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American Morning

Harding Tapped for TSA Chief; "Hurt Locker's" Oscar Upset; al Qaeda's American Arrested?; American al Qaeda Nabbed; State Tax Refunds Delayed; Kid Suffers ADHD in Bad Economy

Aired March 08, 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: Well, good morning to you. Thanks for being with us on this Monday. It's March 8th. 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 in the next 15 minutes.

President Obama making his pick for the new chief of the TSA. It's former Army General Robert Harding. The Transportation Security Administration has been without a full time leader since before the president was elected.

What we know about the president's nominee coming up in just a moment.

CHETRY: Confusion this morning surrounding reports of an American al Qaeda leader arrested in Pakistan. Officials there first thought that it (ph) was one of the FBI's Most Wanted, Adam Gadahn. There are new details, though, emerging that this could be all a case of mistaken identity.

We're live with the latest developments.

ROBERTS: The hangover now settling in in Hollywood. Oscar night is history, and history was made. We had the first female Best Director and one very surprised Best Actress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDRA BULLOCK, BEST ACTRESS: Did really earn this or did I just wear you all down?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: We'll have all the big winners and the highlights from Hollywood coming right up.

But, first this morning, we begin the hour with a retired Army general tapped by President Obama to become the new head of the Transportation Security Administration. He is Robert A. Harding, a 33-year Army veteran who has been nominated to a post that hasn't had a permanent leader since before the president took office.

Let's bring in our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve. She's live in Washington this morning.

And what do we know about General Harding at this point?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, General Harding has a very strong background in intelligence. We have a picture of him here.

He served for four years as director of operations at the Defense Intelligence Agency where he managed more than $1 billion intelligence collection program. He held a variety of intelligence jobs in the military prior to that, including sometime coordinating sensitive interagency counter-drug operations. After his retirement from the military, he founded a company which provided security solutions to the U.S. intelligence and defense community.

What you do not see on his resume, however, is any indication that he's worked in the aviation or transportation area or that he's had much interaction with the private sector. But apparently, the administration may be underlining the intelligence part of this job after that attempted bombing on Christmas Day, John.

ROBERTS: And, Jeanne, remind us why there has not been a permanent administrator at the TSA since before the president was elected.

MESERVE: Well, the Obama administration has gotten a little heat for all of this. It took until September to nominate Erroll Southers for the post. He eventually withdrew after questions were raised about a personnel action taken against him years ago. But even before that issue arose, Senator Jim DeMint had put a hold on his nomination over fears the Obama was intent on unionizing the TSA workforce.

We don't yet know that issue was going to play out with the Harding nomination. But Harding selection came very quickly on the heels of Southers' withdrawal. An administration official says if there ever was a nominee that warranted -- expatiated by detailed consideration in the Senate, this guy's it -- John.

ROBERTS: Jeanne Meserve for us this morning in Washington -- Jeanne, thanks.

MESERVE: You bet.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Some other stories new this morning.

At least six small villages in eastern Turkey have been severely damaged by a magnitude 5.0 earthquake that hit overnight. The government says more than 50 people were killed in that quake, the quake hit while most people were sleeping. It's been reported that there have been some 40 aftershocks, powerful ones, that followed.

ROBERTS: Many Haitians say they are anxious about what's next as American troops start withdrawing from Port-au-Prince. U.N. peacekeepers and police are now in-charge of maintaining order there. More than half a million people are still living in tent cities after January's devastating earthquake -- and to make matters worse, the rainy season has set in.

CHETRY: Just to clarify, there was a 5.8 magnitude quake in Turkey. So, nearly a six.

We have a quick "A.M. Follow-up" for you this morning. Two IT workers for school district outside of Philadelphia are now on paid leave. They work for the Lower Merion School District which is being sued for using webcams on school-issued laptops to spy on students at Harriton High School. A district official says that the two IT workers activated the webcams to try to find the laptops that were missing. They're still stressing that they did nothing wrong. But the FBI is now investigating the case.

ROBERTS: New this morning: a $10,000 reward for the hockey stick that was used by Sidney Crosby to win the Olympic gold medal for Canada in Vancouver. Sid, the kid, through his stick in the air during the wild celebration that followed his goal, and now, the stick is missing. Reebok made it. They are offering the reward, no questions asked. Memorabilia experts say while the reward is $10,000, the stick itself could be worth 50 grand or more.

CHETRY: How do you smuggle a hockey stick out of there without being noticed? It was the Olympics.

ROBERTS: There are a lot of hockey sticks, I guess. Who know -- somebody obviously who had access to the ice.

CHETRY: Yes.

ROBERTS: So -- could it have been a fellow player, could have been a referee, could have been some other kind of official, could have been an arena worker.

CHETRY: Maybe somebody made off with it in the Zamboni.

ROBERTS: Don't know. Maybe scooped it up in the Zamboni. There you go.

CHETRY: There you go.

Well, Kathryn Bigelow is queen of the world this morning. She won the battle of the exes, I guess, you could say, because she beat out her ex-husband, James Cameron, to become the first woman to win Best Director at the Oscars in its 82-year history.

ROBERTS: And that was only the beginning of a historic night. Our Kareen Wynter has got all the highlights for us from Hollywood.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The lights, the cameras, the action. It's why nearly 2,000 journalists flocked to the red carpet to capture the glamour and millions of people around the world tune in to watch the drama unfold at the Academy Awards.

Oscar's biggest showdown? Best Picture.

TOM HANKS, ACTOR: And the winner is -- "The Hurt Locker."

WYNTER: A small budget movie with a huge impact blew out nine other Best Picture contenders to take home the night's top prize.

MARK BOAL, PRODUCER, "THE HURT LOCKER": This was really, truly, honestly, never part of anything we even imagined in our wildest dreams.

WYNTER: In all, "The Hurt Locker" swept six categories, including Best Director. Kathryn Bigelow made history by becoming the first woman ever to win the directing Oscar.

KATHRYN BIGELOW, BEST DIRECTOR: There's no other way to describe it. It's the moment of a lifetime.

WYNTER: In the acting face-off, Sandra Bullock won Best Actress for playing a tough-talking mother in "The Blind Side."

BULLOCK: You threaten my son, you threaten me.

Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?

WYNTER: Bullock emotionally shared the honor with her fellow nominees, including Meryl Streep who received her record 16th Oscar nomination as Julie Child in "Julie & Julia" and with whom Bullock has an ongoing faux feud.

BULLOCK: I thank you so much with this opportunity that I shared with these extraordinary women and my lover, Meryl Streep, thank you.

WYNTER: Actor Jeff Bridges widely considered the frontrunner in the Best Actor race finished first and won his first Oscar for his performance as a hard-drinking country singer in "Crazy Heart." Bridges remembered his late parents whose footsteps he followed into acting.

JEFF BRIDGES, BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE: I feel an extension of them. You know, this is honoring them as much as it is me.

WYNTER: The Best Supporting Actress showdown was no surprise. Comedian Mo'Nique captured the gold with her dramatic performance in "Precious." Mo'Nique paid tribute to the first African-American awarded an Oscar.

MO'NIQUE, BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: I want to thank Miss Hattie McDaniel for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to.

WYNTER: Austrian actor Christoph Waltz took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds."

CHRISTOPH WALTZ, BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Oscar and Penelope, that's an uber-bingo.

WYNTER: So, where do the stars celebrate Oscar gold? First stop, the Governor's Ball.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But now, we celebrate.

BRIDGES: Yes, now. There you go.

BULLOCK: I don't know how I came home with Oscar.

WYNTER: Kareen Wynter, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: There you go. And there's actually one more piece of history to tell you about. Sandra Bullock actually became the first person to win an Oscar and a Razzie. Razzie Awards are given to the worse. They say they salute the best of the worst, essentially going from worst to first. Bullock's Razzie, by the way, came for her work in a romantic comedy. Did you see this one, "All About Steve"?

ROBERTS: No. I missed -- you know, I almost picked it on an airplane last week and decided, no, I would go for something else.

CHETRY: And she actually was only the second actress to actually show up to accept her Razzie. She says her Razzie will go in the shelf near but below her Oscar. I think it was also Halle Berry who accepted her Razzie in person.

ROBERTS: I'll tell you, there were some terrific performances in films this year. Sandra Bullock, Christoph Waltz, what an amazing part that he played as Hans Landa in "Inglourious Basterds," and as well, Jeff Bridges, you know, sang all the songs himself and done a great job.

CHETRY: He was.

It was interesting, they also pointed out that there weren't as many A-list stars and they're going to see whether or not it affected the ratings last night. But, besides Sandra Bullock and George Clooney and a few others, there were not a lot of Hollywood A-listers nominated this year.

ROBERTS: Nice though that they celebrated good films.

CHETRY: Yes.

ROBERTS: It's always important.

CHETRY: Of course.

ROBERTS: Rob Marciano is celebrating the weather across the country, got some nice weather here in New York. But it's not nice everywhere.

Hey, Rob. ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No. You know, Sandra Bullock, she just won me over, you know? Anybody that shows up to the Razzies, she doesn't take herself too seriously.

CHETRY: That's right. And I'm sure you didn't need helping won over by Halle Berry, right? Because she did, too.

MARCIANO: Yes, who needs that? Come on. Halle is Halle.

Let's go over the weather here. We got a little storm rolling across parts of the southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, Arizona, heading to the Texas. This will develop and get some moisture with it and it's going to create some rain across much of the south, slowly but surely over the next few days. So, we'll see a bit of a change in the weather pattern because of that.

But the only change in the east coast today is that your temperatures will be a couple degrees warmer than they were yesterday, teasing the 70-degree mark here in Atlanta and teasing the 60-degree mark in New York.

It's been a long time coming, guys. Spring is almost here, and a little taste of it for you on this Monday. We'll talk more weather in about 30 minutes -- John, Kiran.

ROBERTS: I guess those groundhogs were right and wrong. There's lots of snow. But now, it seems to be warming up.

Thanks, Rob.

CHETRY: All right. Well, there has been some confusion and we're trying to break it down for you this morning. Claims that an al Qaeda, American al Qaeda spokesman was arrested in Pakistan and there are other Pakistani intelligence officers saying that perhaps it was a case of mistaken identity. The U.S. intelligence community meanwhile is not saying anything about this. But we're going to get the latest information.

Ten minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.

Confusion this morning over claims one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, American-born Adam Gadahn, has been captured. Now, Gadahn is an American al Qaeda spokesman. Pakistani officials first said they nabbed him yesterday. This morning, there are reports that it may be a mistake of -- a case of mistaken identity.

Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is live in London.

I know you've been working your sources and there is some conflicting information out there. What's the latest? NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, I think, the sort of latest take away from this at the moment is the silence that we're hearing from Islamabad in Pakistan. We had the these two government sources, well-placed sources, tell us that it is Adam Gadahn, the American al Qaeda, the propaganda -- the English propaganda arm of al Qaeda, if you will, that has been arrested. In fact, they say this is a -- this is a big deal for them. And they believe that they are turning the tables on terrorism and that this is something that they want to be recognized by their friends, meaning the United States.

But the fact that their silence today, daytime in Pakistan, and that we haven't heard any confirmation from U.S. officials, clearly throws doubt on it. And there's just confusion that maybe there is another American al Qaeda with a similar name who was picked up in Karachi. Of course, you could look at it and say, why would intelligence officials want this information out there? Because the longer they can keep it quiet that Gadahn has been captured, they can use any information from him to their advantage. So, you could see as well that this may be an intentional smoke screen, and, of course, we're working to try and cut through that right now, Kiran.

CHETRY: And as you mentioned, it's daytime there. You'd think that there would be more information coming out. Do you expect to hear something else today?

ROBERTSON: I think it's reasonable to expect to get some sort of clarification. There are a number of Pakistani officials you would expect to comment on this and I would expect to hear something from one of them later in the day. But again, you know, when we're seeing senior al Qaeda people captured in the past, sometimes, it's weeks, often months, before we get confirmation that they have been captured because they're such high value in intelligence terms. It's maybe happening this time.

CHETRY: Of course.

CHETRY: And also, if it's yet another American, where do we go from here? Are Pakistanis in charge and what kind of rights would he have there? What kind of ability to bring this person, this suspect, back to the U.S.?

ROBERTSON: Well, Pakistanis have in the past been pretty good about handing over suspects like this American al Qaeda figures back to U.S. custody. They will want to keep him for a while. They will want to question him for a while, but there would be a lot of pressure to hand him over to U.S. authorities so that he could be questioned.

Look back to just over a year ago when Briant Nelvenus, American al Qaeda captured after going to al Qaeda camps in Pakistan, handed over to U.S. authorities and given over 100 interviews to the FBI. And if Gadahn has been in fact captured, that is going to be his future. He's going to be getting a lot of those interviews, building a relationship and trust with him with the investigators who are talking to him and trying to tease out and get information from him that could lead to Bin Laden, that could lead to others in al Qaeda. The message here for al Qaeda whether or not it's Gadahn, they are not as safe in Pakistan as they used to be, and that does appear to be because Pakistani officials are pushing and chasing them harder than they have in the past -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right, Nic Robertson working your sources today. We'll check in with you throughout the day. Thank you.

ROBERTS: Well, you early birds who have completed your income tax returns may be saying, hey, where is my refund? We are finding out that state tax refunds may be delayed for many people.

We'll give you the whole story coming right up. Seventeen minutes now after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Nineteen minutes after the hour now. Christine Romans here "Minding Your Business" and she is talking tax returns, and some states are saying there may be a little bit of delay before people get their money back.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you will hear some say things like, we promise we have minimal delay with your state tax refunds, which means, they are going to keep your money for a while longer. And here's why. Think of it as a no interest loan to your state that have you no control over, whatsoever. It's because so many of these states are literally broke that they need to keep a hold of your money a little bit longer. And in some of the states they have furloughed so many state workers they don't have the hands on deck to actually process all of the refunds that they are going to be doing.

So Hawaii has already said that it's going to delay its tax refund until July 1st. The reason why, because of the current fiscal situation. You are going to be hearing that. If they can keep your money for a little bit longer, that is going to help them in their budget to the tune of about $275 million towards balancing the state budget.

Also, North Carolina said that it's going to have to slow its refunds. It's going to monitor this really on a week by week basis. But again it's the affects of the slow economy and the department is managing the distribution of refunds as a result. They are not going to be able to give you an estimated timeframe. There are other states as well that this is happening in. Some of them are saying we are not telling you that we are going to keep your money a little longer, but you should know we might have to keep your money a little bit longer. The bottom line here is that they don't have money to give back to you quite yet. They need to keep a hold of your taxes for a little bit longer.

ROBERTS: Hawaii, they are doing the furlough Friday, where I think 17 of them, where they just can't afford to keep -- they are trying to save money by just having people have Fridays off. ROMANS: This is all about jobs. I mean, we have never seen such a collapse in tax receipts for these states since going back to the 1930s. If you don't have jobs you are not paying your state income taxes, of course not all states have state income taxes. But, you are not paying into the state, and you are not paying as much for a lot of other kinds of taxes, including real estate taxes and the like. And it's just really tough. It's just going to be tough this year. And it's going to be tough -- it's going to be tough next year as well.

ROBERTS: You have a Romans numeral for us this morning?

ROMANS: I do. Bring it up and I will show it to you. I can't even see it here. The Romans numeral is --

ROBERTS: Six months?

ROMANS: Six months. If you would like to keep a hold of your money for a little bit longer, you can file an extension and they will give you another six months. If you have your own budget crisis you need to be thinking right now about filing an extension. Another quick point I want to add up, you could write off expenses on your income taxes, and you can write off expenses related to your job search. We are going to talk more about that in the coming weeks as we head into tax time. But keep track of everything you are spending trying to find a job. Because you need to be writing these off in your taxes.

ROBERTS: All right, Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning. Thank you so much. Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, he was destined for a civilian courtroom, but the Obama administration may be doing a 180, and thinking about sending him into a military courtroom. Is it the right decision? Former CIA officers debate that topic coming right up.

Twenty-two minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: It's 25 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.

Top stories just five minutes away. But first, an AM original, it's something you will see only on American Morning. And today part one of an emotional series we are calling "Saving Carlos." Carlos is a little boy who suffers from ADHD including severe anxiety.

ROBERTS: His family does not have health insurance and relies on the public mental health system. But now, a broke state may be taking out a mortgage on Carlos's future. Thelma Gutierrez has got his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): South Los Angeles, a community of working class families hit hard by the economy. As a parent, I often wonder what I would do if one of my kids needed mental health care and I could not afford it. I met a boy here who is trapped in that very predicament.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): This is where he lives. And this is his story.

CARLOS, PATIENT: My name is Carlos. I am 8 years old.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Carlos lives here with his sister and parents, and they are unemployed, uninsured and barely scraping by.

CARLOS: I am going to show you where I sleep. My dad sleeps here and my mom sleeps there, and I always dream about my house being clean, really clean.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): Do you want it to be big?

CARLOS: Shiny big. That way, when someone comes, they could get impressed by that.

GUTIERREZ: You want someone to come and be impressed by your house?

(voice-over): Among Carlos' many challenges in life, he also suffers from severe anxiety and ADHD.

(on camera): So, you where talking about the things that you wish you could change. What would you change?

CARLOS: I would change my life.

GUTIERREZ: Your changed your life?

CARLOS: I dreamed about -- I was going to change my life.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): We caught a glimpse into why at St. John's Community Clinic in South Los Angeles. This is where he regularly meets with Elena Fernandez, Director of Behavioral Health. She is trying to unlock the causes of his angst.

ELENA FERNANDEZ, DIRECTOR OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH: Choose one marker.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): Elena's about to begin an art therapy session with Carlos to help him express things that are going on in his life. You might be wondering why a family would allow a camera into a private therapy session like this, but Carlos' mother says she believes it's critical that people understand how important these services are.

FERNANDEZ: There are family fights? Is that what is happening in this picture here?

CARLOS: Yes. This is my mom and this is my dad.

FERNANDEZ: That's your dad. How does that make you feel?

CARLOS: Sad. I cry. GUTIERREZ: Carlos tells Elena his dad used to drink and that led to fighting between mom and dad. And he said at home there was no escape. That was six months ago.

FERNANDEZ: Now what do you tell them?

CARLOS: I tell them not to fight. I tell them, if you fight, I am out of here.

FERNANDEZ: He first came to me because he was having lots of problems at home and mom did not know how to modify his behavior, and the teacher was frustrated and did not know how to help Carlos, and was basically just writing him up or sending him to the office and wanting him out of the classroom instead of working with him.

GUTIERREZ: Carlos' mom, Leticia, tells me, she worries her son was being written off at the age of 8. He felt labeled as a bad kid and rejected by his teacher.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does he have insurance? Leticia says she knew he needed mental health care, and so she searched for a program that would accept Medical, a state public health program for the poor.

FERNANDEZ: So, Leticia says she tried really hard to get Carlos help. She says, she took him to four different clinics, and each time she was told he did not qualify, because he was not considered an emergency.

GUTIERREZ: Carlos would have to be physically violent or suicidal to get help. It sounds extreme, but an official with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health told us that right now clinics are so overloaded and underfunded they are having to triage children, so that means kids like Carlos who need ongoing therapy are not a priority.

FERNANDEZ: The session today was very positive.

GUTIERREZ: After nearly a year of searching, Leticia finally found St. John, a free clinic.

FERNANDEZ: And that is what he was able to express. He was able to express the anxiety he feels when his family fights.

GUTIERREZ: If Carlos were not able to come to a therapy session would he be at risk?

FERNANDEZ: Of course he would be at risk. He would be at risk behaviorally, and academically.

GUTIERREZ: But now St. John's and other clinics like it are also facing California's breezing budget cuts. Will Carlos be next? Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: And tomorrow we will also take a look at the debate over whether it is the state's responsibility to pick up the bill, and also what the mental health of thousands of kids like Carlos is worth to taxpayers.

ROBERTS: Half past the hour now. A story developing in Washington at the moment, retired army General Robert Harding will be nominated later on today. Harding is a retired major general with 33 years of service. The TSA has been without a permanent chief since the end of the Bush administration.

CHETRY: Defense Chief Robert Gates is in Afghanistan right now. He arrived unannounced this morning to get an update on the massive U.S. campaign to root out Taliban fighters in the town of Marjah. Secretary Gates is scheduled to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the U.S. commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal.

ROBERTS: And early results from Iraq's national election are expected to be released in the next few days. Millions of people went to the polls yesterday despite a wave of violence that killed more than 30 people.

Earlier I spoke with General Ray Odierno, the commanding general of the multinational force in the Iraq, and asked him whether the U.S. forces are prepared to handle any violence in the months it could take to form a new government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. RAY ODIERNO, COMMANDING GENERAL, MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: We are working hard with the government in Iraq in order to insure that security will continue at this time. And I think they have a good plan in place and we are working with the Iraqi security forces in order to sustain security during this key piece of time as they form the government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: President Obama praised the Iraqis for the courage yesterday and reiterated that, quote, "By the end of the next year, all U.S. troops will be out of Iraq."

Back here at home, time is running out of to debate where accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and four other suspects should be tried. The initial plan for the Obama administration was a civilian trail here in New York City. It's still facing a fierce backlash. And now the president is said to be considering a move to a military court.

Joining me now, two former CIA officers with two very different opinions on this, Gary Bertsen, who wants a military trial, and Jack Rice who is calling for a civilian trial.

Gary, let's start with you.

GARY BERTSEN, FORMER CIA OFFICER: First off, the military is prepared with their case. They had their case ready to go. A civilian case will take another three years to prepare.

The second issue is that under a military trial, Al Qaeda won't receive the transcripts of the case, and they won't see all of it out in the open, and intelligence sources and methods will not be exposed to them.

Al Qaeda goes on the Internet and looks at the cases, and the military tribunal won't have access to that, and neither will Khalid Sheikh Mohammed nor his lawyer will have access to all the information against him.

We have to remember that we are at war with these guys, and we have to hold this information close. Yes, some civilian trials have worked in the past against terrorists -- I'm not saying they haven't. But the problem is no one is measuring how often Al Qaeda uses that information against us.

ROBERTS: Jack Rice, give me the flipside of that argument.

JACK RICE, FORMER CIA OFFICER: The other side is there have been more than 300 prosecutions in civilian courts, more than 90 percent of them have been convicted. Richard Reid is spending life in prison in Colorado. There have been three, count them, three, military tribunals, and two of those they received less than one year and they are actually out.

The idea of dealing with classified information, that can be protected and certainly be limited in terms of the dissemination anyway. As a former prosecutor, that is absolutely the case.

But the biggest reason is you have far more experience from prosecutors in lower Manhattan. This is what they do. You can do the same thing in Alexandria. They are more effective, and I am frankly more confident in not just a transparent trial but a good trial for the world, not just for us.

ROBERTS: Gary was shaking his head, Jack, when you are talking about protecting information. Speak to that, Gary, but also speak to this idea that Jack raised that there have been very successful prosecutions of terrorists in civilian courts.

BERTSEN: The prosecutions have been successful, but full exploitation of what these terrorists know has not been exploited. We have to remember we are at war with non-state actors. This is different. The legal system has not caught up to the situation we're in and we will have to redesign how we prosecute these guys.

Going into civilian trials is fine -- excuse me, military trials is fine.

ROBERTS: But where has the civilian court system fallen down?

BERTSEN: First off, it's going to take time. The security costs in New York, nobody, not even Chuck Schumer, the lead Democrat in the state wants these people here. The mayor has backed away from this. The costs are enormous. Security is a major problem. And the reality is, they will go and look at this stuff. We have not been protecting information from these trials. When I went up there and captured these guys out in Kabul back in 2001, we had transcripts, our stuff, we found all of our papers from our legal cases in their safe houses. They had it all.

ROBERTS: Speak to those aspects of this, Jack. Officials in New York City do not want Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tried here, and this idea that Gary was there in country finding transcripts of civilian proceedings that the terrorists were looking at.

RICE: First of all, I think the Democrats are pandering. Not all of them, but a lot of leadership is pandering in this case.

Sadly, I think they are far more effective, meaning the civilian ones. But let's get specific regarding the transcripts that were seen. That seems to be a failure.

At the same time, we have to contemplate what it is we can do in a civilian courtroom. We can limit the access to those transcripts, and we can limit the kinds of information that gets out.

Let's go back to 1993 with the Khalid Sheikh Muhammad case, the blind sheikh. You can handle that case. If we talk about the ability to get all of the information, let's take a look at Abdulmutallab. That's a case that was given to a civilian courtroom, and in fact that guy bellied up absolutely and completely.

Guess what, that is success. If you can kind that success, then you go for it. If the only other alternative is a military one, it seems to me that that is a situation of last resort, not of first resort.

ROBERTS: Gary, one other point that we should make. Senator Lindsay Graham, who is seen as the architect of this whole thing is trying to make a deal with President Obama to say if you put Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in a military tribunal I will stand with you in supporting the closure of Guantanamo Bay detention center.

How important is Gitmo in all of this?

BERTSEN: I am less concerned about where they are tried or where they're held, but the fact that they are held and that we stop releasing the people. Both the Bush administration and the Obama administration was releasing these people in large numbers and many of them have come back to the battlefield. This has been amateur hour ion dealing with these guys.

I want to keep them in the military system because we are at war with them. Whether in Gitmo or somewhere in the United States, I am not concerned about that.

ROBERTS: Interesting perspective. Gary Bertsen, Jack Rice, great to see you this morning, thank you for joining us -- Kiran.

CHETRY: We will take a quick break. When we come back, the president hits the road and he is making his case for health care and setting out a time line of sorts, but is it realistic? We're going to check in with the White House in just a moment. It's 37 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.

President Obama will hit the road this week trying to close the deal on health care reform. He wants a bill passed this month, and he says it's with or without Republicans.

But even some Democrats are sounding skeptical about the timetable. Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House this morning. And Suzanne, is the president being realistic with this timetable, wanting to get it through Congress by March?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, he may think he's king of the road, but there are a lot of lawmakers, Democrats included, that don't think that is necessarily is realistic and going to happen.

But here's the goal for the administration. They want at least part one to get done before he leaves for Australia and Indonesia next Thursday, for the House to go ahead and pass the Senate version.

If that slips, and they expect it could slip, the president's strategy is to essentially try to push members of Congress to capitalize at least off the momentum, build off the momentum the president has been building over the last couple weeks to try to get this done as quickly as possible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (voice-over): The administration insists there's no deadline for passing a health care bill -- Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services secretary.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: What we're talking about, as the president said, is finishing the job, and the urgency, the timetable, is not about some Congressional time clock.

MALVEAUX: But time may be running out to resuscitate health care reform. In fact, President Obama is on the road this week with town hall meetings in Philadelphia and St. Louis to convince the American people that a health care overhaul has to happen now.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If we let this opportunity pass for another year, or another decade, or another generation, more Americans will lose their family's health insurance if they switch jobs or lose their job. More small businesses will be forced to choose between health care and hiring.

More insurance companies will raise premiums and deny coverage, and the rising cost of Medicare and Medicaid will sink our government deeper and deeper into debt.

MALVEAUX: It's a tough sell to voters and lawmakers alike, who worry about the effect on patient choice and the plan's price tag.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: This is a bill that should not be passed. It is not going to improve American health care. It will raid Medicare, raise taxes, raise premiums. We ought to be going step by step to fix the cost problem.

MALVEAUX: And the possibility that Democrats may use a process known as reconciliation to limit debate on the bill has angered many Republicans.

SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R), UTAH: What they're trying to do is put through a bill that the American public doesn't want by a totally partisan vote, and that's not what reconciliation is all about.

MALVEAUX: Democrats hope they have the votes to pass a bill, but some in the president's own party remain skeptical. And with midterm elections coming in November, many are unsure just how they'll vote.

REP. JASON ALTMIRE (D), PENNSYLVANIA: In the end I have to make a decision between passing this bill, this is the finish line, or doing nothing. And I'm weighing the balance between the two.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: And, Kiran, that really is kind of a thought among a lot of lawmakers. I had a chance to speak to one of those House Democrats who's have a tough time saying, look, if they don't get that passed in the next couple weeks, they go on Easter recess, and a lot of them expect they will get an earful from their constituents that don't think this is a good idea. That will make it more difficult for this administration to push forward on health care reform. Kiran?

CHETRY: Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning at the White House. Thanks.

ROBERTS: Spring-like temperatures as far as Boston and places like that. How long will they last? Rob Marciano is tracking the weather and joins us in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Good morning to folks in the Mile-High City today; Denver, Colorado mostly cloudy right now in 41 and later on today, afternoon showers and a high of 47. Well, lots of bad weather across the midsection and the western part of the country.

Our Rob Marciano is tracking the weather. And going to impact some travel in parts of the country as well, Rob, I would imagine?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. Hi John and hi Kiran, another nice day for the East Coast, but there are spots out West. In the Midwest where we're going to see some issues some fog across the northern tier. And this storm, which brought some snow to Arizona and New Mexico in the past couple of days now, heading into the plains. It may trigger some severe weather over the next day or two.

It's certainly tapping into some Gulf of Mexico of moisture. And before it did that, though, some moisture in the form snow falling in the places like, well, the Arizona Snow Bowl, a foot there. Ski Santa Fe, 9 inches; Durango and the Grand Canyon and even the Ski Las Vegas seeing some.

All right the radar, beginning shape up a little bit here across the plain so rain developing and most of the rain snow line is lifted well to the north. So we're not going to see unusual amounts of snow out of this, that's for sure. Unusual amount of fog though from Minneapolis back to Chicago, so if you're traveling through those two hub cities, I think you may see a little bit of delays at least in the morning.

New York might see some delays especially at JFK with the onslaught of some wind but a warm breeze. And Denver may see some visibility issues with those showers.

60 degrees is expected in Dallas today, 57 degrees so another nice day in New York and 69 degrees in Atlanta.

I want to touch on one thing, the month of February, we only saw one tornado that was in California. It was unbelievably rare. As we head into March and April, the problems spots is typically in the Tennessee Valley and the mid south, so we'll watch for that but hopefully our luck caries forward into the next month and to have that quiet a severe weather season is February is pretty rare at least in Florida. It should have been more -- a little bit more active than that -- they'll take it -- John and Kiran back up to you.

ROBERTS: Exactly, less active is good. Rob, thanks so much.

MARCIANO: You bet.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, still ahead we're going to be talking about sleep habits and how there are actually differences among ethnic groups. It's a fascinating study and also some tips for people struggling to get a good night sleep.

It's 48 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to "The Most News in the Morning". 51 minutes past the hour.

It's time for you "A.M. House Call" stories about your health. And nowadays we're all struggling to get a few more hours of shut eye.

JOHNS: But a new poll reveals that race plays a major role and how much sleep we get each night. Our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen joins us now. I got an hour and 15 minutes last night --

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. ROBERTS: -- who is getting the least amount of sleep there, Elizabeth?

COHEN: John, I think you're getting the least amount of sleep. That's really terrible.

What this poll found is that African-Americans get significantly less sleep than white Americans. Let's take a look at these numbers because there's a pretty big difference.

According to this poll, white Americans get six hours and 52 minutes of sleep and African-Americans are getting six hours and 14 minutes. That is during a regular week night -- not Oscar night, I should add -- during the regular week night.

Now, Latin-Americans are somewhere in the middle and Asian- Americans are getting more sleep than anyone else.

CHETRY: So why is that?

COHEN: You know, it's interesting there are probably are a variety of reasons why African-Americans are getting less sleep than everyone else. But some of it probably has to do with the economy. In the survey they asked folks about their concerns over certain issues and what they found is that African-Americans lose sleep over money issues more than other groups.

If you take a look at these numbers: whites said that they were losing sleep over money concerns, seven -- six percent of them were, but 12 percent for African-Americans. And then there's also employment concerns; concerns about losing your job. And when you look at white Americans, seven percent of them are losing sleep because they are concern about losing their job, but 10 percent of African-Americans.

So in some ways the economy kind of tells the story.

ROBERTS: Interesting differences there. So what kind of advice do you have for people who are trying to get a good night's sleep?

COHEN: All right, well, here's some advice from the National Sleep Foundation, I am sure we've heard many of these before, but it's always good to be reminded. First of all, have a consistent bedtime. If you're going to go to sleep at 11:00, go to sleep at 11:00 every night. You have to set that body clock.

Second of all, go to sleep in a cool, dark and quiet bedroom. Also, write a worry list before you go to bed, I thought this was a great idea. Have a piece of paper and a pen write down everything that's worrying you, and promise yourself I'll deal with this in the morning not while I'm sleeping.

ROBERTS: I've heard that tip, when you say, ok, I'm going to go to sleep here and I let my mind work on all of that while I'm asleep and I'll figure it all out in the morning but --

CHETRY: Yes.

ROBERTS: -- my -- my mind never trust my mind to work on it while I'm asleep so --

CHETRY: You can't keep in mind and then ---

COHEN: No, I don't think we think well, when we're asleep.

ROBERTS: Exactly.

CHETRY: I don't know, we were joking on it, if I had to write a worry list of all the things I worry about, I will never get to sleep.

ROBERTS: Can you imagine.

CHETRY: It would be like --

ROBERTS: And maybe if you have to something tangible down on paper as well, my gosh, that just adds to the anxiety. Thanks, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Thank you.

ROBERTS: It's 54 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: We've got about three minutes to the top of the hour, which means it's time for "The Moost News in the Morning".

Police officers are trained to be ready for just about anything.

CHETRY: They expect to deal with drunk people, sometimes violent arrests. But how about a squirrel hiding in a woman's cleavage? Maybe they should have called animal control instead.

Here's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They nibble, they scratch, you may even have seen one water ski, but a squirrel popping out of cleavage? Somebody call the police. Wait a minute, she is with the police being interviewed by a detective.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I was not prepared to see a woodland creature in the interview room.

MOOS: Popping out of a tank top, the woman came to Warren, Ohio police as a character witness vouching for a murder suspect. Whenever the squirrel popped out during the interview she gently pushed him back in.

Reminds us of the Web site Cute Overload which has a whole section called Cats n Rack featuring cats being clutched to bosoms as well as ferrets, ducks and yes, squirrels. But the cats really seemed to know how to push our buttons.

Most men realize they are supposed to resist staring at cleavage. Hey, buddy my eyes are up here. And the Detective Mackey did his very best.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just kept right on talking to her and listening to her. I did not acknowledge it at all. I really did not know what to say.

MOOS: And she never acknowledged the squirrel either, unlike that Disney show where squirrels get in a girl's pants resulting in a rap dance.

But squirrels in your pants pale compared to a giant Burmese python up a weather man's shorts at the Iowa state fair. And then there was the guy who got caught with 14 live birds under his pants in pink and white wraps attached to his calves. He was arrested for smuggling songbirds into the U.S.

But there's no law against having squirrels in your cleavage. Anyway, it's a lot easier to squirrel away than to have a Burmese python pulling your leg.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: I don't know which one is worse.

ROBERTS: Given the choice between that and a leaf nest, well you can't blame the squirrel.

CHETRY: Yes, I guess so. Nice and warm. I will leave it there.

Well, we are going to continue the conversation on today's stories in just a moment. You have to go to our blog though, cnn.com/amFix.

That's going to do it for us for a Monday. Hope to see you back here tomorrow.

ROBERTS: The news continues on CNN with Kyra Phillips in the "CNN NEWSROOM" -- good morning, Kyra.