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American Morning

Another Round of Deadly Storms in South and Midwest; Inside Gadfahi's Bombed Out Compound; Three Days Until Royal Wedding; Keeping London Safe; Levi Johnston's "Tell-All" On Palin Family; Evacuations After Levee Concerns

Aired April 26, 2011 - 06:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi. A lot happening overnight. Let's get you caught up.

Another round of deadly storms down south and in the Midwest. A possible tornado ripping through one town. A levee being washed away in another and the worst may still be on the way.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Inside Gadhafi's bombed out compound may be the most destructive airstrike yet on his center of power. Was he the target? We're live in Libya with the latest.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry here in London this morning. We're taking a look right behind me at Buckingham Palace. It's absolutely beautiful here today. A little cooler, but boy, you can certainly feel the difference a day later, the presence of police, security concerns, as people get set for the big day, the royal wedding, on Friday.

AMERICAN MORNING starts now.

VELSHI: Good morning. It's Tuesday, April 26th.

I'm Ali Velshi.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans.

A lot of events we're following today, including the events in the Middle East. What is the U.S. foreign policy there? But most importantly, three days to go until the royal wedding.

VELSHI: Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, it's certainly topic that's top of mind here in London. And as I was saying, not as nice and warm today, but definitely more typical in terms of your London weather. That hasn't stopped people from coming out. You can feel the buzz building yet again.

But today, one of the things we're going to be focusing on is the security aspect. In some ways security forces here probably hope for rain that way in that way it'll will keep the crowds maybe a little bit fewer than what we're expecting now, which is several hundred thousand people. And if you can take a look, just to show you a couple of the things that are happening a little different. If you take a look at this, this is Queen Victoria memorial. This is usually a beautiful fountain, but right now a little bit of the view obstructed by these risers that they've built. This will allow for the TV cameras to be able to capture every moment of the royal wedding.

And right behind is Buckingham Palace. You can see people lined up already. Changing of the Guards taking place within the hour. People are usually lined up, but, of course, there's a lot more excitement ahead of the royal wedding. And, in fact, we're going to show you a little bit later in the hour, the first official person camping out at Westminster Abbey. He has a sleeping bag and all ready to go. Doesn't want to miss a moment of the big day.

And we're also going to tell you more about the press conference they're holding today to update people on what they're doing to keep this city safe and to make sure that the hundreds of thousands of people that have come for the royal wedding have a good time but that nobody can launch any type of attack.

Back to you guys.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks, Kiran.

They're calling in the National Guard in southeast Missouri this morning, as thousands of people in the town of Poplar Bluff helplessly watch a disaster unfold. The Black River is rising. It's already overflowed the town's levee in three dozen places. Everyone's concerned that that levee is about to give way. Parts of the city already badly flooded and over a thousand homes have been evacuated so far. Officials are warning everyone to prepare to leave.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED STERENFEL, BUTLER COUNTY COMMISSIONER: This could be very imminent danger within minutes. If the levee was to break, you will have very, very short time to get out of the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: In Arkansas this morning, the governor plans to survey the damage from a disastrous tornado that tore through that state. He's declared a state of emergency for the entire state. Seven people are dead. More than 60,000 homes have lost power in this latest wave of extreme weather. In Garland County in central Arkansas, there were so many calls for help, they ran out of ambulances.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was raining so hard you couldn't see nothing. And then it started doing all this. It happened so fast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all ended up in the closet and then you could just hear crashing and stuff being knocked around and blowd around. It tore us up. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Not far away in Fayetteville, CNN iReporter Colin Wakefield (ph) shot this video from his second floor apartment. Look at that. The street below covered by two feet of water.

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: Let's go to Libya now. The situation in Misrata has taken a turn for the worse. Some of the deadliest fighting yet is being reported overnight. Despite being pushed back by rebels, Gadhafi forces continue their shelling of the city and they're killing Libyan civilians in the process.

Misrata itself is a city in ruins. Check out these pictures. The bombing seems to have reduced every building to rubble. One western journalist witnessed the battle inside the city and describing it as hell on earth.

ROMANS: Libya's government accusing NATO of trying to assassinate Moammar Gadhafi with an air strike that wiped out a building in his compound in Tripoli. NATO officials say it was a key command and control center. It was used to launch attacks on civilians.

CNN's Frederick Pleitgren got a tour of this bombed out compound. This is the video he shot on that tour we were just showing you. He joins us live from Tripoli.

Fred, what did you see?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We saw that the building was absolutely flattened. You could see that there really wasn't very much left to it except some rubble. It seemed to us as though it was hit by very heavy munitions. And also the blast that we heard coming from that area before, Christine, indicated these were very heavy bombs or missiles that were launched on to that compound.

Now, the interesting thing is that we actually tried to verify the claims of the Gadhafi government of that this, in fact, was nothing but a civilian institution, one that's often used, by the way, by Moammar Gadhafi where he also meets foreign heads of state, as well. They say this is an absolute civilian building.

We wanted to go and investigate the rubble and sort of check whether or not there might have been a command and control bunker under the building or whether an adjacent building might have had some sort of military installation in it. They didn't allow us to try and do that. They said that they were still checking the rubble themselves and that they had things that they felt might be secret in there.

So again, they claim it's a completely civilian building. We were not able to check out whether or not that's true. But as you said, NATO says that attack on civilians were launched from that area -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Fred Pleitgren. Thank you so much, Fred, in Tripoli.

In Syria now with government forces crushing protesters, the U.S. State Department is now telling American citizens to get out. Family members of embassy personnel and nonessential staff have been ordered to leave. As demonstrations escalate, so does the government's brutal response. The government unleashed the military to crush funeral protests in the town of Daraa. Some 500 people have been arrested in the latest crackdown. Hundreds have been killed so far. The White House repeating its demand for Syria's president to stop the slaughter immediately. The White House also pushing for sanctions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, we're certainly looking at different ways to make clear to the Syrian government how appalling we find this behavior to be and to encourage them, both as we have by speaking out against it, but in other means, to stop the violence and to move towards serious reform.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The Obama administration wants the U.N. to consider a human rights complaint against Syria.

Top Republicans suggesting it might be time to get tough with big oil. With gas prices inching closer to $4 a gallon and big oil announcing big first-quarter profits this week, House Speaker John Boehner says it may be time to do away with some of the federal subsidies for oil companies.

Here's what he told ABC's "World News."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: It's certainly something that we ought to be looking at.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doing away with these subsidies?

BOEHNER: We're at a time when the federal government is short on revenues. We need to control spending but need to have revenues to keep the government moving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: President Obama's also pushing to eliminate what he calls $4 billion in subsidies to oil companies.

ROMANS: Other stories making headlines for you this morning. We could be closer to having a football season. A federal judge has ordered the NFL to end its lockout immediately. The NFL says it will appeal. In the meantime players say they've received e-mails suggesting they should report to work today. The players and owners are fighting over how they should split up $9 billion in annual revenue. The NFL draft is still scheduled Thursday in New York, Ali. VELSHI: And Michael Vick blasting an app called Dog Wars. The NFL star who was convicted on dog fighting charges in 2007 says Dog Wars glorifies animal cruelty. In the game, users can feed, train and fight virtual dogs. Animal rights groups want the app pulled. The makers of Dog Wars say it's just a video game, not meant as an endorsement of dog fighting.

ROMANS: All right. There appears to be no way to stop Apple from tracking your every move. The "Wall Street Journal" ran tests on the iPhone 4. It found even with the tracking turned off, the phone continued to log locations. It's still not clear why Apple is storing this information. At least two members of Congress are trying to find out. On Apple's end, CEO Steve Jobs says the company doesn't track anyone. He says the information going just around simply isn't true.

VELSHI: This continues to be a puzzlement. This story has been going on for a few days and we just can't seem to get a straight answer on this.

ROMANS: It's he said/she said.

VELSHI: Yes.

Sony's PlayStation network, we talked about this yesterday, it's now down for a sixth day after an attack by hackers. If you recall yesterday the company put out a press release saying it was an external intrusions which means hackers. A company spokesman says they're still investigating whether users' credit card numbers and other personal information has been compromised.

ROMANS: All right. We're going to take a look inside air traffic control school. What is happening? How do you train these people to be in this dark tower to -- you know, on 1950s equipment in many cases. Martin Savidge is going to go in depth at ATC school.

VELSHI: And we've been talking about electric cars. The Chevy Volt, the Nissan Leaf. Well, you know what? We're going to show you the first crash test and give you a sense of how safe these cars are. Minding Your Business is up in 10 minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Each week CNN takes an in depth look into an important story and today it's air traffic controllers.

ROMANS: In recent months the FAA has been plagued by problems in their towers from distracted to sleepy employees. With that being said, we begin with another fired controller. This time out of Seattle's Boeing Field. The FAA says the controller fell asleep twice on the job. The first time back in January. Last week two other controllers were also let go for napping.

VELSHI: Now, one of them worked in Knoxville, Tennessee, the other in Miami, another one in Reno was suspended after he fell asleep while an air ambulance was trying to land and a Cleveland, Ohio, controller was caught watching a DVD on duty early this month.

ROMANS: So what's the solution? Well there's one idea that you've heard us talking about here, actually, some former - some former FAA officials were saying controlled napping. And now some experts say it might be the answer to air traffic controllers snoozing on the job and NTSB official suggested that short, required naps would help overnight workers combat fatigue. That way they'll be more alert when they return to the job.

Right now, the FAA forbids any sleeping, even on breaks. But officials say they are continuing - they're considering that recommendation. Others who work the overnight shift say, hey, wait a minute, I don't get -

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: -- I don't get a break.

VELSHI: Well, today we're taking you inside the world of air traffic controllers. We want to show you an interactive lab in Florida. It's what some controllers call controller college. It trains the next generation of men and women who will control the airwaves.

CNN's Martin Savidge gives us a look into the state of art facilities. He joins us live now from Daytona Beach, Florida. Hey, Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Ali. Yes. We are in Daytona Beach, Florida, at the airport, by the way. We're not here for spring break, just to point that out for everybody. We're here for final exams week, for would-be air traffic controllers.

We're actually at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical College and that has to be one of the finest colleges in the country when it comes to do with anything with wings, and we have been watching as the class of 2011. About 120 students here have been going through the paces, four years to this point learning in classrooms, learning on state-of-the-art simulators and spending $120,000 by the way in tuition just to get to this point which is no guarantee that they will, in fact, end up with a job as an air traffic controller.

And their final grade, it is not based on how well they do in that essay question, but how well they do on those simulators when everything is thrown at them and they're instructed by people who have been FAA air traffic controllers for decades. One of them, Sid McGuirk, he says that he wants to instill in these young people the idea that the goal here is exactly going to be perfection all the time. It's not the goal, it is the standard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SID MCGUIRK, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, EMBRY-RIDDLE UNIVERSITY: There are tens of thousands of operations every single day and operation being an aircraft landing and an aircraft taking off.

This is a profession where the perfection rate is in the 99.997 percent range. Not only is it a profession where you can't make a mistake, it's a profession where not very many mistakes are made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Christine and Ali, we also want to point out that when they get done here, they get a degree but they don't necessarily get a job. They hope to be picked up by the FAA. If they do, they go to Oklahoma City, another six to eight weeks of training there, then another two to four years of training on the job. Which means by the time they're all said and done, they will have spent as much time learning as your doctor did, which is probably a reassuring thing to know when you're sitting in 32-B at 30,000 feet wondering just who is guiding this airplane through the sky - Ali and Christine.

VELSHI: And - and the good part about this, Martin, is one thing that hasn't come into question is the relative level of training.

ROMANS: Right.

VELSHI: We're not - we're not - you know, that's good to hear what you're telling us. The issue - the issue does seem to center around either their stress levels or whether or not they should be allowed to sleep or compelled to sleep. Did - did anybody there comment on that?

SAVIDGE: Oh, yes. No, this is no question, that this has all been the headlines a teaching moment for them. They talked about it a lot in the classrooms.

Two things that have come up. Number one, they said that, look, a couple of people out of a profession of 15,000 -

VELSHI: Right.

SAVIDGE: -- does not define an industry. Number two, they also will point out that, hey, they disagree, some of them disagree with the transportation secretary saying there's going to be no sleeping on the job. They say, you know, in many countries around the world it is exactly accepted that one air traffic controller may get rest while another takes his position. That way they both stay sharp.

They point out, by the way, long distance flights, you have one set of pilots that are sleeping and another one that's flying. They change positions during the night. Why? So everybody remains on the ball for a critical, critical job.

ROMANS: And we do want everyone on the ball.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: We definitely do. All right. Thanks, Martin Savidge.

SAVIDGE: Yes. We do (ph).

ROMANS: Really interesting.

The Feds now trying to find out why the roof of a Southwest Jet ripped open in flight earlier this month. The NTSB is zeroing in on - on flawed rivets saying some were loose, misshapen and misaligned. Rivets, of course, are used to bind together the Boeing's aluminum skin. But the investigation is still ongoing. Boeing launched some inspections of its own and found similar cracks in five other Southwest Jets, one out of 79 that the airline founded.

CHETRY: Well, back here live in London. Christine and Ali, we're in front of Buckingham Palace again.

Just three days until the royal wedding and today we're talking a lot about the fact that it's looking more and more likely it will rain on the big day. It affects a lot of aspects of the big day, including whether or not they're able to broadcast, as well as they want to, whether or not they're going to get a glimpse of the royal couple in that open air horse and carriage and also the size of the crowd.

That leads us into the security preparations. Six hundred thousand people expected to be out here on the streets. How are they prepping? Well, we're going to talk about it with the former head of security still ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: So I love the Volt, the Chevy Volt, and I love the Nissan Leaf. The Volt kind of - it's got some gas and it's got electric. The Leaf is entirely electric. But the question comes up, they're small, they're new, are they safe?

Carmen Wong Ulrich joins us now with the answer to that question.

CARMEN WONG ULRICH, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have a great answer today. Well, in the first U.S. crash test rating for the plug- in electric cars, the Chevy Volt - Chevrolet Volt - excuse me - and Nissan Leaf have earned the top safety rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Now, both have standard electronic stability control, which is very important, and they got top ratings for front, side, rear and rollover crash protection.

VELSHI: Yes.

ULRICH: Now, you may ask why, because I mean I've driven these cars, they're very small. Why did they get such great ratings? Well, the weight helps and the weight from the battery. The batteries of both plug-ins are incredibly heavy, more than 400 pounds, giving the small cars the weight of a much larger, mid-sized or even full-sized car. So you get better handling and much better crash response.

Now, note, as you mentioned, Ali, the Leaf is fully electric and the Volt is a gas plug-in hybrid. The gas engine kicks in only after you run out of that electrical charge. And another thing to note, too, is that the batteries in terms of the crash testing, people fear electronic shocks. That they shut off -

VELSHI: Yes, yes.

ULRICH: -- instantly upon impact and, two, they were really safe. The batteries did not get damaged in these tests. It's great. ROMANS: So we're learning more about these cars -

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: -- and every new piece of information makes it a little easier to mainstream what could be a real - a real viable option to keep our carbon footprint down.

VELSHI: As to close to $4 a gallon.

ROMANS: Oh, yes.

ULRICH: Well, the gas prices help.

ROMANS: All right. Carmen Wong Ulrich, thanks.

ULRICH: Thanks, guys.

ROMANS: We're going to take a quick check of severe weather right now from Texas to Ohio. I mean, it's been day after day of fires, floods, tornadoes. We're going to tell you what's happening in Northwest Arkansas with Jacqui Jeras after the break.

VELSHI: And, Donald Trump is not backing down from this whole birth certificate issue. He tells our Anderson Cooper the birth certificate is missing. We'll tell you what we learned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. You're looking at a live picture right now of Buckingham Palace on this Tuesday, April 26th. And we have a great vantage point here high above Queen Victoria's fountain there. Queen Victoria's Memorial right in front of Buckingham Palace.

And we have a special treat. At exactly 11:30, which is what time it is here, the changing of the guard takes place. The guards who have been on duty at the palace early in the morning switchover.

Let's show some of the video. This is a very exciting event that happens, but made all the more so because of how many more tourists are here for wedding week. This is one of the best vantage points to get a look at this and we had it pass right before our eyes a moment ago.

Also coming up in just a few moments, we're going to be looking into how London is planning on keeping the hundreds of thousands of people here on the streets safe. So, we're going to talk about that coming up with former commander of special operations at new Scotland Yard.

But, for now, let's send back to Ali and Christine in New York.

VELSHI: All right. Kiran, thank you.

At 30 minutes after the hour -- time now for your morning's top stories. Misrata is in ruins. One western journalist witnessing the battle inside the city describes Misrata as hell on earth. Some of the bloodiest fighting yet is being reported there. Moammar Gadhafi's forces continue shelling the Libyan port city.

Nissan is recalling nearly 200,000 SUVs. The automaker says corrosion problems could damage their steering and suspension systems. The recall involves Pathfinder models from 1997 to 2003, and the Infinity QX 4 from 1996 to 2004. Nissan says owners can bring their vehicles in and have them fixed for free.

Extreme weather battering the South and Midwest. Right now, seven people are dead in Arkansas this morning where powerful thunderstorms and a tornado last night knocked out power to nearly 70,000 homes. The governor declared a state of emergency and plans to tour the damaged areas of his state later this morning.

Jacqui Jeras joins us live from the extreme weather center.

Wow. Jacqui, those areas that have been hit are still in trouble and there's -- you said there's more storm conditions on the way today?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It's just unrelenting. More severe weather today and tomorrow as well, both expected to be significant outbreaks of severe weather. We're talking about an outbreak, we're talking 20 or more tornadoes and when all is said and done, this is likely going to be a record May for the number of tornadoes.

Now, we do have the threat of damaging winds and hail at this hour. That's the big concern along the I-10 corridor into parts of Louisiana. But we've been talking about Arkansas and that's one place where we think will get hit hard again late this afternoon and this early evening.

Tornadoes expected to fire up along the dry line into northeastern parts of Texas, move through Oklahoma and then Arkansas and into western Tennessee. The rest of you here in the slight risk area can expect to see large hail and damaging winds as your most frequent extreme weather maker. But isolated tornadoes are going to be possible.

And then this system shifts to the east. By tomorrow, we'll be watching Nashville. We'll be watching Huntsville, as well as Birmingham for the tornado threat, even Atlanta, over towards Richmond, as the system finally begins to exit on Thursday and watching for better weather by the end of the work week.

Now, flooding is the second concern that we're dealing with. Look at all the green on the map today. This is so widespread it's unbelievable. Many more people being impacted by the flooding compared to the tornadoes, and we've got a lot of water covering roads, use a lot of caution. In fact, some of these rivers and tributaries could see record crests later this week.

Unfortunately, that rain in the forecast continues to be extremely heavy. Today, alone, we could be talking about two to four inches on top of what you already have and this is the forecast the next five days showing you that we're expecting even more than that.

Fire danger, extremely high, the worst we've seen in a week.

We've got it all in the weather forecast -- a lot of extreme conditions out there.

ROMANS: Busy day for Jacqui Jeras -- thanks, Jacqui.

VELSHI: Let's take you over to London where Kiran is -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Got the excitement building guys across the pond with Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding three days away. An event this big, certainly the times we live in, security, one of the front and center issues for royal wedding planners and, of course, metropolitan police.

Joining us right now is Roy Ramm. He's a former commander of special operations at New Scotland Yard.

I asked him what I could compare that to in the U.S., FBI -- I mean, you're in charge of investigations, organized crime, potential terror.

What is your biggest concern looking ahead to Friday?

ROY RAMM, FORMER COMMANDER, SPECIAL OPERATIONS, SCOTLAND YARD: I think on a number of levels. You know, this is going to be a massive event, probably a million people on the streets of London. I think there are going to be some that will try to disrupt, there's no doubt about that. And how close they can get to the actual wedding parade I think is the biggest fear. You know, this is not like the G-20 where you can throw a fence around something just and exclude people.

CHETRY: Right. Because people want to be a part of it.

RAMM: Exactly.

CHETRY: They want to enjoy it as well. They don't want to feel they're in a police state.

RAMM: Sure. So, for the metropolitan police, what they've got to do is get the balance of allowing people up close, not being so intrusive. But, at the same time, they're really focusing on who's behaving strangely in the crowd, et cetera.

But, you know, the planning for this and the work they've been doing has been going on for weeks, months. Every part of the route has been checked. The lamp posts have been searched, everything has been searched for explosive devices and they have been targeting individuals that they think may be involved in some way.

CHETRY: Right. So, talking about people who prior have had perhaps -- one of the things they've said people who have had an obsession. These loners who may have had -- a single operator who may have an obsession with the royal family or something, and then also concerns about potential anarchists, people have a point they want to bring across, whether it's, you know ,Irish republican factions or something like that.

How concerned are you over that?

RAMM: Well, again, it's in layers, you know? If you've got a loner who's obsessive about the royal family, there's a lot of work being done on that constantly identifying these people, and they will have been put under some kind of surveillance prior to the event. They will be, you know, subject of work right now.

CHETRY: Right. You actually -- I actually read they can actually detain now, they can detain people they suspect may be potentially committing crimes on the wedding day?

RAMM: Yes, they can. But they want to limit that. And they won't want to try to lock up dozens of people. It's just not practical.

But when it gets to, you know, the groups, whether it's Irish republican terrorist, whether it's Muslim fundamentalists, whether they're actually want to disrupt the wedding or do something much more serious, those are a much more complex issues. And, you know, whether somebody just wants to come along and make a point, demonstrate, or whether they want to cause real harm -- that's the difficult balance for the police to try to discern.

CHETRY: The other interesting thing is that you're dealing in a smaller area when Prince Charles and Lady Di got married back in 1981, they were at St. Paul's Cathedral, a much longer route back to Buckingham Palace. You guys are dealing in an area a bit little smaller if you are looking at London. They're going to be at the Westminster Abbey. All of that is within pretty short walking distance.

Does that change the police plan?

RAMM: Well, in some way, it makes it easier because you've got less of a route to worry about, you know, from Buckingham Palace here behind us to Westminster Abbey is about half a mile. And, you know, so the police are really focused their activity here. But what it does mean the crush of the public will also want to be here.

So, if you had a million people from St. Paul's to Buckingham Palace, that's a nice long road to step out into. Here, people are going to be 30 deep along the highway, I believe, would have thought.

CHETRY: A lot of talk about the weather that day. The rain I heard may make it easier for police to do their job in that you might not have as many people out. What do you think?

RAMM: Well, you know, police in public order events always say that rain is actually the best policeman. But, you know, (a), it will be very sad if there is a downpour on the day. And then if there is a downpour, people will be wearing more clothing, that can conceal more, that means searching and identifying people who may be carrying objects becomes more difficult. So -- CHETRY: There's a balance there, one against the other.

The other question concerns, there are some, as you mentioned, some al Qaeda groups are -- Islamic fundamentalist groups that are actually calling for people, followers to act to send a message this anti- Crusader.

Are you worried that that can actually happen or do you think that even though that may be something that people are calling for, it would be very difficult logistically to pull it off in London?

RAMM: Well, one particular group, Muslim against Crusades, applied to stage a demonstration at Westminster Abbey. Now, they were denied that. They won't weren't allowed to do that.

But, in a way, it's the organizations that don't apply, don't put their heads above the parapet. If this organization wants to demonstrate somewhere on the periphery of the royal wedding, that may go ahead. But it's the ones that are not applying, it's the ones that are under the radar, seeking to do -- commit some disruptive acts that are not talking to the police and are not in the public arena, they're the ones that are real concern.

CHETRY: All right. Well, I know, as you said, a lot of planning going into this, 5,000 police will be on the streets of the big day. Hopefully it goes off without a hitch. We wish you the best of luck. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

RAMM: Thank you.

CHETRY: Roy Ramm, great to talk to you.

RAMM: A pleasure.

CHETRY: Appreciate it.

Also coming up this hour, we're going to take a look something that's very uniquely London. Every Sunday, you go to Hyde Park and you can go to what's called the Speaker's Corner. You can take your soap box, you can stand up there and just talk and pontificate about anything that's on your mind. The amazing part is how much people get involved and argue back and forth. We're going to show some of the best sights of Hyde Park coming up.

And we also want you to be part of our global viewing party. CNN's royal wedding coverage starts 4:00 a.m. Eastern on Friday. Get all your royal wedding information any time at CNN.com/royalwedding.

And there's also a new site you can check out, on our blog, "Unveiled." It has everything you need to know about the nuptials from Kate's dress to the menu -- CNN.com/unveiled.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Well, it's Donald Trump's latest bombshell in the birther battle. He now doubts President Obama's original birth certificate even exists. He says he's been told it's missing. Trump is a potential presidential candidate for 2012. He raised questions about Obama's birth place in recent weeks.

He claims he sent private investigators to Hawaii to find out the truth. Anderson Cooper pressed him on the facts last night on "360."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REAL ESTATE MAGNATE (via telephone): I've been told very recently, Anderson, that the birth certificate is missing. I've been told that it's not there and it doesn't exist. And if that's the case --

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Who told you that?

TRUMP: -- that's a big problem. I just heard that two days ago from somebody.

COOPER: From your investigators?

TRUMP: I don't want to say who. But I've been told that the birth certificate is not there. It's missing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Well, CNN sent a team of investigators of its own to Hawaii and you'll see once and for all what they found coming up at 7:25 Eastern.

Now, Trump has been leading the Republican polls for weeks. But a new "USA Today" Gallup Poll shows his support is dropping. President Obama is the top contender for the 2012 presidential bid.

Take a look at this. Thirty-one percent of respondents saying they will definitely vote for him, 23 percent saying they'll consider it, 48 percent, though, almost half of those polled, say they won't vote for him.

Take a look at Mitt Romney. He is up next, 6 percent of respondents say they will vote for him, 42 percent are considering voting for him, and 45 percent -- almost the same number say they won't vote for President Obama -- will definitely not vote for Mitt Romney.

Mike Huckabee up next there, 7 percent of voters say they will definitely vote for him, 39 percent are on the fence, 48 percent say they won't.

And, finally, that brings us to Donald Trump. And like Mike Huckabee -- 7 percent of voters who responded to this poll say they solidly support him, only 28 percent say they'd even consider him, and the big difference, look at that red number, 64 percent say they definitely do not want the Donald in the White House. Trump is going to be hitting the road to change those statistics or at least try to. His potential presidential tour stops in Las Vegas on Thursday. He'll be speaking to several GOP women's groups. Nevada's caucus plays an important early role in the Republican nominating process -- Christine.

ROMANS: I've just read a poll on "USA Today" that says only 43 percent of Americans polled think that Donald Trump was born in the United States. So watch this.

VELSHI: He'll have investigators check that out, too.

ROMANS: Right. Texas Republican Ron Paul feeling out another run for president. Later today, he'll announce an exploratory committee has been formed for the 2012 election. Paul hasn't made a final decision, but the committee is a key step in gearing up for a White House bid.

And Ron Paul will join us live tomorrow here on AMERICAN MORNING. We're going to pick his brain about the upcoming election.

He's back. Levi Johnston writing a tell-all book about his relationship with the Palin Family due out in the fall. Johnston, you recall, has a child with s daughter, Bristol. He says he hopes it will set the record straight about his rocky relationship with the family.

We've got all the latest on politics on our web site, just head over to CNN.com/ticker.

VELSHI: All right. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about wedding stuff some more. We're going to find out what Prince Harry is planning for William and Kate. It's a little bit ruckus, I'll tell you that.

ROMANS: And also, the next hour, we're going to take a look at Obama's -- President Obama's Syria problem. Brianna Keilar is live at the White House. Syria is a very -- it's a deteriorating situation that's posing some very, very big questions for the White House and its policy in the Middle East.

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REED TIMMER, EXTREME METEOROLOGIST AND STORM CHASER: My name is Reed Timmer.

Tornado on the ground.

I'm an extreme meteorologist and storm chaser. We're on the road probably at least 100 or 200 days out of the year. My mode of transportation is our storm chasing tank called the dominator. It's covered with bullet-proof armor. Many times we don't have much preparation to prepare for a trip. We always have to be ready to leave spur of the moment.

The essentials that we have are, obviously caffeine. You need energy drinks out there. Duct tape because duct tape fixes everything. We eat just about every meal out of a gas station. Music can definitely keep you sane out there when you're pretty much living out of your vehicle. We listen to a wide variety of music. Classical, you know, when you're trying to come down from an adrenaline rush.

One thing that I use to keep driving into hours at end is to look forward to what we're going to see the next day because with weather and storm chasing, you never know what you're going to see. Getting inside a tornado and collecting the data that we're after keep us going out on the road for hours on end.

Is that coming our way?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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ROMANS: A lot going on this morning. Here's what you need to know to start your day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS (voice-over): In Southeastern Missouri, the National Guard has joined the fight to secure a levee that officials say is weakening by the minute and could fail at any moment. More than 200 people in the city of popular bluff have been ordered to evacuate.

New pictures from inside Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi's, bombed out compound this morning, but word from the regime, he is still alive and well. Meanwhile, government forces reportedly attacking Misrata, resulting in a number of civilian deaths.

The FAA is firing a third air traffic controller. This one allegedly fell asleep twice while manning an airport control tower in Seattle.

Electronic cigarettes will soon be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The agency announced it'll treat the device as a tobacco product requiring east (ph) cigarette companies to follow the same rules that cover the makers of regular cigarettes.

The state department warning Americans to stay away from even more areas in Mexico because of drug violence. Over the weekend, it nearly doubled the number of Mexican states that U.S. travelers are urged to avoid.

And gas prices are up for the 35th straight day this morning. According to AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular now $3.87.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS (on-camera): You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING back in 60 seconds.

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CHETRY: Welcome back from London. I'm Kiran Chetry here outside of Buckingham Palace. Hey, guys, I wanted to show you a few sights and sounds of London since I'm very sad that you actually can't be here with me, but one of the fun things we did on Easter Sunday was head to Hyde Park where there's a tradition of free speech that dates back to the 1800s.

People gather to protest to debate to discuss. It's known as speaker's corner in Hyde Park, London, and its very existence has come to epitomize free speech, because anybody can literally turn up unannounced and talk about anything and debate with the hecklers. So, you know, the saying get up on your soap box, at Hyde Park speaker's corner, they're literally on their soapboxes. Here's a look.

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CHETRY: So, we're here in Hyde Park here on Easter Sunday in a place known as speaker's corner. Each week, and it's only on Sundays, anyone can come here, put down their soapbox, climb on top of it, and say whatever they want.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just a minute. I'm going to get you arrested. Jesus Christ to become (ph) the sinner for the world that would receive him. How do you see here is a bunch of people that haven't. Folks --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: So, you can basically say anything you want. It actually established English case law about freedom of speech as long as the speech didn't provoke violence. It did get a little heated, though. It was funny. So, you have half the people just walking by as if nothing is happening, riding their bikes or enjoying the lawns of Hyde Park, and then, the other half really engaging in a debate with some of the speakers.

So, it was pretty interesting to see. A unique little slice of London. I also want to talk to you a little bit about Prince Harry. You know, he is Prince William's best man. He's also known for being a bit of a fun guy, I guess, you could say. Apparently, he is planning, at least, according to some of the dailies here, the ultimate after party at Buckingham Palace where he is going to turn some of the rooms into basically a humongous party free-flowing going all the way into the next morning.

And he's having what's called a survivor's breakfast at 6:00 a.m. So, I don't know how along, actually, the newly married Prince William will stay, but his brother is certainly giving him quite a sendoff as his first hours as a married man.

ROMANS: Now that is what I call doing it up, for having your -- you called him kind of a fun guy. I would say he's kind of a party guy. He's known for being a party guy. The survivor's breakfast is very cool.

VELSHI: Do we think William and Kate are going to stay through that whole celebration?

CHETRY: I highly doubt it.

VELSHI: Yes,

CHETRY: And you know what a wedding is like. I mean, if your guests continue to party on, you know, they turn up the next morning, you know, passed out on a lawn chair by the pool, while you and your (INAUDIBLE) are having a nice time in your room.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Excellent. Well said, Kiran. Thank you so much. We'll check in with you very shortly. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back in just a moment. It's 54 minutes after the hour.

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