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Security Summit; Double Agent Kills 7 CIA Officers; Fixing Security Lapses

Aired January 05, 2010 - 12:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for your "top-of-the-hour" reset. I'm Tony Harris in the CNN NEWSROOM.

It is 12:00 at the White House where President Obama will meet soon with his national security team. He's expected to announce new air travel security measures.

From the Midwest to the Deep South, winter is blasting with both barrels. This deep freeze will get even colder and hang around for a while.

And in Washington, we go inside the war room of a health care reform lobby.

Let's get started.

Fixing the security lapses that allowed a bombing suspect on board a U.S.-bound flight, that is the focus of a meeting today between President Obama and his national security team. That meeting set to begin in about two-and-a-half hours.

White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joining us now with a preview.

And Suzanne, what do we expect out of this meeting today?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, one thing that we do know from senior administration officials who I've spoken with is that the president is going to talk at about 4:00. He's going to come out of the Situation Room meeting and he's going to talk about some reforms they can do right away when it comes to some of those terror watch lists. Perhaps they need to be broader so they can net people who they suspect would be harmful, a threat to this country.

This is a meeting where there's going to be reports, about 20 folks or so in the Situation Room sitting with the president, from the secretaries of State, Defense, Homeland Security, the director of National Intelligence, as well as the attorney General. All of them giving an update of the investigation, where are they on this, and what areas specifically do they need to focus on that perhaps would improve the security situations?

Four different areas. Clearly, one of them is the terror watch list. That might net some more folks. It might be inconvenient, but this is something that they believe is important to examine and perhaps make some real reform, some change.

The other thing is the intelligence gathering, who should have talked to whom. How was it shared? Were people hoarding information? These are the kinds of questions that the president wants to know and will be addressed.

The other thing, can a future attack be prevented, and how? And then the screening processes. How will people travel through the airports? How will that change?

We've already seen the TSA implement some changes already when it comes to international flights. Perhaps those will change domestically as well. And visas, that's another thing, the State Department, whether or not visas should be handled by State or Homeland Security, how they're going to beef up their own procedures.

These are the kinds of things they're going to be talking about, Tony. Some of the things the president is going to address today to the American people, that some changes are already under way.

HARRIS: Speaking of changes, any resignations, reassignments expected today?

MALVEAUX: Reassignments, that's an interesting way of putting it. Well, the way they are explaining it here, folks I spoke with this morning are saying you're not going to hear any of that today. And there's not going to be a massive shake-up or anything like that.

If there's more information that comes out with these reports, or if the folks don't follow through with what they say they're going to do, these improvements, then you might see some changes there. But right now, no resignations, no shake-ups.

Simply, these are the recommendations, I'm holding you accountable to making these changes, let's see if they get done. That's going to be the president's message.

HARRIS: Our White House correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux.

Suzanne, appreciate it. Thank you.

And of course we will bring you live coverage of President Obama's remarks following his meeting with the national security team. The president will outline new airline security measures. He is expected to speak around 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

The American Embassy in Yemen is back open for business today. The U.S. shut down diplomatic operations in Sanaa for two days due to a terror threat. Officials say the source of that threat, four al Qaeda bombers, have been neutralized. Other western embassies reopened as well, but with limited services.

The shooting yesterday at a Las Vegas federal courthouse happened almost four months after the suspect lost a cost case over Social Security benefits. That's according to law enforcement sources.

Take a listen here. You can hear the gunshots.

A security guard was killed and a U.S. Marshal wounded before the suspect was killed in a shootout with officers outside the federal building. For some who were in the area at the time, the shooting came out of nowhere.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOBBY SCOTTLAND, WITNESS: I just remembered when I'm looking back at all these reports, the gentleman, a black gentleman in a black jacket, and there weren't too many people on the street. And I remember passing.

He didn't look disturbed, you know, from what I saw, if that is the gentleman. You know, nothing would have given me a second thought that what was about to happen, happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Boy.

New economic figures just out on the housing front. A big drop in the number of buyers agreeing to purchase previously owned homes in November. The National Association of Realtors showing a 16 percent decline -- man -- after nine months of gains.

Meanwhile, a surprisingly big jump in orders to U.S. factories. The Commerce Department showing orders up by 1.1 percent in November, reflecting strong demands in industries from steel and industrial machinery, to computers and chemicals.

Our NEWSROOM question deals with the 2010 census. The government is spending $14 billion to count heads.

You'll get your questionnaire in the mail in March. Do you plan to fill it out or toss it?

Go to our blog, CNN.com/Tony. Tell us what you'll do with your census form when it gets to you in March, and tell us why, if you would, please.

And you can also participate in our "Quick Vote" at CNN.com, right now. One hundred percent say, yes, they will fill it out.

We will share more results and your comments throughout our time here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

A double agent identified now as a suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officers on a U.S. base in Afghanistan.

CNN's Pentagon correspondent, Chris Lawrence, joining us live with what he is learning about last week's attack.

And Chris, how did this man get onto the base?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Because, Tony, the intelligence officials met him off the base. They put him in a car without searching him, and they, themselves, drove him onto the base.

Now, a senior U.S. official is telling us this was a Jordanian man that had been used before, that he had given very good information about extremely high-level targets. Now, he had had extremist views, but the intelligence officials apparently believe that he had been rehabilitated from those extremist views, and they were using him to hunt Ayman al-Zawahiri.

He's the number two man in al Qaeda. He's Osama bin Laden's right-hand man. So this was an extremely high-level operation. They were bringing him to base and, again, without searching him in that car. They brought him on base, he detonated himself and killed seven agents and also one Jordanian handler that was working with them.

HARRIS: So, Chris, putting this man in a vehicle without searching him feels like a breach of protocol. Is there any reason they would not have searched him?

LAWRENCE: Well, I talked with a former intelligence guy just a few days ago. He used to be Special Forces, also worked in the intelligence community. He gave me a better idea of what kind of work they're doing there, and he sort of put it in perspective as to the level of trust that has to be earned on both sides.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN ROBINSON, INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: This is not people who are flipping hamburgers at Wendy's. This is someone trying to convince someone to betray a tribal interest or an interest of a group, and they know that that betrayal could cost them the death of their entire family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: So, by searching someone, you kind of break down those levels of trust that you're trying to establish. But some intelligence officials have said the one thing they don't understand is why so many people were meeting with this one source. They say normally it may only be a couple people, not because they think someone's going to blow themselves up, but because they want to keep the identities of both the intelligence officers and the source to a relatively small group.

HARRIS: All right.

Chris Lawrence at the Pentagon for us.

Chris, appreciate it. Thank you.

President Obama is getting ready to meet with his security advisers this afternoon. I'm going to talk to someone who has been in many meetings like this to get her perspective on what's going on.

But first, though, our "Random Moment" in 90 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: Thousands of flyers got seriously stuck at Newark International Airport Sunday after a knucklehead jumped security.

So what do you do? How do you pass the time?

It is our "Random Moment of the Day."

(MUSIC)

HARRIS: There you go. Waiting at Newark airport and singing the Beatles, our offbeat, off-key "Random Moment of the Day."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Figuring out what went wrong and fixing the problems, President Obama today hears from his national security team about the attempted terror attack on Christmas Day and steps to prevent future attacks.

CNN national security contributor Frances Townsend is with us from Washington with some insight on that meeting.

Fran, good to talk to you.

FRANCES FRAGOS TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: Good to see you, Tony.

HARRIS: Let's do this -- John Brennan, deputy national security adviser, says we're going to work to strengthen the system to make sure no one like Abdulmutallab gets on a plane with explosives.

TOWNSEND: Right.

HARRIS: So, where would you start? And let me frame this for you. I've listened to you give congressional testimony on a couple of occasions now on issues like this, and you bring ideas. So, strengthening the airport security system, where would you start? Put us in the room.

TOWNSEND: Well, OK. Let's look at things like secure flight, the ability to separate wheat from chaff, if you will.

There are known travelers. What you want is a program that lets you get through the business travelers, the people who are through airports regularly, so you can focus the attention of screeners on those who matter most. And so, this is an opportunity to get secure flight in place.

You also want to have -- you know, we've talked about body imaging and scanners. This is an opportunity for the administration to address the privacy concerns, but to put those -- to get those systems in place so you have better physical screening.

Explosives detection, we have temporarily right now additional dogs in place. I think you're going to need a permanent ability to have more dogs, explosive detection dogs, at airports, but while you search to have better technology in place for explosive detection. And so there's a number of things in terms of screening you can do to better address this issue.

HARRIS: Yes. As someone who has been a part of these meetings, would these discussions be framed by -- and I'm reaching here -- in this case, the Obama administration's national security strategy of re-engaging Muslim nations, getting more of a coordinated international response to events like this Christmas Day event?

TOWNSEND: Well, I expect, Tony, that what will happen is, the president has said John Brennan, his -- my successor, is going to lead this review. I expect the meeting will open with a briefing from John about both what he's found so far and what changes need to take place immediately, in addition to his plan for a more detailed review.

I expect the president will make a very clear statement. This is one of those meetings I'm glad I'm not at, because I expect this is the president's first opportunity to express his anger and disappointment that the system failed to the agency heads. And then I expect he'll listen about what their plans are and what steps they've taken to immediately improve the system.

The president is going to have to make a delicate balance here. You know, he's had this outreach to the Muslim world. At the same time, DHS, Secretary Napolitano has announced, the special screening procedures. The majority of those countries are Muslim majority countries and there's this tension.

While the president's reaching out, we're going to have special screening procedures for those very allies who are helping us in the war on terror. And so, the president's going to have to really calculate, along with Secretary Clinton, how they're going to manage that balance.

HARRIS: That leads me to this next one. If I asked you, what are the realistic threats to our security as you see it, and you were in that room, how would you answer that question?

TOWNSEND: Well, look, al Qaeda has been for years now obsessed with the aviation target. That's not going to go away. But we have to look at the transportation sector as a whole.

I don't just worry about aviation. I worry about trains, like we saw in Madrid. I worry about buses, as they've seen in Israel.

All the transportation targets are at risk, and we have to be careful not to just be chasing the last attack; right? We have to be careful not just put procedures in place to stop the last one that didn't happen. We have to be looking ahead.

HARRIS: Have you ever been in one of these national security meetings where someone has asked a question, oh, Fran, is there a machine, is there a data processing program, a scanning machine that eliminates the human error from the security equation?

TOWNSEND: You know, Tony, we have a system that relies on human intelligence and law enforcement agents. We have a system that involves people. And so you have to accept there's always going to be some room for human error.

What you're trying to do is put systems in place that reduce that, both technology and business process, if you will, that reduce the likelihood or the ability for there to be human error. You want redundancy in the system so that if it's missed at one point, perhaps an analyst in another point will pick it up. And So, I bet -- I feel confident that those are the kinds of questions, John Brennan and the president of the United States are going to be asking of agency heads today.

HARRIS: Boy, I'm enjoying these talks.

Fran Townsend with us.

Fran, appreciate it. Thank you.

TOWNSEND: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: President Obama's inauguration last January came off like clockwork, but behind the scenes, a tense security scramble. "The New York Times" magazine reports U.S. intelligence pointed to an Inauguration Day attack on the new president.

Peter Baker wrote the article and talked to CNN's Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "AC 360": What was the alleged threat, and how seriously did officials take it?

PETER BAKER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, it was some intelligence indicated that there were a group of Somalis who intended to come to Washington to detonate explosives on the National Mall, where the president of the United States, of course, would be taking the oath of office on January 20th and addressing the world with his inaugural address.

They took it quite seriously in the last 48 to 72 hours before the inauguration. Increasingly, they were picking up signs that made them feel like this was a serious and possible threat. They met repeatedly with each other, the old team, the Bush team and the new team, the Obama team, during this transition period in order to try to figure out what to do about it. And it was a moment of some quiet tension there for a new president who was just about to take office.

COOPER: I understand President Obama even canceled a rehearsal of the inauguration.

When was the president actually briefed? And do you know what his reaction was?

BAKER: Well, he was kept up to date in the few days leading up to the inauguration. There was one point in particular we write about in the magazine, the night before the inauguration.

His counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, and a couple of foreign policy advisers jump into the limousine with him as he's heading off to one of the inaugural events to tell him the latest they had heard and everything that was being done about this. One of the things that the new administration and the old agreed was that they would keep Robert Gates, the defense secretary, away from the inauguration in a secure location, a secret location, just in case the worst happened. And everybody in the line of succession were to be killed in a catastrophic event, he'd be able to take over the presidency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Wow. The plot turned out to be bogus, but that wasn't known until after the inauguration.

Want to get quickly to Chad Myers in the Severe Weather Center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: All right. Let's get to our top stories now.

President Obama sits down with 20 members of his national security team in a few hours. Afterward, he is expected to announce upgraded security measures for air travel. The review comes after the botched attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day.

The U.S. Embassy in Yemen reopened today after a two-day shutdown. Officials say a raid on al Qaeda targets ended a threat. Other western embassies in Yemen have also reopened, though some are restricting visitors and services.

Amtrak service for the Northeast halted for almost two hours today after a train struck and killed a 14-year-old girl. Reports out of Baltimore say the girl was on her way to school.

More top stories in 20 minutes.

For some lobbyists, the campaign never stops. We will take you inside the war room of one group trying to influence the outcome of health care legislation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Here's one defensive measure the U.S. hopes will work -- increasing the number of people on the no-fly list.

Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve reports the list has grown significantly since the Christmas Day terror attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hundreds of people with potential links to terrorism have been added to the lists of people who cannot fly or need additional screening, the result of a scrub of government terror databases in the aftermath of the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing. An official familiar with the process says particular attention was given to certain countries and regions with ties to terrorism.

All citizens and travelers from 14 of those countries will now get enhanced screening when they fly to the U.S. that could include full-body pat-downs, carry-on bag searches, full-body scanning and explosive detection swabs.

Critics were harsh.

LARRY JOHNSON, FMR. STATE DEPT. COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL: What this is doing is already identifying for the bad guys, here are the 14 countries that you have to worry about. So, as long as you're not one of the countries, you can do a workaround.

MESERVE: On the list, countries officially designated as supporters of terrorism and 10 others of concern to U.S. counterterrorism officials. But analysts say terrorists can and have come from elsewhere. A notable example, shoe bomber Richard Reid, a British citizen.

Some experts believe singling out travelers from 14 nations, most of them Muslim, could backfire on the U.S.

RICK NELSON, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: What that might have is the unintended effect of feeding into this al Qaeda narrative that says that Islam -- the United States is at war with Islam. And we have to be very careful, because it's that narrative that feeds the ranks and builds the ranks of al Qaeda.

MESERVE: Meanwhile, news of another potential clue missed by U.S. officials. They now acknowledge being briefed last summer about another bomber who hid explosives in his underwear. He had tried to assassinate the top Saudi counterterrorism official.

JOHN BRENNAN, WHITE HOUSE SR. COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: PETN was the substance used in that attack. We were looking very carefully at that. There was no indication at that time that there was going to be an attempt against an aircraft.

MESERVE: But one of Brennan's predecessors says that scenario should have been examined.

TOWNSEND: Given al Qaeda's obsession with aviation targets, especially at the Department of Homeland Security, one would have hoped someone in the system would have been responsible for looking at the potential for deployment and our ability to detect such a device.

MESERVE (on camera): Some reaction to those new TSA security guidelines. The Council on American-Islamic Relations says they amount to racial profiling. The TSA says not so, its security measures are based on threats, not ethnic or religious background. It also notes that the majority of all travelers coming to the U.S. will get enhanced screening, not just those from the 14 countries named.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: No security system will ever be able to completely protect us from terrorists. That's what former defense secretary William Cohen told CNN's John Roberts on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Do you have any confidence at all that even after this next meeting at the White House, that we're going to be any safer than we were prior to this thing that happened on Christmas Day?

WILLIAM COHEN, FMR. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, we may be somewhat safer, but we're never going to be safe. We're living in an age of terror, that Steve (ph) would call the age of holy terror as such in terms of the extremists who are driven by an ideology that is destructive and violent. And so no matter what measures we take to protect us -- and we will enhance them, but we're always going to remain vulnerable to these kind of attacks because we're a democratic society that's not going to engage in a type of Stalinist extreme measures to protect ourselves so that we destroy the very essence of a democracy.

So, we're going to have to live with some of that uncertainty. We're going to have to live with the fact that there are terrorists out there who will likely be out there for a long time. And the best we can do is try to marginalize them, contain them, track them down and kill or capture them, but understand that some are going to get through no matter how good we get at defensive measures.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: We will bring you live coverage of President Obama's remarks following his meeting with his national security team. The president will outline new airline security measures. He is expected to speak around 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Chrysler says December vehicle sales declined 4 percent from a year earlier. Top story right now at cnnmoney.com. Also the announcement of Google's Nexus One, the Google phone. Again, as always, if you want the latest financial news, we direct you to the great work being done by our Money team at cnnmoney.com.

Let's get you to the big board now, New York Stock Exchange, three hours into the trading day. As you can see, we're selling today after yesterday's big run-up over 150 points. We're selling today, down 30 points. The Nasdaq, pretty flat. Down one.

Dubai is home of the world's tallest building, for now. It stands over half a mile tall. It opened yesterday to a lot of media fanfare. But as CNN's Bill Tucker reminds us, the building is surrounded by an area plagued by financial problems. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a building built to impress. It soars 2,717 feet into the air. It costs $1.5 billion to build, or about a quarter of a billion more than the new home of the Dallas Cowboys. But while Cowboy's Stadium houses what are said to be the world's largest TV screens, Burj Khalifa is billed as a vertical city, with offices, luxury apartments, four swimming pools, a private library and a hotel designed by fashion designer Giorgio Armani.

MOHAMED ALABBAR, CHAIRMAN, EMAAR PROPERTIES: It really puts Dubai on the map as a city that just arrived, you know, to the helm of -- of global city and worldly city.

TUCKER: The Burj Khalifa is not the only $1.5 billion project in Dubai. The Palm Dubai opened in November of 2008 with a massive party. The resort offers a multitude of restaurants, retail shops, a water park, spas, clubs, and a private lagoon with hotel rooms that have floor-to-ceiling views of the lagoon from beneath the surface. It is a conspicuous display of wealth and an illusion of prosperity.

It may not appear like it, but this is a kingdom in the middle of a financial crisis. Dubai's next door neighborhood, Sheikh Khalifa, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, has authorized $125 billion in direct and indirect aid to Dubai in the past year to save it from insolvency. That kind of money is not free say financial observers.

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP: A pound of flesh needs to be paid. It's being paid, that's why it's called the Burj Khalifa. Now, we in the west say Burj Khalifa, Burj Dubai. It's still the Burj. It's still this, you know, sort of ridiculous building in the middle of an emirate that's effectively gone bust.

TUCKER: Sheikh Khalifa is also the president of the United Arab Emirates. The federation of seven small emirates, which includes Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Bill Tucker, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Boy, some revealing new figures on health care spending. A federal study shows the U.S. spent an average of $7,681 per person on health care in 2008. It adds up to an eye-popping $2.3 trillion. That actually marks the slowest rate of increased spending since the government began tracking in the 1960s.

Those figures underscore the challenges facing lawmakers trying to overhaul the system. Our Carol Costello reports on key lobbyists working to push through their method of health care reform.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, since 2007, the Service Employees International Union has treated the health care reform bill as if it were a candidate and it's organized an all-out presidential- type campaign to get it elected, so to speak. Today, an inside look at how one large lobby sought and got, at least in part, what it wanted out of health care reform.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDY STERN, SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION PRESIDENT : What are you doing today?

COSTELLO (voice-over): That's Andy Stern, president of the powerful Service Employees International Union. Powerful because it boasts 2 million members and it has clout. After all . . .

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you so much. Thank you.

COSTELLO: It helped Barack Obama become president.

STERN: This is our war room.

COSTELLO: Stern is in the union's war room, filled with people who are lobbying for President Obama's dream, and their own.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Health care reform.

COSTELLO: Health care reform. Public option included.

STERN: Health care's been our candidate and we've been trying to win the election and we're closer than ever before.

COSTELLO: The analogy is a good one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you want?

CROWD: Health care.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When do you want it?

CROWD: Now.

COSTELLO: These union members are unofficially lobbying for their candidate outside Democratic Congressman Michael McMahon's Brooklyn office.

GEORGEANNE KOEHLER, SEIU PENNSYLVANIA: We have a ways to walk.

COSTELLO: In Pittsburgh, union member Georgeanne Koehler makes use of another campaign tactic.

KOEHLER: We're going door to door today. We're going to canvass the neighborhoods, knock on doors and ask the good people in this area if they would sign cards in support of health care reform.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: SEIU Local 511, your union. How are you?

COSTELLO: In all, the SEIU has 400 full-time people working to push through health care reform. A nationwide contingent that helps open doors to Washington's elite. That's Senator Harry Reid and his Senate colleagues last November celebrating the unveiling of the Senate health care bill. And who's that standing next to him? Why, it's Loretta Johnson, a registered lobbyists for the Service Employees International Union.

LORETTA JOHNSON, SEIU LOBBYIST: Thank you so much, Senator Reid.

COSTELLO: The only non-senator to speak that night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great to see you.

JOHNSON: Good to see you again.

COSTELLO: Johnson is one of the few lobbyists warmly welcomed by lawmakers. The union says it's because she's not an insider, but a health care worker turned lobbyist from rural Virginia. Still, she's a lobbyist backed by a powerful union and that means something. Johnson says she's met with . . .

JOHNSON: At least half of the congressmen and about all of the senators.

REP. RICK BOUCHER (D), VIRGINIA: People who represent various interests in our society have a lot of information to share and we find useful the information that is provided.

COSTELLO: Critics aren't surprised by the union's access to lawmakers.

OBAMA: Local 880 SEIU, because . . .

COSTELLO: But they are surprised by the union's access to President Obama. A president who's made a big deal about not working with lobbyists, yet the White House visitor logs through September show union boss Andrew Stern visited the White House 22 times. But here's the catch. Although Stern's union is lobbying for health care reform, Stern technically isn't. Because unlike Loretta Johnson, he's not a registered lobbyists. He deregistered in 2007.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Many lobbyists have decided clearly that they can achieve much the same effect without technically being registered. So they, themselves, have the access and influence and be invited to the White House.

COSTELLO: The Americans for Tax Reform and the Alliance for Worker Freedom say that's a violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act.

COSTELLO (on camera): They've petitioned the U.S. attorney to investigate you for illegal lobbying activities. So how would you respond to them?

STERN: We're going to send them a letter and tell them the truth, which is, we've complied with the law and we assume whenever the investigation is done it will be fine.

COSTELLO: And they're going to come back at you and say, oh, my God, he's visited the White House 22 times. That's a lot of times. STERN: I don't care if I went there once or I went there every single day, they would think it's too much, because they a different vision of America than the people who I work with every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please don't filibuster the health care reform.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Back in the union's war room, all systems are go until health care reform is signed, sealed, and delivered by a man with the same dream, President Barack Obama.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: There is a rule that mandates those who spend 20 percent of their time lobbying for an issue must register as a lobby. This is the rule union boss Andrew Stern is accused of violating. The D.C. U.S. attorney's office told me they did receive a letter of complaint, but because the matter was pending, they couldn't offer me any more information. We did ask the White House to comment on whether Mr. Stern's visit swayed them to act on his behalf in any way. It declined to comment on the matter -- Tony.

HARRIS: All right, Carol, appreciate it. Thank you.

Our top stories in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And checking our top stories now.

President Obama is meeting with his top security advisors today in the situation room. He is getting an update on the security lapses from the Christmas Day attempt to bomb a flight to Detroit. After the meeting, the president will brief the public on plans to improve security.

And we are learning more about the man who opened fire at a federal courthouse in Las Vegas. Law enforcement sources say he may have been upset about losing a Social Security discrimination case. One person was killed and another wounded before the suspect died in a shootout with authorities.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: We have been asking you to weigh in on this issue, will you fill out the Census Bureau questionnaire? Here's what some of you are saying to us.

Michael from Texas writes, "our borders are too corrupt for the census count to bare any true numbers of our population."

How about this from Don from Vegas who writes, "no, is the answer. Government, in my mind, is getting too much into my business, what I eat, and now how I care for myself. Enough already!"

Dea in North Carolina writes, "the census is required by the Constitutional, and like voting, is a way for me to be heard and counted. Boycotting it means my state loses seats in Congress."

Pamela says, "yes, I think it is our responsibility to fill out the census because if we don't, then it could hurt our state in getting help from the government with medical care and other money."

As for our quick vote, 100 percent of you say, yes, that they will fill out the questionnaire. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: We are now getting the police scanner traffic from the shooting yesterday at a Las Vegas federal courthouse. The shooting happened almost four months after the suspect lost a court case over Social Security benefits. That's according to law enforcement sources. Let's take a listen now to the scanner track.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A shooting outside of the Las Vegas courthouse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Unbelievable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I apologize. That's clearly not the scanner traffic. That is obviously cell phone video of the incident as it is was happening posted on YouTube and other places. As you know, a security guard was killed and a U.S. marshal wounded before the suspect was killed in a shootout with officers outside the federal building. And for some who were in the area at the time, they report that the shooting seemed to come out of nowhere.

Expect to be counted. The 2010 census is getting underway in an effort to count every American resident. CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow is in New York.

Poppy, good to see you. This is, man, you talk about undertaking, this is quite an undertaking.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Huge. Exactly. And, you know, it's funny, I don't ever remember filling out one of those census forms, but I better do it this year because it's required by law. Folks, it's part of our Constitution. Every 10 years you've got to count the population of the United States.

But this year's census is really unique. There's a lot of challenges. So let's go through some of them. First of all, we're coming off the worst economic downturn in modern history. That has pushed a lot of people out of their homes. So because of this flood of foreclosures, you have a lot of people that are going to be very hard to count because they're in temporary living situations.

You also have Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. They pushed a lot of people out of the Gulf Coast. So the Census Bureau is saying, listen, we're trying our hardest to deliver these surveys by hand to each and every one of those displaced people, especially.

And also you've got to count any illegal aliens, illegal residents or immigrants, to the -- to the United States, Tony. Regardless of whether legally they should be here or not, you've got to include them in the census. Many times they don't want to talk to the government for obvious reasons. So that's a big challenge.

But the Census Bureau, and we talked to the head -- the secretary of commerce, who helps run this, yesterday. They said, listen, we're determined to get an accurate count. So what they're doing is they're kicking off this huge road show, this huge road tour to go to 800 cities across the country. This is what they started off with here in New York City yesterday in Times Square, trying to encourage people to fill out these census forms. The big question is, why spend so much time, so much effort on it? Really it's because the stakes are quite high.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY LOCKE, COMMERCE SECRETARY: We need an accurate count. And it's not just to determine how many members of the House of Representatives every state will get, but it's also the allocation of some $400 billion a year in federal aid. And especially when cities and counties and states are cutting back, this $400 billion in federal funding per year based on the census going out for education, human services, elderly programs, housing, transportation, that's badly needed money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: It is, so you better fill out that form, Tony. They're going to start coming to your house in March. And, again, it's required by law that you fill them out -- Tony.

HARRIS: All right, Poppy, appreciate it. Thank you.

We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You know, relations between the United States and Cuba have been rocky for years. But as CNN's Shasta Darlington reports from Havana, Fidel Castro has shown both love and hate towards President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For nearly 50 years, Cuban Leader Fidel Castro led marches against the United States and blasted the Cold War enemy in marathon speeches. Then, sidelined by illness, Castro railed against President George W. Bush in written essays, published on the Internet, state newspapers and even read aloud on Cuban television.

But with the election of Barack Obama, a new mood took hold in Cuba.

"We're all happy to see they've elected a black president for the first time," this man says. "We have high hopes he does a good job."

Fidel Castro was the first to signal a mood change. In his columns called "Reflections of Comrade Fidel," he praised Obama's youth and vigor and defended the decision to award him the Nobel Peace Prize. Of the 100-plus columns that he wrote last year, a quarter of them were focused on Obama. But by December, they had turned less flattering, as we saw in a letter he sent to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez insisting Washington was on the offensive in Latin America. Chavez read the message aloud at a summit.

"The intentions of the empire are obvious," he said. "This time hidden behind the friendly smile and African-American face of President Barack Obama."

In November current Cuban leader, Raul Castro, led the country's biggest military exercises in five years, saying he wants to be prepared in the event of a U.S. invasion. And in a recent speech, he accused Mr. Obama of what he called the same dirty tricks that President Bush had used.

"The enemy is as active as always," he said.

He was referring to the American contractor detained in Cuba last month for surreptitiously distributing satellite here under a program started by the last administration.

DARLINGTON (on camera): In his first essay of the new year, Fidel Castro takes another swipe at the current president. Not a good sign for the future of relations between Cuba and the United States.

Shasta Darlington, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: A bit of breaking news we're getting here into the CNN NEWSROOM. California's Bakersfield Meadows Airport has been shut down. And here's why. TSA agents were doing what they described as a normal swab of a piece of luggage when it tested positive for a hazardous substance.

And then here's what happened. A TSA agents opened the bag and both became nauseous. It's a bit concerning and worrying here. They were transported to a local hospital. Our understanding now is that the bag is being examined and x-rayed and tested. One adult male is being detained and questioned as well. He is the owner of the bag. And things at the airport aren't expected to get back to normal for at least a few hours.

We will keep an eye on this situation and bring you further updates. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: Is the suspected Christmas Day bomber a defendant or combatant? As CNN's Brian Todd tells us, a debate is brewing over his treatment and whether it may have cost investigators valuable time and information.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, ABC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He sits in a federal penitentiary in Miland, Michigan, charged by the U.S. government with attempting to destroy an aircraft. To some in Washington, that's the problem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we had treated the Christmas Day bomber as a terrorist, he would have immediately been interrogated military style rather than given the rights of an American and lawyers. We probably lost valuable information.

TODD: Another senator, Homeland Security Chairman Joe Lieberman, calls it a very serious mistake for the administration to place Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab under civilian criminal charges rather than treat him as an enemy combatant. Lieberman argues Abdulmutallab committed an act of war and should be interrogated like a military prisoner so another possibly eminent attack can be quickly prevented. The president's top counter terror advisors aggressively defends the decision to go the civilian route.

JOHN BRENNAN, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: We have great confidence in the FBI and other individuals in terms of debriefing. We have great confidence in our court system so that we can use that to our advantage. And individuals in the past have, in fact, given us very valuable information as they've gone through the plea agreement process.

TODD: Contacted by CNN, a U.S. law enforcement official would not say whether a plea bargain is being discussed for Abdulmutallab or not. Former White House Associate Counsel David Rivkin argues the problem with offering him a plea bargain is crucial time lost in setting it all up.

TODD (on camera): What could the military system produce that the civilian system could not produce in this case?

DAVID RIVKIN, FORMER ASSOCIATE WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: The short answer, it can produce things faster and better. Faster first because you do not have access to counsel. You do not have Miranda warnings. You do not have people in effect telling you to clam up.

TODD (voice-over): Rivkin says Abdulmutallab's lawyers could drag this process out for months while they strike a deal.

TODD (on camera): The suspect has at least one public defender. The law enforcement official we spoke to would not say whether he's cooperating or if he was read his Miranda rights.

TODD (voice-over): Eugene Fidell, who's tried several military and civilian cases, say the administration's made the right move. EUGENE FIDELL, YALE LAW SCHOOL: Choosing a military forum rather than a civilian forum is not going to make any difference in terms of the speed with which you could extract information from a suspect. In fact, the rules are going to be the same in both forums.

TODD: And there are indications that Abdulmutallab gave some information to U.S. officials very early on. A law enforcement bulletin, obtained by CNN, the night of the attempted bombing says, "the subject is claiming to have extremist affiliation and that the device was acquired in Yemen," along with instructions as to when it should be used.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Kyra Phillips in New York City.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Tony, thanks so much.