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American Morning

U.S. Fighter Jet Down; Desperate Search for Second Pilot; Impeach Obama over Libya?; Five Dollar Gas; Four New York Times Journalists Freed; Japan's New Normal

Aired March 22, 2011 - 07:30   ET

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

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: We're following the latest out of Libya right now where a U.S. fighter jet is down. There were two crew members onboard at the time of the crash which is believed to be mechanical failure, not enemy fire. One pilot rescued, and the desperate search is on right now for the other on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, it's Tuesday, March 22nd. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Here's what's ahead. So far, a democratic congressman saying impeach President Obama over Libya, the commander in chief getting it from the left and the right today. But has this gone too far?

CHETRY: Also this hour, the USS George Washington out to sea over rising radiation fears in Japan. The U.S. military may order everyone off of its largest naval base, as well, in that country as smoke continues to rise from two crippled reactors and they're finding more damage than previously thought to reactors one and two.

VELSHI: And in 20 minutes, what does this all add up to for you, $5 a gallon for gas? One expert warning that is reality -- could be reality pretty soon at the pump. All those stories are ahead this hour.

ROMANS: But up first, our breaking news, U.S. F-15 war plane has crashed in Libya. The cause of the crash is believed to be mechanical failure, not hostile fire. The pilot has been reportedly rescued by rebels and we're told one crewman is in the process of being recovered. A search is on for him.

Nic Robertson live for us in Tripoli this morning. Nic, let's get right to this F-15 crash. For Americans, the situation has run the risk of being antiseptic at this point. What else do you know about the search for the second crew member?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that it was an F-15 strike eagle aircraft. We know it'd taken off from a base in Europe, we know it came down overnight. And we know it came down in Libyan territory. We know that one pilot has been recovered and there's a rescue recovery mission going on for the second pilot. It's not clear yet where the aircraft came down, but it came down in the east in territory controlled by the rebels. What we are seeing on state television here, which has as we all know a very bad track record with the truth, the state television here is saying this was a phantom aircraft. They have not been flown in decades, saying it was a phantom aircraft shot down by the Libyan air defenses.

The Pentagon is not saying that at all. And the first early indications are that this was not as a result of enemy fire. That's what we know from the Pentagon. But, of course, Libyan state television trying to already claim this is some kind of victory on their part. Christine?

ROMANS: And Nic, it's no surprise that the Gadhafi would try to use this to show how in charge Gadhafi is. No surprise there. If they're still looking for this other crew member, I mean, we're told by retired general Spider Marks that there's likely -- he suspects there's special operations forces on the ground likely looking for him, as well. If the rebels have one of the crew members, what -- how do we go about retrieving them? What happens next?

ROBERTSON: Well, there will probably be diplomatic contacts made with the rebels if, in fact, that crew person was with the rebels to hand him back over. It's hard to imagine that the rebels would put up any kind of a resistance on that issue.

However, we did see, of course, with the British diplomat who was in the east of the country talking to rebels along with this eight-man British special forces SAS security team who were picked up by the rebels two weeks ago when the British were first making diplomatic contacts that the team -- the diplomat and the security team, special forces were actually detained for 24 hours or so by the rebels before they were handed back over.

Any step like that, any delay by the rebels to immediately assist in all ways and means possible to hand over this service member if he's in their custody would be a very dark mark on them at this stage where the international community and United States is really trying to assess their true means, capabilities, and intentions at this time. But it would seem in all likelihood they would offer them up quickly if they haven't.

ROMANS: Standby with us, Nic, because this story is still developing and new information, as well. We want you to stick close.

VELSHI: Let's bring Chris Lawrence into this conversation live at the Pentagon this morning. Chris, we're getting -- it's ambiguous reporting on one pilot in rebel hands and safe, the other person on that plane. What do we know?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, got a little bit more information, Ali. We found out that the first pilot who was recovered, he is now in U.S. hands. He is now with the U.S. military, and there's an ongoing operation to get back that second pilot.

I'm also told that these two pilots and this F-15 were on a strike mission to take out some of the air defenses of Moammar Gadhafi. So they were not on a strictly patrol mission. They were specifically going out on a mission to take out some of the air defenses in that country.

Apparently the plane did have some mechanical failure, that is what we're hearing, and the two pilots then ejected from the plane. We're told that they both have minor injuries, which is to expected when you have to eject from an airplane, but both are alive, one is in U.S. hands, and there's an ongoing operation to get the other back.

CHETRY: When you say there's an ongoing operation to get the other one back, you would know this. You've been there -- you've been there when this type of thing has happened. What is your assessment of what we're talking about here that there is a fear or at least a chance that they could be in the hands of Gadhafi forces, this one pilot?

LAWRENCE: I don't know if there's that fear. I didn't necessarily get that sense, but I think it's dangerous to speculate when this second pilot is not in U.S. hands at this very moment. So I wouldn't want to speculate too far on that.

CHETRY: Do we know anything about the location where this went down? I mean, that could be a big determinant of, where he might be given - or who hands he might be in right now given the places that the rebels have continued to hold on to.

Kiran, it's a great question. It's one of the first that we asked just to get a better idea just for ourselves. But you can understand until that second pilot is safely in U.S. hands, not that -- they're not going to be very specific on exactly where this happened.

You know, even though obviously a plane going down, some of the locals will have seen it, people on the ground there may have seen this, but it's not the kind of information that they would want to put out publicly until they're absolutely sure that the second pilot is back safely in U.S. hands.

VELSHI: All right, Chris, hang on there, Nic Robertson's holding on. Retired general Spider Marks is with us now. We were talking about this when we first got news of this plane going down. That time we had heard there was one pilot onboard, now we know there were two people onboard. The U.S. has possession of one of them and we are unclear about the status of the second one. Tell me more about your thoughts on this.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET): Well, there's really no clue whether both of those guys ejected at the exact same time over the same piece of terrain. Obviously that didn't happen.

It's purely speculation at this point where that second pilot could be. If the first -- if one of the crew members is in U.S. hands, I think it's a likely supposition that the second guy is in a close proximity and is probably in good shape. How can that guy in be in U.S. hands if there's no U.S. forces on the ground? That means he was obviously brought to, we hope, friendly forces in some way and then taken out of country and linked up with the U.S. ROMANS: Chris was saying we know they have minor injuries. I would presume they've been in contact with this other crew member or maybe the first crew member had seen him. But it seems they know he's alive and maybe this is a situation where you're trying to connect with rebels and figure out how to get him safely -- that's what we can hope, I guess.

MARKS: We can. But these are the first moments after a very -- this is very cataclysmic, very chaotic. Initial reports generally are wrong. But we can always hope there's going to be a good outcome. And if they have one, there's a really aggressive effort right now taking place to get the second guy. And I tell you, nobody's going to rest and nobody's going to take a breather until this guy is found.

CHETRY: Speak to the mechanical failure issue, as well. We happen to see a picture of what this plane looks like, because there was a picture taken. It's mangled. It went down in some tough circumstances. But how big of a fear are the actual mechanics of the equipment we're using in this war?

MARKS: Oh, this stuff is a world class kit. It would not have launched on this mission unless it was absolutely green across the board in terms of all of the functionality. Why there's a mechanical problem, I mean, that's going to be a long process, very precise in terms of what's called an after action review.

ROMANS: With a $30 million plane in the field of Libya --

MARKS: You've got it.

ROMANS: One last thing about just these two crew members. They know when they go up that something could happen to them. And they're trained, right, for how to react. What is the training for how to react if the plane goes down and they're on a strike mission like this? What are they trained to do after they eject?

MARKS: The first thing is survive. You want to be able to get back so you can report, rejoin your unit, you can continue to contribute. So the very first thing is survive individually, then it's to link up with your buddy and try to survive. I'm not a pilot, this is extremely fast. These are split-second decisions these guys are making.

So clearly the key is what can you extract from that aircraft that might fall into enemy hands? Often you don't have an opportunity to do that.

CHETRY: We just got a note from our control room that Reuters is reporting that the second one is in U.S. hands. Both of them in U.S. hands, they ejected, and they're going to be OK.

MARKS: Super.

VELSHI: This speaks to a point you made earlier in that there's got to be a U.S. presence close. MARKS: How did they get into U.S. hands quickly? I'm sure we have to assume there are U.S. capabilities, search and rescue type of capabilities, if not more, on the ground.

ROMANS: We do not want Gadhafi to have the propaganda coup of being able to get one of these guys or to get a plane, you know. This has got to be foremost in the minds of American military planners, right?

MARKS: It is, absolutely. Every one of these missions, before we launched this mission, there was great planning for how you do risk mitigation and how do you find a crew member if there is the unlikely or the unfortunate circumstance of somebody shot down or somebody's on the ground.

ROMANS: Thank you so much for your insight.

CHETRY: Great to have you with us.

Well, we are speaking with Ambassador Nick Burns right now. We'd like to bring you in as you hear this breaking news that we're talking about in Libya, which is the downing of the U.S. aircraft said to be mechanical failure. Both, thank goodness, the pilot and the specialist are OK, said to be in United States hands. But I'd like to get your thoughts on this news this morning of this downed aircraft in Libya.

NICHOLAS BURNS, FORMER UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE: Well, Kiran, I think it just goes to show this is going to be a very difficult and complex mission for the United States. I think the United States and the coalition forces have done very well over the last three or four days. They stopped Gadhafi outside of Benghazi. They have essentially put the Gadhafi government on the defensive, and they've given some new energy to the rebel forces as they saved the people in Benghazi.

So all that's good, but it's going to be a difficult mission, because right now we may be looking at a protracted civil war in Libya. We essentially have assisted the rebel forces to reconstitute themselves. We've leveled the playing field against Gadhafi. But it may be that neither side is powerful enough to achieve a military victory.

That will mean that the United States and the European countries will have to stay involved. Our air forces, our naval forces to maintain that no-fly zone and perhaps even undertake further military operations to go after Gadhafi's radar, his command and control centers.

And it just goes to show it's not going to be easy, this is not going to be a cake walk. We have a wonderful military and a very impressive military, but nothing's guaranteed. And you've seen this morning, hopefully those two pilots are safe, but we've got to go on and continue to prosecute this conflict and make sure that Gadhafi cannot go back on the offensive.

ROMANS: Obviously this is why the president does not take these decisions lightly. A week ago he was getting hammered for not making decisions sooner. Now we're seeing the results of what happens. Planes crash, people die. This is war. How much of an appetite will the American public have for what will be our presence in that fourth Middle Eastern country, I guess you could say if you count our joint operations with Pakistan, at least, you know, trying to secure that border with Afghanistan. And really no clear goal or end in sight?

BURNS: Well, I think it's going to be important that the president explain this in great detail with the American public as well as to the congress. We kind of backed into this last week. You know, the position of the administration had been until late last week, we're not going to go into Libya. We're not going to participate in a no- flight zone.

The administration changed very suddenly. We had the U.N. Security Council resolution that paved the way for this. But I think the administration hasn't had time to prepare the American people.

And what I find difficult is that the administration has taken the gamble here. There is not a clearly defined mission. They say that it's to protect civilians, but we've intervened in a civil war, and we've essentially taken sides on behalf of the rebel forces.

And so if this is to be a conflict that goes on for weeks or months and we have to stay involved through our military forces, obviously our public and our Congress are going to need to have a very detailed and cogent explanation, perhaps better than the one we've received so far as to why we're there and what the consequences are for our country.

CHETRY: And that brings us around to the political issue, of course, you're fighting the military -- a military war. The military's doing exactly what they've been told to do and doing it well.

The political side's a different story. Now you have Dennis Kucinich, Democrat, saying that this is an impeachable offense, slamming the president for not bringing this before the Congress, going through the United Nations Security Council and then choosing to get involved without getting either approval or, some in Congress have said, at least informing Congress and giving them information about it.

What's your take on that?

BURNS: Well, I understand that there was a briefing for Congressional leaders late last week, last Friday by the administration. Obviously, the administration will continue to brief Congress.

But I think it points to the larger problem here. The gamble is that we don't have a clear mission right now. And the second is that we don't really know this rebel leadership. And we've intervened on their behalf. It's a collection of different types of people. We don't know if they do take power, if Gadhafi should fall, whether they're going to be friend or foe in the future.

And that's quite a risk to take for our country. So obviously the president and the administration are going to do to have to do more in the way of briefing Congress. But we've intervened quite often in the last 28 years or so, in Bosnia and Kosovo in the '90s, certainly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And I would think that we're going to have a vigorous debate in Washington between Congress and the executive branch. But I think the administration is obviously focused on that.

ROMANS: Ambassador Nicholas Burns, former undersecretary of state and professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, great to get your take this morning. Thanks show much.

ROMANS: We're going to continue to follow the breaking news of the U.S. fighter jet down in Libya.

But coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING, gas prices, they're impacting every family's budget. And this morning, a new warning that we could see prices reach five dollars a gallon for regular? When and why? We're going to have the details.

VELSHI: And all of you T-Mobile customers listen up. Find out why you might be forced to replace your phone if the merger with AT&T goes through. It's not happening any time soon, but we'll tell you what you might need to do on the other side. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. We talked about this a lot yesterday. AT&T in its efforts to buy T-Mobile. It is a huge almost 40 billion dollar deal, and it could affect just about everybody with a mobile phone, not just people with AT&T or T-Mobile phones.

And now AT&T is saying that if the deal does go through -- it's got a lot of hurdles to pass -- folks who have T-Mobile phones will need to replace their phones if they want to keep their wireless broadband service working -- the wireless broadband service.

The good news is you will have plenty of time to replace your phone. AT&T says the whole process of adjusting cell towers will take several years. And the way that phones change these days, most people will not be hanging on to their same stuff for several years.

ROMANS: It's been a tough couple months for car owners and the next year may not get any better. So could five dollars for a gallon of gas really happen? Here's what John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil, said last night on CNN's "IN THE ARENA."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you have to put on your cap and see into the future; a year from now, you're filling up your car with gas, what do you expect to be paying a gallon?

JOHN HOFMEISTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF SHELL OIL: This time next year I'd say in the four to 4.25 range. By later, in 2012, oh, probably very close to five dollars a gallon.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Hofmeister has been saying this for months. And we reported it for months. And actually gas prices sort of peaked here at 3.50 for now, 3.75 some other experts say we could see. Hasn't gone above four yet. And you really have to see above four sustained for economic damage.

CHETRY: He's also pushing for alternatives to gasoline.

ROMANS: Absolutely.

CHETRY: And oil. So, you know, it makes sense for him to say --

ROMANS: But five dollars really makes people nervous.

VELSHI: There's no better push for alternatives than if gas prices would go up. When gas prices went to 3.50 and four dollars a gallon the last time, that caused people to downsize their cars.

(MARKET REPORT)

CHETRY: We're following breaking news out of Libya this morning. An F-15 Eagle Fighter Jet is down in Libya. The pilot and weapons expert rescued. We're going to get the latest details ahead on what's going on there.

VELSHI: And listen up, parents, there are new guidelines out for keeping your child safe when riding in a car. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has all the information you've got to know. There's some significant changes that you'll want to hear about.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Good morning, it is 26 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

CHETRY: We want to get you updated on a lot of stories. A lot changing this morning. We have some breaking news out of Libya. U.S. fighter jet -- one U.S. fighter jet, an F-15E, has crashed. It happened near the Libyan city of Benghazi.

The two crew members ejected safely when their aircraft experienced an equipment malfunction, we're learning. It was not hit by enemy fire. And both crew members are safe. They're reported to only have minor injuries. The aircraft itself is based out of England. They're still investigating, of course, the cause of the downed plane.

Also just in, a big setback at the crippled Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. Officials are announcing -- they just announced this a little while ago, that there was actually more damage to reactors one and two than they originally thought, especially in reactor two, where the Tokyo Power Company says that the pump and motor have to be replaced because they were damaged beyond repair by sea water. That, of course, happening during the tsunami.

Meanwhile, thousands of U.S. troops stationed just south of Tokyo could be facing mandatory evacuations as well this morning because of radiation levels spiking.

Also the president of Yemen struggling to hold on to power this morning after many of his top aides and military leaders announced they are deserting him. In the capital city of Sana'a, thousands of protesters continued to pack the central square. There you see video from yesterday.

They're demanding the resignation of the president, Ali Abdul Saleh, a U.S. ally. They're outraged by last week's violence against young protesters. Dozens were killed and wounded.

VELSHI: All right, we've been following all of these issues, but specifically what's going on in Libya, with retired General James Spider Marks. He's with us right now.

General Marks, you've been with us this morning as we've learned about this plane going down in Libya. As Kiran just told us, we know there was a pilot and a weapons officer on that plane. At first, we heard news that it was a pilot who had been recovered. Now we've heard that they're both safe.

GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, US ARMY (RETIRED): Wonderful news.

VELSHI: How does that happen? We don't have, in theory, ground troops in Libya. How does this -- how does it go down, as you see it?

MARKS: If those pilots -- if that crew is in U.S. hands right now -- and I don't know the exact time when that aircraft went down -- it would be a far stretch to have those guys recovered by rebel forces, ostensibly by rebel forces, and end up in U.S. hands that quickly.

VELSHI: We have heard that the rebel forces are not particularly well equipped. They're not the most sophisticated in terms of their military.

MARKS: This is kind of like the gang who couldn't shoot straight, frankly. They've been getting their act together through the help --

(CROSS TALK)

MARKS: There has to be somebody on the ground that wears a U.S. flag that brought these guys back to an area where they could be looked after. And medical care is the first thing that's going to happen.

CHETRY: And where do they go? Where are we operating from, launching from? I know we have air bases in Italy. WE have air bases in parts of Europe. Where would they be going back to after this?

MARKS: Well, combination of places where the planes are coming from. Where they would recover these guys is probably back to an aircraft carrier, where they have a very robust medical staff and capability. That would be the first place they'd go.

Then from there, they'd be reintegrated -- if they're fine, they're going to be reintegrated right back into the fight. ROMANS: And only minor injuries, which is amazing. I mean, they must have both ejected quickly. You said there's a split second decision to make. They made that --

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): ... if they're fine, they're going to be reintegrated into the fight.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And only minor injuries, which is amazing. I mean, they must have both ejected quickly. You said there's a split second decision to make.

MARKS: Great to be in America, isn't it?

ROMANS: They made that decision, the planes down, both of them safely recovered with minor injuries.

Guest: It's wonderful.

ROMANS: Spider Marks, thank you so much.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has just revised its guidelines for young children riding in car seats. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now with these details. He's in the parking lot outside the CNN Center in Atlanta. Sanjay, this report says keep your child in a rear-facing seat until age two. Moms and dads out there for years have been turning them around when they were either more than 20 pounds and 12 months old so they could face forward. Why the change?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is, you know, some recommendations made by the American Academy of Pediatrics based on existing information out there and data they've collected showing just how safe it is for a child to stay in a rear-facing car seat.

Now, first of all, Christine, some good news. More parents than ever are using car seats and using them regularly. And number two is that as a result we've had far fewer deaths of children in car accidents than in the years past. Over the last 10 years, the numbers have come down about 45 percent. But what they say is - and look, I talked to my wife about this last night. We have three little children. This was a surprise to her, as well.

But let me just show you what we're talking about. This is Mikey, first of all. Mikey is 23 months old and he's in a rear-facing car seat now. What they found is that a child in a rear-facing car seat, if there is a car accident, the force of that car accident is sort of distributed across the body as opposed to just on the head, for example, which happens if you're in a front-facing car seat like the one over here. So what they're saying is up to age two or until the child exceeds the height and weight requirements for the car seat, they should stay in a rear-facing car seat.

You could tell. I don't think (INAUDIBLE) but his legs obviously going to be a little scrunched up there. He's that little bit too long. You can buy bigger rear facing car seats that go up to 45 pounds, for example. But this is the recommendation for up to age two. And they say children, by the way, until they get 4'9" tall should be in a booster seat, as well. And a child 13 and under should always ride in the rear seat of a car. So this is a new recommendations again. A lot of parents doing this this morning, putting their kids in car seats, and these are the new recommendations being made this morning.

ROMANS: It sounds to me, Sanjay, like you're going to need to buy a new car seat. Because, you know, at a year old, they can be 20 to - there is a 45-pound rear-facing car seat and that's what the American Academy of Pediatrics says -what if the kid is just too big for the rear-facing seat?

GUPTA: Yes, they just might get too long is what - and I had the same question, as well. Because I think - and not to mention as a driver, you can't see your child as well anymore, obviously. We used to put a little mirror in the back so we can see their face. But you know, they say look it's just a balance. They say this is safer. And if a child has always been in a rear-facing car seat, they don't get as bothered by the fact their legs get a little scrunched up like they are here with Mikey. But they say it's a little bit of a tradeoff here. They say the safety benefits that you get from this, again from distributing the force across the body is so much better for a young child.

Keep in mind, Christine, a child at that age, their head is disproportionately larger than their body. So if there is a car accident and the head moves forward, you're really taking a lot of the brunt of the force of the car accident on the head and the neck and that's exactly what they're trying to avoid.

ROMANS: And quickly, 13-year-olds, they say, keep them in the backseat, right?

GUPTA: 13 years old, they say keep them in the backseat. 4'9" and under they should be in a booster seat. You know, there are children who are 12 years old who according to these guidelines should still be in booster seats. They want the belt to fit properly. It should not be, you know, the lap belts shouldn't be coming across their stomach, it should be coming across the pelvis and the shoulder belt should be coming across their clavicle. So you know, these are just simple guidelines.

But again, it's all in the same of safety. These are recommendations again, Christine, these aren't laws that have been passed by any means. But I think a lot of parents are going to pay attention to this.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I was just going to ask, Sanjay, do we keep Mikey in a props closet in Atlanta? Who's Mikey? He's cute, who is he?

GUPTA: We've got all kinds of props here in Atlanta. Mikey is actually the son of our executive producer (INAUDIBLE). And he comes and visits us in the office every now and then. So we thought he'd be -

ROMANS: That's a good baby.

GUPTA: Better disposition than a lot of my colleagues.

ROMANS: We could use him in the control room.

VELSHI: He's great. We love Mikey.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Cutie.

VELSHI: All right. Thanks, Mikey. Thanks, Sanjay. Good to see you both.

GUPTA: You got it, guys.

CHETRY: I've got to tell you, I don't know if I buy any of that. Just last week we said the big deal about the weight. It's not just necessarily the age. My now three-year-old is so tall. I can't imagine him being -

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: But the way he makes sense about the way the pressure is absorbed on the body.

CHETRY: That's true.

ROMANS: And I get that and it scares me enough that I would consider moving them around.

VELSHI: I made a joke about it last time and I got an e-mail from my wife saying don't joke about kids in car seats. So -

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: So don't joke about kids in car seats.

VELSHI: So it's 34 minutes, almost 35 minutes after the hour. CHETRY: No joke.

VELSHI: We're taking a quick break, coming right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Bringing you up to date on the breaking news. An F-15 eagle U.S. aircraft has gone down in Libya apparently because of mechanical failure. There were two members of the crew. There's the plane or picture of the plane that we're talking about. Two crew members onboard. A pilot and a weapons officer.

We have word now - we initially had word that the pilot had been rescued. We now have word that both crew members have been rescued. Let's get the latest information from Chris Lawrence. He's live at the Pentagon this morning. Chris, what have you got? I know you've been asking questions there.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, walking around trying to get some more details on exactly how all this went down. Now hearing that both the pilot and the weapons officer are now off of Libyan soil and in the safe hands of the U.S. military. What happened was, I'm told, is that there was some sort of mechanical failure as this plane was conducting a strike mission on some of Moammar Gadhafi's air defense systems. There was some sort of mechanical failure, although they haven't been able to determine exactly what yet. But both pilots then ejected from the plane.

A defense official told me that both of their chutes were in good working order. They worked, but the two landed in different areas. The first one, the pilot was actually picked up by a U.S. Osprey. It's sort of a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle that sort of combines an airplane and a helicopter. That came in, picked up the pilot.

The weapons officer, the second service member, he was actually recovered by some of the rebels. And a defense official told me the rebels took very good care of him until they were able to work out a way in which the U.S. military could come in and pick him up. But again, both now off Libyan soil in the hands of the U.S. military.

CHETRY: So that simply is amazing how that went down. I mean, it could have ended very badly and very differently and thank goodness it did not. Does it speak to some of the coordination between the rebels and the United States? I mean because some of the public statements have been that, you know, and the U.N. resolution and others have said we're not supporting the rebels, we're preventing the slaughter of civilians.

LAWRENCE: Yes, the U.S. military just yesterday was very outspoken in saying, look, we're not providing close air support for the rebels, our mission is not to, you know, support this opposition movement, we're just there to protect civilians.

In fact, the U.S. military officials here in the Pentagon yesterday were saying we haven't really been in contact with the rebels or this opposition group. Now we know the State Department on its end has reached out to some of the opposition and some of the rebel groups and had some negotiation. But again this does speak to the fact of, a, what I think you mentioned just a couple of minutes ago, in a lot of ways, very good luck to safely eject and land where they did.

VELSHI: All right. Good information. And of course, we're still trying to figure out as Christine was talking with () about this, how it is, you said there was an Osprey that went down -

ROMANS: Right.

VELSHI: - to get them. What presence this is that goes in to get the (INAUDIBLE) so the implication, Chris, to be clear, is that it was an airborne vessel, vehicle that went in to get them, which works against the idea that there are any U.S. special ops on the ground?

LAWRENCE: Right. This is an Osprey - this is sort of - it can take off vertically.

VELSHI: Right.

LAWRENCE: So it's sort of like an airplane but it's like a helicopter, as well.

VELSHI: And it can shoot up like a plane. Yes.

LAWRENCE: Exactly. Exactly.

ROMANS: Do we know where that was based?

LAWRENCE: We don't know which ship it came from, but there are a number of U.S. ships sitting right off the coast in the Mediterranean there.

VELSHI: All right. Thank you.

ROMANS: Thanks a lot.

CHETRY: Thanks, Chris.

VELSHI: Every time we talk to somebody about this, we get one more piece of information because the speculation was do we have U.S. special ops troops on the ground who were able to get there?

ROMANS: Spider Marks thinks there must be some presence there but we'll never get confirmation.

VELSHI: Right. Fair enough. But there is some logic to the idea that carriers off the coast of Libya that could've flown an Osprey -

ROMANS: Right. A quick search and rescue.

VELSHI: - landed like a helicopter, picked him up and taken him off. We'll find out more about this as we go on.

CHETRY: Still to come this morning, rain and snow threatening to flood parts of the upper Midwest this morning. Jacqui Jeras will have the morning's full forecast right after the break.

It is now 42 minutes after the hour. We'll be right back.

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CHETRY: It's 45 minutes past the hour right now. We've got a check of this morning's weather forecast. Here's our bar, Jacque, as long as we're not shoveling snow here in New York and New Jersey, we're fine.

VELSHI: You know, Jacque's from Minnesota. She's not really bothered by this --

ROMANS: But now she's living the good life in Atlanta.

JACQUE JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's been a while that I've been in the south, my friend. And you say you miss the snow, but if you're there for months and months and months, maybe not so much. You guys won't have to shovel, I don't think.

So you're going to get in the 50s today in New York City. A little snow coming in maybe tonight and tomorrow, but more of a mix than anything else and I think you'll stay under an inch. But if you're upstate, there could be some more problems.

And definitely going to be getting out the shovels across parts of the upper Midwest, this is a really strong storm system we're dealing with. And this morning, we're just getting started. Rain showers now from Minneapolis down towards Milwaukee, Chicago, in to Columbus, Ohio, as well.

But later on today, that's where this thing is really going to intensify and we're going to watch the winds pick up, get a little heat in there, severe thunderstorms expected. We'll be watching places like Kansas City, as well as Des Moines, and maybe even into northern Illinois, hopefully just shy of you in Chicago.

And then on the northern tier, we're talking about some really heavy snow, in fact, as much as a foot. And you might say, yes, it's Minnesota, right, Ali, who cares? They're used to this kind of thing, but here's the problem. They're already dealing with a lot of flooding across the Red River basin and the Mississippi River basin.

You get some of this rain. You put a foot of snow on top of these problems already and this is going to spell real trouble down the line. From too much to too little, extremely dry conditions here across parts of the southwest, into Texas, Oklahoma, even Colorado and New Mexico, extremely critical fire danger here today. So use a lot of caution. Be really careful.

And the winds can be strong enough that we can be dealing maybe with a few power outages or maybe a few tree branches that come down. Coast of the country, you're doing good today.

This is some good news finally for a change, but the system does move in and brings you that rain and snow in the northeast for tomorrow and the west coast will also be looking at a new system.

And we've got at least two of them you're dealing with this week and you're already so wet and seen so much snow in the last a couple of days. Back to you guys. No shoveling.

CHETRY: And the ground should dry out by July 4th. That's all we're hoping for.

VELSHI: For all the time I work with Jacque, she doesn't ever complain about the snow. She's not one of those people who say I loved living in Minnesota, I didn't love the weather. She's hearty.

All right, great story for you now. Four "New York Times" journalists detained in Libya for nearly a week are free this morning. They were released into the custody of Turkish diplomats after a nightmarish ordeal.

The four were captured while covering the Libyan conflict between government and rebel forces. Photographer Lynsey Addario was one of those held. I interviewed Lynsey a few months ago. She is an award- winning photographer.

The others by the way are Anthony Shadid, the Times bureau - Beirut bureau chief, photographer Tyler Hicks, and videographer Steven Farrell. He was captured, by the way, in 2009 by the Taliban and was rescued by British commandos.

All right, Lynsey Addario's husband, Paul Devendern is the Reuters bureau chief in New Delhi. He joins us now live from Tunisia. He's made his way there to be with Lynsey.

Paul, we spoke last week, you were so remarkably optimistic about seeing Lynsey again. Have you seen her yet?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I haven't yet, moments away. Before, obviously still worried, it is something -- I managed to talk to her a couple days ago and again yesterday and today. I mean, it's a relief. It's been hell for her and her colleagues and I want to grab her, kiss her, and not let her go.

VELSHI: Not let her go is interesting. As you mentioned, she's terrific and she -- all of these journalists are people who don't just do it as a job, they do it because they think they can have some influence on bettering the world.

That is definitely a commitment Lynsey has had when I interviewed here. It was about a photo spread about Afghan women, but you did mention the other day that perhaps it's time that you and Lynsey had a talk about not letting her go. This is when I was interviewing Lynsey a few months ago. What are you going to say to her?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, I can't -- the only way to keep her from doing her job, I guess, is to lock her up. But that's -- no, I mean, I want to continue and be great at what she does, but at the same time, that we have time to -- now she needs to go through a period of rest and stuff. It's been pretty horrific. Clearly they had that horrible time. So I think it's time to take it easy a bit and hopefully we can have kids and things. But at the end of the day, I'll always follow what she wants to do. She's a great woman and a great photographer.

I'll see if I can convince her. You know, she's a smart lady and, you know, it will take some convincing to do, but we will see. I'll keep you posted on that.

VELSHI: Good. Give her our best and to the rest of the team. We're very, very happy to be reporting the news that you did predict the other day that they will end up OK.

Paul Davender joining me from Tunisia. He is the Reuters India bureau chief and the husband of Lnysey Addario, one of four "New York Times" reporters now reported free. He'll be seeing her very shortly. What a great end to that terrific story.

ROMANS: What a great homecoming too. You're watching breaking news this morning, U.S. F-15 down in Libya, both crew members are now safe. The latest from the ground there. We'll also talk about how America will react to this.

VELSHI: It is 50 minutes after the hour.

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CHETRY: We have new developments at 53 minutes past the hour right now in Japan. Officials are saying that the damage to two of the reactors that's reactor one and two at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the damage worse than they originally thought.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is just back from Japan. He had a chance to experience firsthand what was going on there not only the earthquake and tsunami damage, but the fears of spreading radiation.

Sanjay, first, just update us on this. So we know that they have been in this feverish process to try to reestablish power. They were assessing the damage. Now they say at least two of the reactors it is worse than they initially thought?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The overall damage they say is worse at the particular plants. Specifically, you know, as they are trying to establish this power, they are getting a better idea of just how much damage was done to these cooling systems.

Now you'll remember in the beginning when they decided to use sea water and boric acid to try and cool down these rods, they had an idea that using sea water would be pretty corrosive to the cooling system.

So even back then almost since the beginning of all this, there was a real question, would the cooling systems come back online even when they reestablished power with that. And I think the question they are struggling with now does it mean bringing in new cooling systems and able to fix the existing ones even if they get the power back in. The overall damage, you know, part of these plants as we learned, they are designed to sort of destruct in a certain way if there is a problem. So you have various layers of containment around these rods, but even those explosions that we saw, the fires as a result.

And now even more smoke late last night, this morning, those are all very problematic, obviously, and indicate probably a larger problem overall. Still despite that, I think, you know, for the first few days we were covering this you got the sense people were running in place with regard to this just dousing the thing with water.

It wasn't getting better. It wasn't getting worse for a period of time. Now it seems that if you look at it sort of from 30,000-foot view a couple of steps forward, one step back is how one expert put it.

So they are starting to make progress probably every day for the next several if not weeks, we're going to hear about some setbacks as they try to, you know, salvage what they can here.

CHETRY: You know, Sanjay, it's been 11 days now. Still you just can't believe the images that you see of the tsunami and those waves crashing over the great walls and crashing into these towns.

Tell us about the impact of the tsunami that you saw when you were there. I mean, there must have been (inaudible) of it everywhere you turned.

GUPTA: Well, you know, the entire country, obviously, just from a mental health standpoint so traumatized by this. I mean, the entire island of Japan, the entire land body sort of moved several feet as a result of this. That gives you an idea of the force of the tsunami wave.

And things were just being pushed together in these very, very strange amalgamations, cars inside houses and buses on top of buildings and, obviously, so many people still missing underneath all of that rubble.

I mean, it's something that, you know, the entire country, obviously, got the earthquake first which Japan, you know, this is a place that I visit a lot. The building codes there are among the best in the world. They were able to tolerate even that strong an earthquake in terms of the building codes and the building structures.

The tsunami wave came after that then, obviously, all of the heightened concerns about the radiation which are ongoing. This is a country that, obviously, has dealt with terrible consequences of nuclear disasters in the past so this is, you know, an ongoing situation there for them.

VELSHI: Sanjay, we just got new numbers of the dead and missing. According to the National Police Agency, 9,080 people are dead and 13,561 are missing. So truly the tsunami and the earthquake were the most devastating part of this.

But it does seem that in these last few days, these radiation fears have really gripped the country and become the thing that they are most concerned about. Is that proportionate or a fear as great as the one that accompanied the tsunami and the earthquake?

GUPTA: I think that's a very fair question. I think probably not in the sense that ultimately I think the impact, human health impact of the radiation is going to be a lot lower than anybody would suspect.

I think that the -- obviously, there is concerns that entire area around the Fukushima Daiichi plant is going to be a contaminated area, Ali, for some time to come. You won't be able to use the food from there as possible. People won't be able to live there and the cleanup is going to take forever.

But in terms of deaths, in terms of injuries and in terms of, you know, overall impact on human health, I think the impact to that is - we're going to look back on this and say that was relatively small.

It was very anxiety provoking and a lot of work involved. Obviously, the workers in these plans risked their lives to accomplish that work, but I think what you saw from the tsunami and now, you know, those areas you talk about the more than 10,000 people missing, terrible conditions, Ali. You have seen very cold and very hard to imagine that people could survive more than a week now after that tsunami.

CHETRY: All right, Sanjay Gupta for us, thanks so much. We appreciate your breakdown or your clarifying all of that for us. We are also going to follow the latest on Libya when we come back.

VELSHI: Yes, and top stories are coming your way after this break. It's two minutes until the top of the hour.

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