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American Morning
Mississippi Flood Disaster; The Race for the White House; Facebook Vs. Google; Grilling Big Oil; Targeting "Lazy Cakes"; The Paper Thin Cell Phone; No Rest for the Mattress Biz
Aired May 13, 2011 - 07:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Deadly revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden.
I'm Ali Velshi.
Twin explosions at a paramilitary training center in northwest Pakistan. Eighty people are dead. The Taliban is claiming responsibility.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Loose lips may be putting the Navy SEALs who killed bin Laden in danger.
I'm Christine Romans.
The most elite fighters on the planet worried about their own safety on this AMERICAN MORNING.
VELSHI: Good morning. It's Friday, May 13th. We've got a lot of news developing right now. We're following those floods very closely. We're also following a foiled terrorist plan in New York City but the big story coming out of Pakistan.
ROMANS: That's right. And the Taliban claiming responsibility for a pair of suicide bombings overnight, bombings that killed at least 80 people. The target was a paramilitary training center in northwest Pakistan. The attacks said to be revenge attacks for the killing of bin Laden.
Most of the victims were Pakistani military recruits who were preparing to leave to base when they were targeted and killed.
VELSHI: U.S. officials -- intelligence officials have interviewed three of Osama bin Laden's wives in Pakistan and a senior Pakistani government official describes the women as hostile.
The questioning was done under the supervision of Pakistan's intelligence service. The U.S. had wanted to interview the women separately to see if they were -- there were inconsistencies in their story, but they didn't get to do that.
The eldest of bin Laden's widow reportedly spoke for the other two and we're being told nothing new was learned.
ROMANS: And CBS reports the Navy SEALs who killed bin Laden recorded the entire raid on tiny helmet cams. Officials are still reviewing the tape.
Here's what they reportedly reveal. The SEALs first spotted bin Laden on the third floor landing and after shooting and missing, the al Qaeda chief ran into his bedroom. One SEAL burst in it and grabbed the terrorist's daughters. Then another SEAL entered only to have bin Laden's wife rushed toward him. That SEAL reportedly pushed her aside then shot bin Laden in the chest right before a third member of the team shot him in the head.
VELSHI: Now those Navy SEALs risked their lives to make the world a safer place and many of them are now apparently concerned about their own safety and the safety of their families.
ROMANS: And all this information that's been leaked or is public about this secret event, Chris Lawrence, live in Washington.
Chris, Defense Secretary Robert Gates seems irritated by all of the information being released about the Navy SEAL raid, doesn't he?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, he seems to be making the point publicly now that there seemed to be some understanding among the people in the situation room who were game planning this, who are monitoring this mission that they weren't going to get into operational details.
And he's making the case now that the reason that this stealth helicopter worked, the reason that contributed to the success of this special SEAL team was because you didn't know about the stealth helicopter, you didn't know about their tactics, their techniques, the makeup of the team.
And he said all of that is being compromised by all this information that officials are releasing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Frankly, a week ago Sunday, in the situation room, we all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin Laden. That all fell apart on Monday, the next day.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: And again when you're talking about the security and safety of the SEAL team and their families, you're not so much talking about physical security. It's more making sure that their names are never released.
In one way Gates may be, you know, indirectly telling officials and letting people know, look, shut up about this particular team. Let's stop talking about them.
VELSHI: Chris, I want to ask you something. We've been reporting about how there were no Internet connections, no phone lines at this compound. But we also know that bin Laden was involved in it all sorts of planning. You got some news about how he e-mailed without being detected.
LAWRENCE: That's right. It was pretty ingenious. In fact, some of the intelligence officials are amazed that he was able to stay so disciplined with this system.
Here's basically how it worked. He would type out some directives or an e-mail and then he would save it to a thumb drive. So, again, he'd be offline, save it to thumb drive. Give it to his courier.
The courier would take it outside to what's known as a "cutout." They call him a cutout because he's cut out of the loop. In other words, he doesn't know this information is even coming from bin Laden. He just knows he's been given a thumb drive. He then goes to a computer, he downloads the information, and he sends the e-mail out.
Then, when they need to get information back it bin Laden, you just reverse the process all the way back. And, again, you've got these layers of people who have no idea that they're either passing or receiving information from Osama bin Laden himself. The whole time he stays offline -- Ali.
VELSHI: Wow. Sophisticated. All right, Chris, thanks very much for your great reporting on this.
And a programming note: tomorrow at 8:00 Eastern, Chris Lawrence and CNN our team investigates how that raid in the bin Laden was planned and carried out. Don't miss the "Inside the Mission: Getting Bin Laden," tomorrow might, 8:00 p.m., right here on CNN.
ROMANS: All right. Our question of the day: is America safer now that bin Laden is dead? We want to know what you think.
You can email us at CNN.com/AM. You can give us a tweet @CNNAM. You can tell us on, Facebook.com/AMERICANMORNING. Or either of our Facebook pages, Ali and I, and our Twitter accounts. We'll read through some of them later in the program.
VELSHI: We're getting some great responses. Great new ones, very interesting.
ROMANS: Yes.
All right. Everything that they owned, everything that they worked for washed away. This morning, we're hearing these painful stories of flood victims in the South. The water is still surging along the Mississippi River. Some folks, as you reportedly earlier last hour, have been out of their home for two weeks now.
VELSHI: Unbelievable. Yes. There have been 600 people in Vicksburg, Mississippi, for instance, have already been told to back up and get out. These are people who are living between the levee and the river. The river is not even expected to crest there until next week.
Rob Marciano live in Greenville, Mississippi, this morning.
Rob, we're just talking to the head of Mississippi Emergency Management. And he was saying that there are -- all the way from Tennessee, all the way down the river, there are people who have established homes, you know, on highland that's on the riverside of the levee. They were never expecting that to flood.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: On the other side of the levee, in protected areas.
VELSHI: Yes.
MARCIANO: Well, yes, there's a few instances like that. Here in Greenville, the levee system, which is behind the camera right here, it goes to 75 feet and were forecast to go to 65 feet. But if you're on this side, the unprotected side of the levee, which is where the casinos are, where is behind me, obviously, clearly flooded -- they're all shut down and that's been the case across much of the river, from Memphis all the way down to this area, down to Vicksburg, as well.
But this all used to be where the river used to come, you know, 50, 60 years ago. But now, we've created these cutoffs that create short cuts for shipping. But when the river gets this high, it wants to go back to where it normally would go.
Down that way are people that live on the wrong side of the levee and they are completely flooded, and they've been evacuated much like our friends up there at the Tunica cutoff.
And we caught up with one gentleman yesterday who explained what he's going through emotionally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a day by day situation which nobody can hurry, nobody can speed it up. We have to live until the fact and the water recedes to see what we have left.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: Levee holding up OK in most spots, but it's constant maintenance, guys. I mean, there's seepage. There's what we called sand boils, where in weak areas, you'll just be walking down the street or across a dirt path and there will be water and sand bubbling up on the safe side of the levee.
So, water wants -- will try to go where there's the weakest point and we're certainly seeing that. But they're keeping a watchful eye on things and they're plugging holes where they can. And so far, so good. We haven't had any large failures in this system so far in this event. But as you know, we're about halfway through.
All this water still has to go downstream. And by the way, it's not going to crest here in Greenville until Monday morning. So, a long grueling wait and then, there will be a long process after that obviously -- Ali and Christine.
VELSHI: Yes, thanks for that, Rob.
And it is a good distinction that you're making so that we all understand this, the protected areas versus the non-protected areas. In many cases, the levee is not right at the river bank. It is it inland. And there's been a lot of development between the river and those levees.
ROMANS: Right.
VELSHI: And those are the places and the worst danger.
ROMANS: And Rob Marciano has something in common with the country music star Trace Adkins, because they've both been saying that this has been a slow, evolving crisis, and trying to kind of bring it to us as much as they can.
And last night, country came home to help.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
ROMANS: That's Lady Antebellum performing a Bob Marley classic at CMT's special concert for tornado and flood victims in the South. Country's biggest names all pitched in.
VELSHI: It was -- it was something. Tim McGraw, who warned people in home state of Louisiana: do not try to be a hero.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM MCGRAW, COUNTRY SINGER: I understand the desire to try to ride things out. Folks in Louisiana are pretty tough. But, please, if you're in the path of the current flooding and someone tells you to evacuate, do it. Don't risk your own life or the life of your family to stand your ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And we spoke with Trace Adkins yesterday.
VELSHI: Also from Louisiana.
ROMANS: All these people are saying we want to keep this in the headlines. A lot going on, this is going to keep happening all summer. We don't know how much money has been raised yet. We won't know until the CMT awards next month. But you can still donate and they're encouraging you to at RedCross.org.
VELSHI: You know, you talk about fatigue about the story. There are a lot of people don't live anywhere near it who don't understand why, you know, they should be interested in this all the time. And a lot of people in the region are saying, even in the region, there's flood fatigue. They can't get people to take this seriously. But it can be very devastating. And you're going to feel the effect everywhere.
ROMANS: Here -- I mean, these natural disasters, it will be the most costly year of natural disasters ever -- when you look at tornadoes, winter weather. You look at flooding. All of these things together has been -- it has been epic.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: And so, a lot of people are dealing with a lot of different kinds of things around the country.
All right. We're going to tell a story about Facebook's secret attack on Google, trying to out Google's privacy concerns. Was it some sort of smear campaign?
VELSHI: You couldn't write the movie script for this. It's so good.
ROMANS: The battle of the tech titans.
VELSHI: We're going to tell you about that.
Also, let the presidential race of 2012 begin. Former congresswoman-turned-Republican analyst, Susan Molinari, she's got a lot to talk about this morning. Who's in the game? Ron Paul has just announced that he's running. How is that going to affect the outcomes, especially with the Tea Party involved?
ROMANS: All right. What will they come up with next? Move over Four Loco. Check out the trendy new thing, lazy cakes! It looks like an innocent brownie with a cartoon. Oh, it is not.
It is seven minutes after the hour.
VELSHI: It has a very different effect than lazy cakes do.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: That can be (INAUDIBLE).
ROMANS: That was amazing today. It's also going to be a sun shiny day in New York City.
VELSHI: It is.
ROMANS: And even down south, there's going to be a lot of sunshine today, a lot of water, but lot of sunshine.
VELSHI: That's right.
About an hour ago, Texas Republican Ron Paul made it official, formally announced he's running for the White House in 2012, holding a campaign rally in New Hampshire today where he's expected to receive several endorsements. That's really not even a problem for Ron Paul. It's his third run for the White House now. It's going to be interesting.
ROMANS: Paul joins a growing list of Republicans eyeing the White House. Former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, already announced he's in.
We want to break down all these candidates for you and the growing field and their chances against President Obama.
Joining us now from Washington, former New York Republican congresswoman, Susan Molinari.
Welcome to the program.
SUSAN MOLINARI (R-NY), FORMER U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN: Thank you. Good morning.
ROMANS: Let's start with Ron Paul first since he's the most recent entree into the race.
VELSHI: And he is of the ones in this right now, the most consistent. He has always stuck to what he believes in. He doesn't vary. He doesn't blow with the wind.
ROMANS: Is he more or less electable this time than he was the last couple of times he ran?
MOLINARI: Well, listen, he is one of the nicest people that I've ever met. And I do think the environment is a little more hospitable than it was four years ago for Ron Paul, with the TeA Party because of his views, consistent views, on smaller government, lack of government intrusion, less taxes, sort of the personal independents message.
Nonetheless, he has some views that are going to cause him trouble politically -- not only in the Republican Party, but with the general public in large. I heard you talking about earlier, you know, his support for the legalization of drugs and most recently his opposition --
ROMANS: Including heroin.
MOLINARI: Including heroin. And his opposition to the raid in Pakistan that took out Osama bin Laden.
VELSHI: Right.
MOLINARI: I think, you know, obviously, these are very serious problems that, you know, make him more provocative than a serious candidate.
VELSHI: As a journalist, I will give him 100 percent in terms of consistency.
ROMANS: But it might force him, Susan -- it might force him to -- or force the Tea Party candidates to really reveal whether they are truly into personal liberties, you know?
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: Because he's been so consistent and really on that message.
MOLINARI: Well, there's no doubt about it. He has been consistent. He's on that message.
And I think the Republican Party, in general, on these issues are pretty united right now. And I think when we get to the general election and the Republicans finally have a candidate, what you're going to see is a Republican Party that's pretty strong and united on those issues.
VELSHI: Let's talk about Mitt Romney. Do you think of him as a frontrunner in the race right now or gone in the race, or however you want to describe it?
MOLINARI: Yes, there's no doubt that Mitt Romney, if you were going break down the Republican candidates that have announced and haven't announced, but probably will announce, Mitt Romney is, you know, in that top tier. He does have the issue with regard to his health care policies when he was governor of Massachusetts.
But he is somebody who has never stopped running from the day that he lost the Republican nomination four years ago. He has kept his team together. He's kept his fundraising together. He is still considered one of the frontrunners along with somebody -- I put him in the same tier with Tim Pawlenty if Mike Huckabee does join in.
And I think the rest of the -- Mitch Daniels if he comes in -- and the rest of the candidates become more niche candidates, if you will. And I would certainly put Ron Paul in that niche.
ROMANS: Let's talk about Huckabee in a minute because he seems to be on top of the polls a lot.
MOLINARI: Right.
ROMANS: But I want to stay on Mitt Romney for a second, because he actually addressed this issue of the Massachusetts and his health care plan there. Let's listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR: A lot of pundits around the nation are saying that I should just stand up and say this whole thing was a mistake. That it was a boneheaded idea and I should just admit it, it was a mistake and walk away from it.
And I presume that a lot of folks would conclude that if I did that, that would be good for me politically. But there's only one problem with that. It wouldn't be honest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So, can he play the whole idea that, look, I think states should be allowed to do what's right for them, the federal government out of our health care? Could he try to spin it that way? And will that play?
MOLINARI: I think it's the best option he has, quite frankly. It is -- I read in the paper, somebody used the phrase threading the needle and I think that it's appropriate for where it is. I think, you know, the problem that the governor is going to have is that this is going to be an issue that's going to be kept alive, Obamacare, if you will, by the Republicans going into next year.
Look, no matter who the Republican candidate is, this is a race that's going to be about President Obama. Will the economy be under control? Will the deficit -- will there be steps taken to reduce the deficit and the national debt? Will we be dealing with inflation a year and half from now? And what about the overreach of Obamacare?
That is not going to be a national that's going to go away. It's not one of those issues you can say, well, if you get away -- you know, get it out of the way early, you won't have to address it, as you come down to the finish line. This is going to be an issue towards the finish line. So, I think he does the best that he can.
VELSHI: Let's talk about Newt Gingrich real fast. What do you think?
MOLINARI: You know, again, I put Gingrich in that sort of niche category of somebody who has been around for a long time. He has a lot of victories. I, you know, served with him when we balance the budget for the first time, you know, and pose (ph) welfare reform, and did some pretty dramatic things when the House took control for the first time in a generation.
Nonetheless, you know, I do think -- I don't put him in the category of a frontrunner. I put him in the category of a niche. He's a good speaker. He can engage an audience, but I think, he's certainly not somebody that I would consider a frontrunner status by any means.
ROMANS: We'll look at our polling, it shows the top five in that Republican field. You got Huckabee, Trump, Romney, Palin, and Gingrich. That's how it rounds up. We mentioned Huckabee earlier. I mean, could he do it? Could he beat Obama?
MOLINARI: You know, I think, you know, Mike Huckabee is somebody who, because of the way, he has conducted himself during the last several years is somebody who could win the Republican nomination and may be able to beat President Obama based on where we are with regard to the economy and where we are with regard to the job situation certainly in the United States.
ROMANS: All right.
VELSHI: Susan Molinari, good to talk to you. Former congresswoman from New York.
MOLINARI: Thank you. VELSHI: Great to speak to you and have you on the show.
MOLINARI: Well, nice to be here. Thank you.
ROMANS: All right. Teachers arrested in California in the capital in a fight over budget cuts.
VELSHI: Sounds familiar.
ROMANS: I know. A lot of teachers arrested. This battle rages on across the country.
VELSHI: We're going to give you a look into the future, by the way. I want to show you what your electronic device, your phone, your PDA of the future could look like as thin and flexible literally as a piece of paper. We got a prototype of sorts in her, and I'll unveil it in just a few minutes. It's 17 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: That's Erica, by the way, and it's her last day with us.
ROMANS: It is.
VELSHI: She's not moving parts (ph), she's moving to the other side of the floor.
ROMANS: We've been waking up with Erica for enough a long time. She's very, very smart young woman, and we're very happy for her that she's moving on.
VELSHI: That's Erica for you. She's pretty magical.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: Twenty minutes after the hour. "Minding Your Business" now. The plot read like a sequel to that movie, "The Social Network." Facebook, apparently, caught red-handed hiring a PR firm to pitch anti-Google stories to journalist. Now, Facebook admits to CNN that it hired the firm to make people aware of how Google was using their personal information. It says it wasn't intended to be a smear campaign. So far, no comment from Google yet on what Facebook was doing.
ROMANS: Twenty-eight teachers were arrested and charged with trespassing last night after they refused to leave the California state capitol. They were protesting proposed budget cuts for public education. The teachers are planning another sit-in at the capitol today. You know, a lot of places teachers are hopping mad about budget cuts, and they say it's not fair that --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: And there's something to be said for, you know, -- we, sometimes, do pile it on to those who can least afford it or should least afford it, but that is an ongoing debate in this country. Senate democrats are taking on -- another story of other people not wanting to pay for things.
ROMANS: Right.
VELSHI: Senate Democrats are taking on big oil's big tax breaks. Yesterday, they hauled in the executives from five companies that together raked in $36 billion in profits. By the way, that's just the first three months of this year. One Republican, essentially, called yesterday's hearing a dog and pony show, but that wasn't the only time a creature was mentioned during yesterday's hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ORRIN HATCH, (R) UTAH: I have a chart depicting what I expect this hearing to turn into, and there you go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's the horse and who's the dog?
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: Well, you'd have an easier time convincing the American people that a unicorn just flew into this hearing room than that these big oil companies need taxpayer's subsidies. That's the real fairy tale.
SEN. PAT ROBERTS, (R) KANSAS: Very difficult to follow the unicorn from New York. That has a very sharp horn. Are you all right over there?
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Sometimes, a unicorn can sort of morph into a rhinoceros. So, you don't want to mess with the rhinoceros.
HATCH: Here's how Mr. Letterman put it. Gas prices, aren't they crazy? It's so expensive the rats are car pooling in from New Jersey. Now, we don't have as many rats in my home state of Utah, but like folks in New Jersey and New York, Utah is plenty angry about high gas prices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Now, here's the thing about those two stories. The teachers being arrested in California, and then, the grilling of the oil execs at Capitol Hill. When you're running big deficits and the economy is not growing strongly, that's when people -- teachers get arrested and Congress people --
VELSHI: And when unemployment is low, everybody's got a job and things are going well, nobody cares about what anybody else is making or paying in taxes.
ROMANS: It's all basically fighting over the money.
VELSHI: That's exactly it.
ROMANS: That's what the story is in America. VELSHI: Now, in Fall River, Massachusetts, however, they're fighting over something else. City officials say it's time to ban the sale of Lazy Cakes. Now, I have to tell you, I didn't know what a Lazy Cake was until this morning, but they are marketed as a relaxation brownies promising to ease stress and improve sleep. They're laced with melatonin, which is an herbal sleep remedy.
They come in a psychedelic wrapper featuring a reclining cartoon character named Larry Lazy Cake. Officials say they're marketed to children, but the ingredients are not suitable for children, and they should be pulled off the shelves.
ROMANS: They just scream ambition and overachievement, doesn't it?
VELSHI: Lazy cakes. Yes. Don't buy (ph) your kids anything called lazy cakes even if it doesn't have melatonin in it.
ROMANS: Exactly. Twenty-three minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: The thing that proper tells me that's New York, but I'm going to guess, that's Atlanta.
ROMANS: It's Friday. Are you in love?
VELSHI: I'm in love every day.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: That is Atlanta. I'm in love with Atlanta, too. I live there sometimes actually. It's a beautiful city. I have no idea what the weather is today in Atlanta, but it's sort of Mayish, so I suspect it's warm and looks a little bit sunny. So, there's Atlanta for you. If you live there, go to some local, you know, source for your weather.
ROMANS: It's going to be a high at 85.
VELSHI: How do you know that?
ROMANS: Because it says, it's going to be high at 85 -- it says right there.
VELSHI: It also said New York, and that's not New York. It's really high at 85 in Atlanta.
ROMANS: That's a trick. That's a trick. OK. There's a new heartfelt comedy in theaters right now. It's called "Jumping the Broom."
VELSHI: Looks like fun. I've seen the promos for it and deals with the culture clash in the African-American community. That's all I know from the promos. Is this part of the movie? ROMANS: Oh, yes, this is from the movie right. And one of the producers is Bishop T.D. Jakes. Our Soledad O'Brien talked to him, and she joins us now.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: You may or may not know Bishop T.D. Jakes, but in the African-American community, this guy is huge. He has a church Potters house that has 30,000 people who attend --
VELSHI: Wow.
O'BRIEN: Yes, giant. And he's also written best-selling books, numerous books.
VELSHI: Yes.
O'BRIEN: And he also has a history of doing these gospel plays. So, he's a big giant name, but not in movies necessarily until now. He's got this new movie. It's called "Jumping the Broom." It stars Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine. It's hilarious. We were laughing when we were watching yesterday. And it's not about religion exactly. I asked him, is this some religious movie? Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BISHOP T.D. JAKES, PRODUCER, "JUMPING THE BROOM": It's somewhere in between. I mean, there is a faith thread woven into the fabric of real life, and I think that's really where faith plays out its best when you put it in an authentic environment where real people with real problems or real issues are grappling with the struggles of life.
O'BRIEN: The overall story is a story of a culture clash, a class clash. You have the rich Watsons versus the not wealthy Taylor family coming together in a marriage. I want to run a little clip where the soon to be mothers-in-law meet each other and almost immediately hate each other.
JAKES: Exactly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: May I say that you certainly raised a wonderful man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, thank you. He is wonderful. I wish I could say the same about you and your daughter. Oh, I said that the wrong way. I mean, I wish I had met her earlier before now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why don't we go into the house, make you more comfortable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JAKES: One thing I wanted to point to, a deep discussion that goes on in the African-American community about class. And this was an opportunity to look at both extremes. The other underlying thing was one of forgiveness. Both sides are flawed in some way. All families are flawed in some way and learning to forgive each other is an underlying theme that I think you've been hearing in the fabric of the movie.
O'BRIEN: Do all your movies have to have themes of forgiveness, morality, spirituality? I mean, would you ever be like the producer of the "Fast and the Furious" "Number 9" or "Saw" --
JAKES: Yes. Well, you know, I'm a --
O'BRIEN: Mission Impossible 8.
JAKES: Absolutely. I love all --
O'BRIEN: You're just a movie producer.
JAKES: Yes. I'm not necessarily trying to draw an umbilical cord between who I am as a producer and on the pulpit. I like to just have a good time. Spiritual people need to chill out. Sometimes we're too serious. We need to live life and enjoy our family and friends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: You don't really hear a bishop say spiritual people need to chill out. He said they went a different route than Sony normally goes. They did screenings with barbers, people in beauty shops. They had a whole e-mailing list to people who normally don't go to movies. Your average person at a movie is a 15-year-old boy. They wanted a very different audience and they were able to deliver that. So it's -- but I love like "Mission Impossible 9? Yes, I'd love to be the producer of that."
ROMANS: It makes a lot of sense because you stand at a pulpit and a good preacher sees what moves people and what works with people and how to communicate and the words, and you can see how that could really translate.
O'BRIEN: It's not a stretch. He thinks of it as this are lots of different platforms to reach people. Movies and the pulpit are just different platforms.
VELSHI: And he is entertaining. He's an interesting guy. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie.
O'BRIEN: It's really funny.
VELSHI: New bumper sticker - "Spiritual people need to chill out."
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Top stories now. The Taliban retaliating for the death of Osama bin Laden, killing at least 80 people in a of pair suicide bombings last night. The target was a military training center in northwest Pakistan. Most of those killed were young Pakistani recruits. U.S. intelligence officers have interrogated now these of bin Laden's widows. A senior Pakistani government official describes the women as hostile. The U.S. wanted to interview them separately but that did not happen. The eldest of bin Laden's widows reportedly spoke for the other two and we're told nothing new was learned. And again they were hostile.
And the Pentagon says they're studying ways to pump up security for the Navy Seals who killed bin Laden. Robert Gates met with the members of the unit and some are worried about their names being released and their families being harmed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: A week ago Sunday in the situation room, we all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin Laden. That all fell apart on Monday, the next day.
The one thing I would tell you, though, is that I think there has been a consistent and effective effort to protect the identities of those who participated in the raid, and I think that has to continue. We are very concerned about the security of our families -- of your families and our troops and also these elite units that are engaged in things like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: This brings us to our question of the day. Gates is talking about the safety of those Seals and their families. We're asking whether you think America itself is safer now that bin Laden is dead. We've got some of your responses here.
ROMANS: On Facebook, "50/50 - yes, because he's gone, no, because his followers will want to avenge his death.
VELSHI: And on twitter, Joanna Daniel says "No, I don't think America is safer -- happier, but not safer."
ROMANS: And D.J. tells us "We might be safer, but what is the use of being safer when as a result we all live in fear?"
VELSHI: And David says "I honestly think we have nothing really to fear. The only thing we might see is weightless threats. A big blow has been dealt to them. We've seen what we're capable of doing. I highly doubt we'll see any type of retaliation from them."
Lots of great comments, and we love getting them. And by the way, we do read all of them. So please send in all of your comments.
Happening right now, 600 more people are being told to move to higher ground in the historic town of Vicksburg, Mississippi, as the record breaking flooding heads their way. People in Louisiana now sandbagging before it's their turn for the highest part of the river to get to them. And some floodgates are open. The National Guard has already been mobilized in Louisiana. ROMANS: CNN going in-did depth taking a look at the human toll. What would you do if you were told everything you own will soon be completely underwater?
VELSHI: Ed Lavandera spoke to some people coming to grips with it right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tucked away in the shade of Louisiana cypress trees and back water creeks, you'll have a hard time finding Pierre Watermeyer's dance floor.
PIERRE WATERMEYER, BUTTE LAROSE, LA, RESIDENT: I put that sign up about two months ago, and I've always wanted to name the camp Last Dance.
LAVANDERA: The music has stopped and Pierre is packing it all up before the floodwaters wash over.
WATERMEYER: I had a big table in here. I had a cabinet over here. And 70 percent of the people have packed up and gone.
LAVANDERA: His bayou community will soon be flooded.
WATERMEYER: I'm going to get three feet of water in it.
LAVANDERA: But Pierre is about to learn that the floodwaters will likely be worse than anything he imagined. Pierre and hundreds of Butte LaRose residents pack into the firehouse to hear flood level predictions from the Army Corps of Engineers.
COL. ED FLEMING, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: I'm telling you the depth of water 15 feet. It's over.
LAVANDERA: "It's over" for Butte LaRose, the words too painful to hear. As pain turns to anger, Colonel Ed Fleming offers a little comfort.
FLEMING: When that moving truck drives away and you're standing in your driveway with your family it and a couple suitcases and a box, that's when you know what's important for you.
LAVANDERA: And the sadness of the moment brings Kelli Trimm to tears.
KELLI TRIMM, BUTTE LAROSE RESIDENT : It's worse than we thought. It's really worse than we thought. We thought maybe we might have water this our yard. This is going to take everything we've got.
LAVANDERA: Pierre Watermeyer knows it's time to pack up the dance floor and put Butte LaRose in his rearview mirror. But he'll be back.
WATERMEYER: It's not the last dance. No. We'll dance again around here. LAVANDERA: And the sign will be the last thing he grabs on the way out of town.
Ed Lavendera, CNN, Butte LaRose, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: A great story.
VELSHI: It does bring it home as people wonder what this flooding is doing.
ROMANS: But it's nice to see Ed and other reporters really trying to meet people along the way and try to show what is this big massive flood, but show it on a very personal level.
VELSHI: It doesn't feel as urgent as some other natural disasters that we tend to report on like storms or hurricanes, but it is very damaging.
ROMANS: Up next, we want to show you the first paper smart phone. You can imagine a piece of paper ringing?
VELSHI: You're reading it and folding it and rolling it up. We'll show it to you after the break. It's 38 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Watching your money this morning. Think your cell phone is thin now? One day you might be able to fold it up and roll it like a piece of paper. My lovely assistant will show you.
VELSHI: I love this story. When I speak to engineers, the smart ones who say it will be not just smaller, but flexible and it will all be about imagery and video. It will be a different way of doing that.
So we wanted to bring you something, it's a little unusual. It's like showing you the iPhone years before it came to market. Our next guest from my alma mater, Queens University in Canada, Roel Vertegaal, has with him really a prototype or a step on the way to what the future of not just phones but eBooks, what we do, what we carry with us, is going to look like.
First of all, let's be fair, you and other scientists and engineers are working on this. Are we talking about things being on the market in five or 10 years?
ROEL VERTEGAAL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, QUEENS UNIVERSITY: Yes, more likely 10 than five. There are still quite a few technical things to work out.
VELSHI: Let's it take a look. You have something here that you've mocked up for us. Describe this to us.
VERTEGAAL: What we have is a very, very thin film screen. And then we have a bunch of senses on the back. So we can navigate items on the screen which is similar to the way you work with paper.
ROMANS: So give us an example of an e-Reader.
VERTEGAAL: So let's see. I open up the eBook reader using a gesture and I can page through by bending it. And now I'm going to close it.
ROMANS: So it's very intuitive.
VERTEGAAL: Absolutely. Just like thumbing through paper.
VELSHI: So it you use an iPad on read or -- this is more like a kindle.
VERTEGAAL: Exactly. What we see here is a screen that's flexible. Similar to your kindle, if you don't power it, it doesn't actually -- it still stays and doesn't consume any power.
VELSHI: And this is where the science engineering is working. This is why you have power running to it at the moment. But when you're looking at it in ten years, it's just going to be that.
VERTEGAAL: It will be just that and maybe a handle that has some of the rigid electronics.
VELSHI: So a processor, a battery, and some sort of input device.
VERTEGAAL: And of course a touch screen.
ROMANS: So what about opening your contacts?
VERTEGAAL: Let's try. I'll move to the left here. And I'll open the contacts. So I'm in my contact list and I'll go down to my phone. I turned off my phone so it wouldn't ring, but here go, I'm calling it.
VELSHI: And then I'd just hold it up to your ear?
VERTEGAAL: Yes, like a normal phone.
VELSHI: I've heard this from drift places. There seems to be a collect it difference wisdom that this is where we're moving in terms of personal devices. So there are a lot of people betting on this including a lot of big companies with money.
VELSHI: No doubt that ten years from now, where is n. Your studio is the CRT. It's gone. So this is the third wave of displacing technology.
ROMANS: When? Is this something that I'm going to touch in 10 or 15 year?
VERTEGAAL: I would say definitely within 10 years you'll see the products on the market. Of course there's lots of advantages to having these things. They fit your body better than the current cell phone. They're light weight.
VELSHI: I -- because I find it -- I find it just really ruins the silhouette of my body.
(LAUGHTER)
VERTEGAAL: Exactly.
VELSHI: But -- but other than the size, what -- what -- will the processors be better? Will there will be something -- obviously it will be the improvement of the devices we've got plus the fact that it's small?
(CROSSTALK)
VERTEGAAL: Right but there's also real benefits to Human- Computer Interaction to the user interface in the sense that right now we all suffer from tunnel vision. We use this one little computer that does everything poorly.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Yes, right.
VERTEGAAL: And what we really want to do is to have multiples of these. And because they're thin, you can fit a bunch of sheets in your pocket. And one would be your inbox and one would be you know, your eBook reader and you just combine them.
ROMANS: Wow. Who say that it's just going to be a paperless office? It isn't we're going back to the paper.
VERTEGAAL: Well, all computers are going to be paper at some point.
VELSHI: That is excellent. Roel, great to talk to you. Thanks very much for the great work you and so many others who are doing this. Roel Vertegaal is director of the Human-Media lab at Queens University which is where I got my degree from.
ROMANS: Nice, nice. All right.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: I didn't invent anything while I was there, by the way, except new ways to waste time.
ROMANS: Its 45 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: A lot going on this morning and here's what you need to know to start your day.
The Taliban claiming responsibility for a pair of suicide bombings at a paramilitary training center in northwest Pakistan; at least 80 people were killed, the attack is said to be in retaliation for the death of Osama bin Laden.
The Pentagon says it's concerned about the security of the Navy SEALs who killed bin Laden. Defense Secretary, Robert Gates says he met with the elite team last week and they're worried about their identities being revealed and their families being harmed.
New evacuations downstream; 600 people in Vicksburg, Mississippi told to get out of the way of the Mississippi River. The highest water expected there next week.
Police are investigating the death of a University of Alabama football player, Aaron Douglas. They say the 21-year-old Douglas was found dead yesterday morning in a house in Fernandina Beach, Florida where he'd attended a party the night before.
Texas Republican Ron Paul is running for president in 2012. The announcement came about an hour ago from Paul's campaign rally in New Hampshire. It's his third time running for the White House.
Markets open in 45 minutes. Right now futures are up after the Consumer Price Index found inflation rising at the fastest rate since October of 2008. The bulk of the increase is coming from higher gas prices.
You're caught up on the headlines. AMERICAN MORNING back right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BROSOWSKI, CNN HERO OF THE WEEK: We're here in Hanoi, kids come to the streets hoping that it would better than living in poverty in the countryside, but often they find that these are much worse for them here.
You can actually identify kids who are living and working on the streets. They may get detained by the authorities, they may get beaten up. There are gangs selling heroin. We're finding kids being tricked and then sold into prostitution.
It was just a case of I can help, so I should help.
My name is Michael Brosowski, I work in Vietnam with street kids trying to get them off the streets and back into school and into safe homes.
When we started out, our goal was just to get them back to school. To do that, we realized we would have to take that place of providing an income, food, providing the shelter.
Our center is where the kids know to come. This is where they feel safe. They can join in our activities, they can talk to the staff and then we've got to make sure they're working towards education or getting a job or improving their health. We've also got to be careful that if the child has a family, the family is as involved as possible. It's an amazing feeling getting to watch these kids go from being malnourished and just completely lacking confidence to wanting to make a change.
I grew up in poverty and I often used to think if I could do something good with my life if only someone would come and give me that chance. Now I'm the guy who can help these kids and give them a chance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Today in "Building up America", no rest for the mattress biz. One company in North Carolina not only outlasted the recession, but also survived a fire to keep people on the job.
VELSHI: People got to sleep.
Tom Foreman joins us live from Thomasville, North Carolina. He's touring around on the CNN Express. Tom what do you have for us? You always have something good for us.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
You know, no truer words were ever said than people have got to sleep. That's true.
Look, I'm in Thomasville, North Carolina. Everybody in this country knows this area is just renowned for producing some of the best furniture this country has ever produced.
And if you've read the news, you know the furniture business is really taking a pounding in recent years along with the textile business. And yet there are companies that are finding ways to hang in there and keep fighting and make improvements, including this one small family operation we found that really has just a remarkable story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN (voice-over): Amid the clatter of nail guns and sewing machines, 1,400 mattresses a day roll out of the Carolina Mattress Guild, at least, on a good day. But the owners of this small company, Kathryn and Neal Grigg (ph) have learned how to handle bad days, too.
KATHRYN GRIGG, VICE PRESIDENT, CAROLINA MATTRESS GUILD: We had to, to survive. We lost half or more of our customer base. So to survive, we had to be very proactive.
FOREMAN: Ten years ago just after they had opened in the heart of Carolina's furniture belt, a devastating fire struck, wiping out their inventory, their life savings which they had invested here, and leaving a huge question.
NEAL GRIGG, CAROLINA MATTRESS GUILD: My God, what are we going to do? How are we going to overcome this?
FOREMAN: The answer, rebuild fast. Moving into temporary space, they raced to repair, once again dropping as much money into their dream as they could scrape up.
(on camera): This is all highly specialized equipment.
N. GRIGG: Oh, absolutely.
FOREMAN: And I'm guessing kind of expensive.
N. GRIGG: Very expensive. Very expensive.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Then they had an inspiration. They developed a ground breaking product based on their experience, a fire resist mattress, one of the first of its kind on the market. It took off with customers.
N. GRIGG: It did gain us some new business, so there was a silver lining to that cloud.
FOREMAN: The lessons learned about taking care of their staff, working hard and never giving up have helped them grow from a handful to a hundred employees despite the recession.
Their mantra is simple.
K. GRIGG: You can't retreat. You can't retreat. You have to keep moving forward.
FOREMAN: That doesn't guarantee success, but even in tough economic times, it helps them all sleep a little easier.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: And I'll tell you, one of the things they've tapped into here really is just an enormous bed of enormously talented artists here. You look at the people working in their factory, you look at them and you say it's factory workers.
Watch them for just a few minutes and you can see that there are generations of people here who know how to do this work. They've passed it on to others. They've learned it from others. And they're turning out these products at an extraordinary rate and they're remarkably well-made when you're there watching it happen. It's quite a process.
VELSHI: Did you win a bet by saying an enormous bed of enormously talented artists?
FOREMAN: They had an enormous bed of -- yes, we had a little wager. Could I work in the word "bed" in to the --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Christine and I -- you know Christine and I being in New York, we both had the same reaction as we're watching this. The bed bug problem can't be hurting the mattress industry.
ROMANS: It's very good for the mattress business.
FOREMAN: Oh, no. No, that's got -- well, I'll tell you something. They did talk about how mattress technology has really improved. I did not realize this. But they were talking about how a mattress today is fundamentally different than a mattress ten years ago. There are all these improvements to the comfort and the strength for your back and all this stuff.
Of course they're in the business of selling mattresses. I guess they would say that. But nonetheless, they made a pretty good case for it. So I might go mattress shopping when I get back home.
VELSHI: I know how that bus is packed, so Dale the driver is not going to let you take one on the bus. You'll have to get it shipped or buy it at a retailer closer to home.
FOREMAN: Yes, Dale won't let me load a mattress of one here. I'll have to get it at home. Right. But he will let you sleep on the bus, Ali, if you're rolling along --
VELSHI: It's got a nice surface in there for sleeping.
Tom, good to see you, my friend, as always.
FOREMAN: Good seeing you all.
ROMANS: All right. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello starts right now.
Hi there, Carol.
