Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

NATO Now in Command; Major Nor'easter Expected; A Look at President Obama's Energy Plan; Jobs Picture Shows Positive Signs; Madoff and the Mets

Aired March 31, 2011 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Trying to stop the onslaught, NATO now in command. Americans now on the ground undercover. Gadhafi still driving back rebels, but his inner circle may be crumbling on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning. It's Thursday, March 31st. Welcome to this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Christine Romans.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. Ali Velshi is on assignment this morning. We want to get you caught up.

New this hour, reports overnight that the prime minister of Japan has now come out saying that the entire nuclear plant at Fukushima Daiichi should be scrapped. This comes as milk in two U.S. states comes back radioactive, prompting the government to step up its monitoring and testing.

ROMANS: Also, check your calendars, a major nor'easter, up to a foot of snow and tropical storm force winds on the last day of March. Rob Marciano is going to come here and explain.

CHETRY: Last thing we need.

We begin the hour in Libya right now. NATO officially in charge of the mission there, the alliance assuming sole command of air operations overnight now under operation unified protector. Meantime, CIA operatives are on the ground in Libya presumably to help rebels in their battle against Gadhafi forces. Kate Bolduan is live for us at the White House with more details this morning.

Good morning, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kiran. A lot of questions still surrounding this, but first-off and probably no surprise, the White House is not commenting on these reports first reported by Reuters that the president has signed off on this secret order to authorize covert U.S. support possibly of rebel forces in Libya.

In a statement, White House press secretary said in part, and I will read this briefly, he says "I will reiterate what the president said yesterday. No decision made about providing arms to the opposition or any group in Libya. We're not ruling it out or ruling it in. We're assessing and reviewing options for all types of assistance we could provide to the Libyan people," something we have heard over and over again since this conflict began.

Government officials do tell CNN thought that the CIA is on the ground in Libya in order to increase, quote, "military and political" understanding on the ground there. In addition CNN is told these operatives are in contact in some way, shape, or form with these rebel and opposition entities.

This is coming at a time so many people on Capitol Hill onward have so many questions -- who are these opposition forces? Who are their leaders, really, where do their allegiances lie? That is something Jay Carney was also asked in yesterday's briefing. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Clearly not everyone in Libya who is opposed to Gadhafi is friendly to the United States. But we have been working with those leaders of the opposition who have demonstrated, who have been vetted and demonstrated a commitment, at least initially, to the kinds of actions we believe are essential that adhere to the principles we discussed that broadly apply as we look at the unrest in the whole region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: A couple obvious but important points to make. The president has said there will be no American boots on the ground at the same time we're learning the CIA is on the ground gathering intelligence firsthand. That really doesn't come as too much a surprise to people in such a conflict that the United States wants to get their own people on the ground to get firsthand intelligence of really what the situation is.

But also to note as we've been talking about, you heard from people on the ground just today, none of this in light of the reports of the president possibly signing off on this secret order has translated into improvement on the part of better coordination or military efforts on the part of the rebels, if that's one of the goals. They're having a very tough time in this ever changing situation.

CHETRY: Kate Bolduan for us this morning, thanks so much. As Kate alluded to, Gadhafi's troops may be winning the ground war in Libya. But the dictator did suffer a major setback on the diplomatic front. His foreign minister Mussa Kussa has defected to Britain.

So just how significant is Kussa's departure? CNN national security analyst Fran Townsend weighed in last night on "Anderson."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think it's a huge development. Remember, Mussa Kussa is the single most important Libyan official responsible for the intelligence service, planning and execution of pan am 103. He is someone in whom Gadhafi confided and relied on the most sensitive operational intelligence and now foreign policy matters. So I think this is tremendously significant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: At 7:40 eastern we will be speaking with Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers, chairman of the House intelligence committee, about all of these developments. He was briefed by the administration yesterday on having CIA operatives on the ground in Libya.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Two west coast states have discovered low radiation levels in milk coming from Japan. Officials from San Luis Obispo, California and Spokane, Washington say these ratings are 5,000 times lower than the legal limit. Not a significant health threat and not a surprise. Dairy farmers and representatives in Washington say there's no need to panic. The Environmental Protection Agency says it is stepping up radiation monitoring throughout the nation not only in milk but rain and water.

CHETRY: We found radiation that made its way here but don't panic. To find out what you should do is still puzzling.

ROMANS: There's normal amounts of radiation around all the time. Not the normal amounts, from Japan but they will monitor to see if they change. The radiation levels around the ocean of the Daiichi power station are now more 4m300 times above the legal limit. Safety officials insist despite the rise in radiation there is still no health risk to humans eating seafood from Japan's waters.

Martin Savidge is live from Tokyo. This Kyoto news service reporting Japan's prime minister wants the Daiichi nuclear power plant decommissioned. What can you tell us about that?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There's a little bit of controversy here. The chairman of TEPCO yesterday came out and explained what pretty much everybody knew, four of the reactors would be commissioned and torn up. They've been through an earthquake and tsunami and had explosions and had sea water and corrosive effect impacting them. They were pretty much trashed anyway.

But he left out five and six and would imply he hoped to get them started. The prime minister comes out in a conversation he was having and said, oh, no, all have to go. TEPCO has a problem with that. One is the cost. It's $500 million each reactor to decommission them, four reactors, $2 billion, $3 billion. TEPCO already has a hefty tab going.

The use of energy in this country, down by 20 percent, ability to produce power. Come the summer air-conditioning kicks in, they will have a real problem keeping up with demand, rolling black-outs playing havoc with society and business. They need reactors five and six to prevent that. They won't do away with the whole black-out issue but they really need them. So that's where it stands.

ROMANS: We know the IAEA is considering expanding the perimeter evacuation zone. How big is the perimeter they want to evacuate?

SAVIDGE: First, the IAEA would like to see the evacuation zone expanded but cannot tell the Japanese government to expand it, they can only advise them. The IAEA has been doing independent testing and have found higher radiation outside the 12 mile evacuation zone Japan has established. They actually found it 40 kilometers or 45 miles and say those levels would be harmful to humans.

They advise the expansion take place but can't order it. That's up to the Japanese government. They say, thanks very much but we like it where it is right now, another point of contention.

ROMANS: You have the Japanese government, the IAEA, the United States, a lot of folks weighing in with different advice on an unruly situation. Martin, thanks.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: It's opening day today, six opening games on tap for major league baseball. President Obama will not be throwing out the first pitch. I guess they were hoping he would do it for the Washington national's game in but instead have troops, each branch of the military doing the honors.

ROMANS: And Robert Redford will be there to throw out the pitch for the Cubs. Robert Redford played Roy Hobbs in the baseball movie "The Natural." And in your life you must see a game at Wrigley. It is a culture experience in this country.

This is just day one for two baseball fanatics, Mike O'Hara and Ryan Wagner. They won a contest to spend the entire season watching every game here in Major League Baseball's new "Fan Cave." They'll be hunkered down with plush seating, many TVs. They have to do this hard work until the end of October and share the experience with fans on Facebook and blog at MLB.com. They will be our guests tomorrow on "American Morning." They're up for a very big job.

CHETRY: Still ahead, we talked a little bit yesterday about how workers feel and want to get moving and find a new job. Now CEOs are weighing in. Is there positive news today? We'll talk about that.

ROMANS: Coming up, a contagious disease that affects more than three million Americans, but scientists may be getting closer to a cure. It's 11 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Teachers, police officers, nurses and a lot of other state workers about to take a huge hit, this time in Ohio. The state Senate there in a 17-16 vote passed a Bill that takes away their rights to negotiate health care, sick time, or pension benefits. Republican governor John Kasich is expected to sign it by the end of the week. Democrats are already fighting to overturn it with a referendum in November.

And big news, Republicans and Democrats now working off the same number to keep the government running. Vice President Joe Biden says the two sides agreed on $73 billion in cuts yesterday. That essentially split the difference between the two sides. They agree how much to cut and don't agree where to cut it yet. They have until April 8th to pass a budget before the next government shutdown. That's when the latest temporary fix expires, Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. And with rising gas prices at home, political trouble in the Middle East right now, President Obama outlined his new energy plan yesterday. And he says that he wants to cut imports of foreign oil by one-third over the next decade. He also called on oil companies to do more drilling in the U.S. but said that, again, that's a short-term fix. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America holds about two percent of the world's proven oil reserves. What that means is that even if we drilled every drop of oil out of every single one of the reserves that we possess offshore and onshore, it still wouldn't be enough to meet our long term needs. We consume about 25 percent of the world's oil. We only have two percent of the reserves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: So where do we stand right now? We're getting a little bit more efficient and a little bit more diverse but we are still clearly a nation that needs our oil. Right now, eight percent of the nation's energy comes from nuclear power. And, of course, with the crisis in Japan, the future of our nuclear power is in doubt.

We get another eight percent from so-called clean energy sources. These are things like the wind farms that you see, solar energy and water. But still, 82 percent of the nation's energy comes from so- called fossil fuels. We're talking petroleum or oil. That makes up 37 percent, coal, 21 percent and natural gas, 25 percent -- Christine.

ROMANS: So interesting. What we have to do is figure out where we're getting our energy, figure out how to use it more efficiently and find new ways to get it. If we really are, Kiran, going to cut our dependence on foreign oil, it's a little and a lot of everything. And the president's energy strategy clearly has to be highlighted right now when you're talking about all of the different things, the Middle East, and we're talking about what's happening with the nuclear situation in Japan.

Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, a stunning report on just how many bridges in the U.S. are considered dangerous and desperately in need of repair. Are you about to drive on one of these bridges? We're going to tell you.

CHETRY: Also, they have the will but did they have the way? We will break down the fight between rebels and Gadhafi's army in Libya. How bad do they need the world's help?

It's 17 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Well, we've been waiting for years for this to turn around. The job outlook is starting to look up a little bit this morning. So is the U.S. economic engine really, really going to rev up here and mean job creation. Carmen Wong Ulrich is here with that.

CARMEN WONG ULRICH, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we'll see. But, you know --

ROMANS: Maybe.

ULRICH: -- they are a little more optimistic, these CEOs. We got some happy survey result from an association of 142 large company CEOs. This is the "Business Roundtable"'s 2011 CEO economic outlook survey. Now for this quarter, nearly all CEOs expect company sales to increase over the next six months and more than 60 percent expect to put more money into building their business, while half of the CEOs plan on increasing hires.

Now, these numbers are seven to 12 percent higher than last quarter. A lot of optimism here. Now releasing tomorrow, of course, are the numbers on private company job growth for March. And a CNN Money survey of economists forecast an additional 180,000 private hires for March, which holds unemployment at 8.9 percent. But some analysts are predicting job growth steady through the year, at an additional 200,000 jobs created every month through December which would leave us at unemployment rate at 8.25 percent. I'd love it to be a bit more. You know, we need to get to a quarter million at least to really make a dent.

ROMANS: Yes.

ULRICH: But at least it's not going the opposite direction.

ROMANS: And we need it to see it hit 200 and stay there and stay there. We haven't seen the trend continue so far. I'm still waiting for it to turn.

ULRICH: Going for 250.

ROMANS: I know.

CHETRY: The other thing is you brought this up yesterday as well, that people who are in a current job say that they want to look. What about the so-called 99ers (ph) that we talked about, the people on long term unemployment. Are things looking better for them as well? Are they perhaps the ones getting left behind in all of this?

ULRICH: Well, they need and want to be hired and we know that all the trends show that actually folks there have been out of work for a long period of time --

ROMANS: That's right.

ULRICH: -- are less likely to be hired. So we hope that that stops as well because at many points, it's not their fault.

The Dow up 72 points. Nasdaq up 20. S&P 500, up almost up nine points and the future -- futures are pretty rosy because everyone's looking to see these job numbers go up and that has a big impact on the market.

ROMANS: All right. Carmen Wong Ulrich, thank you.

CHETRY: Good to see you this morning.

Well, up next, it was one of the deadliest bus crashes in New York State history. Now investigators say they know what caused it and it's not what the driver told them.

ROMANS: Also, the U.S. and allied forces have ceded control of air operations in Libya. But U.S. actions aren't over yet. Details on the new ground mission, right after the break.

It's 22 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It is opening day for every Major League Baseball team, of course, having high hopes today.

ROMANS: Yes.

CHETRY: The New York Mets actually, they're not starting the season until tomorrow.

ROMANS: That's right.

CHETRY: Right?

ROMANS: They're not and it's expected to be an uphill climb for the Mets on and off the field in 2011. CNN's Allan Chernoff is here with their opening day story.

Allan, it should be tomorrow, should be a happy day for the Mets.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Hope springs eternal for any baseball fan. You can believe that your team is definitely going to the World Series. But for the fans of the Mets, well, they're really going to need a miracle. Huge financial worries hang over the team because the owners invested with Bernie Madoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MUSIC: Meet the Mets. Meet the Mets.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): The New York Mets have strikes against them even before the season is under way. Bad enough they have an aging team fighting injuries. What's more the trustee recovering funds for Bernie Madoff investors is suing Mets owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, for more than a billion dollars, charging they were using phantom profits from the Ponzi scheme to support the Mets while ignoring warnings Madoff was a fraud.

In an e-mail to CNN from prison, Bernard Madoff writes, "As to Wilpon and Katz, all I can say is that they did not know." That's precisely what Wilpon and Katz say, calling the trustee's claims a work of fiction.

FRED WILPON, CO-OWNER, NEW YORK METS: We did not know one iota, one thing about Madoff's fraud. We didn't do anything wrong.

CHERNOFF: Fans say it's a distraction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's stab in the back because we want to see good quality players and management, clean. I mean, that's what baseball is all about.

CHERNOFF: Attendance dropped nearly 20 percent during last year's losing season, while the Mets reportedly lost $15 million. The team borrowed $25 million from Major League Baseball in November, but baseball has now cut off that credit line. Meanwhile, the team has interest payments coming due on its new stadium.

ANDREW ZIMBALIST, PROF. OF ECONOMICS/SPORTS BUSINESS, SMITH COLLEGE: The owners don't have a reserve of cash. They're not going to be able to go out and fill some holes they have on the playing field. It's questionable even whether they're going to be able to raise the necessary cash to continue to operate the team.

CHERNOFF: So the Mets' owners are looking for relief seeking a buyer for a minority stake for at least one-quarter of the team.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF: This morning's "New York Times" reports the owners may raise $200 million by selling 40 percent of the team. Whatever happens, it is not good for baseball to have a team in the number one market in such a slump so early in the season.

ROMANS: Where do things stand, Irving Picard, the trustee for the people trying to get their money back from the Madoff scam and Fred Wilpon and the Mets?

CHERNOFF: Right. Well, from the bullpen has come former Governor Mario Cuomo. He's actually mediating between the Mets' owners and between the trustees. So he' trying to work out a deal. The trustee trying to get more than a billion out of the Mets' owners. Maybe he can work something out.

CHETRY: Such a storied franchise, it would be a shame, you know.

CHERNOFF: It really -- it really would be. I mean, you know, they're known as the "amazing Mets." But I don't think this year.

CHETRY: They need a little help.

ROMANS: The Madoff Mets. I mean, the Madoff legacy just -- I mean, messing up your opening day.

All right, Allan Chernoff.

CHETRY: Thanks, Allan.

Well, we're crossing the half hour right now. Time to look at our top stories.

NATO is now officially in charge of the mission in Libya. The alliance assuming sole command of air operations overnight, now under what's called "Operation Unified Protector." Meantime, CIA operatives are reportedly on the ground as well in Libya, presumably to help rebels to assess who the rebels are as they try to wage battle against Gadhafi forces. Libya's foreign minister also resigned yesterday. He is the highest ranking defector from the Gadhafi administration.

ROMANS: At least four damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are being retired. Japan's prime minister wants the entire plant decommissioned. Record high radiation levels were found in ocean water near the plant. Officials say it is not a threat to the seafood.

CHETRY: And just in time for tax day, there are many reports Americans spend almost 30 percent of their earnings -- earnings now on taxes. That means that it takes you 102 days of work, more than three months just to earn enough to pay your tax bill. The report comes from the Tax Foundation, a research group, and, of course favors, lower taxes.

ROMANS: And simpler taxes.

CHETRY: New details this morning about a tragic charter bus crash that ended up killing 15 people in New York. It happened earlier in the month.

ROMANS: That bus was headed to Manhattan from a Connecticut casino when it veered off a highway, struck a roadside barrier, the driver claims a tractor-trailer clipped him and caused the accident. Deb Feyerick is with us this morning.

Deb, investigators don't see it the way the driver has been saying it, do they?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. They really don't. And you have to keep in mind, these charter buses they carry some 750 million passengers a year. When you board, your life is really in the driver's hands. Based on the NTSB findings, you may want to think twice. Investigators say the bus driver's story doesn't simply doesn't add up. There appears to be no evidence the bus driven by (INAUDIBLE) Williams was hit by a tractor trail as he says it was. Williams does have a criminal record, which includes manslaughter and driving with a suspended license, still he was hired by this company.

Now NTSB investigators say Williams was speeding at the time of the accident, traveling 78 miles an hour, that's 20 miles over the speed limit for buses on interstate 95. The buses drifted to the right, according to investigators, rolled nearly 500 feet, then hit a sign post which pierced the windshield and sheared off the entire roof.

Now because of this deadly accident and two other recent bus crashes in New Jersey and New Hampshire, the NTSB is recommending several safety changes, they want buses built with stronger roofs. They want redesigned window emergency exits and safety upgrades to passenger seating compartment. The NTSB is also recommending better government oversight of drivers and buses and advanced safety features like forward collision warning systems.

CHETRY: They want changes. And I mean, this was the most deadly. There's been a history of crashes with some of these buses. They also, as I understand it, had a camera mounted inside of the bus but we haven't seen that video.

FEYERICK: No, we haven't. There is no video, apparently, it wasn't recording at the time of the accident. You know, this is a very popular way to travel, it's very cheap. You often see people lined up in Chinatown, you can't get to Boston from New York for about 30 bucks. So it really is a big deal. I always wonder when I'm traveling in one of these buses why there aren't even safety belts, which is crazy to me. I wanted to say about Amtrak trains, but you know, we have them on cars, why not have them on something equally large especially when it's on a highway.

ROMANS: This accident was so horrific. You know, I'm not an expert on safety belts but this was a horrific accident the way that the top of the bus was just sheared off, people thrown around. In some of those cases I can't even see how safety belt would help.

FEYERICK: Happening very early in the morning also and the fact that it was drifting may also indicate what was going on with the driver.

CHETRY: Right. Thanks, Deb.

ROMANS: Some alarming statistics this morning on the state of America's bridges. A new safety report says one in nine bridges and overpasses in this country are structurally deficient and may be dangerous to drive on. That's nearly 70,000 spans nationwide. The report by the group, Transportation for America says Pennsylvania tops the list of states with the most deficient bridges followed by Oklahoma, Iowa, Rhode Island and South Dakota.

Federal highway officials estimate it would cost more than $70 billion to replace the dangerous bridges, funding for bridge repairs, slightly more than $5 billion a year.

CHETRY: We seem to talk about that a lot. I mean, after that terrible collapse in Minnesota they said, "listen, this is an accident waiting to happen in many places but -"

ROMANS: Many of these bridges were built in the Eisenhower era. They are old and they carry more passenger traffic than they were designed for.

CHETRY: And we had some very extreme weather, I mean, that wear and tear on the roads because of the thawing and cooling?

ROMANS: It is always a transportation site. It is always between civil engineers and governments who want more money from the federal government to help pay for their bridges so there's always some politics involved there too. CHETRY: Well, coming up next on "American Morning," we're following the latest on Libya. The CIA said to be on the ground. Meanwhile, a high level defection from Moammar Gadhafi's inner circle. We're going to be speaking with the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He was just briefed about the U.S. role in Libya.

ROMANS: Outmanned, outgunned, Gadhafi on offense. Retaking cities that were in rebel control. Cities where the oil is. We'll take a look at how outmatched the rebels are on the ground as the U.S. thinks about arming them.

34 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Rebel forces are retreating in Libya. We're seeing how vital coalition air power is to any hope of taking Tripoli. Here's a closer look at what they're up against on the ground. According to Reuters figures, you got an army there of about 10,000 plus. Most of Gadhafi's military muscle is in a few elite brigade. There are 10,000 who are considered extremely loyal. There are others who are less trained and maybe not as loyal to Gadhafi.

One of these brigades is controlled by his son. The rebels are believed to only have about 1,000 trained fighters or active fighters. The army pushing ahead with tanks and armored vehicles, they are much better organized obviously while the rebels are mostly on pickup truck, some with mounted guns, machine guns and rocket launchers. The army obviously has gone through much more extensive and intensive training while the rebels have little or no training and they seem to in some cases have competing interests and not even really - in all cases know exactly where they are and where they're going.

The Army coordinating its attacks much more in tune with where it's going in strategy, so the rebels much more disorganized. And we've seen that as they scramble to launch counterattacks in towns under siege. Kiran, it's so interesting because they talk about the front lines yesterday being influx and fluid. And some of our reporters even with the rebels saying that sometimes these little groups didn't know exactly where they were or where they were supposed to be moving. So it just shows you the different levels of sophistication of these two different groups and CIA trying to sort of gage who these people are and what kind of logistics they're working on.

CHETRY: And that's certainly the challenges of ground combat when you're not an organized military. And that's really what they're dealing with here. NATO, as we said, has now taken sole command of the operations at least in the skies over Libya. But on the ground, CIA operatives are working to assist these rebels that Christine was talking about in their efforts to topple Moammar Gadhafi.

ROMANS: Our next guest says the administration should think twice before arming the opposition in Libya. Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee joins us now from Washington. Now you have been involved in classified briefing to Congress about what exactly is going on there. You do not think that the U.S. government should be arming these rebels. Tell me why.

REP. MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN: Well, as I think both of you stated very clearly, that they're a little bit disorganized. A lot of the rebels have no military training whatsoever, they were just swept up into the moment of the fight. And joined these small units. We don't know who the command and control is. And it's very clear they don't have a lot of command and control and so we wouldn't know who we're arming. Now we know what this group is against, Moammar Gadhafi. We really don't know who they're for or what they're for. And until we have a very clear picture about who would get weapons, what kind of weapons, and how we could secure and make sure that those weapons aren't turned on some other civilians, I would be very, very cautious about walking down the road to arm rebels.

CHETRY: But you initially supported the no-fly zone, correct?

ROGERS: Absolutely.

CHETRY: And so as we try to take a look at what the next logical step here is we've sort of drawn a line in the sand, we are not going to put ground troops or ground forces there, NATO has taken control of the mission. So what is the other option if it is not to at least try to assist this group that's trying in some form or fashion to overthrow this dictator?

ROGERS: Yes. Kiran, one of the important things about the no-fly zone in the beginning, at least in my mind, was the stockpile of chemical weapons. We know they had a biological weapon program. I was there in 2004, I saw them myself. This isn't speculation, we know it's there. And there are other weapon systems that Moammar Gadhafi has that concern me a lot.

And it was, to me, very important that we took a guy who was clearly engaged in state-sponsored terrorism, the Pan Am bombing and the discotheque where he killed American soldiers and has chemical weapons and has other weapons of concern, to me, it was very clear that we had some national interests to protect those things. There are other means, both political and other means that we can continue to use to put pressure on Moammar Gadhafi to come down. And yesterday was a great day for the rebels when Moussa Koussa, who was their foreign minister and also their former intelligence chief, you can imagine what he knows, decided to defect. And those are the kinds of pressures that can continue to be put on to I think bring the regime of Moammar Gadhafi down.

ROMANS: There are reports this morning that the CIA maybe on the ground vetting these rebels. Do you think that this is a move towards understanding who they're dealing with and a first step toward arming these folks? Because what you're going to get from Moussa Koussa from the Gadhafi side but then there's this other element that we're trying to understand, the rebel side. Also, you were briefed yesterday with Secretary Clinton and Gates. What can you tell us about setting the stage for arming these rebels, from what you heard from them? ROGERS: Well, again, the focus of yesterday's briefing was classified. But it wasn't about arming the rebels. Those questions certainly came up through the course of that briefing, It was really to engage the whole of Congress so that members of Congress were consulted. And I think that was a smart thing to do. It was overdue but a smart thing to do.

The CIA's purpose is to try to get policymakers like Congress, like the president of the United States, commander in chief, the military, information about what's going on, on the ground. So that assessment should happen if you end up arming the rebels or not just so we have a good picture about what is happening on the ground, who is in charge? Who are the rebel groups? And you know, we're seeing all these different types of groups coming together in a loose confederation, if you will, is there grassroots? Who are the political leaders likely to emerge.

All of those political questions have to be answered. One reason again I am concerned, we don't have nearly enough information to say, this is the group we should be arming and this is why we should do it and this is what we should give them. We're a long way from coming to that conclusion.

CHETRY: So the question remains then, did you get a sense that we as a nation know what the exit strategy is or what would be the conditions of what we'd view as successful?

ROGERS: Well, that's been my frustration. Again, I was a no-fly zone supporter early and glad that the president engaged the no-fly zone for the reasons we just talked about. But the next phase is critically important and I think that's where we need a little work here. And the president really needs to stand up and lead on the next part of this mission. You can't be just for the U.N. mission and, oh, by the way, we also want him gone but won't get him gone because of the U.N. resolution.

It's a very confusing policy for us to be in. The worst of all worlds is Gadhafi pulls back into Tripoli and we no longer, through the U.N. resolution, can engage his troops. I mean, so he's in power, we know he has bad things, we know he's engaged in state-sponsored terrorism and oh, by the way, we can't do anything about it. To me, that would be the worst place for us to be and why we need a little leadership as we move forward.

CHETRY: All right. We'll see how this goes. Congressman Mike Rogers, great to talk to you this morning. Thanks for joining us.

ROGERS: Thanks for having me.

ROMANS: OK. Still to come this morning, scientists are getting closer to curing Hepatitis C. A new medicine is providing the first real hope for a potential cure. Details on that recent study on the way.

CHETRY: Also, we're talking about the end of March, we're talking about not just a little bit of snow but a blizzard. Rob is going to have the morning forecast coming after the break.

45 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Forty-seven minutes past the hour. The last men standing. We have -- we're talking NCAA basketball.

ROMANS: That's right.

CHETRY: We have Butler, Kentucky, Connecticut and Virginia Commonwealth University. They've arrived in Houston for Saturday's Final Four. It's going to be at Reliant Stadium. Now, three of those teams have been there before but it's VCU's first trip to the Final Four, so they're the Cinderella team that will be playing the old Cinderella team, Butler, on Saturday. UConn takes on Kentucky.

ROMANS: All right. Forty-seven minutes past the hour.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROMANS: All right, I got this next story for you, which is pretty interesting. He was the Terminator, he was the governator -- the governor. And now he really is the governator. Arnold Schwarzenegger tells "Entertainment Weekly" that he's created a new cartoon and comic book superhero called the Governator.

Here's a special cover with a sneak peek at Arnold -- animated Arnold Schwarzenegger looks likes. Schwarzenegger says when he ran for governor back in 2003 and started hearing people talking about the governator, he it was so cool. Of course, the Governator will have a team of loyal sidekicks. Maybe there's a weathernator there who looks just like Rob Marciano.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: It's good he's embracing it, instead of trying to pretending he wasn't the star of "Terminator."

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: If there's one thing he's done throughout his entire life is embrace who he is.

ROMANS: And leverage his brand.

MARCIANO: Exactly.

ROMANS: As they say in the business world.

All right, thanks, Rob.

CHETRY: Well, today's top stories just a couple of minutes away, including the search for the energy of the future. With nuclear energy becoming a more scary prospect, is natural gas the answer? Is it safe and will it save you money? Answers ahead.

ROMANS: And a kiss going to cost you more. Hershey's kisses that is. Raising prices, right before Easter.

It's 10 minutes until the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Scientists may be on the verge of a cure for Hepatitis C. That's according to two new medical studies. More than three million Americans suffer from this contagious liver disease. But, a new class of medications could bring hope for the future.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with the details.

Hi, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Christine, Hepatitis C kills 12,000 people a year, and doctors have really just been desperate for new treatments because the treatments out there don't always work very well.

So what they decided to do was add a third drug to a two-drug cocktail they've been using for some time now and it really did work quite well for a number of people. Most of the people who took it, they responded well. They had to take the drug for the better part of the year, but they really did quite well. The Hepatitis C seemed to go away. They stopped taking the drug, it hasn't come back -- Christine.

ROMANS: Are there any downsides to this drug, or this mix of drugs?

COHEN: Yes, there is one big downside which is that if you don't take this drug perfectly it's not going to work. And the reason why is if you miss a dose by a day or two, just that short of a time, you can become resistant to the drug and it's not going to work for you. So that is a big problem.

I also want to add here, because we always like to add these things, that these studies were published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" and they were paid for my Merck, which makes the drug.

ROMANS: It is available now, for someone's who's watching us -- one of those three million people who suffers from Hepatitis C, is it available to them today?

COHEN: You know what, it's only available experimentally. They're trying to get it approved to go on the market. It's not quite on the market. They hope it'll be on the market soon.

ROMANS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much. Important information for three million people who suffer from Hepatitis C, something that's been -- it's been a difficult situation to treat for them.

Thanks so much, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Christine, I want to add it didn't work for everyone. I think that's important to say. That it worked beautifully for some people, didn't work for others.

ROMANS: OK. As with a lot of different treatments for these diseases.

Thank you so much, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Thanks.

ROMANS: Top stories coming your way in two minutes. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)