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Choppers to the Rescue in Canada; Berkeley May Honor Alleged Leaker; Fight Over Google Pics; Nazario Moreno Gonzalez Killed in Mexico; America's Most Segregated Cities; Tax Deals In The Senate; Possible Credit Crisis For U.S.
Aired December 14, 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: More than 300 people are stranded in vehicles by a snowstorm in southwestern Ontario, being rescued right now. Military helicopters are now carrying out rescues in the area just east of Sarnia. Officials at Canadian Forces Base Trenton saying rescue personnel are being lowered from choppers to rescue people.
Chad Myers has been following this.
First of all, Chad, you are not easily impressed by pictures of snow and stranding. It happens.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Of course.
VELSHI: These are something else.
MYERS: It happens on I-90, to the southwest of Buffalo. It happens to the northeast of Cleveland.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: When people think it's OK, and all of a sudden, this one streamer, as we call it -- and it literally looks like a rain event that doesn't move on a radar, but it's snow and it's coming off the great lakes. It is so much snow, that it looks like rain.
Now, there's not much moisture in snow. Right?
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: So it takes an unprecedented amount of snow to impress a radar image to make it look like it's really raining there. And when you see those things -- and it happens when rain or when cold air comes down the lakes, down the lakes, down the lakes, or over the lakes, depending on -- we call it fetch, how long the lake is, the more snow you get here, compared to you won't get much snow if the wind is going that way right there.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: Right there -- and I'll take it to Google -- is where the snow event happened. Toledo, Detroit, Windsor, on up I-94, I-69. Major cross-country -- VELSHI: Right. Absolutely. All this traffic -- so much of the traffic that goes between Canada and the U.S. -- that's the border right there -- comes on 94, 89, goes into Canada, or vice-versa.
MYERS: Autos, auto parts made in Ontario, made in America. All of this stuff gets shipped back and forth and goes over that little bridge right there called the Blue Water Bridge.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: You go east of Sarnia, and all of a sudden, you're in a different snow belt that we don't talk about. We talk about Cattaraugus, Chautauqua Counties. You know, all those things south of Buffalo.
But when you're here, on Lake Huron, this is an impressive lake with a lot of moisture, a lot of heat in it. Even though it's 38 degrees, it's warmer than that minus 10 air that's coming over the top of it, and you get big-time snow that looks like that.
VELSHI: And they have got the military trying to get those people out. More than 360 cars now stranded.
And we spoke to the mayor about an hour ago. He said it's not over yet.
MYERS: We talked to some people live at noon that were diverted off 402, off the big highway. And he said, hey, you take some of the other highways --
VELSHI: Because it's closed.
MYERS: -- because the 402 is closed, well, then, all of a sudden, these people are going, where do I go now? And they're still in the snow. They're looking for those people, too.
VELSHI: Right. Commercial traffic coming in at Port Huron has been stopped from going into Canada. So, for people expecting deliveries, mail, both ways, if it's coming through there, it's not getting anywhere for the time being.
We'll stay on top of that.
Thanks, Chad.
MYERS: Sure.
VELSHI: Our other top story takes us from a magistrate's court in London to a city council chamber in Berkeley, California. Now, the common bond is WikiLeaks -- the two men at the very heart of what many consider treachery, others consider heroism.
In London today, the Web site's founder, Julian Assange, was granted bail while he fights extradition to Sweden. He's wanted there in a sex crimes case entirely unrelated to the leaking of government secrets. But then came word that Sweden is appealing that decision, so Assange won't be going anywhere for at least another 48 hours.
Let's take you to Berkeley. Who is the other guy? I said two men. Who's the other guy? Him.
Not as big a name, but he's been around. A vote is expected tonight on a resolution declaring him, U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, a hero.
Manning is being held in a military brig in Virginia on charges that he leaked to WikiLeaks this video -- you've seen it before -- of innocent people killed in a U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad in 2007. To many people, this is where WikiLeaks made its name. He's also the suspected source of a huge stash of Iraq and Afghan War documents, and possibly even the State Department cables that are still dribbling out.
As for Berkeley, what's this got to do with Berkeley? Berkeley is not just a place on a map. It's a state of mind, really. A very, very liberal state of mind.
CNN's Dan Simon can tell us what some people in Berkeley are thinking about Pfc. Manning. And then we'll talk to Barbara Starr about that. She's at the Pentagon.
Let's find out what's going on here first from Dan.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Ali.
We keep it interesting here in the Bay area. Right? We ban Happy Meals, and now the Berkeley City Council looking at maybe calling this guy a hero.
Basically, what happened is the Peace and Justice Commission -- this is a commission in Berkeley -- they like to look at international issues. They don't just deal with local issues here in Berkeley. They have a history of looking at world affairs.
And so they looked closely at this case with Pfc. Manning and they said, you know what? Let's go ahead and call him a hero if, in fact, he did what he's accused of doing.
And there was a vigorous debate, and this commission passed this measure by a 7-3 vote. That sends it on to the city council, which is going to be looking at this measure tonight.
The conventional wisdom is that the city council is going to say no, not because they don't think that Manning is a hero. They haven't really looked at that issue as of yet. What they're concerned about, what we're hearing, is that at this point, these are just allegations. He's not convicted of doing this. It hasn't been proven in a court of law, that he actually provided these documents, these videos.
So that really is the question. That's the hang-up in front of the city council tonight -- Ali.
VELSHI: All right. We'll keep an eye on what goes on there. Let's take it over to Barbara.
Barbara, what's the feeling at the Pentagon about this?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, it's not going to surprise you, the Pentagon is not Berkeley. They do not believe this man is a hero. There are many who believe he should be convicted of the crimes which he is currently alleged to have committed.
Bradley Manning remains jailed by the Army on the accusations that he leaked a video of a helicopter attack in Iraq. He's also charged with removing hundreds, if not thousands, of confidential documents detailing U.S. military action in Afghanistan.
Not officially charged related to WikiLeaks or to those State Department cables, but Pentagon officials have long said they believe he was very involved in the release to WikiLeaks. Federal investigators now trying to determine, could he have really does this all on his own?
It must be said, these are only allegations. But inside the Pentagon, they are investigating this very adamantly. They believe that he is suspect number one, according to senior Pentagon officials -- Ali.
VELSHI: OK. Interesting story. We'll continue to cover it with both of you.
Thanks so much, Barbara and Dan.
We're following some breaking news out of Washington, D.C., right now.
The FBI has arrested and accused Awais Younis, an Afghan native, in an alleged conspiracy to blow up the Washington, D.C., metro subway system. You're looking at the online map of that system right now.
Younis was arrested last week, but a criminal complaint was unsealed in federal court today. Federal officials say the weapons involved included pipe bombs and other explosives.
Our national security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, reading the complaint cover to cover right now. She will join us as soon as she can with the details, as soon as she has read in, so we've got something of detail to tell you about.
OK. Today's "Sound Effect" is proof that words can help stop wars.
Richard Holbrooke dedicated his life to stopping wars through the power of persuasion, aided by the force of his own personality and his intellect. He began his foreign service career in Vietnam. He achieved his biggest victory 15 years ago today with the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia. Some of you may not even remember the Dayton Peace Accords anymore, because that war is over and done, in large part because of Richard Holbrooke.
President Obama named Holbrooke his special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, an area that he considers crucial to American security and world peace. While Holbrooke's skills were put to the test, his tenacity never waned.
Yesterday, at the age of 69, Richard Holbrooke passed away after suffering from a torn aorta. Today, I want to play you a bit of an interview he gave my colleague Fareed Zakaria in April of 2009. He talked about lessons learned and challenges ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD HOLBROOKE, SPECIAL ENVOY TO AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN: What we did in the Balkans was a thrilling thing to be part of. And it is relevant in one key sense to what we're doing today.
This was a Muslim country in the heart of Europe. An American intervention under President Clinton ended that war and saved that community. And four years later, did the same thing in Kosovo, a predominantly Muslim society.
I say this with great passion to you and your international audience, because I am tired of people saying that the United States is anti-Islam or has a -- is fighting a religion. That is certainly not true. Quite the contrary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: OK. Stay with us. In just a few minutes, Fareed Zakaria joins me live with reflections on Richard Holbrooke. He's spoken to Richard several times. And reflections on the war that unfortunately outlives him.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Continuing our special reports on "The End of Privacy," Google Maps is on nearly every smartphone. Millions of people use their technology. Well, there's also a big controversy over the street-level mapping used by Google. People complain about their faces, homes, license plates appearing on their maps.
Well, Senior International Correspondent Jim Bittermann spoke with Google about the controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Google has a new tricycle and wants everyone to know about it. The ubiquitous Internet search engine organized a press tour to Chateau Chambord, in the Loire Valley, to show off the way it is collecting images for its street view maps.
In this case, with a high-tech tricycle that can be used around ancient monuments and pedestrian passageways to shoot the ground-level photos which are then incorporated into Google Maps. A demonstration organized, in part, to help dispel lingering hostility toward the street view project, here and elsewhere in Europe.
In a number of countries, some accuse Google of invading privacy with street view, capturing pictures of people, buildings and trademarks, and then displaying them across the Internet in ways which no one but Google can control. There have been complaints. And according to lawyers for a number of French critics, there could be a lawsuit over not just the images, but personal data, e-mails, passwords and the like, which Google said earlier this year was accidentally collected in more than 30 countries.
VIRGINIE GALLARDO, LAWYER: We don't know what they are going to do with all this personal data. At the moment, we have an investigation. The French agency is investigating on that point.
BITTERMANN: Google France says the wi-fi data collection was stopped and will not be used again. As to the privacy issues, the company insists that faces, license plates, and any other identifying images will be blurred to keep everything anonymous. And that houses and buildings can be removed from sight if their owners ask.
ANNE GABRIELLE DAUBA-PANTANANCCE, GOOGLE COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER: The new technology, we need to explain. And that's is the role of Google, to explain why we want to do that. But at the end of the day I think our goal is to give access to information to everyone, and to be transparent, and to explain why we want to do that.
BITTERMANN (on camera): If Google street view still has its skeptics, the company has won over one major critic. Google signed a landmark deal with a major French publisher, permitting the digitization of out-of-print books. Just a year ago, French publishers won a copyright infringement case against Google over a similar project, which did not have prior agreement.
(voice over): It's all part of Google's charm offensive here, which includes a promise to President Sarkozy that the company will create a still vaguely defined French cultural institute.
WILLIAM ECHIKSON, GOOGLE PUBLIC AFFAIRS: We're investing in France because we are very popular in France and growing fast in France, and French customers love Google products. But they also want to be sure that we are willing to give to France.
BITTERMANN: And if modern technology does have something to give to this ancient land, there is little question the nation will be happy to take it.
Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: And we are expecting an announcement from the Federal Reserve momentarily.
Let's check in with Stephanie Elam at the New York Stock Exchange right now.
This is the end of their meeting, Stephanie, about interest rates. Not expecting an increase in interest rates, but looking to hear what the Fed has got to say about the economy.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, we definitely have no change, Ali. I can tell you that. We have no change.
Not much change here in the language either. They're pretty much sticking to what they've been saying all along about the economy, but they do say the economic recovery is continuing, but it's not at a pace fast enough to actually see any increase in interest rates for now.
There's also no change about their language about this idea of quantitative easing. That's the whole idea of the government buying back bonds, and hope to add a little bit liquidity to the market, get that market fuel, give it a little oil there so it can move a little bit more quickly. They're not changing that either.
So they're taking pretty much the same sort of stance that we expected them to take, Ali, when you take a look at this report.
Overall, the market reaction to this, it's gone up just slightly. So that indicates that overall, people were expecting this to be just as it is, coming in here pretty much in line with what we expected -- Ali.
VELSHI: OK. I just want to be clear, because it says we're awaiting the Fed announcement on this screen. We're not awaiting it. We got the fed announcement.
ELAM: We've got the Fed announcement. No change.
VELSHI: Right. The Federal Reserve has these meetings regularly. Unlike during the height of the crisis, where they had a few extra ones to deal with it, this is them meeting, getting around, talking about the economy, and saying, is there something more or less we should be doing to either slow the economy down -- which we haven't seen for some time -- or get it going. And basically, what they're saying in their statement is we're staying the course.
ELAM: Right. We're staying the course. Things are looking better, but not enough for us to go ahead and make any changes.
And they do this about every six weeks. This is the last one of the year.
So, obviously, we're still looking to see if there's changes, but we did hear Bernanke earlier saying, look, unemployment is going to be at levels that we don't want to see for probably four to five years. We did hear him say that not too long ago. And based on what we're seeing here, things are improving, but not as fast as perhaps all of us would like to see. VELSHI: Stephanie, one concern keeping interest rates as low as they are, virtually nothing at the government level, and then about 3 percent or 3.5 percent as a prime rate, is that people say they're worried about inflation showing up. When interest rates are so low, it stokes demand. The Fed says that's not a concern.
ELAM: Right. And they keep going back and forth.
You know, they've gotten a lot of hits about that, like, what they're doing could lead to inflation. But they're saying, hey, if we didn't do what we did in the beginning, we probably would have had a worse recession than we did.
So they keep haring this inflation concern. They're saying right now that it's in check, they're keeping their eyes on it. Some people point to mortgage rates and the fact that they've gone up a bit since this quantitative easing, since the second stimulus was put in place in November. But overall, they're saying it's not an issue right now, that's not their biggest concern.
VELSHI: OK.
My colleague Stephanie Elam at the New York Stock Exchange.
Thank you, Stephanie.
Richard Holbrooke's diplomatic career spanned from Vietnam to Afghanistan. His last interview was on that very topic with CNN's Fareed Zakaria. Fareed will join me right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: We are following breaking news out of Washington, D.C.
The FBI has arrested and accused Awais Younis, an Afghan native, in an alleged conspiracy to blow up the Washington, D.C., metro subway system.
National Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve has been looking through the complaint which was just unsealed today, even though he was arrested last week.
Jeanne, what do you have?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, the allegation here is that this individual was talking with another person on Facebook. And in those conversations, was making threats about the metro system.
This would be the second allegation of threats against Metro. Just this fall, you'll recall there was another plot uncovered, or alleged plot uncovered about a month or so ago, involving metro stops around the Pentagon.
In this particular instance, this individual Awais Younis, who is described as a 25-year-old born in Afghanistan, was allegedly communicating with another individual on the Internet and talking how he could build a pipe bomb. And he allegedly said that putting a pipe bomb in the third and fifth cars on Metro would have the highest number of commuters, and he could place a pipe bomb in these locations and would not be noticed.
I am told by a law enforcement source that they found a handgun at this individual's home when they arrested him, but there were no other weapons, there were no explosives. The threat assessment, according to this law enforcement official, was that this was minimal threat involved here. But he apparently, according to this affidavit that has been unsealed, became wise to the individual who might have tipped off law enforcement and was making some threats against that individual.
That's one reason all of this has been under seal since this individual was under arrested back on December 6th. He has not yet been formally charged at this point. These are only accusations being made against him -- Ali.
VELSHI: OK, Jeanne. We'll continue to follow that with you. Thank you so much for that.
Jeanne Meserve in Washington.
And this just in from The Associated Press in Las Vegas. An armed casino bandit has made off with around $2 million worth of gambling chips from the Bellagio hotel/casino. This all according to The Associated Press.
Detectives are reviewing video and camera images of the robbery which happened at 3:50 a.m. local time. Police say the man went to the casino pit area, displayed the gun, demanded chips, and fled the casino before speeding away on a black sports motorcycle.
OK. Richard Holbrooke's diplomatic career spanned from Vietnam to the war in Afghanistan. His last interview was on that very topic with CNN's Fareed Zakaria. Fareed joins me after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOLBROOKE: But this still requires agreements, and you don't make agreements with your friends. You make agreements with your enemies.
But in this particular case, unlike the two issues I mentioned a moment ago, there is no clear single address that you go to. There's no Ho Chi Minh, there's no Slobodan Milosevic. There's no Palestinian Authority. There is a widely dispersed group of people that we roughly call the enemy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: That was the last interview Ambassador Richard Holbrooke gave to CNN's Fareed Zakaria about peace talks in Afghanistan. Holbrooke passed away yesterday at the age of 69, a high-profile diplomat who President Obama called a true giant of U.S. foreign policy.
Take a look at this map just showing all of the countries that Holbrooke's diplomatic work shaped. His career spanned the Vietnam War to his most recent assignment as a U.S. Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Fifteen years ago, he spearheaded the agreement to end the war in the former Yugoslavia.
I'm joined now by Fareed Zakaria of CNN's "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS."
Fareed, good to see you.
We just aired a little bit of that last interview which was just weeks ago with Ambassador Holbrooke.
His view of that area of the world, the Afghanistan/Pakistan area, something you know a great deal about. Was it realistic?
FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": Oh, sure. He had a brutally realistic understanding of what was going on.
He understood just how complicated the problem was, because you have a civil war in Afghanistan that is being fueled by groups in Pakistan with the tacit support -- sometime tacit support -- of the Pakistani military, a civilian government in Pakistan that's weak. He got all that. But Richard Holbrooke was also a diplomat and a patriot, and he understood that the United States couldn't just say, well, this is all too complicated and we're going to walk away from it.
Instead, he felt you had to apply as much diplomatic power, skill you could to the situation, and cut the best deal you could for the United States out of all this. And that was what he was trying to do when he died.
VELSHI: Fareed, Ed Henry was saying earlier on that when somebody passes away, you find all these great things to say about them. But the hard edge of Richard Holbrooke, there were some who said maybe that didn't help him in terms of diplomacy itself. He could be a little undiplomatic at times.
ZAKARIA: I disagree. Look, he had a hard edge. I experienced it myself several times. He could be an unpleasant person to deal with.
But I think that what that cost him was the secretary-of-state- ship. I think that within Washington, he left a lot of people's egos bruised and he didn't handle himself as diplomatically as he could. But out in the field, he was extraordinarily charming when he needed to be, very tough when he needed to be.
He bruised people. But you know what? The great problem of American diplomacy and people in the State Department, anywhere in government, perhaps in any large institution, is that most people are just sitting there to do their jobs and hope nobody notices that they're sitting there.
Richard Holbrooke took on jobs because he wanted to change the world. And when you do that, you know there is perhaps an excess of energy. But that is not the worst problem in the world. The worst problem in the world is doing nothing, which the vast majority of diplomats around the world do.
VELSHI: He could not be accused of that, Fareed.
A couple of years ago I took a nice long drive through Bosnia and Croatia. And it's at peace, but you can still see the scars of a remarkable war in that area.
Fifteen years ago, the Dayton Accords were signed. This was something that was spearheaded by Richard Holbrooke.
For people who don't remember that time and don't remember the details of that war, how big a deal was this in Richard Holbrooke's career and in American diplomacy?
ZAKARIA: Well, it was big on several levels. It was big because you had really the worst case of organized violence in Europe since the Second World War.
You had concentration camps. You had things that people in Europe believed they would never see in Europe again. And it was destabilizing all of Europe because the NATO countries were disagreeing about what to do, were paralyzed in the face of this extraordinary onslaught of evil. And Holbrooke was able to end it by a very energetic use of force and diplomacy. So, that was the one thing. It literally saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
The other thing I think it did was it gave America a sense of what America and American diplomacy can do. You know, this is -- after the end of the Cold War, America is searching for a purpose, '93, '92, '94 - we're not sure what to do, and here comes Holbrooke in the Balkans and says the United States can be a force of good and stability even in a post-Cold War world. And I think that was very important.
People forget, but the early years of the Clinton administration, America was going into an isolationist shell. And what Holbrooke made us understood was that the resolute use of American power is good for America, good for the world.
VELSHI: Fareed, how much of these things that we talk about with respect to Richard Holbrooke, successes or failures, have to do with a diplomat, have to do with a guy like Richard Holbrooke? I mean, how much of this is just that's what government policy was? That's what the president wanted, or in the case of Afghanistan and Pakistan, this is what this administration is trying to do? How much rests on the shoulders of a good diplomat?
ZAKARIA: Do you know, I think what a diplomat can do is work within the broadest parameters and try to make things happen, cut the best deals. But then also try to change the parameters. When Holbrooke was dealing with the Balkans, U.S. government policy was basically to stay out of it. That this was Europe's affair, that we weren't going to do anything about it. And Holbrooke systematically went about changing U.S. policy.
So, a lot of what you're doing is internal. You're trying to change government policy. And that again gets to that issue of did he -- was he too hard-edged? Well, if you're trying to change, if you're trying to turn around an oceanliner like the United States, sometimes you have to use a certain amount of force. Sometimes you have to be undiplomatic.
But I think that what Holbrooke really represents is a kind of tradition of American diplomacy that unfortunately is sometimes lost. There are a lot of people running American foreign policy these days who are very well versed in Washington. They understand Washington. They've lived there. They're policy wonks, they're think-tankers, they've played the Washington game, they've moved between Congress and the White House. Holbrooke was one of those people who didn't know Washington so well as he knew the world.
VELSHI: Right.
ZAKARIA: He started in Vietnam, spent years in Vietnam. Went to Morocco as Peace Corps director there. That is a tradition of American leadership in the world deeply engaged with the world that we have don't want to lose.
VELSHI: Let me ask you have about being engaged in the world, something you've written about, something you've talked about. Is there some misunderstandings or misinterpretations by America and by the West of Islam? In that October 21 interview we just ran a portion of, he's speaking about Islam and America's relations with Islam and Islamic countries. Do you think he understood the nuances of those relationships?
ZAKARIA: You know, I think that the world of Islam was not particularly one of Richard Holbrooke's great strengths. I don't mean that disparaging at all. He had spent a lot of time on other things.
I think what he understood best was that the United States could be -- could play a very positive role in helping Islamic countries, Muslim countries modernize. He understood that it was very important that the United States partner with countries like Pakistan. He had a very clear-eyed view of all the problems in Pakistan. But he also understood that a modern, successful Pakistan meant a reduction of Islamic terrorism, a reduction of the harboring of al Qaeda.
So in that sense, he really understood how the United States need to partner with the Muslim world. And if you'll notice from the eulogies coming out of Islamabad, he was able to forge a pretty good relationship with a government that he spent most of his time bashing on the head.
VELSHI: Right. Well, I think they respected his strength and his tenacity. Fareed, great to talk to you. Thanks so much for joining us. Fareed Zakaria is the host of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" right here on CNN.
OK. Imagine clearing up snow without risking slipping, falling, or hurting your back. Sign me up! This little thing is helping. What is it? Look at that. It's moving on its own. We'll tell you about it in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Happening now, an Afghan native has been arrested in connection with an alleged threat to bomb the Washington, D.C. subway system. An criminal complaint was unsealed in federal court today against Awais Younis. He was arrested last week.
Helicopter rescues underway right now in Canada. About 300 motorissts got stranded in a snowstorm on a highway in southwestern Ontario that connects to two major interstates. Many people spent the night in their vehicles. They're carried to safety in baskets lowered from helicopters.
And WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will remain in jail even though he was granted bail today by a British magistrate. Sweden is appealing that decision. Assange will remain in custody while the appeal is considered. Assange is facing accusations of rape, sexual molestation and illegal use of force back in Stockholm.
Here we are at the Severe Weather Center. The map looks lovely.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Great colors.
VELSHI: But there's some cold going on up there.
MYERS: Yes. That's five in Detroit. That's what it feel like now, five below in Minneapolis as they try to repair the Metrodome. 24 in Memphis and 62 in Dallas.
VELSHI: I don't understand. It feel like 23 in Atlanta. It's not winter. Why does it feel like 23 in Atlanta? Something is broke with the weather.
MYERS: That. That's the jet stream. It's a little bit -- it's bent. It's not broken. It's just bent. It's bent significantly up here allowing it to be hot, 20 degrees above normal in the West, 25 degrees below normal in the East.
When you get that, you get snow coming across the lakes. And we've had that event you're talking about, that roadway from Sarnia, which would be Port Huron all the way to Buffalo. Those are the two big cities there. You have a straight line. Rather than going all the way around --
VELSHI: A nice shortcut if you're getting things in or out of the United States.
MYERS: Unless you're stuck for 24 hours and it's no longer a shortcut. But do you know what we're doing for "Off The Radar?
VELSHI: When there's a lot of snow, you need a robot?
MYERS: No.
VELSHI: You need a snow bot.
MYERS: Snowbot!
VELSHI: All right. I saw this. It looks fun.
MYERS: It's fantastic. It takes the snow. It moves it away. And you know how it stays on course?
VELSHI: How?
MYERS: That wireless dog fence they put underneath there. They bury the little wires around. So, you bury the little wires around the outside of your driveway and it goes back and forth.
VELSHI: And it knows -- oh, wow, that's brilliant.
MYERS: Right now -- it's $6,000.
VELSHI: That's less brilliant.
MYERS: But it may be as little as $1,500 before it's all done.
VELSHI: Because they'll make more and prices come down?
MYERS: And engineering students need to do something on the weekend.
VELSHI: What a neat concept. That is brilliant! I'm sure there are a lot of people who it would happily pay $6,000 for something -- but then again that's what neighborhood kids are for.
MYERS: For three bucks. We used to get two bucks an inch.
VELSHI: I know! I did that. Put a whole bunch of kids out of work.
MYERS: On top of the 747, a drone on top of the 747. The first time ever that NASA put something on top of the 747 that was not the space shuttle. That's what it looks like.
VELSHI: Is that one of those -- it looks like a B-2.
MYERS: It does look like a B-2.
VELSHI: But it's not.
MYERS: It's an unmanned, unarmed drone. They're flying it around to St. Louis. Look how cute that thing is!
VELSHI: It does look cute!
MYERS: Like one of those little new things, the little sugar berries. You want to put it in your pocket. I'm sure it would be deadly though, as it flies around. You do a little test flight before they go off to California where they'll do all the testing for --
VELSHI: What's it going to do? Anything a drone can do? Like look at stuff and --
MYERS: Shoot things.
VELSHI: And shoot things. Is that a military drone?
MYERS: Of course. It's big time.
VELSHI: You can't just make your own drones?
MYERS: I don't think NASA will give you that plane for nothing.
VELSHI: That one qualifies as "Off The Radar." The snow thing is on the radar.
Very cool. I like it. All right. Thanks, Chad.
MYERS: You bet, dude.
VELSHI: All right. A drug lord killed in Mexico. We'll tell you why he was considered a spiritual leader. That's coming up after the break.
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VELSHI: Checking the latest developments in our top stories. There's late breaking word of a bomb threat against the Washington, D.C. subway system. The FBI filed a criminal complaint against an Afghan native named Awais Younis. Younis was arrested last week. Officials say the threat involved a possible attack against the D.C. Metro system using pipe bombs and other explosives.
In southwestern Ontario near the U.S., border police and military helicopters are scrambling to rescue scores of people trapped in the snow. Three hundred or more drivers and vehicles have been stranded on Highway 402, unable to move or in some cases even open their doors. Some have been there more than a day. It might take another day to get them all out.
In London today, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange still in jail despite a judge's intention to let him post bail. Assange is fighting extradition to Sweden in a sex crimes case, and the Swedes are appealing that bail ruling.
Today in "Globe Trekking," we take you to Mexico where we're learning new details about a Mexican drug lord killed last week. Some saw him as ruthless, but for others, he was their spiritual leader. CNN's Rafael Romo has the details.
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice- over): The Mexican government says Nazario Moreno Gonzalez was one of the main leaders and founders of the Mexican drug cartel known as "La Familia".
The 40-year-old self-proclaimed savior of the people was killed in last week in clashes with Mexican elite forces in a southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan. The Mexican government says the cartel he led terrorized the population.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Not only trafficking and producing drugs, but also extorting, kidnapping and murdering people.
ROMO: But over the weekend, people in his state came out in support of the drug lord and his cartel. Even children were holding signs. One of them said "Nazario will always live in our hearts". Mexican authorities say Moreno also saw himself as a spiritual leader who used religion to recruit criminals, banned cartel members from using drugs and alcohol and passed out bibles and money to the poor.
In 2006 he made national headlines in Mexico after members of his cartel hurled five decapitated heads on to a dance floor with a message saying "La Familia does not kill for money, does not kill women, does not kill innocents. The only ones who die are those who must die. Everybody should know this is divine justice."
La Familia had extensive operations in the southeastern United States. In a crackdown targeting the cartel in early November, federal agents confiscated millions of dollars worth of drugs in suburban Atlanta as part of a nationwide sweep called "Operation Chokehold."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 45 individuals have been arrested. There's been a seizure of 46 pounds of methamphetamine, 43 kilos of cocaine and more than 2 tons -- that's 4,120 pounds of marijuana.
ROMO: U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, called the offensive against La Familia the largest ever undertaken against the Mexican drug cartel.
ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have to work with our Mexican counterparts to really cut off the heads of these snakes and get at the heads of the cartels.
ROMO: 303 people with ties to La Familia were arrested in two days in 19 states. Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.
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VELSHI: Venezuela now where president Hugo Chavez's allies are trying to cram some last-minute stuff through the national assembly. You see, they'll lose their majority next month when a new legislature is seated. So one bill on the agenda this week -- the "Social Responsibility" law which would impose tighter restrictions on radio, TV and the internet. For instance, it would ban messages that disrespect public authorities or seek to create "anxiety among the people". The opposition says if this thing passes, they will basically -- the state will basically control internet access.
A new study identifies the most segregated cities in America and the least segregated cities. Find out if your town is on the list. Find out next.
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America's cities are getting less segregated. An associated press report based on Census Bureau data indicates that housing segregation declined last year in three quarters of America's 100 big cities. Check this out. The report says more middle class blacks are moving into white neighborhoods in the south and the west.
As a result, the least segregated cities include Ft. Myers, Florida, Atlanta, Miami, and Honolulu. It may surprise you to know that some of the most segregated cities are in the north. They include Milwaukee, Detroit and Syracuse, New York. Experts attribute that to slow population growth in the Midwest and the Northeast and whites moving out of minority neighborhoods.
With the clock ticking, the senate is going to scramble to ratify a new arms treaty with Russia. I'll tell you why the math on this says the Democrats need the Republicans to support them.
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The tax deal: the deal between President Obama and Republican leaders. If it goes through the senate, well, they won't have much time to catch their breath. The arms treaty with Russia is awaiting approval. The Democrats will need some help to get it done.
John King, host of "John King USA", in Washington right now with the political update. Hello, John.
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Ali, dead right, on that they'll need Republican help. You remember the START treaty controversy. It's a big nuclear arms treaty with Russia. The President of the United States says it's a big deal and the senate has to pass it before Christmas this year.
Democratic leader Harry Reid -- his spokesman telling our Dana Bash they'll bring that up right after the tax cut vote. That could even happen tonight, maybe tomorrow. But the tax cut vote likely to be tonight on that deal. Then the START treaty.
Jon Kyl, the conservative Republican from Arizona says he has a lot of reservations about this and he says he has told the leadership -- the Democratic leadership it would be a mistake to bring it up as soon as tomorrow. That seems to imply Senator Kyl thinks he has the votes to block it. They need two-thirds of the senate, obviously, to approve a big treaty like that. So we'll watch that drama play out.
Here's another drama: Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor, ran for President as a Republican last time, didn't win the nomination. He's moving around the country. Most expect him to run for the Republican nomination in 2012.
Well, that tax cut deal we were just talking about? Most Republicans in the senate expected to vote for it but Governor Romney says it's a bad deal. He wrote an op-ed in USA Today saying it's a big short-term economic stimulus and that helps President Obama, might even help him for re-election, but Governor Romney saying it's a bad deal. Looks to be, Ali, there, Governor Romney reaching out to tea party conservatives, trying to say "I got your back in this debate".
And, lastly, Rahm Emanuel, the President's former Chief of Staff, well he's been at a day-long hearing. This could go on for three days out in Chicago. More than 30 people in Chicago have challenged his right to run for Mayor of Chicago saying he doesn't meet the residency requirement. You have to live in Chicago for a year before the election. Rahm Emanuel, of course, had residence here in Washington.
He says that was temporary, he was serving his country and his president. But, Ali, this is a serious challenge. Rahm Emanuel's legal team expects to surpass it and make the ballot. It's a serious question, but you should watch some of this hearing if you haven't had a chance because a lot of it is pretty funny.
VELSHI: Well, a lot of the people bringing charges, some of them are running against him in fact. There's a very heavy field of people who want to run for Mayor of Chicago. I mean, at some point it's legitimate there are rules people follow, but generally the spirit of this thing is that Rahm Emanuel was in Chicago until he came to the White House to do a job for his nation. You'd would think that would carry some sway.
KING: That's what he certainly hopes is in the end. What the critics are saying is it wasn't just him, but his family as well. His kids came here to go to school, he leased his house in Chicago. They said he went further. That we sort of was bringing his family. I think you're dead right and that's certainly Rahm Emanuel's position. You're exactly right saying some of these are opponents who are running against him. Some of them are just people in Chicago, I think, trying to get in the headlines a little bit. It's important political theater, but boy, some of the challenges are pretty funny.
VELSHI: Chicago does give important political theater. Let's go back to Mitt Romney for a second. It's important to point out there are democratic opponents to this tax deal. A lot of democrats who think the President gave away too much. But there are conservative opponents to this tax deal, particularly some of the tea partiers, who you have said Mitt Romney might be appealing to, who says this does nothing to cut the deficit.
KING: Absolutely right. The unemployment benefit extension in there, they don't pay for that. There's an estate tax thing in there that most conservatives like. Extending the bush tax cuts, most conservatives like. But they say, you know, "where are the spending cuts? If you're going to extend the tax cuts and give people unemployment insurance for another 13 months -- where are the spending cuts?"
Governor Romney tapping into that. And, Ali, you know, he has a bit of a political problem in the Republican primaries because of that Massachusetts health care bill. This is sort of Mitt Romney saying "maybe you don't like that, but I'm with you on this."
VELSHI: Alright John. Thanks very much. Good to see you, as always. We'll have another political update in just another hour.
As John and I were just talking about the big tax deal between the President and the Republicans could have a really big downside on the money front. I'll tell you how it could threaten the economy in my "XYZ" coming up next.
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VELSHI: Time now for the "XYZ" of it. Today I'm talking credit scores. Not yours, not mine, but the United States of America's. One of the biggies in the credit world, Moody's, is jumping in on the tax cut debate saying that the government cannot afford to take on another $858 million in debt. That's the estimated cost for this tax cut and the unemployment insurance extensions.
Think of it like this. You go buy a car, the credit agency checks out your debt-to-income ratio. The closer the gap the less likely they'll want to lay out a lot money for you to get a low rate and get that hot sports car. No difference when it comes to money loaned by other countries to the United States. Countries like China and others have been happy to park their money here because the U.S. has looked like a relatively safe place. But Moody's is warning about this tax cut, that it may compromise -- it may have America without a new car sitting in park, going nowhere.
In essence, the country's debt-to-growth ratio would look more like a cold meatloaf than sizzling steak. If countries start thinking otherwise, then America is going to have to pay more for its capital. Scary implications for economic well-being. This tax deal is seen by some as irresponsible because it does nothing to tackle the deficit. It's a big gimme to the American public that politicians in both parties hope to capitalize on in the next election cycle.
That said, it's extreme to suggest we're in for a downgrade any time soon. Not that it isn't possible. It's just unlikely for now. Either way, let this threat of a credit downgrade be a warning to Washington to wake up, address the deficit and put America back into drive.
That's my "XYZ." That's it for me. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Brooke Baldwin.
