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Mississippi Tornadoes; Hillary Clinton Visits Mexico
Aired March 26, 2009 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to survive. The building is destroyed, but the church is alive.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): How could this happen so fast? New information on what these pictures don't tell you about today's disaster in Mississippi.
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: But what we need is better, smarter, tougher regulations.
SANCHEZ: So, now it is regulation-plus, in fact, the biggest change for bankers and investors in 50 years. We will tell you how it affects your money.
GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should monitor is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.
SANCHEZ: Actually, Governor, volcano monitoring may be worth every penny, especially now that 6.2 million gallons of stored oil in Alaska may be downstream of the Redoubt volcano. We're on it.
PETER FORCELLI, BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS AGENT: And then those weapons are being used by drug cartel members.
SANCHEZ: Outgunned in Mexico. We return to talk to a cop who tried to take on the drug cartels. We couldn't talk to him. We will tell you why.
Did Eric Cantor really choose Britney over the president? Nobody's getting away with anything for free these days.
You're on-the-air and online national conversation begins right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: And hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez.
We are going to be taking a lot of your comments in just a minute. But, as we begin this newscast, I need to tell you about two breaking stories with developments that we're going to follow throughout this hour.
First, take a look at this, if you would. It's an entire neighborhood that has been wiped out. Look at the car turned upside down. More than 80 homes have been turned into, well, matchsticks, after not one, but two tornadoes tore through Mississippi.
And it happened before dawn, which means many of these people in these homes that you're looking at or what is left of these homes were still in bed, asleep, when this happened. Several people have been hospitalized, no word yet of fatalities.
Now, this is Magee, Mississippi, that you are looking at, where even what is considered, and this is important, the most important building in the city, the Corinth Baptist Church, it was destroyed completely.
Now, take a look what is going on in Fargo, North Dakota. This is where residents are bracing for a flood that could force mass evacuations -- 22 people have already been rescued. The Red River is already flooding its balance and it still hasn't even crested. That's why the whole town is turning out to sandbag, to knock on doors, to warn people, to do really whatever it takes. This is serious.
Chad Myers is in the Severe Weather Center for us.
Chad, how serious might this get for the there in Fargo-Moorhead?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We are at a level here, Rick, 41 feet, that we have never seen before -- 1897, it was 40 feet. So, this is higher than the old record. Now, you have to realize, in 1897, we didn't have that many people living there.
SANCHEZ: Right.
MYERS: But we're going to be at this level for seven days. That concerns me that these all of these manmade dirt levees, all of these sandbags that are supposed to last for a little while a brief flood goes by, are going to be forced to last for 24 hours a day for seven days and not have water go underneath them and not have water flood the city or go one way or another.
This is going to be a monumental success if this actually holds, because Fargo and Moorhead and even places up and down the Red River -- Red the River goes the wrong way. It goes north into Canada.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
MYERS: If all of these levees can hold, it will be a miracle I haven't seen, because while we had that he flood last year in the Mississippi, and they made all these levees, they made all the sandbags, and a lot of it was just futile.
SANCHEZ: We -- I went to school there at Moorhead State University. And I remember the last time they were in this situation, all of us at the campus, all the university students got together and did the same kind of sandbagging that I'm looking at now.
Let me ask you another question about these tornadoes that we talked about moments ago in Mississippi. MYERS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: What happened and is there any chance that those things could return to that same area?
MYERS: It could, especially tomorrow night. We could see more tornadoes. This was 1:40 in the morning yesterday morning. Notice the church. Take pictures in your mind of this church.
I'm going to show you what it looked like before that. The church kind of connected to this cemetery. Storms rolled across Louisiana, across Mississippi, south of Jackson in the overnight hours. Now they're farther to the south. But they will redevelop in the same areas for tomorrow afternoon.
This from Google Maps is the actual picture of that church. That is how big it was, two stories high, all the way to the back, and then another building behind it.
SANCHEZ: Wow.
MYERS: That is the same sign that you saw in the video right there that says Corinth Baptist Church. And now on the other side of the screen you can see what debris is left of this.
Just think of this. They found letters from the church on the ground today 50 miles away. That's how strong this F-3, maybe 4 tornado, 165 miles per hour, for sure, picked up all that stuff from that church and deposited it 50 miles away, Rick. Amazing.
SANCHEZ: Chad, that's right. You are so good at illustrating this kind of stuff and making us understand what you're talking about.
MYERS: Thanks, Rick.
SANCHEZ: We will check back with you if there are any developments either in the story out of Fargo-Moorhead or the story that we're following there as well in Mississippi.
By the way, a programming note now. I told you a little while ago -- you may have heard in my conversation with Kyra that we are going to be following the story that is taking place in Dallas. It's about an NFL football player. He was rushing to the hospital. This is a news conference that is taking place now.
We're going to be able to show you that video and see the confrontation between the police officer who didn't allow him to see his dying mother-in-law and the officer himself. Now, this is the Dallas Police Department making a statement about this.
As soon as we're able to get the audio on this news conference, we will let you hear that and we will let you see the actual confrontations also. Stand by. I promise this is going to be worth watching. It is human drama as it unfolds.
Roger, hit the animation. . It is the type of change in our government that comes along every 50 years. It's being called a rebuke of raw capitalism. Let me explain it to you this way. Not only is the Obama administration reintroducing all the regulations that were gotten rid of over the last couple of decades. They are actually adding many more rules and regs. Call it uber-regulation, call it super regulations, but don't call it business as usual, because that, it ain't.
Here is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: Nothing we do here today over the next six months will offer the process to preventing all future financial crises.
We can make sure that when they happen in the future, we can act more quickly, more effectively to contain the damage, to put a fire break around the most weaker parts of the system, and not allow the fire to jump that fire break and spread to parts of the economy that were more prudent and careful in their decisions.
That's the -- that's the core objectives that have to guide we do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Joining me now is Nariman Behravesh. He is an economist.
Thanks for being with us, sir.
NARIMAN BEHRAVESH, CHIEF ECONOMIST, IHS GLOBAL INSIGHT: Thank you.
SANCHEZ: As an economist, you have seen this coming. What are we regulating now that wasn't regulated before that he was pointing to today, and is it necessary?
BEHRAVESH: Well, I will answer the first part, and then I'm not sure it is necessary. Let me explain what I mean by that.
I think what we are doing is, we're trying to make sure that all the entities that are part of our financial system get some kind of scrutiny.
SANCHEZ: Yes, and equity firms, and hedge funds, the kind of things that in the past were really on their own.
(CROSSTALK)
BEHRAVESH: Exactly. That's right, but in particular large entities like AIG that are so big that they are, in fact, too big to fail and require taxpayer money, these be regulated very heavily.
So, the basic principle -- I mean, one of the basic principles is if you are the kind of institution that the government might have to bail out, you are going to have to be regulated. That makes a lot of sense.
SANCHEZ: Yes. Well, Geithner, that is what he said. He said he wants to take these companies that are -- quote -- "the too big to fails" to make sure that they open their books to regulators on a continual basis.
BEHRAVESH: That's right.
SANCHEZ: So, the government can come in and say, hey, open your books. I want to see them. And they are going to pick the companies that fall into that category.
I'm not smart enough. I'm not an economist. I don't know if this is a good or bad idea. But you are. So, you tell us.
BEHRAVESH: Well, let me tell you this, though. Let me just quality it.
The big problem this time around was not lack of regulation, but lack of enforcement of existing regulation. Here's the thing. Who are the biggest culprits this time around? They really are not the hedge funds. It's not private equity. It's the big commercial banks. These were supposed to be regulated. And they were not.
So, the issue is not, there wasn't enough regulation. It was that the existing regulation wasn't enforced particularly well.
SANCHEZ: Nariman Behravesh, my thanks to for joining us and taking us through that explanation. We will see you again.
Meanwhile, there's a story that we have been following for you. Six million gallons in oil, it could be in harm's way of a Redoubt volcano. Have you heard about this? Which proves that a volcano monitoring system can avert a disaster.
Now, on that note, does Governor Bobby Jindal wish that he hadn't said what he said after the Obama quasi state of the union? We're going to let you go through this story, tell you what is going on, and hear the governor.
Also, Hillary Clinton assesses the violence in Mexico. Her finding, you're going to hear it.
And we are talking to Mexico on the issue of drugs and guns, not butter, but guns. You will see it from the inside.
And a New York news reporter is stabbed 50 times after soliciting a sex tryst on craigslist. The suspect is 16 years old -- 16.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Hey, this is Rick Sanchez. Thanks for calling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Rick. This is Kyle Duffield (ph) from Canada.
Just wanted to give a shout-out to everybody in Fargo. I hope everybody is OK and hopefully everybody makes it out of the flood OK.
Thanks. Talk to you later. Bye.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And I welcome you back here to the world headquarters of CNN in Atlanta. I'm Rick Sanchez.
I want to show you something, somebody commenting on a story that we just talked about. This is that story having to do with more regulation, uber-regulations, super regulations.
Listen to what Disrespected Dad says. Interesting moniker. "Always an extreme with our government. First no monitoring, and now they want total control and regulation. Power corrupts."
Interesting omen. We thank you for the comment.
Think of 6.2 million gallons of oil spreading along parts of Alaska. Think of a disaster, really. Well, it hasn't happened, but there is a fear it could, and this is the potential cause. You see it right there? That is the Mount Redoubt volcano. Eruptions that began a week ago, in fact, we just learned of a new eruption that just started a couple of hours ago.
How bad will it get? Well, that is really anybody's guess. But according to several reports, the owners -- listen to this -- the owners of some big oil tanks in the area are concerned enough that they have already evacuated some workers from the area and now the oil company is considering ways to pump the oil out of the tank farm to avoid a disaster, a disaster there in Alaska.
Problem is, they need special equipment to do that. That equipment has to be flown in. And right now, the nearest airport has closed its runway because of the volcanic ash in the air. In other words, planes can't fly in and out with that equipment. Uh-oh.
It may end up being the type of disaster that can only be avoided with an early warning provided by a volcano warning system, you know, the type Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana talked about in his Republican response to the president last month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JINDAL: ... $140 million for something called volcano monitoring.
Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: Oops. Timing is everything, Governor.
The White House wants to talk you through -- through all of us. So, what do you want to tell them? We are bringing Jared Bernstein into our conversation in just a little bit. We will let you know what they have to say.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as the president's town hall meeting goes, every answer will be, pass my budget and I will fix the world. It is just a bunch of crap.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.
Let's do this. Let's go over here to MySpace real quick. This is interesting. It is salient to what we are goi1ng to be talking about in a moment. On MySpace, we have this comment that just came in during the commercial.
"Rick, the more rules and regulations, the better. What would happen if you had no rules to follow, any firm that can do whatever they want? What do you think will happen?"
That's an interesting question that is posed, and we thank you for that.
Let me tell you about this. There are shifts in policy that barely get recognized and then there are shifts in policy that can be best described as tectonic, big, maybe even revolutionary. Such was the age of Ronald Reagan and such appears to be the age of Obama. For good or bad, it is a shift, folks.
It's a new day on Wall Street. Financial restrictions are looming. In short, rules and regulations are back in vogue, interestingly enough, but will this administration, this Obama administration, overreach as a result?
What do say we ask them?
Jared Bernstein is a White House economic adviser.
Thanks for being with us, Mr. Bernstein.
JARED BERNSTEIN, CHIEF ECONOMIST TO VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: My pleasure.
SANCHEZ: Tim Geithner's plan is to force the big guns to be more transparent.
BERNSTEIN: Mm-hmm. SANCHEZ: You want to see their books regularly from now on. Why -- something that wasn't being done in the past. Take us through that. Explain that to us.
BERNSTEIN: Sure.
The critical thing to recognize here is that there are some firms, obviously, in our financial markets who have become so large and interconnected to not only to our economy, but to the global economy, that they pose what we call a systemic risk.
That is, if they were to fail, it would not just be them failing. They would bring down far too many other companies and much too large a chunk of the rest of the economy with them. That poses an obvious danger to the American economy and specifically to working families.
I think the thing -- and the president said this today in a town hall meeting -- we are not out there trying to help these banks and non-bank holding companies, financial institutions because we happen to have fond feelings for them. There are some of them who we are actually not really very pleased about their business models, to say the least, in recent years.
We are doing this because we understand the connections that take you right down to the level of working families, to the kid who is trying to get a college loan, to the credit-worthy person trying to get a car loan.
SANCHEZ: I think I get it. We are going to call them from now on, thanks to your description, the TBTFs, the too big to fails.
BERNSTEIN: OK.
SANCHEZ: We're going to call those...
(CROSSTALK)
BERNSTEIN: Can I just make one little...
SANCHEZ: Go ahead.
(CROSSTALK)
BERNSTEIN: I call it more too interconnected to fail.
I think that you're right. Big is fine. But, really, it's the interconnections, the ideas that these firms, because of global capital, because of the extent to which their dealings tie them into so many other firms...
SANCHEZ: They reach into our lives.
BERNSTEIN: They reach deeply.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: They reach into everybody's life, right.
BERNSTEIN: Bingo, Main Street and Wall Street.
SANCHEZ: We get that.
BERNSTEIN: You got it.
SANCHEZ: And I think everybody is going to understand that argument on either side of the aisle.
BERNSTEIN: Good.
SANCHEZ: But I can guarantee you that you are going to get an argument from some Republicans or some folks on the other side of the aisle who are going to say, you know what? There is a problem here. You could end up overreaching.
BERNSTEIN: Right.
SANCHEZ: Who is the government to be telling a corporation in the United States, in a capitalistic system, that I'm coming in, gestapo-like, and I'm going to look at your books any time I want to?
BERNSTEIN: OK.
First of all, let me say that we welcome that argument, and in not some sort of, you know, we are taking a tough stand, because we totally get that what we need -- where we need to get to is a difference place on the continuum than where we have been.
I think you and anyone who wants to take that particular criticism -- and I'm not saying it is yours, but the criticism here -- I think anyone who takes that view has to look around them, look where the economy is today, look at financial markets today, and ask yourselves, have we gone way too far down to the deregulated part of the continuum, where firms operate with too little oversight, where reckless speculation is the name of the day, where these bubbles in financial markets drive the economy forward, as opposed to the kinds of goods-and-services-based economy that we need to move towards?
And I think any commonsense person at that point would have to say, yes, we have gone too far. We need to reel it back. We need to find a balance. And part of that balance means providing the oversight that we didn't provide, especially to these firms.
Now, remember, we are not talking about the commercial bank. Those...
SANCHEZ: No, I get it.
(CROSSTALK)
BERNSTEIN: Those are well-regulated.
SANCHEZ: We are talking about the non-depositories. And I referred to them with our viewers the other day as the non-Jimmy Stewart banks.
Let me ask you something. The market has been up lately. It's kind of been a surprise to a lot of people. And just a couple of weeks ago on this show, I don't know if I had this conversation with you, but I may have had it with somebody from the White House.
(CROSSTALK)
BERNSTEIN: We all kind of blend together after a while.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: The D-word was still out there. People were saying, is this going to be a mild depression?
Are we out of danger of that now?
BERNSTEIN: You know, I really don't think so.
I have studied the Great Depression of the 1930s from the perspective of the set of indicators that were just so deeply negative in those years. You know, remember, the unemployment rate got to 25 percent. Our unemployment rate is 8 percent. Now, it may well -- I suspect it will -- go higher before it comes down.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Yes, well -- yes, the president said to the American people the first time he talked to them about the economy, expect that we could go into double digits.
So, we will just leave it at that...
BERNSTEIN: Yes.
SANCHEZ: ... at you saying you don't think we are going to the D, and staying with the R. That's good.
Let me ask you something else. Let me ask you about the American people, because when and if this economy bounces back, we, the American people, the taxpayers, not these big dogs on Wall Street, we have lost homes, we have lost jobs, we have lost retirement accounts.
BERNSTEIN: Right.
SANCHEZ: We have seen our 401(k)s get messed up.
When are we going be able to send a big bill to these guys on Wall Street that you guys are -- whose butts you guys are saving with our money? Fair question?
BERNSTEIN: Well, yes and no.
I think that the idea that anyone who engaged in fraudulent behavior, anyone who broke the law, and anyone who went over the line, we absolutely have to take those people and... (CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: No, no, I'm just saying -- no, you are misunderstanding me. I'm just saying, if we're -- if they are borrowing our money, that is fine.
BERNSTEIN: Oh, I see what you're saying.
SANCHEZ: But, at some point, we're going to be able to knock on a door and say, hey, give us some back; you're doing fine, right?
BERNSTEIN: You are talking like the beneficiaries of some of the plans, yes.
SANCHEZ: Exactly.
BERNSTEIN: That is a great question.
And, in fact -- and maybe this has been somewhat underappreciated. Built into every one of these plans is the ability for the American taxpayer to benefit on the upside.
If you take this most recent plan, the legacy loans program that the treasury secretary introduced, that is a plan where we have a public-private investment partnership. And as we take some of those bad assets off the book, we are sharing that investment with private- sector investors.
If, as you suggest, that equity appreciates, we share one for one in those benefits, taxpayer, as well as the investor. So, that is an important dimension of some of the plans.
SANCHEZ: Well, I'm glad you took us through it.
Jared Bernstein, come on back. We appreciate you being on and taking...
(CROSSTALK)
BERNSTEIN: Well, those are good questions. Thank you.
SANCHEZ: Thank you, taking the American people through this explanation. It is for them that we ask. Thanks again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Call it the worst free trade imaginable. Mexican drugs easily flow north, American guns and ammunition flow south.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: You are seeing it in the news every day. Mexico is at war. So, what is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's assessment today, because she talked about it? We are going to bring it to you. You will hear it for yourself. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Rick. Joe from Freehold on the president's budget.
No matter how you slice it, it's still baloney.
Thanks, Rick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And our thanks to Bobby.
There are two words that explain the crisis along the U.S. border with Mexico right now. And don't let anybody kid you about this one. It's about drugs and it's about guns, no doubt. The drugs are moving from there to here, our country. The guns are moving from here to there, their country, result, bloodbath that has taken 8,000 lives, some of those innocent bystanders.
We want to tackle both parts of this problem for you, first, guns. Or maybe a better description of this is outgunned.
Think about that as you watch this report by CNN's Drew Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Had it not been for one good tip, this .50-caliber Barrett rifle firing rounds as big as your palm could have easily gotten into the hands of the narco killers in Mexico.
PETER FORCELLI, BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS AGENT: Absolutely. Four or five Barretts have already made its way south.
GRIFFIN: Call it the worst free trade imaginable. Mexican drugs easily flow north, American guns and ammunition flow south, and illegal trade that ATF agent and former New York cop Peter Forcelli says is like nothing he has ever seen.
FORCELLI: And then those weapons are being used by drug cartel members and people involved in drug trafficking in a war that they're having with Mexican authorities, be it the military and Mexican police.
GRIFFIN (on camera): A war?
FORCELLI: Pretty much, yes. And, in some of the battles, they're actually winning.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Guns are hard to buy in Mexico. It is why the guns fueling the drug war are bought north of the border. ATF agents comb gun shows like this one in Phoenix or stake out gun stores, where they have arrested girlfriends, illegal dealers, or just opportunists hoping to cash in on the gun and ammo smuggling trade. (on camera): And this is the ammo for that?
FORCELLI: Yes, yes. In fact, the last time we worked one of these shows, we seized 8,000 rounds of this type of ammo and approximately 19 of these firearms, just in two days.
GRIFFIN: And those .50-caliber guns are showing up on the streets of Juarez, Mexico, like this streets of Juarez, Mexico, like this street, Guatsumala (ph), next to a day care center, where a commander of the police department coming out of his home and getting in his car was gunned down right here with the with the largest weapon you can legally buy in the United States.
I assume he's your friend?
JUAN ANTONIO ROMAN GARCIA, JUAREZ POLICE DIRECTOR (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Yes. He was the person behind me -- the second in charge here.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Last March, we met Juan Antonio Roman Garcia -- the police director in Juarez -- shortly after his friend and second in command, Francisco Salazar, had been gunned down with that American-bought gun. Juarez police officers like Cesar Quitana are literally afraid their small caliber government-issued rifles are no match for the narcos.
CESAR QUITANA, JUAREZ POLICE DEPARTMENT (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I think most of us feel scared just to bring this with us.
GRIFFIN: And just two months after we met Commander Garcia, he, too, was gunned down -- police say, by narco terrorists using an AK-47 -- a gun most likely bought in the U.S.
Drew Griffin, CNN, Juarez, Mexico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: As a reporter, you go back to talk to a source that you've spoken to a month ago and he's dead for the same reason that you'd gone to talk to him before.
Now, that's the gun story. Now I want to talk to you about the drug story -- how they get here -- as explained by one of the best at explaining these kind of things, by the way, at least in my book.
He CNN's Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT
How do Mexican cartels get drugs into the United States?
The Drug Enforcement Administration maps out a typical scenario. A ton of pure cocaine is ordered from Colombia, and it's hidden inside a shipment of coffee inside a semi-truck. And a professional courier then starts driving north through Central America.
If he runs into any problem, they simply shift the load onto a boat, they bypass the problem area and they bring it back to the truck and then they continue on north, up here, to the border.
And there he waits.
What is he waiting for?
Well, for the drug bosses to watch what's going on there and figure out an optimal time to cross.
What are they looking for?
Well, they're looking for times of heavy traffic along the border, when there are lots of people there. They're looking for times that there might be a holiday. They're looking for times when they might have a big storm of some sort -- anything that will distract law enforcement.
When the right moment comes, they signal and their truck driver simply blends in with the traffic and he drives north into the United States and he's ready for the next leg on the drug delivery road.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Our demand for drugs is what motivates these drug gangs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: She is in Mexico, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying there is a demand and you'd better believe that there is a supply, as well.
The question -- is the deadly drug cycle the worst thing facing Mexico today and how might it affect us in the United States, as well?
We're taking it to the source, when we come back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RENE: Hey, Rick. It's Rene (ph) from Santa Monica. I love checking in with you on Facebook and I love the fact you keep it real and you do -- you know, you don't take sides.
My issue is all these town halls and so forth, how do we know that they're not scripted and why is he doing them when he should be running the White House?
That is my biggest concern. I don't understand the need for town halls when he's won the presidency. I really, really don't. And I think he's just diverting from the AIG issue, which, obviously, we were lied to about.
Thanks for all of your -- your honesty in your journalism. Take care and have a great day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: More than 70,000 of you are following us on Twitter, so let's go to Twitter and see what one of the last comment says, that came in just moments ago. Here we go. It reads: "It's a losing situation. People are dying over there from U.S. guns and U.S. citizens are addicted to drugs, fueling the war."
I guess you're right, Preciously. It's a back and forth thing. We thank you for that.
By the way, the former head of the CIA says the two biggest threats to American security are Iran and Mexico. And the Pentagon says two countries most at risk of rapid collapse are Pakistan and Mexico. Now, that's interesting. I know we've told you that before. It doesn't sound good for our southern neighbor, right?
But does the secretary of State -- here's we're we get to the point. Does the secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, have the same doom and gloom scenario?
Actually, from listening to her today, not so much.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: It's not an immediate problem. It's a -- it's a terrible law enforcement problem. We have some of our cities along the border where the violence has washed over and people are being killed and kidnapped. So we do have a law enforcement problem. But this is more about trying to act proactively.
You know, why would we want this to go on, especially when President Calderon and the Mexican government are doing everything they know to do to try to defeat this violence?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Well, let's go to the source on this thing.
Manuel Perez Rocha or Manny Perez Rocha is a foreign policy writer.
He's joined us before on this show so we wanted to get you back.
What do you make of the secretary of State's assessment that this is a -- and quoting her here -- that "this is law enforcement issue."
MANUEL PEREZ ROCHA, INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES: Yes, Rick.
Thank you. I think she's right and she's helping to ameliorate much of the discussion about Mexico being a failed state or not. She just put it very clear. Mexico is not a failed state. And she is also recognizing -- and I think this is very important -- that the problem between the United -- the problem of the narcotraffic is a shared problem with the United States and Mexico.
This is a step in the right direction. I think the diag -- the diagnosis about the problems of narcotraffic is being done correctly and...
SANCHEZ: So you agree with the secretary of State?
Let me ask you another question, though.
ROCHA: Yes. I do agree with her.
SANCHEZ: No, I -- we get it.
Let me ask you something else, though. Because, sure, it probably is a law enforcement problem right now. But let's look at some of the other countries in the region. Let's look at Colombia, for example. They had a drug problem that became a political -- a huge political problem.
What -- how can you assure us that this kind of thing won't happen in Mexico -- and then we would have huge problems along our border, even bigger than what we've got now?
ROCHA: Well, I think that, at the same time, Mexico has a huge political problem. In fact, the -- I think the medicine that they're trying to -- to put to this problem is the wrong one. The only real solution at hand that is being given by the Mexican government and the U.S. government is the escalation of military aid to Mexico.
SANCHEZ: Right.
ROCHA: And the problem is that the Calderon government is militarizing the country without much regard for human rights. So it is a big political problem, because the military in Mexico are incurring into huge human rights violations.
And this didn't come in the -- this didn't come up much during -- during Clinton's visit to Mexico. And this is something that most Mexicans are very worried about -- the collateral...
SANCHEZ: Now...
ROCHA: ...the collateral effect of military -- of increasing military expenditure and military and the military escalation to try to solve this problem.
So there are other ways into -- which these problems of narcotrafficking should be solved. Mexico needs to strengthen its police forces...
SANCHEZ: Right. In other words...
ROCHA: Yes?
SANCHEZ: The send in the Marines theory, you don't think would be a healthy one for either country?
ROCHA: No. I don't think it would, you know?
SANCHEZ: Let me ask -- let me ask you another question. I thought about this when I was thinking about having you on earlier today, as I was sitting at my desk.
ROCHA: Right.
SANCHEZ: What don't -- this might be a little bit of a curveball for you, but I want -- I want you to think about this one.
What don't Americans understand about Mexico?
What is the one -- the recurrent theme?
And I -- I'm almost asking you, what is your beef, as somebody who knows this issue?
ROCHA: The one thing that Americans might -- might not understand about Mexico is that Mexico has a desperate problem of job creation, you know?
There's thousands -- millions of Mexicans are out in the streets without jobs. And this is something that Americans do not understand correctly because...
SANCHEZ: Did NAFTA create that?
Let me just stop you.
ROCHA: Part of...
SANCHEZ: Did NAFTA create that?
ROCHA: Part of the blame is to -- is NAFTA, of course. NAFTA...
SANCHEZ: Because of subsidies?
ROCHA: NAFTA...
SANCHEZ: Because of subsidies?
ROCHA: NAFTA pushed a lot of peasants out of their livelihoods and also thousands of micro -- small and medium businesses that couldn't compete with the large corporations that are the only ones...
SANCHEZ: So...
ROCHA: ...that are really, you know, trading with -- with NAFTA. SANCHEZ: So do -- so you're saying Americans need to understand that every time we need to subsidize corn or whatever it is that we ship into Mexico, that we're putting people who used to grow that there out of work, they end up without work and they turn to either coming to the United States or getting sucked up by the drug runners?
ROCHA: You're putting millions of people out of their jobs, you know?
And -- and the problem is that with the present financial crisis, it is announced that during this year, remittances from the United States to Mexico will fall very sharply. Remittances during the last years have been the safety nets to -- you know, to combat poverty in Mexico. The $20 million -- the $20 billion or so U.S. dollars that go into Mexico are the safety nets for -- for Mexicans.
It's the same with Central America. Now, the remittances are falling. People in the streets have -- have very few options.
SANCHEZ: It's a lot more complicated than sometimes...
ROCHA: Yes.
SANCHEZ: ...we want to make it, isn't it?
ROCHA: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Manuel Perez Rocha, my thanks to you, sir...
ROCHA: Thank you.
KING: ...for taking the time to talk to us, heh?
ROCHA: Thank you, Rick.
SANCHEZ: All right.
A television and radio reporter soliciting rough sex on Craigslist, a 16-year-old with a knife fetish -- this is a combination that has proven deadly. That is next.
And then later, all eyes are suddenly on North Korea, where there are reports of a missile on the launch pad.
Got your attention?
Oh, and they're also holding two journalists as spies.
As for this show, it's personal.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back.
I'm Rick Sanchez. If you want to know just how tight the economy is these days, just take a look at this video from Virginia Beach, Virginia. The security camera captures the suspect, bulging and all. She's being tailed by the clerk from the store.
The store clerk goes for the goods. The shoplifting suspect goes for a roundhouse punch and catches the clerk. And the suspect ends up getting away.
There it is again. Watch that.
She and an alleged accomplice are now being sought by the officials. And the accomplice is pictured on the left of your screen with a -- a baby stroller, by the way. There it is.
See that?
Yes. There's nothing like taking your kid shoplifting with you when you go to the mall.
The clerk, by the way, did get her stuff back, though. So there.
He's a popular news reporter from New York City. He made what appears to be a huge mistake that cost him his life. Sex and social media, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back.
I'm Rick Sanchez.
He was a newsman in, arguably, the world's biggest media market. His voice was heard by millions and in New York City. But when he went on Craigslist to find companionship with a guy about 30 years younger than him, he ended up dead.
What a story.
The suspect, a 16-year-old, accused of stabbing George Weber multiple times. Weber was found dead in his home Sunday. Reports say that his ankles were bound by duct tape. Investigators say the 16- year-old sus -- 16-year-old suspect -- made statements implicating himself.
Joining us now is Lisa Bloom with In Session TV.
Lisa, how are you?
LISA BLOOM, ANCHOR, IN SESSION: Hi.
How are you doing?
SANCHEZ: Good.
What does this tell us about social media -- a platform that more and more people are using every day, and this reporter seemed to use to his demise?
BLOOM: Well, it's obviously very bad judgment to meet somebody online and to immediately engage in sexual relations in a private place with them. Anything can happen. It can happen from Craigslist, MySpace, Facebook. And we see these stories over and over and over again.
Ironically, for a reporter, he doesn't seem to have checked this guy out. If he had checked him out him out on MySpace, he would have seen some very potentially big warning signs, like the fact that this guy was posing with a lot of knives, saying if anybody disrespects me, I would kill them -- one picture of him holding a knife to his throat. So unfortunately...
SANCHEZ: Are you kidding me?
You mean this...
BLOOM: ...he didn't use his own journalistic skills.
SANCHEZ: He ended up inviting someone to his house who had a picture of himself on the Internet with knives that he was holding to his own throat?
BLOOM: Right.
SANCHEZ: I mean, you know, there couldn't have been a better warning, right?
BLOOM: Well, right. And, you know, look, we're in the media. We usually check everything out. I mean I don't know about you but...
SANCHEZ: There it is.
BLOOM: ...every aspect...
SANCHEZ: There's the picture.
BLOOM: ...of my life, I Google and check out everybody. Unfortunately, this was a bit of bad judgment. He certainly didn't deserve this horrific outcome, but it was, of course, terrible judgment on his part.
SANCHEZ: It's certainly an important story, since it's in New York City -- a guy who probably was listened on to by a whole lot of people.
BLOOM: Sure.
SANCHEZ: And the fact that he was using a social media platform -- something we talk about on this newscast every day.
Hey, Lisa, good to see you.
BLOOM: Great to see you, too.
SANCHEZ: Thanks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA LING, JOURNALIST: ...the scene. There were people...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: That's Laura Ling. She talked to me right here on this show just days before she and a producer were arrested in North Korea. Their future is now uncertain.
The world is also concerned about North Korea's moves to launch a three-stage rocket.
What does that mean?
Could one be used as a bargaining chip over the other?
We're talking about Laura Ling.
Jim Clancy is here.
He's going to be talking to us in just a little bit about this. So hang tight. We'll be back and take you through this.
And, yes, we see the markets up again.
What gives?
Mikey likes it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: They are locked, loaded and ready for liftoff -- North Korea is saying that they're going to test fire a new rocket into space, in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution.
Is this missile capable of carrying a warhead?
That's always the question, right?
But it's a big concern. That's what has the United States and North Korea's neighbors, no doubt, worried about this.
And all this, by the way, happening while North Korea takes two American journalists into custody, accusing them of being spies. There's Laura Ling. She's the one on the right. She's from Current TV, a field producer, snatched off the Chinese/Korean border just nine days ago.
And her producer by the way, Euna Lee, is seen there, as well.
Jim Clancy joining us now -- hey...
JIM CLANCY, ANCHOR, "YOUR WORLD TODAY": This is a sad story.
SANCHEZ: Yes. Let's put these two together.
Would it be beneath them -- or do you think North Korea would try to link these two and use Laura Ling and her producer as bait to get something from the United States?
CLANCY: Well, I think they're going to be used as chips. There's no doubt about that.
SANCHEZ: Really?
CLANCY: I don't think the two are related, because, obviously, they had no way of knowing these two journalists were going to enter their sphere, where they (INAUDIBLE)...
SANCHEZ: But you just said you're almost -- from your experience as an international correspondent for many, many years, you think they're going to use them as chips one way or another.
CLANCY: Look it, it's tragic.
Not the smartest thing, huh...
SANCHEZ: Yes.
CLANCY: ...to go in there, number one...
SANCHEZ: Well, we don't know that they actually went in North Korea.
CLANCY: Well, I think...
SANCHEZ: They're saying they were in China.
CLANCY: I think -- yes.
SANCHEZ: They're saying they were on the other side of the border.
CLANCY: Because that's where they started. But it wasn't well marked and they might have gone too close. They didn't need to do that, really.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
CLANCY: Maybe they thought that they did. This is tragic for them. It's tragic for their parents. It's going to take patience right now -- patience, a little bit of time. But almost certainly, they will be safe. They will be released. But it's going to be an ordeal.
SANCHEZ: We wish -- yes. We certainly wish them well. We've been trying to stay on top of this story every day.
Let's talk about North Korea.
Are they serious about this?
I mean...
CLANCY: Oh, you bet.
Come on, Rick.
SANCHEZ: But will they do it?
CLANCY: Oh, yes. Absolutely. They're going to launch this. And it probably is a space vehicle.
At the same time, why are they doing it?
They're doing it for money. They're doing it for money because one of the only ways that they can make any money in North Korea -- they have that international currency, something that's convertible -- is to sell something. Well, missile technology is the only thing they have to sell. They sell to Pakistan. They sell to Yemen. They sell...
SANCHEZ: (INAUDIBLE).
CLANCY: They sell to Iran.
SANCHEZ: There's the picture that's scaring us on the right.
CLANCY: Yes.
SANCHEZ: So you...
CLANCY: Well...
SANCHEZ: So...
CLANCY: Should we be scared, you know?
SANCHEZ: Money making, for them, is blackmail on the United States?
CLANCY: Well, money making for them is saying, look it, we're going to run in violation of all of your nonproliferation treaties regarding missile technology. We'll sell to anybody. And they'll pay top dollar. And Iran is paying top dollar. They're very close in development, huh, the two countries.
SANCHEZ: That's amazing.
And, by the way, we've got some video. They did this before, I think, what, 1998 and in 2006. I think we've got some of that video.
Look it, my tie is caught on my microphone.
We've got some video here of those. This is scary to watch. I mean, you know, this is...
CLANCY: This was one of their last successful launches. But now, remember, after this, Rick, this was successful launch. (INAUDIBLE)...
SANCHEZ: This is in '98. It wasn't successful.
CLANCY: But see, they entered into negotiations and they stopped doing these missile test launches for a while. Then negotiations broke down over the issue of money.
And what do they really want here?
They want us to pay them money not to sell missiles around the world.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
CLANCY: Why?
Because they don't have any money.
SANCHEZ: But it's still scary business, Jim (INAUDIBLE). It really is.
CLANCY: Well, you know, these -- they're pushing the envelope here. But this could be an ICBM or a satellite launch vehicle. Really, the technology is very, very similar, Rick.
SANCHEZ: We're going to be watching it.
Thanks again, as you're great with...
CLANCY: All right. Great seeing you.
SANCHEZ: You're great with this kind of stuff.
Look at the market.
Look at this.
Are you surprised to see this?
I mean we're up again. I mean it's starting to turn into a pattern here. I know, I'm not trying to play Joe economist here and tell you it means anything. But we will talk to some people when we come back who are going to tell us where it is and what it means.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL)
SANCHEZ: By the way, I told you at the beginning of the newscast that we were going to show you that dash cam video out of Dallas, where the NFL player is stopped and doesn't get to go see his dying mother-in-law in the hospital because of the police department.
Now they're apologizing. We didn't get it in for some reason. We expected it. We saw it, but we couldn't get the rights to it. So we'll show it tomorrow -- Stephanie Elam, what is going -- Mikey like it, doesn't he?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: He does, indeed, yes.
SANCHEZ: I mean, what is this?
ELAM: Because this is a good thing that we're seeing here -- a bit of a rally. In fact, we're closing near session highs today, as well, Rick.
We've got some strong economic numbers this week and some not so strong, as far as GDP, but better than expected. So when you factor that in, it's enough to give you this -- the Dow up 173, to 7921. The Nasdaq better by 3 percent -- even more than that, Rick.
So a solid day.
SANCHEZ: All right. Some folks out there are saying it's a sucker's rally. We'll keep watching it to see what happens.
In the meantime, here is the man with the plan from "THE SITUATION ROOM," Wolf Blitzer.
What do you got -- Wolf?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Rick.
Happening now, secret details emerging right now about the president's new war strategy in Afghanistan. We're going to tell you what we're learning about the battle plan.
