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American Morning
Intense Negotiation with Pirates to Free American Captain; Fires, Tornadoes Devastate Oklahoma, Texas; Surge of Deadly Gun Violence in U.S.
Aired April 10, 2009 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, happy Friday to you. It's April 10th. It's Good Friday today. I'm Kiran Chetry along with T.J. Holmes. Good to see you.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday, and a happy Friday. Good to be here. Thank you for having me.
A lot to get to as always on AMERICAN MORNING. A lot to cover. Here's what we're going to be running down in the next 15 minutes.
Negotiations still underway right now with four, armed, dangerous and increasingly desperate Somali pirates. They're holding an American captain on a 28-foot lifeboat that's just about out of fuel, and they're running out of options. Also, two more Navy ships now on the way.
Also, it's a bad day in Oklahoma. That is a direct quote from an emergency official there. Raging fires in Oklahoma as well as in Texas being fed by hurricane-force winds and tinder dry brush. Over a hundred homes that we know of have been destroyed or damaged. Also, one entire town enflamed, just described as being burned over. The National Weather Service says much of Texas and Oklahoma under an extremely critical fire area. We're live on the ground in the fire zone.
Also today, the president will announce the administration's next move to kick start credit markets and stabilize the financial system. We're expecting that announcement in just the next few hours. We're live at the White House with details this morning. Plus, our CNN Money Team here, standing by to break down what this all means for you.
CHETRY: And we begin with the developing news in the round-the- clock effort to free the American merchant captain being held hostage off of Somalia. As we speak, a Navy destroyer is watching over a 28- foot long lifeboat like the one you see here, holding Captain Richard Phillips and also the pirates who kidnapped him.
Now incredibly this morning, we're hearing from one of those pirates. He was reached on satellite phone by the news agency Reuters and told the reporter on the other end, "We are surrounded by warships and don't have time to talk. Please pray for us."
Meantime, the cargo ship originally hijacked by those pirates is back on the move to Kenya. It was originally headed for Mombasa. The 20-American crew members are now being protected by armed guards and that's welcome news to their families.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEATHER GUARDINELLI, FIANCEE OF CREW MEMBER JOHN CRONAN: We certainly feel good and better that he's safe. We know he's safe and on his way home.
These are bright men, capable, strong men that do a very difficult job. You know, I don't think people realize the type of work that these men do.
They work seven days a week, 10, 12 hours a day. The engine room is 112 degrees and that's where John works. And he takes his job very seriously. And he was not going to be hijacked by pirates, not if there was anything he could do about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: CNN's Barbara Starr is live in Bahrain.
And, Barbara, we're hearing that the Navy has more ships now headed to the spot where Captain Phillips is being held. What can you tell us about that?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, the U.S. Navy and a number of other nations now really making a show of force off the coast of Somalia, off East Africa against pirate activity in general. As you say, the U.S.'s Bainbridge already on station for a day or so now keeping very close watch on this.
Two more Navy warships on the way, the Halyburton and the Boxer. That adds some firepower and some presence to the immediate vicinity, but it also adds a medical capability. If they are able to get Captain Phillips out of there and they can get him on to a U.S. Navy ship, they will have medical capability to treat him should he need it. But what we have learned from Vice Admiral William Gordon here of the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain is that he was already planning to send more ships to the immediate region because in the last couple of weeks, pirate activity has stepped up off this region of Somalia.
The Navies have been very concerned, and they were already putting more firepower into the region. This, however, is now, of course, a crisis situation they're trying to deal with very immediately -- Kiran.
CHETRY: And what can you tell us about the guards, the armed guards that are now protecting the cargo ship as it heads to Kenya? You know, a lot of people have been writing in to our show and calling in to our show saying, wait a minute, why didn't this happen in the first place?
STARR: Well, you know, this is all part of this current now very crisis atmosphere off the coast of Africa. The U.S. Navy put a security contingent onboard the Maersk Alabama to carry it all the way into Mombasa where it is expected to dock in the coming hours for one reason. They don't want the ship to get hijacked again. This is really the problem.
There aren't enough ships, however, not enough naval security out there to escort the hundreds of cargo ships that move through this region. Now, you know, when the ships do get hijacked, we've seen this example several times, the Navy will escort them into safe port till they can really get to a port where they can unload and the crews can get off the ship. The Maersk Alabama will be in Mombasa in the coming hours -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Barbara Starr for us this morning in Bahrain, thank you.
And this story has a lot of people talking. We like to hear what you think about it. Call our show hotline. It's 877-MY-AMFIX, so your comments could be on air today.
HOLMES: And a story that has been breaking overnight, still breaking this morning, wild fires fueled by high winds and bone-dry conditions roaring across Oklahoma and parts of Texas. Fire officials say more than a hundred homes in Oklahoma have been destroyed. They've ordered people in five Oklahoma towns to leave their homes behind and they need to get out of there.
Two small Texas towns also devastated by fires. Hurricane-force winds are shooting red hot embers from rooftop to rooftop. This is pretty much making it impossible for firefighters to gain any kind of ground.
CNN's Ed Lavandera is on the ground for us in Midwest City, Oklahoma. Also, our Rob Marciano, he's at the scene in weather center. He's keeping an eye on the forecast.
Again, we've been talking about a lot of those high winds, hurricane-force even that have been fueling these fires.
Let's start, though, with you, Ed. Is there any sense by these firefighters that they are starting to get the upper hand on these things?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's kind of hard to sense. They're really waiting for daybreak to come so that they can get air support in the air to kind of get a sense of what the situation is across the region. But the winds continue to blow intensely this morning. They're hoping that will start to die down in the next six or seven hours and that will definitely help the firefighters around here.
Look at this home here. This one is still smoldering. You can see the smoke coming from the garage here this morning across the region. It has been a devastating couple of hours.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Across Texas and Oklahoma, crews raced from fire to fire, kept on their toes by winds that at times reached hurricane-force. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't get ahead of it. When you have gusts to 40 miles an hour, and there is brush involved, it picks those embers up. It creates a fireball that lifts it over the top of us and carries at a quarter of a mile past us.
LAVANDERA: At least five towns in Oklahoma were ordered evacuated as the flames swept across the dry flatlands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. It happened so fast.
LAVANDERA: The massive fires, some stretching for six miles, also forced parts of Interstate 35 to be shut down. Firefighters from dozens of agencies tapped in to pools and creeks to keep the water flowing and worked alongside bulldozers to create fire lines. And despite warnings to clear out, some residents stayed behind to join the fight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just started running buckets to the place behind us trying to help the firefighters.
LAVANDERA: The struggle and the size and speed of devastation taking a toll.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been a long day.
LAVANDERA: By nightfall, more than a hundred homes have been lost, many more damaged. But the fires were so widespread and moving so fast that firefighters were struggling to get a grip on the extent of the damage.
In some areas where the fire had moved on, residents got a firsthand look at what the flames left behind. And the work that lies ahead for them and their neighbors, some of whom don't yet know what awaits.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's deployed. He's serving our country right now, and he's got to come home to this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: And T.J., you know, it's really interesting about all of this. We're in a subdivision in a town in Midwest City that you mentioned, just southeast of Oklahoma City, and the damage here is almost kind of reminiscent of what you'd see in tornado damage. You know, a lot of times you see a home that's been destroyed and three more right next to it that seem untouched. And that kind of seems the winds blowing these embers around have destroyed this home, the home right next to it, but if you look on either side of that, those homes managed to make it through this OK.
But still, many people here waiting for daybreak to really get a sense of the extent of the damage across the states of Oklahoma and Texas -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right, Ed. We appreciate it. We'll be checking in again with you this morning. Thanks so much.
CHETRY: Fire crews are hoping for a break heading into the weekend. CNN's Rob Marciano is watching the forecast at the weather center in Atlanta.
And the pictures are just unbelievable, Rob, with just how quickly this thing to have happened.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and a number of fires that flared up not only in Oklahoma but in Texas is certainly alarming. We saw this system coming out of the Rockies. We said it was dynamic. We said it had a lot of winds within in Colorado, but certainly getting them to wind gusts of hurricane strength. It's just remarkable.
Windy conditions yesterday. The storm itself is weakening somewhat, so we don't expect to see the winds as bad as they were yesterday. But the flip side of this system is that we have severe weather at the head of those winds. We had a number of tornadoes, 24 in all reported last night. And, of course, the most damaging one in Mena, Arkansas, where three people are dead, a number of others injured and over 100 homes damaged there.
So, we could have a repeat performance of that later on today with isolated tornadoes, large hail all shifting to the southeast. Here's some of the winds right now.
Oklahoma City to Dallas -- notice that they're in the 10 to 25 mile-an-hour range, so that's good news. We don't expect 6o to 70 mile-an-hour gusts like we saw yesterday. But still, the winds are still gusty and that will be a factor going on through the day today as they battle those flames.
These two watch boxes, Kiran, have been allowed to expire but still some severe weather rolling through Tennessee, northern parts of Alabama and into Georgia later on today where that moderate risk of severe weather does exist through tonight.
Back up to you.
CHETRY: All right. Rob Marciano for us tracking all these, thank you.
MARCIANO: You got it.
HOLMES: Well, also new this morning, the Obama administration making a drastic change in policy to national security. CIA Director Leon Panetta says secret overseas prisons are now empty and will be closed for good. In an e-mail to agency employees, Panetta also said contractors will no longer be hired to handle interrogations.
Also, the key to marital bliss? Do you want to extend that marital bliss for a little while? Well, the secret to it? Don't have kids. Yes, you need to put that little bundle of joy on the back burner for a little while, fellas.
CHETRY: Fellas?
HOLMES: There's two guys in the studio looking at me here. You weren't paying attention, so I was talking to them.
OK. Well, this is not according to me, this is according to a study by "USA Today" reporting that, in the study, 90 percent -- 90 percent of couples experience a decrease in marital satisfaction after that first child's birth. Researchers followed more than 200 couples over an eight-year period. The team also found that couples who lived together before their wedding had more post-baby marital stress.
CHETRY: He's really paying attention to all those since he's recently engaged to Stella (ph), right?
HOLMES: I am just reading the news here, OK.
CHETRY: I'm telling you what.
HOLMES: I'm just...
CHETRY: Really?
HOLMES: Next story.
CHETRY: Are you listening, fellas?
HOLMES: Right here. They were listening. You were doing something else.
CHETRY: All right.
HOLMES: All right. Some good news here. Some good economic news we have to tell you about this morning.
Some key signs of progress as the president looks to breathe new life into the markets. We'll take you live to the White House. Plus, our money team is here to break all this down for you. Kiran and I need to get on the same page.
It's ten after the hour. We're back on the same page.
CHETRY: You want to babysit?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Back to the Most News in the Morning. Thirteen minutes past the hour now. Trying to fast forward to the stories that we'll be making news later today.
Space Shuttle Endeavour being rolled out overnight to the vehicle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's technicians are beginning preparations for Endeavour's upcoming mission to the International Space Station.
Also today, Pope Benedict XVI leading Good Friday services. At 11:00 a.m. Eastern, the pope will say mass at St. Peter's Basilica. Then at 3:15 p.m. Eastern at Rome's coliseum, the pope will preside over the "Stations of the Cross" commemorating the crucifixion of Christ.
And this morning at 11:30 a.m. Eastern, President Obama sitting down with his top moneymen. They're discussing, expected to discuss some new aggressive efforts to ease the credit markets and put more money back into your hands.
CNN's Dan Lothian is live at the White House. And he's putting the economy back into the spotlight, of course, after his much publicized trip to Europe.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. When he was overseas last week, you saw the president focusing on the global economic crisis. He was also putting the spotlight on Afghanistan in Iraq.
Well, now, the president, this administration highlighting again the domestic economic crisis. This administration really is trying -- has been trying to focus on several key areas. First of all, stabilizing the housing market, making sure that they can cut down on some of these foreclosures and also keep responsible homeowners in their homes.
They've also been pumping billions of dollars into the auto industry and putting a lot of pressure on these auto giants to restructure in order to survive. They've been focusing on student loans and business loans. And, of course, the most important one, helping banks, bailing out banks and helping them to clean up their balance sheets to get rid of these bad assets.
So what you will see today is the president sitting down with the top money people, the head of the FDIC, the Federal Reserve chair, his secretary of Treasury, Timothy Geithner, and others as well to kind of assess the situation, take a look at how what they have been doing is working.
This administration really is encouraged by what they see. So far, some small signs of progress. Interest rates are low. You've seen some loans flowing from banks again. And the stock market, of course, has been showing a little bit of life. So they're very encouraged by these signs, Kiran, but they do think there's still a long way to go.
CHETRY: Dan Lothian for us this morning at the White House. Thanks so much.
We want to check in with Christine Romans now who's "Minding Your Business."
And so, you know, we talked about the good news about Wells Fargo yesterday...
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right.
CHETRY: ... where they actually paid back the money, the TARP funds, if you would call it that. So any other indication that this is working?
ROMANS: Well, a few things happening in the economy. Mortgage activity has jumped. The president has talked about that. The president -- the economist and chief, if you will, of the United States is saying it's time to refinance.
Banks are paying back interest. As you pointed out, Kiran, Wells Fargo yesterday said it's paying back $372 million in interests to the American people and Uncle Sam. So the banks -- some banks at least in a healthy enough position that they're actually being able to pay back that interest. But we are still losing jobs.
You're still talking about 8.5 percent unemployment rate in this country. And frankly, (INAUDIBLE) banks says by early next year, you could see 10.5 percent unemployment in this country. And if you have a bankruptcy of an automaker, you're talking about 11.5 percent unemployment.
So we still have these things against you. Yes, you're seeing mortgage activity. Yes, you're seeing banks pay back some of the interests, but we still have the job situation to work through and that's what the president and his team are very concerned about.
HOLMES: Is that the thing that really plays into our psyche? We could probably see some of these other good economic indicators but as long as people keep losing jobs, nobody feels good about this.
ROMANS: That's exactly right. But you know, one thing that -- a fascinating comment I got this week was that, look, we've been in shock for so long about what happened and we're finally, consumers and companies, are starting to make decisions now, not out of shock anymore, but out of information. It's still the same old bad information, but we're starting to make decisions out of information and maybe that's the very kernel of a feeling that the recovery is down the road.
Now, Larry Summers, the former treasury secretary who's now the economist in the White House, he is saying that, you know, the ball is falling off of a table. Think of it that way. It hasn't hit the bottom yet, but the ball is falling off the table and we can see where the bottom is. And that's, you know, that's where we are right now. I mean, it's a way to look at it.
It will be very interesting to see what the president describes the stage in terms of any new efforts that they can do, or whether this one will just be a progress report on what we have done so far.
HOLMES: Interesting analogy. Ball falling off a table.
ROMANS: Oh, I've got a lot of analogies.
HOLMES: All right. Thank you. We look forward to some more. Christine, thank you so much.
Meanwhile, the president, oh, with friends like these -- his inner circle is chockfull of millionaires. How did that square with the president's image of being a man of the people?
It's 17 past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Well, Kanye West this morning and the good life. And apparently some of the Obama -- Obama's closest allies are living a pretty good life as well.
Of course, the president made the move from Chicago to Washington. He brought with him some of the best, the brightest. Turns out, yes, some of the richest political advisers. The White House inner circle is a bit of a millionaire's club.
So, what does that say about the way the Obama administration does business, Alina Cho? How he does business? Boy, we all need friends like these.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes. Well, you know, it's been surprising. I mean, keep in mind these are some of his closest friends. He's most comfortable around these people.
Good morning, guys. Good morning, everybody.
You know, every year the White House releases financial disclosure statements on those people who are serving in the administration. The Obama White House is no different, releasing new documents that reveal that many of the president's top aides are millionaires.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice-over): Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, senior advisers Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod, social secretary Desiree Rogers -- President Obama's inner circle with big bucks in the bank.
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Being a millionaire is almost the price of admission.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Please have a seat.
CHO: In a Democratic administration? The party of the middle class? Republicans have long been known for having wealthy aides in the White House, but President Obama is famous for being a man of the people.
SABATO: It's a conundrum. You want really successful people to be in the White House, but if you have all extremely successful people, successful financially, they're no longer representative of the broad body of Americans.
CHO: And no longer in touch with average American concerns, or are they?
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Anybody can say, well, how are they going to relate to me? I'll tell you why. If you've been broke, you remember what it means to be broke.
CHO: Thirty years ago according to "Newsweek," most of the 56 aides in the Carter White House lived on little more than their salaries, about $45,000 a year. At the beginning of their tenure during the Clinton administration, top aides George Stephanopoulos and Dee Dee Myers, according to "The Washington Post," reported five- figure salaries. Once they left the White House, they went on to make much more in the private sector.
Then there's Chief of Staff Emanuel, who also served as a Clinton senior adviser. Emanuel left the first time to work in finance, made more than $16 million in 2 1/2 years, and is now back at the White House with assets totaling between $4 million and $11 million. Like almost everything in politics, whether that's good or bad depends on the spin.
SABATO: Money is not just the mother's milk of politics, it's the currency of employment today in the White House.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Money often flows to talented people in our society. And rather being surprised by it or knocking it, I think we should celebrate when a president has the -- I think is smart enough to bring people along with him who had some success in life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: David Gergen says he's the contrarian. He now -- our senior political analyst goes on to say that these are people who know how hard it is to break through. They've also dealt with heavy hitters and frankly, they're not intimidated by them. Exactly the kind of people Gergen says that are badly needed in the White House -- tough and confident.
Gergen also says in our society, we tend to reward successful people with money, and he says nothing wrong with that. And he asks the real headline out of all of this maybe that these people gave up a lot of money to work at the White House for a man that they believe very strongly in, guys.
CHETRY: Yes. They could be adding to their bank accounts, right?
CHO: That's right. And really this money afforded them the ability to sort of take a step back and go into public service and, you know, maybe they'll leave and make more money.
CHETRY: One interesting note, we are looking at the rankings. Joe Biden ranks 99th in terms of net worth in 2007.
CHO: That's really interesting, isn't it? Average Joe. Average Joe Biden.
HOLMES: I guess he doesn't buy them dinner when they go out. Somebody else has to pick up the bill.
All right. Alina, thank you.
CHO: You bet.
CHETRY: Well, we're following a story that's breaking and developing this morning in Oklahoma and Texas. Wildfires burning out of control. Flames in some cases destroying entire neighborhoods. We're going to show you what fire crews are up against and also talk about what the forecast has in store today.
Terror groups are using the web to rally followers and the threat in new attacks. Now companies in the U.S. are inadvertently helping them get their message out. How is that happening? We'll take a look.
Twenty-five minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN BREAKING NEWS.
CHETRY: Coming up on 28 minutes after the hour right now, and we're following breaking news this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.
Wildfires fanned by high winds, in some cases, tornado force -- hurricane-force winds fueled by tinder dry brush destroying scores of homes, forcing evacuations in Oklahoma and Texas. The police chief in Midwest City, Oklahoma, where more than a hundred homes have burned, says the town looks like a war zone. Firefighters are hoping that the weekend weather will provide some relief from what has been unfortunately a perfect firestorm.
The Los Angeles Angels will take to the field tonight in their mourning after the death of 22-year-old rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart in a hit-and-run accident. He was a passenger in a car that police say was struck by a suspected drunk driver who ran a red light early Thursday. It happened just hours after Adenhart pitched brilliantly in a season debut.
Police arrested Andrew Thomas Gallo who they say was driving with a suspended license because of a previous drunk-driving conviction. The Angels postponed last night's scheduled game.
And there are new concerns about the safety of America's food? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting after years of steady progress, efforts to improve food safety "plateaued." According to the agency, fresh produce in particular has led to more illnesses and larger outbreaks. The CDC is also calling for improved methods to quickly trace the source of contaminated produce -- T.J.
HOLMES: Well, Kiran, this morning the Taliban and other terrorist groups are threatening your safety, and American companies are unwittingly helping them do it. How? By hosting their Web sites.
Yes, for terrorists, the service is relatively cheap. So just how common is this? What's being done to stop it? Nicholas Thompson joins me now, senior editor at "Wired" magazine. I guess this -- it's hard for people to get their heads around it. You're telling me these people are the ones who are after us, want to kill us. American companies are helping them get their message out. Just how many? Hard to get a hard number, but how many Web sites are we talking about that are using American companies.
NICHOLAS THOMPSON, SENIOR EDITOR, "WIRED" MAGAZINE: The estimate I've gotten has been about 60 to 70 percent of Jihadist Web sites are hosted in the United States. Second best place to go is Malaysia, but we've got most of them.
HOLMES: Now why?
THOMPSON: Because United States servers are cheap and their stable. There aren't very many good web hosting companies in Waziristan, so you go to the U.S. They probably use Microsoft Windows. They probably use Intel processors. They just like American technology.
HOLMES: Now, how is it that -- or is it even possible to try to police all these sites, to police who is setting them up?
THOMPSON: Yes, absolutely. And that should be done. There are a lot of individuals, Americans, patriotic Americans who go out and look for these sites and report back to the FBI. The FBI is certainly constantly monitoring them. So, yes, people are looking for them and trying to watch them and see what happens.
HOLMES: OK. That's the thing. Are they trying to watch them and see what happens to try to get information, or are they watching them trying to shut them down to keep some of this propaganda from getting out?
THOMPSON: You want to do both. And it's a very complicated interesting issue when you do it. There are different kinds of sites. And with each one you probably want to have a different strategy. So the sites that were in the news -- they are in the news right now are basically billboards. And they put out news about Afghanistan -- propaganda, pro-Taliban propaganda.
Now, you can monitor those and you can get some information. You can sort of figure out who set them up. You can figure out a little bit about who sees them. But the value of monitoring them is not that high. So shut them down. There are sites where there's actually chat and communication, in where people log in. And if you can monitor those sites, you can get lots of information about what's going on.
HOLMES: All right. And I want to be clear here. For the most part, these sites aren't being used to coordinate a task of any kind. These are more so propaganda that's being put out.
THOMPSON: Well, the sites that are being hosted -- they are in the news right now, being hosted by American companies are just putting out propaganda.
HOLMES: OK.
THOMPSON: There are lots of sites where people discuss attacks. But I don't think there's actual, you know, attack coordination on sites that are easy to monitor.
HOLMES: Now, where do we run into some free speech issues here? These are American hosting companies. These are companies as well who have the right, if you want to use their service, to say what kind of content you can put up. But, still, where do you run into that fine line of free speech?
THOMPSON: You're running to it immediately. The companies have the right to shut you down. That's policy question. Do you want the companies constantly monitoring their sites? They've got millions of sites. Do you want people at the company saying -- well, it looks like this one is offensive, let's shut it down.
HOLMES: All right.
THOMPSON: This one is clearly pro-Taliban, but this one just sort of has a slightly pro-Taliban slant. It's really complicated.
HOLMES: All right. Hey, we're speaking of a couple of sites that were shutdown. There's a -- we contacted this group, The Planet. That's the country's biggest supplier of Web hosting services. A spokesperson put out a statement for us. We'll show it to you here.
And it says, The Planet, which is the name of the company again, "The Planet hosts 17 million Web sites. When we become aware of unacceptable content or determine there is either pending danger or potential harm, we either take the site down or notify U.S. authorities."
Is that the posture we're starting to see most of these companies take? Something similar to what we just see from The Planet?
THOMPSON: Yes. That's what we're seeing. What we want is we want policies like that, but we want them to have very good communication with the FBI, and we also want them to be responsive.
For example the site The JaWa Report is the one that noticed that these sites were up there and pointed out the URLs. We want the Web hosting companies to be responsive to groups like that.
HOLMES: OK. Last thing here before we let you go on a different topic here.
April 1st, Convector, all right? This worm that was supposed to shutdown every PC in the world. It seemed like Y2K all over again. This thing was built up -- does this thing come in like a lion or was it -- was it a bust?
THOMPSON: Well, clearly, it didn't shutdown the al Qaeda PCs.
HOLMES: Yes, obviously. THOMPSON: It has -- well, it didn't come in on April 1st. What happen on April 1st is that was the first day where it could have been weaponized, where it could have been activated.
HOLMES: OK.
THOMPSON: And that didn't happen. But it's just actually been activated. So we have all these computers, and they're waiting to get instructions on what to do. April 1st was the first day they could have gotten instructions. They didn't get them then, but they've got them now. Now what do those instructions tell them? We're not sure. But it looks like they're being turn into a massive system for sending you more spam.
HOLMES: OK. So we got to have you back. Is that what you're telling me, Nick?
All right, Nick Thompson, good to have you.
THOMPSON: Thanks a lot.
HOLMES: Thank you so much - Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, the war zone here at home. Recent mass shootings have claimed more American victims than those killed this year in Iraq. What's behind the increase in the deadly violence? And what can be done to stop it?
It's 33 minutes after the hour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE DABROWSKI, SOLAR INVENTOR: Everything is solar -- yes. It's all charged by the sun.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mike Dabrowski has been playing with the sun for 30 years.
DABROWSKI: Ready?
FEYERICK: So that's the raw energy?
DABROWSKI: That's the raw energy that we stored over five minutes from this much sunlight.
FEYERICK: The inventor who has worked fixing TVs, stereos and supertankers uses solar energy for things like cooking.
DABROWSKI: Seventy-four degrees, climbing quickly. 75. 77. 79.
FEYERICK: And charging his hybrid. Look closely at his suped-up Honda inside and you'll see it's no ordinary hybrid.
DABROWSKI: There's one here and two down there. FEYERICK: He changed it in a major way, by hacking into the car's computer and making it so the driver, not the car, decides whether to operate on gas or electric.
DABROWSKI: I can shift whether I'm generating power or I'm taking power out of the batteries.
FEYERICK (on camera): So, you are the one who's deciding how this car is running?
DABROWSKI: Right.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Extra batteries fuel electric power longer. And a fifth wheel propels the car when the gas is off.
DABROWSKI: I'm going to flip this switch. Drop down the e- wheel. So now we're driving on pure electric, which was stored in that battery yesterday from the sunlight, from that solar panel.
FEYERICK: So far he is yet to make any real money.
(on camera): What is it you most want to create and leave behind?
DABROWSKI: A sustainable way of life for all of us. I really want to just help everybody.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Thompson, Connecticut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 38 minutes past the hour.
It's a sobering subject to talk about. But in reality, more Americans have been killed in mass shootings over the past month than have died in Iraq so far this year. And a lot of people are asking, what is fueling the surge in gun violence.
There were the 13 innocent people murdered in Binghamton alone last Friday. And then the three Pittsburg police officers shot dead by an alleged white supremacist, who believed the Obama administration was coming for his guns. At least that's what he told his friends. That has many gun control advocate saying the president should do exactly that.
Our next guest has written a commentary on the subject. He says that we can't solve the problem if we don't keep track of the dead. John Avlon is a columnist for TheDailyBeast.com, and he joins me now.
Thanks for being with us.
JOHN AVLON, COLUMNIST, THEDAILYBEAST.COM: Good morning. CHETRY: You started a running tally on The Daily Beast, which is the Web site that you write for. And you say that keeping a tally is an important reality check. Explain.
AVLON: I think so often we cover the tragedy in these shootings. Then we move on to the next thing. And we don't see it in a larger context. You can't understand this violence unless you see it in context. And when you realize it, more Americans have been shot in mass murders this month than have been killed in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan this year. That's a sobering reality check. And it's the kind of thing that can maybe help us face reality in a (INAUDIBLE), it's changing.
CHETRY: You know, and whenever we are confronted with senseless violence, it's just our natural reaction that we want answers. We want to know what's causing this. There are some who have said it's perhaps the bad economy. Others who have said maybe it is fears that move to ban weapons, or causing people to buy more weapons.
Do we have answers?
AVLON: There's no clear answer, because each of these individuals is motivated by their own sickness and hatred. But clearly there's an increase sense of desperation and violence. Some folks do point to the economy, and they have sort of root cause theory of increase violence. We know that in bad economy domestic violence increases for example. And some of these shootings were of family members. A man in Washington State killed five of his children.
But I think also there's a copycat quality. There is a -- this is all snowballing upon itself. And that's why it's even more important to call attention to it and see it in aggregate, not just to be focused and then move on. And then to really start looking at what we can do, what common ground we can build on to stop this cycle of violence.
CHETRY: You know, firearms sales in large retail outlets up 39 percent this year, and you recently wrote about how some people are fearful that this administration wants to take away Second Amendment rights. And you write, "We can work toward a centrist cease-fire in this culture war. Fighting gun crime aggressively does not have to be inconsistent with the individual right to bear arms."
But it is such a polarizing issue. Meaning, you're never going to convince the people who believe that guns -- that the more guns we have, the more people are going to die, period. And the others who say, you know what, don't take guns away from a law-abiding citizen so that it's the criminals and the, you know, people that want to launch attacks that have them. So how do you get common ground between those two groups?
AVLON: What I'm talking about is the politics of problem solving. Rather than just throwing up our hands and saying, look, we're never going to agree, we're deeply polarized on this issue. Let's look at what common ground there is and then build upon it. Even the NRA supports increased mandatory census for crimes committed with guns.
We can have a zero tolerance policy for illegal gun trafficking and people who have gun possession and those who commit crimes with guns. That's an area we can build on. Rather than always retreating to some conservatives being able to talk about gun violence for fear that we invite new legislation, and some liberals wanting to ignore the reality of the Second Amendment. Those polarized positions don't help solve these problems. And when you have a crisis like we have now, that's what we need to do -- solve problems and build on new common ground.
CHETRY: It's interesting, though, because the Attorney General, Eric Holder, recently talked about possibly reinstituting the assault weapons ban that was under the Clinton administration that was allowed to expire under the Bush administration. And he got a letter from 65 House Democrats, who said, you know what, let's not touch this right now. There are Democrats in the south who have been elected by saying we understand the fundamental feeling that the Second Amendment needs to be protected.
AVLON: And one of the questions will be is whether the assault weapons ban, which was allowed to expire in 2004, is going to be seen as part and parcel with the Second Amendment. That's going to be an interesting question. We have Eric Holder and President Obama who campaigned on reinstating this assault weapons ban, which was backed by many law enforcement agencies in the 1990s, and then the leaders in Congress Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid opposing it for fear that there will be a third rail politically for some of the more conservative Democrats. That's the kind of issue. You've got to wonder, at what point does the body count begin to adjust the political calculation?
CHETRY: You guys are keeping count on TheDailyBeast.com. Thanks so much for joining us, John Avlon.
AVLON: Thank you.
CHETRY: Always great to see you.
AVLON: Good.
CHETRY: T.J.
HOLMES: And we continue to follow developing story this morning that intense effort to free an American captain held hostage off Somalia. The Navy now turning up the pressure on the pirates. But how does the U.S. deal with pirates who are only in it for a payday? We're covering this story from every angle.
It's 42 after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: And welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Just about a quarter to the top of the hour.
Let's fast forward to the stories that will be making news a little later today. The president -- he's from Chicago, right? They have pretty good pizza there in Chicago, don't they? So why is the president hosting a House pizza party tonight with food from Chicago -- no, not Chicago pizzeria, a place in St. Louis.
Yes, there's a big White House pizza party tonight. But he's not using stuff from his hometown Chicago. He's using a restaurant in St. Louis. Why? Who really knows here? He might have explaining to do. But one Chicago pie maker says about this that the pizza policy has to change at the White House.
Also standing by for new detail of President Obama's plan to get money moving again this morning. At 11:00 Eastern, the president will be sitting down with his top economic advisers. He'll then go before cameras to detail the administration's outlook, also the administration's next moves.
And 10:00 Eastern, a court hearing for the pilot who stole a small plane from a flight school in Canada, then flew it erratically across three states in the U.S. Police say the man had a death wish. He wanted to be shot down. Right now, he's being held in St. Louis where he's facing two federal charges.
CHETRY: We're updating you now on a developing story. Negotiations are under way with four pirates stuck in a lifeboat with an American captain they're holding hostage. The U.S. Navy, with help from FBI negotiators, is now trying to talk with the pirates and talk them into giving up Captain Richard Phillips. So far, the pirates remain defiant. But with no fuel to get back to Somalia, they're running out of options.
So how do negotiators approach the pirates? Here's CNN's Jeanne Meserve.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: They say, Kiran, FBI negotiators are not on the scene off Somalia, but they are nonetheless in the thick of it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): With Captain Richard Phillips hostage, the FBI crisis negotiators strategize with the Navy and the owners of Phillips' ship.
ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The FBI people are here at Quantico. And so they're using, you know, telecommunication means to be in touch with them.
MESERVE: But how difficult is it for the U.S. authorities to communicate with the pirates. Will the radio on the lifeboat run out of batteries? Do the pirates speak English?
CHRISTOPHER VOSS, THE BLACK SWAN GROUP: If there aren't any English-speakers among the kidnappers, then you find someone that you can trust that can talk to them, someone that is comfortable, someone that understands the things that you're trying to get across. MESERVE: Former FBI negotiator Christopher Voss says the pirates are probably negotiating for safe passage away from the area and the presence of the U.S. Navy is ratcheting up their anxiety.
VOSS: It's good for the situation overall for the kidnappers to know that they're there, that the alternative to a peaceful resolution is a negative one.
MESERVE: Namely that they will be arrested or killed. But others are not so sure.
JUAN CARLOS ZARATE, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: I think once the pirates have hold of a vessel or a hostage, the pirates have the upper hand. We value the life of our citizens. They may not value their lives as much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: The U.S. government will negotiate with kidnappers, but will not make concessions. It also discourages families and companies from paying ransom, but in some instances, that is the only way to win a hostage's safe release.
T.J., Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: And obviously any of those negotiations are going to be tense and there -- you know, you can't imagine what's going through the mind both of the people that are trying to secure his release but also the pirates. And so we're going to be talking to someone a little later, former FBI hostage negotiator Christopher Voss. He's going to tell us exactly how this works.
HOLMES: Yes. For all some unique circumstances that most negotiators aren't used to -- a boat, hostage, pirates, all that stuff. So, we'll check in with him in just a few.
Also, did the president bow to the Saudi King or did he not? What's all this fuss about? Jeanne Moos tells us what -- yes, you see it right there? Was that a bow or not? Folks, what do you think? But Jeanne Moos is going to be along to tell us why some people are all bent out of shape over this moment. It's 10 to the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Well, show you a moment here that has a lot of people talking, the moment that President Obama met the Saudi King. Did he bow? Was it a show of royal respect, or was it a diplomatic blunder?
Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Obama greets the King of Saudi Arabia.
Did the president bow?
Did he bend?
Is it worth getting bent out of shape over?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The flag doesn't bow and neither do we.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't care. Whatever. It's just a bow. He's just being nice to the guy.
MOOS: Conservative blogs haven't been so nice.
Bowing, scraping, embarrassing -- what does it say to the world?
Did Obama bow to Saudi King Abdullah or was he cleaning the floor?
Some who look at the video didn't see much at all.
(on camera): Notice anything?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His butt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There could be something in the back of his pants.
MOOS: No, no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is he doing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever it was he did with the king of Saudi Arabia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he bow or didn't he?
MOOS (voice-over): The White House says no. It's just that the president is so much taller than the king
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He bent over with both to shake -- with both hands to shake his hands.
MOOS: But he appears to dip well before the two-handed shake. And most folks weren't buying the bend over to shake hands explanation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ray Charles can see that he bowed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looks like he's kissing his ring, but it can't possibly be that.
MOOS: Arab columnists thought it was a bow -- a show of respect. But the conservative "Washington Times" ran an editorial calling the move "a shocking display," an "extraordinary protocol violation" and a "servile gesture." UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everlasting negativeness (ph) no matter what you do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is just more educated about their culture and more global in his thinking.
MOOS: The conservative blog Hot Air posted a video called "A Tale of Two Bows," comparing how President Obama greeted the Queen of England versus the King of Saudi Arabia.
MOOS: The president himself has said...
OBAMA: It is true that we have to change our behavior in showing the Muslim world greater respect.
MOOS: Remember how President Bush showed his respect for the Saudi royal prince -- holding hands.
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is our state flower.
MOOS: It's a sign of friendship in the Arab world, but President Bush paid a price.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO," COURTESY NBC)
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": Look, show that footage from this morning.
(SONG PLAYING): Love lift us up where we belong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS: Give that man a hand. But this is one bow...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not like that.
MOOS (on camera): That's too low?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Too low.
MOOS (voice-over): The White House would prefer not to take.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: What do you think? Was it a bow or not?
HOLMES: I mean, it's kind of ridiculous to try to explain it as anything else. He was trying to find his hand, the guy is short -- come on.
CHETRY: All right. Well, still ahead, with hurricane-force winds, raging wild fires ripping through Oklahoma and Texas, hopefully, they're going to get a break in the weather today, though.
Our Rob Marciano is tracking that for us. And we're going to be live at the scene to show you what firefighters are dealing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: This is on your iPod?
HOLMES: It's not. What is this? Is it The Who?
CHETRY: "Money Talks."
HOLMES: AC/DC?
CHETRY: That's right.
HOLMES: OK. No, I don't have that one.
But welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Listen up out there, folks. The president wants to be your financial advisor right about now and this is his advice: Refinance your mortgage and do it now. He is strongly encouraging everybody, struggling or not, to try to get a lower interest rate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: There are seven million to nine million people across the country who right now could be taking advantage of lower mortgage rates. That is money in their pocket.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: CNN White House correspondent Dan Lothian is with us now live this morning.
Dan, the president, of course, the economy, never too far from the brain for the president.
LOTHIAN: That's right.
HOLMES: But he's got to have some pretty impressive brains around him this morning. What's going to come out of his meeting and then an announcement coming?
LOTHIAN: That's right. And, you know, by the way, when I heard that sound bite you just played, the president sounding like he could have his own talk show on a money program.
But, yes, certainly the president will be sitting down with the top money folks here. The secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner. Also, the chair of the Federal Reserve and the FDIC. And essentially, they want to take a look at the ongoing efforts to stabilize the economy.
This administration really has been focusing on housing, on the auto industry, on providing small business loans, and also on shoring up banks by removing some of these bad assets. They think that things are moving along at a good pace. That there is some recovery taking place, but still say there's a long way to go, T.J.
HOLMES: All right. And also, tell us some more numbers here for the American people -- $83.4 billion. That is what the president is asking for, for U.S.-military diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. All right. This is some of the funding he was voting against two years ago when his predecessor was in that office that he now occupies. It's a little different sitting where he's sitting now, is it not?
LOTHIAN: It really is, you know. And I was talking to a senior administration official. And that person pointed out that the president voted against that then as senator, because he felt that President Bush removing -- that withdrawal timeline was not a good thing. That's why he was against it.
And this administration official also telling me that, you know, right now the president is president. So it's important for him as he tries to wind down the war in Iraq and sort of rap things up in Afghanistan. To really focus on not only Afghanistan but Pakistan and fight al Qaeda. And so this is money the administration really believes it needs in order to carry out that effort.
HOLMES: Well, that's very astute of whoever that adviser was. The president is president.
LOTHIAN: That's right.
HOLMES: All right. Dan Lothian for us on the White House. Thanks so much.
LOTHIAN: OK.
