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American Morning
BP to Attempt Oil Leak Cap; Dow Plunges, Recovers Quickly; Times Square Suspect Caught on Video Buying Fireworks; Nashville Residents Survey Flooding Aftermath; Stripping "Citizen" Terrorists of Their Citizenship; The Science of Oil Slicks; Former NFL Stars Troubles; "This is My Heaven"
Aired May 07, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning to you. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. It's the 7th of May. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. We have lot of big stories we're breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes,
First, people are holding their breath in the gulf today. A giant concrete containment dome is being lowered to the ocean floor this morning, and it could change everything if it's successful. Crews are hoping to drop it over the spewing oil well. It is being described as a long shot with a high stake experiment at sea that might just be the last opportunity to prevent an unprecedented environmental disaster.
ROBERTS: A roller coaster today for Wall Street. Hearts raced and traders looked on in horror as the Dow just took a running jump off a cliff, dropping nearly 1,000 points in just a matter of minutes. So, what happened? Was it the financial crisis in Greece or a trading error here in New York?
CHETRY: And captured on tape, the Times Square bombing suspect seen buying fireworks on a store surveillance camera in Pennsylvania. The fireworks may have been part of a homemade car bomb that failed to detonate in the back of an SUV in Times Square last week.
Our Susan Candiotti following all of the latest developments on this terror case for us.
Meantime, 15 miles off the coast of Louisiana, a four-story 100- ton concrete containment dome is on its way to the ocean floor this morning. Crews are trying to position it over a ruptured well that's been spewing thousands of gallons of fresh crude oil into the open sea every day.
In the next 72 hours we should know whether or not this underwater experiment is successful. Officials from British Petroleum say they are hoping the dome will be able to capture and funnel the leaking oil to a waiting tanker above staving off more of an environmental disaster. David Mattingly is live for us this morning in Venice, Louisiana. And the spill is clearly becoming too large to contain much longer. When we talk about the dome operation and how it's going, they described it as a long shot. But any word on the chance this is actually going to work?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No one is giving any odds on this because this is the only chance they have to stem the flow of this oil right now. And this is a monumental task, and this is the very beginning of the most difficult part of this task.
They have to lower this device, this containment vessel almost a mile down to the bottom of the ocean floor. They can't physically see what's going on down there. They have to rely on robotic cameras to show them what they are doing.
They are slowly lowering this device. They have to put it exactly over the largest of the two remaining leaks there at the bottom of the ocean. Once they do that they hope to be able to contain 80 to 85 percent of the oil that's now leaking into the Gulf.
And everyone here really feels like the clock is ticking because yesterday was the first time we saw oil making contact with the shore of one of islands off the coast of the eastern Louisiana. There's also reports of the oil moving west past the mouth of the Mississippi River.
That's a huge source of concern for the fishermen here, because they thought if those waters could stay protected, there was some chance they would be able to salvage a part of this season.
So everyone is watching and hoping that this stab in the dark, so to speak, to send this vessel down to the bottom of the ocean and cover that part of the leak will somehow stem the flow of the oil into the Gulf of Mexico so they continue the cleanup efforts without seeing this getting worse by the day.
CHETRY: It is a waiting game, David, because it's not just one part of the job that will let them know it's successful. Even if they lower it, the actual siphoning has to be successful. You won't know until the end whether or not this works. So a lot of people are still holding their breath to see if this long shot is the answer.
MATTINGLY: Right. Not only do they have to lower this massive vessel exactly so over this leak, they also have to be able to collect the oil that's coming out of it and successfully pump it a mile up to the surface to the containment vessel. This is a huge engineering feat, something they've never attempted before, and they are definitely learning as they go.
CHETRY: Fingers crossed. David Mattingly for us this morning, thank you.
ROBERTS: That massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is now staining some of the most sensitive wetlands in the region. The coast guard is confirming that sheens of crude are washing up on the Chandeleur Islands.
Our Brooke Baldwin with the help of local fisherman decided to see for herself just how much of a threat the spill has become. She traveled by boat to the Chandeleur Islands for an exclusive look. She also got beneath the surface. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As you take a look at some of the oil in the water, it's about 18 inches deep. I've seen some fish already swimming through it. So to it get a better glimpse as to what it looks like down there, let's look with our underwater camera.
One of biggest concerns here with this oil spill is the wildlife, and now we have a front row seat to what the experts are talking about. This is New Harbor Island. There are hundreds of pelicans here. This is nesting season. The pelicans and their babies, you can see 10 feet from the shore the authorities have put out this protective booming to do precisely that, to try to protect this habitat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The techniques now being used to disburse or contain the oil slick were conceived and tested first at this secure government naval base in New Jersey. Cameras have never been allowed in before, but in less than 30 minutes are Allan Chernoff brings you an exclusive report from inside the facility. It's a fascinating place where oil spills happen all the time here on purpose.
Also happening right now, new details on your money. The Dow futures in positive territory today, a nice sign after it started to feel like 2008 all over again yesterday.
Late in the afternoon the Dow took a heart-stopping plunge of almost 1,000 points. That's that valley right there. The market recovered most of that, but for a moment jitters over the debt crisis in Greece turned into full fledged panic.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei is down as is England Futsi. Christine Romans here minding your business. The speculation out there was yesterday's free fall was triggered by somebody putting too many zeros into a trading order.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: One of those wild trading rumors. No one has any way of knowing exactly what happened. But we do know there are numerous investigations as to why the market was down 500 points then down 998 points.
Clearly the market was in a weak position and then suddenly the computers took over -- two-thirds of stock market trading is done by computers, not by humans. The computers took over and you had the stock markets literally plunging.
Then it came back fast and furious. People scratching their heads and trying to figure out why Procter & Gamble was down 37 percent on some exchange quotes and much less than that in others and why a company like Accenture went down to just pennies a share. Something was clearly wrong.
At this hour we still don't know exactly what that is. Everyone agrees the computer trading helped exacerbate this.
I don't want to say the computer trading was the only reason because the Dow was down 500 points before this big route began, and it closed down 350 points, which makes it the worse one-day performance in more than a year.
I want to talk quickly about what the NASDAQ says about why the violent move in five or six minutes at 2:45 yesterday. They say there were no technology or system issues on their ends, but they are voluntarily canceling trades between 2:40 and 3:00 p.m. that had moves of more than 60 percent.
So if you're waking up this morning and thinking you really made a fortune, you probably didn't, because they will be going through with a fine tooth comb to find where on the trade bladder something went wrong and what trades will not be counted.
CHETRY: All right, so as you talk about the computer trading, everybody has these automatic sell orders, right?
ROMANS: Sure.
CHETRY: I know that we talked about how they have if the Dow plunges by a certain amount, trading is stopped for a certain amount of time. Do they have anything in place to get a handles on these --
ROMANS: Yes, they have circuit breakers. It was the biggest one-day point drop in history. It was unbelievable. However, in 1987 we had a bigger percentage drop. This was not 1987. This is something we're still investigating.
And we have not -- we have had, like you call them the fat finger error, human error in the past. It's never taken 12 hours to figure it out before though. Right now all of the futures exchanges and stock exchanges, they don't know what went wrong.
ROBERTS: One of the traders came out yesterday and said it's like "Terminator," the machines have taken over.
ROMANS: There are a lot of machines, and they trade a lot of stocks fast.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans this morning "Minding your Business," thanks.
One thing weighing on traders' minds today, April's jobs report. It comes out at 8:30 eastern, and our CNN money team will be standing by to break it down for you the very second it's released.
(WEATHER BREAK) CHETRY: We're going to show you some surveillance video right now showing Faisal Shahzad, the alleged Times Square bomber, browsing the aisles of a fireworks store in Pennsylvania nearly two months before the botched bombing attempt. Our Susan Candiotti is following the developments and she will join us next.
It's 10 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning, 13 minutes past the hour. Nice shot --
ROBERTS: What was that a picture of?
CHETRY: Miami.
ROBERTS: There we are.
CHETRY: I couldn't see the call letters from here. I'm a little near-sighted.
ROBERTS: Rick Sanchez's former home.
CHETRY: We're getting a closer look at the man who allegedly try and failed to detonate the car bomb in Times Square. There is new video out of surveillance tape. Here's a look at it, showing Faisal Shahzad pulling into the parking of a fireworks store and then walking in and making some purchases, spending quite a bit of time there, actually.
Susan Candiotti is following the developments for us. She's been on this case since it broke. You have new information about what it reveals about what he was trying to get his hands on.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It still makes you wonder exactly what he had in mind, if he was fully trained and educated about what he was trying to put together, because obviously it didn't work. Good thing.
But we're finding out he spent almost $100 at the store and he spent about an hour in there to decide what he wanted to buy, took his time.
Here you see a dark colored SUV pulling into this lot. This was a sale that supposedly took place in March of this year, just a few months ago. He comes into the store and has to present a valid driver's license to identify himself and fills out a form and puts his name backwards instead of correct direction it should be.
He goes in, takes a hand basket, picks out some fireworks. He is offered help but doesn't take it, but he does ask a lot of questions, very inquisitive, but they said nothing unusual. He is the only customer in the store and spent, as I said, almost an hour in there.
Eventually he makes his way up to the cashier and pays cash. The sale is just under $100. And he buys a number of m-88s, which are described to be not very powerful.
And the store owner said, and these are all perfectly legal, if he thought that he could light one and it would somehow set off a chain reaction of lighting the other M-88s, he was wrong. These are not powerful explosives. They are safely made so that you cannot set off a chain reaction, so --
CHETRY: You have to light each piece individually?
CANDIOTTI: You do. You do.
CHETRY: Do you have any idea about where the money came from? What are investigators saying where he got cash?
CANDIOTTI: Well, our Homeland Security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, has been picking up more information about that. We know, of course, that he had a job as a financial adviser for a time but he also ran into money troubles because he lost his home, remember, to foreclosure.
CHETRY: Right.
CANDIOTTI: But also that he did bring in, according to our sources, around $80,000 he brought in from Pakistan between 1999 and 2008. So they're also checking out that money trail.
ROBERTS: That put him on a list -- that wasn't a terror watch list but he put him on another --
CANDIOTTI: That's right. But legally, he declared the money so there was nothing unusual. But he reported it, as he had to, to customs.
ROBERTS: There's some more news this morning, too, about potential overseas ties.
CANDIOTTI: Well, certainly a senior law enforcement official and other intelligence officials are telling CNN that they do suspect that he had ties to this group we've been hearing about, the Pakistani Taliban. However, there is no evidence so far that they directed the attack. You might recall that they've said that they didn't, still being looked into. But they're also looking at whether he got direct training from them or could be communications skills, contact over the Internet. So that information is still being developed.
ROBERTS: All right. Susan Candiotti this morning. Thanks so much.
Floodwaters inching down in Nashville, Tennessee. It spells relief for a city at a literal standstill. We'll show you what it looks like now as residents go home to survey the damage. And details on the generous gift from a young country star. We'll tell you about that.
Seventeen minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty minutes past the hour right now. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Tennessee is inching towards recovery. Most of Nashville has power again this morning after last weekend's severe storms caused devastating flash floods. And officials have planned on sending kids back to school today. They deemed the roads still unsafe, though, so that did not happen.
Meantime, the human toll of this storm is coming into focus. Thirty-one people across the southeast, 21 in Tennessee alone died.
ROBERTS: Well, of course, plenty of country stars live and work in Nashville and some of them raised money for victims of the flooding. Taylor Swift is donating a half million dollars toward relief organizations during last night's telethon that was organized by fellow country star Vince Gill. Another telethon scheduled for the 16th of this month on the country music cable network.
CHETRY: Lovely girl and now she wants to give back to Nashville.
ROBERTS: That's great. And a lot of them are doing that as well. And I think we'll see a lot of money raised but, of course, when you look at the amount of damage, a billion dollars, so many of those people didn't have flood insurance.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: Because they never thought that they would be flooded out.
CHETRY: What do they call --
ROBERTS: The need will be much greater than the supply.
CHETRY: Yes. They didn't even call it the 100-year flood --
ROBERTS: 500 years.
CHETRY: Yes. Shocking for many.
Now to an "A.M. Original," something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING. It's about Nashville. Nashville offering an agonizing picture of what happens when 13 inches of rain fall in just two days.
ROBERTS: You heard that billion dollar figure that comes from the mayor. Also months to clean up the mess. Grand Ole Opry may not open for another three months.
Our Martin Savidge found that for some people the devastation is just far too much to bear.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On West Hamilton Street, everything everyone ever had is now on the sidewalk for everyone else to see. Walk down the street and the flood stories still bore out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The water just gushed in. And it had a force to it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They put a rope -- put this rope around me and pulled me through this water. Scary. We were so scared.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the water line was there and here in the living room. You can see on my wall --
SAVIDGE (on camera): On you, that's chest high?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes. And I can't swim.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Two days of rain and water from White's Creek did this to a working class neighborhood where most have lived for decades. And few have flood insurance. Everyone dreaded coming back.
REBA PERKINS, FLOODING VICTIM: And we prayed that we would not -- whatever we found, it would be something that we could learn from.
SAVIDGE: Soon the first trips to the curb began.
(on camera): What have you lost?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I lost everything. Everything is ruined.
SAVIDGE: Are you worried?
CAROLYN PHILLIPS, FLOODING VICTIM: Yes, but I'm going to be OK. We're going to be OK.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Like they say, one man's trash is another's treasure. Kelando Hambric gets $135 a ton from the scrap dealer.
(on camera): And what are the things you carry away most?
KELANDO HAMBRIC, SCRAP DEALER: Refrigerator, washing machines, dryers, water heaters. The heavy stuff.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Ronnie Coleman (ph) lost everything and gained something.
RONNIE COLEMAN (ph), FLOODING VICTIM: I can't stop and thinking, I'm alive. You know, everything else, the rest of my life, if I have to fight cancer or whatever, I mean, it's going to be a piece of cake after what I went through.
SAVIDGE: I watched with Sherry Hathaway (ph) as the city truck loaded her stuff for the dump.
(on camera): Is that your life going away? SHERRY HATHAWAY (ph), FLOODING VICTIM: Yes, it sure is. Children's lives, our lives.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): For her 24-year-old daughter Jamie, it was too much.
S. HATHAWAY: What do you think?
JAMIE HATHAWAY, FLOODING VICTIM: It's hard to watch it. I mean, this is everything we've owned.
SAVIDGE: Martin Savidge, CNN, Nashville.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: What do you say? I mean, how do you comfort people in that time? It's just -- it's devastating.
ROBERTS: It's difficult. And people handle it differently. For some people losing their worldly obsessions is a blow from which they think that they'll never recover. And others say, hey, at least I'm still here, it's just material possessions. They can all be replaced.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: But difficult either way you look at it, really.
CHETRY: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: American citizens, Al Qaeda sympathizers, should they be stripped of their rights as American citizens by having their citizenship revoked. The new controversy and discussion and debate that has erupted over the Shahzad attempted bombing. Jim Acosta is looking into all of this for us and he'll be up right after the break.
Twenty-four minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-seven minutes after the hour. Your top stories just about three minutes away. But first, time for an "A.M. Original," something that you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING.
A new bill is going after the citizenship of accused terrorists. It would allow the State Department to take it away from people like the suspected Times Square bomber.
CHETRY: And the sponsors say that it's just another tool needed to fight a new war. Our Jim Acosta joins us live from Washington with the controversy. And it's interesting to see people aren't breaking along party lines when it comes to this as you'd see expect.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John and Kiran. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, says she likes the spirit of this law. John Boehner, the House minority leader, says, how would this work? The fact that Faisal Shahzad is a recent U.S. citizen has raised all sorts of national security questions. Members of Congress are asking whether it's possible to strip American citizens of their citizenship. They're also talking about the application for citizenship.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): If the charges stick, Faisal Shahzad fits right in what's becoming a long line of U.S. citizens or legal residents at war with America. Shahzad became a citizen just last year.
Senior al Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn hails from Oregon. Online extremist Anwar al-Awlaki is born in New Mexico. Authorities say al- Awlaki inspired American citizen Nidal Hasan to carry out the massacre at Fort Hood. And accused Najibullah Zazi was a legal U.S. resident.
PETER BROOKES, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Osama bin Laden has talked about this sort of people, talked about having people who don't have to go through customs like the 9/11 hijackers did, who are actually here, what the military might say "inside the wire."
SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (I), CONNECTICUT: Those who join such groups, join our enemy, and should no longer be entitled to the rights and privileges of American citizenship.
ACOSTA: Some in Congress want to treat future American terror suspects as enemy combatants stripping them of their citizenship and the rights that come with it.
SEN. SCOTT BROWN (R), MASSACHUSETTS: This isn't a knee-jerk reaction. It reflects the changing nature of war in recent events.
ACOSTA (on camera): In your view is, this is unconstitutional.
JONATHAN TURLEY, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR: I think it's facially unconstitutional. I also think it is rather facially un- American.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Constitutional law professor, Jonathan Turley, questions how far the law would go.
TURLEY: Any loony toon can park his car in New York filled with fireworks and gasoline. It doesn't take a bloody genius that doesn't mean that our law has failed.
ACOSTA: One constitutional right at issue is the right to remain silent, the Miranda warning.
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: Is it true that every American has the right under the Fifth Amendment to a Miranda warning?
ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Yes.
ACOSTA: But as Attorney General Eric Holder pointed out at a hearing, there is wiggle room.
FEINSTEIN: Is there any exceptions?
HOLDER: Yes, there are exceptions to Miranda, and that is one of ways in which we conduct our interrogations of terrorism suspects.
JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Candidates, please raise your right hand and repeat after me.
ACOSTA: Others in Washington want to look at the process used by the hundreds of thousands of people who become U.S. citizens each year, like these active duty soldiers sworn in by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
The current application for naturalization does ask potential citizens whether they are members of the communist party, or a terrorist organization. But there are no questions about al Qaeda or terror training camps.
Napolitano told NPR the form may be dated.
NAPOLITANO: As you read it, I suspect the form hasn't been changed for quite a while, and that may be something to look at.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did confirm to me that the agency is now reviewing this application for naturalization, to "as he put it, ensure that it meets our needs the best."
So, John and Kiran, some of those questions there on the application, they sound a little dated to the secretary of Homeland Security and those problems may be addressed.
ROBERTS: If they put a question on that application that said, are you or have you ever been a terrorist, or a sympathizer of Al Qaeda, I mean who's going to answer that truthfully?
ACOSTA: Right. You could just lie on that application, which is why, you know, Chuck Grassley wants to look at the very application for naturalization that Faisal Shahzad filled out. You know, the Homeland Security Department has a video online that guides you through the steps of applying for citizenship. And it says right there in the video, if you lie to the immigration officer, that may or may not, you know, weigh on whether or not you become a citizen.
So obviously, you know, that just lies in the face of common sense. I mean, it just seems, you know, If you lie on your application for citizenship, there should be big problems.
CHETRY: Right.
ACOSTA: So I think these are issues that are going to be addressed. CHETRY: It's a shame to, you know, for people going through the process or hoping to one day be an American citizen and truly love and want to be a part of this country, if it is somehow made even more difficult because of the actions of, you know, somebody who would, you know allegedly, do us harm. I mean, it's a shame.
ACOSTA: That's right and you saw in that video, in that piece, every year the Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano, she'll go out and she'll swear in members of the armed forces who were not yet citizens and yet want to become citizens. So this is a very difficult issue. There are hundreds of thousands of people who try to become citizens every year. This process may be more difficult for them.
ROBERTS: Yes, to tell you, as a person who went through the process myself, back in 2001, right after September 11th, if you haven't done anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about. Thanks, Jim.
ACOSTA: There you go. You got it.
ROBERTS: We want to hear what you think? Should citizen terrorists lost their rights as citizens and where is the line? Go to our blog at CNN.com/amFIX.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, 32 minutes past the hour.
A look at the top stories this morning. There's no clear cut winner in the U.K.'s national elections. The final tally of votes suggests that David Cameron's conservative had a majority but as it turns out it is not enough of a majority to govern. Gordon Brown, the sitting prime minister and leader of the labor party says he wants to stay in office and form a coalition with other parliamentary groups.
ROBERTS: We're watching your money coming on the heels of yesterday's near 1,000 point plunge. The Dow futures right now are trading in positive territory. But an obvious concern for traders right now, fears that the financial crisis in Greece will spread and possibly undermine the world's economic recovery.
CHETRY: And a high stakes experiment going on a mile beneath the sea this morning. Crews have started lowering the four-story containment cylinder hoping they can cover a blown out well, to capture the gushing oil that is still spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. Officials from BP says we should know by Monday whether or not the technique has worked.
ROBERTS: Well, whether it's a concrete and steel dome or a chemical dispersant, many of the techniques being used to clean up the gulf right now were conceived and tested first at a naval base in New Jersey.
CHETRY: Cameras have never been allowed inside the oil spill research and training facility, until now. Here's Allan Chernoff with a CNN exclusive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): John, Kiran, when cleaning up an oil spill, how does the oil industry know exactly what to do? What techniques are going to work? The research is done right here at OHMSETT, the Oil and Hazardous Materials Simulated Environmental Test Tank. This facility is run by the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service and it is the largest of its kind in the entire world.
(voice-over): Oil sprays into the water, a slick forms and expands, but it's all intentional.
(on camera): Here the government create controlled oil spills in a giant tank more than two football fields long. Operators create ocean wave conditions. Then they use various techniques to clean it all up.
(voice-over): There are three primary plans of attack for cleaning oil spills in the water. Burn the oil, apply chemical dispersants to break it down or manually remove it. All three are at work in the Gulf of Mexico.
JOE MULLIN, MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE: You would try to use as many techniques as you can to remove the oil off the water, the surface of the water.
CHERNOFF (on camera): You get out every form of artillery you've got?
MULLIN: Yes, sir.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Today, clean up experts are practicing manual techniques to remove oil.
(on camera): Taking oil of off the surface of the water is kind of like peeling the filling off of an Oreo cookie, you're skimming it. And that's what all these various devices do, They skim the oil of off the water, depending upon the grade of oil how heavy it is, you use a different type of skimmer.
(voice-over): At onset, all the different types of oil are sprayed into the tank from a moving bridge. Workers can test skimmers and various dispersants and even burning all in a safe and enclosed environment that simulates the ocean's salinity and even its wave patterns.
(on camera): We all know oil is lighter than water, that's an advantage when it comes to cleaning up a spill. Because the oil sits on top of the water. Using those booms, oil can actually be pushed into that skimmer and then it's sucked up using this giant vacuum.
(voice-over): Cleanup workers from private industry, government and 24 countries around the world have come here to practice and research such techniques, including responders trying to clean the Gulf of Mexico right now. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to be prepared. So firemen have fire training centers. You know, Paramedics have paramedic training centers and stuff. First responders, you have the OHMSETT tank right here.
CHERNOFF: The gulf cleanup prevents an immense challenge. Indeed, high waves have made it difficult to contain the oil. But the Minerals Management Service says industry and government are better prepared to handle this catastrophe than the "Exxon Valdez" disaster more than 20 years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's more equipment. There's more technology. Folks are better planned and better trained.
CHERNOFF (on camera): Thanks to the OHMSETT facility, the folks who are in the gulf right now know exactly which techniques to use in each marine environment to clean up the mess -- John and Kiran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Pretty amazing.
ROBERTS: Yes. All of the different angles of attack that they have on these things. They got a lot of technology out there but still a dicey situation.
CHETRY: And knowing just how it's going to in the real life in the gulf with the sea life and all of the waves and the surf and the tide, it's a lot different than testing it out in the pool.
ROBERTS: It is, unfortunately, too. They can clean up the pool, but out there in the gulf it lasts for an awfully long time.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, former Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor arrested on rape charges. A sordid tale of sex with an underage prostitute. Something his attorney is strongly denying. But meantime, can this once beloved athlete with a history of trouble, overcome this? We're discussing L.T. with two guys who followed Taylor from his glory days until now.
Thirty-eight minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Forty minutes past the hour right now.
Pro-football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor has had a troubled past that many of us fans, of course, know about and in many ways overshadowed his success on the field. Just last year, he was a favorite on "Dancing With the Stars" and a lot of people had hopes for Lawrence Taylor that maybe he turned a corner and that his darkest days were behind him.
That, of course, though is in stark contrast to what he's going through now. Charged with third degree rape for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old prostitute. He's out on bail this morning. His attorney says that Lawrence Taylor is innocent. His wife says that he was set up.
Joining us this morning Max Kellerman from HBO Sports and Pablo Torre from "Sports Illustrated." Both of you, of course, have known Lawrence Taylor back from the glory days and covered him for a long time.
Were you surprised, Max, when you heard about this allegation surfacing?
MAX KELLERMAN, HBO SPORTS: No, Lawrence Taylor is not one of these guys you would expect to never wind up in controversy. I mean, he has a storied past. He's you know, infamous for his behavior while he was in his prime.
CHETRY: Right. And a lot of people who covered Lawrence Taylor always said I felt, you know, because he lived on the edge, that something really bad was going to happen to him.
PABLO TORRE, REPORTER "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Yes, and for pro- athletes, you hear with Mike Tyson, for example, it's hard to compartmentalized the on field and off the field personas. I mean, it's hard to be two different people. And you know, I talked to Tyson two days ago, who maybe the most parallel at this point unfortunately for Lawrence Taylor. And what he was saying that he would see a 200- pounder on the street and you know, he couldn't take his mind off the fact that this is a guy I'm supposed to be beating. He's in my heavyweight division.
And Lawrence Taylor, you know, it spills over. It's hard to compartmentalize that ability to be so reckless and tough on the field and yet off of it, suddenly be this completely different person. It's clearly residual facts.
CHETRY: But isn't that a copout though for the many people that play professional sports and don't do crazy things? Or in this case accused of some pretty unsavory things in their private life.
KELLERMAN: I think that there's a tendency to - this sloppy thinking, we use sloppy language. Like, you know, we say things like here are athletes exhibiting bad behavior. There's Tiger Woods, there's Ben Roethlisberger, there's Lawrence Taylor, right? But they are accused of different things. In Tiger's case, he didn't do anything violent. He didn't do anything criminal even.
In Lawrence Taylor's case, obviously there's a presumption of guilt. But this all got me thinking. I have one jersey in my closet, it is this jersey. I brought it in. I have a prop. Look at this. This is the only jersey I have in my closet. Lawrence Taylor. And I started thinking, it's a good litmus test, right? If a guy is found guilty, I mean there's a presumption of innocence. Let's say it's borne out that he did these things -
CHETRY: Right. (inaudible) The O.J. Simpson jersey, you're not wearing that any more. KELLERMAN: Never had an O.J. Simpson jersey.
(CROSSTALK)
KELLERMAN: This is the only one I have ever had of a player, like official jersey. That's how big Lawrence Taylor is in New York.
CHETRY: Of course.
KELLERMAN: I'm a big Giants' fan. So I started thinking, if he's guilty of what he's accused of, could I ever put this on again?
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: Right? So I think the jersey test, like Roethlisberger -
CHETRY: After everything he's been through before this, you can still wear that jersey? He was accused of not paying child support, tax evasion -
KELLERMAN: I think most football fans feel that he hasn't done anything so far that would exclude, you could not wear the jersey anymore. But like Roethlisberger, for instance, right, if it was true what he was accused of. A woman said that he dragged her into the bathroom and forced himself.
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: -- you can't wear a Roethlisberger.
CHETRY: But there's no criminal charges against Roethlisberger at this point.
KELLERMAN: That's right. But in L.T.'s case, my question is - I ask you guys, if it's true that he solicited a prostitute and that it turns out she was underage but he didn't know, let's assume - could you wear the jersey again?
TORRE: It's the threshold question. And Roethlisberger (inaudible), we went to Pittsburgh and talked to fans who had portions of their arm devoted to Ben Roethlisberger.
CHETRY: You're saying with tattoos?
TORRE: With tattoos.
KELLERMAN: You can't take those off.
TORRE: This is almost a new threshold as far as sex crimes, as far as sexual assault. You know, I think people are far less forgiving when it comes to crimes of that nature than it is, even with dog fighting. It's an interesting mirror of how the American public thinks and reacts.
CHETRY: So you're saying that you could wear a Taylor jersey even if he is convicted which he's not even of what went on versus Michael Vick.
TORRE: Oh, no, I mean, I think Taylor is harder to wear than Michael Vick.
KELLERMAN: You look at what Taylor is being accused of though and the word, the "r" word encompasses a lot, including, in New York State, if - if the girl is 16, and you don't know, it doesn't matter. It's still a third degree rape charge.
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: So, when people hear that word, they -- you know, it's - it's obviously a charge (ph).
I have an 18-year-old - 18-year-old, please. I have an18-month- old daughter at home, right? So my first reaction, when I hear this, is I want to do violence to this jersey. And then you stop and think, well, wait a minute, there is a presumption of innocence.
And then you think, what - even if it's true that - you know, what is he actually being charged with? I haven't seen any charges that he forced himself on her or that he knowingly, you know - it -
CHETRY: Well, what's interesting - let's just listen to a little bit of what his attorney said yesterday, because there are two different narratives, it seemed, that were playing out yesterday. Let's listen to Arthur Aidala right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARTHUR AIDALA, LAWRENCE TAYLOR'S ATTORNEY: My client did not have sex with anybody. No. Period, amen. Is that enough?
Lawrence Taylor did not rape anybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: He's vigorously defending this. We'll have to see how it turns out.
But, in the meantime, of course, a lot of people say sports fans are the most forgiving people out there, and that, you know, if - however this turns out -
KELLERMAN: The Jackie Mason line about O.J. Simpson. In this country, you do something, you're guilty, you know, you go to jail. Unless you score a touchdown, no - two touchdowns - so many touchdowns, can't go to jail.
I mean, you know -
TORRE: Yes. And in his rehab (ph), I - honestly, (INAUDIBLE) is in retirement. You can't play your way back from something, you know, if you're not playing any more, unfortunately.
CHETRY: All right. We'll see how this plays out. Pablo Torre, Max Kellerman, great to see both of you this morning. Thanks so much - John.
ROBERTS: Another tragic development in that big, messy oil spill. It's now producing tar balls that are showing up in a lot of places.
Our Rob Marciano has been out on the beaches and he brings you what he found, coming up next.
It's 47 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: As workers lower a giant concrete and steel dome to the ocean floor, trying to cover and contain a ruptured oil well in the gulf, the fallout from the massive spill is already being felt along the Mississippi coast. Locals there are reporting a disturbing sight in the pristine shores of Sand Island.
CHETRY: Tar balls everywhere.
Rob Marciano joins us live from Biloxi, Mississippi this morning, and Rob, so you headed out to Sand Island. You wanted to check things out for yourself, and explain what you're finding.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, the - the beaches here have been pristine, the water perfect, so people here have just been prepping, knowing that the - the actual slick well offshore, about 30 miles.
But there are barrier islands 10, 12 miles here off the - off the Mississippi coastline, so those would be the first to be affected by any oil, and yesterday was the first sign that they knew oil was in the gulf.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: We're out shooting another story this morning and got a call that they actually spotted some oil about 10 miles offshore of the Mississippi coastline, a place called Sand Island. So we're going to hitch a ride.
This is Bill, Stu (ph), Aaron.
BILL STEWART, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI RESIDENT: We got a call this morning, and so we're kind of concerned about that.
MARCIANO: Now, this is the spot where there were reports of at least some tar balls early this morning. So we're going to beach this thing, anchor up and take a look.
All right.
STEWART: This is my heaven. I mean, look at it. You can have the worst day in the world, and you come out here and just look around. I mean, it's peaceful.
I mean, you know -
MARCIANO: Well, they just looked like a stone you'd skip across the water, don't you think?
STEWART: And if you break it open, you know, the consistency, see -
MARCIANO: Now, there's - I mean, that looks like asphalt there.
STEWART: Yes.
MARCIANO: Now, for as long as you lived in Mississippi and as many oil rigs as there are out there, you've never seen this before?
STEWART: No, sir.
MARCIANO: Ever?
So this one, you just found in the water?
STEWART: Yes. About - about three feet out.
MARCIANO: Oh, look at this one. That one's big. And that one, you really get a sense for it.
I mean, they're all about the same size, aren't they?
STEWART: Yes.
MARCIANO: Now, look at that. And - and I think we've got all in the beach.
STEWART: Right. This is our livelihood. This is - this is what we do, you know?
We - we enjoy - we come out here to enjoy it. If it's gone, you know, I - I don't even really want to think about it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: This is different from what I expected to see. Most of them were - were really flat like this, kind of like pancakes, and about two, three inches in diameter.
We found about, I don't know, a dozen, maybe 20 of them. And then, from time to time, we find ones like this that were a little bit thicker, and you can actually see in there - I mean, that - that is - that is tar in there.
That is certainly black, and when it warms up, it's sticky like asphalt you pour on a driveway. So a disturbing science out there, about 10, 12 miles offshore.
But, I mean, there is hope in this. An oil forecaster (ph) described tar balls to me this way. It's kind of like the big raindrops that you feel before a thunderstorm. Sometimes that thunderstorm never reaches you, and certainly the people that live along the coastline here hope that the thunderstorm that's out there, all that big oil slick, never reaches this coastline.
But this is certainly a disturbing sign.
CHETRY: Absolutely. Just, you know, fingers crossed.
Again, they're going to know perhaps by Monday whether or not that containment dome was successful and whether or not they will actually be able to stop the spewing oil. Everyone's hoping for that, obviously.
Rob Marciano for us in Biloxi this morning. Thank you.
Well, this morning's top stories just minutes away, including the biggest market swing ever - ever. $800 billion in under 20 minutes. And we're not even sure why today why it happened yesterday.
Christine Romans takes us through the scariest few minutes on Wall Street.
ROBERTS: Plus, at 12 minutes after the hour, experts say it is a ticking time bomb, the massive pool of oil that's suffocating sea turtles and covering schools of jellyfish. A status report coming your way from the Wildlife Federation.
CHETRY: Also, 55 minutes past the hour, is Apple acting rotten? Why the company can't take a joke. A sense of humor - there's an app for that.
Those stories and much more at the top of the hour.
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ROBERTS: Appropriate (INAUDIBLE) a little bit of a runaway train wreck -
CHETRY: Yes, he is.
ROBERTS: I don't know if they're -
CHETRY: No.
ROBERTS: There wouldn't (ph) be a train wreck after he drinks his -
CHETRY: After he drinks all that colored water this morning.
ROBERTS: Was it only colored water?
CHETRY: Yes, and he puts it right back in there. See -
ROBERTS: Hey, I thought we were actually working towards something this morning. CHETRY: Nah, it's - sorry. It's all props. It's all lighting. That's not even really purple.
Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Fifty-six minutes past the hour right now. Time for your "A.M. House Call", stories about your health.
A side effect of breaking the glass ceiling. It turns out that high pressure jobs so affect women's health as much as men. A new study observing 12,000 Danish nurses over a 15-year span, finding that those who said the pressure was, quote, "much too high" were 50 percent more likely to be diagnosed with heart disease.
ROBERTS: Your portfolio affecting performance. A study by the AARP says Americans 45 and older are having less sex, and it's not even that good when they have it.
We - we needed a study to tell us this?
He blames financial stress related to the recession for everything that's going on.
CHETRY: You know, just blame it on the Dow, any time things don't work out for you.
ROBERTS: Honey, I've got - I've got a - I've got a portfolio problem tonight. I'm sorry (ph).
CHETRY: Well, Barry White meet Fran Drescher. Another new study says that high-pitched women prefer deep-voiced, manly men. It was part of the really deep study, I guess, out of Scotland on what drives attraction and evolution.
ROBERTS: She does have a lovely voice.
CHETRY: Who, Fran?
ROBERTS: Oh, yes.
CHETRY: Yes. Sure does.
ROBERTS: Definitely (ph).
CHETRY: You just - I mean, you know, you just want to hear her laugh all the time, because that really - it's so warm and fuzzy to hear the laugh.
ROBERTS: Breaking news this morning from the human gene pool. This just in. New evidence suggest that Neanderthals and humans chose to make love and not war on occasion before the primitive species died out completely.
According to a team of German scientists, there's a little Neanderthal in all of us, or at least in most of us. Their DNA study of an ancient Neanderthal bone shows interbreeding with our closest evolutionary relatives occurred about 80,000 years ago. They say Europeans share as much as four percent of their DNA with Neanderthals.
The findings are published in the "Journal of Science".
CHETRY: Whew, only 4 percent. That's not much interbreeding.
ROBERTS: It's a significant four percent, though.
CHETRY: Yes. That's what makes you manly.
All right. Fifty-eight minutes past the hour. We're back.
ROBERTS: I just thought of something, but I can't say it on television.
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