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American Morning

Raid on Bin Laden Compound Reveals Use of Stealth Helicopter; Pressure Pushes Water Flow Backwards in Tennessee; Impact on Farmers on Broken Levee; Report: First Body Recovered from Air France Wreckage; Syria Claims Military Leaving Daraa; Navy SEALs are Back Home; President Obama to Visit Ground Zero and Local Fire Station Today; America's Largest Corporations

Aired May 05, 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: He was going for a gun, but he wasn't faster than the Navy SEALs. There is new information now on Osama Bin Laden's final moment on this AMERICAN MORNING.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. It's Thursday, May 5th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING this morning.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: It's a very busy morning. We've still got new news about Osama Bin Laden. We got a lot of stuff going on in the Mississippi river, but we got this breaking news out of Paris. French police have reportedly retrieved the first body from the wreckage of an Air France flight that crashed into the Atlanta nearly two years ago.

The airbus A-330, you'll remember, was traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, 228 people on board when it went down. The wreckage was found last month. 13,000 feet down.

CHETRY: Earlier this week, French investigators announced a robot submarine had retrieved the second of two cockpit voice data recorders from the airliner. The official cause of the disaster still not clear. Investigators, they were saying they believe it may have been malfunctioning speed sensors that led to that crash.

VELSHI: And up first, no hero's welcome, but U.S. officials say the elite Navy SEAL team that took out Osama Bin Laden is back on U.S. soil this morning, although, they won't be talking. There are lots of new details coming out about the night that they killed the most wanted man in the world.

CHETRY: They now know that the so-called mother lode of Intel they recovered is being analyzed at FBI labs in Quantico, Virginia. U.S. officials are telling us that the haul includes ten hard drives, five computers, and more than 100 storage disks, DVDs and thumb drives. We're also being told that the commandos also came back with five cell phones with audio and video equipment, five guns, including AK 47s and pistols as well as documents.

ROMANS: There are also new pictures from inside bin Laden's compound. Reuters says a Pakistani security official took these one hour after the Seals got out of there, shows the wreckage of a U.S. helicopter abandoned and later blown up by U.S. forces. You remember those pictures of the fires burning.

We're getting also new details on officials who were briefed on bin Laden's last moments. Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate intelligence committee, she told CNN he was moving and he may have been going for a weapon, that's when the Seals went for a kill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D) CHAIRWOMAN, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Well, there were arms directly near the door. My understanding is he was right there and going to get those arms. So you know, you really can't take a chance. This is the number one target. This is the mastermind that killed 3,000 of our citizens. And there had to be justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: President Obama is going to visit ground zero this morning to lay a wreath and meet with 9/11 families. The NYPD says he'll also visit a New York city firehouse that lost 15 firefighters on September 11th, 2001.

Now, there will be no megaphone moment like we saw from President Bush on September 14th, 2001 the one you're seeing here. President Obama is not expected to make any public remarks at all. The White House is calling this a bittersweet occasion.

We'll going to get to the firehouse that we were talking about, the lost 15 people. First Jason Carroll live at the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. Jason, good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Ali. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the president's visit will give the city and the nation a chance for justice, also for reflection.

I want to give you a rundown of how things will happen today. The president expected to arrive in New York City around 10:40, then he'll visit firehouse 54. At about 1:20 that's he's expected to arrive here at the memorial for the wreath laying ceremony. That will be taking place here once again. They'll be laying that wreath at the surviving tree, a pear tree that was recovered here at the site after the towers fell.

At 1:50 that's when he's expected to have a meeting with first responders and some 9/11 family members. I say some because not all the family members are invited. We want to give you a perspective of some who will be invited. First Jim Riches. He lost his son Jimmy. He was a firefighter. He was invited. He'll be meeting with the president.

Bob Hughes and his wife Elaine, unfortunately, will not be meeting with the president later today, but they lost their son Chris. He was a trader. We spoke to Bob Hughes and his wife about what they would have said to the president had they been invited. And also Jim Riches told us what he will be saying to the president later today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM RICHES, SON DIED ON 9/11: Yes, I'm going to tell him, I'm eternally grateful. If he ever needs anything, call me. I really thank god that he's a man of his word.

BOB HUGHES, SON DIED ON 9/11: I would have to say this. You had the guts to do it, you did it, thank god.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you did it well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: And Bob Hughes and his wife Elaine also telling us that they don't want to criticize the White House's decision not to invite them and some of the other 9/11 family members. They just said they would have liked the opportunity to thank the president and share in the experience.

VELSHI: Do we have some sense of, Jason, why everybody wasn't invited?

CARROLL: No, absolutely not. The White House is not released a list as of yet in terms of who was invited. And they've not indicated why some of those who were invited, the decision-making process behind it.

ROMANS: The White House keeps saying -- Jay Carney, the White House press conference kept saying this is a private matter between the president and these families.

VELSHI: People didn't think it was that private. Jason, thanks very much. We'll stay with you all day on this coverage of the president at ground zero.

CHETRY: Also, they lost 15 firefighters on 9/11. Known as the Pride of Midtown, Engine 54 Ladder four in the heart of New York City, the death of Osama bin Laden has reminded many of them of the horrors he committed that day. As we were talking about, President Obama is going to be stopping by to pay his respects to that firehouse.

Mary Snow is outside of it this morning for us. Are they excited about the president coming by?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. We just spoke with one firefighter who says that he wants to thank the president for, in his words a job well done. And he's calling this visit here today a morale booster.

It's been a pretty emotional few days here at Engine 54, Ladder four, Battalion nine. Huge losses, as you just pointed out -- 15 firefighters were lost here on 9/11.

And on Monday, you know, there was a very somber tone. Members of this firehouse had been in touch with families of their lost colleagues, but I was speaking to one captain, Thomas Venditto, who said on Sunday night he was very emotional when the news broke and that he actually had a tear in his eye when he went -- he and his colleagues went to Times Square as the news broke. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS VENDITTO, CAPTAIN, NYFD: I have to tell you, I worked New Year's Eve this year, and it was more exciting than working New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve people are kind of mellow. When the ticker tape went around and people started reading it out loud and cheering. People from other countries, as you know, this is a tourist area. People from England and Australia, Germany, and Japan, they came up, took photos with us. They were hugging us and kissing us. It was fantastic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: And Kiran, the firefighters here have told us that those moments of elation were really very brief, that they're really very somber and their big question is what's next, that they are on guard and there is a real fear of retaliation.

And this is firehouse is so busy. It's one of the busiest in New York. They pointed out last year, last May at the attempted car bombing in New York this is the firehouse that immediately responded. They are always on guard.

VELSHI: Mary, this thing over your shoulder there, the firehouse, not too far from where we are now. Every time I pass it, it seems almost a permanent set of memorials. There's wreathes, candles. They've really -- it is not like they're now newly remembering this.

SNOW: Exactly. And so many tourists come through this area, Ali. And they come by. There's a plaque on this firehouse. Inside there are pictures of the lost colleagues.

But even on Monday speaking with a woman who lives in the neighborhood and she bought flowers. It was one of the first things she did that morning after hearing the news of Osama bin Laden's death, come by and drop flowers here. There are constantly people coming by and thanking these firefighters for their service.

VELSHI: Mary, thanks very much. We'll check in with you later, Mary Snow.

ROMANS: Meantime, President Obama is defending his decision to keep graphic bin Laden death photos under wraps. In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," the president says spiking the football would only give bin Laden followers a propaganda tool. And the evidence of bin Laden's death is clear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've done DNA sampling and testing. And so there is no doubt that we killed Osama bin Laden. It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president's decision follows what appeared to be intense debate within the administration about releasing those death photos.

VELSHI: We're going to take a break. When we come back, though, we'll look at the Navy Seal chopper. When we showed you the first pictures of this, you saw the compound on fire because they were trying to get rid of this chopper that went down. We've got an expert on stealth technology next to explain what this chopper is and why we've never seen anything like it before.

CHETRY: Also we'll talk more about the flooding concerns in the south. Worries as far out now as New Orleans as the mighty Mississippi river continues to swell, still not cresting. And it's 24 inches above flood stage.

ROMANS: New York Senator Charles Schumer, he will join us live about the president's meeting with 9/11 families. This is him at ground zero with then-president George Bush after attacks on 9/11. What does he think ten years on about New York healing and the death of bin Laden?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: The Navy Seals who carried out the bin Laden mission are now back in the U.S. this morning. And new pictures from the raid on that compound show the wreckage of a helicopter that crash landed during the assault. It could be our first look at -- look at that tail there -- a new kind of military aviation technology. The aviation buffs have a magnifying glass. They see something new here.

VELSHI: We've got one of them. Bill Sweetman is an expert in that area. He's the editor-in-chief of "Aviation Week Defense Technology International. Bill, thanks for joining us.

Let's you and all of us together take a look at what we've got. I want to show you the tail section of the Blackhawks that we know about right now. Take a look at the right side. It's a bit of a disk and four rotors. Now let's take a look at the tail section of the thing found there.

Now, I was looking at this very closely, as I know you have, Bill, and it appears that there are six blades or there may have been six blades on this thing. Let's start here. What is this helicopter?

BILL SWEETMAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, AVIATION WEEK: Well, what it looks like to me is that it's a modified version of a Blackhawk. It's about the right size, but that it's been modified for stealth purposes.

ROMANS: Keep it quiet most importantly here. This is less about radar maybe and more about keeping it very, very quiet, which would be a real advantage in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan where you want our guys to get in and out quickly and quietly.

SWEETMAN: Exactly. Any time you're out in the open and there's a helicopter around, the first thing that will happen is you'll hear that helicopter even if it's behind a hill or behind a line of trees. So when you're talking about helicopter stealth, the first thing you're thinking about is reducing noise, making it quieter, and making the noise less obtrusive, take that sort of "chop-chop" sound out of the helicopter's noise signature because that way it's more likely to blend into any background noise that there is.

VELSHI: And Bill, just to be clear looking at these picture, I said on the one that has been downed, there are six blades. Obviously anybody looking at it can only see three blades but there are spaces for six blades, let's put it that way. Clearly the Navy Seals made some attempt to destroy as much of this as possible, but there's a piece that hasn't been destroyed. What's the danger of that?

SWEETMAN: The reason it wasn't destroyed is pretty clear. It seems that part of the helicopter came down inside the compound. But as it did, it struck the compound wall and seems to have broken the tail off.

I don't think there's a tremendous amount of danger in that. I think that stealth technology itself has been around for a long time. This certainly isn't, in terms of anti-radar technology, this is not going to represent the cutting edge of what can be done today. And in terms of noise reduction, it's been pretty well known what you need to do to a helicopter to make it quiet. In fact, I think more than a decade ago, there was a company of flight testing and modified helicopter that was quiet just for touring flights over the Grand Canyon.

ROMANS: But, Bill, this is something new, right? I mean, a lot of people looking at this and saying we haven't seen this. We didn't know we had this. Kind of is an exciting fingerprint, if you will, of this entire raid. And Ali was just pointing out that you have children in the area were taking away little pieces of things they're finding from around there. From an intelligence perspective, it's not the kind of thing we want foreign governments to have in their hands.

SWEETMAN: Put it this way, it's a sort of capability that it's most useful when nobody believed or suspects you have it. But the moment you decide to use it in an operation like this, you're accepting the risk that it will be compromised. The moment -- yes, we still have the capability. People know that the U.S. has that capability. What they don't know and can't really tell from what they've got there is just how good it is.

ROMANS: All right.

SWEETMAN: Yes.

ROMANS: Bill Sweetman, we've got to leave it there, editor in chief of Defense Technology International. Thanks for bringing this out. There's also some talk about the paint, maybe something new and exciting about the paint as well. So clearly, the aviation buffs are poring over these pictures looking for new details about something they didn't quite know we had.

VELSHI: All right. Coming up next, we're going to talk about the budget. I know we haven't talked about it for a long time. There's still a budget that has to be dealt with for 2012. And before that, by the way, there's a debt ceiling we need to deal with. The House is trying to concentrate on that. We'll tell you where they are and how it affects you.

ROMANS: All right. General Motors also recalling one of its new models, 150,000 of these cars. We'll tell you why and what you need to do with it.

It's 16 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Twenty minutes past the hour. "Minding Your Business" this morning.

President Obama turns to Vice President Joe Biden in the high stakes budget battle. Later today, Biden will meet with a handful of Republicans and Democrats to discuss cutting federal spending and raising the debt ceiling.

Stocks sink ahead of two key reports. In about an hour, we're going to find out just how long the unemployment line was last week. First time jobless claims will be released. Tomorrow is the big monthly jobs report. Yesterday, the Dow dropped 84 points. The Nasdaq, S&P 500 also closed lower.

For the 44th straight day, gas prices are -- wait for it -- they're up. According to AAA, the national average is now $3.99 a gallon.

GM recalling more than 150,000 Chevy Cruze models. The automaker says the steering wheel on some 2011 models could have been installed wrong. Check with your dealer.

After the break, we're live from the flood zone in Tennessee. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right. Happening now, some 23 miles of an interstate shut down because of flooding. Police say I-40 in eastern Arkansas closed at the White River. Water backed up pooling over the roadway. Drivers forced to take detours. More than 30,000 drivers pass this area every day. It will be a tough commute this morning.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: And boy, the situation just doesn't get any better down there.

VELSHI: A tough, tough morning in general for people along rivers in the Midwest.

CHETRY: Worried they're going to have to close the other side of the interstate as well. The Mississippi River so swollen with pressure. In Tennessee, they say the water is actually flowing backwards in some of those tributaries to the Mississippi River. The backup could be a huge problem for nearby neighborhoods. Homes, businesses and factories all in danger.

VELSHI: Joining us now to talk more about what's happening on the ground is Melissa Moon, CNN affiliate WREG. She is live in Memphis.

What's the situation over there, Melissa?

MELISSA MOON, CNN AFFILIATE, WREG: Well, we are in Harbor Town on Mud Island in downtown Memphis. We're actually on the Wolf River, which is a tributary of the Mississippi and it is rising daily. You can see here what used to be much of the bank is now part of the river and people living along here are told to be ready to evacuate.

You see the homes behind us, the water creeping closer and closer, especially the homes on the far end are now the ones that are danger. Right now, the Mississippi is at 45.1 feet. County emergency officials predict that it will meet the level of the 1937 flood by next Wednesday at 48 feet and they say that those floodwaters will remain four to seven days after that. Of course, they'll be dealing with a sludge mess.

Now, we're told right now about 2,800 properties will be affected. That's down from an earlier prediction of 5,300. So that's some good news here. And people living in about 19 homes have been told to be ready, that they will be affected in some way. Now that could mean just water in the streets. Streets that will be closed. But some of those homes already have water in them right now. And all week long they've been putting up those floodgates along in Mississippi downtown and sandbagging just as a precautionary measure.

Back to you.

VELSHI: Sorry.

CHETRY: No, I was just going to say the fact that this is a slow catastrophe, sort of unfolding in slow motion that they know it's actually going to get worse before it gets better. In the meantime, besides the sandbagging and besides telling people to take precautions, is there anything else that can be done?

MOON: Right now that's about all they can do except to warn people to get out of their neighborhoods. Some, of those, like I said, there were 19 zip codes that are affected yesterday. Even though the weather had gotten nice, we've had some stormy weather over the last couple of days. The sun is out for the last couple of days. They don't want people to not take this seriously. They're telling them to be vigilant if they live in those 19 zip codes to watch the water and be ready to evacuate if necessary.

VELSHI: All right. Melissa -- sorry, did you?

ROMANS: No, No. Melissa, thanks, from WREG.

I'm looking at rivergages.com. I'm looking at all -- it's amazing how you can look and see how historical river stages are, where they should be. You know, it's just a remarkable up and down the Mississippi River, the Ohio River Valley. All of these places are just bumping up against a record river level. It's just a real challenge.

VELSHI: Yes. And it's remarkable what she said. It's going to be next week is when it's going to crest. And then they're looking at that water four to seven days after that.

CHETRY: Four to seven days after that.

VELSHI: So this is -- this is the problem. It's not something that's just happening. It really is a slow disaster.

CHETRY: Well, meteorologists are predicting that, again, it could be another month in some of these places before they start to see the water levels come down. Later today, government engineers are expected to blow up a levee on the Mississippi River again -- again in an effort to try to ease some of that pressure.

ROMANS: Earlier breaches sent water gushing over huge swaths of farmland. One of the big questions now, you know, what about the farmers? It's planting season. Or if you're doing winter wheat, you may have already crops in the ground --

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: -- depending on where you are in the country.

VELSHI: Rob is -- Rob Marciano is in Mississippi County, Missouri, where a lot of farmers are shaking their heads contemplating their next move and wondering, Rob, as Christine did about the wisdom of flooding the farmland to save towns. I mean, it's a trade-off, but that's where we get a lot of our food.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Tough choices, guys. And it had to be made.

You know, this is the third largest watershed in the world. These rivers drain water from New York to North Dakota up into Canada. Remarkable stuff really. And the remarkable amount of rainfall that we've seen has, well, prompted some extraordinary measures. You know, do we blow up levees? Do we flood towns or do we flood with thousands of people or do we flood farms with hundreds of people? Those types of tough decisions require precise measurements.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Head for that white -- for the levee break over there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Coming up.

MARCIANO (voice-over): Bob Holmes and his team of USGS scientists have a critical job in the fight against the flood. Using sensitive GPS-sync (ph) Doppler instruments, they can precisely measure the river's flow through the demolished levee. It's been averaging three million gallons per second.

(on camera): Now why is that important to find out the flow rate? BOB HOLMES, USGS NATIONAL FLOOD COORDINATOR: Well, basically the corps is very interested. They're diverting water through the floodway now, so they need to know how much is coming in and they'll know how much is going out. So that's how they make their management decisions.

MARCIANO (voice-over): Like whether to blow another hole in the levee.

(on camera): There it is. Up-close look at the levee they blew up two nights ago. All that river is now flown into, well, what was dry farmland. Incredible.

(voice-over): Incredibly sad for farmers like Bob Byrne.

BOB BYRNE, MISSISSIPPI COUNTY FARM LAND OWNER: So far we probably lost 40,000 of our wheat crop.

MARCIANO: Like many here, the Byrnes have worked this land for generations. But they have known it's in a floodway and the risk that come with it.

(on camera): Your entire family has been in this business now for over 100 years. Did you ever think in the back of your head, this could happen?

BYRNE: No. We've seen the Ohio River on a rampage, water run up to the top of the levee. We've seen this one on the rampage, but never the two together. But we just have to take it as it comes. You know? We've got it and we got to go on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: Heartbreaking to see the pain in that farmer's eyes. He's certainly not alone. This is the farm field or the northern part of the floodway that's designed back in 1937 to open up for cases like this.

And you know, the farmers they kind of know that's part of the deal, but they never really want to see this happen. It looks like a great lake. I mean, this thing stretches 38 miles from north to south.

And the water really hasn't gone down much since they've opened both of these levies now because they've released more water now that's been held upstream because of all the rainfall we've had in the past couple of weeks.

So it is going to take weeks for this water to get out of here, then get down the Mississippi, past Vicksburg, past Baton Rouge and eventually out into the Gulf of Mexico. It hasn't been this high, guys, since 1937 and we're seeing the effects of that right now.

VELSHI: Yes, Rob, I'm glad you said it because looking at that picture of you there does not look like a river behind you. It really does look like you're on the banks of a lake. MARCIANO: And we were driving or on the boat yesterday and directing -- the scientists we were with were saying, go up this road, then make a bank around this telephone pole.

And it was just surreal to know that you were over farmland and roadway in about six to at times 20 feet of water. This area being intentionally flooded, remarkable stuff.

VELSHI: All right, Rob. Thanks, Rob.

CHETRY: We want to take a look at our top stories now, half past the hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY (voice-over): French police reportedly retrieving the first body from the wreckage of an Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic nearly two years ago.

It was an Airbus 8330 traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people on board when it went down. The wreckage was found last month 13,000 feet down.

And the sounds of battle in Syria. Syria security forces who have been battling protesters for the last month and a half have according to state TV began pulling out of Daraa, it's a rebel stronghold.

The government claims it has restored security and calm after confiscating weapons and arresting scores of people. One human rights group is saying that more than 500 people have been killed in the fighting in Syria.

Well, the men who got Bin Laden back on U.S. soil now. The elite U.S. Navy SEAL team that stormed his compound in Pakistan is back home now.

You're looking at exclusive pictures right now of the compound. U.S. officials now say that Bin Laden was unarmed, but they believed he was actually reaching for a gun when he was shot dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And a live picture now of the White House where in just two hours, President Obama will be leaving for the World Trade Center site. The president is expected to lay a wreath, meet with 9/11 families and then visit a firehouse that lost 15 men in the September 11th attacks.

ROMANS: He was next to President Bush in the days after 9/11. He will be with President Obama today days after the U.S. killed Bin Laden.

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat from New York, joins us this morning. Senator, welcome to the program. It's been -- I mean, you knew people, your constituents, supporters for you, we all knew people who died on September 11th. To stand there next to the president today after standing with George Bush at the beginning of this whole odyssey, what does this mean to you?

SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Well, it's amazing. We, you know - when you come to this site I still remember the day after, the smell of death in the air.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHUMER (voice-over): The people holding pictures. "Have you seen my mother?" "Have you seen my son?" You don't forget that. But I think the shoulders of New Yorkers, Americans and people throughout the world, stand a little taller because we know now.

This is sort of a turning point in the war on terror. When Bin Laden did his evil deeds and the towers went down, we said can we win this war?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHUMER: It's so different than the previous wars we fought with suicide bombers and no fields of battle. I now feel most people feel we're going to win this war. We haven't won it yet, but we are in forces of freedom win.

ROMANS: You know, there's been a lot of patriotism around the country from Republicans and Democrats, people of all walks of life who have celebrated the death of Bin Laden.

Now some conservatives are saying that maybe this visit is more of a victory lap from the president and unnecessary. What do you say to that?

SCHUMER: The president deserves such credit for what he has done. You know, we saw his style. He's not a chest thumper. He's not going out with the rhetoric. He's thoughtful, but he's stuff and steely, and we saw that in that room.

So he deserves huge credit and should be here, but that doesn't take away from what George Bush did to lay the groundwork as well. I think most Americans today feel that this is not any kind of political issue. This is an issue to feel good about America. Our previous president and this president.

ROMANS: You know, you live -- something I did not know about you, Senator, is that was you lived with Leon Panetta for 11 years. Leon Panetta is someone who's been instrumental in all this, of course, as the director of the CIA.

He told lawmakers that Pakistan was either involved or incompetent and neither is a good place to be. Senator, Congress has to approve money for Pakistan, are you going to be -- what do you think first about the questions we should be asking about Pakistan and its role here?

SCHUMER: I think there are a lot of questions we should ask about Pakistan. I've been asking them for a while. Any country that makes Dr. A.Q. Kan, its hero, the man who sold weapons to North Korea, something's the matter.

Now there are people in Pakistan allied with us. There are people in Pakistan allied with the terrorists. Our job is to strengthen the hand of those allied with us, but there are fundamental problems with Pakistan.

They have to straighten those out. Pakistan will probably be the most difficult foreign policy issue not only for the United States, but for the world in the next 10 years. It's nuclear. It's poor, militancy is growing and they have never had good leadership.

ROMANS: Well, Senator, just a few weeks ago, I mean, Congress approved more money for Pakistan. Are you going to seriously question a vote to give more money to Pakistan?

SCHUMER: Well, look, I'm not calling for cutting it off that some have done because maybe that aid can strengthen the hand of those of us who are allied with us.

So the question is how do you strengthen the hand of the good site in Pakistan, which too often defers to the other? I mean, Pakistan needs to straighten itself out. I think there's going to be a lot of introspection in Pakistan as well.

Because what Leon Panetta said is exactly right. They're either extremely incompetent or supremely duplicitous neither one is a good place to be. And any country that has a future looks inside itself and says what are we doing wrong? Pakistan is doing a lot wrong.

ROMANS: All right, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat from New York, thank you so much for joining us on this important morning.

SCHUMER: Thank you. Good to be with you.

CHETRY: Take from the senator this morning. When we come back, we're going to be joined by the managing editor of "Fortune" magazine, the top Fortune 500 companies for 2011. What company is number one and what are some that dropped off the list?

ROMANS: Big enough to be -

VELSHI: It's 38 minutes after the hour. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: For more than five decades "Fortune" magazine has been ranking America's biggest corporations.

ROMANS: You know, the Fortune 500, right? It's more than just a list. It's a symbol for money, for power, and for prestige. And topping the Fortune 500 --

CHETRY: You want a drum roll?

ROMANS: Wal-Mart right there.

CHETRY: That's right. Also on the list, we have a number of oil companies including Conoco Phillips. The government owned finance company Fannie Mae and also Warrant Buffett's company Berkshire- Hathaway.

Minding our business now, Leigh Gallagher joins us. She's the assistant managing editor of "Fortune" magazine. Great to see you this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

CHETRY: So Wal-Mart pulling the number one spot. This is the second year in a row. Fannie Mae thriving after losing billions, ranked number five.

LEIGH GALLAGHER, ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR, FORTUNE MAGAZINE: This I will say, this is more of a technicality than anything else. The reason why Fannie Mae is on the list so high is because accounting rules change.

They now count a whole bunch of revenues that were outside of the entities if you must know, but were it not for that accounting rule, it would have been 94, which would have been way down. So, you know, do not pay attention to the headline.

VELSHI: Let's talk about profits. These companies are doing phenomenally well. That just draws that continued line between what's going on in corporate America and what's going on in the main streets of America.

GALLAGHER: More than ever. Last year, if you remember was when the profits really started churning out. We will the second biggest profit gain on the list. This year, it's the third biggest.

CHETRY: Eighty one percent.

GALLAGHER: It's 81 percent aggregate profit.

CHETRY: I would love it if my profits were up 81 percent.

GALLAGHER: -- last year, so just incredible.

ROMANS: What are they doing right?

GALLAGHER: I mean, if you remember after the financial crisis, everyone kind of freaked out, cut cost to the bone and they haven't added back yet. Business has started to come back, but companies have not started to hire --

VELSHI: Sure.

ROMANS: Why are they spending on other things but they're not hiring?

GALLAGHER: A couple reasons. Number one, I mean, I think they're still so worried that we're not out of this yet. Number two is no company ever said, let's see how lean we can get. I mean, they were pushed to limits they didn't know they had and they kind of like them because their profit margins are storing so --

ROMANS: Where they are hiring -- I've heard executives talk about this. They're excited about new R&D facilities overseas. They're excited about hiring overseas and capturing growth in overseas markets. That means hiring overseas, not here.

GALLAGHER: That's true. We're starting to see some hiring overseas. You know, technology has a lot to do with it. Technology has changed. It's made them less reliant on having so many employees. Everybody is leaner, but the question everybody is waiting for is when is the hiring going to start again.

CHETRY: Let's look at some of the companies off the list. We talked about the problem with Blockbuster Video, dropping off the list. Last year, they were pretty high?

GALLAGHER: They were -- they were -- they were on it.

CHETRY: But now we see that more people getting Netflix. More people are watching their movies streaming online and then the other interesting H & R Block and Black & Decker.

GALLAGHER: Yes, well, Black & Decker was acquired by Stanley. When a company gets acquired, like Sun Microsystems, that's why. Then the other --

CHETRY: H & R Block.

GALLAGHER: That's just over 500 and something. For a lot of the companies right on the edge, it's judgment day.

ROMANS: You like to be the CEO or executive of a Fortune 500 company.

VELSHI: Twelve of the companies on the list are headed by female CEOs, Pepsi is one of them.

GALLAGHER: That's right.

VELSHI: Indra Nooyi there. Ursula Burns at Xerox. Andrea Jung at Avon. Still, it's slow progress.

GALLAGHER: Slow progress. That might be one or two down from last year. It's always between 10 and 15. It's not enough.

VELSHI: Yes. Very small portion.

GALLAGHER: So that needs to change before --

VELSHI: Geographically, by the way, 57 of the companies on this year's list based in New York; 53 in California; 51 in Texas.

GALLAGHER: And you can actually -- this year we have an app, a web- based app. You don't know about web apps but it's a phenomenal tool. You can go on and map all the companies. You can see how many contacts through LinkedIn you have at each of these companies that'll automatically pop up. It's really fun.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: You can see who's hiring. That's right.

Leigh Gallagher, great to talk to you, as always.

GALLAGHER: Thanks for having me.

CHETRY: Thanks so much for joining us.

ROMANS: All right. So look, after bin Laden, who is America's number one most wanted terrorist? We're going to give you the top five list.

VELSHI: I wasn't even close in my guessing on this one.

ROMANS: I know, me either.

VELSHI: There are some surprises.

ROMANS: And who I thought was like the biggest bad guy in the world is actually number three or four.

CHETRY: There are some Americans on the list.

ROMANS: That's right.

VELSHI: And when we come back, Sanjay is going to join us and give us an insider's view of what it was like the day Gabrielle Giffords was shot. He goes back to the scene with the rookie paramedics who helped save her life. It's 46 minutes after the hour.

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CHETRY: Forty-eight minutes past the hour. A lot going on. Here are the headlines this morning.

First, we're talking about President Obama who's leaving in just a couple of hours to head to Ground Zero. He'll lay a wreath and meet with families and visit a firehouse who lost 15 of their own on 9/11.

Sara Shourd will not return to Iran next week to face trial on spying charges. She's one of three American hikers arrested in July of 2009 along the Iran/Iraq border. She was released from an Iranian prison after serving 14 months because of health concerns. Her fiance Shane Bauer and her friend Josh Fatal are still being held.

Two jail time for two Massachusetts high school students who allegedly bullied a freshman classmate so relentlessly that she took her own life. Eighteen-year-old Sean Mulveryhill and Kayla Narey pleaded guilty to criminal harassment charges in the death of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince. Each received a year's probation.

Gas prices up for the 44th straight day. According to AAA, the national average right there almost at $4 a gallon -- $3.99. And it could be a month before the Midwest sees relief from deep flood waters. That's when forecasters say those waters should recede. Floods have all but drowned low-lying areas from Minnesota to Louisiana.

And losing a little rascal. Actor Jackie Cooper has died. Probably best known for his roles in the our gangs shorts of the 1930s and also as newspaper editor Perry White in the Superman movies. He was 88- years-old.

Now you're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING's coming back right after the break.

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ROMANS: You see? That's our mission control.

CHETRY: Welcome to our underground lair.

ROMANS: NASA is hoping a third time is a charm for the space shuttle Endeavour and its mission control. The launch was postponed again yesterday until next Tuesday at the earliest. NASA technicians are looking at what caused an electrical system to short circuit.

VELSHI: It's also delayed what promised to be an emotional moment for Commander Mark Kelly. His wife Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords traveled to the Kennedy Space Center from Houston to watch the shuttle lift off.

CHETRY: And that was just amazing on its own, because Giffords, as you know, is recovering after being shot in the head at a public event back in January.

ROMANS: All right. We're hearing now for the first time about the moments immediately after she was shot in Tucson.

VELSHI: Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke with those rookie paramedics who helped save her life. It's part of his CNN special "Saving Gabby Giffords" that premiers this weekend.

CHETRY: And Sanjay joins us now from Atlanta.

Welcome.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.

CHETRY: So you recently went back to the scene with the medics. It was their first time back since the shooting so I imagine it was quite emotional.

GUPTA: Yes. They did not want to necessarily go back to this place. This was a Safeway shopping store in the middle of an area where it's the last place you would expect a shooting. I mean, it was just surprising, so shocking to many people when they started to get the radio signals in that a shooting had occurred here. And they were rookie paramedics, as Ali mentioned. Between the three of them, just two years of experience. So this was something that, you know, they had been preparing for for a long time, but, you know, the first time they had really ever been put to the test.

They did tell me some pretty remarkable things about what happened. First of all, you may sort of realize, when they got there, they had to stand down for a little bit because Jared Loughner, the shooter, had just been taken down. But there was a question, is there another shoot here? How safe was the area? So that was part of what they had to deal with, as well, before being able to rush in there and start triaging people.

And they described sort of this organized chaos, yet so quiet at the scene. There weren't people running around screaming or anything like that. When they finally got to Congresswoman Giffords, by the time they saw her and started transporting her back to the hospital, about 10 minutes only had transpired. So things moved quickly once they started. But it was just a remarkable scene in one of the last places you'd expect it.

VELSHI: All right. So they spent 10 minutes at the scene but then it got them about -- took them about 13 minutes to drive to the hospital.

GUPTA: Yes, it did. So this is one of those interesting things, as well. They were basically told, look, you're going to take her by helicopter back to the hospital. So they literally went out from underneath the overhang and started listening and they could not hear a helicopter.

So again, these rookie guys had to make a decision. Do we continue to wait or do we just put the Congresswoman in the ambulance and go? They decided to do exactly that. And they gave me insight of what those 13 minutes were like inside the ambulance.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: The entire time that she was going to the hospital, was she awake and alert?

AARON ROGERS, PARAMEDIC: I mean, her eyes were closed. As far as alert, we're saying she was responsible to pain or responsive to verbal. She would flinch if we poked her or if we pinched her and she would squeeze our hands if we asked her too. She -- you know, her eyes, she had some swelling and her eyes were closed so we couldn't assess at that level of responsiveness.

But, for the most part, I mean, we could see her kind of wincing in pain and kind of moving. I don't know if anybody had told her she had been shot. So I don't know if she knew the circumstances that she was involved in.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GUPTA: And one of the really important things they said there was that since the time that Congresswoman was shot, the entire time, she was always able to follow commands. Very important from a neurological perspective. She was able to hear, she was able to process what was going told to her and execute a motor command based on that. Very important.

We also got a chance to talk to the doctors who cared for her once she got to the hospital after that 13 minute ambulance ride. And also, her rehab doctors, therapists and nurses who were sort of assigned with the task of making her recover, rehabbing her body back into shape again. So that's all part of this documentary, as well.

CHETRY: It's fascinating because that's the part that's not lost in this. That this could be a mortal wound for many, many people and she survived it.

The question is, will -- what does recovery look like for her?

GUPTA: Absolutely. I mean, across the board, about -- only about 10 percent of people survive. But, you know, that's based on lots of different things that worked in her favor. But you're absolutely right. What sort of time will tell in terms of her recovery. That's what we're going to be focused on as part of the documentary.

ROMANS: Wow, Sanjay. Amazing access and so many of the players in one place. We haven't seen so many of the details.

Thanks, Sanjay.

You can see -- we have so much more of this hour-long special, "Saving Gabby Giffords." You can see it Sunday night at 7:00 Eastern Time, right here on CNN.

CHETRY: All right. It's 55 minutes past the hour. We have your top stories coming up after the break.

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