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American Morning
President Obama to Hold Situation Room Security Summit; Jordanian Double Agent Who Killed Seven Officers was a Jordanian Doctor; Las Vegas Courthouse Shooting Kills Guard and Wounds Deputy Marshal; At Stake: Power and Money; Pieces of a Terror Puzzle; Criminal or Combatant?; Security Procedures Not Followed in Afghanistan
Aired January 05, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, glad you're with us on this Tuesday, January 5th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for being with us. Here are this morning's top stories. Details we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
President Obama will meet with his Homeland Security team in the White House situation room this afternoon. The president hopes to find out how prepared we really are to deal with the threat of terrorism nearly two weeks after a suspected terrorist tried to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner.
CHETRY: And there are new details emerging about the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA agents inside a base in Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence officials now say he was a Jordanian-born doctor working as a double agent. And they say the bomber got into the base without being searched. We're live at the Pentagon with developments.
ROBERTS: They are counting on you to be counted. We're taking a closer look at the 2010 census. The $300 million effort to get you to fill out the form. The power and the money at stake. Why minorities could lose their fair share if they don't get involved.
CHETRY: Well, after 11 days on a beach in Hawaii, the president is back at work at the White House today. He'll be huddling with his Homeland Security team in the basement of the West Wing this afternoon. He wants to know how a suspended terrorist managed to board a Detroit-bound plane Christmas Day armed with explosives, and that's just for starters.
Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House this morning with our security watch. And, Suzanne, tell us a little bit more about who is going to be at this meeting and what we expect to happen.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Kiran. Well, one thing about accountability, this president wants to see his top executives, the chiefs of all of these different agencies face to face. That is what this meeting is about, to have them explain and report back to him what they've learned from this failed terror plot. So we are going to see at this table, of course, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, also the director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, as well as the director of CIA Leon Panetta, all of them at the table to explain a couple of things here.
Obviously, they've had briefings, conference calls already, but they've gotten information about review of the terror list. Is it comprehensive enough? Does it need to include more names?
They're going to be taking a look as well at the intelligence gathering process. Are these agencies sharing information? How can they break some of the barriers? Are there things like turf wars that are taking place?
Can a terror attack even be thwarted? Was this a possible one that could have been essentially avoided or could they have actually caught this guy ahead of time?
And then finally looking at the airline passenger screening process. They talked a lot about visas. They talked a lot about the TSA, different kinds of ways that they could have actually caught this guy in advance and made sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen again. All those things the president is going to be asking about. A lot of questions. He hopes to get some serious answers, and then, of course, we're going to hear from the president and he's going to talk a little bit about what he's learned -- Kiran.
CHETRY: It's also interesting. The president has come back from vacation. He's going to be in a room with all these people. Do any of the people in that room think that perhaps they could lose their job over this?
MALVEAUX: Well, according to senior administration officials who I spoke with, no. They do not think that that's going to happen. They think obviously there's been a lot of focus on Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was under a lot of heat. The president is going to come out and according to these sources and say, look, he supports the team. There were errors that were made. They were ways that they can do things better but that nobody is necessarily going to lose their job over this, but they are going to be held accountable in terms of improving each one of those agencies and departments so this kind of thing doesn't happen again.
CHETRY: Suzanne Malveaux for us at the White House this morning. Thank you.
ROBERTS: The suicide bombing that killed seven CIA officials in Afghanistan appears to have been a deadly betrayal. U.S. intelligence officials say the bomber was a Jordanian double agent who came to a military base in Khost for a meeting last week. He was invited to the forward operating base claiming to have information on Al Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri and was allowed on the base without being searched.
For our security watch, let's go to Barbara Starr. She's live at the Pentagon for us this morning. And, Barbara, the CIA thought that the suicide bomber was reformed, correct?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, John. We've spoken to a former senior U.S. intelligence official who is familiar with the details of this, and that person tells us that they did think he was reformed. He had been arrested at one point in Jordan for militant activities, and the Jordanians thought he was rehabilitated. How did all of this happened?
Well, apparently the U.S. intelligence agent met him off base in Afghanistan. Did not search him, put him into a car and drove him back on base when this happened. That led to this tragedy of seven CIA officers being killed plus one Jordanian agent who had been working with him.
Who was this man? His name was Humam Abu al Balawi (ph). He came from the same town in Jordan as Abu Musaba Sarkawi (ph) who you will remember was the leader of Al Qaeda back in Iraq killed by the U.S military. The Jordanians thought he was very reliable, and so did the U.S. because in the past he had given a good deal of verified information about high level targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They had every reason to believe this time he also was loyal and that he was going to bring them information about Al Qaeda's number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri -- John.
ROBERTS: You have to wonder if he was just laying and wait that long or if he suddenly turned. What about the death of his handler? This member of the Jordanian royal family?
STARR: Right. This adds, of course, to the tragedy of the seven U.S. CIA officers killed. This was Captain Ali bin Zeid (ph) who was a cousin to King Abdullah. And look the significance here is this now widens this issue far beyond Afghanistan. The Jordanian government, the Jordanian royal family has been a strong supporter of the U.S in the hunt for Al Qaeda.
U.S. officials privately say the Jordanians have helped with the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and Ayman al-Zawahiri and this is with the knowledge that they have a militant faction inside their own small country of Jordan. So this puts King Abdullah of Jordan in a very tough public position in the Middle East, seeing as helping the U.S. in the fight for Al Qaeda, knowing there are people in his own country that do not support that, John.
ROBERTS: All right. Barbara Starr for us this morning at the Pentagon. Barbara, thanks so much.
And ahead at 6:30 here in the Most News in the Morning, the role of the CIA in Afghanistan. We'll be joined by former Middle East CIA official Sam Faddas and Jamie Smith, an ex-CIA officer who now runs a private intelligence company.
CHETRY: Six minutes past the hour right now. Other stories new this morning. Chilling details just coming to light about a terror threat during President Obama's inauguration. According to "The New York Times," intelligence officials were concerned that Somali terrorists believed to be crossing from Canada were plotting to detonate explosives on the National Mall as millions watched. It was said that they worked around the clock to figure out whether or not this threat was real. Ultimately it turned out to be a false report.
ROBERTS: A TSA officer has been reassigned to non-screening duties after a man was able to enter a secure area at Newark Liberty International Airport. Thousands of travelers and flights were delayed for some seven hours on Sunday night as authorities shut down the terminal and had to re-screen everyone. The unidentified man was later seen on a security tape leaving the terminal.
CHETRY: All right. Well, seven minutes past the hour right now. We get a check of our weather headlines this morning. Our Rob Marciano in the extreme weather center and it looks a lot like it did yesterday, right? Frigid and cold out there.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and only getting colder. We have another punch of even more cold air coming down from Canada. That will be driving south and this will cost the eastern two-thirds of the country. But right now the folks across the south are certainly saying, it can't get any worse than this.
Check out some of the numbers across the deep south. Eighteen now in Atlanta, in the 20s in Savannah, even below freezing in New Orleans. And getting close to the freezing mark across Tampa and Central and Southern Florida once again in a freeze warning until 9:00 later on today. We do have lake effect snows that will continue to fire off especially Ontario and Erie, but those will be winding down.
There's your frigid air mass driving south from Canada. Pacific Northwest seeing a little bit of the action as well, and that will kind of combine with that cold air over the next couple of days and that will make things interesting across parts of the deep south come Thursday. We'll talk more about that in about 30 minutes.
John, Kiran, back up to you.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to it, Rob. Thanks so much.
A deadly shooting in a Las Vegas courtroom yesterday. The incredible sound of gunfire caught on tape. We'll play it for you, coming right up.
It's eight minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Ten-and-a-half minutes after the hour. Time for a quick check of what's new this morning.
The Beverly Hills fertility doctor who helped so-called octomom Nadya Suleman conceive her children has been accused of gross negligence. California State medical board says Michael Kamrava transferred an excessive number of embryos beyond what's considered acceptable by fertility standards. The board will now decide whether his medical license should be suspended or revoked. Suleman has 14 children.
CHETRY: Well, the Secret Service is now admitting that Tareq and Michaele Sahali were not the only dinner gatecrashers at the president's first White House state dinner back in November. The agency now says a third unauthorized guest made it inside by entering with the Indian prime minister's delegation. The guest was an American man who went through security screenings but did not meet the president or first lady.
ROBERTS: Double oops.
We're learning more this morning about a 66-year-old Las Vegas man who walked into a federal courthouse with a shotgun yesterday and opened fire. He killed a guard and wounded a deputy marshal, apparently angry about recently losing a discrimination claim.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS (voice-over): A man who was leaving the federal courthouse in Las Vegas yesterday recorded the shooting on his cell phone camera.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unbelievable. Hell of a morning for jury duty.
ROBERTS: When the gunfire finally stopped, a court security officer was dead, a deputy U.S. marshal injured. The suspected gunman eventually chased from the building by federal marshals was shot and killed.
BOBBY SCOTTLAND, WITNESS: I just remembered when I'm looking back at all these reports, a gentleman, a black gentleman in a black jacket and there weren't so 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.
ROBERTS: He's been identified as Johnny Wicks, a Las Vegas resident who lost a discrimination claim against social security in 2008.
JOSEPH DICKEY, FBI PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER: We have identified the shooter. At this point we believe it was a lone gunman in a criminal act, not a terrorist act. We are conducting investigation follow-up on this to determine exactly why this person did what he did today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: 65-year-old security officer Stanley Cooper was shot in the chest and killed by the gunman. He had retired after 26 years with the Las Vegas Police Department and worked as a courthouse security officer since 1994.
You can imagine going to jury duty in there and that going on.
CHETRY: Yes. And it's so sad this person who worked for two decades or more and then to go out like that.
ROBERTS: Yes. What a shame. Wow.
Coming up next in the Most News in the Morning. the U.S. Census bus tour. The Commerce Department hits the road to make sure that everyone is counted. Christine Romans with what's at stake coming up. We're "Minding Your Business" this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Best video ever on MTV. Remember that one?
ROBERTS: Oh, yes. Absolutely.
CHETRY: There you go.
Sixteen minutes past the hour. It means it's time for "Minding Your Business."
Google is looking to change the game today, unveiling a smartphone that would rival and compete with Apple's iPhone. It's the so-called Google Phone, and it's actually called the Nexus One. Cell phone maker HTC designed the device, and it runs Google's Android software.
ROBERTS: "Vanity Fair" cashing in on the Tiger Woods scandal. He's on the cover of the upcoming February issue. Annie Leibovitz took the photo about four years ago. Take a look at that. That's Tiger like you haven't seen him before. Well, some people might have.
Woods did not talk to "Vanity Fair." He hasn't been seen in public since his car accident over the Thanksgiving holiday. The issue hits the newsstands on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, videogame maker Electronic Sports - or Electronic Arts, rather, is sticking with plans to release an online game featuring Woods this month.
CHETRY: There you go. Well, Christine Romans joins us right now, "Minding Your Business" this morning. Hey, Christine!
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. I'm here to tell you about the census - the big rollout.
It's 2010. That means - every 10 years...
ROBERTS: I love census years.
ROMANS: I know.
ROBERTS: They're so exciting. ROMANS: They - John, you're making fun of me.
They are exciting because this is a snapshot of what America looks like, how the population has changed...
ROBERTS: I know. All those forms going out, arriving in the mail...
ROMANS: No, no, no. It's 10 - it's 10 little questions. Thirteen million homes are going to get this one. This is bilingual, English and Spanish, but there'll also be forms in English and Vietnamese.
ROBERTS: (INAUDIBLE) just looking at it.
ROMANS: And this is exciting stuff because it counts every person - tries to count every single person in America, and John and Kiran, there is money and power at stake.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS (voice-over): In New York's Times Square, the launch of a road show - not a Broadway show, but a national tour sponsored by the US government to get America ready for the 2010 census.
GARY LOCKE, SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: It will have enormous impact on communities and people all across America.
ROMANS: Commerce Secretary Gary Locke heads up the agency that's supposed to count every single person in the country.
LOCKE: It's the responsibility of every person living in America, whether they're are a voter or not, whether they're registered as a voter or not, or even whether or not they're a national US citizen.
ROMANS: The government is spending more than $340 million, including a massive ad campaign in 28 languages, to get people to fill out this census form. At stake - power and money. Congressional seats are doled out depending on a state's population, and so is $400 billion in federal funding.
LOCKE: If you want your fair share, be counted, because this is money for schools, for human services, for medical services, as well as for transportation.
ROMANS: Things got so contentious during the 2000 count that Utah sued the Census Bureau.
PAMELA PERLICH, SR. RESEARCH ECONOMIST, THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH: In the end, we were 856 persons short of having that Congressional seat.
ROMANS: The Supreme Court ruled Utah couldn't count missionaries serving overseas. Since Congressional seats are limited to 435, the extra seat instead went to North Carolina. PERLICH: Who knows exactly what that would have meant as far as dollars and cents and programs and policies, but, at the margin, to have one more person there in the Congress working on behalf of Utah does make a difference.
ROMANS: This time around, Utah is likely to get that House seat. According to one projection, eight states in the South and West are expected to gain at least one seat after the big 2010 census. Texas could gain as many as four. Ten states, most located in the Northeast and the Midwest may well lose at least one House seat, but those numbers could have been far worse.
LARRY SABATO, DIR., CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: The recession has actually frozen a lot of people in place, and so people who might have left the North and Midwest and gone South or West stayed. They stayed where they were. And that's saved some seats for the North and the Midwest.
ROMANS: All of this depends on how many people actually fill out the form. Historically, counting minorities has been an issue and the Census Bureau is working hard to combat mistrust.
ROMANS (on camera): There are some - a vocal minority, I would say, who've been cautioning against some people in the Latino community actually participating in the 2010 Census. What do you say to that?
LOCKE: You don't obtain political empowerment unless you're counted, so that we know exactly how strong and how large you are. So I think that boycotting the census is actually counterproductive to their goals of greater political participation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: And his goal is to count everyone. The Latino demographic, of course, is the fastest growing in the United States, and accurate census count will show just how fast growing.
Another challenge for the Census Bureau, reaching millions of families newly homeless by the foreclosure crisis. They're aware of this, and census workers are going to take special care to track those people down. Some people have forwarding addresses, but also, they know how to track people down with - with friends and relatives to make sure that everyone in the household is counted.
CHETRY: That doesn't sound comforting - they know how to track people down. I mean, because there's a lot of fear associated with this.
ROMANS: There is, but they don't share any of this information. That's important.
And there's - there's always fear among minority communities about the census because, look, in some home countries, if the government comes knocking on your door, you would never answer the - you would never answer the door, honestly, and - and answer these questions.
The Census Bureau working really hard with this ad campaign, this marketing campaign, which has $100 million of stimulus money in it, by the way, to make sure that people know that this is something you have to do and that this is something that's important, to measure how many people are in this country, where they live, and federal funding, House seats, a lot depends on this. It's all private information. Ten short - 10 minutes, 10 questions...
ROBERTS: (INAUDIBLE)?
ROMANS: Yes, you may. This one is the English-Spanish version but there's five different languages. John is making fun of me because I'm such a population geek, but this is exciting stuff. Three-hundred-seven million people in this country, we're going to be able to see how they're moving around, and this is what makes up our country.
ROBERTS: Unless they go to Michele Bachmann's house in Minnesota. Then they'll only learn the number of people in the home.
ROMANS: Well, I think - I'm not sure what her stance is on it right now, but she...
ROBERTS: She says the constitution only requires you to tell the number of people in the home.
ROMANS: If you don't fill...
ROBERTS: And it doesn't - and it doesn't say that at all. But...
ROMANS: Right. Well, if - if you don't fill out everything, the Census Bureau will come to your house and very nicely ask you to fill out the rest of the questions or they will ask (ph) the questions for you.
They're even going to be going up to Alaska, I think, in a couple of weeks to count maybe two or three hundred people in a specific Alaskan tribe before the ice breaks up so they can reach them and find out for sure.
ROBERTS: You should take a camera and go.
ROMANS: I'd love to.
CHETRY: No, he's teasing you. No, it - it's interesting stuff. It is. And it's important, as you said.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Christine.
ROMANS: And see, that's (INAUDIBLE) send on assignment to Alaska.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Christine. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Should he be held as a military combatant or a civilian? Was it a crime or an act of war? A lot of people are saying it was an act of war and that he should be held by the military. We'll check into that story, coming up.
It's 23 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-five minutes after the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
The picture of the failed Christmas Day terror attack all too clear now, but we've broken it up piece by piece here to look at what clues were missed all the way along the line.
We start last August with electronic surveillance. The National Security Agency intercepts communications from al Qaeda leaders in Yemen. They talk about using a Nigerian to launch a terror attack. US intelligence picks up a partial name, Umar Farouk.
Also around August, more intercepts, direct communications between Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Awlaki a key link here, he also communicated with alleged Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Hasan and two of the September 11th hijackers.
Late November, the key piece of human intelligence, Abdulmutallab's father, a former bank executive, goes to the US Embassy after getting a phone call from his son, the son reportedly warning his father that it will be his last communication. The father tells the CIA he's worried that his son is under the influence of religious extremists based in Yemen. Two reports are written up, one a so-called Visa Viper from the State Department, the other a bio of Abdulmutallab by the CIA.
And, finally, a final chance on the front lines. Before Abdulmutallab's plane can head to the United States, the Department of Homeland Security receives an electronic summary of his reservation. The file would likely include two key details that might have sent up some red flags - that he paid in cash and didn't check any bags - Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, the man who allegedly slipped through the cracks time and time again will be in court this Friday. A judge will decide whether Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should stay in jail. Prosecutors say if he's released on bail, he could be deported, and critics are wondering whether the decision to try him in criminal court is yet another missed opportunity.
Our Brian Todd has this morning's "Security Watch."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He sits in a federal penitentiary in Milan, Michigan, charged by the US government with attempting to destroy an aircraft. To some in Washington, that's the problem.
SEN. JIM DEMINT (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: If we had treated this Christmas Day bomber as a terrorist, he would immediately been interrogated military style rather given - rather than given the rights of an American and lawyers (ph). We've 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 imminent attack can be quickly prevented.
The president's top counter-terror adviser aggressively defends the decision to go the civilian route.
JOHN BRENNAN, WHITE HOUSE SR. 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 - the plea agreement process.
TODD: Contacted by CNN, a US 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 straight answer, it (ph) 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 (ph), who's tried several military and civilian cases, says the administration's made the right move.
EUGENE FIDELL (ph), LAWYER: Choosing a military form rather than a civilian form is not going to make any difference in terms of the speed with which you could extract information from a - from a suspect. In fact, the rules are going to be the same in both forms. TODD: And there are indications that Abdulmutallab gave some information to US 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)
ROBERTS: It does raise an interesting point, that said that there are hundreds of others like him ready to do what he did, so does he become sort of an instrument of war in this case or is it - is it - it's obviously a criminal act as well.
It's difficult (INAUDIBLE) to try to figure out exactly which way to go.
CHETRY: Yeah, it sure is. It's going to continue to be debated and we'll of course follow it but we have to see where it goes from here.
ROBERTS: Crossing into the half hour now, that means it's time for this morning's top stories. The heads of the FBI, the CIA and homeland security will be at the White House today to tell President Obama what they knew then and what they know now about the alleged plot to blow up a plane on Christmas day. The president is expected to speak after those meetings.
CHETRY: Well, the U.S. embassy in Yemen has reopened this morning. It was closed over the weekend after fears that al Qaeda may be planning an attack on the compound. A senior White House official says Yemeni security forces killed three of the suspected attackers and captured another who had on a suicide vest.
ROBERTS: Many countries told to step up airline security are apparently not falling in line. The Obama administration ordered tighter security checks for passengers flying into the United States from 14 countries, rules that were supposed to take effect yesterday, but the Associated Press reports there were no visible changes at airports in Lebanon, Syria and Libya that are all on the list. Our Frederick Plankton has calls into the German government and other European nations this morning. He's going to be live for us in Berlin at the top of the hour with more on this story.
CHETRY: There's also the question about dual citizenship. What do you do with that as well, so a lot of questions there. Meanwhile, there is new information this morning about the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan. CNN's (INAUDIBLE) was a Jordanian double agent who had provided information about high-value targets including possibly the whereabouts of al Qaeda's number two, Aman Alzawahir (ph), the Egyptian doctor.
The bomber was met off base by a U.S. intelligence official who failed to search him before driving him onto the CIA post. Joining me to discuss this live is Jamie Smith, former CIA officer and CEO of SCG International. It's a private intelligence company, also Sam Faddis, former CIA Mideast station chief and author of "Beyond Repair, the Decline and Fall of the CIA." Great to have you both with us this morning. So Sam let me start with you. It is believed as we said that this bomber, a double agent was once an active recruiter on an al Qaeda web site and also a recent recruit by the Jordanian intelligence community. Clearly he was trusted enough as we said to be brought into the inner circle. Why was he allowed, though, on the CIA forward operating base without being searched?
CHARLES "SAM" FADDIS, FORMER CIA MIDEAST STATION CHIEF: That's a very good question and I don't have a good answer for it because there is no reason why he should have been brought on like that. You have procedures and you follow those procedures and particularly in an environment like this. If you don't, then this is what happens.
CHETRY: And Jamie, you've been to this specific forward operating base in Kos (ph) province. Is there a standard operating procedure as Sam referred to for handling this type of situation? Obviously they have to deal with sources passing on sensitive information and they have to balance that with not offending or keeping that relationship going, yet at the same time putting safety first.
JAMIE SMITH, FORMER CIA OFFICER: Good morning. Good to be with you. First our condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of those that lost loved ones in the attack and certainly, yes, there are SOPs, standard operating procedures, for getting into a facility like this. That's nothing that I can go into on the air, but there are, and they were obviously overlooked.
But, you know, what -- really, what this points out, though, is that maybe this wasn't necessarily a mistake, but what we've got is a very cunning and resilient enemy and that this was a well-planned operation and it highlights the fact that this is a global war on terrorism because we've got Jordanian involvement. We've got Pakistani involvement taking place in Afghanistan and we can't ignore the fact that this is a global war and it is not merely just a contingency operation overseas. But there definitely are procedures for taking care of this sort of interaction between an agent and an officer, so yes, there are those steps in place.
CHETRY: And in this situation, as we know, tragic consequences when they were not apparently followed here. But Sam, Jamie brings up a good point as well, talking about the fact that we have a cunning enemy, as you put it.
A former intel official is saying that these double agent operations are actually really complex and the fact that al Qaeda or the Taliban, their Pakistani Taliban claiming responsibility as well, can pull this off shows that they are not really on the run, that they have the ability to kick back and think about these things. What does it say about the strength of the enemy that we're fighting in Afghanistan?
FADDIS: Well, I think that's exactly right. You're talking about some people that are extremely dangerous, extremely capable. And that's the reason why you can't relax. You cannot say we trust somebody and therefore, we're not going to search him, we're going to bring him into the base. You got to be on your guard at all times.
CHETRY: Jamie, you sent out your condolences to the families. It's a devastating loss for the families, but it also was a devastating loss for the intelligence operations that were taking place. What these CIA agents were doing there and obviously, we don't know a lot about it, but they were going after the worst of the worst and the trickle-down effects is that our troops over there would be safer. How big of a hit is this for what we're trying to do in Afghanistan?
SMITH: Well, it's a tremendous blow. This is the worst loss that the agency suffered probably since the Beirut embassy bombing in '83. It's the agency's Pearl Harbor if you will and it takes years to develop the expertise to operate in that area, in that environment. You have relationships that had been established.
But again, the enemy doesn't need to think that they have won here because the agency's got a depth of feel that will enable them to put officers in the field that can step into the gap here and it highlights, too, that there is a -- that the outstanding work that the agency personnel have done and the risk that they willingly take, the men and women who work there, that they willingly take and they understand these risks and they put themselves in the front line on the knife edge of the fight against terrorism. And these are the risks that they accept.
So the work not only is done by the agency, but it's also done by contractors who support them and our allies, the Jordanians who may have lost someone in this as well.
CHETRY: That's right and Sam, that's the question about the Jordanian situation and we have a very close relationship that we're learning with Jordanian intelligence. They were brought by the Jordanian intelligence community. How reliable and important is that relationship between the CIA and Jordanians' intelligence?
FADDIS: It's extremely important. The Jordanians are extremely close allies and they're very, very capable people. But at the end of the day, when you run these kind of operations, you don't put your life in the hands of anybody else. It's a CIA operation and you have to take responsibility for that security.
CHETRY: It's certainly a tragic loss, as you both alluded to. Jamie Smith and Sam Faddis, thanks for your input this morning.
SMITH: Good morning.
FADDIS: Thank you.
ROBERTS: The recent thawed relations between the United States and Cuba, is the ice starting to form again. We got a report from Havana coming up. It's 37 1/2 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. Time to tap into now the global resources of CNN. Cuba's state run newspaper says tighter airline security on planes bound for the United States amount to, quote, anti-terrorist paranoia. It is the latest sign that the Obama administration's honeymoon with the communist nation may be over.
CHETRY: When President Obama took office, he eased those travel restrictions for Cuban Americans, began allowing them to send money home. In this AM original, Shasta Darlington looks at why his popularity seems to have taken a hit.
(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 Raoul Castro led the company'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 gear under a program started by the last administration.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DARLINGTON: 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. John, Kiran?
ROBERTS: Shasta Darlington reporting for us this morning from Havana. Shasta, thanks. It is now 43 minutes after the hour. Rob Marciano is going to have this morning's travel forecast right after the break.
CHETRY: That's right -- hit, bring a scarf. Meanwhile in 10 minutes, a closer look at those see-through body scan machines as only Jeanne Moos can show us.
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CHETRY: Forty-six minutes past the hour right now. Here is a live look at Orlando, Florida where it is a balmy 33. We say that because it is frigid in most of the country today. A little bit later, it will be 47, and it'll sunny in Orlando. There you go.
Again, it's 46 minutes past the hour, and that means it's time for your AM House Call. These are stories about your health. There is a new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine finding that people who quit smoking then went a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and the reason is that smokers who quit often gain weight in average of 8-1/2 pounds after quitting. The good news, though, is that 12 years after quitting, the risk of diabetes actually lower to the same level as non-smokers.
And in a related stories, scientist are warning that obesity is now a great, as greater threat if not greater to your health and life span than smoking. With smoking rates dropping and obesity rates sky rocking, researchers from Columbia University and City College of New York say that expanding waistlines can cause as much or more disease than tobacco.
At about half of Americans with major depression don't receive any type of treatment for the disease. A new study shows that only one in five Americans has treated, according to American Psychiatric Association guidelines, for depression. Researchers also found that ethnicity and race played a big role in determining who actually got treatment. Mexican, Americans, and African-Americans were the least likely to get care for their depression.
ROBERTS: That was important to make sure the people are looking after. The smoking story is interesting about diabetes.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: You know, weight gain. I remember reading a study years ago that the average nicotine delivery in cigarettes over the course of a day, just the nicotine itself, burns 200 calories a day.
CHETRY: Wow.
ROBERTS: If you sit in the couch doing nothing, you still burn 200 calories a day, so when you stop smoking, overtime that all adds up.
CHETRY: Yes, and you couple that with the fact that people tend to eat to make up for not smoking, and so you put this thing together.
ROBERTS: It's something to do with your hands and your mouth, right?
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: This gives new meaning to the term skyscraper. The world's tallest building opened in Dubai yesterday with a spectacular fireworks and live show featuring fireworks exploding on all sides, from top to bottom of the 2,717-foot tall Burj Khalifa tower. Thousands of very, very tiny people turned out to watch the grand opening celebration that reached a half a mile into the sky. That building is just incredible.
CHETRY: I know. There is actually another article that was hilarious about the epic task of cleaning all of these windows, the squeegees, the buckets, how much it cost, and high tech equipment. Can you imagine?
ROBERTS: I think it takes 4 months to clean all the windows in the tower.
CHETRY: Yes, they can, and wow, they have carousels that have to install, on and on and on, but yes, that's quite a task.
ROBERTS: I want to go visit just to see what -- I think they have a swimming pool like on the 85th floor or something.
CHETRY: We should definitely check that out.
ROBERTS: Coming up now, 49 minutes after the hour. Let's going to check this morning's weather headlines. Our Rob Marciano is in the Weather Center this morning. Hey, Rob.
MARCIANO: Hey guys. A lot of weather actually to build that building because it's so high up and they get those incredible winds and sandstorms across that desert, so it's an engineering feet, no doubt about that. You're going to see winds across the Northeast although not as bad as it has been in the past couple days, lower 20s for the New York area, still some lake effect snows coming in across Erie and Ontario especially drifting down to parts of Western Pennsylvania.
Drifting down to the South, we have temperatures that are below freezing in parts of The New Orleans, getting close to freezing in Tampa, although, most of the freezing warnings are inland, and 18 degrees right now in Atlanta. Take you to some shots at a Vermont. We mentioned the record-breaking snowfall yesterday across Burlington, 33 inches across the Champagne Valley, mostly across Nordic areas but this is Catamount, by the way.
In Bolton Valley, they got over a foot, so bookings are starting to ramp up there for parts of Northern New England as the ski resorts are kind of getting check here. Six degrees, the current wind chill in Chicago. It's minus 6 in Kansas City. That's what it feels like, feels like minus 9 in St. Louis, feels like 5 in Atlanta, feels like 2 in Memphis. Memphis just issued a storm watch. They could see two to four inches of snow with the next cause of cold air coming down, and that will be even colder than what we're seeing right now. And it may very well last, guys, for at least another week, maybe two. The pattern does not look very warm for the Eastern third of the country, so stay warm up there.
CHETRY: Got to head to Dubai. How about that?
MARCIANO: Exactly.
CHETRY: And get up there. Would you ever be able to clean windows that high up? I mean, there's no way.
MARCIANO: No, and I'm sure they got someone to clean it after that fireworks display.
CHETRY: That's true. Rob, thanks so much.
MARCIANO: See you guys.
CHETRY: This morning's top stories are just a few minutes away, including, coming at the top of the hour, President Obama set to meet with his top advisers about the Christmas day failed bombing. A live report from Suzanne Malveaux at the White House.
ROBERTS: And at 7:25 Eastern, the battle over health care. We'll show you how some lobbying groups immobilized all ad campaigns. More rooms and all in order to protest or protect their interests.
CHETRY: Also at 07:40 Eastern, he may be the Hawaii's favorite son, but not everyone is supporting the President there. From naming a beach after him; they're creating a state holiday on his birthday, why some people are saying not so fast? Those stories and more at the top of the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Love 'em, hate 'em or indifferent, full body scanners may soon be coming to an airport near you.
CHETRY: Yes, our Jeanne Moos revealing the controversial see- through technology which could expose a lot more than we all bargain for.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Is it a woman?
UNKNOWN MALE: It looked like an alien.
MOOS: Is it a man?
UNKNOWN MALE: To me, it looks like a group of four robots.
MOOS: It's sort of like superman.
The first time young Clark Kent experienced x-ray vision and penetrated the girls' locker room --
UNKNOWN FEMALE: This is the airport scanning device now.
UNKNOWN MALE: Oh, that is gross.
MOOS: But he was pretty much the only one we talked to who objected.
And even he changed his mind.
UNKNOWN MALE: It's not as though we're naked, it's just, an x- ray.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: The thing is we all go to doctors.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: I'm old. I don't care.
MOOS: Life has finally caught up to Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall.
The technology has had reporters doing exposes exposing themselves.
UNKNOWN MALE: Apart from my manually physique, you can actually see the porridge I had for breakfast.
MOOS: Porridge is one thing, but high dose private parts --
UNKNOWN MALE: I should put a metal plate in my pants.
UNKNOWN MALE: When you do that now right before I get screamed.
MOOS: A metal plate in your pants is nothing compared to a bomb in your underpants. Suicide underwear, crotch bomber, fruit of the boom.
MOOS (on-camera): He obviously wasn't listening if and when his mother told him to always wear clean underwear.
MOOS (voice-over): You know the guy that got caught with a bomb in his underwear?
UNKNOWN MALE: Oh, wow! I didn't know that.
MOOS: You didn't watch it over the holidays?
UNKNOWN MALE: No, I just watch Disney Channel more than anything.
MOOS: Maybe he should watch this old Bud Light commercial.
UNKNOWN MALE: X-ray vision no longer available in Bud Light.
MOOS: Now available at airports.
Last year, need to get in shape for spring. This year, need to get in shape for airport screenings. But most don't mind.
UNKNOWN MALE: No, if it meant that I might not have my ass blown out of the sky.
MOOS: And speaking of that body part, an MSNBC anchor compared J-Lo's New Year's eve outfit to a scan.
Hey, if we looked like J-Lo, we would be clawing and clawing our way toward the scanner.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: See that's what happens when you spend all your time watching the Disney Channel.
ROBERTS: Some people do live under rocks. I love the guy, though, who says he wouldn't mind showing his -- on the screener as long as it doesn't blown out of the air.
CHETRY: We put it well, didn't we?
ROBERTS: It is.
CHETRY: All right. We'll really take a quick break. Your top stories coming your way in just 90 seconds.
ROBERTS: He wasn't watching the Disney Channel.
CHETRY: That's right.
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