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American Morning
Tight Security in Times Square
Aired December 31, 2009 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: So how did he the so called Christmas bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab slip through the cracks? We'll take a look ahead.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Outrage among pilots this morning. Thousands of planes were in the air during the attempted Christmas Day bombing, but only a little more than 100 flights were notified of the failed terror attack. Pilots say the lack of communication put countless lives at risk.
CHETRY: And the Taliban taking credit this morning for a suicide bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, eight Americans were killed, including CIA members. Six others wounded. We're getting a live report from Kabul just ahead.
ROBERTS: We begin with the president demanding answers. Intelligence officials will give president Obama a preliminary report in the bomb plot against flight 253 in a few hours. White house staffers are briefing members of Congress in closed door meetings.
The government in Yemen is vowing to take out Al Qaeda. A gun battle broke out between militants and Yemeni forces after a raid in one of the group's hideouts. A security official says those who fled are being tracked down.
There's also new information about what the government knew ahead of the failed attack. A government official tells CNN Washington knew that extremists in Yemen were plotting, mentioning someone they called, quote, "The Nigerian". They even had a partial name, Umar Farouk, as in Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
CHETRY: And the president is still insisting that our counterterrorism network failed this test, things that were supposed to work, information that should have been shared, and none of that happened.
So what went wrong? CNN Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jill Dougherty is working that part of the story. She's live for us this morning in our D.C. bureau. As we said the president expects to get a couple of assessments today on exactly what happened.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Right, Kiran. Under orders from the president, government agencies are taking a really hard look at how they dealt with this specific threat and also their policies and procedures in general. And several sources tell CNN the verdict is some of those procedures definitely need to be changed as soon as possible.
At the state department for example, they're considering including much more detailed information in those cables that embassies around the world send back to Washington with information about suspicious individuals. And there's much more that didn't work.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOUGHERTY: As the clues were there that a fuller, clearer picture of the terror suspect would have emerged if all the bits and pieces had been shared and put together.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Obama says that the clues were there, that a fuller, clearer picture of the terror suspect would have emerged if all the bits and pieces had been shared.
OBAMA: The warning signs would have triggered red flags, and the suspect never would have been allowed to board that plane for America.
DOUGHERTY: But as one official told us, for the most part, it's a passive system where those bits and pieces are simply pushed on with no action taken.
A key question, why wasn't the suspect's visa revoked? The bureaucratic maze begins in Nigeria when six weeks ago his father warns the U.S. embassy his son is becoming radicalized and has gone to Yemen. He gives them the son's birthday, passport number, and that information was sent in routine brief to the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington.
Here, it's just one of hundreds of reports coming in each day which analysts with the CIA, FBI, Justice Department, and other agencies are supposed to evaluate side by side with those still coming in to make sure even seemingly insignificant dots get connected.
But in this case, with no urgency attached, the father's warning is treated more as a missing persons report. Since nothing else alarming comes up, the analysts put the suspect on so called tide list along with 550,000 other possibly suspicious people.
But that is where it stops. To go on to the next step or put someone on a no fly list or subject them to secondary screening, you need reasonable suspicion of a link to terrorism. And the counterterrorism center rules the evidence is simply not there. No recommendation is made to revoke his visa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOUGHERTY: And that's another thing that could be changed, this threshold for taking action, that critical point at which a terrorist could be stopped. There are now calls for making that threshold less restrictive, in other words there would be a quicker trigger for action, such as revoking a visa.
And one source briefed on that issue says the problem isn't a lack of information collection, but a lack of understanding of what to do with that information -- Kiran.
CHETRY: And the other question though is how you get on a no-fly list. If you're on one of the larger list, what triggers being put on the fly list so that you absolutely cannot board a flight coming to the U.S.
DOUGHERTY: Again, it kind of ratchets up, and that suspicion, reasonable suspicion, it appears that is where they're going to be zeroing in and redefining, making it easier to define somebody in that category, and therefore they would be put on the no-fly list.
CHETRY: All right, well, Jill Dougherty for us this morning, thanks so much.
ROBERTS: As news of the attempted airline bombing spread around the world on Christmas day, many pilots were up in the air and knew nothing about the terror aboard Northwest flight 253, and they are angry about it and they're blaming the federal government. Homeland security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve is following the story for us this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, the secretary of homeland security says systems worked after the attempted bombing was thwarted on Christmas Day, but some pilots say they were left in the dark. The say lives were potentially at risk and the Transportation Security Administration did not move proactively to protect all passengers and crews.
MESERVE: A man with a bomb tries to take down an airplane. Passengers and crew jump into action. Are all aircraft in the skies warned? No. And some pilots are furious.
MARK KARN, COALITION OF AIRLINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION: Outrage -- the pilot force is out raged they didn't receive this information.
MESERVE: The only pilots notified were those on flights inbound from Europe.
JANET NAPOLITANO, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Within literally an hour to 90 minutes, all 128 flights in the air had been notified to take special measures in light of what had occurred.
MESERVE: And 128 were notified, but at the time the Northwest flight landed, there were 3,500 flights in the air over the U.S., and the number grew through the afternoon.
The TSA said in a statement it made a strategic risk-based decision to notify only some pilots based on intelligence information. But the pilots say remember history. 9/11 and other Al Qaeda plots involved multiple attacks, and the TSA had no way of knowing if that pattern was being repeated and the say pilots should have been informed.
KARN: It's important all our airborne crews receive the information to modify their security procedures to restrict movement in the cabin and monitor access to the cockpit door. But that was not done in this case.
MESERVE: There is a concrete example of why such notification can be important. On September 11th, passengers on flight 93 were able to thwart the hijackers and take the plane down in a field because they had learned in the air about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. John and Kiran, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Jeanne Meserve, thanks.
And another developing story out of eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban now taking responsibility for a suicide bomb attack that left eight Americans dead, some of them believed to be members of the CIA, the bomber infiltrating a heavily-guarded U.S. military outpost.
Atia Abawi is live in Kabul, Afghanistan. Are you getting more details about what exactly may have happened here?
ATIA ABAWI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, what we do know right now is that eight Americans were killed, some of which were probably with the CIA. This happened in Forward Operating base Chapman in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan.
The U.S. military and ISAF say they have nothing to do with this forward operating base, that it hasn't been a provincial reconstruction base for some time now. We're getting very little detail when it comes to Washington, as well as the embassy and the military here as to exactly what happened.
But what we're hearing from the Taliban is that they had an Afghan national army soldier infiltrate this base, able to make it into the gym facility, where he was able to detonated his explosive vest, killing these American and also injuring six civilians -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Atia Abawi for us this morning from Kabul. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Also new this morning, Rush Limbaugh in the hospital this morning. The 58-year-old conservative radio talk show host was admitted in serious condition after complaining of chest pains while on vacation in Hawaii.
CHETRY: New details about the timeline following Tiger Woods now infamous car accident. Florida Highway Patrol says Woods finally met with them five days after his headline grabbing crash, but that was after the investigation was already closed. Woods was cited for careless driving and paid $164 ticket.
A day later news began to break about the golfer's sex scandal.
ROBERTS: And blasting into the new year, thousands gathering in Auckland, New Zealand to ring in 2010. It's the first major city to do so. The next hour, Sydney Australia will usher in the new decade.
And don't miss Anderson Cooper tonight beginning at 11:00 eastern live in Times Square as we ring in the new year and the new decade.
CHETRY: There you go. It's all quiet now, but boy that's going to change in a few hours.
(WEATHER BREAK)
ROBERTS: They're putting the final preps on Times Square for tonight's ball drop. A little bit of an oops yesterday when police discovered there had been a van illegally parked for a couple of days, prompted a little bit of an evacuation there and a little bit of high anxiety.
Our Allan Chernoff is down at the crossroads of the world. He will be telling us in just a couple minutes what's going on now. A place you've got to get to early if you want a good standing location.
It's 11 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's 13 minutes now after the hour, and that means it's time for an "A.M." original, something that you'll see only on "American Morning."
Tonight's the night, New Year's Eve in Times Square, a big job for the New York City Police Department. Allan Chernoff is down there at the crossroads of the world. How are police handling the massive security challenge there?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John, and they are certainly getting prepared for that. You could think of the NYPD as bouncers for the world's biggest New Year's Eve party, but the fact is they do far more than that to try to ensure that Times Square is the most secure place on the planet for tonight's big celebration.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: From the perspective of the New York Police Department, every reveler in Times Square is a potential terror threat. That's why the NYPD will essentially lock down the Square.
RAY KELLY, NYPD COMMISSIONER: We want people to have a happy experience, but we're also concerned about a terrorist event. We have to do that after 9/11.
CHERNOFF: Security sweeps begin well in advance of New Year's Eve. Detectives gain intelligence from local hotel and restaurant personnel on the lookout for suspicious activity. Police search garages and subway tunnels for bombs, remove trash cans, seal mailboxes and manhole covers.
A search on Wednesday of a suspicious van led to a partial evacuation of Times Square, though the van turned out to pose no threat. Beginning at 3:00 on New Year's Eve, traffic is banned, and all streets leading into Times Square are blocked off. Police sample the air for biological agents. They wear radiation detectors, and dogs sniff for bombs.
As the crowd gathers, thousands of police, uniformed and undercover, converge on Times Square. From the ground and air, the NYPD watches Times Square like a chessboard.
***0715
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the ground and air, the NYPD watches Times Square like a chess board.
(on camera): Times Square is essentially now the safest place on New Year's Eve.
RAY KELLY, NYPD COMMISSIONER: That's right. Yes. Absolutely, it's the very, very safe place.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): It wasn't always this way. Twenty years ago, before terrorism was such a concern, this center of the world on New Year's Eve was a dangerous place.
(on camera): Times Square used to be a mad house.
KELLY: True. True. It was somewhat rowdy, disorderly. You would see a lot of drinking that started early on. So, by the time midnight rolled around, a lot of people were feeling no pain.
CHERNOFF: People were rolling around.
KELLY: People were rolling around. Right. And doing some strange things.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): The NYPD began placing the crowd into pens, fenced in by interlocking barriers in the late '90s, which brought order to what had been the world's biggest mosh pit. Today, alcohol and backpacks are banned, and the crowd is generally orderly and well-behaved.
Still, Commissioner Kelly is ready to toast the New Year only after the party is over.
KELLY: When the ball drops, it's a certain feeling of relief, and we've made it through another year.
CHERNOFF (on camera): A sigh of relief.
KELLY: Right.
CHERNOFF: It's a lot of stress on the police department.
KELLY: There is some stress, no question about it. But that's -- you know, that's all part of the business.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: Even with the threat of terrorism, the fact is, Times Square is much, much safer now on New Year's Eve than it used to be. The party has gone from an incredibly rowdy event to pretty much of a family celebration -- John, Kiran.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: So, what time do people need to get there if they want a good place to watch the ball drop?
CHERNOFF: You know, if you really want to be right here in Times Square to be able to have a good view, you've got to be here really by 3:00 in the afternoon.
ROBERTS: Whoa!
CHERNOFF: The Times Square Alliance says, "Oh, you can make it by 5:00." You know what? If you're here by 5:00, you're probably going to be pretty much further uptown. You'll be looking way down Broadway. I'd say 3:00 to ensure it.
ROBERTS: Wow.
CHERNOFF: It's a long, long wait. But it's a long party, too.
ROBERTS: That is a long time to stand out there and as Kiran was pointing out earlier, you're standing out there that long and suddenly, you've got to go, where do you go?
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Where do you?
ROBERTS: Where do you go, Allan?
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Once your penned in, Allan, there's no port-a-potties.
CHERNOFF: Honestly, that is, I think, the biggest challenge for the revelers. It really is. What the police do, they will let people out one by one to go into an area hotel, a restaurant. You're not always ensured of being able to get back in, that's the problem. But they try to help people out, just the businesses right along the street here.
But it's definitely a huge challenge, if you come, do not drink. Drink afterwards.
ROBERTS: All right. Allan Chernoff for us at the crossroads of the world -- Allan, thanks so much. I guess how you deal with that depends.
CHETRY: Sure does. It depends on the size of your bladder as well. I couldn't go.
Jim, I mean, to the event. I could go. I can't even fly on planes anymore after these new rules, man.
All right. Well, Jim Acosta is going to be taking a look back at the biggest political stories of 2009. I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It is now 21 minutes after the hour, and time for this morning's business headlines.
The Treasury Department is rolling out more of your tax dollars to GMAC. The troubled auto and mortgage lender is getting $3.8 billion, that's on top of the more than $13 billion that it's already received. Officials say the fresh lifeline return the company to profitability by the first quarter of 2010.
CHETRY: A New York City landmark is closing its doors. After 75 years, Tavern on the Green Restaurant will be serving its final meals tonight. Not long ago, it was the country's highest grossing restaurant.
Now, hundreds of items will be auctioned off to help pay off an $8 million debt. Even the name is up for grabs. A judge will also decide on whether an owner taking over the space can reopen as Tavern on the Green.
ROBERTS: What do you want to bet a little exchange of cash here and there and they keep the name.
CHETRY: There you go. I mean...
ROBERTS: That's all it takes. It's America.
CHETRY: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: It sure is an institution.
Well, Stephanie Elam is here to join us right now. You know, there was not -- a time far back from now that companies had huge holiday parties. Let's say they rented out all of Tavern on the Green and other -- all of that crazy spending.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Maybe the whole Central Park, you know, the whole thing.
CHETRY: You'll never know.
ELAM: It's true. And right now, we're going to take a look at some of the outrageous spending that we saw in 2009, and believe it or not, there was a lot of it. Despite the fact that we're supposedly still a recession, you know, that "R" word we don't even like to talk about anymore, but NPI Financial is out with the most outrageous corporate spending of 2009.
We're going to start off with John Thain. He spent $1.2 million to redecorate his office after he took over Merrill Lynch, and he also went ahead and hired the Obama's decorating team, because that's what you do when you're mighty and powerful. But this was at the same time that Merrill Lynch reported a $15.4 billion fourth quarter loss, which forced Bank of America to go ahead and ask for added money from the government.
So, this all came out in January of this year. Late January, he was then ousted from that position.
So, moving on from there to AIG, to an AIG executive, an unnamed one at that, who got $4.3 million this month, authorized by pay czar Kenneth Feinberg to ensure the contribution of this one executive to the long-term success of AIG. And this even as the government committed $182 billion in loans to the company.
And from there to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- $210 million retention bonus money, that's a pool there, being paid to 7,600 employees over 18 months, to start actually late 2008 and will go through early 2010. The maximum retention bonus anyone can get: $1.5 million. But all of this going on as the companies posted $108 billion in combined losses for 2008.
So, obviously, there's a lot of spending out there that you may not think about, may not hear about, a lot of this was reported by just to put it in perspective there. So, what does NPI Financial says needs to happen for companies who want to keep their finances a little tighter going forward?
Well, for one thing, they can definitely consolidate their vendors. They're saying, go ahead and take a look at who you're working with. See if you can get more products out of one company instead of having a whole bunch of different of companies that you're spending money with. Put contracts up for re-bidding. You might be surprised to find out who is willing to go lower to keep your business and to also win your business.
And always, always, always check for billing errors because so many -- especially big companies, so many of them will pay extra on an invoice and not even take a look at it, not even know that they're paying more for cell phone service or for a couple of shipments coming in. Always check those invoices because that could actually help you out. But I think that's pretty good advice for all of us.
CHETRY: A penny here and there adds up. Look at office space.
ELAM: It really does. And in redecoration, too.
CHETRY: There you go -- $1.2 million. What you could do with an office with that much money?
ELAM: Yes. It's -- that's...
CHETRY: What does he have, gold walls?
ELAM: He had some things in there that very...
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Apparently, he had a very nice commode, as I recall. ELAM: Yes. There are different things. But, you know, he's not the first one who's gone to do that.
And I think also, it's a mindset thing. It's a different world to live in when you're making that kind of money. I don't think it's necessarily how the rest of us operate.
CHETRY: We'll never know.
ELAM: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Thanks, Stephanie.
ELAM: Sure.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, we're going to be talking about the security breach that took place, as we know, with the Christmas Day flight, the so-called Christmas Day bomber. Well, what about profiling in airports? Do we do it? And there have been calls now for some to do it more based on race, based on ethnicity, religion. Is it something that would actually work and how politically correct is it?
Twenty-five minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up now on 28 minutes after the hour.
Our top stories are just a couple minutes away now -- but first, an "A.M. Original," something that you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING.
The bar set pretty high right from the start with President Obama's inauguration, but 2009 also reached scandalous lows in the world of politics.
Jim Acosta is looking back. He's live in Washington with an "A.M. Original."
Good morning, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not that I had anything to do with those scandalous lows, John, but you're right, it's the end of 2009 and the end of a decade that never really had an official name. Was it the 2000s? The double-Os? Or perhaps more appropriate, the naughties?
Whatever the name, there was plenty of political hits and misses in 2009, more than enough to cap off what "TIME" magazine dubbed the "The Decade From Hell."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ACOSTA (voice-over): There was no invitation required to make the list of best political hits and misses of 2009. Just ask the Salahis.
ANNOUNCER: The president-elect of the United States, Barack H. Obama.
(CHEERS)
ACOSTA: The year began with an historic breakthrough even if the oath didn't come out quite right.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I'll execute...
JOHN ROBERTS, U.S. CHIEF JUSTICE: Faithfully the Office of President of the United States.
OBAMA: The Office of the President of the United States faithfully.
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts.
(LAUGHTER)
ACOSTA: And there governors going off-script. Rod Blagojevich got the boot, impeached by the Illinois legislature.
ROD BLAGOJEVICH (D), FORMER ILLINOIS GOVERNOR: The truth, unadulterated truth.
ACOSTA: Sarah Palin got a book deals and stepped down as governor of Alaska.
SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: It would be apathetic to just hunker down and go with the flow. We're fishermen. We know that only dead fish go with the flow.
ACOSTA: And Mark Sanford got caught with a mistress, nowhere near the Appalachian Trail.
GOV. MARK SANFORD (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: And we'll let the chips fall where they may.
ACOSTA: And what better to go with chips...
OBAMA: The Cambridge police acted stupidly.
ACOSTA: ... than a beer summit.
CROWD: No! No! No!
ACOSTA: Tea party conservatives mobilized to stop health care reform. Cue the death panels.
SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: We should not have a government program that determines you're going to pull the plug on grandma.
ACOSTA: The death panel claim was dubbed by PolitiFact as the "Lie of the Year." It wasn't long before congressional town halls turned into brawls.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: On what planet do you spend most of your time?
(LAUGHTER)
ACOSTA: But it was South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson who set a new low.
REP. JOE WILSON (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: You lie!
(CROWD BOOING)
ACOTSA: What's worse, the moment came just days after the death of Ted Kennedy, a loss that briefly brought the country together in mourning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the dream shall never die.
ACOTSA: There were also firsts. The first African-American president picked Sonia Sotomayor as the first Latina for the Supreme Court.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unless you have a complete meltdown you're going to get confirmed.
ACOTSA: Mr. Obama became the first sitting president to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 90 years. A surprise to the White House and one that writers at "Saturday Night Live" could not resist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To be perfectly honest this award was a complete surprise, as I have only not been George W. Bush for nine months.
ACOTSA: Still if 2009 were a party, it's debatable whether any of it was worth crashing.
(on camera): But political junkies take heart -- 2010 is right around the corner. The debate over health care will end one way or another. And the midterm elections won't be far behind.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: And John, there was one person who did not make any of these 2001 Years in Review and that is Hillary Clinton. She had a quiet year, not really in the headlines all that much. But she ended the year, according to our latest CNN polling, as more favorable than President Obama. So not a bad performance for her.
ROBERTS: A very popular lady. Very popular Secretary of State. Jim Acosta for us this morning. Jim, thanks.
We're crossing the half hour. And checking our top stories now. In a few hours time President Obama will get a preliminary report from his intelligence team on the bomb plot against Northwest Flight 253. We also now know Washington had intelligence that extremists in Yemen were plotting with someone they called, quote, "The Nigerian." And officials also had a partial name for the Nigerian, Umar Farouk, as in Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
CHETRY: And Senator Dianne Feinstein says the attempt to blow up a U.S. bound plane is proof that America's no-fly list policy is no good. She says current standards make it too difficult to get a name on the list. She wants President Obama to dial back the policy. Umar Abdulmutallab did not make that list, he was on a wider data base that contains more than a half million names.
ROBERTS: Plus finally some good news about the swine flu. American and British researchers say H1N1 is less contagious than viruses that cause worldwide outbreaks in the past, in particular, flu pandemics of 1957 and 1968. If someone in your household has the swine flu, your odds of catching it are about one in eight. But that risk is being twice as high for children.
CHETRY: Well, the attempted bombing of Flight 253 has revived the debate over profiling -- ethnic profiling, racial profiling, behavioral profiling. In fact, New York State lawmaker Doug Heiken (ph) is planning to try to resurrect a bill that would let police use ethnicity when deciding who to stop, who to question, and who to search. He says that we should, quote, "Go with the odds" when so many lives are at stake.
Here to discuss the issue, Rafi Ron, who is the CEO of New Age Security Solutions and also the former security chief at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
Thanks for being with us this morning.
And also we have Mike German, former FBI special agent and counsel now for the ACLU.
Good morning to both of you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.
CHETRY: Rafi, let me start with you. As security chief you've worked at airports in Israel, in the U.S., as well as advised airports in the wake of 9/11.
How do you employ profiling as part of a tactic in trying to weed out terrorists? And does it work?
RAFI RON, CEO, NEW AGE SECURITY SOLUTIONS: Yes. First of all we need to understand that in order to detect explosive devices of the type that Abdulmutallab carried and the future terrorists would carry that would probably be different from this one, the level of search that is required is simply impossible to be used across the board for 100 percent of the population.
CHETRY: Right.
RON: No matter how good our technology is, this would not work. So we need to identify the high-risk passengers that's require that level of search. And the best way to do that is by simply looking into their past behavior as much as their present behavior.
CHETRY: Do you look into their ethnicity, as well?
RON: Well, ethnicity could be used to -- in a limited way. The way it is being used in Israel. But I don't think this is an option in this country. First of all, because it is illegal, and secondly, because there are some professional issues referring to this.
And I could only point to the fact that the Tel Aviv Airport where I was director of security was supposed to be attacked by a Palestinian terrorist but was never attacked by one, it was attacked by a group of Japanese terrorists back in the '70's, with 24 people dead. And later by a German, blue-eyed, blond haired terrorist.
So the idea that we can just by using ethnicity we can come up with high-risk passengers is the wrong idea and I strongly recommend not to follow that line.
CHETRY: All right. There have been calls, though, from former and current lawmaker as well as others.
And Mike, former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said it's a human events op-ed that it's basically time to start profiling and discriminating.
In fact, he writes:
"Our politically correct government decides to make life more miserable for the traveling public by imposing hopelessly meaningless rules such as not allowing passengers to leave their seats in the last hour of the flight."
And he brings up the issue that many complain about, which is putting up with the inconvenience at airport security procedures that don't necessarily seem to make us safer.
Does political correctness have too much of an impact on our approach to security?
RON: Yes --
MIKE GERMAN, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: I'm convinced --
CHETRY: Oh, I'm sorry. I was asking that to Mike, Rafi. We'll get your take in a just second.
RON: Oh, I'm sorry.
CHETRY: But do you think we're being too "PC" and in some sense it would make sense to profile?
GERMAN: No, not at all. I don't think it's political correctness at all, I think it's just as -- your other guest just said. That it's incorrect from a factual matter.
There is no terrorist profile. Terrorists come in all shapes and sizes, all races, all ethnicities. And if we create a false profile based on our own bias rather than on the facts, what we're going to do is create a lot of false positives. And as we've seen in this incident, there was plenty of evidence that this particular person posed a threat to aviation. But the government did not follow up on that evidence because there was so much being collected that it was lost in the vast seas. And that's the problem we've had since 9/11.
CHETRY: Right. But let me ask you this, Mike, because over the past decade -- and we're talking about aviation here -- basically all of the attacks on our aviation system have been carried out by Islamic extremists. You have the 9/11 attacks, the so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid, the so-called liquid bombers who were going to use liquid explosives to blow up transatlantic flights. And now you have Abdulmutallab.
Given that, shouldn't people's ethnicity or religion be at least a bigger component of what we look at when looking at potential threats?
GERMAN: No. What have you to understand is it's not just that the group of terrorists has -- you know, even the ones you just named. I mean, Richard Reid was a United Kingdom resident with a Jamaican background. You had a Nigerian resident. You had all the -- you know, there's far too many.
But also, there are a whole lot of Nigerians, there are a whole lot of people from the United Kingdom, there are a whole lot of all the different groups that you think -- you mentioned. So for every one terrorist, you have a million people that you'd be looking at because of your profile.
CHETRY: Right.
GERMAN: Rather than focusing on what the government knows.
If the government knows a particular person because their family member came forward and reported that they're doing something, that's what the government should be focusing on. Not on some false profile that is only going to collect a lot of bad information, create false positives, and misdirect the government from the people who do pose a threat.
Because we have to remember, too, you know, there have been incidents where terrorists have used proxies, you know? There was a Middle Eastern terrorist several years ago who used their Irish pregnant girlfriend to try to get a bomb on a plane.
So, that type of thing is going to create more problems than it solves. CHETRY: Rafi, let me ask you about this. Because no one wants their privacy, their civil rights violated. But no one wants to be blown out of the sky when they fly either. So give us a reality check.
How much do we need to sacrifice in order to stay safe?
RON: Well, I do think we need to sacrifice some. This doesn't come free.
And if we really want to be able to identify high-risk passengers through exchange of information with passengers -- just like it was done in the case that my colleague from the ACLU mentioned a couple of minutes ago with the Irish girl -- She was actually identified as a person who carried an explosive device on the way to an (INAUDIBLE) airplane in London back in the '80s through an interview that was done at the airport where some of the facts that emerged indicated that she might be a high-risk passenger.
So something would have to be given up for that. But we -- once again, I agree we have to be careful not to give up unnecessarily some of our civil rights that we are fighting to protect.
CHETRY: Rafi Ron, as well as Mike German, thanks to both of you for your perspective this morning. Appreciate it.
GERMAN: Thank you.
ROBERTS: You know, interesting, I flew out of Ben-Gurion in 2006, after covering the Israel-Hezbollah conflict and I was interviewed for about 10 minutes by a couple of very nice young people who were just asking me a lot of questions. You know --
CHETRY: That's behavior profiling, though.
ROBERTS: It was. I had set off an explosive detector because a bulletproof Vest that I was bringing back --
CHETRY: Had some residue on it.
ROBERTS: Close to a lot of (INAUDIBLE) -- had some residue on it.
But I have to say that the airport was not busy.
CHETRY: Right, it's a different --
ROBERTS: And so to be able to take 10 minutes to talk to a passenger is one thing. But, you know, you try to do that at Atlanta Hartsfield, or someplace like that -- wow.
CHETRY: It's just not feasible.
ROBERTS: Creates some logistical problems. The fellow who's responsible, according to authorities for that attempted bombing on Christmas morning, spent some time in the United States in the past. Our David Mattingly is in Houston this morning, and he is tracing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's movement in this country.
Wait until you hear where he was and what he was doing. Stay with us. It's 40 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man who allegedly tried to blow up a U.S. plane is apparently no stranger to the United States, having spent a good amount of time on American soil.
Our David Mattingly is live in Houston, where he's following his trail.
And what are we learning, David?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
Through these gates behind me there is a large mosque here in Houston where many of the local Nigerian Muslims gather to worship. But when Abdulmutallab came to Houston seeking knowledge about Islam, he did not come here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): Within weeks of acquiring a visa to travel to the United States in 2008, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attended a seminar on Islamic studies in Houston, Texas. Classes similar to this one photographed in Toronto were scheduled in early August by the AlMaghrib Institute, a school that claims to be the largest Islamic student body in North America.
The institute's web site promises seminars that are fun, engaging and information packed. One instructor tells CNN Abdulmutallab was very quiet and expressed no radical views during the conference. He was 21 at the time and residing in London. According to the flight schedule he provided the institute, Abdulmutallab was in Houston 17 days.
(on camera): Have you ever seen this man here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
MATTINGLY: How can you be so sure?
MATTINGLY (voice-over): The local Nigerian Muslim association says it's not aware of its members having any direct or indirect link with the suspect.
Worshippers at Houston's largest Nigerian mosque tell me Abdulmutallab never attended prayers here during his visit. MATTINGLY (on camera): What could this young man have been doing here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one knows.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): They tell me they're used to defending their reputation as Muslims after acts of terrorism, but a Nigerian suspect was completely unexpected.
RASHEED IBRAHEEM, NIGERIAN MUSLIM: I said, for God's sake, this can't be a Nigerian. I was shocked. In fact, I said perhaps somebody was just trying to bring a big shame on our country.
MATTINGLY: Numbering between 100,000 and 150,000, Houston Nigerians, Muslim and non-Muslim alike fear a backlash of profiling. Community leaders denounce extremism and have pledged cooperation with the investigation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: After that seminar back in August, Mutallab did not have any contact again with that institute - John.
ROBERTS: David Mattingly for us this morning in Houston. David, thanks so much.
CHETRY: And meanwhile, it is 46 minutes past the hour. Reynolds Wolf is going to be getting a check of our morning travel forecast this New Year's Eve right after the break.
ROBERTS: And in 10 minutes' time, Elizabeth Cohen with some medical tips for the New Year, and not just how to cure a hangover. Stay with us.
It's 46 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: It's quiet now in Times Square, but in a couple of hours - or in just a few hours, it is going to be screaming with people.
Thirty-two minutes - I mean, 32 degrees. It's going to be 35 at midnight, a chance of rain, though, so if you're heading out there anywhere along the East Coast, bring an umbrella.
Reynolds Wolf is tracking all of that for us. Hey, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey guys. Don't be surprised if you see some of those rain drops mixed in with snowfall. The temperature's going to be right at that point, right inside (ph) the city you could see a few places, I'd say between 34 and 31 degrees. So some of that will be frozen as it makes its way down, so snowfall's certainly a possibility.
Take a look at what we have in parts of the northeast. We're seeing some of that form as we - as we speak. In New York, a few scattered flurries, but the farther south you go the warmer it becomes. Warmer weather, of course you're going to have some rain, not some snowfall. But still, even farther to the south and parts of the southeast this morning, we've had some reports of sleet in parts of the Appalachians.
Meanwhile, out west, it's a different story as you make your way from San Francisco and points north where we're seeing some rain along the coast, right into the Cascades, the highest spots, even Mt. Hood, snowfall is going to be a possibility. And a blast of cold air moving into the center of the US, and with that you're going to see high temperatures today going to 11 degrees in Minneapolis. In Kansas City, (INAUDIBLE) about 24 degrees, 37 in Denver, 54 in Las Vegas and 52 in Atlanta for your high today.
Now, for tonight, for the big party, here's what you can expect. New York City, temperatures I mentioned, mainly some mid to low 30s, 36 in Washington, DC, 37 in Dallas, up at the stockyards (ph), for Los Angeles, up by the Staples Arena, we can expect about 52 degrees, and San Francisco 49 degrees, Seattle 44 as you bring in the New Year.
And as a quick look at your forecast, you know, some on your travel, take a look at your travel forecast coming up in mere moments. We've got a lot of people out, trying to make those last-minute parties.
Let's send it back to you guys.
ROBERTS: All right, Reynolds. So let me ask you this question, Reynolds...
WOLF: Sure.
ROBERTS: ... do you - do you believe this is the end of the first decade of the 2000s?
WOLF: Yes. Today. Just because - no, actually I think you go from 1 to 10, so I guess if you want to be a stickler of the number thing, it ends this year. 2011 would be the next one.
ROBERTS: Right. And, you know - and some - and some people believe that. They say because of the Gregorian Calendar we didn't start in the year zero, we started with the year one, but does a baby start out being one years old? No. You start with...
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: I always wondered about that.
ROBERTS: ... month 2, 3...
CHETRY: Right. And even when the baby's born, technically been cooking for 10 months, so, I mean, are they born 10 months old?
ROBERTS: Yes! You know, some people point out that the first year in the Gregorian Calendar was the year Anno Domini, which means "In the Year of Our Lord," and then it was 1 AD, 2 AD, 3 - but, I mean, it's commonly held that - you know, 1920s did not end in 1930.
CHETRY: I know. Although...
ROBERTS: And the 1930s did not end in 1940.
CHETRY: I know. I have to say, I had to laugh - I follow you (ph) you today because I was reading Paul Krugman's column. He's a noted economist with the - with "The New York Post" and he also said technically - technically...
ROBERTS: Technically, schmeclically. Everybody else is going to be celebrating tonight just like they did in the year 2000, with the - you know, the December 31st 1999, for the millennium. So that's the party I'm going to.
CHETRY: Yes. Don't let the numbers (INAUDIBLE) you off.
ROBERTS: This morning's top stories just minutes away. We're going to be talking live with former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. What did we learn from the failed bomb plot in Flight 253 and what do the feds need to change?
CHETRY: Also, just hours left in the decade. There - I said it. In the world of politics, it's been a busy one, certainly.
ROBERTS: I'm with you.
CHETRY: The Florida recount, of course the tragedy of 9/11, wars, a recession, America's first black president - we're taking a look back with two presidential historians.
ROBERTS: And want to make 2010 a better year for your bank account than 2009? You want to make the next decade better than this decade? Our Gerri Willis back again this morning with more financial resolutions for you.
All that and more, still ahead at the Most News in the Morning as we continue to drive Gregorian purists nuts.
It's 53 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
The year and decade is winding down. Maybe you're making some resolutions for 2010. Maybe one of them is to take better care of yourself.
To help with that, we're joined by Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Elizabeth, how can someone be empowered as a patient next year?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John, what they can do is they can follow the example of two of my favorite empowered patients from this year. Let's start with Jessica Terry. Jessica really is an incredible young woman. She had a terrible stomach condition. No doctor could figure it out, so she got some of her tissue sample, looked at it under a microscope, and this high school senior diagnosed herself. She found her own's Crohn's - her own Crohn's disease.
You can also follow the example of another favorite person of mine. Her name is Debra Vader (ph). She was taking a walk with her husband. All of a sudden, he collapsed, and she remembered a PSA that said when someone collapses, pound on their chest to the beat of the Bee Gees song "Stayin' Alive" and she saved her husband's life that way.
So if you want better health next year, don't just rely on your doctor. Sometimes you have to take things into your own hands - John.
ROBERTS: Wow! I mean, listening to the Bee Gees kills most people, but -
It's pretty amazing!
COHEN: It is. It is amazing. You have to remember, "Stayin' Alive" - "Stayin' Alive," if you pump to that beat, you can save a person's life. He husband was in cardiac arrest and he lived.
ROBERTS: Right. OK, so you want to make sure that you've got good communication with your doctor as well, right?
COHEN: Oh, right. Absolutely. That is so crucial. That's one of the most important empowered patient tips from 2009. And let me give you a couple more, and they all in some way have to do with communication.
Don't go to the doctor alone. You are sick. That's why you're there. Bring someone who's going to be with it enough to ask the questions that you probably will forget to ask.
Here's something else, read your own medical records. I know it sounds crazy, however, people - doctors forget things. What we learned this year is that many times doctors forget to tell patients about abnormal test results. That's right. A mammogram comes back positive and doctors sometimes forget to tell patients. If you read the record, you'll find out for yourself.
Also, find a doctor who e-mails. John, you were talking about communication. Doctors should be e-mailing in this day and age. If your doctor doesn't e-mail and you can't ask him a question by e-mail, it may be time to find a new doctor.
ROBERTS: Elizabeth Cohen with some great tips to round up (ph) 2009 for us. Elizabeth, thanks.
COHEN: Thanks.
CHETRY: Just saw our live picture from Times Square, by the way. It's snowing already. ROBERTS: Uh-oh.
CHETRY: Yes. Let's see what happens with that. Reynolds Wolf's keeping an eye on all of that, plus your top stories coming up.
We'll be back in two minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
