Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

High School Student Holds Hostages Then Shoots Self; WikiLeaks Prepared To Make Another Document Dump; Obama To Meet With Leaders of New Republican-Controlled House; "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Report Released by Pentagon Today; Vitamin D Supplement Not Needed; Time to Start Profiling?; $80 Million in Picassos Fund

Aired November 30, 2010 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead on "AMERICAN MORNING," after a five-and-a-half-hour standoff, five-and-a-half terrifying hours at a Wisconsin high school, 24 hostages, 23 students and a teacher, finally freed. The 15-year-old gunman also a student at the school shot himself. He's now in the hospital. Police say they still don't know why he did it.

And good morning to you. It's Tuesday, November 30th. Glad you're with us on this "AMERICAN MORNING." I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us. More on the hostage story in just a moment, but first, this morning's other top stories.

A war of words between the White House and WikiLeaks -- thousands of leak documents sparking a criminal investigation and a warning from the secretary of state that we are under attack. A live report from Washington just ahead.

CHETRY: And one of the most incredible art collections ever found just outside the Louvre in a guy's garage -- 271 Picassos that experts didn't know existed. He claims they were gifts from the artist himself. Picasso's estate does not agree with that. So does his story add up? We're live in Paris with more on the amazing find.

ROBERTS: And we'll finally hear the Pentagon's position on the future of "don't ask, don't tell," the law that bans gays from serving openly in the military. The Defense Department set to release the report on the effects of repealing the ban. We'll have a live report on that just ahead.

CHETRY: Meanwhile, some breaking news and happening now. We want to take you live to Marinette, Wisconsin right now, where they're getting set to hold a news conference to give the latest information on what was really a crisis yesterday at Marinette high school, five- and-a-half hours of students and a teacher held in a classroom at the hands of another 15-year-old student.

This is Police Chief Jeffrey Skorik. He's getting ready to talk to reporters right now. Let's listen. All right, well, this is just getting underway right now. We're going to listen to a little bit of this and bring it back to you as soon as more details come out about what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A student that was 15 years old --

CHETRY: All right, well, up next, America under attack. And according to secretary of state, the enemy is the whistle-blowing Web site WikiLeaks. Hillary Clinton declaring a document dump triggering a massive diplomatic disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: So let's be clear. This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community, the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: New developments this morning. The Pentagon implementing restraints on computer flash drives. The idea to make it harder for one person to copy and reveal so many secrets.

Also, more leaked documents on the future of North Korea suggesting that it may be a dying state. Foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty live in Washington for us with more on the WikiLeaks fallout. Hi, Jill.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kiran and John. Yes, there are some fascinating things coming out, specifically about North Korea. And of course, that's been a flash point over the past couple of weeks.

The first one is a prediction coming from South Korea in conversations with the U.S. about the north. Listen to this -- the fall of North Korea would come two to three years after the death of Kim Jong-il. We know that he has been sick.

And another one, a different view of how China views North Korea. Quote, senior figures in Beijing describing the regime in Pyongyang as behaving like "a spoiled child. "

And then a third one also dealing with the health of a leader, this time the supreme leader of Iran. Ayatollah al-Khamenei has terminal cancer and is expected to die within months. These are all really fascinating glimpses of what U.S. diplomats try to do, predicting what's going to happen, advising Washington to be prepared.

CHETRY: So you got all this information, Jill, this morning about what the State Department's trying to do to stop the sensitive information from coming out, because as they pointed out, one person able to steal all of this stuff right under the nose of other people that were there.

DOUGHERTY: Yes, it's pretty amazing. And a U.S. official telling CNN that the State Department has now temporarily disconnected its data base from the network of the Department of Defense that's called SIPRnet. And that DOD network allowed this person allegedly to gain access to this information.

Ironically, this was set up right after 9/11 to make sure that all of these different agencies of the government were coordinating and communicating with each other, dut it also allowed access by a lot of people to those State Department documents. So now this temporary disconnect while they figure out the next steps that they can take to make sure this doesn't happen again.

CHETRY: Jill Dougherty for us this morning with the latest, thanks.

ROBERTS: A little bright spot this morning in all of the bad news about the budget deficits and the growing debt this nation has. The total price tag for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, otherwise known as TARP has actually shrunk. That news coming to us from the Congressional Budget Office. It puts the total cost of the taxpayers for bailing out troubled banks and automakers at $25 billion.

Now, that's a whole lot of money, but it is $41 billion less than was last estimated back in August.

CHETRY: The White House is warning more tough choices could follow President Obama's proposed two-year freeze on federal salaries. The president says it would save more than $60 billion over the next decade. Well, Congress needs to approve it, but Republicans also say they've been proposing a wage freeze for months.

ROBERTS: A lame duck Congress, money on the line, Congress back in session with the clock ticking on key issues that have sat on the table up until now.

And over at the White House, President Obama sitting down with the new Republican congressional leadership, that so-called "Slurpee Summit." Along with expiring Bush tax cuts and the money in your paycheck, the food you eat will be on the table. The Senate is set to finally to vote on a food safety bill today.

One non-profit says there has been 85 different food recalls since the House passed its version of the bill. Our Brianna Keilar live on Capitol Hill for us this morning, and Ed Henry is live at the White House. So let's start with Ed. Take it away.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. You're right, the reason this has been called a "Slurpee summit" is back in that midterm campaign the president was accusing Republicans of standing on the side of the road while he tried to pull the proverbial car out of the ditch. And he said Republican were just sitting there sipping on a Slurpee and that he was doing all the heavy lifting.

Now they have a chance today to sit down and say both sides are genuine about working on these issues that really affect the pocketbooks of millions of Americans. First of all, you've got unemployment benefits expiring for millions of Americans before Christmas. Secondly, as you alluded to, the Bush tax cuts are expiring on New Year's Eve, basically. So tax rates could be going up for millions of Americans come January 1st without some sort of a deal that's worked out here.

And that's why yesterday the president when he announced that two-year pay freeze, federal pay freeze, he put his hand out and says, look, I'm willing to work with Republicans, let's try to turn the page.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: My hope is that starting today we can begin a bipartisan conversation about our future because we face challenges that will require the cooperation of Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Everybody's going to have to cooperate. We can't afford to fall back on to the same old ideologies or the same stale sound bites.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: That may be easier said than done, though. I'm learning from senior administration officials some new information this morning, which is that while Congressional leaders have been saying they might be able to get all of this done by December 17th, 18th, somewhere around there, the president was going to head to Hawaii for a long, planned vacation, administration officials now saying the president's thinking he may have to stick around a couple extra days, maybe up until to Christmas Eve like last year when you had that health care bill was that was still being worked out in the House and Senate. They think here at the White House they're still far apart on extending those tax cuts.

ROBERTS: Ed Henry for us this morning, thanks so much. And let's take a quick walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to talk about what's going on in congress. And that's where we find our Brianna Keilar in the Russell building where the Senate is expected to be voting on this food safety bill. And a lot of consumers are hoping they get some action here.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is certainly a finally, John, because there have been a number of delays and we are expecting this vote on the food safety bill today. How many people must be concerned about this? When you think about most recently the salmonella scare with the eggs, of course, spinach, peanut butter, we've seen all of these things affecting so many people, and certainly having us purging our shelves in recent years.

But this is what this bill is expected to do -- better preventive controls, measures by manufacturers. They would be taking more precautions. The point here, trying to stop some of these issues before they ever start. And then also, there would be more frequent inspections of facilities.

It's really quite amazing right now that a lot of FDA inspectors, they might not go to a facility but perhaps even once a year. It doesn't happen all that often.

And then one of the most interesting things has to do with greater FDA authority over recalls. Right now, if you can believe it, the FDA doesn't have the ability to directly recall these contaminated food items. They work, instead, with the manufacturer and it's the manufacturer that recalls them. So that's what's going on with the food safety bill.

There's another big thing on Capitol Hill today, and that is, of course, with the Pentagon releasing its "don't ask, don't tell" report. We're going to be seeing a number of briefings this morning at the staff level, Pentagon officials coming over and explaining this to staff.

We're going to be hearing more details about this report here in a few minutes from our Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence. But the bottom line here is why it matters on Capitol Hill, you've got a number of senators who have not told us what their position is, whether they would vote for this.

Once this report comes out, they really are going to have to start committing to an answer. And we're going to start to see how the chips are going to fall on this here on Capitol Hill, John and Kiran.

ROBERTS: You have a busy day ahead of you. Brianna, thanks.

(WEATHER BREAK)

ROBERTS: Still ahead, the electrician who claims he got paid in Picassos, art worth some $80 million that should be in a museum sitting in his garage, stashed away for decades. Is his story for real?

CHETRY: Also, the truth about vitamin D supplements, brand new research that might have you cleaning out your medicine cabinets.

ROBERTS: And a gun-toting teenager holds fellow students hostage at a Wisconsin high school for more than five hours. When it was over, the hostages were safe. The student gunman shot himself, not fatally, though. Police are trying to sort it all out. We'll have the latest for you coming right up. It's 13 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: You're looking live right now at pictures from a news conference taking place in Marinette, Wisconsin. The scene of a terrifying 5 1/2-hour ordeal for students and one teacher after a high school student (INAUDIBLE) his two dozen classmates and a teacher armed with two semi-automatic handguns and held them hostage in the classroom. Police say they still don't know why he did it. The standoff with police at the high school lasted 5 1/2 hours. And then after hearing gunshots, police made the determination that it was unsafe and burst into the classroom. That's when they say the 15- year-old student gunman shot himself. This morning, all 24 hostages are safe. The suspect is in a local hospital. Police are saying he acted alone. The student body as you can imagine was stunned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was completely like flabbergasted. It's like I didn't even think it was actually happening until I actually had figured out some of my friends were missing. And I was hysterical after that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't expect it to happen here in Marinette. I don't know if I want to go back to school tomorrow. I don't know what they're going to plan on doing. But I don't know, I'd be scared to go back to school if I were anybody because I am. I don't want to go back to school. I'm scared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well, school officials say that classes are canceled today and that grief counselors will be available for students and staff members.

ROBERTS: Well, in just a few hours time, the Pentagon will unveil the results of its military survey on a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. Polls show most Americans favor lifting the ban. One of the most vocal opponents of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has been Lady Gaga. The singer has posted a YouTube message urging Congress to take action during this lame duck session.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LADY GAGA, POP SINGER: You mean so much to me and I know that sometimes political activism when you're a pop singer can be kind of trivial, but in truth, I feel very close to all of you, and I feel like I share a very special connection with my fans. And I feel like I can speak for you. And you're screaming, please end this law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Let's bring in our Chris Lawrence now. He's following developments. He's live at the Pentagon. And, Chris, unclear whether any action will take place during this lame duck session. But as far as this Pentagon report goes, what are we expecting?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, with an official who has knowledge of what a report is going to say, even though we're several hours away from actually seeing the first report. He's telling me that what it's going to show is that basically the majority of the respondents, the service members who filled out this report will say they either saw that repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is going to have a positive effect, some mixed results, or really no effect at all. That the number of service members who think this is going to have a purely negative effect is relatively small. So that sort of mirrors that poll that, you know, you just mentioned from the American public.

But, you know, he also said another thing to me. He said, you know, only about 115,000 responded to this poll. You know, we did the math. That's only about 12 percent of the active-duty force. And I also spoke with someone from a group that supports the troops and who's sort of dedicated to keeping "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in place. She says that what this poll in her view shows is not so much what it could do for the military, but really what it could do for President Obama's political future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELAINE DONNELLY, CENTER FOR MILITARY READINESS: If you take a microscope to that report, you will not find one word about how repealing the law would benefit the military, not one word. Because there is no benefit to the Armed Forces. This is a political promise made by the president to LGBT activist groups.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: So what her argument is that basically, hey, it's not going to help the military. You know, it might not hurt it, but in a time of two wars, it's not going to help either -- John.

ROBERTS: So the report expected to say that repealing it would have little impact on the military. But how will the release of the report impact members of Congress who actually have to vote on this?

LAWRENCE: Yes, certain members like Senator McCain who's probably not going to vote in favor of repeal, not going to affect them. Not going to affect some of the more liberal Democrats who have already said, yes, we want it repealed, don't care what the report says. But it's that group in the middle that we hear so little about. The sort of moderate Republicans, the conservative Democrats, you know, Senator Mike Pryor, Senator Olympia Snowe, people like that, Senator Scott Brown. Those are the people who said they really want to see what's in the report and get the findings before making their vote known.

ROBERTS: Chris Lawrence for us at the Pentagon this morning. Chris, thanks so much.

LAWRENCE: You're welcome.

ROBERTS: Profiling, is it the best way to deal with the terror threat at America's airports? A Muslim-American journalist says, yes, go ahead and profile me.

CHETRY: Also, vitamin D, we know we have it. We've taken the vitamin supplements. But new research suggests that maybe you can forget the supplements. They may not be doing any good. We'll have more details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back. Twenty-five minutes past the hour right now. Some of the stories that got us talking this morning in the newsroom.

The Oscar buzz starting already. This about the hosts, though, not about the award winners. The gig goes to, two rookies. You know this guy, James Franco, and Anne Hathaway. That's right. They tapped both of them. They say that they're brushing aside the usual suspects like Steve Martin and others. They say the two personify the next generation of Hollywood icons, fresh, exciting, multi-talented. Right now, Franco can be seen in "127 Hours" and Hathaway is in a new movie "Love and Other Drugs."

ROBERTS: We'll see how they do at the Academy Awards.

Take a look at this. And we'll ask you what's easier to read? If it's in all caps or if it's in upper or lower case. Well, by the year 2018, all street signs across America have to have new reflective letters and those letters must be in upper and lower case. They can't be in all caps. The Department of Transportation says it's all in the name of safety because apparently it's easier to read the street sign when it's in upper and lower case.

CHETRY: So who's paying to get all the street signs changed?

ROBERTS: Well, of course, the local municipalities will probably do some sort of fundraising drive for it. Because nobody's got any money these days.

CHETRY: Well, these folks have been there. The after party, the cleanup, your head hurts, your house is a mess and you wish that you had someone to call to help you out. Well, now some kids at the University of Colorado at Boulder --

ROBERTS: They know a thing or two about partying.

CHETRY: Yes, which gets voted one of the top party schools every year. They say, you know, we can help you out. We're the hangover helpers. For 15 bucks per roommate, the two guys come. They come with breakfast burritos, Gatorade, and they clean your dorm. The former students say they expect business to take of next semester when the parties really pick up.

ROBERTS: Yes. Having a son who is an alumnus of the University of Colorado in Boulder, those guys are going to get a lot of business.

And the rumors are swirling this morning that Apple computer is about ready to start production of its new iPad --

CHETRY: Sure enough, it's only been out for 10 minutes, of course, they need to start a new one.

ROBERTS: There you go. It is a new hour after all. Some of the new features according to "Christian Science Monitor" include FaceTime, which is a teleconferencing option that you can use right now on iPhones. Two cameras, including one in the front of the device, one in the back of the device. A USB port. And according to one source, it could hit store shelves by spring of next year. So not in time for Christmas. CHETRY: I know, but they're such geniuses. Why wouldn't --

ROBERTS: Plenty of time for Mother's Day.

CHETRY: But why wouldn't they put a USB port in the first one? Come on.

ROBERTS: Because they needed to have something to save for the new one that's coming out.

CHETRY: Well, the top stories just two minutes away, including take two needles and call me in the morning. There's new research showing that the ancient Chinese tradition of acupuncture really works for pain management.

ROBERTS: And an electrician who claims he got paid, not in pesos but Picassos. A remarkable art find in Paris, over 200 original Picassos turning up in the guy's garage. But is his story for real? We'll find out coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Crossing the half hour right now. Time for a look at our top stories.

The White House on the offensive this morning, trying to turn up the heat on Wikileaks after the whistle-blowing Web site leaked thousands of classified and confidential State Department documents. The Obama administration is announcing a criminal probe while trying to contain the diplomatic damage that's been done.

ROBERTS: North Korea threatening all-out war this morning if South Korea and the U.S. military continue drills off of the Korean Peninsula. The north promising that both nations will "pay dearly" if they show further aggression. The war game drills are scheduled to continue through Friday.

CHETRY: Well, Black Friday proved to be a real boom for Amazon. According to the statistics network compiled on it, Amazon was the number one online retailer on the day after Thanksgiving, Wal-Mart finishing second, followed by Target, Best Buy, and JC Penney. They're also reporting on-line visits to the top 500 retailers on black Friday were up 13 percent over last year.

ROBERTS: And it's been said that 2,000 years of history can't be wrong. And today, scientists may have proven that. MRI scans on patients undergoing acupuncture found that the ancient tradition of needle therapy significantly blocked pain signals to the brain. Acupuncture also reduced the patient's expectations of how bad the pain was going to be. So it seems to work in two ways.

CHETRY: Wow. That was the pin cushion head -- I went first for sinus pain, it felt weird, but it didn't hurt.

ROBERTS: Well, I've done and I don't know if it works really or if it just --thought it would work, but I felt better. So there you go.

CHETRY: That's all that counts.

ROBERTS: That's all that counts.

CHETRY: Well, forget what you may have heard about vitamin D. There's new research out today suggesting that you may not need to take all of those vitamin D supplements.

ROBERTS: In fact, for some people, the extra doses might do more harm than good. Now this runs counter to everything that we've been hearing lately. Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is at the CNN Center in Atlanta this morning with the very latest.

First of all, we should point out this is a big report, big study by a very prestigious medical group.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. The Institute of Medicine is who the government listens to when they decide to change their recommendations for vitamin D. You know how likely when you're eating cereal and you look on the side and they have all of their recommendations for vitamin D or for whatever, that all comes from this group originally.

So what this group says is, look, you can probably get as much vitamin D as you need in food. And you certainly shouldn't mega-dose on supplements that can be dangerous. You want to get enough vitamin D. It helps you heart. It can help fight cancer, it can help fight immune problems. But too much can actually hurt your heart and hurt your kidneys.

So all right. Let's talk for a second about how much is the right amount. So, this group says that if you are under the age of 71, you should be getting 600 international units. And if you're over the age of 71, you should be getting 800 international units. And so since most of us don't spend time counting up our international units, most people don't know what those are, let's take a look at some foods that are high in vitamin D.

For example, orange juice these days is often fortified with vitamin D. Milk has vitamin D, cereal is fortified with vitamin D, and tuna fish is one of the types of fish types that have with vitamin D in them. So if you eat a lot of those foods, you will probably be good to go. John, Kiran.

CHETRY: So supplements, who should continue taking them? And who should maybe think twice about taking vitamin D supplements?

COHEN: Right. You want to talk to your doctor about whether or not you should take supplements. Because when you sit down and add it up, you really may be getting enough in your food. If you're not, then you can take supplements. The trick is not to megadose. You don't want to get more than 4,000 international units.

Now each of these tablets is 400. So you would have to really be megadosing to get too much. But there are people who do that. There are some people who think if a little bit's good, a lot must be better. So don't megadose on the vitamin D. It actually can be harmful.

CHETRY: The best source is still sunlight?

COHEN: That's right. You should definitely spend time in the sun without sunscreen. I know that sounds like heresy to say that, but this group says, "look, if you're a white person, spend five minutes a day in the sun without sunscreen, that can get your vitamin D going." These ladies may be spending a little bit too much time in the sun, although I see they're putting on sunscreen.

If you are a person of color, you will need probably more like 15 to 20 minutes a day for the sunlight to penetrate your skin and get that vitamin D machine going.

ROBERTS: Yes, that same report also cautioned people against taking too much calcium, as well. So we'll put everything up on the web site, right, cnn.com so people can have a look?

COHEN: That's right, cnnhealth.com has all of the specifics of what you need to eat and how much time in the sun. My colleague Val Willingham wrote a great article, you've got to read it.

ROBERTS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning. Elizabeth, thanks so much.

COHEN: Thanks.

ROBERTS: Well, still to come, the word makes civil libertarians cringe, profiling. But is it time to start profiling passengers at our airports? One Muslim-American journalist says, "yes, go ahead and profile me."

CHETRY: Also, a massive storm stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast, snarling travel, and slowing things down this Tuesday morning. We have Jacqui Jeras in the extreme center with your full forecast coming up.

It's 35 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Thirty-nine minutes past the hour. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

Given the recent terrorist threats and the growing outrage against the TSA's new enhanced security procedures, some are asking whether or not it's time to start profiling passengers at America's airports.

Our next guest says, "go ahead, profile me." Asra Nomani is a Muslim-American journalist and a contributor to "The Daily Beast," she joins us this morning live from Washington. Thanks for being with us this morning.

ASRA NOMANI, CONTRIBUTOR, "THE DAILY BEAST": Thanks so much.

CHETRY: In your article, you acknowledge it's not really an easy or comfortable conversation to have. But make your case for why you think religious and in some cases racial profiling at airports is a necessary move.

NOMANI: Yes, you know, I'm Muslim, I'm brown, my father has a name Mohammed in his name. And I do say profile me. Profile my family because in the 1970s, our threat at airports and airlines were organizations like the Jewish Defense League, the Black Liberation Movement, the Croatian National Party. That was our threat in the 1970s.

In 1998, Osama Bin Laden issued a fatwa that said airliners and airports are legitimate targets for good Muslims. And so since then, we've had Glasgow, we've had London, we've had JFK, we've had LAX. All of these have been airport plots. And we've had airline attack attempts. And so, what is the one common denominator among those that are targeting airports and airlines?

Unfortunately, and very sadly to me they're Muslim. We have to acknowledge this and be honest about our threat assessment. Because ultimately, common sense is what I think should prevail not political correctness.

CHETRY: Well, critics argue that racial and religious profiling is simply discrimination. What's your response to that?

NOMANI: Well, I honestly believe that you can be discriminating without being discriminatory. You know, racial profiling on the magnitude of something like driving while black is an issue because only race is looked at when police perhaps pull black men over for traffic stops. What I'm just saying is that we have to include religion and race inside of our assessment.

I'll just give you an example. Is the number one citizenship for prosecutions or cases against terrorism suspects in America right now is U.S. citizens. Number two are Colombians, because FARC, the Columbian terrorist organization is doing a lot of drug running. And so in that way, Colombians are targets for assessment, you know? When it becomes an issue of drug running.

CHETRY: Right.

NOMANI: Number three are Pakistanis, and then we have Somalis, Saudis, Yemenis, because those are the people whoa re perpetrating acts of terrorism against the U.S. and so in that way, I believe we just need to be realistic about what the threat is. And so that we don't offend everyone.

CHETRY: Asra, you talked about being realistic. How would this realistically happen at an airport? Would there be, you know, a Muslim line and a Caucasian line for people going through airport screenings? I mean, how would you then separate out people for that extra scrutiny and extra screening? NOMANI: And I understand that raise a lot of red flags in people's minds but there is something that we already do. We have visa waiver program in the U.S. of people who are allowed into the country, without needing a visa. Those countries are places like Greece, Germany, England. They're not countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen because we've accessed that the threat comes from those countries. So we already institute a level of scrutiny already in the people who enter the country and I believe we need to do the same thing on people who travel through our country.

CHETRY: I want to ask you about that. I know you recently debated former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff about the issue and he said, "you know, civil rights concerns aside, that profiling simply doesn't work." He says "if I'm Al Qaeda, I'm going to recruit outside of the Muslim religion and people that don't necessarily fit the bill racially to get around the exact thing you talk about."

NOMANI: And that is, in fact, what has been happening. You know, Al Qaeda has been recruiting Hispanic, American converts, African-American converts. They've tried to recruit a jihad Jane. We have to be one step ahead of them on who they are recruiting. And that's where intelligence is really critical in figuring out where the threat assessment lies. Just because we're profiling, doesn't mean we need to be stereotypical and basically stupid about it. I think we need to be really smart about it and figure out where it is that they're trying to recruit their militants.

CHETRY: Well, you certainly gave us some food for thought this morning. People can read your full blog. I know a lot of people have posted comments as well on "The Daily Beast." Asra Nomani, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

NOMANI: Thank you so much.

ROBERTS: Well, still to come, it's a big night here in the Big Apple. The annual lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. How New York City is preparing for the big event after last week's terror threat against a tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon?

And another big snow storm brewing in the upper Midwest this morning. Jacqui Jeras has got this morning's travel forecast right after the break. It's coming up now on 45 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Love it. Can we have our own lights here in the studio?

Our intrepid team of iReporters busy getting into the holiday spirit. Check this one out. John Storms of Brown Rock, Texas, sending us this video of his home. I mean they must start working on this in March. I mean that's amazing.

ROBERTS: Got to bump it up a little bit.

CHETRY: I know. The Christmas lights display synchronized to the song "Christmas Vacation." Congrats.

ROBERTS: And if you happen to be in Pittsburgh, Punch 1736 Beyrl, B-E-R-Y-L, Drive into your GPS because you just have to stop by Bob and Raquel Cox's home to check out their computerized Christmas display. It features more than 265,000 lights, more than six miles of extension cord, all computerized and synchronized to a sort of almost trans-Siberian orchestra type of "Jingle Bells."

CHETRY: How often do you think they say, honey, go to the fuse box, I think we've blown a fuse again.

ROBERTS: Wow. That's pretty frequent --

CHETRY: I know. Wow.

Well, in the Big Apple, the big event is tonight. Security will be tight for the Annual Lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Mariah Carey, Kylie Minogue, Annie Lenox, Jessica Simpson, Susan Boyle, Sheryl Crow, Josh Groban, just a few of the celebrities scheduled to be on hand.

ROBERTS: And is it going to be good weather for a tree lighting ceremony? Or will you get a little bit of rain on your parade?

Let's check this morning weather headlines. Jacqui Jeras for us in the extreme weather center.

Good morning, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's going to be rain on the parade, unfortunately. It looks like showers for you in New York City at 8:55 tonight when they officially light up that tree.

(WEATHER REPORT)

JERAS: John and Kiran, back to you.

CHETRY: All right, Jacqui. Thanks so much.

Still to come, a first for a former president. President Bush live on Facebook.

ROBERTS: Isn't that the Facebook?

CHETRY: Well, that's the minting of another Bushism. We'll see how he did on the Internets.

ROBERTS: And the Kardashian sisters rejecting their own prepaid Mastercard. We'll tell you why and why you need to be extra careful when it comes to these prepaid cards.

It's 51 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Stashed in an electrician's garage, maybe the most extraordinary art find ever. Two hundred and 71 previously unknown Picassos. Yes, we said Picassos from his most creative period. A conservative estimate of their worth right now, $80 million and they were hidden for four decades.

CHETRY: Yes. A man claims they were a gift from Picasso himself. Picasso's family is not so sure about that.

Zain Verjee joins us live this morning from London.

So after all these years, he decided to take them out of the garage and see what they were worth?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Exactly, guys.

I know you guys may have one or two Picassos hanging around in your apartment walls but this guy had 271 stashed in a trunk in his garage for four decades or so. So he's pulled them out and what he did was he went to the Picasso estate to authenticate them.

And he got a pretty rude awakening. When he got there he was accused of stealing. And he got slapped with a lawsuit so this thing has become a huge controversy. There are portraits, water color paintings, sketches, drawings, notebooks from Picasso. And it's pretty amazing stuff, worth around $80 million.

But this is ending up in a huge legal battle. What his family is saying that there's no way Picasso would have handed over 271 pieces of art with no dedication, no signature and no date.

Back to you.

ROBERTS: So why is this guy coming forward now?

VERJEE: Well, a lot of people are asking that and he's basically saying, look, my wife and I -- he's a former electrician -- are old and we need to put our estate in order so he's pulled this out and he wants to have them authenticated, which by the way they said they were all legit.

ROBERTS: Yes.

VERJEE: It was originally Picasso's. And he -- that's what he said. They're getting old and they just want to make sure that when they pass on their kids don't have any headaches with this treasure.

CHETRY: Right. And so bottom line if they can't prove that he stole them, they have to give them back, right?

VERJEE: Well, it's going to end up in multi-million dollar litigation back and forth for goodness knows how long. One of the things, guys, that's kind of interesting to note is that Picasso did actually give away a lot of stuff.

I mean, you know, he would go to restaurants or bars and he'd say, you know what? I don't want to pay because, you know, I'm Picasso. And so he would take napkins or a get piece of paper and do a little quick sketch or something like that. And so people actually have lots of little Picassos like that.

So he did actually give away sketches like that or he was very generous in gifts but this is going to end up in a huge battle for a long time. Right now, the French authorities, they have like the cultural police have taken it and they put in it a vault.

ROBERTS: Wow.

VERJEE: Just outside of Paris.

ROBERTS: You know there's a famous story here in New York City of a woman named Kathy Nassau was, at the age of 19, was working as a receptionist at Andy Warhol's place and he gave her a gift of a self portrait but he inscribed it to her.

And so I guess a lot -- a lot of these works of art, if they were given as gifts, as you mentioned, would have been inscribed. So that's really what's raising suspicion here? Is that Picasso never said, thanks very much, Renee, for helping out, here's a little sketch?

(LAUGHTER)

VERJEE: Right. And that's what his son who manages his estate are saying, that for every single gift that Picasso gave away, he had a little dedication, dear John, dear Kiran, love, Picasso.

You wish, right? But that's essentially it and that's one of the crux of his arguments saying, dad would not have done that.

CHETRY: Yes. I don't know where I find the room with all the dogs playing poker, you know, paintings up so for a little Picasso. Just kidding. Well, we'll see how this ends up, Zain. A mystery continues.

Good to see you this morning.

VERJEE: Thanks. You too.

ROBERTS: We should mention, too -- thanks, Zain. We should mention, too, that this woman that got the Warhol portrait, she auctioned it off. It was sold at an auction for about $8 million.

CHETRY: Wow.

ROBERTS: So nice gift.

CHETRY: Yes. But I can't believe she got rid of it.

ROBERTS: She kept in a cupboard for 40 years. Can you imagine? Although, you know, if you had $40 million sitting around --

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: You might want to cash it in and put into a 401(k).

CHETRY: Exactly. All right. We're going to take a quick break. You top stories coming up in just two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)