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American Morning

U.S. Warplane Crashes in Libya; Existing Home Sales Tumble; You Don't Know Uncle Sam; Crisis in Japan; Obama's Libya Problem

Aired March 22, 2011 - 06:00   ET

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


CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Major developments overnight. We're going to get you caught up right now. I'm Christine Romans. The battle for Libya continues, as more Tomahawk missiles slam into Tripoli. A live report as the opposition rallies, trying to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi. There are growing concerns over radiation exposure in Japan. Now the U.S. military is getting ready to take an extraordinary step, evacuating troops from the island.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. No relief here in sight here at home for homeowners. There are new numbers showing just how weak the housing market is. And even more troubling, analysts said we may not have hit bottom yet.

Let's get started. AMERICAN MORNING begins right now.

All right. It is Tuesday, March 22nd. A lot of news this morning, again. It's been a wild couple of weeks.

VELSHI: And it's well into the day in Japan. There have already been another two earthquakes today. We're well into the 600s in terms of the number of aftershocks and tremors. So more concern about those nuclear plants and everybody's safety there.

CHETRY: Yes. We're going to bring everybody up to date on that, plus the radiation fears.

But first, we're going to start with Libya. Coalition forces hammering Leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces and positions, as the head of forces in Libya says the coalition flew 80 missions yesterday, more than half of them by countries other than the United States.

Also saying that the dictator's momentum has been stopped, at least for now. But in Misrata, which is a key city two hours east of Tripoli, people are saying that civilians are still being massacred. The shelling reportedly continuing as we speak.

This was video that was posted on YouTube, claiming to show an attack by those loyal to Gadhafi, a blast that literally tossed the person holding the camera. We cannot confirm for sure who was responsible for the attack. But again, these pictures coming to us from someone who shot them at the scene. Arwa Damon has been following all of this. She is in eastern Libya this morning. She joins us on the phone.

Arwa, it is disturbing development to hear about these attacks continuing despite the show of might from the air, at least, to try to stop Gadhafi's forces.

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It most certainly is, Kiran. But when it comes to a place like Misrata, it is very difficult for the coalition to try to control Gadhafi's movements, simply because his troops are so embedded amongst the civilian population. And this problem also exists in other parts of the country, we're hearing from eyewitness, like Zawiyah and Bin Tan (ph).

The city of Benghazi, the second largest city, which is also the headquarters, the heart of the opposition, if you will, remains fairly calm. That after coalition air strikes literally brought Gadhafi's military machine to a grinding halt over the weekend.

The force of the bombs that they dropped destroying at least 70 vehicles that we counted outside of Benghazi on Sunday. This has allowed opposition fighters to regain critical ground that they have lost. They, according to an eyewitness, attacked Gadhafi's troops after the air strikes, driving them all the way back to the city of Ajdabiya, around 100 miles to the west of Benghazi.

There are various reports as to who controls Ajdabiya right now, with the opposition hoping to have it firmly in their control by the end of the day, saying that there's still fierce fight going on in that area. But they do also appear, the opposition, to have gained some military experience.

If you remember, from the beginning, these opposition fighters, who really aren't much more than civilians who learned how to shoot weapons over the last few weeks, they charged through these various areas that quickly fell to their control. They were then driven back by Gadhafi's forces.

Now we are seeing them approaching much more cautiously, realizing that they have to hold on to critical ground before they leave it. Everybody here in the opposition-controlled part of the country very grateful for that international support, repeatedly thanking countries like the United States and France for coming to their rescue, because they firmly believe, Kiran, that if this international aid had not happened, if those air strikes have not taken place, a massacre at the hands of Gadhafi's forces would have been imminent.

ROMANS: And again, we said 80 missions flown yesterday alone, as the effort to stop Gadhafi from being able to attack civilians. Thanks so much, Arwa Damon, for us this morning.

We're going to have much more on the war in Libya ahead. In just a few minutes, we're going to be speaking to retired Major General James "Spider" Marks, former commander of the Army Intelligence Center, about what the military's next move is, and what the end game is as well. ROMANS: Now to Japan, where the operation to cool the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant has suffered a minor setback. Smoke is rising from two reactors now. Right now, workers are trying to restore power to the facility.

Take a look at these thermal images of the reactors taken Sunday by Japan's Ministry of Defense. Reactor four registering nearly 107.6 degrees Fahrenheit there. Reactor three registering 143.6 degrees. In the last few hours, firefighters began hosing down number three.

And just look at these last readings from reactor two, a 95 degrees Fahrenheit reported at the cooling pool near the spent fuel rods, and 264.4 degrees from the containment vessel.

Now reactor number one is also heating up. This one is registering 136.4 degrees.

Now, thousands of American soldiers are stationed in Japan, along with their families, of course. And military officials are now considering a mandatory evacuation because of these rising radiation levels. The Aircraft Carrier USS George Washington left the Japanese port of Yokosuka as a precautionary measure on Monday.

The U.S. has a huge Naval base there. The city is just south of Tokyo. Chris Lawrence is live at the Pentagon this morning.

Chris, this is because of precautionary measures only, right?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. What I'm being told, Christine, is this is a contingency plan. But yes, there have been some discussions about evacuating thousands of American troops and their families from Japan. I'm told that the discussion started or the planning started with Pacific command, which is the military authority that oversees that part of the region.

But there have been talks here in Washington, as well, as you would expect. Something like this would go up the chain of command. I'm told, though, that this is not for all of Japan, that the discussions have mostly all centered on Yokosuka.

There are thousands of American troops that work right now in Japan. Their families live in Japan, that are really nowhere near this radiation leak, and would be almost in no danger whatsoever. But there are some in the vicinity where they are monitoring this radiation on a daily basis.

You mentioned that they had already taken the USS George Washington out of port, moved it out to sea to get it away from some of that radiation. And we've also seen some of the first flights of family members start to come back in.

Now, this is different than what we're talking about just now. For the last few days, there's been a voluntary evacuation of family members, U.S. military family members from Japan. So basically the government's saying if you want to leave -- you don't have to, but if you want to leave, the government is going to pay for it. And if you're not able to get on a commercial flight, the U.S. Air Force has started to fly some of these family members home.

ROMANS: Chris Lawrence, thanks for that update. Thanks, Chris.

VELSHI: We've also been following the impact on Japan's earthquake and tsunami on these car companies around the world, an industry that is crucial to Japan's economy. GM's German Opal brand announced yesterday that it's scaling back production at plants in Germany and Spain because of a shortage of electronic parts coming from Japan.

France's Peugeot automaker also says a lack of parts is affecting its production of diesel engines.

CHETRY: You also talked about those two earthquakes today alone in Japan.

VELSHI: Already this morning, we've had two earthquakes. The last one measuring 6.4. We just heard from our people in Tokyo saying they felt it quite a bit right there.

CHETRY: And that does affect some production, right?

VELSHI: Particularly because Japan is such a big player in electronics and circuits and chips and things like that. Those factories can't work until there are no more tremors, because they have to recalibrate them every time.

ROMANS: Also know this morning, you guys, the driver of that deadly New York City Tour bus crash is speaking publicly for the first time. Ophadel Williams says he's very sorry for what happened and he appeared to have some sort of an anxiety attack as he spoke with his wife by his side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm hurt by the whole situation. I'm having difficulty breathing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm with him at night when he's crying. I'm with him at night with the nightmares. It's terrible. It's terrible for all. It's terrible for all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Fifteen people were killed when the tour bus went over a guardrail and crashed on to Interstate 95 earlier this month. The passengers were returning from a Connecticut casino. Investigators are looking into whether Williams was asleep or distracted at the time of the crash.

CHETRY: Opening statements are scheduled today in the perjury trial of Barry Bonds, almost 3.5 years since those allegations came out. The jury has to decide whether they believe the former baseball star lied to a grand jury when he denied that he knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs.

It's a question a jury must now figure out. And if convicted, Bonds could get up to 30 years in prison. It's also a lot of questions about whether he can get a fair trial in San Francisco. I mean, that is the home of the Giants and he was their star.

VELSHI: We'll be watching that carefully.

We're also watching the beginning of spring.

ROMANS: I have an inch of snow in my backyard.

VELSHI: Did you have snow?

ROMANS: I had snow.

CHETRY: I had so much rain, it melted the snow. It was a crazy day.

VELSHI: It really was. People throughout the northeast had to break out snow shovels again. Look at this, nearly foot and a half -- or a half a foot of snow in some portions of northwestern New Jersey. And look at this, all roads leading into Yosemite National Park were closed for a time because of snow, ice, mud slides, fallen trees and downed power lines.

The storm dumped more than 3.5 feet of snow in the park over a 24-hour period. Wow.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROMANS: Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, mixed messages on the mission in Libya. The president says Gadhafi needs to go. The military says he's not the target. So what is the end game? Some insight from a military insider next.

CHETRY: Also, a setback in the housing market. We learned new information about the value of your home. A lot of people saying where is the bottom when it comes to this market? We're minding your business coming up.

VELSHI: And do you know who the president is? Here's a hint. It's that guy. If you already --

ROMANS: The vice president. Oh, poor Ali.

VELSHI: That guy wanted to be president a couple of times, Joe Biden. I wasn't looking at the screen, I was looking at the script.

(CROSS TALK)

VELSHI: This is the problem, if you know that that is the vice president of the United States, then you are doing better than 29 percent of U.S. citizens who took the citizenship test. It is 12 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: It's 15 minutes past the hour right now, and we're getting some breaking news.

Some unfortunate news out of Libya that a U.S. war plane has actually crashed - crashed in a Libyan field. Apparently the cause appears to be mechanical failure right now and its pilot was rescued by rebels. That's at least according to Britain's "Daily Telegraph" reporting it. Again, the plane that went down, an F-15E Eagle and again it appears to be mechanical failure that brought this plane down. Thankfully, though, the pilot appears to be OK, actually rescued by rebel forces in Libya.

VELSHI: So we're getting a lot of this news from a correspondent who's on the ground. You're taking a look at an F-15 Eagle right there. It's an F-15 Strike Eagle that is one of the planes. It's a plane looked like the one that has gone down in Egypt, apparently. As Kiran said, the pilot is alive and has been rescued by rebels. We're still trying to get more details on this right now.

We're joined by Major General James "Spider" Marks, retired from the U.S. Army. He was a former Commanding General of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center. General Marks, thank you for joining us.

JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, RETIRED MAJOR GENERAL, U.S. ARMY: Thank you.

VELSHI: This is exactly what some said would happen.

MARKS: Had to expect it.

VELSHI: Yes. You have to expect this kind of thing to happen. But in a place where we don't have control on the ground, what are the implications? In this case, we have reports that he's been rescued by rebel - by the rebel forces. That would be good news. But this is a fear that we're going to have to face.

MARKS: Clearly, this is part of the risk of applying this type of force wherever you want to put this capability in and it has to be considered up front. And I need to tell you, that was always part of the planning.

CHETRY: Right.

MARKS: Our military forces have a capability, very luckily this pilot, if this report is true, is in rebel hands, that's a good thing.

VELSHI: Right.

MARKS: It could've very easily gone the other way. Now we have a different kind of a situation on the ground. So where we're really going with this is a full application of force that needs to be completely considered. It has been, but we the viewing public, need to understand that there will be a ground presence in Libya, it's inevitable.

ROMANS: And you think there will be a U.S. ground presence in Libya?

MARKS: No, that's not - that's not -

ROMANS: Right.

MARKS: -- that's not where I'm going with this. There will be ground forces that are there in Libya. And I think it's not a stretch to imagine that right now there are probably - probably U.S. Special Ops Forces on the ground right now. I have to admit that that makes sense.

ROMANS: What is their end game if they are there? And what is the end game for the United States? The president says, yes, we want Gadhafi out. We have a U.N. resolution that's very specific. It doesn't even go as far as supporting the rebels. It's only about protecting civilians.

MARKS: Let me get above my pay grade and into this strategic and political realm here. This is about the departure of Colonel Gadhafi, it clearly is. And you don't do that with the no-fly zone. You don't do that with the application of force through the air exclusively. It's absolutely critical, but it's insufficient.

You have to have a separation of forces. That has to be monitored. The only way that's monitored is through ground forces. There's going to be some contributing nation that's going to put forces on the ground. But as I said, it wouldn't be a stretch to identify U.S. Forces - Special Ops Forces in some form on the ground right now.

CHETRY: So this is - again, this breaking news that just came out that this F-15 had suffered mechanical failure went down in Libya. What we're hearing right now, and tell me if it's different because this is just coming in, is that it looks like he was rescued by rebel forces.

But are we prepared - and is the nation sufficiently prepared for this to go a different direction? I mean, it's very easy to say 80, you know, missions were flown, Tomahawks are hit - targets were hit and there's been no deaths of either our forces or civilians.

MARKS: Right. To date, it's very antiseptic, isn't it?

VELSHI: Right.

MARKS: Now, all of a sudden, you've got a human face in there. You've got a pilot. He's on the ground. Hopefully, he's been rescued by friendly forces and you can - you know, you can drag him away and he'll be fine. And that's wonderful. That's a great outcome. But that's based on hope. We don't do any military planning based on hope.

And so there's great planning about what would happen if a pilot went down or if somebody else suddenly was in -

ROMANS: What happens if a pilot goes down and is in Gadhafi's hands, then what do we do?

MARKS: Well, one of two things, depend upon the situation. If it's right after capture and you've got the capability available, you might be able to extract and capture that guy. If he begins to move back into Gadhafi's hands even deeper, now you're into a diplomatic situation.

VELSHI: Right.

MARKS: You can only - honestly, you can only apply diplomatic force to try to extract that guy.

VELSHI: General Marks, good to talk to you. Thanks very much for being with us.

MARKS: Thank you for your time.

VELSHI: James "Spider" Marks, former U.S. Army General, Retired.

CHETRY: Thank you.

Well, still ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, your house, it's most likely your biggest asset. And unfortunately of late, it's probably your biggest debt. Your information that you need to know about the home values, we're going to be "Minding Your Business" in a couple of minutes.

ROMANS: And we now know how Kate Middleton will be getting to the church for her royal wedding ceremony and it's not the royal carriage. We're going to explain.

Nineteen minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: So, despite the uncertainty in Libya and the fact that oil is going back up again, big day on Wall Street yesterday. The Dow opens this morning after being - it's back up above 12,000. It closed up 177 points yesterday.

A lot of people are saying it's that AT&T proposal to buy T-Mobile that sparked that rally.

ROMANS: Also there was, you know, people are looking for a chance to buy some stocks -

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: -- after they went down, and they had - had a couple of bad days. Home sales, though, you know, can reveal a lot about the - where the economy's heading, the price of a house, what's happening in the housing market, and this morning that news is not good.

CNNMoney's Poppy Harlow is "Minding Your Business." Good morning, Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Good morning.

ROMANS: The value of our biggest asset.

HARLOW: It's horrible. Yes, it's horrible. I mean, these existing home sales numbers came out, down 9.6 percent in February. That is three times worse than economists were expecting. And this is so important because these home sales are 90 percent of the market.

You hear new home sales -

ROMANS: Yes.

HARLOW: -- existing home sales, this is the number you care most about. Ninety percent of the market.

And this is also troubling because we saw three straight months of gains, so we thought, all right, we're getting some momentum here. The stock market's getting better, homes are selling more. That's not the case.

What the National Association of Realtors is saying, folks, there's two reasons for this. Credit is still tight and you might be one of those people trying to get a loan. Also, this is interesting, guys, they said a lot of contracts have been canceled between buyers and sellers who negotiated a value and then the appraiser came in and said, actually, your home is not worth anything close to that. So you've got that going on.

And then I think the - the broader question here about are we in a housing recovery also comes down to the amount of inventory on the market. You look at last year, we had the worst number for home sales of those existing homes since '97. And you look at the inventory on the market, you've got a lot of cash sales now, and you have so many homes on the market that are either in foreclosure, so they're cheap or they're - they're short sales, those distressed properties.

So the market looks good, but the housing market looks much, much worse than expected.

ROMANS: And those prices of homes are falling too.

HARLOW: Yes.

ROMANS: So not only are home sales are falling, but the value of the house keeps falling and falling.

HARLOW: Well, and what I thought was interesting, I looked at sort of regionally, and we've often seen this pain in Florida and in Nevada and in the west. But look at the prices. I mean, median home price in this country down more than five percent from February 2010, $156,000.

The Midwest right now is feeling the most pain. They saw their sales down 12 percent. The West was about eight percent.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: You see a delayed reaction in the Midwest.

HARLOW: Yes.

ROMANS: Because the Midwest had held up - I mean, look at Chicago and Minneapolis. They'd held up for a long time - HARLOW: For a long time.

ROMANS: -- while a lot of other places were falling apart.

HARLOW: Yes.

ROMANS: Bad number.

CHETRY: What's the advice, Poppy? They'd just stick with it if you can?

HARLOW: If you can -

CHETRY: Just hold on to your home if you can?

HARLOW: I was just talking to people about this that are not in a position to go into bankruptcy or foreclosure, but they, at the same time, need a bigger home or having children, what to do. They're going to destroy their credit for a long time if they go into bankruptcy.

I would say sit on it, rent it out. A lot - lot of people I know are renting it out and paying the difference between their mortgage and renting it. But, I mean, you have to think about the implications of walking away from your home before you do.

CHETRY: Yes. And there is a big push, you know, by the federal government (INAUDIBLE) to try to force some of these re-writes of mortgages (INAUDIBLE).

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Yes. Well, yesterday we talked about cash buyers. I mean, 32 percent of all the sales are cash - so people are like -

HARLOW: Unbelievable, right?

ROMANS: -- they get money from grandma and grandpa and they're buying (ph) cash for a house because the price has come down enough.

And so real people can actually do this now.

HARLOW: They can.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: Poppy, stick around for this one. This is funny. A lot of Americans know nothing about being an American.

They do this every year, but they do the citizenship test where they give it - a basic citizenship. "Newsweek" did it to 1,000 U.S. citizens and close to 40 percent of them failed.

Here are a few of the questions that people seem to have some difficulty with. We elect a U.S. senator for how many years?

VELSHI: Answer -

ROMANS: Too long. No, for life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Six.

CHETRY: In many cases it seems that way.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Sixty-one percent got it wrong.

CHETRY: That's right.

All right, so who is the vice president? See, this one Ali knew in his sleep. Who is it?

VELSHI: I wasn't looking at the screen when I said it. Joe Biden.

CHETRY: Good one. Twenty-nine percent, though, did not know that.

And then when was the Declaration of Independence adopted? I knew it was July 4th. That's what a lot of people said. But what year? 1776. Independence Day.

A third of the people who took the quiz got that one wrong.

VELSHI: Wow.

ROMANS: If it makes you feel any better, every year that many people get it wrong.

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: You know, it's - anyway -

VELSHI: Oh, well.

CHETRY: You can't take Google with you into these tests, that's the problem.

VELSHI: That's right. (INAUDIBLE) just do it.

All right, coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING, President Obama's being criticized by Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle for the air strikes on Libya, with one Democrat going so far as to suggest it is likely an impeachable offense.

ROMANS: And in Yemen and Syria uprising are intensifying there as well as thousands hit the streets demanding democratic reforms. What is the U.S. response in these cases?

It's 27 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Good morning. We have some breaking news out of - out of Libya right now. Christine's got that.

ROMANS: Yes. The latest there is we've got more to tell you about the plane that went down last night, it looks like. U.S. war plane crashed in Libya. The U.S. military says the cause of the crash believed to be mechanical failure, not hostile fire. The pilot has reportedly been rescued by rebels, and one crewman, we're told, is in the process of being recovered. Still trying to uncover exactly what that means, where he or she is.

Meanwhile, coalition forces are ramping up the assault on Moammar Gadhafi's forces. The third night of bombings, flying 80 missions yesterday. The U.S. officials saying the dictator's momentum now has been stopped.

Meanwhile, an earthquake with the preliminary magnitude of 6.6 has hit the east coast of Honshu, Japan. It's the third strong earthquake in the region in the last few hours.

Meanwhile, thousands of U.S. troops stationed just south of Tokyo could be facing mandatory evacuations this morning. Radiation levels are spiking forcing the USS George Washington to leave the port in Yokosuka where America's largest naval base is located. We're going to have the latest and the live report in just a minute.

And a judge has ordered the accused shooter in that deadly Tucson massacre, Jared Lee Loughner, to undergo mental evaluation. According to the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona, the exam is going to take place as soon as possible at a facility in Springfield, Missouri. Loughner faces 49 counts, including murder and attempted murder.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We want to bring you the latest right now on the Japanese situation. Tokyo Electric Power is confirming this morning that radiation has been detected in the Pacific Ocean around the crippled Daiichi power station. Now, the Japanese government is said to be monitoring this development.

We have Anna Coren live for us in Tokyo right now.

And, Anna, obviously, it's critical for the workers, which they've been trying to do to get power restored to the plant as soon as possible and get those reactors cooled off, so we will see this radiation cease. How is that process and progress going right now?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, by the sound of things, progress is being made again. I know 24 hours ago when we last spoke, there was smoke coming from reactors two and three. Authorities now say that is barely visible. So, that is good news.

Now, they've been watering down reactor four for the last couple of hours now. They're using a cement mixer truck. And this has an extendable arm so that it can target the water directly into that reactor. It's some 58 meters tall. So, it can really hit that pool that is housing those spent fuel rods.

We also, as you mentioned, talking about those electrical cables that have been restored to all six reactors. We haven't got that power yet to the circuit board. And that is, of course, the crucial thing to get those cooling systems up and running.

So, as soon as they get that done, as soon as they can get all those corroded parts, which have been hit by, obviously, the tsunami that washed through that plant, they'll be able to get those cooling systems up and running, Kiran.

CHETRY: So, have they been able to determine whether or not that infrastructure is still in place or whether it's starting from the ground up when it comes to some of those power lines that were knocked out?

COREN: Yes. I mean, you would assume that it's going to take a little while considering the amount of seawater that went through and the debris, as well. We know that they've had to replace a number of parts and they've been waiting for those to be assembled so that this cooling system can get going and the pumps operating so as they can cool those -- those spent fuel rods. This is, of course, the material letting off that radioactive material.

But the other thing, Kiran, which is important to note is the seawater. You mentioned that in the intro. High levels of radiation have been detected there. The IAEA, they are involved in the monitoring of this. And they're looking at eight particular locations where they will look at the samples and see how, you know, dangerous, I guess it is for residents in that area.

CHETRY: Anna Coren for us in Tokyo this morning -- thanks so much.

ROMANS: Unrest is spreading throughout the Mideast. In Yemen's capital, tens of thousands are demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Many of the president's top officials and military commanders have announced they're deserting him. They're outraged by last week's violence against mostly young protesters. Dozens of people were killed and wounded.

And a rare sight in Damascus, the capital of Syria -- hundreds of protesters taking to the streets, demanding democratic reforms and demanding the release of thousands of jailed political activists. A Facebook group, the Syrian Revolution against President Bashar al- Assad, is said to have called this march. A witness tells the BBC six protesters were taken into custody by government security forces -- Ali.

VELSHI: Now, officially, Christine, the military mission in Libya is to protect civilians. President Obama is taking heat from congressional leaders who say it's not exactly clear what the mission in Libya is and how it's going to succeed. And that heat is coming from both sides of the aisle. Democrats are criticizing him, too.

CNN's Jim Acosta is following that. He's live in Washington for us.

Jim, very interesting developments. We might have expected some of it from the Republicans, but a surprising group of Democrats is saying that the president isn't moving in the right direction on this.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ali. He's getting this from his liberal wing of the Democratic Party. As you mentioned, criticism of President Obama's decision to order air strikes is getting louder every day. And unlike some of the president's other political battles in recent years, this criticism is coming from both parties.

First, the Republicans. Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, who is respected by this White House on foreign policy matters, and other top GOP leaders are accusing the president failing to set a clear policy on Libya. Others are pointing the big difference between President Obama's statements about the need to get rid of Moammar Gadhafi and the U.N. Security Council resolution, which does not call for regime change.

Lugar told "JOHN KING, USA" he's having trouble making sense of the president's policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR (R), INDIANA: I do not understand the mission because, as far as I can tell, in the United States, there is no mission. And there are no guidelines for success. That may well be true with our allies, although, conceivably they may have other missions in mind and simply trying to get Security Council clearance to proceed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, on the other side of the aisle, liberal Democrats are howling over the fact that the administration took military action without a vote in Congress. Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich told the Web site RawStory.com that the president could be impeached for his action, saying, quote, and here's a quote being put on screen, "I'm raising the question as to whether or not it's an impeachable offense. It would appear on its face to be an impeachable offense."

Kucinich points out on his Web site that as a candidate in 2007, Mr. Obama took a cautious approach on the issue of presidential war powers, telling the "Boston Globe," and here it is, "The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."

But the president did send a letter to Congress yesterday explaining his actions, and that, the White House argues, does satisfy the president's legal obligations to inform Congress. Not to mention the fact there is a new CNN poll out showing most Americans support the current limited mission in Libya, Ali.

But just to go back to that issue of Kucinich and impeachment, you know, you should know and our viewers should know that other Democrats are not following Kucinich's lead on that. That comment is falling on deaf ears. Even inside the liberal wing of the party.

VELSHI: And he made the comment that while he's saying it could be an impeachable offense, it shouldn't necessarily follow that the president should be impeached about it. ACOSTA: Exactly.

VELSHI: Very interesting discussion. Jim, thanks very much. Good to see you. Jim Acosta in Washington.

ACOSTA: You bet.

CHETRY: And we are, of course, continuing to follow the latest, a fighter jet, an F-15 fighter jet downed in Libya. We know that one pilot was rescued and the other one is in the process of being recovered right now. We're going to continue to bring you the latest on that.

Also, in some other news, car seat guidelines may be changing for parents with young children. The Academy of Pediatrics is now recommending that they stay in them a lot longer. We'll have more details on the new guidelines.

ROMANS: And we're seeing the biggest full moon in nearly 20 years. In Britain, the so-called "super moon," it may actually have brought shipping to a halt. We'll tell you why.

It's 38 minutes past the hour.

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CHETRY: Again, we want to update you on breaking situation in Libya right now. We know that a U.S. fighter jet went down. It is believed right now that this is due to mechanical failure and not to enemy fire. But it was an F-15E.

Right now, we're hearing from the U.S. military that one of the crew men has been rescued, recovered as they say, and one is in the process of recovery. There's a look at what the F-15E Strike Eagle is, one of the fighter jets there in Libya. Again, it went down earlier today and we're getting new details about it. And we'll continue to follow it for you this morning.

VELSHI: We were just speaking to retired U.S. general -- Army General Spider Marks, who is saying, look, this has always been part of the military planning.

ROMANS: Right.

VELSHI: As much as you can conduct airstrikes and you can take out anti-aircraft defense. The reality is if you send, whether it's naval or air troops in for this type of a mission, you've got to expect that a plane is going to go down and that, with today's technology, the pilot and operations officer of this plane are likely to survive.

ROMANS: Right.

VELSHI: And then what happens?

ROMANS: And he believes, though, you probably have Special Forces on the ground. One of the reasons they're there is in case something like this happens, to try to get these guys and get them back safely. We know that the rebels have -- the rebel forces have one of the crew members. And so, that's where one is right now safely, the other one we're still trying to get more details.

CHETRY: And so, this is the astounding things about the delicacies of covering a war that's actually happening.

VELSHI: Yes.

CHETRY: I mean, we have our Nic Robertson who is right there, where at any time, missiles could hit. You have Arwa who's with some in the rebel stronghold. And again, the military is not telling us every single move they make for obvious good reasons. And so, Special Ops are on the ground, if the goal is to truly take out Gadhafi, and it's not being stated right now -- I mean, again, this is an active military mission.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: All right. Switching gears here, new safety recommendations this morning for kids riding in car seats. The American Academy of Pediatrics says parents should keep toddlers in rear-facing car seats until the age of two now. Guys, this is a big a chance.

The previous recommendation was for 12 months. The guidelines also say all children should ride in the backseat until they're 13 years old.

We'll have more with Dr. Sanjay Gupta in the 7:00 hour.

CHETRY: See? This confuses me because last week we just said -- it's not the age, it needs to be the weight.

VELSHI: It's the weight.

CHETRY: My 2-year-old and I know your 2-year-olds probably weigh more than Ali and they're going to be sitting in a rear car seat until they're two?

ROMANS: We're going to ask Sanjay exactly what parents are supposed to

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: I'm less concerned about the 2-year-old in the rear-facing car seat than I am about the 13-year-old who is going to be causing all hell for their parents.

CHETRY: They're texting their girlfriends from a booster seat.

(LAUGHTER)

CHETRY: OK? I mean, this is a very

ROMANS: You can't ride shotgun until you can shave. VELSHI: We'll be talking -- we'll be talking to Sanjay about this. Look, there's pressure on -- there's pressure to look young. But it's not just on women anymore.

CHETRY: Young enough to sit in a booster seat.

VELSHI: Not that young.

Statistics show that more men are going in for plastic surgery these days. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons says over 1 million men underwent cosmetic procedures last year. The lead doctor saying it may be a byproduct of our aging baby boomers. The report says facelifts for men increased 14 percent and liposuction increased about 7 percent.

CHETRY: Well, did they say what the most popular procedure?

VELSHI: No. I'm going to look more into this.

ROMANS: I'm not surprised. Plastic surgeons lowered their prices after the recession. They were really trying to get new --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: That's right. I did hear that.

ROMANS: It was a bubble thing where people taking money out of their houses to do facelifts and they lower the prices. So

VELSHI: But, you know, the facelifts, they sort of stretch your face, right? That's the idea. I stretch mine naturally from just eating a lot. So, I won't need that.

CHETRY: So, you're good for a couple more years.

VELSHI: Yes, I look -- I don't look a day over the 26 that I am.

CHETRY: Exactly.

Well, still to come on this AMERICAN MORNING, we are keeping an eye on the Midwest where they're expecting some more severe weather today. Jacque Jeras will have this morning's forecast. Boy, the West Coast and East Coast were shoveling. We'll see what's happening in the Midwest coming up, as well.

VELSHI: And I love this story, new details about Prince William and Kate Middleton's big day. I told you yesterday, I'm going to get into this wedding and I'm already into it. Now I know the royal ride that's going to take Kate to Westminster Abbey. Zane is going to join us and we're going to have details from London on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK, we want to update you on some breaking news that we have been following. A U.S. F-15E fighter jet is down in Libya. The U.S. military says the cause of the crash is believed to be mechanical failure, not enemy fire.

You're looking at a representation of an F-15 right now. One crew man is in the -- the pilot is reportedly rescued by rebel forces, rebels against the Gadhafi government. We're unclear on what's happening with the other crewman, an operations officer, who is in the process of being recovered. We are working to find out that status right now.

But as we know now, an F-15E has gone down in Libya. We'll keep you posted on that story.

CHETRY: We have our military analyst, General Spider Marks, who is going to be joining us with more. He says it signifies a move from something that we could view as antiseptic to now real lives at stake for the U.S. military and what does that mean in terms of American support. So we're going to talk about that.

Also new details this morning about next month's royal wedding. And this is specifically about the car that's going to be taking Kate Middleton to Westminster Abbey.

All along, she wanted to go in a car, not in a carriage, because she arrives a commoner and leaves royalty. Well, the car will be Rolls Royce limousine, the same one --

VELSHI: Because that screams commoner.

CHETRY: Nothing screams commoner like Rolls Royce -- Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall were riding in. Remember when they were attacked by the mob of students? They were protesting some of the austerity measures, including --

VELSHI: Was it egg or what did they throw on that car?

ROMANS: They threw paint.

CHETRY: It was splattered with white paint. Also, a passenger window was cracked by the protesters. And one of the cameramen caught there that shot of Camilla's face looking terrified. That limo is being repaired and it is expected to be ready in time for the big day.

Also in time for the big day, AMERICAN MORNING. We're going to be there. We're going to keep you posted on all of the royal wedding details right up to April 29th.

VELSHI: Love it.

ROMANS: All right, let's stay in the British Isles. The British Coast Guard officially saying a so-called super moon may have caused five ships to run aground over this weekend in a busy shipping lanes.

CHETRY: Why are you shaking your head?

VELSHI: I don't understand that. We don't -- we don't sail by the moon anymore.

ROMANS: But it lowered the water, so that the sand bars were exposed. And so in the seven years --

(CROSS TALK)

ROMANS: I've got a compass in my back pocket, that's how I got to work today. I don't know about you. The moon is the closest to the Earth in nearly two decades. Officials believe the super moon lowered the tides, Ali, causing sand banks to be exposed. And that is why the ships --

CHETRY: No, really. We have a little body of water near the Long Island Sound. It was empty. It was as if --

VELSHI: Really? Are you making that up?

CHETRY: No, it's because of the tides, because of the moon.

VELSHI: All right. Here's something I know, it's 51 minutes after the hour. Let's get a quick check of the morning's weather headlines.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: This morning's top stories just minutes away, including gas prices. If you think they're high now, wait until next year. At least that's what one expert is warning, that we could be looking at five dollar a gallon gas.

ROMANS: And astronaut Scott Kelly returning to Earth wearing a wristband for his sister-in-law, the wounded Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. That's her husband's twin brother. He was in space when she was shot in Tucson. He'll be here to talk about his emotional reunion. It's 53 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: More proof that age is just a number. Fred Mack spent his 100th birthday sky diving. And it's become something of a tradition for Fred. He took the leap for the first time on his 95th birthday and decided he was going to do it again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRED MACK, 100 YEARS OLD: I was putting it off for five years, but I lived anyway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are we doing?

MACK: Still alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: He's so adorable. I put it off for five years, but I'm still alive.

ROMANS: I say he can keep buying green bananas. That guy has got a future. CHETRY: Good for him. I love his name is name was Fred Mack. He changed it from Freddie after the 2008 situation. Poor thing. Not a good name to have.

VELSHI: That looks like fun. I'm not sure I would do that even if I were 100.

CHETRY: Wait until you're 100.

VELSHI: Yes.

CHETRY: More fun. All right, we're going to take a quick break. We'll have your top stories, including the latest from Libya coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)