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The Nose Knows; Estimated 3 Million Impacted by Flooding in Pakistan; Workplace Shooting in Connecticut Leaves Nine Dead; Ground Zero Mosque Gets Green Light; Obama's Heir Apparent on CIA Kill List; Face of Foreclosure: Family Shares Experiences

Aired August 03, 2010 - 13:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that's going to do it for me. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Drew Griffin.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Randi.

And here's what I've got on the rundown for you this afternoon. Efforts to build a controversial mosque near Ground Zero clear a hurdle. A New York City commission says it's OK to tear down a building there.

We're still waiting for BP to start the static kill operation at its ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. The operation delayed because of a hydraulic leak. But that's been fixed, we're told, so static kill could literally begin any time now.

And there's been a workplace shooting, this one in Connecticut. A source tells CNN seven people died there, and that includes the shooter.

Let's get started, though. And it begins with a green light for the mosque at Ground Zero. That is what it's being touted, and that's why people don't want it there.

Let's go to Allan Chernoff in New York, where there has been a vote by a commission that basically gives this the final green light, Allan.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It does give a green light to knock down the building. The Landmarks Commission here in New York City deciding that the building two blocks north of the World Trade Center was not worthy of landmark status in terms of history, in terms of architecture. This is exactly what the developers of the Islamic center down there had been hoping for, and it does give them a green light to knock the building down and put up what they hope will be a modern Islamic center, including a mosque.

Now, that's very controversial, as we've been reporting. The developer, though, said he plans to move ahead, and he said he's gratified.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHARIF EL-GAMAL, CEO, SOHO PROPERTIES: It has been a whirlwind for the past four months, one in which we have worked tirelessly to realize an American dream which so many others share.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: Well, in spite of all the controversy, it's important to note that today's vote didn't actually determine whether or not there will be a mosque near Ground Zero.

The SoHo Properties company owns the building. They have a right to do whatever they want with it. So if the building had received landmark status, they simply would have had to work with the five- story structure that is now on the site. They couldn't build something 13, 15 stories high. Now they can.

They say that they're going to now form a nonprofit entity, figure out exactly what their plans will be, how large a building, the exact architecture of it, and then they're going to raise money. They say they have not actually done any of that. They just had one mock- up, but that's it -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Allan, I'm wondering if you've seen the mock-up. And for the sheer reason of, is there going to be a minaret; is it going to look like a mosque; is it going to be a grandiose mosque, which I guess what people who are against this project would fear, right there two blocks from Ground Zero?

CHERNOFF: Right. Opponents have said precisely that to us, that they don't want minarets right near Ground Zero. Well, there is no plan right now for that. The mock-up that they do have is a modern building, about 13 stories higher. So -- and they say -- the developers say that they want this to fit in with the architecture of New York City.

And they also emphasize that their effort is one to reach out to the Christian community, to the Jewish community. They want to create bonds, they say, and they're hoping that this Islamic center will do exactly that. Now, opponents, of course, are saying it's doing the opposite.

GRIFFIN: All right. Allan Chernoff live in New York with the decision today. They're going to go ahead to tear down that building and build a mosque.

Well, time now for "Sound Effect."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot more sand bars this year than there has been in the past. One of the sand bars that most people like to frequent is the Hamil sand bar. They access it both from the waterside through boats, and as Chief Crawford and the mayor said, they will also come in from the land side.

We've had a cooperative effort going on between the sheriff's office and the Shreveport Police Department in trying to curb some of the activity and trying to make sure that the access is safe. We do a lot of equipment checks on the river every day. And the main thing that we want people to have and to know is that you need a life jacket on. You need to have a life jacket with you. A life jacket is like a seatbelt. It doesn't do you any good if you don't have it on. Every drowning that we've worked on the river has been because there has not been a life jacket present. It's -- scenes like this you don't want to go to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: He's talking about an accident that happened yesterday when six teenagers wading in shallow waters of Louisiana's Red River. They fell into deep water where the river bed drops to 20 feet, and they drowned. It happened in front of their horrified families. A 17 was rescued. The victims ranged in age from 13 to 18. None of them could swim.

Well, he is considered to be bin Laden's -- bin Laden's heir apparent, and he's the only American on the CIA's kill list. But just how dangerous is Anwar al-Awlaki? You'll hear from some people who know him. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Well, this guy is said to be the heir apparent to Osama bin Laden. And guess what? He is an American. His name is Anwar al- Awlaki. The Obama administration literally wants him dead or alive. The CIA has a hit out on this guy.

Deborah Feyerick has been researching just who is Anwar al- Awlaki, how dangerous he is, and specifically, Deb, how dangerous he is in the recruiting that he is doing.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, that's what's really interesting about him, is there's a lot of talk at the very highest levels. Is he operational? Is he planning some large attack? That's the working premise, that, yes, he is.

But his power is basically in his ability to recruit young, angry Muslims. You're angry, you've lost your job, sure, go out, put a bomb in the middle of Times Square. He gives them the sort of religious sanction, which allows them to do this. That is why he is so dangerous, and that is why people, especially in counterterrorism, are listening so closely to him, because he knows how to spread his message.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANWAR AL-AWLAKI, AL QAEDA MEMBER: Be careful. Do not trust enemies of Allah.

FEYERICK (voice-over): When Anwar al-Awlaki speaks, he speaks largely to a western audience, inspiring and recruiting young men to join his lone wolf insurgency, using the Internet and his American credentials to do so.

(on camera) How dangerous is he considered on a scale of one to ten?

SAJJAN GOHEL, ASIA-PACIFIC FOUNDATION: I would say ten.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Counterterror expert Sajjan Gohel calls radical cleric al-Awlaki Osama bin Laden's heir apparent.

GOHEL: Often, the United States is seen as a strategic hub for getting the message out. It's a country that has enormous resources, and potential for recruitment is large and significant.

FEYERICK: If anyone knows, it is al-Awlaki. Born in America, he spent his teen years in Yemen, before returning to the U.S. at the age of 19 to study engineering at Colorado State University. Though studying engineering, al-Awlaki soon realized a talent for preaching, at a mosque near campus, where Mumtaz Hussain remembers him as a pious young man.

MUMTAZ HUSSAIN, ISLAMIC CENTER OF FORT COLLINS: He gave a few sermons. It was a long time ago, so -- but they were very good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what America refuses...

FEYERICK: Good enough that without any formal training, al- Awlaki found himself preaching at the Denver Islamic Society. He began recording CDs on Islam and the prophets. Bookseller Mohammad Noorzai says they were best-sellers, appealing to young Muslims.

MOHAMMAD NOORZAI, FORMER ISLAMIC BOOKSELLER: They're thirsty for knowledge. And he comes across in a very simple way, you know, to explain to you what Islam is all about.

FEYERICK: From Denver, al-Awlaki moved to San Diego in 1996 with his new wife.

(on camera) Al-Awlaki was finding his voice and building a reputation as an imam when he became a spiritual adviser to this mosque on the edge of San Diego. His sermons were usually in English.

LINCOLN HIGGIE III, FORMER AWLAKI NEIGHBOR: Very friendly. Outgoing.

KAYE: His neighbor, Lincoln Higgie, says they enjoyed talking about things like the orient and Taj Mahal.

HIGGIE: He liked to go albacore fishing, and I love albacore. And he found out that out, and his wife was a good cook, and so every so often, he would bring me some albacore filets that his wife had cooked up.

KAYE: Al-Awlaki was also pursuing a master's in educational leadership at San Diego State University.

LT. COL. ANTHONY SHAFFER, CENTER FOR ADVANCED DEFENSE STUDIES: He spent a lot of time going through and learning not only the American society, but how people think in the society. KAYE: It was in San Diego that al-Awlaki met an associate of this blind cleric, imprisoned for plotting to destroy New York City landmarks. It was also there these two eventual 9/11 hijackers attended his mosque.

GOHEL: It's too much of a coincidence that the successor to al Qaeda, ideologically, was also connected to two of the individuals that planned the worst terrorist attacks we've ever seen.

KAYE: There's no evidence he knew of the 9/11 plot, but al- Awlaki's neighbor remembers his ominous goodbye.

HIGGIE: Be careful.

KAYE (on camera): August 2001, he comes and he says, "We're leaving." What was the conversation?

HIGGIE: He said, "I'm going back to Virginia," and he said, "Shortly after that I'll be going to Yemen."

And I said, "Well," I said, "I do hope you'll be coming back to San Diego soon."

And he said, "No," he said, "I won't be coming back." And he said, "In a little while," he said, "you'll understand why."

KAYE (voice-over): Traveling across country, Awlaki became a prominent imam at a mosque in Falls Church, Virginia. One of the hijackers followed him there. Another would soon join. He set about pursuing a Ph.D. in human resources at George Washington University.

SHAFFER: What makes him most scary, he's actually adapting best business practices to terrorist process.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will become a victim.

KAYE: Imam Johari Abdul Malik, who arrived at the Falls Church mosque after al-Awlaki left, says the radical cleric subverts the faith and preys on its followers.

IMAM JOHARI ABDUL MALIK, DAR AL-HIRAH ISLAMIC CENTER: If you look at the statistics, most of the people who have been so-called radicalized, they know very little about their religion. They have been mobilized by their passions, by their feelings, by their urges, by their insecurities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Now, al-Awlaki is only 39 years old. What he does is e uses pop culture, really to make terror modern. It's very different from Osama bin Laden.

It doesn't appear that he knows anything about making bombs or flying planes, anything like that. But what he does know is he knows how to get out his message, basically made in America -- Drew. GRIFFIN: You know what? A lot of people who are not of the Muslim faith have been saying about this for a long time is why aren't more Muslim clerics, like the one you interviewed in Virginia, coming out and speaking out against this guy? Especially on the Internet? But is that the case, Deb, are they doing that?

FEYERICK: Yes. And now they really, really are. They said that they've taken the message into the mosques, but now what they really need to do is they need to fight him on the Internet. That's where they've got to meet him face-to-face.

There are a number of groups that are out there that are giving an alternative to the al-Awlaki message. This way, when people go online who are searching, searching for answers, perhaps, something is going wrong in their life, he's not the only option. Because a lot of these experts say that it's people who are predisposed to violence who are really hooking into al-Awlaki.

If you can get the voice of moderate mainstream clerics out there, along with scholars, and we are seeing that more and more. They realize, this is the only way that they can win, is by making sure that the real ideology, as they believe it is interpreted, is the one that reaches those people who are going through periods of difficulty in their lives.

GRIFFIN; Right. And we should not forget that this -- the government of the United States wants this guy dead, Deb. I mean, that's a very big step to actually have a target on the head of an American overseas. They really believe this guy is dangerous.

KAYE: You better believe it. Especially because some people say don't kill him. You kill him, you make him a martyr, and that makes him even more dangerous. Take him on intellectually, debate him and disprove him and say, "What you believe is wrong." They believe that that will have a larger impact, Drew.

GRIFFIN: All right, Deb, thanks. Good stuff.

Well, about 3 million homes are expected to go into foreclosure this year. Behind every single one is a person, and in many cases, maybe a family. We're taking you to the face of foreclosure.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: It's been nearly three years since the housing meltdown that rocked the nation. Poppy Harlow talked with one family about what foreclosure really looks like. Poppy joins me from New York.

I can just imagine what it really looks like. Depressing.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes. Really depressing. But a real reality. You know, Realtytrac has estimated about a million homes are going to be repossessed by banks this year alone. So behind every one of those homes, Drew, you have a family, and they're this face of foreclosure. So what we wanted to do is show people the families behind foreclosure -- foreclosure. Sherry and Ken Mohammed, they're just one of those families. They were evicted from their home in January. They and their six kids were homeless for about a month, literally living out of their car in the middle of the winter. Since then, they have found federally subsidized housing. We visited them, spent the day with them in New Haven, Connecticut. Here's a little bit of their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERRY MOHAMMED, HOME WAS FORECLOSED: It wasn't like we just did not pay our mortgage. You know, things happen. Our son got very ill at the time. You know, it was a lot of circumstances that happened.

KEN MOHAMMED, HOME WAS FORECLOSED; January was total chaos. Stuff in storage, we're in vehicles. We're at 11 o'clock, hoping that they have a room for us. I mean, survival mode. Basic food. What are we eating? You know, basic things become major issues. The moving. Your kids going to school.

S. MOHAMMED: Still got to do the school runs.

K. MOHAMMED: Doctors.

S. MOHAMMED: Every normal activity still has to remain the same, you know, for the sake of our children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow, it was cold. We slept in the car. With a lot of hotels, kind of fun part. But we had -- we had a bonding experience with each other. We had these laugh moments, we had these sad moments. It was like living in a house but in a car.

K. MOHAMMED: This is our final destination for at least, hopefully, two calendars. We've got one guaranteed right now.

S. MOHAMMED: Never crossed my mind, you know. I've heard stories of other people, but never thought it could be us, you know.

K. MOHAMMED: Didn't see it coming.

S. MOHAMMED: No.

We were really struggling, and at our lowest point, you know, they helped us. They helped bring us up, and we were very grateful for that.

K. MOHAMMED: I keep having to say, we were fortunate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Amazing, Drew, to hear him say despite all that they think they were fortunate. They got help, not from the government but from a nonprofit in New Haven.

And in terms of how they got into this situation, the father, Ken, he was a contractor. He had a pretty good job. They could afford that home at one point in time. His clients, because of the housing crisis, couldn't pay him what they owed him. They fell behind on their bills. So did Ken's family, and thus, the cycle continues. And then they lost their home -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Is he working? Are they -- are they bringing income in?

HARLOW: Right now, again, contractor, the work is whenever there is a job. So it's very sporadic. The mother, six kids from age 10 up to 17, not -- not working right now, other than managing the lives of six children.

And when you look at them, this is one family. There's about 313 foreclosure filings that we saw in June alone. So those are more than 300,000 more families that could face this.

And as I said at the beginning, what is estimated is that a million American homes are going to be taken over by the banks at the end of this year.

But the good news is, this chart will show you, we've seen foreclosure filings going down a little bit, Drew.

GRIFFIN: Right.

HARLOW: But guess what? Bank repossessions, banks going in and saying, "Forget it. We're not going to help you work this out. We're going to take your home." Those have gone up over the last half year or so. And that's not welcome news to any of these families.

GRIFFIN: Yes. What about the president's plan? He had a foreclosure plan, right, to help people out?

HARLOW: Yes. He still does. But this is something the administration has come under really harsh criticism for. Look, the president and his administration came out and said they're going to help 4 million Americans that are facing foreclosure.

So far, the latest numbers we have show us, since spring of 2009, so a little over a year ago, about 400,000 Americans have gotten this permanent loan modification.

Now, it's not just on the president of the administration. They have urged the banks to work with their consumers. So it's also on the side of the banks, which, yes, banks are doing more. But as we can also see, banks are taking more people's homes from them. So more than 4 million people, it's estimated in need. About 400,000 it looks like so far have gotten help.

I think bottom line, Drew, there's a long, long way to go. This family got help, but not from the government. They got it from a nonprofit in New Haven, and they're giving them this temporary home for about a year. They gave them some furniture at the same time. After that year is over, who knows what the Mohammed family is going to be able to do.

GRIFFIN: Well, let's all hope the economy is back after that. Thanks, Poppy. Thanks a lot.

HARLOW: You got it.

GRIFFIN: All right. And you know, you should watch Poppy Harlow and Ali Velshi, of course, on "YOUR $$$$$," this weekend and every weekend, Saturdays, 1 p.m. Eastern and Sundays at 3.

You know, for something called a static kill, the BP leak repair operation certainly seems dynamic. We're live in the Gulf when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: This is just in on a breaking story today. Workplace shooting in Manchester, Connecticut. That's near Hartford.

We had been reporting seven people dead. Now we are told nine people have died, including the shooter. This is an area, again, in Manchester, Connecticut.

We're having more details brought into us moment by moment, and we're going to have a live report from the scene in about 20 minutes away. But, again, this breaking story getting worse and worse coming out of Connecticut, where nine people have now died in a workplace shooting there.

Well, let's talk about the Gulf and the efforts to contain the leak and the final kill, which is called static kill. And we're going to take a look at just what it's looking at under sea right now, as we take a look at our undersea camera. The static kill, not very much to see, since all of this is happening in tubes.

But what we're led to believe is going to happen is that mud, this kind of cement and mud, is going to be pushed down into the cap from above and eventually seal from the top this well that has caused so much trepidation and troubles in the Gulf.

They've been waiting to do it, because of a hydraulic leak in some part of this containment facility. And let's go to David Mattingly to see what exactly is happening.

David, you're in New Orleans, and we are waiting -- I guess it could be under way right now as far as we know.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. As far as we know, that test going straight ahead to determine if this static kill is going to work.

You just referenced that video, the shot underneath the ocean there of the well area. Nothing going on there. We hope that it stays that way. And that's one of the things they'll be looking at as this test goes on, if this well can handle the pressure of that mud going in and pushing that oil down.

This test is going to tell them if that -- if that static kill is going to work, and then how they might have to go about the static kill of how quickly they might be able to put the mud in there to essentially kill this well.

But earlier today, Admiral Allen again was talking to everyone, sort of saying, "This is not the end. We call this the static kill, and we are ending the threat of this well, if we're able to go forward with this procedure. But this is not the end. This is just another step in a very long and lingering disaster."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN, U.S COAST GUARD (RET.), NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: This now has been quantified as, you know, the largest maritime spill. I think we need to be mindful we have long-term impacts. We need to be sobered by the fact that while the oil has stopped and we're not dealing with the day-to-day threat anymore, we need to assess the long-term impact on our ecology, the environment and the Gulf.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Part of that ecological impact sort of came to life last night on a Florida beach. There was this massive effort in the Gulf to round up turtle eggs, all over the Gulf, because they didn't want those turtles hatching out, and then going off into the water where the oil might be.

So they went around, collected all those eggs. They're hatching the turtles, thousands and thousands of them. Some of them were released last night on a Florida beach at nighttime. And Drew, the way this typically works, those turtles hatch out, and then they follow the moonlight or the starlight to find their way to the ocean. Actually, last night they had people with flashlights guiding them into the water.

But again, this is sort of an idea of what sort of work has had to go into, to protect all aspects of the environment here, and the ecological balance and how that's been thrown off. We're looking at possibly an entire generation of sea turtles not being born in the Gulf of Mexico. And that's just one of the questions that still needs to be answered: what is that going to mean for the future of the Gulf -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: All right, David. Keep us posted on that static leak operation as we go through this afternoon. Thanks, David.

I want to bring in Chad Myers here. They're calling this the worst accidental spill.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: True.

GRIFFIN: In history.

MYERS: Yes.

GRIFFIN: Which leads me to believe there was a bigger spill? MYERS: Well, there was, when all the oil in Kuwait got dumped into the water. Remember, that...

GRIFFIN: That was deliberate.

MYERS: That was on purpose. That was many more millions of gallons of barrels put into the water.

You know, just when you think that you've read about everything you need to know about this oil spill, there is a doctor, Ira Leifer (ph), from the University of Southern California - Santa Barbara, and I have about 60 pages of his work trying to estimate how much oil came out of that well, and how they did it, and how the methane mixed in, and how the bubbles of methane expand when they hit the water.

And so to go with the number -- I think they're up to something like 4.1 million barrels of oil now in the water from this spill.

The plus or minus in this paper is astounding. The plus or minus in the report -- not Dr. Ira's work. The plus or minus in the report says plus or minus 10 percent of this number. Dr. Ira is going, this is going to be 20 or 50 percent. Wait a minute. Take it easy on some of these numbers here.

You have to really take the -- we will never literally know how much oil is in the Gulf of Mexico. Because of how the oil and the methane gas coming out of the bottom of the floor of the ocean mixed at times. Remember when we were just -- we had our cameras focused on this oil forever coming out. It was white. Then it was black. Then it was gray and then it was white. It would go back and forth.

When it was white, it was all natural gas coming out, and that gas, that methane went straight to the top and then probably just evaporated off and went into the air. Not good for CO2 emission, not good for greenhouse effect, but whatever. Not going kill anything up there, like when it was all black, when it was all dark. That's when all of the oil was coming out.

And so the numbers are plus or minus. Four point one right now is a good number, but I believe that plus or minus 10 percent is going to go plus or minus a lot bigger than that.

GRIFFIN: I mean, and the reason all this numbers is being thrown around is for one reason: how much are we going to fine BP? Period.

MYERS: That's exactly is. Is it going to be...

GRIFFIN: Is it going to end up with experts versus experts?

MYERS: Is it going to be $1,000 a barrel? It could be up to $7,000 a barrel for the fine, and that's why they want to know as close to plus or minus as they can what that number is, that the fine can be the most accurate.

GRIFFIN: All right. Well, thanks.

MYERS: It's a mess. How do you clean that up, right? How do you put a number on that?

GRIFFIN: You can't. You've just got to wait. You've just got to wait, right?

All right. Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: You bet.

GRIFFIN: Well, if it's Tuesday, it must be an election day, right? Somewhere. Well, we'll check the hottest races and look ahead to November, right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: You know, there's primaries today in Michigan, Missouri, and Kansas. And usually these primaries, especially in the middle of summer are boring affairs with a lot of political insiders trying to deal with, you know, who they're going to pick to run in the big races, I would say, Gloria Borger, as she joins us now, a CNN political analyst joining us.

But in Missouri, there's an issue on the ballot that actually people who are not into the politics of the day might come out for.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. Absolutely.

You know, lots of times in politics we actually get to find out what people are thinking, because they get to vote on a specific issue. And this is kind of one of those moments in Missouri, where people get to vote on health care reform. Very specifically. There's an item, there's a referendum that says, should Missouri be able to opt out of the requirement that everyone in the state has to purchase some kind of health care insurance? That's part of the health care reform law.

So this is the first national referendum on that issue. As you know, it was quite controversial. So everyone in politics is going to be watching to see what the voters in the Show-Me State do, although as you know, Drew, in the end, this is probably an issue that's going to get decided in the courts. But this is the first time we really get to see how the voters feel about it.

GRIFFIN: I know we have poll numbers on this and I'm going to ask you about that in a moment. But for those of us who don't live in Missouri, we havne't seen the TV commercials.

Is this being hotly contested there?

BORGER: Yes, it is. It is. And everyone is quite aware that the country is going to be watching them to see how they vote on this issue.

You know, during the debate over health care, which we covered for nine months, the big issue was, should everyone be required to purchase some form of health care insurance? Because if you don't require everyone, then you don't get an insurance pool large enough to insure the uninsured.

And that was sort of the big issue. And lots of folks, and there are lots of court challenges about this, believe that the federal government should not be able to require you to buy health insurance like they require you to buy car insurance, for example. So it's -- people there get it. It's important.

GRIFFIN: And what about the rest of us? What does our CNN poll say about whether or not -- I guess the big question for the Republicans is, they want to repeal the law, if, and when they ever get back in power.

BORGER: They do. They do. And if you look at these results, the public is clearly ambivalent. No, 50 percent, yes, 48 percent. And if you ask voters, do you like all of the law, part of the law, they would be a little confused right now.

And that's really, Drew, the problem for the Democrats right now as they head into these midterm elections because people are not really seeing the effects, good and bad, of health care reform. A lot of it had to be back-ended because you had to get people to buy insurance first, these mandates we were talking about just a moment ago.

So people aren't really seeing the effects of it. They're confused by it. And they're worried about it. But do they want to repeal it overwhelmingly, which is what the Republicans are saying? Our poll shows absolutely not, because most voters in this country believe that something had to be done about the way we insure ourselves.

GRIFFIN: All right. Gloria Borger, we'll be watching tonight. See what happens.

BORGER: Yes, it will be interesting.

GRIFFIN: It sure will.

BORGER: It will be interesting.

GRIFFIN: Thanks so much.

BORGER: Sure.

GRIFFIN: Death and destruction happening right now in Pakistan. Not the work of the Taliban. It's torrential monsoon rains and flooding, really like you've never seen. It's now spreading from the northwest to the country's heartland. We're going to have a live report in Globe Trekking, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: In our Globe Trekking segment, we're taking you to Pakistan, where there is no end in sight for the misery there caused by monsoon rains. 1, 500 people officially, I should point out, have been killed. This thing is affecting, though, millions, up to 2.5 millions of people. A U.S. Air Force cargo plane delivered 76,000 pounds of relief to flood victims yesterday. Obviously, nowhere near enough.

Reza Sayah joining us from Islamabad.

Reza, you flew over the most devastated areas. That was yesterday I talked to you about it. But as more information comes in, it seems, the more information we get, the worse this disaster becomes.

REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Drew, and you mentioned some big numbers. The biggest number came today, UNICEF, the U.N.'s children fund saying 3 million people have been impacted by this flood and its aftermath. More than a million of them children, many elderly people, a lot of these people are still stranded.

So the mission now for the Pakistani government is to get to them and get them help.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some are too weak to walk. But to escape Pakistan's deadly flood zones, they find a way to an army helicopter that air lifts them to safety. The rescue operation, one of hundreds in northwest Pakistan, where the U.N. says the region's worst floods ever have damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 homes and displaced an estimated million people.

"It was a bad flood," said this teenager who was rescued. "Many builds were destroyed. I don't know what's going to happen to us."

With a helicopter tour of the hardest-hit areas by the Pakistan army, the scope of the damage comes into focus. Entire villages and farmlands that used to line area rivers, now underwater.

Few have suffered more loss than the people of Noshara, a city just east of Pashaur (ph). When record-breaking rains broke the banks of the nearby in this river, entire neighborhoods were flooded.

The Pakistani government insists it's doing all it can to get help to flood victims. The army says it has rescued more than 30,000 people, and set up several relief camps. But many victims continue to complain they're not seeing the help.

(on camera): One of the reasons help isn't getting to victims is because bridges have been demolished by floodwaters. We're at a village in the northern parts of the Swat Valley, where so many bridges connect roads and go over rivers. And military officials say almost all of them have been demolished, and that has meant that victims in these areas haven't been able to get out, and relief hasn't been able to get in.

MAJ. GEN. GHAYOUR MAHMOUD, PAKISTAN ARMY: So, this was the enormity of the task. That every person and every problem could not be mitigated so soon. SAYAH (voice-over): With the army unable to reach everyone, desperate villagers in Swat Valley often risk their lives, trying to flee, by whatever means necessary. For them, help could no longer wait.

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SAYAH: More problems for these flood victims today. The rains came back, heavy at times, in parts of this northwestern province that's been ravaged by floods, and that rain grounded 36 helicopters, Drew, that are so critical to the rescue and recovery efforts. And more rain is in the forecast in the coming days.

GRIFFIN: Reza Sayah, live in Islamabad, Pakistan. Thanks, Reza, just incredible devastation there.

Well, we've had another workplace massacre. This time, it's in Connecticut. We'll tell you what happened next, in "Crime and Consequence."

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GRIFFIN: We've been reporting on this, and the reporting seems to get worse and worse. A workplace shooting in Connecticut. Now nine deaths being reported, including the gunman. It happened this morning at a beer distributor outside of Hartford, Connecticut, a town called Manchester.

Still an active crime scene, and that's why we find CNN's Alison Kostik, who is reporting on this. Alison, bring us the latest on what is going on.

ALISON KOSTIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, Drew. Police right now are keeping us quite a ways away from the crime scene. About 200 yards over my shoulder is the crime scene, the warehouse, where the shooting rampage happened.

And a police source close to the investigation is telling us that an employee at Hartford Distributors showed up at work this morning and fired on his co-workers, using a rifle. This happened around 7:30 this morning. About 35 to 40 people were inside the warehouse and the offices when this gunman just opened fire. Some of the employees got out of that warehouse and ran across the street to try to get some cover. And by time police officials got there, here's what they say they found.

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LT. JOE SAN ANTONIO, MANCHESTER POLICE: Seven-thirty this morning, we received a call of a shooter in the building at the Hartford Distributors, Chapel Road. Our officers responded. They found a victim when they first entered the building. We treated it as an active shooter. There was a full response, mutual aid from surrounding towns and state police responded. The building was searched. And the suspect was found. He was found shot. He was found shot. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where in the building --

SAN ANTONIO: The police did not discharge their weapons at any time during the response.

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KOSTIK: And a police source close to the investigation tells CNN that nine people are dead. Eight, including the gunman. And we're hearing that the gunman's name is Omar Thornton. He's 34 years old, and was apparently recently hired as a driver for Hartford Distributors. This is a family-owned business of beer and wine distribution here in Connecticut. It's actually one of the largest here.

And what we're hearing is that union officials have labeled him as somebody with a disciplinary problem. And the idea was this morning that Thornton was supposed to go with a union official this morning to talk with company officials to try to resolve this issue. But instead what happened was this shooting. No word if the meeting ever had a chance to get started before the shooting happened.

Drew?

GRIFFIN: Alison, you said it was a single rifle? Is that what police are saying right now?

KOSTIK: That's what police are saying right now, exactly, Drew.

GRIFFIN: Boy, that must have took some time. All right, Alison Kostik joining us from Connecticut, site of a terrible workplace shooting there. As we get more details, Alison, bring it back to us, okay? Thanks.

Again, stories like this tend to focus on the gunman. It's important to remember that the victims, those killed and wounded by this violent act. We don't know their names just yet or their stories. We'll bring them to you when we do, but Governor Jodi Rell of Connecticut says her heart and prayers go out to the employees and the families of the victims.

Stay with CNN for the latest on this as we put -- as we work to put faces, of course, to this tragedy.

And now a quick look at our top stories. In the Gulf of Mexico today, they have fixed a hydraulic leak that was delaying efforts to plug the ruptured BP oil well. That means they can go ahead with tests now and potentially begin static kill. the procedure that could cap off this well somewhat permanently.

President Obama signed a law today that will reduce sentences for possessing crack cocaine to bring them more in line for sentences for powdered cocaine. Advocates say the old law was discriminatory since more African-Americans used crack while more whites used powdered cocaine. And if you want to avoid heart problems later in life, you need to start watching your cholesterol levels while you're still in your 20s. That's a conclusion experts are drawing from a new medical study published today that says young adults with high cholesterol are more likely to have heart attacks when they get older.

It is all in the power of the nose. This is an amazing story. After the break, we're going to introduce you to some scientists who have created a way to help quadriplegics get around, one sniff at a time.

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GRIFFIN: In today's "Big 'I'" segment, a big breakthrough in technology for paralyzed people. New software is going to allow them to write messages, surf the net, even drive a wheelchair all with the power of their noses.

Take a look at this video. This guy is moving his wheelchair around with a sniff controller. Whenever he sniffs, the device measures the change in pressure inside his nose, that is then converted into electrical signals that control that chair.

The technology is the brainchild of Anton Plotkin and Lee Sela. They're from the Weizmann Institute of Science. They're joining us live from Israel with Skype.

Guys, is it really as simple as that looks? You can actually control a chair with a sniff of your nose?

ANTON PLOTKIN, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER, WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE: Yes, right. It really could be so simple. You just connect a small tube a small panel into your nose from on one side. The other side is panel is connected to the pressure sensor, and the pressure sensor controls the nasal pressure into an electrical signal. And then, we can use the electrical signal to control anything.

LEE SELA, GRADUATE STUDENT, WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE: And we can add certain (AUDIO GAP) that you work with, fit it can do it within 15 (AUDIO GAP). That's all.

GRIFFIN: Lee, I've got to ask you, I haven't studied a lot of what my nose can and cannot do, but I don't think I can sniff evenly one side or the other or even control how I sniff too much. So how do you train people -- do you have to actually have to have physical training of how you would use your nose in different ways?

PLOTKIN: Yes, the training is quite simple for some people. There are as well people that it was quite difficult for them to get the control of their nose.

But we can tell you that how we just find this idea. We were using a sniff trigger, odor (ph) process in our laboratory. We research here the odor reception in humans and we use sniffing to release the oderons (ph) in different conditions. So we found that it is very easy to use a sniff of the nose as a trigger, as a kind of trigger. So we then tried to use the nose with other devices and we found that it is -- that it could be as good as using our fingers controlling the joystick or controlling the mouse. And it has the same speed, and it was amazing to find. And it is a very good button, our nose, actually.

GRIFFIN: Lee, let me ask you because I know you work with quadriplegics, right?

SELA: Yes.

GRIFFIN: Has this been well-received? Are they -- I don't know if they're patients or clients -- are they actually using this right now?

SELA: Yes, actually, all of our patients now are using it. We have one patient that's now sending mails to her grandchildren for the first time in her life. Another patient that can know (INAUDIBLE), anything he wants to his friends and family in privacy, which he could not do before without any help or care given. And yes, they actually use it.

GRIFFIN: Let me ask you guys a couple of quick questions now.

Number one, is this being used worldwide? And since we have a U.S. audience, is it being used or is it coming to the U.S.?

And number two, what is the expense involved?

PLOTKIN: We have submitted a patent application for this device and we are waiting for the mass production and the mass production. Probably one day a company will come and try to put it into the mass production, these parts.

There could be several versions of this device. One that could be close to several tens of dollars, would be very simple and very cheap device. And then other version could cost several hundreds of dollars depending on the degree of control that you would like to have over your environment.

GRIFFIN: Yes. And finally, have you looked outside of the quadriplegic world? Is there some value in this for me to use or some other commercialization of this product that I would want to be involved with sniffing and controlling my life?

PLOTKIN: Yes, of course, we have thought about that. And one of the applications is -- could be gaming. And we've also thought about all those people who are working with their hands and they have not enough hands. And sometimes you have to hold something with both your hands and you should press the button at the same time, so a sniff would help solve this problem.

SELA: Whenever you wanted your third hand, this is it.

GRIFFIN: All right, Lee and Aton joining us from Israel via Skype, thanks a lot. I can think of a lot of plumbing projects I've been on when I've needed that third hand, but I certainly don't want my sniff detector working for those jobs. Anyway, thanks, guys. Really appreciate it, fantastic stuff.

For more information on the study being done on the sniff control, you can go to weizmann.ac.il.

Well, there's been a huge hall of counterfeits near San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. We're going to have all the details just ahead.

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