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American Morning
Afghanistan to Dominate Upcoming NATO Talks; White House Admits Security Breach at State Dinner; Afghan Plan Under Fire in Congress; White House Job Forum; $45 Billion Payback; "Slaves" to the Shrimp Industry
Aired December 03, 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: And good morning, welcome back to a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING on this Thursday, December 3rd. I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York. Good morning, John.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Kiran. I'm John Roberts. We are outside of NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium this morning. NATO headquarters is the scene over the next couple of days of a ministerial meeting. The foreign ministers from all 28 NATO countries will be here. And one of the things that they'll be discussing is the request for U.S. troops to go into Afghanistan as part of the surge forces there.
The White House is looking for about 7,000 additional troops from NATO to go hand in hand with the 30,000 that the president announced on Tuesday night. So far, there has been a lot of good response verbally from NATO countries to the president's request for troops, but there hasn't been a lot yet in practical terms.
So far, Britain has committed to 500 troops. Italy came out with news today that will send an additional 1,000 troops bolstering its force to just over 3,000 as well. Poland is committing to 600 troops. Georgia said that it will put another 900 in, and tiny Slovakia said that it will contribute about 250.
Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, will be arriving here tomorrow morning to talk to the ministers of the other NATO countries about increasing the force levels. As far as we know, there's not going to be a lot of arm twisting, but the U.S. will be putting some subtle pressure on its allies to come to the table here, saying that Afghanistan is everyone's problem, not just America's problem.
Special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, has been here for a couple of days. We're going to be speaking with him a little bit later on this morning about the plan to try to get more troops into Afghanistan from the other NATO countries. And as well, some other issues. He hasn't exactly been high on civilian reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan saying that while military forces have been unified, it has been un-unified in terms of trying to rebuild the country on the civilian level. So, Kiran, all of that coming your way this morning from NATO headquarters here in Brussels. Right now, back to you.
CHETRY: John, all right. We'll check in with you throughout the morning. And meanwhile, we have some other big stories to tell you about. The White House now accepting some of the blame for the security breach at the president's first state dinner. Also making some big changes to keep President Obama safer. All this going on while lawmakers are pressing for more answers about how this happened in the first place. We're live at the White House just ahead.
And selling the surge in Afghanistan to the American people and to Congress. It's being played out now on Capitol Hill. Members of the administration's war council will be back today, explaining and defending President Obama's plan. This morning, a warning of what could happen if the strategy goes wrong.
And President Obama focusing on the economy this afternoon. On his to-do list, specifically what to do about the 16 million unemployed Americans. He's hosting a summit at the White House with business leaders, but can brainstorming bring back jobs? Our Jim Acosta is just six miles from the White House where real out-of-work Americans have something to say to the president.
First, though, the White House admitting it shares the blame for the security breach at President Obama's first state dinner. The administration is also making some security changes after a D.C. couple slipped into the event, uninvited.
The big unanswered question this morning though is how did Tareq and Michaele Salahi actually get into the White House dinner? The couple and the White House facing a call for answers from Capitol Hill.
Suzanne Malveaux is live from our Washington bureau with the latest this morning. And even though the congressmen want to interview some of the key players in this, they are saying no thanks.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They are saying no thanks, Kiran. The White House this morning is taking part responsibility for failing to properly vet the crowd entering the president's state dinner. The deputy chief of staff put out this statement essentially saying that the White House did not do everything we could have done to assist the U.S. Secret Service in insuring that only invited guests entered the complex. They also say that is going to change. Now this acknowledgement comes after nine days of some tough questions concerning the president's security.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX (voice-over): The White House and Secret Service both say they weren't supposed to be there. But dressed to the nines, there they were, meeting the vice president and even the president himself. So how did Tareq and Michaele Salahi get into President Obama's first state dinner? The White House is still trying to figure it out.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Obviously there's an ongoing assessment and investigation by the Secret Service into what happened, I guess a little more than a week ago. MALVEAUX: Monday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs deflected questions asking if staffers should be at the gates with the Secret Service. But just 48 hours later, changes. Gibbs says staff will start watching the doors.
GIBBS: Last night was the first of many holiday parties that will happen in -- in this complex over the next several weeks. We had staff at the security checkpoint to insure that if there was any confusion about lists, those would be double-checked with somebody representing the social office.
MALVEAUX: Lawmakers on Capitol Hill want answers, too. The House Homeland Security Committee will have a hearing today, but they may not have many witnesses. Social Secretary Desiree Rogers has been under fire since the security breach, but the White House says don't expect her to testify.
GIBBS: You know that based on separation of powers, staff here don't go to testify in front of Congress. She won't. She will not be testifying in front of Congress.
MALVEAUX: And even though the Salahis are invited, they won't be coming, either. In a statement obtained by "The Associated Press," their publicist says, the Salahis believe, quote, "There is nothing further that they can do to assist Congress in its inquiry regarding White House protocol and certain security procedures. They therefore respectfully decline to testify."
But that's not sitting well with the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. Congressman Bernie Thompson says if the Salahis are a no-show, he's ready to start handing out subpoenas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: So, Kiran, as you know, the issue of White House staffers testifying before Congress, that isn't new. When I covered President Bush, his top aides, Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, you may recall, refused to testify over firing some U.S. attorneys. They also cited the separation of powers, the idea that the executive branch, the White House, the legislative branch, or Congress, co-equal branches of government, therefore, they can't compel each other to act.
Well, it wasn't until after there was litigation to enforce those subpoenas and Mr. Bush left office, that ultimately they did give those depositions. So we're going to have to see what happens, how this plays out in this case. But already, Kiran, there is some criticism because the Obama administration had actually vowed, Mr. Obama vowed during the campaign to be different than President Bush in promising an administration that is open and transparent, so there's still a lot of questions about whether or not she should come forward, whether or not she should testify and ultimately how this is going to turn out -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes, a lot of questions, Suzanne. You're right. And actually coming up at 8:10 Eastern, we're going to be talking with Congressman Bernie Thompson as you pointed out in your piece there, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. He wants to get all of them there, even if it means a subpoena. So will he go that route?
The White House social secretary, the Salahis, no-show for today's hearing. What's the next step? Well, we're going to have more on that on the Most News in the Morning.
And now let's head back to Brussels where John is this morning. Hey, John.
ROBERTS: Kiran, good morning to you. We are here outside of NATO headquarters in Brussels where for the next few days the foreign ministers of the 28 member countries will be meeting and talking about Afghanistan and whether or not to commit more troops to the cause.
Yesterday, members of the Obama administration were on Capitol Hill selling the plan very hard. The secretary of State, the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff all appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. They got a respectful welcome from the members of that committee on a personal level but when it came to policy, the fur was flying, to say the least.
The Democrats were pummeling them on this idea of putting 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan. A lot of Democrats would like to see our profile in Afghanistan reduced, as opposed to increased. The problem for Republicans was this idea of a timeline to begin getting out of Afghanistan, July of 2011. Let's listen to some of the exchanges from yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Will we withdraw our forces based on conditions on the ground, or based on an arbitrary date?
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We will be in a position in particularly uncontested areas, where we will be able to begin that transition.
MCCAIN: Let's suppose you're not?
GATES: I think we will be in a position then to evaluate whether or not we can begin that transition in July.
MCCAIN: Which is it? It's got to be one or the other. It's got to be the appropriate conditions, or it's got to be an arbitrary date.
GATES: We will have a thorough review in December 2010. If it appears that the strategy is not working and that we are not going to be able to transition in 2011, then we will take a hard look at the strategy itself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Some tough questions yesterday for administration officials in part because Congress does not want to see a repeat of what happened in Afghanistan during the 1980s. A secret war, funded by the CIA supporting the Mujahideen (ph) against the Soviets. Mujahideen (ph), which eventually went on to become America's enemies. They do not want to see that happen again. Our foreign affairs correspondent, Jill Dougherty, has more on that front.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, you hear it over and over. This can't be a replay of "Charlie Wilson's War." A film that depicted a horror movie for Afghanistan and for America's foreign policy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOUGHERTY (voice-over): "Charlie Wilson's War," a movie based on reality. Now a warning of what could happen if President Obama doesn't get his Afghan strategy right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR")
TOM HANKS, ACTOR: What is U.S. strategy?
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, ACTOR: Strictly speaking, we don't have one. But we're working on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOUGHERTY: In the film starring Tom Hanks, Congressman Charlie Wilson helps funnel U.S. aid to Mujahideen (ph) fighters battling Soviet troops in 1989, only for Washington to abandon Afghanistan when Russia withdraws.
SEN. BILL NELSON (D), FLORIDA: I had the privilege of serving with Congressman Charlie Wilson in the House of Representatives.
DOUGHERTY: Twenty years later, Congress is holding hearings on President Obama's policy. And the analogy is only too real.
NELSON: Mr. Secretary, I am so happy to see in your statement, and I quote you -- "We will not repeat the mistakes of 1989, when we abandoned the country only to see it descend into civil war and then into Taliban hands.
DOUGHERTY: President Obama says he will begin withdrawing U.S. troops in 2011, but his secretary of defense claims that does not mean America is abandoning Afghanistan.
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We must not repeat the mistake of 1989 and turn our backs on these folks. And when we've got the security situation with them under control, then the civilian and the development part must be the preponderant part of our relationship far into the future.
DOUGHERTY: American civilian specialists in agriculture, law, government, health care and economics are training for Afghanistan. Their mission? Reverse the momentum of the Taliban by rebuilding the economy and helping the Afghan government provide services for its citizens.
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: As we put additional troops in, we want to have more civilians embedded with them. We want to have them right there on the ground when combat is over to begin the building process and partnering with their civilian counterparts.
DOUGHERTY: The hope? No reruns for "Charlie Wilson's War."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOUGHERTY: Clinton says all this depends on Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He's promised to fight corruption and deliver for the Afghan people. She says his words were long in coming, but welcome. Now they must be matched with action -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Jill Dougherty, our foreign affairs correspondent for us this morning. Again, the Obama administration insisting that it will not cut and run. That the withdrawal of American forces will be based on conditions on the ground but at the same time saying it wants to begin to drawdown those forces July of 2011.
A lot of questions still to be answered. We'll put some of those questions this morning to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. That's coming your way at 6:30 here on the Most News in the Morning.
Right now, let's go back to New York and here's Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, John. Thanks. It's 11 minutes after the hour. Other stories new this morning.
She has so far denied an affair with Tiger Woods, but Rachel Uchitel may be ready to 'fess up. She's expected to issue a statement through her attorney at a news conference in a few hours.
Meanwhile, Tiger Woods apologizing on his Web site for unspecified, quote, "transgressions and personal failings." This after a magazine published a voicemail message they said is from Tiger Woods to another alleged mistress. Meantime, fellow PGA tour player Jesper Parnevik now says that he owes Woods' wife an apology for introducing them.
New York state lawmakers have rejected a bill to legalize same- sex marriage. The vote, 38-24. Advocates of gay marriage say that Republican supporters of the bill were scared off by the election drama in New York's 23rd district. In that race, a Republican who supported gay marriage was forced out of the running by hard-line conservatives.
And a look at democracy in action, Argentina style. Lawmakers in that country's Chaco province channeled their inner Jerry Springer after failing to agree on a new president for their legislative body. At least ten lawmakers were slightly injured when chair-throwing officials from the party in power tried to stop the opposition from entering the room. Police were eventually called in to end the brawl.
There you go. It makes what goes on in our sessions of Congress look quite civilized.
Meantime, we're going to be talking more about this White House jobs summit that's taking place. Jim Acosta talks to unemployed Americans living right in the shadows of the White House. What did they want to hear about prospects for helping more Americans get work?
It's 13 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Sixteen minutes past the hour right now.
The president shifting his focus from Afghanistan to jobs today. He's hosting a forum at the White House, looking for ideas to put 16 million Americans back to work. And he has his work cut out for him, no doubt.
Our Jim Accosta joins us live from Washington with an "AM Original." You had a chance to talk to people that are feeling the pain of these unemployment numbers directly.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran.
You know, the White House says the president will hear from CEOs, small business leaders and union leaders at this jobs forum today, but once the forum is all wrapped up, he may want to cross the Potomac and meet some of the real people who understand the jobs crisis all too well because they're living it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): Just six miles from the White House, volunteers at this Northern Virginia food bank are bagging up free groceries for the poor.
PYTEE, UNEMPLOYED MOTHER: I got to the point where I put canned -- expired food inside my cupboards, you know? I'm scared.
ACOSTA: That's where we met this unemployed mother. She asked us to call her "Pytee."
PYTEE: You know, people are hungry out here. People are starving.
ACOSTA: She told us how she spends her days, scrambling from food banks to clothing distribution centers to make sure her family gets the basics. That's on top of the 10 applications for jobs she says she's filled out since September.
PYTEE: How can you work hard when you don't have a chance to even get into the doors?
ACOSTA (on camera): Is this as bad as you've ever seen it?
CHRISTINE LUCAS, DIRECTOR, ARLINGTON FOOD ASSISTANCE CENTER: This is as bad as I've ever seen it, and I've been a director here for five years and I was a volunteer here for 10 years. We've never seen anything like this.
ACOSTA (voice-over): The director of the food pantry, Christine Lucas, sees a hunger for work.
ACOSTA (on camera): Any message that you would give from somebody who sees this on the frontlines?
LUCAS: Oh, I -- you know, anything they can do to stimulate jobs is a big help. I -- I spoke to a business group the other day and I said, please, just don't -- if you want to help me, don't lay anybody off. We really need jobs.
ACOSTA (voice-over): The White House insists the president is taking on the unemployment crisis and that his jobs forum with political and business leaders is just the beginning. Republicans say that's the problem.
REP. MIKE PENCE (R), INDIANA: We believe that it represents a tacit admission that the economic policies of this administration and this Congress have failed.
ACOSTA: Just around the corner from the food pantry, Andres Tobar says the politicians better hurry. He runs a day labor center where he notes jobs are drying up for the working poor.
ACOSTA (on camera): Is it a little scary when you take a look at what's happening right now?
ANDRES TOBAR, SHIRLINGTON EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION CENTER: It is beyond scary, at least in terms of -- of the glimpses that we're getting here. For the day laborers, it's devastating.
ACOSTA (voice-over): And it's devastating for people like Pytee, who doubts there's much the president can do for her.
PYTEE: I feel like he can't bring us out of this. We're going to be a third-world country pretty soon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: After his jobs forum, the president takes his message on the road to Allentown, Pennsylvania. It's a stop where the president can see the struggle for work first hand. The jobless rate there is almost identical to the national average, around 10 percent.
And just an indication, Kiran, that the White House is really wracking its brains to try to solve this jobless crisis, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs yesterday said at the briefing that they are open to ideas. So just an indication that this is a very difficult problem to solve.
CHETRY: Absolutely.
All right. We'll be talking about this with you throughout the morning as well. Jim Accosta for us. Thanks so much.
And stay tuned. Coming up in just about 10 minutes, we're going to be breaking down another challenge for the president, and that is moving forward with a new strategy for Afghanistan. Admiral Mike Mullen is going to be joining us to talk more about those challenges and how prepared we're going to be as we send 30,000 more troops to the fight.
Nineteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: A little K. Chesney just for you this morning.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Just for me? Yay!
CHETRY: Stephanie Elam is "Minding Your Business" this morning. So we are putting the focus on the economy yet again today, the president with his jobs summit and a lot of concerns about where we're headed.
ELAM: Yes. That's true. And, first though, we're going to start off by thinking about this Bank of America craziness and -- and the TARP and all of this, and basically, how about paying some money back?
That's what Bank of America really wants to do because they just want to free their minds, live their lives and not be under the government.
CHETRY: And pay their CEOs big bonuses, right?
ELAM: That's right. That's a huge part of it. I think that's the huge reason why this has happened.
So, look at all those zeros. Bank of America is paying back $45 billion in bailout money that they got over the last year. It's going to sell nearly $19 billion in securities to repay those TARP, and, on top of it, they're also going to add to that $26.2 billion in cash as well.
They -- this all has to be voted on by shareholders, but the idea here is really going to free them up from a lot of restrictions. For one thing, they wouldn't have to make dividend payments on this money that they've gotten from the TARP. That's a huge deal, because they paid $2.54 billion to Treasury so far this year, so this will save them about $3.6 billion.
On top of that, they're free to pay their top executives how they want to, what they want to. No more pay caps. That's will probably going to help the search for a new CEO, because, you know, they wanted to have a new CEO lined up by Thanksgiving. That hasn't happened. CEO Ken Lewis is supposed to leave by the end of the year and retire, but they've been having a hard time, and think of a lot of people who said, you know what? I don't want to be bothered with all that and not get paid what I want to get paid. So this should help them with that.
Just so you know, since we're talking about it, they got $25 billion in aid last fall and then in January they got another $20 billion simply because they were trying to work out all of the moving parts with associated losses regarding to Merrill Lynch and that whole acquisition, so that is why they got $45 over that time.
CHETRY: So they're -- once they paid us back, they're free and clear. They don't owe anything else to the government?
ELAM: Right. And the stock will probably take a hit because they're doing this, and no one thought that they could do it this quickly, but they just want to be free to do what they want and operate as their own independent operation.
CHETRY: Right. And so what would that leave, just Citi, then, is the only who's still...?
ELAM: No. I think there's a couple. I'll take a look, but Citi is still one of them. But, you know -- Yes. That's one of the exponential ones that we have out there. You also have Wells Fargo.
There's a couple other ones, but one of the bigger ones would be Citi.
CHETRY: All right. Let's see if it's a move in the right direction...
ELAM: Yes.
CHETRY: ... and -- and they can lend again because that's another big problem.
ELAM: Yes.
CHETRY: Stephanie Elam for us this morning, "Minding Your Business". Thank you so much.
Still ahead, we're talking about human trafficking. This is a shrimp industry problem. Basically Sean Callebs has been doing a week-long piece about varying types of human trafficking and some are comparing the shrimp industry to modern-day slavery. We're going to take a look at why.
Twenty-five minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-seven minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Shrimp imports are a multibillion dollar business in the US, but to hear the State Department tell it, shrimp industry workers in Southeast Asia are modern-day slaves, and those abuses are being felt by shrimpers in this country, tainting the product that's ending up on your dinner plate. Sean Callebs is digging deeper in the third installment of his "AM Original" series.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the kind of night just outside New Orleans that used to be a bonanza for shrimpers like Paul Willis.
PAUL WILLIS, NEW ORLEANS SHRIMPER: This pass, on an evening like this, 10 years ago would have had 300 vessels in here right now, ready to shrimp. You're going to see eight tonight. That's what's happened to this industry.
CALLEBS: Fuel cost and Mother Nature may be a never-ending battle, but Willis says his biggest foe is cheap shrimp pouring in from Asia.
WILLIS: Foreign industries are using cheap labor, slave labor, call it whatever you want. We can't compete.
CALLEBS: In fact, Willis says he's now forced to sell shrimp at the same price he did 15 years ago, and that's still not as cheap as the cut-rate Asian shrimp selling at $3 a pound, a price in which Willis says he wouldn't even break even.
CALLEBS (on camera): Consumers know when they're buying some seafood, like tuna, that it's dolphin safe. But human rights critics complain if you're buying something like shrimp, there's no label that it came slave-free.
LUIS CDEBACA, US AMBASSADOR ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING: One of the oldest crimes in the world is alive and well in slavery.
CALLEBS (voice-over): Luis CdeBaca, the US ambassador on Human Trafficking, says the shrimp industry in Asia is one of the worst offenders. A three-year investigation by the AFL-CIO affiliated Solidarity Center and backed by the US State Department found several leading US retailers receive shrimp from plants in Thailand and Bangladesh where workers as young as eight are subject to sweatshop conditions.
CDEBACA: Men's bodies wash up routinely on the shores of Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, where they've just been tossed overboard. And usually it's for asking for a fair wage, talking back to the boss, asking to be taken back to -- to -- to shore.
CALLEBS: However, not all critics agree with the report. The Aqua Culture Certification Council, an American agency that runs global certification of food safety, says the report is exaggerated and says since it came out, the industry has made a lot of improvement.
It's not only shrimp that may have links to a criminal past, but an inexpensive cotton shirt, coffee that's too cheap to be believed, and the chocolate in cookies. For Willis, the impact is all too real, and he wants American consumers to ask the tough questions.
WILLIS: They've heard tales about, you know, well, why can they sell this shirt for $5 when if it's made in the USA would cost $16. How can that be done?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: Well there's a grassroots organization called Not For Sale that is working with companies as well as consumers, trying to get them to avoid products allegedly tainted by slave labor.
Now this is the fastest-growing crime in the world. Not for Sale said that they originally thought it was about a $32 billion a year industry. Now they say it could be as much as $150 billion. So, Kiran, they ask people to think about it when they're buying seafood, shrimp, coffee, chocolate, whatever. If a price is too low to be believed, you might want to think about the footprint, was slave labor involved?
CHETRY: Very interesting. Sean Callebs this morning, thanks so much.
It's 30 minutes past the hour. We have a look at our top stories now.
Former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee, is defending his decision to commute the sentence of Maurice Clemmons back in 2000. Huckabee said he was aware that Clemmons had a violent past, but could not have known the deadly consequences that would come later. Digging for answer, our Drew Griffin tracked Huckabee down in Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE HUCKABEE (R), FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: I read the entire file.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Was it just this few pieces of paper?
HUCKABEE: No, no, it was a file this thick.
GRIFFIN: Did it tell you the violations he had in prison, the assaults.
HUCKABEE: Everything.
GRIFFIN: His firearm possession. The fact that he tried to slip a piece of metal in the court?
HUCKABEE: I looked at the file, every bit of it. And here was a case where a guy had been given 108 years. Now if you think that 108- year sentence is an appropriate sentence for a 16-year-old for the crimes he committed, then you should run for governor of Arkansas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, Clemmons was killed by Seattle police, Tuesday, after a two-day manhunt after police say that he murdered four policemen at a coffee shop.
The NFL plans to begin enforcing its strictest rules yet to protect players who have suffered head injuries. There are new guidelines now out that any player exhibiting any significant sign of a concussion must be taken out of a game or off the practice field and barred from returning the same day. The new rules will take effect this week. At 7:40 Eastern, we're going to talk about this with Dr. Julian Bailes, a neurologist, and also the former team doctor for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Later today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flies to Brussels to meet with NATO leaders. She's hoping to secure additional troops and money for the president's new war strategy in Afghanistan. And that's why our John Roberts is live in Brussels this morning for the upcoming NATO talks.
Hey, John.
ROBERTS: Hey, good morning to you, Kiran. Yes, for the next couple of days, the foreign minister of the 28 NATO countries will be meeting here at NATO headquarters in Brussels. They'll be talking about a number of things. Probably foremost among them, President Obama's request for an additional -- about 7,000 NATO troops to go into Afghanistan to bolster the incoming 30,000 American forces.
Now, the NATO Secretary-General Rasmussen has said, well, maybe we could get you about 5,000, or maybe a little bit more. But there may be a little bit of a difference here between what the U.S. is looking for and what NATO countries are willing to deliver.
And so far, the United States has commitments for just about 3,000 troops. Italy came out today and said it would probably commit 1,000 troops to the cause there. Britain has said it would give 500. Poland has said it will give six. Little Georgia came out yesterday and said we'll contribute 900. So that gets it up to about, you know, 3,000 or more than 3,000, but still looking for at least another couple of thousand troops.
And it's interesting that when you look at the big NATO countries like France and Germany, they have said, well, we don't know if we can give any more troops, but we will not make that decision until a big NATO meeting coming up on the 28th of January.
And Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, you might remember last month in October he said no more French troops for Afghanistan. The United States is asking France for a commitment of 1500 or so. So, it will be difficult to see whether or not those big NATO countries will be able to come forward with those. Or whether or not they might give some paramilitary forces to help in the training and a lot of support services.
But no question, Kiran, in addition to the military commitment that the U.S. is looking for from NATO, they're also looking for a civilian commitment, a support commitment. So a lot more forces are going to have to be going in there, not only military, but civilian as well.
CHETRY: All right, absolutely. Thanks, John.
And, you know, before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to Brussels, she's going to be back on Capitol Hill today sitting beside Defense chief Robert gates and also chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen to answer questions about the new plan for Afghanistan.
And joining me now is Admiral Mullen.
Great to have you with us this morning.
ADM. MIKE MULLEN, CHAIRMAN JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Good morning, Kiran. How are you?
CHETRY: Great. Thanks for being with us.
MULLEN: First of all, let's talk about the unique challenges of Afghanistan's terrain. As we know, we want this deployment to happen as quickly as possible. You take a look at Afghan's terrain, the size, the rural areas, how realistic is it in your opinion that the president's wish to have this 30,000 more troops in the country by summer of 2010? How realistic is that when you think about whether or not that can happen.
Well, we'll get the vast majority of them there by mid-summer. There are you unique challenges to Afghanistan, different from Iraq because of the lack of infrastructure, if you will. But we've actually been working this part of the problem for, for a couple of months.
And I think we know what we have to do and we know how to do it. I think a great strength of this decision is to get these forces there as rapidly as possible. General McChrystal gets the forces he needs to, to reverse the momentum of this insurgency, which has gotten worse over the last three years.
CHETRY: One of the things that President Obama has vowed in the past and has repeatedly said is he's not going to send troops without the support that they need to get the job done.
We know IEDs kill more U.S. troops than anything else in Afghanistan. In fact, you yourself have said that they are the number-one threat. We also have these new technologies in the mine- resistant vehicles, and we know they save lives.
Will the military be able to get more of those vehicles into the theater in time for these additional troops?
MULLEN: Yes, we're working that. In fact, a lighter mine- resistant vehicle explosive-resistant vehicle, if you will, which has proved incredibly good in Iraq in terms of saving lives. Not perfect. There still are casualties associated with them. But as you said, it is, it is clearly the number one threat that we have out there. And we're working that very, very hard in Afghanistan as we did in Iraq. Both from a procedure standpoint, as well as a technology standpoint to work hard to get ahead of it.
CHETRY: President Obama said 18 months and then we'll start pulling out. On Capitol Hill yesterday, you heard from Defense Chief Robert Gates, saying that he's adamantly opposed to deadlines. He said he opposed them in Iraq and he opposes them in Afghanistan. Is July 2011 a hard target?
MULLEN: Well, again, I would reemphasize the president's decision to get these forces in as rapidly as possible. It shows resolve, and it also recognizes a sense of urgency. There's also a sense of urgency that the Afghan security forces become engaged heavily in training. In taking the lead and that 18-month timeframe, July of 2011 is a time where they can, we can start to transition, transfer responsibility and transition that responsibility to them.
But it is not, it is not a hard deadline to leave. It really is to start to bring our troops out. There's no, there's no end date on that. There's not a withdrawal date or anything like that. And it's reasonable from my perspective, to start to be able to do that, based on the strategy that we have.
CHETRY: OK. So, again, just to clarify, the July 2011 date is not a hard date to leave the country. It's basically more of a, I guess timeline to start drawing down?
MULLEN: Well it's a target date at this point. We've been given very clear direction from the president to start to transition the transfer of responsibility for security to the Afghan security forces.
I mean, this strategy is designed to create breathing space, to turn the security around. It's focused on the people. And in that environment and umbrella, be able to train the Afghan army, train the Afghan police so they can take over their own security and then conduct that transition. So that target date of July 11 is one we're all shooting for. But it isn't going to be all forces out at that point. We really don't know how many will transition, and we'll see when it's much closer to that timeframe.
CHETRY: All right. 2011, I misspoke there, sorry about that, Admiral. Greg Mortensen, he's the author of "Three Cups of Tea." We know that that's required reading right now for counterinsurgency officers in training. He spent two decades in the country. He told me yesterday that missing from President Obama speech and for many plan is the unique and vital role that this tribal elders play, bringing them on board and how important it is, perhaps even more important than addressing concerns about the central government.
How are you addressing their unique role in Afghanistan?
MULLEN: Well, I think General McChrystal and Ambassador Eikenberry very, very focused on this part of it. While we certainly need the government in Kabul, President Karzai and his ministers to be partners, we also need to engage in the greatly depend on local governments, tribal leaders, tribal elders. And so General McChrystal in the execution of this strategy will spend a lot of time developing those relationships, as will our troops. Because we think that's such a critical lynchpin to the long-term security for Afghanistan.
CHETRY: Admiral Mike Mullen, great to hear from you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us.
MULLEN: Thanks, Kiran, good to be with you.
CHETRY: Still ahead, President Obama under some pressure from his own party to create more jobs, holding a summit today. We're going to hear concerns from real-life Americans who say they're struggling and want to share their stories as well.
What is the plan? And how quickly can it work?
Forty minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Forty-three minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
President Obama is hosting a job summit at the White House today. He's looking for answers from business leaders to bring down unemployment. But for some Democrats, that's not good enough. They're facing re-election next year, and they are facing a lot of voters out of work and angry. So they've joined forces to give the jobless a voice, Jessica Yellin has more.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, they're usually some of President Obama's closest political friends. But now some House Democrats say the White House is failing on their top priority -- creating jobs. So, they're turning up the heat.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
YELLIN (voice-over): Millions of Americans without jobs, are they being ignored? Some Democrats in Congress say yes, and they blame their own leaders.
REP. BOBBY RUSH (D), ILLINOIS: Obviously, there's something that's not getting through to them.
YELLIN: He's not alone. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are also slamming the White House, demanding the president do more to stem catastrophic job losses in minority communities.
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: We are prepared to do what we need to do to truly represent our communities.
YELLIN: These members believe the stimulus is not reaching the hardest-hit Americans. Some of their proposals? Redirect remaining stimulus and Wall Street bailout money to jobs programs, demand banks do more for homeowners facing foreclosure, and pass a new bill to spur job growth, essentially a stimulus by another name.
The White House insists it's already focused on this issue, Thursday holding a jobs summit with CEOs, small-business owners and others.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What I think the president wants to do is hear from them on the type of environment that we can have that would allow for that hiring to take place.
YELLIN: That's not good enough for these frustrated House members, who say the White House listens too closely to business, especially Wall Street. Representative Rush has organized 128 House members to, as he says, bring the voices of the jobless to the table.
RUSH: Wall Street has been there for a while. Move over, Wall Street, because here comes Main Street.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
YELLIN: One threat? Some of these members are talking about organizing a massive march on Washington that would bring some of the millions of unemployed Americans right to the president's doorstep -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: Jessica Yellin for us, thanks.
A big storm rolling through the Northeast. It is going to be a messy travel day today. What's on tap for the rest of the day? Rob Marciano is going to be joining us with a look at extreme weather in just a moment. Forty-five minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Forty-nine minutes past the hour right now. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. There is a live look at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. It's 50 degrees there right now, light showers, and that's where our John Roberts is reporting live this morning, from Brussels, ahead of the Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton's trip there today.
We are going to check in with John in just a few minutes, but right now, we're going to checking with Rob Marciano. We're dealing with some extreme weather in the Northeast. Man, we're talking about localized flooding all around the New York area, coming in at 3:00 in the morning; what a mess on the roads.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, not to mention the wind, Kiran. The wind really is whipping up, and this all the storm that started across parts of Texas and New Mexico, flooding and storming just across parts of the Southeast. Check out some of this video coming out at Georgia yesterday. Heavy rains between two and five inches in some cases, and this is the time of year obviously the leaves are on the ground, and now, it will easily clog up the storm drains, so that was the main issue.
There were some small creeks and streams that went up and over their flood banks, but generally speaking, it was just a mass (ph) today; all of that now across the Northeast. Here it is on the radarscope, New York to Boston, the heaviest rain is beginning to come to an end in the New York City area, but the winds are just whipping up. We have winds gusting up 47 miles an hour at JFK, getting close to that at Philadelphia as well.
This is just a handful of the odds (ph) that are happening in the last couple of hours, so the winds will be an issue for sure. The severe weather threat that has shifted down to Florida; although, the storm tornado watch that was in effect has just been allow to expire as this begins to weaken, and the center of low gets pretty far away.
Today's delays that we expect to happen on New York metros, Boston, D.C., and Philly, mostly because of the wind, the morning rains will be coming to an end. A little bit of light snow in Chicago and Minneapolis, and we'll talk about this next system which will get internationally for the South but for the mid-Atlantic and potentially for the Northeast over the weekend. We'll talk more about that in the next hour. Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: Rob, thanks so much.
Still ahead, we're offering our viewers a rare opportunity to follow new army enlistees from the home front to the battle front, and for the first time, we'll be following three military lives, three very unique stories, Jason Carroll will be bringing it to us. It's 51 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Fifty- four minutes past the hour. The Tiger Woods affair has generated a lot of headlines. Now, one Web site is offering a computer-generated recreation of Tiger's SUV crash. It's just the latest in the annals of animation Jeanne Moos brings it to us.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Usually, we use animation to illustrate say, the H1N1 swine flu virus, going up a nostril or even the technique of water boarding, but now you can watch Tiger Woods being tortured in a Taiwanese computer-generated reenactment.
It's generating lots of laughs, at least. Critics are picking apart the recreation. She's beating the wrong window. Tiger's Escalade has been turned into a minivan. Reenactments are par for the course on Taiwan's Apple Daily website. The online news service tends to animate any big news story. It even got fined for animating violent crime too explicitly especially crimes involving kids and look who else they featured.
A couple that got into the White House State dinner.
MOOS (on-camera): Of course, not all recreations of news events have to be animated. UNKNOWN MALE: Craig moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot.
MOOS (voice-over): Slate used stand-ins to sit down and act out now former Senator Larry Craig's adventures in the men's room. (unintelligible)
To recreate testimony at O.J. Simpson's civil trial, and though this doesn't quite qualify as a reenactment.
UNKNOWN MALE: I understand they've already updated the latest version of Tiger's video game.
MOOS: A sports comedy show in New Zealand recreated the version of Tiger's story in which his wife rescued him.
The Taiwanese worked the first animate Tiger; Gatorade also did it, portraying him as a boy in an ad.
Big Tiger's recreation has inspired jokes. The difference between a Cadillac Escalade and a golf ball? Tiger Woods can drive a golf ball 400 yards. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
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CHETRY: There you go. All right. We have a lot more coming up this morning. The White House is admitting some blame in the case of this uninvited guest showing up at President Obama's first state dinner. Also, John is live in Brussels, Belgium this morning. Hi, John.
ROBERTS: Good morning to you, Kiran. We've got a lot more coming to you from NATO headquarters here in Brussels this morning, where for the next couple of days, the foreign ministers of the 28 NATO member countries will be discussing the way forward in Afghanistan.
We'll put some tough questions to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke coming up in just a couple of minutes. All of that and more coming your way in just 90 seconds. Stay with us on the Most News in the Morning.
