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American Morning
Defending Blackwater; Airport Death Mystery; Airport Death; Britney's Custody Battle
Aired October 02, 2007 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Judgment day. A new report on Blackwater security contractors in Iraq. Now the FBI is involved and Blackwater's chairman takes questions from Congress.
Bull run. Markets overseas take off on the Dow's record breaking surge. Is the worst over in the housing and credit crisis?
Plus, flight plan. Who has the answer to crowded skies and record delays? We're live with America's transportation secretary on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And welcome. Thanks so much for being with us. It's Tuesday, October 2nd. And I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts.
We begin this morning with fresh charges in a vigorous defense of Blackwater security's work in Iraq. A new congressional report shows that Blackwater's involvement in 195 so-called escalation of force incidents in Iraq and the report charges that Blackwater would pay off victim's families on occasion, including one case where a drunk contractor, accused of killing the Iraqi vice president's security guard was allowed to leave the country without facing charges.
Blackwater's chairman Erik Prince will defend his company in front of Congress today. He will also answers questions from members of Congress about Blackwater's involvement in the shooting deaths of at least 11 Iraqis last month that prompted this new security of the security contractors. CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now live from the Pentagon.
Barbara, you have seen Prince's prepared testimony. How far is he prepared to go to defend Blackwater?
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, Erik Prince will go to the wall later this morning when he appears before the House Government Oversight Committee. His testimony indicates he will tell them that to the best of the company's knowledge, based on everything that they know at this time, their team acted appropriately when they fired September 16th in that square in Baghdad.
Of course, there is great controversy. The Iraqis tell quite a different story. The FBI now involved, along with the State Department, in investigating that entire matter. Here is part of what he will say. He will say, "there has been a rush to judgment based on inaccurate information and many public reports have wrongly pronounced Blackwater's guilt for the deaths of varying numbers of civilians. Congress should not accept these allegations as truth until it has the facts."
But, of course, the facts are still to be determined. There are widely varying accounts of what did happen.
The business of security contractors in Iraq, John, as you well know, is a very secretive business. This will be a very remarkable hearing. It will unveil some of those secrets in public for the first time.
ROBERTS: Barbara, Mr. Prince is a former Navy SEAL. Blackwater employs a lot of former Navy SEALs. Also former special forces, rangers, people who have retired from the military. You would think that these would be people who would come into the job with a certain level of discipline. But that would seem to cut against this new report from Congress that shows them involved in some 195 so-called escalation of force incidents. According to this report, more than 160 of those were initiated without them first coming under fire.
STARR: Well, it remains to be seen. Blackwater, of course, may well tell Congress that the reason for some of that is that they have been involved in some of the most dangerous work. They continually do missions, convoys, escorting key personnel, key State Department personnel into the so-called red zone, the areas in Baghdad that are not safe, that are continuously dangerous. They say they continue to say that they fire in self-defense and that they fire only when they have reason to. But that is the crux of the matter, John, will they be able to prove that today?
ROBERTS: Going to be a big day on Capitol Hill today.
Barbara, we'll get back to you a little bit later on as we learn more about what's going to unfold today.
Blackwater chief Erik Prince, again, goes before the House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. You can watch live coverage of it right here on CNN. Or if you're away from your television set, on cnn.com. Just follow the links to the live event.
Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, a history-making summit on the Korean peninsula. Leaders of North and South Korea meeting today for just the second time since the Korean peninsula was divided after World War II. Thousands of cheering North Korean waved pink paper flowers. The also had a military honor guard with rifles. The three-day summit in Pyongyang coincides with six-party talks in Beijing about dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
To Afghanistan now, where a bus blown to pieces by a suicide bomber in Kabul. At least 10 people, including several children, were killed. Police say the blast blew out the sides and the roof. It was the second suicide attack in Kabul in less than a week.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in Iraq this morning. He says as many as 1,000 British troops could be withdrawn by year's end. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said that Iraq will take over security from British troops in Basra within two months. This is Gordon Brown's first visit to Iraq since becoming prime minister back in June.
ROBERTS: Four minutes after the hour now.
More criticism this morning for presidential hopeful John McCain over comments he made to a religious website over the weekend. Jewish groups are now slamming McCain for saying that he would prefer a Christian president over someone of a different faith and for calling the United States a Christian nation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would probably have to say, yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation. But I say that, again, in the broadest sense. That the lady that holds her lamp beside the golden door doesn't say, I only welcome Christians.
LARRY SABATO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: There are certain triggers in American politics, and this is one of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: One colleague is coming to McCain's defense, though. Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who is an orthodox jew, said that McCain is "fair to all Americans regardless of their faith." McCain says he didn't mean to imply that members of one religious faith have a greater claim to American citizenship over another.
Well traditional holidays are being renamed at four elementary schools in Illinois. Halloween and Christmas celebrations will now be called fall festival and winter festival. This is bound to provoke a lot of discussion today. The superintendent says the change comes after a Muslim parent was told not to put up Ramadan decorations. He also went on to say that public schools are supposed to remain neutral. The parents say Arab children are being allowed to pray during lunchtime during Ramadan and that's bringing religion into a public school.
The University of Memphis football team will play its scheduled game tonight, two days after a member of the team was shot and killed on campus. Police say Taylor Bradford was found slumped over the wheel of his vehicle about three hours after football practice. Investigators also say they found $7,000 in the car. Bradford apparently was at a casino over the weekend, but police they say they do not think that that was a motive for the shooting. A moment of silence is planned before tonight's game to honor Bradford. The coach said the team voted unanimously to play tonight.
Kiran. CHETRY: Well, all but one of the pit bulls seized from Michael Vick's property in Virginia can be saved. The ASPCA says that 48 of the 49 dogs have "placement potential," and that includes eventually adoption and law enforcement training. They recommend that just one of the dogs be euthanized because of its aggression toward humans. Vick and three other co-defendants will be arraigned tomorrow in Virginia on local dogfighting charges.
Well, Britney Spears has to give up custody of her two sons, at least for now, to her ex-husband Kevin Federline. A judge made the custody change. No reasons were given. These pictures of Spears, though, and her children were obtained by tmz.com. Last Friday Spears was told by this judge not to drive her children unless she had a valid California driver's license. Well Spears' former bodyguard, who told the judge of her drug use, also spoke with Larry King last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BARRETTO, BRITNEY SPEARS' FORMER BODYGUARD: I think that I was shocked, saddened. It's a very sad issue all the way around. I'm happy that the kids will have some stability in their future here. So I'm mixed with emotions at this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Last month a judge ordered Spears to undergo random drug testing twice a week and to meet with a parenting coach and to attend a class with Federline called Parenting Without Conflict. According to "The New York Post," she did not do any of those things.
Also, a woman in Queens, New York, is taking Apple to court over its price cut of the i-Phone. She's accusing the company of price discrimination, saying they treated people who bought the 8 gig phone for nearly $600 better than people like her who bought the smaller phone for $500. Well, those who bought the more expensive phone were offered $100 in store credit, half of the price cut. The cheaper phone was then discontinued and no compensation offered to people who bought it. She is seeking $1 million in damages.
John.
ROBERTS: Eight minutes after the hour now. You can hear that school bus getting warmed up. Time to check in with our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents for other stories new that we're following for you this morning.
New information about the woman who died in police custody at the Phoenix Airport. The family of Carol Anne Gotbaum has got an attorney and he is speaking out and speaking out loudly. Our Alina Cho at the national update desk with that.
Good morning, Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning to you, John.
And one detail out since yesterday is that Carol Anne Gotbaum, according to her family, was on her way to an alcohol treatment center when she missed her flight and she was arrested. Now that may provide some insight into her state of mind at the time. Her family says they believe the 45-year-old mother of three was manhandled and mistreated by police, and they've hired a well-known local attorney to watch the investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL MANNING, GOTBAUM FAMILY ATTORNEY: I know that at least some people in the Phoenix PD are spinning out the story that she was intoxicated. But whether she was intoxicated or not doesn't make any difference. In fact, if she was intoxicated, all the more reason never to handcuff her and shackle her and never leave her alone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Now it will likely be one to three weeks before we know definitively whether there was any alcohol in Gotbaum's system. An autopsy that was supposed to happen yesterday is now scheduled for today. It was delayed because Gotbaum's family apparently wanted an independent forensic pathologist there.
A little background now on the story if you have not been following it. Carol Anne Gotbaum was arrested for disorderly conduct on Friday afternoon at Phoenix Airport. According to witnesses, she was yelling and screaming and running around the terminal after she missed her flight to Tucson. She apparently got to the gate too late.
Police took her into custody, handcuffed her from behind, and now we're learning they restrained her even further by using shackles to secure her to a bench. Now police believe Gotbaum accidentally strangled herself inside a holding room where she was left alone as she tried to escape from the handcuffs. In a statement police said, "the chain (or shackle) was not wrapped around her neck. It was pulled against the front of her neck area."
Phoenix police have opened an internal investigation. That is standard in these types of situations. They also would not comment on whether Gotbaum was drunk at the time of her arrest. But one police sergeant told CNN, she was scaring people at the airport.
So, John, a few more details coming out. Still a lot of questions, including this one. Just how long was Gotbaum left alone in that holding room? Depending on reports that you read, it could be anywhere from five minutes to a half an hour.
ROBERTS: Yes, and another question. If she was as distraught as the police say she was, why was she left alone for even a minute?
Alina Cho, thanks very much for that update on the Gotbaum case. We'll get back to you a little bit later on this morning.
Stocks soaring around the globe this morning with Hong Kong closing a whopping 4 percent higher. That after the Dow soars to an all-time record on Monday. Our Ali Velshi couldn't be here. He's out celebrating this morning. So Stephanie Elam in this morning at our business update desk.
Good morning, Steph.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John. I'm celebrating as well. This is good news here.
The new number we're looking at is 14,087. That's the new all- time record for the Dow. We saw a nice gain of 1.3 percent. More than that, actually, on the Dow. The last record, in case you're keeping track, it was set on July 19th. That was 14,000.41. So we're officially into 14,000 this time.
Year-to-date, just in case you're wondering too about that, the Dow is actually up 13 percent. As for the Nasdaq, it was up 1.5 percent. It also hit a nice record for 2007. The last time it saw these levels was in February of 2001. The S&P also up 1 1/3 percent on the day yesterday.
Now you may be wondering, how is this all happening right now? There's a few reasons here. Let's start off by taking a look at the banks.
First of all, you have Citigroup coming out and saying that they're going to take a third quarter hit for this. Probably about 60 percent of their earnings will be hit because of this. But they're saying this is a one-time thing and they'll be able to move on. So that's good news for them.
Also UBS saying it's going to take a hit also because of the sub prime issue and that is also affecting it. But in Hong Kong, the markets were surging because of the U.S. markets and that we see happening in Europe right now.
John.
ROBERTS: Looks like it's going to be another up day today. Stephanie Elam, thanks very much.
Record drought and drastic measures in the south. Our Rob Marciano is watching extreme weather from Lake Allatoona in Georgia today.
And Florida finally getting some relief from its years long drought, but other areas of the south are still suffering.
Rob.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: Well, Britney Spears loses custody of her two sons. Will she be able to get them back? We're going to talk more about that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Seventeen minutes after the hour. Some of the most amazing shots of the morning in your "Quick Hits" now.
Smoke, fire and tempers flaring in Columbia. An angry mob through rocks at the police at the border with Venezuela over the government's decision to set up a toll at the crossing.
It's under construction but looking good for 100 years old. New York City's famous Plaza Hotel hit the century mark with a huge party that included fireworks. That's not the roof of the building on fire there. Also included a one ton cake. Right now the Plaza is closed down as crews convert it into multi-million dollar condos. No longer it will be one of New York's most famous hotels.
Modern art in the form of a hot pink heart. The giant, 9 foot tall, stainless steel hanging heart is on display at Sotheby's in New York. It's expected to go for as much as -- how much would you think? $20 million. That would break the auction record for a living artist when it goes on sale next month. Cheap at twice the price, huh, Kiran.
CHETRY: (INAUDIBLE). Cute.
Well, more on this shocking, mysterious death of a New York mother while in police custody at Phoenix Airport. Carol Gotbaum died while handcuffed in a holding cell after reportedly becoming enraged after she missed her flight. Well now her family's attorney is speaking out. Joining us this morning is AMERICAN MORNING legal contributor Sunny Hostin.
Sunny, good to see you this morning.
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.
CHETRY: Well, it came out that Gotbaum was actually on her way to alcohol rehabilitation in Tuscan when this incident happened. Her family attorney, Michael Manning, seems to be blaming police actually for her death. So let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL C. MANNING, GOTBAUM FAMILY ATTORNEY: First of all, it's standard operating procedure with any police department that you don't handcuff and shackle somebody that is emotionally disturbed. You don't treat those people like a criminal. And if you do make that mistake, you never leave them alone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So there seem to be some different accounts on exactly how she was able to become strangled while in restraints. How are they going to get to the bottom of that?
HOSTIN: You know, the police are going to conduct an investigation. I'm sure the family is also going to hire an investigator and the family is going to conduct an investigation.
But they may be facing, you know, a civil lawsuit on wrongful death. We do see these kinds of cases. And by all accounts, she may have been drinking. She was on her way to alcohol rehab. And the question is going to be, did they follow the standard procedures?
And by the accounts today, people are saying that they left her in there only 10 minutes and the proper police procedure was 15 minutes. And so I think it's still up in the air. But clearly an investigation is going to happen very, very soon.
CHETRY: The other interesting thing is the family wanted their own independent pathologist there for this autopsy to be conducted. That's happening today. Will more answers come out from that or could that leave it inconclusive as well?
HOSTIN: I think there are going to be more answers. We're going to find out whether or not she was taking drugs, whether or not she suffered from any sort of afflictions, was she drinking. That's going to give us a very good sense of what happened before and what happened during and what happened after.
CHETRY: Let's talk a little bit about the Britney Spears saga. The latest in the downward spiral that unfortunately is -- every moment is photographed by the paparazzi. The latest is that this judge, who's been handling the back and forth custody with Britney and her ex-husband, decided yesterday these kids are going, for now at least, to Kevin Federline. But it's very murky as to what this quote, unquote, last straw was.
HOSTIN: It really is. And if you look at the order, and I did, the judge has sealed the transcript. He hasn't really indicated what was the last straw. But we know that this was the same judge that ordered her to submit to random drug testing, random alcohol testing.
CHETRY: Parent counseling, as well as some sort of co-parenting, how to get along and not do conflict.
HOSTIN: Exactly.
CHETRY: But apparently, it's at least being reported, that she ignored all of that. Is that enough to have your kids taken away?
HOSTIN: Absolutely. Absolutely. When a judge orders you to do something, you must do it. And what he has done is said, you know, Kevin, your ex-husband, is going to get physical custody. Not legal custody. So she's still going to have the opportunity to weigh in on education and child care for her children and health issues, but they will not be physically with her. And so he must have found that to be in her home would be a problem for her children.
CHETRY: You know, we were just talking about it in the news room. I wonder how often this goes on or how many cases there are where there are people around somebody who worry about the health and well-being of their children, but because they're not superstars, it's just ignored.
HOSTIN: Well, yes. Unfortunately, you know, the spotlight is on her right now and she should have known that. Her lawyers must have advised her of that. The judge must have advised her of that. And she's under a microscope. But she knew that. And she messed up.
CHETRY: Yes. Well, it remains to be seen what the next step is. But, of course, everyone will be watching. That's her problem in the first place. Sunny Hostin, AMERICAN MORNING legal contributor, thanks for being with us.
HOSTIN: Thank you.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: Just now 22 minutes after the hour.
Tell me what you want, what you really, really want. It looks like Spice Girls tickets on the menu because Spice Girls mania tops your "Quick Hits." Tickets to their comeback concert in London sold out in -- what would you think? Thirty-eight minutes? Thirty-eight days? Thirty-eight seconds. More than million people registered to buy tickets. Two organizers added three more London shows. Scary, Sporty, Ginger, Posh and Baby will start their reunion tour December the 2nd in Vancouver.
CHETRY: You knew that by heart.
ROBERTS: Thirty-eight seconds.
CHETRY: Hey that (INAUDIBLE) the first time around?
ROBERTS: I don't think so. It's always better the second time around, isn't it?
Radiohead is letting fans decide how much their new album is worth. The band is putting Rainbows for pre-order on its website and the price is up to you. You can pay nothing at all and still download it or you can give them $100 if you wanted. A version with more songs will be available on CD for purchase in December.
Well, if you're traveling with kids, pack their remote control toys in your checked baggage. We'll tell you why these kids' toys are drawing security scrutiny. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: An apparent attempt to attack the U.S. embassy in Vienna topping your "Quick Hits" now. Police arrested a man who tried to enter the American embassy yesterday with a backpack packed with explosives. He ran when the bag triggered the metal detector. They caught him a short distance away. That bag was carrying nails and two hand grenades. The suspect also carrying Islamic literature. Police say he's a Bosnian native who now lives near Vienna.
And a wisecracking airline passenger now in some trouble with the law. Over the weekend, this man allegedly told a ticket agent at Boston's Logan Airport that he was a member of al Qaeda and planned to blow things up. He later told authorities, I'm just kidding. Well he's now charged with making a false communication of an explosive device. Clearly no one was laughing. A gas leak causes a house in Maine to blow up. The house was vacant. No one was hurt, but the house was destroyed. A neighbor reported smelling gas and workers from the utility company were searching for the leak when the house exploded.
ROBERTS: Luckily no one was hurt, though.
Twenty-seven minutes after the hour. A story coming up in our next half hour that you just can't miss. You know, a lot of people will be watching us at airports this morning, or some people will be at home getting ready to go to the airport. Maybe each and every one of them wondering, how long will my flight be delayed this time?
CHETRY: That's right. Because as we've been talking about, flight delays, air traffic at all-time highs. Problems with missing baggage. A lot of woes for people that are traveling and many people fed up. Well, we're going to speak to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. Are there any answers to our traveling headaches?
ROBERTS: Well, the government's got a plan, but is it enough, and would the airlines cooperate? We'll talk to Secretary Peters coming up.
That and more ahead when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Dawn just about to break in the city of Ft. Lauderdale, where it's going to be a typical Florida day today -- 87 and thunderstorms. As Rob was talking about, it's so dry over much of the Southeast that a little bit of rain there in Florida to help alleviate the drought even further would be great. You can see there's actually rain over Lake Okeechobee, and they need it there.
Welcome back to American morning. thanks for being with us. It's Tuesday, the 2nd of October. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us.
New this morning: a new security threat in airports that screeners are looking at. It's the new remote control toys in carry- on luggage. The Transportation Security Administration worried that one could be used to set off a bomb.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELLEN HOWE, TSA SPOKESWOMAN: There are some pieces of information that are credible specific pieces of information, but they are not tied to any specific plot or any specific time line.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, it's not a ban on remote control toys, but if you have one in your carry-on, it could mean that you face additional screening. The U.S. military says that Russian war planes were intercepted on at least seven occasions this summer while conducting exercises near Alaska. According to NORAD, Russian bombers staged exercises off some of Alaska's islands and other historic cold war outposts. All of them occurred beyond the 12-mile boundary that constitutes U.S. air space. It involved as many as six aircraft.
Four thousand monks arrested in Myanmar will be sent to prisons far away from Rangoon, that according to the BBC. Monks have been at the forefront of recent anti-government rallies that turned violent, leaving at least ten people dead. The United Nations is sending an envoy to Myanmar to meet with the country's new leader in an effort to end the current political crisis.
ROBERTS: Authorities in Northern California are investigating whether the dragging death of a black man was a hate crime. Two suspects, both of them Hispanic men, are now in custody. Police in Yuba City, California, say the man was beaten, robbed, and run over by a pickup truck and dragged underneath until he died. The suspects are being held on $1 million bond.
Flying in the face of a presidential veto threat, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a defense spending bill that includes a provision to protect homosexuals under federal hate crime laws. The bill, which sets Pentagon policy but does not provide funding, included authorization for $142 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No U.S. president has ever vetoed a defense authorization bill.
And two weeks after Moveon.org's "General Betray-us" ad, the Democrats are turning the tables on Rush Limbaugh. They say he made hateful and unpatriotic remarks about U.S. troops on his radio show last week when he said this:
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CALLER: They never talked to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come out of the blue and spout to the media.
LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.
CALLER: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HARRY REID (D) SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Rush Limbaugh took it upon himself to attack the courage and character of those fighting and dying for him and for all of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Senator Harry Reid has called on Limbaugh's boss, the chief executive of Clear Channel Communications, to denounce the remarks. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa then followed Reid, saying, Maybe he was just high on his drugs. Here's how Limbaugh responded:
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
LIMBAUGH: He's gotta be a nut. This is -- I cannot believe that they are actually going this far with this.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
Limbaugh insists that he was talking about one anti-war soldier who was actually convicted of lying about serving in Iraq and that they took his comment out of context.
Mishandling some of the most deadly and dangerous germs in the world: a new report says U.S. labs have had more than 100 accidents and missed shipments since 2003. They involve anthrax, bird flu, monkey pox, and plague at 44 labs in 24 states. No one died, and regulators said the public was never at risk.
Kiran?
CHETRY: The chairman of Blackwater, which is a private security firm in Iraq, will be defending his company at a congressional hearing today. Erik Prince will be answering questions about Blackwater's involvement in the shooting deaths of at least eight Iraqis last month.
There's also a new congressional report, detailing involvement by Blackwater in 195 so-called escalation of force incidents in Iraq. The report also charges that Blackwater would pay off victims' families, including one case where a drunk contractor, accused of killing the Iraqi vice president security guard, was allowed to leave the country without facing charges.
Joining us with more on the situation is Sabrina Tavernise, of the New York Times. She joins us live from Baghdad. Sabrina, thanks for being with us.
SABRINA TAVERNISE, NEW YOUR TIMES: Sure.
CHETRY: What is the word on the street as to whether Blackwater is an anomaly in this situation when they're detailing, at least according to this congressional report, 195 escalation of force incidents -- and of course, the one that got the most publicity of late was this incident back on September 16th. Is Blackwater an anomaly, when it comes to these private security firms?
TAVERNISE: Blackwater is known to be the most aggressive of the private security firms. I think that probably the biggest problem and the thing that hopefully will come out of this is simply how powerless Iraqis are in this situation. None of the security firms have a firm system or really a system at all of how people can take action if they make a mistake or something happens or if they shoot and someone gets killed. And that's something that's not necessarily specific to Blackwater, although Blackwater is perhaps the most visible, the youngest, and the most aggressive and the one that is working in Baghdad. But it's a real problem that there's just no way for Iraqis to have any form of retribution whatsoever. Not legal or financial or anything.
CHETRY: And Sabrina, the report is also harshly critical of the State Department for, according to the report, exercising virtually no restraint or supervision on the private security company's employees in Iraq. How much of an influence should the State Department have in making sure that there is some recourse if something -- if an incident takes place where there are questions about what went wrong?
TAVERNISE: The State Department should definitely have a much more active role. The State Department has been involved in actually covering up, helping the company to cover up incidents that really frankly should have been allowed to be public. That's one of the reasons this company's been able to get away with the things that it's gotten away with quite extensively because, you know, we're not allowed to know the records. We're not allowed to know exactly what happened. Employees are taken out of the country without explanation. Only the families that are the most insistent actually are even able to have conversations with anybody in the State Department or the company about this.
So the State Department really has a much larger role to fill here, I think.
CHETRY: Maybe we'll find out more questions at this hearing. I do want to ask you about this. Ben Ryan, employee with a private security firm and actually a former member of the U.S. military, wrote an op ed saying that everyone can't be painted with a broad brush, that these security contractors are not thugs-for-hire. He went on to say that the risks these workers assume are underscored by the infamous 2004 ambush in Fallujah in which four Blackwater contractors were murdered and mutilated -- to date, Blackwater has lost 30 contractors -- and that last month's incident could have turned into another Fallujah.
When we talk about the dangers that these contractors face, what would the situation be like if they were forced to leave the country?
TAVERNISE: Well, you know, there would be another contractor that would take their place. The diplomats and American officials are not going to be able to drive around Iraq without being guarded, without armed guards of some sort. I don't think the issue is, should they have armed guards or not? I think the issue is what company should be chosen to represent them and should be standing by their sides and moving through the country, through crowded streets, through areas where there are a lot of Iraqi civilians going about their business buying groceries. That's the question.
And I think that the incident in Fallujah, we all remember -- it was a turning point of the war. But the question is accountability and how Blackwater as a company will hold itself accountable.
CHETRY: Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times, thanks for being with us. ROBERTS: Coming up to twenty minutes to the top of the hour, President Bush is fed up with sitting on the tarmac -- well, metaphorically speaking. He wants to fix the problems causing a record number of airline flight delays. He told Transportation Secretary Mary Peters to come up with a solution. We'll talk to her about what's in store and whether it can actually get done.
Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, leaves may be the only thing on pumpkin patches this fall, and brown, shrivelled leaves at that. Farmers say we're facing a jack o'lantern shortage thanks to a heat wave and a drought from the northeast to the midwest. Other farmers in other areas say they've got the exact opposite because of too much rain. It's actually rotting their crop. It could be the second straight drop in pumpkin production, which is a $100 million a year industry, by the way.
Forty-three minutes past the hour. That record drought means some drastic measures in the South. Our Rob Marciano is watching extreme weather from Lake Altoona, Georgia, this morning.
Hi, Rob.
MARCIANO: Good morning, Kiran. Lake levels here low. It's not the only lake across the southeast experiencing low lake level. You see it behind me. Typically, it would be up and over my head. It does get lower in the wintertime, but we're not in the wintertime yet. Locals are certainly a little bit concerned. Water restrictions have been in place now across parts of northern Georgia and also across parts of the South. You see some of the shots there of the drying lake beds here across Lake Altoona.
Some of the numbers are shocking. What's considered to be full level here at Lake Altoona, we are 14 feet below that level. We dropped 9 feet since the beginning of August. Lake Lanier, just to the east of us, also a reservoir for parts of north Georgia, 13 feet below normal, and farther north in Georgia, 19 feet below normal at the Blue Ridge Reservoir there.
We're talking about all sorts of problems, not only for drinking water but people who actually live on the lake. You've got docks that are dry and a number of people that live on the lake with houseboats. We talked to folks who live close by here and some of the things they're going through yesterday.
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TOM HARDIN, LAKE ALTOONA BOAT OWNER: My boat personally is on the other side of the dock. With the water being this low, I have a hard time backing out of my slip. I need help just basically hand maneuvering my boat out of the slip right now because I normally have 20, 30 feet of more water behind me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: This lake provides water for four counties, and since 1950, Kiran, the population has almost increased tenfold. So you've got a tremendous amount of demand. That's just for Georgia. Downstream, there's a whole other battle going on for folks who need this water in Florida and Alabama for power plants, for paper mills, and for the oyster industry as well. A lot of problems with this drought, and there doesn't look to be a whole lot of relief in sight.
Most of the rainfall, at least the last couple of weeks and for the next couple of days, is going to remain in Florida, which we're watching for potential development in the Gulf of Mexico, for maybe a tropical storm toward the middle of the week.
That, by the way, would help relieve the drought here. But it would take several tropical storms to fill this lake up to where it should be this time of year.
Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: We still have time, right? We're all the way into November when you still have a chance of getting a lot of tropical weather.
MARCIANO: That is true, but if we don't, we're on track to be one of the driest years on record. Right now there's only two other years that have been drier than this one up until this point in 2007. We need the rain, and we need it pretty quickly.
Kiran?
CHETRY: Wow. All right, Rob. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Fourteen minutes to the top of the hour.
If you've flown anywhere this year -- maybe you're at the airport right now or on your way there -- you already know this is the worst year on record for airline delays. According to Congress, more than 25 percent of flights are delayed, and the waits are getting longer. Delays of five hours or more are up 200 percent.
The Bush administration is ordering transportation officials to fix the problem. But is his action too little, too late? Mary Peters is the secretary of the Department of Transportation. She joins us now from our Washington bureau.
Secretary Peters, thanks so much for being with us. Little personal story I want to ask you about. Friday I'm flying from New York to Washington D.C. Beautiful weather, not a cloud in the sky. We sit on the runway for an hour and five minutes waiting to take off. What's going on?
SECY MARY PETERS, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: Several things are going on, John. One is our air space and airports are pretty crowded right now. Long term we need to do something about that. But in the short term, the president has asked myself and the FAA to look into this situation and see how we can do two things. One, be more responsive to consumers like yourself, so we're giving you better information about what is happening and making sure we're giving you information about chronic delayed flights, that we're doing a better job of compensating you if you should get involuntarily bumped.
But the real issue is dealing with not those symptoms but what the root causes of delay are. And the root causes of delay are lots more planes in the sky, an old fashioned system that isn't the best to operate air traffic with today that we need to migrate to in the future, and, of course, more airport capacity.
But those are long-term solutions. In the short term, the president has asked us to come back to him by the end of the year with some recommendations about what we can do now to get consumers better information to be more responsive to them.
ROBERTS: Let's just go back to the bigger picture again. I want to put on the screen the solutions that are being proposed: Upgrading air traffic control systems, capping the number of flights, congestion fees so that airlines will be charged more to land planes during periods of high traffic, higher compensation fees for bumped passengers from $200 to $624. And more frequent updates about delayed or canceled flights. What people want to know, Secretary Peters, is when will these larger measures be implemented? When will this thing in the big picture get fixed?
PETERS: We submitted to Congress a proposal last February, which will give us some of the long-term fixes. Congress has not yet acted on that. In the meantime, we want to do everything we can to make things better for folks. You mentioned some of the tools that we're going to put into place in the short term. For example, chronically delayed flights -- we want to make sure that airlines are communicating accurately to consumers if a flight is chronically delayed.
And some of the worst problems we're seeing, of course, are out of the New York air space where you experienced problems. So we're going to start there.
ROBERTS: Kate Hanni -- I don't know if you know her or not. She's the head of the Coalition for Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights. She says you need to put strict penalties forward. Here's what she told us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATE HANNI, AIRLINE PASSENGERS RIGHTS ADVOCATE: Absolutely. There need to be civil penalties, and these practices of overscheduling flights in a short time slot based on the best possible conditions that never show up need to be exposed as a deceptive business practice, and then they need to impose civil penalties for those deceptive business practices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So Secretary Peters, can you bring the airlines in line without the threat of some sort of sanction?
PETERS: We can, John. It is in the best interest of airlines, of airports, and certainly of those of us at USDoT and FAA to make sure we're not chronically delaying passengers. So the efforts we're undertaking between now and the end of the year, when I report back to the president, are designed to do just that. We want to get better information to consumers and make sure we're communicating with them, but we want to treat the root causes.
Some of the things we're doing to do that are redesign of the air space in the New York area, because when there are delays there, it affects three-quarters of the air system overall.
ROBERTS: We wish you a lot of luck in doing it, because, I'll tell you, not just from my standpoint but everybody else on that plane, it's making people crazy.
PETERS: It is.
ROBERTS: Secretary Peters, thanks for being with us this morning. Good to see you.
PETERS: Thank you, John.
ROBERTS: And we'd like to know what you think. Do you think the White House's push to fix flight delays is too little too late? Go to CNN.com/am and cast your vote. We'll have the results for you a little bit later on.
CHETRY: Still ahead, six young kids, all of them healthy, die after going for a swim. The culprit a deadly amoeba. We've seen these incidents all year. Are they freak incidents, or should the government be warning us about the danger? We'll talk to the CDC about it.
Plus a dress code for Beyonce? We're going to hear why she decided to pull out of a concert overseas.
That's ahead, on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: Beyonce cancels her first concert in Malaysia. Her agency says the cancellation was due to a scheduling conflict, but sources say it was the country's dress code, which bans the sexy attire she usually wears. According to some reports, Beyonce was concerned about a backlash in the mostly Muslim country. Also banned in Malaysia is running and jumping on stage.
CHETRY: Maybe falling is banned too.
ROBERTS: She's not bad at that either
CHETRY: Poor thing.
Fifty-three minutes past the hour. Stephanie Elam is in for Ali Velshi, "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Hi, Stephanie. Good to see you.
STEPHANIE ELAM, MINDING YOUR BUSINESS: Hi. I'm going to try not to fall and stay right here where I'm supposed to be. Although no one gets up better than Beyonce. I have to say that.
Let's take at what's going on with the latest with GM and the United Auto Workers union. A little resistance from Ford and Chrysler. The union officials were hoping this would be a blueprint for the other autoworkers. Looks like it's changing a bit. Usually, this is called pattern bargaining. But Chrysler employees seem to be bothered by a provision for lower wages on the agreement for GM. They're also saying benefits for newly hired workers that doesn't make them feel too well. And the UAW, the fact that they're going to go ahead here and set up this fund to start funding -- a trust fund basically to fund the retirement health care liabilities, that's also making them feel a little sketchy as to how it's going to work. These VEBAs, as they are called, haven't worked so well with other companies so far. There's a lot of skittish feelings about that.
We'll be looking to see how Ford and Chrysler go ahead with this, but it looks like both the union and the companies not so happy about it right now. We'll keep watching.
CHETRY: Sounds good. Thank you, Stephanie.
ROBERTS: Keeping up with Google tops your "Quick Hits" now. Yahoo is unveiling a new search engine that it says gets faster and better results than Google. Back in August, Google was used for 57 percent of all Internet searches. That compares with 23 percent for Yahoo.
If your flat screen TV isn't flat enough, check this out. The newest technology. Sony is showing off its newest television with a screen that's only an eighth of an inch thick. It would go just about anywhere, wouldn't it?
A disturbing scene at the airport, before and after a woman is found dead under arrest and in police shackles. Witnesses say her behavior was frightening. Now there are some surprising new details that could help explain it.
That's ahead, on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Coming up, a story you can't miss. We've been following this all summer, and it really struck us as unbelievable. Six different cases of healthy children, after going swimming in freshwater lakes, dying. It's this deadly amoeba. Really, once it enters into your nasal passages and gets up to your brain, there's really no treatment. It's scary for a lot of people because no one knows where it will strike and whether or not where you swim is safe. ROBERTS: A hundred different kids can swim in the same lake, and one of them will get it and the other 99 won't. The most frightening thing about it is, once you start showing symptoms of this amoebic meningitis, as it's called, you're essentially dead, because there's no cure. Really frightening.
CHETRY: So how concerned should we be, and what are the answers as to whether or not we should be warned? We're going to hear from the Centers for Disease Control coming up a little bit later.
The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
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