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CNN Live Today
Lawmakers Reach Deal on U.S. Intelligence Reforms; Karzai Sworn in as Afghanistan's President; High Court Justices Hear Dispute Over Wine Sales
Aired December 07, 2004 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR: You know what we're going to do? We're going to be focusing today on how all of us living in this country can protect ourselves from the threat of terrorism. And ironically enough we do this on a very special day.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR: That we do.
SANCHEZ: Pearl Harbor.
KAGAN: Pearl Harbor Day, December 7.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
KAGAN: On a happier note, first night of Hanukkah, as well.
SANCHEZ: That's right.
KAGAN: We're covering it all. We have that. Let's get started with the headlines and we take a look at what's happening right now.
President Bush is on his way to Camp Pendleton Marine Base near San Diego. There he'll deliver his thanks for the sacrifices being made in Iraq. Camp Pendleton has one of the highest casualty rates of any U.S. military facility sending troops to Iraq.
Earlier today, Hamid Karzai was formally sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president. Tight security enveloped the capital of the inauguration, in which the U.S. ally vowed to put, quote, "The dark past behind him." Among those attending: Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, two architects of the war that ousted the Taliban.
A one-time deserter from the U.S. Army arrived this morning on a remote Japanese island to begin what he calls the last chapter of his life. Charles Robert Jenkins was held by North Korea for nearly 40 years, after walking across the DMZ to avoid fighting in Vietnam. He thanked the U.S. government for sentencing him to only 30 days, which he served at a military base in Japan.
Good news is on the way, along with more flu vaccine. At the bottom of the hour, federal health officials plan to announce that up to 5 million more doses will be made available through Canada and Germany. We'll have live coverage of the news conference with Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. That is scheduled for the bottom of this hour. And a good Tuesday morning to you. It is one minute past 10:00 a.m. here in Atlanta. I'm Daryn Kagan.
SANCHEZ: And I'm Rick Sanchez.
And the logjam in Congress seemingly has been removed. Here we go with the big story. The way has been cleared it appears for congressional votes today and tomorrow, possibly, on intelligence reform. That's that so-called 9/11 reform package that we've been telling you so much about. It's been stuck. Stuck no more, though.
CNN's Ed Henry is on Capitol Hill to tell us how the legislative roadblock was broken.
So, everybody happy with this thing now, Ed?
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not quite, Rick. You're right that this is the biggest overhaul of the intelligence committee in over 40 years. Any time you propose such radical change you're going to have roadblocks. How is it broken? The bottom line is that Republican leaders up here are talking about the fact that they had a little family feud. They had two holdouts, Congressman Duncan Hunter and Congressman James Sensenbrenner.
And what Republican leaders are whispering about is they were telling the White House privately that if they just dealt with Duncan Hunter and appeased him on his concerns about the chain of command, they could let Jim Sensenbrenner's concerns slide until next year. And that's how they got a deal.
Duncan Hunter was concerned that this new director of National Intelligence would disrupt the chain of command for the military. Maybe put troops in harm's way, and also take a little too much power away from the Pentagon. So essentially what they did is they had Vice President Cheney working the phones, burning up the phone lines to Capitol Hill all day yesterday.
And they essentially tweaked four key words, which were, that the National Intelligence director would, quote, "respect and not abrogate." As in not abrogate the power of the defense secretary or other department heads. That sealed the deal with Duncan Hunter.
And the lead Senate negotiator, Susan Collins is telling CNN that that was just the right balance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: The National Intelligence director is a powerful position who will, for the first time, have budgetary control over all of the intelligence agencies. The difference is we made clear that that control does not diminish the chain of command to end the Pentagon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: The one person who is not happy about this deal is Congressman James Sensenbrenner. He wanted to add some tough immigration provisions to this legislation. But he is now going to have to wait until next year to do that. Have a separate vote on his measures. He was on CNN this morning, as well, and he told "AMERICAN MORNING" that while he's not happy, he knows that this deal is going through.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), WISCONSIN: I think the compromise is incomplete. But they do have the signatures to bring the bill to the floor and it will pass. So the fight now is to make sure that we get a vote early next year on driver's license and asylum reform, in order to complete the job.
I think Congress' job is to prevent a terrorist attack from happening, rather than managing the consequences of it. And good intelligence is useless without good homeland security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now other lawmakers are saying this was the best possible deal that they could get at this point. They wanted to at least get part of the job done this year. Then they can come back next year and try to finish it. It's looking like the House will pass the bill today. The Senate will pass it as early as Wednesday -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: So, Ed, all the political stuff aside, everybody come together and finally getting what they want out of this thing. The American people want to know is this going to make them in the end safer. In other words, is it going to eliminate all those problems we heard about in the past? You know, the agent in Phoenix who doesn't talk to the agent in Minnesota, and the copy that isn't transcribed to CIA who's not talking to the FBI. Is that the aim of this thing?
HENRY: Nobody is saying this will be a panacea. Clearly the nation cannot be completely protected from another terrorist attack. But I think the key here is, and what's at stake, is that the 9/11 Commission put out a bipartisan report this summer, saying that the nation was in desperate need of a quarterback, if you will. Somebody who could take charge of all 15 spy agencies and finally be responsible. Take charge. We now will have that with the director of National Intelligence.
And what the supporters of this deal are saying is that now that that quarterback is in place they think there's at least somebody who can finally take charge. And that's better than nothing -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Yes, maybe they can run with the ball, in other words. Ed Henry, we thank you for that report and bringing us up to date on that.
By the way, one other piece of business from Congress, New York City police and firefighters who gave their lives on 9/11 are going to be remembered with some special medals.
The House has given approval to the measure as part of a spending bill. and the medals are going to be awarded to family members next year on the fourth anniversary of 9/11. Wanted to pass that along -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Serious story out of Chicago this morning. Firefighters there have finished their floor-by-floor search of the high rise where a fire broke out last night. More than three-dozen people were taken to the hospital. Most of them firefighters.
Our Jonathan Freed has been covering this drama overnight, and he joins us with the latest.
Jonathan, good morning.
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. I can say that the mood here in Chicago among the firefighters is definitely one of relief. To quote their spokesperson just a few hours ago, Larry Langford, he is saying and I quote, "Everything worked just the way they were hoping that it would."
Among other things, Daryn, that means that the fire bills that were conducted with this building, the LaSalle Bank Building right here in Chicago's loop, right in the center of the financial district, that those fire drills paid off because people reacted the way that they were trained to and instructed to, and expected to. Which is a big help to firefighters. There was a big and immediate response. A full one-third of the city's firefighting equipment and personnel responded to this five-alarm fire last night, which is as big as it gets.
Now, one of the reasons, Daryn, that it took 5 1/2 hours to put this fire out -- it went out at around about half past midnight, Chicago time here Central Time, is that the -- this is an old building, it's an old art deco building built in 1934, and that the flooring is maple. Now, that's a very hard wood. And the fire department says that when something like that ignites it just takes awhile to put it out.
Twenty-two firefighters were injured, some of them seriously. But none are life threatening, the fire department spokesperson is pointing out this morning. And all of them are expected to be going home. Now, one of the people that was saved, one of the people that was rescued, a Sarah Nadlehoffer, spoke to CNN earlier today. And here's an account of what she went through on the 39-floor, 10 above where the fire was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH NADLEHOFFER, CHICAGO FIRE VICTIM: We were working late and the office started filling up with smoke. So my partners and I left the office and went to the nearest stairwell. And we went down one flight and it was very smoky. And it was -- it seemed to be worse in the stairwell, especially going, descending. So we exited the stairwell and we went back into our office. And I went straight to my phone and called 9/11.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FREED: Now, Daryn, I had a chance to talk to Sarah off camera afterwards and she expressed some very significant relief. And she is just anxious to get on with her life, and to keep hugging her family -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jonathan Freed from Chicago. Jonathan, thank you.
SANCHEZ: Here's another fire to tell you about. This has got a bit of a twist to it. The FBI is saying that ecoterrorism may be to blame for a string of fires in Maryland. We've got these pictures to show you. Forty-one homes damaged yesterday, as a series of fires just swept through an Indian Hills subdivision that was under construction at the time.
Now, investigators have determined that arson was to blame in at least four of these fires. Construction of the housing development was opposed by activists who claim that construction would damage the wetlands area.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
W. FARON, TAYLOR, DEPUTY STATE FIRE MARSHAL: Our list of suspects, we have not gotten to that point of investigation of developing a list of suspects. We're still in the forensic phase of the investigation now, which will continue the origin and cause of each of the numerous dwellings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: To try and find out why it happened, and who did it. Also damage from the fire is estimated at $10 million.
KAGAN: On our "Security Watch" this morning, we have more on the safety of the nation's food supply. Since 9/11, there have been efforts to improve the overall safety net designed to safeguard America's food.
But CNN's Adaora Udoji explains how safe you are might depend on where you live.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For 20 years, Steve Kerr, a Homeland Security expert has worried about 8 million New Yorkers. Among those fears for the former city emergency management official, the impact of an attack on the food supply.
STEVE KERR, STRATEGIC EMERGENCY GROUP: I believe New York City has probably one of the best surveillance programs in the nation.
UDOJI: He's watched that program rapidly develop since the 9/11 attacks. Today, in a cubicle tucked away in a city building, the busy 911 system: ambulance calls, hospitals, pharmacies, are linked across five boroughs by an electronic monitoring system 24 hours a day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're looking at here is the graph for our fever syndrome.
UDOJI: Analysts from the city and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sift through 70 to 80,000 reports about sick New Yorkers, watching for spikes in infectious diseases or widespread contamination. Keeping an eye out for bioterrorism.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it was a really large event, we're fairly confident we'll see.
UDOJI: Watchdog groups, like the Nonpartisan Trust for America's Health say while New York city is on the right track, most states are not, despite billions of extra federal dollars the past three years.
DR. SHELLEY HEARNE, TRUST FOR AMERICA'S HEALTH: We found that less than half of the states, almost two-thirds of the states, really had very poor marks. It's a troubling sign.
UDOJI: Dr. Hearn says there's a long list of obstacles, like cuts to public health programs, and two-thirds of the country. And impending shortage of trained professionals. Battles over resources, and extensive red tape getting federal bioterrorism funding.
Still, she and Steve Kerr say half the battle is recognizing the problems. They are convinced the right federal and state officials are listening. They just hope the kinks are worked out before the systems are tested.
Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Still to come, more flu shots for the United States. Now that's the plan according to the Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
KAGAN: In fact, we're going to hear from him live. We're going to take a look at when and where you could get your hands on a vaccine.
SANCHEZ: Also, sleep it off. Reasons that you may want to nap if you're trying...
KAGAN: Now, that's the reasons I like to hear.
SANCHEZ: Especially -- you know, they make a combination of these two things here, especially if you're trying to lose weight.
KAGAN: Oh, sleep and get thin.
SANCHEZ: Right.
KAGAN: OK. But first though, making history in Afghanistan. A look at what the new president faces and how the U.S. plans to support him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: Hamid Karzai was sworn in today as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president. Mr. Karzai took the oath of office in a solemn ceremony in Kabul. He later thanked the U.S. for its support.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAMID KARZAI, PRESIDENT, AFGHANISTAN: The fact that Afghanistan is again a respected member of the international community is for the help that the United States of America gave us. Without that help, Afghanistan would be in the hands of terrorists, destroyed, poverty stricken, and without its children going to school or getting an education.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour joins me now from London with more on the inauguration.
Christiane my No. 1 question is, is Hamid Karzai president of anything more than the city of Kabul?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CHIEF INT'L. CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And the election showed that. You know, he won a mandate. He won the majority of the vote handily from a very high turnout of voters. So the answer to that is yes.
And certainly having been there during the elections, and having covered the elections extensively, we found that many, many people really looked to Hamid Karzai and said that they were giving him this vote because he had been able to bring Afghanistan respect again in the world. And they were very keen that he would be able to try to, you know, to keep that up so to speak.
But also asking for the world to help even more to put more money in, and to really speed up reconstruction, and the sort of the tangible kind of reconstruction and development that improves people's daily lives.
KAGAN: The challenges that Hamid Karzai faces now, warlords still do control much of the countryside. Also, opium as one of the No. 1 products coming out of that country.
AMANPOUR: Well, I think opium is a huge, huge problem. Huge areas of Afghanistan are given over to poppy crop -- poppy fields basically, because that crop pays a farmer 10 times what he could get for rice, wheat, or that kind of other kind of crop.
And not only that, the fact that is so rife, basically means that it is in danger of becoming what we would call a narco-mafia state, which can put so much money in the hands of these drug dealers, the warlords, the people whose interest is in continued instability and who are able to do that now with this poppy crop.
So that is a huge challenge not just for him but for the international community to come and do what they promised to do. And that would be to help eradicate that opium crop and to provide the kind of reconstruction and rebuilding to Afghanistan that can give people the opportunity to have the kinds of jobs, to be the kinds of farmers that they don't need to lean on this illegal economy.
But right now, the drug economy is a third of the economy there. That's a huge proportion of the economy. So a huge, huge challenge.
KAGAN: And after that what would you say Hamid Karzai's biggest challenge is?
AMANPOUR: The warlords, as you mentioned. That he does have to really get them in hand. And he has been -- he has made a start. He has been clipping their wings. He started with warlords in various provinces, and by the summer he had gotten rid of Ishmael Khan, the powerful man who ruled Herat, the Western Province of Afghanistan. And he's working on that as far as he told us in interviews.
But the big challenge is really to provide Afghan people with a proper quality of life. And that means using all his talents, and all his currency, if you like, with the international community to persuade the international community and the United States, of course, to keep the promises they made.
Right now the international community gives a fraction to Afghanistan of what it gives to Iraq. And Afghanistan needs a huge amount of help. It was a shattered, shattered country after two decades and more of war, after being in the hands of the medieval mullahs, the Taliban and Usama bin Laden for so many years. It needs a lot of help.
And even though there's so much positive, like girls can go back to school, which they couldn't do before, women are in the workplace, which they couldn't do under the Taliban, even a woman ran for election back in October. She lost. But she ran. That's a huge thing.
But still, these kinds of success stories are sadly the exception. Women's schools are still being threatened in some of the lawless provinces, where the Taliban has not been defeated in the south. Teachers are being threatened. Women are still being forced to undergo forced marriages. There's a lot of tradition and culture that still rules. A lot of that will take generations.
But a lot of it needs huge investment in education, and in an infrastructure to provide a proper standard of living and proper job opportunities for the people who seek so much, and who put so much faith in America and in the West.
KAGAN: And you have seen it for yourself on your many, many trips there. Christiane Amanpour, thank you.
Christiane will be back with another look at Afghanistan on CNN's "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Much has changed, as Christiane was just telling us, for Afghan women since the fall of the Taliban. But women have not shared in many of the advances. You can watch Christiane's report tonight, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
We will be back after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Well would somebody who has a vineyard be allowed to literally just sell their wine to people, without having to go through complicated system? The U.S. Supreme Court today is hearing a Prohibition-era law that literally forbids that. It forbids out-of- state shipments of wine. Why? Because the Internet age. Also with age-old concerns of underage drinking, turf battles. And just in some places, plain old sour grapes.
CNN's Alina Cho explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Connie and Gale Rapp came to Millbrook Vineyards in New York's Hudson Valley to take in the scenery, take a tour, see how wine is made and taste it.
GALE RAPP, MILLBROOK VISITOR: Excellent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Isn't it?
CHO: What they didn't know is once they go home to California, they won't be able to go to Millbrook's Web site and buy the wine.
(on camera): Does that surprise you?
RAPP: Yes, that is -- that's strange. Didn't know that.
CHO: Laws dating back to Prohibition make it illegal for vineyards in about half the states to ship their products directly to consumers across state lines.
(on camera): Because wineries, like Millbrook, can't ship their wine out of state, they have to rely on distributors who take a big cut of their profits. If the laws were to change, wineries in two- dozen states, including New York, could eliminate the distributor and pass along the savings to the customer.
(voice-over): Just ask Millbrook's co-founder David Bova.
DAVID BOVA, MILLBROOK VINEYARDS: The distributor marks it up and sells it to the restaurant, or the liquor store or wine store, then the wine store marks it up again to the consumer. If we had direct shipping it would allow me, honestly, to lower my prices.
See, taste that acid a little bit? That's still not quite ripe.
CHO: Bova says allowing vineyards to ship directly to customers out of state would increase sales at Millbrook by 50 percent. Critics say allowing wineries to do so would only encourage minors, who could then try to buy wine on the Internet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to have unaccountable, unregulated sales of alcohol, and we don't think that's in the public's interest.
CHO: The U.S. Supreme Court will consider the case on Tuesday. Wine experts say a change in the laws could make U.S. wine production more competitive with Europe.
DAVID SLOANE, PRESIDENT, WINE AMERICA: We are on the cusp of really creating a homespun wine culture in the United States.
CHO: Robert Limbo drove two hours from Connecticut to get to Millbrook.
ROBERT LIMBO, MILLBROOK VISITOR: I think it would be convenient to, of course, in midwinter to have them shipped.
CHO: Until then Limbo says he'll take the trip, enjoy the wine where it's made.
Alina Cho, CNN, Millbrook, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: So have you gotten a flu shot?
SANCHEZ: I have not this year.
KAGAN: You have all those children at home. Aren't you supposed to get one?
SANCHEZ: I'm leaving it for the elderly and the needy. Doing my part in volunteering.
KAGAN: No, you're not, old or needy.
OK. Well in case you're thinking about it, are you out there. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson says a few million more might be available. We're standing by for his live news conference.
KAGAN: We're going to have it for you.
Also, a traditional phrase that's being replaced with "Happy Holidays" and "Seasons Greetings." Is that acceptable? We'll tell you what it is. Still to come, it's one man's efforts to save Merry Christmas.
KAGAN: And what's the square root of 36? Quick. Quick.
SANCHEZ: Six.
KAGAN: Very good.
SANCHEZ: Hey, I got it right.
KAGAN: That's good. American students might need to work on their math skills. How do they rank against students in other countries? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired December 7, 2004 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR: You know what we're going to do? We're going to be focusing today on how all of us living in this country can protect ourselves from the threat of terrorism. And ironically enough we do this on a very special day.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR: That we do.
SANCHEZ: Pearl Harbor.
KAGAN: Pearl Harbor Day, December 7.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
KAGAN: On a happier note, first night of Hanukkah, as well.
SANCHEZ: That's right.
KAGAN: We're covering it all. We have that. Let's get started with the headlines and we take a look at what's happening right now.
President Bush is on his way to Camp Pendleton Marine Base near San Diego. There he'll deliver his thanks for the sacrifices being made in Iraq. Camp Pendleton has one of the highest casualty rates of any U.S. military facility sending troops to Iraq.
Earlier today, Hamid Karzai was formally sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president. Tight security enveloped the capital of the inauguration, in which the U.S. ally vowed to put, quote, "The dark past behind him." Among those attending: Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, two architects of the war that ousted the Taliban.
A one-time deserter from the U.S. Army arrived this morning on a remote Japanese island to begin what he calls the last chapter of his life. Charles Robert Jenkins was held by North Korea for nearly 40 years, after walking across the DMZ to avoid fighting in Vietnam. He thanked the U.S. government for sentencing him to only 30 days, which he served at a military base in Japan.
Good news is on the way, along with more flu vaccine. At the bottom of the hour, federal health officials plan to announce that up to 5 million more doses will be made available through Canada and Germany. We'll have live coverage of the news conference with Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. That is scheduled for the bottom of this hour. And a good Tuesday morning to you. It is one minute past 10:00 a.m. here in Atlanta. I'm Daryn Kagan.
SANCHEZ: And I'm Rick Sanchez.
And the logjam in Congress seemingly has been removed. Here we go with the big story. The way has been cleared it appears for congressional votes today and tomorrow, possibly, on intelligence reform. That's that so-called 9/11 reform package that we've been telling you so much about. It's been stuck. Stuck no more, though.
CNN's Ed Henry is on Capitol Hill to tell us how the legislative roadblock was broken.
So, everybody happy with this thing now, Ed?
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not quite, Rick. You're right that this is the biggest overhaul of the intelligence committee in over 40 years. Any time you propose such radical change you're going to have roadblocks. How is it broken? The bottom line is that Republican leaders up here are talking about the fact that they had a little family feud. They had two holdouts, Congressman Duncan Hunter and Congressman James Sensenbrenner.
And what Republican leaders are whispering about is they were telling the White House privately that if they just dealt with Duncan Hunter and appeased him on his concerns about the chain of command, they could let Jim Sensenbrenner's concerns slide until next year. And that's how they got a deal.
Duncan Hunter was concerned that this new director of National Intelligence would disrupt the chain of command for the military. Maybe put troops in harm's way, and also take a little too much power away from the Pentagon. So essentially what they did is they had Vice President Cheney working the phones, burning up the phone lines to Capitol Hill all day yesterday.
And they essentially tweaked four key words, which were, that the National Intelligence director would, quote, "respect and not abrogate." As in not abrogate the power of the defense secretary or other department heads. That sealed the deal with Duncan Hunter.
And the lead Senate negotiator, Susan Collins is telling CNN that that was just the right balance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: The National Intelligence director is a powerful position who will, for the first time, have budgetary control over all of the intelligence agencies. The difference is we made clear that that control does not diminish the chain of command to end the Pentagon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: The one person who is not happy about this deal is Congressman James Sensenbrenner. He wanted to add some tough immigration provisions to this legislation. But he is now going to have to wait until next year to do that. Have a separate vote on his measures. He was on CNN this morning, as well, and he told "AMERICAN MORNING" that while he's not happy, he knows that this deal is going through.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), WISCONSIN: I think the compromise is incomplete. But they do have the signatures to bring the bill to the floor and it will pass. So the fight now is to make sure that we get a vote early next year on driver's license and asylum reform, in order to complete the job.
I think Congress' job is to prevent a terrorist attack from happening, rather than managing the consequences of it. And good intelligence is useless without good homeland security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now other lawmakers are saying this was the best possible deal that they could get at this point. They wanted to at least get part of the job done this year. Then they can come back next year and try to finish it. It's looking like the House will pass the bill today. The Senate will pass it as early as Wednesday -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: So, Ed, all the political stuff aside, everybody come together and finally getting what they want out of this thing. The American people want to know is this going to make them in the end safer. In other words, is it going to eliminate all those problems we heard about in the past? You know, the agent in Phoenix who doesn't talk to the agent in Minnesota, and the copy that isn't transcribed to CIA who's not talking to the FBI. Is that the aim of this thing?
HENRY: Nobody is saying this will be a panacea. Clearly the nation cannot be completely protected from another terrorist attack. But I think the key here is, and what's at stake, is that the 9/11 Commission put out a bipartisan report this summer, saying that the nation was in desperate need of a quarterback, if you will. Somebody who could take charge of all 15 spy agencies and finally be responsible. Take charge. We now will have that with the director of National Intelligence.
And what the supporters of this deal are saying is that now that that quarterback is in place they think there's at least somebody who can finally take charge. And that's better than nothing -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Yes, maybe they can run with the ball, in other words. Ed Henry, we thank you for that report and bringing us up to date on that.
By the way, one other piece of business from Congress, New York City police and firefighters who gave their lives on 9/11 are going to be remembered with some special medals.
The House has given approval to the measure as part of a spending bill. and the medals are going to be awarded to family members next year on the fourth anniversary of 9/11. Wanted to pass that along -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Serious story out of Chicago this morning. Firefighters there have finished their floor-by-floor search of the high rise where a fire broke out last night. More than three-dozen people were taken to the hospital. Most of them firefighters.
Our Jonathan Freed has been covering this drama overnight, and he joins us with the latest.
Jonathan, good morning.
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. I can say that the mood here in Chicago among the firefighters is definitely one of relief. To quote their spokesperson just a few hours ago, Larry Langford, he is saying and I quote, "Everything worked just the way they were hoping that it would."
Among other things, Daryn, that means that the fire bills that were conducted with this building, the LaSalle Bank Building right here in Chicago's loop, right in the center of the financial district, that those fire drills paid off because people reacted the way that they were trained to and instructed to, and expected to. Which is a big help to firefighters. There was a big and immediate response. A full one-third of the city's firefighting equipment and personnel responded to this five-alarm fire last night, which is as big as it gets.
Now, one of the reasons, Daryn, that it took 5 1/2 hours to put this fire out -- it went out at around about half past midnight, Chicago time here Central Time, is that the -- this is an old building, it's an old art deco building built in 1934, and that the flooring is maple. Now, that's a very hard wood. And the fire department says that when something like that ignites it just takes awhile to put it out.
Twenty-two firefighters were injured, some of them seriously. But none are life threatening, the fire department spokesperson is pointing out this morning. And all of them are expected to be going home. Now, one of the people that was saved, one of the people that was rescued, a Sarah Nadlehoffer, spoke to CNN earlier today. And here's an account of what she went through on the 39-floor, 10 above where the fire was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH NADLEHOFFER, CHICAGO FIRE VICTIM: We were working late and the office started filling up with smoke. So my partners and I left the office and went to the nearest stairwell. And we went down one flight and it was very smoky. And it was -- it seemed to be worse in the stairwell, especially going, descending. So we exited the stairwell and we went back into our office. And I went straight to my phone and called 9/11.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FREED: Now, Daryn, I had a chance to talk to Sarah off camera afterwards and she expressed some very significant relief. And she is just anxious to get on with her life, and to keep hugging her family -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jonathan Freed from Chicago. Jonathan, thank you.
SANCHEZ: Here's another fire to tell you about. This has got a bit of a twist to it. The FBI is saying that ecoterrorism may be to blame for a string of fires in Maryland. We've got these pictures to show you. Forty-one homes damaged yesterday, as a series of fires just swept through an Indian Hills subdivision that was under construction at the time.
Now, investigators have determined that arson was to blame in at least four of these fires. Construction of the housing development was opposed by activists who claim that construction would damage the wetlands area.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
W. FARON, TAYLOR, DEPUTY STATE FIRE MARSHAL: Our list of suspects, we have not gotten to that point of investigation of developing a list of suspects. We're still in the forensic phase of the investigation now, which will continue the origin and cause of each of the numerous dwellings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: To try and find out why it happened, and who did it. Also damage from the fire is estimated at $10 million.
KAGAN: On our "Security Watch" this morning, we have more on the safety of the nation's food supply. Since 9/11, there have been efforts to improve the overall safety net designed to safeguard America's food.
But CNN's Adaora Udoji explains how safe you are might depend on where you live.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For 20 years, Steve Kerr, a Homeland Security expert has worried about 8 million New Yorkers. Among those fears for the former city emergency management official, the impact of an attack on the food supply.
STEVE KERR, STRATEGIC EMERGENCY GROUP: I believe New York City has probably one of the best surveillance programs in the nation.
UDOJI: He's watched that program rapidly develop since the 9/11 attacks. Today, in a cubicle tucked away in a city building, the busy 911 system: ambulance calls, hospitals, pharmacies, are linked across five boroughs by an electronic monitoring system 24 hours a day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're looking at here is the graph for our fever syndrome.
UDOJI: Analysts from the city and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sift through 70 to 80,000 reports about sick New Yorkers, watching for spikes in infectious diseases or widespread contamination. Keeping an eye out for bioterrorism.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it was a really large event, we're fairly confident we'll see.
UDOJI: Watchdog groups, like the Nonpartisan Trust for America's Health say while New York city is on the right track, most states are not, despite billions of extra federal dollars the past three years.
DR. SHELLEY HEARNE, TRUST FOR AMERICA'S HEALTH: We found that less than half of the states, almost two-thirds of the states, really had very poor marks. It's a troubling sign.
UDOJI: Dr. Hearn says there's a long list of obstacles, like cuts to public health programs, and two-thirds of the country. And impending shortage of trained professionals. Battles over resources, and extensive red tape getting federal bioterrorism funding.
Still, she and Steve Kerr say half the battle is recognizing the problems. They are convinced the right federal and state officials are listening. They just hope the kinks are worked out before the systems are tested.
Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Still to come, more flu shots for the United States. Now that's the plan according to the Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
KAGAN: In fact, we're going to hear from him live. We're going to take a look at when and where you could get your hands on a vaccine.
SANCHEZ: Also, sleep it off. Reasons that you may want to nap if you're trying...
KAGAN: Now, that's the reasons I like to hear.
SANCHEZ: Especially -- you know, they make a combination of these two things here, especially if you're trying to lose weight.
KAGAN: Oh, sleep and get thin.
SANCHEZ: Right.
KAGAN: OK. But first though, making history in Afghanistan. A look at what the new president faces and how the U.S. plans to support him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: Hamid Karzai was sworn in today as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president. Mr. Karzai took the oath of office in a solemn ceremony in Kabul. He later thanked the U.S. for its support.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAMID KARZAI, PRESIDENT, AFGHANISTAN: The fact that Afghanistan is again a respected member of the international community is for the help that the United States of America gave us. Without that help, Afghanistan would be in the hands of terrorists, destroyed, poverty stricken, and without its children going to school or getting an education.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour joins me now from London with more on the inauguration.
Christiane my No. 1 question is, is Hamid Karzai president of anything more than the city of Kabul?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CHIEF INT'L. CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And the election showed that. You know, he won a mandate. He won the majority of the vote handily from a very high turnout of voters. So the answer to that is yes.
And certainly having been there during the elections, and having covered the elections extensively, we found that many, many people really looked to Hamid Karzai and said that they were giving him this vote because he had been able to bring Afghanistan respect again in the world. And they were very keen that he would be able to try to, you know, to keep that up so to speak.
But also asking for the world to help even more to put more money in, and to really speed up reconstruction, and the sort of the tangible kind of reconstruction and development that improves people's daily lives.
KAGAN: The challenges that Hamid Karzai faces now, warlords still do control much of the countryside. Also, opium as one of the No. 1 products coming out of that country.
AMANPOUR: Well, I think opium is a huge, huge problem. Huge areas of Afghanistan are given over to poppy crop -- poppy fields basically, because that crop pays a farmer 10 times what he could get for rice, wheat, or that kind of other kind of crop.
And not only that, the fact that is so rife, basically means that it is in danger of becoming what we would call a narco-mafia state, which can put so much money in the hands of these drug dealers, the warlords, the people whose interest is in continued instability and who are able to do that now with this poppy crop.
So that is a huge challenge not just for him but for the international community to come and do what they promised to do. And that would be to help eradicate that opium crop and to provide the kind of reconstruction and rebuilding to Afghanistan that can give people the opportunity to have the kinds of jobs, to be the kinds of farmers that they don't need to lean on this illegal economy.
But right now, the drug economy is a third of the economy there. That's a huge proportion of the economy. So a huge, huge challenge.
KAGAN: And after that what would you say Hamid Karzai's biggest challenge is?
AMANPOUR: The warlords, as you mentioned. That he does have to really get them in hand. And he has been -- he has made a start. He has been clipping their wings. He started with warlords in various provinces, and by the summer he had gotten rid of Ishmael Khan, the powerful man who ruled Herat, the Western Province of Afghanistan. And he's working on that as far as he told us in interviews.
But the big challenge is really to provide Afghan people with a proper quality of life. And that means using all his talents, and all his currency, if you like, with the international community to persuade the international community and the United States, of course, to keep the promises they made.
Right now the international community gives a fraction to Afghanistan of what it gives to Iraq. And Afghanistan needs a huge amount of help. It was a shattered, shattered country after two decades and more of war, after being in the hands of the medieval mullahs, the Taliban and Usama bin Laden for so many years. It needs a lot of help.
And even though there's so much positive, like girls can go back to school, which they couldn't do before, women are in the workplace, which they couldn't do under the Taliban, even a woman ran for election back in October. She lost. But she ran. That's a huge thing.
But still, these kinds of success stories are sadly the exception. Women's schools are still being threatened in some of the lawless provinces, where the Taliban has not been defeated in the south. Teachers are being threatened. Women are still being forced to undergo forced marriages. There's a lot of tradition and culture that still rules. A lot of that will take generations.
But a lot of it needs huge investment in education, and in an infrastructure to provide a proper standard of living and proper job opportunities for the people who seek so much, and who put so much faith in America and in the West.
KAGAN: And you have seen it for yourself on your many, many trips there. Christiane Amanpour, thank you.
Christiane will be back with another look at Afghanistan on CNN's "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Much has changed, as Christiane was just telling us, for Afghan women since the fall of the Taliban. But women have not shared in many of the advances. You can watch Christiane's report tonight, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
We will be back after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Well would somebody who has a vineyard be allowed to literally just sell their wine to people, without having to go through complicated system? The U.S. Supreme Court today is hearing a Prohibition-era law that literally forbids that. It forbids out-of- state shipments of wine. Why? Because the Internet age. Also with age-old concerns of underage drinking, turf battles. And just in some places, plain old sour grapes.
CNN's Alina Cho explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Connie and Gale Rapp came to Millbrook Vineyards in New York's Hudson Valley to take in the scenery, take a tour, see how wine is made and taste it.
GALE RAPP, MILLBROOK VISITOR: Excellent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Isn't it?
CHO: What they didn't know is once they go home to California, they won't be able to go to Millbrook's Web site and buy the wine.
(on camera): Does that surprise you?
RAPP: Yes, that is -- that's strange. Didn't know that.
CHO: Laws dating back to Prohibition make it illegal for vineyards in about half the states to ship their products directly to consumers across state lines.
(on camera): Because wineries, like Millbrook, can't ship their wine out of state, they have to rely on distributors who take a big cut of their profits. If the laws were to change, wineries in two- dozen states, including New York, could eliminate the distributor and pass along the savings to the customer.
(voice-over): Just ask Millbrook's co-founder David Bova.
DAVID BOVA, MILLBROOK VINEYARDS: The distributor marks it up and sells it to the restaurant, or the liquor store or wine store, then the wine store marks it up again to the consumer. If we had direct shipping it would allow me, honestly, to lower my prices.
See, taste that acid a little bit? That's still not quite ripe.
CHO: Bova says allowing vineyards to ship directly to customers out of state would increase sales at Millbrook by 50 percent. Critics say allowing wineries to do so would only encourage minors, who could then try to buy wine on the Internet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to have unaccountable, unregulated sales of alcohol, and we don't think that's in the public's interest.
CHO: The U.S. Supreme Court will consider the case on Tuesday. Wine experts say a change in the laws could make U.S. wine production more competitive with Europe.
DAVID SLOANE, PRESIDENT, WINE AMERICA: We are on the cusp of really creating a homespun wine culture in the United States.
CHO: Robert Limbo drove two hours from Connecticut to get to Millbrook.
ROBERT LIMBO, MILLBROOK VISITOR: I think it would be convenient to, of course, in midwinter to have them shipped.
CHO: Until then Limbo says he'll take the trip, enjoy the wine where it's made.
Alina Cho, CNN, Millbrook, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: So have you gotten a flu shot?
SANCHEZ: I have not this year.
KAGAN: You have all those children at home. Aren't you supposed to get one?
SANCHEZ: I'm leaving it for the elderly and the needy. Doing my part in volunteering.
KAGAN: No, you're not, old or needy.
OK. Well in case you're thinking about it, are you out there. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson says a few million more might be available. We're standing by for his live news conference.
KAGAN: We're going to have it for you.
Also, a traditional phrase that's being replaced with "Happy Holidays" and "Seasons Greetings." Is that acceptable? We'll tell you what it is. Still to come, it's one man's efforts to save Merry Christmas.
KAGAN: And what's the square root of 36? Quick. Quick.
SANCHEZ: Six.
KAGAN: Very good.
SANCHEZ: Hey, I got it right.
KAGAN: That's good. American students might need to work on their math skills. How do they rank against students in other countries? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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