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How Can TSA Improve Security?; Couple Trapped on Snowy Road After Following GPS; Illegal Slaughter of Animals for Meat

Aired December 29, 2009 - 13:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Time to go. You're rocking with the best: Kyra Phillips right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Have a great rest of your day.

HARRIS: Yes.

PHILLIPS: All right, Tony.

Well, we're talking about a pretty gruesome story, actually: slaughtering animals for meat. It's never pretty, but it's legal, inspected, regulated; except when it's not. You'll be shocked by the illegal, unregulated slaughterhouses we found on the outskirts of Miami and the livestock that's better off dead.

But first we begin with safety in the air. And in the airports a top priority always, but all the more urgent in the wake of what happened on final approach to Detroit Christmas day.

Since then, we have stepped up pat-downs and watch list assessments. We have pictures of the suspect's underwear, where he allegedly smuggled explosives he couldn't even detonate.

And we're learning more by the hour about the young Nigerian himself: his background, his travels, the red flags he sent up that went unnoticed.

At this hour we're pushing forward in search of security, using systems, ideas, technology that actually exists today. I'm joined on the phone by a former science and technology director for the Homeland Security Department. He's also a veteran of the TSA and FAA and a strong critic of security at airports abroad. His current employer doesn't want him identified, but I'm going to call him "Tony."

I'm joined by Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general with the Transportation Department, now an attorney specializing in aviation lawsuits.

All right. Let's start with you Tony. Bottom line, what is your biggest beef with what happened Christmas day, knowing what you know from the inside?

"TONY", FORMER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR, HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Even knowing what I know from the outside, since Richard Reid of 2001, eight years ago, there's not adequate screening using the technology which is currently available on passengers coming into this country on inbound flights.

TSA, at least until very recently, has been very reluctant to take much care or notice of security on flights coming inbound, not going at all beyond what was in place before Richard Reid.

Richard Reid showed that we needed some way of screening incoming passengers for trace residues of explosives. This could easily have been done by equipment that is deployed all over the United States now, but we do not require it -- that such equipment to be used on passengers coming in from overseas.

PHILLIPS: And that's my question. Why do we not require this type of equipment for passengers coming into this country from overseas? We have, and you refer in this extensive report that you've put together, these chemical detectors in more than a dozen airports in the United States. Why don't we have that internationally?

"TONY": Yes. Those chemical detectors, I believe, are in more than 100 airports in the United States. They could be deployed internationally. There's a few countries that have done it on their own, which is fine. But we should be requiring that on all flights coming into this country. And you'll have to ask the TSA why they haven't done this for eight years, let alone for the last year or two.

We got another tip-off in August 2006 when a plot to do the same thing, to bring explosives aboard aircraft on flights coming into the U.S. from London, was discovered. And then again, people reminded TSA, you should use screening overseas on flights coming in.

And they do inspections. They do standard x-rays. They do pat- downs, but they don't use the very well-known functioning, relatively inexpensive and easy-to-operate system which is all over this country. They -- the TSA informally, I have heard leadership talk about how difficult it is to get other countries to agree to such measures. I do not think this is true, because they agree to other measures which are far more intrusive.

PHILLIPS: So -- so what's the bottom line, then. From what you know, from working within all these agencies, why can't -- I mean it seems pretty simple. These devices cost between, what, 25 to $40,000. They're easy to use. They're easy to install. We're talking about these trace detectors that can actually detect chemicals that will make a bomb.

I don't understand what the holdup would be with other countries to have these so everybody that goes through the screening process, does go through a trace detector of some sort before they board an aircraft coming into the United States? What's the holdup?

"TONY": The holdup is the leadership of TSA. It has, at least until now, not decided to pursue this, and you'll have to ask them why.

PHILLIPS: Beyond cost, what could be a reason?

"TONY": A reason could be that they're afraid of long and protracted negotiations with other countries to -- to fix the modalities of doing this. But I think this is a misplaced worry, because we have very good relations in this area with practically every country in the world that sends flights directly into the United States.

PHILLIPS: So let me ask you, though, with these detectors, if they were put into every single airport in the entire country, in every airport overseas, does that guarantee us that nobody will get on an airplane with chemicals to make a bomb?

"TONY": That's a really good question, and the answer is no: nothing guarantees. It makes it more difficult. It complicates greatly the actions of the terrorists, because they should not know how good the equipment is, what it detects and how well it detects. You can never have a 100 percent system, and one cannot think in those terms.

But you can make it much more difficult for the terrorists to do. You can deter the terrorists. And you can greatly complicate their planning, because they don't know if they will get through or not, because the penalties for not getting through on their part are rather high.

PHILLIPS: OK. Now let me ask you another question. Let's say that you had these -- these chemical detectors in all airports. And let's say everybody had to go through the screening process that included this apparatus.

Still, this man on Christmas day had chemicals in a place on his body, right there next to his privates, that in no way, shape, or form does anybody ever touch when you go through a screening process. So, it seems that, still, individuals would be able to get through if they, indeed, put the bomb-making materials in that location.

"TONY": I don't want to give too many details away, but the fact is that, when you're playing around with explosives, explosives, molecules turns out are very, very sticky. They go through the air and adhere to things like clothing very easily and very well. And it's extremely difficult to do this if you're a terrorist and not have any -- any traces lying around. Maybe they can do it, but it's very hard. And they will never know if they've done it well enough.

PHILLIPS: Part two to your extensive report, you're extremely concerned about cargo.

"TONY": Yes.

PHILLIPS: Go into detail.

"TONY": In the cargo area, some progress is now being made. The TSA is involved in a significant pilot program, several of them, to look at practicalities of various means of detecting bombs placed in cargo.

This in the past has been used, but not as -- nearly as frequently by terrorists to bring down aircraft. They've tried, but they've tried much more by the means of getting passengers to carry the explosives on board, and also they've tried with checked baggage.

Checked baggage is covered now, by the way, very well by TSA with -- with checked baggage equipment which is deployed in the United States at a very high level and in other countries, perhaps not quite at the same level. Checked baggage is less of a concern. Checked baggage is what brought down the Lockerbie flight, of course.

But cargo is something that is a more difficult problem to solve, because cargo comes in large pallets which are often shrink-wrapped, and you have to think systematically about how to solve the air cargo terrorist threat.

You may want to do a lot of testing and screening before cargo is assembled on pallets and shrunk-wrapped, to the degree possible. This is not always feasible, for commercial and other reasons. But there are a number of techniques and technologies, including, of course, canines, which can be used and which are being currently tested by TSA.

Again, cargo has been used much more rarely by terrorists in the past, but you cannot guarantee that will continue in the future, particularly, as I think I see coming, we are going to finally block the passenger carrying the bomb on the aircraft to a considerable degree. After we do that, it's quite possible terrorists will again think of cargo and we do have to focus on it.

PHILLIPS: Tony, stay with me.

So does the U.S. government have the power to tell other countries, airports, to beef up security? Tony is going to talk about that. And we're also joined right after the break with Mary Schiavo.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Back now to our search for airline security. I'm speaking with a former top advisor and official at the TSA, the FAA and DHS. He's asked us not to identify him in his entire name. We're calling him "Tony."

And Mary Schiavo is with us. She's a former inspector general at the Transportation Department, now a private lawyer who deals with airline issues.

Mary, you heard what Tony had to say right before the break. Very critical of the TSA not taking action, very critical of the fact that we don't have or that we don't hold other countries accountable for airline security measures for flights coming overseas into the United States. Your thoughts on that?

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL AT TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT: Well, he's right. And there are many parties involved. Basically, what has to occur is our law already permits the United States of America to require any airline flying to the United States to comport with our rules.

And in particular, since it's a U.S. carrier, they have to follow our rules. So they can be made to follow all the screening devices, secondary screening devices.

And there are basically four that are in play: entry scan, which is the puffer machine; back scatter X-ray, which is the one that shows anything taped on your body; EDS machines, which are the swabs that they rub over things to see if there's explosive residue; and CTX, which is like a CAT Scan for your luggage. U.S. carriers come to the United States can be required to use those, and the TSA can be required to use those, more importantly, anywhere in the world. Other carriers coming to our country can be required to meet our standards.

The important thing is for us to have the standards in the first place. For that, the executive branch, President Obama, has to request the funding and the TSA has to implement. But there's a big piece of the puzzle here: Congress has to appropriate. And the problem is, there's not been the will to get the job done. The tools are there. Tony is 100 percent right. It's there. We just haven't had the political will to pay for it and do it.

PHILLIPS: All right. So let me ask you this. You mentioned the law, and I'm -- I'm assuming that we're talking about, after the terrorist attacks in the in the Middle East in the 1980, that Congress passed the International Security and Development Cooperation Act, which includes a code section, security standards at foreign airports, which states in part that the president may prohibit an air carrier or foreign air carrier from providing transportation between the U.S. and any other foreign airport if foreign governments don't assure proper security.

So let me ask you then: should the president of the United States right now be canceling flights, say to these airports, 'That's it. We're stopping business. No flights coming out of Amsterdam into the U.S. until you have these certain security measures"?

SCHIAVO: That's right. And we don't even have to have the president tie up his time to do it. The homeland security and even the FAA still has some residual power. They have the power to do that. All they have to do is enforce this law.

But first and foremost, what they need to do, since this was a U.S. carrier, they need to make sure the U.S. carriers meet our own standards. And that's a whole different section, because they're a United-States-flagged carrier. They have to meet the standards, too. And the homeland security and the FAA already have the power to do that.

PHILLIPS: OK. So let me ask you this then. If they've got the power to do it, then why not stop down the airlines and say to international airports, "We're not going to have our airlines coming through here. We're not going to have flights coming overseas until you implement these specific security measures. End of story"? Why doesn't it happen, Mary? I mean, it seems like it should.

SCHIAVO: Two reasons. Two reasons. One is false information. They assume that people will stop flying, because it will be too inconvenient or they won't be able to implement. And they have said that same thing after Pan-Am 103, December 1998. They said if we put additional security measures in, people won't fly and we can't get it done. We did it. They said that after September 11, 2001. We did additional measures, and we did it after Richard Reid.

The important thing is to implement the measures; put these four pieces of equipment in so the lines will move very quickly. This equipment can do a better job than a human being. This equipment can find things hidden in private parts of the bodies without invading any -- without touching people. And if that is in place, there will not be lines, and people will continue to fly. Because let's face it: you're not going to take a boat from Europe to the United States.

And those false assumptions are what have stopped progress in the past. The money can be appropriated. It can be put in place, and the job simply has to be done. It is not money.

PHILLIPS: So OK, it's not money. So bottom line, what is going to keep a shoe bomber, a body bomber, however you want to describe it, from getting on an airplane in 20 minutes and flying here into the United States and blowing up an aircraft?

SCHIAVO: Unless we put this equipment in place, nothing. We will rely on profiling and, as we know, that does not work. We've been relying on profiling since 1988. This equipment will stop, and it will stop all known explosives used by terrorists. So I don't want to say it's 100 percent effective, because you can always mix something on the plane that isn't detected by this equipment.

Before the known explosives used by terrorists today, this equipment is 100 percent effective. We just have to put it in place, and then that will stop them.

PHILLIPS: Tony, if you were back in the driver's seat, if you were -- I mean, we should also point out, too, there's not even a head of the TSA right now, which could be a whole other discussion. But let's say you were appointed head of the TSA, Tony. What would you do right now to protect all of us when it comes to flying?

"TONY": I would have my international contact all countries that provides so-called last point of departures for flights into the United States. I would ask them to, as soon as possible, agree to the deployment and the use of trace explosive detections for selected passengers coming into this country.

I estimate that the total cost at one point would be something like 1 to $2 per passenger. And I would like to add that the idea that, right now, the -- the confirmation in the Senate of a new TSA director, administrator is being held off by Senator DeMint for other political reasons. I find this unconscionable and unacceptable. It has to end right now.

PHILLIPS: Mary, do you agree? Is it appalling to you that we don't even have a head of the TSA at this point?

SCHIAVO: Yes, it is appalling, and this -- this process gets bogged down in political interests. You know, Senator DeMint from our home state of South Carolina, and there are many political interests, but it's too important.

The same thing happened when I left. The inspector general job was open for several months, because it got bogged down in political issues.

This is not an issue of politics. This is law enforcement. And when we treat it like law enforcement, just as Tony says, we give the equipment to the cops on the beat, except this case the cops are the TSA agents. And that's how we have to treat it. We do not let politics come into law enforcement in this country; nor should we ever.

PHILLIPS: Mary Schiavo, Tony, fantastic conversation. Appreciate you both.

When Congress reconvenes in the new year, it's going to hold hearings on airline security, and this man likely won't be there. His name is Erroll Southers, and he's President Obama's nominee to head the TSA, Transportation Security Administration.

Southers is a former FBI special agent, counterterrorism expert, and two Senate panels have voted to confirm him. But a floor vote is being held up by a lone Republican senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina. DeMint says that he fears Southers will let TSA screeners join a labor union.

In the meantime, an acting head is overseeing TSA, and DeMint will be a guest on Wolf Blitzer and "THE SITUATION ROOM," 4 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

At 2 Eastern, less than an hour from now, I'm going to talk with Larry Johnson, formerly with the Office of Counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department. He'll tell us more about the state of the science and the problems with these various lists.

If you found a brand new GPS under the tree, you'd better listen up. An Oregon family got lost thanks to theirs, nearly missing Christmas and barely missing disaster.

It's BYOB at this year's eve in Louisville as it rings in its own party. Tight city finances cost Derby Town its second consecutive New Year's Eve bash. I've got a suggestion for everyone there: hang with CNN, Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin, and ring in the new year with us.

(MUSIC: "AULD LANG SYNE")

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Top stories now.

More arrests as Iran broadens its crackdown on anti-government protesters. Among those arrested: the sister of a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Iran's worst internal unrest in decades has grown increasingly violent in the months after the country's disputed presidential election. At least eight people were killed in clashes Sunday.

One of two Washington state police officers shot in an ambush last week has died after he was taken off life support. He's the sixth police officer to die from gunfire in the state in less than two months. His funeral is next week.

A few hours from now in Phoenix, a special honor for a canine officer. Michael Burns will be recognized for rescuing a 5-year-old kidnapping victim on Christmas day. A suspect is in custody in that case. He's accused of kidnapping, sexual molestation, and assaulting a police officer.

Just FYI, you're allowed to second guess your GPS. One couple's just learned the hard way after three days lost and stuck in the frozen Oregon wilderness. Their GPS told them to turn down a forest service road, so they did. All seemed well until they got bogged down in a foot and a half of snow. They were rescued once conditions cleared enough. They could get a cell signal finally and called 911.

All right. Maybe you're thinking what's the odds of something like that happening? Well, try twice in two days. Same situation with the service road, same state. What's different here is a video camera and a baby.

Here's Adam Ghassemi of our affiliate KATU.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEGAN GARRISON, FAMILY WAS STRANDED: We have literally been stuck in this snow...

ADAM GHASSEMI, KATU REPORTER (voice-over): This is what it looked like, stranded in the middle of nowhere.

GARRISON: ... for 12 hours.

GHASSEMI: It's what Jeremy Griffin, Megan Garrison, and their 11-month-old daughter, Lexy, woke up to Christmas morning, struggling to say warm.

GARRISON: Still 19 degrees.

GHASSEMI: They left Christmas Eve to visit family when their new GPS promised a back way would save hem more than 40 miles. That route left their SUV buried with no food, using the truck's heater to melt snow to survive.

GARRISON: And when I looked at him and I said, "I'm scared," he goes "I'm scared, too." That's when I was like, oh, this is not good.

GHASSEMI: Griffin tried over and over to dig them out, but it just kept getting stuck. They took turns walking for miles to never find a cell signal.

JEREMY GRIFFIN, FAMILY WAS STRANDED: Pray to God Megan gets a phone reception the way she went. GHASSEMI: Hours went by, and search and rescuers couldn't find them. That's when Griffin's uncle used a similar unit to map the route that ended up leading him right to them.

GARRISON: They were getting to a point where they were like, "There's no way they would be down this far," and saw our foot prints. So they kept going.

GHASSEMI: Now they say it will be highways only next time.

GRIFFIN: We should have just went the way we knew, and we would have been there. Everything would have been all right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: They're lucky that their uncle found them quickly. They started that road trip and ended up heating the car with only half a tank of gas.

You've got to really be carefully traveling in and around the cold and snow and ice, as well. Your life could be at stake. We saw it right there. Karen Maginnis, how many stories have we heard like that before?

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We've heard that more than once. And the secondary roads, especially in the winter, they're not serviced in any way, so that makes them doubly hazardous.

You know, I might stick to the major roads during the winter time. In the spring and summer maybe you can become a little bit more adventurous. But the secondary roads are never serviced, and you only have to go down to around 3,500 feet in the Pacific Northwest to encounter some of the snowfall amounts. That's about the level that those folks were at.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Thanks so much, Karen.

Well, just three days from now a brand new year, and we bid farewell to 2009. We're actually looking back at this year's big stories around the world. And today CNN correspondents in Havana, Bangkok and Tokyo weigh in on the year's biggest stories from their vantage points.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Shasta Darlington in San Durbana (ph), one of Havana's more run-down neighborhoods.

Now, living and working in Cuba, I see a lot of people who struggle to just get by. There are crumbling buildings and really basic conditions. But the story that made the biggest impression on me this year was the economic crisis in the United States.

I was really shocked to see these images of people living in tent cities. I remember one story in particular of this very middle-class guy who was living out of his car. He had lost everything: his job, his house, and he was living out of his SUV.

And one of the strangest parts for me was being here in Havana and feeling like this time we were the ones living in a bubble.

DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dan Rivers in Bangkok.

And the story that I remember most from 2009 was the plight of a group of refugees from Myanmar or Burma, called the Rohingya. They were boat people that often migrate looking for work.

We did a lengthy investigation into what happens to them and found considerable evidence that the Thai army had been towing boatloads of these people out to sea and cutting them adrift. We managed to get an interview with the Thai prime minister, who promised that the practice would stop. And since then, no further boatloads of Rohingya have been abandoned by the Thai military.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kyung Lah in the electrifying city of Tokyo, Japan.

A story that left a big impression from 2009 is one that reminds us that all of this has an impact on our planet. We traveled to the uppermost tip of Japan to witness the arctic ice floe. It is truly a spectacular sight, something that is breathtaking. We boarded a ship that cut through the ice and witnessed one of the true wonders of nature.

But it is something that is disappearing. Activists say it is melting because of the carbon emissions produced by the big cities of the globe. Now activists hope to reverse the melting by convincing cities to reduce emissions, but fear it may be too late and that the arctic ice floe witnessed by Japan may disappear in just a few decades.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, next hour, and throughout the week in the NEWSROOM, we're going to be looking at more of the biggest stories of 2009.

A blast powerful enough to bring down a jetliner. We'll show you the explosive material allegedly used by the terror suspect charged with trying to destroy a Northwest plane.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So much technology, so much money, so many names on so many lists and still, so much danger posed by this, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's underwear. It's here that the suspect allegedly hid the suspects he tried and failed to set off an international flight to Detroit. State-of-the-art body scanners may have detected that threat, but only 19 U.S. airports now have them. Abdulmutallab's flight came from Amsterdam and an al Qaeda cell in Yemen claims responsibility for that failed attack. To stop terrorists you have to think like terrorists and act like terrorists to the point of blowing up airplanes for research. Check out this chilling video of explosions, test explosions, carried out by the Department of Homeland Security.

The explosive that didn't go off on the Christmas Day flight bound for Michigan could have done catastrophic damage in much smaller quantities than the alleged attacker was smuggling. It's called PETN and to see what it's capable of CNN's Nic Robertson took a trip to the English countryside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SYDNEY ALFORD, EXPLOSIVES EXPERT: It's a fine, fine powder so it doesn't compress down very well.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What you're looking at is a bomb in the making. The white powder is the explosive PETN. Six grams of it, just a tiny fraction of what alleged Christmas Day bomber Abdulmutallab intended to use.

ALFORD: If it goes off, I expect it to blow a hole in the plate, yes, indeed.

ROBERTSON: At a remote farm in the English countryside we're getting a lesson about PETN's destructive force.

(on camera): Ready to go. Fuse has been lit.

(voice-over): Everything about the test is real. PETN is dangerous.

(on camera): Not taking any chances cause that's going to go off in just a few seconds.

(voice-over): In a moment, we'll see the force of the explosion.

ALFORD: People like to exaggerate.

ROBERTSON: A little earlier, in his lab, explosives expert Sydney Alford detonates just a few grains of PETN.

(on camera): That was quite a big crack there.

(voice-over): The core chemical in PETN is hard to make or get your hands on. But although it's an explosive, because it's not volatile, it's perfect for a terrorist on a long-haul flight.

ALFORD: No, no, no, it wouldn't go off actually. If I were carrying a pocketful, sure to be packaged, of just neat powder in my pocket, it's bang-up would be the last of my worries.

ROBERTSON: Sources familiar with the investigation tell CNN the working assumption is that the alleged bomber, Abdulmutallab, may have had some 80 grams of PETN.

ALFORD: That will probably be, if it were dry, closer to 80 grams.

ROBERTSON (on camera): Is that enough to blow a hole in an aircraft?

ALFORD: Certainly, it's enough to blow a hole.

ROBERTSON: What we understand he was wearing these explosives in the sort of groin area. Is it -- can you imagine that you could in some way fit these into -- sew them into a set of underpants?

ALFORD: Certainly you can. Yes, yes, yes. I've done it. I've done it. No problem at all.

ROBERTSON: It looks just like sugar, just like salt, and it's easy to imagine how this can be stitched into clothing and hidden around the body. And that's what makes PETN such a challenge for airport security officials to detect.

(voice-over): Alford believes the only reason lives were spared this time is because the alleged bomber's lack of training meant he couldn't detonate the bomb, and that means he probably didn't make it.

ALFORD: On the one hand, he's being given, shall we say, a high- value substance. And on the other hand, it seems to be left to his own efforts.

ROBERTSON (on camera): Is it easy to make for the average person?

ALFORD: The average person, probably not.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Back at the farm, Alford's crude six- gram bomb is about to show what PETN can do in the hands of professionals.

(on camera): Very impressive. It's gone through?

ALFORD: It may have burnt away.

ROBERTSON: This is what six grams of PETN does to something that's twice as thick as an aircraft fuselage. Just six grams. That's pretty damaging. And that was a tiny amount, easy to sort of hide about a person.

ALFORD: Yes.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): The alleged bomber had much more than six grams and he smuggled it on board an airliner, but he didn't have the expertise to detonate it.

Nic Robertson, CNN, at a farm in Wilshire, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Canada is responding to the failed Christmas Day terror attack cracking down on carryon bags. Effective immediately U.S.-bound air passengers cannot carry bags into the cabin of the plane unless the items are medically necessary; laptops, small purses and baby care items are allowed. The new policy is expected to last several days.

And one more reminder, at the top of the hour I'm going to talk with Larry Johnson formerly with the Office of Counterterrorism at the State Department, he will tell us more about the state of the science and the problem with lists.

Everyone is urged to get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus but still little is known about how the disease first started. Meet the little boy many people are calling Patient Zero.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The State Department is launching a review of how visas are handled in the aftermath of the failed attempt to allegedly blow up a Northwest Airlines plane. Despite the warnings by the suspect's father and an alert sent to the National Counterterrorism Center, the Nigerian suspect's visa was not revoked.

An Arizona missionary is believed to be in custody in North Korea. He's accused of entering the country illegally on Christmas Eve. The man's reportedly 28-year-old Robert Park who was a Korean- American. He told relatives that he was going to try to sneak into North Korea.

Britain is condemning China's decision to execute a British national today. China tried and convicted Akmal Shaikah of smuggling around nine pounds of heroin into the country in 2007. Supporters say that Shaikah was mentally ill and tricked into carrying the drugs. A British legal group says he's the first European executed in China in 50 years.

The swine flu pandemic may be considered moderate by the World Health Organization but don't look for it to disappear any time soon. The WHO says that might not happen until 2011. The H1N1 virus is now confirmed in more than 200 countries and its killed nearly 12,000 people worldwide.

The H1N1 virus actually first appeared in the spring of this year, setting off alarm bells around the world and that's when CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta traveled to Mexico to meet the boy believed to be Patient Zero, the first human case that may have started it all.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the number of cases of swine flu build around the world, everyone has been on the hunt for the source.

(on camera): We've long suspected that the origin of the swine flu may have been on a pig farm and now we're headed towards one about two hours north of Mexico City. We think we may find where this started. We may also find him, Edgar Hernandez. People believe he is Patient Zero, the first patient to contract the virus.

(voice-over): La Gloria, it's a village where everyone knows someone. I showed this motorcycle rider Edgar's picture. His name is Frederick and he offers to take me.

(on camera): Don't drop me. OK.

So after hours of searching and hours of driving, we're finally going to meet the little boy that everyone is calling Patient Zero.

(voice-over): There he is, Edgar Hernandez. A little 5-year-old boy who got so sick.

(on camera): Did you have a headache?

(speaking Spanish)

EDGAR HERNANDEZ, PATIENT ZERO (through translator): He had headache and throat.

GUPTA (voice-over): He was brought to this clinic where he was diagnosed as possibly the first case of swine flu of this outbreak.

So where did it come from? Edgar's mom thinks she knows.

(on camera): A lot of people are saying that the swine flu came from some of the pig farms. Do you believe that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): That's what she hears.

GUPTA: It's no question we stumbled onto a controversy here. The citizens of La Gloria really believe that the pig farms in the nearby areas got so many of their citizens sick. So we decided to pay those pig farms a visit.

(voice-over): The industrial pig farm is huge and owned by American company Smithfield Foods. People in town believe this is the source of the outbreak.

(on camera): We finally made our way to the hog farm, but the Mexican Department of Agriculture and the company itself said they have done testing and the tests come back negative. They simply won't let us through security, they simply won't show us the pigs.

(voice-over): This medical mystery only now half solved. We know who may have first contracted swine flu, we just don't know where he got it.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, La Gloria, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, since Dr. Gupta's trip to Mexico the CDC has, of course, determined that swine flu isn't caused by pigs. You can read more about what went on behind the scenes as Dr. Gupta and his team found Patient Zero on his blog, click on pagingdrgupta.blogs.CNN.com.

This just coming in right now, and it's actually coming from our Congressional producer. We're getting word that a spokesperson now for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is telling CNN the Senate will move to confirm the embattled nomination of Erroll Southers as head of the Transportation Security Administration as soon as it returns from its winter recession.

As you know, in light of the alleged bombing attack that took place on Christmas Day and the criticism that the TSA has been receiving and also airports overseas with regard to security measures as to how this man could get on board a Northwest Airlines flight coming from overseas into the United States, raised a lot of questions to why we don't even a head of the TSA at this point. Well, now we're getting word that a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is telling CNN the Senate will move to confirm the nomination of Erroll Southers to head the TSA.

Now the Senate is expected to return to legislative business on January 19th or 20th. Then a motion to force a vote on Southers' nomination would immediately be submitted by Reid. That is what we're told of how it will go down, just within a few weeks.

Now, objections to Southers' confirmation were initially made by Senator Jim DeMint, republican of South Carolina. We told you about that just about 15 minutes ago. It was over the potential unionization of TSA employees. Remembering that the only objection to this confirmation made initially by DeMint.

Well, we're told now DeMint will be joining our Wolf Blitzer on "THE SITUATION ROOM" at 4:30 Eastern time only on CNN. You'll definitely want to tune into that.

Foul play by some baseball bandits stealing from little kids on Christmas. Now cops are hoping to play catcher.

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PHILLIPS: Well some Little Leaguer's holiday took a real hit base on the crooks base instincts on Christmas Day of all time, a time for giving. Somebody actually took hundreds of dollars of gear from the league's equipment shed in Aptos, California -- gloves, baseballs, helmets, you name it, and the only thing that the bozos didn't steal were bases. So if you'd like to help these kids out, try shooting a e-mail to info at aptoslittleleague.org.

Pushing forward now on security in the skies. Doing dry runs, blowing up planes, trying to beat the terrorists in their own game. We're going to give you a look inside of the TSA lab.

And brutal, bloody drug violence. Things are looking up on our side of the Mexican border, but those cartels still way too close for comfort.

Animals in disgusting conditions while they await their deaths and one man is on a mission to stop it. We're going to go behind the scenes of a growing problem in south Florida -- illegal slaughterhouses.

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PHILLIPS: Well, near Miami a one-man mission to shut down illegal slaughterhouses and the main problem is the terrible condition that the animals are kept in before they are killed for their meat.

CNN's John Zarrella gives us a closer look at these slaughterhouses in the shadows. And a warning -- many of the images are extremely graphic.

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JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The roads are dirt. The vegetation thick, uninviting. This is the western fringe of Miami along the rim of the Everglades, a no-man's land.

RICHARD "KUDO" COUTO: It's probably one of America's last frontiers where anything goes in the area.

ZARRELLA: Including the slaughter of animals for their meat. Richard Couto has been on a crusade to shutdown illegal slaughterhouses operating without licenses, no health or agriculture oversight.

COUTO: So what I am showing you today are the 10, 20, 30, 50 slaughter farms that you can see from the roadside.

ZARRELLA: In most places only the driveways are visible, tarps are strung along the fence line hiding what goes on. Customers, ordinary people attracted by word of mouth, line up in cars waiting to go in.

From the road, a rare glimpse of a butcher carving a pig. How the pig likely died is what troubles Kudo the most.

COUTO: There are a thousand-plus animals in these farms as we speak being brutalized. They are being burned to death, sledged hammered to death, axed to death. And that's how they're being put down.

ZARRELLA (on camera): And you've seen all this.

COUTO: And I have seen all of this.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Armed with his handicam, Kudo simply walks right in to dozens of slaughterhouses. Who runs them, who owns them -- unclear.

COUTO: I go in acting like a customer, not that I've ever had an animal slaughtered -- and I ask them, how much for the pig? And they'll say, $120. How much for the kill? Twenty bucks, we'll slaughter it for you for 20 bucks. It's that easy.

ZARRELLA: On the bloody tables, knives, a machete, a sledgehammer, an ax. If you care at all about animals, this is revolting. Outside one property hidden in the brush, animal remains.

COUTO: I just came across the head of a goat, his insides. This is how they are disposing of these animals, just throwing them basically into our wetlands.

ZARRELLA: Much of the meat available here you can't get in a supermarket. In a holding pen, a goat lies in filth awaiting slaughter. At one place, an emaciated lamb, at another a cow in the same condition; horses, too.

COUTO: A lot of this meat is toxic, the animals are sick.

ZARRELLA: And they will all end up on someone's dinner table.

Kudo was first exposed to what he calls the dark underbelly of Miami a year ago when, with the SPCA, he began to investigating slaughter of horses for their meat, illegal in the United States. He left the SPCA to form his own program ARM, Animal Recovery Mission.

(on camera): Kudo took his story and his videos to every local agency he could think of with oversight. Kudo says they listened, but nothing was done.

(voice-over): The man in charge of enforcing the county's environmental regulations told me his inspectors have passed to other agencies information about shady activities outside of their purview.

(on camera): And in this case, it is that you have done that?

CARLOS ESPINOSA, MIAMI-DADE CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: Yes.

ZARRELLA: Or is it safe to say that you guys have done that?

ESPINOSA: Yes, we have done it.

ZARRELLA: Why then was nothing done? Espinosa said, you'll have to ask those agencies. We did.

Charles Danger, who heads the county's Building and Zoning Department told us that Kudo's persistence has finally led to the formation of a task force called "Operation Miss Piggy and Mr. Ed."

(voice-over): Danger admits that part of the reason nothing was done before, fear for the safety of inspectors, quote, "Every time we go in there, we have to go in there with the police and even the police don't want to go in there." That may finally be changing. Kudo says he'll stay on them until it does.

COUTO: All they have tried to do is shut me up, and that's not possible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Authorities tell CNN that soon after the new year, they'll begin cracking down on those slaughterhouses.