Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

"Cowardly" Attacks in Uganda Kill 64; Haiti: Six Months Later; Polanski Won't be Extradited to U.S.; FBI: "Barefoot Bandit" Nabbed; Ochocinco's Biggest Challenge Yet

Aired July 12, 2010 - 08:00   ET

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

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Good morning. It's Monday, July 12th. I'm Drew Griffin, in for John Roberts today.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good to have you with us this morning.

GRIFFIN: Good to be here.

CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry.

We have a lot to talk about. So, let's get right to it.

First, we're following terror attacks in Uganda. Three explosions ripped through crowds gathering to watch Sunday's World Cup final in Uganda. At least 64 people are dead, including one American.

We're going to find out why officials say that their first suspicion is that it could be the work of an al Qaeda affiliate.

GRIFFIN: Haiti then and now. Six months later, after that earthquake, not much appears to have changed. Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper are getting a firsthand look at the situation on the ground right now in Port-au-Prince and the struggle to rebuild.

CHETRY: Well, after nearly two years on the run, the FBI says the 19-year-old known as the "Barefoot Bandit" is behind bars. He led police in the Bahamas on a high-speedboat chase. And the man who owns that boat says it's a good thing they caught him when they did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM SPORT, OWNS BOAT COPS SAY "BAREFOOT BANDIT" STOLE (via telephone): The police did a great job of apprehending him before he could have gotten further away. He actually had enough fuel on the boat to make it all the way to Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well, our Susan Candiotti is breaking down that case that seemed destined for a movie theater near you.

GRIFFIN: And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Why don't you join the conversation? Go to CNN.com/amFIX.

CHETRY: But, first, the White House promising that whoever is behind them, quote, "deplorable and cowardly" attacks in Uganda will be tracked down and brought to justice. The terrorist attacks killed 64 people yesterday, including an American. At least 71 other people were injured.

GRIFFIN: The three explosions occurred within 15 minutes of each other and they hit two venues. Their targets? A restaurant and a rugby center, both were packed with people watching the World Cup final.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUMA SEIKO, EYEWITNESS: We were watching soccer here and then when it was remaining like three minutes to the end of the match, an explosion came from here and it was so loud. I was seated there, and then the second went off and I think there are almost 50 people there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Right now, there are brewing suspicions that an al Qaeda affiliate known as al-Shabaab could have been behind this attack. There are reports that investigators also found the remains of a possible suicide bomber.

GRIFFIN: Earlier, Kiran spoke to CNN national security contributor, Fran Townsend, about whether this could have been the work of terrorists from Somalia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCES TOWNSEND, CNN NATL. SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR (via telephone): First of all, the attack itself has all the sort of hallmarks of an al Qaeda-type attack -- multiple simultaneous attacks, venues and large crowds. And we have al-Shabaab, which is not known from launching attacks outside of Somalia. They are part of one of the extremist groups in a power struggle there, but on Friday, at Friday prayer at a local mosque in Somalia, one of the commanders of al-Shabaab actually called for attacks in Uganda and Burundi. Then you see this thing happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Al-Shabaab is one of several groups struggling over power in Somalia. They've been upset over Ugandan soldiers dispatched to the country to try to help stabilize that government there.

CHETRY: Meanwhile in the Gulf, BP is working to put a new better fitting containment cap on the broken oil well. The company is saying they are optimistic about the operation. And national incident commander, Thad Allen, says it could be in place later today.

Now, they are also hoping to have the Helix Producer, this is the vessel in place, siphoning oil by tonight.

GRIFFIN: It could collect just under a million gallons of oil every day we're told. Earlier, here on AMERICAN MORNING, we talked to Thad Allen, and he told us what could happen once that new containment cap is in place.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. THAD ALLEN (RET.), NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: Well, we're going to be in a position later on today to put the containment cap over the well, and this containment cap will have the ability to actually close down valves and slowly contain all the oil. Once we do that, we'll know how much pressure is actually in the well. That could lead to one or two positive outcomes: It could tell us that the well is withholding the pressure and we can actually shut the well in or just cap it, if you will. Either way, those are two pretty good outcomes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: You heard it there from Admiral Allen right here on CNN, that there could be a cap in place today that could potentially just seal the well. We'll be standing by for that. He went on to say that the two relief wells -- the work on that will continue because they are critical to ultimately killing the well.

CHETRY: Well, now to Haiti where the situation remains desperate just six months after a devastating earthquake. Much of Haiti is still a pile of rubble, a quarter of a million people now homeless.

GRIFFIN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta back on the ground in Port-au-Prince, getting a firsthand look at the daily challenges in the capital still city.

And, Sanjay, your initial reaction being back on the ground where you reported from right after this earthquake.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Frighteningly nostalgic. I expected a lot more to be different. I think you probably already heard that by now, but, you know, the reality is, that there's still so much rubble on the ground here. And that seems to be one of the first steps to try to get the city back on its feet.

I mean, the reality is, if you can't clear the rubble, you simply can't get to the big vehicle in to distribute the supplies. If you can't get rid of the rubble, they can't respond to emergencies and try to get the city sort of back on its feet.

You get this absurd situation where supplies get into this country but then are stored at warehouses and never distributed. That's absurd because a lot of times, these supplies, medical supplies, in particular, will expire -- here in the country, in warehouses, never getting to the people who need it. And it's absurd because, you know, there are still situations that we reported on six months ago where people are dying for lack of these resources, yet they've arrived here and are not getting out.

The rubble is a large part of that. That people simply cannot get around. You know, I know you've seen these images behind me, but this is a tent city that is literally right in front of the presidential palace. I don't think it has changed hardly at all since, you know, several months ago now.

You know, we were back here in February, early March, I believe. And it's the exact same as it was then. That was one of the things that we thought would at least be a little bit different by now.

CHETRY: That's astounding to see you in the same place and I should say -- it's actually 1.5 million people in Haiti that are still homeless.

GUPTA: Right.

CHETRY: To see you standing in the same place where right behind you the same -- that same tent city was up there six months ago.

Also, of course, we remember that you were treating patients in some cases in places where others had left. You stopped by several hospitals. What shape are they in now six months out?

GUPTA: Well, you know, I want to preface by saying, Kiran, that, you know, when we were talking to people back several months ago, the idea was that sometimes, something good can come out of something bad, and that the hospitals could eventually start to build up and create a medical infrastructure in Haiti and Port-au-Prince that they've really never seen here before. That was the hope.

And what's happened instead is that a lot of the hospitals that were at least up and running even before the earthquake have now started to shut their doors. Too much demand, too little supply, too few resources, not enough doctors. It's really incredible to see hospitals literally with chains on their doors now.

There was a little girl that we saw at one of the hospitals that has, in neurosurgery world, to be considered a relatively simple problem. She has what's known as hydrocephalus and it's often treated by a shunt, making a shunt near the brain and draining up some of that fluid. This shunt was attempted, I guess, at some point in the past and I met her yesterday, but she developed an infection -- again, an easily treatable problem, treating this infection with antibiotics.

Unfortunately, because of the reasons I was telling you earlier, she never got those antibiotics, and she is literally in this good hospital, a good hospital, but she is going to die. And they told me that there's simply nothing they can do for her. They did not get her the supplies in time. They did not get her the treatment in time, and she is going to die.

You know, she's probably about four or five months old. And again, six months later, we are talking about these same problems.

GRIFFIN: Unbelievable. Is there any bright spot that you are seeing, Sanjay? Any relief program that is working?

GUPTA: Yes. You know, I think that, you know, there was a lot to be made of the so many amputations being performed, you know, after the earthquake, as you may remember. And the big question for a long time, where are they going to be able to get prosthetics, for example.

And, in fact, that -- in some areas, at least, that's a program that does seem to be working. People are getting prosthetics, being able to start to try and navigate the streets of Port-au-Prince with these prosthetics. I visited some of the camps. A lot has been made of Sean Penn's camp.

And say whatever you want about a celebrity running a camp, but he's certainly -- he walks the talk. And he is creating a camp of 55,000 people out there and got it supplied pretty well -- pretty well-resourced, trying to get them medical care where they need it. His plan now is try to get them in these temporary shelters.

So, camps now with tents and temporary shelters that hopefully can withstand the impending rains and winds of the hurricane season and them more permanent homes. There's a real plan having been laid out there. So, that seems to be moving forward.

But, again, you know, Drew, just rubble on the streets. I mean, you can't get things done with these rubbles on the streets. They don't see the big machinery that Wyclef is just talking about, either. And it's just very hard to get anything done without that.

GRIFFIN: All right, Sanjay. I know you'll be there all week. Thanks for bringing us that report this morning.

CHETRY: One of the aid workers that we spoke to this morning said that their estimation was: to even move 10 percent of that rubble, it would take three months of nonstop work and $120 million.

GRIFFIN: Yes, with 1,000 trucks and they've got 300 trucks.

And the question is: where are the trucks? I think that's what the team is going to be asking all week long.

CHETRY: And, meantime, stay tuned to CNN primetime tonight at 9:00 Eastern. A special "LARRY KING LIVE" looks at recovery effort six months after the quake. And at 10:00 Eastern, Anderson Cooper talks to former President Bill Clinton, the U.S. envoy to Haiti.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

GRIFFIN: And this is breaking news, just into CNN now. Swiss officials announcing that Oscar-winning director, Roman Polanski, will not be extradited to the United States. He faces child sex charges here in the U.S. Back in 1977, he pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl. He skipped the country, heading to Europe before he would be sentenced.

The case has divided Hollywood celebrities, but now we know again that Roman Polanski will not be brought back here to the U.S.

More updates all morning long on this breaking story right here on CNN.

CHETRY: All right. And 11 minutes past the hour. Time to check in with Rob Marciano in the extreme weather center for us this morning.

Hey, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kiran. And good morning, Drew.

Temperatures are up to 80 degrees right now in the Big Apple. You'll get into the lower 90s, once again, though it won't get into the triple-digit scenario that we saw last week. That's good news. And beyond that, we might see some stormy weather later in the week.

The bull's eye for the storms today is going to be across the nation's midsection, and actually, even this morning, getting into the Tennessee and Ohio River valleys. So, a little swath of thunderstorms that will be rolling east and going through time.

Meanwhile, the heat, extreme heat, holds strong across parts of the Southeast and Deep South, including Louisiana. New Orleans is expected to get up to 92 degrees. Heat advisories are in effect there, as well as for parts of Georgia and South Carolina.

We'll talk more about weather, plus some interesting things happening on an asteroid. It's about 30 minutes from now.

Drew and Kiran, back up to you.

CHETRY: Oh, an eclipse, now, an asteroid, a lot going on up there.

MARCIANO: Certainly.

(LAUGHTER)

CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: See you guys.

CHETRY: Well, still ahead, after two years of stealing cars, power boats, even piloting his own stolen airplane, the "Barefoot Bandit" finally captured.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: From an internet hero on the land to an accused felon now behind bars, the FBI says, police in the Bahamas has finally caught up with Colton Harris-Moore. Many call him the barefoot bandit.

CHETRY: Yes, for nearly two years, he outsmarted the feds, accused of a cross country stirring of burglaries that included stealing two planes that he used to apparently teach himself to fly. He made it out of the country. Our Susan Candiotti is breaking down the story that reads like a Hollywood screenplay.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): True to form, he was caught, you guessed it, barefoot. Bahamian police escorting him with guns in plain view. Nineteen-year-old Colton Harris-Moore, the alleged barefoot bandit is at the end of his run.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The suspect in an effort to evade capture engaged local police in a high-speed chase by boat.

CANDIOTTI: American business man William Sport owns the getaway boat allegedly stolen by the teen. He points out where the police riddled the engines with bullets to stop the escape.

WILLIAM SPORT, BOAT OWNER: The Bahamian police did a great job of apprehending him before he could have gotten further away. He actually had enough fuel on the boat to make it all the way to Florida. I have been cruising the Bahamian Islands for 40 years and never had any problem at all like this. Unfortunately, it was an American to cause the problem.

CANDIOTTI: Moore escaped from a group home in Washington State in 2008 after pleading guilty to a series of burglaries. A victim who lives next door to his mom talked about his arrest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would like him to get some help.

CANDIOTTI: For nearly two years the authorities blamed the teenager for a series of burglaries across several states, including Idaho, North Dakota and Indiana. His calling card leaving behind barefoot prints. Authorities linked him to two stolen airplanes, including the one he allegedly flew to the Bahamas. He's believed to have taught himself to fly from watching video games. His mom tells CNN affiliate KIRO --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If he did, I'm quite proud because I was going to get him flying lessons. And if he taught himself how to fly a plane, I'm very proud.

CANDIOTTI: The barefoot bandit become an internet cult hero scooping up more than 60,000 Facebook followers. Websites sell t- shirts that read, "Run Colton Run." on YouTube, fans idolized him in song. Back home in Washington, locals scratched their heads.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is like incredible that he spent all that time sneaking around and nobody could catch him.

CANDIOTTI: It is pretty hard not to compare him to the true life character in the movie "Catch Me If You Can." No comment from his mother Sunday. Outside her home, this message. If you go past this sign, you will be shot. (on camera): So far CNN has been unable to reach Moore's attorney. This week the teenager is expected to make a court appearance in the Bahamas before going toe-to-toe with the FBI back home. Drew and Kiran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Susan Candiotti, the proud mama.

CHETRY: If you pass this sign, you'll be shot. Amazing that he was able to teach himself to fly through video games.

GRIFFIN: And fly to the Bahamas.

CHETRY: And the boat owner said he would have gotten a hold of that thing, he could have made it all the way to Florida with all that gasoline.

GRIFFIN: Good for him.

CHETRY: Yes, he's caught now, still ahead, spending trends. Are your personal finances getting better or worse?

GRIFFIN: And looking for love. An NFL star named Chad Ochocinco. Reality TV at its finest, ladies and gentlemen, coming up on The Most News of the Morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty one minutes past the hour. We are "Minding Your Business" this morning with an exclusive look at what Americans are doing with their money and how they feel about the economy. Kim Palmer is a senior editor at "U.S. News And World Report." Author of a personal finance blog called the Alpha Consumer. Kim, thanks for being with us this morning.

KIM PALMER, SENIOR EDITOR, U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT: Thank you, Kiran.

CHETRY: So we have been seeing all the articles out there talking about, you know, worries about spending, worries about a double-dip recession, worries about unemployment. What is the average person feeling right now when it comes to their personal finances?

PALMER: Well there's actually a little bit of good news here because in this U.S. Chase survey just taken we see that people are starting to feel a little bit better about their personal finances. When you ask them if they feel like things are improving or getting worse, more people say their personal finances are improving than getting worse. But, of course, that is tempered when you ask them about the economy as a whole because there are more people actually who are concerned about the economy. They think the economy is getting worse. Well most Americans think the economy has bottomed out, four in ten say it is gets worse. CHETRY: Well and especially if you are one of the many who has been looking for a job and have been long-term unemployed and worried about unemployment benefits. I want to show a couple of the interesting results from this survey, which by the way, we should note, was in partnership with Chase Card Services. So they asked people, if given $100 this weekend, what would you do with it?

Let's put it up, 36 percent said they would save it. Probably very different than a couple years ago, I'm sure. Twenty seven percent said spend part, save part. 24 percent said spend on something I need. Only eight percent saying they would treat themselves.

What does this mean for the retail sector when most people say save it or only spend it on something essential?

PALMER: Yes well, it is not good news for the retail sector, and we see that in just how desperate retailers are right now. And it does give consumers a bit of incentive to save more money because retailers are taking big steps to lure people back into the stores. And so that means that there are some things you can take advantage of.

This month Starbucks is offering free Wi-Fi. For example, there's a lot of clothing sales right now. Home decoration, home furniture, big discounts right now. So consumers are trying to be more savvy. And luckily, retailers are making it easier for us by offering these deep discount this is summer.

CHETRY: You know, another interesting part of the survey is when you ask people what you believe the biggest problem is right now, 50 percent believe it is the economy as a whole or debt is our biggest problem. And 26 percent say unemployment. So next comes health care 14 percent. Oil spill, actually, 17 percent. So a lot of people concerned about that, but you have nearly 3/4 of people saying it has something to do with the economy.

What does that mean moving forward?

PALMER: Well it really means that we are seeing people really hunkered down. I mean it has been happening -- it happened last year, too, when we asked them what they are cutting back on. People are doing their own home repairs, they are doing their own gardening, 56 percent of Americans say they are skipping a summer vacation altogether.

And among those who are going on vacation, people say they are taking road trips, they are going to be staying with family and friends, so they are cutting out the little luxuries. They say they are going to restaurants less, they are going to movies less, so people are really cutting back. And it is -- what we are seeing is this prolonged cutting back, so people really are trying to be as savvy as they can be.

CHETRY: Right, but meantime it is hard for companies to hire if people are frequenting their businesses, and so it seems like a cyclical pattern of contraction that will hopefully find our way out of soon.

But very interesting survey, Kim Palmer, senior editor with "U.S. News And World Report," thanks so much. And by the way, you can check out Kim's book, it is "Generation Earn: The Young Professionals Guide To Investing And Giving Back." Drew.

GRIFFIN: We are going to have more Kiran on the decision not to send Roman Polanski back to the U.S. from the Swiss. He's facing sentencing here on a 1977 conviction. We are going to talk to former prosecutor Paul Collin on what appears to be a slap in the face.

And the latest on the terror attack in Uganda. One American among the dozens killed that all killed watching the World Cup.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: A developing story coming across the sea. Oscar- winning director Roman Polanski will not be extradited to the United States. Officials in Switzerland making the announcement just a few minutes ago now. He faces child sex charges here in the U.S. It was back in 1977 he pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl, skipped the country heading to Europe before he could be sentenced.

For more, we are joined on the line by former Prosecutor and criminal Defense Attorney Paul Callan.

Paul, I call this a slap in the face to the U.S. justice system. Is that your take on this?

PAUL CALLAN, ATTORNEY: Yes, it really is. And the Swiss seem to be walking away from treaty obligations that they have with respect to the extradition of people charged with serious crimes.

GRIFFIN: Yes, I mean, because there's no question that he is a criminal. I mean, this man pleaded guilty basically to drugging and liquoring up a 13-year-old girl in Jack Nicholson's hot tub and then taking advantage of her. He pled guilty to a lesser charge in a plea deal, but then I guess got cold feet when he thought the judge in the case 30 some years ago was going to put him in prison.

CALLAN: That's right. Polanski sort of thought that there was a wink and a nod deal with the judge, Judge Rittenbrand (ph) that he would only have to serve the amount of jail time he had spent in a psychiatric facility. They sent him to a psychiatric facility and he was being evaluated. And his -- he thought or his lawyer told him, this was at least what Polanski said, that the sentence would just be time served and then he would be released, but of course Judge Ritterbrand then started to send messages that maybe he was going to send Polanski to jail. Polanski then fled the country, but bear in mind, he was charged with an extremely serious crime. This girl was 13 years of age at the time, as you have indicated, she was liquored up. It is clearly a rape under U.S. law. So, it is a serious felony and by the way, it is also a serious crime under Swiss law.

GRIFFIN: Yes. Polanski, his lawyers and a bunch of his Hollywood supporters would say, look, time has passed. The victim has since come down on Polanski's side saying let's forget the whole thing. But, really what L.A. District Attorney's Office has said from the get go is, you still need to come to court, you still need to follow the rule of law in this country, which convicted you, and you need to answer that in court. Paul, how do they get him to court now?

CALLAN: Well, I would say it is going to be very, very difficult to get him to court. Remember, he has been living in France for much of the time. And for some reason, the French seem to have this idea that because he's a famous Hollywood producer and makes great movies that the law doesn't apply to him.

And the French have never agreed to extradite him. Switzerland finally did. But, you know, the extradition law generally is that if the crime is a crime in the country where the person is being held, Switzerland, the same crime that was committed in California, which in this case is rape, and you're holding the right person, extradition will occur.

Switzerland is not supposed to be looking at the underlying strength of the case. And of course, Polanski pled guilty here. So it is shocking that the Swiss are not extraditing, but there's a back story here about the case that arises out of a documentary that was done and the original D.A., a guy named Roger Gunson, who prosecuted Polanski and made some statements that sort of implied maybe there was a backroom deal with Judge Rittenbrand and that Polanski was not treated fairly.

And the Swiss now are looking at that and they're saying California authorities should have given sealed transcripts of Gunson's testimony so that we could evaluate the fairness of the underlying charge. That's really what the Swiss are basing this decision on, and it is very strange for them to do this. They are really not supposed to go into the underlying facts of the case.

GRIFFIN: Interesting to see if the State Department now gets involved with this case. Paul, thank you for joining us on breaking news this morning. Again, the Swiss deciding not to send Roman Polanski back to Los Angeles to face his sentence.

CHETRY: Now big questions about whether or not the United States can appeal the decision. Thanks, Paul.

We'll today marks six months since the devastating earthquake hit Haiti. As we have seen and heard, the recovery effort is painfully slow. Musician Wyclef Jean who is from Haiti and has raised millions of dollars through his organization earlier on "American morning" spoke with us. We asked him what positive signs he has seen on the ground there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WYCLEF JEAN, MUSICIAN: What is positive is the spirit of the Haitian people. But as far as the reconstruction, we are six months in. You know, minus the death, which we saw the day after when we came in. We fell that there's no reconstruction being done. It has taken the people to be frustrated, so it has taken enough time over six months. A lot of guys like behind me, there are still people all over the city sleeping in tents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: That billions of dollars pledged for rebuilding, where is the money and the progress?

CHETRY: Our Anderson Cooper is digging deeper on that. He is live in Port-au-Prince. Anderson, I know you were there through much in the beginning of the devastation in the wake of this earthquake. Now you are back again. We are seeing some pictures, and things looking exactly the same as they were when this first happened. What are you seeing?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it is incredibly shocking to see that. More than 1.5 people are living in these makeshift shelters. This is exactly the same as six months ago when it first got set up here. If anything, it is a more permanent makeshift encampment, and that is a pretty depressing thing to see.

In terms of what's been done, the immediate humanitarian need of more than 1 million people have largely met in some of these camps. Many have electricity, but it is spotty. There's chemical toilets for people to use. They can get access to food, so you don't have people dying in the streets as you had six months ago.

That being said, anything long term really has not been -- nothing long term has been accomplished. There's still rubble all throughout the city, and the estimates are that it would take at a current rate many, many years to actually get rid of all the rubble.

Until you get rid of the rubble, you can't have them rebilling where they were. Even if they are rebuilt, there's nothing to guarantee that the same thing won't happen again in the next earthquake.

So there are a number of things that need to be done that have not been done. And the $5.3 billion pledged by countries around the world will be used over the next 18 months, only 10 percent according to the former president Bill Clinton has actually been delivered so far.

So only a small percentage of the money that's been promised here has been delivered. And there's been a lack of leadership by the Haitian government, a lack of transparency, a lot of concerns about disorganizations here on the ground.

GRIFFIN: Anderson, we have been hearing all morning from relief workers like Sanjay Gupta and Wyclef Jean, there doesn't seem to be any movement from the government in a large, positive direction. Are those government officials going to be accessible to you are you're reporting this week so you can literally just put the screws to them and see what is taking so long? COOPER: We certainly hope so. We are going to be over at the palace later today and hope to talk to people there. We are going to interview former president Clinton, who is co-chairing the committee. He has said he wakes up every morning heartsick that more has not been accomplished.

GRIFFIN: Anderson Cooper, good luck all week as you and your team report there all week long. Anderson Cooper tonight, primetime, 9:00 eastern, Larry King will have a special report. He's going to look at the recovery effort six months on. And at 10:00, of course, Anderson Cooper talks to former president Bill Clinton, the U.S. envoy to Haiti.

CHETRY: Also still ahead, we are switching gears here. A little bit of reality show meets the morning show. The ultimate catch Chad Ochocinco is looking for love. He joins us to talk more about it.

It's 36 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: All right, we are back. I just learned something new.

CHETRY: We are talking with Chad this morning, Ochocinco. He's certainly had the challenges on the gridiron. He certainly proved he can bust a move on the dance floor.

GRIFFIN: Cincinnati Bengal wide receiver, that's his real job, Chad Ochocinco faces his biggest challenge yet, a TV dating show. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies!

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are 85 women. That, my friends, is the Ochocinco way. Man, I have not seen this many girls on the football game since last time we played the Steelers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

CHETRY: Well, the new VH1 reality series "Ochocinco, the Ultimate Catch" premiered last night. Chad joins us in the studio. First of all, welcome. Second of all, were you terrified with 85 women running towards you trying to date you?

CHAD OCHOCINCO, NFL PLAYER: Not at all. It was fun. It was a different experience, something I'm not used to -- not your normal, traditional way of dating.

CHETRY: Did anyone standout to you right at the beginning?

OCHOCINCO: It was hard to tell because there were so many at once. It was fun. It was a great process.

GRIFFIN: I just got -- you're for real. You are trying to find a girlfriend, a fiancee, and then a wife?

OCHOCINCO: You never know what's going to happen. Basically, let me tell you, I have failed in the dating game off camera in my regular day to day life. I'm 32. And I've tried dating. You know, I've tried it. They have all ended up in failure, so this is something different. Why not?

CHETRY: This is interesting, maybe it is because you have had too many choices. You are very attractive, people love you, people love you from "Dancing with the Stars" on to being a fantastic football star. Maybe you have too many choices.

OCHOCINCO: Do you think that's what it is?

CHETRY: Well, tell us what it was like to figure out who might be right for you at the show.

OCHOCINCO: We started with 85. I immediately cut it down to 17. With those 17, I'm trying to get each and every one of those in the best way I can in a very short period of time.

The things I'm looking for, someone with a great personality, sense of humor, someone who is passionate about whatever it is they have going on in their life, and to keep my interest over a period of time. Beauty is one thing, but everyone ideal with that's beautiful has nothing else to offer after that.

GRIFFIN: Let's say this show was a hit, right? But you find someone you want to marry. What do you do?

OCHOCINCO: There's a season two with us getting married.

GRIFFIN: And your whole life is going to be like this.

OCHOCINCO: Hey, that's the way it will be.

CHETRY: I know that I used to love "The Bachelor" when it first came out. I used to watch "Flava of Love" as well. How did you decide that, you know what, I'm going to open my romantic life out there and let the cameras see it?

OCHOCINCO: Why not? For one, I am extremely interesting when it comes to the game of football and the way I live my life. I'm spontaneous, with a personality that is extremely outgoing. I live a flashy, flamboyant lifestyle.

This is another side of me that people have never gotten to see me before. You never saw me interact with women, so being able to watch me and interact and do things with dating and conversations will be interesting, because I do everything wrong. And I make wrong right.

GRIFFIN: Is there anything that comes into your mind that says, maybe I shouldn't do this, maybe I'm come across as too narcissistic?

OCHOCINCO: No, not at all. I don't think and worry about what people say, which is why I do the things I do and why I'm successful at everything I do.

CHETRY: So you have a lot of self-confidence, which is great. One of the things that happens with reality shows about dating is at the beginning, there's Trista and Ryan. They may be the only ones who parlayed a TV show romance into a successful marriage.

But aren't you afraid that some of these girls are in it for the wrong reasons? They are wannabe actors and wannabe singers.

OCHOCINCO: Everyone has an angle at something. You know, starting at 85, down to 17, actually, 16. I will be able to weed those out easily because I have dealt with it before. I know what it looks like. You can only play your hand and play your representation for so long.

GRIFFIN: Well, good luck. I guess.

CHETRY: By the way, one other quick question.

OCHOCINCO: You are married, you are done.

GRIFFIN: Yes, it was easy for me. I didn't have 85 women running down the hall for me, I'll tell you that.

CHETRY: He had less choices, Chad.

OCHOCINCO: We have two different lifestyles. So yours may be a lot easier.

CHETRY: Let me ask you one other quick question. Do you have family members helping you weed out the girls to tell who you trust?

OCHOCINCO: Can I say this? Mom, the two most important people in my life are part of it. And that's mom and grandma.

CHETRY: And they are onboard?

OCHOCINCO: Oh, yes.

CHETRY: Congratulations on the show. Great to see you in person. Chad Ochocinco, good luck.

OCHOCINCO: Thank you, I appreciate it.

GRIFFIN: Self-confidence right here.

Northeast heat returning, thunderstorms in the south and Midwest with all kinds of trouble Rob Marciano is going to be back, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) GRIFFIN: We're in New York right now. It's sunny, 80, mostly sunny later, 91; hot and beautiful, vibrant and Rob Marciano. We've got it all for you right here.

CHETRY: He was referring to you, actually, he was talking about you there not New York.

MARCIANO: I heard that. Thank you very much, Drew. Actually, I just caught the tail end of it, so it could have been good or it could have been bad.

GRIFFIN: Hey, did you catch Ochocinco?

MARCIANO: I did.

CHETRY: What did you think?

GRIFFIN: I think you and I think the same and I think we should just shut up.

CHETRY: Well, wait -- wait a minute. What did you think Rob? Rob what did you think?

GRIFFIN: I know Rob -- Rob.

MARCIANO: Well, you know, listen -- listen, the -- the Universal Cable television is diverse. And -- and if there is a room for a show that gives one guy 85 women to choose from, God bless him.

GRIFFIN: And he's going to find true love. And it's going to be lasting, Rob.

MARCIANO: That -- that I can't concur with, but who knows. You never know guys.

All right. Listen, 77 in New York, 70s from New York to Boston. Temperatures are going to be well into the 90s again today and heat advisories are in effect for parts of the Carolinas and southeast Georgia.

Also, New Orleans and the surrounding areas there, there are cleanup efforts, although it's fairly tranquil weather conditions. That's good. The seas are relatively calm. It's going to be really, really hot down there for the next couple of days.

Memphis back to Nashville into the Ohio River Valley, we are looking at some thunderstorms right now. And they may very well become severe back towards say Oklahoma City where they have been getting drenched the past couple of weeks, so more thunderstorms expected there.

In Atlanta also later in the afternoon, that may spell some travel delays.

Traveling to say, asteroids, the European space agency did just that. They got a close-up shot of this asteroid. It's about 130 kilometers in length. So it's a big one. And you can even see the craters there, it kind of gives us a glimpse -- they hope that will give us a glimpse into how the universe was started four and half billion (INAUDIBLE) from four and half billion years ago.

All quiet on the Atlantic front. That's good news after seeing our first named storm, a hurricane, and our second depression last week. Right now at least in the next couple of days, maybe as many as five days, we don't expect any sort of activity as far as tropical storm systems are concerned in the Atlantic basin.

Drew and Kiran back up to you.

GRIFFIN: Thanks Rob.

CHETRY: You just gave me an idea.

GRIFFIN: Yes.

CHETRY: A reality show for Rob.

GRIFFIN: No, he don't need it.

MARCIANO: Yes, yes.

CHETRY: He's got enough problems.

MARCIANO: I -- yes I got way too many problems. I don't need them to be public.

CHETRY: All right, Rob thanks.

MARCIANO: See you guys.

CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. It's 50 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: New developments this morning: reports this morning that the remains of a Somali national have now been found by authorities investigating the three deadly bombings in Uganda. That's leading the army spokesman there to point the finger at al-Shabab (ph) an al Qaeda affiliate.

CHETRY: Three explosions targeting two venues; they were packed with people watching Sunday's World Cup finals. Officials say at least 64 people were killed, including one American.

GRIFFIN: It's seven minutes before the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Do you think people have that as a ring tone?

GRIFFIN: Please make it stop.

CHETRY: It is going to stop for 4 more years. GRIFFIN: That's the last time.

CHETRY: Well, it is 57 minutes past the hour right now. Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.

The reign of Spain, soccer fans across the world celebrating the country's first ever World Cup championship.

GRIFFIN: Boy, you had to wait a long time for the game-winning goal against the Netherlands. It came just four minutes remained in the extra time.

And our resident soccer guru, Richard Roth is joining us with his take on the dramatic World Cup final, which was kind of a dud.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They scored -- there was a lot of tension. Some people don't like the buildup in soccer and football. I happen to. And there was only one goal, but there were 13 or 14 yellow cards, the Dutch players were really aggressive early trying to go after the Spanish stylists. And a big dog pile in the end zone as you might call it in football for that one goal.

The first time a team has won the world cup after losing the first match. That's Spain. Yes, they're getting a pass from (INAUDIBLE) and Drew, you were complaining about that noise, what is the noise?

CHETRY: The buzz of the bees.

ROTH: The vuvuzelas. Four years from now we will not be hearing this in Brazil. It may be a new sound, but this will not -- this is not going to be --

CHETRY: Why, they are banning it?

ROTH: Well, it was sort of unique to South Africa. Some people want to ban it. It's been banned at Wimbledon, been banned in a lot of other places. Maybe it's symbolic of World Cup soccer, but where should I store this?

CHETRY: On a pile of newspapers on the desk.

ROTH: I tried to give it to Chad Ochocinco for his dates, but he didn't want it.

CHETRY: He didn't need it.

ROTH: No, he didn't need it.

GRIFFIN: He can toot his own horn.

ROTH: Yes. That's true.

Anyway, yes. My reality show will be starting with no women but he's got a head start on me --

CHETRY: You should have told him about your speed dating. (CROSS TALKING)

ROTH: I asked for his leftovers on the way out but he didn't hear me.

The World Cup -- let's get back to the World Cup -- a big success in South Africa. Big success, I think, for ratings. More followers to the game. A lot of players will be here in the U.S. Major League Soccer Organization. You can follow them at various games.

It is too bad for the Dutch -- third time a loser in the final, but they gave it a try.

GRIFFIN: We want to point to some last pictures, I believe. We have Spain's team arriving home. That's the plane taking the world champions live in Spain. Is that Madrid, guys? Yes. They are being greeted at the airport. Wonderful.

CHETRY: They are certainly going to receive a hero's welcome.

ROTH: Sorry to interrupt. Only the U.S. really, one of two teams that has defeated the Spanish team in two years, which is really amazing. And I was in South Africa last year, but it didn't really count. It was a different tournament.

The Spanish team definitely rated the best at the tournament; won four games in a row by a 1-0 score. And pretty sad, I believe only eight goals scored in the entire tournament. That continues to be the biggest problem, getting soccer more popular in America.

CHETRY: That certainly doesn't matter there to that crowd that's going to be waiting for them. They had a big makeshift area set up to have the big celebration. Congratulations to Spain and to you, too, Richard.

ROTH: Thank you. I didn't play a minute.

GRIFFIN: But you guided us through every single second, and we thank you for that.

ROTH: You're welcome.

CHETRY: We appreciate the breakdown.

ROTH: See you in four years.

CHETRY: Meanwhile, that's going to do it for us.

We'll see you back here tomorrow. Rich will be around, too. He's just kidding.

Continue the conversation on today's stories; go to our blog, CNN.com/amfix.

GRIFFIN: Thanks for joining us.

"CNN NEWSROOM" with Alina Cho starts right now.