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President Obama's Surprise Visit to Afghanistan; Sex Scandal Involving Catholic Church

Aired March 28, 2010 - 16:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. President Obama is in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit. The mission was twofold. Meeting with that country's president in Kabul and U.S. troops stationed at Bagram Air Base. Here's some of what the commander in chief said to troops.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And if this region slides backwards, if the Taliban retakes this country, and Al Qaeda can operate with impunity, then more American lives will be at stake. The Afghan people will lose their chance at progress and prosperity. And the world will be significantly less secure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Earlier president Obama talked about a range of things with President Karzai, including securing stability to the region. Officials say they met for about a half an hour. Images right here, CNN's Atia Abawi joins us live now from Kabul. So, Atia, what was said about the meeting between these two presidents there?

ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think one of the most important aspect is the fact that President Obama did come to Afghanistan. But what should be noted is how long it took him to come to the country, well over a year after he was inaugurated into office especially after his main foreign policy aspect during his campaign was shifting the focus on the war on terror from Iraq back to Afghanistan.

What was said from the poll note that we received was the fact that President Obama talked to President Karzai mainly about corruption, about moving forward in Afghanistan. This has been a tense relationship between the two presidents. President Hamid Karzai obviously disturbed that President Obama took this long to come to Afghanistan, but obviously today happy that he did arrive. 2009 was a very important year here in Afghanistan, especially when it came to the Afghan government.

We saw a presidential election marred with allegations of fraud. We saw what was seen to be President Obama distancing himself from President Karzai. But what was clear today by President Obama's trip is that it's a fact. President Hamid Karzai is the president of Afghanistan. And he will continue to be the president of Afghanistan for the next five years. And what both of these two men, what they know, is that they can't succeed without each other. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Atia Abawi, thanks so much from Kabul. More now on the president's address to the U.S. troops there in Afghanistan. He told them the war is absolutely essential to U.S. security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I know for most of you, you didn't get a lot of notice that I was coming. But I want you to understand, there's no visit that I considered more important than this visit I'm making right now. Because I have no greater honor than serving as your commander in chief. And it is a privilege to look out and see the extraordinary efforts of America's sons and daughters here in Afghanistan. So my main job here today is to say thank you on behalf of the entire American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Let's bring in our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, who's joining us now on the phone from Los Angeles. So Barbara, I'm wondering, you know, how important was this not just for U.S. troops who are there in Afghanistan, but how important is it for the president to try and establish, perhaps, some kind of renewed direction in the offensive in Afghanistan?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT 9ON THE PHONE): Well, I think it is, Fred. There's nothing like having the commander in chief in the war zone to focus one's attention on the job at hand. It's very important for these young troops to see him there, to see that he came all the way there. When the surge that everyone's talking about is fully over, the 30,000 more troops, there's going to be close to 100,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan. Much outpacing where Iraq will be at that time. And the offensive goes on.

The Marines still fighting heavy combat down south in Helmand province and already turning their eyes eastward in southern Afghanistan off towards Kandahar. General McChrystal, the top commander, signaling very publicly that Kandahar is the next objective on the list.

WHITFIELD: Barbara Starr, thanks so much from Los Angeles. Appreciate that.

All right. So this is the first time President Obama has visited Afghanistan as commander in chief. CNN White House correspondent Dan Lothian joins us now from Washington. So, Dan, why Afghanistan? Why now?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, obviously the president wanted to go there on the ground, first and foremost, to thank the American troops and the coalition forces as well who are, as he put it, protecting the American people, keeping them safe. He also wanted to meet with Hamid Karzai who is somewhat of a controversial leader. There have been a lot of questions about his last election.

And so the U.S. really wants to make sure that there's a stable government there, a stable partner, even as it ramps up additional troops through the region. But again, the president going there to say thank you to the U.S. troops for what they are doing. He made it clear that they are not going to be there forever because essentially he wants to make sure that the Afghan army will be able to take care of its own security.

But first and foremost as the president pointing out that if, indeed, Al Qaeda is allowed to come back, sort of set up its operations there in Afghanistan, it will only endanger the future of the American people here on the American soil. And he pointed out that the U.S. will do whatever it takes to make sure that the U.S. troops have what they need to take care of business there.

WHITFIELD: All right. Dan Lothian, thanks so much, from the White House. Appreciate that. And momentarily we're expecting to hear some sound from that conversation between the two presidents. And when that does happen, we'll try to bring that to you as soon as we can.

Meantime, the president still in Afghanistan right now. But we understand his schedule says that he will be back in Washington tomorrow. Among the items that he's going to be tackling, starting Monday, he will be credentialing -- rather he'll be part of a credentialing ceremony for foreign ambassadors. And then in the evening he and the first lady will mark the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday by hosting Sad'r.

And then on Tuesday, the president is scheduled to sign the final version of the health care legislation that Congress approved last week. He will also meet with President Sarkozy of France. And then Thursday the president will be traveling to New England for a speech on health insurance reform and a Democratic fundraiser. And he will also be visiting North Carolina on Friday to talk about the economy. Very busy week straight ahead for the president.

All right. Pretty busy week weather-wise for many folks, too, here in the states. Particularly in the south where it's expected to be pretty soggy. Jacqui Jeras.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Fred. We just got a tornado watch which was issued across parts of Georgia into the Carolinas. We'll talk about that and where the storm is headed. This will cause some big problems in the northeast tomorrow. We'll fill you in in just a minute.

WHITFIELD: all right. Look forward to that. Thanks, Jacqui.

Plus, must-see TV. An incredible series that shows us life as we've never seen it before.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Some potentially nasty spring weather is on the way. Let's check in with our Jacqui Jeras for that.

JERAS: Yes, Fredricka. Well, here are our weather headlines for today by showing you the most extreme conditions we're expecting, and there is the threat of severe storms across parts of the southeast and the Carolinas as well into parts of Florida. Large hail and damaging winds and even some isolated tornadoes will be possible. The storm will be on the move tonight into tomorrow, then bringing heavy rain along with gusty winds, travel delays and the threat of flooding in the northeast for tomorrow.

All right. A tornado watch just issued at the top of the hour here across parts of northeastern Georgia into the western Carolinas. It does not include Atlanta but it does include you in Columbia as well as over into Charlotte. Now, we've been watching one severe thunderstorm that's been moving into North Carolina that was rotating earlier, the tornado warning has been canceled. And we just have some tree damage being reported. So nothing major at this point.

But we might get these little spinners as we head over the next couple of hours. And that watch will be in effect until 11:00 Eastern time. Now, we're also tracking some storms here moving across the state of Florida right along the I-4 corridor. And this is what we call an MCS or a mesoscale convective complex, which is just basically a fancy term for a big cluster of thunderstorms. We could see some isolated stronger ones within that as well.

Take a look at a live picture from WFTS TV. This is in Tampa Bay. If you're a sports fan, you may already know that the Yankees and the Tigers got rained out. They had to stop play at the end of the fourth inning because of that wet weather. So you can see that wind in the background here, in the foreground. That's where the Buccaneers happen to play.

Now as the storm pushes up into the northeast, we've already got flood watches in effect in advance of the storm as we're expecting one to three inches of rainfall. As you know, the ground already very saturated. We've seen some flooding here in the last week and a half or so. So we'll be keeping an eye on that for tomorrow. And if you are trying to travel, we're really expecting all of the major airports to have delays tomorrow. This will start as early as tomorrow morning.

In fact, we've got delays in Newark already because of the low clouds. So this storm going to stick with us at least through Tuesday, Fredricka. If we get anymore tornado reports or any warnings, of course, we'll bring them along to you right away.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks, Jacqui. Appreciate that. We'll see you again a little bit later on in the hour.

In the meantime, we're going to show you something pretty incredible. It's part of a television series about life. And the photography is simply amazing. I'll talk with two of the program's creators.

But first, we thought now would be a good time to hear some tunes. Check out the Billboard's top 10 for the week.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: You may have renewed appreciation for wildlife after you see this.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

WHITFIELD: Wow. Life as you have never seen it before. This is television you really should see. The Discovery Channel begins an extraordinary 11-part series, taking us places and showing us creatures in ways that you probably will be asking, how in the world do they do that?

Roger Munns and Mike Gunton are two of the people behind this series. Mike is the executive producer. And Roger is the cinematographer. They're here to explain how in the world they did do this. Good to see you, gentlemen.

ROGER MUNNS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Good to see you, too.

MIKE GUNTON, CINEMATOGRAPHER: Hi.

WHITFIELD: So Mike, this for you was five years in the making. Why was this so important to you to be able to talk about life, survival in this way?

GUNTON: I think you don't get opportunities like this very often in your lifetime. To be able to spend this much time and this amount of resource and to have so many amazing people to help work on a series like this, to show people the extraordinary ways animals and plants deal with the most important points in their lives and how they overcome those challenges in order to survive was just the greatest thing you could ever do. It's been a fantastic five years.

WHITFIELD: It's incredible. You look at some of these images and you do wonder how in the world were they able to capture, you know, that frog and that tongue trying to get that bug and how in the world, you know, the vine growing on the tree, et cetera. Give me an idea of how you were able to kind of map out your plan, make a decision about what imagery you wanted to see and then how long you had to actually wait for it to happen?

GUNTON: Well, the key thing is that we want to show people things they've never seen before. So that means you have to spend a lot of time. We spent a year researching just uncovering every possible story we possibly could before deciding which one we would go for. And you know, we have a whole battery of technology now that allows us to take people to places that they can never normally go, and even if they are there show them things that even if they were there they could never see. Super high speed cameras.

You know, you mentioned the tongue shooting out from the chameleon. You couldn't see that with your eyes. But with our cameras, shooting 1,000 frames a second, you can see it in beautiful detail and not only is it beautiful but also fascinating how it actually works. WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. And Roger, for you as a cinematographer, talk to me about the challenges here. You know, beyond being patient, you really had to do your own kind of physical gymnastics and you know, get your stamina going in order to get these incredible images. Talk to me about those challenges.

MUNNS: Yes, I mean, there's a lot of patience required. There's a lot of days in the field. For my shoot that I was involved in, we're shooting the hump back (INAUDIBLE), which is basically the biggest force in nature. Ten 50-ton humpback whales. My job was to actually swim down under the water on a single breath of air, free diving, putting myself in their environment and basically filming as these whales sort of swam past me. It was almost like standing on a freeway with ten trucks towards you. It's really amazing.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. And stop right there. Because my heart stopped when you said free diving. You got no tank. No regulator. You are completely submerged and you are hoping that these whales as they swim by you, a, that you can keep your camera steady and you can continue to hold your breath and hope they're not going to crash into you, right?

MUNNS: That's right. I mean, in order to get the natural footage that you want, the natural behavior, you have to kind of put yourself in their environment completely. And so, no scuba bubbles which would upset their natural behavior. So, yes, I was trying to hold my breast down there and sort of compete on their level. They can do about 30 minutes whereas I can last about two minutes at best.

WHITFIELD: Let's talk more specifically about some other images. Let's talk about this rodent. I don't even know what kind of animal this is, Mike. This little rodent being chased by a giant lizard. You reduced it down to size. But when you watch it, your heart races for this little guy. Tell me about this moment and why this is important to convey the lesson being taught here?

GUNTON: This is an what's called a (INAUDIBLE) and elephant shrew. It's an amazing creature. Because it learns a particular route around its territory. It makes it a pathway so that when it gets into danger, it can run immediately to exactly where safety is. So when this situation happened, when it was being chased by this lizard we knew where he was going to run. So we were able to put our cameras right down next to it.

The idea - one of the things that we wanted to do in this series is not just film elephants and lions, but also some of the other creatures. But think about them as if you were going to shoot a lion or a cheetah. And so by using the camera technology getting down into their world, suddenly that feels like you're watching a scene out of "Jurassic Park."

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. Extraordinary. So what was your psyche when you caught this tiny frog that found the perfect leap - oh, my goodness. Of course we want to watch this whole thing. Because you want to know does the lizard actually catch up to him. But that's the cliff hanger. You've going to have to watch the entire series on Discovery.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Let's talk about this little tiny frog that finds the perfect leaf in which to lay its tadpole. I think we saw this kind of in the open but let's look at it again and how in the world do you catch this. Did you know, you talk about anticipation. You knew it was looking for a spot like this?

GUNTON: This is its strategy. Once it has its tadpoles, it has to find these little bromeliads, they are called, plants where it can lay its tadpoles. Like a little nursery pool for it. But one of the things we wanted to do with that story is that it does connect with us. Because you see the dedication of that. That's the equivalent of one of us having a baby on our back climbing up the Empire State Building five times. So that's that kind of thing. That little baby, that little mother is going through to protect (INAUDIBLE)

(CROSSTALK)

GUNTON: She does that five times.

WHITFIELD: No, I see.

GUNTON: There's five different babies.

WHITFIELD: Where was the tadpole? Where was it comes from? OK. So Roger, talk to me about kind of a submersible camera that would have to get images of this little tadpole once it was in the water.

MUNNS: Yes, I mean, basically, with all the new technology that's available at the moment, that's really been able to give us an insight. This is a great example. They were very small iconics HD camera which can go inside that tiny little pool of water there and capture those amazing shots.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. All right, Roger Munns, cinematographer for this incredible series and Mike Gunton, executive producer, we look forward to seeing it. "Life" on Discovery. It's an 11-part series. Incredible. Congratulations for - I'm sure it was probably one of the most rewarding adventures for all of you.

MUNNS: Absolutely. Thank you very much.

WHITFIELD: How can you not like at that and say, my gosh, life really is amazing. You can watch Discovery's 11-part "Life" series every Sunday night beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Now it's time for the chat room where we have another animal theme kind of going, Jacqui. Isn't that extraordinary?

JERAS: Very extraordinary. The pictures are so vivid.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

JERAS: To think that the lengths that they probably had to go through in order to capture some of those pictures.

WHITFIELD: That's right. I know.

JERAS: Cool.

WHITFIELD: Let's talk about another interesting animal. A lot of folks may remember the animated character in Madagascar which now we know the name. No one knew what it was called.

JERAS: Right.

WHITFIELD: It was Maurice in the movie and now it's real.

JERAS: It's an aye-aye.

WHITFIELD: Aye. Aye.

JERAS: I hope I'm pronouncing it correctly,

WHITFIELD: In Madagascar.

JERAS: Well apparently, they're very concerned about this particular species and they think that it could potentially be at risk. And the reason why is because there's a superstition in Madagascar that - do you see that long middle finger that it has there?

WHITFIELD: That's not a stick, people. That's a finger.

JERAS: It's its finger and they use that finger to dig into the bamboo of trees to get the larvae of insects. And that's what it predominantly eats. But apparently the superstition is these things which are nocturnal into your room in the middle of the night and use that finger to hit your heart and kill you. And so apparently, people sometimes kill them on site.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: And apparently there's no (INAUDIBLE) that that actually happened. It is superstition.

JERAS: It is superstition.

WHITFIELD: People are killing or targeting them because of the superstition. They believe it even though there's no evidence that this actually happens.

JERAS: And they're harmless creatures apparently. And they're also not afraid of humans. So that's one of the problems.

WHITFIELD: They're four to six pounds.

JERAS: Four to six pounds.

WHITFIELD: Tiny.

JERAS: Maybe a Chihuahua size, perhaps.

WHITFIELD: Yes -

JERAS: Kind of a not very attractive creature, though, wouldn't you say?

WHITFIELD: Yes. It has a look of kind of a part bat, a little spider, a little marsupial.

JERAS: Kind of (INAUDIBLE) almost. Yes.

WHITFIELD: It's odd but now we know.

JERAS: But it's a primate, by the way. The largest - oh no, the smallest primate.

WHITFIELD: One of the smallest. Yes.

JERAS: There you go.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Well, let's talk about folks who are trying to be a lot more conscientious of the earth, the commitment that all of us need to make to maybe turn off the lights.

JERAS: Did you do it last night at 8:30?

WHITFIELD: I did not. Here I'm talking about the commitment, and I completely forgot about it, which I know a lot of people have.

JERAS: The whole world was supposed to do that last night at 8:30 for one hour to hopefully conserve energy and help, you know, get rid of climate change hopefully or at least put a dent into it.

WHITFIELD: Earth hour.

JERAS: Yes. So we had -

WHITFIELD: This is fairly new, though.

JERAS: They did this in Paris. They did this, you know, all across the world. They did this in New York City. This is put on by the World Wildlife Foundation. This is the third year that they've done it now. They say it does make a significant impact. There's so much light pollution out there. When you think of how much power and electricity that we use on a day-to-day basis, of course a little bit counts.

But I did do a little bit of research here on energy consumption just to kind of see exactly how much energy we would be saving. Well, the average household on a day-to-day basis, about nine percent is what lighting accounts for.

WHITFIELD: And you figured, if once everyone catches on, because it's only three years old. Same thing with Earth day. Remember, initially a lot of folks weren't on board. And now it's been going on for many, many years. And the same will probably happen with earth hour. And so maybe that one hour will make a significant impact long term.

JERAS: It just gets you thinking.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

JERAS: About it I think. That's good.

WHITFIELD: At least remind you to, you know, turn off the lights when you leave the room.

JERAS: Exactly.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqui, thanks so much. We'll be talking a little bit more weather coming up. Because we know the southeast -

JERAS: Kind of nasty.

WHITFIELD: A good part of the eastern seaboard, right? Bracing for nasty spring weather?

JERAS: Yes, all the east will eventually be impacted by the storm. We've got the risk of tornadoes right now across Eastern Georgia into western Carolina.

WHITFIELD: Oh, boy. Always a quality of spring, sadly. All right, Jacqui, thanks so much.

JERAS: Sure.

WHITFIELD: See you in a bit.

All right. Well, no rest, of course, this weekend for the commander in chief. President Obama is in Afghanistan meeting with U.S. troops and Afghan leaders. More on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now. President Obama flew to Afghanistan today for a surprise visit with U.S. troops. Mr. Obama also met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Obama pledged that America's partnership with the war torn nation would continue. He also invited Mr. Karzai to enjoy his hospitality in Washington. That visit is planned for mid May.

And Barbara Bush is spending the weekend in a Texas hospital. The former first lady is said to be undergoing routine medical tests. The spokeswoman for the former first lady said "Mrs. Bush had not been feeling well for about a week now" and says her hospitalization is not serious at all.

Ford Motor Company is getting more streamlined. The auto giant has sold one of its holdings, Volvo, to a Chinese car maker. Volvo, which will still be based in Sweden was sold for nearly $2 billion. That's considerably less than the more than $6 billion Ford paid for the company a decade ago. And Discovery is preparing for its launch next month. The space shuttle is scheduled to lift off on April 5th and take eight tons of cargo and equipment to the international space station.

Sex scandal and a call to step down. A bleak Palm Sunday for the Pope and the Catholic Church.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Pope Benedict opened holy week on this Palm Sunday with the Catholic Church mired in a sex abuse crises. And allegations of a Vatican cover up at the heart of the scandal questions about the Pope's handling of cases of pedophile priests. Benedict didn't mention the scandal in his Palm Sunday homily.

CNN's Diana Magnay is in Rome with more.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There was nothing specific that the Pope said this Palm Sunday that referred to the sex abuse scandal. Although there were lines in his homily that could be interpreted as bleak references to it. For example, one where he said Jesus leads us toward the courage not to be disturbed by the chatter of prevailing opinion. If you think of what the Vatican has said in recent days about the Pope being the victim of a smear campaign that could be interpreted as being a reference to that.

What the Pope mainly addressed were the young people who had gathered from all around the world to hear what he had to say. And he spoke to them in the various languages that he speaks. This was a very joyful occasion, a reverent occasion, that the young were gathering in St. Peter's Square a couple of hours before mass started. They were very much aware of this scandal that is encircling the Catholic Church, and yet most of those we spoke to did not feel that it was shaking their faith in any way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): It's not easy to have to see the news reports. But, no, it doesn't shake my faith at all.

(UNIDENTIFED FEMALE): It's very painful. It's a painful part of unfortunately humanity. It doesn't just penetrate the Catholic Church. It penetrates every part of society. It's very sad. I'm very glad the Holy Father is dealing with it.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): The church is built of people, and people are sinners. And it's about forgiveness and that's how -- that's how I view it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MAGNAY: The Pope repeated in his message he had already published in advance of world youth day urging the young not to fear the call to the priesthood. That is obviously a very important message for the Catholic Church in these difficult times.

Diana Magnay, CNN, Rome.

WHITFIELD: "The New York Times" reports over a decade starting in 2001 the Vatican received 3,000 reports of suspected abuse of children by Catholic clergy. The "Time's" says 20 percent have been tried in Vatican courts. And in Massachusetts a local priest is asking the Pope to step down. Father James Scahill says the alleged cover-up should not be taken lightly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FATHER JAMES SCAHILL, PASTOR OF ST. MICHAEL'S PARISH: Anyone that would bother a child is obviously ill. But those who covered it up in this diocese, throughout this country and throughout the world are felons who should be in jail. We have lost people who will never return to us. This has created a schism in our church. We will never recover from it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: A top Vatican cardinal is calling for a house cleaning. He defends the Pope, but says the needs of victims should come first.

Israel is closing the West Bank for the Jewish holiday of Passover. The area will be sealed off beginning at midnight tonight through Tuesday, April 6th. For the most part, no one will be allowed to travel in or out of the territory unless for medical or humanitarian reasons. It's not unusual for Israel to seal off Palestinian areas during holidays, but this comes during a period of increased tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians.

And there's a new video that raises money for Haiti. And you apparently can't stop watching and listening.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now. President Obama makes a surprise visit to Afghanistan. At Bagram Air Base he addressed U.S. troops and thanked them for their service. Earlier Mr. Obama met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai saying he wants to send, quote, a strong message that the partnership between the two nations will continue.

A missing contractor in Iraq is back in U.S. hands. The military says 60-year-old Esa Salomi was returned to U.S. authorities last week. He had been missing since January and is believed to have been kidnapped. The Defense Department says the circumstances of his ordeal remain under investigation.

Thousands of people marched through downtown Los Angeles demanding immigration reform. The protesters urged lawmakers and President Obama to move forward with legislation or face the consequences in the November elections. Yesterday's march follows a similar rally in D.C. last Sunday.

Long-time Civil Rights activist Dorothy Height is still in a Washington hospital. A spokeswoman says Height is in very serious but stable condition after being admitted last week for an undisclosed illness. Height is 98 years old and in the 1960s she worked along Civil Rights icons such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and now Congressman John Lewis.

Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have been discussing long-term recovery efforts for Haiti. Both men visited the earthquake ravaged nation last week. One possible scenario, extending U.S. trade preferences which could create new jobs. 220,000 people were killed in January when the 7.0 magnitude quake hit. Another 300,000 were injured, and more than 1 million still left homeless.

So ever since celebrities got together to create a new "We are the world" for Haiti, more and more artists have actually been launching their own projects. Many of you are actually calling the newest one pretty extraordinary. Our Josh Levs is here. Josh what's this one all about?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I've never had responses like this to a video. It's amazing. People are all over this. They're speaking about it in really big terms. I'll tell you about it. Listen to a little bit of it. Then I'll tell you about it, and then we'll listen to more of it. First, let's take a little listen.

(Singing)

LEVS: Here's what you're seeing. Classical relief for Haiti and it is out of the UK. More than 20 very respected classical singers got together and recorded the song "The Prayer." The idea was to raise money for Haiti. Now it's up online. More and more people are checking it out there. And it's actually doing its job. It's getting more and more people to start giving money to Haiti. Sometimes when I show you clips of music -- I want you to know what we've done. When we show you this, we're also going to also use a chance to show you some of the powerful images that we have here at CNN.com/Haiti. They keep coming in. A constant reminder of what people are struggling with there. Here you go, folks. A little bit of classical relief for Haiti.

WHITFIELD: That's beautiful.

LEVS: We're going to take a look at that bigger section now.

WHITFIELD: Good, good. Let's hear more.

LEVS: There you go. You're seeing a bigger section of it here. We put this online, and the kinds of responses we're getting -- sorry to talk over. But just amazing. People saying it's so beautiful, I listened to it eight times. People in this country now trying to figure out how they can get a copy of the CD. Some of the thought was it was just going to be national in England. Really a beautiful effort there, people trying to help Haiti with their own talents in their own kind of ways.

WHITFIELD: I can see why. That is beautiful. Thanks so much, Josh.

LEVS: You bet.

WHITFIELD: All right. It is a landmark settlement for more than a billion dollars. So why is it leaving the nation's African-American farmers feeling frustrated and disappointment?

But first, April begins this week. For Christians this is holy week. Jews begin celebrating Passover this week. Hear some of what happened this week in history.

One year ago this week in 2009, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner resigned under White House pressure.

Five years ago in 2005, Pope John Paul II died at the age of 84. That same week, 41-year-old Terry Schiavo died after 15 years in what the courts called a persistent vegetative state. Her feeding tube had been disconnected nearly two weeks earlier after a huge national controversy.

Forty years ago in 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the law that banished cigarette commercials from television.

One hundred fifty years ago in 1860, pony express service began between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California. It ended just 18 months later. A victim of Transcontinental Telegraph service.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Some new images just in. More on President Obama's journey to Afghanistan. There you see him in the mess hall, meeting with troops there at Bagram Air Base. You heard him earlier today where he gave quite the pep talk to service members, letting them know what the focal point of their mission was and how they would continue to remain in that region as long as it meant securing that region in Afghanistan.

President Obama as we understand has now boarded "Air Force One" again. He's made his way out of that country and is now going to be heading back to Washington where he's got a very busy week ahead to tackle a number of domestic issues. But there again, it was a surprise visit. The president arriving in Afghanistan. He not only met with U.S. troops there at Bagram Air Base, but also in Kabul he also met face to face with that country's President Hamid Karzai.

All right. Back in this country, black farmers in this country are watching the calendar this week very closely and nervously. A proposed settlement to end a landmark discrimination lawsuit against the Agriculture Department could actually slip through their fingers. Why? Here's what we know.

The settlement to pay $1.25 billion to black farmers was agreed upon by the Obama Administration last month. But March 31st is the deadline for Congress to appropriate the funding. Just last Friday Congress left on a two-week break for Easter. Joining us now from Richmond with more on this, John Boyd, the president of the National Black Farmers Association. Good to see you.

JOHN BOYD, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BLACK FARMERS ASSOCIATION: Hi, Fredricka. Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: OK, so what next? If Congress did not appropriate the funding before taking the break and there's this deadline at the end of this week, or really mid-week, what's the expectation that will happen?

BOYD: Basically, we're going to be calling on the president of the United States. And I support the president hand over fist and National Black Farmers Association strongly supports the president. But, Fredricka, we're going to need him and his support and his leadership to help us finish the job and work with leaders of Congress to get this done.

WHITFIELD: But hasn't the president already said that he supports this settlement? Because he approved it, so to speak, last month. But if it's up to Congress to get the checks signed and dole them out and that didn't happen, what are you thinking about the deadline? Might it be extended? Are you getting any indication on that?

BOYD: I'm thinking we're going to be able to work that process through. What happened here is that the administration failed to mark this as an emergency in Congress, which caused delays and also the administration failed to find the offsets to pay for this. And that's why while Congress is on break I've been trying to -- attempting to get a meeting with the president. I would like to sit down and see what the administration can do to take further steps to ensure that Congress acts.

I've met with all leaders in the House and Senate. The Congressional black caucus is working on this. But they also need help from the administration to find out where this money is going to come from. Or either mark this as an emergency designation so we won't need offsets. These are some things that are very doable, but we need everybody working together. I'm going to work strongly with the administration and with leaders of Congress until we're able to get this done.

WHITFIELD: Give me an idea, John, how desperately needed some of these settlement monies are for black farmers in this country.

BOYD: Well, you know, if we don't get this settlement, farmers are going to miss another planting season. Right now it's planting time. We thought we would have the funds secured to do this. Every day that farmers don't plant, they won't have the maximum harvest. Thousands of black farmers have died over the past decade waiting for this restitution to come through.

So this has been a very, very long fight. And just last month thousands of black farmers were elated and excited that the government finally settled this case. Now to find out that it's stalled again in Congress. You know, Congress needs to work together. You know both chambers of the House, Republican and Democrat. And start working for the people again. I think that's a major problem, too.

WHITFIELD: John Boyd thanks so much. We talked to you last month about that excitement that you and many others had about this settlement, and glad that you were able to come back with us and give us an update. We'll check back with you to see if, perhaps, you get an extension on that deadline or any assistance in the next coming weeks.

BOYD: Thank you very much. I want the farmers to know we're never giving up this fight until it's over with.

WHITFIELD: I think they know it. Thanks so much.

On the road again. President Obama traveling all the way to Afghanistan for a meeting with the Afghan president and, of course, the U.S. troops. More images and information on that right after this.

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WHITFIELD: Back to our top story before we end this hour. President Obama's surprise trip to Afghanistan. He met with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, and of course he talked to U.S. troops there. Let's go back to the White House where we find correspondent Dan Lothian. Dan, what is the president hoping to accomplish by this trip?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you what senior administration officials are telling core reporters traveling with the president. In summarizing these meetings they say that they have been productive and useful and that they're trying to set the stage for what happens next and that both leaders have agreed to continue to work together.

The president by the way has invited Mr. Karzai to come here to Washington in May. But the primary reason that the president says he went there is to thank the U.S. troops for their sacrifice and he also promised a commitment to give them what they need to get the job done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE U.S: I've made a promise to all of you who serve. I will never send you into harm's way unless it's absolutely necessary. I anguish in thinking about the sacrifices that so many of you make. That's why I promise I will never send you out unless it is necessary, but that's only part of the promise. Because the other part of the promise is that when it is absolutely necessary, you will be backed up by a clear mission and the right strategy, and you will have the support to finish the job, to get the job done. And I am confident all of you are going to get the job done right here in Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Now, Americans are getting more optimistic about the war in Afghanistan, according to CNN polling. Opposition has dropped below the 50 percent mark for the first time in a year, 48 percent of Americans favor the war in Afghanistan, and 49 percent oppose it. And whether or not they approve about Mr. Obama and his efforts in Afghanistan, now approval is at 55 percent. That compares to January where it was just 51 percent, October, 42 percent. Fredricka. WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Dan Lothian at the White House. Thanks for joining us this past hour. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Don Lemon will be up at 6:00 Eastern Hour. He'll bring you a surprising report from Libya where Jihad leaders are turning against al Qaeda.