Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Operation on Oil Rig Under Way; Tar Balls Hit Alabama and Mississippi Islands; Israeli Commando Says Raid was Life-Threatening; Afghan Peace Talks Attacked; 520-Day Simulated Mission to Mars; White House Tight-Lipped on Election Influence

Aired June 02, 2010 - 09:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Brooke Baldwin in this Wednesday for Kyra Phillips.

Here is what we're working on for you. We're keeping track here, we are on day 44. BP's deep cut under way, live pictures here under water. Those diamond wire cutters appear to be working, but some people likening this process to kind of like doing heart surgery about a mile under water.

We're getting an update from the Coast Guard this hour. We'll bring that to you live.

Also, showing you how globs of this stuff now rolling up on the beaches here of two different states.

And Israel's raid on the high seas. The people they took prisoner could be going home today, but the story it is nowhere near over. Coming up, we are hearing from an Israeli commando who was right in the thick of things.

But first, want to get you up to speed on really the latest here in this gulf oil crisis. As I said, day 44, crews may be inching possibly closer to a breakthrough here. Again, live pictures under water.

The latest maneuver showed the remote-control robots. Those are the ROVs that they've been talking about. They're making this apparent second round of cuts in that broken pipeline or the riser. And once that's finally sheared off, the company says it will try to install that cap, that custom-fit cap that could happen sometime today.

But again that should take four to seven days. We should learn a little bit more at the bottom of the hour when the government's point man on the operations is scheduled to be holding a news conference down in Louisiana.

Meantime, the damage, it is spreading, tar balls, weathered oil, they have indeed come ashore here on Barrier Islands both in Mississippi and Alabama. And BP -- listen to this. BP has spent more than $1 billion on the cleanup. That happened yesterday.

And the federal government saying it's looking into the possibility of criminal charges being filed in the case.

But I know this procedure could be kind of complicated so we want to just help you walk you through exactly what's happening now under water as we're watching now day 44. And we'll look at some of the remote-controlled operations under way.

And I know, Josh, you know, you and I have been talking the last couple days and it's this very precise cutting with these diamond wire cutters, these two separate parts of the riser, right? And we should perhaps be see that -- be seeing that precious cut today.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We should. I mean, we're talking about robots operating 5,000 feet under water, trying to make all this happen.

I'll tell you at the top we've been reaching out to BP this morning to try to determine exactly how far they've gotten on each cut. We don't know yet but we are expecting to learn more this hour as Brooke was saying.

Let's do this because these underwater images are really dramatic. I want to go to the animation first to remind everyone the basic principle here of what BP is trying to accomplish.

And what we're talking about here is the blowout preventer and there's a section there called the lower marine riser package. Now watch what happens to this animation. You have these two pieces that move away and you're left with a stub. A gush of oil comes out of it. A cap comes down and lands on top of it.

Now that's the goal. That is what BP wants to have happened here. And in order for that to work, they needed to make these two cuts and that's why we're seeing this kind of drama under the water. And I'll tell you quickly what these two cuts are.

The first one if you -- understand this. This is the blowout preventer we were just talking about. You have this plate right here. They needed to be cut in two places. First they had a robot that's designed to use these hydraulic shears to cut it way down here.

Then, let's think of this as the money cut, right? The most important cut is way over here. It's right at top of the blowout preventer. You have this robot that comes along and it's supposed to make a slice right there.

For this one, instead of hydraulic shears, they're actually using that diamond wire saw. It is made of diamond, one of the sharpest, strongest materials to make a cut. And the goal is to create the exact perfect size stub.

If they can create what BP is calling a smooth horizontal line right here, then they can lower this cap -- the lower marine riser cap -- place it right on top of it. Now there's a lot of ifs along the way. And you have to get all those cuts right and in the process, while they make that cut, you're going to have a gush of oil come up. So let's do this. Let's go to some of these live pictures again and we'll take a look -- as this is what everyone's watching right now -- to see how far is this diamond wire cutter managing to go. And every time you see smoke that doesn't automatically mean oil.

When you're slicing off a piece of pipe under water that creates smoke as well. Some of this is going to disintegrate. Yes. Please. Yes.

BALDWIN: Let me interrupt you and ask because we're all kind of looking at this together for the first time. Do we even know what part of the riser this is where ROVs are cutting?

LEVS: I can tell you one thing. We do know that in the video that we've been seeing so far, when you look at the diamond wire cutter, it does appear to us to be working on what you and I were referring to as the money cut, as closer to where the stub should ultimately be.

BP hasn't yet detailed exactly where it is, but based on the video -- I know it's hard for you all to tell right there. Based on the video we're seeing, it does seem that BP is -- it's definitely the diamond wire cutter, yes, I'm being told in my ear. And that much we know.

But how close they are to that actual stub and creating a smooth horizontal wall, that's what we're working on. So we do know that's the diamond wire cutter at work and we do know that this is where they want to make that really critical cut in order to get the cap on top.

We also have some video that came in last night where you can see one of the earlier steps that's also really interesting. This is when they're cutting off that pipe as I was showing. Watch what happens. So there's a slice pretty much. This is, we believe, the hydraulic shears that we're going through and boom. You know you can see some oil that comes out from there.

BALDWIN: And explain again briefly because we were chatting before the show. They had to cut that part of the --

LEVS: Right.

BALDWIN: -- riser to lessen some of the pressure for that money cut where they place the cap, correct?

LEVS: Exactly. Yes. The pipe has a kink in it. And this all happened at the beginning of all of it. This all happened at the beginning of this explosion, basically, when all these problems occurred. And before they could go make that initial cut, it's our understanding they needed to make a cut farther down to release the pressure on that pipe in order to give themselves a better shot at using the diamond wire cutter to make that really smooth cut.

So if in the end they can get everything that they need -- cut exactly the way it should be -- then what you'll end up seeing is this right here, and you will see the smooth cut right here. You'll see a cap that they can put on top of it. Then the cap does a couple of things.

First of all, this whole thing is designed to guide oil up to the surface, so it's all going to be up to the enterprise drill ship way up here. Oil coming up that goes to contain it. But it's also not 100 percent steel. All right? So it's not going to close off absolutely everything.

They have said it won't do that. Also they're going to pump in some methanol to try to get rid of these ice-like methane crystals that can cause problems underneath. All of that happening.

And this, and Brooke, I was just checking the schedule. They are expecting to get the cap on this week or at least the effort to get it on this week.

BALDWIN: The effort is this week. We'll be watching with you every single step of the way.

Josh Levs, thank you.

LEVS: Yes.

BALDWIN: We're committing to covering every single angle of the story. And as soon as we see anything significant really under water, you know we'll bring it to you live. But there's this whole other angle of the story, and of course that being the damage. Those globs of oil that are now spreading upon some of these beaches from this oil spill.

And CNN's John Zarrella, he is on Dauphin Island. It's about 40 miles south of Mobile. It's one of those barrier islands now reporting a mess washing onshore.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: First thing I want to do is show you just how beautiful and wide this beach is. Take a look here off to my right. You can see it's several football fields of absolutely white sand. There's a fishing pier that comes out here.

OK, beautiful white beach. That's what you see. Well, now let's take a look and let's see if we can spot the oil and I know we can because it's all over. We started seeing it from here on down.

Look, here's some of the oil right here. Look at it. You don't even want to touch it. It's just a gooey consistency on your finger. Not a good thing to do, right? And look, as we walk along, oil, oil. Walk a little bit further, more oil.

We actually think these little pieces here, you know, that's all oil, too. It's come up. Now here's more of it. Oil down here. And as we walk along, we can see just about everywhere we walk, oil, oil, oil, oil.

Here's a big piece that looks like it was deposited during high tide. That's a little bit -- about the same consistency, maybe a little bit harder. But it's just like mud is what it is.

And as you walk down this stretch of beach, it doesn't stop here. You see it everywhere. There's another big piece of the oil.

Now, we understand that there's a lot of cleanup crews that are out and they're going to start working today to clean this stuff up, but here it is, first light, nobody out on the beach but us, and you can see there's plenty of oil that needs to be cleaned up.

BALDWIN: All right, John. Thank you.

Folks, again, we're expecting an update from the federal government at the bottom of this hour. Who will we be hearing from? From Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen. He's scheduled to be holding this news conference right around at 9:30 Eastern, 6:30 Pacific.

Of course we will carry it live.

We also want to share this programming note on Thursday night. CNN's Larry King has an exclusive interview with President Barack Obama. So from the oil spill to economic turmoil to battling two wars, President Obama shares his thoughts on "LARRY KING LIVE." That is Thursday night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

Fourteen Americans still held in Israel following Monday's bloody flotilla fight should be heading home by the end of the day today. That is according to Israeli officials. And our embassy in Tel Aviv says a total of 16 Americans were on board those six different ships that were raided in that predawn raid by Israeli commandos during a humanitarian mission to deliver supplies to the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Now we're told two of the U.S. citizens have already left. In fact, we talked to one of them on the show this time yesterday morning. Now Israel says it is trying to empty its prison cells of all foreign flotilla activists by today.

That is some 600-plus people to be cleared out but Israeli sources say four of the passengers will not get out until next week, all of them Israeli Arabs. And it's still not yet clear if any of the activists will face criminal charges.

Still the ripple effect from Monday's deadly raid is being felt all around the world. You've seen the pictures of these protesters. Look at this. They've been storming city streets. Allies up in arms here.

And a U.S. military official tells CNN that Turkey now informally backing out of trilateral military exercises set for August with both the U.S. and Israel.

Keep in mind all of this coming as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is urging Israel to make what she's calling a credible internal investigation.

Well, we now know that at least nine people are dead, but the facts about what exactly went down on that flotilla Monday morning still not totally clear. And it certainly was not even the first flotilla to try to break through that three-year blockade.

In fact, more aid ships are heading toward Gaza right now. So the question is why did this particular mission end in gunfire?

Senior international correspondent Matthew Chance spoke exclusively with the Israeli Navy commando seen on the video being attacked and thrown overboard and he's joining us live from Jerusalem.

And, Matthew, I spoke with the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. just yesterday and I know they're all saying look, this was self- defense.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's certainly, Brooke, what the Israelis have been saying all along, that they arrived on this protest ship, albeit in international waters. They were expecting to be, you know, greeted with peaceful protesters, but that's not what they encountered at all.

The protesters of course say that's not true. They say that the Israeli soldiers behaved aggressively. But you mentioned, I sat down with one of the Israeli soldiers -- the commandos who was injured in this raid that clearly went quite badly wrong.

He described to me a very ugly scene when he arrived. What emerged from that interesting conversation was that, you know, these soldiers had no idea to expect the kind of violent resistance that they encountered on board that ship in that nighttime raid in the seas off the coast of Israel.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (voice-over): They expected only passive resistance but say they were greeted by knives, iron bars, and clubs. Footage recorded by Israel's military shows how unprepared its troops were for what they encountered, a point emphasized by one of the commandos badly injured in the assault.

Now being treated in hospital, we were given access to the officer named as Captain R on condition we conceal his identity.

CAPTAIN R, ISRAELI COMMANDO (Through Translator): In our plans, there was talk about an expected passive resistance, verbal resistance, maybe a little more aggressive resistance. Given the circumstances, we obviously changed our way of operation, which we didn't mean to pursue initially.

CHANCE: From the outset, the operation to storm the protest ship bound for Gaza appears to have gone badly wrong. As the naval commandos landed on the deck from helicopters, they were set upon. Captain R told us he was confronted by men with clubs and knives. He says he opened fire but was overpowered and thrown over the deck.

CAPTAIN R (Through Translator): At the moment I saw people holding knives were approaching me and attempting to stab me, I took out my weapon and shot one bullet. A large amount of people threw me down to the main deck, to the lower deck.

As I was thrown down, a group of another 10 people jumped on me, stabbed me with a knife in my stomach.

CHANCE: The violence, which left protesters dead and injured as well as at least seven Israeli commandos wounded, has provoked a storm of controversy and raised critical questions for the country's military.

(On camera): The death of nine people on board has caused outrage around the world. What do you say to the charge that the response of you and your colleagues in this commando team was disproportionate?

CAPTAIN R (Through Translator): This was a life-threatening situation. The people who were hurt were attempting to hurt us. The intention was to block the ship, get off without anybody getting hurt.

Just to stop the ship reaching Gaza because of the blockade. It ended differently because of the reaction of the people on board.

CHANCE (voice-over): It's an accusation vigorously denied by the protesters who say Israel's forces were to blame and that commandos like Captain R should never have been deployed on board.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE: Well, Brooke, there are these calls now internationally for an independent investigation to try and get to the bottom of this. There's also calls increasingly inside Israel because many Israelis want to know why their soldiers were sent into a situation they clearly, clearly were not prepared for -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Still very much so it sounds like two sides to the story. Matthew Chance for us with that amazing exclusive interview. Nice work there. Thank you.

Meantime the Afghan peace talks. The Taliban responds with bullets, suicide bombs and rocket fire. We are taking you live to Kabul.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. The winds will be changing in the Gulf of Mexico, and that loop current we told you about has pinched off an eddy. Find out what these two things mean for the spread of oil coming up in your forecast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai launches this new peace initiative, but militants respond with bombs, with bullets, rocket fire, brutally attacking the site of today's peace talks and the Taliban is now coming forward and taking responsibility for this.

CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is live in Kabul.

And, Nic, was there ever a chance of success with this as they call it the peace jirga, this peace meeting? NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the peace jirga and the idea of it, 1600 delegates invited by President Karzai, some of them former warlords, some of them from places in the country where the Taliban insurgency is really strong.

And the idea is to get all these different leaders from around the country to agree a unified position that the government can then use to say to the Taliban, look, this is what the people of the country are demanding from you. This is what you must do to have a cease-fire that we integrate into society.

It also helped bolster President Karzai who's really looked very weak since that very flawed presidential election last year. And there have been a lot of critics here in the international community and Afghans. This principle presidential front-runner last year has turned down the invitation to come to the jirga, calling it more of a PR show than actually making any progress in terms of peace.

So there's a lot of skepticism here about it. But nevertheless, it's a very important step. International officials here say tiny steppingstone but a critical one. One of those rockets landing just 200 meters from the flimsy tent these delegates were meeting in.

BALDWIN: Yes. We know he was able to begin his speech but then had to be carried off in that convoy. And you talk about sort of this -- perhaps as some are saying, right, this PR stunt but you also talk about the election.

And there are lots of questions over the election and this is a president -- a pretty unpopular president -- trying to perhaps extend this olive branch to all of Afghanistan, persuade these Taliban leaders to essentially lay down their arms. But is there really a sense from what you can deem, Nic, that there is even enough common ground to do that?

ROBERTSON: Well, you know what, behind the scenes, behind what's going on here at this peace jirga, there are tentative talks with different elements of the Taliban. This is going on deep behind the scenes. And there is a sense with some of the people involved in those talks that there is some common understanding with the Taliban.

But the Taliban have a very clear demand, and that is that international forces, United States troops, should get out of Afghanistan before they're going to get into peace talks. The United States says that the Taliban need to distance themselves from al Qaeda.

There does seem to be behind the scenes a sense that these things can be worked out, but at the moment the public position is there is an irreconcilable gulf between these two positions and this issue, this fundamental to the Taliban issue, that U.S. troops should get out of the country before they'll be peace talks.

That's not on the agenda here in the jirga and that's why a lot of people are saying hey, look, what can it really achieve if you're not going to debate that? In a real jirga in Afghanistan, this group would really have real power and they don't have any power over the United States here. So of course a lot of Afghans are saying, what's the point -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Ha. Nic Robertson, senior international correspondent, for us with a live report from Kabul. Nic, thank you.

News out of Japan here. The prime minister stepping down just after eight months in power. His name is Yukio Hatoyama. He made that announcement today on a live broadcast to both Houses of Parliament.

Hatoyama's Democratic Party really swept into power on this promise of cleaning up government, but his administration was soon linked to corruption. You see the prime minister's approval ratings really dropped further after he failed to move a U.S. marine base off the southern island of Okinawa.

And as we are keeping our eye very, very close on the whole gulf region, we could be seeing perhaps a significant change in winds that could take this spill into a westerly direction, Jacqui Jeras, which is --

JERAS: Easterly direction.

BALDWIN: Easterly direction.

JERAS: Yes. We're watching the Florida Panhandle. You know, the oil --

BALDWIN: Oh no.

JERAS: The oil has been found in Mississippi and Alabama both now and our winds are changing. And that's certainly going to be having an impact.

(WEATHER REPORT)

JERAS: It's been a very complex thing, Brooke, when you try and track ocean currents, wind patterns, what thunderstorms do out there in the Gulf of Mexico, and then just, you know, oil and water don't mix so that kind of slicks along the surface.

So it's been a very difficult forecast. The models have not been handling this well at all. But we do feel like they're going to be some changes coming up in the next few.

BALDWIN: That's why you're a total pro because you can keep your eye on those different things for us.

Jacqui, thank you.

Just a quick reminder. We should be hearing from the federal government's lead guy, Thad Allen, just a few minutes from now in Louisiana with the latest update really from the government's point man on what is happening. In fact, we're looking at live pictures. There they are setting up that podium. And as soon as we see Admiral Thad Allen live, you know here at CNN we will bring it to you live. Stay here.

CNN NEWSROOM rolls on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Day 44 of the gulf oil crisis as we take a look at the plumes under water, some 5,000 feet under water out in the gulf.

Want to tell you what's going on. BP is cutting the riser pipe in the underwater well. There's actually two cuts they're making. They're making one yesterday. They should be making the main cut today. That's what we're waiting for.

But keep in mind, this is a very risky move to have to cap this thing. They've never done it at this depth before. Most of this has happened near land. And even if the capping of this is successful -- by the way, they're saying it should be most of the oil they can cap, certainly not all of it -- the cutting will temporarily release 20 percent more oil.

Again, we should be hearing from Admiral Thad Allen in just a couple of minutes from Shriver, Louisiana. Also -- there are those live pictures out of Louisiana.

Also inspectors will be going into that West Virginia mine today. Remember that explosion in April that killed those 29 different mine workers in the Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County?

Inspectors are going in. They're checking on air quality levels before launching this massive investigation into the accident.

And Israel speeding up the release of activists from the Gaza aid flotilla. All 600 passengers should be deported -- should be headed home by sometime tomorrow. Israel still is facing intense global pushback for the high seas raid. Nine people died. Dozens others injured.

As I mentioned, day 44 of the oil disaster in the gulf. And in just a couple of minutes we will be taking you live to Shriver, Louisiana for the latest update from the government's point man on that oil crisis.

Perhaps we'll get an update on that second and main riser cut and see what they're saying as far as how much oil might be gushing and when we can get an idea as to when that custom-fit cap, that LMRP, that lower marine riser package cap, may be fit on top of that gusher and perhaps then they could start siphoning that oil to ships above.

Again, we'll be hearing from Admiral Thad Allen momentarily and as soon as we see it, we'll bring it to you live.

Stay here, CNN will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: And there was that opening bell just a couple of minutes ago. Stocks sold off yesterday in the final hour of trading, and investors, they were pretty spooked by the news that the justice department is now officially launching this investigation into the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, this criminal investigation.

Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange for us this morning with what to expect today. Alison, I know you're watching very closely. The BP's stock going down, down, down yesterday perhaps -- I know some people hoping for a rebound today.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And we are seeing a little bit of that, Brooke. We're seeing a bit of a bounce back at the opening just a few minutes of trading right. Nothing huge. Nothing really to write home about, but right now, stocks are higher.

Investors are focusing on some positive economic news. For one, the euro is rebounding from yesterday's four-year low. And the reason why everybody's keeping their eye on how the Euro trades is because it's become a proxy for investor confidence about European efforts to manage the debt crisis.

Also, we're expecting a strong housing report coming out in about 30 minutes. And throughout the day, Wall Street expects to get upbeat sales numbers from the nation's automakers. Citi Financial is closing branches and cutting jobs. The bank is splitting its consumer finance business in two, which could make it easier to sell. Citi Financial is closing 330 branches, and that means as many as 600 job cuts that will be spread over 48 states.

All right. Let's go ahead and check on those early numbers. The Dow Industrials right now higher by 41 points, the Nasdaq up about 12, yes, we're in the green.

And finally, Brooke, I know you were watching that James Bond marathon over the weekend. You can soon get a piece of 007. James Bond's 1964 Aston Martin is hitting the auction block this fall. Take a look at that sweet ride. It's fully equipped. It comes with guns that stick out of the taillights, and it tops out at 145 miles an hour. The expected price on this thing, about 5 million bucks. I don't know. I think you get pulled over if you're driving around with guns sticking out of your taillights. So, what do you think?

BALDWIN: Five mill, no problem. Chump change.

KOSIK: No problem.

BALDWIN: Right, Alison?

KOSIK: Chump change.

BALDWIN: Awesome. Alison Kosik for us in New York. Thank you.

KOSIK: Sure.

BALDWIN: And you know, Allison was talking about BP. Let's bring you up to speed now on this Gulf oil crisis.

Here we go, day 44, crews may be inching closer and closer to a breakthrough or at least possibly a way, let's say, of containing this thing. Live video feeds deep, deep underwater, about 5,000 feet underwater here in the Gulf of Mexico. We're watching, if you can see it through some of that, that yellow thing. That is the ROB, that remote-controlled robot that they're having to operate, right, and they're making this apparent second round of cuts in that broken pipeline or the riser is how BP refers to it.

Now, once that is sheared off with these diamond wire cutters, the company says it will try to install that custom-fit cap sometime today. We should, again, just another reminder for you, we should be hearing a little more about that process any minute now when the government's point man on the operation, Admiral Thad Allen, with the coast guard scheduled to hold that news conference in Schriever, Louisiana. There are the pictures. There are those reporters who are waiting. So, as soon as we see Admiral Allen, we will bring that to you live.

Meantime, we talk about the oil, we talk about the mechanics, and we have to talk about the damage. It is spreading and there are all kinds of tar balls, weathered oil now coming ashore in the barrier islands, both now in Mississippi and Alabama. And in terms of dollars and cents, get this, BP, they have officially spent -- they have hit the billion-dollar mark. That happened yesterday in regard to that cleanup effort. And federal government also coming out and saying it is looking into the possibility of criminal charges being filed in the case.

Again, reminder, we're waiting for Admiral Thad Allen. Let's take those live pictures again. We're waiting for him to step in front of that podium. You can see our mike flag. We have all kinds of crews down there. We've been covering all angles of the story for you really for the last 44 days. And again, as soon as we start to see him speak and get an update on this process that is happening deep, deep under water, something that they have never tried before, we will bring it to you live.

For now, let's get a break in. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Six crew members begin a mission to Mars today. Actually, it's more of a simulated one. Let's be honest here. The experiment is taking place at Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems. After closing the hatch, the crew, there they go, scheduled to stay in their mock spacecraft for 520 days. Yes. 520. The crew members, mostly Russian, will do maintenance work, scientific experiments and daily exercise, and besides, the spaceship, the sealed mock-up also includes a Mars Lander and a Martian landscape. Hmm.

Arizona's tough new immigration law will be really front and center at the White House this week. Why? President Obama is said to be meeting with Arizona governor, Jan Brewer, tomorrow. Critics say the law promotes racial profiling and the justice department now considering a legal challenge, but Governor Brewer made it clear to CNN's John King that she is not worried about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: When you sit across the table from the president of the United States, what is your number one -- I don't know whether to call it a demand or a request. What is it?

GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: I think it will probably be, Mr. President, we need our borders secured. How can we work together to get it done? We need your help. We've been putting up with this for eight, ten years. We need it now. We can't tolerate it any longer. We cannot tolerate it. America can't tolerate it any longer.

KING: And if his answer is I'm going to do what I announced, but your law is misguided and my justice department might sue you?

BREWER: I would say, well, we'll meet you in court. I have a pretty good record of winning in court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, under that law, people being stopped or investigated for a crime are required to show a proof of citizenship if Arizona police suspect they are here in the country illegally.

And at the White House, the administration has fessed up to political deals in trying to influence a Pennsylvania primary election, but they're not giving a whole lot of details here. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs yesterday declined to say exactly what position it was that was offered to Congressman Joe Sestak in an effort to dissuade him from challenging Senator Arlen Specter in last month's Democratic primary. Gibbs' comments come days after the White House's counsel office released that memo stating no laws were broken during the communication with Sestak.

And quickly, some of your top stories here, international pressure really mounting on Israel. There is all kinds of backlash growing from Monday's raid on that humanitarian aid flotilla that was bound for Gaza. Israel says it has already released the roughly 600- plus people, those activists taken into custody. By the way, there is another vessel sailing toward the Israeli blockade.

And Japan looking for another Prime Minister now. Yukio Hatoyama resigns only after eight months. The country's fourth PM just in as many years.

And now, the latest on what's happening down in the Gulf here. Quick Gulf oil catastrophe again. Day 44. There you can see the yellow ROB. Those are the remotely operated robots that are under water, doing these complex maneuvers.

Keep in mind, this has never been done before at this depth. We're talking 5,000 feet underwater. And from what we're hearing here at CNN, the second cut on that riser, on that piping seems to be under way here in this latest attempt to really stem the flow. They can't really fully contain this thing anymore. They just need to stem the flow, then they're going to cap it, and then they'll siphon the oil up to some ships.

And on that note, perfect timing, we have Admiral Thad Allen speaking there in Shreveport, Louisiana. Let's listen.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

ADM. THAD ALLEN, COAST GUARD: -- the command post in Houma, Louisiana which is co-located the BP training facility. The incident command post here in Houma is the tactical operational node for response operations in the State of Louisiana.

From here we have four deployed staging areas and bases, the most prominent one right now would be the one down in Venice, which is the advanced staging area for the operations that are going on in response to the oil that's come into the southwest pass in the area in the lower Plaquemines Parish.

I'd like to provide you a quick operational update. I want to hit a couple of items that are of interest to us today that you should know about. And then Jane Lubchenco is going to give you a brief on NOAA's involvement with this and give you some technical operational issues associated with NOAA's role in this.

First of all, let me go right to the -- the containment operations that are going on right now. Over the night we were successfully able to do a shear cut of the marine riser pipe. That is that the 5,000 feet of pipe that's crumpled on the ocean floor that used to connect the well head to the mobile drilling unit.

We are in the process right now of trying to do the second fine cut with a diamond wire saw. That saw blade has become stuck inside the riser pipe. They are working to move the riser pipe to set it free. Anybody that's ever used a saw knows every once in a while it will bind up. That's kind of what's happening there.

They're trying to maneuver the riser pipe to free it or if they need to they'll send another blade down. They're working that problem right now.

The goal is later on today to finish that cut and then to be able to put a containment device over the top of the well head and start containing the oil and bring it to the surface and actually flare off the gas and actually produce product moving forward. We're doing that and we'll continue to provide updates as we go -- go throughout the day.

Tactical things that we're working right now, we had our first oil contact in the State of Mississippi, and Mississippi Sound, and some islands to the west and we've had some tar balls and some sheen in Alabama.

We are deploying skimmers offshore to try to intercept the sheen and any emulsified oil out there as far offshore as we can. We're also redeploying boom to the extent that it's required to support Alabama and Mississippi. This has required a lot of tactical movement of boom in the last seven to ten days. First Louisiana has been impacted, and now the threat is shifting to Mississippi and Alabama. But we continue to work with the states through our local incident commander over there who is headquartered in Mobile, Alabama.

Some other things that are going on: Tracy Wearing, who has -- works for FEMA, has been down here working claims with us. She is at Grand Isle today and is basically riding the circuit in the southern part of Louisiana to make sure that the claims processing system is working well and being responsive to the needs of the people down there.

Again, this is a follow-up to the meeting we had with the President in Grand Isle last week and requests from the different parish presidents and the mayor of Grand Isle that we take a look and make sure the claims are functioning as effectively as possible.

I would just remind everybody, any information regarding the claims process is available at DeepWaterHorizonResponse.com, which is the Web site we've set up that has a variety of information available to everybody regarding claims.

And with that, I'd like to turn the podium over to Jane Lubchenco for a briefing on NOAA operations -- Jane.

JANE LUBCHENCO, NOAA ADMINISTRATOR: Thanks Admiral Allen, hello, everyone. My name Jane Lubchenco, I'm the Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and the Administrator of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

I'm one of the scientists in the Obama administration. The President made it clear from the very beginning of his administration that good government depends on good science, and that has certainly been the case throughout the federal government's response to the BP DeepWater Horizon spill.

The President has made historic efforts to engage scientists and engineers both inside the government as well as outside from research institutions, academic institutions, and the private sector, in ways to understand the implications, to mitigate the spill and also to actually stop the spill.

At the President's direction and under the coordination of Admiral Allen, Secretary Chu, Administrator Jackson, Director Marsha McNutt and I have been engaging scientists from throughout the federal family as well as the academic institutions to leverage the best minds in the country to help deal with this tragedy.

Clearly our number one priority is stopping the leak or containing it. And we are leveraging the best scientific and engineering capacity to do that. At the request of President Obama, Secretary Chu assembled a team of more than 200 top scientists from federal labs and academia to analyze the response that BP had proposed and recommend additional actions for stopping or containing the leak.

For example, Secretary Chu's team convinced BP to use high-energy gamma rays to image parts of the internal state of the BOP. Lab personnel have independently analyzed to the 2D gamma ray images crucial in helping us understand what is happening inside the BOP and informing the approach moving ahead.

The scientific effort has also focused squarely on measuring and mitigating the impacts of the oil. In the week of May 17th, the office, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy convened a meeting of some of the nation's leading experts from oceanographic research institutions and from academia as well as federal agencies and BP on measuring and mitigating the impacts of oil in the marine and coastal ecosystems.

Their discussions focused very much on how to use existing, understanding and capabilities, what further research is needed to understand what implications the oil might have for ecosystems, and how to strengthen the public, private academic partnerships to those ends.

Let me highlight a few of the efforts that are under way on the scientific front across the federal agencies. The administration understands for environmental, legal and financial reasons, how important it is to get good measurements of the rate of the leak -- of the flow rate.

To that end, we put together an independent, governmental review panel with input from BP to study the flow rate. This is the so- called Flow Rate Technical Group which was headed by Dr. Marsha McNutt at the USGS in the Department of the Interior.

The team is leading a coordinated effort across the federal government and academia to determine oil flow rates from the spill by collecting and analyzing data and running state-of-the-art models as well as conducting an independent peer review of all reports and findings of the modeling team.

To understand better where oil is and what impact it might be having, a number of efforts are under way. For example, the NOAA ship "Gordon Gunter" (ph) is at sea right now conducting acoustic surveys and collecting water samples throughout the water column and doing neptos (ph) to sample pelagic species throughout the water column.

Scientific personnel are on board to assist with the acoustic survey and utilize a really cool autonomous underwater vehicle called the "Gulper" (ph) which is operated by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute team to collect discreet samples at different depths in the water column. This cruise on a NOAA ship is like many of the other efforts under way there. It is a collaborative effort across different research institutions, academic institutions and the federal government.

Later today the NOAA ship "Thomas Jefferson" will leave New Orleans for a ten-day research mission; another team of government and academic scientists to study the location and the movement of oil and dispersed oil below the surface.

NOAA has also coordinated research efforts with the University of South Florida, a vessel called the "Weather Bird 2" that conducted sampling work to assess and monitor the oil spill.

Other efforts under way in the federal government include a focus on monitoring of air and water quality. Many of these are being led by EPA, but involve not only EPA, but NOAA, Department of Homeland Security and Department of the Interior. There have been weekly calls held to share information about this water and air quality sampling to be able to share information in real-time fashion with the American public, with stakeholders in the region, with non-governmental organizations and others who are interested in an effort to continually keep people apprised of what is happening.

Efforts are also under way to assess any and all potential impacts to human health. These are being coordinated by CDC, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the Food and Drug Administration are all working on different aspects of how humans might be impacted by this oil spill.

And finally, on the dispersant research front, at end of last week in Baton Rouge, the University of New Hampshire, NOAA, EPA and Coast Guard convened a meeting to study dispersant use and ecosystem impacts of dispersed oil in the Gulf. With over 50 experts and practitioners from government, academia and industry, a two-day meeting to look at the potential long-term impacts of prolonged use of large volumes of dispersants in the DeepWater Horizon oil spill response efforts.

And tomorrow, June 3rd, the consortium for ocean leadership is coordinating with the federal family with NOAA in the lead to host a science symposium in Baton Rouge to discuss urgent scientific issues that are as yet unresolved. Where is the oil going? What impact is oil and dispersed oil having? What are the short term, medium term and long-term likely impacts of those?

So I think in summary, the efforts that are under way throughout the federal government are exemplified by what we have been doing at NOAA. Our efforts have been aggressive, strategic and sustained throughout.

I would note that within hours after the BP -- the explosion of the DeepWater Horizon and the sinking -- the oil room of NOAA's which is located in Seattle, Washington, stood up after being informed by the Coast Guard of the event and within two hours and 17 minute had issued the first oil spill trajectory to help inform the federal response.

So within NOAA, we have satellites in space. We have planes in the air. We have ships and buoys on the water and scientists on the ground and information online all with the intent of bringing the best of the science to bear on this issue and moving ahead in a very aggressive fashion.

Thank you.

ALLEN: Thank you, Jane. Thanks for being a great partner. Since this administration brought its new team onboard I've been working very closely with Dr. Lubchenco since early last year and it's been a very fruitful partnership. We'd be happy to take any questions you might have.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: David Mattingly, CNN. You were talking about the questions out there about how much oil there is and where is it going? It's been over 40 days. Why don't you have any answers?

LUBCHENCO: I can certainly appreciate the urgency and the desire on everybody's part to have answers. The reality is we want the right answers. We want information that we can trust and many of these research cruises that are under way are finding interesting features, but to see a signal of something detected by an instrument onboard a ship gives you a sense that something is there, but it doesn't tell you what.

And it's really important to be able to collect samples of the water, hence the attention to being able to take discrete samples at different depths in the water column, to take those back to shore at the end of the cruise and then have them analyzed in a laboratory setting. So it's only relatively recently that those ships have been under way doing this massive sampling.

We're beginning to get results in, and we are I think getting very close to be able to talk about not just what each individual cruise might be seeing out there on the water, but what the -- what the integrated pattern is, and that's, in fact, what would like to know.

QUESTION: But that's the question, why did it seem to take so long to mobilize these scientific resources to get these ships out there and start collecting the tests?

LUBCHENCO: I think it is important to recognize what goes into having a research cruise. You have to have a vessel that's ready to go. Not all of our vessels were -- you know, they were out doing other missions. You have to have the right equipment onboard to do what's needed.

Many of these vessels and normally engaged in other kinds of activities. So you need to identify the equipment that you need, you need to stage it. You need to make sure that you have the proper amount of cable to deploy the instruments at the depths that you're interested in. And you need to have the scientific experts onboard and that does take time to assemble and then to deploy the cruise to go out and begin working.

So I would suggest that the effort, in fact, has been very aggressive and that we will be getting good answers in the not too distant future but I can understand everyone's interest in knowing what's happening.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) "Washington Post". You talked about the possibility that (INAUDIBLE) that cause the flow of the oil decrease. Have you seen that?

ALLEN: Well, they haven't gotten the second cut done so we won't know completely until that cut is done and we remove the riser pipe from the top (INAUDIBLE) riser package. We are at the point of the leakage where the crimp in the line as you've seen or the kink are applying subsidy dispersants to minimize the oil that's coming to the surface while we do the cut.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Admiral Allen, (INAUDIBLE) CBS News Radio. You had a meeting that may have been sometime yesterday with local officials who are lobbying hard and fast to get some movement on the sand berms in barrier isles. You've given them, I understand --