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American Morning
New Concerns on Privacy and Full-Body Scanners; Afghan CIA Attacker Vows Revenge in Video; Father of Radical Cleric Speaks Out; Petraeus: No U.S. Troops in Yemen; It's Bonus Time on Wall Street; Secrets of the 2008 Campaign
Aired January 11, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Monday morning to you. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. It is the 11th of January. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. And here are the top stories this morning.
What happens to those images of you once you pass through a full- body airport scanner? The TSA has said all along that your privacy will be protected and that those images are not saved, but a new document has some people wondering whether or not the government is really leveling with the flying public. It's a CNN exclusive straight ahead.
ROBERTS: America's top military commander talking exclusively to CNN's Christiane Amanpour, telling her the United States has no plans to send troops to Yemen, even though the threat from Al Qaeda is on the rise there. General David Petraeus reveals how the U.S. does plan to help Yemen tackle terrorism in 2010.
CHETRY: And a lot of beltway buzz and concern this morning over a new book that's revealing secrets from the key players in the 2008 presidential campaign from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's comments about race, to turmoil in the McCain/Palin camp. We're live with the political fallout.
ROBERTS: We begin with a CNN exclusive. There are new concerns this morning about full-body scanners at U.S. airports and your privacy.
The Transportation Security Administration has said all along those scanners cannot store your personal images, but a new document is raising questions about just how honest the TSA has been on that point.
Our Jeanne Meserve joins us now from Washington with this developing story. And, Jeanne, what you're about to reveal may be very concerning to some people.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly is to this privacy group, which says that the government has misled the public about exactly what those full-body imaging machines can do.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): The images produced by whole-body scanners don't leave much to the imagination. But the Transportation Security Administration has said repeatedly, even on its own Web site, your privacy will be protected.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The system has no way to save, transmit or print the image.
MESERVE: A 2008 press release says the machines have zero storage capability, but a TSA document written just three months earlier, spelling out requirements for potential manufacturers, said the machines had to have the capability to capture images of non- passengers for training and evaluation purposes. The procurement document was recently retained by EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
MARC ROTENBERG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EPIC: We think it's obvious the machines are designed to store and record images.
MESERVE: The TSA's been lying?
ROTENBERG: Yes. I would use a more polite word if I could, but it would be less accurate.
MESERVE: The document specifies that to protect privacy during passenger screening, there will be no storage or exporting of images, but EPIC fears that the ability to save images during the test mode leaves open the potential for abuse by insiders and outsiders.
The document says the machines must have hard drives for storage and USB ports and Ethernet connectivity that could allow downloading of images. An unspecified number of users, including TSA headquarters, maintenance contractors and so-called super users have the ability to export raw image test data and can also change the ten privacy settings built into the machines.
ROTENBERG: I don't think the TSA has been forthcoming with the American public about the true capability of these devices.
MESERVE: TSA officials tell CNN, yes, the machines can retain and export images when they are at TSA testing facilities. But it says those functions are disabled by the manufacturer and machines are delivered to the airports without the capability to store, print or transmit images. The TSA says there is no way for someone in the airport environment to put the machine into the test mode or change the privacy filters.
The TSA says all images are deleted from the system after they're reviewed by a remotely-located operator, and it says the machines are not networked and cannot be hacked.
(END VIDEOTAPE) MESERVE: But EPIC isn't satisfied, it wants to see the documents that prove these steps are being taken, that they're effective, and that privacy is fully and completely protected. Until those questions are answered, EPIC says the deployment of the machines should be halted.
John, back to you.
ROBERTS: All right. New controversy with the body scanners this morning, Jeanne Meserve for us from Washington. Jeanne, thanks.
CHETRY: Well, it appears revenge was the motive behind a suicide bombing that killed seven CIA officials in Afghanistan. A man who had gained the trust of the CIA revealing his true loyalty in a new video.
The Jordanian double agent appears in this video with the head of the Pakistani Taliban, and he's talking about the attack in advance. Now it happened at a forward operating CIA base in Afghanistan. Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is digging deeper on how the bomber fooled everyone, including his family, in this morning's security watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Speaking in Arabic and English, Jordanian doctor, Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi (ph), leaves no doubt he duped both the CIA and his Jordanian intelligence handlers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUMAM KHALIL ABU MULAL Al-BALAWI, JORDANIAN DOCTOR: The Jordanian and the American intelligence services offered me millions of dollars to work with them and spy on Mujahideen here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: While we can't confirm those claims, this much is clear. He told the Jordanians he was going to Pakistan for medical training and could help them target Al Qaeda leaders. But all along, his plan was to attack U.S. targets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUMAM KHALIL ABU MULAL Al-BALAWI, JORDANIAN DOCTOR: I came to the Mujahideen and I told them everything, and we arranged together this attack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: For this veteran of Middle East security, it is clear warning signs of a double cross were missed.
ALI SHUKRI, FMR. ADVISER TO KING HUSSEIN: That would be an alarming incident. I mean, nothing teaches you harder than the spilling of blood. ROBERTSON: The CIA deaths, he fears, mean all spies will need re-evaluation, setting back the CIA hunt for Osama bin Laden.
SHUKRI: It will set them back until they reform, regroup, and start again.
ROBERTSON: The video message has other important lessons too. The Arab doctor who had joined Pakistan's Taliban claims his attack in revenge for U.S. drone strike killing their leader last year. Significant, the Taliban, not Al Qaeda, took the lead, an indication of how closely the two groups operate together.
SHUKRI: Of course it's worrying, because the nature of things in the Middle East, they never go away. They mutate. They spill over. We haven't seen the Taliban in Yemen, but who knows?
ROBERTSON: The doctor's Humam al-Balawi's father, the video is final confirmation of his worst fears. His son is dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, HUMAM AL-BALAWI'S FATHER: I am very, very sad. When I saw Humam, I am very, very sad.
ROBERTSON: His other sons taking him inside the house, away from the cameras, but not before he speaks of his anger, implying the intelligence agencies were at fault.
(on camera): What his father has also said is that he's angry at the people that did this to his son, that changed his son's mind. He won't say exactly who he thinks those people are, but he says this isn't the way he brought his son up. He brought him up to be a moderate.
(voice-over): What this new video reveals is anything but a moderate.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Amman, Jordan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: So could this deadly attack have been prevented and what can the CIA do to better protect its people on the ground in Afghanistan? We're going to be speaking with former CIA officer Reuel Marc Gerecht. He's going to be joining us at the bottom of the hour.
ROBERTS: Other stories new this morning. An emergency landing shuts down Newark Liberty International Airport. United Flight 634 from Chicago skidded to a safe stop on the runway yesterday after one of the rear landing gear failed to deploy properly. No one was injured. The passengers praised the pilot and crew for keeping everyone on board calm. United is offering full refunds to all 48 passengers.
CHETRY: New Yorkers are used to seeing strange things on the subway. Well, yesterday, they certainly got their fill of that. Hundreds of people took part in the ninth annual "no pants" subway ride. The street theater group Improv Everywhere organized the event. A "no pants" moment is now a yearly fixture in 16 different countries. You can learn more about it if you care to and watch the videos, ImprovEverywhere.com.
What always cracks me up about that is people in New York are so jaded that they're just riding the subway next to someone with no pants on and no one notices.
ROBERTS: Nobody notices. However, you might have noticed yesterday if you were working around with no pants on because it was a little bit chilly. Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines.
Rob Marciano with us from the weather center in Atlanta. Hey, Rob. How's the temperature looking today?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You should be wearing pants today. Yes. Definitely wool ones, maybe a nice set of heavy cords would do well. Why they don't have that holiday in the summertime -- well, probably because it would just worse, wouldn't it?
Twenties across the southeast. We're going to warm up a little bit today, but the mornings today and tomorrow I think will be just as cool. The winds aren't as bad but we're looking at 20, 21 degrees in Atlanta.
All right. The main thrust of the cold air has driven down to Florida. We have freeze warnings in effect down here. Thirty-four, 33 degrees right now across parts of Fort Lauderdale and Miami. It set a record low in Miami yesterday of 35. It will similar today.
Another front coming through the Great Lakes, but this one isn't necessarily reinforcing the cold air. We'll talk more about the warm- up in about 30 minutes.
John and Kiran, keep your pants on.
CHETRY: No worries there. Thanks, Rob.
ROBERTS: We try. We try whenever we can, Rob. Thanks.
CHETRY: And if not we have a desk to protect us from the cold.
ROBERTS: I've got them on today.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead on the Most News in the Morning, a radical cleric with ties to the suspected Christmas Day bomber. Well now that cleric's father is speaking out. What he told CNN's Paula Newton coming up.
ROBERTS: And a CNN exclusive, our Christian Amanpour talks with General David Petraeus about the plans to battle terrorism in Yemen.
Stay with us. It's nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up now on 12 minutes after the hour. A quick check of other stories new this morning.
In a state known for its sunshine, people are bracing for another day of bitter cold. A hard freeze warning is in effect through this morning, and a freeze watch will continue through tomorrow. The temperature dropped to 35 in Miami last night. That's a 40-year low. Florida accounts for 40 percent of the world's orange juice supply and farmers are scrambling to try to prevent crop damage.
CHETRY: Well, meanwhile in northern California, they got hit with a quake, the strongest they've seen in six years. It was a magnitude 6.5.
Here's some surveillance video showing the panic at a store in Humboldt County on Saturday. This was -- you probably heard of Eureka, California, this is where it happened. Shelves, some light fixtures swaying and people hurry out. It did cause few injuries and little major damage for a quake this size. Experts say that it could have been much worse, but that it was actually centered about 25 miles offshore.
ROBERTS: The U.S. military dealing with a case of tmi, too much information coming in from unmanned drones. "The New York Times" reports that they collected so much video over Iraq and Afghanistan last year that U.S. intelligence is having trouble keeping up with it. It reportedly adds up to 24 years of surveillance if you were to watch all of the tapes back to back. And it's another example of how valuable information could easily slip through the cracks in a post 9/11 world.
CHETRY: Well, the father of a radical Islamic cleric who has been tied to the so-called Christmas bomber, the accused Fort Hood shooter, and three 9/11 hijackers says his son is not Osama bin Laden. He spoke exclusively to CNN's Paula Newton who has this morning's security watch for us live from Yemen.
Good morning, Paula.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: And good morning, Kiran. You know quite a tormented father. Many of us wouldn't have any trouble thinking. You know, quite a tormented father. Many of us wouldn't have trouble thinking about what it's like to be this man right now. He continually says that his son is a wanted man, that he's a cornered man, that he is completely, though, misunderstood.
He doesn't, you know object, to them. He says people are right, some of his views are controversial, but he does say that he believes his son is not a member of core Al Qaeda.
I want to go through some of the things that he said. He said, you know, I am now afraid of what they will do to my son. He's not Osama bin Laden. They want to make something out of him that he's not. Kiran, he's referring there to the American government and saying again, you know, I discussed with him, are you in contact with your son.
He is smarter than to tell me if he is. He claims he hasn't been for at least several weeks but he says that he will try and do what he can to encourage his son to surrender. He told me I will do my best to convince my son to do this, to come back. But they, and he means here the American government, are not giving me time. They want to kill one of their own citizens. This is a legal issue that needs to be answered.
And, you know, Kiran, throughout this entire interview, you get the sense of a father working very hard behind the scenes trying to broker something between both the Yemeni government and the American government, and his son, who he says right now is hiding out with a very powerful tribe in the south. The tribe that really is related, even to the prime minister in this country. He says he's not hiding out with Al Qaeda, though. That it is this tribe in the mountains that is protecting him.
Security officials here on the ground, the Yemeni officials telling me, Kiran, as long as he is with this tribe, they concede it will be very difficult to get at him.
Still -- but his father adding, really, some incredible thought here. He said his son has been wrongly accused. He said it's unbelievable. His life was in America. He's an all-American boy, his father claims. "My son would love to go back to America. He used to have a good life there. Now, he's in hiding in the mountains. He doesn't even have safe water to drink."
I can tell you, Kiran, that Yemeni officials on the ground stridently dispute his father --father's remarks, saying, that, look, that Nasser al-Awlaki is a father who loves his son, but he is mistaken and say that they are sure that his son is now a part of core al Qaeda -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Wow. Just a fascinating look inside what's been going on there, Paula. Thank you so much. Paula Newton reporting from Yemen this morning.
ROBERTS: Well, the United States has no plans to put troops on the ground in Yemen despite the escalating threat from al Qaeda there. That is according to General David Petraeus.
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, the head of America's Central Command said Yemen needs us to provide a different kind of support.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, HEAD OF U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: The programs that we submitted that were part of the budget that has since been approved, the appropriations bill that's been signed by the president, would in fact more than double the security assistance. Last year, it was somewhere around $70 million. Over the course of this fiscal year, it should be somewhere around $150 million or more, and the amount of economic aid increased as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The general just returned from a visit to Yemen. He told Christiane the economy in Yemen provides terrorists with a fertile climate for recruitment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you think there needs to be a systemic change to issues such as Yemen, which is so obvious, so many people say, that the grinding poverty there is such a recruiting tool?
PETRAEUS: I think that's exactly right. I think, really, that we have arrived at that conclusion. I think we recognize that these are not short-term problems. These aren't campaigns where you muster a forest, take the hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade. These are endeavors that have to be comprehensive in nature and they have to be enduring in their time frame.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: General Petraeus says Saudi Arabia has pledged $2 billion and the United Arab Emirates about $600 million to $700 million, all to help the Yemeni government fight terrorism and promote economic development.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, it's a -- it's a heavy metal that's actually more dangerous than lead, and it's turning up in enormous amounts in kids' jewelry that's sold right here in the United States. We're going to have more on what exactly is going on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty minutes past the hour.
We're "Minding Your Business" right now, and there is a warning out for parents. Some Chinese manufacturers are now replacing lead in --in children's jewelry with another dangerous metal, cadmium.
"The Associated Press" actually conducted lab tests on more than 100 items that were purchased in New York, in Ohio, Texas and California. They found levels of cadmium as high as 91 percent. It's linked to some cancers and it also affects brain development in young children, even more so than lead.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission now says it is opening an investigation and will take action, quote, "As quickly as possible to protect the safety of children."
ROBERTS: And Stephanie Elam here "Minding Your Business" this morning. Bonus season just about upon us, and some...
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Some unhappy people.
ROBERTS: Well, some very happy people and -- but the rest of us...
ELAM: I don't know about that. Actually, I think a lot of workers are very unhappy, too, because this is not...
ROBERTS: What, the ones receiving the bonuses?
ELAM: Because the bonuses are not as big as they were. So there's -- this is the issue for a lot of banks right now.
As I said, it's a dicey situation. You've got -- obviously, a lot of people are going to be angry on Main Street. You've got unemployment around 10 percent. You've got the fact that the banks were bailed out and people saying they just don't get it. You've got the banks saying that, but then you got the employees.
Don't think about the top tier people, think about the people who are just the cogs in the machine, right, who are doing their job, and their bonus pool, and a lot of them, their main compensation is based on these bonuses, and it's getting chopped. So they feel like, hey, we're profitable this year. It's the most profitable year, let's say, in Goldman Sachs' history, and then, at the same time, you're going to chop our bonus pool.
So it's a very dicey situation you have here. It's bad publicity versus angry workers, and that's what the banks are dealing with. There's a lot of criticism coming out. We heard from Christina Romer this week, in talking to John King on "STATE OF THE UNION" and here's what she had to say about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINA ROMER, COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: No one wanted to bail out the banks just for the banks' sake. It's because we know that credit is the life blood of a modern economy and without it families can't get loans to buy cars or send their kids to school, and small businesses can't get loans.
So we know that the financial sector matters. But, at the same time, right, we have had to take these extraordinary actions and you would certainly think that the financial institutions that are now doing a little bit better would have some sense, and this big bonus season, of course it's going to offend the American people. It offends me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ELAM: And so a lot of people are feeling that exact same way.
What we can say, though, is that the banks are looking to do a few things. They're looking to raise the overall payment that people are getting throughout the year, so raising their base salary. They're also looking to give more of their employees stock instead of giving them cash, and that also had some of the employees upset about that as well.
So it's going to upsetting for a lot of people this year, but banks know that they're under a lot of scrutiny.
ROBERTS: OK. Stephanie Elam, "Minding Your Business" this morning. Steph, thanks so much.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid under fire and playing defense about some comments he made about then candidate Obama during the election campaign. We'll tell you what he said and what the fallout has been so far, coming right up.
It's 24 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- six minutes after the hour, and that means, as it is every day, time for an "AM Original".
But first, Senator John McCain's former top adviser revealing new details about the days before McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Steve Schmidt telling CBS's "60 Minutes" when Palin first flew to Arizona, she was calm, and when asked why she was calm, told staffers that her candidacy was, quote, "God's plan."
CHETRY: Well, disgraced former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is not one to, I guess, you know, censor himself, and he's now taking aim at President Obama. In an interview with "Esquire Magazine", Blagojevich says the president was elected based simply on hope. He also went on to say things like, everything he says is in -- is in the teleprompter, and, "I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shines shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived." So far the White House is choosing not to comment on the former governor's words.
ROBERTS: And I'm sure that they'll probably stick by that position.
As President Obama nears the end of his first term, a new book about the 2008 election called "Game Change" could in fact be a game changer, especially for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who's quoted making an insensitive remark about then Senator Obama's race.
Our Carol Costello was live in Washington with an "AM Original" this morning. Carol, what's all the fallout here?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm still getting over Rod Blagojevich's comments.
CHETRY: Can you believe it? Can you believe -- I mean, this is to "Esquire Magazine" and these were only some -- some small excerpts. Who knows what else he said?
COSTELLO: "I'm blacker than Barack Obama"? Maybe it's just -- it was the weekend for racial insensitivity. Who knows? Anyway, this latest controversy over Senator Reid is all about Senator Reid trying to dig himself out of a hole. He made a racially insensitive comment about the president, but "sorry"s aside, it is not enough for Republicans. They're calling for the Majority Leader to step down -- as in now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL STEELE, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: There's a big double standard here, and the thing about it that's -- that's interesting is that when Democrats get caught saying racist things, you know, an apology is enough.
COSTELLO (voice-over): The uproar stems from "Game Change," a book due out today. Senate Majority Leader Reid is quoted as saying then Senator Obama would do well in the 2008 presidential election because he's a "light-skinned" African-American and "has no negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."
STEELE: Whether he steps down today, or -- or I retire him in November, either way he will not be the leader in 2011.
COSTELLO: Senator Reid immediately made a public apology, including one to President Obama, for the comments leaked on Friday. Tim Kaine, chairman of the DNC, says Democrats have put the issue behind them.
GOV. TIM KAINE, CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: The comments were unfortunate and they were insensitive. I think Senator Reid stepped up, acknowledged that they were wrong, apologized to the president. He's accepted the apology and we're moving on.
COSTELLO: Senator Reid's comments about the president and race drew comparisons to those made by then Senator Joe Biden in 2007 when he said Obama is, quote, "The first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." Biden apologized.
And there were more controversial revelations in "Game Change". Then Senator Hillary Clinton initially refused the Secretary of State job because of Bill Clinton.
The authors told "60 Minutes" last night...
JOHN HEILEMANN, CO-AUTHOR OF "GAME CHANGE": At that point she says, you know, there's one last thing that's -- that's a problem, which is my husband. I mean, you've seen what this is like. It will be a circus if -- if I take this job. There will be a -- a new controversy every day that you'll have to deal with.
MARK HALPERIN, CO-AUTHOR OF "GAME CHANGE": You have Hillary Clinton saying something she says to almost no one, admitting that her husband is a problem.
In the same time, Obama comes back and shows vulnerability to her. He says to her, given the economic crisis, given all I have to deal with, I need your help.
COSTELLO: The authors also say, according to unnamed sources, then-vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin was ill prepared when prepping for network interviews.
HEILEMANN: She still didn't really understand why there was a North Korea and a South Korea. She was still regularly saying that Saddam Hussein had been behind 9/11.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Oh, this book has Washington talking, and it's likely the chatter will get louder today. This book is full of juicy revelations.
We did contact Governor Palin's people. They told us the governor described these events in her book "Going Rogue" and that her descriptions were accurate, and not these authors' description. And she ought to know, because she was there and they were not.
As for Senator Reid's comments, the Congressional Black Caucus, this is from the chairwoman, she says this: "There is a deep unease about race which cannot be swept under the rug. I appreciate Senator Reid's apology and look forward to our continuing work.
So, basically, what you have here, Kiran and John, the Democrats are forgiving Senator Reid and the Republicans are not.
ROBERTS: Surprise.
CHETRY: Politics as usual.
COSTELLO: I know, it's shocking.
ROBERTS: It is. It's just shocking.
CHETRY: Carol, thanks so much.
COSTELLO: And no comment from Hillary Clinton.
CHETRY: All right. I'm not surprised, either.
Thirty minutes past the hour right now and it means it's time for this morning's top stories.
New questions are being raised about privacy issues when it comes to full body airport scanners. The TSA has said all along these scanners cannot save, store or send images. But now, a public interest group called EPIC has actually obtained a TSA letter confirming the machines can indeed do all of those things.
ROBERTS: The U.S. military is not planning to put troops on the ground in Yemen, that from CENTCOM commander, General David Petraeus. He sat down with our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour for an exclusive wide-ranging discussion about the threat from the Arab world's poorest nation. General Petraeus also says Washington will double the cash that it sends to Yemen for security to more than $150 million.
CHETRY: And across the nation, particularly, in the southeast, people are waking up to another day of record-low temperatures. And in Florida, some citrus groves have sustained substantial damage Sunday morning because of those temperatures. The coldest temperatures they've seen there in 40 years. Hard freeze predicted for Florida that could eventually hurt the crops even more.
We're going to have much more on that and the latest look at the extreme weather coming up with our Rob Marciano.
ROBERTS: We're now learning the motive of a suicide bomber who killed seven CIA operatives in average. It appears to be revenge. The agency's boss, Leon Panetta, is defending his staff now facing fierce criticism for failing to stop the deadly attack in a letter published by "The Washington Post."
Here for the "A.M. Breakdown" this morning is former CIA officer and senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Reuel Marc Gerecht.
Reuel, great to see you this morning.
Some question in all of this episode that happened in Afghanistan, as to whether or not the CIA officers had ignored the hazards that were attendant with this double-agent Human Khalil al- Balawi. Leon Panetta said that, in this editorial yesterday, that he was about to be searched when he detonated the bomb.
What do you know about all of this?
REUEL MARC GERECHT, FORMER CIA OFFICER: Well, I mean, I've heard the same thing. I mean, I hope that's true. Obviously, al- Balawi got much too close. So, even if he were searched, I suspect the casualty rate would be about the same.
ROBERTS: And there have been some criticisms that the CIA had a lapse in practices, in terms of trade craft regarding this fellow. What do you think?
GERECHT: Yes. I mean, I think that's probably the case here. I mean, the agency's is pretty hemmed in in Afghanistan. They don't have traditional means and methods of going out. They largely depend upon their security contractor, Blackwater now called Xe.
So, it's very difficult for them to do those things which they're accustomed to. It certainly would have been better if they had worked out some arrangement, obviously, to see this individual further away. I suspect, in the future, the agency's already changed that and sent out cables saying, "We're not going to do this anymore."
ROBERTS: There was -- there's a tape of al-Balawi posted on an Islamist Web site. It appears to be him at the very least, sitting beside the new leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, in which he says that the reason for the attack was, quote, "It will be the first of revenge operations against the Americans and their drone teams outside the Pakistani borders." He says that he did this to avenge the death of who was then the Taliban leader in Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud.
Was the CIA team more accommodating of al Balawi because they thought that he had information that could lead them to Ayman al- Zawahiri, were they so intensely focused on that that perhaps there was a lapse in security?
GERECHT: I suspect so. I mean, to be able to nail Ayman al- Zawahiri would be a dream for the agency. So, I mean, with the exception of bin Laden, I think it'd be hard to imagine anyone else generating that level of excitement. And when you have that level of excitement, I think the counterintelligence concerns go down a bit.
ROBERTS: So, this fellow, al-Balawi was able to play not only Jordanian intelligence but the CIA as well. What kind of a feat is that?
GERECHT: I'm impressed. I mean, I think the gentleman certainly handled himself quite well. The -- I don't know how thoroughly the Jordanians questioned the man. That's perhaps the preeminent question, whether they, in fact, were the ones who primarily dropped the ball, that they did not give him a rigorous going-over.
The Jordanians spent a lot of time with Islamic militants. They interrogate a lot of them in prison. You would hope that they would have a better sense for this, but obviously, in this case, they did not.
ROBERTS: How do you think this is going to impact the CIA as an organization, and how do you think it will impact the White House going forward in its prosecution of the war on terrorism?
GERECHT: Well, when it comes to the agency, I fear that it will actually make the agency more timid. The agency, as I said already, has a tendency to be protective of its personnel. I'm not sure that's always a good thing.
It will also, I'm sure, increase the dependency of the agency on Pakistan. That, too, is not necessarily a good thing. Vis-a-vis the White House and, you know, policy towards Afghanistan, I suspect it will have little effect, it will just, to some extent, limit the amount of intelligence that the agency can produce.
But again, most of the information we have I think already comes from the Pakistanis and the networks that we work with them.
ROBERTS: Reuel Marc Gerecht, good to catch up with you this morning. Thanks for coming in. I appreciate it.
GERECHT: My pleasure.
ROBERTS: Thirty-six minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
NBC announcing over the weekend it will end Jay Leno's primetime show and move him back to late night.
CHETRY: Yes. And the move would then push current "Tonight Show" host, Conan O'Brien back a half hour. And the question a lot of people are asking is: will Conan accept that deal?
For more, here's Kareen Wynter in L.A.
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KAREEN WYNTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, Leno's on the move, but where will he land now?
(voice-over): Jay Leno recently made light of rumors his primetime gig was up.
JAY LENO, TV HOST: You know, they did cancel, as it would be an easy move for me because I still haven't unpacked from the last show they canceled.
(LAUGHTER)
WYNTER: But it turns out what was a joke is now reality. The comedian is on the move again, back to late night, after leaving his late-night slot just three months ago for primetime.
NBC executives announced Sunday that Leno's nightly talk show didn't meet the needs of affiliates at 10:00 p.m. So, they're yanking the program February 12th.
MARC BERMAN, MEDIAWEEK: Their concern was saving money and airing Leno five nights a week. That was probably the worst mistake I have ever seen any network do ever.
WYNTER: "Mediaweek's" Marc Berman says NBC's decision to move Leno to the 10:00 p.m. slot last September has come back to haunt them.
BERMAN: What they didn't realize was that the viewers watching Leno in late night were not necessarily the same people watching television in primetime. So there's no reason to believe that everybody would come to him in primetime.
WYNTER: NBC affiliates began demanding a change when they started losing viewers leading into their 11:00 newshour. The network's affiliate chairman praised the announcement in a statement released Sunday, saying, quote, "This is a great move for the affiliates, the network and, most importantly, the viewers. We admire their willingness to innovate and their willingness to change course when it didn't work for us."
ANNOUNCER: And now your host, Jay Leno.
WYNTER: NBC said Sunday that the new plan is for Leno to take over at 11:35 p.m., with Conan O'Brien moving back after midnight, and Jimmy Fallon following O'Brien. But NBC execs haven't finalized the late-night shuffles. And some critics say keeping the laughs coming with all three hosts could be tricky.
LENO: NBC is working on a solution they say in which all parties will be screwed equally. So I think...
(LAUGHTER)
CONAN O'BRIEN, TV HOST: NBC lawyers have asked me to refer to this program as the "sometime at night show with some white guy." So...
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: If I were in Leno or Conan's shoes, I would be looking elsewhere, because I don't personally think they're going to get both of them on board.
WYNTER: Guessing games aside, one thing is certain, NBC wants to iron out the late-night laughs by finalizing its lineup before the start of the February Winter Olympics.
(on camera): As for what will replace Leno in the 10:00 hour this season, industry insiders say you can expect to see reruns of shows like "Law & Order" while the network focuses on more scripted programming for the future -- John, Kiran.
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ROBERTS: Kareen Wynter this morning -- Kareen, thanks.
Forty-two and a half minutes after the hour. Rob Marciano's got this morning's travel forecast. It's coming your way right after the break.
CHETRY: Also, in just 10 minutes, our Jeanne Moos takes look at life from an animal's point of view with critter cams -- coming up.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Forty- five minutes past the hour. It's time for your AM House Call, and democratically, there are wasting to get a final health care bill to President Obama's desk in time for next month's state of the union address. White House officials are meeting with house negotiators to try to work out the details. Brianna Keilar is live in Washington with the very latest for us. Hi Brianna.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kiran. You know, since the Senate voted on Christmas eve, there's been a whole lot going on behind the scenes. The Democratic leaders have been meeting with the White House and also with the rank and file members. They're trying to find common ground between the Senate bill and the House bill as the effort to overhaul the nation's health care system enters year number two.
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KEILAR (voice-over): After months of hearings, raucous town halls.
UNKNOWN MALE: You want to be out of here, you're welcome to go.
KEILAR: Rowdy protests, a vote during a snowstorm and another on Christmas eve, one year and several versions of health care reform later, here we are. One House bill and one Senate bill with big differences.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: All the Senate thinks theirs is fair, we think ours is, we'll see which mirror cracks.
KEILAR: One major sticking point, whether or not there should be a government run insurance plan, the so-called public option that would compete with private plans. The House has one, but moderate Democrats succeeded in cutting it from the Senate bill. Because of that, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is no longer insisting on a public option, though, she is demanding health care be affordable for low and middle income Americans.
PELOSI: There are other ways to do that, and we look forward to having those discussions as we reconcile the bills.
KEILAR: Pelosi is pushing for more government subsidies to help people buy insurance. Abortion will, once again, cause a big fight between anti-abortion Democrats and abortion rights Democrats. The House version is more restrictive, though both bills ban taxpayer dollars from funding abortions, and how will the government pay for health care reform? The House bill has a tax on the wealthy. The Senate bill taxes high-end health insurance policies, those so-called Cadillac plans. House liberals are concerned it will hit labor union members.
REP. DONNA EDWARDS, (D) MARYLAND: The last thing we want to do is penalize people who have managed and negotiate; however, they've negotiated for themselves good health care.
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KEILAR (on-camera): President Obama is meeting with union leaders today at the White House. They, of course, were strong supporters during his campaign for the presidency, and they are very concerned that their union workers are going to get the raw end of the deal if there is this tax on Cadillac plans. No doubt, Kiran, the President will be working to smooth over those concerns today.
CHETRY: And some of the more liberal members, especially in the House, really fought for this public option and wanted it to be included in the bill. Said it was really vital to eventually bring costs down. What happens if they sort of give up on that?
KEILAR: They're certainly not going to give up on it. It's just a matter of whether or not there are the other votes in the democratic caucus for it, and at this point, as I said, you know, it seems Speaker Pelosi sees the writing on the wall, so that public option was a big priority. Liberal Democrats are going to demand something in lieu of that. That's why you see Speaker Pelosi saying that they need more subsidies to help low income and middle class Americans purchase insurance.
The big issue there though, Kiran, is that's expensive to dole out more money to people, and right now, the price tag, at least in the Senate bill, is already barely under $900 billion which is the cutoff that President Obama wants.
CHETRY: All right, so it looks like -- in a reality check, you might not be getting that public option no matter how much you want it in the House.
KEILAR: Exactly.
CHETRY: Brianna Keilar for us this morning. Thanks so much.
ROBERTS: Coming up now at 49 minutes after the hour. Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines. Rob Marciano at the Weather Center, tracking the extreme cold across the country. Good morning, Rob.
MARCIANO: Good morning, guys. Still chilly out there. It's been a slow moderation of these temperatures likely because we have such a pretty widespread snow pack across the U.S., kind of acts to refrigerate the air. The temperatures across the northeast still in the teens and 20s, so no sludge for you, and teens across Chicago. This is good news, because that's actually behind our next front, meaning the next front that comes through isn't re-enforcing shot of arctic air, but it's still chilly down South, 20s in parts of Atlanta and Tampa seeing 27, 28 degrees.
Today's the big day as far as seeing how long some of these numbers stay below the freezing mark and that will determine what kind of damage we see at the citrus crops especially across parts of Central Florida. Austin, Texas yesterday 13, 15 in Memphis, Tennessee, Gainesville, Florida 19, Apalachicola 23. Right now in Tallahassee, it's 15 degrees. Mobile, Alabama, this is the second longest streak of below 32-degree air that they've seen, and by the time it's done, it will be the no. 1.
All right. Here are the next front coming through, and just giving you an idea what we have to look ahead, the Climate Prediction Center is thinking the next three months, below normal temperatures across the southeast, so not necessarily what folks what to hear, typically moderate El Ninos, John and Kiran, we get our coldest weather, our cold snaps in the last half of the winter, and we're just barely through the first half at this point, so not the best news there, but...
CHETRY: No, not at all.
MARCIANO: Maybe the long-term forecast will be wrong.
CHETRY: All right. We hope so, Rob, especially a lot of orange growers down in Florida. Thanks so much.
The price of orange juice is climbing as temperatures in the south keep falling. Minding your Business in AM Extra, the Florida citrus industry is worth some $9.3 billion. So far, Florida citrus farmers have reported no catastrophic damage from the cold, but they have sustained crop damage. Orange juice prices climbing 17 percent in the last week, and growers are not out of the woods yet as we've been talking about with these freezing temperatures still in the forecast. Coming up at our next hour, we're going to get a live report from CNN's Martin Savidge in Florida showing us just how bad things are there.
ROBERTS: This morning's top stories just minutes away, including top of the hour, a CNN exclusive, is the TSA saving information that comes from body scanners that see, well, just about everything? Why we may have been misled about what these machines can do and why it may not be worth it anyway?
CHETRY: Also at 7:10 Eastern, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid apologizing for a quote about race that could cause him his seat if Republicans have their way. We're going to go inside a book from the 2008 election that shaking up Washington this morning.
ROBERTS: And at 7:25 Eastern, Ben Stiller using comedy to make a difference. Alina Cho finds out what it means to be Stiller strong. Those stories and more coming your way beginning at the top of the hour.
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CHETRY: We're coming up on 55 minutes past the hour right now, and it's time for the Most News in the Morning with cameras mounting on their head and the animal kingdom is taking over quite in unlikely place, the Internet.
ROBERTS: These viral videos are giving us an inside look into the lives of cows, armadillos, alligators, even the most exotic creature of them all, our own Jeanne Moos.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an armadillos scurrying from website to website. A moe burrowing its way through the Internet. An alligator worth surfing the web for as it surfs the marshland. They're all making the rounds but the place they call home, or at least home page, is the museum of animal perspectives. From chick cam to lamb cam, the animal born cameras let you get up close and personal entering their habitat.
Leaving the viewer happier than a pig in mud, but not to be outdone --
MOOS (on-camera): With this, we can examine the habitat of the urban reporter.
MOOS (voice-over): Camera mounted on glasses and partially obscured by hair. I'm going to cut to the controller room. You going up?
UNKNOWN MALE: No, down.
MOOS: Where did you get these glasses?
UNKNOWN MALE: We found them.
MOOS: We also found the creator of the museum of animal perspectives. Sam Easterson was happy to chat on the phone.
Video naturalist. That's how he describes himself, but he wouldn't do an on camera interview.
I can't believe you won't go on with it, but anyway, I get it.
For almost a decade, Easterson has been compiling animal videos like this one featuring a rhino.
He's not exactly rushing, He's sort of, oh, sniffing.
He considers what's now going viral on the web to be his old stuff. These days he's into dwelling cams, located in a prairie dog's tunnel or the nest of a laughing kookaburra.
MOOS (on-camera): It also seems to me that you have a sense of humor about this. I mean, if you're putting on like, you know, cows licking each other.
MOOS (voice-over): You can't get any closer to a cow or a wolf than this, digging furiously, snarling at another wolf.
There are similarities between a camera mounted on a bison as it chows down on grass, and a camera mounted on a reporter grazing the salad bar. The difference is --
I'm taking them off.
UNKNOWN MALE: Okay.
MOOS: I can't stand it anymore.
The sheep's stuck with it. No wonder the flock won't let him join. Candid camera is enough to make anybody sheepish. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: So that's what it's like inside a prairie dog's hole.
CHETRY: There you go. Now you know.
ROBERTS: At Jeanne's office.
(LAUGHING)
ROBERTS: Those top stories coming your way in 90 seconds. Stay with us.
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