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American Morning
New Evidence Emerges against Terror Suspect in Denver; FBI Foils Numerous Recent Terrorist Plots; ACORN Sues Makers of Incriminating Films; G-20 Meets in Pittsburgh; Moon Has Water; Swine Flu Fact and Fiction; Speed Shrinking
Aired September 25, 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 we're coming up to the top of the hour right now, just crossing it right now on this Friday, September 25th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. Glad you're with us. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Here's the stories we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
New shocking evidence aimed right at the man at the center of a terror investigation. CNN is the only network with the video. The feds say it shows Denver resident Najibullah Zazi, who is in federal custody now, buying a key ingredient to make bombs. You'll see it for yourself coming right up.
CHETRY: Plus the G-20. They control the cash in the world's richest nations. The finance ministers and central bank heads are holding the second day of their big meeting up in Pittsburgh. So what does it all really mean for your bottom line? Our Christine Romans is there and she's going to joining us with more.
ROBERTS: An hour and a half from now, President Obama expected to make a statement, 8:30 this morning eastern. We have learned that the U.S., Britain, and France will accuse Iran of building a secret nuclear site.
But Iran may have beaten them to the punch. Iran sent a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency admitting that a second nuclear site, previously secret, does exist.
We begin the hour, though, with damning new evidence against the man at the center of a fast-growing terrorism investigation. Video here was obtained exclusive by CNN. The feds say it appears to show Najibullah Zazi buying chemicals, specifically hydrogen peroxide from a beauty shop in Denver and that he was going to use it to make bombs.
Terrorism experts are calling this plot, quote, "The most serious threat since 9/11," and one government consultant told "The New York Times" the plan resembles the attacks on buses and subways in London back in July of 2005.
Let's bring in our Susan Candiotti who was able to obtain this exclusive surveillance video.
So this is obviously going to be a big piece of the federal government's case against Zazi.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It sure looks like it could be, and we'll probably be seeing this video in court.
You know, the reason all of this is significant is because hydrogen peroxide is the key ingredient along with a couple of other things, acetone and muriatic acid, that is used to make a very powerful explosive called TATP.
And the head of the beauty supply company says the FBI came to the store just last week and asked whether anyone bought any unusual amounts of hydrogen peroxide.
Now, the store searched its records and found receipts as well as video of some transactions that stood out. The owner voluntarily turned over the video to the FBI, and this is what you're now seeing.
The first video clip dated July 25th -- the FBI says on this day, Najibullah Zazi bought a big amount of hydrogen peroxide. You see a man with a beard and a baseball cap backwards at the counter putting one of six bottles there for the cashier, and some other items, including rollers, clips, and a shower cap.
He takes out his wallet and pays for everything.
And then in the second video dated August 28th, you see what appears to be the same man in an aisle of this big store. He has a cart. He bends over and he picks up a dozen bottles of hydrogen peroxide product, loads them into his cart, and pushes it down the aisle to the cashier.
That very same day, the FBI says Zazi rented a hotel suite with a stove nearby. And, again, about two weeks ago, the authorities found acetone residue in the vent above that stove.
Now, the beauty supply store owner also turned over receipts from those two buys. The bottles cost only about $2.99 each. So Zazi allegedly spent only about $18 for six bottles in July and then another $36 in August.
And I asked the company's owner if those two buys raised any red flags.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARAN HOSS, CEO BEAUTY SUPPLY WAREHOUSE: At the time it wouldn't be a red flag because who would think that hydrogen peroxide, something you find at the grocery store or at, you know, many different retail stores would be a cause for alarm?
Not in my wildest dreams did I think we'd be sitting here a week later and watching the arrest of this gentleman on television. It's horrifying.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): You saw this man on the videotape, and he appears to be, as you said, the same man that is currently under arrest. What do you think about the fact that this man chose your store to walk into to buy all this hydrogen peroxide?
HOSS: He definitely picked the wrong store to go into. With 48 cameras covering every square inch of that store, we've got him on several different angles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: And in court records, the investigators say that Zazi and at least two other people in Denver also bought additional purchases of hydrogen peroxide and acetone.
And authorities are looking there are as well as in beauty stores in New York to see if they can find any more evidence.
ROBERTS: Did anybody anywhere along the line confront him and say that's an awful lot of peroxide for one man to be buying?
CANDIOTTI: Well, some of the employees told us they did see him in the store before. And we did put that question to the store owner and asked him, what about that? What do the employees say?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOSS: There was some small talk. And specific to the product, I believe one of the employees actually asked what do you -- what are you using all of this stuff for? And he jokingly said, oh, I have a lot of girlfriends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: And that's not the end of it. The store also says that it turned over its own equipment that it recorded all of these surveillance video clips on to the FBI so that they could enhance the video even further.
ROBERTS: All right, well, we're going to be seeing a lot more of that video as you said. Susan Candiotti this morning. Susan, thanks so much.
CANDIOTTI: You're welcome.
CHETRY: In that case against Najibullah Zazi is not the only one the feds are looking into right now. In Dallas authorities arrested a 19-year-old Jordanian who they say wanted to bomb a skyscraper. Also in Springfield, Illinois, the FBI arrested a 29-year-old man accused of plotting to blow up a federal courthouse with a truck bomb.
Our correspondents are on the ground. They're tracking every site of these stories. And we start with our Ted Rowlands. He's live in Springfield this morning with more details on this terror plot.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is really an incredible story, Kiran, 29-year-old Michael Finton according to federal authorities, was driving a truck that he thought was full of enough explosives to blow up a city block. He pulled into this parking spot in downtown Springfield. He got out of the truck, locked the doors, and then jumped into his partner's car.
And you can see this spot is parked right next to the federal courthouse here. And according to federal authorities, Finton wanted to blow this building to smithereens knowing that he would kill people inside.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROWLANDS: What Michael Finton didn't know while trying to detonate the truck bomb with a cell phone a few blocks away was that the explosives were fake and his partner was really an undercover FBI agent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The joint terrorism task force and the FBI have been monitoring Finton for almost two years. And as a result, the public was never at risk.
ROWLANDS: According to a federal affidavit, Finton, an ex-con who converted to Islam in prison, desperately wanted to fight as a jihadist, idolizing John Walker Lindh, the American caught fighting for the Taliban after 9/11.
After an informant tipped off authorities, Finton was introduced to an FBI undercover agent posing as a low-level member of Al Qaeda.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It appeared that Finton was on the verge of taking some kind of action. So it was decided that the FBI and the joint terrorism task force and the other law enforcement agencies involved in this investigation provided him with an opportunity for action that we controlled.
ROWLANDS: Finton, who called himself Talib Islam, meaning "student of the Islam," worked as a part-time cook. Coworkers described him as a regular guy with a good sense of humor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very shocked to hear this about him, but because from what I know about him, this isn't in his character at all. This element of what's on the news about him, this is -- I don't really know him to be that kind of guy. And this could be a mistake.
ROWLANDS: But authorities say there's no mistake and that Finton, if given the chance, could have been extremely dangerous.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROWLANDS: And Finton made a short court appearance yesterday in the building he tried to blow up. He waived his bail hearing rights. Basically he'll be detained until the federal government can indict him. They have 30 days to do so.
Across the street is Congressman Erin Shock's office, and Finton apparently told the agent that was he was working, the undercover agent, that he was hoping the congressman would be home at the time so that he could take him out as well, a really scary story here.
One thing we should note is that at this point there's no indication that Finton actually had any ties to any terrorist group anywhere in the country or anywhere in the world -- Kiran?
CHETRY: All right. Ted Rowlands for us this morning. That's the latest on that. Thanks so much.
ROBERTS: And from Illinois, we turn to Texas and another FBI sting. Federal authorities say a 19-year-old Jordanian, Hosam Maher Hussein Smadi, was planning violent jihad and wanted to blow up the 60 story fountain place in Dallas.
The feds say he was tricked by an agent and planted a fake bomb at the base of the building.
Let's turn now to our Sean Callebs live in Dallas this morning. Sean, what's this one all about?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How about that, John? Indeed, one thing we are hearing from the feds that all of these terrorist plots are not connected. But certainly there is an unsettling trend for people across the country.
This is what people in Dallas woke up to today, "FBI: Dallas plot 12." You talk about Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian in the country illegally.
The way authorities were attracted to him in the first place, he was basically spewing venom on the Internet, saying he wanted to unleash terrorist activities here in the United States in the name of holy jihad and also in support of Osama bin Laden.
It's got the attention of FBI agents who went undercover, began talking with Smadi on the Internet and in person. It's all detailed in this 10-page arrest warrant. They talked with Smadi more than 65 times over the past year.
It all came to head recently when Smadi apparently tried to drive a car or did drive a car to the base of Fountain place, a 60-story glass building here in the city. And he had a fake bomb inside that was planted there by those agents undercover.
The agents saw Smadi walk out of the building and then go to a car with another agent, make a call and try to detonate that explosive device. That is when he was arrested, John.
Some scary stuff in there -- Imodium nitrate, the stuff McVey used to bring down the Oklahoma City federal building, also C-4 allegations with blasting acid. Of course, reports all of that fake. And right now Smadi's expected to be in this courtroom just in a matter of hours -- John?
ROBERTS: I'm sure a lot of people waking this morning hearing this news, Sean, and saying what the heck is happening in America? Sean Callebs for us in Dallas. Sean, thanks so much. And by the way, Jeff Toobin is coming up next, talking about ACORN, charges and counter charges flying back and forth that ACORN was involved in practices that crossed the line. ACORN now suing people who made a documentary film about what was going on there. Jeff will have his take on all of this.
CHETRY: Also he's going to weigh in on Ruth Bader Ginsburg's health, as well. She had a bit of a scare yesterday. How is she doing today and what's her overall health picture?
It's 12 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: My theme song, our theme song, everybody's theme song there.
CHETRY: BareNaked Ladies, "Who Needs Sleep?" That's on our playlist this morning.
Well, finding out a lot of us do need sleep, it's just the probably is most of us don't get it. Well, the lack of sleep may actually catch up to you in a terrible way later on in life.
According to a new study, at least, they found that one of the first links between sleep deprivation and Alzheimer's disease may be something you need to know about.
Research done on mice found that a protein in the brains of Alzheimer's patients increases with sleep deprivation. The study reported in the "Journal of Science" also suggests drugs that regulate sleep may be useful as treatment for Alzheimer's.
ROBERTS: Interesting stuff.
This could be the best time in years to buy a house or refinance one. Mortgage are rates nearing the lowest levels in decades according to the mortgage bankers association. The average rate interest rate on a new 30 year fixed rate home loan has broken through the 5 percent barrier, it's down at 4.97 percent. Loan applications jumped 13 percent last week and are up 50 percent from late June.
CHETRY: Well, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is still in the hospital this morning after she became ill in her office yesterday, the court saying that she felt faint, a little bit lightheaded, and fatigued yesterday afternoon about an hour after she received treatment for an iron deficiency.
Ginsburg is 76 years old and you may remember she underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer back in February.
And joining me now is CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who wrote "The Nine, inside the secret world of the Supreme Court." And as we know and as we just said, Jeff -- good to see you, by the way -- she's a survivor of pancreatic cancer, but came back, what, 18 days after her operation. JEFF TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: And she had colon cancer about ten years ago. She's had a lot of health problems.
Ruth Ginsburg is about 4'11" tall, she weighs about 80 pounds, and she is one of the toughest women you will ever meet. She just had an extraordinary life.
And she doesn't want to leave the Supreme Court. She said so. John Paul Stevens has sent signals that he's leaving at the end of this term. She doesn't want to leave.
This is an unexpected setback, but it doesn't look like something all that serious even though she's had all these problems, and I expect she'll be back on the court when the court reconvenes next month.
CHETRY: Well, that's certainly good news for her, and, as you said, she certainly survived a lot and came right back and got back to work.
Let's talk a little bit about ACORN right now. We're talking to Jeff about the latest on the investigation into ACORN.
The community organizing group is under fire and now firing back against its critics, filing lawsuits against the film makers behind the hidden camera tapes that caught staff members giving advice about tax evasion, human smuggling, and child prostitution. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A young woman pretending to be a prostitute and a man pretending to run for Congress one day walk into ACORN's Baltimore headquarters and speak with two of the employees who run the facility, Tonja Thompson, a tax specialist, and a woman by the name of Shera, who is an ACORN housing employee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So ACORN is also suing the Web site that Breitbart.com that posted that clip, as well. Do they have a case here?
TOOBIN: This is actually a more complicated case than I thought, at first, because there are two issues in tension here. Maryland is one of those states that does not allow one party wiretapping.
Everybody probably remembers Linda Tripp. Linda Tripp was prosecuted in Maryland for taping Monica Lewinski. That case was thrown out, but that case was brought. So that is what ACORN is saying. This is the same thing, taping these people unawares is the same as what Linda Tripp did.
On the other side of the equation, though, this is news gathering in effect. This is an activity protected by the First Amendment.
So I think the Web site folks and the people who created the videotape are going to have a pretty good argument that this is not the same thing as one-party wiretapping. It's simply news gathering, and you can't sue someone for it.
CHETRY: What do you think the reasoning going forward with this suit, ACORN's CEO has called the behavior unacceptable. So they fired some of the employees, in fact, terminated the two employees we saw just briefly in that video.
But could ACORN end up doing themselves more of a disservice in this situation because of all of the stuff that would come out in the trial?
TOOBIN: Maybe. So much bad has come out about ACORN it's hard to imagine things could get much worse.
You have to think that ACORN -- what ACORN really needs to do if it's going to stay in business, it has to clean up its act more than filing lawsuits.
But, you know, what people often say in politics and other things is the best defense is a good offense. So by challenging their accusers here, they may -- and it's not a frivolous lawsuit. So I think it's part of what they need to do. But mostly what they need to do is clean up their act.
CHETRY: And then why drag in the Web site that posted the video, Breitbart.com?
TOOBIN: The function there is they are simply the broadcaster. We're in a different era now.
You may remember back in the '90s, ABC News did a long investigation of the Red Lion supermarket, an undercover investigation.
CHETRY: The Food Lions.
TOOBIN: Food Lions, not Red Lion. Red Lion is a separate company.
CHETRY: It sticks with me from when I saw the video.
TOOBIN: Exactly, Food Lions, and there was a huge multi-year fight over that.
So the whole issue of hidden camera investigations has been legally kind of questionable for a long time. That case was settled. But I -- so, you know, I just don't know how this one's going to turn out.
ROBERTS: Wasn't the Food Lion case they lied on their job application form?
TOOBIN: Correct. That was so interesting about the legal aspects of the case is that they didn't sue ABC for what you thought they might sue them for, invasion of privacy. They used the applications as the root into the case. The initial jury verdict in that case was $5.5 million against ABC. That was thrown out, and they wound up settling. But it was years of litigation. The lawyers got rich, which is customary.
CHETRY: All right, spoken from a lawyer himself, right? Jeff Toobin, thanks so much for being with us this morning.
ROBERTS: So a lot happening in the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh this morning. At 8:30 we're expecting a special announcement by President Obama along with leaders of France and Britain accusing Iran of disclosing a secret nuclear facility to enrich uranium, and as well, other news that the G-20 is now going to become the main body for international economic cooperation.
Who cares? Christine Romans will tell you why you should, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: We're back with the most news in the morning.
G-20 protests turning violent in Pittsburgh, police getting ready for another round again today. They say 19 people have been arrested so far.
Our own Brian Todd caught some of the fallout, as well. Police fired either tear gas or pepper spray. He said it really burned their eyes and their throat. You can see that it also really broke up the crowds, as well.
So why do these people care so much about the G-20? Just another silly photo-op? Well, maybe not. The leaders gathered in Pittsburgh represent nations that control 90 percent of the world's money. So what are they hoping to accomplish? Our Christine Romans live in Pittsburgh this morning with some answers for us. Good morning, Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
For weeks international bureaucrats have been negotiating behind the scenes about what they're going to say and what they're going to do here for these 20 leaders at this world gathering.
So what's at stake? Who has the most to gain? Who has the most to lose? And outside of that famous photo-op, who cares?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Meetings, meetings, meetings -- London, New York, now Pittsburgh, 20 world leaders representing two-thirds of the world's people and 90 percent of its money. It's the world's most powerful photo-op.
Here they are in London in April. The new guy, the banker, the ladies' man, Putin's boss on paper, the guy who threatens to walk out, and the requisite obsessing over first lady fashion and perceived faux pas.
At that meeting, leaders pledged $1 trillion in stimulus for the global economy. A crisis was averted, the stock market surged almost 30 percent since then.
The next challenge, prevent another financial disaster. They differ on how to do that.
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: We are not going to walk away from the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and leave unchanged and leave in place the tragic vulnerabilities that caused those crisis.
ROMANS: The Americans want banks to hold more money aside to cover the risks they take. Europeans want tougher restrictions on banker pay. And you might hear talk about so-called global imbalances. It means the Americans need to save more and borrow less, the Europeans need investments, and the Chinese, they need to consume more.
There are 20 leaders, but two standouts -- the new American president, an international star on the campaign trail hosting his first summit, and China, already out of recession and on track to overtake Germany in exports.
Economist Ken Rogoff says China is doing very well for itself.
KEN ROGOFF, DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Countries are looking at China and saying, wait a second, you've got to pull back your exports a little bit. You're making it tough. You're benefiting at the expense of everybody else.
ROMANS: All are watching a trade spat between China and the U.S. over tires and chicken.
The two countries are also the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters. Climb change on the agenda, but that won't be solved here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: And John, the meetings don't end here either. On climate change, there's a big summit planned for the beginning of December in Copenhagen where they'll try to hammer out a new international treaty on climate change to replace the Kyoto Accords that expire in 2012.
So meetings, meetings, meetings. The news here about the meetings and the G-20, of course, is, as you mentioned, that it will supplant the G-8 as the official or the most primary infrastructure within which to negotiate international financial issues -- John?
ROBERTS: And of course, that's the big economic news. But, as well, Christine, we have that announcement this morning from President Obama about Iran secret nuclear facility, which could potentially overshadow all of what's going on there in Pittsburgh today.
ROMANS: That's absolutely right. And we'll be hearing from the president later on next hour.
ROBERTS: All right, Christine Romans for us in Pittsburgh, thanks very much.
Speaking of that secret Iranian nuclear facility, our Matthew Chance coming up in just a couple of moments from Moscow to tell us more about this. How long has it been under construction? What did officials know about it? And what's Iran saying about it? Stay with us, we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 28 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the most news in the morning.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has her plate pretty full at the United Nations this week, but some are asking, full with what? With all of the critical worldwide issues of the day, is she tackling the truly important ones? Our foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty takes a look at what the secretary of state is taking on.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It's about as far away as the secretary of state can go from two-stripe diplomacy. A camp for of rape victims in the war ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo.
This week at the United Nations, in between 20 meetings with world leaders, Hillary Clinton is launching social programs with New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, hosting meetings on food security, and lunching with female heads of state.
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: There are people who say, well, you know, women issues is an important issue, but it doesn't rank up there with the Middle East or Iran's nuclear threats, or Afghanistan, Pakistan. I could not disagree more.
DOUGHERTY: Welcome to diplomacy Hillary Clinton style, which puts as much emphasis on women's issues and development as on traditional foreign policy problems like Iran, North Korea, and Mideast peace. But is that approach, as one political blog put it, too naive? Is she, as another blog asked, substantive? A top Clinton aide at the State Department calls that old-fashioned thinking.
ANNE MARIA SLAUGHTER, DIRECTOR OF POLICY PLANNING, STATE DEPARTMENT: Anybody looking at the problems we face today, whether it's terrorism or nonproliferation or crises, or climate change would have to see the development dimension to those problems would have to see the social and economic roots of those problems.
DOUGHERTY: This August, when Hillary Clinton addressed lawmakers in Liberia, Africa, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was listening intently. Traditional diplomacy or not, she says it's what she wanted to hear from a U.S. secretary of state. ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF, PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA: I think she's very frankly was not the usual, you know, nice politically correct statement about, you know, we're friends, we support you and all. She really hit on some of the issues that mean a lot to many of us.
DOUGHERTY: Clinton's foreign policy, her aides say, isn't an either/or thing. It includes traditional issues, as well as the social and economic roots of those problems. To solve them they say you need both.
Jill Dougherty, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Well, it's 31 minutes past the hour right now, and here are the top stories this morning. There's new video of the man at the center of the terror investigation being called the most serious in years. CNN the only network with this video. The feds say that it shows Denver resident Najibullah Zazi, who is in federal custody in a beauty supply store, where he's buying bottles and bottles of peroxide. The feds say to make -- that it's a key ingredient to make bombs.
ROBERTS: And talk about a find. A man with a metal detector in England unearths a treasure-trove so valuable that its worth can't even be determined yet. It's said to be the largest discovery of its kind, including 11 pounds of Anglo-Saxon gold, nearly six pounds of silver and precious jewels that probably belonged to royals. Archaeologists believe that the treasure has been buried in the field since, listen to this, the seventh century.
CHETRY: Oh, you said listen. I was listening. Sorry.
CNN also confirming that President Obama is going to be speaking out about a second nuclear enrichment plant in Iran. The Islamic republic admitted to the IAEA that the facility exists. Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, we spoke to David Sanger. He's "The New York Times" reporter who first broke this story, and we asked him why Iran would be coming clean about this now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID SANGER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES" (via telephone): They only admitted to the site because they recognized that the secrecy they had built around this for a number of years had been breached by American and other intelligence agents. So, I think that we're in for a very heavy-duty period of confrontation with the Iranians here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So, for more on all of this, we bring in our senior international correspondent Matthew Chance live in Moscow this morning. And as we heard David Sanger say, perhaps a lot of controversy brewing right now when it comes to Iran. at a time when perhaps some were hoping there could be a thawing relations. MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONALCORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly. Remember, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was at the United Nations General Assembly just a few days ago. He didn't mention anything about this. Now, the facility itself is a facility which is housed about 100 miles from the Iranian capital, Tehran, inside a military base near the holy city of Qom (ph).
It is said to be under construction. It's expected to be able to house about 3,000 centrifuges. They're the machines that are necessary to enrich uranium into a form that we use to fuel nuclear reactors. Also be able to, you know, to make the material for a nuclear weapon, as well.
But you know, Kiran, it's not what this facility can do that is the problem, even though it may be of concern at some quarters. It's the fact that for years the Iranians have been out there saying, we have fully disclosed what it is that we have regarding our nuclear program. We've told you everything. Any suggestion that we haven't is totally us being victimized by the West.
But it now seems that they have this second nuclear facility, which up until, you know, earlier this week, they haven't mentioned to anyone. Certainly haven't mentioned to the U.N. nuclear watchdog. And so, that's the real scandal here, and it's really going to mean that diplomatic pressure on Iran is going to (INAUDIBLE) significantly in the hours and days ahead -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes, and it'll be interesting because as we've talked about before, Russia historically dragging its feet about any sanctions. We heard perhaps a softening on that stance, saying that sanctions may be inevitable. We heard that from Medvedev a couple of days ago. Now what position does this put the Security Council members in terms of further sanction?
CHANCE: Well, with regards to Russia, I mean, two things have happened. First of all, just, you know, last week, the United States did a U-turn on its missile defense system in Eastern Europe. That had been a real stumbling block on Russia's cooperation when it came to Iran. It's also been a real thorn in the side of relations between Washington and Moscow for the past several years. That has been taken off the table.
It opened the way for Kremlin to say, look, maybe we're going to look again at your, you know, calls for tougher sanctions that we've resisted in the past against Iran. Now this bombshell as well, and the Russians will certainly be looking very hard at United States efforts now to toughen the sanctions regime at the United Nations Security Council on the Islamic republic -- Kiran.
CHETRY: This story has a lot of significant implications, and we're going to continue to follow it today. Matthew Chance for us in Moscow. Thanks so much.
And again, President Obama will be speaking about Iran's nuclear site. This is happening in about an hour -- 8:30 Eastern is when it's scheduled. Stay with AMERICAN MORNING because we will bring you those remarks live.
ROBERTS: Well, the song said it's a marvelous night for a moon dance. What about a midnight swim? Yesterday, NASA announced that there are traces of water on the moon. But before you start packing your bathing suit, it's probably still too soon to start planning for a lunar outpost and swimming pools on the moon.
Joining me this morning from our D.C bureau is one of the NASA officials who made the announcement about water on the moon yesterday. James Green is director of the planetary science division at NASA headquarters.
James, great to see you this morning. Now, any photos that we've ever seen of the lunar surface show it to be an arid and dusty place, yet this research shows that, well, maybe that doesn't tell the whole story. What did you find?
JAMES GREENE, PLANETARY SCIENCE DIRECTOR, NASA: John, that's right. However, we didn't find the swimming pools or even mud puddles as you point out. The water that we found is trapped in the rocks. In fact, the observations from the moon mineralogy mapper over the last six months as it maps the entire moon shows that this water is everywhere on the moon. And, in fact, it's a variable in terms of its content.
But even with that said, the amount of water, it's drier on the moon than it is in our driest deserts. But it is a start in terms of looking more about what's going on at the moon, its origin, its evolution, and we still have another big step to move where we're going to look at water that might be trapped in the permanently shadowed craters. We don't know much about that yet.
ROBERTS: That is really interesting. Well, if this is, James, either water or a precursor to water, where does it come from? Is there - you know, we have seen in pictures of Mars that there might be evidence that water flowed along the surface at some point. Is there similar evidence in the moon? Or does this come from somewhere else?
GREENE: We believe that the early history of the moon as it coalesced after a large impact with the earth, creating the moon 4.5 billion years ago, that the water was mostly gone, and that's what makes these results so surprising. It tells us that the water through the moon, rather, through a variety of processes is retaining some water.
It could come from comets. We know quite well that comets do have large amounts of water. However, we also know, and this is probably not well known, that even asteroids have water. So the moon, for some odd reason, is able to retain water as with respect to time. There also might be several other processes that do that that we just don't know about yet.
ROBERTS: What I find very fascinating is that the original lunar soil samples that were brought back from the Apollo missions, brought to the Jet Propulsion - or not the - the Johnson Space Center, rather, in Houston. It was originally thought that they contained some water, but it was dismissed. Why was it dismissed?
GREENE: Right. Well, we didn't know really how to handle samples like we do today when we bring back things from space. We do now know that water attaches itself so quickly to material. There's just -- it's just forms a film on things.
And so it was originally believed that the rocks, which only contain 50 parts per million in terms of the amount of water was still contaminated. Now, 50 parts per million, if you took all the lunar rocks that we have, which is about 500 pounds, and you just - and you extracted the water, it's still only about a tablespoon's worth. So, it's still very dry.
ROBERTS: So what does that say, then, about the potential for if you wanted to establish a moon base, as the previous administration wanted to do as a launching point for going off to Mars. Could you take advantage of some of that water that's embedded in the rocks, embedded in the soil to try to sustain life on a more economical basis than to ferry those supplies between the earth and the moon?
GREENE: That's a good question. And the scientists are really the ones that are at the forefront of this. We've just taken a major step in understanding the amounts of water that are there, how it circulates, how it might have originated.
We're very far from being able to get to the point of determining if man can survive in that environment based on that amount of water. In fact, as I mentioned, what we have discovered is an elevated amount of water, about 1,000 parts per million, in the polar region, which is quite large. But still, hardly, as I mentioned -- water from our drier deserts have more water in them.
ROBERTS: Well, it's still a fascinating discovery. We should point out, too, that, you know, further confirmation of this might come on October the 9th when the LCROSS mission, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission, will slam a booster into the moon, sending up an enormous cloud of dust, and the satellite will float down through it and try to determine exactly what's there.
James Greene, it's great to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us.
GREENE: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: All right, and I'll be the first one in the pool with you.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Forty and a half minutes after the hour
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CHETRY: Forty-three minutes past the hour. Here's a look at some of the other stories we're tracking this morning. The Fox animated show "Family Guy" under fire in Venezuela. The government in Caracas says it will fine any cable company there refusing to yank "Family Guy" from the air.
Venezuela's justice minister has a problem with the episode called -- that you're seeing called "420," saying that it promotes marijuana use. In it the family's dog, Brian, leads a campaign to legalize marijuana.
ROBERTS: Cartoon dog, for Pete's sake. More real-life Hollywood drama. Actor Randy Quaid and his wife were arrested in west Texas. The couple is accused of skipping out on a $10,000 hotel bill in California. Quaid best known of course from the "National Lampoon Vacation" movies, but got a lot of buzz a few years ago for his supporting role in "Brokeback Mountain." Police aren't commenting, and neither is Quaid's agent.
CHETRY: Stricter parents, safer drivers. Two new studies out today say that you can cut the chances of teens drinking and driving by 70 percent if you keep a close eye on your kids and encourage them to drive safely. It also says you'll lower the risk if they'll speed or use their cell phones behind the wheel.
ROBERTS: Well, after a horrible weekend of rain, rain and nothing but rain in the Southeast last weekend, it looks like they are in for another one this time around. Our Reynolds Wolf is tracking all of the extreme weather across the country this morning. How bad is it going to be this time, Reynolds?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know John, right now it looks like the Atlanta metropolitan area could see anywhere from 1 to 2 inches of rainfall with some isolated knots that could get closer to maybe 4 or 5, perhaps even some places as much as 6.
And what's so bizarre about this is if we had any -- say this kind of rain, two or three years ago, it would have been great because we were mired in a tremendous drought. But a lot of one thing is seldom good, and that certainly is the case with the rainfall.
We are expecting that precipitation to really pop up today in parts of the Southeast. Here's the reason why - you're going to notice this big "L" is popping up on the screen. That's the area of low pressure. That's going to create a lot of lift, and when you have this moisture coming in from the Gulf of Mexico and also coming in from the Atlantic, add moisture combined with that lift and of course cool air along, it's going to give us a chance of showers and storms, and some of those may be particularly heavy. Look for scattered showers also continue into parts of the Ohio Valley, back across the western half of the great lakes. Fairly dry for you in most of New England, Boston though could get kind of dicey in the gap end (ph) with a chance of scattered showers, and relatively nice for you across parts of the four corners.
Very quickly, your highs of the day, 78 degrees in Memphis, 98 degrees in Las Vegas, 70 in New York and Boston. Look for chance of some scattered showers later in the day, wind possible too with some delays at the airport, anywhere from a 15 to 30-minute delay for you. In San Francisco, low clouds and fog could be an issue, an hour to maybe even 30 minutes, and all of the D.C. metros - Chicago and Cincinnati, the same deal, low clouds and fog are going to keep you waiting.
Yes, there you go. All right, you're up to speed. Let's get back to you in the studio.
ROBERTS: All right, Reynolds, thanks so much for that. Appreciate it.
CHETRY: All right, here's a look at what's on the AM rundown as we head into flu season. There's a lot of facts and myths out there about swine flu. Our Elizabeth Cohen, fresh off an H1N1 briefing at the White House, has some answers for you just ahead.
Also the top of the hour, it's new video that you'll see only on CNN. The Feds say that it shows a high profile terror suspect buying a potentially cheap and potentially deadly ingredient to make bombs. Also at 20 minutes past the hour, how safe is your home? There's a new study showing that a third of homes and dwellings, especially in metropolitan areas could have major health hazards. We have more on that as well. It's 47 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning here. It's 48 minutes past the hour right now, and today we're talking about the swine flu. They say it will be available the first week of October and that the vaccine in nasal mist will cost roughly double earlier predictions, between $6 million and $7 million.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says flu shots will soon follow and the government wants people most at risk to be first in line, and those people would include pregnant women young and - people younger than 64 who have high risk conditions such as asthma, and the vaccine will be free.
But when it comes out, the majority of parents are now saying they don't want it. A national survey suggests parents are confused about the risks of the virus and the vaccine, and in a poll of parents conducted by a children's hospital in Michigan, only 40 percent say they would get their children immunized against the H1N1 virus, 54 percent said that they will get their children immunized against the regular seasonal flu.
So if parents are that wary of getting their kids vaccinated, there are sure to be a lot of questions out there, and our Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen went to a special H1N1 briefing. It took place at the White House yesterday, and she gets the latest news now on the virus.
Joining us for an update and to talk about some of the myths out there about swine flu, and, you know, those numbers are pretty much in line with what, you know, we talk about among our friends. People are still not quite sure what they should do when it comes to protecting their kids against swine flu.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. I think, understandably, Kiran, that people are anxious about anything that's new. I mean, this vaccine was just invented in the past couple of months. They're just now finishing up studies on it, so it's understandable the parents would have some questions. But, on the other hand, you also have to consider children die of the swine flu. More than 50 children, in fact, in this country have died from an H1N1 infection. You don't want that to be your child either.
So anyhow, Kiran, you talked about myths, and let's go over some myths that health officials would like to dispel. They talked a lot about this at the White House yesterday. The first myth, they say, is that not enough - that there's not enough vaccine to go around. Kathleen Sebelius says that's a myth. There should be plenty. And I'll talk about that in a second. The second one, the myth is that the vaccine is too expensive. Kathleen Sebelius says that in most cases, vaccine will be offered for free. The government's giving it to everyone for free and there shouldn't be too many administrative fees or anything like that out there.
The third myth that they're trying to dispel is that H1N1 is no big deal, so I don't need to get vaccinated. Sure, in most cases, an H1N1 infection isn't necessarily such a big deal. You stay home for a couple days, that's it. But in some cases, people do die, including children and including pregnant women.
Now, Kiran, getting around to that distribution, that availability issue, there's going to be 6 to 7 million doses available the first week of October, October 5th. Will that be enough for everyone who wants it? It depends what the demands is. It is possible that tons of people are going to want it right away. In that case, there might not be enough, but chances are that's probably not going to happen - Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. And then when we get to the pregnant women situation, they're being encouraged, as we said, to get the vaccine, but the clinical trials on pregnant women haven't been completed yet. So how do they know - I mean, you know, a time in your life when you really don't want to take any chances, when you're pregnant, because you don't know what the effects would be on the unborn child.
COHEN: Right. This is an interesting issue, and at the White House yesterday I said, look, you're telling pregnant women to get a vaccine when you haven't finished studying pregnant women and this particular vaccine, the H1N1 vaccine, and they said, look, we are so sure from our studies - here's one woman who's involved in the studies, actually. They said, we are so sure from the results from non-pregnant people and from children that this vaccine is safe that we think it's safe for pregnant women, even though we haven't finished our studies. They are quite confident about that. They urge pregnant women to get the H1N1 vaccine when it's available.
CHETRY: All right. Clearing up some myths for us this morning, Elizabeth Cohen. Thanks so much.
COHEN: Thanks.
CHETRY: John. ROBERTS: Najibullah Zazi - what was he up to? Authorities say he was buying bomb-making material. We've got the video they say proves it. We'll show it to you, coming up. Fifty-three minutes now after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Fifty-six minutes after the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Need a problem solved, fast? Need someone to just listen for a few seconds? Well, our Alina Cho found a new approach to fighting life stress, but you better know how to spit out your problems fast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty seconds, guys. Make it count.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's like speed dating...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, four, three...
CHO: ... but it's not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... two, one. (INAUDIBLE)
CHO: Speed shrinking - much like speed dating, participants have three minutes to spill their problems to mental health experts who will listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have 40 seconds.
CHO: Then they move on to the next therapist, sort of like a free consultation call, a test drive. The brainchild of Susan Shapiro, who wrote the book that inspired these sessions.
SUSAN SHAPIRO, AUTHOR, "SPEED SHRINKING": I think I demystify the process of therapy and I make it fun, and also, it's free.
CHO: The response has been overwhelming.
DR. DIANA KIRSCHNER, AUTHOR, LOVE IN 90 DAYS: I've been shocked, because I expected that this would be kind of a fluffy, kind of fun event. They actually really open up.
ERASMO GUERRA, UNEMPLOYED WRITER: I barely sold my first piece.
CHO: Take Erasmo Guerra. The 39-year-old journalist lost his job back in March. He can't find work and he's scraping by on food stamps, something he was not anxious to tell his traditional Mexican parents.
GUERRA: Like, it was easier coming out to them at 21 about being gay than to tell them that I was having financial difficulties at 40.
CHO: Then there's the boyfriend, who Guerra says is successful, lives in a swanky apartment, and is reluctant to share.
GUERRA: It's infuriating, you know, to - to be told, OK, this is how much space you have.
CHO: So Guerra, like the others here, is looking for advice. A common theme, men who have lost their jobs.
SHERRY AMATENSTEIN, SOCIAL WORKER: They have lots of insecurities about it, because if they're dating, they feel they can't afford to impress a woman. If they're married, all of a sudden they're not the bread winner and they feel a lot of pressure.
CHO: But there is an upside in this down economy.
KIRSCHNER: There's even more dating going on because of the economic problems, that your chances of love are even better.
CHO: Her remedy for finding love?
KIRSCHNER: It's important to date three people at the same time, no sex - a little kissing, a little canoodling.
CHO: Guerra is learning to be more open.
GUERRA: The thing that touched me the most was, you know, lead the least secretive life that you can.
CHO: And that has given him hope.
Feeling good about your future?
GUERRA: I feel much better now. I think just having opened up about it and not being at home stewing on - on whatever I'm dealing with, it's good.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: I don't know. Do you think it's actually therapeutic or is this more of a sales pitch?
CHETRY: I think it's a sales pitch. The other thing too is how - I mean, how do you even sit down and know if you connect with somebody that you're going to share all your problems with? I mean, even if they are a professional, in three minutes!
ROBERTS: I don't think it works, but that's just me.
CHETRY: And we said it would take us years and years to unravel our complex mental issues, not three minutes.
ROBERTS: As it should.
