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American Morning
Record Snow Batters Northeast; Ten Americans to Be Released?; U.S. War Games; D.C. Shut Down
Aired February 11, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It is Thursday, February 11th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.
I think a lot of you all may be hunkered down watching us still because you can't go anywhere, because you got buried like a lot of other folks in this record-breaking snow. In northeast, at least, it's letting up now. That's a good thing, but still, we are digging out. Multicar pileups are closing interstates. Those snowdrifts are shutting down airports, which some are reopening. We'll have that update in a second.
Also, two blizzards this week are battering the capital. Over three feet of snow shut down the government for a fourth straight day.
CHETRY: Well, the 10 Americans accused of child trafficking in Haiti could be released from jail within hours. The judge in the case is telling our Karl Penhaul that ruling on bail for conditional release could be made by mid-afternoon today. So, what does it mean, though, for the charges against the 10 Americans? Karl is going to be joining us live from Port-au-Prince in a moment.
HOLMES: Iran is trying to silence the opposition as the country celebrates the anniversary of the revolution. In a moment, we are breaking down what the situation is like on the ground.
CHETRY: We begin the hour, though, with the northeast, slowly digging out from a week of record snowfall. Millions of people from Washington, D.C., to New York City, parts of Delaware as well, chilled to the bone by two bruising blizzards since the weekend. In Virginia and Pennsylvania, there were massive chain reaction accidents ending up shutting down major interstates for hours yesterday.
The airports up and down the east coast are slowly trying to reopen today and get flights out and in -- scrambling to try to get passengers going again after having to cancel more than 6,000 flights.
HOLMES: And we've got this big storm covered from every angle for you this morning. Our Jacqui Jeras in the extreme weather center. She's tracking the damage from the second blizzard to hit the northeast in a week.
Our Allan Chernoff is where a lot of people are going to be curious to know what's happening, LaGuardia Airport and also other airports where air travelers are desperately trying to get to their final destinations.
We want to begin, though, with Rob Marciano. He's in Lower Manhattan for us.
Rob, a little different today. It's going to be a different day. This stuff is not coming down and blowing sideways anymore. But we got a mess to deal with.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We do. And it's gotten a lot colder. So, the -- where it is -- you're lucky enough to have slushy streets. It's freezing over here right now. And the wind chills certainly down into the teens. And where the snow is light, it will be blowing and drifting.
We've been mentioning all of the record-shattering numbers for Baltimore and D.C. But it's much more than that. It's much more than New York City. This thing really got into about 20 states, about a third of the country. So, the size of this thing, the scope of it, certainly, the timing of it, as well, is going to go down in the history books.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO (voice-over): At one point, the massive storm produced two inches of snow an hour, two blizzards in one week, dropping a staggering 40 inches of snow in the nation's capital. Government offices shut down for a third day, costing $100 million a day in lost productivity.
At times, it may have been beautiful to look at -- or play in. But the snow did do damage. Twenty-two roof collapses reported in D.C., including this one at the Smithsonian storage facility. The capital area's two airports shut down. Thousands of flights canceled.
In Williamsburg, Virginia, a 50-car pileup on Interstate 64 sent seven people to the hospital with minor injuries and shut down the interstate for hours.
In central Pennsylvania, one person was killed after two large pileups closed Interstate 80.
And at the Big Apple, 2,000 plows and spreaders tackled close to a foot of snow. The city's major airports and government offices remained open but barely functioned. Locals and tourists tried to take it in stride.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK. Just take your time and go slowly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from Florida. So, I'm just in shorts anyway.
MARCIANO: Back in the nation's capital, under howling winds and chest high snowdrifts, commuters were few and far between. Not everyone, though, missed work.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm going keep slogging down this hill up here and then I have a bunch of uphills to go, maybe make to it the Metro, about three miles from here.
MARCIANO: CNN's Tom Foreman, now front-runner for employee of the month.
FOREMAN: Finally, here I am, about three hours later, skiing up to the CNN offices.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Attaboy, Tom. He's like a lot of people who are just trying to get to work because they had to any way they could.
And here in Manhattan -- well, schools are back open today. So, kids are going back to school. Wall Street and the canyons of Lower Manhattan covered in snow. But it will be operating as usual today, just little bit more of a slow-go.
But when you look at it on a map, Kiran and T.J., and you think about the number of people, close 100 million people affected by these two last storms, it certainly is a remarkable thing.
I think Jacqui has been talking about the shift now going to the south. There may be some record-breaking snowfalls down there as we get closer to the weekend. It's been an unbelievable winter of 2009 and 2010. That's for sure. And it ain't over yet.
Back to you.
HOLMES: It ain't over yet. It's going to be a problem down in our neck of the woods, it sounds like, in Atlanta, Rob. We'll talk about that more in just a little bit. Thanks.
CHETRY: Just going to spread some of the storms around, you know? I guess so.
HOLMES: Yes, the south, we didn't get (INAUDIBLE).
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: You got off easy.
All right. Well, slowly things are getting back in a lot of airports up and down the east coast and across the country. Baltimore-Washington Airport International expected to have its first flight out within the next- hour actually. And in New York, the runways are clear but many flights are still in limbo this morning.
Our Allan Chernoff is live at LaGuardia Airport in New York where they had to cancel thousands of flights yesterday as well.
Hey, Allan.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
And when was the last time you saw LaGuardia so empty at 8:00 in the morning?
It seems most travelers called ahead, checked online and saw their flights this morning were canceled. We don't have United Airlines starting up here until 9:00. American Airlines isn't going until 10:00 out of LaGuardia, which makes this board behind me all the more curious.
The departure board here this morning has been saying that American's flights to Chicago, 6:00, 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, 7:50, that they have all been leaving. It's a little strange. Flight 1053 in particular listed on time, then boarding, then final boarding. It was all fictional.
The people at American here tell me absolutely no flights. Not until 10:00. So -- anyway, people hopefully have not been relying on these boards.
Now, let me give you an update about the cancellations nationwide from some of the major airlines: United, 290 cancellations today; Delta, 450; US Airways, 606; American, 382; and Jet Blue, 66. So, the majority of the flights still here on the east coast are not moving just yet. We are hoping that this afternoon, things will begin to get back to normal. But it is going to take some time -- Kiran, T.J.
CHETRY: All right. Allan Chernoff for us this morning -- as you said, quite an empty LaGuardia for 8:00 in the morning. Thanks, Allan.
Well, 10 Americans accused of child trafficking in Haiti could be out of jail just hours from now. A judge in the case is telling our Karl Penhaul that a ruling on bail for conditional release could be made by mid-afternoon. But, what does it mean for the charges against the 10 Americans?
HOLMES: Yes. Our Karl Penhaul, he's on the ground. He's been following this story for us from the very beginning. He joins us now live from Port-au-Prince.
What is the update? Do we know? Is this going to happen? Might they be walking out of jail today?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we said, you know, the judge said that he will fast-track this process. The bail application decision would normally under Haitian law take more than five days.
But today, the judge has said that he could get this decision within a matter of a few hours. What he could also do if he is minded to is to set conditions if he rules that, yes, some of the Americans can have bail, he can set conditions which could feasibly mean that they could return to the U.S. while he continues to investigate in this case.
It wouldn't necessarily mean that the charges have been dropped. The investigation would continue. But possibly the Americans could return home.
Now, we also talked last night to a senior official within the justice ministry and he said, hey, don't necessarily expect all 10 Americans to be released on bail today or before the weekend. He said that what he thinks will happen is that possibly two Americans will be released before the weekend. And then he said, possibly, six others could be released on bail next week. That would indicate that maybe two would stay in jail while the investigations continue.
CHETRY: All right. So, still a lot of questions and their fate up in the air this morning. Karl Penhaul for us from Port-au-Prince -- thank you.
HOLMES: We want to turn to Atlanta now and check back in with our Jacqui Jeras, who's keeping an eye on yet another storm.
Not the same area at least this time, Jacqui, we're talking about. But yes, we got our eyes on another big storm.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right. Southern snow, you know, we're not going to see the numbers like what we saw into the northeast. But for the south, this is going to be a big deal.
I just wanted to start out real quick with an update from the Allan's report on the latest on the airports. We got word now that Philadelphia, as we know, is open and operating, but we've got some delays there, six hours-plus.
And now, Roanoke Airport is reportedly closed due to some icy conditions. So, those problems are going to continue, we think, throughout the day today. And we're going to continue to have some trouble there.
There you can see our storm system has really pulled out of the northeast but we're scooping up anywhere between about a half of a foot and 2 1/2 feet of snowfall. There you can see the numbers from many of the big cities in the northeast. The biggest is Baltimore with over 22 inches.
There's our latest storm. We are getting snow coming down in Dallas, as we speak. Heaviest is right along I-20. Watch out for Shreveport as well as Jackson, Mississippi, later today. You, guys, could be getting a good three-plus inches of snowfall.
And this is heading all the way east. And I know, T.J., this could be impacting your travel tomorrow to Atlanta.
HOLMES: Yes. You say it's more afternoon. That's the exact time, trying to fly in and, certainly, got to get back to our weekend show. But it's -- this never fails (ph)
JERAS: The snow loves you, my friend.
HOLMES: Yes.
JERAS: The snow loves you.
CHETRY: And maybe you could get the weekend off, you know?
HOLMES: Good luck with that.
CHETRY: I thought I'd put it out there.
HOLMES: Thank you.
Jacqui, thank you so much. We'll talk to you again soon. It's 10 minutes past the hour.
Also new this morning, the shuttle Endeavour has a bit of a problem, has a cracked thermal tile and protruding ceramic ring. It sounds pretty bad there. NASA says it is a problem but not necessarily a serious one. They are taking a closer look.
Meanwhile, the mission does go on. The first space walk takes place later today. Astronauts are up there on a 13-day mission. And part of the reason is to install a new room and observation deck on the International Space Station.
CHETRY: Well, science moving a step closer to solving an age-old medical mystery. What makes people stutter? A breakthrough study in the "New England Journal of Medicine" may now have the answer. Researchers have identified three specific gene mutations believed to cause stuttering. The finding could help identify children likely to develop a stutter and to allow for early treatments that can minimize or eliminate the problem.
HOLMES: The congressman who inspired the movie "Charlie Wilson's War" has died. The former congressman from Texas, Charlie Wilson, he died yesterday in his hometown of Lufkin. He's a 12-term Democrat -- also, a Navy veteran, a staunch anti-communist, best known for helping Afghan rebels in their war against the Soviet Union. And again, that Oscar-nominated film "Charlie Wilson's War," he was the basis for that movie. Wilson was 76 years old.
CHETRY: Well, Iran marking the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. There's a lot going on this morning. First of all, a series of war games showing the U.S. and Israel may want to think twice before launching military action against Iran.
They're also expecting protests today. Thousands of people in state-sanctioned -- actually, protesting the state-sanctioned marches that are taking place. On top of that, Google service suspended in that Islamic nation.
We'll have more on Iran.
It's 12 minutes after the hour.
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HOLMES: Hello again and welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It is 14 minutes past the hour.
Some stories we want to keep an eye on to tell you about this morning.
One out of Iraq, where they are kicking out all former Blackwater employees. They are being told they must leave the country by next week. Some 250 former Blackwater employees are estimated to still be in Iraq.
Blackwater, you may remember, was one of the largest private security firms to operate there in Iraq. And in September of 2007, some of their employees, some of their contractors, opened fire in an incident killing 17 Iraqi civilians. Then, there was a backlash recently when a U.S. judge dismissed the manslaughter charges against the five guards charged in that case.
CHETRY: Celebrations to mark the anniversary of Iran's revolution going off -- according to the reporting. There were reports a thousand people were planning to protest the state sanctioned marches. President Ahmadinejad marked the day by railing against the west and also defending his country's disputed nuclear program.
HOLMES: Iran's telecommunications agency is announcing what has been called a permanent suspension of Google's Gmail service in the Islamic republic. According to "The Wall Street Journal," Tehran plans to roll out its own e-mail service. Google says it has noticed a sharp drop in traffic from Iran. And coming up, we are going to be breaking down the situation on the ground in Iran with authors Reza Aslan and Robin Wright, who is also a diplomatic correspondent.
CHETRY: With Iran now ramping up its nuclear programs, tensions are rising between the U.S. and Tehran. So what would happen if America or perhaps Israel wound up being forced to take military action against the Iranians? In Washington, they are conducting war games to prepare for a scenario like that. Chris Lawrence live now with more on this. How are these war games going?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not all that good, Kiran. You know, in one of the war games, a simulated Russia and China side stepped sanctions and conducted secret deals with Iran. In all three games the relationship between America and Israel deteriorates and that's just the beginning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Three recent war games analyzed all kinds of scenarios just to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. None of them worked.
(on camera): You participated in one of these war games. How did it play out?
KARIM SADJADPOUR, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: In our scenario, Israel struck Iran without U.S. permission. So, the U.S. was caught off guard.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Karim Sadjadpour is an Iran expert who has lived in Tehran. In a war game, experts like him take sides and play out a potential conflict. The institution war game what would happen if Israel took out Iran's nuclear sites. This is one of the Iranian leaders.
SADJADPOUR: When Israel bombed Iran, what we immediately did was put the leaders of Iran's opposition on state television and pledged solidarity with the government. We put images of mangled Iranian men, women and children who were killed as a result of the military strike on television to appeal to people's national pride.
LAWRENCE: In this war game, Iran's opposition movement rallies behind a regime they hate. Far-fetched? Remember nine years ago when a disputed election divided another nation.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I feel like I was at the Alamo.
LAWRENCE: Angry protesters took sides until an attack by foreigners unified the nation and sparked the wave of patriotism.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
LAWRENCE: With internal oppositions squashed in the simulation, Sadjadpour says Iran retaliates against Israel and strikes the Saudi oil fields.
(on camera): Although, this was a simulated Israeli strike, what were the implications for the United States?
SADJADPOUR: The implications for the United States were disastrous. The price of oil skyrocketed. Iran and Afghanistan. Domestic fallout in Iran was huge. The opposition movement basically died.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: What the war game showed is that if military activity would be taken against Iran it was better conducted by the United States rather than Israel. But even that was not a good outcome. U.S. General David Petraeus has warned that any military strike could spark nationalism inside of Iran and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said a military strike is only going to buy time and push Iran's program deeper underground. Kiran.
CHETRY: Not an ideal scenario clearly. Anyway you look at it. Chris Lawrence for us this morning. Thanks.
HOLMES: Well, next on the most news of the morning, Washington Superbowl shut down. Not even working but still running through millions and millions of dollars. We will explain what the shutdown in D.C. has meant for taxpayers. Nineteen minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning, 21 minutes past the hour right now. We are "Minding Your Business" this morning.
HOLMES: And Stephanie Elam joining us now with the shut down. They are not working, so surely they are saving some cash right now.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That sounds logical, no. No, that's not the case though. We are talking about the Federal Government, of course and all the snow that's slammed the D.C. Area. Really impacting what they are able to do down there.
The federal government shut down. This is day four that the federal government is shut down. They are saying it will cost them $100 million in productivity a day for each of those. Put that together and you have $400 million so far. This is according to the Office of personnel management.
Keep in mind though that this is just the federal government we are talking about. The D.C. Government, that's only been closed one day, since yesterday. So that means, for a lot of people who live outside of the district, they have to telework. Call in, dial in to calls. Still trying to get as much done over the computer. And teleworking is really -- when you take a look at federal workers it is a small number that can actually get this done. 102,900 out of 1.96 million can actually do this. That is an increase from earlier numbers but is still a lot lower than other businesses. You see the total number of telecommuters in this country, 17 million as of 2008. Those were actual employees, not contractors or part-time workers, that we are talking about there.
But for many workers, this means the goodbye to the traditional snow day. You know, you have that image of you are home with the kids and you are playing board games with them and everyone is drinking hot cocoa. You go out and shovel out the car. All those things that involve working at home, domestic work, not really working at work. Now, that's changing because they know that you can still probably get on the internet and still call in to conference calls. So, a lot of people working through these snow days, calling in to hearing maybe the kids in the background on those calls. For a lot of people still getting work done, despite that.
Now, a couple of random stats for you. Cleaning up all of the snow, Mayor Bloomberg's office here in New York city, saying that they estimate it costs $1 million an inch to clean up. Think about that. For each inch that falls, $1 million to get it up. Also, the 1993 storm of the century, I remember this, I was in D.C. for college, they say that cost more than $6 billion dollars based on some sometimes. This being the worst snow ever for D.C., it is going to cost a lot.
CHETRY: And Maryland's governor saying that they are $33-$35 million dollars in the red because of it and counting. they are trying to get federal disaster areas declared so they can get federal money. ELAM: Yes, and then all the kids will be in school until July.
CHETRY: That's right.
ELAM: Making up for all the snow days. It will be a rough one.
CHETRY: All right. Stephanie Elam for us this morning. Thanks.
HOLMES: Next in the Most News in the Morning, with the nation's capital shut down by snow, the halls of congress are empty and no work is getting done. Lot of people would say that's just like any other day in D.C. Is anybody noticing that the government is shut down right now? Our Jim Acosta is on the hunt for your lawmakers in an A.M. original. It's 24 minutes past the hour.
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HOLMES: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It is about 27 minutes now past the hour.
We have an A.M. Original for you here. We told you, they are essentially shut down there in D.C. right now. So, is anything getting done? Where are your lawmakers these days? We sent our Jim Acosta on the hunt for your lawmaker to see exactly what's happening and the original Blues Brother himself, Jim Acosta, in the shades, looking good this morning. The sun came out. That's a good thing. That means you don't have cloud cover and snow all over the place. That's a good sign to see you in the shades this morning.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, T.J. Yes, we are feeling the blues here in Washington. If you are looking for a stimulus project, this entire town is shovel-ready this morning. You know, for the last several days people have been tossing out the term snowmageddon. That term was cute for a while, it is not cute anymore. Snowmageddon Two was one of the Hollywood blockbusters, the sequel was not as good as the original.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): In what was Washington's second monster storm in less than a week, up on Capitol Hill the lights were on, but nobody was home. The halls of Congress were nearly vacant. The capital subway was out of service. One of the few people we found was Garry Prout, a maintenance worker who was going out every four hours to help clear off the capitol steps.
GARRY PROUT, CAPITOL HILL MAINTENANCE WORKER: Three hours later we go right back out and do it all over again.
ACOSTA (on camera): I thought my driveway was bad.
PROUT: And we'll continue doing that until most of the snow has stopped.
ACOSTA (voice-over): The question around Washington is whether America will notice. Democrats and Republicans have been in a deep freeze for months.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I understand that McConnell and Reid are out doing snow angels in the south lawn together.
ACOSTA (on camera): Want another sign of Snowmageddon, check this out. We are inside the Capitol, in the Rotunda. And this is as quiet as the Congress will ever get. There are no lawmakers, no lobbyists, no tourists, even no media - well, almost.
Does that mean we can report that nothing happened in Washington today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No harm was done.
ACOSTA (voice-over): We had to go across town to find a congressman, the aptly named Darryl Issa who was standing across the street from one of D.C.'s legendary snow ball fights.
(on camera): How is this different than what goes on from Capitol Hill?
REP. DARRYL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: Here they have no rules and they don't pretend to. We assume they are students because federal workers obviously can't get out today even though Starbucks is open.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Over at the White House, even a blizzard couldn't keep Al Sharpton from the microphones. He was pressing the president to create more jobs for minorities.
REV. AL SHARPTON, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: We do not seek any special kind of edict or any kind of special thing from the president because he's African-American. We expect to be included in the process.
ACOSTA: But the rest of Washington is ready for the city to return to normal. Over at the Capitol Hill Tavern, the Hawk N' Dove, a certain bunch of librarians are reportedly quite good tippers.
(on camera): When the government shuts down like this -
PAUL MEAGHER, HAWK N' DOVE GENERAL MANAGER: It hurts us, because we have a lot of government employees, librarians. The Library of Congress is just two blocks away.
ACOSTA: They come to the pub.
MEAGHER: For food.
ACOSTA: For food.
MEAGHER: And other sustenance.
ACOSTA: I see.
(LAUGHTER) (END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: And who knew that the folks at the Library of Congress know how to have a good time.
We should mention today is the fourth straight day that the federal government is closed. That is unprecedented in modern times. You would think that the taxpayers would be saving a little money with the government shut down, but that is not the case.
The Office of Personnel Management here in Washington says that the government loses $100 million every day it is closed due to lost productivity, T.J.
And if you want to have one of those snowball fights, we have plenty of ammunition down here just so you know.
HOLMES: I know you do. I think a lot of people would be surprised to hear that the federal government was so productive that they got $100 worth of stuff done every day.
(LAUGHTER)
Jim, that's a good stat. Thanks so much. Good to see you this morning. Thanks so much.
CHETRY: The raybans, a good look.
HOLMES: It's a good sign the sun is out and the snow will melt. He's trying on convey that for the viewers.
CHETRY: Now it's time for a We will look at the top stories this morning.
Toyota saying it's dealers are working overtime trying to fix the sticking gas pedal problems 2.1 million recalled vehicles. The company saying dealers are working on 50,000 vehicles a day and have so far repaired 225,000 cars.
HOLMES: Democrats today set to unveil their answer to the Supreme Court decision that overturned campaign spending limits by corporations.
Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Chris Van Hollen say they are looking at several plans of action, including banning foreign controlled corporations from running ads and also forbidding companies that get federal contracts to run ads since ax dollars would be used to pay for them.
CHETRY: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declaring Iran is a nuclear skate. He made the announcement while celebrating the 31st anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution. There are reports this morning that people are protesting those state sanctioned marches as well.
The Islamic Revolution of 1979 was as a result of more than a year of demonstrations that eventually drove out the Shah and what was seen as his repressive regime.
Now some Iranian experts believe the oppositions ongoing protests today could be the beginning of another revolution. Joining me now is Reza Aslan and Robin Wright, both experts of Iran. Thanks for being with us this morning.
And I want to ask both of you what the significance of what we are seeing today, reportedly seeing today in Iran, starting with you, Reza.
REZA ASLAN, COLUMNIST, "THE DAILY BEAST": Well, you know the news is just trickling in right now. It seems as though the anti- government protesters are gaining ground. There are larger numbers. There have been sporadic reports of the police firing at demonstrators.
We have been getting some tweets from people on the streets in Iran about arrests being made. Apparently Mehdi Karroubi, one of the leaders of the green movement, was attacked.
So right now, it is hard to know exactly what's going on. But it seems clear that this is going to be a pretty significant protest because it had months to organize itself unlike previous protests, which were more or less spontaneous.
CHETRY: And, Robin, it is interesting, as we are saying, we are seeing these reports trickle in. Part of the reason is the Iranian government was able to effectively sort of shut down communications, if you will, get their government stance on what they saw going on there out but not really a clear picture of whether or not these were large-scale protests or what was going on today. What's your take?
ROBIN WRIGHT, FORMER DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT, "WASHINGTON POST": One of the goals of the green movement was to shut down the speech of President Ahmadinejad, to create enough disturbances so that it would be continually delayed and he would find it difficult to get to the podium and they would have to potentially even call off the speech.
But the president was able to speak today, and, I think, that signals that the test of wills has not been decisive on the side of the green movement as many had anticipated.
This is the most important test of wills probably since the early days after the June 12th election which contested by the Green movement for allegations of fraud.
CHETRY: And Reza, you wrote in "The Daily Beast" earlier this week that Iran's leaders should, "keep their gaze focused on the earth. It's shifting beneath their feet." You say we could be seeing the beginning of a civil war, as you call it. Explain that.
ASLAN: Well, the -- the issue is that neither side is willing to back down a compromise. For months we have been thinking perhaps the leaders of the Green movement would soften their rhetoric, soften their stance. We thought that perhaps even the regime itself in an attempt to decrease some of the international isolation that has resulted from their brutally response to the protests would also willing to compromise a bit. But it's becoming very clear that neither side is willing to back down.
And I think that today, as the day continues, and as some of the more official government sanctioned protests -- I'm sorry, the rallies begin to die down and we see the Green movement taking to the streets in larger numbers, we may be in a situation in which further violence may spark something like civil unrest, perhaps even a civil war.
CHETRY: Robin, what about you? Your take, as I understand it, it that you think that's a little is overstated. What's going on there and the significance of it?
WRIGHT: I think what we have seen in Iran so far has been largely human rights campaign. This is one that's not calling for unraveling of the Iranian Republic. It is instead calling for remodeling or overhauling or reforming the system.
Yes, there are some that go much further than that and call for the ouster of this regime. But so far it has limited its goals. We have not yet seen a counterrevolution.
It may head in that direction, but the thing that's so striking is that the green movement repeatedly called for peaceful protests. They have in their instructions for protesters today said do not carry weapons. Don't even carry brass knuckles, that they don't want to take the provocative actions by the government and lead that to a kind of open confrontation. We do not see two militarized factions taking each other on yet.
CHETRY: What's also at play right now is reaction to President Ahmadinejad's announcement of the expansion of Iran's uranium enrichment program, in fact he was declaring that Iran is "a nuclear state."
This may play well for domestic audiences, but there's an international implication here, Reza, is there not, about sanctions and other things when it comes to Iran's nuclear ambitions?
ASLAN: That's true. I do think we need to step back a little bit and examine Ahmadinejad's statements. I mean, the idea that Iran is going to build ten new enrichment sites in a year is, frankly, laughable. It has taken it many, many years to build the one site and it can barely keep that thing running. So this is definitely for domestic consumption.
But there is a real fear here that the response from the west and the response to Iran's nuclear program is going to derail this anti- government movement.
So there's really a real delicate balance for the Obama administration. They want to respond and make sure that Iran is punished for some of its actions with regard to its nuclear ambitions. But at the same time they have to be very careful that they don't derail a much more significant possibility in Iran, which is that this civil unrest could lead to some kind of change in the government -- not a regime change, but I think some kind of compromise that would allow for greater rights and greater freedoms.
CHETRY: We have to leave it there. Reza Aslan as well as Robin Wright, thanks to both of you for being with us this morning.
HOLMES: And coming up, a young man going through a U.S. airport and has a card in his pocket with the word "bomb" written in Arabic. He was pulled out of line by security, but now he's pulling security into court. We will explain.
It's 37 minutes past the hour.
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HOLMES: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Airport security, it's America's first line of defense against any terror attack, but that frontline of defense can be a very fine line as well. Our Jeanne Meserve this morning as "Security Watch."
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: T.J. and Kiran, Nicholas George says he has always been fascinated by the Middle East, but authorities at the Philadelphia airport apparently had a different impression, and now he is taking them to court.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Pomona College student Nicholas George was flying out of the Philadelphia airport last August when he took Arabic-English flash cards like this out of his pocket during screening. Most of the 200 cards were innocuous, but not all.
NICHOLAS GEORGE, PLAINTIFF: There were maybe ten cards that said things like "bomb," "explosion," "terrorist." And these cards they were especially interested in obviously. And they asked me why I had those words, and I told them honestly because I have been trying to read Arabic news media.
MESERVE: George had studied in Jordan and was carrying a passport showing he also traveled to Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan.
A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union claims that during almost five hours of detention, George was, quote, "abusively interrogated" by, among others, a transportation security administration's supervisor who allegedly asked "You know who did 9/11?" George replied "Osama bin Laden." "Do you know what language he spoke?" asked the supervisor. "Arabic."
At that point, court documents say, the supervisor waved the flash cards and said "Do you see why these cards are suspicious?" The suit claims the Philadelphia police kept George handcuffed in a cell for two hours and that FBI agents interrogated him about his religious and political beliefs before determining that he did not pose a threat.
BEN WIZNER, ACLU ATTORNEY: In this lawsuit is to remind both the American people and the TSA that the constitution does apply at the airports, that although they have a very, very important security mission, they don't have a blank check to violate the privacy of Americans.
MESERVE: The TSA, FBI, and Philadelphia police declined to comment. But an official who couldn't speak on the record because of pending litigation says that the TSA focused on George in part because of erratic behavior which began even before he got to the security checkpoint.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
In a bit of irony, Mitt George says he has been studying Arabic in serving the U.S. government as a diplomat, but he no longer travels carrying flash cards or anything else in Arabic. T.J. and Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: That might be a good move for the future.
(LAUGHTER)
Almost no snow in Vancouver -- how ironic since it's everywhere else, or around here at least. And the games, the winter games starting this weekend. What's going to happen? Well, we will try to hit the slopes and find out after the break.
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CHETRY: No fair. While some of us are digging out, others are hitting balls with their head along the beach.
HOLMES: What would you prefer right now?
CHETRY: I'd rather be hitting a ball with my head --
HOLMES: Ok.
CHETRY: -- softly.
It is 80 degrees right now and sunny in Rio de Janeiro -- beautiful, beautiful -- and going up to the lower 90s today. So a day of fun in the sun, I guess as usual.
HOLMES: In Rio with the sun coming out in D.C. we just saw a minute ago it's only a few degrees colder, though.
CHETRY: Just a little.
HOLMES: But it's coming out. It's good and maybe the snow was about to melt in a lot of places. I think some snows pretty much melted in one particular spot -- Vancouver. The Olympics happening there; they don't have enough snow. We'll tell you more about that in just a sec. The Olympic torch at least for its part is making the last leg of its relay; record crowds turned out to welcome it to Vancouver. It crisscrosses the city before the opening ceremonies tomorrow night.
CHETRY: In a town literally built in hopes of one day hosting the Olympics finally getting its big shot, Whistler, British Columbia. That's 70 miles up the road from Vancouver is the site of the alpine ski competition and the bobsled luge -- there's one of the signs the "Olympic athletes welcome. Bring your own snow."
And there's going to be a separate medal ceremony in the town plaza, which will be an Olympic first.
HOLMES: Yes, you saw that sign. And it's there for good reason. Because they are out of the stuff, bring your own snow. It's -- they even considered it balmy this time of year, it's now 50 degrees there. And the Winter Olympics are about to start.
They have actually been trucking in snow from a mountain of some three hours away. Even helicopters dumping snow. So they can have something to ski on and compete on with the Olympics.
CHETRY: Well, Mother Nature must have a sense of humor.
Our Jacqui Jeras is tracking all of this for us right now and you know maybe they should have the Winter Olympics in Baltimore.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know that just might work; I think elevation could be an issue there, however.
By the way, guys, you know, if Cypress Mountain, which is right there near Vancouver, that doesn't have the snow, Whistler, which is north of there, does have the snow.
And the weather pattern, by the way, not so great in the path northwest. In fact we're talking rain, rain, rain. The coldest temperature we think in Vancouver, you know, through the start of the Olympics is going to be 43 degrees. So they're certainly not going to be able to make more snow.
I know there are other events, I think late Friday and Saturday there. And it's going to be raining. So this certainly could be a problem.
All right, the snow cleanup continues across the northeast. There you can see just windy conditions here. We'll have a little bit of lake-effect snow. And it's going to take a while to clean up from some of these numbers. Look at that. Many of these cities, by the way and not just record for the day, but records for the season now, all that snow compiled together makes it the snowiest one.
Check out these pictures out of Philadelphia where you have had over 15 inches of snow and making it tough to get going this morning. Everybody using their creativity and doing the best they can to clean up. Use your hands, use your snow blower, whatever you have because it's going to take you a good chunk of the day to certainly dig out. In fact, a lot of you probably not going to be able to get out on some of those side roads at least through the weekend.
Travel continues to be a problem. In Philadelphia, Airport delays being reported right now by the FAA, more than six hours. Yes. Roanoke is closed due to some ice on the runway there. So they're trying to clean that up.
Next storm system right here along I-20 with that snow coming down in Dallas. This is going to be a big southern snow, guys. And you know, while -- just seems like a walk in the park compared to what you all experienced there, into the northeast, this is a huge deal.
We're talking two to six inches potentially locally heavier amounts here in southern Mississippi and northern parts of Louisiana. You could almost compare the system in terms what kind of impact this is going to have for some of these cities in the south -- Kiran and T.J.
CHETRY: Yes, they are not used to that.
JERAS: Not at all.
HOLMES: No, we're not.
CHETRY: All right.
JERAS: T.J. is so stressing about that flight tomorrow. Look at him.
HOLMES: Yes. Tomorrow afternoon. I've got to get in there.
CHETRY: Good luck with that.
HOLMES: Thank you.
JERAS: The earlier the better.
HOLMES: All right. Jacqui thank you.
Coming up next, we're going to talk to Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Opening up the mailbag and taking your questions live from Haiti.
It's 50 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.
It has been a month since Haiti was devastated by the earthquake and the death toll still rising. In fact thousands of Haitians are still hungry and homeless and lifesaving supplies -- we're still talking about this -- slow to reach the people that need it most.
HOLMES: Yes, that has a lot of people wondering what's going on, how to help out. We are joined by our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He is live for us in Port-au-Prince.
We have some questions here that our viewers have for you. So let's go ahead and team up.
CHETRY: All right. We have Traveladdict227, this is via Twitter, Sanjay. And he asks, "Are there lessons, resources, ideas we can apply to Haiti from the response to Hurricane Katrina and the rebuilding effort?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There is no question there are some lessons here. Every natural disaster has its own personality. But one of the things that seems to be consistent is that we have a lot of people who are suddenly displaced. They have lost their homes; they're living literally in tent cities like this.
As part of the reconstruction efforts, what -- what the lesson has been is trying to engage folks who have been displaced as part of that reconstruction effort. You do two things.
You immediately place people into structures, homes, as soon as they are being built. You also give them jobs and give them something to do while that reconstruction effort, which can take years, is happening. So as international aid is coming in, instead of bringing in a lot of construction workers, a lot of people from the outside try and best engage the local citizens as much as possible.
That was something that was learned during Katrina and the tsunami, incidentally.
HOLMES: Sanjay, we have another question here. And quite frankly, a lot of us who know you and care about your well-being have this question we asked ourselves sometimes. But this guys asks, "What about your family?" Have you small kids. Are you afraid of catching something in Haiti?
GUPTA: That's a very fair question, a good question. Look, I am -- I'm one of these guys who truly thinks through a lot. I try and keep myself and my team as safe as possible. The basics I can supply here like anywhere else in terms of hand washing. You do have high rates of respiratory disease and waterborne disease here. And so we're very careful about the water that we drink and how -- how close we come into contact with people that have respiratory disease. You know, wearing masks, for example if we're coming into contact with patients with tuberculosis.
Let me add one more thing that you guys both know. We all get vaccinated as well before we come down to a place like this because we don't want to become carriers and spread disease to a tent city like this because we unwittingly transmitted a virus or bacteria to somebody. So it sort of applies on both ends.
CHETRY: That's very true as well.
You know, you spoke about the tent cities. One of the things that you had touched on a lot was there are people out there and resources waiting and there's need but linking them up is sometime a bit of a challenge. SuziLeVeaux asks via Twitter, "We have a team of 12 doctors and nurses that want to give medical care to the residents of a tent city. Any ideas as to where they should go?" GUPTA: This is probably the most common question I get; literally people e-mailing me, colleagues from all over the world. They want to help. What can we do is the question?
There's two answers to that. First of all, the need here is still tremendous. What we have found is difficult to just come in to Haiti just on your own even if you are a large group. The best plan is probably to sort of partner up with some existing NGO that's on the ground here because they are going to have infrastructure, they're going to have a place for you to actually start doing some work.
I think the more important thing here is that what I had found after Katrina, after the tsunami, after Pakistan is that right now still within this month period, people are really interested in what's happening here. But a month from now, two months from now, six months from now, that interest is going to dwindle.
The need is still going to be there. So this group of 12, maybe the best plan for you is to come down in a few months from now because that's when the need is still going to be great and you probably could have the greatest impact.
CHETRY: Very true. I know that's why you wanted to go back down there and that's why Anderson wanted to go back down as well because there's still so much to talk about and it's easy to forget what they are going through there.
Sanjay in Port-au-Prince for us this morning; thank you.
HOLMES: Thanks, Sanjay.
CHETRY: Also keep watching CNN tonight at 10:00 Eastern, a special "AC360 Investigation: Stealing Haiti". Before the quake even hit corruption and greed in Haiti were rampant. Hundreds of millions of dollars vanished; it's what added to the devastation in the wake of the earthquake. We are going to follow the money trail on "AC360" tonight at 10:00 Eastern.
Three minutes until the top of the hour.
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CHETRY: We know we'd leave you with that picture of Columbus Circle where things are really a different story than yesterday when the snow was coming down. But New York, as it always does, getting through. Different story for some of the other cities though whose snow they are trying to dig out. They got for more than New York though.
HOLMES: I'm still trying to figure out -- I didn't bring boots.
CHETRY: Yes and you are going to need them. Yet another storm heads south.
HOLMES: And then Atlanta. I ought to get back, I'm sure. That's it for us here. We can hand it off to Atlanta right now. (CROSSTALK)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": T.J., you are in New York City.
CHETRY: Hey there.
Whitfield: And you don't have boots, you can find them in New York. You can find anything in New York, right, Kiran?
CHETRY: You know the craziest part this time of year, they cleaned it out. I had to buy my husband accidentally two left-handed gloves. Like all that's left at the store.
WHITFIELD: Well then you'll have to get creative with perhaps some trash bags or something. Just, you know, tape them around your feet. Anything will do.
You all have a great day trudging through the snow.
HOLMES: See you Fredricka.
