Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Pres. Obama Eyes End of Health Care Debate; Hostages Held at Pakistan Army HQ; Iraqi Troops Join U.S. Troops for Big Insurgent Bust; Swimming with the Sharks; Reaction from International Community on President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Win; Turkey & Armenia Peace Deal on Hold; A Preview of Latino in America; A Look at Key Issues on the President's Plate; The Smartest Cities in the U.S.
Aired October 10, 2009 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center here in Atlanta, you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. It's Saturday, October 10th. I'm Drew Griffin in for T.J. Holmes today.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everybody I'm Betty Nguyen. It's 11:00 A.M. in the east, 8:00 A.M. out on the west coast. Here is what is happening right now. Top stories for you.
We start with breaking news. A standoff taking place at Pakistan army headquarters in Rawalpindi south of the capital of Islamabad. Our correspondent in Pakistan says two armed militants are holding several members of the military hostage. This is all happening after an attack and a firefight that killed six army guards and four gunmen. We'll give you a live report from Reza Sayah in just a couple of minutes.
Two more men have been questioned in an alleged terror plot against New York City. That's the case involving this man, 24-year-old Afghan national Najibullah Zazi. He's accused of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. We've learned that police have searched the apartment of a Bosnian immigrant in Queens. Investigators have also questioned a taxi driver about the alleged plot.
A tsunami caught on surveillance video. You have to see this video. Just from the FBI, that's who took this. It's surveillance video, look at that. It shows tsunami waves rolling in and just wiping out cars parked in an FBI office in American Samoa. At least 183 people died when the tsunami hit the Samoan Islands in Tonga last week.
GRIFFIN: After a long and very vocal and sometimes violent debate over health care reform, President Obama says it's time for action. CNN's Kate Bolduan is at the White House. Kate, in his message this morning he basically declared an end to all the talk, time to pass this thing. Is that message getting through?
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You can bet, Drew, that the White House is surely hoping that message is getting through. And you really see that in the president's weekly radio and internet address this morning, really trying, you can tell, to push the debate over health care reform forward. He says that reform efforts he sees have gathered momentum around the -- health care reform efforts have really gathered momentum and he also says that he sees, quote, "Unprecedented consensus around the reform efforts taking shape in Congress right now." The president also jumping at the opportunity to highlight the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Senate finance proposal that is going to be voted on next week, saying that reform is regaining steam. Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: It will bring greater security to Americans who have coverage with new insurance protections and by attacking waste and fraud within the system, it will slow the growth in health care costs without adding a dime to our deficits. This is another milestone on what's been a long, hard road towards health insurance reform.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: The CBO estimates the Senate finance proposal for health care reform will cost an estimated $829 billion over 10 years but eventually will reduce the deficit by $80 billion. But I have to tell you, Drew, republicans, many, many republicans remain unconvinced of this. Republicans are very concerned still about cost, how to pay for this, new taxes, new fees, and the concerns over cuts in care that they say will come with these new health care plans. As you mentioned and we've talked about, the Senate finance committee is voting on their proposal Tuesday. People will be watching that very closely.
GRIFFIN: Not just republicans. Just people want to know what's in this bill. They want to be actually able to see that bill. I think that was one of the issues they wanted to put this thing online. But let's move on to another issue.
BOLDUAN: Absolutely.
GRIFFIN: The president trying to mend some fights with -- not fights but disputes with gay rights groups. He's going to speak to a group of what you would say activist gay members of the community who think he's not doing enough for them.
BOLDUAN: Yes, we're definitely keeping an eye on this, this evening. The president will be speaking before the human rights campaign. It's an annual dinner tonight. This is an influential -- a group representing the gay and lesbian community. He'll be only the second sitting president to speak before this group. And we've been told he'll be touching on a range of topics tonight, one of them being the hate crimes bill that's making its way through Congress. This would make violent attacks against the gay and lesbian community a federal crime.
The president has been a strong backer of that, but at the same time as you mentioned Drew, we're going to be watching for really a little bit more about what the president has to say and how he is received because the gay and lesbian community were strong backers of this president and many have come out recently to say they're frustrated, they're disappointed and they're getting impatient with the president that is not following through on some of his campaign promises on some other big priority issues for them, one of them being working to repeal the don't ask, don't tell policy that has to do with the military. That is something we'll be listening for very carefully this evening.
GRIFFIN: All right Kate, thanks a lot. See you later.
BOLDUAN: Thanks Drew.
NGUYEN: Take you back to Pakistan right now where Taliban militants are holding hostages after a fierce gun battle at Pakistani army headquarters in Rawalpindi, just south of the capital of Islamabad. Now on the phone with us is Reza Sayah, one of our correspondents there with the latest. Reza, what do you know at this point?
VOICE OF REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, this thing is still not over. When this is all said and done, this is going to go down as perhaps the most audacious and in-your-face militant attack ever in Pakistan. Here you have militants trying to target the heart of Pakistan's security apparatus. At this point, according to officials, you have two armed militants who had penetrated the compound of the army. The army headquarters in Rawalpindi just outside the federal capital of Islamabad, and according to officials they do have several military personnel hostage.
Now, this all started noon about nine hours ago local time, when according to officials, several militants with heavy arms, wearing military uniforms in a minivan approached a check post right outside the main gate of the army headquarters in Rawalpindi. They opened fire. They killed several guards. They managed to race past the first check post. They came to a second check post. There was another fierce gunfight. That's where they killed several more security guards. But initially, earlier today, the Pakistani military said they killed four of the militants and things were under control. You have nine hours that have passed and now we've learned that things are not under control. Again, two of these militants, at least two of them, heavily armed inside the compound, holding several military personnel hostage. Betty?
NGUYEN: Yes, it's an ongoing situation, one that we're going to watch very closely and depending on your reports on that. Reza Sayah in Islamabad for us today. Thank you.
GRIFFIN: Meanwhile, in Iraq, tracking down the enemy near Baghdad. Iraqi soldiers in lock step with U.S. green berets searching and arresting. This is something you'll only see on CNN. Our Cal Perry was there as Iraqi troops trained and battled in their own back yards.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAL PERRY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are Iraq Special Forces. Today they're training, a simple exercise on how to clear a house, searching for a hostage.
(On camera): When the U.S. military talks about a shift in mission to training and advising, this is exactly what we're talking about. Iraqi Special Forces learning close quarter combat. Now while all this was going on, American Special Forces green berets watched it all from above. That way when the exercise is over, they can do a debrief, talk about what they did well, what they did poorly, and what they can do better in the future.
PERRY (voice-over): For two and a half months, these green berets have been working with this group. They say they're making progress. U.S. GREEN BERET OPERATOR: The biggest area where they've made the most progress is when it comes to values and professionalism. Teaching a guy how to clear a room or how to drive a humvee, that's very basic stuff. Teaching a guy not to grab something when he's going through a house looking for evidence or not to take bribes, that's the hard part.
PERRY: Just a few days later, the U.S. green berets put four Blackhawk helicopters into play, going after four individuals south of Baghdad. Iraqi Special Force troops ride in the battle, their trainers alongside. The choppers have landed at what was believed to be the target building, but it was not. So, a night foot patrol begins, Iraqis up front in the lead. At one point during patrol, the soldiers come across men with weapons. Turns out they're Iraqi police. The patrol moves on.
By the time the unit gets to the target, it's clear that emotions are running high. The U.S. military tells CNN the treatment of this detainee at the hands of an Iraqi operator will trigger an automatic investigation. Regardless, both sides believe the joint mission was a success.
(On camera): They believe they have ruled out their main target of this operation. It was supposed to be a lightning-quick Blackhawk strike, but what it turned into was about a mile and a half, two-mile march. The entire time the Green Beret U.S. Special Forces let the Iraqis take the lead. They believe that they've led them to this suspected insurgent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome. One over there and two here. On the helicopter. Makes for a long walk as well.
PERRY (voice-over): Cal Perry, CNN, embedded with U.S. and Iraqi Special Forces.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Take a look at this. A deadly tsunami moves in. More of that dramatic new video to show you. We're going to have it for you in a little bit.
NGUYEN: Yes, it's really some scary stuff and you can see the power of the storm. You don't want to miss it. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Breaking news we're following out of Pakistan. A terrorist attack we thought was over hours ago is not over. A hostage situation at an army headquarters in Rawalpindi. Our Reza Sayah is live on the line with new developments in this. Reza? Reza Sayah, we just lost him, but he was about to report, I believe, that there may be even more people involved in this than we first thought. We'll try to get him back on the line and get an update. This was an attack that happened at an army headquarters station. Four of the terrorists have been killed. But as we later learned, some did get inside and are holding hostages. We're following this all morning long. Betty?
NGUYEN: All right. I understand that we're going to -- Reza Sayah, are you on the line right now with us, Reza? All right, Reza. Can you bring us up to speed with what is happening at this moment? All right. I was told that he was on the line by our producer. We're going to work out those kinks, those technical difficulties, and we'll try to get back to that.
In the meantime, let's show you some other video that may have you talking today. A lot of you have probably seen video of the deadly tsunami in the Samoan Islands. Well check this out. Pictures from a security camera and it shows the storm as it moves in and just really trashes the parking lot at an FBI office in American Samoa. You see the water just rushing in. Those cars and trucks washed away by the power of the waves. Reynolds, you've covered a lot of storms. You understand how fierce just a little bit of water can be when it comes to picking up a vehicle and just moving it.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: There's no question about it. What's really weird is with this video that we're getting, this FBI video, you know very well in the coming days and weeks I'm sure more people are going to step forward with images they got on their digital cameras, their camcorders, they're going to be showing more of this, the incredible power of the water of that tsunami as it came onshore in American Samoa. I'll tell you, Betty, water has been a huge issue not only over there but also in parts of the U.S., especially in Arkansas. We had some flooding in parts near Little Rock just yesterday.
NGUYEN: Look at that.
WOLF: I know, isn't that something? It only takes 18 inches of water in depth that could actually pick up a big vehicle, and that's about as big as you can get in terms of a passenger vehicle, a school bus. It was actually picked up by the waters, pushed into the -- I guess it was like a dry riverbed at some point, certainly not dry there. There were actually two people that were stuck on board. Thankfully, they were both rescued, there were no fatalities. It could have been a lot worse. That is the number-one killer for people during severe weather. Getting stuck in vehicles, flooding deaths, terrible, terrible thing.
(WEATHER REPORT)
NGUYEN: You're not going anywhere because I heard you took a little trip down to the Georgia Aquarium.
WOLF: Indeed, I did. Coming up we're going to have a great story for you guys.
NGUYEN: Yes, swimming with the sharks.
WOLF: All about the sharks.
NGUYEN: Love it, all right, see you shortly.
WOLF: You bet.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: All right. Want to get back to that story out of Pakistan where Taliban militants have pretty much stormed the army headquarters there in Pakistan. We understand some hostages have been taken. I want to go live on the phone right now back to our CNN correspondent on the ground, that being Reza Sayah. Reza, what have you discovered at this point?
VOICE OF REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, new information coming into CNN about this standoff that has now lasted more than nine hours. It wasn't clear how many armed militants had actually penetrated the army headquarters and how many hostages that they were holding. Spokesperson for the Pakistani military is saying four to five armed militants are inside army headquarters and they're holding between 10 and 15 civilian and military personnel and there's been a standoff. There's been sporadic shootings and gunfire over the past three or four hours.
Of course, the standoff started at noon local time. A little more than nine hours ago, according to army officials, had several militants, all wearing camouflage uniforms, attack the army headquarters in Rawalpindi just outside the federal capital of Islamabad. Keep in mind, this is the heart of Pakistan's security apparatus. Clearly, these militants wanted to send a message to the military and the Pakistani government. There was an exchange of gunfire. Initially, earlier today, the Pakistani military telling us that things were under control, even though two militants, they said, were missing. But now hours later we're hearing that this situation is not under control. They haven't resolved this matter. Again, CNN learning that at least four to five armed militants inside the army headquarters holding 10 to 15 people hostage. The situation is ongoing. We'll get more details for you, we'll pass it along when we get it. Betty?
NGUYEN: Absolutely. We will be watching very closely for that and reporting the latest as we get it. Reza Sayah, joining us live by phone. Thank you.
GRIFFIN: Reynolds Wolf went and swam with sharks. There's no other way to put it Reynolds, that's what you did. Why?
WOLF: Yes, well you know we did something to kind of get up close and personal with these sharks, to kind of get a better understanding of them. I don't know if you knew this. You might know this, Drew. I don't know if our viewers across America are aware of this, but one- third of the shark population could actually be headed towards extinction. I mean, just vanishing off the earth. In fact, there are some 70 species, in fact, that we had a chance to take a look at over the Georgia Aquarium up close and personal, that conservationists say within a few years could be wiped out all together. Why should we care about this? Well after all, most people think of these sharks as man-eating predators. Well, there is a new exhibit that has a very different take. It is an exhibit that gave me the opportunity to go face to face with some of these animals. From a face to face perspective, trust me, things look very different.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF (voice-over): The majestic whale shark, the endangered saw tooth shark, great hammerheads. The Georgia Aquarium is home to more than 14 species of shark, more than 70 of the animals in all. They're untouched by time, the same now as millions of years ago. Marine biologist Craig Thorburn has studied them for a lifetime. He's eager to share what he's learned.
(On camera): It's essentially like seeing a dinosaur swimming in the ocean.
CRAIG THORBURN, MARINE BIOLOGIST: The sharks have been around for over 400 million years and there is nothing swimming in the ocean today that is not there or has not survived predation from the shark. So they really are responsible for what we see in the ocean today.
WOLF (voice-over): But the ocean has changed and so has the shark population. Many species are now said to be near extinction. Millions killed each year. Some hunted for their fins but others scooped up as a prize. Just this week in Florida, anglers drew sharp criticism for killing this 750-pound mako shark.
(On camera): What is the biggest threat for these sharks?
THORBURN: The biggest threat for sharks today is over fishing. They are slow to reproduce. They have relatively few young, and we are taking more than 60 or 70 million animals a year out of the environment, and it's not sustainable and it will see the demise of the shark at that rate.
WOLF (voice-over): Thorburn wanted me to experience the other side, the grace and majesty of the shark without glass or boundary and most of the sharks are not dangerous. We went snorkeling in the world's largest fish tank, home of the Georgia Aquarium.
(On camera): That was cool. Wow.
(Voice-over): Thorburn just opened a new exhibit there called planet shark. His goal is for the world to see sharks as something other than the man eater portrayed in the movie "Jaws."
THORBURN: There are stories that we cannot tell in an aquarium but as a compliment to a lot of exhibits, planet shark brings you stories of the sea that cannot be told in any other way.
WOLF: The exhibit includes Rodney Fox's story. Fox survived a great white attack in 1963 and that is the jacket he was wearing. It took 465 stitches to sew up his left side yet Fox is now one of the shark's biggest advocates
RODNEY FOX, SHARK ATTACK SURVIVOR: After I learned about the sharks a little bit I found out that people had far more fear and gave them credibility of far more aggressiveness than they should.
WOLF: Fox invented the first underwater shark observation cage. He hopes that the planet shark exhibit will teach people what he's come to learn, that sharks can be amazing.
JUSTIN HALL, STUDENT: I learned that most sharks mostly attack on their senses, and not on sight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF: You know, it all does come back to fear. When people think of sharks, we think about shark attacks.
NGUYEN: "Jaws."
WOLF: Oh yeah, it's a terrifying prospect. But you have to look at it this way. We are attacked when we are in their environment. When you're walking down Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia, chances are you probably are not going to be attacked by a Maco shark, or a great white. Or in Lincoln, Nebraska, or Austin, Texas or what have you. It's we're in their environment. And a lot of times when that happens, it's usually by accident, by mistake. They think we're some other form of prey or it's a little bit of a curiosity kind of thing. But they're not evil, vicious animals and they serve such a tremendous purpose in the ocean. They are the apex predator. They're the top of the food chain and they tend to prey on the weaker vis-a-vis the dying creatures in the ocean, they kind of clean things up, so to speak. They're very important, they're vital, no question.
NGUYEN: But what a cycle. This is a whale shark that we're looking at right there. That thing is huge.
WOLF: Totally harmless, completely harmless. No fear whatsoever of that, at least you shouldn't have it. But I have to tell you when you're swimming in there and you see it close by, you get a little bit of a goose bump sending kind of lump in your throat sort of thing. It can be kind of intimidating.
NGUYEN: That is a cool experience. You lucky guy. I'm afraid to ask what you're going to be doing next. We'll keep that a secret.
WOLF: You bet, it's completely legal what I'll be doing next.
NGUYEN: I don't think we have enough insurance if it's not. Thank you, Reynolds.
President and peacemaker. The Nobel committee awarded Barack Obama the peace prize for what it calls his promises of diplomacy and disarmament.
GRIFFIN: Some people say that recognition is too much too soon. See what people around the world have to say.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) GRIFFIN: Checking our top stories, breaking news this morning, a standoff right now at Pakistani headquarters in Rawalpindi south of the capital of Islamabad. The Pakistani military tells us four or five armed militants are holding as many as 15 people hostage. There are civilians being held hostage, too. The standoff has been going on for more than nine hours, all happening after an attack and firefight that has already killed six army guards and four gunmen.
Figure out strategy first, then decide on the resources. The White House says that's how President Obama is approaching whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. The president met with his advisers yesterday and plans a fourth meeting next week. His spokesperson says a decision on troop levels is going to take another couple of weeks.
President Barack Obama is planning to go to Norway in December to accept his Nobel Peace Prize in person. The White House notes the $1.4 million that comes along with the prize is going to be given away to charity. President Obama says he views the award as a call to action to help solve the world's problems.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So, how do people around the world see it? Well, we asked our correspondents to check it out. Our focus this morning, Moscow, Kabul and Nairobi. First though, to Russia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Matthew Chance in Moscow. Even though the result isn't known yet, already Barack Obama has had a profound impact on often touchy relations between the United States and Russia. His rhetorical offer to press the reset button in the relationship between the two countries has been backed up with concrete steps, not least his decision to abandon plans to deploy elements of the missile defense system of the United States in Eastern Europe. That was a plan which the Russians strongly objected to, and that move has in itself opened up a whole range of possibilities for diplomatic cooperation, not least over how to tackle Iran's very controversial nuclear program.
ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Atia Abawi in Kabul. We're getting a very interesting reaction from the Afghan people on President Barack Obama's win for the Nobel Peace Prize. They say that they appreciate his efforts to try to bring peace in Afghanistan but they are still waiting for that peace to come. This also comes at a time where President Obama is mulling over the decision to send 40,000 additional troops to the country. For the most part, the U.S. troops are confident that their commander in chief will base that decision on being the president of the United States and not by being a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm David McKenzie in Nairobi, Kenya. We've come here to the streets of Nairobi to tell people and ask people what they think about President Barack Obama winning the peace prize. There are certainly diverse opinions, but it is a proud day for many Kenyans. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a prize for all the world. I mean, he came on a platter of peace for the world, and during his campaigns, he was this guy who came out strongly wanting peace in the world. So he's winning something (INAUDIBLE) for all people. And for those people who are out, make people suffer with war, hey Barack has won, you could win. War doesn't win, peace wins.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's very exciting for myself as a Kenyan and also for Americans all over the world and for him as a black man. I'm happy about it and I think it's interesting times for us as Kenyans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has revolutionized Africa and Kenya, and he has put Kenya to the world map so now the world knows that Kenya gives back to leaders of the world.
MCKENZIE: Kenya of course has its very own Nobel Peace Prize winner in one Gary Mathi, who won it for environmental activism some years ago. But still they call President Obama their favorite son, so a lot of excitement here in Nairobi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: And President Obama becomes the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He joins Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Here are some other notable Americans who have won the Nobel Peace Prize, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was recognized in 1964 and Henry Kissinger shared the prize in 1973. In 2002, former president Jimmy Carter was awarded the prize and then just two years ago it went to former vice president Al Gore with his intergovernmental panel on climate change.
GRIFFIN: For the first time in nearly half a century, there's some hope for peace between two neighboring countries that really hated each other. I don't know how else to put it. Turkey and Armenia. This hour in Switzerland there's a signing, the foreign ministers of both countries pledging to re-establish diplomatic ties. The agreement also sets the stage to reopen their border. What is not settled, so far back this goes, the issue of whether the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians at the end of World War I amounted to genocide. We understand there's been a holdup in the signing. CNN's Jill Dougherty is in Zurich on the phone with us. Jill, what's going on?
VOICE OF JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are accompanying Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who was going to be attending the signing ceremony. It actually was supposed to take place about 35, 40 minutes ago. We went down in her motorcade to the site, in fact, where the signing of the agreement -- actually two protocols was to take place and got to the location and then the motorcade turned around and went back to the hotel. Now, we understand at this point that things are on hold and that there are questions from at least the Armenians and perhaps the Turks about the wording of these final statements that they were supposed to be making at the signing ceremony. Right now, Hillary Clinton is back, she is waiting, and her senior staff are talking directly now with the foreign minister of Armenia, and they also apparently have the Turkish foreign minister on the telephone. Again, there was grave concern even before all this happened that it could fall apart. The tensions have been very strong. This was down to the wire. It looked good, but there were worries that it might fall apart. No one is saying that it is falling apart at this point, but it's certainly on hold.
GRIFFIN: Just to clarify, the agreement was reached, and that was on paper. What they're fighting about now is what the officials were going to say after they signed the thing?
DOUGHERTY: Exactly. Text of the statements that they were going to make at the end of the ceremony. So, again, it just underscores how sensitive all of this is. So, right now I can tell you, we're sitting in a motorcade just waiting as it's being clarified. So, we don't know at this point whether it will go forward.
GRIFFIN: Well, Jill, get us back on the phone if that car stars to move, will you?
DOUGHERTY: OK.
NGUYEN: All right.
Well, a peace agreement on paper, that's one thing. Putting it into practice is a whole other one. CNN's Ivan Watson joins us now from Turkey's capital. So Ivan what's the reaction from Istanbul?
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, this is a big deal. This is such a delicate subject for both the Turks and the Armenians. If something falls apart at the last minute it's going to be a really big issue. The two countries, their borders have been closed since 1993. It's an old cold war frontier that is still shut. We should have a map that can show you that. And it has really blocked trade in that region in the caucus's region and it has really isolated Armenia, which is a very small land-locked country. Two of its neighbors, Turkey and Azerbaijan, refuse to have trade across those borders.
This deal was supposed to establish diplomatic relations between the two countries, embassies between the two countries and eventually opening the border. There's a lot of bad blood between Armenia and Turkey, Betty, and there's a lot of opposition to this, especially within the Armenian community, not only in Armenia but around the world. The Armenian president has been traveling to France, to the U.S., to Lebanon to the Armenian Diaspora communities there and was met by a lot of opposition to this proposed peace deal. And just yesterday in Armenia thousands of people went out on the streets chanting no concessions to the Turks. A very delicate process.
One of the reasons this is so delicate Betty is that dispute over what happened in 1915, the final days of the Ottoman Empire, World War I, the Ottoman Empire was collapsing and hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians were massacred. They were marched out into the desert and they died. Now the Armenians today, they call that a genocide. They say up to 1.5 million people were killed. The Turks refuse to call it a genocide, Betty, and that has been a real sticking point between these two countries and it's an issue that's coming up even as they try to establish embassies in each other's countries. Betty?
NGUYEN: All right, Ivan Watson breaking it down for us. Thank you Ivan.
A new generation of New Yorkers are blurring the line between Hispanic and African-American.
GRIFFIN: All right. An introduction to Nuyoricans next. Nuyoricans in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: New developments in the alleged terror plot involving Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi. Federal agents have questioned two more men as the investigation expands. Zazi is accused of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction on U.S. soil. Now the plot may have been targeting New York City.
GRIFFIN: This happened almost two weeks ago, but the FBI releasing a video of the destructive power of last month's tsunami in American Samoa. They had a security camera on their parking lot and the wave is caught just pushing these cars all over the place. More than 180 people killed when that tsunami hit Samoan Islands in Tonga.
President Obama expected to speak at a gay rights fundraiser tonight. His address comes on the eve of a major gay rights demonstration scheduled for the nation's capital. Many gay and lesbian groups have been upset with the Obama White House for what they say is a failure to meet campaign promises.
GRIFFIN: If America is truly a melting pot, then New York City is the proverbial kitchen where you can find something new to me, something called a Nuyorican.
NGUYEN: A Nuyorican. Yes, we had to get the way it's spelled, we had to get a pronunciation for that one. It's actually, though, a blending and a blurring of Hispanic and African-American cultures. CNN's Soledad O'Brien introduces us to one of the best known Nuyoricans and that being Bobbito.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Betty, hi Drew. He is a hip- hop deejay, a break-dancer and a street basketball legend, just to name a few of his talents. Though his skill set may borrow from African-American culture, Bob Garcia is Puerto Rican and has embraced his Latino roots as he embarks on a path of self-discovery. I caught up with this modern day Renaissance man in Harlem to get his story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Bob Garcia is a Latino who has always mixed black and brown.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Growing up, my father was a Latin jazz musician. O'BRIEN: As a young man, the message he received from his dad -- you're American.
ROBERT BOBBITO GARCIA, DJ AND TELEVISION HOST: He didn't ever foresee us moving back to PR. You're American, you know, you're going to speak English. Your name is not going to be Roberto it's going to be Robert.
O'BRIEN: And on the streets of New York City, American meant mixed in cultures.
GARCIA: Growing up, all of our skin tones differed and we all identified with African-American culture here in New York as well as the Latino culture. So it was like a true melting pot and I think I started to identify a lot with just street culture not so much Latino culture.
O'BRIEN: That meant hip-hop music and basketball.
His street ball skills got him noticed and a spot playing basketball for Puerto Rico. After basketball, he continued to mix African- American and Latino culture as a popular radio and television host in New York City named Bobbito.
GARCIA: Peace, everybody.
O'BRIEN: Drawing his followers together with hip-hop and rap.
GARCIA: So then I'm getting letters from just regular kids, I'm Puerto Rican, I live in New Jersey.
O'BRIEN: He's become a role model to many of those kids and part of his message is mixing cultures is fine.
GARCIA: In 2009, most Puerto Rican teenagers are not embracing salsa music. They're embracing reggaeton or they're embracing hip-hop. Every generation has sought out their own identity. Like what my parents did is cool but that's not necessarily me.
O'BRIEN: It wasn't until he became famous as a mixer of cultures that he really began to embrace his own heritage. His Spanish improved and he's now learning lessons he didn't get in childhood.
GARCIA: But then as I got older and I realized this is my culture, this is my history and I need not push it away, I need to embrace it.
O'BRIEN: Today, Bobbito is better known than Bob and more Latino than ever, not despite mixing of black and brown cultures but because of it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: We were introduced to Bobbito through his brother, Bill Garcia who we profile in our upcoming "Latino in America" documentary. Bobbito's nephews are undergoing their own questions about cultural identity as young Latinos living in North Carolina. You can see more on their story when you tune in October 21st and 22nd on CNN. Betty, Drew, back to you.
GRIFFIN: And that is later this month, Soledad's show, "Latino in America." It's a comprehensive look at how Latinos are changing America, reshaping politics, businesses, schools, church, neighborhoods, all of that. "Latino in America," see it here on CNN.
NGUYEN: There are some tough questions for one of the most powerful members of Congress. Why the House ethics committee is expanding its scrutiny of Charlie Rangel's financial dealings.
GRIFFIN: And what could it mean for other democrats who rode to power vowing to fight corruption?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Let's talk a little politics now. A lot of critical issues on the president's plate this week including, hmm, war in Afghanistan, major health care reform. CNN's deputy political director Paul Steinhauser joins us now from Boston. Paul, let's talk about health care first, if you listen to the president's message this morning, I got the feeling he's pretty much declaring the debate is over, here is the bill, let's do it.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Not so fast, Mr. President. It did sound like that, Drew, but as you know, we have a big vote on Tuesday in the Senate finance committee. This is the bill that everybody is looking at because it may be the only chance for any kind of Republican support. After that crucial vote, then the real horse trading begins both in the Senate and the House kind of behind closed doors as they try to cobble a bunch of bills together in each chamber. This Senate finance bill doesn't have the public option, but it could come back, could, in these four fights. We still have a long way to go in this battle for health care.
GRIFFIN: Let's talk about this whole bipartisan approach. There was some bipartisan approach in the Senate, but in the House I'm not seeing any of it. John Boehner says he was never even at the White House to discuss health care. We've seen like 40 republican amendments, not even considered at all. Is this the way it's going to break down, some senators may vote for it on the republican side but no House republicans will vote for it?
STEINHAUSER: On the House side you're probably right. I doubt it when we get to a final vote on the House floor whether any republicans are going to come on board. On the Senate side, maybe a few. A lot of eyes are on Olympia Snowe of Maine. One thing that's interesting Drew, national polls, national surveys, just about all of them in the past couple months say that while Americans want some kind of change, they say we need health care reform, they don't agree on the details. But one thing they do agree on according to these polls, polls suggest that Americans say they don't want the democrats to go it alone. They would like to see Republicans come on board to try to have some kind of bipartisanship. We'll see if that can really happen in Congress.
GRIFFIN: There's some kind of huge race. We have to get this health care reform done almost immediately. It's a crisis situation, you get that point. But on Afghanistan we're going to take weeks and weeks to make a decision here. What is going on with Afghanistan? Is this now a political debate rather than a military debate?
STEINHAUSER: Well, it's both. You know, the administration says they're going to do what's right in Afghanistan regardless of public opinion, but public opinion, of course, matters. And three new national polls out just in this past week asked about the specific question that the president and the White House are trying to deal with right now. Should the U.S. send more troops into Afghanistan. These three national public opinion polls show the same thing, Americans are completely divided on that question. One other thing these polls show is there is a partisan divide. Republicans do support sending more troops to Afghanistan. Democrats it seems are against it. Independents are split, Drew.
GRIFFIN: Yes, and the president is caught right in the middle. Paul, thanks a lot. Look forward to your reports throughout the week and we thank you for joining us this weekend. Betty?
NGUYEN: The NEWSROOM continues at the top of the hour with another lady in red today, that being Fredricka Whitfield. Hi.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Red was the color today.
NGUYEN: I know, got the memo.
WHITFIELD: Hello, how are you?
NGUYEN: I'm doing well.
WHITFIELD: Good, good, good.
NGUYEN: What do you have coming up?
WHITFIELD: Lots coming up. The $200 million estate of the late New York philanthropist Brooke Astor. Now what? Now that her son, 85- year-old, has been found guilty of stealing from her before her death, she died two years ago at the age of 105. Our legal guys will be delving into what may happen to the estate and will the path of jail time, I guess, be straight ahead for this man right here. Will he be serving perhaps one year or maybe as much as 25 years for being found guilty of grand larceny.
And then I hate to ask this question, have you ever dared to have an office romance or know anybody who has?
NGUYEN: That's just kind of one of those things that I don't do.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
NGUYEN: I have known people around, not here particularly.
WHITFIELD: Some people embark on it.
NGUYEN: You know, the company cooler or whatever you want to call it. WHITFIELD: Sometimes it turns out great and they go on and live a happy life.
NGUYEN: And sometimes --
WHITFIELD: And then sometimes --
NGUYEN: It is a disaster.
WHITFIELD: And it could find their way into a courtroom.
NGUYEN: Uh-huh.
WHITFIELD: Hence the case of David Letterman or perhaps even the astronaut Lisa Nowak or the former astronaut Lisa Nowak. In the 4:00 eastern hour we're going to be talking about workplace romance, the dos and don'ts. The rules of engagement.
NGUYEN: I didn't even know there were rules of engagement. I just thought the rule was don't do it.
WHITFIELD: Yes, we're going to have some authors, we're actually going to have someone who's an ethics expert as well. We'll talk about if you are going to embark on one, this is how you need to lay it out.
NGUYEN: I didn't know there's a difference between what men can do and what women can do.
WHITFIELD: Well, apparently. That's actually what's at the crux of the discussions as it pertains to David Letterman as well.
NGUYEN: OK, that's good stuff.
WHITFIELD: So we're going to focus on that in the 4:00 eastern hour. We want to hear from you, have you ever indulged in an office romance? We want details, good details of course. But at the same time, maybe you have some questions about why you should engage, why you shouldn't engage and it's going to be a great hour-long conversation, 4:00 eastern time.
NGUYEN: I can't wait. That's good stuff. That's juicy stuff right there. Thank you, Fred.
WHITFIELD: OK.
NGUYEN: Drew?
GRIFFIN: Well, somebody decided -- I'm still recovering from that. Somebody decided to rank America's smartest cities. Here is a live look at one of them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: A new list causing a lot of buzz online. The smartest so- called cities in America. NGUYEN: Yes, I wonder where that might be. Josh Levs joins us now with that. I'm assuming you know CNN world headquarters right here in Atlanta, it has to be somewhere on the list, right?
JOSH LEVS: That cartoon gave me time to check. Atlanta is at 23 out of 55. I'll tell you all what the deal is. Man, are we getting notes about that cartoon. I'll tell you about that later. Any way, let's focus on this, the list of the smartest cities in America put together by dailybeast.com. Zoom in, I want you all to see this. The city that's the winner, the smartest city in America according to dailybeast.com is the Raleigh/Durham area. It's actually metropolitan areas, not cities. I have the whole top 10 for you right here. Let's go straight to this graphic. I'll show you what they say are the top 10 metro areas. Raleigh Durham, the Bay area in California, then Boston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, at five we have Denver. At six they're saying Hartford and New Haven. Then seven is a tie, Seattle/Tacoma on the west and Washington, D.C. on the east. Then they say the next smartest is Portland, Oregon. And at number 10, Baltimore.
How did they do this? Here's how in the next screen. They looked at some interesting factors and that's actually what is most interesting here. It gets you looking at the slice of life in cities you don't always look at. How many residents have bachelors and graduate degrees. Nonfiction book sales. Also higher educational institutions and participation in elections. So Drew and Betty, they took all that, kind of crunched some numbers, and they decided that those criteria will ultimately tell you what the smartest cities in America are.
NGUYEN: Yes, but that's all book smart stuff, you know?
GRIFFIN: Consider the source, too.
NGUYEN: "The Daily Beast" yes. GRIFFIN: What are the worst cities?
LEVS: I'll show you quickly what the worst are. We have them up right here. They're saying down at number 55, they're putting Fresno, California. Then at 54 was Las Vegas and, Betty, one of the cities in your home state, they put San Antonio.
NGUYEN: Oh no, not the Alamo city.
LEVS: I know. I'm sorry about that. But we'll show the graphic where people can write in that they disagree. Here it is, cnn.com/josh Facebook and Twitter joshlevscnn. You agree, you disagree.
NGUYEN: You're going to get some hate mail Josh.
LEVS: Oh I already am. Trust me.
NGUYEN: All right, thank you so much.
LEVS: See you guys.
NGUYEN: And the NEWSROOM does continue right now with Fredricka Whitfield.
