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Members of Congress Approach Obama's Stimulus Plan with Caution; U.N. Concerned about Rising Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza; Flood-Soaked Counties in Washington Declare Emergency
Aired January 09, 2009 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday, January 9th. I'm Heidi Collins. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Happening right now, you are looking live at the Illinois House. They're voting on the fate of Governor Rod Blagojevich. A special panel recommending he be impeached.
Also, live on Capitol Hill, the House Financial Services Committee taking a closer look at home loans and who is keeping an eye on the lenders. We'll have more on these stories, of course, throughout the morning.
We are also waiting for President-elect Barack Obama scheduled to give a news conference about 30 minutes from now or so, where he will introduce his picks for the top intelligence jobs, CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley joining us live from Washington this morning.
Candy, we just saw the two photos of who those people will be, and we're talking about the director of National Intelligence and CIA director.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. Dennis Blair, Retired Admiral, he has been selected to head, to direct the National Intelligence Agency. Also, the surprise really here was Leon Panetta, at least it came as a surprise -
COLLINS: Yes.
CROWLEY: - to a lot of people up on the Hill. He is the former head of OMB. He was chief of staff for bill Clinton, and also was a congressman but as you know there have been some questioning of his actual intelligence credentials to head up the CIA. But nonetheless, we certainly expect, as we do right now, for all of the Obama appointees and nominees that they will sail through Capitol Hill, probably get some roughing up here and there, including both these two men, because there are some questions, but there's little doubt at this point that they will be confirmed.
We're also expected that Barack Obama will announce a man named John Brennan who used to be at the CIA who will come into the White House and be his Homeland Security adviser. So those three things pretty much wrap-up the national security team for Barack Obama.
COLLINS: Is there any talk at this point, I wonder, Candy, about what exactly their focus will be in these positions? Right off the bat?
CROWLEY: Well, what they're looking for and what he said he's looking for, Barack Obama has said before, listen, I think that the CIA has improved over time, you know, there is some questions about the intelligence, obviously, that led to the Iraq war, although at the CIA, they say it was more the interpretation of that intelligence.
Nonetheless, Obama says that from what he can see, there has been improvement. But these are dangerous times, obviously, and what they are looking for all the time is better intelligence, and more streamlined intelligence, and that's really what the director of National Intelligence does, that will be up to Dennis Blair to kind of get all these moving parts. Because there are a lot of intelligence agencies moving together.
COLLINS: Yes. And Brennan is not going to be there today. Do we have any idea why not?
CROWLEY: No, I don't know why not. You know there has been some talk about Brennan, who was at the CIA during the time when there were many questions about the use of torture as an interrogation method that perhaps he was put into the White House instead of heading the CIA because that slot within the White House does not require confirmation, and as you know, what the Obama team wants more than anything is a very smooth transition without any blips with some of these nominees.
COLLINS: All right. Well, our Candy Crowley there, handling this announcement, coming up as we said in about 30 minutes or so from now. Candy Crowley, thank you and of course you can see the President-elect announcement live right here on CNN. Once again, coming your way around 10:30 Eastern.
Confirming the cabinet. You are looking live at the Senate confirmation hearing for Representative Hilda Solis. Solis is President-elect Barack Obama's choice for labor secretary. This is the second confirmation hearing this week. Tom Daschle had his hearing yesterday for secretary of health and human services.
Hillary Clinton is one of five scheduled for Tuesday of next week. Here is a closer look now at Hilda Solis, the California democrat just sworn in for her fourth term in the House. She was the first Latina chosen to serve on the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce and one of her top accomplishments was pushing legislation providing for extra work force training for so-called green jobs.
Jobless in America. Grim new numbers, startling measures by historical standards. And CNN senior correspondent Allan Chernoff is breaking it all down for us right now. He is in New York this morning. So Allan, we've been talking about it for a while now, really, really rotten numbers.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, we hate to keep delivering the bad news, but the facts are the facts. We have to go back to January of 1993 to have an unemployment rate so high. The unemployment rate for December, 7.2 percent, up by 0.04 of one percent. That is a big monthly increase. As you see, the highest in 16 years.
What happened here? Well, we lost a tremendous number of jobs last month, more than half a million job loss of 524,000 in December. And on top of that, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recalculated, did some more in-depth analysis and figured out that the jobless loss in October and November was even worse than first estimated. So look at those numbers.
For the last four months of last year, the nation lost 1.9 million jobs, the year as a whole, 2.6 million jobs lost. The worst since the end of World War II. We are talking about major historical job loss here. And it is broad-based throughout the economy - construction, manufacturing, services, retail, on and on.
Just about every sector of the economy is losing jobs, except for health services and employment in the private sector. Those two areas accounted for gains of 45,000 last month, and government, a very small increase of 7,000.
Another bright spot, and this is really stretching it, but it is a bit of a bright spot here.
COLLINS: We'll take it.
CHERNOFF: We'll take it. The average hourly earnings up by five cents an hour, Heidi. But the news is grim, let's hope that we are near or at least very, very near, hopefully, near the bottom of this whole recession portion of the job loss. But it's certainly possible that we're going to see a lot more jobs lost in the next few months.
COLLINS: Yes. I think you're right on that. And people are trying to prepare the best that they can. Allan Chernoff, sure do appreciate it.
I want to take a look now at the big board for you, just for a second. Dow Jones industrial average down about 100 points there. You can see it for yourself. We'll keep our eye on those numbers, as well, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard what sounded like a freight train. And it just - and then I saw a hurricane, maybe. It was just - mind- boggling, the sound.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The sound, and the fury in western Washington state. At least four counties still seeing waters rise from some of the worst flooding in state history. Another ten counties are still under warnings, and one of the remaining problems is the damage to local water systems. Residents in several cities are being told now to boil their water.
Rob Marciano is standing by, and oftentimes that seems to be the case for people who go through something like this.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, when you get that much water, it gets into the water treatment plants and you get contamination. So that's one problem. The other problem is well if you want to get out and get into a place that's a little bit more accommodating, it's tough to do that. We got roads that are closed. The I-5 corridor is shut down, between Seattle and Portland, at least a good chunk of it. And then you're talking about not only regular cars that go through there, but about 10,000 commercial trucks per day. So commerce taking a blow, as well.
We are dry right now, but another moisture plume heading into the northwest. It won't be as far south and it won't be as consistent as the last one, but it will get to Seattle as we go through tomorrow. So that will kind of add a little bit to the problem. All right.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: All right. Rob, thank you.
MARCIANO: You got it.
COLLINS: To impeach or not to impeach. The Illinois House meeting this hour to decide the fate of Governor Rod Blagojevich.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: A big political decision playing out right now in Springfield, Illinois. The Illinois House is meeting to begin debate on whether to impeach Governor Rod Blagojevich. CNN's Susan Roesgen is joining us now from Chicago. That's the big question, is that going to happen or not?
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think the odds are that it will happen, Heidi. We're here outside the governor's house again, waiting to see if maybe he'll make some comment about this unanimous vote yesterday by this investigative impeachment committee.
Twenty-one members of the House voted unanimously, some gave very strong comments about their yes votes that he should be impeached. That recommendation goes to the state house this morning. 116 members, slightly more democrats than republicans, 65 democrats, 51 republicans. And so the house will vote on this. But if they do vote to impeach him, Heidi, it doesn't mean he'll immediately leave office.
What it means is that then the state Senate here will hold its own hearings, and the state Senate will vote on whether or not he should be impeached and removed from office. So there are a couple more steps to go through here. It could be a couple more weeks, at least, for the state Senate to have its own hearings, its own investigations, but Heidi, I've got to show you. This is 69 pages that came from the investigative committee yesterday.
Sixty-nine pages basically detailing what they say are multiple abuses of power by the governor. Many ways in which they say he tried not only to line his own pockets, but also to do things that would make him look good with the state, but put people's lives in jeopardy. Things like trying to get more flu vaccine from a foreign country when the FDA does not allow that.
Things like trying to give folks in this state a better prescription plan, a cheap prescription plan for them, and to do that, they were letting people in this state get their drugs from Canada. That's not allowed, either. So the governor, according to this report, was doing a lot of things that he should not have been doing, and a lot of people in the state legislature want him out. Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. We know you're following it very closely, in a very, very snowy Chicago. We appreciate it. Thanks so much. CNN's Susan Roesgen for us.
Day 14 now in the Middle East conflict. Here's what we know. Israel, vowing to keep its assault on Gaza despite an urgent call from the United Nations to stop the fighting. Israeli aircraft founded more than 50 targets inside Gaza just today.
The U.N. Security Council says it is concerned about a mounting humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, and heavy civilian casualties. 14 of the 15 security council members voted in favor of the resolution. The U.S. abstained, citing ongoing Egyptian-mediated negotiations for a Gaza truce.
A major salmonella outbreak. People all over the country are getting sick. We'll have details in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: A medical mystery tops today's "Daily Dose." Health officials say the most common strain of the flu this season is resistant to the leading anti-viral drug known as Tamiflu, and they don't know why. Last year, only about 10 percent of the strain was resistant, compared to 99 percent this year. Officials point out other medications do work well against this type of flu, but the CDC is still urging doctors to test patients for the resistant strain. Something to think about there.
Another serious health concern baffling medical investigators. An outbreak of salmonella. Hundreds of people across the country are sick now, but the source of the contamination still not known. Joining us now, CNN medical correspondent Judy Fortin to talk a lit bit more about this. So, Judy, what do we know about the outbreak?
JUDY FORTIN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's another mystery, Heidi. This is what we know from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 388 people were infected with the most common strain of salmonella called typhimurium. About 69 people were hospitalized. The overwhelming majority of the cases occurred between September 3rd and December 29th of last year. A total of 42 states are affected.
The CDC is still trying to confirm the case counts from those states, which is why we don't yet have a complete list. But CNN has learned that California is reporting 53 cases, most in the greater Los Angeles area, and Ohio is now reporting 51 cases. COLLINS: Wow. So you have to wonder, obviously, what's causing it. When you think about salmonella, you think about eating bad food. How are they going to track this down?
FORTIN: Well they haven't yet determined the cause. In fact, the CDC hasn't determined the food or foods that are causing this salmonella outbreak. In the past though, various strains of salmonella have been linked to poultry, for instance, meat, eggs, vegetables, peanut butter, even pet food. Finding a cause is a lot like detective work. Can you remember what you ate two weeks ago?
COLLINS: Absolutely.
FORTIN: Of course you can't, right? Most people don't even know what they ate two days ago. Now authorities need to go back. They need to interview the patients and find the common links not only on what they ate, but maybe even testing the suspected food if people put it in the freezer, for instance.
COLLINS: Yes. OK. Well how do you know again if you have salmonella? I mean --
FORTIN: You know, you'll be really sick. But here are some of the symptoms that people report. If you're infected with a bacteria, you'll probably will develop diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps, and within a few days of just eating that contaminated food. Now the illness can last up to a week. Many people recover without treatment, other people need antibiotics.
COLLINS: Any way to protect yourself?
FORTIN: Yes, a couple of ways. And we've heard this before. But I'm going to go ahead and repeat it right now. If you're the chef in the family, make sure that you are thoroughly cooking meat, poultry and eggs. Don't eat raw or unpasteurized milk and other dairy products. Make sure you wash your produce thoroughly, and make sure you don't cross contaminate. That's a big deal.
You use the same knife to cut the tomato as well as the steak. Don't do that. Don't use the cutting board. Wash your hands thoroughly before and after cooking and also before you put anything in your mouth. We tell our kids that all of the time, right?
COLLINS: We sure do.
FORTIN: Do they do it?
COLLINS: Doesn't work.
FORTIN: They don't always do that. So take precautions.
COLLINS: All right. Great information. I'm sure we'll follow up with you on this. Thank you, Judy.
FORTIN: All right. COLLINS: The victims of Bernard Madoff's alleged swindle may be losing money again. A court-appointed trustee could seek any profits they withdrew from their accounts. CNN's Allan Chernoff reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): David Berger, father of six children entrusted Bernie Madoff with his money for 27 years. For the last decade, he and his family had been living off their Madoff returns.
DAVID BERGER, MADOFF VICTIM: It's devastating, because, you know, I've always been a provider to my family, and I've always been, you know, their foundation. And it's devastating. I'm going to be 60 years old, and I live in Sarasota Florida, and I'm not really marketable job-wise down here. I've been retired for a couple of years, and it's - it hasn't totally sunk in yet.
CHERNOFF: The nightmare could get even darker for Berger and other victims who may be asked to pay money to a court-appointed trustee, responsible for recovering assets which would ultimately be distributed to all victims.
ROSS INTELISANO, SECURITIES LAWYER, RICH & INTELISANO: It could be multiple nightmares for investors who took out partial redemptions, as they lost $10 million that they had in there, but they took out $3 million over the life of those years, they can be asked to throw that $3 million back, which is horrendous.
CHERNOFF: Intelisano represents victims of another investment fraud, Bayou Management. In that case, the trustee required only investors who pulled out all their money within the six-year statute of limitations to give it back.
INTELISANO: If I got all my money out of Bernie Madoff's firm within the last six years, I would be speaking to a lawyer right now.
CHERNOFF: Because the trustee is going to come after your money?
INTELISANO: Very likely. And very likely it's going to happen soon.
CHERNOFF: Trustee, Irving Picard refused comment. Berger has hoped he can get money back from the government, millions in taxes he paid on capital gains Madoff was reporting to him. But some accountants say there may be no refunds.
MARJORIE HORWIN, MBAF ACCOUNTING FIRM: There have been many cases that have gone against the taxpayer had been very pro-government and refunds have not been easily obtained.
CHERNOFF (on-camera): If victims can't get refunds, accountants say they should at least be able to get tax deductions for their prior payments, as well as deductions for the apparent theft they have suffered. The Internal Revenue Service, though, has yet to provide any guidance, saying only the IRS is aware of the situation, but beyond that, we have no comment. Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Jobless numbers hit historic lows. So why aren't stocks in a free-fall right now? Down about 110 points or so right there, the Dow Jones industrial averages. We're going to explain this apparent disconnect in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: For most of us, more than anything else, this recession boils down to job losses, and new numbers out this morning show how many Americans lost their jobs last year. And Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange now to break down some of that report for us. Hi there, Susan and we know it's bad.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, we're becoming numb, I think, to the bad news, where you're just seeing these historic drops, whether it's stock prices or job losses, and that's what this jobs report is all about. We've really seen a deterioration in the economy, in the last final months of 2008.
And a perfect sweep, 2008, the total 2.6 million jobs lost. That's the highest annual job loss since 1945. That was the end of World War II. Factories were, you know, starting to tamp down after the great war. Of course, the population was much smaller then too, we should say. But almost every sector was affected by this jobs report, where we had more than half a million jobs lost.
Hardest hit in December, manufacturing, construction. Retail! Retail in December.
COLLINS: Oh, Yes.
LISOVICZ: Can you imagine that, Heidi? But that's - that's what this economy is all about right now. Believe it or not, the street here, Wall Street feared even worse. The report came out an hour before the opening bell, and futures turned higher, and it kind of reminds me, Heidi, of the - about-face we have oftentimes after a Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.
COLLINS: Sure.
LISOVICZ: In the market, there is a knee-jerk reaction, and then everybody studies it, and then you go in a different direction -
COLLINS: Right.
LISOVICZ: And perhaps that's going to be a theme today. In any case, what we're seeing now one hour into trading is a broad-base selloff. The Dow is off 106 points or 0.25 percent. The Nasdaq is down 2.33. The broader S&P 500 is down 1.5 percent. So we're seeing a broad base selloff.
COLLINS: Definitely. It really speaks to the confidence, too, which always ends up being underneath all of this. And we should talk, though, because there is hiring going on, and as always, there is - worth repeating. What industries you can actually potentially find a job in during these times?
LISOVICZ: News you can use, Heidi.
COLLINS: I thought you were going to say the news business.
LISOVICZ: Well, you know I think a lot of people who are without jobs are watching the news and hopefully are watching this fine station, this fine network.
You know, this is a theme that we have seen as well throughout the year. There were gains in December in education, health services and in government. But what obviously the gains that we saw there, were completely swamped by the losses elsewhere. About October and November jobs, by the way, were revised to show more jobs lost than originally thought.
You know, widespread among economists that things will get worse before they get better. And, you know, as - you know, one of the disconnects that you oftentimes see, because this is the last thing that happens. It's the last thing a lot of companies want to do is let go of - one of their most valuable resources, their people.
COLLINS: Yes.
LISOVICZ: So even as the economy begins to get better, you may see the unemployment rate get worse. And hopefully we will see the economy get better later this year, if the stimulus package comes through, if it has the desired effect, we could see some light at the end of the tunnel, even though job losses could get worse. And, again, it bears repeating, Heidi, you and I are going to be in this position on a lot of Friday mornings, I'm afraid to say.
COLLINS: Yes, maybe I'll take Fridays off. Do you mind?
LISOVICZ: Well, I need you. I need you.
COLLINS: Look at the Dow Jones industrial average -
LISOVICZ: We're a team, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes. Down now about 122 points. So we continue to watch those numbers go down, at least at this point.
Susan, sure do appreciate that.
And speaking of Barack Obama's stimulus package, it is quite literally the sales challenge of a lifetime. The price tag is huge. The stakes so high, few will even debate them. But lawmakers of his own party say they're not about to rubber stamp the plan. Here now, our senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY (voice-over): His inspirational campaign rhetoric has turned into an apocalyptic sales job.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: For every day we wait or point fingers or drag our feet, more Americans will lose their jobs, and our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that at some point we may not be able to reverse.
CROWLEY: Barack Obama pushed Congress to move fast on his massive stimulus package in a stark speech. Dire. Urgent.
OBAMA: If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years. The unemployment rate could reach double digits.
CROWLEY: But on Capitol Hill, the problem isn't urgency, it's the specifics. A payroll tax cut.
OBAMA: To get people spending again, 95 percent of working families will receive a $1000 tax cut.
SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: We have an example with the first stimulus that indicated just giving people 500 and $600 while certainly welcome when there is all this economic hurt, may not be the best use of stimulus.
CROWLEY: That $3,000 tax credit to businesses for every new hire. .
OBAMA: This plan must begin today. A plan I am confident will save or create at least three million jobs over the next few years.
SEN. KENT CONRAD (D), NORTH DAKOTA: If you think about it, business people are not going to hire people to produce products that are not selling. I mean, who is going to hire in the automobile industry, if you give them a $3,000 credit to make cars that people are not buying.
CROWLEY: And there's what's missing. That campaign talk of rolling back Bush tax breaks for the wealthy, seen as a bad idea now during a recession, the president-elect no longer talks about it, but Nancy Pelosi does.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE SPEAKER: Put me down as clearly as you possibly can as one who wants to have those tax cuts for the wealthiest in America repealed.
CROWLEY: Think about it. Those are just the Democrats objecting. Minority Republicans, though pleased Obama agreed to business tax cuts, are appalled at the price tag.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: Well, given the deficit numbers, it really ought not to be a trillion-dollar spending bill. I think we can start by saying that. .
CROWLEY: For the incoming president, the opening volleys in a stimulus debate are a lesson in the limits of presidential power. He will not get everything he wants.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The certificate of the electoral vote --
CROWLEY: But it also came on the same day his election became official, with a congressional count of electoral votes.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Barack Obama of the state of Illinois has received for president of the United States 365 votes.
CROWLEY: And therein is a lesson for Congress. Barack Obama does not hold all the cards, but he sure owns the poll numbers. He'll get most of what he wants.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Confirming the cabinet, you're looking live now at the Senate confirmation hearing for Representative Hilda Solis. Solis is President-elect Barack Obama's choice for labor secretary.
This is the second confirmation hearing this week. Tom Daschle had his hearing Thursday for secretary of Health and Human Services. And Hillary Clinton's hearing for secretary of state is one of five scheduled for Tuesday of next week.
Here is a closer look now at Hilda Solis. The California Democrat just sworn in for her fourth term in the house. She was the first Latina chosen to serve on the powerful house committee on energy and commerce, one of her top accomplishments was pushing legislation providing for extra work force training for so-called green jobs.
Of course, you can see the president-elect announcement live here on CNN, coming up at 10:45 Eastern. Again, that's the intelligence announcements.
Day 14 in the Middle East conflict. Here's what we know at this point. Israel, vowing to keep up its assault on Gaza, despite an urgent call from the United Nations to stop the fighting. Israeli aircraft pounded more than 50 targets inside Gaza just today.
The U.N. Security Council says it is concerned about amassing humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory and heavy civilian casualties. Fourteen of the 15 security council members voted in favor of the resolution. The U.S. abstained, citing ongoing Egyptian- mediated negotiations for a Gaza truce.
Fighting in the Middle East. More civilians wounded or killed in Gaza. More civilians targeted in Israel, as well. And now the possibility of a wider conflict with militant rockets being fired from Lebanon.
Details now from CNN's senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NIC ROBERTSON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The rockets hit a retirement home in Nahariya. Two civilians slightly wounded. But the implications go beyond their injuries. Now potentially a two-front war, complicating the fight in Gaza. But now Israel is playing it down.
ISAAC HERZOG, ISRAELI SECURITY CABINET: We are looking at coolly (ph), and kind of somewhat we're in the lower level attitude.
ROBERTSON: In the south, more Israeli civilians wounded. Four in kibbutz hit by mortars near the border with Gaza. Rocket attacks also hit a school, but Israeli officials say that almost two week offensive is making gains.
HERZOG: The launching sites from where about 75 percent of the missiles so far were launched, are conquered now by Israel, by Israeli ground forces. However, in the main big city, which we haven't conquered. For example from the heart of Gaza, missiles are launched.
ROBERTSON: And this is where Israel stands. On the verge of a potential deadly urban conflict, where soldiers are discovering stockpiles of weapons hidden inside houses.
As they push ever closer to street battles, they risk giving Hamas a military advantage. But it is the rising civilian death toll that Israel is struggling to explain in the public relations war. As the battles rage, Red Cross workers are heaping criticism on Israeli troops for failing to help civilians. In some cases, children, only yards from soldiers.
KATARINA RITZ, HEAD OF MISSION, ICRC JERUSALEM: (INAUDIBLE) People are alive next to dead bodies. Without assistance -- without water, without food, wounded, no medical treatment, no way to be -- or nobody attended to them.
MAJ. AVITAL LEIBOVICH, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: We have no intention of targeting civilians. However, when we're talking about urban warfare and Hamas is using those civilians as human shields many times, then it's very, very difficult.
ROBERTSON: Israel is also coming under fire from the U.N. after two of its workers were reported killed in tank gunfire by Israeli troops as they were helping deliver much needed aid during a three- hour ceasefire.
CHRISTOPHER GUNNESS, U.N. SPOKESMAN: There is simply no excuse. So the operations are suspended until the Israeli army can guarantee the safety and security of a neutral United Nations human development agency.
ROBERTSON: Israeli officials have agreed to go to Cairo, to help advanced peace talks. But are insisting upon an immediate and guaranteed end to Hamas attacks.
HERZOG: If not, we will opt for an enlarged and escalated military operation. ROBERTSON (on-camera): It leaves the international community scrambling to find a plan that can work for all sides, a risk watching their efforts disintegrate into a wider, regional war, as suffering in Gaza behind me spirals ever deeper.
Nic Robertson. CNN. On the Israel-Gaza border.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And a reminder now, Barack Obama just a few moments away. The president-elect ready to name his picks for the top intelligence posts. We'll take you there live as soon as it happens.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Devastation. Yes, a lot of families lost a lot of stuff right there. I've never seen anything quite like it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Floods, mudslides and a whole lot misery in Washington state. Days of rain triggered these problems and chased hundreds of families from their homes. More than 30 cities and counties have now declared emergencies.
CNN's Rob Marciano standing by. He's been watching all this for many days. And it is nasty. And you said before they're getting dry weather now, but still obviously going to take a while to get everything cleaned up.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: We are awaiting the arrival of President-elect Barack Obama. His news conference expected to begin in just moments. Today, as you know by now, he is announcing his intelligence team, director of the CIA and director of national intelligence.
CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley joining us now live from Washington with more on this.
So, yes, Candy, we're just a couple minutes away, I believe, right?
CROWLEY: We are. And this pretty much today is going to round out Barack Obama's national security team. The last kind of three announcements.
Dennis Blair, a retired admiral, is going to become director of national intelligence. Leon Panetta, which -- who came as a surprise to some people, is going to head up the CIA. There's been some controversy about that, although he has a very lengthy resume inside and outside government. There has been some concern voiced about his lack of intelligence credentials. But it seems to have died down. We are also going to hear but not see the appointment of John Brennan, who is going to be put inside the White House to be homeland security adviser to then-President Obama. So we'll get those three announcements, and then some questions. I suspect that there will be some on the economy.
COLLINS: Yes.
CROWLEY: Obviously, with the jobless figures out today and that sort of thing.
COLLINS: Yes, I think you're going to be right about that, Candy. Often times in the past, in these -- we've had these announcements, the questions seem to veer in a very different direction.
So glad you're there, and we are awaiting once again, President- elect Obama to come to the podium any minute now.
And in the time that we do have, want to let you know, Leon Panetta, a familiar face, of course, from the Clinton administration. He served as President Clinton's White House chief of staff from 1994 to 1997. He was also Mr. Clinton's choice to head up the Office of Management and Budget. Before joining the White House staff, Panetta was a representative from California for 16 years.
And here's a little more now on Dennis Blair. As we mentioned, the choice for director of national security. A retired admiral, Blair is a former commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. He was also associate director of military support for the CIA and served on the National Security Council.
Dennis Blair has experienced running large, complex organizations and knows covert operations. So how will his nomination as national intelligence director sit with lawmakers?
Want to go live now to CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Babara, as you know, could be any minute now, but I want to let you respond to that, because it's important to mention that he will actually be over the director of the CIA, correct?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Heidi. Admiral Dennis Blair, as director of national intelligence, will basically oversee 16 intelligence agencies, a $40 to $50 billion budget for everything from satellites to spies. And also, really oversee much of the military intelligence effort that goes on in the administration.
He will also be the man that potentially briefs President Obama every morning, early every morning, on the latest intelligence from around the world overnight. These are all the areas where his power will come from.
He does have a lot of experience in large organizations. I've covered him for years. When he was out at the U.S. Pacific Command, he also early in his career as a junior admiral, if you will, did a tour of duty at the CIA. In that tour of duty, had a lot of experience in both covert and clandestine operations. These are all areas that he knows very well.
This is a guy who is very studious, is a big brain power, attended Oxford University on the Rhodes scholarship. He knows his business. He fits right in with that whole no drama Obama methodology, if you will. When those two sit down in the Oval Office every morning, it's going to be a lot of brain power, talking about what's going on and what to be concerned about.
Heidi --
COLLINS: Yes. And obviously, there's going to be a whole lot of discussion, I imagine, just from everything that we've been reading about interrogation tactics and some potential changes that could be made?
STARR: Right. This is going to be a major issue for Admiral Blair, for Leon Panetta, for John Brennan, for everyone involved in the national security team.
President-elect Obama has been very clear, no torture, no way -- no way, shape or form. They're -- expect to see some pretty serious language about all of that. The intelligence community, intelligence operatives, in all of these agencies watching very closely to see what language comes out.
A lot of people say that they're going to have to be careful that if they -- there is any indication that they're going to engage in retribution, prosecution of intelligence professionals who thought they were obeying the law under the Bush administration, that that's going to demoralize the intelligence community. That these people thought they were obeying the law, if that is now different, that's going to have to be something they deal with.
Realistically, I don't think anyone's looking at prosecution of former Bush administration officials or people in the intelligence community. But what is expected is some very blunt, very clear language once President-elect Obama becomes President Obama, that the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, things that many people believe were torture; things that led to a lot of problems around the world with how the U.S. is viewed, that all of that goes away.
It should also be clear that people are watching very closely. It is expected that the president-elect, soon after taking office, will live up to his campaign promise to close down Guantanamo Bay, the facility that is very problematic right now. How long that will take, how the closing down of Guantanamo will happen, still remains to be seen. But it is expected that all these men you will see shortly will be tasked with -- along with Defense Secretary Gates, figuring out how to make that happen, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, Barbara bear with me, because I think we have just a couple minutes before -- we had the five-thing warning just before you started talking. You know, you say no drama Obama. You know, I have to bring up about Blair this whole water-skiing kind of thing. That's a bit of drama. Tell people about that. Remind them about him trying to ski behind a destroyer.
STARR: Well, it is said that he tried to do that once. I have to tell you, knowing Admiral Blair as I do for many years, I'm not the least bit surprised. This is a guy who is a very intense human being, a workaholic.
I think one thing I would add at this point, he knows the use of military force. He has spoken very publicly about being very skeptical about large-scale military force in some of the threats that the world sees today.
The other thing that will certainly top his list is Iran. What is Iran up to with its nuclear programs. What are his intentions and capabilities? That is something that Barack Obama's going to want to have a very clear read from the intelligence community. It's a question that they find very tough to answer. It's one of the big challenges out there these days -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, Barbara. Any possibility that when we go through the confirmation process here, any of this will come up with Blair regarding this conflict of interest that he may have had? I think that it was deemed that he ended up not having a conflict of interest...
STARR: Right.
COLLINS: ... with the F-22. It might have been the prototype at the time, the YF-22.
STARR: Right. As we're continuing to watch the pictures of the room to see when they arrive, he was heading the Institute for Defense Analysis, a Washington, D.C. think tank at the time. That group was overseeing a project, reviewing the F-22 fighter at the same time Admiral Blair was on the board of a defense contractor working on the F-22.
A lot of pressure mounted on him over -- the words, were thrown around, conflict of interest. He wound up resigning from that think tank. I don't think that anyone thinks it's going to be a show- stopper. It is likely to come up in the questioning.
COLLINS: All right, Barbara, thank you for that. Want to take a moment to bring in Candy Crowley once again, because she is in the room, and we have just gotten -- I believe it was the two-minute warning there -- Candy?
CROWLEY: We have indeed gotten the two-minute warning, but we haven't yet seen the flurry of aides when they come in the room. So it's a bit away here.
But shortly, as you have been talking about, we will get sort of the rounding out of Barack Obama's national security team. Obviously, this is something, frankly, that launched the Obama campaign, were matters of national security. He was quite critical of the interpretation, at least, of the intelligence that came out that led into the Iraq war.
These men are fairly well-known inside Washington circles, although obviously not household names. But Dennis Blair, obviously, a long career in the military, as well as some time at the CIA. Leon Panetta has gone from Congressman to the Office of Management and Budget under Clinton and then to Clinton chief of staff. So they are both old Washington hands.
And obviously, we have seen that though Barack Obama has promised change, he says, listen, I am the change, but he has brought in an awful lot of old Washington hands to help run the country in a time of sort dual crisis, both overseas with two wars going on, and obviously the economy.
COLLINS: Yes, so obviously the two of them are going to have to work, clearly, very hand-in-hand, depending upon which one of these goals they try to tackle first.
CROWLEY: Absolutely. And I think probably the ongoing theory at this point is that Barack Obama really does have to turn his attention to the economy. Obviously, he has in Hillary Clinton a very high- profile secretary of state who might take some trips, but we're also beginning to hear about where the first presidential overseas trip will be.
So, he's going to have to go two tracks, obviously. I mean, that's what it's all about, being president. I think you'll see right now in your camera, this is Robert Gibbs, who is going to be the press secretary in the Obama White House, putting out the requisite notes for these two announcements today, so should not be that far away.
COLLINS: Yes, Candy, any idea why the delay? It was first scheduled for I believe 10:30, and then 10:45 and now we're at 10:55. Just curious.
CROWLEY: I imagine because he's a busy man. I mean, I know he's been in the building for a while. I'm not sure why it's been delayed, but it's not an unknown thing to happen with these press conferences and some of the appearances that he has made. I mean, these are pretty busy times for all of them.
COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. And as we continue to watch the podium there, I've just heard, I think, Candy, an announcement? Does that mean that they are walking in? Yes, indeed, they are walking in. You see them now. So, let's go ahead and get directly to President- elect Barack Obama.
OBAMA: Good morning. Before I discuss today's announcement, I'd like to say a few words about the latest jobs numbers that we received this morning.
Yesterday, I spoke about the need to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan so that we can jumptart job creation, invest in our future, and lay a foundation for long-term economic growth. This morning, we received a stark reminder about how urgently action is needed. Five hundred and twenty-four thousand jobs were lost in December across nearly all major American industries. That means that our economy lost jobs in all 12 months of 2008 and that nearly 2.6 million jobs lost last year amount to the single worst year of job loss since World War II.
The unemployment rate is now well over 7 percent. In addition, we have 3.4 million people who want full-time work but are only able to get part-time work. Clearly, the situation is dire. It is deteriorating, and it demands urgent and immediate action.
My staff and I have been engaged in a constructive dialogue with members of Congress over the last few days and weeks about my American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, which will save or create 3 million jobs and make long-term investments in critical areas like energy, health care, and education.
We've made good progress in these consultations. I look forward to working closely with Congress to shape legislation that will work for the American people. But let me be clear, today's job report only underscores the need for us to move with a sense of urgency and common purpose.
Behind each and every one of those millions of jobs lost, there are workers and families who are counting on us as they struggle to pay the bills or stay in their homes. There are American dreams that are being deferred and that are being denied because of the current economic climate. There is a devastating economic crisis that will become more and more difficult to contain with time.
For the sake of our economy and our people, this is the moment to act and to act without delay.
Now I'd like to say a few words about today's appointments. Over the past few weeks, Vice President-elect Biden and I have been working with our national security appointees so that we're ready to hit the ground running on January 20th. Today, I'm pleased to complete our team by announcing my choices to lead the intelligence community and the CIA.
It's hard to overstate the importance of good intelligence in the 21st century. When much of our intelligence community was founded, it was focused on one overarching threat: the Soviet Union. Today, we face a world of unconventional challenges from the spread of stateless terrorist networks and weapons of mass destruction to the grave dangers posed by failed states and rogue regimes.
As we learned on 9/11, we are not protected by the distance of an ocean or the ability to deter an enemy. There is no margin for error. To keep our people safe, we must seamlessly collect, analyze, share and act on information with a sense of urgency. This requires the selfless services of countless patriots and the skillful management of our 16 intelligence agencies.
Good intelligence is not a luxury, it is a necessity. The men and women of the intelligence community have been on the front lines in this world of new and evolving dangers. They have served in the shadows, saved American lives, advanced our interests and earned the respect of a grateful nation. There have been sound reforms and many successes built over the last several years.
But here in Washington, we've also learned some tough lessons. We've learned that to make pragmatic policy choices, we must insist on assessments grounded solely on the facts and not seek information to suit any ideological agenda. To support those who carry out our intelligence mission, we must give them the resources they need and the clear guidance they deserve.
And we know that to be truly secure, we must adhere to our values as vigilantly as we protect our safety, with no exceptions. I'm confident that Dennis Blair and Leon Panetta are the right leaders to advance the work of our intelligence community. They are public servants with unquestioned integrity, broad experience, strong management skills and the core pragmatism we need in dangerous times.
Together, they will form a team that is uniquely qualified to continue the good work that is being done while making the changes we need to stay ahead of nimble threats and sustain the trust of the American people.
Admiral Dennis Blair has seen the diverse uses of intelligence from many different perspectives. Over several decades in uniform, he learned firsthand the necessity of good intelligence for our men and women in uniform. As commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, he developed a deep understanding of the critical importance of Asia and carried out a major offensive against violent extremists.
And as a former NSC staffer and the first associate director of central intelligence for military support, he is uniquely qualified to bridge -- to build bridges of cooperation among our national security institutions.
As DNI, Dennis will be the leader and manager of our intelligence community.
