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Security Forces Attack Iran Demonstrators; Ahmadinejad Announces Iran's Nuclear Program Expansion; Sarah Palin's Headline Grabbing Appearance at the Tea Party Convention; Michelle Obama Starts Let's Move Program

Aired February 13, 2010 - 17:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, we go to the front lines in the war on terror. Right now, U.S. and Afghan forces face their biggest test so far. Is the new offensive working?

Run for you lives. A surfing competition goes wrong. Rogue waves put dozens of bystanders in jeopardy. The injuries are mounting tonight.

And First Lady Michelle Obama takes a stand. Is this health care in disguise? We'll ask someone who knows her well.

We begin tonight in Afghanistan, and the war on terror, where 15,000 U.S. and NATO troops dropped the hammer.

(EXPLOSIONS)

LEMON: You are looking at a new offensive, taking on a major Taliban stronghold. They started in Helmand, which is the epicenter of opium production. It is already cost the lives of U.S. Marines and a British soldier.

Let's go straight to CNN's Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara, this war has been dragging on now for eight years. Is this weekend a game changer?

BARBARA STARR, CNN'S PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it will be hard to tell at this point, Don. Game changer? This is not really the heartland of the Taliban. But it is a major Taliban strong hold, a major opium-growing area. Let's go to the map and lay out the battle for everyone as it has unfolded over the last several hours. Close to 24 hours now coming up on this. This is Helmand province in Afghanistan. And as we zoom in on the map, this is ground zero where the troops are. We're going to zoom into the Marjah region and just hold it there for a minute.

What we now know -- and these darker areas are the populated areas. We know that forces have now established a ring of security around here to make sure the Taliban cannot reinforce and take control in and out of this region. Marines, U.S. marines came in from the north and in from the south, both by helicopter and on the ground. British forces came in from the northeast. Afghan forces mixed in all throughout this. More than 60 helicopters, Don, part of this helicopter assault mission. A major airborne mission. The idea was to put thousands of troops on the ground simultaneously and flood the zone and keep the Taliban from mounting any counter offensive.

LEMON: Part of the mission here too as well is to take on opium production and heroin as well here.

STARR: Oh, absolutely. I mean, this is the real key to winning this region. This is a farming agricultural region. It is the opium center of Afghanistan. And what they want to do is, first and foremost, get the farmers here off of opium production because that will break their economic link to the Taliban. If they can convince them through economic incentives to move away from the opium poppy, then they can break that connection to the Taliban. But that key challenge now is not really the combat. Certainly, the U.S. and British forces overmatch the Taliban. The key is getting the Afghan government, the Afghan forces to move into this entire area, take hold, take security, and demonstrate to their own citizens that they can run the region -- Don.

LEMON: CNN's Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr. And again, we were looking at the exclusive video there of that operation in Afghanistan. Barbara, thank you very much.

Before U.S. Marines deployed for this operation, they were briefed by Jeffrey Dressler. He is a Research Analyst with the Institute for the Study of War and an Expert on Afghanistan. And he's the author of a major report on Helmand province.

Thank you, sir, for joining us.

Mr. Dressler, you're tonight in Washington. But I want to ask you this. How important is this operation in winning the overall war?

JEFFREY DRESSLER, RESEARCH ANALYST: Well, it's very important but especially for southern Afghanistan where the Taliban have really had a strong hold over the past few years. The thing about Marjah that's really important is that a lot of the senior Taliban commanders, narcotics elements, and IED production facilities are located in this town. And from this town, they project into areas all throughout Helmand. Given that the capital is right next door in a major population center that we're trying to secure in this counterinsurgency strategy, it's critical to go into Marjah to take out these elements, and to bring security to the district.

LEMON: What did you tell the marines when you brief them? What was the one thing that you wanted them to remember from this?

DRESSLER: Well, it's very important that the population understands why they're there. That they're there to protect the population, not to cause harm, even really not to go after some of these Taliban fighters in many cases. And so, making sure that the population understands that and knows that we're on their side, I think, is the most important thing because you cannot win this thing unless we can secure the population.

LEMON: And that's a good point. You talk about the population there. What about civilian casualties? There's a risk there. A lot of effort can be lost if women and children get caught in the middle of this fighting.

DRESSLER: Yes, there's no question about it. And I think, that's why, not only you saw this operation publicized ahead of time to give warning to the civilian population, but also it's really progressed in a very slow, meticulous fashion. And I think that's important because the last thing you want to do is go rushing into an area where there's civilian compounds, dropping air munitions, things like that that are really going to cause damage. And so going slow, broadcasting your intentions is very important. So, I think that's the reason why you've seen this thing progress fairly slowly over the past 48 hours.

LEMON: Mr. Dressler, in this time, we have -- I mentioned this a bit with Barbara Starr, but talk to us about the issues here with opium and heroin.

DRESSLER: Yes, Marjah is a main center for that in Helmand province. It's estimated that narcotics elements in the Taliban make over $200,000 in revenue every month in Marjah alone, just from the refineries and processing facilities. And so, I think, going into Marjah and disrupting these facilities is going to go a long way towards -- not only breaking the opium, the grasp over Helmand but taking away a critical aspect to the funding for these insurgent elements.

LEMON: Jeffrey Dressler, thank you very much.

DRESSLER: My pleasure.

LEMON: If you have children or grandchildren in the public school system, the first lady Michelle Obama says, cafeteria food could be hazardous to their health. We'll explain more on her war on childhood obesity.

And spectators at a surfing contest nearly get swept into the ocean by a powerful rogue wave. A lot of people were hurt. We're going to update you on that.

Make sure you join the conversation tonight. Log on to the social networking sites. Your comments will get on the air.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Let me show you now some amazing pictures coming into the CNN Newsroom from California. Roll them for.

I can probably tell you that no one here really expected that. This was a big, big wave, a perfect wave for surfing conditions but not for a group of spectators. There, if you look at it, that's California's famed maverick surf bay. Two massive rogue waves, we're told, swept dozens of people off a sea wall, as you can see, tossing them into the beach and into the stage and several booths. Now, you know, we're saying that at least seven people received broken bones and others were injured. I'm going to go now. If you can come to us here, I'm going to go to our Assignment Editor on the National Desk, Nick Valencia. Nick, you're on with the CEO? NICK VALENCIA, NATIONAL DESK ASSIGNMENT EDITOR: I'm on with the CEO of Maverick right now. He's on the phone. He just wants to convey everybody. That it sounds a lot worse than it is. Thirteen people were taken, had minor injuries. A couple of people taken to the hospital with some broken bones.

LEMON: With some broken bones. Still they don't think anyone was swept under or anything like that?

VALENCIA: No, nothing like that. It could have been a lot worse than it was. This competition in theory is held annually, weather conditions permitting, and nothing like this has ever happened before.

LEMON: All right. Thank you, Nick. Nick is getting more information.

So, listen, this competition again in Half Moon Bay as we walk of you. Roll that video so, there we go, so you can see it. Here's what we know. Witnesses say the huge wave just pushed itself, you know, all the way to this beach stage right here. As we were talking to our weather center. I want to talk to Jacqui about this.

One woman was swept away by the water. She could feel herself hitting the rocks, Jacqui as the wave pulled her out. And I'm just reading the information getting more on Half Moon. What causes something like this? Obviously, a surfing competition, you want big waves but nothing like this?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, but we knew the big waves were going to be there certainly. We've had these storms, you know, one after the other that really been impacting the pacific northwest, not so much California. And so, the big waves get generated way up here up in the Gulf of Alaska, and they propagate all the way down. And so, that part of the country in particular is prone to getting these big waves. And there's a big sea wall out there, so they break along the sea wall and then come on in. And so, we had a couple of waves that were bigger than expected. That combined with high tide.

LEMON: Yes.

JERAS: So, you get those two things together, and those people got swept off their feet.

LEMON: I'm going to show you this, there's also some more video into this.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: We're talking about an I-report, Jacqui.

JERAS: This was from Scott Anderson. And he said, he rode his bike out there this morning, and he said he saw the waves breaking out there, and he saw it coming in. So he backed up. So, there was a little bit of warning for a couple of people. And I guess, he said there was also an area where there are about 100 people standing, and they did make those people back up. So, he said, had they not moved those 100 people ahead of time, things would have been a lot worse than they already were.

LEMON: Yes. Let's go over here because we have some other information that we're going to show you. This again, Jacqui, this is from our affiliate.

JERAS: Yes.

LEMON: What is this that we have here? This is a weather system going around the country, yes?

JERAS: Yes, we're going to talk a little bit about the southern snow. And what a lot of folks are dealing with across the southern tier of the United States, these are pictures out of Dallas, Ft. Worth. And what happened here, of course, they got the record snowfall, 12.5 inches of snow. So, that's over a foot. That brought down power lines and also brought down some trees. And so, some dangerous conditions. And also the weight of the snow is really heavy. We had roof collapses. As you know, we had some of that stuff happen as well in places like Washington, D.C., and Virginia also.

LEMON: It's been a crazy week. Listen, this looks very familiar to me here. Except for the white stuff on the ground, this looks very familiar.

JERAS: It's a little bit of an eerie scene today. But, you know, look at all the brown patches now in centennial-Olympic park. This is Atlanta, Georgia. We had 3.6 inches of snowfall here yesterday, little heavier on the south side of town more than a thousand...

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Never happens here. I was shocked.

JERAS: We get four inches in a year. You know, and this is our second snowstorm.

LEMON: Going to take a little pan here.

JERAS: Yes, let's tour around. And you know, the biggest thing that I'm worried about here is OK, we've had the snow. We've gotten through it. Today temperatures way above freezing, pushing 40 degrees.

LEMON: Yes.

JERAS: So, all this is starting to melt off.

LEMON: Melting and then it's going to freeze again.

JERAS: That's right. Tonight, temperatures below freezing, and black ice are going to be a huge concern. After the sun goes down tonight, tomorrow morning, if you're heading out to church or going out wherever you're going, be real careful with that. LEMON: And that's already happened to me. I got rid of it, and some of it froze already. We're going to deal with that only one night here. So, talking this whole city. So, you know, we've been asked some issues. We had like 1,100 flights cancelled by Delta and much more by other airlines.

JERAS: Right.

LEMON: We'll talk what's going on today.

JERAS: Well, there are still some flights being cancelled today. We know, at least by AirTran out of Atlanta. Right now, we have about 5,900 planes in the air. And so, this is a lot more than what we had yesterday in the previous days with Snowmageddon, with number two. So, air travel is moving on. We've had delays in San Francisco because of clouds, but that's about it.

LEMON: What are these all things up? Is that trouble?

JERAS: These are just kind of my fun facts of the day.

LEMON: OK. What is it?

JERAS: This is the snow cover across the United States.

LEMON: Wow!

JERAS: And if you take a close look, every single state in the lower 48 has some snow, somewhere in that state.

LEMON: So, everything except for Hawaii?

JERAS: Hawaii is the only one. But, you know, actually, this time of the year, Hawaii should have snow at the peaks of Mauna Lea and Mauna Koa. So, it's a little unusual. We should have a 50th.

LEMON: And it's snowing here now?

JERAS: Yes, we've got another little system which is coming through the Midwest right now. Two to five inches in the St. Louis area. And that's going to be moving down to the southeast. For the most part, it's going to be rain for you in the Deep South. Maybe a little bit of a mix. The other thing I wanted to point out, right down here, we've got to our winter weather advisories, and there's not even any winter weather going on. They issued this for the black ice that we were talking about. So, I've never seen that before when you have a weather system coming through and they issue an advisory. That's how bad they think this black ice is going to be.

LEMON: I like your ice in here. That looks like the thing on the front of the ice patch that you buy at the grocery store.

Jacqui Jeras, thank you very much. We have a lot of news going on this much, much more than weather. Because, there was a shooting on campus. It seems like a tragic headline that you've heard before. But this one has a twist. The accused shooter doesn't fit the usual profile. We'll tell you what makes this case so different and this one.

And the woman who became a widow because her husband carried out a suicide bombing. She says, she's proud of him. You'll hear her exclusive interview only on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We're going to check our top stories right now. A Harvard trained biology professor has been charged with capital murder in the shooting death of three colleagues. Amy Bishop is accused of shooting six people at a faculty meeting yesterday at University of Alabama in Huntsville. The other three are hospitalized, one in critical condition. Bishop had been teaching at the university since 2003 and was reportedly up for tenure. Investigators are still piecing together a motive.

Eight people are dead, another 33 wounded in a terror attack in India. It happened today in the western city of Pune near New Delhi. Witnesses say explosives were packed in a bag and left in a busy eatery. This is the most significant terrorist incident in the area in more than a year. India blames the attack on a Pakistani militant group.

More recall troubles for Toyota tonight. This time it's voluntarily recalling about 8,000 2010 Tacoma pickup trucks in North America. The Japanese automaker says, the four wheel drive vehicles have a production defect in the front drive shaft.

You know, it's been called one of the most devastating attacks ever against the CIA. Seven agency officers and a Jordanian army captain killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan. In an interview, you'll see only on CNN, our Nic Robertson sat down with the bomber's widow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: She is the unrepentant widow, shows no remorse that her husband blew himself up in Afghanistan, killing seven CIA operatives.

DEFNE BAYRAK, WIDOW OF CIA BOMBER (through translator): My husband was a person who truly believed in this cause. I can say he was truly was in love with Jihad.

ROBERTSON: She lives in a modest neighborhood in Istanbul. She agrees to meet us in a nearby park.

(on camera): Do you mind if we can sit down. We can sit on the bench together and chat this way.

(voice-over): Bayrak says, she'll never forget the early morning call on New Year's Eve.

BAYRAK: The morning after the incident, I got a call from Pakistan. A friend of his called me. He said, your husband completed an operation, killing CIA agents. He told me he was going to send me his will and his letter.

ROBERTSON (on camera): How did it make you to feel to know your husband died this way?

BAYRAK: I was really proud of my husband because we both were truly against the American invasion. I believe that he realized a very important operation in this way, and God willing, I say, he is a martyr.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): And as she paints a picture of their life together, it emerges that her husband was an angry and often frustrated man, a doctor by day but writing Jihadist blogs by night, even volunteering to fight in Iraq. Did you get that sense from him that he was that he was conflicted about what he should do about what was upsetting him?

BAYRAK: There was a time he would turn to his books for study, then he would close his books and go back again to Jihadi forums.

ROBERTSON: For a while, she says, her husband tried to cover up his blogging, using a program that hides where you access the internet. Then he stopped. Jordanian intelligence officials arrested him. He spent several days in jail.

BAYRAK: I guess he was bored of hiding. He said to himself, whatever should happen, should happen. After he was arrested, my husband changed a lot. He became more religious. He started going to the mosque constantly. He started doing all his daily prayers enthusiastically in the mosque, and he started memorizing the Koran again.

ROBERTSON: Her husband was on a fast track to Jihad.

(on camera): Do you think that your husband set out intentionally to trick the CIA and Jordanian intelligence?

BAYRAK: Of course, that may be. I guess he used them. My husband was a very smart person. I guess with his smartness and submission to God, he was successful in tricking them.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): As we talked, a crowd gathers, and a plainclothes police officer videos our interview. Unfazed, Bayrak is also unrepentant.

(on camera): One of the people killed in the attack was a woman who had three children. She's left -- the children are left without a mother now.

BAYRAK: Yes, but let me ask, what is the purpose of the U.S. in Afghanistan? Why are they there? Why? For what purpose is CIA in the Afghan territories? Why did they invade our lands? I believe she shouldn't have gone there. It's her fault.

ROBERTSON: So, they were legitimate targets?

BAYRAK: Of course.

ROBERTSON: Do you have any remorse for the families of the people who were killed?

BAYRAK: No, I don't feel any remorse.

ROBERTSON: How do you explain your husband's death to your children?

BAYRAK: I will wait for them to grow up a little.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): We talked for close to an hour, and it's clear that Bayrak shares many of her husband's views. After all, this is the woman who wrote a book entitled "Osama Bin Laden, Che Guevara of the Middle East."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Our senior political correspondent Nic Robertson joins us tonight from London.

Nic, thanks for joining us.

She is an educated woman, you can see that. Her husband is a doctor. So, what are we to make of their Jihadist beliefs?

Aren't these the type of people, the west needs in order to change opinions about that part of the world?

ROBERTSON: Absolutely. And perhaps, it's the very fact that they're sort of so well educated that, when they turn against the west, as they did, their message becomes very destructive and corrosive. His blogs were some of the sort of most well-respected in Jihadi circles. And so, that shows you the sort of the communication skills that he had. And she studied communications at university as well. So, they're both very well-educate.

What they had done was bought into the al-Qaeda message that the west is against Muslims, and it's tackling that with President Obama trying to do that, if you will, at his speech in Cairo last year, that there is an effort to sort of reach out to a broader perspective of Muslims if you will, to try and stop some intellectuals -- and, of course, there's only a few -- turning in the opposite direction towards Al-Qaeda. So, it is exactly these types of people that one would hope, would look to the west as a friend and an ally, not as an enemy.

LEMON: And Nic, I would imagine that's part of the reason, though that she spoke to you. You know, when I was sitting here watching her, I wonder why she would sit down for an interview with Nic Robertson?

ROBERTSON: Her family were very worried. They were worried that she would say things that would make her look bad, that would perhaps expose her to Turkish legal authorities, that perhaps she would say something that was illegal. But she had absolutely no doubt that she wanted to communicate her full support for her husband. I think that was really her motivation. This was a woman who was, A, committed to her husband, B, committed to her faith, and, C, committed to what is essentially Al-Qaeda's war against the west. So, I think that's why she wanted to speak up. Principally, it seemed, though, in support of her husband.

LEMON: Nic, since we have you there and you have covered Afghanistan a lot, you're in the region. You're our Senior International Correspondent.

So, what do you make of this new offensive that is being launched now in Helmand province to try to get rid of the Taliban's stronghold there and the drugs, the heroin and poppy and all of that?

ROBERTSON: Well, it's clearly been planned very, very carefully. Already, we're hearing from commanders, British Ministry of Defense briefing just a few hours ago that they're happy with the way that the operations are going. There's been some sporadic fire, nothing to threaten the operation. Key objectives are achieved. They're saying that the Taliban are not putting up an effective force for their sort of confused and disoriented. So initially, it seems to be going quite well.

It's hugely important that this is successful because it's going to set the trend for the rest of the year. Whether this troop surge and involving local Afghans is going to succeed. Already evidence of local councils, jurors, 150 men in one village already met to partially support this operation. So, these things are important, but the reality is this is a very long, slow battle. The Taliban know they have all the time in the world. They can run away and fight another day.

And this is going to be the problem that they will fight a guerrilla campaign by planting IEDs, sniper attacks, all this sort of thing. And that's -- it's that long fight that's going to be -- that's going to be so tough here. And that's going to be the challenge to maintain the political momentum and the international will for the people, you know, the people of the United States. There will be another presidential election in a couple of few years, British election in a few months, to maintain the public support for these operations. This one has to have success, Don.

LEMON: And Nic, this is only just the beginning. Nic Robertson, Senior International Correspondent. Nic, thank you very much.

Protesting a crackdown, halfway around the world. Marchers in Washington stand in solidarity with anti-government protestors in Iran. What's next for the opposition just days after Tehran's government forced protestors off the streets?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Today in Washington, protestors marched through D.C. to protest this week's government crackdown on demonstrators in Tehran. Opposition groups say security forces attacked and, in some cases, fired on demonstrators during Thursday's celebration of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Meantime, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used his anniversary speech to announce an expansion of Iran's nuclear program.

Joining me to talk about all of this now is Rudi Bakhtiar. She is with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Obviously, you're saddened by what you believe is the opposition's squashing of the protestors there. Here's my question then. On here --

RUDI BAKHTIAR, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN IRAN: I don't believe the opposition has been squashed. I do believe that, this time around, the Ahmadinejad government, the legitimate government of Ahmadinejad was able to control the situation by bussing in a lot of his supporters from nearby. And by, as you saw from the video, many, many more people on the ground.

LEMON: Here's my question. I understand what you're saying. In some ways they curtailed what could have happened, what you thought could have been a bigger protest, a bigger uprising. I understand that. So then, the Iranian community here in the United States, what is the expectation from Washington?

BAKHTIAR: Well, the expectation is that there must be focus on the gross human rights violations that have been going on inside of Iran, basically, under this regime for the past over 30 years, and especially the uptick since June. This government has been arresting hundreds of people. Hundreds of people have disappeared. There are parents who have not heard from their children, who don't know where they are. They don't know if they've been killed. They don't know if they're in prison. There are mothers that are being told that their child is in prison, but then two months later, the dead body is delivered to them.

Police are going around with blanket arrest warrants, which means that they don't even need a reason to arrest anybody for anything. And they've been doing this because they were very embarrassed a couple of months ago when the green movement showed its force on those two major events. One was the Montezeri (ph) funeral and the other was the Ashura.

LEMON: Here's my question then. Do you feel like then -- you're here in America. Groups like yours, are they having any impact on the Iranian government, having any impact on the protests there?

BAKHTIAR: I believe that the best thing that we can do outside of Iran is to shine a light on the human rights violations going on in the country. Our organization actually does the research, which tells how many people have been killed, who's missing, why they're missing. This is how we empower the community inside the country and give them the power they need to overcome the predicament they're in right now.

But the most important thing we can do also outside the country is to give them the technological power that they need. The green movement is at a disadvantage right now because this government has learned to basically shut down the cell phones, shut down the Internet. And as you saw, not allow the video out this time around. It's important. Governments can help the green movement.

LEMON: Rudi? Hey, Rudi?

BAKHTIAR: It makes a big difference in the Middle East whether we have this green movement party in place.

LEMON: We have about 15 --

BAKHTIAR: Or we have this repression -- repressive government in place.

LEMON: I want to get a lot of topics in became I want to here what you're saying. About 15 seconds left. Ahmadinejad used Thursday's anniversary to talk about Iran's nuclear program. What did you think of this threat?

BAKHTIAR: He does this every year. I think that they are masters at this P.R. game, in order to camouflage these gross human rights violations inside the country, in order to camouflage the fact that they are arresting and killing and raping our children, that they are showing up in the middle of the night to the dorm rooms of our students and beating them indiscriminately. They're trying to hide that. And with that, he does what he knows will capture the world's attention. Guess what, we have now enriched up to 20 percent. We are now a bigger threat to you. What happened that day? The entire topic was switched from the gross human rights violations and the fact that people think he's a nuclear threat.

LEMON: I need to finish up here because we're up against a break. We're up against a break. I need you to make your final point. Sorry about that.

BAKHTAIR: That's OK.

LEMON: You've done television. You know how it is.

BAKHTIAR: I know how it is. He imagined to basically camouflage the real issue.

LEMON: Rudi, back to you. Rudi says the movement is still alive. Rudi, thank you so much. Always good to see you. We'll get you back on.

BAKHTIAR: Thank you, don.

LEMON: Sorry to cut you off. Thank you so much.

CNN's Candy Crowley, as you know, is the new host of CNN's "State of the Union" every Sunday at 9:00 eastern. She and I are going to get together every week to talk politics and preview Sunday's show. We started this week by talking about Sarah Palin's headline grabbing appearance at the tea party convention.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CANDY CROWLEY, HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": Well, first the speech. I mean, those are -- the people of the tea party, which are arch conservatives, most of them, although they kept saying there were moderates and Democrats there, but the bulk of that convention was conservative. Those are her folks. Those are her people. That's why they came to the convention. So not a mistake for her to show up there because that's her core.

Giving up the job as governor is something else entirely because when you look at, what was Sarah Palin's weakness as a vice presidential candidate, people said, what experience does she have? So to give up the only job you have, governor of Alaska, that can give you that experience, in fact, does not help fill that void for you. Yes, I think that hurt her, and I think it continues to hurt her.

LEMON: Do you think that, when people saw that speech last week, there were some people, if you were a Sarah Palin fan, you would say, man, she really hit the administration and the president hard? But if you weren't, you were saying, man, she's being snarky and just complaining. And what are the solutions?

CROWLEY: Yes. I'll tell you another way that it does hurt her -- but I think the divisions over Sarah Palin are pretty much -- at least the harsh ones, the people that so support her and so dislike her, those are set in stone. And then you have the people in the middle that go back and forth.

But the fact of the matter is, when people look at a speech like that, if you're an Independent and you think she's an attractive candidate, she really tells it like it is, if you're not hearing substance, which is, again, where people think she is lacking, if you're not hearing substance, then you're thinking, well, talk to me about issues. Not just the red knee, which, of course, that was a red-knee crowd. But I think people prone to take a look at her are looking for something more substantive.

LEMON: Let's talk about this health care summit that's supposed to happen on the 25th. Are you surprised that Republicans agreed to attend? We've been hearing it's a trap. We don't know. Should we go? Should we not? Are you surprised?

CROWLEY: No. They had no choice. You can't say, yes, we want bipartisanship but, by the way, we're not going to go to that meeting. You have to do it. That's why they sort of sense a trap, because they just feel that this is something that's being done for the cameras. And let's face it, if there were cameras on editorial meetings at CNN in the morning, probably not a lot of work would get done, because you mostly don't want that stuff to be on camera. So the Republicans look at this and say, it's a big show.

On the other hand, they can't not go because then they're labeled, look, they didn't even want to come meet the president. Of course, they have to go. It is not a forum that's going to help them, and I think they found that out when the president last came and spoke to them. LEMON: Candy, it's been a bad year for incumbents. I think it's 15 House members so far who are retiring. Now Patrick Kennedy. Is this a surprise to you?

CROWLEY: It is a little bit. It is. And I think that the reasons are going to sort of remain with Patrick Kennedy, who's, of course, the youngest son of the late Senator Ted Kennedy. He has been -- and this surprised me, because I was talking to some of his people last night. They said, listen, he has been in office -- Patrick, who's 42 years old -- he has been in office since he was 21, when he was elected to the Rhode Island legislature. It's a long time. He's just gone through one of the more horrific things that happens in life, the death of a parent. That does tend to kind of make you step back and look at your life.

I will say that the people around him say that he'd been talking for about a year about leaving Congress. We also know that Patrick has had some substance abuse problems over the time. he's been in and out of rehab. They say that does not play a part in this. He just simply wanted to go and do something new.

LEMON: Listen, Candy, you made news last week with the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. What do you have this week? By the way, her husband, we wish him well. What do you have this week on "State of the Union"?

CROWLEY: Yes. We are having retired General Jim Jones, head of the president's national security team. He's just back from Pakistan. There are lots of problems, as we know, lots of dangerous places in the world. It is the general's job to keep the president up to date and to try to help formulate policy. So lots of questions for him.

LEMON: Candy Crowley from "STATE OF THE UNION." Thank you, Candy.

CROWLEY: Sure thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: You guys know this. Candy is the best in the business. Make sure you check her show out every Sunday morning. As she mentioned, Jim Jones is among her guests. CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" airs at 9:00 a.m. Eastern on CNN and then at 12:00 noon eastern as well. Candy Crowley, "STATE OF THE UNION."

The Winter Olympics luge track has reopened after yesterday's tragic accident. We'll tell you why officials say it's safer now.

And First Lady Michelle Obama hands out some advice about what kids should and should not be eating.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We'll check our top stories. A Harvard-trained biology professor has been charged with capital murder in the shooting death of three colleagues in Alabama. Amy Bishop is accused of shooting six people at a faculty meeting yesterday at University of Alabama, Huntsville. Three were killed, three hospitalized, one in critical condition. Bishop had been teaching at the university since 2003 and was reportedly up for tenure.

The Olympic luge track in Vancouver has been modified following the death of a luger during a training run on yesterday. Officials have built a retaining wall where the crash occurred. They insist the luge track is safe. A 21-year-old from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia was killed when he was thrown from his sled into an unpadded steel pole.

This is "We Are the World" -- do you see that? -- 2010 for Haiti. Almost everybody who's anybody is singing in it, even M.J., Michael Jackson. Guess what? We're going to show it to you, video in our 7:00 hour right here on CNN.

The first lady, Michelle Obama, is fighting mad. She says American children are facing an epidemic of obesity, and she wants it to stop. This week, she launched an initiative. It's called Let's Move. She took specific aim at fat-filled school lunches. The president followed her lead by creating a federal task force to come up with a course of action.

The first lady spoke with CNN's Larry King about how the issue hit home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: I come to this issue as a mother. You know, before coming to the White House, especially when my husband was on the campaign trail, we are living the lives of average families, way too busy rushing.

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Fast food.

MICHELLE OBAMA: Fast food, desserts too much, probably not monitoring TV. I was fortunate enough to have a pediatrician who worked in an urban environment in the African-American community, and he was tracking BMI. And he saw a little uptick in the kids' BMI, and he kind of pulled me aside.

KING: BMI, meaning?

MICHELLE OBAMA: Body mass index, which is, you know, a measure of sort of where people fall on the weight scale. It's one of the first indicators.

KING: And it was getting alarming?

MICHELLE OBAMA: It was getting to the point where he raised a red flag. And he probably was more cautious than most people because of what he had been seeing in his own practice.

KING: How did you react?

MICHELLE OBAMA: I was shocked at first, because I thought I was doing what I was supposed to do. And I hadn't noticed any changes in my kids. It was a little bit shocking and a little disorienting, because I wasn't sure what to do. I went home, and it was kind of a wakeup call. And we made some changes even with busy schedules. They were minor changes, but I thought we have to do something.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: The first lady on "Larry King Live" just a couple of days ago. We're going to hear much, much more from Mrs. Obama, the first lady, throughout the evening as we explore this issue further.

First let's bring in Nia-Malika Henderson, from politico.com.

Good to see you.

So listen, I've got to ask you this, Nia. As first ladies, Hillary Clinton took on health care. You remember that? Laura Bush focused on literacy. Now nutrition and childhood obesity from the first lady. That's the first lady's platform now. If you look closely, is this a way of getting at health care without actually saying health care?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, POLITICO.COM: Exactly. It very much -- it dovetails very nicely with the president's primary domestic policy agenda, in that it talks about health care. So it is a way for her -- you saw where for instance, this past year they did talk about health care. She talked about it as an important thing for women. Now, it is an important way to talk about health care as it relates to children. It is her first full foray into policy, and the aim here is to really change the way children eat and the way they play.

LEMON: You say it's her first foray into policy. That's your quote. Listen, there are some critics. Ann Cooper, the founder of lunchbox.org, a healthy eating web site, says that the funding increase adds 50 cents per meal to 5.4 billion school lunches served annually, not nearly enough, she says, to add fruits and vegetables to high-fat lunch room fare. Here's the question. If people say it's not enough, and you said it's her first forceful entry into policy, will she be able to deliver this in an impactful way?

HENDERSON: One of the things she wants to do is, not only obviously add this money to the budget -- I think it's about $10 billion over the next decade. She also wants to get governors on board, mayors on board, but also the private industry. One of the things she's already been able to do, for instance, is get the manufacturers of school lunches to agree that they're going to decrease the level of salt in meals and also double the amount of fruits and vegetables that are available to children.

I think about 30 million children a year eat school lunches. So it is a real kind of bipartisan private and public partnership she's really trying to bring together. So she doesn't face the criticism that, for instance, the government doesn't have any right telling parents what to feed their kids and telling them what they should eat for lunch. LEMON: So listen, the first lady has said repeatedly it's not going to be -- she's not going to be policy heavy. She's not going to be like Hillary Clinton or like Eleanor Roosevelt. But is she going to be able to do this? How then is she going to be able to create some real results if she doesn't want to be a policymaker?

HENDERSON: One of the things, I mean, you've already seen, she has the full backing of the administration. You saw the president on Tuesday sign the executive memo. And also cabinet officials are already on board with doing this. She has said, for instance, that she'd be willing to testify in front of Congress. They will, of course, consider reauthorization of the Childhood Nutrition Act this year.

I think one of the things she's going to do also is use this enormous platform that she has. She's become the face of fitness and healthy living. That's one of the things she's been able to do. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll see her traveling around the country to take this message outside of Washington.

LEMON: And it's only been one year since she's been the first lady. So there will be other things to come.

Nia-Malika Henderson, politico.com, thank you so much.

HENDERSON: Take care.

LEMON: Believe it or not, some people think the first lady's war on obesity -- as we showed you one example -- that it will backfire and do more harm than good. Paul Campos is the author of "The Obesity Myth." He'll join us in our 7:00 hour. You don't want to miss that. 7:00 hour here on CNN.

Out of the darkness. One man is lighting up the night for thousands of rural households all across Kenya. You'll meet the "CNN Hero" of the week.

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LEMON: When night falls across rural Kenya, more than 27 million people who live without electricity are plunged into darkness. Children trying to escape generations of poverty strain to see their school books. But our new "CNN Hero" of the week, Evans Wadongo, is providing light for thousands, for free.

(CNN HEROES)

LEMON: Evans Wadongo's work has brought light into an estimated 10,000 rural Kenyan homes. To watch him build his solar-powered lanterns or to nominate someone you think is changing the world, go CNN.com/heroes.

"The Situation Room" is straight ahead. Our Suzanne Malveaux is in for Wolf Blitzer.

Suzanne, what do you have for us? SUZANNE MALVEAUX, GUEST HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Hey, thanks, Don.

Next on "The Situation Room," Saturday, CNN is committed to covering the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta are there. You don't want to miss their moving update from the quake zone.

A CNN exclusive, an openly gay soldier is back drilling with his unit. We'll talk with Lieutenant Dan Choi about what it is like.

And that, plus a visit to New Orleans where a Super Bowl win signals a rebirth of the city.

Hey, Don.

LEMON: Thank you very much, Suzanne.

It is getting a little late to be buying a Valentine's Day present, but our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has a suggestion for you stragglers out there, strawberries and dark chocolate. We'll explain just ahead.

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LEMON: Mm, strawberries and dark chocolate are good for more than just a Valentine's Day present. I like them all year long. In fact, they can be good for your heart, in certain quantities. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to explain as part of our "Fit Nation" series.

(FIT NATION)

LEMON: Thank you, Dr. Gupta.

I want to show you this. This is an all-star tribute to the people of Haiti called "We are the World 2010." Almost everybody is in there -- everybody who is anybody, even Michael Jackson. We're going to show it all to you at 7:00 tonight.

I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

"THE SITUATION ROOM" begins right now.