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Egyptian State TV Tries to Shape What Egyptians See; Reporters Harassed & Attacked in Egypt; Economy's Ticking Time Bomb

Aired February 03, 2011 - 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: Look at this. A brand-new storm can in the Gulf of Mexico.

Houston could get four inches of snow. That is 10 times what Houston gets an average year.

We just learned that Southwest Airlines has canceled all of its flights into Houston Hobby Airport, Corpus Christi, and Harlingen through this evening. As you know, Southwest is based out of Dallas's Love Field.

O'Hare Airport, in Chicago, is doing business again even with 20 inches of snow. There are few, if any, delays, but that's because 1,000 or more flights have been canceled.

Let's go over to the Severe Weather Center, where Chad is following all of this.

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: Meanwhile, we've got another team of journalists talking about another story out there. Journalists don't want to be the story, but today, they are in Egypt.

Reporters -- we're hearing about this, all day long amid the chaos in Tahrir Square in Cairo, but outside as well -- reporters, photographers from around the world getting harassed, attacked, detained, arrested, sometimes by people in uniform, sometimes by mobs. Within the past hour, officials at the U.S. State Department told CNN they have reason to believe the Egyptian Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, is behind it. Publicly, the U.S. condemns such actions.

Earlier today, Egyptian troops maneuvered themselves between anti-government and pro-government protesters. The anti-government ones are in the middle of Tahrir Square. The pro-government protesters are on the outside. The military tried to get in the middle but, at best, that the brought a lull in the violence.

I want to show you a truly horrifying scene from yesterday. And I want to warn you, this is tough to watch, a police van speeding through a crowd of demonstrators in Cairo, mowing down anyone in its path. This is amateur video posted on Facebook.

Egypt's new vice president today vowed to hold dialogue with all opposition groups, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood, and denied the government unleashed the bloody counter-protest that seemed to come out of nowhere. We'll have more on this throughout the hour.

Six minutes from now, I want you to join me for an eye-opening look at the Egyptian revolt through the eyes of Egyptian TV. And later, I'll show you where else in the Middle East unrest is simmering.

But our "Sound Effect" today is Zach Wahls. He's a 19-year-old University of Iowa student who spoke about his family in the Iowa House of Representatives. As the child of a same-sex couple, he opposes Iowa House Resolution 6, which could allow the state to vote on whether to ban same-sex marriage.

His three-minute speech at a public hearing this week is going viral across the Internet. Here's some of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZACH WAHLS, UNIVERSITY OF IOWA STUDENT: If I was your son, Mr. Chairman, I believe I would make you very proud. Not really so different from any of your children.

My family really isn't so different from yours. After all, your family doesn't derive its sense of worth from being told by the state, you're married, congratulations.

No. The sense of family comes from the commitment we make to each other to work through the hard times so we can enjoy the good ones. It comes from the love that binds us. That's what makes a family.

So what you're voting here isn't to change us. It's not to change our families. It's to change how the law views us, how the law treats us.

You are voting for the first time in the history of our state to codify discrimination into our Constitution, a Constitution that, but for the proposed amendment, is the least amended constitution in the United States of America. You are telling Iowans that some among you are second class citizens who do not have the right to marry the person you love.

So will this vote affect my family? Would it affect yours?

Over the next two hours, I'm sure we're going to hear plenty of testimony about how damaging having gay parents is on kids. But in my 19 years, not once have I ever been confronted by an individual who realized independently that I was raised by a gay couple. And do you know why? Because the sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character.

Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VELSHI: Hundreds of people packed the Iowa State House for the discussion on the resolution, which, by the way, did eventually pass. Sixty-two lawmakers voted in favor of the measure, 37 voted against it.

Well, we've seen the attacks on anti-government demonstrators in Egypt, but the way some Egyptians are seeing the massive protests in their own homeland is very different. Why that is coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We have seen some very powerful images coming out of Egypt for more than a week now. But just what is being broadcast to the people in Egypt, and how is the government trying to shape what they see?

For that part of our coverage, we turn to Salma Abdelaziz, from our International Assignment Desk. She has been listening in on Nile TV, the state-run TV station, for days.

Salma, you've been listening in. It is not the only choice that Egyptians have to watch the news, but who watches Nile TV?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENT EDITOR: Well, Ali, state television, as you know -- it's right here behind me -- it's a terrestrial channel. So, in order for you to have other options, generally you have to have satellite, which costs a bit of money. So for families that are rural, that are poor, they quite often have no other option other than the state broadcaster.

Also, older generations, which were not around when satellite television became popular, can only see -- or only believe in watching state television. They're not quite used to this new generation of satellite carriers such as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, so they rely on state television.

VELSHI: All right. So you have been covering -- because I know at that International Desk, which we see around you, you monitor everything that's going on. You are seeing Al Jazeera, you are seeing Al Arabiya, you're seeing the BCC and Sky and CNN and Fox and MSNBC.

What is it that you are not getting by watching Nile TV, state- run TV in Egypt, that you might get from any of these other ones, particularly Arab language satellite networks that they might be able to get in Egypt?

ABDELAZIZ: Well, state television has been covering the demonstrations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But what they do not generally cover is anti-Mubarak protests. What they focus on is the pro-Mubarak protests.

Yesterday, in the afternoon, when you and others members of CNN were covering the violence going on in Tahrir Square, state television was not covering that violence. It was focusing on pro-Mubarak rallies outside of the Tahrir Square, where no violence was happening. VELSHI: Salma, they are also telling people things. They're sort of characterizing the different sides who might be involved in the protests and advising people how to get their information. Tell us a bit more about this.

ABDELAZIZ: Yes, Ali, definitely.

A lot of the reporters are having an open call on television, asking people, can you please call in and tell us, how can we help the naive young youth who have been tricked or have been fed poisonous thoughts by foreign elements to go to Tahrir Square and destroy Egypt? They focus a lot on the economic impact and on the looting, and on the negative aspects of this uprising as a talking point to prove that these people do not have Egypt's best interests in mind. And their characterized as either being naive young youth, or people who do not love Egypt and do not have its best interests in mind.

VELSHI: Interesting. All right. Salma, thanks very much for keeping on track of that.

Part of the reason we're watching it so carefully is because it is getting certain interviews that are not being made available to other networks. So it's important for us as a news gathering organization to monitor it. And Salma will keep doing that for us.

Thanks very much, Salma Abdelaziz.

Let's go to the State Department right now. As we reported at the top of this hour, U.S. officials believe they know what's behind all of these attacks on reporters in Egypt.

Jill Dougherty is our foreign affairs correspondent. She has more on that and the very delicate diplomacy going on behind the scenes.

Jill, tell us what you know.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, you know, the question is, who is actually orchestrating those attacks on journalists and the rounding up of journalists on the streets? A very violent scene, as you know.

Now, we were told by U.S. officials that there is information that the Ministry of Interior is involved in that. And so at the briefing -- and I just came out of the briefing -- it's still going on with P.J. Crowley, spokesperson for the State Department -- we tried to drill down on that.

Number one, he said they are gravely concerned about what is going on, on the streets right now. We're expecting that Secretary Clinton will have a statement. And also, he told us, they have a spreadsheet actually here that they're working on with all of the incidents against journalists, bloggers, human rights organizations, NGOs, et cetera. So they're tracking it.

Now, who orchestrated it? He said, "There is a very strong indication that it's a concerted effort," but they can't say who.

So then I said, "Yes, but we do have these people who are being picked up by the Ministry of the Interior." He would not go that far as to say that it is -- on camera, of course -- that it is the Ministry of the Interior, but he did say that these -- they don't think these are random events, that they are meant to disrupt, and it could be in anticipation of what we expect is going to happen tomorrow.

And Ali, that is a very big demonstration, as you know.

VELSHI: All right. And we continue to sort of get information about journalists, our own, and others from other networks, other places, even aid workers who are coming under attack, and trying to get to the bottom of exactly where that's coming from.

Thanks, Jill, for your information on that. And anything else you get, please let us know.

In other words, as you know, Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head at a town hall meeting in Arizona. Her husband, Mark Kelly, has been at her side as she recovers.

Today, he spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. He's also an astronaut who's scheduled to be on the next space shuttle.

So we posed the question, should he go or should he stay? The results were pretty mixed, but the majority agreed with Luis, who posted this on my Facebook page: "Life goes on. We cannot shun ourselves because of the actions of the deranged. If it were me, I would want my spouse to do their duty."

Well, some did say that he should not go, like this post to Twitter that reads, "He should not leave his wife's side at this time. What will he gain by going into space?"

And check this out. There were several people who agreed with one of our viewers, Elizabeth, who says, "This is a private decision that we should leave to him. How people conduct their private lives is not really anyone else's business."

Elizabeth was particularly nice about that. I had a whole lot more on Twitter and Facebook saying it was a dumb question and it's none of our business to ask. But we like all of your feedback. Thanks very much for giving it to me.

All right. It's a ticking time bomb that could take down the U.S. economy. Who is going to diffuse it, and how? We're "Building up America" right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Just about everybody in Washington agrees the deficit is a time bomb that will have to be addressed at some point. But when and which party is going to handle it best? A brand-new survey has some startling results about how voters would deal with it.

Tom Foreman is out in Nevada with the details in today's "Building up America" report.

Hey, Tom.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Ali.

I've got a question for you first. Why aren't you here? Isn't this your natural habitat? We're in Vegas with the CNN Express talking about business.

VELSHI: With the CNN -- that is where my relationship with the CNN Express began, in Las Vegas during the caucuses, prior to the last federal election.

But you're there, nonetheless. Tell me what you know.

FOREMAN: Yes, they're all looking for you out here.

Let me tell you, this bit about the budget deficit is something out there that many of the politicians in Washington feel like voters have a hard time with and they may not want to grapple with. But this new interactive survey proves, I think, that that's really wrong.

This was done by a group called the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland. And here's how it worked, Ali.

They took a computer program. They had more than 2,000 people all over the country, including here in Nevada, which has been very hard hit economically, and they gave them the budget deficit for 2015, $625 billion in the computer, and all these different programs that the government pays for in the discretionary budget.

And they said make things around, make things bigger, make them smaller, play with taxes. Do whatever you want, but try to balance the budget. It's like a great big Rubik's budget cube.

VELSHI: Right.

FOREMAN: And these people did a remarkable job with it.

The simple truth is, on the spending side of it, they said they, by and large, wanted to cut defense, intelligence spending, and federal highway funds. That's an unusual one. But they also wanted to modestly increase some things like education, job training, and the money being spent on energy conservation, Ali. Real surprises in there.

VELSHI: All right. Let's talk about -- you said on the spending side -- and you bring an interesting point up -- people are savvy, they know this isn't just a spending issue. There are two ways to handle a shortfall. You spend less and you raise more money. What did they have to say on the revenue side?

FOREMAN: Taxes, yes. Yes, on the revenue side, what they said, Ali, is what we've heard a lot of, first of all. They want to go after the rich, to some degree.

By and large, the people who took part in this said that they think there should be higher taxes on the top earners in our country, and higher corporate taxes as well. But depending on what your vice is, they also think you may be kicking in more, because, among other things, they would like to see higher taxes on alcohol and on sugary drinks. So some more surprises.

VELSHI: All right. Let's talk a little about the bottom line. Once you've weighed these two things, what do people think about the deficit?

FOREMAN: Yes. The bottom line, Ali, is once you put it all together and you boil it all down, what they want to increase, what they want to decrease, and how they want to treat taxes, this group of respondents -- and it's just normal folks who took part in this -- were able to reduce the deficit by about 70 percent. Seventy percent. I mean, that's really proving that people do have an appetite for grappling with this.

VELSHI: Right.

FOREMAN: But I do want to point out one thing that's interesting about it. They asked people about their political affiliation, Ali. And that was interesting, too.

Now, this doesn't tell you what the parties would do in the real world of politics. But, by and large, when you had to balance all of that, Republicans were able to reduce the deficit pretty substantially, by more than half. Democrats did substantially better than that. But the best group of all was Independents. Independents were the ones who were most willing to say these are the tough choices we have to make if we're going to balance this budget.

What we do know is if we're going to build up America, the budget, the deficit will have to be dealt with at some point down the line no matter how we go about approaching it -- Ali.

VELSHI: Yes. And, you know, when you said people are savvy about it, the fact is we are savvy about this, because we have this in our own lives, our own homes. I mean, people have had to struggle with this for the last few years.

So there was that movie you'll remember several years ago -- it had to be 10 years ago -- where somebody sort of accidentally gets into the White House and calls up his accountant buddy and says, how do you balance this budget? I mean, it doesn't seem as complicated to average people as it seems to be once it gets to Washington. This is very telling, this survey.

Tom, good to see you. FOREMAN: And I think you're absolutely right. Good seeing you, Ali. Come out with us next time.

VELSHI: I would love that. That would be a fun trip, Tom and Ali on the bus. But until then, you enjoy it and say hi to everybody in that beautiful bus for me.

Tom Foreman, out in Nevada.

FOREMAN: All right.

(NEWSBREAK)

VELSHI: Parts of the U.S. are starting to dig out of the aftermath of a winter storm that grounded thousands of flights and left hundreds of people stranded.

In Chicago, Lakeshore Drive has been reopened after many drivers were forced to abandon their cars in the midst of that blizzard that left more than two feet of snow on the city streets. But a new storm in the Gulf of Mexico could bring four inches of snow to Houston. Schools are going to be closed there tomorrow.

Are we alone in the universe? Well, findings by NASA's Kepler space telescope are making that seem much less unlikely. More on this coming up on "Off the Radar."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: Wait. Hold on. We've got to do "Off the Radar."

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

VELSHI: All right. Hold on.

In "Off the Radar," we are going off into deep space. NASA's planet-hunting telescope Kepler has found over 1,000 possible planets outside of our solar system, which include five Earth-sized planets in our own galaxy.

Tell us what this means.

MYERS: What this means is Kepler is a telescope. Right?

VELSHI: Yes.

MYERS: What kind of visibility does a telescope have? I can see your head.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: I can't see your head. I can see your belly. I can't see your arms.

Take a telescope, sit on the 50 yard line, and look down at a football game. How many players do you see? One, maybe two?

VELSHI: Right. Maybe. Yes.

MYERS: There's another 60 on the field somewhere running around. They found 1,000 with this small of an eyepiece? Wait until they look around and look for more.

There will be so many Earth-sized planets in cool regions of good-sized, right-sized stars, they won't even begin to know where to look, how many Earth potential planets, Earth-like planets that are out there.

VELSHI: Right. We always assume that we're looking out like that. But when you look through a telescope, you're going deep and narrow.

MYERS: This particular one isn't going like this.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: It's looking at one spot. It looks at one spot for a long time.

Do you know why? I know this is your next question, but I'm just going to take it. It doesn't look for planets.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: It looks for a planet that gets slightly darker because -- see it? And if a planet goes by the sun --

VELSHI: Oh, OK.

MYERS: -- it gets slightly dimmer. It looks for the dimness that that little planet makes, and it says, hey, there's a planet there. That's how it knows.

VELSHI: Very interesting.

MYERS: It's not seeing the planet yet.

VELSHI: It's just seeing that something happened. Very interesting.

All right. Thanks, Chad. Now I'll say goodbye to you. Good to see you.

MYERS: OK.

VELSHI: All right. Journalists like some of my colleagues are just doing their job, but they are coming under attack. We'll tell you about that in Egypt when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Catching you up on stories you pay have missed this hour.

The State Department says the interior ministry of Egypt seems to be involved in rounding up and roughing up journalists in Cairo. All day long, correspondents from all over the world have been arrested, detained attacked and harassed. Earlier, Egyptian troops positioned themselves between anti-government demonstrators in the center of Tahrir Square and pro-government protesters on the fringes. But that didn't stop the violence. According to state-run Nile TV, at least five people have been killed, 836 wounded in the chaos, which is now in its tenth day.

Part of the U.S. -- parts of the U.S. are slowly digging out of the aftermath of a winter storm that grounded thousands of flights and left a number of people stranded. Chicago's Lake Shore Drive has been reopened after many drivers were forced to abandon their cars in the midst of a blizzard that left more than two feet of snow on the city streets.

Take a look at this. Yesterday, in Massachusetts this commercial building couldn't handle all the weight of the snowfall. So far, no reports of any injuries related to the collapse.

Bet you never thought you'd hear this. A Norwegian politician says he has nominated Wikileaks for a Nobel Peace Prize. He cites the Web site's contribution to democracy and freedom of speech worldwide. Wikileaks publishes documents alleging corporate and government misconduct, and critics have accused it of endangering national security.

Las Vegas police have made an arrest in the case of the $1.5 million heist at the Bellagio back in December. Officials tell CNN that Anthony Carlayo of Las Vegas has been arrested and charged in the case. The robberty drew national attention because the suspect, wearing a black motorcycle helmet was caught on security cameras as he made his getaway. He escaped with a pile of casino chips ranging in value from $100 to $25,000.

And the number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits fell a bit more than predicted last week. The Labor Department says 415,000 people filed initial jobless claims, 42,000 fewer than the week before. This comes a day before the government releases its monthly jobs report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Another dramatic, at times, bloody day in Egypt. New reports of journalists being attacked by supporters of President Mubarak, in some cases being detained. The State Department blames the Egyptian interior ministry.

Joining me to discuss all of this is CNN International anchor and correspondent Michael Holmes. Michael, I want to show viewers as we're talking about this, "Time" magazine photographs appearing in the latest edition. They were taken by magnum photographer Dominick Nar for "Time." This is in the -- they're doing a great deal in terms of putting this into context because the story developed so quickly, it almost got in front of context for so many people who didn't follow it.

Let's talk about what's happening now. Reporters being attacked and detained as well as aid workers.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and there's all sorts of stories around and rumors going around who's doing the attacking and detaining. There certainly is very much a school of thought a lot of those in the anti-protests or the pro- Mubarak lobby paid. I was actually talking to an Egyptian military officer just earlier today who said to me that yes, some of those in the pro-Mubarak camp are being paid by the political party of Mr. Mubarak. And It's the first time I'd heard that from somebody at that level.

So, and he also pointed out that don't expect the military to get involved. I said, where are the police? Why aren't they there? He said they're more hated than anyone. If they went onto the streets, it would be even worse.

But meanwhile, you're right. No one being able to cover this properly because they're getting attacked or detained.

VELSHI: Right. We were talking to Selma on our International desk, explaining that many Egyptians get their information from the state-run Nile TV, which is not showing same stuff you would see on CNN or on Fox or on MSNBC or Al Jazeera or Al Arabiya.

HOLMES: One of their reporters famously quit today in protest. We've been talking to her.

VELSHI: That's right! After 20 years. She quit, saying she needed to tell the truth and she was going down into Tahrir Square to be with Egyptians.

HOLMES: You don't want to carry a camera down there. I was talking to a couple of colleagues, not CNN colleagues but other colleagues who said that the tension down there is such that you really don't want to walk outside the protection of the building you're in because you will get attacked.

VELSHI: Chad and I just were talking about the cyclone, Yazi that hit Australia.

HOLMES: Huge!

VELSHI: What's the - what have the effects of that been? It was a Category 5, which is the highest for a cyclone.

HOLMES: It's the biggest cyclone, and in this country, you'd call it a hurricane. It just spins in an opposite direction. But it was the biggest cyclone ever to hit Australia in living or recorded memory. Yes, they had winds of 300 kilometers. 180 miles an hour. Cat 5; it's down to a Cat 1 now but still got enormous amounts of rain. It dumped, like, I think - well, I'm trying to put it into non- metric -- a foot-and-a half of rain as it crossed over. Imagine that! VELSHI: Right, and by the way, on parts of the country that had been flooded and receiving rain for what seemed to be a very long time --

HOLMES: Yes, it was just south of there most of the flooding was. But yes, this is also impacting rivers. The storm surge -- the surge in one of the rivers I was talking to our weather guy was seven feet. Just amazing. Yes, and in a matter of an hour or so.

You see these pictures are just extraordinary. Lots of damage done. Some towns of like 1,000 people that every single building was damaged.

VELSHI: Wow!

HOLMES: Yes, hundreds of millions of dollars. Crop damage, as well. And what's left of is heading for the mining area.

VELSHI: Crop damage has actually -- Australia and other places in the world, we've seen a lot of prices increase, as not only does the recession end, but as damaged crops - this has been a big problem. Australia is a major mining center.

Let's stay in Asia for a second. It's the year of the rabbit.

HOLMES: Yes, and interestingly, the Singaporean prime minister is urging Singaporeans --

VELSHI: To be like rabbits.

HOLMES: To be like rabbits. Breed a little. You know? Because what they wrote about is their fertility rate has fallen to an all-time low, so it's 1.6 - one-sixth percent. Rising costs for Singaporeans, again, the economy or a lot of them aren't having kids or just having one.

Interesting statistic. In 1990, approximately 26 percent of the population were foreigners. In 2010, that number was up to 36. So, he's trying to get more Singaporeans into the mix there.

VELSHI: It's a system that used to work. I don't know whether in this new world where we don't respect borders the same way that we used to whether that actually works. But lots of cultures have tried that. Have more people, and fill up the ranks.

HOLMES: Get out there and be rabbitish.

VELSHI: Be rabbitish! Great to see you as always, Michael Holmes.

We're going to continue talking about the upheaval in Egypt and its effect on the region and for the United States, coming up after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: All right. Let me show you our Big Breakdown for today. Obviously, we've been so focused on Egypt, I want to pull back a little bit and show you a little bit more about what's been going on all through North Africa and the Middle East because really you have to understand the whole context to see it.

Let's start in Tunisia is where this all started. Let me show you a bit about where this all got started. Let me see if I can make that video work. I can't make the video work.

All right. Well, this all started in Tunisia. The overthrow of the president -- or the forcing of the president to actually leave the country. Nobody really paid much attention to Tunisia. It had been a stable government for a long time.

After Tunisia, this spread to Egypt. There were riots in street and what we ended up with is the president of Egypt, Mubarak saying he's not going to run again in September. We, of course, continue to follow that.

Now, what's also spread to is Yemen. This is another country, not anywhere near the stability that Egypt has. Yemen is a country where they've got a civil war going on, they've got different governments in the north and the south. Yemen has also created a reaction from its government because they were planning a day tomorrow, a day of riots.

Jordan, the prime minister -- the king there, King Abdullah -- has agreed he is going to replace his cabinet and his prime minister. That is not altogether an unusual matter. They've had a lot of prime ministers in Jordan, but the fact is ahead of being forced to make a decision, he's been doing that. That is another country, by the way, that is a major U.S. ally.

We're skipping Saudi Arabia because there have been no developments in Saudi Arabia. But you understand that is where Saudi Arabia is. It is one of the world's biggest producers of oil.

Syria has also had developments. There have been developments where the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, who is the son of the former president, has also said he is going to start to take steps. So, you can see all of this developing.

Right here in the pink is Israel. This is important because Egypt is a country at peace with Israel. Not a lot of Arab countries are. Egypt very concerned that Israel concerned that Egypt might it be taken over by an unfriendly regime. So, that's of concern, and Egypt is still technically at war with Syria. So, the reality here is that Israel is watching very clearly, very closely what is going on with its immediate neighbors: Egypt, Jordan, Syria and, of course, other Arab neighbors just around the area. And everybody's eyes are on Iran, as well. We'll keep you posted on how this all develops.

We've got a new segment on the show called "You Choose." I'm going to give you three news stories, and then I want you to go to my blog, CNN.com/ali and vote on the story that you would most like hear. Here, the first one is a guy in Canada, he cracks the secret code behind lotto scratch-off tickets.

Your second option, why Whoopi Goldberg is going to Charlie Sheen's defense.

And finally, Bibles swapped for porn on a university campus. Surprise me a little bit, don't just vote for the porn one, as you teens seem to do.

Once again, head to my blog, CNN.com/ali to vote. We'll bring you the story you choose in about ten minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Mark Kelly has a decision to make. The astronaut husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords can go into space in April as the commander of the final flight of the space shuttle Endeavour. Or he could stay by the side of his recuperating wife. The trip would last at least a few weeks. And Kelly's been to space three times before, most recently in June of 2008.

Let's go straight to the Stream Team to see what they think. Pete Dominick joins me now. He is the host of a Sirius satellite show - Pete, what's the name of the show?

PETE DOMINICK, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: "Stand Up with Pete Dominick," starting in just ten minutes, Ali Velshi!

VELSHI: All right. Pete, I put this out on my blog and I put it out on Facebook and Twitter. I had some people say we have no right even to discuss this. This is a matter between Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly and why are we getting involved in their business. What do you think?

DOMINICK: And those people are right, Ali. Listen to those people. Hey, listen, I can't imagine any partner, any spouse saying you can't do this, you know, because I'm sick. In this case, she's been injured.

I can tell you in my own life, my agent just booked me for a gig in Daytona at the end of February. My wife told me I can't fly down there because she has a yoga retreat, and I have to stay home for the kids. So, it's got to be a personal thing between each couple, I think.

VELSHI: A point that a number of people on Twitter and Facebook in response to this was that he's not a doctor. He's very supportive. She's recovering. But there's only a limited amount he can do. What do you think of that?

DOMINICK: Yes, I mean, absolutely. This has to be a decision between them. And maybe between NASA. NASA will be able to, you know, check his mental fitness and so on.

The only thing I would say, and this might be a little too provocative, but the guy's been to space three times. I'm sure - you know, this is the last shuttle. Is there not another guy they could give a shot to? I'm mean, I'm not talking about myself. I wouldn't be qualified. The only qualification I have is I think this head and your head, too, Ali, could fit well in a helmet. But other than that, no way am I qualified.

VELSHI: That's exactly right. I want to ask you another question. A Norwegian politician has said that he has nominated Wikileaks for a Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to democracy and freedom of peace worldwide. That's dodgy, because now somebody probably doesn't get all the way to the final ranks. But somebody on that Nobel committee has got to sit there and say, does it?

DOMINICK: Yes, well, it's interesting. I'm learning a lot about the nominations here. There's a lot of different people that can nominate. They nominate anybody from the neo-cons to the liberal peace-niks on the left.

You know, but I'll tell you, Wikileaks, we did a whole segment on the radio show yesterday. Somebody said, how about if they had a Nobel prize for whistle-blowers? I would nominate Greg Mortensen, who's built schools in Afghanistan. The author of "Three Cups of Tea," or the Matthew Ho for the American Marine who resigned his post as the civilian representative, and now the executive director of the Afghan Study Committee.

Those are two Americans that I would nominate. I'm sure there's a lot of qualified people all over the world who would be great for this. It's always interesting to see who gets nominated.

VELSHI: All right. Pete, good to see you as always. Our pleasure to talk to you. By the way, when I asked you about the name of your show, I should notice it says right next to your head "Stand up! with Pete Dominick." So, I'll get that right next time.

DOMINICK: You've been on.

VELSHI: I love you like a brother.

DOMINICK: I want to have you back on! You've been on. I want to have you on again soon.

VELSHI: All right. Let's do it. Good to see you, my friend. Pete Dominick as always, folks, you can listen to him in just a few minutes on the radio.

Hey, listen, could Americans learn a thing or two about freedom from the Egyptians? My "XYZ," coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for a CNN Political Update. Joining me now is chief political correspondent Candy Crowley. Candy, Senator Thune is hinting about his presidential aspirations.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: He is. 'Tis the season and the Ticker, of course, keeping you up to date on al things 2012. This seems to be someone who may not run. Politico has done an interview with Senator John Thune from South Dakota. He has moved up in the leadership in the Republican party on the Senate side, an attractive, young candidate. Lots of buzz around him that he might be running.

Not so much sounding like it, at least in this interview in Politico where he said -- and this was my favorite line - "It's a different scenario maybe than some of the other candidates who don't have a job." He apparently running against hype. Actually likes the U.S. Senate. Says it's a great job, and you get to be in the great debates. Certainly Politico is interpreting it and certainly some of his -- there is every indication he may, in fact, opt out, at least for 2012. And again, he is young enough there will it be other presidential years.

Somebody who seems kind of all in at this point. Mitt Romney doing everything that tells us that he's a candidate, including this year so far giving out about $130,000 from his political action committee. This is otherwise known as gathering chits. You give money from your political action committee to others who are up for re-election to help them, other Republicans obviously.

And he also, Romney is currently on a book tour. And he told Piers Morgan last night that his wife is all in. And I got to assure you, when the wife is all in, the candidate tends to jump. So, yes on Mitt Romney and maybe a no, and really just a qualified maybe on John Thune.

And finally, Donald Rumsfeld. Remember, defense secretary? Speaking of book tours, his is about to open. He has written that there's lots of fault to go around when it comes to Iraq. Talks about how the State Department and the Defense Department -- I hope you're seated -- disagreed on how to deal with post-war Iraq. That the State Department wanted to kind of hold off handing over the government in Baghdad, where the Pentagon kind of pushed for a quicker turnover. He said Bush didn't always get the information he needed and sometimes things weren't carried out the way he wanted it. So, it created kind of this mess.

As for Rumsfeld and whether he made any mistakes, he says, and I think I've heard this before, but maybe not. But he says apparently in the excerpts we've seen from this book that he really thinks that after those Abu Ghraib pictures came out of all those prisoners being tortured he should have resigned. We do know that he submitted his letter of resignation twice, and President Bush in his book had said that he turned him down both times.

The rest is history. This is the second blush of history, as they say -

VELSHI: Yes.

CROWLEY: Like history, you write it as it's going on, and the next page is written by participants and then, maybe 40 years from now, we'll have it figured out. VELSHI: Well, let me ask you this. Donald Rumsfeld was as politicized and political a defense secretary as we've seen in recent years. Robert Gates, his successor, both under Republican administration and a Democratic administration, has dealt with very, very tough issues, but is not that public face that Donald Rumsfeld ever was.

CROWLEY: He's not. Listen, Donald Rumsfeld, I don't know if you remember, but when his briefings went on, very many times we carried them live because frankly, he was -- certainly at the beginning so many people found him so charming. He's funny. He's quickwitted. He's a smart guy, and then you had the people who thought he was making all the wrong moves. So, he had a huge audience: people that really liked him and found him charming, and people who couldn't stand him but tuned in anyway.

So, he was definitely a rock star. That is definitely not where you see Gates at this point, and perhaps he learned a lesson from Rumsfeld because Rumsfeld really became a lightning rod.

VELSHI: Right. And it doesn't seem to be in Gates' personality to be out in front the same way Rumsfeld was.

Candy, good to see you as always. Thanks very much.

CROWLEY: Thanks, Ali.

VELSHI: Candy Crowley, our chief political correspondent. Your next update from The Best Political Team on Television is just one hour away.

Now back to "You Choose," where we asked you to vote on the news. And here's the winner. A guy in Canada has cracked the secret code behind scratch-off lottery tickets, so he says. He cracked the code by analyzing the computer code used to pick the numbers on the tickets. According to Wired.com, he's able to predict correct numbers about 90 percent of the time.

And if you wanted to see the story, by the way, about Whoopi Goldberg and Charlie Sheen and the Bibles being exchanged for porn, we do post them all on my blog blog at CNN.com/ali.

OK. Time now for the "XYZ" of it. I want to end today's show by talking about freedom, something we are watching thousands in the Arab world fight and in some cases die for. The irony for me is that when these demonstrations got big last week, I was in Arizona listening to speakers, including the speaker of the Arizona House talking about how Arizona gets a bad wrap because of its rugged independence and that the reason it's so much better than other states is the overwhelming freedoms it accords its citizens.

This is a common and somewhat tired refrain that's been trotted out across the country, by the way, not just by Arizona. A lot over the last couple of years. The sphere of erosion of our basic rights.

You know, I've lived in New York, D.C., Pennsylvania, Virginia and now Georgia, and I've never felt my fundamental freedoms to be under threat. We have to understand what those mean.

While there are still groups in the U.S. that do not enjoy full, basic freedoms, most Americans enjoy rights that those Egyptians can only hope for. I hope those who say otherwise are watching the coverage available not just on CNN but on all the cable networks, and they'll rethink whether or not our rights here in the United States really are under siege.

That's my "XYZ." Time now for my friend Brooke Baldwin.