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American Morning
BP's Latest Attempt to Stem Flow of Oil into the Gulf of Mexico; Justice Department Announces Possible Criminal Charges Against BP; Women in a New Era on Wall Street; Race to Save Wildlife; Living in the Shadow of a Chemical Plant
Aired June 02, 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 Wednesday morning to you. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. It's June 2nd. A big news day. A lot of operations going on in the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry.
The live camera is still up and running, and we're going to talk to you more in the next 15 minutes about whether or not the cut and cap operation is a success. It's now under way at the bottom of the Gulf. And BP is using robotic subs as well as power tools to cut through the gushing oil riser and that's when they'll then attempt to cap it. We could know later today if that operation is successful.
ROBERTS: Even if they are able to stop the leak soon, the environmental catastrophe is massive and only getting worse. At this hour, oil inching toward the Florida coastline now. We'll tell you when it could hit the white sandy beaches of the panhandle and maybe even the west coast.
CHETRY: And an "A.M." original, our special series "Making it in a Man's World," women running with the bulls on Wall Street. The recession has actually slowed them down. Could perhaps the voice of reason -- are they the voice of reason that perhaps prevents another collapse?
Also, we'll have our A.M. fix blog up and running for you, CNN.com/amfix.
ROBERTS: But first up this hour, cut, cap, and contain, the latest operation to save the Gulf happening right now. Robotic subs are trying to make a clean cut through a gushing oil pipe along with what's called a diamond wire saw. Then BP is going to attempt to cap it and contain the oil gushing out.
Not fast enough for the barrier islands along the Gulf shores, the oil now arriving at a small strip of land called Dauphin Island, Alabama sitting at the mouth of the Mobile Bay. Here's a map of where it is for you. Where's the map? There we are.
Because of that, the Alabama department of health is discouraging people from swimming in the waters. Cleanup crews are shoveling oil from the sand and scientists are currently testing the waters by the beaches. John Zarrella is on Dauphin Island this morning. John, it was a strange sight on the beaches yesterday.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it really was. I'm a little wet. I just took a walk down to the beach. You can see behind me with the light coming up, there's an inlet there and water coming in here. It's really several football fields from the parking lot that way all the way out to the beach across the white pristine sand.
And I did not see any oil on the beach this morning. But the tide appears to be really up. And what happened yesterday John, as the tide went out it left behind a lot of tar. And it wasn't just tar balls they had seen here in Dauphin Island back in May. This was globs of oil all across the stretch of beach here.
And with the heating of the sun it looked as if very much like chocolate that had melted in the sand.
Now there was also one of the folks at the state of Alabama at the health department saying it looked like it was weathered oil. Clearly it's been out of sea for 30, 40 or more days. Clearly weathered oil.
But we saw people out in the water who were actually in the water swimming in it, and it was a little boy that we saw who had his hands covered in the oil, and his mother's comment was when asked why are you letting him swim in the water, "We told them to keep their mouths closed."
Anyway, people are still out there in the water even though they probably shouldn't be. I can tell you this morning, behind me or in front of me in the distance, there's a cleanup crew already started. They are being briefed. They won't tell us who they work for if they are private contractors or state of Alabama or work for BP, but they have been briefed and wearing suits. And they apparently will be going out to scour the beaches.
This is the press register, Mobile, Alabama, newspaper, oil washes ashore on dolphin island. And the first four words of the article, "The Oil is Here." Certainly something that no one wanted to hear happen, expected the worst and of course that oil is continuing and expected to move eastward from here. John?
ROBERTS: John Zarrella in Dauphin Island. John, thanks so much. Kiran?
CHETRY: So we want to talk a little bit more about the latest operation trying to cap the well and siphon the oil. How is it actually going to happen? One of things we want to show you first of all is where it starts, and that's at the failed blowout preventer.
It's five stories tall and the area up top is called the lower marine riser pipe. Here it is. This is the pipe supposed to take the water and oil up to the rig. That's collapsed running along sea floor.
What they are going to do with this, they've already made one cut to the bottom part of that riser pipe. Now they'll make the second cut appear. Let me pause this for one second. Once the clean cut is made, you'll see a larger amount of oil spewing to the surface.
The White House says it could be anywhere from a 20 percent increase in oil as they attempt next part of the operation. This is the riskiest. They'll try to lower this cap, the lower marine riser cap on to this.
As they describe what it's like, it is like trying to land a dinner plate. So it is a very risky and precise operation, but if it is successful it will be capped and oil will be siphoned up to a waiting tanker.
So again, this is the process they'll try today. It is supposed to self-adhere once is actually does goes on the lower part of the marine riser package. So they'll do the first cut here, attempt the second cut there, and more oil will gush out until they can get the riser cap in place and hopefully this will contain -- again, this doesn't stop it.
There you see the live picture of what's going on underwater now. The oil is still gushing but again, hopefully they will be able to siphon it to the surface and we could find out as early as today whether or not this is successful. John?
ROBERTS: Hopefully it will be.
This morning there are new restrictions on fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, nearly a third of the gulf now off limits. In Mississippi where oil is washing ashore on the Barrier Islands, they have closed the eastern portion of the waters to all fishing.
Further east of Florida in what could be the fourth state to be hit by the slick, the oil could hit western Florida where the beach resort town of Pensacola is. Right now officials say the oil is less than ten miles off that coast, and with the winds blowing to the south, it could make landfall as early as today.
A bigger concern, will the oil make it to Key West and over into the Atlantic?
(WEATHER BREAK)
CHETRY: It is already by far the worst oil spill in U.S. history. It's a tragedy and a travesty. But now it also may be a crime. The Attorney General Eric Holder saying that a criminal investigation is underway.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We must also ensure that anyone found responsible for the spill is held accountable. That means enforcing the appropriate civil and, if warranted, criminal authorities to the full extent of the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Dan Lothian is live at the White House. Dan, is the Obama administration struggling a little bit when it comes to striking the right tone in the midst of this unfolding crisis?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They really are. Part of that is because they are getting criticism from all sides. You are expected to be hit by your enemies, but when your friends say you're not being aggressive enough in going after this crisis, that really hits home.
And so you're seeing the administration jumping on this, Attorney General Eric Holder going down to the Gulf and announcing this massive investigation that's been ongoing for weeks, not only a criminal but also civil investigation and pointing out they want to get to the bottom of it and make sure that anyone who has done anything wrong will be prosecuted.
Now, this will be a wide-ranging investigation. It will touch on the deaths of the 11 workers in the initial explosion and also look into possible false statements that were made, potential violations of the Oil Pollution Act or the Clean Water Act.
President Obama yesterday in the Rose Garden when he made an appearance there with two members of his newly formed oil commission talked about how important it is to get to the bottom of what went wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If the laws on our books are insufficient to prevent such a spill, the laws must change. If oversight was inadequate to enforce the laws, oversight has to be reformed.
If our laws were broken leading to this death and destruction, my solemn pledge is we will bring those responsible to justice on behalf of the victims of this catastrophe and the people of the Gulf region.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LOTHIAN: BP officials who say they have been cooperating with federal authorities in not only trying to cap this leak but also in mitigating this oil spreading onshore said yesterday that they also welcome this investigation and will cooperate with it. John?
ROBERTS: Dan, last night I spoke with Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen about the government's announcement that there would be no more joint briefings with BP anymore, that the government would do it themselves and Thad Allen would be the face of the government's response. Here's what he said about the move.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. THAD ALLEN, U.S. COAST GUARD NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: The real reason to do this, John, was to get me out so the American public can see what we're doing out here. I do a lot of traveling throughout the week, and rather than having a brief from a command post, it's good for the American people to know where we're at and what we're doing. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So the admiral said it's a practical thing here because I'm traveling around so much. But is the White House trying to take back the microphone here? I've seen statements from unnamed officials saying we don't trust what BP is saying, why would we want to be standing with them?
LOTHIAN: Part of it they do want to take back the mic and speak with one voice, and that is in response to the criticism that they need to show force here and take control of the situation.
But clearly administration officials have publicly said they are not happy with what BP has been doing in terms of being transparent and getting all of the information out there. One example is that it was the White House that released the information about when you cut the riser that there would be a 20 percent more greater flow rate, something that BP did not acknowledge.
And so they have been critical of BP in getting the information out there and laying out the full scope of this crisis. And that's the reason they want to get out there and give all of information, John.
ROBERTS: Dan Lothian for us from the White House this morning, thanks.
And tomorrow night, Larry King has an exclusive interview with President Obama now managing the worst oil spill in U.S. history on top of the economy and two wars. To say he has a lot on his plate is an understatement. Larry King and the president tomorrow night at 9:00 eastern right here on CNN.
CHETRY: Meantime at 12 minutes past the hour, U.S. officials are left walking a fine line between allies after Israel's raid on a Gaza- bound flotilla of aid. So what does it mean for America's relationship with Israel? We'll be live from the State Department, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: America's embassy in Tel Aviv confirming this morning that 16 Americans were on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla when Israel's military raided it early Monday morning. Two already have left Israel. The other 14 are still in prison this morning, and the White House now backing the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an investigation. Our foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty is tracking reaction live from Washington this morning.
Hi, Jill.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John. Well, John, right now, the organizers of that flotilla say they don't plan on stopping. They can send even more ships toward Gaza. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with Israel's defense minister and she's urging caution on all sides. But this just deepens the U.S. dilemma, how to keep U.S. priorities afloat when two key allies are at each other's throat.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOUGHERTY (voice-over): Anger over Israel's deadly clash aboard a civilian ship ricochets around the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Justice now. Justice now.
DOUGHERTY: Even to the gates of the White House, a noisy reminder of the Obama administration's diplomatic dilemma. Turkey's foreign minister arrives at the State Department for a meeting with Hillary Clinton. Originally focused on Iran, the talks now shift to the attack at sea. Just before that meeting, he tells CNN, the U.S. should condemn the Israeli attack.
AHMET DAVUTOGLU, TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER: Turkish, Italian, Greek, Swedish, many countries were attacked by the state, not by (INAUDIBLE) by a state, by intentional effect (ph). This is unacceptable.
DOUGHERTY: Israel says it regrets the loss of life, but it has nothing to apologize for.
YULI EDELSTEIN, ISRAELI MINISTER OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS: I don't think that this kind of provocation has any potential of changing anything in the U.S.-Israel relations.
DOUGHERTY: But the showdown leaves the U.S. in a tough spot. Plowing forward at the U.N. with a draft resolution on Iran sanctions, it wants Turkey's support. But Turkey wants U.S.'s support for an international, not just Israeli investigation of the flotilla raid, the cautious secretary won't go that far.
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: We support in the strongest terms the Security Council's call for a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation. We support an Israeli investigation that meets those criteria.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOUGHERTY: And all this could throw a wrench into the other top priority for the Obama administration and that's Mideast peace. Indirect talks between Israelis and Palestinians were just starting up again and the administration's point man on Mideast peace, George Mitchell, is heading back to the region -- John.
ROBERTS: All right. Jill Dougherty for us this morning. Jill, thanks.
CHETRY: Well, coming up, is another Deepwater Horizon disaster looming in the gulf? Experts say that a similar accident on BP's Atlantis oil rig would make Deepwater Horizon look like a, quote, "hiccup." Carol Costello is following that story for us. We're going to get her live report from New Orleans still ahead.
It's 18 minutes past the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. Twenty-one minutes past the hour right now. Forty-four days in and BP is still working to cap and contain the spewing oil. But there are new safety concerns now about another one of BP's offshore drilling platforms, problems that some say could dwarf the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Our Carol Costello is following the story for us. She's live in New Orleans this morning. It's the last thing many people want to hear is that something could be worse than what we're seeing here at the Deepwater Horizon.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, I know. There's a real fear something like that could happen again. And there are those who wish President Obama would order more intensive investigation into all of BP's operations. But especially one, Atlantis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): There's a lot we don't know about what caused this environmental disaster. But we do know this. At least two engineers fear it could happen again on another BP deep sea rig, 190 miles off the Louisiana coast. It's called Atlantis, the deepest deep water platform of its kind in the world.
MIKE SAWYER, ENGINEERING SAFETY CONSULTANT: It would look essentially like the horizon incident is just a hiccup if there was a singular incident aboard the Atlantis.
COSTELLO: Mike Sawyer, an engineer working with whistle blower and former Atlantis engineer Ken Abbott, told us they've examined thousands of BP's internal documents. They share the information with Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva, who found it so disturbing that he and 18 other lawmakers sent a letter to the Minerals Management Service, or MMS, the agency that regulates the oil industry. Atlantis may be operating without crucial engineering documents which, if absent, would increase the risk of a catastrophic accident.
SAWYER: The engineering drawings and specifications are the primary means that workers use to ensure that they can operate platforms safely and can ensure that they can shut it down or at least control any unsafe events.
COSTELLO: BP told us in a statement this matter was settled in 2009 after a similar lawsuit was filed by the very same whistle blower. BP says that suit was dismissed after investigators found Atlantis absolutely is safe. But that's not enough anymore.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: If BP can imagine this kind of a disaster and federal officials cater to the oil industry, then who is looking out for you?
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: The consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch posted this web ad after joining forces with Abbott. They filed a lawsuit against MMS for failing to provide proof Atlantis is absolutely safe.
WENONAH HAUTER, FOOD & WATER WATCH: BP Atlantis should be shut down until the safety information can be verified. And there should be an immediate investigation of all of the operating platforms beginning with BP to make sure that their safety information is available and in order.
COSTELLO: But the Obama administration and MMS have no plans to order Atlantis to halt operations, although MMS now says it's launched its own investigation into safety operations on the Atlantis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: BP has 20 deepwater platforms including Atlantis. And although MMS is investigating Atlantis right now, it says Atlantis is safe so it will continue its operations -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Let's hope so. The last thing they need is another problem to add on to this one. Thanks, Carol.
ROBERTS: The lonely woman on the trading floor, why ties still outnumber pumps and pearls on Wall Street. It's part two of our "A.M. Original" series, "Making It in a Man's World."
It's 25 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-seven minutes after the hour. We're "Minding Your Business" this morning. And this week, we're taking a special look at how women are making it in a man's world.
CHETRY: For women on Wall Street, it has always been an uphill battle and the great recession has only made that harder.
Christine Romans joins us now with a look. You were there.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes.
CHETRY: You used to be down there on the floor covering this whole thing, right?
ROMANS: And I covered Wall Street for 15 years, starting in Chicago, so it's LaSalle Street. I'm telling you it's really changed a lot. I mean, 15 years ago, when I first started working on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, women had just gotten the right to wear skirts. They had to wear pants before that.
CHETRY: The right to wear skirts.
ROMANS: Right. Interesting, right?
OK. So you go to grueling business school. You nail a Wall Street job. You work 73 hours a week to keep it in an industry that's two-thirds men. Women who had to work so hard to break in to the man's world of Wall Street are making it just in time to have to fix it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The value --
ROMANS (voice-over): When these guys want to pull their hair out, Sara Farneti is the only one who can put hers in a ponytail. In a room of 19 sports-loving men, she's learned how to fit right in.
SARA FARNETI, TRADER, BNY MELLON: I have a great time. And I learn a lot more about sports. I take golf lessons. At one time, I could tell you all the names of the Mets players. Not anymore, but at one point I could tell you that.
ROMANS: If Sara is the only one in her Wall Street dugout, it's not unusual. In finance, the majority of women are administrative workers the industry supported. Center for Work-Life Policy says only 14 percent are executives. Karen Peetz is one of them.
(on camera): It is known as a man's world on Wall Street.
KAREN PEETZ, SNR. EXEC. VP, BNY MELLON: It is. It is.
ROMANS: Why do you think that is? And has that changed since you've been in the business (ph)?
PEETZ: Yes. Well, I think it is known for that because there are mostly men at the top.
ROMANS (voice-over): In fact, not a single woman has ever been chief executive of a major financial institution. Aside from what may be a glass ceiling, the long hours are also a challenge for most women. The average workweek on Wall Street, 73 hours.
(on camera): At a time when women are really hitting their peak in their professional career --
PEETZ: Right.
ROMANS: When they should be doing networking --
PEETZ: Right.
ROMANS: -- it's also the same time they're hitting their peak in their home life.
PEETZ: Absolutely.
ROMANS: And that's something that's a real -- it's a hurdle.
PEETZ: Absolutely. It's a hurdle, and I think what I counsel a lot of young women about is you're just not going to have that much time to yourself if you go, if you go kind of whole hog into the job and then as equally into the family. Then what gives is a lot of your personal time. And so many women are willing to give that up. But some aren't.
ROMANS (voice-over): A work life tradeoff Morgan Stanley managing director Carla Harris denies.
CARLA HARRIS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MORGAN STANLEY: It's very important that you understand that this is a client business. And your mantra should be when your client says jump, the answer is how high. And you need to figure out how that works for you. But I in no way think that it is mutually exclusive. That in order to be successful in this business you can't have an outside life, you can't have a real family life, you can't have a philanthropic life. That, again, is a perception. That is not reality.
ROMANS: Karen Peetz does believe attitudes about what women bring to Wall Street are improving and hopes that that will lift their stock.
(on camera): Some women who we have interviewed have told us you almost have to be a better manager than the men because you can't come off like the queen bee and can't come off too soft?
KAREN PEETZ, SNR. EXEC., VP., BNY MELLON: absolutely. There's a lot of - absolutely there's a lot of kind of human interaction that is different and often people say, well, you know, is it harder being a woman? I think it's actually easier because you can use some of those personal skills. And you're also memorable because there aren't that many of you. So people will remember.
ROMANS: True.
PEETZ: And that's OK.
ROMANS: And just like Sara -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It would just be nice to say I'm the first woman to hold this role of this company.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: She's still optimistic. Sara is. But the Center for Work Life Policy surveyed Wall Street women and found they were twice as likely as men to want to quit amid the implosion of the industry and the mass layoffs over the past couple of years because reputation matters to these women.
Now some are saying, why stick around? Why work 73 hours a week in an industry whose reputation is in the gutter basically, when I can go off and make really good money somewhere else? Or maybe have a better home life. Others say, no, no, no, we worked really hard. It's women now who are in charge of trying to fix it.
CHETRY: Very interesting take. (INAUDIBLE) and she could name all of the Mets players at one point.
ROMANS: At one point, she could.
CHETRY: And the golf lessons, I love it. Christine, thanks.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Tomorrow, the hard hitting the glass ceiling. Fewer than 15 percent of people employed in construction are women and many of those jobs are behind desks. Our Deb Feyerick will visit one woman on the job site who is trying to help America rebuild, where else, ground zero. "Making it in a Man's World" tomorrow only here on AMERICAN MORNING.
CHETRY: 31 minutes past the hour right now. Time for a look at our top stories.
The oil slick in the gulf is moving east now and oil is washing ashore on the barrier islands of Mississippi and Alabama. All while BP's cut and cap operation is unfolding on the ocean floor. Robotics subs with power tools are cutting through the gushing riser pipe. BP then hopes to be able to cap it and contain the leaking crude. We'll know whether or not it was a success perhaps as early as later today.
ROBERTS: Federal investigators are preparing to enter a West Virginia coal mine where 29 workers were killed by an explosion nearly two months ago. Toxic gases have kept everyone out since the victim's bodies were removed from the site back in April.
CHETRY: Also more states are requiring gym classes in school. But that doesn't mean that our kids are actually getting in shape. There's a report co-authored by the American Heart Association that says there's actually rise in the number of exemptions and waivers being requested by students who want to skip PE. And for those who do attend gym class, not enough qualified instructors.
ROBERTS: No matter how effective BP's latest attempt to stop the oil is, the spill will continue to threaten the wildlife - birds, fish, crab, sea turtles. They all live and breath in the marshlands. And it is now a race against time to rescue these animals from a ruthless killer.
Our Rob Marciano is following that part of the story for us this morning. He is in New Orleans live. Good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, John. It is a race against time for sure. A long race it's going to be over the coming months and even years. As you mentioned, there's hundreds, hundreds of species that are affected by this oil spill. And there's also hundreds, if not thousands of people trying to help them. But getting to the animals, well, that's no easy task.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Start working the shoreline and up to the point.
MARCIANO (voice-over): Their job is to find and save wildlife. Around here, these guys are busy. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got a complaint about 10 oiled birds as about the extent of the complaint. Our location is top (INAUDIBLE), 10 oiled birds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger that.
MARCIANO: The main tools are boats and binoculars.
JANE LYDER, DEPT. OF THE INTERIOR: We're very careful though in these marsh areas. You walk on a marsh area, you really damage the habitat.
MARCIANO: So they search by foot only when they spot something significant.
Over on the beach we thought we saw a dead pelican, not dead, but maybe heavily oiled, very stressed pelican. So he even walked over there to check it out and turned out to be two clumps of glass. The good news is no oiled birds.
MARCIANO: When they do find oiled birds, they are brought to rescue centers like this one in Louisiana.
(on camera): This warehouse has been turned into a bird rescue facility. The oiled birds are washed and rinsed here. Then they are placed in these containers where they rest, they rehabilitated until they are ready to be released. The number of live birds coming in here, well they are all accounted for but the number of deaths attributed to this oil spill, that's a little less clear.
(voice-over): The fact is, many birds killed by this oil spill will never be found. The wetlands too vast. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has 20 teams that scour the spill affected area every day. Responding quickly is key. So they sleep on barges right in the marsh.
RHODA MURGATROYD, BP, WILDLIFE BRANCH DIRECTOR: This is the living quarters for the recon and recovery team. They live on the barge 24/7.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sleeps six. Capable of sleeping six in each of these 12 by 12 rooms. It's crowded but at the end of a long day -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Much better than a tent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's home sweet home. I tell you what, we sleep very well.
MARCIANO: As long as there's oil in the water, the battle to save the gulf's wildlife goes on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be here for a while. Right now we have crews - we have staff rotating in and out of here on a two-week basis. And we're here for the long haul. We'll be here a while.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Since the spill, 500 dead birds have been collected. Most of those, I should note, didn't have oil on them. 78 oiled birds were rescued and so far 24 of those birds have been released. So that's the good news there. 228 turtles recovered dead. Only one of those oiled, I should note. But 25 of those - 25 turtles have been rescued.
Also should note, we beg these guys for three weeks to try to go out with them on a boat and watch them do their heroic work but they pointed out to me, it's kind of like going hunting. It's not easy to catch a wild bird. So they finally let us tag along in a separate boat and we're certainly thankful for that. And they'll be back at it again today, 20 teams of them on a daily basis. John.
ROBERTS: Great that you got the opportunity finally, Rob, to see that up close. Rob Marciano this morning in New Orleans, thanks.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, Israel's raid on an aid flotilla in Gaza is causing a strain on its relationship with Washington and also a fierce global backlash. Up next, we're going to be speaking with former U.S. ambassador Edward Peck. He was actually part of the flotilla. We're going to get his take on what he says really happened.
It's 37 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: We now know that 16 Americans were on the aid flotilla heading to Gaza that Israeli forces raided earlier Monday morning. 14 of them are still in jail in Israel, according to the American embassy in Tel Aviv.
CHETRY: And the incident is causing a heavy strain on relations between Israel and the White House. With all the conflicting information, many are still wondering what really happened during that pre-dawn raid.
Here to tell his side of the story, is the former U.S. ambassador, who is part of the flotilla, Edward Peck.
Thanks for joining us this morning.
EDWARD PECK, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR: I'm honored, thank you.
CHETRY: We just want to be clear, for people who are watching, that you are not on the actual ship where the violence occurred and the deaths occurred but you were on a ship behind it. Tell us what this Palestine Freedom Movement is about and how you came to be involved.
PECK: I was invited - the whole flotilla was a European organizational effort. At sort of the last minute they decided they wanted to get some Americans on board. And so they contacted the Free Palestine Moment which in turn contacted me knowing that I am what to be described as an activist. But I spent most of my time talking and meeting people in the Middle East and bringing people together in trying to get some understanding. So I thought I would take part in something concrete, if you'll excuse the expression, something tactile, tangible you could see and measure.
So I signed up for this thing. The purpose, Kiran, was humanitarian. It posed no threat to anybody. We were unarmed. We were just escorting supplies into a badly mistreated and suffering people in Gaza in the hopes that that would help them and call attention to the fact that they were indeed suffering.
ROBERTS: Ambassador Peck, this is John Roberts here. Of course, a situation like this you get very different sides to the story.
PECK: Indeed.
ROBERTS: The Israelis say there was a blockade at Gaza, you were breaking the law by trying to run that blockade. He also said that when the Israeli forces boarded the other five ships, including one that you were on, there was no violence. There wasn't exactly a welcoming party there either. But on the sixth ship there was a very different story. Here's what he told me last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YULI EDELSTEIN, ISRAELI MINISTER OF INFORMATION: They are definitely not peace activists. They were a gang carrying axes, knives and baseball bats and so on. Some of them apparently guns because one of the soldiers was wounded. There was a gun that is not an Israeli gun. So the soldiers were brutally attacked. So saw the pictures. The whole world sees the pictures. They had to react. I mean, the soldiers felt they were in immediate danger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: That's the Israeli side of the story from Yuli Edelstein who is the Israeli Minister of Public Affairs, and certainly the IDF has video that shows their soldiers were being attacked. So what do you say to that side of the story?
PECK: Well, what I would say is that the people on the ship were defending. Here they are on a ship in international waters, 600 people men and women making a peaceful effort to bring humanitarian aid into their environment comes heavily armed - and they were heavily armed, don't go for paint gun thing, I was there.
And there was a scuffle on our ship. People were injured. But here come a bunch of guys, heavily armed to take over the ship forcibly and take it to Israel where they want to go. Now, who's attacking, John? And who is defending? They were defending their ship against armed people coming to do things to them that they didn't want done. I call that defense.
CHETRY: What do you see in the video though? You say it was a peaceful situation, but they obviously had weapons. I mean whether they were crude weapons -
PECK: They had pictures. A deck chair is not a weapon. Anyway -
CHETRY: We just saw there were pipes, I mean they look like pipe sticks, I mean whatever you want to call them they were hitting the soldiers with.
PECK: Goodness, that is terrible, but they in turn were killed. They said, "look, we don't want you here on this ship. You are attacking us." Now, I'm not saying that one side was right and one side was wrong. Because that can come from the two sides.
But the use of these words concerns me. Because I'm defending this ship. You're attacking it.
ROBERTS: But Ambassador Peck, you said yourself -
PECK: Yes.
ROBERTS: - the situation on board your vessel was entirely different than that. That there was a small scuffle, but not to that degree. Do you have any idea and I know that in preparation for this trip you discussed what would happen if the Israelis intervened. Do you have any idea why things in that one particular ship was so different than they were on yours?
PECK: I think possibly because, you know, in our case, ours was a very small boat, quite crowded and the Israelis, you know, I was dozing and the Israelis stepped from their deck right on to ours and poop, it was over, essentially.
There was a scuffle up around the wheel house where people tried to offer passive resistance. So we had - the ship's captain was pretty badly hurt. He had to have a neck brace. We had doctors with us. When we got to Israel, they took us off the ship with the wounded first, you know, with crutches and bandages and slings and all kinds of stuff -
CHETRY: Right.
PECK: Because the soldiers behaved like people who had a military mission to carry out and they weren't going to let us keep them from doing it. But on the other ship where there was 600 people, men and women, families really as I gather, there were no families on our ship.
The people said, "hey, you know, you can't do this." So you take whatever is to have.
CHETRY: Right.
PECK: And I have noticed that it's been kind of interesting that the people in Israel have referred to all of us as terrorist Hamas supporting, you know, anti-Semitic Israel haters. And I've said to journalists, John, Kiran, what do you think they were going to call us, tree-hugging pacifists?
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: But, you know, what about the damage, Don. I mean, in terms of Israel's standing in the world, in terms of U.S.-Israel relations, I mean, regardless of how this turns out and what the results of the investigation are, there is an enormous amount of anger on all sides.
PECK: And the thing that is unfortunate is that many of us, people like myself are perhaps unrealistically hopeful that the Israeli government would have seen that this was an opportunity to have it go just the other way, and to have it be seen, you know, welcoming the cargo ships. You don't have to let the passenger boats in because they are not contributing anything. We want these escorts. Let the boats in and let them see that we're being a little liberal and free and behaving correctly. Instead, Israel decided to go the way it went, which is -- no one in their right mind, in his or her right mind wants anything bad to happen to one single Israeli.
And I recognize that a lot of people don't qualify for inclusion for one American or one Palestinian. But the sad fact of the matter is that bad things had happened, are happening and will happen to all three groups because of what's going on there.
So our hope is let's put a wedge into the situation and provide an opportunity for a peaceful humanitarian act to be seen as accepted by everyone.
Last thing, one of the ships that is still going is called The Rachel Cory. Do you know who Rachel Cory was?
ROBERTS: Yes.
PECK: She was crushed by a bulldozer in Gaza some years ago. And the Israelis have said, I saw a piece in the paper this morning, that their response is going to be even more proactive than it was before. I hope they don't do it. It will not serve Israel's interest and certainly not America's.
ROBERTS: Ambassador Edward Peck. It's good to talk to you this morning, and hear your side of the story. Thanks so much for joining us.
PECK: A pleasure, sir.
ROBERTS: It's 47 minutes after the hour.
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JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING, I'm meteorologist Jacqui Jeras with your travelers forecast for today. Boy, a rough start across parts of the upper Midwest with some very stormy conditions, across parts of Illinois on into Indiana.
Indianapolis getting hit with very heavy rain right now. And you can see our live lightning. We could see some damaging wind with these lines of thunderstorms, and we also have some very heavy wet weather over here to Kansas City. Expect to see a good one to three inches of rain coming down. And we could see some flood concerns across the entire area. So be aware of any pounding on the roadways throughout the day today.
The forecast as we hit into the afternoon is more thunderstorms developing, and they could be severe from the eastern great lakes stretching down towards the southern plain states. High pressure is trying to control you here across parts of the east. But we will see foggy conditions this morning and then pop-up thunderstorms again in the afternoon.
Quite a few delays expected. We've got ground stop already at both O'Hare and Midway due to those thunderstorms. And look at those delays from New York down towards Charlotte, especially seeing some delays across parts of the Midwest.
Temperature wise, it's been very hot and sticky here, looking for highs in the 80s and 90s. Cool weather continues across parts of the northwest.
I'll have the detailed forecast and what the weather could be impacting on the oil spill, that's coming up next hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
John and Kiran will be back after this break.
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ROBERTS: 53-1/2 minutes after the hour. Time for an "AM House Call," stories about your health.
A CNN special investigation "Toxic America" premiers tonight.
CHETRY: Mossville, Louisiana is a small town surrounded by chemical plant. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been looking at how pollution has affected the health of the people living there.
Sanjay joins us now from New Orleans.
Good morning, Sanjay.
It is a topic people talk about a lot, concerns about what the environment does to all of us. Why did you decide to tackle this issue?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think about it a lot, as well, you know. What are the potential toxins in the air that we're breathing, the water we're drinking, the food we're eating? You know, science wants hard data, which I completely understand. The problem often, Kiran, is it can take decades to get the hard data to draw the cause-and-effect relationship.
And the real question I was trying to answer is, is there a stacking evidence about some of these chemicals, and if there is, what can we specifically do about it? That's what I really was trying to address in these documentaries.
ROBERTS: And so what did you find out about this town of Mossville?
GUPTA: You know, it's -- as you mention, it's a small town. It's primarily African-American town. It's disenfranchised. It's surrounded by 14 chemical plants in part because chemical plants can build in communities that are disenfranchised like this. You're not going to see 14 chemical plants scribe up around Manhattan or Rancho Santa Fe, for example.
People literally live across the fence line. There are chemical plants and there is a fence, and there is a fence line. And they've been told for decades the fence line protects them, which obviously makes no sense. And people believe they're getting sick there because of their exposure to chemicals.
You know, I put up flyers around the town to create a town hall meeting, and I wasn't sure what kind of attendance we'd get. A lot of people showed up. And it was pretty remarkable what they had to say.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: By show of hands, how many of you live within a mile of some sort of chemical plant? That's about all of you.
How many people here have had either themselves or a family member affected in some way through illness or something else because of what they believe to be chemical plants?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had one kidney removed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Encephalitis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had to begin steroids because I had bad asthma.
GUPTA: All these health problems.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a white blood count that is dropping. Every two years, it's going down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both of my kidneys is gone.
GUPTA: As a doctor, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I go to dialysis three days a week.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My daughter suffered with endometriosis to the point where she had to have a total hysterectomy done. I end up having the total hysterectomy like most young women do in this area, and they don't like to discuss it. GUPTA: Most women have hysterectomy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
GUPTA: You did?
You did, too? And you believe it's because, again, of this pollution?
Chemical detective Wilma Subra has been studying Mossville's pollution for years. She lives 100 miles down the road in New Iberia, Louisiana.
WILMA SUBRA, CHEMICAL DETECTIVE: All of those people are being heavily exposed to a large quantity of very toxic chemicals.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: One of the chemicals that she is really been studying quite a bit is called dioxin. It is one of the most toxic substances known to man, literally toxic in parts per trillion.
Let me tell you. They've been fighting to try and get some help for decades. What was great, I think, in many ways is that sometime during the filming of this documentary, they scored a major victory in terms of getting some of that help, and we'll certainly talk all about that as well during the documentary.
CHETRY: That's just unbelievable to hear people list off their health problems like that. I mean, person after person. It's shocking.
GUPTA: You know, just about every young woman has had a hysterectomy in this town. They believe dioxins are correlated with uterine fibroids, sometimes uterine cancer. Again, this is not hard and fast scientific data, but looking at stream example like this and some answers are to emerge.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we're very interested in watching the rest of it.
Sanjay, thank you.
And you can watch the CNN special investigation "Toxic America." It starts tonight and continues tomorrow night 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN. We're going to take a quick break. Your top stories just two minutes away.
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