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American Morning
New Jersey Clean-up Continues After the Storm; NOAA Predicts Historic Flood in Spring; Eric Holder Remarks on Osama bin Laden's Fate Stirs Controversy; Tea Partiers Protest Health Care Reform; Beware of Tax Scams; Washington's Political Powerhouse
Aired March 17, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, top of the morning to you. Thanks for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING on this Wednesday, March the 17th, St. Patrick's Day. It's wearing of the green today.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Of course, everyone is Irish for one day.
ROBERTS: Exactly. It's a day when you're either Irish or you want to be, right?
CHETRY: Exactly.
ROBERTS: I'm John Roberts. Good morning to you.
CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. Thanks for being with us. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
A warning that this is only the beginning as volunteers stack up a million sandbags in Fargo, North Dakota. Forecasters are saying that the U.S. will face a historic flood threat this spring. The water could rise in 35 states and it's already happening in some as you can see from these pictures. Our Rob Marciano will show us who's at risk and the destruction of the wild weather has already caused.
ROBERTS: The attorney general stuns lawmakers by predicting Osama bin Laden's years in the run will end with the United States, quote, "reading Miranda rights to his corpse." We're live in Washington with the details of this eye-popping admission.
CHETRY: And Republicans united. The party comes together to take on the Democrats' plan to get health care reform through Congress. Hundreds of conservative protesters rallied in the capitol with one simple message, kill the bill. Will it work though? Our D.C. team is tracking all sides of the story.
ROBERTS: We begin this morning, though, with damaging and potentially historic flooding while the upper Midwest tries to protect itself in rising rivers. In the northeast, it's going to be days before the water recedes in some neighborhoods. Raging rivers have swallowed hundreds of homes. Trees are down and the power is still out in a lot of places after the monster weekend storm. Anthony Johnson from our affiliate WABC is in Paterson, New Jersey, this morning. ANTHONY JOHNSON, WABC: Good morning everybody. They're calling this the worst winter rainstorm in the state's history. I'm standing in New Jersey's third largest city of Paterson. This is the Passaic River, the actual banks of the river about a mile from where I am standing.
And the situation is the same. All around the state as a result of this weekend's terrible rainstorm, high winds, a lot of rain, up to eight inches of rain in some places in the state. The winds actually snapped trees just like toothpicks and those trees came down on power lines leaving hundreds of thousands of people across the state of New Jersey without power still to this very day.
Tens of thousands of people are without power. Utility crews are coming in from different areas of the country to help the local utilities restore power. But the problem has been massive. The governor has declared a state of emergency. He is going to be touring many locations in the state today to look at all the damage. Hopefully the state of New Jersey will be able to get some assistance from the federal government as it tries to recover from this.
A lot of people have been evacuated from homes. A lot of people live along the riverbeds and they had to be taken out. Some people tried to stay in their houses but at this point in time, a lot of those folks are admitting that they regret it. Some houses have up to five feet of water inside of them and it looks like it could be days before the water actually starts to recede.
John and Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: Anthony, thanks. You can see right behind him there the streets just simply still waterlogged. All of this comes as forecasters are issuing an urgent message to millions of people this morning. And that's get ready for potentially historic flooding. From the east to the upper Midwest and across the south from Texas to Florida, parts of 35 states could be in danger this spring.
Rob Marciano live in Atlanta with the look at who's at risk in the damaging extreme weather has already left behind. And just in those pictures alone, the raging Passaic River, you can see it, it literally looks like a waterfall there. But it's very interesting. Is it normal to get this type of warning early in the season?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, the setup is what's been here. I mean, we've had an unusually wet and some cases snowy winter, unusually cold winter as well. So we've got all of that coming together with a couple of storms. And especially across the northeast with this last storm that came through, that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
But that's not the only spot. Now we have the snowmelt and the snow pack across the upper Midwest. It may very well we may see flooding like they saw this time last year, which was historic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARCIANO (voice-over): In Fargo, North Dakota, residents are trying to stack one million sandbags in hopes of pushing back the Red River, which could crest 20 feet above flood stage later this week. Last year about 100 homes in the area were damaged and thousands of people were evacuated when the red didn't go down for a record 61 days and crested twice. In the northeast, a wild storm has left hundreds of thousands of residents either without power or with most of what they own under water. Trees ripped down, power lines tore up sidewalks, crushed cars. The storm is being blamed for at least seven deaths.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm living at the school right now because I got flooded out. A bunch of other people got flooded out. I'm helping to pump up the cellars.
MARCIANO: Many had to leave their front door by boat or in the arms of heavy equipment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're at the breaking point?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I can't even get to my cat right now and it's upsetting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: All right. Upper Midwest, that is the next item of concern and it's going to be going on for a couple of weeks here. We've got flood warnings that are posted for a number of counties from Minnesota to Iowa up to the Dakotas, and the rivers that continue to rise here. The problem, of course, the usual snow pack to have it this late in the season. What you're looking at these bright colors is the amount of water that's in that snow pack, and in some cases five, six, seven, eight, 10 -- nine or 10 inches of equivalent rainfall that we have to get through in order to get these rivers to be unloaded.
So here's your Fargo flood stage graphic. Thirty-eight feet is the forecast crest. Looks like late in the day on Sunday. The record stage was 40 feet which was last year. So that's just way close enough. And these forecasts change on a daily basis. When you get to ice jams to jam up the river, that can raise the forecast flood stage two, three, four feet. So uncertainty certainly in the air, Kiran, with this as we go through the next few days, actually the next couple of weeks. And the folks across the upper Midwest it is a nightmare that is being replayed from just 12 months ago -- Kiran.
CHETRY: That's astounding. All right, Rob Marciano for us this morning. Thanks.
ROBERTS: Also this morning, more than eight years after former President Bush pledged to the American people that Osama bin Laden would be captured dead or alive, the terror leader's fate is once again the subject in Washington. Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday said Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States. The reasoning behind that, bin Laden will not be captured alive. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We talk about a hypothetical that will never occur. The reality is that we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will never appear in an American courtroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it is.
ERIC HOLDER: That's a reality. That's a reality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Jeanne Meserve is live in Washington for us this morning with more details on all of this. And, Jeanne, things got pretty testy yesterday at that hearing.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, very testy, John. The attorney general said the chances of catching bin Laden alive are infinitesimal because he will either be killed by the U.S. or he will be killed by his own people so he can't be captured. The statement is tracked what senior military and intelligence officials have been saying for years but that the attorney general said it in this language, John, was striking.
ROBERTS: So what was the context of that exchange yesterday, Jeanne?
MESERVE: John, the attorney general was engaged in a very animated debate over where to try terror detainees, civilian courts or military commissions. As you know, there's a lot of congressional opposition to using civilian courts, but the attorney general wants the government to have the option of using either venue, when he pushed back very hard. He told the committee detainees would not be coddled in civilian court. He testified detainees would be treated like mass murderers like Charles Manson, in fact. Texas Republican John Culberson said that reflected a profound disconnect with the American people and it led to this exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN CULBERSON (R), TEXAS: They are treated by the military as enemy combatants captured at time of war. And the question is --
ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: But they're not put up against the wall and shot. They have the ability to confront those who accuse them. They have the rights to a lawyer. They have many of the same constitutional rights --
CULBERSON: Severely restricted rights and the military tribunal is the problem. We're at war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: The specific case at issue right now, of course, is the trial of self-professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Holder said a new decision on where to try him will be made in weeks not months -- John.
ROBERTS: A lot of controversy over all of this. Jeanne Meserve for us this morning. Jeanne, thanks so much.
MESERVE: You bet.
CHETRY: A look at some other stories new this morning at eight minutes past the hour now. The U.S. and Israel trying to put a serious diplomatic rift behind them. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says they have unshakable bond and dismissed talk of a, quote, "crisis" over Israel's plan for new housing in east Jerusalem. The U.S. condemned Israel for announcing the settlement expansion during Vice President Joe Biden's visit last week. Also, George Mitchell, President Obama's Middle East envoy postponed a trip to start indirect talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
ROBERTS: And at 7:30 Eastern, we're going to dig deeper on the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Daniel Levy. He's the director of the Middle East Policy Initiative at the New America Foundation. And Yousef Munayyer. He is the executive director of the Palestine Center.
Toyota's technicians and government investigators are heading to suburban New York today to look into an accident involving a Prius. The driver in last week's accident says her car accelerated all by itself and ran her into a wall. Investigators plan to examine the internal data recorder. Toyota has recalled, as you'll recall, more than eight million vehicles to address gas pedal problems.
CHETRY: For the first time ever, Facebook proved it had more friends than Google. The social networking site squeaked by the search engine as the most visited U.S. Web site last week. More impressive is Facebook's yearly growth. That is up 185 percent to Google's nine percent in the same period. The analysis only compared Facebook and google.com, not its related sites.
ROBERTS: Nine minutes after the hour and still to come on the Most News in the Morning. From procedural maneuvers to kill the bill rallies, the battle over health care reform is heating up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twelve minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
The battle over health care reform in Washington erupting over the possibility that a bill could be passed without actually a direct vote. The uproar is coming from the House where Democrats may vote on a rule. And with this means it would deem the Senate's version of the bill pass without actually having a vote on it.
Both sides of the aisle playing hardball politics. Republican, Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski used a basketball metaphor to voice her opposition, saying that Congress is giving new meaning to March Madness. And a war of words is breaking out on Capitol Hill. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE PENCE (R), INDIANA: The idea that the Senate bill could be deemed as passed on the House floor without members of Congress being asked to vote for it, I believe is not just tramples on the common sense and insults the intelligence of the American people but really tramples on the Constitution of the United States.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE SPEAKER: I didn't hear of that ferocity when hundreds of times the Republicans used these methods when they were in power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Politicians are not the only ones who are making their voices heard inside the beltway. Hundreds of protesters from the tea party movement rallied in the capitol with one simple message. The message -- kill the bill. Our Jim Acosta is tracking that side of the story for us this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PROTESTERS: Kill the bill. Kill the bill.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As an army of tea party protesters prepared to flood the halls of Congress.
PROTESTERS: Kill the bill. Kill the bill.
ACOSTA: The message was consistent. The bill to kill was health care reform.
JENNY BETH MARTIN, TEA PARTY PATRIOTS: Your representative meets with you, stay all day long if you have to.
PROTESTERS: Kill the bill.
ACOSTA: Debbie Dooley, a tea party organizer from Georgia, wanted to track down as many Democrats wavering on health care in the House and sound off.
DEBBIE DOOLEY, TEA PARTY PATRIOTS: We believe in health care reform, but we believe in free market solutions.
ACOSTA (on camera): Such as?
DOOLEY: Being able to purchase health insurance across state lines, tort reform. We believe --
ACOSTA: If you don't mind me saying, that sounds like what the Republican Party is saying. I thought the tea party was different?
DOOLEY: We are different, but we do support the free market solutions with health care.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Moments after she finished her thought. DOOLEY: Tom.
REP. TOM PRICE (R), GEORGIA: Hi, Debbie.
DOOLEY: How are you doing?
PRICE: God bless you. Thank you for coming.
ACOSTA: Georgia Republican Tom Price came to give her a pat on the back.
PRICE: This is what the American people have been trying to tell Speaker Pelosi to try and tell the president for the past eight to 10 months. This isn't the bill the American people want.
ACOSTA (on camera): Here comes another Republican right here. Hello, sir.
(voice-over): Then came Arizona Republican Trent Franks.
(on camera): You don't feel so outnumbered with all these tea party folks?
REP. TRENT FRANKS (R), ARIZONA: No, we don't. You know the fact is we're outnumbered. We're outvoted but we're not outnumbered.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're quite angry, actually.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not being represented.
ACOSTA (voice-over): But for one group of Tea Partiers gathered outside the office of undecided Democrat Gerry Connolly, the reception was different.
(on camera): And George (ph) are they going to get a chance to see their congressman?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I don't even know if she's a constituent. She hasn't signed in.
ACOSTA (voice-over): One of Connolly's aides complained some of the protesters weren't even from the congressman's district.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, everyone else here -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And where do you live, ma'am?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone in -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, where do you live?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, excuse me. I'm - I'm born -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've had enough. (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know what - ACOSTA: The Tea Partiers found more sympathetic law makers at their main rally of the day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Grandma isn't shovel-ready.
ACOSTA: Where Iowa Republican Steve King issued a dire warning if health care passes.
REP. STEVE KING (R), IOWA: If the liberal elitists are determined to impose socialized medicine on America, there will be a reckoning. The best that we can hope for is that reckoning is in the ballot box. I hope it stays peaceful.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Some very hot rhetoric out there yesterday.
But the Tea Partiers are not going to get what they want by courting Republicans. Even some Tea Party organizers we found acknowledge it's the conservative Blue Dog Democrats who are the catch this week. They are the votes that could make or break health care, John.
ROBERTS: So, Jim, Congressman Gerry Connolly there, and you saw the confrontation outside of his office. He didn't seem to have a whole lot of time for these folks.
ACOSTA: Well, that was his press aide there, and, you know, he was talking to us a couple of days ago, we were interviewing the congressman. He said that this is sort of common practice at a lot of these congressional offices where they will see folks coming in from all over the country, not necessarily and in many cases not from that district, to make their voices heard.
Obviously, if you are an American, you have the right to go into any of these congressional offices, but in many cases the - the staff would like to put the folks who are from that district first, and so that was part of the confrontation there.
ROBERTS: All right. Jim Acosta for us this morning. Jim, thanks so much.
Republicans are not the only ones in the House reluctant to vote for reform. One small group of Democrats say they might not support the Senate's version either.
Congressman Jason Altmire is one of them. The Pennsylvania Democrat joins us live this morning, 7:10 Eastern, to talk about why he's having second thoughts about all of this.
CHETRY: And also some of the conversations he's had with the president, who's been putting on the pressure.
ROBERTS: Yes. Exactly.
CHETRY: Oh, yes. ROBERTS: And what he thinks of this slaughter - the so-called slaughter option to deem the bill passed. Is it good for Democracy?
CHETRY: We're going to talk about all that with him, but still coming up on the Most News in the Morning, the top tax scams to watch out for. They're out there and people are falling for them.
Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business".
Seventeen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty and a half minutes after the hour. Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business" this morning with some of the top tax scams that we're seeing these days.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes. It's almost here, tax time. We love this, right? The IRS --
CHETRY: Yes (ph).
ROMANS: The IRS is listing its dirty dozen of tax scams, and this is an interesting little list for you to all look at this morning because some of these are scams that could happen to you. It's very important to be careful, and some of them are scams that some people out there do to the IRS on their taxes, heaven forbid.
So, look, I want to run through some of these. Dishonest tax preparers. Please be careful of someone who - who says, you know, (INAUDIBLE). Give me $500, I'm going to make sure you're going to get $6,000 or $7,000 back.
In the future, tax preparers are going to have to list with the IRS. They're going to have to be licensed and take certain tests. So they're hoping to weed out dishonest tax preparers. But make sure you're using somebody reputable and somebody who you've used before.
You know what phishing is, that P-H-I-S-H-I-N-G? The IRS is not going to send you a tweet or a fax or an e-mail. They're not going to call you and say please give me your bank information because you have a $1,000 refund and we need to get it to you quickly. So I need you Social Security number and your - that's never going to happen.
That's called phishing - I love how they spell it. And phishing at irs.gov if you have a complaint about that. But don't give your information out. The IRS is not looking for it that way.
Now, this is what you sometimes do, filing false and misleading forms, among other things, overstating charitable gifts. I mean, there's got to be a special place in you-know-where for people who give money to charity and then turn around and say they gave an awful lot more to charity so it helps them on their taxes. So be careful of things like that.
Also, understating your income. That's another thing that people liked to try to do. And also, arguing with the IRS.
This is a - this is pretty - this is pretty prolific, and it surprised me, tax preparers who coach you and convince you to argue with the IRS about your refund and about some of your - what you may owe the - the IRS and to get you in some kind of a - it's really never a good idea to get in a big fight with Uncle Sam, especially if you know you owe them money.
ROBERTS: That's a (INAUDIBLE).
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: All right. And, by the way, she's the St. Patrick's Day rebel, wearing blue today.
ROBERTS: Yes.
ROMANS: Yes.
ROBERTS: You got a Roman's Numeral for us this morning?
ROMANS: I do, 30 days.
CHETRY: This is how many days until tax day.
ROMANS: Yes. You better get -
CHETRY: Let's get on it (ph).
ROMANS: Pull out the shoe box, the zip lock bags, the pocket of your coat - whatever it is where all of these things are. Make sure you have your 1099s. If you don't have them yet, go online.
Some - a lot of places are - are just completely paperless, so you might have to go hunting around, especially if you have some investment accounts or something, to find all of your 1099s. Make sure you've got all of them.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks Christine.
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Next on the Most News in the Morning, it's become the biggest lobbying organization in Washington, now throwing its weight behind the fight against health care.
Carol Costello with an "A.M. Original" for us this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-six minutes after the hour. Your top stories just four minutes away now.
One of Washington's largest lobbying groups is flexing its financial muscles in the fight over health care reform.
Last year, the United States Chamber of Commerce doled out $42 million for anti-reform bill television ads. Overall, it spent more than the two main fund raising and grassroots operations for the Democratic and Republican parties. And the Chamber's broader impact on elections is yet to be seen.
Here's CNN's Carol Costello with that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, Ohio!
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The fight over health care reform is hotter than it's ever been. President Obama is in overdrive.
OBAMA: That's why we need health insurance reform right now.
COSTELLO: And those who want to block the current bills are in overdrive too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To ram through their same trillion dollar health care bill.
COSTELLO: They're spending in the millions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell Congress, stop this health care bill. We can't afford to pay.
COSTELLO: A powerful business coalition is behind this ad. It was paid for by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the richest, most powerful lobbies in the country.
Dave Arkush is from Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization.
DAVID ARKUSH, PUBLIC CITIZEN: It is the way the game is played in partially, but they've got more resources to play it better than anyone else.
COSTELLO: Once upon a time, the Chamber of Commerce was known mainly as a business association, an ally for the local shop keeper.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take that one. I just (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's swell.
COSTELLO: Today, critics like Public Citizen describe the Chamber as too political, with enormous influence over national policy.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, between 1998 and 2009, the Chamber spent $606,758,180 to lobby lawmakers, pay for political ads and grassroots organizing. In 2009 alone, it spent $144.5 million on lobbying a variety of different issues. COSTELLO (on camera): That's a lot of money.
BRUCE JOSTEN, U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Well, it is a lot of money, but I didn't hear a lot of concern about the union spending $420 million in the '08 elections to elect this majority.
COSTELLO: Still, by far and away, you guys spend the most money on lobbying.
JOSTEN: So? We're a lobbying organization.
COSTELLO (voice-over): The Chamber does support health care reform but doesn't think the president's plan is a good one.
JOSTEN: I think where the public kind of gets a little askance when they hear we're going to cut half a trillion out of Medicare over here, we're going to create a new long term care entitlement trust fund over here, and, oh, by the way, $50 a day is not very much for long term care in any assisted living center anywhere in the free world.
COSTELLO: The Chamber says its stand on health care and other issues like climate change resonate beyond its membership. That's why it's been reaching out to non-members.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, we need you to join the fight.
COSTELLO: The effort in political speak is called grassroots organizing, and many organizations do it.
JOSTEN: What is grassroots? It's people like you. It's individuals, not just business people, across the country who happen to share the views on some positions that we as an institution have developed, by the way, with their input.
COSTELLO (on camera): Do you really have 6 million of them out there, working for you? Is that the goal or do you have those - that amount of people already?
JOSTEN: We - we have a database of about 6 million names of people that we can reach out to and activate. Yes.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Critics like Arkush says the Chamber has too much influence.
ARKUSH: The Chamber just recently announced it's going to spend $200 million to challenge vulnerable Democrats in the elections this fall. That is really frightening to members of Congress, and it makes them listen to the Chamber's lobbyists.
COSTELLO: And this week, the Chamber's lobbyists and hundreds of other lobbyists, backed by dozens of other organizations on both sides of the issue, are concentrating their efforts on one thing.
OBAMA: It's time to vote.
COSTELLO: Health care.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Of course, the Chamber isn't the only lobbying organization to show its muscle. A few months ago I did an in-depth piece on the Service Employees International Union in its efforts to pass health care reform. It boasts a war room with 400 full time people working to get the president's plan passed.
Of course, John, by next week, we may see who eventually wins -- maybe.
ROBERTS: So many dogs in this fight, Carol. How do you keep tracking them all?
Carol Costello this morning --
COSTELLO: And a lot of money.
ROBERTS: Yes. Thanks so much.
COSTELLO: Sure.
ROBERTS: Crossing the half hour now, checking this morning's top stories.
Democratic leaders in the House still coming up short on the 216 votes that they need to pass the Senate's version of health care reform. It remains unclear if Speaker Nancy Pelosi will try a controversial tactic to deem the Senate bill to be passed. Republican lawmakers are uniting against the plan and hundreds of conservative protesters took to the Capitol with one message, "kill the bill."
CHETRY: The Red River is getting set to surge. People are now bracing for a 100-year flood for the second year in a row in Fargo, North Dakota, and also across the river in Minnesota. Volunteers were actually being bused into neighborhoods near the river to try to help unload 1 million sandbags.
ROBERTS: Wrong place, wrong people. The FBI says there is no evidence that three Americans who were killed while attending a child's birthday party in Mexico were targeted. Hit men were believed to be members of a Juarez drug cartel. It might have just been a case of mistaken identity.
CHETRY: Well, rogue nations like Iran are suspected of using a secret black market network to help them develop their nuclear weapons program. So far, the United States appears to be powerless to stop it. That's the assessment of our next guest who also paints a terrifying picture of just how close al Qaeda came to acquiring nuclear weapons prior to the 9/11 attacks.
Joining us from Washington, David Albright, a weapons expert and author of the new book, "Peddling Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America's Enemies."
David, thanks so much for being with us.
DAVID ALBRIGHT, WEAPONS EXPERT: Good to be here.
CHETRY: Your book lays out some pretty scary details about the illicit nuclear weapons trade. Explain how big of a threat this actually is to us.
ALBRIGHT: Well, countries, like Iran, North Korea, Syria, they don't -- they don't build nuclear weapons themselves. They depend on outside assistance, can be cases Syria going to North Korea to buy a nuclear reactor; case of Iran, they got help from a Pakistani, A.Q. Khan. Plus, they would go out and shop western markets, high tech companies, to buy vital equipment and materials so they can put together facilities to make nuclear weapons materials and learn how to make nuclear weapons.
And so, what you have is kind of an insidious slow effort to try to acquire this capability that goes on largely behind the scenes.
CHETRY: And what's at stake in terms of our national security?
ALBRIGHT: Well, Iran wouldn't be a threat if it hadn't had that kind of outside assistance. If A.Q. Kahn had not assisted Iran in developing a vital nuclear technology, it wouldn't be anywhere near the threat it is today. Pakistan, without being able to steal the nuclear information in Europe and then create a smuggling network of its own, almost an unrivaled smuggling network, would not -- would probably only be beginning nuclear weapons now if it was very determined.
So, what you would have is with these kinds of smuggling networks, countries that normally could not get nuclear weapons get them and they get them relatively quickly.
CHETRY: And why is it that we aren't either able or have not been able at this point to do more to crackdown on this?
ALBRIGHT: Well, people haven't -- I think people haven't fully appreciated the problem, both in the public and governments. I mean, one, it's hard to stop. I mean, it's -- if you think about drug smuggling. I mean, it's more sophisticated than that and also more stoppable than that. But nonetheless, people kind of accept that it happens.
One is, countries, like Iran, are very determined. And so, they expend a great deal of resources to succeed. And often, they find loopholes in laws because many of these items are controlled by trade controls. But they'll find a weak link. You know, they'll find in Malaysia, for example. It doesn't even have any controls and they'll set up trading companies there that then will buy in Europe and sell to Europeans while it's only going to Malaysia.
CHETRY: Right.
ALBRIGHT: They'll do the same thing in the U.S. and deceive suppliers. CHETRY: Well, you talked about Iran, and there was a big announcement yesterday, some testimony on the Hill about Iran and the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, General David Petraeus, he said yesterday that he doesn't think Iran will be able to obtain a nuclear weapon this year. Do you agree?
ALBRIGHT: Yes. Now, I think we came to the same conclusion. And I think one of major reasons is that the United States and allies discovered the secret enrichment site down near the holy city of Qom. And it -- I think it set back the Iranians. It coincided with that they are having some problems operating centrifuges.
So, I don't think they are ready. And they also were put on the defensive by the discovery of this facility.
CHETRY: Right. So, if it's not this year, it's an eventual conclusion that they will get a nuclear weapon?
ALBRIGHT: Yes, unfortunately, I think they -- if they decided to build nuclear weapons, they could cobble together the wherewithal to do it now. It's a sad state of affairs and it's going to require the United States to find a way to solve this problem. I think if Iran chooses to build nuclear weapons, it can do so. It may take some time, but I think it has the capabilities in place so it can move in that direction now.
CHETRY: So, you also talk about and you talked about this at the Council on Foreign Relations that the prospect of containment. How do you -- in countries like Iran and North Korea, who have rebuffed the international community's call to stop this, how do you contain those nations if they do eventually obtain nuclear weapons?
ALBRIGHT: Well, there's many ways to do it. But one of the first things is that you don't accept it. I mean, it's a huge mistake made in the case of Pakistan in the 1980s. They get nuclear weapons and people say, "OK, we accept it." It's extremely important not to do that.
And it was not done in the case of South Africa and Libya, and in both cases, those countries no longer are -- in case of South African, they no longer have nuclear weapons, and in case of Libya, it did not get them.
And so, that's the first thing, is that this is -- the effort has to be maintained to stop them. And if they do get nuclear weapons, to keep -- to get them to give them up. And that's certainly the case in North Korea now, which does have nuclear weapons.
Then there's a range of things. Sanctions are very important -- sanctions targeting high technology items that are useable in nuclear weapons programs are very important. You want to stop them from getting resupplied, from expanding their programs.
CHETRY: Right.
ALBRIGHT: You also need to -- in the case of Iran -- probably will be bolstering naval forces there. We have to strengthen our alliances with allies in the Gulf States and other Arab nations. We're going to have to more than likely have stronger anti-missile defenses.
I mean, it's going to be a little bit like a mini Cold War, similar to what the United States did in the 1940's and '50s with the Soviet Union.
CHETRY: Well, the book is very eye-opening for sure. It's called "Peddling Peril." You can check out. Thanks so much for joining us this morning, David Albright. We appreciate it.
ALBRIGHT: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Coming up on the Most News in the Morning: Tiger Woods getting ready to return to golf. He's doing it at the Masters. We'll take a closer look at why the game of golf needs him to come back.
It's 37 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: The redemption of Tiger Woods begins next month at the Masters in Augusta, a fitting venue for the comeback of a fallen superstar.
CHETRY: Yes. He hopes to be wearing green too at the end of the tournament. Well, Woods have captured four Masters titles and 13 years on tour, and he's going to be returning to a place that holds a lot of special memories, hoping perhaps that it will help him forget the painful ones.
Gary Tuchman has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tiger Woods last month --
TIGER WOODS, PRO GOLFER: I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me. I brought this shame on myself.
TUCHMAN: And then, he added this --
WOODS: I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don't know when that day will be.
TUCHMAN: And now, we know when that day will be. It will be the day next month when golfers come to Georgia trying to win a green jacket.
Tiger Woods is saying, "The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect. After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I'm ready to start my season at Augusta." He's ready for golf, but is golf ready for him?
KURT BADENHAUSEN, FORBES MAGAZINE: I think golf needs Tiger Woods a lot more than Tiger Woods needs golf.
TUCHMAN: Kurt Badenhausen, senior editor of "Forbes" magazine, has closely followed the Woods saga that began with a mysterious, bizarre car accident near his house and culminated with Woods apologizing about a multitude of extramarital affairs.
BADENHAUSEN: I don't think Tiger Woods needs to earn another penny for the rest of his life. But the PGA Tour desperately needs Tiger Woods back on the course. Television ratings can as much as double when Tiger Woods is playing. And right now, the PGA Tour is hurting in terms of sponsorship deals.
TUCHMAN: Some of Tiger Woods' sponsors have stuck with him, like Nike.
WOODS: The only day that matters is today.
TUCHMAN: Others have kept their distance but maintain their contracts, like Gillette.
ANNOUNCER: Be a Tiger.
TUCHMAN: And others said, "Adios," like Accenture.
So, what's his future with those companies and others?
ROBERT TUCHMAN, EXEC. V.P., PREMIERE GLOBAL SPORTS: If it's a family-oriented brand, a brand that's going after, you know, a certain type of, you know, family, good guy image, you know, I would definitely stay away from Tiger Woods at this point. If it's a brand that might be looking to make a splash benefit from the P.R. associated from getting behind Woods, then I would definitely look at that brand and say, you know what, this is a good time to get behind Woods.
G. TUCHMAN: Back in 1997, I met Woods for first time. He had just won the Masters eight months after turning pro. A huge crowd turned out on the Atlantic City boardwalk to see him participate in what else, a sponsorship deal for a restaurant. I asked him about his future.
(on camera): How can you top this?
WOODS: I can always play better. The golf is one of those sports where you can always get better.
G. TUCHMAN: His fans believe him and he lived up to his professional promise. Now, he's making other promises.
"I have undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy and I am continuing treatment. Although I'm returning to competition, I have a lot of work to do in my personal life." A statement from a man whose personal life was certainly not par for the course.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: All right. So, here's a prediction, all right? I'm going to go in the limb here. By the end of this year, he's going to be bigger than ever.
CHETRY: And we'll see what happens. As Gary was talking about in the piece, the sponsors stuck with them, how is that going to work for them? But -- and he also pointed out the PGA Tour needs him back more than he needs to return to golf.
ROBERTS: It's perfect spot for redemption as well, you know? So much history and history for him as well, such a prestigious tournament.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: If he -- if he does well, if he finishes it in the top five, he'll be golden. If he wins, man, that's just going to blow wide open.
Joining us at 8:20 Eastern this morning, David Dusek. He's the deputy editor of "The Sports Illustrated Golf Group." He's going to be breaking down the enormous economic impact of Tiger Woods' return to golf next month and whether this is actually a shot at redemption for Tiger.
CHETRY: All right.
ROBERTS: I think that's pretty clear.
CHETRY: Well, we'll see what happens. We'll talk to him in a few minutes.
Meanwhile, 44 minutes past the hour right now. Rob is going to have the morning's travel forecast. A lot of extreme weather to tell you about right after the break.
ROBERTS: And at 10 minutes time, Jeanne Moos takes on the protesters who are taking on health care reform.
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ROBERTS: Good morning, New York. A little Van Morrison to get your day started off, and what's going to be a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful day here in New York City. It's clear right now, 41 degrees. Later on today, it's going to be sunny, and it's going to go up to 61, according to some forecasts, but according to others, it may actually hit mid 60s. Tomorrow is going to be even better. It will be getting close to 70 degrees.
CHETRY: It was a nice day for St. Patrick's Day. For all the people in New York, all the revelers and the parade. ROBERTS: And it's not even spring yet.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: We should have four more days to go until spring.
CHETRY: We'll take it.
Meanwhile, welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's time for your AM House Call at 47 minutes past the hour. If you're thinking of buying a video game system for your little boy, you may want to consider this. It could actually slow his progress with reading and writing skills. Researchers studied a group of young students randomly giving them some of the Nintendo play stations. Teachers said that the kids who got the games quickly exhibit the delays in developing academic skills.
ROBERTS: Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines. Rob Marciano is in the weather center in Atlanta, and Rob, obviously still huge problems here in the northeast for people who are suffering from that flooding, but bright side here. We're going to get some nice weather over the next couple of days.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You are. So, as much evaporations, we can get going with that one. Some time would be nice. We still have a number of counties under flood warnings for especially Jersey, the hardest hit area there with neighborhoods under water, and the most of the rivers have crested, but it's going to be a slow recession before we can unwind all this rainfall that came in on top of the snowfall that came in just a couple of weeks ago. My goodness, it's live once again, turned upside down.
They are prepping out west or in the Midwest I should say. Fargo, North Dakota, once again this year, the second year in a row, they are sand bagging to save their lives trying to get a million bags stacked up there as the Red River continues to rise. Forecast to go into major flood stage today and then eventually close to record stage as it crests over this weekend, and this is a scene that was replayed just 12 months ago.
All right. Good news today for them and the northeast. No rain in the forecast. The rain is down across parts of the south and New Orleans down into the Florida panhandle. This is the storm that was in Texas yesterday just kind of riding along the Gulf Coast, not really strengthening, and it won't come up the eastern see board for another nor'easter. That's the good news there.
A little bit of rain sliding south from the great plains into the central plains and through Kansas City, but that should be about it. So, no rain in the forecast for the flood-prone areas, but the problem is the temperature is going to be 60 in Minneapolis, and as mentioned, it's going to be 63 degrees in New York, so that's beautiful stuff, but obviously, kind of adds to the snow melt which is one of the main problems especially in the upper Midwest. We'll talk more about that at the top of the hour. John, Kiran, back up to you. CHETRY: All right. Rob, thanks so much. This morning's top stories just minutes away as well. The attorney general saying that we'll never read Osama Bin Laden his rights because he'll be dead, quote, "we'll read Miranda rights to his corpse. That bold statement and the waves it's making this morning.
ROBERTS: And at 25 minutes after, black box recorders, makes you think airplanes, right? But they're in cars as well. An investigator just found out that Toyota's black boxes are harder to crack, which raises the question, is the company trying to hide something?
CHETRY: Those stories and more coming up at the top of the hour.
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ROBERTS: Continuing our St. Patrick's Day theme this morning. With the wire and the green hair.
CHETRY: That's right. You know, sometimes you just got to go for it.
ROBERTS: There you go. Dropkick Murphys this morning. It's time for the Moost News in the Morning. They came to the capitol with a message for Congress and the President on health care.
CHETRY: Kill the bill. That's what the protesters were saying armed with signs, and it turns out some punch lines as well. Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A bunch of homicidal protesters descended on Washington. Their intended victim --
PROTESTORS: Kill the bill.
MOOS: Unless you're wondering which bill to kill. There's President Obama popping out of a health care coffin. You can read their minds by reading their signs, angry. You bet cha?
UNKNOWN FEMALE: I'm American, and I'm mad.
MOOS: Russia called. They want their socialism back. Can't remember? Right it on your hands. Stop spending.
UNKNOWN MALE: So many wonderful signs. This one back here says stop being a Democrat, start being an American.
MOOS: Stop spending money we don't have on things we don't want. Pelosi spits in America's face.
UNKNOWN MALE: These arrogant elitist pigs are going to shove it down our throat.
MOOS: Call me pig. You can put a lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig. I don't want to play doctor with my uncle, Uncle Sam, we guess.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: My favorite sign that I saw says, grandma isn't shovel ready?
MOOS: Some held their signs and wore them. The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. At this kill the bill rally, the victim showed up.
UNKNOWN MALE: I brought an abortion to show you today.
MOOS: Since there's talk of democrats resorting to a maneuver in which the bill would be deemed rather than passed.
UNKNOWN MALE: Join me in a new cheer. Let's deem it dead.
PROTESTORS: Deem it dead!
MOOS: Oh, what fun it is to chant about obscure congressional strategy.
UNKNOWN MALE: Say it with me.
PROTESTORS: Self-executing! Self-executing!
MOOS: The trick is to make yourself heard.
UNKNOWN MALE: These folks apparently can't hear us up there. Sometimes, we have to hold a hearing aid like we, seniors, used to have.
MOOS (on-camera): Sometimes, a megaphone malfunction can function as a metaphor.
MOOS (voice-over): For instance, when Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert tried to speak.
UNKNOWN MALE: You sunk my battle ship.
MOOS: On that old game.
Like they want to sink health care --
MOOS (on-camera): But the kill the bill folks at the rally were tamed compared to the ones on YouTube who really killed the bill.
MOOS (voice-over): It was symbolically bludgeons, flushed, abused, and burned. Even backed over. Warning: Smoking is hazardous to a health care bill's health.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: They are going to take it to a whole new level on YouTube, don't they? CHETRY: Yes, they do. Nice. All right. It's three minutes to the top of the hour. We're going to have your top stories coming up after the break.
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