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American Morning
New Security Measures Imposed for All U.S.-Bound Passengers Flying from 14 High-Risk Nations; New Year, New Threat: Al Qaeda Stronghold Emerges in Yemen; Newark Airport Security Breach Causes Lockdown; NBA Players Investigated for Brawl in the Locker Room; Bernanke Blames Regulatory Policy; From Privileged Child to Radical
Aired January 04, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And a good Monday morning to you. Thanks very much for joining us on the Most News in the Morning.
We've got a brand-new week. We've got a brand-new year. We've got a brand-new decade. Everything here is new. With the exception of us, we're old and kind of rough around the edges.
It's the 4th of January. I'm John Roberts. Good morning.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. The news is new as well. We have the top stories we're going to be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
First, there are new security measures now in place for all passengers traveling to the United States from 14 countries that the government considers high risk. Four on the list have long been identified as state sponsors of terror. The Transportation Security Administration says that passengers coming from those nations will face enhanced screening, including pat-down body searches. The new rules and the impact on you ahead.
ROBERTS: If you're flying into or out of Newark airport last night, you know all about this. Delays, cancellations, general chaos after a security breach at Newark Liberty. Authorities are still searching for a man after they say he slipped into the terminal last night through the exit lane. In just a moment, we'll take you live from Newark International Airport.
CHETRY: Also the United States and Great Britain closing their embassies in Yemen. Officials citing a specific, credible and ongoing threat from Al Qaeda. It's unclear just how long the embassies will remain closed. So is Yemen the new front in the war on terror? We're live in Dubai with our security watch this morning.
ROBERTS: We begin this morning though with tough new security measures facing every passenger flying to America from 14 high-risk nations. Those nations are considered sponsors of terrorism or countries of interest by the Transportation Security Administration. The new rules take effect this morning. Our Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve is live in Washington.
And, Jeanne, what do these new measures entail? JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: John, as of now, all passengers on flights heading into the United States will be subject to random screening, and those flying in from certain countries will be required to go through enhanced screenings, such as full-body pat-downs, carry-on bag searches, full body scanning and explosive detection swabs. This according to a new security directive issued by the Transportation Security Administration, and now in effect.
The countries include those that are officially listed by the State Department as sponsoring terrorism. Those are Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Iran. A list of another ten countries of interest was developed by the State Department, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies. It includes Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.
The directive also gives pilots on inbound flights the discretion to prevent passengers from keeping pillows and blankets in their laps and to limit movement in the cabin. The directive does not have an expiration date and is intended to be, as the TSA puts it, sustainable and long-term. However, John, it may be modified in light of any new intelligence. Back to you.
ROBERTS: All right. Jeanne, as all of this takes place today, administration officials continue to talk about the attempted attack on Christmas Day. What's the latest on that front?
MESERVE: John, the president's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, fanned out across the talk shows yesterday and said although there were lapses in errors in sharing intelligence about the attack, there was no smoking gun. And he rejected comparisons to the failures of communication before 9/11.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BRENNAN, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER ON COUNTERTERRORISM: It's not like 9/11. There was no indication that any of these agencies or departments were intentionally holding back information. And I can point to numerous successes --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No turf battles.
BRENNAN: No turf battles. There were lapses. There were human errors. The system didn't work the way it should have, but no agency was trying to -- I think there were human errors and lapses and so what I'm going to do is make sure they tell the president exactly what I think went wrong, but there wasn't an effort to try to conceal information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: The president tomorrow will meet with his top homeland security and intelligence advisers at the White House to discuss the shortcomings that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board an aircraft and very nearly bring it down -- John.
ROBERTS: Jeanne Meserve for us this morning on the security front. Jeanne, thanks so much.
CHETRY: Well, when President Obama left on his Hawaii vacation the focus was on health care. Now as he returns to Washington, there are upped concerns about terrorism and homeland security all, of course, triggered by the emerging threat from Al Qaeda in Yemen after that Christmas Day foiled bomb plot. Jim Acosta following all of that for us live in Washington. So a bit of a reset as the president heads back to the White House.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran. After all of that controversy following Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's comment that the system worked, the Obama administration is putting out a different face on the White House and what it calls its war against Al Qaeda. And White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan had plenty to say from Yemen to Vice President Dick Cheney to Osama bin Laden.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And all those involved in the attempted act of terrorism on Christmas must know you, too, will be held to account.
ACOSTA (voice-over): President Obama is starting 2010 confronting a cold reality. Al Qaeda has established a new stronghold in Yemen where the White House now believes terrorists plotted with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up flight 253 on Christmas Day. Nearly a decade after the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, the U.S. and Britain suddenly closed their embassies Sunday.
JOHN BRENNAN, WHITE HOUSE COUNTERTERRORISM SR. ADVISER: Al Qaeda has several hundred members, in fact, in Yemen, and they've grown in strength.
ACOSTA: The emerging threat comes as the president and his national security team plan to meet tomorrow on how to plug holes in aviation security.
BRENNAN: Clearly the system didn't work. We had a problem in terms of why Abdulmutallab got on that plane. There is no smoking gun piece of intelligence out there.
ACOSTA: But the chairman of the 9/11 Commission argues a red flag was missed, that warning from the suspect's father to U.S. officials in Nigeria.
THOMAS H. KEAN, 9/11 COMMISSION CHAIRMAN: That alone, given who that father was, his prestige in the community, his connections with the United States embassy, that alone should have been enough.
ACOSTA: Republicans have blasted the administration's handling of the failed attack, with Dick Cheney accusing the president of pretending the nation is not at war. White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan all but called Cheney a liar.
BRENNAN: Either the vice president is willfully mischaracterizing this president's position both in terms of the language he uses and the actions he'd taken, he's taken, or he's ignorant of the facts.
ACOSTA: But there are troubling new questions for the administration, such as the president's plan to close Guantanamo, a plan that includes sending some detainees back to Yemen, a place that's become a haven for former Gitmo prisoners.
SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (I), CONNECTICUT: The odds are that they will end up in the fight against us planning attacks on the United States of America. So I think it will be truly irresponsible for us, America, to send prisoners of war that we hold now at Guantanamo back to Yemen.
ACOSTA: Despite the barrage of criticism, the White House insists it wants to finish the job in the war against Al Qaeda nine years after September 11.
BRENNAN: We're going to get bin Laden. We're going to get Zawahiri (ph). We're going to get the others.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now, John Brennan says the White House is not talking about sending troops to Yemen, instead the focus appears to be on Al Qaeda worldwide. Consider what the director of the Counterterrorism Center is warning just this weekend, Al Qaeda is refining its methods to test the nation's defenses, Kiran. And despite what Joe Lieberman said about it being irresponsible to send detainees back to Yemen, John Brennan says that's the plan for now.
CHETRY: All right. We'll see if that changes. Stay with us. In less than 30 minutes, we're going to be digging deeper into America's intelligence agencies with former CIA officers Jack Rice, who's now a nationally syndicated talk show host, and Gary Berntsen, author of "Human Intelligence, Counterterrorism and National Leadership."
ROBERTS: Well, things are finally returning to normal at Newark International Airport this morning after a security breech triggered absolute chaos inside Terminal C last night. A man walking into a secure area without being screened walked in through the exit. It triggered a six-hour lockdown of the terminal.
And take a look at the crowds inside there with these photographs. Allison Kaden of CNN affiliate WPIX is live at Newark Liberty Airport this morning with this developing story.
Good morning to you, Allison. What exactly happened last night?
ALLISON KADEN, REPORTER, WPIX: Well, good morning to you, John. First and foremost, flights have resumed out of Terminal C here at Newark airport. Security checkpoints in the terminal didn't reopen until about 11:45 last night. And the man that triggered a security breach at Newark, he still hasn't been found. The Transportation Security Administration says at about 5:30 last night a man walked down an exit lane and into the secure side of the terminal. This led to a shutdown of the terminal with all flights going out grounded. Passengers were getting little to no information.
The airport was not evacuated, but passengers who were already screened had to go back to the public area to wait. The TSA says the terminal was searched to make sure no dangerous objects were in it before security checkpoints reopened very late last night, then everyone was rescreened.
Now, this mainly affected continental flights and authorities pored over security videos, but there's still no word of who this man is. Passengers were finally able to board their planes after waiting for more than six hours -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: It's pretty amazing what happened there last night. So how did this guy get through the exit lane? Does anyone know? Because there's typically a TSA guard who's posted there. Do we know if this person ran past or was the guard distracted and he walked past? Any information at all on that?
KADEN: Well, the TSA has not released that information yet. We placed a call to the TSA this morning. Obviously that's something we want to ask them and we want to know for sure. Authorities did pore over their surveillance tapes, so maybe they'll release some of that information shortly.
ROBERTS: Allison Kaden from WPIX with the latest update for us this morning. Allison, thanks very much.
CHETRY: Coming up on nine minutes past the hour, we get a check of this morning's weather headlines as well. Our Rob Marciano is in the extreme weather center.
Good morning, Rob. Boy, it's the wind that really, really had people freezing this weekend.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, wind chills are at dangerous levels and that the big thing with this cold weather outbreak is encompassing so much of the country and we're going to get a reinforcing shot of it before the end of this week is up. So unbelievable stuff to start off this new decade for sure, some of the coldest years -- some of the coldest air in years, and in some cases decades.
All right. Lake-effect snow is going to be the big call across parts of the western, the eastern Great Lakes and we could see some of that pile up in the form of some feet. Cold air from New York all the way down to say, Atlanta, temperatures in the teens there. Wind chills are lower than that. And with the frigid air getting all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico and more on the way, people are taking precautions.
Freeze warnings are out for parts of Florida this morning. We'll talk more about that and the potential for snow across the south in about 30 minutes.
Happy New Year, guys. Back up to you.
ROBERTS: Same to you, Rob. Thanks very much. We'll check back with you soon.
Two NBA players in trouble for bringing guns to the locker room. What the heck is going on? We'll tell you. Coming up next.
It's ten minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. It's now 12 minutes past the hour. A quick check of what's going on this morning.
ROBERTS: The world's highest freestanding structure opens today in Dubai. It's called the Burj Dubai. It's taller than two Empire State buildings, about 2,600 feet high, 200 stories. It's got enough windows to cover 17 football fields.
The opening comes at a tough time for Dubai. Last year the city shocked investors when it asked for more money to pay down its debt. But take a look at that rising out of the desert.
CHETRY: Wow.
ROBERTS: Amazing.
CHETRY: It is. Well, Olympic snowboarding hopeful Kevin Pearce (ph) is in critical condition. He suffered a severe brain injury Thursday. He was training for this week's qualifying events.
The 22-year-old's spokesman says that Pearce (ph) completed a twisting double back flip when he caught his toe and then landed on his head. She says he was wearing a helmet during that accident.
ROBERTS: Two Washington Wizards players are preparing to speak to the U.S. attorney's office today.
CHETRY: Yes. They have to answer questions after they allegedly drew guns on each other during a fight in the locker room over a gambling debt. Our Susan Candiotti is looking into this.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, good morning. We haven't heard the whole story from Gilbert Arenas yet. Today he says he'll be talking with investigators.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas is a three-time NBA all-star, but his alleged locker room gun antics could get him into serious foul trouble legally.
GILBERT ARENAS, WASHINGTON WIZARDS BASKETBALL PLAYER: I'm a jokester, I know. Nothing in my life is actually serious. CANDIOTTI: But it's no joke. The D.C. police, U.S. attorney's office and National Basketball Association all say they're investigating. The "New York Post" reports Arenas and team mate Javaris Crittenton allegedly drew guns on each other in the locker room December 21st over a card playing gambling debt.
ARENAS: I can't, you know, speak on that. But, you know, if you know me, you've been here, I've never did anything violent. Anything that I do it's funny. Well, it's funny to me.
CANDIOTTI: Team owners say Arenas kept unloaded weapons in his locker with no ammo, a practice they call dangerous and disappointing. Quote, "Guns have absolutely no place in a workplace environment and we will take further steps to ensure this never happens again."
ARENAS: I agree. You know, that's bad judgment on my part, you know, storing them here. And, you know, I take responsibility for that.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): And players are working. There's a great deal of security. But away from the spotlight it's a whole new ball game.
(voice-over): Some professional athletes own or carry guns saying they consider themselves potential targets and need protection. Protection from attacks like that suffered by Washington Redskins defensive back Sean Taylor, who was murdered in his Miami home during a robbery, but carrying a gun can be costly even for a celebrity.
Ex-New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress is currently serving a two-year prison sentence for illegal possession of a gun after accidentally shooting himself in the leg at a nightclub.
Mega stars like Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal create fan frenzy when they hit the court, and post game fans get up close and personal with their heroes. Shaq, who works with police in his spare time, declined to talk about the Arenas incident.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shaq, (INAUDIBLE) about the Gilbert Arenas...
SHAQUILLE O'NEAL, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS BASKETBALL PLAYER: I'm not going to (ph) talk about that.
CANDIOTTI: Neither did LeBron James, but he did talk about security in general.
LEBRON JAMES, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS BASKETBALL PLAYER: I live in Akron, Ohio, which is my home town, so I don't need security. I don't -- I don't travel with -- I don't travel with security. The one thing I do is continue to just make sure my family is always safe.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: What are the league rules? Well, the NFL and NBA forbid players from handling guns on company time or property and recommend against gun use for personal protection. The discussion now is whether teams should write a gun clause into players' contracts, similar to banning skydiving or boxing.
As for Crittenton, the other player involved in this, CNN has been unable to reach his agent. He tells "The New York Post" his client will be exonerated -- John and Kiran.
CHETRY: Susan Candiotti for us. We'll see what happens.
In the meantime, Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business." The Fed chairman defending his stance on interest rates and also talking about preventing an economic meltdown in the future.
ROBERTS: Yes. Hoping to raise those interest rates again. Will they be going up? Christine's got your business for you this morning.
Seventeen minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty minutes after the hour. That means it's time for "Minding Your Business."
CHETRY: That's right. Christine Romans is here, and hopefully we're going to start off 2010 on a positive note for -- for business stories. Yes or no, or am I dreaming?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, we started off 2010 with Ben Bernanke on the front page of every American business newspaper this morning. He had the -- what I'd like to call the Super Bowl of economics conferences in Atlanta yesterday where he was defending the Fed's role (ph) over the past few years, really since the beginning of the decade, saying that low interest rates was not the big cause of this housing bubble.
It's something that critics -- many critics in Congress and some economists have said for a long time, that -- that Ben Bernanke and his friends at the Fed kept interest rates way too low and that pumped money through the economy and that blew up the housing bubble.
Let me give you a -- Ben Bernanke brought this slide himself at this conference yesterday, so if you missed it, this is what it is. This is what interest rates look like, the Fed funds rate, going back to -- looks like the second quarter of 2001. You could see how low they got right there at 2003, and then that's when the housing bubble really took off. Now, the far right of that is where we are right now, and you can see that rates are, again, very, very low because the Fed is again pumping money into the economy, trying to keep the economy going.
Ben Bernanke said it wasn't low interest rates, though, that drove the housing bubble. In fact, it was a lack of regulation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN BERNANKE, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE: Having experienced the damage that the price bubbles can cause, we must be especially vigilant in ensuring that the recent experiences are not repeated. All efforts should be made to strengthen our regulatory system to prevent recurrence of the crisis and the cushioning effects if another crisis occurs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Imagine that the brainiacs at the American Economic Association, all the people there are trying to figure out how -- what happened, why it happened to make sure it doesn't happen again. He says we need smarter, better regulation. He says lending standards were laxed -- lax, and he called -- he talks about -- the administration has been talking a lot about global imbalances. He actually -- he's said this before. He says that 31 percent of the bubble was actually because of money flooding into this country from China and Asian markets because we have these huge trade imbalances, which we still have -- these huge trade imbalances.
So he says better regulation is what we need.
CHETRY: But what -- when he says regulation, did he -- did he call for specifics? I mean, where do we need to target it? Because we -- we've been talking about regulation ever since, you know, the first few bailouts.
ROMANS: That's right. And he has been -- he has been on board with some of the administration philosophies on how to regulate better. But, you know, the Fed does have consumer protection regulatory power and has for a long time. Some had said that the Fed could have gone in earlier and should have gone in about some of these lax underwriting practices.
He also said that, look, you know, a lot of people, from -- from borrowers to bankers, everyone thought the house -- home prices were going to go up. It simply wasn't -- it wasn't sustainable in the (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTS: All right, so your first appearance here of 2010. Have you got a Numeral for us this morning?
ROMANS: I do -- 2,328. And this is a number of something that's happening every single day that shows how the housing bubble...
ROBERTS: Oh, 2,328 homes are in foreclosure?
ROMANS: Seized -- actually (ph) seized by the bank, every day last year. And this year, folks -- I'm telling you is going to be the year of the prime borrower falling into trouble. So that number will continue to be high this year.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business."
CHETRY: So much for the optimism.
ROBERTS: Yes. Well, there you go.
ROMANS: Well, this is what they're watching...
ROBERTS: Starting it off on a bright note. I noticed you're wearing black today. Thanks.
Nic Robertson this morning, reporting on the radical Islamic group that Abdul Farouk -- sorry -- Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab belonged to while at school. Hid he radicalize other students? Nic's looking into all of this for us.
It's 24 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- five minutes past the hour. That means top stories are just five minutes away.
Meanwhile, we're digging deeper this morning on the radicalization of the alleged bomber -- that would-be bomber on Christmas Day. He's the son of a banker raised amid wealth and privilege.
ROBERTS: So how did the suspect in the Christmas Day bomb plot get on the road to radical Islam?
Our Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson joins us now live from London with our "Security Watch." He's been looking into all of this. What are we finding, Nic?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, one of the interesting things that's showing up is when he got here to Britain, the university he went to -- he joined the Islamic Society.
In a study of Islamic societies of British university at the time showed that while many of the students were quite moderate and tolerant, it's said that a significant minority had very extreme views to the point of supporting violence in the name of Islam. So when this young Nigerian student arrived in Britain from high school, he was entering a very, very volatile mix of extreme politics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (voice-over): In this high school photograph, there is a look of innocence. But behind the impassive gaze, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab appears to have been deeply troubled and lonely.
One of his internet postings reads, "How can I really enjoy being with people to whom I cannot express my feelings? They know I'm Muslim, but I see how they don't understand."
But he hid his troubles well. Kwesi Brako was on the school basketball team with him.
KWESI BRAKO, HIGH SCHOOL FRIEND: To say I was surprised is a -- is a given at this point. I -- I didn't -- I wouldn't have figured him to be a lonely person.
ROBERTSON: In his blogs, Abdulmutallab was longing to get to university mixed with Muslims.
In the fall of 2005, he got his wish, admitted to University College London. But this conflicted teenager was about to enter a highly-charged Islamic scene.
USAMA HASSAN, FORMER RADICAL: It is a bastion of idea, if you like, England, on the campuses.
ROBERTSON: Hassan knows. Now reformed, he was once a campus radicalizer and influenced the man who orchestrated the killing of "The Wall Street Journal's" reporter Daniel Pearl.
HASSAN: On British university campuses, he would have had exposure to a variety of Muslim voices, all claiming to speak for true Islam. And many of these voices would like to be very extreme fundamentalist voices who openly advocate no compromise with the West, as they say it.
ROBERTSON: Abdulmutallab joined the university's Islamic Society, and by his second year became its president. Brako was at a different college in London, but his old friend had turned his back on him. Abdulmutallab was changing.
BRAKO: You know, he'd begun to wear, you know, Islamic clothing. I think he was wearing a caftan and the matching trousers and sandals.
ROBERTSON: The few friends Abdulmutallab did have at university are hard to track down. Eventually, we get a lead.
(on camera): We've been trying three days to find one person at the university who knew him well enough, that -- who's willing to talk to us, and we think we've found him. This could be the breakthrough.
(voice-over): His name is Qasim Rafiq. He was the Islamic Society president just before Abdulmutallab.
QASIM RAFIQ, ABDULMUTALLAB'S FRIEND: Hello?
ROBERTSON (on camera): Hello. Is this Qasim?
RAFIQ: Yes, speaking.
ROBERTSON: Qasim, hi. This is...
(voice-over): I ask about Abdulmutallab.
RAFIQ: It -- it's difficult for me to reconcile, you know, the man -- the person I knew, and -- and what I've just been reading and seeing in the media, of course, over the last three or four days. It's extremely difficult.
Again, it goes back to the issue of where exactly did, you know, this supposed -- the radicalization take place.
ROBERTSON: Investigators are still trying to figure out where and how Abdulmutallab was radicalized. What worries Usama Hassan is that Abdulmutallab may have radicalized others.
HASSAN: There is of course the worry that -- that he may -- may have a small band of -- of comrades or friends who -- who think along similar lines.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: That's what makes the urgency of the investigation so pressing. Not only here in Britain for intelligence operatives here, but across the world and in Yemen as well -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: All right. Fascinating story, Nic, the roots there of terrorism. Nic Robertson for us in London this morning. Nic, thanks.
CHETRY: Right now it's half past the hour. We have a look at the top stories this morning. Starting today, new changes in airport security. The TSA says everyone flying into the U.S. will be subject to stricter random security measures and if you're flying in from 14 countries the government considers high risk, there will be enhanced mandatory screenings that include pat downs and carry-on searches.
With growing evidence of a terrorist threat in Yemen, some lawmakers say now is not the time to send some prisoners at Guantanamo Bay back home to the lawless country. President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser says that the transfers will still continue if warranted. About 100 prisoners at the U.S. camp at Gitmo are from Yemen.
And a tip from a TV viewer ends a 38-day manhunt for an accused killer. Police say Paul Merhige (ph) was arrested at a Florida keys motel Saturday night in connection with the Thanksgiving day killings of his twin sisters, a six-year-old cousin and 79-year-old aunt at the family home in Jupiter, Florida. The suspect was recognized after the owner spotted him from an episode of "America's Most Wanted." He's now being held without bond on four counts of murder -- John.
ROBERTS: President Obama has summoned his homeland security team to meet with him in the White House situation room tomorrow. They'll be taking a hard look at U.S. intelligence agency and how clues may have been missed following the attempted Christmas day terror attack on a Northwest Airlines jet.
Joining me now, two former CIA officers. Jack Rice is now a nationally syndicated talk show host and Gary Berntsen, author of "Human Intelligence Counterterrorism and National Leadership."
Good morning to both of you. Gary, let's start with you.
The U.S. and Britain shut down their embassies in Yemen because of ongoing threats. Just how dangerous is the situation there now?
GARY BERNTSEN, FORMER CIA AGENT: Yemen is dangerous. Historically we've had diplomats assassinated, contractors to USAID assassinated there. The number of al Qaeda officers is growing. One must remember that Osama bin Laden's father was a Yemeni who immigrated to Saudi Arabia. The Yemenize are an important part of al Qaeda and now they are among their own people.
ROBERTS: Jack, in 2008 there was an attack on the U.S. embassy. Nineteen people were killed, including one American. But this seems to have suddenly popped up on our radar screen in just the last few weeks. Why has that happened?
JACK RICE, FORMER CIA SPECIAL AGENT: I think probably because people are starting to notice it, but not really in the intelligence community. People have been talking about this for years and years. We can go back to the USS Cole, but it goes back much further than that. It really is about sort of where al Qaeda has the ability to work.
Let's think of it this way. One of the problems in Yemen is that there's essentially a very weak centralized government. Let's think of it like Afghanistan. Let's think of it like Somalia. When you have a vacuum, it's the perfect place for some organization like al Qaeda to operate, and they're doing it very, very effectively.
ROBERTS: So, Gary Berntsen, as Jack pointed out, 10 years ago the "USS Cole" and now here we are saying, wow, Yemen's a terrorist threat. What's happened in those 10 years? Why hasn't the terrorist threat in Yemen been more effectively fought against?
BERNTSEN: Well this is a government that was hostile to us. The Yemenis were on Saddam's side during the war, can't forget that. This is not a group of people that support the U.S. Right now there will be a temporary alliance to assist them against al Qaeda because al Qaeda is threatening the interest of that government. But they're not going to be long-term allies. No one should consider that. They'll help us for now. They'll push us to the side as soon as this threat is passed.
ROBERTS: So what's the best way to fight terror in Yemen?
BERNTSEN: We're going to have to have mobile light and lethal forces there. We can suppress them, the U.S., but to eradicate them there, it's going to be to have the Yemenis and the Yemenis look like they're going to go after them hammer and tong now.
ROBERTS: So you don't want to go in with a major fighting force. You want to go in fairly small.
BERNTSEN: Small, light force, a system on the intel side, do some specific strikes against the leadership there, but it's going to require Arabs, Yemenis to penetrate those clans to identify these people. They'll be living among their own clans, their own families, a lot of these al Qaeda members. This is more difficult than the Afghan/Pak border to work in, a lot more difficult.
ROBERTS: Jack Rice, a big point of controversy here is what to do with the 90 Yemenis who are still in custody at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. John Brennan, President Obama's counterterrorism czar said yesterday that they still absolutely plan to send them back to Yemen, those who they believe they can send back. Is that a good idea?
RICE: Yes, it actually is. Brennan's right on this one, in my mind. I was on Guantanamo when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed known as (INAUDIBLE) the brain arrived back in 2006. I was just back there again right before I went to Afghanistan. If we think about what Guantanamo has become around the rest of the Muslim world, 1.5 billion Muslims see this essentially as a torture camp. I'm not suggesting it is. What I'm suggesting is that's the symbol it's become.
The president is right to actually close this base down. If that means moving all of those people to Illinois or Michigan or wherever else and try them, fine. If you can determine those that are safe, then fine. If you want to repatriate them, more than 500 of them have been repatriated. There are a couple who have been found on the battlefield again. But again, that's probably a different question.
I guess, in the end, if we think about what's going on in Yemen itself, for those who are not safe to return, we keep them. We try them in U.S. courts.
BERNTSEN: More than a couple have returned to the battlefield, several dozen. Keep -- one of the Gitmo detainees was responsible for the death of Benazir Bhutto, major action. These guys were leading a Qaeda in Yemen right now, both Gitmo detainees.
These guys need to be held, not sent to Yemen. Sending them to Yemen is insanity. They will be released. They will attack the United States and they will kill large numbers of Americans. A new force will be created eventually from former Gitmo detainees and they're going to make al Qaeda look like, you know, a very ineffective group in the end.
We are facing a dangerous group of people there. We should not be sending them to Yemen. The Yemenis will even, some of them will even assist them in freeing them. We had Yemeni officials help these guys dig a tunnel out of the (INAUDIBLE) and escape a year and a half ago.
ROBERTS: So Jack, what do you say about that?
RICE: The standard is -- what we talk about here is everybody that we've ever taken we can never let go, whether or not they were actually innocent or not. We know without question that there are those who are actually picked up by the Americans who were 100 percent innocent, should have never been held, either in Afghanistan, in other black sites around the world and certainly not at Guantanamo Bay. I have talked to multiple numbers of them myself around the world. They should never have been taken. So if the standard is, we took them so we must keep them forever, that is ridiculous. That actually exacerbates problems worse.
And remember, the other side of this isn't just about those people. It's about what it does to the rest of the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world who see this and say, let me get this right. You say you stand for rule of law and you say you stand for something of significance and yet what we should do is you're simply going to hold these people forever because you took them? That's the logic? That's where we're going? That's crazy.
BERNTSEN: Jack, these guy that's were captured, many of these Yemenis were up in Tora Bora. They weren't up there as tourists. They weren't on holiday and they're guilty, guilty as sin.
RICE: You know what? And that's great. My attitude is, if they're guilty, let's prove it. I'm good with you. If they're bad, let's prove that they are.
ROBERTS: A little divergence of opinion there. Gary Berntsen, Jack Rice, great to have you on this morning. Thanks for discussing the discussion, really appreciate it. Kiran.
CHETRY: Just nine days after that failed attempt to blow up a plane on Christmas, a major security breach at Newark airport. A man actually walked through the check point exit, ended up snarling things at the airport for hours. We're going to be talking to one passenger about all of the headaches she and her husband had to deal with as they were trying to head out on vacation.
Thirty-eight minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: It's good music for people who are running to get their flights this morning.
CHETRY: The song is called "First Date." Wouldn't it be nice to have your first date at Newark airport trapped for hours?
ROBERTS: I wonder how many people actually did meet last night and they continue a relationship because they certainly had a lot of time to talk. Welcome back to the most news in the morning. A security breech at Newark international airport left flights grounded for hours and thousands of passengers cooling their heels late into the night waiting to be rescreened.
CHETRY: All of it because a man walked through a screening check point exit and was noticed walking the wrong way into a secure area of the terminal. Joining me now on the phone from Puerto Rico is Dove Ballon. She was stranded at Newark last night with her husband as they were headed for Puerto Rico.
So you finally made it, Dove. Thanks for being with us this morning. How many hours were you delayed before you finally made it there?
DOVE BALLON, STRANDED AT NEWARK INTL AIRPORT LAST NIGHT (via telephone): About six and a half hours.
CHETRY: Six and a half hours and we can see the pictures. I mean what a mess in the airport. Tell us a little bit about what it was like for you guys.
BALLON: Well, we got on the plane about 7:00 and sat until 8:30 at which point they asked us to get off the plane, which we did. And then we were milling around the various areas of the airport until 11:40 when we finally started to go through security. And we actually got on our flight at 12:05 and we took off at 1:06 and we had a nice, uneventful flight and landed at 5:27.
ROBERTS: There's nothing like waking up in Puerto Rico, Dove, to ease the pain of what you went through last night. The sun is up and it's 85 degrees.
BALLON: It is. It is.
ROBERTS: You could be waking up in Fargo, North Dakota this morning, not that it's a bad place, but it is cold there. Just in terms of how they got you off the plane, how they took you out of security, walk us through all of that. What did they say to you? How did they get you out of the terminal? Where were you cooling your heels for so long?
BALLON: The pilot came on the speaker the first time and said that there was a security breach. He didn't really know very much and he couldn't tell us much except we were going to be there for a bit. Then he came back later on and said they knew a little more but that we had to get off the plane.
So we all got off and there were many planes. It was 8:30. And we just kind of moved from place to place. They were, I can't say anyone was herding us, they weren't. The people were very nice, the TSA people and the (INAUDIBLE) police, but people were milling around. I don't know how many thousands. Somebody said 20,000, I have no idea if that's correct or not.
But people were very nice, nobody was pushing, nobody was shoving. We just walked from area to area. And luckily we ended up in an area where the screening equipment is. So we were first to get screened the first couple of -- maybe the first thousand.
CHETRY: Right.
BALLON: We got on our flight which had been a full flight. When we actually left, maybe only a third of us had gotten back on.
CHETRY: One of the things though, Dove, some of them describe it as total chaos. Some people were stuck on flights for four hours. They had to call some ambulances in there. Some people were left outside and you know how cold it was there yesterday. But what about the frustrations as a flyer knowing that just one errant person and they still haven't located this individual, by the way.
BALLON: They haven't?
CHETRY: Who either intentionally or on accident walked through an exit instead of the entrance area of the secure area as they call it or the sterile area, can cause this much chaos for the rest of the flying public.
BALLON: Well, it did and it's dreadful when you're a passenger and you have to go through this, but, you know, what can you do? We couldn't leave because -- first of all, I don't even know if we could have gotten out of the terminal. We were all inside. I don't know if anybody was outside. We certainly weren't. So we weren't cold, we weren't standing in that terrible cold. But for various reasons, we didn't even try to leave the terminal.
ROBERTS: Well, you're going to make up for it today, Dove. Grab a couple hours sleep and hit the beach, pina colada in hand, don't forget your sunscreen. Thanks for sharing with us. Have a great day.
BALLON: Bye bye.
CHETRY: And good luck getting back. They're staying for three months so it will be long forgotten.
ROBERTS: Good for her. Wow.
CHETRY: All right. Forty-five minutes past the hour right now. Rob will be along., Rob Marciano, with your travel forecast right after the break.
ROBERTS: And in ten minutes time, taking a bite out of crime, suspects who eat their evidence. It's the best of Jeanne Moos just ahead. Stay with us.
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CHETRY: And welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 48 minutes past the hour right now.
It's time for your AM House Call, stories about your health. France is selling off millions of extra swine flu shots. The government says it has more than enough to deal with the outbreak in its country. Officials state that it started with a plan for two-dose vaccinations, but since one dose is proving to be sufficient, they're going to start reselling part of their stock. The country spent more than $1 billion on those vaccinations.
A new study by the FDA will be looking at how safe it is for women to take certain prescription drugs when they're pregnant. Health officials say that more clinical trials are needed to determine future regulations and recommendations to pregnant women. Current statistics show about two-thirds of women took at least one prescription drug during pregnancy.
And good sleeping habits cut teenage depression. Researchers say that teens who went to bed after midnight were more likely to be depressed or have suicidal thoughts than those who went to bed earlier. Studies also show that a lack of sleep prevents teens from coping better with stress, so there you go. Everybody needs sleep, but the teenage mind for some reason really seems to need it even more. ROBERTS: And a lot of teenagers are going back to school this morning after the Christmas break and a lot of them getting up at 5:00, 5:30 in the morning to make that early bus and after probably cramming some homework at the end of the holidays. Some schools are actually looking at this idea of starting school later. They just think that the students need to get a little bit more sleep. Also improves test grades as well.
It's 50 minutes after the hour. Ten minutes to the top of the hour. Let's going to check our morning weather. Rob Marciano is in the Extreme Weather Center.
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ROBERTS: Bundle up and get some sleep. All right. Thanks, Rob.
CHETRY: This morning's top stories are just minutes away including new airline security measures and place for travelers headed to the U.S., and those flying in from certain countries have to go through enhanced screenings. Jeanne Meserve will be filling us.
ROBERTS: Plus, at 07:03 Eastern, General David Petraeus meets with the President of Yemen. The importance of this meeting in the fight against the al Qaeda. Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr breaks it all down for us this morning.
CHETRY: And at 07:24 Eastern, nearly 1,000 lobbyists and millions of dollars, Carol Costello shows us what's at stake as congress takes up universal health care reform. Those stories and much more at the top of the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. You know, criminal suspects can do the darnedest things sometimes. Take example the alleged bank robber caught on tape trying to eat some of the evidence.
CHETRY: As Jeanne Moos tells us. It's not the first time that a paper trail has led straight to the suspect's stomach.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's no picnic dining on the hood of a police car. Maybe you've seen the alleged bank robber eating what police believed was hold-up note saying, give me the money or I'll shoot. You may have seen it, but the Twinsburg, Ohio police checking for weapons didn't see it, until police from the city where the bank was robbed called.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They contacted our department and say, by the way, did you guys find a note? And then that's when the officers were checking their dash cam video and, well, there's this guy eating the white piece of paper.
MOOS: But eating the evidence is nothing new. Whatever this lady is eating in a Chinese courtroom, at least she had the sense to wash it down. The most common thing suspects eat seems to be pot, as seen on this episode of Cops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I see what's in your mouth again real quick, please? Please open your mouth. What is that? What's in that? Just spit it out. It's okay.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're eating plastic and everything.
MOOS: And then there was this North Carolina teenager who at least ate appetizing evidence after allegedly trying to rob a store.
MOOS (on-camera): Police say the suspect used a banana stuck under his shirt to simulate a gun, and the owner and customer jumped the suspect and sat him down to hold him until police came, but before they arrived.
BARRY MABE, STORE OWNER: The boy pulls this banana out and peels it and eats it, so he had eat the evidence.
MOOS (on-camera): But not all of it. He couldn't eat the peel, so police photographed it as evidence.
(voice-over): Sometimes, the evidence eaten isn't the main course. Police in a bank robbery case say they still have surveillance pictures and money found in the car with an exploded dye pack and a gun.
(on-camera): So they don't have to like sit around and wait for the guy to pass the note?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't think so, and I don't know if we'd get anybody to volunteer for that job.
MOOS (voice-over): At least a note is low in calories, high in fiber.
Jeanne Moos, CNN.
Maybe he didn't have any breakfast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That could be.
MOOS: New York.
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ROBERTS: Quick thinking criminal, but a lot of evidence left behind that he didn't eat.
CHETRY: yes, that's exactly right, and also, he might have gotten away with it if it wasn't for that pesky dash cam.
ROBERTS: There you go. Got to be alert to all things. It's three minutes to the top of the hour. Top stories coming your way in 90 seconds. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Good Monday morning to you. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this January 4th. Glad you're with us. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us.
Here are this morning's top stories. We'll be breaking it down for you in the next 15 minutes. Tough new screening procedures now in place for passengers flying to the United States from 14 high-risk countries. Those nations all considered a terror risk. Every passenger now facing enhanced security measures, including full body pat downs. The impact that the new rules will have on you just ahead.
CHETRY: The man who leads America's war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan taking his message to Yemen. General David Petraeus meeting with that country's president over the weekend. We're live at the Pentagon with new developments about the high stake sit-down.
ROBERTS: And what Gun Owners and Museum Associations are doing, lobbying around health care reform. Millions of dollars being spent on this bill by some very unlikely special interests. Our Carol Costello is following the money trail this morning.
CHETRY: First, our top story though, air travel about to become even more of a pain for some in the name of safety. Starting today, every international passenger flying to America will face the increased possibility of a full body pat down or more, and if you happen to be flying from more than -- for one of the more than dozen country that's the TSA has labeled high risk, you will definitely be subject to enhanced screening measures.
