Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Travel Advisory Over Koran Burning Plan; Principal-Free School; From Wall Street to the Farm

Aired September 09, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: OK, we have a new development this hour that we want to talk to you about. Obviously, this discussion about burning Korans in Florida continues. The White House briefing is still going on. We want to find out what they are saying about the mosque and the Korans.

Also, Barbara Star and senior White House correspondent Ed Henry are joining me now because we have a development about the State Department. I just told our viewers about this a little while ago.

The State Department, Barbara, telling U.S. travelers to be on the lookout. If this Koran burning goes ahead as Pastor Terry Jones says it will on Saturday, that there may be demonstrations and riots and violence, and that Americans need to be careful.

Barbara, tell us what we know on this.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Ali, it just keeps ratcheting up in terms of the rhetoric, to say the least. Concerns about Americans traveling abroad.

Earlier today, Interpol issuing a statement of concern that there could be violence. And just a little while ago, both at the White House and here at the Pentagon -- we'll talk about the Pentagon -- a spokesman said that the Obama administration is now considering calling the pastor, Terry Jones, in Florida and having some administration official personally ask him to call it all off.

This, after Jones made clear through media reports that he was willing to entertain such a call. The Pentagon spokesman, Geoff Morrell, a little while ago told Pentagon reporters that there is a lot of concern about it. He says, "We believe it," meaning the potential of Koran burning, "could seriously endanger our forces."

Let's listen to a little bit more of what Morrell had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEOFF MORRELL, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: We have seen worldwide at times violent protests. We saw it with the erroneous "Newsweek" story back in 2005 which led to the deaths I think of 15 people and very bloody and violent protests around the world. We want to avoid a repeat of that. We've seen thus far already at the mere threat of this burning protests in Afghanistan. We saw more there today. So it is a very real concern for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Now, Morrell went on to say, Ali and Ed, that the administration is talking about taking this unusual step of calling the pastor and trying to convince him not to go ahead with this because of all of these concerns. But let's be clear, there's going to be a huge concern out there if they do this, Morrell acknowledged, and that's that they could have copycats.

VELSHI: Yes, absolutely.

Ed, come into the conversation. Tell us what you know from your side of the White House.

ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, what's really interesting to me is just a few hours ago, I was sitting down with someone at the White House ad saying, look, this pastor has said, as Barbara noted, that if the administration calls, maybe he will not go ahead with the Koran burning. And this White House person was sort of -- kind of dismissive of the notion that the pastor would listen and didn't lead me to believe that they were in active talks on calling the pastor.

And then as Barbara notes, Geoff Morrell, at the Pentagon, decides to come out and go on camera ad say, look, there are knew reports saying the pastor may not move forward if we call him. And there are now active discussions going on in the administration.

That was news to us at the White House. And so I'm wondering, when you read the tea leaves behind the scenes here, whether or not the Pentagon was putting a little bit of pressure on the White House, if Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who -- he and others, as you know, including the president this morning on "Good Morning America," have said, look, this could be detrimental to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan if the Koran burning goes through.

But when the White House was initially this morning suggesting that there are no conversations going on, and then the Pentagon goes out and says well, yes, there are -- and then Robert Gibbs, I should note, a few minutes later, as Barbara suggested, did confirm these conversations are going on within the administration. But I'm just wondering if the Pentagon is offering just a little bit of pressure here because of the potential harm on U.S. troops.

VELSHI: And Barbara, the last time the president made a call like this was to Shirley Sherrod, but there wasn't a First Amendment issue going on there. We're in dangerous territory now, right? You talk about copycats, but we're definitely in dangerous territory, because no one has yet come out and said that Pastor Terry Jones does not have the right. It may be unenlightened, it may be the wrong thing to do, it may be provocative, it may be ugly, but no one has said he doesn't have the right to burn these Korans. STARR: Well, I'm no lawyer, but that's what you hear folks here at the Pentagon say, Ali, that this is extremely dangerous territory for the military to be involved in, and that's why you're seeing I think part of this very delicate dance. Distasteful, people have used the word disgraceful, I believe. All of those words being floated around the country and around the world.

That said, no one has come out and said that there's not a right of free speech here. And the U.S. military very careful not to tread into that.

But I think we have more sound from the spokesman, Geoff Morrell just a few moments ago, and you do see an increasingly strident tone from the podium here about all of this, and the undercurrent remains very much the threat to U.S. troops.

Do we have this sound?

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought we had it. I guess we don't.

VELSHI: OK. So that's a good -- what you're saying that this isn't -- they're not sort of floating this. They seem to be implying that it would be good for the information to get involved.

I know the briefing is go on right now, and you're talking to me, Ed, so I don't know if you know if they're talking about it. Has anything been said about this so far?

HENRY: Yes. And Robert Gibbs did just say in the White House briefing -- my colleague Dan Lothian is inside the briefing, and basically Robert Gibbs was saying this could be very detrimental to U.S. troops. I've got some quotes here.

It would be "a hateful and offensive act and would be a recruiting bonanza for al Qaeda." Now, the president said that as well this morning. It echoes what he said on "Good Morning America."

But another point to make here is there's more pressure on the president. Just this morning, the president of Indonesia wrote President Obama a letter saying you need to intervene here, do something.

Significant, because let's remember, President Obama grew up -- part of his childhood was in Indonesia. He's made plans this year to travel to Indonesia. And so when that comes into the White House, it's something they're going to listen to, obviously.

But when you talk to senior White House officials, they say what in the world can we do? I mean, in another country, if this were coming up, you might go in and arrest the person, make sure they don't. Obviously, as you were talking about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, you can't do that.

VELSHI: Right. Nobody's arresting the pastor.

HENRY: No. Right. Now, they could make a phone call, but as Barbara says, that's fraught with some danger as well in terms of copycats and others. This is the issue before them.

VELSHI: Right.

And Barbara, it's also fraught with the danger that if that phone call gets made and Pastor Terry Jones goes ahead with the plan, now you've got another issue on your hands.

STARR: Well, that's absolutely right. This gets into seriously uncharted territory.

What if he goes ahead with it? You know, who's going to be next to demand the president of the United States, the secretary of state gives them a call so they don't jump off a bridge, heaven forbid. This gets into very serious territory.

And there is also a question in the tops of military commanders who deal with the Islamic world and the world of Islamic fundamentalists whether this train has already left the station. You know, I think Secretary Clinton made a very strong point the other day when she said in this world of -- essentially, she said in this world of social media and communications, this has already spread around the world.

VELSHI: Right. Right.

STARR: We're seeing that.

VELSHI: Yes, we don't need to see the first pictures of Korans burning to know what this is about.

STARR: Right.

VELSHI: Ed, I don't want to make you into a theologian, but the fact is, don't -- haven't the Americans -- hasn't the administration and the military done what it can by saying we all think this is a bad idea? Because that's got to make it through to the press in Muslim countries, to say nobody in the leadership thinks this is a good idea.

HENRY: Exactly. Right.

And I can tell you, earlier this morning, when we first got this news that the Indonesian president had written President Obama and I was trying to get reaction, I spoke to Robert Gibbs. And he said, look, what more can we say? We've got now the president on "Good Morning America" saying this would be a stunt, it would be detrimental to U.S. troops. We've got General Petraeus saying the same thing. We've got Secretary of State Clinton.

Now you've got the spokesman for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. I mean, what more can the administration say to convince the Muslim world, look, this is a bad idea, we're completely against it?

But as you say, it's already out there that this may happen. It could give America obviously a bad image. Even if there are no photos that emerge from this, it's already out there.

VELSHI: Right.

HENRY: And as Barbara says, with the social media world we're in, this is what the administration is dealing with. And you can't just put the president on the phone with every pastor.

Let's point out as well this pastor allegedly has about 30 followers. So here you have somebody with maybe 30 followers who's demanding that the administration call him. If every person who's got 30 followers --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Yes. He's also got a bit of a history of saying inflammatory things and some very clear bigotry in his past.

The problem, Barbara, is that we now have the State Department warning travelers, we have Interpol, we have the Defense, we have General Petraeus talking about dangers. We're moving out of the world of theoretical and into the world of quite possibly practical danger to America and American troops around the world.

STARR: Oh, you know, I think there's no question about it, Ali, because I think one of the things that General Petraeus did that's perhaps is a little bit unnoticed is his statement of concern was the first real public statement by a very senior official in the national security community, I believe, about this. And he made it after seeing essentially some of those first demonstrations in Kabul, right along that time frame a few days ago, when we saw local Afghans in the streets of Kabul.

He didn't make it on a theological basis. He didn't make it on some abstract basis. He made it on those statements on the basis -- and he really led the way in front on this -- on the basis that it would pose a threat to U.S. troops and to U.S. security.

You know, the military has already seen this happen. They saw a similar incident, perhaps, in 2005. You'll remember the incident of the Danish cartoonist portraying the prophet Mohammed, and there were riots in the Muslim world about all of that. They have seen how these things go, and that's the real underlying concern here.

VELSHI: OK. Please, both of you, stay on top of this with the White House and the Pentagon. Let us know as this develops.

Obviously this thing is gaining a little bit of speed as we get closer to September 11th.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Ed Henry at the White House.

Thanks to both of you.

I want to know what you all think about this. Please go to my Facebook page, Facebook.com/AliVelshiCNN. Tell me what you think.

Should the administration be intervening? Should somebody call Pastor Terry Jones? Should we just leave this all alone? Should anyone put pressure on Terry Jones not to burn these Korans?

And as Ed and Barbara said, is this one already well on its way and maybe there's nothing anybody can do about it?

All right. I also want to talk about education, like we do every day on this show. Are public schools better if you just leave it all up to the teachers? The teacher you're about to meet says yes, they're in much better hands just with the teachers running the show.

Stay with us. I'll talk to you about it on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. In "Chalk Talk" today, we are looking at a different way to fix our schools. What do you think about a public school run solely by teachers? Is that letting the inmates run the asylum?

No principals, no administrators. Just teachers making the decisions on how their schools should be run.

Well, you know what? The concept is starting to catch on.

In L.A. this year, more than 29 schools have been turned over to a local group of teachers to run. In Detroit, they're opening a principal-free elementary school where the motto is "Where teachers lead, children succeed."

Another school in Boston started last year without a principal, being run by the Boston Teachers Union. And in Newark, New Jersey, the Brick Avon Academy just opened with six teachers running things.

One of them is with me today. Let's meet Dominique Lee. He's the executive director of BRICK, which stands for Building Responsible, Intelligence, Creative Kids.

Dominique, thank you for being with us.

What's the problem with principals now? I thought we were just -- this country goes on blaming teachers and blaming parents and blaming the system. And now we're blaming principals.

Why do we want schools without principals again?

DOMINIQUE LEE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BRICK: Well, technically, we are not blaming principals. And we still have a principal who we consider our master teacher. Her name is Ms. Charity Haygood.

Her main purpose at the school is pretty much to build teachers and coach them to the next level. So while we still have an administrator that basically does the evaluation of the teachers and coaching of the teachers, all the other decisions are still given over to our governors body, which is comprised of teachers.

VELSHI: Let me just get this out of the way, because I don't want it to be the focus of our conversation. But if you are all running the operation, then nobody can fire a teacher.

LEE: No, Ms. Haygood has full authority over the evaluation of teachers.

VELSHI: All right.

So the Brick Avon Academy, you've just taken this over. The teachers are now running the show.

This has been a troubled school. Thirty-eight percent of the students in 2009 passed language arts, 14 percent passed math. Now, compare that to 82.5 percent statewide passing language arts and 71.8 percent statewide passing math. So you're definitely going into a situation where something has got to change in this school.

LEE: That's correct. Something does have to change, and our motto is that if we empower the practitioners in our classroom to be the best that they can be, we will start to see a difference in the school. When teachers feel like they have ownership in the school and a mission, we will start to see a change.

For example, Ms. Perry Lewis (ph), in just a week's time, once she heard about the mission of BRICK, and infusing her into the school community, she he's gone full steam ahead, pretty much infusing what the mission is into our lesson plans. And also another addition is Ms. Olivera (ph), who's a very fascinating third grade teacher. She wanted to laminate her projects for her class. We she asked who could laminate her stuff, we informed her that now since we're empowering teachers, teachers have full access to all the amenities of the school.

VELSHI: Right.

Now, let's talk about this. This is a school in Newark. It's a poor, crime-ridden, tough area, 650 students, K through eighth grade.

Clearly, some of the underperforming measures in this school have got to do with other things other than the teachers. How much can you make a difference by having teachers running the school?

LEE: We can do a -- it's a huge difference that can be made. The practitioners in the classroom are the fundamental change (ph) for changing around our urban education schools.

Underneath the mission of Dr. Janey (ph) and his strategic plan, he calls for transforming our failing schools into international (ph) knowledge schools. And by that is through innovative products like we have.

And when we empower the practitioner in the classroom, give him or her tools that are necessary, and have a master teacher in Ms. Haygood, and coaching them to the next level, we will start to see a difference. Teachers are the answer to most of our situations.

VELSHI: Your master teacher, does she also -- does she teach? LEE: She does teach. Every administrator in our building teaches between 30 and 45 minutes a day. This year, Ms. Haygood has us concentrating on the first grade.

VELSHI: OK. So the idea is that you're all -- so people making decisions are also in the classroom. So you don't have some issue with somebody making decisions that may not be in the best interest of the kid.

Is that the point?

LEE: Can you repeat the question? I'm sorry.

VELSHI: OK. The point of this is that people who are teaching are also the administrators, so you don't have people making decisions that are not in the best interest of the kids.

LEE: That's correct.

VELSHI: All right. You look very young. You're 25 years old. You've been teaching for about three years?

How do you know so much about how to solve this problem?

LEE: Well, that's the fascinating thing. I taught at an inner city high school and pretty much could not handle the system of failure that I was seeing at my high school.

I knew that I had limitations, and that's why I came together with five of my master teacher friends and we came together and we formed BRICK, which was Building Responsible, Intelligent, Creative Kids. That is our mission.

And I knew that we all had different strengths. For example, Ms. Haygood is a master teacher. She understands coaching teachers. Ms. Superpet (ph), she understands curriculum.

Ms. Whiteman (ph), she understands operations and data. Ms. Scott (ph), she understands literacy intervention. And then Ms. Princess Williams, she understands early childhood history.

So we came together. And while it was just me that started it, it was pretty much us coming together and marrying of our skills that has brought this project to fruition.

VELSHI: Fantastic. I'm going to come and visit it when I'm up in the New York area. I'd love to see how this works out.

LEE: Yes, please come by.

VELSHI: Thank you very much for being with us. You've just got a lot of enthusiasm and excitement about you. That alone has got to be good for the kids.

Thanks for being with us.

Dominique Lee is the founding teacher of the Brick Avon Academy in Newark, New Jersey.

Listen, I've got another story for you. This guy has got experience on Wall Street. Now one former executive is using that business savvy to run his own firm. We're going to tell you why up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Growing fresh produce for the hungry, it's one simple thing that a former Wall Street executive is doing to give back.

Here is CNN's Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Hamptons on the east end of Long Island, New York, is known for its extravagant homes and luxurious living. Seventy-seven-year-old retired Wall Street executive John Malafronte knows a different side.

After retiring, Malafronte and his wife moved east from Manhattan to live in a home they had built 30 years ago. To keep busy, he began volunteering in the area and realized not everyone was wealthy.

JOHN MALAFRONTE, FOOD PANTRY FARM INC.: We're going to do collard greens.

FEYERICK: Malafronte, along with two partners, founded Food Pantry Farm Inc. They lease plots of land from ecofarms. Their sustainable organic crops help feed thousands of hungry locals.

MALAFRONTE: And the purpose of our corporation is to grow as much vegetables as we can to feed the food pantries in and around East Hampton.

FEYERICK: They produced 19,000 pounds of vegetables last year and are on track for 25,000 pounds this year.

MALAFRONTE: The thought of someone needing food and you have a method of producing it is satisfying. You know you can do it. It just takes a little time. And yes, it is hard work.

FEYERICK: Although Malafronte has help from volunteers, he works on the farm seven days a week. He says it keeps him young.

MALAFRONTE: I enjoy planting. I enjoy weeding. I enjoy harvesting. But the most thrilling part about it comes is when we deliver the food to the different pantries.

FEYERICK: Malafronte delivers his produce to four east end food pantries with a fifth soon to come. Thirty-five boxes of vegetables are going to the East Hampton Food Pantry, where demand is high.

Gabrielle Scarpaci runs the pantry. She says donated produce is invaluable. This year, the pantry has fed more than 27,000 people GABRIELLE SCARPACI, EAST HAMPTON FOOD PANTRY: It's just a tremendous help to us. Our numbers are so high. We're still seeing 200 families a week, where in the past we'd see maybe 40 or 50 families. So the need is so great in the area.

I think we're feeding over 800 children a month. Now, once people hear that, it really makes an impact on them and they really want to give back. It's just a simple necessity. Food is not a luxury. It's a necessity.

FEYERICK: A simple necessity provided by Malafronte's farm.

MALAFRONTE: This is very satisfying. I'm going to do this until the day I fall.

FEYERICK: Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: All right. I want to talk about what's going on across the United States.

Raging wildfires, a Wall of rain, severe weather all over the country right now we're checking with Chad right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: All right. Twelve U.S. soldiers in charge in connection with the killing of Afghan civilians and the mutilations of their bodies. The details are horrifying.

We'll go there. "Globe Trekking" after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. Time now to go "Globe Trekking."

First off, Afghanistan. Twelve U.S. soldiers are facing grisly charges involving killing Afghan civilians, mutilating their bodies, and keeping fingers and other parts as souvenirs. Five of the soldiers are charged with murder. This photo shows four of them.

According to the military documents, they tossed grenades at civilians, then shot them. The other seven soldiers are charged with trying to cover up the killings. All are member of the Stryker Brigade, Second Infantry Division. The acts were allegedly carried out near the southern city of Kandahar last year and this year. Eight of the soldiers are also charged with using hashish and beating a junior soldier in a bid to stop him from turning them in.

OK, now to Pakistan, where we don't exactly know where Mullah Omar is holed up, but he's speaking out for the first time in a long time. The BBC reports that the spiritual leader of the Afghan Taliban boasts his fighters are winning the Afghan war and that the U.S.-led campaign has been, quote, "a complete failure."

In a statement published in four languages, Mullah Omar again repeated the demands for foreign forces to leave Afghanistan. His statement was posted on Jihadist Web sites and relayed by the site's intelligence group. In part, it said, quote, "The victory of our Islamic nation over the invading infidels is now imminent." This map, by the way, shows where is Mullah Omar is believed to be hiding. Either in Pakistan or along the border areas with Afghanistan. There have also reports of him being in the Afghan city of Kandahar.

All right. A helping hand for disabled vets. It's called Operation Freedom, pairing service dogs with wounded warriors. Coming up, we'll talk to a woman who's making matches and a vet who is doing important work with his dog by his side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. On this show, I can never -- nobody ever gets to know that I like dogs, because everybody on the show team likes dogs more than I do, so I never get to actually say that. But we love having animals, first of all, on this show and telling you as much as we can about them.

But today, we've worked animals into our "Mission Possible." It is a great story. Freedom Service Dogs, a group pairing dogs with disabled veterans. Now, joining us live from Denver, Sharon Wilson, who is the executive director of Freedom Service Dogs and Artie Guerero, who is a Vietnam veteran and advocate for disabled and wounded vets. And his dog, Sierra, who unfortunately can't talk so we can't let Sierra steal the show.

Let's start with you, Sharon. What is this about? What is Freedom Service Dogs? How did you come up with this and what do you do?

SHARON WILSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FREEDOM SERVICE DOGS: Well, we're a nonprofit. We were founded in 1987. And what we do is rescue dogs from animal shelter, and then we train them to help people that have disabilities. So, they do things like open and close doors, turn the lights on and off, roll people over in bed so they don't get pressure sores. Pick up things they drop. They can even get a can out of the refrigerator or something like that and bring it to them -

VELSHI: Wow!

WILSON: -- Just help kind enhance their lives with everyday tasks.

VELSHI: Where are these dogs mostly from?

WILSON: They all come from animal shelters. They're mostly abandoned. Sierra today is from a shelter in New Castle, Wyoming. She was found outside of a meth lab where she had been chained out front for a year. When we got her, she was in pretty bad shape. But we could recognize she had all the skill sets necessary. So, she's been a great dog. VELSHI: Artie, tell me your story. Not just about your relationship with Sierra, but go back a bit. You were in Vietnam. And then, what happened there and since?

ARTIE GUERRERO, PRESIDENT, PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA, MOUNTAIN STATES CHAPTER: Yes. Actually April 23, was 43 years ago that I was injured in Vietnam. Just in the central highlands, close to Plaku (ph) and On-Kai (ph). And I was hit with three bullets and some grenade shrapnel.

But I'm in the wheelchair because of multiple sclerosis. Denver has a high incident of MS. Over 175 of us from Colorado that came back from Vietnam diagnosed with MS. So, the MS probably more is the culprit of me being in the wheelchair as opposed to the gunshot wounds. The funwounds just gave me physical problems, and the MS just doesn't let me walk.

VELSHI: And what does Sierra do for you?

GUERRERO: Do that again? I didn't hear you.

VELSHI: Tell me about Sierra, and what Sierra does for you.

GUERRERO: Sierra is probably a survivor as I am. I call us the surviving couple. When I was first introduced to her, I had already just put a dog down a couple years before that. And so when I first met her, I knew immediately this was really a unique situation.

And the way the program -- I'm more for the program. Operation Freedom, it's hard to describe for those individuals that are not veterans.

Sierra, sit. C'mon, girl, so they can see you. Good girl!

VELSHI: Very good! That's better.

GUERRERO: Veterans that come back, veterans that come back, there's just an isolated world. Either you're wounded or you've got an arm missing or you can't walk or you're suffering from post- traumatic stress disorder or a traumatic brain injury. You find that you live in your own world and it's hard to explain to the able-bodied community. Because the obstacle courses -- when you drop something or you have this fear of going back into a dark corner where you think that that's combat zone and it's really your bedroom.

These dogs right here are, like I said, they're survivors, but they're also partners. In my case, my blood pressure has dropped, and I take medicine for high blood pressure. And I have dropped down to a normal blood pressure.

VELSHI: Wow.

GUERRERO: 120 over 80. And that's 25 years of ten different kinds of medicine. And thank goodness --

VELSHI: Let me ask you this, Artie. GUERRERO: I think it's 85 percent sierra.

VELSHI: Let me ask you - oh, it sounds like it. I mean, who can resist that little dog?

You come across people wounded or disabled vets who don't necessarily know this might be a good idea for them. And you're an advocate for people using these Freedom Service Dogs.

WILSON: Are you an advocate for using Freedom Service Dogs?

GUERRERO: Oh, absolutely. I'm having a difficult time hearing you. But yes, I'm an advocate for people with special needs. I don't like disabled. Our wheelchairs and our adaptive equipment make us more able-bodied than disabled. It's absolutely -- you have to see us in action. You have to see Sierra taking clothes out of the dryer.

I advocate for veterans because you gain something, you gain that independence that you need. When we come back disabled after serving this country, you need that independence back. Especially in my case, I was a gymnast and a trapeze man.

VELSHI: Wow.

GUERRERO: And all of a sudden, I can't walk. All of a sudden, I have a partner next to me that doesn't care how I look, and she knows she's going to go with me with my wheelchair. When I first got her, it was terribly cold. Just about two years to the day next month, and there was no snow or no ice but there was a clear, thin sheet of glass, ice on the driveway that I slid all the way down. Nobody was down there but me and Sierra. And Sierra -- I didn't know what to do. And she just took control.

VELSHI: Nice.

GUERRERO: I call it (INAUDIBLE) superiority. She pulled me up the driveway. And I had gone down to the mailbox to get the mail. And I had the same type of wheelchair but my wheels were just spinning. And she got me up there. And (AUDIO GAP) if I was ever in difficulty, she would be there.

So, I look at other veterans that need that same reinforced security that somebody is there. They don't talk back to us. They do what we tell them to. Sometimes you don't even need to tell them, and they just do it.

VELSHI: Artie, thanks very much for that. Artie Guerrero is a Vietnam vet and partners with Sierra there. Sharon Wilson is the executive director of Freedom Service Dogs. What a great story. Thanks so much to both of you for being with us to today.

And for more information on Freedom Service Dogs, be sure to go to my Web page. CNN.com/ali. We'll put the link up there for you.

When we come back, Ed Henry is at the White House. He's got the latest on a travel advisory issued for Americans over this Florida pastor's plan to burn the Muslim holy book. He's going to talk about whether President Obama is going to intervene when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Let's go the White House. Oh, it's not the White House. I thought it was at the White House. Take a look at where Ed is. He is standing in front of the Washington bureau. And if you just turn that camera to the left, he's there with my good friend -- is he there?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Mark Preston is right here.

VELSHI: Is Preston right there? Can we just see where you guys are?

HENRY: We're doing the Political Ticker next. We're sort of (INAUDIBLE).

VELSHI: That is so good. Mark and I traveled across the country together on a bus once.

HENRY: Oh yes? That sounds like an interesting story.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Let's keep that story.

VELSHI: OK, Ed, let's go back to you. Ed, you've been busy this afternoon, so you didn't get to see the warm-up act, which I normally get a chance to look at.

HENRY: A few weeks ago, you had an 80-pound green pepper that some girl grew in her backyard. That was a good segment. A good lead-in to me at the White House.

VELSHI: Yes, I had a cute little dog on just now.

HENRY: You had a little dog on? So, what are you saying about me?

VELSHI: No, no, I'm just saying it was a good warm-up for you, so you better have something good. Wouldn't you like it if we could just talk about little green peppers and cute little dogs? Unfortunately, we've got other things to talk about.

HENRY: There are a lot of people interested in replying to us about our neckties and what not. Roland Martin had a lot to say when we were talking about that the other day, too, because, you know, Roland takes it up a notch. And he's got better fashion than both of us. Put together.

VELSHI: Wow. Unfortunately, we have other burning issues to deal with today.

HENRY: Serious. Yes, the bottom line is the White House has been relatively quiet in recent days about this whole -- the potential Koran burning on Saturday, on the 9/11 anniversary. They allowed - you know, General David Petreaus was out there. Secretary of State Clinton a couple of days ago saying look, this could pose a huge threat to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the president hadn't said anything until this morning when he was on "Good Morning America" with George Stephanopoulos. Very interesting because he called that this pastor's actions a stunt and said this is going to harm U.S. troops and also is against all American values in terms of religious freedoms and tolerance. So I think this has now been jacked up a bit by the fact that the president is weighing in, and we're getting closer to this potential Koran burning.

The question for the White House now is will they intervene? This pastor down in Florida has suggested if he gets a call from the administration, he may reconsider and not move forward. That obviously puts pressure on the White House to maybe intervene here, but when you've got a pastor with something like 30 followers, what kind of precedent does that start? If he can sort of of pressure the White House into calling him? That sets a pretty bad precedent. But the stakes here are so high, they may just do it.

VELSHI: All right. Let's talk about Rahm Emanuel. Most Americans know the name. You may not know his history. This guy was a Congressman, a real political player. And now there's talk about him going back to Chicago. What's the skinny?

HENRY: He has made it abundantly clear in recent months that he would love to be mayor of Chicago. And guess what? Richard Daley, after some 20-some years, just announced in the last couple of days he's going to retire.

When the mayor has been on the job for 26 years, it doesn't open very frequently. So, you better make your move if you're going to do it. It seems very clear that Rahm Emanuel is going to run. But he wants to have some space to think about it. But then the president went on ABC this morning and said, "I think he'll make a great mayor" when he was asked about it.

(LAUGHTER)

HENRY: So, I mean, forget any pretense of saying I'm not sure if he's going to do it. When the president goes out there, his hometown of Chicago and says look, I think he'll be a great mayor, I think it's pretty clear Rahm Emanuel's going to run. But we've just confirmed in the last few moments, and you'll be seeing it o the political ticker that basically, Rahm Emanuel has now canceled a whole bunch of fundraising appearances he was supposed to be doing this weekend in Chicago for some vulnerable house Democrat and what-not.

They're saying it's because of scheduling conflicts. We're hearing from other Democratic officials that he just doesn't want to walk into this media storm in Chicago right now, "will he or won't he" right now. He wants to give this a little bit more time.

VELSHI: So, who replaces him?

HENRY: It's going to be fascinating. Because the bottom line is when I've been talking to senior Democrats in the last 24, 36 hours about this, they say there's one big dynamic hanging over who will replace Rahm Emanuel.

That's the new White House chief of staff, whoever that is going to be, is going to have a whole new dynamic, which is a probably a Republican Congress, or a Democratic Congress with just a thin margin of error -- five, six seats in charge. Nothing like they've got now, like a 39-seat margin. Nothing like a nine-seat margin in the U.S. Senate. You may have a situation even if the Democrats keep Senate majority, 51, 52 seats.

So, some of the names are coming out there. Tom Donilon, the deputy national security advisor. Ron Klain, Vice President Biden's chief of staff.

I think a sleeper pick, somebody that a lot of top Democrats are talking up in private, is Phil Schiliro, because you're going to need someone who can work with Congress, Democrats and Republicans up there to get this president's agenda through. Phil Schiliro worked up on the Hill for a couple of decades. He's now the president's chief lobbyist on the Hill. So, I'd watch him.

And then Valarie Jarrett as well. This is somebody with deep connections to the president, dating back to Chicago. And she has got one ingredient the other candidates don't have. And the fact of the matter is, she's close not just to the president, but the first lady.

And other names like John Podesta, Leon Panetta - former White House chief of staff who know how to work with Republican Congresses. They did that for Bill Clinton.

VELSHI: All right, Ed. Thanks very much. We'll stay on top of all these stories.

Can you set up Mark Preston? I want to talk to him.

HENRY: Yes, why don't I move out of the way? I think we can have Mark - yes, go ahead, mark.

VELSHI: You're all set up there? Hold on, Mark. You are no lesser a correspondent than Ed, so you deserve a proper introduction.

Time for your "CNN Equals Politics" update with CNN senior political editor Mark Preston, joining us from Washington. He is part of The Best Political Team on Television. Mark, what's on the ticker this hour?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, first, let's just say, we welcomed Ed into our kitchen today, but now let's try to get him out, Ali. Just brush him off to the side.

Let's talk some real, raw politics right now. Literally, in the last ten minutes, Michelle Bachmann, this really explosive Republican Congresswoman from Minnesota, just put out a fundraising solicitation. She's using Barack Obama as the main point in it. And what she says is real interesting.

Let me just give you a quick line out of this. Really, Ali, just came into my e-mail box. Will be up on the ticker momentarily. She says "they're attacking me because I pose the biggest threat to their far left, destructive agenda." She poses the biggest threat to the Democratic far-left, destructive agenda. And she says "if I lose, the Tea Party movement will fold and they will remain in power." She says that's what Democrats believe. So, Michelle Bachmann trying to raise some money off of President Obama.

Let's move down, again, keeping with this whole raw politics that we're focussing on, midterm elections. Let's go down to South Carolina and let's talk about somebody we spoke about a lot months ago. Mark Sanford. Well, Mark Sanford's that disgraced governor in South Carolina.

Let's look at this story right up here in the political ticker, Ali. What we have here is the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, Vincent Sheehan. He is going after Nikki Haley. She is that wunderkid, the next Sarah Palin, some say. He's going after her in a new ad. He is linking Nikki Haley, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, to Mark Sanford.

Now, I tell you, Vincent Sheehan's got a lot of work to do down in South Carolina. Very much a Republican state.

VELSHI: When you say linking, you mean politically or otherwise?

PRESTON: Politically. No, of course not, Ali, otherwise. Of course not otherwise.

And then, of course, let's just end up down in George. I will tell you. You know, big race down in Georgia. For that governor's race, we have former governor Roy Barnes. A Democrat running who's away from the Obama administration. He's under attack right now by national Republicans. The Republican Govenors' Association has put out this multimedia campaign attacking him because he's a trial lawyer.

Lots going on. A lot of ads going on. A lot of negative stuff going on. Ali.

VELSHI; Mark Preston, that was so energetic and big. I traveled across the country with you, all you did on that bus was sleep.

PRESTON: Coffee, my friend, coffee.

VELSHI: I'm telling you! Mark Preston, always a pleasure to see you. We'll be talking again tomorrow. Mark Preston and Ed Henry, both of them.

Make sure to keep it here. We'll bring you your next "CNN Equals Politics" update in an hour. You can also check it out on CNNpolitics.com. We've got political news all the time.

All right. Acts of charity put into a list of naughty and nice. It's all part of our "Wordplay," coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: Okay, time for "Worldplay." Earlier today, we talked about the U.S. falling to fourth place in global competitiveness. There's another study out, a new index I want to tell you about. It's called the World Giving Index. The U.S. ranks fifth on this one.

Now, this is really a list you want to be near the top of. It's done by the charity AIDS Foundation. It measures the willingness of people to donate their time and money to charity. Australia and New Zealand tied for the top spot on the World Giving Index. Canada and Ireland tied for third. The U.S. tied with Switzerland for fifth. Russia and China finished near the bottom of 153 nations surveyed.

Sixty percent of Americans donate money. Thirty-nine percent donate time as a volunteer. Sixty-five percent say they helped a stranger in the last month.

Good going. We can even do better.

CNN just did a poll, by the way, asking Americans about terrorism. The results may surprise some of you. Didn't surprise me. I'll tell you why in my "XYZ" on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK, it is time now for the "XYZ" of it. The fear of terrorism. You would think it still pervades American culture in the post-9/11 world. And if you listen to some politicians and pundits, you would think all roads lead to terrorism. Terrorism is constantly brought up in the debate over putting an Islamic center and mosque near ground zero. By both sides, by the way.

I want to share the results of a brand-new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll. It has just come out. Nine years after 9/11, nearly two-thirds of Americans say they're not worried about becoming a victim of terrorism. Most say they're ready to deal with an attack if the worst should happen.

These Americans certainly aren't naive, nor are they ignorant to the dangers of global terrorism. In fact, a record number says the U.S. unlikely to ever capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Only 36 percent say the country is safer from terrorism than before 9/11. Six in 10 believe it's necessary for the U.S. to keep troops in Afghanistan to prevent further acts of terror in America.

So, look, I'm not presenting these poll results as a reason to be less vigilant about terrorism. I'm not belittling the losses that loved once of terrorism suffered in the past and continue to suffer. I am presenting this as a reflection of the resilience of the human spirit, the faith of people in their neighbor, the dogged determination of human beings to not live in fear.

Is the world free of terrorist threat? Of course not. Are terrorists looking for another massive attack? Of course they are. But their misguided philosophies and plots will never stand up to the confidence and strength of people around the world. The strength to stand firm, the strength to recover in times of strife. That's my "XYZ." Time now for my friend Rick and "RICK'S LIST."