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Japanese Nuclear Reactor in Trouble; The Rise of al Qaeda; More Problems with Boeing 737 Jets; New Job Trend: Working from Home; The Looming Government Shutdown; Yemen Too Distracted to Fight Terror?; Italian Prime Minister's Sex Trial Under Way; Be Weary of Multiple CT Scans; Radioactive Seafood Fears

Aired April 06, 2011 - 07:00   ET

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

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: The latest from Japan. Now, they were able to stop the water leak, but now there are fears that the whole reactor itself could burst. U.S. engineers issuing a troubling warning about the damaged reactors in Japan on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Good Wednesday morning. It's April 6th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Ahead this hour, Boeing, this morning saying they knew the lap joints on some of its 737 airplanes had problems. They just didn't think they would fail so quickly. We've got the latest on that in five minutes.

VELSHI: Also, the rise of al Qaeda. New training camps, new attacks by the United States. The headline, Osama bin Laden's network is gradually returning.

CHETRY: And how about replacing that business suit with some PJs? More and more companies are letting their workers do everything they need to do from home. Is it time for your old 9:00 to 5:00 job to clock out? Those stories and more coming up.

ROMANS: All right, but first to Japan. We've got a lot to tell you about here. One, a step in the right direction. The other, a warning that it may not matter. Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant say they have plugged a leak where radioactive water was gushing into the ocean.

Here's a photo that the power company TEPCO released on Saturday morning. This photo you're looking at shows radioactive water pouring out of the reactor into the sea. The radiation levels were 7.5 million times the legal limit at the time. Here's what it looks like now. Not a single drop. After trying a concoction of concrete, sawdust and newspaper, officials say liquid glass finally sealed up this leak.

But Japan is still in the process of dumping three million gallons of contaminated water into the sea on purpose to make room for water that's even more radioactive. But U.S. nuclear experts sent to help with the crisis in Japan are now warning of very, very serious new threats.

Martin Savidge is live for us in Tokyo.

A laundry list of concerns that the worst may not be behind us, according to the "New York Times" and it's reporting on an NRC memo, right?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Christine. I mean, this was a disaster to-do list that seems to go on and on and on and does appear to be extremely dangerous. This is the concern that's coming from scientists outside of Japan.

Let's talk about the mounting stresses they're talking about. This is a result of the tons and tons, one reactor alone getting 200 tons of water every single day poured upon it. That kind of weight could cause some kind of cataclysmic event possibly, especially when you keep in mind that that area is still undergoing a lot of aftershocks, some of them quite strong.

And then remember, these plants aren't (ph) built to withstand great stresses but we've gone beyond whatever these plants were intended to take. You had an earthquake, you've had a tsunami, you've had a number of explosions. The parameters of understanding exactly what is left in strength in those plants, nobody seems to know.

Vulnerability to rupture. Again, all that water going into all these tanks, those tanks may be leaking, those tanks have certainly been weakened as a result of the earthquake and the tsunami. No clear sign they can really hold all that radioactive water.

And then going on to other concerns. The real issue here is they've got to get the main cooling pumps on to restore cooling to the cores. Right now, Japan has not been able to do that. The international science community is saying look, Japan, you've got to wake up and you're got to ask for help. This is something that they say Japan still is reluctant to do. The international community says it has the knowledge, has the skill, but they've got to ask and they aren't asking -- Christine.

ROMANS: Martin, let's talk about seafood concerns because we've been -- having several days of radioactive water gushing into the ocean. TEPCO says it still has more water that it's going to be putting out there even though it has plugged this leak. So, hopefully, hopefully the worst is over on that front.

What does it mean for the seafood? The seafood industry must be very concerned here.

SAVIDGE: Oh, they're absolutely livid. In fact, today there was a protest that was filed basically by the Fisheries Association and they say that the Japanese government, through TEPCO, is killing their livelihood, essentially killing the ocean outside of Japan.

Remember, seafood is -- this is the number one consuming seafood nation in the world, and yet on top of that, it exports a lot of seafood. Nobody, they say, is going to want Japanese seafood now because levels of radiation have been detected in fish. In fact, some fish some 43 miles away from the plant were found to have levels of radio iodine in them that exceeds the Japanese limit at least twice.

So this is, of course, raising the concern. For so long people have been saying it isn't going to matter, all this radiation, it won't have an impact. Clearly it's having a huge impact.

ROMANS: All right. Martin Savidge, thanks.

And Martin, coming up at 7:40, we're going to talk about whether the seafood is safe to eat now and whether it will be years from now with the radiation ecologist Timothy Mousseau. He's also studied wildlife after the Chernobyl disaster.

CHETRY: Diplomatic efforts are underway to try to end a bloody stalemate in Libya. In fact, the U.S. is stepping in a unique way. Former Pennsylvania Congressman Curt Weldon is in Tripoli this morning and he is going to be meeting with Moammar Gadhafi in an effort to urge him to step down.

Weldon has been there before. In 2004, he led a congressional delegation to Libya and met privately with Gadhafi. Weldon says that this time he was invited by Gadhafi himself. In a "New York Times" op-ed Weldon says it'll be hard to simply bomb Gadhafi into submission. The main goal of the trip, though, is for Gadhafi to step down.

During his trip he also hopes to secure an immediate U.N. monitored cease-fire in Libya, for the Libyan army to withdraw from contested cities, and for rebel forces to end the attempts to advance. Also, another goal, free Libyan elections within a year.

VELSHI: All right. We're now 65 hours away from a possible government shutdown if Congress can't get a budget deal done. A meeting between the president and leaders of both parties yesterday failed to break the deadlock. Democrats and Republicans plan to keep talking this morning and with all the finger pointing and posturing that's been bogging down the process, the president says the American people are expecting both sides to behave.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARAK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE: They're looking for me as the same thing that they're looking from Speaker Boehner and Harry Reid and everybody else, and that is that we act like grownups. And when we are in negotiations like this, that everybody gives little bit, compromises a little bit, in order to do the people's business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Wisconsin's 14 Democratic state senators are finally back at work. They left the state in early February, you'll recall, to block a vote on what they considered a union-busting budget bill. They returned to their jobs yesterday. Governor Scott Walker's spending plan finally passed after Republicans removed some financial provisions from the bill so that they could pass it. But it hasn't gone into effect yet because it is tied up in court. Speaking of court, in Wisconsin, a critical Supreme Court race is too close to call. Justice David Proser is seeking another term. His challenger, Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenberg has the backing of local unions. Only a few hundred votes separate the candidates after yesterday's election. And since the legal challenge to Wisconsin's budget could be decided by the Supreme Court, the winner of this election might actually cast the deciding vote.

ROMANS: OK, Boeing now admits it knew about problems with lap joints in some of its planes, but it didn't expect the problems to happen until much later in the airplane's use. The FAA has now ordered emergency inspections of older Boeing 737 planes after a Southwest jet that had a fuselage rupture last week.

Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, we talked to Peter Goelz, former managing director of the NTSB.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER GOELZ, FORMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, NTSB: We're in kind of new territory here. Planes are flying longer than ever, and I think Boeing did a best case estimate when they started making the 737, they made some adjustments to how they connect the skin. They've now gone back to the drawing board. They were as stumped or a surprised as anyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: These are incredibly popular planes in widespread use in this country. Southwest inspections found five other 737s with cracks similar to the ones suspected of causing that five-foot long hole to just open up in the plane mid-flight last week.

The owner of the Gulf of Mexico oil rig that exploded last year killing 11 people, that company says its senior executives are now donating their safety bonuses to the Deepwater Horizon Memorial Fund because, quote, "It is right thing to do." Transocean had justified the bonuses by calling 2010 its best year in safety.

VELSHI: Wow.

CHETRY: Well, to college hoops, they are the new queens of college basketball. Texas A&M women defeating Notre Dame 76-70 in Indianapolis last night, taking home the crown for the women's NCAA championship. It is the first ever NCAA crown for the lady Aggies. So, congrats to you guys. Hard-fought game there.

Also, the UConn Husky men's team getting a hero's welcome after they made it home. There they are waving when they got out of the plane. The celebrations though on the store's campus got a little out of hand.

Remember when we saw the pictures yesterday, and one point looked like something was aflame?

VELSHI: Yes, yes, yes.

CHETRY: I didn't know how that was allowed in the stadium, but anywho (sic), police made two dozen arrests for vandalism and property damage. More than half of those arrested were not students. In fact, they not associated with the school.

ROMANS: That always happens winning something like that. It's always a townie.

VELSHI: I don't know whether it's true. That's what everybody always says, right?

CHETRY: It's not us students, we weren't the ones bum rushing the stadium.

VELSHI: It is nine minutes after the hour. Rob Marciano's got the weather for us. Hey, Rob.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROMANS: OK, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, they're back. A report that al Qaeda is making a comeback in Afghanistan after almost 10 years of war there. Could that be possible and how? CNN terror analyst Paul Cruickshank is here.

VELSHI: And a record number of kids getting CT scans in emergency rooms. Do they really need them and are they safe? Details on a new study later in the hour.

CHETRY: You can turn your kitchen into your corner office. Finding a new job that lets you work from home. Is this a reality or is this just wishful thinking for most of us?

Eleven minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: It is 14 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

Back to raise a new generation of potential terrorists. This morning the "Wall Street Journal" is reporting that al Qaeda is making a comeback in Afghanistan. The U.S. is spotting new training camps and hideouts and operational bases in that area -- see that green line that's through the middle of the map? Those are the remote mountains along Afghanistan's northern border with Pakistan. Now that is something they haven't seen in years. After 10 years of war there, analysts say there may be a whole new stable of young men waiting to join al Qaeda's ranks.

ROMANS: Yemen has been called the next Afghanistan. And with the government's attention somewhere else, a U.S. official says there's, quote, "Little being done against the fight against al Qaeda."

And there's a concern about increased terror chatter there. And even the country's efforts to screen passengers and cargo. Joining us now is CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.

Real concerns about what's happening in Yemen as the president who's been an alley of the U.S. against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and against extremists in his own country, he is fighting for his own survival. There's protests on the street. That government's attention is there on that, and big concern about al Qaeda seeing an entry.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Absolutely, Christine. al Qaeda does have an opportunity now in Yemen to expand its operations in the country. It's already doing that in places like Shabwa (ph) province, the home province of Anwar al-Awlaki, this American cleric. It's expanding its operations there. It sees this as a big opportunity to do that over there with President Saleh completely exclusively focused on his own political survival.

And this is deeply concerning to American counterterrorism officials because if there's an attack tomorrow in the United States, it's most likely to come from Yemen. The affiliate there, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is the most active of all of al Qaeda's affiliates, the one that most (INAUDIBLE) the United States right now. Twice in the last 16 months this organization has attempted and failed to attack the United States. We've also -- there appears to be more chatter that there could be some operation in the works as well, another plot, perhaps, against the United States. So a lot of concern right now, Christine.

ROMANS: There's aspirational and operational, and that's what the concern is that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is moving from the aspirational plotting against Americans in Yemen to actually doing something.

You know, a lot of people remember the USS Cole and other events as you mentioned in the last 16 months. Why is this an incubator for terrorism and how dangerous is the situation, the domestic situation there?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, Yemen, for almost two decades has been an incubator for terrorism. Remember bin Laden's family is from Yemen.

ROMANS: Right.

CRUICKSHANK: For him, Yemen has been a big priority over the years. They've built their operations out there in the '90s. There's the USS Cole attack in 2000. And the last several years, they've made a lot of headway within Yemen. They've been sort of smarter than some other jihadists. They haven't tied civilians in Yemen. They work with the tribes nor against the tribes so they're now in a position not only to launch operations within Yemen but also to threaten the United States.

And Anwar al-Awlaki, he's obsessed now with attacking the United States. It was recently revealed that he thinks that even a small operation in the U.S. rather than a big operation elsewhere is what he wants, Christine.

ROMANS: It's one of the reasons why the U.S. last year gave 150 million in training and equipment. The Pentagon military leaders in this country saying they're going to continue that aid, even as the U.S. is pushing for a transition away from the president of that country. What's the next move then?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, that puts the United States in a difficult position because if President Saleh doubles down, he cracks down, there's more bloodshed. That could play into the al Qaeda narrative of an American backed dictator oppressing the local population. So it's a very dangerous position for the United States. There are no real good options here. The best situation would be a managed transition away from Saleh. There seems to be some prospect of talks in Saudi Arabia on this. And I think the United States would likely back that process, Christine.

ROMANS: What we're seeing in Afghanistan that Ali just reported from "The Wall Street Journal," certainly not like the '90s when you had this long string of terror camps training thousands and thousands of young men. But concerning to you that there's a renewed interest there?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, given what happened here in New York 10 years ago in September, of course it's concerning. Any time al Qaeda has a safe haven, it has the chance to plot attacks. But like you say, this is not the elaborate camp system of the '90s. Most of that presence is still on the Pakistani side of the border, but this is a wake-up call, that if there's a precipitous withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan, then al Qaeda could move back into Afghanistan, Christine.

ROMANS: And you make such a good point that the Arab spring has been a loser overall for al Qaeda but we have to very, very closely watch what's happening in Yemen. That might be a different storyline there.

Paul Cruickshank, thank you so much for joining us -- Kiran.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: After the break, we're "Minding Your Business" and we're talking about how realistic this is. Could you really trade in your rush hour congestion for the comfort of your own couch and make a good living? We're going to find out if working from home could be the new nine to five reality.

Nineteen minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: A shift is under way when it comes to where we work. Alison Kosik "Minding Your Business" for us this morning.

ROMANS: Good morning, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

VELSHI: Do tell. This allows me to stay home longer perhaps.

KOSIK: It could.

CHETRY: This would never work for us.

KOSIK: No.

CHETRY: We couldn't broadcast from our basement.

KOSIK: If you have Skype, you can always do the news from your bedroom, you know. And talking about working from home. Let's move along.

CHETRY: There's too many kids in there. It would be very loud.

KOSIK: Let's move along. I'm talking about working from home and it's really changing these days. I mean, it used to be where people thought that you were a slacker or they're wondering if you're even working from home or just maybe doing the dishes. But now it's becoming more accepted with even executives, you know, taking part in this, working from home. And there are so many more products out there to make your home more of a virtual office. Of course, there's Skype, Cisco, and Citrix both have products where you can actually do power-point presentations right from your desk. So you really can't be in your pajamas because you can be on camera there.

So Skype came out with this survey and said with all of these choices that you can have, if you work from home, you know, the mindset is changing with this too. In fact, 62 percent of companies that were surveyed already let employees work remotely and of the 34 percent who make use of this flexible work space, they say that they spend 40 percent of their time away from the office. And you know what, guys, it really helps with job satisfaction and believe it or not, these people say they're more productive, believe it or not.

CHETRY: That's right.

KOSIK: Which I can't even understand. I would see the dishes and I would want to go do them.

CHETRY: So my mom says -- she works for the federal government and they do let that flexible thing. She says that she doesn't have to answer and feel the 100 people walking into her office or the phone.

VELSHI: Right.

CHETRY: So she sits at home and she can actually crank out things.

ROMANS: Other people who do this have said that they work more hours than they would have otherwise because they feel like they have to prove something.

KOSIK: Right. Overcompensate, exactly.

ROMANS: They jump on the conference call and they're working these odd hours and they suddenly realize, wait, I've just worked 52 hours this week, not 40.

VELSHI: Who would the four of us talk to?

CHETRY: See, you would never -- you would never want this because I have to be around people.

KOSIK: I know, I know.

I got to do a market check from yesterday. Stocks ended flat. I don't think anybody is trading these days.

VELSHI: Right.

KOSIK: At least not this week.

VELSHI: They're waiting for something.

KOSIK: They are. They're waiting for those report cards from companies next week. Second quarter earnings come out. That's what everybody is waiting for.

The Dow ended down a bit, but really, little movement.

ROMANS: All right, Alison Kosik. Thanks, Alison.

KOSIK: Sure.

ROMANS: It could get pretty R-rated. The trial of Italy's prime minister now under way. Details of his alleged erotic parties expected to come out. Where in the world does George Clooney fit into all of this? My goodness. Coming up next.

VELSHI: Twenty-five minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. The most scandalous trial in the history of Italian politics is under way. Hearings began this morning in the trial of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, but they only lasted about 10 minutes before they were adjourned until May 31st. The 74-year-old prime minister is accused of sex with an underage prostitute and also with abuse of power. Lawyers for the prime minister have asked George Clooney to testify at the trial because he was allegedly spotted at a party.

Diana Magnay is live in Milan. And we should point out that George Clooney, the very famous American actor, has a home in Italy and presumably has traveled in some of these circles, but that's sort of a startling admission that he would be somehow involved in this.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, George Clooney himself has said that he's surprised to be on the witness list given the fact that he's only met Silvio Berlusconi, the only premier, once. And that was when he was asking him for help to give aid in Darfur, Sudan. So he's surprised. But he's been called by the defense alongside hundreds or more than a hundred others to try and testify about what exactly went on at these so-called "bunga bunga" parties which we've been hearing about, which are sort of background to this trial.

The prosecution has thousands of pages of documents which include wiretapped conversations from some of the wannabe starlets who supposedly attended these parties and they talk about things like competitive lap dancing, about girls dressed up in policemen's uniforms, in nurse's outfits. So really incredible details and you can expect to hear more as this case goes on.

As you said, the initial hearing was not even 10 minutes. But the trial itself will be an extremely long time. The prosecution has said that it doesn't really have the smoking gun, that piece of evidence which can definitively convict Mr. Berlusconi. But there are a lot of circumstantial evidence some of which has been leaking already from the prosecution which they'll be using to build up their case. But it will be difficult to convict the Italian premier of having had sex with this girl, Ruby, known as Ruby, the heart stealer, apparently when she was underage, just 17, and also of having abused his office supposedly by placing a call to police to try and get her off a theft charge. It will be difficult to convict him on those charges. And, of course, Mr. Berlusconi and Ruby, said that he never paid for sex with her, didn't know that she was a minor and is innocent of all charges, Christine.

ROMANS: And I guess, Diana, there's Randy (ph) and there's illegal. And that's where the difference is going to have to be for this prosecution to show that he broke the law.

Meantime, what are the Italian people saying about this? Their prime minister, in a sex scandal, on trial.

MAGNAY: It is amazing. A lot of them are deeply scandalized and a lot of them think this is just the Milan prosecutor here persecuting the prime minister. So there's a real divide. Even today outside the courtroom we had pro Mr. Berlusconi and anti-Mr. Berlusconi shouting at each other across the road. But what is the case that his approval ratings have slipped dramatically as a result of this trial. So we'll have to wait and see whether that continues over the course of the next few months. Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Diana Magnay. Thank you so much, Diana. Kiran?

CHETRY: A key victory at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, at least, a victory on one problem. Workers were able to stop the radioactive water that was gushing from a leak into the Pacific Ocean. The leak at that reactor two is now plugged. But, there's a flip side to that. Japanese officials say they're still having to dump three million gallons of contaminated water into the sea on purpose. They say they have to do this to make room for more water. They have to be able to store water that's even more radioactive than that.

A showdown in Ivory Coast where forces for President Alassane Ouattara are now attacking rival Laurent Gbagbo. Troops stormed Gbagbo's residence just hours ago. He is the incumbent who has refused to surrender power after losing an election despite massive pressure from world bodies like the United Nations. Ouattara is hoping to capture Gbagbo and end what's turned into now a bloody civil conflict.

Protests, sanctions, air strikes, nothing has convinced Moammar Gadhafi to step down as Libya's dictator but former U.S. congressman, one of them Curt Weldon thinks he might be able to persuade him. He's meeting with the Libyan dictator today and asking for Gadhafi to leave power. Weldon says he's going there on the invitation of Gadhafi. He also met with the dictator in 2004 when Libya agreed to end its nuclear weapons program. Ali?

VELSHI: All right. Kiran, if you've been following us on CNN, you will remember that yesterday we had Ben Wedeman talking about the fact that rebel forces were leaving Brega. This is a picture of all those rebel forces that were actually leaving. Now I want to show you something. I want to show you a map of Libya, OK. You can see that before - when this thing started out a couple of weeks ago, the government was in control of everything. Green dots are government control. Red dots are rebel control. This is what it looked like yesterday.

Now let me just show you how things have changed. Right now, what you've got is government forces moving into more cities further east and north. The rebels are still in control of Ajdabiya, Benghazi and Tobruk. But you can see that there are some changes. Now I want to take a look at the city here, just west of Tripoli, the capital, Zawiya, that's where Nic Robertson is.

Look at these pictures. This was on the 20th of February. This is a satellite image of Zawiya. You can see a mosque there and some buildings in this town square, this martyr square. Take a look at what this looks like now. This was taken on the 20th of March, about 10 days ago. The mosque is gone. Most of the buildings around the square are gone. There's lots of damage. This is the kind of thing that's happening on the ground in Libya.

Let's go to Nic Robertson. He is standing by. I think he's in Zawiya right now, is that where you are? Let's listen to Nic's report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rubble and smashed concrete where once Zawiya's central mosque stood. Four weeks ago, the government brought us here to see their victory over rebels.

(on camera): Over here, the remains of the mosque right on the central square. This mosque is being used by the rebels as a medical clinic. It was one of their medical centers where they were treating their wounded. This is where the mosque stood, it's been so demolished, so destroyed, all that's left in the ground are a few floor tiles like this.

I mean, you look around you here, you can't even see where the walls were. It's been so heavily pulverized into the ground.

(voice-over): In this city, President Obama and European leaders say Gadhafi's forces must withdraw. Instead, they're removing and repressing any hint of the rebels. Around the corner from the former mosque, more sinister signs of cover-up.

(on camera): This is one of the medical centers that was used by the rebels. There's wrecked beds outside here and the doors here, firmly shuttered, steel plates on the inside. Up here, the main entrance here to the hospital as well, shuttered shut. In fact, not only is it shuttered, but it's been welded shut. No way for us to get inside this former rebel hospital now. It's actually been welded shut. Absolutely closed.

(voice-over): Unless any rebels return, a few yard away under a tree, a carefully camouflaged government tank. The only voice the government wants now, almost on cue with our arrival, a pro-Gadhafi rally. When officials take us to the city hospital, they stifle any hint of anti-regime comment.

(on camera): The mothers here tell us these babies have a fever and that's why they're in the hospital. They also tell us that the situation in Zawiya is just fine. That everything is OK. Of course just outside this room, there are government officials, government minders, who are keeping an ear on everything that they say.

(voice-over): The new hospital director, appointed since the rebel defeat, delivers the government message. They are firmly in control.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't have any shortage in any department for the medical supplies.

ROBERTSON: The unspoken message here, the government is not about to give this city up. Rebels, not just defeated, but repression of the very freedoms they fought for.

(on camera): It's not just the mosque that's missing here, it's the voice of dissent that were so strong six weeks ago, no one on the streets here will voice any opinions against the government. That voice has been snuffed out, crushed, removed, the same way this building has been reduced to rubble.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: And wherever we went in Zawiya yesterday, we were followed by government officials. Sometimes four of them. To get to that rebel hospital, we had to sneak away. And by the time we got around to that was tank covered up, we had four government officials on us, listening to every conversation we were having with locals. More than that, moving in intimidating them. Ali.

VELSHI: Nic, what have you seen emerged? Because we talked to you in western Libya, we talked to Ben Wedeman in eastern Libya, where the rebels don't seem to have a fear, opposition doesn't have a fear of showing its head but they are being driven out by government fire power. Is it because of places controlled or more in the control of rebels that people are more willing to speak out in Libya?

People can only speak out where the rebels are in control because that's the only place they have freedom of speech. Gadhafi's machine that's run this country, that has allowed at times people to voice their own opinions to a certain degree as long as they don't challenge the leadership, is now so afraid about controlling the country, so afraid that rebels might rise up in other areas and rally against the government, that it's absolutely stifling any voice of dissent.

This is a government that is in fear of its own people. That's repressing its own people, yet is winning on the battlefield against the rebels at the moment. So in places like Tripoli, no one would be brave enough or very, very few people brave enough to come forward and say what they really think. But we certainly know here, many people don't like this government and do want changes, Ali.

VELSHI: All right. With all of you out there, we are at least trying to get as much of the story as we can. Thanks for your great work. Nic Robertson, in Zawiya, just west of Tripoli.

ROMANS: Ahead on "American Morning," millions of gallons of radioactive water pumped directly into the Pacific. Should we be afraid of nuclear fish? An expert who studied wild life after Chernobyl will join us next.

CHETRY: Also, a big jump of kids getting CT scans at hospitals. Are these treatments necessary and what about the radiation risks. We're going to talk to experts about what they found.

38 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Welcome back to "American Morning." The giant tsunami wiped out so many fishing villages along Japan's northeastern coast and now the nuclear disaster that followed threatening the fishing industry even more.

CHETRY: The big concern now is that Japan's it continuing to dump - TEPCO telling the government they're continuing to dump radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. They really have no choice at this point. For the first time Japan has set a radiation safety standard for the seafood.

VELSHI: Dr. Timothy Mousseau is a real pioneer in understanding radiation in wildlife. He's a radiation ecologist and biological sciences professor at the University of South Carolina. For the past decade, he studied the impact on wildlife from the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Dr. Mousseau, thanks for being with us. What's your first impression of this? Are consumers of seafood from Japan in danger of ingesting radiation and if so what does it do to us?

TIMOTHY MOUSSEAU, RADIATION ECOLOGIST: Well, there's always this concern when there's this much contamination being dumped into the food chain, at the moment as mentioned previously, some of the fish are being caught that have detectable levels. For the moment, it seems that it's rather localized to the area around, near the reactors and so there's probably not a huge concern with respect to contaminated food given that the fishery has pretty much shut down.

VELSHI: If you're close and if you eat fish that has got these higher than acceptable limits of radiation, what does that do you to you? Do you get radiation that way?

MOUSSEAU: Indeed. The cesium 137 has accumulated in the flesh of the fish and other seafood as well. And so you do get a small dose of the cesium as a result of consuming the contaminated product.

CHETRY: All right. So, of course, a lot of people are worried about this situation because it just - you can't see it and apparently there's some restaurant in New York that wants to buy a radiation detector to start testing their fish for radiation. I mean, is that something we need to be worried about here in the United States. We import about four percent of our seafood from Japan?

MOUSSEAU: It doesn't seem that that's likely to be an issue for the moment especially since most of the fish product that we're consume over here has probably been frozen for a while, but we should be paying attention to the products that are coming in. A handheld detector is not likely to detect the very low levels that we're seeing at the moment.

ROMANS: I mean, the life cycle of the fish or any animal that comes in contact with radiation, is altered. The genetic material can be damaged. You know for the eggs that are laid or whatever. You have studied this after Chernobyl so there is some body of knowledge about what happens, but mostly we don't really know a lot about how radiation affects animals and I guess the circle of life, right?

MOUSSEAU: Indeed. One of the surprising things is that we haven't really investigated the consequences of these low dose contaminants in natural populations to any great degree. We've been working in Chernobyl for the past decade or so and many of our findings have been quite surprising, that, you know, such low levels can lead to genetic damage and reduced fertility for the plants and animals living there. Hopefully that doesn't translate into consequences for humans, given the very low levels that we're seeing.

VELSHI: All right. Timothy Mousseau, that's a little bit of positive news in a flow of really negative news out of Japan. Thanks so much for that. Dr. Timothy Mousseau is a radiation ecologist and professor of biological sciences at the University of South Carolina.

CHETRY: Appreciate it. Well, coming up after the break, the southeast getting a little bit of a reprieve after this wicked weather rolled through there. Rob is going to be along with the travel forecast, right after the break for us.

VELSHI: 44 minutes after the hour.

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VELSHI: Pete (ph), our floor director was telling me, if comes back in another life, he wants to come back as Richard Branson.

CHETRY: That's right. That's not a bad -- actually there's a lot of guys that want to come back as Richard Branson.

VELSHI: Because you're really rich and you just do whatever you feel like.

ROMANS: Richard Branson is the only Richard Branson.

VELSHI: Well, he's got a new shtick, by the way. He's going to be spending a lot of time under water in the next two years. The billionaire adventurer, launching Virgin Oceanic. It's a one-man submarine that mimics the movements of a dolphin to basically fly through water.

Branson plans to pilot it to the bottom of each of the earth's five oceans. Apparently it can withstand pressure down to 35,000 feet. He says he's hoping to discover new life forms, map the ocean floors and set 30 Guinness World Records by the time his mission is complete.

CHETRY: He's busy. He's a busy guy. Now he's --

VELSHI: He's a rich guy.

ROMANS: Very rich.

CHETRY: Not only is he changing the way people fly, he's sending people up to the moon, he's been sending people on space expeditions. Now he's --

VELSHI: He does use his money for interesting developments.

CHETRY: Now he's mapping the -- he's discovering new species.

Forty-eight minutes past the hour.

VELSHI: Our new species.

CHETRY: Rob, if you came back as somebody, Richard Branson, wouldn't be too bad, right?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, He definitely would be top of the list. You know, and when I think about this story and I look at Mr. Branson, or Sir Branson, he kind of looks like Aqua Man.

CHETRY: He does. He's got that silvery Aqua Man hair, you're right.

MARCIANO: I could totally see him in the guild suit, you know, swimming and talking to the fish with the bubbles coming up. He might jump out of that sub down there. Who knows. I mean, the guy's Aqua Man and Superman. No, he's quite an incredible person and we'll look forward to some updates from there.

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VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Shocking new study on teen alcohol abuse. Five drinks a day sounds like a lot but almost half of teens surveyed say, no problem. Forty-five percent of kids see no big risks in having five or more alcoholic drinks a day. This comes from a survey by the partnership at drugfree.org. It says 68 percent of teens have tried alcohol, a quarter started drinking at age 12 or younger. Asked why they drink, because it's fun, teens say, and they don't want to feel left out -- Christine.

ROMANS: For Bristol Palin, abstinence pays -- pays big bucks. She earned $262,000 raising awareness for teen pregnancy in 2009. The daughter of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was 18 when she gave birth to her son, Tripp. Palin still works for the Candies Foundation, which aims to prevent teen parenthood.

CHETRY: CT scans are being used more and more on kids when they visit the ER. Reports show that these CT scans increase from about 330,000 back in 1995, to 1.65 million in 2008. And the concern is, is that they emit radiation. So some worry, is this having an impact on my children's health?

A new study took a look at the risks and senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us live with more on this.

So first of all, why the big uptick in these CT scans?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know what, Kiran? It depends who you ask. Some people will tell you the CT scans are so much better now than they used to be, that doctors want to use them because they're useful. Other people will tell you doctors want to use them because they make a lot of money for the hospitals they work for. And then other people will tell you that pushy parents are responsible, that they come in and say, give me kid a CT scan.

But, whatever the reason, these numbers are really quite stunning. Take a look at this. In 1995, one out of every 83 children who went to an ER ended up with a CT scan. 2008, one in 17 children. That is a huge increase in such a short period of time, Kiran.

CHETRY: What kind of scans? What do the kids go in the ER with that they say, let's get a CT scan here?

COHEN: You know what, it's all sorts of scans. Scans of the head, scans of the abdomen. But really the abdomen is the biggest one. I mean, one in five kids who walk into an emergency room with stomach problems ends up getting a CT scan.

CHETRY: I got you. And then, how much radiation are they getting? I mean, how do you equate it and how do they know if it's a concern?

COHEN: You know, it's quite a bit. Let's take a look at some comparisons. And the abdominal CT scan is the one to pay attention to here because that is the most common one the kids get in the ER. So, a chest X-ray gives you 0.01 millisieverts of radiation. A head CT scan, two millisieverts, so that's a huge jump there. And, an abdominal CT scan, five millisieverts or more.

So the most popular scan is also the one that gives the child the most radiation. And what's important to remember here is radiation is cumulative. So the radiation that your child gets is with them for the rest of their life. So that's not so much what you're seeing right there, but another CT scan a couple years later and another one a couple years later, it all adds up.

CHETRY: So if you want to help parents be Empowered Patients, what should they ask, what should they do if they take their kid to the ER and this is recommended?

COHEN: Right. Here are my Empowered Parent tips on this. And as a parent, I certainly think about this when I take my child to the ER.

First of all, you can just ask simply, does my child really need this? Would it hurt to wait? Do we really need to do this right now? Can we wait? Maybe they won't need it later. Also, you can ask for an ultrasound or an MRI instead, because they don't use radiation.

You can also -- and this one's really important. Avoid multiple scans. So if your child was scanned the previous week for the same thing at the doctor's office and they want to do it again in the ER, say, is there any way you can get a hold of the scan from my doctor? Or, can we wait until the morning and get that scan? Sometimes they just want to do another one because it's convenient. Ask if it's really necessary.

CHETRY: I got you. Well, some good tips and some things certainly to be concerned about. How ironic we know what millisieverts means now because of all of this in Japan.

COHEN: I know.

CHETRY: Unbelievable.

COHEN: That's right.

CHETRY: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.

COHEN: Thanks, Kiran.

CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. Your top stories coming up in just a couple of minutes.

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