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American Morning

Al Qaeda Acknowledges Number Three Operative Killed; BP-Caused Oil Spill Continues to Spread Along Gulf Coast; NOAA Predicts Large Number of Hurricanes in Gulf Coast Region; Israel Slammed for Ship Raid; Future of British Petroleum; Designing Women: Ford's Green Team of Female Engineers; BP's "Cut and Cap" Operation; Apple's IPad Hits 2 Million; Inside the Forbidden City

Aired June 01, 2010 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning on this first of June. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. We got a brand-new month but unfortunately lingering problems from not only last month but the month before to deal with today. I'm John Roberts.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Thanks for being with us. Here are the biggest stories we'll tell you about in the next 15 minutes.

Word of a major blow to al Qaeda. The terror group saying that it's number three man, a founding member, a man with a direct line to Osama Bin Laden is dead. Analysts say that this hit could really disrupt their plans to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Nic Robertson is live in Kabul in a moment.

ROBERTS: The cut and cap operation has began in the Gulf. Robots armed with circular saws are preventing gushing blowout preventer and riser for a clean cut as early as tomorrow. The new containment device will be lowered onto the riser. BP is hoping to contain most of the leaking crude that's not close 62,000 square miles of ocean to fishing.

CHETRY: Plus, a CNN exclusive inside the tech world's forbidden city. Secret in Chinese factory where Apple's iPads and iPhones are made open its door to out John Vause, and the bosses there answer to the growing scrutiny after a string of worker suicides. The global resources of CNN taking you to Shenzhen, China this morning.

ROBERTS: First a developing story, what's being called a major victory in the war against Al Qaeda. The terror group saying it's number three man in charge, Mustafa Abu Yazid, is dead. He may have been the closest man to Osama bin Laden.

U.S. officials believe he was killed in a missile strike in Pakistan's tribal areas. At one time he was bin Laden's top money man and was the man in charge of operations in Afghanistan. Our Nic Robertson is live in Kabul this morning, and Nic, this would appear to be, on the surface, at least, a very severe blow. And unlike other takeouts, this one, confirmation coming from Al Qaeda.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Confirming not only that he's dead but three of his daughters and wife and granddaughter and other people, the strike appears to have hit the compound where he was living. And the fact that Al Qaeda has broadcast it on their own website themselves does seem to add a huge amount of credibility to it.

And yes, it is a very big strike against the leadership of Al Qaeda. This man was involved in the past couple of years meeting with young men, would-be jihadists coming from the United States to Al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan, briefing them, talking to them, encouraging them in plans to attack inside the United States.

So by taking him out, it's taken out a very senior Al Qaeda operative who wanted to attack inside the United States, inside Europe, and he was a man as well who appeared for Al Qaeda late early this year claiming credit for and responsibility for the attack on the CIA camp in Afghanistan late last year that killed seven operatives.

So this is a big get, a very big get.

ROBERTS: We're hearing from NATO this morning, Nic, that American aircraft are backing Afghan troops in a fight to regain a mountain district seized by the Taliban. What do we know about that this morning?

ROBERTSON: Yes, this is really interesting, because this is up in the northeast of Afghanistan, incredibly steep mountains there, right on the border with Pakistan.

The area around where this is taking place is a place where there have been U.S. troops based, but General McChrystal and his predecessors have decided to pull the troops out of there. We've been there to some of the bases. There were so few troops there they couldn't get off the bases properly and the analysis was that the insurgents were merely walking around the mountains bypassing the bases. No point in having the bases there.

The Afghan army was put into this town, and now it has been overrun by militants. And now you have United States coming back in support of the Afghan military to retake it, but a very marginal area for the Afghans to control.

ROBERTS: Nic, thanks so much for the update.

CHETRY: Now to the disaster if the Gulf of Mexico. BP's cut and cap operation is getting underway. In fact, you're looking right now at the live feed coming to us from the ocean floor. Robots using circular saws already slicing a mile down, trimming pipes off of the gushing riser at the bottom the sea.

And they are preparing for another containment attempt. If all goes well that twisted, kinked up riser pipe will be sliced apart tomorrow before crews cover it with a containment device known as an LMRP cap.

Earlier on "AMERICAN MORNING" we asked BP's executive Bob Dudley how this maneuver can succeed when others have failed. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB DUDLEY, BP MANAGING DIRECTOR: We learned a lot in the first containment dome that we tried. We understood the effects of the hydrates. We designed this cap to pump warm see water down with a little ethanol to eliminate the risk of hydrates.

The engineering on this while it's never been done at 5,000 feet is more straightforward. Even with an increased flow rate, this cap will be able to handle this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: President Obama will meet later this morning as well with a new co-chair of this newly created oil spill panel. Former Florida governor Bob Graham and ex-EPA chief William Riley are among those advising.

So far government estimates put it anywhere between 20 to 43 million gallons of oil that have now spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. And also more than 125 miles of Louisiana coastline are now covered with crude.

And 62,000 miles, square miles of the Gulf are now off limits to fishing. And the oil could spread this week, threatening the coasts of Alabama and Mississippi as well.

Carol Costello joins us from one of the hardest hit areas, Grand Isle, Louisiana. Carol, a lot of oil has already washed ashore, but there's also a lot more crude floating off the shores right now. When we left, they still seemed to be in the process of getting more bodies out there, getting more resources out there on the water. Has that changed and improved since last week?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It seems to have improved, Kiran. BP is hiring more and more people to clean up the oil that has washed onshore here in Louisiana, especially here in Grand Isle. It's also hired more people to stop the oil before it gets to shore. You see evidence of that all around you.

In fact, yesterday BP said it is doing a good job from containing the oil and keeping it from coming onshore. We wondering if that was true, so we set out to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (on camera): Where are we going?

MEL LANDRY, BARATARIA-TERREBONNE NATIONAL ESTUARY PROGRAM: We're going to Grand Island and East Grand Island.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Mel Landry is an environmentalist. He's taking us on a tour to see if BP's efforts to clean up oil washing up ashore are effective. Locals contracted out and trained by BP are on the island suiting up and for first time willing to talk with us. Shane Trahan, a fisherman by trade, grew up here. He's disgusted by the thick disks of sand-encrusted oil on shore. It's his job now to pick them up, 61 bagfuls in two and a half days.

COSTELLO (on camera): Do you feel as you're cleaning up what's already here that you're fighting a losing battle?

SHANE TRAHAN, CLEAN-UP WORKER: Personally myself, I think so, I really do. But we've got to try. It's something that is pretty sad to see.

COSTELLO (voice-over): One of the first things he spotted on the island was a dead dolphin. BP tested it and determined it did not die because of the oil but the dolphin's corpse disturbs Trahan.

TRAHAN: It's very sad. Something should be done a lot sooner than what it is.

COSTELLO: He is afraid of what may come next now that BP is unable to stop the leak. There are globs of oil and sand and drops of oil in liquid form on the rocks. Absorbent towels are used to soak them up.

We leave to talk with Mel, our environmental disaster.

COSTELLO (on camera): I must say the absorbent towels seemed a little useless to me.

LANDRY: That is a specific technology made for oil cleanup. Those towels don't absorb water. They are only absorbing oil, so they are very useful.

COSTELLO (voice-over): BP ratcheted up its shoreline cleanup efforts and hired 20,000 people so far. Officials told me BP is ready to hire thousands more. Some of them will be housed on flotels, living quarters built on top of barges that can house thousands of people and then be moved to wherever they need to be to stop or clean up the oil.

Hundreds of fishing boats armed with booms are busy skimming oil from the water. They are also dropping booms or floating barriers around land masses. The big question is, is all of this enough?

COSTELLO (on camera): On a scale of one to ten, BP's containment efforts, where would you put the number?

LANDRY: Offshore I think their containment efforts are working shore. Once it's making landfall, I think there's room for improvement.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Landry says more bodies and more equipment are needed onshore. The oil is leaking again, the spill growing ever larger, and there's no way to know where it's all going.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: And adding to that problem, Kiran, hurricane season is upon us. Big storm could really affect where the oil goes. You have to remember too this new procedure that BP is trying out there in the Gulf that means more oil will be leaking into the Gulf.

Another problem is you just don't know where the oil is going to go. It comes in and out with the tide and the winds change, so that's a big problem too for those who have been hired to clean up the mess.

CHETRY: It will be interesting to see when they finally get the flotels, that could be a real weapon in this fight against preventing oil from getting to the coast. Carol Costello for us this morning in Grand Isle, thanks.

ROBERTS: Still healing from hurricane Katrina and now reeling from this environmental disaster, resident along the Gulf coast have another burden to brace for, hurricane season. Rob Marciano is live this morning with that part of the story. He joins us now. Good morning, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, John. Communities across the Gulf coast on this day every year really convene and talk about their hurricane preparedness plan. This is the first day of hurricane season, and here in Plaquemines Parrish, you better believe they are ready for it.

Here in the Atlantic we have record-breaking warm temperatures in the ocean, and we also have El Nino winding down, and that combination is a recipe for a lot of hurricanes. You combine that with a big pool of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, that's a recipe for disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Almost five years later, signs of hurricane Katrina are still evident in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. And this year's hurricane forecast calls for up to 23 named storms, not exactly what Louisianans want to hear.

BILLY NUNGESSER, PRESIDENT, PLAQUEMINES PARISH, LOUISIANA: It scares the hell out of me. And let me tell you, we're worn down. We're working 24/7. I'm sleeping two or three hours a night.

MARCIANO: Billy Nungesser's Parish is not just the bulls-eye for hurricanes. Oil from the BP spill is already in the barrier wetlands here.

NUNGESSER: You saw the pelicans. Imagine a storm rolling that up and bringing it in here and laying it down where we are here. Imagine that on everything. We'll never clean it up. We will devastate coastal Louisiana forever.

MARCIANO: That's the kind of unimaginable devastation that Dolphin Island, Alabama, is trying to avoid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tide is down right now so the water is below the basket. MARCIANO: The Alabama National Guard is erecting a four and a half mile border to keep the oil from impacting protected wildlife here. The baskets are filled with a powder that can turn the wet oil into a solid, making it easier to collect by hand. But what happens to these oil barriers if a major hurricane hits?

(LAUGHTER)

DAN KOONTZ, CI AGENT SOLUTIONS: They will be gone like everything else around here too. A category five will take out the houses and every structure on island probably.

MARCIANO (on camera): We're around the thick oil around the Gulf of Mexico. What does the oil do for hurricanes? It will have a hard time developing over the oil because the oil actually suppresses evaporation, but that's actually one of ways that the oil cools.

So between lack of evaporation and the darkness of that oil actually heats up the Gulf. This will actually feed it if anything and bring it onshore and everything with it, including this big mess.

MARCIANO (voice-over): More bad news for Plaquemines Parish which lacks the needed founding and is still waiting for federal approve to reinforce its barrier islands. Nungesser knows his clock is ticking.

NUNGESSER: We have to get this barrier island. This is the only thing that can give us a fighting chance of saving south Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: I should mention that if this oil spill were further offshore, if it were in the Atlantic Ocean, a hurricane would actually help. It would mix up that oil and act as a bit of a dispersant.

But as we know, the oil is right here. So that's not going to help it too much. If anything it will push that oil onshore on the right side of any particular storm.

I'll tell you this, John. NOAA, when they put out the hurricane forecast, they give a range and usually kind of err on the side of being more conservative. I've never seen a forecast this aggressive for a hurricane season coming out of NOAA. So that certainly is reason for concern, especially here in coastal Louisiana.

ROBERTS: Rob Marciano for us this morning, thanks so much.

Be sure to catch "Toxic America" tonight, a two-night investigation with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He'll be examining one of the chemical dispersants being used by BP. It's banned in other countries, so why is it all right to use it here? "Toxic America" beginning tomorrow night at 8:00 eastern on CNN.

CHETRY: Israel is defending its actions this morning after a deadly raid on ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. But the clash is being condemning in many parts of the world, and there are a lot of questions still this morning about what really happened. We're live in Jerusalem with more details coming up.

It's 13 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Sixteen minutes after the hour now and developing this morning, fierce condemnations and calls for investigation after Israel's deadly raid on a blockade busting flotilla delivering supplies to the Gaza Strip. At least nine activists were killed after commandos repelled from helicopters onto one of the six ships. Israel claims that it was acting in self-defense. But late last night after an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations called it a hostile act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN OBSERVER TO U.N.: It was an aggression by the Israeli armed forces in international waters which is a violation of international law. And that investigation should lead to finding the reasons why orders were given to those commandos to open fire against civilians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Our Atia Abawi is live for us in Jerusalem this morning. And, Atia, what's Israel's reaction to those charges?

ATIA ABAWI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, Israel is not commenting, at least giving an official statement when it comes to the Security Council's call for an impartial investigation and a call to let go the several hundred civilians that have been detained. When we spoke to the Israeli police here, they say that at least 45 of those activists have been in the process of deportation. They may be leaving in the next couple of days. But around 600 are being held at an Israeli prison, although they say they're not being arrested. The reason that they're being detained is because they refuse to give them identification which will make it a longer process for them to send them back to their home countries.

But that being said, although Israel isn't officially commenting on the U.N. Security Council's new measures, they are actually defending their acts of yesterday's pre-dawn attack on those ships. In fact, the deputy foreign ministry, Danny Ayalon said, we don't need to apologize for defending ourselves.

The armada of hate and violence as he calls it is merely one manifestation of the constant provocation Israel faces. So obviously, no apologies coming from the Israeli government. We are hearing from our first activists that were on board and they were actually Israeli parliament members, Arab-Israeli parliament members, and they're saying, this isn't about the ship, this is about the siege and the blockade against Gaza needs to stop and more ships will be coming to the strip -- John.

ROBERTS: You're hearing a lot more about this throughout the day today. Atia Abawi for us in Jerusalem this morning. Atia, thanks so much for that.

CHETRY: Well, the gulf oil spill not only taking a toll on the livelihoods and the wildlife but, of course, also on the company behind it, BP. We're going to tell you why some experts predict that the oil giant may not be able to survive this disaster.

Nineteen minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty-three minutes past the hour. Christine Romans is here "Minding Your Business." We're talking a little bit about BP and the oil spill. We know that there's, of course, PR disaster, an environmental disaster.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

CHETRY: But will this be the end of this company?

ROMANS: Well, this is interesting because you look at what's happening in the stock market this morning, this is the first chance since the failure of "top kill" for the market to respond to what's happening to BP. And you have shares down $6 in the pre-market in the U.S., down another 15 percent in the U.K. So far, you've had some $45 billion or $50 billion of value wiped away from this company from shareholders selling it over the past month and a half because they're so concerned about the cost of this company.

Now, BP says its costs so far are $990 million. But we just got off the phone with an analyst at ING (ph) in London who says worst case scenario, he says the cost to BP will be $22 billion if this lasts through August. Why suddenly the shoot up in the expectations for very, very high costs to BP? The failure of "top kill." People were expecting that they were going to be able to get this under control before August, and they simply can't.

$22 billion dollars, let's put that in context. The company made $14 billion last year. That would wipe out a whole year of profit. Its cash flow, meaning how much money it has in its system is about $28 billion. So it has money. This is a cash machine. BP is a cash machine, but you're seeing that cash machine coughing up an awful lot of money to pay for what we don't even know yet will be the ultimate cost of all of this.

That's also raising questions among investors about whether BP could be so weakened eventually that it could be a takeover target. That BP, because it has so many parts of its business that are so valuable, cost (ph) on motor oil, for example, it has a coffee company. It has another company that makes sandwiches. I mean, it has a very widespread -- anything that has to do with the gasoline and any way, selling it, getting it out of the ground, it sells it. There -- you know, there are a lot of people who say that it could start trying to sell off parts of its business to survive or that maybe you'll see somebody try to take it over. Other analysts say no way. BP makes so much money that it's minting money out of the oil business.

ROBERTS: The problem is you don't know what the overall effect of this is going to be.

ROMANS: Right. And we don't know what the cost is.

ROBERTS: Nobody has got an opinion right now.

ROMANS: It's just -- it's never happened before. It's impossible to figure out how much it will eventually cost.

ROBERTS: Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning.

ROMANS: Sure.

ROBERTS: Thanks so much.

Coming up, to the glass ceiling and beyond. We'll meet a team of designing women at Ford creating cars of the future. Our "A.M. Original" series "Making It in a Man's World" just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty-seven minutes past the hour. Your top stories three minutes away. But first, an "A.M. Original," something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING.

The auto industry is traditionally been dominated by men. But women are now making their mark in the business. At Ford, for example, an all-female team of engineers is designing the next generation of green cars. Carol Costello has their story in the first part of our series, "Making It in a Man's World."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBBIE MIELEWSKI, TECHNICAL LEADER, PLASTICS RESEARCH: Here I am sitting in front of an electron spin resonance spectrometer.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Debbie Mielewski remembers what it was like being one of the first female chemical engineers at Ford Motor Company 24 years ago.

MIELEWSKI: They would guard the male -- the men's restroom for me so I could run in there and go and not have to make the hike across the building to the women's restroom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the sides of the seats?

COSTELLO: Mielewski no longer needs to sneak into the men's room. Today, she leads a team of women, all engineers designing cars of the future using green technology, recyclable and renewable materials, like wheat straw and soy.

MIELEWSKI: My group went from working with all men to, in this case, working with all women. So it has been a big change.

COSTELLO (on camera): Was it difficult at times?

MIELEWSKI: At times. I remember sometimes in the past where I was the only woman in a meeting and I would have an idea and maybe everybody would ignore that idea. And then a man would say that idea and they would call him doctor, even though I had my Ph.D. as well.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Today when it comes to women in the automotive manufacturing industry, still only one in four workers are female. And just over one in 10 auto executives are women.

(on camera): Why don't more women gravitate to this field, do you think?

ANGELA HARRIS, ENGINEER, PLASTICS RESEARCH: I think it's not just -- it's just not a traditional career path. And you have to really kind of seek it out when you're a woman. It's not like engineering really gets presented to you at the high school levels.

ELLEN LEE, TECHNICAL EXPERT, PLASTICS RESEARCH: I think things are starting to come around in education, but it takes a while, you know, for all of the women to go through their education and then filter in. So it doesn't change overnight.

COSTELLO: What do you bring to the field that maybe men don't, do you think?

MIELEWSKI: I think we're really persistent. We're really passionate about it. Everybody here feels that we have to leave a good legacy for our children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, wow.

PATTI TIBBENHAM, TECHNICAL EXPERT, PLASTICS RESEARCH: We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago and a guy came in and he looked at our group and he said, do they only let women work here? And I said, no, only the smart ones.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Between the five of them, the team has been awarded 10 prize patents. Even so, they can see they still have to toot their own horn.

LEE: I have noticed that when many men think something, some fact is true, their maybe 50 percent sure, they say it with confidence and everyone believes them. A woman can be maybe 95 percent sure of something and she'll say, well, I think it's this. And so they may not tend to notice. So I've really tried to change my ways and, you know, be more confident.

COSTELLO (on camera): How will you inspire the passion in your daughters for science and engineering?

LEE: I think to some extent we already have because we often have events here. You know, my daughters are very excited every time I mention maybe coming in to the see the lab. They get all excited.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think Ellen's daughters drew her this year in her mother's day card with a beaker and little test tube in her hand. So they're catching on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That's right. Be confident. They were great women and a lot of fun to be with, Kiran. you know, broadly speaking, men and women remain stuck in these traditional jobs. And that's a bad thing because you want a large pool to choose from to choose the best talent. The more the merrier in other words. It's also important because of the wage gap.

I mean, let's face it, an engineer makes a lot more money than let's say a teacher.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Now, as you showed us in the piece, they are just as successful so they are on the right track, let's put it that way.

COSTELLO: They were awesome women, coming up all sorts of really cool ideas. I mean, it was really impressive.

CHETRY: That's great. And we're going to continue spotlighting this throughout the week. Carol, thanks. We're going to be taking a look at women on Wall Street. There are actually 400,000 fewer women working in finance than there were just two and a half years ago. And not a single woman is at the helm of a major financial institution. But things are changing. Christine Romans will have that story for us.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Crossing the half hour and checking this morning's top stories. The number three man in Al Qaeda is dead. The terror organization made the announcement on Islamic web sites. Terror experts say Mustafa Abu Yazid was in charge of Al Qaeda's operations in Afghanistan and kept a direct line with Osama Bin Laden. The feds think that he was killed in Pakistan's tribal region.

CHETRY: Well, President Obama is meeting today with those picked to head up the investigation into stopping future oil spills. BP is pushing ahead with a plan to cap the leak in the gulf. 62,000 square miles of the gulf now off limits to fishing and pushing the extended zone towards Alabama and Mississippi. BP has also set up a flotel, a make shift housing for more than 500 cleanup workers on a huge barge in Port Fourchon, Louisiana.

ROBERTS: And two months, two million iPads sold. Apple announcing those impressive sales number for its tablet computer. The iPad started selling in Europe, Australia and Asia over the weekend. The tech giant stock has been doing quite well too. It will start the day later on this morning, just under $257. It was 90 about 14 months ago.

Apple is facing growing scrutiny though after a string of worker suicides at the Chinese factory where iPhones and iPads are made. Foxconn, the owner of the plant, is responding by raising salaries by 20 percent. Critics argue that money is not the only issue.

Tapping into the global resources of CNN, our senior international correspondent John Vause is getting an exclusive look inside the so-called Forbidden City and talking to the bosses in charge there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rarely does the world's biggest supplier of electronic and computer parts open up to the outside world. Foxconn, best known as the maker of Apple's iPhone and iPad is obsessive about secrecy and security. This complex is spread over less than a square mile and 300,000 mostly young workers from the countryside live, sleep and work here.

(on camera): And this could be their first job away from home, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of them. Most of them this is the first job.

VAUSE (voice-over): And a growing number of these workers are either killing themselves or trying to. And Foxconn doesn't know why.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (through translator): We've never seen anything like this before, says the company spokesman. Workers spend long hours on the assembly line, not only supplying parts for Apple but also for tech giants Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Nokia, earning less than U$300 a month. Under the watchful eye of Mr. Liu, we talked to this young woman.

VAUSE (on camera): So a model happy employee. You're happy?

(voice-over): But critics say that's not the whole story.

GEOFFREY CROTHALL, CHINA LABOR BULLETIN: They wake up and they have breakfast and they go to work. They work a solid shift. They come back to their dormitory. They sleep. It's a very dehumanizing place and the workers are little more than machines there.

VAUSE: Employees live in dormitories, eight to a room, common to factories in China, often roommates will not know each other's names. Do you know these guys?

(on camera): Do you know their names and where they are from and all that kind of stuff?

(voice-over): She arrived three days ago. I don't know her name, she says.

CROTHALL: There's no real sense of community there. And I think that is one of the very significant factors behind this alarming number of suicides.

VAUSE: Foxconn admits managers have been known to abuse workers if they make mistakes or miss deadlines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we can and must change is the rude attitude some managers have towards workers.

VAUSE: While this complex is like a city within a city with three hospitals, fire station, restaurants and supermarkets, recreational facilities are few. Five pools, libraries and 400 computers. That's one for every 750 workers. The company has set up a hot line.

(on camera): How many suicides have you prevented in recent weeks here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One month, actually maybe over 30.

VAUSE: Over 30.

(voice-over): Counselors have been called in.

And this stress room, employees can work out their frustrations. Even so, Mr. Liu says another suicide is a matter of when, not if.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (through translator): I don't think our prevention is enough to stop the suicide trend.

VAUSE (on camera): So what could be happening here, according to some experts has all the hallmarks of what's known as a suicide cluster. When the idea of suicide quickly spreads amongst a group of people, often teenagers or young adults.

(voice-over): Still, none of that is putting off the hundreds who line up every day hoping for a job.

(on camera): Have you heard about people who have been dying at Foxconn? People committing suicide?

(voice-over): Some people may find it stressful and difficult work he says but it's not a problem for me. Because for many young workers moving to the city, a job at Foxconn is a better option than staying at home on the farm.

John Vause, CNN, Szenchen, China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: Amazing.

ROBERTS: Interesting to see that they are having those problems there. Although I do like the idea of the stress room. That's a great way to relieve it, isn't it?

CHETRY: Exactly.

Well, BP is taking a new approach to plugging the leak that's spewing into the gulf. A lot of people are saying what happens when this try fails? We're going to be speaking with Carol Browner, our White House advisor on energy and climate change about the latest effort and where the government goes from here.

It's 37 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CHETRY: There are some places you can soak up the sun today, the day after Memorial Day but other places they're going to be looking at some thunderstorms. 40 minutes past the hour. Let's check on the weather right now.

Jacqui Jeras in Atlanta for us. Hey, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Thunderstorms unfortunately probably more of the rule today than the exception. We're going to see a lot of activity up and down the East Coast. We're also still tracking what's left of tropical storm Agatha from over the weekend. Just a little cluster of thunderstorms but it caused incredible devastation in Guatemala on Saturday and Sunday both.

Take a look at this picture that we just got in of a sinkhole in Guatemala. Look at that. Just incredible. I literally have never seen anything like it. It almost looks fake because it's so perfectly round. But we did contact the Guatemala government and they assure that it is real. But they had up to 20 inches of rain from those storms.

It is June 1 today and that means it's the start of the Atlantic hurricane season. We don't really have much brewing out there. But typically this time of the year, we'll start to see some development in the Gulf of Mexico and then off the southeastern coast of the U.S.. We got a couple of changes this year, they're going to be increasing the lead time for tropical storm and hurricane watches and warnings, so you get an extra 12 hours to help yourself prepare.

Across the U.S. today, those thunderstorms up and down the East Coast, slight risk of severe thunderstorms across the nation's midsection and really just hot and sticky. I guess Texas would be the place if you look to for some of that sun. John and Kiran, thank you.

ROBERTS: All right. Jacqui, thanks so much. We'll see you again soon by the way. BP taking a new approach to plugging the leak in the Gulf of Mexico. What happens if this one fails? Everything else has so far. We'll talk to Carol Browner, the White House adviser on energy and climate change about the latest efforts and where the government goes from here. It's 42 minutes after the hour.

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CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning, 44 minutes past the hour right now. It is day 43 of the gulf oil disaster and BP is working on its latest long shot effort to slow the oil gusher from a blown out well.

Meantime, President Obama will meet today for the first time with co-chairs of the independent commission that's investigating the spill.

Carol Browner is the president's adviser on energy and climate change. And she joins us now from the White House.

Thanks for being with us this morning, Miss Browner.

CAROL BROWNER, WHITTE HOUSE ADVISER ON ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE: Thank you.

CHETRY: So BP has moved on from the top kill effort as we know. And what they are going to try to do now is make some clean cuts on the riser pipe and then lower down that cap that's supposed to actually provide a tighter seal and then use that to siphon off the oil.

Do you have any assurances or what is your update right now on how likely this is to work?

BROWNER: Well, they are beginning this process. As you say, the goal is now to contain the oil. The hope had been to kill the well so there'd be nothing leaking.

We've always known that the relief wells -- which they are drilling. We've required them to drill not one but two - are the long-term solution, but hopefully with this cap, with a tighter fit this cap will be able to capture maybe all or a significant amount of the oil. It will then be moved through a riser to a vessel up on - on the sea and that - can bring that oil to shore.

Obviously, the new concern we have is that we're entering hurricane season. Today begins hurricane season. We've been told that it will be an active hurricane season. If the vessel - if the hurricane comes to the Gulf of Mexico, obviously the vessel would not be able to remain there, which means there would be unabated flow for some period of time.

You know, we've always hoped for the best but we are preparing for the worst, working with the governors, working with the communities to give them what they need to protect their shorelines and restore their shorelines once impacted.

CHETRY: So you said that you're prepared for the worst. Will you tell me specifically in your mind what would the worst be right now?

BROWNER: I think, to be honest, the worst would be if this containment doesn't work. If, for some reason, it's not able to contain any of the oil, we would then be in a situation where it is conceivable that there would be oil leaking at a - a rate of something on the order of 12,000 to 20,000 barrels a day until these relief wells are dug, obviously a deeply, deeply troubling situation.

CHETRY: So, in that - it absolutely is. But, in terms of the relief wells, we've talked about the length of time. We've said months. Is there any fast tracking that? Or what would be, I guess, the - the soonest they could be done and where would be the outset of how long it might take?

BROWNER: Well, what we know, based on - on other wells that have been dug, similar wells, is they tend to take about three months. This - the ones that - the first one that was started, if that's the case, would be done sort of mid-August.

But there's also issues that can arise. You're working very, very, you know, below the sea or a mile below the sea and then several miles into bedrock before you hit the reservoir, and that's why we've required them to dig a second relief well in the even that something happens with the first one.

And we also have our brain trust led by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and more than a hundred of the government's smartest people working to ensure that once the - the relief well is into the reservoir, it can make the intersection with the existing well and get that shut down. That will be the permanent solution.

CHETRY: Right.

All right, I want to ask you about the cleanup and control over the cleanup. We spoke with General Honore, who's a CNN contributor, but he commanded the military response after Hurricane Katrina. He - he believes that the full force of the military needs to be called in. That was also echoed by some of the local parish leaders, including Jefferson Parish, Homeland Security director Deano Bonano. He says this needs to be treated like a war, not an oil spill.

Why hasn't the military, at this point, the administration, given a call for the military to take this over?

BROWNER: Well, we have. We have given the governors permission to call up their National Guard. Louisiana Governor Jindal has in fact taken advantage of that, calling up some of the National Guard, and I'm quite certain that as we move forward we will see more of that. So we have granted that permission to bring in the military.

CHETRY: You're - separate from the State National Guard, what about a federal military response?

BROWNER: Well, right now, what we're using are people who are expert in - in cleanup. They've been trained in how - how to manage the system. They're expert in -in deploying the booms. Obviously, we're going to bring in whatever resources are needed.

The president was in the region on Friday. What he said is that we will triple the resources in the communities that are already impacted or the communities likely to be impacted in the near term. And so, whatever it takes, we're going to make sure that the resources and the personnel are there.

You know, I think it's important to note that we have over 20,000 personnel now in the region. We have over 1,400 vessels working around this spill. So we have been deploying from the absolute beginning resources to this situation and we will continue to do whatever it takes. CHETRY: Right. But the way that some of the local leaders, when we were down there, and some of the state leaders describe it, that it was uneven, I guess is the best way to put it. In some cases it's working well. BP's contractors, people that are hired on a daily basis to do the cleanup are working well. In other areas it's not working so well, that there doesn't seem to be a general organization.

I think a lot of people were asking the question, is this the best we can do? So, I'm - I'm asking you as well, is this the best that we can do?

BROWNER: Look, we - we are - absolutely, and we will continue to do it.

I mean, I'll give you an example, some of the things that people have to - to deal with. These communities, these marshland communities, beautiful, beautiful places, they're relatively remote, frequently small. They can't accommodate. They can't put up, house the large number of cleanup experts that are important.

So they've been busing them in on a daily basis or a weekly basis. We're evaluating right now can we deploy some base camps, perhaps floating hotels so that people wouldn't spend time traveling but can spend all of their time actually working to restore and clean up these shorelines.

You know, these - as the question comes up, we get and answer and we move forward to implement that answer.

CHETRY: Carol Browner, assistant to the president on Energy and Climate Change. Thanks for joining us this morning.

Fifteen minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.

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ROBERTS: Six minutes now to the top of the hour. Time for an "A.M. House Call", stories about your health.

"CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: TOXIC AMERICA" debuts tomorrow. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes an in-depth look at the everyday things around us that could be making you sick, including the fruits and veggies on your plate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: When you hear the term pesticides, a lot of people think about being outdoors, things that you find in your grass, perhaps your flowers, especially in the summer time, but what if I told you that you're likely eating pesticides as well?

Now, look, I'll admit, I tell people all the time you should be eating five servings of fruits and vegetables every single day. But a new study shows that if you're doing that, you're probably eating up to 10 different pesticides a day as well, which is why they've come up with this list of the dirty dozen, which we'll put on our website.

There are some foods that they say you should buy organic, for example peaches over here, or some of the vegetables, (INAUDIBLE) over here, celery, for example, they say you should buy organic, lettuce, all kinds of different berries. They say those are good candidates to buy organic. Apples as well.

Now, one thing that people immediately bring up is the cost. It simply costs more to buy organic. It's true, but maybe not as much as you think. Celery, for example, you have about 50 cents more. You look at apples, 10 cents more per pound. On this day, the lettuce was actually about 20 cents cheaper.

There are some foods that they also say, you know what? Save your money. You don't necessarily need to buy these foods organic. Pineapples, for example. Pineapples are a good candidate for that. Watermelon. Watermelon, again, you can buy these non-organic. Cantaloupe is another good thing.

Corn on the cob. I love corn on the cob, again, especially in the summer time. You peel this off. You can grill that corn. You don't need to buy this organic.

You may see a theme emerging here, and that is that those are all foods that you can peel. Simply peeling away the outer skin can get rid of a lot of those potential pesticides.

Now, one thing I want to point out is that when they tested for pesticides, that was after these foods had already been power washed. So even if you wash this at home, a non-organic apple, you're probably still going to have the pesticides. So a good rule of thumb, if you don't buy organic, make sure to -to peel this first, then wash it. That's going to be your best bet.

I want to be clear. The evidence about the relationship between pesticides and adverse effects on human health, it's not clear. There are some - some studies suggesting that it may cause birth defects for pregnant women, may cause nerve damage, even cancer. But simply by following these rules, you could rid your body of about 80 percent of the pesticides you might be taking in in any given day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Another reason why when you go grocery shopping, you want Sanjay with you.

And as Sanjay just mentioned, we put the list of the so-called "dirty dozen fruits and veggies" on our website. You can find about that - find out about that and a whole lot more in this special investigation, "TOXIC AMERICA". Just go to cnn.com/toxicamerica. Plus, the two-night event kicks off tomorrow, the "CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: TOXIC AMERICA", 8:00 P.M. Eastern Wednesday and Thursday, only on CNN.

Top stories coming your way right after the break. Stay with us.

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