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Shooting at the Pentagon: Gunman Identified as John Patrick Bedell; News Conference at the Pentagon on Shooting Incident; Security at the Pentagon: New Screening Procedures in Place after 9/11; Deadly Shootout at Pentagon; Where are the Jobs?
Aired March 05, 2010 - 06:00 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. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. It is Friday, March 5th. We have some breaking news we're going to be covering for you throughout the morning. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Jim Acosta. Let's go to the news conference now at the Pentagon on the Pentagon shooting that happened last night.
CHIEF RICHARD KEEVILL, PENTAGON POLICE: A lone individual approached the Pentagon metro prescreen area. Almost immediately reached into his pocket, took out a weapon and engaged the Pentagon Police Department, two officers that were on duty at the entrance to the facility. Shots were fired between both. Both of our officers sustained injuries. They were minor, not life threatening. The suspect was struck in the head. His injuries were a lot more severe.
All the subjects were transported to George Washington Hospital. Later in the evening, the suspect, Mr. Bedell, passed away. The officers are OK. They are on administrative leave right now pending the outcome of our investigation and healing from their injuries.
At this time, I'm going to introduce the folks who are helping us with this investigation. My name is Richard Keevill, k-e-e-v like victor, i-l-l. On this side, I have Mr. Shawn Henry, who's the assistant director of the FBI, Isaac (ph) John Perry, and the incident commander is Carl Datts (ph). We'll answer any questions that you have.
This investigation is actually being shared by three jurisdictions. The Pentagon Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Arlington County Police.
Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief Keevill, can you confirm the existence of a surveillance video that shows this suspect?
KEEVILL: I can. It does.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell us about it. Tell us about it.
KEEVILL: We got it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's on it? What does it show?
KEEVILL: It pretty much confirms what we've been saying that he acted alone. Something that I didn't know about until late last night is he was very well dressed in a suit. There was no indication based on the way he was dressed that he had possible intent.
I believe I told you all last night that he was very calm. There was no distress in his appearance. He walked very directly to the officers and engaged. He was very well armed. I will tell you he had two 9 millimeter semiautomatic weapons and many magazines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief, what can you tell us about, a little more about the suspect? He was from California. And also, did he act alone? Who else was part of this? Are you still investigating a second suspect?
KEEVILL: At this time, and I emphasize at this time, there doesn't appear to be anyone else acting in concert with Mr. Bedell. He came here from California. We were able to identify certain locations that he spent the last several weeks making his way from the West Coast to the East Coast. But a lot of this is still preliminary.
One of the questions that came up last night was how did he get here. We were able to determine that he drove here. He parked his vehicle in a local parking garage, and we have located that vehicle. It has been impounded. It will be processed as another piece of evidence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything found in the vehicle? Any further evidence (INAUDIBLE).
KEEVILL: More ammunition.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about a motive?
KEEVILL: Right now, we don't really have one, ma'am. It appears he's had some issues in the past. He has had a couple of contacts with the law. He's a very well-educated individual. Right now, we don't know if we have a motive yet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about his Internet postings (INAUDIBLE)
KEEVILL: I'm sorry, I only heard part of that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the Internet postings? We learned from a (INAUDIBLE) talking about a potential cover-up.
KEEVILL: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you guys investigated that?
KEEVILL: That's one of many things that we're looking into.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that the same guy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We really haven't made a final determination.
KEEVILL: We haven't made a final determination. Not yet, ma'am.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think your security procedures need to be reviewed?
KEEVILL: I am very pleased. The Pentagon Police Department in the post-9/11 environment has done considerable training. All of you know that the active shooter issues we've had in the country over the last several months have brought a lot of focus on this in every police department, local, state and federal.
We're no exception. We serve a very large population. The Fort Hood incident put us on notice that it can happen even in a military reservation. We took the appropriate actions. We trained our officers and it worked. No, sir, I'm not going to change the way we're doing business.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you returned to the investigation, what can the FBI add to this? Is this primarily focused on a domestic issue, or domestic situation, or international situation at this point?
KEEVILL: There is no indication at this point that there are any domestic or international terrorism nexus to this at all. It's probably at this time -- or at this time it appears to be a single individual that had issues.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have the officers been treated or released or are they still in the hospital? Can you elaborate on the wounds of the officers?
KEEVILL: The question was, can I elaborate on the wounds of the officers? One of the officers was hit in the thigh. The other was hit in the top of his shoulder. Both were superficial. Both have been released from the hospital and I said a few moments ago are on admin leave, which is routine when the officers are involved in a shooting until they heal and our investigation is complete.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the suspect have any body armor on?
KEEVILL: He did not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was well dressed?
KEEVILL: No, he was not wearing any body armor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What type of weapons?
KEEVILL: It's not appropriate to say at this time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you say anything at all prior to opening fire? KEEVILL: I was told last night at the scene that there was no exchange but I understand there may have been an utterance. I can't confirm what that utterance is because the person who knows that is now home resting from a gunshot, so I need to wait until I can get one-on-one with him on that. But I was told last night he didn't talk. He just drew the weapon and started shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any idea when the Pentagon metro station will reopen?
KEEVILL: Ma'am, it's a complicated crime scene. There were a lot of bullets fired by both persons, our officers and the suspect. It's a crime scene and as such it's going to have to stay closed until we're complete. I know that's a big hassle for a lot of folks, but we'll do the best we can to get it open as soon as possible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know he lives in California. Anything about the city and how the investigation is going out there, probably interviewed (INAUDIBLE) with family members?
KEEVILL: The FBI has been wonderful through this investigation supporting us because they have national assets. We are checking leads anywhere this man has ever been, which includes obviously California. And that's still very preliminary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you say what city in California?
KEEVILL: No, not right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief, were you able to characterize the style of his shooting? Apparently, he almost missed your two officers entirely despite the fact he was in close range. Did he seem to have any (INAUDIBLE) or was he firing wildly?
KEEVILL: I can't answer that right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did it appear he was trying to make entrance into the Pentagon and what his intentions were?
KEEVILL: Ma'am, I have no idea what his intentions were. We can speculate about that I guess a lot. But he was immediately adjacent to the entrance to the Pentagon. He didn't make it. He was at a prescreen facility and he was stopped at the prescreen facility.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any idea how many shots roughly were fired?
KEEVILL: No. And that's a truthful answer. I really don't know because they're still counting. It was a real significant number of rounds but I don't know how many.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was the suspect shot by one of the two officers who were hit?
KEEVILL: Until we get the ballistics back there were three officers engaged him with weapons. The two officers that you know about and one of our officers that came to assist, all three fired at him. I don't know yet and I don't think we'll know for a couple weeks until the ballistics are back which one actually hit him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What a timely question? How long did it take to take him out and neutralize him?
KEEVILL: It was less than a minute.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can the FBI just make any comment about how concerned the attorney general is about this and how you all see this whole investigation?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I defer to the chief and his comments. This is just still an ongoing investigation. We're continuing to investigate all leads and I think the chief has done a terrific job really articulating that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two more questions.
KEEVILL: Anymore questions? Two.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you release that tape?
KEEVILL: Not for a while. Not for a while. A lot of people are interested in seeing it including these gentlemen here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In terms of civilians, who was in that immediate area in addition to the officers? The gunman and the officers involved, were there people right up close to the incident scene?
KEEVILL: If you didn't hear the question is, where are the -- are there a majority of the public that use that part of the building? Yes. The metro entrance facility is one of the biggest entrances into the building because obviously the metro station and the train station, I say metro, the buses and train stations are right there. We're lucky.
ACOSTA: That's the latest from the chief of the Pentagon police. They're at the Pentagon wrapping up the latest details on this ongoing investigation into that shooting that happened last night. The chief there confirming that the suspect was killed. John Patrick Bedell, 36 year old, from what we understand, from California.
And we've got a team of reporters working on this story right now. Barbara Starr is with us here in New York. But we first want to go to our Chris Lawrence who is down at the scene of the shooting that occurred last night. Chris was just listening in on the press conference. And, Chris, what was your impression of what you just heard?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think -- I think, Jim, in some ways he confirmed what a defense official told me a short while ago, that the two officers were out of the hospital, that they were OK. That this second man that they have talked to or questioned had nothing to do with the actual shooting. He was simply seen near the shooter before the shooting took place. And he confirmed from the medical examiner that the shooter was dead. I think some of the new details that we learned was that he was very well educated. He was very well dressed, and that he had come from California. He had driven his car out and that when they searched that car, they did find more ammunition inside -- Jim.
CHETRY: All right. You know, Chris, another thing that was interesting that was asked at this press conference that took place is whether or not this is the same person who was linked to some Internet postings, resentment over the U.S. government, perhaps suspicions about 9/11. They answered that that's something they're looking into right now, and they also did say that they don't believe this is part of any terrorism nexus. But what more do we know possibly about the gunman at this point?
LAWRENCE: Based on what we know, Kiran, you know, he has been in contact with law enforcement before as we heard him sort of allude to. We're talking about 2006. There was a court case involving cultivating marijuana, resisting police. And the marijuana angle comes up in some of these audio recordings that we've obtained that we believe were made by the same, you know, John Patrick Bedell.
In it, he rails against the government. He talks about government control of the monetary system, about government control of the schools, and he also talks about some conspiracy ideas that he has. Take a listen to what some of the audio recordings are.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN PATRICK BEDELL, PENTAGON SHOOTER: To prevent themselves from being enslaved, the powerful masters of our existing government use every means at their disposal, including bribery, theft and murder, to control those governments which are imperfect institutions operated by imperfect individuals. In order to properly address these very serious matters, it is necessary to recognize the importance of enduring principles for setting a positive direction that we can pursue, mindful of the real threats that we must overcome."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: Again, he rails against the government. He talks about a case of a Marine colonel from back in 1991 where it was ruled a suicide, but there was always some suspicion that perhaps the colonel may have been killed to cover up some information that he had about the government. So what you get out of all this is a very anti- government leanings.
I can also tell you as he came up to this area of the Pentagon, a lot of people would say how do you get a gun that close to the Pentagon? Well, the thing is the metro station, as you just heard, is used by thousands of people every day. Buses come through there. The underground train system comes through there. And as you come up the escalator, after 9/11 they changed the system where now you come up, there is another layer of security.
So, as you come out of the escalator and come out of the metro station, there are these Pentagon police officers standing right there. And every day, you know, I come in with a code. I walk up. I pull out my pass just like thousands of other people do. So, what he did was probably something that these officers see day in and day out every minute of the day. It is incredibly busy. And so when he went to what they thought pull out a pass to get into the Pentagon, and he pulled out a gun, obviously that would have caught them very much by surprise.
CHETRY: Absolutely.
ACOSTA: Yes.
LAWRENCE: Jim, Kiran.
ACOSTA: Chris, thanks so much for that perspective at the Pentagon this morning. We'll get back to you as soon as we can. But first --
CHETRY: That's one of the questions that they were asking about as well, is the fact that the two officers, thank goodness, had superficial wounds. One grazed in the thigh and one grazed in the shoulder.
ACOSTA: Right.
CHETRY: But as it appears, I mean, they were shot almost at pointblank range.
ACOSTA: That's right.
CHETRY: So it's lucky that they have minor injuries.
ACOSTA: And that is essentially because of the security setup at the Pentagon. The metro station, the D.C. subway system that lets off right there at the Pentagon allows people some pretty good access to that building.
And joining us now is our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. And, Barbara, you know that building well. But one of the tidbits that came out of that press conference that struck me is that the chief said that the suspect had two 9 millimeter semiautomatic weapons and as he put it many magazines.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is what's really so astounding that someone could get so close. That you know, this is the post- 9/11 era, isn't it? And these public spaces we saw it at Fort Hood, we see it here, they try and control access as best they can. What they have done at the Pentagon since 9/11 is move the security checkpoint out, further away from the building. So, if anybody does have ill intent, they will be caught away. They won't get inside the building. It's the kind of thing that we're seeing in so many places but in these large areas where thousands of people move through, which essentially is a public space at the metro, it's so tough to catch these people.
ACOSTA: And as you pointed out just before we went on the air, this is the first major security incident at the Pentagon since September 11th.
STARR: Sure, it really is. You know, like any other place, there are minor incidents along the way that don't really get reported but this is really the most serious incident since 9/11, and obviously something for the people who work in the Pentagon as we do who were there on 9/11 brings back a lot of memories. But the Pentagon police got on it really fast obviously. They say they neutralized this man within a minute. And that's the kind of 9/11 security that they've really instituted there.
CHETRY: A lot of questions and a lot more to be discussed as we find out more details about this case and we're going to continue that. We're just going to take a quick break. And when we come back, the latest now that we just heard some new information this morning about that shooting right outside of the Pentagon.
We're going to take a quick break. It's 15 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: We're following breaking news this morning on AMERICAN MORNING. It's 18 minutes past the hour right now.
We just want to bring you up to date. We just heard a news conference that was held right outside of the Pentagon, the site of a shooting yesterday where a man apparently went up to two Pentagon police officers and opened fire. Both of them were hit but luckily their wounds were superficial.
They returned fire. He was shot in the head and died later at the hospital. And right now we're just sort of putting together, based on some of the things that the chief police, the Pentagon police said --
ACOSTA: That's right.
CHETRY: -- about exactly who this person was and the motive.
ACOSTA: You know, one of the things that they said that they're looking at are -- is some of these links on the internet where apparently this gentleman -- we're not sure if somebody by this -- the same name has posted some writings that talked about September 11th and suspicions about September 11th. That would make sense as to why he would be at the Pentagon and confronting those officers in that manner.
One of the things that I think that jumped out at me and I it was new information was the fact that this suspect, Bedell, had two 9 millimeter semiautomatic weapons on him plus many magazines, according to the chief, and he was also -- the chief was also asked what did he have in his vehicle. Apparently there were -- there was -- there was more ammunition in the vehicle.
So potentially, you know, as Barbara Starr mentioned in our last segment, the security situation has changed at the Pentagon. The Metro system, the subway system, used to go into that building. That's no longer the case. And if he had been able to get in with that much ammunition, it could have been a very, very serious situation.
CHETRY: A different situation, luckily, because of course Pentagon police are armed and they were able to, as Barbara and Chris Lawrence have been reporting, neutralize the suspect, as they put it, within a minute.
But, again, we're following the latest on this case and we'll bring you new information as we get it throughout the morning. But we are following some other stories as well.
The White House is now reportedly leaning toward a military trial for the accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other terror suspects. That's according to reports in "The Washington Post" as well as the "Associated Press" and if they're correct it's a major reversal from the decision to try them just blocks from ground zero in federal civilian court.
That plan is being reconsidered after concerns over not only cost but security.
ACOSTA: And Toyota is accused of withholding crash data stored in devices similar to an airplane's black box that might explain its sudden acceleration problems. An "Associated Press" review of lawsuits against the company found it has been secretive about recorded information, including whether the driver was hitting the brake or accelerator at the same time.
The review also showed Toyota frequently refuses to give the data to crash victims and survivors.
CHETRY: It's 20 minutes past the hour right now. We're going to get a quick check of our weather headlines this morning. Rob Marciano in the Extreme Weather Center for us.
Hey, Rob. Good morning.
ACOSTA: Good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kiran. Good morning, Jim.
Yes, listen, we may see some records fall this morning across the south, winter not giving up any time soon. Check out some of these temperatures. Very chilly as far south, well, as South Beach.
Thirty-nine right now in Orlando, 32 degrees in Jacksonville, 45 chilly ones in Miami and 30 currently below freezing in Atlanta. These are not -- these don't include the windchill, which will bring it down even more.
Still have some snow showers hanging around the northeast. The storm just doesn't want to go away. It's not dumping a whole lot, but on the radar at least it's showing up. We expect it to clear out later on today and we do expect to see a bit of a warmup as we head towards the weekend. Hey, that's -- that's tomorrow.
Happy Friday, everybody. We'll see you in about 30 minutes.
ACOSTA: Friday feels good, Rob. Thanks so much. Appreciate that. And the weather sounds like it's going to be a little bit nicer here in New York and down in Washington, along the East Coast. We earned it.
CHETRY: Yes. We earned it and we deserve it for sure.
ACOSTA: Big time.
CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. We're going to have much more when we come right back.
It's 21 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Right now, it's 25 minutes past the hour.
We are "Minding Your Business" this morning. Christine Romans is here, and you have some good news today because we're talking about creating jobs.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We're trying to talk about places where the -- the real pain of the job situation is starting to ease, and Gallup did a fascinating poll where -- very different methodology than the government uses.
They started asking employees, look, are you seeing your company hiring? Are you seeing your company firing? And what are job market conditions like across the country?
So nationwide, 25 percent of employees said there was hiring in their company. Twenty-three percent -- you can see that on the far right, on the bottom -- 23 percent said they were letting people go. So net, that means that there's a little more hiring than firing nationwide, but it depends on where you live. The job market is incredibly local, folks.
And this survey found that the east is deteriorating a little bit. There's 24 percent hiring, but maybe 23 percent firing. The Midwest, you can see in the Midwest, 25 percent hiring, 22 percent firing.
The best place to be and has been for the past two years, you guys, in the south. Something's happening in the south, more hiring going on there than firing. Twenty-seven percent of employees surveyed by Gallup said, you know, we see our company adding people to the payrolls, and only 22 percent said letting go. So for the past two years that has been the pattern there that you have seen the best conditions in the south.
Also in the west, it's still the toughest spot to be, although Gallup says that employees are saying they feel like it's moderating a little bit. But if you're out west, 27 percent of employees are still saying that, no, I look around me and they're letting people go.
Excuse me. I'm all choked up about the job -- labor market.
ACOSTA: That's OK.
ROMANS: About letting people go.
So that's -- that's where we stand right now, and -- and this is an improvement.
ACOSTA: Yes.
ROMANS: And that's the bottom line here is that the situation was improving in February. We don't know how all of these snowstorms are going to affect hiring and firing and that's going to be interesting for the 8:30 today, Eastern time jobs report.
CHETRY: Right. It may be a blip, but it may be bad news because of the weather, actually.
ROMANS: That's right. So the weather really threw a wrench into things just as they were starting to stabilize. But we'll see how it works out and we'll know at 8:30.
CHETRY: All right.
ACOSTA: It still sounds like good news.
ROMANS: It's not bad news, Jim --
ACOSTA: It's not bad news.
ROMANS: -- and that, today, in the upside down world, is good news.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: Christine, thank you.
ROMANS: Sure.
CHETRY: All right. We're going to take a quick break. The latest on the Pentagon situation as well, coming up.
Twenty-six minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-nine minutes past the hour right now, and we're following Breaking News from the Pentagon this morning.
Police are identifying the man who opened fire on two police officers outside of the Pentagon last night. They identified him as 36-year-old John Patrick Bedell. He was shot and killed in that shootout.
Police also giving information in a press conference they held just 30 minutes ago saying that he was well armed, with two 9 millimeter semiautomatic weapons and several magazines of ammunition.
The officers who exchanged gunfire with him both suffered minor injuries. So far, no word on the possible motive, but the chief of the Pentagon police did acknowledge they are looking into reports that it was some resentment of the U.S. government and suspicion over 9/11 attacks that have surfaced possibly in some writings and internet postings by this suspect.
ACOSTA: And Kiran, this could be a big story today. The accused 9/11 mastermind may not be tried in a civilian court after all.
Senior administration officials tell the Associated Press and "The Washington Post" they're nearing a recommendation for President Obama to choose a military tribunal for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspects.
Last November, Attorney General Eric Holder indicated that they would be tried in federal court in Lower Manhattan, just blocks from ground zero, but that decision raised concerns from both Republicans and Democrats.
CHETRY: Also, 2,000 Toyota workers gathered earlier today at the carmakers headquarters in Japan. The company is trying to boost morale during its global recall crisis. Toyota says the event was watched by another 7,000 employees at other Toyota plants. A top company official assured the crowd that Toyota is working hard to win back customer trust.
ACOSTA: And moving right along, Kiran.
You know, between Charlie Rangel's ethics scandal and GOP's bizarre fundraising strategy, independent analyst John Avlon says it's a banner week, a bumper crop of wingnuts. Each Friday --
CHETRY: Every Fridays, as you know --
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: And you're here. He selects his wingnuts of the week and this morning, we're adding two more names to that list that John puts out. And he joins us right now.
So, who is -- welcome, by the way, good to see you.
JIM AVLON, INDEPENDENT ANALYST: Good morning.
ACOSTA: Good to see you.
CHETRY: The wingnut on the right.
AVLON: You know, we're going with RNC finance director Rob Bickhart, who is responsible for a really stunningly cynical and stupid PowerPoint presentation that was given out to RNC fundraisers. Not only compare -- naming President Obama as Joker, calling Democrats the "Evil Empire" but in one section, by saying you can motivate donors by appealing fear, exaggerated resentment of the administration and reactionary.
So, this is really just the most cynical confirmation of play to the base wingnut politics in the backroom Beltway. This deserves wingnut of the week big-time.
CHETRY: All right. Well, he has Speaker Pelosi as Cruella De Vil and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as Scooby Doo.
ACOSTA: I don't get that (ph).
CHETRY: RNC has since tried to distance itself from that presentation and here's what their communications director said in an email. "Fundraising documents are often controversial. Obviously, the chairman disagrees with the language and finds the use of such imagery to be unacceptable. It will not be used by the Republican National Committee in any capacity in the future.
ACOSTA: And you say, John, that this PowerPoint presentation, if you want to call it that, presented a lot, exemplifies why you created this segment in the first place.
AVALON: That's right. Because --
ACOSTA: This is wingnuttery.
AVLON: This shows how cynical the hyper-partisanship is in Washington. And the fact these folks think they can get away with pumping up hate in the service of hyper-partisanship behind the scenes. This is what we need to call out in American politics, folks.
And so, this guy deserves, Bickhart, deserves to be called out for this. The RNC deserves to be called out. It's not obviously -- this isn't controversial. This is deliberately sowing fear in order to fundraise. That's wingnut stuff. That's unacceptable.
ACOSTA: I think the fundraising he maybe doing from now on will be a bake sales probably.
AVLON: Good.
ACOSTA: Let's move to the left, because there is a wingnut on the left this week, right, John?
AVLON: There is, indeed. We are going -- we are naming Charlie Rangel, dean of the congressional delegation, tough week. But he's been under suspicion for a long time. You know, hypocrisy is the unforgivable sin in American politics.
And when you are head of the Ways and Means Committee, which is in charge of U.S. tax policy, and you were seen as having either avoided or not complied with tax code -- in this case, the ethics committee came back with the decision saying that he improperly accepted a gift, a trip to the Caribbean. There are other charges not standing. He resigned his committee chairmanship this week --
CHETRY: Reluctantly. It seems reluctantly. I think he was trying to hang on for a while. And there had been other questions and controversy surrounding him, but some of us are asking, so why is this more wingnut than just corrupt allegedly?
AVLON: Right. Because I think when you confirm your own party's worse stereotypes, that's wingnut stuff. When you end up compounding the stereotypes that held back your party, especially in the case of big city Democrats and financial impropriety, this is a longstanding problem.
And for Nancy Pelosi, who's struggling for approval ratings for her Congress, who promised the most ethical, open and honest Congress effort, this stuff doesn't help in a critical period.
ACOSTA: And in world of social media and YouTube and 24-hour news cycles -- I mean, how does anybody think they're going to get away with stuff like this? Which is wingnuttery also, I guess.
AVLON: Yes. Just, you know, try to be your best self, folks. That's why you were elected.
CHETRY: All right. Well, John Avlon, always great to see you. By the way, you can check out the full commentary on our blog, CNN.com/amFIX.
And he also has a new book about this thing. I mean, I guess there's so many wingnuts you could write a whole book out about it, "How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America." It's out in bookstores right now.
And, John, as always, thanks.
ACOSTA: Thanks, John.
AVLON: Thank you.
CHETRY: Well, right now, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back: soldiers returning from war, as we know, often struggle to fit into society dealing with post-traumatic stress as well as physical injuries. But we're going to show you one retired soldier who's found a new mission now that he's back home.
Thirty-five minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
After coming home from war, it can be hard for soldiers to adjust to normal life again especially when dealing with post- traumatic stress disorder.
CHETRY: Yes, which is the case for many -- in fact, most coming back from the war. And it was the case for Army Captain Shannon Meehan. He had moved on from Army life but says that he still wanted to serve his country. He also talked exclusively with our Barbara Starr and she has more now in an "A.M. Original."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this Philadelphia neighborhood, one time Army Captain Shannon Meehan is back on foot patrol, walking the street, knocking on doors, talking to people.
SHANNON MEEHAN (D), PENNSYLVANIA STATE HOUSE CANDIDATE: I grew up in this area around here. And just recently retired from Iraq and it's a continuation of my service. I'm running as state representative for the area.
STARR: Three years ago in Iraq, Shannon's job as an Army platoon commander was to try to win over the citizens.
(APPLAUSE)
STARR: As he launches his campaign for state legislator, he's honest about his experiences in war.
MEEHAN: By painting an honest picture of myself, because I will be honest, I will show you who I am and who I've become.
I almost thought I'd accept anything.
STARR: I first met Shannon last year at Fort Hood, Texas, where he was being treated for traumatic brain injury and post- traumatic stress.
(on camera): You have written extensively about the incident that has caused you to suffer from post-traumatic stress. I'm wondering how that's going for you now.
MEEHAN: Ever since that day back in Iraq, in June, when I took the lives inadvertently of innocent Iraqi family, I've been forever changed. And their death, the memories of those children and that family, they will follow me. They always will.
STARR (voice-over): When he was in Iraq, Shannon had called in a strike on a building no one knew Iraqi civilians were there. He felt deeply responsible.
(on camera): You and I hadn't talked in, I'd say, a few months and then you suddenly e-mailed me a few weeks ago, late one night.
(voice-over): I asked him to read some of what he sent me.
MEEHAN: It almost feels as if the further I got from Iraq, from the Army, the more my mind would delve itself into it all. Now being completely ripped away from it all by being medically retired, part of me feels that signified the end, the end of it all for me. I finally abandoned them all. The ones we lost and the ones I killed.
I felt like I had this disease inside me, this dark secret. That if anyone back home had known what I had done, there's no way they could accept me. Some day, I would be seen as this monster.
STARR: Shannon says he finally began to see a way ahead with the birth of his son Brady and the support of his wife, A.J.
MEEHAN: And what I was able to realize was that I'm not done yet. My service does not have to end there. I can continue and I will continue to serve.
My name is Shannon Meehan.
STARR: Back in the neighborhood, Shannon hopes by campaigning for votes --
MEEHAN: Thank you very much. I appreciate the support.
STARR: -- he will also find his own way ahead.
MEEHAN: For me, it's an opportunity. It's an opportunity to tell the people of the district who I am and why I want to do this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: All right. Well --
ACOSTA: A great story.
CHETRY: Yes, absolutely. And Barbara joins us now.
It was very interesting, Barbara, that you talked about that e- mail that he sent you, that late-night email, sort of, expressing all of this. How did you guys develop a close relationship like that?
STARR: Well, we had met back at Fort Hood where he was very open, talking about his issues with post-traumatic stress. I have to tell you, it was a couple of weeks ago, I was looking at my BlackBerry before I went to bed. And I was just stunned. I suddenly have this message and it's from Shannon and he's talking about how tough things are and once again, he feels like the bottom is really falling out.
You might wonder why is he taking the risk of running for office, of opening himself up publicly to all of this -- and he says it's because he wants people to know this is what tens and tens of thousands of veterans in this country are dealing with. He is one window into the veterans' community.
And I have to tell you, they are speaking out more. I was telling Jim just a little while ago --
ROBERTS: Right.
STARR: -- a couple days ago, I got another e-mail from a group of Marines returned from Iraq. They had started their own job program to try and train themselves in new vocations, and now, they've been told that their V.A. funding may be cut and they're worried they may be homeless again. They're looking for help.
This is really now windows that we are seeing into the vets from this war and the issues they are really having and they need help.
ACOSTA: And men and women like Shannon, they're the John McCains and John Kerrys of tomorrow. We're going to see more and more veterans from these wars serving in their state legislatures and Congress. And I think that's a good thing for this country, don't you think?
STARR: Oh, I think -- I think absolutely. And they are more willing to talk about what has happened. You know, it's so difficult even for me to talk about this. Shannon has bluntly written and spoken about what it means to pull a trigger and kill in war, and that's something that many veterans want many Americans to know about.
ACOSTA: And we also need to know what they're going through and what they need --
STARR: Absolutely.
ACOSTA: -- down the road. Thank you, Barbara.
CHETRY: Great story, Barbara. Good to see you this morning.
STARR: Thank you.
CHETRY: Thanks.
All right. We're going to take a quick break. Forty-three minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Good morning, Atlanta where it is 30 degrees right now. Pretty chilly, but it's going up to 51, and there will be some sunshine a little bit later today, so something to look forward to.
Meanwhile, welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 46 minutes past the hour right now. It means it's time for your AM House Call, stories about your health, and there are warnings of a malaria risk in Haiti. Health officials say that 11 people now in the U.S. are known to have caught the mosquito borne illness in Haiti after the January earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people. They are mostly emergency responders, and they are expected to recover.
The FDA recalling hundreds of processed foods all manufactured by a Las Vegas company. They found salmonella in a flavor-enhancing ingredient that's used in all of these foods. The flavoring is called hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and it's pretty much found in everything from canned soups and sauces to seasoned snacks and hot dogs. There's no illness or death yet connected to this recall.
Plus, is there someone in your office who never seems to stop talking? I don't know anyone like that around here. Do you? No. It turns out that shoddy co-workers actually could be happier people than you are. Psychologist at the University of Arizona and Washington University in St. Louis tracked a group of volunteers for several days, and they found the happiest people spent 70 percent more time talking, and they had the more deep and meaningful conversations, so you know, it's the Chatty Cathys. We're all really happy inside, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I think you --
CHETRY: And sometimes speechless.
ACOSTA: Speechless which means I'm very unhappy. One person we know who is not happy because he's a bit of a Chatty Cathy from time to time --
CHETRY: Who?
ACOSTA: Would be Rob Marciano.
CHETRY: Oh, Rob is happy as a clam.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: You see he's always happy. Look at him over there.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of happy talk, but I think, Kiran certainly wins the contest there. She's spreading enough love for everybody to be happy on a daily basis.
Good morning, guys. Listen, if you like the cold, you're smiling today, but most folks even for somebody like me who loves the cold pretty much tired of winter. I'm ready for spring, and it's 22, the wind chill, is right now in Atlanta. That's what it feels like. It feels like 43 in Miami. It feels like 28 currently in New York and 20 degrees is the wind chill factor in Boston.
All right. Here's the mild air. It's starting to build into parts of the plains. It will get a little bit farther to the east. We'll start to warm things up, but it's going to very be stubborn in doing that. Also very stubborn, circulation off the ocean seeing some of more snow showers and flurries from Boston, maybe a couple of sprinkles in Hartford and is trying to get New York, but it will have a hard time doing, so mostly just cloudy skies and chilly there.
Significant snow is expected in the Wasatch and the Colorado Rockies, also the T tons of Wyoming (ph), could see 10 to 20 inches in some spots. Fifty-seven degrees expected in Memphis, 68 Dallas, trying to get that warm air to the east, 53 though but is still below average in Atlanta. Hey, congrats. Check out this. Nothing like a rocket launch to get your morning gone.
UNKNOWN MALE: Liftoff of the Delta 4 rocket with goes P.
MARCIANO: All right. That's right, baby. A new weather satellite going into orbit, 22,000 miles up. A geosynchronous satellite can have rotate with the earth. One of many weather satellites we've got up there. This one is going to be able to do the normal thing which is cloud, temperature, monitor ozone as well, but it will also have an x-ray telescope to check out solo flares that are coming off the sun.
CHETRY: That's pretty cool.
MARCIANO: The rocket launch does make you have happy, Kiran, and Jim I -- especially if it's a weather satellite just going up in space.
ACOSTA: Don't we have enough up those weather satellites up there?
CHETRY: Yes, that's what I was going to ask you, does it make you, guys, able to be more accurate with your forecasting those satellites? How helpful is this?
ACOSTA: What are you seeing?
MARCIANO: Here at CNN, it's difficult to be more accurate than we already are , but yes, every little bit helps -- Kiran.
ACOSTA: Exactly.
CHETRY: All right.
ACOSTA: We have the technology.
CHETRY: We sure do. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: See you, guys.
CHETRY: Our top stories just a couple of minutes away including the shootout we've been following at the Pentagon. The gunman killed. We're learning more now about a possible motive, possible conspiracy theories about 9/11, and government resentment. We'll have all the new details live from the Pentagon.
ACOSTA: And at ten minutes after, a group branding the Department of Justice, the Department of Jihad for hiring lawyers who defend Gitmo detainees. Why even some members of the Bush administration say these new ads are over the line?
CHETRY: Also at 25 minutes after the hour, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, her influence on our dealings with Iran. Was she right back when her boss was her primary opponent? Those stories and much more at the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: All right. It's 6:53, 53 minutes past the hour and that means it's time for the Moos News in the Morning. Do you remember the name -- the game Mousetrap?
CHETRY: Yes --
ACOSTA: I remember that game.
CHETRY: I do remember that one. One band made a sort of music video version of the game mousetrap. It's already gone viral, of course. Jeanne Moos shows us the contraption that would make Rube Goldberg rollover.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It takes balls, not to mention Dominos and sledgehammers to make what may be the most mesmerizing music video of the year, and the rock group was called, OK Go, and they went all right.
To condense the action, we have to edit the shots. Their music video "This Too Shall Pass" consist of one single tracking shot of a Rube-Goldberg type contraption that last almost four minutes. The group partnered with 20 engineers from the outfit called Synn Labs who create the installation.
UNKNOWN MALE: We decided to make a video where essentially we have a giant machine that we dance with.
MOOS: The machine took a month and a half to build in a Los Angeles warehouse.
UNKNOWN MALE: It would be great to have the audio cut out at some point and have the machine play some part of the song.
MOOS: It took 60 takes to get completely through the course a couple of times. Usually, something failed before they got a minute into the video, and they would have to reset everything. The group's treadmill video which won a Grammy makes a cameo this time around on the TV screen. Note all of the destroyed TV sets from previous takes in the background. Same for the piano. It went through two. First is back there.
MOOS (on-camera): Doesn't the video remind you a little bit of that old childhood game with different music, of course.
MOOS (voice-over): A shower of umbrellas created by engineers who could design rockets. Their boss says other videos inspired them. For instance, the way things go by a pair of Swiss artists is played with fire, and Peewee Herman played with toast. No egg on the face of the musicians who did this. Just paint.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: That took a lot of effort. Pretty cool, though.
ACOSTA: What was next? A music video of the game operation?
CHETRY: Maybe, but that's going to be harder, though.
ACOSTA: That would be tough. CHETRY: You got to have a steady hand.
ACOSTA: Exactly.
CHETRY: All right. It's 57 minutes after the hour. Three minutes to the top of the hour. We're going to be back in just a moment with your top stories.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
