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American Morning
New Afghanistan Source Leaked; BP Accused of Over-Using Dispersants; Severe Storms Soaking Midwest; Making Up for Lost Sleep
Aired August 02, 2010 - 06:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Monday morning, the 2nd of August. Thanks so much for joining us on the Most News In The Morning. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. A lot to talk about this morning, so let's get right to it.
We start with, hopefully, a solution to finally kill this well. The static kill set to begin within 24 hours. That operation would mean that BP's ruptured well could be permanently plugged if all goes well this week. New questions, though, this morning about those chemical dispersants used by the millions of gallons by BP at the height of the spill, Congressman Ed Markey says that the oil giant "carpet bombed" the Gulf with chemicals while the coast guard did nothing to stop it.
ROBERTS: Is he the brains behind the leak? A recent M.I.T. grad is now admitting he e-mailed back and forth with an army private who was accused of leaking military secrets to the web site, WikiLeaks. We're live at the Pentagon this morning with the new fallout from all of this.
CHETRY: And we're also taking an in-depth look at radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. He's been linked to three different terror plots here in the United States. Blacklisted by Washington and the United Nations, terror experts think this homegrown terrorist could be the next Osama bin Laden. The difference though, Al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico and went to college in Colorado. We're going to meet America's most dangerous homegrown terrorist.
ROBERTS: The static kill is set to begin sometime in the next 48 hours. Engineers could start pumping heavy mud down the throat of BP's ruptured oil well by tonight if everything is in place. The goal is to kill the beast by literally choking it to death.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, a congressional report is accusing BP of using excessive amounts of dispersant during the worst days of the oil spill. One lawmaker who we're going to be speaking within the next hour says that the oil giant "carpet bombed" the gulf with chemicals and the Coast Guard let it happen.
And in Alabama this morning a positive development for the first time in months. Swimming advisories have been lifted at most state beaches. ROBERTS: Scientists agree it could take years to gauge the complete impact of all of that crude oil and all of those chemicals now coursing through the Gulf of Mexico.
CHETRY: We bring in our Jim Acosta live who is in New Orleans this morning. Jim, BP's chief operating officer spent some time on the water this weekend down there. What did Doug Suttles say about the state of the gulf right now?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he said that the state of the gulf is improving, it's getting better. He feels that BP and the Coast Guard at some point can make the turn from a clean-up operation to a gulf recovery operation.
And you're right, this issue of dispersants came up. Bp and the coast guard just getting hammered over the weekend by a congressional committee overseeing the oil spill, and Ed Markey who heads that subcommittee essentially saying that BP "carpet-bombed" the gulf of Mexico with those dispersants.
Admiral Thad Allen held a conference call with reporters yesterday saying the feds were in total control of the uses of dispersants and that they were only used when needed.
So when Doug Suttles, the COO, of BP, went out on the marshes yesterday outside of Venice to look at how the oil spill is doing, whether or not new fresh oil is rolling up on the shores here, he was asked about the use of dispersants, and I asked him a very pointed question, wanted to know because of the fact that Louisiana's opened up its coastline once again to commercial fishing whether or not he thinks the seafood out there is safe to eat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Would you eat the seafood coming out of the Gulf of Mexico given the volume of oil and dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico? Would you allow your loved ones to eat the seafood coming out of the Gulf?
DOUG SUTTLES, BP COO: There's ban tremendous amount of testing by NOAA and the state agencies and the FDA and others. They're not going to open these waters to sport fishing or commercial fishing if it is not safe to eat the fish. I have a lot of confidence in those agencies and I trust their recommendations and I would eat seafood out of the gulf here and I would feed it to my family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And Suttles seemed to back up what Thad Allen said about the use of dispersants, pointing out that it was the feds who were making decisions on whether or not to use those dispersants, and there were times when BP asked to use those dispersants and they were told yes, and there were times when they were told no. John, Kiran?
CHETRY: All right, we'll be putting that question to the congressman, Jim, today when we talk to him as well about whether or not or how they know exactly what impact these dispersants have had. Thanks so much, Jim.
Also, when it comes to the dispersants, how much is actually too much? In seven minutes we'll talk to leading expert on this subject, Larry McKinney, executive director of the hart research institute for Gulf of Mexico studies at Texas A&M University.
And just to give you a timeline for all of this, we'll talk to Congressman Ed Markey coming up at 8:10 eastern.
CHETRY: Much more coming up in just a second. We're going to talk about WikiLeaks actually. New developments this morning, the investigation expanding into the leak of thousands of secret files released to the web site about the war in Afghanistan.
ROBERTS: The hacker who says he tip off the army to WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning now says at least two MIT students may be involved. Barbara Starr joins us live from the Pentagon this morning. This is an interesting connection, Barbara. How much do we know about it?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, information really just emerging. Good morning, John and Kiran.
Adrian Lamo, the former computer hacker who did tip off federal authorities to private first class Manning now says two men at MIT, the Massachusetts Institution of Technology in the Boston area, were involved in this, they had communications with manning, they were Facebook friends, that one of them at least taught manning how to use encryption software.
Those men are refusing to be identified, one of them saying already that -- to Lamo that he had been threatened. All of these allegations now part of the broadening investigation by federal authorities into what happened here.
But the question remains, how did private first class Manning, a relatively low-level soldier in the army, download tens of thousands of documents without anyone noticing? Defense Secretary Robert Gates not offered a clue into that question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GATES, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Had he tried to do this -- or had whoever did this -- tried to do it at a rear headquarters overseas or pretty much anywhere here in the U.S., we have controls in place that would have allowed us to detect it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Now, Gates went on to say the problem, the loophole that manning may have exploited is in these forward locations out in war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. The controls are different. The idea out there is to push as much information, as much intelligence to the soldiers in the field who are facing the security risks so they know what they're dealing with. So the controls out in the field are quite different. Manning may have understood that, may have exploited that. And now the question is how to get control on that without harming the soldiers' abilities to know what's going on on the front lines. John, Kiran?
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon this morning with the latest on that, thanks.
CHETRY: Seven minutes past the hour.
(WEATHER BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's coming up now on eight minutes after the hour. Coming up on the Most News in the Morning -- you know what that music means? Yes. It was in 1975 they were talking about sharks off of Amity Island, a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts which was actually Martha's Vineyard.
Well, guess what's happening off of Cape Cod? It is a sighting that is sending chills into the hearts of some people -- great white sharks just off the shore in Chatham, Massachusetts. Five miles of beach has been closed. In about 30 minutes, we'll talk with Chatham's harbor master, Stuart Smith, about exactly how serious the threat might be.
CHETRY: We are? We're going to need a bigger boat.
(LAUGHTER)
Now that Chelsea Clinton --
ROBERTS: That shark would could swallow you whole.
CHETRY: Now that Chelsea Clinton and her long-time boyfriend tied the knot, we finally how some details about her big day, who was on the guest list, a little more details about the gown, coming up. It's nine minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's coming up now on 12 minutes after the hour.
There are growing concerns this morning about the amount of chemical dispersants that BP used during the worst days of the oil spill in the Gulf. A study by one congressional committee found the coast guard handed out waivers for BP to use the chemicals 74 times in a seven-week span. And that was after the EPA ordered BP to use those dispersants sparingly. One congressman says BP "carpet-bombed" the Gulf with chemicals.
Here to help us understand the consequences of dispersants is Larry McKinney, the executive director of the Heart Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico studies at Texas A&M University. He joins us live this morning from Corpus Christi, Texas via Skype.
Larry, great to see you this morning. So when you hear the number of waivers the coast guard granted BP after the EPA said in late May only use these in rare instances, what do you think about all this?
LARRY MCKINNEY, TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: I think that's the point of debate, the massive use of these dispersants to try to minimize wetlands impact, the fact that it caused more environmental damage to the open ocean system through which that oil dispersant mix and drifted down the Mississippi coast. That's the real question.
I don't know we'll know the answer, frankly, until probably next year at this time or perhaps even the year after.
ROBERTS: Congressman Ed Markey from Massachusetts basically accused BP of quote "carpet-bombing" the gulf with chemicals. Do you agree with that statement?
MCKINNEY: Well, they use huge amounts, I think something like 1.8 million gallons, perhaps even more. That's a lot of dispersants. Of course it was a big oil spill, too.
ROBERTS: National Incident Commander Thad Allen says, yes, we granted those waivers, but it was done prudently, and overall since the EPA recommended that the use of dispersants be curtailed, that the use of those dispersants was actually down more than 75 percent.
MCKINNEY: Which is probably good. I think what we'll see -- probably have some good benefit in that we're seeing hopefully less impact on those wetlands than we might have anticipated. So at least that's a positive side. Negative side is what did it to the ocean systems we can't see long term. That's the question.
ROBERTS: So it was a trade-off. But how will you ever be able to effectively measure that trade-off?
MCKINNEY: For example back at Exxon they used massive quantities of dispersants, and we saw a 60 to 70 percent reduction of shrimp and squid production over the next year or two. That's a likely impact because that mix went through that water at that time of year.
ROBERTS: We should just for historical reference purposes here let folks at home know that we're talking about the well in the coast of Mexico that ran amok in 1979, took them ten months to kill the well.
MCKINNEY: Right. Until this one, it was the largest de accidental spill anywhere. So it was on the same scale.
ROBERTS: So if you say there was a 60 to 70 percent reduction in some forms of marine life over the next what, what are your worst fears for this oil spill, because it would seem that at least that much oil has gone to the gulf via this well?
MCKINNEY: I think that it is likely to happen here. The trade- off is that perhaps we protected the wetlands. The wetlands are the long-term health of the gulf. As long as we row tech those wetlands, we can recover and we can recover relatively quickly. ROBERTS: Researchers from Tulane University have been looking specifically at blue crab larva and they've been founding these little orange blobs under these tiny shells that the larva have. They believe -- they nor 100 percent sure -- but they believe it may contain a signature from Corexit, which is the dispersant that was most widely used here by BP.
What does that potentially, Larry, tell us?
MCKINNEY: Well, and that is quite in line with one of the things that Corexit does. Not only does it disperse oil but it also helps transport, transport rapidly to the skin and cell walls and so you would expect that. And certainly it tells us that there's a lot of Corexit out there in the water if in fact they find this to be the case.
ROBERTS: Right. So we have some areas of the gulf that are open again to fishing and shrimping. Are you concerned at all that the seafood will be safe to eat or is it beginning do you think, by what Tulane University researchers are seeing in these blue crab larva, are beginning to make its way up the food chain and that there might actually be a delay in the effects of getting into seafood, that the type that we would eat?
MCKINNEY: Well, I have oysters and crab-stuffed shrimp last night and I have no worries about it. But one of the good things here is that we're going to be (INAUDIBLE) this type of thing and (INAUDIBLE) safe and fine to eat. Here in Biloxi later in the day, I plan to have seafood there as well.
ROBERTS: Yes. I'm sorry, Larry, you say we don't see it doing what yet? You flicked out just a little bit there?
MCKINNEY: Oh, I'm sorry. We don't see this oil dispersant biomagnifying into the fish. In other words like some heavy metals like mercury that will accumulate in these large fish and animals. This won't happen in this case.
ROBERTS: All right. Larry, it's great to see this morning. Thanks so much for taking the time to be with us.
MCKINNEY: Nice talking to you, John.
ROBERTS: Much appreciate it.
It's 8:10 Eastern, by the way. We're going to be joined by Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts. He's the chairman of the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee. He's the lawmaker who is slamming BP for what he calls, quote, "carpet-bombing" the gulf. So we'll see what Congressman Markey has to say about all of this this morning.
Seventeen minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Now that the ceremony is over and the happy couple are on their way to an undisclosed destination for their honeymoon, the details of Chelsea Clinton's super secret wedding on Saturday are beginning to dribble out. The former first daughter married her long- time boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky.
CHETRY: Well, just as we thought the two tied the knot at the beautiful 50-acre estate in the tiny town of Rhinebeck, New York. And our Alina Cho was there, meaning, Rhinebeck, not the wedding, but she's tracking all the details for us this morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Teeny tiny.
ROBERTS: The tiny town of Rhinebeck.
CHETRY: As you noted, I mean, this wasn't a who's who in the political world. This was a wedding very much the guest list of the couple.
CHO: It was. And they had a strict no-strangers policy, apparently. Every single guest had to have some sort of tie to either the bride or the groom. So, yes, it was a family affair, guys. You know, call it what you want, the wedding of the summer, the wedding of the year, the wedding of the century or America's royal wedding. What everyone wants to know is what was it like to be there?
Well, the Clinton family has released five photos of the beaming bride. The first, you saw it a moment ago, the former president walking Chelsea down the aisle. You noted earlier, John, he looks good. He does look good.
ROBERTS: He does. Yes. He looks thinner than I've ever seen him.
CHO: Well, you know, the bride ordered him to lose 15 pounds but most people there and most of his friends believe he lost more like 20 pounds. He does look great, you know.
CHETRY: Did he cry, though? That's what he does not want to do.
CHO: That's the big question. There's no official confirmation of that, but friends believe that Bill being Bill, that he probably did cry his eyes out. You know, the wedding was at Astor Court, that 50- acre estate in tiny Rhinebeck, New York. I think it looks a little like the White House, but that's just me.
The next photo you see there is Chelsea and the groom, Marc Mezvinsky. He's a 32-year-old investment banker. The bride is 30. Mezvinsky is Jewish, Clinton Methodist, so this was an interfaith ceremony. The bride as expected wore Vera Wang. As for the MOTB, the mother of the bride, that's what she calls herself. She wore a raspberry gown by Oscar de la Renta.
Now some other tidbits, some of them courtesy of our friends over the "Washington Post." Chelsea apparently had to help the minister remember the next line of a verse after his page flipped too soon.
ROBERTS: Oh.
CHO: She's a smart girl. That's unfortunate for the minister.
ROBERTS: He should had her there during the inauguration. Justice Roberts couldn't quite make his way through the oath, right?
CHO: That's right. You know, "At Last" was the song of the first dance. And a friend of the couple read the poem "The Life That I Have" by Leo Marks. The cake, by the way, was gluten-free because the bride is apparently gluten --
ROBERTS: Does --
CHO: I'm not sure. The bride, we're told, is gluten intolerant which is why.
ROBERTS: Oh, OK.
CHO: But anyway, you know, it was an incredible affair by all accounts. And some people say why was there such a tight lid on all of the details coming out? One top Democratic strategist said to me that's because there's only one thing more important than politics to the Clintons. Not their relationship, not values, it's Chelsea. And Chelsea is private, she wanted it kept private.
ROBERTS: Good for her.
CHO: Yes.
ROBERTS: We don't know where they're honeymooning, right?
CHO: We don't know. We were so busy chasing details of the wedding, we didn't even focus on the honeymoon. That's next, guys.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, the photo will turn up somewhere, I'm sure.
CHO: That's right.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Alina.
Both the Feds and the United Nations say that he's a terrorist threat against America and he was born here, too. So what makes him different? Up next, a CNN investigation into the man some terror experts call the next bin Laden. Radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. It's coming up now, 23 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-five minutes past the hour right now. Your top stories just five minutes away. First though, an "A.M. Original," something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING.
For U.S. officials tracking terror threats overseas, one name keeps popping up in case after case. It's Anwar al-Awlaki. ROBERTS: The defense thinks that the fugitive American-born cleric is in Yemen. He has made threats against America numerous and he's been blacklisted and designated a terrorist by both the Obama administration and the United Nations. Our Deb Feyerick is here this morning to kick-start our new series called "The New Bin Laden."
Good morning. We know a little bit about this guy. But one of the things we don't know is where he is.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's exactly right. Did you believe he's in Yemen? There was a strike against him but they missed. There is one name that you should remember, it is this name. Anwar al-Awlaki.
He is an American. He is inciting holy war against the United States and countries like Canada and Great Britain. And as John mentioned, he's not just American born. He spent more than a decade here studying, studying all different kinds of things. And what he learned, who he met here, authorities fear, is what makes him so dangerous.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANWAR AL-AWLAKI, AMERICAN BORN RADICAL CLERIC: Brothers, that's what they're doing today. They're plotting to kill this religion.
FEYERICK (voice-over): From the safety of his hideout in Yemen, American Anwar al-Awlaki poses a threat to the United States unlike any other.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe Anwar al-Awlaki represents the heir apparent to the overall Al Qaeda global effort.
AL-AWLAKI: False role models.
FEYERICK: Al-Awlaki, not yet 40, has vowed to bring America to its knees, one terrorist at a time. An army of lone wolf insurgents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is the individual that is continuing the doctrine that people like Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri (ph) started.
FEYERICK: His credentials as an American citizen fluent in English and Arabic give him a unique authority among social media savvy wannabe jihadist.
AL-AWLAKI: And I eventually came to the conclusion that jihad against America is binding upon myself just as it is binding on every other able Muslim.
SAJJAN GOHEL, COUNTERTERRORISM EXPERT: He unlike others has been able to recruit --
FEYERICK: Counterterrorism expert Sajjan Gohel --
GOHEL: Al-Awlaki through his Internet sermons are preying on these young people, encouraging them to go off to faraway lands in which they have no real relationship with to link up with terrorist outfits.
AL-AWLAKI: The simple answer is America cannot and will not win.
FEYERICK: As a spiritual guide ideologically condoning violent acts, this YouTube jihadist has inspired dozens of young men. In the last few years, alleged plotters include the Times Square bomber, the young Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a U.S. jetliner over Detroit, the alleged Fort Hood shooter, young American Somalis bent on jihad and others all following a man born 39 years ago in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Awlaki spent his teen years in Yemen before returning to study in the United States.
(on camera): Anwar al-Awlaki was 19 years old when he came here to Colorado State University to study engineering. He had received a $20,000 federal grant courtesy of U.S. taxpayers. Applying for a student visa to come here, he lied and told authorities he was born in Yemen, not here in the United States.
(voice-over): Years later, that lie almost got him arrested. He was investigated for passport fraud following 9/11, but the arrest warrant was rescinded and al-Awlaki left America in 2002 never to return.
YUSUF SIDDIQUI, AWLAKI'S FRIEND: I got a feeling that he wasn't --
FEYERICK: Yusuf Siddiqui and Awlaki were good friends taking the same classes and sharing a love of Islam.
We were both passionate of being part of the Muslim Student Association and, you know, just combating stereotypes and misunderstanding and ignorance.
FEYERICK: But there was another side to the young al-Awlaki rooted in the years he'd spent in Yemen. Osama bin Laden's ancestral homeland.
SIDDIQUI: I think he was proud of the fact that he had been to Afghanistan and, you know, learned something about, you know, the Mujahideen and maybe trained a little bit.
FEYERICK: Trained to fight Soviets in a guerrilla war bankrolled by the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: Now it's unclear whether that training sparked Awlaki's radical path, however his studies in leadership and human nature are giving him the tools to develop a very powerful weapon, the message of global jihad brought to you on the Internet.
ROBERTS: Yes, I mean, he uses the Internet very effectively. You ticked off a list of people, lone wolves that he has influenced. You know, bin Laden sort of launched operations from the terror camps in Afghanistan but this guy has got this global reach which is different.
FEYERICK: Absolutely. It is very different because the people that he is targeting are all over the country and all over the world. They're looking for legitimization. That is what they need. They need something to say go out, blow up an airplane, put a bomb in Times Square. That's OK.
Well, you know what, a lot of mainstream Muslims, and a number of prominent clerics I spoke with last week say no, it is not OK. You don't need the prophet Mohammed to come and tell you that killing people is simply wrong. Al Awlaki is self-taught. He doesn't have any formal training in any of the respected seminaries. And therefore he's taking his brand of what his interpretations and he is saying it is OK, you can do it.
But it really does seem that his imprisonment in Yemen is what changed him. What really sort of skewed his thinking what happened during that imprisonment is that really is a shift but he was very well respected. If you are in the United States as a voice, but now they look at him and they say he's not so respected and he's targeting these individuals who are predisposed to violence.
CHETRY: And now he's a target himself, as you said, one of the attempted attacks missed.
FEYERICK: That's exactly right. They killed a number of Al Qaeda leaders and he just happened to not be there in Yemen. It happened just weeks before that Detroit guy tried to blow up that airplane.
ROBERTS: Deb Feyerick for us this morning with part one. Tomorrow, Deb's going to be with us as she continues to follow the path of Al Awlaki. The path - the steps that he took while finding his voice. That's part two of our "A.M. Original Series, "The New Bin Laden," coming up tomorrow. Deb, thanks.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, we're crossing the half hour. Time for a look at our top stories. It is all systems go for the static kill operation. BP engineers could begin pumping heavy mud into their ruptured oil well in the gulf by tonight. And this procedure could take up to 48 hours and if it works the well will be permanently plugged.
ROBERTS: There is a problem with the cooling system on-board the International Space Station. Crew members may be forced to conduct unscheduled space walks this week to fix it. NASA says the astronauts are not in danger. Alarms woke up the crew on Saturday night after a circuit breaker tripped and shut off a pump that feeds ammonia to a cooling system.
CHETRY: A fallout from what some are calling the largest intelligence leak of all time. A hacker now says at least two M.I.T. students helped an Army private who is accused of spilling war secrets to the web site WikiLeaks.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham says those who turned over more than 90,000 classified war documents "have blood on their hands and must face justice."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The crime that needs to be punished here is undercutting those who are in the fight. Because what you have done by linking this information, you may have a noble reason in your mind, in your heart, but you put at risk people within Afghanistan who are trying to make things better for their family and for their country and you've made it harder on our troops to win. So if that's not something worthy of prosecution, I don't know what would be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Right now, Army Private Bradley Manning is the prime suspect in the massive intelligence leak. He's already behind bars in Virginia and charged with leaking other classified information.
ROBERTS: They are the worst wildfires that Russia has ever seen. Officials say firefighters have gotten control of about half of the hundreds of fires that are burning right now.
CHETRY: So far at least 300,000 acres have burned. Almost 5,000 homes as well destroyed and 30 people at least have died. Matthew Chance is live with the very latest for us.
Good morning, Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. It is actually searingly hot here in central Russia. The temperature is about 40 degrees Centigrade. In Fahrenheit, that's 104. And that's pretty amazing for this part of the world because usually they are used to temperatures well in the minuses. And so these are really searing temperatures. The highs are 130.
Let's take a look behind me. These burned out buildings across this entire region. Whole villages have been burned to the ground in the inferno that has swept the forest and jumped into villages across this area. 34 people confirmed dead. Still wildfires raging across this vast area of this country. Many people have had to make really daring escapes from the flames.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE (voice-over): Captured on amateur video. It looks like the road to hell. The four Russians in the car are desperately trying to escape the wildfires surrounding their village.
Through the wind screen an inferno rages. Fallen trees engulfed by flames block the road. For a terrifying moment, panic sets in.
"Get back!" they shout. "Let's go." The men eventually went through without injury but in huge (INAUDIBLE) in western and central Russia wildfires are leaving a trail of death and destruction.
(on camera): Across this vast region the forests have turned to tinder, ignited by the slightest spark. The air is full of this choking smoke from the wood flames. The undergrowth is all turned to ashes. And of course, the flames are so ferocious, they're consuming everything in their path.
(voice-over): We traveled to the of village (INAUDIBLE) near Voronezh, one of Russia's worst affected regions. Almost every house here is burned to the ground. All 500 residents were evacuated but a few have returned to pick through the debris or patch up their scorched homes.
Desperate to control the flames, Russia says it's deploy nearly a quarter of a million people to fight the fires. But around Voronezh, many volunteers just have buckets. Like the passengers of the trapped car, they appear dangerously close to being overwhelmed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE: Well, The government is doing what it can, Kiran, to get control of the situation but with temperatures this high set to continue well into August, it looks like the situation could still get much worse than it already is. Kiran.
CHETRY: Just amazing pictures though of that escape.
Matthew Chance for us this morning. Thanks so much.
Well, still ahead, we're talking about shark sightings. More great whites spotted off of Cape Cod. Chatham harbor master Stuart Smith is going to be joining us next to talk more about this. Why some beaches have been called off-limits in some areas and what is bringing these huge predators so close to shore.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have in fact caught and killed a large predator. That's supposedly injured some bathers. But as you see it is a beautiful day, the beaches are open and people are having a wonderful time. Amity, as you know, means friendship.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: It still scares me just, you know, years and years later to see that. Well, of course, that's the scene from "Jaws." Now officials on Cape Cod are proceeding with a bit more caution after great white sharks were spotted just offshore in Chatham, Massachusetts.
ROBERTS: Five miles of beach, in fact, have been closed to swimmers. One great white got as close as about 100 yards away from a group of people who are celebrating a birthday.
Too close for comfort says our next guest, Stuart Smith is the harbor master in Chatham, Massachusetts. He joins us live. Stuart, great to see you. This is the second year in a row that South Beach has been closed. There hasn't been a shark attack in Massachusetts since 1936. What's changing here to entice these huge creatures closer to shore?
STUART SMITH, HARBOR MASTER, CHATHAM, MASSACHUSETTS: Well, we think that it's because of the large seal population we have here in Chatham. ROBERTS: And how is that changing the migration habits or the feeding habits of the sharks compared to years past?
SMITH: Well, the great white shark feeds on seals. And we have an abundance of seals here in Chatham. They actually - there's actually thousands of them here and South Beach is right over my - right behind me. It runs about five miles to our south here and that's the area that's closed.
CHETRY: We're seeing all the seals bobbing up and down in the water there. I know when it comes to sharks it is hard to get exact numbers. I mean sometimes it's anecdotal. You know, somebody will tell that you they've spotted one even though you do have spotters out there looking for them, but you think about a dozen this year, and that's more than usual. Is it only because of the seals or are the spotting techniques getting better?
SMITH: Well, we think it's a combination of things. This year the sharks actually arrived rather early. Last year we spotted them close to shore in September, and this year they're here in July. Perhaps we're getting better at that.
The State Division of Marine Fisheries is actually the ones who are spotting them and some commercial fishermen as well. The warmer weather may be drawing them up here. And of course, the main food source which is the seals.
ROBERTS: Yes, you know, Stuart, a question that many people might have here is how do you actually gauge the risk and is it possible, too. Some people defy the swimming ban on South Beach over the weekend, "hey, the last thing I'm worried about is getting attack by a shark, much more worried about getting into a car accident. Certainly humans are not their normal prey but sometimes mistakes happen, right?
SMITH: That's right. The sharks are really after the seals, but you know, occasionally they have made mistakes and struck a person in the water. These sharks are close to shore. They're within three to four feet of water in many cases. They have been close to people, close to surfers and that's really the reason why we just felt it was prudent to close the beach to swimming.
CHETRY: And so they are closed, those beaches are closed right now. You have any assessment as to whether or not you're going to open them up again and just how at risk people are if they're swimming off the waters of Cape Cod?
SMITH: Well, I think, you know, Chatham has 66 miles of coastline. Only five of which are closed to swimming. So there's lots of areas that you can swim that's far safer. The prohibition on swimming - we'll be evaluating that on a day to day basis, working with the State Division of Marine Fisheries, George Breen keeps us updated, spotter planes keep us updated as to what they're seeing and we evaluate.
ROBERTS: George Breen who is a spotter pilot says in 30 years he saw maybe a handful of sharks but he saw a dozen last September. He has seen quite a few this year as well. Do you get a sense, Stuart, that this is a problem that you're going to be dealing with for some years to come there in Massachusetts?
SMITH: Yes. I mean, last year was very unusual. They actually came in the harbor here. This year they've stayed on our barrier beaches, the shorelines. Instead of you know, being the rarity, it may become the norm.
CHETRY: And what can we learn about sharks from this behavior and from this activity? I mean, are you tagging them? Are you keeping track in any formal way?
SMITH: Yes. The State Division Marine Fisheries is tagging them. They tagged five last year. They'll be tagged - I think they tagged one or two this year. So that's going to be their effort, trying to tag the fish and study them.
ROBERTS: All right. Stuart Smith, the harbor master at Chatham, sort of playing role of chief roadie telling people to stay out of the water.
Stuart, great to see you. We'll catch up with you a little bit later on in the season too, if that's all right.
SMITH: Thank you.
ROBERTS: All right. Appreciate it.
Well, speaking of catching up on things -- this is something that we talk about here a lot, getting up in the middle of the night -- can you catch up on lost sleep? Will staying in bed on the weekends actually make up for work week sleep deprivation? You might be surprised at the answer.
Elizabeth Cohen has got that coming right up.
CHETRY: Also, severe storms soaking the Midwest, 100-plus degree heat across the South. And we're keeping our eye on the tropics as well. Something's developing. Could it be the next named storm?
Forty-five minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Good morning, New York City, where we've got a really pleasant day ahead of us. Right now it's mostly cloudy, but it looks like some of the clouds are moving off -- 73 degrees. Later on today, the heat is going to be much better, only up to 82, but there is a chance of thunderstorms. Bring an umbrella with you, or if you're going to the airport later on today, check with your airline to make sure everything is running on time.
CHETRY: Forty-eight minutes past the hour.
We check in with Rob Marciano for more on the forecast.
You're also following a little something in the tropics, huh? It could be the next named storm?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Could be. It's out there in the Atlantic pretty far away, but we're watching it closely. And maybe by the end of today it could be our next at least next tropical depression, or even tropical storm.
Here it is. Africa, South America. In between, we've got this tropical wave that continues to propagate off towards the west. It hasn't determined to be very organized or a closed circulation, but that may change as we go through time.
Generally speaking, it's going to be heading towards the Caribbean and towards the United States. But, you know, it will be at least a week before we have to worry about that. So we're just keeping an eye on it, and we'll keep you posted as time goes along.
Definitely keeping an eye on the heat, which will again be across this little frontal boundary. There will be some showers and thunderstorms that pop, but in most cases it will just act as a cooling mechanism for some ridiculous heat in many spots.
105 yesterday in Monroe. Gulfport, 102. These are record high temperatures, and none of them are below the century mark. My goodness. It is smoking hot.
In spots where you've got rain, you've got a lot of it. In parts of eastern Virginia, especially, anywhere from two to three-and-a-half inches of rainfall, so that was certainly enough to slow down some action both on the roadways and the airways.
Minneapolis, back to, say, Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska, some showers there. That's about it right now, but later on in the afternoon we'll see a few thunderstorms bubble up. And again, it could act as a way to cool things off.
Heat advisories in 16 states again today. It will be dangerously hot, with heat indices up and over 110, maybe 115 in some spots.
If you are traveling today, there may be some airport delays in the New York and D.C. areas. But Atlanta and Orlando, if you have an afternoon flight or connection going through any of those two airports, it could slow you down because those thunderstorms will begin to fire later in the day.
106 is the expected high temperature in Dallas, 97 in Houston. Meanwhile, out West, 60 in San Francisco, 78 degrees in Los Angeles. And for all the heat we've been talking about in July for much of the country, San Diego is shaping out to be well below average for temperatures so far this summer.
So, head to So-Cal if you want to cool off.
John, Kiran, back up to you.
ROBERTS: It's almost a little too cold there. It's supposed to be a little warm. MARCIANO: Yes. That's what I'm hearing.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right.
ROBERTS: This morning's top stories just minutes away, including, once and for all, BP getting ready to plug the oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, hopefully for good. Could day 105 of this disaster be the last?
CHETRY: Also, are they the brains behind the leak? Two MIT students now accused of helping WikiLeaks reveal war secrets.
We're live at the Pentagon with more on the new fallout.
ROBERTS: And do we have company? NASA says there may be more than 100 other Earths out there. Whether those rocks could have life on them, those stories and more beginning at the top of the hour near on "The Most News in the Morning."
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CHETRY: Well, it's time now for your "AM House Call," stories about your health.
And if you're among the millions of Americans bleary-eyed this morning because you didn't get enough sleep, we understand. There's also a new research about whether you can make up for it by boosting the amount of sleep that you get on the weekends or your days off.
ROBERTS: So, does any of this help?
Our Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now.
And Elizabeth, can we really catch up on lost sleep?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John, I bet you two have done this. You worked so much during the week, you have crazy hours, and you try to make up for it on the weekend.
Well, in this study, what researchers did is they took 150 normal, healthy adults, put them in a lab, and forced them to get just four hours of sleep a night for five nights, trying to simulate a workweek. And then on that sixth night, they were allowed to sleep more. They could get between two and 10 extra hours of recovery sleep.
And then they gave them cognitive tests to see if that recovery sleep helped compensate for the lack of sleep during the previous five days. And you know what? To a great extent, it did.
When they got the recovery sleep, they did much better on cognitive tests than if they hadn't had the recovery sleep. So, yes, to some extent, it really is possible to make up for that crazy sleepless workweek -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: Hey, that's good news. It doesn't always feel like you are making up for it, but hey, any little bit helps.
So does it mean that -- let's say you sleep four hours one night, then you make up for it later by sleeping longer. I mean, long term, is that really the way to go?
COHEN: You know what? Long term it really doesn't work. While people did better than if they hadn't had the recovery sleep, on the cognitive tests they didn't do as well if they had eight hours of sleep a night. So, it helps to do that recovery sleep, but it certainly isn't as good as getting a regular night's sleep every single night.
ROBERTS: Yes. I have seen some studies where they looked at college students, and one night of sleep deprivation affected test scores for as long as five or six days afterward. So, if you're trying to make sleep a priority, what can you do to make sure you sleep well? Because we all have problems with this. You know, you wake up three or four times during the night, you're worried about things.
Got some tips for us?
COHEN: Right. I think there are some routine things that we all know by now -- a glass of warm milk might help before you go to bed. If you're tossing and turning for more than 20 minutes, just get up and go read a book, or do something relaxing.
But here's one that I think people don't know about. And that is, before you go to bed, put the cell phone down. Stop texting, stop reading e-mails. It gets your brain going to do all that. Just put it down, do something relaxing before you go to bed. Those e-mails and those texts can wait until the next day.
CHETRY: I hear you.
Why is it though that sometimes when you sleep way longer than you're used to, you wake up and you just have a headache, you just feel -- you don't feel quite right?
COHEN: I know. I felt that way, too. I know what you mean.
I think maybe what happens is your body is just not used to it, and so you are kind of a little bit groggy. Your body perhaps is in a bit of a state of shock to get that much sleep at one time if you're not used to it.
CHETRY: Right. It's also used to being caffeinated four hours earlier.
COHEN: Right. That could be it, too.
ROBERTS: Isn't that amazing, that your body is in shock when you get sleep? What a statement in our society these days.
CHETRY: It is.
ROBERTS: Elizabeth, great to see you this morning. Thanks. COHEN: Thanks.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we're going to take a quick break. Your top stories coming your way in just two minutes.
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