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American Morning
Deep Freeze Grips Midwest and Southeast; Abdulmutallab Charged with Six Felony Counts; Targeting Yemen's Terrorists; Scammers Prey on Recession Victims; Heroin How-To?; Study Suggest Homegrown Terrorism May Be Exaggerated; Manchester Airport's Full-Body Scanners
Aired January 07, 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 to you on this Thursday, January 7th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about coming up in the next 15 minutes.
Bitter cold temperatures leaving the south and Midwest in a devastating deep freeze today. Six people killed so far, and forecasters say it may get even worse. We are tracking extreme weather across the country straight ahead.
CHETRY: The Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day has been indicted now on six federal charges and could get life in prison. The president will address the issue today after the White House releases a copy of what it is calling a shocking report on what went wrong in the incident. We're live on this developing story just ahead.
ROBERTS: And a story generating an awful lot of buzz on CNN.com, New York City's drug prevention pamphlet on tips for safer use of heroin. Health officials defending the brochure that critics are calling a how-to guide for shooting heroin. Plus some of your comments, all that coming up.
CHETRY: We begin this morning, though, with a deep freeze that just won't loosen its grip on the Midwest and the Deep South. Here's a look now at Omaha, Nebraska where they've gotten 21 inches of snow on the ground. That's the most in January since they've been keeping records. They also say the average temperature so far in 2010, three degrees in Omaha.
Then let's look at Illinois where the Mississippi River is literally frozen over and it's snowing in Chicago. Forecasters calling for six or more inches by tomorrow.
Our Rob Marciano is in Memphis, Tennessee, this morning and those subfreezing temperatures there have had deadly consequences for that city.
Good morning, Rob. ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kiran. You know, this cold, not unprecedented. What is unusual is the extended time, the number of days, the streak of this cold that just refuses to let up. And we have the Deep South or in this case the mid-south, not just the people but the homes just aren't built for this kind of cold. So people are struggling just to stay warm, just to survive. And here in Memphis, it's not the only spot.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO (voice-over): Much of the nation is in the grips of deadly cold. Florida battling its longest cold snap in 20 years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like a block of ice. It was just that cold.
MARCIANO: Further north, it's so cold chunks of ice float down the Mississippi. And in some spots it's completely frozen over.
Snow has been piling up from Kansas City to the Carolinas. And here in Memphis, at least three fatalities have been attributed to the bitter cold. So the sheriff's special services unit volunteers are going door to door.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just stay inside until it's safe to go out there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to make sure that you're doing OK?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right.
MARCIANO: But many in Memphis are without utilities because they simply can't pay. So the mayor and Memphis light, gas and water cut a deal to turn the power back on until the weather warms up. Jackie (ph) Moses had been without utilities for almost a year until now.
JACKIE (ph) MOSES, RESIDENT: I have lights now. My porch light is on, my kitchen light is on. Oh, thank you. Oh, I have lights.
MARCIANO: Propane heaters and even burning charcoal inside to stay warm, a dangerous way to live.
MOSES: When you're trying to survive, you're not thinking of that hazard. You're thinking of surviving. Listen to that.
MARCIANO (on camera): What's that?
MOSES: Heat.
MARCIANO: The sweet sound.
MOSES: That's heat. Oh, my god.
MARCIANO (voice-over): For now, she's grateful for getting to sleep in a warm home with even colder nights on the way.
MOSES: Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Clearly happy to have the heat on, and the lights on and her stove on. And she's not the only one. So far, they've turned on -- 500 customers have had their power and lights turned on that had them turned off because they simply couldn't pay. So a devastating effect of the economy.
Jackie very frustrated that in the two years that she's come back to live here she hasn't been able to find a job. But a little bit of reprieve last night and certainly grateful to the folks turning her power on that she had some heat.
You know, snow in Memphis, not unheard of but certainly a little bit surreal to see it's falling behind me here on Viele (ph) Street. Temperatures right now actually not all that bad. Right around 30 degrees. But with this cold air will come another arctic blast scheduled to be even colder than the last one and round about until tomorrow morning. And then again on Saturday morning, John and Kiran, we could very well see temperatures that get close to zero and that poses even more problems. Back to you.
CHETRY: And just what a heartbreaking picture you showed us, going that long and being so happy just to have the heat and the lights back on again. It's amazing.
Rob, thank you.
ROBERTS: Well, this bitter winter cold snap is going to be sticking around for a while. Our Jacqui Jeras tracking the extreme weather for us this morning. She's in the weather center in Atlanta.
Hi, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, guys. Yes, you it's been cold, obviously bitterly cold for about the eastern two-thirds of the country throughout much of the week. The worst of this coming into play for your Friday morning, and then gradual warming by the weekend. So we have a long ways to go with this arctic front as it continues to make its way across the nation's midsection, and all ahead of it we're looking at that heavy snow and then wintry mix in parts of the south.
Some of the worst travel conditions today will be from Chicago down towards the St. Louis area, and wind chill indices are going to be anywhere between oh, maybe minus 30 and minus 40 across the upper Midwest. The freezing temperatures moving into the southeast. Watch for that snow to be moving in places like Birmingham and Atlanta later on today -- John and Kiran.
ROBERTS: All right, Jacqui. We'll see you back here again soon. Thanks.
CHETRY: President Obama will speak again today about the near catastrophe on Christmas Day. In just a few hours, the White House will release a preliminary report on how intelligence agencies failed to connect the dots that let a Nigerian terrorist board a plane and nearly blow it up.
Attorney General Eric Holder says the investigation, quote, "has already yielded valuable intelligence." Meantime, the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has been indicted by a federal grand injury in Michigan. The charges laying out in stark detail the plot to destroy Northwest Flight 253.
Deborah Feyerick is on our security watch this morning. She joins us live in Detroit.
Good morning, Deborah.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. Well, yesterday, the grand jury met and handed up a six-count indictment against the suspect. It carries multiple sentences of life in prison.
Now among the charges, using a bomb as a weapon of mass destruction. Also the attempted murder of some 290 people who are onboard that plane and the attempted destruction of that U.S. carrier. Now new and significant is the use of TATP, a high explosive in conjunction with another material. That's what the suspect allegedly set on fire, tried to detonate to take down that plane.
White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs says that the questioning of Abdulmutallab early on did yield to, quote, unquote, "actionable intelligence," specifically who he met with and where he was. Those places including Yemen, Ghana and Nigeria.
Now Abdulmutallab is not talking anymore. He has retained a lawyer, a very skilled federal defender here in the Detroit area. Soon after he was arrested, he did tell federal agents that he was in Yemen. That's where he received the device and instructions on how to use it. He also told them at that time that he had extremist affiliations. So all of that right now under investigation.
He is here. He is being kept in a jail about 45 minutes away. He is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow afternoon -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Deborah Feyerick for us this morning. Thank you.
Also at 6:30 Eastern, coming up in just about 23 minutes, we're going to be taking a closer look at the terror threat here at home with Ebrahim Moosa, Duke University professor and co-author of a new study on homegrown terrorism. He's going to be joining us along with Jarret Brachman, professor of security studies at North Dakota State.
ROBERTS: The Department of Homeland Security is under intense scrutiny right now after the Christmas bombing attempt. And in an exclusive interview, the head of the agency, Secretary Janet Napolitano, talked with our Jeanne Meserve about the message the agency is sending to all countries about the threat to aviation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: This is something affects all of us. It's not just Americans who are traveling internationally. It's not just Americans who are on these planes. We want to have an environment where everybody who is traveling is protected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And Secretary Napolitano also answering the burning question, is the nation now at a greater risk of terrorist attack? We'll have that for you coming up in less than 30 minutes here on the Most News in the Morning.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, the so-called balloon boy's dad, Richard Heene, speaking out to Larry King for the first time since his guilty plea just days before heading to jail. Heene refused to admit that this whole incident was a hoax. Here's what he told Larry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": So in substance (ph) you believe your son was in the craft.
RICHARD HEENE: I knew he was in the craft.
KING: But you didn't know it. But he wasn't.
HEENE: No, no, no. In my mind. In my mind. There was no other place because I visualized him. I yelled at him to not go in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Heene says that he pleaded guilty to save his wife, Mayumi, from being deported to Japan. You can watch that entire interview tomorrow night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern on "LARRY KING LIVE" right here on CNN.
ROBERTS: All right. Coming up on the Most News in the Morning, target Yemen. The risks of fighting Al Qaeda on yet another front. We'll have that story for you just ahead.
It's coming up on nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Eleven minutes after the hour now on the Most News in the Morning. Time for a quick check of some other stories new this morning.
A daring escape outside of a New York City police station that was all caught on tape. A 22-year-old armed robbery suspect headed to court when he slipped out of his handcuffs. Zoom, there he goes, and made a run for the Staten Island ferry terminal. He leaped off of a ramp and onto to a train. Responding officers trapped him and arrested him about 15 minutes later. He suffered a broken ankle in that jump. But wow, look at him go. CHETRY: It didn't even look like he had the cuffs on. I mean, look at that. It looked so easy.
ROBERTS: And underneath the chain it was gone.
CHETRY: All right. Well, some scary moments. How about this one onboard a Hawaiian Airlines jet.
Two F-15 fighter jets were scrambled yesterday afternoon to escort this Hawaii-bound plane back to Oregon. Why? Because of an unruly passenger. TSA officials say the passenger made threatening remarks and then refused to stow his carry-on bag. So everybody had to return back to Portland, Oregon. The passenger and companion were interviewed by the FBI but then released.
ROBERTS: And the Council on American Islamic Relations is expressing its concern that new airport security will result in Muslim passengers being profiled. The group wants the TSA to clarify whether Islamic headscarves, what are called hijabs (ph), will now automatically trigger secondary screening measures. The request comes after a Muslim woman claims that she was singled out by screeners at Dulles airport who put her through a full body pat-down search when she refused to remove her scarf.
CHETRY: Right now in Yemen, security forces are aggressively on the hunt for Al Qaeda. The anti-terror operations aimed at flushing out a group that President Obama calls a threat to international security. But the fight has its diplomatic challenges as well. Here's our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr with an "A.M. Original."
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, President Obama is vowing to shut down terrorist networks once and for all. But how do you do it in a country like Yemen where the U.S. is not at war with the government?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice-over): The U.S. embassy in Yemen shuts down after Al Qaeda threatens to attack. The U.S. says Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, trained by Al Qaeda in Yemen, carries explosives on an airliner bound for Detroit. Now headquartered in Yemen, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, is front and center in the U.S. war on terror.
The top commander of U.S. forces in the region visited Yemen to review the latest intelligence on where several hundred Al Qaeda members have been hiding and where crucial training camps are located across the country. General David Petraeus made a public pledge to Yemen about the way ahead in their fight against Al Qaeda.
GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, CENTCOM COMMANDER: It's well known about 70 million in security assistance last year that will more than double this coming year.
STARR: A senior U.S. official says the new pot of $140 million will now be used in part to train Yemeni special forces so they can target Al Qaeda and establish a new counterterrorism center to handle the intelligence on those targets. It's all a huge turn around for Yemen. President Saleh has been known in the past to politically align himself with Al Qaeda. Sebastian Gorka helps the U.S. train the Yemeni military. Now, they are seen as key to future progress.
SEBASTIAN GORKA, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: When it comes to the Yemeni officers I've worked with, I'd have to say that each one of them has been a very committed individual professional, somebody who takes this threat seriously.
STARR: But some experts warn a cozy relationship with Yemen could still backfire.
GREGORY JOHNSEN, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: One of the dangers I think of the U.S. taking a very active and overt role within Yemen is that it will really serve I think to galvanize numerous different strands of opposition within the country against U.S. forces.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: Even though covert military operations may be planned, don't look for US troops to fight openly on the ground. The US military policy remains unchanged - help the Yemeni military, get them to do the fighting, and make them loyal partners in the war on terror - John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr for us this morning. Barbara Starr, thanks so much.
Fifteen minutes after the hour. Coming up next, Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business." The top recession scams that you should watch out for. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
Eighteen minutes past the hour right now. That means it's time for "Minding Your Business."
General Motor's new CEO is predicting a profit this year - how about that one? Ed Whitacre says the company will make money by focusing on sales rather than just slashing expenses. The auto maker has lost money every year since 2005 and was the force - the first to be forced to file bankruptcy last year.
ROBERTS: Maybe it's the wine or the beaches, but France is considered the best place to live in the world for the fifth straight year. A recent poll places Australia at number two, followed by Switzerland, Germany, New Zealand and Luxemburg. Rounding out the top seven is the United States of America.
CHETRY: There you go. And Christine Romans is here, "Minding Your Business" for us this morning, talking about some scams that people need to look out for in the economic downturn. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know what? Otherwise reasonable people are falling victims to these things, especially these fake check scams. I'm going to tell you a little more about those, but there are a lot of scams out here...
ROBERTS: I keep getting e-mails that I've inherited $1 million from somebody I've never heard of.
ROMANS: John, maybe you have. You wire me - I'll wire you a check, you wire me just a little bit of it back. I promise it's legit.
First of all, look, you could get these scams - these government grant scams. Look, I want to help you get stimulus money. You just give me a little bit of money and I'm going to help you navigate the process. Caution, there is no program to help you get government cash to pay your bills. They're targeting small business with this as well, so be very careful if anybody is telling you that they can sell you access to government money.
Also for job hunters, pay a fee, we'll help you get a job. Here's the job for you, you just need to pay with your credit check. Give us all of your bank information, your social security number, pay us the fee and we'll get you a job. Wrong! They just want access to your financial information and they want your money. There's no job at the end of the rainbow here.
Mortgage help, be rescued from foreclosure. Most of this information - most of these programs, they are free. You work with your bank. You work with the government's program on this. You don't need to pay somebody hundreds and thousands of dollars to try to save your home.
And - and those scams are very insidious, because the forms that you get in the mail look an awful lot like the forms that are legitimate forms from the government and also from your loan servicer, so be very careful if somebody wants to take your money to help you prevent a foreclosure.
This last one I find fascinating, and a lot of pretty desperate people are starting to think about this because it's a great job. Be a mystery shopper. You work and go - and go to these - the malls, go to these stores, and you buy stuff and you rate the stores, rate the products and rate the customer service. You are a mystery shopper, and you're - you're paid for by the companies. Wrong.
What they do is they send you a check, they tell you to deposit the check, they give you a list of all the places to go to evaluate and one of the last places on the list is like a money - money lending place or a - a Western Union, or one of the places where you can wire money. And so what they've really done is they put money - a check that's not going to clear into your account. You go and do all of these things. You've spent thousands of dollars of your own money and now you've wired money back to those companies, these scammers and you've completely lost out. You'd be surprised how many people are doing this. The fake check scams are crazy - 1.3 million people have fallen victim to these fake check scams. I mean, so it's not just a couple of people.
Now, you might think that, look, nobody - no reasonable person is going to do this. They are. If you have elderly parents, make sure you talk to them about these scams because they are prolific right now, even your college kids. College kids who are looking for cash. People are desperate. Some of these things look pretty legit.
CHETRY: I know, but on that one, couldn't they just - you get that money in your account, shop at all the other places and then don't do the last one and then keep the money?
ROMANS: There's no money, really, going in your account. I mean, it's going (INAUDIBLE) to be a pain in the you know what, because you're going to have to go and return all that stuff and, you know, it's just - it's....
CHETRY: OK.
ROMANS: If it sounds too good to be true, it is, and people are desperate. And wherever there's the foreclosure crisis, this is where these - these scams - all of these scams are coming up, most of the...
ROBERTS: Do you have a "Romans' Numeral" for us this morning?
ROMANS: I do. It's $4,000.
ROBERTS: That's the average scam?
ROMANS: That's the average victim's loss. And, according to Consumer Federation of America, this is for the fake check scams. Most of these scams all come down to some kind of a fake check. Somebody sends you a check, maybe it's too much money and they want some money back.
One-third of adults have been approached by scammers for fake checks.
ROBERTS: Can we just lay something out there?
ROMANS: Yes.
ROBERTS: People don't just out of the blue offer you money. So...
ROMANS: I know. Buy you know why they do? Because people fall for it. Hundreds of thousands of people fall for it.
Just - even though you think you're too smart to - make sure you talk to the people around you. Make sure they don't.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business" this morning. Thanks. CHETRY: Well, a story that had a lot of people talking. It's this controversial how-to guide for heroin users that was put out by the City of New York's Health Department. Our Alina Cho is going to be joining us with an update on exactly what's going on here.
It's 23 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: We've got a shot this morning of Atlanta. Look at that, huh. They've still got that light on, celebrating Halloween on the Bank of America.
CHETRY: Well, there you go. All right, that joke needs to retire in 2010, all right? All right? You say something wrong one time and no one let's you live it down.
Twenty-five degrees, partly cloudy, 42 degrees, rain and snow showers from later today in Atlanta.
ROBERTS: I figured we could milk that all the way until next Halloween. What do you think?
CHETRY: Only if you dress up. It's a deal?
ROBERTS: It will be a cold day in a very warm place before I dress up for Halloween, let me tell you.
It's 26 minutes after the hour. Time for an "AM Original" now, a story that you wouldn't see anywhere else, and this one getting an awful lot of buzz on our blog. The New York City Health Department defending its controversial pamphlet about drug prevention. The flyer, paid with taxpayer money, teaches heroin addicts how to shoot up safely.
CHETRY: Yes, and the Health Department says it's really designed to help save lives. Critics, though, say it's not that at all. It's basically a lesson in Drug Taking 101.
Our Alina Cho reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 16-page pamphlet is called "Take Charge, Take Care" 10 Tips for Safer Use," a virtual heroin how-to guide, complete with illustrations and detailed tips. Warm your body (jump up and down) to show your veins. Don't always inject in the same spot, and don't "dig" for veins. If you don't "register," pull out and try again.
PETER VALLONE JR., CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE, NYC COUNCIL: Jump up and down to show your veins, find the vein before you try to inject it - you know, where's the health concern there? If you've missed a vein, you might get a bruise? That's - that's an egregious misuse of taxpayer money.
CHO: The brain child of New York City's Health Department, 70,000 flyers paid for with $32,000 taxpayer dollars.
JOHN GILBRIDE, DEA SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, NEW YORK: I think it sends out the message, and the wrong message that heroin use can be safe. Heroin use cannot be safe. Heroin use can be deadly.
CHO: That's exactly why New York's Health Department says these tips are crucial. Accidental overdose is the fourth leading cause of death in New York City, claiming more than 600 lives a year.
Another big issue? HIV and AIDS. One-third of Americans living with HIV are infected through injection drug use, one reason why the Health Department also encourages users not to share needles, but adds there's no healthy use of drugs, just helpful information.
DR. ADAM KARPATI, EXEC. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF MENTAL HYGIENE: The messages are clear. It's about getting help to stop using drugs. It's about preventing overdose. It's about preventing HIV infection and hepatitis infection. That's the context.
"JOHN": It was about eight (ph) years ago...
CHO: Information that could have helped this 35-year-old heroin user. We'll call him "John." He shoots up several times a week. Two and a half years ago, John was diagnosed with hepatitis C.
"JOHN": Most people are going to use, and they're going to use - they're going to find a way to use, regardless. I think it's better that somebody has the right information so that, you know, they can do it the right way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Since we first brought you this story yesterday, we have been watching our blog, cnn.com/amfix, very closely. The response from you has been pretty evenly split right down the middle.
Gregory writes, "These angry roars about the so-called how-to heroin flyers must be from the same folks who dodged the reality bullet about teen sex. After all, we know for a certainty if you don't talk about it, it doesn't exist."
And Andrea says, quote, "It is sad that these are the people we are helping. We aren't helping the abused and neglected kids whose parents aren't taking care of them. We aren't helping the elderly who don't have enough money to eat. We're helping drug addicts. Seriously?"
Listen, guys - I mean, you know, when I first got this assignment, I - I started looking into it, and obviously you're human. You're going to have a reaction to it. After interviewing people on both sides, I have to say, you can see both sides. But people are very passionate on either side.
You know, the - the Health Department is quick to say, listen, this is a stop gap measure until those recovering addicts can go and get help. Critics will say, well, there's some people who don't want help, right? And there's nothing you can do about an overdose. If you can buy heroin on the street for less than a six-pack of beer and it's a high purity level, you will die, in a lot of cases.
And so - you know, it's a - it's a tough thing. Other people say if you're going to do something like this, do it right. Be detailed. But that's what's shocking to a lot of people.
CHETRY: All right. Alina Cho, good stuff.
And we invite people to weigh in, of course. Once again, cnn.com/amfix. Thanks, Alina.
CHO: You bet.
ROBERTS: And you can -- yes, as we say, go to the blog, any time you want. Just let us know what you think about everything this morning.
CHETRY: Thirty minutes past the hour right now. And that means it's time for this morning's top stories.
An arctic blast now blame for six deaths across the U.S. Many of the victims elderly or homeless. And after a very brief one day warm- up round two of unbearable cold is on the way. Jacqui Jeras will be here with the blizzard warnings for the north and the record lows for the south in 20 minutes.
ROBERTS: A report on the Intel failures before the attempted terror attack on Christmas is coming out today. National Security adviser Gen. Jim Jones says the details will shock some Americans. The president himself has said we had the information to stop a Nigerian man from allegedly boarding a flight overseas with explosives in his underwear, but did not connect the dots. He is expected to speak after the report is made public.
CHETRY: And our own Jeanne Meserve sat down with the president's Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano, and flat out asked if we are more at risk today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The typical kind of assumption on the threat was sort of a large conspiratorial 9/11 style attack. What we saw on Christmas was an individual who comes out of Yemen, who's been radicalized, who gets into the travel system, dots are not connected in the intelligence community, and that's what the president has ordered to be addressed and rectified.
He gets through the screening done at Amsterdam, and gets on a plane bound for the United States. That's a much more difficult threat in a way to deal with than a conspiracy where you have multiple ways to intercept communications and the like. So I would say it's a changing threat, and perhaps a more difficult threat.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: Well, the threat from so called homegrown terrorism may be real, but a new study says it's not as great as most people think. Duke University credits the American-Muslim Community with limiting radicalization by policing itself.
Joining us now from Durham, North Carolina is Ebrahim Moosa. He is a co-author of the Duke study. And professor of Islamic studies there, and from Fargo, North Dakota, Jarret Brachman. He is the author of Global Jihadism and an assistant professor at North Dakota State.
Thanks very much, gentleman. Both are being with us.
Let's go to you, first of all, Ebrahim.
When you look at this study, and I've got it here. It's a lengthy study. How big a problem did up find radicalization is in the United States. And is there some way to quantify it?
EBRAHIM MOOSA, PROFESSOR OF ISLAMIC STUDIES, DUKE UNIVERSITY: John, it's very difficult to quantify it. But, you know, in the first areas that we looked at Detroit -- sorry, Seattle, Buffalo, Raleigh, Durham area and also Houston. In those areas we found that the communities are taking active steps in order to combat whatever elements of radicalization there is in their communities, et cetera. And this is a very, very healthy sign.
ROBERTS: You found that 139 people had been arrested and accused of -- arrested or accused of planning or carrying out terror-related violence since the September 11th attacks. Your co-author, Charles Kurtsman, said that the study was a demonstration that the fear of radicalization, homegrown terrorism is out of proportion to the actual threat.
Jarret, do you agree with that?
JARRET BRACHMAN, AUTHOR, "GLOBAL JIHADISM": Well, I mean, that's the inherent nature of terrorism is that it doesn't -- you don't need a lot of people to create a lot of fear. And so, you know, in this case, I think their radicalization is a problem. I think we need to address it in context as the study says, but it's something that law enforcement is going to continue to wrestle with for a while in this country.
ROBERTS: You know, we don't, Jarret, have many of the same issues in the United States that many European nations do when it comes to radicalization. Obviously, a lot of Muslim countries as well. There's greater assimilation here, different peoples from around the world, greater prosperity.
So what are the steps to radicalization? What are the influences here that you're picking up?
BRACHMAN: Right. Well, you know, I think Muslim communities are doing a good job with the people who are embedded in the community. It's these people who feel ostracized from their own local communities, who feel distance from their parents, who have deep- seated political grievances and social grievances. In many times these people will travel to places like Yemen, or Pakistan where they become really radicalized and off the grid for local Muslim communities.
ROBERTS: Ebrahim, as you said, you found that the Muslim community has been taking active steps to fight radicalization. What are they doing?
MOOSA: Well, the kind of steps they're taking, John, is that they are monitoring young people in their mosques, et cetera, when they see people speaking things and talking in radical ways, and then they counsel those people, if those are very difficult to get a hold of, then they would also report such people. If they are suspicious looking individuals, report them to law enforcement, expel them from the community.
And there's also been a very active step of advancing religious literacy. And that's one of our recommendations in our report is. That we're asking communities -- Muslim communities to up religious literacy so the people do not understand things in a kind of one-on- one way, but also understand religion, and questions of dogma and their own understanding of the world is a much more complex one.
And part of that religious literacy also means there must also be an advanced political literacy in the United States. That if you have grievances as an individual, then there are ways in which you can remedy it in the United States, and that is by joining the political process and not use violence or not resort to terrorism.
ROBERTS: In terms of that monitoring, I guess we saw that recently, the case of the five men from Maryland who were arrested in Pakistan when the council on American Islamic Relations got concern about their whereabouts and went to the authorities.
Jarret, is there a general set of warning signs that somebody is becoming radicalized? Or is it much more general? And also, do people in this country take inspiration from people like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab even though his operation was a failure?
BRACHMAN: Yes, I mean, there's a lot of complexity to those questions. But first of all, you know, the Nigerian -- the underwear bomber as he's become known, is a hero even though he failed, in many ways because al Qaeda promotes him as such using the Internet.
And so, the fact that he did something and, you know, it wasn't political in nature, it was violent in nature. And al Qaeda's whole mantra is to convince you politics isn't the solution. You've got to go out and do something. And so, you know, the fact that he failed wasn't really an issue for them.
ROBERTS: And Ebrahim, this represents a whole new set of challenges for parents. You know, it used to be the parent had to worry whether the child was doing well at school, was hanging out with the right crowd, you know, wasn't into drugs, wasn't into criminal behavior. This kind of represents a whole new set of concerns here. What suggestions would you have for parents in monitoring this, and dealing with this?
MOOSA: I think one of the most important thing is that, you know, parenting is becoming a much more serious responsibility. Not just because you have Muslim children, but also because the world has become a much more complex place.
And I think one of the important things is that the parents must be able to talk to the children about their own identities. Because one of the things we identify in our report is the question of identity politics, of how people feel about themselves and their religion, and how they feel that they are discriminated, or the grievances they might have. So it's very, very important that parents talk to their children, talk to them about politics, talk to them about religion, and make sure that they don't only get one kind of narrative about religion, because Islam is a very complex tradition.
ROBERTS: Right.
MOOSA: And there are different viewpoints in this whole -- there's a spectrum of viewpoints, et cetera. And that those kids should be exposed to those complexities about religion, and talking about them, ventilating them is much, much more important than keeping kids quiet, et cetera, and not allowing them to talk about their religious views.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, it's a very interesting and eye- opening report.
Ebrahim Moosa, thanks for being with us.
Jarrett Brachman as well, appreciate you joining us.
It's 38 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Forty-one minutes past the hour now. Aviation security experts are in Europe meeting today considering new rules, including the use of full body scanners.
ROBERTS: This after the TSA called on 14 countries to tighten security. Great Britain is not on that list, despite the fact that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was not the first suspected terrorist with ties to the country.
Our Phil Black went to an airport in England, where they are giving the full body scanners a try while keeping a close watch on privacy rights.
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, full- body scanning machines are coming to Britain's airports. The government has said the first of them will be in place within weeks, and they'll be rolled out steadily across the country from there. Here at Manchester Airport in northern England, full-body scanning machines are already being trialled. But despite the government's strong support for this security upgrade, there are also strong concerns about the technology. Here in Britain and across Europe as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, sir. Will you step forward, please?
BLACK: The British government has said body scanners will be rolled out at all British airports despite strong concerns over privacy. To protect his identity, we won't show you this man's face. While we show you the image the machine produces.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A couple items that I'd like to be highlighted up.
BLACK: In a nearby room, another security staff member can see through the man's clothes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Potentially threat items, obviously. But if there's anything of interest it's going to show up, anything that's metal, all the stent on the body, I prefer them to have a closer look at outside as a localized search. I'd definitely want a proper look at that one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see what we've got.
BLACK: Back at the scanner, this is how suspect areas are identified so security staff know where to look.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your belt buckle's fine. OK. Will you just turn around for me and show me what you've got.
BLACK: The airport says it's all done with privacy in mind. Only one person looks at the images. They're never stored. The computer is bolted down and cameras, apart from the CCTV above, are usually forbidden in here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, sir, you can step around, please.
BLACK (on camera): Thank you.
I have used these machines in other parts of the world. And they are fast, they are not as intrusive as the full patdown, but in a room not far, there is someone right now looking at an image of me, well, pretty much naked. And there are people in Britain and across Europe who still have real concerns about those images.
(voice-over): Child protection advocates believe body scanner images are so revealing they may breach Britain's child pornography laws.
IAN DOWTY, ACTION ON RIGHTS FOR CHILDREN: Well, as far as anybody under the age of 18 is concerned, it's an offense to take an indecent image of any such person. And it is an offense whether or not consent is given.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And face this direction for me.
BLACK: And there are concerns about the scanner's effectiveness. British politician Ben Wallace used to work for a company that makes body scanners, and he says they have weaknesses.
BEN WALLACE, BRITISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: It doesn't really matter how many scanners you have around the world. It's not going to currently pick up what is being posed by al Qaeda, plastics, and liquid and chemical bombs.
BLACK: Manchester Airport carried out a body scanner test using items the Christmas bomb suspect is accused of smuggling on to his flight. Its assessment? The items probably would have been detected.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACK: European countries are not united on full-body scanning machines. While countries like Britain and the Netherlands are going ahead, other countries like France and Germany say they have no intention of doing so, and they won't adopt the technology until their privacy concerns are resolved.
John, Kiran, back to you.
ROBERTS: Phil Black for us this morning.
Phil, thanks.
Forty-four, almost forty-five minutes after the hour now. Jacqui Jeras is going to have more on the cold gripping the Midwest and the south right after the break.
CHETRY: And also in ten minutes, Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut announcing yesterday that he is not going to run for re- election. But it was actually his daughter who stole the spotlight as he was making that announcement. Jeanne Moos has this and other background distractions.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Forty- eight minutes past the hour. That means it's time for your "AM House Call," stories about your health. There is a new brain scan that could give doctors an advantage on figuring out whether or not someone has Alzheimer's. The technology is called a diffusion tenser image, and it can detect changes in brain chemistry unlike traditional MRIs. The scan promises improved diagnosis of normal memory loss as well as Alzheimer's disease.
Children who battled cancer are more prone to suffer other health problems that puts them at higher risk for heart disease. Researchers say they're nearly twice as likely to have to take medication for high cholesterol, diabetes, or high blood pressure. The study found that radiation treatment could actually be behind the development of cardiovascular disease in cancer survivors.
And a study of mothers who's took folic acid late in their pregnancy, they're talking about week 30 and beyond, finds that their kids could be at greater risk of developing asthma. The report is in the American Journal of Epidemiology and is the first to make such a connection. Researchers emphasize that the study does not include supplement use, folic acid use, in early pregnancy and that it's too soon to give women advice based on these results, and it is a little bit puzzling because it's one of the big pushes to take folic acid even before you're pregnant to prevent neural tube problems and things like spina bifida.
ROBERTS: Yes, I think it's the best thing to do always in these cases is talk with your doctor about it before you do anything.
Forty-nine minutes after the hour. Let's get a quick check at this morning's weather headlines. Our Jacqui Jeras is at the Extreme Weather Center in Atlanta. Good morning, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning guys. Cold big story once again today, and it's just brutal out there and so unusual to have cold air stick around for this long. Arctic high pressure is just diving down to the south, making its way towards the Gulf Coast, and it's going to continue to do that over the next couple of days. Take a look at some of these temperatures into the southeast. In fact, temperatures here are so cold that the iguanas literally are falling out of the trees because they stiffen up in the cold temperatures, and this is nearly unprecedented.
The worst of this arctic air hits the Southeast as we head into tomorrow, as you know. Now, we do have some cold conditions which continue across the area, and we're going to see that mixing with some moisture and bring some heavy snow at the parts of the Midwest, Chicago down towards St. Louis along I-70. They are going to see some rough condition, and if you're trying to travel today, we'll see winds in the northeast cause delays, the snow across the Midwest, and then the deep south will see some delays because of the wind here, and then that wintry mix that begins to move in.
Yes, that is snow that we're seeing across Northern Mississippi and Northern Alabama. We think that will move into Georgia later on today. Wind chills dangerously cold. It can take your skin only 15 to 30 minutes to freeze here in the upper Midwest, tomorrow morning, even colder than today, and Saturday morning will be the worst of it across the southeast, and we'll finally start to warm up a little bit, guys, by the end of the weekend.
CHETRY: Finally, that's some good news. Thanks, Jacqui.
This morning's top stories are just a few minutes away, including coming up at the top of the hour, two-thirds of the country as Jacqui is saying under a deep freeze. The temperatures are dropping even further. ROBERTS: At 7:10 Eastern, a CNN exclusive. Our Nic Robertson went to Jordan to talk to the family of the suicide bomber, the alleged double agent, who killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan. They say that they didn't know until we did that he was working for al Qaeda.
CHETRY: At 7:40 Eastern, is it a yoga cult? Kyra Phillips' exclusive reporting on a spiritual leader accused of raping a woman who devoted her life to the self-proclaimed prophet. Those stories and much more at the top of the hour.
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CHETRY: Fifty-four minutes past the hour. Time now for the Most News in the Morning, and sometimes, when there's a big announcement, it's really what happens behind the scenes that keeps you fixated.
ROBERTS: Case in point, the real star of yesterday's announcement from Senator Chris Dodd. Jeanne Moos takes a look at the over-the-shoulder antics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sure you can tell everyone where to stand, but getting kids to stand still? Good luck.
SENATOR CHRIS DODD, CONNECTICUT: I'm still driven by the same passions...
MOOS: We were more interested in what Senator Chris Dodd's daughter was whispering...
DODD: So many, many years ago.
MOOS: ... than we were on his speech. A 4-year-old Christine had her hand on dad's shoulder.
DODD: Wishing that I could have seen...
MOOS: And on Mom's nose.
DODD: Political shape of my career.
MOOS: And check out the older daughter going gaga at the mention of her name.
DODD: These young children of mine, Grace who is 8 (ph).
MOOS: When her dad kisses her, she wipes it off. Judging from her parting words, Grace would rather be saving grace.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: I'm starving. I'm starving.
MOOS: But beware what to eat. The man voters picked to be New Jersey's next governor wasn't the only thing picked at his acceptance speech.
We've seen enough of the lieutenant governor-elect son getting his hand up.
Remember Chief Justice John Roberts' son? He made the papers for escaping his mom's clutches and crawling around as the President introduced his dad.
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT: He's a honor graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Law School...
MOOS: Young Jack graduated to hand signals and fancy footwork.
BUSH: ... after he was nominated for the court of appeals in 2001.
MOOS: Eventually, Jack had to be marched off the stage.
BUSH: I received good advice from both Republicans and Democrats.
MOOS: Even older kids can't stand still. Letterman made this kid famous.
BUSH: If you're worried about the quality...
We stand for the fair treatment of faith based groups to receive federal support...
MOOS: Of course, there was Rudy Giuliani's son all grown up now, but will he ever live down his dad's swearing in as mayor, blowing kisses, joining in the oath.
MOOS (on-camera): You know, it's one thing when your kids steal the show, but how about when it's a couple of koalas?
MOOS (voice-over): Tennis star Andy Roddick was talking to reporters at an Australian koala sanctuary.
Who cares about the tennis court when you can watch koalas courting?
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Nature, ain't it wonderful?
CHETRY: Yes. Bees do it. Birds do it. Koalas do it.
(LAUGHING)
ROBERTS: Wow. Top stories coming your way in 90 seconds. Stay with us.
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