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American Morning
Cold Weather Blasts U.S.; Christmas Day Bomber Indicted for Multiple Life Sentences; Richard Heene Hoax Charges; Suicide Bomber's Family Speaks Out; Tips on How to Avoid Being Scammed; "Mayor" of Skid Row on a Mission to Help the Homeless
Aired January 07, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. Glad you're with us on this Thursday, January 7th. Almost coming up to 7:00 here in New York. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us. Here are the top stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes here on the Most News in the Morning.
It is the deep freeze that just will not quit. Bitter cold temperatures still gripping the south and the midwest. Record snowfall being recorded in the nation's heartland, and it's not letting up any time soon.
CHETRY: A CNN exclusive, our Nic Robertson traveled to Jordan to talk to the family of the suicide bomber, the alleged double agent, who killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan. They say they did not know until the world found out that he was working for al Qaeda.
ROBERTS: And finding inner peace at what some call a dangerous price. A special investigation with Kyra Phillips this morning, the allegations from a former insider who says what happened during a trip with the founder of Dahn Yoga head nothing to do with yoga or spirituality. A charged founder denies. Hear both sides of the story coming up this hour.
CHETRY: We begin, though, with the Arctic blast. The extreme cold that's taken hold in most of the country. You take a look at the map right now, all the blue you see means that's where the wind chill is below freezing this morning, from the West Coast to the east, to the Canadian border and all the way to the panhandle of Florida.
ROBERTS: Kansas City, Missouri, this morning waking up to heavy snow bands and temperatures in the teens. Ten inches of snow could be on the ground by the end of the day.
Go further, south to Texas, and the cold air is plunging this morning. People there hitting home improvement stores for insulation and portable heaters. Temperatures in Dallas today failing into the upper 20s with snow showers.
CHETRY: And we're tracking extreme weather for you this morning. Jacqui Jeras is in the weather center in Atlanta. We're going to get her forecast in just a moment.
First, to meteorologist Rob Marciano, who's joining us live from Memphis, Tennessee this morning. And Rob, these temperatures are proving deadly where you are.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, they certainly are. This morning, even though it's snowing lightly here in Memphis, Tennessee, it's about as warm as it's been all week.
The snow is not expected to be the big story, the cold air, which has been the big story for the past several days will be the story for the next several days to come. And be it a person or a home, things down south or in this case the mid-south just aren't made to handle this kind of extended period of cold weather. And from coast to coast, Memphis isn't the only spot getting hit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: 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. We want to make sure that you're good, all right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
MARCIANO: The 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 Moses had been without utilities for almost a year until now.
JACQUELINE MOSLEY, MEMPHIS 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.
MOSLEY: 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?
MOSLEY: Heat! MARCIANO: The sweet sound.
MOSLEY: 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.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: When word got out there were fatalities in the state of Tennessee because of the bitter cold and in some cases the people just being in their homes without heat, the mayor said we had to do something.
So he got with the power company, and yesterday they managed to turn on the power to 500 people who haven't been able to pay their bills because of economic problems in the past -- well, the past, in her case, the past several months and for the past couple of years.
The deal with this next batch of cold air, it's going to be colder than the last one, single-digit temperatures for the next two days in the morning.
And I don't know if you could see in the piece there, but when we walked into the house, it was colder in the house than it was outside. You could see her breath when she spoke. And this morning showing that's not the case as at least temporarily the lights and heat turned back on. Back to you in New York.
CHETRY: It's sad to think, she was without utilities for a year, and then what happens after this freeze goes away. She still can't pay the bills.
MARCIANO: It's an ongoing struggle for sure, but at least in this coldest streak that they haven't seen in quite some time they're trying to give people some comfort at least to survive.
CHETRY: Yes. Rob Marciano for us this morning, thanks.
(WEATHER BREAK)
CHETRY: In just a few hours President Obama will address the nation hours, and just hours after the White House will release a declassified account of those missteps of his national security teams that allowed a Nigerian man to board a Christmas day flight to Detroit determined to blow that flight up.
The suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Michigan. Our Deb Feyerick is following the development live from Detroit. Good morning, Deb.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. The grand jury did hand out an indictment that carries a multiple sentence of life in prison, the suspect Abdulmutallab expected to be arraigned here in federal court tomorrow. Among the charges, that he used a weapon of mass destruction in an attempt to blow up a U.S. jetliner, also attempted murder of some 290 people who are onboard of plane at the time he detonated that device.
New and significant in the indictment, that he used TATP high explosive, that is a signature trademark of a number of terror suspects.
Also new this morning, a top Yemeni official saying the suspect did indeed meet with the American born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, considered the bin Laden of the internet. He has radicalized a number of young Muslims. He had also been in touch with the Ft. Hood shooter.
Abdulmutallab is no longer speaking, but when he was arrested, he did make statements to federal authorities. Yesterday Robert Gibbs said that that information provided "actionable intelligence," specifically that he received the device in Yemen, also how to use it, also where he traveled. Those locations including Ghana, Nigeria, Yemen, and, of course, Amsterdam en route here to Detroit. Kiran?
CHETRY: All right, Deb Feyerick for us following the latest developments. Thanks.
ROBERTS: Coming up now on eight minutes after the hour, and other stories also new this morning. The White House not amused over seeing President Obama's image on a Times Square billboard. The administration says it will ask outer wear company Weatherproof to remove the ad because it was done without the White House permission.
The billboard shows the president wearing one of the company's jackets while visiting the Great Wall of China. And don't forget, PETA the other day had had an unauthorized ad featuring Michelle Obama.
CHETRY: It's funny, in this day in age you could Photoshop anything onto anybody if you wanted to, right?
ROBERTS: You could, but he was wearing the coat, though. I've got one just like it.
CHETRY: Maybe they'll put you up.
(LAUGHTER)
Well, a daring escape outside of a New York city police station, all of it caught on tape. Check out the guy. He's the one below the person wearing the big blue coat. He's a 22-year-old armed robbery suspect. There you see he was able to slip the chains, get out of his handcuffs and make a run for it, trying to get to the Staten Island ferry.
Responding officers were able to catch up with him, though. They were able to arrest him about 15 minutes later. Here's the video once again, you can see walking, walking, and then it just seemed so easy for him to get his hand out of there and he's gone. He, by the way, did suffer a broken ankle in the jump.
ROBERTS: The so-called balloon boy's dad Richard Heene speaking only to Larry King for the first time since his guilty plea. And just days before heading to jail, Heene refused to admit the whole incident was a hoax. Here's what he told Larry King.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD HEENE, FALCON'S HEENE'S FATHER: We searched the house high and low sand -- I'm sorry.
LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: It's OK.
HEENE: And I -- you know, after I saw him in the craft, and Bradford told me he went inside, I didn't believe Bradford. I said I just saw him.
KING: So you believe your son was in the craft?
HEENE: I knew he was in the craft.
KING: But you didn't know it, because he wasn't.
HEENE: 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)
ROBERTS: Heene says he pled guilty to save his wife Mayumi from being deported to Japan. You can watch the entire interview tomorrow night right here on CNN.
CHETRY: Well, we're talking about scams, recession scams, how to spot them, and what to do if you find yourself a victim of one. Christine Romans says it's happened to many people, in fact more than a million. The Better Business Bureau saying you've got to watch out for this.
It's 10 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's 12 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
There is a lot of new information this morning about the suicide bomber, the alleged double agent who got past U.S. security and killed seven CIA workers in Afghanistan. The number three man for Al Qaeda is taking credit for the attack and says it was for revenge.
In a CNN exclusive, our Nic Robertson went to Jordan to speak with the bomber's family to find out why he went back to the other side. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm meeting the father of the man alleged to have killed seven CIA operatives in Afghanistan.
ROBERTSON (on camera): What can you tell us about your son?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now? No comment.
ROBERTSON: Why no comment?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is nothing sure.
ROBERTSON: You don't know for sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing sure.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): We're in a middle class neighborhood of Iman, Jordan. It is late afternoon and he's going to the mosque for prayers at sundown. He promises to speak to us afterwards.
With two other journalists, we knock at the front door to see if others will talk. Someone just opened the door, the brother of the alleged bomber.
ROBERTSON (on camera): You can't talk to us?
ROBERTSON (voice-over): He doesn't want to be on camera, but after a little time shares his concerns.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's my brother and he was very good person. He suffers some huge pressures, we know this.
ROBERTSON: He says his brother, a doctor, was angry about the war in Gaza last year, volunteered his medical services, was questioned by Jordanian intelligence officials, left the country soon after, telling the family he was going to Turkey. That was the last they saw of him.
A senior Jordanian intelligence source told us al-Balawi in fact went to Pakistan after he had been questioned about his radical Internet postings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know there is something wrong since he was not in Turkey, so we say where has this guy gone? We thought he was in Gaza.
ROBERTSON: Then last week came the phone call no father wants to get the day after the explosion at the base in Afghanistan.
ROBERTSON (on camera): So they called and said he's made a big operation in the CIA base in Afghanistan?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is bad news but this is what happened, so you have to deal with that. That is exactly what they say. ROBERTSON: They said it's bad news?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They didn't say congratulations?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They said this is what happened.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): By the time his father comes out of the mosque, it's dark.
(on camera): Can we come in?
(voice-over): I want to ask him more about the mystery phone call, but at the door he's met by his son. They're nervous. Jordan's intelligence services have been calling them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They called them 11 times so --
ROBERTSON (on camera): Who called them 11 times?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The intelligence.
ROBERTSON: Have already called them since we knocked on the door. So in the space of being here half an hour, intelligence have called them 11 times.
We have to leave. OK.
(voice-over): It's a very, very sensitive issue. Not only were seven CIA operatives killed, but a Jordanian officer, too, a cousin of the king.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: And this is the photograph of the man suspected of being behind this attack running in the Jordanian newspapers today. We've confirmed with medical sources here, this is a picture of al- Balawi when he became a doctor here in 2002 -- John.
ROBERTS: So, Nic, at the same time that he was working with the CIA, he was continuing to post these radical statements on the Internet? Was nobody suspicious that potentially he wasn't what he was purporting to be to intelligence sources?
ROBERTSON: What we're hearing from Jordanian sources is they're not addressing that directly. In fact what they're saying is that because the CIA is doing an investigation they don't want to say anything. But they are telling us about how the Internet played a very vital role in him re-engaging with them. They're telling us when he went off to Pakistan, a little later, a few months later, he then sent e-mails to the government saying that Al Qaeda was -- had plans against Jordan and against the United States. And then the government here, the intelligence agencies here in Jordan, along with the help of the United States, tried to lure him in to get more verification about these particular attack. So they're skirting around this whole issue right now. It is so sensitive here, John. I mean, every one we go to, we're talking to a lot of people here, no one but no one really wants to go on camera right now.
ROBERTS: And, Nic, he was helping the CIA and had actually given them some targets that they went after. Is there any kind of a sense there that this was just an elaborate plot that played out over time? Or did he suddenly turn to the other side?
ROBERTSON: I think there's a deep analysis here that this was something that he had in mind when he first engaged in this e-mail conversation. I think a lot of people here are more inclined to believe that these web postings were his real feelings and that he was getting ready for something. I think the more we see of those postings, I think that's going to make it a little clearer, John.
ROBERTS: Nic Robertson for us in Jordan this morning. Nic, thanks so much.
CHETRY: So a lot more questions about this situation and, of course, the failed attack on Christmas Day. We're going to be talking to Ambassador John Negroponte, coming up at the bottom of the hour. He was the first director of National Intelligence after 9/11 with all 16 agencies he needed to get together to share information. Is it working the way it should be? We're going to talk him about that.
Eighteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-one minutes now after the hour. That means it's time for "Minding Your Business."
CHETRY: That's right. We have Christine Romans with us. And we've been talking a lot about things to look out for, don't become a victim of scams. And there's a lot more scams out there.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And they're recession-specific scams. Look, whenever there are people who are suffering and whenever there is government money out there, there are hucksters who are trying to figure out how to get it from you. And we've seen a lot of these. The Councils for the Better Business Bureau say that more than a million people, 1.3 million people have been suckered into these fake check scams. They're prolific.
Let me go through for you some of the things that are happening. Look, otherwise, reasonable people are falling victim to these things. You might think you're too smart. OK, you're too smart. Talk to your elderly grandparents, your parents, talk to your college kids, your teenagers. Make sure that they know that this should not happen to them and that these are scams.
First, government grants. All this stimulus money out there. These companies that have popped up to say, look, for $199, I'll send you this package to help you get a government grant to help pay your bills. It's your personal bailout.
Wrong. There is not government cash for you to pay your bills. Stimulus money is not available to you, if you pay somebody else money to get it.
Job hunters. You do not need to pay anyone to get you a job, to pay for the credit background checks, to pay for a list of job openings, pay a fee and get a job. That's not what they're trying to do. They're trying to get access to your bank account, your social security number, probably to steal your identity. Be very careful about paying someone to get you a job, especially someone you don't know, you've never met.
Mortgage help. These foreclosure rescues are rampant. Anywhere there's the foreclosure crisis. There are people with very convincing pitches often that look just like a real document from your bank, saying, you pay us, we're going to save you. We're going to help you avoid foreclosure. It's just not going to happen. You're being suckered.
Also, this mystery shopping. I can't believe this, but this is actually happening out there. There are companies that are trying to woo you either online or through a phone call or through a letter.
They're saying we need mystery shoppers. We need people to go under cover. We're going to give you this check. You're going to go to these stores. Here's a list and we want you to rate the customer service at these places. And you're going to be an employee for us and it's part of our way of, you know, of rating these companies.
At the end, we want you to rate this money transferring business. And so send us some money back. And, you know, all of this is about getting money back that isn't there in the first place and getting your hard-earned money out of your bank account.
So it's called being a secret shopper. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for this work at home secret shopper thing. Never pay for government info. You don't have to pay your potential employer for you to get the job. Don't be fooled if somebody gives you a follow up phone call. Verify all businesses with the Better Business Bureau and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
CHETRY: Good advice. You have to keep in mind because people are looking for, you know, any options that they can have in these tough times.
ROMANS: People who otherwise wouldn't have done it are doing it because they are desperate. So just remember, you know, there's no such thing as free money and hucksters are everywhere.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning.
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: And watching out for you, Christine, thanks. More and more kids are getting vaccines these days. Who is? Who isn't? We've got an a.m. house call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta coming up in about 20 minutes time.
It's now 24 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's about 26 1/2 minutes after the hour. The top stories just a couple of minutes away. But first an "A.M. Original," something that you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING.
Skid row is one of the most infamous neighborhoods in America for all the wrong reasons.
CHETRY: Yes. Now one resident is working to change all that. Jason Carroll reports on the unofficial mayor of L.A.'s Skid Row.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a haven for crime and the homeless, attracting thousands from all walks of life when their luck runs out. This is skid row, Los Angeles.
JEFF PAGE, SKID ROW ACTIVIST: Not only are the people homeless, they're hopeless.
CARROLL: Jeff Page landed here three years ago after his career as a rap promoter fizzled. A mission for the homeless became his new home.
PAGE: To actually be in the community for a long extended period of time and actually see day after day after day the living conditions of the people here and how deplorable the conditions were, and it really started to sink home of how close on that fine line I was to actually -- to becoming one of them.
CARROLL: So he launched a one-man campaign to turn not only his life but his new world around. He started small, organizing street cleanups, mural paintings, connecting with the community.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know you. I've seen you in the newspaper.
PAGE: Yes. Yes.
CARROLL: That's general, just in case you missed it, a nickname the homeless gave him that's followed him to the downtown Los Angeles neighborhood council. Elected two years ago, he's L.A.'s only homeless public official.
PAGE: I'm determined to succeed. I'm a finisher. So I will see this through no matter what the odds.
CARROLL: But the odds are stacked against the general. In 2009, there were almost 1,000 violent crimes and more than 13,000 arrested in skid row and its surrounding area. And while crime overall is down, it's still dangerous.
(on camera): I want people to realize that even as we're walking through here, we're not alone. I mean, behind the photographer right here -- let's turn around -- we've got security here. So that's --
PAGE: And that's a siren.
CARROLL: Right. You hear the sirens. But I think people need to understand that even though skid row you say is better, it still is far from where it needs to be.
PAGE: Oh, no, of course. And it's in -- we look at it, we're in the early stages, the beginning stages of the transition period.
CARROLL (voice-over): Page has lobbied for shelters that can accommodate families and better relations with police. His proudest accomplishment, the renovation of this park.
PAGE: There was a lot of drug dealing, prostitution -- you know, murders, the beatdowns. I mean, there's the whole everything.
CARROLL: Page used his old sales skills as a promoter and got sponsorship from Nike to return the park to the people.
PAGE: They brought a whole lot of life to our positive movement.
CARROLL (on camera): Something as simple as a basketball court.
PAGE: Something as simple as a basketball court.
CARROLL (voice-over): Now even L.A.'s mayor is paying attention.
MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA (D), LOS ANGELES: People like General Jeff are saying we need more, and he's right. We need to provide for a safety net to address the hunger and homelessness.
CARROLL: But much like his own life, skid row still has a long road ahead to become the place General Jeff envisions.
(on camera): Do you see skid row as a transitional place for you? Because you are still living here.
PAGE: Yes, I'm still here. But technically, no, because I'm here trying to plant roots and I'm trying to establish this as a community just like any other place in America.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And Page is up for re-election this summer on the neighborhood council. And at this point, he's unsure if he'll run again. One thing he is sure about is that he will not stop fighting ways to improve life for the people there on skid row.
ROBERTS: So you can try to create a sense of community and you can have parks and you can increase the safety net. But until you have real economic opportunities, how can you make the real changes? CARROLL: And that's one of the points he's trying to make, and that's why he's unsure at this point if he'll run for reelection, because he's thinking maybe I start a nonprofit group. Maybe there's another organization I can start. There might be a better way.
So he's still looking for ways, it's one of those things he's just trying to grapple with as he tries to find ways to improve his own life as well.
ROBERTS: We'll keep watching him. Jason, great story this morning.
CHETRY: Thanks, Jason.
ROBERTS: It's half past the hour. That's means it's time for this morning's top stories.
Surveillance tape of the security breech at Newark Airport will be released this morning. New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg says it shows a man intentionally walking the wrong way through a checkpoint. He also says you can clearly see a TSA officer was distracted and didn't notice the man. It took an observant passenger to finally speak up.
CHETRY: A high speed train on its way to London stopped in its tracks for two hours inside the channel tunnel. Britain's Euro Star was towed to the station today after dealing with technical problems. Just weeks ago thousands of passengers riding across the country link were stranded in the tunnel from a similar problem.
ROBERTS: And it's a renter's marker out there. Rents fell three percent last year while vacancies are at a 30-year high. The average rent in New York City is still about $2,600, but other major U.S. cities are seeing significantly lower rents. Some desperate landlords in Houston are offering everything from Starbucks cards to shampooing carpets to keep tenants.
CHETRY: Today the president will give the public a very clear picture of how suspected terrorist Umar Abdulmutallab slipped past 9/11 security and nearly pulled off a planned attack on a Christmas day Northwest airlines flight.
The White House plans to release an unclassified report on what went wrong and also to reveal new steps intended to thwart future attacks.
Joining me now with more on this is former director of national intelligence, Ambassador John Negroponte from Washington. Mr. ambassador, thanks for being with us this morning.
JOHN NEGROPONTE, FORMER AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Good morning.
CHETRY: National security adviser General James Jones said something very interesting in "USA Today." He said Americans will feel a, quote, "certain shock" when they read the report about the missed clues. What do you make of that?
NEGROPONTE: I make two things. First of all, hindsight is 20/20 vision, so things always look much more evident looking backwards than they do looking prospectively.
And secondly, of course, they've had the terrorist in detention, and he presumably has been cooperating, or at least partially so, and has been providing lots of information. So the picture is going to look a heck of a lot more complete today than it did a couple weeks ago.
CHETRY: Well, you know, also "The L.A. Times" is reporting today and this is pretty interesting as well, that U.S. border patrol agents, security officials, learned of Abdulmutallab's extremist links as he was airborne from Amsterdam to Detroit and they decided to question him when he landed.
What do you make of that knowing that yet he was still able to fly, but obviously he was on the radar of at least one of our intelligence -- you know, agencies?
NEGROPONTE: Right. Well, I don't know what to make of it absent access to that report. But what I would say is that I think whatever information we had, it was probably partial and there were probably bits and pieces over a period of time, and in retrospect we're able to make a lot more sense out of it. But we'll just have to wait and see with regard to the report.
The thing -- one of the things that really interests me is whether or not this is part of a larger plot. He may have been planning to bomb this aircraft, but was this -- back in 1994 there was a bombing of a Philippine airliner, flight 434, and that was a precursor to a plot a few days later, or early in the following year, to kill the Pope when he visited the Philippines and to blow up 11 airliners over the Pacific Ocean. So is there some bigger plot here?
CHETRY: And do you think we'll get those answers, ambassador, in the way he's being tried and held, meaning some say he needs to not be in a federal civilian system now but maybe in a military tribunal so that at least you can get more information from him.
NEGROPONTE: Well, I wouldn't want to second guess our government on that thing. I think the important thing right now is that we get as much information from him as we can. And I think that that's certainly possible under the present circumstance.
CHETRY: It's also possible, though, he could plead the fifth and his attorneys could say that he isn't going to be sharing information.
NEGROPONTE: Well, he's being charged with some pretty serious crimes, and I think with all those witnesses on the airliner, I think he, you know, he certainly stands a chance of being convicted.
CHETRY: You know, you were in this job. You were the first one that did this, the director of national intelligence. Some intel experts say the failure to uncover the plot underscores the fact we just don't have the capacity to realistically manage the massive amount of terrorism-related info that we've been getting since 9/11.
Are we expecting too much here?
NEGROPONTE: Well, there's always a lot -- we've got to remember, there's always a lot of noise in the system. And then you've got to sort out from that noise the signals that are really important. And sometimes we fail to do that.
After all, intelligence is imperfect, as the president himself said the other day, and it requires human beings to analyze whatever information they have and come to the right kinds of conclusions.
My suspicion in this case is that there wasn't necessarily that much information, and that there was quite a bit of ambiguity in whatever was available. In retrospect, it probably looks like we should have been able to figure out what happened.
CHETRY: Yes, you guys are processing by some account 10,000 to 12,000 pieces of information each and every day. If you could offer one suggestion as to how to improve that moving forward, what would you say?
NEGROPONTE: You're right. There's 500,000 people on this terrorism watch list, and there are literally thousands of pieces of threat information that come over the wires constantly.
I don't think there's any substitute for vigilance, integration of information, coordination between all the different agencies. I think that's the kind of reforms that took place after 9/11. I think that quite candidly the country is safer than before 9/11.
And we dodged a bullet this time. It was a near miss, there's no doubt about it. But I do think fundamentally the country is safer than it was ten years ago.
CHETRY: Ambassador John Negroponte, the former director of national intelligence, thanks for being with us this morning.
NEGROPONTE: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Coming up now on 337 minutes after the hour. A yoga cult, we've got part two of Kyra Phillip's investigation into the head of Dahn Yoga. Hear from former members and their startling accusation coming up immediately after the break. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
We're continuing a special investigation into a nationwide chain of yoga centers. Some former members are now accusing this organization of actually being a cult.
ROBERTS: One former member and employee says the founder sexually assaulted her. Dahn Yoga and its founder deny it all. Many of its current employees have been emailing CNN defending the group. Kyra Phillips is here now with part two of her CNN Special Investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jade Harrelson says she was honored by the extra attention paid to her by Ilchi Lee, the founder of Dahn yoga. He even gave her the spiritual name of Dahn Su Lee.
JADE HARRELSON, FORMER DAHN MEMBER: To me it was never outright spoken that he was god-like, that was never the message, but he was prophet-like. So I took his word as holy almost.
PHILLIPS: And Lee encouraged his followers to think of him as a prophet. Just listen to him in the spring of 2009 as he rallied his supporters, comparing his book "Brainwave Vibration" to the bible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): "Brainwave Vibration" is a scripture. It's a holy scripture. Do you all understand?
PHILLIPS: Jade Harrelson says she not only understood, she believed, even following her new guru to Seoul, South Korea, at his request, and to his apartment every time he called for her.
PHILLIPS (on camera): You trusted him.
HARRELSON: I trusted him.
PHILLIPS: Were you attracted to him at all?
HARRELSON: Absolutely not.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): But that trust she says abruptly vanished after a night in 2007 propelling this devotee into a life-changing world of doubt.
HARRELSON: He just slowly took my clothes off of me and pushed me where he wanted me to go. And I numbly, like a robot, just responded.
PHILLIPS (on camera): Why didn't you tell him to stop?
HARRELSON: I had been so taught and trained that he was a holy person, a holy object, and he was my connection to divinity. And again, just to say no to him and to refuse him was to refuse everything that I wanted for myself.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Harrelson concedes she never filed a police report and waited two years to file a civil suit.
We asked for an on-camera interview with Ilchi Lee and were turned down. So we followed him here to the grand opening of Mago Earth Park near Sedona, Arizona, and this 39-foot statue representing what his followers call the soul of mother earth.
PHILLIPS (on camera): Mr. Lee, I'm Kyra Phillips of CNN, and we just want your response to the allegations of sexual assault against one of your for Dahn masters. We just want your side of the story, sir.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Our CNN photographer, who speaks Korean translated.
Lee tells me "This is the first time I'm hearing of such accusation."
PHILLIPS (on camera): Please don't touch me. Please don't touch me.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Then his bodyguards knocked down the camera.
Lee's lawyer later told CNN all claims of sexual assault are false.
ALAN KAPLAN, ILCHI LEE ATTORNEY: Mr. Lee has denied all those allegations, and we are confident that we will get those claims dismissed in court.
PHILLIPS: Then, there's what happened to Julia Siverls.
ALLEN SIVERLS' BROTHER: Until this day, we're still affected by this. I just can't describe the pain.
PHILLIPS: Allan Siverls is talking about his sister, Julia, a 41-year-old college professor who grew up in New York City hard scrabble projects. She thought she had found purpose in the teachings of Ilchi Lee.
SIVERLS: She saw some positive things about the spirituality, the growth, the opportunity to share with the world.
PHILLIPS: So Julia dedicated herself to Dahn Yoga, eventually making her way here to its exclusive retreat, tucked away among the beautiful red rocks of Sedona, Arizona. She wanted to achieve its highest honor, the rank of Dahn master. And to do that, she would have to prove her worthiness in more than words.
PHILLIPS (on camera): It was just after 9:00 a.m. on a blistering hot July day that Julia came out to this mountain with other Dahn Yoga members to take on a hike. It was all to show their strength and mental fortitude.
However, Julia wasn't doing so well. Matter of fact, I talked to the off duty sheriff's deputy that saw her that day. He said she was struggling and that she looked, quote, "mentally handicapped," and at times other hikers had to drag her along this mountain by her armpits.
Well, Julia Siverls never finished that Dahn Yoga hike on this mountain that day. She died here.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Dahn Yoga settled out of court with the family and sheriff's investigators say they found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was an unfortunate hiking accident.
PHILLIPS: But for the Siverls, too many details surrounding Julia's death on this mountain remain a mystery.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now, as for Julia's cause of death, the medical examiner says that she died of both dehydration and exposure to the elements. As for Dahn Yoga, its website boasts an impressive list of scientists and politicians who applaud the work of Ilchi Lee.
And since our first segment was broadcasted, we've been flooded with comments from viewers, both pro and con.
ROBERTS: So Julia Siverls' family still considers her death a mystery. Why? If it was dehydration that killed her.
PHILLIPS: Well, in - in the piece, you noticed I talked with an off duty police officer that actually witnessed her that day. Well, also according to the police report, she died at about 9:00 AM, but the 911 call wasn't made until a little after 4:00 PM. That's about seven hours.
However, Dahn Yoga insist that there was no delay in calling for help. So, to the family, they're wondering what happened in that seven-hour period.
CHETRY: And you also talked - I mean, in your piece about the "brainwave vibration" that they talked about in the Dahn Yoga book. What is that?
PHILLIPS: You know, that's what we all were wondering. And - and so we did a little more investigation into it. Couldn't really get a clear idea of whether it was proven science or not.
So, of course, we went to our CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, sat down with him. In - in one word, this is what he told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Have you ever heard of brain education or brainwave vibration?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Never heard of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: There you go, bottom line. So, tomorrow, we investigate is this proven science or not, and as you can see by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he has a lot to say about whether it really does - if he's seen proven fact that it does help ailments like diabetes and lazy eye and multiple sclerosis, a lot of these things...
ROBERTS: They made a lot of claims.
PHILLIPS: Exactly, if you look at the website.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that. Good piece this morning. Thanks.
PHILLIPS: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Forty-seven minutes after the hour now. Jacqui Jeras is going to head this morning's travel forecast right after the break.
CHETRY: Also coming up in just 10 minutes, it's time for an "AM House Call." We're "Paging Dr. Gupta." This morning, Sanjay brings us a new study about childhood immunizations. Who's getting them, who's not?
You're watching the Most News in the Morning.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We're coming up on 50 minutes past the hour.
We're following Extreme Weather across most of the country. Our Jacqui Jeras is in the Extreme Weather Center this morning. Hey, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, guys.
We got a fast-moving system across the nation's midsection today, making its way towards the East and behind it that big blast of Arctic air. You know, the snowfall accumulations aren't that much more than you normally can handle here across the Midwest, but the winds have really been blowing and that's just causing insult to injury. Chicago could see 6 to 12 inches of snowfall, Indianapolis maybe 3 to 5.
Check out these pictures from Wichita, Kansas from yesterday, and it really paints that picture of what we're dealing with with the windy conditions. Look at the white out conditions from time to time. This is along I-70. Lots of accidents caused because of the icy conditions here, but no serious injury, so it's some good news. Wind chill (INAUDIBLE) will be well below zero throughout the day for today.
Now, if you're trying to travel in this stuff, yes, it's going to cause the problem on the roadways. We're also expecting some airway travel trouble due to winds in the Northeast, the Midwest, of course the snow and the wind, and then windy conditions from Dallas to Houston and into Memphis too. Here's the big picture where the frigid air is diving all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. Everywhere behind this - this front, temperatures are going to be about 15 to 25 degrees below average. The worse of it moves into the Southeast by Saturday morning, and finally, guys, a little bit of a warm up by early next week.
ROBERTS: All right, Jacqui. Thanks so much.
CHETRY: And this morning's top stories are just minutes away, including, at the tops of the hour, prosecuting the so-called Christmas Day bomber. There are some new details now about the explosive he brought onboard, and the debate continues over whether he should have the rights that US citizens have when going to trial.
ROBERTS: And at 8:10 (ph) Eastern, how many times did we hear it will be on C-Span? Well, right now talks that will change the future of health care in this country are going on behind closed doors. We'll ask a leading Democrat whatever happened to transparency.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
When it comes to childhood vaccines, controversy and confusion had been a big part of the equation for many parents. Now, a study by the Centers for Disease Control reveals from 2000 to 2008, the number of kids vaccinated against illnesses like measles, mumps and polio has increased.
Our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us now from Atlanta, and, Sanjay, does the rise in kids getting immunized have anything to do with recent study suggesting that there is no link between childhood immunizations and autism?
GUPTA: You know, it's interesting that you ask that because we asked the same question as well to the study authors and, in fact, that really doesn't seem to be the reason here as far as why vaccination rates have gone up. It really seems to be more of two things. One is increasing access, specifically physical - physical access to - to things like wellness clinics, and also trying to address the - the problem of the un- and underinsured among children as well.
And the study authors actually point to a couple of programs in particular, SCHIP and a program called Vaccines for Children, both implemented back in the mid - mid-1990s. They say they're starting to see the - the ramifications of that now, and that - those ramifications are increased vaccination rates.
Take a look specifically at the numbers here. These - these numbers may be surprising to some people and maybe not as much to others, but back in 2000, hovering around 47 percent, John, you can see the number sort of bouncing around a little bit there, 72 percent now in 2008.
So, those numbers have gone up quite a bit. And, more specifically, the gaps between wealthy and poor, the gaps between children who live in urban versus rural areas, the gaps between various ethnicities, those have all gone down as well. And, as you said, John, I mean, a lot of people looking at this as a good one thing. Polio, measles, German measles, eradicated in this country now.
On thing you'll find interesting, really quick, John, is that among families, the children that have the lowest immunization rates are usually the youngest children, and what they find is that parents focus so much attention, much in the way they take a lot of pictures of the first child, they focus a lot of medical attention on that first child as well, but by the time the third or fourth child comes around, they're not quite as diligent. So families that have just one child have the highest immunization rates.
ROBERTS: So the - these federal programs that provide free immunizations to children, what - will they continue as details over the health care bill continuing to be hashed out in Congress?
GUPTA: Right. I'll look specifically at that and look specifically at the Senate bill versus the House bill. Here's how I can best summarize it. Both bills seem to cover what are known as "well child visits". You go to the doctor for a physical exam or just a -a regular visit, those will be covered.
The Senate bill specifically spells out that vaccinations, childhood vaccinations, will be covered with no copay as well. That is not as specifically spelled out in the House bill, but, you know, as you know, those details are still being worked out. But at least in - in one version of it it seems to be covered in its entirety.
ROBERTS: All right. Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Doc, good to see you. Thanks so much.
GUPTA: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, your top stories are coming your way in just 90 seconds.
It's 57 minutes past the hour.
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