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Campbell Brown
Ending Military Gay Ban; Budget Battles
Aired February 02, 2010 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, everybody.
Our top story tonight: The Pentagon moves to end don't ask, don't tell, and that is topping our "Mash-Up" tonight. We're watching it all, so you don't have to.
On Capitol Hill today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced he is working on a plan to end the policy that bars openly gay people from serving in the military. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GATES, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change, but how we must -- how we best prepare it -- for it.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The Joint Chiefs chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen, says lifting the ban is a matter of integrity and -- quote -- "right thing to do."
ADMIRAL MICHAEL MULLEN, JOINTS CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: We have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Admiral Mullen's statement ran into stiff opposition from Republican senators.
SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: The armed forces must maintain policies that exclude persons whose presence in the armed forces would create an unacceptable risk to the armed forces' high standards of morale, good order and discipline and unit cohesion.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we shouldn't be seeking to overturn the don't ask, don't tell policy.
DAVID MARTIN, CBS: Until the law is changed, Gates says he will try to make enforcement of don't ask, don't tell more lenient.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And Secretary Gates says it will take at least a year to repeal don't ask, don't tell. The final decision of course is up to Congress.
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, a chilling admission from the country's top intelligence officials. They say al Qaeda is certain to try to attack the United States in the next three to six months, emphasis here on the word certain. From the director of national intelligence to the head of the CIA, they were all in agreement. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: What is the likelihood of another terrorist attempted attack on the U.S. homeland in the next three to six months, high or low?
Director Blair?
DENNIS BLAIR, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: An attempted attack, the priority is certain, I would say.
FEINSTEIN: Mr. Panetta?
LEON PANETTA, CIA DIRECTOR: I would agree with that.
FEINSTEIN: Mr. Mueller?
ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: Agree.
FEINSTEIN: General Burgess?
LIEUTENANT GENERAL RONALD BURGESS, DIRECTOR, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: Yes, ma'am, agree.
FEINSTEIN: Mr. Dinger?
JOHN DINGER, ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE, BUREAU OF INTELLIGENCE AND RESEARCH: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Just chilling to hear those words.
Meanwhile, we learned today the man accused in the Christmas Day bomb plot, the so-called underwear bomber, is talking again. We have got some breaking news on that front about what brought him to the table, and we are going to tell you what investigators are learning from him a little bit later in the show.
We have got the latest now on the Toyota recall. Tonight, federal investigators want to know if electromagnetic interference could be causing the sticky gas pedal problem. They're also looking into civil penalties for the carmaker.
Meanwhile, one manufacturer of those pedals says, not so fast, they are not to blame. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITCHELL WALORSKI, CTS CORPORATION: The pedals that are the subject of the recall have to do with a slow return phenomenon, which is a very rare condition, which occurs only under certain environmental conditions, such as high humidity. And CTS is not aware, and Toyota has said this also, that there's been any accidents or injuries from that condition of those pedals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Toyota official told us that's true, but said it's also true that some CTS pedals didn't just have slow return, but also got stuck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Toyota officials still say they're confident they have fixed the problem.
In New Hampshire today, a mea culpa from President Obama. He admits it was wrong not to put the entire health care debate on C- SPAN, as he had promised during the campaign. The admission came during a town meeting that was supposed to be all about jobs. Instead, Obama was peppered with questions about health care.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We should keep working to get it done. Democrats and Republicans together, let's get it done this year.
We're essentially on the five-yard line, for those who like football analogies. We have had to go into overtime, but we're now in the red zone. That's exactly right. We're in the red zone. We have got to punch it through.
I'm going to go through the pain of really working through this hard process in Congress, getting yelled at and called a socialist, because I just -- that's how I roll. I'm a glutton for punishment.
Here's my thing. You got a better idea? Bring it on. But what I will not do is to stop working on this issue, because it is the right thing to do for America. And you need to let your members of Congress know they shouldn't give up. They should keep on pushing to make it happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And the word from Congress is House Democrats have started working on a compromise bill, no sense, though, when they might vote.
The hot entertainment news of the day is, of course, the Oscars, "Avatar" and "Hurt Locker" leading the pack in the race for nominations. Big names like Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Matt Damon all getting nods, but the favorite for best actress is Sandra Bullock. And apparently she's already preparing. At least, that's what she told "The Today Show."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have a little more than a month now to go to the actual Oscars, so what happens in this time leading up to the actual celebration?
SANDRA BULLOCK, ACTRESS: I don't know. I have never done this before, but I do believe some liposuction...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop it.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hardly.
BULLOCK: A very strict diet regimen. I acquire some sort of light, very light English accent.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
BULLOCK: And I was going to say, I start wearing glasses, but I already wearing glasses, so I'm already kind of there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: The winners will be announced Sunday night March 7.
And that brings us to the "Punchline" tonight, courtesy of David Letterman. We all know Massachusetts senator-elect Scott Brown was a "Cosmo" centerfold back in 1982, right? Well, Dave couldn't resist having a little fun with that. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": How about this guy from Massachusetts who is the senator? His name is Scott Brown. And he is a former go-go boy and has posed nude many times. He's a nude model. Well, he's now the senator, and over the weekend he was on ABC with Barbara Walters. Did you see the interview?
PAUL SHAFFER, BAND LEADER: I didn't. I didn't see the interview.
LETTERMAN: We have a clip of the interview.
SHAFFER: Oh.
LETTERMAN: Here's Scott Brown with Barbara Walters over the weekend. Take a look. I think you will like this. There they are.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: David Letterman, everybody. And that is the "Mash-Up."
President Obama today declared a plan to loan money to small businesses, and, boy, did that set off one Republican senator. You're going to want to see his reaction when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: And now to President Obama, who took his budget pitch on the road to Nashua, New Hampshire, today, where he talked about this new initiative. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And that's why today, I'm announcing a proposal to take $30 billion of the money that was repaid by Wall Street banks, now that they're back on their feet, take that $30 billion and use it to create a new small business lending fund that will provide capital for community banks on Main Street.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Now, the only problem with that idea, it would require changing the law in order to do it.
Take a listen to the dressing-down White House Budget Office Director Peter Orszag got today from Republican Senator Judd Gregg.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER ORSZAG, DIRECTOR OF OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: The purpose of TARP was to address problems in our financial markets. One of the lingering -- and it has been remarkably successful in bringing credit spreads back down to normal levels.
One of the lingering problems in the -- in our financial markets, however, is access to credit for small businesses. It's why, in this budget, we're...
SEN. JUDD GREGG (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE: No, no, no. You can't make that type of statement with any legitimacy.
ORSZAG: OK.
GREGG: You cannot make that statement. This is the law.
ORSZAG: Small businesses are not suffering from...
(CROSSTALK)
ORSZAG: ... lack of...
(CROSSTALK)
GREGG: Let me tell you what the law says. Let me read it to you again, because you don't appear to understand the understand the law.
The law is very clear. The moneys recouped from the TARP shall be paid into the general fund of the treasury for the reduction of the public debt.
It's not for a piggy bank because you're concerned about lending to small businesses.
(CROSSTALK)
ORSZAG: ... require this legislation.
GREGG: And you want to get a political event when you go out and make a speech in Nashua, New Hampshire. That's not what this money is for. This money is to reduce the debt of our children that we're passing on to our children.
And you ought to at least have the integrity to be forthright about it and say that's what you're doing. You're adding to the debt that our kids are going to have to pay back when you're claiming at the same time...
ORSZAG: Senator, with respect...
GREGG: ... that you're being fiscally responsible.
(CROSSTALK)
GREGG: Let me ask you another question, because, clearly, we're not going to agree on this, and you are not going to follow the law.
Secondly...
(CROSSTALK)
ORSZAG: Sorry. I do -- Excuse me. We will be following the law. This would involve legislation...
(CROSSTALK)
GREGG: Well, then you are not going to be able to do it unless Congress...
ORSZAG: Yes.
GREGG: ... gives you the authority to do it.
ORSZAG: Exactly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And Gloria Borger, CNN senior political analyst, joining me right now to talk about this.
Gloria, Senator Judd Gregg really angry. And he's right. The thing here is, the law is very clear about this. The president cannot just announce he's going to do this, right?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.
Look, the president can announce whatever he wants. He's got a proposal, but he does have to change the law to do it. And that's something Congress is going to have to do, as Peter Orszag said.
But if you step back for a moment, Campbell, just take a look at this. Today the president was in Senator Gregg's home state. OK? That's what was really getting him upset, too, talking about this proposal which Senator Gregg clearly doesn't like, clearly will not support, clearly believes will add to the deficit.
And he was upset that there the president was in New Hampshire, and here he was in Washington, and he was going to grill Peter Orszag about it because he was mad.
BROWN: But it's not just Republicans either. Democrats, like Kent Conrad, who has also for a long time has been very aggressive about deficit reduction, also questioning the idea. So, there has to be more going on here. Did the president jump the gun a little bit?
BORGER: Well, you know, you will be shocked to learn that the White House is trying to have it both ways, right? It's very politically popular right now to take from Wall Street.
People are angry about the Wall Street bonuses. And so the president is saying, we're going to take this money from Wall Street, which is repaid back to the American taxpayer, and we are going to use it to give to small businesses which have been hurting.
So, it's very popular, unless you happen to be a deficit hawk, like Senator Conrad, who is, and who is a Democrat, and Senator Judd Gregg, and they're saying, wait a minute, we want this money to go back into the federal till. We have got a $1.3 trillion deficit we have got to deal with. But the White House didn't want to spend that $30 billion and add to their bottom line right now. It's not a good time to be doing that.
BROWN: It does, though, you think, feed into this idea, this whole sort of lack of trust between the parties.
BORGER: Oh, yes.
BROWN: And when you have the president coming out like he did last Friday night, meeting with Republicans, House Republicans, and saying, you know, let's put all that behind us, let's work together going forward, but from what we witnessed today, did he forget to walk the walk a little bit?
BORGER: Well, I think everyone is forgetting to walk the walk a little bit. Maybe they need to learn to walk again, Campbell.
I think this is a very difficult situation for them. And I think, look, take a look at the budget commission here. They were supposed to have a bipartisan commission on the budget, right? The president says, I'm going to support this. Let's do it. And there is a vote on it. And seven Republicans who were with him decided to back out on him. Why? Because lots of conservatives are saying it's a trap. You're going to end up raising taxes.
So, it's a bit of the same old, same old, and they just can't find a way to get out of that rut that they're in, Campbell.
BROWN: All right, Gloria Borger for us tonight -- Gloria, thanks.
BORGER: Sure.
BROWN: And if there's one thing we know that frustrates many Americans, it's when politics gets in the way of policy. And this story does seem to really speak to that.
Last week, as I mentioned, the president did meet with House Republicans. He admitted that he has made mistakes in the past. Well, who hasn't? Shouldn't Congress also be held accountable on this front?
And tonight, Democrat Anthony Weiner in our hot seat to talk a little bit more about this. And, if we could, Congressman, let's talk big picture here.
The president talks about repairing, in his words, this deficit of trust. But isn't this sort of exactly the kind of move that makes many Americans say that he's not being entirely straight with us?
REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: Well, I don't know.
Let's remember something. The Republicans in the House and Senate, I think, made a political calculation that many of them speak about openly that they don't want to let the president have any victories at all. I think someone called health care the president's Waterloo. That's what the Republicans called it.
So, to some degree, they have a consistent policy that hasn't really lent itself to much bipartisanship. They didn't give us a single vote on just any of the important legislation. And I find it hard to believe that even something like the stimulus, where it had funds going all around and had tax cuts left and right, that at least one Republican would have broken ranks.
So, you have to separate this, because I do believe the Republicans have made a tactical decision not to cooperate, and maybe the American people will reward them for that.
BROWN: But is it only Republicans? As we said, the president met with Republicans. He said, you know, he has made mistakes, too.
You have said -- shortly after Scott Brown won in Massachusetts, you said, I think, that night that your party had made mistakes. So, walk us through what they are. I mean, tell me what Democrats have done wrong that they need to take responsibility for. WEINER: I appreciate the chance to have some therapy here with you.
(LAUGHTER)
WEINER: What it comes down to, look, there are a couple of things. One, I think we obsessed too much on the health care bill, for example, on how we're going to get 60 votes in the Senate, so this looked like the sausage-making of Washington became the lead story, rather than the overarching things we were trying to do to improve health care.
That was a mistake. Now, some of it was just the math of the Senate. Some of it was us not recognizing that one senator is not more important than 100 million Americans.
The other thing I think that we need to recognize is that we need to have our internal fights here in Washington, but it can't substitute for having a clear and somewhat simple viewpoint that we express to the American people about the issues that we have.
Legislative small print doesn't sell very well as a message, and so you can try to do health care, you can try to do stimulus, but unless we explain it better, we're not going to get the credit for those things.
BROWN: Last Friday, one Republican after another, when we were listening, told the president, listen, you say that we're being obstructionist, but Democrats aren't giving us a seat at the table.
Are they right on that point? Is there any truth to what they're saying on that front?
WEINER: Well, that part, they can't be more wrong on. One of the things that we did during this health care plan, to our detriment, this went through five committees, hundreds of hours of hearings, hours of hours of amendments being offered, and frankly a lot of them on the House side were adopted. A lot of Republican amendments were adopted.
But, remember, the Republicans made it very clear early on they weren't going to offer us any votes on the floor, any additional votes. For example, with all the conversations that we have heard about Olympia Snowe, for example, and the concessions she has asked us to make, she hasn't once said that, if you give me A, B or C, I will vote for the bill.
That's been the problem, that we have been negotiating against ourselves a lot of the time.
BROWN: But I think most Americans -- we can get into the process, and 60 votes are required to do this, but most Americans look at this and they say, Democrats control Washington. They control Congress. They control the White House. And so, understandably, I think a lot of people wonder why more can't get done. How do you answer that, really? WEINER: Well, first of all, I make a very important distinction between what's going on in the House and the Senate. We in the House have passed just about all the important bills that the president said he wanted to pass this year.
Five times in the State of the Union address, he urged the Senate to follow the House's lead. Now, the Senate, unfortunately, we have somehow bought into this idea you do need 60 votes to do anything, which isn't a majority. It's a supermajority. And that's hard to get agreement among 100 people. Getting 60 on the same side of any issues is very difficult.
But there's no doubt about it. Even with 59, we should be getting more done. I think the president deserves some responsibility for that, for not really driving some of these things that are popular, like the public option that I have been fighting so much more.
But you're right. We're ultimately going to be held responsible, and I hope we also get some share of the credit for the good things that have gone on since last year. Things are a lot better off when we were last year.
BROWN: So, if you would finally just give me one possible solution here. You have been in Congress for a long time. You know how it works. Realistically, is there a way to get both parties working together? Should it really be this hard?
WEINER: Look, I think the American people say they want bipartisanship, but they also feel very seriously what they believe in on individual issues.
When people say I support the public option, they don't want bipartisanship compromise on that. They want the public option. When people say, I want a tax cut, they're not looking for compromise. They want a tax cut.
So, I think, to some degree, all members of Congress are, they believe, fighting for their constituents. The Republicans feel they are going to be rewarded for stopping President Obama. Democrats feel we're going to be rewarded for making progress. Sometimes those things just fundamentally are in conflict.
BROWN: Congressman Anthony Weiner, appreciate your time tonight. Thanks for talking to us tonight.
WEINER: Thank you.
BROWN: When we come back, we're going to take a closer look at the orphans in Haiti, why it's so hard to reunite families. We will talk about that in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We're continuing to follow the plight of Haiti's children, including 380,000 already orphaned before the quake three weeks ago.
Now a new problem is emerging, which is figuring out which kids really don't have family.
Joe Johns is in Port-au-Prince tonight with more on this.
And, Joe, you just got back from a day camp, I know, which is one of the few places where children are safe. Tell us what you saw.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Kids like my kids, lots of kids, Campbell, 85 or so today. All came from just one day camp and one place in a truck, a flatbed truck, that this nongovernmental organization had sent out to pick them up and bring them back.
And the thing about it is, this organization, it's Friends of the Orphans. There are several, many, many all over, that are trying to identify who are actually the new orphans and who are just the orphans that have been out on the streets for so long, because they're very different people.
These new orphans just lost their parents. They don't know what they're doing. They don't know how to survive out on the streets. And those are the people the groups are trying to identify, because they're in a lot of danger, Campbell.
BROWN: So, why, Joe, is it so hard to figure out sort of who's who in the camp?
JOHNS: Well, a lot of reasons. One of the reasons is that the NGOs go out and they try to talk to people in these tent cities or what have you, and the people in the tent cities don't necessarily want to give up a lot of information. They're suspicious.
And then when they hear this is connected with an orphanage, they're even more suspicious. On the other hand, you have some people who want to just give their babies away, even though they're the parents. They think, well, my child can have a better life if the child goes to the orphanage.
But the people in the groups say, no, no, no, we can't do that, because your child has a parent. We're looking for the children without parents, because they're the ones in greatest need.
And then there's just trying to get information out of the kids. My producer and I, Justine Redman, sat down with some of the kids and talked to them today out at the soccer field. And you get bits and pieces of stories. Well, my dad died, but my mother didn't. My cousin died, or the house was hurt really bad.
And your heart goes out for these kids because they can't tell you everything that happened. They can't tell you that they're alone or how scared they are. And that's why everybody is focusing on them so much, Campbell.
BLITZER: Joe Johns for us in Haiti tonight.
And we are going to keep attention on this story.
Joe, thank you very much.
It is worth repeating that, before the earthquake even hit, there were already 380,000 orphans in Haiti. I mean, it is a staggering number. And, in fact, 15 percent, if I have this right, 15 percent of Haitian children were orphaned or abandoned. And this is, again, before the quake. The reason for these statistics, there are many, obviously, but among them is Haiti's high rate of HIV/AIDS and the fact that 1,400 out of 100,000 new mothers dies in childbirth.
As for the number of Haiti orphans today, impossible, as you can imagine, to calculate at this point. Aid groups won't even venture a guess right now.
The children of Haiti aren't the only ones feeling the impact of the quake. A little bit later in the show, I'm going to take you to a school right here in the U.S., right here in New York where eight out of every 10 students are Haitian.
Coming up next, though, the military to blame for turning a paradise island into a toxic cancer cluster? We are taking you back to Vieques for part two of a special CNN investigation when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Tonight, CNN's special investigation into the island paradise where more than 7,000 Americans are suing the government. They claim decades of military weapons tests on their island made them sick with cancer and other serious illnesses. The government denies any link.
Abbie Boudreau of our Special Investigations Unit went to Vieques off of Puerto Rico to see out why they islanders call their home a poisoned paradise.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT (voice-over): After work every day, Nanette Rosa brings their two daughters to feed their horses. It's their favorite part of day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There you go, baby. Come on.
BOUDREAU: It's a time they don't think about pain.
CORAL ROSA, CANCER PATIENT: It's really difficult for my mom to have two daughters with cancer. Sometimes, we both get sick at the same time. And she don't have anyone there to help her. And it really affects her.
BOUDREAU: Sixteen-year-old Coral is the eldest of Nanette's two daughters. Both battle cancer. Coral was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancer in young children. NANETTE ROSA, DAUGHTERS HAVE CANCER: She had removed half of her stomach. And her intestines, part of -- almost everything, it's plastic.
BOUDREAU: For nearly six decades, the U.S. military used much of Vieques Island as a bombing range. Now about three-quarters of the island's residents, including Coral and her sister, Inna, are part of a lawsuit that claims the bombing range made them sick.
BOUDREAU: How do you feel right now?
CORAL ROSA, CANCER PATIENT: Sometimes I feel sad because, you know, everybody calls me plastic intestines. They say, oh, you have plastic belly. And I tell them, you know what, if you were in this condition, how would you feel?
BOUDREAU: Coral showed us what she lives with every day.
C. ROSA: So you can see how I feel when everybody teases me.
BOUDREAU: Inna is Coral's 14-year-old sister. When she was seven, a large tumor was found in her mouth.
(on camera): What happened? Can you show me what happened?
INNA ROSA, CANCER PATIENT: OK, it started with swollen parts. It was very swollen. It looks like there was a big ball of gum in my mouth or a big lollipop.
BOUDREAU: OK.
I. ROSA: And I started having pains. The only thing that came out was blood.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): Inna was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a bone cancer.
JOHN EAVES, JR., ATTORNEY FOR VIEQUES RESIDENTS: You cannot walk down the street in this island without counting every house and knowing two or three people on the street that have cancer or have had cancer, or died of cancer.
BOUDREAU: John Eaves Jr. represents the islanders and the lawsuit against the federal government. He's taken more than 1,300 hair samples from residents of Vieques, looking for heavy metals.
EAVES: These hair samples, I believe, are the strongest proof that the contaminants, the things that were in the bombs, lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic aluminum (ph) are now in the people.
BOUDREAU: Some of the samples show readouts of toxic elements that are literally right off the charts. We drove to the other side of this Caribbean island to find one of the families tested and their daughter named Tashmalee (ph).
(on camera): So we ended up finding Tashmalee (ph), and she was 2 years old when she had her tested. And now we're at her house and we want to see if we can talk to her family and also just to see how she's feeling.
(voice-over): Inside, Tashmalee's (ph) parents told us she had been very sick. They fear she may get sick again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was in...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chemotherapy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chemotherapy, yes. She started getting a lot of dark spots around the legs. She started having problems with -- she didn't have a good movement in her hands.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In her hands.
BOUDREAU (on camera): And so you weren't surprised at all that this child did suffer, you know, an illness?
EAVES: No, I wasn't surprised at all that this child had some problems. And the father talked about the neurological hands, the neurological damage that's very extensive throughout. I've seen it many times over. We hope that this child will not have cancer in the future, but we don't know.
DR. CARMEN ORTIZ-ROQUE, SAN JUAN PHYSICIAN: The population of Vieques is by far the sickest human population that I've ever worked with. These people are very sick, very early and dying earlier. So something is happening there.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): Dr. Carmen Ortiz is a Harvard-trained epidemiologist and a physician in San Juan.
ORTIZ-ROQUE: It's astonishing. They die 30 percent higher of cancer, 45 percent high of diabetes, 95 percent higher of liver disease, and 381 percent higher of hypertension than the rest of Puerto Ricans.
BOUDREAU: In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found no link between the Navy's contamination and the sicknesses suffered by the islanders. But now the CDC plans to restudy the issue after many scientists raised strong complaints.
In response to the islanders' lawsuit, the U.S. government is invoking sovereign immunity, claiming the islanders do not have the right to sue the government and that there is no proof the Navy's activities caused illnesses.
C. ROSA: There's a lot of people here in the hospital dying of cancer. I have my little cousin that died of cancer. I have my sister that has cancer. My boyfriend's mom died of cancer.
NANETTE ROSA, DAUGHTERS HAVE CANCER: It's hard. It's hard. And what I'm going through is not easy.
BOUDREAU (on camera): Your daughters told me that sometimes they don't tell you exactly how they're feeling if they're not feeling well because they don't want to worry you.
N. ROSA: Yes, because I'm the type of mother that I cry so much. It's too much pain. I have to hold on because of them. I have to hold on because they need me. But then I don't know if tomorrow I'm going to have them home. I don't know when I wake up if I'm going to see them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU: We asked the Department of Justice and the Navy for comment, but neither wanted to discuss the islanders' lawsuit with CNN.
CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: And, Abbie, it is hard to watch these young people what they're going through.
BOUDREAU: Yes.
BROWN: Are they getting good medical care, and how are they paying for it?
BOUDREAU: Well, they are getting some medical care, but they're hoping the government will one day pay for that medical care, and that's why they're part of this lawsuit. But right now, they're asking for donations from their family and friends. Otherwise, it's up to the mom to come up with the money. She's having a really hard time figuring out how to make ends meet.
And when we were there, one of those girls had a really bad toothache and she opened her mouth real wide and said, look at my mouth, it really, really hurts. And her mom wasn't able to bring her to the dentist because she couldn't afford it.
BROWN: She couldn't afford it, yes. So what happens with the lawsuit?
BOUDREAU: Well, the U.S. government is wanting this lawsuit to go away. They want it to be dismissed, but that's going to be up to the courts in Puerto Rico. So we'll have to wait and see what happens there. But if this case is not dismissed, it will likely be a very long and complicated road before it ends up in front of a trial, in front of a jury.
BROWN: Abbie Boudreau, Abbie, excellent work.
BOUDREAU: Thank you.
BROWN: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
When we come back, we have a lot to talk about regarding terrorism. The man accused in the Christmas Day attempt to bomb a U.S. airliner is talking. The story of how his family helped when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Breaking news tonight. The Christmas Day underwear bombing suspect is talking. CNN has learned Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is giving authorities actionable intelligence, leads that are being hunted down right now. And White House correspondent Ed Henry has some new information on what got him to open up.
Ed, what do we know?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Campbell, this is the fascinating part. I mean, the night had ended here and all of a sudden we got called back to talk to senior White House officials who wanted to lay out some really stark new details.
Bottom line is that we're now told that a couple of FBI agents back on January 1st, just a few days after this attempted terrorist attack, flew to Nigeria and met secretly with some relatives of the bombing suspect. After working for a couple of weeks in Nigeria, they flew back on January 17th, again secretly, with two relatives of Abdulmutallab. And these White House officials assert that because of that, they were able to gain the suspect's trust and that at some point last week, he started talking to investigators again, and they say they're getting actionable intelligence, as you noted, that could prevent future attacks on U.S. soil.
Now why this matters is that you'll remember that on Christmas evening, we've since learned that some of the investigators read the suspect his Miranda rights. At some point, he then stopped cooperating with investigators. There's been Republican charges in recent days that that sort of botched the case. It was mishandled by this White House because then he clammed up and then we were not able to get more intelligence.
The White House pushing back furiously tonight to say, look, we've been very quietly secretly working on this and have been getting good intelligence. This is a really dramatic development, Campbell.
BROWN: All right, Ed Henry for us tonight with the latest on that. And we should also mention there was a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing today where officials were pressed hard on the handling of this Christmas Day plot and other looming terror threats. We're going to talk right now about that with CNN national security contributor Fran Townsend. She, of course, was homeland security adviser to President Bush and she's here with me now.
Let me just get your reaction to what Ed just reported for us. He mentioned the criticism that the White House had received because they read Miranda rights to the suspect here. And I know you were among those critical of the way they had handled this.
FRANCES FRAGOS TOWNSEND, FMR. BUSH HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: Well, Campbell, it's not that you wouldn't eventually want to perhaps read him his Miranda rights and move to a criminal process. I think some of those who were criticizing the decision to read Miranda are criticizing the timing of it. It was only after 15 minutes of questioning, so Ed is quite right, the White House is feeling a little bit defensive about that. And tonight we hear that he's talking again.
It's interesting, Campbell, because the way they got him to talk is very much what we've learned from our allies around the world, particularly in Saudi Arabia, using the families of those who have been talked into becoming bombers for Al Qaeda and having them work with authorities to get information from the suspect. It sounds like that's exactly, playing from that playbook, the American officials didn't do that and have got him talking again. But we can't lose sight that there were several weeks during which, after he was given Miranda, he wasn't talking, and those time periods when he wasn't talking could have been critical. We just don't know.
BROWN: Right. Let me go back to the hearing, Senate hearing today, because there was a moment at this hearing, there were a lot of questions raised about this and about terror threats in general. There was a moment that was really striking. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA SENATOR: What is the likelihood of another terrorist-attempted attack on the U.S. homeland in the next three to six months? High or low? Director Blair?
DENNIS BLAIR, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR: An attempted attack, the priority is certain, I would say.
FEINSTEIN: Mr. Panetta?
LEON PANETTA, CIA DIRECTOR: I would agree with that.
FEINSTEIN: Mr. Mueller?
ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: Agree.
FEINSTEIN: General Burgess?
GENERAL RONALD BURGESS: Yes, ma'am. Agree.
FEINSTEIN: Mr. Dinger?
DINGER: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: What do you think? I mean, just listening to it is a little bit chilling. When you hear them say, yes, it's happening.
TOWNSEND: Right. No, it is chilling. I think we have to point out to people that when they said it was certain, they were saying it's certain that there'll be an attempt.
BROWN: Of the attempt.
TOWNSEND: And so, I mean, we ought to put it, remind people that it's in that context. But even so, having spent almost five years at the White House in one of those positions, I can't imagine the circumstance that would have led me to say publicly that I was certain it was going to happen. You know, this may be a good abject lesson of answer the question. He was asked whether or not the likelihood of an attempt was high or low. He'd been just fine by saying "high"...
BROWN: High.
TOWNSEND: ... without frightening everybody. And we've heard --
BROWN: But, you know, cards on the table...
TOWNSEND: Right.
BROWN: ... shouldn't we be planning for the worst-case scenario, especially given what we learned on Christmas?
TOWNSEND: Well, that's right, but as we've heard from senior administration officials after the day's testimony was closed, saying there's no credible information of an imminent attack...
BROWN: Right.
TOWNSEND: And so they're busy backpedaling, it also puts them in a very difficult position because remember we have this terror alert system in this country. The British has recently raised theirs. The nation is at yellow.
If you're thinking attack is certain, it puts the administration in a position, are they going to raise it?
BROWN: Right.
TOWNSEND: Well, the new administration doesn't like that alert system. Janet Napolitano has commissioned us to look at that. I co- chaired that, but they haven't changed it so and so they're sort of stuck in the old system.
BROWN: Right.
TOWNSEND: And now they have said publicly that an attempt is certain.
BROWN: Fran Townsend for us tonight. Fran, as always, thanks. Appreciate it.
When we get back, I'm going to take you to a school here in New York where students are learning to cope with the disaster 2,000 miles away. For them the earthquake in Haiti isn't just a story on the news, it is deeply personal. That story when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Coming up in just a bit, you're going to meet some special kids from one New York City school really feeling the aftershocks from Haiti's earthquake. But first, we've got some must- see news happening right now. HLN's Mike Galanos here right now with the "Download." Hey, Mike.
MIKE GALANOS, HLN PRIME NEWS: Hey, Campbell. First off, Michael Jackson's personal doctor is expected to turn himself in this week to face charges relating to the pop star's death. Dr. Conrad Murray will reportedly be charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly injecting Jackson with lethal amounts of the anesthetic Propofol. Dr. Murray says he gave nothing to Jackson that could have killed him.
The study linking measles, mumps and rubella vaccines to autism are now being discredited. "The Lancet" British medical journal has retracted the findings first published back in 1998. Now British officials found out that the lead author of the study acted unethically in conducting that research. New studies have found that there is no link between autism and the vaccines.
And AIG is at it again. The insurance giant is planning a new round of bonuses worth about $100 million? The move comes just one year after the company doled out similar payments even though they had just been bailed out by taxpayers. Now this week's payments go to workers who agreed to take less money than they were promised years ago.
Here we go. AIG and bonuses again.
BROWN: Yes.
GALANOS: For that, Campbell, back to you.
BROWN: We're going to be talking about that a little tomorrow, I think.
GALANOS: I'm sure.
BROWN: Mike Galanos for us tonight. Mike, thanks.
"LARRY KING LIVE" starts in just a few minutes. Larry, what do you have for us tonight?
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": We are jam-packed tonight, Campbell. We've got more on the breaking Michael Jackson news and then we'll get the latest twist on those Americans accused of child trafficking in Haiti. Their pastor will plead the case right here.
And we'll tell you what happened at that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" hearing in Washington today. And then former POW Shoshana Johnson joins us with her struggles on the battlefield and off. And we'll give you a preview of tomorrow night's show with James Cameron and the cast of "Avatar." It's all next on "LARRY KING LIVE" if I can squeeze it in.
BROWN: I was going to say you are jam-packed. All right, Larry. We'll see you in a few minutes.
Coming up on our show, the Haitian earthquake hitting home. We're going to take you inside a New York City school where the devastation is really personal, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The U.S. is home to half a million Haitian Americans. So when we talk about the earthquake in Haiti and its effects on children, that goes for kids in this country too. And in a New York City public school I visited recently, the grief and the worry among students there is really hitting home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHILDREN: Good morning.
BROWN (voice-over): Saints Joachim and Anne elementary school in Queens seems world's away from the chaos and devastation in Haiti. Neatly dressed students politely raised their hands in class, they clown around, they do kids stuff. But these days behind their smiles, each and everyone of them is struggling.
(on camera): Raise your hand, if you will, if you have friends or family in Haiti. Wow. That's almost everybody.
(voice-over): Eighty percent of the students in the school are from Haitian families. Most have visited the country so when the earthquake hit, they felt emotional aftershocks right here in Queens.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My mom got in contact with my uncle. He said everybody is OK, and the house didn't fall down yet. And the next day the house collapsed. They're still trying to find one person, and he's my little stepbrother.
BROWN: Oh, wow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they're trying to find him to see if he's OK, but we don't know yet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to start with a prayer.
BROWN (voice-over): Principal Linda Freebes has her hands full these days.
(on camera): A lot of these kids have lost somebody.
LINDA FREEBES, PRINCIPAL: Absolutely.
BROWN: Have lost somebody close.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Most of my children either know someone there or have a family member that died in the earthquake.
BROWN (voice-over): Saints Joachim and Anne became a refuge for students struggling to grasp the enormity of what had happened.
FREEBES: They were pretty much in shock.
BROWN: Yes. FREEBES: They weren't speaking. They were very quiet, very quiet. However, the parents were crying in the halls and many of them were just overwhelmed.
BROWN: For a while life became a daily recitation of horror stories.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They said that everybody is almost in the streets and that some houses are broken down. And my mom's Aunt Fran (ph), she said that her friend is under rubble.
BROWN: Danielle Walden has a student in her class who just arrived from Haiti, fresh off an airlift from the disaster zone. She's helping that student and all of her students adjust.
DANIELLE WALDEN, TEACHER: Sometimes it's just listening to what they want. Get a lot of their feelings out. And I've had classes go on for an hour, an hour and a half just having them sit there and talk about how they feel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to be OK.
BROWN: Talking helps, so do projects to make students feel like they're doing something to help.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to continue to sell the t- shirts for Haiti.
BROWN: They raise money. They write poems.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These times are showing a dark night when God can give us a bright light.
BROWN: It's a day by day process to get back to normal, or something approaching normal.
(on camera): Are there students that you were particularly worried about?
FREEBES: I would say so, yes. There's about 10 of them. And then, of course, the ones you don't suspect who you think they're OK.
BROWN: Because they're not expressive and they're holding.
FREEBES: Right. Yes. And down the line what happens? So we just have to be on watch for almost everyone at this point.
BROWN (voice-over): And that watchfulness, the knowledge that someone is there for them is what these children need now more than ever.
WALDEN: It's not just, you know, the money and the food. It's also the caring and the love that we show that they need.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: And, of course, we can't say it enough. You want to help the ongoing relief efforts in Haiti, we have information for you at the Web site CNN.com/impact.
"LARRY KING LIVE" starts in just a few moments. Up next, though, think all that web surfing you do is private. Not so much. That's next in tonight's "Guilty Pleasure."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: "LARRY KING" is just a few minutes away. Be careful though, first, of what you do on your computer. You never know who is watching. Jeanne Moos has tonight's "Guilty Pleasure."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you're going to look at half-naked pictures, better make sure you're not exposed.
All 7 News in Australia got more of a rise than they bargained for. Note the guy in the background bringing up racy photos on his computer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was very (INAUDIBLE)
The Macquarie financial expert was talking about interest rates. That's not what interested the guy in the background. Even when a colleague walked over, he kept right on looking.
Folks quickly recognize Miranda Kerr, famous Victoria Secret model.
MIRANDA KERR, VICTORIA SECRET MODEL: Which is what I have on now.
MOOS: Yes, well actually he had on less than she usually does when cavorting on a beach or on a bed. In the words of one admirer, I would totally drink her bath water. Fans put her image to songs like "Super Model."
That's what he was supposed to be doing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which is where they were at a low.
MOOS (on camera): In the guy's defense, it wasn't really porn he was looking at. It was more he was opening photos that someone had e- mailed him, photos from "GQ." The current issue features a three-photo spread. As he looked at a final photo...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six to nine months before you see that effect.
MOOS (voice-over): He knew he was nabbed. Poor so-and-so, someone commiserated. Busted doing something most people do at work every day. As in this French commercial, a guy watching porn accidentally unplugs his headset. Or the wife surprises hubby at home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FUTURE SHOP COMMERCIAL)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS: And his computer freezes before he can hide the evidence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FUTURE SHOP COMMERCIAL)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you doing?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS: Get a laptop or maybe a lap dance. On-line speculation about this guy's fate was rampant.
KERR: Goodbye.
MOOS: In the words of Donald Trump --
DONALD TRUMP, BUSINESS MOGUL: You're fired.
MOOS: But the Macquarie Group would say only that it takes matters such as the unacceptable use of technology extremely seriously and that the situation is being dealt with internally. This is what banker types are looking at? And we wonder why they didn't see the crash coming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six to nine months before you see that effect.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before you see that effect.
MOOS: CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before you see that effect.
MOOS: New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Whoops. And that is it for us tonight. Thanks for watching. "LARRY KING" starts right now.
