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American Morning
Flight 3407 Recorder Transcripts Raising Questions on Crew's Competency, Training; Families of Gunned Down Soldiers Speaks Out; Government Raising a Red Flag on Social Security, Medicare; Filing for Bankruptcy: A Well-Deserved Way Out; A Look at TV of the Future
Aired May 13, 2009 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome once again. Glad your with us on this Wednesday. It is May 13th, I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts.
A lot to cover this morning, and here are the big stories that we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
A troubling picture emerging this morning of the commuter plane that crashed near Buffalo, New York back in February. Transcripts of the cockpit voice recorder raising questions about the flight crew's competency and training. Hear what the crew was talking about just minutes before the plane slammed into the ground killing all 49 people onboard and one person on the ground.
We're learning more about the deadliest incident of soldier-on- soldier violence in the six-year Iraq war. An Army sergeant is facing five counts of murder accused of shooting five fellow servicemen at a military stress clinic in Baghdad. This morning, we're hearing from the victim's families and the father of the alleged shooter who says the Army is to blame for pushing his son over the edge.
And a safety net that may not be there when you need it. This morning, growing concern that Social Security and Medicare may run out sooner than expected because of the recession. Our Suzanne Malveaux on the pressure that the president is feeling to get something done.
But we begin this morning with disturbing details of what happened inside the cockpit of that Colgan Air commuter plane that crashed near Buffalo, New York this past winter.
CHETRY: And it's fair to say that if you fly or you have loved ones that do, you want to believe that the pilots are fully trained and know how to deal with any emergency. This morning, though, we're learning more about what was going on and what the pilots were saying just minutes before that commuter plane fell to the ground killing all 49 people onboard and one person on the ground.
CNN's Allan Chernoff joins us live. And when you played for us or at least show us the transcripts of some of these conversations, this is not what you would be hoping that your pilot and co-pilot would be having in the minutes before landing.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Not at all. I mean, this is really a material that makes you nervous about flying. Anyone, even experienced flyers. And it is very clear from the transcripts that the pilot and the co-pilot simply did not know how to save the aircraft.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF (voice-over): "Jesus Christ, we're down," exclaimed pilot Marvin Renslow.
Then, First Officer Rebecca Shaw screamed as Flight 3407 crashed into a private home near Buffalo-Niagara International Airport.
Those were the final 20 seconds of the cockpit voice recorder. Only minutes before, Shaw told Renslow of her fear of crashing in icy conditions. That was a violation of cockpit rules requiring all discussion to focus on landing the aircraft.
Why couldn't Captain Renslow save the plane? The National Transportation Safety Board is examining Renslow's training at Colgan Air, the regional carrier that operated Flight 3407. Renslow never received hands-on experience with the safety system in the Bombardier Q400 aircraft, called a stick pusher, and activate it to prevent the plane from stalling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know of any stick training or stick pusher training that was done in the actual Q400 prior to the accident?
PAUL PRYOR, COLGAN AIR: In the simulator, no. In the grounds book portion, it is covered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it's information, it's not practical experience with handling anything, right?
PRYOR: Correct.
CHERNOFF: The airline doesn't have to provide that training, according to the FAA.
TINA SINISCALCO, SISTER OF CRASH VICTIM: This should not have happened. No. These fifty people should be enjoying their life right now.
CHERNOFF: Captain Renslow was fully FAA certified, but he had failed five pilot tests, three of which occurred before he joined the airline. Colgan Air says Renslow revealed only one of those failures to the airline. Those facts led the safety board to ask an official from the aircraft's manufacturer if a more experienced pilot could have saved the plane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe this was a recoverable stall?
WALLY WARNER, BOMBARDIER: My opinion is yes. (END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: The NTSB is also investigating pilot fatigue. The captain was seen sleeping in the crew room before the flight, and the first officer flew through the night to get to Newark where the flight departed from.
ROBERTS: It's got to be difficult for the families to hear that a more experienced pilot could have saved that aircraft, or it might not have gotten in the position in the first place.
CHERNOFF: I mean, it's unimaginable. It really is. And it's just -- it has such implications for all of us. I mean, the airline keeps saying, well, this was FAA approved. It was FAA approved. Where's the FAA?
CHETRY: Right.
CHERNOFF: Their rules are garbage, basically. That's what we're learning. Their rules are not protecting us. They are not specific enough, not detailed enough. This really should just explode the whole set of rules and get the FAA serious about air safety.
CHETRY: They're holding hearings on this all this week to find out more.
CHERNOFF: Today and tomorrow.
CHETRY: All right.
ROBERTS: There's the outrage this morning, folks. Allan, thanks so much for that.
CHETRY: Well, for the first time this morning, we're hearing from the families of soldiers gunned down in a military counseling center in Iraq.
Nineteen-year-old Michael Edward Yates of Fredericksburg, Maryland was one of five victims. Yates had been at the combat stress clinic for about five days. His grandfather says that he's now struggling to understand how an American soldier could have been killed by one of his own.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES HURLEY JR., GRANDFATHER OF VICTIM: My grandson went there to get help too. He was having a rough time.
You know? You know, 19 years old. They're killing people. Your enemy, your senior friends die, and he was stressed. And he went there and then somebody else who was more stressed than him killed him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Meantime, the father of the accused killer 44-year-old Sergeant John Russell is speaking out blaming the Army for the tragic incident.
Ed Lavandera has the story.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, Sergeant John Russell grew up here in Sherman, Texas. And just before he deployed for Iraq last summer, he bought a house in this neighborhood. And this is where we spoke with his father and only son.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): It started with a fight inside this combat stress clinic in Camp Liberty, Baghdad between Sergeant John Russell and other Army officers. Russell was being escorted back to his barracks when he snapped.
WILBURN RUSSELL, SOLDIER'S FATHER: They said they got (INAUDIBLE) from the facility. He beat the crap out of a guy, took the gun away from him.
LAVANDERA: Military officials say Sergeant Russell then drove back to the clinic and killed five U.S. soldiers.
But Russell's father says it wasn't combat stress that made him kill, but fellow soldiers who pushed him over the edge. John Russell's father and son spoke extensively with us about the Army sergeant's experience in Iraq.
W. RUSSELL: It stressed him. They broke him. They ruined his life. They told him you're an idiot, you don't belong in here. We're going to break you. We're going to get you out of here.
LAVANDERA: Russell was on his third tour in Iraq. His family says the 21-year, Army veteran never showed signs of post-traumatic stress and even if he did, he wouldn't have talked about it.
W. RUSSELL: He wouldn't have asked for help if he had to, you know.
LAVANDERA (on camera): He wouldn't have?
W. RUSSELL: No, he would not have. No.
LAVANDERA: Do you think that's maybe why they...
W. RUSSELL: (INAUDIBLE) John Wayne, you know, a man's man, you know? He's laid back, he's real quiet.
JOHN RUSSELL, SOLDIER'S SON: Something in his mind just went off and he just had no control over it is what I think.
LAVANDERA: Earlier he's -- he's not a violent guy.
J. RUSSELL: No, not at all. Not at all.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Military officials in Baghdad say Sergeant Russell was ordered to undergo counseling last week because of unspecified words and actions.
MAJ. GEN. DAVID PERKINS, U.S. ARMY: Just know that his chain of command had concerns about him. He had been undergoing counseling within the command. Again, they had already taken the immediate measure of removing his weapon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: Sergeant Russell's son tells me he last received an e-mail from his father on April 25th, wishing him a happy birthday and saying that he was looking forward to the end of his deployment and that he would be home to visit in less than two months -- John and Kiran.
ROBERTS: Ed Lavandera reporting for us this morning. Ed, thanks so much.
Also developing this morning, your retirement at risk. First, it was your shrinking 401(k), now the government is raising a red flag about Social Security and Medicare. The programs were in trouble long before this recession hit. Now, the government warns there may be nothing left by the time many of us retire.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux has got more on what might be the greatest challenge on the president's domestic plan.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, as people earn less, the government takes in less money making it more difficult to save in the long term. So it is not surprising when you take the largest government entitlement and find out that they are in trouble.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX (voice-over): Brace yourself -- more bad news.
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, U.S. SECRETARY OF TREASURY: The longer we wait to address the long-term solvency of Medicare and Social Security, the sooner those challenges will be upon us and the harder the options will be.
MALVEAUX: Another casualty from the worst recession in decades, your Social Security.
GEITHNER: These reports underscore the urgency of action.
MALVEAUX: A report released by the trustees reveals the country's Social Security and Medicare trust funds will run out of money even sooner than expected. Social Security likely depleted by 2037, four years earlier than projected. Medicare out of cash by 2017, two years earlier.
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Today's report should trouble anyone who's concerned about the future of Medicare and health care in America. MALVEAUX: The government partly blames the economic crisis; 5.7 million jobs lost since the recession began in December 2007. Unemployment now at a record 25-year high of 8.9 percent. Fewer people working and less tax revenue means less money going into the trust funds for both entitlement programs.
President Obama says Social Security can be fixed, not by raising the retirement age or cutting benefits, but increasing taxes for the wealthy.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For wealthier people, why don't we raise the cap? Make them pay a little more payroll tax?
MALVEAUX: The president says as health care costs skyrocket and the population gets older, the greater challenge will be funding Medicare and Medicaid.
OBAMA: Those are the things that are really breaking the bank.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: That's why there's such a push in the Obama administration for health care reform. In the long term, that will be hard fought legislation that is meant to fix the problem. In the short term, Republicans and Democrats agree that this economy needs to turn around to infuse some sort of cash into the system -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Suzanne Malveaux this morning. Suzanne, thanks so much.
And there's also this misnomer, the Social Security trust fund, it's not like there's a pot of money sitting there that promises a payment. But, you know, the way we're going now, we're going to have to borrow that money to pay the trust fund anyway. So, it puts us in a really dire situation.
CHETRY: It is certainly a huge problem that needs to be tackled.
Well, still ahead, credit criminals, deadbeats -- those are the words that used to be used to describe people who filed for bankruptcy. Times are certainly changing, though, and so are opinions. We're going to find out why many are now considering bankruptcy a well-deserved way out.
And who said old media can't harness the Internet. Have you checked out hulu.com? Forty-two million people watch their favorite TV shows old and new on the site last month. But did TV create a monster that could end up killing primetime?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Good morning, Washington. Shot of the Capitol building today, where it's 49 degrees going up to a high of 71 and partly cloudy. Should actually be quite comfortable there today. But as we know, a couple of weeks from now, we'll be into that swampy weather that Washington is so famous for.
Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Not long ago, people would fight tooth and nail to avoid filing for bankruptcy. But for more Americans today, it's an everyday fact of life. So is the stigma over declaring yourself broke gone?
Here's CNN's Carol Costello.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, for some, especially those over 40, filing for bankruptcy is one of the most shameful things you can do. But for younger people who lived their lives on credit, filing for bankruptcy is not a happy thing, but it's not the worst thing in the world either.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): Seems everybody is doing it. Bankruptcy, once something so shameful you didn't even mention it, today many consider it a well-deserved out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE DREW CAREY SHOW")
DREW CAREY, COMEDIAN: I declare bankruptcy. See, for once, I'm using the system instead of the system using me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: It turns out comedian Drew Carey was prescient. Many Americans including Matthew Swift can understand where Drew was coming from. Last year he lost his job. Unable to work with his mortgage company and in danger of foreclosure, he used the system and filed for Chapter 7.
MATTHEW SWIFT, FILED FOR CHAPTER 7: What that did was kind of throw a monkey wrench in the process. It kind of gave us time, much- needed time to, you know, find employment.
DR. JOY BROWNE, PSYCHOLOGIST: They were talking about the b- word.
COSTELLO: Psychologist Dr. Joy Browne who hosts her own radio show says bankruptcy has become what divorce used to be.
BROWNE: You know, our parents' generation, our grandparents' generation, divorce was shameful. And then everybody started doing it. And it really did take most of the sort of sting out of it and I suppose cool factor. It's much cooler to be divorced than married not.
COSTELLO: Not is right because bankruptcy kills your credit rating for years, makes it harder to get a job, and it doesn't mean all your debts go away. Yet bankruptcy filings in April were up 36 percent from a year ago. The American Bankruptcy Institute expects more than 1.4 million people will file for bankruptcy in 2009.
NANCY RYAN, BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY: Oh, my God. It's rising exponentially.
COSTELLO: Nancy Ryan is one extremely busy bankruptcy lawyer. She doesn't see a lot of shame either these days. What she does see is anger. Many of her clients are in Matthew Swift's boat with mortgage lenders who refuse to help refinance their loans. RYAN: They feel, well, I did everything I can. If they won't work with me, well, then they deserve for me to just file bankruptcy on them and not pay back for my house.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: You know, Matthew Swift said filing for bankruptcy didn't exactly make him happy, but he's not ashamed to tell people either. He considers bankruptcy a useful tool, one he used to save his home -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes, times have changed. I mean, she's right. It used to be just considered the absolute worst to have to do that.
ROBERTS: So many people in trouble now, they feel that they don't have any other recourse.
CHETRY: And your credit -- I mean, you pay for that for years and years to come.
ROBERTS: Yes. She said yes. No kidding.
CHETRY: Well, it's being called a critical moment for the future of the Middle East. President Obama meeting with Israel's new prime minister next week.
Right now, they're pretty far apart on their peace plans. An expert on the region tells us whether this administration can find common ground.
Also, we're learning some shocking details about what happened just moments before the deadly crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 went down near Buffalo, New York in February. We're now talking to a former air safety investigator about what went wrong.
It's 16 and a half minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Nineteen minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
You know, in just hours, safety officials in Washington will begin a second day of hearings into the deadly February crash of a commuter plane. It happened near Buffalo, New York. But we're already getting a rare and quite dramatic look inside the cockpit just before this plane slammed into the ground killing 50 people.
Joining me now is Greg Feith. He's a former senior investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.
Greg, thanks for being with us this morning.
GREG FEITH, FORMER NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Good morning, Kiran.
CHETRY: One of the things that was really telling about this, a transcript, the voice recorder revealed this conversation that took place. And this was just five minutes before the plane went down.
The first officer, Rebecca Shaw, says she's "never seen icing conditions." And then she says, "I don't want to have to experience that and make those kinds of calls. You know, I'd have freaked out. I'd have had like seen this much ice and thought, oh, my gosh, we were going to crash."
She's basically telling the pilot she's worried about icing conditions. It's a scary conversation to be having in the cockpit at the time.
FEITH: Absolutely. And when you look at the transcript and where that conversation took place being so close to the final event, you have to wonder why their awareness wasn't higher when they first took off and got into those icing conditions. And one of the things that the NTSB is going to really have to look at is why they breached that sterile cockpit rule.
But if you look at the transcript, they talk about ice and then they go back to their normal conversation. They don't really talk about the flying of the airplane and the approach that they need to be flying.
CHETRY: Right. Exactly. When you say sterile cockpit, it's basically that, you know, the FAA rules forbid any non-flight related talk from happening below 10,000 feet. But here you are, you're hearing casual conversation, people talking about being tired, maybe they should have called out sick.
I mean, how common is it to hear that type of casual conversation on an approach?
FEITH: Well, we don't really hear it because unless the airplane has an event that the NTSB or the FAA has to investigate, we don't know. But I've ridden in the cockpits, and there is casual conversation that takes place.
But it's the discipline here. I mean, you're in a critical icing situation. You're going to be shooting an approach down to what we call minimums. The weather is very bad. You don't want to be talking about anything other than flight-related duties.
CHETRY: Right.
FEITH: And that was the big issue here...
CHETRY: Right.
FEITH: ... is that they didn't even think about that when -- after they talked about ice, they went back to their normal conversation that was non-flight related.
CHETRY: Right. And then we get now to what many say is the critical mistake that was made. The captain was never properly trained apparently on the plane's anti-stall stick pusher. And this is a safety feature that automatically points the plane's nose into a dive so that it gains speed to prevent a stall if it slows down.
Now, pilots apparently are trained. They're supposed to push the stick forward to gain speed if it happens. But he apparently yanked back on it at the time causing the crash. Was this preventable in your opinion?
FEITH: Well, when you look at it, Kiran, you got to look at the training program. The training programs in a lot of the airlines don't want you -- don't want a pilot ever to get into that stalled condition. So they train you to recognize when the airplane is getting slow and getting into that stalled condition before it actually gets there. So they want you to recover and be away from it.
So, for this pilot not to have gotten the full training of the stick pusher - but the bigger thing here is, because he probably knew he was very low to the ground when the nose went over, his immediate reaction not necessarily to the stall and the proper technique to recover from it, was probably more of an emotional reaction. That he knew he was supposed to hit ground and it was an instinctual move to pull the nose back up to level so that he wouldn't hit the ground.
CHETRY: Right. But was it the wrong move in your opinion?
FEITH: Well, right now, I mean, it's really easy to sit back and say it was the wrong move. But I can understand why he probably did that.
He didn't have a full comprehension on what was going on with the airplane. He knew he was close to the ground. All he was trying to do was get it back to level flight.
CHETRY: All right. And the other thing that they're going to be talking about, should this be mandatory? I mean, they're having hearings in Washington. Apparently, it's not mandatory at this point to be trained on that in terms of -- in terms of flight simulators versus what you just learned on the books in the ground.
FEITH: Absolutely. And I think that pilots, so that they can build the mental modeling and the tactile skill development should be taken all the way through full blown stalls in the simulator because the fidelity of the simulator is pretty good. But they should at least be exposed to it so that they have a total awareness. Don't just take them up and then expect them to read about the fact that this is what's going to happen if you do get into a full blown stall.
CHETRY: All right. Greg Feith, former NTSB senior investigator, thanks for being with us this morning.
FEITH: You're welcome.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: Well, no president has been able to solve it for 60 years, but President Obama will begin to tackle the challenges standing in the way of Mideast peace next week. Why his meeting with Israel's prime minister could set the tone for the next four years.
And a site that's gotten pretty close to perfecting free TV on the Internet. Not only is it legal, but several big media companies are backing it as well. We'll take a look at the hoopla over Hulu and whether it's getting too big for its own good.
It's 25 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, they've been saying it forever. Soon your TV and your PC will all be the same thing. Well, we're getting closer by the day. The screen is getting bigger, the quality is getting better, and now it's free and legal. And maybe changing primetime as we know it.
Alina Cho has more now on the Hulu craze?
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. An unlikely partnership really between FOX, NBC, and now ABC. Thousands of shows really available on-line.
Good morning, everybody.
You know when Hulu officially launched in March of last year, a lot of people thought, so what? Another Web site that provides free TV content. Big deal? There's YouTube already.
Well, Hulu is a big deal. And it is changing the way we look at TV.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice-over): A year ago, Hulu, the butt of jokes in the tech industry was making fun of itself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, HULU ADVERTISEMENT)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the best part is there's nothing you can do to stop it? I mean, what are you going to do, turn off your TV and your computer?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Now Hulu has the last laugh.
NICK THOMPSON, SENOR EDITOR, "WIRED" MAGAZINE: Nobody thought this would succeed at all. And then very quickly, we suddenly realized, wait, this is pretty good. And, whoa, this is doing really well.
CHO: Hulu says 42 million viewers in March alone, twice the audience of "American Idol" and Hulu says "Saturday Night Live" started the craze.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TINA FEY, PLAYING SARAH PALIN: And I can see Russia from my house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: NBC wanted to protect its content from piracy, so NBC and FOX made their struggling little Web site, Hulu, a home for SNL clips and all primetime programming on their networks and now ABC is available after first run, shows and movies past and present, all of it free. And some argue with better quality than YouTube.
THOMPSON: You watch it on some other sites, there's this grainy little box and it buffers. You watch it on Hulu, and it looks clean, it's big, and it's very easy to find what you want.
CHO: Great for viewers, but what about the TV industry?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, HULU ADVERTISEMENT)
ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: You notice TV will rot your brain. But it's absurd.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Andrew Heller is vice chairman of Turner Broadcasting which owns CNN.
ANDREW HELLER, VICE CHAIRMAN, TURNER BROADCASTING: To put content on the Web for free with limited commercial interruptions cannibalizes that existing business model with very limited upside for anyone involved in the process.
CHO: Heller says, look what happened to newspapers. He says the networks could suffer, too.
Or maybe not says media analyst Richard Greenfield.
RICHARD GREENFIELD, MEDIA INDUSTRY ANALYST: I don't think there's someone sitting at home literally watching Hulu and not turning on their television.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, HULU ADVERTISEMENT)
BALDWIN: Hulu, an evil plot to destroy the world. Enjoy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GREENFIELD: At least the media company, in this case, are taking the very active role in trying to grab on and take hold of their digital future. Whether it will be enough to save the business, only time will tell.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CHO: But what is clear is that the landscape is changing. What many people don't realize, according to Internet experts, is that broadband in the United States is actually really, really slow compared to other countries. In a couple of years, though, our Internet connections could be five, ten, 20 times faster. And if that happens, it will be much easier to watch TV on the Internet, guys.
So we see Hulu now. There could be many, many more Hulus.
CHETRY: Right.
CHO: And listen, you know, as a lot of industry analysts say, the risk is right now your turning those traditional media dollars into digital dimes. Well, those digital dimes will be digital dollars someday, very soon probably.
ROBERTS: They may add up to be even greater than the digital dollars that we see on TV.
CHO: That's right. That's right.
CHETRY: I still have the same problem when I was using a wireless connection, when I'm on Wi-Fi. You're watching something and then just like...
CHO: That's what people say is the genius element of Hulu is that it is easy. You go to YouTube, you can find anything. If you want to watch a show, it's hard to find. On Hulu, it's pretty easy. So, we could see more of these popping up.
ROBERTS: Fascinating stuff. Alina, thanks so much for that.
Thirty-one minutes after the hour now. Checking out top stories.
Pope Benedict XVI calling for a sovereign Palestinian homeland during a visit to the West Bank this morning. It is his strongest endorsement yet for a Palestinian state. The Pope held mass in front of thousands of people in Bethlehem, believed to be the birth place of Christ. He is also visiting a Palestinian refugee camp.
The latest on who knew what and when about the alleged torture during the Bush administration. Our source close to Nancy Pelosi tells CNN that the House Speaker was told in February of 2003 that water boarding was used on CIA detainee Abu Zebeta. This appears to contradict Pelosi's account that she was never told that water boarding actually happened. The source also says Pelosi supported a letter sent to the administration at that time raising concerns about it.
A scary landing for 52 people onboard a Southwest flight at Houston's Hobby Airport last night. At first it looks like a typical puff of smoke that comes as the landing gear touches the ground, but then look at this. Anything but typical. The tire catches fire several hundred feet down the runway. Passengers on board slid down emergency chutes. Southwest's spokesperson says everyone got off of the plane OK, but, wow, a frightening end to what would have been a routine flight.
The White House just announced key meetings between President Obama and Mideast leaders. He's going to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
Joining us now to talk more about the potential for Middle East peace, from Washington, D.C., is Robin Wright. She is the former diplomatic correspondent for "The Washington Post" and also the author of "Dreams and Shadows, the future of the Middle East."
Robin, it's good to see you this morning.
King Abdullah of Jordan said this is going to be a critical meeting next week in terms of this idea of potentially finally putting together a peaceful solution to the Middle East crisis. Do you hold out much optimism that anything is going get done?
ROBIN WRIGHT, FORMER DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I think the president faces a tougher time than any time since the 1953 peace accords in Oslo.
The fact is that you have two Palestinian factions that are deeply divided between themselves, hold very different views on the future of Israel. You have an Israeli prime minister who has conditioned any progress on peace with the Palestinians to progress with the United States, with Iran.
And the administration is being very ambitious. It's not taking one piece at a time, it's the three big pieces, Arab-Palestinian- Israeli peace talks, Israeli-Syrian peace talks and Iran, on all at the same time. That's a pretty tough agenda.
ROBERTS: We'll talk about Syria in just a second, but let's stick with Israel for a moment.
The new prime minister of Israel, which is the old prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, still does not support a two-state system, Israel and the Palestinian state. The White House said he has to support it. Do you think he'll come around or is that a red line for Netanyahu?
WRIGHT: It's hard to tell. You know, until he gets here, we don't know what his position is going to be. He has talked about dealing with the Palestinians in the past. There are some who believe that he eventually will have to do something, whether it's acknowledge a two-state solution or engage in talks about economic development with the Palestinians to try to create a different reality on the ground.
So there's, you know, he's got to do something. But will he do enough is the big question?
ROBERTS: All right. Now to Syria. Many people believe that that's actually the linchpin for Middle East peace process. You start with Syria, you go through Iran, and eventually come around to the Palestinians. Bashar al-Asad, the president of Syria, said that he would like to meet with President Obama. Can you see that happening? During the campaign, then-candidate Obama said he would meet with Syria's leader.
WRIGHT: Well, Syria is the one area where you might find more progress than on others. It's not nearly as complicated. Both Israel and Syria have been engaged in talks on the side under the auspices of Turkey over the past year. And this is the place where the United States hopes to be able to pick up and move forward.
But then you get to the problem that Syria's close friend is Iran. And there is that difficult coalition between Hamas and the Palestinian Syria and Iran that makes it more difficult, that fuels the ability of Hamas to take an independent stand from the other Palestinian leadership.
ROBERTS: And finally to President Obama, we had heard for months that he was going to give a speech in a major Arab or Muslim capital. It's been chosen, it's going to be Cairo, Egypt. What do you think of that choice?
WRIGHT: Well, I think it's a very controversial choice. The fact is that you have a very autocratic leader who's been in power since 1981, grooming his son to be his successor. And this is a time that, you know, the United States is technically pushing for more openness and democracy, not the creation of a new political dynasty.
Egypt is the clearly the heart and soul of the Arab world that accounts for a quarter of the entire Arab population. It is the trendsetter. But the reality is that President Mubarak has done nothing really to accommodate the kind of political reforms either the Bush or Obama administration could push for.
ROBERTS: Quickly, Robin, if you were to counsel the president, where would you suggest he do that speech?
WRIGHT: Well, there's a lot of talk about Indonesia, which is where he spent some time as a youth. It's the largest Muslim country. There are, you know, there are other options. Morocco lobbied very hard. Jordan would like to be the site and Jordan has been a close ally. There are alternatives.
ROBERTS: All right. Robin Wright for us this morning. Robin, it's always great to see you. Thanks for coming in.
WRIGHT: Thank you, John.
ROBERTS: We know that President Obama is a sports fan and his sights are already set on the 2016 Olympic Games but it may just have something to do with the fact that the host city could end up being his hometown.
Plus, a small army of scientists are racing across the Midwest learning all they can about killer tornadoes. And our Rob Marciano is with them. A day in the life of a storm chaser, just ahead.
It's 37 minutes after the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Beautiful shot this morning coming to us from WLS of Chi-town. Raining right now, 52 digress. A little bit later also, pretty stormy day there. They're going to get some storms, possible hail. Seventy degrees there.
Well, no matter what the weather is like, we know that President Obama loves his hometown. It's on the list of cities seeking the 26- team Summer Olympics. The president is actually pushing pretty hard for Chicago to get the games.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: When those games are finally held here, I promise you this, it will not only stir the soul of the city, it will not only stir the soul of America, they will stir the soul of the entire world. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And joining us now is senior Politico reporter Ken Vogel.
What did you make of the president's video pitch? Is this something out of the ordinary for a president?
KEN VOGEL, SENIOR REPORTER, POLITICO: Oh, it really is, Kiran. Let's not forget that U.S. presidents traditionally have not been involved in the Olympics at any level. When President Bush went last year to Beijing for the Olympics, it was the first time in memory that a U.S. president had gone to an Olympics on foreign soil.
So for Obama to be this involved in pitching for Chicago, his hometown, to get the 2016 Summer Olympics this early is really something out of the ordinary. He didn't just make this video, he made another one, both for the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, which will decide where the Olympics will go.
And he also dispatched one of his top advisers, really the most close, trusted confidantes, Valerie Jarrett, to lead the effort from the White House to lure the Olympics to Chicago and promise that if Chicago gets the Olympics, he will have a special White House office to coordinate it. That's the first time that anyone has promised anything like that.
CHETRY: And you know, I mean and it is interesting. And you point out just how unusual it is and how involved they are, but really isn't it the best hope of Chicago to get the Olympics or even the U.S. in general to get the Olympics is our president who has a lot of popularity in the world?
VOGEL: It's a great strategy. It's one that makes a lot of sense. I talked to several members of the International Olympic Committee who said, hey, the U.S. wouldn't have any chance if it weren't for Obama getting elected. They feel that it really repairs some of the damage to the U.S. image internationally that was done during the Bush administration. Kind of similar to the sentiments that we hear from world leaders.
Of course, these folks on the International Olympic Committee are not quite as accountable. But they nonetheless respond to the same stimuli. And if President Obama goes to Copenhagen on October second when the International Olympic Committee will meet to make its final vote for the Olympics, it's thought that it could really bring home the Olympics for Chicago.
CHETRY: It may be a case of, "be careful what you wish for." You say that this doesn't come without some pretty big risks, the president being so visual about this, putting his face out there. What are the risks?
VOGEL: Well, certainly, if he goes to Copenhagen and Chicago is unsuccessful, it would be a pretty big loss. He'll be associated with it and it could potentially hurt his clout in the world.
Additionally, if he goes, gets it, and Chicago is successful, that's not without risk either. Let's not forget that the Olympics have really been a magnet for sort of mismanagement and scandal. You don't have to look any further back than 2002, the last U.S. Olympics in Salt Lake City to see an example of that.
And when you add to that Chicago as well as Illinois have not exactly been models of good governance recently. We don't have to look further back than the Rod Blagojevich scandal to see an example of that. It could be a recipe for some potentially interesting, sticky situations that Obama might be well served to stay away from.
CHETRY: You also point out thought that if he wins re-election in 2016, the Chicago Olympics will be the perfect victory lap as well.
VOGEL: Yes. There's certainly a lot of benefit there as well. I think that's why we're seeing him get involved. A lot of hometown pride at stake. Nationally, it could sort of build his reputation as a closer. And internationally, it could build on his clout. So, certainly there are rewards there and there are also risks.
CHETRY: Very interesting stuff that you wrote about. Ken Vogel, thanks for being with us this morning.
VOGEL: Thank you.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: Dozens of scientists and meteorologists are on the ground on tornado alley this morning. They're armed with new high- tech tools trying to get inside the deadly storms. And there are some abrewing this morning. We'll take you there live.
It's 44 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: We're back with the Most News in the Morning.
Our Rob Marciano is living out every meteorologist's dream this week. No, it's not a conference at snow bird. He's taking part in Vortex2, a high-tech project aimed at understanding tornadoes better than ever before.
Today, we get a look at a day in the life of a storm chaser. Here's Rob.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Shortly after 10:00 local time. Just had the weather briefing and the decision has been made to travel, a couple to - three hours, actually.
So, activities ramped up here and everybody is on the move. We've got one more live broadcast in about 20 minutes.
So we'll be behind the eight ball, but we hope to catch up. And if conditions ripen, see our first storm.
Well, it's a whole other ball game over here. Couple hours west of Texas now. Shed a couple of layers. Sunny, severe, clear. Temperatures into the mid-80s. We've pretty much moved the staging area into this truck stop parking lot. Kind of see those clouds out there in the distance. I assume that's what they're scanning.
There's DOW7. You see the radars whipping around there, probably scanning those clouds off there in a distance. Let's go see what they're looking at.
ERIK RASMUSSEN, VORTEX2 TEAM LEADER: There's some convection or showers trying to form out there where it's a lot drier. If that happens, there could be some cold air and spreads out on the ground and initiate some more storms. If those storms can move off to the area behind me, where it's more humid, potentially it may become a super cell.
MARCIANO: What kind of odds are you giving for this to continued to grow, (INAUDIBLE) and develop?
RASMUSSEN: I think probably better than even we'll be chasing it later today.
MARCIANO: I'll take those odds.
Those puffy white cumulus clouds earlier have grown somewhat. Now blocking out the sun. We've kind of moved our position, moved the entire armada actually to this other town just to the east. And now we're waiting for this thing just to grow a little bigger and we'll probably get those dopplers working again, scanning the storm.
Visually, this is a pretty cool storm. We're following (INAUDIBLE) into this area that has some rain, actually verga (ph) and some downdrafts just coming down and just kicking up this dust. That may be as close as we get to a tornado. This dust from the downdraft. Well, no tornadoes. But, got a couple of cool storms and beautifully back lit by a setting sun. So maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Apparently, Rob is going to have better luck tomorrow, which is today. Because there are some severe storms that are predicted from Oklahoma all the way up to Illinois. So, he may be out there chasing them today.
CHETRY: That's right. And we're supposed to have him live too and you can't always rely on that because of where he is.
ROBERTS: We'll see if the brewing storms didn't allow us to have him live.
CHETRY: Exactly.
ROBERTS: Well, we hope to hear from him a little bit later on. And certainly we'll hear from him throughout the day as well.
CHETRY: All right. Breaking news this morning: The Taliban making some new threats against Pakistani leaders and their families. This as Pakistan's military tries to get them out of the country. The latest on the fighting. Live from Islamabad.
Also, with many people out of work, the summer job market this year has really changed. We're going to tell you how you can up your chances of landing a summer job when the competition is tight.
It's 50 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Fifty-two minutes past the hour. Right now a shot of Boston, Massachusetts this morning where it's partly cloudy right now. It's 51 degrees. It's going to be sunny later today, almost going up to 70.
Well, for summer job seekers, the competition is expected to be tight this year. Laid-off workers are going after anything they can find. Drying up many summer opportunities for the college kids.
But Sandra Endo is "Minding your Business" this morning. She's got some real tips for getting hired no matter how tough the competition.
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, this year, teenagers are going to learn some of life's lessons in a much harder way. A big dose of reality when they hit the tough job market. Competition is fierce for summer jobs, especially for teenagers with no experience looking to make some cash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) (voice-over): When Virginia's Merritt Academy announced it was looking for summer camp counselors, Camp Director Amanda Sperling says she never expected what happened the next day.
AMANDA SPERLING, CAMP DIRECTOR, MERRITT ACADEMY: Fifty-five E- mails and a full voice mailbox.
ENDO: Another surprise? The ages of job seekers and their qualifications, some of them engineers or teachers, like Halle Rasmussen. Out of about 150 candidates she's one of 25 that made the cut.
HALLE RASMUSSEN, TEACHER, MERRITT ACADEMY: I had no idea how many people had applied, but that's very exciting that I did get it.
ENDO: In these economic tough times, the traditional summer jobs typically sought after by teens are also coveted by more experienced adults. Many of them out of work or looking to change careers.
Officials at Six Flags Amusement Park say they've seen a lot of that lately.
MARK SHAPIRO, PRESIDENT, CEO "SIX FLAGS": We have almost "American Idol" lines at our job fairs. It's moms looking for jobs. It's teachers in the off-season look for jobs. It's grandparents looking do something for the summer. It's fathers that potentially are looking for a second job.
ENDO: Good news for companies looking for workers with experience. Bad news for teens hoping to get some.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our research showing that it's going to be very difficult for teens to actually get jobs. It's the toughest job market for teens since World War II.
ENDO: Experts say teens can increase their chances by applying for jobs in person. Showing off their skills and keeping in mind experience isn't always everything.
SPERLING: Even though you're a really well qualified, we still want to make sure that you still know how to have fun.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENDO (on camera): Despite the tight job market, there is a silver lining. A CareerBuilder Survey out this week, shows companies are hiring. And the industries with the most jobs: hospitality, retail, office support, and customer service. Fifty-six percent of companies surveyed say they would consider summer recruits for permanent positions -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Sandra Endo for us this morning. Thanks so much.
Breaking news this morning: Pakistan targeting Taliban training camps for holy warriors, as militants make new threats. It's a battle that has major implications for your security. We'll have a live update just ahead.
And the father of an army sergeant accused of killing five comrades claims the military pushed his son over the edge. The tragic case focusing new attention on combat stress and health care for troubled soldiers.
It's 55 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well, there is a great shot of New York City this morning where it's sunny at 49 degrees, going to a high of 69 today and it will be mostly sunny. Maybe spring is finally here after all.
A lawsuit over genes. "The New York Times" reporting the ACLU is challenging patents on two human genes link said to breast and ovarian cancer.
So why are genes patented in the first place? Here to makes sense of that for us this morning is Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He's in Washington.
So, what exactly are the plaintiffs suing for here?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're suing over the fact that there is this patent in the first place on genes, g-e-n-e-s. And this idea that someone can own genetic material and what you can do with this genetic material, it's a fascinating lawsuit. And really it's a convergence, John, of medical science, legal action here and really unprecedented technology.
You know there's these two genes specifically. They're call the BRCA-1, BRCA-2, B-R-C-A-1 and B-R-C-A-2. They are the breast cancer gene. If you have one or both of these genes, it increases your likelihood of developing and/or ovarian cancer.
So a woman goes to the doctor, she may have a family history of breast cancer. She gets tested. It comes back positive. Maybe she wants to get a second opinion, a second test. The problem is you can't, because there is a single company that owns the patent on this and that's sort of at the heart of all of this.
There's a lawsuit being filed by patients, by genetic researchers, by hospital associations, saying, look this is unconstitutional. There needs to be a broader, sort of availability of these genetic tests for all sorts of people.
Now interestingly, we reached out to Myriad, the company, for a comment. They would not comment on these.
But a lot of biotech firms say, look, these patents are necessary because the company develops the techniques to sort of look at these genes more specifically. And if they can't patent it, it decreases some of the incentives.
So, this will be an interesting back and forth, John.
ROBERTS: So how common is it, then, Sanjay, for a company to be able to patent a gene or some other tests that only it can do? GUPTA: You know, I thought it was kind of interesting. I was asking the same question. And there's about 24,000 genes out there, and these are these hereditary units that sort of an instruction book, if you will, for how we form, how our bodies look, all that sort of thing. So about 4,000 of those are currently patented. So about 20 percent.
So this is not unprecedented for patents like this to be filed. In fact, they have been filed as far back as we can see in the late '70s. The first one may have been for human growth hormone.
So this is something that exists, but this idea that, look, this could increase your likelihood for breast cancer. Could you do things with these genes to develop a likelihood for better treatments or a cure? It might be more limited if only one company can do this.
ROBERTS: All right. Sanjay Gupta for us morning from Washington. Doc, it's always great to see you. Thanks very much.
GUPTA: Thanks, John.
