Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Debt Ceiling Battles Continues; Shuttle's Final Launch; Interview With Senator Rand Paul R-Kentucky; 'Whitey' Bulger Appears in Court; Storm May Delay Atlantis Launch; Joe Biden Joins Twitter; Possible Death Penalty in Fort Hood Case

Aired July 06, 2011 - 16:00   ET

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

E.D. HILL, CNN ANCHOR: A disturbing new warning - right now terrorists could be targeting plane using secret hidden explosives. And those bombs could be inside their bodies.

I'm E.D. Hill. The news starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILL (voice-over): Murder in the class room -- a gay teenager shot to death execution style at his desk. The accused shooter, his classmate.

SCOTT WIPPERT, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The real issue is, why did he do it.

HILL: Now his trial begins.

The gloves are off in the fight over whether to raise America's credit card limit.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's, in fact, what drives them nuts about Washington.

HILL: But as the clock ticks, one senator is so fed up, he's making a big threat. Republican Rand Paul joins me live.

Plus --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Atlantis begins its penultimate journey.

BALDWIN: The countdown is on, but the shuttle's final launch may be in jeopardy.

And a monster dust cloud wreaks havoc in a major American city. We will take you inside.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Welcome. I'm E.D. Hill. I'm in for Brooke Baldwin today. She is down in Florida for the space shuttle launch.

We start this hour with a disturbing new warning on potential terror attacks. We bring in CNN's Brian Todd with more.

So, what is this new threat against us?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: E.D., a U.S. security official tells CNN of renewed interest among terrorists in a very chilling tactic, surgically implanting explosives or bomb components in the bodies of attackers.

This could be used to strike commercial aircraft, possibly in individual assassination attempts. The official we spoke to says there's fresh intelligence about interest in this technique, but no specific or imminent threat.

One U.S. official says a man suspected of involvement in this effort is a man named Ibrahim Asiri. He is the bomb-making mastermind of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, possibly the most dangerous arm of al Qaeda. Asiri is suspected of involvement in the Christmas Day 2009 plot where a terrorist tried to detonate a bomb in his underwear on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. He's also thought to be behind the cargo bomb plot that was foiled last year -- E.D.

HILL: So are we familiar with any person who has carried off something like this anywhere in the world, or is this just something that they're hearing about?

TODD: There's precedent for this kind of thing. This same bomb- maker in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Ibrahim Asiri, is thought to be behind a 2009 plot to kill Saudi Arabia's interior minister.

And in that plot, a bomber got very close to that minister, and it's thought that the bomber had a bomb either in a body cavity or in his underwear. That bomb did go off prematurely. The bomber was killed. The interior minister escaped, but it was a very close call. And that kind of sent a chilling warning to security officials all over the world that this kind of thing may be coming.

HILL: But the first reaction I have is, well, you go through those body scanners. Certainly they will pick it up, don't they?

TODD: Well, most expert says that they do not pick up anything that is internal, implanted in the body. They cannot pick up something that may be in the abdomen or someplace like that. It can sometimes pick up something that's in a prosthetic, possibly something that may be in a breast implant or something like that, or something that projects some kind of a contour in the body from inside.

But if it's inside the body, most experts are telling us that these full-body imaging scanners cannot pick up that kind of thing.

HILL: Well, you know, I'm familiar with drug mules, and you talked about people using body cavities. Of course that's been going on for a long time. And a lot of people have died from that, in fact, when the bags of drugs open up inside their body.

TODD: That's right. HILL: What about this? Have you talked to a surgeon about the likelihood of somebody being able to implant a significant explosive device inside their body somewhere and live?

TODD: Yes, that's right.

And this surgeon says it really depends on the sophistication of the operation and of the device itself. He says if it's kind of a midrange sophistication in the surgery or in the device itself, that could lead to some problems. The device could go off. It could corrode. Other problems could set in and the bomber could die before this -- before the plot ever comes to fruition maybe within about three or four days of the implant.

But the surgeon also said that if they are sophisticated enough, if they get it done in a hospital, and if the device has some kind of casing around it, it could last days, weeks, even longer. So it really depends on the type of surgery, the sophistication of that, and the sophistication of the device itself.

HILL: All right, thank you very much, Brian Todd.

TODD: Thank you.

HILL: What next?

Now, if it is interesting, it is happening right now, you're going to see it right now. Rapid fire, let's go.

An indictment unsealed has counterterrorism officials concerned. It reveals evidence linking al Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen. The indictment charges a Somali man with providing interior support to the extremist group Al-Shabab in Somalia and then al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. That is over in Yemen.

The man was captured by U.S. forces April 19, interrogated overseas for -- quote -- "intelligent purposes" for two months. He is now in FBI custody in the U.S.

A U.S. Army general approving a possible death penalty in the trial of Major Nidal Hasan. You recall Hasan is accused of going on a shooting rampage in Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. That shooting killed 13 people. Hasan's government-appointed attorney urges the military against allowing the death penalty, saying the trial would be more time-consuming and expensive.

South Korea abuzz with excitement today. The city of Pyeongchang, will host the 2018 Olympic Games, the Winter Olympic Games. Folks cheering, as you can see, at the announcement just a couple of hours ago. The city beat out Munich and others for a chance to play host. It had narrowly lost its bids for the 2010 and 2014 Winter Games.

Now watch this. What is going on there? Look at that, a fight erupting in Afghanistan's Parliament. First, you saw the shoe go flying. Then the water bottle goes flying. Then punches are thrown. And that's between two female lawmakers before the colleagues finally pulled them apart.

Now, this followed a discussion about alleged rocket attacks from Pakistan. That's something Pakistan denies.

In Montana, the governor declaring a state of emergency in seven counties because of a ruptured pipeline that caused some 42,000 gallons of oil to gush into the Yellowstone River last week. ExxonMobil and the state of Montana disagree over how widespread the spill is. The oil company says it has detected oil about 25 miles away. The state says, no, it has found oil 90 miles from the leak.

Now to Ohio, where a freight train traveling from Cleveland to Cincinnati leaked more than 1,700 gallons of diesel from its engine before anyone even realized it. Crews are scrambling to clean up the mess. They say about 30 of those gallons spilled into a river when the train stopped on the bridge in downtown Columbus.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

HILL: Switching gears, it seems some hotels and resorts are offering a big discount, but it involves a digital detox. Now, what is that? How does that work? We will tell you.

Alison, thank you very much.

As Americans worry about their jobs, even their 401(k)s, even putting food on the table, on Capitol Hill, the gloves are off. Congress and President Obama negotiating a deal on whether to raise America's debt ceiling -- there are no signs a deal is close. And as the clock ticks, one senator is so fed up with the process, he is making a very serious threat. Republican Senator Rand Paul joins me live next. Don't miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: The clock is ticking down to D-Day, August 2. In this case, that D stands for debt.

President Obama warns the U.S. will not be able to keep paying the country's debt obligations at that point. He's invited House and Senate leaders to a budget deficit summit at the White House tomorrow. John Boehner says he will participate. Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell say they plan to attend.

But there was still a lot of grandstanding on the floor of the Senate this morning. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: Will we be the kind of country that protects tax breaks and giveaways for the richest and corporations while sacrificing seniors and the middle class? That is the America my Republican colleagues have proposed. And those priorities are simply backwards .

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: We don't think it's absolutist to oppose more stimulus spending. We don't think it's maximalist to oppose hundreds of billions of dollars in tax hikes in the middle of a job crisis.

We have a better term for it, common sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Let's get Senator Rand Paul in here. He's a Republican from Kentucky, so frustrated with the way things have been going on the debt crisis talks, that he's threatening to filibuster.

Thanks for being with us.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Good to be with you, E.D.

HILL: So, would you filibuster?

PAUL: Well, actually, we already are. We have been filibustering since last Friday. Sometimes you don't know it because it's not like Jimmy Stewart, where we're always talking and monopolizing the floor.

But when we came back this week, they threatened to go and they had planned on going to talk about Libya. And so we said we wouldn't. So yesterday they scheduled a vote to force it, to go to Libya and away from the debt ceiling, and we got enough votes yesterday to actually win a victory and they canceled the vote.

Now we want them to talk about the debt ceiling. So tomorrow we will be releasing our solution for the debt ceiling. We, some of the most conservative members of the Senate and House, will raise the debt ceiling, contingent on three items. We want significant cuts, statutory caps, like Gramm-Rudman was, pay as you go. And then we also want a balanced amendment. If we get these, we will agree to a balanced -- we will agree to raise the debt ceiling.

HILL: OK, I know that both sides are pretty far apart. There's just a basic disagreement on how you fix the problems of the country, how do you stimulate the economy, how do you do things, which comes first.

Would you accept piecemeal? So, if you had -- say the president comes out and he says, I will -- I will agree to a balanced budget amendment if you get rid of this first and then let's sit down and talk about it? Would you believe him?

PAUL: Well, I think the message of the election last time was that the American people are tired of politics as usual up here -- 14 percent of the American people think that Congress is doing a good job.

And it's because 75 percent of the people want a balanced budget amendment, and yet we won't act on it. So I think this is a time to draw a line in the sand and say, look, you aren't trusted to be spending our money wisely, so we shouldn't give you anymore. And that's why we should draw a line in the sand and we should say, look, the only way we will ever fix our fiscal problems is by having a balanced budget amendment. But I do think there is one room for compromise.

The Democrats say, oh, the rich have to share more of the burden in fixing the debt. Well, one way to allow the rich to share more of the burden is, have them pay more or pay the full coast of their Medicare benefits, and have them receive less in their Social Security.

So, if you want the rich to pay more of the burden or share more of the burden, that's a compromise Republicans could live with. But if you just want to raise taxes by taking away business deductions, look, we're all businesses. Anybody that has saved any money owns a part of a corporation. We own all parts of oil companies. They're not some obscure rich person we don't know; it's us.

So just to raise taxes on business isn't a good idea. But if they want the rich to share more of the burden, let's means test the entitlement programs.

HILL: When you say, this is something we can agree on, are the leaders -- is the entire Senate, is the House in agreement? Because I get the sense that there are groups of people that are sort of going out there and they're saying, well, I'll do it if you do this, and another group says, I'll do it if you do that.

Is everyone together on this?

PAUL: Well, we're going to find out. I think we may get the entire Republican Caucus behind the idea that we should have cuts, caps and a balanced budget amendment. We already have 47 Republicans behind a balanced budget amendment and we have 75 percent of the American people. Several of us have been talking to House members, and we're trying to talk to leadership in the House as well. And so, I think we have a chance.

But I think the new people here are closest to the electorate. I mean, we just all finished an election, and I feel like the American people were tired of what they've been getting. They want something new and they want somebody who will actually fix the problems up here.

HILL: Well, I get the sense that especially in the House, a lot of the freshmen are saying we were sent in here to not be like the regular politicians in Washington, and they really are willing to go rogue on this.

If you were to -- if you were to cap this thing, you know, handicap it, what do you think is going to happen? Are we going to get to August 2cd and still be talking?

PAUL: I hope we are. I think the pressure mounts as we get closer to the date, but those of us who believe that government shouldn't spend what it doesn't have, and shouldn't spend money that we borrow from China, we need to hold firm. The other thing we need to tell the American people is there's no reason to ever default. We bring in $200 billion a month in revenue. Our interest payment is $20 billion. The president should take that off the table and he should tell the American people that he won't default.

If we default, it's because the president is not doing his job. The president has the revenue and the money to pay interest on the debt. There's not a problem. Some things would have to shut down. We might have a partial shutdown of government, but he has enough money to pay interest, Social Security, soldier salaries. There's plenty of money for about 70 percent of government. But we have to decide why 30 percent of government, we don't have enough money for. That's the imbalance, and we have to do something about it.

HILL: All right, Senator Rand Paul, thank you for joining us.

PAUL: Thank you.

HILL: Weeks ago, he was one of America's most wanted fugitives. Now the alleged mob boss "Whitey" Bulger is telling the court what he thinks of the allegations that he killed 19 people. We'll take you live to Boston.

Plus, a gay student is shot to death execution style in his classroom. The accused person, his own classmate, and he is now on trial. And something else he allegedly did may, in fact, blow this case wide open.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: A gay teenager shot to death execution style inside his own classroom. Well, now a trial is beginning for the classmate accused of pulling the trigger. Brandon McInerney was 14 when he allegedly shot and killed 15-year-old Lawrence King. That happened three years ago in Southern California. Prosecutors say McInerney pulled a handgun from his backpack and shot King twice point blank in the head.

Days after the murder, students spoke about what King went through on a daily basis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXIS CHAVEZ, VICTIM'S FRIEND: They just mocked him. And every time he came around, they ran and just painful things, they said painful things about him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Defense lawyers are not denying McInerney shot the victim, but are questioning the alleged motive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SCOTT WIPPERT, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It's not in dispute that Larry King was shot by Brandon McInerney. The real issue is why did he do it, and that's what the evidence is going to be presented and it's up to the jury to decide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: McInerney is accused of planning the murder and he is being tried as an adult. If convicted, he could face a sentence of 53 years to life in prison.

After a decade and a half on the run, accused Boston gang boss James "Whitey" Bulger is back in court being arraigned for his alleged role in 19 murders. He goes to court and says not guilty to any of the charges.

Bulger was the head of a south Boston Irish gang, and he in fact was the inspiration for the character portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the movie "The Departed."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK NICHOLSON, ACTOR: When I was your age, they would say we could become cops or criminals. What I'm saying to you is this, when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Let's go now to CNN's Deborah Feyerick, she was at today's hearing. So Bulger has new lawyers I understand, now we have his plea. What was he like in court?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's so interesting, because even when you see the portrayal of Jack Nicholson doing "Whitey" Bulger, basically, somebody who I spoke to say, in fact, Jack Nicholson didn't play him hard enough, didn't capture the stone cold killer essence that "Whitey" Bulger was allegedly known for during his reign here in Boston.

But in court, a very different person. He was subdued. He entered the court wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, his feet and his hands were shackled. He spotted two of his brothers in the front row and the men nodded at each other. You know, think about it, at age 81, really, his family is all he has left.

But he did enter a not guilty plea to all 32 charges against him, including 19 counts of murder. The rest is so monumental in Boston because it invokes such a painful part of Boston's history. So for many, seeing him in court, there's really a sense of history at least closing. So it's really interesting, E.D.

HILL: Deb, I worked in Boston, and people would talk about James "Whitey" Bulger. I mean, he was legendary, and they talked about just this reign of terror. He was ruthless, he was cutthroat. And then I look at this old man who is brought in and enters the court and it's hard to put those two things together. He paints a different picture of himself at this point.

Now a lot of folks are wondering, do you think he's going to cut a deal?

FEYERICK: You know, everybody's asking that, because think about it, he's 81 right now, he's charged with some very serious counts, all of them require a life in prison sentence, or the most serious ones.

A lot of people have already testified. People alleged, you know, these so-called rats who used to work for "Whitey" Bulger who have now turned against him who have been used in various court cases that did come to trial, including his close associate, Steve Flemmi.

He's not a very large man. Probably about 5'9", 5'10". He ruled this city with an iron fist. He ruled it through fear, he ruled it through physical threats. And he did it because he was working as an FBI informant and corrupt agents allowed him to not run his criminal enterprise but in fact to grow his criminal enterprise.

And so that is really part of the fabric and the history of Boston that a lot of people have not been able to let go. So him here at this courthouse now after 16 years on the run, it's really important to them because they want to know what -- what he has to say. And if "Whitey" Bulger can actually cut a deal where he tells his story and tells it truthfully so that the feds know the extent of who is involved in the corruption, the public corruption, well, that's something they might be interested in, E.D.

HILL: Were they ever able to figure that out? Because I understand it's believed that one of the handlers for the FBI is the person who tipped him off and that's why he went on the lam.

FEYERICK: And that's exactly right. One of handlers tipped him off, and then interestingly enough, one of handlers got so spooked by the whole thing because "Whitey" Bulger was getting so powerful in the city, that he's actually the one who went to a couple of Boston reports and said, by the way, "Whitey" Bulger, he's an informant.

And some of the thinking was if the FBI guy told the reporters and they got it out that "Whitey" Bulger was acting as a so-called rat, then in fact maybe the underworld would go after "Whitey," but nobody believed, nobody believed that he would actually turn on his own people.

HILL: All right, we'll watch this.

Deb Feyerick, thank you very much.

Coming up, look at this.

(VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Look at that. When I saw this -- it's looks to me like a scene out of a movie. It's a monster wall of dust hammering a major city. Winds hitting nearly 70 miles an hour. Wait till you see more video from inside. We'll show that to you. Plus, he's already a front-runner, but Mitt Romney may be pulling ahead of his opponents in a 2012 race in another way. We'll tell you why he's smiling today. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Time now for a CNN politics update. Jim Acosta joins us with the latest news from the Political Ticker.

Jim, Mitt Romney pulling in impressive campaign money. Tell us about that.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You know, E.D., he is. He is over in London right now of all places. He's across the pond, not just responding to calls of hello governor. He's also doing some fundraising over there, meeting with ex-pats where you can raise a lot of money running for president.

And he is on a roll right now when it comes to raising money in the GOP race. He raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $18.25 million in the second quarter of 2011. That was way out in front of all the other GOP rivals. So Mitt Romney not only doing well in the polls but in the fundraising as well.

And another clear sign he's being taken seriously in the race, the president's top political advise adviser over at the White House, David Plouffe, he was over at a breakfast, a Bloomberg News breakfast this morning, and at that event, Mr. Plouffe referred to Governor Romney as a world-class political contortionist, referring to some of the governor's -- you know, he has a habit of changing some of his positions on certain issues. He has made conflicting statements when it comes to the economy recently, and the Democrats have had some fun with that.

In response, the Romney campaign sent out a message basically saying they would debate President Obama anytime, anywhere. But of course, as you know, Governor Romney will have to win the nomination first to do that.

HILL: And minor step beforehand.

ACOSTA: Yes, exactly.

HILL: Jim Acosta, thank you very much.

ACOSTA: You bet.

HILL: Coming up, a new study suggests children could be at a higher risk for autism if their parents have certain traits. Now, I'll tell you what those traits are.

Plus, as the countdown continues, the shuttle's final launch could be in jeopardy.

And a major city in chaos after a monster dust storm. We will take you inside the cloud. "Reporter Roulette" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: A possible hitch to the launch of NASA's final shuttle mission, new clues to the causes of autism, and a giant dust storm plows through Arizona.

It's time to play "Reporter Roulette." We begin with John Zarrella at the Kennedy Space Center.

So, what are you hearing about the launch?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: E.D., I think NASA would like to launch today if possible. They have a briefing a little while ago. And during that briefing NASA officials said that the shuttle is in perfect shape and ready to go. There are no issues that the NASA engineering team is working.

The only issue being worked here is unfortunately the weather. And as the weather officials put it, it's not looking good for Friday morning.

KATHY WINTERS, SHUTTLE WEATHER OFFICER: As we get to launch, we have a 70 percent chance of (INAUDIBLE) weather approved launch due to our lightning launch commit criteria evaluation, potential for the cumulus cloud rule and also potential for flight through precip rule, which is actually a shuttle specific rule, and then also a showers and thunderstorms and then 20 nautical miles of the shuttle landing facility.

ZARRELLA: If they can't get off the ground on Friday, NASA does have the option of going over the weekend, on Saturday or Sunday, probably not both days but one of those two days, they'd be able to give it a shot. The astronauts are here, the four-member crew, they are ready to go.

Everything is in place. They're just going to need to find just a couple of hours of good weather in order to get Atlantis off the ground for the 135th and final space shuttle mission -- E.D.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Window that they need. John Zarrella, thank you very much.

Next up on "Reporter Roulette," senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me.

Two new studies offering insight into the mystery of autism. And first up, one study shows that genes play less of a role than other factors?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Doctors have thought maybe genes are a really good reason why people get autism. And genes do get play a role, but perhaps not as much as we think, and external factors may play a role. And so, this study brought up several of them.

For example, the age that a parent -- that parents are when their child is born, whether it be mother or father, that seems to play a role. The weight of the child at birth plays role. Even air pollution, whatever kind of air pollution that might be out there, where the baby is living, that may be a role. So lots of things researchers may need to investigate.

HILL: So weight, the bigger the baby, the greater the risk? Or do they know? Or is it?

COHEN: I think that's not clear. I think that's not clear. I think they need to look at the further and sort of see. There are various studies that show different things. This is really in the infancy stages that they're trying to figure out here.

HILL: What about the link between mothers on anti-depressants?

COHEN: Right. That's another study that came out. And I'm going to talk about that one very carefully because I don't want mothers to freak out here. This is a study that basically showed that women who are taking anti-depressants like Prozac or Zoloft while they're pregnant had an increased chance of having a child with autism, but it is very small study. It's like barely 300 kids, and so that means maybe the findings aren't all that significant.

And also, it's -- the numbers are so small, the kids who had autism, the vast majority of kids born to these moms were fine, but some did have autism.

So mothers shouldn't freak out. If you're taking an anti- depressant when you're pregnant, or you planned to get pregnant, talk to your doctor, because a lot of women really need these drugs.

HILL: I know a lot of parents with autistic children sort of hang on every word here, to find out what they can learn.

COHEN: Sure.

HILL: Is there anything that a parent can do that they've determined that can minimize the risk of their child developing autism?

COHEN: Right. All you can do at this point is look for the red flags. And then when you see a red flag, go to your pediatrician, because catching it early really, really helps. So, as your baby ages, as they get to the point where they respond to their name. If they don't, that's a problem. If they're having difficulty forming conversations, babbling with you, if they do repetitive movements, any of those things -- that's a reason to go to the pediatrician.

If you go to CNN.com/EmpoweredPatient, you can see more red flags. That's all parents can do at this point. HILL: Very good resource. Thank you very much, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Thanks.

HILL: Next up on "Reporter Roulette," a giant dust storm swallows a major U.S. city. You got to see this video to believe it.

Chad Myers joins us now -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: E.D., what happened last night over Phoenix, Arizona, was a couple of thunderstorms combing east of the city and rolling right through. When that happened, wind blew out of the thunderstorms, almost 60 miles per hour.

Look at the video. Here comes a giant -- it looks like it's going to come over and eat the city. You think this is like something in Saudi Arabia, because they do have these in the Middle East. They're actually an Arabic named called haboob.

And there's the dust coming. This engulfed Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, right through Scottsdale, and the wind blew for about 25 minutes. It stopped flights obviously in and out of Sky Harbor for an hour. And then people started driving through it as it got in.

Well, if you are driving through this, you know have an air filter that's full of dust that needs absolutely to be changed today or you are wasting gas at 4 bucks a gallon. Some crazy video -- here's one now, a time lapsed video from Mike here, Obinski (ph). And he watched this come in. And he time-lapsed it for us.

Look at the dust. It just engulfs the entire -- like you said earlier -- it looks like something out of Hollywood. But it's real.

HILL: It really does. It is hard to imagine that thing just came up and moved in like that.

MYERS: The pools are all murky. People had to breathe this. Now, it's in your house. They're trying to get the dust out.

HILL: Yes. Good luck with the clean on that one.

MYERS: Absolutely.

HILL: And let me ask you about the earthquake we are talking about, the earthquake earlier today. What's the update on that?

MYERS: It was a 7.6. They finally narrowed it down. It started at 7.8. It was a little bit less than that. It was about 20 or so kilometers deep, 12 miles. And it was not enough to make a big tsunami. It did make a small one, about three foot wait near Tonga and the area right where it was made, right where the earthquake was, but now, all earthquake and all tsunami warnings and everything else across the Pacific are canceled.

HILL: Thank goodness.

MYERS: Yes.

HILL: Chad Myers, thank you.

HILL: That is today's "Reporter Roulette."

Well, it's not until tomorrow that the Democrats and the Republicans get together to talk. So, the president went a different route today, a digital route.

Joe Johns has more on Obama's town hall tweet-up, including the big surprise he got. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: The Twitter sphere is alive with a name of Obama. Most but not all of the questions of the president's Twitter's town hall were pretty much softballs. In fact, some political opponents on the Hill got in a few shots.

Joe John is here's with the "Political Pop" -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, E.D.

Twitter town hall. They call that, what, a tweet-up, right?

HILL: Right. A tweet-up.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNS: OK. Who knew? All right, look, if you were watching the president's Twitter town hall, so were congressional Republicans. They were having a field day with it, of course. They're getting their message out while the president was getting his message out.

Several members of the House leadership actually tweeted the president at #askObama. Among them, of course, House Speaker John Boehner, tweeting about the deficit negotiations, check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MODERATOR: Our next question comes from someone you may know. This is Speaker Boehner.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Oh, there you go.

(LAUGHTER)

MODERATOR: "After embarking on a record spending binge that left us deeper in debt, where are the jobs?" And I want to know that these characters are his fault.

OBAMA: First of all, John, obviously, he needs to work on his typing skills.

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: Well, look, obviously John is the speaker of the House. He's a Republican and so, this is a slightly skewed question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Skewed question.

All right, that wasn't the only member of the House leadership to actually tweet. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy went after the administration's economic policies, of course. He tweeted, "GOP has a plan for job growth, what is your economic plan?" Apparently talking to the president -- "798 days, still no budget from the Dems."

And House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan put up several tweets, even challenged the president, saying, "Americans deserve a real debate, you pick when and where." So that sounded sort of like calling him out.

Republicans getting all excited. I think they were sort of egged on by John Boehner a little bit.

HILL: Yes. I think Americans deserve some real specifics. And on both sides, you kind of get -- you know, squishy we want to do this, but they don't tell you how to get all that done. So, we have to wait for that.

Apparently, though, this is such a big deal for the vice president. Finally broke down, he opened a Twitter account. Did he do that?

JOHNS: Right. Well, obviously, the White House is looking at this like and saying it's going to be a big election and we're going to have issues with social media. So, we better get onboard quickly.

The vice president did open a Twitter account, an official Twitter account. The White House announced on July 4 that he opened this and as of just very recently, I'm told, he had three tweets.

Three whole tweets and the last one was a picture of him with somebody. He had 18,500 followers, though, but wasn't following anybody. Not even President Obama. The first tweet was asking Americans to thank the troops and their families for the service on Independence Day.

Then there was another one saying meeting with the president and congressional leaders at the White House tomorrow. The White House blog does say he -- this is going to give sort of a behind the scenes look at veep life, that's their word. So I'm really looking forward to finding out what Biden says about veep life.

HILL: Well, if he wants to follow someone and not have a whole lot of excitement, he can follow me. Dirty little secret here, though, that I think people should know is that the vice president, the president, the politicians, they rarely if ever write their own tweets.

JOHNS: Yes, it's always staff. It's always staff and this will probably be no exception. Actually, somebody over in the vice president's office said that to me yesterday.

HILLS: Yes, Joe Johns, thank you very much.

Coming up, perhaps the fastest and luckiest squirrel in the world. We'll show you what happens when a Lamborghini traveling 130 miles an hour meets that squirrel on a racetrack. You will not believe how this ends and that is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: You need to know about this. There's a disturbing new warning on potential terror attacks. A U.S. security official tells CNN terrorists intent on bombing planes are interested in surgically implanting explosives into their bodies.

Last week, U.S. officials briefed airlines and allies overseas about new intelligence on terror threats and about that new technique that they might soon use.

In New York, an attorney for Dominique Strauss-Kahn said he had, quote, "a constructive meeting" today with prosecutors in the sexual assault case. The meeting comes days after prosecutors revealed several credibility issues with the female accuser, the hotel maid, but Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance says prosecutors are not ready to drop the charges.

A U.S. Army general, approving a possible death penalty in the trial of Major Nidal Hasan. Hasan is accused of going on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009. That shooting left 13 people dead. His government-appointed defense attorney urging the military against allowing the death penalty, saying it would make for a longer and more expensive trial.

Speaking of trials, jury selection for the Roger Clemens perjury trial is under way. The former baseball star is accused of lying to Congress in 2008 when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

The presiding judge in the case has chastised Congress for refusing to turn over audio recordings of the 2008 deposition. The assistant counsel to the House of Representatives says the recordings can only be released by a resolution of the House of Representatives.

All right, you've got to see this. If a Lamborghini leaves point A going more than 100 miles an hour and a plucky squirrel leaves point B going 5 miles per hour, does the squirrel survive? Let's look.

Look at that. That is one lucky squirrel. You know when you're driving and you see a chip monk run out and you know you can't slow down and still be safe, but you're always looking in your rear-view mirror hoping the chip monk made it across the road.

Well, in this case, the squirrel did. Lucky squirrel. A lot of folks love fireworks on Fourth of July. That is until the fireworks fail to launch and instead aim at you.

Do you think they'll go to a fireworks show next year? I'm not sure about that. That is the Fourth of July fireworks. They go away, I guess, the one that got away.

This time tomorrow, Casey Anthony could be a free woman. So what kind of life will she be able to have? Also did you hear, she was served with legal papers last night in prison? Sunny Hostin is on the case, she's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Now tomorrow's news today. Let's "Fast Forward."

Our borders are taking center stage when the Obama administration announces its new plan to tackle drug violence and trafficking into the U.S.

Also, a couple of Republican presidential candidates hitting a key election state. Rick Santorum tours Iowa and Tim Pawlenty holds a town hall.

Casey Anthony may have been acquitted in the death of her 2-year- old daughter, but the jury found her guilty of lying to law enforcement. Sunny Hostin is on the case.

So Casey is due back in court tomorrow for sentencing on the lying convictions. What do you expect?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, we'll know tomorrow by 9:00 a.m. what the prosecution thinks this sentence could be or should be. We'll also hear from the defense.

And the defense will make their recommendation to the judge as to what the sentence should be. Of course, it's up to the judge to determine how much time she gets. She was convicted of four counts of lying to law enforcement.

And so she's got an exposure of about four years and about $4,000 in fines because, E.D., each misdemeanor conviction can punishment by up to one year in prison.

So if this judge decide he wants to sentence her consecutively, that means one after the other after the other after the other, she could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.

HILL: But I understand that's pretty rare, that normally, you know, they don't do that and most folks are assuming she gets out with the time she's already served.

HOSTIN: You know, I'm going to disagree with most folks. You're right, E.D. A lot of people are saying that, but remember, this is the same judge that sentenced a guy who flipped the bird at Jeff Ashton in the courtroom to six days in jail. This is not one of these no nonsense judges.

This is also the judge that presided over this case, and what I've heard is when he heard about the verdict, he sort of slammed down the paper. So this may be a judge that holds her feet to the fire and says I'm going to hold you to the four years. And so I think while a lot of people are saying she's going to be walking out at free woman tomorrow, I'm not certain that that is the case.

HILL: So he might get his say. Also, I understand quasi was served with legal papers in jail last night. It's a defamation case. What is that about?

HOSTIN: Isn't that interesting? She was served in jail, subpoenaed for a videotaped deposition. This is a case that was filed against to her by Zanny, the alleged nanny, Zenaida Fernandez Gonzalez.

Remember, Casey Anthony said that someone by the name of Zenaida Fernandez Gonzalez had taken Caylee, and that's who sort of kidnapped her and had her. This woman is saying her life was ruined and Casey Anthony is to blame.

We do have a statement from her attorney, and her attorney says since the false allegations that she was responsible for Caylee's disappearance surfaced, Gonzalez has had to live in hiding. Her life has been turned upside down.

She suffered emotionally and physically due to the threatening phone calls made to her house in the middle of the night and the stress of this devastating situation.

In fact, she's also claiming that she was fired from her job as a result of all the negative media attention and she had no criminal record and she's a mother of six.

So this defamation suit seeks to clear her name and rectify the damage done to her by the devastating false accusations of Casey Anthony. This is a civil case.

It's a much lower standard than a criminal case. It only needs to be shown by a preponderance of the evidence, E.D. just a mere tipping of the scales and she's suing for money.

HILL: Do we know what kind of money?

HOSTIN: We don't know. I don't have the papers in front of me, but she is suing civilly and let's face it, a lot of people are saying that Casey Anthony, when she does get out, may get a book deal, maybe get some of TV deal and may be looking at making quite a bit of money. She's not judgment proof like a lot of people thought. She may be able to pay some sort of restitution to Zenaida Fernandez Gonzalez.

HILL: One of our guest earlier in the program said, it could be millions of dollars she makes of this. Real quickly I got something in the internet that was being forwarded about Caylee's law? What's that?

HOSTIN: Isn't that interesting, 98,000 and counting have signed on to this sort of virtual campaign calling for a federal law to be established that if a parent doesn't alert police of a child's disappearance, that parent would be guilty of a felony. This just started about 24 hours ago, and 98,000 people have signed on to it and counting.

HILL: Sunny Hostin, thank you very much.

And thanks for joining us. It is time now for "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Candy Crowley.