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Errant Rockets Kill 12 Civilians; Hazardous Winter Weather; Iran: What's Next?

Aired February 14, 2010 - 19:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: We begin tonight at the top of this hour, in Afghanistan. The man in charge of defeating the Taliban, General Stanley McChrystal today had to apologize for the killing of innocent civilians in Helmand Province. It happened during the massive operation now under way to dislodge the Taliban from the stronghold.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence joins us tonight from Washington to explain to us what went wrong. What did go wrong Chris?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Don, a highly sophisticated rocket system misfired and basically it hit the wrong target.

Let's catch our viewers up, set the stage and tell you what we're talking about again. Helmand Province, to the south of Afghanistan, this is one of the most -- biggest, largest and most meticulously planned missions since the war started.

Here is where U.S. troops are positioned throughout the country. And here is the level of Taliban influence, the dark red. This area has been controlled by the Taliban for a long time. U.S. forces have never, never really had control of this area until now. And what we're seeing now is a major, major offensive into the area of Marjah.

What happened was U.S. Marines were taking fire, direct fire from a compound. They used this very sophisticated rocket system to launch two rockets at that compound. Something went wrong. They went about 300 yards off course. They hit a home, 12 civilians were killed -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Chris Lawrence, thank you very much.

You know Jeffrey Dressler warned us last night about the risk of civilian casualties. He is a research analyst with the Institute for the Study of War and an expert on Afghanistan. He briefed the U.S. Marines for this operation.

So Mr. Dressler joins us tonight from Washington. Thank you so much.

Listen, you talked to us about this last night. One of the few things you said that they should be looking out for. And you kind of warned us this is going to be a problem. Is this a serious setback today? JEFFREY DRESSLER, INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR: It's not a serious setback. I mean, unfortunately this is always a serious matter whenever innocent civilians are killed. But I think that every precaution has been taken to avoid this type of incident. It was a freak accident and I know that the Marines and Afghan Forces will continue to take those precautions going forward.

LEMON: So listen. And you know, I've seen reports that the fighting could be over in just one week or two weeks. Does that seem realistic to you?

DRESSLER: I think the brunt of it probably will be. I think beyond that you're going to see some sporadic attacks, some IEDs that have gone up. We've seen this in similar operations elsewhere in Helmand and I think we're likely to see it again. But I think within the next couple of weeks surely the heavy brunt of the combat operations will probably start to subside.

LEMON: So then, what happens after the fighting? And maybe it's too early on. What happens after the fighting? Do they get to keep the Taliban from coming back?

DRESSLER: Well, again, you know, we're not reinventing the wheel here. This has been done elsewhere in Helmand really within the past six months, nine months. And what you do is you basically establish little outposts throughout the town to prevent re-infiltration, after you have cleared the initial town, itself.

And then, once you can do that that's when you start to bring in some of these local elements like government structures, reconstruction developments, these are the things that the people of Marjah really want. And hopefully will be able to get them soon.

LEMON: You mentioned a bit of this as we talked yesterday as this operation got under way. The importance to have the support of the tribal leaders in Helmand, how important is that?

DRESSLER: Well, it's extremely important. And in fact, every effort was made before the launch of the operation to reach out to these elders, to appoint new district leaders that are going to go in, that are in fact ready to go in now, chomping at the bit to get in and bring in the Afghan governance with an Afghan face.

And I think that they have something to offer that the Taliban really can't. Schools, clinics, security, these are things that the people really want and hopefully within the next couple of weeks they can start to get them.

LEMON: Really, within the next couple of weeks? I mean, that seems pretty fast.

DRESSLER: Well, certainly those things take time. I think that those elements will be brought in within the next couple of weeks and start to kind of, you know, get geared up. It's going to take longer than that to see any -- any really sustained effects and some of the positive things that they want to bring in. But I would -- I would suspect that within the next couple of weeks as the security situation starts to improve that's when those elements will be brought in.

LEMON: Good and as we say, just the start of it.

Thank you, Jeffrey Dressler, I appreciate your expertise on this.

DRESSLER: My pleasure.

LEMON: Vice presidents in a war of words today, verbal sparks flew out of the television sets all across America. I'm not sure if you saw it. If you didn't, we're going to show it to you.

CNN political editor Mark Preston joins me with his expertise on who said what and who was telling the truth here. Who's telling the truth?

And you know the snow all across the south, some people say it proves global warming is not true. We'll get some expert opinion from Bill Nye, The Science Guy.

And this scary sight we told you about at the top of the show right here. Well, it will take a long, long time to clean up this mess and it could be out there for a long while. So we're going to have an update on you -- for you and tell you about injuries and everything else you need to know.

Also we want you to weigh in, I'm answering your questions now and taking your comments looking at them on our social networking sites. Make sure you logon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, time now to get the inside information from CNN's Mark Preston, he is our political editor. Mark, you know the Sunday morning shows -- could we say ablaze today with the back and forth between the president -- the vice president, and the former vice president.

So, you know, I usually watch sort of half asleep, paper in one hand. I fall asleep, wake up and look at it a little more right with the coffee. But I was riveted this morning.

So have you ever seen it like this before between two vice presidents?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: I mean, what great political theater you know, you have Joe Biden leading off in attacking Vice President Cheney, then you have Vice President Cheney attacking Joe Biden and you have Joe Biden coming back on another show criticizing Cheney again. I mean, it was great political theater this morning.

LEMON: It really was. And you know, there are some huge differences, though, on national security. That was a big topic and the handling of the Christmas day terror suspect. I want you to listen to this and we'll talk about it, Mark.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The thing I learned from watching that process unfold, though, was that the administration really wasn't equipped to deal with the aftermath of an attempted attack against the United States, in the sense that they didn't know what to do with the guy.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know what Dick's been doing lately. I don't know -- we did exactly what he did with the shoe bomber, Richard Reid, exactly what he did.

We brought in the experts. I was told he said we didn't bring in the right people. The experts are the FBI interrogators. They are the best that we have. We brought them in immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: You know, I don't know what Dick's talking about here. I love that. You know what, that is a Joe Biden that we are used to seeing before he became vice president. And we thought we're going to see more of that once he did.

So listen, who's telling the truth here? Can you answer that?

PRESTON: You know what I think what we saw happen this morning is, is you have Vice President Biden going out there and saying, look, President Obama and I have come in and we have -- we're trying to mop up a situation that was a total mess. That's what we've seen from the Obama administration from day one. They said that they've come in and they're really trying to clean up after eight years of the Bush administration.

What we're seeing from Vice President Cheney is saying, look, you wouldn't be where you are right now had it not been for us, had it not been for us really pushing this surge in Iraq and really trying to bring stability to that country. Had it not been for us for our -- laying the groundwork for where we are in Afghanistan right now.

So you have two different administrations really trying to claim the mantle of who, who's done the best job. And clearly that played out this morning.

LEMON: Ok, so listen, they also differed on treating fight, you know the fight against the terror as a war, like do we call it a war, what is it? So Biden had a very strong response to that. I want you to listen and then we'll talk after that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHENEY: I think we have to treat it as a war. This is a strategic threat to the United States. I think that's why we were successful for seven and a half years in avoiding a further major attack against the United States. And I do get very nervous and very upset when that's the dominant approach. BIDEN: I don't think the vice -- the former Vice President Dick Cheney listens. The President of the United States said in the "State of the Union," we're at war with al Qaeda, he said this and by the way we're pursuing that war, the vigor like it's never been seen before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: You know, I heard someone say this morning, an analyst say -- once we step back in history we'll look at this Mark as two administrations, the Bush administration and the Obama administration really having very similar policy when it comes to the way they handle terror.

PRESTON: Well, you know what I think happens, too, Don, is that once you're committed militarily to a certain operation that oftentimes it's really out of the hands of the administration. It's the military commanders in Afghanistan or in Iraq doing what they have to do to try to get the job done.

Of course back here in Washington policy is made and direction is given but the fact of the matter is it's what is happening on the ground.

What's good for the Obama administration, Don, up to this point is that there's still a majority of Americans right now who think that the Obama administration is doing an ok job on terror. It's about 55 percent according to the most recent "The New York Times" poll, CBS News poll. So 55 percent think that he's doing an ok job.

However, we've seen his disapproval climb in that category as well, Don. You know, about 11 percent of Americans this time last year thought he wasn't doing a very good job. That has now climbed up to the mid-30s and really where we've seen that growth is from people who were undecided a year ago, about 20 percentage points. And these people think, that look, you know something, he isn't doing a good job.

LEMON: Ok, we shall see on that exactly what's going on. And I think time, you know, it has to play out a little bit longer before we can figure it out. It's been one year, so it's a good gauge but it's going to be a bit.

So listen, let's turn now to "don't ask, don't tell." It overshadowed -- it got overshadowed a little bit today when the former Vice President Dick Cheney actually agreed with the Obama administration and the National Security Adviser Jim Jones. I want you to listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. JIM JONES (RET.), NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I've served my country in uniform since 1967. In that period we covered -- we've covered racial questions, racial integration, we've covered the integration of women in the Armed Forces. People suggested that that would be a national security problem if we did both of those things. CHENEY: Twenty years ago the military were the strong advocates of "don't ask, don't tell" when I was Secretary of Defense. I think things have changed significantly since then. I see that Don Mullen -- or Mike Mullen the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has indicated his belief that we ought to support a change in the policy.

So I think, my guess is the policy will be changed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And he said if military advisers and military brass agreed that it should be changed then he would support it. What do you make of this?

PRESTON: Well, you know, I mean, clearly we've come a long way since that law was put into place back during the Clinton administration, the first term of the Clinton administration. And the fact is, you know, we're fighting so many wars on so many fronts. There has been talk about how the military has let go a lot of qualified individuals because of the fact that they are gay, that we've come a long way.

And at this point -- you know something -- it's just going to be done away with. And it's not going to be a discriminatory act anymore so to speak. Now, for Mr. Cheney as well, it hits home for him as well for the fact he's -- he does have a daughter who was gay and I'm sure that he know -- deep down in his heart he understands that look, this isn't such a big deal.

But really it comes down to the military commanders and when they give you the stamp of approval, that's when you move.

LEMON: Mark Preston, you know what, we could go on a whole hour or more talking about what happened this morning. And I thought it was like -- the best Sunday morning television in quite a long time. And again, I was riveted. So we're going to play more and talk more about this.

Mark, we'll see you tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, ok.

PRESTON: Thanks Don.

LEMON: Is obesity a myth?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL CAMPOS, LAW PROFESSOR: The really bad thing is the notion that if everybody would have a healthy lifestyle everybody would be thin. That is an utterly unscientific notion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So last night, law professor and author Paul Campos called out the First Lady and saying it's wrong to try to make fat children thinner. Well, tonight an opposing point of view from a doctor who specializes in weight loss. It's Valentine's Day. If you're not having much luck finding a date, a Web site we found is as close to cupid as you can get. It has some practical advice that we bet you never thought of. You want to see this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Check your top stories now on CNN. Astronauts aboard the space shuttle "Endeavour" will get to spend an extra day in space. NASA's extending the mission so they can do more work on the International Space Station. The shuttle is now scheduled to return February 21st after a two-week mission. The announcement came as two astronauts completed a nearly six-hour space walk as part of the work expanding the station there.

After weeks of false hopes and conflicting reports a family of Britney Gengel has received confirmation she died in the Haiti earthquake. She was part of a student group from Lynn University that was in Haiti on a service trip. Britney and five other members of the group perished. The bodies of all 6 have been recovered. You may recall her family was first told she was alive and on her way home only to be told later the information was incorrect.

Now, take a look at this amazing video that is out of Wyandotte County in Kansas; blinding snow reportedly caused this massive pileup today that resulted in numerous injuries. Dozens of cars were involved in the accident on Interstate 70.

The westbound lane is still shut down. Rescue workers called in a school bus to remove the people involved to a central location and get them out of the cold.

We turn now to our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. Perfect segue, Jacqui --

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

LEMON: We hear this weather-related. And you want to be careful. You were warning people about the ice, especially about black ice.

JERAS: Yes. You know, it's not isolated in Kansas, that's for sure. This is all over the country, almost every state having snow on the ground at least somewhere.

This is the Kansas City area. We've been seeing snow showers throughout the day today. One of the biggest problems has been the winds. They're sustained in the teens but we're getting gusts 30 miles per hour at times. So that causes some big-time visibility issues. So we'll continue to track this.

This is the big storm system that we're going to be watching into the week ahead that's going to be impacting a lot of travelers; low pressure over in this area right now. We think the heaviest of snow just north of that system. We're going to start to see those temperatures drop tonight as this moisture moves into the southeast so we're going to start to see some snow once again across parts of the Deep South.

This is going to be different than last time around. If you remember last time some of the heaviest snowfall accumulations were further south of some of the big cities. This time around we'll be watching for that a little bit further on up toward the north.

There you can see 4 to 8 inches. Maybe 1 to 3 in Nashville; Atlanta, 1 to 2 inches we think -- a little heavier up into the North Georgia mountains so this system then makes its way up toward the mid- Atlantic and eventually into the northeast.

Check out these pictures that we have from the northeast, speaking of which, it has already been pounded with snow in the last week. That heavy snow caused a roof to collapse at an ice skating rink today in Pittsburgh. There were people inside. Fortunately everybody was able to get out ok but just a reminder that we have problems for days and days beyond getting the heavy snow events.

Back into the south much of the snow already beginning to melt, but with this next round we're preparing. Delta has canceled 400 flights out of Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport tomorrow morning; AirTran canceling a few as well. So make sure you call ahead.

We have had some travel problems today in San Francisco due to low clouds and fog. Minneapolis delays as well as Newark. We'll watch those northeastern cities and mid-Atlantic cities get in on those delays tomorrow and into Tuesday, Don, where D.C. and New York City could be getting more snow but hopefully you'll be able to count the number of inches on one hand this time around.

LEMON: We hope.

Jacqui thank you.

And that roof in Pennsylvania, good reminder; clear that snow. It's very heavy and it can cause problems.

Thank you, Jacqui Jeras.

You know, it's one of the most painful, and enduring images of the week, the violent crackdown on demonstrators in Tehran. We'll look ahead at what's next; we're inside Iran and if the west is prepared to take action.

Plus, the science behind the storm of controversy -- I'm sure you've heard it -- over global warming. About whether there is global warming or not, considering all the snow the south got. Well, Bill Nye, The Science Guy joins me live. We're going to talk about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Tehran took center stage this week. A huge government crackdown on demonstrators as Tehran celebrated the Islamic revolution. Iran's president boasted about his nuclear program but international sanctions are looming. So let's talk about the future here. Trita Parsi of the National Iranian-American Council is in Washington. Also joining us is Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment in San Diego. Hey, good to see you. Listen.

Karim, I have to ask you this. We saw the crackdown and we saw that the current government was able to crack down on protesters. Where does this lead the green movement? What's next? What's going on for the green movement?

KARIM SADJADPOUR, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: It's a great question, Don. And I don't think the fundamentals have really changed. The government bussed in people from the provinces; they were ready for this day for a long time. But it's interesting, I was just looking at some Google Earth images and it looks like the government really exaggerated their support on that day.

And I think, Don, they probably know better than anyone about popular discontent in Iran because they didn't allow journalists to freely cover this event. I have no doubt that they also know that if people were allowed to freely assemble you would see crowds of upward of 5 million in Tehran and millions more throughout the country.

So I don't think the fundamentals have really changed all that much. The opposition's morale may be slightly dampened but I think they're going to continue onward.

LEMON: And Trita in your estimation how much, if at all, do you think this slows down the opposition, what happened last week?

TRITA PARSI, AUTHOR, "TREACHEROUS ALLIANCE": I think it's been quite exaggerated, this talk about the opposition facing a major defeat. At the end of the day this is going to be a long term cat- and-mouse game between the opposition and the government.

And the mere fact the game continues is in and of itself a defeat for the government because eight months, nine months after the fraud in elections this is still going on. Sometimes demonstrations are bigger, sometimes they're smaller. But any sense of normalcy the government is yet to be able to find.

LEMON: So, listen, Trita. We've talked about this before and we hear it a lot. People say that they want to hear something from the U.S. more from the administration. What will happen now with the U.S.-Iran relationship? Do you think we'll see major action here soon from the U.S.?

PARSI: Well, this has created significant problems for the Obama administration who initially wanted to go forward with diplomacy and find a way to resolve the nuclear issue. But at this point I think it's difficult to be able to have meaningful engagement, mindful of the fact the government over there is in a paralysis and no real big decision seems to be capable of being made over there.

At the same time perhaps we should also go a little bit more careful when it comes to some of these sanctions. It would be quite unhelpful to impose sanctions that will actually hurt the population rather than the government, particularly at a time when the population themselves, are showing such courage and doing everything they can to be able to change things in Iran.

LEMON: And Karim, the pictures from last week, the images and what happened there, does this change anything you think for the U.S.? Are we going to see any action here?

SADJADPOUR: I don't think it really fundamentally changes U.S. policy. I think there's very little confidence within the Obama administration that the Iranian government is amenable to some type of a sincere compromise on the nuclear program. But I do think moving forward, whereas a year ago when they were looking at sanctions and punitive measures they were looking at it only in the context of how the measures might alter Iran's nuclear calculations.

Now they're looking at these sanctions and punitive measures within the context of Iran's internal dynamics. If you notice, Don, the word that Hillary Clinton used a year ago, which was crippling sanction, has now been changed to targeted sanctions. And the target which they're focusing on is the Revolutionary Guards in Iran because really this is the entity that is managing the nuclear program. They're liaising with extremist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and they're the ones who are brutalizing the population.

So I think the Revolutionary Guards are going to be the target of any measures moving forward.

LEMON: Karim Sadjadpour, Trita Parsi. Thank you both.

SADJADPOUR: Thank you, Don.

PARSI: Thank you.

LEMON: He is sorry. The president of Toyota publicly and personally apologizes for one of the largest automotive recalls ever.

And the first lady has come out strong on childhood obesity, but some would prefer she be a little bit more hands-off on this issue. We'll hear from both sides tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: You know what, the first lady is fighting mad. She says American children are facing an epidemic of obesity and she wants it to stop. Well, this week she launched an initiative, it's called "Let's Move," and 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. Before I show you the first lady on "Larry King Live" earlier in the week, I want to tell you so many of you responded to this story last night on Twitter, on Facebook, sending me e-mails and commenting on it that we brought someone here who can talk about it. Talk about your comments.

So I want to show you what the first lady said on CNN's "Larry King" how she took issue with this and how she says it hits home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE OBAMA, U.S. FIRST LADY: 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 were living the lives of average families. Way too busy, rushing --

LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Fast food.

OBAMA: Fast food, you know, 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?

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: Is it getting alarming?

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

KING: How did you react?

OBAMA: You know, I was shocked at first because I didn't -- I thought I was doing what I was supposed to do and I hadn't noticed any changes in my kids. So it was a little bit shocking and a little disorienting because I wasn't sure what to do.

But I went home and it was kind of a wake-up call. We made some changes, even with busy schedules. And there were minor changes but I thought, well, we have to do something.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: OK. So, again, as I said not everyone agrees with the first lady. This is a segment that got so much -- garnered a bit of controversy and a bunch of comments like night. Paul Campos, the author of a provocative and controversial book, it's called "The Obesity Myth." Here's what he had to say last night when I spoke to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL CAMPOS, AUTHOR "THE OBESITY MYTH": Oh, I absolutely agree that it is a good idea to encourage kids to get physical activity and good nutrition. And I'm all for initiatives that would actually achieve that goal. What I very strongly object to is the notion that we should pursue that goal by stigmatizing the bodies of one third of America's kids with a bunch of junk science that says that we're having some kind of a huge health crisis because kids are getting too fat.

That's a terrible idea and the only thing that that's going to produce is a wave of eating disorders because focusing on kids' weight does not make them healthier, does not make them tend to become more active or to eat better. Instead what it does is it gets them to engage in eating disorder behavior. So I'm totally against that.

The explicit goal of her program, as made quite clear by the White House, this week by Michelle Obama herself, is to have no so- called childhood obesity in America within a generation. So the goal is the elimination of fat kids. How that is a program that is not focused on weight is just bizarre to me. Given than there is absolutely no reason to believe that that goal could actually be achieved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So many of you heard that interview last night. Again, you were incredulous. Hundreds of angry comments. Many of your supported saying thanks for a different voice on CNN. You flooded our inboxes. So tonight I'm joined by Dr. Mark Wright. He is an expert in weight loss. So Dr. Wright, your reaction to what Paul Campos had to say last night.

DR. MARK WRIGHT, WEIGHT LOSS SPECIALIST: I understand Mr. Campos' take, but nonetheless we certainly see that, you know, in this generation children are gaining weight. Their health is affected. It's not so much that we're out there saying you're unhealthy, let's just get healthier. Target it to something. The point is you have to target it to their weight.

We're not trying to make them feel bad about themselves. We're trying to say that you're unhealthy and things are changing. You got to take a stance on it.

LEMON: Doctor, you see where we hear so much about, you know, you got to be a size zero or size whatever and you see the magazines for young, especially young women and young girls. And you can see where there might be concern for that. But because I happen to think as we say big girls, or big guys, I think that's as long as you're healthy, it's fine. Not everybody should be in the same package. I think that might be the concern.

WRIGHT: I think perhaps it is a concern, but nonetheless I don't think we need to compartmentalize that everyone needs to be in this package. At the same time I think it's unrealistic that there's going to be a wave of eating disorders with this initiative.

LEMON: OK.

WRIGHT: I think the health of this generation is getting worse and we need to take a stance and have this initiative.

LEMON: You know, we see lots of people -- as I said, we see people in magazines and we see, you know, the people that we look up to. And many times I look -- eat a cheeseburger, you know what I mean?

WRIGHT: Absolutely.

LEMON: Because people are underweight. So even if you're, you know, let's say 20 pounds or so overweight, how big a difference does that really play in your overall health?

WRIGHT: Overall health, over time a lot. You know, within months at a time probably not a lot. But that 20 pounds is 20 pounds nonetheless. And the effect on your blood pressure, the effect on your liver, the effect on your endocrine system. You know, we're seeing diabetes. What was years ago for years and years and years referred to as adult-onset diabetes is strictly referred to now as type II diabetes. Because it is no longer adult onset. We're seeing that disease which is historically an adult disease in young children.

LEMON: Here's the thing. I think people say, you know, parental responsibility, right? Parental responsibility. If you have a child then you should be responsible for everything that is related to that child, including diet. So when I grew up, if my mom or dad said, don't eat that, then you -- you maybe snuck off when you're a kid because kids are going to do things.

WRIGHT: Absolutely.

LEMON: I think people are saying, should this be something that the government takes -- leads the charge on or is it parental responsibility? Does it start at home? Why is the government saying I should, you know, make my child thinner or make my child healthier? The parents should get involved and they should deal with it. That's what the concern.

WRIGHT: The point is that Michelle Obama has a voice. And there is an issue. Just like Nancy Reagan, she had a voice. There was an issue with drugs. On her, "Just Say No" campaign and it swept across the country and to some degree, I think it worked well.

Michelle Obama has a voice. It has to come from somewhere. And just like the first lady, herself, said, she was shocked. She didn't know what to do. A very, very educated woman and didn't know what to do. That's what I find in my practice. People just don't know what to do. They're sort of overwhelmed by it.

And so, if it can come from somewhere, why not come from the government, why not come from society, you know, the community? Wherever it needs to come from.

LEMON: Wherever it's going to come. I think you make a very good point. Because when we look at, you know, the war on drugs, just say no campaign, or any initiatives -- the literacy campaign. You know, every first lady has an initiative. And if there is a voice and that's a very good point.

Because people -- sometimes people don't see the lens in which they're viewing things from, right?

WRIGHT: Absolutely.

LEMON: And so if someone says something they become outraged just because of the person whose mouth it's coming out. But again, I think there's room for opposing voices. That's what makes America great, right?

WRIGHT: Absolutely.

LEMON: That's what makes us better. Dr. Wright, very stuff.

WRIGHT: Thank you so much.

LEMON: Thank you for coming on. And we thank you again for your comments. Keep them coming. We're going to read more throughout the evening here on CNN. Appreciate it. See, you get results around here.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell and a few of her super friends got together at the start of Fashion Week to strut their stuff for Haiti relief. I asked her about her humanitarian efforts and who did what for the show and her image as well. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NAOMI CAMPBELL, SUPERMODEL: The fashion world coming together, all of the designers in the world, have donated clothes and we have many different people from walks of life, people that you will recognize that you're not used to seeing on the runway.

What's fantastic is the public get to come into the shows, which normally it is not the public. So that makes it even more of a show. And everything gets sold on (INAUDIBLE) Porte on March 15th and all proceeds go to care org, women and children and babies.

LEMON: So what about the models and designers? Are they just like absolutely, we want to do this?

CAMPBELL: I don't accept no for an answer. And so, I mean, you know, they have been amazing, everyone. Especially the designers because they're in the middle of their fall winter 2010 collection to present them. So they're extremely busy. And they have taken the time out to choose and pick the outfits themselves. So for that we are extremely grateful to them for doing that in this busy time.

LEMON: What is your connection to the Haitian people, to people in Haiti? Why did you want to get involved in this, Naomi?

CAMPBELL: Well, I'm a Jamaican heritage, and for me, it is the same. I may not be from Haiti, but I feel like it is my people that I'm looking there and seeing there who are desolate with no place to live. And I am a global ambassador for White Ribbon Alliance which is in partnership with care org. And so for me, women and babies is my concern, it is something -- and children that I've always focused on and that's what I continue to do.

LEMON: Do you think that people in the fashion industry, people in the music business, entertainment in general, celebrities, that they have a responsibility for when things happen like this in the world?

CAMPBELL: I think we have to all -- put it this way, if we can go buy two pairs of shoes that could train someone for a month to have -- to deliver a baby. We lose a mother and a child a minute a day. So I think, you know, we can do without those two pairs of shoes and we can definitely put that money to good use.

LEMON: Listen, you know, I think it is amazing that you're saying this. We know, you know, we hear things, like, oh, this, you know, Naomi happened and you hear the gossip columns and all this. You hear about this, you know, you getting into fights --

CAMPBELL: I'm a controversial girl.

LEMON: You are. So, you know, the whole thing about being arrested, whatever, everybody has a temper. Look, everybody has their thing.

CAMPBELL: I've never denied any of my scrapes.

LEMON: Is this a new Naomi then that we're seeing?

CAMPBELL: It's not -- I can't say it is a new Naomi. I'm definitely a more mature Naomi and I feel a calm in my life. But I have been working with children since 1993. I started with Nelson Mandela in South Africa. So it is just something that I care to do for me. It wasn't something that I cared to do for public adulation.

And in terms of Fashion for Relief, because we are the fashion world and this only works tonight, because of everyone's collaboration, effort and time. Otherwise it wouldn't work. It could be an idea, but it wouldn't take action. And action is because we're all coming together, because we want to.

LEMON: Listen, I have to tell you when I was living in New York, a while back, and sort of poor and struggling and I saw this Alexander McQueen suit and said, oh my gosh, that is most beautiful suit I've ever seen. I had it for 10 years now and it is still in fashion, it --

CAMPBELL: Keep it. Keep it. It is now going to be a collector's item.

LEMON: Yes. You're a good friend. How are you doing?

CAMPBELL: I do miss him, like everybody does and we have lost a really genius and great designer in our world. And more than anything I've lost a very close friend.

LEMON: Naomi Campbell, thank you so much. We really appreciate it.

CAMPBELL: Thank you. LEMON: And we know he was your good friend and it was tough for you. Hey, thank you so much. This is the Naomi Campbell that they don't talk about in the gossip columns. So and we like this. Thank you, Naomi.

CAMPBELL: You're welcome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Hey, we have a quick programming note for you. CNN continues its investigation of the most challenging issues facing African-Americans with "Black in America 2." You can watch our Soledad O'Brien report tonight. It's right here at the top of the hour. Make sure you tune in for that.

And you might have expected it. Even the weather has Washington talking politics. Some conservatives are saying the region's recent snowy weather debunks lies, they say, about global warming. We're going to talk to the science guy, Bill Nye, to find out what he says about climate change. There he is right there. I'm sure you have a lot to say. Nod. There you go. Don't say it. After the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Time now for your top stories.

A disturbing story that's just in to CNN. We're getting word of a shooting inside a church in Richmond, California. Police say three men wearing hoods entered a church, they cased it out and later returned during services and they opened fire. About 100 people were Interviewer: he church at the time. Two teenagers, ages 14 and 19, were wounded in this. We're told their wounds are not life threatening, though. Thankfully. The suspects are all still at large. CNN will continue to follow this story and bring you more details when we get them in here.

Also, a check of our top stories right now. You're getting a glimpse, a rare glimpse at a Japanese CEO accepting responsibility for his company in a very personal way. Toyota president Akia Toyoda bows and apologizes to a Prius customer yesterday at a dealership in Japan. The Prius is one of four Toyota vehicles that have been recalled in recent weeks.

General Stanley McChrystal today apologized to Afghan President Hamid Karzai of the accidental killing of 12 Afghan civilians in Helmand province. Two rockets fired by coalition troops at a Taliban position apparently went astray and hit the civilians. The accident happened as 15,000 U.S., NATO and Afghan forces battle a Taliban stronghold in the town of Marjah.

Secretary of state Hillary Clinton is calling on Iran to rethink its nuclear policies or risk sanctions. She made the comments today at the World Economic Forum in Qatar. She also updated the delegates on the condition of her husband, recovering from surgery to clear a blocked artery in his heart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: He is in great shape, all is well or I would not be here this evening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Secretary Clinton also said forging a peace deal between Palestinians and Israelis is a priority.

Two big snowstorms in the nation's capital. And political tongues are wagging. Conservatives have been bashing former vice president Al Gore and other climate change advocates and they are having a lot of fun doing it. They say the colder than normal winter and snowier than normal winter prove positive that global warming is a bunch of huey. But is their criticism fair. Let's get the answers now from the science guys, Mr. Bill Nye, always good to see you. So, you know --

BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY: Good to see you.

LEMON: You know, everything about climate change -- so Republicans, you know, they have really been bashing the former vice president. I want to show you Senator Jim Demint, what he posted in his twitter pages. He says, "it's going to keep snowing in D.C. until Al Gore cries uncle. And then another representative has a tweet right there. Represent Jim Inhofe from Oklahoma said photos' on his Facebook said "Al Gore's new home, a six-foot igloo. The family built it on Capitol Hill." Right there. So what do you make of this? Does this disprove global warming? Or it this over the top? What do you think?

NYE: Well, I'd start with what do you think? Absolutely not. It does not disprove climate change. Global warming, coming back up, is sort of the first term that was coined 15 years ago, let's say, 1988 when it was first testified, Jim Hanson (ph) testified in front of Congress, let's say. But since then people have used the expression climate change because warming in a global sense is certainly happening. But it's the changes that happen locally. Like, for example, this year, the jet stream is much farther south than you might expect.

It's snowing in Atlanta right and that absolutely does not disprove climate change. I mean the people are making these claims, I think is really remarkable. Let me ask you as a journalist, do you really think that the conservative pundits who have been, if you will, having so much fun with this, that's what you said -- do they really believe that or are they just messing around? I can't tell.

LEMON: I have no idea. I don't know any of them personally enough to ask them. You know, I'm just reporting what I see and I know it's been a big deal on a lot of different networks. So listen, we all have our own theories and in some way, you can sort of see people, you can draw a connection because it's colder and there's more snow.

NYE: Well, is it really colder? When I was young in Washington, D.C. -- we walked 12 miles in the snow to school and it was zero degrees.

We had a blizzard in the winter of 1967, 1968, and I remembered delivering the "Washington Post" and feel on a snow drift and walked off a wall. I fell in a snowdrift that was taller than I was. I mean, I was a little kid. But it was quite a remarkable thing.

And also I used to go ice skating. I learned to ice skate in the C&O Canal in Washington, D.C.. My father told the story many times skating from Georgetown down to what's called the Navy Yard, where Abraham Lincoln used to get on boats to inspect the troops and so on. So this is -- none of these stuff is exactly anything to do with the blizzard this year and none of it has anything to do exactly with the world getting warmer and the world's climate changing.

LEMON: OK. Mr. Science Guy, hang on a little bit. I'm not going to stop you here. I just want to bring in our Jacqui Jeras, who is our meteorologist here. And we talked about this a little bit when we were discussing. Should we get Bill Nye on? What should we do?

So Jacqui is going to join us. Finish your thought and I'm going to let Jacqui ask you a question real quick.

NYE: You can't look at two weeks of weather and then declare that all of the research has been done and all of the climate models are not valid. That's just not how you would draw conclusions. Occasionally somebody will spend a roulette wheel and get a double zero and that happens very, very seldom. So I mentioned that as an analogy.

LEMON: OK.

NYE: Two weeks of weather is not enough.

LEMON: Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I absolutely agree, Bill. Regardless of what you think about climate change, you have to look at the word climate, right? And that's the wrong term weather that you would expect over a place. And so you can't say one storm or two storms even means that global warming isn't happening. On top of that, we had incredible snowfall totals with these storms.

You know, five different major metropolitan areas had more so than they have seen in one season. Now, when air is warmer, you tend to hold more moisture in it. So you get a blizzard and 30 degrees, you're going to get a lot more snow than in a blizzard where you had temperature down at 18 degrees because it's drier air. In a way, we could almost disapprove that. You know, I get asked all the time, it's cold out there. Does it mean that global warming isn't happening?

Well, I do thinking people kind of say that tongue and cheek.

LEMON: He, I got tot tell you. Our viewers are weighing in here, Bill and Jacqui. And here is one person says, she says "climate change and weather are not the same thing." Besides, it's called climate change. I'll give you the last word, Bill.

NYE: Well, I have a question for Jacqui. Has it really been colder or is it just been cold enough to have snow instead of rain?

LEMON: Quick answer, Jacqui.

JERAS: Well, I did a little bit of research. Many of those big cities have had colder than normal temperatures for the last two weeks but almost every single of those same cities have had above average temperatures in January.

LEMON: All right.

JERAS: The coldest January on record, yes.

NYE: Thank you all very much.

LEMON: Thank you. Very good (INAUDIBLE)

NYE: (INAUDIBLE) and try to get everybody to understand this issue.

LEMON: Thank you.

JERAS: There you go.

LEMON: Thank you, Bill. It's good to see you. So there you go, two experts say no. It doesn't dispute anything. All right. Valentine's day not over yet. Still looking for a date? Well, we found a website that is as close to cupid as you can get.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK. So listen pay attention. WE know it's Valentine's day. Some of you have Valentine's, some of you don't. So here's a way to get one. The internet, full of dating website, right? You see the TV commercials but sometimes a simply thing in your profile can derail your best efforts. Okcupid is a free web site that has figured out what works best in getting positive results or positive response,. For Valentine's day, I spoke with Sam Yagan, one of the founders of okcupid.com. Take a listen and also take some notes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: I thought it was very interesting when I read about your site. You do things differently than most people. You tell people what kind of pictures they should put up, what will help their success rate, more so than other site. You've perfected this art of online dating.

SAM YAGAN, CEO OKCUPID.COM: That's right. We think we've come as close to perfection as anyone that is going to get. And what we've done is instead of relying on psychologists who tell you what's best for you, we simply looked at the million of interactions that are happening on our site every single day. We aggregate all the data and then we publish that data right back to our users. And we can actually look at the successes that are happening on the site.

LEMON: All right. Let's get to it then. What do you tell people? You say -- what I found was interesting. Today, you tell men, don't smile, don't look in the camera. You know, maybe you can show your abs, or whatever. Why do you say that?

YAGAN: So the key thing for a man when he's choosing what photo to use on his profile is to be accessible. If a man looks straight into the camera, he risks being intimated to the women on the side. So if you look just off camera --we definitely recommend that you have a pet or a guitar or something interesting to help generate that conversation?

LEMON: And for women?

YAGAN: And for women, the key is to look flirty. Just like when you were at a bar, you want to sort of get that person engaged. But if you're going to look flirty, look right into the camera. If you look off camera, the guys are going to wonder who you're flirting with.

LEMON: Yes. And you have science behind this.

YAGAN: That's right. We've analyzed 10s and thousands of pictures. We've tagged each one and we know which picture drives the best responses.

LEMON: OK. Hobbies, good. What about alcohol, bad?

YAGAN: Alcohol, bad. It sends absolutely the wrong message. If the best picture you can find of yourself is you drinking, that's probably not what the other person is looking for.

LEMON: OK. What do you think people are looking for most? Long-term relationships? Or they just want to date and not be lonely?

YAGAN: I think if you're looking. That's going to vary across age and across time of year. I think around Valentine's Day, I think people are looking not to be lonely. But I think as people get older and older, definitely people switch to more serious relationships.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. Very interesting stuff. Hey, listen, thank you for joining us this evening. I just want to tell you real quickly, the Bill Nye segment we got a lot of tweets. Awesome neighbor Bill Nye, the Science guy laying some global warming real- time on. Don Lemon, CNN. Go Bill, go.

So appreciate you joining us. See you back here at 10: p.m. Eastern. Good night.