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American Morning
Homeland Security Summit; Deadly Betrayal; Small Businesses Getting Money; Lobbyists for Health Care Reform Bill
Aired January 05, 2010 - 08:00 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 to you on this Tuesday, January 5th.
Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. Glad you're with us. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Good to have you with us this morning.
Here are the big stories that we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
Less than two weeks after a suspected terrorist nearly blew up a passenger jet over Detroit, the president will be meeting with his top security team in the Situation Room this afternoon. That's his Situation Room, not Wolf Blitzer's. He's expected to announce changes in airline security today.
How all these developments will impact you -- just ahead.
CHETRY: Also, new details emerging about the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officials inside of a forward operating base in Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence officials say that he was a Jordanian- born doctor working as a double agent. They say the bomber got on to the base without being searched. We are live at the Pentagon with the developments.
ROBERTS: And the big business of lobbying for your health care. We'll go inside a war room built solely to stir the debate in one direction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Health care has been our candidate and we've been trying to win the election and we're closer than ever before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Carol Costello takes an "A.M. Original" look at the money, the power, and the pool of lobbyists in Washington and why you may not be able to compete with it.
Vacation is over for President Obama after 11 days in sunny Hawaii is going to hunker down at the basement of the West Wing this afternoon, meeting with his top intelligence advisers in the Situation Room.
Our Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House for us this morning.
We're hearing that the president may announce some changes to airline security today following this attempted Christmas Day bombing of that Northwest Airlines jet. What do we know about that?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, John. And it is the president's Situation Room here at the White House. He's going to talk about some of the changes that they're going to be making to those watch lists, all the different lists, that may be a much broader list, and people maybe netted in those lists and they're just going to have to accept that because it's one other thing that they're going to be talking about in that meeting. They're making a number of the changes and reviews.
He's going to be sitting down really with the top agency heads, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, the director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, as well as FBI head Leon Panetta, all of them putting their heads together, giving him initial reports. This is the first time that they're all going to meet face-to-face.
It is about the accountability that the president is talking about. He is not talking about heads rolling necessarily but, certainly, coming up with some solutions, some reports in terms of how this could have been improved overall -- specifically talking about the terror watch list, whether or not it was broad enough, encompassing enough, whether or not it should have actually signaled that Abdulmutallab was a danger; the review of the intelligence gathering, whether or not these agencies are sharing information, and whether or not that was intentional or unintentional; the discussion of, as well, stopping future terrorist attacks, whether or not this could have been signaled early on in the process; and, of course, as you had mentioned as well, those screenings, passenger screenings, the TSA is going to be expanding and we've already seen some changes.
The president is going to be outlining some of those later today, John.
ROBERTS: And what time we're going to hear from the president today, Suzanne?
MALVEAUX: About 4:00. They're going to spend about 90 minutes or so in the Situation Room. He'll come out, he'll talk about some of the things that he's learned already from his FBI director, some other people, officials, from his counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, who we talked to yesterday extensively, some things that are already in the works that are changing and some -- also some changes that he feels are going to be necessary in the future.
But, John, I have to tell you, senior administration officials are saying do not expect any kind of resignations or big announcements along those lines. ROBERTS: All right. Suzanne Malveaux for us at the White House this morning -- Suzanne, thanks.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, many countries that are being told to step up airline security are actually not listening. The Obama administration ordered tighter security checks for passengers flying into the U.S. from 14 countries. These are rules that were supposed to take effect yesterday, but the "Associated Press" reports that there were no visible differences at airports in Lebanon, Syria, and Libya, that are all on that list. And even several European governments, including Germany, France and Spain, said they were still studying the rules.
So, why aren't some countries cooperating? And are there consequences? We're going to be asking former TSA administrator, Kip Hawley, at the bottom of the hour.
Also, chilling details just coming to light about a terror threat during President Obama's inauguration. According to "The New York Times," the government had credible evidence that Somali terrorists were plotting to detonate explosives on the National Mall. Security for the White House and the transition team met round the clock to discuss and assess that threat.
On "ANDERSON COOPER 360" last night, the story's author, Peter Baker, revealed just how seriously officials were taking that threat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER BAKER, NEW YORK TIMES WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): One of the things that the new administration, the Obama administration agreed whether to keep Robert Gates, the defense secretary, away from the inauguration in the 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)
CHETRY: Well, ultimately, this threat turned out to be a false report.
ROBERTS: Here's -- five minutes after the hour -- another story new this morning. New details of what authorities believe led to the deadly shooting at a federal courthouse in Las Vegas. Police say 66- year-old Johnny Wicks was upset over losing a lawsuit over a Social Security benefits. He entered the lobby with a shotgun hidden underneath his jacket, opened fire, killing the guard and wounding a marshal. The man who is reporting for jury duty captured the whole thing on his cell phone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(GUNSHOTS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shooting outside of a Las Vegas courthouse. Oh! (GUNSHOTS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unbelievable! Hell of a morning for jury duty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: It's not clear how many shots Wicks got off but he was eventually killed by federal marshals.
CHETRY: Former NBA star Jayson Williams is hospitalized his morning after crashing his SUV into a tree in New York. According to police, they say he suffered minor injuries and appeared to be drinking. He has not been charged. Williams is currently facing a reckless manslaughter charge from a 2002 shooting in his home that killed a hired driver.
ROBERTS: "Vanity Fair" is cashing in on the Tiger Woods scandal is on the cover of the upcoming February. That's a shot of him working out at a gym. Annie Leibovitz took the photo about four years ago. Woods didn't talk to "Vanity Fair" and has not been seen in public since his car accident over the Thanksgiving weekend.
CHETRY: And Beyonce reportedly performed on New Year's Eve for the son of Libyan Leader Moammar Gaddafi. According to the Web site Mediaite and "New York Post," the singer was reportedly paid $2 million to sing five songs for a crowd in St. Barth's. That crowd reportedly included her husband Jay-Z, Jon Bon Jovi and Russell Simons who posted this picture to Twitter. So far, Team Beyonce is not commenting on the story.
ROBERTS: Our Rob Marciano is checking on the weather across the country today. And one word describes it all. It's a four-letter word, too. Cold.
Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm glad you said that four- letter word, and a lot of people would add a different four-letter word they're waking up to it again this morning, maybe with an ING as well.
Temperatures remain cold, below freezing in many spots. And the pattern remains the same. North and northwest winds continue to drive down south and bring that air from Canada. Temperatures in, say, New York, are still in the lower 20s, pretty much what you've seen in the past couple of days. Lake effect snows will continue to fire off at you in Ontario, and to a lesser extent, the northern parts of Lake Michigan.
And temperatures continue to drop down across Atlanta, 17 to 18 degrees; 26 in Savannah; just above freezing in Tampa, but inland areas right around the freezing mark. Wind chills: 29 in Orlando, five degrees in Atlanta. It feels like two in Memphis. You, my friends, are on a winter storm watch. Minus 20 is what it feels like in Minneapolis, and minus 13 in Omaha. And guess what, another shot is presently coming down from Canada, and this one even colder than the last one. And the pattern for this cold weather looks like it wants to hold on strong for the eastern half of the country, probably at least for the weekend, if not through the next week as well.
Much more in about 30 minutes. Stay cool.
CHETRY: We will.
ROBERTS: And stay warm, that's for sure.
Rob, thanks so much.
MARCIANO: All right. See you, guys.
ROBERTS: The terrorists who killed those seven CIA officers in Afghanistan apparently was a Jordanian double agent that they were trying to get information from about the location of Ayman al- Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's number two. Our Barbara Starr has been looking into the story. She's got the latest details for us coming right up.
Nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
There's new development out of Yemen overnight. The U.S. embassy is now again open for business after it was shut down for two days on security concerns. State Department officials say that a terror attack on the embassy is now less likely after top al Qaeda operatives believed to be planning and plotting an attack were killed by Yemeni security forces.
ROBERTS: It appears a suicide bombing that killed seven CIA officials in Afghanistan last week was a deadly betrayal. U.S. officials say the bomber was a double-agent recruited by Jordanian intelligence to help hunt down al Qaeda. He was allowed unto a military base last week without being searched.
Our Barbara Starr is following the development. She's live for us at the Pentagon this morning.
Wow, this just kind of doubles up on this tragedy, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Oh, John, it really is tragic and difficult to understand how this all happened.
But a senior U.S. intelligence official who has served in the past tells us that the understanding is U.S. intelligence agents were off base, were not at this forward operating base. When they met this man, they put him into a vehicle to drive him back to the base without searching him. And that, by all accounts, is where the failure occurred, letting him get into a vehicle, driving him back, no search -- pardon me, pardon me.
He detonated his suicide explosives on the base. Seven CIA operatives and a Jordanian military officer killed in this attack.
Why could they have possibly trusted him? By all accounts, he had been recruited and was believed to be a trustworthy source. He had provided valuable intelligence on high-level targets in the past. They believe that he had intelligence about Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's number two. This was critical.
But this failure occurred, and he was allowed into this base without being searched, John.
ROBERTS: Barbara, did -- as you said, he provided information on high-level targets in the past. Did anybody have any theories or any information on how he suddenly turned back the other way, or was he plotting this all along, just trying to gain their trust?
STARR: Well, let's look possibly at the identity of this man who's identified as -- with the name of al-Balawi. He was a Jordanian who had already been arrested in Jordan for militant activities. The Jordanians believe he'd been rehabilitated and basically come to the other side. He actually came from the same small home town in Jordan as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the one-time leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.
Did he ever really come to the other side? Was he always harboring these militant beliefs and nobody realized it?
The Jordanians, of course, quietly, are one of the most valuable U.S. allies in the war on terror. They have, by all accounts, first- rate counter intelligence services in Jordan. And so, clearly, the Jordanians will be looking at this. And it should be noted they lost a member of the royal family in this attack. The Jordanian military officer who was his handler was actually a cousin to King Abdullah. So, this hits very close to home for the Jordanians -- John.
ROBERTS: And so, potential implications here as well because, as you said, Jordanian intelligence had been working closely with the CIA. The extent of those ties, probably not something that King Abdullah wants out there in the public forum.
STARR: He certainly has kept this very quiet for years. The Jordanians are not officially talking about it. All of this information comes from U.S. officials.
And you are absolutely right. Look, King Abdullah, the Jordanian government, are crucial to the U.S. in two ways: the Middle East peace process and everything that goes on in that region, and the fight against al Qaeda, a very secret, a very covert fight in which the Jordanians have been directly helping by all accounts for many years.
King Abdullah walks a very fine line in the Middle East as a close U.S. ally, but also knowing that he has a militant faction, a very fundamentalist faction in his own country, plus the Palestinian population in Jordan. This puts the king and the royal family and the Jordanian government in one of the toughest most delicate positions in the region. Not something that they want to talk about.
But it should be noted: King Abdullah publicly received the body of the Jordanian officer who was killed in Amman. It was covered in the Jordanian press. They just didn't say how he was killed, John.
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon this morning. Barbara, thanks for the update.
CHETRY: Still ahead, small businesses are struggling as we know. What about those seeking loans? Is the worse over? Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business". She joins us next. It's 15 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONAN O' BRIEN, THE TONIGHT SHOW HOST: A lot of people had a good new year's. President Obama had a good new year's apparently. That's right, on New Year's day, President Obama took his daughters to see the 3-D version of "Avatar". That's right. Then there was an awkward moment when one of Obama's daughters leaned over to him and whispered, now that's how you spend half a billion dollars.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: It returned that half billion as well. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We're at 18 and a half minutes after the hour. That means it's time for "Minding Your Business". And Christine Romans joins us now. Hi.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there. Small business, maybe a little bit of thaw for the SBA, the Small Business Association. Benchmark loans that so many people are relying on to try to get through this recession. These are some new numbers, cnnmoney.com has a fantastic takeout of what these numbers are looking like. And the SBA, the Small Business Administration, is actually crediting the stimulus for helping get some of this money moving.
These loans up 37 percent in the most recent quarter, about 12,393 small businesses got small business loaned backed by the SBA totaling $3.8 billion dollars. I said thaw, but I didn't say better because in 2007, when the recession began, there were about 20,000 of these SBA- backed loans. So even now, times are tougher, people are looking for the money, they are having a difficult time getting it. But at least, in this particular small part of the small business lending, you are seeing things loosen up a little bit.
And that might be a good gauge going forward, because many times this is seen as a barometer of how overall the big banks are doing.
Now, here is from cnnmoney.com, the top places where the small business loans are happening. You can see in Salt Lake City in Utah maybe 1800 loans backed by the SBA. Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, there are a lot more towns there that show sort of a tally of how these loans are coming through. You can look at those at cnnmoney.com. But, we have said many, many times here on AMERICAN MORNING that small business matters incredibly and crucially for the recovery in the economy.
There are 27 million, more than 27 million small business in this country. They employ over half of all private sector employees. They generate 64 percent of new jobs over the past 15 years or so. And many economies, and the President has said it himself, that if there is going to be a recovery in jobs it's going to have to come from the ranks of small business and getting the money there is pretty critical.
But, look, their businesses are suffering, their customers are suffering, their assets have fallen in value, and so from the eyes of the banks, they are still concerned that some of these businesses are not going to make it and they don't want to throw good money after bad. Next year, I think, 2010 is going to be a little bit better year for small business, if only because - Okay, I know. I keep writing 2009 on my checks. So you know what I mean.
CHETRY: You still write checks?
ROMANS: I do write checks. I am an old-fashioned girl.
CHETRY: I am teasing, yes, I do, too. I can't help it. You write a check and then mark it down on your little -
ROMANS: Yes, I have a check register that I follow.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: All right. All right. Well, every day we do a number. Christine's roman numeral. The Romans numeral. the number about a story driving your money today. So, what is your numeral for this hour?
ROMANS: It's 40 percent, and it has to do with technology workers and small business. And I think this is a number that really, really surprised me about job creation and small business. When you think of small business, I think of you know, mom and pop, dry- cleaner, and pizza shop.
CHETRY: Okay, so 40 percent are I.T. workers?
ROMANS: Yes, 40 percent of I.T. workers, of high-tech workers rather, are employed by small business. That's engineers, computer programmers, and scientists.
ROBERTS: People who do their banking online as opposed to writing checks.
ROMANS: But it's not -- small business is a really vast and exciting area in the American economy, and it's not just some of these small businesses you are thinking of. It's where patents are coming from. So, this is why it is so important to get the money to small businesses and make sure the small business sector is healthy. And it's scientists, it's engineers, it's computer programmers and it's dry-cleaners.
ROBERTS: We'll let you go because I know you have to do grab another block of ice from the fridge.
CHETRY: And she has to do all that washing on the board, it takes forever.
ROMANS: I have a ringer now.
CHETRY: Run me through the ringer. All right. Christine, thanks so much. Well, still ahead, we are going to be talking about this airport security claim from the Obama administration sent out word that these countries have to fall in line and beef up their airport security as well. Is that happening? In some cases, it isn't. We are going to be talking with Kip Holey live. He is a former TSA administrator about what we need to do. 22 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. 25 minutes past the hour. And we're five minutes away from our top stories. First an A.M. original, something you will see only on AMERICAN MORNING. Lobbyists spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to influence the health care debate in this country. By some counts, there was six health care lobbyists for every single member of congress.
ROBERTS: Pretty incredible ratio. The combination of money and power has threatened to drown out the voice of the general public. Today, in her special series, "Lobbying for your Health", Carol Costello is taking a look at a war room built to steer the debate one way, their way.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely correct, John. What is the difference between running a presidential campaign and lobbying for health care reform? Absolutely nothing. The service employees international union, the SEIU proves that since 2007, it has treated the health care bill as if it were a candidate. And organized an all-out presidential-type campaign to get it passed. This morning, 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)
COSTELLO (voice-over): That's Andy Stern, president of the powerful Services Employees International Union. Powerful because it boasts 2 million members and it has clout. After all, it helped Barack Obama become president. Stern's and the union's war room, filled with people who are lobbying for President Obama's dream and their own. Health care reform, public option included.
ANDY STERN, SEIU PRESIDENT: Health care has been our candidate, and we have been trying to win the election and we are closer than ever before. COSTELLO: The analogy is a good one. These union members are unofficially lobbying for their candidate outside Democratic Congressman Michael McMahon's Brooklyn office.
GEORGEANNE KOEHLER, SEIU PENNSYLVANIA: We have a race to rock.
COSTELLO: In Pittsburgh, union member, Georgeanne Koehler makes use of another campaign tactic.
KOEHLER: We are going door-to-door today. We are going to canvas the neighborhood, knock on doors and ask the good people in this area if they would sign cards in support of health care reform.
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 is that standing next to him? Why it's Loretta Johnson. A registered lobbyist for the service employee international union. The only non-senator to speak that night. Johnson is one of the few lobbyists warmly welcomed by lawmakers. The union says it's because she is not an insider, but a healthcare worker turned lobbyists from Rural, Virginia. Still, she is a lobbyist backed by a powerful union, and that means something. Johnson says she has met with --
LORETTA JOHNSON, SEIU LOBBYSIT: At least half of the congressman and about all of the senators.
REP. RICK BOUCHER, U.S. CONGRESSMAN, (D) VIRGINIA: People who represent various interests in our society have a lot of information to share. We find useful the information that is provided.
COSTELLO: Critics are not surprised by the union's access to lawmakers. But they are surprised by the union's access to President Obama, a president who has 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 is the catch. Although, Stern's union is lobbying for health care reform, Stern technically is not, because unlike Loretta Johnson, he is not a registered lobbyists. He deregistered in 2007. 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 petitioned the U.S. attorney to investigate you for illegal lobbying activities. So, how would you respond to them?
STERN: I am going to send them a letter and tell them the truth, which is we complied with the law and we assume whenever the investigation is done, it will be fine.
COSTELLO: And they are going to come back and say oh my god, he has 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 have a different vision of America than the people who I work with everyday.
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 lobbyists. This is the rule union boss Andrew Stern is accused of violating. The DC U.S. attorney's office did say they received a letter of complaint. But because the matter was pending, they could not offer me any more information. We asked the White House to comment of whether Mr. Stern's visits swayed them to act on its behalf in any way, they declined to comment on the matter. John. Kiran.
ROBERTS: All right. We'll keep watching to see which way this goes. Carol Costello this morning. Carol, thanks so much.
We want to hear what you think about lobbyists and their power in the health care debate.
Comment on Carol's story at CNN.com/amfix.
Tomorrow, they're considered the second most powerful in lobby in Washington, second only to the National Rifle Association. How AARP is influencing the health care debate and whether the organization is protecting seniors or profits.
CHETRY: It is 30 minutes past the hour and time for your top stores.
And just into CNN a couple minutes ago, strong aftershocks rocking the Solomon Islands, this coming just day after a landslides and a tsunami left 1,000 people homeless. Officials say a ten foot high wave plowed into the coast, sent hillsides crashing down, and destroyed more than 200 homes after a 7.2 magnitude quake struck offshore yesterday.
So far though, no reports of injuries.
ROBERTS: We're learning of a terror threat during President Obama's inauguration. According to "The New York Times," intelligence Officials were concerned Somali terrorists believed to be crossing from Canada were planning to detonate explosives at the national mall as millions of people watched.
Ultimately the threat turned out to be a false report.
CHETRY: Take that Mickey Mouse -- New York City the most popular tourists destination in the United States in 2009. It beat out Orlando, the home of Disney and Mickey Mouse, of course.
The Obama administration ordering tighter security in the wake of the botched Christmas Day bombing. And the new rules for people that want to fly into the United States took effect yesterday, and those include full body pat-downs before flights from 14 countries that are considered countries of interest or state-sponsors of terror.
But the Associated Press is reporting there were actually no visible changes today in airports in Lebanon, Syria, Libya, all countries on that list, and our Frederick Pleitgen says even several European countries, and those include Germany, France, and Spain, said they were still studying the rules.
Joining us now is former TSA administrator, Kip Hawley. Kip, thanks for being with us this morning.
KIP HAWLEY, FORMER TSA ADMINISTRATOR: A pleasure, Kiran.
CHETRY: So what do you think of some of the European countries saying there are some privacy issues we have to go over here. Great, you can make an order, but it doesn't mean we're necessarily making changes.
HAWLEY: I think Fran Townsend yesterday on this program hit the nail on the head and said as a short-term measure it's probably an effective thing to do to deal with an emergency we have now. But long-term I don't think these are meant to be sustainable actions.
And what TSA announced Sunday night were requirements on the airlines to get the screening done either at the gate or at the check point. So these government conversations will continue for the next several weeks so that the governments can supplement what the airlines are doing with the right level of security.
CHETRY: But even as our Frederick Pleitgen was saying, there are debates going on in Britain, the key ally, as to whether or not those scanners they want to be used are constitutional, whether or not they violate privacy rights, and so on. And meantime you have these full body pat-downs of one-year-olds.
Is some of this stuff just window dressing, or are we really safer than we were pre-Christmas scare?
HAWLEY: I think the measures that have been announced are something that are an immediate shock to the system. They may be looking at other plots they want to disrupt in the immediate timeframe.
So what they really have to do is figure out the long term, and make a political decision on the body imagery. We have to work with the European Union to work with the rules for using the body scanners in place across Europe. Those things need to be done to put in place longer term measures.
And I don't think the pat down of everybody is going to last very long. And one of the things we have to look out for is not over- focusing on this one type of attack, and that if we all run to the soccer ball so to speak and look for peoples' bombs in their underwear, that leaves a whole bunch of other things that we need to focus on that may not be getting enough attention. It's OK as an emergency measure, but not long term we have to look at a wide variety of plots. CHETRY: As former administrator the TSA, what do you make of all this? Look, we clearly let our guard down in some aspect, at least that's what many of the security experts have been saying on air. And yet you the situation in Newark where a guy wonders the wrong way into what is called a sterile area because perhaps one of the TSA workers was not on guard enough.
So if that system can so easily be breached, what does that say about how safe we are?
HAWLEY: I think what it says is there is a great role for human activity and the importance of keeping the officers and everybody well-motivated, focused, and trained.
And then things like breach drills are usually such that they can close off a small area and contain it until they resolve it. I don't know what happened in Newark, but I do know that across the system, everybody at TSA is very active, and I don't want to say jumpy, but everything that happens will get an immediate reaction.
But that is less important than the longer term of how do we sustain that level of activity and vigilance over a period of time, because Al Qaeda can afford to wait until they feel the time is right.
So if we want to put up -- I was going to say, if we want to put up a strong position right now, that's good, but it's really what we do next year that will be critical.
CHETRY: And Tom Kaine on the 9/11 commission said this Christmas bomber did us a favor by calling attention to the weaknesses and not being able to actually succeed in killing anybody, but refocusing the administration's efforts on terror. Do you agree?
HAWLEY: I think that getting public attention and rallying public support about what we need to do in counterterrorism is a positive thing. But we can't go overboard and say there is a weakness in the pat downs, therefore we need to really engage in pat downs.
We have to be careful not to say that's what the problem is and then put all of the energy there. Al Qaeda has probably hundreds of western operatives who have no criminal record and maybe not even on a watch list.
So we have to be cognizant that the watch lists are important, but Al Qaeda knows that we have watch lists and they will find people who are not on the watch lists. So it's a long term thing where we cannot panic, but we have to focus on it and it needs to be across the board.
CHETRY: Kip Hawley, former administrator with the TSA. Thanks for being with us this morning.
HAWLEY: Thank you, Karen.
ROBERTS: President Obama is just back from his Hawaii vacation. He is back at the White House today, but still in Hawaii the rush is on to rename beaches and schools after the president.
Not, everybody, though, is onboard. Our Ed Henry is look into this for us this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
He is not just the president, he is Hawaii's favorite son. Fresh off the first family's vacation, there is a push to pay tribute to President Obama in the Aloha state by putting his name on just about anything, t-shirts not excluded.
Ed Henry has the story for us this morning from Honolulu.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, some local politicians here in Honolulu already starting a bandwagon to name beaches and schools after the president, and some even want to make his birthday a state holiday. But not everybody around here is hopping on the bandwagon just yet.
He hasn't been commander in chief for the full year, but the rush is already on here in his home state to name slices of Hawaii after him, including Magic Island a beach where the future president used to body surf.
MAYOR MUFI HANNEMANN, HONOLULU: He went there as a youth with his family, and since he returned he likes to picnic there with his family. It's something that really speaks well with the fact that he never lost touch with his roots.
HENRY: Others politicians want to turn his August fourth birthday into a state holiday. Still others want his first school to be renamed President Barack Hussein II Elementary.
SKIP DIAZ, HAWAII RESIDENT: I am very proud of Barack being a fellow graduate, and living here and born here. He is a multicultural guy, and the United States is the same thing, a multicultural country, and I think it is a great idea. He is my main man.
HENRY: But even in a state where Obama dashboard dolls are selling like hot cakes, and there are dissenters.
SHEENA OSHIRO, HAWAII RESIDENT: I think something like this to name a beach park after you, do something really big in order for that, and so that's a big thing.
HENRY (on camera): What sort of things would you like him to do before you think you would get to name the beach after him?
OSHIRO: Everything that he needs to do, and then maybe more. This beach is special.
HENRY (voice-over): Others out catching raise told us the hasty push to name places after the president is something like a recent honor.
JACK JOYNER, HAWAII RESIDENT: He received the Nobel Peace prize and he didn't do anything for that.
HENRY: But Honolulu mayor insists state pride will win out.
HANNEMANN: It's very historical. This is the first person from Hawaii to be the president of the United States, and we are proud of that. We want to name something of significance after him.
HENRY: The mayor added that he spoke to the president's half- sister about renaming the beach. She ran it up the flagpole and got a positive response, meaning the White House is not going to veto this idea, through it still has to go through the local bureaucracy. John, Kiran?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Ed Henry for us this morning. Ed, thank you.
CHETRY: It's so funny that we're watching Ed Henry on these beautiful, tropical beaches of Hawaii to talk about another surge of arctic air spreading east, but...
ROBERTS: Not everybody can live Hawaii.
CHETRY: Not everybody can go cover that story in Hawaii.
ROBERTS: That exotic, foreign place.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: It's 43 minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: What a beautiful shot this morning of Miami. There's puffy clouds and nice, blue skies. It is 61 degrees. It's actually going down? This is right?
ROBERTS: Yes, that's right.
CHETRY: It's going to be sunny and 57.
ROBERTS: Fifty seven...
CHETRY: That's still -- that's down right hot compared to the rest of the country this morning. Our Rob Marciano is tracking all of the weather for us. Beautiful puffy clouds in Miami it makes you want to be there, huh?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It certainly does just about everywhere in the country is saying, I'd like to be in Miami. With the exception of maybe Phoenix, L.A.
Good morning if you're waking up with us early this morning. It's 21 degrees -- but 19 degrees in Yonkers. Even colder down around Nashville, that's where the core of the cold air is, this batch. There's another batch coming and that one is going to be even colder.
18 degrees and 17 in Atlanta and 28 degrees in Savannah, 34, 35 in Tampa, this does not include wind chills which are feeling even worse than that and minus 20 is what it feels like in Minneapolis.
Check it out, from Salt Lake to -- everywhere from Salt Lake eastward with the exception of Miami, everybody has a wind chill below the freezing mark. Currently it feels like two in Memphis and five degrees in Atlanta.
All right, here is your second shot of cold air; for some people it's the third shot. 20 to 30 degrees below average with this next chunk that will be really getting into St. Louis and Nashville, and maybe even Memphis seeing some winter conditions there.
Winter conditions across part of northeast China, international snow and ice festival. Check out these cool pictures. We've got sculptures -- snow on ice sculptures that replicate various iconic figures around the world. And folks jumping up and down because they are so excited about it there in the Harbor International Snow and Ice Festival.
It's going to be cold enough across the eastern two-thirds of the country; the guys maybe do want of those. The water fountain's freezing here in Atlanta with all the temperatures that have been remaining below freezing for so long and will remain that way it looks like right through this week and in some cases into the beginning of next week.
John and Kiran back up to you.
ROBERTS: All right Rob. Thanks very much.
MARCIANO: OK.
ROBERTS: Well, under the heading if you just can't win, stop smoking, get diabetes. If you believe it, there's a health risk from quitting smoking. Our Sanjay Gupta is looking in to this for us this morning.
It's 49 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well, quitting smoking saves lives, reducing the chances of heart disease, stroke and many different types of cancers. But new research suggests that kicking the habit can significantly raise the risk of a person developing Type 2 diabetes. So what does all this mean for smokers trying to quit?
For this morning's "Fit Nation" we're paging Dr. Gupta. CNN's chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta joins us from Atlanta.
Good morning, Doc. What's this all about? DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Well first of all, as you sort of alluded to, no one is suggesting people not to quit smoking, obviously a lot of good reasons to do that. But they really want to figure out what's happening in the body to someone who quits.
A large study was conducted over ten years. They followed 10,000 people. And cutting to the chase they found that about -- you had about a 70 percent increase likelihood of developing type II diabetes within six years after quitting.
And when they dissected that down a little bit further, as you might have guess it has a lot to do with weight gain. They find that people who quit smoking are more likely to gain weight between four and ten pounds on average. They're also more likely to gain inches as well; 1.25 inches on average around the abdomen. And it's that abdominal fat, that metabolic reactive fat, along with weight gain that increases the likelihood for diabetes.
So that seems to be what's going on here -- John.
ROBERTS: Why do people gain weight after smoking? I read one study some years back that just the nicotine itself whether you're engaged in exercise or not burns about 200 calories a day. There are other factors as well?
GUPTA: That's right, you're absolutely right. There are a couple of other factors as well. First of all, the whole idea of nicotine cigarettes increasing metabolism is right. And you do burn a couple of hundred of extra calories a day because of that. So metabolism goes up first of all in smokers.
Another thing that happens is your appetite goes down. People who smoke tend to have a decreased appetite and more specifically than that they tend to have a decreased appetite for sweet foods. So that may explain in part why they don't consume as much.
The flip side of that really quick, people who stop smoking, part of the reason they gain weight is because the metabolism starts to slow. You're not getting that an added benefit from nicotine; you might develop some food addictions sometime people will actually become addicted to something else. And they also did have this oral fixation, needing to have something in their mouth and that's probably part of the reason that they're gaining weight as well afterwards.
ROBERTS: Right.
But bottom line here, Doc. You're much better to quit smoking even if there is an elevated risk of developing Type 2 diabetes?
GUPTA: There's question and it's worth pointing out a couple of things. First of all, you can probably get a lot of the benefits that I just cited there by doing other things, you can increase metabolism by exercise. Stave off hunger by eating more protein and fiber, drinking water but also obesity is coming up tie down to smoking as the number one cause of preventable illness. They are both killers and you can try and curb both those things, especially in the New Year.
ROBERTS: Yes, a little exercise goes a long way too.
GUPTA: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Doc, great to see you, thanks.
GUPTA: You too John.
CHETRY: Still ahead, the full-body scan; x-rated x-rays. Jeanne Moos takes a look, if you know what I mean.
Fifty-four minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: See? Now they know what it feels like to get busted dancing on camera. Who thought up the show?
Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Three minutes to the top of the hour...
ROBERTS: Who's ever been busted for dancing on camera? Nobody I know.
CHETRY: No, neither.
CHETRY: Well, would you be busted for dancing into the airport screeners? How about that one?
It's time for "The Moost News in the Morning".
ROBERTS: Full body scanners may soon be coming to an airport near you. They are being used a lot overseas and there's one at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport now.
Our Jeanne Moos took to the streets to find out how revealing the controversial see-through technology actually is and what people think about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MOOS: Is it a woman?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looked like an alien.
MOOS: Is it a man?
UNIDENTIFIED 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 girl's locker room.
This is the airport scanning device now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, that's gross.
MOOS: But he was pretty much the only one we talked to who objected, and even he changed his mind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not as though we are naked. It's just an x-ray.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The thing is, we all go to doctors. I am 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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The monitor displays my humble contours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Apart from my manly physique, you can actually see the porridge I had for breakfast.
MOOS: Porridge is one thing but hide those private parts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I should put a metal plate in my pants.
I'm going to do that now right before I get screened.
MOOS: A metal plate in your pants is nothing compared to a bomb in your under pants: suicide underwear, crotch bomber, fruit of the boom.
He obviously was not listening if and when his mother told him to always wear clean underwear.
You know the guy that got caught with a bomb in his underwear?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow, I did not know that.
MOOS: You've been out of it over the holidays.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I just watch the Disney channel more than anything.
MOOS: Maybe he should watch this old Bud Light commercial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Superior drinkability and now, x-ray vision.
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 you need to get in shape for airport screenings. But most don't mind.
UNIDENTIFIED 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.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looks like a TSA body scan.
MOOS: Hey, if we looked like J.Lo, we'd be clawing and clawing our way toward the scanner.
Jeanne Moos, CNN...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They see my underwear?
MOOS: New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Well, who knows? Maybe there will be a new fitness kick to get in shape for the body scanner. What do you think? It can't be bad.
CHETRY: There you go. We should ask Sanjay about that, kill two birds with one stone.
ROBERTS: All right. And for those of you who are watching the Disney channel, there's something that happened on Christmas morning. You should probably look up.
Continue the conversation on today's stories. Go to our blog at CNN.com/amFix.
That will do it for us. See you back here bright and early again tomorrow morning.
CHETRY: That's right. And meanwhile, the news continues. Here's "CNN NEWSROOM" with Heidi Collins.
Good morning Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning guys. And good morning to you every body. Here's what's going on in the "CNN NEWSROOM" today.
