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American Morning
Dems Prepare for a Showdown on Government-Run Public Option; White House Reviews Afghanistan Plans; Former ELF Member Confesses His Life as a Terrorist; Conan Returns to Work; Return of the Big Bonus?; Fly the Simulated Skies
Aired September 29, 2009 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It's Tuesday, September 29th. Glad you're with us this morning. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us. Here are the big stories that we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
Democrats right now readying for a showdown on health care. At least two senators now promising to jam a government-run insurance provision into the Senate Finance Committee bill. We're live in Washington with the debate that is pitting Democrat against Democrat.
CHETRY: Confessions of a domestic terrorist. A former member of a radical environmental group reveals exclusively to CNN how they waged war against the government and what he did to bring the home- grown terror cell down. We're getting a live report from our special investigations unit coming up.
ROBERTS: And a video of elementary school kids singing about President Obama making its way around the Internet. Some parents are outraged. Is it innocent or is it indoctrination? Wait until you hear what some of you at home are saying.
CHETRY: We begin, though, in Washington where the health care debate will roar back on to center stage today. The Senate Finance Committee is set to take a new look at whether to create an insurance plan run by the government. The so-called public option has generated more fireworks than just about anything in the debate. But today, lawmakers will be challenged to step away from the talking points and to take a stand for or against it.
Jim Acosta kicks up our coverage from Washington. And, Jim, the interesting thing about this it's not Republican against Democrat. It's Democrats throwing down a challenge to fellow Democrats.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, the bill that's in front of the Senate Finance Committee right now, glaringly does not have the public option. So Senators Jay Rockefeller and Chuck Schumer are expected to put up an amendment on the public option for a vote when the Senate Finance Committee meets later this morning. The idea, you said, is to get some key Democrats who have wavered on the public option to show their cards.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a couple of public option amendments.
ACOSTA (voice-over): The pressure building on the Senate Finance Committee. Not only has the debate over health care reform gotten testy...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're delaying senator and we just...
SEN. JON KYL (R), ARIZONA: Mr. Chairman, I am not delaying. I'm making an extremely important point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last June, I collapsed because of congenital heart problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Even the committee's chairman, Max Baucus, has become the target of an ad sponsored by liberal reform supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have to ask, whose side are you on?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Now, two key members of that committee, Jay Rockefeller and Chuck Schumer, plan to put their Democratic colleagues on the spot, offering amendments on whether to give the uninsured the choice of joining a government insurance program -- the public option.
SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D), WEST VIRGINIA: Something to keep competition real in the marketplace. Otherwise the insurance companies will have you for lunch.
ACOSTA: The showdown pitting liberal versus centrist Democrats was put off last week.
SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-MT), SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I want to take that up soon. It's an extremely important amendment.
ACOSTA: But the focus on the public option has irked some Democrats who don't like the way the health care sausage is being made.
SEN. JIM WEBB (D), VIRGINIA: This is the problem with this entire process. The administration did not come down with a specific proposal so instead legislation boiled up through five different congressional committees and now they're trying to be resolved.
ACOSTA: Don't tell that to the White House. Remember when the president said he would pass on making a trip to Denmark to sell Chicago's bid for the Olympics? BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would make the case in Copenhagen personally if I weren't so firmly committed to making real the promise of quality affordable health care for every American.
ACOSTA: He's opting to go now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does it look like it's in better shape or is it...
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think the president believes health care is in better shape. I'm going back as a senior administration official with intimate knowledge of the press secretary's thinking and say yes, we think health care is in -- is in a better place.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: There you go. It's in a better place. It is still unclear whether the public option has the votes to pass the Senate Finance Committee. Either way public option supporters will keep on fighting. There's still the option of putting the amendment up for a vote in front of the full Senate -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. We'll have to see how it goes for sure. Jim Acosta for us this morning. Thanks.
ROBERTS: Let's keep the conversation going this morning. Our Suzanne Malveaux is the only reporter live at the White House this early.
And, Suzanne, Jim just mentioned that the president is heading off to these Olympic meetings. Is it a sign that he's lowering his profile around health care, or is it something far more innocent and he just wants to try to get these games for Chicago?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, I don't think he's lowering his profile on health care. And I think it's Robert Gibbs' job to essentially say and express that they have more confidence in the health care reform.
I think what we're seeing here is classic Obama. He is taking on yet another issue.
I talked to a senior adviser, Valerie Jarrett, with the president just yesterday. It's personally important to him. His wife, Michelle, her hometown of Chicago. They feel as if this is something that they can do for the country, that it's good economically. That it will make everybody feel good as well.
I spoke to another White House aide who said, look, it was irresistible for the president to get involved. You've got -- you know, you've got Michelle, you've got Oprah, you've got the president. Let's face it. The main competition, John, is Rio. And so, the Brazilian president, President Lula has been out there. He hosted a dinner for the Olympic committee. They're building rails, sports complexes. You've got the Brazilian sunbathers. The competition is fierce here, as the president knows it. So he is getting involved and it's a full-court press. He's making phone calls.
And the other point is, is when you bring up health care reform, White House aides say, look, you know, it's an 18-hour trip. He's got a phone on Air Force One. He can make those calls, twist those arms if he needs to.
ROBERTS: President Lula has got the Brazilian sunbathers. We've got the first lady's arms. I don't think there's a whole lot of competition there.
Meantime, though...
MALVEAUX: In Chicago, you've got great pizza but, you know, the weather is a little dicey.
ROBERTS: Absolutely.
Meantime, big order of business today is going to be Afghanistan. What can you tell us about that? What's happening at the White House today?
MALVEAUX: Well, certainly, there are going to be a series of meetings that are going to take place, very high profile behind the scenes closed door meetings that are taking place. Obviously, the NATO Secretary General Rasmussen, the president meeting with him later this morning to talk about how our European allies, how do they see this whole thing unfolding in Afghanistan. Are they going to contribute the kind of troops and support that this president needs for perhaps a new strategy?
He's also going to be meeting with his secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, later this afternoon. And then a big meeting with his security team regarding Afghanistan tomorrow afternoon. Obviously, just a series of meetings, very important decisions that he's got to make in the weeks to come, John.
ROBERTS: Boy, could he have any more on his plate this week? I don't know.
Suzanne Malveaux at the White House for us this morning. Suzanne, thanks.
CHETRY: Other stories new this morning. The Secret Service says it's investigating a poll that was posted on Facebook this weekend asking the question -- should President Obama be killed? Four choices were given. No, maybe, yes, and yes if he cuts my health care.
Facebook officials say the poll was taken down as soon as they were alerted to it. It was put up on the site using a third party application that wasn't connected to the social networking site.
ROBERTS: New storms brewing in the Pacific are threatening to complicate relief efforts in the Philippines. The government says at least 240 people were killed after a tropical storm tore through the region over the weekend dumping more than a month's worth of rain in just 12 hours. Dozens of people are still missing in Manila and surrounding areas. Emergency officials say nearly two million homes are under water.
CHETRY: And check out this amazing video. This was shot from the helicopter of a British Royal Navy chopper there. They're making sure that this boat will never be used for smuggling drugs again. They well may be sinking this boat after arresting the alleged smugglers and seizing 5.5 tons of cocaine worth an estimated $380 million. It was the largest ever drug bust for the Royal Navy.
ROBERTS: Elementary school kids singing songs praising the president. The video released on YouTube and reportedly made in February during Black History Month. Some say the kids were exploited for political purposes.
We brought you the story yesterday and your reaction is lighting up our show hotline at 1-877-MY-AMFIX. Here's what some of you are saying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CALLER: Absolutely abhorrent. The teacher and principal both who agreed to brainwash those kids to sing that song should be terminated.
CALLER: Unbelievably bad. Politics should not be in any school.
CALLER: This is racist. Just a vast right-wing conspiracy. It's people that just can't get over the fact that Barack Obama won.
CALLER: That shows where prejudice, hostility comes from in the United States. It comes from parents to their children. What a shame.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: We want to hear from more of you. Call our show hotline at 1-877-MY-AMFIX. You can also head to our blog at CNN.com/amFIX.
CHETRY: And still ahead, you may remember this organization, the Earth Liberation Front. It was a radical environmental group. It still is, actually.
But a former member of this group is speaking exclusively to CNN about why he got involved and how he had to eventually bring them down.
Eight minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's on the FBI's list of domestic terrorists -- the Earth Liberation Front. And this morning, we have an exclusive inside look at how this environmental group moved from the mainstream to the fringe. A former member is sharing the secrets of the terrorist cell and how he helped the feds bring them down.
Drew Griffin with the special investigations unit has this exclusive report. He joins us live from Atlanta this morning.
Hi there, Drew.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. You know this is timely really for two reasons. One, we have a spate of home-grown terrorists the FBI is hunting. This was one of those groups and it shows just how the FBI was able to take him down.
But secondly, there's been a recent spate of alleged ELF attacks going on in the northwest suggesting there may be another group forming up there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN (voice-over): They were idealistic and young, all motivated environmentalists from the Pacific Northwest hoping to stop developments in America's pristine places. But their protests didn't stop anything. So Jake Ferguson and a group called The Family went radical.
JACOB "JAKE" FERGUSON, FORMER ELF MEMBER: Maybe you do an arson fire and you burned down a truck. And you're like, I wasn't good enough, I want to go from there. So then you do a building, then you're doing two buildings, you know. Then you're doing multiple buildings in different states, you know. And it just kept getting more and more and more. You never want to backtrack and do something smaller.
GRIFFIN: It did start small beginning with a dare to burn down the Detroit Oregon Rangers station. It was 1996.
FERGUSON: I just kind of on a whim spray painted ELF on the building and on some vehicles at the Detroit Rangers station. And I think that was the first time, like, an ELF action had happened in North America.
GRIFFIN: ELF, Earth Liberation Front, a secretive group. Fear of their attacks grew across seven western states living in warehouses, communicating by code. The six or seven hard-core members of the family would develop target after target, always bigger, always boulder.
Were you surprised at what you were able to pull off?
FERGUSON: Yes.
GRIFFIN (on camera): Scary surprise?
FERGUSON: It's a lot scarier when I think about it because there were a lot of times where, you know, the incendiary devices that we're transporting could have gone off in the van we were in, you know. Or there were a couple of times when we were setting them up that they almost went off right in our faces.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): They were destroying entire car lots of SUVs, building incendiary devices, paranoid they were being watched.
FERGUSON: When we broke things up was that we were starting -- they're starting to catch on to us.
GRIFFIN (on camera): The FBI was hunting them and had his van. Ferguson didn't know it but his friends had used that van in an attack and police traced it back to him.
It was the one break they needed. Ferguson was called in by the FBI and caught in a lie. He was given just two options. Turn on his friends or spend the rest of his life in prison.
His evidence that he provided tore apart the family. Correct? Brought it down.
KIRK ENGDALL, ASST. U.S. ATTORNEY/EUGENE, OREGON: It certainly -- it was essential. It was absolutely essential in our investigation to find out who the perpetrators were and to approach them, make our arrest to get our indictments. So, you're right. It was essential.
GRIFFIN: At the time, were you considering yourself hey, this is -- this is a terror cell?
FERGUSON: I think pretty much, yes, we considered ourselves being at war, you know, with the government.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: He regrets his actions now, said he did more harm than good for his environmental movement, a cause he still believes in. He escaped with just one felony count and five years on parole. But he sent ten people away. His testimony did, for long prison terms. Terms they're still serving today -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Wow. And what about ELF in general? I mean, is it still an active organization?
GRIFFIN: You know, it's more of a movement. It has the same kind of feeling as al Qaeda. I don't want to compare the two, but they call it a movement. So he fears that somebody is taking up the cause using this ELF kind of banner and is striking out again. There have been some recent fires, there's been a toppling of radio towers in the Seattle area. He fears that there is a new resurgent group of young people trying to do what he did in the past. He said it's a real mistake.
CHETRY: Wow. Good stuff. Drew Griffin for us this morning. Thank you - John.
ROBERTS: So, you know those Big Wall Street bonuses that people were railing against, the Big Wall Street bonuses that created such outrage in this country? A lot of people thought that they had gone away.
Well, guess what? They're back! Christine Romans is here to tell you just how big they're going to be this year in some cases. Fifteen and a half minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": People have been asking me all weekend - people were asking me how bad it was. Folks, I'll be honest with you - I hit my head so hard that for five seconds I actually understood the plot of "Lost." I - I understood - I saw what they're doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Eighteen minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the most news in the morning. And what he's talking about was he's now back at work, Conan, after a little bit of an accident happened. He was joking about this after he went to the hospital with a slight concussion last Friday, then he showed a clip of how it was that he actually did slip and hit his head during the skit with Teri Hatcher from "Desperate Housewives."
Ohh! Ouch! Dang!
ROBERTS: You know, when you're as tall as he is and you fall down, it takes a while for everything to hit the ground.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, did you - you know, because he slid for so long before actually banging his head. He looks like he's in pain right there.
ROBERTS: Still trying to joke about it, though, which is good.
CHETRY: There you go. He's still the professional - but look at that. Look at...
ROBERTS: Look at this. Bam! Kablam! Ouch!
CHETRY: You know that didn't feel good. So, yes, he had a - he actually had a concussion and couldn't do the show. They had to run a rerun.
ROBERTS: I did that once playing floor hockey in high school. Oh! Shoot! That hurt!
ROMANS: That's how I felt exactly a year ago today, when the DOW fell 777 points. That was...
ROBERTS: Of course!
ROMANS: ... the best segue of the year! Put that on the holiday reel. That was good!
ROBERTS: You are such a geek! Have you ever played a sport where you hit your head?
ROMANS: No.
ROBERTS: Never fell off a chair?
ROMANS: No.
ROBERTS: Off your bicycle?
ROMANS: No, I don't think so.
ROBERTS: Just - you fell off the top of the DOW, hit your head.
ROMANS: No head injuries, though. No head injuries.
ROBERTS: Christine is here this morning, and she's got news on big bonuses returning back to Wall Street.
ROMANS: OK. So, yes, I'm serious. Yesterday was - or today, a year ago, was the day we lost 777 points on the DOW because the House - remember the House didn't pass the bank bailout, John?
John (INAUDIBLE)
CHETRY: No. I think he's laughing (ph) because - I mean - I mean, you hit your head a lot, right, in life? I mean - no, seriously.
ROBERTS: You can tell, huh?
CHETRY: I hit my head a lot, and I - I probably have had concussions. The last one was in college. I was running to jump on my friend's back, being stupid, and he ducked, and I hit the floor of the dormitory. I had to lay down for a very long time after that. You've never hit your head?
ROMANS: I don't - not that I can remember. Maybe I hit it so hard I can't remember. I don't - I really don't ever remember - sorry guys. I don't.
But back to the DOW. Back to the DOW. That was a great segue until we completely lost our momentum. OK, the DOW, yes.
This year has been horrific for the DOW, right? Until March, and then it really started coming back strongly. I want to show you a chart of the performance since March '09. S&P up 57 percent, the DOW is up 50 percent since March, the NASDAQ up 68 percent - and you know what that's going to mean, everybody? That's going to mean you've regained a little bit of what you've lost. It also means that Wall Street is going to have fantastic bonuses. Doesn't that make you all feel so much better?
We're expecting a bonus bonanza again this year because as the market has come back, profits have come back for all the big banks, and about half of financial company revenue goes into bonuses. So these little red bars you see there are - are bonuses, 2006 was the peak. It was about $34 billion. We can't say exactly yet how many - how many will - how - how big it will be, but it will probably - it could very well surpass 2008 and be on track - be on track to - to try to challenge that 2006 number.
ROBERTS: So - so they had one bad year.
ROMANS: Yes. They had one bad year that almost took the global economy to the brink, and now because things are coming back, you will see huge bonuses for the people who work at...
ROBERTS: We are so in the wrong business. I'm telling you.
ROMANS: You know, here's what's even more interesting. They've...
ROBERTS: We're all - everybody - everybody in America who's not in the financial services industry is so in the wrong business.
ROMANS: But they - they fired so many people, I think 16,000 more jobs were lost this year, so there's going to be fewer people to share that bonus pool. So, you know, the individual bonuses could be a little bit bigger. Now remember, Wall Street - this is how it operates. You have a - a relatively modest, relatively modest salary and then a lot of your compensation comes in bonus, so it - it could be - it could be another good year. A good year for the - for the...
CHETRY: What is your Romans Numeral? Every day she brings us a number about a story that's driving your money. So what is it today?
ROMANS: You will feel like you hit your head after this one - 11.4. Eleven point four times. This one is, the recession has really hit the low and middle class more than anybody else. So the very people who are going to get this great bonus work in an industry that helped bring the global economy to the brink and brought the gap between rich and poor to 11.4 times.
ROBERTS: Oh, I see...
ROMANS: The richest people.
ROBERTS: So the richest bank richer, making 11.4 times what...
ROMANS: What the poverty level - basically around the poverty level. So even this recession, I mean, it's hurt everybody. It's hurt the rich, too. It's hurt everybody, but it's hurt the mid and the lower end of the spectrum more according to this, you know, (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTS: Christine Romans, minding your business this morning with some job suggestions for the future.
CHETRY: And be careful when you walk off set. You don't want to slip.
ROBERTS: Don't hit your head. CHETRY: Still ahead, we're talking about ways to make flying safer by being able to simulate what goes on in the air. Jason Carroll gets a firsthand look at how this new tool for pilots works. Twenty three minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Nine months after the miracle on the Hudson, the hero pilot who landed the US Airways jet safely in the river is returning to work. Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger will have a new role as a management pilot. He's also going to be part of the Airline Safety Management Organization. Sully says missed working and is eager to get back into the cockpit.
Well, the FAA wants to make sure that air traffic controllers are prepared to deal with situations like the bird strike that forced US Airways flight 1549 to ditch in the Hudson and get more of them on line as well.
CHETRY: You know, what they're doing is using new high-tech tools to simulate pretty much every emergency that controllers could face. Jason Carroll now with a look at how this works and - and just how critical it is for the air traffic controllers to be able to help the pilots in these emergency situations.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And you know what's amazing about the simulator, literally, as you said, any possible emergency that you can imagine, these guys - these men and women can be trained on that before they actually get into the tower. You know, by next year the simulators will be set up at 22 airports across the country. Aviation officials say that it is an important step in training evolution. Critics question if it is a shortcut for traditional training.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Calling heavy triple 7 short final (ph)...
CARROLL (voice-over): Rated one of the most stressful jobs in America: air traffic controller. They're the ones in the towers like this one at New York's JFK Airport, tracking each plane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One-eighteen, continue straight ahead on gravel ground point nine.
CARROLL: Not easy, considering the crowded skies. Each triangle on radar is a plane, so many flying on a typical afternoon the entire country looks red. Controllers and those who train them, like John Kubic, know the stakes.
JOHN KUBIC, AIR CONTROL TRAINER: A mistake on my part can cause somebody to die. It's just that simple.
CARROLL: Kubic, a former controller, now has new high-tech tool to train his students - a high-tech stimulator. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Foxy (ph) left bravo to Julia (ph).
CARROLL: It's a digital reproduction of the view from an airport tower, and it looks remarkably accurate. David Jennings helped create it.
How is this different from how you were trained in the very beginning?
DAVID JENNINGS, ADACEL: Light years different.
CARROLL: The simulator's circular structure modified for any weather condition or airport.
JENNINGS: The student goes upstairs with more knowledge, better skills and level of confidence.
CARROLL: Students like Asif Ali say the simulator has helped his training.
ASIF ALI, TRAINING ON SIMULATOR: With the simulator, it's - you can practice before you actually get on - go into the tower.
CARROLL: The simulation training - not easy.
JENNINGS: When he pops up like this, he hit this call sign, check with (ph) 741, Kennedy ground, taxi two, runway three, one left, but we want him to go that way to your right alpha, then gulf pendulum (ph).
CARROLL: You want me to say all that?
JENNINGS: Yes.
CARROLL: Not everyone likes the idea of training on a simulator. Stephen Abraham represents the Air Traffic Controllers Union in New York.
STEPHEN ABRAHAM, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: You don't teach people to drive a car with a video game, and I don't think you should teach people how to work air traffic with a video game.
CARROLL: Abraham says the traditional method of on-the-job training, where students train alongside experienced controllers in the tower is best. Randy Babbitt, the head of the FAA says the simulator won't be instead of on-the-job training, it will be in addition to.
RANDY BABBITT, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: We're giving them quality training as opposed to quantity. So we are giving them a higher quality of exposure and experience training to help them in their future decision making. So it's a very effective tool.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CARROLL: And the FAA official say the system should speed up training time by some 30 percent, and this is key because more than half of the air traffic controllers now working are actually scheduled to retire by 2017, so you can see why there is a sense of urgency to get, you know, more of these guys ready to go, up in these towers, all across the country quickly.
ROBERTS: I'm sure there is a huge shortage of air traffic controllers. It's funny what you said about you don't use a simulator to teach people how to drive? The front page of the "USA Today" there's a story on how schools have got these high-tech simulators for driver's ed.
CARROLL: Exactly. And again, the point is that this is not going to be instead of that traditional and tandem training that they do up in the towers.
CHETRY: Right.
CARROLL: It's going to -- it will be added to that training. So before they get in the towers they have an opportunity to in some ways experience what some of these emergencies are like.
CHETRY: Thanks, Jason.
ROBERTS: Fascinating.
Thanks, Jason.
Taking a look at our top stories this morning as we cross the half hour. Right now, the Obama administration reportedly drafting plans to convince Iran's leaders to come clean on their disputed nuclear program. Officials say they are considering drastically increased economic sanctions like penalties against its energy, financial and telecommunication sectors. The highest level of discussions between Iran and the United States in 30 years take place this Thursday. Should be a charged atmosphere.
CHETRY: Well, first lady Michelle Obama is vowing to take no prisoners in a bid to bring the 2016 summer Olympics home to Chicago. She is part of the Chicago delegation that's traveling to Copenhagen ahead of the international Olympic committee meeting on Friday. The IMC will review bids from several cities including Chicago and Madrid, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro. President Obama is also flying to Copenhagen, Thursday, to make a personal pitch to Olympic officials.
ROBERTS: And authorities are calling it a major blow to international organized crime. U.S., Mexican and Colombian authorities seized more than $41 million in cold cash. The money was neatly packed in sacks of fertilizer chemicals in evening shipping containers at Mexican and Colombian ports. U.S. officials are calling it one of the largest cash seizures in history.
CHETRY: On the ground in Afghanistan, the stakes and the risks are as high as they have ever been. American troops are putting their lives on the line every minute of every day as extremists appear to be improving their deadly tactics.
Our Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence looks at what may be the toughest decision for the Obama administration to order more troops to the war zone or shift to a new strategy.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, up to 40,000 military families could be affected by the president's decision to send more troops. Here's what they could be facing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): The top U.S. commander says the situation in Afghanistan is not getting better.
GENERAL STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, U.S. COMMANDER IN AFGHANISTAN: They are probably a little worse.
LAWRENCE: What's that mean? Compared to just two years ago, the number of American troops killed by roadside bombs is up 400 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) Oh. Never mind!
LAWRENCE: And a senior Defense official tells CNN the insurgents are getting better faster.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Found a land mine west of your location.
LAWRENCE: When U.S. forces designed a way to disrupt more sophisticated bombs, the insurgents went back to using simple devices that go undetected along the rocky unpaved roads.
SPECIALIST ADAM BRYANT, IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN VETERANS OF AMERICA: It always single isolated attacks.
LAWRENCE: Army Reserve Specialist Adam Bryant deployed into nearly a dozen villages, remote areas with one way in and out.
BRYANT: Even in Kabul, you know, you stray from the main path and you run into an absolutely terrible dirt road.
LAWRENCE: An analyst who monitors the Afghan election says there's not enough NATO forces to cover southern and eastern Afghanistan. So, even though troops control one city:
MICHAEL O'HANLON, SENIOR FELLOW IN FOREIGN POLICY STUDIES, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: But the next city over, the Taliban is in charge or operates without any particular constraint. And they can use that second city as a sanctuary from which to attack the first city.
LAWRENCE: Senator Lindsey Graham says it's harder to get off base when visiting Afghanistan, even under heavy protection.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: You can't travel like you once could.
LAWRENCE: American troops are now operating under new orders: Protect Afghan civilians at all costs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a kid? Damn it!
LAWRENCE: Even if it means holding back from a clear shot at insurgents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My only concern is that child right now. Once he gets away (INAUDIBLE)
LAWRENCE: General McChrystal has ordered troops out of their forward operating bases and out of their armored vehicles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where you from?
LAWRENCE: But mixing with Afghans and building trust means soldiers and Marines assume more risk.
BRYANT: Because the Taliban, the enemy, dresses just as the civilians do on a daily basis. They don't wear any type of uniform that you can recognize. So, the question have you to ask yourself every single day is, am I surrounded by enemies?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Despite that uncertainty, General McChrystal's new strategy seems to be paying off when it comes to protecting the Afghan people. NATO figure show that in a two-month stretch last year, coalition forces killed more than 150 civilians. At the same time this summer, coalition forces were only responsible for 19 deaths - John, Kiran.
CHETRY: Chris Lawrence for us this morning.
We're going to be talking much more about that with two people who authored one of the studies recommending that they up the ante to 40,000 new American troops at least right now to try to at least do something to be able to hold back the insurgents and to protect Afghan civilians.
ROBERTS: Yes. Certainly going to be no shortage of opinions on whether or not to do that.
Speaking of opinions, she was always opinionated. Madeleine Albright, when she was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nation, and then later secretary of state during the Clinton administration, and she was rarely seen without a pin on her left shoulder.
Well, now, some of these pins, like this bluebird and that snake and that angel are included in a new exhibited at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. And these are pins that are not just fashion statements. They are diplomatic statements.
The secretary is going to join us to talk more about that coming right up.
Thirty-five minutes after the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright not only famous for becoming the first woman to ever hold the post, but also for her penchant for pins. Broaches that she used to send messages. Some subtle, some not so much to dictators, presidents and foreign ministers.
It's the focus of her new book "Read my Pins." And I had a chance to talk with Secretary Albright yesterday at New York's Museum of Arts and Design where more than 200 of her most important pins are on display.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Madam Secretary, this penchant for wearing pins, particularly pins that have some sort of meaning and wearing them with a little bit of attitude. Where did that whole idea come from?
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, it almost kind of an accident, actually. And none of this would have happened if it hadn't been for Saddam Hussein. He called me a serpent. And there was this horrible poem about that I was a terrible serpent. And so I decided I had a snake pin that I had bought earlier sometime. So I thought I will wear it when we do Iraq. So I in fact did wear it. President Bush had said "read my lips." So I said "read my pins."
ROBERTS: This is a great pin here with a fabulous story. This missile pin.
ALBRIGHT: This is a -- it is a great pin. And this was actually made for me by the wife of our NATO ambassador, Lisa Vershbow.
ROBERTS: Great job.
ALBRIGHT: And it's terrific. And I just loved it. And so I wore it when foreign minister of Russia, Ygor Ivanov were negotiating the antiballistic missile treaty. And he looked over at me and he said is that one of your interceptor missiles? And I said, yes, and we know how to make them very small and so you better negotiate.
ROBERTS: I love this American flag. This is very ornate.
ALBRIGHT: Isn't that a great pin? And I just thought it was really beautiful. And I wore it in this -- when I went to North Korea and met Kim Jong-Il. Now if you notice, that is exactly the same background that when President Clinton was just there.
ROBERTS: When he went to get the journalists.
ALBRIGHT: When he went -- I mean, this is their favorite scene. And so I wanted to have it be absolutely clear who I represented and it was...
ROBERTS: No mistaking that. I love this line here. You said, "Kim Jong-Il, you wore high heels and so did he."
ALBRIGHT: Right. I mean, you know, we were having our first press conference. I looked over, we were at the same height. And I thought, well, I know I have on heels. And then I looked over at him, and his hair is a lot puffier than mine.
ROBERTS: You wore the dove when you were involved in the Middle East peace, but you also on occasion wore this bee.
ALBRIGHT: This bee. I wore that. This is one of those pictures where if looks could kill so I wore a bee. Arafat is sitting next to me. And I was planning to be pretty tough, and I was. He then gave me a butterfly.
ROBERTS: So what was the bee symbolizing?
ALBRIGHT: It symbolized that there needed to be some tough action, and that I would tell the truth with little sting.
ROBERTS: There are so many ornate pins here. So many that have so much meaning in terms of diplomacy. But sometimes the simplest thing is the best, isn't it? And you said that this is your favorite pin.
ALBRIGHT: Well, it is. You know, I mean, -- it's a heart. I wear it on Valentine's Day. And it was made for me by my daughter. And when people say well, how old is she? And now she's 41. And she will say mom, you got to tell them I made it when I was 5. And, you now, her daughter, my granddaughter said to her mother, what's the big deal about grandma Madie being secretary of state. She is 7 years old. And she said only girls are secretaries of state. As I have had a lot of fun with this. And it's -- you know, and somebody said it was a very democratic small collection that has -- you know, it's mostly costume jewelry just for fun.
ROBERTS: Tell me the story of the pin that nearly ignited international diplomatic incident.
ALBRIGHT: Well, I'll tell you. What happened was I perfected the art of diplomatic kissing. That was not something that had been done a lot before. So I would arrived somewhere and I got a hug and a kiss. And so I was in South Korea. And the minister there, after I left, heads out with a friendly dinner with some journalists and he said, I'm about the same age as Secretary Albright. But I just love it when she comes here because she makes me feel so young and when I hug her she has very firm breasts.
ROBERTS: Oh, no.
ALBRIGHT: And so, all of a sudden there is this whole thing about how could he have said something like that? Should he be fired or whatever? And I felt, well, this is a silly thing, and I said what do you expect me to put those pins on.
ROBERTS: I'm blushing just listening to you tell the story.
ALBRIGHT: But then what happened was the next time we met we shook hands in a very proper distance.
ROBERTS: So what was the South Korean kiss then?
ALBRIGHT: Do you want to do?
ROBERTS: Sure.
ALBRIGHT: Closer.
Thanks a lot.
ROBERTS: I won't say anything.
ALBRIGHT: All right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: I'm not about to have done a diplomatic incident there.
CHETRY: She made you blush.
ROBERTS: I know.
CHETRY: She's great. Quite a character.
ROBERTS: It's not often that the secretary, former secretary of state talks about a certain part of her anatomy like that. It's frank terms.
CHETRY: Hey, how about it, you know? She also took it in stride when she said it.
ROBERTS: You know what's interesting is when I was first presented with this whole idea, I thought OK, well, the pins are really interesting. But how could -- exhibition of pins in anyway be interesting to me? And it's fascinating. It really is.
I went over there to the Museum of Arts and Design. It's right across the street. And the way that they had the pins lined up with all of the diplomatic photos and stories about them, it really is extraordinarily fascinating.
CHETRY: It actually is a good way for people that might not normally be interested in history or foreign diplomacy to learn a little bit as well.
ROBERTS: No old fashion.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Well, people who like fashion are going to go there look at the pins, right?
ROBERTS: Exactly.
CHETRY: And maybe they learn something about history. ROBERTS: And the book is fascinating as well. It's called "Read my Pins."
You can see a sample by the way of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's pins from her book at our blog at CNN.com/amfix.
What a story about the South Korean foreign minister.
CHETRY: Hey...
ROBERTS: I'm still blushing.
CHETRY: We are going to show you something really cool by the way that CNN is unveiling today. If you have an iPhone, a new way to get news even quicker, video and uploading iReports in a whole new way. We'll show you how it works, coming up.
Forty-four minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. I feel like we should be calling an election, because we're now standing where we stood.
ROBERTS: This is like turning letters. Do you want to buy a vowel?
CHETRY: No, the reason we got here today, we want to show you something pretty cool. We are taking journalism to an entirely new level especially if you are somebody that gets your news on the go. It's a new CNN iPhone application.
ROBERTS: This is the simulation, but obviously it is not a real iPhone, but it is capable of bringing you news in ways that no other application can for just $1.99, check out some of the things that this application can do. And as she said, it is an iPhone stimulator so your experience on your iPhone is going to be a little different, but it's really easy to do.
You have the little iPhone app icon on your phone, you punch that, and it brings you to this which is the overall -- this is the headline section and if you want to take a look here, you can just flick it down there. Let's, for example, click on Honduras here, and you can get all of the news on what's going on in Honduras with this application as it delivers the headline to you.
And there are other ways that you can go about it as well. Let's say you want to follow this topic. You just punch that and you -- it says that you are following all of the news regarding Honduras. And that brings you to another application
CHETRY: This is really cool as well. You can program it so that it brings you news that you actually care about yourself under my CNN. And so here you can put up your local weather, your local traffic so that you can figure out what it is like for you, let's say you live in New York, look at the ten-day forecast. And then if you go back again, through my CNN, check out traffic, you're heading into work. I mean, this is when this application makes sense. You can actually see street maps showing you where you need to go, where things may be clogged up on your route. And the other cool thing is that you can go to follow it as John showed you and you can see which stories you are interested in right here on your my CNN.
ROBERTS: We were following Honduras so this brings up all of the stories about Honduras that CNN has been following here. And you can click on each one of those individually and then you can get video for those as well.
CHETRY: Yeah, that's another cool thing right here. You click on the video application and how do we move this one up again? This is -- we can -- go right through it and click on one of the stories and -- there you go. And, of course, it loads.
ROBERTS: Right. So that will load up your video. You know, any particular video that you want to see, it is easy enough to get through it. You just click on any one of these things. I think we have got some sort of action video here. This is our Eunice Yoon following some emergency drills. So it just automatically feeds all of this into your iPhone. It is a terrific application. Again, you can get that for $1.99 at your CNN application.
CHETRY: Makes me jealous. I have a blackberry. This thing looks pretty cool.
ROBERTS: It may be time to add something else to your arsenal of information.
CHETRY: Exactly. Again, as we said, this is really cool. This is the way to bring world news right into the palm of your hand. And if you would like to find out more about it, it's CNN.com/iphone. You can also go to the apple store to get it.
ROBERTS: Right. So President Obama, he is headed for Copenhagen later on this week to try to win the Olympics for the City of Chicago. How much more could the President put on his plate? Our Candy Crowley reports coming right up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. President Obama's long and winding to-do-list. These juggling Afghanistan, health care, the Olympics, and the list goes on and on and on. But how many balls should the president realistically have in the air all at once? Our Candy Crowley takes a closer look now at our president's full plate.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Kiran. The president, you know, faces a daunting fall to-do- list and that's against the backdrop of an American public far less enthusiastic than they were last spring on a variety of issues.
The list ranges from dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions to now traveling to Copenhagen to beat Chicago for the 2016 Olympics. It's a trip that President said two weeks ago he couldn't take because he was working on health care. He doesn't think that anymore.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VALERIE JARRETT, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISOR: The health care reform has been his number one priority issue here domestically. He wanted to make sure that he would -- if he went, that it wouldn't have an adverse impact on them so is going for just a day.
CROWLEY (voice-over): And it will still be here when he gets back. One Capitol Hill source says the President has made it clear his fall priorities are financial reform and health care.
OBAMA: There comes a time to remember the fierce urgency of right now. Now is the time.
CROWLEY: It will take hands on. The senate democratic leadership is looking for presidential guidance in putting together one bill out of two really different ones while still holding on to enough votes to pass it. The administration said financial reform legislation to the Hill and on both sides committee work has begun but it is a long way from hooked.
A number of Capitol Hill players say privately anything beyond health care and financial regulation would be a miracle this year.
On the global scene, in addition to Iran, there is winding down the war in Iraq and deciding what the U.S. is doing in Afghanistan and whatever it is means more troops.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think you saw Secretary Gates say that a resource request that he gets will not be sent here to the White House until he believes and the President believes that we are in a position having reached a consensus on moving forward.
CROWLEY: Also worth noting the complexities of closing down the prison at Guantanamo Bay is proving complex and slow enough that the deadline is apparently no longer a deadline.
GIBBS: We are not focused on whether or not the deadline will and won't be met on a particular day. We are focused on insuring that the facility is closed.
CROWLEY: And then, of course, there's the unknown, the unpredictable things that require immediate attention in any presidency. It is a lot but during the campaign then candidate Obama seemed to know what he was getting into.
OBAMA: Presidents are going have to deal with more than one thing at a time.
CROWLEY: A bit of an understatement.
There are Democrats willing to say privately, of course, that the president has too much going on. As proof, they note the unexpected glitches and bureaucratic nightmare of the car clunker program as well as the slow pace of health care reform. But that clunker program was wildly popular with consumers, and if the president gets health care, we won't hear a lot of talk about plates being too full. John and Kiran.
ROBERTS: And if he gets the Olympics, what are we going to hear?
CHETRY: Yeah. Exactly. We are going to find out soon.
ROBERTS: The sound of cha-ching for a lot of folks in Chicago. No doubt about that.
CHETRY: So we are going to be talking more about that. The first time ever, as Candy said, when we pointed it up before the President goes there and makes an in-person pitch for the Olympics to come to a U.S. city. We are going to be talking to two reporters. One from the Politico and one from Chicago about what all this means and how the president is doing?
ROBERTS: Not everybody in Chicago wants the Olympics, did they?
CHETRY: No.
ROBERTS: But then do you want them to go to Rio?
CHETRY: Some of them do in Chicago. They think it is going to be a big headache for them, but you know.
ROBERTS: But it is not even summer in Rio at that time of year.
CHETRY: Yeah. All right 56 minutes after the hour. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome come back to the Most News in the Morning. Two minutes before the top of the hour right now, and a story developing now that we are following for you. A father from Tennessee is in a Japanese jail right now charged with kidnapping his own kids. He and his ex-wife who is originally from Japan, had a joint custody agreement.
But then his ex-wife took the kids to Japan for the summer and never brought them back. Our Kyung Lah is tracking developments out of Tokyo this morning. And the interesting thing about this is that Japan has very different rules when it comes to parental custody. So this is probably one of the most difficult countries when it comes to trying to get your child back. Explain.
KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A very difficult country, Kiran, because Japanese law really does look at it as one parent has custody and not both. Christopher Savoie, an American from Tennessee, this morning, he is in a Japanese jail charged with trying to abduct his own two children. Japanese police say on Monday morning as those two children walking to school, 8-year-old Isaac and 6-year-old Rebecca, Savoie grabbed them and tried to take them to the U.S. embassy. Just steps, though, from the front door of the U.S. embassy, local police stopped him and because he was standing on Japanese soil, he has been arrested and charged with kidnapping.
According to the U.S. embassy this is something that they are going to try to fix but it's going to take some diplomacy. Christopher Savoy spoke about all of this before all this happened about his heartbreak from his Tennessee home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER SAVOIE, PARENT: Everywhere I look around, there is a picture. I can't go in his bedroom. And I might will never sleep in his bed again. I just said I love you, Isaac. I love you. Remember that I love you and that I want you back. You should be here. You should be in school. You should be with your daddy. It is hard to have quiet moments because my kids were just haunt me during those quiet moments.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAH: A very sad story about divorce, an international law, and two very different countries looking at this single case in two very different ways -- Kiran.
CHETRY: We'll have to see if the U.S. State Department is getting involved in that situation. We'll continue to follow the story. Kyung Lah for us this morning. Thank you.
