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American Morning

President Obama Arrives in South Korea for G-20 Summit; America's Wish List; Jeff Bridges Fights Against Hunger; The Other Afghan Offensive

Aired November 10, 2010 - 07:00   ET

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

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Is it a missile? What is it? The mysterious object that appears to be soaring into the sky off the coast of California. The pentagon cannot explain it. So, we're trying to get to the bottom of the mystery this morning. Welcome. Glad you're with us. It's Wednesday, November 10th. I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us. Here are this morning's top stories.

More trouble for the world's newest and biggest airliner, the A 380. Singapore airlines has grounded nearly half of its super jumbo fleet after tests revealed engine problems. Comes less than a week after an engine on a Qantas A 380 exploded shortly after takeoff.

CHETRY: It was certainly not a vacation they were expecting. Thousands of passengers and crew members stranded at sea on a crippled carnival cruise ship. A navy aircraft carrier coming to the rescue now with food, water, critical supplies. We're going to get a live report from onboard the USS Ronald Reagan. That is the ship that's coming to help in just a moment.

ROBERTS: And to millions of movie fans, he'll always be the dude. These days After Jeff Bridges is an Oscar winner and he's pursuing another passion, making sure that no child in America goes hungry. We'll talk to Jeff Bridges about his important campaign later on this hour.

CHETRY: But first, from the pacific to the Pentagon this morning. People are trying to figure out exactly what was shooting across the sky Monday night off the coast of California. Take a look at the video. You can see the huge streak arcing over the waters. This is just west of Los Angeles. The images sent the military into a frenzy because some people thought it looked like a missile.

Our Chris Lawrence is live from Washington this morning.

So what is the military saying what they think it is this morning?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, they're more saying what they think it was not more so than saying what it is. By that I mean they're ruling out certain things but still can't even this morning definitively say exactly what it was that this helicopter captured in such vivid detail.

Right now, the DOD is saying they don't believe it was any of their systems. There was a lot of speculation this could have been a missile launch, sort of a show of force to, say, North Korea, while president Obama's traveling in Asia. Other people are saying this was an inadvertent launch by a submarine or some sort, both of those very troubling.

The Pentagon now saying that all Department of Defense entities with rocket and missile programs reported no launches, scheduled or inadvertent, during the time period in the area of the reported contrail. Now, NORAD also said they didn't find any evidence of foreign missile launch, no threat to the homeland.

And the FAA went back and did sort of a radar replay this area west of Los Angeles trying to see if there was anything there. But they say when they did so, that there seemed to be no fast-moving, unidentified objects. And none of the pilots flying in that area at the time reported seeing anything unusual.

We spoke with John Pike head of globalsecurity.org, well- respected defense analyst. He says that the real story here is that the Pentagon and all these government agencies could not identify exactly what it was for so long.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN PIKE, GLOBALSECURITY.COM: The government is so badly organized that they're not able to get somebody out there to explain it and make this story go away, I think that's the real story. I mean, it's absolutely insane that for all of the money we're spending for all of these technically competent people that they can't get somebody out there to explain what's incredibly obvious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Pike says it's an obstacle illusion, that what looks to be going straight up in the air was going straight at the camera because of the curvature of the earth. He says it's just the contrail of a jet plane. Kiran?

CHETRY: Interesting. You worked at the Pentagon for a long time. Is there any wiggle room in that statement? They say no agencies are reporting a scheduled or inadvertent launch, or is that just -- we take that at face value?

LAWRENCE: Yes, at this point, they're basically saying, look, they checked with the Air Force, they checked with the Navy, because there are bases out there, you know. The Air Force launches rockets, NASA will launch rockets from that area, as well. So it's within the realm of possibility.

But right now they're saying the Navy, the air force, you know, NASA, they're all saying we didn't launch anything. So it's come down to basically was this perhaps the contrail of a jet plane or perhaps even, you know, some sort of amateur projectile that someone put up there.

I think the thing that Pike was getting at was, wow, look how long it took. Over 24 hours and still nobody could exactly say what this was.

CHETRY: Right. All right, Chris Lawrence for us this morning, thanks.

ROBERTS: The toilets are working again. That's good news for thousands of passengers and crew members who were stranded at sea on a crippled Carnival cruise ship. The splendor is dead in the water. It lost power Monday from an engine-room fire drifting at sea off the coast of Mexico.

The ship is being towed to San Diego right now. It's expected to reach port late on Thursday. And a naval aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, has come to the rescue delivering 60,000 pounds of food, water, and supplies. CNN producer Paul Vercammen is on board the USS Reagan this morning.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN PRODUCER (via telephone): Just a great sense of satisfaction here on the USS Ronald Reagan as the carrier came in to help the distressed carnival cruise ship splendor. We're about 200 miles southwest of San Diego right now.

And there's one pilot who made several of these runs in her helicopter to the Splendor delivering food and supplies. It was pretty interesting for those people. They got a visit from helicopters and saw an aircraft carrier nearby and she's sure that wasn't on the itinerary for the cruise.

The good news is no one had to be brought to the sick bay aboard the carrier. And they said when they did see people on the ship itself, these are the pilots and crew members aboard the carrier who went off to help the people aboard the carnival cruise ship. They said most of them were in good spirits. They were snapping photos of the helicopters. They were taking pictures with their phones, and a lot of them were waving congratulatory sendoffs to all of those aboard here.

What the carrier was doing was bringing vital supplies to the Carnival cruise ship. That includes water, bread, sandwich meat, granola bars, paper plates. But most of all, they were bringing water. What happened here was the aircraft carrier left its maneuvers. They were getting ready for some pre-deployment, and basically they got that distress call. And as they said, they were more than happy to help out.

John, Kiran?

CHETRY: All right, Paul, thanks so much. Not the vacation a lot of those poor passengers signed up for.

ROBERTS: A lot of people worried about that when they go on cruise ships, as well. Thankfully it happens very rarely.

CHETRY: And they're getting tugged back to shore. Hopefully it'll be over soon.

Also new this morning, more safety checks for the world's largest plane. Singapore Airlines now taking three of its A-380 super jumbo jets out of service. The airline said that it's replacing an engine in each of the planes after inspections found they were stained with oil. The inspections followed last week's engine failure that forced a Qantas A-380 make an emergency landing shortly after taking off.

ROBERTS: Boeing says no more test flights for the 787 dream liner. One of the flight test planes was forced to make an emergency landing in Loredo, Texas, the other day. There was smoke in the cabin. The crew had to evacuate, everyone got out safely. Boeing was trying to figure out what happened.

CHETRY: Washington state is now set to ban the sale of caffeinated alcohol drinks. Nine college students were hospitalized last month, you may remember, after drinking Four Loko, the caffeinated malt liquor known as "blackout in a can." For its part, the maker of Four Loko says they're doing all they can to make sure the product is consumed safely and responsibly.

ROBERTS: Are you fed up with your boss? Here's some potentially good news. Saying what you think about him or her online may not get you fired. A ruling by the National Labor Relations Board says those comments in certain cases are protected speech, and a Connecticut woman was fired illegally for criticizing her boss on Facebook.

CHETRY: The new problems that have now cropped up that we never had to deal with before.

ROBERTS: Got to be careful, though. It's only certain people who can do that and maybe get away with it.

(WEATHER BREAK)

ROBERTS: Two freight trains full of fuel collide. The incredible video as car after car goes up in flames. We've got it for you.

CHETRY: Also Air Force One touches down in Seoul, South Korea. President Obama is getting ready for the G-20 summit. We're going to take a look at some of the key issues facing the group. It's nine minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's coming up on 13 minutes after the hour. The president is visiting his third country as he continues his trip through Asia this morning. The G-20 summit is the main event in Seoul, South Korea that gets underway tomorrow. CNN's Paula Hancocks is in Seoul right now. Paula, what's on the president's plate today?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we know that the U.S. President Barack Obama has actually just sent a letter to all of the leaders of the G-20. In it he's basically rallied the call for global contributions to make sure that the global economy is strengthened. That, of course, is a given.

In it he also makes a point that he's made once before that the best contribution that the U.S. can offer -- to the U.S. economy to be doing particularly well. He says that strong growth, job creation within the U.S. will help the situation around the world and help the U.S. dollar.

Now, we know tomorrow on Thursday there will be all the leaders meeting to discuss what exactly -- the global economy. We know that the main thing everybody will be talking about is currencies.

And we heard this in the letter, as well, that Mr. Obama sent to the leaders. He said that countries have to make sure they're not going to allow their currencies to be artificially low, to trade at these artificially low levels. So of course their exports are cheap, but it doesn't help the rest of the global recovery.

Obviously the U.S. is talking about China when it comes to this issue. And they've talked about it a lot in the past. What we could see, as well, is Mr. Obama coming under a fair bit of flak from other countries because of that Federal Reserve move recently, that $600 billion injection into the U.S. economy through treasury bonds.

John?

ROBERTS: Yes, unfortunately for those countries, though, they don't really have any alternatives to what the Fed is doing, Paula.

HANCOCK: Absolutely. We heard from the German finance minister. He's called what has happened "clueless." So certainly particularly damning from the Germans. And they've also said that the U.S. is kind of being hypocritical when they're criticizing China for not actually -- for allowing the currency to be so weak so that it helps the individual country of China. But, of course, you need this international economic cooperation for this meeting to be a success. And, of course, national interests come into every country -- John.

ROBERTS: Paula Hancocks for us this morning in Seoul. Paula, thanks.

CHETRY: Coming up, we're going to be speaking with Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges. He's taking a lead role in the fight against hunger, specifically childhood hunger in our country. We're going to talk to him about the campaign to end it coming up.

Fifteen and a half minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Eighteen and a half minutes past the hour. It's time for a look at some of the stories that got us talking in the newsroom this morning.

And this was incredible video we just couldn't stop looking at. Looked like a bomb went off. A video of a fireball shooting more than 100 feet into the air. It happened after a freight train collided with another freight train. One was hauling oil. The other was hauling gasoline. This happened in Poland. More than half of the 33 tanks caught fire in an incredible chain reaction. And the most amazing part about all of it is that according to Polish media, there were just a couple of minor injuries despite all those flames.

ROBERTS: Well, you heard about quarter draft night. How about a beer for a buck? Watch this.

A deer busted through the window of a bar in Bluffton, Ohio. It was right before happy hour on Friday and absolutely made a mess of the place too. Broke a table and tore up chairs. The waitress even got on top of the bar in a panic. It managed to finally exit out the back door after an employee who was trying to get away from the buck crashed that door open. He was right behind.

CHETRY: Yes. I love they had video not only of that, but they had video -- the other video outside.

ROBERTS: He's taking off and then there's the buck right behind him.

CHETRY: He's lucky he didn't get hurt. He could have broken a leg pretty easily slipping around in the floor like that.

ROBERTS: Those little sticks. Yes.

CHETRY: I know.

ROBERTS: You fall down once or twice. Bam.

CHETRY: But he was OK, thank goodness.

How about Mr. Peanut? He's not going to be silent any longer. For the first time in almost a century, the Planters peanut mascot finally has a voice in a new ad campaign. Do you like it? Here's a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MR. PEANUT: The Planters we know. Kind of throwing a remarkable holiday party, just serve classy snacks and be a gracious host, no matter who shows up.

Richard, didn't think you were going to make it.

RICHARD: Hey, sorry about last week. I don't know what got into me.

MR. PEANUT: Yes, well, forgive and forget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: If it sounds familiar, it's actually the voice of Robert Downy Jr.

ROBERTS: Well, 30 years and she is still using the same perfume. Yes, Strawberry Shortcake turns 30 years old today. She made her debut way back in 1980. She's had a few makeovers over the years, and now moms are introducing her to their own little girls.

CHETRY: When I was little, I had the coolest toy ever. You squeezed her belly and she blew a beautiful strawberry-scented kiss at you.

ROBERTS: Oh.

CHETRY: And it just worked over and over and over again. And yes, my daughter has one too now.

ROBERTS: Excellent. Good to see that everything old is new again.

CHETRY: Exactly.

Well, they're calling it a random act of culture. Six hundred fifty opera singers dressed as average, every day customers at a Macy's in Philadelphia breaking out in the "hallelujah" chorus.

CHORUS: Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

CHETRY: Looks like some of the other shoppers joined in, as well. May happen to you this holiday season. In fact, a thousand more of these random acts of opera are planned over the next three years.

ROBERTS: They sound really good.

CHETRY: Yes, they did.

ROBERTS: Excellent. Way to spice up the holiday season.

CHETRY: Yes, because Macy's isn't crowded enough in the holiday season.

ROBERTS: Exactly. You want to jam more people in.

Well, Americans' wish list. We'll tell you the number one gift that most people want this holiday season.

ROBERTS: And listen to this. A cell phone obsession tied to sex and drugs. A new warning about what else your teenager may be doing if he or she is constantly texting or constantly online with social networking.

It's 22 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: And if you can't come up with a good, thoughtful gift, well, maybe you want to give somebody a gift card, which brings us around to Christine Romans. She's "Minding Your Business" this morning with new rules for gift cards.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: New rules for gift cards and also a new survey from the National Retail Federation.

CHETRY: Come on, just come with it. You can't stand getting gift cards.

ROMANS: I know.

CHETRY: Spend them.

CHETRY: A Starbucks gift card is about the only useful thing I've ever received in the gift card department.

ROMANS: I don't know if it's how old we are or what.

ROBERTS: Because that's kind of like an ATM for --

ROMANS: Teenagers love to get them.

CHETRY: Right.

ROMANS: They think their parents have terrible taste, right? So they want the gift card.

CHETRY: No, kids love them.

ROMANS: Kids love them. I mean, gift cards are incredibly widely popular. The National Retail Federation says it will be the most popular gift again. The National Retail Federation I will point, by the way, is a trade association for retailers. So they like these gift cards because you pay $25 and then maybe a little bit more or you don't spend $25 and then they get the $25 anyway.

So this is what they say you want to get for Christmas. Fifty-seven percent say gift cards, the number one gift on the list. 48.2 percent, clothing; books, 47.3 percent. And jewelry, my personal favorite, honey, 23 percent.

Now here's a couple of things here. Gift cards rules are better for you now. A couple of years ago, you would hear me and a lot of other people say gift cards have a lot of trips and traps, so be careful. Some of those things have been taken away. For example, they can't expire in five years like they used to be able to. You don't get an inactivity fee now unless they've been dormant for a whole year. And there's no fee to replace a lost or stolen card. That was a reason why a lot of personal finance experts did not like gift cards and said you were getting ripped off. But there are still a couple of things to be careful about. There still are penalties after a year and there still could be some confusing disclosures depending on what kind of gift card you're getting.

My advice always on these for gift cards, if you're giving them, be aware that billions of these never get redeemed. So you're giving your money and the person might never actually get a gift. If you're getting them, use them right away. Because the longer you keep them in your purse, the more likely you're going to pay some kind of fee or you're going to forget about it. So there you go, I like gifts.

ROBERTS: Let me have one.

ROMANS: And the retailers always get mad at me when I do these stories because they love gift cards.

ROBERTS: Sure.

ROMANS: Because they're getting paid right away, and you're getting in the store, you might buy more and that's why they like them.

ROBERTS: Or you might buy less and they keep the rest that's on the card already.

ROMANS: Or you don't even do anything with the card and it's already been paid.

ROBERTS: Yes, iTunes cards, they're also good. Starbucks and iTunes cards.

ROMANS: Yes.

CHETRY: My husband loves them. My husband loves gift cards from book retailers like Amazon and Borders as well.

ROMANS: Right.

And because you can get what you want.

CHETRY: Right.

ROMANS: The teenagers I know, the parents of teenagers love to give these because, you know, kids, you know, they think their parents have terrible taste, which is clearly not true.

CHETRY: My nieces all want Abercrombie or the Aeropostale gift cards.

ROMANS: Right.

CHETRY: They can go buy their cool clothes.

ROMANS: I don't know. A gift is a gift. If you can wrap it up in something nice and cute that you've made or that you like. But I'll tell you that spending is down. Spending this year will be up maybe two percent. But people are going to spend on average I think $689 for food, decorations and gifts. $780 in 2007. So you can see that people still are not back to their pre-recession levels of spending, and maybe that's a good thing. Maybe we don't need to be buying all the stuff we don't need.

ROBERTS: Now the retailers are really going to hate you.

ROMANS: Except jewelry on the list. Don't forget the 23 percent in one store.

ROBERTS: Christine Romans doing her part this morning to depress the retail industry.

CHETRY: Unless you're buying her rings.

ROMANS: I'm going to get a call. I'm going to get a call.

CHETRY: Other than that, don't spend money.

ROBERTS: On her books. Coming up to the half hour, top stories this morning. A mystery off the coast of California. Stunning images here show an object streaking upwards, it looks like, in the skies west of Los Angeles. To some, it looks like a missile or a rocket. Right now, the Pentagon can't explain what happened. The FAA says radar replays at the area do not reveal any fast-moving unidentified objects.

CHETRY: A Carnival cruise ship crippled at sea with 3,300 passengers and crew members onboard. Its' now being towed to San Diego and should arrive tomorrow. The USS Ronald Reagan rushing in with tons of food, water, supplies after an engine-room fire left the vessel just dead in the water Monday.

ROBERTS: The president focusing on the world economy this morning as he gets settled into Seoul, South Korea. The G-20 summit will get underway tomorrow. And the president has a meeting set with the president of China and with the president of South Korea.

CHETRY: Well, coming off of his Oscar-winning performance in the film "Crazy Heart," Jeff Bridges could score another nomination this year. At least that's the buzz. He has two films coming out next month including the Coen brothers remake of "True Grit," which is already getting a lot of Oscar buzz. Right now, though, Jeff Bridges is focused on a different kind of campaign. One that kicks off today to end childhood hunger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: Look around you. One in four kids in the U.S. faces hunger. It's not always easy to see the signs, but in this land of plenty, there are kids that don't know where they will get their next meal. Join Share Our Strength in Food Network and take the pledge to end childhood hunger here in America by 2015.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Joining us this morning from Washington, Jeff Bridges, the national spokesman for Share our Strength, and also the group's founder and executive director, Billy Shore.

Welcome to both of you. Thanks for joining us this morning.

JEFF BRIDGES, ACADEMY AWARD-WINNING ACTOR: Good morning, Kiran.

BILL SHORE, FOUNDER/EXEC. DIR., SHARE OUR STRENGTH: Thank you.

CHETRY: Jeff, let me start with you. You've been passionate about this for a long time. I know that you founded the End Hunger Network back in 1983. Tell us about this new campaign, the No Kid Hungry campaign that launches today.

BRIDGES: Well, I'm so excited about it. As you just heard with what you just showed on the -- on the TV there, we're in dire straits. We have 17 million of our children are living at homes with food and security, meaning they're not sure if they're going to get a nutritious meal or not. And share our strength. And Bill Shore has come up with a wonderful campaign to end childhood hunger by 2015. And we're going to be working with governors and mayors to really locate the gaps in the programs that are already in place such as the SNAP program, which is formerly food stamps, and the WIC program and School Meal Program.

CHETRY: Right. You know, and you mentioned the number, the figure is 17 million. Billy, that's a shocking number to think, you know nearly one in four kids has some question about whether or not they're going to be hungry at the end of the day. Why -- I know that you launch this program and try to make a dent in it -- why are we seeing this problem seeming to grow?

SHORE: That's right. Well, with the economy in the condition that it's in, with 44 million Americans living below the poverty line, 41 million Americans on food stamps, and half of them being children, we're going to have a lot of hungry kids in this country.

I think the key thing, as Jeff just pointed out, though, this is a solvable problem. We have the programs in place. They have bipartisan support. They have a track record of success over 30 years, programs like School Lunch, School Breakfasts, the SNAP program.

If we can get more kids who are eligible enrolled in these programs, we're working with President Obama to do that. We're working with governors across the country to do that. We could actually solve this problem of childhood hunger.

CHETRY: You know, Jeff, it also struck me as a bit of a strange split. So, here we are dealing with hunger, but also a big health care issue in our country is obesity, you know, childhood obesity is even a platform of the first lady.

BRIDGES: Absolutely. Yes.

CHETRY: So, as a country, where are we going wrong here in terms of nutrition -- when you have childhood obesity on one side and this food insecurity on the other?

BRIDGES: They are so connected. They're really, you know, two sides of the same coin, really, you know? Obesity is, you know, caused in large degree towards poor nutrition. Wouldn't you say, Bill?

SHORE: I think that's right. And part of our campaign has a major nutrition component called Cooking Matters, because families, particularly low income families, need to have the resources and the information to make the right choices for their kids. So, when we're talking about No Kid Hungry, we're actually talking about obesity and nutrition, as well.

CHETRY: So, Jeff, people are sitting at home saying, how do I get involved? What can I do about it? I think that as well.

BRIDGES: Great question. You can start out by going to NoKidHungry.org and find out what you can personally do to end childhood hunger in our country and take the No Kid Hungry pledge. But I believe no child in America should go hungry. And by taking this pledge, I'm adding my voice to the national movement of people who are committed to end childhood hunger in America by 2015.

CHETRY: Well, I know a lot of people are going to be logging on. We'll definitely link it up with our Web site as well.

Bill, I want to ask you, are you concerned at all that with the new Congress, it might be tougher to get some of these programs approved? I know there's, you know, a big wave of concern about spending and a call for pulling back and not spending as much money right now in the current economic environment we're in.

SHORE: Yes. And clearly we have some political divisions in this country, which the elections highlighted. But I think this is one thing, I think, that represents common ground for almost all Americans -- the idea of making sure that the next generation has what they need.

And as I mentioned earlier, the kind of programs that we're trying to get more kids involved in have had bipartisan support for a long time. And actually, if you think about this in the long-term, we could save a lot of money for this country by making sure the kids get the early nutrition that they need. That they start off life healthy.

This is not just a hunger issue, it's an education issue, it's a health care issue. So, the savings, you know, we've estimated that you could actually save $90 billion by making sure that no kids are hungry. So, this doesn't necessarily need to be a budget issue.

BRIDGES: Yes, the No Kid Hungry campaign -- we're not saying that we should create new programs, but more efficiently use the ones that are already in place. I understand there's $1 billion that states could be using to end hunger in their states that is not being used. Isn't that right?

CHETRY: Right.

SHORE: That's right. And those dollars could be some important stimulus dollars.

BRIDGES: Exactly, right.

CHETRY: Hey, Jeff, we have a lot of Jeff Bridges fans here on the show. I wanted to ask you a question about the new movie coming out. I know you have two coming up, but "True Grit" right now. It's a new take on the movie that, of course, won John Wayne an Oscar.

BRIDGES: Yes.

CHETRY: Are you scared about this role at all? I mean, big shoes to fill.

BRIDGES: Well, no, I had a great time. I got to work with the brothers again, you know? We did "Big Lebowski" together. So, it was wonderful to get back with those guys. And they are -- they're masters, you know? They really know how to make a great movie.

And they're really referencing the Charles Portis novel "True Grit," not so much the film. And one of their first bits of direction to me was, don't even worry about that film. That's not -- we're not making the redo of that movie, we're talking about the book here.

CHETRY: Right. And what do you think when people say, oh, he could win two Oscars in a row. Do you buy into any of that? Or you don't think about it?

BRIDGES: I don't think about it until somebody requests asks me, and I say wouldn't it be wonderful? You know?

(LAUGHTER)

CHETRY: Well, listen, I want to thank you so much for joining us this morning. The program's great. NoKidHungry.org is where people go and "True Grit," by the way, comes out on Christmas Day. I'll be heading to theaters to see it as well.

BRIDGES: Oh, good.

CHETRY: Bill Shore, Jeff Bridges, thanks for joining us this morning.

SHORE: Thank you.

BRIDGES: Nice talking with you, Kiran.

ROBERTS: You know, it looks like he plays a great part of Rooster Cogburn. And "Crazy Heart" was so terrific, too.

The fact that he -- I mean, I'm a guitarist. I read a great article about him in the "Guitar Aficionado" magazine. He's got a big collection. He plays. He learns some extra chops and licks for that film, and he sung all the songs. It's just remarkable.

CHETRY: He's a good guy, and to be taking this on right now, as well, you know? He has so much going on in his life, and he wants to give back. So --

ROBERTS: Yes, that's good. Good for him.

Take a look inside the life inside the U.S. embassy complex in Kabul. Our Jill Dougherty gets an exclusive tour to see what goes on behind the fortified walls and why the staff risks their lives to do all of this. That's coming up.

And hyper-texting and hyper-networking, does it also spell trouble? Coming up: why sex and drugs are way more common in teens who text and use social networking sites too much.

Thirty-seven minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Twenty minutes now to the top of the hour.

The U.S. military surge in Afghanistan has a flip side a civilian surge. And nowhere is it more evident than inside the bustling U.S. embassy complex in Kabul.

CHETRY: And this morning, in the final part of her series, "The Other Afghan Offensive," Jill Dougherty takes us behind the walls of the heavily fortified compound.

Jill joins us now. It's great they gave you access the way that they did so that you could get an inside look at what life is really like there.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's really true because we've been in it almost every day when I was there for several weeks. But to have a whole day to wander around, look at things, and have the ambassador show us around is pretty special.

Yes, so -- you know, and as we were walking around, you can really see how the embassy has grown. Just two years ago, there were only 320 U.S. government civilians in Afghanistan. And since President Obama's civilian surge began, that has tripled to 1,100. So, they're from 16 different departments or agencies.

And the civilians are slowly moving out into locations throughout the country, but 740 of them are living there and working at the embassy. Finding room for them alone is a real challenge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DOUGHERTY (voice-over): We're getting an exclusive tour inside the massive U.S. embassy compound inside Kabul.

AMB. KARL EIKENBERRY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO AFGHANISTAN: You'll see that crane right over there, and that's more construction going on.

DOUGHERTY: Our guide, former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and current ambassador, Karl Eikenberry.

EIKENBERRY: We believe this is the largest and most rapid build- up of civilians that we've had in any mission globally since the Vietnam War.

DOUGHERTY: The day starts with a staff meeting and a tribute to those killed in action.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sergeant Steven Lucio (ph) and Specialist Christine Southward (ph), Army, killed by shrapnel wound suffered during the complex attack --

DOUGHERTY: Then some quick business in the hall.

EIKENBERRY: I got that report that you had on the governance which is excellent. And you're turning that into a table?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We set it up last night. EIKENBERRY: OK. Good. Thanks.

Assalamu Alaikum. How are you doing?

DOUGHERTY: But it's not just about diplomacy.

EIKENBERRY: Hi, guys. How are you doing?

DOUGHERTY: He's also a facility manager in chief.

EIKENBERRY: What's the -- what's on the menu today here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today, we've got some veal.

DOUGHERTY: Upstairs, the ambassador's wife invites us into the residence. U.S. diplomats can't bring their families. Ching Eikenberry is the only spouse living in Kabul.

CHING EIKENBERRY, AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY'S WIFE: So, I'm the first woman ever live in this residence. So, I decided to make it a little bit more homey.

DOUGHERTY: Some living quarters are less spacious. The State Department's Matthew Case shares this tiny room with five other men.

MATTHEW CASE, U.S. EMBASSY WORKER: We have no bathroom. We have no shower. We have to walk outside to another hooch about 100 yards away to take a shower and go to the bathroom.

DOUGHERTY (on camera): Not easy.

CASE: Not easy at all.

DOUGHERTY: So, there are some compensations for working at a pretty difficult post, and this is one of them. It's the coffee corner where you can get a pretty mean cappuccino.

(voice-over): Even in a war zone, some other comforts of home, like a gym and a pool.

EIKENBERRY: There is a lot of pressure here. And people that they can predict Friday will be their slow day. It's a day where they come to the pool, exercise.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DOUGHERTY: And even though U.S. troops will begin to slowly reduce their presence in Afghanistan beginning next July, the civilian effort is going to continue long after those troops begin going home. And the State Department is planning to open two new consulates. They're going to be in Herat, western Afghanistan and Mazari Sharif in the north, and those will be opening in the first half of this coming year.

ROBERTS: We talked about this as we were watching -- does he get out and about much? Or is he tied really? DOUGHERTY: No, I think he gets up pretty much. We went to Herat in western Afghanistan with him for a trip, and the local community. And then also, they bring a lot of people into the embassy for meetings, dinners -- you know, kind of like the outreach to the political and local community.

CHETRY: Right, which is what you see happening in other countries.

DOUGHERTY: Yes.

CHETRY: But, you know, a little more challenging in Afghanistan. But --

DOUGHERTY: Yes. And security as you can imagine is amazing.

ROBERTS: Great opportunity to spend an entire day there.

DOUGHERTY: Yes.

ROBERTS: Great series, too, Jill. Thanks so much for bringing it to us.

DOUGHERTY: Thank you very much.

CHETRY: Good to see you, Jill.

DOUGHERTY: Good to be here.

CHETRY: So, is it spring or not? Warm temperatures making a comeback. Plus, hurricane season is not over yet. Rob Marciano with a look at some of unusual weather we're experiencing across the country.

It's 45 minutes past the hour.

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CHETRY: Pretty shot this morning of the Washington Monument. Forty- seven degrees right now in our nation's capital. Fair. A little bit later, partly sunny going up to 62 degrees.

ROBERTS: Yes. It's warming up in the northeast.

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ROBERTS: Sex, drugs, brawling, texting, and Facebooking. The more you text, the more risky behavior you engage in, according to a new study. We'll talk to the guy behind it. What's going on there? Forty-nine minutes after the hour.

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ROBERTS: Seven minutes to the top of the hour and time for your AM House Call, stories about your health. If your child is texting too much, you might want to keep a closer eye on what else they're doing. A new study says hyper-texting teens much more likely to binge drink, do drugs, fight, and probably have already had sex, and may have had four or more partners. There are also other risks for young people with social networking incessantly.

Joining me now is Dr. Scott Frank. He's the lead researcher on the study from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Dr. Frank, great to see you this morning. You've identified these two at-risk groups. Who are hyper-texters and hyper-networkers?

DR. SCOTT FRANK, CASE WESTERN RESERVE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Hyper- texting is defined as 120 or more texts on a school day. And hyper networking is three or more hours spent on a social network's web site on a school day.

ROBERTS: So these are young people who really are almost obsessed with using SMS messages and social networking?

FRANK: They're spending a really an excessive amount of time online and connected with friends through social media. And in doing so they've perhaps taken peer pressure to a cyber-peer pressure level, a high-tech peer pressure that may be part of what's contributing to the statistics that you were describing.

ROBERTS: All right. Let's talk about that and whether there's a cause and effect in just a second. But let's put up some of those statistics that you talk about. These are stunning.

Hyper-texters, kids who send more than 120 messages a day during school are, according to your study, 40 percent more likely to have smoked; two times more likely to have tried alcohol; 43 percent more likely to be binge drinkers; 41 percent more likely to try illicit drugs; and three times more likely to have had sex.

Those findings are just stunning.

FRANK: They are a wake-up call, I think, to parents, and perhaps to teens themselves.

ROBERTS: So what -- is there a cause and effect here? Is it the texting that leads to the behaviors? Or is it just somebody who may be prone to at-risk behaviors tends to find fascination in texting and social networking?

FRANK: Well, clearly, our study does not demonstrate cause and effect. We are not saying that texting causes these behaviors. Our study really is the first to point in the direction of doing further research to get a handle on exactly how these different factors are related. We can speculate about it. We can recognize that these kind of connections, social connections, may be facilitating or enabling these kinds of behaviors. But we certainly can't think of them as causing them.

ROBERTS: Yes. You know, there's other disturbing findings with hyper-networkers, these young people who use social networking more than three hours a day. They are two times more likely to attempt suicide; three times more likely to have an eating disorder; and two times more likely to be cyber bullied. You can kind of see how all of these things can be interrelated, but they appear to be more at risk for mental health issues than the hyper-texters do.

What's behind that?

FRANK: You're absolutely right. The hyper-networkers definitely have more of the mental health issues going on. And not sure why that is. We simply recognize that that association is there. The other things that those hyper networkers are more likely to have, however, is less sleep, less physical activity. So their physical health is also impaired in addition to their mental health. And certainly physical and mental health is very much connected.

ROBERTS: Is there a particular population group that is involved in hyper-texting, hyper-networking, and demonstrates these at-risk behaviors than another?

FRANK: Well, you know, it's really somewhat surprising that hyper-texters and hyper-networkers tend to be more often kids who have parents with lower education, minority kids, and kids who come from households without a father.

But the statistics we have described are controlled for those factors, controlled for, those factors are controlled for, so those statistics are of concern to everyone, not just to those groups. We've talked for many years about a technology gap, however, between the -- those with less parental education than those with more. So it appears, at least as far as networking and texting, that technology gap is disappearing.

ROBERTS: Yes. You know, you also found that the hyper-texters and hyper-networkers were more likely to report of a permissive parent. So maybe there's a parenting issue involved here, as well.

Dr. Scott Frank. It's fascinating research. Obviously we're going to hear a lot more about this. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

FRANK: Thank you, John.

ROBERTS: Kiran -- actually, no. Top stories coming your way right after the break. Stay with us.

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