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American Morning

Oil Spill Stains Wetlands; North Korea Threatens War; Wall Street CEOs in White House State Dinner; Boeing Airplane Catches Fire; Floyd Landis Admits Doping

Aired May 20, 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: Coming up on 8:00 here in New York. Glad you're with us on this Thursday, May 20th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. And I'm Jim Acosta, in for John Roberts.

Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes, plenty to talk about.

The secretary of the interior is ready to do some restructuring. He's dismantling the agency that regulates the oil companies and collects royalties from them at the same time. It's what some call a recipe for corruption that may have contributed to the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf.

CHETRY: Also, the worse case scenario is now materializing off the Louisiana coast. Thick puddles of crude are staining the sensitive wetlands. The massive oil spill is slowly slipping into the grip of the Gulf's loop current as well. And that means that it will carry that water and potentially a lot of that oil into Florida and along the eastern seaboard -- all of that could be threatened.

ACOSTA: And growing tensions on the Korean peninsula. South Korea vows to retaliate this morning after an investigation reveals a North Korean torpedo sank one of its warships. Pyongyang denies and is now threatening war. This morning, the White House and the world react.

CHETRY: As always, the amFIX blog is up and running. We love for you to join the live conversation right now. Go to CNN.com/amFIX.

ACOSTA: And with thick, dark crude now staining Louisiana's barrier islands, the political fallout from the B.P. oil spill has gun. Here's the heart-wrenching video from those pristine marshlands. Swirls of syrupy crude are snaking through estuaries.

Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told us offshore drilling projects are now being re-evaluated by the White House -- while the agency that regulates big oil, the Minerals Management Service, is getting an overhaul.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KEN SALAZAR, INTERIOR SECRETARY: We inherited here what was a legacy of an agency that essentially was rubber-stamping whatever it was that the oil and gas industry wanted. We have that pause button and we keep that pause button in place. So, we have it there.

He has directed that we deliver a report to him by the end of this month. That report will deal with safety measures with respect to the offshore and we'll move forward from there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Meanwhile, for more than 30 days, people along the Gulf Coast have been bracing for the worst. And now, that worse-case scenario unfortunately is beginning to become a reality. And you see it in these pictures from Louisiana's barrier islands. Thick swirls of crude oil now are contaminating the sensitive wetlands.

Our Rob Marciano is on the Gulf Coast this morning. He's in Mississippi.

And, you know, the video -- we knew that there was an oil spill. But it's still shocking to see it and the impact that it's having on these marshlands.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, Kiran and Jim, it stayed offshore for so long, we started to believe that, you know, just maybe -- just maybe the thickest stuff wouldn't come onshore. But sure enough, yesterday, it would.

Governor Bobby Jindal took the press on a tour of the Plaquemines Parish yesterday, and the video that you've been seeing all morning tells the entire story. And certainly the look on his face and the sound of his voice, the pain of being a resident of Louisiana and governing that state to see it the way it is -- certainly not what they want to see.

And I'll tell you what, Jim and Kiran, the bird experts especially that I have been talking to for the past couple of weeks, that -- they say that's the worst case scenario because most of the birds that are native to this part of the Gulf of Mexico, they are onshore birds. I mean, that's where they nest. It's where they hang out. They don't go two, three, four miles offshore to feed. So, that oil coming onshore is not what they want to see.

ACOSTA: And you're a little further down the coast of Mississippi but you're not seeing anything like what they are seeing in Louisiana right now. Is that right?

MARCIANO: Not quite. But, Jim, you know, this area, they've gotten a lot of calls the past couple of days from concerned residents. They are certainly on edge because we're not far from where that heavy crude came onshore in Louisiana and they've seen some reddish foam, some things that on the water that looks like oil. There are some tar balls or what seems to be tar balls washing up onshore, about 200 pounds of that. So, those things are being tested right now and no word if they are officially either some sort of petroleum product or even from the oil spill. But no doubt about it, they are on edge here. And some of that could be from beach rebuilding projects, even some of it could be leftover washout from hurricane Katrina, which just hammered this area four years ago. So, too soon to tell. Hopefully, we'll get some results back today. But certainly, folks here along the Mississippi coastline are worried.

How about the Florida coastline, Alabama? That loop current? That's been a hot topic the past couple of days. Some of the light test oil and oil sheen getting into the northern part of that current and beginning to drift towards Florida.

We do think that it will take some time before it even gets there. It will be quite weathered and diluted at that point. Certainly, that's the hope. But it is a huge, huge concern.

As far as the weather here along the Gulf of Mexico, it is good again today for controlled burns. They had success with that in the past three days and for skimming. A little bit more of a breeze that it actually helps when they spray dispersants. If it's too calm and they spray those dispersants, it doesn't bang up the oil enough. It doesn't knock it apart enough. So, they may be flying more missions there again today.

And that insertion tube continues to work relatively well, gathering about 3,000 barrels of oil a day as opposed to leaking 5,000, according to B.P., the past few weeks.

Jim, Kiran, back up to you.

ACOSTA: Thanks, Rob.

CHETRY: All right. And, you know, people who rely on the sea, the Gulf, especially, for their livelihood, are getting hit hard by the oil spill.

Coming up in just about five minutes, we're going to check back in with one man who owns a shrimping business in Louisiana. We talk to Dean Blanchard in the days after the immediate days after. But one month out, how bad are things? And what about this planned meeting that he has tomorrow with B.P.

ACOSTA: Also developing this morning, rising tensions and growing concerns in one of the most dangerous corners of the world. Right now, North Korea is threatening all-out war after the release of an official report blaming the communists north for sinking a South Korean ship back in March. Forty-six sailors were killed. North Korea denies it.

Our John Vause is live again in Beijing this morning.

And, John, what is the world's reaction to this? This is definitely a new development in that very delicate situation. JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes. Absolutely, Jim. The reaction is pretty much what you would expect from the West, the United States and Japan. There's been outrage and condemnation.

However, from China, North Korea's closest ally, here in Beijing today, officials were urging calm, urging all sides to show restraint. And officials here say that they now actually want to assess the findings of this investigation for themselves today.

And so, investigators displayed pieces of debris from what they say was a torpedo fired a mid-size North Korean sub. The pieces they say match perfectly of the schematics of the kind of torpedo which the North Koreans sell to other countries. Also, one piece of that debris, serial numbers and writing which also matches a North Korean torpedo.

So, the Chinese, it seems, are not willing to accept that investigation on face value -- Jim.

ACOSTA: And what are the options for South Korea?

VAUSE: Yes, not a lot of options here. The military strike seems to be off the table even though the South Korean president has promised a stern response. It seems most likely they'll try and go to the U.N. Security Council and get some kind of condemnation, maybe new sanctions in place. But the weak link in all that could be China.

In the past, the Chinese have used their veto in the Security Council to protect North Korea. They may be on the road again, especially by listening to the kind of language which is coming out of Beijing today.

But even if the South Koreans do get tougher sanctions, you have to ask what's the point? The North Koreans are already subject to some pretty stiff sanctions that were put in place when Pyongyang tested a nuclear weapon and a missile last year.

So, the bottom line is, not a lot of good options here. Analysts say it's likely the North Koreans will get off lightly from this. And, right now, there doesn't seem to be a lot of good ideas out there to try and prevent them from doing something like this again -- Jim.

ACOSTA: John Vause in Beijing -- thanks very much for that very disturbing development in all this. Thank you, John

CHETRY: Also new this morning, first words from one of the three Americans being detained in Iran. Sarah Shourd is saying loneliness is the hardest parts of her captivity. And in these pictures, you can just see how badly they were missed by their mothers.

ACOSTA: Wow.

CHETRY: Of course, her comments coming as the three hikers had a tearful reunion with their moms who were granted visas by the Iranian government to come see their children. They're also trying to secure their children's release. Shourd, along with Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were arrested last July. They were hiking in Kurdistan, in the northern region of Iraq, when they strayed into the Iranian border and Tehran then accused them of spying.

ACOSTA: Can you imagine what was going through the minds of those moms during all this time when those kids were behind bars? Unbelievable.

Well, police in Paris are searching for the lone thief behind a multimillion dollar art heist. Investigators say a masked man was caught on tape stealing five paintings from the Museum of Modern Art, including Picasso's the "Pigeon with the Peas" and "Pastoral" by Henri Matisse. Police have the museum cordoned off. Officials say the five paintings are worth a big sum of money, $620 million.

CHETRY: I never -- you never -- I never understand, though, how do you actually -- I mean, if you're going to -- how is this lucrative in that everybody knows these paintings? So, if you buy one, you're going to get busted.

ACOSTA: Right. And how do they keep getting stolen?

CHETRY: That's the big question.

ACOSTA: How do they pull these things off?

CHETRY: That's a good question.

ACOSTA: Good question.

CHETRY: "Thomas Crown Affair," right?

ACOSTA: Exactly.

CHETRY: Well, President Obama and the first lady hosted their second state dinner last night where they welcomed Mexico's president and his wife, along with 200 other guests. And that included some Hollywood stars as well, Eva Longoria Parker, George Lopez, Whoopi Goldberg as well. Security reportedly beefed up to stop any crashers this time around. There's Eva.

ACOSTA: Looking nice.

And the weather looked pretty nice down at White House last night, at least outside. If we could sort of look to those windows there, it seemed sort of nice.

Let's get a check of this morning's weather headlines.

Things are looking dicey in the middle of the country but we're looking good on the east coast. It's just nice.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Pretty good out in the east and pretty good out in the west. But you're right, right smack-dab in the middle of the country, we got a bit of a bull's eye, these (INAUDIBLE) been popping out, some strong storms yesterday and today. We have a chance of severe weather from about the southern half of the Mississippi River Valley including parts of Texas along the Red River, Dallas-Fort Worth, maybe some strong storms.

In terms of your high temperatures for the day -- fairly comfortable along the eastern seaboard with highs going up into, well, I say, to 70s in many spots, in Boston and New York, 92 in Tampa and 89 in Houston, 94 in Vegas, and 77 in Los Angeles.

Your full forecast is only moments away. Plus, we're going to take a sneak peek at what you can expect along the Gulf Coast and where that oil slick may be headed. Let's send it back to you.

CHETRY: All right. Reynolds, it sounds good. Thanks.

WOLF: You bet.

ACOSTA: Still to come on the Most News in the Morning, we'll talk to one fisherman from the Gulf area to see just how much of an impact the oil spill is having on his business. You can just imagine. That's coming up.

It's 10 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It is 8:13.

And, you know, it's been a month now since that oil rig explosion in the Gulf. Hard to believe, it's been a month. And while crews try to figure out how to plug the leak and stop the spread of oil, folks who make their living in the Gulf are trying to figure out how to pay the bills and stay in business.

CHETRY: Yes, one person we checked in with in the days after this happened, Dean Blanchard, who runs Dean Blanchard Seafood. We are going to see 31 days out how things are.

He joins us now from New Orleans this morning.

Thanks for being with us again, Dean.

DEAN BLANCHARD, DEAN BLANCHARD SEAFOOD: Thank y'all. How y'all doing?

ACOSTA: Good morning.

CHETRY: Well, we are doing great. Although, this is a really devastating situation and we are starting to see those pictures of the oil, those big puddles of oil making their way into the Louisiana marshland. Three weeks later, how is it going? What's the deal?

BLANCHARD: It's been a -- it's been a tough month, you know, a lot of -- tensions are high down there. And, you know, things look like they are getting better with B.P. They look like they are trying to understand our situation. And I hope they come through with some of the promises that have been made the last few days.

ACOSTA: And what do you think when you hear, you know, some of the testimony on Capitol Hill about all of this? There are scientists saying, well, perhaps the magnitude of the spill is not what the B.P. officials are saying. You have the federal government perhaps not quite doing its job when it comes to regulating the oil industry.

I mean, do you just look at this whole situation and see a huge mess?

BLANCHARD: We definitely got a mess. That was sad to see the pictures on the beach. But I knew it was coming.

I'm in constant contact with the fishermen that are actually working for B.P. And they told me over a week ago that the booms they were using would not work because the dispersants had pushed the oil further and the oil was going underneath the booms. And for some reason, B.P. didn't try to straighten it out. They just let it happen. I don't know why.

CHETRY: Wow. So there has been, you know, problems along the way, of course, with all of this. When we talked to you three weeks ago they were saying they needed to bring more of the local guys in there. Because they knew where to go, they knew where to lay the boom. On top of that, there were some questions about whether or not there were going to be financial compensations. Now, you just said that you hope B.P. comes through some of the things they have promised over the past couple of days. What are those promises?

BLANCHARD: Well, in my business, we have about 5,000 people that will be affected that directly deal with me. The promises B.P. came with the last couple of days was that they understand there are different levels in the seafood industry. And all they did was help the smallest level at the bottom. Now, they are talking to us and claiming that they will bring us in on a one and one. And hopefully, Obama promised that it would not interrupt our cash flow. We are hoping that the president sticks with his word. I voted for Obama for change but I thought change meant for the better.

ACOSTA: Wow. And I guess, you know, the folks who are watching this across the country. You know, they can't really get a feel for what's happening, because they are not physically down there on the Gulf Coast, I mean, I suppose at some point, they may feel it in the pocketbook. I mean, eventually at some point seafood prices might be affected and folks everywhere may feel this. If this keeps going and the impact on your industry is that severe.

BLANCHARD: It might be worse than that, Jim. We might not have no more seafood. We are not really worried about the oil. The people that work for me, the way we unload shrimp, we dump it in vats of water and all that comes to the top. So we have seen oil. What we are worried about is the dispersants. If somebody in the government knows that they sprayed something in there that's toxic, I think it is time to tell us.

ACOSTA: And so you don't know for a fact whether or not those chemical dispersants are safe for your product?

BLANCHARD: I eat it every day. I told my wife, if I die, quit selling it. That's all I can do.

ACOSTA: Oh, man.

CHETRY: You know, you are taking a good attitude about it but it has clearly decimated the industry down there. I understand you are going to be meeting with B.P., right? You are talking to them today?

BLANCHARD: We are going to talk to them today. But we have been through four hurricanes, now, an oil spill. We have been through $4 a gallon diesel. I don't know how much more this industry can take.

ACOSTA: Do you have any faith in the people who are handling this operation, this cleanup operation, the attempts to plug that leak? Do you have any faith in them?

BLANCHARD: Well, if I could have gone through my television, night before last, I would take out and choke the CEO to B.P. to death when he said it was very minimal. I would like him to come and spend one day with me. By the time he would leave at the end of the day, I believe he would have a different attitude.

ACOSTA: You would talk some sense into him is what you are saying?

BLANCHARD: I would probably beat some sense into him.

CHETRY: I knew that was coming. All right. Well, Dean Blanchard, the president of Dean Blanchard Seafood. Keep us posted on how things are going down there. As you said, there are more meetings. And of course we wish you the best of luck. You have been through a lot, as you said. Thanks so much.

BLANCHARD: Well, we hope the president will come in and help us.

ACOSTA: All right. Dean, thanks so much.

BLANCHARD: Thank you.

ACOSTA: Appreciate it. Maybe we ought to put him in charge. You know, I like his attitude. Coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, there weren't any gate crashers but there were some surprising guests at last night's state dinner, State Dinner at the White House. Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" next.

CHETRY: The bankers are back.

ACOSTA: The bankers are back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty-two minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's time for "Minding Your Business" right now. We have Christine with us. You know, one funny thing, I just have to say, Dean Blanchard was the character we have just talked to. He is quite a guy, he has been through a lot.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Seafood guy.

CHETRY: I don't know if you remember Ali Velshi during that storm. They were on stilts on that house out there in the gulf. That was Dean's house.

ROMANS: Yes, Dean Blanchard built a house on stilts. he built a house on stilts. Unbelievable. I'll never forget, Ali, the messages that I was getting, until I did not get them anymore from him. They made it.

ACOSTA: We digress.

ROMANS: We digress. What I'm talking about here is a storm of another sort. Remember fat cats in December? The bankers were fat cats. The president said these fat cat bankers were -- they needed to learn a lesson.

CHETRY: Yes, they were wearing pitch forks out there.

ROMANS: Did you see who was at the most coveted dinner invitation in Washington last night?

ACOSTA: Will you show us?

ROMANS: Fat cats. They were fat cats. Brian Moynihan, he is the new CEO of Bank of America. Also, James Gorman, from Morgan Stanley. Among those who nabbed a coveted invitation to the White House with the Mexican president, this causing some this morning to say, maybe that war on Wall Street isn't an all-out war after all because that is pretty much the most coveted invitation you can get in Washington. Also, it comes on the same day that a senate effort to regulate Wall Street hit a roadblock, a procedural roadblock. Some concerns that certain provisions are being watered down.

CHETRY: As it relates to the derivative markets?

ROMANS: As it relates to the derivative markets that both of these companies have businesses in. And it was just kind of interesting and a lot of people remarked that two CEOs were front and center last night. Two banking CEOs were front and center last night. So, they went from fat cats to White House invited guests so quickly, so I think it shows you that much of the optics --

ACOSTA: From pitchforks to dinner forks.

ROMANS: Oh, that is good. I'm going to steal that. But, I think it shows you that some of that populous outrage, a certain amount of that was optics from the White House, and there is also --

ACOSTA: No.

ROMANS: Yes. There is also this reality that the White House and Wall Street have to work together. $15 million.

ACOSTA: $15 million. Contributions to the president in the 2008 campaign from the banking industry.

CHETRY: Oh, Jimmy, you are two for two, my friend.

ROMANS: There you go. Yes. Two for two. $14.9 million is what Wall Street gave to the president. He was the number one recipient of Wall Street money, President Obama was. But Goldman Sachs was the number one Wall Street contributor, that hasn't really done it very much good. No one from Goldman Sachs was there last night with the President.

ACOSTA: Okay. Christine Romans. Thank you so much.

CHETRY: Christine, thank you. Interesting stuff. Well, coming up, danger in the cockpit. Investigators think they know what's causing airplane windshields to shatter in flight. So, what's being done to make sure it doesn't cause a catastrophe. We are going to look into it. Twenty-four minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. You have heard the term fire in the cockpit. It is something that none of us want to see at 30,000 feet. But that's just what happened on a United Airlines flight last weekend. And it was captured on video by an I Reporter. Here is some of that video right there. Our Homeland Security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, is following the story live in Washington this morning. Jeanne, that is something we definitely don't want to see at 30,000 feet.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and as a result the Federal Aviation Administration is speeding up an order requiring airlines to inspect windshield heaters on Boeing jets after that incident Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): A passenger walks up to a cockpit of a United Airlines Boeing 757 to see for himself why his New York - Los Angeles flight made an emergency landing near Washington Sunday night. The windshield had shattered after a fire broke out in the cockpit.

PHIL LOBEL, AIRLINE PASSENGER: Flames were coming out of the cockpit door when the flight attendant first opened the door and handed the fire extinguisher off to the pilot/co-pilot. The pilot and co-pilot, you know, had smoke inside. The pilot and co-pilot had their masks on.

MESERVE: The plane landed safely. No one was hurt.

JOHN COX, SAFETY OPERATING SYSTEMS: The crew safely dealt with it. There was not a depressurization. The airplane diverted safely. Yes, there was a fire. Fires are never good. But it was not a life threatening event and in my view, it doesn't warrant grounding the airplanes.

MESERVE: The cause is under investigation. But Cox, a former airline pilot who runs an aviation safety company, estimates there have been about 20 similar incidents with Boeing aircraft caused by window heaters. In 2008, flying glass from this shattered windshield cut the first officer and smoke sickened several passengers. Boeing has recommended voluntary fixes. But the National Transportation Safety Board had urged the FAA to take stronger action and require airlines to install redesigned window heating systems.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Though the cause of Sunday's cockpit fire is still unknown. A review of the incident has prompted the FAA to speed up plans requiring airlines to either replace or regularly inspect those window heating systems. The order was originally scheduled for August. Now, the FAA says it will issue it as soon as possible. Jim, Kiran, back to you.

ACOSTA: Good information, Jeanne Meserve, live in Washington. Thanks, Jeanne.

CHETRY: Twenty-eight minutes past the hour now. Time for a check of our top stories. They don't have to go searching for it anymore. You can smell it and you can see it. Big puddles of the oil now staining the sensitive Louisiana wetlands. It has been 31 days now. Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar told us that a procedure to plug the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, what they are calling the jump shot, trying to pack it with mud and other things and then close it up. It could happen on Sunday.

ACOSTA: We hope something works. Meanwhile, the censorship dominos are falling now. Pakistan is blocking YouTube over what it calls sack religious, un-Islamic content. This comes a day after the country blocked Facebook over a group that encourages people to post images of the Prophet Mohammed.

CHETRY: A tearful reunion ten months in the making. Hikers detained in Iran since early July, they finally got to see their mothers. It was an emotional reunion understandably. The families of Sarah Short, Shane Bauer and Josh Fatall were detained when they accidentally strayed across an unmarked border into Iran from the Kyrgystan region of Northern Iraq. Iran has said it will charge them as spies.

ACOSTA: And there are some of America's most wanted. Al Qaeda leaders who normally appear on shadows, on grainy internet videos or audio recordings. Well this week, CNN's Fred Pleitgen, was the first Western T.V. journalist to interview the recently captured Baghdad commander of Al Qaeda in Iraq. In fact he is live in Baghdad this morning with a CNN exclusive. Fred, unbelievable stuff that you are able to talk to this guy. What was he like?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. His name is Munaf Alrawi (ph). And you know, we have to know, this man has the blood of hundreds of people on his hands. He coordinated attacks against American interests here in Baghdad, against foreign embassies here in Baghdad, of course killed hundreds of civilians here in this city.

He was a man that seemed like a logistical mastermind of terror. Here is what he had to say to me.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: They were some of the deadliest and most brazen attacks in Baghdad, coordinated suicide bombing that hit several Iraqi ministries last year. This man, Munaf Al-Rawi, says he was the mastermind.

MUNAF AL-RAWI, BAGHDAD HEAD OF AL QAEDA (via translator): I wrote to my leaders and they send me $120,000. We have trucks and suicide bombers were Mosul. We planned the operation and we executed it.

PLEITGEN: The U.S. military say Al-Rawi is a master of terror logistics. He admits he was Al Qaeda in Iraq's top commander in Baghdad until he was recently captured by luck at an Iraqi checkpoint like this one.

The Iraqi government allowed CNN to interview him but we were not allowed to say where the interview took place and we were asked not to use one portion of the interview for fear he might be sending a secret message.

PLEITGEN (on camera): Tell me the nuts and bolts of what you would do.

AL-RAWI (via translator): I would get orders always for written notes transported by curriers. I would get the order to conduct and I would transfer it to our military chief in Baghdad.

PLEITGEN: Did you, yourself, ever think about becoming a suicide bomber yourself? Did you ever think about doing that yourself? You were sending people to do these bombings.

AL-RAWI (via translator): No. I didn't force anyone to do it. A suicide bomber will come from the border and get into Iraq to do it. I didn't force anyone to ride the car and conduct a suicide attack.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Al-Rawi says he joined Al Qaeda in 2003 to fight the U.S. occupation. The irony, he says American forces at one point had him in custody. He says he was detained after the battle of Fallujah in 2004 but released in 2007. A year later, Al- Rawi says, he became a terrorist leader.

At the height of its power, Al Qaeda brutally controlled entire towns in parts of the country. But the vicious tactics turned many Iraqis against them.

MAJOR GENERAL STEVE LANZA, SPOKESPERSON, U.S. FORCES IN IRAQ: The population has not embraced this ideology of Al Qaeda. That's significant because it has hindered this ability to conduct operations here. PLEITGEN: U.S. and Iraqi security forces say information gleaned after Al-Rawi's capture including documents discovered in raided houses, allowed for the killing or capture of dozens more Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders. He says even before his arrest Al Qaeda had been driven further underground.

PLEITGEN (on camera): Is the organization falling apart?

AL-RAWI: It is 80 to 100 percent harder to operate for Al Qaeda these days. Before there was no opposition. Now, you can't do that. Even the place you prepare car bomb will be discovered.

PLEITGEN: Al-Rawi says he felt sorry for civilians. He repeated that he didn't mean to kill civilians. But he insisted he still believes, in what he calls a holy war against Americans and Al Qaeda's enemy, the Iraqi government, a war Al Qaeda in Iraq's new leadership says it is carrying forward. In the last two weeks, hundreds more have been killed and wounded in brutal attacks across the country, many civilians.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: You know, he keeps talking about his remorse and how sorry he was about the civilians that got killed. What struck me was how matter of fact he was. He kept describing all the killings he conducted.

He would get a mission, all of this only written on paper. He would say, I have got the suicide bombers from here, the explosives from here, the cars from here. I went out and did a (INAUDIBLE) of the location, and then we blew it up. It was absolutely amazing to see how deadly and as a matter of fact he was able to describe this, Jim and Kiran.

ACOSTA: Very disturbing. Thanks for that record, Fred.

CHETRY: Hundreds of millions of dollars for schools across the nation, all of it part of a new program from the education department. Some are critical, though, saying there is too much emphasis put on test scores instead of actually inspiring your children to learn. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will be joining us next to talk about it.

It's 34 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: It's 37 minutes after the hour.

The Education Department is offering a new round of grants for schools across the country, and up for grabs is $437 million. But there's a catch. They have to meet certain standards.

ACOSTA: That' right. The cash will go to only those schools that could show students are making the grade. Parents worry that puts too much attention on teaching your kids how to take tests. Joining us live this morning is Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. Tell us a little bit about this program and how do you deal with this question of whether this will encourage more of what's going on in schools, this idea of teaching to the test?

ARNE DUNCAN, SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: First of all, this is an unprecedented opportunity. As you said, $437 million to go out to reward excellence. In our country, there are very few incentives and lots of disincentives for great teachers and principals to work in disadvantaged communities, be that inner city, urban, or rural.

We have to close the opportunity gap and shine a spotlight on those great teachers, principals, school staffs, custodians, it doesn't matter. This goes way beyond testing. This is about raising graduation rates, making sure every student has a chance to fulfill their potential.

ACOSTA: So teachers and administrators are going to get more money due to higher test scores. Isn't that going to encourage them to teach to the tests?

DUNCAN: No, because that doesn't work. Good results come from great teaching and well-rounded education and come from engaging students and teacher creativity and innovation. Where you are seeing great results for student it's always great teaching --

ACOSTA: What do you make of that complaint from parents, Mr. Secretary? Parents get very frustrated with this. They think their kids are just being taught to take tests and pass tests for their school systems.

DUNCAN: Again, I share that frustration. Teaching the test doesn't lead to better results. What leads to great results is a well-rounded education, great teachers who are engaging students.

It is great afterschool programming, good parental engagement. All of those things lead to higher achievements. And these funds, these $437 million will go to those states, those districts who want to reward success in historically disadvantaged communities.

CHETRY: Some critics say it will increase the gap between the best-performing schools and the worst-performing schools and make things more difficult for schools that are having trouble because of a number of reasons, not just what they are learning in the classroom, having trouble getting the test scores up.

So how do you make sure that divide doesn't get wider?

DUNCAN: All of these resources, we want to put into historically disadvantaged communities. Even in those tough communities, we are seeing remarkable progress, students doing extraordinarily well. What we can do is shine a spotlight on that excellence.

Poverty is never destiny. This money can reward and encourage those adults and let the nation learn from their examples about what's possible despite those immense challenges our students face in school and outside the classroom as well.

ACOSTA: And Secretary Duncan, I want to talk to you about the situation down in Texas, because, as you know, school officials down there are very close to some pretty controversial changes to their curriculum, to the textbooks.

I'm sure you're well aware of some of these changes. They have been in the news in your bailiwick for some time now. Some of these textbooks, changing references to the slave trade that went on and changing the reference to the slave trade to the trans-Atlantic trade, the issue of whether Thomas Jefferson's role is being minimized. There are some that are arguing that that is going on.

What do you make of some of those changes and what are you doing about it?

DUNCAN: Curriculum in our country is always going to be decided at the local level. But whatever Texas decides, I do not think there will be large ripple effects around the country. I am much less concerned. Textbook companies today have a real ability to customize textbooks. And whatever the Texas board decides, I don't think that will impact education in other parts of the country.

CHETRY: What about what it impacts in Texas? Millions of school kids going to school, is there a concern that what they are learning may be politically motivated in some cases?

DUNCAN: Well, I think, obviously, ideally, history will be led by the historians, not by politicians.

ACOSTA: But is politics playing a role in some changes, in your opinion?

DUNCAN: Well, again, curriculum is always going to be decided at the local level. You have an elected school board that is making that decision. So to answer your question, yes, you have political leaders that are making these decisions there in Texas at this point. That's correct.

CHETRY: I want to ask you about the issue with Central Falls. Rhode Island tried to deal with some lowest performing schools. They had a graduation rate of only 40 percent and ended up firing all the teachers and staff. You and the president did support that move even though it was controversial.

Now, we learn this deal has been struck. Some changes have been implemented. The staff is able to keep their jobs. Was that an example of trying to push reform through too fast too soon?

DUNCAN: No. I think they got to a great, great place. I have so much admiration for the teachers there, for the union leadership and the local superintendent, the state superintendent. It was obviously a very difficult situation. They worked together. They stayed at the table and got to a great outcome.

Those students are going to have more support than ever before, longer hours, more mentoring. They are going to have more adults involved in their lives.

Was it a difficult process? Absolutely. Those adults came together, and I promise you, I guarantee you, what happens for children in central falls high school will be much better than what happened in the past.

And so I congratulate everyone involved for hanging in there. They got to a great, great outcome and did it together. I give them credit for that hard work.

CHETRY: Education Secretary Arne Duncan, thanks for talking to us this morning.

DUNCAN: Thanks for having me.

CHETRY: You too.

It's 44 minutes past the hour. Reynolds Wolf will be along with the morning's travel forecast right after the break.

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CHETRY: Well, it is now 47 minutes past the hour.

Time for us to get a check of the weather headlines. Not so great in all parts of the country but all around we have to say it's a good day to be in New York because we're looking at 80 degrees and sunny.

ACOSTA: Pretty.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You lucky devils. Yes it's picture perfect out there, no question. You know things are fine out east, also fine out towards the west. Right in the middle of the country, smack-dab here in parts of the southern plains and the southern half of the Midwest, we could have some strong storms.

We've already had some in parts of the plains just yesterday but not it looks like much of the action is going to be moving a bit farther south in parts of Louisiana into Arkansas, even into Missouri before all is said and done.

Look for a mix of sunshine and clouds for parts of the southeast, high pressure for the Eastern Seaboard. Possibly some scattered snow showers in parts of the northern Rockies and back into the Cascades. It should be interesting there to say the very least.

In terms of your Gulf Coast forecast, things should be pretty interesting there. Again, this is the oil slick that's about the size of Maryland; hard to believe, size of Taiwan even. You see the regular loop current that we have here but a couple of eddies that might bring some of that sheen right near the coast. But the heaviest will remain out to sea for the time being, out in the gulf.

Very interesting to see what happens in the days to come if that loop current pulled suddenly closer to the dry Tortugas and possibly into the Florida Keys over the next several days.

Here's a quick look at your forecast. Again as we mentioned, the big troubled spots are going to be right in the middle of the country in terms of your rough weather. Dallas/Fort Worth, some delays and also in Oklahoma, Will Rogers Airport, might have some back up there as well. That is a look at your forecast, let's send it back to New York.

ACOSTA: Thanks Reynolds. And it's interesting when you show that Gulf Stream current. It does flow past Cuba and through the Caribbean, through the Bahamas. So we're not north just talking about Florida and the Carolinas and that whole which we've said time and time again. I mean there are other nations that could potentially be affected by this.

WOLF: Absolutely. One thing we do have going in our favor there is that the farther it gets from its primary source, it begins to at least fizzle out just a little bit in terms of the intensity. But still, we are talking about that chain and that too can be detrimental, no question about it.

CHETRY: They're already talking about tourism being affected in some of those places.

ACOSTA: Right. Thanks Reynolds.

WOLF: You better believe it.

CHETRY: Reynolds, thank you.

Coming up, a little bit of a controversy in the world of racing, in cycling.

ACOSTA: That's right. American cyclist Floyd Landis reportedly admits doping and says he wasn't the only one. We'll talk to Max Kellerman about it, next.

It is 48 minutes after the hour -- 49.

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ACOSTA: Welcome back.

Well, after four years in denial, the man who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title, American cyclist Floyd Landis is finally admitting to doping according to new reports in the "Wall Street Journal" and espn.com. And he is naming other names.

CHETRY: That's right. The biggest name that he is naming in the sports is Lance Armstrong; somebody who has repeatedly denied any allegation of using banned substances in the sport. And CNN contributor Max Kellerman is here now.

First of all, when you talk about Floyd Landis, this was somebody who also denied for a very long time some of the accusations against him and decided what, to just come clean in assorted e-mails that he set up?

MAX KELLERMAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It seems as though this was the case with Jose Canseco (ph) of Major League Baseball that these guys, once they become pariahs in the industry, they can't work in the industry anymore then suddenly they choose to come clean.

Landis claims that it's because the statute of limitations is running up starting in 2002 when he feels that information he has about himself and others stops becoming relevant, at least it loses credibility, right. So ostensibly, that's the reason for ratting everyone else.

What occurs to me is the scene from "Goodfellas" where Henry Hill gets pinched selling cigarettes out of the back of a truck. And he gets bailed out eventually and Robert De Niro who plays his mentor says you learned the two most important things, never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut. And if you do that, you wind up as the batting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Mark McGwire never ratted anyone out and he's the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. Jose Canseco did and he is a pariah.

ACOSTA: Right. I covered the Tour de France in 2004 when Lance got his 6th Tour de France title and the questions were going on back then. All these years since those titles were won, he was so impressive coming back from cancer, it seems like the allegations have never stuck.

And he's always been adamant throughout all of this that none of this went on. Here we go again with Floyd Landis. I guess the question is, if you are Lance Armstrong, how many times can you deny this?

(CROSSTALK)

KELLERMAN: Well, I mean in Lance Armstrong's case, because he is a cancer survivor, there is a lot of sympathy. It genders sympathy; there is no way around that, of course, for good reason. But Landis, his credibility is an issue right now, because it is really about him. Once he has no other options, he starts selling other guys out and Americans, people don't like that. Nobody likes a rat.

ACOSTA: Right.

KELLERMAN: But in Lance --

ACOSTA: And it smells like a book deal is in the works or something like that.

KELLERMAN: He had a book out, Landis did, that claimed -- called positively incorrect -- I forgot what the book was called already. But the whole thing was about how he didn't dope. How he didn't do it.

CHETRY: And so if begs the question because if you take a look at some of the reporting, the "Wall Street Journal" was reporting that they actually saw three of the e-mails that Landis sent out. He sent these two apparently to cycling and anti-doping officials as well as others.

And that in some of these e-mails between April 30th and May 6th, he makes some pretty damaging allegations including talk of blood transfusions to boost endurance and a blood test for the synthetic blood booster that made doping more difficult. And the lengths that he and the others that he wrote in would go through to not get caught from blood transfusions and putting blood in refrigerators and making sure it is in the right temperature.

How do you prove any of this?

KELLERMAN: You either need a confession or you need testing. That's why an Olympic testing for instance, they keep the samples for, I think, it's 8 years. The interesting thing to me is Pat McQuaid. The first comment you get out of the head of the cycling governing body. The first comment is Floyd Landis has a grudge against Lance Armstrong. Why not let the facts come out? Why close ranks around Lance Armstrong?

ACOSTA: Well, much has been said about the entire cycling community over in Europe. I mean they were just getting fed up with Lance Armstrong winning that Tour de France year after year after year. And so there were a lot of Armstrong supporters who were saying a lot of this talk is just being generated because of the fact that they are just jealous of this American coming over there and every year winning that event.

We should report that -- we should mention that CNN has reached out to Lance Armstrong and we have not heard back from him yet. But at some point, he has to come forward and address this.

KELLERMAN: If he has done something then he should admit to it before too long. I think a lot of the problem is, we saw this with Roger Clemens, when he was accused in baseball, is that if you admit to cheating, it takes away and especially with a competitive athlete right? The interesting thing about sports is it's a meritocracy. It's one of the few pure meritocracies in the world.

CHETRY: If you do well, you are rewarded.

KELLERMAN: You are rewarded and you rise to the top. Especially with these guys who are so competitive that they are able to compete on a world class level, their whole sense of self is derived from this objective proof, look at how good I am. If that proof is based on cheating, then the devastation to the ego is unthinkable.

So you see a guy like Roger Clemens and you are watching and say, just if you did it, admit it. He can't do it because it would undermine his whole sense of self.

ACOSTA: Well, we have to wrap it up, Max. I mean it is a very important topic. And a lot of people are going to be paying attention to this because so many people just love Lance Armstrong and CNN will be staying on top of it as well. Thanks, Max Kellerman, appreciate it.

KELLERMAN: Pleasure.

CHETRY: Thanks Max.

All right. We are going to take a quick break. When we come back, top stories coming up.

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ACOSTA: That's going to do it for us. Thanks for being here.

CHETRY: That's right. And we'll see you back here tomorrow.

Meanwhile, "CNN NEWSROOM" with Fredricka Whitfield starts right now.