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American Morning

Britain Prepares for Upcoming Royal Wedding; Reports Indicate Syrian Military Going Door to Door Shooting Protestors; Tornadoes Hit South and Midwest; Diaper and Paper Prices Going Up; Netflix Ties Cable; Settling the "Birther" Debate; Misrata "Hell on Earth"; Bloody Crackdown in Syria; Flooding Ravages Missouri Town

Aired April 26, 2011 - 06:59   ET

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


CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Tornadoes, thunderstorms, raging floods, tearing up the south and Midwest right now. There's a state of emergency in Arkansas, and they're calling in the national guard in Missouri where a rising river is threatening an entire town on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It's Tuesday, April 26th. I'm Ali Velshi.

ROMANS I'm Christine Romans.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry here in London all week. So glad everyone is with us this morning. Just to give you a sense of where we are, right behind me is Buckingham Palace and here in the foreground is known as Queen Victoria Memorial where it is just teaming with people this morning. Three days out until the wedding.

They're expecting 600,000 people to come cover the big day. A lot of questions today, how do you protect them all while still letting them enjoy it? We're going to be taking a look at the unprecedented security effort coming up a little later this morning. And one of the things that's also big here is people wanting to walk the route.

When the queen and the royals leave Buckingham Palace and the princes leave Clarence House to make their way to Westminster Abbey, there's about a half mile parade route or wedding route, I guess, you could say, and we followed that. We went to all of the stops to give you a little flavor of what it's going to be like for the royals and what it's going to be like for all of the people coming to see and experience the royal wedding.

We're going to show you a little bit of that as well, and we're going to be joined by two of our favorite wedding watchers, Mark Saunders and Cat Deeley. They're going to give us some new details, apparently, some new details about the dress, about where it is in Buckingham Palace. It might be one of those long train dresses like we saw Princess Di wear. We're going to talk a little bit about that as well, guys.

ROMANS: But we begin this hour with extreme weather here in the U.S., a potential catastrophe unfolding right now in America's heartland. Thousands of people in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, preparing to get out as the black river rises. Parts of the town are already badly flooded. More than a thousand people have evacuated so far. The river has overflowed the town's levee in three dozen places and that levee is weakening, it's on the verge of collapse. Officials are warning everyone to be on high alert.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED STERENFEL, BUTLER CO. 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)

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Seven people have been killed by severe storms and flooding in Arkansas. The governor has now declared a state of emergency after a tornado ripped through an air force base in Little Rock. Thousands lost power during the thunderstorms last night. In some counties they're getting so many calls for help they've run out of medics and 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 blown around. It just tore us up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Take a look at this video sent by a CNN iReporter Colin Wakefield. He shot it from his second floor apartment in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The street below covered by two feet of water. At least one of the cars did not make it through.

ROMANS: Jacqui Jeras in the extreme weather center where this isn't past, this is happening right now and happening, going to continue to happen today, right?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. I mean severe weather today and tomorrow for sure, maybe on the coast by Friday, but the flood threat, that's going to continue for weeks. And to see video like that, I hate seeing that. Don't drive through it. Three of the deaths in Arkansas were because people drove through the floodwaters. You don't want to do that. That's how more people die, more die in flooding than tornadoes. So keep that in mind in the next couple of days, would you?

Severe weather today, we have a little bit going on out there right now. A severe thunderstorm watch along I-10 where the worst of the weather is. Hail and damaging winds will be of concern. But the tornado threat kicks in late this afternoon and into this evening. Along the dry line. Northeastern Texas through Arkansas again and into western Tennessee and northern parts of Mississippi. These areas have been relentlessly pummeled over the last couple days. The threat shifts eastward tomorrow. A little bit of good news for the folks in the Mississippi valley, but we'll be watching the mid- south, Louisville towards Nashville and Huntsville, Alabama, for rotation, that dark red area where the greatest threat will be, but it stretches from the great lakes to the gulf coast.

Then we've got the floods that we're going to deal with. The red spots are where the warnings are in effect. Everything else is mostly a watch because we've had so much rain here, it's just been an incredible amount.

Take a look at this map, guys. Do you see that dark red area? That's between six and eight inches of rain and there's some purples in there too, as much as 10 to 15 inches in the last seven days. You can see where all that water has been coming through. We could, you know, be pushing another eight inches over the next three days in some of these areas.

So when we hear about the levee which is just on the brink, put more rain on top of that, and it's really a bad situation for a lot of those folks in those areas.

ROMANS: Jacqui Jeras, thanks.

VELSHI: To Libya now where there's no break from the violence in Misrata. That city remains under siege with relentless shelling from Gadhafi forces against rebel fighters and civilians.

And in Syria, the government has stepped up its campaign of violence, crushing pro-democracy demonstrations, and that has led the U.S. state department to order embassy family members and some nonessential staff to leave Syria.

ROMANS: The Obama administration also considering sanctions to pressure Syria's government to end the violent crackdown. Brianna Keilar live with us at the White House. Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine, we know that U.S. is considering a number of things, a travel ban for the Assad government for the cadre, the top members of the Assad regime, also an asset freeze and making sure that those members of the government cannot do business with U.S. interests. We heard yesterday from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney about what the White House is trying to accomplish.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: 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) KEILAR: But now here's the thing about economic sanctions with Syria. Syria's significant economic interests are in Europe more so than they are in the U.S. I asked Carney about this yesterday. I asked him what the U.S. might be doing with European allies to try to get them to take some of these moves which could have more of an effect. He just said that they are definitely talking to European allies, but exactly how something like that might come to be, how they might have some effect using European allies, that really hasn't come to specifics yet, guys.

VELSHI: Brianna, the issue is here in the United States, you have Republicans criticizing the White House about its strategy in the region. You've got something going on in Syria that is substantially worse than we have seen in any of the other countries where we've seen these popular revolutions. What is the White House saying about its strategy in Syria and why it's not a more aggressive about it?

KEILAR: It's facing a lot of criticism, certainly in -- whether there's a comprehensive strategy in the region. But Syria specifically, what you hear the White House saying is that they have condemned the violence, that they're getting out there immediately and saying that this needs to change.

But specifically there are some challenges when they're dealing with Syria. The Assad government, if there were to be some sort of successor to Bashar al-Assad a question of whether that successor might be more unfriendly to the U.S.

And then also, Syria is seen to have an interest when it comes to the U.S. trying to move forward with an Israeli/Palestinian peace process so there are a lot of moving parts the White House is considering. They're saying they have responded immediately and condemning the violence, Ali.

ROMANS: And the person that runs Syria, Bashar al-Assad, members of this administration have called him in the past a reformer, yet his troops are going door to door, according to our witnesses, shooting people. So this is clearly a challenge for this administration, as it tries to say what exactly its overall strategy is in the region. Thanks so much, Brianna.

The top Republican suggesting it might be time to get tough on big oil. With gas prices inching closer to $4 a gallon and big oil announcing big first quarter profits this week, House Speaker 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 MAJORITY LEADER: It's certainly something 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 we need to have revenues to keep the government moving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

All right, Trump's birther investigation of the presidentm of Mr. Obama, what has he found and what are his latest claims? We also sent our own team to Hawaii to check this story out.

VELSHI: Our team came back and said we have enough information to tell you what's really going on.

ROMANS: For two years, experts have been saying there's enough information to tell you what the truth is, but this is a controversy will not die.

VELSHI: Are you a Netflix user?

ROMANS: I am not.

VELSHI: OK, I am. There are now more Netflix users than subscribers to the nation's largest cable service. We'll tell you what that means for you. We're coming back. It's eight minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to "American Morning." we're live here in London just out in front of Buckingham Palace this morning. Three days until the wedding. One of the big topics today is security, how are they going to keep all of these tourists, some 600,000 extra people, milling into London to see the royal wedding, how will they keep them safe?

Very interesting, they talk about this interesting power in a terror law here where they if they think people are conspiring they can actually arrest them. You have to have some evidence but they wouldn't have had to do anything yet. That's something some security experts say they hope is a last straw effort.

What they really are trying to do is make sure everything has been prescreened. They have security cameras, some 5,000 police officers that will be on the streets. The real challenge, though, is to make sure those personal freedoms are still available, people can come and go and feel as though this is a celebration, not some sort of crackdown, police state here.

So they have their hands full. A couple of problems, some possible threats coming from some Islamic groups, possible threats from anarchists or others who have a point of view they want to get across when the world stage is focused here on London, and also some potential concerns about what they call the loners, people who may be just a lone person with some sort of obsession with the royal family that may try to disrupt as well.

But they say that they are very used to doing things on a large scale and they think they'll have a handle on it. They're certainly hoping everything goes without a hitch. And the weather, of course, a big factor as well.

So that's a little taste of what they're going through here in London this morning. We're going to bring you more interesting things. We're going to actually walk the royal route of where the royals will go and where they're going to end up on the day of the wedding for millions of people to see. We'll bring you that later, Ali and Christine.

ROMANS: Thanks, Kiran.

Meanwhile, we're going to take a deep look into what's going on in the Middle East. Revolt fatigue -- we're going to talk about revolution and violence in the region. Aand also criticism of the president on his reaction to Syria, is there a comprehensive strategy in the Middle East and what is it?

VELSHI: And we'll also talk about the prison break in Kandahar. Remember that, almost 500 prisoners including some senior Taliban officials being held in prison, making a break for it, tunneling out. How did this happen after ten years of western forces in Afghanistan. What does it mean? Are there terrorists out on the loose now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Gas prices up 35 days in a row and so are a lot of other things you need. The basics like toilet papers, paper towels will soon be costing you more as well.

Procter & Gamble announced it's raising the price by up to 7 percent on Bounty and Charmin products along with Pampers, those are diapers and then wipes as well.

The company says it's merely passing along the higher prices it has to pay for energy and raw material prices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Two things going up in tandem, paying more for the stuff because of more demand and the oil prices we always talk about it with respect to gas prices.

But in -- it affects everybody because to make anything, you need to heat things. You need to transport on trucks and you need energy.

ROMANS: Seven percent is a big hike too. Seven percent something you're going to feel right away.

VELSHI: More than people got in terms of a raise, if you got any.

ROMANS: Yes, that's right, 2 to 3 percent I think is the average rate this year. Carmen Wong Ulrich here minding your business and she's got another consumer angle here for us. CARMEN WONG ULRICH: Good morning. Yes, one of my favorite services here Netflix has become the master not only of the view from home movie business, but it poised to out cable cable. Netflix added 3.3 million subscribers in the U.S. in the past three months and posted a first-quarter profit of over $60 million.

But here's the really big number, 22.8 million U.S. subscribers Netflix now has that equals the number of the U.S. subscribers to the cable company Comcast. Now, note that Netflix's biggest gain in subscribers have happened just over the past two years. Now you ask why?

Well, this, video streaming. I'm watching (inaudible) at the moment on my iTouch, you can video stream movies and TV shows and content through video gaming consoles, handheld devices, web ready TVs and unlimited streaming is $7.99 a month.

Now the biggest complaint that we have about Netflix is they don't have the most recent movies or TV episodes so they have a plan to counter that. They're going to have more exclusive content.

Like their first series "House of Cards" and they're also working to access older episodes of very, very popular shows like "Glee" working with the companies who make these shows to say listen, we are garnering more viewers for you by showing these old episodes. They're trying to counter this. It's a really heated and competitive market.

ROMANS: Interesting.

ALI VELSHI: And this was until the fact - until they started streaming two years ago, it was just a mailing a DVD company.

ULRICH: Listen, even in our household sometimes we wouldn't even get -- switch out, but now that I can do it on this, through our Wii or anywhere we use it much, much more often.

VELSHI: Now that you can get on all these different devices. I think I have three different devices in my house that can stream Netflix and you can do it on the iPad.

ULRICH: Meanwhile, market opens in an hour and 10 minutes.

ROMANS: Exactly, and our morning market check for you and yesterday on the Dow, was down 26 points and Nasdaq up about six, and S&P down two. And the futures are looking good. That was mixed on earnings yesterday for major companies.

ULRICH: I misspoke. It opens in two hours and 10 minutes.

VELSHI: That's right. What did you say?

ROMANS: An hour and 10 minutes.

ULRICH: Don't get too excited.

ROMANS: Opens somewhere -- ULRICH: It opens soon this morning.

VELSHI: All right. Donald Trump will not let it go. So we went to Hawaii, not we, but CNN went to Hawaii to get the truth about the president's birth certificate. We've got it for you on the other side.

ROMANS: Also very extreme weather, twister, flood evacuations, and believe it or not, there might be more severe weather even worse than this on its way. We're going to tell you where you live and what we're expecting to happen right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: There you go, Washington, D.C., 66 degrees and cloudy going up to 80. It is Washington after all. Spring passes by very, very quickly there.

The birther battle rages on thanks in large part to Donald Trump. He now doubts that President Obama's original birth certificate even exists. Now remember, a lot of other people have talked about this over the last couple years, most of them have moved on, but Donald Trump continues.

He says he's been told the birth certificate is missing. Well, CNN sent out our own team of researchers to Hawaii to find out. Our special investigation is a look at forensic and witness evidence that should put an end to this controversy once and for all. Gary Tuchman explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The "Honolulu Star Bulletin" newspaper in August 1961 declares Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama have given birth to a son, a simple birth announcement that is become part of a complex web of conspiracy theories with one question looming above all others.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I was born in Hawaii.

TUCHMAN: Was President Obama born in the United States? The answer, yes.

(on camera): Have you seen Barack Obama's original birth certificate?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Dr. Chiyome Fukino is the former director of the Hawaii Department of Health and a devoted Republican until now she had not talked on camera about this topic.

(on camera): As a Republican member of the last Republican governor of Hawaii, do you have any doubt that Barack Obama was born in the United States?

DR. CHIYOME FUKINO, FORMER HAWAII HEALTH DIRECTOR: Absolutely not. I have no doubt.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Dr. Fukino says she was asked last year by the governor's press secretary to make a statement about the birth certificate controversy.

Under state law a public official can look at someone else's certificate if there is a, quote, "direct and tangible interest." She felt she had that interest because of the statement she had to make.

So she found the original Obama certificate stored in a vault in the Department of Health building.

(on camera): And what did it tell you? Was it authentic? Was he born here in the state of Hawaii?

FUKINO: It was absolutely authentic. He was absolutely born here in the state of Hawaii.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): But the Dr. Fukino says even if she hadn't seen the original certificate, this document, the president's computer generated certificate, which was made public three years ago, had already proven he was born in Hawaii.

(on camera): There's quite a bit of irony over this original birth certificate debate. That is, the original documents are no longer even certified by the state. The Health Department says President Obama or any other Hawaiian could still go through the process of getting one.

But either way, they're no longer supposed to be used for official purposes. Only the computer generated ones will do.

(voice-over): We wanted to see what you would get when you ask for your Hawaii birth certificate.

(on camera): Next door, birth, death, marriage. Birth for us.

(voice-over): We met this 49-year-old and told him we would pay $7 for a new birth certificate for him.

(on camera): I'm Gary Tuchman with CNN. We're here to get a birth certificate for Stig.

(voice-over): We ask Stig because we also saw his birth announcement in the Honolulu newspaper in the same article, four names down, another newborn, 13 hours earlier, Barack Obama.

(on camera): Do you give him his original certificate or the electronic copy?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a computerized birth certificate.

TUCHMAN: So this is Stig's certificate of live birth. It's same form Barack Obama has, the very same form every Hawaiian one now gets when they request a birth certificate. It has name on it, his birth date, August 5th, 1961. The date after the president filed August 8th, 1961. This a raised seal to show its authenticity, and the bottom perhaps the most important line, this copy serves as prime evidence of the fact of birth in any court proceeding.

(voice-over): Nobody we talked to doubts Stig's citizenship, but a CNN poll shows 25 percent of Americans doubt President Obama's. Another part of the conspiracy theory, is that the birth announcement in the paper is a fake.

Planted by his family or someone else who wanted to trick the world into believing the future president was born in the U.S. Nakaso is a long-time newspaper reporter in Honolulu.

(on camera): There are a number of people who believe that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States. That his mother or grandmother called the newspaper and gave false information he was born in the United States. Is it possible that could have gotten in the newspaper like that?

DAN NAKASO, HONOLULU STAR ADVERTISER: No, that's not possible. Under the system that existed back then there was no avenue for people to submit information that way.

TUCHMAN: So how did the information get in the paper?

NAKASO: The information came directly from the State Department of Health.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): We confirmed that fact with the Health Department too. All birth announcements printed in the paper came directly from the birth records of the hospital.

(on camera): So why won't President Obama just release a copy of his original birth certificate? There are some who say he won't do it because the word Muslim is on it, but we've taken a look at the original birth certificate of another man and where there are extra spaces on it for hospital and for ages of the parents and for the occupation of the father, there is no space whatsoever for religion.

And the former director of the Health Department who has seen Barack Obama's original birth certificate confirms there is no mention whatsoever of religion. The White House says in part no matter what Barack Obama does or says, there are many doubters who will still doubt.

(voice-over): Barack Obama not only has the same proof of birth as millions of other Hawaiians, he also has the current Hawaii governor's memories of him as a baby.

(on camera): You saw him when he was an infant?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, sure. Of course.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): In part two of our investigation, the people who don't need to see birth certificates to know the president was born in Hawaii.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Honolulu.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The evidence has been presented again and again and again.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

ROMANS: The certificate of live birth has been again and again declared to be the legal document.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: - for the state of Hawaii, yet, yet the conspiracy theory.

VELSHI: Can you imagine the conspiracy involved in thinking that somebody planted the newspaper announcement and somehow knew that this African-American man was going to be a president of the United States 40 some years later.

ROMANS: A movie plot would be that unbelievable. The other thing here is that the question of this president in particular, the mistrust of the fact that his father was born in another country.

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: You know, that just persists in some circles that this investigation certainly very clearly lays out the facts of this whole matter.

VELSHI: Barack Obama born in the United States.

ROMANS: All right. Top stories, the Obama administration considering sanctions against Syria to pressure the government to end a violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. The State Department wants Americans out of harm's way, ordered family of embassy officials and some non-essential staff to leave Syria as soon as possible.

Hell on earth, that's how a western journalist inside Misrata describes the bombed out city in Libya. Some of the bloodiest fighting yet is being reported there. Moammar Gadhafi's forces have been shelling rebel fighters and civilians in Misrata.

And tornadoes, thunderstorms and severe flooding have forced the governor of Arkansas to declare a state of emergency. Seven people have been killed and thousands lost power during violent storms last night. A tornado ripped through an air force base in Little Rock, four homes were reportedly damaged and officials are checking the fleet of planes right now.

VELSHI: Jacqui Jeras in the extreme weather center for us now. Jacqui, this seems it to have been an endless two-week period of extreme - of tornadoes, of flooding, more to come? JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Unfortunately, there is more to come. Our weather pattern has been kind of stuck and that keeps us with the active weather, so more tornadoes are possible today. That's not going to fire up until late this afternoon or tonight.

Right now, our concern are these storms across southern parts of Louisiana. They've been producing damaging winds. We just got a report out of Baton Rouge, 64-mile-per-hour wind gusts, so lots of trees down, power lines are possible, to go down today as well and there are thousands of people without power in Arkansas, too, by the way, because of all of those thunderstorms.

Here's the great risk area and this really covers a lot of the U.S. today from the Great Lakes all the way down into the lower Mississippi River Valley. The greatest areas of concern, this dark red right here. This includes you in Little Rock, this includes you in Memphis. We think tornadoes are going to fire up in the dry line somewhere over here late this afternoon. And then make their way on up towards the north and to the east.

This whole system moves eastward as we head into tomorrow. There you can see damaging winds and tornadoes possible including Nashville, down towards the Huntsville area and by Friday this whole thing starts to shift out of there and looking for some improving conditions. You know, we have been talking about numbers and is this historic. The answer is probably so. The storm prediction center thinks they'll confirm this in another week or two but take a look at this. This is the last six decades for the number of tornadoes we've had per year. The max 267 back in 1974.

SPC says we will have somewhere between 200 and 275, we'll have to wait and see, as we round out the month. That's going to be very close, probably rivaling this. On average in April, we'll see right here, this line about 116 per month. So we certainly already blown that away and we're definitely going to see more tornadoes today and tomorrow. Back to you guys.

VELSHI: All right. Thanks, Jacqui.

ROMANS: The governor of Missouri calling in the National Guard. The Black River has already spilled over the levee that protects the town of Popular Bluff. Homes there flooded, more than 1,000 people have been forced to evacuate now.

VELSHI: That could get a lot worse if the levee gives way. Tyler Profilet of CNN affiliate, KFBS, joins us now from Popular Bluff this morning. Give us a sense of context on this, Tyler. We were reporting that it had broken in several places, I think we said three dozen places. Sounds to me that most of it has broken.

TYLER PROFILET, KFBS, REPORTER: Well, it's not broken yet. It's compromised, this way that the Popular Bluff Police Department has put it. But it is spilling over as you mentioned anywhere between 35 to 40 places, but the good news is, we wouldn't be standing right here if the levee was actually broken. The levee is about a mile down County Road 607 behind me and that's where the water first started to come over the levee yesterday morning.

As you can see it's absolutely flooded this area right now. I'm standing in it. If I was going to take about four or five steps back here, it would be well above my rain boots all the way to my knees. You can see just the amount of flooding here that has caused about a thousand people to evacuate their homes and seek some temporary shelter.

However, there is some good news. The first bit of good news is that the levees are holding right now to prevent it from spreading to even more homes and there are some flash flooding last night. There's about five inches of rain that fell on top of five inches from the night before. So, nearly a foot of rain over the past couple nights causing some flash flooding, including 59 water rescues to be performed, but between all of that, luckily no one has been hurt.

But again, this is expected to get much, much worse before it gets better for the people in Popular Bluff. Because as you can see some homes behind me are flooded. More homes probably expected to be flooded here in the next couple of days as more torrential rains are expected to hit this area and this is an area that experienced some flooding back in 2008. So they're certainly no stranger to this type of severe weather but again it's going to get worse before it gets better for people here. Christine and Ali.

ROMANS: All right. Tyler Profilet. Thank you so much, Tyler.

You grow up in a river town, you know that it's all about the levees. It's all about that the water, you know that the crest levels for the rivers and it's something they'll be watching for the next couple of days.

VELSHI: One thing that we've been watching very closely is the violence that's escalating in Syria against demonstrators. Keep in mind, these are unarmed demonstrators going right back to Daraa, the town where it started. We got some great analysis on what's going on in the Middle East and U.S. policy there.

Fawaz Gerges and Mark Ginsburg up next.

ROMANS: Also more on the Taliban jail break. Hundreds of very dangerous Taliban, some of them leaders of the Taliban escaped a prison where just a year ago there had also been a jail break and there was more violence against westerners after that. We're going to talk about Afghanistan recapturing 65 of those inmates and hundreds are at large after the jailbreak.

The latest about that right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to "American Morning." Kiran Chetry live in London this morning. We're talking a little bit about the situation in Syria. Growing more concerning for the U.S. State Department by the moment. They're actually urging those in Syria to get out as soon as possible, Americans there. It comes as the Syrian government is stepping up its assault on pro- democracy demonstrators using tanks and snipers, opening fire on protesters in a key city of Daraa. 11 people reportedly killed yesterday, but hundreds have died since this bloody crackdown started. The Obama administration now considering more sanctions and also considering freezing assets in response.

Joining us here is Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. Thanks so much for being with us.

FAWAZ GERGES, MIDDLE EAST CENTER, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: Good morning.

CHETRY: On your home turf here in London.

GERGES: Yes.

CHETRY: But this is certainly a very devolving situation in Syria right now. How potent if at all would U.S. sanctions or the stepping up of U.S. sanctions or even through the United Nations who are now issuing condemnation letters to Syria, what impact does that have, if any, on that nation?

GERGES: Well, the international community response is very important in terms of legitimacy, in terms of the isolation of the Syrian regime, but the reality is events in Syria will determine what will happen and the end results. Syrians will determine whether the regime stays or goes. The reality -

CHETRY: There's been a clear shift, I mean, Bashar al Assad has decided now that he is going to put down these protests, not seed more ground?

GERGES: You're absolutely correct. Obviously the regime has decided to crush the protesters, to silence the opposition. He's using massive now massive force in order to break the will of the protesters. But even if he wins the first round the situation is far from over.

I mean the story has take an life of its own. In fact, the reality is, President Assad will emerge as a much weakened president after this particular confrontation because he has lost much legitimacy and authority in Syria.

CHETRY: There are also - this is a nation that is on the security council. This is a nation that has some sort of - is expected to get some sort of seat on the International Human Rights Councils, how much sway does the international community have in getting them to stop what they're doing?

GERGES: Very little, actually. I would say that the decision has been made in Damascus that the Assad regime has decided now to really use all options on the table in order to silence the opposition. It's an all-out war in Syria and the reality is, the odds against the protesters in the short and the medium term. Remember, Syria is not Libya. Syria is not Yemen. There is no daylight between the political leadership and the security forces. The army and the security forces will fight for their own survival. That is the power base of President Assad is very solid, consolidated and that's why, regardless of the tens of thousands of protesters who have come, who have - I mean protested, the reality is, this is a very repressive and very potent regime.

CHETRY: Bottom line, this is when people ask the question why are we in Libya and why we not then, I mean, we're now talking about reports of these police and military commanders shooting into people's bedrooms, indiscriminately killing people in this town of Daraa. We're not going to get involved as the United States. Why not?

GERGES: I doubt it very much. Remember the United States cannot really act as the sheriff of the world. The United States cannot change the world. The reality is local conditions, local cultures are in charge. Even though President Assad will likely survive this particular powerful storm, the Syria will never be the same. A rupture has taken place.

You have millions of Syrians who are basically saying we want a better life, we want to take charge of our society, we want to determine our future. From Syria to Tunisia to Libya to Yemen to Algeria, people are basically saying "enough is enough." So even though the United States should not be the sheriff of the world, people are basically have absorbed and internalized universal values, universal values about freedom, about liberty, about (INAUDIBLE) society, about being in charge of their own society.

CHETRY: Well, Fawaz, it was great to get your point of view on this. Thanks for joining us. And good to see you in person. We'll send it back to New York where we're talking with Ali and Christine a little bit more about the implications for the U.S. dealing with Syria.

VELSHI: What an insightful conversation. I think we need to understand this a little bit better because Fawaz saying the U.S. can't be the sheriff of the world except sometimes the U.S. is called upon to do that and sometimes, like in Libya, the U.S. does step into that conversation.

ROMANS: Where the U.S. has spent five weeks and $600 million, being a sheriff there in some way, shape, or form, Mark Ginsburg is a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco and presidential adviser to the Middle East.

VELSHI: He joins us from Washington. Now, Mark, Ambassador Ginsburg, good to see you. Thanks very much for being with us. I think you heard Fawaz in some of his discussion there. But you know, to the casual observers who doesn't have the expertise that you have and Fawaz has, you have to be wondering, what to they think in Washington, where we move into Libya and we do what we're doing there. And everybody seemed to think at the time that made sense but they're doing worse to their own people in Syria and as Fawaz said no likelihood of U.S. or possibly western involvement.

Why?

MARC GINSBERG, FMR. MIDDLE EAST PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Well, Ali, because in the end, we've already imposed significant economic sanctions that Congress mandated against Syria in 2006. It remains the only Arab country deemed a state sponsor of terror and at the same time, this would be appealing to your particular area of expertise, the entire economy of Syria is about the size of a medium-sized U.S. city.

And so, between sanctions already imposed by the United States, other than morale persuasion in shining a bigger media spotlight on Syria, all of this talk of additional economic sanctions is really just gilding the lily at this point.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Marc, what the United States has to do, diplomatically, push its allies and others who are doing business with Syria, who have ties with Syria, to try to get some sort of coordinated international response here to stop the slaughter?

GINSBERG: You know, Christine, the worst thing here is that President Assad has stolen a page out of his father's playbook when in 1982, his father put down a similar rebellion in the city of Hama and killed 10,000 people. And so, the Assad family has a history of engaging in this type of repression.

The bottom line is that other than a country like Germany, there are very few countries that really are doing much business with Syria. The main one being Iran. So, there's not much we can do there.

Ali and Christine, you should probably be aware of the fact that there's three countries in the region that don't want us to do much against the Assad regime.

ROMANS: Right.

GINSBERG: Our strongest allies, Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia. And in Saudi Arabia's case, one of the reasons why oil prices are high is because they refuse to turn on a spigot on a much higher degree of oil output because of the only producing in the region. Why? Because they're angry with the United States and they don't want us to put Assad under the bus, even though they've never liked the Assad family.

ROMANS: Each of this -- you talk about a comprehensive strategy for the Middle East, but it's almost an oxymoron because each of these countries has very different political, religious and historical perspectives.

How is the president and his team doing in your view on making a clear strategy for the Middle East, country by country, if you will, and are they projecting that well?

GINSBERG: In my considered judgment, although Syria is a really tough case and Libya has been a complete distraction, the United States and our core international interests, the administration seems to have lost sight of focusing on those core interests, Egypt, far more pivotal, Arab-Israeli peace, Iran's nuclear program. And instead, we're being in effect sidelined into these countries that really are not as important.

But Syria is more important than Libya. Why? Because it has -- it is the proxy for Iran and the Middle East.

ROMANS: Right.

GINSBERG: It controls Hezbollah's arms flow. It has a great deal of influence over the situation in Lebanon. And, frankly, the administration is having a hard time figuring out what to do about Syria and that really is a mistake. It's backing in based on a 24/7 news cycle.

VELSHI: Marc, quick question to you, because you understand what goes on the ground in the Middle East. What's the difference in the people and their power in Syria than a fruit stand -- fruit seller in Tunisia who started it than those protesters in Egypt and these armed rebels in Libya? What's the difference in Syria?

GINSBERG: The difference is the population has taken it far longer to basically muster the numbers necessary to really pose a major threat to the regime the way it was in Tunisia early on after the poor fruit vendor put himself on fire. Syrian population is now risking their lives far more than before and there's also many more sects in Syria that there is -- there's Christians, there's Jews, there's Alawites in addition to the majority Sunnis. And the Assad regime has played each of these sects off in order to try to keep the populations at bay.

VELSHI: Marc Ginsberg, what a measure to talk to you. Thanks for giving us some insights into this. Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, former U.S. ambassador to Morocco and a senior vice president with APCO Worldwide, joining us from the D.C. bureau.

GINSBERG: Thank you.

ROMANS: All right. Still ahead, unprecedented security surrounds the royal wedding. What's the biggest threat and how are they gearing up, in this way, for the big event?

VELSHI: You'll be surprised with the list of potential threats actually. And you've got something on aspirin and Prozac and how they don't mix.

ROMANS: That's right. A new study, I'm actually not quite surprised that Prozac wouldn't mix with a lot of other things. But aspirin and Prozac what you need to know if you're taking both of these drugs.

VELSHI: And human-like robots can see, listen, walk, talk and dance. We've got robots live with us in the studio. A demo coming up coming up later.

It is 49 minutes after the hour.

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ROMANS: An awful lot going on this morning. Here's what you need to know to start your day. Seven people are now dead in Arkansas where violent thunderstorms, tornadoes, and flooding have forced the governor to declare a state of emergency.

They are calling in the National Guard in Missouri. The Black River is still rising and has now overflowed a levee that may collapse, threatening the entire town of Poplar Bluff.

The FAA fires a third traffic air controller this time in Seattle, Washington. Officials say the controller fell asleep on the job twice.

The electric Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf both earned top scores in crash tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway of Safety. One reason, the batteries of both plug-ins are very heavy, giving these small cars the weight of a much larger mid-size sedan.

And, China, forecast to overtake the U.S. as the world's largest economy much sooner than first thought. According to the International Monetary Fund, that's just five years away where the U.S. will be number two.

You are caught up on the day's top headlines. AMERICAN MORNING is back right after the break.

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ROMANS: A.M. house call now. The Food and Drug Administration is approving the vaccine Menactra to prevent meningitis in babies and toddlers. Up until now, the drug was only used on people between the ages of two and 55. As, you know, meningitis an inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. It also results from an upper respiratory infection.

VELSHI: Electronic cigarettes will soon be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The agency announced it will treat the device as a tobacco project, requiring e-cigarettes, as they're called.

You can see them here. You don't light them. They are electronic.

ROMANS: There is smoke. Water vapor maybe?

VELSHI: I don't know what it is. But it -- there's no fire, let's put it that way.

ROMANS: Right.

VELSHI: But they are going to have to follow the same rules that cover the makers of regular cigarettes. I have seen a few people use them.

ROMANS: I'm going to have to bone up on them. I'm not really familiar with them. But now, they will be regulated by the FDA, like a tobacco product.

Also, pain killers like aspirin and antidepressants apparently don't mix. Researchers said they might found the effectiveness of antidepressants was reduced when the drug was taken with a painkiller. Researchers stress more tests are needed. But they say t could explain why sometimes people taking pain medication complain that their drugs like Prozac are doing nothing to clarify their depression.

VELSHI: That's interesting.

All right. Well, we'll have the top stories for you right after the break.

It's 56 minutes after the hour.

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VELSHI: I'm Ali Velshi.

Violent thunderstorms, severe flooding and a tornado destroying more than a dozen homes and tearing through an Air Force base.

VELSHI: I'm Christine Romans.

Eleven people reportedly killed in the latest Syrian government crackdown on protesters. The new violence prompts the U.S. State Department to urge Americans in Syria to leave immediately.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry, live here on the streets of downtown London where the city is certainly teeming with excitement in anticipation of the royal wedding just three days away.

But it's not all fun and games. There are security concerns as well. We're going to talk about how they're planning on keeping month are than half a million people here safe.

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