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Campbell Brown

President Ousts McChrystal; McChrystal Out, Petraeus In; Natural Gas Drilling

Aired June 23, 2010 - 20:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: CNN primetime begins right now.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everybody. Campbell is off tonight. I'm John Roberts. Tonight, a swift change of command in Afghanistan. General David Petraeus is in. General Stanley McChrystal, out, but was McChrystal a casualty of an unwinnable war? Did the president make the right decision? And what message is he sending to troops on the ground?

Also tonight, day 65 of the disaster in the Gulf. A bad first day on the job for BP's new cleanup chief, Bob Dudley. Oil spewed freely into the Gulf for most of the day after an accident with an underwater robot. The company says it's working on replacing the cap tonight and does, for the moment at least, have it in place. But are continuing leaks of oil and methane gas about to turn the Gulf into a dead zone?

And later, why Mexican drug cartels are targeting police in this country. Lots to get to tonight, but we begin now with our number one story. The commander in chief ousts his commander in Afghanistan. The fallout from General Stanley McChrystal's ill-advised interview with "Rolling Stone" magazine stretched all the way from Afghanistan to Washington and left the general out of a job tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As difficult as it is to lose General McChrystal, I believe that it is the right decision for our national security. The conduct represented in the recently published article does not meet the standard that should be set by a commanding general. It undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our Democratic system. And it erodes the trust that's necessary for our team to work together to achieve our objectives in Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: The president insists that he made the right decision, but how could this have happened in the first place? Just a little while ago, I spoke to someone who understands the pressures of command in a war zone. Retired General Wesley Clark, the former supreme allied commander of NATO.

General, good to see you tonight. Thanks so much for being with us. GEN. WESLEY CLARK, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Thanks, John.

ROBERTS: Do you think the president made the right decision here?

CLARK: I do. I think that there are lines you can't cross and I think there are responsibilities that you have to uphold as a senior commander, and somehow, this got personal. It wasn't a policy issue. It was just personal. May have been some guys letting off steam or whatever, but when it got out in the press, it just -- you can't do it.

ROBERTS: Can you understand General McChrystal and his team's frustrations? I know that you had your fair share of frustrations prosecuting the Kosovo war and dealing with NATO.

CLARK: Yes. It's a tough position. When you're in a senior command position like that, it's very tough. And the more you're isolated, the tougher it is. McChrystal was picked by the Secretary of Defense. So, he obviously had the confidence. He had the confidence of Admiral Mullen. He was put in there. He had people that were supportive of him. And he got, generally, what he seemed to have asked for, at least, as far as we know publicly in terms of the surge, but it's a difficult position. He's under a lot of stress, and sometimes, stuff happens.

ROBERTS: So, general, what do you think happened here? Do you think that General McChrystal just got so frustrated that he opened up to a complete stranger who in this case happened to be a freelance reporter for "Rolling Stone" magazine or do you think this was a case of a freelance journalist writing about everything he heard?

CLARK: You know, it's tough to say. And I don't want to second- guess Stan McChrystal. He has had a remarkable career. He's been an outstanding officer. This is a terrible tragedy for him and his family, for the command and for the president. I mean, nobody wanted it to have worked out this way. He had a lot of support in the White House. I know there were people on the hill saying, well, is this going to really work? Sure. And that's fair to ask those questions.

But I think the administration was as unified as an administration can be in terms of the direction of the policy. Is it frustrating? Is it difficult? Are you under stress? Sure. But I think over time, we'll find out, you know, what really happened, whether it was just an accident, whether it was a reporter who was just taking advantage of the military or whether it was a commander who was so focused on his job he was just distracted and he just didn't see the baseball bat coming to hit him.

ROBERTS: The president got some support today from South Carolina senator Republican, Senator Lindsey Graham who said this about General McChrystal's team. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: To these officers who are unnamed, you know, I understand you're warriors and you've been shot at and you're brave, but you let yourself and your army down. The language used, the cavalier attitude, the disrespect, even though you may have disagreement, was unacceptable. This is a low point, in my view, for the armed forces in a very long time, and I'm glad the president made this decision, and some other officers need to be looked at, and they need to be replaced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Do you agree with that, general, that this is a low point for the U.S. military?

CLARK: Well, I don't want to overly dramatize this. We got a strategy that's working. We had a unified effort to put it in place. We had an administration that studied it thoroughly and is fully committed to it. And we got great men and women on ground and families behind them. And we -- this is -- we have to come to grips with the challenge faced by the United States posed by al Qaeda. It's a Afghan/Pakistan problem, and we got to get a grip on it.

So, is this a low point? I can think of a lot of worse things that could have happened to the country. You know, I feel bad for Stan, but I feel bad for the army, and I'm sorry that Lindsey Graham put it quite like that. I wish these people hadn't said it. They should know better. They should have been more professional. Secretary Gates said it was an error in judgment. He's no longer the -- McChrystal's no longer the commander. Let's move on.

ROBERTS: So, General Petraeus comes into this staring at a deadline of July 2011 to start pulling out troops. I mean, he's a great commander, but I don't know that he's a miracle worker. Should he have made it a condition of him coming into this that the timetable become somewhat more flexible under his command than it is right now?

CLARK: It's not clear to me, and I've read the administration -- I've talked to people, I don't know what the timetable means. Whether it means that you got to pull a brigade out or four brigades out or half the troops out or, you know, an outpost out, I'm not quite clear. I think the real issue is still to be discerned there. Can we muster the kind of good government and overall nation building prowess and deploy it in a way that it turns back the attractions and threats of the Taliban and the al Qaeda backing of the Taliban in Afghanistan?

ROBERTS: Well, if anybody's potentially got the capability to do it, it's General Petraeus. General Wesley Clark, thanks for joining us tonight. Appreciate your time.

CLARK: Thank you very much, john.

ROBERTS: General McChrystal's replacement knows the modern day battlefield well, but he's facing a war full of uncertainty on the ground and criticism back home. We'll take a look at what's next for our troops in Afghanistan and the new commander, the current CENTCOM commander, General David Petraeus.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: All signs point to a quick Senate confirmation for General David Petraeus, but then comes the hard part. This is what he's walking into when he takes command at the war in Afghanistan. Right now, there are 94,000 U.S. troops on the ground there fighting a war that began 8 years and 259 days ago. Of course, the greatest price has come in lives. 1,117 of our troops have been killed in a conflict that to date has cost us $303 billion. Today, as President Obama wrapped up his rose garden statement, there was a moment after his closing comment that illustrates the frustration of this war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I look forward to working with General Petraeus and my entire national security team to succeed in our mission. And I reaffirm that America stands as one in our support for the men and women who defend it. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, can this war be won?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: The president unwilling or simply unable to answer the question of winning. I question that General Petraeus will likely face himself very soon. David Kilcullenserved as a senior counterinsurgency adviser to General Petraeus during the 2007 Iraq war surge. He's the author of the book "Counterinsurgency," and also with us tonight, "Time" magazine senior correspondent, Michael Crowley.

Michael, let me ask you this, first of all, as a correspondent who's been in his fair share of war zones and then many stories in the military, how does a general with a stellar reputation and background like Stanley McChrystal blow himself up like this?

MICHAEL CROWLEY, SR. CORRESPONDENT, TIME MAGAZINE: Well, it's a complete mystery. I hope that we learn a little bit more about setting the scene that led to this story because it's totally bewildering, particularly when you have a guy who was known publicly at least foremost for his discipline. You know, for being this guy who eats one meal a day, sleeps four hours a night, runs like a maniac, makes no errors, you could trust this war effort to the guy, and then he goes down in this bizarre car crash.

ROBERTS: Talks to somebody from "Rolling Stone" magazine.

CROWLEY: I wish I had an explanation for it, but I don't.

ROBERTS: So, what does this mean, David, pragmatically in Afghanistan? General Petraeus takes over now. He's incredibly capable warrior but so is General Stanley McChrystal. Do you expect that Petraeus will change the mission at all, make some modifications to it?

DAVID KILCULLEN, NATO ADVISOR: Look, I think we got some very significant problems in Afghanistan. You know, we got a partner the viability of which is a little questionable in the government. We got this issue of the deadline that you spoke about earlier. There's the safe haven in Pakistan. There's the whole corruption and abuse issue on behalf of people in the field.

So, I feel like, you know, whoever is commander in Afghanistan, they got some very significant issues to deal with, and I think the president has had to make a choice which is a pretty tough choice between stability of the mission and civil military control, and he's obviously gone with the latter, but that still means there are a lot of issues to deal with.

ROBERTS: Let's talk about civilian control of the military in just a second, Michael, but first of all, on this point of a deadline, I asked General Clark about it a moment ago, do you think that -- I mean, can General Petraeus -- obviously CENTCOM commander, he knows a lot about the theater, but can he come right in and get immediately up to speed? Or should he say to the president, you know, this July 2011 deadline, maybe we should think about sliding it a little bit?

CROWLEY: General Petraeus knows a lot about Afghanistan. He spent a lot of time there and as the theater commander has been very engaged. The deadline itself is actually reasonably vague. It says that around July 2011, some form of withdrawal will start. It doesn't say how much or how quickly. And I think there's some room to maneuver in that. The real impact of the deadline hasn't been that stuff, it's been the impact that it's had on confidence of the Afghan population. And you can interpret the behavior of President Karzai and a lot of other players in a lot of uncertainty about what's going to happen. I think stopping that uncertainty, that's critical.

ROBERTS: On this point, Michael, the relationship between the military and the civilian leadership, did President Obama really have to assert himself here? He did take McChrystal to the woodshed once over comments that he made about Vice President Biden, but did he need to show that, hey, we're civilians, we're the guys who are in charge? And here we have another president who's not had military duty in his background, a lot of people in the White House,

Is there a friction between the military now and the administration to a greater degree because you got people who are out there putting their lives on the line, be in control, being managed by people who haven't?

CROWLEY: I think you raise an excellent point. It's a particularly perilous situation for Democratic president who doesn't have military experience, and Democrats always are frequently uncomfortable with national security issues like this and the chain of command. So, I think that may play a part where he felt particularly obliged to draw a line and draw a firm line here. I'm a little surprised though because I did think that he might have opted for continuity to say McChrystal looked over the abyss, knew that he was, you know, an inch away from destroying his entire career, now go and just win this thing. That's how you can make up for this.

But I think that he made the best of a bad situation. I think he's going to have as much continuity as could be hoped for in General Petraeus. But I think David makes an excellent point, the thing that still looms out there is this time line. I mean, what happened today was a riveting drama, an amazing human saga, but really the hard choice that Obama has to make is how much is he going to enforce this idea that we're going to start drawing down next summer and how quickly are we going to do it, and that is still totally unresolved, as far as --

ROBERTS: Couple of big points and you alluded to one of them, David. Karzai, let's talk about him in a second, but first of all, the Taliban. How do you expect the Taliban is going to respond to this? The United States and NATO were about to launch a huge campaign in the area of Kandahar during the summer. Will the Taliban try to take advantage of whatever power vacuum they might perceive here?

KILCULLEN: I think almost certainly. I think one of the interesting indicators of Taliban intent happened the week after the president made his speech last December when Taliban people got straight out on the ground and started saying, well, the president said the Americans are pulling out in 18 months. What are you doing at month 19? You know, who are you backing? And they started to use that in a propaganda sense.

I think they'll try to exploit this, but I do think that as we move into the Kandahar offensive and we move towards the peak of the fighting season, events on the ground are going to drive what happens.

ROBERTS: And you also alluded to the relationship with Karzai. Stanley McChrystal had a very good relationship with him. "The Washington Post" says Karzai talked to the president, said don't do this, and the president did. Can Petraeus have the same relationship with Karzai and what will that relationship look like?

KILCULLEN: I think he can have it. and I think having watched General Petraeus very closely firsthand in Iraq dealing with President Maliki, he certainly has the capability to develop and exploit a close relationship with political allies (ph), and I think that's not a concern. The concern is President Karzai's own view of our credibility after July 2011.

ROBERTS: Great to talk to both of you tonight. Michael Crowley and David Kilcullen, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.

Up next, breaking news from the oil spill disaster. After a major setback this morning, we'll show you what's being done right now to get that containment cap back on track.

And since when does water turn into fire? We'll talk with the man behind a new documentary who says this could be coming to a faucet near you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Our number one national story tonight, oil, it gushed freely into the Gulf of Mexico for most of the day today. After an accident with an under water robot forced BP to remove that containment cap, the main thing that was slowing and collecting the oil.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The system that collected more than a million gallons of oil from the seafloor Tuesday looked like this today, oil gushing almost unchecked.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the remote operated vehicles, BP's eyes and hands a mile beneath the surface was spreading dispersants when it ran into the containment cap at 9:45 eastern. The accident forced a vent closed sending natural gas up to vent that carries warm water down to prevent hydrates, those troublesome ice-like crystals that can block vents and create pressure inside the cap.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Discoverer Enterprise removed the containment cap with the riser pipe and moved away until they could assess the condition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 60,000 barrels a day now gushing into the Gulf and closing down those pristine beaches of Pensacola.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: BP says that it's working to replace the containment cap tonight. It looks like it's back on, at least for the moment. The company had collected a record 1.1 million gallons of oil on Tuesday before they had to take the cap off. The government estimates about to 2.5 million gallons are spewing into the Gulf every day.

We want to break this down, what it all means. Tonight, with TV's Bill Nye, the science guy and also back is (ph) Don Van Nieuwenhuise. He's the professor of petroleum geoscience of the University of Houston with two decades in the oil industry under his belt. Bill, let's start with you. Was this an accident or do you have some sense that it might have been a test?

BILL NYE, "THE SCIENCE GUY": Oh, boy. I don't think it was a test. Maybe it was. You know, that's a pretty good idea. Why would that vent close? I'm not familiar with the details. You can't see them. They're not available to us. But it looks like a very difficult thing to accidentally close a vent. Because if you close a vent, then you're going to build up pressure in there and the whole cap could lift loose which is I suspect happened.

ROBERTS: So, if it was a test, what do you think they were testing?

NYE: To see if they could close the vent. To see if they could capture all of the oil. I have a model, per your request, and so the idea is that coming out of the seafloor is oil and gas mixed together which is what happens in nature. I just turned on the pump, and so here come the bubbles out of our -- out of our blowout preventer on the seafloor, and then we have a cap we're going to set on there. The cap is fitted with small vents along the top.

When you set it down, it sits for awhile, but if the vents don't let enough out, the thing will shake loose. So, if the vents are oriented in such a way that they do let enough out, it will stay there. So, I think what happened, they twisted it or they moved it to close a vent and then the thing started to come loose.

ROBERTS: And Don, this happened on a particularly bad day because not only has Bob Dudley been named as the new president and CEO of BP's well closing and cleanup operation, but they had collected a record 27,000 barrels of oil. They looked like they were going in the right direction, and then suddenly, they went very quickly in the other direction.

DON VAN NIEUWENHUISE, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON: Exactly.

ROBERTS: So, how troublesome is it for BP to be doing so well and then suddenly do so badly? Does it show how delicate this whole operation is?

NIEUWENHUISE: I think that you can look at this in the sense that maybe they were doing a poor job, but really, I think what happened was you got that ROV setup and it's just sitting and controlled by buoyancy. It doesn't really have a firm substrate to attach to. And so, it's very easy for these things to bump into something. In fact, I'm kind of surprised they haven't had a mishap like this in the past. And again, it is possible they were doing something and didn't tell us about it, but I really doubt that's the case. It's quite probable and possible for them to have accidentally bumped into the containment cap itself.

ROBERTS: You know, in his speech a little while ago, the president said that within a few weeks, BP was going to be capturing 90 percent of the oil that's coming out of that blowout preventer. What happened today, Don? Does that show just how tenuous these projections can be?

NIEUWENHUISE: I think that's true, and of course, we've had other problems with that containment cap in the past when the drill ship was hit by lightning, the tower was hit by lightning of course. And one thing that we've seen is that the flow lines from the lower marine riser package, the hydraulic and choke line, they're producing over 10,000 barrels a day and that's sort of consistent flow rate, and it's almost catching up with the containment cap at the rate it's going because it's been continuous even though it's smaller than the 15,000 to 16,000 barrels a day being collected by the containment cap.

ROBERTS: Yes, it's going pretty well. All right. Don Van Nieuwenhuise and Bill Nye, thanks for joining us tonight. And Bill, thanks very much for the demonstration. You really put it into easily understandable terms.

NYE: When it gets crooked, up it goes.

ROBERTS: Which is why you're the science guy. Thanks very much.

Drilling for oil and deepwater is one thing, but what about drilling on dry land for another source of energy? Coming up next, the quest for natural gas. A dramatic look at some of the side effects and potential dangers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: With the nation's attention on the Gulf oil disaster, is there another danger looming underground? Natural gas is often seen as a safer cleaner alternative, but after a year and a half long investigation, filmmaker Josh Fox found that natural gas drilling on dry land is literally leaving a nasty taste in the mouths of people across the country. In his new award-winning documentary, "Gasland," Fox lays out a case for why the side effects of so-called hydraulic fracturing to coax natural gas from the ground may be worse than the benefits. Here's a striking example.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa, Jesus Christ.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Striking example, indeed. I sat down with Fox earlier to talk about his film.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: When we talk about hydraulic fracturing as a way of extracting natural gas from sedimentary rock, what exactly is hydraulic fracturing? How does it work?

JOSH FOX, DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER: Hydraulic fracturing in this sense, in the new sense, is a new process. It's injecting water mixed with toxic chemicals by the millions of gallons to the seven (ph) million gallons of water per well, and that water is injected at such high pressure that it actually fractures the rock underneath the ground and frees up the gas just trapped into the rock formation that fail (INAUDIBLE).

ROBERTS: You have personal experience with this, a gas company came to you, you got land in Pennsylvania, said we'd like to drill a well in your land?

FOX: That's right. I live in the upper Delaware river base and which is in right on the border of New York and Pennsylvania and that's significant because it's part of an interconnected watershed system that also has New York City's watershed. So, that's near city watershed all the way down and that feeds 15.6 million people with drinking water, Philadelphia, New York, Southern New Jersey.

ROBERTS: How wide spread is this throughout the country? That clip that we showed of the gas coming up through the well water in such concentrations it's able to be ignited, that was in Colorado.

FOX: That was in Colorado, although, we heard reports of this kind of flammable water sensation happening in a lot of different places where fracing was occurring, Colorado, Wyoming, Texas, Pennsylvania, even as far as Australia where the drilling part of the hydraulic fracturing. There are whole ponds that I saw being lit on fire in Australia, and then of course, there's a creek that gets lit on fire in the film.

ROBERTS: Now you contend in the documentary that they use more than 500 chemicals to assist in the hydraulic fracturing process.

FOX: Right.

ROBERTS: And that not only the existence of methane gas in the water supply and the air is making people sick but as well the chemicals that they use. Let's roll another clip and we'll ask you about it.

FOX: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just seems like in the last year and a half, I'm never healthy. And I've always been healthy. So that's why I don't know what it is. I get headaches all of the time. And, you know, I mean at least two or three headaches per week. Actually, the whole family gets headaches. But mine get so bad where I just have to go lay down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since you moved here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: What other health problems did you run into when you talk to people about this? Is it confined to humans or is it affecting livestock?

FOX: Well, there are reports of cattle drinking the fracking waste and dying. There were animals that I saw losing their hair and that was endemic. I saw the domestic animals like cats, dogs, to horses. And I saw also a lot of this in cattle, gas drilling areas. It's another one of these inexplicable things that in (INAUDIBLE) water test that I looked at, she had trichlorobenzene in her water and a whole host of other things that aren't naturally occurring.

So we know what the chemicals can do to you. There's neuropathy. It's a kind of brain damage where you lose sensation in your hands, arms. Have pain that crops up in all different parts of your body, skin and eye irritation, lung damage, cancers. But, of course, right now, there hasn't been a thorough epidemiological study that links everything.

ROBERTS: Now, you claim that it's a lack of regulation that's responsible for a lot of this. Now that the gas industry has issued a point by point rebuttal to what you say in the documentary. What do you say to them?

FOX: Well, it's interesting that you say it's the gas industry. It is the gas industry. It's energy in depth which is a PR firm posing as a news source which is paid for by the American Petroleum Institute. And their rebuttal is not factual at all. The film is heavily researched, and point by point we're going to be issuing a response to that. But I can certainly address any of the individual points in it. ROBERTS: Well, one of the points you make is that this type of hydraulic fracturing is not covered by the Safe Drinking Water Act.

FOX: Right.

ROBERTS: In fact, it is exempt. But states like New York make a very special point of saying oh, wait a minute, yes, it is exempt from the Safe Water Drinking Act. But the Safe Drinking Water Act -- but we as a state regulate this. We do have control.

FOX: Right. Well, the states are completely overwhelmed with this certain kind of activity like this. You need a talented agency with budgets like the EPA. There are 17 inspectors in New York State for upwards of 100,000 wells. You've got 14 inspectors in New Mexico for 50,000 --

ROBERTS: So you're saying that their oversight is inadequate.

FOX: I never met an inspector. I was all over this field. I've never talked to an inspector.

ROBERTS: Josh Fox, great to see you. Thanks for coming in.

FOX: OK. Thanks a lot.

ROBERTS: Appreciate it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: "Gasland," by the way, is airing all month on HBO.

Coming up, death threats put Arizona police on high alert. Why drug cartels are suddenly targeting officers on this side of the border. The alarming details still ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Still ahead, Mexican drug cartels take aim at U.S. police officers. But first, Joe Johns is here with a look at some of the other stories that we're following tonight.

Hi, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John. Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was indicted today on 19 counts of fraud and tax evasion. The charges stem from his alleged use of civic donations for personal expenses like yoga and golf. If convicted, Kilpatrick could be sentenced to more than 20 years in prison. Kilpatrick is already in jail on charges stemming from a sex scandal involving a female staffer.

Today, Russian President Medvedev took diplomacy to a new level at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. He sent his first ever tweet in Russian, of course. Medvedev tweeted San Francisco is a very beautiful city. The Russian president is on the West Coast for a tour of Silicon Valley, which he sees as a possible model for Russia. Tomorrow, Medvedev goes to Washington where he meets with President Obama.

A simply amazing day for Americans on the world stage from soccer to tennis. First, the World Cup. In a stunning late-game turn around, the U.S. beat Algeria 1-0 in extra time. The U.S. plays Ghana Saturday for a spot in the quarterfinals. How about that?

And in tennis, history was made today at Wimbledon. The longest match ever, an epic 10 hours of play. It was between John Isner of the U.S. and Nicolas Mahut of France. And believe it or not, it's not over yet. Play was suspended because of darkness. No lights at Wimbledon. The score so far, 59-59, even. The scoreboard couldn't keep up. The match continues tomorrow. And I guess that's why they're calling the stadium "Candlestick Park" sort of. Good day for the American, John.

ROBERTS: A good day for the Americans. I can't believe. Ten hours and 59-59 in that match. That's unbelievable.

JOHNS: I know. Who ever wins, how is he going to get through the next round?

ROBERTS: Apparently they were to the point of exhaustion before they went up to the umpire and said, we can't see, we can't serve, let us get off the court please.

JOHNS: I know.

ROBERTS: Amazing. Thanks, Joe.

Coming up, all they want is a family. But for this couple, it's a particularly complicated choice. Don't miss our sneak peek of "Gary and Tony Have a Baby." A new documentary from CNN's Soledad O'Brien still ahead.

And deadly developments on the border. Why drug smugglers are targeting off-duty officers in an Arizona town. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Today, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the president wants to hire 1,000 new border patrol agents as part of a plan to beef up security and blasted Arizona's tough immigration law.

And in Arizona, a deadly new development in the war on drugs. Mexican drug cartels now making direct threats against U.S. police officers. It started when two off-duty officers seized several hundred pounds of marijuana from smugglers in Nogales, Arizona, a border town and a major trafficking route for drugs and illegal weapons. The local police chief now says they're taking the threats very seriously. CNN's Thelma Gutierrez is in Nogales for us tonight with the very latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We traveled into the desert to an area near the Nogales border that is prime territory for drug smugglers.

OFC. MARIO MORALES, NOGALES POLICE DEPARTMENT: If you were to draw a straight line from Mexico, here from Nogales down to Mexico where these drugs are coming from, it's the main quarters, it's the main highway.

GUTIERREZ: Senior Officer Mario Morales knows this area along the border well. This is where he grew up. It has also become a strategic area for traffickers to move narcotics north.

MORALES: I would not doubt it right now, we're being watched.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): A dangerous place to be.

MORALES: Very dangerous.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): He pointed evidence of that right on the roof of his patrol vehicle.

MORALES: Probably it's a 7 by 6.2 by 39 AK-47 round.

GUTIERREZ: Morales says over the years it has been a cat and mouse game between law enforcement and drug smugglers. But this time two seizures made here by off-duty police hit a raw nerve with the drug cartel that already had $10 million in drugs confiscated in Santa Cruz County so far this year.

(on camera): On the day of the bust, two off-duty officers were out here roping cattle.

MORALES: They're roping cattle.

GUTIERREZ: They noticed something suspicious. What did they see exactly?

MORALES: From my understanding, as they saw a vehicle drive in rather suspiciously, went to the tree line. I believe they saw when it was loaded, when they popped the trunk, and there were bundles being thrown in the trunk and the back seat. And as the vehicle exited, they were intercepted.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): The off-duty officers seized 230 pounds of marijuana that evening. Two days after the bust, Nogales Police Chief Jeffrey Kirkham says his department received an ominous message through an informant in Mexico.

JEFFREY KIRKHAM, NOGALES POLICE CHIEF: That information was brought forward that the drug runners through the cartels, that we were to look the other way when we're not working, when we're off duty, we're not in uniform, and that if we didn't, then our officers would be targeted.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): Targeted as in killed?

KIRKHAM: Yes.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Kirkham says the two off-duty officers were named in the threat and so was the Nogales Police Department.

(on camera): Is this the first time that you've received this type of a threat since you've been police chief here?

KIRKHAM: Well, not only since I've been here but this is the first time that Nogales police officers individually and as Nogales police officers have ever been threatened by anyone in drug trafficking.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): The chief says his force is on heightened alert. He's even asking officers to carry their weapons off duty and encouraging them to wear body armor.

MORALES: It does worry me because from what the information we gather, that a lot of these people are former military-trained Army personnel. I know they said any officer, you know, being off duty, he better just look the other way.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): How do you square that? How do you deal with that?

MORALES: You're an officer 24/7 just like a doctor -- doctor 24/7, 365 days a year. You see something, we have to react. It's an oath that we take.

GUTIERREZ: But now, they say we will come after you, we will target you if you do.

MORALES: That will not stop us from doing our job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: And Thelma Gutierrez joins us now live from Nogales, Arizona. Thelma, there's been talk of sending more National Guard troops down there to the border. What's the local police chief saying about that plan?

GUTIERREZ: John, absolutely, lots of talk about an additional maybe 1,300 National Guard on the border. Just take a look at where I'm standing right now. I'm in Nogales, Arizona and yet 250 yards away, you can see the international fence on the other side, Nogales, Mexico. The police chief says he welcomes any additional manpower that could come out here to help him protect his community. But he says if those plans are being made in Washington, he has not heard any details about that. Just out here in Nogales, Arizona -- John.

ROBERTS: All right. Well, perhaps with these elevated threats against the sheriff and the police chief and his fellow officers, maybe Washington will take a little more notice.

Thelma Gutierrez for us tonight. Thelma, thanks so much.

"LARRY KING LIVE" is coming your way in just a few minutes time. Larry joins us now. What have you got for us tonight, Larry?

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Well, John, the General McChrystal is out, the General Petraeus is in. And the man who shook up the military, the author of the "Rolling Stone" article that had everybody talking yesterday is with us tonight. It's his first on- camera interview to talk about it. He'll tell us how he got that incredible information that may have brought down a man's career completely. That's all coming up next on "LARRY KING LIVE," John.

ROBERTS: Looking forward to it. Larry, thanks so much.

And coming straight up. Gay dads charting new territory. "Gary and Tony Have a Baby," coming up next. You don't want to miss this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, the story generating all the buzz tonight. Jerry Seinfeld versus Lady Gaga. It all started when Gaga gave the finger to photographers during a Mets game at New York City field and was then escorted to Seinfeld's private box. That definitely did not sit well with Seinfeld. Listen to this from the ladies of "The View."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELISABETH HASSELBECK, HOST, "THE VIEW": Instead of being taken to the principal's office that day she was whisked off to Jerry Seinfeld's luxury box. OK. I thought Jerry was cool with that, but apparently he isn't at all. And here's what he said.

VOICE OF JERRY SEINFELD, WFAN SPORTS RADIO WITH STEVE SOMERS: This woman's a jerk. I hate her. I say I can't believe they gave -- put her in my box, which I paid for.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They did.

SEINFELD: This is what -- you give people the finger and you get upgraded? Is that the world we're living in now?

HASSELBECK: Hysterical. I love him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: There you go. Try it the next time you board an airplane. Maybe you get in first class. Seinfeld back at Citi Field tonight making a guest appearance in the broadcast booth during the Mets game against the Detroit Tigers.

Well, tonight, gay Americans are charting new territory. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is on the brink of repeal. Congress is working to ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, and gay marriage is now legal in five American states. But these days, one of the most ground-breaking things a gay person can do is form a family. In her new documentary, Soledad O'Brien looks at the struggles of two men whose biggest dream is to become parents. Take a look at "Gary and Tony Have a Baby."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her number is up. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you remember what she looks like?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course, I remember what she looks like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's a beautiful redhead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. It was a while ago. What if she dyed her hair?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I'm more nervous about meeting her mom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, totally.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A big day for Gary and Tony. They're picking up the mother of their future child.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. How are you?

GARY SPINO: Hello. I'm Gary.

TONY BROWN: Good to see you. You changed your hair.

HOLLY: I did.

BROWN: Oh, it looks beautiful.

HOLLY: Oh, my gosh.

O'BRIEN: An agency has located Holly, a Florida woman willing to sell her eggs for $8,000.

BROWN: I wanted somebody who had my background because it was going to be Gary's, you know, sperm. So I wanted somebody who had green eyes. I wanted somebody who was Irish and Dutch.

O'BRIEN: Gary and Tony picked Holly. Her employer doesn't want her to use her last name because she's donating her eggs to a gay couple.

(on camera): Did it ever give you pause to be providing eggs for two men who clearly can't have a baby.

HOLLY: I never -- it never even crossed my mind. Why would that bother me? They need eggs, I've got eggs. They deserve to, you know, have a family like anybody else.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): For Gary and Tony, this is more than a financial transaction.

BROWN: I know a lot of people in your position don't want to, you know have any kind of contact or relationship or whatever. And just the fact you're open to it at all. HOLLY: I'm so glad that we're able to meet and discuss --

O'BRIEN: Holly has been taking fertility drugs to increase her egg production. Now her eggs will be extracted so they can be fertilized with Gary's sperm.

MICHAEL B. BOYLE, MD, CONNECTICUT FERTILITY ASSOCIATES: There's an egg. She's doing great.

O'BRIEN: The doctor emerges with good news.

BOYLE: She did great. The procedure -- we finished -- here, sit down.

The egg retrieval went great. We got 14 eggs. When the donors have the ability and the access to be involved in the donation and know the families they're creating at the other end, it's even more special. I think that's the way Holly feels.

BROWN: That's why we picked her.

HOLLY: Well, we're going to go make a baby together. Kind of.

O'BRIEN: Gary and Tony have begun their journey to having a baby.

BROWN: Holly's always welcome.

HOLLY: Thanks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

BROWN: So she's never going to have to feel like she's being denied something. You know, I think she gets it. I think she gets that she's giving us this incredible gift. And it's -- pretty amazing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Oh, it's an incredible story. Soledad O'Brien joins us now. So they decided to use Gary's sperm --

O'BRIEN: That's right.

ROBERTS: -- to fertilize the donor egg. How did they make the decision on whose sperm to use?

O'BRIEN: Tony was already a parent. He had already been a father to a little girl named Piper for a lesbian couple. And I think it was really that experience that they decided made them want to be parents. They love Piper. They're not Piper's parents really. Calls him dad. And they really thought, well, to be a father, to really parent a child, would be a different experience. So Tony, since he already had a biological child in Piper said Gary would be the father of the baby they're going to try to have. ROBERTS: And if this one, this attempted parenthood doesn't drive them around the bend, maybe they'll try again and the other one will get a chance.

Now, in terms of the cost of this, IVF is fairly expensive just as it is. Then you add in the donor egg, and they also had to use what the reproductive industry likes to call a gestational carrier to carry the baby. So what was the overall total expense for this?

O'BRIEN: And keep in mind you're also talking about lawyers because we're talking about a gay couple. You have many lawyers, meetings, and going courtroom through the whole thing. It came out to about $160,000 for them.

ROBERTS: Wow.

O'BRIEN: And they were lucky. They had been given a gift by a little old lady who lived in their building who they befriended who left them a chunk of money when she died.

ROBERTS: Wow.

O'BRIEN: And they said, what do we do? Our dream is to start a family. It's a price tag frankly that is way out of reach for many people.

ROBERTS: Oh, yes.

O'BRIEN: But we really want to explore their journey and why two guys who've been gay activists decided that being parents was the next step in their life.

ROBERTS: Well, it's a fascinating story and we're looking forward to it. By the way, Soledad's full one-hour documentary premieres tomorrow night, 8:00 p.m., right here on CNN. "Gary and Tony Have a Baby."

"LARRY KING LIVE" starts in just a few minutes time. Coming up next, "The Punch Line." Here's a taste for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": Sarah Palin has admitted she tried marijuana several years ago but she did not like it. She said it distorted her perceptions. It impaired her thinking, and she's hoping that the effects will eventually one day wear off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Tonight's "Punch Line" takes a big swing at today's political pinata, General Stanley McChrystal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LENO: Due to an explosive interview in the "Rolling Stone" magazine, our top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has been ordered home to explain why he criticized the president, made fun of Joe Biden, and called the White House staff a bunch of clowns. Hey, he shouldn't be called home. That's not the general's job. That is my job. Exactly.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": And let me really mind you, sir. You may be the commander in chief in a time of war, but Stanley McChrystal's in "Rolling Stone." That means he's a rock star. Think about it. Led Zeppelin may have trashed hotel rooms but have you seen Afghanistan?

JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART": Way to play it close to the vest, McChrystal. You know, I may be a four-star general and you may be a reporter for some hippie magazine, but I feel like I can trust you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: And we all know how that turned out. That's all for now. Thanks very much for joining us. Don't forget, Campbell Brown's -- don't forget Soledad O'Brien's special "Gary and Tony Have a Baby" at this time tomorrow evening.

"LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now. Thanks for joining us.