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American Morning
Bail Granted for Strauss-Kahn; Pushing for Mideast Peace; Arnold's Comeback Terminated; Female Entrepreneurs; Floods Clear Out Bayou Towns; IMF Chief Resigns; Shriver, Housekeeper Gave Birth Within Days; Sony Fixes Security Bug
Aired May 20, 2011 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi.
It could happen any moment, Dominique Strauss-Kahn about to get out of jail. We've got live cameras at Rikers Island waiting for his release. And we'll tell you what the former head of the IMF had to do just to get bail.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry.
President Obama's vision for the Middle East calls for a Palestinian state based on borders that existed before the Six-Day War. This is very controversial, and things could get tense when Israel's prime minister visiting the White House later -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHETRY: Good morning to you. So glad you're with us on this Friday morning. It is May 20th.
Boy, any minute now we could be seeing the release of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
VELSHI: That's right. In fact, we're waiting for the former IMF chief to walk out of jail. A judge agreed to free him on bail yesterday. That's the same day a grand jury indicted him.
Now, in order to get out of jail, Strauss-Kahn will post bail of $1 million cash, plus a $5 million insurance bond. He'll also be forced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and heavily guarded around the clock.
CHETRY: Strauss-Kahn had been under suicide watch or has been and has been at Rikers Island. And now, he could be walking out of there any moment.
Susan Candiotti is here right now.
So, this is, obviously, a big victory for, you know, his legal team. It wanted this to happen before it was denied and now he got it.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's right.
And now, it's a matter of making it all come together.
VELSHI: Right.
CANDIOTTI: So, we don't know exactly when he'll be getting out of Rikers. We do know that the judge is going to have to finally sign off everything is in place. We know that, as you've been reporting, that a security team has been hired by the defense team and he has to pay for this himself, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, pay the price of installing all those cameras, having guards around there 24/7 to keep an eye on him, to have that electric monitoring system in place. And there are estimates it could run him at least $200,000 a month.
So, it was interesting to watch to see how this is all going to come together. The question is: how long will it take for them to do it. They announced in court that the wife rented an apartment for them in Manhattan and there's talk about different places of where that can be.
VELSHI: Right.
CANDIOTTI: But we don't have it firmed up just yet.
VELSHI: And that, there was talk yesterday that he might stay with his daughter who is in Manhattan. This appears to be a different situation from that.
CANDIOTTI: They announced in court that, no, she rented -- leased a separate apartment probably for some time because who knows how long this trial will take if it comes to that.
CHETRY: And how does getting bail impact the state's case if it all? I mean, the prosecutors wanted him to remain behind bars.
CANDIOTTI: Exactly. Well, it doesn't really impact it one way or the other. Their key job is to gather the evidence, gather the evidence that it will take, they say to prosecute him on these very, very serious charges he's been indicted on. They did reveal in court that their case is getting stronger by the day.
And here's part of what the prosecutor said:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN MCCONNELL, ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The proof against him is substantial, it is continuing to grow every day as the investigation continues, and it should be considered by the court when evaluating the issue of bail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: And, of course, in the end, even though they said that case is getting stronger, that the evidence is growing, that they have very compelling testimony from the alleged victim in this case, the 32-year-old hotel maid, that this case is going forward. But the judge still said, we're going to give him bail.
VELSHI: So we discussed -- Kiran and I were discussing this morning, all of the monitoring that he's engaging in that might be costing him up to $200,000 a month. Is that different? Is there some sense that because he's wealthy and he can afford it, he's getting something that other people wouldn't get? In other words, would a normal person accused of a sex crime be able to get bail if they couldn't afford monitoring?
CANDIOTTI: Well, of course, it all depends on their means.
VELSHI: Yes.
CANDIOTTI: But, certainly there is precedence for this in the past and, ultimately, the judge said, look, I'm convinced by the arguments that the defense has made, given this man's background, given the fact that his passport has been taken away from him, that it would be very difficult for him to flee. But, in the end, he looked him straight in the eye, the judge did, and said to him, "You, sir, you have to understand, you better be here."
VELSHI: Right.
CHETRY: Wow. Tough stuff.
And any moment we could see that picture of him leaving Rikers.
Susan Candiotti for us this morning -- thanks.
CANDIOTTI: You're welcome.
CHETRY: Well, while Strauss-Kahn fights to clear his name, John Lipsky will be taking over as the acting director of the IMF while the search begins for a permanent replacement. There's a shot of him there.
Lipsky has been a deputy managing director at the IMF for five years and has several decades of experience as an economist and investment banker with Salomon Brothers and JPMorgan.
VELSHI: Now to President Obama's future vision for the Middle East. It's a big story. The president outlined his proposals in a major speech that addressed the upheaval in the Arab world and the Israeli/Palestinian peace talks.
CHETRY: But his plan to return to borders that existed in 1967, before the Six-Day War, as a starting for negotiations, highly controversial and rejected by Israel. The president later talked about the plan to the BBC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our argument is: let's get started on a conversation about territory and about security. That doesn't resolve all the issues. You still end up having the problem of Jerusalem and still end up having the problem of refugees. But if we make progress on what two states would look like and a reality sets in among the parties, this is how it's going to end up, then it becomes easier for both sides to make difficult concessions to resolve those two other issues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: The new controversy is likely to dominate the president's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who actually just arrived in Washington in the last hour.
VELSHI: CNN's Ed Henry is live at the White House.
Ed, Netanyahu has called the idea of those pre-1967 borders indefensible for Israel, saying it's just not going to help them. I assume this means this is likely going to be yet another tense meeting between those two leaders today.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No doubt about it, Ali. It's interesting because the president was trying to explain in the interview with the BBC that all he believed he was doing was trying to get the Palestinians to the table, because there's really no peace process going on right now and this was sort of a Palestinian position largely, at least on this one issue, and he thought maybe that will get them to the table. And then, as you heard, we can deal with some of the issues later.
That's not good enough for Prime Minister Netanyahu because this basically, while it's not really a new position for the U.S., per se, it is the first time ever that a U.S. president has said it this directly in a formal address and really put Israel on the defensive and trying to get them to basically give a huge bit of ground before negotiations even take place. That's why the prime minister said, among other things, he said that we needed to go back to previous commitments the U.S. made. He said, quote, "Among other things, those commitments relate to Israel not having to withdraw to the 1967 lines, which are both indefensible and which would leave major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria beyond those lines."
So, you can see how that bit of timing is frustrating to the Israelis, as Prime Minister Netanyahu arrives here.
I spoke to a former U.S. peace negotiator, Aaron David Miller, who said, this is going to basically make this meeting a disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: I don't know whether the president took notice of the sense of timing, but he's opened up a significant issue with the Israelis and fighting with the Israelis, frankly, without purpose and without any sense of advancing the Arab-Israeli peace process or achieving a breakthrough, doesn't make much sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: It's worth noting, as the president said in the BBC interview, he did not mention anything about splitting Jerusalem as a capital. That's important for the Israelis. He also didn't mention anything about Palestinian refugees -- another important point Israel wants him to leave off the table for now.
Nevertheless, by talking about the 1967 borders, basically everything else got drowned out and he's really upset the Israelis on the eve of this meeting -- Ali, Kiran.
CHETRY: Have they had a great relationship to begin with?
HENRY: Well, you know, they have had tense meetings before. There's no doubt about it. Aaron David Miller has an expression -- he basically says, look, President Obama keeps saying he wants to do anything to get this process going, it's almost like the "yes, we can" president, meeting with the "oh, no, you can't" prime minister, because it has been tense between these two men before. This is only going to make this tense.
And then you add in the presidential politics that is going to jump into this. You have Republican Mitt Romney yesterday charging that President Obama is throwing Israel under the bus -- pretty strong language, but it gives you an idea ahead of 2012, the Jewish American vote is going to be important. Clearly, this is something that Republicans are going to use against this president. It's going to make it that much harder to actually forge a peace deal.
VELSHI: All right. Ed, we'll stay on top of it with you -- Ed Henry at the White House. And, of course, we'll be covering that meeting live later today.
CHETRY: Coming up in 30 minutes, we're going to talk more about this with former ambassador Marc Ginsberg, and, also, University of Maryland professor, Shibley Telhami.
VELSHI: All right. Disturbing documents released giving us a glimpse into the mind of the suspected gunman in the Tucson rampage and a school that saw the warning sign. Jared Loughner is charged with the murders of six people in the January shooting. More than a dozen others were wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Pima Community College was ordered to turn over 250 e-mails written about Loughner. They describe an irrational individual. And more disturbing yet, a potential threat to the school and the community. We've got some of those e-mails.
VELSHI: Yes, that's right. One of them says, if I could tell -- "I could tell he had emotional problems." Another one, Loughner's professor writing, "I'd like to do everything we can to have him removed from class." Also, the commander of the college's police force even weighing in, saying, quote, "While the student has not made overt threats, it's apparent his behavior is being noticed."
We're going to have much more on the story in our 8:00 hour. We're going to be joined by psychologist Jeff Gardere and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. There are some who were saying that you can think all of these things and you can feel these things about people, but is it actionable?
VELSHI: Is it actionable? Is there -- are there services in place to actually deal with it until somebody commits a crime? Great discussion we're going to have later on.
The convicted killer dubbed the Unabomber may be linked with another murder case. The FBI wants Ted Kaczynski's DNA in connection with the 1982 Tylenol killings. Seven people died after taking cyanide laced pills. The FBI says Kaczynski refused to turn over a sample. He's serving life in prison for killing three people during a string of bombings.
CHETRY: And the defense is trying to take the death penalty off of the table for the suspected Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, Army psychiatrist. He's charged with killing 13 people at the Texas base back in 2009. Thirty-two others were injured. Hasan's attorney says a death penalty trial is, quote, "more time-consuming and expensive." No word on when a decision will be made.
VELSHI: Well, the space shuttle Endeavour, we watched it launch together here on AMERICAN MORNING on Monday, it might be damaged. NASA workers are now taking a close look at the underside of the shuttle. This picture taken before the Endeavour docked with the International Space Station. Now, concerns are three potentially damaged areas. Commander Mark Kelly says he's aware but he's not worried about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATIE COURIC, CBS NEWS: And to all of you watching, thank you so much for coming along with me on this incredible journey. That's the "CBS Evening News" for tonight. I'm Katie Couric. Good night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: That was Katie Couric signing off for the last time on "The CBS Evening News." She made history back in 2006 when she started as the first woman to ever solo-anchor a network evening news show. And she ended last night's broadcast with a montage of her five years on the program.
Couric will be replaced in June by "60 Minutes" reporter Scott Pelley. And she's also reportedly in talks to host a daytime show among many other endeavors. So, good for her. We wish her luck.
VELSHI: Another hit for Arnold Schwarzenegger, his movie comeback is now on hold. I think we could have expected that was going to happen. And we are hearing from the other woman's daughter, that's just ahead.
CHETRY: Also, kicked out of Cannes. A big time film director lands in hot water. He could not get himself out of his own muck of words when it comes to support for Hitler. It was all caught on tape and it was quite uncomfortable.
Twelve minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie comeback, taking a little break until further notice. Lawyers for the former governor of California say he wants to focus, understandably, on personal matters after it was learned that he fathered a child out of wedlock with his former housekeeper. Arnold Schwarzenegger's film projects are now grounded. He had some, a plan -- the plans for the Governator comic book and the TV series based on his life have been scrapped.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, Maria Shriver, still out in public. Being seen in various pictures with her daughter Christina, her son Christopher. They went to lunch yesterday at a Brentwood, California restaurant.
And we're also hearing for the first time from the daughter of Arnold's other woman who's speaking out in defense of her mom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACQUELINE ROZO, DAUGHTER OF MILDRED BAENA: My mom is a great woman. That's all I have to say. She's the most caring person you'll ever know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Schwarzenegger was supposed to start shooting the upcoming movie called "Cry Macho," who's about a horse breeder who wins the Kentucky Derby only to succumb to alcohol and depression when he loses his family. And he reportedly stood to earn $12.5 million plus 25 percent of the profits for the role. But, again, as you were saying that -- that project as well is now postponed.
VELSHI: As well as the others, yes.
All right. If you see something, say something. Workers at a UPS near Hartford, Connecticut, saw a suspicious package, turns out it was loaded with more than $6 million worth of cocaine. Police say this could be the biggest drug -- drug bust in the State's history. It was stuffed with 220 pounds of cocaine, held together with nails and glue and labeled elevator parts.
CHETRY: OK.
VELSHI: Police arrested the man who came to pick it up. Because I was thinking to myself, they see a lot of packages. What's unusual to UPS employees, but I guess nails and glue and elevator parts would raise one's suspicions.
CHETRY: Wow.
Well, a seven-year-old busted for bringing heroin into his elementary school. A local station in Pittsburgh says the teacher found 18 small bags of heroin stuffed into his backpack and locker and that he also handed out drugs to at least three students. Police brought in a bomb-sniffing dog, didn't find any other -- a drug and bomb-sniffing dog, anyway, didn't find any other drugs in the building. The boy said that he bought -- brought the drugs from home, but a police search of the house came up empty. Again, we're talking about a seven-year-old.
VELSHI: That is a very curious story. Interesting to see what happens with that. We'll stay on top of it.
A man in Utah moves into his house and finds $40,000 hidden in the attic. But he doesn't keep the cash. Instead, he tracks down the rightful owners. The cash was stuffed into eight boxes filled with 50s and 100s and stashed away by the home's previous owner who died last year. The money is going to be split among his six surviving children.
CHETRY: What a nice thing to do. The right thing to do. But would everybody make that same choice?
VELSHI: I -- I hope people tell the truth. We've decided to make this the question of the day. We will not judge you, but tell the truth.
What would you do if you found a big bag of money in the attic? Send us an e-mail, a tweet, tell us on Facebook. We're going to read your responses throughout this hour.
CHETRY: You know, I think there's been other cases, haven't there, when somebody has left something, they said, well, I bought the house, so whatever is in the house is mine.
VELSHI: I'll tell you, the best -- because we already had -- we already had one from somebody on our staff who will remain nameless, who said if I found $40,000 in the attic, I'd turn in $20,000 and be a real hero for it.
CHETRY: That's terrible. Keep the other half.
VELSHI: I found $20,000 in the attic. We're not all as scrupulous here at CNN as we would like to think.
Nineteen minutes after the hour. Let's get a quick check of the morning's weather headlines. Karen Maginnis --
CHETRY: Karen, feel free to tell us what you would do --
VELSHI: What you would do with the -- the $40,000?
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, the temptation is pretty great. But I just couldn't live with myself if I didn't.
VELSHI: Karen is the kind of person who would come back to work after winning the lottery, too, I bet you.
CHETRY: Yes.
MAGINNIS: No.
All right. We've got severe weather moving across Central Oklahoma and Texas. Thought we'd tell you about this because of the eruption and the potential for severe thunderstorms that could produce large-sized hail, gusty winds as well as the possibility of tornadoes. No -- no tornado watches out, but we do have a severe thunderstorm watch out across North Central Texas.
All right. For the entire week, across the northeast, nothing but rain and fog and it's persisting through today. But the area of low pressure is going to move out towards the northeast and New England. Still some leftover showers and some thunderstorms, but this really hampers your travel situation, especially across New York airport areas.
I've seen some visibilities down to about a quarter of a mile. Doesn't look like that's going to be changing until about 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning. But those delays could be well over an hour. We've seen this all week long. It's very frustrating for our travelers into the northeast, but also into Boston and Philadelphia. Low visibility being reported there.
I'll be back in about 45 minutes to bring you another weather update.
VELSHI: All right. Karen, good to see you. Thank you very much. Karen Maginnis at the Extreme Weather Center.
We have this interesting story about how female entrepreneurs are really sort of overtaking men. It's a great -- it's a very interesting way to break the glass ceiling, you know, with a lot of women --
CHETRY: It's to start -- right. It's to start your own business.
VELSHI: Start your own business. We're going to tell you about that, where your opportunities are after the break.
Twenty minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. Twenty-four minutes past the hour right now.
All this week we've been focusing on America's job hunt. And this morning, guess where most small jobs are coming from? This is interesting -- female entrepreneurs.
VELSHI: Yes. And it's a trend that's been growing. Just a few years, female run small businesses will generate as many as 5.5 million new jobs nationwide.
Christine Romans talked to one woman who's focusing on making hers a million dollar success story. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STACEY ANTINE, FOUNDER & CEO, HEALTHBARN USA: We're entering the HealthBarn garden, which as I told you what's so unique about it, is that kids take care of this.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stacey Antine is living her dream. After a successful career in public relations, she traded her power suit and big city office for blue jeans and a barn. HealthBarn USA is the result. A hand's on program to teach children and families about organic farming and nutrition.
ANTINE: OK. So if you don't have vitamins and minerals in your soil, your plants aren't going to grow healthy and you wouldn't grow healthy.
ROMANS (on camera): What the kids are learning is how to plant the seeds of sustainable growth, how to grow a healthy garden and grow a healthy body. For women entrepreneurs, sustainable growth means finding money and finding mentors.
ROMANS (voice-over): Mentors like Nell Merlino, who created "Count Me In" and its program, make mine a million dollars, to help women like Stacey take their businesses to a million in sales.
NELL MERLINO, FOUNDER & CEO, COUNT ME IN: Seventy percent of all women business owners not only are at $50,000 or less in annual revenue, 70 percent of all women owned businesses are that small.
ROMANS (on camera): Really?
MERLINO: Yes.
ROMANS (voice-over): The challenge --
MERLINO: To take a well-thought out business that is not making a lot of money and get it to a million dollars in revenue and Stacey had that kind of business.
ANTINE: For a lot of women which I learned being part of "Count Me In," is that, I mean, they started businesses -- super cool businesses out of their kitchen and they're like, oh, my God, now what do I do?
Who wants to step up (ph) and do it?
ROMANS (on camera): And you like to grow your revenues. So how are you going to do it?
ANTINE: Well, basically, the Count Me In has been just a huge inspiration, because winning that competition gave me a lot of confidence and it actually got me out of the trenches of working in the garden everyday with the kids and focusing on the big picture.
ROMANS (voice-over): A big picture that she hopes includes six zeros.
Christine Romans, CNN, Wyckoff, New Jersey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: And to find out where the jobs are, how to get them, how to keep them, check out the all new CNNMoney.com. There are -- there's a ton of features on this. We're going in depth this week on CNN.
CHETRY: Yes. And Christine, by the way, is taking the day off. Great piece by her.
VELSHI: Yes, yes.
CHETRY: See her back here Monday.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: Well, he said what? Top film director now kicked out of Cannes --
VELSHI: Unbelievable.
CHETRY: -- Film Festival for some offensive comments. He -- he tried to then say it was a joke, but it was talking about support for Hitler. He was talking about how he was a Nazi.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: People didn't find it funny.
VELSHI: Didn't go over well. Yes.
All right. A horse is a horse, of course, so what is it doing on a train? Look at that. That's -- that's not a doctored photo. We'll tell you what that's all about when we come back.
It's 27 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Thirty minutes after the hour. Good morning. Let's bring you up to speed with the top stories that we're covering here at CNN.
Former IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn could be walking out of Rikers Island at any moment. A judge granted him bail yesterday while a grand jury was indicting him on seven counts of sexual assault of a hotel maid.
CHETRY: Well, it figures to be a tense meeting at the White House later this morning when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pays a visit to President Obama.
Now, Netanyahu rejected the president's proposal outright that Israel abandon land that it won in the 1967 war to restart the Middle East peace process. Netanyahu says those borders would leave Israel, quote, "indefensible," and he is demanding a retraction from the president.
VELSHI: Devastating floods in Mississippi are now deadly. A 69-year-old man in Vicksburg drowned yesterday. He is the first known victim of the historic floods.
Entire neighborhoods are submerged in water. Over 2,000 people forced to flee their homes. And experts say it will be weeks before they can return.
Even Mississippi's governor has been affected. His lake house near Yazoo City is under water.
CHETRY: Well, some homeowners in low-lying areas are actually taking it upon themselves to try to build their own levees, to do whatever they can to protect their homes despite the rising waters.
One homeowner tells us that his house is surrounded by 12-foot high levees that he built up and he's staying there. He's actually using a boat to get to and from the highway.
VELSHI: People are trying everything they can to save their homes.
CHETRY: Raising them up on higher -- stilts, hoping that works.
VELSHI: Well, Louisiana low lands turning into ghost towns right now. Police were going door to door in Butte LaRose, Louisiana. They're clearing people out of that area.
CHETRY: Yes, because they're under a mandatory evacuation order right now there.
Rob Marciano, though, is there in Butte LaRose this morning. What is it like as these waters continue to rise?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, the river is still rising around here. But folks are still trying to make a living. Some craw fishermen are just heading out right now, getting about 400 traps out there. So, trying to bring in the harvest, so to speak.
But, you're right, Butte LaRose in this area, they've been told to get out. The mandatory evacuation goes into effect tonight. And by 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, they're not going to be letting anybody into or out of this place.
But it's been a week now where folks have been moving their stuff out. And I've talked to a number of people that have been frustrated because, boom, they're out of their houses for a week and a lot don't have a place to go. Red Cross shelters haven't been opened up yet. So, there's just a handful of random shelters that are opened. And if you're a single person, they won't always let you into that.
So, folks are kind of struggling here for sure. Right now, we're at 21 feet. It's forecasted to go up to 27 feet. But that forecast crest isn't until the end of next week.
All right. So, we talk about, obviously, all the people that are being displaced. This is not a good deal for neighborhoods, for people and property.
But yesterday, I went out with the USGS and took a tour of the Atchafalaya swamp and some of the bayous that feed off and into the Atchafalaya River itself. Amazing to see just how high the river is. I learned a lot during that trip.
And as bad as this is for people, for commerce, and for communities, for the swamp itself and the ecology, it's actually a good thing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: There's a silver lining when we see all these people packing up having to move out of their houses. Nature is benefiting in some way.
DAN KROES, USGS ECOLOGIST: Nature is benefiting from this. The fish are benefiting from it. The trees are going to get good. And there's probably going to be a little cap of silt on the organic matter. So, we might see better dissolved oxygen for the next few years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: He went on to say that, you know, it's a happy swamp and happy, healthy swamp is a happy swam.
They haven't seen waters like this flush through certain parts of the Atchafalaya in over 30 years. So, there's a lot of stuff in there, there's invasive species that have grown in the past 10 or 20 years, they would like to flush out of there. There's other forms of debris that they may very well flush out there.
So, we're going to flush out some of the bad hopefully and bring in some of that good nutrients and sentiment that Dan was talking about there.
So, you know, it's amazing, guys, covering this now for two, three weeks, the catch-22 that we've seen here -- in some areas, it's helping nature, in other areas like we saw yesterday with the oysters, it's not necessarily helping. And, certainly, the folks who are having to move out of their homes, the commerce, the shipping that's stopping because of this flood, that's not helping either.
This water has traveled 1,000 miles. We started covering this 2 1/2 weeks ago in Cairo and the -- they're measuring stream flow as well. And the USGS scientists I spoke to yesterday, yes, it would take about 14 days for the water in Cairo, Illinois, to get to this point.
I think about two weeks ago, when we were up in Cairo, I recognized the water coming down here. I'm pretty sure this is the same stuff that I saw up there in Illinois. Of course, the folks in Butte LaRose don't want to hear that. Most of them are completely out of here. All of them will be by tomorrow morning.
Guys, back to you in New York.
CHETRY: All right. So -- and the only bright spot, I guess, is when you talk to some of the people, the land people and the fishermen, that it may mean better crops, better land, and silt and soil down the future.
VELSHI: And the happy -- what did you say, happy swamp is a healthy swamp. It's a good way to put it.
MARCIANO: That's right. Yes. One of the few people we've seen smiling in all of this were the scientists, saying, you know, they took measurements and they're like, you know, this could turn out to be a good thing, at least for the swamp.
VELSHI: All right. Rob, we'll check in with you later.
MARCIANO: We'll leave you on that, guys.
VELSHI: Rob Marciano.
CHETRY: Well, Danish film director Lars von Trier is causing controversy at the Cannes Film Festival, not for his latest film, but for actually telling a bunch of Nazi jokes, if you could even call it jokes. But they're comments that happened at a press conference for his "Melancholia" movie on Wednesday.
Von Trier joked that he could sympathize with Hitler. He since apologized. But Cannes kicked him out for the gaffe, saying he's not welcome and that he went too far.
Here's a bit of what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARS VON TRIER, DIRECTOR: I understand Hitler. I think I understand the man. He's not what you would call a good guy, but, yes, I understand much about him and I sympathize with him a little bit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: You can see Kirsten Dunst sitting next to him. She stars in his movie, looking horrified, trying to nervously laugh. She seemed to put her head in her hand at one point. She tried to cut him off, but he just kept going, unfortunately.
VELSHI: Yes. Very strange.
A violent and bizarre face-off with police in South Carolina. Summerville cops confronted Arthur Lee Thompson for shop lifting at a Wal-Mart last Friday. He began throwing punches before getting tasered. Then he took off -- check this out -- he took off in the police cruiser. Here's a camera from the dash board, the police cruiser. He hit 100 miles an hour.
This wild ride ended when he crashed into a truck -- only minor injuries.
CHETRY: You could hear what sounded like the (INAUDIBLE) coming off and playing down the street.
VELSHI: Knucklehead.
CHETRY: Wow. And then you wonder for cops. Sometimes, they don't have it easy, do they?
VELSHI: Don't steal a cop car. If you need to get away somewhere, like police car is a stupid idea. Well, I thought that only happens in movies.
CHETRY: Here's one of the stories that you need to see to believe. This is a man who tried to board a train. This is in Wales. I actually thought it was metro north outside of the city. It's Wales.
VELSHI: It's in Wales. Maybe their rules are different here.
CHETRY: Yes, because I thought, you know, you couldn't bring your pony on, all this time, you know, I would have, you know, hired a separate car.
VELSHI: OK. But here's the thing -- it's not just that he brought it on. He bought tickets. Security cameras show him buying two tickets with the pony next to him.
CHETRY: Right. He wanted to buy one for his horse, just in case.
VELSHI: Did the ticket person not sort of say something. Sir, that's not the other ticket, right? That's not the person you're buying the other ticket for.
CHETRY: You never know.
Well, the conductor politely turned him and his horse away, and officials say he later turned up at a local hospital.
Well, now, animal welfare officers are trying to locate the pair for some questions.
VELSHI: I can't imagine they're going to be hard to find. Put out an EPP (ph) for a guy and a pony trying to get on public transportation. I would just get on the horse.
CHETRY: Again, not easy being a police officer.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: All right. Well, the president's controversial proposal for the future of the Mideast. We're going to be speaking with Ambassador Marc Ginsberg and professor in Middle East policy, Shibley Telhami, joining us.
VELSHI: These two know a lot about this, give us context about what the president said and what the meeting is going to be like with Benjamin Netanyahu today.
Also, we've got some great stuff for you on an Olympic-style competition for wounded service members. We'll have that on the other side of the break.
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VELSHI: Expect things to get tense at the White House today when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Obama. Netanyahu says the White House plan for a Mideast peace deal based on borders that existed before the Six-Day War would make Israel indefensible.
When the president talks about returning Israel to its pre-1967 borders, let me give you a sense of what he's talking about. Now, this might look nice and neat when you look at it like this, until you zoom in on the West Bank where Jewish settlements started cropping up in the 1960s. You can see those little diamonds, and then more started cropping in the '70s and in the '80s.
They were supposed to stop after the Oslo II Agreement in 1995, but they continued growing as you can see. The red and the orange round circles are all the extra settlements. Those are unauthorized settlements. Three hundred thousand people, Jewish people, have now populated that area outside of Israel's official boundaries.
And then you've also got Jerusalem, which you can see right over there. Well, that -- both Israel and the Palestinians see that as their capital city. That is a point of great contention. It's a city that the Palestinians hope to get some claim two in the two-state vision and it's something that President Obama alluded to in his comments yesterday.
That is certainly going to be a hot button issue in his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel later today, Kiran.
CHETRY: Absolutely. And you really illustrated it well by showing that map because you can get a better sense of exactly what we're talking about here when we saw going back to the 1967 borders.
Joining us to talk more about the president's controversial proposal from Washington is Marc Ginsberg, former presidential adviser on the Middle East, and also, Shibley Telhami, professor at the University of Maryland, my alma mater, by the way.
Welcome. Thanks so much for being with us this morning, both of you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.
CHETRY: So, Ambassador Ginsberg, let me just start with the comments from Prime Minister Netanyahu after hearing about this. He said that those 1967 borders are, quote, "indefensible" for Israel. Based on his strong comments and actually calling for the president to take back what he said -- I mean, is this idea dead on arrival?
MARC GINSBERG, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER ON THE MIDDLE EAST: It's dead on arrival, there's no negotiation between the Palestinians and Israelis and that's the problem. The president set this out in a speech and yet at the same time, all of us know that there's been a total breakdown in these negotiations. Senator Mitchell resigned in frustration. There's no trust left between the Palestinians and the Israelis in the negotiating table.
And if the president wants to follow through on this and earn the trust and confidence, he's going to have to commit himself to the process. It's not enough for him to make these statements and leave a sense of distrust among our strongest ally in the Middle East. He's going to have to convince the Israelis that he has a sincere goal and objective that's consistent with their objective of maintaining security.
And all of us know that what he said yesterday is consistent with the long-range goal of settling this problem.
VELSHI: All right. So, consistent with the long-range goal of settling the problem, but you have put your finger on the specific problem.
Shibley, tell me about this. Who is supposed to be at the table? Who can get this deal done? Because what's happening, is you've got Palestinian negotiators playing to their audience and you've got Benjamin Netanyahu and Israelis playing to some of the harder elements of both of those audiences.
How do you get a deal done between these two sides?
SHIBLEY TELHAMI, ANWAR SADAT PROFESSOR FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT: Well, first of all, let me say, I don't agree that this is a controversial proposal. I think this was a measured speech by the president about the Arab uprisings primarily. He couldn't avoid addressing the Arab/Israeli issue which is on the minds of a lot of people. A lot of his advisers were advising him to be bolder and put an Obama plan that talks even about Jerusalem and refugees and he chose not to do it.
So, he did the absolute minimum. The position the president took was actually pretty much in harmony with what Bush had said. There's nothing really all that new in what he said. It's very much similar to what Bush has said in the past. And actually, you know, when you look at it, it's even less than what the Israelis and Palestinians have been talking about in their negotiations, particularly between former Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian authority, President Mahmoud Abbas. So, I don't really understand what the reaction is. When the prime minister of Israel says, well, 67 borders are not defensible, well, the president said 67 plus swaps. So, obviously, it's already taken into account the possibility that some part of the west bank would be incorporated into Israel, and Israel would compensate for that. So, I don't really see the controversy here. It's surprising to me, I don't really understand it.
In fact, you can make the argument from the other side. The president was expected to say a lot more, and he didn't and, obviously, he's getting criticized not just by the prime minister of Israel, but he's criticized -- being criticized by the Palestinians for saying what he said about the unity government, for saying what he said about Palestinian planning to bring up the issue in the general assembly.
CHETRY: And here in lies the continued problem, you're never going to make anybody happy and people -- it's not just about negotiations. It's about fundamentally viewing these as very, very different matters.
Another issue that's going to be causing problems, obviously, Ambassador Ginsberg, you can speak to this is the fact that while all this was happening, Netanyahu's government approved the continued building of new settlements in that area while the rest of the world community is calling for those settlements to be dismantled. How does that factor into this?
GINSBERG: Well, it's obviously one of the real challenges that we face. The idea of creating a coherent Palestinian state, which I think is the goal that everyone shares, that is a -- not a threat to Israel's security, is being undermined by the continued construction of these settlements. And yet here we are, if I may just say, Kiran, here we are talking about the minutia of negotiations, and yet, the president's speech was supposed to focus on the Arab spring.
The fact that we are talking about this in the wake of the president's speech, which was supposed to harmonize American policy with the events in the Arab world, and here we are, worrying about settlements and borders with the Palestinian state, is why I have trouble with the president's speech, because he basically converted what essentially had been a strong, important message to the Arab world and focusing on the minutia of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict without a there there and without a process by which to follow through on.
VELSHI: You agree with Shibley that this isn't a lot of new material that the president put out there. So, what, Shibley, is the point? Is this meant to -- it's going to annoy Benjamin Netanyahu, we already know that. We know this is going to be yet another tense meeting between these two people. You know, Kiran, I always get tweets and e-mails when I mentioned that why these medias say that these two have a tense relationship.
They've got a tense relationship. Is this meant to provoke Benjamin Netanyahu into saying, no, this is where we want to go with this thing?
TELHAMI: No. Look, I mean, if you're giving a speech in part to the Arab audiences about the Arab spring, which was most of the speech, by the way, I mean, the Arab/Israeli conflict was a smaller part of the whole thing, and it was not about minutia. Actually, it didn't get much into details, but when you think about it, if you're speaking to an Arab audience and you know Arab audiences historically have looked at the U.S. through the prism of the Arab/Israeli conflict, they're waiting to see what you're going to say.
If you ignore it, they will see this as an imbalance. How can you talk about the rights of other Arab people, but you're not talking about the rights of Palestinians. And giving the president is speaking at APEC on Sunday, and he's going to speak to a pro-Israel audience. He's going to give a lot more in his support for Israel, how could he have not said something when speaking to an Arab audience. I mean, it's unthinkable.
Plus, the prime minister of Israel is coming to the U.S. He's given a rare opportunity to speak to a joint session of Congress. Few world leaders are given that opportunity. He has a chance to make his own statement and to make his own case. So, I don't really understand what the fuss is all about here.
CHETRY: All right. We welcome further discussion on it, and we're going to continue to follow this as well, because, again, today, that crucial meeting is taking place between our president and Israel's prime minister. Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, Professor Shibley Telhami, thanks so much -- Telhami -- thanks to both of you for being with us this morning.
TELHAMI: Sure thing.
GINSBERG: Pleasure.
CHETRY: All right. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to check out this competition. Wounded service members proving that even though they're injured, it doesn't that mean they can't compete at a very high level. We're going to take you to game -- the warrior games still ahead. It's 50 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Fifty-three minutes past the hour right now. America's Wounded Warriors are going for the gold. More than 200 of them, service men and women, competing in this second annual warrior games.
VELSHI: This always amazes me. I can never sort of get enough of this. I look at it, and I see these folks who have every reason in the world not to compete in things that I couldn't get myself to compete in and do, and they do a great job. It's organized by the defense department and the U.S. Olympic Committee. Jason Carroll has been following this for us.
CHETRY: Why is it so important to, you know, get back up again and to feel that spirit of competition after a devastating injury? JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know what, it is not just a physical thing. It's a mental thing. It's a support thing, and you see it when you're out there. It's incredible to watch these guys, and there's nothing like little spirit of competition to get these people motivated, and that's really what the warrior games is really all about.
That's why it was created as a way to motivate these service men and women with their recovery, and it's not just physical, the games giving them an emotional boost as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): They marched on Colorado Springs. The drums of battle igniting the warrior within, but this time, these service men and women who once fought side by side will be competing against each other.
SPEC. DAVID OLIVER, U.S. ARMY: Being lazy has not been an option, and I like that. I've been pretty damn (ph) busy training for this thing.
CARROLL: Army Specialist David Oliver is ready, so is marine Captain Jonathan Disbro.
CAPT. JONATHAN DISBRO, U.S. MARINE CORPS: I wasn't really an athlete before this, so this whole experience has been really an eye opener for me.
CARROLL: The experience, the warrior games, an Olympic-style competition for wounded service members. David Oliver lost his right arm during a Humvee accident in Afghanistan two years ago. Jonathan Disbro's right leg amputated below the knee in 2005 after an injury in Iraq.
JENNIFER DISBRO, WIFE OF CPT. JONTHAN DISBRO: It was 17 surgeries where they tried to save his foot.
CARROLL: Seventeen surgeries?
JENNIFER DISBRO: In six months.
JONATHAN DISBRO: The challenge is there. It presents itself to you, so you can either accept that limitation or take that challenge and overcome it.
CARROLL: And there are more than 200 others here eager to show how they've overcome their challenges.
CARROLL (voice-over): Right now, Jonathan is getting ready to compete in his first event of the morning. It is the shot put. So, they're going to strap him in, to get him into position.
CARROLL (voice-over): Just broke, he gets the shot put goal and competes in four other events. David Oliver medals, too, fighting for the bronze in the 800 meter. OLIVER: I was about to fall on my face the last quarter of the thing. I'm saying to myself, I got my family to think about, the army to think about. I haven't pushed myself harder than that in my entire life.
CARROLL: Ultimately, that's what warrior games is all about, men and women continuing to push themselves, never giving up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY (on-camera): And a reminder that Jonathan and David were not athletes before this competition. In fact, that's pretty common with most of these service men and women who compete in the warrior games. Tomorrow is actually the final day of the game, and they're hoping that it becomes even bigger next year, and I think it will, because when you're out there, you see all the volunteers, the coaches, the families, it's just incredible.
CHETRY: Best to them. I think that that's great. This is the second year.
CARROLL: Second year.
CHETRY: And as you said, it's only going to continue to grow.
CARROLL: Yes, yes.
CHETRY: Pretty cool. Thanks, Jason.
VELSHI: Thanks, Jason. Good to see you.
CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. Your top stories coming up in just two minutes.
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