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American Morning

White House Crashers Congress Inquiry; Beefing up Obama's Security; U.S. President Holds Job Summit; Tiger Woods' Admission Raises Questions; High School Graduate Enlists

Aired December 03, 2009 - 08:00   ET

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

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: It's 8:00 on the nose here in New York. Good morning and welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Thursday, December 3rd. I'm Kiran Chetry in New York.

Hey, John.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good morning to you, Kiran.

I'm John Roberts outside of NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, where today and tomorrow, the NATO ministers. This is the foreign ministers of 28 NATO member nations are meeting to talk about Afghanistan and the way forward there and how many troops that NATO members may commit to the new surge strategy in Afghanistan that President Obama announced back on Tuesday.

We spoke with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke just a little while ago. He says that he's feeling pretty good about things here. However, the numbers in terms of troop commitments are not yet what the United States would like to see. The Obama administration is asking NATO members for about 7,000 troops to go along with the 30,000 Americans that will be going into Afghanistan over the next six months or so.

So far, they've got commitments for just over 3,000. The bulk of those are coming from Great Britain, as well as Poland. Italy has just committed another 1,000. Tiny Slovakia has committed 250.

But the big NATO countries, France and Germany, have yet to ring in. And in fact, Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, said just back in October that France would send no more troops. Maybe backing off of that position, but that probably won't be known until a little later. Germany and France are both withholding judgment until another NATO conference coming up on the 28th of January.

Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, will be arriving here first thing tomorrow morning. She's up on the Hill today, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, again about Afghanistan. She was there yesterday, along with the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs before the Senate Armed Services Committee. They were treated respectfully, from a personal level, but they got a real grilling in terms of administration policy.

So, she is now going to be coming here tomorrow morning to try to very gently and diplomatically twist some arms to see what she can get out of NATO countries. And we will be speaking with her tomorrow morning as well.

Much more coming your way from here at NATO headquarters, but right now, back to New York and here's Kiran.

CHETRY: All right, John. Thanks.

And we have some other big stories that we're going to be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.

First, the White House is now accepting some of the blame for the security breach at the president's first state dinner, also making big changes to keep President Obama safer. All why lawmakers are pressing for answers about how this happened in the first place. We'll be live from Washington, next.

Plus, more troops for Afghanistan, but not just from the U.S., as John mentioned. Right now, Washington is calling on NATO to put more muscle in the fight. But will the Obama administration be able to get the big-time back up it's looking for?

And from the home front to the front lines, we're following a new Army recruit as he begins his military journey. Jason Carroll has the first installment of an A.M. original series, "A Soldier's Story."

And three minutes past the hour.

We start with the White House admitting it shares the blame for the security breach at the President Obama's first state dinner. The administration is also making some security changes after a D.C. couple slipped into that event uninvited.

The big question, though, that has not been answered is how did Tareq and Michaele Salahi actually get inside? The couple and the White House are facing a call for answers from Capitol Hill.

Suzanne Malveaux is live for us from Washington this morning with the very latest.

Good morning, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Kiran.

Well, the White House is taking responsibility now, in part for failing to properly vet the crowd entering the president's first state dinner. It was the deputy chief of staff -- he put out this statement here, saying that the White House "did not do everything we could have done to assist the U.S. Secret Service in ensuring that only invited guests entered the complex." He also said that that, of course, is going to change, and this acknowledgement, Kiran, comes after nine days of some tough questions concerning the present 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 this complex over the next several weeks. We had staff at the security checkpoint to ensure 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 Bennie Thompson says if the Salahis are a no-show, he's ready to start handing out subpoenas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: And, Kiran, as you know, the issue of White House staff members testifying before Congress, it's not new. When I covered President Bush, his top aides, Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, they refused to testify over firing some U.S. attorneys. Once again, they cited separation of powers -- the idea that the executive branch, the White House, and the legislative branch or Congress, are co-equal branches of government -- therefore, they cannot compel each other to act. But it really wasn't until after litigations to enforce those subpoenas and after President Bush left office that ultimately they did end up giving some depositions.

So, we'll have to wait and see what happens in this case. But already, Kiran, I can tell you that the Obama administration is getting some flak, some criticism for this, because Mr. Obama vowed during the campaign to be different from President Bush in being more open and transparent.

CHETRY: That's right. All right, well, we're going to see what happens with that, Suzanne, because in just a few minutes, we're going to be talking to Congressman Bennie Thompson. He is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and he wants answer.

Our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, is also weighing in on this situation.

So, what if the White House social secretary and the Salahis are no-shows for the hearing -- it's a big possibility as Suzanne told us -- will they subpoena them to try to get them to talk? That's ahead on the Most News in the Morning.

Some breaking news right now that we've been following for you from Somalia. We're getting reports of an explosion happening at an upscale hotel in the capital city of Mogadishu. Somali officials are reporting that three government cabinet ministers as well as six other people have been killed. They were attending a graduation ceremony at the time.

This is some of the first video coming out of this situation there from Somalia.

Again, an explosion at an upscale hotel. No details right now on any claims of responsibility. But it's a story we're watching for you this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.

Our John Roberts, meanwhile, is reporting live from Brussels this morning ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's trip there today. And, of course, we're going to be hearing a lot more out of that meeting, especially when it comes to the NATO commitment to more troops for Afghanistan.

Hey, John.

ROBERTS: Hey, Kiran. We're hearing positive things coming out of NATO so far. It's a two-day meeting here of NATO ministers, the foreign ministers, some defense ministers here as well, talking about the way forward in Afghanistan, President Obama's call to arms and just what sort of a commitment the 28 NATO members will make to the way forward in Afghanistan.

The White House would like to see about 7,000 troops coming from those countries to complement the 30,000 American forces that will be going in. We don't know if they'll make it to that number. So far, commitments are just over 3,000.

People are saying the right things, but as to whether or not they're actually going to make those commitments remains to be seen. We may not know until sometime toward the end of January or the early part of February whether big NATO countries like France and Germany will come to the plate in terms of troops, or whether they maybe will commit paramilitary trainers and some supplies to back up things like that instead of actually military forces. As you said, Kiran, the secretary of state will be here first thing tomorrow morning to have meetings in which she'll try to gently twist arms and bring some of those NATO members to the table.

Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who is the president's point person on Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been in this region for a couple of days now, sort of greasing the skids, if you will, towards those meetings. And earlier here on the Most News in the Morning, we spoke with Ambassador Holbrooke about that call to arms among NATO nations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, EARLIER ON AMERICAN MORNING)

ROBERTS: This administration would like about 7,000 troops, in addition to the 30,000 Americans that the president announced will be going over. How many can you get from NATO?

AMB. RICHARD HOLBROOKE, U.S. SPECIAL REP. FOR AFGHANISTAN & PAKISTAN: Well, first of all, the secretary of state will arrive early in the morning, and I have been here for two days. I'm not coming here to get a specific number. This is to reaffirm NATO's full commitment after the president's historic speech Tuesday night.

And on the basis of all the talks I've had here with NATO foreign ministers and other representatives, I am tremendously gratified by support we've gotten. It's been overwhelming.

He thinks I live in his district...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Tremendously gratified, says Ambassador Holbrooke, but the devil is always in the details, particularly when it comes to an organization like NATO.

By the way, tomorrow on the Most News in the Morning, we will be speaking exclusively with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the way forward in Afghanistan and some of the other concerns -- one of the things that Ambassador Holbrooke and I were talking about off- camera was how much funding for the Taliban is coming not from opium production in Afghanistan, but actually coming from sympathetic people in the Persian Gulf region. He says, in fact, that is the bulk of the funding -- so one of the issues that we'll talk with the secretary of state about.

And of course, new anxiety in both Afghanistan and Pakistan on this idea of U.S. troops beginning to pull out of Afghanistan in July 2011, as announced by the president on Tuesday night. They're worried that, as happened in 1989, that the United States might cut and run from the region again. Ambassador Holbrooke told me that was a huge mistake and they're vowing that that will not happen again. But a little bit of a contradiction between the president saying, troops will begin to withdrawal July 2011 and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan will be based on conditions on the ground.

So, still some things to clear up. We'll be talking with the secretary about all of that tomorrow morning here on AMERICAN MORNING -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. We'll look forward to it. John, thanks.

Well, it took a tough congressional hearing on the war in Afghanistan to get Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to publicly comment on the engagement of her daughter, Chelsea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D), NEW YORK: First, please give my heartfelt congratulations to the youngest Clinton on her decision to make a monumental move in her life.

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Thank you. It's a very long, thoughtful process.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: There you go. A little bit of light-heartedness amid all the talk of war. And the wedding, by the way, is scheduled to take place next summer.

Still ahead, we're joined by Congressman Bennie Thompson. He is appalled at the security breach at the White House at the first state dinner. "What if this had been a terrorist?" he asked. Should the party crashers be prosecuted? Our own Jeff Toobin is going to be joining to weigh in as well.

It's 12 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONAN O'BRIEN, TV TALK SHOW HOST: Last night, President Obama gave a speech at West Point -- and did you see this? Right in the middle, they cut to a cadet who was sleeping.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: Did you see that? Yes. Yes. That cadet was immediately assigned to work security at the next White House state dinner.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well, the late-night comedy host getting a little bit of a fun punch line of what happened. The White House, however, and members of Congress are not laughing. The White House is admitting this morning that it shares some of the blame for the security breach at the president's first state dinner and lawmakers want some answers. The problem is the couple who slipped in uninvited, I'm sure you've seen them by now, right, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, well, they will not testify, they say, before the House Homeland Security Committee today. Also, the White House is now saying that its social secretary, Desiree Rogers, also will not be testifying and answering any questions before Congress, as well.

So, what now? I'm joined by the chairman of the committee, Congressman Bennie Thompson, as well as our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin.

Let me start, though, with you, Congressman Thompson. Thanks for being with us this morning.

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS), CHAIRMAN, HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: Thank you for having me.

CHETRY: Will you be subpoenaing the Salahis?

THOMPSON: Well, the committee will make that decision before we finish with our hearing this morning.

CHETRY: What do you want to hear from them, though? They're claiming through their lawyers that they provided Congress and the Secret Service with all of the information that they have relating to this incident.

THOMPSON: Well, they've provided the information that they wanted to. They've not provided the oral testimony that we need in the hearing. There's other information. If they'll talk to all the networks and all the other people, then why not come talk to members of Congress who have a responsibility for looking into White House security.

CHETRY: All right. So that's the situation with the Salahis right now. You said the committee is going to be making a decision as to whether or not they will be issuing subpoenas in that situation. Meantime, White House Social Secretary, Desiree Rogers, also will not be testifying today. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs saying that allowing Rogers to testify before Congress would violate the constitutional separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches.

Will you be issuing a subpoena to hear from her?

THOMPSON: Well, again that's the responsibility of the committee to look at it. The Republican Minority on the committee listed Desiree as their potential witness. We didn't see her as a major player in this. White House security is a function of the Secret Service. We want to hear from the Secret Service director, see what he has found out in his review of security and what he plans to do going forward.

CHETRY: I'm going to bring in Jeff Toobin here as well, our legal analyst, about this situation.

How much responsibility, perhaps, do you think that the White House bears in this situation?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, Congress will never know, will it, because they're getting stonewalled by the White House.

Let's be clear about what the Press Secretary said. He said that she's -- that there's some -- he's suggested that there's some legal prohibition on her testifying before Congress, Desiree Rogers, the social secretary. That's not true. That's the choice of the White House. Just like the Bush administration, this White House is choosing not to have an administration official testify. If they wanted to let her testify, she would. She would be testifying. So this is a choice of the White House not to disclose information.

CHETRY: So it's not that a law would be violated if she did, it would be that they don't have to be compelled or forced to have her do it by law.

TOOBIN: Correct. And it's the same thing that's going on with the Salahis. Frankly, it doesn't really matter whether they're subpoenaed or not, because it seems very clear, they're going to take the fifth, which they have the right to do. So they're not going to testify, subpoena or not. They're very happy to talk to Matt Lauer at the "Today" show, but when it comes to the possibility of sworn testimony where they could be charged with perjury, they're saying, no thank you.

CHETRY: And Congressman, let me bring you back in here, about -- the Salahis have pointed to e-mails they say they exchanged with Pentagon liaison Michelle Jones, who was apparently trying to get them an invite to this dinner. And they say that they missed a message from her telling them that they indeed did not get an invite, and so they showed up anyway because of a misunderstanding. They claim they did not crash the event.

What are your thoughts on that? Is there a possibility that this is all a misunderstanding?

THOMPSON: Well, I think that's the -- their opinion. We've looked into it.

Our real concern is that somebody can walk in off the street to a state dinner, uninvited, not on the list, and get in. Get to talk to the President, Vice President, other officials. And that is not proper White House security. Our responsibility is to help protect the President from an oversight standpoint. And by having this hearing, that's what we're attempting to do.

CHETRY: You are also -- go ahead, Joe.

TOOBIN: Well, I was just going to say. That's what congressional oversight committees are supposed to do. They're supposed to look into things and see if they're working properly, but this committee is not getting cooperation from the White House and it's not getting cooperation from the Salahis. Let's just be clear about that. CHETRY: And what's your take on that? You say you're doing this to try to protect the President as best you can, to make sure that there are no lapses in the future. You questioned yesterday, hey, what if this had been a terrorist incident? Yet, the White House doesn't appear to be wanting to help you, at least when it comes to getting their Social Secretary to testify before the committee.

THOMPSON: Well, the committee will do its responsibility. We'll start the process with the hearing today. We'll look into whether or not subpoenas will be issued. We will do our job. We hope the White House and other individuals will cooperate. But at the end of the day, the committee will do its job.

CHETRY: All right. Congressman Thompson, thanks for being with us this morning. Jeff Toobin, our senior legal analyst, also great to have your take. Thanks for being here.

All right, well, still ahead, the President holds a job summit today. Some democrats say they have waited too long to focus on jobs and they're hearing it from their constituents. They want action now. Our Jim Acosta speaks with some real people who are out of work and have few prospects.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: We're back with the Most News in the Morning, live outside of NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, where issue number one, really the only issue of the day today is Afghanistan and the way forward and what sort of troop commitment. What sort of military commitment the NATO member nations will make.

But back in Washington, the President is turning his focus from Afghanistan to jobs today. He's holding a summit at the White House in which he hopes to get some ideas to create some 16 million jobs. But he certainly has his work cut out for him, particularly with unemployment, now about 10 percent, potentially going higher.

Our Jim Acosta is in Washington for us this morning, with an "AM Original."

Good morning, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Lots of issue number ones out there for the President. And the president will hear today from CEOs, small business owners, and union leaders at this jobs forum. Once the forum is all wrapped up, he may want to do what we did, 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. "HEIDI": 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 Heidi.

"HEIDI": 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 ten applications for jobs she says she's filled out since September.

"HEIDI": How can you work hard when you don't even have a chance to get into the doors?

ACOSTA (on-camera): Is this as bad as you've seen it?

CHRISTINE LUCAS, DIRECTOR, ARLINGTON FOOD ASSISTANCE CENTER: This is as bad as I've ever seen it. And I've been the director here for five years. And I have been a volunteer here for ten years before that. We have never seen anything like this.

ACOSTA (voice-over): The director of the food pantry, Christine Lucas, sees a hunger for work.

(on camera): Any message that you would give from somebody who sees this on the front lines?

LUCAS: Anything they can do to stimulate jobs is a big help. 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.

MIKE PENCE, U.S. CONGRESSMAN (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, Andreas Tobar says the politicians better hurry. He runs a day-labor center where he notes, jobs are drying up for the working poor.

(on camera): Is it a little scary when you take a look at what's happening right now?

ANDREAS TOBAR, SHIRLINGTON EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION CENTER: It is beyond scary. At least, in terms 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 Heidi, who doubts there's much the President can do for her.

"HEIDI": I feel that if 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 unemployment on the road to Allentown, Pennsylvania. It's a stop where the President can see the struggle for work firsthand. The jobless rate there is almost identical to the national average, around 10 percent.

And John, just an indication of how folks at the White House are racking their brains over this issue, yesterday White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says they are open to ideas when it comes to creating jobs in this country -- John.

ROBERTS: Does that mean that they're out of ideas, Jim?

ACOSTA: Well, they will say no. They will say they are not out of ideas, but they are hoping that there will be some ideas later today, because obviously they have a big political problem, and that is folks up on Capitol Hill feel all spent out, all tapped out when it comes to devoting dollars, tax dollars to fixing this economy. And at the same time, the President's getting -- he's getting heat from some Democrats. There are Democrats up on the Hill, especially in the Congressional Black Caucus, who are talking about a jobless march on Washington to make sure the White House gets the message on this issue.

ROBERTS: Well, all right, if they do at least seem to be getting it. Jim Acosta for us in Washington with an "AM Original." Jim, thanks so much for that.

Coming up in about 20 minutes here on the Most News in the Morning, we're going to dig a little bit deeper into that Senate report that was released late last week that says definitely, absolutely, without question, that Osama Bin Laden was at the Tora Bora complex in the Afghanistan mountains in December of 2001 and he slipped through U.S. fingers. We're going to talk with a man who was there on the ground at that time, a guy who pleaded with his superiors to send 800 U.S. rangers in to try to bottle Bin Laden up and capture him.

They also know that Aiminal Zawahiri was there. The Senate report says that we potentially also could have gotten Mamuhammad Omar. All three of them at the same time.

Gary Berntsen who wrote about all of this in his book, Jawbreaker, will be with us here on the Most News in the Morning, to talk not only about that, but his new concerns for what's going on in Pakistan and just how many militants the United States is fighting there. All of that coming your way on the Most News In The Morning.

Right now back to New York, and here's Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. We look forward to hearing about that.

Also, still ahead, you know, it was Friday, the car crash, Tiger Woods crashing outside of his Florida home. It's now led to a lot of problems for him. Women coming out of the woodwork with salacious allegations and now people are saying, is his brand in jeopardy? The millions and millions he makes off of endorsements because of his image. The short and long-term impacts on Tiger's career and business deals, still ahead.

Twenty-eight minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back. It's 31 minutes past the hour right now.

Checking our top stories, Bank of America says it will repay the $45 billion bailout it received from the government. The bank has been having a tough time finding a new CEO willing to accept government restrictions tied to the TARP money. Once they paid back that money, they then will not be forced under those restrictions.

The NFL set to enforce its toughest rules yet to try to protect players who suffer head injuries. The new league guidelines take effect this week. They say a player who gets a concussion should not return to action on the same day if that player shows certain signs or symptoms.

And a drug bust in Texas has police concerned because officers say that the ecstasy pills seized were made to look like children vitamins, brightly-colored, and some were even in the shape of President Obama. A 22-year-old has been charged with five counts of felony drug possession.

Well, he's apologized to his family and his fans, but there are still more questions than answers about Tiger Woods' admitted, quote, "transgressions and personal failings." That's what he said in a statement on the web.

Still, the golfing great's biggest sponsors have his back for now, but how long? Steve Rosner is an expert in sports marketing, the cofounder of 16W marketing. And I asked him what that means, and an exit off a New Jersey turnpike is how you got the name.

Great to have you with us this morning, Steve.

STEVE ROSNER, 16W MARKETING: Great to be here.

CHETRY: What makes Tiger Woods, first of all, so unique, that he is such a winner when it comes to advertising and when it comes to sponsorships? He had $120 million last year in sponsorships.

ROSNER: Well, first and foremost, his play on the course has just been exceptional. So that's where it starts. And then from there, he's been a likable guy to the public.

So he also is a guy who took golf from one step that wasn't the most popular support at that time, has really raised its profile. So besides that, all the people that wanted to really get involved in golf, Tiger Woods was the first one they decided to approach.

CHETRY: Right. So he's become a role model, of sorts, for many, gotten people who would not normally be interested in the game interested.

And now when we hear, hey, he's human, we know that there is -- still unclear, but this Friday car crash and what's sort of followed since, some of these women coming out of the woodwork claiming to have had affairs with Tiger. How does that affect his ability to stay marketable?

ROSNER: Well, it definitely took a little bit of a hit, his reputation over this. But I think long-term right now, since he came out, raised his hand, and said, you know, I have some faults, I'm going to work on them. And I think we are a country that's very compassionate when it comes to that.

And I think in the long-term his endorsement deals will stay in place, especially the ones that he has now. And I think it will take a little while for him maybe to get some new endorsements.

But I think moving forward if he handles it right and stays out of the public eye, I think he'll be fine.

CHETRY: You talk about sports marking. There are many different ways in which celebrities' faces and name and also their image is used in advertising. When you see what Tiger advertises, it's about personal perfection, greatness, striving, working really hard, and almost being infallible.

Does anything that transpired or the allegations of what may have transpired affect the brand that he is actually representing?

ROSNER: I think they do. I think it depends on which companies we're talking about. But I think they might be a little bit more sensitive about how they position and use him moving forward based on what transpired here.

Also, time, that will heal all the wounds, I believe. So I don't think you'll see any full-page ads anywhere in the next couple of weeks. But I think he gets back on the golf tour. I think his next tournament is in about two months. So I think at that point that will be the really testing point about how these companies use him moving forward.

CHETRY: Tiger, someone who has been intensely private and even mentioned on his Web site how dismayed he was by the huge amount of publicity, and he called it in some cases false, you know, statements about what happened.

Does he need to speak more about it, or is just responding with a few statements on the web going to be enough, not necessarily for advertisers, but for fans and for people who love Tiger Woods?

ROSNER: Well, this is a decision that team Woods has to make. He's in good hands with his representation.

However, I personally believe that one time he's going to have to get in front of people. They're going to have to see him up close and personal answer some questions.

And then that will be it, something like Alex Rodriguez did after he came out and said that he did the steroids. He had one press conference during spring training and after that he didn't address it at all. I believe Tiger in the future will have to do something like that.

CHETRY: Right, because anytime you have one of these sporting events, you sit down and everyone's going to be asking you a million questions, and probably not going to be asking about his putting.

ROSNER: Probably not.

CHETRY: All right, well, it's great to talk to you, Steve Rosner of 16W marketing. Thanks for being with us.

ROSNER: My pleasure.

CHETRY: Still ahead, 18-year-old high school football player, he decides, you know what, my future is with the U.S. army, and Jason Carroll followed him from the very beginning of his decision to enlist to getting ready to say goodbye to his family and friends as he heads to basic training.

It's a soldier's story, an "AM Original," and we'll bring it to you next. It's 36 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: It's 39 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

As we kick off an "AM Original" series today, one that will track three military recruits from their final days as civilians to the moment they're deployed. Our Jason Carroll has been given unprecedented access by the Pentagon and this morning is off to the army for a high school football star who traded the gridiron to be all that he could be.

And Jason Carroll has his story this morning. Good morning, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.

This is something that I've always wanted to do. With so many men and women putting their lives on the line in Afghanistan and Iraq, we set out to chronicle what the military experience is like for them from the moment they leave through deployment. And we begin with Will McClain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CARROLL (voice-over): This is Will McClain, 18-years-old and a week away from taking the oath to enlist in the army. We gave him a video camera to show us how he was passing the time. There were lots of parties.

WILL MCCLAIN, U.S. ARMY RECRUIT: Whenever I party with my friends, they've got to throw those army jokes in.

CARROLL (on camera): How have your friends taken the news so far?

W. MCCLAIN: They think I'm doing a good thing. They think it's better than just rotting away in Rosamond.

CARROLL (voice-over): Rosamond, California, Will's hometown. In the western Mohave Desert, a large stretch of land with a small population, about 14,000. A place where dirt bike riding is surpassed only by motorcycle racing in popularity. A place Will McClain can't wait to leave.

W. MCCLAIN: I'm kind of glad to be getting out of this little town, you know, just because it gets old. But there's a lot of things you will miss, you know?

CARROLL: We met up with Will, his last day at home before he left to join the army, a day his 12-year-old brother didn't want to leave his side.

W. MCCLAIN: I think it hits him more that I'm leaving. This last week I think it's truly hit him and my family.

CARROLL: Like a lot of high school football players, McClain had dreams of pursuing a career in the pros.

W. MCCLAIN: I wanted to go pro, you know. And then pretty much, junior year, I realized there were a lot bigger fishes in the sea.

CARROLL: McClain says earlier this year, he began to really think about advice from his uncle.

W. MCCLAIN: My uncle always used to yell at me, you need to have a backup plan. And so I figured the military would be the best bet.

CARROLL: Will had grown up with guns and always liked the idea of joining the military. So he tried to convince his parents to allow him to enlist before his 18th birthday in May.

W. MCCLAIN: They didn't want to sign the papers and then me come back a year later and be like, I hate you, you signed the papers. So this way they made me wait until I was 18 so the blame was fully on me. My mom doesn't want to be responsible for sending know Afghanistan.

CARROLL: And now with time running out at home, reality is setting in. W. MCCLAIN: I'd say about a week ago, it truly hit me. That's when I forgot to sleep and stuff. I just lay there and think I'm leaving in a week, I'm leaving in three days, I'm leaving in a day.

CARROLL: For Will's parents, Bill, a construction worker, and his wife, Lorrie, Will's future now taking shape.

BILL MCCLAIN, WILL'S FATHER: We're worried that he'll come home in one piece. He might be 5,000 miles away, but he knows that people care about him.

CARROLL: The next morning came the good-byes.

W. MCCLAIN: It's all right.

CARROLL: And one last word of advice.

B. MCCLAIN: Head down, brain on, OK?

W. MCCLAIN: Easy enough.

B. MCCLAIN: She wasn't looking forward to this moment. It's OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: With so many men and women heading to Afghanistan, you can bet that there are a lot of mothers out there who feel the way she does.

Next, we'll show you what happens as Will, the civilian, becomes Private Will. We'll be heading to Ft. Lennardwood, Missouri. That's where Will will be completing 13 weeks of basic training. So he's got all lot ahead of him. We'll be following him along and two others as well as they go through their entire military experience.

CHETRY: Do they know whether or not they'll be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan?

CARROLL: A very good question, and he doesn't know yet. It's likely that he will, but at this point, when he finds out, we'll find out. So we'll all be finding out together.

CHETRY: We look forward to following him, charting his progress. Good luck, basic training. Not easy, right?

CARROLL: He's going to have a tough road ahead of him.

CHETRY: All right, Jason Carroll, thanks so much.

And still ahead, we're going to be talking about a report that Osama bin Laden was able to escape capture back in 2001. Just how close were we to capturing him? And are we any closer now with the impending surge? We're going to be talking about that in just a moment.

It's 43 minutes after the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Forty six minutes now after the hour. We're back with the Most News in the Morning live from outside of NATO headquarters in Brussels.

As President Obama commits more troops to the fight in Afghanistan and asks the other NATO member nations for a bigger commitment in Afghanistan, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee late last week released a report detailing one of the early failures in the fight against al Qaeda.

That report found that we are still feeling the repercussions of not capturing Osama bin Laden when it says we had a real chance to when he was holed up with his number two, Ayman al Zawahiri at the Tora Bora complex in the mountains of Afghanistan between Afghanistan -- right along there in the border with Pakistan.

The report was based in part by an account in the book called "Jaw Breaker," which was written by CIA operative Gary Berntsen.

And Gary joins us now from Washington. Gary it's great to see you. What did you make of the senate report? It really backed up what you said in that book which was out so many years ago.

GARY BERNTSEN, AUTHOR, "JAWBREAKER" AND "HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, COUNTER-TERRORISM, AND NATIONAL LEADERSHIP: The senate report was accurate. It drew on accounts from myself, from Dalton Fury, the JSOC commander that was on the ground and some other individuals that were involved in the decision-making process at that time.

ROBERTS: Right now, in your book and this was quoted in the Senate report, you said, quote, "I had sent my request" -- this is when bin Laden was holdup in Tora Bora. You said, "I'd sent my request for 800 U.S. Army Rangers and was still waiting for a response. I repeated to anyone at headquarters who would listen, we need Rangers now. The opportunity to get bin Laden and his men is slipping away."

That passage has now been redacted in more recent editions of your book by the CIA. I mean, how urgent was your call for reinforcements and what was headquarters saying?

BERNTSEN: I sent the request on the third of December after I got an initial team into the mountains of Tora Bora and that first team conducted 56 hours of air strikes. I knew, at that point, looking at the lay of the land, the forces that were arrayed there, that we needed to get Rangers in there, because the Afghan allies that we were paying and working with were not going to be sufficient to get the job done.

They didn't have enough force, they didn't have enough in numbers, their loyalty was questionable and we needed to get Rangers in between bin Laden and the border or bring them in from the Pakistani side. Unfortunately, the decision that was made was to use a smaller force -- very brave men, very capable men -- but Tora Bora was too large for these men to handle alone to sort of bottle him up and to finish this.

We did eliminate, probably, 70 percent of his force that was in Tora Bora, but, sadly, bin Laden would cross into Pakistan on the 16th of December.

ROBERTS: Gary, looking back on it now, eight years later, if you had had those 800 Rangers that you so urgently wanted, do you think you that could have captured bin Laden or captured and/or killed bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri?

BERNTSEN: Well, I think we came very close on a number of occasions. And if they'd had the Rangers, we would have been able to sort of do it ourselves at that point.

The problem was this -- the first part of the Afghan war, the formula was U.S. forces, small numbers of us, working with Afghan surrogates and allies. What the White House failed to do was to make that adjustment at the last -- at the final minute where we needed larger U.S. forces. I'm convinced, had we put in the 800 Rangers, we would have eliminated bin Laden.

On the 14th of December, he wrote his last will and testament. His world was crashing around him and we were eliminating all of his people. Unfortunately, we didn't come with the troops that we needed and my concern was that if bin Laden entered into Pakistan, Islamic fundamentalism would metastasize on that side of the border and that's exactly what's happened.

ROBERTS: Right.

And as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee report said, "We continue to feel the repercussions of bin Laden getting away." We hear about what's going on in Pakistan in terms of these drone attacks, the so-called secret war that's being run by the CIA. What do you know of all of that, Gary? Just how involved is the United States and how bad is the situation on the Pakistani side of the border?

BERNTSEN: The situation on the Pakistani side of the border is very, very difficult. And there is a lot more fundamentalists there than I think most people in the United States understand. You know, we talk about the Taliban in Afghanistan. You know, they talk about 15,000, 20,000.

Well, there are 24 militant groups on the Pakistani side of the border. If you just looked at the Tadike (ph)/ Taliban/Pakistan and the Tadike and the Farsi/Sharia Mohammadi (ph) two groups and put them together, there's 35,000 of them there. If you were to look at groups like the Lashkar e-Taiba (ph), the Jaishi Mohammad (ph), groups like that have put several hundred thousand people through training over the last decade.

There are hundreds of thousands of people in Pakistan who have received militant-type training that are linked in one way or another with one another and with al Qaeda as the glue. Al Qaeda has shifted itself from a force that is just doing significant, direct action to coordinating groups together for militancy against the governments of both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It's complicated. The administration was correct to choose somebody like Holbrooke to handle both Afghanistan and Pakistan together. It's got to be done together.

ROBERTS: All right. And Gary, do you have any faith that this new plan of surging the troops in Afghanistan; 30,000 U.S. troops, maybe 5,000 to 7,000 extra NATO troops and partnering with Pakistan to try to -- to try to diminish the Taliban's effectiveness on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, do you have any faith that that program is going to work?

BERNTSEN: McChrystal had asked for and needed additional forces. It won't work in the time frame that has been laid out. We're going to need a little bit more time in Afghanistan.

You've got to get the Afghans, you've got to -- not just build a police force and there have been problems with the police, but they need to have a special branch that is in there that does counterinsurgency.

If you look at Sri Lanka, you know fighting LTGE (ph), they had a thing called the special task force, those were counterinsurgency police. We have nothing like that in Afghanistan. The other thing that the Afghans have to do is they have to have a component that does the IED fight. We have a thing called task force Paladin (ph) out there that is in charge of counter IED efforts.

We've got to build some components within the Afghan government whether they be the police or the army that do this, this part of this battle because we are involved not just in an insurgency, but we're involved in an advanced stage of counter-IED warfare.

ROBERTS: All right.

Gary Berntsen for us this morning. Gary it's always great to see you. Thanks for stopping by this morning. I really appreciate it.

BERNTSEN: A pleasure, John.

ROBERTS: Weather-wise, it has been a terrible day here in Brussels. We've had rain and cold weather. But also back home in the United States, more problems up and down the East Coast.

Our Rob Marciano is tracking all of the extreme weather. He'll have a full report coming up next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Well, the 2010 Grammy nominees are out this morning, and there you hear it, one of the songs, Beyonce leading the pack with ten nominations, including "Album of the Year", Song of the year", "Single Ladies", there you go, and "Record of the Year". Also Taylor Swift, just 19 years old but hot on her diamond-studded heels with eight nominations. If she wins, Taylor may want to hold her microphone extra tight, because Kanye West also picked up six nominations and he'll be there too. I'm sure that he's going to behave.

Now we're headed over to Rob Marciano. He's keeping an eye on things for us; the weather certainly not behaving in some parts of the country today. Hey, Rob.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: Right now it's 57 minutes after the hour. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Back with the Most News in the Morning live from outside of NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and our special programming continues tomorrow when we will bring you an exclusive interview with the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

She's testifying on the Hill today. From there, she gets on a plane and flies here to NATO headquarters where she'll be meeting with her counterparts trying to urge them to contribute more troops to the American mission and the NATO mission in Afghanistan. So all of that heading your way.

Continue the conversation by the way, go to our show blog and leave your comments about anything that's on your mind, www.cnn.com/amFix.

Now to wrap it up from here in Brussels, Belgium at NATO headquarters, we'll see you back here again bright and early tomorrow morning -- Kiran.

CHETRY: That's right. We look forward to it. Thanks John.

And meanwhile the news continues. Here's "CNN NEWSROOM" with Heidi Collins -- Heidi.