Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Japan's Nuclear Crisis "Very Grave"; Obama Defends War in Libya; Honk, Honk Stall Out; Buy A Dish, Get a Gun; The Wal-Mart Argument; Syrian Government Stepping Down; A Success Story
Aired March 29, 2011 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Highly toxic plutonium seeping into the soil around the Daiichi power station.
I'm Ali Velshi.
Officials in japan now calling their nuclear crisis very grave.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans.
She told foreign journalists a horrifying story of being raped by Moammar Gadhafi's soldiers. Now her alleged attackers are accusing her of slander.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry.
There's a Senate hearing today on Muslim civil rights. Critics say it's about politics not really solutions, but the man behind those hearings is here to defend them on this AMERICAN MORNING.
VELSHI: Good morning. It's Tuesday, March 29th. A big night last night. President Obama delivering his first broad comments about what was going on in Libya and didn't really silence critics on both sides. We'll be talking about that this hour.
ROMANS: And meantime, new developments in Japan, a situation that continues to evolve there. The situation, the Daiichi nuclear power station has turned very grave. According to a top government official in Japan, toxic plutonium has been discovered in soil around the plant, a sign the reactors have been seriously damaged. And all of that water that has been used to cool off overheating fuel rods, the water is now posing a very serious threat.
Martin Savidge is live in Tokyo this morning for us -- Martin.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, you can add one more element to that rundown there, and that is a very large aftershock, 6.4. We had it just about half an hour ago. It was centered off the coast of Fukushima prefecture. In other words, up in the same area where all of the drama is playing out regarding the nuclear plant.
And about that -- well, the water situation. It used to be that they couldn't get enough water on the reactors in the fuel ponds out there. Now, it appears they are doing a very delicate balancing act, try to balance getting enough water on there to keep those reactors under control, keep the fuel rods covered, but, at the same time, not so much water they start pouring it into the ocean.
The good news is we just had some numbers that have come in from measuring radiation in the ocean. They are still high but they're not as high as they were two days ago. So, they are headed in the right direction, but they still don't know how the contamination is getting into the seawater.
Likely what's going on is there's been just so much surround and drown going on there that the water is going from the reactors into some sort of channels, possibly the tunnels that are used for electrical cables and then ending up in the ocean.
And then we have the plutonium. This is the announcement that came overnight Tokyo time and it was quite a shocker to be told that in five different locations in the soil, out there at the nuclear facility, they found three different varieties of plutonium. At first, the way the announcement was made, it sounded like that could be plutonium came from the old atomic days of testing in the atmosphere.
Later, though, it was clarified and the government announced that they do believe, in fact, that plutonium has come from one of the reactors there. That's serious. The stuff is extremely lethal if you inhale it or ingest it. But the levels they found are very, very small.
Right now, it is a concern, but not an overriding one. The real thing is they got to get the power, the pumps -- everything else turned on. But they can't get in there with all of this radioactive water -- Christine.
ROMANS: Martin, we understand you're getting a little more insight into the life of the workers at the plant. What can you tell us about what they're going through and the conditions for them?
SAVIDGE: Well, what we are finding out is more like what is their life like when they are not in in there facing the grave dangers of trying to get everything hooked back up. And that is about 400 of them up at the facility and they lead a very Spartan life.
First of all, the description we've had from people who have visited with them is that they start the morning eating crackers and usually some sort of fruit juice. And then their meal at night is some pre-prepared meal. It sounds like an MRE or something that comes out of a can.
They sleep right on the same facility, mainly on the floor, on floor mats, and they are working three days on and one day off and when they leave, of course, they are carefully scanned and then scanned once again as they come back in.
But the communications are also drastically cut back. Reportedly faxes and telephone calls are greatly diminished because they are trying to save power. Communication, you would think, would be the most critical factor of trying to coordinate how they keep everything under control, Christine.
ROMANS: Wow. It's just amazing, those details.
Thanks, Martin Savidge.
CHETRY: To Syria now, where thousands of people are pouring into the streets of the capital of Damascus. We have new video right now of the scene there. This is a pro-President Bashar al-Assad rally. People are waving Syrian flags, holding pictures of the president.
But, elsewhere in the country, a very tense situation. And after deadly riots, the entire Syrian cabinet is now expected to resign perhaps as soon as a few hours from now.
VELSHI: And, remember, people must be wondering about this pro-Assad rally. This is a totalitarian regime and has a brutal totalitarian regime. So, there are people out there who are probably thinking to themselves -- well, I might save myself, my family, and my job in this turmoil by going out to a pro-government rally.
I -- we must read that as groundswell of support for this totalitarian regime.
CHETRY: Right. And we saw it in Egypt as well, when those pictures are unfolding in our air. In Libya as well.
VELSHI: That's right.
CHETRY: I mean, Moammar Gadhafi still claims he has the support of the people.
VELSHI: Sure. Well, there are a lot of people who worry about their daily lives that might out be there.
ROMANS: And their paycheck.
VELSHI: And their paycheck, absolutely.
All right. Now, to the future -- for Libya's future. We were just talking about that.
Rebel forces are pulling back from positions near Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte. You can see that in the middle of the map. Heavy fire from Gadhafi's troops forced them to retreat. Opposition fighters using coalition airstrikes as cover were able to retake several oil towns in Libya.
This continues to capture our imagination and horror. These are pictures yesterday of a woman who walked into a hotel where foreign journalists were staying, two days ago, to tell them that she had been held and raped by Gadhafi forces. Now, the men accused of raping her have reportedly filed countercharges against her for slander.
The woman, Iman al-Obeidi, told foreign journalists this horrifying story that she had been raped and tortured for two days at the hands of those soldiers after being picked up at a checkpoint. She showed the journalists there her injuries before being whisked away by government agents at a hotel in Tripoli. Officials say she was allowed to return home. But her parents say she don't know where she is.
CHETRY: President Obama ordering air strikes over Libya, saying that that was the right thing to do. And in a speech to the American people last night, he said that military intervention prevented a blood bath in Libya.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's true that America cannot use our military wherever repression occurs. Given the cost and risks of intervention, we must always measure our interests against the need for action. But that cannot be an argument for never acting on behalf of what's right.
In this particular country, Libya, at this particular moment, we were faced with the prospect of violence on a horrific scale. We had a unique ability to stop that violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, the president said that although removing Moammar Gadhafi by force would be a mistake, he would like to see him go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Of course, there is no question that Libya and the world would be better off with Gadhafi out of power. I, along with many other world leaders, have embraced that goal, and will actively pursue it through nonmilitary means. But broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Senator John McCain joined us earlier on AMERICAN MORNING. You know, he wasn't happy with the president taking military force off the table as a way of getting Gadhafi out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I don't think he's very comfortable, but when the president says that it would be a mistake to use military force in order to take him out of power, which is U.S. policy to, quote, "force him to step down," I think is a serious mistake.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right. So, we heard from the critics. Coming up in a few minutes, we're going to hear from the other side, Senator Dick Durbin, on the president's address and also what we can expect from the senator's hearing on Muslim bigotry in the U.S. that's set for later today.
VELSHI: The FBI is trying to figure out what caused a small hole in a U.S. Airways jet. A pilot discovered the hole on the outside of his Boeing 737 fuselage yesterday during a typical preflight inspection. The plane had just flown from Philadelphia to Charlotte. More than 140 passengers scheduled to fly on that plane were all booked on other flights.
ROMANS: A bomb threat at Apple. Apple's offices in Oak Grove, California, were evacuated yesterday after someone phoned in that threat. The offices are about 125 miles from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino. Police said bomb-sniffing dogs went in but didn't find any explosives there.
CHETRY: And they are still searching for this cobra, this potentially deadly cobra at New York City's Bronx zone. The zoo's reptile house is still closed after it escaped over the weekend. Officials say that they are confident the 20-inch snake is lurking somewhere inside the building. In fact, they noted that they hope the snake will surface when her comfort level rises.
VELSHI: Nice.
CHETRY: They say it could take days or weeks to find the cobra. In the meantime, you know, in a sign of our culture and times, a Twitter account chronicling the fictitious adventures of the snakes now has more than 20,000 followers.
VELSHI: Now, may I ask two questions?
CHETRY: Yes.
VELSHI: The first one is a qualification. This Twitter account is not being run by the Bronx zoo. We don't think. We think it's somebody --
CHETRY: Yes. It's run by a clever individual who is tweeting on behalf of the snake.
VELSHI: OK. Number two, where are we so confident again that this thing is in the snake house, the reptile house? They say so, but they don't know where the snake is, right?
CHETRY: They seem to believe that it would be difficult for the snake to slither out of the two doors.
VELSHI: What struck me is that they seem to believe that snake wasn't going to leave its normal encasement.
CHETRY: You got always have to have a plan B.
ROMANS: Is it a she?
VELSHI: I don't know if it's a she. That was my third question.
ROMANS: It's a she.
VELSHI: But I was out of questions. Rob Marciano in the extreme weather center always has answers for us.
Rob, do you know anything about the snake? And if not, go straight to the weather.
(CROSSTALK)
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, no, I just know about little pests in my house and they can get into things that you wouldn't think they could.
ROMANS: You could use a snake to get rid of little pests in your house.
MARCIANO: I'll tell you what, bring Rikki-Tikki-Tavi of this whole mess. He will get it cleaned up. That's for sure.
Good morning again, guys.
Temperatures got a chilly for man or reptile across the Northeast and that is going to be the ongoing trend I think over the next couple of days. Subfreezing in spots in Chicago and Minneapolis. And in Minneapolis, that's actually helping things because, you know, we got record snow pack there in some cases and we're probably going to be seeing some flooding and that cold air at least slows down the melting snow.
No snow across the South but we're going to see some rain. Some of these are going to be heavy at times from Houston to New Orleans today. And that's all associated with a pretty vigorous system that's starting to take shape across parts of the South.
The northern part of this energy is starting to weaken there. So, what looks pretty bad on the radar here is beginning to fizzle out, maybe half an inch or an inch of snow in some spots. But just saying that, even that little bit of snow as we wrap up the month of March, you know, you got to have bit of a gut check there.
Temps five, 10, 15 degrees below average again across much of the nation's northern third.
Guys, back up to you. That snake is -- that's your problem up there, you know? I'm 700 miles away.
ROMANS: I have long said, there are worse things on the streets of New York than a cobra in a reptile house.
VELSHI: There are in fact.
MARCIANO: That's a good point.
VELSHI: That is true. All right, Rob, good to see you, as always. Thank you.
MARCIANO: All right, guys.
VELSHI: Still ahead this morning, we are going live to one of the coldest places on the planet, the arctic wilderness. That's where environmental activist Philippe Cousteau is spending his day studying climate change and exploring the harsh conditions just outside the North Pole.
Philippe is brilliant. He's committed. And what else is he? He is dreamy.
CHETRY: You think he's dreamy! This is hilarious. You have a bromance going on with Philippe Cousteau.
VELSHI: No, but tell Ed.
CHETRY: It's going be -- I know. It's going to be cool, though, to broadcast live from the North Pole.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: Also a little later, what's it like to be a female employee of Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retail? More than a million women say it's frustrating and unfair and they are going to court. But is Wal-Mart too big to be sued?
VELSHI: That's the good question. Too big to be sued -- we haven't heard that, have we?
ROMANS: It's 11 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Fourteen minutes past the hour right now.
President Obama is making his case for going to war in Libya. He talked to the nation last night and said that the U.S. had a responsibility to act. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And, as president, I refuse to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Joining us now from Capitol Hill is Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, and assistant Senate majority leader.
Thanks so much for being with us this morning, Senator.
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: Thanks, Kiran. Good to be with you.
CHETRY: In your opinion, did the president successful lay out the case for our involvement in Libya but also set the parameters for future American military involvement overseas?
DURBIN: Yes, he did. And it's very important that we stress that latter point. The president made it clear that our involvement in Libya is going to be limited and focused. We are not going to engage in the type of war which we have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We are working with broad coalition of Arab nations, the support of the United States, and we are certainly saying to other countries who are part of this effort, you may lead, we will support. But there will be no ground troops and no long-term duration.
CHETRY: And that's something that was criticized actually by your colleague, Senator John McCain, who we had on the show a little while ago. He said that to say that we rule out the use of military power to get rid of Moammar Gadhafi actually contradicts the situation on the ground, and he went on to compared it to the first Gulf War where we had a coalition, we had a no-fly zone, and Saddam Hussein remained in power for ten years.
DURBIN: Well, I understand John's point of view, but I also want to suggest to John that there are other countries in the world with land forces. It doesn't have to always be the United States that sends the soldiers and marines and airmen forward. Let us support those countries that want to engage in this at that level. What we are seeing today is encouraging in Libya.
I recall John McCain suggested we should impose a no fly-zone. The president is doing that, and it's working. We're seeing Gadhafi giving ground, the rebels moving forward. I hope that it will hasten the day when Gadhafi is gone.
CHETRY: If Gadhafi remains in power? Has this been a success, in your mind?
DURBIN: It has in disrespect (ph). The Arab league has expelled Libya and gadhafi. The Arab league came to us and asked us for our help. The people of Libya who were the victims of Gadhafi asked for us to stand up and assist them. And that message won't be lost in the Arab and Muslim world. It says that the United States is willing to stand by those in that part of the world who really stand by our values.
CHETRY: I want to turn and ask you a couple of questions about your first-ever Congressional hearing that you're chairing today, focusing on the civil rights at American-Muslims. Is this the direct result of Congressman Peter King's controversial hearing on the radicalization of American-Muslims earlier in the month?
DURBIN: No. I made a point of waiting until his hearing was over to have our own hearing, the very first of our constitution human rights subcommittee this session of Congress. What we're addressing is something that needs to be addressed with regularity in America, a reminder of the basic freedoms of our constitution, the freedom to practice a religion.
The fact as President Bush and President Obama have said, Islam is a great religion. There are Muslim-Americans who are patriotic law abiding citizens, who assist us in fighting the war on terrorism. They should be allowed to free exercise their religion, and they shouldn't be subjected to discrimination.
CHETRY: Well, some are questioning why you're choosing just the Islam to focus on -- there's a Department of Justice study on religious-hate crimes. This was from 2009, the most recent year that they did the data, and they said that 8.4 percent of religious hate crimes in America were against Muslims, by contrast, 72 percent were anti-Jewish. Can we expect Senate hearings about the civil right of anti-Jewish groups and others?
DURBIN: And there have been allegations, I think, sound allegations or discrimination against Christians. The bottom line is I'm opposed to discrimination based on a person's religious belief. I have spoken out against anti-Semitism. I've spoken out against those who have tried to cast dispersions on Christian belief, seek religion, but this is to focus on the Muslim religion for obvious reasons.
We've had a great amount of debate in American. Even in my home state of Illinois about the location of mosques and those who participate in the Islamic religion. I think it's important that we speak to this today.
CHETRY: Well, it is interesting, though, I mean, op-ed for CNN.com, Bill Bennett, makes the comment that post 9/11, the American people have actually been quite temperate when it comes to any type of bias against Muslims. He noted, we elected a president with an Arab name, who's father was born a Muslim.
That our Miss Teen USA, for example, is the first Muslim-American that was crowned this year. And that, when polled, 70 percent of people said they'd have no problems with a mosque being built in their community. Do you not agree that we've made strides?
DURBIN: There's no question about it, but that's the point. Even though, the vast majority of Americans are tolerant and respectful of other religions and understand our constitutional protections, what we always have to watch for is the bigotry and discrimination of a few against those who are religionists. I think that is an important part of this country.
It's part of our history. And I say that as the son of an immigrant whose grandmother came to these shores seeking religious freedom in her own way. That, to me, is important part of being an American. It's what I value. But when some, even those in public life, I might add, start saying things that are discriminatory and bigoted, I think we ought to speak out, have hearings, and explain that that just doesn't the American way.
CHETRY: Well, it's great to talk to you this morning. Sen. Dick Durbin, thanks for being with us on the show.
DURBIN: Thanks, Kiran. Good to be with you.
CHETRY: Ali. VELSHI: And in case you miss it, CNN's Soledad O'Brien chronicles the dramatic fight over the construction of a mosque in the heart of Bible belt. You'll remember this story from when it happened earlier, "Unwelcome, The Muslims Next Door" re-airs Saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern.
ROMANS: OK. Honk the horn, stall the car. Up next, a wiring problem prompting a recall this morning. We're "Minding Your Business" next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: That looks beautiful! New York City. Sunny, 32 degrees right now. Getting up to -- I need to take my shirt off and bask in Central Park, 46 degrees later on today. That is Central Park you're looking at.
ROMANS: It's pretty.
CHETRY: And we may get lucky. We may get lucky. We may hit 50 sometime before June.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Yes, exactly.
ROMANS: Sun is regular --
VELSHI: You're talking about getting warmer, getting lucky by getting warmer.
CHETRY: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: I didn't mean anything else by it, I swear.
Meanwhile, how about this one? If you're driving through the streets and have you a Jetta, don't honk, you might stall out. Yes, that's right. Volkswagen is recalling about 71,000 2011 Jettas, right, because of the rising issue? That could cause the car to short-circuit and turn off when drivers honk the horn. Volkswagen is not aware of any accidents or injuries because of the problem.
VELSHI: Just a little embarrassment.
CHETRY: Probably yes.
VELSHI: All right. This may be one of my favorite stories today. Buy a dish, get a gun for free. A RadioShack in Hamilton, Montana, with a promotion that got our attention. If you sign up for two years of the dish network, they give you a gun, for free. You don't actually walk out of the store with a gun. You get a gift certificate to a local gun shop. The store says the promotion has nothing to do with the RadioShack Franchise. It is an independently owned store. The owner says RadioShack is concerned about some negative attention. Guess what? You should be!
CHETRY: Yes. They said they didn't realize it was going to go to the national level. So, they said --
VELSHI: What part?
CHETRY: This is a part they said that were -- they claim, at least the store owner said that the average person in the town has, like, 24 guns, so this would just be adding to the collection.
VELSHI: I see how it sounds normal that RadioShack is an international company which, by the way, has a remarkable history of bad judgment, so not a big surprise.
ROMANS: Varying cultures and what do you call that --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: That's fair, but RadioShack has nothing to do with a gun, though.
CHETRY: It's a Montana thing.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: OK. Ali, set your TV hours. Send out the party invites. Oprah Winfrey has announced when -- Ali was actually a guest on Oprah Winfrey --
CHETRY: Wow (ph).
ROMANS: He was the guest (INAUDIBLE). She says her final show will air on May 25th. She's ending her daytime talk show after 25 years but moving on to her OWN cable network. Oprah tweeted that they're working on the final shows right now. We don't know what she's got plan, which one will be the final show that she's working on, but we're sure it's going to be incredible with a lot of yelling and screaming, maybe new cars --
CHETRY: And can you imagine being able to say to somebody, your grandkids, I was the last guest on Oprah?
VELSHI: Maybe they'll invite people to come on, like, to come and just be in the audience. She has an electric personality.
OK. How does melting water from the arctic icecaps affect the earth's weather patterns? Coming up next, Philippe Cousteau, grandson of the legendary explorer, Jack Cousteau, joins us live just outside the North Pole where he is conducting scientific experiments. It's 25 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: This is truly extreme science. Philippe Cousteau and the CNN team have finally arrived at the Catlin Ice Base. That is inside the Arctic Circle. The side is dubbed the ground zero for climate change. Scientists will deal with brutal storms well below freezing temperatures and isolation, and our crew is there to capture it all.
Philippe joins me now from the Catlin Ice Base. It's a CNN first. We have never broadcast from this close to the North Pole before. Philippe, good morning to you. Tell us about the circumstances under which you are there and what it's like this morning?
PHILIPPE COUSTEAU, CNNI SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Ali. I'm delighted to join you. It's, to say the least, very cold outdoors. We arrived yesterday here on the Catlin Ice Base and, you know, the conditions are pretty clear, but we were surrounded by an arctic desert and actually standing on an ocean essentially with about five feet of ice beneath us.
VELSHI: Philippe, what are you doing there, what are you looking for, and what are you going to do to find out what you're out there to find?
COUSTEAU: Well, we're here for a week, Ali, with the Catlin Arctic Survey which is a group of scientists that are looking at various different issues to understand how the arctic system works, how the ecosystem and the environment works here, what's happening with the trend of getting icecaps, with the uptake of carbon in the environment with ocean identification, with when to change it (ph), really to try and get a bigger picture and a more complete picture of what's happening with respect to the health of this environment that is so important to everybody on the entire planet.
I think a lot of people forget that the Arctic really, in a sense, is the air-conditioning unit of the planet and it matters to every single one of us. So understanding what is happening here and in science of what is happening here is very critical.
VELSHI: Philippe, I spoke to you before you left. We were together in Austin. It was a lot warmer. We will see on CNN the fruits of you and the scientists' labor out there because it's a special on CNN. Who are you with and how did you prepare for this?
COUSTEAU: Well, we are with a whole team of scientists up here that have been here certainly a lot longer than we have and will continue on for several weeks after we leave, so they are really the heroes in this situation. They are the ones braving the subzero temperatures. Temperatures get down to about minus 40 degrees Celsius, mine 40 degrees Fahrenheit where Celsius and Fahrenheit intersect.
Last night, it was in the minus 30s. There's no heat in the tents. We are sleeping on the ice itself. A few heated communications in mass tents but other than that, tents are not heated and it's on the edge of science and exploration here. These scientists are the ones at the forefront of understanding these complex systems of how the arctic works.
VELSHI: Philippe, for you to say you're on the edge of exploration means it really must be something because you've taken a lot of risks and you've done a lot of things. I know you went through some pretty good training for this, even training to keep those polar bears off. You stay safe. Glad to hear from you. You said you'd call us when you got there. Stay safe and we will stay in touch with you. Philippe Cousteau at the Catland ice base inside the Arctic Circle.
ROMANS: It's breaking ground right there on television. Something we have never seen before.
Time for this morning's top stories. Highly toxic plutonium discovered in the soil around the Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, further evidence the reactors at the facility have been severely damaged. Meanwhile, large pools of radioactive water have to be pumped out of the plant before electricity can be restored to the cooling systems. There is so much of it officials say they have no place to store the water.
U.S. planes targeting Libyan ships overnight off the coast of Misrata. Military official say they fired at three ships, destroying one and damaging the other two. They were targeted after reports the Libyan ships were firing indiscriminately at merchant vessels in the port of Misrata.
Delegates from dozens of country including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are meeting in London right now to discuss Libya's future. At the top of their agenda is finding ways to pressure Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to step down. Secretary Clinton met with an opposition leader at the summit and the U.S. plans to sends an envoy to bend Benghazi for more direct talks.
Last night in a speech to the nation, President Obama said the U.S. was obliged to react.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: For generations, the United States of America has played a unique role as the anchor of global security and as an advocate of human freedom. Mindful of the risks of military action, we are naturally reluctant to use force to solve the many challenges. But when our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The president said removing Moammar Gadhafi by force would be a mistake, but he is convinced that Libya would be better off without him.
CHETRY: In the meantime, on the ground in Libya rebel efforts to capture Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte have stalled. Rebel fighters have been forced to retreat. CNN's Nic Robertson is live in Tripoli for us. Some of have been saying this may be one of the most brutal battles yet. What is the latest?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know his armed civilians there who support the regime have weapons and they also have been involved in the fight back. It seems clear, despite the fact that President Obama has said regime change is not on the immediate agenda here, that if Gadhafi is using heavy weapons to fight the rebels, then these weapons likely are going to be targeted by coalition forces.
There's has been no response from the leadership here to president Obama's speech. No doubt, Gadhafi is perhaps recalibrating a little his position, knowing that perhaps he has dodged the immediate bullet, that is, ground troops to essentially hasten his exit from the political stage here.
But he is a man, even people close to him, I talked to a very senior diplomat here the past few days who works with Gadhafi and knows him well and says Gadhafi will fight to the end and hold on. And that is the battle that we are really seeing unfolding around Sirte right now, Kiran.
CHETRY: We will follow the latest on that. Nic, I want to ask you about the other story that captured attention of so many people, the woman that burst into the western journalist hotel with the accusations of being raped by Gadhafi forces. Now the man accused of that rape has filed countercharges against her for slander. That seems amazing.
ROBERTSON: It does. This story just seems to have no end. As horrendous and horrific the beginning was. We still don't know fully where she is and her condition and safety and well-being essentially. We know her family has stood behind her. There was an engagement ceremony without her in the east of the country attended by the father and the groom and friends of the family.
The symbolism here was important but also the real message that the family and the tribe and her tribe they are giving here as a man from her tribe who is marrying her so her honor is intact. Of course, the government here has tried to sort of smear her, calling her a prostitute, very bad for her here, particularly in the Arab world to be -- to have been raped, her honor essentially to be violated.
But the tribe and family standing behind her. But now the government, after calling her insane and after saying many negative things about her and calling her a prostitute is now putting the forward the men accused of raping her will press charges against her for slander.
So I think we are seeing more of the government pushing back and trying to negate the image that she showed and the words that she put across about this regime, that very few people are brave enough to come forward and say anything negative about the regime. So the government is just trying to squash her and her voice down still. Kiran?
CHETRY: And no one knows where she is, according to her family. CNN's Nic Robertson, live in Tripoli, thank you.
ROMANS: OK, it could be the biggest sex discrimination case in history if it's allowed to proceed as a class. It means more than a million women together can sue they were passed over for raises and promotions at Wal-Mart. Up next, Jeffrey Toobin says Wal-Mart is going to win.
VELSHI: Wow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: At the Supreme Court today attorneys for retail giant Wal-Mart will try to get a huge class action lawsuit tossed out, a lawsuit that could involve 1.5 million female employees claiming gender bias in pay and promotions. The case could have huge implications for Wal-Mart and corporate America.
Joining us live to break down what is at stake is CNN's legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. This is huge if every woman who worked for this company could be included in this class. This could be a significant suit for the Supreme Court and Wal-Mart. You think ultimately Wal-Mart has a good case of this not being considered a class. Why?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Because if you look at the current makeup of Supreme Court, there is a very strong inclination to support corporations against individuals, a strong dislike of class actions is a way to resolve legal disputes.
And this case seems to epitomize, at least to me, everything that the majority in the Supreme Court, the current majority, doesn't like about civil litigation, and my guess is they are going to toss out the class certification.
VELSHI: What is going to the court right now, Jeff, is not the discussion of whether or not Wal-Mart did discriminate in compensation against women. This is just whether or not this can be a class. And Wal-Mart's argue, along with a number of other companies, I understand, have been in support of Wal-Mart, is that it would be unwieldy and too costly for this to be a class action.
TOOBIN: Right. The heart of the argument for Wal-Mart is that if all of the women, hourly workers at Wal-Mart sue on the basis of sex discrimination, Wal-Mart says, look, these are fundamentally different situations. What happens in one store can't be compared to what happened in another store, that all of these women don't have common questions. There are not enough common legal issues to resolve them in a single lawsuit.
It would be unfair to Wal-Mart if the plaintiffs were able to cherry-pick handful of perhaps discriminatory situations and apply them to all of Wal-Mart. That would expose Wal-Mart to an unfair risk of litigation. That's the heart of the argument.
CHETRY: Usually when you think of class action lawsuits you think of smoking, people who say I smoked this same product or taking a certain drug that ended up having bad side effects. What would possibly be the other side of this? What would then tip it in favor of it actually being able to go forward, because what you're saying makes sense, that it would be difficult and the court tends to decide on the side of corporations?
TOOBIN: The plaintiffs point out more than 80 percent of the hourly employees at Wal-Mart are women, but only about a third of the management of Wal-Mart is women. And the plaintiffs say, look don't penalize the women because there is so much discrimination in such a big company. The plaintiffs are saying don't penalize us because Wal- Mart has discriminated on such a grand scale. That is the argument on their side. And so far, it's important to point out, that the women plaintiffs have won at both the district court and the appellate court level.
ROMANS: Jeff, one of the things that plays in here is Wal-Mart is a company that is remarkably uniform. You go into one, it is just like another. In fact, sort of invented this big box you are -- its brand is so the same and its stores are so the same and the managers have the same training. And the way they operate on the front of the store, the back of the store in receiving is all of the same.
Can they use that, the plaintiffs to their advantage and say, look, uniform policies are across the company and those policies, whatever they were, result in only a third of managers being women and 80 percent of hourly workers?
TOOBIN: Absolutely. That's a big part the plaintiffs' argument. I was looking at what we call the b-roll, the background video of Wal- Mart that we have been showing. And I am sure none of us could tell which Wal-Mart that was.
VELSHI: Right, right.
ROMANS: No.
TOOBIN: Because they all look exact -- look at that one on the screen right there. Who knows where that is because they all look exactly the same?
VELSHI: Yes.
TOOBIN: And the plaintiffs point out this is why class actions were invented. They were invented so that plaintiffs would not be penalized by the fact that individual lawsuits would be too difficult to -- too difficult to bring. And it's -- it's a very hard question, because this class is so big that there are certainly going to be some justices on the court who say, look, it's just too unwieldy. It's unfair for Wal-Mart to have to defend a case -- on this scale.
(CROSS TALK)
ROMANS: And then --
TOOBIN: And keep in mind that even for a company as big as Wal- Mart is the financial stakes are huge in this case.
ROMANS: Yes.
TOOBIN: We're talking about multiple, multiple billions of dollars on the line here.
ROMANS: All right, thanks so much, Jeffrey Toobin. And I guess the next -- the next time we talk to you, we will compare "too big to fail" and "too big to sue" and what that all means.
VELSHI: Right.
TOOBIN: There you go.
ROMANS: Thanks Jeff.
TOOBIN: See you soon.
VELSHI: All right, we've got severe thunderstorms in the south. We got snow in the north. We've got your complete travel forecast when we come back from the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.
VELSHI: All right. I want to give you this news that we just got in. Protesters are in fact forcing change in Syria right now. We are getting news that the Syrian President has accepted the resignations of his cabinet. This is from the country's information ministry spokeswoman.
We heard that this would happen today and comes after a violent crackdown over the past few days in which 37 people have died according to the United Nations. Now what we saw earlier were live pictures of a pro-government rally where we had heard the tens of thousands of people were there. But it does seem that the president has accepted the resignation of the current government.
We don't know on the ground and in the politics of Syria what difference that is going to make --
ROMANS: Right.
VELSHI: -- and certainly whether that is going to satisfy some of these protesters. This has been a long and oppressive regime --
ROMANS: We know that Hosni Mubarak tried the same thing early on in the protesters --
VELSHI: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: -- against him and he tried to get rid of his entire cabinet, his entire government and he was going to hold on and reform the company and of course that did not last.
VELSHI: All right, we will follow this very closely for you the developments in Syria as they happen today.
CHETRY: In the meantime, here at home we're following the latest with the weather. Rob Marciano is in the Extreme Weather Center for us. We have two days left in March. This has been a bear, this has been a lion, as they say.
MARCIANO: Yes it's going out that way, too. I think for a lot of folks and winter is just holding on. A case in point places like Christianburg (ph), Virginia, check it out some snow yesterday. This is pretty late in the season yes to get snow in Virginia. Not -- not a record setter. It did cause some accidents.
Greensburg, North Carolina, got some snow yesterday that was a record-setter -- a record setter and you know, out west, they are getting, they are breaking records across the board. Another storm coming into the Pacific Northwest, all of the mountain resorts and many of them staying well past where -- open where well past where they would normally be open this year because of the amazing amounts of snow.
And they are watching this area of disturbed weather which is some of the energy that has been coming out of the Rocky Mountains and it's going to stir up stuff in the Gulf of Mexico.
Another point, it's certainly cold enough for snow for places like Minneapolis, Chicago, back even through Kansas City and D.C. Temperatures right now above, right around freezing in some of these spots.
Where the convective activity is going to be the strongest is across southeast Texas and that means thunderstorms that could become severe across the I-10 corridor into Louisiana back to Baton Rouge and southern Mississippi and Alabama.
And then, this storm kind of really gets its act together as we go to tonight and tomorrow. It gets into the same spots that saw the rough weather yesterday in Florida and southern parts of Georgia.
So severe thunderstorms potentially as we get through tomorrow. And as this thing tracks a little bit farther to the north we'll get a little bit more moisture heading towards Delmarva and maybe even a little bit of snow on the backside of this through Pennsylvania and into parts of upstate New York.
So maybe even April 1st we'll have some snow falling out of the sky. Just kind of keep-the-theme going guys. You don't want to really break a trend that has been working for us.
ROMANS: You're such a nice guy, Rob. And then you have to throw something like that a bombshell at 8:51 in the morning.
VELSHI: Yes, yes I was feeling good.
MARCIANO: I thought I spun it all right.
VELSHI: We will send that Bronx Zoo snake down your way. ROMANS: Yes. All right, its 51 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: In today's "Human Factor" you'll meet Isaac Lidsky. At a young age he was told he had a genetic condition that would cost him to slowly lose his vision. But it never stopped him from pursuing his dreams.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Isaac Lidsky's newest job is learning to take care of his three beautiful new babies. That's a challenge for him because he can't see his children.
Lidsky has retinitis pigmentosa. It's a rare form of blindness that progresses over time. He got the diagnosis when he was 13, soon after landing a role on TV's "Saved by the Bell, the New Class."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hasn't won in ten years. If you can make money losing, we would be millionaires.
ISAAC LIDSKY, HOPE FOR VISION: I loved acting. I loved being on the set and it was just exciting.
GUPTA: But acting wasn't his dream. Law school was.
LIDSKY: As I really started experiencing vision loss in college, it was more of a nuisance than a disability.
GUPTA: Undeterred, he got into Harvard Law School and made it to the Supreme Court. He clerked for retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, as well as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
LIDSKY: It's hard to anticipate the experience of slowly losing your vision and then living as a blind person.
GUPTA: Now at 31 he is legally blind.
LIDSKY: Right now, I'm sort of dealing with light and dark. Maybe the occasional sort of shape.
GUPTA: While Lidsky can't overcome his blindness he hasn't let it stop him from what he wants to do.
LIDSKY: With things like a walking cane, a screen reading software, it really doesn't slow me down in any practical sense.
GUPTA: This young lawyer hopes that one day people like him will see again which is why he started "Hope for Vision", to raise awareness and money for research.
LIDSKY: At this point in my life really it's -- it's wanting to see my children that motivates me to continue to work to overcome this challenge. I want more than ever to find a treatment or a cure.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
LIDSKY: Finish strong, Lily, finish strong.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMAN: Watching developments in Libya and watching Mesrata. There's been some bombing in the port of Mesrata. There's also reports, eyewitnesses who had been calling in to CNN, eyewitnesses saying that there are still -- rebels are still fighting with Gadhafi forces in Mesrata so that's an area we are watching today.
VELSHI: And we're watching Syria because we have word that the government, the president, Bashar al Assad has accepted the resignation of the cabinet. Like you pointed out, that's what happened in Egypt. And that didn't work out too well for Hosni Mubarak.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Bought him some time in Egypt. We'll see what that means for Syria.
CHETRY: Yes. And whether or not we'll see that as real reform if they'll accept.
VELSHI: And we hear that NATO might be delaying its taking over the mission
CHETRY: In Libya.
VELSHI: In Libya.
CHETRY: Absolutely.
All right. So a lot going on that's why you have to stick with us.
CNN NEWSROOM with Carol Costello starts right now -- hey, Carol.
ROMANS: Hi Carol.
