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Weather Huge Part of Oil Spill Cleanup; The Car Bomb Threat; Globe-Trekking

Aired May 03, 2010 - 13:58   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Here we are now. Coming up on 2:00 today on the East Coast. Here's what we've got on "The Rundown" for you this hour.

Iran's president talked to the U.S. and the world just a couple hours ago. Wasn't really in a good mood, some would say. He's not backing down on the ongoing nuclear stand-off. We're going to be taking a look at the larger picture.

Also, we'll bring you up to date on the attempted car bombing investigation in New York City. We'll ask a troubling question. Why, actually, haven't we seen more attempts like this in the U.S.? We've got an expert here who has got some troubling answers.

Also, how about a little word play? Let's start with the word. Have you heard it yet? You've been hearing a lot about it, as all this oil slick is happening. Yes, you've been hearing a lot more about it. We'll let you know what it means. Coming up.

But still, cap the well, block the slick, clean the mess. A three-belonged assault on the disastrous offshore oil leak is now almost two weeks old. The story is anything but old, and we're following every new development for you. The bulk of the slick still about nine miles off the Louisiana coast. The bulk of it.

But keeping it there is going to be a challenge. Some 60 miles of booms are set out between the oil and the shore. But high winds and rough seas are pushing some of the booms back into land, and sometimes the oil sloshes over them.

BP is promising to, quote, "absolutely pay for cleanup and other damages," and the feds intend to hold the company to that. BP brass meeting with top officials in the Obama administration about an hour from now in Washington.

On the state level, though, the governors of Alabama, Florida, Mississippi are asking for the same consideration Louisiana is getting, federal reimbursement for the costs of calling up the National Guard. For its part, the Navy is deploying booms and skimmers; the Air Force, C-130 aerial dispersant spray planes. But rough weather is slowing the effort as well.

BP trying not only to cap the leak, but to contain it, and eventually stop it with a so-called relief well. No results from even the short-term efforts are likely for several more days. And until then, fishing has been banned from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle.

That brings us now to our "Two at the Top." That's when we spend two minutes with a top correspondent on the top story of the hour.

And this hour, that is CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf. He's in Venice, Louisiana.

Reynolds, hello to you.

I know you focus so much on weather often, and weather is certainly a huge part of this story.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely, no question about it.

You know, it was only a couple days ago they actually tried to burn part of the area, burn off some of that crude they skimmed off, because weather conditions were absolutely perfect. But since that day, since they had that test, things have been just horrendous, especially over the last 12 to 24 hours.

In this particular region, we have seen the waves that have just been incredibly high. A few days ago, we actually tried to go out into the Gulf and had to turn back due to rough seas.

I can tell you, there were crews trying to get out there to put out even more of that protective boom around parts of not only Louisiana, but into Mississippi, Alabama, and into the Florida Gulf Coast. It has been very, very difficult for them.

In this specific area, here in Venice, I can tell you that this was a hotbed of activity. Many people bringing supplies through here on these ships, then out into the delta, and then scattered ash the area. But with the rough weather, it has really come to a standstill, T.J. But now, as conditions are improving, things are slowly starting to build back up in terms of the work.

HOLMES: In terms of the work. All right.

Our Reynolds Wolf there for us.

Reynolds, we appreciate you. We'll certainly continue to check in with you.

We do want to go now to check in on our "Sound Effect of the Day." That's when we get a few words to shed light on the big story of the day.

And we're going to go to middle Tennessee, where anywhere from 13 to 20 inches of rain have caused exactly what you would expect that much rain to create -- horrendous floods.

Listen now to three survivors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were just watching TV. We heard some kind of megaphone in the background, so I went to the door to see what was going on. And the police car was driving down the street saying that "The neighborhood is flooding. It's coming our way. "Get in your cars and get out."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were ankle-deep in the house, and we actually had a friend come. We had friends trying to get to us by boat, and by some miracle they got there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You think, it's not going to happen to me. That's what most people think. And it does happen to people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right.

Now we're watching the Cumberland River crest in Nashville at over 51 feet. And that is easily an all-time record.

Well, fireworks, fuel, fertilize could have been a recipe for disaster in Times Square. And right now, a manhunt under way for the suspect. We're talking to a terrorism expert about what could have been done.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, it's an all-out manhunt to track down whoever tried to blow up part of Times Square with a car bomb. Investigators poring over forensic evidence and a surveillance video in hopes of finding the suspect still on the loose.

Top brass at the NYPD say this could have been a lethal attack, but the ingredients hidden inside the SUV at the center of this case read like a simple list of a hardware store. There is a gun locker in it with some M-88 firecrackers and fertilizer; three propane tanks, one with fireworks attached; two gas containers; wires; more fireworks. And then there were a pair of clocks connected to the gun locker with wires.

If the ingredients are so simple to gather, it begs a really scary question here. Why exactly haven't we seen car bombs in this country? Why haven't we seen this type of attempt more often?

Professor Gary LaFree, director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, he joins me now.

Sir, thank you for being here.

And, you know, it's a very simple thing for a lot of people. It seems like it would be a lot easier to try to set off a car bomb than take down or hijack a plane. So why haven't we seen more of these attempts in the U.S.? PROF. GARY LAFREE, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CONSORTIUM FOR THE STUDY OF TERRORISM AND RESPONSES TO TERRORISM, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Well, I think, T.J., first off, we actually have seen a fair number. If you look at -- in our global terrorism database, we tracked about 58 improvised explosive devices against New York City going back to 1970. About six of those have been car -- vehicle-borne IEDs, so it has happened a fair amount in the past. The best known one for your viewers will probably be the earlier New York City World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

The other thing is, we get quite a few thwarted attacks that involve improvised explosive devices that don't get nearly as much attention. Very recently, you'll remember, Zazi, who was just arrested -- was charged with a plan to blow up major sites in New York City using improvised explosive devices. So we actually have seen a fair number.

Thankfully, most of them have been thwarted in the past. And as to -- I mean, the good news about terrorism, you need at least two elements to make it happen. You need to have the motivation to do it, and you need to have the expertise.

In terms of the motivation, fortunately, there aren't that many people on the planet right now that are that motivated to kill, you know, thousands of innocent people. And fortunately, many of those who are motivated lack the expertise to carry it off properly. So, putting those two together --

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: Help us with that part of the expertise. Yes. Excuse me there, but on the expertise, it seems that a lot of people hear the items, and it seems so simple to, frankly, do. And the mayor even of New York called it kind of an amateurish, or setup, of this bomb.

But just how complicated is this, no matter how simple the items may seem?

LAFREE: Well, you know, the items are fairly simple. And this is actually, of course, the trademark of terrorism. They tend to use readily available devices. I mean, if they had more sophisticated stuff, they would look more like a regular military operation.

But what we know -- and there's a big difference between being able to see or read about how something is done on the Internet and actually being able to carry it off successfully. There's no substitute for on-the-job training, if you will. And it looks like, in this case, for example, that the person or the people who were responsible did not get the right type of fertilizer involved to make this happen. So, it's trickier than you might think to be able to -- you know, there's been an explosive amount of information about how to do all sorts of weapons online, but, still, there's no replacement for on-the-hand training.

HOLMES: Yes. And we hear, and some experts told me over the weekend, that these guys, oftentimes, learn quickly, and so it's very important to track him down.

We're going to continue our conversation. Gary LaFree, don't go anywhere.

We'll take a quick break. We'll continue our conversation on the other side, and I'll ask him more about this. And, quite frankly, what can we do to try to stop it, if someone does have the proper motivation?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We return now to our conversation with Professor Gary LaFree from the University of Maryland, talking about why we haven't seen more car bombs in this country. Like we were saying, kind of complicated to do. But it's really easy, even if it doesn't go off, to have a psychological impact.

How do you stop these things? Are these just impossible? And there's so much talk about citizens have to take it upon themselves, the best line of defense.

Is that really the best way to stop one of these things? Because if you've got somebody motivated to pack up a vehicle and park it somewhere, there's not much you can do.

LAFREE: Well, I thought it was very interesting early on, right after the incident, a number of people that were interviewed said, you know, "Us New Yorkers are pretty tough, and we're not going to let an incident like this make us so fearful, we don't go about our daily activities." I think it does depend, to a great extent, on the resilience of your citizens.

And you notice in this incident, these two vendors on the street apparently had a very sharp eye. They immediately got police involved. And it's quite interesting.

From what we can see, the public responded very well, as did public officials. There was no widespread panicking. It seems like people conducted themselves in a pretty orderly fashion. And ultimately, I think that's your best response.

HOLMES: Is there a danger here now that, you know, this story is getting so much coverage -- and it rightly should -- but other people will hear this and they'll make maybe the mistake that a lot of people make and think this is easy? But this person that thinks it easy might have the proper motivation, if you will, and we might see some copycats now.

LAFREE: Well, that does concern us, of course. And I guess the bigger picture that concerns people studying these sorts of issues, I think, is -- you know, I said a moment ago that, basically, you need motivation and you need expertise. And I think the world we're living in, one of the downsides of the Internet and technology is, you know, you're getting more and more people that have really outrageous ideas, getting support through the worldwide Internet connections. And also, the technology is getting easier and easier for people to use.

And so I think those are genuine concerns. Kind of the flip side of globalization, if you will.

HOLMES: How lucky -- given what you have heard about this story, how lucky did we get that maybe this guy just didn't know what he was doing? But from what you heard, and the smoking and some of the flames inside, how close did he get to pulling this off?

LAFREE: I think, you know, we can feel very fortunate. The really strange thing about these incidents -- if you had stopped the group that did 9/11 a year before it happened, and someone had said, you know, this group of folks are going to hijack airplanes with box cutters and bring down the World Trade Center and damage the Pentagon --

HOLMES: Wouldn't have believed it.

LAFREE: -- people would have thought you were crazy. You know, like the recent case with the underwear bomber, it sounds ridiculous. But yet, you know, there can be some real serious threats here.

HOLMES: All right.

Gary LaFree, again, from the University of Maryland.

Sir, we appreciate your time, your expertise. Some of this stuff is certainly sobering, but we certainly do appreciate you, sir. Thank you so much.

LAFREE: Thanks, T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Want to turn now and give you a look at some of the stories making headlines this hour.

The world's biggest airline is now here thanks to an announced merger today of United Airlines and Continental Airlines. So, how big is it? Well, estimated to bring in some $29 billion, 144 million passengers to 370 destinations every single year.

Also, in India, smiling prosecutors are pleased after a court convicted the only surviving gunman in the 2008 Mumbai attacks of murder, conspiracy and waging war. The attacks killed more than 160 people, lasted some three days, you'll remember. The surviving gunman, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, will be sentenced tomorrow and could face the death penalty.

And to South Carolina now, where the governor, Mark Sanford -- you'll remember him -- he will not be criminally charged in an ethics case involving questionable travel and campaign expenses. His pricey airline tickets, use of state aircraft for personal events and high campaign reimbursements drew the largest ethics fines in South Carolina history, about $74,000.

The scrutiny began after he disappeared last June, exposing an affair when he came back. The Republican's term is up next January. Well, parts of Nashville under water after a deadly deluge of heavy rain across the South. Chad Myers updating his latest weather maps. He's with us after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. With Chad Myers here.

And we were scared awake this morning, actually. It got nasty here, but it's been nasty other places in Nashville right now. My God.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: All right. Well, that's on the radar? What you got "Off the Radar" today?

You were telling us about this earlier. This is some fascinating stuff. Interesting stuff here.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Well, this is a pretty one that hasn't been installed on the ocean floor. It's nice and painted, but blowout preventer. What is it? How does it work?

It sits on top of the well. All that drilling that happened is down below this here. This is actually on the dock, but whatever.

So the well would be down here, the well head here. This would sit on top of there, and it would prevent any oil from releasing, from coming out in the event of an emergency like we had. It's not working.

HOLMES: Not working.

MYERS: It's not working.

So, how does it work? Well, there are a couple different ways that it works.

Those -- come back here. There are a couple different ways this can actually work. And this one is a clamp type.

The pipe is up through here. These two huge hydraulic mechanisms, this whole thing weighs about 650 tons. It slams together and they cut the water off. They cut the oil off. The oil can't go anywhere.

Now, there are a couple different kinds. There's one that's the big, bad one that actually cuts the pipes off all together. The pipes fall into the well and make the well useless.

HOLMES: OK.

MYERS: They don't want to try to use that one. They don't want to make -- useless.

HOLMES: They want the oil. They want the oil.

MYERS: They're still going to try to use this thing here. So, what they're building -- and this is kind of not to scale, because this guy is a little bit far away from this box.

This box is going to go on top of that blowout preventer. There are little valves and pipes up on top, and they're going to suck the oil up from here, kind of keeping something over the top of it, going, OK, we'll just take -- go ahead and leak. Go ahead. We'll just get it off a different way.

And that's what we're going to do.

HOLMES: The upside-down siphon, I think I heard someone describe this as.

MYERS: I don't care what they call it if it works. We just need to get this oil stopped.

HOLMES: We will see if it works. But again, it could be a week, it could be 90 days. We don't know how long. We don't have a good answer yet for how long it's going to take.

But a good way to break that down, people have been hearing these words, this terminology. A good way to show us exactly what's going on down there.

MYERS: And the oil is going to make its way to land sometime. And when we see it, when we see the big, bad, orange/brown patches of oil on land, that's exactly when the devastation is occurring. The devastation is already occurring to the wildlife out there. We just don't see it.

We see fly-overs. We don't have pictures of it on land. As soon as we get it on land, it's going to be a completely different story.

HOLMES: Chad Myers, we appreciate the on the radar and "Off the Radar" stuff, as always. Thanks so much.

MYERS: See you.

HOLMES: Well, coming up next, globe-trekking is what we're calling it. Nuclear weapons is what we're talking about next. Who has them? Who wants them? Do you think Iran will be a part of our conversation?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Globe-trekking, we've decided. A new segment. We're still getting used to the name -- globe-trekking.

And Josh Levs is globe-trekking for us, showing us stuff from around the world, and pictures a lot of times. We're focusing on nuclear powers and those who would like to be nuclear powers. JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Yes, exactly. And we're seeing these pictures. You know, they've been coming out of the U.N. all day long, the big dispute there, where there were some countries that walked out before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began to talk.

We can zoom in here and I'll show you some things.

Now, what I want you to see as we're seeing some of these players who are taking part today, you're certainly seeing a lot of events there. But one thing that you might not know or might not often hear about when we're hearing about nuclear powers in this country is -- in this world, rather -- is some countries are out there that have actually given up their nuclear weapons.

And we're having our first technical issue of the day. We are. There you go. Let's get rid of this one.

These are some countries in this world that have actually given up their nukes over the last several years. You don't often hear that side. You hear about the countries out there that are chasing nuclear weapons.

Let's zoom in over here. You're seeing Brazil, one of the countries that made the choice to do what a lot of people are pushing toward, this effort toward non-proliferation. Ultimately, an effort to get rid of nuclear weapons in the world.

South Africa, as well, is another one. Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, this is a handful of countries that over recent years has made this choice. A lot of us heard about Libya and the conversations that were going on there.

So, that is one example of what some people call an element of success so far in this effort, T.J., when you're looking at other countries out there that are saying, you know, maybe we'll work toward this one day. There are a lot of these groups that look at this and they say, OK, we are seeing countries that have made this choice so far.

Now what I'm going to show you is the opposite. I'm going to show you the top nuclear powers in this world and how many nuclear weapons they actually have.

Let's start off right over here, because these are basically the top four in the world. No one knows exactly how many. In every case, we're talking about total suspected numbers of weapons.

China, right here, has 240 total suspected weapons. And the reason we don't know is that there are different reports at different times. There are independent groups out there that take a look and they say, OK, this is how much we think is there.

HOLMES: And they're not telling.

LEVS: And the thing is, for security reasons, in some cases, right? Some people think the best deterrent is secrecy. All right. Take a look here.

Russia, 3,900 total suspected weapons. Now, that does seem like a lot. We're going to work our way toward the United States, as well, and what you'll see as we come over here is this is what makes a lot of protesters really upset in New York and outside here.

Fifty-two hundred total suspected nuclear weapons. So, as nuclear powers go, it is believed that the United States has the most of any in this world.

Ultimately, how many there will be, there's all these conversations now about decreasing. But this is what we're seeing right now.

Thousands, in the end, tens of thousands, overall, if you're going to combine all these nuclear powers out there. The question is, are we really growing or are we really decreasing? And ultimately, are we working toward non-proliferation or are we secretly working towards larger numbers? That's what we have.

HOLMES: Well, certainly Ahmadinejad talking today. If you listen to him and you believe him, he does not want nuclear weapons at all. He called them a bad thing. He said the U.S. and other big powers that have them, shame on you, essentially, is what he is saying.

He also, today -- he was speaking a few hours before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was supposed to speak at the U.N. as well. And Secretary Clinton is going to be a guest coming up live, I believe I have it right, Kelly, 3:00 hour? We're taking it live, excuse me. The speech I'm just talking about. We're going to have her coming up live in the 3:00 hour, so you certainly don't to miss that. Again, her speech coming just on the heels hours after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the same stage, so stay tuned for that.

"Globe Trekking," as always, Josh, we appreciate you.

LEVS: You got it. Thanks.

HOLMES: Also coming up here, have you lost your job? A lot of people have, a lot of people looking to change jobs in a really tough market. There is an old-fashioned solution that could give you a brand-new opportunity, but you need to be able and be ready to relearn everything you think you know.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: On many accounts, the U.S. economy is picking up and the U.S. is getting some manufacturing jobs back. But they're more high- tech than ever and American workers have a lot to catch up on, so now companies are using an old-fashioned model for new training.

Our Tony Harris has more of our series "The New Face of the Blue Collar Worker."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brant Bishop's workday starts at 11:00 at night. While most of us are getting ready for bed, he is running around on a factory floor, serving an apprenticeship at a plant operated by a Bosch Rexroth, an international manufacturer of industrial components and controls.

BRANT BISHOP, REGISTERED APPRENTICE MACHINIST: Right now, I've got a tool -- an insert change coming up.

HARRIS: During the day --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what you'll see is metal removal.

HARRIS: -- Brant attends classes at Greenville Tech in South Carolina pursuing a degree in machine tool technology. It is a 14- hour day, but he's got to do it to learn a new profession. Two years ago, this father of two and his wife were running their own restaurant. Then the recession hit, and they went from being entrepreneurs to unemployed.

BISHOP: We really just kind of had to close the doors to avoid getting in any deeper than we wanted to in debt.

HARRIS: But don't feel too sorry for Brant Bishop. He will soon graduate from his long days with new skills and a new job, all paid for, even the schooling, by his employer. It's part of a registered apprenticeship program dating back to the 1930s administered by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Apprenticeships are as agent as Medieval Times. A baker passing on the craft to his young worker. A master shoemaker sharing the tricks of his trade. Knowledge passed on to the next generation.

Today, the Department of Labor says apprentices work for more than 6,000 U.S. manufacturing companies, earning a modest wage while being trained for higher paying jobs.

BISHOP: The kind of manufacturing you're looking at today is not your granddad's manufacturing. It's a lot more complex.

HARRIS: Brant's employer says investing in the apprenticeship program benefits the company, as much as the worker.

BRYAN MCCORMICK, PLANT MANAGER, BOSCH REXROTH: In the end, all sides win. South Carolina wins, because we're developing high-paying, skilled jobs right here at home. We're paying the training costs. The associate, obviously, wins because through this career and this training, they're now advancing to a higher pay.

It can take months, really, to find the right personnel, so you're not agile enough if you don't have a program like this.

HARRIS: These apprenticeship jobs are highly competitive. To land one, a worker has to take tests, measuring aptitude for mathematics, machining, teamwork and communication skills. At the South Carolina plant, Rexroth has only a dozen apprentice apprentices.

BISHOP: You need to have a strong head for math, with the blueprint readings, with the adjustments we have to make in tool offsets and different changes to programming.

HARRIS: Charles Wilson is on the U.S. Labor secretary's Advisory Committee for Apprentices. He started the apprenticeship program at Greenville Tech after watching the signature industry, textiles, collapse, sending many manufacturing jobs overseas.

CHARLES WILSON, DEPARTMENT HEAD, GREENVILLE TECH: When I saw people who had worked in textiles all their life losing their jobs, I couldn't sleep some nights. I said, what can one person do to help?

HARRIS: Brant says he realizes how lucky he is to have gotten one of coveted apprenticeships, especially considering South Carolina's 12 percent unemployment rate, highest in the country.

BISHOP: A tremendous amount of people out of work at the moment, and I know that the competition is high for pretty much any job in the field right now.

HARRIS: Tony Harris, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, time now for us to check some stories making headlines today.

First up, in Arizona, a very controversial sheriff, Joe Arpaio plans a big announcement today. He's going to let folks know whether or not he'll make a run for governor. Yes, Governor Arpaio some say is a possibility now. He is, of course, known for his crackdowns on illegal immigrants and also for making inmates at his jail wear pink underwear. He is currently the focus as well of two federal investigations.

Amid furious and mostly fruitless efforts to contain that big oil slick, a panel investigating what caused it announced public hearings. The first one is expected in New Orleans, expected to happen in about two weeks. The panel wants to talk to survivors of last month's oil rig explosion to figure out why it happened in the first place. As we know, 11 people went missing from that, they were assumed dead, and another 100 plus were able to escape.

Also, never mind what those naysayers were saying out there. Apple's iPad selling like hotcakes, just like anything it seems that this company makes. The company says it sold already its millionth iPad on Friday, that's less than a month after the tablet's launch. Let's get our heads around that number -- a million, it averages out to about 35,714 sold every single day. I think most of those are owned by members of this team.

Also, Tennessee is not the only place out there with some water problems. President Obama today signing a disaster declaration with the entire commonwealth of Massachusetts. That's because of a two- day-old break in a major waterline that's 12 miles west of Boston. Welders have patched the pipe, but extensive testing has to be done to make sure tap water is safe to drink. People were told over the weekend they need to boil their water. A lot of places, a lot of grocery stores ran out of bottled water almost immediately.

Coming up next, always a favorite segment on this show. I enjoy watching it, but I certainly enjoy it more when I get to be here and be a part of it. We're going to chat with that guy. Ed -- I guess you can hear me. You know what, you tell me first. How did you enjoy your weekend, your White House Correspondents' Dinner? How was that?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Look, all I need to say is I met Kim Kardashian. What more do I need to say?

HOLMES: Wow. OK, let me go to break, so you and I can talk offline about this.

All right, we're right back, folks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: We now want to turn to our senior White House correspondent, the man that never sleeps. He's had a heck of a weekend -- some business, more pleasure.

HENRY: You were working all weekend, I saw, now you're working on the weekdays. Ali is kicking back somewhere, obviously.

HOLMES: You know, what? I said the same thing. They said, he's actually not. He's on assignment. That's what he calls it, "on assignment."

HENRY: Oh, OK. We always put that in quotes, right?

HOLMES: When it's Ali, yes.

But not you, you were working. I saw you working a little earlier in the White House briefing, talking to Robert Gibbs. How big of an issue is this going to be now with the possibility that the liability is capped for BP? This is tricky here.

HENRY: A big deal, because obviously the president is trying to show that he's all over this now. They face some criticism that maybe in the early days they were not moving quick enough. You heard a lot of top Obama officials pushing back on that yesterday with Candy Crowley and others, Sunday talk show hosts.

But I think there's this whole separate issue you mentioned where now some democratic senators in the president's own party have introduced legislation saying they want to change this cap on liabilities from $75 million for oil companies in a situation like this to $10 billion. OK, that's fine and good moving forward if it passes, but what does that mean in this case? The question is, will damages be capped at $75 million even though this may run into the billions of dollars?

It appears that the way the current law is written, BP might only be responsible for the clean-up, you know, and keeping all this at bay, not necessarily for lost wages and other things that the administration is insisting they do need to pay for. We pressed Robert Gibbs on that. He said he's going to look into more on exactly what this cap caps, and whether or not -- you know, what costs will be kept.

But when you get the president saying he's going to hold BP's feet to the fire -- and Robert Gibbs was saying at the podium something the interior secretary said yesterday, which is they've got their foot on the throat of BP. That sounds tough, but will they be able to follow up with it? Will they get BP to pay all this? We're not sure yet.

HOLMES: Yes, what will the law, like you said, allow? And certainly want to be clear for our viewers here, it's one thing, a law says yes, they have to pay for the clean-up. But like you were mentioning there, what about the fishermen? What about those lost wages? What about the environment?

HENRY: The administration says we're going to make them do it, but can you make a private company do that if the law is a little murky on this? So, because then obviously the other issue is who is going to come in and pay the rest? You and I. The taxpayers are going to pay if the company isn't liable for all of that.

That's what the president is trying to prevent because at a time of deep budget deficits, the last thing you want to do is be helping an oil company here after all the other bailouts we have seen before.

HOLMES: And it really was -- the president certainly went down to the Gulf Coast this weekend, but it was a really busy weekend for him. Certainly -- I mean, it started off with Saturday night, you've got the attempted attack on New York. He was up in Michigan giving a commencement address. He went down to the Gulf Coast, a really busy weekend for the president.

And -- but you know, no matter what is going on and how much is on his plate, when it comes to terror and attacks and protecting the American people that, certainly had to move to the forefront quickly this weekend.

HENRY: You're absolutely right. I mean, we could talk about the economy, we could talk about health care that he was just dealing with recently now, Wall Street reform on the floor of the Senate, all important issues, no doubt. But we knew as soon as this Times Square car bomb incident was unfolding on Saturday night that this was a big deal, and I can assure you people inside the White House knew it was a big deal, because I was talking to some of them at 2:33 in the morning, Saturday, leading into Sunday as we were trying to report out this story and they weren't going to bed yet because they knew this was a big deal.

Now, how big it is, we don't know. Reports out there suggesting maybe there are international terror ties to this incident. There are others suggesting it may just be some lone wolf out there. The evidence is not in yet, we don't know, the investigation literally just beginning. But you can bet this White House is keeping a close eye on it, T.J.

HOLMES: All right, but again, there was certainly always lot of work, a lot of business, a lot of serious business, but the president as always, a tradition, Saturday night, the White House Correspondents' Dinner. I could ask you all kinds of questions about it, but I will simply start by saying, Kim Kardashian.

HENRY: That's all you really need to say. You know, I've had this joke going on on Twitter. Ali and I tease each other who about who has got more Twitter followers, I obviously have more. I understand you've got more than me, so I can't take this too far, I guess.

But on Twitter I like to joke around about how I want to meet Kim Kardashian. Well, it became a reality Saturday, she was at one of the pregame parties, one of the brunches Tami Hadatt (ph) threw here in Washington. And I met Kim, the pictures plastered on the Internet so now -- cause I posted it myself, I should say.

(LAUGHTER)

HENRY: I posted it, so I can't complain. It was fun to meet her, but I met her for like 30 seconds.

HOLMES: Thirty seconds?

HENRY: It was fun. She was very nice. She was very kind.

The best part of the whole weekend, though, was actually sitting next to Jay Leno and the first lady at the head table, because I'm a member of the board of the White House Correspondents' association. And bottom line is, I asked the first lady if she would be willing to do her first tweet. She told me, I don't know, I can't do that, Robert Gibbs will be mad. I got up and asked Robert Gibbs for his permission, and he said go for it, Mrs. Obama. She used my iPhone to send out her first tweet. She did it on Saturday night. You can see, we got a story on CNN.com about it right now.

HOLMES: You're a part of White House history.

HENRY: Yes, you know, it's a small little bit of history I think. I don't think it's Watergate, but it's first lady's first tweet and it's going to end up in the Library of Congress just like the rest.

HOLMES: And you couldn't keep Kim Kardashian's attention for more than 30 seconds, Ed?

HENRY: You know, my fiance was standing about 10 feet away.

HOLMES: Oh, OK, 30 seconds was too much then.

HENRY: I'm just saying -- as you know -- recently married, you know, I wanted to say hi to Kim, but that was about it.

HOLMES: All right, 30 seconds might have been pushing it, actually, Ed.

But always good to talk to you, kind sir. Great information. You're always giving us a little background, a little insight of what's going on up there. Good to see you, buddy. We'll talk to you again soon.

HENRY: Thank you.

HOLMES: It was the weekend showdown of "The Tonight Show" hosts. We just talked about Jay Leno there with Ed Henry. No joke, though, for Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno. They had to share the spotlight again. Leno, of course, you just heard, was handling the duties at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Conan O'Brien was not being so funny on CBS's "60 Minutes."

Coco's first interview since his messy split from NBC back in January. He was asked if he thought Jay Leno acted honorably in taking back "The Tonight Show." Conan said he couldn't really answer that. His feelings, though, seem pretty clear. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, CBS's "60 MINUTES")

CONAN O'BRIEN, COMEDIAN: I'm happy with my decision. I sleep well at night. And I, you know, hope he's happy with his decision.

STEVE KROFT, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Do you think that Jay lobbied for this?

O'BRIEN: I don't know. But -- what I know is what happened, which is that he went and took that show back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: "Took that show back." Conan says, though, he is mostly very happy. He's having a great time on his current live national tour. Rocking the beard there, as well. He's going to be launching his new show as one of our co-workers here, he's going to be over at another Turner property, TBS, a little later this year.

Well, it's a term we have been hearing in the headlines for almost two weeks now, but that doesn't mean we could use it in a sentence. Dispersant, today's word play. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, a little Jason Mraz helping us with our word play today. We've come across these types of words, terms in some top stories that we are, well, less than familiar with. Never this reporter, though. But a couple weeks back, we ran into the word derivatives. Well, now with the oil slick story, we've got a new word -- dispersants.

Official dictionary definition, let's give it to you first. The number one says, something that disperses. Well, that clears that right up, doesn't it?

Let's move on. So what exactly does it mean to disperse? That means, at least when talking about chemistry, to cause particles to separate uniformly without a solid liquid or gas.

That is exactly what everybody is hoping will happen with the dispersants being dropped into the Gulf, the chemical compounds meant to break up the surface tension of all that oil, basically helping it to dissolve some kind of way easier, hopefully in that water.

So dispersant, go out and use it in a sentence sometime tonight. You'll sound really smart.

Well that's going to do it for me here, but don't go away. Ali, who is again, "on assignment," he left us with a very special "X-Y-Z" that you're going to hear right after the break. Don't go away.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN.

(VIDEO CLIP, STUDIO 7 TIME LAPSE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Time now for "The X-Y-Z of It."

It's a brand-new era for CNN, and I hope you're enjoying this brand new studio. Unfortunately, I can't be here with you live this week as we launch our new set and our new show, but I've left new good hands with my colleagues T.J. Holmes and Don Lemon. Before I left, though, I wanted to leave this message for you.

This new set is symbolic of changes we are continually making to make watching us important and useful to you. Obviously, we look a little different today than we did last week, but we're also going to be delivering a different experience. Our team is going to be introducing new segments this week that we hope will keep you visiting us during this time that we share in this space where we welcome all kinds of all backgrounds, views and political stripes.

In this new space, are we'll bring you stories of people. People who are affecting great change in a segment that we're going to call "Mission Possible."

For my geeky friends out there, and trust me, I'm not mocking you, I'm one of them, we'll have something called "The Big Eye." "The Big Eye" tackles our larger problems, inventions, new ways of doing business, cures, scientific advances, wacky proposals and technology; the stuff of science fairs and business plan competitions, ideas that will change the way we live and ways that you can prosper from them.

It's positive, it's optimistic. It's not the stuff you'll see on other news shows, but those inventions and innovations won't keep coming unless our kids are educated properly, which is why each day we'll be bringing you "Chalk Talk." If your kid doesn't get a high school diploma, they're twice as likely as the average American of being unemployed. Who is doing education right in this country, and how can we make that happen in every classroom across America? "Chalk Talk" is going to tackle that.

And there's lots more like this, so continue to join us here every weekday at 1:00 p.m. on the East Coast and 10:00 a.m. on the West Coast. And don't worry about news and politics, you'll still get it all here. The news is, after all, what CNN is all about.

These are my words. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it. You are the people I get up in the morning to serve. I need your input and your criticism, good or bad. This show is for you so reach out to me on Facebook, send me a tweet @AliVelshi. The street I work on runs two ways.

I grew up on the news and love the news, but today when you can get the news anywhere you look, we are aiming to go give you more insight, deeper analysis and a detailed understanding of the things that matter to you. Information that could help you make better decisions about your health, safety, prosperity and your family.

I'll trying to build a different relationship with you. My team and I will do the heavy lifting, all you have to do is turn us on. I promise, I'll work hard to make it work your time.

That's "The X-Y-Z of It." Time now for Rick Sanchez and "RICK'S LIST."

(END VIDEOTAPE)