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Severe Weather Headed for Gulf; Congress to Hold Trial on Rangel's Alleged Violations
Aired July 23, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi. I'll be with you for the next two hours today and every weekday. Here's what I've got on the rundown.
No one wants to delay the oil disaster cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico, but today no one has a choice. A tropical storm throwing a big wrench into the works.
Plus, the Pakistanis are supposed to be one of our key allies in the war on terror, but a new report says they're supporting the very enemy that we're fighting. We're going to put a whole -- we're going to put that whole region in perspective for you.
And you probably got up today, brushed your teeth, maybe had breakfast. Nothing all that exciting. Doesn't matter. Two renowned filmmakers want to bring your day to the big screen.
But first we're going to start with the latest on Tropical Storm Bonnie. Let's talk about this a little bit. It made landfall in Florida just a short time ago in the Gulf. Some of the -- in fact, most of the oil clean-up operations are suspended.
The good news -- I'm here with Chad. The good news, of course, is that they've got that cap, at least the temporary cap on the well. So that's not going out -- yes, right. What would have had to happen? They would have had to unplug that thing and move those ships to sea.
Before I talk to you about what's going on, I want you to listen to Thad Allen. He's the national incident commander. This is what he had to say a short time ago. Listen to this.
Oh, I'm sorry. You know what? I'll bring you that -- I'll bring you that in a little while, a little while later. Let's talk about -- hold on. We do have it. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THAD ALLEN, U.S. COAST GUARD (RET.) NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: Our priorities are safety of personnel that dictates the movement of the vessels, and then preservation of the equipment and their ability to come back and complete their operations, as well. I overflew the site last night. There's not a lot of oil out there. We have a lot of skimming capacity. We are approaching 800 skimming vehicles.
The question now is putting them someplace where they're safe and out of harm's way so they can return. Booms and barges don't stop storm surge. Booms and barges become victims of storm surge and become incapacitated and can't be applied an oil spill response once the storm has passed. I think what we're talking about is moving equipment to high ground so it's not harmed so it can be applied as soon as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: OK. Let's talk about what we're talking about here. This Tropical Storm Bonnie, at the moment, it doesn't seem fierce, but it's a tropical storm.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. It's 40 miles per hour, and had winds about 46 miles per hour--
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: And a little buoy that's out there in the Atlantic Ocean. There's the center of it right there. You can kind of see it coming on shore. It came right over cutler bay, came -- there's the center right there.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: Moving out of Dade County, and eventually it will get back into the Gulf of Mexico.
VELSHI: Now generally speaking, we think something goes over land, it loses -- loses strength. Is that going to happen?
MYERS: It did a little bit, I think.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: You know, maybe 5 miles per hour. But you have to understand what part of that is land.
VELSHI: Right. A lot of that's the Everglades.
MYERS: That's not land, right?
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: There is water there. That water is very warm. We've noticed this before, when a couple storms have come over the Keys and you think, "Oh, it's going to get nice and small. It's going to get smaller before it hits Lauderdale." And then all of a sudden it's doing all kinds of damage on the wrong side--
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: -- because even though it didn't make landfall there, it didn't get any slower, and it went over the Everglades. So let's kind of get rid of this for a second.
I want to show you why this thing is not going to be Katrina. Because literally, this water is hot.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: This could have been something very ugly. See this thing right there?
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: Watch that spin right there. That is an upper level low that has nothing to do with a hurricane. This is a feature that happens all the time with thunderstorms in the middle part of the Atlantic Ocean, middle part of the United States, whatever. This is a thunderstorm-maker, although there's none around it.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: It is a hurricane-killer. It is the shear that is making wind that's tearing this storm apart.
VELSHI: Wow, OK. I thought that sort of makes things into a perfect storm. But they're actually fighting each other.
MYERS: No, no, this needs to be a high pressure.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: Not a low, although it doesn't seem like a low. You can see the spin, it's spinning like a low. That spin is killing this.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: This wants to be all by itself.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: And it's not all by itself. It has that shear that's tearing it apart.
VELSHI: What's our forecast as to where this goes after this?
MYERS: Well, let's make a cone, why don't we, and just kind of keep going out here and kind of something like this. I think the whole right side is Gulfport, and that's about as far as it can go.
To the left, you get all the way over here toward New Iberia, I guess, if it decides to go to the left. This has been kind of trending to the north just a little bit all day, and so we didn't even expect it to come on shore in Dade County. We expected it to be very close to Monroe County, but it's basically all irrelevant at this point in time.
So here we go. Here is Bonnie. The winds are 40 miles per hour. It is still forecast to be a 50 mile-per-hour storm, 45 here, 50 here as it runs right up the Mississippi River.
VELSHI: OK. MYERS: So rain, wind --
VELSHI: Let me ask you about this for a second. I'm going to ask our control room if they can just give me that -- clip that we got from Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal about the effect this could have on the oil. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: There are some scientists that would tell you that the churning effect could help break up that oil. I saw some of that after Alex, but all things considered, we don't want a storm. A storm is not a good thing for us. There will -- again, three are experts that tell you the churning effect can help disperse or break it down, but at the end of the day, it also makes it a lot more unpredictable where that oil ends up. It can pick up that oil, literally throw it into our wetlands.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MYERS: Now, the newest oil out there is seven days old.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: The youngest oil is seven days old, because it's been capped for seven days.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: That's great. Seven-day-old oil is already mayonnaise.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: It's already turning into tar balls. It's already being weathered. And you heard Admiral Allen saying we didn't find much oil out there.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: We really have picked this up. We have skimmed this. And those workers out there, man, they're doing yeoman's work.
VELSHI: All right. So we heard from Admiral Allen what they're doing, getting this stuff out of way. We've heard from -- from Bobby Jindal about the churning effect. And of course, we're going to keep on hearing from you.
MYERS: Yes.
VELSHI: You're keeping a very close eye on this. Thanks.
MYERS: This is Saturday night, by the way. Eight p.m. to midnight Saturday night.
VELSHI: Is the second landfall, as it were.
MYERS: Is the second landfall.
VELSHI: All right. We'll stay on top of that.
I want to go -- I want to go out to Rob Marciano, who's in Gulf Shores, Alabama. He was involved with some of the cleaning vessels, the skimming vessels that were out on the Gulf of Mexico. They've been pulled back? Are they all back in there, Rob? What's the situation out on the Gulf, on the clean-up efforts?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they pretty much pulled the trigger on evacuation of just about everything, and the larger vessels and the larger rigs will take some time to get them moving. But the order has been given to move the drill ship that is drilling the relief well, and that does take some time. They think it will be on the move later on tonight.
The last thing that's going to leave that area are the vessels and personnel that are monitoring the capped well as it is. And they may not move those guys at all. But they'll be the last people to move, because they want that well and capped well to go unattended for as little time as possible. And right now, they're gunning for a 36 to 48-hour window while the storm passes for that well to be unattended.
They'll move the drill ship itself to an area that won't have gale force winds, which will likely be the southwest quadrant or lower left quadrant of this storm, and quite honestly, they shouldn't have to move it too far. And then they'll move everything back once -- once the--
VELSHI: Rob, let me interrupt you for a second. This is one big story we're following. The other one is 20-term Representative Charles Rangel, a Democratic representative of New York, he's speaking from his Harlem office after the House Ethics Committee has decided that they're going to hold a trial for his violations -- his alleged violations.
Listen to Charlie Rangel.
REP. CHARLIE RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: Well, I thank all of you for coming on such short notice. My lawyers are going to kill me, because they say that the best thing in my best interests is -- is not to make any comment.
But I noticed that this morning there were a crew of television people when I came to the office. There was a crew of television people, and I assume, with this large turnout, that I should expect that they would be with me. And I don't know how to say, "No comment." It's a very difficult thing for me to turn away reporters who are doing their jobs.
Now, close to two years, I have been saying, "Would you please wait until the ethics committee completes its investigation?" It's been awkward for me, and it's been awkward for you. They have completed their investigation. And I'm so pleased that they have, and they reported this to the ethics committee. This is going to be done before my primary election, before the general election, and the light of a public explanation of what they have found as a result of the investigation will be made public.
And so there's very little that I can say, because the realm of confidentiality means that on Monday I will no longer say, "Wait until they complete their investigation."
And I called this morning, and had a very good conversation with Luke Russet (ph), and apologized to him for the way I treated him on television, but it's awkward when you can't give answers to questions, and sometimes reporters feel compelled to go beyond what I can do. And so I'm restricted to a note. I think everyone should be happy that I have not gone beyond that.
Someone said, "Why have a press conference if you're not going to answer any questions?"
I said, "Well, if they knew that and they still are taking their time to go where I live and to follow me around in the district, maybe this time I would be able to say that I met with you, I told you what I've had to say, and I do have congressional work to do." And I can tell you -- or tell those people that will be with me that, come Thursday, we all will be able to move forward together.
So if there are any questions in connection with what I've just said, I'll be glad to take them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you spoken with Speaker Pelosi about this, and how do you respond to -- not about the allegations, but about how other Democrats are concerned that this matter affects them and especially in tight races around the country?
RANGEL: Well, at this point in time, I have to really consider the process that I'm going through, and respect it. Anything I say that would impact on other people that I have no control over, I cannot make any comment that would make any sense at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you spoken to Speaker Pelosi about this?
RANGEL: I cannot go beyond this statement, because I'm here to tell you something that's awkward, and that is, the investigation is over. Come Thursday, we will be talking about what? The allegations.
As most of you know, all of the allegations that you see in the newspaper are the allegations that Congressman Charles Rangel referred to the ethics committee for what purpose? To investigate. And it's kind of awkward to explain that to your kids and grandkids what you see in the front page, but hey, I'm in the kitchen and I'm not walking out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman, when you step--
VELSHI: All right. We're going to continue to follow that. But I'm going to take it off the screen. I want to give you some context as to what's going on. That is Charles Rangel. He's a Democratic congressman from New York. Let me give you some background into what this is all about. He is going to face a public trial, not a court trial, a trial by the House Ethics Committee, which has found that he has been -- they have determined that he has breached some ethics codes in -- in Congress.
Let me tell you a little bit about Charles Rangel, if you don't know about him. First of all, he is a Korean War hero. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his efforts in the Korean War. He's a hero of Harlem. He has been a driving force between -- behind development in Harlem. He's always a well-dressed guy. He's a dapper fellow. This is the sort of image that he probably wants people to think of him with. He's been a 20-term -- 20 consecutive terms, he's been elected to Congress.
Now, until March, he was the chairman of the House Ways and Mean Committee, which is what you see here. Now, that writes tax bills. It affects your family's finances year-in and year-out. It is a remarkably powerful, powerful committee.
But this image has been fast eclipsed by this image I want to show you. You may have seen this picture before. Let's take a look at that. That's Charles Rangel, sitting on the beach in Florida at one point. It is -- he -- this House Ethics Committee announced that it's going to hold this public trial for Rangel. They say, and I'm quoting here, they have substantial reason to believe that he committed a series of ethics violations, which they didn't name, but we have some sense over the last several months what he's being investigated for.
First of all, failing to report income from a villa that he owns in the Dominican Republic.
No. 2, leasing four rent-controlled apartments in Harlem. You're not supposed to have four rent-controlled apartments. If you can get one, it's supposed to be for your primary residence.
And allegedly using his position to benefit a benefactor of the Charles Rangel Center for Public Service in New York.
Now, from the beginning -- you heard him here -- he was less definite about it, but from the beginning, he has said that he's not guilty. He has predicted that he'll be vindicated. He insists that he can't wait for the facts to come out.
But in an exchange yesterday, with MSNBC's Luke Russert, his strain started to show. He just mentioned that exchange at the beginning of his press conference. Basically, Luke Russert asked him whether he fears losing his job. This wasn't a pre-set interview. Luke Russert found him and said, "Are you worried about losing your job?" Listen to this exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RANGEL: What are you talking about? You just trying to make copy? What job? The one I got? LUKE RUSSERT, MANIC: Yes. I mean, you're presented (ph) with serious violations.
RANGEL: How do you think I got my job? I was elected, right? How do you think I lose it?
RUSSERT: Well, there's two ways. You could lose it if your colleagues voted you out of here, because of an ethics violation, or if your constituents did not--
RANGEL: What station are you from?
RUSSERT: NBC. MSNBC.
RANGEL: Well, you're young. I guess you do need to make a name for yourself. But basically, you know, it's a dumb question. And I'm not going to answer it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:
RANGEL: What does that got to do with this? It's a dumb question.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: And he referenced that. He apologized to Luke Russert for that.
Rangel is not the only one sweating, whether he admits it or not. For months, Republicans have used his example to accuse Nancy Pelosi of forgetting a famous promise she made about Congress and what she's going to do about it back in 2006. It's this promise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: You cannot advance the people's agenda unless you drain the swamp that is Washington, D.C.
(END VIDEO CIP)
VELSHI: Unless you drain the swamp that is Washington, D.C. She was referring to ethics violations, to people not living up to the standard that perhaps people have -- their voters expect them to.
We'll continue with that story. We're continuing to watch that press conference by Charlie Rangel.
The other story we were following before that started, Tropical Storm Bonnie has made landfall in Florida. It's working its way across Florida. We're going to take you to Florida and see what kind of damage it's done right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Before I talked about Charlie Rangel, I was talking about Tropical Storm Bonnie, which has made landfall in Florida. I want to go to Miami Beach, our reporter from WSVN, Rosh Lowe, standing by there on Miami Beach.
You know, it' -- Rosh, it's kind of unfortunate that we're kind of discounting the fact that this tropical storm just wiped through Miami, because we're worried about what it's going to do in the Gulf of Mexico. What happened in Miami?
ROSH LOWE, WSVN-TV CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, in south Florida, Ali, we're used to getting ready for big storms. And even with this tropical storm that came through here, people did get ready, they did prepare. We checked about a couple of hours ago. There were sporadic power outages, but so far, not a lot of damage.
The story here with Tropical Storm Bonnie, a couple of stories, is the wind and the rain. And we've had -- we've had some rain moving in here.
Let me give you a live look at the Atlantic Ocean behind me. Not a whole lot of people out here today, as you can see. The waves crashing in here. Which is a good thing. Because you know, sometimes in these storms, you have people who come out and actually try to surf.
Want to give you a good idea of the wind here, this lifeguard stand on Miami Beach. You can see those red flags going over there. Winds here at about 40 miles per hour. But we mentioned that people here are used to storms, and this is supposed to be a very busy storm season. So if anything else, and we heard from the mayor of Miami- Dade County yesterday, that this is a good, dry run-through for the rest of the season.
In fact, Miami-Dade County yesterday did not shut down major services in the county. They wanted to wait to see what this storm did. And, in fact, this morning, what we had was, we had wind, we had rain. But this type of wind, people in south Florida can deal with.
But what we did have here is we did have people at least preparing. It seems -- at least I got the sense out there today that people here in South Florida are well-aware, are cognizant of the fact that this will be a busy storm season, and Bonnie came in and at least they were ready for it.
VELSHI: Well, that's not a bad deal. If you get a dry run nobody gets hurt in, not a lot of damage, then I think that's a good deal. Rosh, good to see you. Rosh Lowe from our affiliate, WSVN on Miami Beach in Florida.
All right. It might be kind of scary to think about investing in stocks these days, but everybody should have some strategy for their investments. We're going to tell you why and how to choose mutual funds right now, whether it's time to buy them or sell them or just hold on. When we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: Let me take a look at that Dow right now, up 42 points, 10,365. Boy, it's been up and down, and up and down. A lot of investors, and when I say investors, I'm talking about you, regular people who are saving for retirement. A lot of people are wondering, what exactly am I supposed to do? Where are we headed?
So today I talked to Christine Benz. She's the director of personal finance at Morningstar. That's a company that rates mutual funds. She's also the author of a new book. I asked her, for people who are looking to invest in mutual funds or have mutual funds, what are you supposed to do right now? Listen to what she told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE BENZ, DIRECTOR OF PERSONAL FINANCE, MORNINGSTAR: -- opportunity, Ali, but you really do need to have that stock/bond/cash blueprint that you've plotted out. So you need to be in the right allocation before you can go ahead and pick securities. But I do think that there are some potential opportunities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: For the rest of that conversation, tune into "YOUR $$$$$," which airs Saturdays at 1 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. I'll give you more information. You'll hear that whole interview from Christine and her very specific advice as to how to choose mutual funds and what to do with them.
I want to tell you a little about Ford. Ford reported a quarterly profit. That is three -- three months of profit. Two point seven billion dollars. That's the best quarterly result in six years. It's the fourth consecutive quarterly result that pushed in front of Toyota in terms of profitability.
This -- this is a big deal for Ford, because this is not a company that took money from the -- like Chrysler and General Motors did. This is a company that's been profitable and doing a great deal.
I'll actually have a conversation with the CEO of Ford, Allen Mulally, right here on this show on Monday.
OK. Sure -- as I said, be sure to watch "YOUR $$$$$" this weekend. We'll give you a lot more on what's going on in the economy.
I want to tell you about something else right now. Two award- winning filmmakers want you to document a day in your life, and then they want to use it in a new film. We're going to tell all about the snapshot of reality that you can be part of after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right. You can look into that Flip phone. That's my floor director, Allie (ph), and she is documenting a day -- well, you know, a few moments of my day right now. Let's see if you can see me in there. This is an important thing, because that's actually part of what we're about to talk about. I'm going to tell you about a life-in-a-day project.
Now, this is an effort to document one single day on earth. It's a global experiment. And it takes place on July 24. Get it? 7/24. And they're going to record what's going on 24/7. Twenty-four hours. They want you to take 24 hours on your video device, to capture a glimpse of your life.
Now, the footage is going to be edited into an experimental documentary, and the producer of that is Ridley Scott. You know Ridley Scott, famous -- a famous producer of things like "Robin Hood" and "Gladiator" and things like that. And director Kevin McDonald, who directed, among other things, "The Last King of Scotland." Remarkable idea.
I've got the director, Kevin McDonald, joining us right now from London to talk a little bit about this. We are -- well, it starts tomorrow.
Kevin, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.
KEVIN MCDONALD, FILM DIRECTOR, "LIFE IN A DAY": Very nice to be here.
VELSHI: What is the inspiration behind this? What were you thinking? Why did you want to do something like this?
MCDONALD: Well, the initial inspiration was just thinking that there were so many people out there in the world now who have cameras. Cameras have proliferated, I mean, video cameras, so much over recent years, and people are uploading that material all of the time onto Internet, onto sites like YouTube. And I thought this could be an amazing tool to really get a window into what ordinary people are doing in their lives. And to try and, as you said, document a single day of life on -- life on earth.
VELSHI: So what are the instructions? What do you want people to do?
MCDONALD: Well, it's very simple. I think the first thing you should do is go to YouTube, type in "Life in a Day." And you'll come up with our channel there, where there's an interview with me explaining all the ins and outs of this and with Ridley Scott and with the composer who's going to work on the film and there's various other dos and don'ts. Don't use any background music. That kind of thing, because we'll have to clear the copyright.
And then grab a camera, the best quality camera you can, and go out tomorrow and film something that really interests you about tomorrow, and something that you think is going to be interesting to other people.
And that could be something, you know, very obviously dramatic, like a wedding or a funeral or a big party that you're going to or some major event in your life.
But it could also be -- it's more likely to be something quite ordinary. And I think part of what this film is going to be about is the beauty of ordinary life, the beauty of everyday life, those little moments that might seem kind of banal, but actually are the sweet moments of life.
And we're getting people all around the world to do this, and even in places where they don't have the Internet; they don't have cameras. We've sent out 500 cameras to parts of the developing world so that people there can also take part in this.
VELSHI: OK. So what are you and Ridley Scott and your composer -- do you have some notion of what might show up, or are you just excited by the idea that you may get thousands or tens of thousands of postings, and you'll sift through it at that point?
MCDONALD: I think very much, you know, this is a proper answer to that. But I think it's very much waiting to see what happens. I don't want to impose on people what they should film and the kind of themes that we're interested in.
But obviously, I'm hoping that this will reveal something -- some very interesting things about the zeitgeist at the moment. You know, what are really the preoccupations of people? What are the similarities? What are the differences in different parts of -- different parts of the world?
And I hope that it will be -- you know, really something quite poetic and have not just an interest now, but also a kind of time capsule interest, you know. In 50 year's time, you look back this, and you'll see really what life was like in very small detail, or very clear detail, now in 2010.
VELSHI: Where are we going to see this, Kevin? Where is this going to be? You're going to put it out at Sundance? Is it going to be a feature-length film, and where will the rest of us get to enjoy it?
MCDONALD: Well first of all as you said , it will show at Sundance in January, and there's a kind of prize element to this, as well, which is the best 20 films, the ones that Ridley (ph) I judged to be the best films.
The people who make those will be asked to Sundance and be there for the premier. But after that, it will show in various other theatres around the world, and then it will be on Youtube. So everybody will be able to see it there on YouTube.
VELSHI: Kevin, I want to ask you one other thing. What is this business about wanting people to empty their pockets on the camera? You want to see what's in people's pockets?
MACDONALD: Well, I just got a supplementary question for those who really want to get engaged with this. On top of filming something from your life, I wanted to ask them a few questions. And the questions are very simple.
They are what do you love most in the world? What do you fear the most? What makes you laugh? And finally, what do you have in your pockets? Because I figure that what you've got in your pockets is a kind of little window in your soul.
VELSHI: Sure.
MACDONALD: You know it might -- there's little personal things that you have on you that tell somebody an awful lot about you.
VESLHI Great idea, Kevin. What an interesting project. Thanks very much and for all those out there watching, remember, July 24th is your day to participate in a day in-"Life In a Day". Kevin MacDonald is the director of "Life In A Day" , joining us from London.
For more details on how to participate, head to the "Life In A Day" channel on youtube.com.
All right. It's just what the Gulf coast doesn't need. It's a storm. But tropical storm Bonnie headed that way after hitting Florida. We, of course, are tracking it very closely. We'll do so when we come back.
(COMMERICAL BREAK)
OK. We're following tropical storm Bonnie. Already having made landfall in Miami. We just hope to talk to somebody in Miami. No serious danger in Miami. They were sort of ready for it. Our bigger concern now is what happens after it crosses over Florida, correct?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Correct. And when it gets into the Gulf of Mexico, could it do a Katrina, right? because the water is just as warm.
VELSHI: When you say do Katrina, you mean get stronger or do something unpredictable?
MYERS: Correct. And we just don't see it. We don't see it because there is something out there that is shearing it apart. And I can show it to you. It's almost invisible. It's like the invisible savior of Louisiana at this point.
Let's go back. We talked about it coming on shore in Miami. The max wind that we could find was about 40 miles per hour. There was a buoy out in the ocean, slightly elevated, 20, 30 feet above the ocean at 46 miles per hour.
But there's Miami, there was the spin right there. It's not an eye, it's just kind of a spin. So I think now it's just exiting the western side of Dade county, and it will eventually get across The Everglades and back into the water. Back into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Very warm, very potentially dangerous waters for any storm that could move in here. We're talking temperatures 85, 90 degrees.
VELSHI: So let's just remind our viewers, that makes it a more powerful storm, and if it's slow, it heats up. Those are the two things that you don't want, right? So Katrina was slow, and it was a hot Gulf. MYERS: Had a lot of time to gather its strength. And it didn't have this. I know it's hard to see. But just focus in on this. Right here. This is a spin. Looks like it could be a hurricane. Without clouds.
This is an upper level storm that is making enough shear that's tearing this thing apart. There are winds in here, some winds, 60 miles per hour, that are taking this thing and said, nope, easy does it. You can't get so big, because I'm in your way.
And look it at this. I just kind of want to point this out. This is flight explorer, there70 planes in the air out of Miami right now. They are so like whatever. 40 miles per hour, we can handle this, this isn't even a blow.
So anyway, they're--we're getting over it. South Florida getting over it now. It will eventually get into the Gulf of Mexico. It is hauling. We just weren't joking that it's probably moving faster than its winds are blowing.
VELSHI: Right. And that's good for a storm. The faster it moves means less time for it to sit and churn and get big.
MYERS: OK so the wind--the storm is moving this way, the spin blows this way right? If the winds here are only 40 miles per hour and this thing is moving in this direction of 30, it's not quite that high, that means the winds down here are only 10.
You can do the subtraction. Now the winds up here could be greater, because the winds, you add them together, and that's why the right side of a hurricane is always -- this side of the hurricane, is always more dangerous, and so even at 45 or 50 miles per hour as it comes on shore, yes, oil will be blown back into the bayous in some places and away from the bayous here. But this --
VELSHI: But the activity, the boats that are all around here, are being sent back or have been sent back. There is nobody skimming oil, nobody doing anything on the Gulf of Mexico.
MYERS: And the oil is stopped.
VELSHI: All right. We're going to stay on top of this, obviously not just today, but for the next few days.
OK. Pakistan. We know this is one of America's key allies in the war against terrorism and the war in Afghanistan, but how dependable and trustworthy is that key ally? Now we're hearing that Pakistan's intelligence agency trains, arms, finances and controls the very enemy the U.S. is fighting. We're going "Globe Trekking" to tell you why after this.
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VELSHI: Let me bring you up to date on some of the stories that we're following here at CNN, and following it closely. Tropical storm Bonnie has made landfall in the Miami area with top winds around 40 miles an hour, not too serious.
It's still on track, however, to move into the Gulf of Mexico very soon. The government's point man on the oil disaster says key vessels will likely have to evacuate for two days. BP has already suspended work on its relief well, but that well as you know is capped, so oil is not leaking into the gulf of Mexico at the moment.
More weather problems in Milwaukee. The airport there is closed because of flooded runways. Forecasters say flash flooding last night dumped nearly 8 inches of rain in some areas in just two hours and caused a huge sink hole that swallowed an SUV. The driver was rescued.
North Korea is vowing a physical response to joint military drills planned this weekend between the U.S and South Korea. The U.S. says the drills are a response to the sinking of a South Korean warship in March that killed 46 sailors. An international probe blamed North Korea for the attack, but the communist nation denies them
All right I want to go "Globe Trekking" now with you. Our stop today is Afghanistan, and its volatile neighbors, Pakistan and a little bit further, India.
The war in Afghanistan is now America's longest war in history. A key U.S. ally in the war is Pakistan. Now, a detailed report alleges that Pakistan's alleged intelligence service -- it's called ISI, trains, arms, finances and at least partially controls America's enemy in the war, the Taliban.
Believe it or not. First we need to emphasize that the Pakistani government denies everything in this report. If it's true, the obvious question is why would it be the case? The author of the London School of Economics Report, Matt Waldman and numerous other analysts, point to the long history of deep animosity between Pakistan and India.
Now, I made a time line here to help you understand why Pakistan might be playing this double game. Let's take a look at it. Let's start (Phil) over there on the left. August 14th, 1947.
That was the independence of India from Great Britain and the partition of Indian to India, which was predominantly Hindu and Pakistan, which was predominantly Muslim.
Between 1947 and 1971, India and Pakistan have been at war a few times. In 1974, India joined the nuclear world. It tested its first nuclear device. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, in 1979, to 1989, that was the Soviet Afghan war. You'll remember that.
And that gave birth to the Mujah Habin (ph), the people who had been fighting the Soviets. As you know that in 1979, that ended, but shortly after that, there was a civil war in Afghanistan. Not shortly, but 1992 to 1996, there was a civil war, and that power vacuum in Afghanistan gave the Taliban a chance to rise to power. In 1998, Pakistan became a nuclear power. So now you've got two nuclear powers not at peace with each other. From 2001 to now, we have seen the war in Pakistan. But as you can see, India still gives -- Pakistan still gives a great deal of priority to fighting India, and that is perhaps why this situation is being complicated.
I want to bring Matt Waldman in, he's an analyst joining us now from Kabul, Afghanistan. Matt, I wanted to give our viewers sort of some sense of context. You've made numerous trips to Afghanistan for this report. You have interviewed Taliban field commanders, you have interviewed former Taliban officials, you have interviewed Afghan leaders, tribal leaders, political leaders, foreign diplomats, and you have come to the conclusion that the Taliban is, at least to some degree, funded, financed controlled or aided by Pakistan by their intelligence agency. Tell me more about this.
MATT WALDMAN, INDEPENDENT ANALYST: Well, this is research that we conducted over six months, and as you say, we interviewed a very large number of individuals. All of whom have some experience or knowledge of the insurgency in Afghanistan. As well as insurgents themselves.
And what was remarkable about this research was that there was a great deal of agreement between the different interviewees about the level of support from Pakistan being provided to the insurgents. And, of course, it's in terms of sanctuaries (ph) so the fact that insurgents can cross the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan, where they're relatively safe, where they can re-equip, where they can rearm where they can prepare for future attacks.
And -- or, indeed, in other respects in terms of the supplies that they have or indeed the training.
VELSHI: What would be the point of this? Why would Pakistan, even though the they've got this history with India--and this ongoing conflict with India, why would they be interested now today in continuing to help the Taliban when, in fact, official government policy in Pakistan is not to do so.
WALDMAN: Well, I mean, I think that we have to appreciate the fact that there is a -- if you like, sort of a latent conflict. In other words, a sort of hidden rivalry and tension between Pakistan and India.
And it is a very serious competition between the two states. That as you said, have been to war three times, and have had numerous other skirmishes and minor confrontations.
And, indeed, as you know, there was the attack in Mumbai in 2008, in India, which killed over 160 Indian civilians, and that has contributed to the tension between the two states, because India believes that somehow the ISI, as you mentioned, the Pakistani intelligence agency, was behind this.
So we've got to acknowledge that there is real rivalry between these two countries, and indeed, they see Afghanistan as somehow significant in terms of that rivalry. And it is one of the reasons that Pakistan, I think, seeks regional influence here.
It sees an alliance between New Dehli and Kabul. And it is concerned about the presence and the influence that India has here in Afghanistan. And I think it partly explains why Pakistan has taken the steps that they have done. And, of course, we have to remember that Pakistan has very close links with the Taliban back in the 1990s, when they first came to power.
VELSHI: All right. So the -- the Pakistanis are major recipients of U.S. aid and over the next five years they'll be getting more than $7 billion in U.S. aid. This is a remarkable conflict, if true, if the U.S. is supplying money and material to Pakistan, and Pakistan is helping the Taliban.
I'm going to take a quick break, Matt. When we come back, we're going to have to talk about what the U.S. does about this, if it's true. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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VELSHI: Want to go back to our guest in Kabul, Afghanistan, Matt Waldman, the author of a report, independent analyst who is in Kabul, talking about how it's possible and possibly likely that the -- that the Pakistan intelligence agency is aiding the Taliban.
This is the Pakistan intelligence agency that is part of the government of Pakistan that receives a great deal of aid money from the United States.
Matt, first of all, if this is true, does the U.S. know it? Have they acknowledged it? And what do they do about it? Because if Pakistan is aiding the Taliban and the U.S. is aiding Pakistan, then we're aiding our own enemy.
WALDMAN: I do believe that believe that there a re officials in the U.S. administration, indeed, I have spoken to some of them, who are aware of what is happening. However they do perceive the difficulty of this situation because they know that Pakistan is an important country with respect to the future of this of this region and they want to obtain the cooperation of Pakistan in respect to this conflict and the region as a whole.
And indeed I think what has to happen is we have to look at what the underlying causes are of this behavior, this conduct from the military and the ISI in Pakistan. And I think we have to accept it is to do with that rivalry with India and therefore, the priority must surely be to try to promote better relations between India and Pakistan. And I think the United States could certainly do a lot in that regards.
VELSHI: And Pakistani officials continue to underscore that when they meet with U.S. diplomats and say, can you guys give at least some of the attention you give to the Taliban and the to Afghanistan, can give that over to relations between India and Pakistan.
It's a complex matter. Matt thank you for shedding some light on it for us. Matt Waldman is an independent analyst joining us from Kabul, Afghanistan.
All right.. Windows the claim to keep 50 percent of the energy from escaping from your home or businesses. I'm going to have details about it after the break in our "Big I" .
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VELSHI: All right. Some of our "Big I's" are outlandish. They're out of-you know they're in space, they're crazy. This one seems very, very understandable and very ,very logical.
It's a smart window of sorts. It's a window that knows when it's hot outside and cold inside and makes adjustment to account for that, saving a lot of energy in the process. I've got the founder and CEO of a company called RavenBrick involving these windows. Will McCarthy is with me now live Denver, Colorado . Will, what's the basic idea behind these windows?
WILL MCCARTHY, CEO, RAVENBRICK: Well the window is designed to tint when it gets hot and be clear when it's cold. So it allows solar heat into the building when you want it and blocks it out when you don't. It's based purely on temperature I'll demonstrate the effect here. Takes just a minute. Sorry. There it goes.
VELSHI: Oh, wow. Oh yes I see (ph). That really does tint. Wow!
MCCARTHY: I'll stop it there, the idea is that you can see through it. It's about like looking though sunglasses.
VELSHI: So-when it-that heat comes from the outside, if that --- if -if there-if it's hot outside, this thing will tint and insulate your house from that heat coming in?
MCCARTHY: That's correct, yes.
VELSHI: What does that? I mean how is that different from a normal window? Is there something in between or on one of the surfaces or it's different kind of glass?
MCCARTHY: Yes, there's a special material attached to the glass which is temperature sensitive and which changes its molecular structure in response to the temperature. And that changes then the optical properties which affects the amount of light and heat that can go through it.
VELSHI: Why is this different from blinds or shades or curtains or something like that ?
MCCARTHY: Well it's different first of all because you don't have to pay any attention to it. It works automatically and second of all, it's the effect of it -- you can still see through it.
When you lower the blinds on a window, you can't see out through it. But on this window here, looking out through it in the tinted state is about like looking through sunglasses.
VELSHI: And this is not yet available for people to put in their homes or businesses or is it?
MCCARTHY: No, we're just starting limited production now. And all of the material that we're able to produce right now is spoken for. But we expect it to be commercially available sometime in 2011.
VELSHI: How much energy do you save by doing something like that?
MCCARTHY: You can save up to about 30 percent depending on -- it depends on a lot of different factors, the size of the building, the location of the building, the climate that it's in, the amount of glass you have in the building. But 30 percent is a good number.
VELSHI: Will great to talk to you. Thanks for the demo. That was actually kind of neat. Will McCarthy is the founder and CEO of RavenBrick in Denver Colorado. With his Raven-what do we call those? Raven windows. All right to check out these smart windows for yourself, head to their site RavenBrick.com
We've got pictures of the largest star ever discovered in the history of mankind. It is a real monster. Stay with us. We'll show it to you.
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