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American Morning
"Nobody's Perfect"; Van Der Sloot Wanted for Murder; McCartney Serenades First Lady; Three States Soaked
Aired June 03, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Thanks for being with us on this AMERICAN MORNING on this Thursday, June 3rd. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Lots happening to tell you about. And here are the big stories that we're following over the next 15 minutes.
BP preparing once again to slice a leaking riser pipe in half in order to try to cap and contain the oil spill in the gulf. But they're going to have to use a less precise blade. More than a third of the gulf is now close to fishing, and the governor of Florida says oil could come ashore in his state sometime in the next day.
CHETRY: An international manhunt is on this morning. The prime suspect in the Natalee Holloway case is now wanted for the murder of a woman in Peru. Is Joran van der Sloot a killer on the run? We're live with brand new details on this story.
ROBERTS: And a chance for immortality crushed by a bad call. Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga retiring 27 straight Cleveland Indians last night only to have the final out ruled safe. The ump later admitted he blew the call, costing the pitcher a perfect game. And that is creating quite an uproar over the commissioner to reverse the call.
So what do you think about all of this? The amFIX blog is up and running this morning. Join the live conversation going on right now. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX.
CHETRY: Right now, we're bringing you the latest on the oil spill. And BP is preparing to try to slice the leaking oil riser at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico in half again. However, the cut and cap operation has suffered a serious setback.
Here are the live pictures now of the crude oil continuing the relentless attack on the sea. Meantime, the shores of Mississippi and Alabama now stained by oil and Florida appears to be next.
Governor of the state, Charlie Crist, says he expects crude to come ashore in the panhandle before the weekend is out. It's been 45 days since the oil rig exploded and the oil began to leak. Here is where things stand right now.
BP scrapping its diamond wire cutter. It jammed in the riser yesterday. Took several hours to get it unstuck. But now they're using a different tool. Crude to try to get sheers to cut that pipe and finish the job. But because the cut will not be as clean, as smooth as BP had hoped, engineers are going to have to switch to the top hat containment device to try to capture the gushing oil.
And with 37 percent of the gulf waters now off limits to fishing, the White House has blessed a $360 million dredging plan to protect Louisiana's coast. BP is promising to pay for that.
David Mattingly is live in New Orleans this morning. So, explain, first of all, that the switch in operations. They were hoping to get a very smooth cut from that diamond wire saw. What's next?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, the failure of that diamond cut saw is going to have repercussions throughout the summer because with that saw they were expecting to get a very clean cut across that pipe that's leaking oil. With that clean cut, they would have been able to put a cap on there with a specialized seal to capture a vast majority of this oil, as using BP's words.
But now, because they weren't able to use that saw, because it became pinched in the process of trying to cut that pipe, they are now having to use a different method to cut that. To shear the pipe off, it's less precise. It's going to be a rubber cut, so that means they're going to have to use something that doesn't have that kind of a seal. So that means there's going to be more oil leaking out into the Gulf of Mexico to some degree over the rest of the summer until they get that relief well drilled sometime in August.
We don't know how much oil is going to be leaking out yet. There have been a lot of speculation, 1,000, 5,000, who knows how many barrels a day will be leaking into the Gulf of Mexico at this point until that relief well is drilled.
CHETRY: And another question about this, first of all, quickly, is that there's no guarantee about the top hat either, right?
MATTINGLY: There's no guarantee with any step throughout this. In fact, Admiral Thad Allen saying that to be honest we need to make sure everyone's prepared to see us dealing with this oil throughout the summer. Again, always because they've never tried anything like this under these kind of conditions. There's always that huge possibility for failure. And up to this point, everything that BP has tried has either fallen short or failed.
CHETRY: David Mattingly for us this morning in New Orleans. Thanks so much.
At 7:25 Eastern, we're going to be joined by Admiral Thad Allen. He is the incident commander for the oil spill. We're going to ask him more about the setback of BP's diamond wire cutter, and also as David Mattingly just said the fact that we could be dealing with this oil leaking all summer long. ROBERTS: An international manhunt is under way this morning for Joran van der Sloot. He is the main suspect arrested twice in the Natalee Holloway disappearance case five years ago in the island nation of Aruba.
CHETRY: Yes, and now he is the prime suspect in the murder of a 21-year-old woman found dead in a hotel room in Peru registered in his name. Our Alina Cho has been working the story and she joins us live this morning.
Hi, Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, guys. Good morning. You know, this latest murder happened exactly five years to the day after Natalee Holloway disappeared and the similarities to the Holloway case are really striking.
Now as John mentioned, an international manhunt is under way. Authorities believe that van der Sloot is now in Northern Chile after crossing over the border from Peru by bus. Now, police are said to be going through hotels and homes looking through border and customs checkpoints searching for the 22-year-old. Authorities believe that he has been in Chile since Monday.
Now, just the day before on Sunday, police believe that van der Sloot killed 21-year-old Stephany Flores at a hotel in Lima in a room registered to van der Sloot. Authorities say she was found face down on the floor wrapped in a blanket with multiple stab wounds. Van der Sloot and the victim apparently met at a casino just hours before. Police say a hotel worker later saw them entering the hotel room together at 5:00 Sunday morning, and that van der Sloot left alone four hours later. Just yesterday, the young woman's father, race car driver Ricardo Flores, spoke directly to Natalee Holloway's family. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICARRDO FLORES, FATER, STEPHANY FATHER (through translator): I would like to tell the family of the girl who died in Aruba, who was murdered, that this time he won't be able to walk away because we will make every effort to detain him and make him pay. And it's been the same m.o. Such a coincidence. He saw her in the casino. He took her from the casino. He took her and killed her. Too much coincidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: It certainly is a coincidence. You may recall that van der Sloot was arrested twice in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. She went missing during a high school graduation trip to Aruba back in 2005. Prosecutors tried to arrest van der Sloot a third time in 2008 after he got caught on a hidden camera on Dutch TV admitting that he had had sex with Holloway on the beach. Then she started shaking, loss consciousness. He then went on to say on the tape that he panicked when he couldn't revive, so he then called a friend with a boat who he said then dumped Holloway's body at sea. Now, ultimately, an Aruban court ruled that that was not sufficient evidence to re- arrest him. Holloway's body has never been recovered so that case remains unsolved.
ROBERTS: In this particular case in Peru, there may be some evidence as well the existence of a video?
CHO: That's right. A videotape, it has not yet been released, guys. But yes, there is apparently a tape of van der Sloot of Flores, the victim, his latest victim together at that Peruvian casino late Saturday night. A hotel guest and an employee of the hotel say that they saw the pair entering the hotel room at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday and again that van der Sloot left alone four hours later. The police chief said that's, quote, "incriminating evidence."
We should mention that van der Sloot was in Lima for a poker tournament. Apparently, he's a poker player and apparently he met Natalee Holloway while playing poker. He arrived there apparently on May 14th, just about 2 1/2 weeks ago. He flew in from Colombia, guys. Chilean police say that if he is caught, he will be extradited to Peru. We should also say that van der Sloot's attorney says, listen, we should all take a step back. He has not been asked to surrender, but Peruvian authorities say an international arrest warrant could be issued in the next 48 hours.
ROBERTS: I don't know what kind of a poker player he is, but he certainly seems to be a gambler.
CHO: Yes.
ROBERTS: All right. Alina Cho this morning, thanks.
Coming up in about 30 minutes time, we're going to be joined by investigative criminal profiler Pat Brown. Find out why she says this morning's news about Joran van der Sloot is not all that surprising.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, the White House facing some questions about possibly floating jobs to another Democratic Senate candidate. Former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff said that a senior aide suggested last year that three administration jobs might be open to him if he didn't run against fellow Democrat Michael Bennet in the August primary. But a senior administration official tells CNN, quote, "there was no job offer." The White House is already dealing with the unsuccessful attempt of getting Congressman Joe Sestak to drop out of the Pennsylvania Senate race.
ROBERTS: President Obama is expanding benefits for employees of executive branch members with same-sex partners. He is ordering these benefits to be expanded as much as the law allows to match employees with opposite-sex partners. It's a follow-up to a memo the president issued last year that got the process started.
CHETRY: And take a look at this, perfection denied by an imperfect call. Detroit pitcher, Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga, he took a perfect game into the ninth inning of last night's game. He had some Cleveland Indians and with one out to go Galarraga got Jason Donald. He hit a ground ball to first. Donald was clearly out, but umpire Jim Joyce ruled that Donald beat Galarraga to the base. The replays show it wasn't even close. And then later, Joyce admitted that he blew the call. He apologized to Galarraga and was reportedly so distraught that he broke down in the locker room. Galarraga's reaction to the umpire's call, he showed a lot of class, saying nobody's perfect.
Our in-house sports guy Max Kellerman (ph) is going to be joining us at the half hour to discuss the chances of perhaps the commissioner overruling this call and awarding a perfect game to Galarraga. We looked back to see if there was any precedent to that. And it's going to be tough to see if this actually happens.
ROBERTS: It would be highly, highly, highly unusual, but clearly such a bad call. Wow.
Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines. Jacqui Jeras in for us in Atlanta this morning. Did you watch that game or at least see the videotape?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I saw the videotape right there, yes. But no, I was sleeping. But what a shame.
ROBERTS: Oh, my goodness.
JERAS: Yes. But you know, if you change the call then, what, you're kind of setting precedent for other things down the line I would think, right? But they do it in football so maybe they can do it in baseball.
Hey, we've got a lot of storms to talk about today, unfortunately n a place where we don't want them and that's in the Gulf of Mexico. Take a look at the radar picture today and you'll see those thunderstorms just rumbling across parts of Texas and throughout the northern gulf. This upper level disturbance is going to sit here and slowly move eastward over the next couple of days. So this will be impacting the oil spill and all of the northern gulf through the weekend.
Now, we've got showers and thunderstorms also across parts of the Midwest. We'll see them fire up later today across the northeast. Some of those thunderstorms may be severe. More details on that and the heat wave in the southwest. That's coming up in the next half hour -- John.
ROBERTS: Thank you, Jacqui.
CHETRY: All right. Well, still to come on the Most News in the Morning, there are renewed calls to bring in the military to help with the oil spill. But is that really the best and the most realistic option? We're going to talk about that coming up.
It's 11 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Fourteen minutes after the hour. We're back with the Most News in the Morning. And oil continues to gush on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. You're looking at live pictures as BP prepares to make yet another attempt to slow and hopefully cap the oil spill.
CHETRY: Also, meantime, oil on the surface is staining beaches in three states and it's inching closer to Florida. Senator Bill Nelson is now formally asking President Obama to give the military a bigger role.
Barbara Starr is following that live from the Pentagon. You know, so we know that the Coast Guard is leading the cleanup efforts and commanding this and that there's, of course, the state National Guard involved. But what would it mean to have the full might of the military in this oil spill fight?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Kiran and John. I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. Here at the Pentagon, officials say this is a technological problem for which they cannot really help. They are helping, of course, through the National Guard, as you say, in the gulf states, but how much help? We decided to have a little reality check on this question about how much military help really is out there.
I want you to look at a couple of statistics. They begin to tell the story. Right now, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has authorized 17,500 National Guard, but only about 1,400 have been called to duty. So what's going on here?
We looked just at Louisiana, where Governor Jindal has been very vocal about all of this. In Louisiana, 6,000 have been authorized, but only about 1,100 are actually on duty. This is a very confusing picture because the governor's office told us yesterday they would love to have all 6,000 that are authorized by the federal government to be on duty, but they have to be certified by the Coast Guard as having real jobs to do. And right now, only about 1,100, they're working on the sand burns, they're sandbagging, they're helping, trying to protect the beaches, but unless something changes, officials tell us don't look for really large military presence -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: So, if they're resisting this idea of taking over, Barbara, what do they think about request from people like Senator Bill Nelson of Florida who has petition the president to have the military taking much greater role?
STARR: Well, you know, now, pardon me, this really ramps up the political game if nothing else, doesn't it? Senator Nelson has been very vocal about this for the last several days. The White House and the Pentagon have really been maneuvering back against that message. They say Thad Allen, the incident commander, a four star in the coast guard, is the four star commander and that no military commander from the army, air force, marines or something like that, really has the expertise to coordinate a major operation like this. Right now, they're sticking with Thad Allen -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: What the locals were saying, when we were down there, we saw boom that said U.S. navy clearly on it in some of these areas. They were just saying the shear mass, the size of the spill, that if you had, you know, navy ships out there, big ones, that could sort of take over large parts of the cleanup and laying of the boom especially when it comes to protecting the marshlands. I think that's what some of the local and parish presidents were asking for.
STARR: You know, the navy knows that it's in the crosshairs about being asked this question. Now, I think that a lot of the shipping out there that is laying this boom and laying the protected theory (ph) has clenched that shipping at this point. The U.S. navy could clearly be called in to do it. But even they don't really have the expertise in very large scale events like this, the navy is used to cleaning up its own oil spills from its own ships. Nothing on this magnitude.
CHETRY: All right. Barbara Starr for us this morning. Thanks so much. Coming up in the next hour, we'll be talking with Senator Nelson about his push to bring in the military.
ROBERTS: But first, coming up next in the Most News in the Morning, protest plan around the country is a growing number call for the government to seize BP's assets. Our Christine Romans, "Minding your Business," she'll explain coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-one minutes past the hour right now. We're "Minding your Business" this morning. Christine Romans is here, and we're talking about like growing chorus of some protesters to seize BP's assets.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, people are angry. And there's a group now called "Seize Bp" that wants to spread out across the country from June 3rd to June 5th in some 50 cities to hold protest to encourage the United States government to seize the North American assets of this company. They're kind of emboldened by the former Clinton labor secretary, Robert Reich, who wrote an op-ed this week saying that we should put BP into temporary receivership. So, across the country, you're going to be seeing pictures over the next few days of people taking to the streets saying that they want this company, look if you can take GM, if you can make a big investment in AIG, why not BP except BP has very deep pockets. It's making it off a lot of money.
ROBERTS: And BP is financially sound, so --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: I mean, not to get anywhere near like supporting the oil industry here because they can do it on their own.
ROMANS: Oh, yes.
ROBERTS: What's the basis for this?
ROMANS: The basis is there's just huge populist hatred of this company right now, and they are incredibly, incredibly angry. Also, you got two senators who are saying that BP should not be allowed to get pay out of dividend, pays $10.5 billion out to shareholders every year. The two senators saying no way should this company give money out to shareholders until we know the full cost of this and make sure that BP has to pay for it.
CHETRY: And an argument is that BP is not accountable to the public like the federal government is, so, if they run to the temporary receivership, they then would be.
ROMANS: Right. That's his argument, yes. And a lot of analysts and other people who watch this say, wait, whenever Venezuela takes over an oil company nationalizes that are put to under temporary receivership, the U.S. government says, hold on, you can't do that. So, by many people say that it's a far-fetched idea, but, it allows, there's just so much angry. You're going to see a lot of these pictures. I want to really quickly talk about the stock prices, too. Stock prices down 37 percent so far now. Shareholder value has been lopped off at $68 billion. So, the market's hitting BP pretty badly here, and saying what it thinks about what the damage will be to this company ultimately.
ROBERTS: So, what's your "Romans' Numeral" this morning?
ROMANS: It's $4,300 a barrel. One of the reasons --
ROBERTS: Across to the cleanup.
ROMANS: This is the potential fines for this company, if they're found criminally negligent, $4,300 a barrel. That's outside of the costs of the cleanup, outside of what other costs seriously (ph), but people going, they're trying to sit down and figure out exactly how much this company could ultimately have to pay, how deep its pockets are right now, and how much we'll go over when has in this balance sheet to cover all these costs.
ROBERTS: And that's some expensive oil.
ROMANS: Oooh, yes, it is.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business." Thanks.
ROMANS: Sure.
CHETRY: Thanks, Christine.
ROBERTS: Next up in the Most News in the Morning, they are on the front lines as BP tries to stop the flow of oil. Rob Marciano gives us a look at just how those robotic submarines work and just how difficult they are to operate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-six minutes after the hour.
It's a tragedy, a comedy if you've heard some of the press conferences and a science fiction movie all wrapped into one. For the past 45 days now, we've been relying on underwater robots to fix this man-made disaster deep in the Gulf of Mexico. They've been our eyes providing live feeds of the disaster from so many different angles. They've also been our hands holding saws that are gnawing through thick pipe at the bottom of the sea. Our Rob Marciano live in New Orleans this morning. And Rob, you got to pile up one of these ROVs, and you look at video, you look at the dexterity of these things, it looks easy, but I assume that it's not.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, certainly not to start off with, John. As you mentioned, for weeks now, we've been seeing these pictures of robotic arms crisscrossing across our screen along with bright lights, but exactly, how do these things work? Well, just up the road, there's a company that specializes in unmanned subs. And we got to check it out. So, here's your close-up look at ROVs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a camera here and a camera here and a couple of lights.
MARCIANO (voice-over): There's been lots of lights and cameras catching the action at the site of the leaking well.
This is what they're using to saw that pipe to hopefully put that cap on successfully?
BOB CHRIST, PRESIDENT, SEA TREPID: Correct. What you have in the vehicles that are operating ought right now are two manipulators and there was called a power pack, a tooling pack.
MARCIANO: Submersible ROVs or remotely operated vehicles are doing the grunt work at the bottom of the deep water horizon site. Not far away in Robert, Louisiana, Sea Trepid Enterprises services on man subs. Bob Christ gives me a quick lesson as a small ROV has dropped into his test pool.
CHRIST: This turns left. This turns right. This goes forward. This goes backwards.
MARCIANO: All right.
CHRIST: So, you have the rotation of the camera here. See, it goes 360 degrees. OK. have a seat and have a test drive.
MARCIANO: All right. Is it in the middle of the pool because this could get ugly.
It's remarkably difficult, like driving a car on ice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're against the back wall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. up against the wall.
MARCIANO: Up against the wall so don't go backwards.
Yes, let's move forward to a bigger sub, similar to the ones working the BP well. Michel Bryant guides me through the more advanced gadgets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're heading which is what this on screen is. This is the compass rows with the numerical as well as the standard heading your pitch and roll are underneath it.
MARCIANO: And I get a chance to see how the robotic arms work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now the hardest part about doing the manipulator work, you're looking at a 2D screen in a 3D world.
MARCIANO: Yes, I really don't know how close to the bottom I am.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.
MARCIANO: Typically, three men work this ROV in a deep ocean, one driving, one working the arms and the navigator. My simple task is position the sub to grab on to an anchor at the bottom of the pool. Am I close in the manipulator? See, I'm too low. Up a little bit close it. No, I'm too high.
This ROV costs about 2 million bucks. One wrong move could be a costly mistake. Mike's advice to the guys trying to cut and cap the well?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just get the job done. One at a time. Small steps, baby steps. Think too much, you're going to have trouble.
MARCIANO: Don't mastermind plugging the well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It's not your job. Your job is to plug this up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO (on-camera): And right now, they had about, as of last night, they had about eight ROVs working the site. At one point, they had 16 of these things down there trying to fix that thing. And as we've seen the failure on top of failure, it's just not easy working at that depth. But what he did point out to me, John, interestingly enough, they'd rather work out that depth than higher levels.
At 5,000 feet, one thing, the temperatures are cold that keeps the vehicles from overheating. And two, there's very little current down there, so they don't have to deal with current.
But getting a feel for that thing, nearly impossible, it's going to take at least a year, if not two, before you get all proficient, much like flying an airplane, I presume, if not more difficult.
ROBERTS: Yes, you were just trying to pick something up. And you look what they're doing -- they're turning bolts and they're cutting things. It's just really amazing.
Rob, what a fascinating look this morning. Thanks so much.
CHETRY: It's a lot harder than it seems, I'm sure, just to get down there, you know?
Well, it's 30 minutes past the hour. We're checking our top stories.
B.P. preparing again, as Rob just showed us, to the difficult of trying to cut this leaking riser at the bottom of the Gulf. Yesterday's attempt with the diamond wire cutter failed. As we've said, the blade got stuck halfway through. Now, they're going to try to finish the job using shears.
Thirty-seven percent of the Gulf is now off-limits to fishing. And Florida's governor says that oil could wash ashore in his state by tomorrow.
ROBERTS: The prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba is a wanted man this morning. Authorities in Peru say they have, quote, "incriminating evidence" that ties Joran van der Sloot to the murder of a 21-year-old woman. Her body was found Wednesday in a hotel room that was registered in his name. Police believe that van der Sloot is now in Chile.
CHETRY: Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activist are getting a hero's welcome in Turkey following a humanitarian mission to Gaza that went horribly wrong. Nine people were killed in a raid by Israeli naval forces. Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejects international criticism of the action, saying the flotilla that tried its Gaza blockade was, quote, "not a love but a boat of hatred."
ROBERTS: There have been 21 perfect games in the history of Major League Baseball. Only 20 of them will officially count.
CHETRY: Yes, there's really no other way to say it. Last night in Detroit, Tigers' pitcher Armando Galarraga got robbed -- I just almost robbed him of his last name. He was retired 27 consecutive batters and then the last out of the game was incorrectly ruled safe by umpire Jim Joyce.
ROBERTS: CNN contributor and HBO sports analyst Max Kellerman with us this morning.
And this is nothing short of a heartbreak. I mean, you see the reaction. He's like, yes. An then he looks at the umpire. What?
MAX KELLERMAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Galarraga has been really cool about it the whole time. I mean, this is a guy who's relatively obscure and pitches a perfect game. And when the umpire blows the call, he doesn't throw a tantrum or anything. He just kind of rolls his eyes, like come on, he even smiles. Like, wow, you just blew that call.
CHETRY: Yes. And now, this morning, there's a lot of head scratching, and all the baseball fans at the newsroom, we're talking about the chances are that this gets overruled. But Commissioner Bud Selig steps in and says, all right, this give --
(CROSSTALK)
KELLERMAN: I think, you know, I think there is a chance. It's unlikely, but I think there's a chance. Selig, there's a lot not to like about him, but -- and maybe this is one of these instances for some people. But he called an all-star a tied or no ties in baseball. In one year, he ushered in the era of the wildcard which is actually wildly successful.
Also not -- so, he's a traditionalist, but he's not afraid to push the envelope. I don't think it's impossible that he overrules it here.
The interesting thing to me is there's an ethical question here. In 1956, Don Larsen threw a perfect game in the World Series, the only in the history of the World Series. And Babe Pinelli was the umpire and he called the last pitch of that game strike three, even though clearly it was a ball.
Pinelli goes to the locker room and weeps after the game. It was the last strike he'd ever call in his career because he knew that he blew his ethical responsibility, because the circumstance was so large, he felt the pitch was too close to take. The batter had -- had kind of a moral obligation to swing at the ball.
Famed evolutionary biologist Steven Jay Gould wrote an article years ago defending the call and saying, look, truth is not spot, it's circumstance. In other words, whatever the ethical obligations are in that moment, there's a larger circumstance that supersedes it. Whatever you think about that Steven Jay Gould --
CHETRY: This was a philosophy of baseball class at the University of Maryland?
KELLERMAN: Was it? Because Steven Jay Gould was a big baseball fan, in addition --
(CROSSTALK)
KELLERMAN: The point is that, here, we have the exact opposite situation. So, this umpire in 1956 preserves a perfect game by blowing an ethical responsibility and blowing the calls. Here we have a guy in Joyce, the umpire, who -- he ethically rose to the situation. In other words, the circumstance was huge. Whatever you think of the larger issue, purely ethically, he had to call what he thought was right.
ROBERTS: Yes.
KELLERMAN: And he made the call that blew the game. But for the right ethical reasons, and he goes back and cries in the locker room afterwards. I think it's a neat parallel and an interesting kind of ethical question.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, Plato, if we can come down to Earth here for a second and talk about simple things like --
KELLERMAN: Socrates --
ROBERTS: If we could come back to something a little simpler and maybe this idea of replays. And do you expand the replays because there are now -- you got them just for home runs, right?
KELLERMAN: Yes.
ROBERTS: So, do you expand it and do it for everything?
KELLERMAN: I don't think so. I don't think that's ever going to happen because the game -- the nature of baseball, the game is so long to begin with it. It's going to extend by too much.
CHETRY: Christine Brennan, she's one of the sportswriters for "USA Today" says that there's no doubt that there should be replays. And that this, you know, as mistakes go, can get much worse, and that to preserve the integrity of the game, she says they should get to instant replay.
KELLERMAN: The big thing is Galarraga is going to be more famous for this than even had he thrown a perfect game. This has elevated this perfect game, if you consider it perfect, above maybe all others except for Don Larsen.
ROBERTS: So, what are your thoughts? Do you think that Selig will overturn the call and say --
(CROSSTALK)
KELLERMAN: I don't think it's out of the question. I think it's unlikely but not out of the question.
CHETRY: I'd be online --
(CROSSTALK)
KELLERMAN: That would be the third one this year. There's never been more than one this season.
CHETRY: Right. So --
ROBERTS: So, what's going on?
KELLERMAN: I have a theory about that, but then you called me Aristotle.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: You called me Aristotle.
CHETRY: Tell us (INAUDIBLE) when you come back.
KELLERMAN: You got it.
CHETRY: Thanks, Max.
ROBERTS: Next up in the Most News in the Morning: An international manhunt for Joran van der Sloot, at the center of another high profile murder. We're going to talk with criminal profiler Pat Brown about that case -- coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHETRY: Thirty-nine minutes past the hour.
Developing story this morning: Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba, is now the subject of another international manhunt.
ROBERTS: Van der Sloot has been named the prime suspect in the death of a 21 year old woman in Peru.
Joining us now live from Boston is investigative criminal profiler Pat Brown.
Pat, your reaction when you heard van der Sloot is now the subject of an international manhunt because of his suspicion of being involved in the murder of this young woman?
PAT BROWN, INVESTIGATIVE CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, another I would call date rape gone wrong. I mean, if this guy isn't a serial killer, he's a serial date rapist. And he doesn't like it when those women fight back.
And that's what I think what happened with Natalee. I think she fought back and he smothered her in the sand.
And here we have another woman, he's taken back to his hotel room. And, apparently, he didn't like her response to him. So, he became enraged and did her in.
But, boy, this time, really, he doesn't have much excuse. So, he can't run to daddy on this one because daddy's dead and he's not in Aruba. And he's got say pretty bad crime scene. So, he's not going to be able to say, hmm, maybe, it was an accident that she stabbed herself to death. So, he knows he has to go on the run.
CHETRY: We're going to see what happens with this case.
But getting back to Holloway disappearance, I mean, they've never found her body. Prosecutors arrested him twice and then had to free him. In 2008, he was caught on video, possibly at least admitting knowing more than he originally said about the crime.
So, what -- when you take a look at the profile of the two cases -- what does this case mean for the Natalee Holloway case?
BROWN: I don't think it's really going to help it, except for the fact -- I mean, this case kind of proves that he's a violent man and likely, he did something violent to Natalee as well. So, it does prove he has this behavior. But I don't think it's going to help, you know, that case.
That case is kind of dead in the water because still, they've always had the confession with him. They already know he was the only with her. And they haven't willing to prosecute. So, I think, that one is not going anyplace. No body, they're just going to leave it alone.
But this case has a body. It has a crime scene. And Joran is on the run, probably trying to get to Argentina where he thinks he hide out. So, it all depends whether they can catch up with him and they can bring him back.
ROBERTS: So, Pat, if the allegations against Joran van der Sloot in this particular case are true, when you take that together with the Natalee Holloway case, and what we know has been said, you know, his own voice about that -- what kind of profile does this form?
BROWN: Well, he's definitely a sexual psychopath. We've seen that terrible arrogance that he has, a total lack of empathy for the victim. You know, he wants what he wants. And he's kind of (INAUDIBLE) -- he feels he's entitled to get whatever he wants and has absolutely no concern about how he gets it.
He's not a serial killer. Some people think there's going to be a trail of bodies out there where he goes out and kills women on purpose. I don't think so. I think he likes to have them in his control, and if they don't cooperate with him, that can enrage him.
So, I say, I think he's a serial date rapist or some really bad results. And so, I think they may have more rapes around some place, but I don't necessarily think we're going to have more homicides than these two.
CHETRY: All right. Well, there's the surveillance tape we've been talking about from a couple years ago made by a Dutch reporter where van der Sloot gives what someone called a subtle confession in the Natalee Holloway case. Let's listen to a portion of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER (through translator): How do you know she's dead, Joran?
JORAN VAN DER SLOOT (through translator): I just know.
REPORTER: How did you see it? Did you feel her pulse? Did it go in one time?
VAN DER SLOOT: I just touched her, and there wasn't anything anymore. It was over.
REPORTER: Did you try to resuscitate her?
VAN DER SLOOT: I tried everything. I even lifted her up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right. So that's a little bit. And he gave different answers as well when it came to that case. Meantime, there were two other young men, the Kalpoe brothers who were sucked into that case and at the time arrested as well.
So, what does anything that he said on tape possibly mean for the Holloway case given this new murder in Peru?
BROWN: Well, as I said, he's confessed to being there with her, but he's never confessed to killing Natalee. What he's saying is that Natalee did it to herself by, maybe overdosing or maybe having some health problem that resulted in a seizure. And then later on, he said she fell off a balcony because she was drunk. He's got -- it's always Natalee's fault. So, he's never really confessed to killing Natalee.
But in this case, yes, obviously, this girl did not stab herself to death or bludgeon herself to death. So, we know, if he is guilty of this crime, that he's absolutely a murderer. But again, you can't take this case and take it back to Aruba and have him prosecuted. I don't think that one is going anywhere. But they're going to get him on this one. There's no question about it.
ROBERTS: Van der Sloot's attorney, Joe Tacopina, who hasn't talked to van der Sloot about this, has rung in now and cautions against the rush to judgment. Here's what he said, quote, "Joran van der Sloot has been falsely accused of murder once before. The fact is he wears a bull's-eye on his back now and he is quote/unquote usual suspect when it comes to allegations of foul play."
Pat, what do you make of this, suggesting that he's falsely accused and perhaps repeatedly?
BROWN: Well, his lawyer's doing a lawyer's job. But, no, Joran put that bull's-eye on his own back by acting the way he did. There's no question, we have an extreme amount of evidence in this particular case.
It's true, we cannot say yes, he absolutely committed this crime, but he was seen leaving the casino with the girl. He was seen going in to the hotel room with the girl. It was his hotel room. She's ended up dead.
And unless his excuse is going to be, well, you know, I left her there alive, but I guess her boyfriend caught up with her and killed her. I was on the run to another country from some odd reason.
So, I mean, you know, there's just no way that this -- well, let's put it this way, he looks as guilty as heck and I think the evidence is going to prove that pretty darn well.
CHETRY: All right. Meanwhile, there is an international manhunt right now for him this morning.
Pat Brown, investigative criminal profiler, joining us from D.C. this morning -- thanks so much.
BROWN: Thanks a lot.
CHETRY: It's 45 minutes past the hour. Jacqui Jeras is in for Rob Marciano today and she'll have this morning's travel forecast right after the break.
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CHETRY: It's 45 minutes past the hour. Jacqui Jeras is in for Rob Marciano today, and she'll have this morning's travel forecast right after the break.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next song we'd like to do is a song I have been itching to do at the White House. I hope the president will forgive me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Little did Paul McCartney know when he wrote the Grammy award winning Beatles classic "Micelle" decades ago with John Lennon that one day he would use it to serenade the first lady of the United States. McCartney was honored with the Gershwin Prize last night by President Obama and the Library of Congress.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is my distinct pleasure to present America's highest award for popular music on behalf of a grateful nation, grateful that a young English man shared his rings with us. Sir Paul McCartney.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The First Family later joined McCartney on stage to sing "Hey Jude." Stevie Wonder, Faith Hill, Jack White of the White Stripes, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters also performed. I though I saw Elvis Costello in those as well. Plus, the favorite of the first daughters, the Jonas Brothers, all there at the White House.
CHETRY: Ironically, they're probably more excited about the Jonas Brothers than Paul McCartney.
ROBERTS: It is just so great to see him doing what he's doing even now. What a career.
CHETRY: All right. Time now again to check on the weather headlines with Jacqui Jeras in the Extreme Weather. How cool, huh?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, my gosh. I couldn't imagine. Need to be serenaded like that. That would be awesome.
CHETRY: Oh, yes. JERAS: Absolutely. Anyway, well, you're singing the blues (ph) perhaps across the Gulf Coast again today with showers and thunderstorms, and they continue to be heavy. And look at how this line bows out. The rain is very, very heavy. We're seeing gusty winds ahead of this squall line, and this is going to be moving over that oil area. It's a slow-moving system. It's going to take its time moving all across the Gulf through the weekend. We also got some stormy conditions waking me up from Oklahoma stretching all the way into the Ohio Valley.
A lot of thunder and heavy downpours for you from Louisville, and it's just starting to head into the Cincinnati area as well. The northeast, you're doing okay this morning outside of the cloud cover, but we do think showers and thunderstorms are going to start to trigger maybe by late morning or early afternoon, and there's a slight risk that some of these thunderstorms will become severe, as well as across parts of the upper Midwest this afternoon. If you're trying to travel, it's going to be the same big mess as you've seen over the last couple of days.
We've got what we called zonal flow and that just bring storm after storm across the northern tier of the country. So, unfortunately, no big changes in the forecast for you. The heat starting to build, though, in the southwest and then to the southern plain states. We're talking triple digits easy for much of this area into the weekend and even into early parts of next week. John and Kiran, it's going to get hot.
ROBERTS: Zonal flow, that sounds serious.
CHETRY: Thanks, Jacqui.
This morning's top stories just a couple of minutes away, including the mess that spreading across the gulf coast, now staining the beaches and waters of three states and inching closer to Florida as BP literally hits a new snag. The diamond cutter gets stuck.
ROBERTS: Yes, we're live along the Gulf Coast with an updated live with the man in charge of the federal government's response, Admiral Thad Allen joining us. Those stories and more coming your way beginning at the top of the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. And this is a new initiative from CNN.com called "Home and Away." It basically honors U.S. and coalition troops who've died in Iraq and Afghanistan by remembering the lives of these gallant warriors. And what you can do is you can click on one of the countries, for example, here, Iraq. When you click on it, you can see on this interactive map where our brave fighting men and women were killed in Iraq. And then the corresponding hometowns here in the United States.
And today, we're showing you Corporal Gregory Nolan Miller. He was 22 years old, his hometown, San Diego, California. He was one of three soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in the spring 2007. And this is his story told by his mother and brother.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF JILL MILLARD, MOTHER, CPL. GREGORY NOLAN MILLARD: Gregory was always the life of our party. He was always very outgoing and very entertaining. Gregory liked to be the center of the attention most of the time. And he just always had a very happy face on him.
VOICE OF JASON MILLARD, BROTHER CPL. GREGORY NOLAN MILLARD: Gregory and I, we're kind of like yin and yang. I'm the quiet, unsociable one. He is the life of the party. I mean, he walked into the room and it was electrified. He could have everybody in stitches with his jokes. Gregory had to be with people. I mean, the guy was -- there were friends around him all the time. He could walk into a grocery store and make friends with people that would want to hang out with him that night. Very infectious personality.
MILLARD: Gregory just came in beaming every time. And it was like he's ready to get this place going. You know, let's get people excited, happy, and let's laugh and some have fun. That was Gregory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So, you can logon and check out your hometown and pay tribute to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. CNN.com/homeandaway. It's three minutes until the top of the hour. Your top stories coming up next.
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