was some 70 miles off of the coast of Virginia. No word on what the problem was with the jet. The pilot's injuries are said to be non-life threatening.

And a 450-year-old discovery in Pensacola, Florida. Researchers dove Thursday for a closer look at a shipwreck from 1559 at the bottom of Pensacola bay. The first ship was found 15 years ago and as many as five others could still be down there.

How is it that events from nearly a century ago are stirring up big problems today? Find out what's really going on in the passionate debate with Turkey, Armenia and the U.S. Congress. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. Snoop dog on trash duty. That tops your "Quick Hits" now. The rapper has to spend 160 hours picking up trash at a park in California. It's part of a sentence for carrying an illegal weapon. He also got three years of probation and had to pay a $10,000 fine.

British media reports saying that Paul McCartney and Heather Mills may be nearing a divorce settlement. They appeared for about seven hours in a London court Thursday. Obviously, that's not video of that there. They were obviously at an event together there. There is speculation that the eventual agreement could cost McCartney between $40 million and $100 million. The 65-year-old McCartney and 39-year-old Mills have a 3-year-old daughter, Beatrice.

A former psychiatric patient who sent Uma Thurman e-mails and letters was indicted in New York yesterday on stalking as well as other charges. 35-year-old Jack Jordan arrested outside of Thurman's Greenwich Village home last week. He was jailed on $10,000 bail. He's accused of stalking the film star for two years.

43 minutes past the hour. Reynolds Wolf in for Rob Marciano. He is on the CNN weather desk today tracking extreme weather. We're still looking at some storms in the northeast.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Oh, it really are. It's really picking up where it left off yesterday afternoon, and yesterday evening. We had scattered showers at Long Island. We even had a tornado warning at one point and some heavy rainfall through Connecticut. That's going to continue this morning, nothing severe at this time but certainly some scattered showers in New York, northwards to new city. You see that rain continuing to fall.

I would expect by midday and into the afternoon, you may have a few breaks here and there but still keep the umbrellas handy also for the drive home in the evening you'll need it as far north as Portland, Manchester, you may see some scattered showers, Boston, most of the rain is offshore for the time being but later on you may be dealing with these rain drops as well. And the reason why we're seeing all these precipitation is due to this big "L," not really the "L" itself but rather what it represents, an area of low pressure pulling in a lot of moisture in from the Atlantic. It's wrapping around. It's going to cause delays in many spots, mainly in Boston and also bigger airports in New York. It's going to be a wait for you as well. That's the latest on forecast. Kiran, let's send it back to you.

CHETRY: All right. Reynolds, thanks.

ROBERTS: Coming up to 45 minutes after the hour. What is really behind the war of words that is threatening U.S. relations with Turkey? Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the United States, all over a vote in the U.S. house on something that happened nearly a century ago. A house committee voted to call the killing of thousands of Armenians genocide. The vote shows the power of Armenian Americans who have long pushed for this resolution and also the fragility of U.S. relations in the region.

Turkey is a friend of the United States, in the Muslim world. It borders northern Iraq and there was a concern about supply routes, access to Incirlik Airbase and increasing tension between the Turkey and the Kurds. There's an awful lot of man and materiel that go over that border between Turkey and Iraq on the eastern side there, stuff that's very crucial to the fighting of this Iraq war. CNN state department correspondent Zain Verjee is following all of these for us. Zain, is this house committee on foreign relations voted Wednesday, 27-21 to approve this resolution. What do you expect is going to happen now because Speaker Pelosi is vowing to bring this to a vote in the full house?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN, STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's not clear what will ultimately happen. It may pass ultimately on the full house floor. What the administration is doing, John, is really reaching out, working the phones, really hard, talking to congressmen, trying to get their support not to pass this resolution. The administration is also telling Turkey, look, it's not us. This is Congress. This is a different arm of government, but the Turks are looking at the whole situation here, John, and they're not making a distinction. They just see it as the good friend and ally of the U.S., hurting them. ROBERTS: And if this resolution is passed, I don't know what the senate would do about it but what would Turkey's next move be, if the house does approve this?

VERJEE: Well, that's an area of big concern for the United States. The first thing that could happen is that it could open up a new front in the Iraq war. The Turkish parliament is set to vote on a resolution maybe even as early as this weekend on whether or not to authorize Turkish troops into northern Iraq. Basically, they've been itching to go into northern Iraq to go after this Kurdish separatist group called the PKK but has launched all of these cross border attacks into Turkey, killing a lot of Turks.

The PKK, John, is to Turkey what Al-Qaeda is to the U.S.. So they really want to get these guys. They've been frustrated. They say the U.S. hasn't done enough to help them. The other thing Turkey could do is to cut off air space that the U.S. military uses to go over and into Iraq. They've done that before to France and to Canada, when they passed a similar resolution. And the last thing they could do is just cut off the use of the Incirlik Airbase, as you mentioned, is really critical. 77 percent of U.s. cargo and I think it's something a third of fuel that the U.S. military uses in Iraq goes through that particular airbase. So, they could really hurt the U.S. The U.S. is saying, you know, almost pleading actually don't do anything. You're our ally, let's try and work this out.

ROBERTS: Zain, really quickly, all of this happened, this incident at least, back at World War I, more than 90 years ago.

VERJEE: Yes.

ROBERTS: Why is it so important to bring it up right now?

VERJEE: Well, it's been out there for a while. The Armenian- American population in this country is very powerful. It's having an effect clearly, and we spoke to one Turkish official who said this, he blamed it squarely on the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying she chose a couple of thousand Armenian-Americans over 72 million Turks and 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. It's her choice.

ROBERTS: Zain Verjee for us this morning at the State Department. Obviously, we're going to hear a lot more about this. Kiran.

CHETRY: Thanks, John.

Well, a teenager accused of plotting a Columbine-style massacre at a high school. Police are saying they found guns, knives and hand grenades in his bedroom and there are some new questions this morning about the teen's parents, what they knew about this potentially deadly plot. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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ROBERTS: If you've just joined us, here is a look at today's hot top headlines. New this morning. Al Gore awarded the Nobel Peace prize this morning. He shares the prize with the intergovernmental panel on climate change for their efforts to raise awareness about climate change and for laying the foundation to do something about it. We're going to have a live report on Al Gore's environmental impact. That's coming up at the top of the hour.

A ceremony this morning to honor the 202 people killed in nightclub bombings in Bali five years ago today. The ceremony was held in the gardens of the Australian consulate there. 88 of the victims were Australian. Three Islamic militants are now on death row in Indonesia for their role in the bombings.

A veteran Ohio congressman set to retire. Republican Ralph Regula is expected to announce today that he's leaving the house at the end of his term in January 2009. Regula is 82 years old. He has served an incredible 18 terms. He will be the 11th House republican who is not seeking re-election.

One of the Jena six, Michael Bell back in jail today serving 18 months. He was set free after his conviction for beating a white classmate was overturned but now a judge says that fight violates probation on an earlier conviction.

Conagra foods officially recalling all frozen pot pies under the Banquet and generic store brand names. The chicken and turkey pot pies were potentially linked to Salmonella cases nationwide. Beef pot pies are also part of the recall but according to the company they have not been linked to Salmonella. Conagra said customers should throw the pot pies away and send the package to the company for a complete refund. Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, a 14-year-old boy in a Philadelphia suburb is accused of plotting an attack on a local high school. Police found an arsenal pretty much in his bedroom. 30 bb guns, swords, knives, hand grenades, a bomb-making book, videos of the 1999 Columbine school attack and violence field notebooks. All of it in his bedroom. Police also found a .9-millimeter assault rifle in the house without ammunition. The boy's mother reportedly brought him that rifle recently at a gun show. Joining me now, former prosecutor and AMERICAN MORNING'S legal contributor, Sunny Hostin. You know, the first things a lot of people ask is are the parents in trouble?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN: They are in trouble. You know, if you listen to what the county district attorney was saying, he said that they were looking at straw purchaser violations. What a straw purchaser is someone that purchases a gun or anything really for someone that shouldn't have it and that's a felony.

CHETRY: And a big problem with this in Pennsylvania, specifically in the Philadelphia area.

HOSTIN: Absolutely because of the murder rate there and it's a felony violation of the gun control act. And so she's really looking at possibly a felony charge. I mean, it's very reminiscent of what happened at Columbine because those kids got the gun through a straw purchaser, one of their older friends purchased a gun for them, and so this is a very, very serious thing. CHETRY: And people asked the same question then, how could the parents not have known they were planning this. Now, when it comes to the 14-year-old boy, like we said, this attack was thwarted before it happened. What is he looking at?

HOSTIN: He's looking at, at least reportedly making terrorist threats, criminal solicitation, weapons possession, because he certainly had an arsenal as you mentioned earlier and possession and manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction, because we hear that there may have been bombs as well. So he's looking at very serious things. His mother is not looking at those charges, and I think some people think that, but she is looking at her own set of charges for her conduct.

CHETRY: Let's switch to another thing, there was a new government study that came out. They talked about deaths while in custody, suspects who died in police custody over a two-year period. The headlines seemed to say, you know, over 2,000 suspects died in custody nationwide nationwide. When you read the fine print, 40 million arrests it is makes u up 1:10,000 of 1 percent. The numbers though were interesting as to how they died.

HOSTIN: Exactly and that's a very important statistic that really our law enforcement officers are well trained and it is rare that an arrest-related death occurs. However, if you look at the arrest related deaths that did occur, over 55 percent of the deaths are law enforcement homicide, officers having to defend themselves against arrestees that have weapons or attempting to flee. 13 percent involved drug and alcohol intoxication which is I think perhaps what we saw in Arizona recently, making front page news, so it is rare what happened in Arizona, and it's rare for an arrest-related death to occur.

CHETRY: And also interesting they say in those cases when there were homicides in custody, 80 percent of those times officers say they were threatened by a weapon, it is such a balancing act when you're making an arrest of a suspect you believe to be violent.

HOSTIN: Absolutely and it's a confrontational thing. People are getting arrested generally for criminal conduct that's why you see 80 percent involving weapons or (inaudible). One interesting statistic that I though was interesting was that 36 deaths were taser related or stun gun related. And I think we all remember in the news that we, you know, the college students saying don't taser me, man, don't taser me, man. And so that's something that we should probably look at because these were alternatives to guns and now we're seeing deaths.

CHETRY: It is interesting and if we have time to get to some of the other numbers but mostly male, the average age around 33 and interesting, non-Hispanic whites the largest number percentage, I think 44 percent of those who died in custody.

HOSTIN: Exactly.

CHETRY: Sunny Hostin, thanks for being with us.

HOSTIN: Thank you.

CHETRY: John.

ROBERTS: An AMERICAN MORNING update for you now, about a teacher fighting her school district for the right to carry her handgun to class. She has won round 1 on her legal fight. A judge refused to dismiss the case. Shirley Katz told us last week that she wants the gun as protection against her ex-husband. The judge says he will issue a written decision later on.

And coming up, lead is showing up in lipstick and then surprisingly high levels. Could your favorite brand be hazardous to your health? The brands to watch for coming up at the top of the hour on AMERICAN MORNING.

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