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President Orders Review of Hasan's Information; 9/11 Suspects Face Trial; President in Singapore for APEC Summit; Scientists Find Water on the Moon

Aired November 14, 2009 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

RICHARD LUI, CNN ANCHOR: As President Obama calls on Congress to give investigators time to search for any missed clues, we are hearing about widespread concerns about the alleged Fort Hood gunman, Major Nidal Hasan.

A scientists' say last month's $79 million mission crashing a satellite into the moon was a smashing success. We'll tell you what they found and what it means. You have been hearing about shortages of the H1N1 vaccine, but some of Wall Street's biggest banks have hundreds of doses for their very own employees.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Richard Lui, in for Fredricka Whitfield on this Saturday.

Congress, hold off. That's the message from President Barack Obama with regards of the investigation of the Fort Hood shootings. In his weekly radio and internet address, he says, federal law enforcement and military authorities should have the chance to finish their investigations, first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The purpose of this review is clear. We must compile every piece of information that was known about the gunman and we must learn what was done with that information. Once we have those facts, we must act upon them. If there's failure to take appropriate action before the shootings, there must be accountability.

Beyond that and most importantly, we must quickly and thoroughly evaluate and address any flaws in the system so that we can prevent a similar breach from happening again. Our government must be able to act swiftly and surely when it has threatening information and our troops must have the security that they deserve.

I know there will also be inquiries by Congress, and there should, but all of us should resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater that sometimes dominates the discussion here in Washington. The stakes are far too high.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: Psychiatrist Nidal Hasan is charged with killing 13 people. The president has ordered a review of all the information about Hasan and whether it was properly shared. Some of his former colleagues want to know the same thing. CNN's Brian Todd has more on that for us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A former colleague of Nidal Hasan's during his medical training tells CNN Hasan's contemporaries had concern about his competence as a psychiatrist. Former colleagues, who did not want to be identified because of the ongoing investigation say they thought Hasan's presentations were not academically rigorous, and o ne said, quote, "no one in class would have ever referred a patient to him."

Earlier this week, Hasan's supervisor at Fort Hood was asked about reports of problems.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His evaluation reports said that he had some difficulties in his residency, fitting into his residency and so we worked very hard to integrate him into our practice and integrate him into our organization. He adapted very well and was doing a really good job.

TODD: But, Hasan's former colleagues tell us of Hasan talking about the persecution of Muslims. Justifying suicide bombings during presentations in class and saying his allegiance was to the Koran, not the constitution. NPR reports Hasan's superiors has a series of meetings in 2008 and 2009 discussing whether Hasan was psychotic, but they did not find clear evidence that he was unstable. Why wasn't he disciplined or at the very least counseled?

At least two of Hasan's former classmates say they know Hasan's superiors were reluctant to discipline him because they didn't want to alienate a Muslim soldier. While this was their strong belief, they didn't provide evidence of that. A retired military lawyer familiar with such investigations says political correctness does factor in these situations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a post-9/11 world, there are a lot of forces in the military that may be very hesitant to give the appearance that they are singling out Muslim soldiers, even when that individual Muslim soldier maybe making statements that are looked at as very incendiary and very questionable.

TODD: Defense department officials wouldn't comment on that. There's no specific information that Hasan's superiors didn't address his presentations with him or that they avoided doing so because he's Muslim. Given these patterns, should someone have intervened with Nidal Hasan?

General Russell Honore who is not involved in Hasan's career makes this point.

GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, RETIRED LIEUTENANT GENERAL: Something was missed in this major's tone, and demeanor and the things that he has said that we could have possibly done more to help him before he got that far.

TODD: The former colleague I spoke with says, he's beating himself up these days over that same question asking himself repeatedly if he could have done something. He says he doesn't think he could have. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: Funerals for several of the 13 Fort Hood victims are being held across the country today. Among them, 32-year-old, Staff Sergeant, Justin Decrow. Decrow was an Indiana native who lived in Georgia with his wife and daughter then there is, 29-year-old, Staff Sergeant, Amy Kruger of Wisconsin. She joined the Army Reserves after the September 11 attacks vowing to hunt down Osama Bin laden, and 22- year-old, Private Michael Pearson of Illinois. Pearson joined the military more than one year ago and was preparing for deployment in Afghanistan when this all happened. The accused gunman, Nidal Hasan is paralyzed below the waist according to his attorney.

Admitted 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Shaik Mohammed and four of his alleged co-conspirators will be tried in federal court in New York. Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday saying, he is confident the civilian court can handle the high-profile trial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September the11th will finally face justice. They will be brought to New York, to New York to answer for their alleged crimes in a courthouse just blocks away from where the twin towers once stood. I am confident in the ability of our courts to provide these defendants a fair trial, just as they have for over 200 years.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: Our Susan Candiotti spoke with three people who lost love ones in the World Trade Center attacks. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Eight years of waiting is eight years too long for retired firefighter, Jim Richards. He wants the alleged 9/11 conspirators tried in New York. The attack killed his son, a fellow firefighter.

JIM RICHARDS: I just want to get this moving. You know, justice delayed is justice denied.

CANDIOTTI: Richards is one of a handful of civilians who got a close up look at suspected terrorist Khalid Shaik Mohammed and others in a Guantanamo courtroom last January. That's when KSM told the military judge, he was the mastermind of 9/11. We don't care about capital punishment or a life sentence he said, we are doing Jihad for the cause of God.

RICHARDS: They call for Jihad against America. They were proud of what they did, and you know, here I am, sitting there, the man who murdered my son is standing there saying he's proud that he killed my son.

CANDIOTTI: But another relative who met us at the World Trade Center site says, bringing the terror suspects back to the scene of the crime will bring unbearable pain. He lost his son in the attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To bring it back here, for me, my feelings, it's tasteless and insensitive. Those scars which have never been healed are just going to be opened, again so I am not comfortable with this call.

CANDIOTTI: Kristen Britewiser who helped push for the independent 9/11 commission says New York is ready. She plans to attend the trial as often as she can.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Certainly more than capable of handling it. I think again it speaks to the very heart of who we are, not only as New Yorkers, but as American citizens. You know, if a crime is committed on our soil, you are going to be given a trial. You will be given access to an attorney. You are innocent until proven guilty.

CANDIOTTI: Some worry about security needs. With the worldwide focused on five accused terrorists a few blocks from ground zero.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are certainly prepared for any eventuality. We handle a lot of high profile events here. We had the Blind Sheik's trial here, other high profile trials and events, that's what we do. I think we are in excellent shape to handle it.

CANDIOTTI: We also asked the families what about worries the evidence will hold up. They say the justice department has assured them it will. A judge and jury will decide. Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: And now, we'll take you to Singapore where President Obama is there to meet with the leaders from the pacific ream nations. This is his first trip to Asia since taking office in January. CNN's Andrew Stephens explains what is on the line here at this year's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum?

ANDREW STEPHENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: US President Barack Obama arrived here in Singapore about 8 p.m. local time after a six-hour flight from Tokyo. The Tokyo leg of his nine-day Asia trip included a broad speech about US re-engagements in the affairs, particularly the economic affairs of the Asia Pacific region.

His first official duty here in Singapore a cultural event. He and the 20 other leaders of the APEC economies had an evening of entertainment, but tomorrow, Sunday, the hard work begins. He'll be meeting for a final communicate to look at global trade, APEC's position in it and they'll also be looking at the state of the global economy and whether or not to start winding back on those global stimulus packages.

We are expecting APEC leaders to agree to no premature withdrawal of those stimulus packages. During the course of his other meetings tomorrow, he'll be having a first for a US president meeting with the leaders of the ten countries Asian countries which include Myanmar. The prime minister of Myanmar expected to attend that meeting. Mr. Obama will also be meeting the Russian leader, Dmitri Medvedev. High on the agenda there, Iran's nuclear ambitions.

All in all, a full day for the US president and APEC wouldn't be complete without the annual parade of the specific shirts which the leaders are given by the host country. They were given out on Saturday evening. This is what they look like. They're actually a blend of Chinese, Indian and Malay styles and quite stylish, too. The APEC leaders on Saturday night, before they get down to business Sunday. Andrew Stephens, CNN, Singapore.

LUI: More on the story now, why does the trip matter so much? Well, Asia for all intense and purpose is America's banker. China and Japan are the two biggest holders of treasury securities to the tune of $1.5 trillion. Asia is also the place where millions of US jobs have gone over the past decade. All that said, here's a breakdown for you.

President Obama is visiting foreign nations over eight days. Just follow the arrows. He started in Japan before moving on to Singapore today, then he has stops in China and South Korea. Now, the mission is to try to diplomatically prod leaders to get tough on North Korea for its disputed nuclear program. The president will also try to persuade China, an economic powerhouse as you know, to buy more US imports.

Remember when NASA scientists crashed a satellite into the moon? Those pictures? It turns out the mission was a smashing success. How much water did they find and why do you care?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Earlier in the week, it was the south. Now, it's the eastern sea board that's getting way too much rain. Situations like this in Maryland. You see at least six people have died from flooding from remnants of tropical storm Ida. Now, there's also been a lot of beach erosion along the way and people say it's all they can do to keep the water from getting inside homes and businesses. Right now, Jacqui Jeras is here at our weather center tracking the storm system that just won't move out. Kind of a real slow mover.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it is. It's drifting southeasterly at this time so that's good. So it's starting to pull away just a little bit. You could see that the storm system is focusing its rainfall at this hour into the northeastern parts of the US, but the actual location of the low is still somewhere way out here and it's trying to pull away.

So we're going to watch for the conditions to gradually improve, but we can still expect to see certainly some high surf and a lot more beach erosions throughout the day today even in areas like Long Island and down to the mid-Atlantic states where this will continue to be a rough of go of it. Showers and thundershowers should probably bring anywhere between maybe one to two inches and if you are trying to travel today, of course, we're going to have a lot of problems at the airports as a result of that. We already have ground stops in Philadelphia and some big delays into Newark.

We also have our eyes on another weather system, which is developing across parts of the west. It doesn't look like much on our radar screen right now, but we're going to start to see some heavy snow move into the Denver area as well as to the higher elevations throughout Rockies. For tomorrow, winter storm watches and warnings have been posted here.

Some locals could easily see more than a foot as this storm slides on down to the south. High pressure builds into the west. So for tomorrow, we have big concerns with strong northeasterly winds providing very high fire danger conditions across parts of California. Richard --

LUI: Well, my friend, since we are talking about water, let's talk about something that's happening way above us, that's the moon.

JERAS: Yes.

LUI: We just got that development on Friday. What a finding. They are saying there's water. How did this all happened? What did they do?

JERAS: Well, it's amazing. They had this mission that was planned back in October, believe or not, and what happened is that they took a satellite and they launched the satellite and they crashed it into the South Pole crater of the moon.

Now, this is a dark spot there, so they haven't been able to really analyze what conditions are like. It's a very big crater. When they crashed the thing into the moon in this dark spot, what happens is that it created a very large dust and debris cloud. I'm going to show you this really neat animation and this is going to show you, there you can see the satellite, which went into this area.

There you can see the big crash, all the dust and debris came out, and then they had this rocket that came in and followed and started to take samples of what all this stuff was that actually exploded. This was 100 foot across crater and by the way, temperatures there, so, so cold. About 360 degrees below zero.

So, they got all these data and they tried to analyze it and this is from a spectrometer. As you take a look at this red line right here, if this is what there sampling looked like, this would basically be dirt, rock and dust, but take a look at these dips they found down here. That is water vapor and ice that they found.

So, it was mixed in with the soil. It wasn't like a sheet of ice or frozen lake or anything like that, but certainly brings a lot of significant hope in this area. So they are going through this data and of course, trying to figure it all out, but you know what water means, water means life, right? So this could provide a whole lot more potential.

LUI: The old infrared spectrometer. We use it everyday.

JERAS: All the time. Don't you have one?

LUI: (INAUDIBLE), Jacqui Jeras, and of course we're going to find out more about this entire water thing on the moon and what it means for the future space exploration. In many ways, finding water is just scratching the surface. That, today, at 2:30 eastern in about 10 or 15 minutes so stick around.

Top stories now for you, President Obama is calling for a fuller engagement with Asia as he visits the world's biggest continent. Right now, he's in Singapore, the second leg of his eight-day trip. He's there for an economic summit that's ongoing and then tomorrow, the president heads to Shanghai, china.

Also, in Missouri, six men in one family are now accused of sexually abusing other relatives, all of them children here. The latest arrest a 72-year-old who lives in Florida. His 77-year-old brother and four nephews are in custody in Missouri as well. The charge is quite horrific includes sodomy, rape and use of a child in a sexual performance.

Now, to South Carolina. Frightening moments at a high school football game. A dozen students were taken to hospitals after a concrete wall they were leaning against collapsed. Another 15 students had cuts and bruises. These pictures just give you a sense of what the pandemonium was at least for a couple of minutes in that case.

A World War II vet remembers the things he credits with saving his life.

That trumpet that he carried with him then that he still plays today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Now, to today's "VETERANS IN FOCUS". A World War II veteran credits the trumpet that he carried into combat was saving his life. Colonel Jack Tooler says, it was the German love song "Lily Marland" that kept an enemy sniper from killing him. CNN's photojournalist, John Torago introduces us to the 89-year-old veteran who still performs on the very same trumpet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK TOOLER, CNN PHOTOJOURNALIST: I have a 70-year-old trumpet. It's been with me on all my combat missions, all through World War II. I never went any place without it.

Here we are. Marjorie Rogers. She and I have been married now 68 years. We finally got this p-47. It was a dream to fly. That's why I named it after my first daughter, Roseanne. I would love to have it. I loved that little girl. I took it in a little canvas bag, tied to my parachute. I figured if I got shot down, it would go with me. Covering the beaches, we saw 2 million men, 10,000 ships. We had 3,000 feet altitude and just shot at everything we could. We witnessed the invasion from a ringside seat. I remember feeling pride and sadness as I saw the bodies, 4,000 killed in two hours on d-day.

Two weeks after d-day, we were the fighter squadron on a strip that was built there after a bad day attack on this German (INAUDIBLE) seeing innocent civilians massacred. They were held up on top of the tanks that why I had to play that night. I took my trumpet out of the canvas bag at 10:00 that night and there was still one German sniper.

I thought to myself that German sniper said he's as lonely and scared as I am. How can I stop him from firing? So, I played that German's love song, "Lily Marlaen." I whaled that trumpet over those (INAUDIBLE) in Normandy and he didn't fire.

The next morning, here came the military police. They said captain, there's a German prisoner down on the shore and he kept saying, who played that trumpet last night. It was the 19-year-old German and he was crying. He said I couldn't fire. He stuck out his hand and I shook the hand of the enemy. He was no enemy because music had soothed the savage beast.

My ambition as the last action on my part as a veteran is to hit high sea and fall right into the grave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Joining me now is CNN photojournalist, Bethany Swain. She launched our award winning "In Focus" series nearly two years ago. Bethany, thanks for joining us today here on CNN "Newsroom."

I have to tell you, you know just watching this piece, you want to reach out and meet Colonel Jack. You just feel like you got to know him. What a great piece. You also said it's one of your favorites, too.

BETHANY SWAIN, CNN PHOTOJOURNALIST: Absolutely. We have 15 stories that are part of the "VETERANS IN FOCUS" hour that is airing in about 35 minutes. This was one of my favorites. When John Torago, the photojournalist who did the piece, first told me the story, I got chills. Even now, I have seen it a dozen times when we're going through production, I still get chills watching it. It's so great. Our World War II veterans are dying and taking their stories with them. So, it's wonderful that we are able to preserve their story for future generations to hear.

LUI: Why did you decide to do "VETERANS IN FOCUS." Why this specific idea?

SWAIN: This is our ninth in focus series. Each time we take a topic and the photojournalist go and they tell stories in their own style. There's no reporters involved in that. The photojournalist shoots, writes and edits the piece and tells the story in their own words.

We thought that veterans was important the second year that we've done it because many of the photo journalists who were involved in this series, they spend time in war zones. I know, I was impacted by the time that I spent in Afghanistan and there's so many stories to be told from World War II, Vietnam, Korea and the current complex. We are glad to highlight all these heroes and tell their stories.

LUI: You also have a piece in these series, one of the 15 that will be starting in about 30 minutes. What was yours about?

SWAIN: Mine was about the Vietnam wall and these memorial collection that they have. People have been leaving mementos at the wall since it opened in 1982. The park service has been collecting them and saving them at a facility in Maryland. It was really amazing to go and see this warehouse that was filled with thousands and thousands of memories and how are they being preserved for down the roads so people can go and see them. It's closed to the public, but they do go on tours so you can see all these different memories. You don't know all these objects what they mean, you just know that they are special.

LUI: Bethany, give us a tease of some of the items that were at the wall and have been put in storage.

SWAIN: My favorite item that I saw was a champagne goblet. I thought it was really just amazing to see that there was champagne left in it and an empty champagne bottle. You don't know what they were celebrating, but you hope it was something special. There's so many different items that were left there. It's amazing is the range of memories people decided to not take with them, but leave at the wall.

LUI: So emotional and so personal. What are you going to be doing next for "In Focus", what's next?

SWAIN: Our next series is "Giving in Focus." It will be rolling out on December 19th. There will be stories of people helping people, trying to make their world, their neighborhood, their community, a better place both in traditional and non-traditional ways.

LUI: And you did it before?

SWAIN: Yes, last year, we did some more series, and it's really successful. It's great to be able to meet inspiring people who are making a difference. The piece that I did last year was about a couple in Maryland that quit their government jobs to start an animal shelter in their house. The last time I talked with them, they had 117 cats that they had rescued.

LUI: Wow, 117. This works and works out quite well. "VETERANS IN FOCUS," Bethany Swain. I'm looking forward to it. Fifteen very close and intimate stories of veterans throughout the years. That starts again in about 30 minutes.

Bethany, thanks you so much. SWAIN: Thanks so much.

LUI: The full hour "Veterans in Focus" I was saying service, struggle and success. It's ahead at the top of the hour. You can check out more stories at cnn.com/veterans.

So, what's the big deal about finding water on the moon. We'll explore all the reasons we should be excited about that.

He's been disgraced, disowned and put in prison. But, will Bernie Madoff stuff be hot items, will they'll be hot items at the auction?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: What a blockbuster. Scientists have found water on the moon. We learned that just yesterday. Geologist Denton Ebel specializes in meteorites and gets to play around with all kind of stuff that NASA brings back from space. He joins us from New York. Let's talk about this if we can Denton. I wanted to understand how much water are we talking about that was found? Was it enough to at least make a slushy?

DENTON EBEL, AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: It's raining here in New York and it's a lot more water here than on the moon. The first estimate is that the crater put out a plume and in the plume, about 26 gallons of water. I did a back of the envelope calculation. That's about a sixth of a tablespoon per cubic foot. If you an imagine a cubic foot of water excuse me of soil with a sixth of a tablespoon. That's not a lot. But it's not a little, either, by standards of planetary science.

LUI: So Denton why should we care? We are sitting at home going that's not very much.

EBEL: One of the things, it confirms something we already knew. So that's always nice. We thought there might be water there. We have done an experiment. We've determined that there is some and we've determined how much. We care because we want to go to the moon. The previous administration set this as a goal. And I think it's a worthy goal to go back to the moon. I personally would think that we should -- this gives us impetus to send more robots to see where is the water, how much water is there exactly and what the form is it in.

LUI: So how much do we need to find to do anything of significance and define both sides of that for me if you would.

EBEL: We could harvest this kind of water. The moon is a very dusty place. The dust got everywhere into the astronauts' clothing, inside the space craft, even despite all our efforts in the Apollo program. So the dust-water ratio is pretty high now. But this gives us a hint that there may be more water in other places as well.

LUI: We are trying to get to the moon and we don't have enough water is basically what you're saying. So if you describe the moon to us, is it like an orange with dry skin on the outside, but juicy in the middle or is it like a big ball of chalk?

EBEL: That would be great. So far, the findings of -- there have been several recent findings of water from spacecraft. This is (INAUDIBLE) data as well and the M cubed (ph) or numerology mapper (ph) led by a team, by Carlie Peterson (ph) at Brown University just published these findings a few weeks ago. And what they found was that there is widespread water in the surface a millimeters deep or so, but it's very small amounts. But it's all over the place. So that water may be migrating to the poles, but so far, we don't know what that process is. And if we compare the moon with Mars, there's a heck of a lot more water that we know of at Mars.

LUI: And you were saying if you were to put down a base on the moon, you would put it in the crater?

EBEL: Well, we'd put it near the South Pole craters. There's a huge basin in the South Pole, (INAUDIBLE) South Pole (INAUDIBLE) basin. And we put it there somewhere because parts of that area get sunlight 24/7. So we can get the sun power plus potentially water in these deep craters. What we would do is, we would have mining implements, robotic, in those craters that would process the dust and extract the water and pipe it to wherever we have habitations.

LUI: Last question, I have lived in a lot of drought-stricken areas in my life. Who's got the water rights there?

EBEL: That's a good question. Whoever gets there first is going to use whatever water they can find. They're going to have to. We're going to have to use the resources that are there just like the pioneers going across the plains, Arctic explorers. You eat, you use what's there.

LUI: Got it. We got to go. So from your community of scientists, was this a ho hum, a yippee or a woo-hoo?

EBEL: This is a woo-hoo. This is exciting stuff and we've got to go learn some more.

LUI: Top of the pile, Denton Ebel doing the woo-hoo for us here on CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks so much, appreciate it, shed some light on what happened on Friday.

Common sense rejected. That's what an Illinois Congressman says about the health care reform bill passed by the House. Representative Mark Kirk says the House rejected Republican proposals that would have reduced the Federal deficit without new taxes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARK KIRK (R), ILLINOIS: The Pelosi health care bill has no significant lawsuit reforms and does not guarantee your medical rights from government waiting lines or restrictions. In the teeth of the great recession, the Pelosi bill would impose 10 new taxes on the American economy. The top combined tax rate for my state of Illinois would be 4 percentage points higher than for France. The Democrat bill levies new taxes on health insurance, income and even pacemakers. The bill also cuts health care for seniors, my parents and many of yours with $500 billion in cuts for Medicare doctors, hospitals and advantage patients.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: Could begin the debate next week whether to send its own health care bill reform, rather health care reform bill to the floor.

Now, the latest on the H1N1 vaccine. Many people are outraged that some of Wall Street's biggest firms got the vaccine while other people had to wait.

But CNN's Brian Todd reports for us, the anger may be misdirected here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Delays in production and anxious waiting periods are frustrating enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had to wait and they ran out already. So, we have to wait for the next shipment, I guess.

TODD: Now, another controversy surrounding the swine flu vaccine, who gets access. While many Americans deal with long lines and pediatricians and obstetricians offices wait along with them, some of Wall Street's biggest firms already have the vaccine on hand. Goldman Sachs has at least 200 doses available to its employees. CNN's parent company, Time Warner is scheduled to get doses. Citigroup has at least 1200 doses available to its employees, the same number as New York's Lenox Hill hospital not far away.

But hold your outrage. Officials from the New York City health department and the Centers for Disease Control tell CNN the system is set up so that hospitals, doctors' offices and private companies have to contact their local health departments and order the vaccine.

DR. JAY BUTLER, CDC: And then those are forwarded to CDC. It's an interactive process as we learn more about how much vaccine is available and in what formulation.

TODD: Then, based on the population of that area, the CDC tells the local health department how much vaccine it can order and local officials decide where it will go. But before you blame New York's health department for Citigroup's 1200 doses of swine flu vaccine, remember that your doctor's office is responsible for ordering it for you. And according to the New York health department, out of more than 2400 OB-GYN offices in New York City, only 65 of them have ordered the H1N1 vaccine and 36 percent of pediatricians' offices in the city have not placed orders. It may not be the perfect system for distributing the vaccine, but one public health expert says there is a benefit to the big firms having it.

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: If a large organization has an occupational health service and those people have applied for the vaccine, they may be getting the vaccine more quickly than people who work in a mom and pop operation.

TODD: And a New York health department spokeswoman tells us, these firms can't get the vaccine unless they agree to give it only to employees who fall into those high-risk categories designated by the CDC: pregnant women, people who live with or care for children younger than six months old, people who have chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems and others like that.

(on-camera): A spokesman at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs tell us they are committed to giving the vaccine only to their employees who are at high risk.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: And now, it's time for the top stories. This hour, President Obama is on the second stop of his eight day tour of Asia. It's the president's first visit to the region since he took office back in January. Mr. Obama is currently in Singapore for the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. The president's next stop are Beijing and South Korea.

More than eight years after the 9/11 terror attacks, mixed reaction to the government's decision to prosecute these five suspects in a New York City Federal courtroom. Those suspects include alleged mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Critics say, rather call it a security risk and an affront to the families of 9/11 victims. Also families say they are just relieved to be getting close to a trial.

Funerals are being held today for six of the 13 people killed last week at Ft. Hood. This hour, Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Amy Kruger will be laid to rest near her hometown of Keel (ph), Wisconsin.

The Ft. Hood shooting rampage. Imagine what it was like to be inside that crowded room when the shooter opened fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPEC. LOGAN BURNETTE, U.S. ARMY: He stood up, screamed, "Allahu Akbar" and then just started shooting.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: He screamed "Allahu Akbar.

BURNETTE: He did at the top of his lungs.

GUPTA: God is great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta sat down with one of the soldiers wounded in the attack. You'll hear his chilling first person account of the day he says all hell broke lose.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: The shooting rampage at Ft. Hood. A witness describes chaos and terror when the shooter opened fire. Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta has a bone chilling account, the personal account from one soldier wounded in that attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: What was the first thing you remember when something was not right?

BURNETTE: The blood, seeing blood coming from everywhere.

GUPTA: November 5th, it started off as a normal day for Army Specialist Logan Burnette. He went to what is called Ft. Hood's ready room, filling out papers, preparing to ship out to Iraq. Then as he describes it, all hell broke loose.

BURNETTE: I got down once the shots were fired out of instinct. You know, I didn't know what to think, but seeing bullet wounds in the back of a friend's head, seeing, you know, friends grabbing their arms and blood just everywhere. It's -- it's a pretty hard thing to see and not have any way of defending yourself.

GUPTA: You saw a bullet in the back of your friend's head?

BURNETTE: Yeah.

GUPTA: Authorities now say it was Major Nidal Hasan that was pulling the trigger, spraying those bullets, killing Specialist Burnette's fellow soldiers. What did he look? Was he -- did he look angry? Did he look mad?

BURNETTE: Serious, intent. He stood up and screamed, "Allahu Akbar" and then just started shooting.

GUPTA: He screamed, "Allahu Akbar?"

BURNETTE: He did at the top of his lungs.

GUPTA: God is great.

BURNETTE: It was like he has been in the room for awhile, in the corner, preparing. Nobody was really paying attention. It was like he just stood up and began firing on all of us and then taking steps and reloading and firing, again, reloading and firing again.

GUPTA: Burnette had been hit. He didn't even know it. He was crawling away, but the gunman kept coming closer, kept firing and Burnette felt hunted.

BURNETTE: And as I was crawling, he hit me in the elbow and then once again...

GUPTA: You are crawling away and he's shooting at you?

BURNETTE: Yeah as well as other people who were already on the ground.

GUPTA: I feel almost sorry asking this question, but I don't know the answer to it. What did it feel like to get shot?

BURNETTE: It felt extreme pain through here, all throughout my abdomen. I didn't even know I'd really been hit in the hip. I knew my leg wasn't working right for some reason so I didn't know where I'd gotten hit. I could see visually my arm. I could see my pinky and I saw that when my arm got hit, I was already on the ground.

GUPTA: Here is what happened next. Just a few minutes later, doctors here at Metroplex got a call that eight wounded soldiers were going to come in through this emergency room. They quickly determined that Logan Burnette was one of the more serious and off to the operating room he went. Let's take a look.

The bullet came very close to his blood vessels, though.

GAIL BURBRIDGE, METROPLEX ADVENTIST HOSPITAL: Yes, it did. It did.

GUPTA: If it had been just a little bit further back.

BURBRIDGE: If it had been one inch further back, it would have taken out the blood vessels to his leg and he very well could have bled to death right there.

GUPTA: Specialist Burnette has had two operations and he has more to come. He is beaten. He is battered but he also told me, he's had time to think. There's a brotherhood, a sisterhood that I have always seen when I've traveled with the military all over the world. Your brother takes a shot at you.

BURNETTE: Right, three times and shoots at all your other brothers. It's definitely a strange feeling.

GUPTA: What do you think should happen to him?

BURNETTE: I'd like to make sure, one way or the other, he can never hurt anybody else.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Ft. Hood, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: Coming up in 15 minutes for you, "Veterans in Focus: Service, Struggle and Success." In honor of our veterans, CNN's photojournalists have turned their lenses on the men and women of the military and their lives of service. That's at the top of the hour and you can also check out more stories online at cnn.com/veterans.

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Blackwells book shop in London recently added over 400,000 titles to its inventory. But they didn't need to add more shelves, just this. It's called the espresso book machine. You won't find a latte here, but you can find many rare titles. It only takes about five minutes for the espresso to print, cut and bind a book.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it not just amazing? What an amazing thing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At Blackwells, out of print books cost $15 plus 3 cents per page and it can also print unpublished works, giving aspiring writers a chance to see their own name on the cover.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This machine, I went, oh how wonderful, a wonderful machine for new authors. I must go straight to Blackwells. I rushed down here and there it was and I immediately thought how fantastic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The espresso's maker says it will soon have a catalog of over one million titles, but it might be awhile before it comes to a bookstore near you. There are only 22 machines like this one in the world.

(INAUDIBLE) CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: OK, time for a laugh and some fun right now from a dust up between a king and beauty queen to the about face from a dumbstruck kid. It's been a week for awkward moments on TV shall we say and the person we go to for that is CNN's Jeanne Moos and she picks her favorites for us.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We never turn up our nose for news, especially not at those wonderfully, awkward moments.

CARRIE PREJEAN. FORMER MISS CALIFORNIA: Larry, you are being inappropriate, you really are.

LARRY KING, CNN HOST: What? I'm asking a question.

MOOS: This week had more than its share of awkward. There was more than the share of TV awkward moments thanks to the former Miss California USA. Maybe you saw her getting miffed at Larry King and taking off her mike.

KING: Is she leaving because I asked what motivated the settlement? Did you hear the question?

PREJEAN: No I can't hear you.

MOOS: But I'm answering what I can't hear. PREJEAN: And I'm about to leave your show.

KING: Who are you talking to? Hello.

MOOS: But we crown Carrie Prejean Miss Awkward Moment because she inspired awkward moments on more than one show.

BARBARA WALTERS, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": And yet you say that you are the victim.

PREJEAN: Did you see the attacks that I was under?

WALTERS: It's the best thing that happened to you. I'm not worried about you, Carrie.

MOOS: But our favorite awkward moment was Barbara Walters describing Prejean's X-rated home movie.

WALTERS: You alone doing whatever you were doing with yourself.

MOOS: What was Sean Hannity doing on Fox News, Jon Stewart wondering, using video of a major rally two months ago to illustrate a smaller protest against health care reform.

JON STEWART, HOST, THE DAILY SHOW: Not a cloud in the sky, the leaves have changed. All of a sudden the trees turn green again and it's cloudy.

MOOS: Trying to make the smaller rally seem bigger said Stewart. Inadvertent mistake said Hannity, but he apologize.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: So Mr. Stewart, you were right. I want to thank you and all your writers for watching.

MOOS: CNN's "SITUATION ROOM" went to pot this week.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So Wolf, would you know a marijuana plant if you saw one?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: I'm not sure I would though. I could smell it. You could marijuana but you probably wouldn't recognize the plant. Am I right or wrong?

LOU DOBBS, CNN HOST: You are dead wrong.

MOOS: Certitude, plus attitude What a dude, Lou, we're going to miss you.

DOBBS: This will be my last broadcast here on CNN.

MOOS: From veteran leaving to Cobb (ph) arrive, The "Today" show announced the winner of its kid reporter competition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's you. Deidre, it's you! It's you!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are today's kid show, kid reporter winner. You are the winner Deidre.

MOOS: If you're going to be a reporter kid, you've got to learn to fill dead air. We said fill it, not kill it. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: Told you, you'd get a laugh. Bernie Madoff's belongings on the auction block. We'll tell you what they are expected to sell for.

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LUI: Coming up in an hour for you, while California's money problems have made a lot of headlines, there are a number of other states that are following California's suit. Is your state on that list? And December 21, 2012, doomsday? Why the preoccupation with this date and why NASA is involved in that. It's all ahead at the 4:00 hour for you. It's coming up in about one hour.

Hundreds of Bernie Madoff's personal possessions are expected to sell for at least a half a million dollar today in New York. Just got in some number from my producer. They are now at $516,200. Now some of the items you're looking at of course to sell these so they can divide up the proceeds to many of Madoff's victims who lost billions.

Now the items were taken from the disgraced financier's homes in Manhattan and Long Island. Some are pretty ordinary. Let me tell you about this. A couple of boogie boards with "Madoff" written in marker, with an estimated selling price of $80 to $90, as well as a Rolex watch that was supposed to go for $75,000. It sold for $65,000.

So that is what's happening with that auction. Up next, "VETERANS IN FOCUS."