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American Morning
More Tests for BP; Tracking Slicks from the Sky; Department of Agriculture Employee Forced to Resign After Withholding Assistance; Al Qaeda Terror 'How to Guide' Surfaces Online; The Science of Sleep; Rebuilding after the Storm
Aired July 20, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. It's Tuesday, July the 20th. Thanks so much for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. We have a lot to talk about this morning, so let's get right to it.
There is new hope this morning for possibly, a permanent solution to kill the well. BP is conducting more tests on the well today to try to figure out if low pressure readings mean that there's a leak somewhere beneath the ocean bed. But now, there's a new plan on the table to kill the well for good. It is called the static kill operation. And Rob Marciano will be live with details on how it would work.
ROBERTS: The tape doesn't tell the whole story. That's what Shirley Sherrod, an official at the Department of Agriculture who is forced to resign, tells us in an exclusive interview. So, what did she mean when a video clip appears to show her describing how she withheld assistance to a farmer because he was white?
CHETRY: Also, a source now telling that the feds know who's behind an online al Qaeda magazine. The terror how-to guide surfaced last week. Well, now the government is on the trail of a 23-year-old American who went to Yemen last October and never came back. We're talking to a terrorist expert in this morning's security watch.
ROBERTS: And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running, as it is every day. Join the live conversation going on right now. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX.
CHETRY: Certainly a lot like trying to find a needle in a haystack. BP is now running more, as they call them, integrity tests on the capped oil well with one question in mind: Where is the leak? There are low pressure readings that suggest there might be one somewhere, even though scientists say that methane gas that's been bubbling up from the ocean floor and that methane gas actually appears to be occurring naturally.
ROBERTS: Still, the containment cap will remain closed to another 24 hours today as the tests continue. And there is a dramatic new development unfolding right now. A technique called "static kill" may be attempted to try to seal that well for good. It involves pumping heavy mud into the containment cap to force all of the oil and gas back down the wellbore to the reservoir where it came from.
Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, geological consultant Arthur Berman told us he doesn't see a downside to trying the procedure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARTHUR BERMAN, GEOLOGICAL CONSULTANT: You're not really introducing pressure. You're putting an additional fluid, which is heavier than the oil that's in the pipe, it's going to sink to the bottom. And because of the weight of the fluid, it's going to counterbalance the pressure in the formation and kill the well. So, I don't see the introduction of mud as being a big risk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: There's some good news.
The blimp, by the way, will be taking a look over the skies of the Alabama coast, in search of more oil slick this morning. And only CNN can bring you the exclusive access to this critical operation. From the air, crew members will report oil sightings to skimmer vessels on the water. This enables them to get there more quickly so that the crude can be cleaned up before it does any damage.
ROBERTS: Our Rob Marciano is live in Orange Beach, Alabama, this morning where the skimmer vessels are mobilizing.
But we begin this morning with Amber Lyon, who has been granted unprecedented access to the air ship that's scheduled to lift off just a short time from now. So, you'll be taking to the skies soon. Amber, what will you be looking for?
AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're definitely going to be looking for oil and injured wildlife. And, normally when you see these things they are flying over supporting events with advertisement on the side. Well, today, the Coast Guard says this blimp is going to be the newest tool in spotting oil.
You know, in about an hour and a half, we're actually going to be getting in that basket, which is known as a gondola, taking off, gliding over the Gulf. We're going to be looking for any oil slicks. Also, many any boom that might be out of place. In addition, any injured wildlife.
Now, when we spot that, we're going to radio down to a boat that Rob Marciano is going to be riding on and then he's going to direct the skimmer vessels around that boat so that they can assist the wildlife or go ahead and start skimming up some of that oil.
We spoke with the Coast Guard. They say this blimp is actually the greener alternative to the oil spill cleanup. In the past, they've been using helicopter and planes to survey oil slicks. And if you just do a little comparison here, a helicopter uses about 150 gallons of fuel an hour. This blimp, about 10 gallons. In addition to that, a helicopter can stay out over the Gulf for about 3 1/2 hours on average, whereas this blimp can stay out for about 10 to 12 hours.
Now, you might asking yourself, today is day 92. What the heck took the Coast Guard so long to get this what they consider more efficient machine out here to look for the oil? They say it's just been a lot of red tape and approval process.
But once again, we're getting unprecedented access -- actually going to be sitting inside of the blimp flying over the water in about an hour and a half. So, stay tuned to CNN. We'll be bringing you updates all day long -- John and Kiran.
ROBERTS: All right. Looking forward to it, Amber Lyon for us live this morning -- Amber, thanks.
CHETRY: All right. So, here to talk about the other half of this critical air and sea coast operation -- Coast Guard operation is our Rob Marciano. He is live in Orange Beach, Alabama, and that's where the skimmers mobilized from.
Good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kiran. And good morning, John.
If there's one thing I've learned in the three months of covering this oil spill, nothing is as easy as it seems. And skimming oil and finding that oil is a challenge. There are so many small patches of it out there. It's not like the Exxon Valdez or tanker spill where you've just got one oil field that you have to combat. There are multiple battlefronts that you have to endure and just finding that oil is certainly a huge, huge challenge.
Being out on the Coast Guard cutter myself, you look at them from the top of the crow's nest and top of the bridge to see all of that that way, it's tough to do. So, this blimp is going to be a huge advantage.
Now, here at Orange Beach, just over my left shoulder, Vessels of Opportunity are beginning to head out now to their assignments. There's been one skimmer out there that's been out there all morning long.
We're going to be using smaller skimmers today because the oil slicks that are out there are fairly small. So, we've got hundreds of them out there in the Gulf in the past couple of weeks. So, surrounding these smaller spots is going to be the key.
You know, they had that big tanker, that big tanker, three football size -- three football field size long that they were going to use to just suck up all of this oil. Well, they did a number of tests and said, you know what? It's just too big. It's not going to work in this particular oil spill.
So, we have to use these smaller oil skimmers. And that's what we're going to be doing today. As Amber mentioned, I'm going to be on the command boat. We're going to be listening to what Amber's blimp is saying as far as the recon goes, and then we're going to order the skimming boats around us to position them in the most effective way to skim up some of this oil.
It's going to be a fascinating live look that you'll see all day on CNN and we're pretty excited to bring you that television -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. We look forward to seeing it, too. Thanks, Rob.
ROBERTS: And be sure to join Rob Marciano for his special report, by the way, "Rescue: Saving the Gulf." Rob takes inside the largest, most ambitious cleanup job ever on the shore of the last three years. It's Saturday and Sunday night, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, it's seven minutes past the hour.
Developing this morning: Shirley Sherrod -- she's the Department of Agriculture's development director for Georgia who resigned yesterday. Responding an exclusive interview to video that surfaced apparently showed Sherrod telling an NAACP that race played a factor in her decision to withhold help from a white farmer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHIRLEY SHERROD, USDA OFFICIAL: I was struggling with the fact that so many black people have lost their farmland and here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land -- so, I don't give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: All right. So, that's a snippet from the tape. But when we talked to Sherrod earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, she told us that the video clip does not tell the whole story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERROD (via telephone): I told them about a time when I thought the issue was race and race only. And I told them the story of how I have worked with a white farmer back in 1986. I was not working for the Department of Agricultural. I was working with a nonprofit organization, assisting farmers throughout South Georgia and the Southeast.
And this farmer came to me for help. I was telling the story about how working with him helped me to see that the issue is not about race. It's about those who have versus those who do not have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: That she would have fought the pressure to step down but she did not have the support of the Department of Agriculture. She also says it's unfortunate that the NAACP would release a statement about her situation, supporting her resignation without knowing all of the facts. But we do want to pass along to you that we have taken her transcript from this morning. We have given it to the Department and the NAACP to see if they have anything further to say in light of her own defense here this morning.
CHETRY: All right. And meanwhile, we're going to check in with Jacqui Jeras right now. She's tracking extreme weather for us today. And you do have (INAUDIBLE) in the country's midsection.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we really do. You know, people are waking up and rolling their eyes this morning, saying, really, again? Again, we're waking up to showers and thunderstorms?
And this is really renewing our flooding concerns for folks who live in Iowa, Missouri, and throughout much of the Ohio River Valley. Torrential downpours here again today. Some of the thunderstorms may be severe and we could be talking about another two to five inches on top of what you already have. And that's easily going to aggravate some of the area, creeks and smaller streams as well. So, be aware that you're going to run across some roads that probably have water over them today.
Our biggest concern for the severe weather threat stretches all the way from eastern Colorado, into the state of Ohio, possibly kind of nudging into western Pennsylvania later today. Damaging winds, but we can't rule out a few isolated tornadoes. The heat will stay on the south side of this system.
So, those of you that saw it yesterday, you're going to see it again unfortunately. Dallas, Houston, well into the 90s. A little cooler into the northern tier. We've got some excessive heat in the southwest, too, even Phoenix at 111 degrees.
We're keeping our eye on the Tropics, looking at a little area of disturbed weather that's just north of Puerto Rico that could develop into a little something, heading towards the Gulf. We'll talk more about that coming up.
And an update for you this morning -- check out these pictures. You may remember if you saw this earlier, we might now know what the strange flying object was over China earlier this month that shut down an airport and create a lot of speculation on YouTube and many media outlets. An MIT technology analyst says that this video is not a UFO but likely a Chinese ballistic missile. He says the video was fake, with the software program Photoshop. Kind of disappoint to a few space enthusiasts out there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What? Photoshop?
ROBERTS: There's nothing real anymore. Nothing.
JERAS: What do you do? That Photoshop tricks you every time, doesn't it?
CHETRY: This is real. Are you ready? This is real.
A guy who goes by the name Hungry Bear 9562 on YouTube has become a full-on Internet sensation of keyboard cap proportion.
ROBERTS: Which of course isn't really.
CHETRY: Because he really, really likes rainbows. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUNGRY BEAR 9562: Whoa! That's a full rainbow. All the way. Double rainbow. Oh, my God. It's a double rainbow all the way. Whoa. That's so intense.
Whoo! Oh, wow! Double rainbow all the way across the sky. This is so bright. Oh, my god. It's so bright and vivid. Oh! Oh! Oh! It's so beautiful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Will Ferrell could play him in a movie.
ROBERTS: True. True.
CHETRY: Wow. I mean, I love seeing rainbows myself, but --
ROBERTS: You know, if we're talking about the 1960s and 1970s, some people might think that description that was slightly enhanced by something.
CHETRY: Yes, exactly.
ROBERTS: But the clip has gotten close to six million hits on YouTube alone, and of course, it's also out there in other forms -- already all kind of remixes, as you can imagine and auto tunes of double rainbow man. How would an auto tune of rainbow man sound?
We'll it's beautiful.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: There would be a lot of moaning.
ROBERTS: He says that the camera could not truly capture the vivid intensity and the brightness.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: His audio track certainly helps. It's something like a Hindenburg description for a double rainbow.
CHETRY: Wow.
ROBERTS: There you are, oh, the humanity.
CHETRY: Yes. Well, everyone is talking about "Inception." We haven't seen it yet, but did you see it yesterday actually?
ROBERTS: No. CHETRY: No.
All right. Well, I'm going sometime soon because everyone is raving about it. And other people are also saying, is that actually possible? Is there any reality behind the science of getting into people's dreams? We'll talk about it.
ROBERTS: All right. And the controversy heating up over building an Islamic center just a couple of blocks from ground zero.
CNN's Allen Chernoff speaks to the man behind the provocative ad that's seeking to stop construction of that mosque. We'll have that story for you coming right up.
It's 14 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 16 minutes now after the hour. The fight over the plan to build an Islamic Center near the site of the World Trade Center is reaching a new level of nasty this morning.
CHETRY: A conservative group is using graphic footage of 9/11 as well as militant Muslims in a new ad against it titled, The Audacity of Jihad. Allan Chernoff talked to the man behind that ad and he joins us now. A lot of very, very high emotions on both sides of this debate.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And the producer, the writer, Scott Wheeler, he turned his passion for political ads into opposition to that mosque and community center that is being planned right near the World Trade Center. As I said, he wrote the ad, he produced it, but he couldn't sell it. Have a look at it and you will see if it's anything but subtle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF (voice-over): NBC and CBS turned down this ad opposing a mosque near Ground Zero.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And to celebrate the murder of 3,000 Americans, they want to build a monstrous 13-storey mosque at Ground Zero.
CHERNOFF: Those are the words of ad producer, Scott Wheeler.
SCOTT WHEELER, AD CREATOR: We know that in the past, Muslims have established mosques at locations where they want to declare dominion.
CHERNOFF: Wheeler who has served a year and a half in the army, runs a small political action committee, the National Republican Trust Pact. It has no ties to the Republican Party, no full-time staff. When he learned about plans to build an Islamic Community Center that would include a mosque two blocks north of Ground Zero, he says he had to send a warning. The mosque would be a victory for the terrorists. CHERNOFF (on camera): The people establishing this facility, you think they are celebrating the murder of 3,000 people?
WHEELER: I think so.
CHERNOFF: How are they celebrating?
WHEELER: Well, by erecting a mosque to their martyrs, which they have traditionally done all over the world.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Those martyrs, claims Wheeler, are the 19 hijackers of the 9/11 planes.
WHEELER: You can also look at how many Muslims see mosques. They see them as military barracks.
CHERNOFF (on camera): Do you think this would be a military barrack?
WHEELER: Well, they call the faithful their soldiers.
CHERNOFF: The fact is, this building has been functioning as a prayer space since last fall. The Friday midday prayer, the most important for Muslims, this place is packed with more than 400 worshippers.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Those congregants, just a handful come on most days, say Wheeler's claims are outrageous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's tremendously offensive as a Muslim New Yorker and an American that anyone would make the attempt to associate myself, who is a proud American, whose family served as first responders.
CHERNOFF: The property developer, and the Imam, waiting for approval from New York's Landmark Commission to erect a new building here, they say their intent is to provide a community center that can improve relations with non-Muslims. But, Scott Wheeler, who is using the ad controversy to try to raise funds for his pact maintains that there is a connection to the 2001 attack.
CHERNOFF (on camera): Can you show us any proof that the people behind this community center have ties to Al Qaeda?
WHEELER: I think there has been proof in the media already. Not to Al Qaeda -- why do you keep asking me about Al Qaeda? I said we don't know.
CHERNOFF: Aren't they the ones behind 9/11?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF: Scott Wheeler may not have any proof that Al Qaeda is funding the actual mosque or the community center. But he does have some support. 52% of New Yorkers according to a poll are opposed to the community center mosque near Ground Zero. ROBERTS: I'm curious, what did he say in response to what you said when he asked why are we talking about Al Qaeda? Aren't they the ones responsible for 9/11?
CHERNOFF: He seems to mix all Muslims together essentially. Saying, you know, hey look, people on the West Bank, cheering when the towers went down. Therefore, mosques should not be built. The head of Turkey has made some inflammatory remarks therefore mosques should not be built. And obviously here we're talking about a group of New Yorkers looking to establish an Islamic center, a mosque, near Ground Zero. A lot of people obviously still feel very much against it. It's a very touchy topic. Nonetheless, the Muslims here in New York are saying, hey, we deserve a community center, too.
ROBERTS: We'll keep watching the story for us. Thank you very much for being on the case. Allan Chernoff this morning. Well, hiring revived on Wall Street at least, but what about Main Street? Will it trickle down? We'll find out coming up. It's 21 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-three minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It appears that happy days are here again, not for all of us of course, but at least for Wall Street.
ROBERTS: Carter Evans "Minding Your Business" this morning. He joins us. So, Wall Street is actually hiring?
CARTER EVANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, didn't you know there is a hiring boom going on right now? It's just a couple of miles down the road.
ROBERTS: What sort of credentials do you need for that?
EVANS: Well, you need to have some sort of degree and expertise in finance. And there's no surprise, I mean, when you think about it, think about how the banks have been reporting for the last couple of weeks. Things are going pretty good for the banks as well, right? So they are hiring right now. 14 billion Americans right now are out of work. But this is according to the "New York Times." Wall Street lost 28,000 jobs since January 2008. And this year they are going to add nearly 2,000 jobs. So they got more help from the government than everyone else, they got a lot of money. So they are the ones that are recovering first so that is not too surprising, right? You have seen their earnings for the last few days. They are stellar. But there is good news for Main Street. There's a new report right now, it's a nationwide survey of businesses. And basically, 31% said they were hiring in the second quarter that is compared to 6% a year ago. So, that's an improvement. 39% say they do plan to hire in the next six months. But as you guys kind of looked at it, with your skeptical eyes, because you are not feeling it, right?
CHETRY: We still have what, five people applying for every one job out there, I mean, depending on the field. It can be a higher ratio, so it's very difficult for people, especially the long-term unemployed, but also the sheer number of jobs we'd have to add each month to get back to pre-recession levels is -- we're nowhere near that.
EVANS: Yes, so this is a bit of good news, maybe it's kind of a silver lining on a gray cloud. Better days are coming, better days are ahead. These are companies, the 39% that plan to hire in the near future. So, they are not necessarily hiring right now. But if you go out on Main Street and you talk to people, you're going to find out exactly what you just said. It's just not that easy. We went to a job fair yesterday here in New York City and there was a line around the block. Listen to what these people had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The economy is what it is right now. So you just need to take any job that is out there. You can't be picky. You're right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It seems the way the economy is, you'd have to be at the top to even be considered something remarkable. Because degrees where B.A. -- a B.A. is like a GED, because a lot of companies wants someone with experience that you can't get because the economy is so bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
EVANS: That's profound. She says having a bachelor's degree these days is like having a GED a couple of years ago. There's so much competition out there for these jobs right now. Now, hey, I want to mention by the way, if you want a full breakdown of this, we've got it on cnnmoney.com. It's all there so you can go back review, and check it all out. But, it's very interesting. It looks like changes are coming.
ROBERTS: Yes. I mean, the bottom line is, somebody is looking down the road saying the economy is coming back. So let's get ready for that.
EVANS: Right. The economy is coming back. Let's get ready for that. We were feeling it a couple of months ago. But when you look at things that have happened in the last month or so, and you hear this talk of a double dip recession, I think people are beginning to get scared again, that it's going to get worse. But when you look at the companies that have been reporting for the last couple of days, generally speaking, relatively speaking, the earnings are pretty good. They are coming back. So, hopefully we can keep on this track. And hopefully, these numbers that we are seeing in these surveys now will begin to come true in the near future.
ROBERTS: Wouldn't that be nice.
EVANS: Yes.
CHETRY: It's tough though, because people are pulling back on spending as well, because of these same fears. So, people aren't spending. EVANS: It's a vicious circle. It's such a vicious circle. And people say the economy won't heal until the housing market comes back but the housing market won't come back until people get jobs and people can afford to pay their mortgages. So it is a vicious circle.
ROBERTS: All right, Carter.
EVANS: Yes.
ROBERTS: Good to see you this morning. Appreciate it.
EVANS: Thank you.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, Intelligence Director Nominee James Clapper is facing a grilling today to get confirmation hearings in the Senate taking place as a new Director of National Intelligence. We're going to breakdown some of the key questions he could be asked with Barbara Starr coming up.
ROBERTS: And there is a new magazine for Jihad, even tells you how to build a bomb, and an American is believed to be behind it. We'll tell you all about this, coming right up. It's 27 and a half minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Half past the hour now and it's time for top stories. BP is testing the ruptured oil well again today, trying to determine for sure if something is leaking. And now there's a new plan on the table called "static kill." It involves pumping heavy mud into the well to force the oil and gas back into the reservoir that it came from, and that could be attempted sometime this week.
CHETRY: Well, the tape doesn't tell the whole story. That is according to Shirley Sherrod, the official at the Department of Agriculture's Georgia office who was forced to resign.
She talked to us in an exclusive interview earlier this morning. She told us that the video clip of her appearing to describe how she withheld assistance to a white farmer was actually a story that took place more than 20 years ago while she was working for a nonprofit organization, and she says she would have fought the pressure to step down, but she did not have the agency's support.
ROBERTS: And a new test of a special relationship. British Prime Minister David Cameron meets with President Obama at the White House this morning. And fallout from BP's Gulf oil spill is sure to figure prominently in those talks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NILE GARDINER, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: And 18 million British people have pension funds linked to BP. So there is a huge economic stake. But I think it's going to be a very clear message that he believes BP is responsible for the crisis and should pay for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The president and the prime minister will try to find common ground on another hot button issue, the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
The president's nominee to be the next director of national intelligence is retired Lt. General James Clapper. Will he likely be grilled about the new report out in the "Washington Post" suggesting that the intelligence community in this country is, in some cases, too massive to be effective.
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr is live for us at the Pentagon. And since the day the Congress created the director of national intelligence, there has been criticism that it's a job with no real power over the intelligence purse strings. Can Clapper be different than his predecessors?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, that's the task in front of him this morning. He comes from the Pentagon. He's the top intelligence official here right now. But his job ahead is to prove that he can be the guy as DNI to really oversee and control $50 billion plus in spending across 16 intelligence agencies.
That's a tall order. Can he be the right guy to keep America safe? Can he change the intelligence community enough so it really can connect the dots, you know, look at all of this intelligence coming in, analyze it, understand it, be able to prevent the next Time Square bomber?
Can he get along with Congress? That's going to be another major issue. There are many on Capitol Hill who don't get along too well. They say he really doesn't keep them informed about intelligence activities and they are very skeptical.
Really, the bottom and what we don't see is will he have President Obama's ear? Already CIA director Leon Panetta, John Brennan, the top counterterrorism official in the White House, those are the real powerbrokers in the White House. This late in the game, can this guy, James Clapper, get the president's ear and really make a difference?
CHETRY: We know that there's tough grilling at these confirmation hearings, but any concerns that he might not get confirmed, or does it look pretty likely?
STARR: Well, it looks pretty likely. I think it's fairly certain, if this is the man President Obama wants to be the DNI, this is who the Senate will confirm. I don't think there's going to be a problem there.
His problem, his challenges may come after he's confirmed, convincing congress, as we say, so that he can really do the job and can make a difference and that committee be a real player in the administration. John, Kiran?
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr for us this morning. Barbara, thanks so much.
Well, is an American citizen behind an Al Qaeda magazine called "Inspire" that teaches everything from how to send an encrypted messages to how to build a bomb? That's coming up. It's 34 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Since it appeared online, officials have tracked what is believed to be an Al Qaeda online magazine called "Inspire." The 70 page terror guide includes how-to sections on bomb making, sending encrypted messaging, basically, everything but letters to the editor. Well, that will come in future editions.
Now a top official says that the Feds know who this editor is. It's an American that went to Yemen and never came back. Here for this morning's security watch is Steve Emerson, the executive director of the nonprofit research group the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
Steve, good to talk to you this morning. This magazine, believed to be at least mostly put together by a fellow named Samir Khan, what do we know about him, and how seriously are counterterrorism officials taking this?
STEVEN EMERSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT ON TERRORISM: Well, two good questions. One, they know pretty much most about him, since he left the United States last year at the age of 23. He grew up in Queens, New York, joined an Islamic group, and then moved to North Carolina and operated a jihad Web site that I monitored with my staff two years ago but the FBI was preventing doing anything about because he was exercising his free speech. And it was also represented that he's just a lone jihadist.
Suddenly he leaves the U.S. and ends up in Yemen. And using his acrobatic skills and image skills, puts out a magazine that, as you noted, is probably a jihadist version of "Popular Mechanics," "Psychology Today" and "Ask Ann Landers." It provides dos and don'ts for carrying out jihad, including, as we mentioned, how to build a bomb in your mom's kitchen.
ROBERTS: So how seriously are counterterrorism officials taking this?
EMERSON: I think they are taking it seriously for a number of reasons. One is the fact that it provides operational directions and instructions for how to make -- how to devise bombs and explosive devices.
It also provides ways of using encrypted communications to avoid detection by electronic monitoring agency, like the national security agency.
And most of all, it's written in English and in a style that is very alluring to potentially young or middle-aged Muslim recruits that would carry out attacks in the United States. ROBERTS: Let's just take a quick look inside this magazine, because in addition to what you just talked about, it's got articles that are attributed to both Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, his number to. What do you think the intent is here, Steve? Is it to talk about this in the abstract or is it to try to inspire a lone wolf or an independent group to come to Al Qaeda's direction?
EMERSON: It's definitely designed to recruit new English- speaking members, a vast new population pool on which Al Qaeda can recruit but before it couldn't because most westerners did not speak Arabic or the language from which Al Qaeda leaders came from.
So this magazine speaks to westerners in the Europe and in the United States, even in Latin America, and based on what happened last year, there were 15 Al Qaeda or homegrown terrorist plots, nine of the defendants in those plots had downloaded videos or English language jihadist magazines from the Internet, showing that they were radicalized by what they saw on the web.
ROBERTS: And at least three had contact with the radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who you were talking about.
Part of what we see inside the magazine is a page that is called "Open Source Jihad." And it starts off with a picture of New York City and then it goes on to give those step for step instructions on how to build a pipe bomb and how to send encrypted messages.
Is there anything in this, though, Steve, that is not already widely available on the Internet?
EMERSON: Well, remember, "The Anarchist Cookbook" is on the Internet, and that tells you how to make a bomb. So if you're looking to make a bomb, this is not the only magazine. It doesn't break any new precedents.
But what is interesting about it is that it's a complete magazine. It's not just on bomb making but on the philosophy of joining the jihad. What clothes to wear when you join the jihad, how to communicate secretly. What doubts you may have and how they answer them in a very sophisticated manner.
So psychologically, I found this to be the most effective western style recruiting tool that I've ever seen for getting young Muslims into the jihadist role.
ROBERTS: And with all of this out there and now with some American ex-patriots leading the way, do you expect that we'll see even a greater rise in terrorism here in the United States than we've seen in the past couple of years?
EMERSON: Well, they've certainly in this magazine they taunted the fact that the Christmas day bomber and the New York City would-be bomber got through authorities but failed just on their own. So I think we're looking at a population pool of potentially new recruits.
Whether they succeed, I can't tell you, John. But I do believe if you look in the last three years, the arrow is going upwards in terms of plots carried out in the United States or other countries against U.S. targets basically carried out by Americans or western English-speaking young Muslims.
ROBERTS: Pretty troubling news. Steve Emerson, good to talk to you this morning. Thanks for dropping by.
EMERSON: Sure.
CHETRY: We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we're talking about a tropical wave in the Caribbean. Will it impact the Gulf? Jacqui Jeras is watching the forecast for us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.
There's a live look this morning at St. Louis, Missouri, where they're -- actually they just issued a warning, a weather warning, a thunderstorm warning for them. Light rain right now at 72 degrees. But they are looking at thunderstorms and a high of 94 today in St. Louis.
ROBERTS: All right, it's going to be hot here in the northeast as well again today. Jacqui Jeras is tracking the weather forecast across the country for us and she's in Atlanta this morning.
Good morning, Jacqui.
JERAS,: Hey good morning guys. We are tracking those thunderstorms just outside of St. Louis at this time and they issued a thunderstorm watch which means conditions are favorable for severe weather to occur.
And as you take a look at the closer view, here is that line back towards Columbia and this will likely cause some wind damage. We can see winds in excess of 70 miles per hour. You can see and look at all of those lightning strikes.
So a lot of that, you want to get out the door right now and get to where you're going if it's short otherwise wait until these thunderstorms pull on through. It's going to be pretty wicked and they could put down maybe a good inch to three inches of rainfall there.
Heavier rain on up to the north where the ground is already very, very saturated, so flood concerns really renewed across the Midwest today. And we're going to continue to see thunderstorms in this area throughout much of the work week. A lot of travel woes as a result of that on the roadways as well as the airways.
And expecting delays in the D.C. and metros: 30 to 60 minutes as well as Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cincinnati. Houston will see some thunderstorms as well as Denver. We've got delays just being reported now at San Francisco about 60 minutes arrival delays. So that's if you're going there. And Seattle could see some delays a little bit later on today as well due to those low clouds and the fog across the area.
There is the big picture for you today. And you can see the big focus is the nation's midsection where that stationary front remains parked. And that will trigger severe weather again this afternoon.
Temperature wise, the heat stays to the south of it, 97 in Dallas today, excessive heat warnings for you. In Kansas City 94, but feeling like 110 maybe and then pushing 115 within this area as well. The heat a little better across parts of the northeast but still a little on the wicked side with 92 degrees in New York City today.
And we're watching the tropics. We've got an area of disturbed weather around Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The computer model is bringing it up to the north and the west. Lots of wind shear in here, so not expecting too much development, say, in the next 24 plus hours.
But as we approach Friday in this area, we could start to see some intensification. And you can see a lot of those models bringing it towards the Gulf by the weekend. And we'll have to watch and see what happens with this one.
But really important everybody in the Gulf Coast states and even on the Atlantic coast, you must pay a very close attention to it.
John and Kiran back to you.
CHETRY: All right, Jacqui Jeras for us thanks so much. We'll be watching that.
In the meantime, everyone is still talking about the movie "Inception". It's a good film but what about the science? Is it possible to manipulate dreams? We'll talk about that coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Some acting skills there at the control room.
ROBERTS: Yes. Now, there's a nightmare if ever I saw one.
Leonardo DiCaprio's latest blockbuster "Inception" took the number one spot at the box office over the weekend; no big spoilers here, so don't worry about it.
But the mental espionage caper involves planting and stealing ideas from someone while they're dreaming.
CHETRY: All right. So we know a lot of it's science fiction but is there any reality to the notion of controlling dreams?
Well, earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, I talked with Deidre Barrett, she's a clinical psychologist and also a dream expert at Harvard Medical School. And I asked her, can we really control what we dream?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEIDRE BARRETT, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: There's certainly research that you can influence people's dream content in a number of ways. One is -- one is just by suggestions before they go to sleep and people can influence their own dreams by self suggestion as they're falling asleep, that they would either like to dream on a particular topic or to know they are dreaming while they are dreaming, as is in that -- that clip.
But also there is some research that if you whisper to people very softly as they sleep, or you're flashing lights or that various sensory stimuli may make it into the dream and influence the dream content.
Some people recall up to five elaborate dreams a night and some people recall less than a dream a year. There's a huge range. But, if you get interested and you pay more attention to your dreams, that usually increases recall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: She also said that you know there are scientists who can solve math problems in their dreams and there are people who study better or memorize things better for tests during their dreams. So it's fascinating --
ROBERTS: There's plenty of evidence that if you sleep on something it actually sinks in better than if you -- than if you don't. Have you ever tried to pick up on a good dream and you wake up?
(CROSS TALKING)
CHETRY: I know. And you try to go back to sleep and you -- and you just can't quite hit it. No I mean, it's hard, but I dream vividly, I asked about that too.
ROBERTS: Do tell.
CHETRY: Well -- well, what I find is, because our shift is so crazy, we don't always sleep a lot at night, to put it mildly, when I take a nap during the day, I have the most vivid dreams --
ROBERTS: Do tell.
CHETRY: -- and a lot of people said it's because you go right into REM sleep and it's extremely, extremely --
ROBERTS: What are we dreaming vividly about?
CHETRY: I mean, not anything to write home about really, just everyday life but sometimes I can't remember, did that really happen or did I dream it?
ROBERTS: Yes. I've had those.
CHETRY: When you're mad at someone and really maybe --
ROBERTS: Especially if it's something that didn't happened.
(CROSS TALKING)
CHETRY: -- if you're even wrong, exactly.
ROBERTS: All right.
Well, building a business along the Mississippi waterfront post hurricane Katrina. Tom Foreman on the "CNN Express" with another episode in our continuing series "Building up America". And will he play guitar again today? We'll find out.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, virtually every business and homeowner was hit hard by hurricane Katrina. And that started a pilgrimage inland.
ROBERTS: It seemed that no one wanted to risk rebuilding on the water only to get hit by another hurricane. That is, until now. Tom Foreman is live this morning in Bay St. Louis, where one family is "Building up America" by bucking that trend. Good morning, Tom.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. How you doing?
You know, the number one question that tourism people will tell you they get, in any tourist town, but particularly along the coast is where is a good restaurant? The answer used to always be around here in Bay St. Louis, just drive up and down the shore, you'll find something.
Not so much anymore. They have lots of restaurants but this gradual return to the shore itself has been difficult. But there are some brave individuals who are leading the way.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN (voice-over): The Trapani family restaurant has great cooks, loyal customers. The owners Jolynne and Tony are dedicated, hardworking.
TONY TRAPANI, RESTAURANT OWNER: These crab cakes right here have no bread in them whatsoever.
FOREMAN: But situated far from the water, they lack one thing -- location, location, location.
T. TRAPANI: This place needs to be on the beach. This whole area is all about boating and water and fishing and everything. Now, we're doing okay but we can't stay here forever. We have to move back to that beach in order to help the community out.
FOREMAN: For a dozen years, the Trapani's place was right on the waterfront and they had lots of company.
(on camera): This whole area out here was filled with business.
TRAPANI: Right. All of this was business and that was a coffee shop.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Plenty of restaurants have opened since Katrina. There are now more on this coast than before the storm but they are building inland, not on the water and especially not now with the danger of oily tides in the mix.
So the Hospitality and Restaurant Association is offering classes for aspiring restaurateurs, helping with business plans, running special promotions to attract customers. All because they know they need businesses on the beach to build up their part of the Gulf.
RICHARD CHENOWETH, MS HOSPITALITY & RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION: It's just like having a wheel with all the gears and you know, you have the little sprockets going around. And if one of those goes and you start slipping like this, it kind of goes down.
FOREMAN (on camera): You need them all?
CHENOWETH: We need them all.
FOREMAN (voice-over): The Trapanis have made up their minds. Soon they will break ground, rebuilding right back where Katrina took them down and where the oil still threatens.
(on camera): Why is it so important for you to be back here again?
JOLYNNE TRAPANI: We always knew that this is a big puzzle -- piece of the puzzle that we can replace to bring back this community.
T. TRAPANI: We are determined to rebuild this community.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Because they are convinced if they build it not only customers but other businesses will come, too.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: To help encourage that process, the Hospitality and Restaurant Association we mentioned is going to have their 28th annual chef of the coast weekend the last weekend in September. They want to try to get many tourists down here to sample all their great food up and down the coast and to encourage more of those restaurants to open right down on the water where they know tourists want to see them.
A lot of great places to eat here John, Kiran. Come on down and give it a try because there's some brave business folks trying to get it back to where it was.
ROBERTS: Absolutely. It's a great part of the country. And if you love food, it's an amazing place to be.
CHETRY: That sounds great. So good luck to them.
FOREMAN: I'll send you a little box of shrimp.
CHETRY: Yes, yes, yes, promises, promises. We're still waiting for the ribs.
FOREMAN: You've got the ribs.
ROBERTS: Actually, he did ship the ribs. We just weren't here to eat them.
CHETRY: Oh, really.
FOREMAN: You were on vacation, Kiran. Yes.
CHETRY: All right. Take two.
ROBERTS: Thanks Tom.
CHETRY: I won't turn away this time. Thanks Tom.
We'll continue the conversation on today's story, go to our blog cnn.com/amfix.
That's going to do it for us today. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.
ROBERTS: The news continues here on CNN with Kyra Phillips in the CNN NEWSROOM.
