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American Morning

New Terror Threat: Officials on Alert for Commando-Style Raids; Obama Firing Up Young Voters for Mid-Term Elections; Rock Hall Nominees Announced; Have UFOs Been to Earth?; New Terror Threat; Obama and Dems: Happy Together?

Aired September 29, 2010 - 06:00   ET

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


JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Wednesday morning to you. Thanks so much for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. It's September the 29th. I'm John Roberts.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. We've got a lot going on this morning. We want to get you caught up on what happened overnight.

There is some new information today on this terror plot that has officials in the U.S. and Europe on alert this morning. Sources say al Qaeda may be plotting commando-style raids going after soft targets. Jeanne Meserve will have the latest live from Washington.

ROBERTS: A new storm system has South Florida in its sights. It's expected to become tropical storm Nicole bringing rain, lots of it. Rob Marciano is tracking the extreme weather for us this morning.

CHETRY: And President Obama firing up the voters in a scene reminiscent of the 2008 campaign. We remember that young people helped the president get elected, but can he get them to the polls in November and keep Democrats in control of Congress?

ROBERTS: Up first, though, an a.m. security watch and new concerns that al Qaeda is plotting a series of commando-style raids across Europe and perhaps even here in the United States. Gunmen storming so-called soft targets, much like the bloody 2008 Mumbai terror siege.

ROBERTS: A law enforcement source tells us this morning that Osama bin Laden may have signed off on the plan. Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve has more from her sources. She's live in Washington this morning. What do we know, Jeanne?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Kiran, as one U.S. law enforcement official says, the volume seems to be turned up on threat information about possible terror strikes in Europe. According to multiple sources in Europe and the U.S., the intelligence has raised concern about a Mumbai-style attack that would create a lot of casualties and a lot of chaos in a short period of time. According to law enforcement sources in the U.S., economic institutions including banks and stock exchanges are among the possible targets. And one of those sources says the belief is that Osama bin Laden may have signed off on the plan. So who would carry this out? Officials say the intel indicates people with western passports who can travel easily throughout Europe. One federal law enforcement source says they may not all be European but could be a mix including North Africans, Pakistanis and others.

The source of much of the information is a German citizen of Afghan descent. According to a German counterterrorism official, the man identified as Ahmed Sidiqi is from Hamburg where he worked for an airport cleaning company and attended a mosque which was a meeting place for the men behind the September 11th attack. That mosque was shut down this year not long after Sidiqi's capture. Back to you.

CHETRY: And so what are U.S. officials saying about it this morning?

MESERVE: Well, the director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, issued a statement saying we are not going to comment on specific intelligence as doing so threatens to undermine intelligence operations that are critical to protecting the U.S. and our allies. Sources do tell us there's nothing in the intelligence to indicate a specific credible threat to the U.S., but are national security and law enforcement officials keeping a close eye on this? You bet they are.

One U.S. official says this potential European plot is one factor in the recent uptick in missile strikes by unmanned drones against terror targets in Pakistan. They want to use this intelligence.

Back to you, Kiran and John.

ROBERTS: Jeanne Meserve this morning. Jeanne, thanks so much.

Much more on the new terror threat just ahead. Nic Robertson working his sources overseas. He's going to join us at the bottom of the hour with the latest information on how a spike in missile strikes in Pakistan and stepped up security around the world may all be in response to this plot.

CHETRY: Also new this morning, former President Jimmy Carter is scheduled to appear at a book signing tonight in D.C. This is after he spent the night in a hospital after a bit of a scare. Carter apparently had an upset stomach during a flight to Cleveland. He checked into the hospital as a precaution. His family says he's doing fine. The former president turns 86 on Friday.

ROBERTS: Later on this morning, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins hearings on the controversial release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. He was released from a Scottish prison last year on humanitarian grounds supposedly with just three months to live. More than a year later, he remains alive and living in Libya. Representatives from Scotland and Britain will not testify in Congress today.

CHETRY: Well, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has rejected California's disaster relief request for that deadly gas explosion earlier this month. You remember the tragedy in San Bruno, it was back on September 9th. Eight people were killed, 30 -- well, seven people were killed, 37 homes destroyed. FEMA says that after consulting with state officials it was determined that California did not need any additional support.

ROBERTS: And there are five confirmed fatalities this morning following a landslide in southern Mexico. Police believe as many as eight people could be buried under tons of rock and debris in the rains over Oaxaca state. Over a foot of rain hit the region in the last few days. More is on the way.

CHETRY: Well, for the second time in a week, fliers told to brace for impact after landing gear got stuck. This time it was on a Sky West Airlines flight from Omaha. They had to make an emergency landing in Milwaukee. Passengers say it was a shaky landing, a little bit of leaning, but all 39 people onboard got off safely.

ROBERTS: The jet was very similar to one that was forced to make a dramatic emergency landing at JFK last weekend. You can see by this cell phone camera video, passengers taped it from inside the plane as the sparks flew and the wing touched the runway. Reports said a (INAUDIBLE) the National Transportation Safety Board is now investigating that jet. It's a Bombardier CRJ900 which apparently has an even longer list of landing gear issues, four other incidents over the past two years. Two were nose gear wouldn't come down. Two were where the left wheels in the main landing gear jammed.

CHETRY: Well, south Florida could take a big hit from a new severe weather system. This was tropical depression 16, but expected to become tropical storm Nicole sometime today. People are preparing for it. There are weather warnings and watches that have been posted from the Florida Keys all the way up to Palm Beach. The storm is expected to also bring with it torrential rains.

ROBERTS: Rob Marciano has got his eye on Nicole this morning. He is at the extreme weather center in Atlanta. And, how bad is it going to be for folks there in the south?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, they've already got a decent amount of rain now, so the problem is we're dumping a tremendous amount of rain already over saturated ground. So I think flooding is going to be a big issue especially across south Florida today. There will be some wind, but this thing is not going to become a hurricane and it's going to get sucked up into a larger system.

Thirty-five mile-an-hour winds as you mentioned, but you can see the precipitation shield of this thing is really moving well north into Florida already. So even though the center of this thing really is just crossing Cuba, we've got several hours if not a full day of heavy rain from Miami almost all the way up through Melbourne.

Now here's the forecast track bringing it to the Carolinas on Thursday as a tropical storm or some version of that with heavy rain and wind there. And then right up through the northeast, as well. By then it won't be a tropical storm, but it will be a wind and rainmaker. So everybody who has seen rainfall really the past two days, some of it heavy, will see a piece of Nicole or TD 16 in one way, shape or form over the next -- Guys, back up to you in New York.

ROBERTS: Rob, thanks so much. We'll talk to you again soon.

MARCIANO: All right.

CHETRY: Well, we knew that she could sing, of course, but who knew that Gloria Estefan was also an escape artist. Check this out.

She was forced to climb out of a window of her suite at the Miami Dolphins game on Sunday night because the door got jammed. Even firefighters and locksmiths were not able to pry it over. She was in a real-time crunch set to introduce Enrique Iglesias at halftime, so she had to get out. That's hilarious. I mean, that's the beauty of having suites like that. You can just pop right into your neighbor's suite.

ROBERTS: Go next door, grab a beer, a hot dog, and on your way. The humidity there swells the doors, right? Maybe a little sticky from time to time.

CHETRY: The locksmith couldn't get it open.

ROBERTS: It's amazing.

Coming up, President Obama delivering a midterm message to young voters who helped put him in the White House, telling an overflow crowd at the University of Wisconsin they cannot afford not to vote in November.

Seven minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: On your workout list? That one helps me get up the hills when I'm rollerblading in Central Park.

ROBERTS: It's a good one to start your workout with because it kind of gives you the idea that, OK, we're here to do something.

CHETRY: Yes. I love it.

ROBERTS: And then by the end of it, you're like --

CHETRY: Yes, exactly. Well, that's probably how you feel if you've been campaigning actually for this midterm election. Exactly five weeks now until the midterms and President Obama is going all out trying to prevent a Democratic demise in November.

ROBERTS: The president is telling students at the University of Wisconsin rally yesterday, this is not the time to lose heart. Earlier, in a more intimate setting in Albuquerque, politics got personal as the president was asked yet again about his faith.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm a Christian by choice. You know, but my family didn't -- you know, frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Suzanne Malveaux is live this morning for us. She's in Des Moines, Iowa. And the president is continuing to push, you know, his rally, trying to rally Democrats for the mid-term elections, light a fire under them, if you will. But the events that he's been holding are a little different than the rallies he held as a candidate.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, John and Kiran. You know, we see a lot of these pointed moments where he's with these small, backyard groups. We saw one guy who said his father was a veteran who wasn't getting proper care and broke down. The president hugged him.

Really the big moment yesterday, however, was that huge rally. They're trying to reenergize the base and really a lot of the young people. We saw absolutely -- there were about 26,000 with the flow- over crowd that were there at the university yesterday. I had a chance to talk to a number of students who said, look, yes, we're excited about this, but it wasn't the wild enthusiasm that you saw from two years ago of the campaign. The president acknowledged as much saying, look, these are not the days where you had Beyonce or Bono coming out and participating in those Obama events. But he said, nevertheless, be patient with my agenda. We need you to come out five weeks from now for the midterm elections, that it is a critical time to get involved. Here's what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because if everybody who fought for change in 2008 shows up to vote in 2010, we will win. We will win. The polls say the same thing. We will win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: John, Kiran, it's really hard to tell just how many of those young voters are actually going to come out and participate. Some said yes, they heard the president's message that they would get involved. But others were like just waiting to see. They really didn't feel as inspired as we saw two years ago.

Now, we're here in Des Moines, Iowa. This is where they'll have another one of those backyard conversations. I had a chance this morning to talk to the couple who live here, Jeff and Sandy Clubb (ph). And just to give you a little back story, we're always trying to figure out how do they decide who gets to actually host the president in their backyard.

Well, they told me this morning they got a call from the White House on Thursday, said they were one of eight families that were being considered. They're not big Democratic fundraisers or anything like that. They did vote for Obama, but they said that essentially the White House said they've got the backyard for it. You can see. It's huge. It's a beautiful neighborhood, a lot of oak trees. The couple's running around this morning trying to get ready for us. They said there was about a dozen folks who came over to their house, including Secret Service that day on Thursday to lay out what was going to happen then started working through the backyard here. And right now, they're actually trying to hide the cat so the cat doesn't mess up the president's performance and his speech when he comes later this morning.

CHETRY: You've always got to hide the cat. You know, it can't be trusted.

MALVEAUX: They're hiding the cat.

CHETRY: You never know what they're going to do. Unpredictable.

MALVEAUX: They cleared out the garage and now they're trying to figure out where to put the cat.

ROBERTS: Oh, my goodness. All right. Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning.

CHETRY: I know they could put him in Gloria Estefan's box at the Miami game. They wouldn't have to worry about that.

ROBERTS: There you go. The cat will never get out.

Later on this hour, 6:40 Eastern, we're going to talk with Tim Kaine, the former Virginia governor, now the Democratic National Committee chairman. With just five weeks left now until the mid-term elections, how are Democrats going to fair come November? Good question.

CHETRY: It'll be interesting to talk to him.

ROBERTS: Yes.

CHETRY: Meanwhile, your "Dancing with the Stars" update because we know you can't live without it. Bristol Palin lives to cha-cha another day. She was safe in last night's results show. Instead, voters sent Michael Bolton packing. He was the second star to be voted off, you know, David Hasselhoff got the boot last week. The show's producers also went out of their way to clear up the booing that was heard Monday just before Bristol's mom, Sarah Palin, appeared. Here's the raw videotape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARRIE ANN INABA, DANCING WITH THE STARS JUDGE: Eight.

LEN GOODMAN, DANCING WITH THE STARS JUDGE: Eight.

BRUNO TONIOLI, DANCING WITH THE STARS JUDGE: Eight. (INAUDIBLE) an eight.

INABA: That's an eight.

TONIOLI: Eight! That's good!

INABA: That is good. That's good.

TONIOLI: Eight!

(AUDIENCE BOOING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Were they booing? Well, a representative for ABC later said the reason they released this raw tape was to show they were booing because the judges gave those scores to Jennifer Grey, who's really a crowd favorite, and Derek Hough, her partner. They got eights when I guess people felt they should have gotten nines or tens.

ROBERTS: Right. But the speculation was that because Sarah Palin was in the room that maybe the boos were for her, which is so unbelievably unfair for people to make that connection.

CHETRY: Right. We even said yesterday, it had to be - you know, there's a lot of - it really depends on -

ROBERTS: It's got to be something. Sure. Yes.

CHETRY: It had to be the judges, and there you go. They really just wanted to clear that up because it sort of got out there that people were booing for Palin.

ROBERTS: You know, you've got to have the raw tape. You got to - you got to look at everything in context. Then you get the real story.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. More nominees coming out today. Did KISS get snubbed again? We'll tell you, coming up.

Sixteen minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, Bon Jovi was living on a prayer for so long, and now those prayers have been answered, at least for the fans. The band could be on its way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, and on its first ballot too.

Bon Jovi was one of several nominees announced for the hall.

CHETRY: Yes. We were thrilled about that this morning, especially (INAUDIBLE) Jamie (ph) who loves Bon Jovi more than anything in the world.

Well, the list include Alice Cooper, Beastie Boys, Neil Diamond, Donovan, Dr. John, J. Geils Band, L.L. Cool J, Donna Summer, Tom Waits. But, for the 11th - what? What?

ROBERTS: No, no. Just do it (ph).

CHETRY: For the 11th year in a row, KISS did not make the cut. ROBERTS: Oh, the poor guys.

CHETRY: There's always the merchandising hall of fame. Or you could lay your loved one to rest in a KISS coffin. But, no. At this point, they're not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

ROBERTS: There are many ways to celebrate your favorite band with make-up.

And we should - we should also mention too, they're not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but they are in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and tomorrow we're going to be talking -

CHETRY: We're (INAUDIBLE).

ROBERTS: -- we're going to be talking with the boys from Rush tomorrow. Actually, no. Sorry - sorry. Yes.

Yes - tomorrow.

CHETRY: Tomorrow is Thursday. Yes. I know it's hard to imagine, right?

ROBERTS: Today is Wednesday. Yes. I'm got to fly down to Atlanta where they're playing today and talk to them.

CHETRY: That's awesome.

ROBERTS: And maybe even join them on stage.

CHETRY: Are they in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

ROBERTS: No. They're in the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame.

CHETRY: But, I mean, they -

ROBERTS: It's a little smaller. It's -

CHETRY: It's all right.

ROBERTS: -- the size of a cup (ph).

CHETRY: So you're going to hop on stage?

ROBERTS: It's very prestigious, though.

CHETRY: You're going to hop in stage with them?

ROBERTS: Maybe. We'll see.

CHETRY: Pretty cool.

ROBERTS: Not during the show. Wouldn't want to do that. Maybe during sound check. We'll see.

"Minding Your Business" this morning, Twitter's popularity continues to soar. The micro blogging site has now moved past MySpace to become the third most used social network in the world. Last month it had 96 million unique visitors.

Facebook remains the most popular, followed by Windows Live Profile, which I've never heard of.

CHETRY: It's a - it's just if you go under Hotmail or if you go under Windows Live, it's MSN, Microsoft's.

ROBERTS: I - you know, I'm so inexperienced at this. I mean, Facebook, Twitter.

CHETRY: Where did MySpace go? That one sort of crumpled away.

ROBERTS: Yes. That was the first one, right?

CHETRY: Yes. Well -

ROBERTS: And then Facebook kind of -

CHETRY: Social network. That's why it's now a movie.

Well, have we been visited by aliens? You know, the debate continues, but one noted UFO researcher, Robert Hastings, as well as seven retired Air Force members created quite a buzz in Washington yesterday when they talked and held a press conference before the National Press Club - the Washington - yes - saying that extraterrestrials have visited Earth. And not only visited Earth, but our nuclear weapon sites and that they're here with a warning.

Robert Hastings is going to be joining us live to explain his theory, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: It's 25 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

When Robert Hastings and seven retired members of the U.S. Air Force held a news conference in Washington yesterday about UFOs, a lot of people's jaws dropped.

ROBERTS: Yes. Then they went into great detail about more than 100 UFO sightings that spanned three decades and nuclear weapon sites here on Earth. They claim that extraterrestrials are trying to warn us that we're playing with fire.

Joining us live this morning from Colorado Springs is the man who organized the media presentation, noted UFO researcher Robert Hastings. Robert, great to see you this morning.

So you had all of these airmen reporting UFO sightings over their facilities, including - and - and you also have affidavits. You've provided us with some documentation here, affidavits from a number of former service members of a 1967 sighting that allegedly coincided with 10 intercontinental ballistic missiles being deactivated. What's your theory behind what's going on here with these sightings?

ROBERT HASTINGS, UFO RESEARCHER AND LECTURER: Documents released via the Freedom of Information Act confirm that these types of incidents have occurred going back to 1948. The documents described saucer- shaped objects whose capabilities are vastly beyond anything that we have, the Russians have.

I think the logical explanation is we're dealing with visitors from somewhere else. Regardless, there are a number of cases now. I've interviewed over 120 former or retired Air Force personnel who have talked about UFO incursions at missile sites, at nuclear weapon storage areas.

The incident at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana in 1967 did involve the appearance of a saucer-shaped object above a nuclear missile launch site. Seconds later, all 10 of these missiles controlled by this site malfunctioned.

And the two officers involved, including Former Captain Bob Salas, who was at the press conference on Monday, by the way, testified that he was sworn to secrecy and told never to discuss this. He kept his silence until 1996.

All the gentlemen who appeared with me at the press club believe the American people have a right to know the facts.

CHETRY: But they didn't necessarily believe that theory about why those 10 nuclear sites were deactivated. Why do you believe - why do you believe so strongly that that was truly happening? And that it was the result of -

HASTINGS: I -

CHETRY: -- of UFOs as opposed to, let's just say, a malfunction or a military exercise?

HASTINGS: Well, what you've just said is not entirely correct. They all agree that there was no tech - technical explanation for what occurred. In fact, the engineering reports from Boeing Corporation stated just that. In fact, all seven of the persons who appeared with me believe that we are dealing with extraterrestrials, some of them stated it - stated it explicitly at the press conference.

What they do not necessarily agree with, three of the eight - three of the seven agreed with me that these probably represent - these actions represent a signal being sent. I'm of the opinion that whoever aboard these craft are telling us and the Russians because these things have taken place in the former Soviet Union that humans are playing with fire by possessing and threatening to use nuclear weapons.

That is speculative on my part. I've always made that clear. But the persons who were at the sites who witnessed the craft say that there is no - no technology on earth that could account for what they witnessed. ROBERTS: You know, your press conference yesterday, Robert, certainly sparked an awful lot of conversation around - around our offices yesterday. We were talking about this throughout the day. And it raised a number of questions, such as, you know, who are these aliens? Where did they come from? How did they get here? Why if they have the technology to travel on an inner stellar basis do they care about what we're doing?

HASTINGS: I have a book called "UFOs and Nukes". I devote an entire chapter to attempting to answer the questions you've just asked. I think most of the answers to those questions are in the realm of speculation, frankly. We don't know.

The people at the Pentagon and the CIA and the Kremlin may know the answers to your questions. However, what I simply point out is that you have countless incidents now. And I've, again, I've investigated over a hundred of them and have over a hundred witnesses indicate that craft of vastly superior capabilities have been monitoring the U.S. Nuclear Arms Program since the 1940s, and on occasion according to these ex-military personnel have tampered with the weapons.

What I also point out is the persons who spoke with me on Monday, by the way, again, at the press club were persons who were vetted by the U.S. government to launch or otherwise operate weapons of mass destruction.

CHETRY: Right. So -

HASTINGS: These are clearly - clearly level-headed persons that are now saying that UFOs have shut down our nuclear weapons.

CHETRY: What - so the question remains, then, I mean, this has been the subject of conspiracy theories for decades. As you referred to the Freedom of Information Act freeing up some of these testimonies so that people can read it.

What does the government have to gain by blanket denying that we've never been visited by UFOs?

HASTINGS: The Rand Corporation, which is a think tank, did a study for the Air Force in 1968.

The Brookings Institution, which is a think tank, did a study for NASA in 1959, I believe, in which they said basically if extraterrestrials are here, governments have nothing to gain and everything to lose by admitting that without knowing the full intentions of whoever might be here.

Are they hostile? We don't know. Do they intend some nefarious activities toward human kind? We don't know.

So, basically, you know, the odds that the U.S. government is going to admit that there are craft flying around American air space that run rings around our own aircraft, literally, and we hope they're friendly because we can't control them and -- oh, by the way, they seem to be interested in our nuclear weapons and seem to be shutting them down from time to time. The government has everything to gain by keeping quiet about that.

ROBERTS: Well, according to a noted physicist, Stephen Hawking, if there is life out there, it might not be friendly. So, it's great to have you on this morning, Robert. Wish we could talk longer and perhaps we can get you back because, certainly, a lot of questions remaining. But thanks for joining us this morning.

HASTINGS: Thank you.

CHETRY: Good to have you.

Well, it's 31 minutes past the hour -- time for our top stories.

President Obama continues his campaign swing to save the Democrats in November in Iowa today. Yesterday, he held a big rally urging students at the University of Wisconsin to get involved, telling them that if they sit this election out, Republicans will win.

ROBERTS: A big win for the Obama administration on stem cell research. An appeals court has permanently lifted an injunction imposed by a federal judge that banned the use of taxpayer money for embryonic stem cell research, which clears the way for the National Institutes of Health to continue its publicly-funded research.

CHETRY: And they are half way there -- a drill trying to reach the 33 trapped Chilean miners has now reached the 330-meter mark. That's how they calculated. They were about 1,000 feet down. Crews say they are already ahead of schedule and that the men could be rescued by early November.

ROBERTS: Thirteen hundred feet left to go.

More now on our top story: a new al Qaeda threat. Officials in the United States and Europe are uncovering plans for a Mumbai-like attack with gunman targeting so-called softer targets.

CHETRY: A German officer tells the terror -- tells us that the terror suspect who is now in custody is talking and that that person attended the same German mosque as 9/11 hijacker, Muhammad Atta.

Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson has been speaking to his sources. He's live in Abu Dhabi this morning.

What has developed overnight on this case?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that this man, Ahmed Sidiqi, was originally born in Afghanistan, 1974. His family immigrated to Germany. That's where he attended the same mosque in Hamburg where Muhammad Atta attended. He went to the Pakistani tribal border region to join a jihadi training camp there in 2009.

But since his arrest, he's the one that's been providing all this detailed information about this plan in Europe, the Mumbai attack targeted hotels, coordinated between about nine gunmen, 10 gunmen using automatic weapons, hand grenades killed over 160 people. And apparently, this plan was similar, but across Europe and in Britain, in France, and in Germany. So, there's this big coordinated attack, much harder to detect than these bombing plots that have been al Qaeda signature until now -- Kiran, John.

ROBERTS: Is there anything, Nic, known about potential targets? Yesterday, the French closed down the Eiffel Tower. It was the second time in a couple of weeks that they did that. And then they said, oh, no, that was a mistake. Did they have any hard information on what might have been targeted?

ROBERTSON: If they are, they're not telling us. And that's typical in these situations. But it does appear to be linked to the -- what we've heard from U.S. officials, as precise information that's being used to target some of these camps, an uptick in the targeting of those drone strikes on those camps in Pakistan.

And one counterterrorism official in the U.S. we talked to said that they're taking these threats in Europe very, very seriously. And when I interviewed a senior counterterrorism official in New York earlier this year, he told me that the Mumbai scenario was the nightmare scenario for counterterrorism officials to deal with because it's hard to see coming, and it's hard to stop in those, sort of, first 15 minutes of carnage or so -- Kiran, Chetry.

CHETRY: Yes. A lot of concern out there, of course, and we're continuing to follow this. Nic Robertson for us in Abu Dhabi this morning -- thank you.

And there is a lot of new information coming out about this alleged plot. At the top of the hour, we're going to speak with former homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, about what else we know and what our capabilities really are to prevent something like this from happening again.

ROBERTS: And Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will be joining us later on this morning, as well. So, let's see what she knows about all of this.

Coming up: President Obama firing up the base, scolding members of his own party. How is it all playing with Democrats? We're going to talk with DNC Chairman Tim Kaine just ahead.

Thirty-five minutes now after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're basically saying that you're apathetic, you're disappointed, you're , "Oh, well, we're not sure we're going to turn out." Wisconsin, we can't let that happen. We cannot sit this one out. We can't let this country fall backwards because the rest of us didn't care enough to fight.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: President Obama is trying to get students revved up at a University of Wisconsin rally, practically daring them to prove the pundits wrong and turn out strong in November.

CHETRY: Yes. And the president had some strong words for disenchanted Democrats. In a "Rolling Stone" interview, he called them irresponsible. And Vice President Joe Biden also told the liberal base to stop whining and look at the alternatives out there.

Joining us from Washington this morning is Tim Kaine. He's the chairman of the Democratic National Committee and former governor of Virginia.

Good to have you with us this morning.

TIM KAINE, DNC CHAIRMAN: Good to be back with you, guys. Thanks.

CHETRY: So, we have a lot to talk about. One of the things I wanted to draw your attention to was the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll that was just conducted last week that says more people think that the country would be better off if Congress was run by the Republicans than the Democrats.

Is there an enthusiasm gap out there? Is there some question about whether or not Democrats have the country on the right track?

KAINE: Kiran, we definitely, over the summer, we're seeing that enthusiasm gap in a lot of polls. But we're seeing it dramatically close. So, I think the CNN poll has a gap at about, you know, single digits, eight or nine points.

We were seeing polls that showed it at 30 points over the summer. We're also seeing other polls where in the generic congressional ballot, the Republicans had a 10-point edge a month ago, and now, it's essentially a dead heat among likely voters and very close among -- I mean, dead heat among registered and very close among likely voters.

CHETRY: Right.

KAINE: So, we think --

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: No, our poll has it about 11 points, but go ahead.

KAINE: We -- yes -- and we think we've got some good momentum now. We're closing the gap. The president yesterday started what will be a series of four sizable events. I was getting asked yesterday by press, what if this rally is a dud? What if nobody shows up? Well, 26,000 people showed up and we had 200 watch parties all over the United States. I was one at the University of Delaware, and the audience was very enthusiastic.

ROBERTS: No, that's a false game (ph) to think that nobody is going to show up at a college rally for the president. Of course, they are.

KAINE: Yes, I don't know why people were predicting it wasn't going to work?

ROBERTS: Gosh knows where that came from.

But the president, as you saw in that clip that we played at the beginning of this, really imploring students to come out and vote in the numbers that they did in 2008. We talked to some students who say, "Well, you know, we're a little skeptical now, we're not sure we're going to."

President also said in "Rolling Stone" magazine, quote, "People need to buck up. But if people want take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place," you know, telling people they got to get out and vote. Vice President Joe Biden is imploring the base to stop whining and consider the alternatives.

Is criticizing the base the best way to get people out to the polls?

KAINE: Well, you know, I've been -- I did a bunch of events yesterday and I didn't see any Democrats out there complaining about that. I think people understand that it's time for action. We're an impatient party. We don't spend a lot of time celebrating things that we do. We immediately look at the next thing that needs to be done.

And as the president said in Madison, there's a lot that still needs to be done. This election is more about what still needs to be done rather than what has been done.

And I think that message resonates with our voters. They are -- they're getting into the swing. They realize who the Republicans are. They realize how stark the choice is.

And while you never get turnout in a non-presidential year like the presidential year, we think our voters are revving up and revving up just at the right time.

CHETRY: It is interesting, though, there's another Marist Poll showing the most enthusiastic, 48 percent of Republican men are saying they are enthusiastic to get out there and vote. Obviously, that's not your base.

KAINE: Yes.

CHETRY: But some of the issues still boil down to pocketbook issues. They say women are less enthusiastic, men a little bit more fired up. And a lot of it has to do with the state of the economy.

KAINE: Sure.

CHETRY: How much five weeks out can the Democrats say we've done to try to turn this around?

KAINE: Well, it's -- you know, with the economy tough, that creates a head wind. Midterm, always, there's a head wind for the party that has the presidency and the economy makes it harder.

But, you know, we say over and over again -- you heard the president say it last night, you know, an economy that was shrinking is now growing. We were losing 700,000 jobs a month. We've now gained private sector jobs eight months in a row.

You can't turn what was on the brink of a second Great Depression around overnight. But the Dems are at least willing to do the heavy lifting.

What are the Republicans for? They voted against economic recovery. They vote against small business loans. They vote against equal pay for women, for God's sake.

What are they for? That's the question we're laying out to the American public.

ROBERTS: Yes. There's also a question, though, Governor, about what the Democrats stand for in terms of the Bush tax cuts.

KAINE: Right.

ROBERTS: It was believed there was going to be action on the tax cuts to make permanent those tax cuts for the middle class, raise them on high-income earners. They've now put that off until at least after the election.

The question is: where's the tax cut for the middle class? Did Democrats just decide that raising taxes on anybody was so unpopular they didn't want to do it before an election?

KAINE: Well, no, the issue about the election is this -- the Republicans are filibustering in the Senate. Everyone agrees, Democrats and Republicans, that middle class and small businesses should get tax cuts. Everybody agrees that.

But Republicans in the Senate said, look, we're holding that bill hostage. We're going to block it from even coming up from a vote unless the tax cuts are made permanent for the wealthiest -- which would double the size of deficit projections over the next two months.

Because the Senate rules and procedure, if the Republicans want to stand lock step against immediate tax relief to the middle class, they can block it. But we're definitely going to make that an issue between now and November.

CHETRY: But, I mean -- of course, they're going to say it's not that they want to block it, they want to add it to everybody. They want to extend it to the top income earners, as well.

KAINE: Kiran, that's true, they do. But the estimates on this are incredibly clear. The Republicans are saying they're the party that's concerned about deficits. If you make the tax cuts permanent to the top earners and the largest corporations in America, you double the deficit projections going forward for at least a decade. We can't afford to do that. We've got to be working with President Obama's deficit commission, bipartisan, to come up with strategies to bring the deficit down rather than bust a hole in it by using the same policies that busted a hole in the deficit --

CHETRY: Right.

KAINE: -- under the Bush administration.

CHETRY: Well, I want to ask you about this. We don't usually knock our competition on this show. We're not trying to do this -- but the president brought it up. He brought up again, or at least answered a question in "Rolling Stone" about FOX News.

KAINE: Right.

CHETRY: He called FOX News part of a tradition and point of view that were, quote, "destructive for the long-term growth of the country." We're in a unique situation also where perhaps three out of four of the biggest names being bandied about for the presidency in 2012 under the GOP all have deals, contributor deals with FOX News Channel.

KAINE: Right.

CHETRY: What is your take on how this is going to play out moving forward?

KAINE: Well, you know, I think that they're taking actions as a company. And I go on FOX all the time. I think I should. I want to speak to all voters.

But I think they are taking actions that make people realize they're basically a promoter of one party, the GOP. When the FOX parent corporation gives $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which they did a couple of weeks ago, they're abandoning that even pretense of journalistic neutrality, which journalistic organizations, newspapers, TV stations, you know, fight to maintain.

And so, you know, I assume what they are. When I go into FOX, I'm walking into the lion's den. I'm going to do my best, but they are clearly pushing for the other side. And when they have presidential likely candidates, you know, who are paid contributors with them, I mean, I think that tells you, you know, who they're pulling for. It just means we have to work harder basically.

ROBERTS: One last thought if we could, governor, just about where this is all going to end up in November. You look at Russ Feingold in Wisconsin, he's down eight points to Republican Ron Johnson. Linda McMahon launching a real challenge in the bluest of Blue States, Connecticut. Robert Byrd's seat in West Virginia in jeopardy of going red now. How bad are you expecting it to be in November?

KAINE: John, we do have some challenging races. Then again, I was in Delaware yesterday. I think we're going to win the Senate seat, and we're going to add, we're going to pick up the House seat in Delaware. We got a great shot of winning the governor's mansion in Florida. We got a really strong shot in one of the governor's mansion in Georgia. It's a volatile electorate. So, we're going to win some seats. We're going to lose some seats. I think we're going to hold on to both Houses.

ROBERTS: All right. Governor Tim Kaine, great to talk to you this morning. And we got this prediction this morning. Hang on to both Houses. Thanks very much, governor.

KAINE: You bet, guys.

CHETRY: Forty-six minutes past the hour. Still to come on the Most News in the Morning, Rob's going to have this morning's travel forecast coming up right after the break. He's looking at a tropical depression that could become the next named storm and could spell some big trouble for Florida.

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ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, again. I'm Rob Marciano. The weather headline today is tropical depression number 16, which may very well be tropical storm Nicole before the day is done. Here in satellite picture, doesn't look very impressive. The actual center of it is right about there. It's part of a broad area of low pressure. And generally speaking, we don't expect it to become a hurricane.

But nonetheless, it has 35-mile-an-hour winds. It is about 100 miles south of Marathon, Florida. It is heading to the north/northeast about 14 miles an hour. So, here's a forecast tract expected to become a tropical storm later on today, getting to the Florida Keys and the straits and up into parts of Miami later on this afternoon as a tropical storm.

Now, a lot of the action as far as the wind is concerned may very well be east and offshore, but a lot of rain is going to be the key here, and this is going to be drifting up towards the Carolinas as we get towards Thursday and into Friday, even up towards the northeast. By then, it won't really be much of a tropical system, but it' will have a lot of this, which is rain. And we're looking in flooding conditions from the Keys up through parts of Miami West Palm, maybe as far north as Melbourne.

A lot of this moisture already getting into the soggy, soggy Carolinas, and that's going to be the really main threat, I think, with this thing up and down the east coast, areas that have already seen a tremendous amount of rainfall. We got flood watches that are posted for the Carolinas, 4 to 8 inches of rainfall there potentially, and later on as we get closer to the weekend, 2 to 4 inches potentially even across portions of Pennsylvania and upstate New York.

(INAUDIBLE) and we're looking relatively dry, another warm day in SoCal. You're up to date weather wise, AMERICAN MORNING is coming right back.

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CHETRY: Fifty-four minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most Politics in the Morning. We're taking a look at the Political Ticker now. Delaware state attorney general, Beau Biden, Joe Biden's son, has a message for Democrats when it comes to states Republican Senate nominee, Christine O'Donnell.

ROBERTS: And our own Massachusetts Marky Mark, senior political editor, Mark Preston, live at the CNNPolitics.com desk for us this Wednesday morning. Mark, good morning to you.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, good morning, John. Good morning, Kiran. So, don't underestimate Christine O'Donnell so says Beau Biden. As Kiran says, he is the son of Joe Biden who held that Senate seat in Delaware for 36 years. In fact, Beau Biden seriously considered running for that seat. He decided against that. He called our own John King last night on "JK USA".

He has no regrets, but he says that Democrats are taking this race very seriously in Delaware, and they're not underestimating Christine O'Donnell who has had some flubs over the past couple of weeks. What do Americans think about the war in Afghanistan? Well, it's not very popular. If you look at this new CNN Opinion Research Corporation Poll that was released just this morning, 39 percent favor the war, 58 percent oppose it.

But let's look at it through the political lens. How does it break down across ideological parties? Right now, only 20 percent of Democrats support the war, just a month ago or earlier this month, 29 percent did. Why is this important? Democrats need to get this base excited. They need to get them out. And when you have this unpopular war hanging over their head, especially a war that is considered Obama's war, it's not a very good thing to try to get voters out certainly liberal voters heading into November.

And so, how does the president find solace? John and Kiran, he turns to his iPod. He told "Rolling Stones" in an interview just published within the last 24 hours that he listens to Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, John Coltrane. He also listens to Nas and Lil' Wayne. Some of the younger guys here told me how to pronounce Nas.

You know, he learns his musical taste from his daughters Sasha and Malia, as well as one of his close aids Reggie Love. So, he's turned to his iPad. It say he got about 2,000 songs on it. He also told "Rolling Stones" this great story about Bob Dylan, which I'll talk about a little bit later in the show.

CHETRY: That's hilarious. I love it that they had to -- you know, you're real. You didn't -- you thought (INAUDIBLE) was Nas?

PRESTON: Yes, Nas, I mean, that's how it's spelled.

ROBERTS: Speaking of spelling, we know that we spelled it post (ph) wrong, we'll fix it for next time. Mark, great to see you this morning. Thanks. PRESTON: Thanks, guys.

ROBERTS: We'll check back in with Mark next hour. For all the latest political news, go to our website, CNNPolitics.com.

CHETRY: All right. Three minutes until the top of the hour. We'll have your top stories including the latest on potential terror attack and concerns within the intelligence community about whether another one is on its way.

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