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Who Gets Put on No-Fly List?; Florida Freezing; Yemen: A Haven for Terrorists

Aired January 06, 2010 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. It is Wednesday, January 6th. And here are the top stories for you in the CNN NEWSROOM.

It is now easier now for flyers to get on the government's terror watch list. But is anybody watching?

Cameras weren't rolling during a security breach at Newark airport.

She is funny and brash. But a terrorist? Joan Rivers tells our Larry King about her brush with airport security. How dare they, says the comedienne.

The big chill intensifies across much of the United States today. In Europe, heavy snowfall causes chaos.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And we begin with the latest efforts to keep dangerous people and hazardous substances off planes. Airport security is a high priority after the failed bombing on Christmas Day. But even as the government moves to tighten security, we are learning more about lapses and false alarms at the Newark airport in New Jersey. Officials say cameras were running but not recording when a man breached security Sunday.

A suspicious substance that shut down the airport in Bakersfield, California, it was breaking news right here on the CNN NEWSROOM. Well, it turned out to be -- wait for it -- honey.

Security is tighter today at the airport in Manchester, England, where body scanners are now in place.

The Obama administration is making it easier to put suspicious individuals on a watch list or a no-fly list. It was one of the priorities the president outlined after meeting with his national security team yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I also directed my counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, John Brennan, to lead a thorough review into our terrorist watch-listing system so we can fix what went wrong. As we discussed today, this ongoing review continues to reveal more about the human and systemic failures that almost cost nearly 300 lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: We want to take a closer look at how the system of watch lists, databanks and no-fly lists, how it works now and how it is going to change.

Our Jill Dougherty is covering that story for us.

And Jill, if you would, explain how the process works now.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: OK. Well, it's a little bit complicated, and that's the problem, Tony. But let's just run through it quickly.

There are a lot of lists. There are at least four lists that we could talk about. And the least restrictive one is called the TIDE. That stands for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment. Memorable name, of course.

And on there, there are about 500,000 names, a half-million names. That's the least restrictive.

Then you get to the TSDB, Terrorist Screening Database. That goes down to 400,000 names.

Then, getting more restrictive, you get to the selectee list, about 14,000 names. And that means if you're on that, that you have to go through secondary screening before you can get on a flight.

And then the final one would be the no-fly list. That's 4,000 names, and that means, at least in theory, that's the way it should work, that you can't get on a plane.

HARRIS: I see.

DOUGHERTY: So they're going to change that, and maybe now we can get into how they're going to change.

HARRIS: Yes, let's talk about that. What's changing?

DOUGHERTY: OK. Well, the criteria for moving people, bumping people up that list are changing to become less restrictive, because up until this point, you really had to have several sources of information to put somebody on, let's say, no-fly, or even to go up onto restricting -- or, I should say, revoking their visa. Now it's going to be easier to do that and you could have maybe one source of information.

So just quickly, I think we have a graphic here. You would move a person from TIDE, which we've already gone through that. That's the big database. Then you would go to the watch list, then you would go to the no-fly list, and then finally revoke your visa.

And why this is important, Tony, is that if this change had been in effect, changing the criteria, then we are told by officials that the Christmas Day attempted bomber would not have been able to get on that plane, he would have had his visa revoked, because they based it, at that point, on the information from his father, which was compelling but not enough.

HARRIS: OK. And Jill, let's just hope that folks continue to or even do a better job at connecting the dots moving forward.

Jill Dougherty following this story for us.

Jill, appreciate it. Thank you.

And checking the wire and the day's other big stories for you.

Two Senate Democrats are ditching plans to run for re-election. Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut plans to make his announcement next hour. We will bring that announcement to you, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Dodd was considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats. His decision to step down could improve chances of Democrats actually hanging on to his seat.

Dodd's announcement comes a day after North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan announced he won't seek another term. Democrats were confident he would run again.

New arrests in the fight against al Qaeda. Yemeni security forces say they have captured three al Qaeda militants northwest of the capital, Sanaa. The suspects were tied to the alleged leader of a group threatening to attack western embassies in Yemen.

Companies are cutting back on their cutbacks. The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas says 45,000 jobs were lost in December. That is the fifth straight monthly decline and the lowest number since the recession began in 2007.

You know, compared to much of the country, the temperatures in Florida are a walk on the proverbial beach. But don't tell that to folks who live there.

Here's John Zarrella.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is plenty of sunshine in Florida. The problem is right now it's not throwing much heat. For folks here not used to sub-60s, it's downright miserable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've got layers, layers. I'm freezing.

ZARRELLA: The brisk air has a tendency to get people moving at a brisker pace. For the most part, the beaches were empty, although there's always someone who wants you to believe it's really true, the water is warmer than the air. Of course, everything is relative. If you're in town from Iowa for the college bowl game, this is like summer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You, Florida people don't know cold.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't know cold. Minus three in our hometown of Sheridan, so it's still 60 degrees warmer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sixty degrees warmer here. We love it.

ZARRELLA: Yes, and when you leave, take the cold with you. The state's farmers and growers would like that more than just about anyone. Still have a heck of a lot of fruit that could be damaged.

LOUIS SCHACHT, SCHACHT GROVES: Definitely. I mean, the honey bells, this is the prime time of year for them. People love to ship them north.

ZARRELLA: Louis Shack's family has been growing citrus in Vero Beach for 60 years. It's a small family operation. They've done what they can to protect the crop, flooding the ground between each row of trees will keep the temperature up a couple of degrees. That's all it might take to save the fruit.

SCHACHT: If it stays, you know, just above freezing it can help sweeten the fruit and be fine, and really tie the season a little bit further for us but if, you know, it's a fine line to walk. If it gets too cold then you could definitely have some damage.

ZARRELLA: The feared number is 28 degrees. Below that, for more than four hours, would freeze the fruit right on the trees and could wreck Florida's $9 billion a year citrus industry. Strawberry growers are not in a good place either. The fields have been watered to allow an insulating coat of ice to form over the tender berries.

VICKIE BECK, ANDREW'S SOD AND STRAWBERRY FARM: Nothing you can do but try to do your best to protect them and make the best out of it and say a few prayers to watch over them. And keep going.

ZARRELLA: Perhaps a lot of prayers. Even colder temperatures are expected by the weekend.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: John Zarrella live from Vero Beach.

Wow! All right, John. What are the temperatures like right now where you are?

ZARRELLA: You know, Tony, it's warmed up significantly since the early morning, when we first got here. When we got here, it was 30 degrees, so it was below freezing. But it did not last the four hours, just around daybreak, at that coldest point.

Now it's up to about 40 degrees here and, you know, bright, sunny skies. So, you know, in fact, you know, Tony, this morning we saw something we don't very often see in Florida. This ground here was all covered in frost. But, you know, the fruit is pretty good and we've been cutting oranges for folks out there.

HARRIS: You've been sampling a little bit? Yes.

ZARRELLA: Yes, I've been sampling a little bit. This is one of those honeybells that we talked about.

And, you know, the fear, of course, as I said in the piece, is that if the orange freezes, then, you know, it's no good for anything but going to the juice plant. And they've got to get it off the trees real fast to do it. But you can see this honeybell, it's still all juice.

So good news right now for the farmers, that it stayed warm enough not to freeze the fruit. But the weekend, again, is supposed to be even colder than it was this morning. And so that could still be problematic for the growers, for the tomato farmers, for all of the folks in the strawberry fields. And this -- Florida supplies 75 percent of the nation's winter harvest, fruits and vegetables, so it certainly is walking a fine line.

HARRIS: Yes. That honeybell looks good though. Enjoy that one. Yum. Yum.

ZARRELLA: It is. It's good. That's good, Tony.

HARRIS: That's good eating. All right. You need a bib.

All right. John Zarrella for us.

John, appreciate it. Thank you.

You know, it's a small country that is getting a huge amount of attention. We will take you to Yemen to see why so many terror groups are making themselves at home there.

And you know it's pretty cold when temperatures are, what, Rob, in the 20s, the 30s, as John was just mentioning, in parts of Florida?

So we're going to talk to Rob in just a couple of moments. He's going to update us on a pretty big storm that's going to make the weekend pretty rough for many parts of the country, except for southern California.

But first, the Big Board, the New York Stock Exchange now.

Take a look at where we are. We're buying again, up 14 points, early in the trading day. We're going to check these numbers in just a couple of minutes with our Susan Lisovicz, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Yemeni officials today arrested three al Qaeda suspects. They're linked to a group threatening to attack western embassies in Yemen.

Let's go there live now. Our international security correspondent, Paula Newton, joining me from the capital, Sanaa.

And Paula, al Qaeda's resurgence in Yemen begs the question, why is this country such a breeding ground for terrorists right now?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, when you come into Yemen, and especially if you see it by air, it looks a lot like Afghanistan, has a lot of the tribal problems that Afghanistan has. That's just right off the bat.

Tony, historically, that might be a very crude comparison, but when you're trying to hunt down al Qaeda, it's a very apt comparison. And for years now, really, al Qaeda has been here. But as al Qaeda has been squeezed in Afghanistan and Pakistan, they have made a comeback here in Yemen.

And for the Yemeni government, already beleaguered -- this is a very poor country, Tony. It's been having trouble with separatist movements, with tribal conflicts. Officials can try, but, look, we are struggling.

Today, what they're doing is continuing a program that they've had with the U.S. help for the last few months, trying to target those al Qaeda leaders. And here, again, more security at the embassies, most of them reopened again today.

But Tony, I have to tell you, the security in this city is still quite chaotic, and you can see how many officials on the ground would be worried that, as happened in 2008, the defenses here would be penetrated. We had an attack at the U.S. Embassy in 2008 that killed nearly 20 people.

HARRIS: Well, let me ask you to sort of drill down on a couple of these points here.

As you know, there is a lot of conversation right now over whether Yemen is a failing or already a failed state. What is clear is that al Qaeda isn't the only problem. And you touched on a couple of them -- literacy -- so education certainly is a problem. And also poverty.

NEWTON: The poverty is a problem because, first off, it is a huge preoccupation for the government, as you can imagine. The city is running out of water, Tony. It could run out of water in five years. Imagine the conflict that would cause.

And when you talk about, again, the illiteracy, the desperation, it's a vulnerable country that is made to be a safe haven for al Qaeda. It is tailor-made. We saw it happen in 2000, with the USS Cole being struck in the Gulf of Aden there.

Tony, the government here really has been receiving American officials, including people like John McCain, for several months. Yemen has been on the radar, but not to the extent that it is after that attempted bombing of that Detroit flight. And Tony, most officials now, the Yemeni officials, concede that the explosive that Abdulmutallab was using most likely came from this country.

HARRIS: OK.

CNN's Paula Newton for us in the Yemeni capital.

Paula, appreciate it. Thank you.

When the government reduces the deficit, what does that mean for you? Higher taxes?

Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi tackles this with me, next, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So you want to start the new year fresh and really get control of your finances. CNN Personal Finance Gerri Willis has four tips to get you started.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Get a good financial start to the new year. Start by refinancing your home if you're currently in an adjustable rate mortgage that's do to reset soon.

While mortgage rates have risen for the fourth straight week, rates are still near record lows. The 30-year fixed rate is 5.14 percent.

Banks are still stingy about who they're lending to, so make it a point to clean up your credit score. Talk to your current lender to see what your options are.

And don't forget, February 22nd, new consumer-friendly credit card rules go into effect. But until then, start scouring your mail to see what kinds of changes your credit card company will put in place before then. Even if it looks like junk mail, don't throw it out. You may find changes to your credit limit or your interest rate. And if you don't like the new terms, you can opt out of the changes, but you'll have to stop using the card.

Last year stocks rallied from March lows and put in a strong year. The S&P 500 gained 23.4 percent, the Dow Industrials gained 18.8 percent, and the Nasdaq composite gained 44 percent. That means you may be too heavy in stocks in your 401(k) right now.

Now is a great time to rebalance that portfolio. Move some of that money into bonds or cash to regain balance.

And finally, if you don't have one, start a rainy day fund. This should cover about six months of income. It's a form of personal insurance, valuable in these rapidly changing times. This fund should be kept in safe-and-easy-to-tap assets. Laddering certificates of deposits out six months can be a good strategy. And, of course, if you have any questions or you want to send us your ideas on starting off the new year off right, send them to me at Gerri@CNN.com.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: All right. President Obama is still promising to lower the deficit as he puts finishing touches on his new budget blueprint. But with so much money needed for health care and stimulus programs, and Afghanistan, is cutting the deficit really possible?

CNN Chief Business correspondent Ali Velshi is taking on this very subject live on his CNN Radio show right now, and we join him in progress.

Ali, great to talk to you. Let me run some numbers here.

You know, before I do that, let's have everyone, our audience, your audience, listen to the president talking about -- oh, we don't have it. I thought we had it. OK. We don't have it. We'll get it in just a second.

$1.4 trillion deficit for the 2009 fiscal year which ended September 30th. That's about 10 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Over the next 10 years, you know these numbers, OK?

So what does getting serious about the deficit really mean, in your view?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. Well, look, this can be -- the deficit is thought to be a complicated thing to understand, but it's not. You understand it the same way you'd understand your own debt situation at home.

The reality is, when you're spending so much more money than you're bringing in, either you spend less or you bring in more. Spending less, pretty simple how you do that. You cut expenditures.

That's hard in a recession because this government has been adding extra money to try and stimulate the economy while consumers are not. So let's just assume for the moment we can't cut expenditures too much. That's an argument, but we can just assume that.

So then you've got this issue where you need to increase the amount of money that you're getting in. The money comes in through taxes, so one of two things happens.

Either everybody works, or more people are working, you've got a low unemployment rate, and everybody is contributing by paying taxes, and that's how you get a bigger revenue pile. Or fewer people are working, and that means fewer people have to cover that same tax burden, which means increasing taxes, increasing taxes on individuals, increasing taxes on businesses, both large and small.

And when you increase taxes on businesses, it slows down their ability to buy new products or hire more people who then could be taxpayers. So what you've got is this vicious cycle. The government needs the money, so the chances are taxes are going to go up. But when you increase taxes, it slows the economy down, and we need the economy to speed up.

HARRIS: All right. Now, as you know, Congress is going to form a committee. It's a bipartisan committee that's going to look at how you get at cutting this deficit. And you know as well as I do, from what you just said, that we're going to have to do things on the revenue side and we're going to have to do things on the expenditure side as well.

Looking forward into your crystal ball a bit, what is going to happen? Let's talk about taxes. What's going to happen on the revenue side, the tax side, 2010, 2011, moving forward?

VELSHI: Well, you're going to see some tax cuts expiring in 2011, first of all. So, if nothing were to happen, if no one were to do anything, generally speaking, most people's income taxes would start to go up. It still doesn't cover the shortfall and, frankly, there are a lot of people who think we should extend those tax cuts. But let me tell you the problem here.

What you'll see is a -- and we're seeing this across a lot of states -- instead of increasing income taxes or direct payroll taxes, you're starting to see taxation on all sorts of other things, or other consumption or usability taxes going up. So they sort of creep in.

Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're not. Sometimes you say, rather than the government paying for that road, why don't you just make it a toll road so that everybody who uses it pays for it?

But remember the one danger about consumption taxes which seem very simple. In other words, pay for what you use. If you use a lot of something, you pay for it as a specific tax.

The danger to that is that it tends to hit lower income, lower earners harder than it hits higher-income earners, because let's say I make 10 times what you make, Tony. We still probably each drink the same amount of Coke every year.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

VELSHI: So making me pay a higher tax on my consumable hits one of us, whoever is earning less, more than it hits the other one.

HARRIS: Yes.

VELSHI: So that's an important thing to remember. Taxation is very complicated and it has very long-lasting and sometimes unintended consequences. So while it's a heated conversation, it would be best that we all try and understand it as well as we can so that we can make good decisions not for the next year, but the next 10 or 15 years.

HARRIS: That's so awesome. That is well said. And let's revisit this from time to time.

VELSHI: Maybe I complicated it too much.

HARRIS: No, I don't think so. What I wanted to do, and you know this, is I wanted to get this on the record because this conversation is about to start. It's starting already...

VELSHI: Yes.

HARRIS: ... in small subcommittees, but it is about to take on a higher priority this year, as you know, so I wanted to get it started.

VELSHI: I think it's going to be a very big discussion. 2010 is going to be a very big discussion.

HARRIS: Ali, appreciate it.

VELSHI: Hey, listen, call us if you want to talk about taxes or jobs.

HARRIS: Yes, what's the number?

VELSHI: 877-266-4189.

Tony, good to see you, brother.

HARRIS: You're the man. Appreciate it, Ali. Thank you.

VELSHI: All right.

HARRIS: Let's get you caught up on our top stories now.

The government is making it easier for airline passengers to get on its terror list. Under the new criteria, the man accused in the Christmas Day bomb plot would have been placed on a no-fly list. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano spoke with CNN exclusively last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: You'll see more canine teams. You'll see more law enforcement in domestic airports. You'll see, over the next year, deployment of more advanced imaging technology scanners. I think we have 300 that we intend to install domestically.

So, all of that is under way, as well as measures as airports that you won't see, and you won't see on purpose, undercover. And you will see that measures vary from airport to airport in the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And more of this interview next hour with our Jeanne Meserve. Pakistani intelligence officials now count five U.S. drone attacks over the last week. They're aimed at militants in Waziristan. The pace of the strikes has ticked up considerably since a suicide bomber killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan. Pakistan says the latest drone attack killed at least 13 al Qaeda or Taliban.

The first portrait of princes William and Harry together went on display at London's National Gallery today. It shows the brothers in formal dress uniform, in casual poses, as you can see here. The painting was done in five sittings by the artist Nicky Phillips.

And no matter how many layers you put on today, you'll probably need to double it by the weekend. Intense wind and bitter wind chills have everybody bundling up.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: What will the economy do in this new year? We don't have a crystal ball or anything, but one well-known expert says now is the time, believe it or not, to start your own small business.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You know, last year was a rocky year for the American auto industry. Thousands of jobs were cut, dealerships, as you know, were closed, and two of Detroit's big three went bankrupt. And now the final sales figures are in. Are we covering our eyes here?

Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange with details. Susan, the carnage, the damage -- explain, please.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a terrible year to put it quite simply. Industry sales fell more than 20 percent. In fact, they hit a 27-year low. And GM's finance arm, which we mentioned quite a bit in 2009, GMAC says it expects a quarterly loss of $5 billion -- in three months, $5 billion. It comes just days after getting a third government bailout.

But here's the silver lining, if you will, Tony, the auto industry ended on a good note because December sales were up by double digit. It actually helped Ford to gain market share for the first time since 1995. Ford, of course, benefitting because GM and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, Tony.

HARRIS: What are the projections, outlooks, suggestions in terms of what 2010 might look like?

LISOVICZ: Well, we are pretty safe to say it's going to be better. Sales are expected to rise and, of course, December when you saw that nice trend, something we'd like to see continue into this new year. You know, no one is expecting things to become gangbusters because the sales volume is still very low. Even if you are in the position to buy a new car, guess what, maybe you can't get financing. That's still a big problem for a lot of people. 2009, Tony, we saw ten million cars sold. Sounds like a lot. Well, before the recession a couple of years ago, 16 million cars were sold annually.

And you know, the jobs market is a big indicator as to how much Detroit picks up in this new year. And jobs are what we're talking about over the next few days. We've got a couple of jobs reports today and they show an encouraging trend. The big -- the mother of all jobs reports comes on Friday, and the expectation is that it will come in flat, which is a whole lot better than what we saw last March when we saw nearly 750,000 jobs lost in a month.

So right now we're seeing gains for the three major averages, but modest. The Dow, the Nasdaq and S&P not doing too much, a little cautious, and it may be because of that report we're waiting on Friday.

HARRIS: All right, Susan, appreciate it. See you next hour. Thank you.

LISOVICZ: You got it.

HARRIS: So what if the economy stinks? This is the perfect time to start your own business, if you know the keys. That's what an expert is telling us. Someone who has studied decades of economic ups and downs, and Josh is here to introduce us.

Who is this woman and what is she saying here, Josh?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I was so interested in this because there was this big convention of economists and we went over there where spoke with a bunch of people, but what she said speaks to what so many viewers are telling us all the time, that they're looking for answers in this economy.

And what we're seeing here is if you are one who is grappling with unemployment, should you try to be an entrepreneur right now. That's one of the big questions. And this expert you're going to see now, she's from Temple University, she studies human behavior and the economy. She tells us if you do it right on your own right now, you will be a leader of the future economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLOTTE PHELPS, ECONOMIST, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: This is the time to go into business for yourself. And the government is making credit more available now to help entrepreneurs. So my research, although it's based on economic history, shows that the entrepreneurs are at the vanguard of social economic change. They are the leaders of the economy.

LEVS: Really, now is the time to take that kind of a risk?

PHELPS: Yes. They are the ones -- you know, looking back on it, people will say why didn't I think of that. When times are bad, that's an opportunity and only the people who have confidence and a desire for a long-term career involvement; those are the people who 20 years from now will be looking back on a successful career.

Count on your friends. It's the network of friendships, the network of social interactions can help you survive as a family, but they also -- well, your friends can point you to opportunities. There are so many opportunities now because of the electronic age and the Internet. You have to be creative and think of a niche where you can sell your idea and that's what will pay off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: She says have that confidence, don't keep it quiet, talk to your friends about it, talk to everyone you know about it, don't be afraid to use it. And she's not alone. There are a lot of people who agree with her on this.

HARRIS: That was my question, whether or not at this conference was that opinion, anecdotally, I mean, there's no surveying going on, were there a lot of people who believed in that mantra that she's preaching?

LEVS: There are. She's not a total rebel in saying this, which is one of the reasons we wanted to share it with people.

You know, a lot of people have the opposite assumption, right? You play the safest possible -- why go for capital when people aren't buying things? And what she does is she looks back at history, she says there have been recessions before, even if this one is so hung, she said this one is yet another recession. And the fact is you can look back and see that during downtimes some of the biggest companies that are out there today were started by about one or two people during those times. She says, if you harness the technology, if you talk to people about it, you can feel really good, beginning of 2010, that it's time to pursue that dream and it might be the best thing you've ever done for yourself.

FARRIS: Can we post that on the blog? I just, A, it's a really positive message going into 2010 for a lot of folks. I love the social networking aspect of what she's saying here.

LEVS: It's critical. Use it.

HARRIS: So can we do that?

LEVS: Yes, we'll get it going right now as soon as I get off the air, CNN.com/josh. I'll make it slash Tony too.

HARRIS: That's kind of you to do that.

LEVS: Give you a little something, something.

HARRIS: I appreciate that. Thank you, Josh. Slash Tony. Thank you.

Trying to reduce your debt by cutting what you spend. Here's what you do, check out CNNMoney.com, see why cable television -- what? See why cable television might be one of the things you lose in 2010. What are we -- we've got babies to feed.

Joan Rivers, she had her passport, her ticket and her boarding pass, so why did she get stranded in Costa Rica?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's get you caught up on our top stories now.

The government taking action after President Obama ordered immediate changes to fix what he calls a system failure that allowed a man to get aboard a U.S. airliner with a bomb on Christmas Day. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano spoke exclusively with CNN last hour about the fixes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANET NAPOLITANO, U.S. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: What we need to be is very smart and very strategic in how we handle the intelligence. And that's the part that the president has ordered really be fixed, and then have screening as a complement to that. And that's a domestic issue, but really for most of these threats it's an international issue and we've got to deal with it that way as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Brace yourselves, even colder weather is coming. Forecasters say arctic air will hang around through the weekend across much of the nation. Snow and ice possible Thursday from South Carolina to Louisiana. The bitter cold is blamed for at least five deaths.

Democratic Senator Chris Dodd is expected to announce he will not run for re-election. This comes amid faltering poll numbers indicating he probably could not win a sixth term in office. Dodd's announcement is expected next hour -- actually, at the top of the hour -- and we will bring it to you live right here.

The TSA's image taking another hit today after a weekend security breach. The disturbing news, that security cameras at one major airport weren't recording.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Well, how about this. The TSA cameras at Newark International Airport were working, but they weren't recording Sunday when a man slipped past security. That's one of the disturbing details coming to light today after Sunday's incident.

CNN's Susan Candiotti is in Newark right now. And, Susan, let me get through maybe three questions with you.

Is the TSA complaining why they waited an hour and 20 minutes to notify Port Authority Police of this breach?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are hearing from them now, Tony, and here's what they're saying. TSA is saying, well, we were following our own rules. That's because, they said, it was a passenger who reported seeing someone go the wrong way through that security exit checkpoint. And TSA said it was following its procedure to try to look at a videotape to confirm that that happened before it notified anyone else.

And remember, the problem is they went to look at the videotape, as we say, and they discovered the cameras were not recording. Then they had to scramble and go to Continental Airlines and retrieve their tape, determine that it did happen and that lost a lot of time, Tony.

HARRIS: well, you know -- all right, so we've got some -- sounds like we're beginning to get to the finger pointing phase of all this. How is it that neither agency so far is taking responsibility for the cameras not working? Actually, not recording?

CANDIOTTI: Well, TSA is now saying that, overall, naturally we're the TSA, we accept full responsibility. But at the same time, sources are telling us that -- frankly, the finger pointing is in full gear.

An airport source is saying, look, it is the job of the TSA to review those tapes on a daily basis to look at those cameras. They're at their workstation. They have the capability of rolling it back any time they want.

The TSA is officially saying, we pay for the cameras, but it's the job of the Port Authority to make sure that they're working properly.

Ergo, finger pointing.

HARRIS: Oh my goodness. Do we know how the guy responsible for this breach was able to enter the exit? Wasn't there a guard station there?

CANDIOTTI: There was a guard station there. However, the question is what was the guard doing?

The TSA will say on the record that that guard was distracted, but in terms of what exactly that he was doing, a source is telling us that that person, that employee was not on a cell phone -- was not on a cell phone -- but a source indicates that he was doing something else.

What we know from an airport official is that that TSA employee has now been cited administratively by the Port Authority, but we don't know exactly what happened. We know that that person has been reassigned and we know that the TSA has now reconfigured the checkpoint to try to make sure this kind of thing does not happen again.

HARRIS: Well, it is discouraging that no one is stepping up and just assuming responsibility for what is obvious here.

Susan Candiotti for us in Newark, New Jersey. Susan, appreciate it. Thank you.

There's still plenty of scrutiny of airports outside of the United States. Joan Rivers might still be stuck in Costa Rica, but she got out and shares her story with Larry King. That's next.

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HARRIS: She is, as you know, an equal opportunity offender. But a terrorist? Funny lady, Joan Rivers, isn't laughing about her showdown with airport security. In fact, she is mad as -- yeah.

Rivers was not allowed to board her flight home after a vacation to Costa Rica. She told the story to CNN's Larry King.

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LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: You were on vacation, right, in Costa Rica with the family?

JOAN RIVERS, COMEDIENNE: Wonderful vacation. We were told to get to the airport in a lot of time, because it was already after their trouble, and we did. And bring all kinds of identification, which we did.

And I was taken through four different checkpoints, all of which glad to do, took off my shoes, took off everything. And then, at the last minute, some moron, idiot decided, as we were literally going to the plane and ripping your tickets, that they didn't understand why my passport had two names on it. And I was denied access to the plane.

KING: Has this ever happened to you flying before?

RIVERS: And I -- never. I've been all over, Larry -- India, China, Nepal, Korea, you name it, Russia -- never.

KING: What was the gate agent's point of view, then? What did -- was it a he or a she?

RIVERS: It was a woman and I think she was premenstrual. And she was just in a terrible -- she just wasn't going to understand that I was flying under two names with my passport, that the United States government says also known as, AKA. And...

KING: So you never boarded the plane?

RIVERS: Was not allowed to board the plane. Was left in the airport, which closed on Sunday night, it was a very small airport, and was told that's it.

KING: What name was on the ticket?

RIVERS: The ticket was Rosenberg (ph), but they had mixed it up, and I didn't see it, I just saw Rosenberg. They put a man's name on, Joseph. So, I went through five -- I think four or five security points where they looked at my passport and didn't notice that it wasn't even my name. So, they... KING: But in these kind of frantic times, do you think maybe the agent strictly going by the letter of the law, it didn't match?

RIVERS: But, Larry, it should have not matched at the beginning. You don't make me go through the immigration, the customs, the check- in, the seat assignment, and then as you're boarding the plane they say, wait a second, something's wrong here. That should have been told to me two and a half hours before I arrived, when I first arrived at the airport.

KING: You were -- you were -- they didn't know you in Costa Rica?

RIVERS: No. All the people in line knew me and were asking for autographs and taking pictures. At one point, I got so frustrated, I said, get the pilot, call the pilot. He will know me; they refused to do that. I said, call the airline in New York City; they refused to do it.

KING: Did the rest of your family fly home?

RIVERS: They had flown home half an hour ahead of me.

KING: Oh.

RIVERS: So, I was totally alone.

KING: We, Joan, we spoke with Continental Airlines about what happened and was told they provide names and information to the local immigration authority and if there's a discrepancy, with a name on their passenger list, they may have to hold someone from boarding.

RIVERS: Absolutely fine, Larry.

KING: How do you respond to that?

RIVERS: Absolutely fine. But they should have told me that when I checked in and don't tell me I'm "Joseph Rosenberg" and then when I get to the gate they suddenly say, oh, wait a second, this is wrong.

I had my ticket. I had my boarding pass. I had gone, as I said, through all immigration and customs. This is nonsense. And how dare they! How dare they! I find this outrageous.

KING: All right, what happened after? The plane takes off, you're at the airport. What happened?

RIVERS: The plane took off. I was told -- I said, what do I do? I had $100. I had given Alyssa all my money, because she was going to change in Atlanta, I said, you'll need tip money. I had a hundred dollars and nothing in the middle of nowhere at an airport that was an hour and a half from a hotel. I said, what do I do? They said they closed the airport at Sunday night. They said maybe we can get you on a plane on Friday. How about that one?

Luckily the man who was -- I had one man who was pushing my luggage and out of the kindness of his heart, this man named Elton (ph), he started getting me phone numbers and he went in the back. And he said, if you drive -- if you drive to San Jose, there's another airport there. So, I drove the six and a half hours at night in a car with a man I didn't know over back roads and got myself to San Jose. It was...

KING: And what happened at the airport there?

RIVERS: The airport there, the next morning, Continental has a wonderful man named Joe Arenzic (ph), who from 4:00 on was on the phone with me. But they had sent me to Houston, even that got screwed up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Joan Rivers and her travel nightmare on "LARRY KING LIVE."

Here is what we're working on for the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM, a prominent senator says count him out. Democrat Chris Dodd won't run for reelection. We'll have his announcement live and tell you what it could mean for democrats and the balance of power.

And thousands of seniors angry at the AARP over its role in health care reform. They say the organization is selling them short to sell insurance. The criticism and the AARP's response, next hour.

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