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The War in Afghanistan; Eight Years in Afghanistan; Gold Soars to Record High; Vaccine to Quit Smoking
Aired October 07, 2009 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Tens of thousands of Web passwords and user name exposed. How the thieves could have stolen them. And what you can do to protect yourself.
Hard habit to break. Nicotine addiction. Now a new vaccine is being tested that could help smokers quit.
And the Obama administration has a plan to put more people back to work. Just don't call it a stimulus.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. It's Wednesday, October 7th and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
First this morning, the war in Afghanistan and the search for a new direction. Dan Lothian is at the White House this morning where the president meets with his national security team.
The deadly stakes underscored by America's bloodiest day in more than a year. Today, new details on Saturday's insurgent attack.
And Atia Abawi is in Kabul, Afghanistan. On this anniversary, she looks at the war eight years in.
The war in Afghanistan, the past, the present and the future. Today at the White House President Obama holds high-level meetings on a long-term strategy. The biggest question, should the U.S. send more troops into Afghanistan? His top commander there says more troops are critical to victory but opponents want the U.S. to withdraw its forces.
Today does mark the eighth anniversary of the start of the Afghanistan war. And this year has been the deadliest yet for coalition forces.
Let's get the very latest now on this developing story, and CNN's Dan Lothian.
So, Dan, good morning to you. This will be the third time, I think, the president has met with his national security team to talk about Afghanistan, Pakistan strategy. What does he hope to accomplish today?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president really wants to continue that internal debate to hear arguments for the best strategy going forward in Afghanistan, and certainly the strategy for Pakistan as well. The last meeting that the president held inside the situation room was last week, it lasted three hours. And some of the same high- level officials are expected at today's meeting. Secretary Clinton, Secretary Gates, rather, General Petraeus and also General McChrystal will be taking part in the meeting, although it will be videoconferencing.
Now this follows yesterday's meeting where the president had lawmakers, congressional lawmakers, here at the White House also pushing to hear what they think is the best strategy forward in Afghanistan.
And I'm told by Robert Gibbs that they believe that this was a very good meeting, that it's very critical for Congress to be brought into this discussion because they obviously will be involved in funding whatever decision will be made. So it's very important to have them on board, Heidi.
COLLINS: Are you getting any indication, Dan, that the president might have made up his mind?
LOTHIAN: You know no indication at all. Every time we ask when the president will be making up his mind and making a call on whether to send additional troops in we're told in a number of weeks, perhaps by the end of this month. No indication, though, whether he's made up his mind and is simply trying to hear other arguments to persuade him, you know, in another direction.
Right now we do know, though, that the president is listening to all of the arguments for and against sending in additional troops. And again, it will be a number of weeks before we find out what that will be.
COLLINS: All right. We'll be following it. Dan Lothian, in front of the White House this morning. Thank you, Dan.
Those lawmakers seemingly left yesterday's meeting at the White House with the same beliefs they brought.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE SPEAKER: Let me just say where there was agreement that it's a difficult decision for the president to make, that we all respected that he was looking into every aspect of this, and that we again honored what he had to say. Whether we agreed with it or voted for it remains to be seen. When we see what the president puts forth.
REP. ERIC CANTOR (R), MINORITY WHIP: Everyone's concerned about the status quo as the situation grows more dangerous for our troops on the ground. We were here to express our support for the president and his committing to the mission up front, and expressed our support to work with him if he makes the right decision, which is to listen to his commanders in the field who are asking desperately for more troops.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Cantor and other Republicans say they want the president to move swiftly on a war plan. They say any delay sends a dangerous signal of uncertainty to the region.
And today on this eighth anniversary of the war we wanted to gauge where the United States stands. For that, we go to Kabul and CNN's correspondent there, Atia Abawi.
Good morning to you, Atia.
ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. Well, it is eight years that the first U.S. troops hit the ground in Afghanistan. And things have improved in certain ways. For instance, we're seeing women at least in the capital walking by themselves, going to work, going to school, something that they were not able to do under the Taliban regime.
But when you talk to the Afghans they'll tell you that although those improvements came into their lives, around 2004 and 2005 when it reversed, when things started to deteriorate again. And now when you talk to the commanders on the ground, when you talk to the Afghan government, they'll tell you that there are insufficient troop levels within Afghanistan.
That there are not enough Afghan troops and there are not enough coalition troops right now to complete the mission. And at this point in time the Taliban, they are gaining confidence and they are graining ground. When you have a weak government like Afghanistan does at the moment, a government that needs help, you're going to see other insurgent groups gaining power because they use that to their advantage.
And there are certain parts of Afghanistan where the Afghan people, not necessarily because they want to, because they think the Taliban will bring them some kind of gain, but they do -- they move to the Taliban because they feel they have to. They think that the Taliban will protect them more than their local authorities on the ground which they see as criminals at sometimes.
COLLINS: Well, I'm curious, Atia. What did they say will make a difference in all of this? What do the Afghan people feel should be the next step?
ABAWI: Well, the Afghan people want what they've been asking for eight years now, they want more resources, when it comes to building their country. They want jobs, they want a way to be able to feed their families. They want to put food on their table.
This is a country you see parents watching their children die, starving to death. It's not necessarily always with the guns and the bombs. What they want is help from the international community to bring that. And they feel that the only way for that to happen is with the international community -- until they're able to stand on their two -- its own two feet again because it's been 30 years of war. They can't do it on their own right now -- Heidi. COLLINS: Atia Abawi, live for us this morning in Kabul, Afghanistan. Atia, thanks so much.
New details this morning about Saturday's insurgent attack on a U.S. outpost. At one point the battle became so ferocious that attackers breached the perimeter of the base and U.S. forces were actually forced to fall back. Now that's according to a U.S. military official with knowledge of the latest intelligence reports on the battle in Nuristan Province.
Eight Americans were killed in the deadliest battle in more than a year. The U.S. believes about 200 local insurgents planned the assault for days. They apparently hid mortars, rockets and heavy machine guns in the high mountains that overlook the base.
Here are some of the numbers from the Afghanistan war now. So far 865 Americans have died there. Another 570 allied troops have been killed. There are 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, nearly half that number, 30,000 or so, are under NATO's command.
On Capitol Hill it is all about the numbers. A different topic, though. How much will health care reform cost? Members of the Senate Finance Committee are waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to fill in the blanks before they vote. The plan they're considering calls for co-ops instead of a public option and some estimate the proposal would cost around $900 million over 10 years.
We'll talk more about that. Meanwhile, you may not have any gold lying around your house but still you could be affected by its record prices.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And I'm CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. It's wet, it's windy, it's cool. Not the best of travel days. We've got a lot of delays. We'll let you know where coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Gold hits a record high and there's talk the dollar could be replaced as the currency for trading oil. What?
CNN's Christine Romans is here to tell us what's going on and how you can be affected.
First of all, I don't have any gold on, I'm all silver today. So that was a mistake, yes?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that was -- depends when you bought the gold a few years ago. Now it's worth a lot more.
COLLINS: Exactly.
ROMANS: Let's start with gold first.
COLLINS: OK. ROMANS: All that glitters here. Another record this morning. Gold has been doing very, very well. Investors putting money in gold for a variety of reasons, Heidi. It's a safe haven, they have been putting gold -- they've been buying commodities in general and selling the dollar and the gold is moving up.
Now it's a nominal record high. But if you go back to the 1980s and you adjust for inflation, it's not quite as high as it was -- adjusted (INAUDIBLE) for inflation as the 1980s. But as gold has been going up, stocks have been going up, other commodities have been going up, and the dollar has been going down.
What's happening in the dollar? Well, the dollar is down about 10 percent from the March peak, and it's down, I think, about maybe 6 or 7 percent overall for the year. And what's happening with the dollar is you mentioned this talk of these secret meetings from Middle Eastern governments, the Chinese, the Russians, there is a report in the "UK Independent" a couple of days ago there has been just buzzing around the markets for a couple of days, that there are these secret meetings about how to talk about replacing the dollar as the currency you use when you trade oil.
Obviously, a lot of the parties quoted or talked about in the story all said it wasn't true.
COLLINS: Yes.
ROMANS: But it's still sparked all of this talk about the dollar losing its status on the international stage. There are also some concerns about inflation down the road. That's one of the reasons why people seem to be buying commodities, they seem to be buying gold, so inflation, the idea that the dollar is going to be hurt, there could be inflation down the road.
But, Heidi, it's a little bit confusing and interesting the things that are happening in all these different markets right now because the bond market is telling us inflation is not a problem. Private forecasters are telling us inflation is not a problem. Other parts of the market are saying inflation is not a problem so the dollar and gold and commodities and currencies, there's just some really interesting moves happening right now and it's got a lot of people sort of scratching their heads.
But it's resulting in $70 oil and $1,000 gold and the stock market...
COLLINS: Yes.
ROMANS: ... that has been doing well. When you've see gold go up you've seen stocks go up. So some people are saying it could be another good day for the stock market.
COLLINS: You think the prices of gold are going to continue to go up?
ROMANS: Well, that's -- well, some of the people who run these gold funds are saying $1500 an ounce, even much higher. Every now and then you hear a gold bug as they are called, call for $2,000 or $3,000.
COLLINS: Yes.
ROMANS: And there are other people who are saying wait a minute. This looks like a little bit of a bubble starting to form here and that there's a lot of money available. You know, the Fed has just put so much money out there to try to keep the economy going that there's just money out there and people think that it might be finding its way into some of these markets, the stock market and the commodities markets, and the like.
So it's interesting. And other people tell me the reason why the dollar is weak is not so much fears of inflation but just because the panic has passed so you don't have the safe haven buying in the dollar anymore. But how all of these markets relate to each other is very intertwined.
COLLINS: Yes. Absolutely.
ROMANS: And we're watching these sort of interesting disconnects that are developing and wondering what it's going to mean down the road. We just don't know.
COLLINS: Yes. We'll talk about overall debt next time around.
ROMANS: OK.
COLLINS: What that means for the value of the dollar, right?
ROMANS: Great. Right.
COLLINS: Christine Romans, thanks so much.
ROMANS: Sure.
COLLINS: Police and protesters facing off today outside the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, speaking of money. It marks the second day of violence at the session in Istanbul. Mass demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails at banks and stones at riot police. Police were there to put down the protests.
The IMF meeting wrapped up with officials calling for what they call a new world order of economic relations in response to the global financial crisis.
There's a lot of damage for a few dollars. Take a look at this. Two smash-and-grab burglars used a cement parking stone to break into a store. The bad guys got out with the cash register but probably got a surprise later when they found only 20 bucks inside. Surveillance video is giving police some leads.
I don't know if we should have that segment, Jacqui, you know the dumbest criminals or whatever?
(LAUGHTER)
JERAS: There are so many to choose from.
COLLINS: I know. Hey, you need to get straight to the weather because apparently there are some pretty major delays at the airports. Yes?
JERAS: My gosh. You know it's terrible and here's why. Can you name that city?
COLLINS: Uh, Chicago?
JERAS: No. Nice try. Boston. Actually.
COLLINS: I thought I saw a G out there in the corner.
JERAS: About three minutes ago you could see a couple of buildings in the foreground but we've got low clouds, we've gusty winds coming into the picture and all of these things together spells one big travel headache.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: Right. All right, well, we're watching all of that. We'll check back with you a little bit later on. And we'll talk about the twins, too. All right, Jacqui will be with us later.
Meanwhile, smokers will tell you it's hard to kick the habit. Can a slot in the arm actually do the trick? A vaccine testing in the works.
ANNOUNCER: Weather update brought to you by...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Checking the top stories now.
A Tennessee mom has been reunited with her newborn baby after he was kidnapped and later placed in state custody. Still police say they have a lot of questions about the case. The baby was found in Alabama last week after being abducted during a knife attack on the mother.
The Associated Press reported the state took custody of the baby and three siblings after someone claimed a family member had tried to sell the baby. Police now say they don't think the parent had anything to do with the kidnapping.
Nevada senator John Ensign denies he broke Senate ethics rules by helping secure a lobbying job for a former aide. Ensign told CNN's Dana Bash he recommended Doug Hampton for a job just as he's made other recommendations. Ensign had an affair with Hampton's wife, a former campaign aide.
"The New York Times" reports Hampton has lobbied the senator on behalf of his client. As a former senior congressional aide Hampton is barred by ethics rules from lobbying his former boss for one year after leaving a job in the Senate. A preliminary Senate investigation is under way.
Elizabeth Taylor having a heart procedure. The 77-year-old actress made the announcement on her Twitter page. Taylor says the procedure involves repairing a leaky valve using a clip device without open heart surgery.
It's one of the hardest addictions to break. Not heroin, not cocaine, but nicotine. Now a new vaccine is being tested that may help millions of people quit smoking.
Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is here now with more on this. Wow, this could be amazing. But do me a favor, Sanjay, first explain how it works. You actually get a shot in your arm and then no longer want cigarettes?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is a vaccine so you do get the shot and it has very different effects in some ways on what nicotine does on your body. But you're absolutely right. A lot of excitement about this, Heidi, because of how strong this addiction is.
Let me show you, Heidi. Sometimes pictures are worth 1,000 words. In this case an animation. This is what typically happens when you smoke. You get all this nicotine sort of flooding into your lungs, then ultimately into your bloodstream.
Heidi, the N over here. Those are the nicotine receptors that cross into the brain area over here, and this is the blood, this is the brain. This is the blood/brain barrier. The thing about nicotine that makes it so addictive it can cross that barrier and ultimately release something known as dopamine, which gives you the sort of surge of pleasure. It's part of the reason this is so addictive.
Let me just show you really quick, Heidi, if I can, what the vaccine might possibly do. You get that shot that you just mentioned. Now these are antibodies that are in your bloodstream and they bind to the nicotine. The reason that's important, it's trying to get through that blood/brain barrier, they can't do it because that antibody is preventing that from happening. So you never get that same surge of pleasure with this vaccine.
A couple of caveats, first of all, it's still in clinical trials. It's still early.
COLLINS: Yes.
GUPTA: So it's hard to know how this is going to play out, cost wise, overall side effect wise, but again for the reasons you mentioned, Heidi, a lot of interest in this. Such a tough addiction to break.
COLLINS: Sure. I imagine so. I wonder a couple of things. How long it would last for if you were to get this vaccine and they do find out that it is highly effective? GUPTA: Right. Well, you know, it's interesting, it's probably not going to be a life-long vaccine. So far what they've tested, and we researched this a bit, is that in the early clinical trials they looked at six months as an end point to see how much of those antibodies were in the bloodstream and how much of a difference it made in terms of someone's desire to smoke.
But six months, so you know, it's possible that someone would need shots over a period of time. So every six months or every year depending how long it works.
COLLINS: Yes, understood. Real quickly before we let you go. Does -- you know, does it dull the senses or when you talk about the dopamine for other things besides nicotine or is it just only nicotine that you would -- you wouldn't be excited about?
GUPTA: Great question. And with this particular vaccine, the antibodies really just bind the nicotine. Now again, you know, there may be more side effects that sort of declare themselves as they test this in more patients.
COLLINS: Yes.
GUPTA: But it doesn't seem to cause either a dulling of the senses or a desire for what's called compensatory smoking a year or two years later.
COLLINS: Wow. All right, well, cool. Let us know what happens with that.
GUPTA: Yes.
COLLINS: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.
GUPTA: Thanks, Heidi.
COLLINS: Thousands of e-mail users forced to change passwords. Josh Levs is joining us now to explain why. This is pretty incredible, Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's incredible and they keep managing to get away with this kind of thing and then you find these e-mail suppliers having to do something about it. What happened here is that hackers got access to passwords from several of the leading e- mail systems. How to know if you're affected, how to protect yourself, I'll show you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins.
COLLINS: Hey, it's been a winning week on Wall Street so far. The Dow has jumped nearly 250 points in the last two days. Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange with a look at what to expect today. Hump day. You got your hat or what?
(LAUGHTER)
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's nearby.
COLLINS: I'm sorry.
LISOVICZ: But I've learned my lesson.
COLLINS: It's a 10,000 hat.
(CROSSTALK)
LISOVICZ: That's right. Some restraint, I think, I'm going to use.
COLLINS: Smart.
LISOVICZ: With the Dow 10,000 hat but it is nearby. But, you know, and one of the reasons why we're expecting some caution at the open after a rally like that, no surprise, Heidi, stocks are set for flat open.
Yesterday there was hope that the global recovery is on track. Today investors are looking ahead to corporate America and earnings season. We'll hear from Alcoa after the closing bell.
Overall investors are looking for signs that consumers are back and are spending.
COLLINS: Yes.
LISOVICZ: Amazon.com is hoping to reel in from shoppers. The online retailers cutting the price of its Kindle e-Book by 40 bucks. Now listing at $2.59. Amazon is also launching a new higher-priced Kindle that can be used in more than 100 countries.
But you'll be spending more for gold. The price of the precious metal is pushing further into record territory due to concerns about a weak dollar and inflation. Gold, which is considered a safe haven investment, is trading for about $1,042 an ounce.
We're not seeing those kind of high prices on Wall Street. In fact, we're seeing a little bit of a decline at the open, the Dow, the NASDAQ is down just fractionally. Unfortunately, no triple-digit gains of the Dow notched its first back-to-back triple gains, by the way, Heidi, since April. Since April this week, yes. So it was a nice move by the gold.
COLLINS: Yes, yes, definitely. All right. We will check back with you a little bit later on and see what happens throughout these early hours of the trading day. Thank you, Susan.
LISOVICZ: You're welcome, Heidi.
COLLINS: To many, it's unthinkable. Health insurance companies denying coverage to battered women, claiming it's a pre-existing condition. Democrats in Congress say it's wrong and it won't happen under health care reform legislation.
CNN's Mary Snow now with the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow Democrats vow to wipe out gender discrimination when it comes to health care. Among their provisions, one calling for changes in dealing with women who have been abused.
NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE SPEAKER: Think of this, you survived domestic violence and now you are discriminated in the insurance market because you have a pre-existing medical condition. Well, that will all be gone.
SNOW: A federal measure would fill in what some states currently don't have. Eight states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Women's Law Center, don't have laws specifically banning domestic violence from being considered a pre-existing condition.
We contacted insurance representatives from the states named who say they have other laws that would prevent abuse victims from being denied health insurance and they say it's not an issue that's come up.
Still, several of those states now say they are working to add new laws to eliminate any gray areas.
And that's something the insurance industry advocates, saying, quote, "No one should be denied coverage because they are a victim of domestic abuse. Health plans strongly support the National Association of Insurance Commissioner's model legislation that prohibits discrimination against victims of abuse and we are urging all states to promptly adopt it."
TERRY FROMSON, WOMEN'S LAW PROJECT: We think that we need to set a very specific law that says you cannot take this into account with regard to any insurance action.
SNOW: Terry Fromson of the Women's Law Project says she started working on the issue in the 1990s, and it was then she learned that women were denied coverage by insurance companies, who at the time claimed the women were living dangerous lifestyles.
FROMSON: They were comparing domestic violence to skydiving or riding a motorcycle. A very dangerous comparison to make with domestic violence.
SNOW: The outrage, she says, has led to reforms with the majority of states adopting specific laws. But she thinks a federal law is needed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW: What's unclear is how pervasive the problem is. Legal advocates say it's not something that's well documented and they point out that abuse victims may be reluctant to come forward. Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
COLLINS: Today is the eighth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. And in Washington, the debate still rages over a long- term strategy.
Today, President Obama meets with his national security team again to consider whether more U.S. troops should be sent to war. Yesterday, the president hosted top lawmakers from both parties. The White House says a decision may be weeks away.
One part of the long-term strategy is shared by both the U.S. and NATO commanders -- a properly trained Afghan army is essential for future security there. But it hasn't been easy to get the Afghan soldiers up to speed. So, German troops are helping to train those forces under the most realistic of exercises.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is embedded with German troops in northeastern Afghanistan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Suddenly, a simulated ambush. Several wounded. Old problems come to light.
LARS, GERMAN ARMY: Sometimes, they don't know how to react on the -- on the enemy fire and using all of the stuff they have, some smoke or movement and firing, they should use these elements.
PLEITGEN: The U.S. and its allies agree Afghanistan can only be secured if these men perform. Increasing the capabilities of the Afghan security forces is a centerpiece of NATO's strategy to beat the Taliban.
But the German mentor says there are obvious challenges.
LARS, GERMAN ARMY: The enemy soldiers are very long in missions. You know, same as the Western soldiers, they are long in missions. They are over -- they are burned out. So, they won't come back. That's one of the biggest problems.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Some Afghan commanders say their success is not limited only by troop numbers. They say they need more weapons and more vehicles as well.
So we do want to hear from you. Does the battle in Afghanistan look a whole lot like it did just eight years ago when it all began in Afghanistan? Doesn't it look different in your mind by way of counterterrorism efforts or anything that you see that may stand out?
We do want to hear from you. The topic on our blog today. Go ahead and give us your feedback. We'll go and read a little about the story on what's changed, what hasn't. CNN.com/heidi. We'll read some of your responses a little bit later in the show. Headlines from the Hill. Sex, ethics and the Senate. That is Senator John Ensign. Denies he broke Senate ethic rules by helping secure a lobbying job for Doug Hampton. He is the husband of a woman Ensign had an affair with. Ensign had a talk with our Dana Bash yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN ENSIGN (R), NEVADA: I said in the past I recommended him for job just like I recommended a lot of people. But we absolutely did nothing except for complying exactly with what the ethics laws and the ethics rules of the Senate state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Hampton is also a former senior aide to Ensign. "The New York Times" reporting Hampton has lobbied the senator on behalf of his clients. Ethic rules bar Hampton from lobbying his ex-boss for one year after leaving his Senate job. A preliminary Senate investigation is now underway.
Bigger than your average flying fish. Yes. A great white shark makes a great big jump. We'll explain what may be behind these breaches off the California coast. We're also going off the East Coast where scientists are tracking other sharks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Checking our top stories now. Does it criss-cross the line between church and state?
Well, the case before the Supreme Court today talks about. For now, the cross in question is boarded up. It was designed by a veterans group 75 years ago as a war memorial. At issue? It's in the middle of the Mojave National Preserve, which is government land.
Worried about traveling in parts of Mexico? Officials in Baja, California say don't be. They are creating a bilingual police force designed specifically to cater to tourists. San Diego police will help train the officers. They will be patrolling a 50-mile corridor from Tijuana to Ensenada.
Imagine something so big you could fit one billion Earth inside it. NASA scientists say that's how huge the newly discovered ring around Saturn is. It did not notice it before because it partially invisible, made up of largely ice and dust particles. The NASA space telescope only now picked up on the heat from some of the dust.
Cool.
A California kayaker taking pictures of pelicans, ended up capturing a much bigger target. Look at that. He got four photos of a flying great white shark. The shark breached the waters about 250 yards from shore. A local scientist says the young shark was probably trying to teach itself how to hunt.
It's pretty ambitious.
And another shark story. Marine scientists in Virginia are studying the predators and a tag and release program.
Our Rob Marciano went out with one crew as they wrap up for the season.
Rob is joining us now live from Virginia Beach.
I can barely see you there, Rob.
What are you hiding between?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, this is some of the gear on the back of this 60-foot research vessel. For over 30 years, this group of scientist have been doing a continuous shark survey to try to figure out where sharks are, how many of them are and why they do what they do.
And this thing is set up kind of like, well, if you saw the "Perfect Storm," a long line swordfish boat on a much smaller scale. They'll actually, they'll bait the hook right here. They'll reel it out from this long line, and they'll put each hook out, about 100 of them, maybe even 200 of them, stretched out over a mile and they'll dangle those hooks and set them out for three or four hours. That's what we did yesterday. And we were able to reel in a number of these sharks, both big and small. Not too big. No great whites, but a couple of big rays as well. It was a fascinating trip, and to see these scientists get excited about what their passion is.
But you know for a lot of us sharks just mean, you know, makes us scared. And when we saw the news a couple of months ago over the summer where those great white sharks were spotted off the Cape Cod coast, and that really got our interest spawn, that's why we came on this boat. I asked one of the scientists yesterday, Christine Parson, if she was scared when she saw that video like we were.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: You don't have any fear at seeing those pictures?
KRISTENE PARSONS, VIRGINIA INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE: I don't. And it's inspiring to me, you know. It's signs of hope because every -- all of the population seem to be depleted, and they seem to be falling apart, and to see something like that even though it's close to shore, those sharks have always been there. We just haven't been looking for them. We haven't seen them.
Now that we see them and we know they are there, that's a good sign. And that gives us the opportunity to get into the field, find out why they are there, and what they are doing and what that means for the whole environment overall because the sharks are at the top. And without them, everything else below crumbles.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MARCIANO: You know, it's an interesting point we often forget. You know, being at the top of the food chain, you know, you've got an important role. And they are near the top along with killer whales, the ocean's food chain. But we're not in the ocean. We don't live in the ocean. So we don't really have a reason to be afraid of sharks. But if they go away, then the whole ecology underneath them -- or ecosystem crumbles.
So, yesterday, Heidi, this is where we actually would pull the lines in. It's at the bow of the boat. And they will pull the lines in, and sometimes there wouldn't be anything on the lines. But if there was a shark, they would end walk the shark down this side of the boat like and get it off to the back sides depending how big it was.
If it was a smaller fish, they can just pull it out like this. But if it was a bigger one, they would hook up almost a net of some sort, a gurney. And they would lift the gurney up like this, and then throw it down on the deck. And my goodness, Tracy Sutton, the guy who leads this program, he was on there wrestling these sharks to the ground, and it was quite impressive.
I didn't get too near them. I was kind of scared, if you can imagine.
Heidi?
COLLINS: Really? After learning all of that, you were still afraid, huh?
MARCIANO: Well, I don't know. Their teeth are really sharp, you know.
COLLINS: Yes, understood.
MARCIANO: Anyway -- they don't -- now, if everyone thinks they attack people, if they do attack people, it's by mistake. It's because they think they are something else. And usually they follow their prey and they go after big fish or in some cases seals.
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: So they say that the main reason that people think that there are more attacks, because there are more people who live along the coast, who get in the water and that just increases your chance of coming into contact with the shark.
But if you do get bitten, Heidi, punch them in the nose. It's always a good stand by. If that doesn't work, much like an attacker on you in a dark alley, go for the eyes and then hit the gills as well. So that's just a guess.
COLLINS: You know what, I'm just going to continue to swim with caution if at all. It's just really my best tactic.
All right. Well, Rob, thank you so much. Very interesting. Appreciate that today. We'll talk with you again a little bit.
Jacqui Jeras is standing by on land, where it's safe to talk about more of the weather today. We've got some playoff games to be talking about.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We do.
COLLINS: Right?
JERAS: I know. Big week for Minnesota sports.
COLLINS: Holy cow. I can't wait to talk more about it.
JERAS: I know.
COLLINS: We're going to talk about it.
JERAS: Why not? I'm telling you. Yes, these are highlights from the game last night where...
COLLINS: The Twins we're talking about...
JERAS: The Twins win. Exactly. Take a look at those celebrations. They beat the Tigers 6-5. Alexi Casilla of course, had the walk-off single in the 12th inning to get the big "W."
So tonight the Twins will take on the Yankees in New York...
COLLINS: Yes.
JERAS: ...at 6:07.
COLLINS: Jacqui, I haven't slept all week. There was the Packers/Vikings really late and then this really late last night.
JERAS: I know. Did you stay up to watch?
COLLINS: I watched the whole darn thing.
JERAS: You did?
COLLINS: Of course.
JERAS: Good for you. Are you going to watch tonight?
COLLINS: Yes. I'm going to try.
JERAS: I know, you know the Twins haven't beat the Yankees, by the way, since August of 2008.
COLLINS: I know.
JERAS: So we'll see what happens. But you know, weather is going to be a factor. So I'm getting some...
COLLINS: The new stadium there too.
JERAS: Isn't it lovely. Take a look at that but we're going to have really strong west winds tonight. You know 20-plus mile per hour gusts so that could impacting play here. Of course see the shape of the stadium -- it kind of creates its own wind environment because of that.
COLLINS: Yes.
JERAS: But there you can see home plate. And it will be a head wind that they're going to be throwing into. So we'll see what happens with that game. But the good news is that the wet weather, which is in that area right now, should be pulling out of there.
So, you know, 1:00, 2:00, we'll see some drier weather. But in the meantime, certainly not a great day across the northeastern part of the country; we've got very blustery winds with those gusts. Not too bad right now in the megalopolis but we'll watch for those to increase as we head throughout the day today as you can see.
There's Boston, about nine miles per hour right now. We also have some heavy wet weather across the southeast, showers and thunderstorms bringing down a couple of inches of rainfall. And we do have some flood advisories which are in effect for a rain that's moving in tomorrow just north of Oklahoma City, through St. Louis and on through parts of Illinois.
Win Twins.
COLLINS: Yes, no kidding. We'll be watching.
JERAS: We can talk about Favre by the way, I watched the rest of the game.
COLLINS: I can't wait. Let's talk about that next time around.
JERAS: OK.
COLLINS: Let's stretch it out, OK? All right, Jacqui Jeras, thanks. We'll check back later on.
Kids being shot, as the growing violence on Chicago streets, the face behind the numbers for you. An incredible story of courage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Tens of thousands of e-mails passwords stolen. How did this happen and what can be done about it. Our Josh Levs is joining us now with some answers. Let's talk up for just a minute, Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK.
COLLINS: Tell us what happened here.
LEVS: Yes, I'll tell you, you know, as someone who follows this a lot. It's always frustrating when people fall for these things. What places believe happened and we're talking about the major places. You've got Google, AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo. Apparently some people fell for a phishing scam and Heidi, that's a scam when you receive an e- mail that says we need information about you as part of this information be sure to click in over here and then provide your password and your user name.
So, basically what your e-mail address is and what password you use to get into that e-mail. That's basically what these places believe happened here. And in fact we've been hearing about tens of thousands total and many of them originally from Microsoft.
Then it became clear with others as well. A statement for you here from Google, let's show everyone that.
They sent that along. They say as soon as we learned about this attack and they calling it a phishing scam, they say we forced password resets on the affected accounts.
And here's something interesting Heidi, take a look at this next screen. Some of the most popular passwords that were caught here are passwords that people really shouldn't be using any way.
123456, 1 through 9, some people are using that, a lot of people using I love you. And this was captured by somewhat -- what happened is someone out there who may have done this phishing scam posted them online and then in this Web site asking them and exposed it and check this out in addition to just really common ones we're also seeing a lot of the passwords here for Alejandra Alberto Tiquero Alejandro so they believe that this originated among a Latinos community basically that it may have originally targeted Latinos.
But after that it kind of expanded and Heidi, it reached more people until these people ended up with tens of thousands of passwords.
COLLINS: Wow, but really people still using 123456?
LEVS: I'm telling you as someone who've cover technology so it's amazing so many people still do that.
COLLINS: Yes.
LEVS: But I understand some people enter the world of e-mail and are a little tentative and want something very simple to remember. The problem is, you really need to be careful about what you're using in general because people can get that, even without a phishing scam.
COLLINS: Well, part of that I'm sure is that, there's passwords for everything now including your TV so that your children can't go and watch things that are inappropriate. Then you got your ATM.
LEVS: Exactly.
COLLINS: And you got your stuffs at work. And it goes on. There's definitely too many numbers and letters for me. So what is the advice for picking... LEVS: Right.
COLLINS: ...safe passwords and can they be the same for everything that you're punching in?
LEVS: They can, they can and well -- no, that's a bad idea. You don't want the passwords to be the same thing in general. Let's do this. I know we've got to go. But let's go to this last screen I put in there. Because what I've done is there you go. These are a few things you can do to protect yourself.
Update your virus protection. Have a firewall on your computer and type addresses into your browser. And there's also a screen that I have here for you that's from Google that lists what you should do to pick smart passwords. Starting with what Heidi was just saying, do not, whatever you're doing, do not reuse the same password across different Web sites.
Let's do this, go to the very last thing I have in there for you. Because I want everyone to see, I have about four different links that will tell you what to do like don't open unknown attachments and use your site adviser on your Web browser.
So I'm posting all of these things to our blog at CNN.com/Heidi and CNN.com/josh also Facebook and Twitter. So Heidi, people will be able to see all of that. A whole a bunch of steps you can take to protect...
COLLINS: Yes.
LEVS: ...your computer and protect your e-mail and not fall for these phishing scams.
COLLINS: All right, very good. Josh, thank you.
LEVS: Thank you.
COLLINS: We do have an awful lot going on this morning. Our CNN crews are in place to bring it to you of course. Let's check in with our correspondents now.
Dan Lothian at the White House this morning. Hi, Dan.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE CORRESPONDENT: Hello, well President Obama holds another high level meeting with his national security team here at the White House to determine the way forward in Afghanistan. I'll have that story and much more at the top of the hour.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Christine Romans in New York. With the idea of a 10 percent unemployment rate sometime next year quite likely, what is the White House doing? What are officials doing to try to address the pain caused by that and actually start creating some jobs? I'll have that story at the top of the hour.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. It has been nearly 90 days since General Motors emerged from bankruptcy. The turnaround plan has hit a few speed bumps to say the least. So where do things stand for GM we're $50 billion in the hole to that company remember. We'll have more on that coming up at the top of the hour.
COLLINS: All right very good. Thanks you guys.
Also, becoming bilingual. Children in the U.S. are commuting miles every day just for the chance to learn not English but Spanish.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Chicago's deadly violence and the young victims it's claiming. Today, President Obama is sending Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder to the city to address the crisis.
We've been talking a lot about the savage beating death of 16- year-old honor student Derrion Albert and there are even younger victims.
Here now, our Gary Tuchman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This 6-year-old was shot and almost killed.
Martrell Stevens (ph) is partially paralyzed. His mother learned the hard way there's no minimum age for being a gunshot victim in this neighborhood on Chicago's south side.
LAKEESHA RUCKER, MARTRELL STEVENS'S MOTHER: He was hit in the side and it exited out his back. Missed his heart by one inch and missed his spine by one inch and punctured a hole through his lungs.
TUCHMAN: Martrell was shot in May 2008 while sleeping in the back seat of his mother's car. The gunman's target was someone near the car; he is still on the loose. Do you think people know who it was?
RUCKER: Yes.
TUCHMAN: You're sure about that?
RUCKER: Positive.
TUCHMAN: No one's talking?
RUCKER: No one.
TUCHMAN: No one wants to snitch.
Even more stunning, Martrell's mother says regularly sees the man and is scared of him.
You ride past the man who you believe shot your little baby.
RUCKER: Every day.
TUCHMAN: That's incredible.
RUCKER: It hurts.
TUCHMAN: But what has kept this mom happy is her son's progress. Martrell describes himself as a fast wheelchair rider and he can get around himself with his walker.
He's now in first grade at a public school that specializes in special needs children.
Tell me what happened.
MARTRELL STEVENS, GUNSHOT VICTIM: It's a secret.
TUCHMAN: It's a secret. Ok. How come it's a secret?
STEVENS: Because.
TUCHMAN: Can you whisper to me what happened. You got shot? Did you go to the hospital? How do you feel today?
STEVENS: Good.
TUCHMAN: A highlight for Martrell and his family, when he graduated from kindergarten and got what his mom hopes is the first of many diplomas.
Tekita Gordan is Martrell's first grade teacher.
TEKITA GORDAN, MARTRELL'S TEACHER: Everybody has their different niche. He's definitely one that I don't want your help. I got it. That's his favorite line, I've got it. I've got it.
TUCHMAN: Martrell's mom dreams he will have a bright future.
RUCKER: I know my son is going to be able to walk again. The doctors are -- they're not telling me anything. They're unable to tell what is going to happen in the long run.
TUCHMAN: But you're pretty confident about that?
RUCKER: Very confident.
TUCHMAN: But she worries every day about the safety of all three of her children. She's a janitor and has another dream about the day she can afford to move her family into a safer neighborhood.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And CNN tonight, Anderson Cooper is "Keeping Them Honest" in Chicago. What's behind the epidemic of teen murders in the city? And how can authorities win the battle to keep young people safe. Watch a special AC360 live from Chicago tonight 10:00 Eastern.
