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Alexander Haig Dies; Last Day for CPAC Members Meeting in Washington; Interview With Elisabeth Preval, First Lady of Haiti

Aired February 20, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. From CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, this is CNN Saturday morning. It's February 20th. Good morning. Thanks for joining us. I'm Betty Nguyen.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Drew Griffin in for T.J. Holmes this morning. 10 a.m. here in Atlanta and in the nation's capital, 9 in Chicago.

NGUYEN: We have some breaking news out of Baltimore. Former secretary of state Alexander Haig has passed away. The former army general was a key player in the Nixon and Reagan administrations. We'll have more on his life in just a moment.

GRIFFIN: Meanwhile, the nation's governors are gathering this morning for the National Governors' Association in Washington. First Lady Michelle Obama set to give the opening speech. That's going to happen in about an hour from now.

NGUYEN: And speaking of first ladies, the First Lady of Haiti, Elizabeth Preval, will join us from Port-au-Prince. We'll look at the recovery and rebuilding efforts more than a month after January's deadly earthquake.

GRIFFIN: Alexander Haig was every bit a four-star general on as well as off the field. He spent years in the White House as an adviser to three U.S. presidents never achieving, though, his own goal of becoming the commander in chief.

NGUYEN: This morning the 85-year-old passed away with his family by his side. CNN's Wolf Blitzer takes a look at a man America will long remember.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDER HAIG, FMR. SECRETARY OF STATE: So, now I am in control here in the White House.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: In the confusion after President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Alexander Haig Jr., his dynamic secretary of state, unintentionally put himself in a tough spot. Haig said he wasn't bypassing the rules of constitutional succession, just trying to manage the crisis until the vice president arrived. The criticism that followed was relentless. Many say it doomed Haig's political ambitions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Especially the way it was presented by the media and with some assistance from the White House staff.

BLITZER: But Haig had practiced dealing with turmoil. As White House chief of staff during Richard Nixon's presidency, he had a hand in crisis management during the Watergate scandal. Nixon, as history notes, facing certain impeachment over the scandal, resigned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out your notebook. There's more.

BLITZER: For a time, there was even a thought that Haig might have been deep throat, the mysterious character depicted in the movie "All the President's Men," that leaked the information to reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you thought I'd help?

BLITZER: Something he consistently denied.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I concluded it was probably a high official in the FBI.

BLITZER: Haig spent more than 30 years in the U.S. army, fighting in Korea and Vietnam. Among the honors in his highly decorated military career, the distinguished service cross for heroism in combat in Vietnam. He was the supreme allied commander of NATO forces in Europe for five years.

As Reagan's secretary of state, Haig tried to mediate between Britain and Argentina to head off a war over the Falkland Islands in 1982. But his attempt at shuttle diplomacy failed. Haig was considered a hawk on foreign policy in the Reagan administration that often put him at odds with other voices who had the president's ear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem was that some of his palace guard had other axes to grind.

BLITZER: It eventually led to his departure, after just 18 months on the job.

RONALD REAGAN, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With great regret, I have accepted the resignation of secretary of state Al Haig.

BLITZER: He disagreed with the president's controversial plan on aid to the contras and opposed Reagan's handling of Iran.

HAIG: When I left the administration because I couldn't bring those differences into any meaningful change.

BLITZER: Haig often liked to say he had served seven presidents. In 1988, the retired four-star army general decided he wanted the job for himself. He was considered a dark risk for the Republican nomination and pulled out before the New Hampshire primary. Friends say Haig was one heck of a guy and he wholeheartedly agreed.

HAIG: Inside this exterior of militant, turf-conscious, excessively ambitious demeanor is a heart as big as all outdoors.

BLITZER: Wolf Blitzer, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Alexander Haig passed away, according to his family, at John Hopkins Hospital. David Gergen, our political analyst, is on the phone from Boston. And David, you know Mr. Haig. You knew him very well.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I had the good fortune to know him. I worked with him in the 1970s in the Nixon White House when he was chief of staff. I reported directly to him. And I knew him then again in the Reagan years and worked with him when he was secretary of state and actually in the room, in the pressroom, he blurted out that famous line about he was this -- something of a burden to him the rest of his professional life.

I thought the Wolf Blitzer obituary captured him well. He was highly decorated. My own sense is that he has been underappreciated. There was a time during the Watergate crisis when the president -- President Nixon was nearly incapacitated. He had a hard time focusing, so obviously obsessed with the scandal and the gathering storm around him.

And I watched Al Haig almost single-handedly run the White House and, in effect, keep the government moving. I thought it was a great act of statesmanship and service to the country so that when George Schulz said overnight after Al Haig's death that, you know, whatever else you thought about him or agreed or disagreed, he was a patriot's patriot and however you sliced it, he always came out red, white, and blue.

GRIFFIN: There are some as aspects of his life I didn't know, a 60-year marriage. To have that in Washington, D.C., is quite a novelty.

GERGEN: Well, it is. That was a very close relationship for sure.

GRIFFIN: Yeah. In my generation, David, I kind of grew up and became an adult as he was in the White House. He always appeared somewhat as the boogeyman or a boogeyman, this mysterious figure. But from Wolf's piece, from what I've read about him since then, he wasn't. He wasn't a cold person.

GERGEN: He wasn't cold. He was combustible. And he could be volatile. But he was very tough. He was first and foremost a soldier. And, you know, he spent many years, and as Wolf said, he was decorated for his combat heroism both in Korea and in Vietnam. And then he became sort of a Washington figure, you know, a general who had joined the government.

And as President Nixon moved him up from a two-star to a four- star and he was right alongside Henry Kissinger, but he had -- because he was also very tightlipped around the press, he did maintain a certain secrecy about him I think, and he was inaccessible. But I found him -- I must say, I just -- I really came of age watching him during the Nixon period up close, and I just thought he handled that extremely well.

He had much more trouble and he got the sort of sinister reputation when he was secretary of state under Ronald Reagan and there was, as he himself has claimed, there was a -- there were great tensions in that administration over him.

There was a sense in the White House that he was grabbing too much power. He wanted to be the, quote, vicar of foreign policy and there was a lot of pushback from the White House on that. He felt that he had been guaranteed by Ronald Reagan a role as a strong secretary of state, and the reins of power would be in his hands. He resented the White House staff trying to manage him.

GRIFFIN: You have worked for many presidents as he did. You also have worked for many people who have wanted to be president. He certainly wanted to be president. But the rest of the nation may have felt that that was very overly ambitious for this person. Did he, in your opinion, have the wherewithal to be a president, not just to get elected but to actually be the president?

GERGEN: I think he would have been a very good chief executive, certainly decisive. It just never seemed to me there was a path there. You've got to -- you have to build a political, you know, change. You've got to be politically attractive. And it's a very slippery pole trying to climb up to the presidency. And that was not his personality.

He was -- you know, it's like a Lee Iacocca who was famously successful as CEO of Chrysler. You couldn't imagine him walking through the snows of New Hampshire to go door to door asking for votes, nor could you imagine Al Haig sleeping in holiday inns for several months.

Those kind of larger-than-life personalities, we look at them and in one way you look at them, they're like very attractive for leadership and the presidency, but then you look at the hard reality of how you become president and you realize this isn't a good fit.

Al Haig served his country extremely well in the uniform. He served his country I thought very well as chief of staff to Richard Nixon at a time of crisis. He was less suited for the presidency.

GRIFFIN: All right. David Gergen from Boston this morning, thanks for getting up this morning as we remember Al Haig, who died today, 85 years old.

GERGEN: Thank you.

NGUYEN: Well, Al Haig was a Republican heavyweight. His party now meaning to set strategy for the next structure, the conservative political action conference, and on the agenda crucial midterm elections. CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is in Washington this morning. Paul, we'll get to what's on the agenda today but I imagine some early word is starting to spread about Haig's passing. PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yeah. I've reached out to the organizers here. So far nobody on the podium has mentioned Haig yet, but I have a feeling he will be mentioned later today. He was beloved by many people here who knew him back in the '80s and the Nixon administration. But today the main thing on the agenda here of course for this crowd is to take back Congress come November. That's what conservatives want to do.

Another thing, though, they are looking ahead to 2012, as well, and they're going to have a straw poll here and we'll see results this afternoon. Take a look at this, Betty. 11 names on that straw poll, and some are very familiar like Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, who ran for the White House last time around, Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, so we'll see the results of this straw poll about 5:30 today and Mitt Romney has won the last three straw polls. Be interesting to see how he does this time, how Sarah Palin does this time.

Another person on that list, former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. He was speaking to the crowd earlier today not only going after the Democrats, that's understandable, but also going after the previous administration and the Republicans who controlled Congress earlier last decade.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANTORUM, FMR. PENNSYLVANIA SENATOR: I grew up in one of those poor, small towns in western Pennsylvania that candidate Barack Obama talked about during the Democratic primary. So let me put the words in language that us bitter folks that cling to our guns and religion can understand. Mr. President, America is the hope and you can keep the change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: That got an applause out of the crowd, Rick Santorum talking about an incident from the 2008 campaign when Barack Obama was in those primaries with Hillary Clinton. We'll hear a lot more language like that today. We've heard it the last couple days. This crowd is energized compared to last year.

NGUYEN: No doubt. Paul Steinhauser joining us live. Thank you for that.

We're going to shift gears and talk about this right now, temporary tent cities in Haiti. They aren't going anywhere, it seems. Haiti's government says it could take five or six months before more permanent shelters are set up. It seems there is a shortage of land to build those new communities.

More than a million people were left homeless by the quake, the majority in the capital of Port-au-Prince. Now, for the children of Haiti, it'll take more than just a roof to help them move forward from this tragedy. No one is more aware of that than Haiti's first lady. She is partnering with nonprofit groups to help these children heal emotionally.

And first lady Elisabeth Preval joins me now from Port-au-Prince. Thanks so much for spending time with us. The first thing I want to ask you is how are the people of Haiti recovering now that it's been over a month since this tragedy?

ELISABETH DELATOUR PREVAL, FIRST LADY OF HAITI: I would like to thank CNN first for inviting me to talk about this situation of the children in Haiti, and I would like to also thank the world in general for this response provided for the initial relief. As far as the situation of the children right now, it remains very precarious.

We still have about -- in the camp, the camps which are around the Port-au-Prince area, about half a million -- half a million children which for the time being do not have any infrastructure to be able to attend any informal or formal type of school. And there is also about 200,000 kids which have migrated from the Port-au-Prince area towards other area which have not been directly affected by the earthquake.

So, therefore, I am -- I have been working with the forum of Haitian psychologists which are a great help from several organizations such as UNICEF, such as the Worldvision, OEM, and we are also working in coordination with the ministry of education to see how we can provide some sort of an immediate response.

NGUYEN: Well, what specifically -- Miss Preval, what specifically is being provided to these children, especially when it comes to emotional support?

PREVAL: Yes. We have an emotional this psychosocial program which has been designed with the help of all of these bodies and the ministry of education. And this program will -- is officially starting on Wednesday. And this program will provide some sort of informal education as to art, recreation, sport, and also we would provide some psychological support to children which are already in a state of aftershock trauma. So that program aims particularly at children to deal with the state of traumatic situation.

NGUYEN: And these are the places you've been talking about to provide the music, the sports, the art so that you create essentially a safe place for children who have been living in these camps, you say half a million of them.

I want to bring in Linda Mason of the Mercy Corps. She's working hand in hand with the first lady there. And give us an idea of how you're helping these children in the long term. It's one thing to set up a program, but how long will that last, and will there be some long-term programs there to continue this aid?

LINDA MASON, MERCY CORPS: Yes. You know, this crisis has hit at the core of children's lives. They don't have the perspective and the judgment to really process it well. So Mercy Corps in conjunction with Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a child care provider, has created a comfort for kids program where while the children are playing in these set tent areas that Madame Preval mentioned. We'll take the parents and put them through a 2 1/2-hour counseling program to help them understand what their children are going through, what kind of behaviors they can expect to see, and how they can help their children process this crisis.

NGUYEN: It's going to take a lot of work. I want to get back to the first lady of Haiti. Miss Preval, I want to ask you this specifically -- can the government of Haiti emerge from this quake? Because there's been a lot of criticism about its ineffectiveness and essentially it being absent following the quake. Will it emerge stronger now?

PREVAL: Can you repeat again the question?

NGUYEN: Yes. I was asking, will this government, the Haitian government, emerge from this tragedy a stronger government? Because there's been a lot of criticism that it was ineffective and essentially absent following the earthquake.

PREVAL: Well, I have been hearing this criticism from day one. But I think this criticism are not appropriate. The government, I can confirm, has been working a lot with the -- in cooperation with the international organizations, and the problem is the size of the problem, the magnitude of the problem. We talk about essentially three departments that have been seriously damaged.

When you take Port-au-Prince, for instance, 95 percent of the infrastructure has collapsed including state authorities have collapsed. In terms of schools, for instance, we have lost near to 5,000 schools. So -- in the humanitarian -- the it was to bring support and save the life of the people right up to the earthquake.

Hopefully after 38 days we can say that food is flowing normally. We can say that medical supplies, medical assistance is being given normally. What we are lagging behind is probably the situation of ...

NGUYEN: Oh. I believe -- well, we lost our shot there. I had a few more things I wanted to ask the first lady of Haiti, joining us from Port-au-Prince. Linda Mason with the mercy corps joining us, as well. If we can get it back, we will. But I do appreciate them spending a little time with us today.

In the meantime, we'll move on to this while we try to work that out. Fasten your seat belts.

GRIFFIN: Yes, we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Checking our top stories now, former U.S. secretary of state Alexander Haig has died. The 85-year-old former four-star general passed away around 1:30 eastern this morning at Baltimore's John Hopkins Hospital. He had been admitted to the hospital last month for an undisclosed illness. Haig served in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations. He also had his own bid for the White House in 1988. Al Haig dead at 85. GRIFFIN: Poor judgment but no misconduct. That is the decision from the justice department on the Bush administration attorneys. They were looking into memos authorizing enhanced interrogation techniques like water boarding but the chairman of the committee says that is not enough and holds a hearing next week.

NGUYEN: Earlier this week he said no way. The house oversight committee is looking into the accelerator recalls and wants Toyota to testify. He had refused the request earlier this week, and they want to know what took so long. Well, it's one of three Congressional hearings on Toyota scheduled for the next two weeks.

GRIFFIN: That is it. There is no snow shutdown in Washington. Right, Reynolds?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Washington, D.C., and snow, how could those two go together? Goodness gracious. We've had plenty of snow in the nation's capital, no question, and there is a shot we could see snow later on in the week. Today the heavy snowfall is going to be right smack dab in the central Rockies.

Let me show you something. Here you have it. You see where it says heavy snow. You also see something else, this big "l," which stands for an area of low pressure. Think of this as being a giant weather machine. Wind spins counterclockwise around that low brings in cold air from the north behind it. We have again some moisture feeding in from the Gulf of Mexico, and we put those together, that's going to give you the heavy snowfall.

The highest peaks maybe a foot, many other places less but the big issue with this storm is it will drive its way to the central plains eventually bringing heavy snow and maybe ice to parts of Kansas, Nebraska, back into Iowa and even into Missouri, which is awful news for those folks because we bring in the possibility of ice and you have some winds coupled with that, think of the tree branches and power lines as we get into late tonight, get into tomorrow, into Sunday, a chance for widespread power outages.

If you happen to live in parts of Kansas City or even Missouri or Nebraska, Iowa, you might want to go to the grocery story and pack up on some supplies. Certainly good advice for you.

In terms of the temperatures, you want real good news? Well go to Miami, 73 degrees, not bad at all, 44 in Boston. Much of the eastern seaboard will be nice and quiet today including the nation's capital, 45 the expected high, 33 in Denver, 57 in Las Vegas, L.A., 62 degrees. You had some rain yesterday. There were some evacuations because of areas where you have the threat of mud slides. You should get a break later on today but possibly more rain back in the forecast for Sunday.

That is a quick look at your forecast and of course we're going to have more coming up throughout the morning. You're watching CNN Saturday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) GRIFFIN: Here's a question that all sorts of organizations face, how do you get people to do something important but not preaching to them.

NGUYEN: Well, one man came up with an answer that has turned into a worldwide phenomenon. Our Josh Levs joins us now with that. This is really interesting.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is. I was stunned by this video. This started as a message to get people to wear their seat belts and it became a video that's being praised by people around the world for its beauty. Here it is.

Gets me every time. It's from this organization called the Sussex Safer Road Partnership and I have a web page from that group. It's a group in England. It was the brainchild of a director who actually came to them and cared about this issue and said I have an idea for a unique kind of video that could help inspire people to start wearing their seat belts. I got on Skype and I spoke with the director about his inspiration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL COX, DIRECTOR, "EMBRACE LIFE": The inspiration for embrace life came from wanting to offer a positive message for road safety, really. A lot of the campaigns focus on the more graphic and horrific outcomes of accidents, whereas I really wanted to bring people into the conversation.

It's a safety area, an area where you're normally surrounded by your loved ones, the house, and your car can be an extension of that. It's not only yourself that's impacted if something goes wrong but also family and friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: Since we are talking about this issue, I want to give you a few statistics quickly. This is from the national highway traffic safety administration. Seat belt use reduces risk of fatal injury 45 percent in this country. It's credited with saving more than 13,000 lives in 2008. And seat belt use is up to 84 percent as of last year, so it has been increasing every year.

I posted the full video for you and more information at my pages, CNN.com/Josh. Betty, Drew, I was looking at some comments we're already getting, people stunned by that video and hopefully it will make a difference.

NGUYEN: That's very powerful. That it is. Thank you, Josh. Do appreciate that.

I want to paint a scenario for you. The busiest travel day of the year at one of the country's biggest hubs, all right? Now, an airline pilot is given bad directions from the control tower, sending his plane into the path of several other jets. We're going to show you what happened next. GRIFFIN: Plus, Philadelphia area school district -- oh, they're in trouble, possibly watching students a little too closely. We'll have that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: A breaking news this morning, as Alexander Haig passed away. The four-star general's family was at his side in a Baltimore hospital. He apparently died of complications from an infection. He'd been hospitalized for weeks.

NGUYEN: Yes. Haig was the White House Chief of Staff during the Watergate scandal. He was Secretary of State when Ronald Reagan was shot, and also served under President Gerald Ford.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer takes a look at a man America will long remember.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HAIG: As of now, I am in control here in the White House.

BLITZER (voice-over): In the confusion after President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Alexander Meigs Haig Jr., his dynamic Secretary of State, unintentionally put himself in a tough spot. Haig said he wasn't bypassing the rules of constitutional succession, just trying to manage the crisis until the vice president arrived.

The criticism that followed was relentless. Many say it doomed Haig's political ambitions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Especially the way it was presented by the media and -- and with some assistance from the White House staff.

BLITZER: But Haig had practice dealing with turmoil. As White House Chief of Staff during Richard Nixon's presidency, he had a hand in crisis management during the Watergate Scandal.

Nixon, as history notes, facing certain impeachment over the scandal, resigned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out your notebook. There's more.

BLITZER: For a time, there was even a thought that Haig might have been "Deep Throat", the mysterious character depicted in the movie "All the President's Men" that leaked the information to reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you thought I'd help?

BLITZER: Something he consistently denied.

HAIG: I concluded it was probably a high official in the FBI.

BLITZER: Haig spent more than 30 years in the U.S. Army, fighting in Korea and Vietnam. Among the honors in his highly decorated military career, the distinguished Service Cross for Heroism in combat in Vietnam. He was the supreme allied commander of NATO forces in Europe for five years.

As Reagan's Secretary of State, Haig tried to mediate between Britain and Argentina to head off a war over the Falkland Islands in 1982. But his attempt at shuttle diplomacy failed. Haig was considered a hawk on foreign policy in the Reagan administration that often put him at odds with other voices who had the president's ear.

HAIG: The problem was that some of his palace guard had other axes to grind.

BLITZER: It eventually led to his departure, after just 18 months on the job.

REAGAN: With great regret, I have accepted the resignation of Secretary of State Al Haig.

BLITZER: He disagreed with the president's controversial plan on aid to the Contras and opposed Reagan's handling of Iran.

HAIG: And I left the administration because I couldn't bring those differences into any meaningful change.

BLITZER: Haig often liked to say he had served seven presidents.

In 1988, the retired four-star army general decided he wanted the job for himself. He was considered a dark horse for the Republican presidential nomination...

HAIG: (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: ... and pulled out before the New Hampshire primary.

Friends say Haig was one heck of a guy, and he wholeheartedly agreed.

HAIG: Inside this exterior of militant, turf-conscious, excessively ambitious demeanor is a heart as big as all outdoors.

BLITZER: Wolf Blitzer, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, CNN has obtained a recording that anyone who flies will find unnerving.

GRIFFIN: Yes. On it, you can hear air-traffic controllers scrambling to avert an in-flight collision between two planes.

CNN's Brian Todd has it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Look up near any major airport and you'll see them -- lines of planes in the sky on approach, seemingly not much margin for error, and in one recent incident a frightening near miss.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traffic at 1:00, in four miles.

TODD: Newly released audio recordings and radar images reveal one passenger plane steering right toward a line of others. It happened as the planes were approaching Denver's airport just before Thanksgiving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 1539, traffic alert. Traffic -- 1:00, less than 2 miles at same altitude. Descend immediately.

TODD: CNN obtained the sound and radar images from the FAA. The story was first reported by CNN's Denver affiliate KMGH.

On that busy day, a line of planes approaching the Denver airport was directed over a fixed position on the ground, then funneled into something like a highway in the sky. That fixed position and that highway route over Denver are both named Sayge.

A Republic Airlines flight, code named "Brickyard", was flying parallel to that line and had already passed the fixed position, according to FAA officials. After he questioned the controller's guidance, the pilot proceeded, making something close to a u-turn, right toward the oncoming traffic, and narrowly flew behind one of the planes in line.

As he veered, a controller caught the error and scrambled.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's heading back towards Sayge? Brickyard? Turn left and descend immediately.

I don't care what altitude. Descend. You got traffic off your right.

TODD: FAA officials tell us the Republic Airlines plane missed one of the planes in line by less than two miles and had descended 200 feet below it. I asked retired commercial pilot Mark Weiss just how close that was.

TODD (on camera): The plane in orange is the one that is directed to fly to the fixed point. He crosses paths with the other two planes, essentially, flying behind one and just ahead of another, almost the same altitude, a little less than two miles apart at 700 miles an hour. What's the scenario there for a collision?

MARK WEISS, THE SPECTRUM GROUP: Well, the opportunity for something catastrophic obviously exists, and it exists in very fast time. I mean, the closure rate of aircraft at that speed is only a couple of seconds.

TODD (voice-over): But FAA officials insist, even if no evasive action had been taken, the planes would not have collided. (on camera): Still, the FAA's preliminary investigation indicates this was an operational error on the part of an air-traffic controller.

Brian Todd, CNN, at Reagan National Airport.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Well, it's not every day that educators are accused of cyber spying, but that's what some students in Pennsylvania's Lower Merion School District say has happened, with school-issued laptops that have those cameras that can be secretly activated.

The school system says it's only used those webcams to locate missing or stolen computers that are owned by the school district.

A federal lawsuit filed against that school system suggests otherwise, alleging the privacy of students has been compromised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody's pretty disgusted. We all -- we all have the -- the computers and they're around all the time and...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a little scary that they may be spying on us, but I don't really know if that's true or anything, so we'll have to see how it turns out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do I trust the school district when they've done something like this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Both the local district attorney and the FBI are reportedly investigating the spying claim.

Here's what you do, Betty. You get some gum...

NGUYEN: OK.

GRIFFIN: ... and you just stick it right on there.

NGUYEN: Right there?

GRIFFIN: Right on that camera.

NGUYEN: And it seals it off.

GRIFFIN: End of story.

NGUYEN: Yes, but that's if you had known about it. For those who didn't know...

GRIFFIN: Well, now you do.

NGUYEN: Yes, now you do. Well, now they're probably returning those computers.

Well, the day's top stories when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Early this morning, Alexander Haig passed away. The four-star general apparently died of complications from an infection, have been hospitalized for weeks according to his family.

Haig was the White House Chief of Staff during the Watergate Scandal. He was Secretary of State when Ronald Reagan was shot and also served under President Gerald Ford. Eventually tried to become a president himself.

Bill Bennett served in the Reagan administration as Secretary of Education. He joins us live now from Washington from CPAC.

Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us. First of all, just your thoughts on...

BILL BENNETT, FORMER REAGAN ADMINISTRATION CABINET MEMBER: My pleasure.

GRIFFIN: ... on the passing of this, really, a military man who -- who became a -- an aide to three presidents.

BENNETT: You're right. He was a military man, and this is forgotten. Of course, people like to talk about the "I'm in charge" issue and so on, and, you know, that was the 15 seconds of fame around the world when Al Haig said that after the shooting.

But he was a loyal man, a loyal soldier, a patriot, very distinguished service in Vietnam and Korea, much decorated for valor -- an impressive man. I got to know him some, liked him, admired him. He was always a little out of fit, I thought, with the political dimension, being a military guy, but he was a smart and able guy and a strong Reagan supporter.

GRIFFIN: Funny you should mention that. I was talking to David Gergen earlier in this broadcast and he said, you know -- you know, I had wanted to be president. He probably would have been a good chief of -- executive, David said, but he just couldn't get the politicking down.

BENNETT: Yes. He couldn't get the music right. He -- he was used to being in command. He was used to kind of the discipline and ethos of the military and, of course, civilian life and civilian politics is different.

But he served his country well, and for that he should be remembered. I always say take a man in the totality of his actions, and if you look at Al Haig and the totality of his actions, he comes out very well.

GRIFFIN: You have written about ethics, morals and where this country is heading, et cetera. The one thing that I can't remember about Al Haig is any kind of scandal that he was personally involved in. Maybe some missteps, some bad quotes, some stumbles here and there, but no scandals in this man's life. Is that correct?

BENNETT: I can't -- I can't recall any. I don't recall any press conference with a, you know, carefully massaged statement for the press of apology. I don't think that ever happened.

He carried himself well. He carried himself with dignity and honor, and so he'll be remembered.

GRIFFIN: Yes. We -- we should not -- we should remember him. He has really served this country throughout his entire life both militarily, politically, et cetera.

Let me ask you a few questions, if I may, Mr. Secretary, about where you are at, CPAC.

BENNETT: Yes, sure.

GRIFFIN: There's a lot of people there that want to be president as well, but is anybody standing out at this point in this year, as you look ahead, as somebody who could actually do it?

BENNETT: Oh, I think there are a lot of people who could do it, a lot of people here and elsewhere. I think we have a very strong bench.

I heard Rick Santorum this morning, Mike Pence, Tim Pawlenty. Mitt Romney, of course, was here. We'll be hearing from others, and then there's a host of other people. You look at our governors out there, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal. It's, I think, a very -- a very strong group.

We don't need to pick a -- a new leader yet. What you need to do is to nurture this energy, this passion that is just front and center at this CPAC meeting. I've been to many of these conservative political action committee meetings. This place is charged, believe me.

People have a cause. They have several causes, and I've -- I've not seen a group so big and so fired up.

GRIFFIN: All right. Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us, talking about Al Haig.

BENNETT: You bet.

GRIFFIN: I know we were going to talk about CPAC, but, you know, news intervenes. But we thank you so much for coming in.

BENNETT: That's fine.

GRIFFIN: Thank you, sir.

BENNETT: Thank you.

GRIFFIN: And...

NGUYEN: And coming up here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING -- hey, there, Drew -- we've got more on an alternative to spring break for some school kids. Stay with us for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, spring break right around the corner, and traditionally a time for college students to let loose. But some are doing it a bit of a different way, putting away the sunscreen and beer bong for a hammer and nails.

Richelle Carey explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHELLE CAREY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Spring break usually means a good time at the beach.

Georgia Tech junior Lauren Jones is going to the beach, but not to party.

LAUREN JONES, COLLEGE STUDENT: I'm going to be building houses in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, for Habitat for Humanity.

CAREY: Many groups offer volunteer spring break, including colleges and universities, and some specialize in trips abroad. The programs can include working with sea turtles in Costa Rica, assisting needy children in Kenya, or helping on a coral reef project in the Bahamas.

But just because it's volunteer doesn't make it a free trip.

MARK ORWOLL, TRAVEL & LEISURE: If you're going to be going on a domestic nonprofit trip, you can expect to pay a few hundred dollars plus your airfare. If you travel overseas, particularly on a privately-run volunteer trip, you can expect to pay thousands of dollars on top of your airfare.

CAREY: Lauren Jones is expecting her volunteer trip to Florida to be good for everyone.

JONES: I love the beach, and I -- and I love community service, so I get to do two of my favorite things on my spring break.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, good morning, everybody. Welcome back. Off to a -- a good Saturday we hope, weatherwise.

Reynolds Wolf has been watching it for us this morning. What do you have, Reynolds? WOLF: I got, you know, some words to say to Punxsutawney Phil, you know the little groundhog, back on February 2nd...

NGUYEN: Is he accurate (ph)?

WOLF: Very much so, and I think people were very unhappy about that. I mean, winter is just (INAUDIBLE) big on obviously along the eastern seaboard. They're getting a break now today along much of the eastern seaboard.

However, but back in the Rockies, we see the beginning of a -- what may be a very potent storm system that may march into the Central Plains, bringing maybe some snow, maybe ice to parts of the Plains. We'll show you who's going to get what coming up.

First and foremost, though, we so see some snowfall moving near Chicago, back into Michigan, very likely (ph) precipitation. Also, in St. Louis, you're getting a break. You had some sprinkles early in the day. Kansas City, you've seen a little bit of everything in parts of your area, some rain, some sleet, some snow.

Farther back along parts of 70, we see snow that should become a little bit heavier, I would say definitely intensifying as the hours go on and the reason why is because of this big "L" or rather what it represents, an area of low pressure that's going to bring in some cold air from the north.

From the south it's going to tap into that moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, giving us a pretty snowy situation in parts of the highest elevations of the Rockies, some places near a foot, other places, the valleys, considerably less.

But the thing is this will not remain stationary. This is going to track its way across parts of the Central Plains into Kansas, even into Nebraska. I would definitely say just a sliver, maybe St. Joe's, over towards, say, Missouri, and then back into Iowa. You could be dealing with some rain, sleet, and, of course, some snow and ice.

Ice is going to be a big issue because it's going to cling to a lot of tree branches, cling to power lines, so you could see some power outages there, especially into Sunday, and I would say Monday morning could be very tough. So if you have any opportunity to get some last-minute preparations in those places, maybe pick up some additional groceries, this is the time to go out there and do it.

High temperatures for the day, Atlanta, 60 degrees -- beautiful day in Atlanta -- 73 in Miami, 68 in Tampa. Back up north, still a nice day for Boston, up by Fenway Park. The season is not too far away. Yankee Stadium, same deal, temperatures going up in the 40s there, 45 in Washington, then back across the nation's midsection, Kansas and Denver both matching with 33 expected highs, 20 up in Billings, 62 in Phoenix, in the Valley of the Sun.

Southern California, you had some heavy rain yesterday. You should get a little bit of a break today before more rain develops as we round out the weekend. We had some issues there with some threats of mud slides. That could happen. You got to be really aware about that. But then, when you get north of San Francisco and then back into Seattle, some sunshine can be expected for the day.

That is a quick look at your forecast. Let's pitch it back to you at the News Desk.

NGUYEN: All right. Boy, a lot in store for folks across the nation.

Thank you for that, Reynolds. We do appreciate it.

And there's much more to come right here on CNN.