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American Morning
Wal-Mart Brands Only; How Legal Guns Go Bad; Senator Bayh Leaving; Taliban's Top Commander Captured; Targeting the Taliban
Aired February 16, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Tuesday, February 16th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about the next 15 minutes here in the Most News in the Morning.
The Taliban taking a big hit this morning. The terror group's top military commander is said to be in custody and talking. In a moment we'll take you live to the Pentagon with what intelligence officials hope to learn from his capture.
CHETRY: Right now there's a man trapped in the mouth of Mt. St. Helen's, still active volcano. Rescue crews in Washington state are waiting for the sun to come up and for the winds to die down so they can go back into the crater. They attempted a rescue yesterday but had to turn back. We're going to tell you exactly how it happened and how they hope to get them out today.
ROBERTS: And we're on the gun trail this morning. Many gun control advocates say it starts here, gun stores in Georgia, where gun laws are weak.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). We want the bad guys to get caught. We don't want to sell any guns to bad guys, ever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So, how do store owners know if the gun is in good hands and whether it will stay in those hands? Ed Lavandera takes a look at how they could end up in your streets thousands of miles away from where they were purchased.
We begin this morning, though, with developing news about the Taliban's top military commander. American officials tell CNN he is now in custody. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is the terror group's number two man and he is said to have been captured several days ago in Karachi, the big city in Pakistan.
Our Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon for us this morning.
Lay it out for us, Barbara. How important is this fellow? BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, John, I've spoken to a U.S. official now with direct knowledge of the situation. He calls this man, quote, "very important."
This is clearly somebody the U.S. wanted to get its hands on for years. As a military commander of the Taliban, he would have inside knowledge about how the organization works, how they communicate, who they talk to, and it is said that he has had contact with both Osama bin Laden and, of course, Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban movement.
So, it really, at this point, doesn't get much better than this. This is someone they want, they have him now and they are interrogating him, John.
ROBERTS: Right. We know that he is close associate of Osama bin Laden and, as you said, Mullah Omar as well. And we understand that he's talking. But, is there any kind of way to know how inclined he would be to talk about bin Laden and Mullah Omar, or might he just give lower level information?
STARR: Well, you know, this is going to depend on, as you say, this interrogation, which by all counts is now a joint Pakistani-U.S. intelligence effort. The Pakistanis perhaps have different interrogation methods than those authorized to U.S. officials. So, whether they coerce him or torture him even, of course, is not something we're likely to know very soon.
But it goes to what you just said, what information he has about the command control communications of the Taliban and al Qaeda network, how they work, what their strategy is. It's also said that he is very tied into an organization of known as the Quetta Shura. This is a meeting, if you will, that takes place every year of al Qaeda and Taliban elders in the city of Quetta. They meet every winter to set their strategy -- something the U.S. has been watching very clearly.
And just to wrap up, John, the fact that he was caught in Karachi may be the most critical intelligence clue at this point. U.S. officials have been looking to reports for months that Mullah Omar himself maybe in Karachi and that many of these high-value operatives that they're going after have left the tribal region and are moving to the cities, that the pressure in the Frontier areas has forced them into the cities. Now that they found him in Karachi, it will be very interesting to watch what happens next.
ROBERTS: Well, the heat is certainly coming down on the Taliban.
Barbara Starr for us this morning -- Barbara, thanks so much.
STARR: Sure.
CHETRY: And the Taliban is also taking a hit in Afghanistan, where this morning, U.S. and NATO forces are trying to pry loose an important stronghold for the Taliban. But as they inch deeper into the town of Marjah, they are facing sniper fire and booby traps. Our Fred Pleitgen is live in Kabul, Afghanistan with more on what is happening right now -- Fred.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran.
Those booby traps still appear to be the biggest problem that those U.S. forces are facing there on the ground. What they're telling is, apparently, there are more improvised explosive devices in the town of Marjah than they had originally thought. Still, they're making progress, even sometimes under fire.
Have a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(GUNFIRE)
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Day four of the biggest anti-Taliban offensive since the start of the war, and U.S. Marines are still facing resistance. The Afghan government says coalition forces now control most of Marjah, even though hundreds of Taliban fighters could still be hiding in the area.
HANIF ATMAR, INTERIOR MINISTER AFGHANISTAN: We don't know how they will shift in their tactics. But what we know is that -- number one, they cannot flee the area anymore. That is blocked.
PLEITGEN: After a massive assault on what the U.S. says was the Taliban's final stronghold, NATO and Afghan officials are calling in meetings with local leaders, trying to persuade them to break with the Taliban.
But some say the support is conditional.
"The solution to this fight is Islamic government," this village elder says, "brotherhood among all Afghans from Pashtuns to Tajiks to Hasaras, and bringing security to Afghanistan as soon as possible, and the withdrawal of foreigners."
Civilian casualties remain a problem. After an artillery rocket killed 12 civilians on Sunday, NATO acknowledged three more civilians were killed in shooting incidents Monday. The Afghan government says almost 1,000 families have fled the fighting.
"Marjah is surrounded by Afghan soldiers and Americans," this refugee says. "We were caught up there for six days because our area was heavily mined by the Taliban and we couldn't leave Marjah because of the mines."
After big offensives in the past, the Taliban have often regrouped. This time, the Afghan government says it will not back down.
"I would like to give this message to our enemy," the defense minister says. "We will not leave the area. We will stay at all costs to bring peace. So, it's better for them to join us in serving their country."
Four days after this massive drive to push the Taliban out of their stronghold, it's the long-term success remains undecided.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN: And, Kiran, one of the big questions, of course, is: will the Taliban return? Will they try and mount a comeback attack? There are, however, some who believe that the Taliban fighters were actually holed up in that town might have heard about the fact that their military commander is now in custody and that might be demoralizing them, Kiran.
CHETRY: Very interesting. Fred Pleitgen for us this morning -- thanks so much.
ROBERTS: Also new this morning: are we ready for a cyber shock wave? A Washington think tank is going to try to find out the answer to that question. In about two hours time, it's launching a mock cyber attack on the United States. They even built a simulated Situation Room where former national security officials will play cabinet members and reacting real-time to the attack.
Coming up at 8:30 Eastern, we're going to talk with two of the key players involved in the war games: former CIA director, General Michael Hayden, and former homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend.
CHETRY: Well, the White House press secretary has to master 30- second sound bites. Now, 140 characters as well. Robert Gibbs sent out his first Twitter messages Saturday and said, quote, "Learning about 'the twitter' -- easing into this with first tweet -- any tips?" Some people did offer some real advice like don't refer to it as "the twitter."
But be warned. Since this an official White House account, tweets you sent to it may become part of the official archives.
ROBERTS: Yes. So, watch what you send.
Just ask Kevin Smith about the power of Twitter. Southwest Airlines is apologizing again for kicking the director off a flight for his size. This time, in an official statement out of tweet, Smith began sending out angry and sarcastic messages for his 1.7 million Twitter followers to enjoy right after the captain told him to leave his seat because of his size on Sunday.
CHETRY: Seven and a half minutes past the hour right now.
Our Rob Marciano is tracking extreme weather for us today and we're talking more snow at least in some parts of the country.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. The northeastern part especially, guys. Good morning.
Cold air continues to pour down from Canada, and folks who live anywhere from Indiana east towards Maine are getting a little bit of snow this morning. Let's check it out in the radar scope. A pretty brisk northwest flow will bring in the lake-effect snow in parts of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. And they are already starting to see some snow began to fill in across part of Delmarva and through the Chesapeake and Delaware valleys, into Philadelphia.
You probably won't see a lot of snow in these spots, as a matter of fact, the only advisories are up for, say, Trenton and northward. One or two inches of slushy snow for New York, maybe two to four across parts of Connecticut, and 48 inches through Manchester, New Hampshire, and through parts of southern Maine.
If you are doing some travel today, D.C. metro airports and Philadelphia will see some issues. Pittsburgh in Cleveland, still those lake-effect snows. And Chicago will see some problems also.
Clear across the south for Mardi Gras, and another storm rolling to the Pacific Northwest. We're tracking the missing hiker on Saint Helens as well.
And we'll talk much more details about the weather as a whole, guys, in about 30 minutes. Well, see you then.
CHETRY: All right. Rob Marciano, thanks so much.
Meanwhile, we both had our share of tough interviews, but maybe nothing like this. Check this one out.
(VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The weatherman pinched in the butt by a bird there, a pelican, during his (INAUDIBLE) zoo. The zookeeper said he stepped into his trail (ph) as you saw. There he is again. We will let you know if the weatherman ever stopped laughing.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: We actually hear at the first roll of, you know, what a forecast. You got to be decisive, no ifs, ands, or buts.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: He's really trying to chop on something. Who knows?
ROBERTS: Very affectionate bird.
CHETRY: He's sort of like boxed in. I mean, there, he had the wall, you know, with water and then got a rock and anywhere to go.
ROBERTS: He wasn't doing anything to get away, either.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: Oh, goodness gracious. When animals attack, volume 2,064.
Well, still ahead, we're going to be talking about the latest efforts to rescue a climber who was actually climbing Mount Saint Helens volcano when he fell down 1,500 feet. They think he is still alive though and they're going to make another rescue attempt today.
Ten minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twelve minutes after the hour -- and that means it's time for an AM original.
In less than two hours, crews will try again to rescue a hiker who fell into the crater of an active volcano, Mount Saint Helens in Washington state.
CHETRY: His partner says that the man was literally over the leap of the crater and didn't know that the only thing under him was snow until it gave way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF TOM MCDOWELL, NORTH COUNTRY EMS: I think somebody was taking a picture of him when they called (ph) us in. It was a large one. It gave way. And he disappeared over the edge.
CHETRY (voice-over): A 1,500-foot fall into the mouth of an active volcano.
MCDOWELL: It was pretty snow free, lots of boulders, lots of rocks.
CHETRY: And the hiker was no longer dressed for the cold.
MCDOWELL: By the time you climb to the mountain, you get pretty warm. So, I understood they, you know, took off some of their jackets and stuff to cool down.
CHETRY: A 911 call from the rim sparked a massive search effort, and within an hour, a helicopter pilot could see the 52-year-old man on a snow bank and got within 50 feet. The sheriff's department says that the pilot thought he could see his head moving and a fellow climber thought he heard a rescue whistle blowing. Another helicopter crew went in later and saw no movement.
There were attempts to reach the man from above and below. Rescue crews were able to put a medic on the crater floor. The plan: climb up to the hiker.
But it was getting dark and conditions were getting worse. It began to rain and it was too windy. Also, rocks were falling near the hiker.
So, they got their guy out of there. There was nothing left that crews could do for the hiker for now.
MCDOWELL: You're going to have to let the snow settle down, because the avalanche danger is pretty bad. It's a nasty place to try and go. It's -- you know, if we have to do it, we'll do it.
CHETRY: Thousands of people climb to the crater's rim every year, although a warning on the U.S. Forest Service Web site says it's, quote, "unstable and can be hazardous at anytime."
(END VIDEOTAPE) CHETRY: Well, the hiker has reportedly climbed Mount Saint Helens 65 times. The Coast Guard says it did lower survival equipment into the crater, near the area. They still don't know at this point whether or not that survival equipment reached him.
ROBERTS: It's surprising that he climbed it 65 times previously that he'd make an error like that.
CHETRY: Right. I mean, and perhaps, it was just an unpredictability --
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: -- in that freak accident that it gave way. But they don't want you do that. You know, they say that it's very dangerous and hazardous at, you know, all times.
ROBERTS: Of course, we'll keep following that story all day long today.
Also, take a look at the dramatic video out of Italy this morning. A landslide caught on tape near the southern region of Calabria. Villagers could be seen running for their lives as the earth literally begins to shift. Take a look at this. The entire side of the hill not tumbling down but it's going to sliding down.
Thankfully, no deaths reported. Initial reports blame heavy rains, which had caused more than 100 smaller landslides in that region. Wow.
Well, if you shop in big-box stores, you may find it more difficult in the future to find your favorite name brands. Gerri Willis is "Minding Your Business" this morning with the details coming right up.
Fifteen minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
If you are looking for a more improved quality of life the odds are you will do better if you head West. A new survey by Gallup shows that states in the Midwest and along the West coast have the best cities to live in. Hawaii, Utah, Montana among the best places to live, and the very best city or town to live in according to the survey, Boulder, Colorado. And why not? I mean you get the majesty of the Rockies there, university towns, ski areas nearby, you got hiking, Pearl Street, and one of the best breakfasts in the country is the little place called Lucille's. CHETRY: Then why do so many people want to live in New York City?
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Because this is where the businesses are working.
CHETRY: Yes, it's funny action I guess.
ROBERTS: CNN moved to Boulder, heartbeat.
CHETRY: Or Hawaii, I'd love to go on that -
ROBERTS: That's a little far.
CHETRY: Well Gerri Willis is "Minding Your Business" she joins us now this morning with more on why - am I going to have to start shopping for Charmin somewhere else?
GERRI WILLIS, CNN FINANCIAL EDITOR: Possibly so -
CHETRY: Darn.
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIS: You can't go to Wal-Mart anymore. Shoppers are looking for bargains, everybody wants to save some money. And now one retailer is saying, he we are going to help you, and they are getting rid of the brand name products, expensive products at Wal-Mart, house brands are in. And a lot of people are wondering will their favorite brand name products be in Wal-Mart.
Hefty and Glad were two product names that were taken out of Wal- Mart in favor of Great Value, which is Wal-Mart's store brand. This is going to cut the clutter, and according to some experts out there, some companies are just extending their product lines too much. We were talking about how Crest now has 45 different kinds of tooth pastes which seems crazy.
Here is what you are going to see in Wal-Mart now when you visit there. Toilet paper may be only the house brand, mouth wash, bars of soap, salad dressing, at the end of the day though, some other folks have a different point of view of why this might have happened.
They say Wal-Mart is just really ringing more profit out of the categories because if they sell the house brand, it's their own hand. And you guys are both giggling at me, and I have no idea why you are looking --
ROBERTS: No, I am just thinking about the tooth paste. I'm thinking back to when I was a kid. There was what - each manufacture --
CHETRY: There was AIM, Colgate -
ROBERTS: Yes. CHETRY: Crest and that's it. AIM came later.
ROBERTS: I mean this is going to sound like the skid of the Yorkshire Monte Python but we had to brush our teeth with sand - sand that's all we had.
WILLIS: In Canada, yes.
Well at any rate, so Wal-Mart here is making a big change in the way they do business. But I have to tell you guys, this is really more like the way the warehouse clubs do business. You are familiar with that. Like maybe one brand name and one house brand you choose between the two and who ever gives them the most advertising dollars that's who they put on their store shelves. So at the end of the day, this is really about their bottom line. Maybe not your comfort.
ROBERTS: Kidding, we didn't have to brush our teeth with sand?
CHETRY: No?
ROBERTS: But it kind of tasted like sand.
WILLIS: Arm and Hammer, baking soda?
ROBERTS: My mom was a big advocate of the baking soda on the tooth brush thing.
WILLIS: Yes, it works. It really works.
ROBERTS: Yes, mom I don't want to -
WILLIS: Tastes so good.
CHETRY: Nothing polishes your teeth better. Love the baking soda.
ROBERTS: Gerri -
WILLIS: You don't need any store brands, why - not store brands?
CHETRY: Thanks, Gerri.
WILLIS: My pleasure.
CHETRY: Well actress Katherine Zeta-Jones was voted worse stress celebrity by the Animal Rights Group, PETA. PETA says that when you see Mrs. Michael Douglas it should quote "looks like she is working her way through Noah's Ark with a knife". Now PETA also targeted celebrities Jennifer Lopez as well as other for wearing fur. Aretha Franklin on the list. The group said that Franklin wore quote "fur snugly" to the Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting.
ROBERTS: Twenty-one minutes after the hour. It's a cyber shock wave, it's a simulation going to take place in Washington, D.C. today to see if the country can react adequately to a cyber attack from outside of our borders, or who knows, maybe inside our borders.
Former CIA director Michael Hayden and Fran Townsend will be joining us coming up in just a couple of minutes to tell us how prepared America is to defend against cyber warfare. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well we are back. It's 24 minutes past the hour, that means it's time for an "AM Original," something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING. And all this week we are on the gun trail. We are taking a look at how legal guns could end up in the wrong hands.
ROBERTS: Today we are going to go on the front line, the start of the so-called "Iron Pipeline" a pipeline that could end in your streets. Our Ed Lavandera has got the story, he is live in Dallas this morning. Good morning Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, you know, gun dealers across the country, to get a bad rap especially since they are on the front lines of where guns are stolen, so we wanted to spend a day and find somebody that would let us hangout in their shop to see what it's like to do business.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Kayton Smith says you would be surprised the stories gun buyers reveal.
KAYTON SMITH, OWNER, THE GUN SHOP: What made you decide to buy a firearm?
UNIDENTIFIED BUYER: Do you want to know the truth?
SMITH: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED BUYER: Left New York owing someone a lot of money and eventually they are going to find me.
SMITH: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED BUYER: Better safe than sorry.
SMITH: OK.
LAVANDERA: The buyer is a legal Russian immigrant. After calling the FBI's instant background check system, the sale is put on hold while the Feds look deeper into his background.
SMITH: Listen there's some -- OK, so they've got you on delay right now.
You pull the trigger back and it fires.
LAVANDERA: Kayton Smith and Ricky Duffy run the gun shop in Savannah, Georgia, we spent a day with them watching dozens of customers come through the gun shop. SMITH: See you later.
LAVANDERA: According to federal statistics, Georgia is the number one state for exported guns used in crimes across the country. Gun Safety Advocates say it's known as the "Iron Pipeline" of illegal guns flowing north from places like Savannah, Georgia, often up Interstate 95 into northeastern states with stricter gun laws. These states pumped almost 5,000 guns into this criminal "pipeline" in 2008.
NANCY ROBINSON, CITIZENS FOR SAFETY: There is a pattern that we have seen emerging, where traffickers tend to buy guns in states with weak gun laws where it's easy for them and bring them back to states like Massachusetts, that have tougher gun laws and resell these illegal guns on the street for a nice profit.
LAVANDERA: The first step, customers fill out a form to declaring their buying a gun and not somebody else. Then Kayton Smith calls for an instant background check, the buyer is either approved, delayed, or denied.
UNIDENTIFIED BUYER: Thank you very much.
LAVANDERA: That puts Smith and Duffy's gun shop on the front lines in the battle against straw purchasers. People who pretend to buy guns for themselves then pass them on to someone who can't lawfully own a firearm.
Kayton Smith estimates the shop has sold about 4,000 guns in the last three years. In that same time FBI background checks have denied sales to 83 people at his shop.
(on camera): Do you feel like you are under pressure to make sure that doesn't happen?
RICKY DUFFY, OWNER, THE GUN SHOP: Sure. We don't want anything wrong. We want the bad guys to get caught. We don't want to sell any guns to bad guys ever.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): And about the Russian immigrant whose gun purchase was delayed by the FBI? A few days later a handgun sale was approved. And that's enough for Ricky Duffy, he feels confident the gun is in good hands.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: Ricky Duffy says the key is to really have a good working relationship with ATF investigators, and they say that the moment they anticipate that someone might be up to something no good, they will quickly, don't hesitate to call in to the ATF so they have them checked out.
And it was kind of funny at the end of the day they had joked around. You saw that exchange earlier with the Russian immigrant. In that piece, the guys had joked around with it. Sometimes they kind of feel like a bartender, ask one simple question and you kind of be surprised what people reveal to you. ROBERTS: Yes, but you know, it's certainly no joke though when guns end up in the hands of the wrong people. Ed Lavandera for us this morning, Ed thanks so much.
And for more follow the gun trial online on Ed's blog, just go to our site, cnn.com/amfix.
CHETRY: Also tomorrow, we go from the front line to the end of the line, the city streets. Are laws at the local level making it harder for the criminals or the legal and responsible gun owners?
ROBERTS: Coming up to the half hour, time to check our top stories, the Taliban second in command and top military commander has been captured and American officials say he is talking with the interrogators. Malabdul Gahni Baradar is said to have been nabbed several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan. Officials are calling this the most significant Taliban figure to be captured since the start of the war in Afghanistan.
CHETRY: We are seeing new footage of President John F. Kennedy on the day he was assassinated. It's a rare color film, capturing the president and first lady arriving on Air Force One in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963. It was shot by then 15-year-old student who took the day off from school to go see the president. William Ford Warren donated the home video to the 6th floor museum at Delay Plaza which released it on President's Day.
ROBERTS: Plus popular Indiana Democratic Senator Evan Bayh says he will not seek a third term in office this fall. Kiran and I spoke to Senator Bayh earlier and we asked him is Congress broken and can he really make things better from working from the outside.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. EVAN BAYH (D), INDIANA: We have a lot of good people in Congress, but they are trapped in a dysfunctional system. We have to vote out the idealogs who are unwilling to accept half a loaf rather than none. And we've got to vote out the partisans who care more about the political fortunes more than their country. And so for me, I have always been about helping people and I think that I can do more for that in the private sector right now than remaining in Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Bayh has not said exactly what his next step will be. But in our interview, he listed some possibilities. Moving back into the business world. Working with the university or perhaps to move into philanthropy or charity.
It's war games for the 21st century. In less than two hours our nation's cybersecurity will be tested like never before. A Washington think tank, the bipartisan policy center is launching a simulated cyber shock wave. "THE SITUATION ROOM" you can see it there, being prepared as we speak in an all star line up at the country's top security and policy experts are at the ready. Scenarios could include a large scale failure of the power grid or an attack on something we could not imagine living without at this point, the cell phone grid.
Joining us now for the "A.M. Security Watch," one of the masterminds of it all, former CIA director general Michael Hayden, and our very own national security contributor Fran Townsend. Fran was a Homeland Security advisor to President George W. Bush and will be playing the role of the Homeland Security Secretary for this morning's simulation.
Great to see you. General Hayden, let's start with you. You are, as we said, the mastermind of this. You designed the situation for simulation. Walk us through it to the best of your ability without giving it away? What do you have planned for the folks today?
GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Sure, John. We try to create a scenario for folks that was not inherently Armageddon because people walk away from that in despair. But something that could happen, something that takes things that are not unlikely and puts them together in a way that creates consequences.
And the idea is not to play with the scenario per se, but to use the scenario to drive policy questions. It's our hope that as our players play through the scenarios, they will begin to realize there are things that could have been decided earlier that would make dealing with the current crisis as we create it a lot easier to do.
ROBERTS: Fran, as we said, you will play the part of the Homeland Security Secretary for this simulation. Are you confident the government now has the tools to defend against a massive cyber attack, the type of which General Hayden has planned for you today?
FRAN TOWNSEND, FORMER BUSH HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: I am absolutely confident the government doesn't have the tools. The purpose of the exercise, John, is to identify the vulnerabilities and gaps so we can suggest to the administration where to focus their attention. We know we don't have redundancy and resiliency in the cyber system.
ROBERTS: Let me stop you there and go to Director Hayden. You just heard that she is confident the government does not have the tools, and people at home might be saying right now, what?
HAYDEN: No, I couldn't agree more with the way Fran laid it out. Our hope here, John, when people look at this and have the reaction you described, this problem looks bigger than all outdoors and in many ways it is.
The purpose of the drill is to disaggregate that problem into digestible policy doses so that we can begin taking this one brick at a time and build-up the kinds of defenses that we'll need as a nation.
Right now, and it's no one's fault, this is just new and technological demanding, and I should add, it's policy demanding. You will see in the exercise, we won't get one or two steps out of the starting blocks in issues like privacy, public-private partnerships will be out there full square, issues that we have to deal with, and frankly we have not done a good job of doing that yet. ROBERTS: On the surface, at least, what you are telling us is not necessarily very comforting. Let me ask you, Fran, about one of the most recent and publicized attacks was the Chinese attacking of Google. They were looking at some e-mails of some Chinese dissidents.
Google now has an arrangement with the National Security Agency to look at all of this, which may raise some questions and some anxieties among people that say, wait a second here, the private sector partnering with government, it might be good for security but what about for privacy issues?
TOWNSEND: Well, as General Hayden said, we will have to grabble with the privacy and civil liberties concerns. If there is a partnership with companies like Google and other internet providers, they can help them defend their own network. That's really important. We need to educate the American people about why that is a good thing.
ROBERTS: And then at the same time, General Hayden, you have the government helping the private sector, and then AT&T, Quest, Verizon, who are getting contracts from the government to provide security. Who's better at doing this, government or the private sector?
HAYDEN: This has to be a team sport, John. Each player brings their own particular strengths to it. There are reasons of American history and political culture and privacy and law that it will make it difficult for us to get the kind of good teaming that we need.
This exercise is designed to point out the stress points, and all as adults respecting our heritage and rights, but also understanding our current needs, get together and work our way through these problems.
ROBERTS: And, Fran, we saw the attack on Google. Hacking e-mail is one thing, but national security is quite another. The Pentagon is probed thousands of times every day. What is the nightmare scenario in terms of a cyber attack against the United States?
TOWNSEND: You know, John, I wish there was just one nightmare scenario, but whether it's an attack on transportation, subways and trains and airplanes, financial institutions, imagine your ATM not working, and the electric power grid and the lights going out.
So there is not one threat vector that us a nightmare scenario. You really have you to build a framework that you can apply to any one of these depending on where you're attacked.
HAYDEN: The first question the national security adviser will ask is who is in charge of this? That's going to be one of the fundamental questions that we will have to decide.
ROBERTS: I'm telling you, you are not giving us a lot of comfort here. We will watch this very closely today, we really appreciate it, Fran Townsend and General Michael Hayden, really good to have you on.
A reminder that CNN has exclusive access to the cyber situation room during the drill this morning. You can see all the action as it unfolds here in CNN from 8:00 until 10:00 eastern time Sunday night. It will be fascinating to watch how they react to all of this.
CHETRY: It really is fascinating to see how it happens and goes down.
ROBERTS: They say we are not equipped to defend it?
CHETRY: Does that surprise you?
ROBERTS: It doesn't give me a whole lot of comfort. I will tell you that.
CHETRY: That's why they are doing this, to learn and to prepare.
Meanwhile, the consumer complaints are racking up for Toyota right now, and they are in crisis clearly. But is this a wakeup call for Japan's culture about how not to behave, and are they making those changes? We check in with Kyung Lah in Tokyo in just a moment. It's 37 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: It's 40 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. A number of consumer complaints against Toyota's recalled cars are continuing to climb. A public relations disaster that's giving Toyota as well as other Japanese companies a desperately needed wakeup call.
Kyung Lah joins us live from Tokyo this morning with our "AM Original."
KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.
Toyota's troubles, at least the analysts are saying got to this point because of the way corporate culture operates in Japan. Now there are calls not just from outside Japan but within the country that say culture has got to change if they intend on doing business with the American consumer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: Under Toshido Edda's (ph) conservative exterior is a radical plan -- open up corporate Japan. Edda is a crisis management consultant teaching these senior executives of a food manufacturer how to deal with a scandal. No better example of how not to act, says Edda, than Toyota, who followed in lockstep the secretive rules of corporate Japan, a corporate culture that closes off amid challenges instead of opening up.
When safety problems with Toyota's cars started to emerge, Toyota closed ranks, alleges Joan Claybrook, a former administrator with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
JOAN CLAYBROOK, FORMER NHTSA ADMINISTRATOR: I think that there's too much secrecy, that there's -- that Toyota was allowed to get away with withholding information with not being transparent and forthcoming with the Department of Transportation. And as a result we've had people die and be injured, and I'm sure there are going to be more.
LAH: Japan scholar Jeffrey Kingston says Toyota was following the rules of corporate Japan, not the consumer-driven U.S., and that gap is the problem.
PROF. JEFFREY KINGSTON, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: I think in Japan there has been a greater movement toward more transparency, more accountability, and better communication. But it's a slow movement. And I think that this case highlights how much farther they have to go.
LAH: Back at Toshido Edda's the management class, questions about how to deal with the corporate crisis. The answer -- be speedy, don't hide, don't lie -- simple rules, and a radical change for Japan, incorporated.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: And there are small glimmers that Toyota as a corporation is starting to change. Tomorrow we are expecting a news conference about how the Prius recall is going. Toyota wants to make sure its consumers know, and it's definitely a far cry from what we say early on when all these recalls happened worldwide. Kiran?
CHETRY: Kyung Lah for us this morning from Tokyo, thank you.
ROBERTS: It's 43 minutes after the hour.
Christmas may be long gone, but the weather outside definitely frightful. Our Rob Marciano has a report coming up. You will want to hear what he has to say because it will impact your travel plans. Stay with us.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.
For most of us it's just plain old Tuesday, for some it's a Trove Tuesday and Pancake Tuesday. In New Orleans, though, it's Fat Tuesday and the final day of Mardi Gras. People will be lining the parade routes, partying hard in the French Quarter right up until the stroke of midnight. Then everything shuts down for the beginning of Lent. Of course, it's pretty much have been a non-stop party in the Big Easy ever since the Saints won the Super Bowl.
CHETRY: There you go. Congratulations to them.
ROBERTS: And it's so much to be there.
CHETRY: Oh gosh I love --
ROBERTS: You know you're there on the ladders and you're catching all the stuff that they're throwing off the floats. Rob Marciano is tracking the weather across the country today. It's going to be a nice weather I think in the Big Easy today but not so much on other parts of the country.
Good morning Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning guys. Yes, pretty chilly down there across much of south Louisiana when you go into (INAUDIBLE) and Lafayette back to Lake Charles, they have some pretty funky tradition on Fat Tuesday for sure. It will be a chilly go but sunshine today with temperatures getting close to 50 degrees.
All right, not too much sun today across parts of the northeast, as a matter of fact the northeastern third of the country continues this swirling vortex of all --basically arctic air plowing down across the south. And we're seeing a little bit of moisture around this low. The temperature is right around the freezing mark, from Philly to New York.
So we're seeing mostly a wet snow. It shouldn't pile up to be a whole lot but it is snowing and it will slow down your travel in D.C. and Philadelphia. As a matter of fact we are seeing delays right now, LaGuardia an hour and fifteen minutes, 40 minute delays in Philadelphia and 40 minute delays in San Francisco.
Again, dry and cool across the south, a quick weak system heading into the Pacific Northwest that will affect the search and rescue effort in Mountain Helen at least in the morning hours clearing out somewhat this afternoon.
All right, you do some fishing? In Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin, check out the size of this sturgeon caught; 212 pounds, that's a record breaker my friends, spear fishing no less. That fish estimated to be 100 years old. Now, sturgeon, you know, it's good eating, but at 100 years old I am not sure how tender that fish is going to be. A 63-year-old angler managed to catch and well and put it on the back of the truck and we're going to home and just give you some scale. That's your fish story today.
CHETRY: He better put it to good use and eat the darn thing.
MARCIANO: I think he will and I think I know it cost like $3,000 or $4,000 just to mount it. So hopefully it will, of course, they're going to study it actually first to see exactly how old it is.
ROBERTS: Yes, like you said those sturgeon live an awfully, awfully long time.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: That's a big fish. Thanks Rob.
CHETRY: There it is. Thanks Rob.
MARCIANO: All right guys, see you.
CHETRY: All right, well, we'll check in with Kyra Phillips in the "CNN NEWSROOM" for a look at what's ahead coming up in the next hour. Good morning Kyra. KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, guys.
Ok, I lived in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Sturgeons are very spiritual fish for the Native Americans there guys, you don't necessarily always want to eat it.
CHETRY: So what's the point of spearing the poor thing then? Let it live for another 100 years.
PHILLIPS: Exactly, I agree with you there's probably some pretty upset people right now.
All right, Kiran and I got to --I'll actually -- may ask you both this question. Kiran, your favorite memories from the 12th grade?
CHETRY: Just getting the heck out of high school, thank goodness. No, I think it was our senior prank. We basically covered the entire student parking lot with sand and had a beach party. That was exciting, I was a crazy kid.
PHILLIPS: John, can you remember that far back?
ROBERTS: Yes, oh yes, yes, I think I can though it was a long, long time ago. Let me search my deepest darkest, I just remember, my finest memory of 12th grade was --was knowing that I had one more grade to go because in Canada at that time you actually had five grades of high school, 13 total.
PHILLIPS: Ok, that's so boring. I like the sand part with Kiran. That sounds like a much better memory.
ROBERTS: Ok, then I'll tell you --
PHILLIPS: And here's the deal
ROBERTS: -- then I'll tell you about the pop festival --
PHILLIPS: Yes.
ROBERTS: -- back at my high school. How about that one?
PHILLIPS: The pop festival?
ROBERTS: Yes, yes, it was a rock festival, I mean, it was - you know not too long after Woodstock, Kyra so.
PHILLIPS: Yes.
ROBERTS: I know what we did back then.
PHILLIPS: Outstanding ok, so he had the band playing outside his high school. All right, seriously in Utah they're actually debating whether to wipe out the 12th grade. There's a state senator that's going to come on with us along with the state commissioner of higher education. And we're going to debate it. We're going to talk about this. The state senator thinks that this can save millions of dollars and of course, you know, the Commissioner of Higher Ed said come on you just got to rid the senioritis and make 12th grade more effective because when it comes down to it, is a 17-year-old really ready for the real world I mean that senior year kind of forces you to grow up in many ways, right?
ROBERTS: Absolutely.
CHETRY: Yes, just the whole stressful part of even applying to college is a good lesson in life, because it only gets worse from there.
ROBERTS: Yes. Exactly. And so many seniors have to check out after the Christmas holidays too. You know. The rest of the year's just (INAUDIBLE).
PHILLIPS: But you know, the bigger issue, too --
CHETRY: It's just a lot of these towns and counties are deciding how they're tightening their belt because of these budget cuts. And in our town they are talking about doing away with afternoon kindergarten and everybody's up in arms.
I mean educating our kids less probably not necessarily the answer. So, we'll see.
PHILLIPS: There you go. I'm with you, Kiran. We will talk about it coming up next hour.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that. Thanks, Kyra. We'll see you soon.
CHETRY: Still ahead. Can a baby -- we're always talking about baby fat, and you see a fat, little chubby baby, that's supposed to be a good thing. You're healthy right?
Well, Dr. Gupta explains how there is a tipping point that is very early on in life that can signify whether or not a child will be obese later. He's going to talk to us about that.
Fifty-one minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning. 54 minutes past the hour right now.
Time for your "AM House Call", stories about your health, and determining whether an athlete has suffered a concussion could be as simple as having them catch a falling object.
Researchers say that the longer it took for the person catch a weighted disk the more likely they were to have suffered a minor head injury. ROBERTS: Researchers say post menopausal women who take hormone replacement therapy may have a higher risk for coronary artery disease during the first few years after starting hormones. But according to the study, the risk does decrease after six years of use.
CHETRY: There's a new study suggesting that the road to obesity may begin much earlier than we thought, perhaps as early as 3 months of age.
ROBERTS: Is a chubby baby really a healthy baby, as we've always heard? Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from Atlanta with more on this study. Don't we need that baby fat, Sanjay, to help us develop?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, we do need a certain amount of fat, there's no question. And chubby babies are cute as well, but the fat incidentally necessary for brain development, nerve development and eye development.
But the question these researchers are trying to figure out, they follow people along until about the age of 20 and tried to figure out those people who are obese, at what point were there any signs, any signals that that obesity trend was starting to develop. And as you mentioned, it started as early as 3 months of age.
Again, according to this study there were some red flags around three months of age. And at about two years of age, they figured that about half the babies who at that point are toddlers, at that point too were obese were more likely to go on to become obese adults as well.
They are really trying to trace this back to the early stages. Keep in mind again, this doesn't mean that a chubby baby is for sure going to be a chubby adult, or an obese adult for that matter, but there are particular cues.
And one of the things that really focused in on is that the body does a good job of telling somebody when they're full. That's an instinctual thing and you can tell at an early age if someone is full. So really paying attention to the cues: if a baby is breastfeeding for example, if they stop suckling, to stop feeding them at that time. Or if they are taking formula and they suddenly turn their head away, that can be a good sign as well, the brain telling the stomach no more. The stomach is full, stop eating. And making sure to check in with the pediatrician often as well, and keeping an eye on those charts to make sure the weight ratio is not getting way out of proportion as compared to the height ratio.
The caveat is this and I have three children that are four and under, so we go through this all the time. Those are just markers, they're not sort of set in stone, but it is a good idea to keep an eye on eating overall and some of those measurements.
CHETRY: The other interesting thing when you say begin as early as 3 months of age. I mean, your pediatricians usually recommend that you breast feed, right, almost exclusively until at least four or five months if you can do it. They say that that's sort of self-regulating that babies can't over eat because you only produce as much breast milk as your baby needs?
GUPTA: That's right. And they have some rough guidelines when it come to breast feeding as well in terms of how many feedings and how many ounces at a feeding. It's a little bit hard to know for sure exactly how many ounces they are getting when they are breastfeeding, but you are absolutely right.
And again, the amount of calories, the amount of liquid the babies do a pretty good job of regulating that on their own. One trouble area, Kiran, seems to develop around the time that solid foods are introduced -- 11 months, 13 months -- whatever age that is. A lot of people will start to mix the solid foods with the liquids.
The problem with that is the baby is sort of telling how much food they should be eating by volume as opposed to calories. All of a sudden you're adding a lot more calories for the same volume of food and that's when problems can start to develop. So keep solids and liquids separate even at that young age.
ROBERTS: All right. Sanjay Gupta this morning for us. Doc thanks. So great to see you.
Fifty-seven minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Continue the conversation on today's stories, go to our blog at cnn.com/amfix. That's going to wrap it up for us this morning. Thanks so much for joining us and we'll see you back here again bright and early tomorrow.
CHETRY: Meantime, the news continues. Here's "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips.
