Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
57 Million in the Path of Historic Storm; Obama's Alaska Move Triggers Fight; North Dakota Oil Boomtown on the Brink?; Drugs in Silicon Valley; Deflategate Body Language; Historic Blizzard to Hit Northeast
Aired January 25, 2015 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. 7:00 Eastern, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow joining you from New York.
Fifty-seven million people across the northeast are in the path of a potentially crippling winter storm. White-out conditions, hurricane- level winds and up to three feet of snow are expected.
New York City's mayor issuing a dire warning, prepare for the worst storm in the city's history.
Let's begin with meteorologist Ivan Cabrera.
Ivan, they are calling this historic. We are looking at potentially record-breaking snowfall.
IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No question about it. It is going to be historic if our forecast pans out and I think it will. In fact -- we're focusing on New York City but remember this is New York City. This is heading up into Providence.
This is going to be impacting Boston, which was -- which is why we have tens of millions of people in the way here in the blizzard warning, which means that you're not just going to get heavy snow that will accumulate a couple of feet, maybe three feet, but also along with that you're going to get the potential for hurricane-force winds.
I think we're going to have sustained winds 30 to 40 miles an hour easily at the peak of the storm.
Here are the snowfall tallies, 10 to 12 inches to the north and west, but there is your bull's eye. From New York City into Boston, the potential for over two feet. You will remember this one for years to come and you will likely compare it to storms that passed. In fact it could make the top five in New York City and I think it will. So there are your snow totals, 12 to 24. Airports, forget about it. People have been asking, well, when can I get out?
If you don't get out or in from New York to Boston, wherever you're headed, on Monday, Tuesday will not happen for you. You are not going to be able to travel across the northeast on Tuesday at the peak of the storm whether by air or by car. Coastal flooding as well with 50 to 70 mile-an-hour winds, Poppy.
That's going to cause some power outages, as well, and we'll continue to monitor the storm and it's just getting going now, but Monday night into Tuesday, that's the peak.
HARLOW: So, Ivan, of course, people that have travel planned are they're saying, all right, when do I have to delay this to? Are we talking about Wednesday morning things should be cleared up here on the East Coast?
CABRERA: Well, I think Wednesday morning you're still going to have issues because the people who couldn't fly out Tuesday or Monday are going to try to get on the flight Wednesday here. So I don't think the airports are going to have this squared away until we get towards the latter part of the week and thus so this is going to be an ongoing event here. And never mind the roads are going to be a mess especially the secondary ones.
So if you're trying to travel, do it now and if you need to get your supplies, you need to get food, you need to get water, you need to get all of that, be prepared, hunker down, Monday night, you will not be able to do it on Tuesday.
HARLOW: All right. Ivan, thank you, appreciate it.
In New York, people are scrambling, buying shovels, food, water, getting ready to buckle down for the storm. Transit officials loading up on de-icing fluid trying to keep the subways moving in the city. Those are critical for millions of people to get around.
As you see in this photo, joggers squeezing in a last-minute run before the conditions deteriorate.
Our Nick Valencia has more on how New York is getting ready to tackle them.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, New York state officials are not mincing words, using very strong language to prepare citizens in that area for what they call a historic event with the potential of more than 27 inches of snow to hit New York.
Earlier we caught up with the head of New York Office of Emergency Management.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH ESPOSITO, NEW YORK CITY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: This is going to be -- if you look at the projection by the National Weather Service, and all the weather services, this is going to be a big one. This could be the biggest snowstorm in recent history, in the history since we've been keeping records here in New York.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALENCIA: New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo says state agencies are already in motion. Agencies like the National Guard which has dedicated more than six dozen personnel to help with this storm including 20 high-axle vehicles for 24-hour operations. New York state police department says they're going to deploy 50 4x4 vehicles including eight all-terrain vehicles, and snow mobiles in the region.
The port authority has added 200 pieces of snow equipment at its airports including thousands of tons of salt and sand for roads, parking lots and bridges. The MTA, well, they says busses will be equipped with snow tires but they're also going to store their trains underground tomorrow night to protect its fleet from the elements.
The State Department of Transportation says they have more than 600 plows and 1300 operators just in the Hudson Valley and Long Island area. Statewide, more than 1400 plows and 3600 operators and supervisors to be on hand to help. New York State officials are warning that this has the potential to be very bad and should not be taken lightly -- Poppy.
HARLOW: Nick Valencia, thank you for that.
Well, a move to set aside 12 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness is pitting the White House against a number of Republicans including Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. The Interior Department saying the refuge is home to caribou, polar bears, great wolves and more, and setting aside more than a million acres as wilderness would stop any oil drilling, any mining, even constructing roads there.
The announcement came in a YouTube video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Alaska's National Wildlife refuge is an incredible place. Pristine, undisturbed. It supports caribou and polar bears, all manner of marine life, countless species of birds and fish, and for centuries it supported many Alaska native communities. But it's very fragile. And that's why --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: That's part of the announcement that the president made. Already Senator Murkowski calling this a, quote, "stunning attack on her state."
She joins me now from Washington.
Thank you for being here.
SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R), ALASKA: Thanks for the invitation to be with you tonight.
HARLOW: So reading some of your comments, your reaction to this, you said it is clear this administration does not care about us and sees us as nothing but a territory.
You are going to fight this. What is your strategy? MURKOWSKI: Well, keep in mind, this is not just about ANWR. This is
about the frontal assault from this administration on my state. Not only towards locking up ANWR permanently, forever, but also further locking up areas of our outer continental shelf, taking the National Petroleum Reserve, the area that's been designated for exploration and making it further impossible to allow for exploration there.
So this is not just kind of a one campaign against ANWR or to lock up ANWR. This is effectively to lock up and lock off our resources as a state. I'm not going to sit for it. Alaskans are not going to sit for it.
HARLOW: Senator, what do you say then to the secretary of the Interior who came out in a statement and said -- designating vast areas in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve as wilderness reflect the significance this landscape holds for America and its wildlife, saying this land is too precious to let all of it be open for drilling, for example.
Do you see that side of the argument?
MURKOWSKI: Keep in mind, Alaska is already the host to more wilderness in this country than in all the other 49 states combined. We are more than generous with insuring that there is open access and wilderness areas, but keep in mind we have people -- people, Alaskans, native people Inuit who live in these areas. What about them? We need to ensure that we care for the land. But we also have an obligation and a responsibility to people that work and live and raise their families there.
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: So let me ask you --
MURKOWSKI: Let's think about them.
HARLOW: Let me ask you this. And it is an important point. Jobs. So let me ask you this. I spent the last week, week and a half ago, in North Dakota. North Dakota's entire economy is propped up on oil. They have unemployment below 1 percent. Oil is below 50 bucks and they're seeing thousands and thousands of layoffs. When you look at January to November of last year, only 27 percent of the oil that we used in this country was imported from elsewhere.
We have a booming, you know, native oil industry in this country and we're seeing some of these rigs shut off because the price of oil is so low.
Is now the time to be fighting for this?
MURKOWSKI: Well, think about the benefit that the public is enjoying from the fact that we are producing more. You're seeing lower prices at the pump and people appreciate that. That's more money in their pockets so when we talk about supply mattering, it matters if it comes from this country. So we have these jobs, so we can again, work to not only reduce costs to American families, but to have good jobs that are out there.
HARLOW: But, Senator --
MURKOWSKI: So let's have the opportunity to access the resources.
HARLOW: But, Senator, finally, before I let you go, what we're also seeing is thousands of these job cuts. We saw ConocoPhillips slashed 20 percent of its capital spending. We saw Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, these big oil services companies, cutting tens of thousands of jobs because the demand isn't there to produce it at this price.
MURKOWSKI: Well, keep in mind, it's not -- it's not so much a question of producing it at this price. There are other factors that are at play here. Part of it is being able to move that product, whether it's through a pipeline like Keystone Excel Pipeline, having the refinery so we can refine the product, so there's so much more that goes into it, all impacting jobs for Americans around the country and an opportunity for energy independence -- North American energy independence that we should not overlook.
HARLOW: No doubt this is going to be a big, big battle in Washington.
Senator, I appreciate your time.
MURKOWSKI: Thank you.
HARLOW: Alaska not the only state in this oil battle. As I was just talking about, most of North Dakota's economy depends solely on oil, but will the boom in that boom town keep going? That's next.
Also coming up, can LSD make you a billionaire? Seriously, some in Silicon Valley swear the psychedelic drug has helped them become part of the 1 percent.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Well, many drivers across America are cheering $2 gas, but cheap gas comes at a price. In North Dakota's oil country there is new concern that this boomtown is on the brink.
We went there to find out what workers and people all over North Dakota have to say.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We wanted to see what this oil boom was all about.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just decided to go where the work was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know the last time we had the oil boom things slowed down pretty bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taking a bit of a nosedive right now with the price of oil going down quite severely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see rigs that are being pulled down and shut down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've already been laid off once.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of people are. A lot of people are really scared about it.
HARLOW (on camera): This is Williston, North Dakota. We're right on main street and this is oil country.
They call it black gold and for workers here it's meant steady work and great pay. The latest unemployment rate, less than 1 percent, but with oil falling from 100 bucks to less than 50, what happens to boomtown if the boom goes bust?
MICHAEL FERGUSON, OIL RIG WORKER: I hope that they've done a lot of planning and preparation in case the oil does go away.
HARLOW (on camera): Because it could.
FERGUSON: Because it very well could.
HARLOW (voice-over): It's winter on the Great Plains over North Dakota's oilfields.
JOHN ROBERTS, LAID OFF WORKER: They started laying off people actually extends December.
HARLOW: A native of Liberia, John Roberts came here for better work. He made $18 an hour driving oil workers to and from the rig, but when oil prices fell he and thousands more were laid off.
ROBERTS: I need a job right now. I need to eat. I need to gas my car. I still have a farm in Iowa. I need to take care of that rent.
HARLOW (on camera): You have four kids back in Liberia that rely on you making money.
ROBERTS: They rely on me.
HARLOW (voice-over): The vast well pumped from the Bakken shale that lies below these town isn't a sure bet. North Dakota's oil rig count has fallen to the lowest level since 2010.
JIM ARTHAUD, CEO, MBI ENERGY SERVICES: I think we could very realistically be going to 50 drilling rates come June.
HARLOW (on camera): From?
ARTHAUD: Probably close to 200.
HARLOW (voice-over): Jim Arthaud's trucking company hauls 130,000 barrels of crude a day.
(On camera): How bad is it?
ARTHAUD: Well, you know, it's not bad yet, but everybody knows it's going to get bad. You know, the writing is on the wall. A lot of jobs lost. 20,000 jobs, probably. Pretty quickly, by June, it will be some sad times.
HARLOW: But this is boomtown.
ARTHAUD: It was a boomtown.
HARLOW (voice-over): Despite the gloomy outlook his company is still hiring and training workers. Who are optimistic.
GERALD WALLACE, TRUCKING TRAINEE: There isn't enough oil. There isn't enough work. To be able to stay employed for a long time.
HARLOW: Still concerns linger and stem from factors overseas. Some industry analysts suspect Saudi Arabia keeps pumping more oil, lowering prices even further in an attempt to cripple U.S. production.
DAN EBERHART, CEO, CANARY: I think there's a battle royale right now between OPEC and U.S. shale producers.
HARLOW (on camera): So who is going to blink first? Them or you guys?
EBERHART: I hope them, but I think it's going to be a little bit of both. I think the Bakken is going to be the worst or one of the very worst hit basins in --
HARLOW: In the U.S.
EBERHART: In the U.S. because of the high cost.
HARLOW (voice-over): Dan Eberhart is the CEO of well-head maker Canary.
(On camera): What are the oil companies that you service -- what are they telling you?
EBERHART: Some are telling us to brace for a slowdown and some of them are saying they're going to keep drilling and potentially add rigs.
HARLOW (voice-over): As major U.S. oil companies slow production, perhaps no place in America will feel it more than right here.
(On camera): Have your hours already been cut back?
FERGUSON: Yes, I have.
HARLOW (voice-over): Michael Ferguson wanted to move his family of nine up here from Colorado. Now that plan is on hold. Rig workers typically do 12 to 16-hour shifts, but if his hours are cut more he may move back home.
FERGUSON: It wouldn't be financially feasible for me to be here.
HARLOW (on camera): So you're working 40 hours a week doesn't make sense here.
FERGUSON: No. It's not worth being away from the family for that.
HARLOW (voice-over): And with housing so expensive here, many rely on their employer for a roof over their head.
ROBERTS: Since I'm no longer employed with the company they give me 24 hours to leave.
HARLOW (on camera): 24 hours.
ROBERTS: Twenty-four hours.
HARLOW: To leave your house.
ROBERTS: To leave the house. If you go outside now, my car is there. With all my belongings.
HARLOW: As you can see, people in the oil industry here are scared, but when you talk to folks all across town in different jobs, many of them say they're not concerned at all. In fact, they think that this oil rush has just begun.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have a great day.
JD PASS, OWNER, MOBILE MOTEL: I hate the word boomtown, you know, boom means boom or bust, and we're not busting here.
HARLOW: You're not worried?
PASS: Not at all.
JOSSLYN DODDS, PHARMACY MANAGER: I'm not worried at all.
JILL LANDRIE, PROPERTY MANAGER: No, I'm not worried. Things do slow down a little bit in the winter. I definitely anticipate a pickup in the spring.
HARLOW (voice-over): From pharmacy to the motel to housing developments, local businesses are still thriving.
BARBARA FORSBERG, STORE MANAGER: It's been great. Great. We're up from last year at this time. I'm hoping that continues. And I'm sure it will.
JESSE REYNOLDS, FLEW IN FROM LAS VEGAS: Just flew in last night. Got a job.
HOWARD KLUG, MAYOR OF WILLISTON: I'm not worried because it's going to come back. We don't have any other alternative to oil right now. It will be the base for an industry that's going to support North Dakota for 40 more years.
BRENT SANFORD, MAYOR OF WATFORD CITY: We're 8900 wells into a 60 to $70,000 well play so we're 15 percent into this.
HARLOW: The mayor of Watford City, North Dakota, insists his town needs to grow, even as the oil industry declines.
SANFORD: We're thousands of housing (INAUDIBLE) behind where we need to be. In the meantime it helps non-oil businesses try to get caught up. No one has employees out here.
HARLOW: But not everyone out here is so sure.
MARK SUELZLE, MUSIC TEACHER: If they move away who's going to pay the bill for the new school?
HARLOW (on camera): And that's the same story with a lot of things around town.
SUELZLE: Everything. Have you seen the new apartment buildings going on? Wow huh? It can't go on forever.
HARLOW: Do you think people are preparing themselves for the fact that it can't go on forever?
SUELZLE: That's a good question.
HARLOW (voice-over): So is the sun setting on boomtown? It all depends on how far oil falls and for how long, leaving the promise of what tomorrow will bring on the minds of just about everyone here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: All right. You can see much more of our report on North Dakota's oil boom town on CNNmoney.com.
Coming up next, Steve Jobs, the ultimate innovator whose journey to tech superstardom included trips with LSD. How some of the billionaires at Silicon Valley right now seek creative brilliance.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM FERRIS, ENTREPRENEUR/INVESTOR: The billionaires I know almost without exception use hallucinogens on a regular basis.
LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: The billionaires. We're talking about the companies that we would know, the companies the apps on our phone.
FERRIS: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: That's entrepreneur Tim Ferris telling our Laurie Segall that all of the billionaires he knows take that hallucinogenic drugs. Really?
Laurie joins me now to talk about it.
This is a fascinating series you've done, "SEX, DRUGS AND SILICON VALLEY." It's pretty unbelievable what they're saying, these psychedelic drugs, it sounds like something sort of out of the '60s.
SEGALL: Yes.
HARLOW: But is this really common place right now in the valley?
SEGALL: Yes. You know, oftentimes I would speak to entrepreneurs about this, they kind of say it's like the '60s and '70s. They would actually say that. But I spoke to a lot of engineers, a lot of ,entrepreneurs who say yes, we use LSD. It's not a very big deal. And I was saying OK, well, how are you using it? One engineer from Cisco actually said well, remember, if there is a really hard problem and I can't just solve it, take LSD and I go to a Grateful Dead concert and then I -- and then things are OK.
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: It's like start-up. It's a huge international tech company.
SEGALL: Huge, huge company. And we spoke to people from all major tech companies and they just kind of lifted the curtain. You know, is everyone doing this? No, but we talked to the people who were obviously, you know, LSD, there's no scientific evidence that it makes you more creative and it's also an addictive drug but it's interesting to see how a lot of folks in the valley are using it specifically to kind of get ahead.
HARLOW: Be creative.
Let me play a clip of an interview that you did. This is with an early Apple employee who talks about taking psychedelic drug -- he says with Apple founder Steve Jobs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEGALL: Take me back to those college days. I mean, let's just rewind and go back there.
DANIEL KOTTKE, EARLY APPLE EMPLOYEE: Let's see. Where we playing Sgt. Pepper?
(LAUGHTER)
SEGALL: What were you playing, how did this go down?
KOTTKE: We were just kind of walking around. I think we used to go for hikes. I think we camped out on the beach. The times that I was taking psychedelics with Steve, we weren't really talking that much. We were more of in a meditative space.
Steve was my best friend at the time of life when I was discovering all this huge current of eastern literature. All of a sudden psychedelics were being introduced into the mix of traditional spirituality and that was just very fascinating.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SEGALL: You know, Poppy, what was really interesting sitting down with him and going to his home, you know, Daniel became -- he's one of the first guys to go work in that garage at Apple when they were discovering and creating Apple and what he said was Steve Jobs stopped doing psychedelics when -- you know, when he was trying to build up his company, said he didn't like smoking pot.
It was specifically LSD and psychedelics that he enjoyed doing, and he said it was very spiritual for him. And interestingly enough, when Steve Jobs passed away he left a book for everyone that attended his funeral. It was a book based on spirituality and psychedelics.
HARLOW: Right. OK. The one thing, though, obviously, you have to talk about this. The fact that these are really dangerous drugs.
SEGALL: Absolutely.
HARLOW: And you see kids who want to be the next Twitter founder, saying this might be the way? I mean --
SEGALL: Look, that's -- you know, one of the things we have to say, is, you know, there really is no scientific evidence behind the whole creativity, but there is evidence that --
HARLOW: That it can kill you.
SEGALL: It can kill you and it is highly addicting. And we asked a lot of the founders that and a lot of people said, you know what, the premium in Silicon Valley is your mind.
HARLOW: Wow.
SEGALL: So people are willing to take that risk sometimes, Poppy.
HARLOW: Unreal. It is a fascinating series, Laurie. Thank you.
SEGALL: Thank you.
HARLOW: Appreciate it.
Join us all week right here on CNN, 2:00 Eastern every day, Laurie Segall is going to be on with each of her pieces exploring these lifestyle choices for some in Silicon Valley. Some tech workers arguing that it gives them the edge. "SEX, DRUGS, AND SILICON VALLEY."
Coming up next, we're switching gears here and talking about the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz but evil acts remain part of our daily headlines.
Coming up, what we can do about the new faces of evil.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Tuesday marks the 70th anniversary. Seventy years since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz. It is believed that 1.2 million people were slaughtered there in under three years.
Our own Wolf Blitzer's grandparents were among those who are murdered. And in a special report, Wolf looks back at the atrocities committed at Auschwitz through the eyes of those in prison more than seven decades ago and shares his personal ties as well.
Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It haunts us to this very day. You just hear that word, Auschwitz and you think of death.
You smell the death walking around.
I've read about the Holocaust. I've seen the movies. I've seen a lot of the pictures. Certainly I knew what happened but until you actually see the location. You see where it occurred and you get a sense of the enormity of this crime. It's hard to believe that people can be as cruel as they clearly have been.
1.2 million people. Within two or three years were slaughtered. And then when I went to (INAUDIBLE) and saw the crermatoria, the gas chambers and it will stay with me for the rest of my life. It was a powerful, powerful moment.
Auschwitz survivors went through hell and lost their parents and their grandparents and their sisters and brothers.
We hear those stories. It is so, so moving to listen and to appreciate and to understand what these people had to endure.
Eva (INAUDIBLE), when I think about what she and her sister had to endure. They were only 10 years old, taken to Dr. Joseph Mengele for the most barbaric kinds of torture experiments and it is just so shocking and so horrible and to believe that these were doctors, so- called doctors, this was a sick part of the Nazi history, sickest that you can even imagine. It's hard to believe that people could do this to other people.
The parents were taken to the right. The older brothers and sisters were taken to the right and they went right to the gas chambers.
When i first walked into the gas chamber, I thought about my - my paternal grandparents - my dad's mom and dad who were killed, probably in that gas chamber. I don't know for sure but I know they were killed, they were murdered in Auschwitz in Berkinou and I know that they probably were taken into that gas chamber. I don't know what was going through their mind. Did they know that this was going to be the end?
I waited a long time. I could have gone many years earlier, but for some reason I didn't. I don't know why. On my dad's side he grew up in the town of Auschwitz. He was born in Auschwitz. He grew up in a village, that town, and I walked around that town, and I couldn't believe how close it was. He himself was never taken to Auschwitz and they took him to a dozen other slave labor camps.
I grew up hearing these stories. My parents were very open about their experiences and they never hid anything from me, but I finally went, but it was a powerful moment for me when you walked around those areas in Auschwitz and Berkinou, knowing the blood that was on that ground there. It wasn't until the moment that it hit me that my father's parents were killed in Auschwitz. A powerful experience. Something I'll never forget.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: It is an incredible documentary. You're not going to want to miss this CNN special report, "Voices of Auschwitz" hosted by our own Wolf Blitzer. It airs Tuesday, January 27, 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
The world is still horrified when it sees images of what the Nazis did to prisoners in concentration camps like Auschwitz yet similar atrocities are committed today by groups like ISIS. Just yesterday ISIS posted a message online claiming that it had beheaded one of two Japanese hostages.
Let's talk about the new face of evil with former CIA operative Bob Baer. Bob, it's true. I mean you see what happened seven decades ago in Auschwitz and you see what's happening right now, the life of this second Japanese hostage weighs in the balance. How can the U.S., other forces best fight evil in the world as it exists today?
BOB BAER, FMR. CIA OPERATIVE: Well, Poppy, you know, it's worrisome. I mean, the whole idea we were progressing since Auschwitz, since the second world war. Something else is going on. You look at Boko Haram moving in northern Nigeria, in the Camerouns and ISIS is a state that still exists that shouldn't exist by rights and it is cruel in the random violence killing this Japanese man, Japanese are not a party to this conflict so there is absolutely no rationale and these people from my terms are psychopaths and I really do worry about the growing chaos in the world which is something we really haven't seen in centuries, and I cannot tell you where it's going, but it is getting worse.
HARLOW: But in fighting Nazi Germany, for example, and fighting the Nazis, eventually there was a victory, not only militarily, Bob, but also in terms of overcoming the ideology that drove it. I think a lot of people are concerned that some of this extremist ideology when it comes to ISIS, for example, is growing.
BAER: It is. It's like communism. It was an abstract idea that you couldn't stop with war or a particular fighter or a particular battle.
Fascism was centered in Germany and it was easy to take Berlin and once we all agreed we had to do that, but this is something more dispersed and something more random which makes it so much more difficult to combat. It's almost - it's a virus that's spreading very quickly.
HARLOW: Interesting, Bob, let's talk quickly about Japan, right? So Japan obviously at the center of this with another one of their hostages being held by ISIS threatening to kill them and you have Japan, right now, the government under Prime Minister Abe looking at, considering really making a dramatic turn here, taking an offensive posture when it comes to global relations versus a defensive posture which is really where it stands militarily and its constitution following World War II. Is this a change you think we will see, we should see and something that may have major ramifications?
BAER: I think Abe, the - he's going to pay for this. Getting involved in the Iraqi war is a bridge too far for the Japanese. It was not the place that you get involved by offering $200 million to fight ISIS, non-lethal means was probably a mistake, and I don't think the Japanese know what they're doing when they get to the Middle East and they certainly don't have the means to change this conflict and they've seen this now. I doubt, I think the Japanese are going to back off now.
HARLOW: You do?
All right. Bob Baer, thank you very much, an important discussion to have. Appreciate it.
Quick break. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: All right. You knew this was coming, right? That "Saturday Night Live" would have a little fun with deflategate. Here is coach Bill Belichick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFED MALE: Coach Belichick, quick question.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: I'm sure you have question, but I would rather leave those questions to the person who did it, Tom Brady.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Of course, Tom Brady and Patriots coach Bill Belichick deny all of the deflategate allegations. Words are one thing, but how they say them, their body language can make a big impression in terms of what people think regardless of the facts.
Patty Wood is a body language expert and author of "Snap, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma," she joins me now from Atlanta. Let's get right to the heart of it. Thank you for joining me. Tom Brady was asked point-blank, are you a cheater? Take a look at his answer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFED MALE: Is tom brady a cheater?
TOM BRADY, QUARTERBACK, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: I don't believe so. I feel like I've always played within the rules and I would never do anything to break the rules.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: So, Patty, I would like your analysis of that. Because, he laughed and some would say he's laughing it off because it's ridiculous, others would say he was uncomfortable.
PATTY WOOD, BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT: Actually he did three anxiety cues there. He does an envelope lip. He actually pulls back from answering the question and his smile is actually a nervous smile, it's a cover smile and all of that, all of those surface cues and then he said "I don't believe so." That's a disclaimer.
I call those I'm a media coach, and I call those mashed potato words. They cover up the meat of the truth and then he goes back to his charming cover smile again. It's an anxiety smile. There's too much tension around the eyes for it to be a true smile.
HARLOW: But here's the thing, right? It's one thing for someone to be lying which of course, he says "I am not." It's another thing for someone to be put in a very tense, uncomfortable prolonged press conference.
WOODS: Yes and yet he prepared for this press conference and that makes a difference in how I'm analyzing the deception cues and how I'm analyzing his anxiety and the fact that in each case there is a cascade of anxiety cues and he delays, but he never gives a definitive statement. That's interesting.
That's not something you would normally do if you're telling the truth. You would have the truth up front. You would make it very definitive and you wouldn't stall on the answer.
HARLOW: So let me ask you more on that, in terms of when you look at someone in how do they present an answer being very, very credible, other than not stalling, what are some those other indicators?
WOODS: Actually, typically when you're telling the truth, you want to keep talking. You might even repeat your statement over and over again, and you'll do subtle things like instead of going away from the journalists or the questioner you'll go towards them. You'll also be very smooth in your answers and there's something I call feel, show, say. When you're telling the truth, you feel it in your limbic brain and you respond it and show it nonverbally and then you make your statement, you're going over to your neocortex.
He often will make the statement, stall out the statement and then he'll do something like the shoulder shrug late. That's interesting. Typically if you're innocent you'll shrug your shoulders and then you'll make the statement so the timing is very critical.
HARLOW: I also want you to take a listen to another little chunk from the Brady press conference on Thursday and get your reaction to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRADY: I would never do anything outside of the rules of play. I would never, you know have someone do something that I thought was outside of the rules.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: So, you know, to me, I stutter. I stutter on television. I stutter when I'm talking to my friends sometimes. That's just sort of like looking for words.
WOODS: I think that can absolutely be true, but what's interesting is he stutters, but then again, he doesn't make a definitive statement. He uses what I call sort of again disclaimer or mashed potato rules outside the words of play.
When someone makes a statement like that think of a criminal saying "I didn't do anything bad." You can interpret what the word bad means just like outside the rules of play, what does that mean and it allows you to make what seems like an honest statement without really being true and honest.
HARLOW: Before we go, let you go, Patty, I do want to ask you about Coach Bill Belichick who gave two press conferences and one on Thursday and then one again, yesterday. Not sure if you have a clip from that and I know you and everyone saw it. Really defensive and -
WOODS: Yes.
HARLOW: Saying this is the last time I'm going to talk about this. What did you make of what you saw from Bill Belichick in terms of body language.
WOODS: Interesting. He does a lot of mouth clicking, getting the distaste out of his mouth, and actually the timing of answers is interesting. He waits 16 minutes into his interview before he makes what appears to be a definitive statement but again it's mashed potato words and then even the last statement is something like, this is the end of the subject. That's not something an honest, truthful person would say. They'd want to keep talking. They'd want to make sure that we know that they didn't do anything wrong. Interesting.
HARLOW: Patty, it is interesting, but you know what? We're not going to know until the NFL comes up with its findings. That could be a long time. We appreciate the analysis. Thanks so much. We'll be right back.
WOODS: My pleasure.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Deadly gunfire rang out inside of a busy New York City Home Depot today, sending shoppers running for cover. Employees say the shooter was an employee there. Police say he shot his manager three times and then he turned his gun on himself. The manager is in critical condition tonight. The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Well, this next story would be hard to believe if it were not all caught on camera. In cities across the United States if you are carrying cash in your vehicle, and you get pulled over, authorities can legally confiscate the money even if you're not charged with the crime.
Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman with his investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a bright, clear morning in April 2013. Inside that red car just ahead are these two men Bart Davis and John Newmerzhycky. Two friends who also happen to be professional poker players and this dash cam footage in the distance you can see the red car flashing a turn signal indicated to pass a black SUV. A few minutes later an Iowa state trooper pulls them over.
(on camera): And what did he say?
JOHN NEWMERZHYCKY, PROFESSIONAL POKER PLAYER: He said I didn't use my blinker and he was going to write me a citation and it will only take a minute and to come with him to get in his car.
TUCHMAN: This was the beginning of an encounter with what eventually would be two Iowa state troopers.
Professional poker players often travel with quite a bit of money which they use in tournaments around the country. The troopers pulled this battered brief case out of the trunk and found $85,000 in cash belonging to Bart Davis. And another 15,000 belonging to Newmerzhycky. And the officers took it, took it all.
BART DAVIS, PROFESSIONAL POKER PLAYER: This was the brief case that I was carrying. It was locked. They threatened to destroy it if I didn't give them the combination.
TUCHMAN: So you carried money in this all the time for poker, right?
DAVIS: I do.
I brought it along because I happen to -
NEWMERZHYCKY: (INAUDIBLE) how normal it is.
DAVIS: I got that from the bank.
TUCHMAN: So how much is this?
DAVIS: That's 10,000. For our travel, (INAUDIBLE) I would seal it.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The two men wound up being questioned for hours. They were given a traffic warning but not a citation. Newmerzhycky pled to a misdemeanour charge for possession of marijuana paraphernalia which he said was used for medical marijuana. Troopers left them and go but took the $100,000. Seized the authorities said as part of what the troopers called an interdiction because they claim to believe the money was being used to buy drugs. It's called civil asset forfeiture. And that wasn't all.
GLEN DOWNEY, LAWYER: Based on their belief that they thought my clients were involved in drug activity called California where they live, informed the officers there or law enforcement officials there that they believed they were involved in drug activity, a search warrant was obtained on the basis of that information from the Iowa officer and they raided their homes in California. OK. And tore their homes apart, looking for things related to drugs.
TUCHMAN: Even though there was only one misdemeanour drug charge in Iowa, California authorities claim they were distributing drugs there. The man's lawyer, Glenn Downey says Newmerzhycky was indicted. Then both men were offered a deal by the state of Iowa, will give you back $90,000, as long as you let us keep the rest.
The men took the deal, afraid they would lose all their money if they didn't. The state of Iowa kept $10,000. And the felony charge in California was dropped.
As shady as the whole affair sounds, it wasn't a one-off. It's part of a concerted effort by some law enforcement to legally target and keep your money without ever filing charges. In fact, the two Iowa state troopers, as well as thousands of other state and local cops nationwide learned how to conduct these kinds of stops from private companies. And the biggest one is an Oklahoma company called Desert Snow.
(on camera): The Desert Snow trainers travel all over the country to hold their workshops and business is brisk. According to the company's website, 30 seminars are scheduled for 2015, from Oregon to Florida, from Delaware to California, and your police department could be one of Desert Snow's clients.
(voice-over): This is the man in charge of Desert Snow, a former California State Highway Patrol officer, named Joe David. He wouldn't talk with CNN on camera, but a glance at what his company charges police agencies show as his training isn't cheap. The lowest price for a police force to attend, according to this price list, is a bit over $8,000, and the top end, $145,000.
(on camera): Why would a police department spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to a seminar, which is something you learn in the police academy?
Well, they say they teach them more than they'll learn in the police academy. That they have specialized knowledge to teach these officers how to do it even better. I believe the training encourages them to take more cash, because the more cash they take, the more cash Joe David is going to get in training materials.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Joe David told us he couldn't answer written questions about how many officers he trained or how much money he's made, because of a lawsuit filed by Downey on behalf of those poker players. He claims it's only a small part of his business, which also helps officers go after people ranging from terrorists to kidnappers.
As for cash seizures, he said, "the purpose is not to take and seize funds belonging to innocent people. The purpose is to seize funds when they are tied to criminal activity." But there have never been any charges that the money taken from Bart Davis or John Newmerzhycky has been tied to criminal activity.
(on camera): What has this done to your life?
DAVIS: It's made me aware of things I was unaware of and made me angry. You know, it's not only this type of conduct that we're having problems with police these days, and how can you not be angry and saddened?
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The men still want the rest of their money back, that $10,000 kept by the state of Iowa. So far, though, Iowa is not giving it back and is not backing down.
Gary Tuchman, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Wow. What a report. Gary, thank you for that.
Coming up, millions, millions of people in the path of one of the worst winter storms the northeast has seen in quite a while. That's what's being predicted. An historic blizzard. A warning straight up after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Well, for 57 million people across the northeast, the potentially historic storm may be on the verge of creating some very dangerous situations. If you live in New York, your top state official wants you to stay home. Governor Andrew Cuomo urging commuters to work from home tomorrow if possible. Otherwise, plan on leaving the office early.
Zero visibility conditions are expected ahead of Monday evening's commute. Let me go straight to our meteorologist, Ivan Cabrera. He joins us from the CNN Weather Center. Why are they expecting this to be so bad with record snowfall?
IVAN CABRERA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Look we're talking about incredible amounts of snow, two feet, perhaps some areas picking upwards of three feet, but the reason we're talking about a life-threatening situation here is because we're going to have wind gusts potentially approaching hurricane force winds. So you don't want people to be out there. You need to hunker down by the time we get into Monday night.
So this is the time to prepare. You've got to get ready. Almost as if a hurricane was coming in, this is how you have to treat this storm. It is that serious. This is where it is right now, so you have plenty of time over the Ohio Valley. It is not until it gets into the mid-Atlantic coast, and then it will explode into a very significant storm as we take you into the next couple of days here. We're talking about the potential of accumulation here, anywhere from 12 to 24 inches of snowfall.
And I think some areas, especially as we head in towards Boston, we're going to be talking about two to three feet. That is the potential. So you need to prepare now, get ready. This is coming in Monday night. You do not want to be out there Monday night into Tuesday. That is when the peak of the storm will be, and that is what we're going to be talking about, hurricane force winds and heavy snow, upwards of two feet. Poppy?
HARLOW: Wow. No question we're going to have our teams across the east coast reporting on this, as it hits, slams the east coast tomorrow night.
Ivan, thank you.
Final note tonight, it has been around for 3,000 years, but King Tut's burial mask nearly met an untimely end. The blue and gold braided beard fell off in August. At the time, it was glued back on by Cairo's Museum workers, but that left a mess. Egyptian officials say the damage can and will be fixed. They have started a week-long process to remove the glue and to restore the artifact.
That'll do it for me this evening. Stay with us here on CNN and cnn.com for breaking news around the clock. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Thanks so much for spending part of your evening with us.
Next up, a movie you won't want to miss. "LIFE ITSELF," our CNN film about the extraordinary life of movie critic, Roger Ebert. That is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
