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Bush, Iran Respond to Intelligence on Iranian Weapons Program; Washington State Faces Flooding; Medial Helicopter Missing in Alaska; Philadelphia Couple Arrested for Identity Theft

Aired December 04, 2007 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Fallout from the U.S. intelligence report on Iran. "Told you so," says Iran. "Told you so," says President Bush. We'll tell you where things stand on Iranian nukes at the White House and the Iranian capital.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And how's this for fallout? Disastrous rains, monster floods and a part of the country that's used to wet weather. We're live in Washington state in a state of emergency this hour.

Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live in CNN world headquarters in Atlanta

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: It was disastrous, is disastrous, and will be disastrous if it knows how to build a nuclear weapon. President Bush's views on Iran in the wake of a U.S. intelligence report that says Tehran halted its nuclear program three years ago.

We have coverage from the White House to Tehran. And let's start with CNN's Kathleen Koch -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, the focus of the president's morning press conference today was certainly Iran, but it's been seven weeks since he had a press conference, so there was plenty of other ground to cover. Let's touch on a few of the other issues that he did cover.

President Bush blasted Congress for not passing the federal spending bills that he wants, including bills that would -- a bill that would fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr. Bush also spoke out on the challenges the U.S. economy is facing because of the mortgage lending crisis and the credit crunch.

He also praised the election results in Venezuela, and he said that he told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. does have concerns about the fairness of its elections.

But again, certainly Iran was the focus of most of the questions at the press conference. And the president came nowhere close to backing down, despite that damaging National Intelligence Estimate that concluded that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program back in 2003.

President Bush said only -- not only does the new report not change his mind; it will not change his administration's policy. The president insisted that, because Iran once tried to build a nuclear weapon, that it is dangerous, was dangerous and will be dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What's to say they couldn't start another covert nuclear weapons program? And the best way to ensure that -- that the world is peaceful in the future is for the international community to continue to work together to say to the Iranians, you know, "We're going to isolate you." However, there is a better way forward for the Iranians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: It's important to point out that President Bush in today's press conference did appear to be setting a new standard when it comes to Iran, saying that Iran having merely the knowledge of how to develop a nuclear weapon, not that it's trying to or did in the past, but really having the knowledge is unacceptable, Don.

LEMON: Kathleen Koch at the White House. Kathleen, thank you for your report.

PHILLIPS: Iran's response, Tehran likes what it's reading in the National Intelligence Estimate but still resents what it's heard from the White House for a number of years.

CNN's Aneesh Raman is the only western TV reporter in Iran right now. He joins us with an exclusive view from Tehran -- Aneesh.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.

You know, as Kathleen just mentioned, the lowering of the bar by President Bush to knowledge of uranium enrichment will shock many inside Iran, because they publicly made it known that they know how to do this for well over a year. They celebrated it.

In Iran today they welcomed this report. The foreign minister was really the only top official to comment on it. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANOUCHEHR MOTTAKI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Now that the questions and ambiguities have been clarified, if any countries have found answers to those questions, no matter what their intentions were, and now want to correct their views to Iran we will obviously welcome that. The Iranian nuclear issue is a normal issue like that of all countries, and Iran will continue its activities under the supervision of the IAEA.

(END VIDEO CLIP) RAMAN: Now, a couple of things. First, we heard from Iran's ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, vehemently saying that is the only avenue Iran will discuss its nuclear program. It will resolve unanswered questions only directly with the IAEA, not outside of that program. Iran feeling further confidence in that stance, clearly, out of this report.

But it's important also to note the vast majority of Iranians do not want conflict over this nuclear program. There is near uniform support for their right to nuclear energy. They were hoping, perhaps, for dialogue to come.

But President Bush really showing no change in strategy and, specifically, no change in saying that a pre-condition for talks with Iran is that it suspend its nuclear program.

Even before this report Iran says that wasn't an option. Now that this report confirms what Iran has been saying, that it's pursuing peaceful civilian nuclear power, it will be even further entrenched in that position.

So for the Iranians right now it really rests in the hands of President Bush and the Americans to see if there's a way to change the dynamic of dialogue and find, really, some diplomatic solution to this -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Aneesh Raman, live from Tehran. Thanks, Aneesh.

LEMON: The weather is the news today. A one-two punch for the Pacific northwest. First, ferocious winds, then flooding rains. Let's begin with CNN's Chad Myers. He is tracking all of it for us -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Don, some of the new video we're just getting now in from Washington, really, from the Chehalis River, which is going to crest at a record. It's never going to be this high, especially as we've been keeping records.

Here is Centralia, Washington, really almost along I-5 border here. And at times, if this does crest as high as they think it's going to, it's going to be five feet over the I-5, the highway completely shut down.

There's the Wal-Mart parking lot. And there you can take a look at, and you can look at Bucoda. That is in Washington right along the Chehalis River. It starts with C-H-E. Sounds like it's S-H-A-Y. It's really just -- it's a mess out there.

The water's been coming down. Some spots picked up 11 inches of rain in the past 48 hours. The rain's tapering off now, but it is certainly a mess. And they are still doing high-water rescues and the like.

And here you go. This is from KOMO, our affiliate there. Water just completely over the roadways, into parking lots, well -- it's going to crest at 75 feet. And that's almost like 13 or 14 feet over where they think major flood stage is going to be here on this thing.

So, kind of take a look here. Here is where Vancouver is. Here is where Seattle is. We'll fly you right into Centralia and into the Chehalis River, just still coming out of its banks. Still coming up in many areas, probably not going to crest for another hour or so.

The Chehalis River runs -- it's hard to see, but it runs right through there. Kind of a snaky river, an awful lot like the Missouri River. And snaky rivers have flood plains, Don. That's why they do this back and forth thing. Large flood plains. If it's a straight river, that means it's going downhill fast. But this one obviously is not going down, and this water is not going to go down any time soon either -- Don.

LEMON: Hey, you know what, Chad? Just being told that the governor -- thank you -- the governor in Washington state -- let's look at this -- she is talking now about this dire situation that Chad has been talking about. And let's take a listen in.

GOV. CHRIS GREGOIRE, WASHINGTON: General Tony and then chief, describe what your folks are doing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Governor. And we'll have handouts today, similar to yesterday. The map you'll see really talks about which roads are still closed in yellow, and now green which are open and moving to traffic but were closures as of yesterday.

So, while the weather is starting to give us a break, we're working hard with our employees now to get out and assess the damage. We're in daylight now, out looking at all of the routes that are closed and starting to work where we can to remove debris.

Over the past 24 hours, WashDOT crews have responded to approximately 60 sites scattered across western Washington; combinations of mudslides, water over the roadway, downed power lines, and standing water. As of 9 a.m. this morning approximately 15 of those closures are now open. And they are yellow on the handout that you received.

What we're especially concerned about is I-5, of course, down in the Grand Mound and Chehalis area. We have ten feet over the -- over the roadway, as the governor stated. We think that it will crest sometime between now and noon.

We have been looking at our freight impacts this morning. We know that we have trucks working hard to make their way north and south through this area. We have detour routes that are also attached to your handouts. And what we'd really like to ask people to do is use the routes that are better able to handle truck traffic, semi traffic.

Meanwhile, what we've calculated, just to give you a sense of the kind of impact that we're facing, we have about 54,000 cars and trucks every day using I-5 through this area. That's -- contains about eight percent trucks. Calculating just the delay for those trucks over a 24-hour period, we're arriving at $4-million delay impact for every 24 hours that the -- the freeway is closed.

We're working hard to get the roadway open. We've heard we may have shoulder sloughing and perhaps some lane damage in a small part of I-5. So we'll, as soon as the water recedes, we'll be in there, trying to get that repaired as quickly as possible.

The good news out of Aberdeen, U.S. 12 is still closed, but we now have a detour route, and on your maps you also see that. It's a bit circuitous, but you can get east-west in and out of Aberdeen now.

I wanted to say a little bit our WashDOT workers. As I said yesterday, there's about 800 maintenance employees who are out on the roads every day. And another 800 in the night.

We have experienced this storm along with the public. Yesterday morning two of our employees were hit by a falling tree in their vehicle. One of them is now still in Harborview being assessed. He's stable.

Also, we've had about seven employees, as they were out working, that got stranded in the flood waters and in the areas that were high. Excuse me. We have three in the P.L. area. One has a medical condition, so the Coast Guard is helping us get to him and get him out of there. And then four up on the Hood's Port -- Hoodsport to Hamahama (ph) area that was flooded. And they're fine; they were just waiting out the waters.

I want to thank state patrol and National Guard. They're helping us manage traffic. We have approximately 50 National Guardsmen down on I-5 helping us with the traffic control.

Damage assessments, as the governor said, over the next few days we'll be working with the cities and counties to gather their impacts to highway and roadway damages, and then they'll work those through us. This is something that, as we assess our damages, we'll turn into federal highways as an emergency response kind of a repair cost. We don't usually get 100 percent of what we ask for, but the federal government is usually pretty good about getting in and helping us with these kind of damages.

Thank you.

LEMON: OK. Officials there in Washington state obviously giving the press and the folks there in Washington an update on the situation happening there. Washington state, the governor there, Chris Gregoire, calling for a state of emergency because of all of the flooding that's going on.

The same thing in Oregon. Amtrak had to halt service in several areas there. Bridges were washed out. And this all happening, at least 36 hours of this bad rain and bad water that went through the area there. Let's look at this picture now. KOMO, this is Centralia, Washington, where these pictures are coming from. This is tape, correct? Is this not live? This is live. This is live.

I want to bring our Chad Myers in to talk about this.

Chad, at first, we thought -- I thought it was tape. But this appears to be live pictures. And it doesn't appear that there is any end in sight, at least soon, for the folks here. You want to talk about that?

MYERS: Well, we're kind of in a farming area, kind of in a dairy area here. And the land is fairly flat.

We're going to lose that video. That's OK. This is basically the same shot just a little bit ago, on tape.

The -- we're going to keep this water around a very long time, because it isn't going to run off quickly because of the flatness of this area. You don't expect -- or you don't -- if you're not from there you just think all of Washington, California and Oregon, oh, they all must be really, really hilly.

Well, yes, some spots are. But if you get into the areas here south -- south of Seattle, and we're going down to Olympia, and then we get down here to Centralia. And I have another map for it. This is the river itself. Very windy river.

You can see some horseshoe lakes, a lot like what the Missouri River does, what the Mississippi River does when it's going through some flat lands. So this water rising. And it's not going to go down very fast, because there's not a lot of energy. There's not a lot of downhill for it to actually go.

Here's -- the mountains are here. The mountains are off to the east and to the west. But this is basically the growing area, the farming area, the dairy area here. And this is I-5 right there she was talking about. I said that there was going to be five feet of water over, but now they're saying 10 feet. So I mean, that's five more feet into people's houses, as well -- Don.

LEMON: Man, oh, man. There's a shot now that we can look -- can we pull this up. A house just really almost submerged there. Look at that, Chad. I mean, as we go to it of course...

MYERS: You have to understand that this is really a long way from Seattle.

LEMON: Yes.

MYERS: I mean, this is hundreds of miles, maybe 100 miles. And so that helicopter has to try to shoot that signal back to Seattle or back to a transistor to make it go farther.

LEMON: That's OK. You know, it's happening now.

MYERS: Yes.

LEMON: And we want to show people that. I just wanted to tell people real quick just how bad this is, Chad. And I think you touched on this a little bit. Mudslides halted north and south Amtrak train service between Eugene, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia, just because of all of this bad weather here. So...

MYERS: They were afraid of the mud slides, yes. Mud slides that have actually taken mud and put them on the train tracks, but also the train tracks getting washed away from the mud below the track as the engineer or the conductor drives over it. You can't tell that there's not dirt there until you're right there, because the track looks straight. Well, then all of a sudden, that train doesn't go straight.

LEMON: Chad, I'll tell you what we're going to do. I'm not sure if it's going to me or Kyra, but we're going to talk to the Oregon National Guard coming up, try to get another perspective.

MYERS: Very good. It is a mess out there, guys. It really is.

LEMON: Thank you very much for that.

PHILLIPS: So are you putting those gifts on the plastic this year? Think before you swipe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I look at the money that we've paid to Discover during just the last two years, I feel sick. Of the $5,618 made in payments to Discover, $3,478.39 went to interest. It's hard for me to even get my mind around that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Try getting your mind around this. Even if you pay your credit cards on time, they might stick you with a higher interest rate anyway.

LEMON: What Bonnie and Clyde were to bank robbery, these two might be to identity theft.

PHILLIPS: Plus, is al Qaeda back on track in Afghanistan? We're going to talk with a man who just got back from there. You know him well.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Live pictures now from one of our affiliates out of Seattle, Washington. These are pictures coming to us from KOMO's chopper.

Drenching rain, howling winds. You can see it's downed trees; it's cut off electricity; it's caused this widespread flooding, already leaving two people dead. It's also closed Interstate 5. It's the main north-south highway in western Washington. And that's what these pictures are right here. It's pretty much devastated the state there.

The governor calling for a state of emergency. It was the third in a series of storms that really hit the hardest and left the conditions like this. We're monitoring those live pictures via our affiliate. We'll bring you more information as we get it.

Now I want to get to the NEWSROOM. T.J. Holmes is working a developing story out of Alaska -- T.J.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, there, Kyra. The story here, a medical helicopter is missing in Alaska. It was last heard from last night around 5:20. It was heading from Anchorage, as you see there, to Cordova. It's about 150 miles. But hasn't been heard from since.

This is one of those lifeline helicopters. But three crew members were on-board and also one patient. No word on exactly what was going on with the patient, what kind of emergency was going on. But the patient was being transferred, obviously, and the helicopter was last heard from around 5:18, when there was a satellite call from the helicopter. However, it was not a distress call of any kind.

So not sure what happened to this helicopter, but it has just pretty much vanished right now. The Air Force, the Coast Guard involved in the search at this point.

But I just wanted to get on record here and let you know what was happening there in Alaska. We're keeping an eye on it. Hopefully, we get news, and possibly some good news about what has happened to this helicopter. We'll let you know if we get something, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Sounds good. T.J., thanks.

HOLMES: All right.

LEMON: Well, money was no object for this happy couple. Of course, it helped that apparently it was not their money. Police in Philadelphia are scratching their heads over these two, arrested late last week and accused of a lucrative identity theft racket.

CNN's Alina Cho has more on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The amazing part about this story is that police say they funded their lavish spending sprees by preying on their very own neighbors.

Now, Philadelphia police say 22-year-old Jocelyn Kirsch and her boyfriend, 25-year-old Eddie Anderton, jetted off to places like Paris, London, Hawaii, Costa Rica, even Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean. She allegedly spent $1,700 on hair extensions, and they paid for everything, police say, by breaking into their neighbors' apartments and stealing their identities. DETECTIVE TERRY SWEENEY, PHILADELPHIA POLICE: They were living the life. For want of a better time, they were living the life at the expense of and victimization of other people.

CHO: Kirsch and Anderton are out on bail now. Police say they caught them after one neighbor was told she had a package waiting for her at the local UPS store. Well, she didn't order anything. Authorities apparently watched the store and arrested the couple on Friday when they walked in to pick up the package.

Now, police say they also found more than $17,000 in cash, an I.D.-making machine and 45 keys. Now, unclear just how they got the keys. And also unclear how many victims there are. But police say there could be dozens.

Now, in just the past year, this so-called Bonnie and Clyde allegedly spent more than $100,000. Authorities say the two come from well-to-do families. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a student at Drexler University.

Now they're in a heap of trouble, each facing 15 charges, including I.D. theft, forgery and conspiracy. And if federal charges come into play, they could each face up to two years in prison.

Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: A big hug for her son and a bright smile after a dark ordeal that started with a teddy bear. Teacher Gillian Gibbons is out of Sudan and back in Britain. You'll hear from her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: One-twenty-five Eastern Time right now. Here are three of the stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Back-to-back storms in the northwest, leaving behind floods, downed power lines, stranded people. The storms swamped parts of Oregon and Washington with hurricane-force winds and drenching rains.

The Coast Guard and Air Force crews now out in full force in Alaska. They're searching for a helicopter ambulance that vanished last night with four people on board: three life flight workers and one patient.

Under suicide watch. Their lawyers say three of the suspects in the shooting death of NFL star Sean Taylor are now being monitored for possible suicide attempts. They're held without bail.

LEMON: We have seen a bit -- just a bit -- of an oil relief -- oil price relief in this past week or so, but prices are still high. And it's starting to pinch many businesses.

To get the very latest on that, we go to Stephanie Elam. She's on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to tell us who is being affected by this.

Hi, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don.

Yes, this is one of those stories that you think about the personal effect of this, but really, the cost of oil affects a lot of businesses.

So, we're going to start with the good news, even though it may be kind of slight at this point, because we have seen oil prices drop down a little bit. And that is affecting the cost of gas.

So taking a look at the national average for regular, it fell more than 3.5 cents. So now it's at $3.06 a gallon. But obviously, that's still a lot higher than we were paying last year. So while it's a bit of a decline, that may make you feel a little bit better because of the fact that it is easier now but not much easier than last year.

Now, if you look at diesel, it is also moving higher, and that is moving to record high levels. As a result, the cost of shipping small and large items is actually up. And it's difficult for businesses to pass that cost on to consumers because of the weak economy. So a lot of retailers and manufacturers are getting hit by this.

And obviously, this could really hurt online retailers, who are trying to offer that free shipping to get customers to visit their sites.

Now, heating oil prices tend to track diesel prices, as well, since the production process is similar. So this could mean it will be hard for a lot of people who use heating oil for the winter. Obviously, that cost is going to be kind of high for them, Don.

LEMON: Well, how about this, Stephanie? May seem weird, but it's like mass transit, so maybe it's more efficient. I'm not sure. The airline industry. The airline industry uses a lot of fuel.

ELAM: Oh, yes. And it's obviously feeling the pinch here. And so now we've got a little bit of information here that's showing that the airlines are going to start cutting back.

"USA Today" did a little bit of an analysis and, taking a look at January 2007, compared to January 2008. And when you look at that, they're saying that it's more than 4 percent fewer seats will be available between those periods. So obviously, the airlines are cutting back because of the cost of fuel. And that's something for them to keep in mind.

And there's a few ways airlines can deal with this. They can slash -- slash the cost of their route. They can slash the routes. Or they can also fly less frequently, and they can use smaller plains.

So what does this mean for us, Don? That means expect a lot of really packed planes as we take to the sky. There's a lot of people getting ready to do some more holiday traveling coming up.

Now shopping time.

LEMON: Yes. What's happening with the markets today?

(STOCK REPORT)

ELAM: Coming up we're going to take a look at refund checks. You know, IRS, they send out our refund checks next year. We always look forward to that time. But President Bush is saying those checks could be delayed if Congress doesn't do something about it. So we'll fill you on the details of this story when we catch up in the next hour.

Until then, Don and Kyra, back to you.

LEMON: Oh, no. You piqued my interest with that one.

ELAM: Everyone wants to know about when their checks are coming back.

LEMON: Absolutely. Thank you, Stephanie.

ELAM: Sure.

PHILLIPS: Check out these live pictures from Chehalis, Washington. Not a good day for these workers or the drivers that are used to crossing this bridge.

KING-TV bringing us these live pictures. They are based out of Seattle. They're one of our CNN affiliates.

Not quite sure what these folks are looking for. Hopefully, it is not people or vehicles or personal items.

But this is just a taste of what this state is dealing with right now. The governor already calling for a state of emergency. Boy, Chad, the pictures keep coming in from all over Washington state.

MYERS: Just a crazy shot. I'm trying to figure out where that wood came from. It really must have been coming down the river. So the river probably is now receding at this point? Just debris coming down there, getting piled up on the side, getting piled up on the -- on the bridge itself.

We'll have more right after this.

LEMON: Plus, we're going to have this, Chad and Kyra. Is al Qaeda back on track in Afghanistan? We'll talk with a man who just got back, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

LEMON: Chad, you want to hang on a minute, because you may some questions here. I'm being told we're going to go to our i-Reporter, Aaron Meola. Erin, she is a -- or he is, a videographer in Washington state.

Erin, you on the line.

AARON MEOLA, CNN I-REPORTER: I am.

LEMON: Yes, talk to us about the pictures that you're taking and what you're seeing in your area there.

MEOLA: Yes, so yesterday I set out to try get to work, and it had been snowing the couple days before. And I went out and all the snow was gone. So the snow had to have gone somewhere. And what happened was is that melted overnight, and I went out, and I couldn't really get around because all the streets were flooded, so I started filming, and lots of intersections were flooded with cars. People were on inflatable mattresses trying to get to their cars. There was a current in the water, and they got sucked out farther than they wanted to go.

I mean, there was actually a little kid on one of the mattresses. So, it was pretty scary out there.

LEMON: Listen, do you know the Chehalis area?

MEOLA: I do. I did. I was actually -- I tried to get down there yesterday and I couldn't, because the highway was closed.

LEMON: Yes, the 5 right, the I-5, is that what you're talking about?

MEOLA: Correct.

LEMON: Listen, we had some pictures. I don't know if you can see CNN on the air now, but we had pictures of that bridge with all of the debris, it looks like wood that had been carried down. Do you know which bridge that is an where specifically in Chehalis that is?

MEOLA: You know, I don't. It might be in Gray's Harbor County, I know was pretty bad, too, and there was a bridge wiped out. I think there's actually multiple bridges wiped out in different areas.

LEMON: Yes, we're also looking in Chehalis as well, Aaron, Chad, and I notice there was a mud slide, because these homes, it look like the roofs were just sort of cut off right there, right at the top, between the frame and the roof..

MEOLA: Yes, one place that was really bad was a popular barbecue restaurant, kind of local treasure that got totally devastated. A mudslide just ripped it right off its foundation and carried it down the hill a bit, and that's going to be a sore for the community. It was a place where people would travel to go to, and that place was totally wiped out.

LEMON: Hey, Aaron, are you seeing this sort of stuff in your area. We're going to look at your i-Report again, look at this rain coming down. Have you seen anything like this in your area since you've been around?

MEOLA: It rains quite a bit here, never like this, though. It was coming down in sheets. It was literally sheets just pouring down. And I've lived in Washington quite a few years, and it definitely rains here, but not like this.

LEMON: Yes, real quick, before I let you go, what about preparations? You get much word of this? Were people able to sort of get out of the way in time?

MEOLA: You know, me personally, I think I did, I was ready for it, but I think a lot of people here weren't. And I'm not sure what could have been done better, but I definitely know a lot of people didn't know it was coming.

LEMON: Yes, and you were talking about the kid on the mattress, yesterday, and there's some folks there on a raft, on an air mattress trying to get to safety. Unbelievable stuff. Some of our best pictures and video come from our i-Reporter, like Aaron Meola from Washington State.

Aaron, thank you so much.

MEOLA: Yes, thank you.

LEMON: All right, we're going to check in with our Chad Myers about this situation coming up just a little bit later on in the CNN NEWSROOM. We're on top of it.

PHILLIPS: Concerned about a very violent year, U.S. commanders and Afghan officials alike are pressing Defense Secretary Roberts Gates for more resources. 2007 has been the deadliest period in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion. Gates arrived yesterday for an unannounced visit, and today President Hamid Karzai told him the Afghan military needs more trainers and equipment to battle a resurgent Taliban.

Suicide bombings surged in Afghanistan this year, a newer weapon in the Taliban arsenal, but in the northeast strategy in Kunar province, strategy and the landscape dictate their tactics against U.S. troops. And there, the danger is ambushes. Journalist and novelist Sebastian Junger saw that firsthand. He travelled to the region on a joint assignment for ABC News and "Vanity Fair" magazine.

Sebastian, great to see you.

SEBASTIAN JUNGER, VANITY FAIR: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Since I led in to you talking about the ambushes, you got as clogs as to 50 feet from those fire fights. Give me an idea of what that felt like. It must have scared the hell out of you at times.

JUNGER: When I was there in June with the second platoon we were moving back from the village of Aliabad, the Taliban don't shoot at the American soldiers when they are in a village because they don't want to hit the civilians. Just like American soldiers don't want to hit civilians.

As soon as we left, we got word on the radio that we were in their gun sights. They hit us a few seconds later. It was a very intense fire fight. I went back in September, I was at an outpost called Restrepo (PH). We were getting hit two or three times a day by attacks, Taliban fighters who would come within 50 yards of the position.

It wasn't an ambush, it was actually an attack on a fixed position. Both were very, very scary, very sudden, very unexpected.

PHILLIPS: So, tell us about the -- is it the Korengal Valley? Am I saying that right?

JUNGER: You were.

PHILLIPS: Okay. Set that up for me.

JUNGER: The Korengal Valley is a six-mile-long valley edged by very, very steep mountains. It was a centerpiece of the Afghan resistance against the Soviets in the 80s, and then the Korengalees (PH) took up arms against the Taliban actually in the 90s. They are very, very tough people. And recently, they have found common cause with the Taliban, with al Qaeda, there is a lot of timber smuggling.

There is sort of a timber Mafia in the Korengal Valley. President Karzai of Afghanistan tried to regulate the timber trade. That pushed the Korengalees into the arms of the Taliban, across the border in Pakistan. They have now united, and are fighting U.S. forces. It's one of the most violent places in Afghanistan.

One fifth of all combat in Afghanistan happens in this six-mile- long valley. It's very, very intense there.

PHILLIPS: And, the second platoon -- a crucial part to fighting the enemy there. I don't know if we can rerack that video, but I saw one of the soldiers there in the second platoon naming actually naming his ordnance. I saw he wrote 9/11 on some of the weaponry. Their hearts are still in this years after 9/11 has happened.

JUNGER: Yes, absolutely. It's interesting, in the motivation for these soldiers, many of them joined because of 9/11, or because their fathers were in the military, things like that, very sort of patriotic reasons, but what I saw in the fire fights is that stuff really goes out the window.

These are very, very brave guys, they're very well trained and I think what keeps them focused, what keeps their level of bravery up in these terrifying situations is their affiliation with each other. They're absolutely committed to each other. I've seen them drag injured American soldiers out of danger while under fire and not even hesitate. Pretty extraordinary to watch, actually.

PHILLIPS: Platoon leader, Lieutenant Matt Piosa (PH), he really impressed you. Tell me about him. Why was he such an outstanding man? JUNGER: Well, he was just -- I've seen him under fire many times, he's very, very calm, he's very competent. He's 24-years-old, but --

PHILLIPS: 24.

JUNGER: Yes, it's sort of misleading though. I mean, I'm 45 and I sort of looked up to him as sort of an elder in some ways. We'd get into fire fights, and he would be on the radio calling in artillery strikes. Just calm as could be -- a very reassuring guy to be around.

PHILLIPS: Now, you point out in your article that Afghanistan by many measures is falling apart. And, you write the Afghan opium crop has flourished in the past two years, now represents 93 percent of the world's supply. That is unbelievable. $38 billion in street value.

JUNGER: Yes. I mean, these are commonly known statistics. The situation in Afghanistan, when I was there in 2001 it was quite remarkable. Afghans were hugging me in the street because I was American. After 9/11 that's really changed. The war has really worn on people. The Taliban have killed a lot of civilians.

The coalition forces have inadvertently killed a lot of civilians. And, I wouldn't say that the tide has turned, but certainly the fight is much more difficult than it was a few years ago.

PHILLIPS: The money from the opium is what's fueling the insurgency and keeping it going. Right?

JUNGER: Yes, that's correct. There's sort of allegiance between the opium producers and the Taliban. The growers will grow opium, the Taliban will provide protection to move the opium out of the country across the border into Iran, into Pakistan, into Soviet Union and they will take a cut of the money. So, it's just a money machine for the insurgency.

PHILLIPS: Sebastian Junger. You can go to vanityfair.com, check out the video, also read the article. Great talking to you.

JUNGER: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Glad you're back safely.

LEMON: Are the terms of your credit cards pushing you deeper into debt? You're not alone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I look at the money that we have paid to Discover during just the last two years I feel sick. Of the $5,618 made in payments to Discover, $3,478.39 went to interest. It's hard for me to even get my mind around that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Lawmakers are getting an earful from angry consumers today. We'll go live to the hearing right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Democratic presidential candidates are in Iowa getting ready for yet another debate. At the top of the hour on NPR, but what's debatable now is who's ahead in Iowa. Different polls show different leaders in a very tight race. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux in Des Moines on her birthday, by the way. Happy birthday, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Kyra. Great to be here on your birthday.

PHILLIPS: You got quite the party behind you.

MALVEAUX: We're already starting to duck here, because campaign folks are saying the bottom's going to fly. One of the reasons why, the headline here says Iowa's new leaders, one of them being Senator Barack Obama. Iowa polls, the latest showing in a statistical dead heat with Senator Hillary Clinton, Edwards not far behind.

Some of the issues they have been sparring on in the past have been health care as well as leadership. Team Hillary it says one of the other issues they are going to talk about is getting on Obama's authenticity, veracity of his record when it comes to his pro choice agenda.

And obviously, Kyra, the big question is whether or not this negativity is going to backfire for these candidates, whether it's going to work for them. We know it backfired for Howard Dean as well as Dick Gephardt back in 2004, so we'll see how the mud flies this time around. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: I got to tell you, this is not the usual backdrop when we toss to you live talking about politics. Give me a feel for what's happening behind you, and why is this a little bit of a different environment versus other times we've gone to you live?

MALVEAUX: Sure. You can feel the excitement and the energy from folks, the various camps behind me who are shouting and cheering for the second tier candidates as well, but obviously this is a real face- off between the front-runners as well as John Edwards. This is a two- hour debate. And, Kyra, I have to say I wish I was a fly on the wall, because there are no TV cameras.

That's the big thing here. So, we're going to listening to the words very carefully. We've got a chance to check out the room, the setup itself. We're told that there's going to be three different topics, the candidates don't know what these topics are, but they have been picked ahead of time, even we don't know what the topics are. So, it will be a surprise.

And should also let you know as well in terms of the format here, some things are different. Governor Richardson is actually not here, he had a funeral to attend. But, a face that we haven't seen in a while, that of course, Mike Gravel. He's going to be in between Senator Clinton and Barack Obama, so we'll see how this all works out. The fireworks might be flying here. We're just going to get audio, so we're going to have to imagine what's happening in the room. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: And there is no time limit, right?

MALVEAUX: No time limit when it comes to answering the questions. So, you may have a few folks, who as we know who they are might filibuster with some of the answers. But, they've got three hosts, they are going to try to manage all of this.

Those candidates are sitting beside each other kind of a three tables in a triangular formation, we'll see how it goes. Two hours they've got to go at each other.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll be following it and talking to you more. Suzanne Malveaux, there in Iowa. Thanks so much.

Well, if you want the up-to-the-minute political news available anywhere, you just go to cnnpolitics.com. One stop shopping. Today's top story President Bush says the clock is ticking on Congress. Cnnpolitics.com, the Internet's premier destination for political news.

LEMON: Absolutely, and today our big story, of course, the weather happening out west. Check this out. This is Chehalis, Washington -- Washington state again. These pictures of just flooding, unbelievable flooding happening there.

Our Chad Myers has been on top of this all morning and all afternoon right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. We're going to check back in a moment to see how things are going with weather throughout the nation, including this very devastating situation happening here in Washington.

Also this, even if you pay your credit card bills on time, you could get hit with a sudden hike in interest rates. Some consumers and some in Congress think there ought to be a law. Our Brianna Keilar is following a hearing on Capital Hill right now.

Brianna, what do you have for us?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, you know, you probably think I pay my credit card bill on time, I'm safe, right. I'm going to put these out of my mind, put them back in my wallet, but not so fast. Because we heard from one woman, a Discover customer today, at this hearing earlier. And she's not exactly a safe bet for a credit card company.

She consistently carried a balance on her credit card, but she was making payments on time. Well, she saw her interest rate jump from 18 to 24 percent, which she says made it even harder for her to work at paying off her credit card debt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JANET HARD, CONSUMER: When I look at the money that we have paid to Discover during just the last two years, I feel sick. Of the $5,618 made in payments to Discover, $3,478.39 went to interest. It's hard for me to even get my mind around that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, a lot of people are in this situation, so what do you do to stop this from happening to you? You can pay your credit card bill on time of course, and try to pay more than the minimum payment. Try not to maintain a balance that's really close to your limit. I'm not talking about just going over your limit. I'm talking about even staying under it but getting close to it. And of course, pay attention to your credit store -- score, rather. Think twice before you sign up for more credit cards.

We heard from a woman who said she opened one or two accounts with department stores to get a promotional rate on some items that she was purchasing and then the interest rate on a totally different credit card actually jumped all the way from eight percent to 23 percent, Don, if you can believe that.

LEMON: Ah, Brianna Keilar, Brianna, thank you so much.

In the next hour, Brianna's going to tell us about what do you do if you find out if you've already seen the interest rate of your credit cards increase. What do you do with that?

PHILLIPS: Live pictures once again of the mud and debris left behind by the flood waters in Washington state. King TV, we're going to see live pictures from Chehalis, Washington. Our Chad Myers is in the severe weather center. He's going to bring us up to date on the damage and the conditions.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well, many of us love the frenzy of the holidays. There is a down side to it, as well. The next 60 days or so are the deadliest time of year for heart disease. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. December and January are notoriously the worst when it comes to deaths from heart disease. And obviously, that falls right in the middle of holiday season. There have been a lot of culprits that previous studies have pointed to, such as too much rich food, too much alcohol, lots of stress obviously as well.

But there's something else that seems to play a role that's very important. One of the most important things we may talk about, that's just simple denial, denying that you're having a problem. Reluctance to actually go to the hospital, see your doctor because it may disrupt the holiday schedule. Forgetting your medications, for example, if you travel to a different city. Or just being in a strange city itself, may play a role because you may not know how to get a hold of your doctor or a new hospital.

Remember, there are lots of different symptoms of heart disease, and nobody has exactly the same symptoms. But shortless of breath, chest pain, lightheadedness, nausea, heartburn, vomiting. Those are important because they can often be confused with simply just eating too much.

Now, when you eat a rich meal, it's not like the food automatically coats your arteries, like a lot of people think. But it can increase your blood pressure, it can increase your heart rate. And if you're at risk of heart disease, that can be a real problem. An equally big problem might actually just be the amount of salt that you have in your food. Too much salt can actually lead to swelling and that can put an additional strain on your heart.

Hospitals are trying to get ready for these sorts of problems and in fact, have something known as 90 minutes from door to balloon time, meaning if you show up at the emergency room door with chest pain, they want to get you diagnosed and get you treated as quickly as possible, and balloon open those arteries within 90 minutes. That seems to make a difference.

In the meantime, though, try and take care of yourself this holiday season, go easy on the food, go easy on the alcohol and try and alleviate some of that stress. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Easy for Sanjay to say.

All right, live pictures via one of our affiliates out of Seattle, Washington, KING TV. This is Chehalis, Washington. Take a look at what those storms, those back-to-back storms have done to this state, now in a state of emergency. Flooding, electricity blown out, people had to be evacuated, even the Coast Guard having to come in and rescue people from their rooftops.

Our Chad Myers in the severe weather center, he is tracking it all. He's going to bring us an update straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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