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Security Scare on 9/11 Anniversary; New Questions About Security; Seeking Health Care Compromise

Aired September 11, 2009 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: It is Friday, September 11th, eight years since the terrorist attack on America. The top stories for you in the CNN NEWSROOM.

New momentum maybe for the Senate's Gang of Six. The architects of bipartisan health care reform suggest President Obama's speech may push them over the finish line.

Big government critics roll into New England today. Their coast- to-coast bus tour ends with a big protest in Washington this weekend.

America's growing doctor shortage. Experts say any health care overhaul must address the numbers problem or reform is doomed.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris in the CNN New York studios.

And we start this morning with a security scare on the anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Police sources telling CNN the incident on the Potomac River, near the Pentagon, was prompted by a training exercise. The Coast Guard says it is looking into the incident.

Our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, and CNN National Security Contributor Fran Townsend joining us with the very latest.

And Jeanne, let me start with you.

Watching Heidi's show, the last hour of the show, as I did and many around the country did as well, this was very disconcerting. Please walk us through this. What happened here?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, first let me give you the headline, which is that the Department of Homeland Security is now confirming that this was an exercise, that no shots of any variety, live or blank, were fired during this exercise. But it certainly looked like the real thing and sounded like the real thing.

We could see on a camera a boat coming up the Potomac River and challenging a Coast Guard security zone. The Coast Guard tried repeatedly to head them off. They tried to circumvent the Coast Guard. They were not paying attention to orders to stop.

I listened to some of the radio traffic myself and I heard a Coast Guardsman say, "Ten rounds have been expended. We're assessing the situation." They said nothing about an exercise in their radio traffic.

I can tell you that it didn't cause a flurry just in newsrooms, it caused a flurry elsewhere. A federal source tells me that operation centers in the area had not been informed that any exercise was taking place. When they heard these reports, they started drawing up contingency plans for what they were going to do about this situation. But they did get clarification from the Coast Guard in fairly short order that this was a training exercise.

The same was not true for us. We were on the phone repeatedly with the Coast Guard since before we went on the air first to try and establish what was going on, and it took a considerable length of time before they could confirm to us that this was not in fact a real security incident.

To have this happen on 9/11, while commemoration ceremonies happening at the Pentagon, right next door, really quite amazing. You can be sure that there's going to be a lot of high level demand for answers as to what in the world was going on here.

HARRIS: OK. Jeanne, I'm going to ask you to do me a favor here. We were doing the switch-out between the two teams, and so I did not have your audio as you were explaining what actually happened here. For everyone else who heard you, I apologize, but just give me a snapshot of what happened here.

I'm going to need that information as we move forward with Fran.

MESERVE: You mean in terms of what was happening on the river?

HARRIS: Yes. What happened this morning with this training exercise?

MESERVE: Well, what happened is that we saw things happening on the water. We could see boats racing around. And we were listening to Coast Guard radio traffic, which was talking about an intruder who was not paying attention to orders to stop.

They threatened him with various things -- confiscation. They told him they would fire upon him. And then they said on the radio ten rounds had been expended. And we heard repeatedly the words "Bang, bang, bang, bang."

We didn't know exactly what that signified, if it was a signal that gunfire had gone off. Now it might appear in retrospect that that was someone simulating gunfire for the purposes of the exercise. But nothing about an exercise was ever said in the radio traffic, and as I said, we were watching the visual. We were watching the boat zoom around on the Potomac River. And that's the way it went down.

HARRIS: OK. Great, Jeanne. I apologize for that. We were just doing the switch-out, and it got a little confusing for us here in New York.

Our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve. I should add, as we bring in Fran Townsend, Fran, the Department of Homeland Security now saying that no shots in fact were fired. You know, Fran, there are mistakes. Some are big, some are small, and then some are colossal.

What are your thoughts on this one?

FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, this is inexcusable. I mean, it is -- at it's least, it's inexcusable in confidence. And frankly, people need to be held accountable.

I mean, you know, when you consider the impact on -- newsrooms is the least of it -- on the American people, on viewers, on victims' families, I mean, this is -- because there's no operational benefit to be gained from having done it on 9/11. If you were going to do it, there are practices and procedures that should have been followed that, based on our current understanding, at least, were not.

You would have notified news organizations. You would have notified the general public. You would have notified federal agencies.

I mean, you would have put in place so that no one misperceived what was going on the ground. And it's just a problem. And it's one of these -- the American people expect better from their government eight years later.

HARRIS: Right.

Fran, look, the number of hats you have worn over the years -- you were also for a period of time the assistant commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, correct?

TOWNSEND: That's right.

HARRIS: So, I think you were starting to detail how this should have happened. Where do you believe the breakdown was in all of this?

TOWNSEND: Well, it's interesting. If it was an internal Coast Guard exercise, it would have come up through the Coast Guard chain of command, and then it would have been told to the Department of Homeland Security. And either the department centrally would have notified people, federal agencies, state and local authorities, or they would have directed the Coast Guard to do it.

It's difficult to know yet without the facts who dropped the ball, but somewhere inside the department this ball got dropped. And we need to understand where and how so that doesn't happen again.

You know, it's uncanny what a similar situation this is to the buzz over lower Manhattan just months ago. And the notion they could have made the same mistake twice, this close together, is really unbelievable. Jeanne Meserve and I were talking about it. When someone first said to us it could have been a training exercise, we thought it was not possible. HARRIS: Yes. And we all understand the need and necessity for training exercises for the Coast Guard, and anyone and everyone else involved in homeland security keeping the country safe. But my goodness, how do you plan a training exercise on 9/11?

TOWNSEND: Yes. It's the right question. And I hope that the Department of Homeland Security and the United States Coast Guard are deciding who it is that's going to be put up there to answer that question publicly, because I don't think there's going to be any good answer, frankly.

HARRIS: And Fran, you know how Washington works and you know how this big Washington government bureaucracy works. Is this a situation where we haven't heard from officialdom yet because officialdom is trying to figure out what the heck happened here?

TOWNSEND: That's exactly right. You know, look, I expect the president's homeland security adviser, John Brennan, he should have been notified. I'm quite sure that the president of the United States by now has turned to John Brennan and said to him, what happened, who's responsible, and what are we going to do about it? And I imagine the homeland security adviser is very busy right now.

HARRIS: OK.

Fran Townsend for us.

Fran, good to see you, as always.

And our thanks to our Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve as well.

That false alarm in Washington coming as a somber ceremony takes place for 9/11 victims at Ground Zero right here in New York.

Let's take you there live to our Jason Carroll.

Jason, it's September 11th, and our nation's security being questioned once again.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Tony.

You know, you talk to people about what has been done to better secure the country post- 9/11, they'll tell you it has to do with better surveillance, better communication, things like that, better intelligence. But what we wanted to do and what we did, Tony, is we reached out to those who are experts in the field to talk to them about what exactly has been done post- 9/11 to better secure this country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): In the months and years following 9/11 came the warnings.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thousands of dangerous killers are now spread throughout the world like ticking time bombs -- set to go off.

CARROLL: President Obama weighing in this year.

OBAMA: Al Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the United States homeland.

CARROLL: Security experts say, while Osama bin Laden's whereabouts are unknown, al Qaeda is still plotting and planning.

TOM RIDGE, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Strategic thinkers, they are patient. They don't set their wrist watches like you and I do.

CARROLL: Tom Ridge, the first head of the Department of Homeland Security, says the department's creation in 2002 by President Bush was key to better securing the country.

RIDGE: Right after 9/11, everybody said nobody connected the dots. Well, today I'm here to tell you there are a lot more dots because there's a lot more intelligence coming in.

CARROLL: Ridge says the department has improved communication between agencies. He points to the case of Riyid Mansour Albana. In 2003 Albana was stopped entering the country at Chicago's O'Hare airport.

A customs agent, armed with guidelines from Homeland Security, deported Albana for a visa violation. A year-and-a-half later, he blew himself up outside Baghdad, killing 166 people. Ridge says their hard work had paid off.

CARROLL (on camera): Some also say it's been a bit of luck.

RIDGE: I think that's fair. Look, I think that's really fair. I'm convinced that the threat is real.

CARROLL (voice-over): Terrorism expert Ryan Jenkins says al Qaeda really has not taken hold in the United States to date partly due to improved intelligence, but also because American Muslims seem resistant to al Qaeda's radical ideology.

Jenkins warns a significant threat comes from smaller, homegrown groups.

BRIAN JENKINS, TERRORISM EXPERT: The difference between a band of amateurs being able to do nothing and a small group being able to carry out a dangerous terrorist attack is having one determined, technically competent leader.

CARROLL: A point New York City's Police Commissioner Ray Kelly knows well.

RAY KELLY, NYC POLICE COMMISSIONER: It's important to remember that we've had eight plots against this city since September 11th.

CARROLL: Those plots centered on places like the Brooklyn Bridge and subway system, so-called soft targets, considered more vulnerable because typically they have less security.

Last year, New York City spent $300 million on its joint terrorism task force, receiving only $10 million from the federal government.

KELLY: We need money to help us continue the significant efforts that we've made in this city to protect it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And as we come out now, I think you're seeing some live pictures now of the ceremony that is taking place down at Ground Zero.

You know, as I look at some of the family members who have come down here, Tony, I think of something that a family member told me some time ago, which was, "Never again." She said never again did she want to see an attack like this on American soil. And I think there you know from having seen this piece, you get a picture of what this country is doing to try to make sure that in fact it does not happen here again -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes.

Jason Carroll for us.

Well said, Jason. Thank you.

First-time homebuyers can get an $8,000 tax credit. One viewer has a question about it. And our personal finance editor, Gerri Willis, joins me next with the answer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's start our focus now on reforming health care. Key lawmakers are at work right now on a possible compromise.

Our Brianna Keilar is outside of the office the Senate Finance Committee chairman, Max Baucus, where the so-called Gang of 6 is meeting.

Brianna, good to see you. Where do things stand right now?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, we're keeping an eye on this office that is just over here to my left. And you'll have to pardon me if I do a little run out of the way, because these senators could come out at any moment. And we're going really want to pay attention to what they have to say.

We're not expecting major developments today, but this Gang of 6, this bipartisan group of three Democrats, three Republicans, inside, still trying to work towards a compromise. And here they come, Tony. So let's take a listen. HARRIS: Terrific.

SEN, KENT CONRAD (D), NORTH DAKOTA: So, we have just had another extended session. It went very well.

We got additional information and scoring on the Medicaid issues that we've been talking about yesterday. That is what will be the federal obligation, what will be the state obligation.

We're getting now additional state-by-state numbers that we hope to have later today. We then hope to have a discussion with the governors now on Monday.

As I indicated yesterday, we hoped to do that today, but we have got to wait to get the state-by-state breakdowns which are not yet available to us. We do hope to have that later today.

We also dealt extensively today with medical malpractice and are going to have a staff proposal based on the conversation we just had on Monday. We'll be meeting again Monday at about 11:00 a.m., and that will be a key session to try to reach closure on the Medicaid piece, medical malpractice, abortion, trying to make clear that federal funds will not be used to pay for abortion, which is current federal policy. And we want to make sure that that's extended.

So, that's where we are. And we'll meet again on Monday at about 11:00 a.m.

QUESTION: Senator, did you make any progress at all on the illegal immigrant question?

CONRAD: Yes. We've made very good progress on that. Most of that was done yesterday.

We think we've got a very strong policy to ensure that people who are here illegally do not benefit from any of these initiatives.

QUESTION: And how would you do that?

CONRAD: Through the use of Social Security numbers. But we would also recognize that there are some people who are here legally, asylees and others, that may not have Social Security numbers, that may be able to produce other documentation -- for example, visas -- to indicate that they are here legally.

So, that has not been locked down in terms of the final language, but we went round and round with the best experts on this yesterday, and I think there's high degree of confidence that we have an outline to prevent anybody here illegally from benefiting from these initiatives.

KEILAR: When you say "benefit," do you mean being able to get subsidies for insurance, or what about being able to purchase insurance?

CONRAD: Well, you can't prevent somebody from being able to purchase insurance, but this is any federal assistance.

KEILAR: But if there was a co-op, they might be able to participate in a nonprofit health co-op?

CONRAD: No, they would not be getting any government assistance. Health co-op functions, just like any other insurer in the exchange, they have to abide by the same rules and regulations as anybody else. What we're trying to prevent is anybody who is here illegally from getting any federal benefit. You cannot prevent somebody from buying an insurance policy, but it would not be one that is federally assisted.

QUESTION: Will illegal immigrants be -- qualify for subsidies from the government from day one?

CONRAD: That is something that is still left resolved. We have agreed that -- unresolved. We have agreed that anybody who is here legally will be subject to the requirements of the legislation. Anybody that's here legally will be subject to the requirements of the legislation.

QUESTION: You don't plan to do a five-year grace period?

CONRAD: We have not yet resolved that. That's another matter for Monday.

QUESTION: Senator, how much of the cost will the states be expected to bear on the Medicaid expansion?

CONRAD: That is still under discussion, and we will be having that conversation with the governors on Monday. But the federal government will bear the overwhelming share of the cost of those who are newly eligible.

QUESTION: Are you hearing a lot of reaction from the industry on the pay-fors, and are they negotiable in terms of prices at this point?

CONRAD: You know...

QUESTION: I know, everything is negotiable.

CONRAD: Well, and, you know, I would not want to negotiate in public on those matters. That would not be wise of me to do, but there are discussions ongoing.

QUESTION: Are you getting a lot of pushback from industry on device manufacturers? I know they were caught off guard by some of the fees they're being asked to take on.

CONRAD: Well, there was a negotiation with medical device industry well before the chairman put out his proposal.

QUESTION: Meaning they have the opportunity to do something?

CONRAD: Meaning there was a conversation well before the chairman put out his proposal.

QUESTION: Senator, Wednesday night, the president discussed Medicare costs, and he feels that there's a lot of waste, fraud and abuse obviously for years. But he feels that a significant amount of savings can come from dealing with that.

Do you feel that there is as much money in waste, fraud and abuse of Medicare that you can have significant portions of the health reform bill paid for while expanding coverage on a large scale?

CONRAD: Yes, there is -- look, we all know there's significant waste, fraud and abuse. But understand that the bigger elements of the pay-for is negotiations with groups, hospitals, nursing homes, home health care, the pharmaceutical drug industry, who are willing to make commitments on reductions in their future reimbursement in the hundreds of billions of dollars because they recognize when you expand the universe of the population who is covered, they will get substantial additional business.

So, I think this is...

HARRIS: All right. Let's do this. We've got some new developments that we need to get to right away with our Kyra Phillips in Atlanta. We will leave this moment here with Senator Kent Conrad and we will talk to Brianna Keilar and debrief what was said here in just a moment. But we've got some new information about the training incident along the Potomac River.

Kyra just spoke with a high-ranking official with direct knowledge of the exercise.

First of all, good to see you, Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see you too.

HARRIS: So, Kyra, a number of questions here. You've been on the phone with your sources, and one of the first questions that comes to mind here, sort of top of mind, were there any shots fired in this incident?

PHILLIPS: Bottom line, no. There was no live fire. There were no blanks. There were no shots fired of any kind.

What it appears happened here, Tony -- and this is according to my sources that were directly involved with this training exercise -- is that everything is done on radio. And you know this and I know this. And I should probably make this clear, too. It was not a major exercise.

You and I have covered major exercises. We've been live showing every detail of major exercise where everybody, all the way to the White House, knows what's going on.

The Coast Guard tells me this was a regular training evolution that they do all the time, every single day. Big difference between a training evolution and a major exercise. So, therefore, the information was not passed on all of the way to the top, all the way to the top marks of the chain of command. So they thought, OK, we're going through a regular training exercise. We're talking on the radio. We're going to go through this like it were a real-life scenario.

And from what it looks like right now, we in the media were listening to the scanners, we heard some key words, we heard some things that alarmed us. Here we are on the anniversary of 9/11. The president is over at the Pentagon. Everybody kind of has terrorist activity on their minds. Members of the media hear these key words, hear these phrases and, boom, hit the airwaves.

Now, according to one of my sources within the Coast Guard, we were on the air with this information possibly before even making contact with the Coast Guard to kind of check out what was going on here. And the next thing you knew, this had a domino effect and here we are right now.

HARRIS: No -- go ahead, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: No, I'm just trying to keep my thoughts...

HARRIS: Well, let me -- can I jump in with a question here?

PHILLIPS: Sure.

HARRIS: Because, yes, I saw a bit of a statement from the Coast Guard, and you're absolutely right. The suggestion here is that we, in the media, doing what we do, which is understood by everyone in Washington, it's not as though this is some kind of hidden secret that we listen to the scanners.

PHILLIPS: Right. We have to. We have to.

HARRIS: That's what we do. So, I'm wondering here, is there any admission of a mistake by the Coast Guard here that it might have been a bad idea to run a training mission regardless of the size of it on 9/11?

PHILLIPS: That's a very good point. And I asked those questions.

And the thinking, some will disagree within the organization, others feel that, OK, maybe we could have picked a different day. Maybe we could have picked a location that wasn't too far from where the president was, the entourage that the president has, the Secret Service, the motorcade. It all didn't work out so well with regard to day and timing.

But I think that, you know, from the perspective of the military -- and I'm just saying from my experience, Tony, and you probably know from your experience -- just like you and I every day get up, we do our job, we look at our rundown of what we have to do, and sometimes we just go forward with what our responsibilities are. And probably today -- and I think a lot of number of members of the Coast Guard are thinking, OK, we probably could have done this at a different time, and if we wanted to do it today, maybe at a different location. I think that's what's going through the minds of these folks now.

Bottom line, if you want to push this forward and look at the positive aspect here -- and this is what a number of my sources said -- you know, we're learning lessons from this. This is teaching us, OK, we liked what happened in the training. We see how the outcome turned out here and what we can do differently to allow for better communication. So, all in all, everyone is going to become better at their job, whether it's you and me or the U.S. Coast Guard.

HARRIS: Yes. A training mission with a huge, if unintended, teaching moment provided.

PHILLIPS: There you go. And you know what? Isn't that what training is about? This was a perfect teaching moment.

HARRIS: There you go. Kyra, that -- wonderful. Thank you for jumping on this and getting on the phone with your sources there.

Kyra Phillips in Atlanta.

See you next week, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right.

HARRIS: We are back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's talk for a moment about our "Hero of the Week." A Boy Scout from Maryland, 16-year-old Alex Griffith, took his Eagle Scout service project overseas to Siberia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is "CNN Heroes."

ALEX GRIFFITH, EAGLE SCOUT: I was abandoned at Hospital Number 20 at birth. I was adopted at 11 1/2 months old.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first time we saw Alex, he had ricketts and was malnourished. We fell in love with him immediately. There's my son. That's definitely my son.

GRIFFITH: Hospital Number 20 gave me a chance to survive, and I wanted to give something back.

I'm Alex Griffith, and I'm building a playground at the hospital where I was adopted from. I've been in Boy Scouts for five years. I wanted to build a playground for my Eagle project.

The old playground at Hospital Number 20 had a rusty old swing with a wooden seat and a sandbox which was actually a mudpit because of all the rain. We had to design the playground. These are the double-glide slides. Then (INAUDIBLE) playground, and then (INAUDIBLE) over to build it.

Volunteers from all over the world helped to build this playground. All of us adopted from Russia have not and probably will never forget our birth land.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I like this playground because when you slide on it, all the sadness goes away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Makes me very proud. He is becoming an example to (INAUDIBLE) everything is possible if you don't give up.

GRIFFITH: It made me happy just being here. That's all I can say.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Find out more about Alex and our other "CNN Heroes" on our Web site. Log on to CNN.com/heroes. And coming October 1st, we will announce the top ten "CNN Heroes" of 2009.

We will share more September 11 memorials coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Our nation pausing to remember the 9/11 terrorist attacks eight years ago today, honoring the victims, saluting the heroes. Somber ceremonies under way right now at ground zero here in New York. You are looking here at live pictures. The names of each of the 2,752 people killed on this site being read aloud.

And moments of silence marking the times the two hijacked airplanes hit and the twin towers collapsed. President Obama took part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Pentagon marking the September 11 anniversary. One hundred eighty-four people were killed when a hijacked plane slammed into the west wall of the building. In his remarks, the president said we are united not only in grief, but in our determination to stand with one another.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this barbaric act and who plot against us still. In defense of our nation, we will never waiver. In pursuit of al Qaeda and its extremist allies, we will never falter.

Let us renew our commitment to all those who serve in our defense, our courageous men and women in uniform and their families and all those who protect us here at home. Mindful that the work of protecting America is never finished, we will do everything in our power to keep America safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: A solemn ceremony in Pennsylvania honoring the 40 passengers and crew members of United Flight 93. They fought the hijackers who had taken control of the plane, preventing it from reaching the White House or the Capitol. We'll have a live report from CNN's Kate Bolduan on the ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania later this hour.

Wall Street opened for business today with a moment of silence and with stocks at their highs for the year, only fitting on this 9/11. Susan Lisovicz with me right now for a look back at 9/11 then and now. Good to see you.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Tony. Well, you know, I think that obviously 9/11 was a profound tragedy for us all, but it was also a profound shock to the financial system. The stock market was closed for nearly one full week. When it reopened, terrible losses.

But I think one of the lessons of 9/11 -- we certainly saw it borne out on Wall Street -- is the tremendous grit and resilience of Americans. Traders, to a person, told me they felt it was their duty to come back to work to show America was back open, open for business. Some of them wore masks. They knew there was terrible fear, grief.

But they prevailed. The market came back. And here we are today, eight years later at the highs for the year.

HARRIS: And many will tell you we have not only survived. We have thrived and that this day evolved into something of a celebration.

LISOVICZ: Yes. Yes, it has. Because if you remember what happened in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, everybody came together. You saw the worst of humanity. You also saw the best of humanity.

I'm happy to tell you that some of those elements still survive. We have pictures that we just brought back from a trading floor in lower Manhattan that is related to Cantor Fitzgerald, BGC Partners, so, you haven't heard it.

Every day on 9/11 for five years, they donate 100 percent of their proceeds to charity. An engineer who I spoke to who literally rebuilt their computer network said that it used to be a very solemn day. But the fact that it has survived, it's thrived, it's bigger than it was before, is a cause for celebration because it's giving back as well -- $23 million just on the 9/11s of the past five years to worthy causes.

HARRIS: That is unbelievable. That idea of not just surviving but thriving, that is so important. What a message that is. And I love seeing those pictures.

Susan, good to see you.

LISOVICZ: Likewise, Tony.

HARRIS: It's good to be in your house. It's good to be here with you. Let's quickly update our top stories for you. A training exercise prompts a security scare on the Potomac River near the Pentagon. It happened minutes after President Obama crossed the river, headed to the 9/11 ceremonies at the Pentagon.

Word broke a Coast Guard vessel was trying to prevent a suspect boat from entering a security zone. Again, officials now say it was a training exercise.

And let's do this. Is Kyra ready right now?

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm ready, Tony.

HARRIS: Kyra, good to talk to you again. I know -- thank you, thank you.

PHILLIPS: Everything's kind of free flowing, isn't it?

HARRIS: No, no, it's good. It's better. We love it this way, actually. And I know that you're continuing to talk to your sources, and you have some additional information on the story.

PHILLIPS: Yes, just a couple of things to add to the information that we talked about just a few minutes ago. First of all, I wanted to make the point, Tony, that some folks were calling this a major exercise. My source is telling me in no way, shape or form that this was a major exercise. It was just a training evolution, something that they do on a regular basis.

What are they learning from this? Well, 9/11 probably wasn't the best day to do it. The location probably wasn't the best location, seeing that it was so close to the Pentagon, to the president of the United States, to the 9/11 ceremonies that were taking place. Lesson learned there, according to my sources.

But just to clarify a few things, no shots were fired, Tony. There was talk about that. There was no live fire. There were no blanks. No shots were fired. The scanner radio, there were some reports that possibly someone came over the radio saying shots fired, shots fired. My sources telling me that was not the situation, that possibly someone listening to the scanners could have been confused with somebody saying bang, bang, bang as this training exercise was going forward. So, there was confusion about what was being said.

And you know, Tony, when we listen to scanners...

HARRIS: Absolutely.

PHILLIPS: ... there are key words you listen for. There's an energy. There's a tone. There's a conversation. And if you're having a training evolution going on, there will be certain words that you use. My sources telling me the words "shots fired" were never said, so the confusion might have come with someone saying something close to bang, bang, bang over...

HARRIS: Got you. PHILLIPS: ... the radio.

Also, too, my sources saying to me that they were not sure if media -- members of the media, including us here at CNN, had called them as soon as we heard what was going on, that possibly we had gone to air with what we were hearing on the radios before confirming anything with the Coast Guard. I am told from our folks here that is not the case, that we did call the Coast Guard, and the Coast Guard said, we don't know what you're talking about. And therefore, we went forward with what we were hearing within other sources that our correspondents have.

So, there's a -- we're going to try and hammer out what exactly happened...

HARRIS: Yes, yes.

PHILLIPS: ... if indeed the Coast Guard denied this, if they should have just come straightforward and said, hey, here's what's going on, full disclosure. We're still trying to hammer this out. But obviously, two different sides to this story. So, we did what we were supposed to do according to our folks in Washington.

HARRIS: Kyra, can I sneak in a quick one here?

PHILLIPS: Sure.

HARRIS: At some point, and maybe again, maybe officialdom is still putting all of this together. I know on our end, there in Atlanta and here in New York, we're putting together the facts as we know them as well in our reporting and handling of this story. But I'm curious: Anything on the schedule in the way of a news conference right now from the Coast Guard or someone from the Department of Homeland Security?

PHILLIPS: Yes. There was a discussion going on about a press conference that is going to happen possibly, before the noon hour, maybe right on the noon hour. But they are figuring out exactly what they are going to say, who is going to be there. But the word is right now a news conference coming from Coast Guard headquarters possibly, Tony...

HARRIS: Got you.

PHILLIPS: ... within the next 30 minutes or so. And Tony, I should add...

HARRIS: Sure, sure.

PHILLIPS: ... also there were a lot of questions about who knew about this training evolution. Did folks at the White House know? Did the Secret Service know? Did the Department of Homeland Security know?

I mean, so many people have been throwing out those various questions. And what I am being told is that this training evolution, what was going on today did not go all of the way up the chain of command because in the eyes of the Coast Guard, this was just another day of training.

HARRIS: Got you. Got you. All right. Kyra, keep us honest on the timing of this news conference. And I know you've got to prepare for your show this afternoon, but would appreciate your help walking through all of this with us if it happens in the next hour.

Appreciate it, Kyra. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: You bet. Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: And we're back with more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment.

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HARRIS: Are you watching your weight along with your budget? A lot of folks are these days. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta gets some good advice on eating healthy on the cheap from an unlikely source.

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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the economy in a slump, families are struggling to make ends meet. But you don't have to sacrifice good nutrition. Where better to look for tips on healthy living on the cheap than...a five-star French chef?

ERIC RIPERT, CHEF, LE BERNARDIN RESTAURANT: If you put a little bit of your interest into the food, it's easy to find ways to eat for a budget which is not too expensive -- good food.

GUPTA: World-renowned chef Eric Ripert says it's about doing what works for you.

RIPERT: If you can for instance buy a chicken which is very inexpensive, instead of buying the chicken already cut or cooked, you buy it whole. And, therefore, you save a lot of money.

If you want something healthy and something inexpensive, you have to think seasonal. If you want to eat tomatoes in January, very expensive. Now, if in January you eat root vegetables, if you make a soup with a squash, it's going to be very inexpensive.

GUPTA: So, how does this French chef extraordinaire stay healthy himself, surrounded by top-notch cuisine all day long?

RIPERT: Just before I leave the house, I have a little bit of dark chocolate, very good quality. I leave my house around 10:00 and I walk through the streets of New York. It takes about 40, 45 minutes. I think it keeps me in a certain good health and in shape.

GUPTA: The bottom line, says Ripert?

RIPERT: I'm a strong believer that you can do a lot of things in terms of eating, which is -- you can eat butter. You can eat chocolate. You can have a little dessert here and there.

But, again, it has to be in a quantity that is controlled. And you have to compensate with some exercise.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

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HARRIS: Health care reform and the possibility of a doctor shortage. We're back in a moment.

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HARRIS: By the year 2025, the American Association of Medical Colleges estimates there will be a shortage of 125,000 physicians in the United States, about a third of them primary care doctors.

Here's CNN's Ines Ferre.

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INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dr. Randy Wexler has been a family physician in the Columbus, Ohio, area for the past 19 years. He sees up to 32 patients a day.

DR. RANDY WEXLER, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Every day I have a patient that is upset on how long it took to get in, or I have a message from a patient who can't wait until a next available appointment.

FERRE: Over the years, the wait time for an office visit with him has grown exponentially.

WEXLER: So few physicians, because they're so full, are taking new patients that for a patient to see me, because I'm taking new patients, is anywhere from two to two and a half months.

FERRE: Among factors contributing to the shortage of primary care doctors, population growth, aging patients, relatively low reimbursements and more female doctors who tend to work fewer hours. The Association of American Medical Colleges forecast a shortage of 124,000 physicians by the year 2025, 46,000 of them primary care doctors.

Currently, there's a shortage of 16,000 primary physicians, especially in rural areas. A fifth of the states already have just one primary care physician per 1,300 people.

The average general physician earns $161,000 a year. On average, medical students graduate with at least $140,000 in debt. The health care bill in the House includes some provisions to address the shortage, but the doctors' group we spoke with said more needs to be done.

DR. RICHARD "BUZ" COOPER, PHYSICIANS FOUNDATION: If there are not enough physicians, health care won't function properly, and health care reform won't function properly.

FERRE: Dr. Wexler says primary doctors will help save money through prevention and early treatments.

WEXLER: Making sure patients have their flu shots, their pneumonia shots, their colonoscopy. Make sure that their cholesterol is controlled to appropriate levels, that the blood pressure they didn't know they had was treated. And without primary care to coordinate that, to manage that, to look for that, those things get missed going by the wayside.

FERRE: Costing more in the long run.

Ines Ferre, CNN, New York.

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HARRIS: And here's what we're working on for the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM on this eighth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks. We sit down with a World Trade Center survivor who's written a book about her ordeal.

And join us for that and a whole lot more in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.

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